STF NA MÍDIA

month. Why is the UK dragging
its feet? If Muslim or
Jewish people had been banned
from marriage, the government
would act swiftly
to end such discrimination.
Ending sexual orientation
discrimination in marriage
law is the right thing to do
and it has majority public
support. According to a 2009
Populus opinion poll, 61% of
the public believe that lesbian
and gay couples should be
allowed to get married.
Despite the government s
assurances, there is a serious
danger the delay will prevent
marriage equality coming to
pass before the next election.
Because the consultation will
not begin until March, it is
unlikely that legislation will
be presented to parliament
before mid-2013. Allowing
for obstruction by the Lords,
it is doubtful that it would be
passed before late 2014, which
is perilously close to the
next election. If the prime
minister called an early poll,
the legislation would fall.
This raises a question: is the
consultation an attempt to
kick same-sex marriage into
the long grass? Featherstone
s announcement is clearly an
attempt to thwart the Equal
Love legal case in the European
court of human rights,
where four gay couples and
four heterosexual couples are
seeking to overturn discrimination
in civil marriage
and civil partnership law.
She won t succeed. We are
confident that the government
s decision to retain the
prohibition on opposite-sex
civil partnerships will be
ruled illegal. Featherstone
should think again.
JUSTIÇA NO EXTERIOR •
THE GUARDIAN (LO) • NEWS • 18/9/2011
Libyan NTC leaders fail to agree on interim cabinet as fighting continues
Pressure mounts to appoint Islamic figures to senior positions, while rebels continue bid
to take control of Sirte and Bani Walid
Ian Black in Tripoli and
Chris Stephen in Misrata
Libya s new leaders haggled
over expanding their interim
cabinet on Sunday as fighting
continued for control of two
strategic strongholds of the
old regime.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman
of the National Transitional
Council (NTC), had
been expected to announce a
cabinet of up to 36 members
in an effort to emphasise
unity and counter criticism
that the body was unrepresentative.
But a failure to reach agreement
appears to reflect divisions
that are casting a shadow
over the postrevolutionary
political landscape.
Mahmoud Jibril, the
acting prime minister, would
only say consultations in
Benghazi had not been completed,
but NTC sources said
they believed a deal would
be done "within days".
The NTC has been under
pressure to appoint some
Islamist figures to reflect
their role in the revolution,
but tensions have emerged
between the council and rebel
commanders, as well as
with Ali Salabi, an influential
preacher being promoted by
Qatar and its al-Jazeera TV
channel.
Rebels in the former enclave
of Misrata, who took heavy
losses during the revolution,
announced their own candidate,
Abdul-Rahman Sweilhi,
for prime minister. Sweilhi
warned of the danger of a
"new dictatorship" and insisted
the government could not
include "symbols of the
Gaddafi regime".
The focus of the tension is
Jibril, a technocrat and former
regime official who has
been accused of failing to
consult enough with grassroots
opposition groups. Jibril,
who helped craft the Nato
strategy towards the Libyan
uprising, is still expected to
retain his post as interim
prime minister. Ali Tarhuni,
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