Bahrain Finance Minister: Islamic Rules Saved US From Recession
Manama, Bahrain (CNN) — Bahrain’s finance minister said adherence to strict Islamic rules helped his country escape the worst of the global recession.
Finance Minister Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed al Khalifa predicts growth of four percent for Bahrain’s economy this year, saying “long-term consistent growth” is the kingdom’s goal.
Sheikh Ahmed said the country “built an economy that is resilient, that is able to withstand shock.”
“We’ve gone through this period very well. I think the diversification of our economy has helped us tremendously,” he told CNN.
Asked how the kingdom avoided some of the riskier assets that ended up crippling other economies, the minister said: “Looking at Islamic finances and industry, because they are barred by their own rules from some of the creative products, they were able to stay away from those industries.”
We built an economy that is resilient, that is able to withstand shock.
—Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Bahraini Finance Minister
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He said the country had a “conservative nature.”
Bahrain, an archipelago of 33 islands off the coast of Saudi Arabia, is a constitutional monarchy with an elected legislative assembly that has been ruled by the al Khalifa family since 1783.
“We’ve never claimed we were immune,” Sheikh Ahmed said, however. “We were exposed like the rest of the world. But by adhering to best practices, we were able to make sure that we minimized the damage to controllable levels.”
For centuries, pearls were Bahrain’s biggest export and its main source of income. In the early 1930s, though, Bahrain became the first Gulf state to find a sizeable deposit of crude oil, a discovery that boosted the country’s economy and accelerated its modernization.
Bahrain is also tapping into tourism and sports — in a similar way to other Gulf countries facing declining oil reserves — to promote itself internationally and attract new streams of revenue.
Bahrain International Circuit is the home of a series of international auto races, including the annual Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, which kicks off the Formula One season this weekend.
Sheikh Ahmed said he expected 2010 growth to be “slightly better than what we experienced in ‘09.”
“The challenge for us is to start looking at … what’s going to propel our economy for the next couple years,” he said.
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‘Generation Zero’ And Its Impact on America
“Generation Zero,” a new documentary produced by Citizens United head David N. Bossie and writer/director Stephen K. Bannon presents a compelling indictment of runaway federal budgets under President Barack Obama.
As such, “Generation Zero” will become an important statement dedicated to expressing the core concerns of the millions of independent voters and middle-class Americans participating in the rapidly emerging tea-party movement.
“Generation Zero” is Bossie and Bannon’s name for the now retiring baby boomers who were born into unprecedented prosperity made possible by the economic sacrifices of their Depression-era grandparents and the valor of their World War II-generation parents.
The documentary attributes the U.S. fiscal meltdown to undisciplined baby boomers coming to maturity and gaining power.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: With Ireland, OECD State Hardest Hit by Crisis
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 10 — Spain and Ireland are the OECD member states that will be hardest hit by the financial crisis in terms of the drop in GDP, which in 2010 will fall to 11.8 and 10.6 points respectively, compared to an average drop of 3.1 points in other developed countries. These results figure in a report published today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and quoted by the EFE agency. The deterioration of the labour market in both Spain and Ireland has caused “a substantial reduction in the workforce” due to a drop in the arrival of migrants, which will mean a potential drop in GDP of 8.4 points and 9.8 points, against a 1.1-point drop in the mean potential GDP in developed countries. The OECD claims that although the Spanish government has adopted important new measures to stave off the crisis and increase productivity and competitiveness, “no action has been taken” towards wage restraint or regarding collective agreements. The organisation also points out that Spain requires “greater flexibility in the labour market” as well as a reduction in the gap between indeterminate and temporary contracts. (ANSAmed).
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Public-School Imam: ‘We Could Just Kill You’
Witness affidavits say Muslim leader tried to ‘incite violence’ against critics
A former administrative assistant for a publicly funded school in Minnesota — located in the same building as a Muslim mosque and run by a Muslim imam — stated in legal documents that the school director told her, “We could just kill you, yeah tell your husband we’ll do his job for him.”
Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, or TiZA, in Inver Grove Heights, Minn., which also shares space in a building with the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society, came under state investigation after multiple reports by columnist Katherine Kersten.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Teen Hauled to Jail for Overdue Library DVD
What started as a routine traffic stop ended with a Colorado teen doing hard time. The offense? Not returning a “House of Flying Daggers” DVD to his local library. Come on, Colorado. You’re better than that.
Apparently young Aaron Henson, an impressionable lad all of 19 years old, fell in with the wrong DVD-borrowing crowd sometime last year. Henson packed up the flick for a move, forgot that he had it, and ended up with a warrant for his arrest:
The city said it sent an overdue notice and bill, neither of which were returned.
The city then sent a summons, which was returned.
Then, the city sent a new court date order, it was not returned. And when Aaron failed to appear for the second court date, the city issued a warrant.
Why all the fuss? Because apparently the municipality of Littleton, CO values the DVD of a 2004 release at $31.45, and any “theft” over $30 gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Also of note: Littleton, CO has apparently never heard of Amazon.
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Video: Sen. Byrd Single-Handedly Stopped President Clinton From Using Reconciliation
“President Clinton got on the phone and called me also and pressed me to allow his massive health care bill to be insulated by reconciliation’s protection.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘British Fritzl’ Made Daughters Pregnant 18 Times After Shocking Failings by Social Services and Police… But No One’s Been Sacked
A father was free to use his daughters as sex slaves for three decades because more than 100 care workers were too scared to stop him, a devastating report revealed yesterday.
The two sisters suffered more than 1,000 rapes, became pregnant 18 times and had seven children by their perverted father.
Yet for ten years they were on the Child Protection Register, supposedly being monitored by social services.
Astonishingly, care workers were aware of repeated allegations of incest but did nothing because they wrongly feared they could be sued for breaching confidentiality.
The 57-year-old father, who was given 25 life sentences at Sheffield Crown Court in November 2008, ran rings around the authorities by controlling his daughters through fear and moving house 67 times.
Yesterday a Serious Case Review spelled out a catalogue of shocking failures by 28 separate agencies and more than 100 care workers.
The ordeal of the sisters and the failure of those supposed to protect them unfolded over 35 years in which:
Authorities received 12 reports of physical abuse by the father and seven specific allegations of incest from family members;
Sixteen child protection ‘case conferences’ were held and the two sisters were questioned about the paternity of their children 23 times;
Proper action by just one of the social workers or other officials including police who knew about the family could have ended the horror;
Nothing was done to intervene in part because social workers had a culture of ‘having a quiet word’ rather than taking action.
But despite the litany of errors nobody was sacked or even disciplined for failing to stop one of the most horrific abuse cases in decades — and all are hidden behind a cloak of anonymity.
The report states ‘action should have been taken’ in 1997 — when the brother of the victims made allegations of incest to police.
The case outlined at Sheffield Crown Court was chillingly similar to that of Austrian Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter locked in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children by her.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
EU President Van Rompuy ‘Pities’ Farage for Tirade
The President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has said he pities Nigel Farage, the British MEP who called him a “damp rag” last month.
Mr Van Rompuy said his popularity had soared in Belgium, following the tirade from the Eurosceptic Mr Farage.
“I found it so ridiculous that I was not even really angry… I feel pity for that kind of behaviour and that kind of man, that’s all,” he said.
Mr Van Rompuy said voters appreciated politicians who kept their cool.
Mr Farage, of the UK Independence Party, compared the former Belgian prime minister to a “low-grade bank clerk” and accused him of being a “quiet assassin of European democracy and of European nation states”.
He also referred to Belgium as a “non-country”.
Mr Van Rompuy told the BBC he never got angry.
“When I was in the Belgian parliament as prime minister, if people said nasty things or insulted me I stayed very calm and that was very well received by the public,” he said.
“I can assure you that I am now at the height of my popularity in Flanders, after the incident in the European Parliament… A lot of people feel themselves confident when they are governed by people who don’t get nervous and angry at every incident.”
Earlier Mr Van Rompuy told the Flemish broadcaster VRT that he had reacted “like the British at their best, phlegmatically”.
In his writings, he has quoted the saying “Forgive your enemies, but don’t forget their names,” adding that it is one he has applied in practice.
In the case of Mr Farage’s outburst, he said, the question of forgiveness did not arise, because it had not deeply affected him.
Mr Farage was reprimanded by the European Parliament president for his “insulting” tirade and was fined just under 3,000 euros (£2,700) after refusing to apologise for it.
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European Parliament: More Freedom for Extended-Stay Visas
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, MARCH 10 — A citizen of a third country in possession of a visa for extended stay, granted by a EU member country, will be authorized to go to the other member states for three months per semester, just like anyone possessing a residency permit. This is what is provided by the rule adopted by the European parliament, which should become effective by April 5. “The fact that a student to whom a visa is granted in order to attend a course in Belgium cannot travel to a specialized library in the Netherlands to obtain information useful for a thesis, or is not authorized to visit Barcelona on the weekend is simply unacceptable,” stated Portuguese European deputy Carlos Coelho (Ppe). With the current communitary law, those holding visas for extended stay in EU countries — such as students on a study trip, scientists, scholars, and family members of some European Union citizens — are not authorized to travel to other member states during their stay, and cannot travel through other states when returning to their country of origin. (ANSAmed).
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France: Teacher Attacked by Muslim Student After Calling Al-Qaeda a Terrorist Group
Lyon, France — A 15-year-old French schoolboy sprayed a teacher with teargas after she described al-Qaeda as a “terrorist group”, she told reporters on Tuesday as prosecutors began their investigation.
“I had just explained that the attacks on September 11, 2001 were carried out by the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda, as is written in the text book,” said the history teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“He stood up and declared that al-Qaeda is not terrorist and that neither is the Taliban,” she said, adding that the boy had then pulled out a spray can and doused her and a teaching assistant with teargas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Israel: Healthcare Ministers Meet in Rome
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 9 — Healthcare Minister Ferruccio Fazio met today in Rome with his Israeli counterpart Yakov Litzman. The meeting took place at the National Institute for Infective Diseases, Lazzaro Spallanzani, allowing for a visit to the High-Level Isolation Unit, which is a highly advanced centre for the treatment of infectious diseases due to possible events such as bioterrorism events, for example. The issues focused on in the meeting between the two ministers included new opportunities to collaborate in the healthcare field between the two countries which have opened with the Bilateral Plan of Action signed at the Italian-Israeli summit on February 2. Emergencies involving transmissible diseases, the quality of hospital treatments, an increased presence of Italian doctors in Israel, healthcare assistance projects through telemedicine services and the infant healthcare sector were among the topics directly analysed in depth by the two ministers. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: English Invading Italian Vocabulary
Use of ‘Ital-English’ said to be up 773% in eight years
(ANSA) — Milan, March 9 — English words are invading the Italian vocabulary and in the past eight years their use has leapt 773%, according to Federlingue, an umbrella group for language services, translators, interpreters and language schools.
Federlingue carried out a study posting a questionnaire on the Web for over 100 business-to-business clients between the ages of 25 and 50 who had used the group’s translation services over a 12-month period.
In 84% of the replies Federlingue said it discovered ample use of ‘Ital-English’, the use of English words and phrases mixed into spoken and written Italian.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Anti-Cancer ‘Supertomato’
Campania creation helps beat disease, expert says
(ANSA) — Rome, March 9 — A ‘supertomato’ created by Italian scientists is the perfect food for helping keep cancer at bay, the head of the World Foundation of Urology said on Tuesday. Launching Prostate Cancer Week in Italy, Mauro Dimitri said the ‘supertomato’ created by the Biomolecular Institute at the Naples National Research Centre offered a unique blend of nutritional qualities.
“This tomato has nutritional characteristics that are ideally suited for preventing disease,” explained Dimitri. “It has a total anti-oxidant activity superior to all other tomato hybrids normally for sale, both fresh and preserved.
“It has a greater content of the cancer-fighting carotene lycopene and vitamin C than is found in purple tomatoes, and the same anti-inflammatory properties as the San Marzano tomato”. According to Dimitri, these qualities not only make it suitable for fending off prostate cancer but also for reducing the risks of a host of other diseases in which oxidative stress and the subsequent creation of free radicals play a role. These include cardiovascular disease, arthritis, Parkinson’s Disease and osteoporosis, as well as cancers of the lung and stomach. The team of scientists that created the tomato has been at pains to stress that it involved no genetically modified organisms but is a simple blend of two existing varieties: the San Marzano, famed for its taste and anti-inflammatory properties, and the Black Tomato, a purple fruit high in anti-oxidants. The real name of the ‘supertomato’, Maxantia, is still awaiting registration but widespread cultivation of the bright red, plum tomato has already got under way in Campania. Speaking at the official unveiling of the ‘supertomato’ a few months back, Naples Agriculture Councillor Francesco Emilio Borrelli said it was a fruit that combined the best of Campania tomatoes. “Our supertomato is a natural blend that has fused two genetic heritages to obtain a new variety with high, health-giving properties,” he said. In recognition of its healthy qualities, Campania regional authorities have also backed a commercial deal with local pizza makers.
The aim is to encourage local pizzaioli to use the Maxantia on their pizzas as a healthier alternative to regular tomatoes. In addition to its innately healthy properties, the supertomato also boasts another key advantage over other fruit and vegetables, in that it loses just 20% of its anti-oxidant properties when cooked.
Discussing the dangers of prostate cancer and the launch of the weeklong campaign, Dimitri warned it was the commonest tumour among men in Italy, with 37,000 new cases each year, causing 9,000 deaths annually.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Banks: Santander Considering Takeover of RBS Branches in UK
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 9 — Spanish banking group Santander is seriously considering buying 320 branch offices in Great Britain being sold by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The Spanish group, which already has a well-rooted presence in Great Britain, has prepared a 4-billion pound offer (about 4.4 billion euro), which according to analysts will make a takeover bid by other competitors unlikely, although other companies such as Virgin Money, NAP (National Australian Bank) and BBVA (Bank of Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) have not ruled out the possibility of relaunching their own takeover bids. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Airports: Linate, Malpensa and Orio Join Forces for Expo 2015
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, MARCH 10 — The companies running Malpensa and Linate (SEA) and Orio Al Serio (SACBO) will join forces for an industrial cooperation between the airports of Milan and Bergamo in view of Expo 2015, but also in the longer term, with all parties looking ahead to “a project that in time could include other airports in a broader territory”. It is with these objectives, a statement says, that a cooperation agreement was signed today between SEA, the owners of both Milanese airports, and SACBO, in which SEA has a 30% stake. As part of the agreement, special labour and steering groups will be set up, with equal input from both companies, creating economies of scale through the joint running of operational procedures in individual airports. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Chief Exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth Says Devil is in the Vatican
Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, according to the Holy See’s chief exorcist.
Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican’s chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon”.
He added: “When one speaks of ‘the smoke of Satan’ [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true — including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia.”
He claimed that another example of satanic behaviour was the Vatican “cover-up” over the deaths in 1998 of Alois Estermann, the then commander of the Swiss Guard, his wife and Corporal Cedric Tornay, a Swiss Guard, who were all found shot dead. “They covered up everything immediately,” he said. “Here one sees the rot”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalan Gov’t Harshly Criticised About Response to Weather
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 10 — The Catalan government has been subjected to harsh criticism after the collapse caused by the unusual amount of snowfall which hit Catalonia on Monday. All newspapers today dedicated articles and editorials to the chaotic situation reigning in the region due to the non-prediction of it and the delays in intervention by the Generalitat government, and more snow has fallen over the past few hours on the La Jonquera border with France, causing the closing of the National Highway 2. At least 66,000 households in the Gerona province spent the night without electricity due to the interruption in supply by Endesa due to damage to facilities from the snowfall. Generalitat government sources have said that the service would be entirely restored by the end of day. In the early morning hours, there were still kilometres-long line-ups on the provincial AP-7 road for access to Barcelona, which has been re-opened for traffic but with serious problems caused as concerns circulation due to the snowfall, according to Highway Police reports. The closing of the National Highway 2, with a connection to France, has led to further line-ups of articulated lorries at the border, where lorries are detoured in the direction of Montmel and Tarraga. On the Catalan road network, 78 stretches of provincial and municipal roads are closed to traffic, 56 of which in the Barcelona province. Generalitat sources have informed that railway transport has been normalised, but the Barcelona-France connection is still suspended, while the Barcelona-Portnou line is operative only to Figueres. Two days after the heavy snowfall, 57 schools in the Girona province are still closed, affecting about 25,000 students. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Vilks ‘Not Shaking With Fear’ Over Murder Plot
Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks said he was undaunted by revelations of a plot on his life after seven people were arrested in Ireland on Tuesday.
“I’m not shaking with fear, exactly,” Lars Vilks told Swedish news agency TT.
“I have prepared in different ways and I have an axe here in case someone should manage to get in through the window,” added Vilks, who since the publication of his drawing of the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog three years ago has had a $100,000 bounty on his head from an Al-Qaeda-linked group.
His comments followed news that four men and three women, all Muslims originally from Morocco and Yemen, had been arrested in southern Ireland over an alleged plot to assassinate him.
Vilks said he had received threatening phone calls from Somalia at the beginning of the year and that the Swedish security police, Säpo, had since warned him there was a heightened threat level against him.
“But I didn’t think it was that serious,” he told TT.
Säpo spokesman Mattias Lindholm told AFP that the agency was informed about the international operation leading up to Tuesday’s arrests.
“We have cooperated … Right now we are in continuous touch with the authorities involved, including our Irish counterparts,” he said.
Lindholm refused to comment on the threats against Vilks or on Säpo’s actions to protect him.
Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a cartoon on August 18, 2007 depicting the Prophet Mohammed 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.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Top Flight Club Bans Foreign Language Use
Swedish top flight football club, Brommapojkarna (BP) have introduced a language policy requiring all players to speak Swedish to each other in order to be eligible for selection.
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“This is a non-issue,” BP chairperson Ola Danhard told The Local on Wednesday.
As almost all of BP’s players are home grown talent — with 17 of the 23 first team players from its youth set up — Danhard argued that a language policy was little more than a formality.
But Danhard did confirm that the club’s board had voted to establish a policy for the exclusive use of Swedish within the club, both in its changing rooms and on the pitch.
“It is important for the collective that everyone in the team speaks the same language,” he said.
Danhard told The Local that BP has a very successful youth set-up, drawing on talent from the greater Stockholm catchment area. He pointed out that while many of the players are from immigrant families and are multilingual, all can speak Swedish.
“In the changing room if you are going to use a language then it is much nicer if it is a language that everybody understands,” Danhard said.
Danhard told The Local that they have been working with the issue for some ten years and there have been no negative reactions to date.
“Like I said, this is a non-issue. We should all speak Swedish within the club,” Ola Danhard said.
Brommapojkerna are widely recognised to have Sweden’s best youth set up, which is the largest in Europe in terms of the number of active teams of all ages (250). The club’s most famous recent prodigy was Albin Ekdal, who joined Juventus in 2008.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Chief Aims to Save Boys From Life of Crime
Stockholm county police chief Carin Götblad has recommended the creation of special municipal task forces to coordinate efforts from police, schools and social services to steer Sweden’s youth away from criminality.
“I suggest that the key actors — social services, schools and the police — are given a legal responsibility to support the parents of young people,” Götblad, who is leading a state inquiry into the matter, wrote in an article in Dagens Nyheter on Wednesday.
The Stockholm police chief has been tasked with developing ways to identify young people in the risk zone and to propose strategies to prevent their recruitment into criminal networks.
There are around 5,000 young people in Sweden who are considered to constitute the recruitment pool for criminal groups, Götblad said. The group is primarily made up of boys living in deprived residential areas in the major cities.
“We have a lot of knowledge about the backgrounds and risk factors around young people who develop a criminal lifestyle. It primarily concerns boys and young men living marginalized in the most deprived areas,” Götblad wrote.
Resources should be focused on these groups, for the sake of the boys, but also “for a safer society,” the police chief urged.
Götblad has also suggested the creation of Projekt Pojke (Project Boy) to address social problems, psychological ill health and stereotyped gender roles among young men and boys.
“These boys are particularly vulnerable. Schools are not formed according to their needs and there is today almost no labour market for young, uneducated men,” she said.
Projekt Pojke would offer work experience and free-time activities and work to change values and attitudes that encourage criminal activity, the police chief said, adding that companies and the business community should be encouraged to become involved.
Karin Götblad proposed that the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) should be tasked with, in collaboration with other bodies, produce a manual for developing a systematic method for identifying exposed groups and for leading individuals away from a life of crime.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK Churches Oppose Mosque Plan
CAIRO — Churches and locals in Camberley town, South East England, are opposing a planned mosque, describing its minarets as supremacist statement for Islam.
“I think it fair to say that a mosque with two 100ft minarets and a large elevated dome is making not so much a spiritual, as a powerful cultural, or even political statement,” Rev Mark Chester, chairman of Churches Together coalition, told the Times Wednesday, March 10.
The coalition, which represents Camberley churches, firmly opposes the planned mosque’s design and site.
It threatened that the mosque plan would spark “antagonism between the Muslim community and the wider community in Camberley for years to come.”
The mosque, proposed by the Bengali Welfare Association, would be located near the Royal Military Academy.
The location was the site of a former Victorian school used by local Muslims as a mosque over the past 14 years.
Still, Rev Bob Peck of St Martin’s Church claims the mosque plan is not innocent.
“They seem to have a political agenda and they want to make a big statement,” he told the Times.
“It’s a supremacist statement.”
Britain has a sizable Muslim minority of more than two millions, mostly of Asian backgrounds.
Security Threat
Tim Cross, a retired Major-General, describes the mosque as “a significant security threat.”
He claims the minarets could be used to attack senior members of the royal family and important military figures who visit the Royal Military Academy every year.
“Visitors self-evidently provide significant potential targets being openly on display around the college building and elsewhere,” he told the Times.
The mosque planning application will be decided by Surrey Heath Borough Council at a meeting Wednesday.
But the fierce opposition is already shocking to local Muslims.
Abdul Wasay Chowdhury, a spokesman for the Bengali Welfare Association, dismissed security concerns as ungrounded.
He asserted that access within the minarets would not go beyond the height of a house as they would be filled in with concrete.
The Ministry of Defence, which initially had security concerns about the minaret, has reserved its position after these clarifications.
“Plans were revised so that access to the towers would be restricted to essential maintenance work,” it said in a statement.
The Muslim community leader also dismissed allegations that the mosque was a political statement.
“We do not know anything about politics,” Chowdhury told the Times.
“We are simple people who want to do according to our faith.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Leeds Gang Jailed for Hot Iron Torture of Teenager
Four Leeds men who used a hot iron and boiling water to torture a boy over a “drug debt” have been jailed.
The gang demanded a £20,000 ransom after abducting the 16-year-old on 30 April 2009, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Shaheed Rahman, 24, was sentenced to 12 years and nine months and Syed Ahmed, 24, got 12 years, after both admitted conspiracy to kidnap and blackmail.
Shuel Hussain, 28, got 10 years and Abdul Rajaque, 29, five years and three months after admitting blackmail.
A fifth man, 25-year-old Hassan Ahmed, will be sentenced at a later date after also pleading guilty to blackmail.
Det Supt Bill Shackleton, from West Yorkshire Police’s homicide and major inquiry team, said: “This was a deeply traumatic experience for the young man who was taken hostage, and also for those members of his family who were obliged to deal with the demands made by the kidnappers.
“The fact that a 16-year-old young man was needlessly tortured with a hot steam iron and by having red hot water poured onto his skin made this offence all the more despicable.”
The court heard the victim was bundled into a Transit van by a group of men as he walked home from a takeaway restaurant in the Harehills area of Leeds.
Victim handcuffed
He was then taken to an address, in the Belle Isle area of the city, where he was handcuffed and had a pillowcase and a carrier bag placed over his head.
He was then burned on his legs with an iron and scalded with boiling water over a five-hour period.
During this time his brother was repeatedly contacted by the kidnappers who demanded a £20,000 ransom as payment of the “drugs debt”.
The men threatened to cut off the victim’s fingers unless it was paid.
The court heard police went to the house in Belle Isle after a neighbour reported hearing “shouts and screams”.
The victim was treated at Leeds General Infirmary for his injuries and a statement written by his doctor reported that he has suffered depression and anxiety since the incident.
| — Hat tip: G | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Primary Schoolchildren in Tears After They Are Told They Will be Removed From Families as Part of Holocaust ‘Game’
Pupils became hysterical after a number of them were separated and told they were being sent away or might end up in an orphanage.
The terrifying ordeal was meant to give the students at the Lanarkshire school an insight into the horrors faced by Jewish children during the Second World War, when they were plucked from home and sent to Nazi death camps.
But the ill-conceived exercise, which was sprung without warning on the children at St Hilary’s Primary School in East Kilbride last Thursday morning, went badly wrong with many pupils, aged just 11, reduced to tears.
Deputy head teacher Elizabeth McGlynn was responsible for segregating the pupils and telling them they were to be sent away.
One angry parent, who has lodged an official complaint about the project, told how the ‘barbaric’ role play left children crying their eyes out in class.
In a letter sent to council bosses, the unnamed mother said: ‘Mrs McGlynn told the children they would probably have to be sent away from their families and that their parents had been informed about this and knew all about it.
‘When one child asked if that meant they might have to go to an orphanage, they were told that might be a possibility.
‘At that point many of the children became very distressed.
‘One boy kicked his chair over, one was angry and demanded to speak to someone in charge but most were crying on a scale ranging from mildly to severely.
‘Their ordeal lasted between 12 and 15 minutes before the children were informed that it was all an act but that the role play would continue until lunchtime.’
One girl said her classmates began crying when Mrs McGlynn told them she had a letter from the Scottish Executive saying nine children had to be separated from their classmates.
She told the shocked youngsters those who were born in January, February and March had lower IQs than other children, ‘due to lack of sunlight in their mother’s womb’, and that they had to put yellow hats on and be sent to the library.
The mother added: ‘When I asked why on earth they thought it was appropriate to deliver a role play situation to the children in this way, Mrs Stewart informed me that they didn’t inform the children beforehand.
‘This was because they wanted the children to experience an “accurate emotional response” to this scenario in order for it to be reflected in their story writing.
‘Mrs Stewart then invited me to come up to the school and see the excellent work that had been produced as a result of the exercise.
‘I declined and my position and opinion on the method used to extract emotive story writing from the children was cruel, barbaric, traumatic and totally, totally unethical.
‘My daughter and indeed no child needs to feel the terror, fear, panic, segregation and horror that a child of the Holocaust experienced during one of the worst atrocities in history to be able to empathise with them in order to produce good story writing.’
A South Lanarkshire council spokeswoman, who confirmed that a role play activity took place, said: ‘The council can confirm that a parent handed in a letter to Education Resources on Monday, March 8, 2010, and this will be responded to shortly.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Posting Flyers is Anti-Social Behavior Says Government
We’ll start today’s lead story off with some Irony. A flyer nationally distributed to homes in the UK entitled “Tackling Anti-Social Behavior” lists posting flyers as possible anti-social behavior. The evil act is ranked next to vandalism, graffiti and intimating groups.
If you should see somebody with a green florescent bag putting leaflets in doors, please don’t panic. Stand up to the criminals and call your local police force. If it’s serious (maybe the leaflet might be political?!) Don’t hesitate to dial 999, or if you wish to remain anonymous you can always go to the crime-stoppers website. Maybe Crime Watch will show a photo fit image of the deviant delivery boy on their monthly broadcast.
This fear-mongering and deceptive government flyer has a section entitled “Your Rights”. Well unless you’ve forgotten, your rights state that you have free speech! It is perfectly within the law to post leaflets and flyers in to home letterboxes as long as they don’t have a message on the door stating otherwise. The very fact that the government pushes this nonsense in a flyer, suggests that the government are above the people and only they have the right to distribute ideas, political material and advertising to the public.
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UK: They Can’t Read, Can’t Write and Think the World Owes Them a Living: Tesco Director’s Damning Verdict on Britain’s School-Leavers
Growing numbers of British school-leavers have ‘attitude problems’ and believe the world ‘owes them a living’, a Tesco boss warned today.
Youngsters too often turn up late for work and interviews and fail to see the importance of dressing neatly and working with others, said Lucy Neville-Rolfe, director of corporate and legal affairs.
Many also struggle with basic maths and English as exams become easier and schools fail to properly enforce discipline.
In a hard-hitting speech, Mrs Neville-Rolfe, 56, one of the most powerful and well-paid women in British business, blamed failures in our education system.
She said shortcomings among school-leavers were ‘perhaps not a surprise’ because of ‘well-publicised problems in some schools’ including 380,000 suspensions a year, and nearly a quarter of a million persistent truants.
‘If children aren’t learning the importance of discipline at school — or, dare I say it, in the family — how can we expect them magically to have learned it by the time they turn up looking for work?’ she said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Speed Camera Trap on the M6 That’s Racing Towards Record £3m Haul in Fines
For such an innocuous stretch of motorway, it is fast gaining a fearsome reputation.
In little more than five weeks, this three-mile length of road cutting through the scenic borderlands of North-West England has smashed the British record for speed camera victims.
An astonishing 5,569 motorists have been caught breaking the 50mph speed limit by the fixed cameras at roadworks at a junction of the M6 near Carlisle.
With each motorist set to receive a minimum fixed penalty fine of £60, the cameras have already raked in more than £334,000.
And with three weeks of work to go, they are set to bring in fines of more than £500,000 in just two months — the equivalent of £3million a year.
Angry motoring groups say the huge number of victims is proof that speed cameras — which earn more than £100million in fines a year — are being used as a ‘cash cow’ by the Government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US ‘Jihad Jane’ Linked to Plot to Kill Swedish Cartoonist
An American woman known as “Jihad Jane” was charged by US authorities on Tuesday with conspiring to kill Swedish Muhammad cartoonist Lars Vilks, government sources told CNN.
The woman, named as Colleen LaRose was arrested in Philadelphia on October 15th 2009, but he involvement was confirmed by US authorities only hours after Irish police arrested seven people accused of plotting to kill the Swedish artist, who courted controversy in 2007 for for drawing cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad as a dog.
In her indictment released by the US Justice Department on Tuesday it is shown that LaRose faces charges of “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.”
Over the course of at least a year, she is alleged to have used the internet to recruit men in South Asia, Europe and the United States for terror attacks.
She is also accused of recruiting women “who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad,” and of having stolen a US passport “and transferred or attempted to transfer it in an effort to facilitate an act of international terrorism.”
The indictment alleges LaRose received two messages in March 2009 from an individual in a South Asian country instructing her to kill an unnamed Swedish resident. A US government official confirmed to CNN that the target was Vilks and the charges relate to Tuesday’s arrests in Ireland.
“Kill him… this is what i say to u,” the indictment quotes one message as saying. “Kill (the individual) in a way that the whole Kufar [non-believer] world get frightened,” the second said.
“I will make this my goal till I achieve it or die trying,” LaRose allegedly responded.
An Al-Qaeda-linked group has placed a $100,000 bounty on Lals Vilks’ head in response to a cartoon he drew depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.
The indictment alleges that LaRose — born in 1963 — last March “sent an electronic communication to the Swedish embassy asking for instructions on acquiring permanent residency status in Sweden.”
She is also said to have “traveled to Europe with the intent to live and train with jihadists” in August 2009.
In September 2009, LaRose allegedly sent a message reiterating her commitment to kill, adding “only death will stop me here that i am so close to the target.”
LaRose, also identified by the monikers “Fatima LaRose” and “JihadJane,” faces life in prison if convicted.
A MySpace page under the name “JihadJane” features a biography of a Pennsylvania woman who describes herself as having “reverted to Islam.”
“I live in Pennsylvania, originally from Texas. I have recently (a couple months) reverted to Islam and I can safely say that of all the things I have ever done in my lifetime, bcomming Muslim is what i am the proudest of.”
Elsewhere, the user lists her heros as “Skeikh OBL,” an apparent reference to Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and “The brothers in… Jihad.”
The indictment and material released by SITE, a US group that monitors extremists, suggest LaRose had an active online presence, despite being repeatedly banned from websites including YouTube and harbouring fears she was under surveillance.
SITE released a message purportedly posted by LaRose on an English-language jihadist forum that directly addressed those she thought were monitoring her.
“We are and have been aware of you and your infiltration in here and in other forums… i hope you enjoy the videos and pictures of your comrades being blown to hell by the brothers well placed IED’s and the brothers sharp shooters blowing off the heads and other limbs of your comrades.”
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,” said US Justice Department attorney Michael Levy in a statement.
In communications detailed in the indictment, LaRose is alleged to have said her appearance would allow her to “blend in with many people,” adding it “may be a way to achieve what is in my heart.”
Profile pictures on the “JihadJane” MySpace page include one showing a fair-skinned woman with blue eyes, her hair covered by a headscarf.
David Kris, assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s National Security Division, hailed the indictment and said the government would remain vigilant.
“Today’s indictment, which alleges that a woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face,” he said.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Web Censorship Up Says Google
Milan ruling ‘dangerous’ says comminications chief
(by Denis Greenan).
(ANSA) — Geneva, March 9 — Web censorship is not confined to repressive regimes, Google’s communications director said Tuesday in the wake of last month’s conviction in Italy of three of its executives for violating privacy laws.
“Internet censorship is getting worse and more sophisticated,” Robert Boorstin told an international conference in Geneva.
“More than 40 countries have resorted to censorship at one time or another and Google has been interrupted in 25 countries,” he told the second annual Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy, sponsored by non-governmental organisations like UN Watch and Freedom House.
Boorstin stressed he did not “want to compare repressive regimes like Burma with Western democracies”. But he declared that the February 24 Milan verdict amounted to censorship.
In the sentence, which has been widely decried by advocates of Web freedom, a judge ruled that Google failed to protect the privacy of an autistic teenager who appeared in a 2006 video posted by school bullies.
“The content of the video is absolutely inexcusable and Google removed it as soon as it was alerted to its presence,” Boorstin reiterated.
The ruling, which Google is appealing, constitutes “a danger” to Web freedom because it appears to establish the principle that preventive control is needed, Boorstin told the forum.
Every minute, the Google communications chief pointed out, some 20 hours of videos are uploaded onto YouTube.
The year-long trial in Milan was the first judicial proceeding anywhere against executives of the Internet search engine company.
It was seen as having implications for the way Google operates in Italy and for the wider debate over freedom of speech and legal responsibility for Internet postings.
Prosecutors hailed Judge Oscar Magi’s ruling as “recognising that privacy rights trump business logic” while Google called it “an attack on the fundamental principles of freedom on which the Internet was built”.
Former Google Italy president David Carl Drummond, now senior vice president, was given a six-month suspended jail term along with George De Los Reyes, a retired former Google Italy board member, and Peter Fleitcher, Google Europe’s privacy strategy chief.
The three, for whom prosecutors had asked a year’s term, were found guilty of invasion of privacy but not of defamation.
Arvind Desikan, head of the Google Video for Europe project, was acquitted because he only faced the defamation charge.
The convicted are entitled to two automatic appeals.
The defendants denied negligence, saying they could not have prevented the incident and stressing that the company took prompt action to identify the four bullies, who were expelled from their Turin high school as a result.
After the ruling, the United States ambassador to Italy, David Thorne, said “online abuses must not be an excuse to violate the right to a free internet”.
VERDICT CRITICISED IN ITALY TOO.
Magi’s ruling was widely criticised in Italy too.
Popular Web activist Beppe Grillo said it was tantamount to punishing the owner of a building on which offensive slogans have been painted or prosecuting a phone company when users violate privacy norms.
Instead of being found guilty, the Google execs should have been lauded for exposing bullying, said Grillo, 61, a comic and political activist who came seventh in Forbes’ list of Web personalities in 2009.
Italian politicians of all stripes said the ruling could threaten the development of the Web.
The Italian section of Reporters Without Borders (RWB) voiced the same concern, calling Magi’s ruling “a grave precedent, all the more so because it was taken in a democratic country”.
“If the judges meant to start a debate on Internet privacy they picked the wrong case,” RWB said in a statement.
“This sentence, unfortunately, establishes the de facto need for prior control of the publication of videos”.
“It is a serious blow to freedom of expression”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders: Fitna 2 Not Ready Before Elections
Geert Wilders’ follow-up to his anti-Qur’an film Fitna will not appear before the general election.
The Freedom Party (PVV) leader announced last year that he was planning a second film. He was hoping to release it in the run-up to the next parliamentary elections, but the collapse of the coalition government has brought them forward by a year.
Mr Wilders has been busy making preparations for the film but nothing has actually been produced so far. “Fitna 2 will be spectacular,” he says, “but it certainly won’t be finished before the elections”.
A documentary film about Geert Wilders is due to be released soon in the United States. And he is writing a book, but that won’t appear before the elections either.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Increase in Asylum Seekers Causes Concern
Belgrade/Skopje, 9 March (AKI) — Some members of the European Union are concerned about a sharp increase in the number of political asylum seekers from the Balkans, since visas were abolished last December, local media reported on Tuesday.
Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme flew to Skopje on Monday to discuss the issue with Macedonian leaders, and Serbian prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic was urgently called to Brussels last Friday.
The EU abolished visas for citizens of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro in December, and a drastic jump of asylum seekers was reported in the subsequent months by Belgium and Sweden, prompting speculation that visas may be restored.
“It’s by no means serious, but the problem exists and we are urgently working to resolve it,” Milivoje Mihajlovic, Serbian government media spokesman told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Mihajlovic said it was in the interests of all involved that these “malpractices be stopped”.
He said the first contingent of “false asylum seekers” could be repatriated from Belgium as early as Wednesday.
Belgian ambassador to Belgrade Denise de Hauer said that 330 citizens from southern Serbia, mostly ethnic Albanians and Roma, applied for asylum in Belgium, in February compared to 58 in January.
In the first days of March, there were 20 applications daily, which caused great problem for Belgian authorities, she said. “There are no conditions for political asylum, because no one in Serbia is persecuted on ethnic or religious grounds and there is no war in the country,” De Hauer said.
Swedish ambassador Krister Bringeus told Belgrade television that his country had received 580 requests for asylum in 2009 and 300 only in February this year.
Serbian police minister Ivica Dacic denied there was widespread abuse. But warned if there was proof, those responsible would be punished.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Enel in Competition for Coal-Fired Plant
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 9 — Only Public Power, made up of Enel and Greek company Sencap, are still in the competition to build a 1,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Kosovo. In fact the Czech energy company Cez, along with its American partner AES, has withdrawn from the competition, explaining that delays to the competition and changes to the parameters of the project were the reason for the withdrawal. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Montenegro: European Council Denounces Police Mistreatment
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, MARCH 9 — Whoever is arrested by the police in Montenegro runs the serious risk of being subjected to mistreatment that, sometimes, is so serious that it can be considered torture. This is shown by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) by the European Council in a report made public today, regarding the visit conducted in Montenegro at the end of 2008. The report makes clear that the CPT delegation found non-lawful objects such as baseball bats in the interrogation rooms. In addition, the report underlines how some persons interviewed attributed their not being mistreated to the fact that they confessed the crime of which they were committed, immediately. Despite the high number of cases of mistreatment, the CPT shows that the Montenegro authorities are not carrying out any effective inquiries into the reported cases. The Committee furthermore denounced the state of degrade of the cells in the police offices, and has invited the authorities to put an immediate end to this state of things. In their report, the CPT ended by denouncing the state of absolute degradation of the Komanski Most Institute, for persons with so-called “special needs”. In this structure, which houses persons from 3 to 76 years of age (some of whom have been here since 1976, the year the Institute opened), the delegation found dormitories that were foul-smelling andinfested by rats, unusable bathrooms, and patients that were dirty and covered with flies. The CPT, underlining that keeping patients in such a state is equivalent to subjecting them to mistreatment, invited the Montenegro authorities to resolve the situation immediately. The government of Montenegro has already sent the CPT numerous letters in which it claims to have taken the necessary measures to correct the situations denounced by the Committee in its report.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbians Interested in Greece and Spain
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 9 — Serbian tourists interested in spending summer in Greece and Spain, reports VIP Daily News Report. Greece would have the largest demand for summer vacation this year also, and Spain would be on the second place, after the visa abolishment that increased interest in this country. According to the survey of National Association of Tourist Agencies (YUTA), one half of citizens would spend their summer in Greece, while 18% decided to go to Spain, and the third place went to Turkey.(ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Snow and Strong Wind Cut Croatia
Snow in Lika and Gorski kotar mountainous regions and in the eastern, central and north-western parts of Croatia and strong wind have almost cut southern and northern Croatia off from each other.
Since early this morning (Weds), drivers have been warned not to start journeys without winter equipment or, if possible, to postpone them.
There is very strong wind along the coast.
In central Croatia in the Lika and Gorski kotar areas, up to 40 centimetres of snow have fallen since last night.
Passenger traffic has been difficult on many roads, and some have been closed.
Ferry traffic from the mainland to Pag, Rab, Cresa and Brac Islands has been suspended, and many catamarans are not operating because of strong wind.
Buses on the Zagreb-Split route have been delayed.
In Zagreb alone, 73 traffic accidents occurred today.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Libya: Programme to Start by 2011, But Dialogue Fragile
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 9 — The first national program for cooperation between the EU and Libya, in the realm of the European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), is to last three years. The European commission has approved the allontment of 60 million euros in funds, in sight of a collaboration agreement between Brussels and Tripoli, which has not yet been reached. The document approved by the European Commission explains that the EU has “a strong political interest in furnishing assistance, particularly in the areas where common action is required, especially in immigration and energy security”. In fact, however, the political dialogue with Libya “is very new and remains fragile. It is necessary to strengthen our mutual knowledge and reciprocal trust before undertaking an ambitious programme of cooperation”. In the meantime the EU marks the following as “clear and urgent” priorities: improving the quality of education and health services, increasing the sustainability of economic and social development, and shared handling of immigration. Until today, on this last front Libya has still not accepted the EU’s proposal, requesting financial assistance superior to that approved by the national program. Once a political agreement is reached, according to the EU, it will be possible to launch a joint initiative on specific objectives: strengthening the fight against illegal immigration through Libya and the capacity of the forces in charge of controlling the borders; improving the situation of institutions and of the rules for the handling of immigrants and persons who need international protection, and improving the capacity of the Libyan authorities involved in the handling of immigration. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Morocco: After Summit Focus on Common Market
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 9 — Full steam ahead towards a common economic space: this is the hotline of the road map drawn up by the EU and Morocco at their first bilateral summit in Granada, after the Lisbon Treaty came into effect. Brussels and Rabat are planning to further strengthen their ties, on the economic and social front, in line with the path of the “advanced statute” of bilateral relations granted in October 2008 and of the European neighbourhood policy. The summit was useful for this, to repeat a common commitment on a formal level, as they await the unblocking of talks over key agreements on commerce. The intention is to increase efforts in the direction of an “in-depth” free trade agreement, which will contribute towards a gradual integration of the markets, intensifying for example negotiations on the liberalisation of services, such as the development of transport and energy networks. The EU and Morocco have also committed to moving forward their negotiations on agricultural produce and fishing “in view of a signature and enforcement as soon as possible”. However it is this latter agreement which continues to encounter obstacles, in particular because of strong opposition from Spanish farmers. King Mohammed VI himself, in a letter read by Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi, noted the delay in launching the liberalisation of trade in this area, after an agreement reached last December. Despite problems with local farmers, it is the Government in Madrid which sees Morocco as a strategic partner and which is confirmed as the main sponsor of a strengthening in relations between the EU member states and Rabat. Spanish Premier José Zapatero made a heartfelt appeal at the meeting between Moroccan and European entrepreneurs which preceded the summit. “It is the Governments’ responsibility to ensure that the political and diplomatic climate encourages the development of closer relations. But it is you, the business community from the two shores of the Mediterranean, who must place a guiding role, by intensifying these relations” said Zapatero. He highlighted the progress made by the Arab country “in parallel with the neighbourhood policy of the European Union, which has made 654 million euros available to the Moroccan Government between 2007 and 2011, in support of the economic reforms undertaken”. The final speech of the summit by Morocco’s Prime Minister, Abbas El Fassi, echoed this appeal, calling for an assumption of responsibility by companies as trailblazers “in finding new paths of cooperation at this crucial time”. Meanwhile, as a background to commercial prospects, there remains a thorny issue between Brussels and Rabat: the issue of human rights, especially in the western Sahara. “We discussed the issue” said the permanent President of the EU, Herman Van Rompuy “which the European Union is following closely. The EU supports the efforts of the United Nations to arrive at a just and sustainable solution which is acceptable to both sides”. Rompuy also confirmed that Brussels “will continue to be active with regard to the humanitarian aspects of the conflict, and in this context would like to see progress in the situation of human rights and its defenders”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Civil Protection, Italy ‘Model’ In EU Programme
(ANSAmed) — ROME — A strategic geographical position and a “model of excellence”: this is what Italy can boast of in the field of civilian protection. The country is committed on the front lines of the European sphere, in strengthening the cooperation and prevention of disasters in Mediterranean and Balkan countries. One may even say that the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in this sector began with Italy, which launched in 1998, together with Egypt, in the ambit of the Barcelona Process (also known as the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership), the EU ‘Pilot’ program, to improve the institutional cooperation between EU countries and partner countries. Among the promoters of the project is Agostino Miozzo, general director of the Volunteer office for international and institutional relations of the Italian civil protection. “It has been the most responsive program of the Barcelona Process”, Miozzo stated, despite difficult political contention marked by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “but we have not given up; we have held out”. And so Italy has continued to play a primary role in the second EU program, ‘Bridge’, lead by France until 2008, and now finds itself at the head of the Euromed Program for prevention, preparation and response to natural and man-made disasters (Pprd South). The program, financed by the EU with five million euros, is run by Italy in tandem with the Civil Protection of Egypt, France and Algeria together with Unsdr, the United Nations agency for the reducing the risk of disasters. “Our priority this time is prevention”, said Miozzo, who today opened a four day workshop in Rome on ‘Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for Civil Protection’ with experts from 14 partner countries (Egypt, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzogovinia, Crotia, Montenegro, Turkey, Israel, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories). The GIS is modelled after the online system set up and currently used by the Italian Civil Protection, which contains the data bases of all the bodies involved and which permits one to create a map of “at risk” zones. “We, the countries of the Mediterranean, are all confronted with the same problems”, Miozzo explained. “Every week there is some disaster: earthquakes, such as the one yesterday in Turkey, landslides, flooding, without mentioning summer forest fires, a field where cooperation is already working very well”. It is fundamental to prepare those populations that are most exposed, to react in case of a calamity. “It is necessary to create a link between information and territory”, Miozzo insisted, “to transform ultratechnological information into clear and simple messages to the population”. “There is nothing secret about civil protection; we must accept to share our information, because our primary objective,” Miozzo underlined, “is the security of the citizens of the partner countries, but also that of so many Italians who take vacations in the Mediterranean area”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Mothers, Wives of ‘Disappeared’ Not Giving Up
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 8 — The mothers, wives and sisters of the thousands in Algeria who disappeared after being taken away by Islamic-based armed groups or the security forces in the 1990s, in the dark decade of terrorism, refuse to give up. This is why they have gathered today in Algiers in front of the Justice Ministry, on the initiative of the association SOS Disparus, “once more, to lay claim to their right to justice and the truth” about what has happened to their family members. “Women are the first victims of forced disappearances. They are in a situation of severe economic and psychological vulnerability,” reads the statement released by the association gathering together the families of the 8,000 who disappeared, “taken away by security forces”. “To the pain of missing their loved ones is added that of not even being able to go through a period of mourning,” and these women “wait and live in the hope of seeing those they love again.” According to the association of the families of victims of terrorism and the CFDA (Collective of Families of Disappeared Algerians), there are between 10,000 and 15,000 people who have disappeared in Algeria, taken away by Islamic-based armed groups and security forces, while official figures instead put the number at about 8,000. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s Top Muslim Cleric Dies of Heart Attack
Egyptian religious leader Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the grand sheikh of al-Azhar, has died of a heart attack during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.
Tantawi, 81, was in Riyadh to attend the King Faisal awards ceremony, it said. Tantawi’s moderate views has rankled hard-liners.
The news of his death was “an indescribable shock,” his son Amr Tantawi told Egyptian television.
“The family has decided that since God chose for him to die on Saudi land, he will be buried in al-Baqie” cemetery in Islam’s second holy city of Medina, his son added.
Tantawi was apponted as the Grand Imam of al-Azhar since 1996. Al-Azhar, one of the most prominent seats of Sunni Islamic learning in the Muslim world, has schools, universities and other educational institutions across Egypt.
Abdullah el-Naggar, advisor to the sheikh, told Egypt’s Nile News television the death was a surprise, saying that before leaving to Saudi Arabia the sheikh had seemed in “excellent shape and health.”
A member of Tantawi’s office, Ashraf Hassan, told Reuters that Mohammed Wasel, Tantawi’s deputy, was expected to temporarily take over leading the institution until the Egyptian president appointed a new head for the body.
Most recently, Tantawi infuriated conservatives late last year by barring women from wearing the full face veil known as the ‘niqab’ at al-Azhar University. That step was part of the intensifying struggle between the moderate Islam championed by the state and a populace that is turning to a stricter version of the faith.
Al-Azhar receives most of its funding from the state.
When he was appointed, Tantawi was viewed as having relatively liberal views on issues such as women’s rights but had been criticized by some for toeing the government’s line.
In office, he opposed female circumcision as not an Islamic practice.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
France: Algiers Officially Protests Over Le Pen Poster
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 9 — Algeria has “officially” protested against the electoral poster of the French far-right party, Jean Marie Le Pen’s National Front party, in which the Algerian flag is used. Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci has stated as much on the fringes of the ceremony for Women’s Day organised by the President of the Republic. “When the symbols of foreign countries are brought to their knees,” said Medelci, quoted by APS, “the French State must take the necessary steps.” The poster on which the slogan “No to Islam” appears, depicts a woman with a burka and several minarets that cover the French territory covered by the Algerian flag. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Ten Dead Due to Heavy Rains
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, MARCH 10 — Heavy rains, strong winds and landslides have killed around ten people in several Moroccan regions. Many people have been injured, others have been made homeless due to floods. The news was announced by press agency MAP, quoting sources in the Interior Ministry. In the central region of the country, seven people drowned when trying to cross a river in full flood. In the village of Kisba, eight people were injured when two clay houses collapsed. A man died when the cave in which he fled, near the city of Taza, collapsed, two others were drowned by the river water. The heavy rains that have hit the country for weeks have caused the collapse of bridges and hundreds of houses. Many hectares of land have been flooded and hundreds of families have been taken to temporary shelters. Two weeks ago the rains caused a minaret in Meknes to cave in. Forty-one people who were in the mosque for the Friday prayer lost their lives in the event. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Spanish Press, 27 Christians Arrested
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 10 — The Moroccan authorities arrested 27 Christians and expelled another 26 this weekend, with the EU-Moroccan summit taking place in Granada, El Pais reports today. Most of the people who were expelled are members of the Anglo-Saxon Evangelical Church. One of them is a Franciscan monk (the first Catholic who was expelled in 30 years). An African man arrested on Sunday in the protestant church of Marrakech is a Korean Evangelist. The Village of Hope orphanage in Ain Leuh had to be closed due to the decision taken by the country’s Interior Minister; 16 evangelists involved in the care for the 33 children living in the centre, which opened its doors around ten years ago, have been expelled as well. All expelled clerics are held responsible for trying to “destroy the faith of Muslims”, according to a statement issued by the Moroccan Interior Ministry, quoted by the press. The managers of the orphanage have been accused of “proselytism among minors on the pretext of charity”. “In Marrakech police forces have entered the temple to make arrests, this has never happened before” said pastor Jean-Lpuis Blanc, head of the protestant Church in Morocco. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain-Morocco: Moratinos, No Progress on Sahara Human Rights
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 10 — Spain will continue to hold a “firm” stance with Morocco for it to make progress in terms of human rights in the western Sahara, but also asked for a responsible attitude by the Polisario Front and Algeria, its ally. The statement was made by minister of Foreign Affairs Angel Moratinos, who appeared yesterday in the congress’s foreign commission for an update on the development of the conflict in western Sahara, which was a Spanish colony up to 1975. Moratinos guaranteed that good relations with Rabat will help to find a solution to the conflict. And, though acknowledging that “the position of the Saharawi is not equal to that of Morocco”, he claimed that “the strong and the weak must assume their responsibilities” to reach a solution. The head of Spain’s diplomatic services made a positive assessment of the fact that the UN mission in the area supervises human rights, even though he deemed that a “greater effort” is necessary, especially as regards Saharawi activists who are in jail. Finally, he also stated that he believed that new relations between the EU and Morocco can be the “best lever” for a definitive solution to the Saharawi conflict. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Biden: Israeli Settlements Undermining Peace Effort
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, MARCH 10 — Israeli settlements are undermining Palestinian willingness to enter new peace talks, according to US vice-President Joe Biden. Speaking in Ramallah, Biden again condemned Israel’s decision to build 1,600 new settlements in East Jerusalem. The vice-President, who yesterday publicly criticised Israel’s announcement of new construction plans, was speaking after a meeting with Mahmoud Abbas at the Palestinian National Authority’s headquarters in Ramallah. In his statement, Biden reiterated Washington’s full support for the future creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement with Israel based around the “two-state solution”. “It is the duty of both parties to build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them”, warned Biden, reasserting America’s stance that “yesterdays’s decision by the Israeli government to push through the building plans for new homes in East Jerusalem undermines the very trust that is needed right now in order to begin and see through talks that are profitable for both parties”. As far as the future is concerned, Obama’s deputy was clear in reaffirming US efforts towards “a Palestinian state which is governable and which will have territorial continuity”. “It must be clear to all that today there is no alternative to the two-state solution, which must be an integral part of any global peace plan”, Biden added. Mahmoud Abbas warned that talks could go ahead only if Israel complied with “efforts towards a peace process” and ceased “the realisation of activities that might threaten its outcome”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cast Lead: MPs Ask for Investigation Within 5 Months
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, MARCH 10 — Independent and impartial investigations into operation ‘Cast Lead’, which must meet international standards, to be started within five months was the request made by European Parliament to the Israelis and Palestinians in a resolution approved today in Strasbourg. The Euro-MPs confirmed how respecting international humanitarian law and human rights on both sides represents a precondition for the peace process. According to the Assembly in Strasbourg, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the EU and the member states should therefore work to achieve a common position and “publically ask for the application of recommendations contained in the Goldstone Report and for responsibilities to be assumed for all violations of international law, including alleged war crimes”, by calling for the Israelis and Palestinians to conduct independent investigations in compliance with international standards. The EU should also “actively monitor the application of the recommendations included in the Goldstone Report , consulting the EU missions and NGOs working in the field”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Going Backward? Understanding and Attempts to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
by Barry Rubin
Last September, President Barack Obama said before a large audience at the UN that within two months there would be intensive, direct, final status talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Sort of a Camp David III. Now, six months later we are back in the pre-1992 era of indirect talks.
Yet reporters still ask, and write, that this might be the prelude to some grand breakthrough and a comprehensive peace deal. When will they ever learn? Never, apparently.
Note that it is important for the two sides to meet but the reason is to deal with far more immediate tasks: coordination on economic and security issues particularly. I guess I’m going to have to go on for decades saying that there won’t be a comprehensive peace agreement for decades.
Before we start, though, one more point that is very important. When I say that the continuation of the conflict is mainly the fault of the Palestinian side, I’m not doing that to score political points. Who cares? The world will go on in precisely the same way whatever people think after reading articles.
You need to understand whose fault it is because it’s impossible to understand what’s going on without comprehending that reality. Nothing makes sense. After all, if Palestinians yearn for their own country and are suffering so horribly, why do they keep rejecting a peace agreement on the basis that they might—at worst—have to give up, say, five percent of the territory they claim?
But to return to the timeline, a simple reminder about one small point regarding Israel-Palestinian issues tell more than 100 op-eds. The Palestinian Authority (PA) will now probably engage in indirect talks with Israel and this will be hailed as a great step forward by Western media and governments, a triumph for the Obama Administration.
In fact, however, this sets the conflict back to around 1992, before direct talks began in Washington for the first time. And the PA must be dragged, kicking and screaming, into doing even that much.
Aren’t they in a hurry to get a state? No.
Here are four misunderstandings that block Western understanding of the issue:
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Joe Biden’s Snub to Netanyahu as He Arrives 90 Minutes Late for Dinner in Middle of Row With Israel Over West Bank Houses
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden snubbed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night by arriving 90 minutes late to a scheduled dinner.
Mr Biden’s late arrival was in response to Israel announcing 1,600 new homes will be built in disputed east Jerusalem during his visit to the region.
He sharply rebuked the Israeli step — which came just after the Palestinians agreed to a new round of indirect peace talks under U.S. mediation after a 14-month lapse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Carrefour to Expand Domestic Chain in Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 10 — A joint venture of the French retail major Carrefour and its partner in Turkey Sabanci Holding, eyes to expand retailing industry in the country in 2010, as Anatolia news agency reports today. Carrefoursa is planning to open 100 more supermarkets and two new hypermarkets that would total a 110 million TL (nearly $71.4 million) investment and start 1,000 more jobs, said Haluk Dincer, head of Sabanci Holding’s retailing group. Dincer said Carrefoursa opened last year four hypermarkets and 54 supermarkets, the largest launch ever in its history, despite the fallout from a global recession, serving to some 90 million customers. Carrefoursa has 26 hypermarkets and 160 supermarkets in Turkey and it employs around 7,800 people. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Former President ‘Barred’ From Foreign Travel
Tehran, 9 March(AKI) — Former reformist Iranian president Mohammad Khatami has been barred from leaving the country, semi-official Iranian news agency Fars reported Tuesday. According to Fars website, the executive secretary of Tehran’s Vo’az Community Hojjatoleslam Abbas Amirifar announced that an Iranian intelligence official had told community members that Khatami had been barred from leaving the country.
He quoted the intelligence official as saying that Khatami had recently intended to leave the country. But there has been no official announcement.
Khatami, who was Iran’s president from 1997 to 2005, supported opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in the country’s contested presidential election last year which provoked widespread protests and hundreds of arrests.
One report said a close Khatami ally had denied he was barred from foreign travel.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Isfahan: Protestant Clergyman Tortured for “Converting Muslims”
During a visit in prison, the pastor’s wife saw he had signs of torture. He could be executed. An anti-Protestant crackdown is underway in Isfahan. The regime’s fight against proselytising is coupled with fears that Christian gatherings might host its opponents.
Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A protestant clergyman, Wilson Issavi, has been jailed for “converting Muslims”. He has been tortured and threatened with execution. According to the Farsi Christian Network, Issavi’s wife, Medline Nazanin, recently visited her husband in prison. She said that he was in poor health and that he bore visible signs of torture.
Rev Issavi (pictured), 65, was arrested on 2 February in Isfahan shortly after he finished a house meeting. He heads the Evangelical Church of Kermanshah in Isfahan, a 50-year-old church body affiliated with The Assemblies of God that caters to the local Assyrian population.
Iranian intelligence officials told his wife that he might be executed for his alleged activities.
During the raid, State Security police detained everyone in the house, later releasing all but Issavi and the owner of the home.
According to Compass Direct News, a sweep against Protestant Christians is taking place across Isfahan. On 28 February, Isfahan residents Hamid Shafiee and his wife Reyhaneh Aghajary, both converts from Islam and house church leaders, were arrested at their home. Their fate and whereabouts are still unknown.
Rev Issawi has run into police before. On 2 January, police sealed his Kermanshah church and ordered him not to reopen it. In response, he continued his activities in house meetings.
Official controls and police bans appear to be motivated by suspicions that Christians are involved in proselytising but also by fear that their meeting might hide activities by opponents of the clerical regime.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: The Shiite Al-Maliki is Ahead, But the Secular Allawi is Also Going Strong
The outgoing premier dominates in Baghdad and the south; Allawi is 70-90% in the north and west. Turnout of 62%. Difficulties in forming a new government.
Baghdad (AsiaNews) — On the second day of counting ballots, the outgoing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seems to be the favorite and his supporters are already claiming victory. “We are confident of going to government,” said one of the leaders of the Alliance for the Rule of Law, Khaled al-Asadi. Commenting on the unofficial results that are circulating in different constituencies in the country the parliamentarian, who heads al-Maliki’s party, said he was confident of victory. He adds: “The Constitution provides that the most voted party has the task of forming a government and appointing the new prime minister and that is what we will do. >From the results we collected at a local level it is evident that the party Iyad Allawi (the former premier — see Photo — and leading of Iraqiya, a party thatgroups together Shiite and Sunni) is the second, but by a large margin”.
Pending the official results yesterday the turnout was announced: 62%, higher than the provincial elections in January 2009 (51%), but lower than the general election of December 2005, when the turnout hit 79.63 %.
Unofficial sources report al-Maliki’s camp to be leading in Baghdad and the Shiite majority southern: 9 of 18 provinces in all, while Allawi is said to have received more support in the (mainly Arab) provinces in the north and those of the west, where his party is said to have taken between 70 and 90% of the votes. Results from the three provinces that make up the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan are as of yet unknown, where the duopoly of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, president of the region, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, could be undermined by Goran, the new opposition movement that ran alone.
Maliki’s coalition does not rule out being able to go to the government without having to sign alliances with many other parties. But due to the fragmentation of Iraqi politics it seems rather unlikely that any single party will gain the needed seats (163) to form the executive. Beyond the result, therefore, the most realistic scenario is that of a coalition government.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan to be a Regional Nuclear Training Centre, Officials
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, MARCH 9 — Jordanian officials said today they are looking forward to making the kingdom a centre on nuclear training in the Middle East with the opening of a training centre in cooperation with France. Officials from Jordan Nuclear Commission said the centre would attract interest from many countries as it will group various technical and educational programmes related to nuclear engineering and safety. The centre will be built in collaboration with French and other international institutions, according to Chairman Khaled Toukan Jordan Nuclear Commission. The centre will develop curricula and encourage multinational projects to attract students and professionals from across the region, said Jordanian officials. Moreover, Jordan and France are also planning to set up a university in Jordan which would be modelled after the French Ecole Polytechnique or National Polytechnic Institute. The Jordan French Uranium Mining Company, a joint venture between French firm AREVA and Jordan Energy Resources Inc., intends to establish an open-pit uranium mine in the central region. Officials said that French technology has also been short-listed for the Kingdoms first nuclear reactor, expected to be a 1,000-megawatt Generation III reactor. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Man in Police Uniform Arrested for ‘Homosexuality’
JEDDAH: Police here confirmed on Tuesday a man was arrested in January for dressing up in a police uniform, engaging in “inappropriate acts” and posting the video online.
Police First Lt. Nawaf Al-Bouq told Arab News that the 27-year-old man had been previously charged “with a homosexual case but was bailed out.”
“This time he is facing three charges: One is for homosexuality; the other for general security; and the third is for impersonating a police officer,” said Al-Bouq.
The video depicts a young Saudi man dressed in a police uniform inside a vehicle flirting with the man holding the camera. He asks the cameraman for his driver’s license and offers “comfort.”
At one point, he waves around what appears to be a real handgun. Later in the approximately two-and-a-half-minute video on YouTube, he lifts up his shirt and rubs his chest. The video quickly spread online and through SMS until police detained both men involved in the act. Attempts have been made to block the video from being viewed in Saudi Arabia.
The case was made public because police wanted to clarify rumors that were spreading about the video.
“We were directed by higher authorities to give a statement to the press in order to clear things up to the public,” said Al-Bouq. “We always make sure that cases like this are not open to the public. I don’t think it’s appropriate or important for the citizens or the country. But after rumors were spread on the Internet we had to set things straight.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Awards Turkey’s PM for ‘Service to Islam’
Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz presented Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with one of the country’s most prestigious prizes on Tuesday for his ‘service to Islam’.
Erdogan earned the King Faisal International Prize for having “rendered outstanding service to Islam by defending the causes of the Islamic nation, particularly the Palestinian cause and the just rights of the Palestinian people,” said Abdullah al-Uthaimin of the prize-awarding group.
“At the international level, he was a leading Muslim founder of the call for rapport between civilization and a passionate advocate of constructive dialogue, openness, and principles of international understanding and cooperation.”
Seven academic researchers were also awarded King Faisal Prizes.
Algerian Abdurrahman Elhaj-Saleh and Lebanese Ramzi Baalbaki jointly earned the King Faisal Language and Literature prize for Arabic linguistic and grammatical research.
German Reinhold Ganz and Canadians Jean-Pierre Pelletier and Johanne Martel Pelletier shared the King Faisal Prize for Medicine for work on osteoarthritis.
U.S.-based mathematicians Enrico Bombieri and Terence Chi-Shen Tao split the King Faisal Science prize for their work in theoretical mathematics.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: EU Supports WFP Food Distribution to 200,000 People
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MAR 9 — The United Nations World food programme (Wfp) has started distributing emergency food assistance to almost 200,000 people in the rural northeast of Syria, where the drought of 2009 has severely affected small-scale farmers and herding families. According to the Enpi site (www.enpi-info.eu), thanks to donations from the European commission humanitarian aid department (Echo) as well as other organizations and countries, the Wfp will provide families with a two-month food ration that includes rice, bulgur, oil, wheat flour, chickpeas and salt. In addition, the Wfp will start distributing supplementary feeding rations to children under five, and to pregnant and nursing mothers in Al-Shadadi district of Al-Hasakeh, one of the worst-affected areas with the highest rate of migration and school closures. The Un food agency has so far received 8.2 million dollars out of the required 22 million dollars needed to provide food assistance to up to 300,000 people. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Illiterate Woman, 7-Yr Sentence for Pro-PKK Placard
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 10 — A 49-year-old Turkish woman, mother of six, has been sentenced to seven years in jail by a court in Diyarbakir (in the south-eastern, mostly Kurdish part of the country) for having raised a placard in support of the separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is outlawed in Turkey. Reports were in the pro-governmental daily Sabah, which underscored that, as fate would have it, the woman — whose name is Vesile Tadik — did not even know what was written on the placard since she is illiterate. The incident for which the woman was sentenced occurred three months ago, when the woman took part in a non-authorised protest in Siirt against the closing down of the Democratic Society Party (DTP); the main pro-Kurdish party in the country which was dissolved on December 11 on a decision by the Constitutional Court on charges of connivance with the PKK. The woman charged defended herself by saying that “during the protest I walked along with other women. I was given the placard and held it up as the other women with me were doing. But I know neither how to read nor how to write, and I don’t even know what was written on it.” However, her admitting to being illiterate had no effect on the judge’s decision to sentence her to seven years in prison for “propaganda for a terrorist organisation”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Bali Bomber’ Dulmatin Confirmed Dead in Indonesia Raid
DNA tests on the body of a man killed in Jakarta prove beyond doubt he is Dulmatin, the last main suspect of the Bali bombings, Indonesian police say.
Police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said bomb-making equipment had been found during the raid in the capital.
Dulmatin was suspected of planning the 2002 attacks which killed 202 people.
News of Dulmatin’s death had been announced earlier by Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, during talks in Australia.
About half of those killed in Bali were Australian, and officials there have praised Indonesia’s anti-terror operations.
Police had initially not determined whether the man they killed at an internet cafe in the capital on Tuesday was Dulmatin — there have been previous cases where bodies were incorrectly believed to be those of terror suspects.
But Mr Danuri said there was now no doubt.
“From photographic evidence and DNA, we can confirm that the body of the man we shot at the internet cafe matches 100% with Dulmatin’s,” he said.
“He had the capability to detonate bombs from a distance, and we thank God we have succeeded in catching and killing him because he was very dangerous here and to other countries.”
He said bomb-detonators had also been found in the raid and warned Indonesians to remain alert to signs of militant activity.
Most wanted
Dulmatin was alleged to be a leading member of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) — a militant group with links to al-Qaeda — which has a long history of launching attacks in Indonesia and is blamed for the Bali attack.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Myanmar — Bangladesh: Thousands of Rohingya Refugees Facing Starvation in Bangladesh
US charity sounds the alarm, claiming Bangladesh is blocking aid and medical treatment for refugees, who are locked up in open-air prisons. Rohingya are a Muslim minority from Myanmar and are persecuted by that country’s military dictatorship. Bangladeshi authorities dismiss accusations, saying, “We are the victims.”
Dhaka (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A US medical charity has warned that thousands of Burmese refugees in Bangladesh are facing starvation. Physicians for Human Rights said that government authorities in Bangladesh are preventing the Rohingya from receiving adequate care. The Rohingya are a Muslim minority who fled Myanmar to escape persecution. The government has dismissed these allegations as it did for similar reports by Doctors without Borders (MSF) last month.
The Rohingya are one of the many ethnic minorities that make up the Union of Myanmar. They live in Rakhine State, in the country’s north-west, and are among the poorest and most persecuted ethnic groups in the world. Myanmar’s military regime has denied them citizenship and refused to let them own land. It does not even allow them to travel or marry without first getting permission from the authorities.
Tens of thousands have fled, especially to predominantly Muslim Bangladesh and Malaysia. Bangladeshi authorities have granted refugee status to 28,000 Rohingya, who live in United Nations refugee camps in Kutupalong. However, government sources put the actual number at 200,000 or even 300,000.
The government in Dhaka is now cracking down to stop further mass exodus as neighbouring Myanmar prepares for elections later this year.
The report by the Physicians for Human Rights says that children will starve if aid is not delivered. It blamed local authorities for “arbitrary arrests, illegal expulsion and forced internment” of refugees.
“The government of Bangladesh is absolutely ignoring it [the refugee problem]. They are sweeping it under the rug,” said Richard Sollom, director of research and investigation for the group.
Dhaka has rejected the charges. Abdul Momen, Bangladesh’s representative in the United Nations said they were “totally false”. Instead, he said, “Government officials just have to make sure that any aid isn’t coming from terrorist groups”.
“We are the victims,” he explained “an impoverished country, and in spite of that, we tried to help them as best we can.”
Last year, press reports focused on the persecution of the Rohingya by Thailand’s military. Despite Bangkok’s denials, many refugees who entered Thai territorial waters were stopped by the Thai Navy and sent back into the open sea without food and water.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Former Sex Slave Tells Story of ‘Trip of No Return’
Rome, 9 March (AKI) — When Isoke Aikpitanyi left Nigeria in search of a new life in 2000, she thought she was going to work as a fruit vendor in a market in London. A well-known lawyer from Lagos had asked her to pay 30 million lire (15 thousand euros) for the trip and a job selling fruit when she arrived.
When she arrived in the British capital, she was immediately locked in an apartment with other young women for a month before being sold to criminals in the northern Italian city of Turin where she was forced to spend the next two years working as a prostitute.
“We were merchandise,” she told a human trafficking conference organised by the Canadian Embassy in Rome on Tuesday.
“I tried to resist for a month. Then a girl with whom I was sharing a room was killed. Her body was found on the outskirts of Turin.”
When Aikpitanyi said goodbye to her family and boarded a plane in Nigeria, she had no idea she would join what the United Nations estimates to be 1.4 million sex slaves.
A recent report released by the UN’s Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking found there were 21,400 victims of human trafficking for the purpose of forced labour, including prostitution, in 2006 alone.
Aikpitanyi may have been luckier than many of other sex slaves who resist prostitution but cannot escape it.
After she refused to continue working as a prostitute, she was severely beaten and stabbed.
After three months in a Turin hospital, Aikpitanyi emerged from a coma and fled with the help of an Italian who would eventually become her boyfriend, she told Adnkronos International (AKI) in an interview.
“They threatened me. Before escaping I was beaten. When I awoke I escaped. I didn’t know who to trust.”
She also complained about the women who worked as “madams” who collaborated to keep women enslaved for prostitution.
“Finding women are collaborators in the violence really hurt. It’s like a nightmare,” she told AKI.
Aikpitanyi said she was driven by an anger against those who “exploit the dreams of those seeking a better life and destroy their dignity. “Today I won’t permit another person to exploit me,” she said.
After her ordeal, Aikpitanyi founded the first and only association for victims and former victims of human trafficking in Italy, the Association of the Girls from Benin City.
Working with Italian journalist Laura Maragnani she published her memoir, “The Girls from Benin City” in 2007.
It is difficult to quantify the success of her advocacy. But she stopped her sister from making the same mistake of boarding a plane for Europe.
““When I was writing my book my sister called to tell me ‘I found my opportunity in Europe’. She cried with me after I told her my story and didn’t come,” Aikpitanyi said.
Aikpitanyi has not returned to Nigeria, partly because she fears it may endanger her family.
Her father initially sought to pursue justice for his child’s slavery, but stopped when he discovered that there were powerful people involved in the lucrative human trafficking business.
“The oppression isn’t only on a woman but on her entire family,” she said. “You don’t know how far the chain of power extends.”
The human trafficking conference was organised by the Canadian Embassy and the Delegate of Quebec in Rome to promote understanding about human trafficking, ways to prevent it and prosecute those responsible.
The event was held to mark International Women’s Day on Monday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Clinton Calls for Justice Over Christian Massacre
Jos, 9 March (AKI) — US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has urged Nigeria to arrest those responsible for the sectarian violence that resulted in the massacre of hundreds of Christians near the city of Jos at the weekend. Clinton’s call came as the Vatican expressed “concern and horror” at the violence that led to the deaths of up to 500 people from Christian villages.
Clinton called for restraint and urged the Nigerian government to “make sure the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Police spokesman Mohammed Lerama said 93 people had been arrested over the killings.
US-based Human Rights Watch on Monday urged Nigeria’s acting Goodluck Jonathan to ensure the massacre was “thoroughly and promptly investigated and that those responsible are prosecuted.”
The group called for an end the cycle of impunity which it said had led to the killing of thousands of people in surrounding Plateau state over the past decade.
The massacre was widely considered to be revenge for a previous round of killings in January.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the head of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi described the deaths “not as a religious, but a social confrontation”.
Five hundred people from the Berom ethnic group in largely Christian villages in the central north of the country died, allegedly at the hands of Muslims from the Fulani ethnic group.
Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, told Vatican Radio, said sectarian violence was not responsible for the deaths.
“The international media are quickly led to report that it is Christians and Muslims who are killing one another; but this is not true, because the killings are not caused by religion but by social, economic, tribal and cultural issues,” he said.
“The victims are poor people who know nothing about, and have nothing to do with, any of this and are completely innocent.
“For our part in the church, we continue to work to promote good relations between Christians and Muslims, seeking to reach agreement in an attempt to overcome violence and to work together to face the real political and ethnic problems”.
Nigerian troops were reported to be patrolling the villages which were targeted on Sunday in a bid to prevent further violence.
Acting president Goodluck Jonathan dismissed the country’s national security adviser, Sarki Mukhtar in an apparent response to the killings.
Some have questioned how the attack could have taken place when a military curfew has been in place since January, when at least 300 people died in clashes between rival Christian and Muslim groups in Jos. Rights activists said more than 550 had been killed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
“Coexistence is More Difficult if We Do Not Respect Their Religion”
Olivier Roy talks to Sara Hejazi
The main problems faced nowadays in Europe by young immigrants are traditional racism, based the colour of a person’s skin, and widespread anti-religious sentiments. This is the opinion expressed by Olivier Roy, professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Scieneces Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. His most recent book, “La Sainte Ignorance” (2009), speaks of religious revivalism as the consequence of globalisation and a crisis of cultures…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Activists Tell Obama to Protect Illegals
Urge legislation, end to deportations
Immigrant rights groups on Monday demanded that President Obama impose a full moratorium on deportations of illegal immigrants, arguing that his policies have been worse for their cause than those of his Republican predecessor.
Saying they’ve been “betrayed” by and lost patience with Mr. Obama, the advocates suggested that the president could regain their support by leading a fight on Capitol Hill for a bill to legalize illegal immigrants. Mr. Obama took the first step toward legalization during a meeting Monday at the White House with two lawmakers working on a bill.
But a bill could take months to pass. In the meantime, the immigrant rights groups say, Mr. Obama must end deportations altogether.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Euro Court Warns Sweden Over Iran Deportation
The European Court of Human Rights has told Sweden that it will breach its humanitarian obligations if it deports an Iranian asylum seeker, saying his claims of past torture appeared to be true.
The man, identified as R.C., filed a request for asylum two years after arriving in Sweden in 2003.
But Swedish authorities doubted his claims of torture and his escape from a packed revolutionary court in Iran, saying such tribunals were not open to the public. They also decided to turn down his asylum request.
A case was then filed at the European rights court in 2007 and declared admissible a year later. The tribunal also ordered Sweden to stay his deportation until further notice.
The judges on Tuesday ruled that the man’s “basic story had been consistent
throughout the proceedings,” and that despite some “uncertain aspects … its
overall credibility had not been undermined.”
The man, who said he took part in an anti-government protest in 2001 after which he was arrested, tortured and detained for almost two years before he managed to escape, risked renewed torture if he was deported, the court ruled.
“The Court also accepted the general conclusions of the medical report that the marks of injuries found on R.C.’s body could have originated from torture,” a statement said.
The judges also noted that “several organisations reporting on the situation in Iran noted an increase in human rights violations in Iran after the 2009 elections, including excessive police force, arbitrary arrests, killings, ill-treatment of detainees and the use of torture to obtain confessions.”
They said the man would likely be “detained and ill-treated” if he was sent back.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Parliamentary Debate on Citizenship
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 10 — Debate has got underway in the Greek Parliament on the draft law drawn up by the Ministry for the Protection of Citizens concerning the granting of citizenship to second-generation immigrants living legally in Greece. Supporting the draft law is Premier Papandreou’s Socialist Party as well as the left-wing Syriza, while Nea Dimocratia, the main opposition party, and the right-wing Laos are against it. The Greek Communist Party (KKE) has not yet taken a position. The government has reiterated that the draft law concerns only legal immigrants and that citizenship will be granted only if all legal requirements are met. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
USA: Minority Births May Soon Top White Births
Minorities Make Up Nearly Half Children Born In US
WASHINGTON — Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years.
In fact, demographers say this year could be the “tipping point” when the number of babies born to minorities outnumbers that of babies born to whites.
The numbers are growing because immigration to the U.S. has boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years. Minorities made up 48 percent of U.S. children born in 2008, the latest census estimates available, compared to 37 percent in 1990.
“Census projections suggest America may become a minority-majority country by the middle of the century. For America’s children, the future is now,” said Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire who researched many of the racial trends in a paper being released Wednesday.
Johnson explained there are now more Hispanic women of prime childbearing age who tend to have more children than women of other races. More white women are waiting until they are older to have children, but it is not yet known whether that will have a noticeable effect on the current trend of increasing minority newborns.
Broken down by race, about 52 percent of babies born in 2008 were white. That’s compared to about 25 percent who were Hispanic, 15 percent black and 4 percent Asian. Another 4 percent were identified by their parents as multiracial.
The numbers highlight the nation’s growing racial and age divide, seen in pockets of communities across the U.S., which could heighten tensions in current policy debates from immigration reform and education to health care and Social Security.
There are also strong implications for the 2010 population count, which begins in earnest next week, when more than 120 million U.S. households receive their census forms in the mail. The Census Bureau is running public service announcements this week to improve its tally of young children, particularly minorities, who are most often missed in the once-a-decade head count. The campaign features Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer, the English- and Spanish-speaking cartoon character who helps “mommy fill out our census form.”
The population figures are used to distribute federal aid and redraw legislative boundaries with racial and ethnic balance, as required by federal law.
“The adults among themselves sometimes forget the census is about everyone, and kids should be counted,” said Census Bureau director Robert Groves. “If we fail to count a newborn that is born this month, that newborn misses all the benefits of the census for 10 years.”
Whites currently make up two-thirds of the total U.S. population, and recent census estimates suggest the number of minorities may not overtake the number of whites until 2050.
Right now, roughly 1 in 10 of the nation’s 3,142 counties already have minority populations greater than 50 percent. But 1 in 4 communities have more minority children than white children or are nearing that point, according to the study, which Johnson co-published.
That is because Hispanic women on average have three children, while other women on average have two. The numbers are 2.99 children for Hispanics, 1.87 for whites, 2.13 for blacks and 2.04 for Asians in the U.S. And the number of white women of prime childbearing age is on the decline, dropping 19 percent from 1990.
For example:
— In Gwinnett County, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, the population has shifted from 16 percent minority in 1990 to 58 percent minority in 2008. The number of blacks and Hispanics nearly doubled, while the number of white young people stayed roughly the same.
— The population of Dakota County, Neb., increased from 15 percent minority in 1990 to 54 percent in 2008, due largely to an influx of Hispanics who came looking for work in meatpacking and other labor.
— In Lake County, Ind., a suburb of Chicago, the minority population grew from 43 percent in 1990 to 53 percent in 2008 as the number of white children declined, the number of blacks stayed stable and the number of Hispanics increased.
The 2008 census estimates used local records of births and deaths, tax records of people moving within the U.S., and census statistics on immigrants. The figures for “white” refer to those whites who are not of Hispanic ethnicity.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
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