Italy: Finmeccanica Chairman Steps Down Amid Slush-Fund Probe
Guarguaglini bows to pressure, CEO Orsi takes over
(ANSA) — Rome, December 1 — Pier Francesco Guarguaglini on Thursday bowed to pressure to step down as chairman of Finmeccanica, the Italian defence, aerospace and engineering giant that has been rocked by a probe into illegal payments to politicians.
Chief Executive Giuseppe Orsi was appointed as chairman after Guarguaglini resigned at a board meeting.
Guarguaglini is under investigation over accusations Finmeccanica managers were involved in the issue of false invoices and the creation of slush funds to bribe politicians.
Guarguaglini denies any wrongdoing, as does his wife Marina Grossi, the head of a Finmeccanica division. He said he intended to stay at the helm of the company when the news of the probe broke last month.
But the pressure on him became intense last week when Premier Mario Monti said he expected Finmeccanica to respond rapidly to the situation.
The Italian Treasury owns almost of a third of the company.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Arrests 22 in Drone Demonstration
LONDON: British police say 22 people have been arrested outside of the US Embassy in London during a protest over the American use of drones in Pakistan.
Scotland Yard confirmed the arrests on Friday at the demonstration, organised by a group calling itself “United Ummah.”
Police said 20 people were arrested on suspicion of being members of a group banned by the Home Office. It would not say what group it believed the suspects belong to. One other person was arrested for violent disorder and another for obstruction.
“United Ummah” does not appear on the Home Office’s list of banned groups, but prescribed organisations have rebranded themselves in the past after they were featured.
The demonstration was advertised online — on YouTube, Twitter and various forums — and in a publicity video as a gathering to expose “the recent spate of anti-Muslim drone strikes that have been launched by the US government against innocent Muslims.”
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Libya: Minister: West Should Not Fear Sharia
Terbil in Rome, fair trial for Saif al Islam
(ANSAmed) — ROME — “The West should not fear Islamic law because it brings peace, justice and rights,” National Transitional Council (NTC) Youth Minister and well-known human rights defender in Libya Fathi Terbil told ANSA. Terbil made his remark in response to a question about the possibility of introducing the Sharia in Libya’s new Constitution. “The Sharia is certainly the main source of law but not the only one,” the Minister said in Rome, where he will receive the Ludovic Trarieux international human rights prize. “It is clear that there are several institutions in the world where Islamic law is applied peacefully, and where all civil rights are respected. It is a question of interpretation,” he added, urging the West not to associate the Sharia with fundamentalism and terrorism. Coming back on the death of Muammar Gaddafi, Fathi Terbil said: “The information we have obtained so far shows that he was killed in a shootout, but we don’t know exactly how it happened.” Terbil is also the lawyer of relatives of the victims of the Abu Salim murders, where Gaddafi ordered 1,300 people to be killed in a single day. “We have formed an investigation commission to find out what really has happened to Gaddafi. This commission has to shed light on the question, in the interest of the new Libya,” he pointed out. Referring to Saif Al Islam, the son of Gaddafi who was captured in the south of Libya on November 19 and who is now held in Zenten, Terbil said that he will be given a “just trial in full observance of human rights”. He underlined that he “condemns the killing of Gaddafi” and guaranteed that “all prisoners who are now detained by the rebels will be given a fair trial.” The situation of Saif “is special, he will be judged while the crimes committed by him and his family will be taken into account.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: The Real War in Iran
Something is happening in Iran. Forces are in motion. But what is happening? And who are the forces that are on the move? Since this week’s bombing in Isfahan, the world media is rife with speculation that the war with Iran over its nuclear weapons program has begun. But if the war has begun, who is fighting it? What are their aims? And what are their methods and means of attack?
On Wednesday the Times of London published a much-cited article about this week’s blast in Isfahan. The article referred to the bombed installation as a “uranium enrichment facility.”
But there is no uranium enrichment facility at Isfahan. Rather there is a uranium conversion facility…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
‘Honour’ Attack Numbers Revealed by UK Police Forces
UK police recorded at least 2,823 so-called honour attacks last year, figures from 39 out of 52 forces show.
A freedom of information request by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (Ikwro) revealed that nearly 500 of these were in London.
Among the 12 forces also able to provide figures from 2009, there was an overall 47% rise in such incidents.
Honour attacks are punishments on people, usually women, for acts deemed to have brought shame on their family.
‘Mutilations’
Such attacks can include acid attacks, abduction, mutilations, beatings and in some cases, murder.
Ikwro said its research, carried out between July and November, is the best national estimate so far of the extent of honour violence in Britain, although the charity says the figures do not give the full picture.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
It May Not be “Formal Doctrine, “ But the Marine Corps is Teaching Islamic Law
by Diana West
Having written countless columns and blog posts arguing that the see-no-Islam counterinsurgency strategy (COIN) has led to failure in two wars in the umma and the dhimmification of the U.S. military, it’s almost funny to see the debate more or less officially joined over my recent column on what appears to be simply the gross-out, PG-13 movie topic of peeing toward Mecca. Or, rather, not peeing toward Mecca.
The latter is the lesson that an Afghan Muslim contractor has been teaching Marines before they deploy to Afghanistan, in accordance with an Islamic canonical hadith called “The Prohibition of Facing the Qiblah When Relieving Oneself.” But maybe the debate had to take this excretory turn with the Pentagon awash in the phony fundamentals of Greg Mortenson’s discredited “Three Cups of Tea.”
Scatological or not, what we are talking about here is an untenable invasion of privacy of American citizens in uniform via religious dictate as taught by the U.S. Marine Corps.
The Nov. 28 print edition of Marine Corps Times carries both an article and a lead editorial on what the paper is politely calling “excretory etiquette” regarding Marines and Mecca — which, incidentally, is about 2,000 miles from Afghanistan. But this isn’t just about etiquette. Given its Islamic religious derivation, the Marines’ excretory instruction strikes me as a violation of religious freedom. Who is the U.S. Marine Corps to instruct American citizens to bring their personal hygiene practices into accord with Islamic law? The Corps in this case is acting as a vehicle of Islamic law, which comprehensively rules on all manner of personal habits, as well as on civil and legal affairs.
Needless to say, the Marine Corps doesn’t see it that way. Its spokesmen have contended narrowly that this lesson taught by a contractor (hired by the Corps) isn’t “formal Marine Corps doctrine,” as the Marine Corps Times editorial puts it. Formal or not, the editors also don’t think this Marine Shariah (Islamic law) is a bad idea. Headlined “Respect differences,” the editorial states: “Thing is, there’s value to this sort of insight.” Perhaps in the name of respecting “differences”?
Heavens, no. This is all about respecting Islam, not “differences.” After all, if it were about “differences,” the respect in question would extend to the non-Islamic belief that not all bodily functions taking place on planet Earth must key off the location of a town in Saudi Arabia. To each his own.
That’s not the editorial’s subject. The value, it says, comes “in light of the tense conditions under which both groups must coexist.”
Tense conditions — as in border firefights? Roadside bombs? No, again. The editorial refers to tensions between Muslims and infidels inside the wire. “Consider that in the last four years,” the editorial continues, “nearly 60 coalition troops have been killed by their Afghan counterparts.”
So “respecting differences” here means pee straight or die…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Spray Afghan Woman With Acid After Refusing Marriage
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — Gunmen attacked and sprayed an Afghan family with acid in their home after the father rejected a man’s bid to marry his teenage daughter, authorities said Thursday.
The gunmen broke into their home and attacked the 18-year-old daughter, her two sisters and their parents, according to authorities in Kunduz province.
All five received medical treatment, with the mother and two daughters later discharged, medical officials said.
The teenager is in intensive care and her father is still hospitalized, said Abdul Shokoor Rahimi, a doctor at the provincial hospital.
The attack came on the heels of her family’s refusal to marry off the teen to another local gunman.
A month ago, a gunman tried to marry the teenager, but her family turned him down and instead got her engaged to a relative, said Nadera Geya, head of women’s affairs in the province.
“A few nights back, a group of armed men … poured acid over her, on her two young sisters and her parents after beating up her father,” Geya said.
The whole family was brought to the hospital Monday, local hospital officials said.
A search is under way for the attackers, who fled the area afterward.
Acid is becoming a famous tool for militants and gunmen in the area. Three years ago, insurgents in motorbikes sprayed acid on at least 15 school girls in southern Kandahar province.
| — Hat tip: J-PD | [Return to headlines] |
New Clamp on Muslim Haters
MUSLIMS are being urged to report hate crimes under a special disaster plan to deal with the fallout from terrorist attacks.
Under the Muslim Emergency Management Plan, backed by the state and federal governments, Victorians will be given advice on how to react to anti-Muslim incidents, even if they are considered minor.
Muslim victims of abuse are encouraged to save evidence, take photos and report any incident to police and their local mosque or Islamic organisation.
And in another initiative, Victoria Police is introducing new strategy to deal with violence and threats motivated by prejudice.
It comes amid growing concern over inter-racial tensions in Melbourne’s suburbs and against the backdrop of fears of further terrorist attacks that could strain relations further.
Police are being asked to develop databases on crime motivated by race or religion, so that offenders can be prosecuted.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
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