All Eyes on ECB to Unveil New Anti-Crisis Measures
(FRANKFURT) — All eyes were on the European Central Bank Thursday to solve the eurozone’s debt crisis, which is threatening to pull down the world economy, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel headed to Spain for talks.
As the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that the eurozone crisis was “the greatest risk to the global economy,” ECB chief Mario Draghi is widely expected to unveil new measures to help ease pressure on the worst-hit countries on the bond markets.
The OECD said fears about a possible exit by Greece from the euro area “are pushing up (government bond) yields, which in turn reinforces break-up fears.
“It is crucial to stem these exit fears,” it argued.
“This could be achieved by the ECB undertaking bond market intervention to keep spreads within ranges justified by fundamentals.”
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, too, is hoping the central bank will embark on unlimited bond purchases to help bring down his country’s cripplingly high borrowing costs, which he argues are unjustified.
“The risk premia are not the result of Spain’s economic fundamentals, but due to doubts about the euro,” Rajoy told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ahead of his Madrid meeting with Merkel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bailing-Out the Greeks — the Eurozone’s Magic Roundabout
Yesterday, the Deep End may have given readers the impression that there’s something amiss with the world’s foremost private sector financial institutions. Today, we offer a balancing view, which is that there’s something amiss with the world’s foremost public sector financial institutions too. There’s no better example of this than in the Eurozone, where every rescue package seems to reach new depths of deliberate obscurity. By way of a supporting argument, we turn not to some Eurosceptical source, but to Yanis Varoufakis — a leftwing Greek economist, who desperately wants to save the single currency
[…]
[JP note: For readers unfamiliar with the Magic Roundabout, here is a link to an early episode on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHHtj3KN5K4&feature=related ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
ECB to Revamp Bond-Buying Program
The European Central Bank has unveiled an emergency bond-buying program aimed at helping bring down high borrowing costs for debt-laden eurozone members. But “strict conditions” are attached to the aid.
The ECB would consider buying the debt of debt-stricken eurozone government under “strict conditions”, President Mario Draghi said Thursday.
Speaking at a news conference after an ECB Governing Council meeting, Draghi said the program — termed Outright Monetary Transactions — would have no set limit and be a “fully effective backstop” to prevent borrowing costs from rising.
In addition, Draghi indicated that the ECB would target government debt with relatively short maturities, presumably between two to three years.
The ECB would only consider buying the debt, Draghi added, if countries seeking ECB help would first officially ask for help from Europe’s bailout funds and agree to “strict and effective” budget policy conditions.
Since 2010, the ECB has stepped in from time to time to buy bonds of countries that have found themselves under heavy market pressure, leading to soaring borrowing costs. The bank is now said to have 209 billion ($262.7 billion) of government bonds on its books.
The move has faced criticism, notably from Germany, as ECB bond purchases were seen as tantamount to monetary state financing, which is forbidden under the ECB’s statutes because it is seen as sparking inflation.
Draghi said, however, that the ECB’s new effort was “within its mandate”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone D-Day: Central Bank to Announce Bond-Buying Scheme
Plans to buy government bonds from ailing eurozone countries in return for a stricter supervision of their reforms are likely to be endorsed by the European Central Bank’s (ECB) governing council on Thursday (6 September), despite opposition from Germany’s Bundesbank.
The intention to resume the dormant bond-buying programme had already been signalled last month, but the final vote was deferred until Thursday pending an internal review and attempts to bring the Bundesbank onboard.
The German bank does not have a veto over the plan, which only requires a majority of the 17 central bank governors from the eurozone plus the six members of the executive board.
Speaking at a bankers’ conference in Frankfurt on Wednesday, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he would “never confirm there is a conflict” between Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann and Mario Draghi, the head of the ECB.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Least Competitive Country in the EU
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, SEPTEMBER 6 — Greece dropped another six places in the Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, and now finds itself 96th out of 144 countries as daily Kathimerini writes. The report suggested that Greece is the least competitive economy in the European Union, after sliding 30 places in the last six years.
This is attributed to the country’s unstable macroeconomic environment (which is the worst in the world), insufficient access to the capital markets, lack of investor confidence in the country’s prospects, corruption, the state’s inefficiency and the inflexible labor market. Still, Greece boasts skilled human resources and reforms could bring about a fast recovery in the coming years, the report says. For countries like Greece to improve their competitiveness, the report recommends the recapitalization of banking systems, the proper management of public finances and the promotion of structural reforms aimed at increasing productivity and liberalizing markets and services, particularly in the domains of education, new technologies and innovation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Government and Public at Odds Over New Cuts
ATHENS — Anastasia Kastaniotou, a struggling mother of three, stood near the Greek Parliament building on Wednesday and threw up her hands as she contemplated an €11.5 billion austerity package that her country’s government was trying to tie up this week to keep Greece in the euro.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has been scrambling to seal a deal with his coalition government for fresh cuts to pensions, salaries and other expenses before Greece’s so-called troika of international lenders returns to Athens on Friday to inspect his progress. The country’s next installment of bailout money will depend on his getting a passing grade.
But on the streets of Athens, there is a sense that this latest effort to placate Greece’s lenders may be a last straw for the public.
After two-and-a-half years of wrenching austerity, “they will not be able to get more money from us than they already have,” Mrs. Kastaniotou, 44, said as her three teenage daughters and husband nodded in agreement. “Mark my words,” she added. “In the coming months, there will be a revolution, and this government will fall.”
Greece had all but slipped from the radar screen during August, after financial markets went onto late-summer autopilot and troika inspectors from Brussels, Frankfurt and other North European cities headed off on their vacations.
But as investors start speculating once again on the euro’s future, this troubled country is returning to a central role in Europe’s long-running debt drama. And even as much of Europe awaits word Thursday on what steps the European Central Bank may take next to try to insure there are no more Greek-style collapses, the Athens government is already in a critical care category beyond the help of any new E.C.B. remedies.
Few people here expect or even want Greece to exit the euro. But the country is once again running out of cash. It continues to depend on loans from the troika: the International Monetary Fund, the E.C.B. and the European Commission. And despite Greece’s teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, the troika has been withholding €31.5 billion, or $39.7 billion, pending a review of Greece’s efforts to make good on pledges to repay its loans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Unemployment Hits Record as Austerity Bites Deeper
Official unemployment in Greece spiked 1.0 percent in June as the slump in the debt-laden eurozone country has accelerated. Although one in four Greeks is without work, new austerity is in the pipeline.
The jobless rate in Greece jumped to 24.4 percent in June, according to data released by the country’s statistics service on Thursday, as an additional 50,000 people lost their jobs in that month.
The rise by almost a full percentage point compared with the previous month of May means that more than 1.2 million Greeks were unemployed — close to a quarter of the nation’s entire workforce, and 358,000 more than in June 2011.
ELSTAT’s figures show that young people 15 to 24 are hardest hit by unemployment, as the jobless rate in this age group soared to 55 percent in June 2012, compared with just 20 percent in 2008 — the year when the recession began in Greece.
Government budget cuts, demanded by Greece’s international lenders in exchange for bailout funding, have caused a wave of corporate bankruptcies, slashing more than 600,000 jobs and causing the economy to shrink by 20 percent since 2008.
The government, however, is preparing new budget cuts worth 11.6 billion euros ($14.6 billion) for this year, in efforts to unlock a loan installment of 31.5 billion euros from the rescue fund.
Greek labor unions warned Thursday that unemployment would exceed 30 percent, if the government imposed the new cutbacks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Spread Between Italian and German Bonds Continues to Drop
Markets anxious for ECB meeting Thursday
(ANSA) — Rome, September 6 — As eurozone members prepare for an anxiously awaited European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting on Thursday, the spread between Italian and German 10-year bonds continue to sink, opening under 400 at 393.8 basis point.
The yield opened down as well at 5.451%.
Markets are anxiously awaiting Thursday’s policy meeting of the European Central Bank. The ECB is working on drafting a mechanism to buy bonds in the secondary market to lower the borrowing costs of countries with sovereign debt troubles.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Monti: “Parliament Filled With Anti-German Sentiment”
(AGI) Fiesole — In a speech made to the EPP bureau, basically asking the European People’s Party to control the CSU’s excessive Europeanism which targets countries experiencing greater problems, and speaking of the current situation in Italy’s parliament, Prime Minister Mario Monti said that the parliament, “which I often visit at the moment, has two groups, one centrist and one centre-right, that belong to the EPP, also supported by the CDU and the CSU.” It is not however a political family that is always in agreement. Monti also said that “since my government was sworn in, I have observed in the Italian parliament, and even in the two groups inspired by Germany and the parties governing Germany, that there has been a rising level of intolerance regards to Germany and its government over the past four, five and six months….”An element that should be taken into account and one “explained” with explicit criticism that has followed statements by the CSU. Professor Monti also observed that “My minister and I are committed to ensure that every time we speak of European obligations, we never say that we are obliged to make sacrifices because Europe requires them since this would be the worst thing a politician could do because it would destroy all trust in the European project. However, in spite of these efforts, our parliament is filled with sentiments opposing certain countries and leaders…” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Napolitano Says Italian Banks Solid, Praises Monti
President says spread ‘inexplicable’
(ANSA) — Merano (Bolzano), September 5 — Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano said Italian banks were more solid than those in supposed more financially “virtuous” countries Thursday.
Abroad there is greater “trust in the financial sustainability of Italy, in its basic solidity and in its banking system, which is even stronger than those of important and virtuous countries,” Napolitano said in the northern Italian town of Merano, where he was meeting with Austria’s President Heinz Fischer.
Napolitano gave credit to technocrat Premier Mario Monti for restoring Italy’s credibility.
“There is no doubt that there has been a great renewal of faith in Italy, which is also thanks to Mario Monti’s personality,” Napolitano said.
Economist Monti replaced Silvio Berlusconi at the helm of government during a bond spread crisis in last November with a mandate to restore Italy’s finances and standing, to take necessary but painful reform measures elected political leaders had failed to do.
Napolitano also called the spread between Italian and German bonds “absolutely inexplicable” on Wednesday.
“Certainly it is true what the recent Bank of Italy document says, that the current level of the spread between Italian and German bonds, in particular 10-year (bonds), is absolutely inexplicable on the basis of fundamentals of the Italian economy,” Napolitano said. “There is a conspicuous excess that represents a problem not only for Italy but also for the functioning of the euro,” Napolitano added.
Napolitano cited European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, saying “when markets are fragmented or influenced by irrational fear, monetary policy cannot work”.
Napolitano said that the ECB was working on provisions that should be formalized in a board meeting Thursday. The ECB is working on drafting a mechanism to buy bonds in the secondary market to lower the borrowing costs of countries at the centre of the eurozone crisis, such as Spain and Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
S.&.P. 500 Closes at Four-Year High After European Bond Plan
Decisive moves by the head of the European Central Bank sent the benchmark American stock index to a four-year high and fueled hopes that the foundation for a more lasting solution to the European debt crisis may be taking shape.
The markets have greeted several previous efforts to solve Europe’s economic woes with euphoria, only to be quickly deflated. While investors were bracing for the latest plan to run into problems, there were numerous signals that this plan may have staying power.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index jumped 2 percent by the close to its highest level since January 2008. The Dow Jones industrial average added about 244 points, or 1.9 percent. And the Nasdaq composite index gained 2.2 percent for its highest close since December 2000.
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Schaeuble Opposed to Long-Term ECB Bond Buyouts
Buying bonds from ailing economies ‘not a permanent measure’
(ANSA) — Berlin, September 6 — German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Thursday that the European Central Bank (ECB) cannot buy up bonds from struggling governments indefinitely. In a closed-door meeting with leadership from his center-right CDU party, Schaeuble said bond buyouts cannot be considered a permanent measure, according to the German DPA agency, citing sources at the meeting. The ECB is meeting Thursday to discuss formalizing a mechanism to buy bonds in the secondary market to lower the borrowing costs of countries at the centre of the eurozone crisis, such as Spain and Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Says ECB Must Extinguish Flames of Euro Crisis
(MADRID) — Spain pressed the European Central Bank on Thursday to use its cash urgently to curb rising borrowing costs throttling the weakest eurozone states.
Spain had to convince Germany of the need for rapid action, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said on the day the ECB held a pivotal meeting on the crisis and Madrid hosted Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“We have to urgently resolve the problem of the so-called periphery economies: Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain,” the Spanish foreign minister told Onda Cero radio.
“Only the central bank bank can do this by putting out the fire,” the minister added.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy would seek to convince Merkel of this during the meeting, he said.
“We are going to say that everything is fine but in the medium term we have to finance ourselves. And it is the European Central Bank that has the money,” Garcia-Margallo said.
Secondly, Spain would seek to persuade Germany of the need to restructure the European Union so as to end the uncertainty. “That means, a banking union, a fiscal union, economic union and political union,” he said.
ECB chief Mario Draghi was widely expected to unveil the details of a new bond-buying scheme within hours after a meeting of the bank’s governing council in Frankfurt.
Spain believed Germany would listen, Garcia-Margallo said.
“They will understand that this is something that affects us all. It is like the Titanic. Here, if we sink we all sink, including the first-class passengers,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Democratic Platform, Jerusalem Capital Returns
After Romney attacks, 2008 position remains
Barack Obama and former US President Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK — The Democratic national convention in Charlotte has approved a motion reinstating a line in support of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which was part of the Democratic party platform in 2008. The line had been dropped from the platform, which was unveiled on Tuesday, sparking harsh criticism from Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
The 70-page platform stated that US president Barack Obama and the Democratic Party “maintain an unshakable commitment to Israel’s security” but scrapped the line saying that Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel.
The text also stated that the sides have agreed that the issue of Jerusalem will be discussed in negotiations on the final status.
According to a high Democratic official at the convention, the line on Jerusalem capital has been reinstated to reflect the president’s vision.
According to US media reports, Obama personally intervened so that the line, which was first inserted in 2008 and whose principle has been part of the Democratic and Republican platforms in the past, was included again in the party platform though with some changes.
For example in 2004 the platform for the re-election of George W. Bush stated that the Republicans continued to support the transfer of US embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. The transfer was approved by Congress in 1995 but never carried out, mostly in order not to shake the fragile Israeli-Palestinian peace process and in order not to cause resentment in the Arab world and among Palestinians who claim the Arab-majority East Jerusalem as the future capital of an independent Palestinian state. Its annexation to Israel is not recognized by the international community.
Relations between President Obama and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu have been difficult from the beginning and have worsened after the president said that peace talks should resume on the basis of Israel’s borders before the six-day war in 1967.
The Israeli government has not commented on this issue but the dropping of the line on Jerusalem has sparked a debate on Israeli web sites as well as in the Republican party. Just a few hours after the first draft of the platform was published on Tuesday, Romney issued a statement saying: “It is unfortunate that the entire Democratic Party has embraced President Obama’s shameful refusal to acknowledge that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Estimates for Mosque Worshippers Questioned
Attorneys for both Bernards Planning Board and Islamic Society advise houses of worship are permitted in residential zone.
Members of the public and the Bernards Planning Board tried on Tuesday to pin down Islamic Society President Ali Chaudry on the number of worshippers who ultimately would attend Friday services at a proposed mosque in Liberty Corner, a number that Chaudry repeatedly estimated at 150 even after about a decade of growth. Upon questioning, Chaudry said that if the number grew larger, the proposed mosque at 124 Church St. could conceivably consider adding a second service for the mosque’s the Friday afternoon worship, which he said is the most attended service in the week…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Islamophobia and Right-Wing Terrorism
Reasonable voices within the population should publicly shame bigots and marginalize their harmful messages that can provide terrorists with ideological underpinnings.
Though some may believe otherwise, it’s not the Muslim Brotherhood that’s planning attacks or infiltrating America’s corridors of power.
Just as many peace-loving Muslim imams condemn un-Islamic extremism and violence, it is incumbent on reasonable Americans to condemn the hateful extremism of our own fellow citizens. Nothing good can come from this mindless anti-Muslim rhetoric. Those who listen to it regularly and digest it will become violent.
I choose to stand on the side of pluralism and tolerance rather than bandy about prejudice and hate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
President Obama Accepts Democratic Nomination for Second Term
President Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for a second term, arguing that he had rescued the economy from disaster and ushered in a recovery that would be imperiled by a return to Republican stewardship.
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Report: US Health Care System Wastes $750 Billion a Year
The U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year — roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar — through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, the influential Institute of Medicine said Thursday in a report that ties directly into the presidential campaign.
President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are accusing each other of trying to slash Medicare and put seniors at risk. But the counter-intuitive finding from the report is that deep cuts are possible without rationing, and a leaner system may even produce better quality.
“Health care in America presents a fundamental paradox,” said the report from an 18-member panel of prominent experts, including doctors, business people, and public officials. “The past 50 years have seen an explosion in biomedical knowledge, dramatic innovation in therapies and surgical procedures, and management of conditions that previously were fatal …
“Yet, American health care is falling short on basic dimensions of quality, outcomes, costs and equity,” the report concluded.
If banking worked like health care, ATM transactions would take days, the report said. If home building were like health care, carpenters, electricians and plumbers would work from different blueprints and hardly talk to each other. If shopping were like health care, prices would not be posted and could vary widely within the same store, depending on who was paying.
If airline travel were like health care, individual pilots would be free to design their own preflight safety checks — or not perform one at all.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rising Anti-Islamic Sentiment in America Troubles Muslims
by Moni Basu, CNN
(CNN) - When the nation pauses to remember 9/11 next week, a group of Tennesseans will gather at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Franklin for a commemoration. But it will be more than that. On the program, called “The Threat in Our Backyard,” is a lecture on Islam in public schools and a short film on Sharia finance. It’s a program organized by people who feel the American way of life is threatened by Islam — in particular, Sharia, or Islamic law. Sharia would bring ruin to America, says Greg Johnson, vice president of the 9/12 Project Tennessee, a sponsor of the event that advocates for shifting government back to the intent of the Constitution’s authors. He says he has nothing against Muslims, but he takes issue with the tenets of Islam…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Minister Cancels Appearance at Anti-Radicalism Conference
Integration minister says she will not share stage with a controversial Muslim scholar that helped create Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws
The minister for integration and social affairs, Karen Hækkerup (Socialdemokraterne), has pulled out of a conference on religious radicalism next week after she discovered that one of the speakers helped fashion Pakistan’s highly controversial anti-blasphemy laws.
The conference’s organisers, the Danish Ethnic Youth Council, had invited the scholar Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri, leader of the Muslim organisation Minhaj-ul-Quran, to speak on tackling religious radicalisation. The head of the domestic intelligence agency PET, Jakob Scharf, was also invited.
While ul-Qadri is best known for declaring a fatwa, or religious ruling, against terrorism, he also worked as a legal adviser to the Pakistani government in the shaping of anti-blasphemy laws that were recently used to arrest a mentally-challenged girl for allegedly burning the Koran.
This morning, Hækkerup announced that had she would not have agreed to speak at the Conference for Political and Religious Radicalism, which is being held at Copenhagen Business School on September 11, if she had known that ul-Qadri was also planning on attending.
“I am very angry at being connected with something that is so contrary to my views,” Hækkerup told Ritzau. “Politically, I see no reason to take part in the debate. I think it is deplorable that he is coming.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Initiative to Stop Extortion
The Association of Danish Restaurants & Cafe’s (DRC) has held a meeting today with owners in order to decide a next step in combatting the problem of extortion in clubs, bars and pubs.
The initiative came after an incident two weeks ago in which the owner of the Café Viking in Copenhagen refused to pay protection money and received threats. Later in the evening her windows were smashed.
After publishing her experience in the media, support for 67-year-old Jane Pedersen has been overwhelming, with over 25,000 people expressing their support for both Pedersen and her café on Facebook.
DRC, which has 1,550 members throughout Denmark, convened the meeting, attended by some 25 Copenhagen owners, the police and local council, in order to give advice on how to handle future problems. In order to map the extent of protection rackets in Denmark, the organisation is to send out questionnaires, to which owners can answer anonymously.
“We want to find out whether there are problems elsewhere in the country. We believe that is the case,” says Jørgen Kønigshøfer of the DRC, adding a similar problem in Esbjerg previously had been handled by owners and others speaking openly of the problems and supporting each other.
“This is like an iceberg,” Kønigshøfer tells Politiken.dk after Monday’s meeting ended. “There’s a lot under the surface. We believe this is a major problem and there are many who don’t dare speak of the problems if they have been subjected to extortion,” he adds.
“This is a very serious problem, and when the media has gone home it is still top ptiority for us,” he concludes.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Hits Chinese Solar Companies With Massive Dumping Probe
The European Commission launched an anti-dumping probe into Chinese solar panel imports Thursday, upping the ante in a major trade dispute Beijing insists should be solved by discussion.
The Commission said its action followed the “most significant anti-dumping complaint” it has dealt with so far, putting solar panel imports from China at 21 billion euros ($26.5 billion) last year.
Industry association EU ProSun claimed Chinese solar panels and components were being dumped on the European market at below cost, a charge Beijing rejected while calling for negotiations.
The Chinese commerce ministry said it regretted that the commission went ahead with a probe “despite repeated calls by China to solve the trade dispute on photovoltaic products via consultations and cooperation.
“China expresses deep regret about this.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Investigate Suspected China Solar Panel Dumping
The EU commission said Friday it had started an anti-dumping investigation into imports of solar panels and their key components from China. The inquiry was triggered by a complaint by EU ProSun, an industry association, which says that solar-related imports from China are on the market at too-low a price.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Shooting ‘May be Linked to Armed Gang’, Say Police
Police investigating the slaying of a British family on holiday near Chevaline in the French Alps are looking at links between the shooting and two attempted carjackings by an armed gang last night.
Four masked attackers tried to steal two cars in the Isere region, 50 miles away from the scene where a mother, father and grandmother were gunned down in a BMW. Two young girls, thought to be their daughters, survived the attack with the younger, a four-year-old, hiding beneath her mother’s body for eight hours before she was found. Police are probing possible links with two attempted thefts at gunpoint and said a gang, armed with a pistol, tried to steal a Ford Fiesta at 10pm last night. Then at 1am, the same gang tried to car-jack a Peugeot 205 in nearby Ville-sous-Anjou. France recently tightened its laws on illegal firearms amid a worrying rise in the use of guns by criminals. In July a gunman using an assault rifle shot dead two people and injured five at a nightclub in Lille after being turned away…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: “We’re All Muslims, We’re All Jews”
Some 70 Jewish and Muslim leaders hold unprecedented gathering in Paris, vow ‘zero tolerance’ against religious attacks in Europe
An unprecedented gathering of Muslim and Jewish leaders concluded Wednesday in Paris with 70 religious leaders from across the international community agreeing not only to stand up for each other on matters of joint concern, but also to defend their counterparts whenever they are attacked in Europe
An initiative of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, the conference participants adopted a joint declaration calling for “‘zero tolerance’ against religious leaders of any faith who misuse their pulpits to incite religious bigotry.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France Expects Lowest Grape Yield in Two Decades
France’s wine producers start harvesting in earnest in September. But particularly bad weather in 2012 means some areas anticipate shortfalls of up to 20%. It is likely to be France’s smallest grape harvest since 1991.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Family Massacred in French Alps Bore Trademark of a Professional Hitman
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
The ruthless efficiency with which the murders were carried out suggested strongly that Saad Al-Hilli, his wife Ikbal and the rest of his family were specific targets, and the cyclist killed because he saw too much.
Pictures of the murder scene — in an isolated forest car park, 2.5 miles from the nearest village — show how the BMW was hit with automatic fire before the victims were finished off at point-blank range.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Manhunt Continues for Assassin
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
Engineer Saad Al-Hilli, 50, was born in Iraq and was put under Special Branch surveillance during the second Gulf War. He was ambushed with his family on Wednesday during a family caravanning trip.
In 30 seconds of automatic pistol gunfire, Mr Al-Hilli, his dentist wife Ikbal and her mother were assassinated with single shots to the forehead. The couple’s seven-year-old daughter Zainab was shot, pistolwhipped and left for dead.
Her little sister Zeena, four, was unharmed and hid under her dead mother’s legs for eight terrifying hours before police finally discovered her.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: The Extraordinary Life of the Engineer Victim at the Centre of the Alps Shooting
Stationed on a driveway just yards from their target’s £1million home, British police were said to have spent several weeks tracking the movements of Saad Al-Hilli at the start of the last Gulf War.
Officers thought to be from Special Branch maintained constant surveillance on the aeronautical engineer and his family, regularly following Mr Al-Hilli — who fled Iraq as a boy — and his brother whenever they drove off.
Last night Philip Murphy, a neighbour in the wealthy village of Claygate, Surrey, recalled how police asked if they could use his driveway to spy on the massacre victims’ mock-Tudor house.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Actor’s Anti-Muslim Tweets
Véronique Genest, star of the long-running French television police series Julie Lescaut, has come under attack over a series of Islamophobic comments on Twitter, in which she claimed that Islam is a threat to democracy and aims to impose sharia law on France, declared her admiration for the racist journalist Éric Zemmour and described it as a “histori cal fact” that Muslims are allies of the Nazis.
[JP note: Sounds like a sensible French person to me. Vive la Genest!]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Author Calls for Independence for Bavaria
The southern German state of Bavaria has a bigger population and economy than many European countries. Now one veteran journalist has written a book calling for Bavarian independence. The Bavarians, it seems, still haven’t gotten over the trauma of joining the German Empire in 1871.
Last Thursday, the day when Bavaria’s independence was proclaimed in Berlin, was a historic occasion. It was the day when Horst Seehofer, the famously outspoken leader of the conservative Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, had nothing to say for once.
For weeks, Seehofer and his CSU colleagues Markus Söder and Alexander Dobrindt have been outdoing themselves trying to come up with new insults, directed at the European Union, the Greeks or the rest of Germany, which the wealthy Bavarians resent because of the money they have to transfer to poorer regions under Germany’s system of inter-state equalization payments. But noon came and went, and still there was no attack from Seehofer and his cronies.
It was the day when a man carrying a book took to a podium in Berlin. He wanted to finally draw the logical conclusions from all the things that make Seehofer and his colleagues so angry. The man was Wilfried Scharnagl and he was there to call for Bavaria’s independence from Germany. “Bavaria does not have the place in the world, the rank and the role that would be appropriate because of its history, size and population,” said Scharnagl, who was editor in chief of the Bayernkurier, a weekly newspaper published by the CSU, for 24 years.
Indeed, Bavaria is bigger than most European countries in terms of both population and economy. It has over 12 million people, out of a total German population of 82 million, and an annual economic output of over €440 billion ($550 billion).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Bring Back Your Empties, Munich Brewers Beg
In a last-ditch bid to prevent a slowly unravelling catastrophe to rival the ongoing euro crisis, Munich brewers have called on the city’s beer lovers to return their empty bottles, as shortages have meant that supermarket shelves are empty.
“We have a huge problem with empties,” Heiner Müller, manager of the Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr brewery, told Munich’s TZ newspaper on Thurday, barely two weeks before the Oktoberfest is set to begin. “The situation has worsened dramatically in the past few weeks.”
The paper reported that beer consumption has increased drastically in Munich because of recent fine weather — and the sharp increase has left a shortage of both bottles and crates.
The desperate state of affairs led Müller to launch into a dramatic plea in the paper. “Dear Munichers — bring back your crates,” he implored. “We need our empties!”
“We have this problem every summer, but we’ve never had it as bad as this year,” said Stefan Hempl, spokesman for the Hofbräu brewery. “We’re tens of thousands of bottles short.”
The crisis has led to Hofbräu prioritizing its two most popular beers — Helles and Wiesnbier. “At the moment we could have a situation where we don’t have any dark beer for a few days,” said Hempl, sending a chill down many Bavarian spines.
Hofbräu have also taken to warning retailers that orders will only be filled if they bring empties back.
The Spaten and Löwenbräu breweries, meanwhile, are running short of 30-litre barrels. “We can still fulfil all the orders, but it’s getting tight,” said Oliver Bartelt of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the parent company behind both much-loved Oktoberfest staples.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Great Green Energy Hope for Germany and India
As Germany and India mark 60 years of diplomatic relations, and with trade between the two countries booming, a huge opportunity is opening for the countries to cooperate in the renewable energy sector, argues Vijeta Rattani.
Trade between Germany and India is set to top €20 billion this year — no country of the European Union is more important to India for business.
As the Asian giant’s economy continues to grow it creates a seemingly unquenchable thirst for energy — much of which will have to come from renewable sources. And the government is serious about promoting the industry, creating huge opportunities for German industry, seen as a global leader in the field.
The numbers show how much is needed — there are more than 1.2 billion people living in India and a persistent economic growth rate of six to seven percent. The government’s budget report for 2012-13 says India needs to more than double its current installed generation capacity to over 300 gigawatts by 2017 to be able to provide the people and economy with what is needed.
The issue of climate change and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is firmly on the agenda, leading Indian authorities to look to Germany for cooperation and inspiration.
There are many domestic Indian initiatives, such as the National Solar Mission, established in 2009 to try to tap into the Indian solar power potential of up to 5,000 TWh (terrawatt hours) per annum. And the Indian government is planning to encourage development and attract investment in the renewable field with tax breaks, loans, tax holidays and subsidies for foreign and domestic investors.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Leader Urges EU to Blacklist Hezbollah
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Italy’s foreign minister the EU should designate Hezbollah as a terrorist entity. But EU diplomats are wary of the move.
“There is one … effort that I think Europe could make to advance the cause of security and peace, and that is to declare Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, a terrorist organisation. It is exactly that. It’s the world’s leading terror organisation, and Europe could contribute much by declaring it for what it is,” he said at a meeting with Italy’s Giulio Terzi in Jerusalem on Wednesday (5 September).
The statement is the latest in a campaign to EU-list the Lebanese group after Israel and the US blamed it for bombing Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria in July.
Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman at the time asked Cyprus, the current EU presidency, to start talks on the decision.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Liechtenstein Mulls Lifting Banking Secrecy
Liechtenstein is considering automatically sharing information on bank accounts held by foreigners in the Alpine nation, enabling taxation by their home countries, Prime Minister Klaus Tschütscher said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday.
“One can ask oneself if an automatic information exchange is not more attractive” than a system Switzerland has negotiated with several European countries that allows foreign account-holders to remain anonymous, Tschütscher told the Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger.
According to the agreements Switzerland has reached with Germany, Austria and Britain, and which it is negotiating with Italy and Greece, foreigners with non-declared funds in Switzerland maintain their anonymity, but their assets are taxed by Bern, which in turn transfers the revenues to their country of origin.
Liechtenstein has been in talks with Germany since 2009 to find a way for Berlin to tax German holders’ undeclared accounts in the country.
If the German parliament ratifies the Swiss tax deal, Tschütscher said his country would take note and would likely move in the same direction.
But if Germany does not ratify that deal, Liechtenstein will instead look closer at the pertinence of an automatic information exchange system, he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scottish Government Reshuffle: The New Faces
The new Minister for External Affairs and International Development, Humza Yousaf, is widely viewed as one of the brightest of the SNP’s intake from the party’s 2011 landslide election victory.
Mr Yousaf’s elevation to the ministerial ranks means that the 27-year-old becomes the first Muslim minister since the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. But what has marked Mr Yousaf out since his election as an MSP last year is his status as one of Alex Salmond’s favoured sons and his high profile in the media.
He previously worked in Mr Salmond’s constituency office in Peterhead. He also worked for the first Muslim MSP, the late Bashir Ahmad, as well as formerSNP MSP Anne McLaughlin. He was also a communications officer at the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh ahead of his election as an MSP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: £500k Purpose-Built Mosque in Lincoln Moves Closer to Reality
Detailed plans for a mosque on an old dairy site in Lincoln have been submitted to city hall. Full planning permission is now being sought for the place of worship at the old Boultham Park Dairy.
If approved, the mosque would comprise 1,019 square metres of floor space over two storeys. It would be made from yellow-coloured brick, to purposely mirror the colour of Lincolnshire limestone used in many civic and public buildings in Lincoln. Its position off Dixon Street would be arranged around the need in Islam to angle the direction of prayer towards Mecca, which from Lincoln is 120.08 degrees. The Islamic Association of Lincoln’s £500,000-plus project was approved in principle nearly a year ago…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Butch Cameron Rides Again at PMQ’s
by Michale White
Over the summer both party leaders had clearly spent some swimming pool time thinking up wounding jokes
For a brief shining moment on Wednesday David Cameron and Ed Miliband agreed about something. On their resumption of ritual hostilities at PMQs they agreed that the double Olympics have been a great success for all concerned, one which thrilled and united the country, not least when the stadium crowd booed George Osborne…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cameron: Man or Mouse? Man — and Butcher!
by Paul Goodman
A list of nearly the whole new Government has now been published:
- Cameron the butcher: The official list shows 26 Commons Ministers as having been fired. That’s roughly a third of the Tory total. So the answer to the question “Cameron — man or mouse?” is: man & butcher.
- And finally…Why are there now no Liberal Democrats at the Foreign Office and Defence? Do they know something we don’t? Jolly unhelpful to the Coalition Government, you know, if Israel bombs Iran, to have no LibDems taking departmenal responsibility for decisions…
[Reader comment by Michael Stevas on 6 September 2012 at 09:52 am.]
Chit-chat about the detail of this reshuffle is wasted breath: yesterdays Telegraph leader writers and Allister Heath had it right, John Redwood on his blog (guardedly) too. Those at the sharp end of the economy, and the general public, will regard this largely with indifference. The decision by Cameron’s government to kick the Heathrow can down the road yet again is a perfect illustration of this government’s feebleness, indecision and cowardice. No amount of reshuffling compensates for the fundamental absence of political grit at Downing Street.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Couple Who Shot Masked Burglars ‘Can Hold Their Heads High’
A couple arrested after shooting at masked burglars who broke into their isolated cottage ‘can hold their heads high’, a Government Minister has said, after it was announced they will not face charges.
Andy and Tracey Ferrie were questioned by police for more than two days following the incident in Welby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, early on Sunday. The couple, the victims of three previous break-ins, were confronted in their bedroom by several men who had smashed their way into their home. Using a legally held shotgun, one pulled the trigger on the intruders, leaving two with minor wounds. Yesterday it was announced the Crown Prosecution Service would not bring charges. Government minister Alan Duncan said he was delighted that the CPS had “seen sense”. The decision came after Mr Duncan, MP for Rutland and Melton MP, said the real crime would be if the couple were prosecuted for defending their home…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ed Miliband Wants a Move Away From Redistribution; Ed Balls Says ‘Tax the Rich Till Their Conservatories Squeak’
by Dan Hodges
[…]
Ed Miliband is starting to look, albeit tangentially, at ways of addressing the new economic and political realities. But then up pops Ed Balls in the Independent. “Exclusive — I’m planning a proper wealth tax”, announces Labour’s shadow chancellor. And not one of those wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed temporary taxes floated by that milquetoast Nick Clegg. Oh no; a great big, butch, Mack Daddy of a wealth tax: “The likes of a mansion tax need to be on the table to be looked at,” he said. Again, I think the idea is worthy of consideration. The 50p tax cut was a political disaster for George Osborne, and there’s nothing wrong with Labour looking at ways of exploiting that anger.
But you can’t have your wealth tax and eat it. Or more specifically, you can’t have the leader of the party announcing a move away from old-style redistribution on the same day your shadow chancellor is announcing “I’m going to tax them till their conservatories squeak”.
“It’s extraordinary”, said one shadow cabinet insider. “This wealth tax idea wasn’t discussed at shadow cabinet. Cameron’s shift to the Right this week gave us an opportunity to duck back inside them. Instead we’re still trying to woo back disaffected Lib Dems”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fears Over Revival of Mega-Mosque Plan
by Ellen Widdup
An Islamic group will this week relaunch its bid to build a 12,000-capacity “mega-mosque” next to the Olympic site. The Tablighi Jamaat group, a Muslim missionary movement once described as an “ante-chamber of fundamentalism”, wants to build Britain’s biggest place of worship in West Ham. It will have 40ft minarets, a library, a visitor centre and a 300-space car park at the Canning Road site. The scheme has aroused years of intense opposition since the group first submitted plans in 1999. In 2001, it agreed that worship would only be on a temporary basis. Permission expired in 2006 but the group continued to use the site. In 2010, the council issued an enforcement notice but it successfully appealed against it last year and more than 5,000 people a week now worship at the site which houses several pre-fab buildings.
A spokesman for Newham council’s planning department said: “We are expecting another application by the end of this week and will then start a formal consultation process.”
Opponents say Tablighi Jamaat is a “sect” that preaches “separation and segregation”. Two of the 7/7 bombers, Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan, are believed to have prayed at a Tablighi mosque in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and French intelligence officials said the group was an “antechamber of fundamentalism”. Alan Craig, campaign director of MegaMosque No Thanks and a former Newham councillor, said: “The community is concerned about the harm this will have on Newham. It is inappropriately large, but we also have worries about the group behind it.”
Dr Jenny Taylor, who runs charity Lapido Media which aims to create better understanding of religious affairs, said it was important for those opposed to the Tablighi Jamaat to understand its structure rather than simpl y brand it as a terrorist recruiting organisation. She is behind the launch of a new series of books — Handy Books on Religion in World Affairs — the first of which tackles the complexities of the global missionary movement thought to be a key influence on Muslim terrorists targeting Britain. “To have harboured terrorists does not necessarily mean that Tablighi Jamaat is therefore a hotbed of terrorism, but it does mean we need to take it much more seriously,” she said. “Especially in light of their plans for the mosque. This group is often misunderstood. Their apparent desire to integrate is at odds with their dress, speech, observance and writings, which require them to be distinctive. They are deeply spiritual, yet many terrorists have found succour in their midst.”
The group maintains that its main objective is peaceful missionary work. A spokesman for Anjuman-E-Islahul-Muslimeen of London UK Trust, Tablighi Jamaat’s charitable trust and the site’s own er, said: “The door is always open and we are happy to meet and discuss in depth our proposals.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Howard Davies? This Government Must Have a Death Wish
by Iain Martin
[…]
There is a quite a lot that this government does which qualifies for the word unbelievable. But appointing Sir Howard scoops the pot. In the meeting in Number 10 to decide this was there really not a point at which someone sensible said: “Erm, Sir Howard Davies? The FSA and then the Libyan School of Economics? Really best not, Prime Minister.”
[…]
Boris must think it is Christmas.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lutfur’s Shiraj Haque Convicted
Well, well, well…we were perhaps a little too quick to question the resolve of some at Tower Hamlets council to stand up to Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s self-styled financial backer Shiraj Haque. So hats off to Stephen Halsey, the council’s director of Communities, Localities and Culture Directorate at Tower Hamlets council (and who is also the current Head of Paid Service, pending the ongoing fiasco to hire a permanent chief executive.) For, only a year after handing millionaire housing association tenant Shiraj control of the lucrative Baishakhi Mela, Halsey’s trading standards and environmental health enforcement teams have managed to force a significant guilty admission from the Brick Lane curry king…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: MCB’s Secretary General Writes to Channel 4 Chairman and Chief Executive on ‘Islam: The Untold Story’
Farooq Murad, the Secretary General of the Muslim Council, has written to the Chairman of Channel 4, Lord Burns and Chief Executive of Channel 4, Mr David Abraham, registering the Muslim community’s strong disapproval of the programme.
Letter to Lord Burns, Chairman, Channel 4
Dear Lord Burns,
In the past, the Muslim Council of Britain has written to Channel 4 to both praise and hold to account its presentation of Islam and Muslims. I am afraid I am writing to you now to voice concern about the broadcaster’s recent attempt, Islam: the Untold Story. We are puzzled why the broadcaster chose to feature the work of a pop historian who has come to study the religion of Islam so recently. Reflecting his book, the documentary turned out to be poorly researched, badly presented and grossly unbalanced. As with the manufactured controversy surrounding the book, Tom Holland tried to uncover a ‘revelation’, something ‘untold’ about Islam. Yet, nothing new is offered…
Tom Holland’s insistence on finding monuments, inscriptions, immortalising Prophet Muhammad (on whom be peace) demonstrates his total lack of understanding of both Islam and its Prophet. For Muhammad never wanted to be worshipped or be immortalised. As Edward Gibbon pointed out, as early as 1823: “Muhammad despised the pomp of royalty”…
[JP note: Puzzling indeed and what will the poor Lord Burns make of it all.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The New Jerusalem Should Look Like Palo Alto
by Chris Skidmore
Our series on fresh Tory thinking argues that Britain could be the next technology capital
Where does Britain want to be in the world in 10, 20, 50 years’ time? Right now, two paths lie ahead of us. The first leads to the convenient lowland plain of managed decline, where we choose to carry on as we are, content to be another Sweden or Switzerland, as private capital and investment are slowly eroded, sapped by the burgeoning agenda of the state and its public sector interests. But there is an alternative route, one that will take both effort and all our strength to scale. If we want to restore our nation to its place in the world, it is the only journey worth taking. The world isn’t going to wait for us…
[Reader comment by quickswimmer on 6 September 2012 at 00:23 am.]
This bright spark MP has clearly not considered demographics in this country when using the crystal ball and asking where the country will be in 50 yrs time. If you want to see the country’s future take a day trip to somewhere like Bradford, Rochdale or Blackburn. Their today is the country’s tomorrow. For those that can’t make the trip, I can assure you they do NOT look like Silicon Valley.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Increases Its Cultural Footprint in the Balkans
The restoration works are galvanising Turkey’s esteem and influence throughout the Balkan region. Turkey has been taking a multidimensional foreign policy approach in the Balkan region, with one of its focuses on the preservation of history. The Turkish International Co-operation and Development Agency (TIKA) has been conducting important restoration projects throughout the Balkan countries, which were under Ottoman rule from the 15th to the 19th century, to preserve cultural and historical heritage. During the Ottoman reign, 15,787 structures were built, including tombs, mosques, medreses, hamams (Turkish baths), bridges and fountains. However, due to the wars in the region, most of them have been seriously damaged…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Citizens Exchange Programme in the Mediterranean Launched
Anna Lindh Foundation focuses on young people,deadline October 3
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 5 — The Anna Lindh Foundation is launching a Citizens Exchange Programme in the Euro-Mediterranean Region, with particular focus on the cultural exchange among Arab civil society organisations, and between European and Arab civil society organisations (CSOs). According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), the Foundation is seeking to engage young people who are active in their communities and have a long-term vision of change. The Citizens Exchange Programme (which runs from 2012-2014) supports the exchange of active young CSO members in the Euro-Med region for a period of 1 to 3 months. In principle, the Programme is a traineeship service to work on projects related to the following Foundation ‘4D’ themes: Dialogue, Diversity, Democracy and Development.
The Exchange will work on two main modalities: an organisation can send and host at the same time a Citizen Exchange Actor (CEA) for the same period of time or an organisation can only send a CEA to be hosted by another organisation. Special preference will be given to the Twinning Scheme model. This call is open to registered Civil Society Organisations operating in the Euro-Mediterranean Region. The deadline for receiving applications is 3 October 2012. The official launching event of the Citizens for Dialogue Programme will be held in Cairo at the end of October 2012 in partnership with the EU Delegation in Egypt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Risking Death, Man Tears Up Koran in Egypt; Islamists Now Openly Call for Murder of Infidels
By Raymond Ibrahim
An Egyptian sheik calling for death to a man who ripped up a Koran on a YouTube video on the Egyptian television station Al Hafiz.
Recently an Egyptian Muslim posted a YouTube videotape of himself cursing Islam and its holy book, the Koran; then tearing it to pieces and throwing it in the garbage. Here are excerpts of what he said:
There it is, Allah’s book; this is the basic catastrophe. I don’t know what day it is of this disgusting month of Ramadan. You are making the tearing of the Quran such a big and dangerous thing… it is instinctive to tear up this book, those sons of [profanity] think they can threaten me and challenge me not to tear up the Quran, but I want to prove to them that they are nothing, and what is the big deal in tearing up this book?! There it is [he starts tearing the Quran] in the trash. Are you feeling better now? You cannot touch a hair on my head. We keep blaming Hamas and Gaza, but it is not them, it is this son of [profanity] book that I am stepping on right now. That book is the source of all evil and the real catastrophe. There is nothing new here; it is not Omar Abdel Rahman, Abbud or all the others: it is this garbage that is causing us to run in a demonic, never-ending circle that will never end.
This latest Koran desecration is a reminder of the new Egypt-not merely that there are everyday Egyptians who are sick of the Islamization of Egypt, but aghast at what is in store for them…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Sidi Bouzid Runs Dry After Salafists Destroy Last Remaining Bar
Tunisia’s western city of Sidi Bouzid is now dry. The last remaining bar was forced to close earlier this week after it was ransacked by a mob of religious extremists. Although the establishment had long been targeted by threats, its owner chose to keep his doors open, believing the local authorities’ promises to protect his business.
Chanting “al-Charab haram” (“alcohol is sin”), dozens of Salafists burst into Sidi Bouzid’s Horchani hotel on Monday, September 3. The throng of men quickly homed in on the hotel’s liquor stock, seizing bottles of alcohol and throwing them against the walls or smashing them on the floor.
The incident comes around four months after the city’s Salafist community first launched a war against alcohol consumption, pressuring or intimidating several bars into shutting down. Those who tried to resist saw their businesses come under attack, much like the Horchani hotel.
Local authorities have shown reluctance to officially condemn the acts. After a string of violence incidents in May, Sidi Bouzid’s governor actually urged businesses serving alcohol to relocate out of the city centre, as a way to move them out of the sight of mosques, as well as women and children.
The governor’s comments were applauded by some residents, many of whom support the Salafist’s “cleansing” efforts. There have even been incidents where residents called Salafists to complain about noise coming, for the most part, from venues selling alcohol without the appropriate license.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Arabs Protest Wine Festival Near Mosque
Arab, Islamic leaders across globe say festival, set to be held in courtyard of Beersheba mosque, is insult to Muslims. ‘Purpose of holding festival near mosque is to wipeout Palestinian identity,’ says OIC statement
The Beersheba wine festival which is slated to take place on Wednesday has sparked a flurry of angry reactions mainly among Israeli Bedouin leaders who have erected a tent in protest, but also among leaders in the Arab world. The reason for the unprecedented protest is majorly attributed to the site of the wine festival — the courtyard of Beersheba’s largest and oldest Mosque…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Terra Incognita: The Re-Islamification of Beersheba
The manufactured controversy over a wine festival is part of increasingly chauvinistic power politics sweeping the Negev’s Beduin community.
A week ago it was reported that political leaders among the Israeli-Arab and Beduin community were gearing up to protest a wine festival in Beersheba. Both Adalah, a legal aid center for Arabs, and the southern branch of the Islamic Movement petitioned courts to intervene to stop the festival. In the end the municipality caved and moved the festival slightly to accommodate the protesters.
Ostensibly the dispute was about the location of the event: In proximity to an old Ottoman-era Mosque. But throughout the discussion about the event there was always a hidden current of a larger struggle. According to reports, Adalah claimed that not only the wine festival was a problem but other events at the site, which is a museum, “constitute a continuous offense to local Muslim residents, Beduin in particular.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Key Allies in Middle East Invite Iran to Syria Talks
Three key American allies have invited Iran to help try to thrash out a solution to the Syrian crisis, threatening to sideline the West as the region is reshaped by the “Arab Spring”.
Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia’s plans to join Iran in forming a new “quartet” to negotiate an end to the civil war were announced by Egypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohammed Morsi, at a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo yesterday. The decision to include Iran in the face of attempts by the West to exclude it from negotiations over Syria is a clear snub to their historic backers. The United States at the same time chose to highlight Iran’s continued to support for the Assad regime in its fight against the Free Syrian Army.
Senior officials leaked to the New York Times details of flights from Iran crossing Iraqi air space to resupply the Syrian army. One western diplomat reacted to the formation of the new quartet by repeating the West’s oft-expressed view that “Iran’s part would be anything but constructive”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens Dead After Turkey Migrant Boat Sinks
A boat carrying migrants has capsized off the coast of western Turkey, with the loss of at least 58 lives. Another 45 of those on board were rescued from the sea. Those who died, said to include several children, had been below deck, Turkish media said.
The fishing boat was said to have been carrying mainly Iraqi and Syrian nationals heading for Europe. The Greek islands in the Aegean Sea are a common destination for migrants who pay smugglers to take them from Turkey.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Qantas, Emirates Ink 10-Year Partnership
Qantas Airways Ltd. on Thursday signed a 10-year partnership deal with rival Emirates, ending a long-term relationship with British Airways in a bid by the Australian airline to boost its struggling international division.
Under the alliance, Qantas will move its hub for European flights from Singapore to Dubai, coordinate with Emirates on ticket prices and scheduling and apply a benefit-sharing model starting in April 2013. The deal is subject to regulatory approval. Qantas said it will end its 17-year alliance with British Airways on March 31, 2013.
Neither Emirates nor Qantas will take equity in the other under the deal.
“This is the most significant partnership the Qantas Group has ever formed with another airline, moving past the traditional alliance model to a new level,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement.
The deal is an effort by Qantas to save its money-losing international operation. Last month, the airline reported a 245 million Australian dollar ($249 million) annual loss and blamed the result on rising fuel prices, a series of worker strikes and its international division, which lost AU$450 million. It was the first time since Qantas went private in 1995 that the airline — nicknamed the “Flying Kangaroo” — reported a net loss.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Security: Cyprus Asked to Beef Up Protection for Israelis
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, SEPTEMBER 6 — Cyprus’ government has been asked to beef up security in resorts popular with Israeli tourists, according to local dailies quoting the Israeli Jerusalem Post. “We’ve identified a continuation of the Iranian global campaign to launch terror attacks on Israelis,” Jerusalem Post quoted a defense official as saying. “We’re sending messages to every country hosting Israeli tourists,” the source added. “It is very disturbing to see Iran, as a terrorist state, wage this determined campaign,” he said. In July a Lebanese man was detained by Cyprus police for planning attacks against Israeli tourists. The arrest was made after police received information from Israeli intelligence. The man was in possession of photographs of Israeli targets, and information on Israeli airlines flying back and forth from Cyprus. The man will stand trial on September 12 in Limassol and faces nine charges of security-related offences.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Rebels Trained in Refugee Camps on Turkish Border
Ankara claims that the Apaydin camp in the province of Hatay is home to former Syrian military and their families displaced by the Assad regime. But parliament has never discussed the creation of the camp. Authorities prohibit any access to preserve the security of refugees who considered “special”. In reality, the camp is a military base where the rebels of the ‘Free Syrian Army are trained and from which they depart daily to fight against Assad.
Ankara (AsiaNews / Bianet) — Fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) leave the Apaydin camp in the southern province of Hatay after daybreak to cross the border into Syria and fight the Al-Assad regime, only to return back to the camp toward evening, Abu Hussein, the commander of an FSA unit. “We are deeply thankful to the Turkish government and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for receiving us with open arms,” said Abu Hussein, who commands about 50 troops.
The Turkish authorities announced that the Apaydin camp in Hatay’s Antakya district hosts officers of the Syrian army who deserted the Al-Assad regime and declared the camp to be an area prohibited to entry on due to reasons of security. The officials, however, are yet to offer an explanation about the domestic or international legal foundations on which the camp was established.
Official statements also indicated the inhabitants of the camp were Syrian army deserters, for which reason their names had to remain confidential.
The question of whether the Syrian Army actually has no clue about the identities of its deserting troops or not, however, still continues to linger in the air. As such, questions about the exact difference between residents of the Apaydin camp and the inhabitants of other refugee camps also warrant a reply. Whether all the camp dwellers in Apaydin are of Syrian extraction, of if they also include others coming from countries such as Tunisia, Yemen, Chechnya and Afghanistan is yet another question that needs to be answered.
The public continues to wonder about the circumstances under which the camp dwellers cross into Syria through border controls, how many Syrians have come to Turkey under the status of refugees, how many of them cross the border and how often.
And what does the government have to say regarding the allegations that these troops go to war into Syria in the morning and arrive back in the camp in Turkey at night? Has Parliament ever taken up the issue of establishing a camp under such a status?
Turkey’s sights, therefore, are fixed on the “Apaydin Accomodation Facilities.”
Confirmation of military activity
On 27 August, after a delegation of the opposition Republican People Party (CHP) was denied access to the camp, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs said: “Civilian and military refugees have different statuses. The [refugees’] approval is also required to enter military encampments. It is normal for those taking refuge as security forces to be subject to special treatment. “ Even Bulent Arinc, the deputy prime minister, said that there are Syrian army deserters and their families in the camp and to protect their lives, access has been denied to politicians, but also to generals and colonels. Hatay Governor Celalettin Lekesiz also echoed the deputy prime minister’s statement and said Syrian soldiers and their families fleeing from Al-Assad had taken refuge in the camp. “ News reports indicating that Syrian rebels are receiving training in the Apaydin camp, and that Syrians are in control [there,] are out of line with reality,” the head of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Emergencies (Afad) said in a statement.
Survival means crossing the border with Turkey
Abu Hussein, however, confirms that “there is military training in the camp where we are staying at, but the Turkish government does not allow us to roam about with arms.” “We come and leave Turkey on a daily basis. We are staying at a tent camp right across the other side of the border. [We] go to war in the morning and return to the camp toward evening. We can cross the border with no difficulty.” “Turkey — said Hussein — provides logistical support for us. Turkey is covering for our needs of food, drinks and medicine. We are also receiving aid from other countries, too. Our current goal is to form a buffer zone in Idlib, which is an area close to the border. “ “ The Syrian Army besieged us on the Syrian side three days ago”, he adds. “We made it alive by crossing into the Turkish side of the border. If the regime falls, then we want to build a free country. We want to establish a system like in Turkey”.
* Courtesy of Turkish website Bia News Center (bianet.org/english )
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Premier Vows to Pray in Damascus Mosque ‘Soon’
The Syrian crisis continues to lead rhetoric among Turkish politicians, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan once again accusing main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kýlýçdaroðlu of siding with the Baath regime over the Syrian people, in a speech Aug. 5. “The CHP will not dare to go to Damascus tomorrow, you will see it. But we will go there in the shortest possible time, if Allah wills it; and embrace our brothers. That day is close. We will pray near the grave of Salahaddin Ayyubi and pray in the Umayyad Mosque. We will pray for our brotherhood freely in Hejaz Railway Station,” Erdoðan said, speaking at an extended group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), held at the party’s headquarters…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Kabul Attack on Female Actors Leaves Survivors Facing More ‘Punishment’
Killing reveals depth of Afghan society’s prejudices against women
Even after the taunts and threats for appearing on TV, and whispered criticism of “immodest” outfits, the attack on actor sisters Areza and Tamana, and their friend Benafsha, came as a surprise. The trio were minutes from moving out of a neighbourhood in which conservative locals made them feel unwelcome, walking to meet a minivan full of their possessions, when six men surrounded them in a lane, lined with high-walled compounds. They left Benafsha bleeding to death outside a mosque with stab wounds, and the injured sisters desperately seeking help. “I didn’t see the TV programme, I just heard the local boys saying that one of them played a role with boys,” said Yaqin Ali Khalili, owner of a shop that the women frequented. “The hatred of the people here is the reason she was killed, I am 100% sure,” he added…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Almost 300 Christian Children Abducted and Forcibly Converted to Islam in Bangladesh
Taken by intermediaries after they convince village families to pay for an education at pseudo hostels, the children are in fact brought to madrassas (Islamic schools) where imams force them to abjure Christianity. The latest case has a happy ending however when 11 children were able to escape from captivity.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — In Bangladesh, Christian children from Tripuri tribes have been taken away from their villages and forcibly converted to Islam. Local Catholic sources, who asked their names be withheld, told AsiaNews that almost 300 children have been taken to madrassas (Islamic schools).
The story is the same. So-called intermediaries, who are also ethnic Tripuri, visit poverty-stricken communities where they convince families to send their children to a mission hostel, charging between 6,000 and 15,000 taka (US$ 500 to 1,200) for school and board. After pocketing the money, the intermediaries sell the children to Islamic schools elsewhere in the country.
The latest case involved 11 children, ten boys and a girl, from Thanchi, Ruma and Lama in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Their story has a happy ending though. After six months of threats and violence, the children were able to escape thanks Hotline Human Rights Trust, a Dhaka-based civil rights organisation that defends minorities run by a Catholic woman, Rosaline Costa.
Tripuri are one of the many tribal groups found in Bangladesh. Most are Christian, both Catholic and Protestants, especially in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, in south-eastern Bangladesh.
Radical Muslims are engaged in a campaign against Christian missionaries whom they accuse of proselytising and forcibly converting others in order to create a Christian majority in the area so that it can be annexed to India.
In the latest case, the first eight boys were taken in January and February and brought to the Darul Huda Islami School in Mia Para village (Gazipur). The girl was placed in a madrassa (whose name she could not tell) in Muhammadpur, Dhaka. The other two boys were brought to another Darul Huda Islami in Maddha Badda (Gulshan, Dhaka).
Their days included Arabic lessons (8-12 AM), Qur’an reading (Nurani Shikkha, 2-5 PM) and five daily prayers.
In their respective madrassas, the children found other tribal Christians, many even younger themselves. They also saw acts of physical violence when children missed prayers or refused to take part in a lesson. In fact, after she was rescued, the girl showed scars to the hand, where she was struck with a cane.
In June, the desire to escape was kindled when imams announced that the boys would be circumcised, and that if they were ready to give their lives for Islam, they would be compensated with beheshta or heaven since no other religion could lead them there.
Scared, the first eight boys asked a Hindu family that lived near the school for help. They told their stories, asking them to contact their parents. When the latter found out what had happened to their children, they contacted the Hotline Trust to save them. Four boys escaped on 4 July; the other four on 13 July.
When the other two (somewhat older) boys found out about their escape, they too fled and contacted the Hotline Trust on their own.
The girl’s rescue was a bit more complicated. She was saved only after another girl escaped and told people in her village what had happened. The girl’s parents then contacted the madrassa huju or teacher asking him to let her go. The latter said the father had to come and get her.
At the school, the teacher tried to provoke the father, denigrating the Bible and accusing Christians of adultery and immorality. The father put up with the insults and eventually took his daughter home on 13 July.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Soviet Soldier Considers Himself a ‘Proud Afghan’
Noor Mohammad is one of dozens of Soviet soldiers who went over to enemy lines in Afghanistan. Today, he has an Afghan wife and six children. He never wants to go back to Russia.
“I came to Afghanistan to fight, to serve my country as a soldier,” says Siberian-born Noor Mohammad. “I didn’t know my government was killing people here and that’s what my task would be.”
“Either you kill or you are killed. That’s what being a soldier means,” he says in Dari.
He explains, not without a touch of pride, that things were different then, back in the 1980s when he was still known as Sergei Yurevich Krasnoperov and the Soviet Union was a mighty world power.
Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in December 1979 to crush the uprising against the pro-communist government. They withdrew almost 10 years later. By then at least half a million Afghans had been killed as well as some 15,000 Russian soldiers.
During the war, thousands of Soviet troops deserted the invasion, and dozens, including Noor Mohammad, converted to Islam, changed their names and joined the mujahedeen.
“They took me in and I became part of their movement — jihad against the unbelievers,” he explains.
Although he did not fight on the front, he had plenty to do: “One person would make sure the tank was ready, another would fill it up with gas. I would load the munitions or take care of the provisions. All that was also part of the war.”
His new life was nothing like the one he had led in Kurgan in the West Siberian Plain. “I wasn’t religious before. We didn’t respect anything except for vodka and girls. My parents were Christian, but I was interested in other things. I was young,” he says with a laugh.
Today, he has an Afghan wife and six children. The mujahedeen made sure he married early so he would feel more connected to his adopted homeland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How to Commit Blasphemy in Pakistan
by Mohammed Hanif
The country’s blasphemy law is overwhelmingly being used to persecute religious minorities and settle personal vendettas. As the case of 14-year-old Christian Rimsha Masih gains global attention, why have politicians failed to act?
Fourteen years ago, around the time young Rimsha Masih, now in jail under Pakistan’s blasphemy law, was born, a Roman Catholic bishop walked into a courthouse in Sahiwal, quite close to my hometown in Central Punjab. The Right Rev John Joseph was no ordinary clergyman; he was the first native bishop in Pakistan and the first ever Punjabi bishop anywhere in the world. He was also a brilliant and celebrated community organiser, the kind of man oppressed communities look up to as a role model. Joseph walked in alone, asking a junior priest to wait outside the courthouse. Inside the court, he took out a handgun and shot himself in the head. The bullet in his head was his protest against the court’s decision to sentence a fellow Christian, Ayub Masih, to death for committing blasphemy. Masih had been charged with arguing with a Muslim co-worker over religious matters. The exact content of the conversation cannot be repeated here because that would be blasphemous. The bishop had campaigned long and hard to get the blasphemy law repealed without any luck. He wrote prior to his death: “I shall count myself extremely fortunate if in this mission of breaking the barriers, our Lord accepts the sacrifice of my blood for the benefit of his people.”
Joseph had been pursuing another case, in which an 11-year-old, Salamat Masih, along with his father and uncle, was accused of scribbling something blasphemous on the wall of the mosque. We don’t really know what he wrote, because reproducing it, here or in court, would constitute blasphemy. The boy’s uncle, Manzoor Masih, was shot dead during the trial. The Masih case went to the high court, where a judge, Arif Bhatti, applied common sense and released him. A year later the judge was murdered in his own chambers, and his killers claimed that the judge had committed blasphemy by freeing those accused in the blasphemy case. Frustrated and in a fit of rage, the bishop meditated and reached the conclusion that he should kill himself publicly to make his point. You could argue that Joseph should have organised candlelight vigils, gone on a hunger strike, hired better lawyers. But he had tried everything and realised that a bullet in the head in the middle of a court was his only way to draw attention to this colossal absurdity called blasphemy law. He was wrong. The law stayed. Many more Christians were killed…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India at Crossroads on Path to Superpower Status
Poverty is still rampant in India and chaos remains a defining characteristic. But the country is also a global leader in high tech, has become the world’s leading weapons importer and is planning a mission to Mars. On the way to superpower status, India must first overcome deep-seated corruption and internal division.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is Pakistan’s Hard Line on Blasphemy Softening?
by William Dalrymple
The Rimsha Masih case points to a dawning realisation
It is rare these days to read any good news coming out of Pakistan. It is rarer still to read good news concerning matters of religion. However, in one week two stories seem to show that Pakistan is for once bringing the force of law to bear on those who abuse religion to provoke violence against minorities. Last Sunday Mohammed Khalid Chisti, the mullah who had accused a 14-year-old Christian girl, Rimsha Masih, of blasphemy, was himself arrested and charged with the same law. The turnaround took place after the muezzin of his mosque gave evidence that he had framed the girl and falsified evidence. More remarkable still, the far-from- moderate All Pakistan Ulema Council came to Rimsha’s defence, calling her “a daughter of the nation” and denouncing Chisthi: “Our heads are bowed with shame for what he did.”
[…]
[JP note: It would be rarer still to find William Dalrymple not acting as an apologist for the evil that is Islam.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
McDonald’s to Open First Ever Vegetarian-Only Restaurant Next to Golden Temple in Indian Holy City of Amritsar
McDonald’s will open its first ever vegetarian-only restaurant in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, the fast food chain said today.
The world’s second-biggest restaurant chain after Subway tailors its menus to suit local tastes, which in India means no beef to avoid offending Hindus and no pork to cater for Muslim requirements.
The first vegetarian outlet will open its doors mid-next year near the Golden Temple in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in northern India, where religious authorities forbid consumption of meat at the shrine.
Rajesh Kumar Maini, a spokesman for McDonald’s in northern India, said: ‘It will be the first time we have opened a vegetarian restaurant.
‘There is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants (in India) as many Indians are vegetarian.’
After the opening in Amritsar, the US chain has plans to open another vegetarian outlet near the Vaishno Devi cave shrine in northwestern Indian Kashmir — a revered Hindu pilgrimage site that draws hundreds of thousands of worshippers year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Rimsha Masih and the March of Unreason
by Robert Colvile
As if you weren’t depressed enough about the state of the world, here’s a lovely quote about Israel to cheer you up. Apparently, “in that country they are all liars. They keep whining all the time about the Holocaust, or whatever it’s called.” The fantastic, gobsmacking ignorance on show here belongs not to some firebrand preacher, or Iranian imam, but to an ordinary Egyptian actress, Mayer El Beblawi. “Allah did not curse the worm and moth as much as he cursed the Jews,” she opined, thinking she was among (Arab) friends. Once she was told that she was actually appearing on Israeli TV, she clammed up — only for it all to be revealed that it was one great candid camera set-up. As Jake Wallis Simons reported in his disturbing blogpost earlier this week, other victims responded by punching the presenter, assaulting the producer, and even drawing a gun.
This is a phenomenon that ought to worry us all — not so much the persistence of anti-Semitism, as the mainstreaming of unthinking bigotry. You can see it in Pakistan, where a Christian teenager, Rimsha Masih, is still rotting in jail as she faced trial for blasphemy — a capital crime. She stands accused of burning pages from the Koran, despite the fact that she has learning difficulties and/or Down’s Syndrome, and that the imam who provided the evidence has been arrested for attempting to frame her…
[Reader comment by icarustwo on 6 September 2012 at about 10:45 am.]
It beggars the imagination that we have diplomatic relations with Pakistan let alone permit them in the Commonwealth. Pakistan with Wahabbist finance is the primary generator of terrorism in the world, the govt knows it, the US has proved it by winkling out Osama bin L. We continue in Afghanistan to fight the Islamist terrorists with the full knowledge that Pakistan is their primary refuge and supply route for weapons, what more evidence do our leaders need.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan and Germany Commit to Strategic Dialogue
Germany’s foreign minister has said Afghanistan will not be forgotten after 2014 and that Pakistan was a crucial ally. He met his Pakistani counterpart in Berlin to set up a road map for closer political cooperation. As NATO troops prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the question of how to stabilize the war-torn country and build up a democracy is increasingly pressing. The international community particularly wants to prevent the country from once again becoming a base for terrorism. And Pakistan is crucial, as German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle pointed out in talks with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar on Tuesday in Berlin…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Orders Save the Children Foreign Workers to Leave
Aid group is accused of being used as cover for US spies while they were hunting for Osama bin Laden
Pakistan has given foreigners working for Save the Children a week to leave the country after becoming convinced that the aid organisation was used as cover by US spies hunting Osama bin Laden. The aid group had been under suspicion from authorities ever since a doctor accused of assisting the CIA in its search for the al-Qaida leader claimed that Save the Children had introduced him to US intelligence officers. But now Pakistani officials claim they have “concrete proof” backing up the story of Shakil Afridi, the doctor from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan who confessed to the ISI, the country’s military spy agency, after being arrested last year. Although Save the Children and the US government have always denied any relationship between the CIA and the aid organisation, Pakistani officials say they are fully justified in expelling the few foreign staff still working in the country…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Journalists Face Threats From Islamists
Religious extremists and security forces continue to intimidate progressive journalists in Pakistan. In a recent incident, a Karachi-based journalist was beaten by fanatics for listening to music in his house.
A few days ago, Zainul Abedin, who works at Pakistan’s English-language The News daily, was dragged out of his house in the middle of the night and beaten up by four bearded men.
Then he was warned that if he watched TV in his house and listened to music, he would be killed. Abedin went to the police station to report the incident, but was met with resistance.
This all happened in the heart of Karachi — a relatively liberal city with a population of more than 15 million — and not in one of the restive, semi-governed northwestern tribal areas of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban Threat: Pakistan Deploys Troops at Nuke Facility
Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have deployed large contingents of soldiers and policemen at one of the country’s largest nuclear facilities in Dera Ghazi Khan following “serious” threats from the local Taliban, a media report said today. Besides the deployment inside and around the nuclear installation, three army divisions in the southern part of Punjab have been asked to launch a crackdown against banned groups, The Express Tribune reported, quoting its sources…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Dinosaur Hunter: The Ground Breaker
As he revolutionizes ideas about dinosaur evolution, Xing Xu is helping to make China into a palaeontological powerhouse.
Sapeornis is one of hundreds of plumed specimens pouring out of fossil beds in China — most notably out of the rock formations in Liaoning Province, northeast of Beijing. Some of the Liaoning fossils are the earliest known birds. Others are feathered dinosaurs, the group that spawned birds millions of years before the age of Sapeornis. Together, they are among the most important finds in dinosaur palaeontology in the past century.
Xu is at the centre of that bonanza. He is “the go-to man in China for anything people want to know about dinosaurs”, says Paul Barrett, who studies dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum in London and first met Xu in the 1990s, when both were graduate students. Xu, who is based at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing, has named 60 species so far — more than any other vertebrate palaeontologist alive today. And he is only 43 years old.
In describing the flock of feathered fossils, Xu has helped to show that birds arose from dinosaurs, ending decades of debate. Along the way, he has shed light on the origins of feathers and flight. And he has bucked 150 years of received wisdom by declaring that the fabled genus Archaeopteryx is not the oldest known bird, but rather belonged to a group of dinosaurs removed from the avian line. “He has patience and persistence — and an audacity when scientific evidence calls for it,” says Zhe-Xi Luo, who studies fossil mammals at the University of Chicago in Illinois.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Criticizes EU Solar Dumping Probe
The EU has decided to investigate allegations that Chinese solar firms are dumping their wares in Europe. China has promptly articulated its opposition to the move.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Drill Hits Nearly 7,000 Feet Beneath Ocean Floor, Setting Record
A Japanese drilling vessel has set a record by drilling more than 6,926 feet (2,111 meters) beneath the seafloor, deeper than ever before, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, the organization behind the expedition, announced today (Sept. 6).
The drilling was done off Shimokita Peninsula of Japan as part of an expedition that began in July and is scheduled to continue for three more weeks.
It’s less than three feet (1 meter) deeper than the previous record. The goal of the expedition and its vessel, the Chikyu, is to drill down to 7,220 feet (2,220 m) beneath the ocean’s bottom.
The goal is to bring up samples from the Earth’s mantle, to learn more about the planet’s ancient geologic history and to better understand the microbes that live at such depths. The samples also may help understand where hydrocarbons like methane come from and how they are created.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migaloo the Dog Has a Nose for Archeology
Migaloo, a black Labrador cross, broke the world record for the oldest bone found by a dog when she discovered a 600-year-old bone buried more than six feet underground. As a trained archaeology dog, her sense of smell will help archaeologists continue to find ancient graves in Australia. “We’ve never heard of fossil dogs, nobody ever thought there would be any scent left on these old bones, nobody thought it could be done,” said Keryn Walshe of the South Australian Museum.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits
Congolese soldiers are often arrested for it. South Sudanese forces frequently battle wildlife rangers. Interpol, the international police network, is now helping to investigate the mass elephant killings in the Garamba park, trying to match DNA samples from the animals’ skulls to a large shipment of tusks, marked “household goods,” recently seized at a Ugandan airport.
The vast majority of the illegal ivory — experts say as much as 70 percent — is flowing to China, and though the Chinese have coveted ivory for centuries, never before have so many of them been able to afford it. China’s economic boom has created a vast middle class, pushing the price of ivory to a stratospheric $1,000 per pound on the streets of Beijing.
High-ranking officers in the People’s Liberation Army have a fondness for ivory trinkets as gifts. Chinese online forums offer a thriving, and essentially unregulated, market for ivory chopsticks, bookmarks, rings, cups and combs, along with helpful tips on how to smuggle them (wrap the ivory in tinfoil, says one Web site, to throw off X-ray machines).
Last year, more than 150 Chinese citizens were arrested across Africa, from Kenya to Nigeria, for smuggling ivory. And there is growing evidence that poaching increases in elephant-rich areas where Chinese construction workers are building roads.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: What’s With the Left’s Conspiracy of Silence Over the Anc’s Brutal Massacre of Miners in Marikana?
by Brendan O’Neill
Try to imagine the global outrage there would be if the police in Russia or China shot and killed 34 protesting workers. And just think what follow-up fury there would be if those Russian or Chinese police then arrested and charged the workers lucky enough to survive the massacre with the “murder” of their fallen colleagues. World leaders would hold press conferences so that they could be photographed solemnly shaking their heads and wringing their hands over those nasty, brutal coppers Over There. Amnesty International would have to hire extra part-time staff just to have enough people to stand sad-faced outside every Tube station in London while wearing t-shirts saying “Protect the Human” and pressing anti-Chinese or anti-Russian leaflets into commuters’ hands. Twitter would go mental…
[Reader comment by bryandeath on 6 September 2012 at about 2 pm.]
Apartheid in South Africa is thriving, it carries an ANC members card and wears a black face.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: ‘Scores of Migrants Drown as Boat Sinks Off Western Coast’
Smirne , 6 Sept. (AKI) — At least 58 migrants drowned Thursday when their boat sank off Turkey’s western coast, according to local media reports. A further 45 migrants were rescued from the sea or managed to swim ashore.
Those who died, including women and children, had been below deck, and the death toll was expected to rise.
Turkey’s Dogan news agency said nine children were among the dead.
The migrants were mainly from Syria and Iraq, the Turkish media reports said.
The fishing boat went down after hitting rocks at around 05.30 local time close to the shore near the village of Ahmetbeyli in the province of Izmir.
Two Turks have been arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle the migrants on board to one of the Greek islands. They were reported to be the boat’s captain and his second-in-command.
Turkey is currently home to more than 80,000 refugees from the 18-month-long conflict in Syria but the Aegean has long been a transit country for Africans and Asians seeking entry into the European Union.
The Greek islands in the Aegean Sea are a common destination for migrants who pay smugglers to take them from Turkey.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU Wants Women to Have 40% Share on Company Boards
The European Commission wants women to have at least 40 percent representation on the boards of listed companies but the plan has reportedly run into opposition from some EU member states.
A draft Commission directive seen Wednesday envisages that women, long a rarity at the corporate high table and outnumbered there roughly seven to one by men according to the EU, should play a much bigger role.
European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding challenged listed company heads last year to commit to a programme by March 2012 under which women would have 30 percent of board seats by 2015 and 40 percent by 2020.
The draft noted that the current “under-utilisation of highly qualified women’s skills constitutes for the EU a loss of economic growth potential.
“The business case for more gender diversity on boards is widely recognised among stakeholders,” it added.
A Financial Times report Wednesday said Britain opposed the plan and was rallying those against, arguing that such issues were best left to national governments.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How to Get Fired From a Seminary
A professor at a seminary has been fired for being in a room with a “homophobic” book.
Don’t laugh: it’s true. The Interdenominational Theological Center, in Atlanta, recently sacked an internationally-recognized expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls for this exceedingly vague transgression (see The Layman Online, Aug. 27). But it seems his real crime was to fail to instruct his students in the “womanist theology, postcolonial theology, and LBGT theology” demanded by his insane department head. Obviously the poor sap mistakenly thought he was at the seminary to teach Christian theology.
Once upon a time seminaries existed to train young people to be ministers, elders, and scholars in the service of Christ’s Kingdom. (Burst of maniacal laughter in the background) I know, I know—it seems fantastic, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, it’s true. Seminaries used to teach Christian theology. You could look it up.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
My Abortion, ‘Tis of Thee
The Democratic National Convention is swarming with rabidly enthusiastic people who are hyped up about things in the way that only the professionally cheerful are. The message is that everyone is happy to be here, repeated at decibel volumes and with simultaneous sign language translation, which is the surest sign that no one is happy to be here at all.
There’s a moment in every party when no one knows anymore why they are at the party or what the point of the party is. The party is just there and they’re there and they’re doing their best to pretend to be having fun, but worryingly they’re not sure what fun is anymore. There’s just noise, balloons and lots of bright colors. Someone makes a speech and everyone applauds because it’s the thing to do. And everyone stays because that’s also the thing to do. That’s the Convention in a nutshell.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Christians Appealing to the Secular European Court of Human Rights Don’t Stand a Chance of Getting Justice
by The Rev Dr Peter Mullen
Four persecuted Christians in Britain are to take their cases to the European Court of Human Rights. Nadia Eweida is appealing against her having been sent home by British Airways for wearing the Cross while on duty. Shirley Chaplin was moved to a desk job by the NHS for the same “offence.” Gary McFarlane was sacked by Relate for refusing to counsel homosexuals. Lilian Ladete was disciplined after she declared she was not willing to conduct same-sex civil partnerships in North London. I wish the four of them well, but I honestly don’t hold out much hope for their causes. A Christian appealing for justice from the secular ECHR is not dissimilar from one begging for fairness from the Emperor Diocletian, who was notorious for his persecution of believers…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Grandparents of Children Given to Gay Couple for Adoption Are Denied Access for Three Years
The grandparents of two children given to a gay couple for adoption have been denied access to them for three years.
The Scottish Daily Mail first revealed their appalling ordeal in 2009, when the case sparked a storm of protest across the UK.
They claimed they had been barred from looking after the youngsters because they were deemed ‘too old’ to care for them, although the council refutes this.
The couple, who raised seven children of their own and cared for their eldest daughter’s children until the boy was five and his sister was four, claim promises of contact were broken.
City of Edinburgh Council social worker Heather Rush told the grandparents around the time of the adoption that they would not be allowed to see the children if they did not give their blessing to the controversial move.
The grandfather said: ‘Those children were everything to me. They were rays of sunshine in the life of my family and when they were taken away we felt we’d lost everything.
‘People always think that sorrow fades with time but I can promise you it doesn’t. I still go upstairs at night to find my wife in tears and I’m not much better.
‘It’s affected my health badly. Four weeks ago I had a stroke and I am in no doubt that the stress of our lives being torn apart was behind it.’
The couple were aged 61 and 46 when the children were removed by social workers in Edinburgh, where they lived.
At the time, they say they were told they were considered ‘too old’ to be parents to the children of their heroin addict daughter, even though the children were happy with them and they had cared for them almost since birth.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Does Neptune’s Moon Triton Have a Subsurface Ocean?
Triton was discovered in 1846 by the British astronomer William Lassell, but much about Neptune’s largest moon still remains a mystery.
A flyby by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989 offered a quick peek at the satellite, revealing a surface composition comprised mainly of water ice, along with some nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide.
As Triton’s density is quite high, it is suspected that the moon has a large core of silicate rock. It is possible that a liquid ocean formed between the rocky core and icy surface shell, and scientists are investigating whether or not this ocean could have survived until now.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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