Dow Drops More Than 400 Points as Fears Return on Banks and Economy
After just a few days of calm, stocks declined steeply on Thursday in a worldwide sell-off. The downturn was driven by fresh concerns that the worldwide economy is slowing and that Europe’s debt crisis is putting strain on the financial sector.
As the session ended at 4 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 420 points, or 3.7 percent. The broader market, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, was down about 4.5 percent.
The yield on the Treasury’s 10-year note fell below 2 percent for much of the day, the lowest level on record, as investors turned to the safety of fixed-income securities. Gold rose. Oil fell as markets lowered their expectations of global economic growth.
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Germany: DAX Suffers Worst Dive Since November 2008
Germany’s DAX stock index plunged nearly six percent on Thursday, suffering its worst decline since November 2008 amid growing economic concerns on both sides of the Atlantic.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Investing in Housing Shrinks Further
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, AUGUST 17 — Greek investment in housing in 2011 will come to less than one-third of what it was five years ago, an analysis by Alpha Bank has shown, as it is expected to reach five billion euros, compared to 16.1 billion euros in 2006. It is also set to show a 24.2% decrease from 2010, when it amounted to 6.6 billion.
This drop will contribute to the shrinking of the country’s gross domestic product by 0.8% this year. The analysis — as daily Kathimerini reports — expects the decline to continue into next year, with an impact on a variety of sectors such as minerals, electrical equipment, furniture etc.
The volume of new constructions in April declined by 30.3% on an annual basis, adding up to a 49.2% annual drop in the year to April.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Ally Insults Fellow Minister Amid Austerity Package Friction
Rome, 17 August (AKI) — As rifts have emerged within the ruling coalition over a 45.5 billion euro austerity decree issued last week, reforms minister Umberto Bossi, the country’s second most powerful politician has insulted a diminutive colleague calling him a “dwarf” for urging greater pension reforms.
“Dwarf of Venice, don’t break our balls…safeguard pensioners’ rights,” Bossi told a rally of his Northern League party at Ponte di Legno in Northern Italy. He is leader of the federalist Northern League party, the government’s junior coalition partner.
Brunetta, Italy’s public administration minister and a native of the northern lagoon city of Venice who is just 1 metre and 44 centimetres tall, has waged war on Italy’s bloated and inefficient public sector.
He is one of the most popular member of the cabinet and Bossi’s insult was roundly condemned by politicians. But the slight hightlighted tensions in the coalition government and the Northern League’s anger over a number of the austerity measures.
The austerity decree, which must be approved by parliament within 60 days contains higher taxes; charges to the pension system including raising the retirement age, cuts to local and regional government and welfare and labour market reform.
The measures, which follow pressure from Europe’s central bank are aimed at balancing Italy’s budget by 2013 instead of 2014 and stimulating growth in a bid to mend the country’s ailing public finances and massive 1.9 trillion euro debt.
Bossi, leader of Italy’s federalist Northern League party and junior coalition partner, opposes cuts to pensions and has warned the government risks a “crisis” over pension reforms.
The austerity decree increases capital gains tax from 12.5 percent to 20 percent, and Bossi and his party also oppose any taxes targeting private savings.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Opposition Leader Slams Mooted Tax Amnesty for Repatriated Capital
Rome, 18 August (AKI) — Pierluigi Bersani, leader of the largest centre-left opposition party, has sharply criticised a new tax amnesty for undeclared capital returned to Italy from abroad reportedly being mulled by the government.
“The government should very carefully consider the umpteenth amnesty it is eyeing. We will oppose this latest scandal with every means at our disposal,” Bersani, who head the Democratic Party, wrote on his Facebook page, calling for open political debate on the issue.
His comments came as the Italian upper house of parliament was on Thursday due to start examining an unpopular 45.5 billion euro austerity decree rammed through last week by prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to calm market unease over Italy’s debt pile.
Italy’s political forces including cabinet ministers are already rowing over the the two-year austerity package, whose measures include tax increases and pension and labour market reforms aimed at balancing Italy’s budget by 2013.
Government opponents have branded the budget ‘iniquitous’, claiming it penalises ordinary Italians. Critics of the austerity measures say they do not do enough to crack down on rampant tax evasion, estimated to cost the country anything from a quarter to twice Italy’s economic output or GDP each year.
Italy’s economy minister Giulio Tremonti has adopted a series of amnesties that go in the opposite direction of a crackdown on tax dodgers and which have drawn criticism inside and outside Italy for rewarding instead of punishing wealthy tax evaders.
The latest of those tax amnesties, in 2009, earned the treasury more than 80 billion euros, but critics said the terms were too generous. There was no obligation to repatriate the funds under the amnesty and Italy applied a tax rate of just six percent rate on funds illegally held abroad.
The tax applied during the last amnesty compared to the 19-34 percent that Germany is to apply to undeclared funds held in Switzerland under a deal agreed by the two countries on 10 August.
According to 2009 data published by the economy ministry, half of Italy’s tax payers do not declare more than 15,000 euros each year. Tax returns show lawyers earning on average 46,700 euros, and architects making just 29,500 euros a year.
Over 10 billion euros was sent abroad to avoid tax in 2010 according to Italian tax authorities.
At the time of the last government amnesty in 2009, the Bank of Italy estimated Italians held undeclared funds abroad worth some 500 billion euros.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Morgan Stanley Warns of US, EU Recession
(NEW YORK) — Morgan Stanley said Thursday that the United States and Europe are dangerously close to recession, blaming in part policy errors by authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. The investment bank said a slow European response to the eurozone’s mounting sovereign debt problems and the US political battle over raising its debt ceiling had hit financial markets and eroded both business and consumer confidence. “Our revised forecasts show the US and the euro area hovering dangerously close to a recession — defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction — over the next 6-12 months,” it said in a new report.
For the moment, the combination of cash-rich companies, oil prices falling from their highs earlier this year, and rate-cutting by central banks appear more likely to prevent a plunge into a “double-dip” recession, after the 2008-2009 collapse of growth, the bank said. But it added that policymakers have been making things worse by tightening spending to pare fiscal deficits. “A negative feedback loop between weak growth and soggy asset markets now appears to be in the making in Europe and the US. This should be aggravated by the prospect of fiscal tightening in the US and Europe,” it said.
Morgan Stanley cut its global economic growth forecast to 3.9 percent in 2011 from the previous 4.2 percent, and to 3.8 percent from 4.2 percent in 2012, mainly due to the stagnation in advanced economies.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Sarkozy: Merkel Push Euro Integration
The far-reaching plans revealed Tuesday by Germany and France for closer eurozone integration disappointed investors by declaring that any thoughts of a common euro bond issuance would have to wait.
Under heavy pressure to restore confidence in the eurozone following a dramatic market slump, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel stopped short of increasing the bloc’s rescue fund but vowed to stand side by side in defending the euro and laid the groundwork for future fiscal union.
Their message was that the focus should be on further economic integration rather than signing bailout cheques, and suggested that straying from euro zone rules and fiscal targets would no longer be tolerated.
It was the lack of action on the creation of eurozone-backed bonds that triggered further concern in financial markets that European leaders aren’t showing the ability to contain the region’s sovereign debt crisis.
“The market wanted to see at least some forward movement, something concrete coming out of the meeting that would’ve been supportive to what’s been dragging the market lower,” said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in San Francisco.
Merkel and Sarkozy’s announcement of a plan to tax financial transactions also hit stocks of some companies traded in the United States. Shares of New York Stock Exchange Euronext fell 8.4 percent to $26.54, making it the worst performer in the S&P 500, which itself slipped almost 1 percent.
“We have exactly the same position on euro bonds,” Sarkozy told a joint news conference with Merkel after their talks.
“Euro bonds can be imagined one day, but at the end of the European integration process, not at the beginning.”
Many experts say a common bond is the only way to ensure affordable financing for euro zone members struggling with debt.
The euro also slid as the proposals failed to ease worries about a debt crisis markets fear is spreading to the euro zone’s core. Traders had hoped for signals that the issuance of common euro bonds, or an increase of the EFSF, were live options.
“This meeting is all stick — fiscal rule enforcement — and no carrot — a pooling of fiscal resources via a common bond,” Rabobank strategist Richard McGuire said.
The statement by the two leaders reflects deep hostility, among voters in northern Europe tired of bailing out the south at a time of austerity at home. That is particularly true in Germany, where growth slowed to almost zero in the second quarter.
“Anyone expecting this meeting to launch euro bonds was not paying attention to the state of political opinion or indeed to the kind of compromises needed for that to happen,” said Julian Callow, senior economist at Barclays Capital in London.
The two leaders want a president to be elected to represent the euro zone and twice-yearly meetings of the leaders of the embattled 17-nation bloc.
In one of the most far-reaching ideas, Sarkozy said the French and German finance ministers had been asked to prepare proposals aimed at having a common corporate tax base and tax rate in France and Germany from 2013. He said the two countries would keep a closer track of each others’ economic outlooks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Seeks Urgent Solution
Spain’s government will request an extraordinary meeting of parliament next week to approve reforms boosting revenue by about five billion euros ($7 billion) in 2011, a senior minister said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s ministers are expected to agree the revenue-raising reforms in a cabinet meeting Friday, government spokesman Jose Blanco told state radio RNE.
“The government will ask that these measures be approved urgently by the parliament,” Blanco said.
“As a consequence, the government will ask for the holding of an extraordinary session as soon as possible for those measures to be approved,” he said.
Zapatero would address parliament on the new measures and provide an analysis of the economic situation, he said.
Spain’s government hoped that the Congress would agree to hold a parliamentary session as soon as next week, said Blanco, who is also the public works minister.
Finance Minister Elena Salgado has outlined two reforms aimed at raking in an extra 4.9 billion euros this year for hard-pressed government coffers and ensuring Spain meets its deficit-cutting targets.
One reform would save 2.4 billion euros on health spending through the obligatory use of generic drugs, which are cheaper than the major brands.
The other reform would oblige large companies to pay some of their taxes earlier in the fiscal year, bringing in an extra 2.5 billion euros in 2011.
Salgado announced the reforms to try to convince financial markets of Spain’s deficit-cutting credentials at a time when its sovereign debt was under attack by traders.
The European Central Bank has since intervened by buying hard-hit Spanish and Italian government bonds on the markets, successfully bringing down their borrowing costs.
Spain’s public deficit last year amounted to the equivalent of 9.2 percent of its gross domestic product, or total economic output.
The government has vowed to slice the deficit progressively to 6.0 percent of GDP this year, 4.0 percent in 2012 and 3.0 percent in 2013.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Terrible Damage of the “China Model”
The global economic crisis has laid bare the structural problems of the Chinese economy in the hands of the capitalists supported by the violence of the communist regime. Small and medium-sized businesses, the real engine of the economy, close while state funds are to state enterprises. Who use them to speculate even more and worsen the lives of the population. The analysis of the great dissident.
Washington (AsiaNews) — The academic research data by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shows 99% of China’s enterprises are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The SMEs contribute more than 60% of revenue to the GDP, more than 50% of tax income, and provide more than 75% of urban jobs. The news that 40% of SMEs in China closed down in the past year draws people to question the Chinese government’s official data.
Due to over-production in the auto industry, at the end of this year there will be an excess of 10 million vehicles in China. This is more than the auto production in Japan in the year 2009. Another big problem is the surplus of real estate investment in China, which has reached a 30% bubble. There are 64.5 million vacant apartment units, enough to house 200 million people.
In China, an estimated 1,300 people control more than $1 trillion of assets. According to a survey by Western financial institutions, 1.5 percent of Chinese own 45% of bank deposits and 67% of assets. The Gini coefficient (which measures income inequality) has reached 0.57. In the 1980s, it was only 0.25; in the 1990s, it was 0.39. Now, this coefficient is much higher than the 0.43 of the United States, and 0.37 of India. In China, the people who have average living expenses on the absolute poverty scale of less than $2/day have reached more than half of the entire population of more than 1.3 billion.
China’s state-owned enterprises enjoy more than 75% of the investment by the country, with more than 2/3 of the country’s fixed assets. During the 2008-2010 global financial and economic crisis, state-owned enterprises obtained more than 90% of the state funds to stimulate the economy. Nevertheless, 80% of China’s corporate profits come from 120,000 private SMEs, and less than 12 of large state-owned enterprises. Only under the conditions of monopoly are several state-owned giants such as Sinopec able to gain huge profits.
After reading this set of data, we can imagine what went wrong to create China’s social and economic ills. The “China Model” is really an economic model of the socialist “big pot” that, like a vampire, relies on sucking the blood from the private economy, and getting subsidies from the so-called export-oriented economy, a way in gain benefit from damaging others. The semi-private market economies have to use the profit they make from the international market with their low labour costs to fatten this big pot of the state-run economy and enterprises of a few bureaucratic capitalists. Will the accumulated capital be used to expand and improve the technical elements of the Chinese economy? Most likely not.
Very few of the SMEs which make excess profits from their foreign trade undergo thorough technical updates, because the advantage of a low human rights standard seem to be so profitable. Since even the products of very poor quality can be sold, why spend money to update the technology? Coupled with the exploitation from official corruption, the actual profit these SMEs make is really not as much as in theory. Many of them are actually quietly transferring part of the profits abroad in order to facilitate their families survival under the social change. Who will own these companies after a technology upgrade? So the current bosses would rather not do this upgrade for other people’s benefit.
Therefore, this so-called China Model, dominated by an export-oriented economy, has not done much after it obtained excess profits by relying on dumping in the Western markets. It does not form an effective accumulation in the Chinese society; it does not produce economic modernization in China; it also barely improves the technical content of China’s economic entity. The results are the strange phenomenon we all see now. As soon as there is any sign of trouble with the international market, nearly half of small and medium enterprises close down. Yet there is still the statistical calculation of the GDP of nearly double-digit growth. This growth can be said to be a result of both inflation and fraud within the statistical system. Real economic growth should have been negative already. In addition to the low-tech factor within the SMEs, the Chinese Government’s financial policy is the second most important reason for the massive business close down in China. During the global economic downturn, the government has increased investment to save the economy. This itself is understandable. However, this money was not really used to save the small and medium enterprises, but mostly flowed into the state-owned and bureaucratic enterprises due to political corruption. The big business enterprises, which were not lacking of funds to begin with, injected the state investment funds into the speculative market resulting in a huge bubble in the real estate market. So on the one hand is the closing of a large number of small and medium enterprises which were creating profits, while on the other hand is the expansion of the deformed real estate market in China, devouring the funds originally meant for protecting small and medium enterprises.
The most severe problem is the more than three trillion U.S. dollars foreign exchange reserves China has. These reserves should be used in exchange for issuing additional currency during the economic overheating time. During the recession, the government should apply a policy of collecting domestic currency in an effort to restrain inflation. The specific approach is very simple: allow converting foreign currency freely on the one hand and on the other hand raise the currency exchange rate. In this way the circulation of the domestic currency on the market will be reduced, and the inflation will naturally decline. But why does the Chinese government continue its stand, and not take such a simple measure? It is due to the difference between bureaucrat-capitalism and democratic politics.
From the viewpoint of bureaucratic politics, eliminating inflation is not beneficial for them to continue to earn excess profits. To collect the domestic currency of Chinese Yuan (RMB) from the people then raise the exchange rate of the RMB and free exchange, and eventually send the double-earned capital abroad would best suit the interests of bureaucratic capitalism. In addition, an appreciation of the RMB would make the current expensive housing market in China even more unable to find buyers. The collapse of the housing market in China would be a direct harm to the interests of bureaucratic capitalism. It would be absolutely unacceptable to the bureaucratic capitalist clique in China that is controlling Chinese politics now of course, the Chinese Communist regime that is relying on the support of the capitalists would not accept it either. Politics has become the politics for the capitalists, and already very far from the interests of the average Chinese. This is the root reason that the economic and social problems in China are not solved.
The view from the national interest and the Chinese people is completely reversed. Opening the free exchange of currency, and improving the RMB exchange rate, coupled with opening of a fair import market, will control inflation within six months. Not only will Chinese people’s lives be better off, the upgrading of technology in SMEs will create better conditions. Imported technology and equipment will be relatively cheap. Combined with a relative expansion of the domestic consumer market, these policies will help the survival of small and medium enterprises. This will be good for the average people without any harm.
But, this would make the businessmen with black hearts making money from high prices lose profit. More importantly, the real estate tycoons in China who made a lot of money along with the bureaucratic businessmen in China by forced demolition and relocation of the Chinese citizens, may have to go bankrupt. As a result, China will lose half of its billionaires. Meanwhile the lowered house prices from the bankruptcy auctions will reduce the number of people who are facing housing hardship to half. In this round of interests confrontation, we can clearly see which kind of government the Chinese Communist Party regime is. It is a political power of the bureaucratic capitalist standing against the people.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ACORN Attacks Western Union So More Money Can Flow Out of North America
By far the best-known remittance service for its reach around the world, Western Union is the target of a campaign launched recently by ACORN Canada, an advocacy group for low-income families.
“Many of our members are directly affected by the exorbitant fees banks and other financial institutions are charging for money transfers,” said ACORN president Kay Bisnath. The group is petitioning Western Union to cap its remittance rate at 5 per cent.
Bisnath said the rate is recommended by the World Bank in light of a $325 billion yearly cash flow — $7.5 billion in Canada alone — from 215 million migrants sending money to family members in developing countries.
An ACORN International study last year showed the average cost of a $100 remittance ranged from $3.70 to $13.26 at MoneyGram and from $40.18 to $50.84 at Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, depending on the speed and level of service. Western’s average rate internationally ranged from $13.47 to $21.07.
“There is no regulation of the fees. There are other hidden costs that clients don’t know about. Migrants have no choice because their loved ones depend on the money for survival,” said Bisnath.
| — Hat tip: Van Grungy | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Calls for Death of David Letterman
(AGI) Los Angeles — David Letterman has come to the attention of al Qaeda for a remark the talk show host made on his show about Ilyas Kashmiri, who was killed by U.S. forces during an air raid in Pakistan. “Is there a Sayyid Nosair al-Masri (may Allah protect him) to cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever, just as Sayyid did to the Jew Kahane,” from the web site that carries a message on the Shumukh al-Islam forum.
Letterman is not Jewish.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Black Applicants Less Likely to Win NIH Grants
‘Unacceptable’ gap in success rates heralds plan to tackle potential bias.
White researchers applying for grants from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are nearly twice as likely to win them as black researchers, reports a study funded by the agency. The finding has prompted an NIH investigation into whether its reviewers are racially biased. “The situation is not acceptable,” says Francis Collins, director of the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. “It indicates that we have not only failed to recruit the best and brightest minds from all the groups that we need but, for those that have come, there is inequity. This is not just a problem for NIH but the whole research community.”
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Bust Iraqi-Mexican Drug Operation in Calif.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Federal officials said Thursday they’ve busted a drug trafficking ring involving Mexico’s most powerful cartel and members of an Iraqi immigrant community in the U.S. who were caught selling illegal drugs, assault rifles, grenades and homemade explosives.
About 60 people from the Iraqi community were arrested after a six-month investigation carried out by the Drug Enforcement Administration and police in the city of El Cajon, a working-class city east of San Diego.
Many of the suspects are Iraqi Chaldeans — Christians who fled their homeland amid threats from al-Qaida and other extremists. Police say at least some of those arrested are suspected of being affiliated with the Chaldean Organized Crime Syndicate, an Iraqi gang based in Detroit.
| — Hat tip: Van Grungy | [Return to headlines] |
Superfast Military Aircraft Hit Mach 20 Before Ocean Crash, DARPA Says
A superfast unmanned military plane traveled at 20 times the speed of sound and managed to control itself for three minutes before crashing into the Pacific Ocean in a recent test, military officials said. The prototype Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), billed as the fastest aircraft ever built, splashed down in the Pacific earlier than planned on Aug. 11 shortly after launching from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on its second-ever test flight. The HTV-2 experienced some sort of anomaly, prompting the vehicle’s autonomous flight safety system to guide it to a controlled splashdown, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which oversaw the flight.
Despite the problem, the aircraft reached speeds around Mach 20 (about 13,000 mph) and was able to control its flight for several minutes, officials said. “HTV-2 demonstrated stable, aerodynamically controlled Mach 20 hypersonic flight for approximately three minutes,” said DARPA director Regina Dugan in an Aug. 14 statement. “We do not yet know the cause of the anomaly for Flight 2.” The HTV-2 is part of an advanced weapons program called Conventional Prompt Global Strike, which is working to develop systems to reach an enemy target anywhere in the world within one hour.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Big Brother is Watching Switzerland
Swiss cities and national train operator (SBB) are planning a massive extension of public surveillance systems by installing more closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in public areas. Such cameras are already in place in many schools, trains and sports venues, reported 20 Minuten newspaper, which asked if these miniature spies really increase security in Swiss towns and cities. Three years ago, St. Gallen decided to beef up its security by installing 44 surveillance cameras at the AFG-Sportarena, subways and in the town centre. “The pictures have led to many relevant leads”, said Hein Indermaur, head of the social and security department in St. Gallen.
St. Gallen is not the only Swiss town that is installing more video surveillance in public areas. Almost every big town in Switzerland, but also smaller communities, are planning to install electronic eyes. Zürich transport authorities will mount cameras in all new Cobra trams by the end of 2011. And the city also plans to add a dozen cameras a year to schools, beginning in 2012. In Bern, CCTV is planned between Wankdorf train station and the city’s main stadium once local authorities sign off. Basel is planning to install a surveillance system with 72 cameras in its inner city, which authorities say will only be used to monitor large crowds of sports fans and demonstrations. SBB is kitting out regional trains and every new international carriage with cameras by 2011.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Disgraced Ex-Senator Ordered to Face Second Trial
Rome, 17 August (AKI) — Former conservative senator Nicola Di Girolamo was on Wednesday ordered to stand trial on charges of criminal association aimed at fraudulent bankruptcy. The disgraced politician was in July jailed for five years for masterminding a two billion euro mafia-linked money laundering scam and ordered him to repay 4.2 million euros.
In the new case, Di Girolamo, an ex-member of Italy’s Senate upper house of parliament is charged with criminal conspiracy to commit fraudulent bankrupcy and fraud against Italian bank Banca Nazionale del Lavoro.
He allegedly obtained unsafe loans from the BNL on behalf of companies that were already in financial difficulty.
The trial of Di Girolamo and three other suspects will begin on 28 October at a court in the Italian capital Rome.
Di Girolamo resigned in March 2010 after being accused of masterminding a mafia money laundering scam over which, he, Silvio Scaglia, founder of one of Italy’s largest internet companies, Fastweb and 54 other suspects were arrested last year.
Di Girolamo was elected as a senator representing Italians living in Germany for Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling centre-right People of Freedom party. He was in July convicted of vote-buying as well as masterminding the mafia money-laundering scam.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: The Monreale Abbey Roof Collapses in Palermo
(AGI) Palermo — A section of the Monreale Arab-Norman Abbey in Palermo, famous for its mosaics and one of the favourite destinations of thousands of tourists, collapsed this afternoon. The news was realeased by the Mayor of Palermo Filippo Di Matteo, who immediately went to inspect damages.
Firemen parties cordoned off the area of the collapse, between the side sector of the Cathedral and the Benedictine Cloister .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Minister Calls for Tax Hike to be Doubled for Footballers
Calderoli says players threatening to strike are ‘spoiled’
(ANSA) — Rome, August 17 — A cabinet minister on Wednesday said Serie A soccer players should pay a new solidarity tax on high incomes that is part of the government’s austerity package twice. Simplification Minister Roberto Calderoli said that the players were “spoiled” and should be subject to the higher tax rate set to be applied to MPs if they continue to threaten to strike over a contract wrangle.
“The players are being capricious,” Calderoli told ANSA by telephone.
“I don’t know if this solidarity tax is right or not, but if anyone should have to pay it, then it should be soccer players who are a spoiled caste”.
The three-year ‘solidarity tax’ will force people earning above 90,000 euros to pay an additional 5% in tax and those over 150,000 and additional 10%, while MPs would be subject to an ever higher rate.
It is part of a series of measures before parliament aimed at balancing the budget by 2013. Calderoli, a Northern League politician, is not new to attacking soccer players.
Ahead of the 2010 World Cup, he called for a cut in player salaries with a salary cap and suggested players should not receive any win bonuses.
The vice president of Italian players union AIC, Leo Grosso, branded as “stupid” Calderoli’s suggestion that footballers were part of a ‘spoiled caste’.
“It’s a cheap shot to attack players because of their salaries, but one must remember that while some may earn a lot, there are many others who earn much less and some even risk not getting paid,” he said.
The furore comes amid reports of disputes between Italian clubs and players about who should pay the tax, as some footballers have agreements on the basis of net salaries.
“Players like everyone else must play by the rules,” Grosso said. “However, if their contract states that their salary is net of taxes then the clubs will have to pay the additional tax.
If their salary is gross, then the player pays”.
Calderoli’s suggestion was also panned by former Italy great Gianni Rivera who said that “in the Northern League they say a lot of stupid things and what Calderoli said is just the latest example. To pay any attention to him is just a waste of time”.
The Serie A season is in danger of not starting on the weekend of August 27-28 as scheduled after the top-flight clubs’ captains threatened to strike over a contract wrangle.
The dispute regards the collective contract that lays down the players rights, which has not been renewed after elapsing a year ago.
The problem was meant to have been resolved after an agreement was reached between the AIC and the league of top-flight clubs after two planned strikes were narrowly averted.
However, the league has still not signed that document and has said it will not do so while being threatened with industrial action.
One of the main sticking points is the union’s insistence that players who have fallen out of favour with their clubs be allowed to train with their teammates.
In the past some clubs have made dropped footballers train separately, which the players regard as a form of workplace bullying.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Newham Tops UK’s Birth League
Statistics from NHS East London and the City show there were 6,059 babies born at Newham university hospital trust in the financial year 2010-2011.
The borough has a total fertility rate of 3.18. The average for England is 2.
Newham also tops the London boroughs for having the highest number of live births. In the same period in Ealing there were 5,861 and in Wandsworth there were 5,546.
[…]
Last year, Newham University Hospital opened a new maternity complex at its Glen Road, Plaistow site which is due to be completed next year.
The new £17.5 million unit is designed to cope with 6,500 births a year — a thousand more than it could previously.
As the unit delivered its first baby, Scott Johnston, head of midwifery at the hospital, said: “Newham has one of the country’s youngest populations and this is a partial response as to why we have a higher birth rate than many places.
“Equally, Newham has one of the most diverse communities in the country and we know that for many cultures, multiple child birth and often at a younger age, are common.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Riots in England: Britain’s Society Broken by Greed
An Essay by Thomas Hüetlin
The blazing infernos which took hold in the UK’s biggest cities have shocked British society. It wasn’t a desire to protest that drove the brutal looters onto the streets, but pure consumer greed. Bankers, politicians and media moguls have made this greed socially acceptable.
Ashraf Haziq is 20 years old, a student from Malaysia. He was fasting during Ramadan and had the misfortune to be cycling on his bike in Barking, an area in East London, last week.
First there was a gang of kids. They threatened him with knives, broke his jaw and stole his bike. As he sat dazed on the sidewalk, staring at the blood that was dripping from his face onto the ground, the next gang appeared. Its members were older; some were masked. One helped him to his feet and supported him, but this supposed aid was merely a diversion as another helped himself to the contents of the injured man’s rucksack at the same time; throwing away some of what he stole and pocketing the rest. He grinned broadly, prancing with joy.
It was pictures like these that disproved the theory that the riots were protests, or a youth rebellion like those that have taken place in other European countries against government austerity packages.
It was nothing of the sort. The events which unfolded on the streets of London and other English cities last week were brutal and full of an enthusiasm to inflict the greatest possible damage, even on mere passers-by who had the bad luck to get in the way. It was as if the gang from Stanley Kubrick’s classic film “A Clockwork Orange” had left the screen and become real, only this time armed with BlackBerrys.
The victims included, for example, three sons of Pakistani immigrants who had stood on a sidewalk in Birmingham in order to protect a friend’s gas station, but who were then mown down by a car and killed. There were other victims, like the 68-year-old man in a plaid shirt who had tried to put out a fire started by rioters and who was subsequently so badly beaten that he later died from his injuries. Then there was the old black woman who, standing on a litter-strewn East London street at night with her back to a wall smeared with obscene graffiti, scolded the rioters: “You lot piss me the **** off! I’m ashamed to be a Hackney person. ‘Cause we’re not all gathering together and fighting for a cause — we’re running down Foot Locker.”
A Sale from Hell
In other words, it was like a sale from Hell. The greedy paid not in pounds, but with the destruction of their own neighborhoods.
Above all, the rioters zeroed in on brand name products, and if they could attack a policeman or two while they were at it, all the better. “Everyone up and roll to Tottenham,” someone calling themselves “English Frank” wrote on Twitter. “
the 5-0 (police). I hope 1 dead tonight (sic).” Meanwhile, someone called “Sonny Twag” tweeted: “Want to roll Tottenham to loot. I do want a free TV. Who wudn’t (sic).”
No sooner tweeted than done. But the looting could get even more expensive than that. In the London borough of Camden, a mob broke through the windows of an O2 shop and stole mobile phones, singing as if they were at a soccer match: “O2, O2, O2, O2.” In Manchester, phone store T-Mobile, clothes shops French Connection and Miss Selfridge, department store Marks and Spencer, jeweller Swarovski and the newly-opened boutique owned by former Oasis singer Liam Gallagher were all looted. In Clapham in South London, an entire shopping center was taken apart — the only business that was spared was a bookstore. Not because they wanted to protect the books, but because they had absolutely no interest in them.
People with a romanticised ideal of revolution couldn’t believe their eyes. This was not “destroy what is destroying you”, but the Marxist idea of commodity fetishism in its most toxic form. Some even tried on looted clothes before stuffing them into their designer bags.
As the inferno raged, politicians, the media and commentators rubbed their eyes in disbelief. At the same time, there were critics who had heard David Cameron declare, before he became Prime Minister, that Great Britain in the first decade of the new millennium had become a “broken society.” Once he was in power, however, he didn’t want to know.
Education grants for children from low-income families — abolished. Also abolished in many areas were youth centers and help centers for the unemployed and pregnant. In the Lewisham area alone, five libraries were closed. What happens next? Where does it end? What is the limit? There is none. In the London borough of Haringey, which includes Tottenham, 75 percent of funding for youth services will be cut over the next three years…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Moroccan Arrested Accused of AQIM Links
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, AUGUST 17 — A 37-year old Moroccan national has been arrested today by the Spanish Civil Guard in La Linea de la Concepcion (Cadiz) on suspicion of belonging to an Islamic terror organisation. The news was released in a statement by the Spanish Interior Ministry.
Abdelatif Aulad Chiba is accused of links to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and had previously been kicked out of Jordan and charged with running an internet forum promoting jihadist propaganda and recruiting radical Islamists.
The arrest was commanded by the third investigation section of Madrid’s Audiencia Nacional, after the Civil Guard’s computer police registered a significant increase in network traffic by users interested in weapons for carrying out attacks in the West.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: World Youth Day Helper Planned Attack on Secular March
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, AUGUST 17 — The young Mexican man arrested yesterday in Madrid on suspicion of planning a chemical gas attack against people on tonight’s planned secular march to protest against the cost of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Spanish capital, had been working as a volunteer at World Youth Day, legal sources have told the Europa Press agency.
The volunteer, who is in Madrid on a study programme at the general institute of organic chemistry at Spain’s higher institute of scientific research, was arrested yesterday as he arrived at Ifema park, the nerve centre for World Youth Day helpers. The hard drive of the young man’s computer was seized from his room at the higher institute of scientific research along with two notebooks full of chemical equations which, investigators say, were not related to the young man’s studies.
The man is believed to have stated on the internet his intention to attack opponents of the Pope’s visit and, according to sources, was trying to recruit people for the cause. In light of the recent attack in Oslo and on the Norwegian island of Utoya, the threat did not go unnoticed. The case is now being led by the Audiencia Nacional judge, Ismael Moreno, who must now decide whether or not to validate the arrest.
The Spanish capital, which since yesterday has been flooded by more than half a million young worshippers coming together for the 12th World Youth Day, is now on police lockdown. With the Pontiff due to be in attendance from tomorrow until Sunday, more than 10,000 police and civil guard have been deployed as part of the security measures, which have been in effect since last weekend and are being coordinated by a jointly led operations centre. The air space above the Spanish capital will be closed during the arrival of Benedict XVI, expected tomorrow, and during the main events of World Youth Day, in particular the vigil and the mass, scheduled Saturday night and Sunday respectively at the Cuatro Vientos aerodrome, which are likely to be attended by over a million young people from around the world.
The streets of central Madrid are being monitored by a number of CCTV cameras, particularly the stretch along which the secular protest march will be held from 19.30 this evening. The march, which has been organised by around 100 secular, atheist and Christian organisations, will begin and end in Plaza Tirso de Molina, and will pass through the central streets of the capital, including Puerta del Sol, the focal point for the 15-M indignados movement. The demonstration has been called to protest against the cost of World Youth Day, which protesters say exceeds 100 million euros. Organisers of the event, however, put the figure at around 55.5 million euros, of which they say almost all is covered by the registration of worshippers, contributions from sponsors and donations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Second Teen Arrested for Pre-School Explosion
A warrant for the 18-year-old’s arrest was issued in his absence on Wednesday. He is suspected of aggravated assault.
The boy was brought in for questioning on Monday after the blast at a pre-school in the Stockholm district of Sköndal seriously injured a four-year-old girl. Since then, two more explosive devices have been found in the area. On Monday, police detonated a homemade charge after it had been discovered hanging from a goal on a football field. On Tuesday a third device was found near a playground, only metres away from playing children. After the second bomb had been found police issued a warning that the public should beware unidentified objects wrapped in green tape and report any new discoveries immediately.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘A Cry for Help’: Prince Charles’ Extraordinary Verdict on Gang Culture as He Meets Riot Victims
Prince Charles claimed yesterday that many of those involved in last week’s riots had joined gangs as ‘a cry for help’.
He made clear his belief that many of Britain’s social ills could be put down to a lack of ‘self-confidence and self-esteem’.
Asked for his thoughts on what lay behind some of the troublemakers’ actions, he said: ‘Half the problem is that people join gangs because it’s a cry for help and they’re looking for a sense of belonging.’
He and the Duchess of Cornwall toured several of the worst-hit areas in the capital yesterday, meeting householders and businessmen devastated by days of violence and looting.
The prince’s views were contrasted with those of many he met, who blamed the troubles firmly on an increasing lack of discipline and respect among young people.
‘Young people need self-confidence, we have to motivate and encourage them and give them responsibility.
‘We should have national community service to give all sorts of opportunities. All we have been doing is dealing with the symptoms, not giving the opportunities.’
Police have said that 25 per cent of those held after the disturbances are linked to gangs.
Charles’s contribution to the increasingly heated national debate on the causes of the riots came during a discussion in Hackney, east London, with young businessmen and women who have been helped by his charity, the Prince’s Trust.
Although many of those present expressed their gratitude to the prince for coming, their views were notably less sympathetic towards those responsible.
One man said: ‘Young people are getting far too much … they expect everything to be given to them.’
Natasha Faith, 25, who has a jewellery business in Forest Gate and also met the prince, said: ‘Respect has to be learned. Young people were obviously lacking that in the riots.
‘They had power but no respect.’
Laura Rennis, 26, who is setting up a holistic therapy centre in Edmonton with help from the Prince’s Trust, told Charles: ‘Everybody wants to be famous rather than successful.
‘They ought to be offered positive models, young people doing (good) things rather than (news about) Cheryl Cole’s new house.
‘I am sure David Beckham is lovely but you have to get young people thinking there is more to life than just kicking a ball.
‘The same angst and fire people had in their belly when they were rioting needs to be directed … direct that fire please.’
Charles and Camilla interrupted their annual holiday in Scotland to fly to London for the day. They began their tour in Tottenham, where the violence began.
The duchess said she had watched the ‘senseless’ events unfold with a mixture of horror and disbelief.
‘It is absolutely terrible. We were watching it on television and I had to pinch myself. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. It was so senseless. I could not believe it was happening in this country.’
She patted one Afro-Caribbean woman on the arm and said: ‘The next few months will be hard but stick together. Show that spirit of true Britishness that is so important.’
The woman replied warmly: ‘Oh we will, we will. We are British through and through. The way people have pulled together to help us has been inspiring.’
Charles was particularly taken by the stories of several families who feared that they would not be covered for the damage and loss by their household insurance policies.
He asked his private secretary to make a note of their details. An aide said: ‘He was struck by this very same problem after the floodings a couple of years ago and wants to see what he can do to chivvy them up. He strongly believes businesses should pull together at times like these.’
As well as making a personal donation of a dozen food processors to families who have lost their homes and belongings in Tottenham, the Prince’s Trust is making an extra £2.5million available to help disaffected young people get on their feet.
Later in the day the couple travelled on to Croydon where they saw some of the fire-ravaged homes and businesses in London Road.
Sherrilyn Miller, a retail manager, said: ‘I have lost everything I own in the world, including the only photograph I had of my dead father.
‘My neighbour even lost his wife’s ashes and has been asking the rescue workers to see if they can find them.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boris Johnson is Hitler, Says Ken Livingstone
Former London mayor Ken Livingstone sparked fury today by comparing Boris Johnson to Hitler.
The Labour candidate suggested he represents Winston Churchill and Mr Johnson is Adolf Hitler by saying of next year’s mayoral contest: “It’s a simple choice between good and evil. I don’t think it has been so clear since the great struggle between Churchill and Hitler. “Those who don’t vote for me will be weighed in the balance come Judgment Day. The Archangel Gabriel will say, ‘You didn’t vote for Ken Livingstone in 2012. Oh dear, burn for ever. Your skin flayed for all eternity.’“ His comments were branded “crass” and in “incredibly poor taste” by Conservative MPs and friends of Mr Johnson.
A spokesman for Mr Livingstone today insisted the comments in a pie-and-mash shop at Shepherd’s Bush Market about Britain’s Second World War leader and the Nazi dictator were in “a spirit of good humour”. The ex-mayor was accused of “extremism and poor taste” in June after describing Mr Johnson’s Chief of Staff Edward Lister as “the Ratko Mladic of local government” — just days after the Serbian war criminal was arrested. While he was mayor in 2006 he was reprimanded after comparing a Jewish Evening Standard journalist to a concentration camp guard. Opponents today branded the latest comments in Total Politics magazine “nasty and divisive”. Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell said: “After the events of the last week, Londoners need a mayor who will unite our city, not one who regards people who don’t share his views as evil. Comparing rival politicians to Hitler is in incredibly poor taste. And even to joke that Londoners who don’t vote for him will ‘burn for ever’ after everything we have just been through is crass even by Ken Livingstone’s standards.”
A friend of Mr Johnson’s told the Standard: “There must now be serious questions about whether Ken Livingstone is fit for public life. Even if it was a joke, it is not something you can say.” A source close to Mr Johnson’s campaign said: “We always knew that Ken was a nasty, divisive character who would fight a dirty campaign but the Labour leader must surely distance himself from these, and similar comments, made in recent times and clarify to Londoners that this is not how his party conducts itself in 21st century democratic politics.”
Mr Livingstone’s team today attempted to defuse the row. His spokesman said: “Anyone reading the full quote will see Ken’s comments were clearly made in a spirit of good humour during a light-hearted interview about the London mayoral election.” A source close to him added: “He was standing in a cafe. It was light-hearted. Boris has made jokes using colourful language during his time as mayor. Ken made a series of comments during the interview. Yes, if you just take out that particular comment it looks quite stark, but both Boris and Ken have made some pretty colourful remarks.” In the interview, Mr Livingstone also talks about his closeness to Ed Miliband, saying he had seen him “half a dozen times” since the Labour leader’s election. He also joked about his relationship with ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying, “I think they had him on something” at events when the two politicians were seen together.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ken Livingstone: What His Own Supporters Thought of Him Last Week
Riots are never good for the Left, but Labour has done pretty well in its response to them. On the morning after the first violence, David Lammy, the Tottenham MP, set the tone the rest of the party followed. He and others articulated public anger, reserved the right to talk about socio-political causes in future but recognised that while the streets were still smouldering was not the time to play politics.
There was just one terrible exception to the rule. Here is a selection of responses from the left to Ken Livingstone’s statements about the riots last week.
Dan Hodges, New Statesman:
“A measured response to the riots could have been the making of his mayoral candidacy. Instead, he sullied it. It wasn’t just the cheapness and transparency of his politicking…nor the tasteless way he used the London bombings to frame his suitability for tackling the London riots. It wasn’t even the crass stupidity and simplicity of his analysis; blame the bankers, EMA, the fact that 14 and 15 year old rioters are enraged at their inability to provide for their wives and children. London needs unity. And Ken Livingstone is divisive.”
Observer leader:
“Ken Livingstone was misguided in his attempt to link the disorder to the coalition’s programme of cuts. The closure of libraries and youth centres in Haringey did not cause hundreds of young men to hijack a peaceful protest at the police shooting of Mark Duggan, leading to hours of mayhem.”
Michael White, The Guardian:
“As so often, Ken Livingstone couldn’t resist jumping in with an attack on coalition spending cuts. Truly, he is the Boris Johnson of leftwing politics, opportunist to a fault.”
New Statesman leader:
“It is too simplistic to blame the coalition’s cuts for these riots.”
Heidi Alexander,Labour MP for Lewisham East (whose own constituency office was looted):
“Some argue that this week’s riots are the direct product of Government cuts. I do not buy that; it is too simplistic.”
George Galloway,Saddam Hussein apologist:
“Well done Ken Livingstone on Newsnight; first Labour leader to speak truth about London riots.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: New York Times Sprouts Rubbish Over UK Riots
Never likely to be outdone when it comes to Left-liberal sententiousness, the New York Times has produced a corker of a leading article on our very own riots. With a mock-judicious bit of throat-clearing, it begins on a tone of apparently unimpeachable even-handedness: “nothing can justify or excuse the terrifying wave of lawlessness, etc, etc … the perpetrators must be punished, etc, etc.”
But it then lurches into an absurd compounding of the irrelevant and the ill-informed. David Cameron, the paper intones, is “a product of Britain’s upper classes and schools”. (This is scarcely intelligible English: does it mean upper-class schools?) And so, presumably as a consequence of his class-induced ignorance, “he has blamed the looting and burning on a compound of national moral decline, bad parenting and perverse inner-city subculture”.
Yes indeed he has, thus putting himself in agreement with about 90 per cent of the British population. But the New York Times in as uninterested in the overwhleming majority of British public opinion as it is in the great mass of American public opinion. It is as smugly and narrowly orthodox in its Left-liberal posturing as its counterparts in Britain. (If the BBC were to be reincarnated as an American newpaper, it would be the New York Times.) So it carries on in class war mode with accusations about Mr Cameron’s blithe imperiousness: “Would he find similar blame — this time in the culture of the well housed and well-off — for Britian’s recent tabloid phone hacking scandals or the egregious abuse of expense accounts by members of Parliament?”
Well as it happens, the MPs’ expenses scandal is pretty small beer by comparison to the “pork barrel” and lobbying scandals which have dogged the US Congress for generations. Would the New York Times like to opine on how much relevance the class backgrounds of Washington legislators have to those problems? How is it that this august organ of American journalism ends up endorsing precisely the kind of absurd analogies between rioters who burn and kill, and transgressions against probity in public life, that are being uttered by the desperate Left in this country?
The remedies which it criticises Mr Cameron for adopting are, in fact, not within his personal power at all: evicting tenants from council housing is a matter for local councils not for the Westminister government. And he has not proposed “shutting down the internet in neighbourhoods [where there is civil disorder]”. As far as the New York Times is concerned, the riots of last week were all about the state of the economy and the Government’s spending cuts: an argument so untenable that even the Labour party does not advance it. In its pious conclusion, the editorial states unequivocally that “what Britain’s sputtering economy really needs is short-term stimulus, not more budget cutting.” Barack Obama couldn’t have asked for a more generous endorsement. And that, one assumes, is what this ludicruous exercise in Schadenfreude was all about.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Prison is the Only Solution to Violent Crime in Society
IT didn’t take long for the bleeding heart brigade to swing into action.
Barely a week after the worst disturbances in modern British history a chorus of wailing has begun over the tough sentences handed out by the courts to the looters and rioters. As the number of convictions mounts so Leftwing campaigners and politicians have described the tough response by the judicial system as “bonkers”, “over-punitive” and “disproportionate”. But all this whingeing is absurd. Rigour by the state is exactly what the nation needed after the events of two weeks ago. An example had to be set to act as a deterrent and provide justice for all those who have suffered in the violence.
What the robust sentencing actually proves is how weak the criminal justice system has been until now. The real problem is not a current excess of zeal from the courts but their excessive leniency in recent decades. We have lived with the softly-softly approach for so long that the sudden imposition of meaningful jail sentences has come as a shock. Before the riots we had a pusillanimous legal culture in which burglars, shoplifters, drug dealers and even violent assailants would regularly be let off with police cautions or pathetic community sentences. Now thankfully the official mood has changed. But in their eagerness to return to the climate of judicial impotence Left-wing ideologues are trying to undermine this new-found vigour.
Much of their synthetic outrage has focused on the case of two men from the North-west, Jordan Blackshaw and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, who were jailed for four years after they were convicted of trying to foment mob violence in Cheshire. Jobles Sutcliffe- Keenan had set up a page called The Warrington Riots on the social networking website Facebook, urging other young people to create mayhem in the area. In the same vein petty criminal Blackshaw used the internet to encourage a mass outbreak of looting in the historic town of Northwich. The fact that their twin incitements to violence failed to provoke carnage on their local streets does not lessen the viciousness of their crimes. At the very moment when much of inner-city Britain was engulfed by flames these two idiots showed an utter contempt for the law, for public safety and for any concept of personal responsibility. In the aftermath of their sentencing one of their brothers complained that “people get shorter sentences for stabbing someone”. Well that may be true but it is hardly an argument for greater leniency. Instead it is an indictment of the courts’ grotesque leniency towards knife crime. In truth it is precisely such institutionalised softness which helped to create the disastrous climate of anarchic selfishness that gripped Britain when thugs felt they could rob, loot, maim and firebomb with impunity. They were emboldened in their sickening actions by years of overindulgence from the police, courts, social services and probation system. They thought there would be no consequences to their crimes because there had been none in the past. They inhabited a world where the state always treated them as victims, constantly prattling about their human rights.
Tragically for Britain the culture of leniency was strengthened 18 months ago by the arrival in office of the Tory- Liberal Democrat coalition. The dripping wet Liberal Democrats had a natural ally in new Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, a fierce opponent of tough sentencing. Clarke had been a disastrous home secretary in the early Nineties when the crime rate reached its highest ever level in Britain. Yet he had learnt nothing from the experience. In direct contradiction of all the evidence that the massive rise in the prison population since 1993 had brought a significant fall in crime Clarke argued that “prison has proved a costly and ineffectual approach”. So in fulfilment of this belief he promised shorter sentences and more community punishments. Jail terms would be halved for those who pleaded guilty early in their cases, drug addicts would be given support rather than incarceration and prisoner numbers would fall.
Yet today in the wake of the riots the Tory-led Government has executed a dramatic U-turn. Jail is now seen as the only solution to violent crime. When David Cameron says that looters will face the “full force of the law” he means that they will be banged up for lengthy spells. But this just shows the fundamental dishonesty of the Government’s previous strategy. Effectively ministers were happy to allow dangerous criminals to walk free, knowing that such leniency was a threat to public order. Only a blinkered dogmatist could think that prison does not work. Putting criminals behind bars not only keeps them off the streets but teaches them a lesson. The longer that convicts serve inside the less likely they are to reoffend.
Moreover, for all the complaints from Left-wingers about the cost of prison places, the jail network is actually a bargain for the public, costing just £2.2billion a year, a little more than one per cent of the fortune squandered on the corrupt welfare system. But the tough new approach should be applied all year round, not just in the aftermath of the riots. Without the deterrence of jail mob rule can become a frightening reality.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Park Rape Trial Begins
A WOMAN offered to help a man before he turned on her and raped her in a Halifax park, a court heard.
Abbas Ali, 21, faces one charge of rape at Bradford Crown Court.
Prosecutor Hilary Manley said the 34-year-old woman had been on her way to a shop at 5.30am in September 2010.
She got to St Augustine’s Park, Hanson Lane, Halifax, when she saw Ali staggering around, seemingly drunk.
She helped him to a bench when he suddenly grabbed her and raped her.
Miss Manley said the woman had dug her nails into his thighs in the hope of securing DNA evidence.
She managed to struggle free and ran home to ring the police.
Ali denies ever meeting her.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Theresa May: An Obstacle to the Road to Reform
It is a golden rule of politics that the received wisdom is usually wrong. The Liberal Democrats would only ever enter a coalition with Labour; David Miliband would be the next Labour leader; Britain doesn’t do rioting. The received wisdom now is that, even though David Cameron has promised sweeping changes to fix Britain’s “sick society”, he is being held back by the Lib Dems, who are uneasy about his tough tone and support for tough justice. Yet this, too, is nonsense. Yes, there is a roadblock to reform — but it is manned not by the men in yellow, but by Cameron’s own Home Secretary.
Over the past fortnight, Theresa May has excelled herself. One thing is clear to almost everyone other than senior police officers: for the first two nights of the riots, the Metropolitan Police got it wrong. And this was not an isolated incident. Rather, it was symptomatic of a bigger problem.. As the phone hacking scandal showed, the Met is clearly in urgent need of reform. More broadly, the policing culture has become one of bureaucratic correctness, managing decline and reacting to crime rather than preventing it. Tales of indifference to supposedly minor incidents are not merely anecdotal — they go to the heart of public confidence in the police.
In this context, Mrs May’s decision to overrule the Prime Minister and prevent any foreigners from applying for the job of Met Police Commissioner was astonishing. By barring the likes of Bill Bratton, and refusing to take the opportunity created by Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation to bring about a real change in culture, she was taking her orders not from the PM, but from the Association of Chief Police Officers, the senior officers’ trade union. If the Met is notorious for sucking in and defeating would-be reformers, the Home Office is worse. Ministers face a ceaseless battle to overcome institutionalised inertia. For the bureaucrats, Mrs May is the perfect politician, for, during her time as Home Secretary, she has done nothing to upset the Home Office mindset in any way.
Take perhaps her most important task — the protection of the UK against terrorism. In Opposition, the Conservatives criticised the Home Office’s misguided tactic of working with radical Islamists as supposed counterweights to al-Qaeda. In office, Mrs May has let the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, which acted as a form of base camp within Whitehall for this approach, carry on as before. Indeed, when a review of the previous government’s Prevent strategy was being carried out, Mrs May apparently backed the OSCT in opposing the idea that the definition of “extremism” should include supporting attacks on British troops. It was only the intervention of David Cameron and Lord Carlile, the Lib Dem in charge of the review, that pushed the change through. [JP emphasis]
But it is not just as Home Secretary that Mrs May is acting as a block on reform. As Minister for Women and Equalities, she is responsible for the preposterous Equality and Human Rights Commission. Set up in 2006 at a cost of £70 million, it represents everything that a reforming government should want to remove. Ignore, for the moment, its actual work. From day one, its accounting practices have been lax in the extreme. Three senior employees were made redundant at a cost of more than £500,000, then re-hired as consultants, a decision condemned by the National Audit Office.. Another £870,000 was squandered on a website that didn’t work. And the commissioners, most of whom are standard Left-wing quangocrats, are paid £500 a day. No wonder the NAO refused to sign off last year’s accounts. The commission’s raison d’etre is to justify its own existence, by producing reports alleging prejudice, racism and inequality in all walks of life. Without such findings, it would have no purpose. There could be no more obvious example of a deeply politicised quango that a Conservative government would want to abolish. Mrs May, however, thought otherwise. She has been so captured by the bureaucracy that she has refused to countenance abolition. In March, she remarked: “We want the EHRC to become a valued and respected national institution, championing effective implementation of equality and human rights laws.” Presumably that was the royal “we”, since she spoke for few others in her party.
This is of a piece with her defence of Harriet Harman’s Equality Act, a measure introduced last year almost solely to lay political landmines for the next government, by opening up decisions to judicial review on the grounds of their supposedly deleterious impact on equality. So costly and crippling was this Act that it should have been at the top of any list of legislation to be repealed. Mrs May did make one change, removing the duty on the public sector to reduce socio-economic inequality. But she has championed the rest, including a public sector duty to promote equality (spot the contradiction with the repealed section) and the introduction of positive discrimination. All of this will be pushed forward by the EHRC, further (and spuriously) justifying its existence.
All told, the Home Secretary’s time in office has resulted in a growing catalogue of poor decisions, many of which undermine her leader’s agenda. Mrs May might be a member of the Conservative Party. But in her actions as a minister, she seems determined to conserve the very worst aspects of the British public sector.
[JP note: Theresa May was finished the moment she appeared on television on the morning after the riots when she said that policing in the UK was achieved by consensus and water cannon were out of the question — it was such a bizarre statement that one wondered how long she would be able to survive as Home Secretary.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tory Councillor, 49, Suspended After Calling Rioters ‘Jungle Bunnies’ On Facebook
A Tory councillor has been suspended after he made racist remarks about rioters.
Bob Frost, who is also a secondary school maths teacher, described those involved in disturbances last week as ‘jungle bunnies’ on his Facebook page.
The 49-year-old posted the insult, referring to the riots in London on August 7, less than 24 hours after trouble flared in Tottenham, north London.
He had been elected to Dover District Council to represent the Conservative Party in May.
Mr Frost teaches at Sir Roger Manwood’s Grammar School in Sandwich and describes himself as a ‘right-wing libertarian’.
The remark was removed from his Facebook page after he received a phone call from another Conservative party member.
Mr Frost then wrote on Facebook: ‘I have just had a phone call that accused me of racism for my above posting.
‘Looking at the dictionary it would appear that the term jungle bunnies is perjorative [sic] and is a racist slur relating to African-Americans.
‘Needless to say I did not mean to use any offensive racist term and was referring to the urban jungle.’
The councillor, who represents north Deal, added: ‘As for the bunny bit it was originally animals but I thought people might object to me calling fellow humans this so I chose something I thought was innocuous and also cuddly.’
Mr Frost’s apology was also taken down after he received another phone call from a fellow Conservative representative.
The councillor has been suspended from the party and an investigation into the comments has been launched before a panel decides what action to take.
Mr Frost said: ‘What I said was wrong and I apologise unreservedly. I am mortified by the offence that I have caused and have deleted these comments. I am very sorry.’
Councillor Sue Chandler, deputy leader of Dover District Council Conservative Group said: ‘There is no place in our society for this kind of language. We have therefore suspended Cllr Frost from the Conservative Group pending investigation.’
A senior Tory colleague, who declined to be named, described Mr Frost as a ‘idiot’.
Sir Roger Manwood’s Grammar School declined to comment on the matter.
He wrote: ‘Well, being in the Market Square you might ask how all the single mothers congregating with their push-chaired spawn are able to afford both their beer and their tattoos. I have a horrible idea I am paying for both.’
When it was put to Mr Frost that some of those mothers might be from his own constituency in north Deal, he responded: ‘While there is a certain demographic which may well fit the description in North Deal it is most unusual for them to waddle so far from their territory.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Who Wants to be a Muslim Mr Tarrant? TV Show Host’s Daughter Converts to Islam
One question that host Chris Tarrant will definitely not be asking contestants during his latest celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? marathon on ITV over the weekend is: ‘Which famous television personality has a daughter who has converted to Islam?’
The answer can easily be provided by Tarrant himself, certainly without bothering to phone a friend. The correct response is: Chris Tarrant, concerning his attractive 26-year-old daughter Fia by his former wife Ingrid.
Next year, Chris and his ex-wife will join friends in Wimbledon for the wedding of disc jockey Fia to her handsome property developer boyfriend Adam Ali Khan, also 26, who is a Muslim.
Family: Ingrid Tarrant with her daughter Fia who has converted to Islam in order to marry boyfriend Adam Ali Khan
Like Chancellor George Osborne’s psychiatrist brother, Adam, who converted when he married Bangladeshi-born plastic surgeon Rahala Noor, and Cherie Blair’s half-sister Lauren Booth, who suddenly began wearing a hijab following her conversion last year, bubbly Fia underwent a Muslim ceremony six months ago.
She tells me: ‘It was very simple at Adam’s family’s home in Surrey. An imam was there and I just had to repeat words in Arabic.’
Fia, who has been dating Adam for three years adds: ‘Like my mother, I haven’t really got a religion. But I wanted to convert to Islam to make Adam’s grandparents happy. They live in Spain and they came over for my conversion.’
However, Fia, who works as a DJ for Spectrum, the English language radio station in Spain, does not intend to wear a hijab or go to prayers at her local mosque.
Television host Chris Tarrant with his then wife Ingrid after he received an OBE at Buckingham Palace in 2004
‘Adam goes to the mosque every week and he is observing Ramadan at the moment. I do believe in a God, but my conversion is more symbolic.
‘The good thing was that when you convert you get a completely clean slate — all your misbehaviour in the past is wiped clean.’
This no doubt includes Fia’s brushes with the law — at 18 she was banned from driving for 16 months for being twice over the limit and last year she was fined £750 for having no insurance when she crashed into a parked scooter in Ingrid’s Mini-Cooper.
Fia and Chris have always treated each other as father and daughter, although she’s in fact from Ingrid’s brief first marriage.
Both Tarrant and his ex approve of Adam, says Fia, who is seeking sponsorship for her new radio venture, The World Chart Show, featuring the top 40 singles from around the world, which will be aired by various radio stations.
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Libya: UN to Buy Badly Needed Medical Supplies With Unfrozen Funds
New York, 18 August (AKI) — The United Nations World Health Organisation will use €100 million euros (144.3 million dollars) from Libyan accounts frozen by the Dutch government to buy medical supplies to ease severe shortages caused by the six-month-long civil war in the North African country.
“We would like to express our gratitude to the Government of the Netherlands who basically, at the request of the WHO, implemented the decision of the UN sanctions committee and released funds that will be used for procuring medical supplies for Libya,” said Tarik Jasarevic, the WHO spokesperson, in an interview with UN Radio.
The funds from Libyan government accounts — frozen under UN Security Council sanctions — will be used by the WHO to procure medical supplies to be distributed across the country, including in areas controlled by the Libyan opposition, Jasarevic said.
“Supplies of essential supplies are really running short,” he said, adding that Libyan hospitals have been hit by a lack of essential drugs such as insulin, as well as cancer treatments, laboratory and surgical supplies and medicines to treat non-communicable diseases.
“All these are in short supply because Libya [has] not [been] procuring [them] for months now,” said Jasarevic.
Libya used to spend between 500 million and 700 million dollars on imported drugs and others medical supplies annually before the conflict. The funds released by the Dutch government would purchase enough supplies to last eight to 10 weeks, according to Jasarevic.
The rebel Transitional National Council claimed on Tuesday its fighters would take the Libyan capital, Tripoli abd stronghold of embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ‘within a month’.
In February, the Security Council voted to impose sanctions against the Libyan authorities, slapping the country with an arms embargo and freezing the assets of its leaders after a bloody crackdown against opposition demonstrators calling for greater freedoms.
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Gaza Militia Responsible for Red Sea Attacks, Barak Says
(AGI) Jerusalem — Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak says the Red Sea attacks were carried out by Gaza militiamen. With attacks having targeted two buses and a military patrol north of the coastal town of Eilat, the minister today pledged to “react with utmost strength and determination.” Provisional casualties stand at between 5 and 6 killed and some ten injured.
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IDF Strikes Gaza in Response to Attacks; 6 Reported Dead
Joint IDF, Shin Bet operation hits Rafah after triple terrorist attacks near Eilat kill 7; chief of terrorist faction PRC killed in airstrike.
The IDF attacked terror targets in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, in response to a three-stage terrorist attack which killed seven Israelis and wounded dozens in the South earlier in the day.
Six Palestinians were killed in the joint IDF and Shin Bet strike.
Related:
- MK Eldad slams gov’t for not preventing terror attacks
- Police beef up forces, call on public to be vigilant
Among those killed was the chief of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), Kamal al-Nairab. The five others that were killed were also members of the terrorist faction .
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Jordan Had Warned Israel About Imminent Attack
(AGI) Jerusalem -The Yediot Aharonot website had reported that Jordanian intelligence services had warned their Israeli colleagues that a terrorist cell was planning an attack on the south of the country, similar to the one carried out today against two busses near Eiat on the Red Sea.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Multiple Terror Attacks Rock South; 7 Killed
Four terror attacks near Eilat claim seven lives, leave 31 injured as passenger bus, military patrol and private car targeted; IDF kills seven terrorists. Security forces declare high alert in southern sector
Terrorists armed with heavy weapons, guns and explosives launched four attacks in quick succession in southern Israel near the border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Thursday, killing at least seven people and wounding 31 more, officials said.
The assailants targeted a passenger bus, a military patrol and a private car. “We are talking about a terror squad that infiltrated into Israel,” said IDF spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich. “This is a combined terrorist attack against Israelis.”
The manhunt for the terrorists continues as an official reported around 6 pm forces had found another attack site with explosive devices at ready. Defense officials say the cell that committed the attack was comprised of 10-20 terrorists, and security forces succeeded in killing seven. An explosive device was found on one of the bodies, and an additional terrorist was seen escaping into Egypt.
Officials believe the cell was planning a more extensive attack but quick responses by the IDF and special forces prevented additional casualties.
The attacks began around 12 pm, when a cell of three terrorists opened fire on Egged bus 392, heading for Eilat. Witnesses say the three, dressed in army uniforms, opened a barrage of fire on the bus, which was packed full of passengers.
Authorities suspect the terrorists emerged from a white car that was following the bus. They exited the car and began spraying the bus with bullets, firing from top to bottom.
Soldiers who were on the bus returned fire, and then began to treat the wounded. The bus stopped when it reached an IDF checkpoint at Netafim junction.
A second attack, which took place at around 12:30 pm, took place near the Egyptian border. Explosive devices were detonated with the aim of hitting an IDF force headed towards the scene of the first attack. The IDF says there were a number of casualties.
In a third attack, which took place at 12:40 pm, a mortar shell exploded near a vehicle. No one was hurt.
In a fourth attack, which took place at 1:30 pm, terrorists fired at another bus and a private vehicle. In addition, an anti-tank missile was fired at the bus, but hit the private vehicle instead, killing those inside.
After the fourth attack special forces fired at the terrorists and clashes ensued. A number of terrorists were killed, according to reports.
According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, an IDF force that arrived at the scene of the first attack hit an explosive device, and soldiers were injured. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Benny Gantz and Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino are en route to GOC Southern Command, where they will confer with Southern Command Chief Major-General Tal Russo.
Military officials say the attack was well-planned, and that the terrorists were well-coordinated throughout. Aside from rifles, the gunmen also had a number of missiles at their disposal, and the army fears they may have been planning to kidnap a soldier.
| — Hat tip: DarLink | [Return to headlines] |
Two Israeli Buses Reportedly Attacked Near Egypt Border
Gunmen opened fire on an Israeli bus north of the popular Red Sea resort of Eilat on Thursday, wounding at least five passengers, according to the police and ambulance service, and the military reported at least one other attack on another vehicle in the same area with more casualties, suggesting a coordinated terrorist assault.
The first attack took place around midday in a sparsely populated desert area close to Israel’s border with the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. The gunmen, who shot at the bus from a car, sped away from the scene and Israeli forces and helicopters were chasing them. The military spokesman said there was initial contact between the Israeli forces and the attackers.
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Two Israeli Buses Attacked on Egyptian Border, 6 Died
(AGI) Jerusalem — At least 6 people died and several others were hurt when two Israeli buses were attacked near the Egyptian border, according to the pan-Arab network al-Arabiya.
The two buses were attacked along the Motorway 12, which runs along the Sinai border (Egypt) 30 kilometres or about 19 miles north of the Eilat tourist resort on the Red Sea. Some armed men opened fire against the first bus of the Egged company, before driving away on board of a car. The second bus, where the majority of victims were, was attacked, as it seems, by the same commando at a short distance from the first bus. Some Israeli soldiers who were on board of the buses fired back .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton Warns of Missing Arab Spring Opportunity
The US may lose its chance to reshape the Mideast politics if budget pressures hobble support for democratic forces emerging in these countries, says Clinton
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, appearing in a town hall-style meeting on Tuesday, argued strongly against further cuts to military, diplomatic and development spending as the United States struggles to slash its $1.4 trillion deficit. “We have an opportunity right now in the Middle East and North Africa that I’m not sure we’re going to be able to meet because we don’t have the resources to invest,” Clinton said, citing Egypt, Tunisia and Libya as badly in need of U.S. help.
“Budget documents are value statements: who we are as a people, what we stand for, what investments we’re making in the future,” Clinton said “Whether we will continue to be strong and be able to project American power is up for grabs, and we’re going to make the best case we can that American power is a power for the good…we hope that it will find a ready audience in the Congress as these negotiations resume.” Clinton’s remarks were her strongest to date warning that fiscal austerity at home, depending how it’s implemented, could weaken the U.S. leadership role overseas. Panetta renewed his warnings against a “devastating” second round of defense cuts. Panetta, who took over the top Pentagon post last month, has said the initial $350 billion savings in security spending already signed into law was manageable — but that further reductions could imperil the country against the threats in the world. Under the deficit deal approved this month by the U.S. Congress, lawmakers and the Obama administration will weigh priorities as they seek to find at least $1.2 trillion in savings on top of the $917 billion already agreed. The Pentagon’s base budget this year was $526 billion, excluding the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is one obvious target. But congressional appropriators are also looking at a bill that would cut State Department funding by $8.5 billion next year, 18 percent below fiscal 2011 levels and 22 percent below President Barack Obama’s request. The International Monetary Fund has estimated that the Middle East and North Africa such as Egypt and Tunisia will need more than $160 billion over the next three years.
$360mln lost in Afghanistan
Meanwhile, after examining hundreds of combat support and reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan, the U.S military estimates $360 million in U.S. tax dollars has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has spent nearly a decade battling: the Taliban, criminals, and power brokers with ties to both. A central part of the Obama administration’s strategy has been to award U.S.-financed contracts to Afghan businesses to help improve the stoke the country’s economy. “Funds begin as clean monies,” according to one document, then “either through direct payments or through the flow of funds in the subcontractor network, the monies become tainted.” The conclusions by Task Force 2010 represent the most definitive assessment of how U.S. military spending and aid to Afghanistan has been diverted to the enemy or stolen. Only a small percentage of the $360 million has been garnered by the Taliban and insurgent groups, said a senior U.S. military official in Kabul. The bulk of the money was lost to profiteering, bribery and extortion by criminals and power brokers, said the official. Overall, the $360 million represents a fraction of the $31 billion in active U.S. contracts that the task force reviewed.
Compiled from AP and Reuters by the Daily News staff.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel-Turkey: No Dialogue Between Netanyahu and Erdogan
(by Giorgio Raccah) (ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM — The ‘dialogue’ taking place between the leaders of Turkey and of Israel is not a great example of the meeting of minds. Over the issue of the Mavi Marmara — which has become a central one for the future of relations between two countries who had been close allies up to a few months ago — the positions of Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu and of his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyp Erdogan, have not moved an inch. The former has reaffirmed to US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, that Israel will not apologise of the killing of nine Turkish citizens during the boarding of the vessel when Israeli marines pro-Palestinian activists from the breaching of the naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip on May 31 2010. The latter, Mr Erdogan, has repeated that unless an apology is forthcoming, relations between their countries cannot be normalised. Intense diplomatic efforts to resolve the row in a way acceptable to both sides have remained futile.
According to Israeli forces radio, during a recent telephone conversation with Mr Netanyahu, Ms Clinton urged him to issue an apology to Turkey in the name of US political interests in the region. The USA wants to see reconciliation between Israel and Turkey — two states of great importance for US foreign policy in the region.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Islamists Blast Constitutional Changes
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, AUGUST 17 — Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood movement on Wednesday rubbished constitutional amendments endorsed by the pro-west King Abdullah as far from convincing and vowed pressure for reform, according to a group’s statement.
“The proposed amendments do not meet the minimum requirements of Jordanians ambition,” said the group in a statement sent to ANSA after an urgent meeting for the group’s political office and leaderships from the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political wing of the MB, Islamist.
The statement said the amendments did not include a fundamental demand by the opposition to form parliament governments based on the majority. King Abdullah, under the amendments, continue to enjoy large powers including summoning the parliament and hiring and firing governments.
The IAF is the most influential party in Jordan and one of the driving forces for street protests that swept Jordan in the past months.
Abdullah this week approved the amendments presented to him by a royal committee chaired by senators speaker Taher al Masri and vowed to continue efforts to achieve reform.
The opposition in Jordan approves king Abdullah as a monarch but want to limit his absolute powers in a bid to fight infested corruption in the public sector and allow for inclusion of all social groups in decision making. The current political system in Jordan favours Jordanian tribes, known with their allegiance to the throne, and excludes Palestinians, who make up the majority of the population.
The Islamist movement wants an amendment to the elections law in order to achieve social justice and tackle political apathy that left ballot boxes in recent elections almost empty of votes.
They also want an end to the control by security forces over decision making process and cancellation of military courts.
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Lebanon: Hariri Son Tells Hezbollah, Hand Over 4 Suspects
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, AUGUST 17 — The former Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, the son and political heir of Rafik Hariri, whose murder in Beirut six years ago is being investigated by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), has today called on the Shiite movement Hezbollah to hand over its four members accused by the STL of involvement in the attack of February 14 2005. “I hope that the leaders of Hezbollah and, in particular, its leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, will make a historic decision,” said the statement from the office of Saad Hariri. The former Prime Minister openly asked the pro-Iranian movement “to announce its total cooperation with the tribunal in order for the suspects to be handed over and an equal trial to begin”.
Hezbollah has not yet officially reacted to the publication today of the charges, while its information tools only acknowledged the news from Holland, where the tribunal is based.
On a number of previous occasions, the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has strongly rejected the accusations, saying that the international court is the work of a “Zionist-American plot against the focus of anti-Israeli resistance”.
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Obama to Call for Assad to Step Down in Syria, Officials Say
President Obama will call on Thursday for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to step down, and will issue a new executive order providing for additional sanctions, an official said. It will be the first time the United States has explicitly called for Mr. Assad’s departure from power.
The actions come in response to the deadly crackdown Syrian forces have been waging against pro-democracy protesters across the country.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. Eastern time about the sanctions, which the official said would be much sterner than previous measures. “We believe that this tough action will lend additional force to the president’s words,” the official said.
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India: Anti-Graft Protester Hazare Set to Start Fast After Govt Relents
Delhi, 18 August (AKI/IANS) — Detained Indian anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare was set to hold his fast at a park in central Delhi after leaving prison, his aide Arvind Kejriwal said Thursday, two days after the civil society leader was jailed. His detention sparked massive rallies.
“Anna’s health is fine. The jail doctors are looking after him and Dr Naresh Trehan’s team is monitoring him 24 hours,” Kejriwal told reporters outside Tihar Jail.
He added that Delhi Police had granted Team Anna permission to hold the fast at the Ramlila park for 15 days.
“We have been given the Ramlila ground for 15 days, and have also been assured by the Delhi Police that if we need the ground for more days, we can stay there,” Kejriwal said.
“The conditions imposed on us earlier have also been withdrawn,” he added.
Police had previously insisted the 74-year-old could fast for only three days.
Hazare, 74, had planned to begin his fast for a stronger anti-corruption legislation on Tuesday and refused to agree to Delhi police restrictions on the number of fasting days and participants.
He was arrested hours after he was due to begin his “fast unto death” on Tuesday at Delhi’s JP Park, along with at least 1,200 of his supporters.
The Congress Party-led government said the protesters had been detained because they had not accepted the police’s restrictions on the number of fasting days and participants.
He was arrested and subsequently released but refused to leave the jail until he was allowed to carry out the fast as he had planned.
Kejriwal said they were waiting for the Ramlila ground to be cleaned up before the stage and tents could be set up for the fast, which was due to start at 3pm local time.
Hazare’s supporters in massive numbers have started pouring in at the Ramlila ground since early Thursday.
“Our demand is that a proper draft of the Lokpal bill which will effectively fight corruption should be presented in the parliament. And we will continue our fight for that…but it will all be peaceful,” Kejriwal said.
A Tihar Jail spokesperson told IANS that Hazare was expected to leave the jail in the afternoon.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany is Close to Deploying ‘Mercenaries’ To Protect Ships From Pirates
The German government is considering a change to gun laws so that private security companies can protect German ships from pirates. So far this year 21 vessels have been hijacked near the Horn of Africa. Germany may soon authorize shipping companies to hire private armed guards to defend vessels from Somali pirates. Ships sailing near the Horn of Africa are at high risk of attack from pirates, who often hijack ships for ransom.
Currently one third of German ships are estimated to be sailing in the western Indian Ocean with guards on board, but the practice is only semi-legal. If a pirate were to be killed in self-defense, the guard can be punished under German laws. The idea of deploying naval escorts for ships has been sidelined by the government, as it would be unaffordable. Failing to gain naval support, shipping companies have been angry at a policy stalemate lasting years. The pirates are frequently armed with a automatic weapons and bazookas, and often target German ships carrying chemicals and oil.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ten Land in Pantelleria
(AGI) Palermo — Ten Tunisians, all male, landed last night in Pantelleria after crossing the Sicily Channel on board of a small boat. They were led to the reception centre, inside an old army barracks. Last Tuesday, about ninety non-EC immigrants burned mattresses as a protest, starting a fire. This morning, 65 unaccompanied minors were moved from Lampedusa to Porto Empedocle (Agrigento) on board of a Siremar ferry .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Immigrants Land Off Marsala Coast
(AGI) Trapani — Dozens of immigrants have landed in Petrosino, near Marsala in the province of Trapani. The exact number is not yet known but the police are trying to track them down in the area between Lido Torrazza and Via Triglia Scaletta and between the 115 Route and the beach. Some immigrants have been taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia and dehydration .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Rob Young Britons of Jobs
IMMIGRANTS have taken 289,000 jobs in the last year while one in five young Britons is now out of work, shocking figures revealed last night.
British-born workers are swelling the dole queue as unemployment has soared to 2.49 million, according to employment statistics.
An astonishing 20 per cent of those aged under 24 are signing on, raising concerns about the Government’s drive to curb mass immigration.
But overseas-born workers have enjoyed a jobs boom and a record 4.15 million are now living in Britain. And fears that British-born workers are being squeezed out of the jobs market have been heightened after the influx of migrant workers in the last year outstripped the 241,000 new jobs that were created.
Sir Andrew Green, of the think-tank MigrationWatch, said: “We need to face up to the facts of the impact that immigration is having on the prospects for British workers.
“It is no good academics repeating time and time again that there is no strong evidence; it is perfectly clear that the employment of immigrants is increasing while the employment of British-born workers is decreasing.
[…]
The Office for National Statistics figures came a day after separate research showed that Britain’s population is growing at more than twice the European average, rocketing by 400,000 last year, according to the European Union’s statistical organisation Eurostat.
Migrationwatch has warned that mass immigration could cost the UK £1billion annually to build council houses and social accommodation.
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Netherlands: Immigrants ‘Not Obliged’ To Integrate
Trouw, 17 August 2011
“A judge has said that immigrants are not obliged to integrate in Dutch society,” announces Trouw on its front page. On Tuesday 16 August, the Administrative High Court of Utrecht, the highest ranked administrative court in the Netherlands, ruled that “Dutch integration policy was in breach of a European Union agreement.” The newspaper explains that since the enactment of the 2007 law on integration, immigrants have been obliged to attend and pay for Dutch language and culture classes, and afterwards to sit an exam. In some cases, Turks who have not succeeded in passing the exam have been obliged to pay fines or have their residency applications refused.
The new ruling draws attention to the Ankara Agreement established between the EU and Turkey in 1963, which states that Turkish nationals — who are to be treated like nationals of EU states — should not be “impeded” by obligations of this kind. The newspaper reports that the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now planning to circumvent the court decision by introducing “a basic schooling requirement,” which stipulates that all of the Netherlands’ citizens and residents should have a minimum level of education and a knowledge of Dutch.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
New DHS Rules Cancel Deportations
The Homeland Security Department said Thursday it will halt deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis against illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria such as attending school, having family in the military or are primarily responsible for other family members’ care.
The move, announced in letters to Congress, won immediate praise from Hispanic activists and Democrats who had chided President Obama for months for the pace of deportations and had argued he had authority to exempt broad swaths of illegal immigrants from deportation.
“Today’s announcement shows that this president is willing to put muscle behind his words and to use his power to intervene when the lives of good people are being ruined by bad laws,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat.
In the letters to Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her department and the Justice Department will review all ongoing cases and see who meets the new criteria on a case-by-case basis.
“This case-by-case approach will enhance public safety,” she said….
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who earlier this year wrote asking Homeland Security to exempt illegal immigrant students from deportation, said the move will free up immigration courts to handle cases involving serious criminals.
Both men said, though, that they will continue to push for legislation that would grant a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants and expands new pathways for more immigrants to come legally in the future.
But groups pushing for a crackdown on illegal immigration said the administration’s move abused the Constitution by usurping a power Congress should have.”Supporters of comprehensive and targeted amnesties for illegal aliens have consistently failed to win approval by Congress or gain support from the American public,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “Having failed in the legislative process, the Obama administration has simply decided to usurp Congress’s constitutional authority and implement an amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Boys Reaching Sexual Maturity Earlier Than Ever
Boys may be reaching sexual maturity earlier than ever, according to a new study that uses mortality data to estimate a young man’s peak testosterone-driven phase of risky behavior.
According to this estimate, boys have been maturing about 2.5 months earlier per decade since at least the 1700s.
The result, study author Joshua Goldstein said in a statement, is that “being 18 today is like being 22 in 1800.”
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Moon May be 200 Million Years Younger Than Thought
IT MAY be grey but it is not as old as you might imagine. A rock thought to date from the moon’s formation points to the satellite being about 200 million years younger than previously calculated, suggesting its history may need to be rewritten. The moon is generally considered to have formed following a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized body in the early solar system. Once the molten debris coalesced into the moon, the theory goes, its crust solidified over several hundred million years. Evidence for an early lunar magma ocean comes from orbital data showing an abundance of plagioclase, a lightweight mineral that crystallises from and floats to the top of magma.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
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