European Stocks Post Biggest Fall Since March 2009
Milan, 19 August (AKI) — Italian stocks opened sharply down on Friday, marking a week of decline in global markets. Italy’s benchmark FTSE MIB index lost 6.2 percent on Thursday as European stocks posted their biggest falls since March 2009, amid growing concern the global economy is slowing.
The FTSE MIB dropped to 14,970.4 on Thursday and Spain’s Ibex fell 4.7 per cent to 8,317.7 on fears Germany’s economic slowdown would prevent it from backstopping its weaker eurozone partners.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index posted its biggest two-day drop since March 2009. The gauge has tumbled 24 percent from this year’s peak in February amid concern that Europe will fail to contain its sovereign-debt crisis and that the economic recovery in the US will falter.
National benchmark indexes declined in all western European markets. France’s CAC 40 lost 2.6 percent. The UK.’s FTSE 100 slipped 2.1 percent and Germany’s DAX sank 3.6 percent.
German industrial groups were particularly badly hit Thursday on fears of falling demand amid Germany’s economic slowdown would prevent it from backstopping its weaker eurozone partners.
US stocks were also down substantially, with the Dow Jones 3.68 percent lower at the close of day. Asian shares and US futures also retreated.
The market turmoil came as figures in the US showed no improvement in the employment rate and worsening manufacturing conditions in the East Coast region.
Politicians in the US and Europe sought to play down the risk of a new global economic slow down and possible recession in the US and the European Union, outlined in a report by Morgan Stanley on Thursday.
The bank now estimates expansion of 3.9 percent, down from a previous forecast of 4.2 percent.
“I don’t think we’re in danger of another recession, but we are in danger of not having a recovery that is fast enough to deal with a genuine unemployment crisis for a whole lot of folks out there,” US president Barack Obama told the TV network CBS.
European Council president Herman Van Rompuy said: “We do not … foresee negative economic growth, a recession [in Europe].”
An article in the influential US financial daily Wall Street Journal claiming that US regulators were examining US exposure to European banks also contributed to Thursday’s market jitters.
Analysts at multinational brokerage Citigroup in a report Thursday cut their forecast for US economic output (GDP) growth in 2011 to 1.6 from 1.7 percent and to 2.1 percent from 2.7 percent in 2012, because of potential “political paralysis” and fiscal tightening steps.
Markets have been sceptical since a highly-anticipated meeting between eurozone heavyweights France and Germany on Tuesday failed to deliver immediate solutions to the eurozone debt crisis, which has recently threatened to engulf Italy and Spain.
News that Berlin and Paris want to apply a ‘Tobin’ tax on financial transactions to the whole of the EU has also been received negatively by markets.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France: Mayor of Paris, More Taxes for the Rich
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, AUGUST 18 — The socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, has proposed an exceptional tax on assets of over 5 million euros and on earnings of more than 20,000 euros per month, in an attempt to ease France’s debt concerns.
A tax of this kind, writes Delanoe on his blog, would affect “at least 150,000 people, and could generate 2.5 billion euros per year”. Even in a situation “of exceptional seriousness” in which France currently finds itself, “the reduction of debt and deficit is not an objective in itself. It is an instrument to serve social justice,” he continues. “The restructuring of our financial situation is supposed to put an end to injustices that have undermined our country for 10 years. Two thirds of France’s deficit shift can be explained by a reduction in taxes which have largely favoured the most well-off taxpayers, but without providing dynamism for investment, family consumerism or employment. Such economic absurdity has become unsustainable, as shown by the fact that the riches families pay less tax than the French average”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France AAA Rating Stable, Standard & Poor’s
(ANSAmed) — ROME, AUGUST 18 — According to Standard & Poor’s “France’s rating is stable”, said the head of the rating agency for France Carol Sirou in an interview. “We have confidence in the stability of the AAA rating,” Sirou said, according to the Bloomberg agency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Stocks Buffeted as New Tempest Hits Markets
Fiat shares plummet by over 11%
(ANSA) — Milan, August 18 — This week’s apparent calm on the Italian stock exchange proved short-lived as a new tempest swept across markets worldwide on Thursday.
Milan’s benchmark FTSE Mib index plunged 6.15% and fell below 15,000 points, for the second time in less than a month, to close the day at 14,970 points.
The turmoil was sparked by concerns over global growth prospects and the health of financial markets in Europe Markets also buckled due to worse-than-expected reports from the United States on inflation and the number of jobless benefit claims and a continuing negative reaction to a proposal from Germany and France to tax financial transactions in the 17-nation euro area.
Concerns over global growth came into play after the bank Morgan Stanley downgraded its growth forecasts from 4.2% to 3.9% for this year and from 4.3% to 3.8% in 2012.
The bank said it was compelled to make the downgrade due to “policy errors” by US and European governments and the prospect of further fiscal tightening.
The turmoil on markets also drove up sovereign borrowing costs with the spread between yields of Italian and German treasury bonds jumping over 5.7% to close at 290 points.
Gold also shot up to a new record of $1,826 and the euro lost ground.
Milan opened the day with a loss of 1.71% which then climbed to 2% before dipping temporarily to 1.43% by mid-morning. Losses then steadily snowballed to 6% an hour before trading when the FTSE Mib slipped below the psychologically important threshold of 15,000 points.
Europe’s other leading markets followed a similar trend and by the end of the day Frankfurt closed down 5.82%, London dropped 4.49% and Paris finished with a loss of 5.48%.
In Milan, Fiat took a major beating after a report showed that sales in Brazil fell sharply in the first half of August, generally a good month for trade in that country.
The markets in Brazil and Italy together represent two thirds of the automaker’s overall revenue and cash flow, a factor which led Moody’s to place Fiat’s credit rating on watch because of the vulnerability caused by this dependency.
Fiat losses mounted hour-by-hour and by the end of the day the automaker’s shares plummeted by a shocking 11.88%, with 4.5% of its stock capital changing hands.
Pressure on Fiat also drove down its cousin, Fiat Industrial, and Exor, the financial arm of the founding Agnelli family through which they control both companies, both of which were temporarily suspended from trading due to excessive losses.
Fiat Industrial closed down a whopping 13.31% while Exor plunged 9.08%.
Other automakers around the world also lost major ground due to fears that slower economic will hurt demand, a concern fuelled by Goldman Sachs, which said car sales could fall by as much as 7% this year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Gov’t Approves 5 Bln Spending Cuts Bill
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, AUGUST 19 — Spain’s council of ministers approved today a law bill containing new measures to reduce public deficit by 5 billion euros, which will see spending on pharmaceuticals rationalised and the reform of taxes for companies, which will affect larger firms. The Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, will appear at an extraordinary session of Congress next Tuesday to analyse the economic situation and to defend the approval of the bill.
The reform of company tax, which will remain into force until 2013, will affect companies with turnover of more than 6 million euros. The firms in question will pay the tax early, allowing the government to receive an extra 2.5 billion euros.
The rationalisation of pharmaceutical spending, meanwhile, concerns the prescription by the national health system of active ingredients and will see reference prices changed The move will allow a further 2.5 billion euros to be saved, a further step towards the targets of public deficit reduction fixed for 2011.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Stocks Tumble on US Growth Fears, European Banks; DJIA Off 435
By Jonathan Cheng
Stocks tumbled amid growing fears of a global recession, as investors confronted a grim mix of U.S. economic data and fresh concerns about Europe’s banks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 435 points, or 3.8%, to 10974. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index dropped 53 points, or 4.5%, to 1141, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 124 points, or 4.9%, to 2387.
In the flight to safety, investors piled into gold, which jumped to a new record above $1,820 a troy ounce. In the Treasurys market, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note briefly dipped below 2% in …
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Aliens May Destroy Humanity to Protect Other Civilisations, Say Scientists
Rising greenhouse emissions could tip off aliens that we are a rapidly expanding threat, warns a report
It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.
Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth’s atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control — and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.
This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by a Nasa-affiliated scientist and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future.
Shawn Domagal-Goldman of Nasa’s Planetary Science Division and his colleagues compiled a list of plausible outcomes that could unfold in the aftermath of a close encounter, to help humanity “prepare for actual contact”.
In their report, Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis, the researchers divide alien contacts into three broad categories: beneficial, neutral or harmful.
Beneficial encounters ranged from the mere detection of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI), for example through the interception of alien broadcasts, to contact with cooperative organisms that help us advance our knowledge and solve global problems such as hunger, poverty and disease….
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard Vacation Looks Like an Act of Presidential Hara-Kiri
President Obama begins his 10-day vacation in Martha’s Vineyard today, the third year in a row he has taken his summer holiday in one of America’s most expensive resorts. During his time there he will be experiencing the kind of luxury that the vast majority of ordinary Americans can only dream about: Barack Obama will be staying in a compound which costs more to rent for a single week than most American households earn in a year.
In previous years Obama’s expensive vacations have attracted relatively little attention from the US media, with the exception of Michelle Obama’s trip to southern Spain last August, which led to her being dubbed a “modern-day Marie Antoinette” by one columnist. This year, however, even some flagships of the liberal mainstream media have been raising eyebrows. The Washington Post‘s coverage for example has been unusually critical, for a publication that usually shies away from making an issue out what it would traditionally view as the president’s private life:
With 14 million Americans out of work, a volatile stock market and a historic downgrade of the country’s credit rating, President Obama is set to begin a 10-day retreat Thursday at a 28-acre Martha’s Vineyard compound called Blue Heron Farm, which costs an estimated $50,000 per week to rent. That divide — and the presumed hypocrisy of a president who has pledged not to rest “until every American looking for a job can find one,” going golfing and biking on an island playground for wealthy celebrities — has been too much for political pundits to resist.
Obama’s decision to head to a popular playground for wealthy elites in the face of intense media scrutiny is a surprisingly reckless move. It is a particularlly foolish act just 14 months away from a presidential election where he will likely end up the underdog rather than the favourite. The contrast between an imperious, out-of-touch US president and the economic plight of tens of millions of Americans could not be starker. Obama’s holiday will no doubt come to haunt him in November next year, with the economy the number one issue for voters.
Which begs the question — why did the president go ahead with his vacation despite the worst approval ratings of his presidency, plunging stock markets, falling consumer confidence, and overwhelming public disillusion with his handling of the economy? I think the answer lies in Obama’s professorial-style arrogance, and a condescending approach towards ordinary Americans.
This is a US presidency with a distinctly Upstairs Downstairs approach towards running the country. At the end of the day, Barack Obama is in a serious state of denial if he believes the US electorate won’t care if their president acts with impunity at a time of tremendous economic turmoil and uncertainty. I suspect that when he returns to Washington in September, Mr Obama may get a rather nasty shock in the polls from angry voters who won’t take kindly to their president going AWOL in the lap of luxury during a major financial crisis.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Could Jews Vote for Mr. Jesus?
by Robin Shepherd
As one American syndicated columnist put it this week in discussing the importance of religion in US presidential elections, “no atheist or agnostic (or non-Christian) has a chance of being elected to any position in our country”. But, added Scripps Howard News Service writer John M Crisp, once they’re in the White House, “our presidents are pretty much free to practise their religions with whatever level of devotion suits them”. In other words, you might feel the need to talk a lot about God and his values on the campaign trail, but if you actually win the race, Americans are far more concerned about jobs, growth, national security and all of the things that affect a politician’s ratings across the democratic world. That’s worth bearing in mind in the wake of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s recent decision to run for the presidency. “He knows how to talk like an evangelical,” said Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. There’s no mistaking that. At a huge gathering of the faithful recently he publicly asked Jesus to “save” America.
It’s too early to say how strong his chances are, but it would be foolish to write him off. Texas is a strong base from which to launch a bid for national power, and his social and religious conservatism should give him some decent appeal among important sections of the electorate. But will that same religious conservatism prove counter-productive among other groups, particularly Jews who, though small in number (less than two per cent of the population), can be important electorally in swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania or Florida? Much depends on whether Perry and other such candidates come across as divisive or inclusive. It seems unlikely there’s much to worry about on that score. Most Christian conservatives in the US have good relations with their Jewish compatriots, and they’re strongly supportive of Israel. “My faith requires me to support Israel,” Perry averred in 2009.
That kind of talk could tip a portion of the Jewish vote in a Christian conservative direction, should Perry or someone like him get the candidacy. Given the deep disappointment among many US Jews with President Obama’s attitude to the Jewish state, Republican strategists are certain to make a pitch for their votes, 78 per cent of which went Democrat in 2008. Never say never in America. An appeal to Jesus might just swing it for the Jews.
Robin Shepherd is director, international affairs, at the Henry Jackson Society and owner/publisher of The Commentator
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Do You Want Flies With That? Burger King Had So Many Flying Insects Inspectors Were ‘Scared to Open Their Mouths’
A Burger King has been shut down after health inspectors found so many flies in its kitchen that they were afraid to open their mouths.
The restaurant, on Chicago’s South Side, had more than 200 species of flying insects on its walls, ceilings, shelves, food storage area and on the soft drink syrup drink boxes.
A wasp nest was also found hanging over the rear door.
The disgusting conditions forced city officials to shut down the eatery on Tuesday.
‘Pest control was woefully inadequate,’ Josie Cruz, deputy commissioner of Street & Sanitation’s Bureau of Rodent Control, told MyFox TV Chicago.
She added: ‘Poor housekeeping fueled the infestation of flying insects at the Burger King near 95th and Ashland.
‘We closed this location for the critical violation of inadequate pest control.
‘They won’t be allowed to reopen until they clean and pest-proof their restaurant, revamp their pest control and housekeeping plans, and then pass a tough re-inspection.’
Inspectors from the Dumpster Task Force also found an outside grease container encrusted with grease on the lip and grip.
Substantial grease was also discovered splattered on the ground and on the wall behind the container.
The force, created in 1994 to help with enforcing sanitation rules, was told of the situation by an unhappy member of the public.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises
“Clean technology is the next wave of innovation that Silicon Valley needs to capture,” the mayor said, noting that the San Jose City Council had committed to increasing the number of “green jobs” in the city to 25,000 by 2022. San Jose currently has 4,350 such jobs, according to city officials.
But SolFocus assembles its solar panels in China, and the new San Jose headquarters employs just 90 people.
In the Bay Area as in much of the country, the green economy is not proving to be the job-creation engine that many politicians envisioned. President Obama once pledged to create five million green jobs over 10 years. Gov. Jerry Brown promised 500,000 clean-technology jobs statewide by the end of the decade. But the results so far suggest such numbers are a pipe dream…
A study released in July by the non-partisan Brookings Institution found clean-technology jobs accounted for just 2 percent of employment nationwide and only slightly more — 2.2 percent — in Silicon Valley. Rather than adding jobs, the study found, the sector actually lost 492 positions from 2003 to 2010 in the South Bay, where the unemployment rate in June was 10.5 percent.
Federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed, government records show. Two years after it was awarded $186 million in federal stimulus money to weatherize drafty homes, California has spent only a little over half that sum and has so far created the equivalent of just 538 full-time jobs in the last quarter, according to the State Department of Community Services and Development…
Advocates and entrepreneurs also blame Washington for the slow growth. Mr. Jones cited the failure of so-called cap and trade legislation, which would have cut carbon pollution and increased the cost of using fossil fuel, making alternative energy more competitive. Congressional Republicans have staunchly opposed cap-and-trade.
Mr. Haji of the Cleantech Group agrees. “Having a market mechanism that helps drive these new technologies would have made a significant difference,” he said. “Without that, the industry muddles along.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Man Tied to Times Square Bomber Pleads Guilty
NEW YORK (Reuters) — A Pakistani immigrant pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court to running an illegal money-transfer business that provided $7,000 to the man who tried to bomb New York’s Times Square.
Mohammad Younis, 45, was charged in September, five months after Faisal Shahzad was arrested for parking a crude car bomb in the crowded Times Square on May 1, 2010. A bomb squad ultimately defused the device.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said in the indictment that Younis met with Shahzad on April 10 last year and gave him the money sent by people in Pakistan as part of an informal “hawala” money transaction common in Islamic societies.
On Thursday, Younis pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of conducting an unlicensed money transfer business. But Shahzad’s name was not mentioned in court.
Younis told U.S. District Judge John Keenan that he did not know who he gave the money to or what the money was intended for. Prosecutors have not charged Younis with participating in or having any knowledge of Shahzad’s planned attack.
“Specifically, I transferred $5,000 to one individual and $7,000 to the other individual,” Younis said in court.
Federal prosecutors have not said who the recipient of the $5,000 payment was.
Younis, a Pakistani citizen, is slated to be sentenced on November 30 and will likely face deportation after sentence. His recommended sentence spelled out in a plea agreement with prosecutors is for up to six months in prison.
Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison in October over the failed bombing.
| — Hat tip: sgt.red.blue.red | [Return to headlines] |
Regulation Business, Jobs Booming Under Obama
If the federal government’s regulatory operation were a business, it would be one of the 50 biggest in the country in terms of revenues, and the third largest in terms of employees, with more people working for it than McDonald’s, Ford, Disney and Boeing combined.
Under President Obama, while the economy is struggling to grow and create jobs, the federal regulatory business is booming.
Regulatory agencies have seen their combined budgets grow a healthy 16% since 2008, topping $54 billion, according to the annual “Regulator’s Budget,” compiled by George Washington University and Washington University in St. Louis.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
US Military Develops ‘Bigger Bang’ Explosive Material
The US Office of Naval Research says that it has successfully tested a new type of explosive material that can dramatically increase weapons’ impacts.
Missiles made from the high density substance can explode with up to five times the energy of existing armaments.
The material mixes metals and polymers and is said to be as dense as steel but have the strength of aluminum.
US Navy scientists say that projectiles made from the new compound are less likely to kill innocent bystanders.
Missiles, artillery shells and other military munitions are normally constructed with a steel casing that simply contains the high explosives within.
This new approach from the US Office of Naval Research replaces the inert casing with High-Density Reactive Materials (HDRM) that combine and explode only when the projectile hits the target.
According to navy researchers, recent tests have shown that the HDRMs are durable and significantly enhance the explosive effect. They increase the chances of what the military scientists term a “catastrophic kill”.
Clifford Bedford, a researcher involved in the development of the new material, explained its advantages over existing weapons.
“In the case of a steel missile you explosively launch it, it goes through the target and all the kinetic energy is dissipated into the target,” he said.
“With the reactive material missile, you have the same explosive launch — however, it disintegrates within the target and liberates chemical energy, and this chemical and kinetic energy combined gives you the enhanced effect.”
Anti-missile missile
The new material has been in development for more than five years and is made from different types of metals combined with oxidizers to create a chemical explosion on impact.
Dr Bedford says HDRM might initially be deployed in anti-missile systems as the shrapnel would have considerably greater explosive power to destroy an incoming projectile in mid-air.
“In the existing scenarios we have now, we essentially fire twice, look, and fire again because we don’t have a great deal of time to hit that missile — and that’s because with the steel fragments in current warheads, you can’t really tell if you’ve hit the target or not,” he said.
“Hopefully, with the reactive warhead, we fire once, look and can determine a catastrophic kill. We still have the option for a second fire. But it saves a great deal of cost if you can take out the target with one missile versus three.”
Because the new material reacts and explodes on impact, Dr Bedford believes it could cause fewer casualties among innocent bystanders.
“Because it is actually consumed when it hits the target, the collateral damage effects are somewhat minimised. If this can be focused, which I know we can do, we can really reduce the collateral damage for these systems,” he suggested.
The researcher says the materials could ultimately be applied to grenades and bullets as well as larger weapons.
“I wouldn’t want to go to [the] regular M16 rifle, no; but in higher calibre machine guns, they are definite possibilities,” Dr Bedford explained.
Further tests of the system are planned for September. But with a price tag three to four times greater than current technologies, budgetary restrictions may hinder their future use.
Dr Bedford says that decision is out of his hands: “Deployment is going to require a political answer, when budgets allow, and that’s unfortunately beyond my pay grade.”
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
French Businessman Pays Burqa Fines
“I am calling for civil disobedience,” Nekkaz told FRANCE 24.PARIS — In a civil protest against Muslim face veil ban in France and Belgium, a French businessman has set up a fund to pay fines for Muslim women who choose to don niqab in public.
“I’m in favor of a law to convict a husband who forces a women to wear the niqab and who forces her to stay at home,” Rachid Nekkaz, told reporters outside the courtroom in Belgium, FRANCE 24 reported on Friday, August 19.
“But I’m also for a law that lets these women move freely in the streets, because freedom of movement, just like any freedom, is the most fundamental thing in a democracy.”
Nakkaz, a 38-year-old real-estate businessman based in Paris, travelled to Belgium on Wednesday to pay 100 euros for two women fined in the first case in the country since the law was adopted there.
Earlier on Wednesday, he paid a 75 euro fine for a woman in the north-eastern French town of Roubaix.
“I am calling for civil disobedience,” he told FRANCE 24.
“I am telling women to not be afraid to go out wearing their veils. And by paying the fines, I am neutering the law, rendering it inefficient and pointless, showing that it doesn’t work.
“It is a humiliation for the politicians.”
Last July, Belgium became the second European country to ban Muslim face veil, or niqab, in public places.
According to the new law, Muslim women would not be allowed to go in public while donning full face veil.
If any woman failed to comply with the law, she will be punished with a penalty of 137.50 euros ($195) and up to seven days behind bars in jail as a punishment.
Earlier in April, a resolution by the French Parliament’s higher chamber banning Muslim women from wearing face-covering garments in all public places came into effect.
Offenders would also be fined 150 euros ($189) or required to take part in a citizenship class.
While hijab is an obligatory code of dress for Muslim women, the majority of Muslim scholars agree that a woman is not obliged to wear the face veil.
Scholars believe it is up to women to decide whether to take on the veil or burqa, a loose outfit covering the whole body from head to toe and wore by some Muslim women.
Far-Right Strategy
Vowing to challenge niqab ban in European courts, the French businessman attacked the French ban as a political game by President Nicolas Sarkozy to win a bigger share of support from far-right voters.
“This law was 100% politically motivated,” he said.
“Sarkozy made a gamble. He knew it was not constitutional, but he went ahead and did it anyway. He knows that if the law ever does get knocked down, it will be well after next year’s election, which he needs to win.”
In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose popularity has plummeted over climbing unemployment and painful spending cuts, have worked hard to court the far-right supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Along with the niqab ban, Sarkozy’s ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party started a debate last April on the role of Islam in secular France.
Though opposing the niqab himself, Nekkaz has launched a legal challenge in both France and Belgium.
He hopes to take to the European Court of Human Rights, describing the outfit as a personal choice that should be respected.
The French businessman believes that his efforts has forced a change in France, where he believes police are now less keen to impose the fine.
“They are afraid of issuing fines because they know that I will simply pay them,” he said.
“Instead they subject these women to interrogations, asking them who their parents are, whether they work, whether they have been forced to wear the veil by their husbands.”
Nekkaz attacked such tactics as victimizing innocent Muslim women.
“It is unacceptable that they are victimizing innocent women who are going about their daily lives,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: World Youth Day: Indignados-Pilgrims, Tension in Streets
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, AUGUST 18 — Yesterday evening witnessed moments of tension in Madrid between the ‘indignados’ and pilgrims on World Youth Day in Puerta del Sol in the heart of the Spanish capital. At the end of the demonstration organised to protest against the “excessive” expenditure for the Pope’s visit, which begins today, several hundred indignados occupied the emblematic Madrid square in which their movement was born in May. Following a number of heated exchanges with the numerous pilgrims present, the latter were urged by police to leave the square. The indignados surrounded an underground exit and whistled and yelled “Fuera” (“Go away”), “Verguenza” (“Shame” ) and “You are not welcome” to the numerous young Catholics coming out, many of whom were holding hands with each other and protected by a police cordon. There were cases of pushing and shoving, but no serious injuries resulted. Numerous police vans were brought into the area, and police in anti-riot gear charged twice towards the young indignados to try to get them to move away from the square. A young man accused of throwing a bottle at the police was detained, indentified and released. Thousands took part in the anti-Pope march, taking to the streets between Tirso de Molina and Puerta del Sol in a tense atmosphere following the arrest of a young Mexican Catholic extremist who had threatened to attack those on the march with Sarin gas. The demonstration was called — under the motto “Not a cent from my wallet to the Pope” — not only by Spanish indignados but also by about 140 secular and atheist associations, freethinkers, unions, leftist parties and LGTB collectives. “Shut down the Vatican, Guantanamo of brains”, “Pope or Caliph, pay the costs” and “How much must we pay for your faith” were some of the slogans. The indignados denounced the “exorbitant costs” of the Pope’s visit in a country which has been brought to its knees by the economic crisis and is suffering from 5 million unemployed, accounting for 21% of the active population and 50% of whom are young. The World Youth Day association claims to have managed a budget of 50 million euros raised through self-financing, thanks in part to contributions from a number of large Spanish enterprises. The leftist union CGT instead estimates that the real cost to taxpayers is around 100 million when taking into account security, public buildings and spaces made available, different forms of aid and tax allowances. The indignados have also spoken out against the free transport offered to hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, while millions of unemployed have to pay for bus and underground tickets which have been raised by 25%, and have called for civil disobedience in the underground. Left-wing unions have called an intermittent strike in the underground during the Pope’s stay in Madrid. Grassroots Catholics have spoken out against the “media show” surrounding the Pope’s visit, far from the teaching of Jesus’s poverty, and 120 priests have publicly denounced the costs of Benedict XVI’ visit and the presence among the latter’s sponsors of Spanish multinational groups. “One cannot be at the service of two masters, serving both God and money”, they protest. Also getting into the fray of the protest were Spanish LGBT groups. Today, as is the tradition every year in Barcelona during the Pope’s visit to the Cathedral, a collective kiss is planned when the Pope arrives in the centre. Tension, in a country in which the face-off between radical secular groups and the Church has its roots in the 1936-39 Civil War, is rising.
Sociologist Martin Sagera told Publico that he had been stabbed in the hand by a young Catholic fundamentalist while taking part in the Puerta del Sol demonstration with a placard on which was written “the Pope gives 50,000 euros to Somalia and spends 50 million in Madrid. Jesus did not live off state funds” written on it.
Further tension arose after the news of yesterday’s arrest of a 24-year-old Mexican student of chemistry, José Perez Bautista.
The young man had written on a number of conservative and Catholic fundamentalist sites that he wanted to attack the “anti-Pope” associations with Sarin gas. The police have not found evidence that he was actually able to put the plan into practice, but the news led to fears of the “Utoya Syndrome”, taken from the name of the Norwegian island near Oslo on which a terrifying massacre took place last month perpetrated by the fundamentalist Catholic and nationalist Anders Breivik, who had announced the massacre beforehand on the internet. As a precaution, the Mexican was detained on charges of terrorism.
However, the news that he had been a volunteer involved in the Spanish World Youth Day organisation did not help to allay fears.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Carnival on but…
After weeks of doubt, this year’s Notting Hill Carnival will go ahead but with an earlier finish time than usual.
But the decision to press ahead with the carnival, despite looting in North Kensington and serious rioting across London, has been met with a mixed reaction among neighbours.
Many of them say they will leave the area over the August Bank Holiday weekend amid fears of violence erupting on the streets of Notting Hill. However, decision makers at the police and the organising committee of the carnival, say that the thousands who attend the three-day event should not suffer because of the unlawful actions of a small minority.
Christopher Boothman, co-director of London Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, said: “Trouble makers or those who seek to cast a shadow over this vibrant event are not welcome and shouldn’t be allowed to spoil it for thousands of others. “We want everyone to come early, enjoy carnival and get home safely.” This year’s carnival will start at 9am and will finish by 7pm, three hours earlier than usual, on Sunday August 28 and Monday 29. But many residents living close to the carnival route plan to leave the area in case it attracts more trouble than usual this year. Matt Hibbert, 35, a journalist who lives in Ladbroke Grove said: “I will be taking my family and staying in a hotel for that weekend. Normally there are too many people on the streets and you get some trouble, but I tend to stick around for it. But after the way London has been recently with the riots and everything, there’s no way I want to stay here, and subject my children to what might happen.” One of his neighbours agreed, adding: “I will leave the area. It will be an excuse for another riot. Finishing early won’t make any difference to that — people will just hang around past the finish time and still cause trouble. I can’t believe it’s going ahead.”
But traders in the road say they are pleased that there will be an increased police presence on the streets of the borough when Notting Hill Carnival arrives. Amdhad Azaz, 52, who runs a newsagent in Ladbroke Grove, said: “There’s always trouble of some sort at carnival. Hopefully with extra police on the streets, people will be able to stay safe. “I’m still deciding whether or not I will open that weekend. But certainly the fact that police are aware that there have been riots makes me hopeful that they’ll stop any problems before they start at carnival.”
A Met Police spokesman said: “We totally encourage the earlier start and finish times of the event this year, given what has recently happened in London. The Notting Hill Carnival is an important event in the capital’s calendar, and we support it going ahead. Trouble-makers are not welcome.Police and stewards will work together to keep the event as safe and trouble-free as possible.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Can the Church Work With David Cameron?
Paul Goodman asks if the Church’s social conservatism is at odds with David Cameron’s model of conservatism
Almost a year ago there seemed for a moment to be a meeting of minds between the old man who is the Pope and a young man who is Prime Minister. As Pope Benedict left Britain after his visit he said that he had been grateful “to have the opportunity… to share some thoughts… about the contribution that the religions can offer to the development of a healthy pluralistic society”. Only a few moments before David Cameron had responded to those thoughts as follows: “I believe that we can all share in your message of working for the common good and that we all have a social obligation to each other, to our families and communities.”
The common bond of which the Pope had spoken, he said, had been “an incredibly important part of your message to us. And it’s at the heart of the new culture of social responsibility we want to build in Britain.. People of faith — including our 30,000 faith-based charities — are great architects of that new culture.” The Prime Minister was careful to keep two words out of his remarks: Big Society — the slogan which, more than any other, summarise his localist-flavoured, grassroots-dependent, traditionally-moored One Nation ideal of what his Government should be all about.
He would have done so in order not to drag the Pope into party politics, but was evidently seeking to manoeuvre British Catholics in that direction. The Conservative Party, he was indicating, no longer holds that “there is no such thing as society” — Margaret Thatcher’s words, and ones that inflicted a slow-burning and decade-lasting reputational damage on the Tories. We believe, he was suggesting, in solidarity — just as Catholics do. And we believe in subsidiarity, too: that power is best exercised when devolved down to the most local level. Your values and instincts are as ours.
All this gives rise to a lot of questions. Did Cameron really mean it? If so, was he right? And what should the Church’s response be in any event? Perhaps the best place to start is by searching the Prime Minister and his team for any background in or sympathy for the Church’s social teaching. There is always a sprinkling of Catholics at the top of Britain’s political parties, the most obvious one in the Conservatives’ case being Iain Duncan Smith, their first Catholic leader, since then triumphantly reinvented first as founder of the Centre for Social Justice and now as Work and Pensions Secretary.
The work of Duncan Smith has been directly inspired by the teachings of the Church to which he converted. But from Thatcher through Tony Blair to Cameron himself, political parties have become increasingly centralised: the best place to look when weighing up a leadership isn’t around the Cabinet table but in the private office — among the tight-knit teams who plan and execute political strategy. None of the men (and, yes: it is almost entirely men) who make up the Prime Minister’s inner circle have ever shown much of an interest in Catholicism — George Osborne, the Chancellor; Steve Hilton, the Prime Minister’s ideas guru; Andrew Cooper, the newly appointed head of strategy; and Ed Llewellyn, the chief of staff.
Merge Team Cameron into one individual, and you’d have someone rather like the Prime Minister himself: privately educated, metropolitan, liberal-minded, and if inclined to religion at all then drawn to a reserved Christianity with a distinctly Anglican flavour. (The Prime Minister, according to Boris Johnson, has compared the difficulties of believing in God to the difficulty in picking up Magic FM in the Chilterns.) But to establish that no member of Team Cameron has ever dived into the deep waters of Catholic social teaching is the start and not the end of the story. For that team has two utterly different reactions to it — or, rather, to what it seems to think it is. The first is suspicion; the second, enthusiasm.
The suspicion is founded on the view that Catholicism’s social conservatism is at odds with the age’s social liberalism. This is drawn from experience. Section 28, civil partnerships, gay adoption: party discipline broke down in the voting lobbies over these issues, and the lesson Cameron’s circle draw from this is that to align oneself with Catholicism, especially over any matter relating to homosexuality, is to consign oneself to division and defeat. The enthusiasm is based on the conviction that building the Big Society will be impossible without the faith communities, including the Catholic Church, the second-largest institutional player. It is based on reflection — on considering the range and depth of the Church’s contribution to society.
The Church can never become the property of one political party: indeed, its teaching is wide enough to condemn only those ideologies that make gods of class, race, capital or anything else. But there is enough overlap between the Prime Minister’s Big Society vision and its own for cooperation to be possible: that his Downing Street team has no emotional investment in Catholicism is irrelevant, and that its view of the Church is conflicted is a fact of modern political life. Dimly and hesitantly, it’s possible to see the outlines of a settlement between the Government and the Church.
For its part, the Government would revisit its support for recent legislation, tearing up the rules and regulations that prevent the Church from providing even more hospices, homeless shelters, employment programmes, projects for people with substance abuse problems and mental health difficulties, advice centres for those who are in debt, counselling for people who’ve lost family members and so on. And for its part, the Church would review its attachment to the 1945 settlement, bidding to run some hospitals — which, after all, are institutions with Christian origins — setting up a domestic equivalent of Caritas Europa and encouraging its schools to become academies (if Michael Gove will give some ground over the inclusion of religious education in the Baccalaureate).
The devil would be in the detail, figuratively if not literally: at a time of spending constraint it isn’t easy to see how all this would be financed. But if there are questions about Downing Street’s commitment, there are questions about the institutional Church’s response, too. The Catholic Education Service is skilled at lobbying on behalf of its interests. But the machinery of the bishops’ conference is small-scale, and its staff have mostly been there for some time. Continuity is often a good thing, but in so far as Downing Street has a collective view of the Catholic Church in Britain — and whether it has a fully formed one is doubtful — it finds the Church bureaucracy timid and, in the literal sense of the word, reactionary.
Responding to a big idea like the Big Society requires, in the first instance, a lot of small competences: reading the relevant Government documents, knowing who the main players are, lifting one’s eyes beyond the ranks of familiar Catholic MPs. Although the Archbishop of Westminster has given the scheme as warm a response as is prudent, there is no sign that the conference is grappling seriously with such a programme of work. All the indications are that while a few leading figures in the Church are willing to look forward and test the Prime Minister on the ideals he championed as the Pope departed, more are inclined reflexively to look back — towards the familiar comfort zone of the 1945 settlement.
Paul Goodman is executive editor of ConservativeHome and former MP for Wycombe
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Council Tells May: Ban EDL March or Face Judicial Review
Tower Hamlets council is threatening to take the Government to court if it refuses to ban a march by far-Right group the English Defence League. Leaders are warning of violence if the event goes ahead on September 3 and will seek a judicial review if Home Secretary Theresa May does not ban it. A council source said: “Something must be done to prevent this demonstration. If a judicial review is the only way then that is what we will do.”
The EDL told members in an online message to take “our message into the heart of militant Islam within our own country”. The message added: “We will go where we want, when we want.” Last week the Home Secretary banned an EDL march in Telford, Shropshire, saying she was acting to protect communities and property. A Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Secretary can only ban a march in London following a formal application from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan police. No such application has been received. The Home Secretary will carefully consider any formal application, subject to the relevant legal tests.”
Tower Hamlets Labour group leader Josh Peck said: “The EDL march should be banned. The police are more than capable of keeping them under control, but that won’t stop the tension and anger that could exist long after they have left.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Has Ken Livingstone Gone Bonkers?
For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, there’s a revealing interview with Ken Livingstone in the latest issue of Total Politics magazine. Here’s an extract:
Asked why people should vote for him, Ken jokes: “It’s a simple choice between good and evil — I don’t think it’s been so clear since the great struggle between Churchill and Hitler… The people that don’t vote for me will be weighed in the balance, come Judgement Day. The Archangel Gabriel will say, ‘ You didn’t vote for Ken Livingstone in 2012. Oh dear, burn forever. Your skin flayed for all eternity.’“
Is that merely in very poor taste? Or has the old Labour warhorse gone a bit doolally? Red Ken has always seemed a little unhinged, but I’ve noticed that he’s been getting more and more erratic in the past few months.
First, there was his ill-advised attempt to smear Boris over his links with News International, a tactic he employs again in the Total Politics interview, branding his Mayoral opponent “the News International candidate”. Bit dicey that one considering that Ken employed Freud Communications during his tenure as Mayor and has published 26 articles in newspapers owned by News International since the hacking scandal broke in 2009.
Then there was his knee-jerk response to the riots, blaming the social disorder on “the cuts”. For a veteran politician, that was breathtakingly stupid, revealing just how out of touch he is with ordinary Londoners. And now comes this completely nutty interview in Total Politics. As someone who’s known Boris for more than 25 years, I’ve always been struck by how lucky he is. Not only did he win the genetic lottery, being blessed with a first-class brain, but at Eton, Oxford and beyond all the glittering prizes just seemed to fall into his lap. However, the greatest stroke of good fortune ever to befall him is that Ken Livingstone was selected as the Labour candidate to stand against him next year. With Ken — “Bonkers” — Livingstone as his opponent, I don’t see how Boris can lose..
Stop Press: The full text of Amber Elliott’s interview with Livingstone in Total Politics is now online.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Operation Hope and Recovery
There’s been lots of analysis in the media about the riots, but the urgent question facing all of us is what can we do next in the face of this emergency? In many ways the disturbances were predictable. All the elements have been in place for some time: grave tensions between the police and youths, dissatisfaction and alienation, unemployment, the lack of hope, and the school holidays. The peaceful protest against the death of Mark Duggan was the spark that lit the national fire storm.
How we address such widespread disturbances is not only a challenge for the Black Community, it is a challenge for all of us. Led by the Black Community, but for everyone Operation Hope and Recovery is a response to the riots — a collection of individuals, organisations and churches working together to attempt the largest political empowerment programme this nation has ever seen. We are not setting up a new organisation, just pooling the efforts of what we already have. Operation Hope and Recovery calls for unity, working for political participation, and building economic enterprise. One demands justice and equality, the other creates wealth and jobs. To launch this movement, you are invited to Friends House this Friday 6.30pm to hear our ideas and add those of your own.
Please join us on Friday: Sign up at www.blackmeninthecommunity.com
[JP note: Any operation involving the Muslim Council of Britain is a long way from either hope or recovery.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tower Hamlets Mayor Threat of Legal Action if EDL March Isn’t Banned
The Mayor of Tower Hamlets is threatening legal action against the Government if the Home Secretary doesn’t ban the EDL marching through London’s East End.
Lutfur Rahman and United East End campaigners are announcing the move at a Town Hall news conference this-afternoon as the next step in trying to stop the Far Right coming to Whitechapel on September 3. The mayor wrote directly to Theresa May on July 15 asking for her to use her powers to ban them, but no response has been received. Other community, religious and political leaders including the East End’s two MPs have all called for a ban, fearing more street disturbances in the light of last week’s riots.
A petition signed by 25,000 people calling for a ban was handed in to Scotland Yard on Wednesday by a delegation led by Bethnal Green & Bow MP Rushanara Ali, London Assembly’s John Biggs and Tower Hamlets council chair Mizan Choudhury. The Home Office insists that the Home Secretary can only ban a march in London following a formal application from the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, but no such application had been received. A letter from the Town Hall’s legal department was also sent to Theresa May last week, but the Home Office indicated it was not empowered to act until a formal request from the EDL to march had been received.
So the council is taking further legal advice on whether this is the case when there is “a real danger of public disorder.” Tower Hamlets Labour group leader Joshua Peck said: “The police are more than capable of keeping the EDL under control, but that won’t stop the tension and anger that could exist long after they have left.” Political leaders fear the march poses another serious risk to public order after the riots, with the eyes of the world are on the 2012 Olympic host borough.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Theresa May, The OSCT [Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism] — And Attacks on British Troops
Stephen Pollard is very hard on Theresa May in his Daily Telegraph piece today. I wasn’t especially soft on her in the same paper yesterday, and agree with him that Bill Bratton should have been allowed to apply to run the Met, and that the Equality Act should be overhauled. However, one point in his piece needs deeper probing — namely, his report that “Theresa May apparently backed the OSCT [Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism] in opposing the idea that the definition of “extremism” should include supporting attacks on British troops.
As Pollard indicates, the definition of extremism used by the Government in its Prevent Strategy includes “calls for the death of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas”. I have been far more critical of the OSCT and Charles Farr, the man in charge of it, than I’ve ever been about the Home Secretary, but it must be added that the tale which Pollard reports is strongly denied by senior sources in the OSCT.
Its version of events — which I believe — is that there was “no disagreement whatsoever” between Downing Street, the Home Office and the OSCT over whether the definition of extremism should include supporting attacks on British troops. There was, however, a discussion between Lord Carlile (the Liberal Democrat peer who had oversight of the review, and whose role Pollard rightly applauds) about whether the definition should be widened to include supporting attacks on the troops of our allies.
The case for doing so would seem to be be clear: aren’t people who support killing, say, the American troops serving alongside ours in Afghanistan (as opposed to arguing that neither should be there at all) extremists on any reasonable count? However, the OSCT claimed that such a definition would go very wide — catching, for example, those who applaud protestors in Bahrain who fight back against state brutality.
I think that it wouldn’t be mission impossible either to frame a definition which distinguishes support for terrorist violence from support for peaceful protest, or to intepret a wide definition with common sense. However, this is beside the point, which is that the OSCT says that it didn’t oppose including support for attacks on British troops in its definition of extremism — and that, even if it had done, the Home Secretary wouldn’t have shared such view. She said in her speech to last year’s party conference:
“Foreign hate preachers will no longer be welcome here. Those who step outside the law to incite hatred and violence will be prosecuted and punished. And we will stand up to anybody who incites hatred and violence, who supports attacks on British troops [my emphasis], or who supports attacks on civilians anywhere in the world.”
[JP note: For more on Charles Farr and the banning of the Indian hate preacher, Zakir Naik, see here http://hurryupharry..org/2010/08/01/a-depressing-little-story-in-the-sunday-times/ ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Lockerbie Release Nears Second Anniversary
Relatives of Lockerbie bombing victims have spoken out ahead of the second anniversary of the early prison release of the only man convicted of the atrocity.
Saturday will be two years to the day since Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was freed from jail in Scotland by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on compassionate grounds.
Megrahi served nearly eight years of a 27-year sentence after being convicted of killing 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 four days before Christmas in 1988.
He returned to Libya after being released on August 20 2009. Megrahi had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, and the Scottish Government accepted advice that he had about three months to live.
Despite anger from critics of the decision, others hit out at the “annual Lockerbie bomber blood fest”.
Some relatives of victims, and other campaigners, believe Megrahi is innocent, or that all legal avenues have not yet been followed through in the case.
Pamela Dix, whose brother Peter was killed in the bombing, said: “It’s extremely frustrating that we’re here, still talking about this. The fact that it’s now years later means that the decision was probably made on a spurious basis. I’m sure Kenny MacAskill made it in good faith, but why are we having this discussion now? It’s just another thing that remains unsolved.”
Of the 270 victims, 189 were Americans. US families were among the most vocal critics of the decision, along with President Barack Obama.
A spokesman for Mr MacAskill accused the Tories of hypocrisy and said: “Scotland’s justice system has been dealing with the Lockerbie atrocity for nearly 23 years, and in every regard the due process of Scots law has been followed — in terms of the investigation, prosecution, imprisonment, rejection of the prisoner transfer application and granting of compassionate release.
“The Justice Secretary released Megrahi on compassionate grounds and compassionate grounds alone, based on the rules and regulations of Scots law and the recommendations of the Parole Board for Scotland, the prison governor, and the report of the Scottish Prison Service director of health and care Dr Andrew Fraser — all of which have been published. The decision was made following the due process of Scots law, and the fact remains that Megrahi has a terminal illness and is dying of prostate cancer.”
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
More Details on Terror Attack From Egypt; Terrorists Attack Egyptian Army
By Barry Rubin
A gunfight is going on in the early afternoon of Friday between terrorists, probably from the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, an al-Qaida affiliate, and the Egyptian army. The battle is taking place on the Egyptian side of the border near where terrorists killed 8 Israelis on Thursday.
At least two suicide bombers have targeted Egyptian soldiers in the area. No casualty figures are availalbe. It is estimated that between seven to ten terrorists are involved. On Thursday, Israeli forces believe that they killed seven terrorists, though two of the bodies are on the Egyptian side of the border.
Official Israeli estimates now say 27 Israelis were wounded in the terror attack. The terrorists deployed four improvised explosive devices designed to kill civilians on Israeli territory. Two were captured intact by Israeli forces. So far, they are believed to be similar to those used in previous Palestinian attacks.
Israeli forces attacked Popular Resistance Committee targets in the Gaza Strip. Among the dead was one of the group’s leaders.
This group killed three U.S. government employees almost five years ago to the day. The men were security guards for State Department officials distributing scholarships to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The U.S. government at the time demanded that the Palestinian Authority, which then ruled the Gaza Strip, arrest and imprison those responsible. But while the Palestinian Authority promised to do so, no action was every taken and the men remained free. The U.S. government has taken no action regarding this terrorist attack or the PA”s refusal to help.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Blood in the Streets
Israeli military preparedness follows a depressing pattern. The IDF does not change its assessments of the strategic environment until Israeli blood runs in the streets.
In Judea and Samaria, from 1994 through 2000, the army closed its eyes to the Palestinian security forces’ open, warm and mutually supportive ties to terror groups.
The military only began to reconsider its assessment of the US- and European-trained and Israeli-armed Palestinian forces after Border Police Cpl. Mahdat Youssef bled to death at Joseph’s Tomb in October 2000. Youssef died because the Palestinian security chiefs on whom Israel had relied for cooperation refused to coordinate the evacuation of the wounded policeman…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Minister Alan Duncan Says Israel Wall ‘Land-Grab’
The Government has said the views of Alan Duncan, Minister for International Development, who described the Israeli security wall as a “land-grab” and claimed Israelis deliberately take water away from Palestinians, reflects its position. Mr Duncan makes the comments in a video used on the Department for International Development’s (DfID) website to illustrate its new four-year plan to support Palestinians. He says: “The wall is a land-grab. It hasn’t just gone along the lines of the proper Israeli boundary. It’s taken in open land which actually belongs to Palestine. So that’s not a security wall, that’s a perimeter wall trying to annex land that does not belong to Israel.” He was filmed during a visit to the West Bank earlier this year where he signed an agreement with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Mr Duncan adds: “Let me give you the real picture of what settlement activity amounts to. Israeli settlers can build what they want and then immediately get the infrastructure so that takes the water deliberately away from Palestinians here. The Israelis can build and this is not their country, but the Palestinians, whose country this is, cannot build.”
Andrew Balcombe, of the British Israel Group, said: “We think it is appalling that a minister of the British government is the featured speaker in a one-sided video that is inaccurate and inflammatory.” Alan Aziz, executive director of the Zionist Federation, said: “Mr Duncan is presenting a one-sided account that is not just inaccurate, but openly biased. It has no place on an official Government website.” Stuart Polak, director of Conservative Friends of Israel, said: “CFI raised this at the highest levels of government immediately after the video was posted. We were assured that this was not government policy and no Foreign Office minister would concur with these assessments. I would seriously question on what authority the DfID minister has raised these issues as policy and why this video is still available to view.”
But a DfID spokesman said the views “reflected” those of the government. He said: “Mr Duncan was speaking during a visit to the West Bank. His comments reflect the consistently held government position that settlements are illegal and are an obstacle to peace and the two-state solution.” When asked specifically about his comments on the security wall and water theft, another spokesman said: “He is a government minister and speaks on behalf of the government.” A spokesman from the Foreign Office said that DfID’s line “is the government’s position”.
[JP note: And the government’s position is the Muslim Brotherhood’s position as may be observed in so many of the issues developing in the region.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq Agreed to Extend US Military Presence Beyond 2011
(AGI) Washington — Iraq agreed to extend the presence of US troops in the country beyond the original deadline of 2011. It was announced by US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, in an interview with military magazine ‘Stars and Stripes’. Panetta explained that the Pentagon is already negotiating the terms and conditions of that extension.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Constitution Change, Female Movement Protest
(ANSAmed) — ROME, AUGUST 18 — Activists from the movement of Jordanian women have started a petition to protest against constitutional changes announced at the beginning of the week. The Middle East Online website says that the activists expressed their anger at the latest changes, in which the term of equality between the sexes has been removed.
Women’s groups have decided to prepare a legal document to ensure that the cancellation of the term “equality between the two sexes” is not a violation of international conventions signed by Jordan, which include the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Article 6 of the constitutional changes states the equality of all Jordanian citizens in the eyes of the law, without discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, language or religion. “Gender”, however, does not figure in the text.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pictured: Turkish Boy, 17, Accused of Killing Two Women From UK Because He Was Told He ‘Couldn’t Marry Daughter, 15’
Two women from Northern Ireland have been murdered in a forest in Turkey.
A 17-year-old Turkish teenager, named locally as Recep Celik, is said to have carried out the attack near Izmir after a row over marriage.
The women have been named by the Irish government as Marion Elizabeth Graham and Kathy Dinsmore, both 54.
The alarm was raised by Mrs Graham’s daughter Shannon, 15, after the women, both believed to be from Newry, County Down, failed to return home from their trip earlier this week.
A Turkish news agency claims the girl’s teenage boyfriend stabbed the women in a frenzied attack because he was not allowed to marry Shannon.
Other reports suggest that the reason behind the attack is that the Irish pair were trying to protect Mr Graham’s 15-year-old daughter from an abusive boyfriend.
They are said to have objected to the treatment of Marion’s daughter Shannon at the hands of her Recep Celik.
The two middle-aged women were in the Buca neighbourhood of Izmir — known locally a crime hotspot — when the attack took place.
Local sources say Marion, from County Down in Northern Ireland, spends her summers in Turkey, where she is married to a Kurdish man.
It is believed that Shannon fell in with a bad crowd during her summer trip and was suffering abuse at the hands of her boyfriend.
Turkish police questioned the girl’s boyfriend who initially denied any involvement with their disappearance.
But following a search of their estate blood-stained clothing was reportedly discovered in a bin.
Local media claims that when confronted with the clothing Recep admitted his involvement.
Turkish media claim the waiter hired a taxi in the resort of Kusadasi to take him and the middle-aged women from to the city of Izmir around 62 miles (100 kilometers) away to meet his father.
He is then allegedly to have confessed taking the two women in his father’s car to a quiet woodland area of the regional capital Izmir, where he stabbed them both to death.
It was not clear if the women met the father.
The youth is reported to have been arrested and is being questioned by police.
Police in Izmir confirmed that a suspect had been detained, but refused further information.
The news agency said the boy’s father and the taxi driver were also detained for questioning.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said the women are from County Down in Northern Ireland. It is said one of the women owned property in Kusadasi.
It is understood one of the women owns a property in the Kusadasi area and the pair, who were travelling on Irish passports, were visiting Izmir when they were attacked.
Irish diplomats are liaising with relatives of the two women and another has been dispatched from Ankara to Izmir to liaise with Turkish police.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin confirmed consular staff are trying to track down family members.
‘We are providing consular assistance through the embassy in Ankara,’ the spokesman said.
South Down MP Margaret Ritchie said she was shocked by the deaths and offered her sympathy to the bereaved families.
‘My thoughts are with those involved in this terrible incident,’ she said.
‘And also with their families, who never got the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones.
‘I think all the people of South Down will be saddened by this news.’
A local hotelier from Kusadasi has also travelled to the city to be with daughter of one of the dead women.
The area is visited by thousands of Irish and British holidaymakers every summer.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: UN: Damascus Ambassador Accuses USA, They Want War
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, AUGUST 19 — Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s permanent representative at the United Nations, has accused the United States of “waging a diplomatic and humanitarian war against us”. Speaking to journalists following a meeting of the UN Security Council, Jaafari echoed President Bashar Al Assad’s claims that military operations to stop the uprising were at an end. “Be careful, because all operations started with the consent of the Security Council are based on lies,” Jaafari said, in answer to questions about possible sanctions against Damascus from the fifteen member states.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US State Department Funds Program to Probe Anti-Semitism in Middle East
The Special Envoy was created by the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, and is a part of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
The U.S. State Department has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Middle East Media Research Institute to conduct a project that documents anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and Holocaust glorification in the Middle East. The grant was awarded by the Office of International Religious Freedom, part of the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
“The grant will enable MEMRI to expand its efforts to monitor the media, translate materials into 10 languages, analyze trends in anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial and glorification, and increase distribution of materials through its website and other outlets,” the State Department said in a statement released Thursday.
Through translations and research, MEMRI aims to inform and educate journalists, government leaders, academia and the general public about trends in anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Middle East and South Asia, generating awareness and response to these issues. MEMRI is a non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. Its research is translated into 10 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Hebrew.
The Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, which is head of the Office of International Religious Freedom, develops and implements policies and projects to combat anti-Semitism. in the U.S. and internationally. The Special Envoy’s Office was created by the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, and is a part of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Sends Emergency Aid to Famine-Hit African Areas
FAO hosts Rome meeting on sub-Saharan crisis
(ANSA) — Rome, August 18 — Italy is sending 30 tonnes of emergency aid to Africa to help deal with the crisis in the sub-Saharan region stricken by drought and famine, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
A special fight will leave the southeast city of Brindisi late Thursday for Nairobi, Kenya, where it will be handed over to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which will then transport the aid to a UNHCR camp in Dadaab, northern Kenya, which hosts over 400,000 refugees, mostly women and children who have fled the civil war in Somalia.
The aid consists of necessities including tents, containers for drinking water, electricity generators, blankets and cooking utensils.
The UNHCR has appealed for additional aid due to the devastating drought in the region which has destroyed local crops and caused spreading famine.
Italy’s latest operation follows one earlier this month in which 40 tonnes of food donated by the Italian Red Cross were flown in. With this new shipment Italian aid to the Horn of Africa has reached a value of some 11.5 million euros.
In a related development, the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Thursday hosted a high-level operational meeting of its members and humanitarian and development agencies focusing on the crisis in the Horn of Africa.
The aim is to identify areas of need and plan responses.
In opening Thursday’s meeting, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said that “in this era, with all the financial, technological and professional resources at our disposal, it is inadmissible that 12 million people are at risk of famine.
“What we are witnessing today is the unfortunate result of three decades of under-investment in agriculture and rural development. Means to collect and store water, roads and other infrastructure should be at the top of the priority list for nations and other donors,” he added.
The FAO chief told the meeting how in recent weeks the food crisis “has aggravated dramatically and famine is likely to spread… It is our responsibility to offer effective support for the people in the area ensuring immediate access to food through an unconditional flow of foodstuffs and funds”.
The UN agency is seeking some $2 billion in relief aid for countries in the drought-stricken sub-Saharan region where eight countries risk chronic food insecurity.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Kaduna Female Pilgrims to be Scanned for Pregnancy at Airport
Kaduna — To ensure that no pregnant woman partakes in the 2011 hajj exercise, all intending female pilgrims from Kaduna State would be thoroughly screened and scanned at the airport, Executive Secretary of the state’s Muslim Pilgrims’ Welfare Board, Ambassador Sule Buba, has said.
Speaking to Daily Trust, he said the board is engaging the services of medical practitioners to carry out the exercise at various points, including at the departure lounge, saying the decision was in the interest of the unborn child and the mother.
“Hajj exercise is a very cumbersome and rigorous activity and a pregnant woman who embarks on such could have a miscarriage. Secondly, she can fall sick because pregnancy is a very serious natural affair, so in order to address that, any intending female pilgrim, who is discovered to be pregnant would be stopped from embarking on the exercise. Any pilgrim discovered to be pregnant would be counselled to have patience till next year if she has made payment already. And next year, her seat would be automatic,” he said.
He added that the board has embarked on massive enlightenment campaign across the 23 local government areas of the state to sensitize pilgrims on how to perform the exercise, saying hajj is a religious obligation. Ambassador Buba dispelled the report that all Kaduna State hajj seats have been hijacked by politicians, but said that the board would welcome constructive criticisms from members of the public.
“I want to discourage people against rumour mongering and hearsay. The doors of the board are always open for anyone who has anything to discuss with us,” he said.
Meanwhile, the board has commenced the re-fund of N10,100 to pilgrims that performed the hajj exercise in 2009 and 2010.
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
450 Illegal Immigrants Land on Southern Lampedusa Island as Migrant Influx Continues
Lampedusa, 19 August (AKI) — Italian coast guard rescued 111 immigrants from a people smuggling boat 20 nautical miles off the coast of the southern island of Lampedusa Friday believed to have set sail from Tunisia.
A Tunisian fishing boat notified the coast guard after spotting the migrant boat.
Lampedusa’s single reception centre designed to hold a maximum of 850 people was seriously overcrowded on Thursday with some 1,570 migrants being accomodated there following a wave of landings on the island over the past week.
Over 1,000 migrants were due to be transferred from Lampedusa to other Italian migrant reception centres to ease the overcrowding, which earlier this early this year drew internation criticism after migrants were forced to sleep rough on the island in insanitry makeshift encampments.
A total of 456 migrants who landed in Lampedusa in the past few days were transferred by boat to the northern port of Genoa on Friday and were being bussed to other towns in the countrys’ north.
A total of 2,500 migrants reached Lampedusa last weekend and over 50,000 have travelled by boat from North Africa to Italy since January amid upheaval in Tunisia and Libya, making Italy the number-one gateway for illegal immigration to Europe.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
England Riots: Foreign Rioters Will be Deported
Foreigners who took part in last week’s rioting will be deported to “send a tough message to troublemakers,” it has emerged.
More than 150 people born abroad have been arrested over the looting and arson attacks which brought misery to English cities.
Damian Green, the immigration minister, said: “We strongly believe that foreign national lawbreakers should be removed from the UK at the earliest opportunity.
“We also have the power to cancel visas of foreign nationals found guilty of criminal activity, and this is something we will be looking to do when these cases arise.
“Last week saw unprecedented criminality on our streets and the courts are now dispensing firm justice to ensure those responsible are punished,” he told the London Evening Standard.
Among those accused of taking part in the disorder is a failed asylum seeker alleged to have looted clothes and money from a branch of BHS in Walthamstow, northeast London.
Abderazak Boussag, 23, who lives in Leyton, northeast London was arrested in a raid on his home after police found the fingerprint of his teenage co-defendant at the store.
The move could widen fissures in the coalition over tough sentences for looters..
David Ward, a Liberal Democrat backbencher, said: “This almost seems to be a competition to see who can come out with the most macho response. To have a blanket policy for all is just nonsense.”
Under immigration laws, criminals from outside the EU are automatically nominated for deportation if they are sentenced to 12 months in prison.
European citizens are put forward to deportation if given a 12-month sentence for drugs, violent or sex crimes, or 24 months for other offences. But the courts can recommend deportation in other circumstances and the UK Border Agency can revoke the visa of anyone found guilty of criminal activity.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Nigerian Christian Claims She Faces Stoning if Deported
Rome, 19 August (AKI) — A Nigerian Christian woman jailed for possessing cannabis has implored Italy’s authorities not to deport her, claiming she could be stoned to death in her home country after refusing to convert to Islam and enter an arranged marriage.
“Please don’t send me back to Nigeria,” wrote Kate Omoregbe in an impassioned appeal published in the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire on Friday, adding that she might also be disfigured with acid if repatriated.
“I only ask to be allowed to stay in Italy, to resume my studies and get my degree. I want to start a family, defend my freedom of choice and my Catholic faith,” Omoregbe said.
Under Italian law, Omoregbe is due to be deported once she finishes her four year prison sentence in September after she had this cut by six months for good behaviour. Her case has been taken up in the Italian parliament.
The cannabis she was convicted of possessing belonged actually belonged to her Nigerian housemate.
“Many times I hoped I would die. Only my Catholic faith kept me going. Now all I ask is to be saved from a horrible fate,” she said.
Nigeria’s 140 million people are split almost equally between Muslims and Christians.
The two groups generally live peacefully side by side. The north of Nigeria has been gradually implementing stricter Islamic law, which has led to tensions with Christian groups and outbreaks of communal violence in recent years.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Rescued Near Lampedusa as Others Transferred
More than 1,000 moved to mainland centres
(ANSA) — Lampedusa, August 19 — Italian Coast Guard officials on Friday rescued 111 immigrants 20 nautical miles off the coast of the southern island of Lampedusa.
The boat was spotted near the tiny island of Lampione by the crew of a Tunisian fishing boat who notified the Coast Guard.
The migrants are believed to have departed from the Tunisian coast to cross the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile more than 1,000 migrants were being transferred by ship from Lampedusa to other Italian migrant reception centres.
A total of 456 migrants who landed in Lampedusa in the past few days were transferred by boat to the northern port of Genoa on Friday.
Police and port officals moved the migrants onto buses that were expected to take them to other towns in the country’s north.
On Thursday around 1,570 migrants were at the Lampedusa centre after several boat arrivals swelled numbers in the past week. More than 50,000 undocumented migrants have travelled by boat from North Africa to Italy since January, as many of them fled political upheaval in Tunisia and military conflict in Libya.
The reception facilities on Lampedusa, which is closer to Africa than to Sicily, have been overwhelmed by the influx and the Italian government this week has shipped migrants to centres in Sicily, Sardinia and Puglia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 150 People Caught After Rioting Swept Across UK ‘Were Foreign Nationals and Will be Deported’
At least 150 foreign rioters and looters who caused chaos on the streets will be deported as part of a Government pledge to get tough on troublemakers.
Those involved will be thrown out of Britain ‘at the earliest opportunity’, Immigration Minister Damian Green has said.
The decision matches the tough treatment laid down by police, magistrates and judges on hundreds of rioters across Britain.
The plan for the 150 non-British citizens was revealed by the Evening Standard today.
Among those accused of taking part in the disorder is a failed asylum seeker who is alleged to have stolen clothes and cash from the Walthamstow branch of department store BHS.
Algerian national Abderazak Boussag, 23, was arrested after police found the fingerprint of his teenage co-defendant at the store and raided his home in Leyton.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ‘We strongly believe that foreign national lawbreakers should be removed from the UK at the earliest opportunity. We also have the power to cancel the visas of foreign nationals found guilty of criminal activity, and this is something we will be looking to do when these cases arise.
‘Last week saw unprecedented criminality on our streets and the courts are now dispensing firm justice to ensure that those responsible are punished.’
Offenders can use the Human Rights Act to appeal against deportation on grounds that they are entitled to a family life or to avoid the risk of torture. Many of these appeals succeed.
The latest hard-line response to the riots was criticised by some Liberal Democrat backbenchers.
Bradford East MP David Ward accused Mr Green of headline-grabbing and said each case should be dealt with on its merits.
‘This almost seems to be a competition to see who can come out with the most macho response,’ Mr Ward said. ‘To have a blanket policy for all is just nonsense.’
Tom Brake, Lib-Dem home affairs spokesman, said the Government would ‘need to exercise caution’, particularly in cases where foreigners have families established in the UK.
Lib-Dems have attacked David Cameron’s calls for ‘zero tolerance’ to street crime and his backing for long sentences being handed down by the courts.
Plans to strip away benefits have also been described as ‘bonkers’ by Wells MP Tessa Munt, while there has also been opposition to removing council homes from troublemakers.
The UK Border Agency has revealed that about 150 of the 2,800 arrested over rioting so far are thought to be foreign nationals, though it stressed these were only preliminary figures.
Under immigration rules, criminals from outside Europe are automatically put forward for deportation if they are sentenced to 12 months in prison.
The same applies to Europeans given a 12-month sentence for drugs, violent or sexual crimes, or 24 months for other crimes.
But courts can recommend deportation in other instances, and the UK Border Agency is able to revoke visas for anyone found guilty of criminal activity. Research today showed courts are handing down prison sentences that are on average 25 per cent longer than normal.
Analysis of court records by the Guardian also suggested the majority of those who have been through the justice system so far live in poor neighbourhoods, with 41 per cent of suspects living in one of the top 10 most deprived places in the country.
Figures were set to show the prison population has risen by 700 in the past week to hit record levels, raising fears jails will soon be full.
Prison Governors Association president Eoin McLennan-Murray said there were 1,500 empty prison places available, but the Ministry of Justice is drawing up contingency plans in case space runs out.
Figures released on Wednesday showed that so far 1,297 people had appeared in court charged with offences linked to the riots, with two- thirds remanded in custody.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Firm Justice’ For Troublemakers: Foreign Rioters to be Deported
Foreigners who took part in last week’s riots will be deported to send a tough message to troublemakers, the Standard has learned.
More than 150 people arrested over the looting and arson attacks that started in London and swept England were born abroad, exclusive figures show.
Now the Government has announced plans for rioters without UK citizenship to be deported “at the earliest opportunity”. The move re-ignited the Coalition row over tough sentences being imposed on children and adults who took part in the disorder. Immigration Minister Damian Green told the Standard: “We strongly believe that foreign national lawbreakers should be removed from the UK at the earliest opportunity. We also have the power to cancel the visas of foreign nationals found guilty of criminal activity, and this is something we will be looking to do when these cases arise. Last week saw unprecedented criminality on our streets and the courts are now dispensing firm justice to ensure those responsible are punished.”
Among those accused of taking part in the disorder is a failed asylum seeker alleged to have looted clothes and cash from the Walthamstow branch of department store BHS. Algerian national Abderazak Boussag, 23, was arrested after police found the fingerprint of his teenage co-defendant at the store and raided his home in Leyton. Offenders can use the Human Rights Act to appeal against deportation on grounds that they are entitled to a family life or to avoid the risk of torture. Many of these appeals succeed.
The latest hard-line response to the riots was criticised by some Liberal Democrat backbenchers. Bradford East MP David Ward accused Mr Green of headline-grabbing and said each case should be dealt with on its merits. “This almost seems to be a competition to see who can come out with the most macho response,” Mr Ward said. “To have a blanket policy for all is just nonsense.” Tom Brake, Lib-Dem home affairs spokesman, said the Government would “need to exercise caution”, particularly in cases where foreigners have families established in the UK. Lib-Dems have attacked David Cameron’s calls for “zero tolerance” to street crime and his backing for long sentences being handed down by the courts. Plans to strip away benefits have also been described as “bonkers” by Wells MP Tessa Munt, while there has also been opposition to removing council homes from troublemakers.
The UK Border Agency has revealed that about 150 of the 2,800 arrested over rioting so far are thought to be foreign nationals, though it stressed these were only preliminary figures. Under immigration rules, criminals from outside Europe are automatically put forward for deportation if they are sentenced to 12 months in prison. The same applies to Europeans given a 12-month sentence for drugs, violent or sexual crimes, or 24 months for other crimes. But courts can recommend deportation in other instances, and the UK Border Agency is able to revoke visas for anyone found guilty of criminal activity. Research today showed courts are handing down prison sentences that are on average 25 per cent longer than normal.
Analysis of court records by the Guardian also suggested the majority of those who have been through the justice system so far live in poor neighbourhoods, with 41 per cent of suspects living in one of the top 10 most deprived places in the country. Figures were set to show the prison population has risen by 700 in the past week to hit record levels, raising fears jails will soon be full. Prison Governors Association president Eoin McLennan-Murray said there were 1,500 empty prison places available, but the Ministry of Justice is drawing up contingency plans in case space runs out. Figures released on Wednesday showed that so far 1,297 people had appeared in court charged with offences linked to the riots, with two- thirds remanded in custody.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
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