French Unions Stage Mass Protests Against Sarkozy
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is feeling the wrath of the people: hundreds of thousands protested against his pension reform on Wednesday and trade unions brought public life to a standstill. The showdown amounts to a test of Sarkozy’s power.
Traffic jams in the streets, chaos on the ring motorways that circle Paris, cancelled intercity and commuter trains, erratic connections on the Metro: French trade union calls for mass protests against the pension reforms planned by President Nicolas Sarkozy elicited a powerful response on Tuesday. The Interior Ministry estimated that up to 450,000 demonstrators took part in 114 rallies by midday.
Strikes were also held in schools, post offices and city administrative offices. Many newspapers failed to appear at newsstands, and some public radio and television stations were forced to play pre-recorded music.
The march in Paris began in sunshine at the Place de la Republique and was led by prominent opposition politicians and a number of celebrities.
‘Nationwide Day of Action’
The “Nationwide Day of Action” was aimed at a landmark reform program that Sarkozy hopes will avert a collapse of the pension system and reestablish his leadership after a summer of gaffes, scandals and embarrassments. The opponents of Sarkozy’s pension reform — which, among other things, would raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 — see far more to it that just an intellectual battle over the country’s coming demographic changes. It is also a test of the credibility of the unions and of the president’s power. It also amounts to a settling of scores with Sarkozy.
The president introduced the contentious reform before the summer holidays in a bid to reclaim the political high ground this autumn after a slump in popularity in recent months. His attempt to detract attention from the country’s economic problems with a crude debate about immigration and security turned out to be a flop. The expulsion of Roma immigrants and the ugly slurs against that minority even angered prominent politicians within the most conservative ranks of Sarkozy’s party.
To make matters worse, it has emerged that Sarkozy’s labor minister, Eric Woerth, the man who introduced the pension reform law to parliament, is also entangled in the Bettencourt political corruption scandal. Morally compromised, he could have trouble defending his legislative project against the opposition, who have already issued 470 requests for amendments.
A Test of Sarkozy’s Room for Maneuver
That’s why the showdown with the unions is a test of the president’s room for maneuver — reason enough for him to reaffirm on Tuesday that he will press ahead with the reforms. Surveys show the French public is deeply divided on the pension reform with around half supporting the increase in the retirement age to 62.
Sarkozy’s people have quietly been signalling flexibility. Henri Guaino, the president’s advisor, said last weekend that jobs that are more psychologically strenuous could be assessed differently from normal office jobs. Still, the suggestion that concession could be made was not enough to placate the demonstrators in Tuesday’s protests.
But if the president and his labor minister, alarmed by the mass mobilization, were to present “additional suggestions” this week, the concessions wouldn’t necessarily have to make it look as though Sarkozy and his minister had buckled to public pressure on the streets.
Meanwhile, the trade unions say they plan further demonstrations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Investors Sue Germany Over Weimar-Era Bonds
A group of American investors have filed several lawsuits to pressure Germany to honor bonds issued by the Weimar Republic. Hitler banned repayment of the bonds and Berlin says a deadline for registering the bonds passed decades ago. Should Germany lose, it could cost the country billions.
Their age and provenance are clear enough: The bonds were issued by the Weimar Republic some 80 years ago to raise cash. Just how much they might be worth today is open for debate. But six investors in the US are taking Germany to court to find out — and to force the country to pay up.
The certificates were issued by the Weimar Republic in the 1920s as a way to help pay debts and reparations demanded after World War I. They are still, in fact, being traded with investors hoping they can eventually be redeemed.
Now a handful of investors hope lawsuits filed in several federal courts in the US will force Germany to pay off the bonds. Their value could be hundreds of millions of dollars, with some estimates going into the billions. A month ago, a Miami court ruled against Germany’s request to dismiss the lawsuits; Germany had argued that US courts did not have jurisdiction.
The investors argue that a German victory in this case could have negative consequences for the global bond market — it would damage investors’ confidence, they claim, in the security of all government bonds. “Our position is not only correct under the law, it would avoid such a potentially far-reaching precedent,” investor attorney Sam Dubbin told the Associated Press.
Stolen by Soviet Soldiers
Germany says the suit is invalid. It holds that only those investors who successfully negotiate a complex validation process can be paid off. A spokesman for the German Embassy in Washington told the AP that “any bond passing the validation procedure successfully will be honored.”
The certificates must be validated because thousands were stolen by Soviet soldiers in 1945. Berlin has said the stolen bonds had been redeemed, but then found their way, improperly, back to the market. Plaintiffs have accused Germany of being less than forthright in offering a list of stolen bonds.
Germany has also argued that a deadline for registering the bonds passed in 1958. “All bonds not registered by then were declared legally invalid and can only be recognized after the fact by verdict of the proper German court,” the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues wrote in a mail to the daily Die Welt in August.
The sale of the bonds by the Weimar government brought in hundreds of millions of dollars, as investors believed they were safe. But when Hitler came to power in 1933, he declared the certificates invalid. The bonds lost their value, making it easy for Nazi Germany to buy them up on the cheap. Dubbin’s lawsuit claims that Hitler was able to use the money raised by the bond issue to “rebuild Germany’s war machine,” according to the AP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
American Society of Magazine Editors and Amazon.Com Announce the Finalists of the 2010 Best Cover Contest
August 26, 2010—American Society of Magazine Editors and Amazon.com today announced the finalists in the fifth annual Best Cover Contest. The finalists were chosen by 90 top magazine editors. The winners in 12 categories will be chosen in September by Amazon.com customers.
“Magazine covers capture iconic moments in American life. They tell us where we’ve been and where we’re going,” said Sid Holt, Chief Executive of the American Society of Magazine Editors. “This year’s finalists remind us that it was a tough year for golfers and presidents, a memorable year for fans of Shaun White and Lady Gaga and a very good year for vampires and ‘Mad Men.’“
“Following the extremely positive response from our customers last year, we’re very pleased that they will once again be voting for the winners in the ASME Best Cover Contest,” said Peter Larsen, director of Magazines at Amazon.com. “With this year’s categories covering everything from sports to vampires, we look forward to even greater customer interest.”
Magazine covers were eligible if they appeared on issues dated from June 1, 2009, to May 31, 2010. Beginning September 1, the 72 finalists will be posted on Amazon.com for 30 days. Customers will vote for their favorites in 12 categories, then choose the Cover of the Year from the 12 winners. The winners will be announced on October 3 in Chicago at the American Magazine Conference, the premier meeting for industry leaders hosted by MPA and ASME.
[…]
To view the nominees and vote for your favorite covers of the year, go to www.amazon.com/bestcovers.
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David Yerushalmi in Big Peace: How to Bury the Threat From Shariah by Pretending it Doesn’t Exist
Maajid Nawaz’s oped in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal attempts to draw a distinction between Islam and Islamism. While there may indeed be such an argument if “Islam” means any given Muslim’s personal, subjective approach to the divine and “Islamism” means Sharia-adherence and —advocacy, this is not the argument Nawaz presents. In fact, Nawaz never really tells us what he means except to slide into an argument that Islamic “traditionalists,” impliedly devout and even Shariah-adherent, reject the political and hegemonic aims of the “Islamists.”…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: All Us ‘Citizens of the World’
As a candidate for the U.S. presidency, Barack Obama touted himself to foreign audiences as a “citizen of the world.” As President, Mr. Obama is determined to make sure we are such citizens, too.
The President’s serial apologies, bowing and pandering to various unsavory international leaders has gained the most notoriety for his policy approach — giving rise to this column’s characterization of the “Obama Doctrine” as: “Emboldening our enemies; undermining our friends; and diminishing our country.”
More worrisome are myriad other steps largely being taken out of the public eye. Particularly when such actions are taken together, they will have the effect of institutionalizing the core notion behind Mr. Obama’s brand of what his top international lawyer (and prospective future Supreme Court nominee), State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh, calls “transnationalism”: A new world order in which the United States is simply one nation among many, subject to a higher — if utterly unaccountable — authority.
A better explanation is that more Americans are taking note of the accumulating series of statements and actions by the President that display favoritism, or worse, towards Muslims. That would be troubling enough; after all, no chief executive is supposed to support one subset of us over others…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Rules Out Compromise to Extend Bush-Era Tax Cuts for Wealthy
President Obama will rule out on Wednesday any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies.
Mr. Obama’s opposition to allowing the high-end tax cuts to remain in place for even another year or two would be the signal many Congressional Democrats have been awaiting as they prepare for a showdown with Republicans on the issue and ends speculation that the White House might be open to an extension.
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Police Spokeswoman Moved After Remarks on Fairgrounds Fights
Des Moines Police Chief Judy Bradshaw reassigned her department’s spokeswoman Thursday, two weeks after Sgt. Lori Lavorato said it was “very possible” fights near the Iowa State Fairgrounds had racial overtones.
The move came as a part of a series of police command assignment changes announced to officers by e-mail Thursday, the details of which have not been made public.
Bradshaw, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, raised concerns about statements Lavorato made after a series of fights outside the fairgrounds last month.
A supplemental report about the Aug. 20 incident filed by Sgt. Dave Murillo said, “On-duty officers at the fairgrounds advise there was a group of 30 to 40 individuals roaming the fairgrounds openly calling it ‘beat whitey night.’ “
While answering questions from the news media three days later, Lavorato said, “It’s all under investigation, but it’s very possible it has racial overtones.”
Police commanders later said they found no credible evidence the fights were racially motivated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Church Defiant Despite Condemnation of Koran Burning
A small US church says it will defy international condemnation and go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Koran on the 9/11 anniversary.
The top US commander in Afghanistan warned troops’ lives would be in danger if the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida went ahead.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the church’s plan was “disrespectful and disgraceful”.
Muslim countries and Nato have also hit out at the move.
And the US Attorney General, Eric Holder, called the idea “idiotic and dangerous”.
But organiser, Pastor Terry Jones said: “We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam.”
The controversy comes at a time when the US relationship with Islam is very much under scrutiny.
There is heated debate in the country over a proposal to build a mosque and Islamic cultural centre streets from Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 attacks, in New York.
‘Significant problems’
Despite having a congregation of just 50, the plans of the church in Gainesville have gained worldwide notoriety, sparking demonstrations in Afghanistan and Indonesia.
| — Hat tip: 4symbols | [Return to headlines] |
Artifact of Franklin Expedition … or Maybe Not
Historian says wooden box unearthed from cairn in Nunavut probably from 1905 Amundsen trip
An old wooden box excavated from beneath an Arctic cairn is being flown unopened today to Ottawa from the Nunavut hamlet of Gjoa Haven.
The Nunavut government launched the excavation after an Inuit family relayed oral history suggesting that the cairn contained records from the ill-fated 1845 expedition led by Sir John Franklin in search of the Northwest Passage.
But Canadian historian Kenn Harper, who has spent months researching the cairn, says the box will prove to contain records left in 1905 by explorer Roald Amundsen during the first-ever navigation of the passage.
The box, which measures 14.5 x 11 x 6.5 inches, will be opened and its contents preserved at the Canadian Conservation Institute….
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Papyrus Found in Ancient Irish Bog
Irish scientists have found fragments of Egyptian papyrus in the leather cover of an ancient book of psalms that was unearthed from a peat bog, Ireland’s National Museum said on Monday.
The papyrus in the lining of the Egyptian-style leather cover of the 1,200-year-old manuscript, “potentially represents the first tangible connection between early Irish Christianity and the Middle Eastern Coptic Church”, the Museum said.
“It is a finding that asks many questions and has confounded some of the accepted theories about the history of early Christianity in Ireland.”
Raghnall O Floinn, head of collections at the Museum, said the manuscript, now known as the “Faddan More Psalter”, was one of the top 10 archaeological discoveries in Ireland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Grassroots Anti-Islamism in Germany
By Benjamin Weinthal
In what could be seen as a parallel to the robust grassroots opposition to the Ground Zero mosque in the U.S., citizens of the German city of Mönchengladbach, located in the West German state of North Rhine—Westphalia, are working overtime to prevent the radical Islamic association “Invitation to Paradise” from building an Islamic school there. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, Verfassungsschutz, has monitored the activities of “Invitation to Paradise” members, who propagate a Salafist version of Islam that calls for the decapitation of non-believers and the imprisonment of women in burqas.
Traditionally, German politicians and policymakers have bent over backwards to not offend homegrown Islamists, revolutionary Iranian supporters, and Hezbollah activists. That helps to explain why the Hamburg-based mosque al-Quds, which spawned the 9/11 terror attacks, remained open for almost nine years as a training center for jihadists…
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Feeling Pressure Over Stoning Woman, Says Italian FM
Frattini wants talks with counterpart from Tehran
(ANSA) — Rome, September 7 — The pressure being put on Tehran to spare a woman sentenced to death by stoning is having an effect, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Tuesday, announcing he wanted to meet his Iranian counterpart for talks.
Italy has been at the forefront of international appeals for clemency for Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, with ministers, opposition politicians and prominent personalities such as soccer players and coaches joining the calls.
“I know that a debate on the feasibility of this execution has opened within the Iranian regime,” Frattini told Italian radio Tuesday.
“There are factors that suggest the great international pressure applied by the Italian government, the European Union and by civil society have had an influence”.
Frattini said he would like to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki face-to-face to further press his arguments, while ruling out the possibility of Europe breaking off diplomatic ties with Tehran if the sentence of the 43-year-old mother-of-two convicted of adultery is carried out.
“You cannot carry out foreign policy like that,” Frattini replied when asked about the option of a diplomatic boycott.
“Diplomatic relations with Iran are necessary in part in order to achieve outcomes like the sparing of Sakineh’s life.
“You don’t take decisions like this on the wave of emotion, even the Vatican has said so.
“I’d like to meet my Iranian counterpart. If he came to Rome I’d be pleased to welcome him”. Elements within Italy’s centre-left opposition were unimpressed by Frattini’s offer of talks with Mottaki, comparing it to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s controversial visit to Rome last month, when he preached Islam to hired hostesses and demanded millions of dollars to keep Europe from “turning black”.
“Italy is becoming a favourite destination for those who make violating human rights their calling card,” said Stefano Pedica, a senator with the Italy of Values (IDV) party.
“Frattini speaks of the need for continuing diplomatic relations with Iran, while the Sakineh case is secondary. “He should report to parliament on the diplomatic relations he intends to entertain with his Iranian counterpart”.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, meanwhile, spoke out against the sentence Tuesday, calling it “highly damaging to the principles of liberty and the right to life”.
Frattini himself issued a fresh appeal after several government initiatives, including the hanging of a photo of Mohammadi-Ashtiani from the front of the Equal Opportunities Ministry in central Rome.
“Italy and Italians are on the side of life and human rights and they cannot tolerate that these get trampled on in any part of the world and, therefore, that a woman can be stoned to death,” read a joint statement with Equal Opportunities Minister Mara Carfagna.
The statement was posted on an online petition launched by members of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party.
Mohammadi-Ashtiani appeared on Iranian television last month confessing to adultery and to being an accomplice in her husband’s murder, although her lawyer said the interview was recorded after she had been tortured.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Southern Mayor Shot to Death
Angelo Vassallo known for environmental battles
(ANSA) — Salerno, September 6 — The mayor of a southern Italian town was killed Sunday night by gunmen who sprayed his car with bullets, police said.
Angelo Vassallo, 57, the centre-left mayor of Pollica near Salerno, was known for his campaigns in favour of the environment and to stem illegal building in his municipality, which contains several noted beauty spots and beaches.
He was elected to a second term in March.
“(Vassallo) was worried…He was a man in the front line against crime and reported all developments to me,” said the prosecutor in charge of the investigation.
Vassallo had been nicknamed the “fisherman-mayor” because of his job and his environmental work.
However, he had himself been reported to the police for alleged extortion and embezzlement.
Police said they were “exploring all avenues”.
The deputy speaker of the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said: “The country has lost one of its best local administrators, who bravely fought to uphold law and order and defend one of the most beautiful areas in the Mezzogiorno”.
Ermete Realacci, former head of environmental group Legambiente and now the PD’s ‘green economy’ pointman, said: “The South has lost a person of great worth and courage… a friend who turned the defence of the environment into a battle”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Mulls Response to Fini
PM to meet Bossi after ex-ally’s challenge-cum-overture
(ANSA) — Rome, September 6 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi was Monday mulling whether to grasp an apparent olive branch contained in a strong attack by former ally turned rival Gianfranco Fini.
On Sunday House Speaker Fini castigated the premier but stopped short of signalling moves that could bring early elections.
He accused the premier of running his People of Freedom (PdL) party like a company, “rolling over” for his key ally the Northern League and “bending the knee” to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who made a controversial visit to Rome last week.
Fini, who has set up his own Future and Freedom (FLI) groups that have deprived the government of a majority in the House, also slammed the PdL’s policies on “ethics” and cuts to schools and police, as well as a “disgraceful” muck-raking campaign by Berlusconi-friendly papers against his family.
But he said he would remain “loyal” to PdL voters and would support a five-point platform in a confidence vote expected September 15.
He reserved the right to examine how the revamped government platform — on judicial reform; tax reform; federalism; immigration and crime; and help for the underdeveloped South — would be effectively put into practice.
Fini came out in favour for temporary immunity from prosecution for the premier while in office and offered the premier a “legislative pact” to take the government to the end of its natural term in 2013.
Berlusconi will hold talks with Northern League leader Umberto Bossi Monday evening to decide how to respond to his former heir-apparent’s long-awaited speech.
Bossi has already said “the government won’t last” but another advisor, PdL House whip Fabrizio Cicchitto, said the administration could “go forward” as long as Fini meant what he said on providing support for key policies.
The Italian media speculated Monday that Berlusconi might be so stung by the personal criticism against him that he would reject the overture and try to force Fini’s hand, making him take the blame for bringing down the government.
According to the latest opinion polls the Pdl plus League would be returned in a snap election, with a slimmer majority.
Some analysts quoted in Monday’s press thought the government would try to survive until March, when MPs qualify for a pension.
Fini set up the FLI after being ejected from the PdL on July 29 following months of bickering in a move he compared Sunday to “the worst type of Stalinism”.
The Speaker and the PdL had become increasingly estranged over Fini’s liberal stances on immigration, bioethics and other issues as well as his strong anti-corruption position.
FLI has 34 MPs in the 630-seat House and ten in the 315-seat Senate.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi: Bossi ‘Want Fini Out’
Ouster of House Speaker urged after attack on premier
(ANSA) — Rome, September 7 — Premier Silvio Berlusconi and key ally Umberto Bossi of the Northern League said Tuesday they would seek the ouster of House Speaker Gianfranco Fini after his fierce attack on the premier and his People of Freedom (PdL) party Sunday.
In a statement released early Tuesday after a PdL and League summit, the two leaders accused Fini of having failed to remain above the political fray and instead “playing a hostile role against the government, wholly incompatible with the impartial status of the Speaker”.
The pair called Fini’s assault on the PdL and Berlusconi “unacceptable”.
They said they would seek a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to urge the president to use his institutional authority to persuade Fini to step down.
The move surprised many political analysts who thought Berlusconi would wait and see how Fini, who was ousted from the PdL in July and set up his own Future and Freedom (FLI) groups, would act on a revamped five-point government programme set for a confidence vote in mid-September.
In his Sunday speech, Fini had already said the FLI would vote for the programme, although it would want to examine how it would be applied. Foreign Minister Franco Frattini tried to explain the apparent contradiction Tuesday by saying that, if the FLI backtracked on its pledge, only then would Fini have finally proven his “incompatibility” with his role as Speaker.
FLI House leader Italo Bocchino reacted sharply by saying the request for Fini to resign was against the Italian Constitution and was a “politically unacceptable” move.
The centre-left opposition Democratic Party claimed that the PdL and the League were “ignorant” of institutional norms since the president could not sack the Speaker, nor even persuade him to resign.
Some media analysts saw Berlusconi and Bossi’s move as the start of political jousting ahead of early elections either later this year or early next year.
They said the premier’s prime concern was to shift the responsibility for bringing the government down onto Fini.
According to current polls, if there were an election now the PdL and League would be returned with a slimmer majority.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Nigerian ‘Ex-Slaves’ Help Bust Drug Trafficking Ring
Trieste, 7 Sept. (AKI) — Nigerians who were once forced to work in slave-like conditions in Italy used their language skills to help the Italian police break up a suspected international cocaine and heroin trafficking ring. The Africans aided Italian border and anti-mafia police in interpreting the 130,000 telephone conversations that were intercepted since a probe began in November.
Thousands of Nigerians every year are trafficked to Europe with the promise of jobs. Upon arrival, many are forced to work as sex slaves or other forms of forced labour.
Dubbed “Operation Hermes” after the Greek mythical messenger of the gods who was also the guide of the underworld, the interpretation work helped police in the northeast city of Trieste break up an alleged Nigerian smuggling organisation.
Investigators say the gang imported South American cocaine and Afghan heroin into Italy.
Police carried out twenty-eight arrests in 14 Italian cities during the operation and seized 17 kilos of cocaine and heroin.
The probe also uncovered a scam that allegedly forced Nigerian women to work as sex slaves under the threat of punishment with black magic.
Investigators opened the probe in November after a Lithuanian in possession of two kilos of heroin was arrested aboard a Naples bound train.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Moves to Oust Rival
Rome, 7 Sept. (AKI) — Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi will ask president Giorgio Napolitano to remove his rival, Gianfranco Fini, as speaker of the lower house of parliament. The move follows a scathing attack made against the premier made by Fini, whom Berlusconi expelled in August from the ruling conservative People of Freedom Party (PdL).
“The Rt. Honourable Gianfranco Fini’s remarks, are unacceptable,” Berlusconi and his coalition partner Umberto Bossi, head of the Northern League, said on Tuesday.
They made the remarks in a joint statement issued early on Monday after a late night meeting at Berlusconi’s home in Arcore, near Milan.
Fini, in a keynote speech to supporters on Sunday in Mirabello, northern Italy, described his expulsion from the PdL as “an act of Stalinism”.
He said it meant the PdL “no longer exists”.
Fini said Berlusconi, owner of a media empire, had a way of “confusing leadership with the role of company owners, which is a completely different thing”.
He also criticised Berlusconi for seeking “impunity” through laws aimed at ending his ongoing corruption trials.
Berlusconi and Bossi said Fini was no longer fit to be speaker of the lower house.
“His words are the clear demonstration that he is playing a role that is hostile to the ruling majority, which is wholly incompatible with the non-partisan role that the lower house speaker must play.”
“For this reason, prime minister Berlusconi and federal reforms minister Umberto Bossi, will in the coming days ask to meet the president of the Italian republic to explain to him the gravity of this situation,” the statement said.
Fini signalled in his speech he would not take steps to bring down the government and trigger early elections, a move Berlusconi has said he wants to avoid.
But Bossi, whose party has continued to make strong electoral gains, reiterated his call for fresh polls.
“In the end, elections will be necessary,” Bossi said in comments broadcast by Sky TG24 television after the meeting. A vote before Christmas is “technically possible,” he said.
Fini has 34 supporters in the lower house of parliament and 10 in the upper house or Senate. Unless the PdL allies with a centrist party, Fini’s newly formed Future and Freedom group can deny the government a ruling majority.
One of Fini’s closest allies, Italo Bocchino on Tuesday deplored Berlusconi’s attempt to oust Fini as “politically unacceptable and a violation of the constitution.”
Fini helped create the PdL which was launched last March when his post-fascist National Alliance merged with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party.
The split with Fini has weakened Berlusconi, who has tied his government’s future to a five-point programme of reforms due to be put to a confidence vote this month.
Opinion polls suggest his support is waning, undermined by a sluggish economy and a series of corruption cases involving members of his government and other PdL politicians.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Formation of Rightwing Cabinet Revived
AMSTERDAM, 08/09/10 — The conservatives (VVD), Christian democrats (CDA) and Party for Freedom (PVV) will almost certainly again sit down at the table together to arrive at the formation of a joint coalition.
The PVV wants to resume the negotiations with the VVD and the CDA. PVV leader Geert Wilders sees new opportunities following the unexpected departure of CDA dissident Ab Klink on Monday evening, Wilders said yesterday.
On Friday, the negotiations between VVD, CDA and PVV were stranded. Wilders pulled out of the talks because he said he no longer had confidence in the CDA, where three of the 21 MPs did not want to work with the PVV.
The most important of the three dissident CDA MPs was Ab Klink. But he resigned on Monday evening. In a letter, he stated that he no longer considered himself able to operate convincingly within the parliamentary party. Klink, who is also Health Minister, will however remain a member of the CDA and of the caretaker cabinet.
Wilders said yesterday that his 24 PVV MPs have unanimously decided that the PVV wants to return to the negotiating table with VVD and CDA. The decision was taken after thorough reflection, a night’s sleep and consultations within the party, according to Wilders.
The VVD also very much wants to continue with the talks, said VVD leader Mark Rutte. After a few hours, the CDA stated it too was available again. All CDA MPs are behind the decision to resume the negotiations, stressed CDA leader Maxime Verhagen.
Klink plunged the CDA into a deep crisis on Thursday. He wrote to CDA leader Verhagen and party chairman Henk Bleker that the road to a partnership with Wilders had in his view become “impassable.”
The internal letter, which leaked out to the media, was disastrous for the negotiations, in view of the fact that Klink was not alone one of the most important CDA MPs, but was also co-negotiator for the party alongside Verhagen.
After two days of crisis talks, Verhagen managed to get Klink — and two other MPs that did not want to work in partnership with the PVV — back behind the position that an assessment of the coalition accord would only be made after it has been achieved. But Wilders then demanded that all 21 CDA MPs should bind themselves now to whatever would be presented. When Verhagen could not guarantee this, the PVV pulled out of the talks.
On Monday evening, after Klink’s departure, VVD leader Mark Rutte had already suggested that a new situation had arisen that could make it possible for Wilders to resume the negotiations. “The ball is now in his court,” was how he invited him.
Wilders did not initially give the impression on Monday evening that he wanted to return to the negotiations. “There are still two dissidents left,” he said after Klink’s departure. He was referring to Ad Koppejan and Kathleen Ferrier. They do not however have the weight that Klink had within the CDA party.
The PVV does now want to resume talks after all. “The most important faultfinder within the CDA party, who had damaged confidence, has stepped down. This means the most important obstacle is removed,” said Wilders.
It is up to the queen now to decide in which form the cabinet formation should be continued. As well as her most important advisors, she received all the party leaders individually on Monday and yesterday morning, to allow them to talk about their views.
Wilders, Verhagen and Rutte had already been to see the queen on Monday evening. All three advised her that VVD leader Rutte should write a draft coalition accord on his own. Other parties could then subscribe to it.
Labour (PvdA) leader Job Cohen also visited Paleis Noordeinde on Monday. He proposed that he himself and Rutte could draw up a draft accord together.
Due to Wilders’ proposal yesterday to resume the talks with CDA and VVD, the recommendations to the queen already appear to have been overtaken by events.
According to VVD leader Rutte, a “new political reality” emerged yesterday. It is likely that Opstelten could now be reappointed as informateur. “But that is up to the queen.”
Informateur Ivo Opstelten, who led the negotiations on a right-wing cabinet, delivered his final report on Saturday. Formally, the queen bases her decisions on the official readings and not on intermediate developments played out via the media. The monarch is expected to set the next step in the formation process in motion today.
The two remaining ‘dissidents’ in the CDA party, Ferrier and Koppejan, support the decision to resume the negotiations with the VVD and PVV on a rightwing minority cabinet. “We will go ahead from where we had got to, now that Geert Wilders has put the plug back in the socket,” said Ferrier yesterday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Francoism Investigation, Garzon Trial Confirmed
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 7 — Today, the Spanish Supreme Court confirmed the decision of investigating magistrate Luciano Verela, to bring Audiencia Nacional judge Baltazar Garzon to trial for alleged abuse of power due to his order to open an investigation into crimes during the civil war and Francoism. The news was reported by sources in the legal system cited by Europa Press. The criminal division of the court unanimously rejected the appeal presented by Garzon against Varela’s ruling, in which the judge said that he was denied the possibility of producing evidence for the defence. According to the court, “the criteria of the investigating magistrate is neither illogical nor arbitrary in considering the denied evidence unnecessary”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: Benedict Celebrates ‘Anti-Capitalism’ Pope’s Birthday
Vatican City, 6 Sept. (AKI) — Pope Benedict XVI travelled 80 kilometres north of Rome to the village where Pope Leo XIII’s was born to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the 19th century pontiff who famously lashed out against unbridled capitalism and slavery.
The pope implored the faithful to lead a fruitful spiritual life.
“Without prayer, that is, without the inner union with God, we can do nothing…,” he told several thousand people gathered in a square in the tiny hill town of Carpineto Romano on Sunday, according to a copy of his remarks released by the Vatican press office on Monday.
Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 “Carpineto Romano” encyclical entitled “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour” called for the improvement of “the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class.”
Benedict’s visit to Carpineto Romano came one day before Labour Day in the United States.
The encyclical supported the right to form labour unions but rejected communism. The message — published around twenty years after the Vatican lost its territory as part of Italy’s unification — also affirmed the right to private property.
In 1890, Leo published the “Catholicae Ecclesiae” encyclical calling for the complete abolition of slavery.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Will Brussels Boycott De Gucht?
The European trade commissioner explains why the ‘average’ Jew is so irrational.
A decade ago, the European Union enforced a cordon sanitaire around Austria’s government after a close election led the Christian Democrats to enter a coalition with Jörg Haider’s Freedom Party. Mr. Haider had gained notoriety for praising the “employment policies” of Nazi Germany, so the EU establishment put diplomatic relations with Austria into deep freeze over his party’s inclusion in government.
How times change. Last week, the European Commission’s own trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, gave vent to his own anti-Semitic riff on Belgian radio. This time, the official reaction seems to be a collective yawn.
The former Belgian foreign minister told VRT radio Thursday that the Mideast peace talks are doomed—thanks to the stubbornness and excessive power of Jews. “Do not underestimate the Jewish lobby on Capitol Hill,” Mr. De Gucht said. “That is the best organized lobby, you shouldn’t underestimate the grip it has on American politics—no matter whether it’s Republicans or Democrats.”
To make sure that listeners understood that he wasn’t attacking only certain Jewish organizations, Mr. De Gucht offered his thoughts on the “average” Jew. “Don’t underestimate the opinion . . . of the average Jew outside Israel,” he said. “There is indeed a belief—it’s difficult to describe it otherwise—among most Jews that they are right. And a belief is something that’s difficult to counter with rational arguments. And it’s not so much whether these are religious Jews or not. Lay Jews also share the same belief that they are right. So it is not easy to have, even with moderate Jews, a rational discussion about what is actually happening in the Middle East.”
Karel De GuchtMr. De Gucht’s apology Friday was that he was merely giving his personal view. “I regret that the comments that I made have been interpreted in a sense that I did not intend. I did not mean in any possible way to cause offense or stigmatize the Jewish community. I want to make clear that anti-Semitism has no place in today’s world.”
The reaction in Brussels was muted and defensive. The Commission distanced itself from Mr. De Gucht’s words, without criticizing them. Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign-affairs chief who from her first day in office has been a reliable member of Europe’s anti-Israel chorus, said she was confident that the commissioner “did not intend any offense.”
Compare this reaction to Mr. De Gucht’s Jewish conspiracy theories with the public flogging of Thilo Sarrazin in Germany. The Bundesbank last week voted to remove him as a board member for his criticism of the failure of Muslim immigrants to integrate, along with a somewhat cryptic remark about Jewish genes. Whether Germans want Mr. Sarrazin at the Bundesbank is up to them; central bankers who make headlines of this sort are often more a distraction than an asset. But nothing Mr. Sarrazin has said approaches the prejudice of Mr. De Gucht’s statements.
Given that as Trade Commissioner he represents Germany’s interests at the WTO, will Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle say something? Both intervened against Mr. Sarrazin. And given that he is the most internationally visible commissioner, will his boss, Commission President José Manuel Barroso, act?
Brussels was much relieved when President Barack Obama agreed last month to an U.S.-EU summit in November after canceling a meeting in May. If Mr. De Gucht is allowed to stay in his job, perhaps the White House might consider canceling again.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Karadzic Claims Muslims ‘Staged’ Attacks on Sarajevo
The Hague, 6 Sept. (AKI) — Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on Monday repeated his claims that the attacks on the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo during 1992-1995 war were staged by Muslims. But a prosecution witness denied this.
The witness, Ekrem Suljevic, told the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that the “entire city was a target during the whole war,” saying that Karadzic’s claims were “absurd”.
Karadzic has been indicted on eleven counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The indictment is focusing on the shelling of Sarajevo in which some 12,000 people were killed, and a massacre of over 8,000 Muslims in the eastern town of Srebrenica in July 1995.
During the first session of his trial after the summer recess, Karadzic said Muslim forces were killing their own people and blame on the Serbs for propaganda purposes to trigger foreign intervention in the war.
Suljevic, cross-questioned by Karadzic, strongly denied this. “We did nothing for propaganda purposes,” he said.
Karadzic said Bosnian Serb forces shelled Sarajevo to counter Muslim fire coming from the city.
“Sarajevo wasn’t a helpless city, but a camp full of legitimate military targets,” he added.
Karadzic has been charged with masterminding the siege.
Karadzic asked the tribunal on Monday to order the former Croatian head of state security, Miroslav Tudjman, to talk to his defence team because he allegedly had valuable information pertaining to the trial.
Tudjman, the son of late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, got a green light from the United States to smuggle 100s of tonnes of weapons from Iran and other Islamic countries to Bosnian Muslims, despite a United Nations arms embargo.
Tudjman has refused to cooperate, saying he’s “no longer involved in politics.
Judges have warned the trial could stretch into 2014 — two years longer than expected — if prosecutors and the former Bosnian Serb leader do not speed up the case.
Karadzic was arrested in July 2008 near the Serbian capital, Belgrade after more than a decade in hiding, living under a false ID.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Muslims Urge EU Observers in Sandzak
Belgrade, 6 Sept.(AKI) — The Bosniac National Council (BNC) in Serbia on Monday called on on the European Union to send international observers to the Muslim-majority Sandzak region in a bid to to defuse recent tensions there.
The Muslim body said in a statement it had sent a letter to the European Union’s high representative for security and foreign policy Catherine Ashton, highlighting “increased discrimination and rights violations towards Muslims on religious and ethnic grounds”.
About 1,000 Muslims clashed on Saturday with police in Novi Pazar, Sandzak ‘s largest city and seat of the region’s government.
Three policemen were injured in the incident which centred on property rights.
“To get the real picture of the situation in Sandzak, the Bosniac National Council demands the European Union to send international observers to Sandzak, which would significantly relax tensions and create preconditions for the beginning of a dialogue,” the council said.
The Muslim community in Serbia is split between religious leaders who pledge their allegiance to Belgrade and those such as Sandzak mufti Moamer Zukorlic who recognise the leadership of Bosnian cleric Reiss-ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric.
Zukorlic currently heads the council, but Belgrade authorities claim he was elected illegally.
He has been accused by Belgrade’s press of “playing with fire” and of trying to internationalise the Sandzak issue, copying majority Kosovo Albanians who declared independence from Serbia two years ago.
Apart from the existing two Muslim parties in Serbia, Zukorlic recently announced the formation of a new party, to be led by his brother-in-law.
The move was condemned by Belgrade authorities and by moderate Muslims.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: ‘Night of Destiny’, Thousands of Circumcisions
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, SEPTEMBER 6 — Thousands of children were circumcised yesterday in Algeria during the “Night of destiny”, Leilat el Kadr, the most sacred night for Islam. It was during the 27th night of Ramadan, according to Muslim tradition, that the archangel Gabriel was sent by God to the earth to change the destiny of the world, revealing the first verses of the Koran to Mohammed.
Group ceremonies to circumcise poor children were organised by the Red Crescent and other religious organisations. Even the main Algerian businesses, including Hamoud Boualem, competed to offer children between the ages of two months and seven years, everything necessary to take part in the ritual circumcision. The choice to circumcise children during the Night of Destiny is not indicated in any sacred text, but is still a deep-rooted tradition in Algeria and several other Muslim countries.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Alarm Over Bread Prices, Fears of Crisis Like in 2008
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 3 — There is new alarm over the price of bread in Egypt, where the devastating Russian fires in August, which led Moscow to cancel September’s scheduled shipment of 500 tonnes of grain, are opening the country to the possibility of a repeat of the crisis of 2008, when protests left a dozen people dead.
Despite this, the Trade Minister, Rashid Mohammed, recently said that the state has grain reserves to last four months, and that the Russian cancellation will have no bearing on the production of bread already agreed.
Since the middle of August, partly as a result of speculative operations, the price of grain has increased on world markets, according to the Econostrum website, rising from 200 to 300 dollars a tone. The prices of some foods have increased by 30%, partly due to the inflation trend linked to Ramadan.
Bread continues to be the main cause for concern for poor families, with privately-owned ovens becoming commonplace. Talking to the satellite television channel Al Arabya, Um Ahmad, a university graduate who lives in a village outside Giza, said that she had bought a small oven to save her husband, a teacher, from the long queue that forms every morning to buy subsidised bread, which is often of poor quality. Until recently, she added, professionals and graduates would not go anywhere near ovens, but now even educated people have are skilled in making bread and teaching the process to others.
Many people have transformed the task into a small economic initiative, making bread at home and selling it in cities.
These sales can be very lucrative, says one seller. The problem, he adds, is that the ovens, which are made in small workshops far without any quality control or regulations, can be lethal if the gas cylinders feeding them explodes.
The bread problem lead to new protests in the streets. In order to stop the protests, the government also ordered the army to intervene to resolve the problem of bread provisions. Three thousand Egyptians from the province of Al Fayyom, 100 kilometres from Cairo, protested a few months ago against the disappearance of supplies of flour supplied by the state to bakers at reduced prices. The protesters laid waste to the town hall in Sanhour and blocked the road connecting Al Fayyom to the capital and to Lake Karoun, an important tourist attraction. Clashes in a poor area of Cairo left two people dead, writes Al Arabiya. One of the reasons for the bread crisis in Egypt is the fragmentation of farming property that does not allow small landowners to cultivate grain. While it used to export it, Egypt is today the world’s biggest importer of grain. The country’s trade budget is strongly feeling the effects of having to import grain from abroad in order to produce subsidised bread. For every 20 loaves of the bread, 12 are made with imported grain. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians Scheduled to Govern Jews
Netanyahu secretly proposed new plot in talks with Obama
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly has proposed a new plan whereby Jews living in the West Bank will remain in their communities after the territory becomes part of a Palestinian state, WND has learned.
Officials in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have confirmed the plan to this reporter, marking the first time an Israeli leader has ever put on the table in a serious way a proposal involving Jewish West Bank residents remaining in a Palestinian state.
Conventional negotiations always has assumed an Israeli evacuation of its communities inside any territory taken over by the PA.
Middle East officials said the plan is being considered seriously by the Obama administration, while the PA has been less than enthusiastic. PA sources said they held a meeting last week over the plan.
The full details of the plan, such as specific security guarantees for the remaining Jews, were not disclosed.
It was unclear how the Jewish residents of the West Bank will react to a plan that would seemingly place their security in the hands of the PA, whose militia members have carried out scores of attacks targeting those very Jewish communities.
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Terror Attack Near Hebron: Not an Incident But a Revelation About What’s Happening
By Barry Rubin
An isolated fragment of news, a tragic story, or just another act of terrorism? What’s necessary, however, is to fit events into a broader picture and so it is with the latest attack by Hamas, killing four Israelis driving near Hebron.
What does this mean? What’s it all about? It’s a signal, timed for the restart of direct negotiations, that Hamas will subvert by terror any progress toward Israel-Palestinian peace. Hamas said so explicitly, saying the attack was also against those, “Led astray by the illusion of negotiations” and reminding the PA that its “natural choice…is jihad and resistance.” Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti said the same thing from his Israeli prison cell.
President Barack Obama called the attack “senseless slaughter” against which the United States would “push back.”
But terrorism is hardly “senseless.” On the contrary, it is part of a very sensible strategy that often works in its shorter-term goals.
And how can Obama say the U.S. government is going to “push back” since only a few weeks ago he handed a huge victory to the organizer of this attack, Hamas, by pressuring Israel into reducing sanctions on the Gaza Strip while himself granting about $300 million to pay salaries (through the PA) to civil servants in Gaza who implement Hamas’s policies?
The U.S. government also forgot its former policy of making things tough in the Gaza Strip so that the “moderation” of the West Bank looked better and more beneficial. Now the idea is to promote prosperity in the Gaza Strip so that for some reason—I can’t imagine why—the populace will turn against Hamas.
But here are scenes of Hamas supporters celebrating the attack…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Engaging Syria, Undermining Iran
by Srdja Trifkovic
In his comment on my latest on the Israeli-Palestinian saga, WGN host Milt Rosenberg notes that we are now dealing with Iran as much as with the PLO government: behind Hamas and Hizbollah, and alongside Syria and Lebanon, lurks the government in Teheran. “That elephant in the room must be named, confronted and undermined,” he says. While I agree that Iran should be “confronted and undermined” for a variety of geostrategic reasons and in a variety of ways, I do not believe that American military action against Iran is either warranted or feasible. Tehran may want to develop the bomb, but there is a yawning gap between its wishes and capabilities: The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate is still essentially valid. If Israel begs to differ, it should take unilateral military action and bear the cost, relations with Washington included.
Our creative yet effective policy of “confronting and undermining” should start with an opening to Damascus. The rationale is implied in the New York Times’ front-page feature, “Syria’s Solidarity With Islamists Ends at Home” (Saturday, September 4). It had supported Islamist groups abroad and tolerated greater role for religion at home, we are told, but it has recently reversed course, “moving forcefully to curb the influence of Muslim conservatives in public life.” The government has asked imams for recordings of their Friday sermons and started to strictly monitor religious schools. In recent weeks more than 1,000 teachers who wear the face veil were transferred to administrative duties. According to the Times,…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Halal Hotels: New Business Frontier
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 1 — A typical beach holiday in a hotel with swimming pool, spa, restaurant, beach and rooms with a view. The only unusual thing is that the hotel doesn’t serve alcohol or pork, that it offers separate rooms for prayer, that the rooms indicate the direction of Mecca and that a copy of the Koran can be found in a drawer of the bedside table. Welcome in a halal hotel, an concrete example of religious tourism. This form of tourism is growing, there is a new market for the vacation of 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide. The conditions are right according to experts, who speak of the enormous potential of halal tourism. According to the World Tourism Organisation, the citizens of the Gulf alone spend 12 billion USD per year on holidays.
Chiheb ben Mahmoud, vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels for the MENA region, explains: “the idea was to give investors products that are in line with the sharia dictates in the field of hospitality. There were in fact people who wanted to invest in this sector but who had their doubts because of the alcohol and the general style of the product”. >From there it was a small step. Unfortunately, the Middle East has been unable to take full advantage of this opportunity so far. Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia on the other hand started offering special packages a few years ago to attract visitors which particular demands: visitors who had enough of the lack of proper clothing or, in the case of veiled women, of being unable to swim with their children. To solve this problem, women-only swimming pools have been welcomed by their clients as a true paradises in which they can relax without being seen by indiscrete eyes. But something is moving in the Middle East as well. The Almulla Hospitality group expects to open 150 halal hotels by 2015, not only in the region but also in Europe and North America. In Dubai, the Al Jawhara group wants to bring 25% of its facilities in line with sharia dictates as soon as possible.
Europe is starting to offer special services to its growing Muslim population as well. The famous Sacher Hotel in Vienna for example prepares special meals during Ramadan before and after sunset, and indicates the direction of prayer in its rooms. The Brussels Enterprises Commerce and Industry recently launched a halal certification for the hotel sector. Hotels must respect a series of conditions to get the certificate, like no alcohol in the mini-bars, no porn movies on television, the presence of a space for prayer and in general a sober style of dressing.
Several websites have appeared on the internet to help the consumers make their choice. An example of these sites is Irhal.com on which one can find suggestions and a hit parade of destinations. The portal ‘Crescentrating’ offers a ‘halal-friendly assessment’ of facilities worldwide since June. So far the list includes 13 countries, but this number is rising. The recent inclusion of the UAE City Seasons Group hotel chain is an example of this growth. “Conscious travellers” said Fazal Bahardee, general director of Crescentrating “are more and more looking for this kind of facilities, both for business and pleasure trips. Our assessment system allows them to make a rational choice”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
S. Arabia: Boom for Perfume Sales
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 6 — With perfume traders, especially of eastern varieties, putting forward sales of up to 75% and the imminent arrival of Eid, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the Saudi perfume market is expected to enter a new season of profit.
This is according to the Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, which says that the sector continues to grow thanks to the growing demand for perfumes produced in the West.
The market, which has a turnover of a little over 4 billion Saudi riyals (one billion dollars), sellers are predicting a 20% rise on last year.
According to Khaled Aldakheel, the general director of a perfume company, western perfumes are in higher demand because they manage to be accessible to most of the population, while eastern perfumes are of interest only to a restricted section of Saudi society. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
S. Arabia: Fatwa Without Permission, Authority Blocks Sites
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, SEPTEMBER 6 — The authority for telecommunications in Saudi Arabia (CITC) has blocked three websites because they issued fatwas (religious edicts) in violation of the directives issues by King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz Al Saud, that restrict the right to issue them to the Assembly of Ulama. This is according to the Saudi Gazette newspaper.
As well as the three websites, that include the site belonging to the well-known Syrian religious scholar Mohammad Al Munajid, the CICT has sent warnings to other imams and religious figures who issue fatwas by text message at a cost of 3 dollars each.
“We must be united in the name of religion,” wrote King Abdullah in a telegram sent to the Supreme Judiciary Council in which he expressed his satisfaction at the measures taken against the transgressors, pointing out that “the royal decree on fatwas was issued to ensure that they correspond with the holy Koran, the solid basis that protects our religion”.
Last month, following requests to boycott a supermarket chain because it had taken on female cashiers, Saudi authorities publicly reprimanded religious leaders, warning them to stop issuing edicts that were not within their authority. The authorities have carried out their threats in the last few hours, suspending the online websites that persisted in their violation of the rules.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria’s Strategic Alliance With Hizbullah
by Jonathan Spyer
President Bashar Assad of Syria this week reiterated his country’s firm strategic alliance with Hizbullah. The occasion for the dictator’s remarks was the latest visit by Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to the Syrian capital. Assad’s statement was particularly noteworthy because some in Lebanon and further afield have claimed to discern in recent weeks a growing distance between Syria and Hizbullah. The Syrian president’s latest verbal endorsement of the “resistance” was followed by reports in a Kuwaiti newspaper of a military alliance between Syria and Hizbullah which if correct would make Syrian involvement a certainty in a future conflict between the Shi’ite Islamist movement and Israel.
Hariri’s visit came against the backdrop of the latest mini-crisis to have swept through Lebanon. The clash between Hizbullah members and militants of the small Sunni al- Ahbash group in the neighborhood of Bourj Abi Haidar, which led to three deaths, has raised once again the issue of privately held weapons. Some observers identified in the fighting a coded message of the type through which Syria sometimes communicates.
The Ahbash group is Sunni Islamist by ideology, but it is also staunchly pro-Syrian. Some Lebanese analysts concluded that last week’s events were much more than simply a squalid brawl between two sets of local Islamist toughs. According to this view, Syria deliberately activated its Sunni Islamist friends against its Shi’ite Islamist ones to make clear to Hizbullah that its unquestioned domination of Lebanon at street level was now open to question.
This contention forms part of a larger view that has emerged in recent weeks, which sees Syria moving away from its close alliance with Iran, in order to reestablish its dominance of Lebanon with the blessing of the West and the Arab world. Whatever the precise reasons for the brawl at Bourj Abi Haidar, however, this larger view is mainly the product of wishful thinking.
Re-domination of Lebanon is certainly a goal of the Syrian regime…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Chain Dedeman to Open 4th Hotel in Syria
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 3 — Turkish chain Dedeman Hotels & Resorts International will open its fourth hotel in Syria, the company said in a statement yesterday as raported by Anatolia news agency. The fourth ring of Dedeman chain in Syria will be located in Latakia, Syria’s coastal tourist resort town. Dedeman Latakia will be built on a 400-meter long beach and it is planned to have 261 rooms as well as a conference hall and fitness and spa centers. The hotel will welcome first guests in 2013, the statement said. Dedeman currently operates three hotels in Syria; the Dedeman Aleppo, Dedeman Damascus and Dedeman Palmyra. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Naomi Campbell ‘To Get Desdemona’s House’
Russian boyfriend ‘set to buy palazzo on Grand Canal’
(ANSA) — Moscow, September 7 — Naomi Campbell’s Russian oligarch boyfriend Vladislav Voronin is set to buy her a historic palazzo in Venice linked to tragic Shakespearian heroine Desdemona, a Russian daily reported Tuesday.
The tabloid Trud claimed the couple met Monday with the owner of the Palazzo Contarini-Fasan, which overlooks the Grand Canal.
It said a contract to buy the medieval building was being drawn up.
Palazzo Contarini-Fasan was built in 1475 in the so-called ‘flowery Gothic’ style.
Legends link it with a noblewoman killed by her jealous husband in the story that inspired Shakespeare’s Othello, and it is popularly known as Desdemona’s House. No historical evidence has been found to support the claim that an aristocrat of that name lived there.
Campbell and Voronin are in Venice for the annual film festival.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Counter Culture? Few Pak Youths Giving Up Islam
ISLAMABAD: A handful of Pakistani Muslim youths are beginning to question the existence of God and in the process giving up Islam to become atheists.
Still a small number, the trend seems to be telling of pressures that the image of militant Islam has had on them. A Facebook group has been floated for Pakistan’s agnostics and atheists by Hazrat NaKhuda, a former Pakistani Muslim.
At last count, the group had over a 100 members. In a thread started on the discussion board on “How did you become an atheist”, Hazrat writes, “I used to be a practicing Muslim. I used to live in Saudi Arabia. I have done two Hajs and countless Umrahs. Used to pray five times a day. When I turned 17-18, I realized that the only reason I was a Muslim was because my parents were Muslims”.
Hazrat is a young computer programmer from Lahore. Ahmed Zaidi (name changed), another member, posted on the discussion board: “I’m an agnostic simply because I see little or no evidence for the existence of God. Some time ago I decided that I’d never believe anything unless it has a firm basis in reason and as far as I know (and I admit I know very little and there’s much to be learnt), there’s little or no evidence for the existence of God.”
The group, open strictly to members, has young Pakistani students studying in New York University to Oxford University to the prestigious Lahore University of Management Sciences as members.
Nawab Zia (name changed) wrote that the moot question is not “how did you become an atheist” but “how did you become a believer”. Every child is born free and pure” Ali Rana (name changed), who loved Islamic preacher Zakir Nair and hated author Salman Rushdie, has had a change of heart too. He now thinks Nair is an “idiot” and Rushdie a genius. There are other threads on how the members “wasted” their years as theists.
More serious issues, like whether there should a column marked “no religion” while applying for passports, have also been discussed. “Last time I went to get my passport renewed, I found there is no option called “no religion”. Next time I go to make my passport I don’t want to put in Islam as my religion,” said one member.
What connects members, who range from students to computer professionals to architects, is their urgent need to question religion.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Northwest Corner of Kashmir to China
China Reform Monitor — No. 847
Pakistan has handed over de facto control of the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region in the northwest corner of Kashmir to China. An estimated 7,000 to 11,000 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers in are now in Gilgit-Baltistan. Many will work on the railroad, some are extending the Karakoram Highway to link Xinjiang with Pakistan, others are working on dams, expressways and other projects including 22 secret tunnels where Pakistanis are barred. The PLA construction crews had lived in temporary encampments but now are building long-term residential enclaves. The reason, a New York Times editorial suggests, is that China wants to assure unfettered road and rail access to the Persian Gulf through Pakistan. It now takes 16 to 25 days for Chinese oil tankers to reach the Gulf. But when high-speed rail and road links through Gilgit and Baltistan are completed, China will be able to transport cargo from Eastern China to the new Chinese-built Pakistani naval bases at Gwadar, Pasni and Ormara, just east of the Gulf, within 48 hours.
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
France: Minister Delays Marriage, Fears Protests
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 6 — French minister of Immigration Eric Besson decided to postpone the date of his wedding scheduled for September 16 with young Tunisian student Yasmine Tordjman, age 24, after that groups protesting on FaceBook against anti-immigration laws and Rom expulsions announced their intention to “disturb” the wedding.
The minister personally stated that he is “not afraid of fuss or lies”, and that his marriage must remain “a private fact”.
Wedding guests should include premier Francois Fillon, former Secretary of State for Sport Bernard Laporte, and even president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Besson’s future wife studies art in Paris and is related to Wassila Bourghiba, wife of former Tunisian president Habib Bourghiba.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Prehistoric Baby Sling ‘Made Our Brains Bigger’
By David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent
The most important aspect of human evolution was facilitated not by Darwinian-style natural selection but by a crucial technological device invented by early Stone Age women, shows research by a leading British prehistorian.
Timothy Taylor of Bradford University claims that increased brain size was made possible by the invention of the baby sling, a development which enabled slower growing, physically and mentally immature offspring to survive and flourish.
“In effect, kangaroo-style, early female human ancestors became marsupial, carrying their immature youngsters outside their wombs,” said Dr Taylor, who has published his research in a book called The Artificial Ape. “The invention of the baby sling, which allowed more babies to successfully mature outside the female body, instantly removed the barrier to increased head and brain size.”
Before the invention of the baby sling, dated by Dr Taylor to at least 2.2 million years ago, when human ancestor head size suddenly began to increase, physically mature infants were more likely to survive, because caring for slower-developing immature ones was difficult, uneconomic and often dangerous. Mothers holding their infants were more vulnerable to attack from predators or other humans than those using baby slings. They were also less able to perform other more economically productive tasks.
Most importantly, the invention of the baby sling artificially lengthened human gestation, said Dr Taylor. Formerly, gestation ended at birth with the most physically mature babies surviving as they needed to be carried by their mothers for less time. But their head and brain size was strictly limited by the width of their mother’s pelvis.
“Courtesy of the baby sling, our ancestors got smarter,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Robert Fisk: The Crimewave That Shames the World
It’s one of the last great taboos: the murder of at least 20,000 women a year in the name of ‘honour’. Nor is the problem confined to the Middle East: the contagion is spreading rapidly
It is a tragedy, a horror, a crime against humanity. The details of the murders — of the women beheaded, burned to death, stoned to death, stabbed, electrocuted, strangled and buried alive for the “honour” of their families — are as barbaric as they are shameful. Many women’s groups in the Middle East and South-west Asia suspect the victims are at least four times the United Nations’ latest world figure of around 5,000 deaths a year. Most of the victims are young, many are teenagers, slaughtered under a vile tradition that goes back hundreds of years but which now spans half the globe.
A 10-month investigation by The Independent in Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank has unearthed terrifying details of murder most foul. Men are also killed for “honour” and, despite its identification by journalists as a largely Muslim practice, Christian and Hindu communities have stooped to the same crimes. Indeed, the “honour” (or ird) of families, communities and tribes transcends religion and human mercy. But voluntary women’s groups, human rights organisations, Amnesty International and news archives suggest that the slaughter of the innocent for “dishonouring” their families is increasing by the year.
Iraqi Kurds, Palestinians in Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey appear to be the worst offenders but media freedoms in these countries may over-compensate for the secrecy which surrounds “honour” killings in Egypt — which untruthfully claims there are none — and other Middle East nations in the Gulf and the Levant. But honour crimes long ago spread to Britain, Belgium, Russia and Canada and many other nations. Security authorities and courts across much of the Middle East have connived in reducing or abrogating prison sentences for the family murder of women, often classifying them as suicides to prevent prosecutions…
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
What’s in a Name? The Words Behind Thought
You think more words than you speak — perhaps because language really does shape the way we navigate the world
THERE I go again, talking to myself. Wherever I am, and whatever I’m doing, words bounce around my head in an incessant chatter. I am not alone in my internal babbling. Measuring the contents of people’s minds is difficult, but it seems that up to 80 per cent of our mental experiences are verbal. Indeed, the extent of our interior monologue may vastly exceed the number of words we speak out loud. “On average, 70 per cent of our total verbal experience is in our head,” estimates Lera Boroditsky of Stanford University in California. The sheer volume of unspoken words would suggest that language is more than just a tool for communicating with others. But what else could it be for?
One answer to that question is emerging: language helps us to think and perceive the world. Boroditsky and other researchers are finding that words bring a smorgasbord of benefits to human cognition, from abstract thinking to sensory perception. These effects may even explain why language evolved in the first place.
The idea that language guides human thinking and shapes perception has a long and turbulent history. Philosophers have toyed with it for centuries, but its reputation became tarnished before modern psychologists could begin putting flesh on its bones.
This fall from grace can be traced to the demise of a controversial hypothesis known as “linguistic relativity”, put forward in the first half of the last century by Edward Sapir at Yale University and his student Benjamin Whorf. They suggested that if language really is fundamental to the way we think, then speakers of different languages should experience the world in very different ways…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
You Are What You Touch: How Tool Use Changes the Brain’s Representations of the Body
How tools become a part of your body
All our experience of the world, and ability to act on it, are channelled through our body. The pioneering computer scientist, Alan Turing, correctly realised the human mind is special not particularly because of its computing power, but because the body provides it with a unique interface to the world. Current research in psychology and neuroscience is probing how the brain represents the body. Recent advances have revealed that body representation is fundamentally multisensory, arising from the combination of many different sensory signals. These include classical “senses,” such as touch and vision, and also much more specific signals, such as the flexion or extension of each muscle, which define the body’s posture in space. This information is integrated to construct a multisensory representation of the current state of the body. Intriguingly, multisensory signals also affect what we perceive our body to be like, for example by making us feel like a rubber hand really is our hand! Our thoughts about what our body is are highly flexible, and track the multisensory inputs that the brain receives.
A common illustration of just how flexible the sense of our body is comes from changes in the brain’s representation of the body due to tool use. Humans, and some other animals, are able to use tools as additions to the body. When we use a long pole to retrieve an object we couldn’t otherwise reach, the pole becomes, in some sense, an extension of our body. Is this merely a poetic way of speaking, or does the brain actually incorporate the tool into its representation of the body? Studies of monkeys learning to use a rake to obtain distant objects show that this may be more than a mere metaphor. Multisensory brain cells respond both to touch on the hand or visual objects appearing near the hand. When the monkeys used the rake, these cells began to respond to objects appearing anywhere along the length of the tool, suggesting the brain represented the rake as actually being part of the hand…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
“Courtesy of the baby sling, our ancestors got smarter,”
I think this is actually accurate..
"Courtesy of the baby sling, our ancestors were allowed to survive with greater frequency"...
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