Debt Catches Up With Eurozone, US
Having lived on easy credit for many years without too many problems, the United States and Europe are now finding out the hard way that the buck — and the bill — has to stop somewhere. The problem is that after decades of easy living, no one wants it all to end even if the debt is of stratospheric proportions and the future risks being in hock for what will feel like an eternity. On Thursday, European leaders meet in Brussels for an extraordinary summit on a second bailout for debt-stricken Greece as nervous markets wait in hope for a deal that will tame a crisis threatening even more countries. In Washington, President Barack Obama appears locked in a life-and-death struggle to increase the budget ceiling and so save the US government from an unprecedented default that could tip the world back into recession.
A eurozone or US default could have horrendous consequences, causing credit to dry up, starving the economy of the key element for growth and likely setting off a chain reaction around the globe. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday he expected the two sides to come to an accord but also warned of the dire consequences of failure. A US debt default “would bring the world economy … because of the critical role we play in the global economy, to the edge of recession again. And again, it’s not an option we can consider,” Geithner said. Like the eurozone, the United States now finds itself under the ratings agency microscope, with Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s threatening to downgrade its debt from its top triple-A grade unless a deal is made. A downgrade would be a “little earthquake,” Nicolas Forest, analyst at Dexia AM bank said, with the world seeming on the point of change that seemed highly improbable only months ago.
The “solvency of sovereign states is no longer to be taken for granted” Italian central bank chief and future head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi said last week. Credibility must be “earned in the field with high and sustainable growth, which is only possible with public accounts in order,” he added. The reasons for the debt debacle either side of the Atlantic are well known. The eurozone and the United States, like much of the developed world, got used to living on credit, accumulating debt that breached prudent accepted norms of 60 percent of Gross Domestic Product — the specified EU ceiling. The 2008 financial crisis turned the debt screw tighter still — governments borrowed heavily to pay for expensive stimulus programmes to keep their economies on track, but it seems only to have worked for a while. Growth has slowed, especially in the weaker eurozone states which have needed bailouts — Greece, Ireland and Portugal — and in those countries — Italy and Spain — seen as most at risk.
Faced with an enormous bill, European and US leaders face serious political obstacles if they are to balance the books by cutting spending and raising taxes, said Carsten Brzeski, economist at ING bank. In the United States, lawmakers face-off over raising the debt ceiling while in Europe, Germany bickers with France and the European Central Bank on how to save Greece, leaving the financial markets in agonies of uncertainty. While a US default seems unlikely, the eurozone is a real concern to investors, analysts said. This is manifested on the markets, with US government bonds keeping their reputation while eurozone debt, with the exception of Germany, under pressure. No one doubts that short-term solutions will be found but how will countries evolve in the long-term while carrying a heavy debt-burden and achieving only modest growth, analysts said.
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European Socialists Call for Stability Agency
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou joined Saturday fellow European socialists in a call for a dedicated agency to stabilize euro debt and for limiting the power of credit rating agencies.
The Party of European Socialists, or PES, issued a six-point eurozone recovery plan, declaring it time for governments of member states “to collectively reassert their primacy over financial markets.”
Among the group’s demands was a “stability agency” which it said would “reprofile the debt of eurozone member states and at the same time ensure correction of a member state whose economy runs the risk of losing stability.”
“In this respect the eurozone could benefit from the issuing of Eurobonds,” PES said.
The group also called for a “truly efficient” eurozone mechanism with guarantees “designed to help countries attacked by speculators and which ensures private investors responsible for reckless lending bear their share of the costs of stabilizing measures.”
The statement, titled “A Eurozone based on democratically accountable economic policy,” followed a phone conference meeting attended by Papandreou and, among others, French opposition leader Martine Aubry and new Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja.
It came ahead of an extraordinary meeting of eurozone nations on Thursday in Brussels on ways to tackle the debt crisis and provide fresh aid for Greece.
The EU and International Monetary Fund bailed out Athens last year with a package worth 110 billion euros ($160 billion). But the country remains in serious financial difficulty.
Also on the PES list of measures was a European tax on speculation, “to raise new revenue without harming ordinary citizens and avoid unfair social cuts,” and financial reforms “to ban harmful practices and instruments and limit the power of credit rating agencies by ensuring genuine supervision and underlining their responsibility.”
They called for a “European investment strategy” to promote fair growth and job creation.
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Eurozone Grapples With Greek Debt Deadlock
Eurozone governments wrestled on Tuesday with tough options to break an impasse over a new Greek bailout ahead of a critical summit as pressure mounts on them to solve an epic debt crisis. After several turbulent days for the euro and European stock markets, the eurozone is scrambling to seal a deal and prevent the crisis from dragging down bigger nations, with Italy and Spain in the firing line. Spain had to offer increased rates to borrow short-term money on Tuesday, but long-term borrowing rates for Spain and Italy eased although remained exceptionally high. Greece also borrowed short-term money at slightly easier, but still high, rates. Germany and France, at odds over Berlin’s insistance on involving private bond holders in the second Greek bailout, voiced optimism that an agreement demanded by the markets would emerge at the summit on Thursday. “I am confident,” French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said in Washington, where the US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner renewed calls for European leaders to find a lasting solution.
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Germany: Economy Primed for Next Decade But Poor Lose Out
Germany is in a better situation to cope with the next decade than any other major industrial nation, but the gap between rich and poor is increasing, according to studies published this week. The greatest strength of the German economy is its broad industrial base, and the close cooperation between large firms and highly-specialised mid-sized companies, said the study which was compiled by the Swiss Prognos Institute and the consultancy Management Engineers. “Here, Germany is very well positioned with its industrial structure and qualifications,” said the report. Electro-technology and machine engineering are likely to generate the largest growth impulse for Germany, the report suggested, particularly as these sectors are likely to benefit from the rise of renewable energy and the trend towards energy conservation. But it is the health care sector which is likely to provide the greatest growth in job creation, with the experts compiling the report estimating that around 500,000 new jobs will be needed in the sector by the end of the decade.
Yet current strong growth rates are not likely to be sustained, the report said. “Our country will on average only grow by 1.1 percent a year until 2020,” the report said. The healthy underlying condition of the German economy will labour under the burdens of demographic development — an ageing population — and the lack of professionals this will mean. While the situation may look rosy from a macro-economic point of view, for those at the bottom of the economic heap, things are getting worse, according to new data from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). This shows that the gap between high- and low-earners is growing, as those with lowest wages see their income declining.
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Greece Threatened With Widespread, Long-Term Poverty
Greece is tightening its belt — and the number of people living in poverty is surging as a result. Thousands line up in front of food banks and resort to rifling through rubbish bins. The country’s financial crisis is rapidly turning into a social one — while wealthy tax evaders manage to get off scot-free. This time, the fight for survival last exactly 29 minutes. At precisely 3 p.m., Father Andreas, a 37-year-old Greek Orthodox priest, opens the doors of the food bank in downtown Athens. At this hour, the line of hungry people stretches all the way across the large square outside and into the street. Needy people of all ages are waiting patiently — pensioners, unemployed people, mothers with children, immigrants, asylum seekers. “We can’t let these people starve,” the priest says. “They are already suffering so much. They should at least not go without food.”
It is a charitable deed. But in just under half an hour, all of the kitchen’s 1,200 servings have been taken, causing several dozen people to leave with empty hands and growling stomachs. They can only hope to be among the lucky ones next time. Katarina was one of the lucky ones. The 44-year-old got her hands on eight servings of a salad made of carrots, potatoes and peas, several yoghurts and a bag of bread — the only food her family will have today. Katarina is ashamed and prefers not to give her full name. She and her 7-year-old daughter have to take a bus in from a suburb and travel all the way across the sprawling city just to get a warm meal.
Katarina was laid off from her job at a biscuit factory roughly a year ago. Since then, she’s been forced to rely on the handouts paid for by what Father Andreas calls “holy money.” Katarina says there are no more jobs to be had. “No one will even pay you to stuff mailboxes with advertisements anymore,” she says. “Greece is finished.”
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Greek Default Must be Avoided: ECB Chief
The responsibility to prevent Greece from defaulting lies with eurozone governments, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet told a Slovak newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday. “A credit event, selective default or default must be avoided,” Trichet told the daily Hospodarske Noviny, repeating the central bank’s line two days before a eurozone summit on Thursday. “We ask the eurozone governments to find appropriate solutions as soon as possible,” he added. The ECB chief dismissed calls for a Greek default as a way out of the crisis.
Richard Sulik, head of a junior party in Slovakia’s coalition government and speaker of parliament, has been among those arguing that a default would help settle the Greek debt problem. “Who could consider a default of any sovereign country, in the context of a European and global crisis of public finances, a good solution?” Trichet said. Slovakia, which adopted the euro in 2009, was the only member of the currency bloc to refuse an emergency loan to Greece last year. Its centre-right coalition, in power since July 2010, has suggested it might refuse to support a new loan as well.
Greece will be able to pay its bills this month after the eurozone cleared the way for the next 12-billion-euro tranche of last year’s 110-billion-euro ($160 billion) European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout. But the eurozone’s finance ministers need to work on a second rescue package potentially of similar size to ensure Athens can stay afloat until at least 2014, warding off a devastating default that would reverberate across Europe.
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Half the Dutch Want to Leave the Eurozone
THE HAGUE, 19/07/11 — Half the population of the Netherlands want the Netherlands to leave the eurozone, according to a poll by Maurice de Hond.
Of all those polled, 49 percent consider it would be better for the Netherlands along with Germany and other strong countries to leave the euro currency and carry on with a variant of the euro. Seven out of 10 respondents consider it unacceptable that the Netherlands has to make cutbacks but at the same time makes a lot of money available to other countries.
Slightly over half the electorate, 54 percent, consider that the Netherlands should no longer contribute to loans to countries with financial problems. Unsurprisingly, this view is most widely shared by supporters of the Party for Freedom (PVV) — by 94 percent of them. Leftwing Green (GroenLinks) supporters are least likely to share this view, at just 29 percent.
According to De Hond, the euro crisis is influencing the political preferences of the Dutch more than domestic cutbacks. Anti-European parties like the PVV and Socialist Party (SP) are benefiting from this electorally.
The latest poll by De Hond shows the PVV would currently win 27 seats in the Lower House, one more than last week. The SP keeps its 22 seats of last week, its highest level since 2007.
The conservatives (VVD) lose one seat to 33. The Christian democrats (CDA) gain one to make 15. The centre-left D66 are down a seat to 15. All other parties are unchanged from last week.
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Italian Stocks Rebound as Debt Fears Ease
Milan closes 1.92% up, bond spread narrows
(ANSA) — Milan, July 19 — Italian stocks and bonds recovered Tuesday as the markets appeared to show greater confidence in a tough austerity package passed last week to ease fears of contagion from the Greek debt crisis, analysts said.
The Milan stock market’s bellwether FTSE MIB index closed 1.92% up with leading banks Intesa and Unicredit regaining about 5% after sustaining heavy losses on Monday.
The spread between Italian and German bonds narrowed from 332 basis points to 312.6, easing the pressure on the interest Italy pays for its public debt, the second-biggest in the eurozone behind Greece.
The 70-billion-euro austerity budget aims to cut Italy’s budget deficit to 0.2% of GDP by 2014, from almost 4% this year.
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Italy and Spain in Turmoil
“Stock markets at lowest levels, fear returns,” notes Italian daily La Stampa following a “Black Monday” on European stock exchanges. Milan recorded the most significant drop at 3%, though prices were rising somewhat on Tuesday morning. The Turin daily considers that austerity measures voted on July 15 by the Italian Parliament are insufficient to stop speculation sustained by “the perception that the weakened Italian government, is not able to respond in a timely manner to events and that instability will last for a long time”.
But Italy is not the only country in trouble. “The markets are whipping Spain and forcing it to pay ruinous interest rates,” laments the Spanish daily El Mundo. During this “Black Monday,” the risk premium — that is the difference in yield between German bonds, the most secure, and bonds of other countries — reached 372 points for Spain compared to 330 points for Italy. Spain must also pay interest rates of 6.32% to finance spending, which makes an economic revival even more complicated.
This week, “the worse for debt since the birth of the euro,” with the extraordinary eurozone summit scheduled for Thursday, July 21, will be a key moment for Spain, says El Mundo. The conservative daily stresses the need to call general elections after the summer break because the government of José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero “can no longer take tough decisions”. A day earlier, it was the centre-left daily El Pais that called on the head of government to step down.
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New European Ratings Agency Slated to Open Next Year
Established international ratings agencies have drawn political ire in Europe over their downgrading of several nations’ sovereign debt. Now a new European ratings agency is meant to counterbalance their influence. With the eurozone scrambling to restore confidence in troubled nations like Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain, a political hurdle has emerged as those nations face the downgrading of their creditworthiness by international ratings agencies. Now a new European credit ratings agency is being formed in order to counteract the influence of the “big three” US-based agencies: Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.
The creation of the new, privately-financed ratings agency is expected to cost 300 million euros ($425 million), according to a report in the monthly finance magazine Capital. Markus Krall, a partner at the Munich-based consultancy Roland Berger, has been actively lobbying for the cause for the past 12 months. He told Capital the agency would be created as a consortium of up to 25 participants investing 10 million euros each. Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann reportedly supports the model.
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FBI Called Muslim Leader After Arrest of Miami Imams to Reassure Him That There Was No “Rudeness” Or Violation of Mosque Sanctity
In a sane world, in the wake of these arrests the Muslim community would be working to reassure the FBI of its loyalty to the U.S., and working with agents to identify and track jihadists and jihad sympathizers. Instead, the FBI is rushing to assure Muslims that they weren’t rude while arresting men who are accused of financing jihad terrorism and murder.
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Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan Supports Libyan Leader Al-Qadhafi and Threatens Europe and America: You Will be Drowned in Your Own Blood
I’m sorry, America — I have got to say it, because I heard it from the mouth of the honorable Elijah Muhammad — Europe is finished.
“All of you who love war will be drowned in your own blood, as it is written: ‘Those of you who love to shed the blood of others — Allah will make you drunk with your own blood, as with sweet wine.’ Europe is headed for war, as we speak. Yes England, France, Italy, Germany, the honorable Elijah Muhammad told me that at the right time to tell you that Europe is the graveyard of the future. All of you who ran to Europe, to your former colonial masters, it is written that everyone will have to go to their own, and find refuge under their own vine and fig tree.
“And as Europe is trying to push out the Africans, to push out the Pakistanis, you would be wise to prepare yourself to get out of there or die there, because the future for Europe and America is bleak, very very bleak. China and Russia — oh, you all will be at war. You like it, so Allah is going to give it to you. You will have war soon. Mark my words — not my words, but the words of a man who was taught by God. You will face every word that he spoke. You will remember what you heard today — that a man, a real man of God was in your midst, and every word that I speak — you will face it.”
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Notorious Nazi’s Diaries to be Auctioned
A US auction house has announced it will put under the hammer the journals of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, the so-called “Angel of Death” who decided life or death and directed gruesome medical experiments in concentration camps. The Connecticut-based Alexander Autographs said Thursday’s the auction would include some 3,500 pages of “hidden journals” of the doctor at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The items are expected to fetch between $300,000 and $400,000 (between €212,000 and €283,000). The identity of the owner was not indicated. Alexander Autographs, which specializes in historical manuscripts, said the auction would include a “historically important” lot of 31 manuscripts in various forms, including bound journals. Some were written in Paraguay and Brazil, where Mengele lived after fleeing Europe at the end of World War II until his death in 1979. “All writings are penned in ink in a legible hand, in generally excellent condition,” the auction house said. Mengele was a member of the Nazis’ elite SS, which ran death camps across occupied Europe.
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Swedish Librarians Find Stolen Atlas in New York
One of the books stolen from the Swedish National Library in the beginning of the 2000s has been discovered with a collector in New York. This is the first of the books stolen in the by now infamous book thefts to have been tracked down. “The discovery was a combination between coincidence and skill, actually,” said head of information at the National Library (Kungliga Biblioteket -KB) Urban Rybrink to The Local. In 2004 literary Sweden was hit by scandal when it was discovered that a respected specialist at the National Library in Stockholm had been pilfering rare books to a value of at least nine million kronor ($1.4 mllion) from the library’s collections and selling them off at auction houses worldwide for a number of years.
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Bookmakers Bet Cameron to Resign Over Hacking Scandal
(AGI) Rome — British bookmakers are betting that Prime Minister David Cameron will resign before Sunday. According to Agipronews, top UK bookie William Hill is offering at 17-00 the possibility that the British prime minister will leave Downing Street by the weekend. Possible successors are considered to be Boris Johnson at 5-00, and George Osborne at 7-00.
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Erdogan Threatens Freeze With EU During Cypriot Presidency
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to freeze relations with the EU while Cyprus holds the union’s six-month rotating presidency from next July in remarks published Tuesday. “We will not have any discussions with the Cypriot president. Reports with the EU will be frozen,” he told the daily Milliyet. Ankara, which does not recognise the Cyprus government, has called for an accord to end the island’s 37-year division between its Greek and Turkish communities before Cyprus takes over the EU presidency.
“We consider it a disgrace to sit down at the negotiating table with them (Greek Cypriots) at the United Nations. We will not negotiate with a country which we do not recognise,” Erdogan declared ahead of a visit on Tuesday afternoon to the northern Turkish part of the island to mark the anniversary of the Turkish military intervention on July 20, 1974. Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at union with Greece. The issue remains a major stumbling block to Turkey’s struggling bid to join the EU.
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Germany: Cops Losing Tobacco Smuggling Battle
Untaxed cigarettes and tobacco are costing the German government an untold amount of money in lost tax revenue each year, and as new fronts in tobacco smuggling open, authorities seem powerless to stem their market penetration. Although officials and cigarette companies have invested millions of euros to fight the illegal trade, up to 22 billion illegally untaxed cigarettes — 400 million in Berlin alone — were smoked last year, the German Cigarette Association (ODP) and customs authorities told Die Welt newspaper on Tuesday. Roughly 40 percent of all cigarettes smoked in the country go untaxed although the number skyrockets to 60 percent near the Polish border, according to paper. Smugglers have become so brazen in recent years that they’re selling their own special cigarette brands imported from countries like Russia or Moldova, none of which can be sold legally.
Among the best known is Jin Ling, which is produced exclusively for smuggling to Western Europe and has become one of the best-selling brands in Germany. A box with ten cigarette cartons goes for €22, giving sellers a more than 1,000 percent profit on boxes that can be bought wholesale for €2, according to Die Welt. “It’s more lucrative than hashish,” a security investigator for a legitimate German cigarette firm, told the newspaper.
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Germany: Raid Targets Suspected Islamist Fund-Raisers
German police raided eight apartments and an office in the Stuttgart area on Tuesday in an operation aimed at cracking down on fund-raising for Islamic extremists abroad, although no one was arrested, authorities said. The raids by around 60 police officers in Baden-Württemberg under the code name “Iron” recovered propaganda material and close to €10,000 in cash, public prosecutors in Stuttgart said. The properties were used by six people including four said to be German citizens of Turkish origin, and two Turks aged between 42 and 51. One of them was an imam. Police suspect them of collecting money to send abroad for terrorist purposes and to commit “seditious violence and the formation of a criminal organization.” The Südwestrundfunk broadcaster said the main suspect was a 51-year-old who has previously been involved with a banned Islamic organization.
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Hungary: Court Acquits 97-Year Old for 1942 Killing of Jews, Serbs, Roma
Budapest, 18 July (AKI) — A Hungarian court on Monday acquitted a 97-year old Hungarian, Sandor Kepiro, accused of committing World War Two crimes in Serbia in January 1942.
According to the indictment, Kepiro, a former officer in the Hungarian gendarmerie took part in the mass killings of some 1,200 Jewish, Serb and Roma civilians in Serbia’s northern city of Novi Sad.
Prosecutors said Kepiro was directly responsible for having ordered the rounding up and execution of 36 people. He was convicted in 1944 for killings in Hungary but his conviction was quashed by the fascist government and he later fled to Argentina.
A Metropolitan Court of Budapest spokeswoman said there was not enough evidence to find Kepiro guilty but the judge will provide “detailed reasoning of the verdict” on Tuesday.
Returning to Hungary in 1996, he and was tracked down by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as the world’s most wanted Nazi war crimes suspect. Serbia had asked for his extradition, but the request was turned down by Hungarian authorities.
Appearing in court last May, Kepiro denied of taking part in any killings. He accused judges of being “the murderers of a 97-year old man”.
After a non-guilty verdict was read out on Monday, Kepiro’s supporters and members of right wing political organizations applauded in the court and Kepiro was taken back to the Budapest hospital where he had been treated while in detention.
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Invasion of the Viking Women Unearthed
Shane McLeod of the University of Western Australia re-examined 14 Norse burials in eastern England, and he concluded that there were more women among the Viking invaders than had been thought. “These results, six female Norse migrants and seven male, should caution against assuming that the great majority of Norse migrants were male,” he wrote in a study published in Early Medieval Europe.
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Italy: Calderoni Draft Law Only Pays MPs if They Come to Work
(AGI) Rome — The draft bill on constitutional reform is ready.
The text of the bill, submitted by Minister Roberto Calderoli will be examined in committee tomorrow and be presented to the cabinet this week. Among other measures, the draft modifies MP’s salaries who will be paid according to how much time they spend in the house and how much they take part in business of parliament.
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Italy: Naples Residents Burn Rubbish on Streets in Protest
(AGI) Naples — Naples sets the scene for further waste protests, with residents setting fire to rubbish piles. Rubbish collection suffered additional setbacks after one company tasked with cleaning the city’s city centre stopped service on Saturday night due to wage protests. Firemen were called up to extinguish some 22 street fires tonight.
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Italy: Northern League to Vote Against Campania Waste Law
(AGI) Rome — The Northern League has announced in parliament that it will vote against the new law on waste with MP Renato Togni speaking of the many amendments presented to the legislative decree on the waste emergency in the Campania Region. “Northern League cabinet members have voted against this legislative decree and it is assumed parliamentary groups i maintain the same position.”.
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Netherlands: One in Seven Work in Healthcare
One in seven people currently work in the care sector, making it the fastest growing economic sector in the country, according to new figures from the national statistics office CBS.
Trade is still the biggest employment sector, accounting for 1.5 million jobs. Nevertheless, the care sector will overtake trade within a few years, the CBS said.
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Prominent Belgian Jewish Figure Resigned From Brussels University Board to Denounce Anti-Semitic Incidents
Jacques Brotchi, internationally renowned neurosurgeon and a member of the Belgian Senate: “I asked if the university of free-examination has not become the university of free anti-Semitism.”
BRUSSELS (EJP)—-A prominent figure of the Jewish community of Belgium has resigned from the Board of Free University of Brussels (ULB) after denouncing several grave anti-Semitic incidents within the institution.
Jacques Brotchi, an internationally renowned neurosurgeon and honorary professor at the ULB, told EJP: “I resigned from the Board of the University Foundation which collects funds for research because I deeply deplored the absence of a strong and appropriate reaction from the university authorities to a succession of anti-Semitic incidents.”
In his letter of resignation addressed to the ULB Rector, he wrote: “I don’t feel at home anymore at ULB.” He added, “I asked if the university of free-examination has not become the university of free anti-Semitism.”
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Spain: Madrid Braced for New Action by ‘Indignados’
(ANSAmed) — JULY 19 — Madrid is bracing itself for the arrival of tens of thousands of “indignados” from 26 cities across Spain. The protesters are arriving in the capital for the second major march in the capital this Sunday, which is being organised by the 15-M movement. The news comes from sources at the protest movement writing on www.tomalaplaza.net. The website brings together the various committees which, for the last few days, have marched in a number of areas of the country and who will converge on Sunday on the Puerta del Sol, the focal point of the Movimiento 15-M. Protesters are expected to arrive in Madrid by bus on Saturday July 23 and, together with the “indignados” mobilised in various areas of the city, will march on Puerta del Sol at 21:00. Leaders of 15-M will hold a people’s assembly on Sunday morning to define a short-term plan of action. The march is due to begin at 18:30 on Sunday, with the procession leaving the Atocha train station and arriving at Puerta del Sol.
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Sweden: Men Jailed for Shooting Each Other in Duel
Two men in Kalmar, in the south of Sweden, who had met up to settle a score between them through a game of “ last man standing” were sentenced to five years in prison by a court on Tuesday for attempting to murder each other. The charges against the men state that the 39-year-old and the 42-year-old had made arrangements to meet up on a bicycle path in the Funkabo part of Kalmar, on April 1st this year. In a text message between the two a duel was mentioned — a game of “last man standing”, according to local paper Barometern. The 38-year-old, who was armed with a gun, brought with him his 29-year-old friend and once on the scene he fired upon the 42-year-old, who was hit in the left buttock.
When he fell to the ground both of the other men kicked and beat him and sprayed tear gas in his face, according to the prosecutor. In connection with the assault the 42-year-old turned his own gun on the 38-year-old, injuring him in his chest and hip. Both men survived the injuries and are both claiming to have acted in self-defence. The court however, did not agree with them and they were subsequently sentenced to five years in prison for the attempted murder of each other.
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UK Snubs Ashton Over EU Military Headquarters
British foreign minister William Hague on Monday (18 July) said his country would “never” agree to the idea of a single EU military headquarters to replace the command centres scattered around five member states. “I have made very clear that the United Kingdom will not agree to a permanent operational HQ. We will not agree to it now and we will not agree to it in the future. That is a red line,” Hague told reporters after a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels. He argued that a permanent headquarters would duplicate Nato structures and would be a “waste of money”. Speaking at a parallel press conference, Ashton said that the British rebuke “did not come as a surprise to me”.
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UK: ‘Someone’s Coming to Get Me’: Terrified Phone-Hacking Whistleblower Feared for His Life Before He Was Found Dead
The man who launched the entire phone hacking scandal had become a paranoid recluse who believed someone was out to get him, a friend has revealed.
Sean Hoare, who was found dead at his flat in Watford, Hertfordshire, yesterday, had spent much of the last weeks of his life ‘hiding’ in his flat with the curtains drawn.
Last night a friend and neighbour claimed Mr Hoare, 47, had become increasingly reclusive and paranoid in recent weeks.
‘He would talk about someone from the Government coming to get him,’ he said.
‘He’d say to me, “If anyone comes by, don’t say I’m in”.
‘He was physically going downhill. He was yellow in colour and wasn’t looking well for the last month.
‘He had a constant struggle with alcohol and talked to me about how much he had put his wife through.
‘He did say something about phone hacking and I think that was his main worry. He had definite concerns with the media. He did mention he was paranoid and would mention conspiracy stuff.’
Former News of the World journalist Mr Hoare had accused former Tory media chief Andy Coulson of lying about his role in the affair.
He said that when editor of the paper, Mr Coulson actively encouraged his staff to intercept the calls of celebrities.
It was his explosive claims last autumn that reignited the scandal and ultimately led to the tumultuous events of the past fortnight which have shaken the political, police and media establishments.
Police were investigating the possibility that he had killed himself, saying his death was ‘not thought to be suspicious’.
His death came on a day when:
The Metropolitan Police was left in turmoil as counter-terrorism officer John Yates was forced to follow Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and resign;
Mr Yates faced investigation over claims that he secured a Scotland Yard job for the daughter of hacking suspect Neil Wallis;
David Cameron cut short a trip to Africa and said he will fly back to Britain today after agreeing to delay Parliament’s summer break to discuss the affair;
London Mayor Boris Johnson infuriated Number Ten by refusing to say whether the PM should quit over his hiring of Mr Coulson;
Police recovered a bag containing a computer, phone and paperwork found in a bin near Rebekah Brooks’s London home.
The body of Mr Hoare, 47, was discovered by police yesterday morning at his modern first-floor flat in Watford.
The former reporter blew the whistle during an investigation by the New York Times last September, pointing the finger directly at Mr Coulson, by then the Prime Minister’s communications chief.
Until Mr Hoare spoke out in September, pressure had eased on Mr Coulson, recruited by David Cameron as his media chief in 2007 after resigning as editor of the News of the World when royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed.
QUENTIN LETTS: Panic in the pavilion. Get your pads on, quickly… you’re in!
Last week, Mr Hoare was back in the spotlight with further claims, telling the New York Times that reporters at the News of the World were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals in exchange for payments to police officers.
Mr Coulson, who quit Downing Street in January and was arrested over hacking earlier this month, has strenuously denied Mr Hoare’s allegations.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Phone-Hacking Scandal Escalates; Rupert Murdoch Fights to Save His Life’s Work
Rupert Murdoch’s appearance before a House of Commons committee on Tuesday is the latest dramatic development in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, which now threatens to spread to the US. The media mogul’s life’s work is at stake. By SPIEGEL Staff.
It sounds like a story from another time, and yet it was only four weeks ago when Rupert Murdoch hosted a party at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens in the west of London, a historic brick building with large white-framed windows that is famous for its afternoon teas and popular as a venue for stylish weddings.
The old man was holding court at his British publishing house News International’s summer party, and everyone was there, just as they had been in earlier years. The guests included Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha, opposition leader Ed Miliband and many other prominent figures in British politics — as well as those hoping to become prominent. The guests ate oysters, sipped champagne and engaged in discreet conversations.
Now Britain’s leading politicians have issued their own invitation to the 80-year-old Australian-American media mogul. When the clock at Big Ben strikes half past two on Tuesday, Murdoch and his 38-year-old son James, who is head of News Corp’s European operations, will be expected to appear before the media committee of the British House of Commons, along with Rebekah Brooks, who quit as CEO of News International on Friday. But this time there will be no sparkling wine or light-hearted conversation. In fact, this time the members of parliament will be asking Murdoch and his son some unpleasant questions. Murdoch will be asked how he responds to the charges that editors at his tabloid newspaper News of the World hacked into as many as 4,000 mobile phones, including that of a girl who had been kidnapped and was later found dead, the widow of a soldier killed in Iraq and the phones of the family members of terror victims. He will also be asked about the charge that his employees bribed police officers to obtain mobile phone numbers — and why he allowed all of this to take place.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia Pledge to Help Each Other on Road to EU
Zagreb, 18 July (AKI) — Leaders of Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia at a trilateral meeting on the Adriatic island of Brioni on Monday pledged to help each other in efforts to join the European Union, to fight organized crime and prosecute war criminals.
Hosting the meeting, Croatian president Ivo Josipovic said the peoples of the three countries were linked by borders, culture, art, tradition, compatible economies and a common desire to join the EU.
Croatia will join the EU in 2013, while Serbia and Bosnia are lagging behind, but Josipovic said Croatia will help its neighbors to join the union as soon as possible. The relations between the three countries were burdened by open issues deriving from 1991-1995 war that followed the break up of the former Yugoslavia, but these problems must be resolved in a just way for the benefit of all three countries, he added.
“We want all to join the EU, because Croats, Bosniaks (Muslims) and Serbs live in all our countries and it would be unnatural that in the future parts of our populations live in the EU and others out of it,” said Serbian president Boris Tadic.
Zeljko Komsic, Croat member of Bosnia’s three-man rotating state presidency and current chairman, said the talks were “sincere and open” and should be held regularly.
“We all want to become a part of the European family of nations,” Komsic said.
Tadic pledged that the last remaining fugitive wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal, Goran Hadzic, would be arrested as soon as located. He called on other countries to vigorously prosecute war crimes, saying it was a precondition for reconciliation in the region torn by the bloody 1991-1995 war.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Police Bust ‘Prostitution Ring’ of the Elite
Zagreb, 18 July (AKI) — Croatian police have busted a high level prostitution ring which offered services to businessmen, athletes and politicians. Two people were arrested, according to local media reports on Monday.
Zagreb daily Jutarnji list said the police arrested Nebojsa P., known as Panco, the owner of a prominent Zagreb massage parlour, and his woman friend Marika T.K. They allegedly supplied beautiful girls, including aspiring pop singers and fashion models, to high level clientele throughout Croatia.
Depending on the kind of services, the clients were charged from 300 to 3,500 euros, the paper said. The girls with exotic names like Larisa, Simona, Martina and others, were offering services in the parlour, hotels and apartments but were even sent to various meetings and congresses to serve as business escorts”, the paper said.
During the raid the police reportedly broke into a Zagreb apartment and caught a 22 year old girl from Serbia in the act of offering services to a client. The circle of ‘escort dames’ and known clients which police discovered in this case is very wide,” the paper said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Former Libyan FM: Pakistani Scientists Assisted on Libyan Nuclear Program
Former Libyan foreign minister Abd Al-Rahman Shalqam, told the London daily Al-Hayat that former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf enabled Libya to purchase nuclear knowledge from Pakistani scientists. He added that the Pakistani nuclear scientist Abd Al-Qadeer Khan was involved in the Libyan nuclear program, along with scientists from North Korea and other countries. Shalqam also claimed that the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 was Libya’s revenge for the U.S. attack on Libyan leader Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi’s compound in 1986.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Insurgents Wounded in Clashes Near Misrata
(AGI) MIsrata — At least 23 Libyan insurgents have been wounded in clashes last night in Dafnia near Misrata, a former Italian village from the Garibaldi era about 20 kilometres west of the main rebel stronghold in Tripolitania. The news was reported by the insurgents, who also added that they had overcome the loyalist troops, who instead lost many fighters and abandoned a number of military vehicles, weapons and ammunition.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Rebels Take Brega as Civilians Fear Retaliation and Violence
For the National Transitional Council, it is the greatest victory since the war against Gaddafi began. Human Rights Watch slams rebel violence against civilians. “Our government abandoned us. Foreign media see as Gaddafi supporters,” says an Italian businesswoman in Tripoli. Video shows Libyans protesting against NATO.
Tripoli (AsiaNews) — Benghazi-based rebels took Brega over night. The town, which is 740 km east of Tripoli, is the country’s main oil hub. The National Transitional Council (NTC) called the fall of the city its greatest victory since the war against Gaddafi began. However, doubts remain about rebel intentions. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused them of retaliatory violence against pro-Gaddafi regime civilians.
In a recent report, HRW said rebels looted and torched homes in towns that had fallen under TNC control. In villages south of Tripoli, Gaddafi loyalists were beaten, their houses set on fire.
Tiziana Gamannossi, an Italian businesswoman in Tripoli, told AsiaNews that the rebels’ push is causing fear in the civilian population. “The rebels threatened me and some of my aides at a checkpoint between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica,” she said. “They seize women to get money, forcing men to get out of their cars to bargain.”
In her view, NATO is funding and arming violent groups that lack any training or code of honour. “Gaddafi’s soldiers committed crimes but they did not harm me, letting me to do my job even though the Italian government is involved in military operations.”
For Gamannossi, a war that was launched to defend civilians is absurd. The latter watch powerless as their cities and country are torn down amid the silence of western media.
“These days, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated against NATO in Tripoli, Zliten, Ajaylat and Sabha, demanding an end to the air strikes. No newspaper has given such news much importance, calling the protests, demonstrations funded by the regime.”
The businesswoman also complained about the indifference of the Italian government, which left Italian businesses in the war-torn country to fend for themselves after promoting investments in Libya.
“In order avoid the collapse of my company,” Ms Gamannossi, “I’ve had to stay in Tripoli despite the airstrikes. Those who stayed behind to protect their investments and help the population are looked upon suspiciously by foreign journalists who see them as Gaddafi supporters.”
On Friday, the 30-member contact group on Libya, including the United States, China and Russia, met in Istanbul (Turkey). The group formally recognised the TNC as the sole representative of the Libya people. This will give the council access to about US$ 200 billion in Libyan government assets held in foreign banks to fund the rebel advance.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Gaddafi Pressuring Al-Azhar to Issue Anti-NATO Fatwa for ‘Crusade’ Against Islam
Cairo, 19 July (AKI) — Libya is pressuring Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the world’s top Sunni centre of learning, to issue a fatwa condemning Nato air raids in support of rebels’ efforts to topple Muammar Gaddafi’s government, according to Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri al Youm.
National Transitional Council member Abdel Muniam al-Hawni told the daily that people close to Gaddafi are aggressively lobbying Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb of the Cairo university’s mosque to publicly censure Nato’s “crusade attacks against Islam.”
Al-Hawni said he did some lobbying of his own to advise el-Tayeb to ignore Libyan pressure.
“As soon as I heard that a Gaddafi delegation visited Al-Azhar University I immediately called Sheikh el-Tayeb to tell him what is really happening in Libya and that Gaddafi has lost all legitimacy after shedding the blood of his own people,” Al-Hawni said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Foreign Ministry Official Under Fire for Israel Work
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 18 — Officials from Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry have today staged a sit-in to show support for their colleague, Khemais Jhinaoui, whose appointment as Secretary of State has caused controversy due to Jhinaoui’s previous position as an official of the Tunisian embassy in Tel Aviv between 1996 and 2000, when the embassy in Israel was closed.
Responding to the protests, the Tunisian Prime Minister, Béji Caid Essebsi, who appointed him, said only that Jhinaoui is “an employee of the state”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: ‘War’ On Atheist Director, New Report
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JULY 18 — A real war has been declared on the Tunisian director Nadia El Feni, who recently presented his new and openly secular film “God nor Master”. In fact the director himself is openly atheist, and today he was faced with the umpteenth report (at least three so far, filed at different prosecutor’s offices in the country) against him, this time filed by a woman lawyer, Sahbia Ben Haj Salem, who informed TAP about her initiative.
The lawyer has asked the judiciary system to indict El Feni based on the law article that punishes material that can “harm public order and good morals.” If found guilty, the director could be sentenced to six month up to five years in prison. The lawyer has also taken legal steps against the Culture Ministry, which has authorised the screening of the film.
Muslim extremist close to the Salafis have protested violently against “God nor Master”. They have also threatened to kill people who have seen the film.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Washington Conference Examined State of Christian Minorities in Muslim Countires
by Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — The second Annual Conference of Coptic Solidarity International, an NGO for the support of the Christian Copts in Egypt and the protection of their fundamental rights, was held in Washington, D.C. on July 8-9, under the main theme of “Will Religious and Ethnic Minorities Pay the Price of the ‘Arab Spring?” The main objective of this conference was to understand the implications of the current upheaval in the middle East and to offer present and future support to the Copts, and other minorities, in this difficult period.
Policy experts, human rights and legal experts, representatives of several Middle Eastern minorities and indigenous communities as well as Coptic leaders from North America, Europe and Egypt participated in the two-day event, discussing the geopolitics of the Copts in Egypt, democracy prospects in Egypt, respect for human and minority rights, persecution before and after the Arab Spring, the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists and the Copts, aid to Egypt, building alliances, role of the media and the Coptic youth in the revolution.
The conference dealt with the issue of helping the international community to understand the strategic, long-term, negative impact of misunderstanding the nature of, or flirting with, the forces of religious fascism trying to dominate Egypt and the region.
Dr. Halim Meawad, former U.S. diplomat and a member of Coptic Solidarity, explained in his presentation to the conference how the Muslim Brotherhood hijacked the January 25 revolution in Egypt, which was started by seven youth organizations with no political experience and no leadership, making it easy for a veteran organization like the “Muslim Brotherhood” to penetrate the revolution and take control of it.
“They call themselves by different names,” said Dr. Meawad, “Wahhabi, Salafi, Hamas, Taliban, Qaida, Ikhwan, et cetera, but they all share and subscribe to the same systemic Islamic dogma and doctrine. All countries and nations must submit to Islam and infidels (sons of apes and pigs) will have one of three choices: 1) convert to Islam 2) pay jizya and live in humiliation or 3) be killed.” He warned that in appearance, the Muslim Brotherhood (ikhwan) is a moderate Islamist organization because its members wear western suits and ties, have their beards trimmed, and believe in taking over power in Egypt and the world in phases. They exercise taqyyia (intentional lying to non-Muslims) in a more thoughtful and planned manner. “Mahdi Akef, their former Supreme Guide was a blunt man whose statements and actions reflected the organization’s doctrine and intention, but his successor, Mohammad Badie, is a master deceiver.”
Dr. Meawad believes the Muslim Brotherhood is well positioned to take over the Parliament in the first phase of taking over the government and controlling all aspects of life in the country, and it seeks to establish an Islamic State.
“It looks like another Iran is in the making,” he said.
Dr. Maher Rizkallah, head of Canadian Coptic Association spoke of the necessity of giving a clear image to the US Congress and the European Community on the need for the democratization process in Egypt to be carried out on a sound footing, which preserves the rights of minorities, as is the practice in democratic states, noting that this matter is of importance to the United States and its national security.
Professor Walid Phares, an adviser to the US Congressional group on fighting terrorism, discussed during the two-day Conference the US position with regards to the events taking place in Arab countries (the “Arab Spring”), whose populations are eager for freedom from authoritarian regimes. He also discussed the statement given by the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on meetings held with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Renowned Coptic writer and political analyst Magdi Khalil, President of the Middle East Freedom Forum and a member of Coptic Solidarity, said that 9 members of Congress participated in the Conference discussions, along with more than 35 researchers in Middle East Affairs, religious liberty and Christian NGOs.
Evaluating the success of the conference Khalil said “the most important was actively supporting the passage of resolutions H.R. 440 and S. 1245, to be presented to the House of Representatives on August 2, which provides for the establishment of a Special Envoy to Promote Freedom for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia (Pakistan). The permanent envoy would “visit governments of concern, negotiate with them, follow-up matters of religious freedom for persecuted minorities, as well as recommend punitive sanctions.” He said 70 signatures have been collected from lawmakers to support this resolution, and he called on all US Copts and Christians to contact their House Representative to support this resolution.
The Conference called upon the international community to tie any aid to Egypt to it abiding by its commitment to international human rights conventions and treaties, and to ear mark part of the aid to compensate victims of religious hate crimes.
The Conference recommended in its resolutions to work in close alliance and coordination with genuine democratic, liberal and secular civil society forces in Egypt in order to save the country from the drastic consequences of falling under the control of a regime based on totalitarian religious ideologies, as well as join hands with other religious minorities and indigenous communities in the Middle East to form a new regional organization that upholds values of secularism and human rights in the area.
In Egypt, after the January 25 Revolution which toppled the dictator Husni Mubarak, most of the 15 million Copts were hopeful they would finally have equal citizenship rights with the Muslims, and the end to their persecution. However, instead there was an escalation of acts of aggression against them and their churches, in addition to nearly a tenfold increase in the number of abductions and forced Islamization of Coptic girls by Islamists. Moreover, Copts are concerned about the possibility of a Muslim Brotherhood dominated government in the near future.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Identified Egypt as one of the World’s Worst Religious Freedom Violators and as a Country of Particular Concern in its April, 2011 report.
| — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Book, Hollywood Magnate Milchan Among Nuclear Spies
The unauthorised biography of Arnon Milchan, a high-profile Hollywood film producer for more than 30 years, contains a shadow of arms trade and nuclear technology transfer to Israel. The books will come out by the end of this month and its content is potentially explosive. It tells the story of a successful entrepreneur in showbiz and other fields. But also of a spy of nuclear technology, paid — apparently — by the current President of Israel, Shimon Peres. The book could certainly be used as the basis for one of the many box-office successes Milchan has made. The allegations are in fact not new. But the evidence given in ‘Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan’, is new. The book was recently presented by Israeli publicists Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman in Los Angeles. The work will be in the US bookstores within around ten days. The information that has so far been released on the book by the New York Times, Haaretz and others is really interesting.
It is based on first-hand sources (including Peres) and some acknowledgements from Milchan himself, who was interviewed by the authors, as well as secret collaboration with Israel, though the country has refused to give its seal of approval to the work. Milchan — 67 years old and producer of films like “Once upon a time in America” by Sergio Leone, “War of the roses”, “Pretty Woman”, “L.A. Confidential”‘ and the more recent “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) or “The fountain’ (by Darren Aronofsy) — is described in the book as a person who leads a double life. He is born in Israel and manages to make it in the USA as businessman, but stays in close contact with his fatherland. Doron and Gelman zoom in on the network created by the Hollywood magnate (a generous public supporter of the right-wing pro-Israeli Christian evangelical church) to help weapons and strategic technology move to the Jewish State. They also focus on the operations managed directly by him for years, under cover of his companies.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Commandos Board French Boat Bound for Gaza
The Israeli military has boarded a French-flagged ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists to the Gaza Strip. The activists claim they are on a peaceful mission while Israel says they are entering blockaded waters.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Navy Commander: We Will Send Ships to the Atlantic Ocean
Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that Iran intends to send ships to the Atlantic Ocean, equipped with Noor long-range anti-ship cruise missiles. He added that Iran’s presence in the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, and the South Indian Ocean are a high priority.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Spanish Consortium Wins Desert High-Speed Rail Contract
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JUYL 19 — A consortium of Spanish companies is thought to have been awarded a contract to build a high-speed rail connection worth 6.5 billion euros between Mecca and Medina, in Saudi Arabia. According to official sources quoted by the media, the Spanish government has received a letter of intent from the Saudi authorities, who have said that they intend to award the contract to the Spanish consortium. A French business consortium had also been in the running for the award.
The project for the high-speed rail link through the desert will include the construction of the track, the sign system, the supply of trains and maintenance. The Spanish consortium consists of about a dozen companies, including OHL, Cobra (from the ACS group), Renfe, Adif, Copasa, Dimetronic, Indra and Talgo. The global Mecca high-speed project includes the construction of a 450-kilometre line; the installation of a sign system; electrical lines, telecommunications and security; the supply of high-speed trains and subsequent maintenance of the line. Sources say that the official award of the contract is imminent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria — Bahrain: Syria on the Brink of Civil War as Confessional Groups Clash
Sunnis and Alawis fight for hours in Homs, leaving at least 30 people dead. Security forces do not intervene, but continue to mop up protesters in border towns. In Bahrain, the opposition threatens to quit reconciliation talks because they are “not serious”.
Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies) — At least 30 people were killed in 24 hours in the central Syrian city of Homs in clashes between supporters and opponents of president Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Meanwhile, reconciliation talks designed to define democratic reforms appear bound for failure in Bahrain.
In Syria, clashes broke out in Homs after three pro-regime supporters were abducted by strangers and their dismembered bodies returned to their families, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The two sides started out beating each other with sticks, but then firearms were used,” he said.
A large number of the dead were killed by gunmen lying in ambush, as security forces stood idly by. Apparently, soldiers moved in only after the clashes ended. Last night a precarious calm prevailed over the city.
The clashes were confessional in nature, this according to other sources, pitting anti-government Sunni Muslims against pro-regime Alawis.
Increasingly, the country appears to be sliding towards civil war, something feared by most pro-democracy demonstrators.
President Bashar al-Assad, who belongs to the Alawi minority, seems bent on staying the course, despite international pressures.
Elsewhere, soldiers moved into the town of Zabadani, near the Lebanon border, as it pressed ahead in its campaign to crush anti-government protest. After house-to-house searches, 50 people were arrested, said Abdel Karim Rihaoui, head of the Syrian League of Human Rights.
In the east, on the border with Iraq, security forces opened fire against demonstrators in Al-Bukamal. One man was reported killed as people now fear soldiers will go from house to house to arrest more protesters.
By contrast, the official SANA news agency spoke of “armed terrorist gangs who stormed a government building and seized the weapons stored there”. It reported that three security personnel were killed and two kidnapped in the attack.
Such information is hard to verify because the government expelled foreign reporters months ago.
Since the start of protests, more than 1,400 people are believed to have been killed, and 12,000 arrested. Tens of thousands have fled over the border, especially in Lebanon, to escape military retaliations.
Meanwhile, tensions remain high in Bahrain after Bahrain’s biggest Shia opposition Al-Wifaq bloc said it planned to pull out of talks that began on 2 July.
The national dialogue had brought together 300 participants representing political parties, NGOs, media, parliamentarians, trade unions and business people to find a solution to the grievances that sparked protests back in February.
In a country with a Shia majority, the ruling family is Sunni and people want more democracy and less discrimination. So far however, the government has responded with an iron fist.
More than 30 people have died in clashes between demonstrators and police. Hundreds more have been arrested.
A spokesman for the main opposition group, al-Wifaq, said the national dialogue was not serious.
He explained that the group is not seeking the fall of the government in Shia-majority Bahrain but only reform.
The decision to abandon the national dialogue would be put to the Wifaq leadership for ratification.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Opinion: Germany is Deeply Divided on How to Deal With Russia
As this year’s Petersburg Dialogue, a regular meeting of German and Russian civil societies, winds down, DW’s Ingo Mannteufel warns of a rift within Germany concerning policies toward Moscow.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Putin and Medvedev Eye the Kremlin — And Each Other
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appears to be interested in a second term in office. But he first needs the blessing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — who is considering a return to the Kremlin himself. In the summer heat, politics come to a standstill in Moscow even more than they do in Western capitals. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin leave for the Black Sea, while senior Kremlin and ministry officials bask in the sun at their dachas along the Moskva River or at luxury resorts on the Côte d’Azur. They are usually able to relax in the sure knowledge that, once their vacations are over, they will return to the corridors of power. But, this year, everything is different. Russia’s elites are afraid — not for the fatherland, but for themselves. “Everyone is living with the feeling that the end of the world is near,” says Dmitry Muratov, editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper known for its critical stance toward the Moscow regime. “Careers and livelihoods are at stake.”
The problem is simple: Ministers, governors and other high-ranking officials can’t decide whose side to take — Putin’s or Medvedev’s. Parliamentary elections will be held in December, and the presidential election three months later. Medvedev has indicated that he’d like to stay in the Kremlin, but Putin’s intentions are unclear . Worried about their jobs and benefits, his former KGB comrades and associates from his days as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg are urging Putin, their frontman, to return to the Kremlin.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian-German Visa Requirements Cost Business Dearly
As German and Russian leaders meet in Hanover, business leaders complain that cumbersome visa regulations between the two nations are slowing trade and causing hundreds of millions of euros in economic damage each year. Meeting visa requirements for travel between the EU and the former Soviet republics is a time-consuming and often annoying procedure. Critics say paperwork is thwarting the economy and inhibiting cross-border investment. The Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, an organization that has been promoting German business ties with the region for almost 60 years, says strict visa requirements are inflicting hundreds of millions of euros of economic damage every year. It says the processing of visa applications between Germany and Russia alone costs 160 million euros annually. The committee’s latest visa study gathered data from 200 companies, mostly located in Russia, Belarus and Central Asia. Every fifth respondent stated that they have had cross-border deals fail due to difficulties obtaining a visa for business travel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chechnya: Red Bull Energy Drink is “Comparable to Beer, “ and Therefore un-Islamic
It’s fizzy, and it’s sold in a can, but that’s about where the similarity stops. In any event, here is a fine case of a government that is enforcing Sharia intruding arbitrarily on people’s lives, and doing so in an apparent rush to judgment. To challenge them would put one in danger of being accused of going against Islam itself, and that’s been known to endanger life and limb, even in Chechnya.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: ‘Seven Police’ Killed Shot Dead After Being Poisoned by Colleague
Kabul, 19 July (AKI) — A policeman in southern Afghanistan has killed seven of his colleagues by first giving them poison before shooting them dead.
The attack happened in Lashkargah, which is the capital of Helmand province, according to news reports.
The policemen were reportedly having lunch in their barracks when they were killed.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the incident, saying the killing was carried out by an agent working with the insurgency.
Separately, in neighbouring Pakistan, the Taliban have released a video showing the execution of 16 policemen.
The victims are shown with their hands tied behind their backs before gunmen open fire on them.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Relations With Its Neighbors High on US Agenda
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in India for the second round of the India-US strategic dialogue which openend in Washington last June. India and the United States are holding talks on boosting security cooperation and economic ties on the opening day of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the South Asian Nation. The talks are aimed at expanding cooperation in as many as 18 areas, including trade and educational exchange as well as counterterrorism, which is expected to be high on the list. Members of police and Rapid Action Force guard at Zaveri bazar, the site of an explosion in Mumbai, India,Three coordinated bombings tore through Mumbai last week, killing dozens of people Clinton’s arrival followed the blasts in Mumbai last week that killed 19 people and injured more than 130 in the latest reminder of the region’s struggle to crack down on terror attacks. India’s concerns over the US troop drawdown in Afghanistan and its renewed peace talks with arch-rival Pakistan are expected to figure in the US-India “strategic dialogue” in New Delhi.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: Xinjiang: Chinese Police Kill Dozens of Uyghurs
According to authorities, a “terrorist group” set fire to police station in Hotan and was arrested. Different version of the World Uighur Congress, they “protesting against the forced requisitioning of land and indiscriminate arrests and were massacred.”
Hotan (AsiaNews) — Chinese police opened fire on a group of Uyghur demonstrators in the northern province of Xinjiang who were protesting against the forced confiscation of their lands and indiscriminate arrests against members of the ethnic minority, one of the most feared by Beijing.
According to official sources, the protesters set fire to a police station in Hotan: 2 demonstrators, 2 “hostages” and a policeman died in the clashes, and now the situation is “under control”. For the World Uighur Congress, a nongovernmental organization based in Germany, the dead were at least 20.
Hou Hanmin, head of regional information, spoke of an “organized terrorist action. The rioters had explosive devices and grenades. First they raided the headquarters of the local office for industry, commerce and taxation, which is located next to the police station, and wounded two people. When they realized that they were not the right targets, they attacked the police post from the ground floor to the second floor where they hung a banner with separatist messages. “
According to the Congress, however, the police opened fire on people attending a peaceful protest, triggering clashes. In addition to the victims, the group has reported about 70 arrests. “To prevent further destabilization, the Chinese authorities should immediately end the systematic repression of the Uyghur people.”
Hotan is a city of about 300 thousand inhabitants, 88% belonging to ethnic minorities. Xinjiang has long been the scene of tension and violence that the Beijing government attributes to “separatist groups linked to Al Qaeda” that aim to create an independent state of East Turkestan. The Uyghurs, the region’s indigenous Turkish-speaking Muslim people constitute less than half the population, after decades of immigration from other areas of the People’s Republic.
In the last few years protests against restrictions imposed by the central authorities on the minority have become increasingly frequent. In July 2009, the capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi, was rocked by a wave of violence that caused nearly 200 deaths. Since then, nine people were put to death for instigating the riots, hundreds were arrested and prosecuted.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Senior Official in Tehran: China and Iran Striving for Strategic Cooperation
In a meeting in Tehran with a high-ranking delegation of the Communist Party of China headed by senior official He Gouqiang, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that China and Iran had common enemies and should strengthen their cooperation in the fields of technology, energy, and space, and expand their annual exchange trade to $100 billion. Gouqiang said that his country was striving for strategic cooperation with its friend Iran in the fields of energy, communications, infrastructure, and trade. Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Javad Mohammadizadeh told the Chinese delegation that strengthening financial cooperation between Iran and China was Tehran’s primary goal. At a workshop on the issue of Iranian-Chinese trade, Yuhong Yang, China’s ambassador to Tehran, said that in 2010, Chinese exports to Iran had reached $11.1 billion and imports from it had reached $18.3.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Police Blame Terrorists for Violence in Xinjiang
According to an exile group, twenty protesters from China’s minority Uighur community were killed in a clash with police in Xinjiang. State media put the death toll at four, calling the clash a “terrorist” attack. State news agency, Xinhua, reported on Tuesday that police in the city Hotan, Xinjiang, had gunned down several rioters who had attacked a police station and apparently taken hostages in what is the region’s worst outbreak of violence in about a year. The clash at a police station that left at least four people dead in western China’s restive Xinjiang region was “an organised terrorist attack,” Hou Hanmin, chief of the regional information office, was quoted saying in the Global Times, a popular tabloid owned by the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, the People’s Daily.
Hou told reporters, “the rioters carried explosive devices and grenades. They first broke into the offices of the local administration of industry and commerce and the taxation bureau that are close to the police station,” adding that people had been injured before the demonstrators started attacking the police station, “where they showed a flag with separatist messages.” The attackers set the police station on fire before killing hostages during a stand-off with armed police, Hou added. The Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, citing sources in Xinjiang, said security forces beat 14 people to death and shot dead six others during the unrest. “The Chinese authorities should immediately cease their systematic oppression to prevent a further escalation of the situation,” said group spokesman Dilxat Raxit in a statement.
A vast swathe of territory, accounting for one-sixth of China’s land mass, Xinjiang holds oil, gas and coal deposits and borders Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Central Asia. Xinjiang has been plagued by violent unrest in recent years, culminating in savage Uighur attacks on members of China’s dominant Han group in the regional capital Urumqi in July 2009.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taste Test: Swiss Chocolate vs. Made in China
Swiss chocolate’s reputation influences how people rate it in taste tests, a new study shows. When consumers are told that they’re about to eat a chocolate bar from Switzerland, they prefer it to that same bar tagged “made in China.” If they are told about the Swiss chocolate bar’s origin after they taste the candy, however, they say they prefer the Chinese chocolate. Researchers from Babson Collegein Wellesley, Mass., gave participants the same squares of Trader Joe’s brand chocolate. Half of the participants were told that the chocolate was made in Switzerland, while the other half were told it was made in China.
“When they were given the country of origin before tasting, the students liked the chocolate more when they were told it was from Switzerland,” the authors write in a recent issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. “This was expected because Switzerland has a strong reputation for chocolate whereas China does not.” The knowledge set up participants’ expectations and seemed to change their gustatory experiences. When people learn the country of origin (or price in another study) before they sample the chocolate it influences their expectations. When they are told the chocolate is from Switzerland, they expect it to taste good and when they are told it is from China they expect it to taste bad. So they like the same chocolate more when they are told it is from Switzerland. When some of the participants were told the “origin” of the chocolate after they had eaten it, the opposite was found: They rated the China chocolate as better tasting than the Swiss bar.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Give Us Our Own Laws, Say Islamic Leaders
ISLAMIC leaders want Muslims in Australia to get interest-free loans for religious reasons. The nation’s Islamic leaders want recognition of sharia law as it applies to banking practices, according to an exclusive Herald Sun survey of imams. There was also a call for recognition of sharia law as it applies to family law. The survey showed some imams are sceptical that Osama bin Laden’s death will be of benefit to ordinary Muslims, and they are unhappy with the way US forces disposed of his body.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Large and Active: New Volcanoes Found Beneath the Sea
The age of discovery may be long past, but some areas of our planet remain largely uncharted. In one of those black spots — near the South Sandwich Islands in the Southern Ocean — the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has discovered a previously unknown chain of volcanoes. The tallest of the volcanoes rises over 3 kilometres above the ocean floor, giving Italy’s Mount Etna a run for its money in terms of size. These volcanoes are last known to have erupted in 1962, when British naval vessels discovered large patches of floating pumice in the area. And, according to Philip Leat, a member of the BAS team, “there is a definite risk of further eruptions”. The researchers used ship-borne seismic surveying of the seafloor to discover the 12 underwater volcanoes, seven of which they say are still active today. Fortunately, the cones are too far from human habitation to pose much of an eruption risk — yet, this is not the only threat these volcanoes pose.
The research team also discovered several craters, ranging up to 5 km in diameter, on the nearby ocean floor. These craters are thought to have been caused by volcanoes collapsing. When volcanoes on land collapse, they can cause devastating landslides. If they are near — or beneath — the sea, these landslides can trigger tsunamis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Major African Countries Ignore Horn of Africa Famine Appeal
No African country has offered a donation to help drought victims in the Horn of Africa outside of those affected, it has emerged.
Despite the continent’s biggest economies having previously made generous contributions to aid efforts in Haiti and Japan, there has been little response from them so far to what aid agencies are calling the worst drought in 60 years. Million-pound donations have been sent to the World Food Programme by the US, France, Germany and the EU. Kenya and Sudan, countries in the affected region, have also contributed. UN officials said the World Food Programme had received 60 per cent of the $500 million (£300 million) it appealed for to help save the lives of an estimated 10?million people. But to date, there has been no announcement of aid sent to the region by any of the major African economies, such as South Africa, Nigeria, Angola and Tanzania.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why South Africa Wants Earth’s Biggest Radio Telescope
Hosting the planned Square Kilometre Array could help South Africa develop world-class research, says Naledi Pandor, the country’s science minister South Africa and Australia are competing to host the world’s biggest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array. Why South Africa?
The SKA needs to be located in a region with very little interference from radio transmissions. We have a geographic advantage: it would be built in the sparsely populated Karoo region, one of the most interference-free areas in the world. It is also a location on the planet that lets us probe the deepest recesses of the universe and study cosmic magnetism, galactic evolution and dark matter.
Are other African countries involved?
Absolutely. We didn’t want to be the lone African partner on the SKA so we included eight other African countries, which are developing parts of the project. What was, frankly, a science of older gentlemen is producing a new cohort of young people intrigued by the thought of probing dark matter, so you have all these young engineers and astrophysicists from Mozambique, Rwanda, and Namibia suddenly working together.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ancient ‘Frankenstein’ Insect Discovered
Insect “Frankensteins” have been discovered among fossils from a deposit in Brazil. The prehistoric creatures had the wings and middle-body segments of a dragonfly’s, wing veins arranged like a mayfly and a praying mantis’s forelegs. “It is a very strange mix of characteristics that are otherwise only known for the unrelated insect groups,” said one of the researchers to discover this new group of insects, Günter Bechly, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany. From two adult and about 30 larval fossils that came from the Brazilian fossil deposit and are now contained in collections around the world, the researchers created a new order — a broad category that can contain many species — called Coxoplectoptera. This newly named group of insects is long gone; it has no modern descendants, and the fossils date back 120 million years to the early Cretaceous Period.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“France is Not a Closed Country”
In this 18-second video Interior Minister Claude Guéant explains to Jean-Jacques Bourdin that France is not a closed country. Guéant, who has been accused by the Socialists of being racist and discriminatory for his remarks on the dangers of too much immigration, here attempts to clear himself of all charges. In doing so, he reveals some extraordinary figures:
No, no, France is not closed. Listen. Two hundred thousand visas every year, Jean-Jacques Bourdin. The equivalent of a city like Rennes. I don’t know if you realize what that represents?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: 28,000 Immigrants Regularised
De Standaard, 19 July 2011
“Residence permit for 28,000 illegal immigrants”, headlines De Standaard. Exactly two years after the implementation of new immigration rules in Belgium, 28,000 formerly illegal immigrants have benefited from the new criteria “without which they probably would not have been regularised”, notes the Brussels daily. Under the new policy, migrants who have worked for at least two and a half years or lived for five years or more in Belgium may apply for a residence permit. Applicants were vetted according to their knowledge of the French or Flemish languages, whether their children attended school, and what local ties they had contracted in the community. The Forum for Asylum and Migrations (FAM) is pleased with the outcome: “The new criteria finally gave clarity and have made a real difference for thousands of people.” De Standaard notes, however, that “nearly half of all applications will be refused.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Massachusetts: Effort to Opt Out of Secure Communities
Springfield immigrants call program unfair
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) — Enthusiastic support could be seen and heard for a resolution to have the city of Springfield not participate in a federal program aimed at deporting illegal immigrants who commit serious felonies.
Supporters filled Springfield City Council Chambers, and many spoke out Monday night. They want Springfield to opt out of the federal “Secure Communities” program if it’s legally possible.
William Newman, the director of the western Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union told 22News that “Secure Communities” unfairly targets the law-abiding immigrant community.
“I don’t think you need the law. I think, as a practical matter, those persons who are in the country illegally, convicted of serious felonies, and are on ICE’s list, can be deported already.”
Springfield’s “Secure Communities” initiative still needs to pass two more steps before final approval of the resolution.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Use Zip Line to Cross Guatemala-Mexico Border
(CNN) — It may not be legal, but it’s definitely popular. For just 10 Guatemalan quetzals, or 15 Mexican pesos (the equivalent of just over a U.S. dollar), you can pay to ride a zip line across a river and into a new country.
A news team from Mexico’s Televisa network, a CNN affiliate, found four zip lines crossing over the Suchiate River, which serves as part of Mexico’s southeastern border with Guatemala. They observed people crossing into Mexico in broad daylight, apparently not worried about immigration authorities posted not far from there.
Guatemalans on both sides of the border are in charge of the zip line and collecting money from people willing to cross.
A Guatemalan immigrant getting ready to cross the border using the zip line admitted he was doing so illegally. He said he had “obtained my passport but didn’t know I also need a visa to cross” into Mexico.
Mexico shares a largely unpopulated, almost 600-mile border with Guatemala marked by jungle and rugged mountains. The zip lines connect the Guatemalan community of El Carmen to the Mexican town of Talisman.
Once in Mexico, migrants travel on freight trains or by bus to the U.S. border, although many never get there. Last week, Mexican authorities stopped a bus in the central Mexican state of Queretaro with 104 undocumented migrants on board. Last August, 72 migrants were killed by a Mexican drug cartel in a ranch in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, only 100 miles south of the U.S. border.
Those who do get to the U.S. border have another river to cross, the Rio Grande (or Rio Bravo, as it’s known in Mexico) or a 21-foot wall.
Many are now going underground.
On a recent trip to Arizona, U.S. border patrol agents gave a CNN crew access to a tunnel being illegally used for this purpose. The mile-long tunnel was built to prevent flooding in the border city of Nogales, Arizona, but it has been increasingly used in recent years to smuggle immigrants and drugs.
U.S. Border Patrol Agent Ariel Medeles says crossing this way can be dangerous. “There was a group down here and then they got caught in the flash flood and hours later they were looking for a body north of the openings,” says Medeles.
Some immigrants die trekking across the treacherous Arizona desert, but many thousands more make it to the land of their dreams, after a trip of hundreds — even thousands — of miles.
For some, that journey begins at a zip line across the Suchiate.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Deal With Malaysia Helps to Reduce Boat Arrivals in Australia
CANBERRA, July 19 (Xinhua) — Australian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen on Tuesday said the government’s announcement of a refugee swap deal with Malaysia has contributed to a reduction in asylum seeker boat arrivals in Australian waters.
He said that boats would continue to arrive, but the Malaysian deal was obviously making asylum seekers think twice about making a dangerous boat journey when there was no guarantee of resettlement in Australia.
“We’ve seen a very significant reduction in the number of boat arrivals this year and since the announcement of the agreement with Malaysia,” Bowen told Australia Associated Press in Perth of West Australia.
“I don’t say that the announcement of the agreement with Malaysia is entirely responsible. But I think it changes the dynamic completely to have people weighing the decision up whether to take that dangerous boat journey to Australia with no guarantee of being processed or resettled in Australia.
“Of course, we will continue to see boats arrive, we will continue to see the people smugglers trying it on, testing the resolve of the Australian government and the Australian people.”
Eight boats carrying more than 400 asylum seekers have arrived in Australia since the government’s May 7 announcement on the agreement with Malaysia. In 2010, 24 boats carrying about 1,200 asylum seekers arrived in Australia between May 7 to July.
Under the deal with Malaysia, Australia would transfer 800 people to Malaysia where they would be processed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In turn, Australia would take 4,000 people who had been mandated by the UNHCR in Malaysia and had been waiting patiently for resettlement.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Spot-Checked: European Officials to Keep Close Eye on Borders
EU delegation unconvinced that Denmark has sufficient grounds for ‘permanent border control’
In an ironic twist, Denmark’s choice to increase its border controls and spot checks on vehicles coming into the country has made the country itself the target for increased surveillance and spot checks by the European Commission. Following an unsatisfactory two-day inspection visit last week the commission announced in a press statement on Monday that Denmark will now be placed under a “strict monitoring system” to ensure that the new border controls do not violate EU regulations guaranteeing the right to free movement. The first phase of Denmark’s ‘permanent border control’ agreement came into effect on July 5 with the addition of 50 new border customs agents. The agreement has come under harsh criticism from a number of groups, including the European Commission, which is concerned that it undermines the Schengen Agreement and the free movement of people and goods within the EU member countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
AFA Gets an Extra $1 Million to Tackle Diversity Issues
The Air Force Academy has a plan and a $1 million budget to make the school more diverse, but no numerical goal that describes what diverse looks like. Adding more cadets from minorities groups to the academy’s population has been a goal for years. The Board of Visitors, the school’s oversight body, was told Friday that the school has a new plan, which includes diversity training for employees, stepping up minority recruitment and training “inclusion ambassadors” who will promote diversity at the academy. “The good thing is we’re doing something about it,” said Lt. Gen. Mike Gould, academy superintendent. The academy’s student body is 71 percent white, which is similar to its sister academies for Navy and Army, and close to the national population average. But the academy wants to see gains in the number of black and Hispanic cadets on the campus, who make up a combined 16 percent of the student body, well below their share of the national population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-censorship Software to Help Rebels Get the Word Out
State-backed internet censorship is the method of choice for countries that want to crack down on citizens spreading messages of revolution online. But now dissidents have a tool to help them fight back. Telex, developed by computer scientists at the University of Michigan, US and the University of Waterloo, Canada, transmits information to blocked websites by piggybacking on uncensored connections with the aid of friendly foreign internet service providers (ISPs). Dissidents install the Telex client, perhaps from a USB stick smuggled over the border. They then make a secure connection to an uncensored site outside of the censor’s network — nearly any site that uses password logins will do. The connection looks normal, but Telex tags the traffic with a secret key.
Foreign ISPs in the network between the client and destination site can look for these tags and redirect the connection to an anonymising service such as a proxy server, which allows users to connect from one location while appearing to be elsewhere. Using Telex is more robust than using such servers directly, as censors can easily block access to a proxy once it is discovered. The researchers have tested the system by watching YouTube videos in Beijing, China, despite the site being blocked in that country, but they say it’s not yet ready for real users. One barrier might be the need for foreign ISPs to install Telex software.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Best Ever Measurement of Earth’s Radioactivity
Ghostly subatomic particles streaming from Earth’s interior have enabled the most precise measurement yet of our planet’s radioactivity. These particles, called antineutrinos, suggest that about half of Earth’s heat comes from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium — and give clues to the location of geological stashes of these elements. Heat is needed to drive the convection currents in Earth’s outer core that create its magnetic field. But exactly how much of this heat comes from radioactive decay wasn’t known until now. In 2005, researchers from the international KamLAND collaboration used a detector buried in Japan to measure antineutrinos that are produced when elements decay, allowing a rough estimate. Now they have enough data — 111 geological antineutrinos to be precise — to refine their measurement, suggesting that about 20 terawatts of heat come from radioactive decay. Earth’s total heat production is about 40 terawatts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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