America’s Public Debt Explained
As most people are aware, nearly all governments spend in some years more than they take in in revenues. When they do this, they incur what is called budget deficits. To cover these shortfalls, they must borrow money.
National governments usually borrow by issuing various debt instruments which are broadly referred to as sovereign bonds or government bonds. Generally speaking, a government bond is a debt investment vehicle by means of which an investor—be it a private individual, an organization or a financial institution—loans a national government an amount of money for a defined amount of time at a specified rate of interest. Government’s national debt
The total outstanding amount of these securities makes up what is commonly referred to as a country’s national debt. There are a number of other terms that are used interchangeably—and often inaccurately and confusingly—to refer to the same thing. Some of them are “sovereign debt,” “government debt,” “public debt,” “total public debt,” “federal debt,” “gross debt” or just simply “the debt.”
It is important to keep in mind that in common usage these terms are meant to refer to the sum total of outstanding debt securities issued by a government. These terms should not encompass other obligations that governments may incur such as unfunded liabilities inherent in various social and retirement programs. Those are not, properly speaking, debt. They are merely a statutory pledge—which can be revoked through the legislative process—to deliver payments in the future.
[Comments from JD: Very informative article.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Fewer People to Shopping Centres
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MAY 19 — The economic crisis has hit French large-scale retail trade as well. According to the national council of shopping centres, quoted by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office In Paris, the number of visitors to shopping centres fell by 2.2% in April. This result is based on the figures supplied by the 87 main French shopping malls. The number of visitors dropped by 4.7% last year, and is also down in the past 12 months (-3.5%). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Declares Solo War on Speculators
[See the “Killionaires” News Item — Z]
BERLIN—Germany declared war on speculators on Wednesday, wrongfooting European partners who said they were not consulted about an overnight ban on naked short sales of a range of assets that rattled markets.
Chancellor Angela Merkel told German lawmakers EU leaders had to ensure markets could not “extort” the state any more and the bloc would introduce its own financial transaction tax or levy if the Group of 20 nations failed to reach a deal in June. Merkel urged EU leaders to speed up financial market
supervision and introduce a new tax on them, saying Berlin was ready to act alone on a ban on activities which some leaders blame for deepening the euro zone’s debt crisis.
Germany’s financial regulator said the ban was “due to the extraordinary volatility in government bonds in the euro zone”. Massive short-selling could have endangered the stability of the financial system, it said.
“I’ll boil it down to its core: The euro is the foundation for growth and prosperity, along with the common market — also for Germany. The euro is in danger,” Merkel told parliament..
But Germany’s European partners were blindsided by the ban. France and senior EU officials said they had not been consulted and called for concerted, not unilateral, action.
“It seems to me that one ought to at least seek the advice of the other member states concerned by this measure,” French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said, stressing that Paris was not considering banning naked short-selling on European debt.
The EU commissioner for internal markets and financial regulation, Michel Barnier, said in a statement the measures would have been more effective if coordinated at European level.
“It is important that member states act together and that we design a European regime to avoid regulatory arbitrage and fragmentation both with the EU and globally,” he said.
Markets were spooked by the lack of coordination and fears that Germany’s move was in response to a new financial problem.
Some analysts suggested Germany’s ban might be an attempt to get markets under control before further negative developments in the euro zone debt crisis — conceivably even a restructuring of Greek debt, which officials have so far ruled out.
Rabobank said Germany’s move “raises the question as to whether the German regulator knows something the market doesn’t. If there is a secret here, it can’t possibly be a positive one.”
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Bourse Recovers, Athens Pays Bonds
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 19 — The Athens Stock Market today closed positively after a difficult day during which it managed to lose over 4%, while Greek authorities today paid out 8.5 billion euros in expiring bonds. The General Index closed up 0.43%, above the 1,600-point mark, against the run of European stock markets. Meanwhile, the state’s accounting department has said that the country’s public debt has exceeded 310 billion euros. At March 31 2010, debt reached 310.384 billion euros against 298.524 at the end of 2009. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Zapatero; Tax Increases on Higher Incomes
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MAY 19 — Premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero today announced a tax increase which “will not involve the middle class” and will be restricted to higher incomes. In the course of a press conference following the EU-Andean Community Summit, held in Madrid, the Socialist leader explained that the increase will be decided “in good time”, when the Executive “considers it timely” and after an evaluation of the public deficit austerity plan announced by the Government last week. “There must be a greater effort made by those who have moré”, said Zapatero, specifying that it will have to be made by “the really do-haves”. “If eventually there is this increase”, he stated, “it will be limited and will not concern either the majority of tax payers, or the middle class”. At the moment, in any case, the Government is restricting its initiative to the programme for cuts, presented last Wednesday by Zapatero to Congress, to reduce the deficit by a further 15 billion euros by 2011. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Public Works, 1 Year Delay Due to Austerity Plan
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MAY 19 — Work on Spain’s infrastructure planned for 2010 and 2011 will be hit by a delay of at least one year, with a cut in investments of 3.2 million euros for the current year, due to the austerity plan announced by Prime Minister Zapatero’s government to reduce public deficit. The news was confirmed today by the Infrastructure Minister, José Blanco, to the Congress. The cuts will only spare the extraordinary public/private investment plan of 17 billion euros, which was announced by the government in a bid to revive the economy. The Infrastructure Minister estimates that 1.2 million euros will be saved with the application of his austerity programme, which will reduce the Ministry’s current spending by 15% and spending on dependent bodies and companies by 8%. Blanco explained that the spending recovery plan, which includes a 5.2% reduction of the current public deficit of 11.2% by 2011, will concern “all autonomous communities and all public works”. The cut of over 15 billion euros between 2010 and 2011 comes after the 50 billion cut laid out at the start of the year by the Madrid government in the Brussels-approved stability plan. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Housing “Recovery” Is Just Another Government Subsidy, Says Whalen
Homeowners and the real-estate industry have been heartened over the past year, as house prices have staged a startling recovery. In recent months, that recovery has started to wane, but in many parts of the country, prices are still higher than they were a year ago. And that’s welcome news for anyone who owns a house, makes their living selling or building houses, or is underwater on their mortgage.
But it’s all a mirage, says Chris Whalen, managing director at Institutional Risk Analytics. Or, more accurately, it’s all a product of government subsidies.
House prices have risen, Whalen says, because the government is desperately trying to get them to rise — to bail out banks who would otherwise be taking even bigger losses on the underwater mortgages. Similarly, house-building has restarted in earnest because some states are subsidizing house building, in part to address sky-high unemployment.
While these subsidies may have some positive benefits (jobs, happier homeowners), they also come at a cost: Our housing and debt binge will take longer to work through. Instead of dealing with the problem quickly, Whalen says, we will punish the economy for years. House prices may not fall much more, but they won’t likely take off, either. Instead, they’ll move sideways, as banks work through all the lousy loans they made in the last years of the bubble, and the country works through all the needless housing inventory we have now resumed building.
| — Hat tip: REP | [Return to headlines] |
UK Families Hit by the Highest Cost of Living Since 1991 as Gap Between Pay Rises and Inflation Hits Record Levels
Families are being crippled by the highest cost of living for nearly two decades, disturbing figures showed yesterday.
The retail prices index measure of inflation soared from 4.4 per cent in March to 5.3 per cent in April, the highest level since 1991, according to the Office for National Statistics.
In a cruel blow, it means that Britain’s workers have been stung by the worst ‘pay cut’ since records began.
The gap between the average pay rise — a measly 1.9 per cent — and inflation — a massive 5.3 per cent — has never been bigger, according to the ONS.
For millions of workers in the private sector, the situation is even bleaker because their salaries have been frozen since the recession began.
As a result, the soaring cost of living is a nightmare because their take-home pay has not changed, but their household bills are rising rapidly.
The worst culprit is petrol, with motorists forced to pay a record price at the pumps of £1.22 per litre for unleaded.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wall Street Killionaires Are at it Again
The very same people who were responsible for crashing U.S. markets in 2008 now have their sights set on Greece.
In our book “Killing Wealth, Freeing Wealth,” we identified this cabal of highly connected speculators — we call them “Killionaires” — who looted the U.S. stock markets and stole trillions in wealth from millions of investors.
Now the Killionaires are at it again.
They are once again orchestrating a sovereign debt crisis, and pocketing billions. Greek pensioners and welfare recipients are the losers this time, not to mention the European banks, insurance firms such as AFLAC and others invested in these European bonds.
The simple technique used is the same as that deployed against the mortgage bond market.
Killionaires manipulate the prices of bonds after taking huge derivative positions. Their favorite tool is the credit-default swap, which allows them to profit from a decline in bond prices.
Credit-default swaps are derivatives that pay a bond buyer face value if a borrower — whether a company or a country — defaults. In exchange, the swap seller gets the underlying securities or the cash equivalent. But the Killionaires do this without owning the bonds. These traders in naked credit-default swaps buy insurance on bonds they don’t own.
Because the markets for these derivatives are not on open exchanges, they are hard to track. This is why Warren Buffet has called them financial “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” Others have compared them to buying insurance on a neighbor’s house.
In this case, the Killionaires buy the insurance and then burn the house down. They burn it down by shorting the insured bonds. Sometimes these bond markets are small and relatively illiquid. This allows for massive profits to be reaped with no value created for the economy.
According to Bloomberg, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet explained on May 6 that he was concerned about speculation in bond markets using credit-default swaps: “By first buying the CDS and then trying to affect market sentiment by going short on the underlying bond, investors can make large profits.”
CNN is reporting that as a result, Greece is seriously considering legal action against U.S. investment banks that might have contributed to the country’s debt crisis. “I wouldn’t rule out that this may be a recourse,” Prime Minister Papandreou said. “There are similar investigations going on in other countries and in the United States. … I hear the words fraud and lack of transparency. So yes, yes, there is great responsibility here.”
If sovereign nations join the U.S. government in suing Wall Street bankers, what will that mean?
At present, the U.S. taxpayer is on the hook for almost any loss a Wall Street bank might incur. If Wall Street wins the lawsuits, they are free to go on looting. If Wall Street loses, they send the bill to the Obama administration who passes it along to taxpayers.
Does that mean taxpayers are in a lose-lose situation? Actually, it’s more of a lose-lose-lose situation — because when the Killionaires finish with Greece, they will likely move on to the next vulnerable country — perhaps Spain, Portugal, even Great Britain. Then they will return to the U.S. where even now, they have begun buying credit-default swaps on a U.S. bankruptcy and are again moving to burn the house down.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
American Medical Group Facilitates Barbaric Practice of ‘Female Circumcision’
The barbaric Muslim practice of mutilating the genitals of little girls apparently is A’OK with the American Academy of Pediatrics, at least just a little bit, anyway. In an act of political correctness gone mad the AAP has announced that it thinks it’s a good idea to mollify Muslims and gloss over their barbaric practice by instituting what they are calling a “ritual nick” on little girl’s genitals.
It’s the veritable camel’s nose under the tent flaps. After all, by what logic does one refuse to accept this disgusting attack on womanhood when you agree that any part of the practice is justifiable? Today it will be a “ritual nick,” then it becomes a “ceremonial slash,” graduating to excuse the removal of some ever growing amount of flesh, and before you know it we have full-blown mutilation of little girls just like many Muslims want.
In the AAP’s statement on such mutilation a “concern” over the supposed harm to the culture of these immigrant Muslims is treated as a legitimate worry.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arizona Official Threatens to Cut Off Los Angeles Power as Payback for Boycott
A member of Arizona’s top government utilities agency threw down the gauntlet in a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, threatening to cut off the city’s power supply as retribution for the city’s boycott of Arizona.
If Los Angeles wants to boycott Arizona, it had better get used to reading by candlelight.
That’s the message from a member of Arizona’s top government utilities agency, who threw down the gauntlet Tuesday in a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa by threatening to cut off the city’s power supply as retribution.
Gary Pierce, a commissioner on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission, wrote the letter in response to the Los Angeles City Council’s decision last week to boycott the Grand Canyon State — in protest of its immigration law — by suspending official travel there and ending future contracts with state businesses.
Noting that a quarter of Los Angeles’ electricity comes from Arizona power plants, Pierce threatened to pull the plug if the City Council does not reconsider.
“Doggone it — if you’re going to boycott this candy store … then don’t come in for any of it,” Pierce told FoxNews.com.
In the letter, he ridiculed Villaraigosa for saying that the point of the boycott was to “send a message” by severing the “resources and ties” they share.
“I received your message; please receive mine. As a statewide elected member of the Arizona Corporation Commission overseeing Arizona’s electric and water utilities, I too am keenly aware of the ‘resources and ties’ we share with the city of Los Angeles,” Pierce wrote.
“If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation.”
Appearing to tap into local frustration in Arizona over the raft of boycotts and threatened boycotts from cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Pierce warned that Arizona companies are willing and ready to fight boycott with boycott.
“I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands,” Pierce wrote. “If, however, you find that the City Council lacks the strength of its convictions to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy.”
Pierce told FoxNews.com that he was speaking for himself, not the entire commission, though he has the support of at least one other member. But Arizona has some serious leverage over Los Angeles, as well as the rest of California. The state and city get electricity from a nuclear power plant outside Phoenix, as well as from coal-fired power plants in northern Arizona and two giant hydroelectric power generators along the Colorado River.
Despite that, the Los Angeles City Council voted overwhelmingly last week to ban future business with Arizona — a decision that could cost Arizona millions of dollars in lost contracts.
Los Angeles officials were furious with the Arizona immigration law passed last month and joined local officials in cities across the country in pushing boycotts to register their dismay. Critics say the law will lead to racial profiling and civil rights abuses.
Arizona officials have defended the law, saying the state needed to take its illegal immigration problem into its own hands. Pierce said he’s “supportive” of the state’s efforts to control the border.
The law requires local law enforcement to try to verify the immigration status of anyone they have contact with whom they suspect of being an illegal immigrant. It empowers them to turn over verified illegal immigrants to federal custody. The legislation explicitly prohibits screening people based solely on race or national origin.
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Democrats Deny Purple Hearts to Pvt. Long and His Brothers
by Diana West
The House Armed Services Committee today approved an amendment to the 2011 defense authorization bill that declares the 2009 shootings at the Little Rock recruiting station and at Ft. Hood to be acts of war. Or at least a lawyerly equivalent as acts “of an enemy of the United States.” This provision will enable the government to provide, as Marine Times reports, a “one-time payment equal to what those killed and wounded would have received if they were in a combat zone at the time of the shootings.”
But no Purple Hearts.
Killed by Muslims professing jihad, these battle dead will lie in their graves unrecognized by the US government whose uniform they wore.
Another disgrace.
The Marine Times story hints at some distasteful Democrat bargaining over this — bargaining I’d like to know more about…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Gates Foundation Suggests Sterilizing Males With Ultrasound
Among the 78 research projects to receive $100,000 grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this week as part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, is an effort by researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to develop a non-invasive, reversible form of birth control for men — using ultrasound. Based on preliminary trials in rats, researchers James Tsuruta and Paul Dayton hope to develop a technique that would render men temporarily infertile for up to six months after one or two ultrasound exposures.
The project is one of 10 to receive grants toward the goal of creating new technologies for contraception. Other projects geared toward men include a male contraceptive pill that researchers say would work by limiting the maturation of sperm, and research into the specific chemical compounds in the vagina that guide sperm to egg — which researchers hope to recreate in the lab and potentially use to “disrupt” sperm navigation en route to the egg. (Earlier this year, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco uncovered clues about how pH levels impact how sperm swim, and expressed hope that further research in this arena could yield possibilities for male contraception as well.)
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Homeland Security Alert: Terror Suspect May be Headed to Texas Through Mexico
A Homeland Security Alert is asking Houston police and Harris County Sheriff’s deputies to keep their eyes open for a potential terrorist.
The alert focuses on Mohamed Ali, a suspected member of the terrorist group Al Shabaab. It indicates he may be traveling to the U.S. through Mexico.
Al Shabaab is a terrorist group based in Somalia with links to the Somali attacks dramatized in the movie “Blackhawk Down.” A few months ago, the group announced its allegiance to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kagan Hired Obama Man Who Wants to Censor Net
Has suggested targeting Hannity, those ‘right wing rumors,’ Web
NEW YORK — It was President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, who hired radical regulatory czar Cass Sunstein as a Harvard law professor.
Sunstein, like Kagan, has advocated extraordinary restrictions on speech and expressed extreme views on other topics.
In February 2008, Kagan, as dean of Harvard Law School, announced the arrival at Harvard of Sunstein, then a longtime University of Chicago scholar. Kagan called Sunstein “the preeminent legal scholar of our time.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kagan: Yes, Government Can Ban Books
Obama pick grilled by Supreme Court for supporting free speech censorship
In the first case she argued before the Supreme Court as solicitor general, Elena Kagan, President Obama’s pick to join the court, argued that the federal government has the power to ban books it deems to be “political electioneering.”
The stance begs the question how Kagan would respond toward legal challenges levied against political expose’s like “The Obama Nation” or “The Manchurian President.”
And even though Kagan testified the federal government has not used that power in 60 years of the relevant law being on the books and wouldn’t be likely to use it, she did affirm that political pamphlets could run afoul of the law as examples of “classic electioneering.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Government Lauds, Funds 9/11 Mosque
Census pays $582,000, State praises terror ‘front’ in video
WASHINGTON — The federal government is financially supporting and officially embracing a radical mosque in the Washington suburbs that is directly connected to al-Qaida and the 9/11 attacks as well as other terrorism.
The Census Bureau has signed a two-year, $582,000 lease with Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, where top al-Qaida recruiter Anwar Awlaki ministered to the Pentagon hijackers and the Fort Hood terrorist as a mosque leader.
Meanwhile, the State Department is taking diplomatic trainees on tours of the large Falls Church, Va., mosque, while featuring it in a video as a model depiction of Islam in America — even as the Department of Homeland Security warns that it is a terrorist front.
According to recently declassified internal reports obtained by the respected Investigative Project on Terrorism, Homeland Security has warned federal agents that Dar al-Hijrah is “operating as a front for Hamas” and “has been under numerous investigations for financing and proving (sic) aid and comfort to bad orgs and members.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Obama’s Assault on the Church, Via the EPA
In the kind of move forseen last year by Brannon Howse, the Obama administration is attempting to gain a foothold of ministerial (pardon the pun) influence over American churches, this by means of the pagan god, Gaia and the religion of environmentalism. It is to be accomplished through the EPA, a tender thought from souls of the likes of Marxist tacticians, Joel Rogers, Van Jones, and that old fellow sojourner, Jim Wallis.
Do we need to care for the earth? Yes, that is among Adam’s charges. Do we need the Church to be directed by government, to fulfill the deceitful schemes of thieving profiteers seeking global, Marxofascist governance? I know you can answer that question, too.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Raasepori Schools Frown on, But Will Allow, Islamic Scarves
Raasepori’s school district has backpedalled on an outright ban on head-scarves for female students. The city softened its stand in the face of one family’s fight to preserve its daughter’s right to cover her head in public.
Some time ago, the city quietly issued guidelines that forbade the use of visible religious symbols during school hours. The restriction is not based in Finnish law and according to many critics is unconstitutional. Raasepori is the only Finnish school district to issue such restrictions.
Raasepori school officials say that immigrants accepted the guideline when it was issued. Things changed when one Iraqi family announced that they would not allow their daughter to attend school unless the ban was revoked.
In the face of opposition, Raasepori’s officials watered down the guideline, announcing on Tuesday that the use of headscarves would no longer be banned as long as school traditions were respected. The announcement has left many in Raasepori unsure as to what that means; even some members on the deciding committee say they want clearer instructions.
The issue was hotly debated before Tuesday’s announcement. The city’s co-ordinator of immigrant affairs, Börje Mattsson, has been shuttling between the Iraqi family and the school board to find compromise.
“We want to normalize the situation as quickly and peacefully as possible,” says Mattsson.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
France: Government Passes Veil-Ban Law
Paris, 19 May (AKI) — French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s government on Wednesday agreed to impose a 150 euro fine on women who wear a full-body Islamic veil in public even though it knows such a law could be struck down in court.
“Citizenship should be experienced with an uncovered face,” Sarkozy told the cabinet meeting, in remarks released by his office. “There can be no other solution but a ban in all public places.”
The law must now be approved by parliament before its summer recess starts in late July.
Fines wouldn’t be imposed for the first six months while the government pushes an education campaign to convince women to expose their faces in public. The new rule would also impose a one-year jail term for forcing a woman to don a veil.
France’s top administrative court, has issued two advisory opinions warning that the European Court of Human Rights might rule that such a ban in all public places contradicts rights of personal freedom.
With about 5 million Muslims, France has western Europe’s largest Islamic population.
A similar law in Belgium must pass the low house of parliament. Swiss Justice minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said this week said that her government plans to use administrative powers to forbid full-face veils. Switzerland in November banned the construction of minarets.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rubbish Crisis Worsens in Palermo
Palermo, 18 May (AKI) — Angry residents in the Sicilian capital Palermo set rotting rubbish alight overnight and firefighters were called to put out blazes in several locations in the city and surrounding province, including the mafia stronghold of Bagheria. A family was evacuated from an apartment and two cars were also badly damaged.
Residents last Thursday in Palermo torched rubbish bins and improvised dumps overflowing with stinking garbage in protest against the city’s chronic rubbish crisis. Fire services scrambled to put out blazes in the city centre and outlying areas.
The months-long refuse crisis in Palermo, has received far less media attention than a similar emergency two years ago in the southern city of Naples, when hundreds of thousands of tonnes of stinking rubbish piled up on the city’s streets for many weeks.
Waste disposal in Italy has long been in the grip of organised crime.
Prosecutors questioned Sicily’s governor Raffaele Lombardo on Wednesday as ‘a person of interest’ concerning alleged impropriety in the construction of much-needed incinerators for the region.
The prosecutors said they had obtained ‘useful information’ from Lombardo, Adnkronos learned.
Prosecutors in the eastern Sicilian port city of Catania have requested that Lombardo and his brother Angelo be arrested for mafia association, Italian media reported last week.
Lombardo’s predecessor Salvatore Cuffaro is currently on trial for mafia association and is expected to be sentenced later this year.
Cuffaro is currently a senator for the centre-right Union of the Democratic Centre party.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Model ‘Happy’ To Hear of PM’s Divorce Accord
Naples, 18 May (AKI) — The Naples underwear model who received a 6,000 euro necklace from Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi last year says she is “relieved” to hear of his divorce settlement with his estranged wife Veronica Lario. Noemi Letizia denied wrecking Berlusconi’s marriage, although Lario announced she was leaving her husband after photos of him were published at her 18th birthday party in April last year.
“They say it’s my fault, but that’s not true. My problem is that I’ve got blonde hair and a little girl’s voice and people judge me on my appearance,” Letizia told Italian women’s weekly Diva e Donna.
She calls Berlusconi ‘Daddy’ but has always claimed her relationship with him is wholly platonic.
He has denied any “improper” behaviour with Letizia, although she says they met a number of times and she attended a New Year’s party when she was still a minor at his luxurious villa in Sardinia.
Letizia claimed she was pleased to hear that Berlusconi and Lario had reached a divorce settlement under which he will pay Lario maintenance of 300,000 euros a month.
Lario will also keep their large villa outside Milan where she currently lives.
“I’ am happy they’ve finally found some harmony and agreed, after such a long time,” said Letizia.
“I’m a peace-loving person and always want peace and love. I hate war and quarrels, and I’m not a person who starts fires,” she stated.
Letizia, who was previously single, told Diva and Donna she now has a steady boyfriend called Francesco Imparato who is studying economics in Naples.
“We met in Sardinia last year and got back in touch on Facebook. We’ve been going out for two months, I’ve introduced him to my parents and am serious about him,” she said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: MP Urges Action on Palermo Rubbish Crisis
Rome, 18 May (AKI) — An Italian opposition MP on Tuesday urged the government to take rapid action to end the garbage crisis in the Sicilian city of Palermo and surrounding areas. Ermete Realacci, an MP for the Democratic Party, said desperate local residents have been burning bins and dumps full of uncollected rubbish, further increasing the health risks posed by the chronic mismanagement of waste disposal in the region.
“Sicily’s rubbish emergency shows worrying similarities with that in Campania, including the exasperation that has driven citizens to take such seriously misguided action as setting garbage bins alight,” said Realacci.
“This is extremely harmful, both to the environment and above all for the health of citizens,” Realacci stressed.
A former environmental campaigner, he was presenting parliamentary questions to the Italian cabinet and the environment ministry.
One metric tonne of waste burned by local residents leaves up to 1,000 microgrammes of dioxins in the atmosphere, according to Realacci.
“This is a very large amount that can cause serious illnesses and contaminate water, soil and air, poisoning crops and livestock,” he said.
Italy’s waste disposal, especially in the south, has long been in the grip of organised crime.
According to Realacci, Sicily is bringing up the rear, recycling less than 7 percent of its garbage, far below the rates Italy’s regions are legally required to achieve.
“For some alarm bells have been ringing in Sicily, which remains the Italian region with the lowest recycling rates,” he said.
Prosecutors last week questioned Sicily’s governor Raffaele Lombardo as ‘a person of interest’ concerning alleged impropriety in the construction of much-needed waste incinerators for the region.
The months-long refuse crisis in Palermo, has received far less media attention than a similar emergency two years ago in the southern city of Naples, when hundreds of thousands of tonnes of stinking rubbish piled up on the city’s streets for months.
When he took office in May 2008, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi immediately sent in the army to Naples and deployed Italy’s civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso to end the garbage crisis.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Genoa Brutality Sentences Spark Row
Senior officer ‘sack’ calls rejected
(ANSA) — Rome, May 19 — Controversy raged in Italy Wednesday after Tuesday night’s appeals sentence in a trial for police brutality at the Group of Eight summit in Genoa in 2001 found superiors as well as lower officers guilty.
Victims and left-wingers hailed the verdict and even called for the high-ranking officers to be dismissed while members of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party slammed the sentence as showing alleged political bias.
Top officers Francesco Guatteri and Giovanni Luperi, both cleared in 2008, were given four years in jail for a raid on a school used by anti-globalist protesters as sleeping quarters. The head of the security police in Genoa at the time, Spartaco Mortola, also cleared at the original trial, was given three years eight months.
The 13 police agents convicted of brutality in 2008 saw their sentences raised from three to four years.
Former Rome flying squad chief Vincenzo Canterini, the only higher ranking officer convicted two years ago, saw his jail term lengthened from four to five years.
The judges found that the senior officials ordered the raid, unlike the 2008 judges who ruled the police acted on their own without instructions from their superiors.
The police who burst into the Diaz school in riot gear arrested 93 protesters, including British, French, German and other non-Italian nationals.
Three people were left comatose and 26 had to be taken to hospital in an incident that gained headlines worldwide.
Fake molotov cocktails were planted by police.
Police claimed they raided the Diaz school because the protesters were harbouring dangerous weapons. The officers were then forced to defend themselves, they claimed. The new sentences surprised Mark Covell, an English freelance journalist beaten by police in front of the school who has been campaigning to get the 2008 verdict changed. Covell was unconscious for 14 hours after the raid, which left him with a vein twisted around his spine, a perforated lung, broken fingers, ten smashed teeth and eight broken ribs.
“It’s a sensational sentence which restores strength and courage to so many Italians and foreigners who were beaten, tortured and imprisoned,” he said.
Heidi Giuliani, mother of a protester shot dead while attacking a policeman in a separate incident, said “the smile of (Lena) Zuhlke is the best reaction to the sentence”.
Zuhlke, from Germany, had five ribs broken and suffered from nightmares for years.
A statement from all the plaintiffs on Wednesday hailed the verdict, saying “we are happy to see that the Italian judiciary has corrected the unjust sentence of November 2008 and recognised the involvement, the criminal intent and the connivance of police chiefs”.
“We are convinced that the Diaz raid is a flagrant example of the systematic political control of police by the interior ministry,” it said, urging reforms to force police to respect human rights “in line with European Union standards”.
Vittorio Agnoletto, a leader of the anti-capitalist Genoa Social Forum who has accused the then government of trying to discredit the anti-globalist movement and even of using agents provocateurs to lead mayhem, called for Guatteri, Luperi and Mortola to be “immediately sacked”.
Gratteri, in 2001 a director of the national investigative office SCO, is now head of Italy’s Anti-Crime Office.
Luperi, at the time a deputy head of the Ucigos security police, is now at the Internal Intelligence and Security Agency.
Mortola, the former Genoa Digos security police chief, is now assistant police chief in Turin.
A leftist politician, Gigi Malerba, echoed the ‘sack’ calls and added that then national police chief Gianni De Gennaro, cleared last October of pressuring Genoa’s head of police to commit perjury in the Diaz trial, should face a retrial.
De Gennaro is now head of Italy’s intelligence services. Malerba added that incriminating then interior minister Claudio Scajola would be “more than right, but it would be like shooting at an ambulance.” Scajola was recently forced to stand down as industry minister over a shady Rome real estate deal linked to a public works graft scandal.
A group of senators from the largest opposition force, the Democratic Party, issued a statement saying “the sentence restores the rule of law”.
OFFICERS ‘WILL STAY ON’.
But Interior Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano of the PdL said the three officers would stay in their positions and enjoyed “the full confidence of the interior ministry”.
A PdL MP, Isabella Bertolini, claimed the verdict was “a sort of vendetta on behalf of the anti-globalists” while her colleague Enrico Costa, a member of the house justice committee, said the verdict showed there was “a feud” inside the judiciary.
Jole Santelli, deputy PdL House whip, called the verdict “ideological” and said Italy’s highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation, would have the final say on “whether the first judges were right or whether their severe appeals critics are”.
A member of the House constitutional affairs committee, PdL MP Giorgio Stracquadanio, called the appeals judges “mujaheddin” who had scored “a temporary victory”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Advice on Islam Dropped Due to Political Sensitivity
THE HAGUE, 18/05/10 — The Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) is dropping advice on the role of religion in the public domain. The plug has been pulled partly from political correctness, according to WRR staff member P. de Goede.
De Goede said yesterday in Nederlands Dagblad newspaper that the topic has been dropped from the agenda partly due to lack of time. “But the fact that the theme is extremely sensitive also played a role.” He “regrets” that the recommendations will no longer be made.
In December 2006, the WRR presented its report “Religion in the public domain.” It was the intention that an official recommendation to the cabinet on the role of religion would follow, but this project has now been dropped.
The WRR is still preparing a “supplementary publication” on the role of religion in the public domain, WRR communications advisor M. van Leijenhorst said yesterday in a reaction. But she was unable to say when this will be and in what form.
According to Van Leijenhorst, the reason for scrapping the project was “overwhelmingly of a practical nature”. It was mainly dropped, she explained, because the then WRR chairman W. van de Donk was leading the project but has since become governor of Noord-Brabant.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Child Murderer is Partner of Arrested Paedophile
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MAY 19 — The drama of the British mother who yesterday confessed the killing of her two children, 1 and 5 years old, in Lloret de Mar (Girona) has revealed a personal tragedy. The woman, according to police sources quoted by the online edition of El Periodico, is the partner of Martin Anthony Smith, the British alleged paedophile who was arrested in Barcelona on May 7 by the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police. The youngest was the son of the couple, the 5-year-old girl was born from previous relation of the woman. According to the sources, the mother has suffocated her children with a plastic bag. Martin Anthony Smith has been one of the most hunted paedophiles in the UK. He has been charged with the abuse of another stepdaughter between 1995 and 2005, among other accusations. The man was tracked down by the Mossos after a tip that he was staying in Barcelona, where he apparently sought refuge some time ago. He was living in the Horta district, where he was arrested in front of his house. He didn’t offer any resistance. Smith has been accused of numerous sexual assaults on his stepdaughter, who was under age at the time, of attempted violence against another minor and of indecent behaviour. He had been on the run for two years before his arrest in Barcelona. His partner yesterday warned the police of the murder, yesterday afternoon in the Miramar hotel in Lloret de Mar. The police have apparently confiscated a long letter written by the woman, in which she explains her motives for what she has done. The woman’s identity has not yet been revealed. The investigation, coordinated by the examining magistrate of the third division of the Court of Blanes, has been classified. The murderer will be interrogated today by the magistrate. The Institute for Forensic Medicine in Blanes will carry out an autopsy on the bodies of the two children. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Santander President, Never Paid Garzon for Courses
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MAY 19 — Today, Banca Santander President Emilio Botin repeated, in front of the Supreme Court, that he did not pay judge Baltazar Garzon for courses held at the University of New Tork, but did sponsor the courses at the U.S. university. Questioned as a witness part of the investigation that sees Garzon accused of alleged abuse of authority, Botin assured that it did not “even pass through his mind” that Santander’s sponsorship could go to “an actual private individual”, according legal sources cited by Europa Press. The banker also denied having a friendship with the judge, who has been suspended from the Audiencia Nacional after being brought to a trial that sees him accused of abuse of authority in an investigation that he opened into crimes during the Franco dictatorship, based on a lawsuit by extreme right-wing groups. Judge Marchena of the Supreme Court, who is investigating into the case of Santander’s alleged payment of Garzon, has summoned other witnesses for May 26, including the bank’s Vice-President and Managing Director, Alfredo Saenz, and successively, the former Vice-President of Cepsa, Carlos Perez de Bricio, and the adjunct director of the Rey Juan Carlos Center of the University of New York, where Garzon taught courses between 2005 and 2006. Meanwhile, yesterday the Consejo Superior del Poder Judicial, the Spanish governing council of the judiciary, authorised the temporary transfer of Garzon as an advisor to the ICC. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Files That Damn Roman Polanski: Court Account of What Director Really Did to a Girl, 13
[Comments from JD: WARNING: Disturbing content.]
There’s nothing that a group of campaigning luvvies likes more than an issue to which they can add the full weight of their self-importance.
Usually it’s something suitably worthy like the environment, or political prisoners. But the latest cause celebre has a rather more glamorous and controversial edge to it.
Ever since the arrest of Roman Polanski in Switzerland last autumn, his showbusiness friends have been working overtime to prevent his extradition to the United States.
[…]
This week, the campaign was rather dented by accusations from actress Charlotte Lewis, who claimed Polanski had ‘sexually abused’ her in 1983 when she was only 16 after plying her with Moet & Chandon champagne.
Lewis, who is now helping Los Angeles prosecutors, alleges he told her: ‘I must sleep with every actress that I work with.’
No doubt Polanski’s supporters will dismiss Lewis’s story as irrelevant, but together with the case of Samantha Geimer, many will feel these latest accusations suggest a disturbing pattern of behaviour involving drink, teenage girls and sex.
Would Polanski’s cheerleaders be quite so vocal in his defence if they knew exactly what happened that afternoon in 1977 with 13-year-old Samantha?
The Mail has obtained Polanski’s probation officer’s report — an extraordinarily revealing document which records in grim and forensic detail how the then 43-year-old went about seducing a girl 30 years his junior with the aid of a good deal of alcohol and a drug that would have rendered her almost incapable of resisting.
If the facts are shocking today, they were even more so at the time — as I remember all too well.
[…]
The 28-page probation report was prepared for this sentencing — court case A334139, ‘The people of the state of California vs Roman Raymond Polanski’ — and was put together during the six weeks that the director was in Chino jail for psychiatric assessment.
It reveals that far from the crime being an impromptu lapse, as his supporters argue, Polanski carried out not just one, but a succession of sexual assaults against Samantha — and that he knew exactly what he was doing throughout.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bomb-Maker Unmasked After Girl, 7, Looking for Lost Ball Sets Off Trip-Wire Explosion in His Garden
A bomb-maker was discovered when a schoolgirl looking for her ball accidentally stepped on a trip-wire in her neighbour’s garden, a court heard today.
The terrified seven-year-old set off a series of detonators when she tried to get the ball from the house of ‘hate-filled’ Donatien Se Sabi Bestrualta Chamchawala.
Her parents called police who uncovered a weapons cache and explosives den in his home in a quiet street.
Police said Chamchawala, 31, had a hatred of gays, Jews and — irrationally — black people, and they believed he could have targeted them for attacks.
Chamchawala, of Blackwood, Caerphilly, south Wales, was today detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after admitting making and possessing explosives.
Nicholas Jones, prosecuting, said the defendant, 31, was born with the name Andrew Webbe but changed it in 2003.
He said he chose Donatien after the French author and aristocrat the Marquis de Sade, who shared that name.
He added: “Bestrualta is an anagram of “ultrabeast” and Chamchawala is a character in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.
[…]
Anti terror police who raided the house in Blackwood, South Wales, found two swords, a sawn-off shotgun, a revolver a machete and a bullet proof vest.
There were also hundreds of pages of documents where Chamchawala expressed his hatred for innocent civilians including Jews, ‘Christian cesspit of America’ and British National Party activists.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Charities Fear Rise in Acid Attacks Avenging Slights on Family Honour
When Awais Akram answered his mobile to Sadia Khatoon, a 24-year-old married woman whom he had met on Facebook and had recently started a physical, but not sexual, relationship with, he had little idea of the fate that was about to befall him.
Mrs Khatoon insisted they meet outside his flat in Leytonstone, east London, but as Mr Akram stepped out into the summer sunshine his lover was nowhere to be seen. Instead he was confronted by three masked men wearing gloves, one of whom was carrying a bottle of “Give It One Shot” drain cleaner.
The men, who included Mrs Khatoon’s brother Mohammed Vakas, had come to wipe off what they believed was a stain on their family’s “izzat” (honour). Beating and stabbing Mr Akram was not enough. As he lay bleeding on the floor, Vakas stepped over his victim and poured the entire bottle of drain cleaner over Mr Akram’s face and body.
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In parts of the developing world — particularly south-east Asia, the south Asian subcontinent and east Africa — acid attacks are common. The Taliban and fellow extremists have frequently resorted to throwing acid in women’s faces for even small transgressions, such as daring to go out unveiled. But there are concerns that such attacks may also be on the increase in the UK.
Hospital admission figures for the past three years show a steady rise in the number of people being treated for acid attacks. According to the NHS information centre, 44 people were admitted to hospital in 2006-07 after they were “assaulted with a corrosive substance”. The following year the figure jumped to 67 and last year there were 69 admissions.
The figures only include hospital admissions where a patient had to spend one night or more in hospital and there is no ethnic breakdown. But charity workers fear there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest acid attacks are becoming more common.
Acid Survivors Trust International, a charity which specialises in helping victims of acid attacks in places like Bangladesh and Pakistan, recently began work on a project documenting such attacks in Britain. It is the first serious attempt to map where acid assaults take place and what motivates their British perpetrators.
Rick Trask, the charity’s UK-based researcher, said it would be some time before they really knew whether acid attacks were an increasing problem but that enough evidence existed to warrant an initial investigation.
“It’s hard to pin down exact numbers because they are held across different departments, such as NHS trusts and police,” he said. “The question we need to ask is whether the few cases we know about are the tip of the iceberg.”
Last week Mr Akram, a Danish-born Muslim of Pakistani origin, relived his ordeal in court during the trial of his attackers, who were jailed for between eight and 30 years. From the witness box, livid scars from the attack last July were clear for all to see. His body suffered 47 per cent burns and needed four skin grafts to repair. In his victim statement, the 25-year-old described how he faced a lifetime of recovery.
“If I ever go out by myself, I get very upset,” he said. “I have been out only once or twice. I’m very scared and I keep looking back to see if someone’s there. Whenever I do anything my hands don’t work properly at the moment. I feel like I have a kind of fear which is inside my brain and I feel like it will be there for the rest of my life.”
Mr Trask was keen to highlight that acid attacks happen across a range of different countries, cultures and religions. “You get attacks in Buddhist Cambodia, among Christians in Uganda and across south Asia, which has many different religions,” he said. “It’s not specific to one culture or another. But what they almost always do have in common is some sort of gender-based violence and the desire to permanently disfigure their victims.”
In March 2008 an up-and-coming TV presenter had acid thrown in her face by a man who had been paid by her jilted ex-lover. Katie Piper, now 27, documented her slow and painful recovery in a Channel 4 programme.
Diana Nammi, the founder of the London-based Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation, which has helped scores of victims to escape potential honour killings in the UK said: “In Turkey, Kurdistan and Iran [acid attacks are] a very common way of punishing women for what a community deems to be inappropriate or shameful behaviour. What scares me is that there are early indications [they are] becoming more prevalent in Britain.”
Miss Nammi said that attackers were motivated by a cruel desire to mark their victims forever and send a terrifying message to the wider community that “cultural transgressions” would not be tolerated.
“It’s a way of marking victims with what they believe is a physical manifestation of their shame,” she said. “They deliberately take away a person’s beauty and mark them forever. In Britain attacks are thankfully quite rare but threats are all too common.”
Jasvinder Sanghera, who runs Karma Nirvana, a Derby-based charity that hosts a national helpline for victims of forced marriages and honour violence, agrees.
“We’ve received many calls from terrified people, usually women, who say a brother or father has threatened to throw acid in their face because of the way they are behaving,” she said. “They’ve seen what happens in Pakistan, or India or Bangladesh, and they know that such a threat could be easily be carried out.”
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tamper at Your Peril: Clegg Risks Tory Fury With Warning Over Human Rights Act and Tax Reform
- Clegg declares: You can’t ‘tamper’ with Human Rights Act
- He also warns coalition will re-balance taxes rather than cut
- Tory MPs to run guerrilla campaign on tax and voting reform
- Free vote to scrap hunting ban also kicked into long grass
Nick Clegg risked angering his Conservative coalition allies today with a warning that any government ‘tampers’ with the Human Rights Act ‘at its peril’.
The Liberal Democrat Leader, who today delivered a major speech on political reform, also said the new Government will aim to make the tax system fairer rather than reduce the overall burden.
The Deputy Prime Minister’s comments risk heightening growing tensions between the two parties over the Human Rights Act, which the Tories pledged to scrap in their election manifesto.
Tory backbenchers are already up in arms and working out how they can block plans to hike capital gains tax and to make dissolution of Parliament impossible unless 55 per cent of MPs agree.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Crackdown on Christians Ramping Up
Analyst: Deportation orders reflect fear Muslims will convert
The government of Morocco has notified another 23 mostly Christian foreigners, including one American, that they’re scheduled for imminent expulsion from the North African country.
And an analyst says that those targeted by the deportation order indicate the government of Morocco, which historically has been considered a moderate Muslim nation, now is fearful that Muslims will convert if exposed to Christianity.
This is the second large deportation action taken by the Moroccan government against mostly Christian individuals in the past two months. More than 40 Christian workers were deported from Morocco in March.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi: Italy Would Lead ‘Marshall Plan’
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 19 — Italy wants to “drive” the aid plan for the recovery of the economy of the West Bank and of the Palestinian people. The intent was announced by the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, during a press conference at Villa Madama with the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak. Berlusconi again put forward the small Sicilian town of Erice as a potential base for talks between Israelis and Palestinians. “We have offered to take on all expenses for the duration of the stay of the negotiators and we have offered our desire to drive forward the support plan for the West Bank’s economy”, with the creation of an international airport able to host pilgrims, a call to the ten most important tourism companies to create new infrastructure, and the opening of “production points” to give work to Palestinian citizens. “We understand the difficulties involved, there is a certain fragmentation in Israel and a strong fragmentation among the Palestinians on some issues,” said Berlusconi, adding that “we are all putting pressure on Israel and the Palestinians so that preliminary talks may begin”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mubarak: Israeli Delays Pave Way for Terrorism
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 19 — If Israel continues to delay and “to postpone” key issues in proximity talks, which are about to open with the Palestinians, “terrorism will grow, not only in the Middle East, but everywhere in the world,” said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in a press conference at Villa Madama with Silvio Berlusconi. “It is not in the interest of anyone,” he added, “to continue on this path of postponements.” The Egyptian leader previously pointed out how Arab states and the U.S. support proximity talks focussed on key issues such as the definitive status of the Palestinians, security and the Jerusalem question. Israel, after initially accepting, then “said no”, and wants to negotiate “on secondary matters that interest no one”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
PNA: Erekat Hopes for State Deal Within 4 Months
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, MAY 19 — The Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has said today that he hopes that the next four months of proximity talks with Israel, carried out through the United States, “will lead to an agreement on the constitution of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 border lines”. Erekat, who was speaking after a meeting in Ramallah with the U.S envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, said that the talks “tackle key questions, such as the issues of borders and security”. Erekat gave Mitchell a list of what the Palestinian Authority considers Israeli “provocations”, including army raids on Palestinian cities, “provocative” statements by Israeli political leaders and attacks by settlers against the Palestinian population. Mitchell had previously been received for talks by the President of the PNA, Mahmoud Abbas. Meanwhile, the Arab language daily Al Quds Al-Arabi, which is published in London, reports that Mahmoud Abbas is thought to be ready to accept the stationing of NATO troops to prevent the smuggling of weapons within a future potential Palestinian state, which will have to be demilitarised.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Arab World Takes a Wait-and-See Attitude Towards Iran Nuclear Programme Deal
Arab governments are silent as media reacts with caution. Turkey’s Erdogan says deal should stop new sanctions against Tehran. China is happy about it but the West and Russia are guarded. Iranian officials insist Iran will continue to enrich uranium. No official word has yet come from Israel.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — The agreement reached by Iran, Turkey and Brazil (leaders of the three countries pictured) has been met with caution in the Arab world, with suspicion in the West and approval in China. Under the terms of the deal, signed on Monday, Iran will send its uranium to Turkey for 20 per cent enrichment (enough for medical and research purposes). The goal of the deal according to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke on Iranian TV, is to stop harsher sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear programme.
With slight differences, the United States, Europe and Great Britain point to the agreement’s one-sidedness.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki insisted that Iran would continue to enrich uranium for its nuclear plants. For Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, “There is no relation between the swap deal and our enrichment activities”.
According to the White House, the exchange could be a “positive step”, but warned that the agreement did not address some of the principal issues the US has with Iran’s nuclear programme, nor does it necessarily stop sanctions. The European Union through a spokeswoman for EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton voiced similar concerns; so did Russia.
In Israel, Haaretz reports that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Foreign Ministry instructed all officials involved in the Iranian nuclear issue, as well as cabinet ministers, not to make any remarks. The PMO said Israel’s response would be released over the coming days. It is likely the Jewish State is waiting for Western reactions.
Conversely, China has welcomed the fuel swap plan, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said late on Monday while visiting Tunisia, Xinhua news agency reported. Beijing has always been reluctant to impose new sanctions because Iran is one of its main suppliers of oil and gas.
In the Arab world, media appear cautious in their reaction, whilst governments have taken a wait-and-see attitude.
Citing John Large, an independent nuclear consultant, Al Jazeera points out that “Turkey has no facilities whatsoever. It is not a nuclear country, so it has no enrichment facilities, and of course, it doesn’t really have any storage facilities”.
Lebanon’s L’Orient Le Jour quotes experts who say that the “Tehran agreement places the West in an embarrassing position because it would be difficult to challenge a deal negotiated by Brazil and Turkey, key US allies.”
Similar, Saudi Arabia’s Arab News notes that the “deal goes to the heart of international concern over Tehran’s nuclear activities.”
Lastly, in Dubai, Gulfnews suggests that some “Observers say the deal may be a stalling tactic by Iran to delay harsher sanctions against it”. (PD)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Former Prisoners ‘Becoming Al-Qaeda Leaders’
Baghdad, 18 May (AKI) — Iraqi security forces are concerned that many of the prisoners released by US troops are becoming leaders in the Al-Qaeda terror network on their release. According to local news site, Al-Sumaria News, Baghdad security forces spokesman Major General Qassim Atta revealed the level of concern to reporters on a visit to Abu Ghraib prison.
“Most of the prisoners freed by American forces from their prisons in the last few years have become Al-Qaeda leaders once they are released,” he told reporters.
“To stop this phenomenon we have signed a security accord with US troops, so that before freeing any prisoner they ask Iraqi forces their opinion.”
In the past US troops, who had more than 20,000 prisoners in Iraqi prisons, could release prisoners without informing local security forces.
Iraq’s security forces has vowed to eliminate Al-Qaeda’s new leadership, after the terror network named replacements for two senior commanders killed last month.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the political leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Ayub al-Masri, an Egyptian militant who was the insurgent group’s self-styled “minister of war,” were killed on 18 April in a joint US-Iraq operation.
Al-Qaeda announced on Sunday it had appointed replacements for the two — Baghdadi, the “Emir of the Believers,” and Abu Abdullah al-Hassani al-Qurashi, his “prime minister and deputy.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Media: Bahrain Suspends Al Jazeera Manama Activities
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, MAY 19 — Bahrain has suspended the activities of the Manama office of the Qatar-based satellite TV network Al Jazeera for having violated deontological rules and publishing laws. It is reported by the petroleum Emirate’s news agency BNA, citing a notice released by the Ministry of Culture and Information. “The TV station’s activities will continue to be suspended until the Ministry and Al Jazeera have come to an agreement for memorandum of understanding to protect the rights of both parties on the basis of reciprocity to exercise the profession in both countries”, the notice says, not specifying which rules have been violated.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The World From Berlin: ‘Tehran is Succeeding in Duping the West’
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (left), Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pose for a picture after signing the deal Monday.
On Monday, Brazil and Turkey brokered a deal with Iran that would see it trading enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. Observers in Germany see a diplomatic coup for the rising powers, but warn that it could just be another ploy on the part of Iran.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday announced a surprise agreement with Iran that would see Tehran shipping around half of its nuclear fuel to Turkey. In exchange for 1,200 kilograms (2,650 pounds) of low-enriched uranium it would send to Turkey, Tehran would be entitled to get about 120 kilograms (265 pounds) of unranium enriched to 20 percent from France and Russia — fuel it needs to operate a research reactor that produces isotopes for cancer patients. That level of enrichment is also far greater than the 3.5 percent enrichment possible in Iran’s own production facilities.
The move is seen as a bold one for Brazil and Turkey, two aspiring powers that have gained significant international stature in recent years. The deal also comes at an inopportune time for US President Barack Obama. The United States wants to push for more sanctions against Iran in the United Nations Security Council, and the deal comes just weeks before Washington is expected to move on the issue.
Despite the deal brokered on uranium swaps, though, Iran insists that it will continue with its efforts to develop its own uranium enriched to 20 percent. The country has long claimed it needs enriched uranium for its civilian nuclear program, but most Western countries believe the regime in Tehran is trying to collect the material it needs to build a nuclear bomb.
“Iran said today that it would continue its 20 percent enrichment, which is a direct violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Enduring Suspicions
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s deputy spokesman, Christoph Steegmans, noted on Monday that Iran must adhere to agreements made with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He said the decisive point would be whether Iran abandoned its own efforts to enrich uranium.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said Iran has done nothing to eliminate the suspicion that it is secretly working to develop a nuclear weapon. A French Foreign Ministry spokesperson also argued the deal would do nothing to address the primary problems in Iran: the uranium enrichment program at Natanz and the heavy-water reactor being built at Arak.
The Obama administration wants to push through a fourth package of sanctions against Iran in the Security Council. Washington has Europe’s backing, but the sanctions are notably opposed by Turkey, Brazil, Russia, China and other members of the Security Council.
A deal similar to Monday’s brokered in October by the United States, Russia and France would have provided the nuclear fuel Tehran needs to treat its cancer patients while at the same time depriving it of the amount of enriched uranium it would need to produce a bomb.
In the German press on Tuesday, many newspaper editorialists weigh in on a shifting balance of power in global politics that has seen the rise of countries like Brazil and Turkey. But they also share the view that this is a dupe on the part of Iran and that Tehran is continuing with its alleged efforts to build a bomb.
Business daily Handelsblatt writes:
“How long will Iran’s compromise last this time? According to the new agreement with Brazil and Turkey, Tehran will be exchanging its uranium on Turkish territory for more highly enriched Russian and French fuel. It seems likely that it will, yet again, only take a few months until their tactics become obvious.”
“But this time it’s not only about the obligatory question of the political half-life (of the move). With this agreement, Turkey and Brazil are making their international political ambitions clear. Naively, we still like to look down at them, considering them to be developing nations that are wannabe global powers. The reality looks very different, though. Brazil is, in fact, the leader of a continent, and Turkey is beginning to play a similar role in the Middle East. Both want to produce nuclear power themselves and are currently rotating members of the UN Security Council.”
“With this agreement, Tehran is succeeding in duping the Western nations. It’s a diplomatic success, in which more moderate voices pushed through a deal in the end despite the hardliners, who didn’t want to make any concessions over their nuclear program. But in the end they hardly need to: The agreement is in principle the same as what Germany and the permanent members of the United Nations had brokered with Iran some time ago. The Iranians simply haven’t implemented it.”
“A credible agreement could only look like this: uranium enrichment in foreign countries, unannounced access to Iran’s nuclear facilities for international atomic inspectors and, in exchange, help with power plant construction in Iran.”
Left-leaning Die Tagezeitung writes:
“Iran is softening its tone over its nuclear program. This is excellent news because, in the dispute over its presumed or actual nuclear production capabilities, it seemed as if a new war was drawing closer. Even though Western governments are skeptical and want to know exactly what was agreed to Monday between the three nations, this shows that diplomacy still has a chance.”
“The agreement is an important first step because it again establishes a dialogue between Iran and parts of the UN Security Council.”
“Brazil and Turkey are currently non-permanent members of the Security Council. And Brazil’s da Silva and Turkey’s Erdogan have long stated their opposition to sanctions or even military action against Iran. Despite their intermittent frustration over the disunity and volatility of the Iranian leadership, the Turks have been steadfast in their conviction that there must be a diplomatic solution and that talks should continue in spite of all the objections to Ahmadinejad.”
“Following this initial achievement, the ball is now in the court of the IAEA and the veto-holders on the Security Council. One must hope that they proceed along the path paved by Turkey and Brazil.”
The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:
“Iran has so often promised something with respect to its nuclear program only later to declare that it didn’t truly mean what it said. Besides, Iran would have to halt domestic uranium enrichment and sign a contract with the IAEA. Only then could one speak of a breakthrough.”
“Still, the chances of success this time around are not as bad as before. Iran is already under pressure due to the existing sanctions, and newer ones would only increase Tehran’s current political and economic problems. Moreover, it could provide the Iranian leadership with a face-saving opportunity: After all, the treaty wasn’t negotiated with the evil West, but with Turkey and Brazil, two countries that enjoy good relations with Iran.”
“For its part, the US has said that the Security Council will agree to tougher sanctions against Iran by the end of May — a development that now seems unlikely. But the West hasn’t offered any alternative program, either. That’s why they should be pleased by the treaty — or at least the time bought by it — and show more optimism. More, at least, than is signaled by their initial skeptical and critical reactions.”
The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
“The 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium that Iran is supposed to give up, would have been more than two-thirds of the country’s supplies if it had happened last October. But now it is only half (because of Tehran’s own continuing enrichment efforts) — and Iran would therefore keep enough to build at least one nuclear bomb. Erdogan and Lula didn’t even succeed in securing a promise from Ahmadinejad that Iran would abandon its efforts to create highly enriched uranium.”
“No one in Europe or the United States has anything against Turkey or Brazil coming up with a creative effort to solve the nuclear dispute. But if they allow themselves to be deceived by the regime in Tehran, it will do little to improve the reputations of these rising powers.”
The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung makes a rough comparison of Lula’s and Ergodan’s visit to the Non-Aligned Movement initiated by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito as an alternative to American and Soviet hegemony during the Cold War era:
“The parallels between then and now are not entirely complete. Lula da Silva’s Brazil, which assumed the lead in negotiations in Tehran, was never part of the Non-Aligned Movement. And the Turkey of Erdogan is a member of NATO and is seeking membership in the European Union. What does unite both, though, is that as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council they do not want further sanctions against Iran to be passed. They are joined by India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Kenya, Argentina and other members. Veto powers Russia and China weren’t present in Tehran, but they do not want to see any consolidation of the American position in the region, either. Even the foreign minister of the US client state Egypt helped prepare the (Tehran) meeting.”
“Doubts remain as to whether Iran will actually deliver the fuel, and especially over whether Tehran will now end its enrichment program as the UN has ordered it to do in three resolutions. If that were to happen, everyone would be happy — except, perhaps, for those who would prefer to see the situation escalate rather than be resolved.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Transplantation: Emirates Pass Law on Donation by Deceased
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, MAY 19 — The United Arab Emirates has issued a law that allows the transplantation of organs from living or deceased donors, also outside the second degree of kinship. The law supplements current regulations that have been in force since 1993, which don’t include a definition of death, making it impossible to use organs of deceased persons. In the new law, three specialists, including a neurologist, have to certify that a person is dead. After that, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and heart can be used for transplantation if the person in question has previously given his or her explicit consent, or, in the absence of a testament, if the person’s relatives approve. The new law also opens the door for transplantation to non-related persons, multiplying the possibilities on regional and international level. The medical community in the United Arab Emirates welcomes the move, but at the same time warns that specialised infrastructures and precise procedures for the registration, selection, and priority of patients and donors are needed to make organ donation efficient. Another aspect that should be considered is that many families may not accept brain death as the actual end of someone’s life. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UAE Teenagers Get World Record Weekly ‘Pocket Money’
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 19 — Teenagers living in the Arab Emirates are those, throughout the world, that spend the most money. A study, in fact, reveals that the Emirate’s teenages, aged between 13 and 19, spend more than double the average each week of their contemporaries in any other country in the world. According to the research, every teenager who lives in one of the Emirates spends an average of 82 dollars a week, against 32 which is the average world-wide. For their part, Saudi teenagers spend 46 dollars, and Egyptian teenagers just six. Most of the “pocket money “is used to buy clothes.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: First UAE Ambassador is a Woman
(ANSAmed) — VATICAN CITY, MAY 18 — The first ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the Holy See is a woman: Hissa al Otaiba. She will present her letters of credence to Benedict XVI in the morning of Thursday May 20, press agency I.Media, specialised in information on the Vatican, reports. The diplomat, who has already been ambassador to Spain, was one of the first two women in 2008 to be made ambassador of the United Arab Emirates. The Holy See and the United Arab Emirates established full diplomatic relations on May 31 2007. In these three years, despite the fact that there was no ambassador from Abu Dhabi in the Vatican yet, the Holy See already accredited two apostolic nuncios: first the Lebanese Monsignor Mounged El-Hachem, followed by the Canadian with Croatian origins, Monsignor Petar Rajic, appointed on March 27 of this year. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Somali Pirates Sentenced to Death for Brutal Hijackings
Saana, 18 May (AKI) — A Yemeni court has sentenced six Somali pirates to death for hijacking a Yemeni oil tanker and killing two cabin crew off the coast of Aden last year. Another six pirates received jail sentences of 10 years for their role in the hijacking of the oil tanker, Qana.
Heavily armed Somali pirates have earned tens of millions of dollars in ransoms by hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and the strategic Gulf of Aden, the main thoroughfare for an estimated 7 percent of the world’s oil shipments.
In Tuesday’s ruling the convicted pirates are required to pay the company that owns the hijacked vessel, Masafi Aden, a sum of 2 million Yemen riyals (9,200 dollars).
The defence ministry’s online newspaper said the court would require Masafi Aden to pay a certain portion of the reparations to the Yemeni victims’ families.
A total of 35 hijackings and attacks occurred off the coast during the first three months of this year.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Investigators Have Confirmed That More Than One Person Was Present in the Cockpit of the Polish Presidential Plane Crash Which Resulted in the Death of Over 90 People.
Amateur footage of the aftermath of he plane crash which killed 96 senior Polish citizens
The plane carrying the president of Poland and other senior members of the Polish government, armed forces and religious leaders crashed in April in Western Russia.
The plane crashed in Smolensk Airport while the passengers were heading to the Russian city to commemorate the Katyn massacre which resulted in thousands of Poles being killed by Soviet forces in 1940.
The investigation which was carried out by the inter-state air committee for the former Soviet Union has concluded that there were more than one non-crew member on approach to the airport and that the crew were repeatedly told by air traffic controllers that it was not safe to land due to the mist.
The Russian investigators have not named the non-crew members.
Alexei Morozov, chairman of the investigating commission said air traffic control officials had warned in two occasions that visibility was 400m and that conditions were poor for landing to the pilots of the plane.
The investigation has also concluded that the Russian made Tupolev-154 presidential plane was in good working order before it crashed.
This latest development will fuel more conspiracy theories about the plane crash as relations were known to be poor between Russia and Poland.
Russia has sternly denied previous accusations and has claimed them to be ridiculous unfounded accusations.
The conspiracy theories about the plane crash had increased after a Russian man had filmed the crash site with his mobile phone in which Russian official had allegedly shot survivors.
However, this theory has also been ridiculed as no bullet wounds have been reported from the bodies found from the crash site.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
The Man Who Took the Footage of the Aftermath of the Polish Plane Crash Which Killed the President of Poland Has Been Rumoured to be Stabbed to Death.
[video at link]
Video of the amateur cameraman who filmed the plane crash scene which killed the Polish President and 95 senior members of the Polish Armed Forces and members of parliament.
The Russian man who was one of the first people on the site of the plane crash which killed all 96 people on board including late Polish president, his wife and a further 94 senior members of Polish Armed forces and politicians has been rumoured to be stabbed to death.
Alleged amateur video footage of the plane crash in Smolensk had caused controversy and was the source of numerous conspiracy theories as alleged gun shots were heard at the site.
The video footage which some experts say is a fake showed men in the distance walking around the crash site where several gunshots were heard.
Some are saying he was assassinated to silence the man from speaking out of what ever he saw.
Here is the translation of the Polish website which first said that the cameraman was murdered
“the Author of the video seen by everyone by now has been stabbed near Kijow on 4.15 and transported in critical condition to the hospital in Kijow. On 4.16 three unidentified individuals unplugged him from life support system and stabbed him 3 more times. Andrij was prenounced dead that afternoon. Russian government claims it was a coincidence. “
Some are however saying that the gunshot like noises could have easily been after explosions or police firing into the air to warn people off from the crash site.
The fact that no official report confirming any gunshot wounds were found on the bodies of the victims also prove that there were no aftermath slaying’s which so many have come to believe after seeing the amateur footage.
It is also debated that non of the major News channels or websites around the world have said anything of the incident.
Many say the footage was a fake but to implicate Russia to the crash but many also believe that it was accurate footage as images and videos after the crash were very similar to that of the amateur cameraman’s.
The official reason for the plane crash is not said yet as investigations are under-way but initial reports say, numerous errors were the cause of the crash which killed so many senior citizens of Poland.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Man Jailed for Polygamy ‘Without Consent’
Kuala Lumpur, 19 May (AKI/Jakarta Post) — An Islamic judge sentenced a prominent government MP to a month in jail Wednesday for entering a polygamous marriage without official consent. Muslim men can marry up to four wives under Malaysia’s Islamic law, though polygamy is not widely practiced among the country’s roughly 20 million Muslims.
The marriages must be registered in an Islamic Shariah court.
Bung Mokhtar Radin, a member of parliament for the National Front ruling coalition, was sentenced for marrying a second wife in December without the Shariah court’s consent.
Shariah Court Judge Wan Mahyuddin Wan Muhammad said the jail term was necessary to warn people to respect Islamic Shariah law and take marriage regulations seriously.
He said Bung Mokhtar was a well-known political figure who should be a role model.
The court in Malaysia’s central Selangor state allowed Bung Mokhtar to postpone serving the sentence until his appeal is heard in a higher court.
The 50-year-old lawmaker pleaded guilty last month to the offence, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a fine of 1,000 ringgit (300 dollars).
Bung Mokhtar’s wife, Zizie Ezette, a 31-year-old actress, was also fined 1,000 ringgit (300 dollars) for the same offence.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Moving Away From War on Terror
Strategy shows Muslims lack spirit to fight co-religionists
While a number of sources have documented the threat to the very existence of the government in Pakistan from its own resident Islamists, a recent military exercise there pointed toward India as the nation’s main threat, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
The exercise indicates little worry on the part of the Pakistani army over the possible actions of the Muslim radicals — created by Pakistan’s government to pursue its Islamist agenda in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
And that should alarm Washington regarding the commitment by the Pakistani army’s high command to fight the radical Islamists who are launching attacks against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Blocks Facebook in Response to ‘Everybody Draw Muhammad Day’ Pages
When is a cartoon not “just” a cartoon? Well, perhaps when an entire nation decides to ban its citizens’ access to Facebook over a page spawned by an illustration. An illustration that, in turn, was created to support an animated cartoon show.
A Pakistani court has ordered authorities to temporarily block the social-networking service over the Facebook-ignited campaign “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,” according to Agence France Presse.
The campaign encouraging people to caricature Muhammad is scheduled for May 20. The primary Facebook page that arose in recent weeks to promote “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” now has more than 40,000 “fans.” The page’s status updates, however, have been a frequent stream of vitriol — a hate-laced war of words and images.
According to AFP, a group of Islamic lawyers petitioned a court Wednesday for “a blanket ban” on Facebook in Pakistan. Justice Ejaz Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court ordered the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to block Facebook until a May 31 hearing, AFP says.
“We have already blocked the URL link and issued instruction to Internet service providers,” said PTA representative Khurram Mehran, according to al-Jazeera. But Facebook users in Pakistan told AFP they could still access the site after the ban was imposed Wednesday.
About 2,000 women protested against Facebook on Wednesday in the southern city of Karachi, as did several dozen men nearby at a separate rally, the AP reports. The women, many of them students, reportedly demanded that Facebook be banned.
The person who created the primary page, Jon Wellington, reportedly has withdrawn his support of the campaign, Last month, Wellington told Comic Riffs: “I created a Facebook event because that’s an easy way to remind myself of upcoming events. … I am not a cartoonist, and I loved [Molly Norris’s] creative approach to the whole thing — whimsical and nonjudgmental.”
Molly Norris is the Seattle cartoonist who last month created the posterlike illustration “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” to support what she termed the censorship of the creators of the Comedy Central animated show “South Park.” In April, “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker said Comedy Central censored their attempts to depict Muhammad and edited a speech within the show about responding to fear and intimidation.
Comedy Central’s editing of the show followed talk of violence toward Stone and Parker on the website RevolutionMuslim.com. The website posted an image of the fatal stabbing of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, a noted critic of Islam, with a caption that asked whether Stone and Parker had forgotten what happened to Van Gogh.
News reports said the Revolution Muslim posts were by Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee — a.k.a. Zachary Adam Chesser of Virginia, a recent George Mason University student, according to a FoxNews.com report.
Some Muslims consider any depiction of Muhammad to be blasphemous.
Within days of drawing her illustration, Norris told Comic Riffs that she was distancing herself from the viral campaign that had risen around it.
This morning, Norris told Comic Riffs: “I will not be drawing Mohammed on May 20.”
Norris continued: “I joined ‘Against Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ [on Facebook] and folks from there write to me. I never even set up a place where people could send images to. Other people started Facebook pages for this day but I never did. … My cartoon was the beginning and end of expressing my personal views about Comedy Central’s South Park censorship.”
The primary “AGAINST ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ “ page on Facebook now has nearly 60,000 supporters who “like” the page.
“If I had wanted my one-off cartoon to be the basis for a worldwide movement to draw Mohammed, then at this moment I should be thrilled,” Norris tells Comic Riffs today. “But instead I am horrified! My one-off cartoon that was specifically about Comedy Central’s behaviour vs. Revolution Muslim’s threat leading to a slippery slope of censorship in America is not good for a long-term plan.
“The results have shown to be vitriolic and worse, offensive to Muslims who had nothing to do with the censorship issue I was inspired to draw about in the first place.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Bans Facebook in Outrage Over Online Competition to Draw Prophet Mohammed
A Pakistani court has ordered the government to block the popular social networking website Facebook over an online competition inviting users to submit images of the Prophet Mohammed.
The page has caused an outcry in Pakistan and throughout the Muslim world. Images of the Prophet are considered blasphemous.
A series of cartoons of the prophet published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 sparked violent protests and death threats against the cartoonists.
The Facebook page ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!’ encourages users to submit images of the prophet on May 20.
It was set up to protest threats made by a radical Muslim group against the creators of ‘South Park’ for depicting Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.
‘We are not trying to slander the average Muslim,” the Facebook creators wrote on the information section of the page, which was still accessible this morning.
‘We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Mohammad depictions that we’re not afraid of them. That they can’t take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us into silence.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
22 Irregular Immigrants Stopped in Corinth
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 19 — Twenty-two irregular immigrants, hidden inside a cavity on a truck, ready to be transported aboard a ship leaving for Italy, were intercepted by the Coastguard at Corinth. The irregular immigrants were arrested and the truck confiscated, and an inquiry has been opened to identify the vehicle’s driver and the rest of the gang. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama and Calderon Press for Immigration Fix
WASHINGTON — Confronting soaring frustration over illegal immigration, President Barack Obama on Wednesday condemned Arizona’s crackdown and pushed instead for a federal fix the nation could embrace. He said that will never happen without Republican support, pleading: “I need some help.”
In asking anew for an immigration overhaul, Obama showed solidarity with his guest of honor, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who called Arizona’s law discriminatory and warned Mexico would reject any effort to “criminalize migration.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kids’ Test Answers on Race Brings Mother to Tears
(CNN) — A 5-year-old girl in Georgia is being asked a series of questions in her school library. The girl, who is white, is looking at pictures of five cartoons of girls, all identical except for skin color ranging from light to dark.
When asked who the smart child is, she points to a light-skinned doll. When asked who the mean child is she points to a dark-skinned doll. She says a white child is good because “I think she looks like me”, and says the black child is ugly because “she’s a lot darker.”
As she answers her mother watches, and gently weeps.
Her daughter is taking part in a new CNN pilot study on children’s attitudes on race and her answers actually reflect one of the major findings of the study, that white children have an overwhelming bias toward white, and that black children also have a bias toward white but not nearly as strong as the bias shown by the white children.
Full coverage: Kids on race
Renowned child psychologist and University of Chicago professor Margaret Beale Spencer, a leading researcher in the field of child development, was hired as a consultant by CNN. She designed the pilot study and used a team of three psychologists to implement it: two testers to execute the study and a statistician to help analyze the results.
Her team tested 133 children from schools that met very specific economic and demographic requirements. In total, eight schools participated: four in the greater New York City area and four in Georgia.
The mother, whose name the study prohibits from being used, says her daughter has “never asked her about color” and that the results of the test were an eye opener, and she says she and her daughter “talked a long time about it”
Her daughter’s perception on race and the fact that the issue was not taken up at home is in many ways typical.
Research and discussions with parents of the children who participated in this study, indicate that white parents as a whole do not talk to their kids about race as much as black parents.
A 2007 study in the Journal of Marriage and Family found that 75 percent of white families with kindergartners never, or almost never, talk about race. For black parents the number is reversed with 75 percent addressing race with their children.
Po Bronson, author of NurtureShock and an award-winning writer on parenting issues says white parents “want to give their kids this sort of post-racial future when they’re very young and they’re under the wrong conclusion that their kids are colorblind. … It’s in the absence of messages of tolerance that they will naturally … develop these skin preferences.”
Many African-American parents CNN spoke to during the study say they begin discussing race at a very early age because they say they feel they have to prepare their children for a society where their skin color will create obstacles for them.
iReport: Where do we go from here?
The study has generated thousands of comments to CNN. After seeing the report, iReporter Omekongo Dibinga said, “My daughters are 4 and 2 years old. I didn’t realize that at 2 years old I’d have to start teaching them to be proud of their skin color.”
Watch his reaction
The father of a black girl who took part in the CNN study says, “You can not get away from the fact that race is a factor but hopefully what we instill in them at home will help them to put that in its right place and move on”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What is Behind Liberalism’s Obesity Obsession?
The government wants to know how much your kids weigh. It wants to know how much salt there is in your ketchup and whether you’re having a second soda with that burger. It wants to control what you eat and drink. For your own good of course.
So much of the current Nanny Statism has been focused on the “threat” of obesity. A movement that will only get worse with its prime movers having consolidated control over national health care with ObamaCare. Now that government can claim that everyone’s individual health is no longer just an issue for them, but a public cost, they have a mandate to exercise complete control over what everyone eats.
But what’s really behind liberalism’s Obesity Obsession?
First of all, a War on Obesity justifies all sorts of micromanagement of the agricultural and food production sectors. Blaming America’s food production sector for a public health problem allows them to play the same game with every company from Kraft to Heinz to General Mills to PepsiCo that they previously have with tobacco companies. To understand why the left would want to do this, you only need to look at the USSR in the past or Venezuela in the present, both of which imposed price controls over food products and tight control over farming. Controlling food production and distribution is essential to controlling the population. This brings us right back to Hydraulic Despotism or the Water Empire. If you can seize control over a major resource that the population needs to survive, you also control the population.
[…]
Secondly, a staple of the left’s exercise of power is to “shame” the public for their abuse of resources. This is common in every Communist countries that run on the illusion of collective economies and constantly berate some group for taking more than “their fair share”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
Message to the obama regime: when you play with fire you are going to get BUURRRNED!!!! Its coming!
I watched that CNN bit on tv the other day. While the study itself may be valid, I was unimpressed with how it was presented. Is it really necessary to point out that white kids are inherently more racist according to the study? Just what good will be accomplished by stating that on national tv? Also, it's odd that with increasing focus on the multiracial character of America that they focused only on whites and blacks. I know it was an old study being tested again, but it would have been indicative if other colours had been used as well.
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