Bulgaria Sets Conditions to Join EU Budget Pact
(SOFIA) — Non-eurozone member Bulgaria said Wednesday it will join an EU budget pact for tighter discipline but refused to undertake any financial pledges to aid the eurozone or accept changes to its tax policy. “To sum up our position — ‘Yes’ to reinforcing financial discipline in Europe, ‘No’ to imposing restrictions on our economic policy… and accepting burdens which are beyond our abilities,” Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said.
“Bulgaria will not undertake any financial obligations which require additional contributions to the International Monetary Fund or other mechanisms linked to the stability of the euro since to date we are not members of the eurozone,” he added.
The government, which met Wednesday to map out Bulgaria’s stance on key EU policies for 2012, recognised “the need for observing very strict fiscal rules and discipline and coordinate economic policies across the EU.”
But Mladenov added there was “disagreement with the initiatives for introducing a common consolidated corporate tax base and with proposals for a financial transaction tax.” With its flat 10-percent income and corporate tax rate, Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007 as its poorest member, remains the country with the lowest tax burden in the 27-member bloc.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Crisis is Germany’s Blessing
Its neighbors may be suffering, but the euro crisis has created conditions that actually benefit the German economy. Not only is the government enjoying the windfall of negative interest rates on bonds, but unemployment is down and exports are booming.
It’s every debtor’s dream. When asked for a loan, the bank not only agrees, but actually pays the borrower for their patronage. It sounds like a fairy tale, as though the laws of the market economy had been suspended. But on Monday it really happened.
The debtor in this case was the German government, which borrowed €3.9 billion ($5 billion) for the next six months at the unbelievable interest rate of -0.01 percent. Even the German Finance Agency was stunned. “This has never happened before,” a spokesperson said.
The Finance Ministry should be pleased. In the last four years, they’ve had to shell out around 1.8 percent in interest for such bonds. But recently even interest rates on German bonds with longer maturities have decreased significantly. The federal government is saving a bundle.
The reason for the windfall? Amid the ongoing euro crisis, Germany is one of the few borrowers that are still regarded as a safe haven. Many investors would rather lend the government money at bargain-basement rates than risk losses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fatigue Marks EU-Greece Relations, Says Greek Commissioner
Greek EU commissioner Maria Damanaki has said that there is a sense of “fatigue” in Greece-EU relations, Greek daily I Kathimerini reports. “There is a sense that the European institutions have done their job and that they are now waiting for results from Greece,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Could Face Recession in 2012
The German economy grew strongly last year, despite the European debt crisis. Gross domestic product jumped by 3 percent, while the national deficit sank, the Federal Statistical Office reported on Wednesday. But experts warn that, given the slight contraction in the final quarter of last year, Germany could enter a recession in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland Dismisses ‘Ludicrous’ Talk of Second Bailout
(DUBLIN) — Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan dismissed speculation about a second bailout for the eurozone member as “ludicrous” on Wednesday. Noonan’s remarks followed suggestions that Ireland, which was bailed out in 2010, should consider negotiating a standby bailout programme in case it is not able to return to borrowing on the international markets.
“It is ludicrous to be talking about a second bailout when we are in (the first programme) and meeting all the targets in the first programme,” Noonan said referring to economist reports on the country. “We are a year into the rescue programme which was negotiated by the previous government and we are fully funded to the back end of 2013. “So it’s really speculation by economists who, at the start of the new year, speculate on these matters,” Noonan added.
Ireland received an 85-billion-euro ($108-billion) bailout in November 2010 from the so-called troika of the EU, ECB and IMF as massive debt and deficit problems left the country on the verge of collapse. Meanwhile national broadcaster RTE reported that confidential documents released to it by the US government show that US officials are concerned that the Irish bailout could be derailed by poor growth and a lack of government spending.
RTE says the documents detail how US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner used a meeting with Noonan to assess domestic threats to the Irish bailout. The report said officials encouraged Geithner to quiz Noonan on how the Irish economy could grow when its main trading partners were experiencing problems, noting that the success of Ireland’s bailout programme would depend heavily on export growth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy and France Team Up Against Germany
Germany has long insisted that austerity be the primary strategy used in confronting the ongoing euro-zone debt crisis. Italy has now joined France in demanding a more nuanced approach. Prime Minister Monti will present his ideas to Chancellor Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Says ‘Great Respect’ Due to Italy Over Reforms
Chancellor Angela Merkel has praised Italy for its austerity reforms after a meeting with Prime Minister Mario Monti. Ahead of his visit, Monti had sought acknowledgment of Italian austerity efforts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal Central Bank Warns 2013 Rebound Unlikely
Portugal is to be hit by a three percent contraction in 2012 and will manage growth of 0.3 percent in 2013, far below government and EU forecasts, the country’s central bank said on Tuesday. In its winter report on the economy, the central bank said it forecasts an “unprecedented” recession this year of 3.1 percent of gross domestic product, in line with forecasts by the Portuguese government and the European Commission of 3.0 percent.
But while the European Commission predicts an economic rebound of 1.1 percent for 2013, the central bank said it expects a contraction in 2011 and 2012 and a “quasi-stagnation in 2013”. The bank said Portuguese GDP shrank by 1.6 percent in 2011 and that according to data already available the slowdown intensified in the fourth quarter.
Pointing to “great uncertainty” in the global economy, the bank said Portugal will be hit by less dynamic world growth and by the effects of stringent budget measures enacted over the past year.
Portugal is in the midst of a tough austerity drive after it had to be bailed out in May of last year with a 78-billion-euro ($100-billion) rescue package put together by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. In November, its parliament adopted a tough austerity budget for 2012 that cut salaries, raised taxes and increased working hours for vast numbers of workers already squeezed by recession.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rehn Backs ‘Smart’ Mutual Debt Fund
BRUSSELS — The idea of mutualising eurozone debt remains as controversial as ever but economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn has spoken out in favour of a halfway house solution, whose authors say will solve the “impasse” between opposing ideological camps. The idea would see countries with a sovereign debt of above 60 percent of GDP — breaching single currency rules — pooling this excess debt into a redemption fund.
The countries would be obliged to undertake structural reforms and growth-inducing measures and pay their debts back over 20 to 25 years. “While I would not want to mix this with eurobonds proper, I find the proposal smart, potentially do-able and certainly worth exploring further,” Rehn said during a hearing on eurobonds in the European Parliament on Tuesday (10 January).
He made similar remarks in November but the views carry more weight now since a public consultation on eurobonds — in response to a commission discussion paper on the issue — has come to a close. The European redemption fund idea was drawn up by the German government’s panel of independent economic advisors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Skyscrapers ‘Linked With Impending Financial Crashes’
There is an “unhealthy correlation” between the building of skyscrapers and subsequent financial crashes, according to Barclays Capital. Examples include the Empire State building, built as the Great Depression was under way, and the current world’s tallest, the Burj Khalifa, built just before Dubai almost went bust.
China is currently the biggest builder of skyscrapers, the bank said. India also has 14 skyscrapers under construction. “Often the world’s tallest buildings are simply the edifice of a broader skyscraper building boom, reflecting a widespread misallocation of capital and an impending economic correction,” Barclays Capital analysts said.
The bank noted that the world’s first skyscraper, the Equitable Life building in New York, was completed in 1873 and coincided with a five-year recession. It was demolished in 1912. Other examples include Chicago’s Willis Tower (which was formerly known as the Sears Tower) in 1974, just as there was an oil shock and the US dollar’s peg to gold was abandoned.
And Malaysia’s Petronas Towers in 1997, which coincided with the Asian financial crisis. The findings might be a concern for Londoners, who are currently seeing the construction of what will be Western Europe’s tallest building, the Shard. That will be 1,017ft (310m) tall on completion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Softer Draft of Fiscal Treaty Opens Door for UK
COPENHAGEN — Less stringent constitutional demands, a weaker role for the EU commission and a provision allowing the UK to join at a later stage are among the most recent changes to the draft intergovernmental treaty on fiscal discipline, to be signed by leaders in March.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Alcoa to Cut Production in Spain and Italy
Activity scaled back at 3 aluminium plants
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JANUARY 10 — U.S. multinational Alcoa has notified the unions of a “partial and temporary” production cut at its Spanish factories in La Coruna and Aviles as well as its facility in Portovesme, where soon it will begin a brief period of meetings before closing it definitively. The news came from union sources cited today by the Spanish press. At the Galician factory in La Grela (La Coruna), the group plans to “cut production by half” at the site, which employs 430 workers, informed the president of the union committee at the factory, Nazario Arias. In a statement, the group, headquartered in New York, announced its intention to cutback on production at its three aluminium plant in Europe as part of its overall restructuring plan, which will reduce overall production by about 12% in the first half of 2012, equivalent to 531,000. In Europe a cut amounting to 240,000 tonnes of aluminium production is expected, 5% of the total, including 150,000 at the Italian facility and 90,000 at the two Spanish plants.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Taking on the Speculators: What Would a European Tobin Tax Really Mean?
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy are pressing forward with plans to introduce a financial transaction tax in the EU — if necessary without Britain, home to Europe’s largest financial center. Critics believe it will cause an exodus of the industry from the euro zone. But a closer look at the proposal suggests the worst wouldn’t necessarily come true.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Prof Warns of Norway Housing Bubble
Norway’s housing market looks increasing like a bubble waiting to burst, according to a highly respected Yale professor. Professor Robert Shiller has emerged as one of the world’s most influential economists after successfully predicting the dot-com crash and the collapse of the US housing market.
The US academic made his prognosis for Norway after taking stock of a 35-percent price rise across the country’s residential housing market in the last five years. “This really does look like a bubble,” he told business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. Shiller’s own real estate price index shows there to have been a 33-percent drop in home prices in the United States over the same period.
The professor, who is in Oslo to speak at an insurance conference on Wednesday,, said it was difficult to be sure whether a collapse was imminent. “But it does look like it’s pretty close to the end,” he said.
The professor added that bubbles weren’t usually punctured by external factors. It wasn’t the financial crisis that caused the US housing market to crash, he said. In fact, it was the other way around. “It was the drop in real estate prices from 2006 that eventually triggered the financial crisis,” said Shiller.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: Obama’s Defeatist ‘Strategy’
Listening to Barack Obama laying out what he calls his new defense strategy, my first reaction was, “Here we go again.” Having basically written off the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Obama is falling prey to a temptation several of his predecessors found irresistible in peacetime: Cut defense expenditures. Shrink the military. And hope the rest of the world will neither notice nor take advantage of our weakness.
Something is decidedly different, however. This is the first time in memory that a president has voluntarily eviscerated the armed forces of the United States and redeployed what remains so as to create acute vacuums of power in time of war. Unfortunately, I am referring not just to the war in Afghanistan that we continue to be engaged in, for the time being at least…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Romney’s New Hampshire Win: The GPO’s Duracell Bunny Marches on
Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire Republican primary with ease, despite attacks from a number of party members. He’s too robotic, too rich and lacks principles, they say. But so what? Romney doesn’t need to be perfect, he just needs to be more convincing than his competitors — and he already is.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Solid State Swiss Army Knife Can Save Digital Lives
Victorinox has pulled from its technology pocket a version of its vaunted Swiss Army knife equipped with a solid state drive capable of holding all of the digital data in a person’s life. A USB drive capable of holding as much as a terabyte of data is folded into a Swiss Army Knife being shown-off at the Consumer Electronics Show that officially opened its doors on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
“It fits in the palm of my hand,” Victorinox spokeswoman Renee Hourigan said as she cupped in her palm a one-terabyte drive sheathed in the Switzerland-based company’s iconic red casing. “You can transfer everything to this and then throw your computer’s external hard drive out the window,” she quipped.
The terabyte-capacity version will be released globally by August and be priced at $3,000 (US), according to Victorinox. Drives come with red and black casings. The red one has a blade, scissors, and a nail file while the black one lacks those accessories in order to avoid clashing with air travel security rules.
Swiss Army Knife drives will also come with 64, 128, 256, or 512 gigabytes of memory and be priced from $649 to $1,999, according to Hourigan. Victorinox’s lineup includes a lightweight Slim 3.0 mini Swiss Army Knife memory stick boasted as being waterproof, shock resistant, and secure with 128 gigabytes of memory for $399. Knife parts and engineering come from Switzerland while the electronic components are made in California.
“We’ve had them go through the washer, the drier; run them over with cars and they still work,” Hourigan said. “It’s as high quality as it can be.” Slim knife drives self destruct if they sense hackers trying multiple passwords or other “brute force” attacks to break in. “If it realizes there is software actively trying to get into it, it will destroy itself,” Hourigan said. “It fries the chip with too much current under a brute force attack.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ten Years of Guantanamo — and No End in Sight
Ten years ago, the first detainees were transferred to the US navy base in Guantanamo Bay. President Barack Obama planned to shut the facility down one year after taking office. But it is still in operation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Mother Breaks Down in Court as She is Quizzed Over ‘Honour Killings’ Of Her Three Children and Husband’s First Wife
A mother accused of murdering three of her daughters and her husband’s first wife in an honour killing broke down in tears while testifying today in an Ontario court.
Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, is accused of conspiring with her husband, Mohammad Shafia, 58, and their eldest son, Hamed, 21, of running one of their family cars into a canal with their four relatives inside.
Prosecutors say that they did so in order to protect their family’s honour because the four women were acting disobediently by having boyfriends, wearing skimpy clothes, and not listening to their strict Muslim father.
Shafia was polygamous, and lived with both his first wife Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, and his second wife, Yahya, in their home in Canada.
Rona was infertile, Shafia was allowed to take a second wife without divorcing his first, which was in accordance to Islamic law.
Now, a Canadian court is judging whether or not Shafia, Yahya and Hamed acted together to kill their family members in an effort to restore honour to their family name, or if Rona, Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar Shafia, 17, and Geeti Shafia, 13, all died in a tragic car accident as the accused claim.
When the car was found in the canal on June 30, 2009, there was no one in the driver’s seat and three of them had bruising to the back of their heads.
The trial resumed Monday after being paused in December. Mohamma Yahya took the stand, and while she was never asked directly about the death of her relatives, she used her time to rebut the view of their household as a harsh one.
She said that her husband only hit the children once and used to badger them verbally if they were bad, not beat them.
‘He used to go on and continuously; he was just swearing at them and continuously talking about that for weeks,’ she said at the trial.
Other witnesses disagree, saying that their eldest daughter, Zainab, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
20 Years of Capitalism: Winemaker Foresees Next France in Moldova
Entrepreneur Victor Bostan is on a mission to put Moldova on the map as a wine producer. The brands of wine made by Bostan at his Purcari vineyard by the Bostavan Wineries Group, in which the Horizon Capital fund recently made a $15 million investment, rival French wine and are “even better than Italy” in quality, he said.
Bostan hopes that in as little as five years’ time Moldova, renowned in the Soviet Union for its wines, will be recognized worldwide as a producer on par with these two winemaking heavyweights. The problem is that Moldovan wines are still not known outside the former Soviet Union. “For that, you need time and money to promote (them) throughout the world,” Bostan told The Moscow Times.
Ion Luca, president of the Moldovan Small Wine Producers Association, said Bostan is the man for the job. He called Bostan one of the best winemakers in the country and said his group is “one of the main players on the Moldovan market.” “With some of his wines, he can create a good image for Moldovan wines in the West,” Luca said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British PM Clashes With Scotland on Independence
British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Scotland Wednesday to bring its independence referendum forward after the head of the Edinburgh government said he would not hold a vote until late 2014. Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has stoked a constitutional clash with London over the thorny issue of which of the two governments has the right to call a referendum on the break-up the 300-year-old union.
In parliament in London, Cameron reiterated that his government would give Edinburgh special powers to hold the referendum, but accused Salmond’s Scottish National Party (SNP) of stalling. The Conservative leader taunted SNP lawmakers, saying that if they were “so keen to leave the United Kingdom, I don’t quite understand why they want to put off putting the question for so long”.
“I sometimes feel when I listen to them it’s not a referendum they want, it’s a never-endum. Let’s have the debate and let’s keep our country together,” Cameron said. Cameron said he opposed Scottish independence and that the United Kingdom was “stronger together rather than breaking apart,” but said uncertainty over the issue was hurting Scotland’s economy.
His comments came after Salmond insisted that it is the Scottish government that has the mandate to call the referendum for autumn 2014, and accused London of interference. “It must be a referendum built in Scotland and decided by the Scottish people,” Salmond told BBC radio.
The issue has turned into a battle of wits between Cameron and Salmond, a former economist who is regarded as one of the shrewdest political operators in the United Kingdom.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: ‘A Celebration of Ice-Cold Water’
Danes love their winter swimming, and science shows they may be on to something
Visitors to Denmark are often surprised to learn that Danes leave their infants outside to sleep in the cold Nordic air. But it takes living here a little while to discover another peculiarity about Danes’ fondness for the cold: there are a lot of winter swimming clubs — and they have waiting lists.
According to one index, Denmark has 80 official winter swimming clubs, with a total of almost 20,000 registered winter swimmers. At the Helgoland sea baths, 5km from Copenhagen’s city centre, a winter swimming club called Det Kolde Gys (The Cold Shiver) has been in operation since 1929. Today, it has more than 2,000 members and a waiting list.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Four Arrested in Death of 81-Year-Old
14-year-old Bulgarian girl a suspect in deadly robbery
Four Bulgarian nationals have been arrested on a charge of murdering 81-year-old Kirsten Inge Damsgaard. Damsgaard was bound and gagged on her bed while her Herlev flat was ransacked on December 30. Her daughter found her lifeless body on New Year’s Day. Two men, aged 20 and 22, a 19 year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl were been arrested yesterday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Animal Rights Party Worry About Rights of Mice
THE HAGUE, 11/01/12 — The Lower House must combat the plague of mice in the parliament building in an animal-friendly way, says the Party for Animals (PvdD). The party, which holds two of the 150 seats in the Lower House, complains that mouse-traps ahve been place in the building. It asks in a letter to the presidium, the management of the Lower House, it asks for preventive measures, for example by preventing food remains from lying around, instead of mousetraps.
The PvdD actually wants the traps removed and replaced by run-in boxes, so that the lives of the little creatures can be spared. “These mice caught in a humane way can be put somewhere else at a spot where they can live without causing nuisance,” according to a spokesman.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Ban Khat
The Dutch government Tuesday banned the use of khat, a leaf native to East Africa chewed for its stimulant properties mainly by the Netherlands’ sizeable Somali community. “The drug khat is banned,” the Dutch Immigration, Health and Justice departments said in a joint statement.
Khat is grown in the Horn of Africa and has for centuries been chewed by users in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen. “The problem lies especially within the Somali community, which is much larger than the Kenyan or Yemeni communities within our country,” immigration department spokesman Frank Wassenaar told AFP, adding there were about 27,000 Somalis living in the Netherlands. “If taken in moderation there are no major problems, but an investigation showed it to be problematic among some 10 percent of khat users,” leading to health and social issues, added the statement.
An independent report commissioned by the Dutch government has cited noise, littering and groups of men who “roam the streets perceived as threatening”, as some of the effects. With high unemployment and low education levels, the Dutch Somali community was “late” in terms of integration, the report said.
Imported legally via Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport four times a week, khat is distributed throughout the Netherlands but also in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, it added. Around 843 tonnes of khat, worth a minimum 14 million euros (U$18 million) passed through Schiphol in 2010, up from 714 tonnes in 2009 and 693 tonnes in 2008.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Occupy Movement Now Just a Few Activists
Three months into the Occupy protest against the culture of greed in the financial sector and just small groups of activists are left in makeshift camps in the major Dutch cities, says the ANP press agency. In Amsterdam, most tents which made up the round-the-clock demonstration outside the city’s stock exchange building have been dismantled, with just a few hard-core protesters remaining.
The city council says the number of incidents and nuisance associated with the protest have dramatically decreased since people were banned from sleeping at the site. The demonstrators themselves say they plan to concentrate in the near future on surprise protests such as flash mobs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Miss Denmark Sues Norwegian Town Over Fall
Former Miss Denmark Line Kruuse Nielsen has sued the south-eastern town of Sandefjord after a fall on the ice ended her modelling career and left her with lasting injuries. The 29-year-old Kruuse Nielsen came a cropper as she made her way to a dance lesson in December 2008, a year after she represented Denmark in the Miss World beauty pageant, local newspaper Sandefjords Blad reports. The model was in the town for a work assignment when she took a tumble in the town square, hitting her head on the ground as she landed on her back.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greenland Drowning in Seal
The Greenland Fisheries and Hunters Organisation KNAPK is appealing to Denmark to raise the issue indigenous rights and an EU ban on seal products, due to a burgeoning seal population in the Arctic regions. “Hunting seal and sealskin production ensures employment throughout Greenland and in particular in the outlying regions. Seal hunting and skin production helps raise living standards and livelihoods for hunters in our country,” KNAPK Chairman Leif Fontaine tells Sermitsiaq. The European Union has a ban on imports of sealskin and seal products.
Fontaine says that the EU’s ban has wrecked the worldwide trade in indigenous seal products, but equally importantly is threatening both the seal population and fish stocks in the Arctic regions. “We are concerned that the import ban on seal products is harming the eco-systems in our waters,” Fontaine says, adding the increasing population of seals is a ‘ticking bomb’ under the Greenland fishing industry.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Cannabis Makes Its Way to the Dinner Table
‘An amazing ingredient’ says Italian food institution
(ANSA) — Rome, January 10 — Cannabis is an ‘amazing ingredient’ according to Perugia’s Flavour University.
The school, which is part of the National Food Education and Culture Center, made the claim Tuesday in a list of new recipes by the school’s chefs.
The ingredient, cannabis sativa, is not to be confused with cannabis indica, an essential ingredient in marijuana and hashish. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the intoxicating element used to make drugs, exists only in trace amounts in cannabis indica, also known as industrial hemp. “Virtually zero,” said Glenda Giampaoli, director of the Museum of Hemp Sant’Anatolia di Narco, which collaborated with the university on some of its recipes and sells the ingredient. “It’s regularly inspected by the Ministry of Health,” adds Giampaoli. The school claims that the use of cannabis in Italian cooking dates back centuries.
With a taste reminiscent of hazelnut, hemp is versatile as an ingredient in cooking, mostly in the form of flour but also by using its leaves, seeds and oil to “add a twist” to food, according to the school.
Hemp is rich in oil quality, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and crude fiber, and as a seed contains high quality protein, soluble and insoluble fiber, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Violated Human Rights in Garbage Crisis
Italy violated residents’ human rights by not collecting garbage for months in a village near Naples, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday. At the height of the crisis, in 2008, residents “lived in an environment polluted by the piling-up of rubbish on the streets,” the court said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Man Drowns Himself in a Vat of Whisky at World Famous Scottish Distillery
A man has killed himself by leaping into a vat of whisky at the Glenfiddich Distillery.
Brian Ettles, 46, drowned after he threw himself inside the 50,000-litre tank.
Paramedics and firefighters were called to the scene but the father-of-two died inside the wooden vat on Saturday
It is believed the incident in Dufftown, Banffshire, took place the day after Mr Ettles’ wife Irene had celebrated her 54th birthday.
Family members were last night too distraught to speak about the tragedy as the distillery was closed for the second day running in tribute to Mr Ettles, who lived in nearby Keith.
Neighbour Eileen Mackenzie, 67, said: ‘I am just really shocked.
‘It’s such a horrible way for someone to go and most people I have spoken to are really quite upset about it.
‘He was just a young man and I have no idea what might have made him want to take his own life in such a way.’
As well as his wife, Mr Ettles also leaves daughter Julie, 25, and 21-year-old son Stuart.
He had a senior role at the distillery, where he had worked for 23 years.
The alarm was raised at around 10.40pm on Saturday, at which point it was hoped a rescue operation could still be launched to save Mr Ettles.
But he died inside the tank, known as a washback, which is used in the early stages of the distilling process.
A Glenfiddich spokesman said: ‘We decided to close as a mark of respect for the person who died. Our thoughts go out to his family.’
A waitress at The Commercial Hotel in Dufftown said Mr Ettles had been in the bar over the festive period.
She added: ‘Brian had been in a few times for food and a pint after he finished work.
‘Nobody here really knew him that well because he lived in Keith, but he seemed like a nice enough man. We are all really shaken up that he has died.’
A spokesman for Grampian Police said: ‘There are no suspicious circumstances.’
Glenfiddich is the world’s best-selling single malt whisky.
The distillery was opened in 1886 by William Grant and is still run by his descendants.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Scottish Referendum: 50 Fascinating Facts You Should Know About Scotland
Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom for more than three hundred years, but it is unlike anywhere else in Britain. Here are 50 facts you should know about the country:
| 1. | The official animal of Scotland is Unicorn. | |
| 2. | The shortest scheduled flight in the world is one-and-a-half miles long from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. The journey takes 1 minute 14 seconds to complete. | |
| 3. | Scotland has approximately 790 islands, 130 of which are inhabited. | |
| 4. | The Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae (pictured below), on the island of Orkney, is the oldest building in Britain, dating from 3100 BC. |
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scottish Independence: A History of Anglo-Scottish Rivalry
The stand-off between David Cameron and Alex Salmond over the future of the Union is the latest confrontation in a 2000-year history of rivalry between Scotland and England.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Secret Aerial Photos: Book Provides Fresh Glimpse of Berlin’s Destruction
Following the end of World War II, photographer Hein Gorny took spectacular aerial shots of the ravaged German capital. His son Peter explains how Hein defied a flying ban imposed by the Allies and managed to snap the dramatic shots.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Literary Giants Are Lost in English Translation
Three cheers for Javier Maras for making it into Penguin Modern Classics: the first Spanish writer to do so since Federico Garca Lorca. Isnt it about time the English-speaking world woke up to the Spanish literature of the last 75 years?
An indisputable criterion of success for any novelist is when Penguin Modern Classics signs up your backlist, especially when its for a five-figure sum. Which is what has happened to Javier Maras. The 60-year-old Spanish writer, whose latest title, The Infatuations Los enamoramientos, will be published in English in early 2013, joins an exclusive group of Spanish writers in Penguins catalogue: Cervantes, Quevedo, Jacinto Benavente, and Lorca.
Yes, thats it. Four writers: the first two of whom died in the 17th century, the next in 1954; although he stopped writing long before that. For Penguin, and most US and UK publishers, it seems that, until now, Spanish literature ended with the murder of Federico Garca Lorca in 1936. But did literature in Spain not stop with the outbreak of civil war and the ensuing four decades of military rule? The impact of the Spanish Civil War on Spanish literature was devastating.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Hundreds Gather for Slain Malmö Teen’s Funeral
Hundreds of Malmö residents turned out on Wednesday to follow the casket of 15-year-old Ardiwan Samir, who died after being shot on New Year’s Eve, in a march arranged by the boy’s family as a protest against violence. The 15-year-old boy was shot in the head and chest on New Year’s Eve near his home in the city’s Rosengård district and died from his injuries the following day.
The killing sparked a strong reaction from Malmö residents, who staged an anti-violence demonstration last week as his family called upon the government to tighten gun laws and take action against violence in the city. “Now the police and the government must act,” Samir’s father, Diaa Noman, told the Aftonbladet newspaper last week.
“It’s not acceptable that people are killed in Malmö and in Rosengård. Now even children are the victims.” Samir’s family had received permission from police to allow the deceased boy’s funeral procession to double as another demonstration against violence in the city.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘My Baby’s Dead, My Baby’s Dead’: Parents Held by Police on Suspicion of Murder After Death of Their Six-Week-Old Child
A six-week-old baby boy at the centre of a murder probe has been named as Mohammed Ismail Malik.
His parents, father Shakeel Hussain and mother Rabeel Malik, are being questioned by Greater Manchester detectives on suspicion of his murder.
They are also being quizzed on suspicion of causing or allowing the death of a child.
Police said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the boy’s death.
Mohammed Ismail’s devastated family described the little boy as ‘absolutely gorgeous’ and said that the couple would never harm a child.
The youngster was taken by paramedics from the family home in Heaton, Bolton, to the Royal Bolton Hospital just before 4pm last Thursday.
He was transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, where he died the next day.
Police were informed of his death at 11am on Saturday and launched an investigation.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EDL Thug Who Abused Police at Telford Protest Faces £685 Bill
An English Defence League supporter who chanted ‘You’re not English any more’ at a police officer during a protest in Telford has been convicted of using threatening behaviour.
He was fined £50 and ordered to pay £620 costs and a £15 victim surcharge
Davies admitted he had directed a chant of ‘You’re not English any more’ at a police officer in front of him.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Generation of Young Muslims Ending Up in Jail ‘Because of Outdated Imams Who Fail to Engage With Them’
- Mosques use overseas clerics who cannot speak English and have different outlook, warns cleric
- Failure to connect leaves a ‘dangerous’ vacuum
Out-dated teaching in mosques is behind a dramatic rise in the number of young Muslims going to prison, a top cleric has said. Ahtsham Ali, an adviser to the Prison Service, said that mosques in the UK fail to engage with the young men that come through their door because they use imams from overseas who are unable to preach in English. He said that more needs to be done to understand problems in society like family breakdown, arranged marriages and drugs. He also said there was a difficulty with the absence of good male role models and too much emphasis on religious rituals. Mr Ali said: ‘It is a tragedy. I have seen youngsters, the next generation, just totally switch off from it. This is dangerous. it allows others to take advantage to take up the vacuum.’
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
‘Egyptian Revolutionary Guard’ Threatens to Attack U.S. Embassy
In recent days, media in Egypt and elsewhere have reported that an organization calling itself “The Egyptian Revolutionary Guard” planned to attack the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on January 25, 2012, the anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, just as its members had previously attacked the Israeli Embassy in Cairo on September 9, 2011. Pro-Hizbullah activist Muhammad Al-Hadari, who calls himself the organization’s secretary-general, admitted that he had called to attack the U.S. Embassy, but said that he had later withdrawn this call after discussing the matter with the members of his Facebook group. Subsequently, an announcement on behalf of the organization was posted on Facebook, stating that the January 25 march on the U.S. Embassy was cancelled, but threatening to hold it at a later date if Israel continued Judaizing Jerusalem and attacking Gaza.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Vandals Deface Mosque, Spray ‘Price Tag’ Graffiti
Vandals defaced a West Bank mosque and torched Palestinian vehicles in yet another far-right attack overnight Wednesday, police said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the incident occurred in Dir Istiya, west of Nablus. Vandals defaced a West Bank mosque and torched Palestinian vehicles in yet another far-right attack overnight Wednesday, police said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the incident occurred in Dir Istiya, west of Nablus. Perpetrators sprayed the words “price tag Gal Yosef” on the mosque wall. Gal Yosef is the name of an illegal outpost located near the Shiloh settlement that was dismantled by Israeli security forces Tuesday. Rosenfeld added that three cars belonging to Palestinians were torched. Police sent a forensic team to the village to gather evidence. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he ordered security forces to track down those behind the latest incident, describing them as “criminals” aiming to “harm the delicate fabric of life between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, and relations between Israel and its neighbors.” “These acts distract the IDF from its missions,” Barak said. Last week Jerusalem saw a far-right attack against Arab property, as well as an attempted attack against the Knesset. Two cars were burned in the Arab neighborhood of Sharafat, a small neighborhood located north of Gilo near Beit Safafa. Next to the burned vehicles, police found graffiti with the words “price tag” and “revenge.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Visiting Catholic Bishops Decide: “Gaza is a Prison”
No mention of rockets on Israeli civilians, nor Islamic persecution of Christians. Visiting bishops saw only how Gaza is a “large prison.”
Eight Catholic bishops from Europe and North America have just visited the Christian community in Gaza.
The Vatican high profile delegation included Patrick Kelly, archbishop of Liverpool; Richard Smith, archbishop of Edmonton, Canada; Gerald Kicanas, bishop of Tucson, US; Michel Dubost, bishop of Evry, France; and Riccardo Fontana, bishop of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro, Italy.
French Bishop Dubost’s comment was, “Last week, I asked prisoners in the largest prison in Europe (in Evry) to pray for you”.
The inference is clear: Gaza’s Christians are living in a big prison and terrified by Israel…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Bomb Kills Iranian Nuclear Director
An Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility was killed today by a car bomb, a semi-official news agency reported.
The explosion killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, the Fars agency said.
A senior Iranian official immediately blamed Israel.
“The responsibility of this explosion falls on the Zionist regime,” the governor of Tehran province, Safar Ali Bratloo, told Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam broadcaster.
“The method of this terrorist action is similar to previous actions that targeted Iran’s muclear scientists,” he said.
Two assailants on a motorcycle attached magnetic bombs to Mr Roshan’s car, killing him and wounding two others in the Iranian capital.
The attack in Tehran strongly resembles earlier killings of scientists working on the country’s controversial nuclear programme.
The killing of Mr Roshan was similar to previous assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists that Tehran has blamed on Israel and the United States. Both countries have denied the accusations.
Mr Roshan, 32, was inside the Iranian-assembled Peugeot 405 car with two others when the bomb exploded near Gol Nabi Street in north Tehran, Fars said.
Fars described the explosion as a “terrorist attack” targeting Mr Roshan, a graduate of the prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.
A similar bomb explosion on January 12, 2010 killed Tehran University professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor. He was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work.
In November 2010, a pair of back-to-back bomb attacks in different parts of the capital killed one nuclear scientist and wounded another.
The scientist killed in those attacks, Majid Shahriari, was a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and co-operated with the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran. The wounded scientist, Fereidoun Abbasi, was almost immediately appointed head of Iran’s atomic agency.
In July last year, motorcycle-riding gunmen killed Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student. Other reports identified him as a scientist involved in suspected Iranian attempts to make nuclear weapons.
Mr Rezaeinejad allegedly participated in developing high-voltage switches, a key component in setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead.
The United States and other countries say Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons technology. Iran denies the allegations, saying that its programme is intended for peaceful purposes.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Queen’s Visit to Oman Good for Trade
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands attended a dinner yesterday evening hosted by Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said of Oman at the close of the first of a three-day official visit to the country. The banquet was held at the Sultan’s Al Alam palace in the capital, Muscat. Earlier on Tuesday evening, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Verhagen praised the royal family and an accompanying trade delegation for their efforts in sealing a number of trade deals.
Delegates from Oman signed contracts of intent, which would strengthen ties between the between the two countries, in the presence of Queen Beatrix, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima. Dutch waste management company CMTS van Sommeren signed a 160-million-euro contract to set up a national industrial waste system for dangerous substances.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Finding the Jesus of Islam in Early Christianities
In the early days of Islam, a few companions of the Prophet were fleeing persecution in Mecca and sought refuge in Abyssinia. The Christian ruler of the land, Ashama, demanded the companions to read aloud from their scripture and, when one of them recited from the sura of Mary, Ashama and his court were moved to tears. When they were told to make known their beliefs about Jesus, they said that Islam considers Jesus to be a messenger of God, the word of God, and the miraculously born son of the Virgin Mary. After hearing this, Ashama is said to have drawn a line in the sand and said that the differences between them were no more than that thin line. He then decreed that Muslims were allowed safe refuge in his kingdom[1]. It would be nice to think that this story could be applicable to modern Christians and Muslims, but take one look at the news and that thought disappears.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Indictment of Coup Generals Reflects Shifting Attitudes in Turkey
In Turkey, the two surviving leaders of the 1980 military coup have been charged with crimes against the state in a move widely touted as an important step as the country faces up to its dark past of military rule.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Nuclear Scientist Killed in Car Bombing
Iran’s government has blamed the apparent assassination of one of its nuclear scientists on Israel and the United States, mirroring similar attacks in the past and intensifying already hostile relations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Italy to Maintain Commitment/Troops in Region, Terzi
Gen. Paolo Serra to take command of UNIFIL mission on Jan 30
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, JANUARY 11 — “Italy will maintain its commitment and troops” as part of the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon, said Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata in Paris during a press conference with his French counterpart, Alain Juppé. In response to a question, Terzi added that “our country will take over the command of the UN mission on January 30, and this is only the latest proof of our commitment.” At the end of the month General Paolo Serra will be taking on the command of the UNIFIL mission of peacekeeping troops.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More Than 800,000 Children Married in Iran
The latest statistics on the marriage of Iranian children shows that under-aged girls are married more than under-aged boys.
Freedom Messenger ) — [According to statistics] 24,506 married girls under the age of 14 and 5,519 boys married between the ages of 10 to 14, shows that more girls marry older men.
There are 848,000 married children between the ages of 10 to 18 in Iran… The number of child mothers which is 6.5 percent more than child fathers shows that 85 percent of married girls between 10 to 18 years of age have become the wives of men over 18 and only 15 percent of these children have married boys their own age… [According to these statistics], 25,000 of the 848,000 married children became divorced when they were under 18 and about 12,000 of them have lost their spouses.
According to the law, girls can marry at 13 while boys can marry at 15 and the law has opened a way for the early marriage of girls based on her special physical characteristics [which means that if she goes through puberty at an earlier age, she can marry].
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Oil Exporters to Up Output if Iran Embargoed: France
If Iran is hit with an oil embargo over its nuclear policy, other major exporters will increase their production in order to steady world markets, the French foreign minister said Tuesday. “Other countries are ready to increase production to avoid an effect on prices. We have made discreet contacts in this direction. The producers don’t want to talk about it, but they are standing ready,” Alain Juppe said.
Briefing a French parliamentary committee, Juppe said he did not share some lawmakers’ pessimism over the prospects for an embargo on Iranian crude. Several Western powers are pushing for stronger economic sanctions to be imposed on Iran’s Islamic regime in order to force it to abandon a nuclear programme they allege is destined to produce atomic bombs.
But China and some other major energy consumers are opposed to any embargo that could cut of oil supplies from the Gulf and boost oil prices at a moment when the world economy is already teetering on the brink of recession.
Juppe admitted some European oil importers, including Italy and Greece, were also nervous about losing Iranian exports, but said: “We are trying to convince our partners that there are other sources of supply.” The French minister said he hoped to have all EU members on board for tougher sanctions before a European foreign minister’s meeting on January 23.
Iran is the world’s third largest oil exporter, shipping around 2.4 million barrels per day, and the regime depends on oil sales for 60 percent of its revenue, having made around $100 billion last year. Taking this oil off the market would be a shock in itself, but Iran has also threatened to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which could cut supplies from Saudi Arabia and other major Gulf producers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Cautiously Navigating Conflict With Iran Amid Arab Spring Storm
In light of the popular uprisings in the Arab world, especially in the Gulf, the past year has seen a considerable escalation of the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which have been in conflict for many years. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia are following with concern the political changes taking place in the various Arab countries, and the impact these changes could have on the balance of power between the Iran-led and Saudi-led camps in the Middle East.
Both countries have lost key allies as a result of the Arab Spring: Saudi Arabia has lost Egypt, its main ally in its leadership of the anti-Iran camp, due to that country’s preoccupation with domestic affairs. Iran has likewise lost its main ally, the Syrian regime, which is currently fighting for its survival amid the wave of protests sweeping the country; if the Syrian regime falls, Iran will be severely impacted, as will be the power-balance between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The difference between the Iranian and the Saudi approaches to the events in Syria is exacerbating the tension between them. In addition, Saudi Arabia is deeply concerned about Iran’s growing infiltration of Iraq, especially following the withdrawal of the American troops from that country. Until now, the American presence to some extent neutralized the Iranian involvement in Iraq. But now that the Americans have withdrawn, Iraq, with its Shi’ite government, is becoming a major theatre of conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Ankara May Rename French Streets Over Genocide Row
Officials in Turkey’s capital threatened Wednesday to rename any streets with French names and erect a monument to Algerian victims of French colonial violence because of the “genocide” row with Paris. A Turkish minister threatened other unspecified reprisals if France went ahead with plans to pass a bill that would outlaw denial that the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.
French senators will debate the bill on January 23 and if passed, it would go to President Nicolas Sarkozy for approval. France’s lower house, the national assembly, approved the bill last month. Avni Kavlak, a spokesman for the Ankara city council, said local politicians were waiting for the Senate’s decision before acting.
“Municipal councillors will adopt the decision by a very large majority,” Kavlak predicted. Kavlak said Turkey’s reprisals were the idea of Ankara’s mayor, Melih Gokcek. If officials went ahead with the reprisals, it would mean renaming streets named after De Gaulle, Paris and Strasbourg, he added.
Turkey accuses France of hypocrisy for its own hand in thousands of killings committed in its former colony in 1945 and during Algeria’s struggle for independence between 1954 and 1962. The memorial to Algerians “massacred by the French”, would be erected near the French embassy.
But Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia last week urged Turkey to stop trying to make political capital from France’s colonial past. He said Turkey had been a member of NATO during the war in Algeria and as such had provided material support to France.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Muslim Athletes Face Ramadan Hurdles at London Olympics
Muslim athletes are set to face an even tougher challenge during this year’s Olympic Games as they gear up to compete in London during the holy month of Ramadan. The summer’s event will clash with the holiest month of the year in the Islamic calendar, when Muslims are expected to fast from sunrise to sunset, a requirement that could hamper the performance of athletes from the GCC. Although the line-up for this year’s UAE Olympic athletes has yet to be confirmed, Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Hussain, the secretary general of the UAE’s National Olympic Committee, told Arabian Business some athletes may opt to postpone their fast to maximise their chances. “I don’t think there will be any problem; our athletes are used to this,” he said. “If you go according to religion, in certain cases it is allowed to break fast but you have to cover that in the later stages. But it depends on the individual; some players don’t like to break fast and continue fasting. I think it [comes down] to the individual,” he added.
Ramadan this year is expected to run from 20 July to 18 August while the Olympics will run from 27 July to 12 August. An estimated 3,000 Muslim athletes are expected to compete at this year’s games, leaving many divided about whether or not to fast. British rower Mo Sbihi, the first Muslim to row for Britain, said in July he planned to postpone his fasting during this year’s Ramadan because he didn’t want to hurt his chances of winning a gold medal due to feeling hungry or dehydrated. “It is a massive risk to fast and compete. My power output could decrease, or I could collapse during the race. This is the last Olympics for some people and I would not want to risk their chances or my own. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of us, and I would not want to ruin it,” he told the UK’s Standard newspaper. Eight UAE nationals, including Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum Al-Maktoum, Obaid Ahmed Aljesmi and Saeed Rashid Omar Alqubaisi, took part in the Beijing Olympics. UAE nationals competing could be exempt in certain circumstances, said Abdualraham Amourarah from the UAE’s general authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowment.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
US Senators Warn Ashton on Risk of Iran War
BRUSSELS — US senators have warned EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton that Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme risks igniting a military confrontation.
“Iran’s nuclear progamme is moving forward — sharply increasing the risks of either a military confrontation or other countries in the Middle East pursuing their own nuclear arsenals,” eight cross-party senators said in a letter sent to the EU’s top diplomat on Tuesday (10 January).
They urged Europe to press ahead with sanctions on Iran’s most valuable export — oil, with EU foreign ministers set to decide on a possible embargo at a meeting on 23 January.
The senators also want the EU to impose sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran, its main financial intermediary. “As you know, the Central Bank of Iran has been carrying out illicit and deceptive financial activities that are supporting the Iranian government’s advancing nuclear programme,” the letter said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
West Blamed by Iran as Yet Another Nuclear Scientist is Assassinated by Magnetic Car Bomb in the Street
Iran pointed the finger of blame at the West today after another of its nuclear scientists was killed in a dramatic street assassination in Tehran today.
Chemistry expert Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in the centre of the country, died when a magnetic bomb was attached to his car by two motorcyclists.
Iran immediately described the latest assassination of a recent spate as a ‘terrorist attack’ and claims Israel and the U.S. is resorting to such methods in an underhand bid to halt its nuclear programme.
Four Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed and a number of others hurt or kidnapped in a series of killings dating back to June 2009.
The killing will inflame tensions between the West and Iran which are already high following an International Atomic Agency report which claimed Iran was capable of producing a nuclear bomb.
Iran ratcheted up feelings by capturing a U.S. drone late last year, and refusing to give it back despite a personal plea from President Barack Obama and a series of military manoeuvers and threats and counter-threats over the trade-crucial Straits Of Hormuz have also worried observers.
Witnesses to today’s attack said they had seen two people on a motorbike ride alongside the car and attach the bomb.
Mr Roshan, 32, was inside the Iranian-assembled Peugeot 405 with two others when the bomb detonated near Gol Nabi Street in north Tehran.
A pedestrian also died in the attack and one of the other passengers in the car was seriously injured.
Fars news agency described the explosion as a ‘terrorist attack’ targeting Mr Roshan, a graduate of the prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.
Deputy Tehran governor Safarali Baratloo was quoted as saying: ‘The bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of the scientists, and the work of the Zionists (Israelis).’
A similar bomb attack on January 12, 2010, killed Tehran University professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor.
He was killed when a bomb-rigged motorbike exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work.
And in November 2010, a pair of back-to-back bomb attacks in different parts of the capital killed one nuclear scientist and injured another.
The dead victim in that attack, Majid Shahriari, was a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and cooperated with the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
The injured scientist, Fereidoun Abbasi, was subsequently appointed head of Iran’s atomic agency.
Most recently in July 2011, motorbike-riding gunmen killed Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student. Reports identified him as a scientist involved in suspected Iranian attempts to make nuclear weapons.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
‘Fear in Their Hearts’ As Pakistanis Ferry NATO Wares Into Afghanistan
NATO forces in Afghanistan rely heavily on overland supply routes from Pakistan. For the Pakistanis who drive the supply trucks, danger lurks around every corner as they face the threat of attack by militants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Chronically Stressed Border Troops Take Up Yoga
Stress is on the rise among India’s paramilitary forces posted at crucial borders. A recent government study found a majority of Border Security Force personnel are sleep-deprived and face abusive behavior from seniors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: Indignant Workers Threaten Suicide at Foxconn Park in Wuhan
According to the Chinese anti-government website China Jasmine Revolution, about 300 employees at a Foxconn Technology Park in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, threatened to kill themselves by jumping from the top of a building in the park.
On Jan. 2, about 300 employees at a plant belonging to Taiwan-based Foxconn — the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer — asked their boss for a raise. They were told either quit their positions with compensation or keep their jobs and receive no additional payment. Most employees took the first option, but the company terminated the agreement, and none of them were given the money they were promised.
Eventually, the mayor of Wuhan came to stop dissuade the former employees from committing suicide. At 9:00pm on Jan. 3, the group chose life. Suicides at Foxconn plants resulted in the deaths of 14 workers in 2010, where employees frequently complained of discrimination and long working hours.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese New Year Revelers Grapple Desperately for Tickets Home
Half of the Chinese population now lives in cities. Once a year, former peasants go back to their villages to see their families. In terms of transport, it’s a logistics nightmare.
Beijing West is one of four big railway stations in the Chinese capital. Ahead of this year’s Spring Festival, crowds have gathered as thousands try desperately to get hold of tickets. Military police with megaphones have been deployed to keep order. New Year is the most important holiday in China and it is especially significant for migrant workers in cities who rarely get another chance to go home and see their families.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Queensland Government Publishes “Handbook on Hindu Patients”
Queensland government in Australia has come up with a “Health Care Providers’ Handbook on Hindu Patients” as a “quick-reference tool for health workers to use when caring for Hindu patients”. It covers a range of topics including “prayer and meditation, astrological beliefs, karma, fasting, end of life issues, maternity care, and food requirements.” Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has applauded Queensland government for this clinical support resource, saying that “it is a step in the right direction”. Knowing the beliefs and practices of Hindus would help the providers deliver better healthcare. Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged other governments around the world also to come up with such handbooks so that healthcare providers understand the Hindu patients better and be more sensitive to their feelings and requirements. If governments need any help in creating such handbooks, he or other Hindu scholars would gladly assist.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ghana: Illiteracy Said to be Tragedy of the Muslim Community in Ghana
A traditional ruler in the Upper West Region says illiteracy is one of the tragedies of the Ghanaian Muslim community which needed to be tackled seriously to create more opportunities for the youth to contribute meaningfully to national development. Kuoro Barecheh Nlowie Baninye II, Acting President of the Buwa Traditional Council, has therefore called on Muslims to make education a topmost priority and use all available resources to build a better future for their children. He also appealed to Muslims to stop forcing their daughters into early marriages as that practice held no good future for them. Kuoro Baninye made the observation during the inauguration of a GH¢60,000 Mosque constructed for Muslims in the Niator community with financial assistance from Islamic Council for Development and Humanitarian Services (ICODEHS). He said it was important for Muslims to respect others religions to help bring peace, tolerance and harmony into the country, pointing out that the Muslim world was a delicate one. “My brothers and sisters in Islam, in this delicate world, when planning, be careful, when executing be cautious and when failing be courageous; that is the way to succeed in a delicate world”, Kuoro Baninye cautioned.
Kuoro Baninye commended ICODEHS for providing a mosque for the community and gave the assurance that the facility would help promote the Islamic religion in the area.
He also commended government for providing development projects in the Buwa Traditional Area but mentioned inadequate road network, dam facilities to promote all year farming and electricity to enhance cottage industries as well as classroom blocks and subsidies on agricultural inputs as some of the challenges undermining the development of the people.
Alhaji Taminu Saeed, a Director at the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council, who deputised for the Regional Minister, Alhaji Issahaque Salia, urged Muslims in the community to use the mosque to improve moral standards and values of the people. He called for peaceful co-existence among the various ethnic groups in the area to enhance development.
He appealed to the people to avoid double registration during the voter’s registration exercise to make the 2012 general elections clean and credible.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Gunmen Kill 8, Mob Attacks Mosque as Nigeria Chaos Grows
LAGOS: Gunmen shot eight people dead in northern Nigeria Tuesday and a mob torched an Islamic school in the south, as a nationwide fuel strike and growing religious tension rattled Africa’s oil-rich giant. The two-day-old general strike has not yet affected the output of Africa’s top oil producer but it has paralyzed the country and sent the government, already battling a brutal campaign by an Islamist group, into crisis mode. Suspected members of the extremist Boko Haram sect gunned eight people down in a pub as one of Nigeria’s most respected voices, Nobel Prize in literature laureate Wole Soyinka, warned the country was heading toward civil war. A doctor in Potiskum, a town in the northern state of Yobe, said eight bodies were brought to the morgue after militants stormed a pub and opened fire before speeding away on a motorcycle. “The bodies included five policemen, a bartender, a customer and a 10-year-old girl,” the doctor said. The police confirmed the shooting but did not provide a casualty toll.
Earlier, attackers burned part of the central mosque complex in the southern city of Benin, where clashes earlier killed five, bringing to 11 the number of people killed in incidents related to the strike over two days. “We have recorded so far five deaths — on both sides, those that have been attacked and the attackers,” said Dan Enowoghomwenwa, secretary-general of the Nigerian Red Cross in Edo state, told AFP. He said 10,000 people were also displaced by the violence. Witnesses said an Islamic school adjacent to the mosque was burned Tuesday as was a bus parked next to it. The attacks in Benin city started Monday amid street protests against soaring fuel prices, when a crowd separated from the main demonstration to attack another mosque and terrorized residents of Hausa neighborhoods. Hausas are the largest ethnic group in Nigeria’s north and are overwhelmingly Muslim.
The Red Cross official could not specify who was behind the attacks, only saying there were “indigenes” targeting northerners.
Africa’s most populous nation is roughly divided between a predominantly Christian south and mainly Muslim north. Recent violence targeting Christians in the north and blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram has sparked fears of a wider religious conflict as well as warnings from Christian leaders that they will defend themselves. Fears run high that the strike will fan sectarian tensions and Soyinka, who became Africa’s first laureate of the Nobel for literature in 1986, warned in a BBC interview that Nigeria was heading toward a conflict akin to the 1960s war. “It’s not an unrealistic comparison — it’s certainly based on many similarities … We see the nation heading toward a civil war,” the writer said.
Elsewhere in the country, gangs set up burning roadblocks, police fired tear gas and businesses shut in the many parts as the national strike over fuel prices paralyzed Nigeria.
As thousands took to the streets to protest soaring petrol costs, youth gangs set up roadblocks of burning tires along major roads in the economic capital Lagos and threw stones at cars while extorting cash from drivers. Protesters marched through the streets to the sound of blaring afrobeat music, sometimes with soldiers clapping and taking pictures.
One person brought a goat wrapped in a union flag while others carried a mock coffin labeled “Badluck,” a play on the name of President Goodluck Jonathan. Protesters encouraged those watching from the roadside to join in. Jonathan met his security chiefs in the capital Abuja as he faced the toughest challenge since rising to the job in 2010, battling on two fronts against social protests and Boko Haram. The indefinite strike follows the government’s controversial move to end fuel subsidies on Jan. 1, which caused petrol prices to more than double in a country where most of the 160 million population lives on less than $2 a day.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Convert From Islam Whipped in Public
Woman left bleeding in front of hundreds of spectators for becoming Christian.
A Somali convert from Islam was paraded before a cheering crowd last month and publicly flogged as a punishment for embracing a “foreign religion,” sources said.
Sofia Osman, a 28-year-old Christian from Janale city in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region, had been taken into custody by Islamic extremist al Shabaab militants in November; the public whipping was meant to mark her release. She received 40 lashes on Dec. 22 while jeered by spectators.
“Osman was whipped 40 lashes at 3 p.m., but she didn’t tell what other humiliations she had suffered while in the hands of the militants,” an eyewitness, told Compass, adding that whipping left her bleeding. “I saw her faint. I thought she had died, but soon she regained consciousness and her family took her away.”
The whipping was administered in front of hundreds of spectators after Osman was released from her month-long custody in al Shabaab camps. Nursing her injuries at her family’s home, in the days after the punishment she would not talk to anyone and looked dazed, a source close in touch with the family said. She has since been relocated.
“Please pray for her quick recovery,” the source said.
Janale, one Somalia’s major cities, is about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Mogadishu.
Osman became a Christian four years ago and was a member of the underground church in the war-torn Horn of Africa country largely controlled by the al Qaeda-linked militants from al Shabaab.
The al Shabaab militia is being hunted down by Kenya Defense Forces in southern Somalia following the extremists’ incursions into Kenya. They had killed and kidnapped tourists and aid workers inside Kenya, prompting military forces to formally enter into war to secure its borders.
In response, the al Shabaab militants have targeted churches in northern Kenyan towns such as Garissa in the hope of dividing Kenyans along religious lines. The Kenyan public, however, has largely backed the government decision to pursue the militants deep into Somalia.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
France: Record Number of Illegal Immigrants Expelled
French Interior Minister Claude Guéant boasted on Tuesday that the country expelled a record number of illegal immigrants last year and vowed to significantly reduce legal immigration. The announcement came three months ahead of a presidential election in which far-right candidate Marine Le Pen of the National Front is expected to target President Nicolas Sarkozy’s immigration policies.
Guéant, a close ally of Sarkozy and well-known hardliner on immigration, said France had expelled 32,922 illegal immigrants last year, up from 28,026 in 2010. “This is the highest level ever attained,” he said during a press conference, adding that France would seek to expell 35,000 illegal immigrants this year. Guéant also said the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country had dropped to 182,595 last year, down from 189,455 in 2010.
Describing current immigration figures as a “migration policy out of control”, he said he hoped to reduce the number of legal immigrants to 150,000 per year — a level not seen since the 1990s. Guéant has repeatedly linked immigration with crime in France and on Tuesday said the delinquancy rate among immigrants was “two to three times higher” than the national average.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqis in Look-Alike Swedish Passport Scam
Two men, aged 38 and 30, have been arrested in Malmö on suspicions of smuggling Iraqi citizens into Sweden using other people’s Swedish passports. “They have smuggled in a number of people, I won’t go into how many,” said Leif Fransson of the Border Police (Gränspolisen) to the TT news agency.
The case involves Iraqi citizens who travelled to Sweden using genuine Swedish passports bought from their original owners. However, the Iraqis were no longer carrying the passports upon their arrival at airports in Sweden, and proceeded to seek asylum. The arrested men used passports that had been issued to people who had come to Sweden earlier and become Swedish citizens.
The smugglers then gave the passports to other Iraqis who had looks similar to those of the original passport owners and then used the false passports to fly to Sweden. The passports true owners have sold them to the people smugglers, usually for 10,000 kronor ($1,450). The passport sellers then simply claimed they’d lost the documents before applying for new ones.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Lawmakers Approve Harsh Penalties for Illegal Migrants, Israelis Who Help Them
Israel’s parliament on Tuesday approved harsh new penalties on illegal migrants and Israelis who help them, building on other contentious measures designed to stanch the flood of Africans seeking sanctuary here. The bill allows imprisonment of illegal migrants for an unlimited time without trial. People caught helping them could face prison terms of up to 15 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
160 Billion Alien Planets May Exist in Our Milky Way Galaxy
Alien planets are incredibly common in our Milky Way galaxy, outnumbering stars by a large margin, a new study suggests.
On average, each of the 100 billion or so stars in our galaxy hosts at least 1.6 planets, according to the study, bringing the number of likely alien worlds to more than 160 billion. And large numbers of these exoplanets are likely to be small and rocky — roughly Earth-like — since low-mass planets appear to be much more abundant than large ones.
“This statistical study tells us that planets around stars are the rule, rather than the exception,” said study lead author Arnaud Cassan of the Paris Institute of Astrophysics. “From now on, we should see our galaxy populated not only with billions of bright stars, but imagine them surrounded by as many hidden extrasolar worlds.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Deepest Hydrothermal Vents Teem With Strange Shrimp
Researchers exploring the seafloor south of the Cayman Islands have discovered the world’s deepest-known hydrothermal vents, an underwater hotspot teeming with bizarre shrimp with light receptors on their backs. Neighboring the deep vent field was an even more surprising find: an area of vents high on the slopes of Mount Dent, an undersea mountain far from the magma-rich areas where heated vents are usually found.
The researchers discovered the two vent fields (which they named Beebe and Von Damm) after surveys of the Mid-Cayman Spreading Center in the Caribbean Ocean turned up chemical hints of hydrothermal water. The Mid-Cayman Spreading Center is a zone where the Earth’s crust is pulling apart very slowly, much more gradually than other ocean rift zones.
Exploration with submersible vehicles revealed the Beebe Vent Field, 16,273 feet (4,960 meters) deep, in the rifting zone. The Beebe field is nearly 2,890 feet (880 m) deeper than the previous deepest-known vent on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The researchers were not able to measure the temperature of the vents directly, but given that pressure increases with depth, they calculate that the waters may be hotter than 842 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Milky Way Brims With Planets
Carl Sagan would have loved it: not only are there billions and billions of stars in our galaxy, but every star may also harbour a planet. Millions of these could be like the fictional planet Tatooine in Star Wars, which orbits two stars.
About 700 extrasolar planets have been found in the Milky Way, a small number compared with the number of stars present. To find out whether such planets are truly rare or just hard to find, Arnaud Cassan of the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France, and colleagues turned to gravitational microlensing, in which one star focuses the light from a more distant star.
While other techniques are best at finding planets around nearby sun-like stars, gravitational microlensing can study any star up to 20,000 light years away.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Soaring on Titan: Drone Airplane Could Scout Saturn’s Moon
Physicist Jason Barnes was just six years old in 1982 when scientists first came up with the Cassini spacecraft mission that would tour Saturn’s rings and moons more than two decades later. Now, a fully-grown Barnes has the even wilder idea of sending a robotic aircraft soaring through the skies of Saturn’s mysterious moon Titan.
The “AVIATR” drone design looks eerily similar to those of U.S. military drones patrolling the skies above Earth’s battlefields. But it could fly through Titan’s skies far more easily than those of Earth — the Saturn moon has seven times less gravity and more than three times denser atmosphere to give wings extra lift. That would allow the drone to stay airborne almost forever on nuclear batteries with two-light bulbs-worth of power as it scouts the surface of Titan.
“Because it would be electrically powered by ASRGs (Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generators), we could theoretically go forever on that power,” said Barnes, a physicist at the University of Idaho. “The nominal mission is a year, but we don’t really have an upper limit. We could maintain flight indefinitely.”
A robotic airplane could fly on Titan more efficiently than a hot-air balloon, say Barnes and his colleagues. It could also swoop below Titan’s atmospheric haze and take detailed images of the moon’s surface that usually lies hidden from the cameras of Cassini or other spacecraft in orbit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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