Greece: Sarkozy-Merkel Deal Over Bail-Out
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 25 — France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel reached a deal over the mechanism for helping Greece. The plan agreed on by France and Germany, diplomatic sources say, foresees a mechanism based on voluntary bilateral aid from the EU with a complementary contribution from the International Monetary Fund. The mechanism will only be activated if necessary. Voluntary bilateral loans — say French diplomatic sources — on the basis of the deal struck between France and Germany will be decided on “within a European framework” and would include market-rates of interest. No figures have been spelt out in the deal as to the amount to be loaned to Athens. Over recent weeks, talk has been of a sum between 20 and 30 billion euros. The European loans “will thus be made up by an IMF contribution”. As part of the compromise reached between Sarkozy and Merkel there would be a reference to strengthen European “governance” over the long term, charging the Eurogroup to come up with a proposal as soon as possible. One of Berlin’s requests was to re-examine and toughen up the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact and to provide for a system of sanctions against countries that fail to keep commitments made over public finances. The plan has been passed for inspection to EU President, Herman Van Rompuy. Meanwhile the Brussels summit has begun, also dominated by the Greek crisis and the European aid package. Also on the agenda is the 2020 growth strategy and developments on financial commitments made over preventing climate change. Following Germany’s acquiescence over the Greek bail-out, as an EU-IMF joint venture, the euro returned to above the 1.34 mark against the dollar. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Regional Elections Seen as Test
Italians to vote in 13 of country’s 20 regions
(ANSA) — Rome, March 26 — More than 40 million Italians go to the polls Sunday and Monday in regional elections which are widely heralded as the first major test for Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s two-year-old government.
The premier has turned the vote in 13 of the country’s 20 regions into a sort of referendum for his centre-right coalition, telling Italians they must choose between his “can-do government” and the “small-talking Left”.
The opposition, which currently holds 11 of the 13 regions, says the campaign has not focused on the real issues, including increasing unemployment and the ongoing recession. On Friday, however, Democratic Party (PD) leader Pier Luigi Bersani, admitted that Italians had an opportunity to send Berlusconi a clear-cut message.
“We can’t think of bringing down the government with the regional vote but we can send Berlusconi a wee little message…Have you got it? The time has come to talk about the country’s problems, not yours,” referring to the premier’s attempts to approve legislation which would freeze two corruption trials against in Milan. Berlusconi has spent the last week on the campaign trail, addressing a mass Rome rally on Saturday and then touring major Italian cities to personally canvass on behalf of his People of Freedom (PdL) party candidates.
In a video-taped message posted on the PdL’s website on Friday, he warned Italians to “do the right thing” and vote for “your very own freedom”.
The media magnate-turned politician is thought to be concerned by reports of possible low turnout at the polls, which would hurt his PdL party rather than the opposition, whose supporters traditionally turn out in greater numbers. Berlusconi has also had to brush off reports that his key Northern League ally may overtake his PdL party in the two northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto where it is fielding its own candidates.
Although Northern League leader Umberto Bossi has “ruled out repercussions in the coalition”, Berlusconi said in an interview published Friday that voters should bear in mind that “the PdL is the coalition linchpin”.
Observers say that, despite Bossi’s proclaimed loyalty to Berlusconi, a strong showing for the League would nevertheless create problems within the PdL because it would weaken House Speaker Gianfranco Fini’s strength in the coalition and the premier’s own charisma.
Fini, whose own National Alliance party merged with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party to form the PdL last year, has also frayed tempers by increasingly distancing himself from the premier and the League on a number of key issues, including voting rights for immigrants.
According to media close to Berlusconi, including his brother’s Il Giornale daily, Fini — who has not taken an active part in the campaign — is thinking of pulling out of the PdL and recreating his own party to seek an alliance with the centrist opposition parties. The campaign has been especially bitter, amidst a corruption probe involving a key Berlusconi aide, investigations into the premier’s alleged attempt to muzzle TV talk shows critical of his government and the exclusion of the PdL from the race in the Rome province because of election-filing blunders.
Berlusconi has denied the filing blunders and has accused allegedly left-leaning magistrates called to decide on election registration procedures of trying to swing the vote for the centre left.
He accuses allegedly left-leaning magistrates of undermining Italian democracy, and has pledged a wide-ranging overhaul of the judicial system over the next three years.
In a message to his Freedom Club supporters last week, Berlusconi said that ever since his entry into politics in 1994 “ahead of any new election, the manifest alliance between the Left and a part of the judiciary unduly steps into the campaign to swing the vote”.
The premier said judicial cases against him are whipped up “like clockwork” at election time and “blown up by obliging dailies”. But centrist opposition leader Pier Ferdinando Casini claims that Berlusconi is clearly worried about losing consensus because voters know he has failed to solve the country’s problems despite having a huge parliamentary majority.
“Italians voted him in to solve their problems and two years later what’s happened: nothing, zero. The government has not dealt with a single issue”.
A poll published by Milan daily Corriere della Sera before a two-week publication ban came into effect showed that four of the 13 regions are still up for grabs while six should be won by the centre left and three by the centre right.
Centre-right Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno has said the coalition would be able to claim victory only if it grabs five regions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Syria: Export to 717.1 Mln in 2009, Down 30.4%
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, MARCH 26 — Italy exported products for a total of 717.1 million euros to Syria in 2009, a 30.4% decline compared with 2008. Italian imports from Syria totalled 421.3 million euros, down 48.5%. The data come from of Italian statistic office ISTAT and were processed by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Damascus. In detail, ICE writes, the decrease of Italian exports was mainly caused by a 70.3% decrease of exports of refined oil, with exported value dropping from 386.8 million euros in 2008 to 114.9 million in 2009. However, there are encouraging signs: specialised machinery sales in 2009 climbed 47.7% to 102.2 million euros; general-use machinery increased 8.2% to 60.1 million euros; engines and generators (+15.7% and 22 million); domestic appliances (+2.8% and 17.2 million); pipes, ducts and structural shapes (+82.7% and 14.4 million). Good results were also recorded in clothing (+24% and 10.6 million); paints and varnishes (+14.7% and 10.4 million); metal moulding machines (+8.7% and 8.7 million) and furniture (+56% and 3.3 million). A decline was recorded on the other hand for basic chemical products (-38.% and 38.5 million); cars(-65.5% and 13.8 million); plastic objects (-15.5% and 11.2 million) and food products (-7.5% and 13.5 million).(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal’s Financial Troubles Put More Pressure on EU Leaders
The European Union was already having difficulty deciding what to do about Greece’s financial difficulties. Now, Lisbon is threatening to become the next Athens. Fitch on Wednesday downgraded Portugal’s credit rating, sending the euro tumbling.
With the European Union at odds over whether and how to help Greece, confidence in the Continent’s common currency has already low enough in recent weeks. But on Wednesday, the euro took another hit. Amid concerns of high sovereign debt and forecasts of slower than expected growth, the ratings agency Fitch downgraded Portugal on Wednesday one notch to AA-. The euro immediately tumbled to a 10-month low against the dollar.
The move was hardly unexpected. Portugal has a projected 2010 budget deficit of 8 percent of gross domestic product, almost three times the limit allowed by euro zone rules. Since the beginning of the year, the country has been often mentioned in connection with the Greek crisis, often as part of the unflattering acronym PIIGS — a reference to those euro zone countries facing particularly high financial hurdles, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain.
Still, Wednesday’s move by Fitch injected yet more uncertainty ahead of the European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. Whereas many of the 16 members of the euro zone have said they prefer a European solution to the current euro crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted that, if Greece ends up needing additional financial backing, it should be provided in conjuction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly agrees with her.
‘A Good European’
Even on Thursday the rift was still open for all to see. Arriving in Brussels for the start of the summit, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said “we are working on a European solution for Greece.” But Merkel, speaking to the German parliament before heading off to Brussels, once again said that she preferred involving the IMF. “A good European is not necessarily one who provides instant aid,” she said.
“The euro area has lost some credibility … and the communication cacophony around the whole negotiation process contributed to it,” Jacques Cailloux, an analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland, told the French news agency AFP.
Portugal on Thursday is moving quickly to shore up confidence in the country’s finances. Prime Minister Jose Socrates plans to push an austerity package through parliament aimed at cutting spending and reducing the state deficit. The opposition, however, is unlikely to remain quiet. The package includes hefty tax increases and has been slammed by both the opposition and the media.
‘Beginning of a Long Process’
More concerning than the potential domestic trouble in Portugal, however, is the fact that Fitch’s downgrading of the country may indicate that the euro’s problems are now spreading outside of Greece. “I think this is just the beginning of a long process of downgrading a number of major governments until they put their debt in order,” said Rick Meckler, president of the investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in New York.
With Spain, Ireland and Italy all accruing serious mountains of debt, he may be right. Whether the European Union is able to come up with a mechanism to assist euro zone countries that run into trouble, however, remains to be seen. Despite pleading from across the Continent, Merkel has continued to insist that the Greek problem is not an item on the agenda of this week’s summit.
It was, however, a major focus of her Thursday speech. In a clear message to Greece and other indebted European countries, she said: “We must put an end to trickery.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
An Exchange of Views About Germany
Le Nouvel Observateur 18.03.2010 (France)
Both Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Jorge Semprun have just published new books in France: Enzensberger’s literary biography about the Nazi General Kurt von Hammerstein and Semprun’s “Une tombe au creux des nuages”, an essay about Europe and Germany. In Nouvel Obs, the two writers discuss their image of Germany. Semprun: “For the first time since the 17th century, Germany has a positive role in Europe and it is mostly thanks to the European project and French-German reconciliation. This might seem banal for the young, but for people of my age, it is quite extraordinary. For the first time, Germany is a huge democratic power, not just economically and socially, but culturally as well. But is only to be expected that you are less of a Germanophile than I am!” Enzensberger replies: “Germany is not a liberal society, historically speaking. It is extremely hierarchical and has a tendency towards intellectual extremism. In Germany every last theory is radicalised. The philosophers for example, from Kant to Hegel, push thinking to its extremes. This is brilliant in a way but also fatal. Healthy common sense was never a strong point of the German mind.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Coalition Mulls Extending Nuclear Phaseout to 2050
The German government is reportedly considering extending the scheduled end to nuclear energy until 2050, though it’s not clear whether some of the country’s power plants can continue operating that long.
According to an inside government source cited by Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition is considering waiting to turn off the last reactor 30 years later than the 2020 cutoff date as decided by her predecessor’s centre-left government in 2001.
Such a move would go against Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen, who has advocated a nuclear power extension of just eight years, or until 40 percent of country’s energy could supposedly be derived from renewable sources. The minister has also said that the plants were not built to operate for so long, explaining they were intended to run “not for 60, but 40 years,” the paper reported.
Current law stipulates that plants must be shut down after they have provided 32 years of service, which would put the final closure of the country’s 17 reactors at around 2022.
There is currently no research that proves reactors can safely operate for 60 years, the paper said.
“But there is no preliminary decision,” Röttgen told the paper. “This is merely about preliminary calculations.”
The coalition made up of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats and the pro-business Free Democrats plans to finalise its energy plan in October.
While atomic energy advocates welcomed the move, telling the paper it would reduce energy costs for consumers, the opposition is outraged over what the ruling coalition is considering.
“Those who extend atomic reactor usage harm the development of renewable energy,” deputy leader of the centre-left Social Democrats’ parliamentary group Ulrich Kelber told the paper.
Head of the SPD and former Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told broadcaster Deutschlandradio that the coalition had “lost its senses.”
“It’s brutal lobbyism,” he said. “It’s really about the fact that operators earn €1 million per day for running an old nuclear plant.”
Environmentalist Green party parliamentary group deputy leader Bärbel Höhn called the option “irresponsible for security policy.”
Meanwhile broadcaster ARD reported on Friday that a new parliamentary committee has been formed to investigate how former Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s administration chose the controversial underground site Gorleben for Germany’s nuclear waste storage.
Gorleben, which is still being explored pending approval for permanent nuclear storage, has been in the news frequently in the last year amid allegations of safety shortcomings and illegal development, has spurred massive protest from environmentalists.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: EU Deal Causes Optimism But Also Caution
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — “The sacrifices of the Greek people have not been in vain,” were the first words used by Greek Premier George Papandreou to comment on the result of the European summit in Brussels, which concluded yesterday evening with an agreement that should pave the way for concrete assistance for the Greek economy. The Greek press today commented on the result of the European summit with moderate satisfaction, warning to not be overly influenced by the deal, since this is just the beginning of what is being defined as a “long path”, and that the Greek people will be called upon to make great efforts to avoid the situation seen in the last few months from repeating itself. The reactions to the agreement by the Bank of Greece were more optimistic. For the central bank, the agreement has decreased the risk of Greek banks having to deal with liquidity problems. The statements of European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, who stated that the ECB will continue to accept Greek bonds even after 2010, according to an analysis by economic daily Imerisia, provided relief regarding situation for Greek bonds, but also for Greek banks. Without Trichet’s announcement, wrote Elefteros Tipos, yesterday’s deal in Brussels would have not only been Greece’s Waterloo, but would have represented a significant blow to all of Europe. The only positive aspect of the agreement for Greece, still according to the analysis in Elefteros Tipos, is that it does not seem probable that it will ever be applied, referring to the recommendations that the Greek state will be called on to comply with to respond to European requests. Greek daily Ta Nea also reported on the agreement, pointing out two important moments. The first being the support mechanism if Greece has difficulty obtaining loans on the international marketplace, which last night became a reality. Then, Trichet announcing that bonds issued by the Greek government will continue to be accepted by Frankfurt, something that will solve the liquidity problem of the Greek banks. Meanwhile, the first positive results of Brussels’ deal have already been witnessed on the Greek stock market. Indeed, this morning the market exceeded the 2,130-mark, an increase of 3.5%. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Minister Chrisochoidis Postpones Visit to Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 26 — The Greek Minister for Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrisochoidis, has postponed his official visit to Turkey, scheduled today. According to his Ministry, Chrisochoidis took his decision because of the interference caused by Turkish radar systems in communication between Greek airplanes and helicopters of Frontex, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union. The Greek Minister had a meeting with his Turkish counterpart a few days ago, to discuss the possibility of collaboration between the two countries against illegal immigration. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
International Right-Wingers Gather for EU-Wide Minaret Ban
Delegates from right-wing populist parties from across Europe are descending on Germany this weekend for a conference looking into the possibility of an EU-wide minaret ban. The hosts, an anti-Muslim German group, hope to use the gathering as a springboard to success in local elections.
What could be more European than a castle? The Continent is dotted with them, often menacingly perched on forested hilltops overlooking rivers or ancient trading routes — important bastions necessary for the defense of what developed into Europe’s long and rich cultural tradition.
These days, of course, European castles tend to be little more than bucolic tourist attractions. But it is perhaps no accident that a small palace in western Germany’s former industrial heart has been chosen to host a convention ostensibly aimed at defending European culture. The castle in question is the centuries-old Horst Palace, a Renaissance structure in the Ruhr Valley city of Gelsenkirchen. The gathering is called, pointedly, the Anti-Minaret Conference.
This Saturday, politicians representing right-wing conservative parties from across Europe will descend on the Horst Palace to discuss the dangers of Islam. Delegates from the Belgian nationalists Vlaams Belang will be there as will politicians from Geert Wilders’s Dutch Party for Freedom, Pia Kjaersgaard’s Danish People’s Party and the Front National of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Others from Sweden, Austria and Eastern Europe are also on the invite list.
‘Symbols of Radical Islam’
The hosts are a relatively new group of German right-wing conservatives called Pro-NRW (an abbreviation of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia) and the goal of the conference is clear: to follow in Switzerland’s footsteps and ban minarets across Europe. And they want to use a provision of the European Union’s new Lisbon Treaty to do it.
“I don’t think that minarets are part of our heritage,” conference attendee Filip Dewinter, floor leader for Vlaams Belang in the Flemish parliament, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “They are symbols of radical Islam. The question is whether Islam is a religion like Protestantism and Catholicism and for me it is not. It is a political system, it is a way of life and it is one that is not compatible with ours.”
Pro-NRW and the other right-wing parties were galvanized when Swiss voters last November passed a ban on the construction of new minarets in the country. Since then, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which launched the referendum, have become the darlings of the European right. Indeed, the SVP has loaned their controversial campaign poster, which depicts missile-like minarets jutting out of a Swiss flag behind an ominous, niqab-wearing Muslim woman, to Pro-NRW for its campaign in Germany. And anti-minaret movements on the Swiss model have sprung up around Europe.
Dewinter has recently taken a closer look at whether a provision in the new Lisbon Treaty allowing for citizens’ initiatives could be used to push through a Europe-wide ban on the construction of minarets. On Saturday, delegates at the Anti-Minaret Conference will discuss whether to begin collecting the 1 million signatures such a path would require.
‘A Very Powerful Weapon’
The hurdles to such a strategy are high. Even if the Lisbon Treaty provides for citizens’ initiatives, the legal mechanism governing such a procedure has yet to be decided on. Indeed, with the European Commission first set to send its proposal for citizens’ initiatives to the European Parliament for consideration next week, a final legal framework may not be complete before the end of the year, an EU spokesman said.
Even then, such an initiative would only require the Commission to take a closer look at a given issue. Should the commissioners determine that an initiative falls under the jurisdiction of European nation-states or violates EU human rights guidelines, no further action would be taken.
Nevertheless, Dewinter seems invigorated by the possibility of putting a minaret ban on the European agenda. “Brussels is afraid of such a referendum and they know it would be a very powerful weapon in the hands of right-wing conservative parties,” he says. “The collection of the signatures will be a political campaign in itself.”
Still, the planners of this weekend’s conference have greater ambitions than merely discussing the possibility of a European-wide minaret ban. Pro-NRW, an outgrowth of the anti-Muslim group Pro-Cologne, is seeking to establish a political foothold in Germany ahead of important state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in May. The group is testing the waters to determine if the kind of populist, Islamophobia that groups in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and elsewhere have tapped into exists in Germany as well.
“The Islamization of our cities is continuing and there is broad fear among the populace,” Pro-NRW head Markus Beisicht told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “If we do well in the elections, 2.5 percent of the vote or better, we will become a new brand name in Germany. There is a huge vacuum between the (far-right extremist) NPD and the (center-left) Christian Democrats and we want to fill it.”
‘Attacking Its Weakest Victim’
There is some evidence that he is right. A SPIEGEL survey last December found that, were a minaret referendum held in Germany, 44 percent would vote in favor of a ban while 45 percent would not. On the other hand, the majority of Germany’s 4-million strong Muslim population has Turkish roots and has tended not to produce the kind of radicalism that has thrown a negative light on Islam elsewhere in Europe.
That, though, has not stopped Pro-NRW from depicting Muslims as being violence-prone and aggressive. In addition to Saturday’s conference, the group is staging vigils in front of mosques throughout the region, beginning on Friday. A planned march is to end in front of the huge Merkez Mosque in Duisburg.
Police, though, are bracing for counter-demonstrations, with leftist groups having indicated ahead of the conference that they planned to disrupt it. Local politicians are likewise unimpressed. North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister, Ingo Wolf of the Free Democratic Party, has described the “Pro NRW” gathering as “dangerous for our democracy.” Cloaked as a legitimate movement, he said the right-wing group was fomenting fear of foreigners with its “anti-democratic and xenophobic ideology.”
Sigmar Gabriel, the head of Germany’s center-left Social Democrats, spent Friday touring mosques in the Ruhr region in order to counter the intolerant message sent by the anti-minaret meeting. “The truth is that anyone who wants to ban minarets and compares Islam with terrorism is motivated by xenophobia.”
Beisicht is careful to insist that he and his allies have nothing in common with neo-Nazis, and he even tries to strike a moderate tone on occasion. “Religious freedom also applies to Muslims,” he says, before insisting that minarets were a symbol of aggression.
Ahead of Saturday’s conference, however, his European allies were not in such an accommodating mood. “Islam is a predator and it is attacking its weakest victim,” Dewinter says. “Europe is that weakest victim. We have a problem with our demography; we have a problem with our identity; we are embracing multi-culturalism. We are very weak and Islam knows that — and it is going on the attack.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi and State Channels Fined for Political ‘Imbalance’
Rome, 25 March(AKI) — A televison channel owned by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and one owned by the state were each fined 100,000 euros for violating a law that requires balanced reporting of political campaigns. Italy will hold regional elections on 27-28 March.
There was a “persistent strong informational imbalance between political forces” according to monitoring of news programs between 14 -20 March, said communications watchdog AGCOM in a statement.
State broadcaster RAI’s premier channel RAI 1 and Berlusconi’s Canale 5 channel violated a law known as ‘par condicio’ that gives equal broadcast time to all political parties during a political campaign.
Their news programmes have devoted more coverage to Berlusconi’s People of Liberty Party than to its main opposition, the Democratic Party, the regulator said.
By virtue of his job as prime minister, Berlusconi (photo) has de facto control of Italy’s three state channels, as well the three channels owned by his company Mediaset. Critics accuse him of of a conflict of interest, while Berlusconi and his supporters say he doesn’t unfairly use his control of broadcasters to further his political interests.
Berlusconi is under formal investigation for allegedly abusing his office by using threats to pressure a senior AGCOM member to remove a show critical of him from RAI. He denies any wrongdoing. The show in question, “Annozero,” continues to air, despite a temporary suspension until after the regional elections, along with other RAI political chat shows.
Also under investigation, for allegedly telling Berlusconi about the probe, is the head of RAI’s flagship news programme TG1, Augusto Minzolini.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Policeman Probed Over Dealer Death in Transsex Scandal
Rome, 25 March (AKI) — An Italian policeman is a key suspect in the death of a drug dealer and alleged pimp for transsexuals linked to the scandal surrounding the former governor of the Lazio region, Piero Marrazzo.
Rome prosecutors accuse Nicola Testini of having given Gianguerino Cafasso a lethal ‘speedball’ containing heroin and cocaine which caused his death in a Rome hotel on 12 September last year.
Records of phonecalls between Cafasso and Testini’s mobiles corroborate Cafasso’s transsexual partner Jennifer’s claims that Testini met Cafasso to give him drugs the evening he died and that he was murdered because he “knew too much”.
Cafasso’s father also claim his son was murdered because he had become “a danger”. Cafasso’s case was initially archived as ‘natural death’, until prosecutors ordered the exhumation of his body and a series of toxicology tests.
Prosecutors believe Cafasso had unsuccessfully attempted to sell a 12-minute video of a sexual encounter between Marazzo and another transsexual prostitute to Italian daily Libero for 500,000 euros.
The video, shot on a mobile phone, showed Marazzo in his underwear with Brazilian transsexual Nathalie, with a line of cocaine on the bedside table.
One of Testini’s colleagues, Luciano Simeone told police last week that he had filmed the video when he, Testini and two other policemen raided Nathalie’s appartment in an upscale district of northern Rome last July.
Testini, Simeone and the two other policemen were arrested last year after being accused of blackmailing Marrazzo over the video, which Marrazzo reportedly tried buy from them.
After Cafasso failed to sell the video to Libero, Testini and his colleagues approached a Milan-based photo agency and discussed trying to sell the video to weekly gossip magazine Chi, for 60,000 euros, according to investigators.
Prosecutors suspect Cafasso fell out with Testini and his colleagues over the sale of the video, possibly over the reduced price offered to Chi magazine which meant less money for Cafasso.
They are hoping more information will come to light during further questioning of Simeone, who has already indicated to police that he and other colleages were involved in blackmail and robbery against a number of as yet unnamed ‘VIP’ customers of transsexual prostitutes in northern Rome.
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who owns Chi, claims he tipped off Marrazzo about the video. Marrazzo stood down last November after admitting “a weakness in my private life”.
Police are investigating the death of the Brazilian transsexual prostitute Brenda, who was found dead in her north Rome apartment in November after a fire broke out.
An autopsy established Brenda died of smoke inhalation but it is not clear how the fire broke out, but investigators have not ruled out foul play.
Investigators said that Brenda’s laptop computer had been submerged in a sinkful of water before the fire. In December, Italian daily La Repubblica reported that a young Brazilian hacker had permanently deleted all the files on the computer’s hard drive last September, at Brenda’s request.
Marrazzo was allegedly a client of Brenda’s and she had once claimed to have videoed Marrazzo in the bath during an encounter with another Brazilian transsexual prostitute, Michelle.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Calderoli Makes Bonfire of Unintelligible Laws
Clear-out of bureaucratic “dross” but much garbled legislation remains. Government’s decrees fill 124 volumes
MILAN — Aspiring D’Annunzio imitator Roberto Calderoli has worked his miracle. Having announced that there were 29,100 pointless laws, he made a bonfire of 375,000 of them. That’s more than one a minute — including time to read the text — since Mr Calderoli took office, assuming that he has been working 12 hours a day. Fantastic! But there are still all the newly introduced laws to consider. According to the Chamber of Deputies’ legislation committee, the decrees of the present government average more than two million characters: 56 decrees with 112 million characters. To put it another way, that’s 124.4 volumes of 500 pages each. Firefighters’ representatives say that the minister’s bonfire was “a drama worthy of the Fascist period” and some observers point out that book-burnings and the like have always been a feature of turbulent times. There is also some doubt over the figures. The report of the parliamentary committee chaired by Alessandro Pajno, frequently quoted by Mr -Calderoli, discovered “about 21,000 legislative acts, of which 7,000 predate 31 December 1969”, so how did the minister arrive at 375,000?
Leaving quibbles aside, the key issue is: did the files burned in a fire station yard yesterday (Mr Calderoli would have preferred Palazzo Chigi but the Prime Minister’s Office secretary Gianni Letta is thought to have objected) contain only ancient exercises in bureaucratic prose or were some of them more recent? Take article 7 of the regulations for the regional equalisation fund : “The difference between borrowing required to cover expenditure under article 6, paragraph 1, letter a), number 1, calculated in accordance with the method described in letter b) of paragraph 1, article 6, and the regional tax revenue set aside for the purpose, determined with exclusion of variations in revenue produced by the implementation of tax autonomy and the emergence of the tax base…” Minister Calderoli will agree that this is sheer gobbledegook. The trouble is that this is not a law passed in the 19th century when Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina was writing “I moribundi del Palazzo Carignano”. It is one of the present government’s measures, taken a few months ago as an example of bureaucratic linguistic dementia by a great journalist who could in no way be described as “red”: Mario Cervi, former editor of the Berlusconi-owned Il Giornale. And there is worse to come.
In its laudable attempts to make it easier for citizens to understand and obey laws, the government passed on 18 June 2009 a measure whose article 3 was entitled “Clarity of legislative texts”. It recites: “a) every regulation intended to replace, amend or abrogate existing regulations or to define exemptions should expressly indicate the regulation replaced, amended, abrogated or derogated; b) any reference to other regulations contained in legislative provisions, or in regulations, decrees or circulars issued by the public administration, should concomitantly indicate that text, in full or in a concise, comprehensible form”. In other words, no more horrendous legislationspeak. Yet here is a paragraph from article 1 of the latest “thousand-extensions” decree by the present government: “5-c. A further extension to 31 October 2010 is granted to the time limit laid down in the first sentence of article 8-e of article 6 of decree law no. 300 dated 28 December 2006, converted and amended by law no. 17 dated 26 February 2007, as last extended to 31 December 2009 by article 47-b of decree law no. 248 dated 31 December 2007, converted and amended by law n. 31 dated 28 February 2008”. Beg your pardon? Oh well.
And this is the point. What sense is there in burning a few boxes of red tape that deals with “concessions for mechanically driven trams” or the “purchase of coal for the Royal Navy” if the freed space is filled up again by new laws that are even more confused, crazily worded and incomprehensible? The answer can be found in a fine little book by Michele Cortellazzo, dean of the faculty of letters and philosophy at the university of Padua. The title is “Operating instructions for local electoral offices translated into Italian”. It is subtitled “To the ministry of the interior with compliments”. You might think it was a leg-pull, if the subject weren’t so serious. If election regulations were comprehensible, why on earth would they need to be “translated into Italian”?
Lawmakers’ cupboards in other countries also contain legislation that is gathering dust. A web site dedicated to dumb laws has even compiled a hilarious list. For instance, in some western US states, you can’t fish on horseback. In Illinois, you can be fined for going to the theatre less than four hours after eating garlic. And you can’t walk cows along Main Street in Little Rock after 1 pm on Sunday.
Every so often, the lawmakers have a clear-out. If possible, they try to avoid the mistakes made by Mr Calderoli, whose impatient new broom was stayed by objections in the newspapers as it about to sweep away the laws that transferred the capital from Florence to Rome, established the Court of Auditors and protected citizens from being accused of insulting a public official if they react to arbitrary or illegal actions. The crucial thing is that new laws should be drafted clearly. If they aren’t, we’re back at square one.
In fact, we have a long way to go, and the people who say so are not “communist carpers”. They sit on the parliamentary legislation committee chaired by Mr Berlusconi’s party colleague, Antonino Lo Presti. Two months ago, the committee explained that the word, number and codicil-bloated decrees of the Prodi government contained an average of 1.128 million characters. But the Berlusconi government’s all-encompassing equivalents have more than two million each. And this is supposed to be simplification?
Have we shaken off Victorian absurdities like the “reproduction by means of photography of fixed objects” only to be saddled today with references “to article 1, paragraph 255 of law no. 311 dated 30 December 2004 may contemplate the application of article 11, paragraph 3 of decree law no. 35 dated 14 March 2005, converted and amended by law no. 80 dated 14 May 2005 and by article 1, paragraph 853” and so on and so forth?
Pull the other one.
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fiat to Meet 2010 Targets, CEO Says
Marchionne defends group from union and political attacks
(ANSA) — Turin, March 26 — Despite what will be a “difficult” year, Fiat in 2010 expects to achieve its established targets with improvements in all sectors, CEO Sergio Marchionne told shareholders on Friday.
“This year will be one of transition and the markets where we do business will continue to experience difficulties.
However, we expect to see all sectors improve their performance over 2009, as macro-economic conditions return to normality,” he said at the shareholders meeting.
The best results in the group this year, Marchionne said, will be in the automotive and component divisions “even if they will suffer from (government) incentives not being renewed this year”.
In his report to shareholders, Marchionne confirmed that Fiat this year expects to see some 50 billion euros in earnings and a trading profit of between 1.1 and 1.2 billion euros, although net profit will be minimal if any and industrial debt will be above five billion euros.
“Nevertheless, Fiat has resources which are more than adequate for this transition period which will restore normal market conditions in 2011 and the years after,” Marchionne said.
The CEO also defended Fiat against criticism from unions and politicians, both in government and in the opposition, that Fiat was only acting in the interest of its shareholders and not those of its workers and the country.
“Accusing Fiat of favoring its shareholders could be a valid populist argument, if one forgets that there are 215 small stockholders who hold modest packages of Fiat shares,” Marchionne observed.
“And to single out the big shareholders is also unjust because over the years they have made great sacrifices for the company, underwriting numerous rights issues over the past 17 years which account for 70% of the group’s capital,” he said.
“If Fiat’s market value today is some 11 billion euros, almost eight billion euros is thanks to the commitments made by the leading shareholders,” Marchionne added.
Turning his attention to the political and union attacks on the group, the CEO said “Fiat does not expect to be praised and celebrated every day the way it was when it got $2 billion from General Motors or when (US) President (Barack) Obama announced our accord with Chrysler. But it’s not right that we are the target of gratuitous accusations from political circles, unions and even members of the business sector”.
“Fiat did not go abroad on a whim and it certainly did not go to forget Italy. It went to make this company stronger.
Fiat’s barycenter has always been and will always remain in Italy. All we have done is to expand our base of operations to make this barycenter more stable,” Marchionne said.
MONTEZEMOLO THANKS MARCHIONNE.
Friday’s meeting was opened by Fiat Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo who won the applause of the shareholders when he thanked Marchionne for the achievements he made last year, in particular orchestrating Fiat’s acquisition ff a 20% stake and management control of Detroit No.3 Chrysler.
According to the Fiat chairman, the deal was “one of the biggest operations of its kind seen in the automobile industry in the last decades”.
Fiat was given the stake and management control in a non-cash deal in exchange for its cutting-edge green and small car technology. Once Fiat begins producing its own cars in America it will be able to increase its stake in Chrysler to 35% and has an option to take a majority interest in Chrysler once federal bailout loans have been repaid.
“If the Fiat Group has always respected the commitments it has made, we have Sergio Marchionne to thank for this,” Montezemolo told shareholders.
“Marchionne has been able to create and lead a group of very capable, valid, determined and courageous people who transformed difficulties into opportunities and who saw obstacles as challenges to overcome,” he added. “It is on this foundation, on these people and with this determination that we intend to build the company’s future. And so we thank each and every one of them for what they have done and continue to do every day,” the chairman said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Ire at Mills Witness ‘Cull’
‘Attack based on nothing’, premier claims
(ANSA) — Milan, March 26 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi voiced fresh ire against the Italian judiciary Friday after most of his desired witnesses were ruled out of a Milan trial where he is accused of bribing British lawyer David Mills. Only 20 witnesses were admitted after requests from both the prosecution and the defence.
Berlusconi alone had asked for 73 witnesses to be heard.
The Italian PM and media magnate called the alleged witness cull an “attack based on nothing”.
Berlusconi added that he wanted to attend the trial but his lawyers were against it. He claimed the attorneys “tell me that I would not find judges but execution squads,” a repetition of a previous assertion.
“I have sworn on my nearest and dearest that the charges against me are not true,” the premier added.
His lead lawyer, Niccolo’ Ghedini, claimed it was “very serious” that most of the premier’s desired witnesses had been ruled out.
“This does not allow us to defend ourselves in a full way,” Ghedini said, claiming “only the witnesses the prosecution was interested in have been admitted”. Among those cleared to testify is former Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore.
The trial, in which Berlusconi is accused of paying Mills to hush up evidence in two previous trials, is set to resume on April 16 when an expert on offshore payments, called by prosecutors, will be heard.
In the trial, which resumes Friday, Berlusconi cannot yet take advantage of a law establishing a “legitimate impediment” to justify ministers’ non-attendance because of their commitments.
The law was passed earlier this month but is still awaiting the signature of Italian President Giorgio Napolitano so it can be published in the Official Gazette.
Mills was convicted of taking a payment of $600,000 and sentenced to four and a half years in jail, a conviction upheld on first appeal but then pronounced subject to the statute of limitations by Italy’s highest appeals court last month.
Both Mills and Berlusconi denied wrongdoing.
The Italian premier and media magnate was removed from proceedings by a 2008 immunity law passed by his government but his trial was reactivated when that law was struck down by the Constitutional Court last October.
The Mills perjury trial is one of two involving the premier, who has never received a definitive conviction.
The other concerns alleged tax fraud in the sale of film rights by his Mediaset media group.
Both trials are expected to run out under the statute of limitations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New York Times ‘Targeted Pope’
‘Ignoble’ bid to draw Benedict into scandal, Vatican daily says
(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 25 — A new report by the New York Times on a past US case of priestly sex abuse is part of an “ignoble” attempt to involve Pope Benedict XVI directly in the widening Catholic Church paedophilia scandal, Vatican daily l’Osservatore Romano claimed Thursday.
The daily denied that Benedict, in his past role as doctrinal watchdog in charge of handling abuse cases, had ever been part of a “cover-up” as suggested in Thursday’s article.
It claimed that the reconstruction of the case of Father Lawrence Murphy, who abused some 200 blind boys at a Milwaukee church school between 1950 and 1974, was “functional to the evident and ignoble end of trying, at all costs, to strike Benedict XVI and his closest aides”.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, formerly Benedict’s No.2 when the pope as cardinal Joseph Ratzinger headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was also accused of inaction in Murphy’s case.
Echoing what Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said earlier Thursday, l’Osservatore stressed that a 1962 canon law did not rule out defrocking predator priests or reporting them to the police.
The Vatican daily reiterated that the case only came to the attention of the future pope when Father Murphy was close to death.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
No International Rescue for the Bluefin Tuna
A conference on endangered species has failed to ban the international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna. Some experts fear this spells the end for the endangered fish.
By Steven Adolf
The conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) that closed in Doha on Thursday could not agree to a ban on international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna. No limits will be set for the fish to end up in Japanese sushi.
The rejection in the Qatari capital has already been dubbed “Tunapocalypse Now”. Five species of hammerhead shark suffered a similar fate at the summit in Doha. They didn’t make it onto CITES’ ‘Appendix I’, the list of species in which international trade is banned either. Fins of these sharks are a common ingredient in Asian soup, but the rest of their body is often tossed overboard.
Japan, which annually spends hundreds of millions of euros importing bluefin tuna, emerged as the victor in Doha. North African nations such as Libya and Tunisia, whose sitting regimes profit from the tuna trade, were also satisfied with the convention’s outcome. The big losers are the US and the EU, even if some European countries, namely France, Spain and Malta, are home to sizable tuna industries that will doubtlessly have celebrated the convention’s results.
Everybody loses
All things considered though, everybody loses. Scientists now consider the extinction of the Atlantic blue fin tuna and some species of shark a real possibility. They have predicted a sudden and irreversible drop in population levels in the coming years. This happened to the, once immense, Atlantic cod population that used to live of the North American coast in the 1990s.
Environmental interest groups that had high hopes for the Doha conference were sourly disappointed. Marine biologists and others experts were unanimous in condemning the outcome.
The CITES convention was the latest chapter in a 20 year long struggle to save the bluefin tuna from demise. It was Monaco that took the initiative to propose the introduction of a ban at this months Doha conference. Internal bickering among EU countries proved an obstacle to its adoption however. Counties like Spain, France and Malta have fought limitations on tuna fishing that would hurt local industry.
The state of affairs within the EU led to some remarkable incidents in Doha. After an EU motion moved the conference in the direction of a trade ban, the EU seemed unified. A powerful bloc consisting of the US and the Europeans was emerging in favour of the ban.
But it was not to be. Disputes within European circles let to a compromise that was far less stringent than the version proposed by Monaco. Meanwhile, Japan, represented by a delegation of dozens, devoted all its efforts to lobbying against the ban. “While Japan went around the world offering money, Europe was only occupied with itself,” is how European parliamentarian Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy summed up the Japanese lobbying efforts.
Libya was another country that vehemently opposed the ban. The nation’s representative said other countries were conspiring against developing nations, and called scientific reports on the endangered tuna lies. Nonetheless, Libya was able to force a vote on both the EU and the Monaco proposal before any debate had taken place. The conference rejected both.
In the end, Doha did not see any debate of real significance regarding the bluefin, international fishing consultant and tuna expert Roberto Mielgo said. “Everyone who knows what they are talking about can tell you the Libyan conspiracy theory is rubbish. Developing nations will not suffer from a ban on international trade. This is about conserving a shared resource that is being robbed from us under our very eyes.”
Courting disaster
The events in Doha seem to confirm the inability of the global community to regulate conservation of fish populations. “We are courting disaster. What is happening to the bluefin tuna now can also happen to other species of tuna and fish in general,” said Henk Brus of Atuna, an international organisation that provides information to the tuna fishing industry. According to Brus, less endangered species of tuna like the yellowfin and bigeye are next in line. Even stocks of skipjack and bonito tuna, which now account for more than half of the global catch, are at risk in the long run.
Tuna fishing and trade can only continue to exist if international conservation continues to function, Brus said. He saw a silver lining of the Doha disaster in the fact that the blue fin tuna problem had now ended up in the court of regional conservation organisations like ICCAT.
Others did not share his optimism however. “It is over for the bluefin tuna,” tuna expert Mielgo said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pope ‘Didn’t Know’
Vatican issues fresh denial on Munich case
(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 26 — Pope Benedict XVI did not know of a decision to reassign a paedophile priest to Church work when he was Munich archbishop in the 1980s, the Vatican reiterated Friday, describing a fresh New York Times report as “mere speculation”.
Asked to comment on the NYT’s claim that the future pope was aware of the decision to transfer Father Peter Hullermann, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi referred reporters to a denial published earlier this month by the Munich archdiocese.
In that denial, the archdiocese said “the then archbishop (Joseph Ratzinger) did not know of the decision to reassign priest H. to pastoral work”.
Benedict’s then immediate subordinate, former Munich vicar general Msgr Gerhard Gruber, has “taken full responsibility for his own, mistaken decision,” Lombadi quoted the denial as saying.
As Catholics worldwide rallied to Benedict’s defence, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, wrote in The Times of London that in his previous role as doctrinal watchdog, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made “important changes” to canon law on paedophilia. He said that one of the Vatican’s priorities since 2001 had been to encourage Church officials to report cases to the police.
If this did not happen in many cases, Nichols wrote, it was “cause for profound regret”. A German bishop in the central city of Fulda, Heinz Joseph Algermissen, admitted “heavy omissions” by the Catholic Church in Germany.
“We did not sufficiently respect the suffering of the victims,” Algermissen told German daily Frankfurter Rundschau. In Rome, the Preacher to the Papal Household, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, warned against “generalising” on paedophile priests but added: “these things should never be hushed up”.
Meanwhile The New York Times defended a previous report which on Thursday said Benedict, in his previous capacity as doctrinal watchdog, failed to defrock a paedophile priest in Wisconsin in the 1990s despite a call from a Milwaukee bishop.
The article was “the result of meticulous journalistic work,” spokeswoman Diane McNulty said.
“Some details have been confirmed by the Church and no one has yet cast doubt on the facts we reported,” she said.
The Thursday report centred on the late Father Lawrence Murphy, who abused some 200 deaf boys from 1950 to 1974 when he was a teacher and later head of the St John School for the Deaf in Wisconsin.
It said a Milwaukee bishop came to Rome in 1996 to ask for Father Lawrence to be defrocked because of the damage his case could cause to the Church.
But the pope, then head of the watchdog which deals with abuse cases, failed to recommend such action, it said.
The Vatican on Thursday claimed the report was part of an “ignoble” bid to smear the pope.
It said Benedict, who was then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was only made aware of the case “four months” before Murphy died in 1998.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Press Announces Permanent Seat at G-20
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 26 — Spain has consolidated its position at the G-20 with a permanent seat, according to government sources cited by the daily newspaper Publico today. As a result, Premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will be present as a “permanent guest” at the upcoming Toronto G-20 in June. Confirmation of a permanent seat comes on the same day on which the Council of Europe agreed in Brussels that the European Union would be represented by a single voice at the G-20, with a single “sherpa” who would aid the permanent President, Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso. At the request of French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, Zapatero and Van Rompuy have been entrusted with the task of drawing up a working paper aimed at unifying the EU’s positions ahead of the Toronto meeting.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Almunia: ‘The EU is Not a Disposable Tissue’
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 26 — “Europe is not a disposable tissue”, but a valid and permanent project, “which must have a single currency as its central axis”. This was stated today by the European Commissioner for the Economic and Monetary Affairs, Joaquin Almunia, intervening in Madrid at a forum organized by the Europa Press. Almunia expressed his concern regarding the position taken by the German leader Angela Merkel regarding the rescue of Greece’s economy, according to which all those countries that are not able to withstand the conditions set by the Euro should abandon the European Union. For the UE Commissioner, such declarations “generate unnecessary tensions in an already tense moment”. Almunia declared that he was convinced that it “would not constitute a problem” for Spain to give the necessary sum, roughly 2 million Euro, if it would decide to have recourse to the plan of bilateral loans agreed upon yesterday by the leaders of the Eurozone for the saving of the Hellenic states’ economy. In addition, he hoped that the agreement reached yesterday could help the markets to “reduce pressures” on Greece, which is being forced to pay an elevated interest rates in order to issue bonds on the market to resolve its debt, or renegotiate it. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Dressed as Muslim Woman Robs Bank
A six foot tall man robbed a bank dressed as a woman wearing a Muslim style head scarf.
The man in his thirties walked into the HSBC branch and demanded money from the cashier.
Witnesses only realised the robber was a man when he spoke with a deep voice inside the bank — and told staff to fill his pink holdall with cash.
The robber was wearing what appeared to be a white ‘hijab’ style head scarf and a full-length, long-sleeved dark-coloured robe.
Detectives believe he is actually a white man around six feet tall, and of a slim build.
He threatened staff with violence, before making off with cash. He then fled the bank and ran off down an alley.
HSBC Bank PLC is a member of the British Bankers Association, which is offering a reward of up to £25,000 for information.
The incident happened on Tuesday at 11.50 at the HSBC branch on Wimborne Road, Bournemouth, Dorset.
Detective Inspector Craig Travers, of Bournemouth and Poole CID, said: “This man was wearing very distinctive clothing.
“He was wearing a white staff wrapped around his head and face and a full-length, long-sleeved dark-coloured robe.
“As this is a very busy area it’s possible that several people will have seen him before or after the incident.
“I would urge the man pictured and anyone who recognises this man to contact me, in confidence, as soon as possible.”
A police spokesman said: “ When the robber went into the bank he spoke and witnesses realised he was a man.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UN Slams Religion Slandering and Minaret Ban
(ANSAmed) — GENEVA, MARCH 25 — The United Nations Council for Human Rights today approved by a narrow margin the controversial resolution on “slandering religion” promoted by the Islamic Conference (OIC) which targets Islamophobia first and foremost. The text, which also condemns “bans on building minarets” as decided by a Swiss referendum, passed with 20 votes in favour and 17 against, including those of Italy, and eight abstentions. The US and the European Union came out clearly against the resolution, while condemning discrimination on religious grounds. China and Russia voted in favour. The resolution, which was promoted by Pakistan in the name of the OIC, condemns the “recently adopted discriminatory bans on minaret construction. These are symptoms of deep Islamophobia against international obligations”, the text states, without explicitly mentioning the vote in Switzerland. The resolution also deplores “all acts of psychological and physical violence and all acts of aggression, and incitements to commit them, against all persons on grounds of religion or convictions”. The text also expresses “profound concern at the persistence of serious stereotyping” in the media which targets some religions, their followers and “holy figures” as the “intensification of the campaign of defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general”, in particular regarding “Muslim minorities following the tragic events of September 11 2001”. The concept of “slandering religion” has been the subject of debate at the UN for years and it is being resisted by many Western countries. During the debate leading to the vote, the European Union pointed out that the concept of slandering religion was not a relevant one given that international human rights “protect individuals in exercising the freedom of religion and faith and do not need to protect systems of faith as such”. The US has explicitly condemned the use of the concept of slandering religion in some countries as a justification for censorship, criminalisation and in some cases deadly attacks on political, racial and religious minorities. “We cannot believe that a ban on the freedom of expression can promote tolerance”, the US said. This is not the first occasion that the UN Council has approved such a text: although resolution refers several times to “all religions” or to “some religions” the only religion actually mentioned is Islam. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Newspaper Publishes 2001 Guidelines on Paedophilia
(AGI) — Vatican City, 26 Mar — The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano published today the Italian translation of the letter entitled “Ad exsequendam ecclesiasticam legem” dated May 18 2001, addressed at the entire Catholic hierarchy by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. These are the guidelines for rules on more serious crimes (“delicta graviora”) reserved to this Congregation as decided by John Paul II. The text in Latin had been published in the “Acta Apostolicae Sedis” but the official translation had not yet been made available on the Vatican website. This text establishes the statute of limitations as ten years after the victim becoming of age. It also restricts “secrecy” to ongoing cases without forbidding charges being brought in civil courts. .
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Dodik: Change Dayton and RS Will Consider Separation
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 26 — Milorad Dodik, the Premier of the Republika Srpska (or RS, the Serb-majority entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina), has warned against any change being made to the spirit of the Dayton Accords, which brought about an end to the war in Bosnia in 1995. He stated that otherwise the Republika Srpska could decide peacefully to “separate itself” from the Croat-Moslem Federation. Speaking at a conference marking 15 years since the signing of the Dayton Accords in Belgrade today, Dodik said it was necessary, to keep a political balance in Bosnia-Herzegovina, to return to respecting the application of the terms of the Accords. They have, in his view, been changed in many instances by “judicial violence” on the part of high-placed officials from the international community that have taken turns to supervise in Bosnia over recent years. According to Dodik, these international representatives have adopted a total of in excess of 800 measures and provisions of various kinds, with over 200 being enacted in law, changing the situation foreseen at Dayton, even creating bodies and institutions not planned by the 15-year-old accords. All of this has been done, Dodik stated, “in order to destroy the RS”, from which these international representatives have deducted at least 53 powers. Should this kind of thing continue, the Bosnian Serb Premier said, there is no ruling out a reconsideration of its status by the RS one day. “And this cannot be a taboo subject”. “Hands off Dayton”, Dodik concluded, stressing that otherwise “the only sustainable solution would be a peaceful separatoin”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Virtual Library for Ancient Med Manuscripts
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 25 — Giving public access to collections and rare manuscripts and documents of the Mediterranean region, with a virtual platform. This is the aim of the library which the Eu funded Manumed project is developing. The project is part of the EuroMed Heritage IV programme. During last year — according to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu) — Manumed’s activities had “encouraging results”, spreading awareness of the rich written and linguistic heritage of the Mediterranean region. The access to collections and documents is an essential element of emphasizing heritage and sharing with citizens is an important way to avoid conservation for the sake of conservation. Manumed is therefore developing a virtual platform, for broadcasting and promoting the written and linguistic heritage of Mediterranean Sea. The Manumed project gives priority to training in the field of cultural heritage with particular focus on involving young people in the development of contemporary solutions, on paying more attention to national and minority languages in the region, and on supporting craftsmen who work in the domain of manuscripts and are still practicing ancestral techniques. (ANSAmed
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Three Undersecretaries Proposed
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 26 — Of the six Undersecretaries of the Mediterranean Union, only three names have been proposed so far by Italy, Greece and Malta: Lino Cardarelli, Panagiotis Roumeliotis and Celia Attard Pirotta. Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Turkey have not presented their candidates yet. They are expected to do so shortly, and their candidates should be approved en bloc with the others in an “implied assent” procedure that takes place before the next meeting of high officials of the Mediterranean Union on April 20 in Brussels. The portfolios of the Undersecretaries of Secretary-General Ahmad Masadeh have already been divided: project finance and SME to Italy; energy to Greece; transport to Turkey; water and environment to the Palestinian territories; education to Israel. This, according to European sources, is the result of the latest meeting of high officials of the Mediterranean Union in the Belgian capital. “Our goal is to start working on the projects as soon as possible” sources in Brussels report, “and to make the secretariat operational with a minimal team early in May”. Meanwhile the budget is being discussed and the Secretary-General has to propose the methods for project management, the organisation chart and procedural regulations. The European Commission has allocated 3 million euros to the secretariat’s budget, as well as an official in Barcelona. The rest is in the hands of voluntary contributions of the member States. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Books: Yasmina Kadra to Head Maghreb Collection
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 26 — Yasmina Kadra (the pen name of Algerian writer Mohamed Moulesselouhl) has taken a 29%-stake in the ‘Apres la lune’ publishing house. Founded by Jean-Jacques Reboux, the publishing house specialising in detective novels published Yasmina Kadra’s La Rose de Blida in 2006. The former officer in the Algerian army, author of many successful books including The Attack and The Swallows of Kabul, just published L’Olympe des infortunes. He will manage a collection of books on the Maghreb for Apres la lune, according weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Businessman Possibly Kidnapped in Algeria
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 26 — The disappearing of an Israeli businessman last week is a mystery. All traces of the man were lost during his stay in North Africa. The man, who reportedly also has the Spanish nationality, may have been kidnapped in Algeria by militia linked to al-Qaida, according to the local press and the Arab newspaper a-Sharq el-Awsat. The man’s identity has not been disclosed yet. Last week Lotar, the Israeli government body that monitors terrorism worldwide, renewed its warning to Israeli businessmen active in Africa to stay on the alert due to possible attacks. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Berlusconi Only Western Leader at Arab Summit
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 25 — Silvio Berlusconi is the “only Western leader to have been invited” to the Arab League summit scheduled for Saturday at Sirte in Libya. The fact has been underlined by Italy’s Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, who stated taht the Prime Minister’s address would include a request to our “Israeli friends” to halt settlement construction, while Berlusconi would urge Arab leaders to issue “signals for a normalisation of relations with Israel”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Berne Lifts Black List, EU Aims to End Quarrel
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 26 — There has been an unexpectedly swift turn of events in the months-old diplomatic quarrel between Switzerland and Libya, which has drawn in other European countries. A few hours after a note was issued in Madrid by Spain’s Foreign Minister and the present holder of the EU presidency, Miguel Angel Moratinos, which “welcomes the ending of restrictions” by the Swiss authorities concerning 188 Libyan citizens, the news arrived from Berne that the black list had been lifted. The move allows the Spanish EU President to launch a final diplomatic offensive in order to bring a swift conclusion to the affair, which has seen Tripoli stopping the granting of entry visas to EU citizens. Moratinos will be in Libya tomorrow, in Tripoli and in Sirte, where the Arab League summit is taking place with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in attendance. This will provide an opportunity to patch up diplomatic differences and put an end to a dispute that has been going on for months now and, as Zapatero put it, has ended up harming all sides. Today has seen the Libyans gain two objectives: the lifting of the black list of 188 personages, including Colonel Gaddafi, and an apology from Europe, spoken by Moratinos first and by Zapatero shortly after, who expressed regret for any inconvenience that may have been caused to Libyan citizens by the Swiss measure. After the Swiss announcement of its lifting of an almost total ban on entering the Schengen area, the last piece of the puzzle is still missing before the whole knot is unravelled: the release of Swiss citizen Max Goeldi, who is still being held in Libya and the freeing of entry visas — but this is just a matter of “hours or days” Zapatero hinted.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Cars: Japan’s Denso Opens Factory in Tangiers
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, MARCH 25 — Japanese part-maker Denso will open a factory in Tangiers at the end of 2011. The new factory will produce air-conditioning systems for automobiles, says a report by the MAP agency, which cites a release made by Denso in Tokyo today. Construction work on the factory, which will cover 6,300 square metres, will begin in April 2011 and it should begin operation by the end of the same year. Denso forecasts the creation of ninety jobs by 2013 and sales of 12 million euros. Based in Kariya, Japan, Denso is one of the world’s leading car-parts and technology companies. It employes 120,000 people in thirty-three countries. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: HRW: Sharp Deterioration in Human Rights
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 26 — “The repression of freedom of expression in Tunisia does not only concern only alleged or real Islamists, but everyone, journalists, defenders of human rights and secular individuals,” said Human Rights Watch in Paris, which this week was prevented from going to Tunis to present its latest report on repression against former political prisoners. “People do not have any room to express themselves, society is gagged, there is a shape deterioration in human rights conditions in Tunisia,” said the author of the report, Eric Goldstein, while speaking to journalists. Goldstein underlined that HRW was even able to hold a press conference in Libya. For their most recent report in 2005, the organisation was able to hold a press conference in Tunis, but now things have changed, said Goldstein, “it is the determination of the regime, there is less tolerance for dissidents”. In the report entitled “A larger prison: repression against former political prisoners in Tunisia”, the NGO highlights the persistence of the authorities against former political prisoners, generally fundamentalist militants, who after their liberation “suffer a series of arbitrary measures, such as tight surveillance, the loss of their passport and restrictions against their freedom of movement”. The government in Tunis reacted by accusing HRW of “a series of lies and fabricated accusations to create false public opinion”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Visit by UN Undersecretary Smith
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, APR 26 — UN Undersecretary in charge of the fight against terrorism, Mike Smith, has had a meeting with Tunisia’s Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Lazhar Bououni, during his visit to the country. Bououni, according to press agency TAP, “voiced satisfaction, on the occasion, at the development of co-operation between Tunisia and the various UN structures in charge of terrorism, recalling in this regard Tunisia’s support to the UN efforts in matters of fight against this phenomenon.” Tunisia, the Minister continued, “managed to shield itself against terrorist risks,” allocating funds to “spread the values of tolerance and moderation”. Reasserting the country’s commitment to “consecrate the universal values, support the just humanitarian causes across the world and abide by international legality,” Bououni stressed “the need to lay the foundations of an efficient international co-operation, to fight terrorism and establish a stable and secure climate propitious to development.” Smith, after acknowledging Tunisia’s commitment to the fight against terrorism, underlined “the UN Fight Against Terrorism Committee’s will to encourage and develop co-operation between the various countries in this field, in order to guarantee world peace and security.” (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Illegal Emigration Attempt Foiled
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 26 The attempt of 28 young Tunisians to emigrate to Italy illegally was foiled last Tuesday by the naval service of the National Guard. The group had decided to leave from the island of Kerkennah, taking advantage of the traditional annual celebration of the octopus. They had contacted the owner of a boat, but were arrested soon after. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Arab League: 500 Mln for Palestinians in Jerusalem
(ANSAmed) — SIRTE (LIBYA), MARCH 26 — The Arab Foreign Ministers have decided to supply aid for a total of 500 million USD to the Palestinians in Jerusalem. The agreement was reached in a preparatory meeting for the Arab League summit that will be held this weekend in Sirte, Libya, according to the Secretary-General of the pan-Arab organisation. “Yes, it has been decided” said Amr Mussa during a press conference to reporters who asked him if the 22 Ministers had reached an agreement on the aid that was requested by the Palestinians. The agreement will be ratified on Saturday during the Sirte summit. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) had asked the Arab League for 500 million dollars to help the Palestinians resist the enlargement of Israeli settlements, which is pushing them outside East Jerusalem, the Arab part of the city. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Battle in Gaza: Netanyahu Convenes Ministers
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 26 — On his return from a stormy US visit, Israel’s Premier, Benyamin Netanyahu, has called his six closest ministers for consultations on the stance to adopt regarding the series of firm requests issued by President Barack Obama. The critical consultation went on for over an hour, far from the ears of the press: making the scene even gloomier news came in the afternoon of clashes on the Gaza Strip between a military unit and Palestinian militia. The battle was a protracted one, beginning with an ambush on an Israeli patrol, perhaps in a bid to kidnap some soldiers for a re-run of the case of Ghilad Shalit, who has been a prisoner in Gaza since 2006. The situation on the Gaza border quickly deteriorated with rockets being fired once more and armed attacks on Israeli patrols adding to the pessimistic outlook among the country’s ministers. Over the past few weeks the population of Neghev has had to take to their air-raid shelters on several occasions, with warnings issued to Hamas having no effect. Today’s battle was sparked off by a bomb blast hitting an Israeli patrol, killing two soldiers, according to Arab TV reports. Israel replied with a round of canon fire killing at least two Hamas militia. And the round of claims for the attack brought forth a new, worrying name: the ‘Palestine Taleban’. Another sign that pro-Al-Qaeda elements are stepping up their activity near Neghev. Obama’s wish list left the Israeli ministers dumbstruck. According to the press, it includes the freezing of Jewish building projects in East Jerusalem; an extension to the period of freezing for new settlement construction in the West Bank; an expansion in the West Bank of the Palestinian autonomous Zone A; the freeing of hundred of Palestinian detainees and Israeli willingness to take on key issues in the conflict straight away in the ‘proximity talks’ (indirect negotiations with the ANP). And the United States wants more. A pro-Netanyahu paper, the Israel ha-Yom, wrote that the US is calling for replies over the coming days to sway the Arab League summit opening in Libya this weekend. But Netanyahu’s session with his ministers today was only a consultative one, and observers are saying that a reply to Obama’s request will only be formulated after the Hebrew Passover, at the start of April.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Al Arabiya: Two Israeli Soldiers Killed
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, MARCH 26 — Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in an explosion east of Khan Yunes in the Gaza Strip, according to a report on the Al Arabiya television network. According to the Dubai-based broadcaster, an Israeli patrol was the target of a bomb attack. Following the blast, there was a gunfire in which two Palestinians were killed as well as the two Israeli soldiers. There had earlier been a report by Palestinian press agency, Maan, referring to an attack on an Israeli patrol on the border at Khan Yunes following an gunfire in which two Palestinians also lost their lives. The attack on the Israeli patrol, which Al Arabiya says was an attempt at kidnapping Israeli soldiers, has been claimed by the armed wing of Hamas in Gaza, the Ezzedin al-Qassam brigades, according to the Ynet website. The site adds that a separate attack on Israeli soldiers is being claimed from Gaza by an organisation unknown up to now, the ‘Palestine Taleban’.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Military: 2 Soldiers Killed in Fierce Clash in Gaza Strip
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with militants Friday inside the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in the fiercest fighting there since the January 2009 Gaza war.
The Israeli military says two soldiers were killed in a fierce firefight with militants Friday who were planting explosives along the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip.
Two other Israeli soldiers were evacuated to a hospital after being wounded in the exchange of fire, which the military blamed on Hamas, holding the militant group “solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel says its soldiers opened fire on the militants planting explosives, killing two of them.
Friday’s violence was some of the worst in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip since Israel’s military offensive there more than a year ago.
Two Palestinians, one a 10-year-old boy, were also wounded, Gaza hospital officials told the Associated Press.
Witnesses said Friday’s firefight began when an explosion, possibly caused by an anti-armor rocket fired by militants from the nearby Palestinian town of Khan Younis, hit an Israeli army patrol on the central Gazan border, Reuters reported.
Israeli troops fired back at their assailants and entered Gaza with the aid of tanks, witnesses told Reuters. Security officials with Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry said Israeli soldiers were firing artillery and tank rounds near Khan Younis. Footage broadcast on Al-Arabiya television showed ambulances that were unable to reach the scene of the fighting because of the gunfire waiting in alleyways as residents gathered around.
The Hamas military wing’s Web site said its gunmen were involved — a departure from the Islamic militant group’s tendency over the past year to avoid confrontation with Israeli forces.
Tensions are running high along the Gaza border, Reuters reported, as Israel has launched repeated air strikes in response to Palestinian rocket attacks, one of which killed a Thai national working on a kibbutz.
An Israeli soldier was killed by friendly fire this week as soldiers scrambled to intercept three Palestinian border-jumpers who were later found to have been looking for work in Israel, Reuters reported.
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Netanyahu: No Change in East Jerusalem Policy
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM — Israel will not change its construction policy in East Jerusalem, according to a statement issued by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, the day after his return from Washington. The Premier will meet the six Ministers closest to him in Jerusalem to discuss the requests made by President Barack Obama. According to the newspaper Israel ha-Yom, close to the Premier, the USA expects Israel to respond in the coming days, before the start of an important meeting of the Arab League. Israel ha-Yom added that the USA is planning the start of proximity talks between Israel and PNA after Passover, at the start of April. After that, America would like to see the two parties resume direct negotiations. One of the controversial questions that will be discussed by the Israeli Ministers is construction in East Jerusalem, which the United States has asked to stop. Obama also wants Netanyahu to promise a freeze on the construction of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank after the initial period — set by Israel — of ten months. Moreover, the USA expect Israel to take measures to build on the PNA’s trust, including: the release of prisoners, the expansion in the West Bank of the ‘A Zone’ of Palestinian autonomy and — according to the press — the reopening in East Jerusalem of the Orient House, the headquarters of various Palestinian national institutions. The building was closed several years ago, after a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. In an interview to military radio, an advisor of the Prime Minister, Nir Hefez, pointed out that today’s meeting is only a consultation, which could continue next week. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Analysis: The Legacy of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh
by Jonathan Spyer
Wherever departed Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh is now, he is presumably enjoying the considerable trouble the nature of his exit is causing his Israeli enemies.
The British decision to expel an unnamed Israeli diplomat following the conclusion of an investigation into the alleged use by Israel of cloned British passports in an assassination operation probably does not signal the onset of a general crisis in relations between London and Jerusalem. Still, it is not an everyday act, and the language used by the foreign secretary in announcing the expulsion was notably harsh.
This affair has so far traveled along similar lines to the last major set-to between the UK and Israel over the issue of Israeli intelligence activities overseas. In 1986, a number of forged British passports were discovered in an Israeli diplomatic pouch in West Germany. This incident was followed a year later by the apprehending of a Palestinian employed as a double agent by Israeli intelligence, together with a cache of weapons, in a northern English town. The result was the expulsion from Britain of Arie Regev, an official at the Israeli Embassy. Regev was widely regarded as the chief of the Mossad station in the UK.
Then, as now, the anger of senior British officials was real, not feigned. And the public revelations of the events meant that a response of a public nature was also inevitable. But the substantive response was a managed one. Cooperation between Israeli and British intelligence services suffered for a while. But channels of communication stayed open via Washington. Information of really crucial importance continued to be shared.
A replacement for Regev was in due course installed. After a suitable time lapse, normal cooperation was resumed.
Regarding the broader diplomatic parameters, the affair did not prevent the governments of Margaret Thatcher and her successor, John Major, from being among the most friendly to Israel in recent memory.
There is good reason to assume that this time, too, any real damage will be limited in duration and extent…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Businessman Faces Saudi Court for Transporting Whiskey
Saudi authorities will take a Turkish businessman to Shariah court after he was apprehended with a bottle of whisky at Medina airport, the businessman’s son said.
The businessman, named as Nurettin Öztürk, is reportedly from the Central Anatolian city of Kayseri. He was traveling to Mecca in early March on a religious pilgrimage, his son Ersin said.
The man bought the bottle in a shop at Istanbul Atatürk Airport to take to a friend in Turkey, the son said adding that he will soon appear in a Medina court.
Öztürk could face whipping and a short jail term for the offense.
Alcoholic beverages are forbidden in Saudi Arabia, which is ruled according to Islamic Shariah law.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Good Results Italian Exports in 2009
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MARCH 26 — Despite the international crisis and the worldwide decline of Italian exports in 2009 (-21.4%), last year Italian exports to Lebanon held at -1.1%. Based on data of Italian statistic office ISTAT processed by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Beirut, in 2009 the value of sales of Italian products in Lebanon totalled 767.5 million euros. ICE writes that exports for the construction sector obtained good results. Increases in Italian exports in 2009 were in fact recorded for furniture (+120% compared with 2008, totalling 24.4 million euros; plastic products (+17.7% to 17.2 million euros); products in metal (+33.2% to 13.4 million euros). An increase was also seen in terracotta construction materials (+23.9% to 11.7 million euros), paints and varnish (+13.8% to 6.6 million). These figures, the statement concludes, confirm the counter cycle of the Lebanese economy with its around 300 construction sites in the city of Beirut alone. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi ‘Idols’ Finalist Lashes Out at Fundamentalists
Saudi poet Hissa Hilal’s appearance on the Arabian version of the Idols TV show has caused quite a stir. Wearing a veil which fully covered her face, she recited a poem which was fiercely critical of her country’s ultra-conservative clergy. Her performance has earned her much praise, but also death threats.
‘The Million’s Poet’, is the Arabian equivalent of ‘Idols’, the TV show which offers contestants a chance of winning eternal fame and a million euros in prize money. On this version of the show, contestants recite poetry instead of singing a song.
Contestants taking part in The Million’s Poet also recite from their own work, but this hardly ever includes social criticism. At least, not until last week, when female contestant Hissa Hilal, dressed modestly in a niqaab, surprised millions of viewers by lashing out at Saudi Arabia’s fundamentalist clergy.
“Their fatwas sow evil in our midst, normal things are branded as sins. The truth hidden behind a veil.”
Fatwa
Her unusually fierce criticism appears to be aimed at the ultra-conservative cleric Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Barrak who in a recent fatwa said proponents of allowing men and women to mingle were infidels who deserved to die.
Hissa Hilal also criticises the extremism which she says is being nurtured by statements made by conservative clerics. “Extremism”, she says in one of the 14 verses of her poem’, “sneaks into our society, to many clerics killing a human being is so easy, it’s always an option”.
Giving a Voice
Both the audience and the jury were enthusiastic about her poem, confirming Hissa Hilal in her belief that she gave voice to an apparently widely-shared sentiment in Saudi society:
“Many people in the streets and everywhere were glad I spoke so openly. Many people said: We share the feelings you have expressed.”
The jury admired her courage and rewarded her performance with a place in the finals scheduled to be held on 31 March. However, Hissa Hilal has also received death threats via extremist web sites. She says she is not surprised and not worried:
“So I have heard and many people have told me about them. It is only to be expected. When you discuss such issues you can expect much worse.”
However, Hissa Hilal is concerned about her children. She also said she feared fame might affect her simple and quiet existence. Poetry is one of the most respected forms of expression in the Arab world, and some poets in the Middle East are as popular as rock stars are in the West.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Lebanon Urged to Create ‘Islamic Market’
HANDSHAKE: Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin (R) and his Lebanese counterpart Nabih Berry shake hands. AA photo
Turkey and Lebanon should work to create a larger Islamic market in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berry said Wednesday.
Visiting Istanbul along with a delegation of Lebanese businessmen, Berry said Turkey and Lebanon should also aim to enter European markets together. “We have to create a large joint Islamic market in the region. First with other countries nearby and then with the countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, or OIC. A joint market would increase opportunities in production and export to all countries in the world,” Berry said.
Turkey and Lebanon signed a new visa-free travel agreement during the visit of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to Turkey in January. During the visit the two countries also discussed increasing bilateral trade and set a goal of $1 billion in trade volume for 2010.
“In the coming two years our goal should be $3 billion. We must make more efforts to increase trade relations between Turkey and Lebanon,” Berry said, adding that tourism, energy and infrastructure are among the potential areas for cooperation.
“We need to improve our infrastructure, develop our airports and build new roads. We have some challenges in these areas and this is where cooperation with Turkey would be useful,” Berry said. “I hope the visa-free travel between the two countries will increase activity in that sector too.” Some 67,600 Lebanese tourists visited Turkey in 2009.
At present the trade balance between Turkey and Lebanon is largely in Turkey’s favor. Turkey exported goods worth $686 million to Lebanon, while Lebanese imports to Turkey stood at $107 million. However, in recent years the overall trade volume has experienced notable increase from $381 million in 2004 to $794 million in 2009. Turkey is currently the sixth largest importer to Lebanon after the United States, France, China, Italy and Germany.
It is estimated that the Israeli air attacks on Lebanon in July 2006 destroyed Lebanese infrastructure worth $1.2 billion. Combined with losses in housing and commercial properties, the total loss is estimated to stand at $3.6 billion. After the war Turkey provided emergency help to Lebanon worth $20 million, half of which was spent to construct 70 prefabricated schools and two health centers. Berry said Lebanon is grateful for Turkey’s efforts regarding Israel’s foreign and domestic policies.
“Turkey is making an effort for Jerusalem not to become completely Jewish, and to still be able to hear the call to prayer there. We thank Turkey for its efforts,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Rehabilitation Plans to Expand as Addictions Rise
(ANSAmed) — ABU DHABI, MARCH 26 — The National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) plans to expand its current services to women and men because alcohol and drug addiction is a growing problem across the UAE and the Arab world, as daily Gulf News reported. The NRC was established in Abu Dhabi in May 2002, with only 18 beds for male Emiratis who are addicted to either drugs, alcohol, or both. Since its establishment, NRC has offered treatments, rehabilitation and nursing services to 340 patients, some of whom are still receiving treatment, others have passed away. During a press conference held at the NRC yesterday, Dr Hamad Al Gaferi, NRC Director General, announced that the NRC will be moving from their current location, to a 200-bed premises, for both males and females by the end of 2014. “There are unfortunately many females who have an addiction problem. That’s why we will include a separate centre for them in our new premises, however treating women is very different than treating men”, said Al Gaferi, who added that the majority of addicts are not only addicted to drugs such as heroin and cocaine, but are either alcoholics, or over-consume prescribed medications. In the next seven months, NRC will also be offering health education related to addiction among patients and communities such as schools and universities, covering topics such as cause, symptoms, ways of treatment and prevention. Patients admitted to NRC must be from the Emirates, over the age of 18, and free from HIV/Aids. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Study: Road Accidents First Cause of Children’s Deaths
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, MARCH 26 — In the Uae accidents are the main cause of deaths among children up to 14 years of age, a study reveals as Gulf News reported. The research was presented during the three-day Arab Children Health Congress by Michal Grivna, associate professor, faculty of medicine and health sciences, at the University of the Uae, as part of the Safe Kids Middle East programme. Grivna said traffic accidents represent 63 per cent of mortality cases, followed by drowning and falls at 10 per cent each. Surveys among the local population showed that over 90 per cent had never used car seats before and that the majority of children were not restrained whether seated in front or at the rear of the car. “There are also environmental risk factors that need to be addressed such as ensuring appropriate traffic and urban planning around schools and safe drop off and pick up sites for children,” Grivna added. “We have found, for example, there are few school warning signs, speed signs, bumps or radars to slow down traffic and that in about 80 per cent of cases children are dropped off into the main road or opposite of the road instead of directly into the sidewalk.” The report called for the introduction and enforcement of child safety restraints and effective traffic calming measures in and around schools to ensure that speed is low enough to drop off and pick up children. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Separatists Hold Protest in South
Al-Habilin, 25 March (AKI) — Separatists on Thursday protested in southern Yemen against a strengthened military presence in the region, Yemen’s Mareb Press reported. Several thousand people gathered in the city of al-Habilin in the southern province of Lahaj to protest against restrictions on citizens’ movements in several towns.
The army has for the past two weeks set up checkpoints at the entrance to cities in southern Yemen, especially in Abyen and al-Daliya provinces,to restrict people from travelling.
Yemeni authorities said the purpose of the military presence was to prevent the heads of separatist groups from meeting and organising anti-government protests.
Yemeni journalist Hisham Bashahil, editor of the Aden-based newspaper al-Ayyam, was released from prison on Thursday. He had been detained for allegedly publishing articles in favour of secession.
Yemen’s embattled president Ali Abdullah Saleh (photo) has said separatists in the south represent a potent threat to the government, which is already dealing with a revolt in the north and a resurgent Al-Qaeda network in the country.
Two senior Al-Qaeda leaders were killed in an air strike in southern Yemen last week, according to the official news agency Saba.
Local residents said up to 20 civilians were also reportedly killed in the strike.
A Yemeni air strike against militant training camps in southern Abyan province in December killed 34 Al-Qaeda members, according to the Yemeni government.
Supporters of Yemen’s separatist movement have called for an inquiry into the Abyan incident. A local official and a tribal source said that 49 civilians, including 23 women and 17 children, were among those killed in the air raid.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Now, English Test Must for Serving Pilots, Atcs
NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday issued a new rule that stipulates that Indian airlines must conduct proficiency tests in English for serving pilots and submit them to the regulator. This comes fourteen years after the world witnessed the worst-ever midair collision between two aircraft at Charkhi Dadri, attributed to a lack of proficiency in English of pilots in one of the planes. The test is mandatory for air traffic controllers (ATCs) as well.
While many desi airlines check a pilot’s proficiency in English at the time of hiring, the real target are those carriers who hire expats, whose communication skills are largely suspect. The civil aviation requirement (CAR) issued by DGCA chief Nasim Zaidi follows a requirement of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which says that pilots and ATCs must have proficiency to a certain basic level. These areas cover six skills of pronunciation, structure, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and interaction.
“All holders of licences shall from October 1, 2010 undergo an assessment to demonstrate an operational level of the ability to speak and understand English used in radiotelephony and have the assessment level endorsed on their licence before March 5, 2010,” the CAR says. A DGCA-approved board will select examiners for conducting English proficiency assessment on its behalf. The examiners must hold Indian professional pilot licence with at least three years experience in civil operations and they will not test applicants whom they have trained. “In case an airline so desires, an assessment team consisting of an operational expert and a language expert may also be approved to carry out English language proficiency assessment,” it says.
The ICAO language rules were framed after 1996 midair collision involving a Saudi Boeing 747 flying in to land at New Delhi and a Kazakhstan Airline’s Ilyushin-76 that had taken off for its home country.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Army Deployed to Remote Islands Amid Terror Fears
Manado, North Sulawesi, 25 March (AKI/Jakarta Post) — The Indonesian army has dispatched 102 reinforcement troops to six of the outermost islands in North Sulawesi. The move comes amid fears that the islands’ location close to the Islamic militant stronghold of the southern Philippines makes them vulnerable to terrorism.
“This is related to the fact the South Philippines is home to training grounds for terrorists operating in Asia.
“Therefore, security on the islands needs to be tightened,” said regional military commander Col. Istu Hari Subagyo.
The Indonesian troop reinforcements will protect the remote islands of Miangas, Marore, Tinakaren, Marampit, Kawaluso and Matutuang from terrorist threats.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysian Demonstrators Burn Swedish Flag
A Swedish flag was set alight outside the country’s embassy in Malaysia on Friday as protesters gathered to demand action be taken against cartoonist Lars Vilks and newspapers that published his caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
Around 200 demonstrators from Muslim groups turned out in Kuala Lumpur to protest the caricatures which depict the prophet as a dog. The demonstrators handed over a letter of protest to Sweden’s ambassador in Malaysia, Helena Sångeland.
“They want to protest against the the publication of Lars Vilks’ drawings in Swedish newspapers. Their demand is that the Swedish government acts against the Swedish newspapers which published the pictures and also against Lars Vilks,” Helena Sångeland told news agency TT.
The demonstration ended with the pulling down of the Swedish embassy’s flag, which was then burned.
“It was very surprising and something that we can not tolerate. We have reported the matter to the police,” Sångeland said.
According to the ambassador the youth league for the main Islamic party, PAS, and several other Muslim organisation threatened a boycott of Swedish products in demonstrations held a couple of weeks ago.
A smaller demonstration with only a handful of participants was held outside the embassy on Thursday. On that occasion the Malaysian right-wing group Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia (Perkasa) handed over a protest letter.
Despite angry reactions from many in Malaysia, the ambassador does not consider there to be any risk for Swedish visitors to the country.
“Absolutely not. Nor can I see that our bilateral relations should change because of this,” she said.
The controversy started when Swedish regional daily Nerikes Allehanda published Vilks’ satirical cartoon in 2007 to illustrate an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression.
The cartoon prompted protests by Muslims in the town of Örebro, west of Stockholm, where the newspaper is based, while Egypt, Iran and Pakistan made
formal complaints.
An Al-Qaeda front organisation then offered $100,000 to anyone who murdered Vilks — with an extra $50,000 if his throat was slit — and $50,000 for the death of Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief Ulf Johansson.
The protests in Sweden echoed the uproar caused in Denmark by the publication in September 2005 of 12 drawings focused on Islam, including one showing the prophet Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb.
| — Hat tip: Freedom Fighter | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysians Protest Over Muhammad Cartoon
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — More than 200 Malaysian Muslim protesters called on Sweden on Friday to take action against several newspapers that reprinted a caricature depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog.
The protesters burned a Swedish flag outside the Swedish embassy, chanting “Long live Islam” and “Down with Sweden” and carrying posters that read “Take some lessons from 9/11!!!” and “We fight for our prophet.”
They also burned a picture of Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who made the drawing of Muhammad’s head on a dog’s body in 2007 that was reprinted in papers recently.
“We demand that the Swedish government take strong action against the newspapers and against the artist,” said Sabki Yusof, one of the protest leaders from the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party. “It’s unacceptable what they did to our prophet.”
Swedish ambassador Helena Sangeland called for more dialogue with Muslims for better mutual understanding but said no action would be taken against the papers. She said she was “very disappointed” that the Swedish flag was burned.
“The Swedish government will not comment nor take any action against media. Freedom of expression is enshrined in our constitution. It is not negotiable,” she told The Associated Press. “I don’t think Malaysia-Sweden bilateral relations will be affected in any way.”
Vilks has said he made the caricature to show that artistic freedom allows mockery of all religions. Several newspapers reprinted the caricature earlier this month when an alleged plot to murder the cartoonist was disclosed.
In 2006, a dozen Danish newspaper cartoons of the prophet sparked furious protests in Muslim countries. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
| — Hat tip: LN | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Violent Attacks Rise Against Christians
Islamabad, 25 March (AKI) — By Syed Saleem Shahzad — There was an increase in violent attacks on religious minorities in Pakistan in 2009 and the government failed to take effective preventive action, according to the Human Rights Commission.The report singled out attacks against the Christian community in areas dominated by insurgents.
“As the militancy surged in the northwestern parts of the country, enforced migration and displacement of thousands of Christians from the Swat Valley, Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera and FATA was reported following threats to them to convert to Islam or face death,” the report said.
It also said many were forced to take refuge with their relatives in Punjab and Sindh provinces, and faced immense hardships as the government could not provide adequate protection.
“At the same time many Christian families victims of the blasphemy law were forced to live in hiding in attempts to save their lives. There was little change in their social ostracisation,” the report maintained.
However the report said that worst sort of victimisation was done under the Blasphemy law.
Reports said in February last year clerics in Raiwind called on the government to register a case and punish those responsible for alleged desecration of Holy Koran in a private hospita in Lahore run by Fatima Memorial Hospital Lahore.
It was alleged that some Christian students had placed the Koran, the Islamic holy book, in shoe boxes. As the clerics protest mounted, the college administration closed down the institution for fear of unrest and violence.
In March last year police arrested two Christian men, Wilayat Masih and Mushtaq Masih, on blasphemy charges in Malloki village. The accused were charged with covering the grave of a Christian relative with a cloth inscribed with Koranic verses.
There have been many other incidents in which Christians have been blamed for attacks including the capture and torture of Imran Masih, a young man accused of burning the Koran and Islamic books in Faisalabad. Police arrested the man and lodged a case against him.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China — United States: Second Internet Giant Follows Google and Pulls Out of China
Domain name registration giant GoDaddy says it is stopping its main operations in China because of new restrictive rules. “We didn’t want to act as an agent of the Chinese government,” the company says. Some market watchers suspect real reason for leaving is red ink, not human rights.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — A second US-based internet giant has decided to go into “exile” and redirect its users to its Hong Kong site. GoDaddy says it is doing this out of concern for Chinese censorship. However, some market watchers are starting to think the great flight from China has more to do with business failures in the Asian nation than anything else.
Executive vice-president of the Go Daddy group, Christine Jones, said China’s new censorship requirements prompted the company to withdraw.
“This was a decision we made in our own right, based on our experience of having to contact Chinese nationals, collect their personal information and grudgingly return it back to Chinese officials,” she said. “We just made a decision that we didn’t want to act as an agent of the Chinese government.”
“We were immediately concerned of course about the motives behind the increased level of registration verification required by CNNIC [the China Internet Network Information Centre],” she explained.
She was referring to the fact that Chinese authorities require companies to supply data on users and the services they request. Under the new rules, which are retroactive, the authorities are asking for colour photographs and business IDs along with the names and addresses of Chinese nationals who are registering websites.
“It didn’t make sense to us that the identification procedures that had been sufficient and in place since 2005 were apparently no longer sufficient from China’s standpoint,” Jones said. “No convincing rationale for the increase in documentation was ever provided to us.”
“Our experience has been that China is focused on using the internet to monitor and control the legitimate activities of its citizens, rather than penalising those who commit internet-related crimes,” Jones said.
Chinese bloggers and online activists have also lashed out at the new requirements, saying they are tantamount to treating potential website owners as suspected criminals. The new rules add further limits to online freedom of expression in China, which is guaranteed by the country’s constitution and laws.
“We believe that many of the current abuses of the internet originating in China are due to a lack of enforcement against criminal activities by the Chinese government,” Christine Jones said.
For his part, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that mainland China is increasingly reminding him of his native country, the former Soviet Union.
However, for some economists in Hong Kong and Shanghai, economic self-interest rather than outrage over human rights and Chinese censorship is behind the decision to leave the mainland.
One Shenzhen stock exchange official said, “Search engines survive on the net if they sell advertising. Domestic investors have always preferred Baidu (the main Chinese language search engine) to Google, which was losing money. That is why they left.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Korean Naval Vessel Sinks in Yellow Sea
A South Korean naval ship with a reported 104 crew members aboard sank off a South Korean island in the Yellow Sea near the maritime border with North Korea on Friday evening, prompting an emergency meeting of security-related Cabinet ministers, Yonhap News Agency reported.
There were few details of the mishap, but Yonhap, quoting the navy, said the vessel went down about 9:45 p.m. Friday and that a rescue operation was underway.
Other South Korean media said there were believed to be multiple casualties in the sinking and some suggested the ship may have come under fire from a North Korean vessel.
But the presidential office was quoted later as saying the chances the North was directly involved was “small.”
President Lee Myung Bak ordered the South Korean military to focus efforts on rescuing sailors from the ship, aides said early Saturday morning, adding it is unclear if North Korea was involved in the incident, Yonhap said.
He convened the emergency meeting of ministers at the underground bunker at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae immediately after reports arrived that the 1,200-ton naval ship was sinking near the western sea border with North Korea, Yonhap said.
“For now, it is not certain whether North Korea is related” to the incident, presidential office spokeswoman Kim Eun Hye was quoted as saying. “President Lee ordered the military to do its best to rescue the (sailors).”
“Finding the truth is important, but saving our (sailors) is more important,” she quoted Lee as saying at the meeting in the bunker.
Yonhap said South Korean naval officials refused to give details about the incident, but they did say a South Korean vessel fired at what was believed be an unidentified ship toward North Korea later in the evening, “indicating possibilities” of a torpedo attack from the North.
Local residents in the area were quoted by the South Korean news agency as having heard gunfire for about 10 minutes from about 11 p.m.
But YTN television said analysis by the South Korean military of radar images in the area indicated the firing may have been toward a flock of birds rather than at a suspicious ship.
Earlier, according to Yonhap, the navy said, “The (stricken) ship appears to have begun sinking after an explosion at the rear of the ship. We have been unable to find the exact cause of the incident as of this moment.”
The navy added it has rescued 58 crew members during an ongoing rescue operation, but it fears some may have died.
Yonhap said the cause of the sinking remains unknown, but an investigation is on-going.
North Korea has said in recent weeks it is bolstering its defense in response to joint South Korean-U.S. military drills that were held this month.
And the North Korean army conducted dozens of artillery firing drills earlier Friday, according to South Korean military officials quoted by Yonhap.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
South Korean Ship Hit in a Possible Torpedo Attack
With a crew of 104 members, the ship is sinking in an area near the contested maritime border. The South Korean Navy believes the vessel was attacked and has already carried out a response.
Seoul (AsiaNews) — A South Korean Navy ship is sinking off the South Korean-controlled island of Baengnyeong, not far from North Korea, probably hit by a North Korean torpedo, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, citing a Navy source. The 1,500-ton ship had a crew of more than 100. An anonymous South Korean Navy source said the ship fired back and hit an unidentified vessel.
Rumours and denials are flying around over the incident, some claiming the attack might be a provocation by North Korea to start a new war on the peninsula.
The Yellow Sea maritime border, or Northern Limit Line, which is west of the Korean Peninsula, has seen other skirmishes in the past few years.
In 1999, 2002 and for the latest incident, in November 2009, ships from the navies of North and South Korea fired at each following real or imaginary breaches of the border.
In January, Pyongyang carried out some explosions in a military exercise around Baengnyeong and Daecheong Islands. Before the action, it banned all navigation near the islands.
The maritime border between the two Koreas was laid down at the end of the Korean War (1950-1953) but was never accepted by the North, partly because a peace treaty did not follow the armistice.
Technically, the two Koreas are thus still at war.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Dozens of Police Investigated Over Racist Email
Melbourne, 25 March (AKI) — Up to 100 Australian police officers are being investigated in Australia for allegedly sharing a racist email after recent attacks on Indian students provoked a diplomatic row with India. The email message reportedly shows a non-white man being tortured and officers allegedly added comments to the picture before sending it to their colleagues.
Officers being investigated may be sacked for circulating it on police computers.
The police in the southern city of Melbourne have recently faced international condemnation for failing to respond adequately to a series of attacks against Indian students in Melbourne.
Earlier this month the local police chief admitted some officers were racist.
Computer experts tracking the email found that several had added racist comments before forwarding it to colleagues, the Melbourne newspaper The Age reported.
Victoria police chief Simon Overland condemned the action of his colleagues.
“It’s offensive and my view is that it would cause significant concern and alarm in the community if the nature of the material was made public,” he said.
Overland was recently forced to concede there were racial bigots within the ranks of his force and on Thursday pledged to take action.
“How can a community have confidence in this organisation if we allow racist, sexist, pornographic material to circulate freely around the organisation? We can’t do it,” he said on Thursday.
This followed a recent report that accused police officers of taunting and beating up an African youth.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Immigration Platform Make-Over for Political Parties
Finland’s political parties are hardening their positions on immigration ahead of parliamentary elections. The stiffer line on immigration policies resembles the nationalistic tenor of the True Finns, who say the updated platforms are all about vote chasing.
Risto Vistbacka, Chairman of the True Finns parliamentary group criticized the latest tactic of the other political parties, saying that the True Finns have always presented the best immigration policy.
“What was most amusing was when SDP chair Jutta Urpilainen used the phrase “when in Rome”, which is taken directly from the True Finns’ parliamentary election campaign of 2007,” said Vistbacka.
The parties’ changing stance seems to be an attempt to keep pace with the mood of the man in the street — many voters have expressed harsher positions on immigration in the face of rising domestic unemployment.
In the past, political parties addressed the immigration question solely from the perspective of resources to ease the domestic labour shortage.
National Coalition Party in the Centre
The National Coalition Party finalized its election platform at the end of 2009. Working group chairman, MP Arto Satonen, said the program contained more conservative stances on issues such as immigration on the basis of family ties. The National Coalition Party is also in favour of the age test, which may be used to turn away adults posing as unaccompanied minors entering the country.
“If our procedures are more open in other Nordic countries, that will direct the immigration flood to us, which would not be wise,” Satonen explained.
“The True Finns are in one corner, while the Swedish Peoples’ Party and the Green League are in the other. We are aiming for the golden mean. We need immigrants who come to work, but our asylum policy must be realistic,” he added.
Liberal Greens and Swedish Peoples’ Party
The Christian Democratic Party is reworking on its immigration platform. On the other hand, the Swedish Peoples’ Party and the Green League have remained constant to their fundamental positions on immigration.
Tapani Tölli, Chairman of the Centre Party’s immigration working group also says it’s time to get real.
“We don’t need to copy any other party’s immigration policy platform. There are some matters that must be dealt with more rigorously, for example family ties and other issues. Fussing over care — and illegal acts will not be accepted,” Tölli declared.
Unemployment a Factor
The SDP ploicy is being prepared under the leadership of MP Maarit Feldt-Ranta. She believes that immigration policy will be an election flashpoint.
“More and more immigrants are unemployed and we have other problems relating to immigration and integration. We must intervene in these matters,” she pointed out.
The slip in which SDP chair Jutta Urpilainen echoed the True Finns position, shows that the SDP is also moving closer to the True Finns on this sensitive question.
“It was Jutta Urpilainen’s turn to talk. The SDP are crafting their policy position and I think it’s important to see how people’s basic rights will be treated and what is really need for working life,” said Feldt-Ranta.
Cutting Back on Cheap Labour
Paavo Arhinmäki, Chairman of the Left Alliance noted that the reigning in of immigration aims to cut back on the use of cheap labour and in so doing, reduce opposition to immigration.
“The True Finns use the term immigration critics in their discourse, but it’s more about immigration resistance. This has affected the atmosphere in Finland, we are more likely to blame individuals. And unfortunately this has affected the speech and thought patterns in many parties,” Arhinmäki speculated.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Leadership School for 2nd Generation Youth
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 26 — Multiculturalism as a competitive advantage to enrich the country as a whole: this is the idea at the basis of the Talea-G2 Leadership Summer School, a leadership training course geared towards young immigrants and the second generation. Promoted by the Ethnoland Foundation, intensive lessons will be held June 3-13 at the Camaldoli retreat. It is a unique experience in Italy, an unprecedented challenge to value diversity and promote inclusiveness by supplying the new “citizens” with the instruments to insert themselves into Italy’s leadership class of the future. “The project”, Otto Bitjoka explains, the Foundation’s founder as well as the new Vice President of ExtraBanca, the first credit institute oriented specifically towards the immigrant community, “arose from a profound reflection on the situation of immigrants in Italy today, to whom we wish to give a prospective of hope through training.” The objective is to help them gain consciousness of their role and of potential, knowing that diversity and a multiplicity of experiences are a resource to be taken advantage of in order to achieve excellence. Bitjoka is convinced of this: a dynamic entrepreneur from Cameroon who arrived in Italy over 30 years ago to study banking and economics, he has since then has been active in various sectors to promote the integration of immigrants along with proper recognition of the contribution they give the country. “Looking at the Italian panorama,” he says, “these people count more every day, they want to be the protagonists: they are conscious of making up part of this reality, despite the fact that some people see it differently.” This where he got the idea for an intensive training course, reserved for doctoral candidates with the highest grades, talented young people and professionals who — in the 10 days of the course — will be able to engage in in-depth study of such issues as rights and duties, ethics and responsibilities, charisma and leadership style, the media and communication and, last but not least, the diaspora and co-development. As the headquarters and residence for the pilot project, the Camaldoli retreat was chosen, an exceptional place for thought and meditation, active for centuries now as a cultural centre of the highest level from which, the Cameroonian entrepreneur recalls, “the code written in July of 1943” took its name, which “became a point of reference for political activity of Catholics in the post-war period. It is a place where the participants will live in close contact with nature, immersed in the forest of the valley of Casentino.” Shortly, the creator of the project announced, “the names of the high-profile promoters will be made known: those who have decided to lend their own services, since they share the spirit and the objectives of the project.” There are 25 spots available, covered by scholarships to ensure that all will have the chance to participate. Participants will be chosen with an eye to obtaining the most ample representation possible, with respect to the various paths of life and the countries of provenance. But it will not be a purely self-referential project. “The project”, Bitjoka underlines, “will be open also to Italians. We do not want to exclude anyone, and we have reserved two spots in order to foster interaction as much as possible.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mass Immigration Kills Aussie Culture, Says Demographer Bob Birrell
TRADITIONS based on heritage, sporting culture and common language are threatened by mass immigration, a leading demographer has warned. Monash University population expert Dr Bob Birrell has said the huge influx of people with few or no English skills had created social problems in Melbourne suburbs such as Dandenong, Sunshine and Broadmeadows and most major cities were feeling the population strain, the Herald Sun reported. “This is not a pretty picture,” he said. “Social divisions are becoming more obvious and geographically concentrated and certain areas are being overlain by an ethnic identification.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Lesbian Holocaust Memorial Plan Upsets Historians
Holocaust scholars on Thursday attacked a bid to include images of kissing lesbians in a monument dedicated to the thousands of homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis, saying it distorted history.
Munich hosts homosexual job fair — Jobs (4 Mar 10)
The monument was erected in May 2008 opposite the city’s large memorial to the six million Jewish Holocaust victims.
It is currently comprised of a concrete slab with a window through which viewers can watch a video of a “never-ending” kiss between two men.
Under the original plans, the video is to change every two years to feature two women locked in an embrace, meaning the switch is due in May.
But Alexander Zinn, a board member of the foundation that maintains the former Nazi concentration camps near Berlin, said such a move would distort history as there were no known Holocaust victims targeted for being lesbian.
“Historical truth must remain the focus,” Zinn told AFP.
He has banded together with other Holocaust experts and fired off a letter of protest to Culture Minister Michael Neumann and Berlin’s openly gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit.
Neumann defended the plans as true to the original concept of the memorial in addressing present-day discrimination against lesbians and gays as well as the plight of homosexuals at the hands of the Nazis.
“The option of using a lesbian film motif in the memorial is in no way meant to put on the same level the persecution of homosexual men and women under the Nazi regime,” he said in a statement.
“Research shows that the persecution of lesbian women by the Nazi regime was not comparable to that of homosexual men. This is also clearly explained in a plaque on the memorial.”
It is estimated that the Nazis sent between 5,000 and 15,000 gay men to concentration camps together with Jews, political opponents, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others considered undesirable.
Once there, few were killed right away. Rather, they were held under degrading conditions, and subjected to hunger, disease, abuse and exhaustion. Very few returned.
A jury is to take a decision about the next video used at the memorial in the coming weeks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty Often Works With People or Groups it Disagrees With
The Nation 18.03.2010 (USA)
In a fact-filled article D.D. Guttenplan and Maria Margaronis return to the case of Gita Sahgal, who was thrown out of Amnesty International after accusing the organisation of working together with the former Guantanamo inmate Moazzam Begg. The authors weigh up the case extensively from both angles — on the one hand they do not regard Begg as a fundamentalist, although they do list a number of dubious links that he maintains. And they quote Amnesty’s senior director for international law and policy, Widney Brown: “Amnesty, Brown explained, often works with people or groups it disagrees with: ‘The Catholic Church…[is] not good on women’s rights. They are horrible on gay rights. And frankly, if you look at what they say about HIV and condoms, they have blood on their hands. Does that mean that we do not continue to work with the Catholic Church against the death penalty?”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
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