Indians still stuck on white is beautiful?

In the Lucknow round of Miss India 2009:

Beauty queens are encouraged to think of themselves as role models so it was easy to ask Manisha what she would do when she was one. What would she advise people who were short or dark? Very seriously she replied, “Not everyone can be beautiful but they should try.” Manisha clearly equated short and dark with ugliness.

When will we look on *all* Indians as equal claimants to the right to be called beautiful? I don’t think anyone in Lucknow would every allow for a person with Mongoloid features (as some tribals from the north east of India) to be called beautiful without qualifying it in some sense.

Vatican backs abortion row bishop

From BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7930380.stm):

Vatican backs abortion row bishop

A senior Vatican cleric has defended the excommunication in Brazil of the mother and doctors of a young girl who had an abortion with their help. The nine-year-old had conceived twins after alleged abuse by her stepfather. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re told Italian paper La Stampa that the twins “had the right to live” and attacks on Brazil’s Catholic Church were unfair. It comes a day after Brazil’s president criticised the Brazilian archbishop who excommunicated the people involved. Brazil only permits abortions in cases of rape or health risks to the mother. Doctors said the girl’s case met both these conditions, but the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho said the law of God was above any human law. He said the excommunication would apply to the child’s mother and the doctors, but not to the girl because of her age.

So, the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil and the Vatican thinks that the foetuses have a greater right to live than the young girl. Another lunatic stance, and another proof that when you disagree with religious loons on their views, far from showing the “love” they preach, they will come after you with the biggest stick they can find.