Frank Gaffney: When Ed Meese Speaks
There is arguably no more influential conservative in America today than former Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese. To paraphrase an old marketing slogan, when Ed Meese talks, people listen. Rarely has such attention been more warranted than now, as President Obama prepares to select a new Supreme Court nominee whose views on national security and the law may have enormous bearing on the prospects for our victory in this War for the Free World.
After all, as Gen. Meese observed in a major policy address before an American Bar Association audience last Thursday: “In four major cases, the Supreme Court has involved itself in the conduct of this war in what has been a change in terms of the constitutional history and the traditions of the country.”
The lack of judicial restraint has, according to the Nation’s one-time top law enforcement officer, been compounded further by the “lack of clarity” on the part of the executive branch with respect to key aspects of this war. Particularly egregious has been the Obama administration’s determined effort to obscure whether we are even at war and with whom…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
White House Quietly Courts Muslims in U.S.
When President Obama took the stage in Cairo last June, promising a new relationship with the Islamic world, Muslims in America wondered only half-jokingly whether the overture included them. After all, Mr. Obama had kept his distance during the campaign, never visiting an American mosque and describing the false claim that he was Muslim as a “smear” on his Web site.
Nearly a year later, Mr. Obama has yet to set foot in an American mosque. And he still has not met with Muslim and Arab-American leaders. But less publicly, his administration has reached out to this politically isolated constituency in a sustained and widening effort that has left even skeptics surprised.
Muslim and Arab-American advocates have participated in policy discussions and received briefings from top White House aides and other officials on health care legislation, foreign policy, the economy, immigration and national security. They have met privately with a senior White House adviser, Valerie Jarrett, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to discuss civil liberties concerns and counterterrorism strategy.
The impact of this continuing dialogue is difficult to measure, but White House officials cited several recent government actions that were influenced, in part, by the discussions. The meeting with Ms. Napolitano was among many factors that contributed to the government’s decision this month to end a policy subjecting passengers from 14 countries, most of them Muslim, to additional scrutiny at airports, the officials said.
That emergency directive, enacted after a failed Dec. 25 bombing plot, has been replaced with a new set of intelligence-based protocols that law enforcement officials consider more effective.
Also this month, Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Muslim academic, visited the United States for the first time in six years after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reversed a decision by the Bush administration, which had barred Mr. Ramadan from entering the country, initially citing the U.S.A. Patriot Act. Mrs. Clinton also cleared the way for another well-known Muslim professor, Adam Habib, who had been denied entry under similar circumstances.
Arab-American and Muslim leaders said they had yet to see substantive changes on a variety of issues, including what they describe as excessive airport screening, policies that have chilled Muslim charitable giving and invasive F.B.I. surveillance guidelines. But they are encouraged by the extent of their consultation by the White House and governmental agencies…
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Bernard-Henri Levy Asks Whether Godard Was an Anti-Semite
Le point 08.04.2010 (France)
Was Godard an anti-Semite? Bernard-Henri Levy cannot quite accept the idea, although some of Godard’s statements during his Maoist period, which can now be heard in the nine-hour video conversation that has just been released on DVD, give him cause to wonder: “There is no doubt that Godard’s relationship with Judaism is complex, contradictory and ambivalent, that his support for extremist Palestinian positions in the seventies in his project ‘Ici et ailleurs’, for example, is problematic, and that there are passages in this ‘Morceuaux de conversation’ with Alain Fleischer (2009) which shook me to the core. But to conclude that Godard was an anti-Semite and to cling to this alleged anti-Semitism to disqualify his entire oeuvre is an insult to a formidable artist. And it is toying with a word — anti-Semitism — that should be handled with utmost caution.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Catholic Faith Wavering Among Young Adults
Avowedly Catholic 18-29-yr-olds down 14% since 2004
(ANSA) — Vatican City, April 19 — The Catholic faith is wavering among Italian adults between the ages of 18 and 29, according to a poll to be published in the country’s biggest-selling Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana.
Among the 1,000 people polled by the Iaard research institute in March, only 52.8% avowed they were Catholics, a 14% drop on a similar survey carried out in 2004.
However, those who thought religion “important” in their lives fell a mere 3% while those who considered it “very important” actually rose, by 1.8%.
Faith in the Catholic Church has been shaken, the poll found, with only 39% of practising Catholics saying the Church had their confidence.
Famiglia Cristiana said the new poll confirmed a growing trend towards ‘do-it-yourself’ religious beliefs and a “polarisation” between steadfast believers, who cleave ever faster to their faith, and long-time skeptics or recently disillusioned Catholics, who “show an ever greater distance from the Church or even a marked hostility towards Rome”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Class Size Not Important in Education Say Researchers
Smaller school classes, long the holy grail of politicians, parents and educationalists aiming to improve performance, do not actually have any affect on children’s achievements, according to a new study.
And the researchers showed that a child’s social background was a very important factor when it came to whether he or she would be sent to a university track school, or Gymnasium.
Scientists who examined data from recent international primary school test results concluded the most important thing was for the teaching to be good, and for additional support lessons to be provided to children who were struggling.
“An effect from class size is not demonstrable,” the researchers write in their analysis of the 2006 data, reported in Der Spiegel on Saturday.
Working under the Dortmund educational researcher Wilfried Bos, the group examined a number of different factors including the social status of parents, and the recommendation of a school of whether a child should go to Gymnasium.
They confirmed the results of other studies which suggested that children from higher social classes had clearly better educational chances than those from worker families.
The chances of a child from a higher social class going to Gymnasium are around four times those of a child from a working class family, they said.
Even when the children have matching scores in reading and other capabilities, those from a higher social background are on average still three times as likely to get into a Gymnasium than those from a lower social class, they concluded.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Term “Race” Must Disappear
Apparently Germany has no problems. So the taxpayer-financed German Institute for Human Rights is sending an insistent reminder to strike the term “race” from Article 3 of the Constitution. The term “race” is, well, racist. Aha! And if the institute is still has a problem, no white person comes from the black person, the Indian, or the Asian. In other countries, it is more advanced.
In America, for example, it is common before medical treatment to ask about racial background because it it known that individual “races” react differently to medications. (Good heavens, how racist!) Dpa reports:
Each theory that bases itself upon the existence of differing races is in itself racist, said Director Beate Rudolf on the occasion of the publication of a positional paper by the institute Tuesday in Berlin. The European Parliament has already declared itself against the term “race” in the legal texts of the European Union. A few European countries have distanced themselves from the term in their national law.
“Such a step is overdue in Germany,” Rudolf said. The term “race” should be replaced with a ban against “racial” discrimination or preference. For already a year and a half, the institute has called for the removal of the term — without echo.
In the Constitution, the term appears in Article 3 (equality under the law), paragraph 3: “No person may be discriminated against or favored on the grounds of his sex, ancestry, race, language, homeland or country of origin, faith, religious or political view. No person may be discriminated against because of his handicap.”
The German Institute for Human Rights, which is funded by federal means, was founded in 2001 upon the recommendation of the national parliament. Its purpose is to report on the condition of human rights within the country and abroad.
It seems as if there are really no problems to report concerning human rights in the country or abroad…
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Henryk Sienkiewicz as Poland’s Greatest Orientalist
Polityka 08.04.2010 (Poland)
Edward Said’s “Culture and Imperialism” has just been published in Poland. Waldemar Kuligowski notes that the Polish take pride in never having had colonies and therefore feel no obligation to share the guilt of European imperialism. Structurally however, the findings of ‘postcolonial studies’ can be applied to the Polish descriptions of its former Eastern territories or Kresy, in the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. “Had Said been familiar with ‘With Fire and Sword’, his criticism would have been even more damning.” Said would have branded Henryk Sienkiewicz as Poland’s greatest Orientalist, on the basis of his descriptions of the Cossacks, Tartars and Ruthenians. But since his writings are still compulsory reading, his conviction that Poland should carry western civilisation to Eastern Europe is still at work today.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Gov’t Draft Law to Improve Golf Facilities
(ANSAmed) — ROME — The Italian Council of Ministers has given the go-ahead for the draft law which will foster tourism through improved golf facilities. According to the government, the 200 golf courses which Italy offers are too few, especially considering the fact that international tourism produces a turnover of 28 billion euros, equal to a third of the total, and about 700,000 jobs, making for fiscal revenues of 14 billion euros. These are figures that, according to the government, could rise if the country’s attractions in the field were to increase. In Italy, tourists opting for golf spend as average of 90 euros per day compared with the 53.83 euros on average spent by tourists in the country. Turnover from golf stands at about 50 billion euros, while in Italy the figure is at around 350 million concerning direct revenues, meaning only that concerning golf-related activities. There are a total of 64 million golf players in the world and 94 federations: 59% of golf players live in America, 22% in Asia, 16% in Europe, 3% in Australia and 1% in Africa. Tourism connected to golf is growing steadily at the international level (+8% on the year). Every year, according to figures accompanying the measure approved today by the Council of Ministers to support golf, 25 million tourists travel to play golf and, especially in Europe, the increase in the number of players over the past 15 years shows +108%, while the number of fields has risen by 75%. In Italy there are over 180 clubs with regulated fields with between 9 and 36 holes, and 43 promotional facilities offering fields with between 3 and 9 holes and 59 practice fields. In countries such as Spain and Portugal, revenue linked to ancillary industries (real estate development, hotels, holidays) are 4-5 times higher than direct ones. In France, turnover is at a billion and a half euros and French golf-related tourism alone generates a turnover almost four times larger than its Italian counterpart, which suffers from a lack of fields and connected tourism facilities. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jobbik Party’s Appeal for Young Intellectuals
Elet es irodalom 09.04.2010 (Hungary)
The founders, members and sympathisers of the far-right Jobbik party, which won 17 percent in yesterday’s elections in Hungary, included significant numbers of humanities, history and law students. This would probably not be the case, according to historian Istvan Rev, director of the Open Society Archive in Budapest, had Hungarian universities taken a different path after 1989. These young humanists were taught by the same historians who pushed Marxist reading before the fall of communism: “How could such people possibly hope to undertake a genuine reassessment of the past, pitting themselves against the discourse of the far-right? We have allowed ourselves to debate pointless matters instead of clarifying critical historical questions and allowed a sugar-coated version of Hungarian history to be taught at Hungarian universities and schools. Subsequently our young people have no idea about Hungarian history; it is a thing of the past for them. 1944 is a long time ago, 1956 is a long time ago, even 1989 is a long time ago, no one remembers it any more and people say what they like.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
More Flights Cancelled in North Italy as Almunia Calls for EU Aid to Airlines
MILAN — The re-opening of northern Italy’s air space, decided on Sunday evening by the civil aviation authority ENAC, lasted only two hours. From 9 am on Monday, flights in the north were banned again. ENAC announced that there will be no take-offs until 8 am on Tuesday. “Sadly, the two latest weather forecasts have tempered yesterday evening’s good news, forcing us to order the immediate closure of the skies over Italy from 9 am”, explained ENAC’s president, Vito Riggio, to RTL radio. Mr Riggio did point out that flights which departed between 7 am and the start of the new ban had taken off without any problems. ENAC said safety was needed in a note announcing that the decision to suspend flights in north Italy again was taken in compliance with international air transport safety regulations and with recent measures put in place to deal with the Icelandic volcano emergency in the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s contingency plan.
BRIEF RE-OPENING — The first plane to take off this morning was an Air One flight to Catania from Milan Malpensa at 7.10, just after the air space was briefly re-opened. At Milan’s other airport, Linate, an Alitalia flight, again to Catania, took off at 7.10 to inaugurate the newly re-established connections. Flights to northern Italy also began to leave Rome’s Fiumicino airport again, albeit only for a brief period. Destinations included Linate, Genoa and Venice. Nevertheless, further repercussions on flights and passengers are inevitable as Belgium, Holland and Germany remain beyond reach. Fiumicino flutterboards are already showing cancellations throughout the morning of flights for London, Malpensa, Lugano, Copenhagen, Geneva, Bucharest, Dublin, St Petersburg, Amsterdam, Manchester, Prague and Paris. Queues of passengers lengthen as aspiring travellers seek to rebook on the first available flights at Alitalia desks in Terminals 1 and 3, and at the desks of Lufthansa and other airlines involved. It was a quiet night for the roughly 600 passengers in Terminal 2 who slept on camp beds supplied by the civil protection agency, which joined forces with the Rome airport management company to provide blankets and food.
CORRIDORS MAY OPEN — According to the UK Met Office, the cloud of volcanic dust from Iceland could reach the eastern shores of Canada in the course of the day. Meanwhile, pressure is mounting for flights to restart after four days of chaos in the wake of the eruption. Airlines are pressing IATA, the international association of more than 270 of the world’s flight operators, for a few corridors at least to be opened so that some planes can take off and tackle the backlog caused by the dust cloud. IATA maintains it was a mistake to order a blanket closure of Europe’s air spaces, criticising the lack of liaison among European governments over the block. Air space over Germany, the United Kingdom, Holland and Belgium, as well as northern Italy, will remain closed. Against this trend, Austria has re-opened its air space, although the web site of Vienna airport shows many of today’s flights as cancelled. Flying is permitted over Denmark but only above 35,000 feet. In Finland, the airports at Turku and Tampere, which were closed on Thursday, will be re-opened today between midday and 6 pm local time (11 am and 5 pm in Italy). On Monday morning, Romania re-opened air space over Timisoara and Arad, two airports in the west of the country. Whatever happens, the suspension of flights which has paralysed Europe has cost airlines many millions of dollars and grounded millions of passengers. There has also been a knock-on effect around the world, as far as the Americas and Asia.
AID TO AIRLINES — The EU said the current situation was unsustainable. Airlines have sought a review of the no-fly zone after conducting test flights over the weekend and concluding that aircraft encountered no problems from flying through the dust cloud. The competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, explained that the European Commission is considering assistance to the airlines using the same methods put in place after 11 September 2001. “Given the extraordinary circumstances, we are thinking about reacting as we did on 11 September. If member countries opt for state aid to airlines, we will act to make this possible”, said Mr Almunia, speaking in Brussels at a debate organised by the European Policy Centre. Mr Almunia and his colleague with responsibility for the economy, Olli Rehn, were nominated on Sunday by the president of the commission, José Manuel Barroso, as members of the ad hoc group that will handle the European air traffic crisis created by the dust cloud from the Icelandic volcano.
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Newspaper Sued for Denying Genocide in Bosnia
A German-based human rights group is suing a Swiss newspaper for its denial of the Serb genocide of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995.
The Society for Threatened Peoples filed a suit on Monday in cooperation with the Swiss Association Against Impunity (TRIAL) in Lausanne.
La Nation, the bimonthly newspaper in question, recently published a series of articles claiming that 2,000 soldiers were killed in Srebrenica’s “pseudo-massacre”.
Bosnian Serb forces overran the Muslim Bosniak town in July 1995, executing 8,000 men and boys in Europe’s worst massacre since the Second World War.
In 2007, the International Court of Justice ruled the executions were genocide.
Swiss law prohibits genocide denial.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Faces Criticism After Five Years in Office
Five years after Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church is going through increasingly difficult times.
Congregations are smaller, there are fewer priests and the Church is mired in a growing child abuse scandal. In an interview with swissinfo.ch, Lucerne University theology professor Edmund Arens says the Roman Catholic Church has lost much of its credibility during Benedict’s papacy.
Arens says Benedict might go down in history as the pontiff who opened the Catholic Church to the rightwing traditionalists, but who failed to care enough about abuses.
Edmund Arens: On the one hand he feared this office — the burden of the papacy, which is really a burden. On the other hand, he thought that he was the only one who could do this job.
He was an insider, more than anybody else and he saw it as his mission to save Europe from liberalism, relativism and atheism. In fact he longed for the role; I’m convinced of that.
E.A.: In the September after he was elected, he went to Cologne for a youth event where more than 100,000 applauded him. While there he also visited the synagogue. So the start was really good, but then he made one mistake after another.
It began when he gave his famous speech in Regensburg where he attacked and offended the Muslims. Then the next mistake was the reconciliation with the rightwing traditionalists — the Pius brothers, including a bishop who’s a notorious denier of the Holocaust.
The next problematic step was his approach to the conservative Anglicans. He tried to reintegrate them into the Catholic Church, which was not very ecumenical of him.
The fourth highly problematic thing was how he handled the child abuse scandal. As a cardinal, Ratzinger was the person who knew everything and who urged the bishops not to go to the public but rather to deal with it internally.
E.A.: Traditionally, the Swiss people live in a certain distance from Rome — not just geographically but also spiritually. Most of the Catholics today don’t care very much about what the pope says or does.
But he has close friends among the Swiss traditionalists — they adore him.
I think that the majority of the Catholic believers don’t agree with his politics — they are much more open-minded than he is. In a country which has a system of direct democracy, such a centralised hierarchical church is not accepted.
E.A.: During his papacy, the Roman Catholic Church has lost a lot of its credibility. In contrast to John Paul II who toured the world and was a media star, Benedict is a very shy man. He likes to sit at his desk and he doesn’t really communicate with his own people or people of other religions. So people haven’t got such a good impression.
There have been certain remarkable moments. For example, after his Regensburg speech, he went to Turkey. There he visited the world-famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul. This was one of the most impressive and important gestures he ever made. But John Paul II did this type of thing every week.
Pope Benedict XVI likes to write; that’s his business. He’s written wonderful things, but he doesn’t communicate — that’s his weakness.
E.A.: Indeed, for the first time he has mentioned it. But he hasn’t said on behalf of the church, ‘I am sorry for what has been done to the victims of the abuse’. He mentions the need, but he hasn’t said ‘Mea culpa’.
Ratzinger once said that the church consists of sinners but that the church itself is not sinful. The abusers have demonstrated the opposite.
E.A.: Global pressure from the local churches is needed from the 6,000-7,000 bishops around the world. They need to push for reform. The Church teaches messages related to loving your neighbour, justice, solidarity — but it doesn’t practise what it preaches.
E.A.: The other challenge is humanism — the relationship with the other Christian religions. He’s much concerned with the relationship with the Jews — that’s a very big issue to him, but he must not forget that there are other religions, too. The Protestants are very angry if their churches aren’t recognised by him.
E.A.: He would be remembered of course as the first German pope in more than 500 years. And I think he would be remembered as the pope who opened the Catholic Church to the rightwing traditionalists, and also as a pope who cared in a very insufficient way about the massive abuses.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Soros: Euro, EU Will Collapse if Germany Doesn’t Make Concessions
Billionaire financier George Soros thinks the euro and the European Union itself are at risk of breaking up if Germany refuses to play its traditional role and make concessions, he told a newspaper.
“The Germans have always made the concessions needed to advance the European Union, when people were looking for a deal. Not anymore,” Soros recently told Corriere della Sera.
“That’s why the European project is stalled. And if it can’t go ahead from here, it will go backwards. It’s important to understand that if you don’t make the next steps forward for the euro, the euro will go to pieces and the European Union, too,” he said.
Soros, who is speaking at a variety of events in Italy this week, said whereas in the past there had been the political will to go forward, “now there’s a lot of doubt that it is there.”
He said the EU needs a more flexible mechanism on deficit cuts so that countries do not have to cut public spending so drastically.
“We need a sort of European Monetary Fund, which would make the adjustment less painful,” he said.
Soros said he was sure Greece could be rescued, adding that although the Athens government was taking all the measures needed, Europe must help if necessary, adding interest rates on emergency funding should be “as low as possible.”
The 5 percent rate on the funding currently “is a technical error, because it makes it more difficult for Greece to get out of the hole.”
Speaking more generally on the crisis and the excessive debt that caused it, he said: “The correction has scarcely started.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Bishops: More Prevention and Rigour
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 19 — The archbishop of Madrid and president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, guaranteed today that the bishops “will pay more attention and will use the right instruments to prevent and correct” cases of paedophilia, “so that nobody thinks that committing such crimes is compatible with priesthood”. During the opening of the plenary Assembly of the Episcopal Conference, Rouco Varela, quoted by press agency EFE, expressed his support of the Spanish bishops to Benedict XVI: “We cannot allow that treacherous accusations are made to discredit priests and believers in general and, by extension, the Pope himself”. He added that he feels great pain for “the serious sins and the crimes that have been committed by some brothers in priesthood and by some believers who have abused minors, betraying the faith of Church and society”. The ones responsible for these crimes, according to Rouco Varela, must respond to God and the Church. In an article published yesterday by the conservative daily ABC, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the nomination of Joseph Ratzinger as pope, the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference criticised the “virulent, insulting and slanderous verbal attack” on the Pope, and compared his “persecution” to the persecution of St Peter. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Muslim Army Recruits Get Special Conditions
The Swiss army has drawn up guidelines outlining special conditions for meals and prayers for its rising number of Muslim recruits.
The move is in line with the army’s tradition of catering to other faiths, spokesman Martin Bühler said, following an article in the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper. Special provisions already exist for Jewish soldiers.
Muslims going into the summer recruit school — part of obligatory military service for young men — can now signal that they do not want to eat pork. They will instead be offered an alternative. Halal products can in some cases be brought in.
However, the five daily prayers will not be possible, but recruits will be able to pray once the day’s army duties are over.
The guidelines have been drawn up with the input of Muslims, according to the NZZ am Sonntag.
The number of recruits of Islamic faith has been on the rise in the past few years. In some infantry recruit schools, one in ten new soldiers is a Muslim, the paper said.
The Muslim community in Switzerland accounts for about 4.5 per cent of the population.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boy, 14, ‘Murdered Ex-Girlfriend and Her Older Sister in Revenge Arson Attack’
A 14-year-old boy murdered his ex-girlfriend and her older sister in a house fire out of revenge after they split up, a court heard today.
The day before the attack the boy had searched on Google for ‘how to burn someone’s house down’, an Old Bailey jury was told.
He had threatened Maleha Masud, 15, that if she did not continue in the relationship he would ‘do something to her and her family’, it is alleged.
Maleha died three days after the fire in Tooting, south London, in June last year and her sister Nabiha Masud, 21, a month later.
The girl’s ex-boyfriend, who cannot be named because of his age, is alleged to have started the fire with Shihabouddin Choudhury, 21, and Rasal Khan, 19.
Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, said the older defendants had become involved simply to help the boy ‘in his attempt to seek retribution and exact revenge on Maleha and her family’.
Choudhury, of Coventry Road, Nottingham, and Khan of Earl Howe Street, Leicester, both waiters, each deny both murders, as does the 14-year-old.
All three also deny the attempted murders of the girls’ mother Rubina Masud, and brothers Zain, and Junaid.
Mr Laidlaw said that Maleha had been in a ‘relationship of sorts’ with the 14-year-old but it was not a serious one.
‘The two of them broke up and it was then that (the boy) threatened Maleha that if she did not continue in the relationship he would do something to her and her family,’ he added.
‘Why he should arrive at the extraordinary decision to burn down their house is really impossible to understand.
‘It was obviously not the reaction of an ordinary and normal 14-year-old, however hurt he might feel about losing a girlfriend.’
The court heard that Mrs Masud and her eldest son leapt from the window after the fire was started by the three defendants in the early hours of June 21 when petrol was poured through the family’s letterbox as they slept.
But her two daughters and youngest son were left inside. Neighbours woken by the screams who tried to get into the house were driven back by the heat.
Junaid, who was rescued by firefighters, suffered burns and lung damage that left him fighting for his life in intensive care but survived, jurors were told.
But his youngest sister Maleha had stopped breathing when she was discovered curled up at the bottom of her bunk bed.
She was resuscitated but had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning and brain damage and her life support was withdrawn three days later.
Doctors hoped older sister Nabiha might survive despite being badly burnt and poisoned by fumes.
She was transferred to a specialist unit in Chelmsford, Essex but her condition deteriorated and she died of major organ failure on July 25.
Friends of Maleha would later tell of her relationship with the 14-year-old boy and threats he made to her, the court heard.
Analysis of his telephone calls and of the other defendants’ phones before the attack showed his contact with Choudhury, and their movements, Mr Laidlaw said.
After the boy was arrested, police discovered at his home a petrol can with traces of the same kind of fuel used in the fire, jurors were told.
‘When his computer was examined by experts he can be seen to have carried out a Google search the day before the attack in these terms: ‘How to burn someone’s house down’,’Mr Laidlaw said.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jealous Ex-Boyfriend Murdered Nurse by Stabbing Her 130 Times After She Began New Relationshipby Jaya Narain
Katie Cullen, 35, a senior hospital sister, was knifed repeatedly in the face and neck by asylum seeker Iman Ghaefelipour, 28.
Iranian-born Ghaefelipour was furious when Miss Cullen dumped him for stealing more than £3,000 from her bank account.
But when his plan to win back his former lover failed he fell into a violent rage and stabbed her more than 130 times.
After she had died Ghaelfelipour gouged out her right eyeball and attempted to sever her right hand with the knife.
He was today jailed for a minimum of 23 years after he pleaded guilty to her murder at Manchester Crown Court.
The jury heard Miss Cullen, a highly-respected senior sister in cardiology at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, began dating Ghaelfelipour in 2008 after attending a number of salsa classes at a nightclub.
Initially the couple had been close and he was introduced to her family and they talked of moving in together.
But the six-month affair soured when Miss Cullen discovered her jobless boyfriend had been stealing money from her bank account.
She initially went to police but decided against pressing charges after he vowed he would pay the money back in instalments.
The pair continued to communicate by text but the court heard Ghaefelipour failed to make some of his repayments.
Graham Wood QC, prosecuting, said: ‘There is evidence of affectionate communication in text messaging right to the end of 2008 although Katie was describing him as possessive and very controlling to her friends.
‘In the early part of 2009 communication began to become more businesslike and a relationship of boyfriend and girlfriend ground to a halt.
‘The repayment arrangement which they had agreed upon was to be her downfall because in the months ahead it provided him with an excuse to keep in regular contact with her. It is plain his affection for Katie had not diminished.’
In June last year Miss Cullen began a relationship with another man and Ghaefelipour attacked him in a jealous rage when he saw them together.
On October 20 last year Ghaefelipour went to his ex-girlfriend’s home on the pretext of discussing the outstanding money he owed.
Shortly after his arrival neighbours heard a scream and loud thudding noises coming from her terraced home in Stockport, Cheshire.
Ghaefelipour, of Urmston, Greater Manchester, fled and later went to hospital where he claimed he had been mugged and was treated for cuts to his hands.
The 28-year-old was later arrested by police officers as he boarded a bus though he initially denied her murder.
Judge Ernest Ryder told Ghaefelipour: ‘No-one could have known that the misfortune she had in meeting you at a salsa dancing class was going to be the trigger for her untimely death.
‘There was nothing in her blameless life of public service which could have predicted what happened to her at your hands.
‘Katie’s family are bereft, devastated and haunted by the circumstances of her death and the brutal and senseless way you took a valuable life.’
After the case her mother Diane Cullen, who is also a nurse said: ‘Katie was a very special daughter and sister and we are completely devastated at her tragic death.
‘She saw only goodness in everyone and had a generosity and selflessness that made her special. She loved people and enjoyed life and was warm-hearted, compassionate and sincere. The feeling we have that we were unable to protect her will haunt me for ever.’
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Volcano in Iceland: EU Agrees Reduction of Airspace Closure
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, APRIL 19 — EU Transport Ministers,who met today in Madrid, have given their support to the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol)’s recommendation that the denial of airspace access to commercial flights, caused by the cloud of volcanic ash coming from Iceland, be progressively reduced. The news was announced in a press conference by José Blanco, the Minister for Infrastructure, following a videoconference held with the Ministers of the 27 countries. He added that three different areas have been identified. Absolute restrictions will be maintained in the first area, at the centre of the ash emission, where flight conditions are unsafe. The second area is identified is an intermediary one, in which the concentration of ash is not sufficient to exclude the possibility of flights, though it does require constant supervision. Finally, in the third area, which has been spared by the ash emission, there will be no limitations on air traffic. “The areas will be defined in a coordinated manner between the authorities in the member states at 8.00 tomorrow morning, at the latest,” Blanco said. Transport Ministers have also decided to adopt a series of measures to tackle mobility requirements. These include the strengthening of a coordinated European response to the crisis, through the European Commission and Eurocontrol. The Commission, in particular, will have to “contribute to facilitating a quick coordination enabling European citizens to move around through other methods of transport”. The European Council has reminded all member states of the necessity to guarantee mobility with alternative transport measures. (ANSAmed).
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Kosovo: Control of Albania Border From KFOR to Local Police
(ANSAmed) — PRISTINA, APRIL 19 — KFOR, the Nato force in Kosovo, is to hand over responsibility and jurisdiction of the border between Kosovo and Albania to the Kosovan local police at the end of April. The handing over ceremony will take place on April 28, German general and KFOR commander Markus Bentler said in Pristina today, after a meeting with the American admiral Mark Fitzgerald, head of NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command, stationed in Naples. Admiral Fitzgerald observed that the passing on of responsibility to local officials was a sign of the improvement of the security situation in Kosovo. “This should be seen as a positive development,” he said. General Bentler underlined that KFOR is planning a similar transfer of responsibility to the Kosovan police for controls along the borders with Macedonia and Montenegro. (ANSAmed).
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Slovenia-Croatia: Ljubljana Ratifies Border Agreement
(ANSAmed) — LJUBLJANA, APRIL 19 — The Slovenian parliament today ratified the agreement on conditions resolving the dispute over its maritime border with Croatia, paving the way for a final approval in the shape of a popular referendum. All 48 members of the centre-left coalition in power in Ljubljana voted in favour of the deal struck last September between the Slovenian PM Borut Pahor and his Croatian counterpart Jadranka Kosor, while opposition parties left the hall before the vote, in protest against the limited timeframe afforded for debate on the issue. After a year of negotiations, the deal has allowed Croatia to continue discussions on EU access, which were on hold due to the veto from Ljubljana, and means that an organisation of international arbiters will be set up to trace the north Adriatic border between Croatia and Slovenia. Arbiters will have to “ensure that Slovenia has a link with international waters”, a formulation that has not convinced the opposition, who say there is no guarantee of unconditional contact between Slovenian waters and the open sea. The Ljubljana government has announced that it intends to call a referendum abrogating the agreement for June 6. Croatia, meanwhile, has completed the ratification of last November’s agreement, which will now come into force if agreed by the citizens of Slovenia. Surveys suggest that Slovenians are in favour with a figure of 52-56%. (ANSAmed).
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Algeria-Spain: Medgas Operational From Next July
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, APRIL 19 — The Medgas pipeline, due to carry gas directly from Algeria to Spain, will be operational from July 2010. The announcement was made by the interim chief executive of Sonatrach, Abdelhafid Feghouli, during the tenth Forum for the 11 gas exporting countries , which got underway in Oran today. “Technical tests on the Algerian side have already begun: Medgas will be operational from next July,” said Feghouli, according to the agency APS. Adding that the pipeline’s capacity will be of 8 billion cubic litres per year, Sonatrach’s chief executive also pointed out that “it is possible to increase the number of cubic litres upon request from Spain, especially if Madrid decides to connect to the European network. The volume of gas will therefore depend on Spanish requests”. Feghouli denied that there were delays in testing on the Algerian side. “It is a false accusation,” he said, “we are ready, if anything, it is the Spaniards who have been delayed”. (ANSAmed).
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Gas: Export Countries Discuss Prices in Algeria
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, APRIL 19 — The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) got underway in Oran today, with the eleven participating countries attempting to find a common stance on how to tackle the fall in prices, and looking for a strategy to protect their investments. Opening the event, Algeria s Energy Minister, Chakib Khelil, said that forecasts for the next few years are “worrying”. “Demand for gas in 2013 will be at the same level as it was in 2008, because forecasts are predicting a weak recovery for the world economy,” the Minister said, as quoted by the APS agency. He added that declining prices had paved the way for competition between gas-producing countries, who have increased extraction in order to maintain income.Khelil asked the eleven countries to revise their production volume, so as to stabilise prices. The Minister’s stance was shared by his Qatari counterpart Abdallah ben Hamad al-Attiya, who said that he agreed with Algeria especially on the issue of the “right price” for gas. Algeria, Russia, Qatar, Iran, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Bolivia, Equatorial Guinea, Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago are all taking part in the Forum. Norway and Kazakhstan are attending as observers, while Angola and Yemen are invited guests. Russia, the world’s leading gas producer, Iran and Qatar cover 60% of the world s gas market. (ANSAmed).
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Barak Quells Concerns Over Possibility of Summer War
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, APRIL 19 — “There is no reason for war to break out this summer,” said Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak in an attempt to quell concerns raised by alarming statements coming from Jordan’s King Abdallah. According to the Hashemite king, if there were to be no further diplomatic developments between Israel and the Palestinian Territories, there would be reason to fear that over the coming months Israel, Syria and Lebanon may be swept up into another conflict. In a radio interview in Jerusalem — during celebrations for the Israeli Fallen Soldiers Remembrance Day — Barak did however agree with King Abdallah that it is necessary to immediately get the regional peace process back on its feet. Barak, who is the leader of the Labour Party, believes that Israel “has the necessary power” to aim at the two-state solution. He also admitted that relations between the United States and Israel are going through a crisis since their leaders “analyse the situation in different ways at times”. In order to overcome these difficulties it would, in his opinion, be advisable to launch an Israeli peace initiative “dealing with all the cardinal issues of the conflict with Palestinians”. In any case, Israel will reject all attempts to impose solutions from the outside to the conflict with Palestinians. (ANSAmed).
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East Jerusalem: Queen Rania’s Project for Neglected Schools
(By Mohammad Ben Hussein) (ANSAmed), AMMAN, APRIL 19 — Queen Rania of Jordan launched an ambitious project to modernize dozens of schools for Arab resident in East Jerusalem after the educational institutions witnessed neglect since the city fell under Israel occupation in 1967. The Queen accused Israel of deliberately ignoring education reform in Jerusalem in a bid to “control the history and memory of the Palestinian people”, said the queen during an opening ceremony of the project in Amman. Jordanian officials say dilapidated schools in the holy city have not been refurbished in years, while the size and number of classrooms are not sufficient for a growing Arab population. There are around 300,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967. According to the Palestinian education ministry, there are about 75,000 schoolchildren in East Jerusalem with dropout rates higher than in other parts of the city. Rania, who is of a Palestinian origin, criticized Israel settlement activities in the city and vowed to help improve education level across the Palestinian territories. Helping young people in Jerusalem is a matter of urgency, she said. While the war of negotiations takes place on political round tables, the round stone mills of occupation slowly crush the identity of Jerusalemites, said Rania. During the event, Jordanian officials showed a short documentary, narrated by Rania herself, talking about difficult conditions faced by Palestinians to have access to education. Two Palestinian boys were shown in the short film walking around 2 hours a day to reach their classes. Heavy security measures by Israel police around Jerusalem and lack of financial support meant that many children have no access to education, according to Jordanian officials from the ministry of education. Many children do not attend school. In addition, more than 50 per cent of Palestinian boys in Jerusalem who start school never finish, the queen added. Rania also urged wealthy Arab nations to provide all needed support for the Palestinian. Jerusalem is a responsibility that all Arabs should shoulder. Providing education to its children is a way the way to support its people, more than just prayer, she added. Rania said ongoing Israeli settlement construction around Jerusalem is having a profound impact on the identity of the city, where the Palestinians want their future capital to be established. The demographic balance of the city is being altered day by day. We must support Arab residents of the city to maintain its identity, said Rania. Queen Rania, a good well ambassador to UNICEF and a renowned champion of children rights launched Madrasati project in Jordan in 2008 to improve education level across the kingdom. Madrasaty project in Jordan has been a success since it was launched, with 115,000 students benefiting from it in 200 schools in six governorates. Last month, Rania inaugurated the third phase of Madrasati to include 100 schools in southern poor cities of Tafileh, Karak, Maan and Aqaba. (ANSAmed).
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Israel Commemorates Fallen Soldiers
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, APRIL 19 — Israel is in mourning today, for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day, which traditionally precedes the celebration of Independence Day. At the sound of the sirens, life in the entire country stood still for two minutes this morning. After that the gates of the military cemeteries were opened, where today memorial ceremonies will be held in the presence of the authorities. Israel mourns a total of 22,684 victims who have fallen in the country’s conflict with its Arab neighbours. This figure includes troops who were killed in battle, as well as those who lost their lives in clashes with the Palestinians before the constitution of the State of Israel (1948), and the civilian victims of terrorist attacks. Tonight celebrations for the 62nd anniversary of Israel’s foundation (May 15 1948) will start. Posters can be seen in the streets of Tel Aviv today urging people not to forget that what is a day of celebration for the Israelis, is a dramatic event for their Palestinian neighbours. For many of them in fact, the 1948 war meant their exile.(ANSAmed).
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Salafist Spokesman: 11,000 Support Al Qaeda in Gaza
(ANSAmed) — GAZA, APRIL 19 — In the Gaza Strip, Al Qaeda “can currently count on 11,000 supporters”, said a spokesman for the local Salafist movement, Abu al-Hareth, in an interview with the press agency MAAN. However, his words were viewed with scepticism in Gaza, where estimates still hold that the various Al Qaeda-inspired movements total a few hundred militants at the most. Abu al-Hareth said that the armed groups in Gaza taking their cue from the teachings of Osama bin Laden did not have direct links with Al Qaeda, but that they were influenced by his orders. He added that relations with Hamas had been tense since last summer the latter’s security forces broke into a Salafist mosque in southern Gaza and killed 16. Subsequently Hamas carried out numerous arrests among the group. “We are kept under control 24 hours a day,” complained Abu Hareth. Nevertheless, the spokesman added that the Al Qaeda-inspired armed groups had managed to conduct a number of attacks on Israeli forces deployed along the Gaza. Under the generic name of Jaljalat, noted the spokesman, currently four Salafist-inspired are operating in Gaza: Jund Ansar Allah; Jaish al-Islam; al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad and Jund-Allah. (ANSAmed).
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Sea of Galilee Has Ever Fewer Fish, Ban on Fishing
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM — The Israeli government has decided to bring in a two-year ban on fishing in the Sea of Galilee — where according to the Gospels, Jesus caused the Apostles to fish a miraculous number of fish — in order to prevent ever-dwindling fish numbers from disappearing altogether. Benyamin Netanyahu said that “the decision arises from the desire to maintain the ecological balance, to preserve the water quality and to repopulate the lake with fish, which it is running out of.” To this end fish from other places will be transported to the lake. The most well-known fish in the lake is called St Peter’s fish, and is one of the most popular dishes in Israeli restaurants. The government has pledged to compensate the lake’s fishermen for their economic losses. (ANSAmed).
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Amil Imani: Iran, Islam & Cyrus the Great
The current Islamic regime under the mullahs has shown, on countless occasions, its contempt both in words and deeds for the memory of the founding father of Persia, Cyrus the Great, including flooding the plain which houses the Kingâ€(tm)s tomb, destroying the archeological sites of Pasargad and Persepolis, and harassing and intimidating those who would gather at the tomb of the enlightened king to commemorate the International Day of Cyrus the Great.
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Perception of US Becomes More Negative in Turkey
Polls conducted by the BBC indicated a decrease in the negative perception of the U.S. worldwide while the overall view was more negative from Turkey.
For the first time since the annual poll began in 2005, America’s influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative, not including those who answered “neutral,” the BBC reported on its Web site. The improved scores for the U.S. coincided with Barack Obama becoming president, a BBC correspondent noted.
As of 2009, the polls indicated Germany is viewed most favorably while Iran and Pakistan are seen as the most negative influences, according to the survey. Nearly 30,000 people in 28 countries were interviewed between November and February for the poll.
Fifteen of the countries have been surveyed every year since 2005, allowing long-term trends to be discerned. In these nations — or 14 of them, not including the U.S. — positive views of the U.S. fell to an average low of 28 percent in 2007, down from 38 percent in 2005. The approval rating of the U.S. recovered to 35 percent in 2009 and 40 percent in this year’s poll.
While approval ratings of the United States increased in most countries polled, the most significant increases were in Germany (up from 18 percent in 2009 to 39 percent this year), in Russia (up from 7 to 25 percent), in Portugal (up from 43 to 57 percent) and in Chile (up from 42 to 55 percent) with negative perceptions also falling significantly.
The only countries where the perception of the United States became more negative were Turkey, where the proportion of positive perceptions fell from 21 to 13 percent and negative perceptions increased from 63 to 70 percent; and in India, where positive perceptions dropped from 43 to 39 percent and negative perception increased from 20 to 28 percent, according to the BBC poll.
The only two countries to have predominately negative views of the U.S. were Turkey (70 percent) and Pakistan (52 percent). Russia’s view of the U.S. was 50 percent negative.
From all of the countries polled, the European Union received 53 percent positive perception. But there was a difference of views toward the European Union among the European nations surveyed, with Germany (76 percent) and France (74 percent) being the most positive about its influence, Italy (64 percent) and Spain (62 percent) less favorable, and the United Kingdom (54 percent) more neutral. Turkey — which was also highly negative about most other countries — also rated the European Union unfavorably with only 29 percent positive ratings.
“People around the world today view the United States more positively than at any time since the second Iraq war,” said Doug Miller, chairman of international polling firm GlobeScan, which carried out the poll with the Program on International Policy Attitudes, or Pipa, at the University of Maryland. Pipa director Steven Kull added: “After a year, it appears the ‘Obama effect’ is real. Its influence on people’s views worldwide, though, is to soften the negative aspects of the United States’ image, while the positive aspects are not yet coming into strong focus.”
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Saudi Arabia: 50 People Dead After Heavy Rains and Flooding
(ANSAmed) — RYADH, APRIL 19 — Fifty people have died and 385 injured in Saudi Arabia following heavy rains and flooding over the past four days, a senior official has confirmed, as Arabian business.com reports. Major General Sulaiman Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Ajlan, director of the Traffic General Administration, warned motorists to drive carefully after 4,596 traffic accidents were recorded due to the wet weather. Around 250 people were rescued following flash flood in Bisha, Asir, on Saturday. (ANSAmed).
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Turkey’s Transformation Under the AKP (III) — Solidarity With Anti-Western and Islamist Regimes
If religion constitutes one part of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP’s, foreign-policy calculus, domestic aspirations are another.
The AKP has drawn a lesson from the events of the 1990s, when its predecessor, the Welfare Party, or RP, was forced to step down from government through a show of popular discontent. The AKP now knows that it can stay in government only as long as it has strong popular support. Therefore, the party relies on an easy tactic of populist foreign policy that criticizes the West to enhance its domestic standing — a strategy that has seemingly been successful for the AKP.
Not only are Turkish attitudes toward the United States and the West deteriorating, the AKP now also draws broad support for its foreign policy through the transformation of the Turkish identity. If Turks think of themselves as Muslims first in the foreign-policy arena, then one day they will think of themselves as Muslims domestically, further strengthening the position of the party.
In the past, Turkey’s foreign-policy paradigm centered on the promotion of national interests vested in the West. Starting in 1946, Turkey chose to ally itself with the West in the Cold War; since then, successive Turkish governments have pursued close cooperation with the United States and Europe. Turkey viewed the Middle East and global politics through the lens of its own national-security interests. This made cooperation possible, even with Israel, a state Turkey viewed as a democratic ally in a volatile region.
The two countries shared similar security concerns, such as Syria’s support for terror groups abroad — radical Palestinian organizations in the case of Israel, and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in Turkey. In 1998, when Ankara confronted Damascus over its support for the PKK, Turkish newspapers wrote headlines championing the Turkish-Israeli alliance: “We will say ‘shalom’ to the Israelis on the Golan Heights,” one read.
The AKP, however, viewed Turkey’s interests through a different lens — one colored by a politicized take on religion, namely Islamism. Senior AKP officials called the 2004 U.S. offensive in Fallujah, Iraq, a “genocide,” and in February 2009, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared Gaza to a “concentration camp.”
The AKP’s foreign policy has not promoted sympathy toward all Muslim states, rather, the party has promoted solidarity with Islamist, anti-Western regimes (Qatar and Sudan, for example) while dismissing secular, pro-Western Muslim governments (Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia). This two-pronged strategy is especially apparent in the Palestinian territories, where at the same time that the AKP government has called on Western countries to “recognize Hamas as the legitimate government of the Palestinian people,” AKP officials have labeled Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the “head of an illegitimate government.”
According to diplomats, Abbas’ last visit to Ankara, in July 2009, went terribly.
As the cancelled military exercises with Israel show, the AKP’s a la carte, moralistic foreign policy is not without inherent hypocrisies. An earlier example came in January 2009, when, a day after Erdogan harangued Israeli President Shimon Peres, as well as Jews and Israelis, at the World Economic Forum in Davos for knowing “well how to kill people,” Turkey hosted Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha in Ankara.
This is a dangerous position because it suggests — especially to the generation coming of age under the AKP — that Islamist regimes alone have the right to attack their own people or even other states. In September, Erdogan defended Iran’s nuclear program, arguing that the problem in the Middle East is Israel’s nuclear arsenal.
Some analysts have dismissed such rhetoric as domestic politicking or simply an instance of Erdogan losing his temper. But Erdogan is an astute politician, and he is now reacting to changes in Turkish society. After seven years of the AKP’s Islamist rhetoric, public opinion has shifted to embrace the idea of a politically united “Muslim world.”
The AKP’s foreign policy now has a welcome audience at home, making it more likely to become entrenched. After Erdogan stormed out of his session at the World Economic Forum, thousands gathered to greet his plane as it arrived back home in what appeared to be an orchestrated welcome. (Banners with Turkish and Hamas flags stitched together appeared from nowhere in a matter of hours.)
Together with the establishment of friendly and money-based relations with Russia — Moscow has become Turkey’s top trading partner under the AKP — the transformation of Turkish identity under the AKP has potentially massive ramifications. Guided by an Islamist worldview, it will become more and more impossible for Turkey to support Western foreign policy, even when doing so is in its national interest.
Turkish-Israeli ties — long a model for how a Muslim country can pursue a rational, cooperative relationship with the Jewish state — will continue to unravel. Such a development will be greeted only with approval by the Turkish public, further bolstering the AKP’s popularity. Thus, the party will be able to kill two birds with one stone: distancing the country from its former ally while shoring up its own power base.
The same dynamic will also apply to Turkey’s relations with the European Union and the United States. As the United States devotes much of its energy abroad to Muslim countries, from opposing radicalism to countering Iran’s nuclear program, the AKP will oppose these policies through harsh rhetoric and opt out of any close.
* This four-part series originally appeared on Majalla on November 26, 2009.
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Paedophile Who Abducted Underage Girls for Sex Wins Deportation Appeal to Stay in UK
A Pakistani paedophile who abducted and sexually abused two young girls cannot be deported back to his native country because it would breach his human rights, it emerged today.
Zulfar Hussain, 48, was due to be sent home when he is released from prison halfway through his sentence for plying two vulnerable girls with drugs and alcohol before having sex with them.
But there was fury today when it was revealed that he had won an appeal against his deportation on the grounds that he has a wife and child here, meaning it would breach his right to enjoy respect for his family life.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw — in whose constituency some of the abuse took place — today backed a new bid to kick Hussain out, while a campaigner for the deportation of foreign criminals branded the decision to let him stay ‘appalling’.
Hussain and his friend and fellow Pakistani national Qaiser Naveed, 34, groomed two 15-year-old girls for sex over a period of months in his adopted home town of Blackburn, Lancashire.
The two ‘vulnerable’ girls, who were in care, were plied with alcohol and Ecstasy pills, and on one occasion Naveed had sex with one on the back seat of his BMW while the second girl remained in the front with Hussain.
They were caught after social workers raised the alarm, and in 2007 Hussain was jailed for five years and eight months after being convicted of child abduction, sexual activity with a child and supplying drugs.
At his sentencing, Judge Andrew Gilbart QC said: ‘This is a truly shocking offence. When young girls such as these are placed in care it can be because they need protection from themselves.’
Both men were ordered to be deported back to Pakistan following their release, but while Naveed has accepted his fate, Hussain appealed.
He is believed to have lived in Britain legally for ten years and has a wife and child, although he remained a Pakistani national. His appeal was accepted on the grounds that his right to respect for family life would be breached if he was sent back.
The decision was slammed by Paul Houston, whose 12-year-old daughter was knocked down and killed by Iraqi illegal immigrant Aso Mohammed Ibrahim in Blackburn.
Father-of-two Ibrahim — who was banned from driving when Amy was killed in 2003 — was also allowed to stay, but the Home Secretary has appealed.
Mr Houston said: ‘It is difficult to understand a system that lets people like this remain in the country. They are foreign nationals and have no right to be here if they commit such dreadful crimes.’
The Home Office is also appealing against the blocking of Hussain’s deportation, and local MP Mr Straw said he was ‘glad’ it was asking the courts to have another look.
‘If they had not, I would have been straight on to the Home Secretary Alan Johnson and he would have insisted on an appeal,’ he said.
The appeal means Hussain is likely to be sent to a secure immigration removal centre on his release from prison in a few weeks time, half-way through his sentence.
Naveed — who received the same sentence — will be sent to a high-security Immigration Removal Centre prior to being deported to Pakistan.
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Vatican: Pope: Malta Needs Help to Handle Immigration
(AGI) — Valletta, 18 Apr. — Pope Benedict XVI is aware of the difficulties that a country like the Republic of Malta may be faced with “when receiving a big number of people. Difficulties which can’t be overcome by a country on its own”. However, he pointed out that Malta is the natural landing place for “several immigrants who arrive here fleeing violence and persecution or seeking better life conditions”. Addressing the 15,000 youths gathered in Waterfront, the Pope said that he is “confident that Malta will try, with the support of other countries and international organizations, to help those who come here and make sure that their rights are safeguarded” ..
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