Chrysler Saviour Fiat Now Depends on US Carmaker
Turin, 11 Oct. (AKI/Bloomberg) — Sergio Marchionne had what he called a “once in a lifetime” moment in 2009 when president Barack Obama selected Fiat to save Chrysler. The head of both automakers may be having flashbacks as the tables turn.
The previously bankrupt US company, which became majority owned by Fiat this year, is now shoring up its Turin, Italy- based parent, as the European debt crisis depresses sales. Chrysler is due to outpace Fiat’s operating profit by 87 percent in the second half and the gap will likely continue in 2012, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts.
“Fiat would be very vulnerable now without Chrysler, with few industrial and financial options on its hands,” said Emanuele Vizzini, chief investment officer at Investitori Sgr in Milan who sold Fiat shares in August.
While the revitalization of Chrysler offers Fiat a cushion for Italy’s downturn, Marchionne’s turnaround of the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based company has deepened the company’s woes in Europe. With the US unit hogging development and management resources, Fiat has been left with aging models and eroding market share, putting Italy’s largest manufacturer at the mercy of historically volatile Chrysler earnings.
“Long-term, neither Fiat nor Chrysler would have made it on their own,” Marchionne said on 7 October in Montreal. “Fiat was too small and too handicapped by an inadequate business model in Europe to have any hope of a future.”
Chrysler may post earnings before interest, taxes and one- time items, of 864 million euros in the second half of 2011, compared with 462 million euros from Fiat’s traditional operations, including profit from the Ferrari and Maserati brands, according to the average estimates of six analysts. Trading profit for the US automaker, which was consolidated into Fiat results from June, may reach 1.91 billion euros next year, 77 percent more than Fiat’s 1.08 billion euros.
The turnaround at Chrysler hasn’t helped Marchionne win over investors to his plan to create a global auto group to rival Volkswagen AG. The shares have fallen 40 percent in the last three months, the second-worst performer in the Bloomberg European autos index after France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen.
“If Fiat is depending upon Chrysler, that’s a bad bet because Chrysler is still a question mark,” said Gerald Meyers, a business professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “It will be two to three years before we know whether Chrysler is going to even be successful, much less sustainable.”
Chrysler, under three different owners during the span of four years, recorded net losses totaling $34 billion from 2006 through 2010, according to the automaker’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Sales of the third-largest U.S. automaker fell 48 percent to 1.1 million vehicles last year from 2.1 million in 2005.
Moody’s downgraded Fiat to two notches below investment grade last month on concern about the financial stability of the combination with Chrysler. The rating company also cited infrequent model renewals in Europe and increasing competition in Brazil, where Fiat is profitable.
Marchionne, who acknowledged in an April interview that he neglected European operations in favor of a US turnaround, postponed the launch of new Fiat models when the 2008 financial crisis hit the car market and is doing the same again.
Aside from a rebadged version of the Dodge Journey, the overhauled Panda subcompact, which was unveiled last month, was the first all-new model for the Fiat brand since the retro- styled 500 in 2007. In the US, 75 percent of Chrysler’s lineup has been updated since the executive took control in June 2009.
That product strategy has resulted in Fiat’s European market share shrinking to 7.3 percent through August from 8.2 percent a year earlier as deliveries tumbled 13 percent, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Chrysler’s US sales gained 23 percent through September, beating the industry’s 10 percent growth rate, according to researcher Autodata Corp.
The Italian carmaker has said it aims to claw back market share with new models, including a rebadged Chrysler 300 and Dodge Journey and the new Panda and Lancia Y subcompacts.
Fiat, which expects to increase its holding in Chrysler by 5 percentage points to 58.5 percent by the end this year, is pushing back the production of new vehicles, including a Jeep, at its Mirafiori plant in Turin by more than six months to the second half of 2013. Fiat will also postpone the market entry of new Alfa Romeo models, including the 4C sports car, delaying the brand’s return to the U.S. to 2013.
“We have a negative view on Europe,” Marchionne told reporters at the Frankfurt motor show last month. “It’s not an easy market this year and won’t be an easy one even in 2012.”
Fiat’s pessimistic outlook for Europe, where its losses are estimated at 800 million euros a year, has fueled concerns that the company is turning its back on Italy. Those fears were stoked earlier this month after the company withdrew from the country’s industrial employers lobby Confindustria to have a free hand in labor talks.
The manufacturer’s biggest union, Fiom, has called for a one-day strike on 21 October to protest against proposals to scale back production increases in Italy. Fiat is planning to shut the Termini Imerese factory in Sicily at the end of the year, as it aims to end deficits in the region by 2014.
Fiat’s Italian factories “are part of a much larger network of manufacturing installations,” which will all compete for new vehicles, said Marchionne in Montreal. Fiat’s Italian plants need to as competitive as other plants, he said.
Backed by Chrysler, Fiat now can look forward to generating cash in the U.S., even as the European business burns up resources, said Massimo Vecchio, a Milan-based analyst with Mediobanca.
“Thanks, America,” said Vecchio, who has an “outperform” rating on Fiat.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Debt Crisis: Billions for Banks
Financial Times Deutschland, 12 October 2011
“The EU prepares cash injection for banks,” says the Financial Times Deutschland. Everything must move quickly now. In order to avoid a collapse similar to that of Lehman Brothers in 2008, the head of European Commission José Manuel Barroso is scheduled to present, on October 12, a plan to recapitalise European banks. These could be forced to find new funds. The European Banking Authority (EBA) is, for its part, devising a new stress test to better evaluate their needs. More stringent than the one banks were subjected to this summer, the new test requires that core capital equal 7% of their loans against 5% required in July. In addition, the tests will take into account the possible default of indebted states. The recapitalisation could require several hundred billion euros, the FTD notes. The results of the stress tests will be published before the October 23 meeting of the European Council at which the Member States will decide on the measures now needed to fight the crisis.
“The sector is shaking,” comments FTD, for whom it is the EBA which was made to look ridiculous this summer and which is in need of aid. “Given the EBA’s history,” the paper adds, “its anemic human resources, and its questionable methods — the banks themselves provide the data thus leaving the door wide open to fraud — one can expect the chaos in the markets and around the banks to increase rather than decrease”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Parliament Votes No: EU Pins Hopes on Second Slovak Vote This Week
The parliament of Slovakia voted against the expansion of the euro bailout fund on Tuesday, stalling plans to contain the debt crisis. The government of Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova has fallen but will continue in a caretaker role. It has pledged to get the measure through parliament in a second vote.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Slovak Government Collapses Over Euro-Bailout Fund
The Slovak parliament on Tuesday (11 October) brought down the government in a no-confidence vote linked to the eurozone bail-out fund, a move putting in doubt a second rescue package for Greece as agreed by EU leaders in July.
The Slovak conundrum complicates eurozone talks on a second Greek bail-out accompanied by debt restructuring ahead of a special EU summit, which was delayed to 23 October. “Slovakia has to create political conditions which will allow a positive vote on the EFSF as soon as possible,” European Council chief Herman Van Rompuy said.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Troika Believes in Potemkin Villages
Irish Independent, Dublin
In Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the EU and the IMF are living in their own fantasy of countries cured by austerity. But behind this facade, we’re beginning to see the reality of Europe’s banks filled with bad investments, writes the economic columnist David McWilliams.
Have you ever heard the expression a “Potemkin Village”? It is a Russian expression and derives from a large and extremely successful scam played by Marshall Potemkin — one of Catherine the Great’s many lovers.
In the late 18th century, the Russian elite was keen to pretend to the world that it was more powerful and more muscular than it actually was. As result, the court in St Petersburg decided to take foreign dignitaries and ambassadors down the River Dnieper to witness just how thankful the peasants of the newly occupied Ukraine were to their new, benign Russian overlords.
Knowing that the Westerners — the dignitaries were British, French and Prussian — wouldn’t expect a hoax, Potemkin constructed mobile villages, which he assembled at the turns of the river just before the royal barges carrying the foreigners came into view. What the foreigners would see on the riverbanks were excited, grateful peasants cheering on the royal Russian barges and showering Catherine the Great with compliments. When the barge went out of view, Potemkin would uproot the “village” and transport it, by night, further down the river to assemble it again ahead of the same royal barges when the barges continued down the river having docked overnight.
The foreigners went home marvelling at the strength and wisdom of the Russians, evidenced by the fact that even those whom the Russians conquered were fawning in their praise of their new masters such was the decency of the Russian occupation.
But the key to understanding the gullibility and the success of the Potemkin villages is that the foreigners wanted to believe, because they needed a success in Russia. It was 1787 after all. Monarchist America had become a republic and imperial France was teetering. Old certainties were crumbling for the old order. There was a feeling that a powerful monarchist Russia was needed in order to stop the “domino effect” of the Enlightenment, American Republicanism and war in Europe. In the event, George Washington and Maxim Robespierre put paid to their false hopes — the dominoes did topple.
Given the fear of revolutionary contagion, it’s easy to see why the dignitaries were predisposed to gullibility — because they didn’t want to face up to the consequences of what was actually happening on the ground. They wanted to see the world as they wanted it to be, not as it actually was. And if that meant believing in mobile villages, then so be it!
Now, fast-forward to Merrion Street today. The so-called Troika — complete with its peculiarly Russian-sounding name — is in town. And it will leave saying everything is hunky dory. We show it export figures and GDP figures — today’s Potemkin Villages — and it will go away happy, having taken into consideration nothing of the unemployment, emigration, negative equity or the fact that retail spending has collapsed. It will see what it wants to see.
The Troika doesn’t look at the real, nasty things because it, like the historic dignitaries in Russia, doesn’t want to. It wants to believe its own propaganda because it can’t face the prospect of failure. Remember, for the Troika, Ireland’s austerity programme must prevail because the prospect of the domino effect is too horrible for it to contemplate.
But the game is up. Let me tell you a dirty little secret: the Troika is redundant. Yes, redundant. The Irish IMF/EU deal is history. No matter what we do, events are overtaking us. The IMF/EU deal for Ireland will be torn up in the next three weeks and replaced with something quite, quite different.
The Troika has failed because the main aim of the Troika was not to fix Ireland but to ring-fence Ireland. We were/are a pawn in a much bigger game and that game is saving the euro…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Passes 3 Free Trade Accords
Congress passed three long-awaited free trade agreements on Wednesday, ending a partisan standoff that has stretched across two presidencies.
Final approval of the deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama is a bipartisan victory for President Obama and proponents of the view that foreign trade can drive America’s economic growth, in the face of rising protectionist sentiment in both political parties. They are the first trade agreements to pass Congress since Democrats broke a decade of Republican control in 2007.
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Frank Gaffney: “Horatius Wolf”: Rep. Frank Wolf Takes on Grover Norquist
Legend has it that ancient Rome was spared a devastating invasion by the courage and skill of a great warrior named Horatius, whose singlehanded defense of a bridge kept the enemy hordes at bay. From time to time, a contemporary figure exhibits similar heroic qualities, earning this column’s “Horatius at the Bridge” award. With his “statement of conscience” on the floor of the House of Representatives last week, Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) has become the latest recipient of that distinction.
On October 4, Rep. Wolf summarized in five-minutes a long insert he placed that day in the Congressional Record. The immediate impetus for this address was the sixteen-term legislator’s concern about Washington’s current inability to have a constructive conversation about tax reform. The Congressman made clear that he was not in favor of raising taxes but warned that, “We sit here today shackled in ideological gridlock. Some insist that any discussion of tax policy is off the table. Others reject any change in entitlement programs…. Powerful special interests continue to hold this institution hostage and undermine every good faith effort to change course.” …
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Lech Walesa, Former Polish President, To Visit New York in Support of Occupy Wall Street
Solidarity hero Lech Walesa is flying to New York to show his support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
“How could I not respond,” Walesa told a Polish newspaper Wednesday. “The thousands of people gathered near Wall Street are worried about the fate of their future, the fate of their country. This is something I understand.” A former shipyard worker who led Poland’s successful revolt against Soviet communism, Walesa said “capitalism is in crisis” and not just in America. “This is a worldwide problem,” he told the Lublin-based Dziennik Wschodni newspaper. “The Wall Street protesters have focused a magnifying glass on the problem.”
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Nigerian Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Blow Up Plane
A Nigerian man who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up an international flight with a bomb in his underwear says he committed terrorism in retaliation for the killing of Muslims around the world.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab told a Detroit courtroom Wednesday that the bomb was a “blessed weapon to save the lives of innocent Muslims.”
Abdulmutallab has pleaded guilty on the second day of his trial to charges that include conspiracy to commit terrorism and attempted murder.
He says he tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with nearly 300 people on board on Christmas 2009.
The bomb didn’t work, but Abdulmutallab was badly burned. Hours later in the hospital, he told the FBI that he was working for Al Qaeda in Yemen.
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Amnesty International Asks Canada to Arrest George W. Bush
(AGI)Ottawa- Canadian authorities have been asked to arrest the former leader for authorising torture during the ‘war on terror’. George W. Bush will be in Surrey, in Canada’s British Columbia region, to participate in a summit on the economy on October 20.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium is Dead: Long Live Belgium!
On 11 October, after 485 days without a government, Elio Di Rupo — who will likely be Belgium’s next prime minister — and his Flemish and Francophone partners presented a global agreement on state reforms. The compromise deal, which has been viewed as heaven sent, will stabilise the country and pave the way for an end to its long-drawn out political crisis.
Along with a plan to divide the bilingual arrondissement of Bruxelles-Hal-Vilvorde (BHV), which led to a breakthrough in negotiations, the main points of the agreement are more federalism with greater autonomy for the country’s regions (Flanders, which represents more than 50% of federal resources, Walloonia and Brussels Capital) in matters of taxation, social security, employment policy and the administration of the highway code. The duration of the federal government’s mandate will also be extended from four to five years to ensure that the country will no longer be subject to permanently ongoing election campaigns.
“Mesdames, messieurs, nous avons un accord!”, headlines Dutch language newspaper De Morgen. The Flemish daily quotes the exact words of Di Rupo’s announcement of the text negotiated with the probable members of a future coalition government. “At last,” writes the newspaper’s political editor Steven Samyn -
… surrounded by eight negotiators, the formateur declared: ‘We have an agreement that will enable our country to evolve and stabilise.’ And there is no better way of stating it. The sixth constitutional reform of the Belgian state will be an evolution, whose goal is to shift more of the heavy weight of the Belgian state onto its federal components, rather than a revolution.
“At last!” remarks in a similar vein La Libre Belgique. In the Brussels daily, columnist Francis Van de Woestyne tips his hat to “the principal artisan of the negotiations, Elio Di Rupo” -
There’s no denying the energy, the patience, the ability to listen, and the creativity that he had to demonstrate to reach this point. Having desperately tried and failed to find a positive solution with [leader Flemish nationalist] Bart De Wever […], Elio Di Rupo had to make do with partners that were in many ways as fragile and unpredictable, as they were divided. It should be said that he was the only politician, in a country that ran the risk of breaking up under pressure from divisive and selfish forces, who had the capacity to bring together the North and the South as well as the left and the right.
For the Le Soir’s leading columnist, Béatrice Delvaux, the main winner in all of this is not di Rupo, but Belgium:…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Breivik’s Suppliers Investigated
Police in Poznan in Poland have detained ten customers of a local firm which supplied explosive components to the Oslo terrorist Anders Breivik, after he contacted it on the Internet in November 2010.
Investigators say the firm is owned by a local student of chemistry. His customers are suspicious types who officers believe are after no good.
On the 22nd of July, Breivik killed 77 people by detonating a powerful bomb in central Oslo and by firing on boys and girls in an island camp of Norway’s governing Labour Party. (RIAN)
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EU: 70% of European Energy Transits Turkey, Minister
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 11 — Seventy per cent of European energy requirements are located along Turkey’s borders and the continent cannot get to them without Ankara’s help, said Turkish minister for European Affairs and head negotiator for the country’s EU membership bid Egemen Bagis, according to reports in the Turkish daily Aksam. The remark, made yesterday in a cultural centre in Bosnia-Herzegovina, was in reference to the imminent publication of the European Commission’s “progress report” on Turkey’s candidature for EU membership. Turkey’s membership bid — which especially France and Germany are against, is strongly backed by Italy and Great Britain, in part due to geostrategic considerations connected with energy supplies.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Sliding Towards Terrorism
The leftist extremists claiming responsibility for arson attacks on Germany’s rail system this week said they do not want to hurt anyone, but it’s only a matter of time until they do, comments Gerd Nowakowski from Der Tagesspiegel. “Decelerating the capital” — that’s one way of putting it. But all the people in Berlin who struggled with train delays on Tuesday, or those unable to get to Hamburg on Monday, would probably call it terrorism.
Germany’s capital narrowly escaped a public transport collapse because it was only the incendiary device on a cable shaft on the route to Hamburg that went set off, while the explosive device in the city’s main train station itself failed to ignite. “We have switched a small part of the metropolis to standby-mode,” the group Hekla said cynically in an email claiming responsibility for the attacks. But the group’s bombastic political prose won’t give these actions relevance. This time, the ten-year anniversary of the start of the Afghanistan war was used to justify the attacks. At the same time, the group was protesting against child poverty in Berlin, state benefit cuts, and rape — whatever happens to be the complaint of the day.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Gunman’s Father Admits Breivik Was Abandoned
The 76-year-old father of Norway’s confessed mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has said psychiatrists had recommended his four-year-old son be taken from the home he shared with his mother for his own benefit.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
One in Three Norwegians on Benefits
One in three work-aged adults, the most in the world, is on some sort of sick leave or disability pension in Norway, according to numbers that ended up in the national budget announced this week. Payouts to the sick and injured will grow at 5 percent per year in the coming years, or double what the European Union predicts it will need to cover in the years to 2060.
“After Sweden and the Netherlands managed to reverse the trend, Norway ended up as world leader (in benefits),” University of Bergen welfare state chronicler, Professor Kjell Vaage, told newspaper Bergens Tidende.
Vaage could not be reached by The Local for comment. He said most worrying was the spike in numbers of young people among the 1.5 million on social services in this country of just over 4.5 million people. Vaage claims sick pay rules account for Norway’s “weakness”.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Nabs 19 Linked to Norway Killer
Warsaw — A Polish security agency said on Wednesday that 19 people have been arrested across the country on suspicion of producing and possessing explosives.
The Internal Security Agency said the arrests were part of a wider investigation into the illegal production and sale of explosives that was launched after Norway asked Poland to investigate people with links to confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 69 people at a youth camp in July in Norway.
Poland was asked to provide information on a man who was mentioned by Breivik as a possible source of substances that could be used in the production of explosives.
The agency said the arrests were also the result of an analysis of a manifesto that Breivik had posted on the internet.
The agency said in a statement that large quantities of explosives were seized on Tuesday and Wednesday during a search of some 100 homes and houses and dozens of cars and garages across the country. The search was carried out by the agency, police, border guards and firefighters.
A few dozen people, who had obtained chemicals at a warehouse near the western city of Poznan, are suspected of using the substances to make explosives.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Romania: Panic in Giurgiu City
Evenimentul zilei, 12 October 2011
“Welcome to Giurgiu, the city terrorised by the Gypsy mafia,” headlines Romanian daily Evenimentul zilei. The paper highlights the law of silence that reigns on this southern Romanian city following the tragic death of an American youth who played basketball for the local team, the CSS Giurgiu. On October 8, Chauncey Hardy was killed in a nightclub, due to a dispute over a woman, by a local hoodlum known as Gypsy Gipsanu.
“Investigators are not saying a word and people speak in fear,” notes Evenimentul zilei. The investigation into the assassination revealed “a mafia-like system” composed of politicians, lawyers and civil servants,” in a city in which violence is on the rise, the paper says. It further notes that the omerta, or law of silence, observed by the residents of Giurgiu sends the image of a city managed by a network of mafia bosses with access to the local administration and business circles.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Dog Lover Loved Dog Far Too Much: Court
A young man who had sex with his dog for several years has been ordered to undergo regular psychiatric treatment if he is to avoid spending eight months behind bars, a Swiss court ruled on Monday. The judge at Liestal court in northwestern Switzerland took into account the results of a psychiatric diagnosis. Results found the defendant to be a person of extraordinary intelligence but with a severe personality disorder that manifested itself in narcissistic ways.
The public prosecutor had demanded 20 months in prison for the professed zoophile. Unlike in countries like Denmark, Hungary and Sweden, sex with animals is forbidden in Switzerland. According to the investigations, the 25-year-old man had been having sex with his puppy Blässli, an Appenzeller mountain dog, and two other dogs since 2008. A vet discovered evidence of the defendant’s practices by chance on a pro-zoophilia internet forum.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels Halts Albania’s Bid for E.U. Membership
(AGI) Tirana — The E.U. rejected Albania’s request for candidate membership status saying the country has made little progress. The report on the state of enlargement presented by Commissioner Stefan Fule in Brussels, confirmed earlier reports in the Albanian press announcing yet another rejection.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: No Arab Spring Without Religious Freedom, Says Italian Lawmaker
Rome, 11 Oct. (AKI) — An Italian lawmaker has deplored the violence that left at least 25 minority Coptic Christian protesters dead and hundreds injured on Sunday in clashes with the Egyptian army and residents in Cairo.
“The events in Cairo, with the repression and the massacre of Copts by the army together with criminal Islamic elements tells what is happening not only in Egypt but throughout the Middle East,” conservative Italian politician Renato Farina said in an interview with online newspaper Ragionpolitica.it.
“There can be no Arab Spring without religious freedom,” said Farina, referring to the popular revolts that have ousted longtime autocratic rulers in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt and rattled ruling regimes in other Arab countries.
Egypt’s finance minister Hazem el-Beblawi, appointed by the ruling military council after the popular protests earlier this year, resigned on Tuesday over Sunday’s violence.
Egypt’s ruling military council has ordered a swift inquiry into the violence and the United Nations on Tuesday urged authorities to carry out an impartial and independent investigation of the bloodshed.
El-Beblawi’s resignation came as members of the Coptic Christian community began a three-day fast to mourn those killed Sunday in during the protest in Maspiro, the area in front of the Egyptian state TV headquarters in Cairo.
“Today, pseudo-religious conflict serves as a pretext to delay elections due in March, leaving everything in the military’s hands. More extremist elements of the (Islamist) Muslim Brotherhood, currently split in into three factions, may seek to exploit this situation,” said Farina.
About 2,000 people gathered in Cairo on Sunday for an initially peaceful rally to protest against its destruction. But fighting soon broke out, involving protesters, residents and troops.
The Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 85 million population, have several grievances against the country’s military, which is in temporary charge of the country while elections are organised.
They say the authorities have been slow to punish radical Islamists who have attacked their churches.
The military was handed the power to govern by former president Hosni Mubarak before he was toppled in the popular revolt earlier this year.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Coptic Bishop Says 25 Died Due to “False Reports”
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 12- “Twenty-five died last Sunday during the clashes in the Maspero area (home to the Egyptian radio and TV) due to false reports. Among the victims, there are 22 Copts and three members of the Egyptian security forces” This is what Coptic-Orthodox bishop of Assuan Anba Idra stated during an interview with Coptic TV Al Karma. According to the Al Arabiya website reporting the news, clashes started when it was reported that some Muslim destroyed the church in the village of Mrinab, in the city of Asawan, removing the cross and the bell.
The bishop stated: “The destroyed church was a building under construction and still had no cross.” Idra added:”The Muslim had never opposed Copts during the construction of the church.” The bishop specified: “Reports about Muslim destroying the church and forcing Christians to remove the cross are totally false.” Anba Idra specified: “ In the village of Mrinab there is no tension between the Muslim and Copts.” The bishop told the Coptic TV the story of the church: “The church originally was a normal house where Coptic inhabitants of the village gathered to pray during religious festivities, under the surveillance of security forces. The house was in ruins and needed restructuring. The churchmen obtained the authorization to demolish the old house and build a new church. The Muslim had worked to the construction of the church and there was no problem with the inhabitants of the village. However, the building resulted higher than the limit imposed by the construction authorization. Some people from outside Mrinab visited their relatives in the village and were surprised to see that a church had been built. These people had accused the inhabitants of Mrinab of weakness, causing only some minor skirmish. In spite of this, no Christian was assaulted and the Muslim never raised a hand against the new church under construction. The Muslim did not remove the cross, neither the bell as it was reported for a very simple reason: the cross and the bell still weren’t there”, the bishop stated.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Calls for Respect for the Rights of All in Egypt, Especially Minorities
Appeal of Benedict XVI who was “deeply saddened” by events in Cairo, “attempts to undermine peaceful coexistence.” Support the efforts of the civil and religious authorities “for a society based on justice”. In his general audience, he comments on Psalm 126, which reminds us that, even in the midst of pain, “God is always present.”
Vatican City (AsiaNews) — In Egypt, the rights of all must be respected, especially minorities. This was the appeal launched by Benedict XVI, at the end of his general audience during which he said he was “deeply saddened by the violence perpetrated in Cairo last Sunday,” and expressed his support for “the efforts of Egyptian authorities, civil and religious, in favour of a society which respects the human rights of everyone, and especially minorities, to the benefit of national unity. “ The Pope said he was close to the “pain of the families of the victims and the entire Egyptian people, torn by attempts to undermine the peaceful coexistence between its communities, which is important to preserve, especially in this time of transition.” “I urge the faithful — he concluded — to pray that society may enjoy a true peace based on justice, freedom and respect for the dignity of every citizen.”
Earlier in his catechesis, the Pope illustrated that even though our history is marked by “pain, uncertainty, moments of crisis” it is “a history of salvation,” because in our history and our lives “God is already present. “ This was the lesson that Benedict XVI outlined from a reading of Psalm 126, of which he spoke today, his series on prayer.
Benedict XVI described the prayer as “festive, in the joy that sings the wonders of God”: “The Lord has done great things for us.” It is the memory of the “exhilarating experience of salvation,” “when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion.” It starts from a situation of suffering and need in which God works salvation and “restores” things as to even better than they were before.
This is what happens to the people of Israel returning to their homeland from Babylonian exile. It was the end of their deportation to a foreign land. “The fall of Jerusalem and the deportation had been a devastating experience for the chosen people. On the political and social level, but also on a religious one: the loss of the promised land, the destruction of the temple, the end of the Davidic dynasty” are perceived as a failure of the divine promises, “the people of the alliance painfully question a God that seems to have abandoned them”.
“Their return indicates the new-found friendship with God,” “the experience of his mercy.” “We should look more often — the Pope said — how throughout the events of our life the Lord has protected us, we must be mindful of the good things that the Lord gives us, we are always attentive to the problems and difficulties and often do not perceive the beautiful things given to us by the Lord. Instead by focusing on the good things received, the memory of the good, helps us in our darkest hours. “
This, “celebration of the joy of a restored fate,” in first part of the Psalm, in the second part, appears as something yet to be built, “ this contradiction is explained with the difficult return home, which leads once more to the request for divine intervention “. “The consoling experience of liberation from Babylon is still incomplete, it has already taken place, but is not yet fulfilled, pending a full implementation, this is the reason for particular images that refer to the reality of life and death, redemption, joy, tears and distress.
There is “the experience that is renewed every year in the agricultural world: the difficulty of sowing and the joy of the harvest, you sow what could you throw into bread, you throw the seed but do not know where it will fall, if the birds will eat it , if it will take root, if it will become an ear of corn”. “Throwing the seed is an act of trust that the farmer repeats year after year, he sows the seed and when the fields are filled with a harvest here is the joy”.
“The exile to Babylon is like pain and other situations of crisis, the apparent distance from God, but in the New Testament, the message becomes clearer: the believer through silence and the pain is like a grain of wheat, like the woman who endures the pains of childbirth in order to arrive at a new life: we must always remain open to hope and steadfast in our faith in God. “
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Smuggled Libyan Weapons Flood Into Egypt
EL ARISH, Egypt — Large caches of weapons from Libya are making their way across the Egyptian border and flooding black markets in Egypt’s already unstable Sinai Peninsula, according to current and former Egyptian military officials and arms traders in the Sinai.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar: Camel Milk an Alternative for Children Allergic to Cow Milk
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, OCTOBER 12 — Most children allergic to cow milk can use camel milk as an alternative source of milk. This was the outcome of two studies carried out by the Immunology Department of the Pediatric Unit of Qatar’s Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC). “80% of children allergic to milk cow drank camel milk without reporting problems” Doctor Mohammed Ehlayel stated. Doctor Ehlayel is the Head of the Pediatric Unit at HMC and a Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, stated that camel milk is the most similar to human milk and is very rich in nutrients and therapeutic ingredients. The first study was carried out on 35 children of age ranging from 6 to 12 months who had proved allergic to cow milk. They were administered camel milk for an average period of 15 months.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: UN ‘Deeply Distressed’ About Migrant Executions
Geneva, 11 Oct. (AKI) — The United Nations says it was “deeply distressed” about the recent execution of eight foreign workers in Saudi Arabia and called on the country to halt its use of capital punishment.
“We call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and all other States that still maintain the death penalty to respect international standards that provide safeguards to ensure protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesperson Rupert Colville, during a press conference in Geneva
The eight Bangladeshi migrant workers were beheaded in public in the capital, Riyadh, on Friday after they were found guilty of killing an Egyptian in 2007, according to media reports. Three other Bangladeshis were sentenced to prison terms and flogging in the same case., the OHCHR said in a statement.
OHCHR said that of the at least 58 people reportedly executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, 20 were migrant workers.
Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, the United States and Yemen are the countries that executive the highest numbers of people, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Christian Girl, 12, Kidnapped, Beaten Until She Converted to Islam and Raped for Eight Months
A 12-year-old Christian girl was kidnapped and repeatedly raped for eight months in Pakistan by a man who then falsified marriage documents with her, it was claimed today.
The girl was lured on a shopping trip in Lahore by a friend, before she was driven 120 miles to Tandianwalla and raped by the friend’s uncle in January this year.
Two days later, she was forced to sign papers consenting to marriage with the man and beaten for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam.
She was then held against her will for eight months, before managing to escape and contact her family.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has said the rapists have not been arrested because of their affiliation with a militant Muslim organisation — the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
It claims the police have refused to order a medical check-up on the girl, and have warned her parents that it would be better for them to hand over the girl to her ‘legal’ husband or a criminal case would be filed against them.
An investigation into the kidnapping found the girl’s father reported her disappearance in January and made complaints against her abductors, but police took no action for eight months.
Last month, the girl — who has not been named for legal reasons — called her family from Tandianwalla and told them she had been abducted, but had escaped and was hiding at a bus stop.
The girl’s parents travelled to the town and rescued her, before taking her to a local magistrate to give a statement.
The rapists then contacted the police through their religious group and produced a marriage certificate that claimed to show one of them was married to the 12-year-old.
As a result of their complaint, the Christian family has gone into hiding as members of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba are searching for them.
The group claims the girl is pregnant, but her mother has denied this is true.
The AHRC said that police never asked the religious group how a 12-year-old could be married. The legal age for marriage in Pakistan in 16.
It claims the Punjab provincial government is patronising banned militant organisations.
The British Pakistani Christian Association has launched a petition calling on the Pakistani government to investigate the attack.
For more information, visit
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048261/Christian-girl-12-kidnapped-raped-beaten-converted-Islam.html
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Change Carbon Tax Bill Passes
Australia’s carbon tax is set to become law after the lower house of Parliament passed the government’s historic but controversial set of bills to establish the world’s most broadly based carbon pricing scheme.
Against last-minute efforts by the opposition to delay the passage of the bills and 11th-hour pleas for amendments by some business groups, the government passed its 18 pieces of legislation by a vote of 74 to 72 just before 10am.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Change: Gallery Disrupts Gillard
The government’s first question time since passing the carbon tax legislation in the lower house was almost inaudible at times today.
The public gallery erupted in chanting, with the speaker Harry Jenkins cautioning visitors to behave themselves.
Mr Jenkins said he would not be clearing the gallery, but said: “I will not be endangering those who are employed by the Parliament to keep order in the gallery.”
A member of the public in the gallery kept goading Prime Minister Julia Gillard with chants of “Liar.”
About 80 protesters chanted “democracy is dead” and “no mandate”.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Where Child Sacrifice is a Business
The villages and farming communities that surround Uganda’s capital, Kampala, are gripped by fear. Schoolchildren are closely watched by teachers and parents as they make their way home from school. In playgrounds and on the roadside are posters warning of the danger of abduction by witch doctors for the purpose of child sacrifice. The ritual, which some believe brings wealth and good health, was almost unheard of in the country until about three years ago, but it has re-emerged, seemingly alongside a boom in the country’s economy.
The mutilated bodies of children have been discovered at roadsides, the victims of an apparently growing belief in the power of human sacrifice. Many believe that members of the country’s new elite are paying witch doctors vast sums of money for the sacrifices in a bid to increase their wealth.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
France to Immigrants: You Must Learn French
France said on Wednesday it was tightening immigration rules to require would-be citizens to provide written proof that they speak enough French to manage their daily lives. Announced in the government’s official gazette, the new rules require candidates for citizenship to “prove knowledge of the French language consistent with understanding the essential points needed to manage daily life.”
Candidates previously had their language skills tested in interviews with government officials, but will now be required to provide evidence of French-language skills “by producing a diploma or certificate delivered by a state-recognised organism.” The new rules take effect in January. Quoting an interior ministry estimate, business newspaper Les Echos reported on Wednesday that about one million foreigners living in France did not speak French.
It said the French government was growing increasingly concerned over the issue and was spending €60 million ($83 million) to promoteFrench-language skills and integration among immigrants. France grants citizenship to about 100,000 candidates every year, according to official figures.
| — Hat tip: Rembrandt | [Return to headlines] |
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