Commissioner Says Planning in Hand in Case Greece Defaults
(BRUSSELS) — The EU’s Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said on Friday that the commission and European Central Bank had begun “emergency” planning in case Greece defaults. He did not specify whether this also concerned a possible exit from the eurozone.
“Today, whether within the European Central Bank or the European Commission, services are studying emergency scenarios where Greece cannot manage,” De Gucht told Flemish daily De Standaard in comments translated into French by national news agency Belga.
De Gucht said officials in both institutions were preparing plans that would minimise any “domino effect,” which he said was a “danger” 18 months ago, although he also suggested that the issue may yet be put to a referendum among the Greek people if June 17 polls were again inconclusive.
A hard-left anti-bailout leader has emerged as the favourite to win the most votes after a May 6 election failed to produce a governing coalition.
In the interview, De Gucht said an “endgame” was underway, although he maintained the EU line that the “only rational alternative” was for Greece to “implement the agreements it has struck.”
These refer to cuts and reforms in exchange for a 237-billion-euro bailout, between eurozone and IMF loans and a private debt write-down.
However, De Gucht acknowledged that “this is possible only if the Greek people are able to make a rational judgment at the ballot-box: the problem being, these people are desperate.”
Senior Commission economics spokesman Olivier Bailly said on Twitter that “the European Commission denies firmly working on an exit scenario for Greece,” stressing that Brussels “wants Greece to remain in the euro area.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Crisis of Confidence: Fears of Bank Runs Mount in Southern Europe
Following the downgrade of 16 Spanish banks by Moody’s, the focus in the euro crisis is back on the banking sector. Greeks are withdrawing hundreds of millions from their accounts, with reports that the same is happening in Spain. Experts are calling on the European Central Bank to step in and prevent full-scale bank runs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Commissioner: Greek Eurozone Exit ‘Manageable’
The European Union stands ready to face the aftershocks if Greece were to leave the eurozone, the EU’s Trade Commissioner maintains. He says officials are already working on an emergency blueprint on how to survive.
The European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) are feverishly working on an emergency plan of action to be activated if debt-stricken Greece has to leave the 17-nation euro area, EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said in an interview for Friday’s edition of the Dutch-language De Standaard newspaper.
His comments appear to be the first time that a high-ranking EU official has confirmed the existence of contingencies being taken for a possible Greek exit from the single currency bloc.
“A year and a half ago there may have been the danger of a domino effect,” de Gucht said in reference to the risk of debt crisis contagion to other eurozone countries such as Spain and Italy. “But today there are, both within the European Central Bank and the European Commission, services that are busy working out emergency scenarios in case Greece doesn’t make it.”
De Gucht, a former Belgian foreign minister, hastened to add that in his opinion Greece had no better option than sticking to unpopular austerity measures and staying in the euro area. “But the endgame has started, and I do not know how it’s going to play out,” he commented.
The EU Trade Commissioner’s message was echoed on Friday by the floor leader of Germany’s co-ruling Free Democrats, Rainer Brüderle. “It would cost a lot of money, if Greece was to leave the club, but it would be manageable,” he told the Handelsblatt business daily.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Germany Wants New Government Able to Act
No to new talks with Troika on agreed reforms
(ANSAmed) — BERLIN, MAY 18 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a telephone conference this morning with Greek President Karolos Papoulias on the difficult situation in Greece. The chancellor, her spokesperson explained, has made it clear that Germany and the other European partners expect to see a new government that is able to act formed immediately after the elections of June 17. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has spoken on the phone with his counterpart in the Greek interim government.
Westerwelle has pointed out that there will be no new negotiations on the reforms agreed with the EU, ECB and IMF troika nor on the bailout programmes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
No Fiscal Treaty Without Growth Pact, Says French Finance Minister
New French finance minister Pierre Moscovici Thursday said that Paris is “firm” on adding growth elements to the fiscal treaty. “What we’ve said is the treaty will not be ratified as it stands,” Moscovici said. He added that the pact must be fleshed out with “an ambitious growth strategy.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Hit by Downgrades Amid Greek Contagion Fears
Spain’s economic woes deepened on Thursday (17 May) as 16 of its banks and four regions were downgraded by Moody’s ratings agency, while statistics confirmed the country is still in recession.
The US-based ratings agency cut between one and three notches the ratings of 16 Spanish banks — many of them regional banks — and of Santander UK, the British subsidiary of the big Spanish lender, due to the “renewed recession, the ongoing real-estate crisis and persistent high levels of unemployment,” Moody’s said in a statement.
It also invoked the “reduced creditworthiness” of the Spanish state, as its borrowing costs have again spiked close to bail-out territory earlier this week, which in turn makes it difficult for the government to support banks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Bank Crisis Deepens; Markets Await Summit
(MADRID) — Spanish banks fell deeper into a loans crisis on Friday as world leaders headed to a Camp David summit to prevent a Greek-inspired eurozone catastrophe.
With a growing sense that the Greek crisis is spiralling out of control, volatile trading gripped Madrid, in particular, with troubled Bankia leaping more than 20 percent only one day after plummmeting.
Spanish banks reported doubtful loans had climbed to 147.968 billion euros ($188 billion) in March, equal to an 18-year record 8.37 percent of the total, central bank data showed.
But only hours after Moody’s Investors Service announced a severe downgrade of 16 Spanish banks by one to three notches, citing a recession and the state’s reduced creditworthiness, Spain’s bank stocks soared.
Bankia, which plunged the day before on rumours of a bank run, surged 22.93 percent by mid-afternoon while Spain’s number-one bank Santander gained 4.23 percent and rival BBVA rallied 4.49 percent.
Just nine days earlier, Madrid announced it was taking over Bankia to salvage a balance sheet with problematic property assets amounting to 31.8 billion euros.
Pablo del Barrio, analyst at Spanish brokerage XTB Broker, said Bankia stock had been subject to speculation in past days and investors may now be anticipating a government clampdown to stop short-selling.
Germany tried to shore up confidence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Wealthy French Take Their Assets to London
During the election campaign, French President François Hollande threatened to slap an income tax rate of 75 percent on high earners. Since then, wealthy French have been looking for ways to get themselves and their money out of the country. And nowhere looks more attractive than millionaire-friendly London.
It began in 2010, when wealthy Greeks started coming to London and buying up expensive townhouses in upmarket neighborhoods. Amid fears that Greece might leave the euro zone, they believed their money would be safe in Britain in its splendid isolation from the euro and the Continent’s sovereign debt crisis.
Then rich Spaniards started arriving. They were following by well off Italians, who at the start of the year overtook Russians as the biggest group of foreign buyers snapping up property in London, according to a survey.
Whenever the euro crisis heats up somewhere in Europe, the demand for expensive homes increases in Western Europe’s largest city particularly among well-heeled foreigners beset by asset angst.
London real estate agents are like the canary in the coalmine for the debt crisis. They can sense early on the next country to get sucked into the vortex. So who’s up next? Apparently it’s the French.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Agenda 21: Conspiracy Theory or Threat
The battle over Agenda 21 is raging across the nation. City and County Councils have become war zones as citizens question the origins of development plans and planners deny any international connections to the UN’s Agenda 21. What is the truth? Since I helped start this war, I believe it is up to me to help with the answers.
The standard points made by those who deny any Agenda 21 connection is that:
[…]
Well, first I have a few questions of my own that I would love to have answered.
Will one of these “innocent” promoters of the “Agenda 21 is meaningless” party line, please answer the following:
If it all means nothing, why does the UN spend millions of dollars to hold massive international meetings in which hundreds of leaders, potentates and high priests attend, along with thousands of non-governmental organizations of every description, plus the international news media, which reports every action in breathless anticipation of its impact on the world?
It if all means nothing, why do those same NGO representatives (which are all officially sanctioned by the UN in order to participate) spend months (sometimes years) debating, discussing, compiling, and drafting policy documents?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Breaking News! Vindication for Obama Birthers?
BREAKING NEWS that could change everything!
As reported, our 44th President appears to have been born in Kenya:
Breitbart News has obtained a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama’s then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which touts Obama as “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.”
The booklet, which was distributed to “business colleagues” in the publishing industry, includes a brief biography of Obama among the biographies of eighty-nine other authors represented by Acton & Dystel. It also promotes Obama’s anticipated first book, Journeys in Black and White— which Obama abandoned, later publishing Dreams from My Father instead.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Conservative Billionaire Knocks Down Supposed Plan to Air Obama-Wright Ads
The billionaire conservative who reportedly was considering a proposal to fund ads reconnecting President Obama with his controversial former pastor distanced himself from the proposal Thursday and said through an aide it would not move forward.
The proposal was reportedly commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the TD Ameritrade brokerage firm, and targeted for a run in September. The $10 million campaign, according to The New York Times, would have highlighted Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s controversial comments which first surfaced during the 2008 presidential campaign.
“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” said a copy of the proposal, obtained by the Times.
The mere specter of Wright, though, touched off a rapid-fire trade of accusations from the campaigns of both Obama and Mitt Romney — with each accusing the other of character assassination before the proposal was effectively canned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Illinois Senate Nixes Member of Human Rights Commission Over Views
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A black Muslim activist’s nomination to the Illinois Human Rights Commission has been rejected by the Illinois Senate, after white conservatives slammed him over statements on a website he operates that voices opposition to “race mixing” and interracial marriage. The nomination of Munir Muhammad was defeated on a 20-30-4 Senate vote. The opposition was led by Republicans who criticized him over the racial content of the website connected to a group he operates in Chicago.
The group is called “The Coalition for the Remembrance of Elijah Muhammad,” who was an early leader of the Nation of Islam. The group’s website had contained a list of Elijah Muhammad’s beliefs, which included white reparations for slavery, racial separatism and a prohibition of interracial marriage. “He is unfit to serve on the Human Rights Commission,” Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, who is white, said in floor debate. He slammed the racial separatism beliefs, and asked colleagues to consider “if the situation were reversed” and the nominee were a white member of the Ku Klux Klan, advocating the same kind of beliefs. “Would we be so tolerant? I think not.”
Muhammad’s defenders — most of them black Chicago Democrats — argued that the comments on the site weren’t from the nominee, but were merely quotations from a historic figure. They noted that Munir Muhammad has said the site’s designers put the quotations on it, that he didn’t know they were there, and that he had agreed to take them down.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Impossible, Never Been Done Before, Let’s Do it!
The threat of Communism and fascism has transformed itself into more palatable names such as progressivism which is the love child of Hillary and Obama. Conservatism and frankly much of the GOP has shifted so far to the 50 yard line to gain more votes, they have nearly gutted all of their principles of real leadership. They too appear as progressives.
[…]
The Russian military, estimated 30-100,000 troops have been invited in a few short weeks over to Colorado (God knows where else) for military exercises. Troop movement have been building in city after city and 450 million hollow point bullets purchased by our Government. Why? Doug Hagmann pointed out in one of his recent articles that a DHS informant stated that the Government fears a civil war or uprising and is preparing for it.
My strategy to obtain ballot access is to get patriots in the key Electoral College states to lead in getting the signatures signed and turned into the prospective Secretary of State in each state. I need thousands of volunteers and I need them now in the following states:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kuhner: Jeremiah Wright Can Sink Obama
President’s former pastor telling story of betrayal and bribery
By Jeffrey T. Kuhner
He’s back. And this time, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright threatens to engulf President Obama in a major scandal — one that could doom his re-election. Edward Klein in his recent biography of Mr. Obama, “The Amateur,” interviewed Mr. Wright about the president’s past. On tape and on the record, Mr. Wright claims that in 2008, the Obama campaign offered $150,000 to buy his silence. If this is true — and I stress if — Mr. Obama may have committed a crime, and if so, he should be prosecuted and sent to prison. Wrightgate could bring down the Obama presidency.
America was introduced to Mr. Wright in the spring of 2008. The racist, America-hating pastor quickly became an embarrassment to then-candidate Barack Obama. The more cable TV shows endlessly looped Mr. Wright’s extremist, bigoted tirades, the more of a political liability he became to the Obama campaign. Mr. Obama was in full panic; the long association with his radical pastor threatened to derail the Democratic nominee’s chances to defeat Sen. John McCain. Mr. Klein says that according to Mr. Wright, the Obama campaign sent an emissary. The goal: to bribe Mr. Wright in exchange for his agreement to disappear from public view until after the election.
In particular, Mr. Wright alleges that Dr. Eric Whitaker, a close Obama friend, sent an email proposing $150,000 to muzzle the pastor; Mr. Wright says he refused. (The Obama administration recently awarded a $6 million grant to the University of Chicago Medical Center’s Urban Health Initiative. Who runs the initiative? You guessed it: Dr. Whitaker.) Then, Mr. Wright claims, Mr. Obama personally visited him, urging the pastor to remain silent and do nothing that would cripple the Obama candidacy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Book Casts Doubt on Obama’s Christian Identity
The liberal media have harangued figures such as Franklin Graham when they have refused to state categorically that Barack Obama is a Christian. Now comes author Edward Klein telling Sean Hannity that Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of United Church of Christ in Chicago, told him that he “made it comfortable” for Obama to accept Christianity “without having to renounce his Islamic background.”
All of this is consistent with our point, made in 2010, that Muslims could join Wright’s church without giving up their Muslim faith. And while Obama accepted Christianity, in the sense of calling himself a Christian, there is no evidence that he was ever officially baptized into Wright’s church. We pointed out that Obama’s claim about his own baptism, as reported in his second memoir, The Audacity of Hope, is subject to interpretation because of the lack of detail about how and when he was baptized and by whom.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Literary Agent Says He Was ‘Born in Kenya.’ How Did the Mainstream Media Miss This?
by Tim Stanley
Whatever you think of Breitbart.com’s punishing vetting process, it has exposed just how little work the mainstream media did in investigating candidate Obama back in 2008. Not all of Team Breitbart’s revelations have been election-deciders, but they have often been stuff that a simple Google would have uncovered. If they revealed tomorrow that he’d had his own cross-dressing-themed sitcom on primetime TV in the 1980s, I wouldn’t be surprised. The latest find is a fascinating inversion of the birther conspiracy. Breitbart.com has discovered that in 1991 Barack Obama’s literary agent (who also represented New Kids on the Block) published a booklet that included a biography of the future President. The audience was “business colleagues” in the publishing industry and it was designed to promote Obama’s anticipated first book (later abandoned) called Journeys in Black and White. Here’s how it describes the author’s origins.
Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation. The key phrase here is “was born in Kenya” — and this bio line was apparently being used as late as 2007.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Prof Sues Over Muslim Tiff
INDIANAPOLIS — A Purdue University political science professor has sued officials and other professors at the school’s campus in northwest Indiana for the treatment he received after he posted criticism of Muslims on Facebook. Maurice Eisenstein claims in the suit that Purdue-Calumet officials violated his rights of freedom of speech and religion by subjecting him to a disciplinary investigation which eventually yielded mixed results. The lawsuit filed May 10 in a Lake County court says Eisenstein was cleared of the initial allegation that he had violated the school’s policy against discrimination and harassment, but officials reprimanded him for what they considered retaliation against the two professors who filed the complaints.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sack the Senate: Voted Down 5 Budget Bills
Last week, the Senate gave We, the People, a clear and unmistakable illustration of why we need to sack all the Democrats, and a bunch of the RINOs, too. They voted down not one, not two, but five budget bills, four of which would actually have done America some good. This comes as we move into the fourth year that the Senate has failed to do its duty by passing a budget, leaving the country economically adrift.
The mind boggles that they’ve gotten away with this. Can you imagine a private company, especially a large one that is in deep financial trouble, whose management refuses to produce a budget, much less a budget aimed at solving the problems that threaten to put them out of business? Can you imagine stockholders of such a company pretending that this is just hunky-dory, no problema, gonna be just fine?
[…]
I have mentioned before that there are several incredibly dangerous, sovereignty-destroying U.N. treaties hidden in the wings, just waiting for the traitors in the Senate to ratify. That great patriot and Swift Boat Hero from his four whole months in Vietnam, John Kerry (R-MA), has vowed to get them onto the Senate floor for votes as soon, he hopes, as this summer. They include:
- The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS or LOST, “Law of the Sea), which cedes control of all the world’s oceans and their contents, including our territorial waters, to the U.N.;
- The United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, aka, Small Arms Treaty, that would virtually outlaw privately owned firearms or ammunition of any sort;
- The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which takes away parental rights to raise their children as they choose, and gives them to the U.N.;
- The International Criminal Court, which allows foreigners to have Americans arrested and tried in kangaroo “international” courts, using foreign law;
- The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which destroys, among many other things, marriage;
- And a host of outrageous environmental treaties that would doom most of the world’s people to Third-World level poverty in a world-wide police state.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck: Islamist/Leftist Protesters Neutralized at My Portland State Speech
Last week, I reported on the anti-Semitic threats and intimidation surrounding my May 14th speech at Portland State University about the threats gathering against America and Israel.
Well, I gave the speech this past Monday night and it went off without a hitch, as some 40 Islamist and Leftist protesters in attendance were neutralized.
But not without some fireworks first.
Read my latest blog for a recap of the event, as I went head-to-head with the unholy Islamo/Leftist alliance.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Utah School Fined $15,000 for Selling Soda at Lunch
Davis High School in the Salt Lake City area is having to fork over a whopping $15,000 in fines to the Feds because it accidentally sold soda through a vending machine during lunch.
A Utah high school is learning the hard way that the government is serious about nudging students away from food it doesn’t want them to consume. Davis High School in the Salt Lake City area is having to fork over a whopping $15,000 in fines to the Feds because it accidentally sold soda through a vending machine during lunch.
Federal law requires the school to turn off its soda machines during the lunch period, which is 47 minutes a day. And Davis High school did turn off the machines in the lunch room. However, the school didn’t realize that there was another machine in the school bookstore that wasn’t being turned off. And when the food police realized it, the school was hit with a $0.75 fine per student for the duration of the offense.
Now the school is going to have to cut money to fine arts programs to make up the cost.
| — Hat tip: McR | [Return to headlines] |
Big Brother? New UK Surveillance Program Would Give Government Access to Personal Data
British officials have given their word: “We won’t read your emails.”
But experts say that its proposed new surveillance program, unveiled last week as part of the government’s annual legislative program, will gather so much data that spooks won’t have to read your messages to guess what you’re up to.
The U.K. Home Office stresses that it is not seeking to read the content of every Britons’ communications, saying the data it was seeking “is NOT the content of any communication.” It is, however, seeking information on who’s sending the message, whom it’s sent to, where it’s sent from, and potentially other details including a message’s length and its format.
The government’s proposal is just a draft bill, so it could be modified or scrapped. But if passed in its current form, it would put a huge amount of personal data at the government’s disposal, which it could potentially use to deduce a startling amount about Britons’ private life — from sleep patterns to driving habits or even infidelity.
“We’re really entering a whole new phase of analysis based on the data that we can collect,” said Gerald Kane, an information systems expert at Boston College. “There is quite a lot you can learn.”
The ocean of information is hard to fathom.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
European Parliamentarians Pleased With Mesika’s Visit to the EU
European parliamentarians pleased with speech by the head of the Shomron Regional Council, reaffirm support for Israel.
European parliamentarians were pleased on Thursday with the speech that was made by Gershon Mesika, the head of the Shomron Regional Council, at an official meeting of the EU Parliament in Brussels.
Mesika is the first leader of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria to participate as a guest of honor at an official event in the European Parliament. During the special conference, the parliamentarians met with Jews from Judea and Samaria, as well as with Arabs from the region.
The conference was a reciprocal event to a tour in Samaria taken four months ago by the Vice Chairman of the Foreign Committee of the European Parliament, Dr. Fiorello Provera…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Failed Natural Gas Strategy: Gazprom Hopes to Build Second Baltic Sea Pipeline
With the planned Nabucco natural gas pipeline in southern Europe hitting snag after snag, Russian natural gas giant Gazprom is considering the construction of a second Baltic Sea pipeline to go with the just-finished Nord Stream. With unconventional natural gas from the US flooding the market, however, the strategy is not without risk.
Seven years later, it is now clear who won the duel. When the government of Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schröder came to an end in 2005, both he and his foreign minister, Green Party éminence grise Joschka Fischer, embarked on second careers as energy lobbyists.
Schröder is in the service of Russian energy giant Gazprom — as chairman of the board of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline on the Baltic Sea floor. The pipeline went into operation six months ago and now natural gas from Siberia flows through the 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) of pipe to the German city of Greifswald.
Fischer is an advisor to Nabucco, the consortium favored by the European Union, which also includes German electric power company RWE. The Nabucco pipeline is intended to transport gas from the Caspian Sea region, along a 3,900-kilometer southern route to Baumgarten in Austria, bypassing Russia in the process. But not a single meter of the pipeline has yet been laid, and that will likely remain the case. The Nabucco project will not be implemented as planned.
Three weeks ago, Hungary’s MOL Group voiced significant doubts about the project, and now another consortium member is thinking of pulling out. RWE executives have already prepared politicians in Brussels and Berlin for the worst case in recent weeks. They haven’t made a final decision yet, but the chances that the company will remain committed to Nabucco are not good.
One reason is that the estimated total cost of over €15 billion ($19 billion) is more than twice as high as the original projection. Another is that potential suppliers Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have not yet provided definitive commitments to supply natural gas to the pipeline.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
German Universities Move to Train Next Generation of Imams
by Isabelle de Pommereau
Concerned about the influence of foreign imams on Germany’s Muslim community, the government is funding Islamic theology departments in its public universities to train imams at home.
Tübingen, Germany
For years Aysen Yüsra Yilmaz, the daughter of Turkish immigrants who came to Germany as guest workers, looked for a way to ground her religion in the German culture she has adopted as her own. She finally found it this year in Germany’s first publicly funded university Islamic theology department, connected to Tübingen University in the Black Forest’s foothills and one of Germany’s oldest universities. “We live in Germany, so we have to be able to represent our religion in German,” says Yilmaz, who is one of 36 students enrolled in a brand new bachelor’s degree program there.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Five Siblings Jailed for ‘Honour Killing’ of Sister
Four brothers and a sister were jailed in Germany for the killing their sister who the judge said was simply a “little girl who wanted to be happy”, but whose choice of German boyfriend was not tolerated by her family.
The 18-year-old woman, identified only as Arzu Ö., was violently kidnapped from her boyfriend’s flat in Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia, last November, and taken to a motorway services station where she was shot dead.
Judge Michael Reineke heard that she had been beaten several times by members of her own family, particularly her brother Osman, and that in September 2011 she had fled to a refuge and filed official complaints against her brother and father.
“That was pretty much her death sentence,” the judge said, according to a report in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper on Wednesday. Referring to the Kurdish roots and Yazidi faith, he said that those who live in Germany must live by the values of this country, and not those of their origin.
Her brother Osman, 22, was jailed for life for her murder after having admitted to firing the shots. Her sister Sirin, 27, and brother Kirer, 25, both received 10-year sentences for kidnapping her and assisting in her killing. Her brothers Elvis, 21, and Kemal, 24, got five and-a-half years in jail for the kidnapping.
State prosecutor Ralf Vetter had asked for life imprisonment not only for Osman but for Sirin and Kirer and called for Kemal and Elvis to be given at least 11 years in prison. The lawyers for Elvis, Kirer and Osman want to appeal the sentences.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Facing Mafia Charges: Sicilian Governor Lombardo Resigns
Region set for elections in October
(ANSA) — Palermo, May 18 — Sicilian Governor Raffaele Lombardo, who is facing charges of colluding with the Mafia, said Friday that he has resigned from the helm of the regional government.
The decision means Sicily will have new elections for the governorship and its regional assembly on October 28 and 29.
Last month prosecutors presented a request to try Lombardo and his brother Angelo, an MP for Lombardo’s Movimento per l’Autonomia (MpA) party, for allegedly swapped votes for favors with Vincenzo Aiello, a prominent member of the powerful Catania-based Santapaola clan.
Aiello was arrested in 2010 on a range of Mafia charges.
Lombardo has denied the accusations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Streets in Banff Closed Off by Police Due to ‘Bomb’ Alert
A LARGE area at the heart of a former fishing town on the Moray Firth coast is at the centre of a “bomb” alert tonight.
Army explosives experts were called to deal with suspicious materials found at a house in the Low Shore area of Banff in Aberdeenshire.
Residents in nearby homes and businesses, including a major Tesco store, were evacuated and the area sealed off after the alert was sounded.
Grampian Police refused to comment on local claims that the emergency began after “chemicals capable of making a bomb” had been discovered in a house close to the town’s harbour area and the local police station.
A force spokesman said the incident began after officers had attended an address in the Low Shore area of Banff following concerns raised by a member of the public. He said that the bomb squad — the Army’s explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team — had been called to the scene.
He added: “Officers have been carrying out investigations at the scene and have called in the EOD as a precaution, following the discovery of materials. There have been no injuries as a result of this incident, however, Grampian Police is now carrying out a controlled evacuation of the surrounding area as a precautionary measure to ensure the continued safety of the wider public. Grampian Police has deployed additional officers to the area to assist with the evacuation of a small number of residents from their homes with some local businesses also being affected.
“As a result of the developing inquiries officers have identified materials within a property and are working their way out from the locus to a distance of 100 metres to evacuate surrounding streets.”
Residents and businesses in seven streets — Carmelite Street, Reid Street, Bridge Street, Church Street, Water Lane, Crown Court and Old Market Place — were evacuated before the bomb disposal experts arrived. A temporary reception centre was set up for the families affected in Banff Academy.
Chief Inspector Derek Hiley of Grampian Police said: “We would like to reassure members of the Banff community that officers are taking these initial steps as a precaution whilst the EOD attend to assist with the management of materials found within a property.
“Arrangements have been made in conjunction with Aberdeenshire Council for a reception centre to be set up at the local school and all residents affected by the 100 metre cordon have been offered a place.”
He continued: “Obviously our initial concerns are around ensuring beyond all doubt that the community is completely safe. We would like to reassure members of the local community that our officers have experience of dealing with incidents such as these and have worked regularly with the EOD in the past.”
One local, who did not wish to be identified, told the Scotsman: “There are lots of police in the area. The bomb disposal people are here. The building at the centre of the alert is a house in the Water Lane area of the town.
“There have been claims that chemicals have been found in a house that would be capable of forming a bomb.”
A spokeswoman for Grampian Police declined to comment on the claims.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Study Tips ‘Autism Gene’
Researchers in Lausanne have identified a gene thought to be involved in autism and schizophrenia. A team of researchers from the University of Lausanne and the University Hospital in the canton of Vaud have identified the human gene “KCTD 13”, the absence of which could be the cause of conditions such as autism, newspaper Tribune de Genève reported.
In 2009, a 16-year-old autism patient visited Professor Jacques Beckmann at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine. He together with two other researchers, Sebastien Jacquemont and Alexandre Reymond, decided to expand their research, and they began to conduct studies involving both zebrafish and mice embryos.
They identified and studied a short genetic sequence, noting that certain changes seemed to correspond with certain conditions.
They noted that a repetition of the sequence related to abnormal thinness and small head size as well as to schizophrenia. In contrast, they found that where the sequence was lacking entirely, patients were predisposed to suffer from severe obesity, abnormal largeness of head size, and autism. The results of the study appeared on Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.
“We are still far from a possible treatment,” Jacques Beckmann told the newspaper. “We still need to determine whether other genes are involved, and how it works. But it is a necessary first step.”
Parallel research carried out by a team in the USA led by Nicholas Katsanis from the Duke University Medical Centre, was published on Wednesday. The study also found a relationship between the presence or absence of the KCTD13 gene with head size and mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and autism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: An Open Invitation From Imam Irfan Chishti MBE
Rochdale Community Forum
In the past week and months Rochdale as a town has been maligned because of the actions of a minority of men. Their actions have triggered much discussion and debate locally and nationally and has lead to the far right targeting our town with the aim of damaging what are very good community relations. Each and every member of the Rochdale community is totally appalled and disgusted by the crimes that have been committed and whole heartedly condemn the perpetrators.
Despite the fact the Police have clearly stated that race is not an issue, as the men were from a Pakistani background, many have turned towards the Rochdale Pakistani community for answers.
The Rochdale Community Forum exists as a coalition of grassroots organisations from groups who have been working for several years in partnership with various agencies, focussing in the main with the large Asian Muslim community which exists in Rochdale. This CSE case has brought to light the urgent need for all communities within Rochdale to work together collectively to tackle this issue. Therefore the Rochdale Community Forum must extend to other community sectors and organisations.
We would like to invite groups through the Rochdale Online to join The Rochdale Community Forum and actively lead this campaign with us. This is a very complex area of work that requires open and honest collaboration and with this in mind we have approached experts in the field that have worked on this for many years. Safe and Sound in Derby are an established charitable organisation whose work has received national recognition and we hope to work together closely in the future. We are in discussion with their training enterprise, Just Whistle to inform this strategy and encourage best practice in safeguarding young people.
The magnitude of the crimes committed has exposed many shortcomings in our public sector services (LEA, Social Services, Police, CPS) as well as within the community. We all need to address these issues collectively, as one Rochdale community. We are therefore proposing a community initiative with the following three core aims:
- To shed a positive light back onto Rochdale
- To work collaboratively with all Rochdale communities and grassroots organisations to tackle this issue
- To use the outcomes of this initiative as a possible blueprint for tackling on-street grooming nationally
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Baroness Warsi: Some Pakistani Men Think Young White Girls Are “Fair Game” For Sex Abuse
Some Pakistani men believe “white girls are fair game” for sexual abuse, the Cabinet Minister and Tory co-chairman Baroness Warsi says today. In an exclusive interview Sayeeda Warsi, Britain’s most senior Muslim politician, calls on mosques and community leaders to condemn “a small minority” of their members with racist and sexist views. “There is a small minority of Pakistani men who believe that white girls are fair game,” she told the Evening Standard. “And we have to be prepared to say that. You can only start solving a problem if you acknowledge it first.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Camden Council Giving Al-Qaeda Group Freedom to Preach
A leading local authority has refused to sever its links to a group which promotes the ideology of Osama bin Laden at a taxpayer-funded centre and encourages young Muslims to prepare for jihad. Camden Council has repeatedly rejected the opportunity to take action over the Ministry of Dawah, which holds weekly lectures glorifying the al-Qaeda leader and extreme Islamist clerics such as Anwar al-Awlaki.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cameron Hits Out at ‘Truly Dreadful Case’
The sex grooming scandal that saw nine local men jailed was a “truly dreadful case” which must be investigated further, David Cameron said. Speaking during Prime Minister’s Question Time Mr Cameron said: “There are particular problems in particular communities … and we need to face up to these problems if we are going to deal with them.” Mr Cameron said England’s Children Commissioner, Maggie Atkinson, would investigate the girls’ plight and he would consider launching a serious case review after calls from local MPs. The PM added: “It is a truly shocking case and we need to look very carefully at what went wrong. We need to look at why information wasn’t passed more rapidly from children’s homes to police, why action wasn’t taken more rapidly. It’s very important we get to the bottom of a truly, truly, dreadful case.”
Mr Cameron praised Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk for raising the issue along with Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd who urged Mr Cameron to consider an inquiry into whether privately-run care homes were well funded with properly-trained staff, and demanded a better inspection regime. Mr Danczuk said: “I want to speak about the girls in that case — the vulnerable girls who went to hell and back through what they experienced. I pay tribute to their bravery in coming forward and standing up to their abusers. They did it to get justice and to stop it happening to others. Vulnerable girls like that do not usually get heard by politicians. They do not get easy access to power or influence.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Protesters Sign Brick Lane Petition to Save View of Roa’s Crane Painting
Hundreds of protesters have signed a petition to get a council hoarding removed that advertises Brick Lane’s ‘Curry Mile’ in London’s East End-because they say it obstructs a view of an iconic wall painting of a crane bird by an internationally-renowned artist.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Turn Off Your iPad, David Cameron, And Start Dealing With Britain’s Debt
by Fraser Nelson
The Prime Minister David Cameron talks about fiscal sanity but is borrowing like a drunken Keynesian.
No one dispenses advice to the eurozone better than David Cameron. His speech yesterday was a fountain of good sense and hard truth. Quite rightly, he said there’s no point in any uncompetitive, debt-addicted country thinking it can just muddle along. Radical, structural reform is needed. He didn’t say which of the many basket-case European economies he had in mind, but one sticks out. It is increasing its debt faster than anywhere else in Europe. It languishes behind even Pakistan and Nicaragua on the global regulation league tables. Its growth prospects have almost evaporated. How do you solve a problem like the United Kingdom?
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: This Bookseller Deserved His Incitement to Terrorism Conviction
by Matthew Tariq Wilson
I was a witness in Ahmed Faraz’s trial — this is the first time anyone involved has spoken about what really happened
The trial and conviction last December of a Muslim bookseller, Ahmed Faraz, for incitement to acts of terrorism, generated a great deal of suspicion and misunderstanding within the Muslim community. People with little or no first-hand knowledge of the proceedings spun the events surrounding the trial into a freedom of expression issue. I was an expert witness in Islamic theology called to Faraz’s trial and until now, no one directly involved has spoken about what really happened. I am doing so for the first time.
The indictment against Faraz (under Sections 1 and 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006) comprised 30 counts regarding material contained in books and video tapes, many of which had been found in enormous quantities in premises connected to a bookshop, Al-Maktabah, that Faraz managed in Birmingham. Many of these items had also been found in the possession of the 7/7 bombers and other recent terrorists whose attacks mercifully failed or were foiled. Of the eight books under scrutiny, only one looked like the type that might possibly be found in a school or university library. The other editions were amateurish productions with garish covers, including images of scimitars, machine guns, carrying politicised sub-titles and littered with typographic errors.
The editions went under the names of well-known Muslim figures: these included Ibn Taymiyyah, the 14th-century theologian and jurist; Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian modernist thinker who was imprisoned by Nasser; and Abdullah Azzam, an ideologue of the Afghan resistance during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. However, most people — including most Muslims — do not realise that the proportion of the original texts in these editions was often surprisingly small. For example, of the indicted edition of Milestones: Special Edition by Sayyid Qutb, only 44% was a translation from the original Milestones. The rest was long separate texts included as appendices. Only 39% of The Religious and Moral Doctrine of Jihad by Ibn Taymiyyah was a translation of the original. A great deal of textual material by other writers was presented under the auspices of these well-known authors.
This is important. Much of the media discussion of the trial treated the texts as if they were translations of originals. In fact, all of the original texts had been doctored or adulterated in extremist ways. For example, appended to the text of item one in the trial, Milestones: Special Edition, was a fatwa by a medieval imam, Ibn Nuhaas, translated by the late al-Qaida ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki. It was a full-scale homily to the cult of “martyrdom”. This extra fatwa included sections such as The Virtues of Killing the Non-Believer, which legitimised throwing oneself at the enemy against all odds, using the types of arguments that have become the stock-in-trade of those who promote suicide killing.
Forty-four per cent of item five, The Azzam Edition of The Lofty Mountain by Azzam was, in fact, an added homage to Osama bin Laden praising him in eulogistic terms usually reserved for key Muslim figures such as the Prophet Muhammad. I discovered after the trial that this particular book was found in the possession of Mohammad Siddique Khan, the leader of the 7/7 plot, after he had died. It was also found on both of the leading figures in the 2006 transatlantic airlines bomb plot, Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar.
The videos featured in the trial employed a toxic mix of propagandist speeches by known terrorists alongside footage glorifying extreme violence. For example, item two was a video entitled Malcolm X — Bonus Disc. It had nothing to do with Malcolm X. It began with a caricatured portrayal of all American forces in Iraq as barbaric torturers and continued with extended footage of a young man being driven on a suicide mission singing songs glorifying his impending “martyrdom” — and then showed him blowing himself up.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Wathamstow: EDL March ‘Will Inflame Tensions’
TENSIONS could rise in the community if far-right group the English Defence League (EDL) is allowed to march through Walthamstow, critics claim. Both the Waltham Forest Anti-Cuts Union and Trades Council have criticised plans posted online for an EDL demonstration in the area on Saturday August 18. The EDL, which describes itself as an “inclusive movement” opposed to Islamic extremism, denies being a racist organisation. But a spokesman for the WF Trades Council said: “There is no other reason that this organisation should come to Waltham Forest other than to seek to divide our multicultural community and to incite racial tension”.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Ratko Mladic is a Substitute Hitler for Today’s Bored and Mission-Less Western Hacks
by Brendan O’Neill
The cut-throat gesture made by Ratko Mladic on the opening day of his trial at The Hague sent a frisson of excitement through the press corps. Never mind that it’s now reported that the gesture could have been a demand for a toilet break rather than a threat to the Bosnian Muslims sitting in the gallery (ie. Mladic was saying, “Let’s cut for a minute, I need a leak”). The media still lapped it up, cock-a-hoop that their favourite evil man had done a really evil thing on the first day of his trial for being evil. They had the image they wanted, the image that would further boost the shtick they’ve been performing for 20 years now: the one in which the Serbs play the role of modern-day Nazis who love killing and raping people, and the moral crusaders of the Western media play the role of unimaginably brave witnesses to this Nazi-style nastiness.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels, EU Must Strengthen Relations With Neighbours
Important to deliver on its commitments with Southern Med
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MAY 17 — “In spite of its economic difficulties, the EU must remain open and outward looking, strengthen neighbourly relations even further and firmly support its partners’ efforts to make their countries more democratic, more prosperous and hence, more stable”. These are the conclusions of the joint communication of European Commission and High Representative of the EU for foreign policy, one year after the launch of the new neighbourhood policy strategy.
According to the document, the EU’s new policy approach, founded on an incentive-based approach supporting partners that are committed to reforms “is firmly established”. “Most partner countries — the communication added — have welcomed it and a number of them are ready to pursue political and economic reform with increased determination and to engage more deeply with the EU”. However, this is a time of transition. Countries are engaged in drawing up new constitutions, establishing new institutions, building internal consensus in support of democratic transformation and electing new leaders. It will take time to resume dialogue with the EU and in this situation, “it is important for the EU — concludes the document — to deliver on its commitments to the Southern Neighbourhood”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Supports South Med Countries Committed to Reforms
First report on the new neighbourhood policy
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MAY 17 — Building sustainable democracies where the right to vote is accompanied by other rights such as free speech, competing political parties, freedom or religion etc. is one of the main objectives of the Roadmap guiding EU policy towards its Southern partners, according to a document released by the EU in the framework of its annual assessment of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).
According to the report, the EU’s “support for the Southern Mediterranean peoples’ drive towards greater respect for human rights, more democracy, dignity and prosperity”. It recalls the Partnership is founded “on an incentive-based approach supporting partners that are committed to reforms. It focuses on three elements: democratic transformation; a partnership with people and civil society, and sustainable and inclusive growth”. As part of the new policy approach, the report says, the EU has launched discussions with Morocco on a new Action Plan in the framework of its Advanced Status and has initiated talks to upgrade relations with Tunisia. In response to Algeria’s interest in engaging with the ENP for the first time, it has started discussions on negotiating an EU — Algeria Action Plan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gaddafi Properties Seized on Pantelleria
Ex-Libyan strongman’s assets worth 20 million euros
(ANSA) — Rome, May 16 — Hotel properties valuing 20 milion euros belonging to the ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were seized on the southern Italian island of Pantelleria on Wednesday.
The seizure was issued by the Rome Court of Appeals last March when Italian financial police confiscated 1.3 billion euros in assets belonging to the ex-Libyan strongman, his son Saif Al Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah Al Senussi.
All of Gaddafi’s known assets were frozen following two UN resolutions passed in February and March of 2011, early in the leader’s bloody campaign to quell a popular uprising that led to his overthrow and death last October at the hand of insurgents.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Let us Embrace Our Friends
Two weeks ago, US Congressman Joe Walsh published an op-ed in the The Washington Times in which he called for the US and Israel to abandon the two-state solution.
After running through the record of Palestinian duplicity, failed governance, terrorism and bad faith, he called for Israel to apply its sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. In his words, Israel should “adopt the only solution that will bring true peace to the Middle East: a single Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is the only country in the region dedicated to peace and the only power capable of stable, just and democratic government in the region.”
The evidence that the two-state paradigm has failed is overwhelming. The Palestinians’ decision to reject statehood at Camp David in 2000 and launch a terror war against Israel made clear that they had not abandoned their refusal from 1947 to accept partition of the Land of Israel with the Jews.
So, too, the Palestinians’ election of Hamas in the 2006 elections, and their missile war against Israel from Gaza in the aftermath of Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, all made clear that they are not interested in a Palestinian state. Rather, their chief desire is Israel’s annihilation…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Minister Told Israel Boycott Will Not Secure Peace
Supporters of Israel are calling on the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs to “build bridges” rather than seek a boycott of Israeli goods.
Earlier this week Eamon Gilmore hinted that he planned to push the European Union to block goods produced in the settlements, in order to pressure the Israeli government into making changes in policy. Mr Gilmore said settlements in the West Bank were “making the achievement of a two-state solution in the Middle East impossible. “If there isn’t a change in Israeli policy in relation to settlements in particular, I think we may have to look at some additional measures,” he said.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Labour Palestine Group Comes of Age
by Martin Bright
On Monday, Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East held its annual parliamentary reception. The usual backbench phalanx was there, including Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Burden. But the organisation has undergone a renaissance under Ed Miliband’s leadership. It is no longer the fringe group of the Blair-Brown era. Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander and Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan spoke from the platform . Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna and Labour rising stars Anas Sarwar and Lisa Nandy were also there, along with former Communities Secretary John Denham. With a few exceptions, this is Ed Miliband’s inner circle.
[…]
There was a time when an ambitious young member of the Labour Party was well-advised to join Labour Friends of Israel but from Monday’s turnout it is now clear that Labour Friends of Palestine is the place to be seen.
[…]
[JP note: Labour’s election strategists know where the votes are.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Museum in Jerusalem Reopened With Italian Support
Ceremony attended by Pna Premier Salam Fayyad
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MAY 18 — The Palestinian Heritage Museum in Jerusalem will be reopened thanks to Italian support. The opening ceremony was held yesterday evening at Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi (the Arab Children’s House, historical Palestinian cultural institute and seat of the museum) in the presence of a large delegation of Palestinian authorities, including Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority Salam Fayyad.
The Italian Consulate in Jerusalem and the Province of Pisa have sponsored the project — which has taken two years costing around 400,000 euros -, organising training courses for museum staff, particularly in the field of restoration of textile, documents and jewelry. “This initiative,” Consulate officials explained, “aims to protect and enhance Palestinian cultural heritage and identity by exhibiting ancient jewels, precious traditional clothes and tools, which were kept in the institute’s storerooms.” Cooperation Councillor of the Province of Pisa Silvia Pagnin has suggested to “organise temporary exhibitions in Italy showing part of the museum’s collection.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Threats of Reprisal to Cypriot Project Candidates
“Whoever participates will be excluded from future cooperation”
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL — The Turkish Foreign Minister has asked candidate groups for a Greek-Cypriot tender on the exploration of gas and petroleum off the island to withdraw, threatening them in case they do not step back, to exclude them from any future project of cooperation in Turkey.
“As our Prime Minister has already said”, commented the Minister of Foreign Affairs in a note reported by Anadolu agency, “firms which will cooperate with the Greek-Cypriot administration will not be able to participate in energy projects in Turkey”.
Ankara has in this way renewed its announcement of a boycott towards energy groups which take part in the search for hydrocarbons on behalf of Cyprus. The Foreign Minister’s words refer to a second tender for the search of hydrocarbons off Cyprus, the Turkish agency pointed out, referring to the island divided in 1974 after a Turkish military intervention and now at the centre of tensions due to the drilling in search of petroleum and gas in the southern region which is recognized by the international community. The Turkish minister “invites all countries involved and the gas companies to have some common sense and not participate in the activities of this maritime sector which creates a problem for the Cyprus issue.” In the note the Ministry “invites the groups to also withdraw their bids from the abovementioned tender”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Accuses Israel of Violating Northern Cyprus Airspace
Turkey Thursday accused Israeli airplanes of violating the airspace of northern Cyprus — recognised only by Turkey. Ankara said the Israeli plan was driven off by Turkish fighter planes. The incident happened on Monday and comes as Turkey and Israel’s relations have soured recently.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Suspects Al Qaeda in Damascus Bombs
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said he believes al Qaeda was behind the deadly bomb blasts that rocked Syria last week, killing 55 and wounding hundreds.
Last week’s deadly car bombs that struck Damascus and killed 55 people bore the marks of al Qaeda, according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
“Very alarmingly and surprisingly, a few days ago, there was a huge serious massive terrorist attack. I believe that there must be al Qaeda behind it. This has created again very serious problems,” said Ban from UN headquarters Thursday evening.
The two car bombs injured an additional 372 people and left a massive crater on a busy road in the Syrian capital. It was the deadliest attack in Damascus since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan’s Neighbors View US Influence With Misgiving
As Washington and Kabul deepen their post-2014 cooperation, the neighboring states have certain misgivings about their own role in the resource-rich region.
Although foreign troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, there is no end in sight to the US presence there. The US plans to continue supporting the weak Afghan government — with military means if necessary. In the recent strategic agreement signed between Kabul and Washington, the US committed to supporting Afghanistan’s social and economic development, security, institutions and regional cooperation for 10 years — until 2024. There were few concrete details about what possible military support might entail.
Iran was the first state to protest openly against the agreement. “Iran has had to live with a US military presence in Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and Turkey. Now Afghanistan,” Iran expert Farzaneh Rostayi told DW. “Iran feels completely surrounded by the US military and perceives this situation as a great threat.”
Although there is a passage in the agreement which points out that the US does not seek “permanent military bases in Afghanistan,” there are no official figures about how many US troops will remain after 2014. Experts estimate that between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers and trainers will stay.
Apart from Iran, Pakistan — a close US ally in the fight against terrorism — also has its misgivings about the US maintaining a long-term presence in the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Charges Against Marines in India ‘Filed in Court’
Homicide said to be included in police dossier
(ANSA) — Rome, May 18 — Charges against the two Italian anti-piracy marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen February were presented in court in the southern Indian province of Kerala on Friday, according to India media.
Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, who are being held in a special section of the Pujapoora jail in the southern city of Thiruvananthapuram, are being charged with attempted homicide, homicide, criminal association, damages and intent to injure, said the Indian daily newspaper The Indian Express, which reportedly has access to the court documents.
The news of the charges came as the two marines were being visited by Foreign Undersecretary Staffan de Mistura, a longtime ex-United Nations diplomat liasing with Indian authorities on the case.
Police also disputed in the dossier whether the vessel was in international waters when the incident took place, said the Indian daily.
Italy says it should have jurisdiction for the case, not India, as the soldiers were guarding an Italian merchant vessel in international waters. The Italian government believes that, regardless of who has jurisdiction, the marines should be exempt from prosecution in India as they were military personnel working on an anti-piracy mission.
The dossier was filed one day before the three-month detainment period allowed by the Indian judicial system expired for the marines, who have been at the centre of a diplomatic row between the countries since February.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Recalls Ambassador to New Delhi Over Marines
Giacomo Sanfelice to return for consultations
(ANSA) — Rome, May 18 — Italy has recalled its ambassador to New Delhi for consultations amid tension with India over the case of two Italian anti-piracy marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen in February.
The foreign ministry said Giacomo Sanfelice had been recalled after police filed charges against Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Government to Build Mosques in the Maldives
Islamic Affairs Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed has revealed that the Saudi government had pledged assistance to construct additional mosques in the Maldives. A SMS sent to Haveeru by the Minister last night during the current visit to Sri Lanka stated that he has had held discussions with various Ambassadors of Islamic nations based in Colombo accredited to the Maldives including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
The discussions with the Saudi Ambassador had also entailed extending the Hajj pilgrimage quota for the Maldives and financial assistance to train 500 Hafizs in the Maldives, Shaheem said. Minister further detailed that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Saudi government would be signed in the near future and also relayed the assurances of the Saudi Ambassador to extend the fullest assistance to the Maldives from Saudi Arabia.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China Denounces US Duties on Solar Panels
China has voiced its anger over a preliminary decision by the US administration to levy heavy duties on solar panels. Washington believes that China’s current price policies undermine fair competition.
China on Friday criticized US tariffs on solar panels, saying they were unfair and damaging to both producers and consumers. Beijing called the planned duties of between 31 and 250 percent on Chinese exporters and producers “protectionist”.
“Such practices do not fit with the fact that Chinese enterprises are market economy participants and highlight the United States’ tendency towards trade protectionism,” Commerce Ministry Spokesman Shen Danyang said in a statement. “The US ruling is unfair and China is extremely dissatisfied.”
Several Chinese solar cell companies branded Washington’s plans as being short-sighted and warned they could lead to a full-blown trade war between the two global powers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Sick of Irrational Terrorism Stigma
MUSLIM Australians have linked the Arab-Israeli conflict to violent extremism here, a federal parliamentary inquiry has been told.
Attorney-General’s Department senior official Jamie Lowe told a recent hearing that people at a community engagement forum had said that solving the Middle East conflict would get rid of the “violent extremism problem”. Ms Lowe said that the comment was tongue-in-cheek because Australia was powerless to solve the crisis, but her department had passed it on to the Foreign Affairs Department as being of serious concern. “Things happening in their countries of birth obviously have an impact on them here,” she told the federal multicultural inquiry.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
95,000 Nigerian Muslims to Perform 2012 Hajj — Commission
A total of 95,000 Muslim pilgrims from Nigeria are to perform the 2012 hajj exercise at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the first flight taking off on September 18. Alhaji Muhammad Bello, chairman, National Hajj Commission, told Honourable Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje-led House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, in Abuja, on Wednesday, adding that the 2012 hajj arrangements commenced early, so as to have a smooth and hitch-free exercise. He said the number was 4,000 lower to the allocated hajj slots to Nigeria in 2011, adding that 10,000 slots were allotted to the private hajj operators in the country, while the commission and the state pilgrim boards would share 85,000 slots.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Sharia: Zamfara Rehabilitates Amputees
By Saminu Ibrahim
Gusau-Zamfara State Government has rehabilitated two men whose hands were amputated under the Sharia law about 12 years ago.
The amputees are Bello Buba, who reportedly stole a cow, and Mallam Lawali Isa, who confessed that he stole a set of bicycles.
The first victim of the Sharia Law, Buba, has been given N500,000 to start cow rearing business, while Isa is now a cement distributor in Gusau, courtesy of the state government. Former Governor of the state, Senator Ahmed Yerima, whose administra-tion introduced the law, facilitated their rehabilitation by the government, following persistent complaints by the victims.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Grounds for Asylum Under Attack
The Council of States wants to change the law so that people cannot claim political asylum because they have deserted their country’s army. The aim is to make it harder for Eritreans to seek asylum in Switzerland.
The Council of States, also known as Switzerland’s upper house, wants to stop asylum seekers being able to use desertion as a ground upon which to claim asylum, newspaper Tribune de Genève reported.
Some two thirds of asylum seekers from Eritrea now use their desertion as the basis for the asylum applications. The introduction of desertion as a valid ground for claiming asylum in 2005 led to a dramatic increase in applications.
Number rose from 200 in 2005, to more than 1,000 in 2006. In 2011 more than 3,000 applications were registered and the first quarter of 2012 has already exceeded the figures for the first quarter of last year by some 41 percent.
It is hoped that removing desertion as a ground for asylum will dramatically reduce the number of entrants to Switzerland, but critics say it will make little difference as Eritreans will still be able to claim at least temporary asylum for other reasons due to the continuing war with Ethiopia.
Swiss People’s Party representative, Heinz Brand, is optimistic that the move will yield results.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Arctic Microbe Hunt Could Aid Search for Alien Life
Microbes living at the edges of Arctic ice sheets could help researchers pinpoint evidence for similar microorganisms that may have evolved on Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s moon Enceladus, researchers say. Scientists are investigating the receding edge of ice sheets on Earth to study the release of methane there.
Methane is a colorless, odorless, flammable gas. On Earth, some methane is produced abiotically — not by life — through reactions between water and rock, as well as through the breakdown of hydrocarbons by geological processes.
On the other hand, some methane comes directly or indirectly from methanogenic microbes, as a byproduct of fermentation of acetate — a derivative of vinegar — into methane and carbon dioxide.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Buried Microbes Exist at Limit Between Life and Death
Look and learn, sloths: the microbes deep beneath the Pacific ocean take inactivity to new heights. They are so slow on the uptake of nutrients from their environment that they barely classify as alive. Their very existence could help define the limit between life and death. Paradoxically, though, they may also be among the oldest living organisms on Earth.
Everything happens slowly in the North Pacific gyre, one of the five largest ocean gyres in the world. Sand and mud washing off the continents rarely finds its way there, so the seafloor accumulates sediment at a sluggish rate. The clay just 30 metres below the seafloor was deposited 86 million years ago, almost 20 million years before Tyrannosaurus rex graced the Earth.
That clay contains so little energy in the form of nutrients that it should be incapable of supporting a living community. Microbes have been found in other, only slightly more energy-rich communities below the seafloor, though.
In a bid to hone in on the lower energy limits for life, Hans Røy at Aarhus University in Denmark probed the clays below the North Pacific gyre. Under the microscope, he found a community made up of bacteria and single-celled organisms called archaea in vanishingly small numbers.
“There are only 1000 tiny cells in 1 cubic centimetre of sediment, so finding just one is literally like hunting for a needle in a haystack.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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