Angry Greek Pensioners Warn of ‘Social Revolt’
After settling into a peaceful retirement, 61-year-old Kiki Papailiadis is facing up to an uncertain future as the Greek government moves to cut pensions.
“What’s terrible is not being able to plan your life, you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow,” said Papailiadis, a former bank employee who receives a pension of 1,100 euros ($1,411) a month.
“I’m being asked to pay for the others, all those people who helped themselves from the funds, who filled their pockets,” she said, adding that the reforms being pushed through by the government were simply “unjust.”
The Greek cabinet on Monday agreed plans for an unprecedented overhaul of the pension system, which will reduce average pension payments by 7 percent by 2030 and cut the top category of pensions by up to 14 percent.
The changes, which still face a tumultuous vote in parliament later this month, come on top of a cut earlier this month in the twice-yearly bonus payments that many Greeks had come to rely on to supplement their pensions.
They are latest steps in an austerity drive launched by the government to slash a huge deficit and debt that have forced Greece to turn to its eurozone peers and the International Monetary Fund for financial help.
Labor Minister Andreas Loverdos warned that the pension system faces “collapse” after next year without reform. “Inaction would have meant no pensions,” he said after the cabinet approved the reforms.
New protests on the way:
Greece’s main trade unions have vowed major protests against the plan.
“I don’t know what people’s anger will lead to but I’m afraid of a social explosion,” Papailiadis said.
Stavroula Zerdeva, a former central bank employee, also warned there could be a “social revolt.”
“The people are outraged,” said Zerdeva, a widow who draws a pension of 1,400 euros a month. She said she will receive 2,600 euros a year less.
“We will now have to count our every euro,” she said. “I cannot accept this cut to my pension without a thorough clean-up of all this fiscal embezzlement.”
Like many Greeks, Zerdeva blamed the budget crisis on decades of economic mismanagement by successive governments.
“Those of us who dutifully paid our taxes cannot tolerate footing the bill for mistakes the politicians have made over the last 30 years,” she said.
Papailiadis said the crisis had also been aggravated by a climate of easy credit and big spending in recent years.
“The banks started operating like supermarkets. People started thinking everything was easy. They started living the big life. It was a totally false prosperity,” she said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Global Financial Markets and You
The week of May 2 — 7, 2010 will go down in history as one of uncertainty and change. When I asked then UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1995 what he meant by change, he told me there were several forms of change but what he was talking about was CONSTANT CHANGE. Now that all of the barriers between nation-states have fallen with the exception of the regulatory laws which are about to fall, we will be subjected to constant change as there will be no barriers or borders between countries to prohibit global change and global chaos. Chaos always breeds opportunity to those who create it to take more power, to make money, and to change the world into their image.
In order to have global change you need to have global uncertainty. Last week saw a number of things occurring on an integrated world: the Senate Banking Committee appears to be getting closer to a bi-partisan agreement on regulation; the 1000 point drop in the market; the British elections; and the debt crisis in the European Union led by the debt of Greece.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Tax Evading Doctors List Published
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 13 — Greek authorities have published a list of 150 doctors in Athens and the region of Attica suspected of tax evasion, after checking lists of annual returns against their real economic situation. The publication of the list, which has been circulated by the websites of the main daily newspapers, is part of the struggle against corruption announced by the Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou, in an attempt to reform the country and restore it to health by leading it out of the financial crisis. 57 of the doctors on the list, a large majority, are concentrated in the chic residential area of Kolonaki. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Talking to Europe Leaders on Debt Crisis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — President Barack Obama is in contact with European leaders about steps being taken to ensure the European economy and the euro currency remain strong in the midst of a debt crisis, White House spokesman Bill Burton said.
“This is obviously something the president has been concerned about, having called leaders in Europe to discuss aggressive measures they ought to be taking and are taking to ensure their economy and the euro is strong,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal: Anti-Crisis Tax to Cut Deficit
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 13 — An anti-crisis tax to bring Portugal’s public finances under control. It is to be announced today, in Parliament, by Portuguese Premier José Socrates in illustrating the package of measures passed by his Government. As is reported by the Financial Times. The anti-crisis tax calls for an increase in the tax burden on companies by 2.5 percentage points to 27.5%, and a 5% salary reduction for politicians and public sector officials. Among other measures laid down by the Government, adds the City’s daily, is a VAT increase by one percentage point to 21% and an increase up to 1.5 percentage points in Personal Income Tax. Lisbon aims to reduce the budget deficit from 9.4% of GDP in 2009 to 7% by the end of this year, and to 2.8% in 2013. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Shock Events & Gold Breakout
The sovereign debt crisis is actually a symptom of the failed central bank franchise system. The central bank had better hurry to produce new global reserve currencies backed and fortified by gold, also possibly by crude oil, or else the fires in the government debt will continue to burn. The end result will be ruined currencies, broken national banking systems, national budgets in tatters beyond remedy, economies ground to a halt, and eventually civil strife. We are witnessing the end convulsions of the fiat paper monetary system. The central banks are powerless to stop the crisis. The $1 trillion European bank bailout plan gave lift to the Euro currency for less than 24 hours. The USDollar is viewed as likewise wrecked and undermined as the Euro. In my view, the simple perspective is that their near 0% interest rates are like a minimal pulse on the banking system, a depleted body lying in the Intensive Care ward. The currencies are all dying. Gold will rise until given proper recognition, then it will rise even more.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cry Treason!
A growing body of popular opinion is beginning to regard the actions of Barack Obama as treason because they coalesce into a pattern that suggests a deliberate effort to undermine national security and the economy. The liberties we take for granted, privacy, freedom of speech, and others are seen to be in jeopardy.
What is troubling to many was the way Obamacare was foisted on a nation that clearly opposed the takeover of one sixth of the economy. The political process by which passage was achieved was ugly, but it was not treason.
Now the Cap-and-Trade Act is being ushered hastily into the Senate for a vote despite widespread opposition to the fact that it is based on a total fraud, “climate change”, otherwise known as “global warming.” Can a law based on a lie be lawful? Is passing such a law treasonous?
The President’s displeasure with the Arizona law that mirrors almost word for word the federal law regarding illegal aliens presages a likely effort to grant amnesty to millions here illegally; a measure that is also widely opposed by the majority of Americans.
The hasty passage of any or all of these laws, now that the midterm elections loom in November, is completely legal, but they all represent a refusal to acknowledge the will of those in whom the Constitution posits ultimate power, the People.
[…]
None of this can be called treason under the strict and narrow definition of the Constitution, but taken together it is a pattern of acts that pose what many are coming to see as a clear and present danger to the nation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Elite High Value Interrogation Unit is Taking Its First Painful Steps
[Fetch the comfy chair! — Z]
In February 2009, after two wars and years of confusion over the best way to interrogate a terrorist, the Obama administration created a special unit to relearn how to get critical information from suspects in custody. Fifteen months later and in the wake of the failed car-bombing in Times Square, the question now is: where are they?
In February 2009, after two wars and years of confusion over the best way to interrogate a terrorist, the Obama administration created a special unit called the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) to relearn how to get critical information from suspects in custody.
Fifteen months later and in the wake of the failed car-bombing in Times Square, the question now is: where are they?
The HIG was supposed to bring together all that the U.S. had learned about getting prisoners to talk, the intent being to make the nation’s intelligence sector more effective. Based on a recommendation by a fact-finding intelligence panel, it was to be an interagency group staffed by the best interrogators in government — with broad powers to travel and decide interrogation techniques on a case-by-case basis.
More importantly, the HIG was to report directly to the National Security Council — ending a longtime bureaucratic war between the CIA and the FBI over who would control interrogations, a battle that had damaged intelligence operations.
Now, after a rocky start, sources say the secretive unit is almost up and running. But just how functional it is remains a matter of some dispute.
Five months ago, after the Christmas Day arrest in Detroit of the alleged “underwear bomber” Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab, intelligence watchers were stunned to learn that the HIG not only didn’t participate in his interrogation, but it was not yet operational. And now, despite reports that the HIG has been involved in the Times Square bombing case, intelligence sources say it is still a work in progress.
“It is like a lot of other government programs. It is a good idea but difficult to put together,” said a CIA source familiar with its workings. “There are a lot of moving parts to put together. It is wrong to say it is not functioning; it is just not working that well — yet,” the source said.
The source denied press reports that the HIG was deeply involved in the interrogation of Times Square bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad. “Because of location, that is handled largely by the bureau and the JTTG,” the source explained, referring to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. “The HIG is not really designed for domestic use. Its intent is overseas targets; home turf is just different.”
Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd, acknowledging in effect that HIG isn’t running the case, wrote in response to questions that “elements of the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) were deployed (to New York) and the intelligence community was and continues to be engaged to support the investigation and interrogation of Faisal Shahzad.”
The FBI issued a similarly terse statement. “The HIG is operational. Elements of it are being used in this investigation,” chief spokesman Paul Bresson wrote.
Other law enforcement sources agreed, saying the extent of HIG’s help in the case was to send several “subject matter experts” to aid in Shahzad’s interrogation.
But Professor Jordan Tama, of American University’s School of International Service, said that HIG’s involvement, no matter how big or small, was significant because “involving outsiders in these cases is a step forward.”
“Even if the HIG is a work in progress, it is still progress,” Tama said. “Considering that the group was just chartered in January, its involvement in the Times Square bombing represents a step forward.”
The HIG was authorized and formed in February 2009 after a task force reviewing intelligence recommended it. But it took some time to create its charter, which states what it can do, because it steps on a lot of toes. Then came the failed Christmas Day bombing — and the charter was rushed through.
Tama said that the HIG, despite growing pains, “is a credit to the Obama administration’s efforts to bring order to the intelligence agencies,” and that it represents a chance to settle many controversies, such as the use of harsh measures, that have befuddled interrogators since 2001.
One of HIG’s key missions, he explained, “was to establish ‘best practices’ techniques for interrogations” and to settle disputes over what works and what doesn’t in interrogations.
But it still promises to be a long road.
Shortly after the Christmas Day bomb suspect was arrested, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair testified before Congress that his interrogation by the FBI had been a mistake and that the HIG should have been called into the investigation. “We did not invoke the HIG in this case. We should have,” Blair said.
“We need to make these decisions more carefully.. I was not consulted. The decision was made at the scene,” he complained.
But he was forced to back away from the statement later that day, acknowledging that HIG wasn’t “fully operational.”
Now, five months later, it still isn’t.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Hutaree Update
With much media fanfare, 9 members of a Michigan militia were arrested last March and charged with “seditious conspiracy” — specifically, plotting to murder law enforcement officers. Ostensibly, this was supposed to precipitate some kind of wholesale revolt against the government. Question: Have any of you heard anyone from the propaganda press corps (national news media) tell you what has been happening with this case? No? Did you not wonder why? Well, I’ll tell you why: the case has fallen apart.
The first indication of the Feds’ case going bad was a local report in the Toledo (Ohio) Blade, dated April 28, 2010. “An FBI agent who led the investigation of nine Michigan militia members charged with trying to launch war against the federal government couldn’t recall many details of the two-year probe yesterday during questioning by defense lawyers.
“Even the judge who must decide whether to release the nine until trial was puzzled.
“‘I share the frustrations of the defense team . . . that she doesn’t know anything,’ U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said after agent Leslie Larsen confessed she hadn’t reviewed her notes recently and couldn’t remember specific details of the case.”
Can you believe testimony such as this was given in a court of law by a supposedly intelligent federal officer — an agent who had supposedly compiled the evidence that was used to arrest and incarcerate these supposedly “dangerous militia members”? If it wasn’t so serious, this would be a joke!
Remember that it was a federal informant who had infiltrated the group and even offered to teach Hutaree members how to make improvised explosive devices. On this point, William Grigg wrote, “While federal prosecutors have provided ample evidence that members of the Hutaree are passionately anti-government — what decent person ISN’T — they haven’t been able to demonstrate that the group did anything more than engage in survivalist training and indulge in apocalyptic rhetoric.” (Emphasis in the original.)
[…]
Well, the facts are beginning to come out: The FBI agent who brought the charges against these self-professed militia members made a complete fool of herself under oath in a court of law. She presented zero evidence to indicate that the Hutaree posed an imminent threat to anybody. Now that the judge has released the Hutaree members from jail and rebuked the agent for presenting such inept testimony, we’ll see if the Feds decide to pursue the case any further. Again, as Will Grigg said, “Since the federal case against the Hutaree rests entirely on what was SAID by the suspects, rather than anything specific that was DONE by them, it’s difficult to see what’s left of it [the case].”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Meet Maurice Strong
All that President Barack Obama is doing to transform America, Free World over to One World Government begins and ends with one Maurice Strong. Soros is merely the financier.
Great job on shining the FOX flashlight on man-behind-the-curtain Maurice Strong last night.
You asked for people to send you information on Strong.
While the entire cable network world, thanks largely to The One Thing, now knows that Strong is on the Chicago Carbon Credit Exchange board of directors, it gets worse, much worse.
It’s true that Strong explained that he had only fantasized the end of the world in his now famous interview with a Canadian reporter. Unfortunately for the free world, the fantasy is Strong’s philosophy.
As recently as 2006, speaking from an air conditioned boardroom somewhere in Communist China, Maurice Strong—the same man who would deny air conditioning for you to save the environment—was hatching his latest anti-American initiative.
“Having cashed in his Kyoto credits and having launched his ManyOne Internet project from afar, Strong is back on the international scene, ready or not. With his latest comeback, the elusive Strong is stepping back into the limelight after his alleged links to the UN Oil-forFood scandal took him off the radar screen for more than a year. This comeback sees Strong teaming up in the biz world with George Soros. The deadly duo aims to flood the American market with cheap Chinese-made cars. (Strong & Soros in Business: A Partnership from Hell, CFP, June 15, 2006).
“Strong’s public predictions that China would replace the United States, as world superpower is not happening fast enough. So Strong and President George W. Bush malcontent George Soros are contemplating pouring hundreds of millions into a Communist China automaker that manufactures the “Chery”.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Neil Armstrong: Obama’s New Space Plan ‘Poorly Advised’
Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, blasted NASA’s new plans for future space exploration Wednesday, adding that President Barack Obama was poorly advised when he canceled the space agency’s previous course for U.S. human spaceflight earlier this year. Armstrong, who commanded the historic Apollo 11 moon landing mission in July 1969, criticized what he billed as an air of secrecy that preceded Obama’s February announcement which cancelled NASA’s Constellation program aiming for the moon. That plan, he told a Senate subcommittee, was a surprise to many among NASA, academia and the military. “A plan that was invisible to so many was likely contrived by a very small group in secret who persuaded the President that this was a unique opportunity to put his stamp on a new and innovative program,” Armstrong, 79, said in a statement to a Senate subcommittee reviewing NASA’s new space plan. “I believe the President was poorly advised.” The United States is risking losing its role as a leader in space exploration with its new plan, Armstrong said, adding that he was concerned with the looming gap in American human spaceflight. “Other nations will surely step in where we have faltered,” Armstrong said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Political, Media, And Bureaucratic Distortions of Weather and Climate
Mainstream television has extreme or severe weather reports when they are actually reporting natural events.
Hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards are all natural events and warnings for potential loss of life are commendable, but the focus creates a false impression. It reinforces the false IPCC claims of more severe weather with global warming.
The syndrome created is comparable to when you are introduced to someone and it seems every time you turn around they are there. They were always there but just not part of your perception. This is reinforced by the advent of cameras and video so that many more events are recorded, reported and seen. How many tornadoes occurred when nobody was watching? How many would have died if current population densities existed? Of course, we also have the benefit of fewer deaths because of advanced warming. What Year Are They Talking About?
How would you rate the year that experienced the following events? Which year was it?
254 people died in tornadoes in the US: 30 people in Marquette, Kansas; 87 people in Snyder, Oklahoma; 97 in Southwest Oklahoma; and 40 in Montague, Texas. 40 people died in a November storm in Minnesota.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wheelchair-Bound Lawyer Who Cannot Control His Arms or Legs Charged With Sex Harassment After ‘Grabbing Judge’s Buttocks’
A wheelchair-bound lawyer who cannot control his arm or leg movements has been charged with sexual harassment against a judge.
Hippocrates ‘Cheecho’ Mertsaris, 35, is accused of grabbing the the 40-year-old administrative judge’s inner thigh and buttocks in an office on Long Island, New York.
Mertsaris, a Taxi and Limousine Commission lawyer, has suffered from cerebral palsy since birth and has ‘no voluntary control of his arms and legs’.
His brain was damaged during delivery at birth and his father and an aide help him with almost everything, including eating.
But now the lawyer is accused of sexually attacking the TLC judge, whose name has been withheld as she is considered the victim of a sex crime.
Wyatt Gibbons, an attorney for Mertsaris, said: ‘He whacked her in the butt but it wasn’t sexual abuse. He has spastic movements.’
‘We are not saying he didn’t touch her, but he didn’t grab her or feel her up. Nothing like that. It was nothing sexual.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bullies Make Girl’s Life a Nightmare
Eight-year-old Lyric Elliott says life at her Scarborough school has been an absolute nightmare for the last 18 months thanks to bullies who refuse to leave her alone and an education system that has done too little to protect her.
Now, after 163 visits to the office at William Tredway Junior Public School — and repeated pleas to school staff to keep her daughter safe — the young girl’s mother has decided “enough is enough.
“I pulled her out of school last week,” Jacqueline Elliott told the Toronto Sun Wednesday. “I just couldn’t take it any more.”
She said the final straw came last Thursday when five boys pushed Lyric to the ground, then poked and prodded her with sticks.
“She was bruised and scratched from head to toe,” Jacqueline said of her daughter’s injuries.
Lyric said she loved going to school before she, her baby sister and mom fled an abusive situation in Calgary and moved to the Markham Rd. and Lawrence Ave. E. area in 2008.
But now she’s simply terrified because of the constant harassment she claims she faces.
“It happens just about every day,” the soft-spoken youngster said of the abuse she has allegedly endured. “It’s a bad dream that I can’t wake up from.”
Lyric now has nightmares quite regularly because of the bullying. All she wants is to go to school and feel safe.
“Just stop bullying me and leave me alone,” Lyric said, reaching out to her alleged abusers. “They think it’s funny when they see me cry or get hurt.”
The little said she believes her fellow students single her out “because I’m white.” Her mother said she couldn’t help wonder if race was a factor when Lyric came home from the predominantly black school asking to take a bath.
“I asked her why and she told me it was because the kids were calling her a ‘dirty white girl,’“ added Jacqueline, who added that several members of her family are African-Canadian.
In one of the worst incidents, Lyric’s mother claims three first-grade boys threw Lyric on the ground and took turns “dry humping her.”
“Only one of the boys was suspended,” Jacqueline said. “I was told the other two hadn’t been in any trouble before.”
Despite the recent passing of Bill 157 by the province, which is suppose to combat bullying by requiring school staff to file a report on all such incidents, the frustrated mom insisted she has had difficulty getting action.
Jacqueline said there are about five kids, girls and boys, who are terrorizing her daughter. She said she complained to the principal more than 40 times about one girl before her parents were finally notified.
And Jacqueline added she was told by school staff there is no point in suspending the bullies because they would just consider it “a holiday.”
Tired of fighting with Lyric every morning and “dragging” her to school only to have her call home part way through the day claiming to be sick, Jacqueline is now refusing to bring her daughter back to William Tredway even though she could face legal ramifications for withdrawing her child from school.
The mom said she has spoken to the school principal countless times; she has called Toronto Police but they can’t lay charges because the alleged bullies are under 12 years old; education ministry officials told her she must contact her school’s superintendent; and the superintendent, Kerry-Lynn Stadnyk, has told her the principal is dealing with it.
Jacqueline said she has made more than 100 calls to Stadnyk, but she has only actually spoken to her a handful of times.
“I’ve asked many times to meet with her and she won’t,” Jacqueline contended.
However, after a Sun reporter called the Toronto District School Board Wednesday, Jacqueline said she suddenly received a call from Stadnyk offering to meet with her next week.
She said they spoke for 45 minutes on the phone.
A TDSB spoeksman said Stadnyk was unavailable for comment until Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking News: Germany to Leave the Euro This Weekend?
The internet, and especially gold forums, are getting excited over the possibility of very big news from Germany this Friday.
As reported by a Zero Hedge contributor, a forum post at GoldLikeProductions from a user identifying himself as a Deutsche Bank employee, suggests that the big news to be announced this Friday as stated by German politician Gregor Gysi at a recent press conference may be that Germany will announce a return to the Deutsche Mark, eliminating the Euro as their country’s currency:
From a forum post by an Anonymous user:
I’m working at the Deutsche Bank in Germany. Today we delivered 1 container with new Deutsche Mark notes and new coins. I will present a photo from the new banknotes tomorrow morning. The curencychange will be the night from Saturday to Sunday 5/16/2010. On Friday, 19.00 GMT Angela Merkel the germany chancelor, will speach to the german nation.
This forum post, coupled with a page identified at Kitco.com (screenshot), one of the leading precious metals dealers in the world, that looks like it is being built to price gold/silver/platinum in Marks, has gold bugs around the world buzzing.
If Germany were to announce that they are pulling out of the Euro and switching back to Marks, there would be serious implications around the world. The European crisis would likely accelerate and last Thursday’s stock market crash would just be an appetizer for what we can expect around the globe come Monday morning. Gold would likely make a serious move to the upside as a result.
Dispelling the Rumor
We warn our readers that this may very well be nothing more than a rumor, and recent gold price action in the upward direction may be partly attributed to the aforementioned forum post and Kitco page.
Regarding the Kitco.com web page, the SHTF Plan research team utilized Archive.org, an internet archival web site that tracks web site pages over the course of the last 15 or so years.
The very same page which is being listed at Kitco with the following URL:
The page has existed at the exact URL address since before the Euro was accepted by Germany.
According to Archive.org, the Web Archive’s earliest listing for this specific URL dates back to August 12, 2000 and the oldest available instance of this page can be viewed here: http://web.archive.org/..
Thus, this is not a new development and the page was simply never taken down by Kitco.com after the Deutsche Mark was removed from circulation.
The fact that the only available news about the new Deutche Mark comes from an anonymous poster at an internet forum should further dispel this rumor.
How likely is it that Germany would drop the Euro?
While we do believe in the eventual destruction of the Euro and breakup of the European Union, Germany announcing that it will be dropping out of the monetary union and introducing a new currency over the weekend is unlikely.
However, for inquiring minds, we direct readers to a Financial Sense University article from April 2010 titled German Windfall Profits From Exiting The Euro:
Germany is a nation that fears inflation for good historical reason, and among the nations of the world, Germany places a particularly high priority on price stability. Yet, so long as Germany remains in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) with the euro as its currency, Germany may not be in control of German inflation. In particular, the current crisis with Greece, and the crises that may follow with other nations such as Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland may prove disastrous for German investors and taxpayers. For so long as it is in the EMU, Germany may have no effective choice but to bail out countries that have been running up huge deficits — despite Germany itself not having the economic capacity to do this for all of Europe on an indefinite basis, let alone the political will to do so. These are among the reasons why in a letter to clients late last week, Morgan Stanley warned that Germany may leave the euro and the EMU and that investors should be prepared for this event.
If this event happens, it may create an enormous financial windfall for millions of individual Germans, as well as German companies, not to mention the German government. While leaving the monetary union is still far from certain as Germany also has strong economic and political incentives to stay in the EMU, in this article we will say “what if” and explore some of the startling benefits for nations and individuals of quickly exiting a failing monetary union — as well as the many perils.
It is not completely out of the question that Germany will decide to leave the European Monetary Union but remain an EU member. Obviously, if the German people (The #2 exporters in the world) are going to be strapped with bailing out Greece, the rest of the PIIGS and Eastern Europe, they may be much better off just cutting their losses and getting out now.
Friday will be an interesting day, but we’re not holding our breath. At this point, the world economic and financial systems are such a mess that even if Germany announces a switch back to the Mark, the end result globally will be similar to what will happen at some point in the near future anyway — panic, collapse and all the goodies that go along with that.
| [Return to headlines] |
Geneva Paper Accepts Libya Ruling
A Swiss newspaper which published controversial police mugshots of a son of Libya’s ruler has accepted the verdict of a Geneva court that the action was illegal.
The Tribune de Genève daily said on Wednesday that it would shortly publish the verdict in its printed edition and on its website.
“It is not a question of freedom of the press today, but the freedom of Max Göldi, an arbitrary victim of a dictator,” a statement by the editor in chief said.
Göldi, who is serving a four-month prison sentence for visa violations, is one of two businessmen prevented from leaving Libya since the arrest of Hannibal Gaddafi in Geneva in 2008.
Gaddafi and his wife were temporarily detained for allegedly abusing their staff in a Geneva hotel.
The Geneva court ruled last month that the publication of a police picture of him was illegal.
However the court rejected a claim by Gaddafi for financial compensation.
Gaddafi for his part said he was not satisfied with the court ruling.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Church Member Leader Urges End to Celibacy for Catholic Priests
The Catholic Church needs to reconsider its sexual policies and end mandatory celibacy for priests in the wake of a massive child abuse scandal, the head of Germany’s leading Catholic group said on Wednesday.
“We must openly grapple with, for example, the question that some 90 percent of Catholics deal with birth control other than the Church instructs,” Alois Glück, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, told daily Frankfurter Rundschau.
A “renewal” is necessary following the sex abuse scandal that has rocked almost every diocese in Germany since the first claims surfaced in January, he said, adding that the Church must “openly discuss what it means to deal with sexuality and partnership today.”
The Church must also end mandatory celibacy for priests, the country’s highest representative for lay Catholics said.
“We must open the way for a priesthood without celibacy,” he told the paper. “The discussion is in full swing.”
Glück’s comments come as nearly of quarter of Germany’s 25 million Catholics are considering turning their backs on their Church because of the way it has handled the child abuse scandal.
An April poll of more than 1,000 Catholics by the Forsa Institute published by daily Bild found 23 percent of Church members said they were thinking of leaving.
Even among those who described themselves as devout, 19 percent were considering walking away, the poll found.
At the heart of the anger is the belief that the Church is not handling the child abuse affair openly.
Exactly half said they believed there was a link between celibacy and child abuse, while 44 percent said there was no link.
Yet a massive 81 percent said they believed celibacy for priests should be abolished, compared with just 12 percent who believed it should be maintained.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Parliament Approves Anti-Corruption Law
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — The Greek Parliament has approved in principle an anti-corruption law based on which Ministers, politicians, local administrators and State officials may be removed from office and their assets confiscated. The law, approved last night by Parliament, following the incorporation of amendments, will be formally voted next Tuesday, and was proposed by Premier, Giorgio Papandreou, within a drive for the moralisation of public life considered an essential element to reform the country, save it from financial disaster and guarantee a recovery. The law, which prohibits politicians and public sector officials from detaining off-shore accounts or interests, contemplates imprisonment for tax evaders and fines up to one million Euros. An amnesty will be given to those who denounce corruption activities.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Piraeus Port Strike, Problems for Cruise Ships
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS MAY 13 — Problems for cruise ships arriving to the Greek Port of Piraeus due to a 48-hour strike by tug-boat workers and rescue vessels, which started today. In the morning, two cruise ships with about 5,000 passengers entered the port without any assistance, while a third cruise ship is expected, which could have more problems because its tonnage is greater than that of the other two ships. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Silvio and Veronica Discuss Alimony
Prime minister pleased at outcome of hearing. Veronica’s “sadness”
MILAN — For Veronica Lario, yesterday was like the day after an exam, a moment in which to absorb the fact that a long, long chapter of her life was coming to a close. Nineteen years of marriage and thirty of living together have been set to one side with the legal papers and the settlement negotiations. As she sat through the four and a half hour preliminary conciliation hearing on Saturday afternoon, Silvio Berlusconi’s almost-ex wife was well aware that there was little left to conciliate. And as in any other civil law case, the issues at stake were property and money, not sentiment or feelings.
Perhaps that is why people who spoke to Veronica Lario yesterday thought she sounded anything but happy. In fact, she was downright sad, in stark contrast to the “satisfaction” expressed by the premier’s lawyers at the end of the court encounter. “Sad” also contrasts with the unofficial messages from the prime minister’s staff yesterday, which described Mr Berlusconi as satisfied and relieved at the outcome of negotiations. It’s as if the premier is at last seeing the light at the end of an obstacle-strewn tunnel that had looked forbidding from the outset. Veronica Lario perhaps has less to feel reassured about since this in any case sets the official seal on a failure. For the Veronica Lario-Silvio Berlusconi story is a complicated one with too much anger and too many recriminations, as is often the case with two people who were once in love. Then there were the public letters and the respective memoranda of alleged unfaithfulness, offered up to judges and public opinion.
Unsurprisingly, the first hearing was a test of strength. Ms Lario demanded three and a half million euros a month in alimony. Mr Berlusconi’s counter-offer was a tenth of that figure: 200,000 up to a maximum of 300,000 euros. All this was served up with a smattering of spite, such as Mr Berlusconi’s demand for the return of Villa Belvedere, the stupendous home at Macherio where Veronica and her three children have always lived. She likes to call it “my castle”, underlining the sense of loneliness that pervades the silent park and the rooms of the baroque property. Ms Lario’s whole life is there. Villa Belvedere is where she raised her children. Its lawns were the backdrop for the bucolic photos of her and the children strolling in the park with its baby goats. Year after year, she had meticulously furnished it rooms, which is why making her move out smacked of spitefulness. However on Saturday, an agreement was reached, at least over Macherio. Veronica will keep Villa Belvedere. In exchange, Ms Lario is believed to have agreed to renegotiate the alimony payments, which the opposing party views as excessive. She is also thought to have abandoned her application for judicial separation in favour of a less drastic “consensual separation”.
It is thought that final agreement over the amount has yet to be reached. More than anything, lawyers are said to agree in general terms that both parties will strive to meet each other halfway. According to official sources, no one can yet say what the exact figure of the monthly payment will be. Only when that particular hurdle has been surmounted will the two parties meet again in court to sign the consensual separation. Then, when the three years prescribed by law have elapsed, will come divorce. And the final curtain will have fallen.
Angela Frenda
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Minister Seeks €400 Mln in Car Savings
Rome, 12 May (AKI) — The Italian government could save 400 million euros in its annual car service costs through car-sharing, long-term rentals and other initiatives, according to Italian public administration minister, Renato Brunetta. Brunetta who is responsible for creating more efficiency in the country’s public offices has proposed the cuts
“You can save around 400 million euros, half of what we spend now. And this is without disrupting the system,” Brunetta said in a recent memo, according to reports.
The Italian government can save through long-term rentals with the cost of fuel included in the fee, Brunetta said.
He said more money can be saved by using a type of sharing system for cars assigned to offices rather than individuals.
Cars must also be monitored to determine per kilometre costs with the ultimate goal of accurately calculating the “standard cost” of operating a service car, according to the memo.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Uncover Mafia Drug Ring in Milan Convent
Milan, 12 May (AKI) — Italian police claim to have smashed an international mafia drug ring that operated out of a Milan convent without the knowledge of the nuns who live there. After a three-year investigation, paramilitary Carabinieri police on Wednesday seized large quantities of cocaine and a processing lab inside the convent.
Police also arrested 33 people throughout Italy, including members of the Calabrian mafia or ‘ndrangheta, with alleged connections to Colombian drug cartels.
“We arrested known traffickers with ties to Colombians,” said Colonel Rota Gelpi during an interview with Sky Italia television network. “The drug operation worked out of a base in Ghana.”
International cocaine traffickers have created hubs in some west African countries from where large amounts of cocaine are shipped from Colombia en route to Europe.
According to Italian news reports, the monastery’s caretaker is alleged to have been responsible for managing the sale of the cocaine once it arrived in Italy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi ‘Appreciates’ Spain’s Austerity Cuts
Rome, 12 May (AKI) — Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, praised his Spanish counterpart’s efforts to curb spending amid worries that problems which led to Greece’s near bankruptcy would spread to other Mediterranean countries.
Berlusconi “appreciates the important anti-crisis measures announced this morning in Spain,” according to a statement e-mailed from the premier’s Rome office.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday announced a 5 percent cut to public sector salaries, as well as reductions to pensions and regional government funding.
He said the plan would save the country about 15 billion euros over two years. At the weekend Spain said it wanted to drastically reduce its budget deficit, which currently stands at 11 percent of its annual economic output.
The European Union is pressuring European economies including Spain, Portugal and Greece to impose tougher austerity measures.
On Sunday it approved a 750 billion-euro rescue package to prop up European economies struggling with large debts.
The Italian government is considering 25 billion euros in spending cuts to lower the deficit by the end of 2012.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Opposition Party Eyes Three Referendums
Roma, 12 May (AKI) — The centre-left Italy of Values party said on Wednesday it has gathered 300,000 signatures from people in favour of holding a referendum on a controversial new law allowing Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to postpone trial hearings against him for up to 18 months. The signatures also back the holding of referendums on the government’s plans to re-introduce nuclear power and private water supplies in Italy.
A total 500,000 signatures are required in Italy to be able to request a referendum on an issue.
“Since our campaign began (on 1 May), we have gathered 300,000 signatures and have organised 2,000 collection points in all of Italy’s regions,” Italy of Values said in a statement.
Almost 10,000 people have visited the campaign website www.3referendum.it . This is linked to the popular social networking site Facebook, the microblogging website Twitter and the popular video uploading website YouTube, Italy of Values said.
Italy’s president Giorgio Napolitano on 7 April signed the “legitimate impediment” law shielding Berlusconi and other government ministers from attending trial hearings if these clashed with their calendar of official engagements.
Berlusconi, who currently faces two trials in the northern city of Milan for corruption, tax fraud and false account last month invoked the new law to postone a court hearing.
He had been due to appear in a Milan courthouse on 21st and 28th of April. But his lawyer Niccolo Ghedini filed a petition claiming the prime minister couldn’t attend court until 21st and 28th of July.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ethnic Food: NAS Confiscate 21 Tons of Expired Food
(AGI) — Rome, 12 May — During the last few weeks, an investigation was carried out on the preservation, ingredients and labelling of the so-called ‘ethnic foods’ produced in non-European Countries and on the wholesalers and retailers that sell them in Italy by the Carabinieri of the 38 NAS (Anti-fraud and Health Nucleus) units located throughout the national territory. Over 800 targets were subjected to inspections, 351 were found to be in working order, 569 had committed criminal, administrative and sanitary offences, 387 persons were reported to the judicial authorities and over 21 tons of food of different kinds were confiscated because in a bad state of preservation, adulterated or invaded by parassites.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fini Brushes Off Premier’s Overtures
Fence-mending talks premature, speaker says
(ANSA) — Rome, May 12 — House Speaker Gianfranco Fini on Wednesday brushed aside Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s fence mending overtures, saying talks with envoys from their People of Freedom (PdL) party were premature.
“Until there are political stances for the problems I’ve raised, it’s too early to hold meetings, especially with intermediaries,” Fini was quoted as telling his supporters.
Berlusconi launched an appeal for party unity at a meeting with Rome officials Tuesday night, saying he wanted to bury the hatchet with Fini and some 50 dissenters within the PdL.
Fini told aides he was concerned about pressing issues like the cost of putting fiscal federalism in place and fighting corruption and not interested in having a say on how the PdL is run. “Issues like party appointments matter to people holding these jobs, they certainly don’t interest me,” he said.
The PdL was officially founded last year by the merging of Fini’s right-wing National Alliance (AN) and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (FI), after the two parties ran on a single ticket to win the April 2008 general elections.
Fini and Berlusconi engaged in a public showdown at a party meeting last month after the speaker accused the premier of stifling party democracy and allowing their Northern League ally to set the government’s agenda.
Their long-standing differences blew up when the premier told Fini to resign as Speaker if he wants a more active role in politics or to form his own faction within the PdL.
At that point, Fini got up and yelled: “What are you saying? Otherwise, what will you do? Throw me out?” The Speaker has repeatedly distanced himself from the League and Berlusconi on a number of issues since the centre-right coalition swept to power in general elections two years ago.
His recent and more centrist stances on these issues, including voting rights for immigrants and criticism of the government’s reliance on confidence votes to push its bills through parliament, have placed him at loggerheads with the premier and the League.
Fini and his supporters also accuse Berlusconi of running the PdL as if it were a “barracks”, saying the premier forced the PdL’s former House deputy whip Italo Bocchino to resign because he had not toed party lines. The premier on Tuesday and again on Wednesday met with the coordinators of the PdL, the party’s House and Senate Whips as well as with Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno who has tried unsuccessfully in recent weeks to patch up the rift between Berlusconi and Fini.
A meeting with Denis Verdini, scheduled for Tuesday reportedly at Fini’s request, was called off without explanation.
But PdL sources said later that Fini was fuming because the media had been told he had sought the meeting with Verdini.
“They want to see me and then they leak news that it’s the other way round,” Fini reportedly told his aides. Ignazio La Russa, another PdL coordinator, told reporters he “still hoped” things could be patched up.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Convent ‘Used’ By Narcotraffickers
Bogus pilgrims ‘hid drugs in prayer books’
(ANSA) — Milan, May 12 — A Milan convent was unwittingly used by Italian and South American drug traffickers, investigators said Wednesday.
The janitor at the convent, an unidentified South American with alleged links to the Colombian cartels and the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta mafia which dominates the European cocaine trade, was the suspected linchpin of the organisation.
The nuns were “completely unaware of what he was up to,” and stunned when he was taken into custody, police said.
The man is accused of organising religious trips from South America to Italian shrines in which couriers posing as pilgrims stashed cocaine in their prayer books and other hand baggage.
The drugs were then allegedly refined and cut in a house near Bergamo before being distributed in major northern cities. The janitor was arrested along with 32 other people across northern Italy Wednesday. Other arrests were made in Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Varese, Lecco and Lodi, all in the province of Lombardy; Piacenza and Parma in Emilia Romagna; and La Spezia on the Ligurian Riviera.
Two ‘Ndrangheta drug-trafficking kingpins based in Milan for years, Giuseppe and Domenico Vottari, were also detained.
They come from the small Calabrian town of San Luca which burst onto the international crime scene in 2007 with a gangland slaying of six mafiosi in Duisburg, Germany.
Police said Wednesday’s operation, code-named Hannibal, had been three years in the making.
As well as the 33 arrests, 80 people were placed under investigation and 30 kg of cocaine were seized.
Police said the drug runners also had a warehouse in Ghana which was allegedly set up using funds for African fisheries earmarked by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Desperate Mum Goes Bank Robbing With Baby
Women said dire economic circumstances drove her to crime
(ANSA) — Rome, May 12 — A divorced Italian mother who held up a series of banks while carrying her baby in a car seat said dire economic circumstances drove her to crime.
The 41-year-old woman from Turin was arrested while trying to carry out her fourth robbery of the day on Tuesday.
“I haven’t got a steady job,” the woman, whose only disguise was a pair of dark sunglasses, told police. “I didn’t know how to get by with a small child.” She did not use weapons, but threatened bank staff by telling them a gang was outside ready to spring into action if her orders were not followed.
After being detained she confessed that there was no such gang and she was acting alone. Sympathetic police gave the woman something to drink and eat and helped her look after the infant before she was taken to a prison for mothers with small children.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome to Get ‘First Skyscraper’
Eurosky Tower going up in EUR district
(ANSA) — Rome, May 12 — Rome is to get its first skyscraper, the architect and construction company said Wednesday.
The 28-floor, 120-metre-high apartment building is set to rise over the Fascist-era EUR district on the southern outskirts of the city, where several other prestige projects including a residential tower by Renzo Piano and a ‘Nuvola’ (Cloud) conference centre by Massimilano Fuksas are also planned. The new skyscraper, dubbed Eurosky Tower, will be one of Italy’s tallest buildings and “wholly eco-sustainable” with solar panels and biofuel power systems as well as channels for rain water to feed office plants and flowers, said the CEO of construction company Tarsitalia, Luca Parnasi.
“The design has been inspired by medieval towers,” architect Franco Purini said.
The architect denied reports that the original plan was for the skyscraper to be higher than St Peter’s, before the builders were allegedly told to lower it.
“All Rome’s buildings have always been lower than St Peter’s, which is 136 metres high. We didn’t lower it,” Purini said.
Work on the Eurosky Tower has already begun and it will take an estimated 18 months to complete the building.
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno last month hosted a conference of so-called ‘archistars’ which considered ways to incorporate modern buildings into Rome’s Baroque cityscape.
Among others, the forum featured US architect Richard Meier, who has recently agreed to modify his controversial Ara Pacis Museum to make it blend in better with its surroundings.
Completed in 2006, the new home for Roman Emperor Augustus’s ‘altar of peace’ was central Rome’s first piece of modern architecture since Fascist days, and was fiercely contested by architectural traditionalists and conservationists.
Alemanno’s plans for more additions have raised fresh hackles. photo: one of EUR’s Fascist-era buildings
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Deported Moroccans ‘Plotted to Kill Pope’
Rome, 13 May (AKI) — Two Moroccan terrorist suspects deported from Italy last month were allegedly plotting to kill Pope Benedict XVI, Italian weekly Panorama claims in its latest issue to be released on Friday. Mohammed Hlal and Errahmouni Ahmed were students at the University of Perugia until their repatriation to Morocco on 29 April.
“Hlal wanted to kill the Vatican’s head of state (the pope), saying he was ready to assassinate him and gain his place in paradise,” Italy’s interior minister Roberto Maroni wrote in the expulsion order authorising Hlal and Ahmed’s deportations, cited by Panorama.
Anti-terror police in Perugia intercepted Hlal discussing his plans to carry out attacks and readiness to obtain explosives for the attacks during a series of tapped telephone conversations, according to Panorama.
Moroccan authorities on 6 May released Hlal and Ahmed, who had been receiving legal assistance from a local human rights association.
The pair have denied any wrongdoing and said they intend to challenge their expulsions in the administrative tribunal in Italy’s Lazio region surrounding Rome.
In a media statement issued at the time of their expulsion, the Italian interior ministry described the men as “dangerous” and a “threat to national security”.
The interior ministry claimed they had links to an international network of Islamist miliists and were prepared to carry out “extremist acts”.
Hlal and Ahmed’s deportation followed a probe begun by anti-terrorism police in October 2009 into a group of radical Muslim foreign students in Italy, most of whom came from the Moroccan city of Fez. Several were studying at Perugia.
The interior ministry said Hlal and Ahmed belonged to this group.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Expelled Moroccans ‘Wanted to Kill Pope’
Perugia student ‘ready to earn place in Paradise’, weekly says
(ANSA) — Rome, May 13 — Two Moroccan students expelled from Italy for security reasons last month wanted to kill Pope Benedict XVI, an Italian newsweekly claims in a report coming out Friday.
The Panorama weekly says it has obtained a copy of the expulsion order in which one of the pair, Mohamed Hlal, was allegedly quoted in a police wiretap saying he was “ready to assassinate (the pope) to earn a place in Paradise”.
After the April 29 order against Hlal and his fellow Perugia University student Ahmed Errahmouni, an interior ministry statement suggested that the pair were planning suicide-bomb attacks, but gave no details.
At the time, Maroni said the pair had been linked to jihadi groups, had been taped talking about terrorist activities and were feared set to carry out “extremist” acts.
Hlal, 27, was studying international communications at the Umbria hilltown university which has a large population of foreign students.
Errahmouni, 22, was enrolled at the faculty of mathematics and physics.
The men are living freely in Rabat, Panorama said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Blasts Gay Marriage
Pope Benedict XVI criticised gay marriage and abortion as “insidious and dangerous threats to the common good” in a speech at Fatima as Portugal prepares to legalise same-sex unions.
The pontiff received a standing ovation from an audience of Church and lay social workers when he described abortion as a “tragedy” and said the family was based “on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman”.
Portugal, long viewed as deeply conservative, is set to legalise gay marriage next week only three years after decriminalising abortion.
Benedict expressed his “deep appreciation” for social and pastoral care workers who “defend life and promote the reconciliation and healing of those harmed by the tragedy of abortion”.
“Initiatives aimed at protecting the essential and primary values of life, beginning at conception, and of the family based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, help to respond to some of today’s most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good.”
The law allowing same-sex marriage was passed by parliament in February with the backing of left-wing parties which have a majority. President Anibal Cavaco Silva must sign the bill into law by May 17, three days after the end of the papal visit.
The president, a practising Catholic from the centre-right PSD party, can veto the bill and send it back to parliament. But it would be put to a final vote where it is assured of sailing through.
Ratification would make Portugal the sixth country in Europe to allow same-sex marriages after Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Norway.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal: Pope Warns ‘Modern Culture’ Threatens Church
Lisbon, 12 May (AKI) — Pope Benedict XVI has warned that modern society’s obsession with the present threatens to undermine the traditional Christian culture of Portugal. The pope said the Church’s role includes the defence of such cultural foundations.
“For a society formed by a Catholic majority and whose culture has been deeply marked by Christianity, the attempt to find the truth outside of Jesus Christ is a dramatic development,” he said.
The 83-year-old pope made the remarks in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, at an event at the Belem Cultural Centre that brought together more than 1,000 artists, filmmakers, critics, musicians, writers and academics.
The pontiff is on a four-day visit to Portugal and was due to visit the Catholic shrine of Fatima late Wednesday.
More than 100,000 people attended mass celebrated by the Pope on a canopied altar overlooking Palace Square in Lisbon on Tuesday.
More than 80 percent of people in Portugal are nominally Catholic, but only about 20 percent regularly attend mass.
Despite the predominant Catholic faith, Portugal passed laws in recent years allowing abortion on demand and divorce. Earlier this year, the parliament passed a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes Fantasize About Group Sex: Study
Swedes are least satisfied with their sex lives while they fantasise the most about group sex, according to a new survey of sexually active people in four Nordic countries.
The new study, the annual “Kådiskollen” (literally: condom check) by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (Riksförbundet för Sexuell Upplysning — RFSU), also showed that 65 percent of 15-20-year-olds had engaged in unprotected sex.
“This figure is far too high, it has to be improved,” said Maria Bergström at RFSU.
The survey interviewed 5,497 people in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway between the ages of 15-74 who stated that they had sex at least once a week.
The Swedes in the study reported that they are the most dissatisfied with 28 percent reporting that they were “not at all” or “not really” happy with their sex lives. While the Finns were as unhappy with their sex lives, the Norwegians and the Danes were happier.
The figures correspond through the ages with 28 percent Swedes aged 15-20-years-old reporting an unfulfilled sex life.
The Swedes in the study are the most active with regard to sexual fantasies however, with 37 percent dreaming about about group sex. This is the fantasy that tops the wishes of people in all four Nordic countries.
Norwegians also replied that sex in public places is a popular fantasy, and in Denmark the thought of sex with a friend arouses the senses.
With 65 percent of Swedish 15-20-years-old reporting that they had engaged in unprotected sex, RFSU mirrored a call from the National Council for Coordination of HIV Prevention (Nationella hivrådet) for a push to tackle the spread of sexually transmitted diseases by encouraging condom use.
“This is a clear development in Sweden,” said Maria Bergström.
Bergström argued that schools and preventative health care services have a key role in encouraging safe sex and condom use.
“Health centres have started to improve the preventative dialogue. It is then important for them to be given the resources to not only meet young people for a couple of minutes but also provide time to continue a dialogue,” Bergström said.
There is however some sign of improvement in the safe sex attitudes of Swedish youth, with a decline in those aged 15-20-years-old responding that they never practice safe sex from 20 percent to 12 percent, the survey shows.
“It is an improvement, and perhaps a new trend,” Bergström said.
The Local reported on Monday that 40,000 Swedes contracted chlamydia and around 500 HIV in 2009, prompting a response from the National Council for Coordination of HIV Prevention to launch a campaign to raise awareness and encourage Sweden’s youth to choose condoms.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Vilks Website Hacked as Cyber Hate Grows
The website of artist Lars Vilks was hacked on Wednesday, just a day after the 53-year-old was attacked as he gave a lecture at Uppsala University.
Instead of gaining access to the artist’s controversial drawing of the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog, which sparked outrage in parts of the Islamic world after its publication in Swedish newspapers in 2007, visitors to Vilks.net were greeted by a message from a hacker with the signature Al Qatari.
An aggressive greeting charging the artist with “still talking about the Prophet Muhammad”, is followed by a warning that the site will remain a target.
“We really never stop hacking your site and I will show you how can I hacking your computer.”
Lars Vilks was seemingly unperturbed by the cyber attack.
“I’m in touch with my webmaster, so I hope it will be fixed soon. But in any case, this is better than starting fights at academic lectures,” Vilks told news agency TT.
Vilks was assaulted on Tuesday while giving a talk at Uppsala University in eastern Sweden. An already heated atmosphere turned violent when Vilks showed a film of gay men wearing masks intended to depict the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
A man in the front row stormed onto the stage and attacked Vilks, head-butting him in the chest. Police quickly intervened and Vilks left the lecture theatre without suffering serious injury.
The incident was followed by tumultuous scenes as sections of the audience stood up, with some shouting “Allahu Akbar” (‘Allah is great’) while police used pepper spray to keep demonstrators at bay. Two police officers received minor injuries.
Three people, two men and a woman, were arrested before being released a few hours later. A further person was also detained and later released, according to police in the university city.
“One guy is suspected of attempted assault and the other of assaulting a public servant. The girl is suspected of crimes that include: assaulting a public servant, and harassment for spitting in the face of a police officer,” said police inspector Fredrik Selberg.
A new group on social networking site Facebook entitled “Mörda horungen (Lars vilks)!!!” (‘Murder the son of a bitch (Lars vilks)!!!’) had attracted hundreds of followers by Wednesday before becoming a private group and removing the word ‘murder’.
In March, an American woman known as “Jihad Jane” was charged by US authorities with conspiring to kill Vilks after seven suspected co-plotters were arrested in Ireland.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Depraved’ Robbers Face Life in Jail for Torturing and Killing Man Who Refused to Give His Bank Card Number
[Comments from JD: WARNING: Graphic content.]
A ‘depraved’ gang of drug addicts tortured and murdered a man in his home after he refused to hand over his bank card PIN.
Graham Reeve, 55, was bundled into his flat, gagged, tied up, punched, beaten with blunt instruments and stamped on in an eight-hour orgy of drink and drug-fuelled violence.
Danny Howsego, 36, Jon Williams, 22, and Tricia Levett, 28, held him captive as they made six unsuccessful attempts to withdraw money from cash machines using the card.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Healthcare Worker ‘Raped Ms Sufferer in Her Hospital Bed Up to Five Times in One Night’
A medical worker repeatedly raped a disabled woman in her hospital bed after an internal inquiry had cleared him of molesting a paraplegic teenager in similar circumstances, a court heard.
Naraindrakoomar Sahodree, 59, a health care assistant, had first been accused of encouraging the 18-year-old to drink whisky, stroking her inner thigh and trying to kiss her.
Her father complained, but the hospital allowed Sahodree, who is from Mauritius, to keep his job.
The following year he allegedly preyed on a 46-year-old multiple sclerosis sufferer.
The woman told police he repeatedly groped her over a period of days before one night pulling the curtain around her bed and raping her up to five times before morning.
Sahodree, of Tottenham, North London, was accused of rape and three counts of sexual assault at Blackfriars Crown Court. He denied all the charges against him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pictured: The Moment Gun-Wielding Robber Faced 18-Stone Have-a-Go Hero… And Was Battered With a Chair
Confronted by a desperate robber carrying a handgun, most of us would simply get out of the way.
But not 48-year-old Martin Richardson. He’s 18-stone and powerfully built.
What’s more, at the time of this dramatic standoff, he was in a bad mood.
As these extraordinary CCTV pictures show, raider Azar Sulman quite simply picked on the wrong guy.
Father-of-six Mr Richardson stood his ground with his hands in his pockets before attacking Sulman, 20, with a chair.
After flooring the raider, Mr Richardson used a judo move to pin him to the ground and kept him there for seven minutes until police arrived.
Judge Scott Wolstenholme praised the have-a-go hero’s ‘tremendous courage’ and awarded him £250 during Sulman’s trial at Leeds Crown Court.
The robber was sent to a young offenders’ institution for six years.
Mr Richardson, in hospital yesterday after breaking his arm in a rugby match, is being recommended for a bravery award.
He admitted he had probably been a ‘bit stupid’ in tackling the robber, but did so because he was in a ‘bad mood’ after failing to win anything in the bookmakers.
He was in his local branch of William Hill in Leeds on January 28 when Sulman rushed in.
CCTV images show him threatening the cashier with his gun. Unknown to anyone at the time, it was a replica and he was handed some cash.
Mr Richardson realised what was happening and went to the door to check if there were accomplices waiting.
He then stood in the way, staring down the barrel of a gun. ‘He wanted me to open the door and kept shouting he would shoot me if I did not open it,’ he said.
‘I looked him in the eyes…he was just a few feet from me. I thought “if he shoots me he shoots me, but I am not opening the door”.
‘I lost it because I hate to be threatened. The adrenaline was running as I picked up the chair and smashed him twice with it, but once I had him down I started to shake because it hit home how dangerous it was.’
A former judo brown belt, he used a martial art hold to keep Sulman pinned down. He said the seven minutes waiting for police were ‘the longest of my life’.
‘To be honest I was probably a bit stupid doing what I did, but I was being threatened, as were the staff, and I wanted to stop the guy. I did, so it was worth it.’
The court heard it was Sulman’s fourth raid on the chain and the third on the same premises.
He was trying to fund a £200-a-week cannabis habit.
He admitted three robbery charges and one attempted robbery.
Trevor Wilkinson of William Hill, said Mr Richardson had done ‘fantastically well’ but pointed out to other would-be heroes ‘not everyone is built like Martin’.
Detective Inspector Neil Thompson, of West Yorkshire Police, praised Mr Richardson’s ‘courage and cool-headedness during what must have been an absolutely terrifying experience’.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woman With False Leg ‘Not Disabled Enough’ For Special Parking Permit (After Having One for 25 Years)
An amputee who lost her leg in a motorbike accident 26 years ago has blasted council staff who refused to renew her disabled parking badge because she had a prosthetic limb.
Julia Pearson, 51, said she was told she is ‘not disabled enough’ to qualify for a blue parking badge because she could walk with difficulty for more than 30 yards.
Mrs Pearson had to have her left leg amputated below the knee after a horrific motorbike crash in 1980.
She had been issued with a blue badge for the last 25 years and is entitled to park in disabled parking bays.
But this year she was told she was no longer eligible because ‘in the eyes of the law’ she was not disabled enough despite rarely using her false leg.
Mrs Pearson, from Broadway, Worcestershire, who uses walking sticks and crutches, says she is too proud to claim mobility allowance.
She today blasted the decision, claiming she was a victim of ‘discrimination’.
She said: ‘I have never tried to claim mobility allowance, I have always tried to remain independent.
‘All I need is a blue badge but it seems I no longer fit the criteria. I feel I am being discriminated against because I’m not disabled enough.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Macedonia: Four Killed in Shootout With Police at Kosovo Border
Skopje, 12 May (AKI) — Four members of an armed gang were killed in a shootout with Macedonian police on Wednesday while trying to smuggle weapons from Kosovo into Macedonia, police said.
Macedonian Minister of interior Gordana Jankulovska told a press conference in Skopje that two smugglers killed were Macedonian citizens, one was from Kosovo, while the third was not identified. She released no names, but said one of the killed was known to police had has been sentenced in absentia to nine years in jail.
Police ambushed a van near the village of Radusa, about 20 kilometers north of capital Skopje, after receiving a tip-off. The smugglers refused to stop and opened fire on police, Macedonian officials said.
No policemen were injured in the shootout. Two smugglers were arrested and a large quantity of weapons was confiscated, the police said.
Arms smuggling has been on the increase between Kosovo and Albanian-populated areas of Macedonia. Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians declared independence from Serbia two years ago, with the support of western powers.
Two weeks ago, in another shootout in the area, near the village of Blace, police discovered three depots of weapons, but the smugglers escaped to Kosovo. Kosovo police later arrested seven people in connection with the incident.
In a message sent to Macedonian television station ALSAT-M, which broadcasts in Albanian and Macedonian, the so called National Liberation Army (ONA) took credit for the incident.
Macedonian officials said the message had been sent from Switzerland and Skopje has asked for help from Interpol to find out who was the sender of the message.
ONA was at the forefront of ethnic Albanian rebellion in Macedonia in 2001, demanding more rights and regional autonomy for ethnic Albanians who make about 25 per cent of Macedonia’s population of two million people.
The dispute was settled through international mediation by the Ohrid peace accord.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Germany Returns Phidias Sculpture Stolen in 1996
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MAY 13 — A work by Phidias, the most famous sculptor in Ancient Greece, that was stolen in Skikda in 1996, has been found in Germany and returned to the Algerian embassy. The news was announced in a Foreign Ministry statement and circulated by the agency APS. During a ritual ceremony at Algeria’s embassy in Berlin, authorities from Munich handed the masterpiece over to the ambassador. The work was stolen on December 22 1996 from the Chebli-Ahcene cultural centre in Skikda (on Algeria’s north-eastern coast) and was found thanks to Interpol investigations and the assistance of experts in both countries. The Algerian embassy has ensured that the necessary measures for the safe repatriation of the sculpture will be taken. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: U.S. Gave Millions to Charity Linked to Al Qaeda, Anwar Awlaki
By J.M. Berger
The U.S. Department of Labor gave millions of dollars to a joint venture that included a Yemeni charity with extensive links to Al Qaeda.
At least $3.5 million was allocated by the Labor Department to fund a three-year partnership between the Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW), based in Yemen, and CHF International, a Maryland-based foundation, to fight child labor and child trafficking starting in fiscal year 2008.
The money was provided through a grant by the Labor Department’s Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT), according to a Labor Department press release, the agency’s Web site and Middle Eastern news sources (link, link).
CSSW, based in Yemen, was founded by Abdul Majid Al Zindani, a veteran of the jihad against the Soviet Union and its civil war aftermath. Zindani was an associate of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, according to published reports and exclusive documents obtained by INTELWIRE. The U.S. government believes he is an Al Qaeda recruiter and fundraiser…
| — Hat tip: Paul Green | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: U.S. Gives Italians Top Military Honour
General and police colonel get Legion of Merit for Iraq service
(ANSA) — Rome, May 12 — The United States has given two members of the Italian armed forces the highest military decoration it awards to foreign nations for their service in Iraq.
Army General Alessandro Pompegnani and Carabinieri Police Colonel Fabrizio Parrulli were awarded the prestigious Legion of Merit, the U.S. embassy in Rome said on Wednesday.
The officials were praised for helping Multi-National Force Commander David Petraeus in his campaign against the rebels “to safeguard and serve local people and ensure the legitimacy of the Iraqi forces”.
“The results achieved in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom are an honour to them, to the Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq and to their country,” added the commendation motivation Pompegnani was the deputy commander of Multinational Division South East at Basra from October 2005 to May 2006 before serving as deputy commander of the NATO Training Mission in Iraq in 2007.
Parrulli served as the commander of the Carabinieri department to help train Iraqis forces.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel-Egypt: Maariv, Doubts on Mubarak’s Health
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MAY 13 — Today, Israeli daily Maariv made further claims about the health conditions of Hosni Mubarak (recovering after a gall bladder operation in March in Germany), stating that the president of Egypt is still “very weak and confused”. Citing Western diplomatic sources, the daily writes that Mubarak is having difficulties conversing, has lost weight and is not able to stay on his feet for long periods of time. Since his return from Germany, Mubarak (82-years-old) has spent almost all of his time at Sharm el-Sheikh (Sinai) where in recent weeks he has received various foreign visitors including Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu and PNA President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). Mubarak’s conditions are being followed closely by Israeli officials, pointed out Maariv, because Egypt has assumed a role of great strategic importance for Israel, especially regarding the regional containment of Iran and radical Islamic movement supported by Teheran, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinians of Hamas.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: EU Report Cites Lack of Progress in Reform
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MAY 13 — The head of the EU delegation in Lebanon, Patrick Laurent, said that 2009 had been characterized by “a lack of progress” across a range of pressing issues in Lebanon. The EU published its 2009 progress report on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which for the past five years has aimed at better cooperation with surrounding countries. The report outlined a number of sectors in which Lebanon had failed to progress, particularly social mobility and human rights. “The ratification of a number of international human rights conventions is still blocked,” the report said. “As in previous years, Lebanon has eight overdue reports of UN Treaty Bodies and it has not extended a standing initiation to all thematic special procedures.” In addition, in 2009, “incidents of torture and ill-treatment were reported, as were cases of arbitrary detention.” As for freedom of speech, “although Lebanon maintains one of the most open and diverse media environments in the Middle East, no significant progress was reported in the area of freedom of expression,” according to the report, which said migrant domestic workers continued to be maltreated in 2009. The report highlighted that the country’s national debt amounting to 156 percent of GDP — the forth highest in the world — was a gross increase on previous years. In terms of displaced peoples, Lebanon still fell short of providing refugees with adequate provisions, said the report. Laurent said EU’s commitment in Lebanon was not set to slip following Beirut’s stymied reform performance in 2009. “The fact that reforms were stuck in 2009 is not going to trigger a lack of EU interest towards Lebanon,” said the ambassador.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Bank Deposits Hit All-Time High in March
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MAY 13 — Banks deposits in Lebanon grew by 24 percent to exceed USD 103 billion in January 2010 and USD 105 billion in March of the same year, according to Makram Bou Nassar, acting deputy director at the Foreign Affairs Department in the Central Bank of Lebanon. “These numbers proved that our policies at the Central Bank are successful,” Bou Nassar was quoted on Thursday by the local press as saying. He added that credit services in Lebanon, unlike other countries, were increasing and their value exceeded USD 30 billion at the end of January 2010 growing by 17 percent annually. Bou Nassar said the foreign assets, including gold, amount to USD 40 billion, adding that the economic growth reached 8.5 percent in 2008 and 9 percent in 2009. “We expect good growth rates to continue in 2010. However, we still don’t have accurate numbers but it is probably more than 5 percent,” he said. Bou Nassar said the inflation rate stood at around 3 percent in 2009 compared to 10 percent in 2008. He expected inflation to be below 4 percent in 2010.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck: Iran Targeting U.S-Based Dissidents
The Iranian regime is notorious for cracking down on dissent inside Iran.
Now Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and the mullahs are targeting dissidents in other countries — including one prominent pro-democracy activist right here in the United States.
And the regime is using the international police organization, Interpol, to carry out its dirty work.
To learn more about the disturbing case of Iranian dissident Shahram Homayoun and how Iran is manipulating Interpol to target its opponents in the U.S. and Europe, watch my exclusive report at the link above.
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UAE: Cash Point Issues Gold Bars in Abu Dhabi
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, MAY 13 — It is surprising even here, though perfectly integrated among the luxurious ambience of the Emirate Palace of Abu Dhabi: the cashpoint revealed to the public, with rituals reserved to a work of art, is a solid steel 24-carat gold-plated parallelepiped, which does not issue cash, but gold bars. In exchange for 500 dirhams in Emirate currency, the machine issues four different gold bars — one, five, 10 and 31 grams (one ounce) bars — and six types of coins. For the first eight weeks there will be a maple leaf, a kangaroo and a Krugerrand, the first coin issued by the South African mint, on the coins, respectively in homage to Canada, Australia and South Africa, the three major gold-producing nations. After the launch, the coins will instead bear the arabesque logo of the Emirate Palace, the majestic 7-star hotel complex in Abu Dhabi. The machine, called “Gold to go”, was created by Ex Orient Lux about two years ago. After a 15-month production process, it made its first appearance, for one day only, at Frankfurt airport, then to be brought to its final destination in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The price of the bars, delivered in a black box within a plastic container, is constantly updated by a programme monitoring the international fluctuation of prices. The data reaches the machine’s brain every 10 seconds and is processed and updated for its public every 10 minutes. A public which Thomas Geissler, Executive Director of Ex Oriente Lux, sees as essentially comprising investors and tourists who want to bring back useful, original and above all, valuable mementos. And with a further advantage: they are covered by a “satisfied or reimbursed” (within 10 days) policy which allows them to return and be reimbursed at the market price of gold on the return date. The distributor, which can store up to 300 pieces of gold at the same time, is also equipped with various programmes to guarantee the security of its transactions, comprising an anti-recycling software and an appliance which activates an automatic shut-down mechanism in case of malfunctions or anomalies. Instead, any attempts to steal it are not a great cause for concern: the cash point weighs over 500 kilos and to make it explode, assures Geissler, it would take military-purpose explosives. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dissident Thai General is Shot; Army Moves to Confront Protesters
Gen. Khattiya Sawatdiphol, who is allied with the “red shirt” antigovernment protesters in Thailand, was shot in the head on Thursday during an interview with The International Herald Tribune.
Explosions and gunfire were heard in Bangkok as the Thai army moved to encircle the barricaded encampment of the demonstrators.
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US: Obama Backs Efforts to ‘Open the Door’ To Taliban
Washington, 13 May (AKI) — United States president Barack Obama said he would support reconciliation with Taliban insurgents on the condition that they renounce violence and sever relations with Al-Qaeda.
Speaking Thursday following a meeting in Washington with Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Obama said he backed efforts to “open the door” to the Taliban. Karzai is in the US for four days of meetings aimed at smoothing over relations between Kabul and Washington.
Obama said “perceived tensions” were “simply overstated”. He added that the US-led troops had begun to “reverse the momentum of the insurgency.”
Karzai has said he is willing to negotiate with the Taliban if they lay down their weapons.
Relations between the US and Afghanistan when the south Asian country came under intense international pressure to crack down on corruption.
When Obama in March visited Afghanistan, he personally criticised corruption in the Afghan government.
Following the August’s election, the United Nations, the US, and other NATO members, demanded that Karzai make major overhauls in the electoral system, tacitly indicating that they might withhold money for the next election if they did not see changes.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Cab Rapist Asks Court for Mercy
A taxi driver who raped a teenager after she passed out on his back seat has asked for mercy in Adelaide’s District Court.
Hajy Baba Rahmanian, 60, was found guilty of rape by a jury and is awaiting sentence after losing an appeal against his conviction.
The court heard that in June 2006 the 19-year-old victim got into Rahmanian’s taxi after a party at North Adelaide.
Her friends rode with her to Hindley Street in the city where they got out to continue celebrations and told the taxi driver to take the victim home because she had been passing out and was severely intoxicated.
The Court of Criminal Appeal judgment said a GPS tracking system in the taxi showed Rahmanian travelled towards the victim’s house in Adelaide’s southern suburbs but then veered off course.
He took her to his own house at Dover Gardens and had sexual intercourse with the unconscious teenager.
The victim remembers nothing of what happened, except for waking up some hours later with some clothing removed.
It was not until months after the rape that police tracked Rahmanian down, when he went to the victim’s house and left a jar of honey on her doorstop, then tried to call her.
In sentencing submissions, Rahmanian’s lawyer Grant Algie urged mercy, saying the crime was odd and at the lower end of the scale.
He said the Iranian immigrant did not fully appreciate the severity of the crime under Australian law.
“There is a very reasonable possibility that given his cultural background and limited insight into laws and sexual behaviour, he didn’t realise that having intercourse with somebody who is unconscious and therefore not consenting is a very serious crime,” Mr Algie told the court.
“Mercy, in my submission, could and should have a significant role to play in Your Honour’s sentencing.
“He is extremely remorseful about the current situation concerning the impact on his family.”
Prosecutor Chris Edge said Rahmanian abused his position of trust and the crime warranted a significant prison sentence to deter other taxi drivers from such crimes.
“The public should be able to trust taxi drivers to take them or their friends home safely,” he argued.
“It’s not uncommon for intoxicated people, including lone females, to rely on taxi drivers to take them home.”
Mr Algie said Rahmanian was from an educated family and had worked for the Iranian government on a cure for cholera before he was the target of torture and religious persecution when Iran changed leaders.
The prosecutor asked that Rahmanian be taken into custody immediately, but Mr Algie said the judge should carefully consider a suspended jail sentence.
Rahmanian was remanded on continuing bail ahead of sentencing next month.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Immigration: Displacing Us From Our Civilization
Will American society, culture and language survive an added 70 million immigrants within 25 years? That will prove the most significant question for the United States in the 21st century. Last week, a Muslim-American tried to blow up Times Square. His act gives us an example of our future.
Jesse Washington wrote, “But today, with the world a mouse click away and most every country in the world accessible in little more than a day, globalization is competing fiercely with assimilation. People who have a foot in two strikingly different cultures no longer leave one behind for the other. Now they can move between them easily, fluidly, quickly. Thus it becomes possible for a fanatical few Muslim-Americans, living in the belly of what they perceive as a hostile culture, to feel closer to a bombed Afghan village or a Pakistani madrassa than to the America outside their own front doors.” The assimilated terrorist: An outsider no longer — Welcome to Charter.net
A reader named Milt wrote me a compelling understanding of what America faces as it immigrates and displaces itself out of its own culture and language. The Muslim-American Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad last week illustrates our plight.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Did a Secret Climate Deal Launch the Hockey Stick Fakery?
The investigation into the alleged global warming data fraud by Virginia’s Attorney General may soon have a whole new angle. This comes from a previously overlooked connection between discredited tree-ring proxy researcher, Michael Mann and Yale’s now deceased climate professor, Barry Saltzman.
Despite his legacy, outside of climate science few people will have heard of Saltzman. It was only right at the end of his 40-year career that this esteemed analyst produced his greatest achievement: a unified theory of climate that drew worldwide plaudits.
[…]
Mann’s Ph.D ‘Rushed Through’
All was now well and Yale gave Mann his Ph.D in 1998. One eminent source in my enquiries confirmed Mann’s Ph.D. was, in fact “rushed through.”
Instantly, Mann was then plucked from obscurity and appointed not just a contributing author for Chapters 7,8,12 of the IPCC’s Third Assessment Report (1998-00) but also Lead Author for Chapter 2. And with no track record whatsoever in this field, Mann now with tree ring data thrust into his hand, famously carved out his infamous ‘hockey stick’ graph.
So what miracle had turned this problematic researcher’s life around? If miracles ever happened then for Mann they came in the form of Barry Saltzman. You see, this struggling student’s career was transformed the moment Saltzman became his Ph.D advisor. Only after Saltzman applied his influence was Mann’s lofty credentials “rushed through.” Mann then turns himself into a makeshift tree ring counter and overnight becomes the iconic figure in the IPCC Third Report (2001). The rest is history, as they say.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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