The Vatican has once again proved to the world that it lives in an Ivory Tower devoid of reality. While the world tries to fight the spread of HIV and AIDS,
Pope Benedict XVI told reporters, en route to Cameroon, that HIV/AIDS "is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".
Aloys Rigaut, President of European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), reacted: "Such statements are totally irresponsible. More than two-thirds of the world's HIV/AIDS-infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa and the pandemic risks are destabilising the whole continent. Preaching abstinence is the right of the Catholic Church, but this goes too far. The distribution of condoms is part of the solution and certainly not part of the problem"
On the 27th and 28th of April, the Ministers responsible for higher education from the 46 European countries taking part in the Bologna process met at the Belgian universities of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve for a stocktaking of the ongoing reforms but also to discuss the coming agenda for further development of the “European Higher Education Area” (EHRA).
On April the 15th, the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) celebrated its campaign start in Brussels. More than one thousand liberals from all across the Union attended the kick-off event for European Parliament elections in June 2009. At the high-class event, several Commissioners, Ministers and election list top-runners took part.
The celebration of the international women’s day started in 1910 and became a yearly celebration when the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in 1977 proclaiming its international character. During the past century we have gained more equality between men and women in European countries, but still things could be improved upon. There are still examples of women who don’t receive the same salary as men for doing the same job, and women continue to be discriminated against when seeking jobs.