Spanish protests after PM speech

3 February 2013 Last updated at 01:48 GMT Protesters outside the Popular Party's headquarters in Madrid were calling for Mr Rajoy's resignation Protests broke out in Spanish cities after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy denied claims that he and other party members had accepted secret payments.

"I have never received nor distributed undeclared money," Mr Rajoy said earlier, vowing not to resign.

An online petition demanding the leader's resignation has gathered more than 740,000 signatures.

El Pais newspaper had published images of ledgers showing payments to members of the governing Popular Party (PP).

The paper said Mr Rajoy had collected 25,200 euros (£22,000; $34,000) a year between 1997 and 2008.

The prime minister and his party were elected by a landslide in November 2011 on a promise to reduce the high public deficit.

'Shame of Spain'

Demonstrators took to the streets in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and other cities on Saturday evening, calling on Mr Rajoy to step down.

Carrying banners reading "The shame of Spain" and "You will pay for corruption with prison", protesters were also demanding that the PP explain its finances.

Mariano Rajoy: "We have nothing to do with this"

The Associated Press reports that riot police in Madrid clashed with demonstrators.

More than 740,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the "immediate resignation" of Mr Rajoy and all PP members involved in the scandal.

Earlier, Mr Rajoy denied the media allegations in an extraordinary session with the PP national executive.

"It is not true that we received cash that we hid from tax officials," he said in a televised speech.

He added he would publish on the party's website full details of his income and assets.

As Mr Rajoy spoke, several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the party headquarters shouting "thieves" and "resign".

El Pais said the photographs it had published were of ledgers kept by former treasurers Luis Barcenas and Alvaro Lapuerta between 1990 and 2009.

Money was allegedly paid by firms via Mr Barcenas, who stepped down in 2009 and is currently under investigation for money-laundering.

El Pais splashed photos of the alleged ledgers on its website on Thursday

Investigators recently revealed that Mr Barcenas held a Swiss bank account which at one point held as much as 22m (£19m; $30m) euros.

Until 2007, Spanish political parties were allowed to receive anonymous donations.

Spaniards have been asked to accept painful austerity measures as the government battles to avoid an international bailout. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has reached a record 26%.

The allegations raise ethical questions about the Popular Party's dealings during the period of Spain's building boom, when politicians granted large numbers of development contracts.

The party has denied making any "systematic payment to certain people of money other than their monthly wages".

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Is public nudity a form of free speech?

22 November 2012 Last updated at 01:18 GMT By Jon Kelly BBC News Magazine, Washington Civil liberties campaigners are preparing to legally fight San Francisco's ban on public nudity. Does the US Constitution guarantee the right to walk the streets naked?

No sooner had San Francisco's lawmakers voted to ban nakedness in public places than a lawsuit was filed. It argued that the free speech of nudists was being restricted.

It's a dispute that typifies the famously liberal city, but it also reveals much about the importance of freedom of expression to Americans.

Opponents of the move say that, by limiting the ability to express themselves, the law violates their rights. They cite the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which forbids the government from "abridging the freedom of speech".

But legal experts say previous court rulings suggest that being nude does not, in itself, constitute an act of expression.

"It's taken as a given by the Supreme Court that a general restriction on public nudity is constitutional," says Frederick Schauer, professor of law at the University of Virginia.

Continue reading the main story The US Supreme Court does not regard public nakedness as a right under the First AmendmentNudity in the form of artistic expression is protectedBut authorities can ban nude performances for "secondary" reasonsSan Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 in favour of banning anyone over five from exposing "his or her genitals, perineum or anal region" in most public locations.

It came after a growing number of naked men gathered regularly in a plaza in in the city's Castro district, an area well known for its large gay community.

Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center, which promotes the study of free-speech issues, says he does not believe the legal bid on behalf of the Castro nudes is likely to succeed.

A nude backpacker walks the street of San Francisco last year. Such an act is now illegal.

"There's no First Amendment right to be naked in a public place because you are not saying anything," he adds.

But while the Supreme Court has been consistent that nudity is not in itself a form of expression, that does not mean that nudity cannot be expressive.

"Being naked in the Castro could be seen as expressing a point of view about LGBT rights," says Amy Adler, professor of law at New York University.

"I'm not sure a court would buy it but that's the argument I would expect them to make."

It's possible that the nudists could argue their nakedness was a political act.

Continue reading the main story

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”

End Quote From the First Amendment to the United States Consitution The Supreme Court has, in fact, held that nude dancing, as practiced in strip clubs, is a form of free speech, Schauer says.

However, it ruled that establishments which offer displays of erotic dancing can be regulated.

As long as the regulations are intended to deal with the side effects of such establishments - if they are causing a rise in crime, for instance - it is legal to impose a public nudity ban. It was a principle established in law in the 2000 case Erie v Pap's AM, which set a Pennsylvania city council against a nude dancing establishment.

Of course, strip bars operate indoors, on private property, while San Francisco's nudists express themselves in full view of the public.

San Francisco supervisor Scott Wiener, one of the lawmakers who passed the nudity ban, said it was "appropriate to have some minimal standards of behaviour" in the city and "our public spaces are for everyone".

According to law professor Adler, case law suggests the city was acting within its rights.

"Even if the nudists could prove they were engaging in nudity for expressive purposes, the state has the right to regulate it," she says, as long as the regulation is not about what's being expressed, but the side effects that expression has on the rest of the city - for instance, heavy traffic or lowered property values.

But all may not be lost for the naked men of the Castro.

One option open to them would be to move somewhere such as Oregon, where public nudity is legal so long as there is no "intent to arouse".

"There's nothing in the constitution that requires a state to regulate against nudity," says Schauer.

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In victory speech, Obama returns to the theme of hope

U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledges supporters while at his election night victory rally in Chicago, November 7, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Philip Scott-Andrews

By Jeff Mason and Eric Johnson

CHICAGO | Wed Nov 7, 2012 4:10am EST

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The crowd was smaller than it was four years ago, and the venue was indoors, but President Barack Obama's victory party early on Wednesday shared a theme with his 2008 election night: hope.

Despite a rough economy that dulled the glow of being America's first black president, Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney in a hard-fought race for the White House and celebrated with confetti, hugs and a promise to represent everyone in the nation.

"Tonight, despite all the hardship we've been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I've never been more hopeful about our future," Obama said.

"I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope," he told the cheering crowd in Chicago, his hometown.

Obama won the presidency in 2008 on the themes of "hope" and "change." But except for the final weeks of the campaign, he shunned those key words during his 2012 re-election effort in the face of Republican attacks on his economic stewardship and other issues.

With his robust victory, those attacks - at least from Romney - are now over. The president struck a conciliatory chord toward his opponent in his remarks.

"We may have battled fiercely, but it's only because we love this country deeply and we care so strongly about its future," he said. "In the weeks ahead, I also look forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward."

In 2008, Obama spoke to a crowd of some 240,000 people at Chicago's Grant Park, marking his historic victory over Republican John McCain. This year, he chose a convention center, McCormick Place, with seating room for 18,000.

The venue's capacity was not the only change from four years ago. Obama's daughters are taller, his hair is grayer, and the historic aspect of his election was less pronounced than it was in 2008. The crowd, however, was every bit as enthusiastic as four years ago.

"This solidifies something that started in 2008," said Karen Lehman, 59. "I feel so fantastic I can hardly describe it. This is a victory for all of these people here that President Obama was able to mobilize. They believed that he was moving in the right direction. I am thrilled."

People hugged each other, waved tiny American flags, danced, and pumped their firsts in the air. Prior to his victory, whenever a state was projected into Obama's column, supporters erupted in cheers.

Before his remarks, Obama was joined on stage by his wife, Michelle, and their two girls, Malia and Sasha. After they departed, he paused to listen to Stevie Wonder's song "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" before starting to speak.

When he did, he praised his vice president, his campaign staff, and his family.

"For now, one dog's probably enough," he said to his girls, to whom he famously promised to get a dog if he won in 2008.

People in the crowd wiped tears from their eyes as Obama spoke. When he was finished, the Obama and Biden families came onto the stage and confetti fell down on the crowd. The families waved and eventually walked off the stage.

As his wife and daughters walked behind a blue curtain, Obama came back to the front of the stage, looked around, waved to the crowd again and mouthed, "Thank you."

(Editing by Fred Barbash and Will Dunham)

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