Competing Currency Being Accepted Across Mid-Michigan
New types of money are popping up across Mid-Michigan and supporters say, it’s not counterfeit, but rather a competing currency.
Right now, you can buy a meal or visit a chiropractor without using actual U.S. legal tender.
They sound like real money and look like real money. But you can’t take them to the bank because they’re not made at a government mint. They’re made at private mints.
“I sell three or four every single day and then I get one or two back a week,” said Dave Gillie, owner of Gillies Coney Island Restaurant in Genesee Township.
Gillie also accepts silver, gold, copper and other precious metals to pay for food.
He says, if he wanted to, he could accept marbles.
“Do people have to accept dollars or money? No, they don’,” Gillie said. “They can accept anything they want or they can refuse to accept anything.”
He’s absolutely right.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dems Enact a Landslide of New Taxes Beginning 01 July 2010
A series of articles from Grover Norquist (Newsmax.com) in late June flagged us to a series of articles most of which covered the huge set of taxes on everything that breathes or not.
This is the shoe that we’ve been waiting to hear drop; only it will be more like a 100 megaton thunder clap that will ring in your ears and wallets for a long, long time. As we have all found out since the stealthy passage of ObamaCare by means of bribes, job offers, and traitorous actions of Dem Congresspersons who had said they would not vote for it but then did, as all untrustworthy Democrats are wont to do, there are a very high number of new taxes that will be imposed on Americans beginning in July 2010.
And believe me, it’s just the beginning, my fellow country men and women. So far there have been 21 new taxes uncovered in the ultra large bill and as Grover Norquist via Newsmax.com reports that Obama had pledged that “no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.”
Well, guess what? He lied. But by now we also have found out that he does that with frequent regularity. It’s part of his charm; lie to the people and SMILE showing all those glossy white teeth which we’ve also come to know to be as deadly as a shark’s. I believe that the only time we can trust what he says is when he when he is not talking. In his case, silence is golden.
[…]
Grover Norquist through Newsmax from the ATR website on May 26, 2010, continues the unwanted news of the surge of new taxes Congress is planning for us low-lifes who have to pay them reporting now that the liberal Democrats want to QUADRUPLE the tax on oil, costing oil producers $11billion in taxes which they pass along to us.
Amusingly, Norquist adds that “apparently Harry Reid the Democrat Senate leader is confused about how taxes work by saying ‘Taxpayers will not pick up the tab.’ When the price of a barrel of oil goes up, gasoline prices at the pump increase.” For me, that alone would be reason enough to want Reid out of the Congress in November.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Green Jobs Don’t Exist in a Free Market
Al Gore stumps the nation spreading the virtues of going green, thrilled at the prospects of new industries that will crop up in the process. Of course, green jobs are the center of the scheme to enforce sustainable development. “We can shut down those old industries and yet be prosperous in the future as we protect the environment,” goes the mantra.
A large part of Obama’s $786 billion stimulus bill was devoted to green or renewable energy projects. Obama and his environmentalist hordes convinced Congress that the money would be used to create an army of home weatherizers, wind-turbine factory jobs and other employment opportunities that would help put to work the nearly 8 million people who have lost their jobs during the recession. “We know the jobs of the 21st century will be created in developing alternative energy,” Obama proudly proclaimed. This, of coursed, from a man who doesn’t know the difference between price and earnings or overhead and profit. Well, he doesn’t know shineola about the economy and job creation either.
Economic lesson number one: Government regulations do not create jobs. Private industry serving the wants and needs of the consumers create jobs. Period.
The reality is that after massive spending programs, not just from the stimulus program, but from energy bills, development bills, and economic packages over the past several years, all of which have poured billions into the “green” industries, alternative energy and the jobs that are supposed to go with them simply have not materialized.
The fact is, no more than 100,000 jobs have been created, economists say, and the prospects are for only modest growth for years to come. Jobs that have been created are for highly educated workers involved in basically experimental industries. There is virtually nothing for the lower educated, manual laborers who so desperately need work.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BP Buys Up Gulf Scientists for Legal Defense, Roiling Academic Community
For the last few weeks, BP has been offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists from public universities around the Gulf Coast to aid its defense against spill litigation.
BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company’s lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.
The Press-Register obtained a copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP. It prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years.
“We told them there was no way we would agree to any kind of restrictions on the data we collect. It was pretty clear we wouldn’t be hearing from them again after that,” said Bob Shipp, head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama. “We didn’t like the perception of the university representing BP in any fashion.”
BP officials declined to answer the newspaper’s questions about the matter. Among the questions: how many scientists and universities have been approached, how many are under contract, how much will they be paid, and why the company imposed confidentiality restrictions on scientific data gathered on its behalf.
Shipp said he can’t prohibit scientists in his department from signing on with BP because, like most universities, the staff is allowed to do outside consultation for up to eight hours a week.
More than one scientist interviewed by the Press-Register described being offered $250 an hour through BP lawyers. At eight hours a week, that amounts to $104,000 a year.
Scientists from Louisiana State University, University of Southern Mississippi and Texas A&M have reportedly accepted, according to academic officials. Scientists who study marine invertebrates, plankton, marsh environments, oceanography, sharks and other topics have been solicited.
The contract makes it clear that BP is seeking to add scientists to the legal team that will fight the Natural Resources Damage Assessment lawsuit that the federal government will bring as a result of the Gulf oil spill.
| — Hat tip: SF | [Return to headlines] |
Declassified Docs Show Kissinger Siding With Arabs
Told Algerian minister another war with Israel might be politically advantageous
NEW YORK — Israel’s “special relationship” with the United States, so often cited during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent U.S. visit, may not have always been so special, according to declassified White House documents.
References to the controversial file were featured in a recent editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The transcripts cover some of the waning days of the Nixon administration and the 18 months of the Ford administration when Secretary of State Henry Kissinger directed U.S. foreign policy.
While it was never a secret that Kissinger had problems with several Israeli governments, the depth of antagonism was never as clearly illustrated as in the previously secret documents, copies of which were obtained by WND.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Zero Tolerance for ‘Ground Zero’ Mosque Says ‘Son of Hamas’
The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a charismatic founding member of Hamas, Mosab Yousef who makes his newfound faith public and risks everything to expose the secrets of this extremist Islamic organization, now says there we should have “zero tolerance” for the building of this controversial mosque.
In his latest blog, Yousef says, “The five-story building at 45-47 Park Place in Manhattan, two blocks north of ‘Ground Zero,’ was built more than 150 years ago. The religion practiced within its walls, however, dates back nearly 1,500 years—and is directly responsible for the slaughter of nearly 3,000 Americans.
“Last year, Soho Properties, a Muslim-run real estate company, paid $4.85 million cash for the property. Two of the investors—Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement—now want to turn it into what has been called a ‘mega mosque.’“
Yousef said that according to its website, the “Cordoba Initiative hopes to build a $100 million, 13-story community center with Islamic, interfaith and secular programming.” In addition to the mosque, the project calls for a 500-seat auditorium, swimming pool, art exhibition spaces, bookstores and restaurants.
“Please understand that I have no problem with buildings. But I have a very big problem with the politics and symbolism behind this building,” he continued.
“The proposed ‘Ground Zero’ mosque, despite its humanitarian cocoon and politically correct marketing, would shout five times every day the contempt the American Muslim community has for thousands of innocent victims and their families. While Westerners who consider themselves chic and enlightened go to any lengths to avoid offending Islam, the Muslim community appears to think nothing of pouring acid in America’s open wounds.
“Why was this particular site selected? Because the need for a $100 million mosque is so great? Because 45-47 Park Place is the only place left in Manhattan to put a mosque? No. Because it will make a powerful political and religious statement.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU: 10.3% Renewable Energy Consumption, Italy 6.8%
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JULY 13 — Renewable energy in 2008 represented 10.3% of total energy consumption in the European Union. The figure was released by Eurostat, who added that the figure for Italy was 6.8%.
The European office of statistics points out that the objective for 2020 is to reach 20% in the EU, while the different starting point means that the projected figure in Italy is 17%.
The highest consumption of renewable energy was registered in Sweden (44.4%), Finland (30.5%), Latvia (29.9%) and Austria (28.5%), while the lowest figures were recorded in Malta (0.2%), Luxembourg (2.1%) and the United Kingdom (2.2%). From 2006 to 2008, Eurostat explains, all member states saw an increase in their total consumption.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: 88% in Favour of ‘Policy of Rigour’
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JULY 2 — Those in power are afraid of merely saying the word, but 88% of French people are not afraid of a “policy of rigour in the next few months”, according to a survey published on the front page of today’s Le Figaro. According to the OpinionWay survey, those interviewed are unanimously in favour (98%) of rigour being applied to political leaders, in other words for Ministers’ salaries to be reduced, as well as state profligacy in general. Only 46% of those asked, however, are in favour of substituting only one in every two retiring public sector officials, which is the intention of the government. (ANSAmed).
2010-07-02 13:55
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Photos: Riot Alert as Youths Rampage After Police Shoot Robber
Trams and buses in Grenoble were held up by gangs brandishing baseball bats and bars, and a service station was looted.
France was on riot alert yesterday after hundreds of Muslim youths went on the rampage in Grenoble.
Shots were fired at police and dozens of shops and cars were set on fire in the Alpine town.
Trams and buses were also held up by gangs brandishing baseball bats and bars, and a service station was looted.
The violence followed the fatal shooting of Karim Boudouda, a 27-year-old man involved in an attempted robbery at the Uriage-les-Bains casino, near Grenoble.
Locals accused armed officers of overreacting by gunning down Boudouda, allegedly as he tried to give himself up.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Free to Have Fun: Polanski Enjoys Montreux Jazz Festival After Escaping Child-Sex Charges
Shamed film director Roman Polanski made his first public appearance tonight after escaping extradition to the U.S. to face child-sex charges
Free after nine months of house arrest, the director arrived at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
Polanski, 76, pulled up at the festival in an SUV with tinted windows. He climbed out of the car running his fingers through his hair and was then was escorted into an elevator as security personnel surrounded him.
[…]
In an interview on with Swiss television tonight, Polanski thanked ‘the millions of people who kept sending me messages of support during those nine long months.’
He added: ‘I would also certainly thank my wife Emmanuelle (and) my children, without whom I would have never been able to hold onto my dignity and perseverance. For the moment, I’m happy to be free and to be able to do the things I was kept from doing‘.
He said his son Elvis, 10, cut off the electronic bracelet that Swiss authorities had made him wear while he was under house arrest.
‘They told me to throw it away, that’s it,’ the director said of the Swiss. His son ‘couldn’t stand it anymore,’ so he was given permission to personally remove the tracking device.
Indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molestation and sodomy, Polanski has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.
He still faces an Interpol warrant in effect for 188 countries for the 1977 child sex case.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Judge: I Knew Turkish Group Behind Gaza Flotilla Had Terror Ties in 1996
Jean-Louis Bruguiere, who fights global terror groups and those who finance them, says the IHH is a terrorist group, not a charity.
Jean-Louis Bruguiere’s official title is a bit convoluted: He was appointed by the European Union to overlook the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program at the U.S. Department of Treasury, but behind that dry and bureaucratic title hides one of the most important roles in the global fight against terror. The investigative magistrate’s job is to “dry out” the financial sources that feed the world’s terror organizations, specifically the al-Qaida-inspired global Jihad network.
[…]
“My investigation revealed a broad and global terror network that reached Bosnia and Afghanistan, whose center was at the Turkish IHH quarters,” says Bruguiere. “We had recordings of telephone conversations and documents from people who explicitly testified that this is a terror group. Turkish authorities raided the group’s headquarters for good reason and discovered weapons, explosive materials and forged documents.”
Bruguiere does not rule out the possibility that the group continues its terror activities or aiding terror groups today. “I don’t have updated information,” he says, “but it is hard to believe they changed. In my opinion, they are continuing on the same track we uncovered a decade and a half ago.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘God’s Banker’ Roberto Calvi ‘Was Murdered’
Rome, 15 July (AKI) — ‘God’s Banker’ Roberto Calvi was murdered in London almost 30 years ago, the judges of an Italian appeals court said on Thursday.
“Roberto Calvi did not commit suicide, he was killed,” the appeals judges stated. They were giving their reasons for a verdict issued on 7 May that acquitted mafia boss Pippo Calo, Sardinian businessman Flavio Carboni and Rome crime boss Ernesto Diotallevi of murdering Calvi.
The written sentence gave the same grounds for the verdict as in the original trial in 2007 — insufficient evidence.
Calvi was found dangling from a noose beneath Blackfriar’s Bridge in the City of London on 18 June, 1982, his pockets weighed down with bricks and stones, and with over 15,000 dollars in cash on him.
A member of the Italian secret P2 masonic lodge, Calvi was known as “God’s banker” because of the illicit financial dealings that connected him to the Vatican bank, the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR).
Two other defendants in the original trial, Carboni’s ex girlfriend Manuela Kleinszig and smuggler Silvano Vittor, were not on trial since their acquittals were confirmed by another court.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fiat Chief Battles With Union Over Panda Plant
Turin, 16 July (AKI/Bloomberg) — Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne is making a 700 million-euro bet that he can revamp the company’s least efficient factory. Escalating tension with unions may derail the strategy.
Fiat’s largest union, which opposes the CEO’s unprecedented proposals to curb strikes and increase shifts at the Pomigliano plant in southern Italy, is organizing a four-hour walkout today at five factories. They’re protesting this week’s firing of four union representatives.
“Fiat is adopting a very hostile policy toward the unions, especially ours,” said Fernando Liuzzi of Fiom-Cgil, which represents 10,000 of Fiat’s 83,000 workers in Italy.
Italy’s biggest manufacturer is using the Pomigliano investment as a test case to win labor concessions that may become a watershed for the nation’s industry. Marchionne is offering unions increased production in the south, where unemployment is more than double the 5.9 percent average in the wealthier north.
The CEO angered the union when he decided 9 July to press ahead with his plan to transfer production of the Panda model, Fiat’s second most popular vehicle, from Poland to its factory at Pomigliano d’Arco, near Naples. While four smaller unions at the site backed the project, more than a third of workers voted against the proposal in a June referendum, saying it violated their constitutional right to strike.
Pomigliano is a key part of Marchionne’s plan to invest more than 8 billion euros to improve factories and vehicle development in the next two years in Italy, where productivity lags its plants in Brazil and Poland. He wants to lift production in Fiat’s home country to as many as 1 million cars a year by 2012 from 650,000, responding to the government’s request to increase domestic output following a decision last year to shut another plant in the south.
“What happened in Pomigliano shows that for the first time in many years jobs do not leave Italy, but enter Italy,” finance minister Giulio Tremonti said in Rome on Thursday.
Pomigliano, which employs 5,000 people, is the least efficient of Fiat’s five domestic factories. It’s running at 20 percent capacity, compared with 105 percent in the southern town of Melfi, Fiat’s most efficient Italian plant. The low utilization rate is partly due to weak demand for the larger and pricier Alfa Romeo models it makes, a Fiat spokesman said.
Originally called Alfasud, the factory was built in 1972 with government funding to create jobs in the south.
For more than a year Pomigliano, which builds outdated Alfa Romeo models such as the 159 and GT, has been operating only five days a month. Idled workers are compensated in part by a government-sponsored fund. Marchionne has proposed boosting production to 280,000 cars from 35,000 a year if workers carry out the concessions.
Fiat wants to “plug the gap in competitiveness with other countries and bring Fiat to an efficiency level that guarantees Italy a solid auto industry and all of our workers a more secure future,” Marchionne wrote in a 9 July letter to employees.
Almost one out of three autoworkers in Italy is involved in production stoppages every day. Workers often call in sick during strikes to avoid their pay being docked.
Fiat says the Pomigliano plant must reduce absenteeism and wants the right to discipline workers that strike on issues already agreed to in the accord. Fiat fired three union delegates at its Melfi plant this week, saying they obstructed production during a strike. Another worker at its Mirafiori plant in Turin was fired for using the company e-mail network to circulate a message from Polish workers.
About 18 percent of workers at the Mirafiori facility went on strike today near Turin to protest the dismissals, while about 19 percent of employees at Melfi participated in the protest, according to a Fiat spokesman, citing preliminary data.
“Fiat is one of the only car companies in Europe that is really restructuring its industrial capacity in Europe,” said Jose Asumendi, an analyst at RBS in London with a “buy” rating on the shares. “He is taking out capacity, negotiating new agreements with the unions and discontinuing underperforming models, all very positive steps.”
The production slump at Pomigliano contrasts with the factory at Tychy in Poland. There, Fiat employees work three shifts a day, six days a week and build a Panda in 15 hours. The facility produces 600,000 cars a year, including the Ford Ka small car. Moving the Panda to Pomigliano will reduce some of the production strain at the factory, which is operating at about 147 percent capacity, according to Fiat’s website.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Knox Still Nurtures Affection for Jailed Ex-Boyfriend
Pair give each other strength, says American
(ANSA) — Rome, July 14 — Jailed American student Amanda Knox has said she still nurtures affection for the Italian ex-boyfriend who was convicted with her for the 2007 slaying of her British flatmate in Perugia.
Knox, 23, was sentenced last December to 26 years in prison for Meredith Kercher’s murder along with her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was given a 25-year sentence.
“We often write to each other, we give each other strength,” Knox said in an interview published in Wednesday’s edition of weekly magazine Oggi.
“We have ended up in a surreal affair that we still don’t understand. It’s terrible, but at least it unites us. The affection remains from the love we had”.
Leeds University exchange student Kercher, 21, was found with her throat cut on November 2, 2007 in the house she shared with Knox in the central town of Perugia.
Knox and Sollecito, 26, both deny the killing and are appealing against the jail terms, as is a third convicted murderer, Ivory Coast native Rudy Guede, who was tried in a separate fast-track procedure and is bidding to overturn a 16-year sentence.
Knox was given a year more than Sollecito for having falsely accused a Perugia pub owner, Congo native Patrick Lumumba, of the killing in the early stages of the investigation.
According to the prosecution, Sollecito and Guede held Kercher down as Guede tried to have sex with her and Knox threatened her with a knife, before delivering a fatal blow.
DNA evidence that was already hotly contested in Knox’s and Sollecito’s first trial is expected to again be the focus of their appeals.
Seattle-born Knox, whose good looks led to her frequently being called ‘foxy Knoxy’ in the media, also faces charges of slandering Italian police by saying during the trial that they had hit her in questioning. She said the haircut she displayed at a June hearing for the slander case, which gave her a very different appearance to the look she had at the murder trial, was a small protest against the ordeal she is going though.
“I cut my hair in part as a sort of act of rebellion to show that this situation is destroying me,” she said.
Under Italian law convicted criminals are entitled to two appeals. Knox and Sollecito’s first appeal is expected to get under way later this year.
The verdict against Knox caused a strong reaction in the United States where ‘pro-Amanda’ groups have rallied to support her appeal.
One of the United States’ top lawyers, Ted Simon, president of the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers, will flank her Italian defence team.
Guede, 23, had his sentence commuted from 30 to 16 years in his first appeal and his lawyers have taken his case to Italy’s Supreme Court in a third and final bid to prove his innocence.
Lumumba was released after 15 days in jail after an alibi confirmed he had been working in his city-centre pub on the night of the murder and police failed to find any evidence linking him with the crime scene.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: World’s First Hydrogen-Powered Plant in Veneto
(ANSAmed) — VENICE, JULY 12 — The Enel power plant in Fusina, in the Veneto, which became operational today, is the first in the world to be powered by hydrogen. The choice of Fusina as the location of the experiment is due to the presence of a coal-fired power plant and the nearby petrochemical plant in Marghera, which supplies the raw materials. The 16-MW capacity plant, is based on a combined-cycle in which a gas-turbine is powered with hydrogen to produce electricity and heat.
The gas turbine is equipped with a combustion chamber developed to be powered with hydrogen without any CO2 emissions and with very low emissions of nitrogen oxides. The thermal energy that is produced from the combustion reaction is converted into electricity in the gas turbine, generating power of about 12 MW, while the exhaust fumes are composed exclusively of hot air and aqueous vapour.
The plant is capable of producing 60 million kilowatt-hours per year and can satisfy the energy needs of 20,000 households, avoiding emission of 17,000 tonnes of CO2. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Made in Italy: Natuzzi, Over 300 Stores Active by End 2010
(ANSAmed) — BARI, JULY 13 — The Natuzzi company is planning 15 new openings around the world, beginning in Turkey, adding to the 293 outlets already up and running. The announcement comes in a statement from Natuzzi, one of the biggest Italian companies in the interiors sector and “world leader in leather sofas”.
By the end of 2010, in particular, fifteen new Natuzzi stores are scheduled to open in Europe, Asia and America. During the second half of 2010, the retail expansion project features openings planned in important tourist and commercial cities such as Antalya (Turkey), Changsha, Shenyang, Zhengzhou, Qingdao and Ningbo (China), Cairo (Egypt), Moscow (Russia), London and Glasgow (UK), Guadalajara (Mexico), Vancouver (Canada), Mumbai and New Delhi (India) and Singapore.
Nine new Natuzzi stores were opened in the first half of 2010, in Szczecin (Poland), Caracas (Venezuela), Jerusalem (Israel), Melbourne (Australia), Chongqing and Beijing (China), Grenoble (France), Verbania (Italy) and the latest store in Ankara (Turkey). With the new openings, the single-brand stores rise to 293, adding to the existing 351 Natuzzi Gallery outlets already present around the world, making a total of 644 stores.
The Natuzzi Group also announced the opening of the third Natuzzi Store in Turkey, which will be in the capital Ankara. The shop, which is to be found in the residential area of the city in the new Anse shopping centre, has a surface area of 417 square metres. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Pushes China to Open Its Markets
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday prodded China to ease access to its markets, as the world’s top two exporting nations signed a series of deals reportedly worth several billion dollars.
After meeting Premier Wen Jiabao and overseeing the signing of the agreements covering trade, energy and culture, Merkel said she had emphasised German wishes for greater openness in the world’s third-largest economy.
“Chinese companies, like those of many other countries, enjoy very good access to the German market. We hope that German enterprises can enjoy the same access to the Chinese market,” she told reporters.
Trade between the export powerhouses has grown rapidly — to $91 billion last year, up from $41 billion in 2001, according to Chinese data.
However, in the past few years, the trade balance has tipped decisively in China’s favour, with Chinese exports to Germany totalling $55 billion last year, while trade in the other direction amounted to $36 billion.
“Neither Germany nor China pursues a trade imbalance,” Wen said during a joint press conference after their talks. “We hope that trade can be balanced and orderly.”
China overtook Germany last year to become the world’s top exporter, with some $1.2 trillion in merchandise exported, according to World Trade Organisation figures. Germany exported $1.12 trillion of goods in 2009.
Merkel also said China still had not satisfied all the requirements for attaining market economy status in the eyes of Europe, a designation expected to lessen the occurrence of trade actions being taken against China.
She said Beijing still had to do more to ensure the protection of intellectual property rights and market access.
“From the standpoint of market access, we very much hope that Germany, in entering China’s market, can receive equal treatment,” she said.
However, Merkel described her talks with Wen as “friendly”, while both sides they would work for an even closer trade relationship.
Among the agreements signed was one between Shanghai Electric Group of China and Siemens AG for the creation of a service joint venture for the steam and gas turbine power plant market.
China’s official Xinhua news agency said the deal involved $3.5 billion. Siemens disputed the figure, but did not give another one.
Foton Motor of China and Daimler-Benz AG also signed an agreement for a 50-50 joint venture to produce heavy trucks in China for the domestic and foreign markets.
Trucks under Foton’s Auman brand will be produced using Daimler technology in diesel engines and exhaust systems, allowing the vehicles to meet strict European standards, a statement said, without giving financial details. Xinhua put the value of that deal at $938 million.
China and Germany also signed a pact to create a €124-million ($160.2-million) ‘green’ fund to encourage emissions reductions and corporate energy-saving, Xinhua reported.
Wen repeated Beijing’s intent to remain a long-term investor in the euro despite Europe’s ongoing debt crisis.
“As a responsible, long-term investor, China has always upheld the principle of diversified investments,” he said.
“The European market has been, is now, and will in the future be among the main markets for investment of China’s foreign exchange reserves.”
The debt crisis has forced European governments to bail out Greece and set up a €750-billion loan package with the International Monetary Fund to help any other state that may need assistance.
China’s foreign exchange reserves, already the world’s largest, surged to a record $2.454 trillion at the end of June, according to the central bank.
Merkel met President Hu Jintao later in the day.
During her trip to China, which comes on the heels of a visit to Russia, she is also due to visit Xian, home to China’s ancient terracotta army.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Priest Suspended for Celebrating Oranje Mass
A village priest has been suspended for organising an Oranje mass ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final between the Netherlands and Spain.
Father Paul Vlaar from the village of Obdam, northeast of Alkmaar, wore an orange shawl and filled the church with football flags. He also prayed for the team.
The bishop of Haarlem suspended the priest saying the mass was inappropriate.
The football mass did ‘insufficient justice to the sanctity of the Eucharist,’ the bishop said in a statement. ‘The footage of this has caused indignation among faithful here and abroad.’
Father Vlaar has been warned previously about unsuitable behaviour for mixing mass and ‘profane’ international events, the statement said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Richard Hoste: Postmodern Dhimmitude
By Srdja Trifkovic
It is hard to take seriously “Richard Hoste”‘s latest article. It is tempting to indulge in sarcasm and disparagement. I’ll refrain, not for the sake of the author, whose diatribe is undeserving of such consideration, but because the topic is too grave to be treated frivolously.
If my latest piece on Islam was written by somebody of Jewish descent, Hoste claims, “90 percent of the commentators would’ve been telling the author that he was being hyperbolic and to fight his own battles.”
The view of Islam as the existential foe of Europe and its civilization — its outré-mer offspring included — is based on Islam’s own teaching and 13 centuries of blood-soaked practice. It is based on Europe’s long and appalling experience of Islam in action. Mr. Hoste is advised to acquaint himself with the Old Continent’s history and culture, perhaps focusing on Spain and the Balkans, before judging my views “hyperbolic.”
He would have to apply the same verdict to a host of other, better known authorities, including Tocqueville, Renan, Gladstone, Churchill, Belloc, and Chesterton — to mention but a few of those who would pass Mr. “Hoste’s” ethno-racial screening test. Bat Ye’or would not, however, which is a pity, because her splendid work on Eurabia and Dhimmitude would help Mr. Hoste understand the roots of his peculiar mindset, and perhaps help him overcome them.
In the United States, Mr. Hoste claims, “of a Muslim population of six million or so, there have been at most 50 arrests for terrorism in the last decade (most of which are probably fake) … [T]here is no Muslim threat in America…”
Tell that to the families of Maj. Nidal Hasan’s victims (unless we accept that Ft. Hood was not an act of “terrorism,” of course, or that it had nothing to do with Islam). Tell that to the families of the victims of Sgt. Hassan Akbar, who murdered his fellow-soldiers in Kuwait in the name of Islam. Tell that to the families of the victims of Sulejman Talovic, whose episode of the Sudden Jihad Syndrome left five people dead and four wounded in Salt Lake City three years ago. Would Mr. Hoste claim that the plot by four Albanian Muslims from ex-Yugoslavia (plus a Turk and a Jordanian) “to kill as many soldiers as possible” at Ft. Dix in 2007 was “fake”?
The list goes on. It indicates that, statistically, a Muslim is about twelve to fifteen million times more likely to commit religiously inspired terrorist murder of a fellow American citizen than a non-Muslim.
Mr. Hoste’s claim that Osama bin Laden “would let Christians live and practice their religion in Muslim lands” is unfunny in the extreme. The suffering, decline, and eventual disappearance of the indigenous Christian communities in Muslim lands is a crime of cosmic proportions, affecting hundreds of millions of people through the centuries. The record is well known and widely available to the curious. Osama’s native Saudi Arabia was the first to kill or expel all non-Muslims, of course, and Mr. “Hoste’s” apologia for that kleptocratic freak show in the desert is both factually and morally on par with Walter Duranty’s whitewash of Stalin’s Russia at the time of the Great Terror.
Mr. Hoste’s remarkable assertion that “from the perspective of white survival, Islam may be the best bet” is not without precedent. Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler also regretted the fact that Germany had adopted Christianity, rather than Islam…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Turk-Made Minarets Rise in European Cities
A craftsman from the northwestern province of Sakarya who started working at his father’s minaret workshop when he was just 12 years old has begun exporting mosque spires to European countries.
Erkan Aktürk’s latest sale was a 3.5-ton, 20-meter spire that he sent Thursday to Bulgaria, where it will be erected at a mosque in the city of Silistre.
Aktürk, who produces aluminum minarets on top of steel frames in his Genç Minaret Workshop, in the city of Adapazari, has also sold a minaret to a mosque in Belgium.
The craftsman said he constructed the spire for Silistre in 20 days at a cost of 17,000 euros and hopes to sign new contracts in Bulgaria when he travels there to install the minaret.
Aktürk said his father, Ehlimen Aktürk, was the first person to produce a steel minaret in Turkey in 1969, two years after a major earthquake hit the Sakarya region, killing at least 173 people. He said the minarets he produces in his Adapazari workshop are light, earthquake-resistant and waterproof.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Banning Burkas in the UK Would be ‘Rather Un-British’, Says Green
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said women were ‘empowered’ by the freedom to wear the face coverings.
A cabinet minister has delivered a staunch defence of a woman’s right to wear a burka.
As debate intensified across Europe on banning the controversial Muslim garment from public places, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said women were ‘empowered’ by the freedom to wear the face coverings.
Her comments came after her colleague, Immigration Minister Damian Green, resisted demands from within the Tory party to ban the burka, which critics claim is a symbol of the oppression of women.
Mr Green said a ban would be ‘rather un-British’ and run contrary to the conventions of a ‘tolerant and mutually respectful society’.
This is despite a YouGov survey which found that 67 per cent of voters wanted the wearing of full-face veils to be outlawed. France’s lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a ban on wearing burka-style Islamic veils, and Spain and Belgium have similar votes in the pipeline.
Tory MPs who back a ban include Philip Hollobone, who has tabled a private member’s Bill that would make it illegal for anyone to cover his or her face in public.
Mr Hollobone, the MP for Kettering, said that he would refuse to hold any constituency meetings with women wearing burkas.
He said: ‘This is Britain. We are not a Muslim country. Covering your face in public is strange, and to many people both intimidating and offensive.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fears Accident Rates Could Rise as Motorway Lights Are Switched Off at Midnight to Cut Pollution
Seven stretches are now plunged into darkness until 5am every night in a bid to cut carbon emissions and reduce light pollution.
Motorway lights are being switched off at midnight across the country in a move critics warn could compromise safety.
Seven stretches are now plunged into darkness until 5am every night in a bid to cut carbon emissions and reduce light pollution.
The Highways Agency, which manages England’s motorway network, says it has picked areas with low levels of overnight traffic and good safety records.
However they admit there could be a slight increase in accident rates as a result, and there are fears that more roads will see black-outs as councils across the country try to save money.
The latest length of carriageway where the lights are being turned off is an eight-mile stretch of the M6 in Lancashire.
From this Wednesday, street lights between junction 27 at Standish, near Wigan, and junction 29 at Lostock Hall will go dark at midnight, switching on again at 5am.
Similar nightly switch-offs already take place at six other locations including the M4 near Bristol and the M5 near Exeter, with others likely to follow.
The Highways Agency says the move reduces carbon emissions as well as reducing the glare for people living near motorways.
Andy Withington, the area performance manager for south Lancashire, said: ‘We are looking for ways to reduce the carbon footprint of operating the motorway network and this is one step in that direction.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Bus Drivers Refuse to Let Guide Dogs on Board
Blind passengers are being ordered off buses or refused taxi rides because Muslim drivers or passengers object to their ‘unclean’ guide dogs.
One pensioner said he had twice been confronted by drivers and asked to get off the bus because of his guide dog, and had also faced hostility at a hospital and in a supermarket over the animal.
The problem has become so widespread that the matter was raised in the House of Lords last week, prompting transport minister Norman Baker to warn that a religious objection was not a reason to eject a passenger with a well-behaved guide dog.
National Federation of the Blind spokesman Jill Allen-King said the problem was common, and ‘getting worse’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pope’s Birmingham Open Air Mass Targeted by Muslim Group
AN MP fears the Pope’s visit to Birmingham could be marred by violence after a fundamentalist Muslim group told followers to ‘convert’ Catholics attending an open air mass.
The sinister orders have appeared in an inflammatory article on a hardline website called the Islamic Standard — which also brands the Pontiff ‘evil’.
It is urging Muslims to disrupt Pope Benedict XVI’s appearance at Cofton Park in September when up to 80,000 Catholics will attend a live mass.
Last night, Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood called for a police probe into the Leicester-based website.
He said: “These supposed Muslims are doing all they can to incite violence. Sadly, if Muslims do turn up and preach at Catholics it could easily turn to violence.
“The police should look at the comments on this site because they can only serve to increase tensions and perhaps even cause riots on the day.
“This is just the warped product of warped minds and it reveals how ignorant they are about Islam.
“The Islam I know preaches tolerance, not hate, so these idiots who give Islam such a bad name should be shut down as soon possible.”
The website article claims the Pope is the enemy of Islam and after detailing his four-day UK itinerary, it reads: “But all of these events are either in restricted areas where protests are forbidden or restricted, or where no Muslims are present in large numbers.
“The Birmingham event, however, brings the Pope and those who worship him into direct contact with the the large Muslim population of Birmingham. It offers them the perfect chance to learn about Islam.
“We hope the Muslims of Birmingham take this duel opportunity to give Da’wah (preaching of Islam) to these 80,000 travelling disbelievers, whilst at the same time telling the Pope in no uncertain terms what Muslims think of his evil slanders against the last Prophet of God and his message.”
Pope Benedict, 82, is due to carry out the beatification of Cardinal Newman while in the West Midlands, during only the second Papal visit to this country since Henry VIII broke with Rome.
Security is tight but he is due to lead the open-air mass at Cofton Park, next to the disused Longbridge car plant, on Sunday, September 19.
The website threats come after the Sunday Mercury previously revealed Birmingham City Hospital is on alert for an assassination attempt on the Pope.
Security bosses have revealed that the hospital would handle any medical emergency because of its expertise in dealing with bullet injuries, caused by gang crime.
The Pontiff, who has recently spoken out against gay marriage, abortion rights and contraception, often attracts street protests during his appearances.
He was most recently attacked in St Peter’s Basilica during Christmas Eve Mass by female spectator Susanna Maiolo, who knocked him over after grabbing his vestments.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Cracks Down on Women Priests
Ordination of women becomes top offence under canon law
(ANSA) — Vatican City, July 8 — The Vatican on Thursday cracked down harder on the ordination of women priests, making it one of the most serious crimes under its canon law.
A new version of the 2001 document Delicta Graviora (“major crimes”) added the ordination of women to the gravest offences punishable by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, heir to the Inquisition.
Attempting to ordain women as priests is now elevated to “an extremely grave” crime against the Catholic faith but is not as serious as abuse against minors because the latter is a “moral” crime, the Vatican said.
The ordination of women joins “attacks against the Eucharist” and “attacks against the sanctity of Confession” as the top offences against the faith.
Heresy, schism and apostasy are also listed as formal crimes for the first time.
Ordaining women has been punishable by automatic excommunication since 2008 but inclusion among the Delicta Graviora is seen as an extra deterrent, religious experts said.
The Vatican has staunchly opposed women priests under the late pope John Paul II and the current pontiff, Benedict XVI, while many Anglicans have ‘returned to Rome’ after the Anglican Communion OK’d the ordination of women in the early 1990s.
Despite the Vatican ban, a number of organisations of Catholic women have named ‘women priests’ in recent years, with the United States and northern European countries like Germany and Switzerland leading the way.
These associations argue that Vatican dogma about Jesus not wanting women to be priests or deacons is wrong.
They also say women played a much more prominent role in the early Church than is acknowledged by Rome.
This view has been supported by several religious historians, including some Catholic ones.
ANTI-PAEDOPHILA RULES ALSO TIGHTENED.
More restrictive procedures on paedophilia also feature in the update, with the statute of limitations lengthened from ten to 20 years and the possibility of immediate defrocking in the “most serious” cases.
According to Msgr Charles Scicluna, who handles abuse cases at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, some 20% of the cases that reach his desk each year are deemed to fall into this category.
Lay Church members will be allowed to sit on canon law trials.
Sexual abuse of the mentally handicapped is put on a par with the abuse of minors and child pornography is added to the list.
Cooperation with civil authorities was not explicitly cited in the new Delicta Graviora but Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said this was implicit in recently issued updated guidelines.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Amara Lakhous Returns With “Piccola Cairo”
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, JULY 15 The author of the by now famous “Clash of Civilisations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio” (Edition E/0, 2006) which inspired the recent film of the same name by Isotta Toso, returns with a new novel, of which the Arab version has just been released, published in Beirut, a few months earlier than the Italian version. “Piccola Cairo” (al-Qahira as-saghira, Little Cairo) is the title of the literary work of Algerian Amara Lakhous (40), bilingual Arab-Italian writer , set in 2005 in Rome, city where Lakhous has lived and worked for many years. Next autumn the book will be available in Italian, also in edition E/O, with the title “Divorzio all’islamica a viale Marconi” (Islamic Divorce on Viale Marconi). With a background of the confused but vital daily life of a historic Roman neighbourhood, Lakhous guides the reader to an encounter between the world of Arab-Islamic immigration in Rome and the cultural crisis experienced on different levels of the Italian society. With more force than in the past, the author highlights the theme of mistrust and fear of the Other.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Minors: Girls Found; Mother Says, No Longer Scared
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 16 — “I saw them this morning in court after 15 months and now they are here next to me, you can imagine how happy I am”. The joy is evident in the voice of Laura Dini, who was speaking on the telephone from the Italian embassy in Tunis where she is currently with her daughters Saida, aged 5, and Amira, 3.
The girls were returned to her this morning at the court of Ben Arous (in the southern suburbs of Tunuis) after their Tunisian father followed up the separation with his wife by kidnapping and hiding the girls, in spite of a Tunisian court ruling that had awarded custody to the mother.
“They were a bit dazed,” said Laura Dini, who is 36 and from Livorno, “we didn’t talk much because the girls speak Arabic, only Saida, the elder of the two, understands and speaks a bit of Italian. She asked me where I had been for all this time, why I wasn’t with them. I told her that I was here, that I had looked for them endlessly in every area of Tunis and in the nearby towns”.
The father hid the girls, changing their location continuously to avoid them being found by police. Saida told her mother that they were often taken from one place to another, from one house to another and that when they went outside, they were covered up with hats and scarves so that nobody would recognise them.
“I never resigned myself to living away from them,” said Laura Dini, “I did everything, but I would never have been able to see my girls again without the help of a number of people, the ambassador, lawyers, my parents and my friends who supported me throughout”.
Laura Dini was taken to the court this morning by Tunisian police, who will continue to protect her, given that she intends to stay in Tunis where she works and has a house.
“I am no longer scared,” she explained, “now everything has changed, even my ex-husband and his family understand. I am not worried about not being able to communicate, gestures are more eloquent than words and the girls will soon learn Italian too”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Over a Million Tunisians Live Abroad
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 13 — Over one million Tunisians (exactly 1,098,212 as of March 17 2010) live abroad, roughly a tenth of the country’s population. The largest proportion live in France (598,504), followed by Italy and Libya. There has also been a rise in Tunisians living in Canada (15,272) and the United States (13,726).(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Plan for Uranium Production From Phosphates
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 13 — A common project approved by the Tunisian Ministry of Industry and Technology, by the Compagnie de Phosphate de Gafsa (CPG) and by the Groupe Chimique Tunisien (GCT) aims to produce uranium from a starting point of phosphoric acid. The project revives a similar scheme that was ended around half a century ago.
Uranium can be obtained both by extracting it as a mineral and as by-product of the extraction of gold, copper or phosphate. Tunisia is one of the world’s biggest phosphate producers, with eight million tonnes. The next target is to reach a figure of nine million tonnes.
On a worldwide scale, Tunisia is the second largest exporter of TSP (Triple Super Phosphate), the third largest of DAP (phosphate) and the fourth largest exporter of phosphoric acid. In economic terms, the phosphate and derivatives sector recorded a turnover of 3,520 million dinars in 2008 (around 1,818 million euros), of which 3,232 million (around 1,670 million euros) came from exports. The figures correspond respectively to 4% of GDP and 13% of total national exports. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Peres is a Liar, He Made Me Cry, Says Turkey PM’s Wife
Emine Erdogan tells PA paper that she is not usually prone to responding on political matters, but ‘Peres pushed me to my limits, as he constantly lies.’
Emine Erdogan, wife of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused President Shimon Peres of being a liar during a meeting with Palestinian business women in Ankara.
Recalling her husband’s confrontation with the president at the Davos Summit in January 2009, Emine said she thought to herself “G-d, he [Peres] is such a liar, someone must stop him,” she told the Palestinian women.
The Turkish prime minister stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, red-faced from verbally sparring with Peres over the fighting during Israel’s Gaza offensive in December 2008.
Erdogan was angry after being cut off by a panel moderator after listening to an impassioned monologue by Peres defending Israel’s 22-day offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tehran Blames the West and Israel for Zahedan Bombings
Government representatives and the Pasdaran point the finger at the United States, “Zionism”, the “mercenaries of world arrogance”. Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary general, express grief. The attack against a place of worship is a “senseless act of terrorism” and “even more reprehensible.”
Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Representatives of the Iranian government have accused foreign powers (the West, U.S., Israel, …) of being behind the attacks on a mosque in Zahedan two days ago in which 27 people died. The attacks were condemned by the UN, the United States, the European Union and Arab countries.
The deputy interior minister, Abdollah Ali this morning issued a statement on the state television’s website . “The perpetrators of this crime — he said — have been trained outside our borders and then come to Iran”.
“This act of blind terrorism — he added — was perpetrated by the mercenaries of ‘world arrogance’,” a terminology typically used to designate the Western powers.
The attack on the Jamia mosque in Zahedan (Sistan-Baluchistan in) was claimed by the Sunni extremist group Jundallah fighting against the Pasdaran (the Revolutionary Guard) and the Shiites.
This morning, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, Minister of Interior, also accused Israel. “The terrorist acts of the Zionists — he said — have a number of objectives, including to create divisions between Shiites and Sunnis.” He also assured that the Iranian secret services “have things under control.”
Yesterday Yadollah Javan, head of the Revolutionary Guards political bureau said that “one can not exclude the intervention of America, the Zionists and other Western countries after the explosion.
The anti-Western sentiment was strong during the funerals of the victims celebrated this morning in front of the targeted mosque.
For nearly 10 years at every attack by Jundallah, Tehran accuses the United States, Britain and Israel of being the real instigators.
The reference to plots by foreign powers is almost a cliché. Even last year’s “green Wave” demonstrations against the regime of the ayatollahs and Ahmadinejad’s rigged election, have been attributed to Western powers.
Meanwhile yesterday UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon added his voice to that of the U.S. and Arab countries, condemning the bombing in Zahedan as a “senseless act of terrorism”. The fact that it was made against a place of worship makes it “even more appalling,” he added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Professional Soldiers Against PKK
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JULY 14 — The government in Ankara is putting together a project to create a professional army to eradicate the Kurdish rebel group that the Turkish Army has been fighting for the last 26 years. This was reported by the Turkish press, which cited statements by Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul. The project plans for trained and highly professional soldiers in the fight against terrorism to be used instead of conscripted soldiers. As part of the same plan, at least 150 new barracks and military outposts would be built in east and southeast Turkey, the area that at the highest risk. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Can Become a Member of CERN, Director Says
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JULY 14 — The head official of European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) said today that he believed Turkey would become a member of the research organization in near future. In an interview with Anatolia news agency, CERN Director Sergio Bertolucci said Turkey’s young researchers were the country’s biggest advantage, adding the country’s membership would be a remarkable contribution to CERN as well. Bertolucci said Turkey’s membership to the organization would provide the country with major opportunities in areas such as engineering, medicine and information technologies. The CERN delegation headed by Bertolucci held a series of talks in Ankara on Tuesday. The delegation, which was received by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, also paid visits to Ankara University, Middle East Technical University (ODTU), State Planning Organization (DPT) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). CERN officials are expected to meet with officials from Bogazici University and several industrial organizations in Istanbul on Wednesday. CERN is the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco-Swiss border. The organization’s main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research. CERN is run by 20 European Member States, but many non-European countries are also involved in different ways. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Gaza Aid Ship Crisis Hits Israeli Tourist Flow
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JULY 15 — Strained relations between Turkey and Israel after an Israeli raid on Gaza-bound aid flotilla has hit Israeli tourist flow to Turkey, Anatolia news agency repoirts quoting the head of Turkish Hoteliers Federation, or TUROFED, as saying today. Turkish-Israeli relations strained after the May 31 Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound convoy which was carrying humanitarian aid and hundreds of activists from 33 countries. Israeli commandos killed eight Turks and an American of Turkish origin.
Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel after the raid that took place in the international waters. “Now, there are no take-offs, except for scheduled flights, to carry Israeli tourists to Turkey after the raid,” TUROFED Chairman Ahmet Barut said. “Constant enmity between two peoples is out of question. However, I think it would take at least two years to restore relations,” Barut told a press conference where he unveiled a “tourism report” prepared by TUROFED. Some 550,000 Israeli tourists visited Turkey in 2008. It dropped to 300,000 a year later. The TUROFED report also reveals statistics about Turkey’s tourism performance. It says visitor numbers increased during the first months of 2010 despite several negative developments in the world and in Turkey, such as Icelandic volcano ash cloud that halted flights in Europe, traffic accident that killed 13 Russian tourists in Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya and crisis in Turkish-Israeli relations. Most recent data on the number of tourists visiting Turkey says 8 million people visited Turkey in January-May period this year. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Organizers of “Banned Religion” Fined, Considered Offensive by the Moscow Patriarchate
Sakharov Museum director and exhibition curator sentenced to pay around 5 thousand Euros each. The sentence sparks protests from civil society, denouncing the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate. The exhibition contains images deemed blasphemous. The prosecutor had asked for three years in prison. The lawyers announced an appeal.
Moscow (AsiaNews / Agencies) — In the end a verdict has arrived, but neither civil society nor the Russian Orthodox Church are satisfied with it. The story of the controversial exhibition “Banned Religion” — held in Moscow in 2006 — ended with a conviction against the organizers. No jail, just a fine, but the case has inflamed public opinion in Russia, with criticism of the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate on the Moscow Tagansky District Court decision and the threat this poses to freedom of expression in the country. 58 year-old Yuri Samodurov — director of the Sakharov museum which housed the exhibition — and 54 year-old Andrei Yerofeyev — the curator — will have to pay fines for about 5 thousand Euros each. Lawyers for two defendants have already announced they will appeal the sentence.
The prosecutor had sought a three year jail sentence for Samodurov (pictured) and Erofeev, “guilty” of having created a scandal with various transgressive images, including a Christ depicted in a McDonald’s advert with the slogan “this is my body.” The ultra-Orthodox organization Narodni Sobor and other groups of believers spoke out against the exhibition. The case had sparked protests abroad. Amnesty International had spoken in defence of Samodurov and Erofeev.
On July 12, while avoiding a prison sentence, the court held, however, the two guilty of acts “aimed at inciting hatred on religious grounds” by organizing an exhibition whose works used a “obscene language”.
The case has reignited the controversy — that began in 2004 with the exhibition “Caution, Religion” (see AsiaNews) — over attempts by the Orthodox Church to act as an “ideological and political leader in the country”, even affecting the Civil Justice. The Moscow Patriarchate after the verdict, announced its disappointment at a “sentence too soft” and hoped — said the Head of the Information Department, Legoyda Vladimir — that “ in the future such exhibitions are never organized again in Russia “. (NA)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia and the Burden of the Soviet Past
Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: How Can Russia Disclaim Responsibility for the Soviet Past?
Introduced by Vladimir Frolov
Russia is about to adopt a universal doctrine to disclaim once and for all any moral, legal or financial responsibility for the policies and actions of the Soviet authorities on the territory of the former Soviet republics and the states of Eastern Europe. Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev, a leading United Russia voice on foreign affairs, has published a summary of this doctrinal document in his blog on the Echo of Moscow radio station’s Web site. … Russia has been inundated lately with claims to assume responsibility for crimes committed under the Soviet regime on behalf of Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine and now Moldova. Each time Moscow has had to improvise and threaten retaliation on an individual basis, while having no universal position to treat such claims in the future.
Kosachev’s proposal goes to plug this hole. His basic idea is simple and tough: Russia fulfills all international obligations of the Soviet Union — international treaties and agreements, as well as public and private debt — as the successor state to the Soviet Union. However, Russia does not recognize its moral responsibility or any legal obligations for the actions and crimes committed by the Soviet authorities on the territories of former Soviet states and Eastern Europe. Russia does not accept any political, legal or financial claims against it for violations by Soviet authorities of international or domestic laws in force during the Soviet period. [ …. ]
Srdja Trifkovich, Ph.D., Director, Center for International Affairs, The Rockford Institute, Rockford, IL:
Kosachev’s “basic idea” is simple, but not nearly tough enough. The distinction between Russia’s legal inheritance and its alleged moral responsibility needs to be reinforced by a reminder that the agents of Soviet oppression were primarily focused on destroying Russia’s faith, tradition, culture, and — above all — the millions of Russian people deemed “objectively guilty” (as per Martin Latsis).
Another reminder is that the chief perpetrators of Soviet terror — starting in 1917 to 18 with the Bolshevik Central Committee, with the Red Latvian Riflemen, and the illustrious “Iron Feliks” — were not only non-Russian, but explicitly anti-Russian.
Of course the second argument is a potential political minefield, and a blunt tool that has to be handled with tact and care. Nevertheless, it needs to be wielded in order to disarm once and for all those who want to burden today’s Russians with the bogus burden of moral responsibility for what Joseph Stalin, Lavrenty Beria, Nikolai Yezhov et al. had done to their grandparents — and everyone else’s grandparents.
The slogan for the “historical doctrine” should be “The Russian People: the Chief Victim of Soviet Oppression.”
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Italian Base Attacked by Suicide Bomber
Herat, 16 July (AKI) — A suicide bomber exploded a device early Friday outside the entrance to an Italian military base in southern Afghanistan in the Herat region injuring three Afghan civilians.
The attacker’s bomb detonated after his car rammed a police vehicle near the gate of Camp Arena.
The area was subsequently cordoned off and the blast’s victims were taken to the camp hospital.
More than 320 NATO soldiers -the majority of them Americans — have been killed since the beginning of this year in war-wracked Afghanistan.
About 140,000 international troops are fighting alongside Afghan forces in a bid to clear the country of Taliban insurgents.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Gurkha Ordered Back to UK After Beheading Dead Taliban Fighter
A Gurkha soldier has been flown back to the UK after hacking the head off a dead Taliban commander with his ceremonial knife to prove the dead man’s identity.
The private, from 1st Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles, was involved in a fierce firefight with insurgents in the Babaji area of central Helmand Province when the incident took place earlier this month.
His unit had been told that they were seeking a ‘high value target,’ a Taliban commander, and that they must prove they had killed the right man.
The Gurkhas had intended to remove the Taliban leader’s body from the battlefield for identification purposes.
But they came under heavy fire as their tried to do so. Military sources said that in the heat of battle, the Gurkha took out his curved kukri knife and beheaded the dead insurgent.
He is understood to have removed the man’s head from the area, leaving the rest of his body on the battlefield.
This is considered a gross insult to the Muslims of Afghanistan, who bury the entire body of their dead even if parts have to be retrieved.
British soldiers often return missing body parts once a battle has ended so the dead can be buried in one piece.
A source said: ‘Removing the head in this way was totally inappropriate.’
Army sources said that the soldier, who is in his early 20s, initially told investigators that he unsheathed his kukri — the symbolic weapon of the Gurkhas — after running out of ammunition.
But later the Taliban fighter was mutilated so his identity could be verified through DNA tests.
The source said: ‘The soldier has been removed from duty and flown home. There is no sense of glory involved here, more a sense of shame. He should not have done what he did.’
The incident, which is being investigated by senior commanders, is hugely embarrassing to the British Army, which is trying to build bridges with local Afghan communities who have spent decades under Taliban rule.
It comes just days after a rogue Afghan soldier murdered three British troops from the same Gurkha regiment.
If the Gurkha being investigated by the Army is found guilty of beheading the dead enemy soldier, he will have contravened the Geneva Conventions which dictate the rules of war. Soldiers are banned from demeaning their enemies.
The Gurkha now faces disciplinary action and a possible court martial. If found guilty, he could be jailed.
He is now confined to barracks at the Shorncliffe garrison, near Folkestone, Kent.
The incident happened as the Gurkha troop was advancing towards a hostile area before engaging the enemy in battle.
Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said: ‘In this case, it appears that the soldier was not acting maliciously, but his actions were clearly ill-judged.
‘The Gurkhas are a very fine regiment with a proud tradition of service in the British forces and have fought very bravely in Afghanistan.
‘I have no doubt that this behaviour would be as strongly condemned by the other members of that regiment, as it would by all soldiers in the British forces.’
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘We are aware of an incident and have informed the Afghan authorities. An inves-tigation is underway and it would not be appropriate to comment further until this is concluded.’
The Ministry also revealed yesterday that four British servicemen had been killed in Afghanistan in 24 hours.
An airman from the RAF Regiment died in a road accident near Camp Bastion in Helmand and a marine from 40 Commando Royal Marines was killed in an explosion in Sangin on Friday.
A Royal Dragoon Guard died in a blast in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province yesterday. The fourth serviceman also died in an explosion.
The British death toll in the Afghan campaign since 2001 is now 322.
Afghan troops trained by the British Army recently led a major operation into a Taliban stronghold.
It was one of the first operations organised by the Afghan National Army.
The iconic kukri knife used by the Gurkhas can be a weapon or a tool. It is the traditional utility knife of the Nepalese people, but is mainly known as a symbolic weapon for Gurkha regiments all over the world.
The kukri signifies courage and valour on the battlefield and is sometimes worn by bridegrooms during their wedding ceremony.
The kukri’s heavy blade enables the user to inflict deep wounds and to cut muscle and bone with one stroke.
It can also be used in stealth operations to slash an enemy’s throat, killing him instantly and silently.
| — Hat tip: SH | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Government Plans Databank to Protect Beggars From Exploitation
At least 700,000 people beg in the capital alone. Many are forced, some even mutilated to increase their value. The government is set to invest US$ 2,000,000 in a rehabilitation programme that is expected to provide education, jobs and shelter.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — The Bangladeshi government is setting up the first database for beggars living in the capital that will include collecting main vital statistics and photo, Mohammad Nurul Kabir told AsiaNews. “In the capital,” said Mr Nurul Kabit, who is the director general of the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons, “the number of beggars is around 700,000, asking alms at bus stops, railways stations, markets and traffic signals.”
Last March, the Social Welfare Ministry set up a core committee for beggar rehabilitation, he added. Currently, experts are looking at ways to apply the programme.
In March, the government also adopted “new laws to counter the exploitation” of beggars.
“Some people are forced to beg, in many cases, deliberately mutilated to increase their value.”
Under the new 2010 Vagabond and Street Beggars Rehabilitation Act, forcing someone to beg becomes a punishable offence with “three years in prison,” which can rise to five years, plus a 500,000 taka fine (about US$ 7,000), in case of “intentional mutilation of the beggar to increase his value.”
Despite the new legislation, the situation has not changed however. Every day, “the problem is getting worse in the capital and other parts” of the country.
Overall, the government has allocated US$ 2 million in favour of rehabilitation projects for beggars this year.
Social Welfare Minister Enamul Haque Mostafa Shahid said the government wants to invest an additional 63.2 million taka (just under US$ 1 million) next year.
Under the terms of the plan, beggars would be provided with employment, education, training and shelter.
The minister announced that the programme would get underway very soon. Beggars will have their picture taken and will be registered in the rehabilitation programme.
Most of the disabled would be moved to rehabilitation centres, whilst able-bodied beggars would be provided with employment in their district of origin.
The survey will include a single, one-day sweep across the capital, divided into ten zones.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Eight Indian States Are Poorer Than 26 African Countries Put Together
According to a new UN index for measuring poverty, more than 421 million poor people in the eight Indian states, including Orissa, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, compared with 410 million of 26 African countries, like Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Niger and Somalia. The new measure takes into account not only per capita income but also access to resources, education and medical care. For the Indian Church a major cause of poverty is the corruption of local governments and the indiscriminate exploitation of resources to the detriment of the population.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — In eight states in India the number of poor is higher than that of the 26 most underdeveloped countries in Africa. This data has been revealed by the multidimensional poverty index (MPI), a new index for measuring poverty, created by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in collaboration with the UN. According to the MPI there are over 421 million poor in the Indian states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, versus 410 million recorded in the 26 African countries like Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Niger and Somalia.
The new index uses 10 variables such as access to fuels and electricity and also takes into account the quality of food, school and health care, in contrast to the previous indices based mainly on family income. The aim is to find development solutions for each country to address the needs of the population.
In India, a major factor of poverty is high level corruption in the public and private sectors. To attract foreign investment, local governments allow indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources to the detriment of the population, which is often forced to abandon their land to make way for industries.
Fr. Udanayath Bishoy, a social worker in Orissa, affirms: “In most cases, the government does not care about the development of Dalits and tribals, who constitute the largest portion of the poor of India”. According to the priest, the authorities are making significant concessions to the industries that prey on the land under the pretext of the development of depressed areas.
“They do not allow local industries to participate in the planning — he continues- and this only adds to the corruption and poverty.” “Those who pursue this policy get rich — he adds- while the population grows poorer because no one is seriously interested in the people’s real needs. Local politicians back development projects that only favour the companies and which lack transparency”. In May, the Prime Minister of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik, guaranteed the federal government and the South Korean steel giant ‘Posco’ the use of over 4 thousand acres of land, forcing thousands to abandon their homes and fields. The local church was the only one to take up the farmers cause and urged politicians to rethink the logic of exploitation and expropriation of land, saving that land which is productive.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Baloch Future Questioned After Separatist’s Murder
Quetta, 14 July (AKI) — By Syed Saleem Shahzad — The recent murder of top separatist leader Habib Jalib Baloch in southwest Pakistan calls into question the future of Balochistan province’s peaceful political struggle, rights activists and analysts said.
“Jalib did not have any conflict with anybody so I am pretty much sure that he was killed by the intelligence agencies,” top human rights activist Fatima Abdullah, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Abdullah led a massive demonstration in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad this week in protest at Jalib’s killing on Wednesday in Balochistan’s capital, Quetta. Jalib, a former senator, was shot dead by gunmen aboard a motorbike.
“We worked together for at least three decades. He struggled for the rights of downtrodden, women’s rights and the rights of minorities,” Abdullah said.
“We were part of the Baloch National Party but opposed an armed struggle for the rights of Balochistan.
“If he is still not spared and killed, you tell me what choice is left for the political activists in the country,” Abdullah said.
Jalib was the secretary general of BNP. He came from a lower middle class family background and became a renowned Marxist in Balochistan during the 1980s.
Before Jalib’s slaying, Quetta’s police chief had publicly stated he would respond to the murders of police officers with targeted killing, BNP chief Akhtar Mengal said said in a TV interview.
The BNP announced a 40 days mourning period in the province after Jalib’s killing.
Balochistan’s chief minister Aslam Raisani ordered an immediate report from Balochistan police on Jalib’s killing, saying that he condemned it.
Baloch insurgents have removed Pakistani flags from schools and colleges and the Pakistani national anthem has been banned in schools.
Pakistan blames India for fuelling the separation movement in the mineral-rich Balochistan province.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Will Atheism Spell Trouble for Gillard?
The PM’s admission that she doesn’t believe in God has divided religious leaders, writes John Elder.
ON AUGUST 15, between 3pm and 6pm, Julia Gillard may feel a sudden draining of her energy. She’ll shrug it off as a sign that the demands of campaigning are catching up with her. And she’ll be right.
On that Sunday, Melbourne witch and high priestess Lizzy Rose and her coven will invite Ms Gillard’s energy into their magic circle to speak about “her intentions of where she is taking the country”.
Ms Rose says her divinations “will prove to us whether Julia is going to govern through ego or through her heart space”.
If Ms Gillard, an avowed atheist, passes the “heart-space” test, Ms Rose says she’ll get the endorsement of her Order of Wisdom, Learning and Light.
“We’re not trying to recruit her against her will,” she says. “We see her as a high priestess anyway, regardless of her atheism.”
Ever since Ms Gillard declined to put her hand on the Bible when she was sworn in as PM, Australia’s religious and spiritual folk of all persuasions have been praying for, pondering the nature of and, at least in one case, damning her soul.
But if Ms Gillard is damned, she will have plenty of company. In the 2006 census, one in five people said they had no religion.
Hotly criticising the new PM is Pastor Danny Nalliah of the Catch the Fire Ministries. He claims that a godless Gillard is out to “destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage,” outlaw worship altogether and turn Australia into another “Communist China”.
In endorsing Tony Abbott as his preferred PM, Pastor Nalliah wrote on his website last week: “Ms Gillard is anti-God, pro-abortion, has no Christian moral values and the list goes on. On the other hand Mr Tony Abbott is openly Christian, pro-life and has very good moral values.”
More forgiving is Robert Forsyth, senior bishop and second in command of Australia’s Anglican Church. Having recently met the PM, and believing that she respects the beliefs of others, Mr Forsyth says: “I think she’s a good model for religious freedom. Personally I’d like her to know God, but I have no concern that our prime minister is an atheist … I think that anyone who wants to lead has to believe in right and wrong. I believe that she does.”
However, Reverend Mark Durie, vicar of St Mary’s Anglican Church in Caulfield, says he’s not happy about “the PM’s domestic arrangements (living in a de facto relationship) — I don’t think it’s a good model for others”.
He also wonders what kind of atheist Ms Gillard is. “If you believe we are all just lumps of dirt, the result of a series of evolutionary accidents, of course this affects how you value the dying, the unborn, the disabled, the environment, human sexuality and marriage,” he says.
Bishop Les Tomlinson, vicar-general of the archdiocese of Melbourne, addressed the godless PM issue in an email: “Irrespective of our political leaders’ religious convictions or otherwise, we as believers in God should give our prayerful support to them, so they will best serve those for whom they are responsible.”
Lyle Shelton is from the Australian Christian Lobby, a Canberra-based group that aims to ensure Australia’s governance is based on Christian values. He says Christians will be disappointed that the new prime minister does not believe in God “and this will be reflected in the voting”.
But he adds: “It is a discerning constituency and most will be looking at the values which underpin her and the party’s policies.”
Rabbi Chaim Herzof, of the Chabad of Melbourne, describes Ms Gillard’s atheism as “not the ideal situation. I believe she should have a superior being, not necessarily a god, but a mentor or religious leader, someone to consult with aside from the cabinet.”
But, he adds, “we as the Jewish nation will back the prime minister as long as she supports the safety and integrity of Israel, as well as our own Jewish interests”.
Like the Labor party, Australia’s witchcraft and pagan community is highly factional. Most of them aren’t as flamboyant as Lizzy Rose. But The Sunday Age found others who will be performing magic rituals in order to influence the election outcome.
Marian Dalton, a low-profile witch for 20 years, sees opportunity in Ms Gillard’s atheism: “It gives me hope that she will deal with people on an even keel. I’m not a fan of the idea that one religion gets to dominate a country.”
Pollster Gary Morgan, of Roy Morgan Research, says the PM’s atheism hasn’t been an issue.
| [Return to headlines] |
‘Thought Police’ Slam Media With Fine Totaling $125,000
Offending ad sang praises of traditional family structure
A Christian-inspired media group is being targeted with a fine of about $125,000 for its broadcast of television ads that promote the traditional family by using video footage of homosexual “pride” events and asking “Proud … of what?”
According to a detailed documentation of the case by the European Center for Law and Justice, an affiliate of the U.S.-based American Center for Law and Justice, the fine targets the multimedia communication group Intereconomia, which among other things owns ALBA — a Christian-inspired weekly publication in Spain.
[…]
In the U.S., the issue has been raised regarding the newly adopted “hate crimes” plan pushed through by Democrats in Congress and used as a rallying point by President Obama.
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, has called the U.S. new law “unconstitutional” and said it “marks an unprecedented move to regulate and criminalize our thoughts.”
[…]
Obama boasted of the “hate crimes” bill when he signed it into law.
[…]
The bill signed by Obama was opposed by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which called it a “menace” to civil liberties. The commission argued the law allows federal authorities to bring charges against individuals even if they’ve already been cleared in a state court.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
Turkey Can Become a Member of CERN, Director Says
Boy howdy! We all know about the countless contributions Muslims have made towards advancing our world's understanding of subatomic structural dynamics and cosmological theories.
If I recollect rightly, the next major leap forward in applied nuclear physics is about to debut in Iran.
Whatever would we − or, for that matter, the Nobel Prize Committee − do without all those helpful Muslim scientists?
Post a Comment