What’s wrong with white pride?

Variations on this question have been posted multiple times on Yahoo Answers this year (here, and here , and many blogs like this one and this one assert their pride in being white). And at the moment, it’s one of two issues that are being passionately debated as we approach the BNP‘s appearance on the BBC’s Question Time. (The other is whether they should have been invited.)

If you have an obese child, are you a neglectful parent?

And if you are yourself obese are you a neglectful parent as well? Well, in the case of a Scottish mother of six , yes you are. Social workers have moved to take into care a baby born to an obese mother who gave birth to her sixth child last week. The mother cannot be named for the protection of her children’s identity.

On air: Do we need new rules of war?

The Israeli Prime Minister is calling for a new set of rules of war to fight global terrorism. Mr Netanyahu also wants other western countries committed to the war on terror to be part of an international coalition of nations that have laws protecting their right to defend their countries and their people.

Should witchcraft be an accepted part of society?

You may find some of the scenes in this video disturbing.
This video is all over the Indian media. Five women were paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human excrement by villagers who accused them of being witches.
In Nigeria, hundreds of children have been killed after being branded witches. Village tradition? Poverty? Or should we just accept that in some communities, believing in witches is just the norm?

On air: Round two in Afghanistan

UPDATE: The second round has been confirmed and will take palce on November 7. Pres Karzai has called it a ‘step forward’ and Pres Obama has welcomed the news. Are you so positive?

Mark’s original post:
Hamid Karzai didn’t get enough valid votes to win the Afghan election.

His share of the vote drops below the 50 per cent mark and this means he could now face a run-off against his opponent Abdullah Abdullah. Dr. Abdullah’s party have expressed cautious optimism at the results and we could be looking at a power sharing arrangement between the two – but would this work? And what should happen now?

What would you like to ask Afghans?

Analysts and experts are hugely important to how we tell the news and how we help to explain our world. And there will be some of them on today’s show and they’ll be very welcome. But sometimes I know that you just want to speak to the people directly involved in a story. We’re going to have a number of Afghans with us on today’s show. If you have any question that you’d like to ask them directly about what’s happening in their country, them post them here, and I’ll make sure I get you some answers.

Are we becoming obsessed with soft news?

Ask anyone what the most important issues in the world are today and one,two or all of the items in the list below are likely to come up. This is no particular order:
Iran, the war in Afghanistan, the economic downturn, Russia, global warming, Pakistan attacks, Middle East peace, China, Iraq

On a global scale, these are the most important stories – yes ?. These are the stories we are most interested in, right? According to one or two indices, wrong.

They are not what we are most interested in, judging by news websites in across the globe.

Does Africa have any good leaders?

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation , set up to award a $5m as an annual prize for African ex-leaders who have shown good governance , has said there will be no winner this year because it could not find anyone to award it to.

Is a sibling the greatest gift you can give your first child?

On Friday’s programme Lydia in Canada argued passionately that the answer to this question is yes. Robert in Washington, who has one childm strongly disagreed. I said I’d put a post up about this, and here it is. And Lydia’s just sent me a column she wrote a few years ago about this. If you’d like to see it, read on…

WHYS on TV – part one

Here’s part one of ‘Are we over-educated’ live on BBC World TV earlier. Click for part two and part 3.