America’s Future? U.S. Cities Going Bust
Public employee pensions burdening states, localities
In what may be the beginning of an explosion of city insolvency across the U.S., the city of Vallejo, Calif., with a population of 117,000 in the San Francisco Bay area, has filed bankruptcy, Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports.
Citing a 2009 Cato Institute study, Steven Greenhut, director of the Pacific Research Institute’s Journalism Center in Sacramento and author of “Plunder! How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation,” notes police and firefighter salaries, pensions and overtime accounted for 74 percent of Vallejo’s $80 million general budget, significantly higher than the state average of 60 percent.
“The study highlighted a shocking level of enrichment,” Greenhut wrote, noting pay and benefit packages of more than $300,000 a year for police captains and average firefighter compensation packages of $171,000 a year.
“Pensions are luxurious: regular pubic employees can retire at age 55 with 81 percent of their final year’s pay guaranteed, come hell or a stock-market crash,” he wrote. “Police and fire officials in Vallejo, as in much of California, can retire at age 50 with 90 percent of their final year’s pay guaranteed, including cost-of-living adjustments for the rest of their lives and the lives of their spouses.”
Corsi explained that the possibility of a double-dip recession bodes ill for public pension funds that remain unfunded in numerous states even as the stock market has rebounded.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
National Debt Seen Heading for Crisis Level
‘I don’t really think we can go much beyond 10 years’
Health care may have been the last big bang of the Obama presidency.
With ferocious speed, the financial crisis, recession and efforts to combat the recession have swung the U.S. debt from worrisome to ruinous, promising to handcuff the administration.
Lost amid last month’s passage of the new health care law, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report showing that within this decade, President Obama’s own budget sends the U.S. government to a potential tipping point where the debt reaches 90 percent of gross domestic product.
Economists Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University have recently shown that a 90 percent debt-to-GDP ratio usually touches off a crisis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Beyond Coincidence
Let us examine what we already know about the eligibility of Also Known As (AKA) Obama. We know that he claims to have been the child of Ann Dunham Obama and Barack Hussein Obama (Sr), a British subject at the time of AKA’s birth. We only know what he claims as we have seen no proof.
We know that while AKA claims his birthplace as Hawaii, we don’t know that is really true because, while AKA admits that his birth certificate exists — that is, the one issued at or near the time of his birth — all that anyone has seen are pictures of a Certification of Live Birth (COLB) supposedly issued in 2007, printed on a form established in 2001 and printed with a laser printer. We only know what he claims as no one, of authority, has actually seen, handled, or inspected what AKA contends is his COLB.
[…]
We do know that under Act 96, Laws of the Territory of Hawaii, Regular Session of 1911, Special Session of 1909 and the Organic Act, in effect from 1911 until repealed in 1972, foreign-born children could be birth registered in Hawaii. We also know that Obama’s supposed birth certificate number is out of sequence with babies born in the same time-frame; that his birth certificate number is after the birth certificate numbers of babies born after he was supposedly born. We also know that, if born in Hawaii, his name does not exist in the Hawaii birth index, in 1961, before or after.
[…]
And there seems to be a large discrepancy between AKA’s Selective Service registration and support documents and other Selective Service registrations and support documents, also from Hawaii in the same time period. By all appearances, AKA’s selective service documents have been altered or forged bringing further into question when those documents were actually submitted, in 1980 or in 2008.
[…]
Many have questioned what country issued the passport on which AKA traveled, in 1981, to Pakistan. In the spring of 2008, the passport files of AKA, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, held by the State Department, were breached. Two contractors were fire and a third disciplined. A key witness in this matter, cooperating with “federal investigators”, was found shot to death in his vehicle on April 19, 2008. The shooter has never been found.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Clinton’s Massive War Chest
Many Americans believe Bill Clinton has spent his years away from the White House simply enjoying the good life of an ex-president. He gets a full security team; travel expense around the world; a cool presidential library equipped with full living quarters; the best tables at the fanciest eating establishments; huge speaking fees to share his own two cents worth of opinion on any given issue; he gets to show his face on television as an appointed spokesman for the latest disaster relief project; and sometimes even gets to represent the United States at some international meeting.
A fun life, certainly. But such a description in no way represents the reality of Bill Clinton’s true impact on the world since leaving the White House.
In truth, Bill Clinton has been a very busy boy, continuing to carry out the global agenda he orchestrated from the White House, and he’s doing it with funds equal to those of the GNP of a small nation. The mission for Clinton’s activities is “Global interdependence.” The other way to say it is “Global Governance,” UN style. Bill is all over the world, creating programs and policy, many times working directly with foreign governments, to bring about a one world government — at the expense of the sovereign nation he once headed.
The agenda includes promoting the fear tactics of Global Warming, resulting in the creation of programs that force governments to impose massive cut backs on energy use. The result, higher energy costs and energy shortages. Worse, such policies are actually hurting the poor in undeveloped nations where Sustainable Development (the policy for which global warming lies were created). That’s because Sustainablists actually put pressure on global corporations and financial institutions to refuse development projects in some poor nations, denying them infrastructure and energy, forcing a future of mud huts and dirty water. Such is the compassion and dedication of Bill Clinton.
Clinton is perpetrating this global blackmail through his William J. Clinton Foundation, headquartered in Little Rock, AK. Amazingly, the foundation is fueled by a $140 million annual budget. More amazing is who is giving him that money in support of his globalist plans. The actual financial report filed with the IRS is 3,200 pages long. The government only requires that a non-profit organization list those who have given $5,000 or more. So, if Clinton had been required to list all supporters, there would have been many more pages.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Court: FCC Has No Power to Regulate Net Neutrality
The Federal Communications Commission does not have the legal authority to slap Net neutrality regulations on Internet providers, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
A three-judge panel in Washington, D.C. unanimously tossed out the FCC’s August 2008 cease and desist order against Comcast, which had taken measures to slow BitTorrent transfers before voluntarily ending them earlier that year.
Because the FCC “has failed to tie its assertion” of regulatory authority to an actual law enacted by Congress, the agency does not have the power to regulate an Internet provider’s network management practices, wrote Judge David Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Tuesday’s decision could doom one of the signature initiatives of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a Democrat. Last October, Genachowski announced plans to begin drafting a formal set of Net neutrality rules—even though Congress has not given the agency permission to do so. That push is opposed by Verizon and other broadband providers.
“Our primary goal was always to clear our name and reputation,” Comcast said in a statement. “We have always been focused on serving our customers and delivering the quality open-Internet experience consumers want.”
Net neutrality proponents responded to Tuesday’s ruling by saying the FCC should slap landline-style regulations on Internet providers, which could involve price regulation, service quality controls, and technological mandates. The agency “should immediately start a proceeding bringing Internet access service back under some common carrier regulation,” Public Knowledge’s Gigi Sohn said. The Media Access Project said, without mentioning common carrier regulations directly, that the FCC must have the “ability to protect the rights of Internet users to access lawful content and services of their choice.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the FCC indicated that it was thinking along the same lines. The DC Circuit did not “close the door to other methods for achieving this important end,” the agency said. A spokeswoman declined to elaborate.
Early reaction on Capitol Hill cleaved along party lines. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas senator and senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, said: “It would be wrong to double down on excessive and burdensome regulations, and I hope the FCC chairman will now reconsider his decision to pursue expanded commission authority over broadband services.”
But Rep. Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who had drafted one of the unsuccessful Net neutrality bills, said: “I encourage the (FCC) to take any actions necessary to ensure that consumers and competition are protected on the Internet.” Markey noted that he reintroduced similar legislation last summer — it’s been stuck in a House subcommittee even though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once said there was an urgent need to enact it.
The FCC had known all along that it was on shaky legal ground. Its vote to take action against Comcast was a narrow 3-2, with the dissenting commissioners predicting at the time that it would not hold up in court. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Republican, said at the time that the FCC’s ruling was unlawful and the lack of legal authority “is sure to doom this order on appeal.”
The ruling also is likely to shift the debate to whether Congress will choose to explicitly grant the FCC the authority to regulate companies’ network management practices. It will also likely revive lobbying coalitions that have been defunct for the last few years.
In 2006, Congress rejected five bills, backed by groups including Google, Amazon.com, Free Press, and Public Knowledge, that would have handed the FCC the power to police Net neutrality violations. Even though the Democrats have enjoyed a majority on Capitol Hill since 2007, the political leadership has shown little interest in resuscitating those proposals.
[…]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
EPA Chief Sees Job as Activist Position?
Initiative called scheme to spread country’s wealth
Does Environmental Protection Agency Chief Lisa Jackson view her post as an activist position that can be used to spread America’s wealth?
Jackson has given scores of speeches touting “environmental justice” and recently launched an initiative aimed at achieving “environmental justice,” a policy critics warn could be a ruse to spread the country’s wealth.
[…]
Meanwhile, Jackson, the first African American to head the EPA, routinely mixes environmental activism with racial politics.
[…]
Last August, Jackson was a speaker at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists, discussing the theme, “This Land Is Our Land Too: Justice, Jobs and Environmental Protection.” At the conference, she stated it is necessary to make clear to people suffering immediate economic distress the relationship between “traditional civil rights and social justice issues” and environmental justice.
‘Leftist scheme’ to redistribute wealth?
What does “environmental justice” mean?
Wikipedia defines the concept as “an equitable spatial distribution of burdens and benefits to groups such as racial minorities, residents of economically disadvantaged areas, or residents of developing nations.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Limits When U.S. Would Use Nuclear Arms
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Monday that he was revamping American nuclear strategy to substantially narrow the conditions under which the United States would use nuclear weapons.
But the president said in an interview that he was carving out an exception for “outliers like Iran and North Korea” that have violated or renounced the main treaty to halt nuclear proliferation.
Discussing his approach to nuclear security the day before formally releasing his new strategy, Mr. Obama described his policy as part of a broader effort to edge the world toward making nuclear weapons obsolete, and to create incentives for countries to give up any nuclear ambitions. To set an example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, overruling the initial position of his own defense secretary.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Raises White Flag Over America
Not only does Obama’s revamping of American nuclear strategy renounce the development of any new nuclear weapons, it overrules the initial position of his own defense secretary Robert Gates.
“Mr. Obama’s strategy is a sharp shift from those of his predecessors and seeks to revamp the nation’s nuclear posture for a new age in which rogue states and terrorist organizations are greater threats than traditional powers like Russia and China.” (New York Times, April 5, 2010).
Like most things Obama, canceling America’s ability to defend itself came without warning.
Can there be any surprise that Obama’s announcement for no nukes on American soil—even in self-defense—coincides with the announcement that the leaders of 23 Arab countries have launched an unprecedented clarion call to free the world from nuclear weapons?
[…]
Obama is speaking the same language as the Arab leaders, who in their final March 28, 2010, two-day meeting “reaffirmed that all Arab countries that are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) demand the international community to undertake immediate actions to free the world from nuclear weapons.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Officer Questioning Eligibility Faces New Threats From Army
‘You could be sentenced to dismissal, confinement’
The Army is threatening to dismiss and jail an active-duty lieutenant colonel who says he won’t obey military orders until he knows that President Obama is in the Oval Office as a constitutionally eligible president, according to his supporters.
A statement given to WND today by Margaret Hemenway, who is acting as a spokeswoman for the case involving the American Patriot Foundation and Army Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, said Lakin is “undaunted” and has not changed his position.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ohio Christian Convert Fights to Stay in US
A teenage girl who converted to Christianity and ran away from home is being blocked by her Muslim parents from fighting the possibility of deportation, her attorney told a judge Monday in an ongoing custody dispute.
Rifqa Bary, 17, who fled home last year and stayed with a Florida minister whom she met on Facebook, is an illegal immigrant and does not want to be returned to her native Sri Lanka because she fears being harmed or killed by Muslim extremists.
Her attorney, Angela Lloyd, asked a judge to sign an order stating that reunification with her parents is not possible by her 18th birthday in August.
The order would allow Bary, who is in foster care, to apply for special immigration status without her parents’ consent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Read the Transcript and Freak
Until I read the transcript of President Barack Obama’s rambling, incoherent, 2,600-word answer to a simple question from “Doris” at an appearance in Charlotte, N.C., about how we can afford Obamacare when we are already overtaxed, I dismissed as absurd the notion that he’s a Manchurian candidate — a plant. I still do, but after reading his response, I seriously almost have to question his competence.
I didn’t watch the video, but the unscripted answer — no disrespect intended — sounds as if it was delivered by a drunk on an ideological mission. His answer was a veritable clinic in narcissistic circumlocution, a mishmash of barely related talking points about his health-care plan — not about taxes, as Doris had requested.
Where are all these liberal elitists, including those masquerading as conservative intellectuals, who told us they voted for him largely based on his intellectual acuity? Pride means never having to say you’re sorry. But you should be.
It’s obvious how disorganized his thinking is when you read his answer. I encourage you to follow this link and see for yourself.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Republicans Slam Obama Judicial Nominee Over 117 Omissions From Record
Senate Republicans on Tuesday slammed one of the Obama administration’s most controversial judicial nominees for failing to initially disclose more than 100 of his speeches, publications and other background materials — an omission the Republicans called unprecedented and a possible attempt to “hide his most controversial work.”
They said Goodwin Liu’s nomination to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is in “jeopardy” in light of the problem.
The complaint came after Liu, a Berkeley law professor, gave the Senate Judiciary Committee a bundle of supplemental material that contained 117 things he left out after his February nomination.
Among the items disclosed were several speeches on affirmative action and his participation at an event co-sponsored by the Center for Social Justice at Berkeley and the the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group.
[…]
Liu’s hearing already has been postponed twice, and Republicans have mounted somewhat of a campaign against him — targeting him for his writings suggesting health care is a right and describing the Constitution as a document that should adapt to changes in the world.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Embattled Vatican
Child abuse scandals are engulfing the Catholic Church in Europe. And the reports that argue Pope Benedict XVI did not do enough about those sexual abuse claims in the past raise even more tension and questions about how bad the institution of accountability is within the Vatican and whether it can ever be transparent.
The pope gathered 24 bishops from Ireland to listen to how they handled the child abuse cases in their territory in mid-February. The Vatican meeting came two months after the Murphy Commission Report, which investigated crimes by pedophile priests. Some of the report’s conclusions said the church in Ireland implemented a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and “obsessively concealed child abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese from 1975 to 2004.”
Sylvia Poggioli, from National Public Radio, or NPR, said, “The Murphy Report came just seven months after another investigation revealed chronic beatings, rapes, near starvation and the humiliation of 30,000 children in schools and orphanages — all run by the Catholic Church in Ireland.”
Another effect of these unraveling and ugly stories across Europe is that it mounts a lot of pressure on the Pope himself. There are many different arguments on how much he knew about these scandals, especially while he was cardinal, and when he knew about them. Many now accuse him openly that he, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, did not come out as frank as he was supposed to.
According to John Allen, a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, “The Pope isn’t just part of the problem, but also an important part of the solution” in his op-ed published in the New York Times. Allen argues that the current Pope Benedict started the “zero tolerance” policy for such complaints since he became the pope and after Pope John Paul II put Cardinal Ratzinger and his office in charge of the abuse complaints in 2001. Allen said, “He began to talk much more openly about what he described as ‘filth’ in the Catholic Church, and became much more aggressive about prosecuting abusers.”
The experts who follow the Vatican closely argue that one of the biggest problems of the ongoing situation is “bishops.” During the last several decades, many bishops connected to these scandals, with their limitless discretion, took no action or moved very slowly to tackle the problem while complaints piled up. How will the Vatican step forward to bring new accountability measures for bishops is the real problem, according to some religious experts. And whether the pope will be able to investigate and fire bishops, will determine how serious the Vatican is about solving this epidemic and relieve the victims.
If there will be any formal policy put in place to instruct bishops by the Vatican will be an important follow-up to watch, Allen argues, after this episode ends. Though, according to the latest tally so far, five Irish bishops already gave letters of resignation to the pope, and resignations of two of them already are accepted.
So far, the list of countries in which the scandals first appeared are in Europe. And when one knows that two-thirds of the members of the Roman Catholic Church live in the Southern hemisphere such as Latin America, Asia and Africa, then the picture becomes even grimmer for those regions with mostly under-developed countries.
It would be naive to think that this epidemic is only limited to European countries but not other parts of the globe. However, the issues with the judiciary or cultural loyalty and respect to the elders, such as priests of the churches, could veil such cases from coming to light. When illiteracy and poorness are also taken into consideration, one would imagine how difficult it would be to bring law suits, prepare independent studies and or file complaints against one of the most well-organized and powerful institutions of a country, the Roman Catholic Church.
While the Vatican is going through one of its most significant crises in recent history, expecting a resignation from the Pope is useless. It is almost impossible because the Pope is perceived as more of a father figure in the Catholic Church, not a CEO that can held be accountable following such a failure episode. Pope Benedict XVI, who also served as bishop and cardinal in the past, and appeared less than concerned for such complaints in the 1990s according to many accounts, should have had his share of responsibility, under the normal circumstances.
David Gibson, a papal biographer, who has been following Pope Benedict XVI since his years as a Cardinal stated in an interview recently that “popes don’t resign.” It has never happened since the 14th century and there is no mechanism to put pressure on the pope currently, he concludes. That is why it is so panicking to the Vatican for these complaints to get closer to the Pope Benedict, himself.
The Vatican City is being ruled by elective monarchy. In this system the pope takes all the power which is combined with legislative, executive, and judicial forces. It is an absolute monarchy with no independent judiciary, and is certainly not a democracy. There is neither a strong branch to oversee the executive power, the pope, nor any other independent watchdog to open investigations by itself.
Not having independent judiciary, and other branches to oversee the executive power bring corruption, and it brings corruption everywhere in the world.
There are strong arguments over some of the constitutional changes that are put forward by the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, that they might also work to lessen the Constitutional Court’s independence even further.
I think the Vatican can be a good example of different kind of corruption when the branches cannot monitor each other healthily. It is because how “God” wanted it to be, Vatican would argue, any criticism over their current absolute monarchy.
Not sure how the AKP would explain possible damages that would do to the independence of the judiciary with some of its constitutional changes.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Human Rights Decisive in Neighbourhood Relations, Fule
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 6 — Respect for human rights, democratic values and rule of law constitute a growing “decisive” factor in defining the level of relations between the EU and partner States. The European Commissioner for European Enlargement and Neighbourhood Politics, Stefan Fule, stated in a speech he made at the conference of the International Federation for Human Rights in Yerevan, in Armenia. According to Fule, “for partner COuntries an approach to the EU depends on efforts made towards internal reforms, especially in relation to human rights and the rule of law. As a consequence,” the European Commissioner continued, “we will bring our negotiations to a superior level with the countries which have made sufficient progress towards these principles. This creates a strong conditioning on the partners who wish to develop relations with the EU”. Moreover, “I am favourably impressed”, added Fule, “by the fact that more and more partner Countries are willing to make the effort to accept a dialogue on human rights”. As well as a dialogue from the diplomatic point of view, the EU also disposes of other “promotion tools”, such as technical and financial cooperation. There is an ad hoc European instrument for democracy and human rights (Eidhr) which has an annual budget of over 100 million euros to promote human rights in the world by means of projects involving civil society. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Tzigane Call for Recognition of 1940s Persecution
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — Representatives of France’s Tzigane community are being supported by some historians in their appeal that the French state give “official recognition” to the persecution it suffered between 1940 and 1946, when approximately 6,500 of them were interned by the collaborationist government. “This is a piece of history that has been boycotted, not forgotten”, stated film director Tony Gatlif during a press conference organised by several pressure groups. He is the creator of the film “Liberte”“ which addresses the persecution of gypsies during the Second World War. “In memory of our forebears, of our predecessors” added Alain Dumas, of the French Union of Tzigane Associations, “it is my hope that there will be the dedication of places of memory, and the duty to recall these events in school curricula”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Bishop Mixa Can’t Remember His Accusers
Embattled Catholic Bishop Walter Mixa has said he could not remember the people who claim he beat them in an orphanage, even as more accusers came forward.
In an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper, previewed Saturday, Mixa added that he would pray for his accusers, who now number at least eight, all of whom claim he beat or hit them at a children’s home in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mixa has vehemently denied the accusations.
“These people could no longer remember me at all,” he told Welt am Sonntag. “I no longer remember them.”
Bishop Mixa, who had previously claimed the sexual revolution was partly to blame for child abuse in the Church, has been accused of hitting children at the St Josef children’s home in Schrobenhausen, north of Munich, in the 1970s and 1980s.
One alleged victim told daily Süddeutsche Zeitung: “He punched me with full force in the face.”
He is now Bishop of the nearby city of Augsburg.
Mixa renewed his offer to meet and speak with his accusers, telling Bild am Sonntag in a separate interview that he wanted “to learn what befell them.”
He said he planned to pray for them because, as a pastor, his concern was that they were the victims of some injustice.
Mixa said he had taught thousands of children and adolescents over the years. “My credo has applied and applies up to today: ‘I’ll be good to you. Please be good to me.”
Meanwhile, a 40-year-old man from the Rosenheim area has told the Ingolstadt Donaukurier newspaper in Bavaria that he too had been abused by Mixa as a student.
“Mixa was not nice,” he told the paper. “He pulled us by the hair and by the ears.”
The man added Mixa had been very different from the way he portrays himself in the media.
Another man, now living in Innsbruck in Austria, said Mixa had hit him after he had tried to run away from the home and been returned by the police.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Wants Deal With Ankara to Reduce Arms Spending
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, APRIL 6 — Greece is ready to resolve the dispute over the Aegean Sea with Turkey in order to allow “mutual reductions in military spending” which will allow the release of resources in order to deal with the economic crisis, Greek Foreign Deputy Minister Dimitri Droutsas said. In the coming days, Droutsas will be on an official visit to Ankara in a climate of concerns over what has recently been seen as an “escalation” in tension. The CIA World Factbook estimates that Turkey spends 5.3% of GDP on defence whilst Greece spends 4.3% (against for example 1.8% by Italy), putting it in first place in the EU. During a visit to Ankara last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that it was advisable that the two countries reduce military spending to better cope with the requirements of their respective economies. In an interview with Greek Sunday paper Real News, quoted by the Foreign Ministry website, Droutsas states that Athens’ aim is to “make the Aegean a peaceful sea and therefore to allow both countries to reduce military spending.” This, he explains, would allow “the reaching of what we call a ‘peace dividend’ to be invested where our societies need it.” But, he warned, Athens wants a fair solution, and is ready for “any eventuality.” George Papandreou, Premier and Foreign Minister, has invited Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan to carry out an official visit to Greece. In the same interview, Droutsas said that Athens is prepared to accept the name “North Macedonia” in order to resolve the long-running dispute with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) over the use of the name and which is blocking the latter’s membership of the EU. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Finmeccanica: New Orders for 215 Mln Euros, One From Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 30 — Italy’s Finmeccanica has won orders for a total of 215 million euros through its companies DRS, AgustaWestland, Ansaldo STS, SELEX Sistemi Integrati, SELEX Galileo and Elsag Datamat. SELEX Sistemi Integrati has won a contract of 25 million euros with the Undersecretary’s Office for Maritime Affairs of Turkey, for the implementation of a VTS (Vessel Traffic Management System) in Turkey to monitor and manage sea traffic. DRS Technical Services, a 100% subsidiary of DRS Technologies of the Finmeccanica Group, has signed a contract with a value of around 77 million USD for technical assistance to the US army and the allied troops in the Iraqi pullout operation. AgustaWestland has signed a 42 million pound contract with the British Defence Ministry. Ansaldo STS has signed a contract with a value of 42,3 million euros with the Municipality of Genoa. SELEX Galileo has obtained two contracts for the supply of Precision Approach Radar PAR 2090 CF, with a total value of around 31 million euros, the first with the Italian Air Force, the second with the Swiss Air Force. Elsag Datamat has signed a contract with a value of 14 million euros with Aeroporti di Roma. (ANSAmed).
2010-03-30 12:27
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Federalberghi Issues Warning Over Decline in Tourism
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 31 — Hotel keepers have no doubts that 2009 has been a bad year for Italian tourism. The sector has suffered a 4.5% decrease in overnight stays (-11 million). This figure was released by the Tourism and Hotel Observatory of Federalberghi, which has conducted a survey based on a sample of more than 1,100 hotels. The results are not encouraging: the decline was recorded for foreign tourists (-6.4%), with 103.4 million tourists compared with 110.5 million in 2008, and Italian tourists (- 2.9% from 141.2 million in 2008 to 137 million last year). The active balance of tourism dropped by 12.9%. The crisis has had a clear impact in Italy. Last year Italian tourists spent 19.9 billion euros on foreign holidays, 1 billion less than in 2008. Foreign tourists spent “only 28.8 billion euros” in Italy in 2009, against 31.1 billion two years ago. The decline of foreign tourists was sharpest for British tourists (-17.4%), followed by Americans (-5.9%), Germans (-2.6%) and French tourists (-1.3%). The number of tourists from Switzerland increased on the other hand (+7.1%), as well as the number of tourists from Belgium (+5.4%), Canada (+3.7%), Austria (+3.2%) and Japan (+1.7%). All destinations recorded a decline, mountains (-5.3%) as well as the sea (-3.4%). Other destinations that saw the number of visitors decrease were business destinations (-5.2%), spas (-0.8%), lakes (-6.1%) and art cities (-5%). The Observatory also reports a constant decline of consumption in 2009, apart from August. In March in fact a 17.4% collapse was measured. This negative trend continued until December. During Christmas and New Year’s Day, the number of overnight stays declined by 5.2%. The chairman of Federalberghi, Bernabò Bocca, warned that this contraction has set the hotel sector back to “2005 levels, undoing the progress made in five years after economic sacrifices made by thousands of professionals in the tourism sector”. Therefore, Bocca added, a “joint initiative” is needed that involves government, companies, regions and unions, “to protect employment and boost the sector”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mayor: Meier to Ara Pacis
‘Improvements’ to be discussed
(ANSA) — Rome, April 6 — Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno and Richard Meier will inspect the Ara Pacis Museum Wednesday to discuss the American architect’s ideas for “improving” his controversial creation, the city council said Tuesday.
Alemanno, who once pledged to tear the building down, asked Meier to come up with new concepts for the home of Roman Emperor Augustus’s Altar of Piece a year ago.
He is said to be specially keen to reopen a now-blocked view of the Tiber and link the museum with the nearby mausoleum of Augustus, currently being spruced up to make it a tourist must.
After Tuesday’s inspection, Meier and other top architects will take part in a public debate called by Alemanno Thursday and Friday to look at “new models” to “improve the urban landscape” by 2020, the council said. The Ara Pacis museum, central Rome’s first piece of modern architecture since Fascist days, was fiercely contested by conservatives when it started taking shape in the late 1990s. Admirers of Meier hailed it when the museum opened in 2006 but criticism from other quarters has not abated despite an expansions and other modifications including a fountain.
When they announced the rethink last year, Rome authorities said it must take into account “the council’s aim to seek greater levels of dialogue between the city and the river which can evoke the ancient relationship between the two”.
Meier soon agreed to “take part in the search for a positive solution,” the council said. Alemanno first pledged to uproot the museum and dump it in the city suburbs during an unsuccessful run at the mayor’s office in 2006.
But when elected two years later he soon conceded that on-site modifications would be more feasible. The museum has been a ‘bete noir’ for some architectural scholars who claim it jars with Rome’s mainly Baroque heritage.
Italian ‘name’ architects have even suggested it was the start of a bid to ‘Los Angelise’ Rome.
Vittorio Sgarbi, Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s culture undersecretary from 2001 to 2003, once burned a model of the building and accused Meier of “knowing Rome like I know Tibet”.
The Ara Pacis was completed in 13 BC, one year before Augustus’s death at the age of 76. The architectural hub of Ancient Rome, circled by a bas relief of a procession of peace showing Aeneas, the Earth, Italy and Rome, it marked the first emperor’s victorious return from Spain and Gaul and celebrated his hopes for enduring peace.
It was originally positioned at the end of an old Roman road, the Via Flaminia — now just off the central Via del Corso — marking the spot where Roman soldiers had to lay down their arms before entering the city.
Centering the Campus Martius (Field of War), it symbolised Roman relief that peace had returned.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Protests Language ‘Discrimination’
EC says translations in all 23 languages next year
(ANSA) — Rome, April 6 — Italy on Tuesday protested about the absence of Italian as one of the three mandatory languages in new European Union staff selection procedures, prompting an assurance from Brussels that job info will be in all languages by next year.
“Italy will stage a pitched battle in defence of its national interests,” said EU Affairs Minister Andrea Ronchi after the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) came out with its latest rules for choosing permanent staff for EU institutions.
Rome could not “sit by and see the affirmation of a de facto trilinguism,” he said.
Candidates for posts in the EU bureaucracy will have a “pre-selection” exam in French, English or German and, if they get to the final stages of selection, will be tested again in those three languages, Ronchi noted.
Even the job application forms are only available in French, English or German, the minister noted.
He said this was “a penalization of Italian that must stop”.
Rome will appeal against “the unacceptable oligarchy in favour of English, Italian and German,” Ronchi said.
“Our goal is to ensure the same conditions of access for Italian candidates, invoking the recognised but too often forgotten principle of equal dignity among all European languages”.
The minister recalled that Italy had already successfully appealed against the advertisement of EU jobs in French, English and German alone.
In November 2008 the European Court of Justice overturned a decision by the European Commission to publish certain job adverts in English, German and French but not in Italian.
The EC responded to the minister’s charge by saying it was gearing to translate the procedures into every EU language.
By next year, an EC spokesman told ANSA, ‘pre-selection’ tests will be in “all the EU’s 23 languages”.
Application and competition information is already posted in the 23 languages on the EPSO site (europa.eu/epso), including guidelines, he said.
“The Commission will be ready with all 23 languages in 2011,” the spokesperson stressed. While English, German and French are the three most widely spoken languages in the EU (whether as mother tongue or second languages), Italian comes a close fourth with 16% of the EU population able to use it.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Quake Survivors Complain About Aid Delays
L’Aquila, 6 April (AKI) — As thousands of people gathered in L’Aquila to commemorate the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake, many expressed their anger at the government’s failure to restore the town and surrounding areas. Around 25,000 people conducted a candle-lit vigil and gathered in the town’s central piazza early on Tuesday to remember the 308 people who died in last April’s powerful earthquake.
At 3.32 am, the precise time when the earthquake struck th central Italian city and surrounding villages on 6 April last year, a bell tolled to commemorate each victim.
More than 1,600 people were injured and up to 50,000 left homeless by the quake.
In a chilling reminder of what happened a year ago, the region was also struck by a tremor with a magnitude of 2.2, as the crowds gathered with candles and torches on Tuesday.
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi praised his government’s relief and reconstruction efforts in a message read to a meeting of residents held by L’Aquila city council.
While 15,000 people have moved into new housing estates, others have complained that the money has been wasted on ‘dormitory’ suburbs, with no shops or public services.
Up to 30,000 others are still living in hotels or staying with relatives as they wait for government action to clear the ruins and restore their homes. At the public meeting, one angry resident carried a placard which read: “I am a citizen, without a city.”
Berlusconi was not expected to attend any of the commemoration ceremonies in L’Aquila or nearby towns on Tuesday. But in an interview with local Abruzzo newspaper, Il Centro, he attacked his critics.
“Some people have tried to belittle, or, even worse, to throw mud at the work carried out by the government or emergency workers,” he told Il Centro.
“But the reality is undeniable. We have managed the emergency with total efficiency and we have laid the groundwork for the reconstruction in the best possible way.”
Nevertheless, there are ongoing inquiries into the construction standards of the buildings that collapsed and the head of Italy’s civil protection agency, Guido Bertolaso, who led the relief effort, has been accused of approving public construction contracts in exchange for sexual favours.
Many people are furious that there is still no comprehensive plan for the restoration of L’Aquila’s historic centre.
“Life doesn’t exist any more,” Mattia Lolli, a 27-year-old university graduate, told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a telephone interview. “It is unbearable for us.”
Lolli, who was in Rome at the time of the earthquake, lost an aunt and uncle in the disaster and his family home in the centre of L’Aquila was seriously damaged.
He joined a group of protesters who in March tried to enter L’Aquila to clear the rubble in their homes before being stopped by local authorities.
“The reality is that reconstruction has not started. There are new homes for 15,000 people but the centre of L’Aquila is the same today as it was a year ago.”
“The families of the victims continue to ask for truth and justice,” he said.
Eugenio Carlomagno, co-founder of the advocacy group, L’Aquila, A City Centre to Save, agreed.
“This money could have been used differently, especially since these homes cost three times more than planned,” he said.
Newly-elected president of the province of L’Aquila, Antonio Del Corvo, said plans were continuing for the construction of temporary housing for 6,000-7,000 evacuees, who were still living in hotels and had not found a solution themselves.
The international charity, Save the Children, said that 12,500 children had been affected by the Abruzzo earthquake, and that 1,700 were still receiving aid.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Defiant Over Child Sex Abuse
Senior Catholics across Europe use Easter addresses to apologise and acknowledge the damage caused by the scandal, while pontiff remains unrepentant
Riazat Butt, and John Hooper in Rome
Senior Catholics across Europe today apologised for the way the church had dealt with paedophile priests and acknowledged the damage the scandal had caused to its moral authority.
In Easter sermons that revealed penitence, shame and shortcomings, archbishops in Armagh, Dublin, Edinburgh, Vienna and Westminster asked congregations for their forgiveness and urged them not to abandon the church because of past sins.
But there was no apology from Rome, as Benedict XVI maintained a steadfast silence about the crisis in his annual Urbi et Orbi — To the City and the World — address.
The only mention of the turmoil came from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who stood before the pope in a packed St Peter’s Square and lauded him as the “unfailing rock” of the Catholic church.
In a departure from protocol, he told the pontiff in a special tribute: “We are deeply grateful for your strength of spirit and the apostolic courage with which you proclaim Christ’s gospel.”
In an apparent reference to the crisis, and employing a term already used by the pope, Sodano said the church would not be intimidated by “idle chatter”.
His appearance was a gesture of defiance and indignation in the face of continued criticism aimed at the Vatican over its response to waves of allegations. The Catholic hierarchy has insisted that the pope is beyond reproach and that the media are conducting a smear campaign against him by exaggerating the scale of the abuse and attempts to conceal it.
However, today saw an unprecedented outpouring of apologies by leading church members across Europe.
Cardinal Sean Brady, the primate of Ireland, admitted that the church failed to involve civil authorities to protect its reputation. Brady, who is under pressure to resign because of his role in making two sex abuse victims sign an oath of silence, said: “I realise that, however unintentionally, however unknowingly, I too allowed myself to be influenced by that culture in our church, and our society.
“I pledge to you that, from now on, my overriding concern will always be the safety and protection of everyone in the church — but especially children and all those who are vulnerable.”
In his Easter homily the archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nicholls, told the faithful that the “serious sins” committed within the Catholic community had been much talked about. He added: “For our part, we have been reflecting on them deeply, acknowledging our guilt and our need for forgiveness.”
In Austria, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn apologised for the abuse at an emotional pre-Easter mass. “For some of us, the Church’s immaculate appearance was more important than anything else,” Schönborn said. “We confess our guilt to the many whom we have wronged as the church, and whom some of us have wronged very directly.”
Their penitence came hours after a contrite archbishop of Canterbury rang the archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, to try to defuse widespread anger and disbelief after he said the church in Ireland had lost “all credibility”.
Rowan Williams made the comments in a BBC interview, explaining that an Irish friend had said it was “quite difficult in some parts of Ireland” to walk down the street wearing a dog collar. Williams remarked that an institution “so deeply bound into the life of a society, suddenly becoming, suddenly losing all credibility — that’s not just a problem for the Church, it is a problem for everybody in Ireland.”
The backlash was almost immediate, with churchmen from Catholic and Protestant traditions condemning Williams as being thoughtless and unhelpful during one of the darkest periods for Irish Catholicism. Caught aback by the level of outrage, Williams rang Martin, who later told churchgoers he appreciated the archbishop’s “sadness” regarding “some unfortunate words”.
Williams also upset members of the Church of England by playing down the significance of a papal initiative to tempt Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism. He made no mention of his Catholic gaffe during his Easter sermon at Canterbury Cathedral.
The Pope has still to make any direct comment on the of scandals in continental Europe. Last month he issued a letter to Irish Catholics, who are reeling from years of revelations over child sex abuse and cover-ups. Papal aides said the letter, in which Benedict said he was “truly sorry” for the suffering of victims, should be read as applying to other countries.
The latest is Malta, which the pope is to visit this month. It was reported last week that 45 priests stood accused of sexual offences since the creation of a church response team in 1999.
None of the cases has been referred to the police and the retired judge who heads the project said that was the responsibility of victims and parents.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Franco Statue Removed From Valencia Harbour Office
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 6 — According to sources inside Spain’s Ministry of Defence, speaking to ANSAMED, an equestrian statue of former dictator Francisco Franco was today removed from the inside courtyard of the building housing the Harbour Master General of Valencia, where it has been standing since 1983. The removal occurred with the aid of a heavy-duty crane and in conformity with and in application of the Historical Memory law; the statue was transferred to a military depot. The operation to remove it, supervised by national and local police officials, took place without any hitches and under the curious gaze of some passersby. The law relating to Historical Memory, which was approved in 2007, enforces the elimination of symbols of the Franco era and of plaques in honour of “those who have fallen for God and Country” from all public places or monuments. The equestrian statue, which is the property of the Municipality of Valencia, was initially located in the Municipality’s main square where it stood until 1983,the year in which it was transfered and deposited into custody in one of the courtyards of the city’s Harbour Master’s Office. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Alarm at Serious Crimes Committed by Minors
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 6 — The case of a 14-year old girl from Sesena (province of Toledo) accused of killing 13-year old Cristina Martin de la Sierra has reignited debate in Spain about the reduction of the age at which minors can be charged, which currently stands at 14. The case of the alleged murderer of Sesena, who has already pleaded guilty, is the latest in a series of crimes committed by minors who cannot be charged, including the sexual abuse and murder of Sandra Palo, who had her throat slit in Barcelona by two classmates, and the disappearance of Marta del Castillo,likely to have been killed by her ex-boyfriend and whose body, after a search lasting several months, has yet to be found. According to the police’s investigation, reported today by the Spanish media, the murder of Cristina Martin de la Sierra occurred after the two girls agreed to meet for an organised fight. The presumed murderer is thought to have beaten the victim with stones before throwing her down a well and burying her body under stones and rubble while she was still alive. According to the law, the girl charged with murder, if found guilty, would serve a maximum sentence of five years in a young offenders institute and another three on a part-time detention basis. While the People’s Party has reasserted the need for reforms on laws concerning minors, lowering the chargeable age from 14 to 12, the latest report from the Prosecutor’s office for young offenders, relative to 2008, shows that there was a drop compared to the previous year in the number of children under the age of 14 committing muggings (-6%), violent crimes (-13%) and burglary (-2.5%), while serious crimes such as murder (+40%), sexual assault (+16%) and domestic violence (+56%) all rose. The figures for 2009, though not yet complete, show that 8,000 parents reported their own children to the police for violent acts. A total of 15,919 minors were charged with committing crimes in 2008, a 16.8% rise on the previous year. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Corruption, Alleged ‘Gurtel’ Payoffs to PP Treasurer
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 6 — Fresh accusations against the former treasurer of the Popular Party, Senator Luis Barcenas, arise from the investigation into the Gurtel case, the network of alleged corruption attributed to entrepreneur Francisco Correa, from which the magistrate has today removed the bond of investigation confidentiality. In the 50,000 pages of the inquiry, available on newspaper websites, the PP representative is accused of having received “without any shadow of doubt’ in excess of 1.3 million euros in bribes, in exchange for contracts entrusted to companies headed by the entrepreneur Correa, alias “Don Vito”, a friend of Alejandro Agag, son-in-law of former premier José Maria Aznar, who organised events for the Popular Party. According to a witnesss acount to the magistrate by a police official involved in the investigation, two pieces of evidence point to the former finance chief of the PP: a Usb memory stick confiscated from José Luis Izquierdo, the network’s accountant, containing documents with information appearing to confirm the payments; and the repeated references to “L.Barc., “LB” or “L.Barcenas” who, the magistrate says, “cannot be anyone other” than the exponent of the Popular Party, Luis Barcenas. According to the investigation, the sum of the bribes received by the PP treasurer, suspended from office in the previous months, totals 1.353 millon euros.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Inger Wickman, Killed for a Parking Space.
Translated by VH
by Anders Wellebeeke
Prime suspect Akileh Ahmad denies guilt.
The Swedes Sven and Inger Wickman would have been married fifty years now. Instead, Sven (71) had to make the hardest decision of his life: to disconnect his wife from the artificial respiration.
It happened on March 29 this year, when the two wanted to park their car at a parking space for handicapped at a supermarket in Landskrona [map]. Sven reports:
A young motorist was in the way. I honked. The young man shoved opened his window down and scoffed me for an old fart. When I returned “young snot” he pulled my door open so I fell on the road. When I tried to stand up, I got a fist in my face, and I ended up on the bonnet. Inger tried to intervene, but received multiple blows to her face and fell back on the asphalt. Now she’s no longer here..
Both spouses were transported by ambulance to the hospital. There the 78-year-old Inger died from severe head injuries and internal bleedings.
The Police have arrested a suspect. The 23-year-old man, who by the media is variedly defined as being a Lebanese and a Palestinian, denied all guilt.
The case is causing great turmoil in politically correct Sweden. According to the Norwegian blogger Hans Rustad, the immigrants are declared holy by the multicultural church, while Swedes must be content with a role as sinner. In this case however, the roles seem reversed.
The right-wing Sverigedemokraterna has been strongly criticized because they announced the name of the suspect on their website. According to them they did this to denounce the over-representation of immigrants in the crime statistics. The criminologist Jerzy Sarnecki explains this effect [over representation] as the result of social deprivation.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boyfriend Facing Murder Quiz ‘Met Schoolgirl Knife Victim on Facebook’
A schoolgirl stabbed to death on her way to a party had a ‘secret’ ex-boyfriend she met on Facebook, it emerged last night.
Aliza Mirza, 18, kept the relationship from her strict Muslim parents because she feared they would disapprove, friends said.
Last night police were still questioning 17-year-old Yahya Gul, believed to be the ex-boyfriend, on suspicion of murder. Several members of his family are also being held.
Aliza was knifed in the neck and left to die on a pavement on Saturday evening.
On Facebook Gul called himself ‘Geeneral Yahya’ and listed his religious views as ‘Muslim till I die and here after’.
Friends said he had become extremely religious since dropping out of school because of non-attendance. He had started wearing traditional robes and grew a beard.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Family Holidays ‘Are Now a Luxury’: Day Trips Are All That You Need, Officials Decide
Annual holidays have become a luxury and are no longer a staple of family life, according to government research.
A getaway of a week or more is no longer considered essential by many families and is often beyond their reach, said the analysis of what parents and children say they really need.
Fashionable clothes for the children, expensive birthday parties and lots of toys are also on the list of luxuries families don’t have to have.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: From Algeria to Zimbabwe, The Atlas of Nations in One Hospital
The astonishing range of nationalities employed at an NHS hospital was laid bare yesterday.
Staff at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals represent an A to Z of nations, from Antigua to Ghana, Hungary to Zimbabwe.
The list comes a day after the Mail revealed the trust has been forced to offer ten-week English courses for nurses, cleaners and porters over concerns that some could not understand basic medical phrases.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hospital Has Staff From 70 Countries as Nurses Who Don’t Even Understand ‘Nil by Mouth’ Forced to Take English Lessons
An NHS hospital has staff from a staggering 70 countries on its payroll.
The huge number of overseas nurses, cleaners and porters has forced health chiefs to send them on ten-week English courses because many do not understand basic medical phrases.
Among the terms some workers from countries such as Burma, the Philippines and Poland can’t follow are ‘nil by mouth’, ‘doing the rounds’ and ‘bleeping a doctor’.
They highlight the language problems throughout the Health Service, which critics say are putting patients’ lives at risk.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Labour’s 24-Hour Drinking Disaster: Nearly Half of All Violent Crimes Are Linked to Alcohol Abuse, Reveals Secret Report
A secret Government report has revealed the mayhem caused by Labour’s disastrous 24-hour drinking policy.
Ministers hoped the introduction of round-the- clock licensing would reduce violence and lead to the creation of a ‘relaxed, continental cafe style culture’ on the nation’s streets.
But the leaked report reveals that nearly half — 47 per cent — of all violent crimes are cited as alcohol-related by victims.
For stranger violence — the type feared most by the public — this rises to 62 per cent of people saying their attacker was under the influence of alcohol.
And heavy drinking, defined as twice the recommended daily limit, is being reported by 36 per cent of prisoners arriving in jail.
In a further embarrassment for ministers, a second study revealed the cost of policing Labour’s late-night drinking economy is adding £100million to the police overtime bill.
Critics said it was hypocritical of Labour to attack police spending on overtime — they have demanded swingeing cuts — when one of the main causes of this expenditure was the Government’s own policy of 24-hour drinking.
The relaxation of the licensing laws was railroaded through Parliament despite warnings from the emergency services, who predicted it would cause chaos on the streets.
Now the public is being expected to pick up the bill for police overtime.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: ‘It’s now clear that behind the scenes the Government has finally realised what everyone else knows — that our town and city centres have taken a real turn for the worse as a result of Labour’s 24-hour drinking laws — and that alcohol is now a major cause of crime and antisocial behaviour.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: May 6: Brown Finally Kick-Starts Election With Tories 10 Points Ahead
Gordon Brown and David Cameron will today set out their personal pitches for power as the most defining election campaign for a generation begins.
The Prime Minister will finally go to Buckingham Palace this morning to ask for a May 6 poll despite some of the worst Labour poll ratings of the year.
He will try to cling on to power through a ‘Canteen Campaign’ taking his message directly into the workplaces and living rooms of the nation.
Mr Cameron, whose wife Samantha will play a key strategic role, will pledge to fight for the ‘great ignored’ who ‘work hard, pay their taxes and obey the law’, vowing to mending the broken economy, society and politics.
A YouGov survey today puts the Tories back on course to seize power after 13 years in the wilderness.
They are on 41 per cent — ten points ahead of Labour, and over the crucial 40 per cent mark for the first time since the New Year. An Opinium survey gives a similar lead.
However, an ICM poll for the Guardian puts the gap between the two main parties at just four points.
Samantha Cameron, who is expecting a baby in the autumn, appeared dressed for comfort yesterday in baggy jumper and a pair of £34.99 Converse trainers.
Yesterday’s Bank Holiday — usually a relatively quiet day in the political calendar — was dominated by pre-election skirmishing between the party leaders.
After Mr Brown issued a podcast attacking the Tories’ spending plans, shadow chancellor George Osborne unveiled a new Conservative poster accusing Labour of crushing the recovery.
Chancellor Alistair Darling took to the airwaves to defend next year’s increase in National Insurance contributions — a move the Tories have promised largely to scrap.
The Conservatives have also released a web video on YouTube featuring Mr Cameron’s wife.
And Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, a potential kingmaker in a hung parliament, unveiled one of his party’s election battlebuses in North London yesterday.
With the economy firmly centre stage for the campaign ahead, Mr Brown used his latest podcast on the Downing Street website to draw a comparison with Wayne Rooney’s foot injury.
‘After an injury you need support to recover, you need support to get back to match fitness, you need support to get back your full strength and then go on to lift the World Cup,’ he said.
‘So with the economy — we’re not back to full fitness, we need to maintain support.
‘If we try and jump off the treatment table as if nothing had happened, we’ll do more damage to the economy — and frankly that means we risk a double-dip recession. I think that’s a risk we can’t afford to take.’
Mr Darling also attacked the Tories’ plans to scrap his planned rise in NI, insisting it was an essential part of the deficit reduction package and would not cost jobs, as critics claim.
But Mr Osborne unveiled a new poster seeking to portray Labour stamping on the green shoots of recovery.
It showed a bleak landscape with just one green shoot emerging from the barren ground.
A boot bearing the words Jobs Tax — referring to the proposed NI increase — looms over the plant, as if about to crush it.
‘The choice in this election is very, very clear,’ Mr Osborne said.
‘You have either got Labour stamping out the recovery, stamping on the green shoots, or the Conservatives avoiding the jobs tax.’
But the Tories also faced criticism over their promise to provide any cancer drugs that are licensed and have been recommended for a patient by their specialist.
The King’s Fund think-tank said the Tory plan was effectively unfunded.
It is supposed to be covered by the money the NHS will save without having to pay increased NI to its staff, as it would under Labour.
But King’s Fund chief economist Professor John Appleby said: ‘Of course that’s not a real saving on today’s budget.
‘So the £200million or so they say will be needed to fund these cancer drugs essentially has to come out of the current budget.
‘That means stopping doing something else for other people.’
He added: ‘It’s a sleight of hand, to say the least, because the money isn’t there to be saved yet, so the money will have to come out of existing budgets.’
Mr Cameron later insisted the plan was funded, adding: ‘This cancer drugs vow will ensure more people get the drugs they need.’
He was also featured with his wife in a new video, dubbed ‘Websamcameron’ by the Tories, in which they refer to their expected fourth child.
Mrs Cameron takes a leading role in the video, talking to the camera about a visit the couple made to a youth club in East London last week.
In a sign of her growing role in the Conservative campaign, Mr Cameron is shown insisting she does not need any campaigning tips as she is a ‘natural’ who is ‘eclipsing’ him already.
Mrs Cameron responds that it is ‘the bump’ — due in September — rather than herself that is so popular. Her husband says he can see it through her clothes already.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s difficulties with the unions increased as one leader described the Government as ‘the worst in the history of the country’ for civil servants.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), accused Labour of being a poor employer.
Speaking at the National Union of Teachers’ (NUT) annual conference in Liverpool, Mr Serwotka called on unions to ‘stand together’ and take industrial action if necessary to defend jobs, pay and pensions.
He told delegates many union leaders have been arguing how well Labour has done, and that ‘we should be careful to appreciate what we’ve got’.
But Mr Serwotka added: ‘I have to say to you this — that if you judge a government by how it behaves as an employer, this is the worst Government in the history of this country.’
Deputy SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon yesterday kick-started her party’s election campaign — by claiming that Scots do not care who is the next Prime Minister.
Speaking in Glasgow, Miss Sturgeon tried to fight back against Tory and Labour jibes about the SNP’s ‘irrelevance’ in the General Election.
Opinion polls show support for the SNP has plummeted in the Westminster vote.
But Miss Sturgeon, speaking in the Glasgow East seat Labour hopes to steal back from the SNP, claimed: ‘For voters in Glasgow East and across the country, this election isn’t about who gets the keys to Number 10, but about who will put Scotland’s communities first.’
Local MP John Mason, who has a majority of fewer than 400 votes, added: ‘This year, I hope voters will continue to trust me to be their local champion and will send that strong message to Labour across Glasgow that this city belongs to the people, not one party.’
But his Labour opponent, Margaret Curran, hit back, saying: ‘Even the SNP know this election is a two-horse race between Labour and the Tories.
‘A vote for the SNP will let the Tories in to do huge damage to families, the elderly and the vulnerable in Scotland.’
Latest polling indicates that Labour has a huge lead over the other parties in Scotland.
With Alex Salmond’s popularity in freefall, the SNP faces a struggle to cling on to second place, with the Tories hopeful of gaining a handful of seats.
Mr Salmond has pledged to win 20 Westminster seats — up from seven — which looks increasingly unlikely.
Labour accused the SNP of preparing a ‘ dirty tricks campaign’ after a website encouraged children to download a poster in which Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy says: ‘I’m such an idiot’.
Mr Murphy said: ‘Politics is a rough old game but this goes way too far.’
An SNP spokesman replied that while Labour indulged its online ‘obsession’, Nationalists would be talking about issues.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Shopkeeper Who Asked PC for Help as He Chased Thieves is Told: ‘You Had Better Call the Police’
When two thieves stole from his store and made off on foot, shopkeeper Graham Taylor gave chase.
As he pursued the thieves he encountered a policeman and asked for his help.
But he was angered and bemused when the officer told him: ‘You had better call the police.’
But when Mr Taylor did call the police, the officers who were assigned to deal with the theft missed the radio call — because they were celebrating at a colleague’s retirement party.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Umeå Sweden: Businessman in a 5 Billion Crown ( $800 Million Dollars) Cover Up and Fraud.
Translated by Freedom Fighter — original Source SVT — Swedish TV
Swedish security police suspect a link to Iran’s nuclear program
On Thursday opened the trial of a Umeå businessman who is suspected of serious fraud. But the deal has more serious implications. It’s about billions of dollars and can have ramifications at the highest international level including, Iran’s nuclear program.
The allegations related to illegal trading with Iran and equipment for Iran’s nuclear facilities and Iran’s nuclear weapons programs. These products under international rules can not be exported to Iran. Security Police and the Office of the Prosecutor for security issues have started an investigation against the man, but otherwise are silent on the allegations.
Violated the Iran sanctions
The allegations against Umeå businessman, who has roots in Iran, started when the state prosecutors and Economic Crimes Bureau, began to examine the mans business affairs.
A large sum of money would have gone to the U.S. was stopped when it was discovered that the goods were subject to an export ban for Iran, “said Bjorn Rosenlöf, prosecutors at the Economic Crimes Bureau to “Report” ( a News program). What type of goods that were involved was not mentioned.
Millions
Originally, the alarm came from the Finance dept, Finansinspektionen, and the holder’s bank reacted to the astronomical sums that passed the man’s accounts without be reported as required by the law. In total there were nearly 9,000 transactions totalling 10 billion crowns ( $1.3 billon).
“During a period of two years, five billion crowns ( $800 million dollars ) flowed into the man’s accounts, exclusively from Iran. Then the money has been moved to accounts around the world but nothing has been declared as required by law, “said Bjorn Rosenlöf, prosecutors at the Economic Crimes Bureau to “Report” ( a News program).
This is a serious accounting fraud and the man faces several years in prison.
The businessman denies the charges
The man was arrested in January but has now been released from prison. He has a travel ban. As a defence lawyer he has requested and obtained Silbersky. The businessman denies the charges.
“He says he helped Iranian small businessmen to buy and sell goods abroad. They have been using his account to conduct business and in return he received a commission, “said Bjorn Rosenlöf.
| — Hat tip: Freedom Fighter | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican ‘Basta’ On Predator Priest
Church rallies round pope
(ANSA) — Santiago, April 6 — Vatican No.2 Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone on Tuesday said he was tired of hearing about an alleged cover-up by himself and Pope Benedict XVI of the case of a US priest who abused 200 deaf boys.
“Basta, basta on this subject,” exclaimed Bertone, currently secretary of state, who was also No.2 to the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during the future pope’s 14-year tenure at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with abuse cases.
Bertone was responding to a fresh charge from German weekly Die Welt, which echoed the New York Times in claiming the pair refused to heed appeals from Milwaukee bishops in the late 1990s about the abuse committed by Father Lawrence Murphy at a Wisconsin school for deaf children between 1950 and 1974.
“It’s not true, we have produced documentary evidence of the contrary,” Bertone said, reiterating that the Murphy case was only brought to his then office’s attention in 1998, a few months before the priest died.
Quizzed by reporters why the pope did not take advantage of his Easter message to touch on the widening abuse and cover-up scandals, Bertone added: “Let’s not talk about this subject now, otherwise we’ll be here all day verifying with precision the actions of myself and His Eminence (the pope)”. Bertone, who was bringing Benedict’s support to the quake-stricken people of Chile, adamantly refused to be drawn on why the pope did not speak out on widening abuse cases around Europe, and has not personally responded to a claim that he knew about a predator priest who returned to pastoral work when Benedict was Munich Archbishop in the mid-1980s. “Let’s talk about Chile, let’s talk about the future. The Pope is strong, and he is all the people”.
Bertone stressed that Benedict had been seen to enjoy the unequivocal support of the massed faithful on Easter Sunday, “including many young people”, and added: “He is a strong Pope, the Pope of the third millennium”.
Two days before, at a Good Friday Mass in the Basilica, Papal Household Preacher Raniero Cantalamessa angered Jews by apparently comparing the criticism the Church has undergone with the anti-Semitism that fuelled the Holocaust.
He later apologised and the Vatican said he had not meant to draw such a comparison.
But the impression that the Vatican hierarchy is closing ranks around the pope was reinforced when Bertone’s predecessor as secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, made an unprecedented encomium of the pope at Easter Mass, saying “all the Church” was behind him and would ignore the “idle chatter” of the alleged media campaign.
‘CULTURE CLASH’.
On Tuesday Sodano, who is now Dean of the College of Cardinals, returned to the theme in an interview with Vatican daily l’Osservatore Romano.
“The failings and mistakes of priests are being used as weapons against the Church,” Sodano said.
“It is a culture clash. The Pope embodies moral verities that are not accepted”.
The cardinal compared media reporting of the abuse cases to 19th-century criticism of Pope Pius X, who refused to accept the unification of Italy, to longstanding allegations that WWII Pope Pius XII did not speak out against the Holocaust, and to criticism of 1960s Pope Paul VI for his stance against birth control.
“In the face of these unjust attacks we are told that we are adopting the wrong strategy, that we should react differently. (But) the Church has its style and does not adopt the methods that are being used against the Pope. The only strategy we have comes from the Gospel,” Sodano said, echoing Benedict who in an Easter Thursday sermon said “Jesus did not respond when he was insulted”.
Vatican Radio on Tuesday said “there are those who fear that the media campaign of anti-Catholic hate may degenerate,” citing among “the first worrying signs” an attack by a mentally unstable man on a German bishop; anti-Catholic slogans daubed on a church near Viterbo; and attempts by “several groups and individuals” to disrupt Easter services across Europe.
The broadcaster recalled that the first Christians were accused of terrible crimes and lynched.
It praised the Wall Street Journal for being among the few media outlets who have noted that “Cardinal Ratzinger did more than anyone else” to force paedophile priests “to answer for what they had done”. The Vatican has insisted that, starting with new abuse guidelines as doctrinal chief in 2001, Benedict has done all he can to rid the Church of “filth” he referred to after he became pope in 2005.
But critics say a new, strong and detailed statement of strategy is needed in the face of scandals in Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and, most recently, Italy itself.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: EU and USA Try to Revive Euro-Atlantic Integration
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 6 — The EU and the United States are continuing their efforts to boost Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Euro-Atlantic prospects. A visit to Sarajevo by the Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos and USA Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg begins today and will last until tomorrow. The initiative, says the EU’s Spanish presidency, has come about “as part of a common strategy to promote stabililty in Bosnia-Herzegovina and help it to integrate the Euro-Atlantic community”. The aim of the meeting is to tackle, along with Bosnia’s political leaders, the issue of reforms necessary to improve the country’s prospects of joining the EU and NATO.” The EU had previously warned of Bosnia Herzegovina potentially lagging behind other countries in the region that have are already member states. During a previous visit last October, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, representing the EU presidency, and Jim Steinberg had made a proposal to Bosnian leaders. The offer, as a prelude to full sovereignty, included a strengthened European presence, but at the expense of the closure of the High Representative’s office and a series of constitutional reforms, so as to ensure compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights. The build-up has begun to new elections in Bosnia Herzegovina, scheduled for October 2010.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Main Importer From Serbia
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, APRIL 6 — In the first two months of 2010, Italy was the number one destination for exports from Serbia, with Serbia itself the main importer of goods from Russia. Belgrade’s Central Office of Statistics said that Serbia exported goods worth 156.9 million dollars to Italy in January and February, ahead of Germany, who imported to the tune of 143.3 million dollars and Bosnia-Herzegovina, with 127.1 million dollars. The main source of Serbia’s imports was Russia, for a total of 350.8 million dollars, ahead of Germany (232.3 million dollars) and Italy (184.3 million dollars). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fisheries: Italy to Discuss Med Area Issues at EU Meeting
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 29 — Italy intends to draw the attention of the European Commission and its EU partners to the difficulties of full application of new EU regulations on fishery management in the Mediterranean Sea. According to the document received by the European Council, during the Agriculture and Fisheries Council of Ministers meeting today in Brussels the Italian delegation will bring up issues connected with “ the new minimum distances from the coast” for the use of fishing equipment, which come into force on June 1 and which will affect 3,400 ships in Italy. However, the spotlight will also be put on “the growing problems for ships due to the imminent ban on so-called traditional and special fishing practices, which will lead to a worrisome social and economic impact given the strong territorial concentration of these activities”. Therefore, for Italy — which is awaiting approval of a number of exceptions requested — “the difficulties of the application of the new regulations on the Mediterranean (regulation 1967 of 2000, Ed.) will have to be discussed by the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council of Ministers meeting”. The aim is to “allow for an orderly and pragmatic implementation of the EU directives which are more complex for fishing enterprises and for member states.” (ANSAmed).
2010-03-29 10:43
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: More Telephone Subscribers Than Inhabitants
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS — For the first time ever in Tunisia, the number of telephone subscriptions (over 11 million) has exceeded the number of inhabitants (10,276,158 in the 2007 census). According to data released by the Ministry of Communication Technologies, on December 31 last year there were 1.278 million fixed phone lines and 9.753 million mobile lines, with a density of 105.2%. The number of ADSL subscribers was however less than expected: 367,538 against the expected 400,000. In total, the internet network had 413,958 subscribers on December 31, 2009. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
PNA: US Peace-Process Efforts at a Dead-End
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, APRIL 6 — US efforts to revive the Middle East peace process have reached “a dead-end”, says Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. According to Erekat, the United States has not succeeded in persuading Israel to freeze planned construction: neither that on the West Bank, where the Israeli government has announced a temporary moratorium until September, nor that in East Jerusalem, where any notion of freezing Jewish building construction in the eastern part of the city occupied by Israel sine 1967 — even in the short-term — has been rejected by Israel. The Palestinian Authority is making the start of indirect peace negotiations (the proximity talks) conditional on the cancellation of all Israeli building development in the Jewish areas of the Arab sector of Jerusalem and wants the United States to guarantee that Israel will cease construction on all lands claimed by the Palestinians. In Erekat’s words: “It would appear that all negotiations between Israel, the United States and other countries have reached a dead-end. Israel is insisting on the continuation of its settlements policy”. For his part, speaking in a radio interview this morning, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Foreign Minister, reaffirmed that his country will not accept any freezing of construction in any part of Jerusalem, “neither in the western part of the city nor in the eastern part, whether by Jews or by Arabs”. The international community does not recognise the status of Jerusalem as capital of Israel. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
American-Born Cleric Added to Capture-or-Kill List, Called ‘Terrorist No. 1’
The radical Muslim cleric tied to suspects in both the Fort Hood shooting and failed Christmas Day bombing has become a key terror target, with a top member of Congress calling him “terrorist number one” and officials confirming he has been added to a list that would allow U.S. operatives to capture or kill him for his role with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The radical Muslim cleric tied to suspects in both the Fort Hood shooting and failed Christmas Day bombing has become a key terror target, with a top member of Congress calling him “terrorist number one” and officials confirming he has been added to a list that would allow U.S. operatives to capture or kill him for his role with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., called Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen believed to be in Yemen, “terrorist number one” at an intelligence conference Tuesday.
“He is very much in the sights of the Yemenis, with us helping them,” said Harman, chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence.
A U.S. government official told Fox News that al-Awlaki was added to the capture-or-kill target list back in January.
Reuters also reported Tuesday that the administration had added him to the list. “Awlaki is a proven threat,” a U.S. official told the news service.
The cleric has been at the top of the U.S. intelligence radar screen for months.
“He ends up being a person that is not only an adviser to the Fort Hood shooter, was in the plot to have the Nigerian Christmas bomber blow up the plane over Detroit, but has literally in the past several weeks, and this has been in the press, called for attacks against the United States,” Harman said Tuesday.
She was referring to alleged contact the imam had with Maj. Nidal Hasan before the shooting rampage that left 13 dead at Fort Hood in Texas, and with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab before the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas last year.
The cleric could be heard acknowledging a relationship with Hasan in a recently released audiotape obtained by Fox News.
In the tape, he also mocked President Obama and praised Abdulmutallab.
| [Return to headlines] |
Armenia-Turkey: Ashton, EU Wants Ratification Soon
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 6 — “The European Union encourages Armenia and Turkey to continue in their efforts for a process of normalisation and invites both Countries to ratify and apply the bilateral protocols without pre-conditions and within a reasonable time-frame”. According to a press release, this message has been launched by the UE’s top representative for foreign affairs, Catherine Ashton, in relation to the process of normalisation of relations between Yerevan and Ankara. “The EU”, Ashton states, “warmly welcomes the decision by the Armenian President to present both protocols to Parliament, as well as the recent declaration by the President of Turkey concerning his ongoing commitment to the normalisation of relations with Armenia”. For the Europe of 27, the latter objective “would constitute an important contribution to security, stability and cooperation in the southern Caucasus”. To this end, “the EU”, Ashton concluded, “will continue to provide its political and technical support to the process of normalisation between Turkey and Armenia, and it is ready to provide help for the implementation of the steps agreed by the two Countries”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Minister Compares Erdogan to Libya’s Gaddafi
Already-strained ties between Turkey and Israel hit a fresh snag Tuesday with harsh comments from Israel’s firebrand foreign minister, who compared the Turkish prime minister to the leaders of Libya and Venezuela.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is slowly turning into Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi or Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview with Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
“It’s his choice. The problem is not Turkey, the problem is Erdogan,” Lieberman said.
The Israeli foreign minister’s remarks came as Erdogan told the French newspaper Le Figaro that Israel does not want peace in the Middle East. The Turkish prime minister also said one country in the region already possesses nuclear weapons, referring to Israel.
Lieberman, who heads an ultranationalist party, has become known for his belligerent tone, which has earned him critics both abroad and inside Israel. He told Yedioth Ahronoth that Erdogan should deal with Turkey’s “problems with the Kurds” rather than “preach” to Israel and accused the Turkish leader of damaging decades of “excellent” ties.
The hard-line foreign minister also warned Palestinians against plans to unilaterally declare independence next year, saying that such a move could prompt Israel to annex parts of the West Bank and annul past peace agreements. His remarks Tuesday took aim at a Palestinian policy that has emerged as U.S. attempts to restart peace talks have stalled.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, whose Western-backed administration has a limited governing role in the Israeli-controlled West Bank, has announced plans to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state, possibly as early as the summer of 2011 — even without a peace deal.
If Palestinians declare independence, Lieberman said, Israel could revoke the 1990s peace agreements known as the Oslo accords or even annex parts of the West Bank.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Companies to Build Iraq’s Biggest Port
Oil tankers are anchored at Basra harbour, 550 kms (340 miles) south of Baghdad. AFP photo
An Italian group will begin construction in a month’s time on what will become Iraq’s largest shipping port, the Iraqi transport minister announced on Monday.
The facility at Fao, at the southernmost tip of the country, will be fed by a new rail line linking it to the Turkish border in the north, dramatically improving Iraq’s moribund transport infrastructure.
“Fao, which will be built by an Italian consortium, will be the biggest port in Iraq,” Transport Minister Amer Abduljabbar Ismail said in a ceremony at Fao on the Gulf, 535 kilometers (335 miles) south of Baghdad.
“This project is part of a larger vision that we call a ‘dry canal’ which will allow for transport of goods between the north and the south of the world quickly, cheaply and safely.”
An Italian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the port “will be among the biggest in the world. It will be able to handle the largest container boats and all kinds of huge tonnage vessels.”
The consortium will be led by Italian engineering firm Technital and will include other Italian construction firms partnering with the Iraqi transport ministry.
“Italy is going to (provide) training on port design, construction and management, as well as technical assistance and planning on industrial zones in the country which will be relevant for the activities of the port,” the diplomat added.
The $4.6 billion (3.4 billion euros) project will be the biggest infrastructure project in Iraq in 30 years, and will be funded by Iraqi and foreign finance, both public and private.
Once completed, Iraq hopes to compete with the Suez Canal which connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and through which more than 14,000 ships passed last year.
According to the transport ministry, the huge 100-dock facility will have an annual capacity of 99 million tons.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly Half of Turkey’s Households Barely Subsist
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 6 — Nearly half of households in Turkey meet their necessary requirements hardly, Anatolia news agency reports. According to the ‘Life Satisfaction Survey 2009’ carried out by the Turkish Board of Statistics (TURSTAT), 36% of households subsisted “hardly” and 16.9% subsisted “very hardly”. That means that 52.9% of households met their necessary requirements with their current income hardly. 42.7% of participants said that they were not satisfied with their current income. Rate of people who were satisfied with their income was 31.4%. 9.6% of women and 10.1% of men said that they were not satisfied with their income. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar Health Authority Cracks Down on Smokers
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, APRIL 6 — Raids on shopping malls in Qatar over the last two weeks have resulted in fines for 148 errant smokers, the Peninsula has reported. Inspectors from the Anti-Smoking Unit at the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) imposed a total of $14,000 worth of fines, in a sign that the agency is cracking down on those smoking in public places. The assistant to the secretary general of health affairs at SCH told the newspaper that the anti-tobacco law would also be amended to make it tougher. Dr Saleh Al Marri also said that the SCH was in the process of hiring more plain-clothes inspectors, and was expanding its raids to other public locations throughout Doha. The SCH has confirmed that it will continue with its inspections throughout the year. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck on Turkey’s Islamist Ambitions in Europe
Over the past few years under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has taken a disturbing turn away from its longtime allies in the US, Europe and Israel.
Erdogan’s Islamist agenda has been apparent in his harsh criticism of the US and Israel and his embrace of Iran and Syria.
Now Turkey is looking to promote this worldview on a global scale, starting with Turkish immigrant communities in Europe.
I recently traveled to Austria and investigated how the Turkish government s directly financing the construction of mosques in Vienna and elsewhere.
You can watch my report at the link above.
| [Return to headlines] |
Total Charged Over Oil for Food Scandal With Iraq
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, APRIL 6 — The French oil company, Total, has been charged with corruption by a French judge, relating to the UN ‘Oil for Food’ programme with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. So reports Total, confirming the leak published by the Les Echos newspaper. The matter regards alleged irregularities committed between the end of the 1990s and the early years of this century in the UN programme which from 1996 to 2003 allowed Saddam Hussein’s regime to sell limited amounts of oil to purchase foodstuffs for the population, making an exception to the embargo imposed by the UN after the 1991 Gulf War. As revealed by many subsequent investigations, by paying bribes to many people, the regime was able to use the revenues of the programme to buy arms. “Total was charged on February 27,” stated a spokesman and lawyer for the company, Jean Veil, with “corruption” and “graft”. “The judge made the decision against all expectations,” added Veil, “when his predecessor and the public prosecutor’s office had decided the opposite, at least that was what was implied.” Last September, the Paris public prosecutor’s office asked the nonsuit in this investigation for the former Minister, Charles Pasqua, and for the chairman of Total, Christophe de Margerie, but asked for the committal for trial for 11 people. The French investigation, which opened in 2002, targeted several high-ranking French figures suspected of have received secret commissions, in the form of barrels of oil, from Saddam Hussein’s regime. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Coup Foiled, Gov’t-Armed Forces War Continues
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — The war is continuing with no holds barred between the ruling party — the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan — and the armed forces, who on the basis of the Constitution, have always been the protector of the lay status of the country. With an unexpected sudden reversal, the police yesterday arrested 86 servicemen (70 of whom are still in service) believed to have been involved in the alleged coup d’etat that was to have been carried out in 2003 against the AKP party which had just risen to power. The vast operation, as reports the Turkish media, was carried out simultaneously in 90 houses in 14 provinces of Turkey, from Istanbul to Ankara, and came 48 hours after the release of 28 of the approximate 50 servicemen arrested on February 22 as part of the same investigation. There are several generals amongst the 70 servicemen still in service who were arrested. Amongst the servicemen who ended up in prison, and who were released in recent days and then immediately put behind bars, is the former general of the army, Cetin Dogan, believed to be the brains behind the coup (called ‘Balyoz’, sledgehammer) reported in January by pro-government daily paper Taraf but which was never set in motion. The charges against them range from attempted massacre to the attempted coup d’etat. The aim of ‘Balyoz’, according to Taraf, was to plunge the country into chaos with acts of violence and terrorism. Amongst other things, the plan was for the servicemen to blow up mosques in Istanbul during Friday prayers, to attack museums with bombs, to shoot down a Turkish fighter plane and to blame the Greek air force, and to force the executive, by then discredited, to resign. According to press sources, the people arrested yesterday are considered in various ways to have been involved both in the plotting of ‘Balyoz’ and in the wider conspiracy of Ergenekon, an alleged secret nationalist organisation which is said to have attempted to topple Erdogan’s government. The investigation into Ergenekon began in 2007 after explosives and detonators were found in an apartment in Istanbul which brought about the arrest of some 100 people from ultra-nationalist spheres in various parts of the country. Investigators maintain that that roundup revealed a secret body called “deep state”, which was a secret pact between politicians, ex-servicemen, secret services and local mafia. All the people accused in the Ergenekon case are facing 30 charges with the three most serious being the organisation of a terrorist group, incitement to revolt and attempting to topple the government. The accused include retired generals but also other high-ranking officers still in service, magistrates, nationalist politicians, far-right sympathisers, people from show business, writers and journalists. However, lay people and nationalists believe that the case against the alleged Ergenekon group is nothing more than an AKP ploy to get rid of its most stubborn opponents. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Launches New Channel of TRT-TV in Arabic
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 6 — Turkey’s state-run Radio and TV Corp. (TRT) has launched a new TV channel broadcasting in Arabic on Sunday, as Anatolia news agency reports. At a ceremony at Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace marking the opening of the TRT Arabic, TRT Director-General Ibrahim Sahin said that the new TV channel would reach 350 million people throughout the Arab world through 3 satellites and would enable Turkey and Arab countries to know each other better. “The TRT Arabic will be on air for 24 hours a day. We will broadcast a range of programs from politics to sports, from movies to TV series. Istanbul-based channel will also broadcast live from Cairo, Beirut, Damascus and Ankara,” he added. Established on May 1, 1964, TRT Ankara Television started its first test-runs in 1968. TRT’s second channel TRT-2 went on air in 1986. TRT’s international channel TRT-INT started broadcasting in Europe in 1990 and last year began broadcasting in Kurdish. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia: Islamophobia on the Rise After Moscow Metro Attacks
Muslim girls attacked because they wear the veil. Others beaten and forced to get off the subway. Anti-Russian and pro-Islamic graffiti. Islamophobia suits Caucasian irredentism, but the central government too.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — After the suicide bombings in Moscow, attributed to two female suicide bombers from the North Caucasus, religious leaders and Muslim intellectuals have sought to distance terrorism from Islam. “As a matter of justice, because terrorism has no religion ever” as some say, but also for the well-founded fear that in the wake of the massacre in the metro the community is being overwhelmed by a veritable wave of xenophobic attacks, as some episodes in the news already indicate.
The greatest risk is that Islamophobia, which has been creeping into Russian society, is being exploited for political purposes by those who aspire to an independent Caucasus, but also by those who aim to implement a political agenda aimed at repression and the strengthening of central power. Several Internet sites dealing with religious information, such as Portalcredo.ru denounce the dangers of the authorities “ambiguity”: “On one side pointing the finger at Islamic terrorism, on the other claiming that Islam has nothing to do with violence”.
While attacks continue in Ingushetia and Dagestan and the investigators dig into the lives of the two “black widows” responsible for the deaths of 40 people in Moscow, two women have already been attacked and beaten by unknown groups after the March 29 bombings. Their crime was they wore a veil or had a dark complexion, a characteristic that is associated immediately with the Caucasian population. Nargiza, 17, has been forced to leave the city: the daughter of an Armenian mother, she was attacked in the street. “They pulled her hair, tore her clothes and bruised her face,” says Galina Kozhevnikova of the Sova Centre in Moscow, which deals with racially motivated crimes. A similar incident occurred, according to Radio Echo of Moscow in the afternoon the same day when, on the capital’s Metro, two Muslim girls wearing headscarves were beaten and forced off the train by a group of men and women. According to witnesses, no one reacted or called the police. The fear is that, as reported in local blogs and websites, it is now rare to see veiled women outside the borders of the Russian Federation republics with a Muslim majority.
Beyond the natural condemnation of the Moscow bombings, the Islamic community in Russia is pondering the cause of the massacre. For Ruslan Kurbanov, from the Institute of Oriental Studies, the Moscow suicide bombers are “a provocation to increase anti-Muslim hysteria and give new impetus to the process of destroying the social, cultural and political life of Russian society and of distancing the Caucasus from the rest of the Federation”. According to Gaidar Jemal, president of the Islamic Committee of Russia, the fact that blame was immediately placed at the door of “Chechen separatism, which no longer exists, shows a renewed intention to demonize Caucasian Islam as a whole … Maybe to justify an enhanced Central power, similar to what happened in the aftermath of Beslan in 2003”.
Yesterday, reports of graffiti such as “Allah Akbar” and “Death to Russia” appearing on the walls of the Planernaya stop in Moscow Metro, rekindled Muslims’ suspicion that the wave of Islamophobia is being exploited for political purposes. The news appears to fit ad hoc: it comes from an anonymous witness and police say it is difficult to identify those behind the graffiti because of “the absence of cameras on site”. Hard to believe, not even a week after the bombs.
Interpretations aside, the line on which all agree is well expressed by Berdijev Ismail, President of the Coordinating Centre of Muslims of Northern Caucasus: “The important thing now is to stay united and not panic”. (MA)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Italian Soldiers Amid Opium and War
Bala Baluk, 6 April (AKI) — An Italian military vehicle recently drove briskly down a road in southern Afghanistan’s Farah province sandwiched between fighting to the north and the opium trade to the south. As winter comes to an end, the situation is expected to become increasingly dangerous.
“Security is pretty calm now but the winter just ended and during the period of the opium harvest military activity is expected to increase,” explained one soldier.
The Lynx light multi-road armoured vehicle was driving to two military outposts: Shautz, 160 kilometres from the city of Farah and to Bala Baluk, where 24 hours before American and Afghan troops confiscated six bombs before they could be hidden along the road.
NATO and Afghan troops in February launched an offensive in southern Afghanistan to clear the area of Taliban-led insurgents. The operation is expected to be expanded.
Since the beginning of March, Italy has about 3,200 troops in Afghanistan, according to information posted on the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force’s website.
More than 120,000 US and NATO soldiers are currently based in Afghanistan in an operation to counter Taliban insurgents. About 30,000 more troops are scheduled to be deployed by August.
Approximately 8,000 people are around the Shauz military base in Herat province, Italian base commander Aldo Ruttigliano, told the Rome-based newspaper Il Messaggero.
Ruttigliano said that his troops have found weapons and bombs as they were assisting the Afghan military and police. But most requests are for doctors and medicine.
“What the people really ask us for and what they need is medical treatment,” he said, adding that the nearest hospital is “hours away on foot.”
The commander of the Bala Baluk base in Farah province said the local population wants to help keep the peace.
The Taliban and drug traffickers were forcing them to grow opium, rob the locals and often use their homes, he claimed.
“I’ve participated in a shura, a local elder committee and … believe me there is the will to keep the situation calm,” Ruttigliano told Il Messagero.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Army Caught in Ambush in Centre of Country, Many Victims
At least 70 soldiers and police officers were killed in an ambush that was set this morning by alleged Naxalite (Maoist) rebels in central India this morning. The ‘Times of India’ said that the number of killed and wounded is slated to increase in the next few hours, seeing as many of the wounded are in very serious condition. According to an early and partial report, the ambush took place in the district of Dantewada, in the state of Chhattisgarh, in the early hours of the day and it targeted a military unit returning from an operation against the rebels in the Mukrana forest. The ‘Times of India’ says the regular military troops were caught in an ambush as the rebels attacked them from nearby hills as they marched along the main road. If the deathtoll is confirmed, this would be one of the deadliest attacks ever carried out by the Naxalite rebels. At the end of last year, the Indian government launched a vast anti-maoist offensive in the area where this ambush took place, which is considered to have one of the largest Maosit rebel contingents. Since 2004, the Maoist rebellion has caused at least 1500 deaths in Chhattisgarh, of which 400 are civilians. The Maoists, or Naxalites, claim to have taken up the armed struggle to install an egalitarian government and to emancipate the Dalit (low cast) and tribal people, who are marginalized from the rest of society.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesian Christians Turn to Administrative Courts to Obtain Permits to Build Churches
Court rulings help Christian communities build their churches. Administrative courts tend to overturn decisions by municipal authorities taken to appease Muslim extremists who want to stop the construction of churches and other Christian places of worship. Extremist mobs stop Good Friday services in West Java.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Increasingly, Christian communities are turning to Indonesia’s administrative courts to see their right to build churches upheld. However, Christians continue to be the target of attacks. Last Friday, a mob disrupted Good Friday celebrations, forcing some 600 worshipers to flee the St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Parung, Bogor Regency (district), West Java.
Under Indonesian law, a permit (Izin Mendirikan Bangunan in Indonesian) is required for building a church or any other type of construction; however, there are additional requirements when it comes to Christian places of worship, namely 60 signatures from residents living near the planned church and the approval of the local inter-faith dialogue group.
Even when all this is done, Christians are often faced with Islamic extremists who, moved by religious fanaticism, try to put pressure local authorities to withdraw the permit. Under such circumstances, administrative courts (Pengadilan Tata Usaha Negara in Indonesian) become the tribunal of last resort and are often able to obtain “peace agreement” that allow construction to start or resume.
The latest case involves the St Mary Church in Bandung Regency (West Java). The local administrative court overturned a decision by Purwakarta Mayor Dedy Mulyadi who had stopped the construction of the Catholic church under pressure from Muslim extremists. The court ruled that the permit had been issued in accordance with the law, and authorised the start of construction. Mgr Johannes Pujasumarta Pr, bishop of Bandung, welcomed the decision with joy. Speaking to AsiaNews, he said the ruling “was the fruit of our non-stop prayers.”
Another case involves Protestants in Cinere (West Java). The administrative court upheld the rights of the local Christian Protestant Batak Synod Church (HKBP), which won its legal battle against Depok Mayor Nur Mahmudi Ismail.
The two rulings made in the past few months have raised hopes among the members of the Filadelfia HKBP in Bekasi Regency after they filed a complaint against Bekasi’s mayor over a disputed permit.
The administrative court will have to decide again on the merit the case. Following protests by thousands of Muslims, who view the construction of a church as an “insult”, local municipal authorities rejected the demand by the Filadelfia HKBP community to build a church. This has deprived thousands of worshippers of the opportunity to attend Mass.
Meanwhile, Muslims extremists disrupted Holy Week services. On Good Friday, a mob of Muslim fanatics, stirred by the local Ulema Forum, interrupted the Mass at the St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Parung, Bogor Regency (West Java). The 600 or so worshippers attending the event were forced to flee the building for the relative security of a nearby restaurant.
Threats by extremists had begun the night before, during Holy Thursday services. In this case, the dispute was also over a building permit. During their protest, Muslims shouted slogans like “No permits, no masses.”
Anonymous sources told AsiaNews that Bogor authorities have had the permit application for some time but have not yet approved it under pressure from Muslim extremist groups.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Intel Briefs: China Putting U.S. Carriers in Bull’s-Eye?
Missiles designed specifically to target U.S. flattops
China is at the test stage of a new type of ballistic missile designed to target aircraft carriers, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Since the U.S. is the only naval force with aircraft carriers in the region, Beijing’s intentions leave little to the imagination.
Adm. Robert F. Willard, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told Congress that China is testing a new anti-ship ballistic missile, or ASBM.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kangaroo Meat: Healthy But Controversial
Their minimal emission of greenhouse gas is just one of the benefits of eating kangaroo. “Cows fart, kangaroos don’t.”
By Jeroen van Bergeijk in Adelaide
A nondescript building on the edge of Adelaide houses the largest processor of kangaroo meat in Australia: Macromeats. There is no sign on the door. The trucks loading and unloading kangaroos don’t advertise what they carry. On the outside, nothing reveals that 3,000 kangaroos are turned into steaks, sausages and minced meat here every day.
“I used to be compared to the folks who club baby seals,” Macromeats owner Ray Borda said about the industry’s image problem. Kangaroos are generally seen as cuddly animals and the mere thought of putting a ‘Skippy’ on the barbecue appals many Australians.
But the attitude they have towards the consumption of their national symbol is changing. “The government used to scorn me,” Borda said. “But this year, I was asked to host a kangaroo barbecue in the parliament building.”
Environmental impact
This turnaround is credited to the environmental and health benefits of kangaroo meat compared to sheep and cattle. A recent report by Ross Garnaut, the principal environmental advisor to prime minister Kevin Rudd, stated that traditional farming is responsible for a substantial share of the emission of greenhouse gasses in Australia. The government now encourages eating kangaroos instead.
“If you look at the impact on the environment, you find that kangaroo is a better choice than beef or lamb,” said Euan Ritchie, a biologist affiliated with the James Cook University in Queensland state. “Kangaroos have a different digestive system from cattle or sheep. They produce less methane, a strong greenhouse gas. In short: cows fart and kangaroos don’t.”
This limited contribution to greenhouse emissions is not the only environmental benefit the kangaroo has. “Cows and sheep need huge amounts of water and their heavy hooves erode the fragile Australian soil,” said Richie.
Today, Australia’s kangaroo industry has an estimated annual turnover of 270 million Australian dollars (167 million euros). There are between 35 and 50 million kangaroos in Australia, 2.2 million of which were shot in 2008. Only four of the 50 different types of kangaroos can be hunted. Each year, the government determines how many kangaroos can be shot depending on population counts.
From dog food to delicacy
Australia’s indigenous Aborigines ate kangaroos for thousands of years and it was an important part of the early colonists’ diet. But it fell out of favour in the 19th century. Eventually, human consumption even became illegal in most of the country an remained so until 1993. For many years, it was mostly found in dog food.
But domestic consumption is now on the rise. Upscale restaurant serve the lean meat as a delicacy and every major supermarket carries steaks and kangabangas (kangaroo sausage). The meat has become popular because it contains less fat and more protein than beef or lamb.
The majority of kangaroo meat is still processed for foreign consumption, but exports are not doing so well. Russia, for which two thirds of all exports were destined, suddenly stopped importing six months ago, after a high concentration of E.coli was found in a batch of kangaroo meat. The industry has been trying to sell China on the meat, but without much success so far.
Most kangaroo meat is now exported to Europe, but countries there have been critical of the way the animals are killed. Kangaroos are hunted rather than domesticated and that is controversial in Australia as well.
Peter Rob used to supplement his income by hunting kangaroos at night, but his conscience got in the way. “I believe we should stop murdering kangaroos,” he said. “Shooting is not always a smooth process. You try to hit a kangaroo in the head, but that doesn’t always work.”
Emotional opposition
Rob also felt bad about the young that don’t stand a chance if their mother is killed. The official code for kangaroo hunters — euphemistically called ‘kangaroo harvesters’ by the industry — dictates the young should be killed by a blow “with a suitably hard and heavy blunt instrument” that is “delivered with force sufficient to crush the skull and destroy the brain”.
The British animal rights organisation, Viva, claims hundreds of thousands of kangaroo babies are killed this way each year.
Macromeats director Borda let out a deep sigh when he was confronted with Rob’s story. “I hear this all the time, and to be honest, it’s just rubbish. Kangaroo carcasses are always inspected by government officials. If an inspector finds a kangaroo was not slain by a shot to the head, the meat cannot be processed.”
Biologist Ritchie, however, confirmed that not all kangaroos are killed with a single shot. But he said no reliable data are available about how many young are clubbed to death. He is still a strong supporter of kangaroo consumption.
“The kangaroo hunt has been called barbaric. But the opposition to the industry is highly emotional,” Richie said. “Kangaroo hunting is in fact more humane than traditional livestock rearing. Kangaroos spend their entire lives in the wild, they are not treated with antibiotics or made to eat meat scraps, and they experience no stress prior to their death. Compare that to how pigs and cattle are reared and killed.
“You can’t domesticate kangaroos like sheep or cattle, but you can give back land to the wild kangaroos. We could have millions more kangaroos in Australia,” Richie said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Confitarma: Increasing Dangers to Shipping from Piracy
(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 6 — According to a statement by Italy’s shipping confederation, Confitarma, merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden and in the waters off the Somali coast “is ever more at risk from numerous piracy attacks”. Speaking on the subject, the federation’s Chair, Paolo d’Amico, expressed his “highest appreciation for the captains of our ships and the actions of military forces, which have been able to neutralise recent attacks on our merchant units in that area. Although the situation is deteriorating each day, I confirm that the position of Confitarma at present is in line with the guidelines of the main international organisations, (IMO, Intertanko, Intercargo and BIMCO) and the agreement with the Italian Navy and Coast Guard, which is principle against the use of arms and armed personnel on board merchant ships under the Italian flag except in special cases, such as voyages by cruise ships to sensitive areas, particularly vulnerable shipments or deep-sea fishers”. D’Amico also announced that the Confederation would be assessing parliamentary initiatives admitting the possibility of introducing armed personnel to the crews of merchant ships for preventing or repelling pirate attacks. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fury at Migrant Invasion of Britain
MIGRANTS are flocking to Britain at a rate of one a minute, according to shock new figures.
Official statistics show more than 518,000 people moved to the UK last year — an average of more than 1,400 every day.
The annual number of people granted British citizenship also rose by almost 60% between 2008 and 2009.
Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage quoted the figures as he attacked the three main parties for their “dishonest” attitudes towards immigration.
He said: “It is not racist to talk about immigration from a non-racial and non-sectarian perspective.
“But the figures quoted refer to non-EU immigration and the main parties are all signed up.
“We have a total open-door policy to an unlimited number of people coming to this country from eastern Europe.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Catholicism and the Times
By Patrick J. Buchanan
“Anti-Catholicism,” said writer Peter Viereck, “is the anti-Semitism of the intellectual.” It is “the deepest-held bias in the history of the American people,” said Arthur Schlesinger Sr.
If there was any doubt that hatred of and hostility toward the Catholic Church persists, it was removed by the mob that has arisen howling “Resign!” at Pope Benedict XVI.
To American Catholics, the story of pedophile priests engaged in criminal abuse of children, of pervert priests seducing boys, is unfortunately all too familiar. That some bishops covered up for pedophiles and seducers and enabled corrupt clergy to continue to prey on boys was equally disgraceful.
But to American Catholics, this is an old story. The priests have been defrocked, some sent to prison, like John Geoghan, who was strangled in his cell. Bishops have been removed. “Zero tolerance” has been policy for a decade.
Pope Benedict came to America to apologize for what these men did. And no one has been more aggressive in rooting out what he calls the “filth” in the church. And as the recent scandals have hit Ireland and Germany, why the attack on the pope here in America?
Answer: The New York Times is conducting a vendetta against this traditionalist pope in news stories, editorials and columns.
“Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys,” blared the headline over a Laurie Goodstein story that began thus:
“Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys …
“In 1996, Cardinal Ratzinger failed to respond to two letters about the case from Rembert G. Weakland, Milwaukee’s archbishop at that time.”
The facts:
That diabolical priest, Lawrence C. Murphy, was assigned to St. John’s School for the Deaf in 1950, before Joseph Ratzinger was even ordained.
Reports of his abuse of the deaf children surfaced in the 1950s. But, under three archbishops, nothing was done. Police and prosecutors were alerted by parents of the boys. Nothing was done.
Weakland, who became archbishop in 1977, did not write to Rome until 1996.
And as John Allen of National Catholic Reporter noted last week, Cardinal Ratzinger “did not have any direct responsibility for managing the overall Vatican response to the crisis until 2001. … Prior to 2001, Ratzinger had nothing personally to do with the vast majority of sex abuse cases, even the small percentage which wound up in Rome.”
By the time Cardinal Ratzinger was commissioned by John Paul II to clean out the stable, Murphy had been dead for three years.
Yet here is Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s summation of the case:
“Now we learn the sickening news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, nicknamed ‘God’s Rottweiler,’ when he was the church’s enforcer on matters of faith and sin, ignored repeated warnings and looked away in the case of the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, a Wisconsin priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys.”
In Goodstein’s piece, Weakland is a prelate who acted too slowly. The controversy over his clouded departure from the Milwaukee archdiocese is mentioned and passed over at the bottom of the story. It belonged higher.
For Weakland was a homosexual who confessed in a 1980 letter he was in “deep love” with a male paramour who shook down the archbishop for $450,000 in church funds as hush money to keep his lover’s mouth shut about their squalid affair.
According to Rod Dreher, Weakland moved Father William Effinger, who would die in prison, from parish to parish, knowing Effinger was a serial pederast.
When one of Effinger’s victims sued the archdiocese but lost because of a statute of limitations, Weakland counter-sued and extracted $4,000 from the victim of his predator priest.
Dreher describes Weakland’s tenure thus:
“He directed Catholic schools … to teach kids how to use condoms as part of AIDS education and approved a graphic sex-education program for parochial-school kids that taught ‘there is no right and wrong’ on the issues of abortion, contraception and premarital sex. He has advocated for gay rights and women’s ordination, bitterly attacked Pope John Paul II, denounced pro-lifers as ‘fundamentalist’ and declared that one could be both pro-choice and a Catholic in good standing.”
Speaking of sex-abuse victims in 1988, Weakland was quoted: “Not all adolescent victims are so innocent. Some can be sexually very active and aggressive and often streetwise.”
Just the kind of priest the Times loves, and just the kind of source on whom the Times relies when savaging the pope and bashing the church.
As the Catholic League’s Bill Donahue relates, 80 percent of the victims of priestly abuse have been males and “most of the molesters gays.”
And as the Times’ Richard Berke blurted to the Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association 10 years ago, often, “three-quarters of the people deciding what’s on the front page are not-so-closeted homosexuals.”
Is there perhaps a conflict of interest at The New York Times, when covering a traditionalist Catholic pope?
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Hollywood’s Hatred for God, Now in 3-D!
But with jaw-dropping audacity and nauseating, clothes-ripping blasphemy, “Clash of the Titans” has taken Hollywood’s hatred for God to a whole new level, and I’m not just referring to its 3-D special effects.
Make no mistake, “Clash of the Titans” is not just a movie about fighting monsters and the gods of Greek mythology; it is a theological manifesto for modern humanism. And like all good lies, it contains some elements of truth — in this case, a framework for its story that sounds, at first, vaguely Christian:
[…]
And had the filmmakers stuck to Greek mythology, audiences would have been left to enjoy a somewhat mediocre, but at least inoffensive fantasy action flick.
But instead, “Clash of the Titans” draws dozens of parallels to modern-day religion and specifically to Christianity, each time putting a secular humanist spin on the story.
[…]
An obvious Christ-like character, this Perseus, however, twists the savior story line to trumpet secular humanism’s primary claim — that mankind no longer needs gods, for we can do it on our own.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
0 comments:
Post a Comment