Free Republic

The US first lady is carving out a role as an unofficial culture secretary just months after her husband took office AMERICA’S first lady, Michelle Obama, has added a new string to her bow as “minister of culture” in her husband’s administration. The heads of New York’s most prestigious cultural institutions are in no doubt that she intends to play an active policy-making role in the arts world after they were summoned to meet her last week. “She was speaking in a way the minister of culture would speak, even though such a position doesn’t exist in America,” said Peter...

The Turkish government, police and media have come together to try and prevent the practice of celebratory gunfire which has recently injured, maimed and killed many citizens. The interior minister Abdulkadir Aksu sent a circular last week to all the governors’ offices, asking them to initiate campaigns against the firing of guns during celebrations. Shooting in the air, usually in wedding ceremonies and after football matches is a celebratory gesture in rural areas of Turkey, as well as in Middle East and in Balkan countries. Public awareness of the issue increased after deaths of nearly a dozen people, mainly youngsters,...