Greece: Work Minister, Unemployment at 12% by End of 2010
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 19 — Unemployment in Greece could rise to 12% by the end of the year. This is the forecast made by the Minister for Work and Social Welfare, Andreas Loverdos, speaking to the relevant parliamentary committee. The Minister added that after Easter the government will present Parliament with a bill to regulate flexible work relations. Meanwhile the national statistics service has announced that unemployment in Greece leapt to 10.3% in the fourth quarter of 2009 from 7.9% in the same period in 2008. It also said that the number of people unemployed in the period October-December 2009 was equal to 514,401 against the 121,733 of the same period in 2008. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
ACORN Reportedly on Verge of Bankruptcy
The liberal political organizing group ACORN is on the verge of bankruptcy following a string of disclosures about mismanagement that caused funding to dry up, according to a source familiar with the organization.
Leaders of the embattled grass-roots group and their advisers have been discussing options for weeks as donors, including foundations and government entities, have cut back on funding, according to another source, who took part in talks about ACORN’s future.
Pablo Eisenberg, a senior fellow at the Georgetown Public and Policy Institute, said ACORN leaders have told him of plans to file for bankruptcy and form a new entity to serve as a public policy link to local and state chapters “without the name of ACORN.”
Eisenberg said he was asked to be a board member of the new group but has not been in touch with ACORN’s leaders for about six weeks.
The group’s plans to possibly file for bankruptcy were first reported in the New York Times.
The community organizing group was embarrassed last fall after a video sting that showed ACORN housing counselors advising two young conservative activists — posing as a pimp and prostitute — how to conceal their criminal business.
The episode prompted Congress to vote to prohibit the federal government from funding ACORN. The U.S. Census Bureau ended its partnership with the group.
An ACORN spokesman on Saturday declined to comment on possible bankruptcy plans.
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In Fargo, No Panic This Time as Red River Rises
The North Dakota city has prepared early for flooding, a lesson learned from last year’s near-disaster.
Dennis Walaker, the mayor of this flood-threatened city, closed a meeting Saturday by handing out celebratory cigars to officials — to be smoked after the swollen Red River had crested.
The city had spent an anxious week stacking 1 million sandbags to hold back the river, which was expected to near last year’s record height of 40.8 feet.
But on Saturday, with flood threats looming throughout the Upper Midwest, all signs seemed to indicate that the city would avoid calamity. The Red River, which flows north through tabletop-flat corn and beet fields, is projected to reach a high mark of 37 feet Sunday — 19 feet above flood stage.
Subfreezing temperatures are keeping snow and ice from tumbling into the waterway, and no heavy rain is expected in the coming days, said Patrick Slattery, a National Weather Service spokesman.
“In years past, this would have been a life-threatening event,” Walaker said.
The display of cautious confidence was a marked difference from last year, when North Dakota’s most populous city last battled its tempestuous waterway.
In 2009, as the Red River ballooned, the city panicked. Businesses closed, neighborhoods emptied out and even residents who lived far from a riverbank packed bags in anticipation of fleeing.
The river rose swiftly, and so-called overland flooding turned farms into lakes. But the city, tucked next to 14 miles of the Red River, dodged a catastrophe when nearly 50 miles of makeshift barriers held up.
After the flood danger receded, city officials marched forward with plans to better protect their 93,000 residents.
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Exclusive: Former Somali Fighter Warns of Growing Radicalism in Canada
TORONTO — Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed works as a security guard at an apartment complex in Toronto’s Little Mogadishu neighborhood. It can be a slow job, sitting at the gatehouse, but nobody could call him inexperienced.
Before he returned to Toronto last year, the 35-year-old Canadian spent six months with the Somali militant group Al-Shabab. He trained at Al-Shabab’s main camp in Mogadishu and guarded the frontlines.
“To us, the local people, they were freedom fighters,” Mr. Mohamed said of Al-Shabab. “They were fighting for our country, they were fighting for the survival of the Somali race, and everyone rallied behind them.”
Vic Toews, the Public Safety Minister, announced last week that the government had added Al-Shabab to Canada’s list of outlawed terrorist organizations. He said the al-Qaeda-linked group was “actively recruiting within the Somali-Canadian community.”
Police and intelligence officials are investigating a half-dozen young Canadians suspected of having joined the militant group. A video posted on the Internet this week claimed one of them, Mohamed Elmi Ibrahim, had died “in battle.”
Mr. Mohamed, who immigrated to Ontario in 1989, is believed to be the first Canadian to speak publicly about his time with Al-Shabab. He told his story to the National Post in exclusive interviews in Mogadishu and Toronto.
Video: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed speaks out
Mr. Mohamed said he opposes Al-Shabab’s extremist ideology and only trained and fought alongside the group to expel Ethiopian troops from his country. But his time with Al-Shabab gave him a rare look inside the group, now a top priority for Western counter-terrorism agencies.
Mr. Mohamed said Ottawa is right to be concerned. He said that is why he decided to speak out, because he wants to help tackle the extremism that is luring some Somali-Canadians to join Al-Shabab, and that could motivate others to commit terrorism in Canada.
“Young and angry Muslim Canadians. That is a recipe that al-Qaeda would dream to have. It’s like the Lotto 6-49 for them because that’s all they want, to tap into that,” he said.
Because of the chaos in Somalia, some parts of Mr. Mohamed’s account could not be verified. But he provided documents to back some elements of his story and members of the Somali community and two Western officials vouched for his credibility. He was also hired temporarily by NATO last fall to advise the alliance on Somalia.
“I know his story quite well,” said his longtime friend Robert Lemstra, who went to Brock University with Mr. Mohamed and now works as an Africa specialist in the Netherlands. “Him and I have had regular contact throughout the years.”
Mr. Mohamed first came to the Post’s attention in January 2007 in Mogadishu, where he is a member of one of the city’s most powerful clans. The newspaper hired him on one occasion to help arrange interviews with Somalis.
Mr. Mohamed is the son of a tribal chief who owns a Mogadishu auto shop that specializes in Italian FIATs. The family was well-off by the standards of Somalia but when he was 14, his mother died in a house fire and he was sent to Toronto to live with an aunt.
After graduating from Kipling Collegiate Institute, he majored in political science at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., before moving to Australia to study law at Bond University.
In 2004, he returned to Africa to campaign for his cousin, Hussein Aidid (the son of Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid), who was running for president. Mr. Aidid lost the election but was named deputy prime minister and asked Mr. Mohamed to serve as his political secretary.
During the years Mr. Mohamed had been away in Canada and Australia, Somalia had collapsed. Rival warlords had reduced Mogadishu to rubble and an extremist group called the Islamic Courts Union had emerged from the mayhem.
The ICU sought to restore order to the country by imposing its harsh version of Islamic law. Backed by a Taliban-like militant group called Al-Shabab, Arabic for “The Youth,” it began fighting to topple the government.
As the armed Islamists advanced, the weak Somali government asked its northern neighbour, Ethiopia, for help. Ethiopia had fought bitter wars against Somalia, so when Ethiopian troops arrived to quell the insurgency, the Islamists had no trouble recruiting.
“Ethiopia was basically a God-given gift,” Mr. Mohamed said. He called the decision to allow the Ethiopian military into the country “the stupidest thing they could have done.”
The Ethiopians were implicated in rapes, looting, executions and indiscriminate firing in populated areas. In 2007, Ethiopian soldiers came to Mr. Mohamed’s home to take him away. He was convinced he was going to be killed, but during a skirmish, he escaped into the area of Mogadishu controlled by Al-Shabab.
He said that after his close call, he vowed to fight the Ethiopians until either they left or he died. He said he underwent weapons training at the Salahedin training camp, located in an old Italian graveyard. “It was run by the Shabab,” he said. “From morning until mid-day they give you training, military training — defensive tactics, how to shoot a gun, basic self-defensive training, and in the afternoon they were giving us speeches.”
The Al-Shabab leaders framed the conflict in religious terms, saying Somalis were being punished for not following their Islamic faith, and that if they died fighting for Allah they would go to paradise, Mr. Mohamed said.
Mr. Mohamed gave some speeches himself. Because he had been freed from the Ethiopians as a result of an Al-Shabab attack, he was used for propaganda purposes and was regularly asked to speak to the young militants, he said.
In his speeches, he said, he appealed to Somali patriotism by mimicking lines from Braveheart, which he had seen at an Ontario movie theatre. “I was basically calling people to unify and forget about the differences of tribe, religious allegiances. I was telling them our country is under occupation,” he said.
Said Mr. Lemstra, “He’s quite a Somali nationalist, as most Somalis are, but definitely not a fundamentalist Islamic person whatsoever. He in fact just wants Somalia to be run by Somalis and have a good nationalist government.”
That sometimes put him at odds with Al-Shabab. He said he once challenged an extremist cleric over his views on martyrdom. And one afternoon, he said he gave an unwelcome speech near the National Stadium that served as the main Ethiopian military base. “I said, ‘I don’t care whether you are a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim. As long as you are a Somali, that’s all that matters now.’“
Afterwards, Al-Shabab took him aside and told him not to say such things, he said. It was a sign that Al-Shabab had its own narrow agenda but at the time Mr. Mohamed wasn’t thinking about anything but fighting the Ethiopians.
Mr. Mohamed said he saw “a few” foreigners in Al-Shabab. Most were Arabs from the Persian Gulf region, as well as Pakistanis and Eritreans, but he said he also spoke with a former Seattle barber who had converted to Islam and had come to Somalia for jihad. He said the barber was later killed.
For six months, Mr. Mohamed said, he went to the Salahedin camp almost daily. “I did a lot of guard duty, facing the stadium most of the time because the stadium in Mogadishu was the biggest military base of the Ethiopian army,” he said.
Asked if he had ever fired his weapon, he said: “Of course. A couple of times they [the Ethiopians] tried to run over us but we defended, and that’s normal, because they wanted to come and just slaughter us.
“We had women and children in the area and if they come, they will do whatever they want to them. So I have my wife and my son in there. Do you think I will allow them to walk [in]? First, they should kill me.
“Because if they go in they will rape my wife and kill my son probably. So I have to do whatever I can to defend, that will never happen and I did whatever I could. I am proud fighting against the Ethiopian army. I’m honoured.”
In 2008, Mr. Aidid asked Mr. Mohamed to come to the Eritrean capital Asmara to help with a new group called the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia. He said he served as chief of staff to the central committee chairman.
When Ethiopia finally pulled its last troops out of Somali in 2009, Mr. Mohamed said he quit within 24 hours and, after spending a few months in Dubai, returned to Toronto to find a job and sponsor his family to join him in Canada.
Upon returning to the Dixon Road neighborhood where he grew up, Mr. Mohamed said he was alarmed at the level of extremism he witnessed among some of the young Somali-Canadians he met. “I was shocked how deep these kids are into this radicalization.”
Some were interested in fighting in Somalia, he said. One of the members of the Toronto 18 terrorist group was Somali-born, and one of the most prominent Al-Shabab leaders, an American named Omar Hammami, had lived in Toronto’s Little Mogadishu.
Then last fall, Canadian authorities began investigating the “Somali Six,” a group of young Toronto men in their mid-20s who may have joined Al-Shabab. Mr. Mohamed suspects a recruiting network may be operating.
“How did these six boys get a ticket, airplane ticket, somebody waiting for them at the airport in Nairobi, putting them in a hotel there, taking them up to another city, taking them out of the country, smuggling them to Somalia? There must be an organization here, there, everywhere.”
He believes youths are becoming radicalized partly from the Internet, particularly by watching online extremists like Anwar Al Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaeda ideologue who encourages Muslims to commit terrorism in Western countries.
Mr. Mohamed is trying to help.
He is in the early stages of forming a non-profit organization called Generation Islam, which will steer Somali-Canadians away from radicalism. He wants the government to contribute funding. No such program currently exists in the Somali community.
“I think this will be an initiative which can really make a difference,” said Mohamed Gilao, executive director of Dejinta Beesha, a Toronto-based settlement services organization that works with the Somali community.
Ahmed Hussen of the Canadian Somali Congress said the fact that just six Somalis are suspected of having joined Al-Shabab suggests that only a small minority are buying into extremist ideology. “It’s not pervasive, however one is too many.”
Mr. Mohamed said his priority is to “help de-radicalize these young kids who are being brainwashed … to tell these young kids that there is another way. You can be a patriot, but you don’t need to be a terrorist.”
He said he fears what could happen in Canada if nothing is done. At the same time, Somalia does not need more gunmen, he said. It needs educated Canadian Somalis to help rebuild the country after three decades of wrenching war.
TORONTO — Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed works as a security guard at an apartment complex in Toronto’s Little Mogadishu neighborhood. It can be a slow job, sitting at the gatehouse, but nobody could call him inexperienced.
Before he returned to Toronto last year, the 35-year-old Canadian spent six months with the Somali militant group Al-Shabab. He trained at Al-Shabab’s main camp in Mogadishu and guarded the frontlines.
“To us, the local people, they were freedom fighters,” Mr. Mohamed said of Al-Shabab. “They were fighting for our country, they were fighting for the survival of the Somali race, and everyone rallied behind them.”
Vic Toews, the Public Safety Minister, announced last week that the government had added Al-Shabab to Canada’s list of outlawed terrorist organizations. He said the al-Qaeda-linked group was “actively recruiting within the Somali-Canadian community.”
Police and intelligence officials are investigating a half-dozen young Canadians suspected of having joined the militant group. A video posted on the Internet this week claimed one of them, Mohamed Elmi Ibrahim, had died “in battle.”
Mr. Mohamed, who immigrated to Ontario in 1989, is believed to be the first Canadian to speak publicly about his time with Al-Shabab. He told his story to the National Post in exclusive interviews in Mogadishu and Toronto.
Video: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed speaks out
Mr. Mohamed said he opposes Al-Shabab’s extremist ideology and only trained and fought alongside the group to expel Ethiopian troops from his country. But his time with Al-Shabab gave him a rare look inside the group, now a top priority for Western counter-terrorism agencies.
Mr. Mohamed said Ottawa is right to be concerned. He said that is why he decided to speak out, because he wants to help tackle the extremism that is luring some Somali-Canadians to join Al-Shabab, and that could motivate others to commit terrorism in Canada.
“Young and angry Muslim Canadians. That is a recipe that al-Qaeda would dream to have. It’s like the Lotto 6-49 for them because that’s all they want, to tap into that,” he said.
Because of the chaos in Somalia, some parts of Mr. Mohamed’s account could not be verified. But he provided documents to back some elements of his story and members of the Somali community and two Western officials vouched for his credibility. He was also hired temporarily by NATO last fall to advise the alliance on Somalia.
“I know his story quite well,” said his longtime friend Robert Lemstra, who went to Brock University with Mr. Mohamed and now works as an Africa specialist in the Netherlands. “Him and I have had regular contact throughout the years.”
Mr. Mohamed first came to the Post’s attention in January 2007 in Mogadishu, where he is a member of one of the city’s most powerful clans. The newspaper hired him on one occasion to help arrange interviews with Somalis.
Mr. Mohamed is the son of a tribal chief who owns a Mogadishu auto shop that specializes in Italian FIATs. The family was well-off by the standards of Somalia but when he was 14, his mother died in a house fire and he was sent to Toronto to live with an aunt.
After graduating from Kipling Collegiate Institute, he majored in political science at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., before moving to Australia to study law at Bond University.
In 2004, he returned to Africa to campaign for his cousin, Hussein Aidid (the son of Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid), who was running for president. Mr. Aidid lost the election but was named deputy prime minister and asked Mr. Mohamed to serve as his political secretary.
During the years Mr. Mohamed had been away in Canada and Australia, Somalia had collapsed. Rival warlords had reduced Mogadishu to rubble and an extremist group called the Islamic Courts Union had emerged from the mayhem.
The ICU sought to restore order to the country by imposing its harsh version of Islamic law. Backed by a Taliban-like militant group called Al-Shabab, Arabic for “The Youth,” it began fighting to topple the government.
As the armed Islamists advanced, the weak Somali government asked its northern neighbour, Ethiopia, for help. Ethiopia had fought bitter wars against Somalia, so when Ethiopian troops arrived to quell the insurgency, the Islamists had no trouble recruiting.
“Ethiopia was basically a God-given gift,” Mr. Mohamed said. He called the decision to allow the Ethiopian military into the country “the stupidest thing they could have done.”
The Ethiopians were implicated in rapes, looting, executions and indiscriminate firing in populated areas. In 2007, Ethiopian soldiers came to Mr. Mohamed’s home to take him away. He was convinced he was going to be killed, but during a skirmish, he escaped into the area of Mogadishu controlled by Al-Shabab.
He said that after his close call, he vowed to fight the Ethiopians until either they left or he died. He said he underwent weapons training at the Salahedin training camp, located in an old Italian graveyard. “It was run by the Shabab,” he said. “From morning until mid-day they give you training, military training — defensive tactics, how to shoot a gun, basic self-defensive training, and in the afternoon they were giving us speeches.”
The Al-Shabab leaders framed the conflict in religious terms, saying Somalis were being punished for not following their Islamic faith, and that if they died fighting for Allah they would go to paradise, Mr. Mohamed said.
Mr. Mohamed gave some speeches himself. Because he had been freed from the Ethiopians as a result of an Al-Shabab attack, he was used for propaganda purposes and was regularly asked to speak to the young militants, he said.
In his speeches, he said, he appealed to Somali patriotism by mimicking lines from Braveheart, which he had seen at an Ontario movie theatre. “I was basically calling people to unify and forget about the differences of tribe, religious allegiances. I was telling them our country is under occupation,” he said.
Said Mr. Lemstra, “He’s quite a Somali nationalist, as most Somalis are, but definitely not a fundamentalist Islamic person whatsoever. He in fact just wants Somalia to be run by Somalis and have a good nationalist government.”
That sometimes put him at odds with Al-Shabab. He said he once challenged an extremist cleric over his views on martyrdom. And one afternoon, he said he gave an unwelcome speech near the National Stadium that served as the main Ethiopian military base. “I said, ‘I don’t care whether you are a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim. As long as you are a Somali, that’s all that matters now.’“
Afterwards, Al-Shabab took him aside and told him not to say such things, he said. It was a sign that Al-Shabab had its own narrow agenda but at the time Mr. Mohamed wasn’t thinking about anything but fighting the Ethiopians.
Mr. Mohamed said he saw “a few” foreigners in Al-Shabab. Most were Arabs from the Persian Gulf region, as well as Pakistanis and Eritreans, but he said he also spoke with a former Seattle barber who had converted to Islam and had come to Somalia for jihad. He said the barber was later killed.
For six months, Mr. Mohamed said, he went to the Salahedin camp almost daily. “I did a lot of guard duty, facing the stadium most of the time because the stadium in Mogadishu was the biggest military base of the Ethiopian army,” he said.
Asked if he had ever fired his weapon, he said: “Of course. A couple of times they [the Ethiopians] tried to run over us but we defended, and that’s normal, because they wanted to come and just slaughter us.
“We had women and children in the area and if they come, they will do whatever they want to them. So I have my wife and my son in there. Do you think I will allow them to walk [in]? First, they should kill me.
“Because if they go in they will rape my wife and kill my son probably. So I have to do whatever I can to defend, that will never happen and I did whatever I could. I am proud fighting against the Ethiopian army. I’m honoured.”
In 2008, Mr. Aidid asked Mr. Mohamed to come to the Eritrean capital Asmara to help with a new group called the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia. He said he served as chief of staff to the central committee chairman.
When Ethiopia finally pulled its last troops out of Somali in 2009, Mr. Mohamed said he quit within 24 hours and, after spending a few months in Dubai, returned to Toronto to find a job and sponsor his family to join him in Canada.
Upon returning to the Dixon Road neighborhood where he grew up, Mr. Mohamed said he was alarmed at the level of extremism he witnessed among some of the young Somali-Canadians he met. “I was shocked how deep these kids are into this radicalization.”
Some were interested in fighting in Somalia, he said. One of the members of the Toronto 18 terrorist group was Somali-born, and one of the most prominent Al-Shabab leaders, an American named Omar Hammami, had lived in Toronto’s Little Mogadishu.
Then last fall, Canadian authorities began investigating the “Somali Six,” a group of young Toronto men in their mid-20s who may have joined Al-Shabab. Mr. Mohamed suspects a recruiting network may be operating.
“How did these six boys get a ticket, airplane ticket, somebody waiting for them at the airport in Nairobi, putting them in a hotel there, taking them up to another city, taking them out of the country, smuggling them to Somalia? There must be an organization here, there, everywhere.”
He believes youths are becoming radicalized partly from the Internet, particularly by watching online extremists like Anwar Al Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaeda ideologue who encourages Muslims to commit terrorism in Western countries.
Mr. Mohamed is trying to help.
He is in the early stages of forming a non-profit organization called Generation Islam, which will steer Somali-Canadians away from radicalism. He wants the government to contribute funding. No such program currently exists in the Somali community.
“I think this will be an initiative which can really make a difference,” said Mohamed Gilao, executive director of Dejinta Beesha, a Toronto-based settlement services organization that works with the Somali community.
Ahmed Hussen of the Canadian Somali Congress said the fact that just six Somalis are suspected of having joined Al-Shabab suggests that only a small minority are buying into extremist ideology. “It’s not pervasive, however one is too many.”
Mr. Mohamed said his priority is to “help de-radicalize these young kids who are being brainwashed … to tell these young kids that there is another way. You can be a patriot, but you don’t need to be a terrorist.”
He said he fears what could happen in Canada if nothing is done. At the same time, Somalia does not need more gunmen, he said. It needs educated Canadian Somalis to help rebuild the country after three decades of wrenching war.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels: Ultimatum to Spain on Waste in River Tinto
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 18 — The European Commission has issued an ultimatum to Spain, for violating European legislation on the managing and processing of industrial waste. The case, which could end up before the European court of justice, regards the storage of more than 40 years of solid waste, a total of 120 million tonnes, thrown into the Tinto river near Huelva, Andalusia. “Nature is no rubbish tip” said European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik, “and member States must manage the waste they produce every year and stay ‘friends with the environment’. I don’t like to see waste being thrown away without adequate plan and I ask Spain to rapidly put things in order”. According to Brussels, Spain has allowed the violation of legislation on waste, on integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) and on dumping grounds. For more than 40 years, fertiliser producers have poured their industrial waste into the marshy area around the Rio Tinto near the city of Huelva. The interested companies were granted an industrial permit in 2008. Spain has two months to respond to the European Commission and risks the submitting of the case to the European court of justice. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Enel-Endesa Integration, Renewable Energy in Spain, Portugal
(ANSAmed) — LONDON, MARCH 18 — The Enel and Endesa boards have approved an operation providing for the integration of Endesa’s activities with those of Enel Green Power in the renewable energy sector in Spain and Portugal, announced Enel in a statement on 2009 finances. The integration, which is to be completed by March 31 2010, calls for the acquisition by Enel Green Power International BV (Egpi BV) of 30% of Endesa Cogeneracion y Renovables (Ecyr) for a total of 326 million euros; a ECYR capital increase reserved for EGPI BV, which will underwrite it by contributing its share in the capital of Enel Union Senosa Renovables, a 50-50 joint venture with Gas Natural/UnionSenosa; and a cash payment of 534 million euros. The operation will allow EGPI BV to hold, after the capital increase, an overall share of 60% of the new company capital of ECYR. The acquisition of the share and the subsequent underwriting of the ECYR capital increase will be carried out on the basis of market value. The company resulting from the integration process, with a controlling stake held by Enel Green Power, will maintain and have available — when fully operational — an operating capacity of about 1.4 GW, with a portfolio diversified among various technologies of renewable energy: 88% wind power, 4% mini-hydro, 1 % photovoltaic and 7% from cogeneration and biomass-run plants. Endesa will be directly involved and have a key role in the operating management of the plants, the energy produced and relations with central and local authorities. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Alpedison Plans Coal-Fired Power Station
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS MARCH 18 — Elpedison, a joint venture between Greece’s Ellenica Petrelea and Italy’s Edison, has presented the Greek Energy Control Authority with an expression of interest in constructing the country’s first private coal-fired power station. The power station would have a capacity of 370 MW and use coal extracted from the Vevi mines in Florina province, in north-west Greece. Greece’s Aktor will also be applying for a licence to explore and exploit coal deposits in the Vevi region for use in the power station Elpedison intends to build. According to the Reporter gr. Agency, this means the two-company alliance will break the monopoly held by Deh, the partly state-owned electricity utility. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Journalists Probed in Trani
Duo suspected of taking Berlusconi ‘RAI pressure’ papers
(ANSA) — Trani, March 19 — Two journalists from a left-leaning daily in Rome have been placed under investigation on suspicion of taking papers relating to a probe into alleged pressure by Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on media watchdog Agcom to shut down a talk show on state broadcaster RAI.
The La Repubblica journalists, Francesco Viviani and Giuliano Foschini, could face charges of theft and publication of ‘sub judice’ papers, judicial sources said in this southern Italian city Friday.
Preliminary investigations judge Roberto Oliveri Del Castillo refused to tell reporters where the papers, which were later photocopied and published, had been stored.
He also declined to comment on reports that there was security-camera footage of the alleged theft.
“Other journalists” are set to be questioned on the alleged theft, judicial sources added.
Trani Prosecutor Carlo Maria Capristo vowed that he “would not let up” in a bid to identify possible ‘moles’.
Berlusconi is under investigation along with Agcom member Giancarlo Innocenzi for the alleged bid to close Annozero, a talk show accused by the premier of subjecting people to trial by the media.
Also under investigation is the editor of RAI’s flagship news programme, Augusto Minzolini, for allegedly telling the premier about the probe.
Magistrates are set to decide later Friday whether to transfer the part of the probe regarding Berlusconi to a special court in Rome that deals with charges against ministers.
Berlusconi has described the probe as “ridiculous” and claimed it was timed to hurt his People of Freedom (PdL) party ahead of March 28-29 elections in 13 of Italy’s 20 regions.
On Thursday night he issued a get-out-the-vote appeal to PdL supporters amid signs that the opposition Democratic Party is gaining in the polls.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Gangs Imposing Sharia Law in British Prisons
Radical Muslim gangs are imposing a form of sharia law inside some of Britain’s prisons, a BBC investigation has found.
Non-Muslim inmates at the high-security Long Lartin jail have been forced by the gangs to stop playing “Western” music and take down pictures of women from their cells, according to one former prison officer there. Prisoners at the jail, although allowed to cook their own food, are not allowed to prepare pork for fear of offending the Muslim inmates, the officer said.
The officer, speaking to Radio Five Live’s Donal Macintyre show, told how younger prisoners were targeted for forced conversion to Islam by the gangs. “They went along because they were intimidated. They genuinely weren’t of the Muslim faith,” she said. “I knew one lad quite well, who was approached by the radical Muslims and he changed. He was being controlled and bossed around and he wasn’t even allowed to look at me or speak to me.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Police Battle to Control EDL and Uaf Protest in Bolton
Police have battled with thousands of demonstrators during clashes between the English Defence League (EDL) and Unite Against Fascism (UAF) in Bolton.
More than 1,500 UAF and 2,000 EDL supporters were in Victoria Square and a number of people were injured.
Sixty-seven people were arrested, including the UAF protest organiser on suspicion of conspiracy to commit violent disorder, police said.
The EDL says it opposes “militant Islam” and Sharia law.
UAF accuses the EDL of being a far right party but it describes itself as a peaceful, non-political group.
Dog bite
A 16-year-old girl, who the police said had nothing to do with the protests, was treated after she suffered a panic attack.
Two members of UAF were also taken to hospital with a minor head and a minor ear injury and smoke bombs were set off, the police said.
Greater Manchester Police said a 19-year-old officer had suffered a fractured finger and another officer was treated for a dog bite.
Many shops and pubs closed in the area and most taxi firms pulled their drivers off the roads for fear of violence.
The protest, which started at about 1000 GMT, has now calmed down.
Protesters for the EDL were escorted away from Victoria Square by police.
UAF supporters were then told to disperse by about 1630 GMT.
A police spokeswoman said there were now only a few people left in the square.
Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said earlier: “The number of arrests already made is a clear indication that this is not a peaceful protest and some demonstrators are determined to cause trouble.
“We are facing a lot of hostility and will take swift action when confronted with disorder.
“The actions of some demonstrators is resulting in injuries to others. This is not acceptable.”
The force warned offenders would be identified from CCTV footage and “brought to justice”.
Hindu festival
The EDL published a notice on its website with information about the demonstration.
It said that supporters would only protest peacefully and they were aiming to have “zero arrests”.
It stated: “We will not ever submit to the radicals. We will not tolerate their intolerance. We will stand firm and further the cause of the EDL.”
EDL supporters were warned not to react to any goading from other parties, but to smile and give the V for victory sign.
The two factions were separated by barriers on the steps of the town hall, which was boarded up.
The leader of Bolton Council, the Bishop of Bolton and representatives from the Council of Mosques Hindu Forum wrote to Alan Johnson earlier this week asking for him to ban the demonstration.
But he told them it was not in his power to stop a protest.
Before the protest, council leader Cliff Morris said he was “disappointed” by the home secretary’s decision.
“We and the faith community leaders have done everything within our power to prevent this demonstration due to the risk of violence.
“However we understand under current law his powers are extremely limited.”
The EDL had postponed its protest, which was due to take place on 6 March, because they did not want it to clash with the timing of Hindu festival, Holi.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Smog: Brussels Goes Ahead With 10-Parts/Million Europe-Wide
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 18 — In its campaign against fine-particle pollution, (PM10), Brussels is pushing ahead its infringement procedures against Slovenia, Cyprus, Portugal and Spain for their failure to comply with EU norms on air purity. Fine particles, which are mainly emitted by industry, traffic and domestic heating, can cause asthma, cardiovascular problems and early death. “Air pollution harms your health,” said the EU’s Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik, “and member states have to comply with European norms on air quickly and cut down their emissions”. Slovenia was reported to the European Court of Justice following a “final warning” issued in November last year, for having continuously exceeded the PM10 limit. Final reminders have also gone out to Cyprus, Portugal and Spain after requests for a postponement, to give them time to comply, were turned down. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Victim Day Commemorates Girl Killed in ‘60
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 19 — If March 11 had been picked as the day to commemorate Spanish terrorism victims nobody would have protested because six years ago, almost 200 people were killed and thousands injured in a series of explosions, claimed by Muslim activists, in Madrid. However, the date that has been selected is June 27. In fact exactly 50 years ago, the first victim of a terrorist attack in Spain was counted on that day. That victim was a girl, Begona Urroz, just 22 months old, who died in an explosion at the station of Donostia. This blast introduced a so far unknown phenomenon in the country which, in the following years, would lead to more death and pain. That attack is thought to be the first violent act of the separatist Basque group ETA. But not everybody agrees on that. Historian Inaki Egana points out that other, similar bombs (hidden in suitcases, left in busy places like the station of Donostia) were detonated far from the targets of the Basque separatists (in Catalonia for example). That attack, like others in the same month, were attributed to a group, the Spanish Revolutionary Liberation Front, which was later wiped out by Spanish security troops. Two of the group’s members were executed. But its attacks were soon attributed to ETA. The death of the little girl has not been forgotten yet, in fact she has been chosen to symbolise terrorist violence. And the fact that some analysts claim that the bomb that killed Begona could not be ETA-made hasn’t made any change in the choice to make the day of the death the day to commemorate victims of terrorism. Recently El Pais wrote, in clear words, that the attack was carried out by the Basque separatists. The choice for June 27 is a symbolic choice anyway, because it means that Spain sees the attacks on the stations of Atocha, El Pozo, Tio Ramundo and Santa Eugenia as incidents. Bloody incidents, but still incidents, and that the true enemy can be found in Basque Country, in France or in Portugal, places where they have fled from the scorched earth around them. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Beatings Cause 2 Teenagers’ Hospitalization
They don’t have to worry about punishment for their actions even in Switzerland, only sympathetic help classes or perhaps a neat adventurous vacation. A group of young refugees from the Balkans attacked two 17-year-old students for no reason and seriously injured them. The target of the attack, as usual, was the head. The victims suffered broken face bones.
20 Minuten (20 Minutes) reports:
The outcome this past Sunday for both of the 17-year-olds, T.?K. and O.?Z.*, was bloody. They were looking for a bar in Zurich’s Niederdorf area when, at the Stüssihofstatt, they were met by a group of ten young men in leather jackets. “Suddenly I was kicked in the stomach,” O.?Z. tells. After that he was met with another kick to the head — he fell to the ground. His colleague T.?K. wanted to help him, “From that time on, I can’t remember anything until the thugs were gone,” said the KV student.
He and O.?Z. were attacked for several minutes. “They were constantly kicking our faces,” said O.?Z. When the thugs let up on him he then had to deal with fear, “I couldn’t see through my eye anymore.” The wounds need to be stitched. The high-schooler worried for hours about his sight. In addition, he suffered several broken bones in the face.
T.?K was also battered up. Besides broken bones he has pain when chewing. It’s clear for both of them, “They were youth from the Balkans. They were going throughout the city looking for someone they could make fit for a hospital visit.” The victims have filed complaints. The city police confirms the incident and is looking for witnesses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Anti-Militant Project Stirs Muslim Unease
(Reuters) — A British anti-radicalization campaign called Prevent is a pressing priority in the European country experts see as the most at risk from al Qaeda attack.
But to listen to its critics, the project, aimed mainly at Muslim communities, might more accurately be named Provoke.
Security officials are struggling to stem a tide of unease among Muslim communities about the program, which seeks among other things to identify people most vulnerable to recruitment by al Qaeda-aligned groups and wean them away from extremism.
“People fear Prevent. They misinterpret it. They think it’s spying on us,” said Owais Rajput, a researcher at Bradford University in West Yorkshire, the home area of three of the four men who killed 52 people in suicide attacks in London in 2005.
| [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Blackburn Resistance’ Brothers Convicted of Terrorist Offences
Two brothers who filmed Al Qaeda-style propaganda in a park and dubbed themselves ‘The Blackburn Resistance’ were yesterday convicted of terrorist offences.
Abbas Iqbal, 24, gathered a stockpile of weapons at the family home in Blackburn, while his brother, Ilyas, 23, studied and compiled information on guerrilla warfare.
A jury at Manchester Crown Court found Abbas Iqbal guilty of dissemination of terrorist publications and preparing for acts of terrorism.
Ilyas was found guilty of possession of a document likely to be useful to a terrorist.
A third man, Muhammad Ahmad, 26, was cleared of preparing for an act of terrorism.
Abbas Iqbal was sentenced to two years’ jail for dissemination of terrorist material and one year for preparation for acts of terrorism, to run concurrently. He has already served two and a half years on remand and will be released shortly.
Ilyas was sentenced to 18 months for possession of a document likely to be useful to a terrorist but was released immediately as he too had spent two and a half years on remand.
Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Gilbert QC said: ‘You fancied yourself as a fighter for the cause, but the truth is you were a very low-grade one.
‘It would be wrong to pass a long sentence on someone who is obviously more taken with the vanity than the reality.’
During the four-week trial, the jury was shown mobile phone footage off all three men dressed in camouflage and crawling across a town centre park in broad daylight.
One of them appeared to carry a rifle as he rustled through Corporation Park in Blackburn.
The video was among material found on a mobile phone memory card contained in the suitcase of Abbas Iqbal when he was arrested as he attempted to board a flight from Manchester Airport to northern Europe in August 2008.
An alleged extremist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was in the company of Abbas Iqbal at the airport.
Prosecutor Edward Brown QC said the ‘promotional collage’ was intended to radicalise others abroad.
The park video is introduced by a voice stating: ‘They are fighting against oppression, they are The Blackburn Resistance.’
It is accompanied by a background chant which recites: ‘I am the armour for those who believe in the unity of Allah. I am the fire against the aggressor.’
The Iqbal family home in Percival Street, Blackburn, was searched and officers uncovered an armoury stockpile in a cabinet and a desktop computer containing extremist material.
The cabinet contained numerous air rifles, knives, machetes, a sword, a crossbow, various ammunition, books on weaponry and hand-written notes on ‘Attack planning’ and ‘Urban combat’.
In his defence, Abbas Iqbal claimed the park video was a homage to his action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, and was based on the film Predator, which he said he had seen 600 times.
He said he wanted to fly abroad in August 2008 because he was offered a job as a teacher at a newly-opened mosque.
Ilyas Iqbal said his notes on ‘Urban combat’ were largely based on the Hollywood movie Black Hawk Down and he could not see how his ideas would have been useful to anyone but himself.
Outside court Omer Shaukat, a friend of Ahmad, read a statement on his behalf.
‘I have no doubt the only reason I have been prosecuted and spent more than a year in custody was because I am a Muslim.
‘We have been labelled wrongly as terrorists by the media and police. I was arrested, charged and imprisoned for 19 months waiting for the trail, thankfully I was acquitted.
‘The action of the police will do nothing to assist good relations between Muslims and the police.’
Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Porter, of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said: ‘Public safety is always the police’s top priority and all information is fully considered and acted upon appropriately to minimise risk to the public in the North West.
‘Terrorism affects us all and protecting the safety of the public is of paramount importance. Security for our communities is our highest priority and sometimes we have to make arrests.
‘We will continue to do our utmost to help people recognise signs of suspicious behaviour so that they in turn can help defeat terrorism.
‘I would ask that our communities continue to be vigilant and work with us by reporting any suspicious behaviour to their local police officers or by calling the confidential anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789321 or by logging on to www.police.uk.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Pay £5,000 a Day and You Can Meet Tony’: Four Top Labour MPs Trapped in TV Sting
Labour has been plunged into a cash-for-access row after three former Cabinet Ministers were secretly filmed discussing how they could help a fake lobbying company — with one boasting that he was a ‘cab for hire’ for £5,000 a day.
In the most damaging revelations, ex-Transport Minister Stephen Byers claimed that he managed to save ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ for one company by using his influence with his successor Lord Adonis over a rail franchise.
Mr Byers also claimed that he had boosted the business interests of Tesco by phoning Peter Mandelson, and said that he could bring Tony Blair to meet clients of the lobbying company which was, in fact, a front for an undercover operation.
Other shocking revelations from the sting include:…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A Manifesto for a New Politics
by Tony Judt
Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For 30 years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of collective purpose. We know what things cost but have no idea what they are worth.
The materialistic and selfish quality of contemporary life is not inherent in the human condition. Much of what appears “natural” today dates from the 1980s: the obsession with wealth creation, the cult of privatisation and the private sector, the growing disparities of rich and poor. And above all the rhetoric which accompanies these: uncritical admiration for unfettered markets, disdain for the public sector, the delusion of endless growth.
[…]
We need to rethink the state, and rearticulate the language of social democracy. Social democrats should cease to be defensive and apologetic. A social democratic vision of the good society entails from the outset a greater role for the state and the public sector. The welfare state is as popular as ever with its beneficiaries: nowhere in Europe is there a constituency for abolishing public health services, ending free or subsidised education or reducing public provision of transport and other essential services. We have long practised something resembling social democracy, but we have forgotten how to preach it.
[Comment JP: Wrong, wrong, wrong]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Dozens Arrested as English Defence League and Anti-Fascists Clash in Violent Street Protests
More than 50 people were arrested and several people injured after violent clashes between a Right-wing group, anti-fascist protesters and police during a demonstration today.
Controversial Right-wing group The English Defence League (EDL) organised the rally in Victoria Square, Bolton, Lancashire.
A counter-demonstration by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is also being held, and hundreds of police officers are battling to keep control of the rival groups.
Around 4,000 protesters have descended on the town, with roughly equal numbers in both camps.
Police have been attacked as they try to keep the two opposing factions apart.
The two factions were meant to stay within two designated areas in the square, separated by steel barriers.
But a large number of protesters ‘intent on causing disorder’ have broken away from the protest site, police said.
Two members of the public were injured by demonstrators and taken to a nearby shop for treatment, police said.
Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, from Greater Manchester Police, who is leading the policing operation, said: ‘There have been unwarranted attacks on police lines that have resulted in injuries.
‘This is not a peaceful protest and we are facing a lot of hostility. We will take swift action when confronted with disorder.
‘The number of arrests already made is a clear indication that this is not a peaceful protest and some demonstrators are determined to cause trouble.
‘The actions of some demonstrators is resulting in injuries to others. This is not acceptable.
‘I am determined to identify the offenders by whatever means and bring them to justice.’
Riot police and mounted officers armed with batons are trying to keep the crowds in check in front of the town hall.
Police dogs have been deployed in a bid to control the crowds and a police helicopter has also been dispatched.
It is unclear how many of those arrested are EDL and how many are UAF.
Two UAF demonstrators have been taken to hospital, one with a minor head injury and the other with a minor ear injury, police said.
A 19-year-old man has received treatment for an ongoing health problem, another man has fractured a finger.
A 16-year-old girl has been treated after suffering panic attack, police said.
Most shops and pubs are closed in the area, and most taxi firms have pulled their drivers off the roads.
Second World War veteran Bertie Lois, 89, who lives in Farnworth, Bolton, is protesting with the UAF.
He said: ‘I fought the Second World War against these Nazis. What did I fight for if we let them? The EDL are the enemy. I would say to them ‘you are the guys we fought for, what are you doing?’
‘I am also here because I am against the war in Afghanistan.’
Weyman Bennett, the UAF joint secretary who organised the protest, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit violent disorder, police said.
Anindya Bhattacharyya, UAF press officer, said: ‘A large group of riot police charged in, there were at least a dozen of them.
‘They grabbed him and physically dragged him away even though he was protesting peacefully.’
She said that Martin Smith, who runs the Love Music Hate Racism campaign, was also arrested.
Police said there are now 2,000 EDL protesters in the square, and around 1,500 from UAF.
The EDL describes itself as a peaceful, non-political group campaigning against ‘militant Islam’.
But ugly scenes also marked one of their protests in Manchester last year, with 44 arrests and 10 injuries.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Dozens Arrested in Bolton EDL Rally Protest
Yakub Qureshi and John Scheerhout
Dozens of people have been arrested during rival demonstrations by the English Defence League and opponents in Bolton.
Police said 45 people had been taken into custody during the political protests in the town centre.
Hundreds of officers struggled to keep apart the chanting crowds, who were separated by a 30ft wide barrier in Victoria Square.
EDL protest in Bolton — as it happened
Greater Manchester Police said the majority of those arrested were in a group of anti-EDL protestors, who began their protest earlier in the day just before 11am.
Some of the protestors, who included members of trade unions, local mosques and the Unite Against Fascism movement, had earlier tried to enter an area designated for the EDL to gather in and were forced back by a wall of police.
The bulk of EDL supporters — who had assembled at separate sites — were escorted to the south side of the square at 1pm under heavy police escort.
Many wore English Defence League hoodies and face masks and carried the St George’s flag and the US star and stripes along with a number of political banners.
Police on horseback and specialist dog handlers were used to control the crowd on both sides.
The protest reached a dramatic peak at 3pm — four hours into the event — when a number of bottles and cans were thrown by both sides.
Dozens of officers with riot shields began to move EDL supporters from the square after some protestors lifted up metal barriers separating the two groups.
Police reported 2,000 EDL supporters at the protest and 1,500 from opposing groups.
Many businesses in the surrounding streets had decided to close for the day. Many which remained open reported few or none customers.
One shopworker said: “It’s like a ghost town. Everyone has been put off because of reports of trouble.”
Others said they refused to be deterred by reports of possible trouble.
The manager of a local bakery said: “We are not going to be frightened by this. Even if the event is going to harm our business, we are determined to stay open. The police and council have done a good job and we have felt safe.”
Thousands of readers followed live coverage of the protests on the MEN website. Reporters Yakub Qureshi and John Scheerhout filed live reports, pictures and video from the rally in Bolton. Replay the coverage on this link:
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Rise in Marriages Between Cousins ‘Is Putting Children’s Health at Risk’
Baroness Deech says cultural practices are respected but dangers need to be understood
The dangers of marriage between first cousins are to be highlighted by a leading professor, with a warning that their children are at risk of genetic defects.
Baroness Deech, a family law professor and crossbencher, will call next week for a “vigorous” public campaign to deter the practice, which is prevalent in Muslim and immigrant communities and on the rise. She will reignite a debate started five years ago when Ann Cryer, MP for Keighley, drew attention to the number of disabled babies being born in the town and called for cousin marriage to be stopped.
Fifty-five per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins and in Bradford the figure is 75 per cent. British Pakistanis represent 3 per cent of all births in Britain but one third of children with recessive disorders.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Holocaust Deniers at the U.S. State Department
The latest U.S. Department of State human rights report on Croatia says, matter of factly, that “on September 24 [2009] … Cardinal Josip Bozanic visited Jasenovac, the site of the largest concentration camp in Croatia during World War II where thousands of Serbs, Jews, and Roma were killed” [emphasis added]. This remarkable claim is the exact moral and factual equivalent of asserting that “tens of thousands” of Jews and others were killed in Auschwitz.
The number of victims at Jasenovac is still uncertain. The lowest estimate with any pretense to methodological seriousness — tens of thousands of victims — was made by the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, famous forsaying “Thank God, my wife is neither a Serb nor a Jew.” Tudjman’s “estimate” on Jasenovac fits in with his other assessments:
“In his book Wastelands: Historical Truths, published in 1988, Mr. Tudjman wrote that the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust was 900,000 — notsix million. He has also asserted that not more than 70,000 Serbs died at the hands of the Ustashe — mosthistorians say around 400,000 were killed.” (The New York Times, August 20, 1995)
Other sources provide estimates tens of times greater than Dr. Tudjman’s, and hundreds of times greater than that presented as fact by the U.S. State Department:
“JASENOVAC” by Menachem Shelach in Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem, 1990, pp. 739-740: “Some six hundred thousand people were murdered at Jasenovac, mostly Serbs, Jews, GYPSIES, and opponents of the USTAŠA regime.”
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team: “It is estimated that close to 600,000 … mostly Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, were murdered at Jasenovac.”
So much for the Jewish sources. This is what the contemporary German allies of the Ustasa regime had to say on this subject.
Hermann Neubacher, Hitler’s foremost political expert for the Balkans, in his book Sonderaufrag Südost 1940-1945. Bericht eines fliegenden Diplomaten (Goettingen: Muster-Schmidt-Verlag, 1957, p. 18): “The prescription for the Orthodox Serbs issued by the leader and Führer of Croatia, Ante Pavelic, was reminiscent of the religious wars of the bloodiest memory: One third must be converted to Catholicism, another third must be expelled, and the final third must die. The last part of the program has been carried out.” [i.e. one-third of cca. 1.9 million were killed]
In a report to Himmler, SS General Ernst Frick estimated that “600 to 700,000 victims were butchered in the Balkan fashion.” General Lothar Rendulic, commanding German forces in the western Balkans in 1943-1944, estimated the number of Ustaša victims to be 500,000. In his memoirs Gekaempft, gesiegt, geschlagen(Welsermühl Verlag, Wels und Heidelberg, 1952, p.161) he recalled a memorable exchange on this issue with a Croat official: “When I objected to a high official who was close to Pavelic that, in spite of the accumulated hatred, I failed to comprehend the murder of half a million Orthodox, the answer I received was characteristic of the mentality that prevailed there: Half a million, that’s too much — there weren’t more than 200,000!”
The U.S. Department of State may have in its possession some newly discovered, incontrovertible evidence that Yad Vashem’s researchers had exaggerated the number of victims at Jasenovac hundredfold or more, that German eyewitnesses were wrong, that even the Holocaust-denying President Tudjman was wrong, and the number of victims was indeed in the “thousands” rather than tens or hundreds of thousands. If it does, it should make it public. If it does not, it should issue a correction and an apology.
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Richest Man Declares Income of 900,000 Euros
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 19 — The richest Serbian man has declared an income over 2009 to Inland Revenues of 84,455,961 dinars or around 900,000 euros. This man, according to the daily Vecernje Novosti, lives in Dedinje, the elegant residential area of the Serbian capital. The other Serbian rich people, according to the newspaper, live in Novi Sad (north) with a declared income of 80 million dinars (880 thousand euros), in Krusevac (centre) with 57 million dinars (612 thousand euros) and in Nis (south) with 19 million dinars (around 200 thousand euro). In Serbia — where the average monthly income is around 30 thousand dinars (around 300 euros) — no taxes are paid over an annual income up to 1.58 million dinars (15,800 euros). There are two tax rates: for an income between 1.58 million and 3.5 million (35 thousand euros) the rate is 10%, for more than 3.5 million dinars the rate rises to 15%. According to Vecernje Novosti, there were 17,759 millionaires (people with an annual income of 1.58 million dinars or more and therefore have to pay taxes) in Serbia in 2009. Of these, 12 thousand live in Belgrade, 3 thousand in Novi Sad, 1,200 in Kragujevac and more than a thousand in Nis. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Italy First in Exports, Russia in Imports
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 18 — In January of this year, Italy was Serbia’s main trade partner regarding Serbian exports, and reached third place in Serbian imports. Today the country’s statistics office announced that in January, Serbia exported goods to Italy for a total value of USD 74 million. Germany was second, with 70.8 million and Bosnia and Herzegovina third with USD 58 million. Serbia imported most from Russia in January (total value USD 188.2 million), followed by Germany (94.5) and Italy (84 million). Serbia, in January, exported mainly iron, non-iron metals, steel, vegetables, fruit and cereals. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria Exporting Barley, 1st Time in 40 Yrs
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 18 — For the first time in 40 years, Algeria is once again exporting barley. The National Inter-Professional Office of Cereals (OAIC) has been authorised by the Algerian Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry to export part of the record-high level of barley achieved in 2009. According to the site Econostrum.info, the ministry did however note that the exports would be carried out as trade with countries that produce bread wheat, of which Algeria is a large purchaser. Among the potential partners are reportedly Algeria’s traditional suppliers of cereals: the European Union, the United States and Canada. Currently, noted Econostrum, barley on world markets is at about 135-145 dollars for tonne. In the 2008-2009 season, the Algerian harvest of barley reached 24 million quintals, a quantity able to cover the requirements of the country for the next three years. Algeria had not put any of the barley it produces on the world market since 1970, when it did so as a way to reduce reserves. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Ahmed El-Tayyip Appointed as New Al-Azhar Imam
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 19 — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today nominated Ahmed el-Tayyip as the Grand Imam of al-Azhar by presidential decree. The new Grand Imam succeeds Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi who died on March 10. The news was reported by the Egyptian MENA press agency. The appointed Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayyip is currently president of Al-Azhar University, a chief centre of Islamic learning.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Religion: Tunisian ‘Le Quotidien’, But Would God Love War?
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 19 — “Would God love war?” The most logical answer is “no”. And yet men seem not to have understood it and they start religious wars based on political exploitations. This is what has happened recently in Nigeria and in the Near East or in China. “Would God love war?” is the question being asked today in the daily Tunisian French-language newspaper Le Quotidien in its column entitled “To understand better” by Fatma Ben Dhaou Ounais. It should be said that, as regards Tunisia, the “no” is point-blank. Here in fact religious freedom is absolute and any faith is respected. And religion is not used for political ends as in other cases used as examples by the author of the column. She notes that religions profess love and peace and are made to unite and not to divide but often religion “is the quickest route towards political instability in the best of cases, and towards war in the worst case scenario.” And wars of religion “are generally characterised by an atrocity without limits, where the belligerent parties abandon themselves to practices bordering on sadism, a sort of crimes of passion where victims are killed with machetes or they are burnt alive. As if the faith that the believers profess makes them fierce and barbaric, whilst they should be more merciful”, as happened in Srebrenica and, recently, in Nigeria. And yet religions, notes Fatma Ben Dhaou Ounais, “spread the same duties, urge the same principles and condemn basically the same sins, amongst which the most serious: murder.” And yet, why so much hatred? “As well as religious chauvinism, which is the most morbid form of the faith,” underlines the journalist, “the political factor seems to be of great importance. It is necessary to admit that religion is the most secure, the most effective and the most persuasive method to mobilise the masses. To invoke God to conduct a war, adding to it a pinch of sanctity, saves a political leader hours of strategic applications and long discussions on the right foundations of the thing.” Like the “crusades” of George W. Bush, which sparked off the opposition of “millions of people, in a particular way those that possessed a minimum of historical and political lucidity; but they seduced million of others, principally the most influential, above all the most earthy, to whom it sounded good.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Benetton Cedes Handling of Its Warehouses
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 19 — The management of Benetton Commerciale Tunisie (BCT), a branch created fifteen years ago by Benetton Manufacturing Tunisia, has been turned over (with the exception of the sales department) to Tunisian businessman Koreich Ben Salem. Benetton is among the most important groups in the textiles-clothing sector in Tunisia. It employs 350 people on a permanent basis, while another 7,000 work in over 180 subcontracted workshops. Their annual production is 21 million articles in knitted fabrics. In Tunisia there are 220 Italian companies currently active in the textiles-clothing industry, out of a total of 2,100. The number of exports last year was 2.515 billion euro, while imports was 1.702 billion. The number of employees totals 210,000 persons. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Smoking Ban Today in Restaurants and Public Spaces
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 19 — The law that bans smoking in bars and restaurants and in spaces open to the public goes into effect today in Tunisia, and transgressors will be given a fine of 25 dinars (about 13 euro). The law extends the ban not just to restaurants and cafe’s but also to public gardens, metro, train and bus stations, airports and public offices. For what concerns restaurants and cafe’s, these will be closed if they do not provide a designated space for non-smokers. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece-Abu Dhabi to Collaborate in Various Sectors
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 19 — Greece and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi are examining prospects for collaboration in various important sectors like port activities, infrastructure, renewable energy, culture and tourism. The greek Minister for the Economy, Luca Katseli, has said as much when speaking to journalists at the Hellenic & United Arab Emirates Business Forum in Athens. Katseli said that the Government’s aim is to stimulate investments by Abu Dhabi in Greece and at the same time strengthen the presence of Greek companies in the emirate. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
News Alert: Pakistan Christian “Burnt”, Wife “Raped”, for Refusing Islam
By BosNewsLife Asia Service reporting from Pakistan
RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)— A Christian man was fighting for his life in Pakistan’s Punjab province Saturday, March 20, after Muslim leaders backed by police burned him alive for refusing to convert to Islam, while his wife was raped by police officers, Christian and hospital sources familiar with the case told BosNewsLife.
Arshed Masih was burned Friday, March 19, in front of a police station in the city of Rawalpindi near Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, following apparent death threats from his employer Sheikh Mohammad Sultan, an influential businessman, and religious leaders, said the Rawalpindi Holy Family Hospital.
His wife, whose name was not immediately released, was allegedly raped by police officers. Their three children — ranging in age from 7 to 12— were reportedly forced to witness the attacks against their parents.
“Both [Masih] and wife were rushed to the Holy Family Hospital and are under treatment,” the hospital said.
He was listed in serious condition with about 80 percent of his body burnt…
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UK: Residents Powerless to Remove Illegal Immigrants From Their Gardens
At first sight, the piles of rubbish and debris strewn across this garden make it look just like a rubbish tip.
But on closer inspection, it is revealed to be a makeshift camp for desperate Eastern European immigrants.
Around a dozen are camping out in residents’ gardens, sheds and even their trees as they cannot afford their own homes.
Those who live in the street in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, have been told they are powerless to remove the trespassers taking shelter on their land.
Groups of immigrants have moved into the gardens of at least six properties since November last year, leaving a trail of cider bottles, bags of human waste and drugs needles behind them.
Though homeowners have appealed for help, the police and council say they cannot arrest the trespassers — who have no passports and are mostly from Eastern Europe — because they claim it is a civil, not a criminal matter.
The immigrants gained access to the land through an open alleyway and sleep on dirty mattresses, using rolled-up blankets as pillows.
Ian Treasure, 41, one of the homeowners affected by the camps, said a man named Joseph from the Czech Republic was living in his garden coal shed.
Despite six phone calls to Peterborough City Council pleading with them to evict the immigrants and remove the mountains of dumped rubbish, he could not get the man to leave.
Mr Treasure said: ‘The area has become overrun. It is disgusting and the worst thing is that nobody is doing anything about it. Every day it gets worse.
‘It all started in November. I was looking out of the window and I saw a mattress in my coal shed. I went out and it turned out I had a lodger there.
‘I’m not sure how many there are because I try to stay away from them but I’m fed up because they regularly drink in our gardens and take drugs.’
Mr Treasure said he had asked the man, who speaks broken English and has scabs on his face, to leave dozens of times.
‘The angriest I have got was the first time I saw drug needles there in January. I freaked out,’ he said.
Mr Treasure added that he was incredibly frustrated that the council and police had done nothing to help him.
He added: ‘The police’s hands are tied. All they can do is just move them on and then they would be back so it would be a waste of time.’
Ricky Smith, 23, attempted to remove the squatter in his shed after catching him defecating on his lawn on Wednesday night.
He said: ‘I slung all his belongings into a pile and told him to get out. I haven’t seen him since so hopefully he has got the message.
‘I caught him defecating on my lawn, where my dog plays. I had to build a fence to keep him out of that part of the garden so my dog doesn’t get ill playing in his mess.’
A spokesman for Cambridgeshire police said that the makeshift camps were not a criminal matter.
He said: ‘Anybody is allowed to use reasonable force to stop people trespassing and get them off their property — much like a bouncer in a pub or club.
‘If there is some sort of confrontation then we can step in and prevent a breach of the peace, but we cannot act directly against the trespassers.’
A spokesman for Peterborough council said: ‘We are aware of a number of people who are sleeping in these gardens.
‘We will be working to help them access the services which are available to them.’
Peterborough’s MP Stewart Jackson today said Labour had failed to deal with immigration problems that have led to jobless migrants camping in British gardens.
The Tory MP said: ‘The Labour government was warned that uncontrolled immigration would cause these sorts of problems.
‘They have ignored Peterborough’s needs and local taxpayers have been forced to foot the bill for their foolish and misguided policies.’
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