EU: Italy Central Bank Head Draghi Faces 50% Pay Cut at ECB
Rome, 1 June (AKI/Bloomberg) — Bank of Italy governor Mario Draghi will face a pay cut of 50 percent when he replaces Jean-Claude Trichet as president of the European Central Bank in November.
Draghi’s salary in 2010 was 757,714 euros more than twice Trichet’s take, the Rome-based bank said on its website yesterday. It was the first time the governor’s salary was made public. Trichet’s basic pay was 367,863 euros, according to the ECB’s website. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke pulled in $199,700 in 2010.
On 17 May, euro-area finance ministers nominated Draghi to become the next head of the Frankfurt-based central bank when Trichet’s eight-year term ends on 31 October. Draghi, 63, who also heads the Basel-based Financial Stability Board, is currently the only candidate and European Union leaders are due to ratify him for the post at a two-day meeting in Brussels starting 23 June.
In addition to their basic salaries, Trichet and ECB board members receive allowances for expenses such as accommodation. Trichet is provided with a residence owned by the Frankfurt- based ECB in lieu of a housing allowance.
Draghi’s successor at the Bank of Italy won’t fare as well as the outgoing governor. The central bank has adopted a 10 percent pay cut starting in 2011.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Euro Factory Growth: Steepest Fall Since 2008
A key indicator of eurozone manufacturing health in May registered its steepest fall since the height of the financial crisis in November 2008, suggesting recovery has lost significant momentum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Life in a Time of Troika
Gone are the days of going out and shopping, trouble-free travel and early evening drinks in outdoor cafes. Bills and surgery have been postponed, and no more private tuition for the kids. Laid-low by the crisis, Greeks have learned to rein in their lifestyles, and everyday living in the country has become a sad affair.
The typical housewife’s shopping basket does not fill up like it did before the crisis — and the figures are there to prove it. Only 12% of consumers spend more than 100 euros when they go to the supermarket. Even those who go very often are avoiding branded products. The statistics in a report on a sample of 11,000 people by the MRB polling agency clearly show that the 2010 domestic purchases are very different from the shopping baskets of previous years. Consumers are buying starch in the form of rice and flour, while 40% of them have given up on detergents produced by major brands. Only the organic produce sector is still holding its own along with locally grown fruit and vegetables.
The crisis has put paid to the stereotypical Greek who is out late every night: the Hellenic peoples have rediscovered the joys of coc?oning and are none too eager to eat out in restaurants — a major headache for the President of the Greek restaurant owners union who told us: “there are days when we don’t get a single customer.” In his restaurant in the port of Piraeus, he continues to be amazed by the the fall-off in sales: “on Monday I took in 350 euros, on Tuesday it was down to €230, on Wednesday I took in €400 — and all of that in a context where my basic daily expenses amount to €1,500.”
He believes that business owners’ incomes have fallen by 55% and adds that everyone is hoping that this year’s tourist season will be a good one. But close to 6,000 restaurants have already shut down. And between now and the end of the year, another 20,000 to 25,000 are planning to close their doors! Even the cheap food sector, which has seen sales decline 30% to 35%, has been hit by the crisis.
Greeks are intent on spending less
As for health care, “we’ll see about that later.” Who would have thought that this type of remark would become so common in a country of hypohondriacs which used to be awash in medicines? There has been a marked decline in sales of vitamins and antibiotics. Blood tests, x-rays and mammographies are being postponed indefinitely.
The same goes for power bills. Some Greeks simply do not have the money, while others are seizing the opportunity to “forget” pay. The national power company has announced that it now has 200 million euros of outstanding debts. And that is not all. The few positive points highlighted by the survey — i.e. that Greeks are now more likely to avoid driving — do little to brighten a gloomy picture.
The news is particularly bad in the education sector, where private tuition, a veritable institution which has enabled Greeks to overcome some of the problems posed by a gap-ridden education system has experienced an unprecedented slump. According to Giorgos Petropoulos of the private tutors union, “the decline has now reached 40%, which is especially worrying for students in the last three years of secondary school.”
In short, the Greeks are intent on spending less and cutting costs wherever they can. Pensioners, who now meet for coffee in daycare centres, have abandoned the outdoor cafe’s in Athens which are now too pricey. In supermarkets, shelves of discounted products continue to empty quickly while more expensive merchandise is left virtually untouched.
Health
A society on the verge of nervous breakdown
Two months ago, a 35-year-old man who was to experiencing pains in his chest and abdomen along with debilitating headaches, consulted his GP, who recommended a series of tests. It turned out that all of his symptoms were psychosomatic, which is why he later saw a psychologist. “The patient was in a state of prolonged and intense anxiety. He was worn out by fear,” explains therapist Asimina Christopoulou. “The problem was that lay-offs had been announced in the company where he worked and he was living in fear of losing his job.”
Anxiety prompted by unemployment, a lack of job security and a tense social climate can have a major psychological impact, which may have serious consequences for some individuals. Fear is a natural and useful response to danger, but every situation becomes dangerous when we have completely lost control. And this is what appears to be happening in Greece today. Since the beginning of the economic crisis and the austerity measures that followed, the middle class and poorer groups have born the psychological brunt of the downturn. “But the well-off can also be affected,” notes Dr Ilia Theotoka Chrysostomidis, a psychiatrist at the university of Athens. “Anxiety, depression, panic attacks, sleep disorders, and even suicide attempts are all becoming more common. And this is a concern for everyone,” points out the specialist.
Mahi Tratsa, To Vima, Athens (extracts)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Towards New Loan Worth 60-70 Bln
Another day of discussions on Greece’s bailout. The EU’s belief that Greece should receive an additional 60-70 billion bailout loan to face the financial gap in the 2012-2013 biennium is increasingly solidifying. The when and how, however, remain to be seen and are both set against the backdrop of a “heavy” restructuring of the country’s debt, which no one officially wants but which many, behind the scenes, consider almost inevitable. Greece’s debt restructuring “is not envisaged” by the EU’s bailout plan, European Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn reiterated once more from New York. “Restructuring will not solve Greece’s problems”. Despite all the concerns involved, the idea of a ‘soft’ intervention is increasingly taking shape, with banks’ voluntary involvement, in the wake of what was done in the past for eastern European countries. All this is based on parameters, however, which have yet to be established, which could perhaps include incentives to renew and therefore not cash in expiring Greek bonds. Meanwhile, the troika’s mission to Athens is underway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Needs Massive Privatisation: ECB’s Chief Economist
Greece must intensify its reform efforts through a massive privatisation programme, chief economist of the European Central Bank, Juergen Stark, said in remarks published Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Paul to Fed: Tell US Everything, Or Else
The chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve demanded Tuesday that the Fed fully disclose details of billions — perhaps trillions — in secret emergency loans it made to almost every major bank in the U.S. and overseas during the financial crisis or face a congressional subpoena for the information.
In an interview with Fox Business, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on domestic monetary policy, said he wants to know “how much, when, where and why” from Fed officials when they testify about the loans at a subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of what the Fed did during the big bailout a couple of years ago,” Paul said. “We have some precise questions. I imagine we won’t get all of them answered tomorrow because they’ll do a little bit of stonewalling, I’m sure.”
“If they don’t answer, they’ll hear from us,” he said. “We can use the subpoena power and say, ‘Look, you have to bring us the records.’ “
[…]
More than 25,000 pages of previously-secret Fed discount window reports indicated most of the loans went to help many large U.S. banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), as well as many regional and community banks. They were short-term loans of one to 90 days.
But the day such loans peaked in October 2008 at $111 billion, records show about half the total went to two big European banks — Belgium’s Dexia and Ireland’s Depfa — as one-day overnight loans. Many more familiar foreign banks, from Barclays in Great Britain to Deutsche Bank (DB) in Germany, borrowed as well.
“The most astounding thing we see in these documents is so much of it went to foreign banks—the whole system was bailing out foreign banks,” Paul said. “It’s a bit shocking on how big a deal this is and how much money was involved…The shenanigans are very international.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wall Street Baffled by Slowing Economy, Low Yields: Trader
Wall Street is having a hard time figuring out what to do now that the U.S. economy appears to be sputtering and yields are so low, Peter Yastrow, market strategist for Yastrow Origer, told CNBC.
“What we’ve got right now is almost near panic going on with money managers and people who are responsible for money,” he said. “They can not find a yield and you just don’t want to be putting your money into commodities or things that are punts that might work out or they might not depending on what happens with the economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Asphalt May Have Poisoned Ancient Americans
ON THE beaches of southern California you can sometimes find clumps of a sticky black substance with a texture halfway between molasses and rubber. Could these tar balls — collected by humans for thousands of years — provide evidence that our long-standing relationship with hydrocarbons was toxic from the outset? Long before we started asphalting roads, prehistoric people around the world used bitumen, which seeps from the ground naturally in places. Archaeological finds suggest that California’s prehistoric locals, the Chumash people, eagerly collected the tar balls. They used them to caulk the seams of ocean-going craft and waterproof woven baskets to make drinking vessels, as well as for making casts for broken bones and poultices for sore joints. Some Chumash even chewed bitumen like gum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Criminal Complaint Charges Obama Birth Record ‘Forged’
22-page brief filed with FBI claims ‘irrefutable proof’ document a fraud
An international expert on scanners and document-imaging software filed a 22-page criminal complaint with the FBI, charging that the long-form birth certificate released by the White House is criminally fraudulent.
“What the Obama administration released is a PDF image that they are trying to pass off as a Certificate of Live Birth Long Form printed on green security paper by the Hawaiian Health Department,” Doug Vogt writes, “but this form is a created forgery.”
Vogt’s criminal complaint asserts: “I have irrefutably proven that the Certificate of Live Birth that President Obama presented to the world on April 27, 2011, is a fraudulently created document put together using the Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator programs, and the creation of this forgery of a public document constitutes a class B felony in Hawaii and multiple violations under U.S. Code section Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 47, Sec.1028, and therefore an impeachable offense.”
When the Obama birth certificate “forgery” comes to the public’s attention, Vogt continues, “It will surpass all previous scandals including the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration.”
Since 1993, Vogt has owned Archive Index Systems Inc., in Bellevue, Wash., a company that sells a wide variety of document scanners worldwide and develops document imaging software.
Before that, Vogt owned Nova Typesetting for 11 years.
Vogt says that the curved surface on the left margin of the Obama birth certificate suggests the county employee who did the original scanning of the document did not take the individual page out of the binder.
“The result is that all the pages in that book display a parallax distorted image of the lines and type,” he says.
He claims, however, that the information typed into the form does not curve like the printed text on the form itself.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI: 2 Iraqis in Ky. Plotted Terrorism Overseas
LOUISVILLE, Ky. An Iraqi refugee living in Kentucky told an FBI informant he used improvised explosive devices in insurgent attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and is accused of trying to send sniper rifles and Stinger missiles to his home country, according to a sworn statement.
The refugee, along with one of his recruits, was arrested and is accused of trying to send the weapons and money to al-Qaida operatives in Iraq.
Waad Ramadan Alwan, 30, was well-schooled in sniper rifles and improvised explosive devices, according to an FBI affidavit released Tuesday.
“If I can get to Iraq, can you send me a sniper rifle?” Alwan asked the informant. “I want one so I can shoot from far away.”
Alwan, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 23, both of Bowling Green, Ky., were arrested last week after an investigation that began months after they arrived in the U.S. in 2009. Neither is charged with plotting attacks within the United States, and authorities said their weapons and money didn’t make it to Iraq because of a tightly controlled undercover investigation.
Alwan is charged with conspiracy to kill a United States national, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Hammadi is charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists and knowingly transferring, possession or exporting a device designed or intended to launch or guide a rocket or missile.
Alwan also boasted of constructing and using IEDs against Humvees and Bradley vehicles, providing drawings of the proper techniques for building four different types of devices, the affidavit said.
“In describing a particular type of IED, Alwan talked about filling the container and stated, ‘anything lethal could be stuffed into it, such as ball-bearings, nails, gravel and whatever item that kills,’“ FBI Special Agent Richard Glenn said in the affidavit.
“Do you understand the procedure?” Alwan asked the FBI informant. “Not that hard, but it needs someone who understands this business, not anyone can do it. One has to have some practical training.”
The men pleaded not guilty to the charges during a preliminary hearing Tuesday, and they’re in federal custody pending a detention hearing.
The criminal complaints against the two men say they entered the United States legally in April 2009 and had refugee status. By late 2010, Alwan had told the informant he wanted to help terrorists in Iraq, and he recruited Hammadi early this year, authorities said.
Federal prosecutors and the FBI declined to say how the two men were able to enter the country as refugees, or what they were doing in Bowling Green, a city of 60,000. State officials said at least 253 Iraqi refugees have moved to the city since 2008 but wouldn’t comment on whether the state’s refugee office dealt with the suspects.
A Department of Homeland Security official, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said Alwan and Hammadi slipped through gaps in the immigration vetting system that have since been filled. The official said the agency now checks people repeatedly as new information becomes available.
Their arrests come after FBI Director Robert Mueller said in February that his agency was taking a fresh look at Iraqi nationals in the U.S. who had ties to al-Qaida’s offshoot in Iraq. The group had not previously been considered a threat in the U.S.
Court documents say the probe of Alwan began in September 2009, five months after he’d come to the U.S. Late the next year, authorities started using an informant to record conversations with him.
According to the criminal complaints, Alwan told the informant he was involved in insurgent attacks in Iraq from 2003 until 2006.
In January, investigators identified fingerprints belonging to Alwan on a component of an unexploded IED that was recovered by U.S. forces in Iraq in 2005, the FBI said.
The informant told Alwan he worked for groups that received money from Osama bin Laden and was planning to send money and weapons to Iraq in secret compartments on cars.
The criminal complaints said Alwan recruited Hammadi in January to assist him, describing the younger Iraqi to the informant as a relative whose work as an insurgent was well-known. Later that month, Alwan and Hammadi allegedly delivered money to a tractor-trailer, believing the money would ultimately be shipped to al-Qaida in Iraq. They later helped delivered weapons that included two Stinger missiles, authorities said.
“In reality, these weapons and money never made it outside of Kentucky,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Elizabeth Fries, who declined to say what the men did for a living.
Hammadi’s court-appointed attorney, James Earhart of Louisville, said he doesn’t know much about the case.
“I haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk with him yet,” he said.
Federal Public Defender Scott Wendelsdorf, who represents Alwan, declined comment.
No one answered the door Tuesday afternoon when a reporter went to Alwan’s and Hammadi’s listed addresses in Bowling Green.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the government is trying to find out more about Alwan and Hammadi but currently has no information.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
For NASA: Just One Last Space Shuttle Flight Remains
With the safe landing today of shuttle Endeavour after its final mission in space, NASA is another step closer to a looming deadline: the very last flight of the agency’s storied space shuttle program. Endeavour landed today at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 2:34 a.m. EDT (0634 GMT) to end a 16-day mission to the International Space Station. Yet in a symbolic handover, as Endeavour’s wheels rolled to a stop on Runway 15 on this morning (June 1), another shuttle — Atlantis — made its last slow crawl to the launch pad for its own final mission in early July. NASA is hoping to launch Atlantis on July 8 on a 12-day resupply mission to the International Space Station. Four astronauts — commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim — will fly Atlantis on what will be the grand finale of NASA’s shuttle program.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Handcuffed by Policy’: Fire Crews Watch Man Die
City policy changed after budget cuts cited as reason rescuers couldn’t act
Fire crews and police could only watch after a man waded into San Francisco Bay, stood up to his neck and waited. They wanted to do something, but a policy tied to earlier budget cuts strictly forbade them from trying to save the 50-year-old, officials said.
A witness finally pulled the apparently suicidal man’s lifeless body from the 54-degree water.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I Hope the Plover Are Happy
A year or so ago, I talked to a park ranger in Yankton, South Dakota, while watching the Missouri River from an overlook near Yankton. I casually asked the ranger why the Corps was holding back so much water in the spring. “To protect the plover,” he replied—as if it were common knowledge. “The what?” I inquired. “The plover—it is a shore bird that nests along the Missouri. If they let out too much water in the spring, it drowns out their nests and kills the baby birds. So the Corps holds it back to allow the birds to hatch.” How noble, I thought—we hold back mighty waters to protect bird life.
Fast forward to the spring of 2011. As I watch my friends in Dakota Dunes frantically trying to escape the mighty flood waters released in record amounts by the Corps this week, while their houses are ruined by the Muddy Mo, and my friends, neighbors, and family members work feverishly to protect our own homes and each others’ homes in Wynstone, South Dakota—up river a ways —I thought a lot about the plover.
Folks around here are asking: “Why is the Corps just now releasing record amounts of water, thereby creating a flood of epic proportions, the likes of which have never been experienced in recorded history?” If purposely flooding the folks on the Missouri River from Yankton down to Omaha and below is “flood control” [sic] then “flood control” is the biggest and cruelest oxymoron ever. Given that the United States experienced record amounts of snow and moisture last winter and this spring, it is certainly fair to ask: “Did the Corps not anticipate that the reservoirs upstream in South Dakota would be brim full?” Was there no thought given to the idea of releasing water incrementally over the past many months so as to avoid the largest single release of waters in history and the horrendous man-made catastrophe that has befallen our friends and neighbors along the Missouri?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Refugees Held for ‘Trying to Buy Missiles for Al Qaeda’
Two Iraqi refugees have been charged with plotting to supply sniper rifles and stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Al Qaeda from the U.S.
Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi were arrested in Kentucky this week after an FBI sting operation.
Alwan, 30, is thought to have been a sniper and bomb maker for insurgents in Iraq after the 2003 invasion before he fled to the U.S six years later.
His fingerprints were found on an unexploded roadside bomb in Iraq, but he was still allowed into the U.S. because a Homeland Security screening procedure did not check Department of Defence records.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Background of Mirrors
Establishment media has decided that the case is closed, hoping to send the “Birthers” back to their world of kooky conspiracy theories of obviously racist origins.
Looking into the background of Barack Hussein Obama can be compared to looking into a kaleidoscope. The difference is that instead of seeing pleasingly colorful and symmetrical designs created by light and mirrors, one sees both the mirrors and mechanisms that create the illusion and the asymmetry of the resultant image caused by a deliberate miscalibration of the mirrors. Turning the tube, or attempting to discern the image, only causes more unpleasant distortion.
Conducting legitimate background investigations should never be like looking into a kaleidoscope. It is a rather straightforward process. I should know, as I’ve done background checks as an investigator in the private sector for the last 26 years, mostly for Fortune 500 companies, screening potential executives selected to sit on boards of mega-corporations. Questions are asked and answered, and all documentation requested of the selectees is willingly provided for the vetting process.
As one would expect, the requisite documentation includes but is not limited to actual hard copies of certified long form birth certificates, social security cards and passport records. No scanned images, no internet downloads, and most of all, no legal resistance to the process. The reasons for the former are obvious: digital documents are not suitable for authentication. With reference to the latter, legal resistance is a red flag of deception, either by commission or omission, and quickly warrants the selectee to a position of immediate suspicion.
[…]
This brings me to the issue of Barack Hussein Obama following the interestingly-timed release of his alleged long form Certificate of Live Birth. Apparently, the establishment media has decided that the case is closed, hoping to send the “Birthers” back to their world of kooky conspiracy theories of obviously racist origins. The media, complicit in the process, has also been caught in some underhandedness regarding the book “Where’s the Birth Certificate” by Dr. Jerome Corsi. Even the self-proclaimed conservative network Fox News vapidly ambushed Dr. Corsi in an interview conducted by Greg Jarrett immediately following the release of his book. We would expect that kind of behavior from the left but not the administration’s number one critic.
Despite what “team Obama,” the complicit corporate media, and many ill-informed conservative pundits proclaim, the case of the deliberately opaque background of Barack Hussein Obama is far from closed. In fact, as Obama and the Obama White House has given his imprimatur of the recently released document, he has legally painted himself and others into a potential criminal corner.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Top Dog: Pat Robertson is Like Osama Bin Laden
Calls both ‘totalitarians’ who worked collectively against coexistence
President Obama’s faith adviser, Eboo Patel, likened television evangelist Pat Robertson to Osama bin Laden, calling both “totalitarians” who worked collectively against coexistence.
The statements by Patel mark the latest in a series of controversial remarks by the faith adviser to be reported by WND, including comments against the U.S. and Christianity.
In February 2010, Obama named Patel to his Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Patel, a Muslim activist, is the founder and executive director of Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, which says it promotes pluralism by teaming people of different faiths on service projects.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Psych Drug Doctors Now Pushing to Add Lithium to Drinking Water
Chlorine, fluoride, and the various other chemical poisons already added to the nation’s drinking water supplies are apparently not enough for the self-appointed experts whose insatiable lust to force-medicate the world is never satisfied. A recent report in The Daily offers credence to the insane notion that adding lithium, a drug currently used to treat mental disorders, to drinking water will be beneficial in helping to reduce suicide and violent crime rates.
Much like fluoride, lithium alters the brain’s normal production of serotonin and norepinephrine, which in turn artificially alters the way an individual thinks and how he or she feels about a given situation. Lithium is literally a mind-altering, antidepressant chemical substance that those promoting it openly admit modifies brain function. And yet they purport that forcibly inducing these chemical changes on the unwitting populations of the world is a good and acceptable idea.
“Lithium certainly dampens impulsivity, which would explain how it reduces suicide rates,” said Dr. Allan Young, a psychiatry professor at Imperial College London and big time promoter of lithium-laced water, to The Daily. “When you change these resilience factors in the brain, you see other changes too. People are less timid and shy, for example.”
In his push to begin poisoning water supplies with lithium, Young also cites Americans having been easily swayed to accept genetically-modified (GM) foods as a reason why the US is a “likely candidate for early implementation” of lithium-laced water. He and others are openly pushing to get lithium in the water as soon as possible in order to, as The Daily puts it, “cultivate a more serene social order.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck on Terror Show: Sharia in America
On this week’s special edition of the Stakelbeck on Terror show, we analyze the growing push by radical Muslims to incorporate Islamic Sharia law in America.
National security experts Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy and retired Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin explain how Sharia is making inroads in the U.S., who’s behind the trend, and what can be done to stop it..
Click the link above to watch.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck Exclusive: Turkish Imam Runs Multi-Billion Dollar Empire From Pennsylvania
Fetullah Gülen has been called the world’s top public intellectual and the face of moderate Islam. He has held court with Pope John Paul II and received praise from former President Bill Clinton.
Yet others have branded Gülen a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a modern day Ayatollah Khomeini.
CBN News recently took a closer look at the the life of the reclusive Turkish imam who directs a multi-billion dollar global Islamic movement—not from Istanbul or Ankara, but from Pennsylvania’s Pocono mountains.
Click the link above to my exclusive report.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Air France Catastrophe: Victims’ Families Propose Grounding All A330s
Airbus believes pilot error caused the crash of Air France flight AF 447 two years ago. But the families of some victims think it might have been a technical defect. They have filed a petition with a Paris court which could result in a temporary grounding of all A330s.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Racism Campaigners Slam Finnish Colour-Coded ID Cards
European anti-racism campaigners are shocked at plans by Finnish authorities to colour-code the country’s ID cards, with blue cards for native-born citizens and brown cards for all foreign nationals, calling the new scheme “legalised ethnic profiling”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Retracts Link Between E Coli Outbreak and Spanish Cucumbers
Germany has conceded it is unsure whether Spanish cucumbers are at the source of the country’s recent E coli outbreak, fanning a pan-European row as plummeting vegetable sales continue to hurt producers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: ELAM Distances Itself From Hate Graffiti
THE [Greek Cypriot] nationalist ELAM party has sought to distance itself from hate graffiti sprayed on the spot in Athens where a 44-year-old man was stabbed to death by migrants.
ELAM’s name and that of Chrysi Avgi, its Greek counterpart, appear on buildings along with depictions of the Nazi swastika and a number of anti-immigrant slogans, some of which read: ‘Death to Muslims’; ‘Kill all immigrants’; ‘Free Greek neighbourhoods’; ‘Death to Zionism’; “Skinheads rule ok?”; and ‘Freedom to Cyprus’.
The slogans have appeared in the Athens neighbourhood where on May 10 a man was murdered as he was rushing to drive his pregnant wife to hospital.
Greek police arrested two suspects, both Afghan nationals, who confessed to the crime. Their motive had been to steal a videocamera, which the victim, a Greek national, was planning to take with him to the hospital to record the birth of his child. The suspects, both asylum seekers, had managed to sell the stolen camera for €120.
The crime led to violent reprisals on foreigners by far right and nationalist elements in Athens. One foreign national, a Bangladeshi, was killed, and dozens others assaulted in the days that followed.
Meanwhile the scene of the initial crime was virtually taken over by what are believed to be members of nationalist outfits.
The photographs of the graffiti, which include the name ELAM, were taken several days after the crime.
ELAM party spokesman Marinos Aristidou said they could not be held responsible for what someone may spray on a wall, attributing the spray-painting to “kids”.
“Certainly we did not authorise it,” he added. “We cannot control what goes on at any time.”
Aristidou said ELAM “unreservedly denounces the slogans”.
He qualified: “Except for the reference to Solomos Solomou (a Greek Cypriot killed by Turkish forces on the Green Line in 1996) and the one calling for a free Cyprus. Those we agree with.”
Asked if he was at least concerned that ELAM’s name appeared side by side with that of Chrysi Avgi and with racist slogans, Aristidou said: “While 40,000 Turkish troops remain in Cyprus, the last thing on my mind is some graffiti.”
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Judge Postpones De Magistris & Genchi Preliminary Hearing
(AGI) Rome — Preliminary hearing judge Barbara Callari has postponed the hearing for De Magistris due to legitimate impediment. Luigi De Magistris, the new mayor of Naples, and the consultant Giacchino Jenkins, are accused by Rome prosecutors of conspiring to abuse office in the course of the so-called ‘Why not’ investigation, by having illegally acquired the phone records of a number members of Parliament without first applying for authorisation to the Chamber of Deputies or Senate as appropriate. The delay in the hearing is due legitimate impediment as De Magistris today officially takes on the office of mayor of Naples.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PM Gathers Family in Rome to Discuss Media Empire’s Future
(AGI) Rome — Italy’s premier gathered his family at his private residence in Rome today to discuss his media empire’s future.
Among the topics of tonight’s dinner is expected to feature a discussion concerning the upcoming Milan Appeals Court ruling concerning the 2009 sentence which obliges Fininvest to compensate media rivals CIR to the tune of 750m euro.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malta: Catholic Maltese Vote to Legalise Divorce
Valletta, 30 May (AKI) — Overwhelmingly Catholic Malta has voted to legalise divorce, becoming that last member of the European Union to allow married couples to put an end to their matrimony.
Preliminary results showed the pro-divorce side winning with a majority of 52 to 54 percent of the vote.
Conservative prime minister Lawrence Gonzi — who campaigned against the referendum — said he will respect the referendum’s results.
“Even though the result is not what I wished for, now it is our duty to see that the will of the majority is respected,” Gonzi said on Sunday.
Ninety-eight all Maltese are Catholic and more than 70 percent say they regularly attend Mass. The Catholic Church played a visible role in the “No” campaign, saying divorce can lead to family break ups and hurt children.
After polls closed the island’s bishops issued a statement in effect saying they hoped nobody’s feelings got hurt in the campaign.
“To all those who had an active role on both sides (in the referendum), we wish to express regret if anyone felt hurt by words or actions from members of the Church,” said the statement from Malta’s bishops.
“Also, we assure everyone that we unconditionally forgive those who we feel have hurt us,” the statement added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Amsterdam Denies Its Integration Advisor Supports Terrorists
THE HAGUE, 02/06/11 — The personal assistant to Fatima Elatik, the president of the Oost (East) district council of Amsterdam, applauded the murder of Theo van Gogh. Despite this, the municipality denies he is a radical Muslim.
Fatima Elatik is the president of Oost on behalf of Labour (PvdA). Her personal assistant is Mohamed Azahaf. This man has also since 2009 been the district council’s project leader on ‘alienation and polarisation’.
Journalist and blogger Carel Brendel discovered that at the time of the murder of Islam critic Theo van Gogh, Azahaf expressed jubilation about this terrorist act. On the Internet, he writes on a Moroccan forum: “Yippee, how happy I am today, oh so happy I have never before been. Hip hip hooray, one gone and the second still to go”. He was apparently referring here to then MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Azahaf was at the time a staff member of a youth centre in Amsterdam, Argan. In 2009, he became a policy staff member of Elatik’s, according to Brendel. “Some explanation is needed of the question of why Elatik attracted this radical of all people as her personal assistant,” he concludes.
In a press statement, Oost district council denies everything. “Azahaf is a bridge-builder,” proclaims the statement’s headline. While he acknowledges that he “had made a number of statements in those times which he now no longer supports”, “the quotations ascribed to him by Carel Brendel “are taken out of context or not true.”
But Brendel says that nothing is taken out of context. He simply tracked down literal quotes which are indisputably from the ‘bridge-builder’, he says. “It is of course possible that Azahaf meanwhile regrets his remarks about Osama bin Laden and Theo van Gogh. But he did make them.”
One day before the murder of Van Gogh in November 2004, Azahaf took part in an internet discussion about Osama bin Laden. He wrote: “A true Muslim, a real fighter, an example for the Muslims. May Allah be gracious to him and prepare a place for him in the beautiful and wonderful paradise.”
District council Oost says in its statement: “Azahaf is of great importance as a bridge-builder who works on fostering mutual understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. In his behaviour, he actually encourages opposition to radicalisation and entering into the dialogue in a multicultural society. (…) Bloggers and columnists may permit themselves the appropriate freedoms. What is objectionable is that assumptions are more or less presented as facts.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Money for Missions is Almost Gone, Defence Minister Warns
If the Netherlands decides to continue contributing to the Nato mission in Libya it can do so for three more months but then the entire budget for foreign missions will be used up, defence minister Hans Hillen told MPs on Tuesday evening.
Nato will decide on Tuesday whether to continue its efforts to protect opponents of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi later on Wednesday. The Netherlands has contributed a minesweeper and six F-16 fighter jets to help enforce the weapons embargo.
The special foreign ministry budget for foreign missions still has €10m to spend, news agency ANP reports.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Abuse at Leading Care Home Leads to Police Inspections of Private Hospitals
Staff suspended from a Castlebeck care unit after footage shows patients being kicked, slapped and drenched with cold water
Inspectors have been called in to private hospitals that care for people with learning disabilities after exposure of a regime of shocking abuse by staff at a unit run by one of Britain’s leading care companies.
The chief executive of the company, Castlebeck, said he was ashamed of what had gone on at the unit. Thirteen employees have been suspended and police have arrested three men and one woman as part of an ongoing investigation.
Care services minister Paul Burstow said he was shocked by the revelations and had authorised a series of random, unannounced inspections of similar units by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the sector regulator which has itself apologised for failing to act on earlier tipoffs about the Castlebeck facility. Critics of the government’s NHS reforms will seize on the implications for the proposal to allow “any qualified provider” to supply healthcare in the same way as in social care, where private companies and charities dominate the market.
The regime of abuse at the Winterbourne View unit, in Hambrook, near Bristol, was exposed by the BBC Panorama programme. An undercover reporter was taken on as an unqualified support worker and filmed secretly for four weeks as some of his fellow workers routinely slapped and kicked patients, pinning them to the floor and drenching them with cold water.
The unit is purportedly an assessment hospital for adults with profound learning disabilities or autism, but most of the patients had lived there for more than a year — each at a cost to the public purse of £3,500 a week — and there appeared to have been little activity or stimulation.
In one scene in the programme, a male support worker seems to goad a female patient to throw herself out of a second-floor window. He says: “Go on, do it now I’m here. I’d love to see you try it: you will go flying. … When you hit the floor, do you reckon you will make a thud or a splat?”
In another scene, a second male support worker is seen to act as a Nazi camp commandant, repeatedly slapping a patient across the face with a pair of leather gloves and saying: “Nein, nein, nein!”
Staff, sometimes with qualified nurses watching, used forms of restraint that an expert described as closer to martial arts rather than any approved technique. A female patient is seen pinned beneath a chair for more than 30 minutes with one support worker sitting in the chair and keeping his foot on her wrist, while a second worker kneels on her legs.
Panorama focused on Winterbourne View after being approached by Terry Bryan, a former senior nurse at the unit who had tried and failed to raise his concerns within Castlebeck and with the CQC. The regulator said it recognised that “there were indications of problems at this hospital which should have led us to taking action sooner”.
Lee Reed, Castlebeck’s chief executive since January, said he was “personally ashamed” to be part of an organisation that had allowed such abuse to occur and had apologised unreservedly to the patients and their families.
Castlebeck specialises in care of people with learning disabilities and has 56 units and a £90m turnover. Steps have been taken by safeguarding agencies to protect the patients at Winterbourne View, some of whom have been moved elsewhere, and the unit is barred from taking any further admissions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Deformed Babies and a Shameful Conspiracy of Silence
Few subjects are more universally heartbreaking than the plight of sick children. Yet in this country babies are routinely born with terrible disabilities that could easily be avoided — if only the dangerous tradition of first cousins marrying, which still prevails in many Muslim communities, could be stamped out.
A whole raft of genetic disabilities —from blindness and hearing problems to blood disorders — are being bred into our children thanks to this antediluvian practice.
As a British-born Pakistani Muslim, this is something I have seen first-hand — and yet, in this politically-correct age, it is seen as a taboo, with precious few people willing to speak out.
At the weekend, however, geneticist Professor Steve Jones from University College London made a brave speech at the Hay Literary Festival highlighting the health problems of ‘inbreeding’ within Islamic communities.
He warned of the ‘hidden genetic damage’ to children born when first cousins marry, explaining this occurs because children are much more likely to inherit two copies of any damaged genes from their parents.
While everyone inherits some abnormal genes, in most cases a normal gene from one parent will overrule a defective gene from the other parent. But if the child’s parents are related, they are more likely to both carry the same defective genes.
Professor Jones’s research showed that children of first cousins were ten times more likely to have recessive genetic disorders and face deafness, blindness and infant mortality.
This is a shocking statistic, which is why I’m grateful that someone has finally been prepared to stand up and say what many of us in Islamic communities have known for decades.
I can only hope that David Cameron’s Government will not shy away from confronting a problem which for too long has allowed outrageous practices to flourish unchallenged in this country.
Growing up in England as the child of Pakistani parents (who moved here in 1965, five years before I was born) I know of several children, born to first cousins, who have severe disabilities. I have little doubt that most Muslims in this country would say the same.
It is a problem I have always been aware of. Thankfully, I was under no personal pressure to ‘marry within the family’ — indeed my own British husband is not even Muslim.
I am even more grateful for the fact that my two-year-old son has no health problems.
Unfortunately, others in my community cannot say the same. Many Muslims born in Britain are under intense family pressure to ‘marry within’, as a way of keeping money within the family. If they do not, they face being ostracised by their own relatives.
Studies show that in Bradford, which has a large Pakistani community, 70 per cent of marriages are between relatives — and more than half of these are between first cousins.
The result of this inbreeding? Terrible disabilities like the ones I have witnessed in the children born to a woman in my own community. Her first child was born blind, the second deaf and the third mute.
As if that were not tragic enough, these disabilities are simply accepted with a casual shrug. Because everyone seems to know someone with a sick child, it is barely commented on within the community.
In the Pakistani-Muslim communities I have experience of, it is not a cause for concern. The only thing that matters is ‘marrying within the family’; after that, no questions are asked.
Those who do acknowledge the issue take no responsibility for the hardships they are inflicting upon their children.
To me, it is nothing short of shocking that this is happening in third, fourth and fifth generation British Pakistani communities.
My own mother, whom I love dearly, arranged the marriage of her niece to her nephew, the children of her brothers. If they have children, will they be born healthy? I just don’t know.
But no one should be surprised that blood disorders, diabetes and obesity are commonplace among Muslim children.
This is the case in Pakistan, of course, where these practices have been common for hundreds of years.
But while I can understand — without condoning it — why this might still be happening among poor, uneducated villagers halfway around the world, there is no excuse for it in a modern, advanced country like Britain in 2011.
One thing needs to be clear: these practices have no basis in religion — there is nothing in the Koran that dictates a man should marry his first cousin.
And while I’m prepared to stand up and say how appalled I am at the indifference of my own community, I am every bit as outraged by the lack of interest shown by liberal Britain to this deeply troubling problem.
Although as a nation we are quite prepared to storm into places like Libya and stand up for the human rights of their citizens, we do not have the same approach to social problems in our own country.
Terrified of being branded Islamophobic, most people simply choose to ignore these issues and are more worried about causing offence than the plight of these poor, blameless children. But in keeping quiet out of a misplaced sense of political correctness, we are failing our own citizens.
If this were a problem in any other section of the population, it would be openly debated and tackled. After all, it’s the overstretched state that is left, quite literally, holding the baby.
Because the Muslim community takes no responsibility for the disabilities among its young, it is left to the NHS and local authorities to provide healthcare and learning support.
While only 3 per cent of UK babies are born to British Pakistanis, their babies account for one in three of those born with genetic illnesses.
When, for example, underage pregnancy was identified as a problem in the UK (and a drain on resources), efforts were made to educate the young, predominantly poor, white, women this was happening to.
Yet because this is happening within Muslim communities, those who speak out about it are made to feel racist, while the liberal elite step back, vowing not to ‘meddle’.
As a young woman who knows only too well how difficult it is to grow up in Britain’s prevailing culture, while another set of rules and norms dictate life within your own home, I would suggest that today’s young Muslim men and women would heartily welcome ‘interference’.
Most of them do not want to marry their first cousins, or have arranged marriages. Instead, they identify themselves as British and would like the laws and cultural traditions of this country to be observed within their own communities.
Many of the women who have been coerced into marrying first cousins probably do not speak any English, and will not even know of the health problems they may be storing up for their children.
There should be a mandatory genetic screening programme and counselling for any first cousins planning to marry, to ensure they are aware of the potential health problems they could be passing on to their offspring.
Similarly, anyone coming into this country to marry should have to be screened to determine their suitability for their intended spouse. Instead of taking pot luck, people would know the risks they were taking before they conceived.
After all, how can it be racist to protect the well-being of innocent children?
While it is the children who suffer most in all of this — having to negotiate life with crippling disabilities — the impact it has on their families should not be underestimated.
The woman I know who has children who are blind, deaf and dumb is now struggling on her own after her husband left her, remarried and went on to sire more children with another woman.
In the twisted logic that still governs many Muslim communities, this was seen as his right — because his wife had been unable to bear him a healthy child. She, meanwhile, is a single parent with three disabled children who has no choice but to ask the state to support her.
It is a shameful state of affairs, and the more courageous people like Professor Jones draw attention to it, the sooner these families can be dragged into the 21st century.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Family Who Owned Ten Houses Worth £1m Tricked Taxpayers Out of £100 a Week for Seven Years
A family conned taxpayers out of almost £100,000 — even though they had ten homes worth £1million.
Mother-of-one Anuysa Parmar received £100 a week for seven years despite her family’s wealth.
The 51-year-old from Leeds admitted falsely claiming £36,938 and avoided jail after Leeds Crown Court heard she was the only family member able to be sentenced.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Laughing at the Law: The Thug Who’s Been Convicted 40 Times for 73 Crimes
When it comes to breaking the law James Gelling has few equals. At just 23 he has one of the worst criminal records in Britain.
His 40 convictions for 73 separate offences include robbery, burglary, assault and possessing a dangerous dog.
But as he was jailed yet again — this time for 12 weeks for attacking his ex-girlfriend — MPs called for an end to ‘revolving door’ soft sentences for offenders like him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Scandal of British Aid Spent on Giving Pakistanis Online Banking
Millions of pounds of British aid money have been spent on helping Pakistanis manage their bank accounts on their mobile phones, it emerged yesterday.
Ministers revealed that taxpayers’ cash has gone to firms in Pakistan and Kenya which offer customers the convenience of monitoring their accounts on their mobile phones rather than having to visit a bank.
The Coalition defended the spending, saying that more than one billion people in developing countries have a mobile but do not have a bank account.
They insisted the move will encourage new businesses to thrive in these countries — stimulating the economy and reducing reliance on traditional aid.
But Tory backbenchers, already angry that the aid budget is being increased while nearly every other department faces spending cuts, will question the spending.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Big Chunks of Gaddafi’s Stash of Oil Wealth Went Into Italy — and Bad Investments
An overview of the Libyan sovereign wealth fund’s bad moves, including investments in some of Italy’s top firms such as energy giant ENI and industrialist Finmeccanica
The real mystery of Libya’s oil treasure seems to be how much of it has been squandered by disastrous investments. The anti-corruption organization Global Witness has published on its website a detailed report, originally dated June 30 2010, about the troubled investments of Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA).
Currently, a UN resolution has frozen the assets of LIA, which owns a 2.6% share of the Italian bank Unicredit, a 2% share of the Italian oil and gas company ENI and a 1% share of the Italian industrial and hi-tech group Finmeccanica.
But from the report, it seems that LIA’s investments should have been halted long before. While most sovereign fund managers tend to be highly professional investors, the LIA seemed to have another approach. One-third of its capital, $19 billion, was kept in deposits, while risky investments and huge mistakes were made with the rest.
During the quarter between April and June 2010, LIA’s total asset dropped by 4.53%, from $55.8 billion to $53.3 billion. Not too bad, considering that the equity and currency derivatives portfolio’s value plunged by 98%, from $1.24 billion to $20 million.
An investment of $1.8 billion set up by the French bank Société Generale left only $284 million. Stock options and assets were even more disastrous. An equity derivative investment in ENI lost 99% of its value. One with Unicredit lost 99.5%. A contract signed with Citgroup, which cost $100 million, left only $500,000.
Libya’s good relations with Italy were clear from the sovereign fund wealth’s portfolio. Almost 24% of LIA’s investments were with Italian companies. Germany was the second partner, the US was the third and the UK the fourth leading partner.
Some of the biggest global fund managers worked with Gaddafi. LIA had structured product investments with HSBC, Commerzbank and Paribas, as well as private equity funds Carlyle, RBS and Goldman Sachs. Ironically, the Libyans were happy to help fuel Washington with financing. Two-thirds of LIA’s $3.4 billion of bonds investment were invested in US government bonds.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Specter of Chaos Haunts Libya
By Victor Kotsev
TEL AVIV — The sense of chaos just keeps growing in Libya. Given the full-swing misinformation campaign on all sides, it is hard to confirm whether the latest reports of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s isolation and weakness are genuine, a product of a psychological campaign against him by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), or manipulations of his own.
One threat, however, is looming larger and larger, and it could dramatically affect all strategic calculations. Libya may soon become a powder keg too big and fragmented for anyone to control, including Gaddafi, the rebels, and NATO.
The intensified bombing campaign in the last few weeks, coupled with a diplomatic offensive on several tracks, seems to have softened the resolve of at least some of Gaddafi’s power base. Last Friday, Russia, which had previously been sharply critical to NATO’s campaign, joined the countries calling for Gaddafi’s ouster, and offered to mediate an end to the conflict. On Monday, eight senior officers, including five generals, and (according to rebel reports) “scores” of soldiers defected from the government army. The officers may have been persuaded to do so in part by a shift in NATO tactics toward bombing assets that are important to them. [1]
It is far from clear, however, that these developments alone will change the status quo significantly. On Tuesday, Gaddafi told visiting South African President Jacob Zuma that he would not give up power, and Libyan government spokesman Ibrahim Moussa warned that such a scenario would lead to full-scale civil war. Gaddafi did tell Zuma that he was willing to negotiate.
Some speculated that Russia sensed that Gaddafi’s downfall was inevitable, but it is hard to gauge how sincere the Kremlin shift is. Persistent reports of secret talks between the rebels, Gaddafi and possibly NATO have raised the possibility of a secret deal being in the works; some pundits suggest that such a deal may involve a transfer of power within the Gaddafi family, for example to Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam.
Russia’s diplomacy on Libya has arguably been driven by ulterior motives since the start of the crisis, [2] and we can expect the Kremlin to have extracted a handsome price for even a slight change in its position. Some analysts speculate that such a price might manifest itself, for example, in American concessions over the missile defense system in Europe.
The impact of the defections is hard to measure as well. Gaddafi has also claimed that large numbers of rebels have surrendered to him, and it is difficult to confirm the scope of such occurrences and the veracity of reports on both sides. Besides, it is useful to keep in mind just how fluid the situation on the ground can sometimes be.
In the early days of the uprising, Western journalists were frequently surprised to see the same people participating in anti-Gaddafi rallies one day and in pro-Gaddafi rallies the next. It is possible that we are witnessing a similar phenomenon now, with at least some people circulating between the sides. The reports of back-channel negotiations between the seemingly irreconcilable rival governments add to these suspicions…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Former Mossad Head: We Rely on G-D But Have Responsibility
In the following video, featured at the 2011 Moskowitz Prize for Zionism ceremony, former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan speaks about his service for the safety of Israel.
The prize committee explained that Dagan has contributed immeasurably to the security of Israel. Born in 1945 to Holocaust survivors, Major General (res.) Dagan has a rich past of IDF service, serving as a paratrooper and rising through the ranks from Company to Division Commander.
“Dagan fought in Israel’s wars, was injured twice, and earned the Medal of Valor, the second highest honor in the IDF, the committee stated. He has also served in various headquarter staff positions until he commenced his service at the rank of Major General.
“Dagan served as head of the counterterrorist staff at the Prime Minister’s Office for two years and was then appointed as Director General of the Israel Secret Intelligence Service from 2002 until 2011, after his term was extended twice. Dagan’s term as Mossad Chief is considered especially successful, and he has left a legacy of creativity and action which are held in high esteem by Israeli and international leaders alike, including Arab leaders and international heads of state. He now heads the Israeli Port Authority.”
| — Hat tip: DW | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Firm Willing to Pursue Turkey’s Light Helicopter Deal
Italy’s AgustaWestland is eyeing Turkey’s multibillion-dollar light utility helicopter program in a bid to compensate for its losses in a former utility helicopter purchase. Its competitor for the deal is again the US-based firm Sikorsky. ‘If Turkey wants to jointly develop something new to bolster its know-how, we also can start from scratch,’ says an AgustaWestland executive
A mechanic works on the rear rotor blade of a helicopter at the Finmeccanica AgustaWestland factory in Yeovil, United Kingdom. ‘We will be available for Turkey if Turkey wants to work with us,’ says a company executive. Bloomberg photo.
A leading Italian military aviation firm that recently lost Turkey’s $3.5 billion utility helicopter competition is willing to pursue a similar deal for light utility helicopters against the same U.S. rival, a company executive has said.
“We will be available for Turkey if Turkey wants to work with us,” the AgustaWestland executive told the Hürriyet Daily News on Wednesday.
AgustaWestland lost the Turkish utility helicopter deal to the U.S. firm Sikorsky Aircraft.
The official’s remarks were in line with advice from Italian Deputy Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, who on May 10 asked the Italian company to seek to win the new Turkish contest for a partner to make light utility helicopters.
“AgustaWestland needs to pursue all opportunities and chances in the helicopter field,” Crosetto said. “They will have to fight in this tight market.”
Turkey last month selected the T-70, the Turkish version of Sikorsky Aircraft’s S-70i Black Hawk International, over the TUHP 149, the Turkish version of AgustaWestland’s AW149. Sikorsky and its Turkish partners plan to build a first batch of 109 utility helicopters, mainly for Turkey’s military and security forces. With follow-on orders, the number of helicopters manufactured is expected to reach 600. The utility helicopters weigh about 10,000 kilograms.
The light utility helicopters will weigh between 4,500 and 5,500 kilograms. Turkey plans to build hundreds of such military and civilian helicopters with a foreign partner.
A new clash?
Turkey will soon begin to design and develop a military and civilian light utility helicopter, most probably with a foreign partner, and possibly with Sikorsky Aircraft, procurement chief Murad Bayar said May 9.
Bayar said Sikorsky, a leading manufacturer of various helicopters, did not have a helicopter in the category of light utility platforms, the type of chopper Turkey wants to develop. “Turkey and Sikorsky Aircraft can work on this matter together,” he said. “If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, we are ready to work with any other companies.”
Turkey and Sikorsky Aircraft last year signed a memorandum of understanding under which both sides would explore modalities. That memorandum of understanding has now expired, and the two sides are working to update it.
Now, though, AgustaWestland also seems to be entering the competition. The Italian company has two helicopters, AW139 and AW169, in or near the light utility helicopter category.
Despite the presence of these two platforms, AgustaWestland would also be pleased to work on a completely new helicopter, if Turkey wanted to do so, according to the company official who spoke to the Daily News.
“If Turkey wants to jointly develop something new to bolster its know-how, we also can start from scratch. We have experience in this field,” the official said.
“It looks like we may see a renewed rivalry between Sikorsky and AgustaWestland,” said an Ankara-based defense analyst.
AgustaWestland earlier grabbed two contracts, altogether worth billion of dollars, to build with Turkish partners 60 T-129 attack helicopters, Turkish versions of its AW129. The first chopper should be delivered late next year.
Separately, Ankara is negotiating with the United States on a deal to buy at least six CH-47 heavy lift helicopters made by Boeing.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: Land Around Fukushima Now Radioactive Dead Zone
It is nothing short of astonishing that the nuclear catastrophe we’ve all been told was “no big deal” has now escalated into the worst nuclear disaster in the history of human civilization. It’s so bad now that soil samples taken from outside the 12-mile exclusion zone (the zone considered safe enough by the Japanese government for schoolchildren to attend school there) are higher than the 1.48 million becquerels a square meter limit that triggered evacuations outside Chernobyl in 1986.
In other words, the radiation level of the soil 12 miles from Fukushima is now higher than the levels considered too dangerous to live in near Chernobyl. This is all coming out in a new research report authored by Tomio Kawata, a fellow at the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan. That same report also reveals that radiation from Fukushima has spread over 230 square miles.
What we’re facing here, folks, is a Fukushima dead zone where life will never return to its pre-Fukushima norms.
Bloomberg is now reporting, “Tetsuya Terasawa said the radiation levels are in line with those found after a nuclear bomb test, which disperses plutonium. He declined to comment further.” [link]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Red Ghost Over China: Maoism Makes a Comeback as Economic and Political Reform Ebb
Despite a huge police presence, protests continue in China’s Inner Mongolia’s provincial capital of Hohhot as ethnic Mongolians vent their anger with Party cadres over environmental problems and other issues. The unrest parallels similar incidents in Tibet in March 2008 and Xinjiang in July 2009, but the phenomenon is hardly limited to minority areas. A Tsinghua University sociologist estimated that across China there were 180,000 large-scale protests last year.
Violence is also on the rise. Last Thursday, a farmer in Jiangxi province detonated three bombs outside government buildings, killing himself and three others. Qian Mingqi left behind Internet postings saying he was angry his home had been illegally seized and demolished by the government—an all-too common complaint throughout China. He had been petitioning the government for redress since 2002.
It is no longer controversial in ruling circles to acknowledge that the Chinese Communist Party and “the masses” have drifted apart. But there is no clear consensus on what to do about it. That has led to some speculation that there is a split within the Party, a development that could upset the planned leadership transition next year. But it’s probably more accurate to say that the Party is paralyzed by fear, with economic and political reform dead in the water.
Observers of the Party’s remarkable recovery after the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre have attributed it to the leadership’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances with creative policies. That ability is no longer in evidence. The current leadership is leaning heavily on two old standbys: crackdowns and propaganda. Both are favorites of the leftist wing of the Party, which explains why China is having a neo-Maoist moment…
| — Hat tip: DS | [Return to headlines] |
Rise of ‘Missing Girls’ In India and China
New data show the effects of aborting fetuses and the killing of baby girls on Asia’s two giants. Such nations need more gender equality and appreciation for daughters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Almahde Ahmad Atagore Jailed for String of Melbourne Sex Assaults
A LIBYAN student who sexually assaulted seven girls and women in Melbourne has been jailed for more than five years.
Almahde Ahmad Atagore, 28, had been in Australia only a month and was having trouble adapting to the Australian culture when he committed the attacks, a court heard.
Atagore, who is a Muslim, was upset and sexually aroused at the way women in Australia dressed and behaved, the Victorian County Court heard today.
Between August and September last year Atagore, who was in Australia on a Libyan government scholarship, embarked on a string of sexual assaults over four days in Mentone and at Flinders Street railway station.
His youngest victim was just 13.
Sentencing Atagore, Judge Margaret Rizkalla said she accepted there was a link between the cultural issues, along with Atagore’s depression, and the offences.
“It seems you were very ill prepared to deal with cultural differences,” she said.
Judge Rizkalla said the assaults required strong condemnation, as they occurred when the victims were simply walking in a public area.
She jailed Atagore, who pleaded guilty to assault with intent to rape, committing an indecent act with a child under 16 and five counts of indecent assault, for five years and three months.
Atagore must serve a minimum of three years in prison before being eligible for parole.
The court heard Atagore, who has already served 259 days in custody, will likely be deported when he completes his sentence.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Bolivia Defense Ministry Invites Accused Iranian Terrorist Mastermind, Then Disinvites Him
Iran, whose embassy in Bolivia is the largest in our hemisphere, sent Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi to Bolivia at the Bolivian Defense Ministry’s invitation.
While in Bolivia, Vahidi attended a ceremony with President Evo Morales.
The article does not touch on the question of what the nature of Vahidi’s visit to the BDM would be. However, apparently Argentinian officials must have protested, because Bolivia’s foreign minister wrote a letter of apology to the Argentinian foreign minister, and Vahidi was sent out of the country…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Almost Half of Primary Schoolchildren in Antwerp Muslim
Reaping the whirlwind of Multiculturalism and the immigration gerrymandering of the left:
Half of primary schoolchildren in Antwerp Muslim, says the city’s education supremo. Belgium’s Dutch-speaking second-largest city now has a Muslim component of over 45%; almost double the number of Catholic pupils.
In response to a request for information by the nationalist Vlaams Belang party, Education Alderman Robert Voorhamme disclosed that, of the 10,743 students in the Antwerp municipal primary schools system, just under half chose Islamic studies.
“This is 45.5 percent or an increase of just under twelve percent compared to the 2007-2008 school year”, said Voorhamme — and demonstrates the rapid Islamisation of the city.
Voorhamme also said that the figures ‘reflected the evolution of the population’.
Except, of course, that it is no evolution.
The mass immigration of Muslims into Europe amounts to little more than the deliberate importation of voters by the political élites and the multiculturalist lobby; usually under the spurious premise of ‘diversity’, or claims of them being necessary to counter ageing population demographics.
The biggest supporters and exponents of this immigration are usually on the left — the fact that most immigrants tend to vote for the parties that promise the most in state benefits is no coincidence here. But the leftists’ political gerrymandering may have grave consequences for the rest of us.
As we have pointed out in the past, if Muslim immigration and the associated establishment of closed, self-segregating third-world communities within developed countries continues to grow at the current trend rates, community relations — already tense in some parts of Britain and Germany and worse across large swathes of France, Benelux and Scandinavia — could reach breaking point.
This unprecedented influx has brought with it other ‘benefits’, too — Islamic terrorism, anti-Semitism, sexual grooming gangs, ‘honour killings’, substantial increases in the incidence of rape and the organised drug gangs which tend to proliferate wherever large Muslim populations flourish.
If we in Europe wish to keep our identities and way of life — not to mention our superior (yes, superior) cultures based on democracy, the work ethic, Judaeo-Christian principles, secularism and the rule of law; we seriously need to wake up and start sending unambiguous signals to our elected politicians.
With half of primary schoolchildren in Antwerp Muslim already — it can only be a year or two more before they become the majority.
[Source: HLN.be (Dutch)]
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
MEPs ‘Astonished’ At New Asylum Rules
A group of MEPs have declared themselves “astonished” that the European Commission has revived a proposal to allow asylum seekers the same social welfare assistance as own nationals.
The suggestion is just one of series of modifications proposed by the commission today in an effort to make its Common Asylum Policy faster, more efficient and fairer.
The centre-right European People’s Party, the largest group of MEPs in the European Parliament, said in a statement that they noted the development with “astonishment” and that the idea had previously been “clearly rejected by both parliament and Council”.
Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström said asylum was one of her “top priorities,” adding that the treatment of asylum seekers currently varies greatly between EU member states. “The standards we agree at the European level should be simple, clear, and cost-efficient. The EU must stand up for its values and provide protection for those coming here to seek refuge from persecution and conflict.
“Today’s proposals offer high level standards for people genuinely in need of protection, and will help to reduce unnecessary burdens on national authorities. They will also contribute to building more trust between the member states,” she said.
But Simon Busuttil, an EPP MEP, said changes were needed before an agreement could be reached. “The new rules should be more realistic and easier to follow than the previous ones. The EU has been lacking an effective asylum system for far too long, it is time to get this fixed,” he said. His colleague Monika Hohlmeier MEP added that “there will be difficult negotiations ahead of us”.
The policy has been the subject of years of debate and negotiations between the EU’s institutions. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats today insisted that member states should not use political unrest in North Africa — and the subsequent influx of migrants to southern Europe — as a pretext for further delaying the adoption of the new proposals. Nadja Hirsch MEP said: “The parliament will not back down on its requirements for a common approach in receiving and handling migrants in a dignified, fair and efficient way. Now time is ticking and the ball is clearly in the council’s camp with no more time to waste.”
Fellow ALDE member Renate Weber said the council no longer had any excuse to delay. “The proposals keep the financial and administrative burden at low levels and minimise any abuse of the asylum system. Parliament’s position has already been adopted,” she said.
The proposals will be discussed at the justice and home affairs council on June 9 and will require the support of the parliament and member states before they become law. The system is expected to be in place by 2012.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Nine Suspected People Smugglers Arrested After 932 Migrants Land
Ragusa, 1 June (Adnkronos) — Italian police have arrested four Egyptian, three Algerians, a Moroccan and a Tunisian suspected of people smuggling. The arrests came after 932 illegal immigrants landed on Tuesday on the southern Sicilian coast.
Over 30,000 people have come ashore aboard ships that had set sail mostly from Tunisia and Libya, where patrols were interrupted amid popular uprisings.
Italy in March signed a deal with Tunisia under which up to 60 illegal Tunisian immigrants can be deported each day.
In Libya, the revolt which began in mid-February has become a civil war between rebels and forces loyal to longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi which has displaced close to a million people, including many Egyptian and other immigrant workers.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ACLU Sues for Prisoners’ ‘Right’ To Porn
Lawsuit not over Bible, as widely reported, but about access to nude photos
A South Carolina jail made national headlines last month for allegedly forbidding its inmates to read anything but the Bible.
But it turns out the American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed against the Berkeley County Jail in Moncks Corner, S.C., isn’t over the Bible; it’s over pornography.
“The press seems to be saying that the only thing allowed in the jail is a Christian Bible, and that is just not true. And it has not been true,” Sandra J. Senn, attorney for the jail, told WXJT-TV in Jacksonville, Fla. “We allow all religious texts regardless of the religion and have for years. And there is plenty of reading materials in the jail such as novels, crossword puzzles [and] pamphlets.”
What the jail doesn’t permit is reading materials bound together by tape, staples, paper clips or clasps, nor are inmates allowed literature that would “encourage deviant sexual behavior.”
The ACLU, however, argues that those restrictions limit prisoners’ choices too much and that banning pornography violates inmates’ rights.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Fanatic Fined £100 for ‘Gay Free Zone’ Stickers
A Muslim fanatic who posted homophobic stickers declaring London’s East End a “gay free zone” has been fined £100.
Mohammed Hasnath, 18, posted stickers warning gays that homosexuality was wrong and that “Allah is severe in punishment”.
The stickers showed a rainbow flag with a black line through it stating “Gay free zone”.
They caused outrage among the community, with one Jewish resident said it reminded him of Nazi signs his mother had faced in the 30s declaring an area a “Jew free zone”.
Others said it made them fearful for their safety.
Hasnath, who is on benefits, admitted putting up a handful of the notes but said he had been given them, and pointed out there were “hundreds” of similar offensive stickers in the area.
Darren Watts, prosecuting, said: “This is in relation to a series of homophobic stickers put up around the East End area in February.”
The stickers, which were posted at Bow Church DLR, on the inside of a bus, at a bus stop in Whitechapel and outside the Royal London Hospital, showed a rainbow flag with a black line through it.
Above the flag was printed “Arise and warn” and below it said “And fear Allah: Verily Allah is severe in punishment.” Both were followed by references to the English version of the Koran.
Mr Watts told Westminster Magistrates Court that Hasnath was arrested after he was spotted on CCTV putting up the sticker at Bow Church and confessed to police he had also been handing them out to young Muslim men in the area.
“He said this was because in the Koran it was forbidden for any person to be a homosexual and as a practising Muslim it was against his religion,” Mr Watts said.
“These stickers have deeply upset many of the community in and around the area.”
In a statement read to the court Jack Gilbert, a board member of the Sandy Row Synagogue and co chair of the Rainbow Hamlets community forum, said: “For me I read this no differently from a sign that said ‘Jew free zone’.
“When I see that sticker I see the signs my mother saw in 1930 which actually carried less suggestion of punishment.
“For me I perceived an immediate threat of violence and had to make an instant risk assessment to my personal safety.”
A retired resident in the local area made a statement saying: “I was deeply shocked and decided to remove it as it immediately struck me as deeply offensive contained a implied threat of violence.”
The statement of a police officer working in the East End read to the court added: “I felt upset and offended. It made me feel I shouldn’t be working in the area and it should be a gay free zone.
“As far as I am concerned I should feel free and at peace to work in my community.”
When told the allegation against him of a public order offence of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour between February 11 and 14 Hasnath said: “But I just put up stickers, I didn’t harass or swear at anybody or anything.”
Hasnath, who was representing himself, pleaded guilty to the offence.
When asked by District Judge Jeremy Coleman what he had to say for himself Hasnath said: “Basically, some people just handed them to me so I just put them up. I didn’t say anything, it doesn’t say that I am going to punish them it just says what God says in the Koran.
“I wasn’t the one who made them, some people gave them to me and I only put up a few, there were hundreds of them up. I didn’t know the police were going to get involved or that it was a offence or anything.”
Hasnath, who lives with his family in Tower Hamlets and survives on job seekers allowance, was fined £100, ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge. The offence could not carry a custodial sentence.
District Judge Coleman said: “I think you used these stickers deliberately to offend and distress people, you certainly succeeded in doing that.
“You have upset people and they deserve an apology, you are not entitled to behave in this way.”
The court heard that Hasnath is on bail for allegedly defacing a women’s fashion advertising board.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Karlsruhe Invisibility Cloak: Disappearing Visibly
CFN Scientists at KIT Achieve Optical Invisibility in the Visible Light Spectrum
“Seeing something invisible with your own eyes is an exciting experience,” say Joachim Fischer and Tolga Ergin. For about one year, both physicists and members of the team of Professor Martin Wegener at KIT’s Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) have worked on refining the structure of the Karlsruhe invisibility cloak to such an extent that it is also effective in the visible spectral range.
In invisibility cloaks, light waves are guided by the material such that they leave the invisibility cloak again as if they had never been in contact with the object to be disguised. Consequently, the object is invisible to the observer. The exotic optical properties of the camouflaging material are calculated using complex mathematical tools similar to Einstein’s theory of relativity.
These properties result from a special structuring of the material. It has to be smaller than the wavelength of the light that is to be deflected. For example, the relatively large radio or radar waves require a material “that can be produced using nail scissors,” says Wegener. At wavelengths visible to the human eye, materials have to be structured in the nanometer range.
The minute invisibility cloak produced by Fischer and Ergin is smaller than the diameter of a human hair. It makes the curvature of a metal mirror appear flat, as a result of which an object hidden underneath becomes invisible. The metamaterial placed on top of this curvature looks like a stack of wood, but consists of plastic and air. These “logs” have precisely defined thicknesses in the range of 100 nm. Light waves that are normally deflected by the curvature are influenced and guided by these logs such that the reflected light corresponds to that of a flat mirror.
“If we would succeed again in halving the log distance of the invisibility cloak, we would obtain cloaking for the complete visible light spectrum,” says Fischer.
Last year, the Wegener team presented the first 3D invisibility cloak in the renowned journal Science. Until that time, the only invisibility cloaks existed in waveguides and were of practically two-dimensional character. When looking onto the structure from the third dimension, however, the effect disappeared. By means of an accordingly filigree structuring, the Karlsruhe invisibility cloak could be produced for wavelengths from 1500 to 2600 nm. This wavelength range is not visible to the human eye, but plays an important role in telecommunications. The breakthrough was based on the use of the direct laser writing method (DLS) developed by CFN. With the help of this method, it is possible to produce minute 3D structures with optical properties that do not exist in nature, so-called metamaterials.
In the past year, the KIT scientists continued to improve the already extremely fine direct laser writing method. For this purpose, they used methods that have significantly increased the resolution in microscopy. With this tool, they then succeeded in refining the metamaterial by a factor of two and in producing the first 3D invisibility cloak for non-polarized visible light in the range of 700 nm. This corresponds to the red color.
“The invisibility cloak now developed is an attractive object demonstrating the fantastic possibilities of the rather new field of transformation optics and metamaterials. The design options that opened up during the last years had not been deemed possible before,” emphasizes Ergin. “We expect dramatic improvements of light-based technologies, such as lenses, solar cells, microscopes, objectives, chip production, and data communication.”
| — Hat tip: Zenster | [Return to headlines] |
Space-Time Ripples: How Scientists Could Detect Gravity Waves
For years, scientists have been trying — and failing — to detect theoretical ripples in space-time called gravitational waves. But new research suggests that building just one more detector might finally do the trick. Four gravitational wave detectors are currently in operation. Proposals have been submitted to build three more, one each in Japan, Australia and India. Constructing just one of these would double the amount of sky being covered in current searches for gravitational waves and would drastically increase the chances of a detection, according to the study. The study, by physicist Bernard Schutz of the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany, was published May 27 in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tevatron’s Mystery Signal Grows Stronger With More Data
In April, physicists reported seeing hints of a new particle in data from the collider’s CDF experiment — now even more data shows the signal is still there
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.N.-Backed Summit Seeks ‘Social Justice’ For African Descendants
Only three months to go until the First World Summit of African Descendants, a U.N.-sponsored event that aims to “right historical wrongs.” The August 18-21 summit in La Ceiba, Honduras, will focus on the socioeconomic conditions of Afro-descendant populations and establish a plan to “ensure development with equity for these groups,” said the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), which announced the event in Washington on Thursday. The event is part of the United Nations-declared International Year of African Descendants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Worms From Hell? Deepest Multicellular Life Found
How low can worms go? According to a new study, at least 0.8 miles (1.3 kilometers) below the Earth’s surface. That’s the depth at which scientists discovered a new species of worm, dubbed Halicephalobus mephisto in honor of Faust’s demon Mephistopheles. The worm, reported this week in the journal Nature, is the deepest living multicellular organism ever found. “We tried to get the title of the paper to be ‘Worms from Hell,’“ said study author Tullis Onstott of Princeton University. “But Nature didn’t go for that.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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