Greece: Gov’t Strongly Reacts to Latest Downgrade by S&P
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 9 — Greece’s Finance ministry on Monday strongly reacted to a decision by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the country’s credit rating by two notches, from BB- to B. In an announcement to the press, as ANA reports, the ministry said the decision “comes in a period when no additional information or any decision has arrived worsening the country’s situation compared with the firm’s previous rating a month ago”. The ministry added that “credit rating firms’ decisions should be based on facts, decisions and real assessment of the fundamentals of each economy. Their credibility is questioned when it is based on facts beyond these”. Standard & Poor’s on Monday downgraded Greece’s credit rating to B from BB- ahead of a likely extension of the repayment period of the 110-billion-euro loan received by the EU and the IMF. The credit rating firm said that such an extension would lead creditor states to ask for a “comparable treatment” of private investors, with a relative extension of maturity period for their bonds and loans. “Even if there was not a reduction of the nominal value of Greek bonds, such an extension is generally considered to be less favourable for private investors, compared with repayment on initial terms,” S&P said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Housing Crash is Getting Worse: Report
If you thought the housing crisis was bad, think again.
It’s worse.
New data just out from Zillow, the real-estate information company, show house prices are falling at their fastest rate since the Lehman collapse.
Average home prices are down 8% from a year ago, 3% over the quarter, and are falling at about 1% every month, according to Zillow.
And the percentage of homeowners in negative-equity positions — with a home worth less than its mortgage — has rocketed to 28%, a new crisis high.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Remaking the U.S. Economy
The average American doesn’t need to take a seriously dedicated look at the U.S. economy to know we as a country face formidable challenges. One can access daily the virtually unlimited opinions in the newspapers or online about how best to get our economy back on track.
But when it comes to the answers to America’s economic problems, we do need to regard the opinions of those who have taken an experienced, serious look — inside and out — at America’s economy.
That’s exactly what author Todd Lipscomb does in his new book Re-Made in the USA: How We Can Restore Jobs, Retool Manufacturing, and Compete with the World.
Lipscomb spent nearly 15 years in the tech industry, including executive roles overseeing Asia finance and worldwide operating expenditures of over $180 million per quarter with Western Digital Corporation. From the outside, he watched Asian countries take American manufacturing jobs, which convinced him to move back to the United States.
[…]
Lipscomb rightly acknowledges that we didn’t arrive in our current scenario overnight, as it took several decades to give away the incredible advantage of our economic leadership in the world:
- We allowed power export nations like China, Korea, Japan, and Germany take advantage of our lucrative consumer market when we could have reserved it for our own producers.
- We allowed powerful retailers like Wal-Mart to source the overwhelming majority of their consumer products from overseas, thereby putting millions of Americans out of work.
- Many of our own people accepted the lies of our politicians that led us to believe it didn’t matter where the products we bought were made.
- In a time of escalated worldwide military conflict, America now finds itself vulnerable to access of vital goods potentially hindered by the politics of those military conflicts.
As America’s deindustrialization continued with increasing trade deficits with our “trading partners,” it resulted in fewer jobs, lower pay, and less opportunity for American workers. For far too long, we were fed the lie that our coveted manufacturing jobs would be replaced by service jobs and everything would be fine.
But as Todd Lipscomb knew then and expertly details now, service jobs were seriously inadequate in replacing manufacturing jobs in the areas of sheer numbers, wage rates, lack of permanency, and value added to our economy. Even if it were possible to replace all those lost manufacturing jobs with service jobs, it wouldn’t solve the problem the loss of manufacturing jobs created.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Timo Soini: Why I Won’t Support More Bailouts
Insolvency must be purged from Europe’s system and it must be done openly and honestly.
By Timo Soini
When I had the honor of leading the True Finn Party to electoral victory in April, we made a solemn promise to oppose the so-called bailouts of euro-zone member states. These bailouts are patently bad for Europe, bad for Finland and bad for the countries that have been forced to accept them. Europe is suffering from the economic gangrene of insolvency—both public and private. And unless we amputate that which cannot be saved, we risk poisoning the whole body.
The official wisdom is that Greece, Ireland and Portugal have been hit by a liquidity crisis, so they needed a momentary infusion of capital, after which everything would return to normal. But this official version is a lie, one that takes the ordinary people of Europe for idiots. They deserve better from politics and their leaders.
To understand the real nature and purpose of the bailouts, we first have to understand who really benefits from them. Let’s follow the money.
At the risk of being accused of populism, we’ll begin with the obvious: It is not the little guy that benefits. He is being milked and lied to in order to keep the insolvent system running. He is paid less and taxed more to provide the money needed to keep this Ponzi scheme going. Meanwhile, a kind of deadly symbiosis has developed between politicians and banks: Our political leaders borrow ever more money to pay off the banks, which return the favor by lending ever-more money back to our governments, keeping the scheme afloat.
In a true market economy, bad choices get penalized. Not here. When the inevitable failure of overindebted euro-zone countries came to light, a secret pact was made.
Instead of accepting losses on unsound investments—which would have led to the probable collapse and national bailout of some banks—it was decided to transfer the losses to taxpayers via loans, guarantees and opaque constructs such as the European Financial Stability Fund, Ireland’s NAMA and a lineup of special-purpose vehicles that make Enron look simple. Some politicians understood this; others just panicked and did as they were told.
The money did not go to help indebted economies. It flowed through the European Central Bank and recipient states to the coffers of big banks and investment funds.
Further contrary to the official wisdom, the recipient states did not want such “help,” not this way. The natural option for them was to admit insolvency and let failed private lenders, wherever they were based, eat their losses.
That was not to be. As former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan recently revealed, Ireland was forced to take the money. The same happened to Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates, although he may be less forthcoming than Mr. Lenihan about admitting it.
Why did the Brussels-Frankfurt extortion racket force these countries to accept the money along with “recovery” plans that would inevitably fail? Because they needed to please the tax-guzzling banks, which might otherwise refuse to turn up at the next Spanish, Belgian, Italian, or even French bond-auction.
Unfortunately for this financial and political cartel, their plan isn’t working. Already under this scheme, Greece, Ireland and Portugal are ruined. They will never be able to save and grow fast enough to pay back the debts with which Brussels has saddled them in the name of saving them…
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Christians Moving From Muslim Communities
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — Arab Christians here are trying to separate themselves from a boisterous Muslim community that has served as a punching bag for “terrorism” stereotypes since Sept. 11.
Many have moved to Detroit’s northern suburbs — Sterling Heights, Madison Heights, Farmington Hills and the Bloomfield areas — to get away from the high concentration of Muslims in Dearborn, said Pastor Haytham Abi Haydar of Arabic Fellowship Alliance Church. Other Christians, he said, have turned their backs on their Arab heritage and integrated with American culture.
“On many, many, many occasions, if you’re an Arab, you might as well be a Muslim to many people here,” Mr. Abi Haydar said. “Unfortunately, the majority don’t see the dynamic that Christianity came from the Middle East, that Jesus was from the Middle East.”
Mr. Abi Haydar said some Americans know the difference and do not stereotype. “You can’t label all Americans as ignorant,” he said.
Still, there are many pastors and churchgoers who assume that all Arab Christians are converts from Islam, when, in fact, many have been Christians all their lives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: Something Rotten in Denmark (And Here)
Surprisingly, on net, last week was not a good one for the Free World. Despite the signal accomplishment of liquidating Osama bin Laden, Western civilization suffered serious reverses on several fronts.
What these reverses all have in common is a deference to the doctrine our enemies’ call “shariah,” in a manner they perceive to be acts of “submission.” Such behavior is exceedingly dangerous, as it invites our foes to redouble their efforts to make us, in the words of the Koran, “feel subdued.”
For instance, consider the aftermath of SEAL Team 6’s extraordinary take-down of bin Laden. What ensued was nothing less than a debacle as President Obama’s political appointees kept changing their accounts of what had happened. As one wag put it, “Osama bin Laden died and we got 72 versions.”
The subtext was of an administration effort desperately trying not to give offense to our adversaries. Yet, they and our friends could only have felt reaffirmed in their already dim view of what passes for American leadership under Mr. Obama…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
John Bolton: Gun Control a Top Goal of Obama 2nd Term
PITTSBURGH—John Bolton suggested Friday that Barack Obama is laying the foundation to push an ambitious gun control agenda if he wins a second term.
Trying to make his background relevant to an audience of gun activists, the former ambassador to the United Nations and dark horse presidential candidate accused the administration of using its own failures in the war against Mexican drug cartels as a pretext for more gun control.
“We can understand that, as he likes to say, he’s playing the long game, and that ‘leading from behind’ means waiting until he’s elected to a second term when he faces no further political constraints and his true agenda can come to the floor,” Bolton told thousands of gun owners at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting here. “And I believe right at the top of it is [to] increase gun control at the federal level and at the international level.”
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Newt Gingrich to Launch Presidential Bid Wednesday
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich will formally launch a bid for president via Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday, according to his spokesman.
Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler said today that the new media announcements will be followed by an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday night. Gingrich, a former Georgia GOP congressman, will give his first public speech about his candidacy at the Georgia Republican Party Convention on Friday.
In a Facebook post Monday, Gingrich thanked supporters for the encouragement to run.
“I have been humbled by all the encouragement you have given me to run. Thank you for your support,” Gingrich wrote. “Be sure to watch Hannity this Wednesday at 9pm ET/8pm CT. I will be on to talk about my run for President of the United States.”
Gingrich announced a “testing the waters” committee in March, a distinction that falls short of a formal declaration.
Gingrich, who served in the House’s top job from 1995-1998, has launched his campaign headquarters in Atlanta. He did not participate last week in the first GOP presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle, held in South Carolina.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Jonathan Kay: Geert Wilders’ Problem With Islam
As an editor at the National Post, I often rely on three letters to protect my columnists from human-rights tribunals: I-S-M — these being the difference between spelling Islam and Islamism.
The former is a religion — like Christianity or Judaism. The latter is an ideology, which seeks to impose an intolerant fundamentalist version of Islam on all Muslims, and spread the faith throughout the world. Declaring Islamism a menace isn’t controversial. Declaring Islam a menace is considered hate speech.
Geert Wilders’ refusal to deploy those three letters is the reason that the 47-year-old Dutch politician travels with bodyguards, and cannot sleep in the same house two nights in a row. For Mr. Wilders, the problem plaguing Western societies is Islam, full stop. Terrorism, tyranny, the subjugation of women — these are not perversions of Islam, as he sees it, but rather its very essence.
“The word ‘Islamism’ suggests that there is a moderate Islam and a non-moderate Islam,” he told me during an interview in Toronto on Sunday. “And I believe that this is a distinction that doesn’t exist. It’s like the Prime Minister of Turkey [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, said ‘There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam, and that’s it.’ This is the Islam of the Koran.”
“Now, you can certainly make a distinction among the people,” he adds. “There are moderate Muslims — who are the majority in our Western societies — and non-moderate Muslims.”
“But Islam itself has only one form. The totalitarian ideology contained in the Koran has no room for moderation. If you really look at what the Koran says, in fact, you could argue that ‘moderate’ Muslims are not Muslims at all. It tells us that if you do not act on even one verse, then you are an apostate.”
Unlike most critics of Islam, who tend to shy away from the explosive subject of Mohammed himself, Mr. Wilders forthrightly describes the Muslim Prophet as a dictator, a pedophile and a warmonger. “If you study the life of Mohammed,” Mr.Wilders told me, “you can see that he was a worse terrorist than Osama bin Laden ever was.”
It is an understatement to call Mr. Wilders a divisive figure in the Netherlands. On the one hand, he is the leader of the PVV, the country’s third most popular political party — which currently is propping up the ruling minority government. And Mr. Wilders has been declared “politician of the year” by a popular Dutch radio station, and come in second in a variety of other mainstream polls.
On the other hand, the Muslim Council of Britain has called him “an open and relentless preacher of hate.” For a time, Mr. Wilders, even was banned from entering the U.K. A popular Dutch rapper wrote a song about killing Mr. Wilders (“This is no joke. Last night I dreamed I chopped your head off.”)
Before meeting Mr. Wilders on Sunday, I knew him mostly from his most inflammatory slogans — such as his comparison of the Koran to Mein Kampf — which his detractors fling around as proof of his narrow-minded bigotry.
Yet the real Geert Wilders speaks softly and thoughtfully. It turns out that he’s travelled to dozens of Muslim nations. He knows more about the Islamic faith and what it means to ordinary people than do most of Islam’s most ardent Western defenders.
Nor do I believe that Mr. Wilders is a bigot — a least, not in the sense that the word usually is understood…
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EU ‘Wastes £12bn on Arab Aid’
EUROCRATS have squandered nearly £12billion of taxpayers’ money on failed overseas aid projects to promote democracy in Arab nations, a scathing report concluded last night.
Researchers found cash pumped into North Africa and the Middle East by the European Union over the last 15 years to encourage “good governance” has made little impact.
And much of the money was handed to tyrannical regimes, including that of Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya and the now ousted dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia, while doing nothing to help the “Arab Spring” series of revolts this year.
The report, published by the Eurosceptic think-tank Open Europe, was being seen last night as a damning verdict on the failure of the EU’s foreign policy.
It will come as a blow to EU foreign affairs supremo Baroness Ashton, who has championed overseas aid to the region.
Open Europe analyst Vincenzo Scarpetta said: “The home-grown revolutions across North Africa and the Middle East have highlighted the EU’s misguided preference for dealing with autocratic elites in that region.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Europol Reports on New Organised Crime Trends in Europe
Europol has published a report outlining the alarming mutation of organised crime in Europe, which represents an ever-growing industry with wide reaching influences across the continent. The report also addressed the future role Bulgaria and neighbouring countries will have in facing and addressing this growing problem.
“Organised crime is a multi—billion euro business in Europe and it’s growing in scale. The further expansion of Internet and mobile technologies, the proliferation of illicit trafficking routes and methods, as well as opportunities offered by the global economic crisis, have all contributed to the development of a more potent threat from organised crime,” Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol said.
The report outlined that the Balkans have seen the greatest expansion of organised crime in recent years, as a result of increased trafficking via the Black Sea, and the creation of new routes and distribution hubs.
Existing organised criminal groups, and others not yet established on the Balkans but contemplating such a move, will be seeking to expand their interests in the EU. They will exploit opportunities that will inevitably come with Bulgaria’s and Romania’s accession to the Schengen Zone, Europol said.
Authorities will have a harder job still thanks to potential EU visa exemptions for western Balkan states, and Ukraine and Moldova to the east.
Special attention is being paid to the constant increase in illegal immigration entering Greece through Turkey, and then onwards to Italy. This is said to be contributing to the problem significantly. The Europol report refers to the formation of the so-called Balkan axis for trafficking to the EU, consisting of the Western Balkans and South East Europe.
Greek authorities, for example, believe that with the entry of Bulgaria into the Schengen Zone, there will be an increase of pressure on the Greek-Turkish border as more immigrants flock to the area.
The EU support mission operating on Greece’s border with Turkey has helped cut the number of illegal immigrants arriving in the country, but officials are nervous that with Bulgaria’s entry into the visa-free Schengen zone, refugees will now focus on Europe’s south-eastern corner, Euobserver.com reported on May 3 2011.
About 47 000 illegal immigrants from Turkey were held in Greece in 2010, or 90 per cent of all illegals detained in Europe.
Illegal immigrants attempting to enter Greece, target the 200km border in the north where the Marista river leaving Bulgaria forms the frontier between Greece and Turkey. With Bulgaria also becoming part of Schengen, refugees will now have more than double the area which could be targeted for infiltration.
But the most vulnerable of all points along the Greek frontier is the 12km stretch which has a direct land-link with Turkey, near Orestiada.
Drugs and human trafficking shipped through the Balkans would end up in Italy or Hungary, which has become a major distribution hub for central Europe, Europol says. Modern criminal groups tend to be “trans ethnic” and “trans national”, many of them made up of Albanian speaking, Turkish and former Soviet Union groups.
What is also evolving is not only the make up of the criminal groups themselves but also the way they operate and the fields in which they specialise. These are described as “new fields with low risk perception”.
Criminal groups are becoming increasingly diverse, with wide “business interests”. During a period of “economic austerity” this helps them to become stronger and enables them to exploit new markets. Such activities include those normally considered highly unorthodox — carbon credit fraud, along with the more traditional payment card fraud and commodity counterfeiting.
| — Hat tip: LN | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: On the Streets of Busto Arsizio People Shout: “No to Mafia”
The venture organised by city high schools together with “Ammazzateci Tutti” (an anti-Mafia group) was a great success. More than 3500 people took part in the meetings and more than two thousand in the demonstration that “coloured” the city centre streets
Legalitàlia Primavera, the great anti-mafia initiative organised by Busto Arsizio high schools and by the association “Ammazzateci Tutti”, was successful, in particular thanks to Busto Arsizio students’ enthusiastic participation. Furthermore, three thousand followed the debates organised in the city theatres and auditoria and at least two thousand took part in the demonstration and in the final speeches in the Textile Museum quadrilateral.
People passed through the city central streets, leaving Busto Arsizio citizens astonished, as they observed the demonstration evolving from windows and shops. Banners, t-shirts and many slogans marked the demonstration, which has never been organised before in the last twenty years in Busto Arsizio. Also, the different meetings were very successful, which were true training moments for the people who listened to the words of figures like the former Gela anti-mafia mayor Rosario Crocetta, Giuseppe Lumia, Peter Gomez, Rosanna Scopelliti, Pino Maniaci, Giuseppe Gennari, the leader and founder of “Ammazzateci Tutti”Aldo Pecora, Massimo Brugnone and to many other guests who took part in the different stages.
After the procession, the demonstration closed with the scream of the two thousand who wanted to shout “no to Mafia” in front of the mayors, who were all present starting from Busto Arsizio mayor Gigi Farioli, together with his colleagues of Valle Olona Giorgio Volpi from Olgiate, Marco Roncari from Fagnano, Giuseppe Migliarino from Gorla Minore, Fabrizio Caprioli from Gorla Maggiore and Malnate’s first citizen Celestino Cerana.
o.m.orlando.mastrillo@varesenews.it
Translated by Martina Roncari (Reviewed by Prof. Robert Clarke)info@ssml.va.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Prosecutors a Cancer to be Removed, Says Berlusconi
(AGI) Rome — “A cancer that must be removed”. That’s how Silvio Berlusconi commented the actions of the magistrates, the Milan prosecutors, who have indicted him so far. Actions that are “subversive”, said the Prime Minister, speaking at the PalaSharp indoor stadium for the Milan local elections campaign.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Wants Milan Prosecutors to be Investigated
(AGI) Milan — Berlusconi wants an inquiry committee to investigate if Milan prosecutors are responsible for criminal association. The prime minister justified his request saying it’s always the same magistrates who, over the years, have started several investigations against him.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Napolitano: EU Foreign Policy Project Ineffective
(AGI) Florence — “It might be worth underlining the state of the EU as foreign policy actor. The events we are experiencing in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East prove the ineffectiveness of the foreign policy project and security of the European Union,”said President Giorgio Napolitano, in a videoconference at the European Festival in Florence.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Deports Moroccan for Terror Links
(AGI) Rome — Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has deported a Moroccan citizen, Anas Mlak, “for reasons of state security” and “prevention of terrorism.” Maroni’s statement said, “Following investigations, it came out that this man, who entered Italy in September 2004 to study, showed hostility to the West and kept in close contact with two fellow citizens, who had been deported for terrorism on April 29, 2010, sharing jihadist ideals with them.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rubbish Set Alight as Naples Crisis Flares Again
‘Health at risk’, says local expert
(ANSA) — Naples, May 9 — Firefighters were called to extinguish 28 fires in Naples and surrounding areas overnight as angry residents set fire to piles of rubbish on the southern Italian city’s streets. Around 3,000 tonnes of rubbish littered city streets on Monday and officials fear the crisis may now worsen despite the arrival of the army.
Naples’ executive councillor for urban hygiene, Paolo Giacomelli, said: “The plants are full at the moment, they are not working, and we can’t unload any more. It is a worrying situation”.
Around 160 Italian troops have been sent to the city for the second time since 2008 to help officials deal with rubbish collection as the long-running crisis flared again. “People’s health is at risk with the rubbish in the streets, even if it this emergency is like an epidemic which is unpredictable,” said Maria Triassi, from the hygiene department at the Naples’ Federico II University.
“Even disinfection makes no difference because cockroaches, mice, and seagulls continue to feed off it. The only thing to do is to clean the streets”.
The trash crisis has been largely caused by resistance to opening new disposal sites amid concerns about health and safety. Residents want the refuse taken elsewhere, since nearby landfill sites have become too full.
Weeks of clashes and rising trash piles brought Berlusconi to the city in early November last year.
It was then that the premier, who won plaudits by sorting out a similar emergency in 2008, made his vow to clear the streets in three days. But the problems have returned partly because of technical failures in local incinerators and the lack of investment in other landfill sites.
The issue is further complicated by the role of the local Mafia or Camorra and claims that they have infiltrated waste management in Naples and dumped toxic waste on the sites, making residents even more nervous about living close by.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: New Arrests as High Court Reviews ‘Honour’ Killing
The parents of a man convicted of a so-called honour killing in Högsby, southern Sweden in 2005, have been arrested following a decision by the Supreme Court to review the case.
“There will be a remand hearing for them in the Supreme Court tomorrow, Tuesday,” said prosecutor Kerstin Eriksson.
The Supreme Court has ruled to allow a retrial in the case of their son, who was 18-years-old at the time, and who remains the only person convicted in the murder of 20-year-old Abbas Rezai.
The man, who is now 23-years-old, was sentenced to four years youth detention followed by deportation to Afghanistan. He was released in November 2009 and has since then been fighting his deportation.
The court classified the murder as a so-called honour killing as Rezai was involved in a relationship with the convicted man’s sister at the time of his brutal slaying in November 2005.
His parents were meanwhile acquitted despite both the district court and the appeal court ruling that their son could not have committed the crime alone.
In his application for a pardon from the Supreme Court, the 23-year-old has forwarded claims that it was in fact his parents who were behind the killing, arguing that he was merely present in the apartment at the time.
In support of his case he has cited the testimony made in police interviews by his younger brother, who was 15-years-old at the time. The teenager spent some time in state care due to concerns over reprisals from his family.
The man has furthermore supported his application with a new statement from the medical examiner and the police forensics team which carried out the examination of the apartment.
The 22-year-old’s parents dispute their son’s new version of the events and argued through their lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, that he has fabricated his story in order to avoid deportation to Afghanistan.
“I think it is unreasonable to conclude that he is entirely innocent,” Massi Fritz said.
20-year-old Abbas Rezai was found dead in an apartment in Högsby in southern Sweden in November 2005.
After a police examination it was concluded that Rezai was scalded with hot oil, hit with a variety of objects and repeatedly stabbed in the back and chest, with the majority of the wounds sustained after his death. He was also almost entirely scalped and one of his fingers had been partially chopped off.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Kids’ Team Suspended After Parents Attack Ref
[This happened in the infamous Multicultural Rosengård, Malmö, Sweden. But the crazy thing is the parents go unpunished.. The kids get the collective punishment. —FF]
A entire team of eight-year-old footballers in Malmö in southern Sweden has been suspended from competition after several parents chased a teenage referee around the pitch to register their disgust over a decision.
“We have to do something to show that they can’t behave like this,” said youth referee trainer Bujar Fetio to broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT).
The parents took exception to an erroneous decision made by the 16-year-old referee and promptly ran after him issuing threats.
When Fetio, himself a referee with 25 years experience, made a move to intervene on behalf of the threatened teen, he was also subjected to the parents’ ire.
“Then they attacked me and threatened me. The worst thing was that they attacked me physically,” he told SVT.
While other parents also agreed that the referee had in fact made an incorrect decision, they condemned the reaction of their fellow parents.
“You have to try to keep a distance and remember that this is junior football. It is not exactly the World Cup final,” said Håkan Palm, father of 7-year-old player, to SVT.
The decision has been taken to suspend the entire team, consisting of players aged no more than 8-years-old, from the remaining matches scheduled for the spring in order to take stand in support of the referees.
Bujar Fetio explained that the referees should be considered more “play leaders than referees” and underlined that their engagement in kids football is part of the learning process of becoming a referee.
“In a couple of years, it will be hard to recruit referees if we get more of these types of incidents,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Freedom Fighter | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Nigel Farage Death Threat Pilot Sentencing Delayed
A pilot found guilty of threatening to kill UKIP leader Nigel Farage following a plane crash has been told he faces a suspended jail term. A jury found Justin Adams guilty of making five threats relating to Mr Farage and crash investigator Martin James after the accident in May 2010. The court heard the recording of a phone call where Adams claimed to have a 9mm pistol.
Sentencing of Adams, 46, of Oxfordshire, was adjourned. Judge Mr Justice Saunders agreed to allow a further report on the defendant’s problem with alcohol to be compiled. He said an assessment needed to take place to find out if a treatment programme for alcohol should be a term of a suspended sentence order.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Putting the Lib Dem Losers in Their Place
What an unedifying bunch of bad losers the Liberal Democrats are.
First, they responded to being trounced in the local and Scottish elections and AV referendum by hurling puerile insults at their coalition partners, disgracefully calling the Prime Minister a ‘toffee-nosed slimebag’.
Then, yesterday, Nick Clegg demanded an even more grotesquely disproportionate say over Government policy than he already has — starting with a veto of the plan to reform the inefficient NHS.
‘The message I’ve heard on the doorstep is people want to hear a louder Lib Dem voice in Government,’ said Mr Clegg.
A louder Lib Dem voice? Is that why voters rejected you so overwhelmingly at last week’s polls, Mr Clegg? Please don’t take us for fools.
David Cameron must resist this shameful power grab.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Convict Disguised as Woman Recaptured in Egypt
(Reuters) — An escaped Egyptian prisoner was recaptured as he fled a police ambush disguised as a woman in the Suez canal city of Ismailia, security sources said on Saturday.
Adel Mohammed Dasouqi, 35, escaped from Cairo’s Abu Zaabal prison earlier this year while serving a three-year sentence for robbery and extortion.
He was accused of using fierce dogs to force shopkeepers and other people to pay him protection money.
Dasouqi was injured when he tried to escape by jumping from the third floor of a building as police closed in Thursday, the security sources said.
They said he was dressed in a woman’s outfit, including a burqa that covers the face.
“He suffered broken arms and legs. He is now being held at a military prison,” one source said.
It was the second time that security forces have recaptured him since he broke out of Abu Zaabal during the chaos that accompanied the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak on February 11.
He was captured about a month ago but managed to escape from an Ismailia prison hospital where he was being held.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Situation Deteriorating Badly and Rapidly
By Barry Rubin
In the wake of bloody Muslim attacks on Egyptian Christians the New York Times informs us:
“By lifting the heavy hand of the Mubarak police state, the revolution unleashed long-suppressed sectarian animosities that have burst out with increasing ferocity….”
No kidding! Did you think a single Egyptian Christian didn’t know this in February? Why didn’t the media report or the U.S. government understand that this was absolutely inevitable and predictabe. But the only mentions of Christians were to claim that they were really enthusiastic about the revolution.
The remaining Christians in most of the Arabic-speaking world may be on the edge of flight or extinction. All of the Christians have left the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip which is, in effect, an Islamist republic. They are leaving the West Bank. Half have departed from an increasingly Islamist-oriented Iraq where they are under terrorist attack. Within a few years they might all be gone.
In Lebanon while the Christians are holding their own there is a steady emigration. As for Syria, the community has generally supported the Asad regime fearing a revolutionary Islamist replacement. One dissident recalled that as he was being beaten in a Syrian prison a few years ago the police yelled at him, “Why are you doing this? You’re a Christian!”
Egypt has more Christians than Israel’s entire population. There have been numerous attacks, with the latest in Cairo leaving 12 dead, 220 wounded, and two churches burned. The Western media generally attributes this to inter-religious battles. Yet Egypt’s Christians, so totally outnumbered and not having any access to the power of the state, have generally kept a low profile.
It is hard to believe that gangs of Christians go out and attack Muslims, especially when the fighting revolves around mobs attacking churches. “How can they say we started it when we are defending our church?” asked one Christian. That makes sense.
The Christians cannot depend on any support from Western churches or governments. Will there be a massive flight of tens or even hundreds of thousands of Christians from Egypt in the next few years?…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Christians Occupy Cairo Square to Protest Religious Violence
Thousands of Coptic Christians protesting Egypt’s latest round of deadly sectarian violence are calling for the removal of the country’s top military ruler, and are vowing not to leave a sit-in outside the state television building in Cairo.
By late Sunday, demonstrators were demanding that Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi step down and that the arsonists who burned two Coptic churches be brought to justice. Protesters also want to make it a crime to instigate religious violence. Earlier in the day, fighting broke out when Muslim youths attacked the protesters.
State media have reported that 12 people were killed and more than 220 wounded during two days of sectarian clashes that began late Saturday in the poverty-stricken Cairo slum of Imbaba. Medical sources said 65 of the injured were shot.
Witnesses say a group of about 500 conservative Salafist Muslims converged on a Coptic church in response to rumors that a Christian woman was being held there to prevent her from converting to Islam. Other reports said the crowd believed the woman had already converted and was being prevented from marrying a Muslim man.
Egypt’s civilian leaders have promised a swift response to the clashes, including more security at houses of worship and a new ban on demonstrations outside churches and mosques. Military leaders said Sunday that 190 people detained in connection with the violence will face trial in a military court.
Hundreds of heavily armed riot police deployed to Imbaba Sunday, stationing military vehicles near churches and blocking access to the Church of St. Mina, where the fighting began.
Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf canceled a tour of neighboring Gulf states and called an emergency Cabinet meeting in response to the clashes.
Reports say members of the crowd began throwing firebombs and stones, setting some nearby buildings aflame. Security forces fired shots in the air and used tear gas to separate the two sides.
Members of Egypt’s extreme Salafi movement have been blamed for other recent attacks on Christians that have met with little interference from the country’s military rulers.
Interfaith relationships are a source of tension in Egypt, where Coptic Christians comprise about 10 percent of the country’s population of 80 million.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister to Visit Egypt This Week
(AGI) Rome — Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Bahrouz Kamlvandi is coming to Egypt this week as first official visit by a member of Tehran’s government since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.
The meeting is to prepare the ground for a possible resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Iran broke relations with Egypt 30 years ago after the Islamic revolution that brought the Ayatollahs to power to protest the Camp David peace acords between Israel and Egypt.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Tunisia Besieged; Egypt Shuts Borders
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MAY 9 — The flood-tide of Libyans leaving their civil-war torn country appears an unstoppable one as it continues to emit thousands of desperate people along the borders with Tunisia and Egypt. This mass of humanity has already been estimated at over six hundred thousand people by European Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom. Whoever can do so is fleeing from Libya and Colonel Gaddafi is playing a hand in this cynical “game”, enabling makeshift vessels stuffed full beyond capacity to embark for the Italian island of Lampedusa — wreaking a kind of revenge on the Italian state for its open support of the rebel forces, who are now the only side the Italian government is talking to.
But while “little Tunisia”, which already has enough political and economic problems of its own to cope with, is opening its doors wide, Egypt has changed its tune and yesterday evening announced that it would only allow entry to Libyans who have a visa.
This measure is a de-facto closure of the country’s borders as it is already highly unlikely that anyone presently on its borders should be able to apply for a visa from anybody (and Cairo is stipulating it has to come from one of its embassies abroad), given the fact that Tripoli is several hundred kilometers away. And so this decision will merely increase the pressure of refugees weighing on Tunisia, which is unwilling to turn its back on them. The show of solidarity coming from this country is all the more surprising given the recent recrudescence of politically motivated violence between groups of demonstrators and the unceasing plague of looters which continues to swoop down on traders’ premises, despoiling them down to their last article. Tunisians continue, however, to open their doors wide to their cousins in need, especially in the the border areas, traditionally among the poorest in the country.
And they continue to do so even if this involves sacrifices for their families.
One of the symbols of this fraternal spirit are the collections of basic foodstuffs, medicine and clothes, and for the Libyan children educational materials and clothing. This is because, making matters worse, it is the children of Libya who are suffering the most — not just those who arrive at the refugee camps on thborders without their families, who are met by volunteers ready to offer them psychological and other assistance — allowing them to forget what they have left behind in the country of their birth but also to prepare them to return there. Smybolic of this moving and spontaneous show of solidarity is Doctor Tahar Cheniti, the Chair of Tunisia’s Red Cross. Through the work of its activists in the field camps on the Libyan border, this organization is winning respect and admiration even from hardened foreign observers of crises such as these. Among the many problems he is tackling, Cheniti is most concerned about maintaining the schooling of his infant charges. Everyone is hoping that the crisis will have resolved itself and that these children will be able to return by September, although few really believe this. If the flames in Libya continue to burn at this time, plans are being made to bring as many refugee children as possible into Tunisia’s schools. Not to help them forget what they have been through so much as to help prepare them to create a better future.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Threat of Civil War Looms Over Egypt, An Appeal to the International Community
The spokesman of the Catholic Churches of Egypt calls on the international community to intervene to prevent the rise of an Islamic regime. The army locks down the capital to prevent further clashes between Christians and Muslims. Those who foment religious hatred could be sentenced to death.
Cairo (AsiaNews) — “Egypt is at the beginning of a great civil war. And this because of a small group of Islamic extremists who are stifling the ideals of the Jasmine Revolution, fomenting violence across the country”, Fr Rafic Greich, chief press officer for the Egyptian Catholic Church and spokesman for the seven Egyptian Catholic denominations tells AsiaNews. The priest calls on the international community to support the military led government and protect all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians, from discrimination and the advent of a fundamentalist Islamic regime.
After the clashes last May 7 between Orthodox Copts and Muslims left at 12 dead and 189 wounded, this morning the army deployed thousands of troops in the capital and suburbs. To prevent further violence, the security forces have arrested 190 people, Christians and Muslims, threatening the death penalty for all those who foment sectarian hatred.
“The situation is very critical — points out Fr. Greich — the military government is too weak and fears Islamic extremist groups like the Salafis, who are eager to create unrest and chaos everywhere. “ The priest also said that the Coptic Catholic Church is in danger, even though “for now, no Catholic church was attacked.” However, immediately after the attack on the church of St. Mina Imbada (north-east of Cairo), the Coptic Orthodox priest of the parish took refuge in the nearby Catholic church spared from attacks by Salafists. “During the clashes — Fr.Greiche states — the Salafists retaliated and killed a sixteen year old nephew of the local Catholic bishop, shooting him in the head.”
A few months after the fall of Mubarak, the ideals of the popular uprising are in danger of being suffocated by radical Islam and counter-revolutionary attempts carried out by men of the former regime. According to Father Greich latter are using the Salafists to create a climate of terror and fear. He stresses, however, that the ideology of radical Islam is spreading even among the main, once moderate, Egyptian Muslim leaders, who are increasingly drawing closer to fringe elements, figures such as Imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi and other members of Muslim Brotherhood.
For Father Greich the popular revolution of 25 February was a great event, but to date there no are leaders who can represent its values. “On the other hand — he says — the aim of the revolution organized by the young people at Tahrir Square was not to replace one regime with another regime.”
Meanwhile, AsiaNews sources in Cairo, anonymous for security reasons, explain that the lay movements born after the revolution are fighting with all their might to transform Egypt into a secular state that respects human rights. But they need the support of the international community which must strongly condemn the acts by extremists and, together with the government draw up an aid plan to help revive the Egyptian economy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Watching Bin Laden’s End (From Tunisia) With a Guantanamo Survivor
Former Guantanamo inmate Adel Ben Mabrouk is back home in Tunisia after a decade behind bars. He speaks of his respect for Osama Bin Laden and his plans to write a book on his prison experiences
Domenico Quirico
Adel Ben Mabrouk has seen the inside of Italian prison cells from Milan in the north to Benevento in the south. He also spent eight years behind the barbed wire of a certain U.S. military prison on the island of Cuba.
Last February, a Milan Judge convicted this 40-year-old Tunisian of criminal association with terrorist intent, but then freed him from jail, citing the time he’d spent incarcerated at Guantanamo as “not democratic” and the conditions “inhumane”. Mabrouk is a survivor of Afghanistan, where he was arrested at the end of 2001 for his alleged associations with Al Qaeda.
I met him at his house in Tunisia. By chance, it was this past Monday, soon after Osama Bin Laden’s death had been announced. On the television screen in his living room, France 24’s Arabic channel was broadcasting the images of the collapsing Twin Towers, Bin Laden, and the stories of some of his many victims.
Looking at the screen, with a strange smile on his face, Mabrouk says: “The Americans… they are smart and bastards at the same time.” He then picks up the remote control, and starts looking for the Italian Rai TV channel, in vain. “I love watching Italian soccer. How did Inter of Milan do yesterday? What a team.”
I ask him what Bin Laden meant for him: Martyr? Madman? Killer?
“He was a respectable man. Even his enemies should recognize that he deserved respect,” Mabrouk responds. “He was a man of honor.”
After eight years in Guantanamo, American authorities handed Mabrouk over to Italy. In 2005, Italian authorities had issued an arrest warrant accusing him of international terrorism, falsification of documents, aiding illegal immigration, theft and drug trafficking.
Following Milan judge Armando Spataro’s decision to free him, Mabrouk was expelled from Italy. He now lives in the notorious Zaharouni neighborhood of Tunis, an area that is too dangerous to frequent at night.
Mabrouk spends his new life between the local mosque and the garage he runs with his brother. People who pass in front of the garage stop to say hello. They show a sort of respect and admiration for him. Mabrouk’s brother, who convinced him to accept this interview, had also been arrested in Afghanistan, accused of terrorism and jailed for seven years in Tunisia.
Prior to his release, Mabrouk spent a total of 10 years in jails. He has been incarcerated in the Italian prisons of Pesaro Asti, Fossombrone, Macomer, Benevento, and Milan, as well in the United States-run Guantanamo and Kandahar military prisons in Afghanistan.
His tales are related to life in jail. He speaks about the fetters used in Pakistan. “It’s like in the times of Christ. They put rings around your ankles which are connected by a bar and another bar across the legs. You have to raise the bar in order to walk,” he explains.
Does his body have the signs of all this tortures? “Maybe, but I don’t realize it. Perhaps Guantanamo inmates like me are all crazy without knowing it,” he says with a dry laugh. “It’s only when we are out surrounded by people, and we see them looking at us, that we realize.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel to Invest $1 Billion in Iron Dome
Israel plans to invest $1 billion in the development and production of batteries for its Iron Dome rocket interception system, a top Israeli defense official said in an interview published Monday.
Defense Ministry director-general Major General Udi Shani told the daily Haaretz newspaper that five countries have already expressed interest in the system, which was successfully deployed during a rise in rocket fire from Gaza in early April.
But Shani, in his first interview since his appointment in January 2010, warned that the system’s capacity must be put in perspective. “We need to adjust expectations in relation to Iron Dome,” he told Haaretz.
“We have (accomplished) a significant achievement in reaching operational capacity sooner than expected, but this is not a system that can ensure the interception of every rocket in every situation.”
Shani said Israel would invest heavily in the system, which is developed by the Haifa-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, in addition to receiving US funds to boost Iron Dome’s capacity.
“We are talking about (having) 10-15 Iron Dome batteries. We will invest nearly $1 billion in this. This is the goal, in addition to the $205 million that the U.S. government has authorized,” he said.
Shani did not specify the length of the period over which the investment would be spread. Israel deployed the first battery of the unique multi-million dollar system on March 27 outside the southern desert city of Beersheva, after it was hit by Grad rockets fired from Gaza.
On April 4, the system was also deployed around the southern port city of Ashkelon. The system, the first of its kind in the world and still at the experimental stage, is not yet able to provide complete protection, but it successfully brought down a number of rockets fired from Gaza in April in what was the first time it had been used in an actual combat scenario.
Designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells fired from a range of between four and 70 kilometers, Iron Dome is part of an ambitious multi-layered defense program to protect towns and cities.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians: Poll Shows Overwhelming Support for Islamism
By Barry Rubin
I’m always a bit wary of using public opinion polls in the Middle East because much depends on the day the poll is done; the way questions are worded; and the fact that in authoritarian societies ruled by dictatorial regimes people don’t necessarily speak their mind.
In this poll, by Near East Consulting, there are some peculiar results that make it appear skewed toward Fatah and against Hamas. This may have to do with the fears of those polled. It is revealing that-I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before-the official Fatah-controlled Palestinian press agency, Wafa, distributed a story on the poll because it fits with their political line.
But that fact makes the following two points all the more remarkable, even shocking compared to past, comparable polls:…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
‘Peace Partner’ Frees Terrorists Who Murdered Jews
Release takes place on solemn day Israelis commemorate fallen soldiers
As Israelis here solemnly commemorated their fallen soldiers today on the country’s Memorial Day, the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority freed from prison terrorists responsible for murdering Jewish civilians.
The prisoner release is part of a unity deal prepared last week between the PA and Hamas.
According to sources in the PA speaking to WND, as a sign of good will toward Hamas, the PA today released four Hamas members from prison in the West Bank city of Jericho. One of the freed convicts is Hamas gunman Muatassam al-Natchem, who led a series of shooting attacks at Israeli motorists last year that killed three civilians.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Conflict ‘Paralyzes’ Iran
Iran cannot play an active role in its turmoil-hit region because of its own internal political conflicts, disputes that will lead to “further polarization, further disunity and rivalry,” experts have said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had signaled that he had backed down in a power struggle with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after his apparent boycott of Cabinet meetings last week.
Even though Ahmadinejad said he had a “father-son relationship” with Khamenei, the tension between the two men will likely continue, Alptekin Dursunoglu, the author of several books on Iran, told the Hürriyet Daily News on Sunday. He said this was mainly because the Iranian Supreme Council does not want Ahmadinejad’s senior adviser and confidant Esfandiyar Rahim Meshai in the Cabinet.
The confrontation came to light after Khamenei, who has the final say in all state affairs, rejected the dismissal of Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi. The minister, who is considered close to ultra-conservatives in the regime and whose ministry has a key role in the vetting of electoral candidates, had been reportedly put under pressure by Ahmadinejad to resign.
Despite Iran’s claims to be a regional power, its internal rifts will keep it from having an impact in the ongoing processes sparked by the “Arab spring” of opposition demonstrations, Dursunoglu said.
“Iran has been the biggest ally for Syria for more than 30 years, however when Syria is in the midst of a political turmoil now, we hear Turkey’s name more than we hear Iran’s name in the process,” he said. “Iran has turned into itself and it looks like it has been struggling with its own internal conflict right now.”
Mehrdad Khonsari, an analyst with the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the dispute, which began last month, had become “serious.”
“This is quite a standoff,” he said. “Ahmadinejad, I think, at this particular time, has bitten off more than he can chew and has been forced to essentially step back, but the fact [remains] that both he and the supreme leader are damaged as a result of this conflict.”
Although speculation continues that Ahmadinejad may resign, Khonsari stopped short of hinting at that possibility and instead said the dispute would lead to “further polarization; further disunity [and] rivalry … within a state structure that’s already fractured.”
Dursunoglu said Moslehi was forced to resign mainly at the demand of Meshai, the closest ally of Ahmadinejad in the government. “There has been a big reaction toward Meshai by the supreme leader of Iran and Supreme Council for a long time. But especially after the latest crisis with Moslehi, the supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guards are now more reactionary to Meshai,” Dursunoglu said. “They want Ahmadinejad to dismiss him, but the president doesn’t want to dismiss his closest ally in the Cabinet.”
Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Sunday, said the president’s decision to skip Cabinet meetings was unprecedented in the country, where the supreme leader wields more power than the president and appoints military leaders and the council that passes laws.
The dispute has reportedly led to the arrest of several close allies of the president, as well as allies of the president’s former chief of staff, close aide, and potential successor Mashaei. Among those arrested are cleric Abbas Amirifar, prayer leader of the presidential palace, and Parivash Sotuti, widow of former liberal-minded foreign minister Hossein Fatemi.
Hossein Nowbakhti, a close Mashaei ally, is now on the run, according to Iranian news websites, the Associated Press reported.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Has Glamorous British-Born Wife of Syrian Tyrant Fled to London With Their Three Children?
The glamorous wife of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is believed to have been living in London with their three children after fleeing the turmoil in her country.
According to Arab diplomatic sources in the UK, Asma al-Assad, 35, arrived in the capital between two and three weeks ago and has refused to return to Syria.
The country run by her husband has been in the grip of an uprising which has seen hundreds killed, opposition leaders rounded up and, in one rebel city, all men over 15 were arrested.
Today, security forces were carrying out house-to-house raids as part of a widening crackdown across the country.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the arrests were targeting the demonstrations’ organisers and participants.
He said today’s incidents were focused on the central city of Homs, the coastal city of Banias, some suburbs of the capital Damascus and villages around the southern flashpoint city of Daraa.
The continued oppression suggests that President Assad’s regime is sticking to its method of attempting to crush the uprising by force and intimidation.
It appears Asma is attempting to distance herself from the strife which has claimed the lives of 630 civilians since the unrest began in mid-March, according to rights groups.
Yesterday a boy of 12 died in the fighting.
Asma married Bashar in Syria in December 2000. They have three children — Hafez, Zein and Karim.
She was born in the UK to Syrian parents and went to school in Acton, west London.
An educated woman, she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and a Diploma in French Literature.
There have been an estimated 800 civilian deaths in Syria since the uprising began in late January.
President Assad has recently accused al-Jazeera of trying to deliberately destabilise the country by publishing disinformation in order to hurt the Syrian government.
Al-Jazeera correspondent Dorothy Parvas was immediately arrested and taken into custody after she landed in Damascus last week.
On Saturday night Syrian army units stormed into the city of Banias with tanks attacking Sunni districts that had defied al-Assad’s rule, a human rights campaigner said today.
The units entered the coastal city, a majority of whose residents are Sunni Muslims, from three directions, advancing into Sunni districts but not Alawite neighbourhoods, said the campaigner.
Most communications with Banias have been cut but the campaigner was able to contact some residents, he said.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
HRW: No Damascus in UN Human Rights Council
(ANSAmed) — GENEVA, MAY 9 — Syria should not be entitled to a seat on the UN Council on Human Rights, say the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW), launching an appeal to the General Assembly of the United Nations that they reject the candidacy put forward by Damascus to become a member of the UN organ dedicated to the defence of fundamental human rights and freedoms.
According to a communiqué issued yesterday, Syria’s bid to join the 47 member nations on the Council is a ‘farce’, HRW says, given the fact that the country’s authorities are “brutally repressing what are generally peaceful protests” against the ruling regime. On April 29, during an extraordinary meeting on events in Syria, the Council in Geneva approved a resolution condemning the use of lethal weapons against peaceful demonstrators by the Syrian authorities and called upon the UN High Commission for Human Rights to investigate violations taking place in Syria. “It is shameful that Syria could be condemned by the Council one month but then be a candidate to become a member fo the very some Council just one month later,” HRW said, stressing how at least 500 people have died in the repressions since the demonstrations began.
The UN General Assembly will elect new members to the Human Rights Council on May 20 and Syria’s name is among those of four candidates for the four posts falling vacant among the associated groups. HRW points out that on the first of March, the General Assembly suspended Libya as a member of the Council because of the repressions of protests happening there. During the extraordinary session on Syria, numerous countries including the United States, France and Germany criticized Syria’s candidacy. Italy, too, stated that in the present circumstances, it would be better for Syria to postpone its candidacy to join the Council.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Human Rights Activists Say Syrian Army Raids Damascus
(AGI) Damascus — The Syrian army has surrounded a western quarter of the country’s capital, Damascus, and gunshots can be heard, Bbc said sources from human rights activists reported.
Crackdowns on riots continue in Homs, Deraa e Banias. Syrian troops entered Homs on Sunday and killed several persons, said the ‘Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Human Rights Activists: Assad Like Pinochet
(AGI) Rome — Soccer stadiums have been turned into immense makeshift prisons, as Pinochet did in Chile back in 1973.
Syrian human rights activists said that security forces are using soccer stadiums and schools as prisons, where to detain anti-government protesters, who are then tortured by the dozens. Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that over 400 people have been arrested in Banias since Saturday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
In Interview: Syrian Official Says Government Has Upper Hand Over Revolt
The Syrian government has gained the upper hand over a seven-week uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, a senior official declared Monday, in the clearest sign yet that the leadership believes its crackdown will crush protests that have begun to falter in the face of hundreds of deaths and mass arrests.
The remarks by Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Mr. Assad who often serves as an official spokeswoman, suggested that a government accustomed to retrenching in the face of crises is prepared to weather international condemnation and sanctions. Her confidence came in stark contrast to just two weeks ago, when the government appeared to stagger before the breadth and resilience of protests in dozens of towns and cities.
“I hope we are witnessing the end of the story,” she said in an hourlong interview, during which a reporter was allowed into Syria for only a few hours. “I think now we’ve passed the most dangerous moment. I hope so, I think so.”
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Syria: Activists to BBC, Army Isolates Damascus Suburb
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 9 — The Syrian army has surrounded a western suburb of Damascus, claiming that it has launched a campaign against unspecified armed gangs, human rights activists quoted by the BBC report. Heavy shooting has been heard from the area, and clouds of smoke are hanging over it.
The area, according to the sources, is the suburb of Muadhamiya, where troops and tanks were deployed on the town’s main streets and outside mosques, and snipers were positioned on buildings.
Many people have reportedly been arrested, and power and telephone connections have been cut. There are also reports of clashes in the nearby suburb of Darayya.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Deir Ez-Zor’s Symbolic Statue Torn Down
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MAY 9 — A gilded statue of Bassel Al Assad on horseback, the deceased brother of Syria’s current president, Bashar Al Assad, has been torn down in the central square of Deir Ez-Zor. Along with the bridge over the Euphrates river, the statue of Bassel, known for his passion for horseback riding, had been one of the two symbols of the city for many year. Eyewitnesses quoted by the activist Fadel Hussein have said that the tearing down of the statue seen in a Youtube video had occurred on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Boy Beaten to Death, 3 Cities Under Siege
(ANSA) — BEIRUT, MAY 9 — Three Syrian cities are under siege by the army, with water, electricity and telephone lines cut and the entire southern military zone sealed off. Meanwhile, Damascus has not had internet connections for the past three days in a Syria where anti-regime protests have been underway for almost two months, and which is experiencing crack-down activists say is now being carried out in line with a strategy adapted from the Iranian experience in 2009. According to the 28-year-old Rami Nakhle, a Syrian activist in hiding in Lebanon since January, numerous Iranian secret services trainers are working in Syria to support their Syrian counterparts in repressing anti-regime protests. “We have proof,” he told ANSA, “of a number of high-level meetings between Damascus and Tehran over the past few weeks and the presence of Iranian trainers in Syria.” The two countries have been linked by a close strategic-military alliance for over 30 years. According to other activists, at least two people have been killed in the past 2 hours in Homs and Tafas, to the north and south of Damascus. In Homs the victim was a 12-year-old boy, Qassem Al Ahmad, beaten to death by plainclothes police during a raid in one of three areas (Bab Sibaa, Bab Amr and Tall Assur) by police and the army, backed by tanks. Yesterday evening the news came in that two protestors had been killed in Deir Al-Zor, in the north-eastern part of the country, by security forces. Entire residential areas of Homs, Syria’s third largest city, have been without water, electricity and telephones since Friday, as is also the case in Baniyas, a port in the north-west where at least six people including four women were killed on Saturday. The latter is also where, according to human rights activists, two of the alleged leaders of the revolt, Sheik Anas Al Ayut and Bassam Sahiuni, have been arrested over the past few hours in a wide sweep-up operation which saw about 250 people arrested. Since Sunday morning tanks have also been occupying Tafas, a small of about 30,000 inhabitants north of Deraa in the Hawran area along the border with Jordan, which since April 25 has been a sealed-off military zone. The tanks entered the town shortly after dawn under the protection of security forces who arrested at least 200 people.
“There are soldiers coming in with lists of people to arrest between the ages of 15 and 40… like the Israelis do,” said Fadel Hussein. In addition to Tafas, searches and arrests have also been carried out in Dael and Ibtaa, nearby villages where dozens of young people who have escaped from Deraa over the past few days have reportedly taken refugee. From Damascus news have come of the committal to trial on charges of violating a ban on demonstrations for Riad Seif, former deputy and members of the opposition who was arrested on Friday while taking part in a march. Last month President Bashar Al Assad had announced the abrogation of the emergency law and the granting of the right to demonstrate for the first time in 48 years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: ONDUS: Mass Arrests in Homs, Banias and Damascus
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MAY 9 — Mass arrests have been carried out since this morning by security forces in a number of areas across Syria, while the army continues to occupy and lay siege to three different towns, which for days have been without electricity, water and telephone lines. This is according to Syria’s human rights watchdog (ONDUS).
The organisation said in a statement that security forces this morning arrested hundreds of people in Homs, Syria’s third city, which lies north of Damascus, in Banias, a north-western port city and in Muadamiya and Daraya, two suburbs respectively west and south-west of the capital. Witnesses quoted by Ondus say that screams and gunshots were heard in Muadamiya, where the army intervened and telephone lines have been cut, and in Daraya.
Human rights activists have also reported that further armoured vehicles entered the centre of Homs last night and early this morning, in order to assist security forces, who are carrying out house-to-house searched in three areas of the city.
At least four people were killed yesterday in Homs and in Dayr Az Zor, in the east of the country, activists say. The official news agency Sana, meanwhile, has reported that ten Syrian workers returning from Lebanon were killed by shots fired by an “armed criminal group” near Homs. Over a month and a half on from the start of the brutal repression, Ondus says that around 800 civilians have been killed, while figures from other sources range from 630 to 720. A few weeks ago, Syrian authorities kicked almost all foreign journalists out of the country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Sex Tapes Turn Up Heat in Election Campaign
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MAY 9 — After seeing off the main opposition force, sex scandals have this time left the world of Turkish politics reeling at the height of campaigning for the parliamentary elections due to be held on June 12.
A newly released video has trapped two leading members of the country’s third biggest political force, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), a minor competitor to the Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan’s AKP, with which it is battling for the votes of the moderate Islamic centre-right and a significant number of deputies in Parliament.
This is the third wave of “kasetler”, the video tapes that have come to condition political life in Turkey and that are now tarnishing the election campaign. Almost a year ago, Deniz Baykal, the then leader of the main opposition party CHP, was forced to resign after a video was released in which the leader in his seventies was shown getting dressed after what appeared to have been a sexual encounter with his personal secretary (and deputy), a woman in her fifties. This was too much for a country in the throes of Islamic puritanism, which does not tolerate internet pornography. Now, though, there are calls for the resignation of Devlet Bahceli, the head of the MHP who has been hit by a sex scandal for the second time in less than a week. In the video circulated on Saturday, according to the chaste descriptions of the press, the party’s second-in-command, Bulent Didinmez and a former head of the province of Istanbul appear in a hotel room with female students. Informed sources in Ankara are even claiming that the girls were underage (between 16 and 17) and confirm that sexual intercourse took place. Last Wednesday, two deputies from the same party were forced to stand down after a video showed them, apparently drunk, kissing two women. One of the two men was also caught telling a woman during his daily visit to a brothel that he would be “excited” to see her cover her face with an Islamic headscarf.
In a highly-charged meeting, Bahceli went on the counter attack, accusing the moderate Islamic Justice and Development party (AKP) of being responsible for the circulation of the compromising tapes, a claim denied by the Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc. The current leader of the CHP, the composed Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has also laid square at the feet of the AKP the “responsibility” for circulating the videos and for exploiting their impact on the electorate. Speaking at a rally yesterday, he said that “Erdogan’s new activity is to watch tapes that peer up women’s skirts”. Authoritative analysts, and daily papers such as Milliyet, say that there is indeed a campaign against nationalists, explaining that the aim is to keep their share of the vote below 10%, thereby leaving them out of the new Parliament, which in turn would increase the number of seats for the majority party, Erdogan’s AKP, and would therefore ensure a one-party government and, according to all of the surveys published, certain victory at the next elections.
The “tapes” scandal is being used by Erdogan in such a way as to infuriate even his opponent Kilicdaroglu, who is nicknamed “Gandhi” for his mildness. Erdogan recently said that “Kilicdaroglu is the leader of the tapes. He would not be hear if there had been no tape,” the Prime Minister said, in reference to the video that accounted for Kilicdaroglu’s predecessor.
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Indian Court Urges Death Penalty for ‘Honour Killings’
NEW DELHI: India’s top court said Monday the death penalty should be given to those found guilty of so-called honour killings, calling the crime a barbaric “slur” on the nation.
India has seen an upsurge in such killings that mainly involve young couples who marry outside their caste or against their relatives’ wishes and are murdered to protect what is seen as the family’s reputation and pride.
“It is time to stamp out these barbaric, feudal practices which are a slur on our nation,” the Supreme Court said.
There are no official figures on honour killings, though an independent study last year suggested that as many as 900 were being committed every year in the northern states of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Many go unreported, with police and local politicians turning a blind eye to what some see as an acceptable form of traditional justice by families seeking to protect their honour.
“All persons who are planning to perpetrate ‘honour’ killings should know that the gallows await them,” Justices Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra said in their ruling, adding that no one can take law into their own hands.
If someone is unhappy with the behavior of a relation, “the maximum he can do is to cut off social relations… but he cannot take the law into his own hands by committing violence or giving threats of violence,” the bench said.
The court made the statements as it dismissed an appeal by Bhagawan Dass against a life sentence for strangling his daughter, Seema, in 2006 over an alleged extra-marital affair with a cousin.
India’s Supreme Court only awards the death penalty in what it calls the “rarest of rare” category.
“In our opinion honour killings, for whatever reason, come within the category of rarest of rare cases deserving the death punishment,” the court said.
However, when the Supreme Court does authorise executions, they are regularly delayed indefinitely or commuted by the president.
Last August, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said he would present a bill in parliament which will provide specific, severe penalties to curb such killings.
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Indonesia: Bin Laden Destined for Heaven Says Al-Qaeda Linked Cleric
Jakarta, 9 May (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Al-Qaeda linked terrorism suspect Abu Bakar Bashir says the late Osama bin Laden, who was shot dead last week by US forces, will go to heaven.
“I don’t know if it’s true, but if he is dead, God willing he will go to heaven,” Bashir said before a trial hearing on Monday.
Bashir added that Bin Laden had fought in the name of Islam and would be rewarded for it.
When asked whether he was ever acquainted with Bin Laden, Bashir shook his head and quietly said “No”.
Bashir’s terrorism trial of is set to hear the prosecutors’ sentence demands on Monday.
An Indonesian police counter-terrorism unit last arrested Bashir in 2010 on allegations he facilitated and masterminded a terrorist training camp in Jantho, in the Muslim-devout Indonesian province of Aceh, which was raided by police.
Bashir — co-founder of the southeast Asian Al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for many of the deadliest attacks in Indonesia — faces a maximum penalty of death if found guilty.
He is accused of helping set up, fund, arm and mobilise militants for a new terror cell uncovered a year ago in as part of efforts to create an Islamic state.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Informed on Osama Raid 15 Minutes After Its Start
(AGI) Dubai — Pakistan received information on the Osama Bin laden operation “15 minutes after it had begun”. It was revealed by the country’s Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, who explained he had no idea as to who was the target of the raid.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Accusations of Protecting Bin Laden Are ‘Absurd’
(AGI) Islamabad — Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani has described as ‘absurd’ all accusations of complicity with Bin Laden saying that the country is determined to eliminate terrorism. The prime minister was addressing parliament and speaking of accusations of having protected for years the ‘sheik of terror’ killed last Monday by the USA in his compound in Abbottabad, 55 kilometres from the capital. U.S. President Barack Obama himself had said it was probable that ‘someone’ in Pakistan has helped Bin Laden.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Media Reportedly Outs CIA Chief
The U.S. is investigating why Pakistani media broadcast the name of a man they said is the CIA’s Islamabad station chief and if it was an attempt to out the agent following the killing of Usama bin Laden.
The raid by U.S. Navy SEALs that resulted in the Al Qaeda leader’s death put further strain on the already tender relationship between the two countries. Pakistan has adamantly denied that it had any knowledge that bin Laden was hiding for years in a military city not far from its capital.
The alleged name of the Islamabad station chief — one of the CIA’s most significant and sensitive assignments — was first broadcast Friday by ARY, a private Pakistani television channel, The Wall Street Journal reported. The channel was covering a meeting between the station chief and the director of the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s spy agency.
[…]
If the Pakistani government was behind the attempt to publicize the name it would be the second outing of its kind in the past six months.
In December, the CIA pulled its then-Islamabad chief out of Pakistan amid death threats after his name emerged publicly.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Braced for Fights With Pakistanis in Bin Laden Raid, Officials Say
President Obama insisted that the assault force hunting down Osama bin Laden last week be large enough to fight its way out of Pakistan if confronted by hostile local police officers and troops, senior administration and military officials said Monday.
In revealing additional details about planning for the mission, senior officials also said that two teams of specialists were on standby: One to bury Bin Laden if he was killed, and a second composed of lawyers, interrogators and translators in case he was captured alive. That team was set to meet aboard a Navy ship, mostly likely the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea.
Mr. Obama’s decision to increase the size of the force sent into Pakistan shows that he was willing to risk a military confrontation with a close ally in order to capture or kill the leader of Al Qaeda.
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Kuwaitis Among Trainees in ‘Guards’ Latin Camp
KUWAIT CITY, April 28: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is allegedly training a large number of Kuwaitis, Bahrainis and Saudis in a private training camp located in Waheera, a remote area near the borders of Venezuela and Columbia, and intends to use them to carry out terrorist activities within their respective countries and other areas across the world in case Iran is attacked militarily, Al-Seyassah daily quoted a reliable source as saying.
The trainees are first sent to Venezuelan capital Caracas or Columbian capital Bogota via Damascus and from there, they are sent to the border region in cars, one of the militants who broke away from the Iranian group told the daily.
Reportedly, the training camp is run by some Iranian intelligence officers and others affiliated to the Revolutionary Guard in cooperation with Hezbollah and Hamas. The trainees were given courses in making bombs, carrying out assassinations, kidnapping people and transporting the hostages to other locations.
The trainees have been trained to act in case there is a war against Iran. As per the plan, all embassies of Gulf countries, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan in Latin American countries were to be targeted. These bombings, however, will not be carried out by Iranian Shiites, but mercenaries from poorer countries like Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador and Bolivia besides some other supporters from Hamas and other individuals so that Iranian involvement won’t even be suspected.
When asked about the financing of this militia, the source said the money Iran makes through drug trafficking and money laundering is equal to the budget of some countries. “For example, Dutch police, in cooperation with security authorities of seven other countries, arrested 17 drug smugglers in 2009 in Korasu and confiscated 2,000 kilos of cocaine from them. The huge quantity was smuggled through tankers from Venezuela to West Africa and then to Holland, Lebanon and Spain. Smugglers also transported cocaine by air from Korasu to Holland, Belgium, Spain and Jordan. The Dutch authorities had then announced that the smuggling network was linked to Hezbollah and Iran,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Napolitano: Failure to Extradite Battisti Incomprehensible
(AGI) Rome — Napolitano described Brazil’s failure to complete the extradition of former terrorist Battisti as “incomprehensible”. Speaking about the victims of terrorism in a ceremony held at the presidential palace, the President of the Republic complained about the “residual mystifications” overshadowing “for example, the relations between Brazil and Italy on the issue of terrorist Cesare Battisti’s extradition, whose process has been incomprehensibly suspended “.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Around 1,000 Migrants Evacuated From Lampedusa After Arrival of 527 Shipwreck Survivors
Lampedusa, 9 May (AKI) — An Italian ferry is due to evict a total of 1,097 migrants from Lampedusa, after the coast guard Sunday rescued over 500 mainly sub-Saharan Africans from a Libyan people-smuggling boat that hit rocks near the tiny southern Italian island.
Most of the migrants are being evacuated to elsewhere in Italy by ferry, while around 100 Tunisians will be deported, according to Italian officials.
The migrants began boarding the ‘Pisana a Lampedusa’ ferry on Monday, an operation expected to be completed later in the day, officials on Lampedusa said.
All the migrants put onto the ferry will have been identified and photographed, the officials said.
The migrants will be transferred to detention centres on Sicily and other centres on the Italian mainland.
Pope Benedict XVI in his weekly mass in Rome on Sunday, told Italian worshippers to be more tolerant towards North African migrants and not to fear or reject them.
Lampedusa’s detention centre is designed to hold a maximum of 800 people but has on repeated occasions held twice this number or more.
In March, Italy drew international criticism when thousands of migrants were forced to camp for weeks on the island in squalid, cold and insanitary conditions, a situation that also created tensions with the island’s 5,000 inhabitants.
Lampedusa has borne the brunt of the influx of tens of thousands of migrants from North Africa amid the unrest that has rocked the Arab word since January, and the Italian government has signed a deal with Tunisia to deport up to 60 Tunisian migrants a day.
Amnesty International has criticised Italy’s treatment of the migrants and summary deportations from Lampedusa.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Athens: Schengen Pillar of European Integration
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 9 — The Greek government is in favour of a joint European immigration policy, said Cristos Papoutsis, Greek Minister for Citizen Protection, today in an interview with newspaper Ta Nea.
“Free movement of European citizens in the Schengen area constitutes the main pillar of European integration. Besides, thanks to the Schengen convention the concept of EU outside borders has been consolidated. This concept became real for the first time in Greece a few months ago, when we asked for the presence of Frontex on the Evros river (at the Turkish border).
Our stance is therefore clear. We are against a return to the period before the union. That would be a step back”, said Papoutsis.
The Minister continued: “Greece wants a joint European policy on the question of asylum and immigration. We ask for the application of measures for the redistribution of illegal immigrants among member States, and for a revision of Dublin Treaty II which, as it is applied today, forms an unjust burden for Greece due to its geographical position. Greece cannot sustain more illegal immigrants. Therefore we are making an effort to change the old, and basically inexistent, asylum system which has been on halt for years. New structures have already been formed and we are setting up new reception and detention centres for illegal immigrants”, he concluded.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Babies Among 61 Migrants Who Perished Adrift After SOS ‘Ignored’
London, Paris and Lampedusa (AKI) — Sixty-one African migrants including two babies died of hunger and thirst in late March when their boat drifted for 16 days in the Mediterranean after European and Nato military vessels apparently ignored their calls for help, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday.
All but 11 of those aboard the boat which set sail in March from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, bound for Lampedusa, perished after they ran out of food, water and fuel, despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter, the Guardian said.
The daily cited witness testimony from survivors and other individuals who were in contact with the passengers during its doomed voyage, including Moses Zerai, an Eritrean priest in Rome who runs refugee rights organisation Habeshia.
Zerai said the coastguard assured an alarm had been raised after the migrants contacted him in Rome via satellite phone. A military helicopter with the word “army” appeared above the boat and its pilots lowered bottles of water and packs of biscuits to the passengers indicating they should hold their position until a rescue boat came to help.
No boat ever arrived and no country has yet admitted sending the helicopter that made contact with the migrant boat.
Around 29 or 30 March, when all the boat’s supplies had run out and it was adrift in rough seas, it found itself close to an aircraft carrier. The Guardian believes it is likely to have been the French ship Charles de Gaulle, which was operating in the Mediterranean on those dates.
French naval authorities initially denied the carrier was in the area at that time, but after being shown news reports indicating this was untrue, a spokesman declined to comment, the Guardian said.
Nato, which is coordinating the UN-mandated military operation in Libya, said it had not logged any distress calls from the boat and had no records of the incident.
The boat, which set sail from Tripoli on 25 March had Ethiopians, Nigerians, Eritreans, Ghanaians and fSudanese migrants on board. Two were small children, one of whom was just one year old, according to the Guardian.
Refugee rights campaigners have demanded an investigation into the deaths, while the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has called for stricter cooperation among commercial and military vessels in the Mediterranean in an effort to save human lives.
In April alone, over 800 migrants who set sail from Libya never reached Europe and are presumed dead.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Men ‘Have Higher Cancer Rate’
Gay men get cancer almost twice as often as heterosexual men, and lesbian and bisexual women who are cancer survivors reported being less healthy than heterosexual women who had the disease.
The greater prevalence of cancer among gay men may be caused by an excess risk of anal cancer, and may also reflect the higher rate of HIV infection, which is linked to certain cancers, according to the report in the journal Cancer .
The results show the greatest need for intervention is in cancer prevention and detection in gay men, according to the study authors.
In addition, lesbian and bisexual cancer survivors should be targeted to improve their health outcomes.
“This information can be used for the development of services for the lesbian, gay, and bisexual population,” said the study’s lead author, Ulrike Boehmer, an associate professor at Boston University’s School for Public Health, in a statement.
Merck’s Gardasil vaccine approved in 2006 for the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer in women, was also cleared in December to prevent anal cancer and precancerous lesions.
The study used data from the California Health Interview survey from 2001, 2003, and 2005.
A total of 7,252 women and 3,690 men reported cancer diagnoses as adults.
Of the 51,000 men surveyed, 5 per cent of straight men were diagnosed with cancer, compared with 8.3 per cent of gay men.
Cancer rates didn’t differ significantly by sexual orientation among the 71,000 women included in the survey.
Among the female cancer survivors, 73 percent of heterosexual women reported excellent, very good, or good health.
In lesbian women, that number was 66 percent, and in bisexual women, 60 percent, according to the study.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: ‘CDA Has Most Openly Gay Politicians’
The Christian Democratic party has ‘by far’ the most publically gay and lesbian MPs and local councillors, according to newspaper Gay Krant.
The claim follows finance minister Jan Kees de Jager’s public statement in the Telegraaf that he has a partner. De Jager is a CDA member.
‘Lots of positive reactions… thank you for that. Indeed it is not an issue, but not a secret either,’ De Jager said later using the microblogging service Twitter.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
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