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“It was a stipulation of mine that if we were getting married at Disney, that Donald Duck had to be there,” said Amy.
Max and Amy Pendlebury with their wedding guests.
“We paid an astronomical amount for him and everyone thought we were absolutely insane. However, the next day, everyone commented on how he made the night and he most definitely did.
One of the highlights was Amy’s maid of honour speech. Best friend Laura, who she met at St Wulstan’s School nursery at four years old, gave a speech, including her singing her own rendition of Be My Guest from Beauty and the Beast.
The National Association for General Practitioners estimates that as many as eight in 10 GPs would choose not to opt-in under such a system.
It will allow doctors refuse to provide or to take part in the provision of the lawful treatment, if it conflicts with sincerely held ethical or moral values.
However, it will legally oblige medical professionals in such a situation to enable their patients to transfer to another doctor to get the treatment they want.
Government sources stressed they did not believe this would be an issue in practice as women seeking terminations will consult with organisations such as the Irish Family Planning Association or Well Women, rather than their local GP.
It would examine the principle of an opt-in system, whereby doctors willing to provide the services would make that known through some mechanism.
Speaking yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisted no doctor is going to be required to provide the service and outlined his belief the system could be operated by as few as 50 or 60 GPs.
Roughly 4,000 women a year – or 12 a day – choose to end their pregnancies, of which six daily can be done through medical abortion or taking an abortion pill, the Taoiseach said.
The National Association of General Practitioners held an emergency meeting last weekend to discuss the referendum result but it was attended by just 3 per cent of members.
Dr Andrew Jordan, chairman of the association, urged the Government to examine means to ensure doctors would not have an obligation to refer women seeking an abortion to a colleague.
Sinn Féin’s spokeswoman on health Louise O’Reilly said doctors had a right to object to abortion, in accordance with their moral beliefs.
However, Ms O’Reilly stressed “no doctor should be facilitated in refusing to access legal and lawful treatment”.
Sanctions by the Medical Council should be examined as part of the debate on the legislation, Ms O’Reilly added.
Fianna Fáil spokesman on health Stephen Donnelly said he believed the Oireachtas should hear from the Medical Council as to whether penalties were required.
Mr Donnelly stressed every doctor should be allowed to conscientiously object without sanction but said medical practitioners must not impede the care of women.
The legislation is being prepared by the Department of Health and the Attorney General. It is to be considered by Cabinet on July 10th and introduced to the Dáil afterwards.
The Medical Council is tasked with drawing up medical guidelines outlining how practitioners should operate under an abortion system in Ireland.
The deal, in which a prominent tribe has agreed to help stop Taliban attacks in volatile Helmand Province, is being compared with successful efforts in Iraq to use tribal influence against the insurgency there.
Members from the Taliban stand, after voluntarily handing over their weapons and joining the government, in the Sangin district of Helmand Province on Jan. 1.
An agreement between a prominent local tribe and US and Afghan forces in one of the most contested areas of Afghanistan to help stop Taliban attacks could mark an important moment in the war.
News of the deal has sparked much interest throughout Afghanistan and among NATO commanders, and drawn some comparison with efforts in Iraq to use tribal influence against the insurgency there. But it remains unclear how much it can achieve.
“This is very important for the people of Helmand and the government of Helmand. We hope that other areas will do the same thing and be encouraged by this example. Maybe in the future this process will get bigger and bigger,” says Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesperson for the governor of Helmand.
Tribal representatives speak only for their small collection of villages, not the entire tribe or district. So far, no other tribes appear to have made similar agreements.
Alikozai tribal elders, who say they were authorized to speak for the Taliban, approached local government officials nearly a month ago about creating a peace agreement in Sarwan Qala, a network of about 30 villages in Helmand Province’s Sangin district.
In exchange for the release of a local Taliban leader, the village elders agreed to stop Taliban attacks and no longer allow foreign militants into their area, says Shamsullah Sahrayee, a local analyst who is originally from Sarwan Qala but currently lives in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.
“In the area of Sarwan Qala people are happy with this, but if you look at Sangin there are many more tribes and I don’t know if they will be happy with this agreement or not,” he says.
The Sangin district has been one of the most violent regions in all of Afghanistan. British forces saw a third of their fatalities there before handing over the area to US Marines this fall.
In 2006, the British made a similar peace deal with the Taliban in Helmand Province’s Musa Qala district. The Taliban, however, reclaimed the area within months. Due to that turn of events, it appears, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has been careful not to overstate the outcome of this late...
Some analysts worry that this agreement will have little more than a localized impact.
“[T]he Alikozai tribe speaks for only a small portion of Sangin (not to mention the potential impact of tribal rivalries) while the provincial government in Helmand has very little ability to impose or enforce much of anything on its own,” said the Texas-based intelligence group STRATFOR in an analysis of the peace dea...
Despite the limitations of the deal, the move is being heralded as a major step forward and a sign of potential progress in Afghanistan. Most newspapers in Kabul carried front-page stories about it.
Editorial Board Blog Millions of dollars in US aid to Afghanistan: wasted money?
London-based startup Inensu has signed up a big name for its new music-focused SuperFan Facebook application. British boy-band One Direction, who bagged a record deal with Sony Music after their run in 2010's UK X Factor series, have become the first artist to use the app to connect with their fans.
We've written about Inensu before: chief executive Paulina Bozek talked about the company's plans to make social and mobile applications at the Develop conference in July 2011. She is no stranger to the music industry, having previously spent six years as executive producer of Sony's SingStar PlayStation singing games.
"SuperFan is a platform for fans to hang out together, socialise and play games, while competing to be the number one super-fan," says Bozek.
"The target audience is teens, because music is their identity, whether that's One Direction, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga or whoever. What we're trying to do is gamify what it means to be a fan."
At launch, there are four artists for SuperFan users to sign up to: Rihanna, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and One Direction, although only the latter is the result of a specific deal with the artist's label.
For now, SuperFan isn't using streaming music, but is instead pulling in other data such as tour dates (from fellow startup Songkick) and encouraging fans to virtually check-in to wherever the artist is that day. People collect points for their influence and knowledge, with the application's core features inspired by p...
"We're applying the social gaming concept of a daily active user, a DAU," says Bozek. "In social gaming, your farm needs to be harvested, your pets run away, your restaurant is dirty, so you come back. We've mapped that onto the world of music. 'Do you know where One Direction is right now? They're in Marble Arch!' And...
People can connect their Twitter accounts to SuperFan and then chat to one another when checked in to the same place. The chat happens via tweets, for Bozek says Inensu doesn't want to try to move its users away from the micro-blogging service.
The game elements of SuperFan are currently fairly light, but Bozek says Inensu has a long list of mini-games and new features to add in the coming months.
"We're using a lot of analytics and metrics to figure out what the fans want," she says. "We're using Kontagent, which is the best-in-class social analytics platform that's used by all the big social game developers. We want to apply the social game mentality to being a fan."
So what do One Direction get out of SuperFan from being an official partner? They get a customised version of the app that sits on their own Facebook page, and the marketing around their releases and tours will be tightly tied in. That includes encouraging fans to check in to content, like videos, as well as places. Th...
"The 1D version is very integrated into their overall campaign," says Bozek. "Plus the label will have certain news that they want to promote through SuperFan." Sony Music will also get access to some of the stats: for example, pinpointing hotspots around the world where a lot of fans are logging in.
At the start of this week, four weeks after launching quietly in beta, SuperFan had attracted more than 25,000 monthly active users, who had checked in nearly 40,000 times, spending an average of 12 minutes in the application per session.
Most of that activity came from One Direction's branded version of the app. The band currently have more than one million Likes on their Facebook page, so there's clearly some work to do to get more of those fans signed up to the SuperFan app.
"Overall, our main goal for the first four weeks has been building retention over acquisition, so we'll be focusing on this next, and adding more features and mechanics in general," says Bozek. "We have a list of 20 ideas as to what we could do next, but we want to find out what the fans are enjoying first."
A man was killed on Tuesday afternoon in a car accident on Route 71 in the Jezreal Valley. The 57-year-old was driving toward the northern city of Afula when for an unknown reason he veered out of his lane and collided head-on with an approaching truck. MDA crews declared him dead on the scene.
Politics: as an act of charity; as service to the people; as respect for the primacy of justice and law; the defence of those most vulnerable; as a bridge between peoples and builders of peace and as a means to rethink of our common destiny.
This is indeed a formidable list about what politics should be. This political philosophy can be compiled from the Pope’s World Peace Day message (January 1, 2019) and his January 7, 2019, address to diplomats accredited by the Holy See.
Some could get the impression that Francis is more political than his predecessors. It is true that one-eighth of his tweets reflect a political issue, but a study by Federica Genovese in the April 1, 2018, edition of the Washington Post concluded that this Pope’s communications aren’t more political, or more often po...
Can Maltese politics benefit for these insights of the Pope?
The defence of the vulnerable is given priority by Francis. Top on the Pope’s list are not only refugees but also migrants who are ‘forced to emigrate’ because of poverty, persecution, natural catastrophes and climatic disturbances.
Our readiness, and that of other EU leaders, to comply with the Pope’s position was tested by the drama of 49 people on two rescue boats off Malta’s coast. After three weeks of shameful jostling by the strong and the powerful the migrants are now fortunately safe.
Did the behaviour of our and other political leaders show that they really believe in politics as the defence of the most vulnerable? Is playing the brinkmanship game with the lives of innocent people an honourable thing to do? Is the real or perceived danger of creating a precedent justified in such circumstances? The...
It is very clear that the honeymoon enjoyed by our country for reasons never clearly explained during Matteo Renzi’s premiership is now over. The crisis is over but others will soon come. The government should not give in to the pressures of the hundreds if not thousands who shamefully share so much anti-refugee hatred...
The primacy of justice and law is the first pillar of Francis’s political philosophy. For quite some time this has been one of the phrases most commonly mentioned in our political, public discourse.
The government was justifiably at the wrong end of the stick of comments by local and foreign dignitaries. But it has now adopted a crafty strategy. One minister after another continuously sing the praises of the rule of law with the same frequency, though not commitment, that Buddhist monks chant their mantras.
Last week’s sentence of the Appeals Court on a case related to the Panama Papers made many ask whether our courts have now gone the same rancid route already taken by the police, the Attorney General and the FIAU. While reading the sentence I could not but remember the series of articles penned by Judge Emeritus Giovan...
The underpinning of our current economic policy is the secular capitalist dogma that ‘if it makes a profit, then it is good’. Pope Francis counteracts this by putting forward a political option based on the respect of “the transcendent dimension of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God” and concret...
Today, current policies are showering more millions on the big-moneyed bullies while handing out crumbs for the new poor. If you don’t believe me, ask people living in garages or the ever-increasing numbers of those who cannot make ends meet.
Our public life is not based on what Francis describes in his address as the ethic of solidarity. This leads to partial and subjective visions of humanity that risk leading to new forms of inequality, injustice and discrimination.
The Pope in his address warned of the general lack of trust and a crisis of credibility in political life. This is a reality also in Malta. Unless more and more politicians adhere to the six pillars mentioned by the Pope in his message and his address, the effect of this general lack of trust and credibility will be de...
Spewing venom at the Left parties for accusing it of supporting NDA's candidate for the presidential election, Samajwadi Party on Friday alleged that the Left had no principle and consistency and never reciprocated SP's gestures towards it.
"The Left parties have no principle and consistency. They oppose corruption but still join hands with scam-tainted people at the time of elections. Though we have been extending support to the Left at the time of elections, they never reciprocate. Rather they field their candidates against us," SP spokesman Amar Singh ...
Asserting that SP had on its own walked out of the People's Front, he said it would be wrong for the CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet to say that SP was expelled from the Front.
"SP is not isolated, it is the Left," he said.
"People's Front was formed to maintain equi-distance from Congress and BJP, but the Left took a pro-Congress line to oppose the NDA candidate for the high office (though Congress later declared its support to Kalam)," Singh said.
Asked to comment on his party's stand on the Left candidate Captain Lakshmi Sahgal, he said, "Now Kalam is in the fray, Sahgal's candidature will not have much of a significance."
"The Left has committed another historical blunder by fielding Sahgal. They will repent at leisure," he said.
On Left parties' charges that SP had joined hands with BJP in supporting Kalam's candidature, Singh said those who levelled such allegations against Samajwadi Party should see their own nationalist credentials.
To a question as to why SP chose to dump opposition unity for the sake of the NDA candidate, Singh asserted that even before Kalam became an NDA nominee, the name of the noted scientist was proposed by it to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"How can we oppose him now. Moreover, the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav as then defence minister in the erstwhile United Front government made Kalam the country's defence adviser and recommended his name for Bharat Ratna," he said.
He explained that the SP had earlier favoured another term for President K R Narayanan when the NDA mooted the name of Maharashtra Governor P C Alexander. But with NDA selecting Kalam for the top post, the scenario changed altogether.
Ecumenism in the next century must consider the realities of the contexts we inhabit and the changes to those contexts we can see quickly arriving.
We are far more interconnected than we were for much of the last century â and we know it. The image born of chaos science, that a butterflyâs wingbeats in China may affect the course of a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, is daily reality if we will only notice. Those who are gathered here preach and teach frequently a...
Our interconnectedness is becoming evident not just in instantaneous communications or the rapid spread of pandemics around the globe, but in the very real consequences of oil spills off these shores on those who live hundreds or thousands of miles away. We are beginning to understand that pumping carbon into the earth...
We are all interconnected in ways that we are only beginning to understand incarnationally. This body of God has many, many parts, and the ancient prophetic dream of a healed world expects those parts to work together for the glory of God and the benefit of the whole.
Our task as Christians in the coming decades will be more challenging than ever, and the task is going to need all of our varied and unique gifts. The voices of people of faith must be a prophetic source for lasting change that moves toward healing the body of God. If we can begin to affirm our place in that body of Go...
The God we worship, whose son we follow, is luring us into an unexpected and radically open future. The question is whether we have courage to try new ways, to build a world where economies are understood as servants of all human beings rather than a few, and contribute to the health and prosperity of a far wider swath...
There is an immensely urgent example in the current anxiety in Sudan. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement negotiated five years ago, with the assistance of other nations, including this one, expects a referendum in January of 2011, to permit the southern Sudanese to decide their future â whether to remain connected to ...
The role of bodies like this one is to be a witness to Jesus Christâs saving work on behalf of all creation. It is only as Godâs body, reaching across not only Christian difference, but into the hearts and hands of our interfaith partners, that we have any possibility of joining Jesusâ witness on behalf of the le...
Will we be witnesses of these things? Will we become witnesses who join the lament of wanderers in the desert and the widow seeking justice? We can look and not see, listen and not hear, or we can witness and act in solidarity with our sisters and brothers as part of the body of God.
Things seem to be looking up for the U.S. economy.
According to reports, GDP (gross domestic product) experienced a 5% growth in the third quarter. This quarter is the strongest since 2003.
“Other than the first quarter's weather-induced contraction, there's no doubt the economy has been great this year,” BTIG chief global strategist Dan Greenhaus said.
The news made its way to Wall Street, causing investors to send the stock market to “record highs” with the Dow ending above 18,000 for the first time ever.
The growth didn’t stop there, with “business investment, consumer spending, housing, exports and government spending all showing signs of strength,” according to CNN. Consumer spending increased to 3.2%, after it was previously estimated to be at 2.2%. “Consumer spending north of 3% is pretty darn good these days,” Gre...
This year has also proven to be an excellent one for businesses. 321,000 jobs were added in November, making this year the strongest for job growth since 1999. The economic growth could reportedly allow for the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates in 2015.
A CNN/ORC poll indicated that the American public is, for the most part, optimistic about the economy’s turnaround. According to the poll, “more than half of Americans think the economy is in good shape.” This shows a drastic improvement from October, when just 38% of Americans thought the economy had improved.
Three new startups are pushing back against the rise of "news deserts" and the pitfalls facing local journalism.
All three projects are less than a few months old -- Block Club Chicago debuted in June, while the Daily Memphian launched September 17. Despite the financial concerns that often plague small outlets, the sites have received an outpouring of support from readers and sponsors. Block Club Chicago raised over $183,000 on ...
"Journalism didn't fail," said Eric Barnes, president and executive editor of the Daily Memphian. "The business model behind journalism on a local level is what failed. And that was a mix of just changes that weren't foreseen and changes in the advertising world, the Internet, a bunch of really self-inflicted wounds in...
Barnes, along with Stephanie Lulay of Block Club Chicago and Larry Ryckman of the Colorado Sun, which went live earlier this month, detailed their outlets' business models, areas of coverage, and plans for the future on this week's Reliable Sources podcast.
The Colorado Sun and the Daily Memphian were both formed in response to layoffs -- for the former, at the Denver Post, and for the latter, at the Commercial Appeal, their editors told CNN's Brian Stelter.
"To me, the point was to protect local journalism and to save what I felt was the heart and essence of the Denver Post," said Ryckman, editor of the Colorado Sun and the former senior editor of news for the Denver Post. "The community would have lost to have seen these folks, some of them with two Pulitzer Prizes to th...
Lulay, co-founder of Block Club Chicago, said the site was formed after DNAInfo was shut down last November. Readers rallied around the outlet; while the Kickstarter campaign's goal was $25,000, over 3,000 backers pledged more than $183,000. A post on the page from March says that if the campaign exceeded $172,000, "we...

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