Thanks to Abu Elvis, Cimmerian, Fjordman, flyboy, Gaia, Henrik, Insubria, LN, TB, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
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250 Arrested as Republican Convention Protest Descends Into Violence
Riot police arrested around 250 people outside the Republican presidential convention last night after a protest descended into violence. Around 10,000 had gathered for a peaceful march calling for an end to the Iraq war which eventually erupted into pitched battles between a breakaway group and officers.
Police used pepper spray and smoke bombs to break up the mob while officers on horseback, motorcycles and bicycles chased a group of rock-and bottle-throwing protesters. Some, hiding their faces with with black kerchiefs, smashed shop windows, overturned rubbish bins and vandalized police cars.
Others pushed a flaming dumpster into a car with police in it, officers and witnesses said. The riot, in St Paul, Minnesota, happened a short distance from the XCel Convention Center where Republicans are holding their conference. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Attacked Dutch: Alemanno, No Pardon for Culprits
(AGI) — Rome, Aug 26 — The two Rumanian shepherds who attacked a Dutch couple in Rome are “ferocious beasts who don’t deserve to be pardoned” said Alemanno during the search of the house on Via Portuense where the aggression took place. “Just look at what they did to those two people to know that they are animals who don’t deserve to be pardoned”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Death Threats for UK Top Muslim Cop
“I am now extremely concerned for my personal safety and those close to me including family and supporters alike,” Ghaffur said. (Daily Telegraph photo)
CAIRO — Britain’s most senior Muslim police officer has received death threats after suing Scotland Yard’s top brass over discrimination, The Independent reported on Monday, September 1.
“They are very credible threats,” said Shahrokh Mireskandari, the lawyer of Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur.
“It has been by email, and phone. We (the law firm) have received some as well.”
Ghaffur, Britain’s top Muslim officer senior policeman, is suing Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair and other senior policemen for racial discrimination a high-profile race row.
He is accusing Blair of playing a role in a campaign of harassment, racial prejudice and humiliation against him during eight years at the Met.
The employment tribunal is expected to take place next year.
Ghaffur has already hired personal security after receiving a barrage of death threats that also involved his family.
“It takes a lot to get a senior policeman worried,” says Mireskandari.
The Ugandan-born officer, who was until recently responsible for planning security for the 2012 Olympics, has been excluded from key Olympic security planning meetings.
Ghaffur, who has opposed extending the pre-charge detention of terror suspects to 42 days, was also browbeaten to keep quiet about his opposition.
His contract has been renewed by one year, unlike other officers who have theirs renewed by five years.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Minster Proposes Less Prison Sentences, More Supervision
Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin wants more suspended jail sentences for criminals. Prison sentences are often ineffective, he explained in an interview with De Volkskrant.
Currently, 70 percent of criminals re-offend within seven years after a conviction, according to Hirsch Ballin. He wants to reduce recidivism by 10 percent in seven years time by fewer prison sentences, more care and supervision and better cooperation between bodies involved.
If judges replace portions of imprisonment by suspended sentences, the total number of prison days can come down sharply, acknowledges Hirsch Ballin, but this is no goal in itself, he claimed. “Cell availability or money plays no role here.”
The approach should also not be seen as soft, in his view. “For us, it is a matter of what works.” The Public Prosecutor’s Office should, for example, demand alternative sentences more often, such as a temporary alcohol or drugs ban.
Prison sentences will remain the norm for serious crimes, but an attempt will be made to allow the life of criminals to continue normally as far as possible. For example, loans will be provided to allow the rent on a home to continue to be paid, so that a criminal is not homeless after release. They will also have priority in finding a home if they do not have one.
Additionally, criminals who have ‘lost’ their passport in prison will be given a replacement more quickly than now. Without papers, they can after all not immediately sign on for a home, social benefit or job. “It is crucial that ex-prisoners can see some light at the end of the tunnel within three days or so of release. Otherwise, re-offending threatens,” according to Hirsch Ballin.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Parliament Could Pass Parts of the Lisbon Treaty Without a Referendum
Parts of the Lisbon Treaty might be passed by the Irish lower chamber without a referendum, said Prime Minister Brian Cowen.
An internal briefing document of the European Commission seen by the Irish Times has criticised Ireland’s media for becoming more eurosceptic since the second Nice Treaty referendum. The document also highlights the importance of the Internet in the Lisbon No campaign. “Apart from official websites, the internet has largely been a space left to anti-European feeling. Given the ability to reach an audience at a much lower cost, and given the simplicity of the No campaign messages, it has proven to be easily malleable during the campaign and pre-campaign period,” the document reads.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No New Mosques, Says Italy’s Northern League
Italy is fighting a rapidly increasing Muslim presence by introducing a bill to block construction of Islamic mosques and prohibit minarets, or prayer watchtowers, and loudspeaker chants. Italy’s Northern League, a political movement that is part of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s governing coalition, introduced the legislation. According to a Financial Times report, Northern League Chief of Deputies Roberto Cota will present the bill to parliament next week. The proposal will also require mosques to be at least one kilometer away from nearby churches, and sermons must be conducted in Italian rather than Arabic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rapist Jailed for ‘Truly Horrific’ Attack
A serial sex attacker from Ramsgate who repeatedly raped a terrified young mother at knifepoint shortly after she had given birth has been jailed for 17 years.
Having first managed to get her phone number, chef Tabir Ali rang her at midnight to make sure her husband was away before breaking in with two unknown accomplices.
The woman, by then asleep at her east London home with her 14-day-old son and another of her children by her side, woke to find one of her masked attackers standing over her with a knife.
Lisa Wilding, prosecuting, said: “She begged them not to do anything to her, to take anything they wanted and then ‘please leave’.
“She was crying and spoke to the defendant in Bengali hoping to find some common thread by virtue of their shared language and religion and on more than one occasion said to him ‘Please don’t let them do anything. You and me are like brother and sister’.”
But despite her “prayers to Allah” and tearful pleas on bended knee to be spared rape because she had recently given birth, she was held down and twice forced to have sex during a “prolonged and intensely painful” attack.
As her suffering continued there were numerous death threats against her, her baby and three other young children unless she did as she was told.
At one point the tip of the knife was pressed below her eye and slowly dragged down to her chin. She was also kicked and punched repeatedly and her head smashed against a wall.
London’s Southwark Crown Court was told that finally, having been forced to hand over jewellery and £650, she was bound with one of her husband’s ties and left with further “dire threats ringing in her ears”.
Although he eventually admitted two counts of rape and one of robbery, the 49-year-old defendant refused to name his two “black” accomplices.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Religion Booms on British TV
CAIRO — Feeding on a growing interest in faith, religious broadcasting in Britain is booming with media outlets increasingly producing unusual, taboo-breaking programs.
“We’re on a real roll,” Michael Wakelin, the head of BBC religion and ethics department, told The Guardian on Monday, September 1.
“You’re talking to a man who is in a state of enthusiasm and confidence.”
Religious programs are emerging as the new trend on Britain’s TV with networks offering bigger budgets for reporting on different religions in the multi-cultural society.
Among the most watched TV shows over the past few years were programs like Priest Idol, Extreme Pilgrim, Make Me a Muslim and God is Black.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Security: Maroni, Expulsion for Those Responsible in Rome
(AGI) — Cortina d’Ampezzo, 25 August — “As soon as I come back to Rome I will sign the expulsion decree of the two Romanians arrested for the events that occurred in Rome”. This was announced by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, speaking at ‘Cortinaincontra ‘08’. “If they were freed for some legal technicality, in a few days we will send them back home”, added the Minister. Referring to the “horrifying facts” of what occurred in Rome, Maroni underlined that those responsible “were taken in less than 24 hours. And this means — he added — that something has changed in the fight against crime”. He takes from the situation that Rome “is becoming safer with Mayor Alemanno — commented the Minister — he is doing a great job”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Lesbian Couple Sues Over Fertility Treatment Rules
The ombudsman against discrimination due to sexual orientation (HomO) is taking the case of a lesbian couple from northern Sweden who claim they don’t have equal access to artificial insemination procedures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The EU, Islam and Turkey
Turkey’s constitution recognizes no ethnic minorities, such as the twelve million Kurds living within its borders. In accordance with this centralized state, a striking nationalism is lived in Turkey being protected by penal code provisions (prohibition of insulting Turkdom, no criticism of the official position towards the Armenian genocide and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus). The omnipresent Atatürk images and statues testify to this nationalism together with the national motto — visible almost everywhere — “If you’re a Turk, you’re happy”. In addition to Islam, this nationalism offers an explanation for the lack of integration readiness and capabilities of the Turks in Europe.
A shocking demonstration of this religious-nationalist attitude is the murder of the employees of a bible-printing press in Malatya in 2007. The perpetrators justified this act as a fight against the enemies of the faith and the Turkish nation. Then German socialist MEP Vural Öger, of Turkish descent, poured oil into the fire when he declared that the EU was responsible for this criminal act because of the pressure applied on the Turkish legislative to institute reforms.
Bringing the Turkish constitution in line with EU principles would entail the destruction of both pillars of the Turkish constitution and would thus bring an end to Atatürk’s Turkey. In addition, it can be seen in all clarity that the EU will either accept a factual military dictatorship or an Islamic state within its ranks provided the “negotiations” with the EU continue to proceed at the same pace. In any case, the EU will remain the pawn of Turkish politics.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: MP Accused for the Death of Lebanese Singer Tamim
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, SEPTEMBER 2 — Egyptian MP and businessman Hisham Talaat Mustafa and his bodyguard Mohsen El Sokary have been sent to trial by the General Prosecutor Adel Meguid Mahmud for the death of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim, judicial sources announced. According to the Egyptian press, the MP is close to the son of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak. Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim was found dead in her apartment last July 28 after she had been missing for months. A statement by the general prosecution read that the bodyguard of the MP, Mohsen El Sokary, who works in a luxurious hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh owned by the MP Talaat Mustafa, where one of Tamim’s aunts was also employed, has been interrogated by General Prosecutor Adel Meguid Mahmud at the request of Interpol in Abu Dhabi. Sokary was questioned under a legal cooperation accord between Egypt and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The statement points out that the accused has confessed the involvement of Talaat Mustafa in the murder. Mena news agency reported that the prosecutor has banned the two men from leaving the country. Maximum discretion has also been required on the news referring to the incident in order to avoid influencing the inquiry and the running investigation. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy — Libya Deal ‘Seals Past’
$5 billion accord brings benefits, Berlusconi says
(ANSA) — Rome, September 1 — Italy and Libya’s deal on colonial compensation ‘‘sets the seal on the past,’’ Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Monday.
Berlusconi noted that he and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi signed the $5 billion deal in Benghazi on Saturday ‘‘in front of almost 1,000 descendants of the victims of colonisation’’.
The premier said the ‘‘bloody’’ pre-WWI colonisation had left ‘‘a wound’’ in Libya.
Replying to claims that the deal is too costly, Berlusconi said critics ‘‘aren’t considering the advantages that will come to our firms’’.
He noted, among other things, that the friendship accord gives Italy easier access to Libyan gas which is ‘‘among the best in the world’’.
Gaddafi said earlier on Monday that Italy would have ‘‘priority over oil and gas and other forms of investment’’.
In a speech marking the 39th anniversary of the Libyan revolution, he said the deal sets a precedent for other former colonial states to seek compensation.
Under the deal, Italy will pay its former colony $200 million over 25 years to fund various projects including the Italian construction of a coastal highway linking Libya with Egypt and Tunisia.
Rome will also clear Libya of landmines left from the colonial period.
The deal was signed Saturday in the palace which once housed the Italian colonial HQ. As a goodwill gesture, Italy returned an ancient statue of Venus, the headless Venus of Cyrene, taken to Rome in colonial times.
Berlusconi said the deal ended ‘‘40 years of misunderstanding’’. Italy occupied Libya in 1911 and she became a colony in the 1930s.
The former Ottoman territory gained independence in 1951 and Gaddafi claimed power in a 1969 coup.
He expelled some 20,000 Italians in 1970, whose claims are also addressed in the accord.
The accord is also dependent on Libya putting into effect measures already agreed with the Italian government to combat illegal immigration to Italy from the shores of the North African country, including joint patrols of the Libyan coast.
Italy receives thousands of African migrants each year, repeatedly straining facilities on the stepping-stone island of Lampedusa to breaking point.
The Italian government said last month that immigrant landings had doubled to more than 15,000 in the first seven months of the year.
Saturday’s visit was Berlusconi’s second to Libya in two months. In June, immigration topped the agenda. The friendship accord was almost sealed last year by the Romano Prodi government but then Gaddafi decided against it.
Italy is Libya’s biggest trade partner and 25% of Italian oil imports come from there.
Libya has come in from the diplomatic cold since 2003 when it renounced efforts to get weapons of mass destruction.
Libya and the United States signed a deal last months to compensate victims of attacks including the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and US raids on Libya.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will make the first high-ranking visit to Libya since 1953 this week.
Gaddafi said in his speech Monday that ‘‘the conflict with the US has been definitively filed away’’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Rome Will Not Allow NATO Bases Against Us, Gaddafi
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 2 — Italy has pledged not to use and most of all not to allow the use of NATO and USA bases on its territory for a possible future “aggression” against Libya. This is the content of article 4 of the Italian and Libyan friendship and cooperation treaty signed on Saturday by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the colonel said in an address made on Sunday in Benghazi whose entire text was published today by state news agency Jana. In one of the passages of his speech Gaddafi unveiled details of the talks between Italy and Libya for the signing of the agreement, underlining the Libyans insistence on including the article in the text, recalling the precedent of 1986 when the Libyans launched two Scud missiles on Lampedusa in reprisal for an attack on the part of the Americans who had used the island to deliver it. The Libyan leader said that it took “long talks” because Italy wanted to commit only to “not carrying aggressions against Libya”, while the Libyan negotiators repeated that “this is not enough, because the 1986 attack against the Libyan territory was launched from Italy”. What the Libyans wanted to be sure of was that “neither America nor NATO would be able to use bases in Italy against Libya”, Gaddafi said. After having threatened to leave the accord open and warned that the relations between the two countries would be “hostile”, finally Italy accepted, Gaddafi claimed, cited by the Libyan agency. According to the Libyan leader, article 4 was agreed upon under this formula: “Abiding by the principles of international law, Italy will not use and will not allow the use of its territory against Libya for any (possible) aggression against Libya and Libya will not use or allow the use of its territory for any hostile act against Italy.” According to Gaddafi, this would prevent events such as those from 1986 from occurring. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Agent: We Let Nazi Go to Nab Mastermind
Kidnapping Adolph Eichman Required Letting Josef Mengele Escape, Former Israeli Agent Says
A former Israeli Mossad agent says the team that kidnapped Nazi mastermind Adolph Eichmann in 1960 knowingly let another notorious war criminal — Josef Mengele — get away.
Rafi Eitan was a member of the Mossad team that seized Eichmann from Buenos Aires and brought him to trial in Israel. Eitan says the agents had also located Mengele but feared that trying to nab him would endanger the Eichmann operation.
Eichmann helped plan the mass murder of Jews during World War II and was hanged in Israel. Mengele was the infamous doctor at the Auschwitz death camp who carried out horrific medical experiments on prisoners. He was never captured and died in 1979. […]
A declassified document released by the CIA in 2001 shows Mengele told an informant before World War II that Adolf Hitler was a “border case between genius and insanity.” He predicted in 1937 that Hitler would “end up as the craziest criminal the world had ever known.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Arab MKs Reject Plan to Screen Anti-Islam Film in Jerusalem
Text of report by web version of Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv on 2 September
The Arab MKs are up in arms over the intention of (National Union- NRP) MK Arye Eldad to screen in Jerusalem excerpts from the controversial film Fitna, which presents the Koran as advocating killing and terrorism, on 3 September.
The movie by Netherlands MP and leader of the extremist Party for Freedom Geert Wilders was banned in the Netherlands. It strongly censures Islam and attempts to show that the Koran is “the inspiration for intolerance, murder, and terrorism.” Eldad plans to screen select excerpts from the film in a news conference scheduled for tomorrow, 3 September, in one of the hotels in the capital in anticipation of a larger convention that will be held later on this year, entitled “Jihad Must Be Stopped; If Jerusalem Surrenders, Europe Will Be Next.” Eldad is expected to declare on that occasion the establishment of a new coalition of European parliamentarians, who he claims “share the recognition that the expansion of Islam constitutes a serious threat to Western civilization.”
MK Ahmad al-Tibi (RA’AM-TA’AL) has commented and said that “this is a tasteless and racist movie that promotes Islam phobia. MK Eldad’s initiative to assemble here weird people from all over the world who hate Arabs and Muslims as he shows the film is madness and incitement originated by the extreme right-wing.” His fellow faction member Talab al-Sani commented on Eldad’s initiative and said: “There are things that not even ignoble and evil-minded people can afford to engage in, and these include offending other people’s faith and soul.” According to Al-Sani, things that are sacrosanct to other religions should not be turned into part of cheap political games just to attract attention. “He is hitching a ride on anything and everything extremist and illogical that harms coexistence only to enlist support among the moonstruck Israeli right-wing fringes,” noted MK Talab al-Sani.
Movie theatres and television channels have refused to air the film due to the commotion it has aroused, but it has found a stage on a Netherlands Internet website. The movie was ultimately removed from that website, too, after some 1.5 million surfers had watched it due to threats to the operators of the website. The secretary general of the United Nations was one of the people who condemned the movie and Iran argued that it was a declaration of war on Islam by the West.
| — Hat tip: flyboy | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Foils 5 Attempted Abductions by Hizbullah
Defense establishment, with assistance of foreign intelligence agencies, successfully hinders attempts to kidnap Israeli businessmen in Europe, West Africa, US, South America and Asia
The Israeli defense establishment has been able to foil five attempted kidnappings of Israeli businessmen, operating aboard, by Hizbullah, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday.
A senior security source told the paper that “this was a concentrated effort by Hizbullah, backed by Iran, to carry out kidnappings in retaliation for the assassination of top Hizbullah operative Imad Mugniyah. “Hizbullah,” he said, “is scouring for prey, and it’s going country by county.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
MK Eldad to Screen ‘Fitna’ in Jerusalem
(IsraelNN.com) Knesset Member Arieh Eldad (NU-NRP) will screen a section of the controversial short film Fitna, as part of a press conference announcing the formation of a new coalition of European lawmakers on Wednesday. In the conference, Eldad will also announce “a first-of-its-kind summit in Jerusalem for the establishment of a defensive coalition of European legislators.”
The new coalition, Eldad explained, is geared towards those European Parliament members who recognize that the expansion of Islam poses a severe threat to Western civilization. He plans to host a summit of like-minded European legislators in Jerusalem towards the end of 2008. “The jihad must be stopped,” Eldad said. “If Jerusalem capitulates, Europe is next.”
By way of introduction to the theme of his proposed coalition, MK Eldad will screen scenes from the 15-minute March 2008 film Fitna, produced by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. The film portrays the Koranic verses and teachings that inspire jihadist terrorism and Muslim triumphalism today. Release of the video on the Internet was accompanied by threats and boycotts from Muslims aimed at the Netherlands and Dutch assets abroad.
Wilders called his mini-film “a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamization.”
Fitna: The Movie
The movie displays explicit texts from the Koran, as well as Muslim clerics, calling for murder and violence towards non-believers.
One frenzied Muslim cleric is seen calling for the murder of Jews; he unsheathes a sword and cries out, “By Allah, we shall cut off the Jew’s head! Allah is great! Allah is great! Jihad for the sake of Allah!” The audience, in a similar frenzy, cheers him on.
One of the Koranic verses quoted in the movie reads, “Those who have disbelieved our signs, we shall roast them in fire. Whenever their skins are cooked to a turn, we shall substitute new skins for them, that they may feel the punishment. Verily, Allah is sublime and wise.” This is followed by scenes of enemies of Islam being dragged through the streets, a bombed-out bus in London, an imam (Muslim preacher) calling for death to all Jews, and signs at Muslim rallies reading, “Be prepared for the real Holocaust,” “God bless Hitler,” and “Islam will dominate the world.”
Yet another verse quoted in the film said, “Therefore, when ye meet the unbelievers, smite at their necks, and when ye have caused a bloodbath among them, bind a bond firmly on them.” Another Muslim preacher is then seen saying calmly, “Throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered — this is the path to victory.”
Imams and Moslem leaders are shown preaching, “Islam is a religion that wants to rule the world. It has done so before, and eventually will rule it again…. By Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again! The day will come when we will rule America! The day will come when we will rule Britain! …You will take over the USA! You will defeat them all! You will get victory!”
Fitna ends with a call by Wilders for Europe to defeat Islamist ideology, just as it defeated the threats of Nazism and Communism in the past
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorists Thankful: More Room to Prep to Kill Jews
Boasting gunman: ‘We never had this space, these possibilities while the Zionists were here’
In what some may view as a complete turning of the tables, several major Palestinian terrorist organizations this past weekend staged what they called military training exercises on the grounds of Gush Katif, the former slate of Jewish communities inside the Gaza Strip that were uprooted by Israel three years ago.
The exercises were aimed at preparing for attacks against Israel, said terrorist leaders. “The old (Jewish) settlements gave the Palestinian resistance enough space to have big trainings. We never had this space and these possibilities when the Zionists were in Gaza,” Abu Muhammad, a senior Gaza-based leader of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, told WND in an interview.
“The resistance is having a second benefit from chasing the Jews from Gaza. [This weekend’s exercise] was proof of the big victory, using land they were occupying for training in preparing us for our next great victory,” Abu Muhammad said.
The terrorist said there were currently “serious bases, serious camps, storage for arms and tools” now located in Gush Katif. On Saturday, Islamic Jihad staged a military parade in Gush Katif that reportedly included training drills for group members. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
British Couple on Trial in Dubai for Having Sex on Beach
A British couple on trial for allegedly having sex on a Dubai beach asked the judge on Tuesday to be allowed to leave the country. Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors, speaking in low voices, asked the judge for a “quick ruling” that would let them return to Britain. But judge Hamad Abdul Jawad disregarded the request and scheduled another hearing for Sept. 9 to hear testimony from the policeman who arrested the couple.
Palmer, 36, and Acors, 34, were arrested in the early hours July 5 on a Dubai beach after they had been at a hotel party. They were later charged with having sex outside of marriage, public indecency and public drunkenness.
The case has highlighted the strong contrasts in the booming United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai. The city has a much more freewheeling attitude than other places in the Gulf, with cash flowing from oil and finance and a huge expatriate population. But the case is a reminder that it remains a conservative Arab nation underneath. […]
In July, a few days after the British couple was detained, Dubai police announced it has arrested 79 people, mostly tourists, for topless sunbathing, nudity and other acts authorities deemed indecent.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Iran to Jewish Community: Go Anywhere But Israel
Islamic republic’s goverment lets Jews leave country only if they promise not to immigrate to Jewish state
Iran opens another front in its war against Israel: The Iranian government has begun demanding that Jews leaving the country make a promise not to immigrate to Israel.
Several weeks ago, some 40 Jews arrived in Austria from Tehran in a bid to immigrate to the United States after receiving the required permits and visas. The American authorities are delaying the documents, while the Iranian Jews are stranded in Vienna.
The Jewish community in Vienna and the Jewish Agency suggested that the Iranian Jews immigrate to Israel instead of waiting for the required permits to enter the US, but the Jews refused, saying they promised the Iranian government they would not immigrate to Israel. […]
According to estimates, the Jews stuck in Vienna will receive their visas in the coming days and will be able to begin their new life in Los Angeles.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Boosts Jet Fighters Ability, Plans War Game During Ramadan
The Iranian army is getting equipped with domestically-built jet fighters and is planning a war game during the holy month of Ramadan, a top military official said.
Iran “has made great achievements in manufacturing anti- aircraft missiles and various jet fighters over the past two years,” Army chief Ataollah Salehi told Iran’s Press TV on Tuesday.
Iran will be endowed with the jet fighters “within a few months,” Salehi said, according to a report on the web site of the satellite news channel.
Iran is to hold a military manoeuvre during Ramadan, Salehi added. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Activists Celebrate Victory on Polygamy Bill
Iranian women’s rights activists on Tuesday celebrated a parliament decision to indefinitely delay a vote on a bill on families. Activists have been trying to block the legislation known as the Family Support Bill for fear that it would encourage polygamy.
“It is a huge victory…but the threat still looms and it still exists,” activist Sussan Tahmasebi said.
The Family Protection Bill scraps the need for the consent of the first wife if her husband wants to take another spouse. The Iranian parliament was due to vote on a proposal last Sunday, but it was sent back to its legal committee for more work, Iranian newspapers reported.
The Farhang-e Ashti daily on Monday said the proposed law had caused controversy and was removed from parliament’s agenda. Iran’s Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi had criticised the bill, saying it would bring “moral corruption” to society.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: HRC Launches Appeal to End Child Marriages
(ANSAmed) — RIYADH, AUGUST 26 — The Saudi Human Rights Commission (HRC) has called on government agencies to take necessary steps to end the practice of child marriages by adopting “a clear and unambiguous position” on such weddings, Arab News reports. The condemnation comes in the wake of several cases across the Kingdom in which young girls have been married to elderly men, mainly for monetary reasons such as the settlement of debts or to receive generous dowries. “Such marriages violate human rights by depriving a girl of her childhood,” said Turki Al-Sudairy, president of the Human Rights Commission. He added that such weddings are prohibited by a number of international conventions and by reputed global organizations concerned with children’s rights. “Child marriages should be considered to be the same as forced marriages since valid consent has not been obtained from the bride who is also under aged,” Al-Sudairy said, adding that this could lead to severe health complications, since the girl is not psychologically, physically and sexually mature to enter wedlock. “Young girls are not ready for the responsibilities that come with being a wife, a sexual partner and a mother. Early marriage has a negative impact on their emotional well-being and personal development,” he added. The president also called for measures to raise awareness on the adverse effects of early marriages among Saudis. “Concerned government and non-governmental organizations should provide adequate security to innocent girls who are driven into such marriages,” he said. Ayman Abu Laban, UNICEF representative in the Gulf, said his organization strongly discourages child marriages, which inflict serious psychological and physical risks on young girls. “We believe that a girl should only marry after she has achieved all the development stages of her childhood, which, according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is the age of 18,” he stressed. In an opinion article in Arab News on Saturday, Nourah Al-Khereiji, a Saudi columnist, also condemned the issue and requested the public to inform the police if a father insists on marrying his daughter to an elderly man. “The officials who write marriage contracts should alert the HRC to such practices so that they step in to stop it in time. It would be good if we decide a certain age for marriage.” Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh, grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, has also warned parents against marrying their young daughters to elderly men. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Putin Saves TV Crew From Escaped Tiger
Russians are lauding Prime Minister Vladimir Putin after he reportedly saved scientists and a film crew from a huge escaped tiger in the Russian Far East. The tiger was no match for the judo champion and former KGB agent with a tranquilizer rifle.
In an act of bravery that could (almost) be made for TV, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saved a Russian film crew from an enormous escaped tiger in eastern Russia Sunday, adding yet another set of images to his cultivated portfolio of manliness. […]
“We probably came too close to her,” said Violetta Sergeyeva, a film director from Rossiya, Russia’s main television station. “She suddenly got loose and rushed us. A miracle saved us.”
That miracle happened to be Putin, who — clad in camouflage fatigues and desert combat boots — availed himself of a tranquilizer rifle and found his mark. After sedating the beast, Putin went on to assist the scientists as they measured the tiger’s enormous canine fangs and fitted a satellite transmitter around its neck.
Once done with his Herculean labor, Putin spoke to the film crew about the conservation efforts: “First of all, we must thank our colleagues — Americans, European colleagues — for being involved with this together with our scientists during a difficult time for Russia, when no one was paying attention to this.” […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
The Truth About Russia in Georgia
by Michael Totten
TBILISI, GEORGIA — Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.
Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn’t start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.
Regional expert, German native, and former European Commission official Patrick Worms was recently hired by the Georgian government as a media advisor, and he explained to me exactly what happened when I met him in downtown Tbilisi. You should always be careful with the version of events told by someone on government payroll even when the government is as friendly and democratic as Georgia’s. I was lucky, though, that another regional expert, author and academic Thomas Goltz, was present during Worms’ briefing to me and signed off on it as completely accurate aside from one tiny quibble…
| — Hat tip: LN | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Calls Indian Envoy Over Attacks on Christians
Italy’s Foreign Ministry will summon India’s ambassador to demand ‘incisive action’ to prevent further attacks against Christians that have left 11 people dead in India so far, the government said on Thursday.
A statement issued after a cabinet meeting also said Italy would ask France, the current EU President, to take up the issue of attacks against Christians at a future meeting of foreign ministers. […]
The Italian statement said the Indian ambassador would be told of the Rome’s ‘strong expectations’ for ‘an incisive, preventive and repressive action by Indian authorities regarding such unacceptable acts of violence’.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan ‘Missed Chance’ to Catch Zawahri
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces missed a chance to catch Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman Al-Zawahri, the government’s senior Interior Ministry official said yesterday.
Zawahri and Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden have been in hiding since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and are both believed to be in ethnic Pashtun tribal lands that straddle northwest Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. Rehman Malik did not say when security forces had missed the chance to catch Zawahri or give any more detail about the incident. He also did not say where Bin Laden might be.
Malik told a news conference Zawahri was moving between Pakistan’s tribal areas and the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Paktia. “We certainly had traced him at one place, but we missed the chance. So he’s moving in Mohmand and, of course, sometimes in Kunar, mostly in Kunar and Paktia,” he said. Mohmand is one of seven Pakistani tribal regions where Malik said both Zawahri and his wife had been. Malik said Pakistani Taleban were working hand in glove with Al-Qaeda.
“They have not only connections, I would say Tehrik-e-Taleban is an extension of Al-Qaeda,” he said, referring to a Pakistani Taleban umbrella group which authorities blame for a string of bomb attacks over the past year that have killed hundreds of people.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Five Women Who Wanted to Pick Their Own Husbands Buried Alive in Mass Honour Killing
Five women were buried alive by their tribe in a mass honour killing prompted by their wish to choose their own husbands.
The victims, who included three teenagers, were abducted at gunpoint, beaten and shot before being thrown into a ditch.
They were still breathing as their bodies were covered with rocks and mud, according to media reports and human rights activists.
The incident occurred in Baba Kot, a remote village in Jafferabad district, after the women decided to defy tribal elders and arrange marriages in a civil court, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission.
They were said to have been abducted at gunpoint by six men, forced into a vehicle and taken to a remote field, where they were beaten, shot and then buried alive, it said, accusing local authorities of trying to hush up the killings.
A Pakistani lawmaker provoked outrage by defending men from the Baluch tribe who had carried out the killings.
Israr Ullah Zehri told stunned members of Pakistan’s parliament: ‘These are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them,’
‘Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid.’
He claimed the tribal traditions helped stop obscenity — and then asked fellow lawmakers not to make a big fuss about it.
Many stood up in protest, saying the executions were ‘barbaric’ and demanding more discussion.
But a handful said it was an internal matter of the deeply conservative province of Baluchistan.
‘I was shocked,’ said lawmaker Nilofar Bakhtiar, who pushed for legislation calling for perpetrators of so-called honour killings to be punished when she served as minister of women’s affairs under the last government.
‘I feel that we’ve gone back to the starting point again,’ she said. ‘It’s really sad for me.’
The incident apparently occurred about a month ago.
Accounts about the killings have varied, largely because police in the tribal region have been uncooperative. Activists and lawmakers said a more thorough investigation needed to be carried out.
The Asian Human Rights Commission, however, said the two older women may have been related to some of the teenage girls and were apparently murdered because they were sympathetic to their wishes.
There have been claims one of the perpetrators was related to a top provincial official.
| — Hat tip: Cimmerian | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Billions Withdrawn Before Zakat Deduction
KARACHI: Thousands of accountholders withdrew billions of rupees from their saving accounts during the last few days ahead of the deduction of ‘Zakat’, the fourth pillar of Islam and an obligatory annual money contribution by affluent Muslims (at 2.5 per cent of one’s savings) for the needy people of the society.
A big number of accountholders rushed to their respective banks and ATM kiosks on Monday intending to draw their cash to avoid zakat deduction. The money market came under tremendous pressure in the wake of heavy withdrawals and faced liquidity crunch that forced banks to borrow Rs8.4 billion from discount window of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in order to maintain their mandatory cash reserves.
Though exact amount of withdrawal in a single day is yet to be ascertained, banking sources said that the volume of cash taken out by accountholders on Monday and last week of August was in billions.
Numerous accountholders, particularly corporate accountholders, also converted deposits of billions of rupees into Call Deposit Receipts (CDR) or pay orders, which would be deposited again into the original accounts soon after the deduction of Zakat on Tuesday after the Ramazan moon was sighted on Monday.
This year 2.5 percent Zakat is applicable (Nisab of Zakat) on Rs19,625 or above balance of saving accounts of the banks’ customers. The banking sources said that from 2nd Ramazan which is likely to fall on Wednesday most of the people would again deposit money, encashed or converted into Call Deposit Receipts. Bankers said that it would be very difficult to guess the actual amount of money, either withdrawn from bank or converted into CDRs however, they believed that could be in billions and might be around Rs15-20 billion.
The people against the deduction of Zakat on their saving account have to submit affidavit to their respective bank one month prior to start of Ramazan. However, some small and foreign banks accept affidavit few days or a day before deduction of zakat in order to facilitate their corporate and valuable individual accountholders.
Since last couple of days large number of ATM machines were not doling out cash to banking customers and customers were very much annoyed by the ‘Machine is out of order’ stickers labelled outside ATM Kiosks. The internal sources said that actually banks were facing liquidity shortage due to which they were not enough cash to place a substantial amount in ATM machines.
Moreover, heavy withdrawals caused immense pressure in money market, as large number of accountholders injected a big amount in forex trade in order to mint easy profit in short span of time. The fresh inflow in forex trade stirred the Rupee-dollar parity and the exchange rate of US dollar surged to Rs76.90 in interbank market, which was being traded at Rs76.40 early on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Prime Minister Declares Emergency in Capital
Thailand’s prime minister declared a state of emergency in the capital Bangkok on Tuesday after a week of political tension exploded into violent street clashes between supporters and opponents of the government that left one person dead.
Under sweeping powers that give the military the right to restore order, authorities can suspend certain civil liberties, ban all public gatherings of more than five people and bar the media from reporting news that “causes panic.”
The military, which has staged 18 coups since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, said the army did not want to step into the crisis but if it had to, it would not use force against the public. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
UN Seeks US$60 Million for North Korean Food Aid
The U.N. food agency urged donors Tuesday to separate politics from humanitarian aid as it appealed for US$60 million to help North Korea avert its worst food crisis since the 1990s.
The World Food Program said it needed the funds urgently for an emergency program to feed 6.3 million vulnerable North Koreans as food security in the impoverished country worsened. […] “We need the checks flowing to the banks today,” Banbury said. “We sure hope that donors, as many have in the past, will look at this operation from a purely humanitarian point of view.” […]
Communist North Korea has relied on foreign assistance to feed its 23 million people since the mid-1990s, when its economy was hit by natural disasters coupled with the loss of the regime’s Soviet benefactor. As many as 2 million people are believed to have died of famine, exacerbated by a centrally controlled agriculture sector saddled with outdated farming methods. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
70,000 Topless Virgins Dance for King
LUDZIDZINI, Swaziland — Tens of thousands of virgin maidens danced today for Swaziland’s King Mswati III in a traditional reed dance at Ludzidzini palace outside the capital Mbabane.
The final day of the annual dance attracted a record 70,000 girls, some of them as young as six years of age.
The girls — dressed in colourful Swazi regalia — came from all corners of the mountain kingdom in a display of pride in their culture and virtue.
The ceremony has a more serious mission — to draw attention to AIDS and encourage abstinence among young women, in a small southern African nation ravaged by AIDS and poverty.
Swaziland has one of the highest AIDS prevalence rates in the world, with almost 40 per cent of adults affected, according to UN data.
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Somali Christians in Kenya: Persecution and Secret Worship
The BBC reports that in Kenya, in the largely Somali enclave pictured called “little Mogadishu”, refugee Somali Christians are still forced to meet in secret for worship for fear of persecution by Muslim neighbours.
They keep their Muslim names as camouflage, but meet in a secluded house just outside Nairobi. “Many of men and women meet at least once a week like early Christians, to worship in secret “Their prayer session is simple and conducted in Somali. Elders take turns to pray or read verses from the Somali bible before a sermon is delivered.”
There are stories of their being attacked, even killed, by Muslim compatriots. This is not new: the Chicago Christian Post reported it fully, with others, two years ago and there was criticism of UNHCR for not doing anything to support these refugees who have suffered once in Somalia, and now again live in fear.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrant Detained in Termoli: “I Haven’t Been Beaten”
(AGI) — Termoli (Cb), Aug 26 — “I have been tugged nor beaten by the agents of the municipal police. They haven’t put by force in the trunk of their service car, in fact I have been accompanied to the police offices sitting on the back seat of the car”. The street trader from Bangladesh detained Saturday night by the police of Termoli denies to have been treated roughly. A.Z., resident of Rome with a residence permit, has signed a report in which he confirms the reconstruction of the Municipality of Termoli and frees the agents from blame. “I haven’t been put under any pressure to make my declarations” the text reads “and I declare that I won’t take legal steps or ask for compensation”. The statement of the immigrant is part of the detailed report asked of the municipal police by the mayor of Termoli, Vincenzo Greco, after the incident. The street trader, without licence, would have been detained by agents while shouting and trying not to have the necklaces he was selling confiscated. The database of the Interior Ministry shows the immigrant has a criminal record: criminal association, aiding and abetting illegal immigration and extortion. After 18 months in prison in Cassino, he was released in September 2006 thanks to the pardon. At the same time the court of Frosinone issued the decree on expulsion from Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Warns of Growing “Christianophobia”
ROME (Reuters) — “Christianophobia” is a growing problem around the world and it must be fought with the same determination as anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, the Vatican said on Friday.
Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican’s foreign minister, spoke in the wake of attacks against Christians in India that have left at least 13 people dead this week.
Mamberti, addressing a conference in northern Italy, said religious freedom was a vital part of international relations and human dignity.
“In order to promote this dignity in an integral way, so-called ‘Christianophobia’ should be combated as decisively as ‘Islamophobia’ and anti-Semitism,” he said.
This week in eastern India, thousands of people, most of them Christians, have sought shelter in makeshift government camps, driven from their homes by religious violence.
Hindu mobs burnt more than a dozen churches and attacked Christians after a Hindu leader was killed.
Mamberti said the events in India made the issue of religious liberty today all the more pressing.
While Hindu groups accuse Christian priests of bribing poor tribes and low-caste Hindus to change their faith, the Christians say lower-caste Hindus convert willingly to escape a complex caste system.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Fights Islamic Anti-Defamation Push
Cites clash with free speech
UNITED NATIONS | The Bush administration, European governments and religious rights organizations are mounting a new effort to defeat a General Assembly resolution that demands respect for Islam and other religions but has been used to justify persecution of religious minorities.
The resolution, called “Combating Defamation of Religion,” is sponsored by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and has been approved by the world body annually since 2005. It comes up for renewal this fall.
U.S. officials said they hope to persuade moderate Muslim nations — among them Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and Indonesia — to reject the measure, which lacks the force of law but has provided diplomatic cover for regimes that repress critical speech. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.
Religious rights groups say other U.N. measures, including statements by the Human Rights Council in Geneva, replicate the language of the resolution.
“Before, it was one resolution with no impact and no implementation,” said Felice Gaer, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan federal body that investigates abuses and proposes policies to advance “freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”
“Now we are seeing a clear attempt by OIC countries to mainstream the concept and insert it into just about every other topic they can,” Miss Gaer said. “They are turning freedom of expression into restriction of expression.”
European governments are also concerned.
The European Center for Law and Justice filed a brief with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in June warning that such anti-defamation resolutions “are in direct violation of international law concerning the rights to freedom of religion and expression.”
U.S. officials working on human rights said the resolutions are being used to justify harsh blasphemy laws in countries such as Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and Afghanistan.
The OIC said most of the language in the Combating Defamation of Religion resolution has been used in conventions on cultural and civil rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and resolutions to combat racism.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
4 comments:
Be it noted that Rafi Eitan also headed Israel's secret Bureau of Scientific Relations, the outfit that recruited and ran the spy Jonathan Pollard in the 1980s. According to a story Seymour Hersh wrote for the New Yorker during the 1990s, some of Pollard's most sensitive material was passed along to the Soviet Union to facilitate the emigration of certain Soviet Jews who were nuclear scientists.
Man, you simply have to admire Putin...
Yesteray, the communists were known for "eating children" (at least here), nowadays, Putin eats giant Siberian Tigers...
But I bet Bush could do better...
Haha Putin. He would do something like that...
Why are the self-anointed "peaceniks", the anti-globalists, environmentalists, anti-war people always the ones who can't manage a peaceful demonstration? Their behavior belies their peace loving words.
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