Italy: Dubai World to Request Pay-Back Postponement From Creditors
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 8 — Dubai World, the state-owned holding which is rescheduling its 26-billion-dollar debt, intends to ask credit banks to postpone its pay-back programme. Bloomberg quoted three bankers as saying that the request would be made this month during the meeting held for the presentation of the plan. According to the sources, the banks could avoid getting less money than what they are owed if they grant more time to Dubai World to pay back loans, while at the same time getting guarantees from the Dubai government. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Debt: $20,000,000,000,000 by 2020!
Is living in a fascist nanny state run by incompetent Marxists really worth $20 trillion dollars?
As reported, in part, by spectator.org, Barack Obama’s reckless budget plans will cause the US debt to swell to $20,000,000,000,000 by year 2020.
Twenty trillion dollars!
Excerpts from the report:
“The Congressional Budget Office has released its assessment of President Obama’s budget, and the results aren’t pretty. According the analysis, deficits in the next decade will be worse than what the White House has projected, much higher than they would be if we were to follow current law, and even higher than what CBO had forecast last year.
“Between 2011 and 2020, the nation will accumulate $9.8 trillion in deficits as a under the Obama budget, according to the CBO, ending the decade with $20.3 trillion in public debt, which translates into a staggering 90 percent of gross domestic product (compared with the 53 percent Obama “inherited” in 2009).
“By contrast, in its own budget release, the White House Office of Management and Budget had projected debt at 18.6 trillion in 2020 (or about $1.7 trillion less than the CBO).
“Obama’s budget would also add more to the debt when it is viewed relative to the CBO baseline scenario that assumes current law is followed, as demonstrated by the area chart below. The blue area represents the additional debt created by Obama’s budget—while it may not look huge, the difference reaches about $5 trillion relative to the CBO baseline scenario (or added debt of 23 percent of GDP) by 2020.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tulsa’s Sales Tax Collections Have Declined 12 Consecutive Months
TULSA, OK — The report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission regarding sales tax collections for the City of Tulsa shows the collections have now declined 12 consecutive months.
According to the preliminary report, sales tax collections from mid-January to mid-February totaled $14,916,708, an 11.6 percent decline from the same month last year. That decline was consistent with revised general fund budget predictions.
Use taxes, which businesses and others pay on purchases of equipment from out-of-state vendors, were below budget estimates. The total was $997,427, down 31.4 percent from the same period last year and 25 percent below budget estimates.
“This continued decline further confirms our decision to reduce the general fund budget in order to have a balanced budget by the end of the fiscal year,” said Mayor Dewey Bartlett. “We are not yet seeing significant improvement in the local economy. So far, we are unable to determine if we have reached the bottom of this economic cycle. Our sales tax decline began in April, 2009, which was a decline of more than 5 percent from the previous year.
“Finding solutions to our financial situation by reviewing our core businesses is one approach that will steel the City against future economic declines. We continue to look for new ways of doing business. KPMG has arrived in Tulsa (Monday) to begin the planning stages of a strategic business review of City of Tulsa departments. It is still our goal to have the review completed by early summer.”
Since the decline in sales tax revenues began early last year, the current and past City administrations have reduced operating expenses in the general fund by about $27 million.
In the first nine months of the fiscal year, the City has collected $18.34 million less in sales taxes and $2.02 million less in use taxes compared to the previous year.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: More People Fail to Repay Credit Card, Loan Debt
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 9 — A total of 51,716 credit card users in Turkey failed to make their payments in January while 68,227 people failed to repay individual loans to banks, as Today’s Zaman reporta quoting data from the Central Bank of Turkey. According to figures released by the bank, the total number of people with unpaid credit card and individual loan debt climbed to 119,943 in January. Counting every person once, the total number of people in Turkey who have defaulted on personal debt since 2005 grew to 1.93 million in January. The majority of these, some 1.27 million, failed to repay credit card debt while the remaining 667,823 did not pay their individual loan debt. The number of people who failed to repay their credit card and individual loan debt surged in 2008 in particular, jumping from 2007’s 192,266 to 602,648, a 213 percent increase. Similar increases continued during the 2009 global financial crisis as well. With credit card usage skyrocketing in Turkey over the past few years, the amount of unpaid debt has reached worrisome levels, alongside a problematic increase in non-performing loans. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Israel Activist Attacks Jewish Girl on Campus
(IsraelNN.com) University of California at Berkeley was again the site of a clash involving pro-Israel and anti-Israel activists last Friday when Husam Zakharia, leader of the Students for Justice in Palestine, assaulted Jessica Felber of the pro-Israel Tikvah group with a shopping cart.
The incident occurred during competing events from the SJP-run “Israel Apartheid Week” and “Israel Peace and Diversity Week” organized by Tikvah. Felber was holding a sign that read “Israel Wants Peace” when Zakharia intentionally slammed her from behind with a shopping cart filled with toys donated for the welfare of Arab children in the Hamas-controlled Gaza region.
Felber told Israel National News that she responded to the incident by immediately placing her attacker under citizens’ arrest. Police arrested him later that day and Felber expressed hope that the District Attorney will see the case through and file charges against Zakharia.
Felber said that Friday’s incident was not the first time Zakharia used violence against pro-Israel advocates. According to her, physical intimidation has frequently been employed as a tool by SJP to silence students opposing their anti-Zionist activities on campus. “SJP students have been terrorizing us for three years with intimidation, accusations and threats. This incident is simply the culmination of it all and we are not going to tolerate it anymore.”
SJP’s tactics backfired on at least one occasion when, in November 2008, the group attempted to disrupt a concert organized by the Zionist Freedom Alliance during “Israel Liberation Week” on the UC Berkeley campus. After striking a ZFA activist in the head, Zakharia found himself beaten to the ground. Following the incident, Zakharia and two fellow SJP members, along with two Zionist activists, were cited for battery but no charges were officially filed.
The UC Berkeley Hillel and leaders of the California Bay Area Jewish community condemned the violence at the time but made no moral distinction between SJP and ZFA. This time around, however, Felber said Hillel and many other Jewish organizations have been very supportive and she expressed hope that SJP will no longer be able to intimidate her or other students on campus.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
CNN Lavishes Coffee Party With Favorable Coverage After a Year of Tea Party Demonization
The corporate media is once again lavishing the “Coffee Party” with favorable coverage after having demonized the Tea Party as racist extremists for nearly a year, proof positive that the much vaunted new movement, which is run by an Obama campaign operative, is nothing more than a front for the establishment.
In a new report entitled, Coffee Party, Tea alternative?, CNN’s Lisa Sylvester allows Coffee Party members to talk at length about how they are more “reasonable” than Tea Party members and how the Coffee Party represents a genuine alternative that will “stop shouting and get things done in Washington” without spewing “hateful rhetoric”.
Watch the clip.
The report implies that the movement is a rampaging success across the country despite the fact that the gatherings shown in the clip consist of no more than a dozen people, whereas Tea Party events have been attended by hundreds of thousands of people for nearly a year.
CNN glosses over the fact that Coffee Party founder Annabel Park is an Obama campaign operative, with the tone of the host dismissing it as no big deal, before promoting the Coffee Party’s next national event on March 13th.
Compare the establishment’s favorable coverage of the Coffee Party to their treatment of the Tea Party, which has been demonized as a fringe movement of racist extremists since it first organically grew out of the End the Fed protests almost three years ago.
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Democrats, Reconciliation and 1/6th of the U.S. Economy
Heavy-handed tyrannical misuse of institutional procedures for the purpose of driving America off of a cliff
As the nation has shifted against Obama’s effort to seize control of 1/6th of the U.S. economy by passing off “socialized medicine” as some form of private health care reform, leftists have grown increasingly desperate to find a way to move their agenda forward against a rising tide of opposition from the citizenry.
It is a highly partisan initiative with NO hope of any bipartisan support, because only the most hardened Marxists see anything good in the federal confiscation of 1/6th of the U.S. economy, by a government which has a long history of bankrupting every program it has ever run.
Still, Obama and company plan to go forward, using a legislative tool called “reconciliation.” What is Reconciliation?
In short, reconciliation is a tool designed to block the filibuster on matters of the federal budget. It was first introduced in 1974, as a legislative procedure designed to end marathon budget debates by simply removing budget items at the root of the debate, and passing the agreeable portions of the budget by simple majority, thereby blocking a filibuster that would keep congress in perpetual debates until the government would shut down without a budget in place.
In other words, it was a tool for reducing federal spending by ending debate on disagreeable additions to the budget, hence its nick name, the Budget Reconciliation Act.
It is a “balanced budget” tool, which came into law via the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. It was not designed as a tool for Democrats or Republicans to run roughshod over the other, nor as a tool for the federal government to run roughshod over the taxpayers.
[…]
To go forward with an overt Marxist agenda, progressives must do so against the will of most American citizens, who are fed up with such heavy handed tactics from their elected SERVANTS!
But progressives (aka Marxists) can’t back up, because the people who put them and keep them in power are very dangerous folks. The international cabal behind the current American administration is already notably disappointed that their chosen “messiah” has thus far failed to deliver on their international agenda, despite controlling all branches of the federal government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fox News: Best Investment Saudi Prince Talal Ever Made
by Diana West
It was pile-on time at Fox News tonight as Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer, a gal whose name I missed and Bill Kristol all branded Geert Wilders beyond the pale tonight.
Beck classified Geert as a fascist.
Krauthammer said Geert didn’t know the difference between Islam and Islamism — never mind that according to Krauthammer’s idea of Islamic scholarship, neither did Mohammed.
The gal is the middle said she agreed with Imam Krauthammer and added that if people like this (Geert) are elected to lead Holland it will suffer the consequences.
Kristol called Geert a demagogue.
In other words, a stomach-turning display — or should I say halal?
Fact is, this anti-Geert pundit solidarity will only delight Newscorp stakeholder Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. That’s because it is Wilders in the Netherlands who stands as the unexpectedly strong spearhead of resistance to the Islamization of Europe and the wider West. As a scion of the most powerful sharia dictatorship in the world, Prince Talal doesn’t like that. How fortunate for him that Fox News doesn’t like it, either.
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s TSA Pick Has Conflict of Interest?
Serves on board of company focused on federal contracts
President Obama’s pick to head the Transportation Security Administration serves on the board of a corporation that raised millions to do business with companies positioned in growing areas of the federal budget, WND has learned.
The issue could become a hot button of controversy as the Senate considers confirming retired Gen. Robert Harding.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Runaway Prius: Police Come to Driver’s Rescue After Toyota Accelerates Out of Control
Police were forced to rescue a motorist whose Toyota accelerated out of control along a motorway in California, in another blow for the car giant in the wake of its massive safety recall.
Highway police shepherded the driver to safety when he called for help after his Toyota Prius accelerated out of control at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour.
James Sikes, 61, said he couldn’t slow down for more than 30 miles along a motorway in San Diego after his accelerator stuck.
He eventually cruised to safety after a police car pulled alongside and told him to use the emergency and regular brakes and turn off the runaway car’s engine.
‘I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny,’ said Mr Sikes. ‘It jumped and it just stuck there. As it was going, I was trying the brakes. It wasn’t stopping,’ he added.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Muslim Leaders Forbid Aid to Troops
Islamic jurists decree giving soldiers food ‘not permissible’
American Muslims are banned from helping U.S. soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq and other “Muslim lands,” according to a shocking fatwa, or religious decree, recently issued by American-based Islamic jurists.
One of the most respected Islamic law authorities in America has decreed it is “not permissible” for even Muslims who are citizens of America to send food or other aid to American troops serving in those Muslim countries.
The Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, or AMJA, ruled it is a “sin” to help the U.S. military in its multi-front war on terror. AMJA delivered the ruling through its online “fatwa bank”:
[…]
Terror expert Paul Sperry, author of “Infiltration” and “Muslim Mafia,” says AMJA is top-heavy with radical Muslim Brotherhood leaders posing as moderates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Woman Indicted on Terror Charges
A Pennsylvania woman in her late 40s has been charged with terror offences including using the internet to recruit militants for deadly attacks abroad.
Colleen LaRose — also known as Fatima LaRose and “Jihad Jane” — was arrested in Philadelphia in October 2009.
A federal indictment accuses her of agreeing to kill a Swedish citizen and travelling to Europe for this purpose.
However one of the prosecutors told the Associated Press the indictment did not link to any “organised terror groups”.
A Department of Justice statement said Ms LaRose and five others “recruited men on the internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad”.
Ms LaRose, a US citizen born in 1963, is charged with “conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft.”
Attorney Michael Levy was quoted as saying Ms LaRose’s appearance “was considered to be an asset because it allowed her to blend in.”
He said the case “demonstrates that terrorists are looking for Americans to join them in their cause, and it shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance”.
If Ms LaRose is found guilty, she could face a life term in prison and a fine of $1m.
After she was arrested on 15 October, she made an initial court appearance but did not enter a plea, AP reported.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
The Climate Funding Trough: The Canadian Example
Misuse of Funding By Environment Canada
Money to support the singular approach to climate research came from department funding diverted from other uses. Weather stations were closed; Canada has fewer stations now than in 1960. Many were converted to Automatic Weather Observing Stations (AWOS) so unreliable that NavCanada initially rejected them when they took charge of airports. Services were curtailed and data was restricted or only available with payment. The Assiniboine River Management Advisory Board (ARMAB) was told by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) Environment Canada wanted several thousand dollars for a single DVD of weather data for research to “drought proof” the Prairies. Environment Canada employees sought and competed with private companies for contracts. Canadian National and Canadian Pacific used two EC employees when sued for non-delivery of grain by the Canadian Wheat Board. These and other diversions from primary goals caused complaints that triggered public inquiries.
[…]
Prevention of Further Waste Is Necessary
Could this be avoided? Absolutely! All you need to understand is why and how the process was set up. Maurice Strong told Elaine Dewar he could not achieve his goal of getting rid of the industrialized nations as a politician, but could get all the money he wanted and not be accountable through the UN. He set up the IPCC and used the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to get access to the weather services in each country. They then diverted funding to the self-proclaimed national emergency of global warming. We must direct funding through agencies already established with filters necessary to eliminate any political bias or influence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Al-Qaeda-Linked Suspects Go on Trial
Brussels, 8 March (AKI) — Nine suspected Muslim extremists went on trial in Brussels on Monday, accused of running a jihadist network in Belgium and of having links to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan — charges which they deny.
The nine suspects are accused of recruiting young European Muslims to train on the largely lawless Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Two of the suspects, who are currently on the run, will be tried in absentia. All face jail terms of up to 10 years if convicted of membership to a terrorist group.
Belgian authorities arrested the suspects late last year in an operation that broke up the extremist cell they are alleged to have run.
One of the key suspects due to appear in court on Monday was 50-year-old Belgian-Moroccan Malika al-Aroud, who is accused of recruiting young Muslims over the Internet. She has already been convicted of terrorism charges by a Swiss court.
Al-Aroud is the widow of one of the killers of Ahmed Shah Massoud, head of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
Massoud was assassinated in 2001 just days before the September 11 attacks against the United States.
The would-be jihadists allegedly recruited by al-Aroud were sometimes escorted to the Afghanistan-Pakistan borderlands by her second husband, Moez Garsalloui, according to prosecutors.
Garsalloui is one of the suspects being tried in absentia.
According to the prosecutor, Garsalloui had ties with “important” Al Qaeda figures.
The prosecution evidence includes a farewell video, the kind of last testament left by suicide bombers before they carry out an attack.
The video features another of the suspects on trial, 24-year-old Hicham Beyayo, 24, who denies intending to carry out a terror attack.
At the time of their arrests, police did not find materials that could be used to carry out a terrorist attack in any of the suspects’ possession.
Aroud has dismissed the prosecution case as “empty”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin: Arabs Almost Half of Serial-Offenders
The typical serial offender is male, of Arab origin, and remains a criminal as an adult, this according to an interim report on the status of the implementation of the Berlin serial offenders concept, as reported by the Senator for Justice Gisela von der Aue (SPD) in parliament on Wednesday. The serial offender policy, with which Berlin set up a separate department in the prosecution, ends this month, and the senator decided to renew it April 1st.
A key point is that the same offender always meets the same police officer and prosecutor, all authorities are networked so they can quickly identify disastrous trends and take countermeasures. In addition to the police and prosecution, this includes the youth social-service and juvenile courts.
According to von der Aue, at the beginning of the year, there were 548 serial offenders registered, none of them children. These included 83 were juveniles, 211 adolescents and 254 adults, ten of which were female. The former juveniles have reached adulthood and continued being criminals. They’re expecting a continued low-level increase. 79% of the serial offenders are of immigrant background, 47% are of Arab origin. More than 2300 court cases have been started since the creation of the department, with more than 2,700 court decisions (there were multiple defendants in some cases). According to von der Aue the number of probation failures — cases of re-offending during the probation period — was also high at 60%. In 2007, Berlin applied its concept to the beginner-criminal policy, where the offender would be intercepted before he begins his serial offender career. 172 people were registered in that.
Legal issues spokesperson for the Greens, Dirk Behrendt, complained that the punishment process was taking too long. The senator did not contradict him, and said they would work to speed up the process.
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Church ‘Acted Promptly’ On Abuse
Vatican responds to latest German cases
(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 9 — The Catholic Church acted quickly on child sex abuse in Germany and elsewhere, the Vatican said Tuesday.
The Church “dealt with the manifestation of the problem promptly and decisively,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said a day after German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said a 2001 Vatican directive for cases to be first handled internally had helped set up “a wall of silence” in Catholic schools.
The minister’s insistence on prosecutors being brought in as soon as possible was later toned down by Chancellor Angela Merkel who praised the German Church for taking “very, very important steps in confronting the problem very seriously”.
Two of the cases allegedly involved the famed Regensburg boys’ choir headed from 1964 to 1994 by Pope Benedict XVI’s brother Georg, who reiterated Tuesday he had not been aware of them and apologised to the victims.
Catholic Church sources said at the weekend the cases occurred before Georg Ratzinger took charge.
Father Lombardi stressed Tuesday that the institutions involved in the spate of allegations “showed they wanted transparency”.
“Indeed,” he told Vatican Radio, “in a certain sense they hastened the manifestation of the problem by urging the victims to speak out even when the cases occurred a long time ago”.
“By doing so,it tackled the question on the right foot because the correct departure point is a recognition of what happened, concern for the victims, and the consequences of the acts carried out against them”.
Benedict recently tasked officials with drafting new strategies to prevent abuse and cover-ups such as those recently exposed in Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.
Father Lombardi said the Vatican will shortly issue “new operational pointers” to “fine-tune prevention strategies”.
Lombardi said the Vatican welcomed Germany’s announcement of round-table meetings involving school, church and other representatives to detect and prevent abuse.
“The Church is naturally ready to take part and commit itself” to such events, he said.
Recalling that paedophilia is not confined to religious institutions, he said the Catholic Church’s “painful experience can be a useful contribution for others”.
In Austria, for example, there were 17 recently attested cases in Church institutions compared to 510 in “other milieux”.
The first German round-table is scheduled for April 23.
Benedict is set to meet the head of the German bishops’ conference later this week.
Last month the pontiff announced an upcoming pastoral letter to the Irish Church in response to two reports on decades of abuse and cover-ups which have led to the resignation of several bishops.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Congressman Charlie Rangel Violates House Ethics Rules
Representative Charles Rangel, the top Democrat responsible for tax laws in the U.S. Congress, was found “guilty” of accepting Caribbean junkets from a private corporation, an act that violates the House of Representatives’ ethics rules.
However, most of the mainstream media organizations are slow to carry the news stories of Rangel’s reign of corruption and even slower to investigate the allegations that seem to point to a career built on crime, corruption and political posturing.
[…]
Others were less kind in their remarks. For instance, a former New York City police detective claims Rangel was a Democrat Party hack in the Big Apple, who “carried the bags for the boys downtown.”
“As a young detective, I had to straighten out Charlie [Rangel] while he was working as a defense attorney and ran errands for some of New York’s more despicable characters,” said former NYPD detective Sid Frances, owner of a Harlem-based security firm.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
European Prosecutor Could Prosecute Britons Without Government’s Permission
The European Union is planning to create a new super-prosecutor who would have powers to bring cases against British citizens without the approval of the Crown Prosecution Service or the Government.
The Spanish EU Presidency, backed by France and Germany, announced that it is going to propose the creation of an EU European Public Prosecutor next month using powers under the Lisbon treaty.
The move is regarded as “extremely worrying” and is seen as a further attempt to transfer powers from London to Brussels.
It would mean that British people could face prosecution through a justice system the UK Government has made no contribution to setting up.
The British Government has consistently opposed the plans but is powerless to stop them going through as they can be passed as long as they have the backing of nine member states under so-called “enhanced co-operation”.
Britain has “opted out” of the system, which means that while the European prosecutor will not be able to bring cases in this country, he will still be able to issue European arrest warrants to force UK citizens to face prosecution in another member state — without asking the permission of the Government or the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer.
The news comes after The Daily Telegraph disclosed how the European Union is drawing up plans for its first direct tax with a “green” levy on petrol, coal and natural gas that could cost British consumers up to £3 billion.
The prosecutor’s initial powers will be confined to cross-border financial transactions — specifically to “investigate fraud and speculation against the euro”.
Conde Pumpido, Spain’s Inspector-General of Finances, said: “The single currency needs a specific institution that protects the application of criminal law against fraud and speculation.”
However, there are concerns that once appointed the new European prosecutor will seek to use his powers to prosecute a range of different and non-financial crimes.
The Spanish Presidency’s website raises the prospect of allowing the prosecutor also to “investigate and initiate criminal proceedings against cross-border crimes such as people trafficking, drug trafficking or terrorism”.
Sarah Gaskell, from campaign group Open Europe, said: “This is an extremely worrying move for UK citizens, who could face prosecution by a European Public Prosecutor that the UK Government had no hand in setting up.
“The deeply undemocratic Lisbon Treaty is being used to outsource controls over our justice system to EU institutions, in what is the start of a very worrying trend of judicial creep that could see such a prosecutor’s powers expanded into all manner of areas.
“This just goes to show that the Government’s so-called ‘opt-outs’ from the Lisbon Treaty in justice and home affairs are a totally inadequate safeguard for the UK’s criminal and justice system.
“A future government needs to fundamentally reform Britain’s participation in EU criminal and justice rules and reclaim much greater control over the legal rights of its citizens.”
Mark Francois, the shadow Europe minister, said: “The Lisbon Treaty allows other countries to establish a European prosecutor for themselves if they wish, but we are not obliged to follow suit.
“In fact, it would be absolutely unacceptable for Britain to participate in any such project.
“It would endanger the integrity and accountability of our legal system. A Conservative government would not allow a European Public Prosecutor to have any authority in Britain. Labour and the Lib Dems should now match our position.”
A spokesman for the EU Commission said: “The Commission is looking at its options but no decisions have been made.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
France: Total Closes Refinery, Jobs Safe
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 8 — French oil company Total has announced to close its refinery in Dunkirk, in the north of the country, after almost two months of protests. The news was announced by sources in trade unions, and later confirmed by the company. The refinery will be closed, but Total specified that none of the 370 jobs will be lost thanks to the creation of a methane terminal in partnership with EDF, a training centre and a technical reorganisation centre. These new initiatives, according to the company’s calculations, will provide jobs for around 225 employees of the refinery. The rest will be offered jobs in other refineries or other Total installations in France, or will be offered early retirement.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France-Morocco: Sarkozy Allows Moroccan Girl Back
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 8 — The French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who today welcomed 22 representatives of women’s rights groups, has announced that he is ready to allow the return to France of Najlae Lhimer, the Moroccan schoolgirl who was controversially kicked out of the country after visiting a police station to file a complaint against her brother, who had been beating her. At the end of a meeting at the Elyseé Palace, the head of the “Ni Putes Ni Soumises” women’s rights group Sihem Habchi said that the Head of State was “ personally involved” in recalling the girl from Morocco. The girl had been living illegally in France since 2005, escaping an arranged marriage in her country of birth, but suffered constant beatings at the hands of her brother until last January, when she found the courage to report him to authorities, only to be detained and then deported at the end of February. The girl’s expulsion contrasted with the current stance of the French government, which claims to want stricter punishments for violence towards women. The case caused uproar among groups defending women’s rights as well as the socialist opposition. According to Sihem Habchi, Sarkozy’s decision, which comes a week before regional elections predicted to be damaging for the right, “sends out a message to all women, who as of today, can go to the police and make complaints about the violent abuse they are suffering.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Friends of the EU
The European Union is funding some of the most powerful environmental NGOs in Brussels — while in turn, they lobby the EU for more money and influence.
Environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have enormous influence in the European Union. However, some of the most vocal green groups are actually funded directly by the EU to lobby it. The EU funds many NGOs operating in Brussels whose main purpose is to influence EU policy-making and implementation. This report analyses one programme of funding, in which DG Environment (the division of the European Commission responsible for environmental affairs) distributed over €66 million to environmental NGOs between 1998-2009.
Specifically, we examine funds allocated to the Green 10 — a coalition of ten NGOs pushing for an “environmental” agenda in EU policy-making.
* Nine out of the Green 10 receive funds from the Commission. * Eight members receive one-third or more of their income from the Commission, and five of those rely on the Commission for more than half their funding.
Under EU rules, an NGO can receive up to 70% of its income from the EU, and thus is obliged to find only 30% of its income from alternative sources.
From 1998 to 2009, there was a substantial increase in funds given by the Commission to environmental groups: from €2,337,924 (1998) to €8,749,940 (2009) — an average increase of 13% every year.
The EU’s funding of Green 10 members has also increased during this time period.
* Birdlife Europe funding increased by 900% * Friends of the Earth Europe funding increased by 325% * WWF European Policy Office funding increased by 270%.
The majority of Green 10 members now receive considerably more money from the Commission than in previous years. As a result, many have struggled to reduce their dependency on EU funds — in fact, three members depend more on EU funds today than in 2005.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Gaming: Greek Intralot to Supply 15,000 Terminals to Sisal
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 9 — Greek group Intralot announced that it has agreed on a contract to supply Italian gaming company Sisal with 15,000 MicroLot terminals equipped with scanner document readers in addition to related consulting and maintenance services. The Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office reports that Sisal, which manages popular games such as Superenalotto, Totip+ and Tris, currently holds a 12.3% share on the Italian market and in 2009 increased its turnover by 43%, reaching 9.4 billion euros. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
George Bush to David Cameron: Don’t Derail Northern Ireland Peace Process
The former US president George Bush has made a direct plea to David Cameron to support the Northern Ireland peace process, amid widespread concern in the US about the Tories’ new electoral pact with the Ulster Unionists.
In his most active intervention since leaving the White House, Bush took the rare step of calling the Conservative leader to ask him to use his influence to press his unionist partners to endorse the final stages of the 15-year search for a settlement.
Bush, who took a close interest in the peace process during his years in the White House, telephoned Cameron last Friday to ask him to plead with the UUP leader, Sir Reg Empey, to endorse the deal in a vote tomorrow in the Northern Ireland assembly.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Catholic Scandal Spreads
Former Regensburg Choirboys Talk of ‘Naked Beatings’
Former choirboys of the Regensburger Domspatzen have told SPIEGEL about sexual and physical abuse at two boarding schools attached to the famous Catholic choir. One former choirboy says it’s “inexplicable” that the Pope’s brother Georg Ratzinger, a former head of the choir, didn’t know about it.
The abuse scandal at the Regensburger Domspatzen choir is bigger than had been thought so far. Therapists in and around Munich treated several former choirboys who were traumatized by sexual and other physical abuse.
One man affected told SPIEGEL about cruel rituals in the Etterzhausen boarding school, a preparatory school for younger pupils from which the choir draws its recruits.
He said that at the end of the 1950s the headmaster of the school, a Catholic priest, had dealt out hard physical punishments. He had often practiced what was called “naked beatings” in his private rooms, where boys aged eight or nine had to undress and were beaten by hand. In some cases, the victim said, penetration took place.
‘Sexual Lust’
The director and composer Franz Wittenbrink, who lived in the Regensburg boarding school of the choir until 1967, said the school had an “elaborate system of sadistic punishments combined with sexual lust.”
He said the headmaster at the time “would choose two or three of us boys in the dormitories in the evenings and take them to his flat.” He said there had been red wine, and that the priest had masturbated with the pupils. “Everyone knew about it,” said Wittenbrink. “I find it inexplicable that the Pope’s brother Georg Ratzinger, who had been cathedral bandmaster since 1964, apparently knew nothing about it.”
One fellow pupil had committed suicide shortly before taking his high-school exams, Wittenbrink said. Despite many indications, the Regensburg Diocese did not make abuse cases public until contacted by SPIEGEL last Thursday. Now the chair has pledged to investigate everything rigorously and to present an interim report at the end of March.
The allegations against former teachers are the latest to come to light in a scandal over sexual abuse at Catholic schools in Germany.
Pope’s Brother Says Knew Nothing
Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, told an Italian newspaper he was willing to testify in the sex scandal but knows nothing about the alleged abuse of boys in the Regensburg choir.
In an interview published Sunday, Ratzinger was quoted as saying by the Rome daily La Repubblica that there was “discipline and rigor” but no terror during his 30 years as head of the Regensburg choir from 1964 until 1994.
The pope’s brother also said the abuse accusations also reflected “a certain animosity toward the church.”
The Vatican had said on Saturday that two cases of sexual abuse linked to the Regensburg choir did not coincide with the 30-year period it was led by Georg Ratzinger.
‘Great Deal of Anger’
The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano printed a statement on Saturday by the Bishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, saying that one case of abuse by the deputy director of a primary school linked to the choir was detected in 1958.
In addition, the paper called for action to be taken against those responsible. Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told the paper that perpetrators need to be brought to court and victims compensated for their suffering.
He said he has followed the ever growing scandal in Germany with “deep disappointment, pain and a great deal of anger.” There is “no justification, no tolerance,” he continued. At issue is a “despicable crime that must be pursued with absolute resolve.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Reformers Want Pope to Talk About Alleged Abuse Cases
Child molestation scandals at several German Catholic schools have prompted Catholic reformers to call on Pope Benedict XVI to account for his term as bishop in Bavaria between 1977 and 1982.
A spokesman for the “We are the Church” movement, Christian Weisner, said the pope should publicly state exactly what he knew about widespread allegations of abuse by clerics in the Bavarian city of Regensburg during the 1960’s.
“From 1977 to 1981 Joseph Ratzinger was the bishop of Munich and Freising, so he must answer the question about what he knew then and what he did about it,” Weisner told news agency DAPD.
The statement followed revelations that the renowned German boys choir, the “Regenburg Domspatzen,” had received reports of sexual abuse dating back to the 1960s.
Weisner said the church authorities could not ignore the fact that information about these child abuse cases had been known by senior officials in the church leadership. In addition, many cases of sexual violence had been systematically hushed up by the church leadership, he said.
Director and composer Franz Wittenbrink, who attended the choir’s boarding school in the 1960s, told newsmagazine Der Spiegel of a “sophisticated sytem of sadistic punishments wrapped up in sexual desire.” Wittenbrink said the boarding school’s director at the time would “come into the dormitory at night and pick out two, three of us boys to take back to his apartment.”
Pope Benedict’s brother, Professor George Ratzinger, has headed the boys choir since the 1960s. Ratzinger told the Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” that he knew nothing about cases of child abuse.
The Vatican has said that it will back an investigation.
Zero tolerance
German Education Minister Annette Schavan told the mass-circulation newspaper Bild am Sonntag that there should be “zero tolerance” for sexual abuse of children and announced she would meet with education officials in the coming week to discuss concrete measures to prevent abuse in the future.
“Violence and abuse of schoolchildren is the worst breach of trust imaginable. It makes me livid,” Annette Schavan said.
“Wherever there is a suspicion of abuse or violence against children in schools, there must be zero tolerance and a complete explanation. Nothing must be hushed up,” added the minister.
She also told the Passauer Neue Presse that she supported extending the statute of limitations for sexual abuse.
Abuse allegations spread
The scandal in Germany broke in January when an elite Jesuit school in Berlin admitted the systematic sexual abuse of its pupils by two Roman Catholic priests in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Jesuit order has said that so far around 120 people have come forward alleging abuse.
Meanwhile, a report into alleged past abuse at a monastic school in Ettal, near the Swiss border, said that minors “were massively abused over decades, sexually, physically and psychologically” by several monks. And on Sunday new accusations came to light against a nun at an orphanage in Berlin who allegedly molested children throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The nun withdrew from the order in 1986 .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Women’s Clothing Imports Increase by 60%
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 9 — In recent years a substantial increase of 60% has been observed in Greece for women’s clothing imports, according to the results of a market study by consulting firm Icap Group. The increase, according to analysts, coincided with a decrease in local production, which is characterised by many small and medium sized companies, which operate mainly for third parties; others have a developed retail sales network with their own brands or franchised labels. Icap, cited by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Athens, found that although the size of the market is not significant, there is still space for new players. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Poet Simin Behbahani Handed ‘Travel Ban’
Iran’s leading female poet has told the BBC she has been barred from leaving the country by the government.
Simin Behbahani, 82, said she was about to fly to France when her passport was confiscated at Tehran airport.
The human rights activist has written poems in support of the opposition campaign against disputed elections in June last year.
Last week Iran detained international award winning film director Jafar Panahi and members of his family.
“The moment I was due to get on the plane, a man came and took my passport away from me and said that I was banned from going abroad,” she told the BBC’s Persian service.
They questioned her for hours asking questions and then ordered her to appear before a court, she said.
She was on her way to Paris to present a paper on feminism and read a poem at conference.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Thousands of Marriages at Embassies Declared Illegal
THOUSANDS of foreign couples who married at their country’s embassies in the Republic over the past three years are being told their marriages are invalid and illegal.
The problem has sparked a diplomatic row between the Government and several EU states, which have asked Spain — current holder of the EU presidency — to mediate on their behalf. The decision by the Government also affects the citizens of non-EU states, whose embassies conduct marriage ceremonies.
Last week the General Register Office wrote to all foreign embassies informing them that marriages performed by diplomatic missions were not recognised as marriages unless they conformed to Irish law. The note said marriages would not be legal unless they were performed by an authorised registrar and took place in a registered building which was open to the public.
The guidance issued to embassies follows passage of the 2004 Civil Registration Act, which updated existing laws on registering marriages. It entered into law on 5th November 2007, which means all marriages in embassies since then are invalid.
Several embassies complained yesterday that the communication last week was the first time they had been told performing marriage ceremonies was illegal. “Yes we do have a problem and we no longer take applications for weddings . . . the problem is no one warned us that it was illegal to marry people at the embassy,” said deputy head of the Lithuanian mission, Natalia Baceviciene.
The Lithuanian embassy has performed about 100 marriage ceremonies since 2007 and the Polish embassy has performed about 500. The Department of Foreign Affairs estimates up to 3,000 couples could be affected.
Diplomats fear that unless the Government changes its position, the couples’ marriages — which have already been recognised in their home countries — will have to be deregistered.Under international rules, ceremonies deemed illegal in the country they are performed cannot be recognised in the home state, said one diplomat. The decision to rule existing marriages illegal is creating problems for many couples, who have been told by the General Registry Office they cannot register their children in the names of both married parents. Many have been advised to register children in the name of a single parent, which could lead to complex custody, taxation and inheritance issues.
One Polish couple who got married in their embassy in mid-2009 said they were now facing problems registering their son’s birth. “Our son Kamil is two weeks old and we can only register his birth as single parents since the Irish Government does not recognize our marriage,” said Adam Goraj. A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said marriages performed by embassies were not recognised. “We are in contact with the embassy with a view to resolving this issue,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Seven Arrests Over Alleged Plot to Kill Swedish Cartoonist
GARDA HAVE arrested seven people as part of an international investigation into an alleged plot to kill a Swedish artist who produced a series of sketches depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.
The suspects, four men and three women, are being held at Garda stations in counties Waterford and Kilkenny.
They were arrested during a major search operation at 10 addresses in Waterford and Cork yesterday morning.
Detectives in Ireland have been working on the case since late last year with their counterparts in the US and Europe, including Sweden.
Those arrested yesterday are from Algeria, Croatia, Palestine, Libya and the US. They are aged in their mid-20s to late-40s.
The Irish Times understands the suspects were taken into custody on the basis of information supplied to the Garda by the FBI that came to light after surveillance of the suspects’ communications, including e-mails.
The US investigators believe the alleged leader of the group is one of the Algerian men. He has been living in Ireland for the past decade.
[…]
“At no time has anyone in this country ever been under threat,” said one Garda source.
A group of more than 60 garda from Waterford and Cork were involved in yesterday’s searches of residential and business premises. They were backed by members of specialist Dublin-based Garda units including the anti-terrorism Special Detective Unit.
The premises raided were in Waterford city and Tramore and in Ballincollig, Co Cork. Computers, mobile phones, discs and documents were taken away for analysis.
However, no firearms or explosives or any other hazardous material was found. It is not known how far the alleged assassination plot had progressed.
Garda sources who spoke to The Irish Times said none of those arrested has any known links to al-Qaeda or any other militant group.
The suspects are being detained under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act at Garda stations in Waterford, Tramore, Dungarvan and Thomastown in Kilkenny. They can be held for up to seven days without charge.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Arrests Over ‘Plot to Kill Swedish Cartoonist’
Seven people have been arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad, police say.
The four men and three women are all Muslim immigrants, according to media reports, though a police statement did not confirm this.
Cartoonist Lars Vilks had depicted the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog in the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper.
Islamic militants put a $100,000 (£67,000) bounty on his head.
Mr Vilks was quoted as saying he was unfazed by the arrests, which he said he thought could be linked to two death threats he had received by telephone in January.
‘Slaughter’ bonus
Irish police said the seven suspects were arrested after an investigation into a “conspiracy to murder an individual in another jurisdiction”, a probe that also involved police in the US and other European countries.
The suspects ranged in age from their mid-20s to late-40s.
Ireland’s RTE news network reported that five were detained in Waterford and two others in Cork.
RTE said those in custody were originally refugees from Morocco and Yemen, but had gained asylum and were in the Republic of Ireland legally.
Mr Vilks has been under police protection in Sweden since threats were made against his life.
“I’m not shaking with fear, exactly,” he told Swedish news agency TT after Tuesday’s arrests.
“I have prepared in different ways and I have an axe here in case someone should manage to get in through the window.”
In 2007 a group linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq offered a $100,000 reward for killing Mr Vilks, and a 50% bonus if he was “slaughtered like a lamb” by having his throat cut.
It offered another $50,000 for the murder of Ulf Johansson, editor-in-chief of the regional newspaper, Nerikes Allehanda.
‘Now it’s your turn’
The Vilks controversy arose in 2007, when his entry in an arts project was published by the newspaper.
It pictured a dog with the head of a bearded man in a turban.
Several Muslim countries protested against the picture.
At the time, Swedish officials expressed regret at any hurt caused to Muslims’ feelings, but said the government could not prevent the publication of such drawings because of media freedom rules.
The case came about a year and a half after a series of depictions of Muhammad in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten paper caused an uproar in early 2006.
Those cartoons sparked protests from Muslims around the world. Dozens of people were killed in riots.
Muslims regard any image of the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemy.
In January, one of the cartoonists whose drawing appeared in Jyllands-Posten, the Dane Kurt Westergaard, was targeted in his own home, allegedly by a Somali radical Muslim with an axe.
Mr Westergaard, who escaped unharmed, had depicted the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.
Mr Vilks told The Associated Press news agency that the telephone threats in January had come from “a Swedish-speaking Somali. He reminded me about what had happened to Westergaard and threatened with a follow-up and that ‘now it’s your turn’.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Police Foil Plot to Kill Swedish Cartoonist
Seven Muslims were arrested by Irish police on Tuesday on suspicions of conspiracy to murder a Swedish cartoonist who drew the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.
The four men and three women were arrested in the southern Irish towns of Cork and Waterford following an international operation.
A police source confirmed press reports that they were Muslims arrested over an alleged plot to assassinate Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has a $100,000 bounty on his head from an Al-Qaeda-linked group.
“The operation… is part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit a serious offence (namely, conspiracy to murder an individual in another jurisdiction),” said a statement from Ireland’s national police service.
It added that the operation involved law enforcement agencies in the United States and a number of European countries.
The seven range in age from mid 20s to late 40s, police said, while the RTE state broadcaster reported that they were originally from Morocco and Yemen, but were all legally in Ireland.
Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a cartoon on August 18, 2007, depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog to illustrate an editorial on self-censorship and freedom of expression and religion.
The cartoon prompted protests by Muslims in the town of Örebro, west of Stockholm, where the newspaper is based. Egypt, Iran and Pakistan made formal complaints and death threats were issued against Vilks.
An Al-Qaeda front organisation offered $150,000 to anyone who slit Vilks’ throat or $100,000 for his murder by other means, while they also offered $50,000 to kill newspaper editor-in-chief Ulf Johansson.
The uproar echoed that caused in Denmark by the publication by a newspaper in September 2005 of 12 drawings focused on Islam, including one with the Prophet Muhammad with a hat in the shape of a bomb.
Muslims worldwide, angered both by the association of their religion with terrorism and by the showing of images of Muhammad, which most consider blasphemous in themselves, took to the streets in protest.
In February 2008, Danish police said they had foiled a plot to murder the cartoonist of the bomb drawing, Kurt Westergaard, while another attempt on his life was allegedly made by a Somali man in January 2010.
Vilks has in the past dismissed the threats against him as “scare tactics” and, supported by the Swedish media, has insisted on the importance of publishing such material in defence of Sweden’s freedom of expression.
He even announced in 2007 that he had begun working on a musical based on the drawing called “Dogs”, involving Muhammad, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Al-Qaeda.
He compared it to musicals such as “Cats”.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Irish ‘Sharia Law’ Website Gets 270,000 Hits a Month
An Irish Islamic website which argues for the introduction of Sharia law here and extols the benefits of Islamic rules for women claims to have had nearly 270,000 hits last month alone.
Targeted at what it called Irish “O’Muslims”, the Muslim Public Affairs Council website, www.mpac.ie, also warns readers about the dangers of imitating the Kuffar (non-believers in Islam).
In one article, entitled ‘21st Century Ireland — A man’s world’, the author notes that a woman may not need a man to take care of her but asks “would it not be nice?” to have someone to provide for her.
“Instead of constantly trying to be better-looking than all the other girls in the club… instead of trying to impress a different bloke every weekend, is it not nicer to have that special someone,” it asks. “Someone who will always think you’re the best-looking girl… and that really doesn’t want you wearing as little clothes as possible because it’s not nice for you to be so cold. Is that not better?”
A separate post examining whether introducing Sharia is a patriotic duty suggests that an “O’Muslim” has a “duty as a citizen of Ireland to work for its best interests”.
“And who could doubt that establishing the authority of Allah in the land is in the best interests of Ireland?” it asks.
“To remove injustice and establish fairness, to remove moral degradation, immorality and licentiousness and establish propriety, righteousness and restraint and to establish tawheed (the worship of the Only One worthy of worship) are surely noble Islamic aims.”
The website — which says all content is screened by moderators in advance of being posted online — last week carried references to the fact that “victory is near” because wars are bankrupting America and described the recent crucifixion of a paedophile and murderer in Saudi Arabia as “justice”.
MPAC spokesman Liam Egan, who goes by the Muslim name Mujaahid, said the independent website was not affiliated with the Irish Council of Imams or any other Muslim organisation here and was run by a “volunteer group of indigenous Muslims”.
“From a religious perspective we believe we represent a mainstream Islamic position… considering the specific content and its limited relevancy [a minority group in Ireland] we have witnessed an exponential rise in site hits, last month we had 269, 733,” he told the Sunday Tribune.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Padua Starts 250,000 M2 Photovoltaic Plant
(ANSAmed) — PADUA, FEBRUARY 26 — Its designers named it the largest photovoltaic plant in the world. World record or not, the work that started today will measure more than 250,00 square metres. Work started with the laying down of the first modules on the roofs of the buildings in Padua’s Interporto (freight village) and Magazzini Generali (public warehouse). The plant, once complete, will comprise 67,500 photovoltaic panels, and will have an overall energy capacity equal to 15 Megawatts (peak) that will allow the annual generation of 17 million Kilowatts per hour of energy thanks to the sun. The investment made available by the two logistics companies amounts to 50 million euros. The Padua facility should be larger in size than the largest currently known photovoltaic facility, which is located in Zaragoza (Spain). Work should be completed in 2010. According to calculations made by the designers, the energy produced on the roofs of the Interporto and the Magazzini Generali will be equal to that consumed by 5,000 families in one year, but with the saving of approximately 9,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, equal to the consumption of 3,200 tonnes of oil. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ports of Venice and La Spezia Greener With Enel
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 1 — The goal of the agreement signed by the ports of La Spezia, Venice and the Enel group is to reduce pollution and to increase energy savings. According to the accord, signed by Enel managing director Fulvio Conti and the managing directors of the ports of La Spezia, Lorenzo Forcieri, and of Venice, Paolo Costa, Enel will equip the two ports with “cold ironing” systems for the supply of electricity to ships in the harbour using a land-based co-generator. The new system, the French website Econostrum.info reports, will reduce polluting emissions and save energy, since the ships will be able to shut down their auxiliary engines while in harbour. Compared with the traditional onboard generators, the ‘cold ironing’ system, already used in some large ports in America and North Europe, “reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 30% and of nitrogen oxides by more than 95%”, Enel specifies in a statement, adding that the system also has a positive effect on “acoustic pollution”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Non-EU Exports -0.3% January, +4.7% Annual
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 22 — Italy’s exports to non-EU countries fell slightly by 0.3% on December 2009 and net of seasonal adjustments, while imports went up by 5.4%, says Italian National Statistics Institute ISTAT, based on preliminary estimates. Exports were up by 4.7% on January 2009 though, and imports were down by 3.7%. In the three months from November 2009-January 2010 exports were up by 5.3% and imports by 4.7% compared to the previous quarter. In January 2010 the trade deficit with non-EU countries was 3.19 billion euros, an improvement on the same month of 2009 (-3.98 billion euros). Excluding the energy sector, the trade balance with non-EU countries registered a surplus of 482 million euros, compared with a deficit of 57 million in January 2009. The tendential increase in exports in January 2010 were mainly to Turkey (+50.6%) and China (+38.9%). Exports were down though to Japan (-10.1%), Russia (-10%) and the OPEC countries (-4.8%) and the United States (-1.9%). The tendential fall in imports was mainly to Italy’s biggest commercial partners, with the exception of Turkey (+30.8%) and India (+8%). A “good start”, but we need to pay “attention to sudden reversals in the crisis”, said Deputy Minister for Economic Development with Foreign Trade portfolio, Adolfo Urso, commenting on the ISTAT data. “It seems to be an excellent sign for the start of the year: exports are up by 4%, in line with what we forecast, what’s more the commercial deficit is down further: this could be the year of recovery”, said Urso, which means we need to focus on the emerging nations.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Lashed by Late Winter Storm
Cold spell brings snow to Tuscan cities, floods to Venice
(ANSA) — Rome, March 9 — Thermometers plummeted around Italy on Tuesday as a late winter storm brought sub-zero temperatures to the Alps, snow to Tuscany and high waters in Venice just a few weeks ahead of the first day of Spring.
Residents in Siena awoke to find Piazza del Campo, celebrated site of the annual Palio horse race, under a bed of snow that thickened as flakes continued falling throughout the morning.
The leaning tower of Pisa was also glazed in white on Tuesday morning together with Brunelleschi’s dome in Florence as temperatures there hovered around freezing.
The mercury dropped far below that in the Alps, to lows of -21.4 degrees C (-5.8 F) in the town of Sestriere near Turin and -18 C (-0.4 F) in Tarvisano in the northeastern corner of the Dolomites. The sudden cold is expected to raise tides in the Venetian lagoon on Wednesday flooding the island-city with ‘acque alte’ 105 cm above sea level.
Across the Adriatic Sea, authorities in Trieste issued warnings for possible hurricane force winds blowing off the water at up to 115 km/hour uprooting trees and knocking down road signs.
The sting in winter’s tail is expected to last through Thursday, according to the Civil Protection Department who held a special meeting on Tuesday in anticipation of emergencies.
The agency said downpours forecast in Sicily and Calabria could provoke further mudslides, like the ones that forced thousands of people from their homes in both regions last month.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Outraged at UK Screening of ‘Fitna’ Film
The screening of Geert Wilders’ controversial anti-Islam film in the U.K. Sunday outraged Muslims and rights organizations earning the far-right Dutch MP the labels “fascist” and “racist.”
The film, called Fitna, was screened at the House of Lords in response to an invitation Wilders got on March 5 from Lord Malcolm Pearson, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and member of the House of Lords, and Baroness Caroline Anne Cox, cross-bench member of the House of Lords.
Wilders’ trip to the U.K. is part of the Stop Islamization Of Europe (SIOE) campaign. SIOE is an organization whose goal is to prevent Islam from becoming a substantial political force in Europe. Wilders’ visit is supported by the far-right English Defense League (EDL).
The film, which declares Islam is incompatible with democracy and calls the Quran a fascist book, was scheduled for screening in the U.K. in 2009. However, Wilders was denied entry to the country. He was accused of inciting hatred and designated a persona non grata. The ban was overturned in October 2009, a moved that Wilders called a “victory for freedom.”
British rights groups slammed the visit and submitted a complaint to the Interior Minister, calling Wilders the Dutch version of the English Defence League (EDL), whose sole goal is to fight the presence of Islam in Europe, and the far-right British National Party (BNP), which restricts its membership to Caucasians only.
Protesters from Unite Against Fascism (UAF) waved signs that read “EDL+BNP= Nazi racist thugs” and chanted “EDL, go to hell, and take your Nazi mates as well.” The police made sure to keep UAF protestors away from ADL supporters who carried signs welcoming Wilders.
Meanwhile, Muslims inside and outside the U.K. continued their campaign against what they perceive as systematic and intentional insults directed against their religion, their holy book, and their prophet.
The campaigns, which are mostly launched on the internet and call for boycotting countries that insult Islam, cite Wilders’ movie, the Danish cartoons, and Theo Van Gough’s movie Submission as just a few, yet flagrant, examples European insults to Islam..
However, online campaigns also indicate that Muslims are losing hope as they no longer trust that serious political action will be taken to stop spread of Islamophobia in Europe.
The ban on Wilders’ film last year was not only praised by Muslims, but also by British officials who view the MP as a fanatic extremist intent on inciting intolerance in Europe.
British MP George Galloway expressed his support for the British government’s decision to ban Wilders from the U.K.
“I believe that this man, Wilders, from Holland is a racist hater of Muslims, hater of Islam, and he shouldn’t be allowed into our country to whip up that hatred,” Galloway said in a T.V. interview.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Catholic Church Abuse Claims Rise to 200
Some 200 people have now registered sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic church officials with the church organisation set up to help victims, the Telegraaf reports on Monday.
Jan Waaijer, spokesman for the Hulp en Recht organisation said he was shocked by the flood of claims since the end of February, when newspapers reported claims of abuse at a boarding school in ‘s-Heerenberg in the 1960s and 1970s.
‘Let it all come out now. A church which is mature and open to self-criticism can deal with this,’ he told the paper.
The organisation has taken on extra staff to deal with the surge, he said.
Bishops
Meanwhile, Ad van Luyn, chairman of the Dutch bishops conference, has called for an independent inquiry into the abuse claims.
‘It is the job of the church to clearly condemn abuse and apologise,’ he told a tv show. ‘In the future, the church must take every measure possible to stop this happening.’
The bishops conference is due to meet to discuss the growing scandal on Tuesday.
Insurance
On Saturday it emerged that the diocese of Utrecht agreed €1m in coverage with Aegon against potential abuse claims back in 2006.
The NRC and Radio Netherlands report that the deal was the result of a long-running dispute between the church and insurance company.
‘The church viewed compensation paid to sexual abuse victims could be deemed a physical injury claim,’ the NRC said. ‘Aegon refused to do this because it did not wish to put a premium on the misuse of minors.’
Compensation
The insurance deal follows a €43,000 payout made to a girl who had been abused by a priest.
The Aegon deal only covers claims made before 2000 and a spokesman for Aegon told the paper no claims had been made.
The church’s current insurer Nationale Nederland does not cover damages claims stemming from sexual abuse, the paper says.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Church Has 1mln Euro Fund Ready for Sex Abuse Victims
Aegon insurance company has put aside a million euros to pay for claims by Dutch victims of sexual abuse suffered at the hands of Catholic clerics.
Aegon and the archdiocese of Utrecht, which acted on behalf of the Roman Catholic church in the Netherlands, came to this agreement in 2006, an investigation by NRC Handelsblad and Radio Netherlands Worldwide has shown. If damages exceed a million euros, the Church will have to pay for them itself.
Aegon broke with church after 45 years
The deal ended a long-lasting dispute regarding the coverage offered by the church’s liability insurance policy with Aegon. The Church felt it could claim any damages paid to victims of sexual abuse by priests as bodily damage incurred by them. Aegon refused, saying it did not want to “put a premium on the abuse of minors”.
The conflict was set off when the church tried to claim 43,378 euros in damages paid to a girl who had been sexually abused by a priest. Aegon refused and severed all ties with the church, ending a 45-year relationship. The church then sued its former insurer. According to Aegon, “the legal dispute ended in a compromise agreed upon in 2006”. The church dropped its case and Aegon agreed to pay one million euros in damages.
A spokesperson for the archdiocese refused to comment, saying that “we have agreed with Aegon we would not speak out on this matter and want to uphold that agreement”.
“We both agreed victims should not suffer because of our dispute,” an Aegon spokesperson said. “That is why we have reserved a million euros for this purpose.”
The money is meant to pay for claims emanating from abuse that took place before Aegon terminated the church’s insurance policy in 2000. According to the insurer, no claims have been filed yet. Victims seeking damages should file them with the Catholic church, the spokesperson said.
“Once a judge has determined the claim is justified, or if the church decides to take responsibility, we will pay. The total amount of all claims has been capped at one million euros. Anything over that amount will be paid by the church.”
Sex abuse no longer insured
Recent publications in NRC Handelsblad and other publications concerning the abuse that took place at boarding schools, abbeys and seminary schools have led to dozens of new reports and complaints. Lawyers expect victims will file for damages with the Church. In recent weeks, the Roman Catholic church has received some 200 reports from people who encountered sexual abuse in the past.
The church will have to pay any claims emanating from abuse that took place after 2000 from its own coffers. The church’s new insurance policy with insurance company Nationale Nederlanden does not cover sexual abuse. A Dutch trade organisation of insurers advised its members to adjust their policies accordingly in 2000. Damages emanating from “sexual or sexually charged behaviour of any nature” have since been exempted from coverage.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Labour, CDA, Neck and Neck in New Poll
A new poll by Maurice de Hond puts the Labour party (PvdA) and CDA neck and neck on 24 seats, with Geert Wilders anti-Islam PVV still in first place on 27.
The internet panel poll gives Labour a nine-seat boost since it pulled out of the government two weeks ago.
The 24-seat total for the CDA is the lowest ever record for the party by De Hond, and is a two-seat drop on last week’s result.
Support
The position of prime minister and party leader Jan Peter Balkenende has come under pressure in the media since the party’s poor performance in the local elections.
Last week, a number of ministers came out publically to express their support for the prime minister.
At the moment, the CDA has 41 seats in the 150-seat parliament and Labour 31.
De Hond’s is the only polling organisation to put the PVV in top position.
The poll also shows that it will take at least four parties to form a new coalition government after the June 9 general election.
Should Balkenende resign? Take part in our poll
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nuclear: GDF Suez Does Not Rule Out Interest in Italy
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 4 — The French Energy group Gdf Suez “does not rule out” the possibility of becoming interested in nuclear power in Italy: this was declared by the CEO Gerard Mastrallet, during the presentation of 2009’s annual results. “We have already shown our willingness to grow our energy presence in the Italian market”, he continued, “perhaps one day nuclear power will be a part of this presence. We have not yet made any decisions, but it is possible. We follow with lively interest the progress of the debate (on returning to nuclear power) in Italy”, he added towards the end of the event, “at the moment we are not on the front line, but we are watching with interest what is being said and done in this regard”. “We produce energy”, he specified, “we are not ‘all-nuclear’ producers or ‘all-renewable’ producers; we seek simply the most convenient and profitable source”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nuclear: Construction First Italian Plant by 2013
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 8 — “The Italian nuclear programme is going ahead as scheduled. The Italian government is creating the right conditions to allow companies to start construction of the first nuclear plant by 2013”, said Italian Economic Development Minister Claudio Scajola during an international conference on nuclear energy in progress in Paris, in the OECD headquarters. “We want a mix of 25% nuclear energy, 25% renewable energy and 50% energy from fossil fuels”, Scajola added.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Out of Dutch
[Mark Steyn]
These aren’t words one has cause to type terribly often, but I think Charles Krauthammer is being deeply naïve in his observations on Geert Wilders (as, reportedly, was Glenn Beck, to whom I am otherwise well disposed, not least because he liked my Christmas single).
Wilders does not need to be lectured condescendingly about distinctions within Islam, because he lives with them every day. And he has concluded, notwithstanding Dr. Krauthammer’s views on the precise “minority” that identifies as “Islamist,” that Islam itself is the issue — and that, therefore, regardless of the “moderation” of the “overwhelming majority” of Muslims, the more Islam the less Netherlands in any recognizable sense. Are the gangs of gay bashers on the streets of Amsterdam “Islamist” by Krauthammer’s definition? Maybe, maybe not. But, either way, they make the running, and the rest of the community is either indifferent or quiescent.
As for whether Wilders is “extremist,” his views on the cultural compatibility of immigrants were routine and unexceptional until the 1960s, not only in Europe, but also in the U.S. And, even in North America today, they are the stated policy of the Government of Quebec. One can certainly disagree with that, but does that make Quebec also “fascist” (Beck) or even “extreme” (Krauthammer)?
Dr. Krauthammer is also incorrect to suggest there are two issues here. When the state attempts to constrain further Europe’s already too shriveled bounds of public discourse, the only issue is state power. The Continental political class does not want to debate the question of its ever more assertive Muslim populations, and so has decided to criminalize that debate. Geert Wilders lives under 24/7 security because Muslims (including the killer of Theo van Gogh) have pledged to murder him. Yet he’s the one on trial for incitement? The issue is not Wilders or his views, but the Dutch state and their ever more “extreme, radical, and wrong” views on core Western liberties.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
PVV Firm Over Headscarf Ban in Almere
Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam party PVV is sticking firm by its earlier commitment to make a headscarf ban in public buildings a central element in the negotiations to form a new city council executive in Almere.
Raymond de Roon, who led the PVV’s campaign in Almere, is currently holding talks with other parties about forming a new administration for the polder city.
The PVV emerged as the biggest party after the local elections last week.
Local Labour leader Alphons Muurlink told news agency Nos it was very quickly apparent the two parties cannot work together. ‘De Roon is sticking with the headscarf ban and that completely goes against the PvdA’s position,’ he said.
The left-wing green party GroenLinks has also ruled out an alliance with the PVV.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: CGPJ Guards Against Delegitimisation of Judges
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 8 — Spain’s General Council of the Judicial Power, the CGPJ, has requested the “utmost request” for the “role of judges”, guarding against the “undeserved effects of delegitimisation” that could be provoked by political interference in the functioning of justice, which it calls “a fundamental power of the State”. These are the words of CGPJ spokeswoman Gabriela Bravo, who read out an institutional statement at a public event in Valencia, according to the EFE agency. The Council’s stance comes amid controversy surrounding the three cases launched against a judge from the Audiencia Nacional (Spain’s National Court), Baltazar Garzon, looking into three lawsuits filed by far-right organisations and by some of the accused in an investigation into alleged corruption in Spain’s People’s Party, known as the “Gurtel case”. The statement also follows the barrage of criticism levelled at the judge Eloy Velasco by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, following allegations of Caracas’ collaboration in links between ETA and FARC. Yesterday the Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero praised the “courage” shown by judge Garzon in the struggle against ETA. “In relation to the information, comments and opinions that have emerged in the last few days regarding certain legal proceedings ongoing at the Tribunal Supremo [Supreme Court] and the Audiencia Nacional,” said the CGPJ statement, “we demand not only the absolute defence of freedom of expression, but also the utmost respect, nationally and internationally, for the independence and jurisdictional function of Spain’s judges and courts.” Magistrates are hoping for a return to a “calm atmosphere”, given that the current situation “is hardly compatible with the actions that lead to an undeserved effect of delegitimisation of the work of the judiciary, which provokes mistrust of a fundamental power of the State.” This explains the request for “utmost institutional respect”, without “attempting to influence ongoing legal proceedings.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Compensation for Women Victims of Franco
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 8 — A one-off compensation of 1,800 euros for all the women who underwent persecution and torture by the Franco dictatorship for political reasons, was announced today, on International Women’s Day, by Councillor for Justice and the Public Administration in the Andalusia Council, Begona Alvarez. In a statement to the media, Alvarez confirmed that the council was preparing a decree, the first in Spain for women in the matter of the historic memory and will be ready within two months. The women will be able to prove they underwent persecution, torture or humiliation “with any proof admitted by law”, as the councillor said, recognising that only a few women would go ahead with a claim for compensation, given the length of time since the dictatorship. The Councillor justified the initiative by saying that so far, out of the 2,742 compensations awarded by the Council to the victims of the Franco regime, on the basis of the law on historic memory, only 5% have been received by women. The decree will be aimed at women who suffered “harassment against their honour, their privacy or their image by the Francoist regime “, after being abused or raped during the dictatorship. It will be a “tribute to the women who fought to defend the values of the II Republic”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Gangsta’ Rap Star Snoop Dogg Wins His 3-Year Battle to Visit Britain… And We Pick Up £100,000 Bill
Rapper Snoop Dogg has humiliated ministers by winning a three-year legal battle to overturn a ban on him entering the U.K.
In an embarrassing defeat for the Home Office, the American hip hop star successfully claimed the ban infringed his human right to freedom of expression.
It means that Snoop — who has a string of criminal convictions and has been tried for murder — could be free to return to Britain as early as Thursday.
The Government’s unsuccessful legal battle — which cost the UK taxpayer in excess of £100,000 — has been criticised as ‘an appalling waste of public money’ by the rapper’s lawyer.
And the fact that an immigration tribunal has ruled in the musician’s favour could impact on Britain’s ability to keep so-called ‘undesirables’ out of the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Facebook Attacked for Ignoring 100 Reports of ‘Grooming’ And Refusal to Have Panic Button for Users
- Facebook ignored 100 reports of suspected grooming
- Site attacked for lack of child protection measures
- Ashleigh’s mother says it’s ‘too easy’ to abuse
- Merseyside Police refers itself to watchdog
- Rapist posing as teenager had more than 6,000 online friends
Facebook ignored more than 100 reports of possible grooming of young girls, it was revealed today, as the site came under fire for its lack of security measures.
The social networking website insisted safety was its top priority after the appalling case of Ashleigh Hall, 17, who was lured to her death by a serial rapist she met online.
It urged members to take ‘extreme caution’ after the teenager’s murder by Peter Chapman highlighted the astonishing ease with which potential predators can trap victims on the internet.
But it was attacked for a ‘glaring failure’ for refusing to have a panic button on its pages, which would allow children to raise the alarm if they believe they are being targeted by predatory paedophiles.
[…]
Described as ‘calculated and wicked’, Chapman was jailed for a minimum of 35 years for Ashleigh’s kidnap, rape and murder yesterday.
[Comments from JD: Warning: Graphic Content.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: How Violent Crime Has Risen 44% After 13 Years of Labour: But Ministers Insist It’s Down
Violent crime has rocketed by 44 per cent under Labour, official Parliamentary research revealed last night.
The House of Commons Library report is the definitive independent verdict on the 13-year record of the Government.
The Tories say the research backs their claims about ‘broken Britain’.
The figures are a serious and embarrassing blow to the Government — which has repeatedly insisted violent crime was down and accused the Tories of using ‘dodgy’ statistics.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: ‘This new analysis confirms that the level of violent crime actually reported to police officers in police stations up and down the country is much higher than it was a decade ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Parents ‘Unable to Understand Their Teenage Children’s Homework’
Mums and dads should probably not be the first port of call for teenagers stuck on algebra equations and physics problems.
For parents are routinely flummoxed by their children’s homework, research shows.
In fact, they achieved an average score of only two out of ten in a quiz based on GCSE lessons in science, maths, history and geography.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pakistani Men Arrested ‘Within Days of Massive Al Qaeda Terror Attack on Britain’
Five men linked to a UK terror plot which would cause ‘mass casualties’ were arrested days before they planned to strike, a court heard today.
A senior British intelligence officer, identified only as ZR, told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission that the group was set to stage an atrocity between April 15 and 20 last year.
He told the hearing that that the alleged plot ringleader Abid Naseer exchanged coded emails with an Al Qaeda operative called Sohaib while planning the attack.
The pair used girls’ names to cover their tracks, the officer said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Inspector ‘Left Student to Die in Road After Knocking Him Down and Driving Away’
An off-duty police chief inspector whose car struck a university student on a dual carriageway failed to stop and claimed he thought he had hit a post, despite having the victim’s blood and skin on his shattered windscreen, a court heard today.
Jamie Jones, from West Midlands Police, allegedly killed Warwick University student Raymond Cheung on the Coventry-bound carriageway of the A45 in the early hours of March 8 last year.
Jones, 38, carried on driving after the fatal impact, leaving the victim’s body in the road to be struck by a second car, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard.
[…]
The court heard that the 20-year-old, originally from Hong Kong, had recently had a ‘falling out’ with a female student at the university and may have walked into the oncoming traffic intentionally.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tories Ask: Why BBC3, BBC4?
Conservative culture front bencher Jeremy Hunt is asking what’s the point of BBC3 and BBC4? It’s a good time to ask the question. In an interview with the Independent, Hunt queried why £100m was being spent, merely to attract “very, very small” audiences.
This is some way short of calling for the channels to be scrapped, as reported today. In fact, Hunt said exactly the same thing last September. It’s also less than the £172m the BBC overspent on three building projects (one of which is the £1bn — that really is billion — makeover of Broadcasting House), the National Audit Office reported last week.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We’ll ‘Unleash Hell’ On Tories, Threaten Unions as Public Sector is Gripped by New Militancy
Britain is in the grip of a wave of militancy by millions of public sector workers as unions threaten to ‘unleash hell’ on an incoming Conservative government.
Alarming figures reveal the number of days lost to strike action in the public sector is now 15 times higher than in the private sector, prompting concerns about the growing readiness of union leaders to flex their muscles.
These figures are particularly startling as it is private sector workers that have so far borne the brunt of the recession, taking the vast majority of pay cuts, pay freezes and redundancies.
Yet Labour’s union paymasters, who are bankrolling the party’s election campaign, are preparing further strike plans.
There will be angry clashes tomorrow when tens of thousands of senior public sector workers are expected to be told they will get a pay freeze this year, like many of their private sector counterparts.
[…]
According to one union source, they are building up a £25million war chest to ‘unleash hell’ on a Tory government.
Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, accused the public sector of ‘throwing its toys out of the pram’, while ‘people in the private sector have long accepted the reality that these are tough times.’
He said: ‘Public sector workers are far more likely to go on strike despite enjoying better pay, more generous pensions and far greater job security than workers in the private sector.’
[Comments from JD: Greece 2.0]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Young Woman Jumped 100ft to Her Death Just Hours After Father Begged Psychiatric Hospital Not to Release Her
A medical suffering from mental illness jumped to her death from a tower block just hours after her father begged staff not to release her from a psychiatric ward.
Graham Nye was so concerned for his 22-year-old daughter Victoria’s wellbeing that he warned hospital staff ‘if she goes back to her flat she will throw herself off the balcony’.
Later that night she plunged more than 100ft to her death from the 13th floor balcony of her Southampton tower block.
An independent investigation has now been launched by the NHS trust into the events leading up to the death of Miss Nye, who had been diagnosed with bipolar syndrome.
[…]
Mr Nye said his daughter had been tormented for eight years with mental illness and this was the first time she was willing to get help.
But he claimed she was told by psychiatrists that she ‘could not be helped’ despite medical notes from a family doctor, saying she was in need of urgent care.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Apologises Over Gaddafi Comments
The US State Department has apologised for comments made about Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s call for jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland.
Department spokesman PJ Crowley, who made the dismissive comments, said they did not reflect US policy and were not intended to offend.
Col Gaddafi had criticised a Swiss vote against the building of minarets and urged Muslims to boycott the country.
Mr Crowley described it as “lots of words, not necessarily a lot of sense.”
Libya and Switzerland are embroiled in a long-running diplomatic row.
Clarification
“I regret that my comments have become an obstacle to further progress in our bilateral relationship,” Mr Crowley said.
Last week, Libya’s National Oil Corporation warned US oil firms of possible “repercussions” over Mr Crowley’s reaction.
The Libyan ambassador to the US sought to clarify Col Gaddafi’s remarks saying the Libyan leader meant an economic boycott not “an armed attack”.
“I should have focused solely on our concern about the term jihad, which has since been clarified by the Libyan government,” Mr Crowley added.
“I understand my personal comments were perceived as a personal attack on the president,” he said.
“These comments do not reflect US policy and were not intended to offend. I apologise if they were taken that way.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders to Take Council Seat in the Hague
Geert Wilders is to take a seat on the Hague city council after winning 13,000 preference votes in last week’s local elections.
Earlier Wilders, who is a sitting MP, said he would not take up a seat if he won. His anti-Islam party PVV emerged as the second biggest party in the political capital, with 17% of the vote.
‘I am going to see if I can combine it. I will give it a go for a while,’ Wilders was reported as saying.
The news means two of the eight PVV councillors in the Hague’s new city council will combine their work with being members of parliament.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: KFOR: 570 US Soldiers Home by May
(ANSAmed) — PRISTINA, MARCH 9 — In the next two months, the United States will withdraw 570 soldiers from Kosovo, so that by the end of May there will only be 830 U.S. soldiers among the multi-national KFor force. Captain Dan Murphy said that the number of American troops that will remain in Kosovo will be, at any rate, sufficient to guaranteed continuity to the NATO mission there. At the beginning of this year, as has been announced in past months, NATO substantially reduced the numbers of Kfor, which passed from 14,000 to 10,000. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Switzerland, Eur40 Million to Support EU Integration
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 8 — The Swiss government will support Serbia’s European integration process by financing a cooperation program worth EUR40 million over the next four years, Swiss Cooperation Office in Serbia Director Beatrice Meyer said, reports Tanjug news agency. Presenting the new Cooperation Strategy 2010-2013, Meyer stressed that the program envisages activities in four main areas — economic development, rule of law and democracy, education and energy efficiency and renewable energy. Meyer said that the two countries have cooperated closely for nearly 20 years and reminded that Swiss donations to Serbia since 1991 have reached around EUR200 million. Swiss Ambassador to Serbia Erwin Hofer said that the most important goal of the two countries’ cooperation through these programs is supporting Serbia’s European integration and improving its chances of joining the European Union. Hofer said that the cooperation between the two countries will have two components in the coming period — social and economic — and explained that the social part entails increasing social inclusion and reducing poverty in Serbia, while the economic segment entails helping Serbia to become more competitive in the market. Serbia’s Assistant Finance Minister Gordana Lazarevic stressed Switzerland’s support in international financial institutions (the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and among the wealthy donor countries, adding that the country plays a major role in the restructuring of Serbia’s existing debt and the granting of new loans. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU: EuroHeritage Project on Water Management Techniques
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, FEBRUARY 22 — Discovering the memory of water through some conservation techniques considered to be part of an intangible heritage and that allow for the rational management of water resources in the countries of the Mediterranean. This is the objective of ‘REMEE’ (Redecouvrons ensamble les memoires de l’eau), one of the twelve projects financed by the European Union as a part of Euromed Heritage IV, presented today in Palermo during a workshop on the protection of immaterial assets. The project has the aim of rediscovering and passing down to new generations some age-old systems of water conservation, involving Algeria, France, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia e Turkey. “Water”, affirms Algeria’s Metair Kouider, one of the partners in the REMEE project, speaking at a workshop, “is a rare and precious asset which must be used rationally and not only keeping industrial logic in mind. Old generations, for example, used ‘qanat’ or ‘fogara’, a technique used particularly in the desert to avoid water dispersion. During the project we interviewed some elderly Algerians that knew of these techniques and we wrote them down”. Cooperation between Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon in connection with intangible cultural heritage, was one of the objectives of the “Medliher” project. “These four countries”, affirmed France’s Fleur Perrier, the coordinator of Medliher, “were among the first to have signed the UNESCO convention for the protection of intangible heritage. In practice, the project consists in putting these countries in the position of applying the convention”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria-Egypt: Inland Revenue Rejects Orascom’s Appeal
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 9 — The Algerian inland revenue service has rejected the appeal presented by Egyptian company Orascom for outstanding tax payments and fines totalling 43.9 billion dinars, some 600 million dollars, regarding the activity of its branch, Djezzy, over the last three years. The company announced that it will file an appeal. In order to file a new appeal, Orascom must pay 20% of the sum requested. According to the Algerian press, the Egyptian company is said to be looking for a partner to whom they could sell off a part of its shares, in order to bring the case with Algiers to an end. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Over 1 Mln Italian Arrivals to Egypt in 2009
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Over one million Italian tourists visited Egypt in 2009, a figure that is substantially in line with the overall numbers from 2008, despite a decline of 25,000 arrivals overall. A 2.3% decrease that makes Italy the fourth ranked country in terms of international arrivals to Egypt, according to Egyptian Tourism Minister Zoheir Garranah, explaining last year’s data in the tourism industry, which is still an engine for the Egyptian economy. Garranah underlined that these are “significant figures in light of a particularly sensitive year in the tourism industry on a global level, making it a good result, since the crisis could have resulted in significantly worse consequences. Comparing the final balance for Italian tourism numbers for the year 2009 with other foreign destinations for Italians, I ascertained that the decrease in Italian arrivals to Egypt was much more contained”. The minister’s assessment contained reasons to be optimistic, since “with an initial look at the situation regarding Italian arrivals to Egypt this year, it is encouraging that we registered a 31% increase in January, which represents 15,000 more tourists in absolute terms compared to the same month in 2009, a figure that essentially compensates for the loss of 25,000 Italian tourists overall last year, and allows us to look to the future with cautious optimism”. However, in Garranah’s view, 2010 will be a “difficult year overall, but it will also be full of challenges and opportunities”. Garranah also highlighted how Italy was the first country to launch the new seaside establishments on the Egyptian coast of the Mediterranean, and was the first country to discover Sharm and Marsa Alam. Niche products will also be developed, such as golf, desert safaris, ecotourism, diving and the yachting segment. There are also various projects in the development stages aimed at proposing high-quality wellness tourism. As part of the actions to support Italian tourism to Egypt, the Egyptian government will continue to subsidise the airports of Taba, Marsa Alam, Aswan, as well as Luxor and the Mediterranean coast. Collaboration with airline companies will focus on increasing the capacity of flights to Egypt, with the objective of increasing business for both countries. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Card.Sandri’s Appeal for Christians in Holy Land
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, MARCH 8 — The Christians in the Holy Land “deserve the support of the entire Church”, said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Oriental Churches. The cardinal invites people to participate in the 2010 Collection for assistance to Christians in the Middle East, particularly in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories. “The Christians of the East” the letter of Cardinal Sandri sent to all priest worldwide reads, “have a responsibility that belongs to the universal Church, in other words the responsibility to preserve the ‘Christian origins’, the places and people who are the sign of them, so that those origins may always be the reference of the Christian mission, the measure of the ecclesial future and its security”. Sandri explains that “The Pope has entrusted to the Congregation for the Eastern Churches the task of keeping alive interest in that blessed Land. In his name I urge everyone to reinforce the solidarity that has been shown so far”. This year’s appeal “is inspired by the pilgrimage ‘in the historical footsteps of Jesus’ which the Holy Father Benedict XVI made last May. On that occasion, “strongly emphasizing the ceaseless problem of emigration, His Holiness recalled that ‘in the Holy Land there is room for everyone’, and he urged the authorities to support the Christian presence but at the same time assured the Christians of this land of the Church’s solidarity”. He then encouraged, Sandri adds, “the baptised to be ‘a bridge of dialogue and constructive cooperation in the building of a culture of peace to replace the present stalemate of fear, aggression and frustration”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Jews in Holy Land? What Jews?
The Israeli government announced that it would include the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me’arat HaMachpelah) in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem as part of a comprehensive plan to preserve Israel’s national heritage and religious sites (“Moreshet”). The reaction of the Arab (and all Islamic) world to the decision has once again showed the real essence of the “Arab-Israeli conflict”, which actually is the holy war that Arabs had proclaimed against the Jews.
[…]
It is the genocidal approach that is characteristic of Islam. Power and possession are inherent parts of religious attitude in Islam. This approach extends to all other religions, not only to Judaism. The idea consists in depriving other cultures of their spiritual base to achieve total physical domination over them.
The famous Belgian orientalist Koenraad Elst in his book “Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam” writes:
“In all the lands it conquered, Islam has replaced indigenous places of worship with mosques. In Iran, there are no ancient Zoroastrians or Manichean shrines left. In Central Asia, there are no Buddhist temples left. Similarly, in India (except the far South where Islam penetrated rather late) there are practically no Hindu temples that have survived the Muslim period (over 10,000 destroyed). But there are thousands of mosques built on the foundations of Hindu temples (for example, the Ayodhya temple).”
Nowadays, the same policy is being carried out towards the Jews. The ignorance, hypocrisy, and soullessness of the Western world make the problem easier to overcome.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Israel: Research: 2010 Tender for Joint Projects
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 9 — Medicine, biotechnologies, agriculture, renewable sources, environment and telecommunications are a few of the sectors where Italian companies and research institutes on one side, and Israeli companies on the other, will be able to present joint projects, as provided by the cooperation agreement covering the sectors of scientific research and industrial development signed by the two Countries. According to the tender for the gathering of joint research projects for 2010, joint Italy/Israel projects can be finance by Italian and Israeli authorities after winning a competition. Fundamental requisites for project finances include: technical innovation characteristics of the proposed product, process or service. The statement added that the submission of projects by Italian and Israeli participants will have to occur simultaneously (each to its competent authority) no later than May 20 of 2010. For further information see www.esteri.it . (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Artist Defiant Despite Fine for Turkish PM ‘Mockery’
A British artist whose collage was found to have mocked Turkey’s prime minister has been fined by a court in Istanbul.
Michael Dickinson walked smiling from the Kadikoy district court, a free man, but not completely off the hook.
The judge ruled that the British artist had crossed the line with his cartoon, superimposing the head of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on the body of a dog, and found him guilty of insulting Mr Erdogan’s “dignity and honour”.
The judge sentenced him to 425 days in prison, the first time anyone has been jailed for criticising the prime minister.
But the sentence was immediately commuted to a fine of about £3,000.
When a defiant Mr Dickinson insisted he would not pay, the judge explained that, provided he made no new cartoons of the prime minister over the next five years, the fine would be put aside.
“Of course I’m relieved”, he told the BBC outside the court.
“I didn’t know what to expect. But I still don’t think I should have been guilty, and I’m not saying I’m not going to make any more cartoons of politicians.”
It has been quite a legal saga for the 59-year-old teacher, writer, anti-war activist and founder of the Istanbul branch of the Stuckist art movement.
‘Best in Show’
He was originally charged under the draconian article 125 of the Turkish criminal code in June 2006, after exhibiting a collage titled “Best in Show”.
It showed George W Bush leaning over and tying a bow around the neck of a dog with Mr Erdogan’s head on it, as a critique of Turkey’s alliance with the United States.
The case against Mr Dickinson, originally from County Durham, was dropped, but outside court he displayed a similar cartoon to journalists, in protest he said against the prosecution of his Turkish colleagues.
When that case finally came to court in September 2008 he was acquitted — but the verdict was overthrown on appeal by a state prosecutor.
The prosecutor insisted the crime was so serious that Mr Dickinson must do time in prison.
The judge seems to have found a way out of the potentially embarrassing scenario of a foreign artist being put behind bars for offending the prime minister.
Nevertheless the case will ring alarm bells with human rights groups documenting what they say are multiple attacks on freedom of expression in Turkey.
Some originate with the famously thin-skinned prime minister himself.
Michael Dickinson is not the first cartoonist, for example, to be sued for depicting Mr Erdogan as an animal.
One notable edition of the satirical magazine Penguen in 2005 had him represented as no fewer than nine animals — that case was thrown out by the judge, but Mr Erdogan has won thousands of pounds in damages over the years.
‘I like it here’
But journalists and writers often face far more serious charges.
One article in the criminal code — the infamous “301” on insulting “Turkishness” — has been used to prosecute award-winning novelists Orhan Pamuk and Elif Safak, and Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered by a Turkish nationalist in 2007.
Powerful prosecutors are prepared to go after any journalist deemed to be sympathetic to terrorist groups.
Last month a Kurdish journalist was jailed for 21 years because his paper used a respectful term of address when describing the jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Another Kurdish journalist is facing up to 525 years in prison on similar charges.
Also last month, the editor of a well-known newspaper website was freed after spending 10 months in prison, suspected only because she had met the leader of an extreme left-wing group.
By those standards Michael Dickinson can count himself lucky.
So what are his plans now? He went back to the UK last year, after 24 years in Turkey, but says he did not like his native country much.
“I like it here, I like the food, the people, the weather”, he said.
“But at least in Britain I could make satirical pictures of Gordon Brown and not go to jail.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Barry Rubin: The Saudi Foreign Minister Explains the New Middle East
Here’s today’s evidence that we are now living in Middle East 2.0 instead of the old version.
First, a definition:
Middle East 1.0: Characterized by Arab nationalist domination, competition among the strongerArab states to lead the region and by the weaker ones trying to survive those campaigns. Arab-Israeli conflict is a real enterprise. Roughly 1952-2000 or so. International aspect: Cold War competition between the United States and USSR and, near the end, US as sole superpower.
Middle East 2.0: Characterized by a battle between Arab nationalist regimes and revolutionary Islamists. An Iran-led bloc (Syria, Hamas, Hizballah, Iraqi insurgents) seeking regional hegemony. Israel and most Arab states have parallel interests; Arab states (except for Syria) put low priority on conflict. International aspect: Will the West support the moderates or appease the radicals.
The latest occasion is an interview of Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister with Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. Of course, there are the usual rhetorical flourishes about Israel but the passion and focus is clearly on Iran and various Islamist terrorists. (“There is nothing wrong with keeping the terrorists on the run,” says the prince.)
This is the same man who told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that sanctions would be too slow in stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons and the United States better do something quick. Here he says he prefers a resolution through the UN but it isn’t clear what that means.
It’s funny that in the West the region is being discussed, written about, and taught as if we were back in the 1970s. There is a particular obsession with the idea that everything is about the Arab-Israeli conflict. But if the Saudis talk like this publicly (you can imagine what they say privately) it’s a sign of how changed everything is in Middle East 2.0’s world.
Read this carefully. The prince says:…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Talks Between Greece and Qatar
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 8 — Greece and Qatar are discussing the construction of a liquid natural gas station and a power plant in the industrial district of Astakos, in the western part of Greece. According to a statement issued by the Greek government, State Minister Harris Pampoukis has talked over the phone with Qatar’s Vice Prime Minister and Energy Minister, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, to discuss the investment project. According to estimates of the Greek government, the project will cost more than 3 billion euros and will create over 1,500 jobs. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Two Bear Cubs Rescued From Hunger
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 2 — Two 1 month old bear cubs that were dying from hunger were rescued in a mountain area in northern Turkey by the inhabitants of a village that found them unconscious and starving. The report was made by Turkey’s Dogan agency which specified that the discovery of the small plantigrades occurred in the woods surrounding the village of Aksu, close to the city of Arac. Despite searches carried out in the area, the mother of the cubs was not located and it is believed that she was shot down by poachers. According to Ihsan Ozbay, the vet who visited them, the cubs had not eaten in many days. They have been transferred to the bear rehabilitation centre in the city of Bursa where they are swiftly recovering their energy and vitality drinking litres of warm goat’s milk. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Not to Send Back Its Ambassador to US, Erdogan
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 9 — Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would not send back its ambassador to U.S. before seeing clear results, as Anatolia news agency reports from in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was set to receive the ‘King Faisal International Prize’. On March 4, Turkey temporarily recalled its ambassador in Washington D.C. Namik Tan minutes after a U.S. congressional panel approved a resolution labelling the incidents of 1915 as “genocide”. The resolution on Armenian allegations related to the incidents of 1915 was adopted at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs in a voting of 23-22. Shortly after the measure passed the committee voting, Turkish government said in a statement that Ambassador Tan had been recalled to Ankara for consultations. Speaking to reporters, Erdogan said that adoption of the resolution concerned Turkey, adding that the U.S. was a strategic ally and partner of Turkey. Erdogan said that the decision was not binding, however, the attitude was important. He said that the attitude of the U.S. in the next period was very important for Turkey, adding that Turkey was waiting for the attitude the U.S. would assume next. Erdogan noted that he did not believe the U.S. would sacrifice its strategic partner for simple political discussions. He said that Turkey would assess the situation in a large scale, and would not send back its ambassador before seeing a clear result. Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols on October 10, 2009 to normalize relations between the two countries. The protocols envisage the two countries to establish diplomatic ties and open the border that has been close since 1993. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Water: World Bank Raises Alarm for Yemen
(ANSAmed) — RIYADH, MARCH 8 — The World Bank has sounded the alarm regarding the water situation in Yemen. If the current impractical use of water is not restricted in the Sanaa area, about 80% of which is used for farming, the capital’s water basin could dry up completely within fifteen years, the Bank says. Due to the country’s serious economic problems, Yemeni authorities are unable to invest in expensive desalination facilities. The only alternative, according to a statement released by Italian Trade Commission in Riyadh, could be to build a new dam, which would allow control of water use, and of the unauthorised use of hundreds of illegally-built wells, of which there are at least 500 in the country, concentrated mainly in the area around Sanaa. The authorities in Yemen, however, “have announced that financial support is expected from the World Bank, as well as from Germany and the Netherlands, amounting to a total of 340 million euros invested for towards a water development project, the implementation of which is set to last fifteen years”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia ‘May Get Italian Armoured Cars’
Lince ‘got positive rating’ says Russian industry source
(ANSA) — Moscow, March 9 — The Russian army may get Italy’s Lince (Lynx) armoured car, an anonymous source told the Interfax news agency Tuesday.
Talks on buying a “large shipment” of the highly rated vehicle are under way, according to the source, said to be “in the Russian military-industrial complex”.
“This model has already been tested in Russia and got a positive rating from Russian military sources,” the source said.
He gave no further details, saying that the price and conditions of sale had to be set.
According to unofficial sources at the Russian defence ministry, Moscow may buy up to 1,000 Lince cars.
But a Russian strategic expert, Ruslan Pukhov, pointed out that, unlike Israeli-built drones or Mistral-class French warships, Russia already produces the Tigr (Tiger) armoured car which is very similar to the Lince.
The Lince has been deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Italian missions abroad and has been credited with saving soldiers’ lives.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Q: What to Do When a Taliban Hand Grenade Falls at Your Feet? A: Throw it Back at Them (And Save the Lives of Two Comrades)
When a Taliban hand grenade landed at the feet of Rifleman James McKie he made a split second decision that saved his life and those of two comrades — by picking it up and throwing it back.
As the soldiers came under fire from three different directions, the device exploded in mid air just yards away from where they were standing, sending shrapnel flying.
Rifleman McKie, of Reconnaissance Platoon, 3rd Battalion The Rifles, suffered injuries to his face and right arm.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Michael Yon: Of Concern
Abysmal, unsafe conditions which some of our most dedicated troops are living in, at a remote base run by the Spanish military in Afghanistan
The email is about the abysmal, unsafe conditions which some of our most dedicated troops are living in, at a remote base run by the Spanish military in Afghanistan. All deletions [xxx] are by me. I have the entire email. The serious and disturbing allegations are found in the second and third paragraphs.
Please note, that the failure to support permanent US troops at this Spanish base constitutes real negligence about their ultimate safety. And that comes on top of a degree of harassment that is shocking among allies.
The message begins:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
India Sets Quota for Female MPs: 1/3 of Parliament Must be Women
India’s upper house of parliament voted overwhelmingly today for a historic bill that would reserve one-third of legislative seats for women, despite a boycott by socialist lawmakers.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the 186-1 vote a ‘historic step forward toward emancipation of Indian womanhood.’ The bill now goes to the lower house, where it is likely to pass.
Members greeted the announcement of the voting result by thumping their desks.
The vote came after socialist lawmakers blocked the parliamentary debate on Monday and forced the upper house to adjourn twice today. The protesters later boycotted the voting.
The bill to reserve one-third of legislative seats for women — in national and state parliaments — has faced strong opposition since it was first proposed more than a decade ago, with many political leaders worried that their male-dominated parties would lose seats.
But socialist lawmakers’ objection is that the bill does not go far enough: They would like to see seats reserved for ethnic minorities and people from low castes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Three Indonesia Militants ‘Die in Raids Near Jakarta’
Indonesian security forces say they have killed three suspected militants in two raids near the capital Jakarta.
The raids were said to be linked to an ongoing operation against militants in Aceh province that has brought a number of arrests.
Police said they could neither confirm nor deny the man killed in the first raid was Dulmatin, a top member of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group.
He is wanted over the Bali bomb attacks in 2002 that killed 202 people.
‘Big name’
The first raid took place at an internet cafe in Pamulang city, west of the capital, local media reported.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Ominous War Warning
High-ranking officer: ‘We can light a fire in their backyard’
A colonel in the People’s Liberation Army has written in a new book: “If the United States can light a fire in China’s backyard, we can also light a fire in their backyard.”
He forecasts that such a conflict could come in the near future — “at most 10 to 20 years.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China: 200mph ‘New Orient Express’ Could Get Passengers From London to Beijing in Just Two Days
The Asian power wants to build the 200mph rail line through Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia, in return to access to the natural resources of the countries it travels through.
Under the scheme, British passengers would be able to depart from King’s Cross in London and, using the Channel Tunnel, join a service to the Chinese capital.
Rail expert Wang Mengshu, from China’s Academy of Engineering, said: ‘We are aiming for the trains to run at 215mph.’
That means the 5,070-mile trip from London to Beijing — which currently takes a week or more and several changes of service — could be completed in 48 hours.
The new service will not be arriving in Britain just yet, but the Chinese are hopeful it could be here within ten to 15 years.
China already has its own high-speed railway network, and is negotiating to extend this to up to 17 countries.
Mr Wang said most of the countries already at the negotiating table are in south-east and central Asia. The talks involve a trade of resources for technology. Many of the countries are under-developed but mineral rich.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Sends South Africa 42m Condoms in HIV Fight Before World Cup
Britain is to give 42m condoms to South Africa in response to a request for an extra billion as part of an HIV prevention drive before the World Cup, the government will announce today.
The request for British help in stockpiling sufficient condoms for the expected influx of thousands of football supporters in three months’ time was made during President Jacob Zuma’s recent visit to the UK to meet the Queen.
“Obviously there’s a big focus on the World Cup coming up and a huge increase in the number of people coming into South Africa,” said the international development minister, Gareth Thomas, who will announce the £1m funding today at an emergency summit in London on HIV prevention and treatment. “The South Africans have identified themselves the need to get more condoms in place. South Africa specifically asked for British assistance and we are responding to that request.” He pointed out that the fans would inevitably spill over into neighbouring African countries with high HIV rates, which would also need to take precautions.
The South African government estimates that up to half a million visitors could travel to the country, raising fears of a rise in prostitution and sex trafficking from neighbouring countries and eastern Europe, and creating a potential HIV timebomb.
Last week South Africa’s Central Drug Authority warned that 40,000 prostitutes were expected to arrive for the month-long tournament.
South Africa is embroiled in a struggle to combat the world’s biggest HIV caseload and to convince its population of the importance of safe sex.
The South African health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, expressed concern that the message was being ignored because people believe HIV can now be easily treated.
“President [Jacob] Zuma made two far-reaching statements on World Aids Day,” Motsoaledi said. “He made a strong statement about prevention and a strong statement about treatment regimes, but after World Aids Day South Africans were only talking about the one.
“That’s what is worrying me. I am saying treatment must only come after prevention … We are worried that South Africans seem to be thinking that we have arrived.”
The Department for International Development (DfID) is keen to support the South African government because of the leadership it has shown recently on HIV. On World Aids Day in December last year, the South Africans announced bold plans to improve access to HIV treatment, particularly for pregnant women and young children, as part of a fresh political will to tackle HIV and Aids. Now the attention is turning to preventing new infections.
Some 450m male condoms are distributed in South Africa every year but, with 16 million sexually active men and one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, there are never enough.
The DfID will today host an emergency meeting in London to try to stop the fight against HIV and Aids from running into the sand. Five years ago, the G8 pledged universal access to treatment and prevention by 2010. About 4 million people in poor countries are now on antiretroviral drugs to keep them alive, but more than 8 million still urgently need them. More than 33 million people live with HIV around the world and a further 2.5 million people became newly infected last year.
The Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which channels money from donor countries into disease-fighting programmes designed and carried out by developing countries themselves, said that an estimated 4.9 million lives have been saved since it was set up in 2002.
It predicted that, if efforts continue, mother-to-child transmission of HIV in childbirth could be eliminated by 2015, TB could be halved and malaria effectively eliminated from many countries. But its funding is now under threat.
“This report clearly shows the world’s investments are making a difference,” said Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAids.
“However, Aids is not over in any part of the world and, without a fully funded Global Fund, our shared dream of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support could become our worst nightmare — putting the lives of millions of people currently on treatment in jeopardy and millions of pregnant women … not able to protect their babies from becoming infected.”
HIV nation
An estimated 5.7 million South Africans are living with HIV, about one in every five adults. There are about 1,400 new HIV infections and nearly 1,000 Aids deaths every day. Television adverts ask viewers to “imagine the possibility of an HIV-free generation” by being cautious. But condom use is still far from a social norm.
Critics accuse South Africa’s leadership of undermining the fight with denialism and hypocrisy. Former president Thabo Mbeki’s unwillingness to act has been blamed for the premature deaths of 300,000 people.
President Jacob Zuma, while being tried on charges of raping an HIV-positive family friend in 2006, was ridiculed for testifying he took a shower after sex to lower the risk. He was acquitted of rape. Earlier this year he again did not use a condom when having sex with the daughter of a family friend, who subsequently gave birth to his 20th child.
| — Hat tip: LN | [Return to headlines] |
Mauritania: Moderate Islam Party for Fight Against Al Qaeda
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 9 — The president of Tewassoul, Mauritania’s moderate Islam party, today called for a general fight against extremists “to guarantee the security of the people and of Muslim, Christian and Jewish guests, and all those who are amongst us”. Jamil Ould Mansour, whose small opposition party holds 5 of 95 seats, condemned the recent hostage kidnappings in Mauritania carried out by terrorists linked to the al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb and invited all the countries in the region to “continuous coordination and orchestration before making any decision concerning the fight against terrorism”. A clear reference to Mali’s decision to set free a Mauritania extremist to gain the liberation of a French hostage. Four fundamentalists arrested in April 2009 in north Mali, which al Qaeda asked to be set free in exchange for French citizen Pierre Camatte, were freed last month. Nouakchott and Algiers recalled their ambassadors in Bamako after the release in sign of protest. Three Spaniards and two Italians kidnapped at the end of November and in mid December are still being held in northern Mali. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Concerned Over Events in Nigeria
Religion not seen as the cause of Muslim-Christian violence
(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 8 — Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi on Monday expressed the Holy See’s “concern and horror’ over the wave of violence in Nigeria which has left hundreds of Christians dead.
Lombardi added that indications were that the Christians had been attacked not for religious but for social reasons.
Some 500 people are believed to have been killed at the weekend when Muslim herdsmen attacked three mostly Christian towns near the city of Jos.
The attack came two months after similar clashes between Muslim and Christian groups over control of fertile farmland in the state of Plateau.
Speaking Monday on Vatican Radio, the archbishop of Abuja, Msgr John Olorunfemi, said the violence was the result of “a classic feud between farmers and herdsmen, the difference being that the herdsmen are all Muslim and the farmers are Christians”.
“It’s easy for the international press to simply report that Muslim and Christians are killing each other. But this is not the case because the cause is not religious but has to do with social, economic, tribal and cultural issues and differences,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Estonia Urges Cooperation With Russia in Fighting Illegal Immigration
Estonian President Toomas Henrik Ilves called on Monday for closer cooperation with Russia in combating illegal immigration to EU countries.
“I mean cooperation between the police and border protection services of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden, as well as our cooperation with Russia, because it is from there that illegal refugees are attempting to penetrate EU countries,” Ilves said.
He said the greater part of illegal refugees, most of them Afghan nationals, sought to get to Estonia across the Russian-Estonian border.
He stressed, however, that the Estonia border “is well protected.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Asylum Seeker Who Stabbed His Friend to Death on the Loose After Escape From Secure Hospital
A mentally ill killer locked up for slitting the throat of a butcher is on the run after escaping from a secure London hospital.
Fida Mohammed Utmanzi, a 20-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, absconded from the North London Clinic in Edmonton, at 7.23pm yesterday.
He disappeared just eight weeks after he was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act on being convicted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey.
Police warned members of the public not to approach Utmanzi but to dial 999 immediately.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Abortion: Spain; Bishops Start New Campaign, It’s My Life
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 9 — A new campaign against abortion, on occasion of the Life Day that will be celebrated on March 25, was presented today by Spain’s Episcopal Conference. “It’s my life! It’s in your hands” is the slogan which lies next to the image of a newborn baby held up by the crossed arms of its mother and father. In a statement disseminated through the SEC’s website, the bishops assure that the campaign’s main objective is to “keep on giving voice to those who will be born to defend their right to life and offer real support to pregnant mothers in hardship”. The new initiative follows the aggressive advertisement campaign sponsored in recent months by the Episcopal conference which opposed the image of a baby to that of an Iberian lynx with the following text: “It’s more protected than an unborn baby”. In this occasion, the bishops plan on distributing, from March 15 to 30, 6 million information pamphlets and to post 30,000 posters in Spanish parishes and dioceses, together with 1,500 large advertisement billboards that will appear in 37 Spanish cities. The bishops point out that the new law on abortion, which was approved in its final version by the Senate on February 24, and against which last Sunday in Madrid some tens of thousands of pro-life association members took to the streets, “aside from being a major step backwards in the legal protection afforded to the life of unborn babies, entails a greater abandonment of pregnant mothers”. The pro-life associations announced an appeal in Strasbourg against the law approved by the Spanish Courts. The law on abortion, which decriminalises the voluntary interruption of pregnancy during week 14 of pregnancy, and up to week 22 in case of major deformation of the foetus or risk for the physical and mental wellbeing of the mother, will come into effect on July 5, after it is signed by king Juan Carlos and published on the State’s Official Bulletin. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Holland Proposes Giving Over-70s the Right to Die if They ‘Consider Their Lives Complete’
Assisted suicide for anyone over 70 who has simply had enough of life is being considered in Holland.
Non-doctors would be trained to administer a lethal potion to elderly people who ‘consider their lives complete’.
The radical move would be a world first and push the boundaries even further in the country that first legalised euthanasia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Race to the Bottom
…Remember, the goal is homogenous children who all display the behaviors deemed necessary to achieve and maintain the sustainable global environment of the “created future.”
What is this type of curriculum intended to achieve? A critical thinker. What is a critical thinker? In the words of one critical thinking guru, schools don’t want a Naïve Nancy or a Selfish Sam, schools want a Fairminded Fran, someone who thinks right and wrong are situational; what is right today maybe be wrong tomorrow in a different situation; truth is always “in flux” with no absolutes. A Fairminded Fran is a dialectic thinker; someone who truly believes that perception is reality; who runs on feelings rather than cognition.
The dialectic thinker is at the opposite end of the spectrum from a didactic thinker who runs on facts, who believes in absolutes, who believes right and wrong are static, not situational. A dialectic thinker is easily manipulated while a didactic thinker is not; therefore not given to abandoning individual principles for the group principles derived by consensus.
While education reform advocates scoff at the claim that schools are brainwashing children, that is exactly what they are doing. These are the same tactics that Edward Hunter describes in his book, Brainwashing, published in 1958, about the “men who endured and defied the most diabolical red torture” at the hands of Marxists. What is happening in America has a name; it’s called transformational Marxism, the quiet atrophy (as opposed to violent overthrow), via gradualism, to the Marxist state. As already apparent in the growing chaos of America, transformational Marxism is the pipe dream of dialectic thinkers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Gates: Use Vaccines to Lower Population
Billionaire advocates curbing CO2 by reducing earth’s inhabitants
One of the world’s wealthiest men and the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, has suggested vaccines as one method of reducing the world’s population.
Gates made his remarks to the invitation-only Technology, Entertainment and Design 2010 Conference in Long Beach, Calif. His February address was titled, “Innovating to Zero!”
He presented a speech on global warming, stating that CO2 emissions must be reduced to zero by 2050. Gates said every person on the planet puts out an average of about five tons of CO2 per year.
[…]
Discussing the “P,” or population portion of the equation, he stated, “Let’s take a look. First we got population. The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent”.
[Comments from JD: see url for video.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Klaus Warns of Environmentalism While on Visit to USA
Palm Beach — Czech President Vaclav Klaus, now on a working visit to the USA, today warned of the threat to freedom and prosperity by environmentalists who are trying to dominate people and stop economic growth under the excuse of the protection of nature and climate.
“Environmentalism and its most extreme version, global warming alarmism, asks for an almost unprecedented expansion of government intrusion and intervention into our lives and of government control over us,” Klaus said in a speech he delivered to the conservative Club for Growth.
“Environmentalism also wants to suppress economic growth, reduce prosperity and hinder human progress,” he added.
“The environmentalists ask for substantial reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. When it happens — with our current technologies — it will substantially increase the costs of energy for everyone because it would imply restrictions on the use of oil and coal, which are no doubt much cheaper than all alternative energy sources,” Klaus said.
“When energy prices go up, the costs of nearly all other goods and services go up as well. All carbon taxes, cap-and-trade schemes and wind and solar power subsidies are steps in the wrong direction, leading to a severe and protracted economic hardship for little or no benefit,” he added.
“There are plenty of arguments suggesting that the real threat for human society is not global warming itself. The real threat comes when politicians start manipulating the climate and all of us,” Klaus said.
“Politicians, their bureaucrats as well as many well-meaning individuals who accept the alarmist view of anthropogenic climate change probably hope that — by doing so — they are displaying intelligence, virtue and altruism. Some of them even believe they are saving the Earth. We should tell them that they are merely passive players in the hands of lobbyists, of producers of green technologies, of agrobusiness firms producing ethanol, of trading firms dealing in carbon emission rights, etc., who hope to make billions at our costs. There is no altruism there. It is a political and business cold-hearted calculation, he added.
Last year, too, Klaus was invited to present his views on global warming to the USA. He attended a conference on climate staged by the Chicago-based conservative organisation Heartland Institute in New York last spring.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck: Ex-Terrorist Takes CBN Inside Al Qaeda
I recently sat down for a lengthy interview with a former colleague of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Ex-terrorist Noman Benotman met with the two Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan shortly before 9/11 to discuss strategy.
He shared his insights with me about UBL and al-Zawahiri, based on his personal interactions with them:
—They consider the US a “paper tiger,”
—Bin Laden takes great pleasure in the killing of innocent civilians and how his attacks are portrayed by the Western media.
—Al Zawahiri, not Bin Laden, is the most extreme individual in Al Qaeda.
For more, watch my interview with Benotman at the link above.
| [Return to headlines] |
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