Thursday, February 3, 2011
New York City Council Bans Smoking In Public Parks, Stretches Of Beach
Many Believe The Big Apple Has Become A Nanny State
February 2, 2011 11:49 PM
A woman smokes in Union Square. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Smokers have just one message for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council members: butt out of our business.
“We’re outside. We should have freedom to smoke,” City Hall Park smoker Harvey Forbes told CBS 2’s Magee Hickey.
By a vote of 36 to 11 on Wednesday the City Council approved a bill to ban smoking in all city parks, beaches and pedestrian plazas.
“People who have made the decision not to smoke have civil liberties too and their health and their lives should not be negatively impacted because other people have decided to smoke,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.
1010 WINS Reporter Carol D’Auria gets comments from City Council Speaker QuinnCouncil members who voted against the ban said they see it as an invasion of individual rights.
“We have this crazy idea that we can change the way people behave. You can’t have salt, you can’t have sugar. Hop on a bicycle because it’s bad to drive your car. It’s ridiculous. What’s next?” said minority whip Eric Ulrich, adding when asked if New York City is becoming a police state, “I think so. It’s a slippery slope.”
Bill & Trapper Return To BTR | endtimewatchmen.com
Bill , Trapper , Travis , Jay
Fri FEB 4th
10:30 eastern/9:30central/8:30mountain/7:30pacific
Polish Prime Minister and EU Parliament Fund NGOs to Instigate From Within Belarus, Warning the Head of the Country that the Same Thing that NGOs Did
WARSAW — Belarussian opposition groups won pledges of 87 million euros ($120 million) from donor nations Wednesday at a conference organised amid moves to put the squeeze on President Alexander Lukashenko.
Poland, the host of the conference and which neighbours Belarus, said that Lukashenko should expect to face the kind of popular uprising that has swep the Arab world as he announced the figure to journalists.
"Summing up, I can say there will be 87 million euros in aid, and most of these are new resources," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters at the gathering.
"Perhaps the examples of Mr Ben Ali, Mr Mubarak and others will make President Lukashenko reflect that the path he has chosen is not the best one for himself personally," Sikorski said, referring to the ousted Tunisian leader and Egypt's embattled president.
The 36-nation "Solidarity with Belarus" was the first of its kind to focus on bolstering financial support for Belarussian NGOs, the independent media, students and others who have fallen foul of the regime.
It comes in the wake of the mass arrests which followed Lukashenko's December 19 disputed re-election for a fourth term, extending a rule that stretches back to 1994.
"This is a very important gesture of solidarity and it says to us 'You are not left alone in the face of this horror,'" Belarussian campaigner Eva Neklyayeva said at the Warsaw meeting.
Her father Vladimir Neklyayev, 64, was arrested after standing against Lukashenko in the election, and was Saturday placed under house arrest after being released from prison.
Neklyayeva told AFP he has been denied hospitalisation after suffering four medical crises in Minsk's infamous KGB prison where he spent over a month. Hundreds of other Lukashenko opponents remain behind bars.
"We call for the release of all those arrested, and that they are cleared of all allegations," top EU official Stefan Fule said in Warsaw.
Fule, the member of the EU's executive European Commission responsible for ties with the bloc's neighbours, told the conference that Brussels planned to quadruple its aid to 15.6 million euros, over 2011-2013.
"As a clear demonstration of our unequivocal support to civil society in these difficult times, we will increase our funding," he said.
He said 1.7 million euros would be released urgently to help the families of detainees.
Poland -- which has been accused by Lukashenko of trying to topple him -- announced it was doubling its aid to groups including the independent media, earmarking some 10 million euros.
The funds cover the operating costs of the Warsaw-based Belast TV, the only Belarussian-language station broadcasting in Belarus which is not controlled by the authorities there.
US officials said Washington was increasing aid by a third to 15 million dollars, Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt announced seven million euros for independent Belarussian media, and Germany pledged 6.6 million euros.
The Warsaw meeting came just days after the EU and United States slapped a new raft of sanctions -- including a travel ban and asset freeze -- on Lukashenko and 157 associates.
Belarus has been defiant, with its foreign ministry on Tuesday calling the moves against its leaders "unjustified" and threatening to take reciprocal steps.
Western pressure on Lukashenko, after previous attempts to coax him into improving ties, has brought a thaw in his on-off relationship with Russia.
In Moscow Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that while the post-poll crackdown had been "unacceptable", Western sanctions were "politically-motivated."
Some 200 representatives from all 27 EU member nations, Canada, the United States, EU candidates Croatia and Macedonia, plus ex-Soviet Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine attended the fundraising drive.