Credit Suisse Challenged by Raids on German Branches
Credit Suisse has a fresh public relations challenge in Germany after 150 investigators raid the financial institution’s branches in that country on suspicion that staff illegally aided wealthy clients to evade taxes. The probe is an embarrassment for Switzerland’s second largest bank, which has largely avoided the kind of bad publicity meted out to its rival UBS over an ongoing tax evasion scandal in the US.
While Credit Suisse is basking in the glow of being named “best global bank” and “best bank in Switzerland” by Euromoney magazine, it is confronting an ongoing image problem in Europe’s wealthiest nation.
The Zurich-based bank is promoting on its website the 2010 awards it recently received from the London-based financial magazine, just before this week’s embarrassing raids on all 13 of its branches in Germany.
A total of 150 investigators swooped down on the Credit Suisse branches as part of an inquiry into allegations of tax evasion by wealthy Germans using secret Swiss accounts.
The raid began on Wednesday but officials, including prosecutors from 10 German states, were to continue searching the bank’s office’s on Thursday.
“The Düsseldorf court has issued search warrants against unknown Credit Suisse employees suspected of aiding tax evasion,” the prosecutor’s office from the German city said in a statement.
In March, the office announced it had begun to investigate 1,100 clients at the bank suspecting of tax cheating.
Now, the latest focus seems to be on suspected wrongdoing by Credit Suisse staff.
The bank is not commenting on the case other than to say that its German subsidiary would fully comply with the investigation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Banks Borrow Record Amount From ECB: Central Bank
Spanish banks borrowed 126.3 billion euros from the European Central Bank in June, the Bank of Spain said on Wednesday, revealing a record figure as institutions here struggle to refinance on international markets.
The amount borrowed last month rose by 78.6 percent from the amount at the same time last year and represents a rise of 47.5 percent over the amount borrowed in May, figures published on the website of Spain’s central bank showed.
Spain is a member of the eurozone but is also in the front line of concern about the resilience of its banking system, and of concerns over the scale of public deficits and debt.
It was the highest amount borrowed in a one-month period by Spanish banks from the Frankfurt-based ECB since the Bank of Spain started publishing the figures when the eurozone was launched in 1999.
The rise in borrowing by Spanish banks comes as the total amount lent by the ECB to financial institutions in the entire 16-nation eurozone in June dropped to 496.7 billion euros (627.2 billion dollars) from 518.6 billion euros in May and from 615.9 billion euros during the same time last year.
Last month the Bank of Spain’s deputy governor Javier Ariztegui told a parliamentary commission that since Easter Spanish banks had been forced to seek financing from the ECB because of lack of market confidence in Spain.
“This situation can not last an eternity,” he said.
The health of Spain’s banking sector has been a source of concern for international investors since the collapse of a property bubble at the end of 2008 which had been a driver of over a decade of economic growth.
The solidity of Spanish financial institutions will be revealed when European officials publish bank stress tests on July 23.
EU regulators are examining the strength of 91 banks in an attempt to reassure investors about the institutions’ resilience to potential losses as the debt crisis pummels the bonds of Spain, Portugal and Greece.
Fitch credit rating agency downgraded its long-term notation for Spanish bank Banco Popular by two notches on Wednesday and its short-term rating by one notch.
It said its decision was motivated by the effect of weak performance by the Spanish economy on the bank.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Reforms Are “No Constraint” On Big Banks
The United States Congress passed the country’s most comprehensive financial reforms since the 1930s on Thursday, but doubts remain about the overall impact on banks.
Swiss banks, like their US counterparts, have been using lobbyists to fight their corner while the reform was being drawn up, and Switzerland’s biggest bank Credit Suisse has already surmised that there won’t be any major impact on their US operations.
Spurred on by the most expensive public rescue plan in US history after the 2008 financial meltdown, the reforms have been one of President Barack Obama’s main priorities.
Obama promised that it would introduce “the strongest consumer protections in history”, “ensure that we don’t have another crisis caused by the irresponsibility of a few” and that “there will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts”.
While some agree with the final result, others say financial reform will not change the rules of the game.
“There are some very important things in this bill,” says Gregory Wierzynski, an advisor to the US Chamber of Deputies Banking Committee. A former Time magazine bureau chief, he lived and studied in Switzerland before emigrating to the US.
Wierzynski cites the fact that derivatives will now be managed by a clearing house that will pool the risks associated with such transactions. “The clearing house for derivatives was proposed in 2000 and abandoned because the derivatives business was so profitable, but now, given the 2008 collapse, banks are compelled to accept that.”
Another important step is a government agency for the protection of consumer credit, he adds. Up until now, this task was carried out by several agencies, and their lack of authority and of coordination played a role in the financial crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
USA: Airline Fees Come Under Attack in House Hearing
WASHINGTON — Airlines have found a growing source of revenue in checked baggage fees and other charges, but those sales are escaping the taxes that pay for the aviation system, according to a report by congressional auditors.
Fees for checked baggage, meals and other “unbundled” services earned airlines at least $3 billion last year. Had those transactions been taxed, they would have earned about $186 million for the federal trust fund that pays for air traffic control, airport construction and other services, the auditors said.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee asked Wednesday whether such fees should be subject to the federal excise tax.
The lawmakers highlighted the issue as they continued to question whether carriers should be forced to better disclose baggage fees — as high as $35 for a first bag — that have infuriated many travelers.
Under a proposal issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation in June, carriers would be required to disclose all mandatory charges — including fuel surcharges and other taxes — in their advertised fares. But airlines would only have to list baggage and other “optional” fees on their websites.
Democrats say that proposal may be enough. But if it isn’t implemented, they may write more requirements into the law.
“If [airlines] don’t exercise restraint, there is going to be a continuing outcry from the traveling public,” said Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the committee. “And you are going to have some kind of regulation you don’t like.”
$1 billion in fees
Delta Air Lines, Fort Worth-based American Airlines, and US Airways earned the most from fees during the fourth quarter of 2009, the Transportation Department said. American earned about $1 billion from such fees in 2009.
But those carriers were not at the witness table on Wednesday as lawmakers grilled airline executives. Instead, they chose Florida-based Spirit Airlines to defend the fees, and let Dallas-based Southwest Airlines state why there should be more disclosure.
Southwest has mocked competitors that charge fees with its “Bags Fly Free” campaign; Spirit is the first carrier to charge for carry-on bags that don’t fit under a seat.
Spirit’s chief executive didn’t back off his strategy on Wednesday, telling lawmakers that Spirit has reduced fares “to offset these charges.” Ben Baldanza also said that taxing the fees would “simply raise fares, dampen the public’s ability to afford travel, and thereby result in lower overall tax revenue.”
Dave Ridley, Southwest’s senior vice president for marketing and revenue management, said the airline generally supported the Transportation Department’s proposed rule. If anything, the rule would appear to help Southwest by making it clearer to consumers that it doesn’t charge additional fees.
Ridley said Southwest doesn’t have a position on taxing airline fees.
Hard to estimate
The Government Accountability Office said airlines earned $7.9 billion from fees in 2008 and 2009. That figure is probably low, the GAO said, because airlines aren’t required to report other sources of fee revenue, such as charges for buying a ticket over the phone, early boarding and providing inflight Internet connections.
Airline fees are likely to grow as carriers look for more ways to revive their profits. Fees for checked baggage, reservation changes and cancellations have grown from less than 1 percent of airline operating revenue in 2007 to over 4 percent in 2009, the GAO reported.
Oberstar said he was “extremely concerned” about the future of the aviation trust fund if fees continued to grow untaxed.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Assembly-Line Medicine
It is no hyperbole to say that the consequences of the recently passed “Obamacare” bills by the Congress will be horrific. In fact, I’m not even sure that the English language contains a word sufficiently suitable to describe exactly how dreadful the consequences of this new national health care monstrosity will actually be.
With all its faults, America’s health care system is the finest in the world. Why else would rich people in Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and elsewhere come to the US when the medical chips are really down? Socialized medicine doesn’t work for them and it won’t work for the United States.
The negative effects of Obamacare are already starting to take effect. Across the country, tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of physicians are making preparations to retire. I would be willing to predict that the vast majority of physicians who are financially able to retire will do so before 2014 (the year Obamacare officially takes full effect). And who can blame them? Not me.
Think of it: under Obamacare, physicians will be told to increase their patient load by at least one-third, or maybe even half. Imagine a physician with a government-mandated patient load of maybe 5,000 or 6,000 people (or even more than that). Imagine some federal bureaucrat demanding that the physician spend not more than, say, 4 minutes with each patient. Imagine that physician being told what he or she will not be allowed to prescribe or what they will not be allowed to treat. Imagine the health care Nazis micromanaging not only patient care and treatment, but also wages and pricing. If you think insurance companies have too much control over medical care now, just wait until government-mandated (and controlled) medical care is implemented. In other words, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! How could any self-respecting, conscientious physician practice medicine in an environment such as that? They couldn’t — and they won’t. And this will create a shortage of physicians like you won’t believe, which only serves to push the patient load per doctor and quality of care per patient to unsustainable levels. In other words, prepare for assembly-line, one-size-fits-all medical care!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Book Review: Why the Left Loves Tyrants and Terrorists
It seems crazy, but author Jamie Glazov explains the unexplainable
Why do leftists always seem to sympathize with, and even support, tyrants, dictators and even terrorists?
The answer is in the brilliantly insightful book “United in Hate” by Jamie Glazov, which exposes America’s internal enemies as never before.
[…]
In “United in Hate,” Glazov concludes: “This is where the Western Left and militant Islam (like the Western Left and Communism) intersect: human life must be sacrificed for the sake of the idea. Like Islamists, leftists have a Manichean vision that rigidly distinguishes good from evil. They see themselves as personifications of the former and their opponents as personifications of the latter, who must be slated for ruthless elimination.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Democrat Voter Fraud is Far More Widespread Than You Think
As explained on the We Will Not Be Silenced website, “‘Change’ from Chicago encouraged and created an army to steal caucus packets, falsify documents, change results, allow unregistered people to vote, scare and intimidate Hillary supporters, stalk them, threaten them, lock them out of their polling places, silence their voices and stop their right to vote.”
Because of the program and other recent events concerning voter intimidation, including the Black Panther incident in Philadelphia and testimony from J. Christian Adams on the Department of Justice’s unwillingness to pursue voter related crimes committed by African Americans, people around the country are finally waking up to the fact that Democrat voter fraud is a far, far bigger problem than anyone had ever realized.
Some conservatives have mistakenly interpreted these events as only affecting Democratic primaries and aren’t concerned about the possibility of vote theft in a general election. But they would be wrong.
[…]
What we are seeing is the transplantation of Chicago politics to communities throughout the nation that are completely unprepared for the level of fraud and intimidation that can be generated by thousands of unethical Democrats, including private citizens, local, state, and federal officials, and politicians, convinced that breaking the law is okay as long as the “right” candidate wins.
[…]
The Democrat Voter Fraud Playbook is as follows:
1. ACORN registers the names, legitimate or not. 2. Black Panther, SEIU and other “community organizer” groups intimidate people, especially minorities, from voting Republican. 3. Voter lists remain unscrubbed of felons, dead people, and illegal immigrants. 4. On Election Day, precinct workers submit any unused ballots for Democrat candidates. 5. Democrat officials and politicians pretend like nothing happened.
It’s as easy as that to steal an election.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NBC, CBS Decline to Run Mosque-Bashing Ad From Conservative Group
A conservative political action committee blasted the CBS and NBC networks Wednesday for rejecting its ad imploring Americans to fight the mosque proposed for Ground Zero.
Titled “The Audacity of Jihad,” the commercial intersperses graphic footage of the 9/11 attacks with armed Muslim militants and the sounds of Muslims praying.
The narrator of the 60-second spot proposed by the National Republican Trust says, “On Sept. 11, they declared war against us. And to celebrate that murder of 3,000 Americans, they want to build a monstrous 13-story mosque at Ground Zero.”
In e-mails to the group, CBS and NBC officials said the ad did not meet the networks’ standards and guidelines for broadcast.
NRT executive director Scott Wheeler accused the networks of being two-faced, arguing they have run ads by such left-leaning groups as MoveOn.org.
Wheeler described the networks as “a very weak media that seems to be interested in only defending Muslims as poor victims.”
He said his group was planning to pay the networks more than $50,000 to run the ad.
CBS and NBC Universal corporate officials confirmed the ad was rejected by both networks.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck: Hezbollah’s American Pep Squad (Shocking Footage)
The recent death of radical Shiite cleric Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah—and the outpouring of affection it provoked from Western elites and Islamic leaders—led me to revisit my work in the Hezbollah hotbed of Dearborn, MI a few years back.
In my new piece for Human Events, I recount the jaw-dropping exchanges I had with “mainstream” Islamic leaders in Dearborn. Two of them openly supported Hezbollah and Hamas and engaged in vicious rhetoric against Israel. One even suggested that Israel may have had a role in the 9/11 attacks.
In the Human Events piece, I have included footage of my interview with one of the leaders, in which he proudly refers to Hezbollah and Hamas as “freedom fighters.” You can read—and watch—by clicking the link at the top.
| [Return to headlines] |
The Immorality of the Moral High Ground
We can’t win the War on Terror so long as we hold to liberal definitions of the Moral High Ground.
Throughout the War on Terror, liberals have been lecturing us on the virtue of holding on to the “Moral High Ground”, which is their way of saying that we should forgo trying to defeat terrorists military, and instead show them up with our superior civil liberties. Yes, Abdul, you may have a suitcase nuke, but if we catch you, we’ll still pay for your legal defense. Torture our soldiers if you will, Mohammed, but see if you aren’t impressed when we TIVO your favorite team’s soccer matches for you in that horrible 19 million dollar hellhole of misery and degradation at Guantanamo Bay.
Of course Mohammed is never going to be very impressed by his free legal team, Halal cooking, volleyball courts and pro bono prosthetic legs, because Islamists don’t derive their moral high ground from doing nice things for their enemies. They derive their moral high ground from getting up on a high place and tossing rocks or grenades down at their enemies. A Good Muslim is willing to kill for Islam. The Koran says so explicitly. On the other hand liberals insist that only a Bad American is willing to kill for America. A Good American will believe that Islam is a religion of peace, even while he’s having his head chopped off by Johnny Mujaheed. He will eschew any tacky American flags, in favor of Chomsky and Zinn essays that will enable him to understand what a rotten country he lives in, and why the terrorists chopping his head off might have a point. All this really means is that practicing the Moral High Ground is a good way to get beheaded and reading the works of mentally ill Communists is not a good survival strategy.
We can’t win the War on Terror so long as we hold to liberal definitions of the Moral High Ground. We can’t even begin to really fight it. What’s worse, is that not only does this warped understanding of morality result in more American deaths, it results in more deaths of both fighters and civilians on the enemy side. Because where the soldier understands that the most moral way to win a war is, quickly. The bleeding heart liberal thinks that the most moral way to win a war is, never. To a liberal, if we must fight a war, we should do it with our hands tied behind our backs, and after a decade of senseless bloodshed, we’ll finally come to realize that war is a bad thing.
[…]
Why does Israel have a terrorist problem, and not Jordan, which has the same Arab population that Israel does? It’s not simply because Israel is mostly Jewish and Jordan is mostly Muslim, though that is a contributing factor. A primary focus of Islamists is to take over countries with majority Muslim populations in order to build the Caliphate. The reason is because in 1970 when the terrorists began hijacking planes and declared that a part of Jordan belonged to them, King Hussein sent in the army. He didn’t kill a mere 52 Palestinian Arab terrorists, as Israel did in Jenin. Or a mere 107 in Deir Yassin. Not even the 800 or so killed in fighting between Arabs in Sabra and Shatilla. No, according to Arafat, King Hussein’s troops killed an estimated 25,000 Palestinian Arabs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The National Association for the Advancement of Coddled People
In just a few short decades, the stalwart strivers for equality have turned into coddled whiners for hypersensitivity. The NAACP is a laughingstock. The group no longer represents the best interests of oppressed minorities, but the thin-skinned whims of the black elite and the ravenous appetite of the Nanny State. Establishment civil rights leaders now use their once-compelling moral authority to hector, bully and shake down corporate and political targets.
As Ward Connerly, the truly maverick opponent of government racial preferences who is black, wrote recently, “the NAACP is not so much a civil-rights organization as it is a trade association with clear links to the Democratic Party, despite the claim of its chairman that ‘the NAACP has always been non-partisan.’ Such a statement doesn’t pass the giggle test. The NAACP uses the plight of poor black people as a fig leaf to hide its true agenda of promoting policies that benefit their dues-paying members, not black people in general or poor black people in particular.”
To compensate for squandering the proud history of the civil rights organization on innocent greeting cards, NAACP leaders introduced a much-hyped resolution at their annual convention this week attacking the nation’s biggest racial bogeyman: the tea party movement. It’s a tried and true tactic of worn-out grievance-mongers: When you can’t find evil enough enemies to blame for your problems, manufacture them. (Just ask hate crimes huckster Al Sharpton.) This is why one of the most popular signs spotted at tea party protests across the country remains the one that reads: “It doesn’t matter what this sign says. You’ll call it racism, anyway!”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Top Democrat Fundraiser Sentenced to 12 Years
Backer of Hillary, Obama, Kerry heads to prison for bank fraud
Hassan Nemazee, a multimillionaire Iranian-American investment banker and top Democratic Party fundraiser, was sentenced today to 12 years in federal prison for bank fraud.
Nemazee, 60, served as the national finance chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before raising more than $500,000 for Barack Obama’s campaign.
In 2004, Nemazee was New York finance chairman for Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign, a position in which he raised about $500,000 in bundled campaign contributions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Reiterates Disagreement With France Over Veil Ban
US officials on Wednesday reiterated Washington’s disagreement with a measure approved by the lower house of France’s National Assembly banning the use of face-covering Islamic veils in public.
“We do not think that you should legislate what people can wear or not wear associated with their religious beliefs,” said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.
“Here in the United States, we would take a different step to balance security and to respect religious freedom and the symbols that go along with religious freedom,” he said.
The bill is not yet law, as it will now go to France’s Senate in September.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s determination to ban the hijab and the burka won enough political support to approve the measure, even though critics argue that it breaches French and European human rights legislation.
“I would only say that, as I understand it, this is a first step in what may be a lengthy legislative and perhaps legal process,” said Crowley.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Censorship as ‘Tolerance’
by Jacob Mchangama
In 1670, the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza wrote an emphatic defense of freedom of thought and speech. Spinoza affirmed that freedom of expression is a universal and inalienable right and concluded: “Hence it is that that authority which is exerted over the mind is characterized as tyrannical.” He also argued that freedom of expression is indispensable for peaceful coexistence between members of different faiths and races in a diverse society, holding up as an example 17th-century Amsterdam, “where the fruits of this liberty of thought and opinion are seen in its wonderful increase, and testified to by the admiration of every people. In this most flourishing republic and noble city, men of every nation, and creed, and sect live together in the utmost harmony.”
In modern-day Europe, Spinoza’s insight has not so much been forgotten as turned on its head. There is a pan-European consensus, fertilized by multiculturalism, that tolerance and peaceful coexistence require the restriction rather than the protection of freedom of speech. This has led to the mushrooming of hate-speech and so-called anti-discrimination laws that criminalize expressions characterized as “hateful” or merely “derogatory” toward members of religious, ethnic, national, or racial groups.
The most prominent victim of hate-speech laws is Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who is currently facing charges of insulting Islam and inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims; in 2009, he was absurdly denied entry to the United Kingdom on the basis of his views. But the Wilders trial is far from unique…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark Debates a Lower Minimum Wage for Immigrants
A Danish politician has suggested paying immigrants half the current minimum wage. The idea has gone down well with center-right parties, but it’s opposed by the left — and the far right. Right-wing populists fear low wages for immigrants could take jobs away from “regular Danes.”
The debate over integration is shrill in Denmark. The small country repeatedly makes international headlines on the issue. The current coalition government of conservatives and right-wing liberals has already introduced Europe’s toughest immigration law. The far-right Danish People’s Party constantly agitates against the nation’s 450,000 immigrants. And in 2006, the crisis over the Muhammad cartoons spilled over from Denmark to the rest of the world.
At the same time, Denmark produces many new innovative ideas — social workers who help Muslim women learn to ride bicycles, the first integration law in Europe, associations of liberal Muslims.
Now, in the middle of the summer holidays, a bitter new has broken out in Danish politics. Karsten Lauritzen, integration spokesman for the ruling right-liberal party Venstre, has proposed that immigrants be paid far less than Danes. His idea is that migrants should work for around 50 krone an hour (around €6.50 or $8.40) instead of the current minimum hourly wage of around 100 krone. There is no official legal minimum wage in Denmark, but pay is regulated by a series of wage agreements negotiated by labor unions.
Only Certain Immigrants
Lauritzen is selling his idea as in the interests of the immigrants: he says that the high wages are preventing “immigrants and new Danes” from getting jobs. If you want to get migrants out of their ghettos and into the labor market then new ideas are required, Lauritzen argues. The politician told the Berlingske Tidende newspaper that he envisages a situation where an immigrant would get just half the minimum wage for the first six months. After all, he argued, some immigrants now take unpaid work to gain a foothold in the labor market. He assured the paper that he had his party’s backing on the issue.
Migrants working for a pittance — the suggestion may seem absurd, but it’s shared by many in Danish politics, and it is not as easily dismissed as, say, a recent suggestion in Germany that immigrants be subjected to intelligence tests. Danish Labor Minister Inger Støjberg, also a member of the governing Venstre party, said he thought the suggestion was interesting and hoped it would be seriously examined. His party’s coalition partners, the Conservatives, also claim to be interested in the concept, including the party’s controversial spokesman on integration Naser Khader, himself the son of immigrants.
Khader said the introduction of lower wages for immigrants would of course have to be accompanied by several conditions. The low pay would only be for those who come to Denmark without any knowledge of the language, and whose training or qualifications were not recognized in Denmark…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Medecine Could Cure America
European austerity measures have come in for much criticism from US economists. According to Melvyn Krauss, this betrays a misunderstanding of Europe’s economy and consumption patterns. Instead of criticizing Europe, America would do well to adopt similar tactics.
Melvyn Krauss
Even before the G-20 Meeting convened in Toronto, US President Barack Obama was sounding the alarm that new moves towards fiscal austerity in Europe was threatening the fragile global economic recovery.
President Obama should relax—and stop listening to his US neo-Keynesian advisors who know little about what really makes Europe tick. Not only will Germany’s fiscal consolidation package of 80 billion euro of spending cuts and tax hikes not hurt the recovery, it actually will give it a boost by sparking increased German domestic consumption.
Typically, US economists, even distinguished ones, get Europe wrong, because they think America is the world and the world is America.
Here is the story on the new German austerity program the US president is missing—and why Mr. Obama should be hugging German Chancellor Angela Merkel instead of scolding her.
US economists think all consumers behave like American ones
Germans, and not only the older ones, currently save a relatively large proportion of their incomes, because they look at the size of the public budget deficits and see inflation down the road. So, high private savings in Germany are a consequence of low—indeed negative— public saving. Cut the public deficit and domestic consumption should receive a boost, which is exactly what the critics are demanding from German macro-economic policy. What’s the problem?
But US economists like Paul Krugman—who is reputed to be Mr. Obama’s favorite economist and who recently materialized in Berlin to denounce Mrs. Merkel’s austerity package in her own back yard— do not buy this analysis, because they think all consumers behave like American ones.
Yes, put more money in the hands of US consumers and they’ll spend it, not caring a whit of the long-run consequences of the increased public debt that put the money there. But German consumers (and Dutch ones as well) do worry and will adjust their savings behavior accordingly. They also appreciate a “stability oriented” culture more than the Americans do. So, the consequences of fiscal austerity (or expansion) measures can be very much different in Northern Europe and America.
“One size fits all” analyses will not do for European issues
The “one size fits all” analyses of many US economists simply will not do when it comes to dealing with European issues. Behind the new German austerity also lies the important question of economic leadership. Mrs. Merkel is down in the German polls because she has lost the leadership initiative in Europe to the French on bailouts and emergency aid.
To regain it, Germany must encourage the southern tier countries of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy to cut their budgets and cut them convincingly. But to be credible on this issue, you must lead by example. How can Germany and the Netherlands demand drastic budget cuts of other poorer member states if they don’t do the cuts themselves?
Washington should be sympathetic to this. Mr. Obama does not want the European sovereign debt problem spreading to America. The United States and its banks are as vulnerable to contagion as anyone else, perhaps even more so. Instead of telling the European leaders to go slow with their austerity moves, at the very least the US president should hold his tongue.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Rare Stone Age Find
Archaeologists from the University of Helsinki are carrying out excavations of what they say is a unique Stone Age site at Järvenkylä in Virolahti in the far south-eastern part of the country.
The most striking feature of the site is the remains of an exceptionally large dwelling that the scientists describe as a “terraced house”, in some ways like those found in many modern suburbs.
The original find was made three years ago while archaeologists were carrying out a field inventory of medieval period remains in the area .
The house now being excavated was built and occupied some 2000 -3000 years before the start of the present era. The foundations measure 45 x 20 metres.
“This is very exceptional in many respects. For a start it is awfully big. This dwelling has three rooms. The foundations of each of them are larger than a basic modern cottage,” says dig director Teemu Mökkönen of the University of Helsinki,
In terms of design, the same type of dwellings have also been discovered in North Ostrobothnia and Russian Karelia.
“Then there are the material cultural remains associated here with this really massive house that are unique. There is no other site like this one,” notes Mökkönen.
The material being found at the dig shows connections to other nearby areas, such as asbestos, a major technical innovation at the time from the inland Saimaa region of Finland, and the remains of ceramics from Estonia. Students taking part in the excavation have uncovered large amounts of these materials scattered around the house.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Police Probe Mosque Vandalism
Police have opened an investigation after vandals daubed swastikas and xenophobic slogans on the construction site of a mosque in northern France, prosecutors said Thursday.
The inscriptions “Islam get out of Europe”, “No to Islam and to burqas” along with swastikas were discovered on Wednesday in Herouville-Saint-Clair, a suburb of Caen city in Normandy, said deputy prosecutor Jean-Pierre Triaulere.
The incident came a day after French lawmakers passed on first reading a bill banning women from wearing the full-face Islamic veil in public.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Set to Block New European Union Asylum Policy
Germany’s Interior Ministry has voiced opposition to EU plans to streamline its asylum policy, criticizing what it calls far too lenient laws that could turn Germany into a “magnet” for asylum seekers.
Following the first day of talks on a new, EU-wide asylum policy in Brussels on Thursday, Germany’s deputy interior minister made it abundantly clear that Germany is against the European Commission’s proposed system.
Ole Schroeder said the system’s laws were far too lenient and could be easily abused, especially by those immigrants not actually in need of asylum.
“Germany is more than willing to offer asylum to those who really need it, but we must be able to deport those who are caught taking advantage of this,” Schroeder said in Brussels on Thursday.
The deputy minister was referring to the EU’s call to abolish Germany’s practice of deporting those caught with illegal identification at airports within 24 hours.
The EU’s new system would force Germany to give those people the right to raise objection to the deportation, which Schroeder said “would prevent any possibility of a rash deportation.”
Brussels looking for reform by 2012
Schroeder also objected to Brussels’ call to provide asylum seekers with welfare during their application process in Germany, saying this could turn Germany into a “magnet” for asylum seekers from around the world.
According to the Dublin Regulation adopted in 2003, those seeking asylum in the EU are only allowed to apply in the country where they first entered the 27-nation bloc.
The new system would allow those refugees to apply for asylum in any EU member country, which would alleviate the immigration problems facing some EU countries, for instance Italy and Greece.
EU Justice Minister Cecilia Malmstroem said the bloc was looking for “solidarity from its member states” in the push for unified policy on immigration, saying the current differences between member states were “unacceptable.”
At present Germany is joined in its rejection of the central reforms by other EU member states France, Great Britain, and Austria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islam-France: Muslims Say the Total Veil Ban Violates Human Rights and Religious Freedom
The Muslim world reacts to the first approval of the French law which prohibits the covering the face in public. The Islamic Human Rights Commission talk about Islamophobia and racism of the state. Most media look with hope to a possible declaration of unconstitutionality. And there are those who evoke the Holocaust.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — The French law banning the veil covering the face (burqa and niqab) could give rise to a new wave of Islamophobia and state racism. This is the harsh condemnation of the President of the ‘Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), Masood Shadjareh, to the initial approval by the French parliament of a law that requires women to have their faces uncovered in all public places.
Shadjareh’s reaction, in an interview with official Iranian agency IRNA, is the harshest yet from the Muslim world that criticizes the violation of religious freedom and respect for Islamic culture, but above all which seems to be waiting for the Constitutional Court or European institutions to condemn these violations, although there are those who evoke the memory of Nazi persecution.
Shadjareh, however, argues that France has denied Muslim girls the right to study and work, having banned the hijab in schools since 2004 and that the Muslim community feels increasingly insecure due to continuous attacks.
Other reactions have been far more moderate. The Al Jazeera, Estelle Youssouffa, stressed that “the State Council warned the government that the French and European law could prove unconstitutional because it violates human rights and religious freedom”.
Even the Saudi Arab News argues that “the greatest obstacle” to the law, which will most likely be approved in September by the Senate, “will probably be when the Constitutional Court will examine it. Some scholars say that there is possibility that it will be declared unconstitutional. “ The same paper also reports the view of the majority of French Muslims, who deem that the complete covering of the face is not required by Islam, but the law could affect Muslims in general.
In an editorial entitled “The veiled threat in Europe,” the Dubai newspaper, Khaleej Times, asks “what is happening on the continent that gave the world the Magna Carta, the first charter of human rights and democracy? Not long ago Europe and the brilliant t EU experimenwere seen by the rest of the world as models of progress, political freedom and civil liberties. “
“All that appears to be a thing of the past now. Maybe this is a natural reaction to the recent phenomenon of extremist violence by some Muslims. Maybe it has something to do with the sense of insecurity that haunts some Europeans because of the growing tide of Muslims — and other immigrants—around them in a white, Christian continent. Whatever the explanation, this Muslims-coming hysteria, fanned in this case by governments and politicians, is disturbing, to say the least.”
And although the veil is not a religious duty, but only a matter of costume, “measures like these are only fuelling the already strong anti-Muslim sentiment in the West. Let’s not forget that not long ago, Europe witnessed a similar campaign against the Jews that eventually resulted in thousands of them being sent to their death by the Nazis. European governments, lawmakers and the media must therefore desist from once again unleashing a monster that cannot be coaxed back into the bottle. It’s in their own interest”. (PD)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Taxpayers Spend €4bln on Govt Cars
Rome, 14 July (AKI) — Italy pays 4 billion euros a year to run its fleet of 90,000 government chauffeur-driven service vehicles, according to public administration minister Rento Brunetta. “Its about the same cost of renewing contracts for the civil service sector,” he said on Wednesday.
The bill for car maintenance, insurance and rentals runs around 1 billion euros while personnel and parking costs Italian tax payers 3 billion euros, Brunetta told reporters on Wednesday in Rome, endorsing reforms that can reduce costs.
Italy names its government vehicles “blue automobiles” after the colour of the siren.
To run the government Lancias, BMWs, and other luxury vehicles, the country employs 60,000 drivers and mechanics.
For cars assigned for exclusive use mostly to politicians Rome pays 142,000 euros annually, while the cost falls to 90,000 to 100,000 euros for non-exclusive cars.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Police Swoop to Round Up ‘Ndrangheta
304 arrests all over Italy. Suspects detained in Calabria and various parts of northern Italy. Several prominent figures arrested
MILAN — Investigators dealt a body blow to the hardest criminal organisation of all to penetrate as Carabinieri and police officers swooped on suspected members of the ‘Ndrangheta. There were 304 arrests up and down Italy on a range of charges, from attempting to infiltrate public works contracts for the Milan Expo 2015, which emerged more than a year ago. The round-up was the largest operation of its kind in recent years.
OPERATION — More than 3,000 officers from the Carabinieri and the national police force were involved. Arrests were made in Calabria and various parts of northern Italy. The charges range from Mafia-style criminal association to arms and drugs trafficking, murder, extortion, loan-sharking and other serious offences. Investigators in Calabria and Lombardy had been at work for some time, concentrating in particular on ‘Ndrangheta infiltration into manufacturing and commercial businesses, politics and local administration in the north. In the course of the operation, officers are understood to have seized cash, weapons, drugs and property worth tens of millions of euros. Investigators say that the arrests followed “complex, coordinated inquiries by the anti-Mafia directorates of Milan and Reggio Calabria” which “produced documentary evidence of management of unlawful activities in Calabria and of ‘Ndrangheta infiltration in northern Italy, where the organisation is expanding its illegal interest in various sectors of the economy”. One of those arrested is Domenico Oppedisano, 80, regarded by investigators as the current number one boss of the Calabrian gangs. Oppedisano is believed to have been appointed “capocrimine”, or head of the “Provincia”, the committee that directs all the ‘Ndrina gangs, on 19 August 2009 at the wedding of Elisa Pelle and Giuseppe Barbaro, both of whose fathers are gang bosses.
ARRESTS IN LOMBARDY — The Milan anti-Mafia directorate coordinated by public prosecutors Ilde Boccassini, Alessandra Dolci and Paolo Storari, made a number of arrests, including Reggio Calabria-born Carlo Antonio Chiriaco, medical director of the Pavia health authority, Francesco Bertucca, a construction contractor in the Pavia area, and Rocco Coluccio, a biologist and businessman resident in Novara. Also under investigation are a municipal councillor at Pavia, Pietro Trivi (for corrupt electoral practices), and the former UDEUR Milan provincial councillor, Antonio Oliviero (for corruption and bankruptcy). Four Carabinieri officers from Rho near Milan are being investigated for external complicity in Mafia-style criminal association. The ‘Ndrangheta was attempting to secure contracts for the Expo 2015 fair in Milan.
POLITICAL REPERCUSSIONS — Among those arrested is Pino Neri, the ‘Ndrangheta boss in Lombardy. He is charged, among other things, with having channelled election votes to candidates indicated by Mr Chiriaco. Pino Neri, regarded as the highest-ranking ‘Ndrangheta gangster in Lombardy, is thought to have steered votes in favour of the People of Freedom (PDL) deputy Giancarlo Abelli, who seems to have been in the dark about the affair and is not under investigation.
THE FACE OF THE ‘NDRANGHETA — The operation coordinated by the anti-Mafia directorates of Milan and Reggio Calabria, which cast its net over all the ‘Ndrangheta gangs in Reggio Calabria (120 people were arrested in the province of Reggio Calabria alone), has helped investigators to sketch the features of the new Calabria-based criminal underworld. The most influential ‘Ndrangheta gangs in the provinces of Reggio Calabria, Vibo Valentia and Crotone were all involved, in addition to their branches outside the region and abroad. According to investigators, the leading Reggio Calabria gangs have been “destructured”, along with those on the Ionian and Tyrrhenian coasts, including the Pelle family of San Luca, the Commissos of Siderno, the Acquino-Coluccio and Mazzaferro gangs in Gioiosa Ionica, the Pesce-Belloccos and Oppedisanos at Rosarno, the Alvaros from Sinopoli, the Longos from Polistena and the Iamonte family from Melito Porto Salvo. It is clear from Carabinieri phone taps and investigations that the gangs are organised in a pyramid structure, rather like the Sicilian Mafia. There is a single boss of bosses at the top, who was arrested by Reggio Calabria Carabinieri, and beneath him are the “mandamento” [district — Trans.] and local bosses. But what also emerges is that the so-called peripheral ‘Ndrangheta, the gangs based not in the province of Reggio Calabria but in Milan, Turin, Canada or Australia, depend entirely and directly on the provincial committee in Reggio Calabria. Showing what this means in practice is the case of Carmelo Novella, murdered on 14 July 2008 in a bar at San Vittore Olona. He is believed to have signed his own death warrant by proclaiming that “Lombardy”, the ‘Ndrangheta gangs based in the north, were capable of going it alone without the main group in Calabria. The committee had no compunction about eliminating him and appointing a successor to take charge of illegal activities in the north.
MARONI — The interior minister, Roberto Maroni, congratulated the chief of police, Antonio Manganelli, and the commander of the Carabinieri, General Leonardo Gallitelli, on the success of the operation: “This is in absolute terms the most significant operation conducted against the ‘Ndrangheta in recent years. Today, a blow has been struck at the heart of a criminal system, its organisation and its assets. The excellent results achieved against the Mafia in the past few months are the result of an ongoing, highly effective liaison effort between police forces and the magistracy, all of whom have been outstanding in their commitment to action against organised crime”.
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
14 luglio 2010
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Nijmegen Municipality Maintains Subsidy for Sharia Website
NIJMEGEN, 16/07/10 — Nijmegen municipality sees no reason to withdraw its subsidy to an ultra-orthodox Islam website. According to Mayor Thom de Graaf, all unacceptable content has already been removed from the site.
The centre-left D66 mayor, the party’s national leader between 1998 and 2003, acknowledges in a letter to the municipal council that some text, cartoons and links which were on the Ar Rayaan foundation site were completely “unacceptable.” But the municipality demanded that the Islamic foundation remove these from its website and that has been done, according to De Graaf.
The local conservatives (VVD) had requested an explanation. The party questioned how it could happen that a foundation that promotes Sharia should receive 3,500 euros from the Nijmegen budget for integration and participation, as became known recently.
Alderman Floris Tas has had a meeting with Ar Rayaan, at which apologies were reportedly made. The municipality says a “sharper” eye will be kept on the activities of the foundation, but it is not withdrawing the subsidy for 2010.
In fact, the website remains a patchwork of controversial texts. For example, the visitor can still read that men and women should only speak to each other if it is strictly necessary. The site also says that Western dress invites rape and that Islam “takes strong action” to effect the rule of the laws of the Koran.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Places 3 Bln in 15-Year Bonds, High Demand
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JULY 15 — The Spanish Treasury today placed 3 billion euros in 15-year bonds on the market, reaching the set maximum, but had to pay a higher interest, 5.116%, than the issue of 22 April (4.434%). Demand was 2.57 times higher than supply, the Bank of Spain reports. Demand totalled 7.7 billion and the Treasury has placed the established maximum. The secondary market has responded well and the differential between the German 10-year bund and the Spanish bond has fallen from 207 to 195 points. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Brothers Jailed for Vilks Arson Attack
The two brothers accused of fire-bombing the home of Swedish Muhammad cartoonist Lars Vilks, have been imprisoned, with the older brother being served a three year sentence and the younger two years.
Court convicts teenager over Lars Vilks attack (17 Jun 10)
Vilks takes fight to Facebook foes (8 Jun 10)
The brothers, from Landskrona in the south of Sweden, faced charges of arson at Helsingborg district court, a crime that carries a penalty of 2-8 years imprisonment.
The prosecutor had sought a six year sentence for the elder brother, a 21-year-old, and four years for his 19-year-old younger brother.
As the court trial opened last Wednesday the 21-year-old defendant described Lars Vilks as “God’s enemy, he is the Prophet’s enemy, he is the Muslims’ enemy.”
“He is Islam’s greatest enemy right now,” he added.
The news agency did not give the brothers’ names, but the Expressen tabloid has identified them as Mentor and Mensur Alija, aged 21 and 19.
Vilks has faced numerous death threats and a suspected assassination plot since his drawing of the Muslim prophet with the body of a dog was first published by Swedish regional daily Nerikes Allehanda in 2007 to illustrate an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression.
The brothers, who are Swedish nationals of Kosovar origin, were arrested in May when several of their personal items were found outside the artist’s house after it was attacked with Molotov cocktails.
Although the fire blackened some of the house’s exterior it went out on its own without causing much damage. The artist was not at home at the time.
Both brothers have denied their involvement, even though Mensur Alija reportedly suffered serious burns on the night of May 15, when the attack occurred.
He has claimed he was involved in a barbecue accident.
The drawing by Vilks prompted protests by Muslims in the town of Örebro, west of Stockholm, where the newspaper is based, while Egypt, Iran and Pakistan made formal complaints.
An Al-Qaeda front organisation then offered $100,000 to anyone who murdered Vilks — with a $50,000 bonus if his throat was slit — and $50,000 for the death of Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief Ulf Johansson.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Calls for Policy Rethink Over Relations With EU
Switzerland has to consider closer ties with the European Union to maintain its sovereignty and position as a wealthy nation, experts say.
A book by the think tank, Avenir Suisse, says continuing relations with EU on the basis of bilateral treaties are not promising for the future.
The authors recommend three possible scenarios: a new attempt at joining the European Economic Area treaty, full membership of the EU — albeit without taking over the euro currency — or a global alliance of small and medium-sized states in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Voters in 1992 narrowly rejected the Economic Area Treaty at the polls following a campaign by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party.
Over the years Switzerland and the EU have concluded more than 20 major bilateral accords, but critics say the system is becoming unwieldy.
An application for EU membership has effectively been shelved, but not withdrawn.
Avenir Suisse, a policy institute with close ties to the Swiss business community, was founded in 1999.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tilting at Minarets: Germany’s Anonymous Mosque Watchers
By Hauke Goos
Reinhard Werner doesn’t trust Islam. The 70-year-old German is part of a group which keeps tabs on mosques across Germany, monitoring them for what he calls an “intolerant Islam of terror.” Over the years, he has gained a certain amount of notoriety.
Reinhard Werner is a few minutes early, but because he doesn’t want to be noticed, he stands outside on the sidewalk in front of the mosque, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.
It’s Friday afternoon in Munich’s Pasing neighborhood and men are scurrying past Werner on their way to Friday prayers. All of them, in Werner’s eyes, are enemies. He claims that the mosque is spreading what he calls an “intolerant Islam of terror.”
“Do you see the sign over the entrance?” he says.
The letters “DITIB” are printed on the sign. DITIB, an acronym for the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, is the umbrella organization for roughly 900 mosque congregations in Germany. It is controlled by a Turkish government organization based in Ankara, the Office for Religious Affairs, making it indirectly answerable to the Turkish prime minister. “A military mosque,” says Werner.
“Do you see that the letter ‘I’ in DITIB resembles a minaret? And that the minarets look like missiles?” he asks, beseechingly. It isn’t always easy for Werner to make himself understood.
Feeling a Kinship
Werner is a member of the “Anonymous Mosque Observers,” a group of Muslims who fled to Germany from Muslim countries because they came into conflict with religious rules.
Although Werner is not a Muslim himself, nor is he fleeing anything, he feels a kinship with Muslims who have fled their native countries. These Muslims trust their more settled Muslim counterparts about as much as former US President George W. Bush trusted terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. They keep tabs on what goes on in mosques because they want to be sure that they are still safe in Germany.
Werner came to the group in a somewhat roundabout way. For 30 years, he was a teacher at a secondary school in Munich, where some of his classes consisted entirely of foreign students. According to Werner, most of the Turkish students had a negative-to-hostile attitude toward the West. They were hard to reach and difficult to convince, he felt.
Since then, he has been fighting for religious freedom, but insists that it should come with certain conditions. The most important of those, he says, is that Muslims, like members of other faiths, pledge to uphold the German constitution.
Of the 36 mosques in Munich, nine are in Werner’s “observation area.” He reports everything he sees and hears to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. The BfV, however, doesn’t seem to be taking him very seriously, or at least it hasn’t found his reports to be sufficiently convincing to take any action.
Blood-Soaked Tyrants
After a while, Werner slips into the mosque. In the lobby, about 25 men are drinking tea and eating pita bread as they wait for the service to begin. Werner orders tea, drops three cubes of sugar into his cup and points to a picture next to the tea station. It depicts Ottoman leaders from six centuries. Blood-soaked tyrants are being glorified here, Werner whispers. He points to the second picture from the right in the bottom row and identifies the man depicted as Abdul Hamid II, known abroad as the “Great Assassin.”
A portrait of Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic and the Turkish army, hangs on another wall, next to a television set. According to Werner, the state and the church are not truly separated in Turkey because the state influences the church and the military influences the state. “Turkey is a theocracy,” says Werner.
Then he walks up the stairs to the prayer room. The sermons, says Werner, are often about rejecting the Western way of life.
Just before Werner reaches the door to the prayer room, a young man approaches him and asks him whether he is Mr. Werner. Werner nods.
“You are banned from the premises,” the young man says, looking serious. He tells Werner that he must ask him to leave the mosque immediately. It is moments like this that show Werner that his work is at least being taken seriously.
He has acquired a certain amount of notoriety over the years, years marked by the attacks of Sept. 11, the Taliban, the Danish cartoon controversy, the ban on minarets in Switzerland and opposition to the construction of new mosques in Germany. Werner, now 70, had studied the Koran. Suddenly he was considered an expert, and he was in demand.
A Little Disappointed
He is sometimes asked to speak to Christian congregations, but he is hardly ever invited back. Perhaps it’s because Werner is so combative. Germans don’t like conflict.
And perhaps everything would be easier if social coexistence could be organized the way teams are organized on the football field. Then there would be agreements and rules, and anyone who broke the rules would be penalized. Second-time offenders would be sidelined. But that isn’t the way society works, which is why Werner has been fighting his battle for more than two decades.
There are many movements within Islam, he says. The most aggressive, he says, is “Mohammedan Islam,” — and, he claims, it is also the only movement that is building mosques. This, Werner argues, is why it is not the construction of minarets which should be banned, but the construction of mosques.
On his way home, Werner stops at the mosque again to ask why he has been banned from the premises. He hopes to somehow use the ban to reinforce his message. He — as a representative of Germany, the West and democracy — feels excluded.
This time an older man with white hair and a white beard is waiting for him. The ban was a misunderstanding, the old man says, and smiles.
A minute later, Werner is standing on the street below the mosque again, relieved that he will be able to continue observing the mosque in the future. But he also seems a little disappointed.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Wicked’ Woman Who Cried Rape is Jailed for Three Years Despite Being Seven Months Pregnant
A woman who ripped her own clothes and gave herself a black eye to support her lie that she had been raped was today jailed for three years and branded ‘wicked’.
Leyla Ibrahim, who is seven months pregnant, will now give birth in prison after being locked up for sparking a £150,000 police investigation which saw four students held and subjected to humiliating examinations.
They were questioned for nearly three days, during which time one attempted suicide, and were later subjected to abuse in the street, causing such trauma that one has since left the area.
But the 22-year-old had invented the whole incident in order to teach her friends a lesson after they abandoned her at the end of a night out, a judge said.
The four wrongly accused — two of whom were under 16 — are still suffering as a result of the stigma caused by the false allegations, Carlisle Crown Court was told.
All were ‘subject to name calling and abuse in the street’ following their arrests, with one describing the ordeal as ‘torture’.
Another said he was ‘devastated’ by the harrowing experience and had been unable to eat or sleep, with one suspect complaining: ‘We were treated like s*** and not a stint of an apology.’
ANONYMITY IN RAPE CASESAnonymity in rape cases has long been a cause of controversy.
For 35 years, the victim’s identity has not been made public.
But the law allows defendants accused of rape to be named.
Many campaigners claim that the identities of sex attackers should only be made public on conviction.
They argue that this would stop defendants who are acquitted having a permanent stain on their character.
The government is currently considering a radical reform of the rape law which would grant anonymity to male defendants.
But feminists and campaigners have protested that the anonymity offer will hinder justice.
Even the doctor in the case described the examinations as ‘intimate, embarrassing and uncomfortable’.
A senior police source said the four were still ‘really struggling’, adding: ‘One of them has even had to move out of the area.’
Detectives had initially taken Ibrahim’s account that she had been raped or sexually assaulted on her way home from a night out seriously, launching a massive manhunt involving 40 officers.
The frilly dress and leggings she had been wearing had apparently been ripped in the attack, clumps of her hair had been hacked off and she had a black eye and scratches to her breasts and legs.
Four suspects were held for questioning for more than 60 hours and subjected to intimate examinations of their genitalia.
But police became suspicious, and tests showed the Libyan-born former children’s holiday rep had ripped her own clothes and inflicted the injuries herself to back up her fabricated claims.
After failing to withdraw her allegation she was charged with perverting the course of justice and convicted following a trial.
Supported by her mother, Sandra, and sister, Samira, she was today jailed despite her first child being due in September.
Judge Paul Batty, QC, told her such false allegations made it harder for women who genuinely had been raped to secure their attacker’s convictions.
‘Not only was this false allegation very worrying for the local community, who feared that there were two attackers still at large in the area, they also resulted in the arrest of four innocent men.
‘Perverting the course of justice in this way is a serious matter as it undermines the whole basis of our justice system.’
‘Not only did these false allegations have an effect on four young men, but also a considerable effect on your own family,’ he said.
‘You were convicted on clear and compelling evidence of wickedly fabricating a grave crime, causing countless anguish to all involved.
‘Your behaviour was thoroughly irresponsible and some may say wicked. It strikes to the heart of the criminal justice system.
‘You feigned injury and illness with doctors and cut your own clothes and even your own skin.
‘I’m entirely clear in this case that you craved attention and wanted your friends to think they left you and you were then attacked.
‘You wanted to teach them a lesson.’
Describing her offence as ‘about as bad as it could be’, he jailed her for three years, meaning her child will begin its life in prison.
Ibrahim, who had been denied bail following her conviction, smiled and waved at her family as she was led into the dock.
Her distraught mother covered her face with her hands following the sentence, calling: ‘It’s okay darling, we all love you and we’ll always be with you.’
The family are still protesting her innocence and said afterwards they would ‘fight for ever’ to clear her name.
Ibrahim, who came to Britain from Libya with her family when she was nine, worked at a petrol station at the time of the supposed attack in Carlisle on January 4 last year.
She hatched the elaborate plot after a row with a male friend when he refused to lend her the money for a taxi home after a drink-fuelled night out, even leaving one of her shoes at the scene in an attempt to add weight to her allegations.
Ibrahim told police two youths had knocked her to the ground as she walked home, subjecting her to a violent sexual assault.
She claimed she grabbed a pair of purple scissors from her handbag, only for one of the pair to snatch them from her and cut off a clump of her hair.
Afterwards district Crown prosecutor Linda Vance said: ‘This sort of case, where someone fabricates an allegation of sexual assault, and continues with that false allegation, is very rare.
‘But, as in this case, the consequences can be very serious.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘The Boys Aren’t Good Enough’: Headteacher Appoints Two Head Girls as Boys Fail to Make the Grade
The accolade of being chosen as head boy or girl at school is often the proudest moment of a pupil’s young life and is a boon when applying to universities or for jobs.
But a headteacher has caused uproar at one mixed comprehensive after dispensing with its decades-old tradition of having one of each.
For the first time since it was founded in 1959, Acle High School in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, will have two head girls.
And in a further snub to the boys, the two deputy positions have also been filled by girls.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Angry Parents Accuse School of ‘Dumbing Down’ English by Showing the Simpsons in Class
A father has started a petition against ‘dumbing down’ after his daughter’s school ditched literary classics in favour of The Simpsons.
Joseph Reynolds was horrified when his 13-year-old daughter spent six weeks studying the popular US cartoon in English lessons.
Homework assignments included watching episodes of the TV series.
His petition calling for Shakespeare to replace The Simpsons has now gained more than 300 signatures.
But the school, Kingsmead Community School in Somerset, has defended its curriculum, claiming the programme helps students ‘to become critical readers and analysts of complex media texts’.
It insisted it was merely following the National Curriculum, which requires that students study ‘moving image’ texts.
And it said ‘many other schools’ used The Simpsons to teach English.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Disgraced Crown Prosecutor Snared by Police in £20,000 Bribe Sting is Jailed
A disgraced Crown prosecutor is behind bars today after being jailed for four-and-a-half years for bribery.
Sarfraz Ibrahim, 51, was caught out in a police sting after he accepted £20,000 to stop what he believed to be an assault case.
Ibrahim, who was Gwent Crown Prosecution Service trials chief at the time, split the cash with an accomplice.
The head of the CPS condemned Ibrahim’s actions and vowed that corruption would not be tolerated.
Keir Starmer QC, director of public prosecutions, said Ibrahim had disgraced the CPS through a serious breach of trust.
‘While criminal behaviour of this serious nature is extremely rare in the service, the CPS will prosecute all such cases robustly and will not hesitate to take action against any member of its staff who brings discredit on the service. This behaviour will not be tolerated in our organisation.’
He added: ‘The public has a right to expect the highest standards of professional behaviour from CPS employees and I will not tolerate anything less.
‘All necessary action will always be taken to ensure that the public can continue to have confidence in all those who prosecute on their behalf.’
Ibrahim, of Cyncoed, Cardiff, south Wales, admitted corruption, perverting the course of justice and misconduct in a public office.
His admissions, on the eve of a trial at Swansea Crown Court, related to a period between May and August last year.
Mr Justice Treacy heard that alarm bells had started to go off when Ibrahim came to the attention of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).
He was spotted with a man named Saifur Khan, 36, from Cardiff, visiting a motorway services near Bridgend in the autumn of 2008.
Ibrahim and Khan met with two men known for their links to the cocaine trade in south Wales who were both under surveillance.
When Ibrahim and Khan were identified Soca set up an integrity test to see whether either man was corrupt.
It led to a case file linked to a bogus assault charge being created which allowed the police to gauge the honesty of both men.
Undercover officers approached Khan posing as a wealthy businessman and his driver, the latter eventually being arrested for assault.
The set piece arrest took place in a flat rented from Khan and eventually led to Ibrahim’s intervention when he discontinued the case for cash.
Sentencing Ibrahim in Swansea today the judge told him: ‘You have broken the most sacred rule of any profession.’
He added: ‘You are an intelligent and resourceful man who freely embarked on a course of criminal activity which you knew was serious and which, if detected, would lead to a long term in prison.
He said: ‘I am sure that you were motivated by personal gain from the outset.
‘I know also that you lied to the police to conceal your guilt.
‘It is clear to me that you were not persuaded or led in any of these offences by anyone else.
‘The tapes and the evidence I have heard make that only too clear.’
He told Ibrahim that his actions had had a ‘potentially corrosive effect beyond this case’.
He added: ‘The alacrity with which you collected your half of the £20,000 bribe tells its own story.’
Sarfraz Ibrahim’s dramatic fall from grace is all the greater because he was held in such high esteem by his colleagues and profession in general.
Andrew Langdon QC, defending, spoke yesterday of the leadership, flare and inspiration that Ibrahim brought to his job.
As the eldest son of parents who came to the UK from Tanzania in the 1950s, he epitomised the ability of gifted immigrants to succeed here.
After qualifying as a lawyer, he eventually got himself a job with the Crown Prosecution Service not long after it was first set up.
At the time of his arrest last August, he was on secondment from Avon and Somerset CPS working as Gwent CPS trial unit chief.
But before the move he had distinguished himself and won accolades for his hard work and close community links.
The Avon and Somerset Criminal Justice Board gave him an award which recognised his efforts for ‘engaging in communities’.
In 2005, while working for Gwent, he was singled out for a national CPS award for recruiting black and ethnic minority staff to the service.
Mr Langdon handed in a series of letters today which all praised Ibrahim’s unselfish hard work.
Speaking to the judge, Mr Justice Treacy, he added: ‘If I do not say it now, no-one else is going to. He was good at what he did.
‘He was conscientious, he was efficient, he was a leader and an inspiration to others.’
‘The loyalty of his staff, My Lord, is a theme of much of what you read about Sarfraz Ibrahim.
‘Unfailing loyalty is not easily won and cannot be won by someone who is selfish, lazy and only interested in progressing their own career.’
He went on to read out an appraisal of Ibrahim from 2004 in which his ‘humanitarianism’, ‘good humour and forbearance’ are all praised.
It concludes: ‘He was a pleasure to deal with.’
Mr Langdon went on to argue that Ibrahim, though wrong, had never been motivated by money.
‘There is no suggestion at any stage that he was asking for a bribe,’ he said.
‘By his plea he accepts that when he took the money at the end of the story he was taking a bribe.
‘But his argument is that he was not motivated by a desire to make money. It was to help Khan and his friend.’
Mr Langdon concluded: ‘The respect he won and the inspiration that he was for his community is now in tatters.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: High-Earning Students Could Face a Bigger Tuition Fee Under Plans for a ‘Graduate Tax’
Top students could pay the equivalent of £16,000-a-year tuition fees under radical plans for a ‘graduate tax’ that would link the cost of university to future earnings.
Business Secretary Vince Cable today unveiled a blueprint for a campus revolution that would see fewer students going to university but paying more for the privilege.
Labour’s controversial target to drive up university attendance to 50 per cent of school-leavers will be ripped up amid fears too many students are ending up on poor-quality ‘dead end’ courses.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Skull of Doom
The Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull: Fact, fiction, and the creation of myth
Crystal skulls have long had a fringe following, and the most famous of them is one named for the explorer-author Frederick A. Mitchell-Hedges (see “Legend of the Crystal Skulls”). Mitchell-Hedges claimed to have found the skull somewhere in Central America in the 1930s, but his adopted daughter Anna later said she found it under a fallen altar or inside a pyramid at the Maya site of Lubaantún in British Honduras (now Belize) some time in the 1920s. Neither of their contradictory accounts is true. In fact, like all the other crystal skulls thus far examined, it is a modern creation, despite its nearly mythical place in the minds of devotees.
I have had two opportunities to examine the Mitchell-Hedges skull closely and to take silicone molds of carved and polished elements of it, which I have analyzed under high-power light and scanning-electron microscopes. I have also evaluated the documentary evidence, newspaper stories about Mitchell-Hedges, his memoirs Land of Wonder and Fear (1931) and Danger My Ally (1954), and a file of letters and documents that Anna Mitchell-Hedges sent to Frederick Dockstader, the director of the Museum of the American Indian in New York City, which I recently found.
The microscopic evidence presented here indicates that the skull is not a Maya artifact but was carved with high-speed, modern, diamond-coated lapidary tools. The historical record shows it first appeared in London in 1933 and was purchased a decade later by Mitchell-Hedges, who claimed the crystal skull was an authentic pre-Columbian artifact. The newly found archival evidence suggests Anna was later involved in the evolution of tall tales about the skull’s origins, providing a fascinating look at the creation of a popular mythology in service of a profitable business venture…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Pain of Cameron’s 40 Percent Savings Plan
Prime Minister David Cameron means business. His chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, has asked most ministries to lop 40 percent off their budgets, meaning the coming years are likely to be filled with protest and pain.
She is 84 and her husband is 89 — after decades of hard work, now this: Her funds are running out. The amount of money the old lady still receives from the state is no longer enough to pay for the respectable lifestyle to which she is accustomed.
The roof is leaking and the pipes are still made of lead. Removing the asbestos from the walls and ceilings is too expensive, and the furniture has clearly seen better days. At the moment, the mistress of the house is drawing on the reserves she invested in better days, but starting in 2012, even that money will run out.
At that point, Queen Elizabeth II will have been on the throne for exactly 60 years and, for the first time, she might be just a little broke. As a private citizen, she will still be ranked among the world’s richest people. But the relatively modest sum she receives from her government every year will no longer be sufficient to cover her official expenses as head of state.
What happens then? Will the Queen sack her bagpipe player, who plays outside her window every morning between nine and 10 a.m.? Will she pawn the crown jewels? Or perhaps even go on strike?
Absolutely not. Instead, Her Majesty will keep a stiff upper lip; she will economize, stretch a little and make compromises, and in the end, she will not be abandoned by the nation — neither will her family and certainly not Queen Victoria’s crumbling mausoleum near Windsor Castle, which is in urgent need of repair. But aside from that, certainty is currently in short supply in the United Kingdom. These are strange and uncomfortable times, both in Buckingham Palace and everywhere else.
Saving Until it Hurts
The government, deep in debt and ruled by a new coalition of Liberals and Conservatives, plans to save until it hurts. The hardships and humiliations the British are likely to face could be worse than what Greece, a significantly smaller financial patient, is currently going through. According to economist Mike Devereux of the University of Oxford, the austerity program unveiled by George Osborne, 39, the youngest chancellor of the exchequer in 120 years, is more radical than anything the Greek government has approved to date. Even the famously icy hand of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s felt, by comparison, gentle.
Prime Minister David Cameron had announced a new “era of austerity” even before the election. Now he threatens to keep his word.
These days, Cameron puts on a very serious face when he refers to the British, and warns his fellow citizens that no one will escape the cuts. “The decisions we make will affect every single person in our country. And the effects of those decisions will stay with us for years, perhaps decades to come,” he said in a June speech.
Of course, Cameron never forgets to assign the blame for all of this to the previous administration. He insists that New Labour destroyed the government’s finances, and that the situation was far worse than expected when he came into office. And although he likes to point out that he has gained the approval of the G-20 nations and the European Union for his course of austerity, he neglects to mention the sharp criticism coming from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It fears that the rigid cutbacks in public spending could jeopardize the economic recovery.
Osborne, for his part, is playing the supreme commissioner of frugality, a role in which he seems to enjoy announcing bad news to the British public. Because of his age and lack of experience, he was long a target of derision, even from within his own ranks. But now he is coming back at his detractors with the inexorable vengeance afforded by position. “Daddy might not always be very popular,” Osborne told his young son a few months ago…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
757.6 Mln Euro for ENPI Inter-Regional Cooperation
(ANSAmed) — BRUXELLES, JULY 14 — The European Commission is making available 757.6 million euros across six priority areas under its ENPI Inter-regional Programme (IRP) for the period 2011-2013, up from 523.9 million euros for the period 2007-2010.
The IRP provides effective support for the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Strategic Partnership with Russia through activities best organised and implemented at interregional level: “It will support initiatives which by their nature or size cannot be effectively supported through bilateral, regional or thematic programmes, while enabling specific commitments towards particular areas of policy interest.” According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), the Indicative Programme 2011-2013 confirmed IRP priorities for the period, as support for investment, higher education and regulatory reforms were still medium term objectives.
Funding for the Indicative Programme for 2011-2013 will amount to 757.6 million euros, breaking down as follows: 450 million euros for promoting large-scale investment in energy and transport infrastructure, the environment, social sectors and small and medium enterprise development in partner countries; 249 million euros for promoting higher education reform, institutional cooperation and mobility of students; 30 million for support for the reform processes in the partner countries through European advice and expertise; 15 million euros for promoting mutual understanding and cooperation between local actors in the EU and in the partner countries; 10 million euros for promoting Inter-Regional Cultural Action (People to People), with a particular focus on the indipendent cultural sector and the promotion of contacts between people; 3.6 million euros for promoting cooperation between partners countries and EU agencies.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Development, 580 Million Euros From European Union
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, JULY 13 — Morocco and the European Union signed an agreement today in Rabat over a cooperation programme worth 580 million euros (6.6 billion dirham) for the 2011-2013 period. The Map agency reported that the agreement was signed by the head of the EU delegation in Rabat, Eneko Landaburu, and Algeria’s minister of the Economy and Finance, Salaheddine Mezouar.
The amount will be used in the development of social policies (116 million euros), economic modernisation (58 million), institutional support (232 million), good governance and human rights (87 million), and protection of the environment (87 million) (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oil Spill: BP Confirms Libya Prisoner Exchange
(ANSAmed) — LONDON, JULY 15 — The giant oil company BP confirmed today that in 2007 it put pressure on the British government with regard to an agreement with Libya on the transfer of prisoners in exchange for an acceleration of talks with Tripoli on offshore oil prospecting.
Confirmation comes from a report released by BP, leading actor in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. According to the report BP said “to the British government that it was worried by the slow development “ of an accord with Libya for an exchange of prisoners.
The prisoner of which the report speaks is the man behind the Lockerbie bombing, Abdel Basset Al Megrahi.
Yesterday several Democratic senators asked the Department of State to open an investigation to find out if BP had a role in the transfer of Al Megrahi to Libya last summer.
The request of the senators, together with an appeal to BP to close offshore drilling in Libya, was accepted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who then examined the dossier.
Al Megrahi, condemned in 2001 for the Lockerbie bombing, was released by a Scottish court for medical reasons in August. The attacker seemed to be dying of a tumour but after close to a year he is still alive.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Are the Palestinians Silencing the Attempted Rape of U.S. Peace Activist?
One of the more prominent Umm Salmuna activists — a village south of Bethlehem, long entrenched in a battle against the West Bank separation fence — is suspected of the attempted rape of an American peace activist who had been residing in the village as part of her support of the local protest.
Omar Aladdin, who had been arrested three months ago over suspicions he had attempted to rape the U.S. citizen, was subsequently released after agreeing to apologize to the young woman. However, Haaretz had learned that representatives of both the popular protest movement and the PA have since applied pressure on the American peace activist as to prevent her from making the story public.
The incident allegedly took place last April, as Aladdin, who had served a term in the Israeli jail in the past, arrived one evening at the guest house in which many of the foreign peace activists were staying. The European and American female activists reportedly agreed to let Aladdin stay with them after he had told them he feared the Israel Defense Forces were on his tail, adding that he had been severely beaten at an IDF checkpoint only a week before.
During his stay Aladdin allegedly attempted to rape a Muslim-American woman, nicknamed “Fegin” by fellow activists. The woman escaped, later accusing the popular protest man of the attempt. One villager who had encountered the American following the incident said she had been in a state of shock.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Barroso to Fayyad, Extra 20 Mln From EU Commission
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JULY 13 — The EU Commission has decided to lay out extra funds of 20 million euros in support of the Palestinian National Authority and is studying the possibility of reaching an extra 40 million.
The announcement was made by the President of the EU Commission, Jose’ Manuel Durao Barroso, during a meeting with the PNA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who is currently visiting Brussels.
“These additional funds are of extraordinary importance to us,” Fayyad said. “We must meet the elementary needs of our population”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Delegation of Calabrian Farmers in Israel
(ANSAmed) — COSENZA, JULY 14 — A delegation of businessmen working in agriculture and officials from Calabrian redevelopment consortia has visited Israel, with the aim of finding new applied technology for the efficient irrigation of agricultural land, and for energy saving in agriculture.
Those taking part in the mission got a close view of productive standards and of the advanced technology applied to the agricultural sector.
One day was taken up with the visit of CleanTech, one of the most important international fairs dedicated to technological innovations concerning energy saving and the protection of the environment. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Defends ‘Right of Retaliation’ Over Gaza
Geneva, 14 June (AKI) — Israel on Wednesday at a UN Human Rights Committee hearing defended its right of retaliation for any aid ship that try to break through its Gaza blockade.
“No ship can breach this blockade, be they civil or military ships. Whoever violates the blockade is heading for retaliation,” Israeli envoy Sari Rubenstein told the committee in Geneva.
The two-day hearing began on Tuesday.
“The blockade is legitimate, under international law… a blockade can be imposed on the sea,” Rubenstein said, during the hearing on how Israel was applying its obligations under the UN treaty on civil and political rights, according to news reports.
The three-year-old blockade came under intense international scrutiny on 31 May when Israeli soldiers stormed a ship in an aid flotilla killing 9 of the activists.
Israel has defended its actions saying that it came under attack as soon as soldiers boarded the Turkish-flagged ship. The activists say the attack was unprovoked.
Since the incident Israel has relaxed some of the restrictions allowing some supplies like food to enter Gaza.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Protesters Delay El Al Flight
Athens, 14 July (AKI) — Demonstrators in Athens on Wednesday delayed an Israel-bound flight for around two hours after blocking five El Al airline counters to protest Israel’s three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Members of a communist labour union say they staged a protest at Athens International airport in solidarity with Palestinian people in Gaza.
The three-year-old blockade came under intense international scrutiny on 31 May when Israeli soldiers stormed a ship in an aid flotilla killing 9 of the activists.
Since then Israel has relaxed restrictions allowing supplies like food to enter Gaza.
Wednesday’s demonstration occurred as a Libya-chartered ship carrying aid to the Gaza Strip was due to sail to an Egyptian port to avoid challenging an Israeli naval blockade of the Palestinian territory.
Athens airport officials said El Al flight 542 to Tel Aviv departed from Athens two hours after the scheduled time after the protest ended without incident.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A Quiet Axis Forms Against Iran in the Middle East
Israel and the Arab states near the Persian Gulf recognize a common threat: the regime in Tehran. A regional diplomat has not even ruled out support by the Arab states for a military strike to end Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
It is early in the morning on the wharfs in Sharjah, just below the Museum of Islamic Civilization, where the heavy wooden ships known as dhows are being loaded with cargo. Pakistani laborers hoist engine blocks, plasma monitors and mineral oil into the ships’ holds. When asked where the dhows are headed, they say, matter-of-factly: “Iran.”
Trade between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and their neighbor across the Strait of Hormuz is an everyday occurrence that hardly deserves mention on the docks.
The same families are often on both shores. The business relationships between them have grown over generations and are more enduring than any war or embargo.
Of course, shipping engine blocks to the Iranian port city of Bandar-e Lengeh is not prohibited. But the busy import and export trade in the dhow ports of the emirates of Sharjah, Dubai and Ras al-Khaimah shows how difficult it is to isolate Tehran.
‘Astonishingly Honest’
This makes the words uttered last Tuesday by the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al Otaiba, in Aspen, Colorado, more than 12,500 kilometers to the west, all the more interesting. Otaiba was attending a forum at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival, and the mood was relaxed, or at least it was too relaxed for diplomatic restraint.
The discussion revolved around the Middle East. When asked whether the UAE would support a possible Israeli air strike against the regime in Tehran, Ambassador Otaiba said: “A military attack on Iran by whomever would be a disaster, but Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a bigger disaster.”
These were unusually candid words. A military strike, the diplomat continued, would undoubtedly lead to a “backlash.” “There will be problems of people protesting and rioting and very unhappy that there is an outside force attacking a Muslim country,” he said.
But, he added, “if you are asking me, ‘Am I willing to live with that versus living with a nuclear Iran,’ my answer is still the same. We cannot live with a nuclear Iran. I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the U.A.E.”
Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman said afterwards that she had never heard anything like it coming from an Arab government official. Otaiba, she added, was “astonishingly honest.”
Notwithstanding the shocking nature of his remarks, Otaiba was merely expressing, in a public forum, “the standard position of many Arab countries,” says Middle East expert Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for The Atlantic Monthly who moderated the panel discussion in Aspen.
The fact that some Western politicians are unfamiliar with this position has to do with their own ignorance, and with the diplomatic skill with which the smaller Gulf states, in particular, have managed to hide their opposition to their powerful neighbor until now.
“The Jews and Arabs have been fighting for one hundred years. The Arabs and the Persians have been going at (it) for a thousand,” argues Goldberg on The Atlantic’s Web site.
Almost all Arab neighbors have a hostile relationship with the Islamic Republic. Saudi Arabia suspects Iran of stirring up the Shiite minority in its eastern provinces. The Arab emirates accuse Iran of occupying three islands in the Persian Gulf. Egypt has not had regular diplomatic relations with Iran since a street in Tehran was named after the murderer of former Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat.
Jordanian King Abdullah II warns against the establishment of a “Shiite crescent” between Iran and Lebanon. And Kuwait, fearing the Iranians, installed the Patriot air defense missile system in the spring…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ankara Extradites German Man to Germany
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JULY 14 — The Turkish authorities have extradited a 28-year-old German man, suspected of belonging to terrorist organisation Islamic Jihad Union, back to Germany, reports the Turkish media citing the German press. According to the same sources, the German man — indicated with the name Salih S. — was arrested in Turkey in November 2008 and is accused of first being a supporter, then an external member of the terrorist organisation. The man is also accused of having supplied his associates with materials to carry out paramilitary activity, such as satellite localisation systems, nighttime vision devices and weapons. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: CIA ‘Paid Nuclear Scientist $5mln’
Washington, 15 July (AKI/Washington Post) — The Iranian nuclear scientist who claimed to have been abducted by the CIA before departing for his homeland Wednesday was paid more than $5 million by the agency to provide intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program, US officials said.
Shahram Amiri is not obligated to return the money but might be unable to access it after breaking off what US officials described as “significant cooperation” with the CIA and abruptly returning to Iran.
Officials said he might have left out of concern that the Tehran government would harm his family.
“Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the financial sanctions on Iran,” a US official said. “He’s gone, but his money’s not. We have his information, and the Iranians have him.”
Amiri arrived in Tehran early Thursday to a hero’s welcome, including personal greetings from several senior government officials. His 7-year-old son broke down in tears as Amiri held him for the first time since his mysterious disappearance in Saudi Arabia 14 months ago.
In brief remarks to reporters at Imam Khomeni International Airport, Amiri said: “I am so happy to be back in the Islamic republic.” He repeated his claims of having been abducted by US agents.
He said CIA agents had tried to pressure him into helping them with their propaganda against his homeland and offered him $50 million to remain in the United States.
Amiri, who flashed victory signs as he stepped inside the airport terminus, also said that he knew little of Iran’s main nuclear enrichment site.
“I’m a simple researcher. A normal person would know more about Natanz than me,” he stated.
He was greeted by Hassan Qashqavi, a high-ranking foreign ministry official, as well as a deputy interior minister and a deputy science minister.
Amiri’s request this week to be sent home stunned US officials, who said he had been working with the CIA for more than a year.
The US official said the payments reflected the value of the information gleaned. “The support is keyed to what the person’s done, including how their material has checked out over time,” said the official. Like others, he spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity surrounding the case.
“You don’t give something for nothing,” the official added.
The transfer of millions of dollars into Amiri-controlled accounts also seems to bolster the US government’s assertions that Amiri was neither abducted nor brought to the United States against his will.
Given the amount of money he was provided, a second US official said: “I’m sure he could have been very happy here for a long time.”
The payments are part of a clandestine CIA program referred to as the “brain drain.”
Its aim is to use incentives to induce scientists and other officials with information on Iran’s nuclear program to defect.
The Iranian government maintains that its nuclear research is strictly for peaceful purposes. But the United States and other nations contend that Iran is secretly pursuing a nuclear bomb. Acquiring intelligence on the country’s nuclear capabilities and intentions is one of the top priorities for US spy agencies.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Now Even Ahmadinejad’s in Trouble With the Hardliners as He Enrages Cleric by Claiming It’s OK for Men to Wear Ties
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has outraged a Muslim cleric by suggesting it is acceptable for men to wear ties.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, who is normally a hard line ally of the president, claims that the country’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a fatwa, or religious law, against wearing ties or bow-ties.
Iranian conservatives view the gentleman’s accessory as a symbol of western decadence. It was once famously compared to a donkey’s tail.
But Mr Ahmadinejad said no religious leader had ever banned the tie.
However, he was swiftly reprimanded by a firebrand ayatollah who is normally a close ally of the usually hardline president.
‘I say to him that many religious dignitaries believe ties should not be worn,’ thundered Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami.
He reminded Mr Ahmadinejad that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ‘himself has said in a fatwa (religious edict) that wearing ties or bowties is not permitted’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Resorts Turn Away Minority Helpers
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JULY 15 — There have been many cases in Lebanon of ethnic minorities, usually domestic helpers from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia or the Philippines, being forbidden entry into resorts and establishments. This stance has been reported today by IndyAct, a Lebanese NGO working for the defence of human rights.
In a video posted on its website indyact.org, two Lebanese activists and a young girl from Madagascar, presented as their domestic helper, try to enter one of Beirut’s historic bathing establishments. The man on reception explicitly refuses entry to the young woman, saying “Domestic helpers are not allowed inside”.
“In Lebanon, we have monitored more than 15 establishments that follow the same traditions and the same practices of racism against non-whites,” said Aimee Razajay of IndyAct, which is behind the new “Movement against racism” campaign. For years Lebanon, Jordan and the Gulf states have been accused by human rights organisations of serious discrimination against domestic helpers and migrant workers, who are often from the Horn of Africa and South-East Asia. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey to Open Trade Office in Ramallah
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JULY 14 — Turkey plans to open a trade office in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the West Bank, Turkey’s foreign trade minister said on Tuesday. Zafer Caglayan and Palestinian Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh attended the meeting of Turkish and Palestinian businesswomen held within the scope of Turkey-Palestine Business Forum in Istanbul. Speaking at the meeting, as Anatolia news agency reports, Caglayan said that Palestinian businesspeople were having troubles for getting visa from Turkey, adding that officials of his ministry would meet Turkish Foreign Ministry officials to discuss an easier visa regime. He also said that Turkey plans to open a trade office in Ramallah. At another meeting held earlier in the day, Caglayan has said Turkey would build an industrial zone in the West Bank despite all the obstructions by Israel. “Such a project in Erez had been hindered by Israel in the past. Now, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) is carrying out a project to set up an industrial zone in the West Bank. It has to be built despite all the obstructions by Israel,” Caglayan said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Church Defaced With Islamist Graffiti
Police have started an investigation after a suspected group of people defaced the façade of the 1,700-year-old Mor Jacob Syriac Orthodox Church in Nusaybin, in the southeastern province of Mardin, with pro-Islamic slogans.
The offenders allegedly defaced the stone walls of the church on Monday with various slogans, such as “Clear off, bastards,” “Clear off, Zionist dogs,” “Heretics, lay off,” and “Zionist powers, clear off,” in Turkish and, “Allah u Muhammed,” and “Prophet Muhammad, fight the infidels and hypocrites,” in Arabic.
The police will fingerprint the lid of a paint tin found on the ground at the site of the graffiti and will also fingerprint the wire fence surrounding the church, which is currently undergoing restoration.
Nusaybin Mayor Ayse Gökkan and members of the town council also went to the church upon hearing of the vandalism, denouncing the act.
Gökkan said the graffiti was an insult to all members of the Nusaybin community, whether Syriac Orthodox, Kurdish, Arabic, or Yezidi.
According to Gökkan, the offense was not committed by one person but by a group of people. Noting that renovators had placed a wired fence around the church for construction purposes, Gökkan said it would have been impossible for one person to climb and tear down the fence, enter the church grounds and deface the walls.
“If the police respect all cultures, they should quickly solve this case and prosecute the offenders. The case is going to be followed closely by the municipality. [The municipality] is not going to regard this as an ordinary crime. Mor Jacob Church is an asset to people of all religions who belong to this community, and the community is going to protect this asset,” he said.
The church reportedly dates from 313 A.D. and is currently being restored by the Mardin Directorate of Museums.
Mehmet Deniz, the directorate’s resident art historian, Ural Züngör, a museum restorer and member of Istanbul University’s Department of Restoration faculty and Süleyman Bayar, an archaeologist, went to the church to investigate the incident.
The three collected paint samples and said the graffiti could be removed without damaging the church’s historical texture.
The church is expected to re-open its doors once the restoration project is complete.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Haryana, The Caste Barrier is Broken. A Dalit Elected Head of an Indian Village
Rani Devi was named sarpanch (head) of Serhada. The village is located in the district of Hisar, a long time hotbed of violence and atrocities by Jat (superiors) toward lower castes and untouchables such as Dalits.
Chandigarh (AsiaNews) — Social barriers have come crashing down in the district of Hisar in Haryana (north-west India), where a Dalit woman was elected “sarpanch (head) of Serhada. The village is dominated by Jat (Superiors), a community known for its violence against the castes considered inferior, or Dalits, the “untouchables” of India’s social system.
In the villages of Haryana, the Khaap Panchayats (community council) are known for their violent and discriminatory decisions against inferior castes. On 21 April, for example, only 40 km from Serhada in the village of Mirchpur, a group of Jats set fire to a 70 year-old man and his 18 year old daughter, both belonging to the Dalit community.
Going against this trend on July 7 Rani Devi was elected head of Serhada village in Hisar district, with about 1384 votes out of 1702. Devi, wife of a poor shepherd, has expressed her surprise: “I am the adopted daughter of this village and am now responsible for every family that lives here. This will strengthen our bond with them”.
Raghuveer Lathar and Jagbeer Poona, members of the Serhada, said: “The government hold up our village as a model for all. We want anyone to achieve prosperity. We have full confidence in Rani Devi”. A village elder was reasoned that the election of Devi: “responds to all political leaders who have personal interests in incidents Mirchpur”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Alenia Aermacchi’s M-346 Wins Singapore Jet Trainer Race
By Jon Grevatt
The Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) has selected Alenia Aermacchi’s M-346 aircraft ahead of Korea Aerospace Industries’ (KAI’s) T-50 Golden Eagle to meet its advanced jet trainer (AJT) requirement, a MINDEF official revealed to Jane’s on 7 July.
Colonel Darius Lim, the director of public affairs, said that MINDEF is currently seeking to enter discussions with Alenia Aermacchi about the purchase of the aircraft, although he gave no indication as to when these negotiations might commence.
“MINDEF is now in the process of seeking final clarifications and contract negotiations with the consortium proposing the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 aircraft,” he said.
The consortium consists of Italian manufacturer Alenia Aermacchi; Boeing, which will provide training and simulator systems; and ST Aerospace, a division of Singapore Technologies Engineering that will provide 25-year maintenance services for the aircraft.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Food Safety Hard to Guarantee in China
Health Ministry official reaches this unpalatable conclusion. Experts say consumer protection can only be achieved if protection agencies are independent from political institutions.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — “With such a huge territory and population in China, it’s hard to avoid all food safety threats and to put all unscrupulous businessmen under scrutiny,” said Su Zhi, a senior official with China’s Health Ministry, after the authorities seized 76 tonnes of baby formula tainted with melamine. Speaking at a food safety forum, he also called for greater vigilance against unsafe food practices.
The problem was brought out into the open in September 2008 when the authorities revealed that melamine had been added to baby formula. This chemical substance is used in making plastic and is highly toxic for humans in whom it can cause kidney problems. Altogether, six children died and more than 300,000 got sick from consuming the tainted powder milk.
Eventually, 22 producers were involved, including China’s largest and best known dairy company. Chinese dairy products were eventually banned in many countries.
About 21 people were arrested and convicted; two were sentenced to death and executed.
Su did not say whether the new tainted milk seized in Gansu and Qinghai was made before the scandal broke out in 2008, and ostensibly destined for destruction, or after. What is clear though is that food safety problems involving Chinese companies are directly related to the lack of a proper control system.
Later it came to light that in 2008 the authorities were already aware of melamine-tainted baby formula months before the information was actually made public but covered up everything so as not to affect the Beijing Olympic Games.
China’s official media are now praising the government’s new approach of early warning. However, the amount of information made available to the public remains limited.
Experts note that local authorities are closely connected to business interests, and that consumer protection requires control agencies and a legal system that are independent of the Communist party and local government.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: Electoral Defeat of the Governing Coalition and the Crisis of Democratic Growth
Although defeated, the government currently is not at risk. Prime Minister Naoko Kan confirms the line of financial stringency. China appreciates the stability of the executive, but maintains good relations with Ozawa, the main rival within the Prime Minister’s party.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) — The ruling party (DPJ: Democratic Party of Japan) suffered a heavy defeat in parliamentary elections that were held in Japan on July 11 to renew half the seats in the Upper House. It had aimed for 54 seats, but obtained only 44, on the contrary, the largest opposition party (the Liberal Democratic Party: LDP) won 51. The dramatic consequence is that the government has lost its majority in the Upper House.
Opportunity to further democratic growth.
From the legal-constitutional perspective the government has not need to be concerned because the legislature power of the Lower House is superior to that of the Upper House: If the latter does not approve a bill, it may be re-confirmed by the Lower House, and thus passed anyway. Currently the ruling party (DPJ), thanks to the overwhelming election victory in August of 2009, has absolute majority in the lower house.
However, just like last year, the problem is not a legal one rather it is a democratic one: the same people who last summer gave confidence to the DPJ took it from them this time.
“Yellow card”, “thumbs down” are expressions that Japanese media have used to define the negative vote of the electorate: the criticism has not targeted the philosophy of the ruling party but its uncertainty in achieving it.
This emerged strongly in the editorial lines of the three principal Japanese newspapers: Yomiuri, Asahi and Mainichi. None of the three asked the government to resign. Instead the Liberal Democratic Party has requested the dissolution of parliament and early elections, almost as if in revenge for their humiliating defeat last year.
Naoto Kan: an honest politician with insufficient experience.
In the press conference held immediately after the negative election results, Prime Minister Naoto Kan admitted that the DPJ’s electoral strategy was biased when he mentioned the need to increase consumption tax to 10%, saying, also, that his efforts to convince the public of the need to correct the fiscal situation of the nation have failed. “My references to capital consumption has given people the impression that I raised this problem suddenly. My explanations were insufficient. “ And he added: “while carefully considering the results of the elections, I intend to continue to lead the government, making a fresh start”. Kan is not arrogant, he is honest. Having been finance minister during the administration of Yukio Hatoyama, he knows how serious the situation of public debt is. During the election campaign he did not hold back from using the comparison of the economic situation in Greece. The editor of The Japan Times wrote that “the main opposition party (LDP) calls for a raise in taxes, and both parties consider increasing the tax on consumption the most efficient means to reduce the massive government deficit”, which corresponds to 862 billion yen ie 168% of gross national product (GNP), worse than that of Greece which is about 130%. “The Japanese systems — writes a Mainichi analyst — as a whole will be ruined unless we begin to discuss the programs of social security, the decline in birth rates and aging population, as well as the reform of taxes to finance these programs. Kan was right to acknowledge (publicly) these problems … and the Liberal Democratic Party, should share the responsibility for solving them. “
Everyone knows that the disastrous situation of public debt is due to 20 years of LDP irresponsible government policies.
Two hurdles in Kan’s path
In his post-election statement Kan was not only honest but also brave. Honest because he accepted his responsibilities, even if he did so a little too generously. As emphasized by the media the responsibility lies with the whole party. And he was generous, because he accepted the thankless and difficult task of continuing to govern. And he did so by not conforming to the culture of his country. In Japan, a leader who is wrong should resign. This culture has also standardized the last three prime ministers belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party; Abe, Fukuda and Taro Aso: all three have resigned following the party’s electoral defeat.
Kan decided to stay because the serious problems of internal and international policy require stability of government. When he said that he was returning to the starting line, he was thinking of the stretch of road (policy) that must be travelled until September when members of his party will elect a new president.
This road however presents two hurdles to be overcome: the difficulty in forming a coalition and a strong, although deaf opposition within the party focused on the former general secretary Ichiro Ozawa. The first hurdle is very difficult to navigate. Of the nine parties in the upper house, the one that comes closest to the DPJ is “Your Party”, a newly formed party, which in the last elections won 10 seats (it only had one), but Yoshimi Watanabe, the chairman, has already said he will not join the coalition. He has however accepted collaboration on individual issues. Which also applies to other parties. Thus, the system of partial and temporary coalition. The second, even greater, hurdle, seems unconquerable. Ozawa has left the post of party secretary in June at the request of then-President and Prime Minister Hatoyama. All admire his organizational skills, but no one knows his political philosophy. For years he was part of the Liberal Democratic Party of which he was also secretary general. As a youth, his political mentor was a former Member of the LDP who had dealings with the Japanese mafia and who dared to say “in politics, what counts are the numbers.” Ozawa has established within the party a group of 150 parliamentarians who follow him faithfully.
China satisfied with stability of Kan Government
When Kan was elected head of the Japanese government last June, the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao lost no time in contacting him directly through the new hot line. It seems that China is more comfortable with Kan than with his predecessor Yukio Hatoyama. Kan is more attentive to the language of diplomacy. Hatoyama spoke too of relations and the importance of establishing an “East Asia Economic Community”, modelled on the European system, an expression that could be construed as a challenge to the Chinese strategy.
According to a Japanese journalist of the magazine “Sentaku” (Choice), above all China wants political stability in East Asia. In an article in the Chinese journal Hyanqiu published by the state news agency Xinhua, the author Li Min writes that improving cooperative relations with neighbours is a fundamental strategy to make China strong and prosperous. Li points out that hostile relations taken by the Soviet Union toward its neighbours was one of the causes of its destruction”.
Hatoyama’s sudden resignation after only eight months of government, have taken China by surprise. Kan’s prudence and balance is the best guarantee of stability.
But for the same reason the Chinese leadership cultivates friendly relations with Ozawa, whose pragmatism is admired and who was recently received during his private visit to China with much deference. Therefore it is not keen to see the current secretary general of the DPJ, Yuio Edan, and other members of the party leadership to distance themselves from Ozawa. “Prime minister Kan has limited leadership,” wrote a Chinese expert on Japan. “But as we admire his attitude to promote friendly relations with China, what we have to do is to have close relations with him, on a case by case basis.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ethiopia: Discovery of Earliest Illuminated Manuscript
Revised dating places Garima Gospels before 650—none from Ethiopia previously dated before 12th century
What could be the world’s earliest illustrated Christian manuscript has been found in a remote Ethiopian monastery. The Garima Gospels were previously assumed to date from about 1100AD, but radiocarbon dating conducted in Oxford suggests they were made between 330 and 650AD.
This discovery looks set to transform our knowledge about the development of illuminated manuscripts. It also throws new light on the spread of Christianity into sub-Saharan Africa.
The Garima Gospels are preserved in an isolated monastery in the Tigray region, set among mountains at 7,000 feet. No other Ethiopian manuscripts can be dated from before the 12th century. So the Garima Gospels represent a unique survival of an early Christian text in sub-Saharan Africa—pre-dating all others by more than 500 years.
The radiocarbon dating could even link the manuscript to the time of Abba (Father) Garima, who established the monastery. Originally from Constantinople, the monk is traditionally believed to have arrived in Ethiopia in 494. Legend has it that he copied the Gospels in a single day. To assist him in completing this lengthy task, God is said to have delayed the setting of the sun.
The Garima Gospels were recently conserved by an Anglo-French team, sponsored by the Ethiopian Heritage Fund. None of the conservators had ever faced such challenging conditions, and work had to be done outdoors, with two funeral biers serving as tables.
The discovery
The first report about the existence of the Garima Gospels came in 1950, from British art historian Beatrice Playne. Women are not allowed inside the monastery, but as she was considered an honoured visitor, its treasures were brought outside for her to view. She recorded that “there were several illuminated manuscripts whose ornamental headings struck me as Syrian in style”.
In the 1960s the manuscripts were studied by French specialist Jules Leroy. He found there were two separate sets of Gospels, now known as Garima I and Garima II. Both date from the same period, and Leroy concluded that they were created in around 1100. He found it difficult to envisage that they could have reached the country in the early centuries of Christianity.
The Garima Gospels have never left the monastery, and because of its remote location and the reluctance of the monks to show them, few scholars have had the opportunity to even briefly see them (although listed in the 1993-96 catalogue of the touring US exhibition “African Zion: the Sacred Art of Ethiopia”, they were never lent).
Jacques Mercier, a French specialist in Ethiopian art, has seen them on five brief visits. On one trip he took two, loose small samples of parchment, the size of a modest coin. The manuscript was then in an extremely fragile state, and fragments of brittle parchment broke off almost every time it was opened.
Mercier later arranged for the two parchment fragments to be radiocarbon dated at the Oxford University Research Laboratory for Archaeology. A sample of the parchment (probably goat skin) from Garima II was dated to 330-540 and one from another illustrated page to 430-650. Radiocarbon dating can only yield a range of dates (the Garima figures are subject to a 96% probability), not a precise date, but the middle year of these two samples would be 487 or 488.
Although it may well be coincidence, Abba Garima is said to have arrived in Ethiopia in 494. So the radiocarbon dating raises the possibility that the 1,500-year-old oral tradition associating the Gospels with the monk may be true—even if he did not complete the work in a single day.
However, Mercier believes that on stylistic grounds the Garima Gospels are slightly later, perhaps around 600. Even this later date would make them among the earliest surviving illustrated Christian manuscripts. The oldest dated are the Rabbula Gospels in Syriac, completed in 586 and now housed in the Laurentian Library in Florence.
The other renowned expert on the Garima Gospels independently suggests a similar date. US scholar Marilyn Heldman has visited the monastery, but she was not shown the Gospels, probably because of her gender. But, based on photographs, Heldman concluded they are from the sixth century.
The texts date from the same period as the illuminations, although these pages have not been radiocarbon dated. They are written in Ge’ez, the ancient Ethiopian language, and they are by far the earliest texts (other than a few stone inscriptions).
Early Byzantine style
Garima I, the first of the two volumes of the Gospels (348 pages), opens with 11 illuminated pages, including canon tables (which provide a concordance for the four Gospels). This is then followed by the text of the Gospels in Ge’ez.
Garima II is similar (322 pages), with 17 pages of illuminations. It has fine portraits of the four Evangelists. There is also an unusual depiction of the Temple of the Jews, a building with a staircase in a form otherwise unknown in Christian iconography (the architecture is possibly based on a Persian Sassanid garden pavilion for exotic animals, representing paradise). The Ge’ez is by a different scribe from that of Garima I (the texts are slightly different, as is the spelling).
The illuminations are all in the early Byzantine style, but the question is where they were painted. Mercier believes that the images of Garima I probably come from Syria or around Jerusalem (stylistically the canon tables are similar to those of the Rabbula Gospels, probably made at a Syrian monastery). Garima II has illuminations that show some affinity with those of Coptic Egypt. It is also possible that the illuminations were done by a Middle Eastern artist working in Ethiopia or an Ethiopian in a Middle Eastern studio.
Around 20 different species of birds occur in the illuminations. A preliminary analysis suggests that most are found throughout the Middle East and none are strikingly Ethiopian, but they could have been taken from a model book or another canon table. However, further analysis of the birds might help pinpoint where they were painted.
The text itself was probably copied in Ethiopia (rather than by a Ge’ez scribe in the Middle East), since it appears to have been added after the illuminations had been completed. This is particularly clear in Garima I, where the spacing in the canon tables does not fit the Ge’ez.
The covers of the Gospels are important. London binding specialist Nicholas Pickwoad, who has visited the monastery, told us that the cover of Garima I could well be contemporaneous with the contents. This would make it the world’s earliest bookbinding still attached to its text. It is a copper-gilt cover over a wooden board, which, although ornately decorated with a cross, is made in a rather crude style. There are holes, which may have originally been plugged with jewels. The silver cover of Garima II dates from the tenth to the 12th centuries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lion-Bone Wine Latest Threat to Survival of Africa’s Big Cats
Johannesburg—To most of us the mere thought of sipping a concoction in which animal bones soaked for a lengthy period is revolting. Yet, even in these supposedly enlightened times, the clamor for so-called tiger-bone wine in China is such that brewers are importing lion bones from South Africa as a legally obtainable and cheaper substitute.
The growing trade has environmentalists worried.
At the moment merchants are mostly getting their supplies under government permit from hunting farms on which captive-bred lions are released to be shot as trophies—itself a rather grotesque business.(South Africa snared in “abhorrent and repulsive” lion hunting schemes)
One of the concerns, however, is that as the trade grows, it could lead to already endangered lion populations in the wild getting poached for their bones.
Another worry is that it could serve as further encouragement to the commercial lion-breeding industry which the government is trying to curb, not least because of the bad image it creates of a country that has tourism, particularly nature tourism, as its fastest growing industry.
The trend adds to an already grim picture in which animal species in South Africa are under threat from poachers cashing in on enduring primitive beliefs that the physical attributes of animals can be acquired by ingesting their body parts…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Marxist Chavez Jails Prominent Political Opponent
In another outrageous case of the abuse of human rights, the Hugo Chávez regime in Venezuela has arrested anti-communist activist Alejandro Pena Esclusa on trumped-up charges of being a terrorist. The president of UnoAmerica, an anti-communist alliance, and the author of The Foro de Sao Paulo: A Threat to Freedom in Latin America, Pena Esclusa is a former Venezuelan presidential candidate who has opposed efforts by the Chavez regime to spread Marxist revolution in Venezuela and throughout the region.
Olavo de Carvalho, a Brazilian writer and friend of Pena Esclusa, says the Venezuelan opposition leader was taken away by the political police of Hugo Chávez on July 12, having been arrested on ridiculous, false, and absurd charges based on testimony allegedly given by a supposed Salvadoran terrorist now in Cuba. The Chávez regime, which functions under the direction and supervision of the Cuban secret police, apparently planted explosives as part of the frame-up.
Carvalho appealed to members of the U.S. Congress and the public to send immediate notes of protest to the Venezuelan government over this incident, which is more evidence of Chávez’s “utter contempt for the fundamental rights of his political opponents.”
[…]
The fact is, however, that Chávez has been systematically destroying freedom in Venezuela, including and most notably freedom of the press. There is only one major independent television station left in Venezuela, Globovision, but its owner Guillermo Zuloaga has fled the country and is in hiding after an arrest order was issued against him on trumped up charges. Both the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have covered these ominous developments, as the major media in the U.S. are starting to pay more attention to the destruction of freedom in Venezuela and Chávez’s ties to terrorist groups and regimes.
[…]
The American public and members of Congress need to be heard in this case because President Obama cannot be counted on to do anything to free Pena Esclusa or any other political prisoners in Venezuela.
Tom Hayden, the anti-Vietnam War protester and former official of the Marxist Students for a Democratic Society who became a leader of “Progressives for Obama,” has claimed there is a “gradual rapprochement” and a friendly “dialogue” between Obama and Chávez, while Oliver Stone’s new movie asserts that Chávez has been assured by Obama that the U.S. will not do anything to “destabilize” his dictatorial regime. In the Marxist lexicon, “destabilize” means supporting the forces of freedom.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Residence Permit Fraud’ Suspected by Dutch
The Netherlands’ Immigration and Naturalisation Department IND is investigating allegations of widespread residence-permit fraud. The Dutch justice ministry has confirmed that the documents concerned were granted as part of the 2006 amnesty for illegal immigrants.
IND sources earlier told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that irregularities concerning about 500 residence permits have been discovered. Asylum seekers are said to have sold permits on for sums of between 5,000 and 8,000 euros. Other cases involved altering photographs so that the permits could be used by other people.
The amnesty was a political hot potato for a considerable time. Supporters argued that asylum seekers who had been in the Netherlands for more than five years should be awarded residency. Opponents countered that an amnesty would simply encourage new migrants and managed to delay its introduction for a considerable period. In 2006, then integration minister Rita Verdonk announced that failed asylum seekers would be sent back to their country of origin. However, a parliamentary majority forced her to abandon the policy.
Later that year, MPs voted by a majority of just one in favour of an amnesty. It granted residency to asylum seekers who had been in the country for over six years. More than 27,000 people became eligible for residence permits under the measure.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Boatload of Would-be Immigrants Caught Off Benidorm Coast
A RAFT carrying 11 north Africans was intercepted at 40 miles off the coast of Benidorm in the early hours of this morning, say Guardia Civil and Coastguard officers.
The would-be immigrants, who were travelling in a tiny speedboat, are all said to be adult males and were taken to the port of Alicante when they were rescued from the high seas.
Emergency services who attended to them say they are all in apparently good health and did not need medical treatment.
North African immigrants often attempt to reach Spain on rafts and speedboats via the south coast, but it is rare they come as far north as the Costa Blanca.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: ‘Jesus Saves’ Text on Roof Banned
THE HAGUE, 15/07/10 — A man who put “Jesus saves” on the roof of his farm must remove this slogan. The Council of State yesterday ruled that the text does not fit in with the environs.
The man, J. Van Ooijen, put the text on with white roof-tiles. Last year, Giessenlanden municipality imposed a fine on its resident to get the slogan removed from his roof. It considers that the slogan infringes municipal standards for the outward appearance of buildings.
Van Ooijen, who had the letters put on in 2008, appealed against the ban at the district court in Dordrecht and later at the Council of State. He considers that his constitutional rights are being violated.
The Council ruled yesterday that Giessenlanden municipality’s order to remove the text is correct. The highest administrative court considers that the municipality correctly states that this is a matter of “excessiveness in the outward appearance” of the roof because there is an “extreme contrast between the existing roof-tiles and the added white tiles, which constitutes too flagrant a violation of what is customary in the vicinity.”
Giessenlanden’s order does not violate freedom of religion and freedom of speech, according to the Council of State. “There are sufficient other ways of expressing the message “Jesus saves”.”
Van Ooijen reacted with irritation. “You can talk about anything in this country, except Jesus. Shocking billboards along the road are allowed all right. The end of the world approaches.”
Van Ooijens’ lawyer R. le Roy has indicated that he will appeal against the verdict to the European Court. “Nobody complained about this text on the roof. What interest is the municipality serving by interfering in this? From the whole attitude and argumentation of the municipality it appears that it is not so much taking action against the form of the text, but much more on the content of the message itself.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Global Warming Theory: False in Parts, False in Totality
There are so many variables ignored, underreported or simply not understood in climate science and especially in the computer models that purport to simulate global climate, that they destroy any pretence we know or understand weather and climate. But don’t take my word for it. Consider the comments from proponents of anthropogenic global warming including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In the 2001 report they said, “In climate research and modeling, we should recognize that we are dealing with a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore that long-term prediction of future climate state is not possible.” James Lovelock, Gaia hypothesis speculator said, “It’s almost naive, scientifically speaking, to think that we can give relatively accurate predictions for future climate. There are so many unknowns that it’s wrong to do it.” Kevin Trenberth, IPCC author and CRU associate said, “It’s very clear we do not have a climate observing system… This may be a shock to many people who assume that we do know adequately what’s going on with the climate, but we don’t.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jamie Glazov: The Demise of Islam?
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Abul Kasem, an ex-Muslim who is the author of hundreds of articles and several books on Islam including, Women in Islam. He was a contributor to the book Leaving Islam — Apostates Speak Out as well as to Beyond Jihad: Critical Views From Inside Islam. He writes from Sydney, Australia…
FP: Abul Kasem, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Kasem: Good to be here Jamie.
FP: We’re here today to discuss the potential demise of Islam and the fact that the Prophet Muhammad actually predicted this demise himself — a fact that sounds somewhat odd and that many are unaware of. What is the best way to start a discussion of this issue?
Kasem: Well, I would start by asking this question: could the current civilization ever imagine a world without Islam?
To many, this might sound like a dim-witted question. After all, Islam has been with us for fifteen hundred years. It just doesn’t even seem thinkable that Islam could possibly die out. Currently, after all, Islam is the raging storm afflicting every part of the world, especially with the mayhem of the Islamist terrorists and the escalating oil prices — and oil largely flows from a few Islamic lands. The leaders of the un-Islamic world are busy pleasing Islam in whatever manner. Even the United Nation’s Human Rights Organisation has just passed a resolution disallowing discussion of how Islam violates fundamental human rights in many Islamic paradises. In this context, it seems almost impossible to imagine a world free of Islam.
FP: Absolutely, and it is totally unrealistic to think that Islam will ever disappear.
Kasem: No. Despite the world situation that I just painted, what you say is not true at all.
FP: Please explain.
Kasem: We learn from the annals of Islamic history that Islam is not that powerful and that it is actually very vulnerable. Much evidence suggests that it may very well die under its own weight.
FP: Fair enough, please expand.
Kasem: There is a secret life of Islam and it may very well lead to the death of Islam. The history of Islam, for instance, tells us that Islam needs blood to thrive. Human blood is the life-line of Islam, violence its hallmark, and hate its foundation. In the beginning, Islam lives on the blood of infidels. When that is unavailable, or becomes difficult, Islam must cannibalize itself. As a car needs gasoline to run, so does Islam need human blood just to run its own course, set by Muhammad, its Prophet.
FP: Sounds very much like communism. It starts off extinguishing the “class enemy” and then when there are no more external “enemies” to slaughter, the killing machine turns on itself. Terror takes on a life of its own and the killing machine devours its own children and then ultimately engages in suicide. This totalitarian impulse ultimately stems from a death wish.
Kasem: Precisely. And so the demise of Islam is inherent in the very seed of Islamic cannibalism…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Record Collapse of Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Puzzles Scientists
An upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere recently collapsed in an unexpectedly large contraction, the sheer size of which has scientists scratching their heads, NASA announced Thursday.
The layer of gas — called the thermosphere — is now rebounding again. This type of collapse is not rare, but its magnitude shocked scientists.
“This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years,” said John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab, lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “It’s a Space Age record.”
The collapse occurred during a period of relative solar inactivity — called a solar minimum from 2008 to 2009. These minimums are known to cool and contract the thermosphere, however, the recent collapse was two to three times greater than low solar activity could explain.
“Something is going on that we do not understand,” Emmert said.
The thermosphere lies high above the Earth’s surface, close to where our planet meets the edge of space. It ranges in altitude from 55 miles (90 km) to 370 miles (600 km) above the ground. At this height, satellites and meteors fly and auroras shine. [Graphic: Earth’s Atmosphere Top to Bottom]
The thermosphere interacts strongly with the sun, so is very affected by periods of high or low solar activity. This layer intercepts extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) from the sun before it can reach the ground.
When solar activity is high, solar EUV warms the thermosphere, causing it to puff up like a marshmallow held over a camp fire. When solar activity is low, the opposite occurs.
Recently, solar activity has been at an extreme low. In 2008 and 2009, sunspots were scarce, solar flares almost non-existent, and solar EUV radiation was at a low ebb.
Still, the thermospheric collapse of 2008-2009 was not only bigger than any previous collapse, it was also bigger than the sun’s activity alone could explain.
To calculate the collapse, Emmert analyzed the decay rates of more than 5,000 satellites orbiting above Earth between 1967 and 2010. This provided a space-time sampling of thermospheric density, temperature, and pressure covering almost the entire Space Age.
Emmert suggests carbon dioxide (CO2) in the thermosphere might play a role in explaining the atmospheric collapse.
This gas acts as a coolant, shedding heat via infrared radiation. It is widely-known that CO2 levels have been increasing in Earth’s atmosphere. Extra CO2 in the thermosphere could have magnified the cooling action of solar minimum.
“But the numbers don’t quite add up,” Emmert said. “Even when we take CO2 into account using our best understanding of how it operates as a coolant, we cannot fully explain the thermosphere’s collapse.”
The researchers hope further monitoring of the upper atmosphere will help them get to the bottom of the situation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
The Demise of Islam?
This article's all important concluding paragraph says it all:
We can conclude that there is a certain ending to Islam and that those who wish for it do not necessarily need to do anything. All that is needed is to let it run its own course. It is bound to self-destruct, if we are to learn from the lessons of Islamic history. The un-Islamic world just needs to protect itself with strict security measures, never letting the various groups of Islam unite to kill the infidels. Once the infidels learn the secret life of Islam, it is simply a matter to watch how Islam implodes. Once the Islamic oil runs dry, once the world secures a reliable source of energy to replace oil, once the infidels stand together, and once the infidels become iron-resolute to contain Islam in their lands, Islam will die a natural death.
The article repeatedly mentions Islamic "cannibalism" with respect to Muslim-on-Muslim violence and how it has been Islam's hallmark throughout its entire existence.
I have always maintained that Islam's progress has been, is, and always will be, over countless Muslim corpses. The article notes how Mohammad himself predicted not only Islam's eventual downfall but a degree of internecine violence that makes a mafia clan look downright peaceable.
Kasem: Interestingly, this fratricide is unstoppable, as the Islamic Ummah is far from monolithic. No one knows the precise divisions among the Ummah. But Muhammad had predicted that the Muslims will be divided into seventy-two sects, each one killing one another, and together killing the infidels.
This is exemplified in the following quote:
Seventy-two of the seventy-three Muslim sects will go to hell; only one of the sects will be in Paradise; it is the majority group… (Sunaan Abu Dawud, 3.40.4580)
I also continue to predict that Islam's final scene will consist of two beturbaned and bearded clerics with hands locked on each others' throat in the middle of some desert wasteland arguing to their mutual death over who is more Islamically pure.
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