China: Exports and Imports Rise Sharply, Inflation Follows
Exports are up by 45.7 per cent; imports by 44.7 per cent. Consumer prices jump 2.5 per cent, the highest increase in 16 months. Official sources say public debt by local government could be higher than expected, and reach 6 trillion yuan.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Chinese export jumped 45.7 per cent in February from a year earlier, whilst imports surged 44.7 per cent, the General Administration of Customs said on Wednesday. However, inflation also rose sharply as local governments show a higher than expected debt level.
The faster than expected rise in exports and imports has caught experts by surprise. In fact, no one is ready to venture an explanation, saying only that February figures are unrepresentative since they include Chinese New Year, a time of great celebration and spending. They note that the current surge in exports might be short-lived until China’s main markets (United States and European Union) do not pick up.
In January, exports gained 21.0 per cent, whilst imports increased by 85.5 per cent. China’s trade surplus for February was US$ 7.6 billion, compared with US$ 14.2 billion in January. However, Lu Zhengwei, chief economist at Industrial Bank in Shanghai, urged caution, saying that the base of comparison was much lower early last year, when demand was depressed by the global credit crisis. In fact, adjusting the totals for changes in the number of working days and holidays, exports fell from the previous month for the second month in a row.
Other experts note that trade figures continue to be skewed by the fixed rate of the yuan, held by Beijing at 6.83 to the dollar since July 2008 to help it maintain high volumes of exports.
Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Saturday that the decision to re-peg the yuan has been a special response to the international crisis and that China would have to shift from that policy stance sooner or later.
This will have to be done to contain inflation. Consumer prices last month rose 2.5 per cent from a year before, whilst the jump in producer prices was over 5 per cent, the biggest in 16 months. Real estate prices also continue their upward spiral.
Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed housing prices in China’s 70 large and medium-sized cities rose 7.8 percent in December 2009 from a year earlier, up 1.5 percent compared to the previous month.
Relevant figures from the Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau show that the city’s average annual income in 2008 was 44,715 yuan, whilst urban apartments were selling for an average of 15,581 yuan per square metre.
Jia Kang, director of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science at the Ministry of Finance, said that local governments’ hidden debt might be about 6 trillion yuan (about US$ 950 billion). The estimate “may not be very accurate” but the scale should be close to that, Jia said in Beijing today.
Local officials in fact owe their careers to their areas’ economic achievements—this has often led to the reporting of inaccurate data. Now government-spending data might not be very accurate either.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Failed Banks May Get Pension-Fund Backing as FDIC Seeks Cash
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is trying to encourage public retirement funds that control more than $2 trillion to buy all or part of failed lenders, taking a more direct role in propping up the banking system, said people briefed on the matter.
Direct investments may allow funds such as those in Oregon, New Jersey and California to cut fees for private-equity managers, and the agency to get better prices for distressed assets, the people said. They declined to be identified because talks with regulators are confidential.
[Comments from JD: This proposal would pour your retirement funds into a black hole.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Paralysed Once Again by General Strike
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — Greece is once again at a standstill today — for the second time in little more than a week — due to a general strike against the government’s austerity plan. Planes, trains, ships and urban transport are halted, and schools, hospitals, offices and banks are closed. For the past few days rubbish collection has been impeded, with an informational black-out as well. The 24-hour strike called jointly by the public sector employees union Adedy, its private-sector counterpart Gsee and the Communist union Pame will be blocking the central areas of major cities with demonstrations and marches in which even police and firemen will be taking part, as well as teachers, students and the anarchic movement. Public buildings continue to be occupied in the capital and other cities. The strike coincides with the end of the mission to Berlin, Paris and Washington by Premier Giorgio Papandreou, who said that thanks to his trip the image of the country abroad had “changed completely”. Yesterday the stock exchange gave its positive assessment of the premier’s international talks with a sharp rise of 2.62%. However, polls show a growing popular opposition to a large part of the measures in the anti-crisis package.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: General Strike and Clashes in Athens
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 11 — Several hundreds of anarchists created chaos in the centre of Athens today. There have been several clashes with the police on the sidelines of the union demonstration to accompany the general strike against the austerity measures. With the country paralysed for the second time in a week of protests of more than two million workers, several hooded young people decided to break away from a procession organised by leftwing parties and anarchist parties, and throw Molotov cocktails and stones at the police. The riot police, in front of the Parliament, used tear gas. The clashes continued while the procession returned. At the university building, the police responded with charges to the throwing of Molotov cocktails and stones by other extremist groups, which shouted anti-government slogans and slogans against the socialist party in charge. They also smashed shop windows and burned trash containers. More incidents took place in the nearby Exarchia district. Some of the protesters have been arrested. No serious injuries have been reported, apart from some bruises. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Istat: Unemployment to 8.6% in January
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 1 — The Italian unemployment rate continues to rise, to 8.6% in January after the 8.5% recorded in December 2009. The news was announced by Italian statistics institute ISTAT, which underlines that the January result is the worst since January 2004, the start of the historic series. Unemployment among young people, ISTAT continued, has reached 26.8%, 0.3% higher than the previous month and 2.6% above the level of January 2009. Male unemployment reached a total of 1 million 147 thousand in January, a 2.1% increase (+23,000) from the previous month and 27.2% (+245,000) from January 2009. The number of jobless women reached 997,000, -1.9% compared with December 2009 (-19,000) and +9.8% compared with January 2009 (+89,000). Male unemployment reached 7.7%, an increase both compared with December (+0.2 percentage points) and January 2009 (+1.7%). Female unemployment rate was recorded at 9.8%, -0.2 percentage points compared with December 2009 but +0.8 points from January 2009. ISTAT added that employment in January was virtually the same as in December, and lost 1.3% compared with January 2009, -307 thousand. Male employment totalled 13 million 677 thousand in January, 0.1% below the previous month (-18 thousand ) and 1.9% below January 2009 (-260 thousand). Female employment was recorded at nine million 228 thousand, +0.1% from December (+8 thousand) and -0.5% (-47 thousand) from January 2009. The number of jobless in the age between 15 and 64 totalled 14 million 871 thousand, +0.2% (+28 thousand) compared with December 2009 and +1.2% (+172 thousand) compared with January 2009. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Stimulus or Sedative?
Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has, if you called the tail a leg? When the audience said “five,” Lincoln corrected them, saying that the answer was four. “The fact that you call a tail a leg does not make it a leg.”
That same principle applies today. The fact that politicians call something a “stimulus” does not make it a stimulus. The fact that they call something a “jobs bill” does not mean there will be more jobs.
What have been the actual consequences of all the hundreds of billions of dollars that the government has spent? The idea behind the spending is that it will cause investors to invest, lenders to lend and employers to employ.
That was called “pump priming.” To get a pump going, people put a little water into it, so that the pump will start pumping out a lot of water. In other words, government money alone was never supposed to restore the economy by itself. It was supposed to get the private sector spending, lending, investing and employing.
The question is: Is that what has actually happened?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Frustrating Visit to a Mosque in Washington DC
Al Ahram Weekly 04.03.2010 (Egypt)
Margo Badran, a feminism and Islam academic, describes a frustrating visit to a mosque in Washington DC. There she witnessed a group of women trying to pray behind the men in the main prayer hall, but their presence so angered the mosque attendant that he called in the police to force the women to leave. “Out in the street I turned to one of the cops, who like the other policeman, was African-American, and said: ‘You know about race and gender in this country. How did you feel about throwing women out? Did you ever think in your job you would be called upon to do such a thing?’ All he said was: ‘That’s why I didn’t arrest you.’ He repeated what the other cop had said: ‘The mosque is a private place and they have the right to eject out if you do not play by their rules.’ This cop did not say as the other one had done menacingly: ‘We are the police and we can throw you out.’ All I could say to my compatriot, the ‘good cop,’ was: ‘The lunch counter was also private.’ What if the young men sitting down there had played by the rules? Whose rules?”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bush’s Union Transparency Rules Retracted Under Obama
The Obama administration promised increased transparency in government but has rolled back rules proposed by the Bush administration that expanded the financial disclosure statements required of labor unions and their leaders.
Since President Obama took office, the Labor Department has rescinded or delayed three sets of rules proposed by the George W. Bush administration that would have required unions and their leaders to more specifically detail their finances, according to a review of records by The Washington Times.
The rules were rolled back while the Obama administration was seeking more stringent regulation of corporate America, including banks, insurance companies, health care providers and publicly traded companies.
The proposed Bush rules would have required labor unions to identify from whom they were buying and selling assets, forced union leaders and employees to file more detailed conflict-of-interest forms, and required unions to reveal the finances of hundreds of so-called labor trusts — largely unregulated entities set up to provide benefits for members.
Former Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao, one of the architects of the expanded Bush rules, said the Obama administration is “making a mockery of the regulations” and is giving “preferential treatment” to the unions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Collapse of the American Empire: Swift, Silent, Certain
Commentary: Historians warning of a sudden ‘thief at night,’ an ‘accelerating car crash’
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — “One of the disturbing facts of history is that so many civilizations collapse,” warns anthropologist Jared Diamond in “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.” Many “civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society’s demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak population, wealth and power.”
Now, Harvard’s Niall Ferguson, one of the world’s leading financial historians, echoes Diamond’s warning: “Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the precipice.” Yes, America is on the edge.
Dismiss his warning at your peril. Everything you learned, everything you believe and everything driving our political leaders is based on a misleading, outdated theory of history. The American Empire is at the edge of a dangerous precipice, at risk of a sudden, rapid collapse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
District Sues Parents … to Shut Them Up!
Defendants had demanded, gasp!, public records
A school district in Arizona has filed a lawsuit against a handful of taxpayers seeking a court ruling that they have no right to ask for public records, sue the district or even complain to anyone about the educational institution’s activities.
The action brought by officials with the Congress, Ariz., district, against Jean Warren, Jennifer Renee Hoge, Cyndi Regis and Barbara Rejon apparently is a precedent.
Liz Hill, the assistant state ombudsman for public access, told the Goldwater Institute, which is defending the taxpayers, that she is unaware of any other situation in which a government agency went to court to block public access to public records that by law must be available.
[…]
Institute attorney Carrie Ann Sitren asserted school officials are trying to silence people who have been critical of their handling of school policy and tax money.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Every American is a Criminal, Or Soon Will be
“The more laws government passes, the more law breakers government makes.” Ron Ewart
We have repeated the following phrase several times in our articles, since repetition seems to be the only way to get a message across. “YOUR MONEY IS GOVERNMENT’S MAJOR POWER OVER YOU: The first power that government has over you is YOUR perception that YOUR money is their money.
The second power that government has over you is by using the money they take from you by force, against you.
But, the third power that government has over you is that you will religiously obey their laws, no matter how many they pass, or how unconstitutional those laws may be.”
From another article we wrote: “The consequence of too many laws is that huge segments of the public are totally unaware of their existence. And yet, under the law, ignorance of the law is not a defense.”
And speaking of too many laws, don’t you just love going to the airport and being treated like a criminal … or a terrorist? Instead of taking care of the problem as the most powerful nation on Earth, we turn little old ladies into criminals, as they are forced to take their shoes off and are wanded all over their entire bodies. Then there are the poor souls who have the misfortune of having had hip or knee replacements. They are required to almost undress, while some gaping TSA agent scans every inch of their body and clothing and the immediate crowd gathers ‘round to watch the virtual undressing, all the while muttering to themselves, “thank God it wasn’t me.”
[…]
But Smart Grid, when fully implemented, will take away your control of all the machines in your business and in your home. One of the provisions of Smart Grid will be a small electronic circuit board placed in the appliances in your home that can turn the appliance on or off, or adjust it one way or another, to compensate for loads on the power grid. You are sitting there in your living room and suddenly you notice it is getting colder. That is because the smart grid card in your furnace control unit has sensed an increasing load on the grid and has re-adjusted your furnace from a comfortable 72 degrees to a most uncomfortable 60 degrees and you won’t be able to do one damn thing about it … legally that is. Or you are in Arizona and the outside temperature is 110 degrees, but the smart card, hidden in your thermostat, turns off your air conditioner.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fox’s Beck, Krauthammer & Kristol: Wrong on Wilders (Much to Talal’s Delight)
by Diana West
When Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol each from their respective Fox News perches branded Dutch political phenom Geert Wilders as beyond the political pale, it was shocking and outrageously so, and for several reasons.
One. I’ve grown used to Fox News and all other media ignoring not just the Wilders story but also the cultural story of the century, altogether — namely, the Islamization of Europe, something Wilders, a great admirer of Ronald Reagan and a committed supporter Israel, is dedicated to halt and reverse. The survival instinct of the Dutch, who, earlier this month gave unprecedented electoral victories to Wilders and his party, is a strong indicator that this civilizational transformation is not irreversible. But covering the Islamization of Europe, as readers of this column know, usually makes for bad news. And worse, at least according to the powers-that-be, even half-way competent reporting on the subject puts Islam in a bad light because it reveals exactly what happens to Western-style liberty when Muslims enter a non-Muslim host country in sufficient numbers to enact and extend sharia (Islamic law) over a heretofore Judeo-Christian-humanist society.
Better safe (politically correct) than sorry (subject to potential boycott or worse), our media prefer, frittering away precious powers afforded by the First Amendment…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Get Ready for the Know All, See All National ID Card…Plus, Plus
Obama and his administration want to know and control everything; namely us. If given the chance, Obama and his crew will morph into place a national ID Card for Workers under the guise of repairing and responding to the Immigration problem.
Now, the push is on to quickly create a biometric card, which would have embedded information, personal information and fingerprints. Who cares about that old fossil…privacy rights. This special and intrusive card would be forced on and used by ALL workers in America. The recent Wall Street Journal article exposed this very thing. It isn’t just Democrats who have lost their minds on this. Senator’s Chuck Schumer (D) and Lindsey Graham (R) are boldly leading this effort and want a bill signed soon. In fact, they are planning to meet with Obama next week to update him on their work. Isn’t this progressive and most special?
Obama, Schumer and Graham say and believe that forcing this card on all workers would stop new illegal aliens from coming here to work because they couldn’t get work without a card. The magical thing is that this president and congress are boldly pushing amnesty for the 20-40 million illegal aliens already living here so they need not worry about this new working card.
[…]
Then there is the control with the Health Care bill
In the Senate and House version still being manipulated into place, they have described the IRS controlling this bill. It would have access to your bank accounts, especially if health payments or bills were late. Did you ever wonder why this Health care horror show would be governed by the dreaded IRS? Wonder no more. They have the biggest and most complicated computer system of tracking there is. Imagine a person fighting cancer, having lost a job and now behind on payments to a coerced Government health plan…now the IRS is breathing down your back and seizing your bank accounts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hearing Delayed for Obama Judicial Nominee Who Supported Serial Killer
The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed the hearing for a controversial Court of Appeals nominee after the panel received a letter from a home-state prosecutor blasting him as a judicial loose cannon and Republicans raised concerns about his alleged bias in favor of sex offenders.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny gained notoriety in 2005 for his role in trying to fight the execution of convicted serial killer and rapist Michael Ross, also known as The Roadside Strangler, whom Chatigny had described as a victim of his own “sexual sadism.”
His conduct in that case, which included threatening to go after Ross’ attorney’s law license, as well as his ruling in 2001 against sex offender registries created under Megan’s Law, has caused a commotion among Republicans on the judiciary panel.
“I’ve never seen conduct like this,” said a Republican source. “I’m shocked that the White House vetted this guy … and still put him up for a judgeship.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Democrats Looking at ‘Slaughter Solution’ To Pass Obamacare Without a Vote on Senate Bill
Would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democratic leaders try to cram the Senate version of Obamacare through the House without actually having a recorded vote on the bill?
Not only is the answer yes, they would, they have figured out a way to do it, according to National Journal’s Congress Daily:
“House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.
“Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.
“Slaughter has not taken the plan to Speaker Pelosi as Democrats await CBO scores on the corrections bill. ‘Once the CBO gives us the score, we’ll spring right on it,’ she said.”
Each bill that comes before the House for a vote on final passage must be given a rule that determines things like whether the minority would be able to offer amendments to it from the floor.
In the Slaughter Solution, the rule would declare that the House “deems” the Senate version of Obamacare to have been passed by the House. House members would still have to vote on whether to accept the rule, but they would then be able to say they only voted for a rule, not for the bill itself.
Would that rationale fly with the public? Is it logical? Of course not. But remember, these folks have persuaded themselves that a majority of the American people really want Obamacare.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Monckton on Climate Hoaxers: “Jail the Lot”
Wednesday evening, I had the honor of attending a presentation given by noted ‘climate change’ skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton, sponsored by the Bull Run Republican Women’s Club in Manassas, Virginia.
As I didn’t think it appropriate to ask a long-winded Chris Matthews-type question, I essentially wanted to know (with all the revelations of deliberate fudging of climate data to “prove” global warming is happening) what the legal ramifications on the players could be, considering how many billions of dollars cities, states, businesses, corporations, as well as whole nations have spent going “green”, not to mention the adverse effects on developing nations?
Lord Monckton’s response was direct and to the point: “Jail the lot!”
[Comments from JD: See url for video.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Sues NY Police for Job Bias
WASHINGTON — An American Muslim is suing the New York Police Department for barring him from joining the force because of his Arabic origin and Muslim faith, a case rights activists say symbolizes a surge in job discrimination since the 9/11.
“There is a lot of racism and a lot of paranoia about Arabs in the police department,” Mark Taylor, lawyer of Said Hajem, told IslamOnline.net.
Hajem, a 39-year-old naturalized US citizen originally from Morocco, decided to pursue a career with the NYPD after knowing about the need for Arabic speakers on the force.
He passed the entrance exams with high scores and was cleared to join the Police Academy. He even received a congratulatory letter from the Police Commissioner.
But at the interview with Ricardo Ramkissoon, who was in charge of reviewing the application, the officer refused to take any personal references with Middle Eastern names of Hajem’s friends and neighbors.
“The officer responded very negatively to that, claiming that he could be a terrorist and they would say good things about him to get him on the force,” said Taylor.
“He specifically said that he was against officers from other countries to become members of the police department.”
Ramkissoon later said in his review that there are several reasons not to hire Hajem.
“That was really shocking to us… it is just a clear case of bias,” said Taylor, adding that his client decided to take his case to the court.
Lawyers for the city filed a motion asking that Hajem’s claim be dismissed but the District Court in Manhattan turned it down.
“The case is going to trial as the judge found that there are enough evidences for discrimination here to justify a trial,” said Taylor, adding that the lawsuit will proceed next month.
The NYPD had earlier said they just delayed Hajem’s hiring for years, but he is still eligible for hiring indefinitely.
They did not respond to IOL request for comment.
Surge
Civil rights advocates believe Hajem’s case is not so uncommon in post 9/11 America.
“There are too many cases without having something to support it,” Khadija Athman, Civil Rights Manager at the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), told IOL.
She noted many Muslims have faced job discrimination since 9/11 and filed cases with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the government agency responsible for enforcing laws against employment discrimination.
“After September 11, there were so many of these cases the EEOC received that they had to have a separate department to deal with the cases affecting Muslims and people from Middle Eastern origin.”
Fahed Al-Rawaf, a media and legal adviser at the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), agrees that discrimination at work place against Muslims and Arabs has soared.
“There has been a surge in employment discrimination cases across the country.”
The EEOC estimates confirm that Muslims and Arabs have faced the sharpest increase in workplace discrimination in recent years.
But unfortunately, laments Athman, most people just take it and do not report the discrimination they were subject to or file lawsuit.
“The problem is that with employment, it is not easy to prove you were not approved because of being Muslim or Arab.”
Rawaf believes there is a lack of awareness among the Muslim community, estimated at between six to eight million, of what their rights are.
“There is a need to have more awareness about your rights at the work force and what does constitute discrimination.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Palermo-New York: Miami Op Nets Gambino ‘Capi’, Sicily Old Guard
(ANSA) — Rome, March 20 — Italian police and the FBI on Wednesday arrested 27 suspects — 21 in Palermo and six in the US — in an operation against a powerful Cosa Nostra clan and US affiliates including three Gambino family ‘capi’ in New York.
Agents said the two-year operation showed how the Italian and US branches of the Sicilian Mafia were still working “closely” together.
“But we have cut off those links,” said Italian Police Chief Antonio Manganelli.
He said the op showed the “historic collaboration between Italian police and the FBI is a strong as ever” and devoted Wednesday’s success to slain anti-Mafia heroes like Palermo police chief Boris Giuliano, killed in 1979, and investigating magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, murdered in 1992.
In New York, the FBI took into custody three suspects, Gambino commanders Gaetano Napoli and his sons Gaetano Jr and Thomas, on suspicion of extortion, loan sharking, money laundering and fraudulent bankruptcy.
Another three were arrested in Miami: alleged go-between Roberto Settineri, his suspected right-hand man Antonio Tricami and another alleged associate, Daniel Dromerhauser.
They are suspected of money laundering and obstructing justice.
A seventh man, Giuseppe Frusteri, was arrested on weapons charges. In Palermo, police arrested 21 members of the city’s Santa Maria di Gesu’ family on suspicion of drug trafficking, attempted homicide, money laundering, extortion and other crimes.
In Palermo, police said the operation showed how Cosa Nostra was turning to “historic’ bosses after recent turmoil following the arrests of several top members stemming from the 2006 capture of 43-year fugitive boss of bosses Bernardo Provenzano.
“They need to get charismatic figures back in business,” said a statement from the special SCO division of the Italian police, which worked with the FBI.
Among the 20 arrested were Santa Maria di Gesu’ old-time chief Gioacchino Corso, his brother Giampaolo; and veteran hitman Giuseppe Lo Bocchiaro, who was recently released after serving time for the 1982 murder of rival gangster Pietro Marchese in Palermo’s Ucciardone prison.
Pietro Pilo, a trusted lieutenant of long-time clan head Cosimo Vernengo, was arrested with a log book showing victims of protection rackets and amounts due. Three handguns were also seized.
In New York, the Gambinos are still closely allied to the Colombo, Bonanno, Genovese and Lucchese families in drugs, gambling, arms and prostitution rackets as well as infiltrating public works, the FBI said.
Italian Interior Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano said the operation had scored “an extremely important result” in the State’s fight against the mafia.
In the last two years Italian police have cancelled 17 names from their most-wanted list including the top Palermo bosses.
Their prime target now is Trapani-based boss Matteo Messina Denaro, believed to have become Cosa Nostra’s new No.1.
The Italia government recently unveiled a new anti-mafia plan including a national mafia map and database and an assets seizure agency in Reggio Calabria.
The Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta syndicate is now considered Italy’s most powerful mafia, having outstripped Cosa Nostra thanks to its control of the European cocaine trade.
Italy’s two other main mafias are the Camorra in Naples, a major player in illegal waste disposal and public tenders, and the Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia which is heavily involved in people trafficking
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Patent Reform is a Patent Giveaway
Americans should beware when Members of Congress talk about “reform” and “comprehensive” because those words usually cover a lot of mischief. The latest example of this legerdemain is the so-called Patent Reform now aggressively pushed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT).
Since we’ve outsourced millions of well-paying American jobs overseas, the one asset we have to maintain our American standard of living is innovation superiority. The United States is the world’s leader in technology innovation, which is due to our private enterprise economic system, our constitutional protections of private property, and most especially our unique system of granting patents to inventors.
Other countries can produce things we invent more cheaply because of the pitiful wages they pay, but they have a dismal record of inventing anything. Lacking expertise in innovation, some foreign countries concentrate on stealing ours.
Communist China is the world’s top producer of illegal copies of music, movies, software, designer apparel, medicines, and other U.S. products. Chinese agents stole or illegally purchased high-tech machines and systems, restricted electronic components, embargoed components for military weapons, and communications systems, in order to copy them.
Now that Communist China has become America’s banker, China is flexing its muscles in a new way that threatens our economy and our jobs. The buzzword is “indigenous innovation.”
China has promulgated new anti-American trade rules that prohibit imports of our products unless they are based on intellectual property that is developed and/or owned in China, and associated trademarks are originally registered in China.
These rules mean that U.S. products cannot be sold in China unless the U.S. companies give China their current patents plus their research and development of new products. This targets our most innovative manufacturing and service industries, including computers, software, and telecommunications.
The Chinese government has issued a catalog of products that are subject to this obnoxious rule, and the list is expected to be expanded soon to other industries. China’s “indigenous innovation” rule will exclude many major U.S. firms from the Chinese market or require them to give China their patents and advanced technology.
Yongshun Cheng, former senior judge and deputy director of the Intellectual Property Division of Beijing High People’s Court, stated bluntly that the proposed U.S. patent bill is bad news for American innovation and good news for foreign infringers. He pointed out that the bill “is friendlier to the infringers than to the patentees in general as it will make the patent less reliable, easier to be challenged, and cheaper to be infringed.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Investigation Over Online Hate Speech
(IsraelNN.com) Authorities in Canada are investigating an anti-Semitic website that accused Jews of being behind several murderous terrorist attacks. The website’s creator, York University student Salman Hossain, has been suspended from school and will face a disciplinary panel.
The Ontario Police’s hate crimes and extremism unit is looking into Hossain’s writings.
Hossain, a dual citizen of Bangladesh and Canada, created a site called “filthyjewishterrorists.com” on which he blamed terrorist attacks in the United States and Canada on “the mass murdering terrorist Jewish community.” He accused Jews of being behind terrorist attacks that were in fact perpetrated by Muslims, and said that the Jews carried out the attacks in order to make Muslims look bad.
He called to murder all Jews in Europe and North America if a terrorist attack were to take place in Canada.
“The university is moving on this issue in a serious fashion,” York University said in a statement. “We want all of our students, all of our community members, to be safe,” the school added.
On his site, which has been taken offline, Hossain bragged about his hatred for Jews, and predicted that “foreign troops” would enter Western countries “and vaporize the Jewish neighborhoods in Major Population Centers using nuclear warheads and cruise missiles.”
“This war on Islam… will end with the complete extermination of the Jewish culture, race, and religion,” he said.
After Canada’s National Post reported on the story, Hossain confirmed that he did in fact support genocide against Jews.
Hossain has been involved in hate crimes in the past. Three years ago, he faced charges after expressing support for terrorist attacks in Canada. Those charges were dismissed after the attorney general determined that Hossain was undergoing rehabilitation.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Baroness Ashton Drops Opposition to Euro-Army Headquarters
Baroness Ashton has dropped her opposition to a permanent European Union military headquarters that many believe will be the first step towards a Euro-army.
Britain is staunchly opposed to a standing military headquarters in Brussels claiming it would duplicate Nato and be “an unnecessary use of resources”.
But since becoming EU foreign minister last year, Lady Ashton has gone from “being unconvinced” to having an “open mind” over the move. It has been demanded by French and German supporters of a European army.
“People raise the question whether the EU should have its own permanent operations HQ. This is a serious issue that deserves a serious debate,” she said to MEPs on Wednesday.
The Conservatives have accused Lady Ashton of “going native” and succumbing to pressure from France.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Bluefin EU-Protected, Exception for Italy
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 10 — Based on an agreement to be formalised tomorrow by the EU Council of Ministers, Europe has decided to ban the international trade of bluefin tuna. The fish will not disappear completely from European tables, though, as it can still be eaten as long as it is locally fished. The agreement reached in Brussels today between representatives of the 27 member states upheld the exceptions requested specifically by Italy. Thanks also to the position taken by the UK and Germany, the EU has agreed to introduce all the financial measures necessary to compensate for the negative impact that the decision will have on the sector and the European fishing industry as a whole. According to the agreement reached, the registration of the bluefin tuna on appendix I of the list of protected species will not occur immediately, but only after the meeting in November 2010 of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Europe has also decided to protect coral, but not to forbid its marketing. It has transpired from today’s meeting in Brussels that the agreement, which also includes measures protecting elephants and bears, will include coral in appendix II of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species. Experts say that coral marketing would not be banned but rather regulated to avoid an exploitation incompatible with its survival. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Celibacy ‘A Gift’ Says Vatican
Clergy ‘minister’ speaks out amid abuse scandals
(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 11 — Priestly celibacy is a gift, the Vatican’s ‘minister’ for the clergy said Thursday after an Austrian archbishop appeared to suggest the Church should look at the issue in light of recent sex abuse scandals.
“Priestly celibacy is a gift from the Holy Spirit which…must be lived with fullness and joy,” said Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, the head of a sort of ministry which regulates clerical life.
“Christ chooses some people” to be priests and practise celibacy which is part of a “unique and privileged relationship with God,” said Hummes, who in 2006 caused a brief flap when he said celibacy was “not a dogma”.
Another high-ranking cleric, Caritas International chief Oscar Rodriguez Maradiga, said: “I don’t understand how there can be a link” between celibacy and child sex abuse.
Like other clerics, he stressed that children were abused outside the Church but the media appeared to focus more strongly on scandals involving priests.
On Wednesday Vienna Archbishop Christoph Schoenborn called for an “unflinching” examination of the possible roots of the scandals, saying “it also includes the issue of priestly celibacy”.
But Vienna archdiocese spokesman Erich Leitenberger told Catholic news agency Sir Thursday that the cardinal “did not call into question celibacy in any way”.
In Germany, the Archbishop of Regensburg, Gerhard Mueller, described the notion of celibacy being “the cause” of child sex abuse as “nonsense”.
Germany has launched a scheme to root out and prevent Church child sex abuse while the Church in the Netherlands on Wednesday opened a probe into how recent cases could have occurred.
Pope Benedict XVI has yet to speak out on the recent German scandal, which is said to involve dozens of school cases and a couple of ex-choristers at the famous Regensburg boys choir, where the pope’s brother Georg Ratzinger was choirmaster from 1964 to 1994.
Ratzinger this week said he knew nothing of the cases and apologised to the victims.
Scandals have also swept the Irish Church and a number of Irish bishops have resigned.
Benedict said Thursday that priests must live their vocations “in a high way” to give examples for the faithful to follow”.
An association of Italian former priests who have married said Thursday Schoenborn was right in allegedly raising the celibacy issue.
Benedict has promised a new strategy to make child sex abuse never happens again, listing the eradication of this “hateful crime” as one of the Church’s top priorities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Europe is Not Failing Its Muslims. But Islam Has Failed Europe
by Douglas Murray
Just back from a trip to Cairo and Alexandria. While I was there at the weekend, my recent debate against Tariq Ramadan went out on BBC World. It is now available on YouTube among other places. And as I promised I would post it when it came out, here is the first section (of my and Ramadan’s opening speeches) below. The rest follows on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4M-whjJs10
The motion was “Europe is Failing its Muslims”. I’m happy to say that Flemming Rose and I convincingly won the argument, with the audience voting overwhelmingly (and despite considerable intimidation in the hall on the night) that Europe is not in fact failing its Muslims.
The debate has been edited down for broadcast. My one gripe about this (except for the BBC’s inevitable censorship of my criticisms of the Muslim Council of Britain among other government-paid Muslim-groups — as reported by the Evening Standard here) is that they cut one crucially relevant case study I gave.
One of the two clerics who whipped up hatred against Denmark around the world, in the wake of my colleague Flemming’s commission of depictions of the historical figure Mohammed, arrived in Denmark from Lebanon in the 1990s. He went to Denmark because he has a disabled son. The country which he came from could not look after his child but he knew that Denmark would. And it did. He repaid the society by inciting hatred and violence against it. When such cases can be repeated ad nauseum, it should hardly even have to be pointed out how obscene the motion Flemming and I found ourselves debating really was.
It is grotesque to argue that Europe has failed its Muslims. It has been made repeatedly obvious that it is Islam that has failed Europe, indeed that it is Islam that has failed Muslims. I am delighted that the audience in the hall on the night agreed. And that most of the audience around the world who have emailed me since transmission — currently including people from as far afield as Nigeria, Pakistan and Iraq — appear to agree with that too.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
France: Gov’t Invests 13 Mln Euros in Video Surveillance
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 10 — France is preparing to invest 13 million euros to equip 231 municipalities, 19 schools and 19 residential areas with 3,203 new video surveillance systems, Le Parisien reports. The newspaper’s website specifies that France doubled its funds for video surveillance in 2010 compared with 2009 (17 million euros), and trebled its subsidies from 2008 (11.7 million euros). Increasing the application of video surveillance in France is one of the priorities of the government of Nicolas Sarkozy.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
French Bread Spiked With LSD in CIA Experiment
In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.
For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.
The mystery of Le Pain Maudit (Cursed Bread) still haunts the inhabitants of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in the Gard, southeast France.
On August 16, 1951, the inhabitants were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire.
One man tried to drown himself, screaming that his belly was being eaten by snakes. An 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: “I am a plane”, before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. He then got up and carried on for 50 yards. Another saw his heart escaping through his feet and begged a doctor to put it back. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets.
Time magazine wrote at the time: “Among the stricken, delirium rose: patients thrashed wildly on their beds, screaming that red flowers were blossoming from their bodies, that their heads had turned to molten lead.”
Eventually, it was determined that the best-known local baker had unwittingly contaminated his flour with ergot, a hallucinogenic mould that infects rye grain. Another theory was the bread had been poisoned with organic mercury.
However, H P Albarelli Jr., an investigative journalist, claims the outbreak resulted from a covert experiment directed by the CIA and the US Army’s top-secret Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
The scientists who produced both alternative explanations, he writes, worked for the Swiss-based Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company, which was then secretly supplying both the Army and CIA with LSD.
Mr Albarelli came across CIA documents while investigating the suspicious suicide of Frank Olson, a biochemist working for the SOD who fell from a 13th floor window two years after the Cursed Bread incident. One note transcribes a conversation between a CIA agent and a Sandoz official who mentions the “secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit” and explains that it was not “at all” caused by mould but by diethylamide, the D in LSD.
While compiling his book, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments, Mr Albarelli spoke to former colleagues of Mr Olson, two of whom told him that the Pont-Saint-Esprit incident was part of a mind control experiment run by the CIA and US army.
After the Korean War the Americans launched a vast research programme into the mental manipulation of prisoners and enemy troops.
Scientists at Fort Detrick told him that agents had sprayed LSD into the air and also contaminated “local foot products”.
Mr Albarelli said the real “smoking gun” was a White House document sent to members of the Rockefeller Commission formed in 1975 to investigate CIA abuses. It contained the names of a number of French nationals who had been secretly employed by the CIA and made direct reference to the “Pont St. Esprit incident.” In its quest to research LSD as an offensive weapon, Mr Albarelli claims, the US army also drugged over 5,700 unwitting American servicemen between 1953 and 1965.
None of his sources would indicate whether the French secret services were aware of the alleged operation. According to US news reports, French intelligence chiefs have demanded the CIA explain itself following the book’s revelations. French intelligence officially denies this.
Locals in Pont-Saint-Esprit still want to know why they were hit by such apocalyptic scenes. “At the time people brought up the theory of an experiment aimed at controlling a popular revolt,” said Charles Granjoh, 71.
“I almost kicked the bucket,” he told the weekly French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. “I’d like to know why.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Child Abuse Scandal Spreads to Catholic Dorm
A Roman Catholic dormitory near Frankfurt closed in 1981 on Wednesday became the latest religious institution enmeshed in a child abuse scandal now involving over two-thirds of Germany’s dioceses.
The Diocese of Mainz said it had preliminary indications that two people abused pupils boarding at the Bensheim Konvikt in the 1970s. State prosecutors have been informed, a statement said.
The director of the dormitory, where children attending a nearby secondary school boarded, was also implicated in sexual abuse allegations, it said. He “left the service of the diocese” in 1979 before the convent closed for “economic and educational” reasons.
The scandal erupted in January when an elite Jesuit school in Berlin admitted systematic sexual abuse of pupils by two priests in the 1970s and 1980s, and has now engulfed 19 of Germany’s 27 dioceses.
Also implicated is a boarding school attached to the Domspatzen (“Cathedral Sparrows”), Regensburg cathedral’s 1,000-year-old choir. The choir was run for
29 years by Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict XVI.
Most of the priests concerned are not expected to face criminal charges because the alleged crimes took place too long ago, but there have been growing calls for a change in the law and for the Church to pay compensation.
The German scandal is one of several to have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years, notably in Ireland where one priest admitted sexually abusing more than 100 children, and this week in Austria and the Netherlands.
Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the Vatican, said Tuesday that German, Austrian and Dutch Church leaders had acted “rapidly and decisively,” stressing that sexual abuse went far beyond church walls.
The chairman of the German Bishops Conference, Robert Zollitsch, was to meet the pope on Friday at the Vatican to discuss the cases.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
HSBC Admits Details of 24,000 Swiss Bank Accounts Stolen
Details of 24,000 HSBC customers with Swiss bank accounts have been stolen, the bank admitted today.
The theft potentially exposes large numbers of international clients to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries.
A former IT employee of Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA, identified by French authorities as Herve Falciani, stole the information between late 2006 and early 2007, the bank said.
The accounts, held by individuals worldwide, were all opened before October 2006 and some 9,000 have since been closed.
‘We deeply regret this situation and unreservedly apologize to our clients for this threat to their privacy,’ said Alexandre Zeller, chief executive of the Swiss subsidiary.
The bank said it has contacted the affected customers and doesn’t believe the stolen data has or will allow any unauthorized person to access the affected accounts.
The stolen information only affects accounts in Switzerland with the exception of its former subsidiary HSBC Guyerzeller Bank, it said.
However, the theft could leave some of those account holders exposed to prosecution by tax authorities.
In recent cases of data theft from banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the information was offered to foreign governments seeking to track down nationals who avoided paying their taxes by hiding money in Swiss accounts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi’s Approval Rating Lowest-Ever
Record lows also for his govt and PdL party
(ANSA) — Rome, March 10 — The approval ratings for Premier Silvio Berlusconi, his government and his People of Freedom (PdL) party all fell to record lows in March, according to a monthly poll from the IPR research group released on Wednesday.
IPR added that Italy’s other parties, both in government and on the opposition, failed to benefit from the PdL’s decline.
The March poll came after the mix-up up by the PdL over presenting its list of candidates for this month’s partial regional elections and the government’s attempts to rectify this. According to the March poll, Berlusconi’s personal approval rating in one month slipped two percentage points to 44%, its lowest level since he took office in the spring of 2008 and far below its peak of 62% in October 2008.
The percentage of Italians who disapprove of Berlusconi’s performance as premier rose by two percentage points to its highest yet, 54%.
The approval rating for Berlusconi’s center-right government also fell by two percentage points, after holding steady for fourth months in a row, sinking to 38%, its lowest yet, while its disapproval rating climbed two points to 58%.
Although its approval rating fell in one month from 46% to 43%, the PdL continued to be the party which enjoyed the greatest confidence among Italians.
The Democratic Party (PD), the biggest opposition group, saw its approval rating hold at 40%, after gaining three points last month following a four-point loss in January.
The opposition IdV, headed by ex-Clean Hands prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, held at 38% while the centrist UDC opposition party fell two points to 38%.
The approval rating of the PdL’s government ally the Northern League was unchanged again this month at 31%.
Within the government only eight ministers had approval ratings of 50% or above while 15 were below.
Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi again this month enjoyed the highest approval rating, 64%, while four ministers were tied in second place with a 59% rating: Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, down a point; Justice Minister Angelino Alfano; Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti and Industry Minister Claudio Scajola, all up a percentage point.
Civil Service Minister Renato Brunetta held at 58%, after falling three points in February, Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna was unchanged at 55%, and Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa fell two points to 50%. At the bottom of table again this month was Tourism Minister Michela Vittoria Brambilla, who dropped three points to 25%, while Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo and Elio Vito, the minister for relations with parliament, were unchanged at 29%.
Out of 23 ministers, 10 saw their ratings remain the same as last month, six saw them fall and seven rise.
The IPR poll was taken March 8 and 9 on a cross section of 1,000 Italian voters.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: World’s Largest Bioethanol Plant in Italy
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 2 — With reference to second generation ethanol, Italy is about to become the European leader hanks to innovative research and development: the M&G Mossi group and Ghisolfi, thanks to the innovative technology developed by controlled company Chemtex Italia, confirmed for 2010 the construction in Crescentino (Vercelli) of an industrial facility with an annual output of 45,000 tonnes of second generation ethanol, the largest in the world. The second generation bioethanol facility will allow annual CO2 savings equal to 51,000 tonnes, equal to the use of 6,800 vehicles, starting from a biomass not allocated to food use and widely available across the land. On location there are approximately 300,000 tonnes of hay that can be easily located in the area surrounding the facility, and only 4,000 hectares would be needed to raise the marsh reed needed to fully fuel the scheduled production. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Magistrates Allege Balducci Used G8 Money to Buy Soft Furnishings for Son
Perugia magistrate refuses to release members of “the gang” from custody
PERUGIA — Businessmen angling for public works contracts were willing to pay for the wedding banquet of a woman working at the department in charge of major events. Other expenses incurred by middle and high-ranking civil servants were also taken care of. A glaring example is the purchase of fabrics for the home of Angelo Balducci’s son by the “Società Maddalena which built the conference hall for the G8 summit”. The revelations are in the report sent by Perugia public prosecutors Sergio Sottani and Alessia Tavernesi to the investigating magistrate, requesting that Angelo Balducci, Mauro Della Giovampaola and businessman Diego Anemone’s application for release should be turned down. The three are being held on bribery charges, along with Fabio De Santis, who did not apply for release. The prosecutors’ request was upheld and yesterday evening the defence application for release from custody was rejected by the investigating magistrate, Paolo Micheli.
The wedding banquet
The public prosecutors have reconstructed the network of relationships: “What was put in place in the context of managing major events was a complete and utter ‘commercialisation’ of the entire system for the benefit of private interests. This was possible thanks to the complicity of all, or nearly all, of the decision-making centres involved and of bodies with spending power. It is clear that bribery within the department involved the system in its entirety, not just the top echelon. The many tapped conversations enable us to understand that Diego Anemone and other businessmen acceptable to the system had daily contact not just with managers but with the whole of the structure. They catered for the demands of all employees: paying for refreshments for the wedding of one woman, procuring bank finance for the officer in charge of payment orders, delivering mysterious envelopes and sending valuable Christmas gifts for various officers. Favours and gifts were distributed at all levels, effectively guaranteeing the award and subsequent management of contracts in defiance of every principle of impartiality and good conduct of public administration, at immense cost to the public purse”. The public prosecutors’ argument, upheld by the magistrate, highlights “an inexplicable communality of interest between public servants and entrepreneurs, justified by previous encounters or by contact at work. Yet it goes much further, reaching the point of the total subservience of the public bodies to those outside the public administration, commercialising the public function to the exclusive benefit of private interests.”
Balducci’s companies
A document sent to the Carabinieri’s ROS special operations group on 3 March reconstructs the purchase of fabrics by Balducci’s wife in September 2008 to furnish the home of their son Filippo. In a phone call tapped on 30 September, the owner of the Foresi shop told Anemone that the merchandise selected “was particularly expensive” and asked him for authorisation to deliver the goods and for payment. During questioning by the magistrate, Balducci claimed to have repaid the money to Anemone. This version is contested by the public prosecutors, particularly after they had acquired the invoices. The report points out that the “corresponding taxation documents from the Foresti shop were issued to the Società Maddalena, a consortium set up to complete the contract for building the G8 summit conference hall. This demonstrates that managing and invoicing costs for completion of the works were conducted in an entirely ‘private’ fashion, to the sole detriment of public accounts, which indirectly bore the cost of favours distributed by the businessman to the conniving public official who guaranteed the award of the public contract”. The report also deals with Balducci’s relationship with Diego Anemone, who secured many contracts in connection with the G8 summit, the world swimming championships and the centenary celebrations for the unification of Italy. Balducci maintained that the relationship was “utterly irrelevant to the award of contracts and the subsequent management of works undertaken”. The prosecutors point out, however, that the relationship “was not restricted to personal encounters. Documents acquired show that it involved a communality of economic interests with company entanglements that were absolutely inappropriate, let alone illicit”.
Women in Venice
The report devotes a whole chapter to Mauro Della Giovampaola, a delegate at the La Maddalena G8. The investigators note that “initially, he even denied being a public officer” and then claimed he “had no power to spend or manage that would have enabled him to satisfy the demands of this or that private contractor involved in completion of the works”. However, the public prosecutors note that this “contradicts the outcome of his technical activities and Della Giovampaola’s own admission that he could award substantial technical consultancies (one went to magistrate Achille Toro’s son), which looks very much like power to make decisions and undertake related spending”. Della Giovampaola also denied encounters with prostitutes at the Hotel Gritti in Venice in the company of his colleague De Santis, organised by an employee of Diego Anemone. The public prosecutors say: “His affirmations verge on the grotesque, after glancing at the day’s conversations, some of which are eloquently explicit, and occasionally reminiscent of Boccaccio. We can deduce that the sexual act requested by the public officers was certainly offered, whether or not it actually took place”.
Fiorenza Sarzanini
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Proton Rays Will Burn Away Tumours
World’s fourth hadron therapy centre opens at Pavia. Will deal with inoperable cancers
MILAN — An invisible super-ray can penetrate and destroy the DNA of cancer cells. The ray is produced by a complex system of accelerators and transport lines that take it to the patient in the operating theatre, where the beams of subatomic particles attack the five per cent of tumours that are not operable or are resistant to normal radiation therapy. The new treatment is now available in Italy at Pavia, where yesterday ministers Ferruccio Fazio, Giulio Tremonti and Umberto Bossi attended the opening of the first CNAO (national centre for oncological hadron therapy: hadrons are the particles involved, protons and carbon ions). It is the world’s fourth such centre, after Chiba and Hyogo in Japan, and Heidelberg in Germany.
SYNCHROTRON — The hadrons are produced and accelerated in a synchrotron built by Italy’s institute of nuclear physics. Sandro Rossi, technical director of the CNAO foundation, points out: “It’s a particle accelerator with two sources that generate carbon ions and protons. The ions go round inside the synchrotron at an initial velocity of about 30,000 kilometres per second and are then accelerated to the energy level indicated by the doctor on the basis of the depth of the tumour”. The particle beam is then sent on to the treatment room, of which there are three, plus one for research. The central room contains a 150-ton suspended magnet which bends the particle beam through 90 degrees and directs it onto the patient from above. Radiation sessions lasts for two or three minutes and there are typically ten sessions in a treatment cycle. Roberto Orecchia, the CNAO foundation’s scientific director, notes: “This therapy does not replace conventional radiotherapy. It’s simply another string to our bow”. Among the more difficult to tackle cancers that can be treated by hadron therapy are sarcomas, tumours of the central nervous system, head and neck, melanomas of the eye and the tumours known as non-small-cell lung cancers and primitive liver neoplasms. So far, 50,000 patients around the world have been received proton therapy, and more than 6,000 have been treated with carbon ions, with excellent results. One feature of this therapy is its ability to penetrate in depth without damaging healthy tissue. The Pavia centre will now commence an experimental stage that will end in October 2011, after which routine treatment will begin. The centre will be fully operational in 2013, when it will have capacity to treat about 3,000 patients a year.
Adriana Bazzi
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Seize Dangerous Waste in South
Taranto, 16 Feb. (AKI) — Italian police on Tuesday seized over 600 tonnes of untreated dangerous waste materials believed to be destined for China in the southern port city of Taranto. Police made formal complaints against two people in connection with the materials, which they said were falsely labelled and concealed inside 24 containers lacked the necessary export permits.
Italian tax police and customs officials have seized 61 containers destined for export containing 1,400 tonnes of dangerous waste materials in Taranto in the southern region of Puglia in the past 12 months.
In January police arrested 10 people in northern Italy over the illegal trafficking of dangerous waste.
Six suspects were placed under house arrest, while four were jailed, in an operation which was part of a broader anti-mafia investigation, police said.
Police said they were investigating businesses allegedly involved in the illegal management and transport of waste.
A total of 41 people are under investigation including bank managers, according to Italian paramilitary police.
In December, Italian police uncovered 50,000 tonnes of dangerous waste including cancer-causing asbestos in a sprawling 10,000 square metre illegal dump in Torricella in the southern region of Puglia.
Formal complaints were made against 92 people last near over 43 illegal landfills discovered in the province of Taranto.
Shady waste disposal firms were planning to conceal 622,000 tonnes of dangerous waste in the illegal dumps, according to police.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Heavy Snow and Rain Causes Havoc
Rome, 9 March (AKI) — Late winter snow and rain storms in Italy have left hundreds of people stranded on the peninsula’s highways, shut down schools and cut off towns on the island of Sicily. Heavy snowfall in the past day has covered 1,000 kilometres of highways in Italy’s north and centre stopping hundreds of vehicles in the central region of Abruzzo early Wednesday, as drivers waited for snowploughs to clear major roads.
Snowstorms struck elsewhere in southern Europe this week. Barcelona on Monday recorded its heaviest snowfall since 1962 and thousands of travellers were stranded in Italy and on the border with Spain and France.
Bologna’s Guglielmo Marconi airport was closed early Wednesday as 150 emergency workers cleared heavy snow.
In Sicily, the highway connecting the cities of Palermo and Agrigento was closed after being flooded by 40 centimetres of water.
Early Wednesday, heavy rain provoked landslides that cut off the villages of Itala and Scaletta near the city of Messina.
Torrential flooding also closed highways in the southern regions of Calabria and Campania.
Heavy snow and rainfall was expected to continue in Italy until late Thursday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: CDA Stalwart to Lead Catholic Abuse Research
Former parliamentary chairman and CDA member Wim Deetman is to chair an independent investigation into reports of sexual abuse at a number of Catholic boarding schools.
The far-ranging investigation was ordered by Catholic bishops on Tuesday following mounting reports of abuse by priests at schools and seminaries in the 1960s and 1970s.
Since the end of February when newspapers reported claims of abuse at a boarding school in ‘s-Heerenberg in the 1960s and 1970s, over 350 people have come forward, the Volkskrant said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, one former priest at the boarding school told tv show Nova in a telephone interview on Tuesday he had abused a boy. ‘I must offer my deepest apologies,’ the man said.
He did not rule out abusing other boys at the school. ‘I also want to offer the others, if there are more, my apologies for my actions 40, 41 years ago,’ he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Leefbaar Rotterdam ‘Collected’ Proxy Votes
The public prosecution department in Rotterdam has begun an investigation into the collection of proxy votes by supporters of local populist party Leefbaar Rotterdam following the discovery of an email full of tips for getting other people’s voting forms.
The email was sent to party workers by city councillor Ronald Buijt who told reporters on Wednesday night he had done nothing wrong. ‘It was just a way of approaching our own supporters,’ Buijt was quoted as saying in the AD.
But a spokesman for the local election council said: ‘Voters who cannot cast their ballot themselves have to take the initiative to find someone to vote for them by proxy. The voter must take the initiative, not others, such as political parties.’
Recount
Council officials in Rotterdam are beginning a recount of all 220,000 votes cast in the port city on Thursday following claims of irregularities at polling stations.
According to the initial election result, Labour is just 651 votes ahead of Leefbaar. Both parties would take 14 seats on the city council.
‘This incident [proxy voting] puts all Leefbaar’s complaints about the election in a different light,’ said local Labour leader Peter van Heemst. ‘I have a bad feeling about this and I feel I’ve been fooled because for the past week Leefbaar has been giving the impression it fought a perfectly clean campaign.’
Shocking
‘I think this is shocking,’ Arno Bonte, leader of the left-wing greens GroenLinks’ local campaign. ‘Leefbaar Rotterdam has been around for eight years and should know better.’
The local election in Rotterdam has been dogged by controversy, with some papers now calling for a completely new vote.
According to the NRC, there were more than 100 incidents at the polls, ranging from multiple voting, one polling station being left unmanned for a few minutes and party workers trying to recruit support in the polling stations themselves. One ballot box was even found to be empty at the end of the day, the paper claims.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
OIC Islamophobia Observatory Spokesman Condemns Reprint of Blasphemous Cartoon by Swedish Newspapers
A spokesman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s Islamophobia Observatory condemned the reprint of the controversial drawing of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by Swedish artist Lars Vilks in three Swedish newspapers, namely Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, and Sydsvenska Dagbladet, and electronic media including radio and television broadcasts as reaction to an alleged plot to murder the cartoonist, which was uncovered in Ireland on March 9, 2010.
The spokesman said that the OIC had always spoken against violence including death threats against the originators of the blasphemous cartoons. He said however, that the Swedish media’s explanation of the action taken to reprint the cartoons in the name of freedom of expression was unacceptable, unwise and irresponsible as it has caused hurt and insult to the Muslim citizens of Sweden as well as the 1.5 billion Muslims across the world who had nothing to do with the alleged death threat. The spokesman added that there were other options available for the Swedish media to show their protest instated of resorting to an action that could potentially open a raw wound and incite avoidable unrest.
The OIC spokesman hoped that the Swedish newspapers will show restraint and exercise the right to freedom of expression in a responsible manner.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia: Corruption, Agriculture Minister Steps Down
(ANSAmed) — LJUBLJANA, MARCH 10 — In Slovenia, Agriculture Minister Milan Pogacnik resigned today after an investigation against him for corruption, abuse of power and political extortion got underway, which also involves other high-ranking politicians as well as several businesspeople. With Pogacnik, another two members of the ultra-nationalist Slovenian National Party (SNS), including its leader Zmago Jelincic, and other politicians and executives have been under investigation since yesterday. The minister explained that he decided to step down “due to pressure from the press and the opposition”, saying that he has nothing to do with the corruption that he has been accused of. His resignation, according to analysts, should in no way compromise the stability of the Slovenian government, but should strengthen it, since the scandal has resulted in the removal of an official that has been heavily criticised in recent weeks. The investigation began a few months ago due to suspicions that in the sale of land for the construction of a terminal at the Port of Koper on the mainland in Sezana, near the Italian border, there was illegal speculating and pressure applied by politicians to change regulatory plans. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: False March 11 Victim Living on State Funds for 6 Yrs
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 11 — The woman never got on the Madrid trains targeted by the March 11, 2004, attacks which cost the lives of 192 and injured over 2,000, but since then she has been living on state aid set aside for the victims of the attacks. El Mundo has told the story of the Ecuadorian immigrant Lorena Candelario today, reporting that the woman had received Spanish citizenship, public housing, tens of thousands of euros and the Real Encomienda, an award for the victims of terrorism. The Audiencia Nacional uncovered the fraud in 2006 and reported Lorena Candelario for the simulation of a crime, but she continued to claim she had the right to state aid. In the attempt to recover the sums provided by the Treasury, the Interior Ministry has tasked the State Public Prosecutor’s Office with bringing legal proceedings against the Ecuadorian woman. A total of 33 awards to victims of terrorist attacks will be contested by the Prosecutor’s Office, though the case of the South American woman has caused the greatest stir. The woman worked for the Asispa firm, which provides home-based assistance to the sick in the Madrid municipality of Barajas, in the northern part of the capital, opposite the Atocha station where the explosions took place. On the afternoon of March 11, Lorena Candelario went to work as usual and then at 6:40 P.M., eleven hours after the attacks, she underwent a medical examination in a Barajas surgery, where she said that she had been on one of the trains struck by the bombs, and that she had pain in her arm and tremours due to shock. The doctors in the surgery did not find any injury, even to her hearing, similar to those suffered by all of the victims of the attack. (ANSAmed).
2010-03-11 13:36
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: March 11 Attacks: A Divided Madrid Mourns Victims
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 11 — Madrid today marks the sixth anniversary of the March 11, 2004 attacks in which 192 people died and over 2,000 people were injured, with a series of memorial ceremonies which have once again marked the division between the local authorities and the 11-M Association. The latter, chaired by Pilar Manjon (whose 21-year-old son was killed on the a train), this morning took part in a ceremony in memory of the victims organised by the UGT and CCOO unions in the square in front of the Atocha station in Madrid. Meanwhile, at the memorial to the victims erected inside the station, Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon and the president of the Madrid Community, Esperanza Aguirre led the official ceremony attended by political representatives. Manjon, in a statement to the media, said that the association she chairs was not invited to the town council’s ceremony, which was instead attended by both the Association for aid to victims of terrorism and the Association of victims of terrorism. In memory of the victims of the bombings, an official statement was read in a plenary session of the Congress and a minute of silence was observed in the presence of Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. In the afternoon, Congress will host another ceremony to be attended by the various associations of the victims of the attacks. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: ECB Criticizes Lack of Measures Against Deficit
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 11 — Spain has not taken the necessary “concrete measures” to reduce its public deficit and reach the goals set by the stability pact for 2013. This criticism is part of the most recent monthly report of the European Central Bank, quoted by press agency EFE. The document warns the Spanish government that the target to reduce the public deficit to below 3% in 2013 “has not been fully backed by concrete measures”. The ECB underlines that Madrid has scheduled a reduction of 1.8 GDP points per year until 2013, more than the EU-recommended 1.5 points, to correct the Spanish deficit which reached 11.4% of GDP in 2009. However, Spain has not taken concrete measures to reach this goal, particularly for the 2011-2013 period. The ECB also criticises Ireland, which has time until 2014 to lower its deficit to the required standards. The country has promised to reach “ambitious targets of structural financial reconstruction”, without specifying any measures so far. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden to Recognize Armenian Genocide
The Swedish parliament voted on Thursday in favour of a motion to recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide.
Though the motion had the backing of members of five of the seven Swedish parliamentary parties, the vote’s outcome was uncertain to the last as the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs had recommended its rejection.
But with several centre-right politicians ignoring the recommendation and choosing to vote with the opposition, the motion was eventually passed by a single vote.
Speaking to The Local prior to the vote, Left Party foreign policy spokesperson Hans Linde expressed his view that the time had come for Sweden to take a stand on the issue.
“Firstly, to hinder any repeat and to learn from history. Secondly, to encourage the development of democracy in Turkey — which includes dealing with their own history. Thirdly, to redress the wrongs committed against the victims and their descendants,” Linde said.
The foreign affairs committee, in its comments on the motion, had argued for an open debate on the issue. It also stated that the persecution of the Armenians and other ethnic groups in 1915 would have constituted genocide according to the definition adopted by the United Nations in its 1948 genocide convention if it “had it been in force at the time.”
But the committee stated that it does not consider it parliament’s role to rule on human rights issues and that this should instead be addressed by “open research, open access to facts, and free debate.”
Sweden’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt agreed with the committee’s position in comments on his blog on Thursday. Under the heading “Don’t politicize history,” Bildt wrote:
“A politicizing of history in this way risks undermining ongoing reconciliation processes, plays into the hands of those opposing normality in Armenia and reform in Turkey… and creating new tension in Swedish society.”
The committee concluded in its comments that the Turkish government has in recent years made some movement on the issue, with conferences arranged on the subject as well as broader media debate.
The Swedish parliament has voted on the issue before, even approving a report in 2000 recognizing the disappearance of as many as 2.5 million Armenians, Chaldeans, Syrians, Assyrians and Pontian Greeks from April 1915 as genocide. But the recognition was later withdrawn “on a technicality”, Hans Linde told The Local.
“The parliament also voted against recognition (by 245 to 37) in 2008. The difference this time is that the Social Democrats have changed their position,” he said.
Carl Bildt claimed in his statement that the Social Democrat parliamentary group was forced to change standpoint on the issue as a result of a party congress vote, arguing that there are “several that feel deep unease over this.”
According to Sweden’s Living History Forum, most researchers are now in agreement that the massacres constituted genocide according to the accepted 1948 UN definition. The exception to this is Turkish researchers. The Turkish government has never recognized the events as a genocide and it is illegal in Turkey to claim that it occurred.
The Living History Forum is a Swedish public authority which works with issues on tolerance, democracy and human rights from both a national and international perspective.
The Local has made attempts to contact the foreign policy spokespersons at the Centre and Liberal (Folkpartiet) parties for a comment.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Ambassador ‘Concerned’ Over Sudden Roma Influx
Sweden’s ambassador in Belgrade has expressed concern over the number of Serbian citizens seeking asylum in Sweden in the wake of a recent relaxation of visa restrictions.
“There are currently 770 Serbian citizens in Sweden, most of whom are Roma, who are requesting political asylum,” Swedish ambassador in Belgrade Krister Bringeus was quoted as saying in the Danas daily.
“All 770 people came to Sweden in last two months, which is equal to the number of people that came to the country during the whole of last year. We are very concerned over the situation,” Bringeus said.
“None of them will be granted asylum and all will be sent back home in the coming days under an emergency procedure,” he added.
Sweden is the second EU state after Belgium to have raised an alarm over an influx of asylum seekers since the European Union lifted visa restrictions for citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia in December.
They are now allowed to travel freely into the Schengen zone which covers a majority of EU countries.
According to figures from Belgium, 58 ethnic Albanians sought asylum there in January and the number swelled to 330 in February.
Serbia has said it would take back all those who sought asylum in accordance with agreements on readmission it signed with EU member states.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said Serbia would open a probe into the case, as the asylum seekers had been organised. According to local media reports travel agents set up bus tours to EU countries luring locals with stories that they would get political asylum, a job and a house there.
Macedonia and Serbia have agreed to investigate the possibility of prosecuting the organisers of the bus lines, Dacic told the Beta news agency.
The first bus carrying failed Serbian and Macedonian asylum seekers back from Belgium was expected to arrive in the towns of Presevo and Kumanovo respectively later.
The bus is carrying more than 40 people who have all agreed to withdraw their asylum requests and return home voluntarily.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Security Police Eye Terror T-Shirts
Swedish security service Säpo has said it is monitoring Danish clothing firm Fighters + Lovers, which relocated to Sweden last year after six of its members were convicted of supporting terrorism.
Denmark’s Supreme Court found in March 2009 that the company’s T-shirts violated Danish terror legislation as sales would support the PFLP in the Palestinian territories and the FARC in Colombia, both of which are included on the EU’s list of terrorist organisations.
All six convicted members of Fighters + Lovers received conditional prison sentences of between two and six months. In response, the firm decided to move its T-shirt operations to Sweden despite the fact that Sweden is also legally obliged to follow the EU list.
Since August 2009 the firm has been selling its T-shirts from Sweden and states on its homepage that proceeds from the collection are being forwarded to the FARC and the PFLP.
According to news agency TT, Swedish security police (Säpo) are aware of the firm’s presence in Sweden and are monitoring the situation but were unwilling to confirm what measures had been taken.
The firm operates a Swedish, Danish and Spanish web-shop to sell its T-shirts bearing logos with the groups’ names, as well as a Facebook site used to explain its mission in support of groups that it describes as “freedom fighters and political activists.”
The firm argues that terror legislation is out of all proportion.
“Showing solidarity to freedom fighters is not supporting terror,” the group writes, explaining that proceeds from T-shirt sales go to lawyers providing legal aid to Palestinians and Colombians incarcerated by Israeli and Colombian intelligence services.
F&L’s Danish director Michael Schølardt told Danish newspaper Politiken that since the court also fined the firm $165,000 proceeds are currently going to the Danish state and not the FARC nor the PFLP for the time being.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Papers Defend Anti-Prophet Cartoon
“It’s very important for us to take a stand on the issue of freedom of expression,” said Mattsson.
CAIRO — Three leading Swedish newspapers have republished a lampooning cartoon of a person described as Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) under the pretext of showing solidarity with the cartoonist in the face of an alleged murder plot against him.
“It’s very important for us to take a stand on the issue of freedom of expression,” Thomas Mattsson, editor in chief at the Stockholm tabloid Expressen, told Deutsch Welle on Thursday March 11.
In 2007, Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks depicted a person he described as Prophet Muhammad as a dog to illustrate an editorial on self-censorship and freedom of expression.
“This cartoon has been published in several newspapers in Sweden before,” said Mattsson.
“Expressen has never published it, but we did so today given the fact that seven people were arrested yesterday on conspiracy of murder of the artist, Lars Vilks.”
The same was done by the Stockholm-based Dagens Nyheter newspaper and the Malmö daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet.
The three dailies said the move was a show of solidarity with Vilks.
“Vilks doesn’t stand alone in this conflict,” Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial Wednesday.
“A threat against him is, in the long term, also a threat against all Swedes.”
Irish police have arrested four Muslim men and three women on suspicion of plotting to kill the Swedish cartoonist in an operation coordinated with US and European security agencies.
Vilks, who has a 100,000-dollar (74,000-euro) bounty on his head from an Al-Qaeda-linked group, began receiving death threats after his cartoon appeared in Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda on August 18, 2007.
No offence
Mattsson argued that their decision to print the controversial cartoon should not been seen as an offence to Muslims in Sweden, estimated at nearly 400,000.
“We wanted to show this cartoon for our readers, but not in an offensive way,” he told the Deutsch Welle.
“It’s not published on the front page — it’s a two-column drawing, so it’s pretty small — but it’s identifiable and you can look at it and make up your own mind.”
Gunilla Herlitz, the Dagens Nyheter editor-in-chief, echoed the same position.
“I believe that, in this case, the cartoon is a part of the news and therefore we would like to show the readers what this is all about,” he told The Times on Thursday.
“But the cartoon is published in a context and is not the leading picture on the page.”
Any drawings of Prophet Muhammad, let alone lampooning ones, are considered blasphemous under Islam.
The publishing of the cartoon in 2007 triggered protests by Muslims in the town of Oerebro, west of Stockholm, where the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper is based.
The protests echoed the uproar caused in Denmark by the publication in September 2005 of 12 drawings, including one showing a man described as Prophet Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb and another showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.
The crisis prompted Muslims in Denmark and worldwide to champion local campaigns to wash away widely circulated misconceptions about Prophet Muhammad.
IslamOnline.net launched a special website, Reading Islam, as part of a larger effort to acquaint non-Muslims with the Prophet.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Protests Sweden Armenia ‘Genocide’ Vote
Turkey has withdrawn its ambassador to Sweden after the parliament voted narrowly to describe as genocide the killing of Armenians in World War I.
The Turkish government condemned the resolution, saying it was “based upon major errors and without foundation”.
The Swedish government opposed the opposition resolution but it passed by one vote after some MPs voted against party lines.
It comes days after a US congressional panel passed a similar resolution.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cancelled a visit to Stockholm scheduled next week and issued a statement criticising the vote.
“Our people and our government reject this decision based upon major errors and without foundation,” said the statement.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the vote was a “mistake” but that it did not change the position of his government, which supports Turkey’s entry into the EU.
The Swedish vote comes less than a week after the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved a similar resolution — by 23 votes to 22 — despite strong Turkish lobbying not to.
That vote also sparked anger from Turkey and the recall of its ambassador to Washington.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Tormented to Death’: Man With Learning Difficulties Bullied for Ten Years Collapses After Confronting Yobs in His Garden
A man with learning difficulties was ‘tormented to death’ after being bullied by yobs for more than a decade, neighbours claimed today.
David Askew, 64, dropped dead after he tackled thugs who broke down his gate and invaded his garden.
Neighbours said Mr Askew had been targeted before he was found dead at his home in Hattersley, Greater Manchester, last night.
One neighbour said he had been ‘tormented to death — like bear baiting’.
Residents criticised police and officials for not supporting Mr Askew and his brother Brian and mother Rose, who was wheelchair-bound.
Officers were called to the address last night after being told yobs were causing an ‘annoyance’.
When they arrived the youths had vanished but officers discovered Mr Askew collapsed in his back garden.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
As news of his death spread, neighbours told how Mr Askew had been the victim of a campaign of harassment.
Avona Davies, 49, said: ‘This has been going on for about 10 years. We have complained to the police and council and they put cameras in their back garden about three years ago.
‘They tormented David for money and cigarettes. They harassed him every night without fail.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BA Worker ‘Planned to Use Strike to Become a Suicide Bomber’
A would-be suicide bomber worked for British Airways and volunteered to work during the cabin crew strike, a court heard today.
Bangladesh-born Rajib Karim, 30, faced three charges under counter terrorism legislation when he appeared in court today.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Route Unveiled for £30billion Rail Link With 250mph Trains That Will Plough Through Heart of England
A controversial £30billion high-speed rail link that will whisk travellers at up to 250mph from the capital to the Midlands and the North was announced today by the Government — just weeks before the General Election.
It will cut a swathe through the scenic Chiltern Hills risking blight for some of the most beautiful countryside in Britain thereby igniting protests with thousands of people and landowners whose properties are affected.
The plan is for a ‘Y-shaped’ line which initially connects London with a new station in Birmingham with plans for it later to branch off to the North-West, to Manchester, and North to Leeds.
The Birmingham phase will cost between £15.8billion and £17.4billion and the second part between £14.2billion and £12.6billion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why’s There Not So Much as a Hair’s Breadth Between the Christian Right and the Secular Left
ResetDoc 05.03.2010 (Italy)
In a short interview the French political scientist Olivier Roy, explains why the Christian right and the secular left are both Islamophobic: “The former tendency stems from the Christian identity. The belief that Europe has Christian roots has nothing to do with religious belief. That is a right-wing conservative position. The Italian Lega Nord does not attend church, but regards the Church as a part of its identity. The latter is the secular left, which is against Islam — not because it is the religion of the immigrant but because it is a religion and the secular left is against any form of religion. Until recently, in the 20th century, debate raged between the secular left and the Christian right but now these are on the same side of the fence.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders Damages Holland: FM
“Freedom of expression is not a license to insult other people at will,” insisted Verhagen.
NOORDWIJK — Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen believes far-rightist, anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders is damaging the country by his divide-and-rule approach to politics and fear-mongering.
“His method is simple: he plays people off against one another, in a highly distasteful fashion,” Verhagen told a conference on public and social diplomacy in the 21st century on Wednesday, March 10.
“He is not looking to find common ground, uphold shared values or work toward constructive solutions based on these shared values,” asserted the top diplomat.
“In fact, his approach is the opposite of constructive: by spreading fear and hatred, he is only destroying, not building.”
Wilders’s far-right Freedom Party (PVV) made strong gains in last week’s local polls coming first in Almere, a city near the capital Amsterdam, and second in The Hague, boosting his chances to win the June parliamentary elections.
The controversial politician is notorious for his attacks against Islam and Muslims.
He released in March 2008 a 15-minute documentary, entitled “Fitna” or sedition in Arabic, accusing the Qur’an of inciting violence.
The documentary drew international condemnation and was blasted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as “offensively anti-Islamic”.
Wilders had earlier called for banning the Muslim holy book, which he described as “fascist.”
Foreign Minister Verhagen warned that his approach to politics has many serious repercussions, both domestically and internationally.
“In the process, he is damaging the interests of the Dutch people and the reputation of the Netherlands in the wider world.
“If we allow discrimination and hatred to spread, this will only lead to segregation, polarization, escalation and eventually, confrontation.”
Freedom to Offend
Foreign Minister Verhagen refuted the argument used by Wilders to justifying his controversial actions on the grounds of freedom of expressions.
“Being free to give offence does not mean that it is wise to give offence,” he asserted.
“Freedom of expression is not a license to insult other people at will. Everyone has the responsibility to show respect for the rights and reputations of others.”
The government official also defended Islam and the country’s Muslims against repeated attacks by Wilders.
“Islam is not the problem,” he stressed.
“We should condemn not religions, but rather people and groups who abuse religion to achieve their ends through violence.”
Verhagen praised the active participation of the Muslim community over the past centuries.
“There are more than 800,000 people in the Netherlands with roots in the Islamic world, about 5.3% of our population,” he noted.
“The overwhelming majority of them adheres to the values and rules of Dutch society and participates in Dutch society.”
Wilders, currently facing charges of discrimination and inciting hatred against non western immigrants and Muslims, will show a second part of his anti-Islam film, Fitna II, after the June general elections.
The new film, prepared with the help of professional US filmmakers, will allegedly show the effects of Muslim immigration to Europe.
“If we allow discrimination and hatred to spread, this will only lead to segregation, polarization, escalation and eventually, confrontation,” said Foreign Minister Verhagen.
“I have no patience for radical elements that place themselves outside our society. These radical elements should be penalized heavily as they are disrupting our social fabric.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Belgium Repatriates to Serbia and Macedonia
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 11 — The first group of Serbian and Macedonian nationals whose requests for political asylum were rejected by Belgian authorities have been repatriated to their home countries. Most are ethnic Albanians who, following the abolition of compulsory visas in December, went to EU countries — Belgium and Switzerland especially — with the aim of obtaining political asylum. As the Belgian ambassador to Serbia, Denise de Hauwere, told Tanjug, there were 44 Albanians from Serbia and 28 from Macedonia who were repatriated on buses. Since the beginning of the year there have been several hundred requests for asylum in Belgium — all of which rejected — by nationals of Balkan countries, a sharp increase over previous years. On Tuesday Belgian Premier Yves Leterme went to Macedonia to stress that it had no intention of granting asylum for economic reasons.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Media: Premier Under Pressure Over Corrupt Minister
(ANSAmed) — PRISTINA, MARCH 11 — Important Western countries reportedly asked the Premier of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, to expel a Minister from the government. The Minister is suspected of illegally earning 10 million euros by abusing his position. As the Kosovar newspaper Koha Ditore reports, a documents has been handed over to Thaci by the secret services of one of the countries of the Quint group (USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy). This document reportedly contains sufficient evidence against this Minister, whose name is not mentioned in the article. According to sources of the newspaper, the suspect has much political influence and is in charge of an important Ministry. To put pressure on the Prime Minister, opposition leader Ramush Haradinaj, former Premier and current President of the Alliance for the future of Kosovo, directly accused Thaci to be at the root of corruption in the country. “In my opinion, corruption starts with Thaci and he is the main cause. His logic of government creates consequences on other levels”, said Haradinaj quoted by the press. The US ambassador to Kosovo, on behalf of the embassies of the other Quint countries, has denied the news that Thaci has been put under pressure to make changes in his government. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Milosevic’s Death; 4th Anniversary, Flowers on Grave
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 11 — On the fourth anniversary of the death of Slobodan Milosevic, a delegation of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), founded by Milosevic, has placed a wreath of flowers on his grave in Pozarevac, his birth city, around 80 km south-east of Belgrade. The Socialist Party, currently led by Vice Premier and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, participates in Serbia’s pro-European government in coalition with the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic. Dacic was not present at today’s ceremony however. The delegation was led by Infrastructure Minister Milutin Mrkonjic, who in the past weeks was at the centre of a media row on pictures of Milosevic on the walls of his office. Slobodan Milosevic died on March 11 2006 in the prison of the Hague’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where he was tried for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was President of Serbia from 1990 to 1997 — during the years of the bloody Balkan wars — and after that President of the small federation formed by Serbia and Montenegro. Milosevic’s wife, Mira — who lives in exile in Moscow together with her son Marko — has spoken harsh words about the Socialist Party. The SPS, she told newspaper Kurir, “is in power today but isn’t doing anything to allow us to visit the grave of Slobodan Milosevic”. Both Milosevic’s wife and son are under investigation in Serbia for criminal offences. If they decide to return to Serbia they would be immediately arrested. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Programme to Spread Civil Defence Culture
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 9 — Drought, earthquakes, landslides, flooding, storms, large outbreaks of fire, but also industrial or energy disasters. Many are the natural and manmade disasters that place the lasting development of the Mediterranean region at risk. To avoid the devastating effects of these disasters on the people, the natural resources and the infrastructures of affected Countries, the EU is trying to disseminate in the partner Countries of the Mediterranean and the Balkans a culture that is primarily based on prevention. Such is the objective of the Euromed Programme for the prevention, preparation and reply to natural and manmade disasters (PPRD South), financed by the EU with 5 million euros and managed by a consortium led by the Italian Civil Defence and comprising that of Egypt, France and Algeria, and by UNSDR, the UN agency to lower the risk of disasters. “Mutually help each other for greater security and protection” is the slogan of the Programme that aims to strengthen the quality if Civil Defence services in the Euro-Mediterranean area through a transfer of know-how and information from EU Countries to the 14 Partner Countries of the Mediterranean and the Balkans (Egypt, Algeria, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Montenegro, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Palestinian Territories). The fundamental instrument to do this is the “System of Geographic Information (GIS) for Civil Defence”, an online system developed by the Italian Civil Defence in Collaboration with the National Council of Research (CNR) that will collect the databanks of all the involved bodies that will allow the creation of interactive maps of areas at risk. GIS will be the focus of a 4-day workshop that opened today in Rome in the offices of the Civil Defence, with experts coming from the 14 Partner Countries. The participants will learn how to create a databank and how to use the most recent management methods and analyse geo-spatial risk information. This will lay the foundations for the creation of PPRD South’s System of Geographic Information (GIS). In this sector the Partner Countries are basically moving their first steps, except for Algeria where the in 1996 the Civil Defence office was outfitted with a System of Geographic Information thanks to a presidential decree. This system allowed the Country to acquire a high degree of professionalism also thanks to fast track access to information concerning the territory, infrastructures and industrial areas that is rarely available in other Mediterranean Countries because of “national security” issues. The same reticence is found in Partner Countries with reference to the procession of interactive risk maps, which in the PPRD South project should flow into a sort of “regional Atlas of risk”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Government, Just Severity Against Proselytism
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, MARCH 11 — Morocco is severely opposed to anyone who threatens and mocks religious values. This is what Morocco’s Communication Minister Khalid Naciri has said in reply to criticism over the expulsion over the past few days of some twenty foreigners accused of proselytism. After the expulsions, the Open Doors NGO, which is inspired by evangelical Protestantism, said that Morocco “seems to be backtracking on its willingness to welcome and respect the rights of man”. Naciri, who is also a Government spokesperson, pointed out that “the same severity was used against the fundamentalist Muslims of the Salafia Jihadia group or against the over 100 Koranic schools contrary to dominant Muslim practice”. “The rare cases of expulsion are not linked to the practice of the Christian religion,” he added, “but to acts of proselytism.” In a statement to the MAP press agency, the Catholic Archbishop of Rabat, Vincent Landel, said that “to force anyone to change religion is a condemnable act.” Landel also released a statement, signed jointly by the chairman of the Evangelical Church in Morocco, in which the two men both state that they “have always been able to act within the framework of the freedom of worship attributed to Christian foreigners.” Chief Rabbi Joseph Israel also stated that “Morocco is a tolerant country”, where “all religions, Muslim, Jewish and Christian, are practiced without constraints or limits”. Father Dimitri Orekhov, representative of the Russian Orthodox church in Morocco stated that he is contrary to any form of proselytism, pointing out that “the Moroccan Constitution guarantees freedom of worship and expression.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco Defends Expulsion of Christian Workers
Morocco says it will take a tough line on proselytism — seeking converts from another religion — two days after it expelled 20 Christian workers.
Communications Minister Khalid Naciri warned that the government would be “severe with all those who play with religious values”.
Religious freedom is guaranteed under Moroccan law but proselytism is banned.
Some Christian groups claim the authorities are deliberately trying to restrict their work in the country.
The expelled Christians had run a children’s home called Village of Hope near the town of Ain Leuh in the Middle Atlas mountains.
The home housed 33 children who, it is claimed, would otherwise have been abandoned.
The 20 foreign workers were given just a few days’ notice to cease their activities and leave the country, a statement on the group’s website said.
They were accused of trying to convert the children in their care to Christianity.
The group’s statement says it had always been open about its Christian beliefs with the authorities, and for 10 years had been allowed to take in and foster abandoned children.
A British couple who live near Marrakesh and who know the Village of Hope children’s home told the BBC they were stunned by the news.
The couple, who declined to be named, said the foster parents and the children — some of whom had lived at the home for 10 years — had been left traumatised by the separation.
Children ‘targeted’
Mr Naciri said the expelled foreigners “took advantage of the poverty of some families and targeted their young children, whom they took in hand, in violation of the kafala (adoption) procedures for abandoned or orphaned children”.
He said Morocco had “always been and remains a land of openness and tolerance”.
“All churches have their place on the street in Morocco and Christians practise their religion freely,” the minister said.
“The rare cases of expulsion have nothing to do with the practice of Christianity but with acts of proselytism.”
He said the warning also applied to Muslim groups.
BBC religious affairs correspondent Christopher Landau says under Moroccan law, Jewish and Christian minorities can worship without restriction but are not allowed to encourage citizens from the Muslim majority to abandon their faith of birth.
However, some missionary groups in the country claim authorities are deliberately trying to restrict Christian work, he adds.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Superglue: The Remarkable Unity of the Muslim Brotherhood
by Husam Tammam
As the greatest internal crisis the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has experienced for over half a century took place in full view of the media one obvious question arose. Is the group on the verge of splitting? With each day that passed expectations that the MB would splinter grew. It seemed more a question of when than if.
The crisis, though, blew over without the group coming apart at the seams. After the MB elected a new leadership it retreated into self- contained mode. One of the group’s ideologues was moved, as a result, to speak at length about its invincibility. The MB was inspired by divine factors, not mundane considerations, he insisted.
The MB, at least in Egypt, seems uncannily capable of resisting division. This is particularly true when one compares the MB with other groups. But it does not mean that the group is immune to splits. They have happened in the pat, some minor, others of more significance.
Ahmed El-Sokkari, a co-founder of the group and once its number two, left the Brotherhood after failing to see eye to eye with Hassan El-Banna.
Small groups, too, have been known to break away, the best known being the coterie around Mohamed Rifaat and the Shabab Sayedna Mohamed (Youths for Our Master Mohamed) faction.
The biggest split took place under Hassan El-Hodeibi, the second supreme guide. Several Secret Organisation leaders, including the organisation’s commander Abdel-Rahman El-Sandi, tried to oust El-Hodeibi. They were joined by members alarmed at El-Hodeibi’s dealings with the post-1952 Revolution regime, including Azharites Mohamed El-Ghazali, Sayed Sabeq and Abdel-Moez Abdel-Sattar.
Some who left the MB went over to the 1952 revolutionary regime and ended up in senior positions within the government’s religious organisations (Sayed Sabeq and El-Ghazali), political organistations (Abdel-Aziz Kamel) and security services (Naguib Gowefl). The desertions continued throughout the revolutionary era as the Nasserist regime sought to co-opt many former MB members.
During the clampdown of 1965 the MB suffered a doctrinal, not just an organisational, schism. Many members were influenced by Sayed Qotb’s ideas about hakimiya (government by divine ordinance) and jahiliya (ignorance of the true faith). While in prison MB members debated Qotb’s ideas, subsequently issuing a document, Doah la Qodah (Preachers not Judges), in which they refuted Qotb’s hardline concepts.
In prison the MB held trials of Qotb’s followers as a result of which some recanted. Others left the group and formed what came to be known as the Qotb current. One prominent member was Ahmed Abdel-Maguid Abdel-Sami, who received a death sentence along with Qotb, though it was later commuted. The main ideologue of the Qotb current was Abdel-Maguid El-Shazli, whose Hadd Al-Iman wa Haqiqat Al-Islam (The Boundary of Faith and the Truth about Islam), is considered by many to embody the group’s manifesto.
We should not, however, confuse the above group with the Qotb sympathisers of today, though it is true that most of the latter were linked to the MB in 1965. The most prominent of today’s Qotb sympathisers are the eighth Supreme Guide Mohamed Badei, Mahmoud Ezzat and Sabri Arafah El-Komi.
One cannot speak of organisational schisms in the MB in the 1970s and 80s, or under supreme guide Omar El-Tilmisani. The MB, at the time, was too busy picking up the pieces after the havoc wrought on its structure by the policies of the Nasserist regime. El-Tilmisani oversaw a forceful attempt at restructuring, during which the MB succeeded in recruiting many members among college students.
Even so there were desertions. Farid Abdel-Khaleq resigned from the Guidance Bureau in protest at the dominance of Secret Organisation members within the MB. A few years later Sheikh Abdel-Sattar Fathallah Said walked out from the Guidance Bureau in frustration over the MB’s endorsement of President Hosni Mubarak’s re-election.
The 1990s, a time in which the MB gathered momentum, saw the desertion of over 100 members from Al-Azhar University under the leadership of Mohamed Roshdi (after whom the resulting faction was called). Roshdi was influenced by Qotb, and the MB dismissed his ideas as erroneous. The Roshdi schism took place under the fourth supreme guide, Mohamed Hamed Abul-Nasr.
The beginning of the term of the fifth guide, Mustafa Mashhour, saw a major generational split. A group led by Abul-Ela Madi, Mohamed Abdel-Latif, and Salah Abdel-Karim, the so-called middle generation ( geel al-wasat ) defected, declaring its intention to form a political party that would integrate fully in political life.
The MB experienced further turbulence with the resignation of a majority of members of the Administrative Bureau of South Cairo who took over some MB institutions and declared their independence from the group.
Still, the MB remains relatively cohesive. Certainly it has demonstrated that it is more capable than other parties when it comes to retaining unity in the face of harsh clampdowns. The MB is over 80 years old now. During its existence Egypt has moved from a monarchy to a republic. The country has had two kings and four presidents, some quite determined to destroy the MB.
The reasons for such cohesiveness are numerous. They include the centralised organisation of collective work, the emphasis on cohesion, and the doctrinal and religious commitment to unity. All these factors have boosted the group’s staying power.
The MB has produced a wealth of literature on the merits of collective work and the drawbacks of division. It has drawn on many religious texts, taken from various phases of Islam, to persuade its members that unity is the only way to survive.
The MB constantly exalts the value of loyalty to the group. MB preachers often say that the value of any “brother”, however senior his position in the hierarchy, hinges on his loyalty to the group: If a member thinks of leaving the group, the MB responds with the dismissive remark, “The group throws away its junk”.
The MB doesn’t claim to be the only truly Muslim group, but the frequency with which it harps on the topic creates a sense of obedience, indeed subservience, among its members, associating even the thought of dissent with guilt. As a result, few members think of the MB as a political entity or preaching organisation with which it is fine to disagree. Members swear to obey the supreme guide whatever they may think of his directives.
The organisational cohesiveness of the MB is exceptional. There is a great variety of MB interests and members often disagree, both about the manner of working and the nature of the work itself. Nothing keeps the group together beyond a simple ideal and harsh organisational discipline. Despite the MB’s claim to a universal Islam, doctrinal variety, even contradictions, exist within the group.
The MB doesn’t follow one school of Islamic law. It even refuses to embrace any one branch of Islamic jurisdiction in a forthright manner, although it is mainly a Sunni group. The MB will not produce a clear opinion on controversial matters unless it is forced to do so, as was the case when it denounced violence. The group refrains from taking sides because it wants to pose as the sole representative of a universal Islam. This conduct gives it great flexibility and allows it to maintain organisational cohesion. Within its ranks, the MB allows pluralism of thought, so long as such pluralism does not reach the point of challenging the leadership.
Beneath this broad umbrella of intellectual and doctrinal interpretation the MB can effectively absorb members. It puts its foot down only when someone defies orders or challenges the leaders.
The MB is more than a party and less than a state. The group has created a parallel society with its own network of social relations, political roles and economic interests. It has carved a social arena for itself in which members can live from birth to death without once having to step outside.
The brother is accepted into a group that provides organisational and social connections to the point when he doesn’t have to look elsewhere. He can live and receive education, make friends and get married, find a job and engage in politics. The MB has created its own society, established its own institutions, created its own activities, and managed its religious, economic and social affairs in a manner that allows individuals to interact with society at a distance.
When a brother enters this society he loses the ability — or the will — to break free from the group. To step aside would be like stepping out of your own skin. To depart would be like leaving the only clan to which you belong.
After years of collision with the regime the group has developed a bunker mentality, one that makes it feel that it is hunted down and surrounded by enemies, who also happen to be the enemies of God. As the MB prepares its members for constant confrontation with its enemies it encourages paranoia among them. The resulting siege mentality helps keep everyone together. Internal differences are disregarded for the sake of unity.
In times of expansion, internal debate is seen as a diversion from the cause. In times of contraction, members fear to augment the pain by criticising the group. Internal dissent is invariably associated with feelings of guilt.
The Quranic text in which Moses blames his brother Aaron for letting the people pray to the bull while awaiting his return is often cited. Aaron, it is mentioned, risked the faith of the community to maintain unity. Similarly, the MB buries any organisational lapses or intellectual glitches in order for unity to prevail.
The regime’s tactics have also served to promote MB unity. It has never attempted to engage in dialogue with MB dissidents which in turn discourages dissent. The experience of the so-called middle generation is a case in point. For the last 15 years they have done everything they can to form a political party, but the regime has refused to budge an inch.
The regime clearly believes that dealing with a united MB is better than dealing with splinter groups. A united MB, with a known leader and hierarchy, can be pressured and cajoled. It is much easier to handle one group than a multitude of dissenters. Hardly surprising, then, that MB dissenters prefer to stay within the bosom of the group rather than to face the cold realities without.
* The writer is an expert in Islamist movements.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Top Egyptian Cleric Dies of Heart Attack
Riyadh, 10 March (AKI) — Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, Egypt’s top Muslim cleric and Sunni Islam’s most senior figure, has died, while on a visit to Saudi Arabia. The 81-year-old died of a heart attack in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.
Tantawi riled radical Islamists for his controversial ban of the face-covering niqab veil, which he said had no basis in Islam.
The news of his death was “an indescribable shock,” his son Amr Tantawi told Egyptian television, adding that Tantawi would be buried in Medina — the burial place of the Prophet Mohammed.
“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.
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.”
Tantawi had since 1996 headed al-Azhar mosque and al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning and scholarship.
Last year, Tantawi barred female students at the university from wearing the full-face covering niqab veil. His views on the veil prompted Egypt’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement to accuse him of “harming the interests of Islam”.
Tantawi was vocal in his opposition to female circumcision, which is common in Egypt, calling it “un-Islamic”. He also condemned suicide attacks, saying extremists had hijacked Islamic principles for their own ends.
He said French Muslims should obey any law that France might enact banning the veil, upsetting other Muslim scholars.
He wrote a number of books, including a 15-volume, 7,000-page encyclopedia on the interpretation of Quran.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Announcing Construction of East Jerusalem Apartments: Stupid, Yes; Proof of Disinterest in Peace, No
by Barry Rubin
There’s been a lot of nonsense written about an Israeli government announcement that 1600 apartments will be built in east Jerusalem. The timing was stupid, of course, since Vice-President Joe Biden was in town and didn’t like the idea. Moreover, to have such an announcement just when indirect talks were about to start between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) doesn’t make Israel look helpful.
But that’s about it.
Anyone who knows Israel really well understands this to be what is called locally a “fashlan,” that is a stupid mess-up as often happens with the government there. Israel combines the candor of a First World country with the bureaucratic incompetence of a Third World one. The ministry simply didn’t think about what the impact would be nor did it consult with the prime minister’s office. It was sheer narrow-visioned incompetence.
Of course, though, Israel has announced since 1993, when the Oslo Agreement was signed, that it would continue building on existing settlements. And the government made clear all along that construction would continue in east Jerusalem. The action, if not the timing, was neither a provocation, the establishment of a “new settlement,” or proof that Israel didn’t want peace.
After all, everyone seems to have forgotten one simple fact:…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Biden: USA-Israel Relations Cannot be Broken
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 11 — Israel and the US maintain relations that are “unique” and this bond “cannot be broken”, whatever challenges may lie ahead, US Vice President Joe Biden has said in his speech to an audience of students in Tel Aviv. Biden also said that he counted Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu, who he referred to using his nickname ‘Bibi’, as being amongst his “closest friends”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
East Jerusalem: Press, Israel Planning 50,000 Homes
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 11 — With the issue of Israeli construction in East Jerusalem the cause for confrontation between Benyamin Netanyahu’s government and US Vice President Joe Biden(currently on a visit to Israel), Israeli daily Haaretz has revealed that in the zone at the centre of the controversy 50,000 new housing units for Israelis are planned, with 20,000 of them already in advanced stages of approval and implementation procedure and another 30,000 only on paper for the time being. Haaretz noted that most of the projects involve predominantly Jewish zones in East Jerusalem, while a much smaller portion involve small Jewish centres within Palestinian areas in East Jerusalem. Concerning the former, Haaretz reported that, in the southern outskirts in the Gilo quarter, 3,000 new housing units were planned with another 1,500 in Har Homà and 3,500 in Ghivat Ha-Matos. In the northern outskirts, 1,500 housing units are planned in Pisgat Zeev, 450 in Nevé Yaakov and 1,200 in Ramot. In the Eastern outskirts, the Armon ha-Natziv quarter is expected to be extended with an additional 450 housing units. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Court Upholds Death Sentence Against Sorcerer
JEDDAH: The General Court in Madinah upheld its verdict against 46-year-old accused Arab sorcerer Ali Hussein Subat (aka Shahrzad), saying he deserved death for publicly practicing black magic, thus spreading corruption on the earth.
The judges said they called for the execution of the man for his continuous practice of black magic and that he had been doing it publicly for several years before millions of viewers of a satellite channel.
In a statement on Wednesday, the court said it was not convinced by the appeal bench’s rejection of its verdict against the sorcerer and its attempt to ask the man to repent.
“All evidence proved that he was practicing black magic,” the court said.
The general court has now passed the case back to the Appeals Court in Makkah. It also seized the man’s cell phone, which he was carrying at the time of arrest.
The court insisted that the magician deserved death in order to make him an example and deterrent for others, especially for foreigners who come to the Kingdom to practice sorcery.
The appeals court rejected the general court’s first verdict on Dec. 8, 2009, saying it was a premature one and that the man should be asked to repent if he had really committed the crime. The appeals court also wanted to make sure that all allegations made against the defendant were genuine.
The magician was arrested at a hotel in Madinah two years ago. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice seized a talisman where he had written the name of a man, his mother and wife.
Shahrzad acknowledged in front of the general court in Madinah that he had presented a black magic program on the Saudi Sports Channel. However, he claimed that he was practicing black magic during the past eight years in order to treat patients. He also admitted that he had called for the assistance of Satan, Jinn and talisman for his purpose.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Repression Grows as Europe, US Avoid Discussing Rights
Envoy Should Use Visit to Condemn Harassment, Detention of Activists, Journalists
(New York, March 11, 2010) — Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign relations chief, should raise human rights concerns with Syrian officials during her visit next week and seek specific commitments to improve their record, Human Rights Watch said today. So far, the increased Western engagement with Syria has not resulted in any human rights gains because the US and Europe have failed to press the issue, Human Rights Watch said.
In the last three months, as Western officials reached out to Syria, its security services have detained numerous human rights activists, journalists, and students who tried to exercise their rights to free expression and assembly. In February alone, Prime Minister Francois Fillon of France and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns have visited Damascus.
“As the last few months have demonstrated, talking to Syria without putting its rights record on the table emboldens the government to believe that it can do whatever it wants to its people, without consequence,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “A message to Syria that says ‘We only care about your external affairs’ is a green light for repression.”
On March 2, 2010, Military Intelligence in Aleppo stormed the apartment of Abdel Hafez Abdel Rahman, a board member of the unlicensed Kurdish human rights group MAF (“Right” in Kurdish), and detained him with another MAF board member, Nadera Abdo. Other members of the group said that the detention is tied to Abdel Rahman’s activities for the group MAF. While the security services released Abdo on March 6, Abdel Rahman remains in detention.
Security services have also detained bloggers, journalists, and writers. On December 27, 2009, State Security called in Tal al-Mallohi, 19, a secondary school student, for interrogation, reportedly for articles she wrote and distributed on her blog. A few days later, the security services confiscated her computer and detained her. A Syrian human rights activist told Human Rights Watch that she remains in detention. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine what article the security forces deemed objectionable.
On November 22, State Security detained without explanation Ma`en `Akel, a journalist at the newspaper Thawra. Syrian activists following the case said `Akel apparently was detained for investigating government corruption. Security forces finally released him on February 23 without charging him with a crime. On January 7, security forces detained another journalist, Ali Taha, and a photographer, Ali Ahmad, in the Sayyida Zaynab neighborhood of Damascus. They were released on February 7, without having been charged. Both work for the satellite TV station Rotana, which mainly focuses on social life topics.
On February 10, border police detained Ragheda Sa`id Hasan, who had been a political prisoner in the 1990s for her Communist Action Party membership, as she tried to cross into Lebanon. Three days later, unidentified individuals entered her apartment and confiscated a copy of “The New Prophets,” a manuscript in which she describes her experience as a political detainee, as well as publications issued by various Syrian opposition parties. She remains in detention.
“A government that fails to respect the rights of its citizens can’t be counted on to respect any other international obligation, to anyone,” Whitson said. “Ending the persecution of Syrian citizens should be part and parcel of any plan to rehabilitate this government from its isolation.”
Two detained human rights lawyers, Muhannad al-Hasani, president of the Syrian Human Rights Organization (Swasiah) and Haytham al-Maleh, a 79-year-old prominent human rights lawyer who has been jailed repeatedly, are on trial. On February 18, al-Hasani appeared before a Damascus criminal court for interrogation on charges of “weakening national sentiment” and “spreading false or exaggerated information” in connection with his monitoring of the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC), a special court with almost no procedural guarantees.
Al-Maleh appeared before a military judge on February 22 to face new charges of “insulting the president” and “slandering a governmental body.” According to his family, his health is failing since the `Adra prison authorities stopped allowing families to bring medication to inmates on February 11. Al-Maleh, who has diabetes and an overactive thyroid, has refused the prison pharmacy’s medicine because he believes the medicine is of poor quality.
“While Syrian officials are chatting up Western diplomats in their gilded front parlors, they’re jailing anyone who dares to utter a critical word in their basement prison cells,” Whitson said.
Security forces also have cracked down on political activists, particularly Kurdish leaders. On December 26, Political Security detained four prominent members of the Kurdish party Yekiti: Hassan Saleh, Muhammad Mustapha, Ma`ruf Mulla Ahmad, and Anwar Naso. All four remain in incommunicado detention. In a recent report, Human Rights Watch documented the increased repression of Syria’s Kurds following large-scale Kurdish demonstrations in March 2004. The Syrian authorities also are expanding their travel bans on activists. On February 24, security services prevented Radeef Mustapha, the head of the board of the Kurdish Human Rights Committee, and the coordinator of the Syrian Coalition to Combat the Death Penalty, from traveling to Geneva to attend the fourth annual conference to combat the death penalty. According to a February 2009 study published by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, at least 417 political and human rights activists are banned from traveling.
“We are back to the bad old days where you have to watch every word you say,” a Syrian lawyer who wished to remain anonymous told Human Rights Watch over the phone.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Gov’t Wants Private Investor for Barada Industries
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, MARCH 11 — The Syrian government has announced a call for bids of private investors on the management of the General Company for Metallic Industries or Barada, the only State-owned company that makes electrical appliances. The Italian Trade Commission (ICE) announces in a statement that Barada has been a well-known brand in Syria for decades, but that production is now stagnating. According to the Italian Trade Commission (ICE), the reasons behind these problems are competition from private companies on one side, and the use of an obsolete design and inadequate marketing, leading to an increase of stocks, on the other. The General Organisation of Engineering Industries has set April 15 as deadline to present bids. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
To Win We Must Know Our Enemies and Know Ourselves
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, once declared: “We are going to win because they love life and we love death.” Let’s translate this into an Islamic meaning horizon: “We are going to win because infidels love life, something transient, whereas we Muslims love death, something eternal.”
Another rendering: “We Muslims are going to win because unlike westerners we do not fear violent death.” This rendering would disturb the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. He thought Englishman, like mankind in general, regarded violent death as the greatest evil. Hobbes, the unknown founder of modern psychology, seems to have been ignorant of Islam.
Be this as it may, fear of violent death has permeated liberal-leftists in America and Europe. This fear, no less than their secular humanism, explains why they abhor war and seek peace. Recall the Cold War, when a leftwing American academic coined the phrase “Better Red than Dead.” This servile attitude cannot but encourage Muslims like Nasrallah, who are more cunning than wise. Know this: underlying Islam’s love of death is fear of life!
Islam’s fear of life is rooted in pre-Islamic times, in Arab culture, which was tribal, polytheistic, and shaped by a desert environment where life was “nasty, brutish, and short.” One hardly dared sleep in that uncivilized environment. If your throat wasn’t slit, your camel, on which your survival depended, was stolen by a rival tribe. Here is where Hobbes’ fear of violent death seems to apply. Not so, because Arab culture bred warriors. As in Sparta, manliness or courage was deemed the highest virtue. Fear of violent death would be shameful.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Ergenekon; Three More Soldiers Imprisoned
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 10 — Today a court in Istanbul charged and imprisoned another three members of the Turkish armed forces suspected of having plotted in 2003 to overturn the government of the Islamic-inspired Justice and Development Party ( AKP, of Premier Tayyip Erdogan), making the number of people arrested as part of the investigation for subversion a total of 40, reports press agency Anadolu. Among the soldiers in prison are retired generals, admirals in service and about thirty officers of varying ranks. Among these is also former Army General Cetin Dogan, believed to be the master planner of the alleged scheme (code named ‘Balyoz’, meaning hammer), which was reported in January by pro-government newspaper Taraf. ‘Bayloz’, according to the daily, intended to throw the country into chaos with acts of violence and terrorism, with the final goal of putting pressure on the AKP, which had been in power for just a few months, discrediting it and demonstrating that it was not able to guarantee public safety, and therefore forcing it to leave the government, yielding its position to the military. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Death of Chinese Rebel a Good Omen for Pakistan
by Amir Mir
LAHORE: The recent killing of Abdul Haq al-Turkistani, the chief of Turkistani Islamic Party (TIP), a Chinese Muslim separatist movement, in a US drone attack in North Waziristan area of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan has come at a critical juncture when Islamabad was under rising pressure from Beijing to allow it to set up military bases in Pakistan to counter the Chinese rebels operating from its soil.
A TIP spokesman has already confirmed that the Chinese separatist commander was among the three militants killed in an American drone strike in Tappi village of Miramshah in North Waziristan on February 15 while they were traveling in a vehicle. Abdul Haq al-Turkistani was closely linked to al-Qaeda and happens to be the second successive chief of the Turkisatni Islamic Party to have been killed in the Pakistani tribal areas. Abdul Haq, also known as Maimaitiming Maimaiti, became the TIP chief after the killing of Hassan Mahsum, the group’s previous head, by the Pakistani security forces in South Waziristan on October 2, 2004. His importance can be gauged from the fact that the US Treasury Department had designated him a global terrorist in April 2009, stating that he has already been appointed a member of al-Qaeda’s Majlis-e-Shura or executive council, way back in 2005. Soon afterwards, the United Nations had too designated him a terrorist leader.
According to well-placed diplomatic circles in Islamabad, the growing strength of the Pakistan-based Chinese separatist movement under the command of Haq was a matter of serious concern for Beijing which had even asked Islamabad to allow it military presence either in the NWFP or in the FATA, as is the case with the Americans, so that it could effectively counter the Chinese separatists there. They added that the killing of Abdul Haq has come as a good omen for Pakistan as it would ease off the Chinese pressure to establish military bases in Pakistan. Yet diplomatic circles said the Chinese wish to have military presence in Pakistan should not be painted as an attempt to set up military bases there. They added that China does not have any military bases outside its land unlike the United States and its prime concern was the spread of violence from the Pakistani tribal belt to the trouble-stricken Chinese region of Xinjiang, the main Muslim majority province.
The Turkistani Islamic Party (TIP), which is also called East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), is an Uyghur militant group that advocates the creation of an independent Islamic state of East Turkistan, in the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang region of China. East Turkistan had maintained a measure of independence until the early 1950s, when Mao’s victorious rebel armies turned to the peripheries and began securing Chinese borders, capturing Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkistan. The native Uyghurs resisted the Chinese occupation until 1960s, but failed to win support from neighboring Muslim states due to their fractured tribal nature. Since the mid-1980s, however, an active pan-Islamic movement has been trying to cement the opposing groups together against Chinese occupation of their homeland, pressing for an independent East Turkistan state. Yet Beijing, which views Xingjian as an invaluable asset due to its crucial strategic location near Central Asia and its large oil and gas reserves, is using all possible methods to quell the separatist movement.
Beijing blames the Uyghur separatists for carrying out sporadic bombings and shoot outs in the past, causing an atmosphere of insecurity and fear in China. Abdul Haq appeared in a video only last year, calling for Chinese people to be attacked at home and abroad. “Their men should be killed and captured to seek the release of our brothers who are jailed in Eastern Turkistan,” said Haq who was shown somewhere in the Pakistani tribal areas while carrying an assault rifle. Chinese President Hu Jintao subsequently asked his Pakistani counterpart Asif Zardari during a meeting in Beijing to take stern action against the Chinese militants hiding in Pakistani tribal areas and running terrorist activities in China, adding they might threaten the security of over 5,000 Chinese nationals working on numerous development projects in Pakistan.
In June 2009, Islamabad arrested and extradited ten Chinese militants to Beijing wanted on terrorism charges. But the death of Haq has come as a significant success in the ongoing Chinese campaign against Islamic separatists. He used to run a training camp for his recruits in Tora Bora in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province prior to the US invasion in October 2001. However, he had relocated his camps to Pakistan’s lawless Waziristan region. Haq was considered influential enough in al-Qaeda’s leadership circles that he was dispatched to mediate between rival Taliban groups after the death of Commander Baitullah Mehsud. He was spotted in the Pakistani tribal areas in June 2009, attending an important meeting with Baitullah Mehsud, who was finally killed in an American drone attack in August 2009.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesian Islamic Organization Issues a Fatwa Against Smoking
Muhammadiyah, the second largest Muslim organization in the country for followers, declares that smoking is “haram” morally wrong. It leads to unhealthy lifestyles, weakens and pushes frustrated people to suicide. Tobacco industry, a major economic resource at risk.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — The Muhammadiyah has launched a fatwa against smoking, saying that smoking is haram, or “morally wrong”. A tough stance from the moderate Muslim organization, that counts about 40 million members and in Indonesia — the most populous Muslim country in the world — is second only to Nahdlatul Ulama (NU, with 60 million followers). The religious edict, moreover, goes to hit the tobacco industry, one of the most important economic activities in the country in turnover and as a source of employment.
The two organizations maintain, usually, a moderate position in relation to controversial issues such as jihad, Islamic terrorism, morals, code of ethics and clothing. Precisely for this reason Indonesian public opinion is “surprised” by the announcement of the Muhammadiyah. The central committee and executive arms of the Muslim movement has in fact declared “morally illicit” (haram), the vice of smoking.
The ban on cigarettes was written on paper in a “fatwa” identified by the initials 6/SMOTT/III/2010, which also contains the reasons why smoking is wrong. Above all the will to propose models of healthy lifestyles and to help preserve the environment. Together with the health and ecological aspects, the edict is motivated by the desire to strengthen the souls “weakened” by wrong behaviours and lifestyles.
Professor Yunahar Ilyas, a leading member of the Muhammadiyah, confirms that smoking is a “bad habit” that leads people to other worse “situations”, including physical weakness, and pushes the frustrated to suicide.
The position of the second largest Muslim organization in the country strikes at the heart of the tobacco industry, a major economic resources of Indonesia. The magnates of smoking, in fact, are among the main tax contributors. The sector also provides employment to many people, the majority originating from poor areas and agricultural land. Even sporting events and music will suffer a severe blow: cigarettes, in fact, are among the principal sponsors. A collapse of business in the tobacco sector — caused by the fatwa — would limit their resources to invest in entertainment and in sports.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Five Killed in Attack on Christian Charity
Peshawar, 10 March (AKI/DAWN) — Militants armed with guns and grenades killed at least five people when they stormed the offices of a US-based Christian charity in Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said. The gunmen attacked the offices of World Vision near Oghi, in the district of Mansehra in the troubled North West Frontier Province, where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have carried out multiple attacks.
Police said five people were killed, including two women, and a spokesman for World Vision confirmed that four of its Pakistani staff died in the attack that took place 60 kilometres north of Islamabad. Six others were injured.
World Vision administration officer Mohammad Sajid told the media that he was in the building when “more than 15 armed men” arrived in trucks and entered the offices.
“They gathered all of us in one room. The gunmen, some of whom had their faces covered, also snatched our mobile phones.
“They dragged people one by one and shifted to an adjacent room, and shot and killed them. We could see them firing,” he said.
The Christian charity has been operating in the area since October 2005, when a massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 70,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless in Pakistan’s northwest (photo).
A wave of suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan has killed more than 3,000 people since 2007 but foreign targets are rarely attacked.
Blame has fallen on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants bitterly opposed to the alliance with the United States.
Four local staff with the British-run aid group Plan International were killed in a similar attack in Mansehra in February 2008, prompting some charities to withdraw their offices from the troubled area.
The Plan office was burned to the ground in the attack by gunmen who opened fire and hurled grenades, and the non-governmental organisation, which had been active in the area for 12 years, halted its operations in Pakistan.
On February 3, a bomb attack in the NWFP district of Lower Dir killed three American soldiers and five other people at the opening of a school just rebuilt with Western funding after a militant attack.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Don’t Look Now! Amnesty is Back
Shades of Kennedy-McCain, new legislation being prepared
A new battle over illegal immigration is rapidly shaping up in the nation’s capital.
Supporters of comprehensive immigration reform are demanding immediate legislative action from the Obama administration with a planned mass demonstration in Washington scheduled for March 21, billed as “March for America: Change Takes Courage.”
Meanwhile, Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have been meeting with the White House to reintroduce immigration legislation. The bipartisan effort is reminiscent of twice-failed attempts by Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., during the administration of President George W. Bush.
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Greece: New Democracy Against Law Amendment
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 11 — Antonis Samaras, leader of the main Greek opposition party, New Democracy, has defined the new law on immigration which is being debated in parliament as “dangerous”. The law would provide for the granting of citizenship to second generation immigrants and give them the right to vote in local elections. “My party,” said Samaras, “will abolish the law when it returns to power.” (ANSAmed).
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Italy: Pillay Deplores Criminalisation of Immigration
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 11 — “I deplore the tendency to criminalise illegal immigration and wonder what led to illegal immigration becoming a criminal offense” in Italy, said United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navathenem Pillay in a hearing before the Foreign Affairs Commission in the Chamber of Deputies, underscoring the importance of setting up a body for the protection of human rights at the national level. Pillay also spoke out against Italy’s policy of sending back migrants at its borders. “Those requesting asylum have to be able to be heard, and the policy of sending them back prevents this. The latter constitutes a violation” of human rights, stressed the UN High Commissioner, who expressed concern over the tendency, “which has intensified over the past year”, to represent migrants “in negative terms”. In asking himself what led to Italy’s “making illegal immigration into a criminal act”, Pillay also spoke on the issue of the Rom ethnic group, which Italy has dealt with almost exclusively in terms of “security”, and has criticised the emergence of cliche’s against them. (ANSAmed).
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Italy: Gypsy Relocation Plan “Violates Human Rights”
Rome, 11 March (AKI) — An Italian plan to clear Roma Gypsy camps and relocate more than 6,000 people was a major violation of their human rights, according to Amnesty International. In a new report released in Rome on Thursday, the rights group attacked the controversial plan which provides for the destruction of 100 camps, claiming would leave 1,000 people homeless.
“These measures urgently need to be rethought,” said Ignacio Jovtis, the organisation’s Italian expert, in a statement.
“Roma families across the Italian capital now face losing their possessions, their social contracts, their access to work and to state services.
“There is also a risk that if the plan is implemented it could be used as a blueprint for forced evictions in othyer Italian regions.
“Evictions without prior consultation and the offer of adequate alternative accommodation to all of those affected are a violation of their human rights.”
In a project dubbed the ‘Nomad Plan’ around 6,000 Roma, commonly referred to as Gypsies, are expected to be relocated to 13 new or expanded camps on the outskirts of the Italian capital after over 100 camps are demolished.
Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno has been supervising the demolition of the city’s camps, including Europe’s biggest Gypsy camp, Casalino 900, which was completely levelled by bulldozers last month.
Amnesty said that any forced evictions and relocations would “result in a range of human rights violations” and inhibit the Roma’s access to public schools and employment.
“Many Roma live in shacks and caravans lacking basic hygienic conditions,” Jovtis said. “ The current situation is the result of years of neglect, inadequate policies and discrimination by successive administrations.”
Top European rights watchdog The Council of Europe has previously criticised Italy for the living conditions of Italy’s Roma and Sinti Gypsies and the “xenophobic” climate of discrimination they and other immigrants face.
There are an estimated 160,000 Roma Gypsies in Italy, nearly half of whom were born in Italy and have Italian citizenship.
Others come from European Union countries such as Romania and the countries of the former Yugoslavia.
The Italian government claims it wants to give those who are in Italy legally better access to schools, medical and social services.
According to Amnesty, between 12,000 and 15,000 Roma live in Rome.
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Italy: Children in School No Stop to Deportation
(AGI) — Rome, 11 Mar. — Allowing non-European Union citizens to remain in spite of having been expelled from the country, cannot take place, if not “in particular situations.” The first Civil Section of the Court of Cassation has emphasized that this does not include having children at school in Italy.
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Obama Pledges Support for Schumer, Graham on Immigration
President Barack Obama vowed to continue partnering with congressional leaders on comprehensive immigration reform.
Obama, after a meeting with Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who are working to craft a comprehensive immigration bill, pledged support for the senators and other leaders to craft an immigration reform bill.
“Today I met with Senators Schumer and Graham and was pleased to learn of their progress in forging a proposal to fix our broken immigration system,” Obama said in a statement following the meeting. “I look forward to reviewing their promising framework, and every American should applaud their efforts to reach across party lines and find commonsense answers to one of our most vexing problems.”
Schumer and Graham have been working to put together a bill to win bipartisan support, upon which some congressional leaders have hoped to move this year.
Obama said that he’s optimistic that a coalition of grassroots groups was “building momentum” for reform, and said he’d partner with Schumer, Graham, and community leaders going forward.
“I told both the Senators and the community leaders that my commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is unwavering, and that I will continue to be their partner in this important effort,” the president said.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Government Donates Computers to Ghana Immigration Service
Accra, March 10, GNA — The Spanish Government on Wednesday presented 26 computers with accessories and anti counterfeiting machines valued at about 58,000 Euros to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) in Accra to boost its operations.
Mr. Vicente Garcia Sanjuan, Head of Migration Desk, Office of the Director-General, Migration and International Relationship, Ministry of Interior, Spain who presented the items lauded the excellent and effective collaboration between Ghana and Spain in the fight against illegal immigrants and organised crime.
He noted that while legal migrations opened door to a world of opportunities, illegal immigration was dehumanising and helped groups engaged in human trafficking.
Mr. Sanjuan said criminal groups that engaged in organised crime usually left victims especially women and children in sexual exploitation, marginalisation, social exclusion and slavery.
“The migrants sometimes make outrageous commitment, with members of organised crime that tie them or their families for many years,” he added.
Mr. Sanjuan contended that it was the duty of authorities to fight against illegal immigrant and reduce the action of organised crime by ensuring that law enforcement agencies enforced laws on migration.
To address illegal migration, he said Spain was also encouraging West African countries through capacity building as well as provision of logistics under the EU AENEAS programme.
Mr. Sanjuan said apart from mounting surveillance on the sea borders, it was also building security networks for the exchange of information in the fight against illegal immigration.
In fighting against document fraud, he said, Spain had co-financed training courses in Ghana and mentioned the formation of new Centre of Expertise in Migration and Identity Document (CEMID) in the country to check fraud.
Mrs. Rebecca Chantel Guinea Stal, Charge d’Affairs of Spain, said provision of the computers was to provide a very practical way for both countries to learn from each other.
Ms. Elizabeth Adjei, Director of Immigration Service, receiving the items said it had benefited from numerous projects from the Spanish Government towards capacity building.
She mentioned a two-million Euro facility for the installation of a 14 Digital Boarder Surveillance Equipment around Ghana’s 45 boundaries.
Ms. Adjei said the GIS was embarking on reforms and restructuring of its operations especially in human and drug trafficking.
She said GIS had received some cases involving identity fraud and impersonation especially among people who want to travel to Europe and the computers would boost their operations and enhance database.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Court: Christian’s Stand on ‘Gay’ Unions ‘Not Important’
Refuses to hear case of registrar forced to perform same-sex ‘marriage’
The U.K. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by a Christian registrar forced by her employers to perform same-sex “marriage” ceremonies, saying the case does not raise issues of “general public importance.”
Lillian Ladele said she is “disappointed” and feels her religious rights have been “trampled by another set of rights,” according to a report by the Christian Institute. She is now considering taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Ladele had been a registrar for 16 years for London’s Islington City Council. But when she refused to perform a homosexual civil union due to her religious beliefs, her employers threatened her with dismissal and purportedly passed confidential employment details about her to a staff LGBT forum.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Amil Imani: Muslims’ Sheep Mentality
Humans are living information machines, receiving input from both external sources as well as the body, processing it in some fashion, and producing output: our thoughts and behavior. From the moment of birth, parents, siblings, and others play pivotal parts in supplying the input and influencing how it is processed.
| — Hat tip: Amil Imani | [Return to headlines] |
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