Notable stories tonight include the significant breach of the World Bank’s computer network by Chinese hackers, and the decision by the US government to de-list North Korea as a sponsor of terror.Massive incompetence in the world’s governments at all levels — except possibly in China…
Thanks to Abu Elvis, C. Cantoni, Diana West, Insubria, Srdja Trifkovic, Steen, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details and articles are below the fold.
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Why the Meltdown?
We are experiencing one of the worst financial upheavals of the post-WWII era, driven primarily by a vast increase in the number of mortgage defaults. But why did the mortgage market meltdown so badly? Why were there so many defaults when the economy was not particularly weak? And why weren’t the securities based upon these mortgages considered anywhere as risky as they actually turned out to be?
In his new Independent Policy Report, Anatomy of a Train Wreck: Causes of the Mortgage Meltdown (The Independent Institute / October 3, 2008), Research Fellow and economist Stan J. Liebowitz reveals that the federal government has led a misguided attack on underwriting standards for more than a decade in a politically-motivated attempt to increase homeownership, particularly for minorities and the less affluent.
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Dutch National Coordinator Anti-Terrosism: Listen to Extremist Muslims
Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party (PVV), says that the National Coordinator in the fight against terror is being intimidated by the “advancing Islam.” Wilders was reacting to the presentation of a report by the Amsterdam University which was carried out on behalf of the National Coordinator. In this report the researchers say that authorities should listen more carefully to the demands of extreme Muslims. They claim that these demands might contain legitimate social criticism which could improve society. Wilders considers this capitulation to Islam.
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
England’s Population Growing at Fastest Rate Since Records Began
England’s population is growing at the fastest rate since records began, new figures show.
Figures also show that the population density is higher than ever before, with forecasts predicting 405 people for every square kilometre by 2011.
This compares with just 287 for every square kilometre when the figures started to be collected in 1931.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
PM: British to Blame for Iceland Bank Collapse
During a meeting with the Icelandic Independence party this morning, PM Geir H. Haarde didn’t mince words about the British authorities. According to him, the British authorities had brought Iceland’s largest bank to its knees with their abuse of power this last week and that Iceland must look seriously into the possibility of litigation, MBL reported.
Haarde said that a government should naturally defend the rights of its subjects, but the statements of the British had been quite unwarranted.
“I won’t try to hide my surprise and disappointment when it became clear that the British government enforced the laws on defence against terrorism against Icelandic companies in the UK. Laws that were indeed very controversial when they were passed because of the inherent possibility of being abused in alternative situations, not involving terrorism at all. Perhaps we have now witnessed how that controversy was warranted.”
“These measures, along with the statements of the British PM, with whom I have by the way had very friendly relations, coupled with his statements about the defaulting and possible national bankruptcy of Iceland, can in fact be interpreted as an assault against the interests of the Icelandic nation, bearing in mind the difference in size and power between these two nations,” said Haarde.
He added that despite the fact that the British government had acted on the assumption of right against the Icelandic government over collateral and settlement of some bank accounts, the initiative of the British ministers had been completely out of proportion with the issues.
“We neither can, nor will (Icelanders), accept being cast as terrorists by the British government. When I asked the British Minister of Finance, in our conversation if they were serious about the title they were giving us, he denied it. But acting in this fashion against a smaller nation of friends in times of trouble is neither proper nor ethical,” said Haarde.
He continued that following clear and unambiguous Icelandic complaints, the British authorities had backed somewhat away from their position and that there were efforts towards normalising relations between the countries.
“However the fact remains that the British authorities may have caused immense damage with their brutish behaviour. Among other things, they may have brought down Iceland’s largest company with their abuse of power this week. We must look in all seriousness into the possibility of litigation because of these deeds,” said PM Haarde.
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Spain: Illegal Immigrants Stopped, Getting Off Italian Ship
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 9 — 51 illegal Moroccan immigrants arrived yesterday in Barcelona on an Italian passenger ship and tried to enter into Spanish territory with false documents and were arrested when they got off the ship by national police officers. The migrants, according to police sources reported by the media, were intercepted on the merchant vessel “El Fantasic”, which covers the route Tangier-Barcelona-Genoa, arrived in the port of Barcelona with 200 passengers on board. By checks carried out by border police it emerged that 51 people, between 20 and 30 years of age, all Moroccans posing as Belgian citizens, were illegal immigrants that had falsified documents to enter illegally into the country. Against the 51 Maghrebi, 51 orders for immediate deportation were started and they have been put back on he ship, which is the object of an investigation by legal authorities. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Darwen Dad’s Asylum Seeker Death Crash Fury
AN IRAQI illegal immigrant who killed a 12-year-old girl in a road crash has still not been deported five years on, it has emerged.
Proceedings began to kick Aso Mohammed Ibrahim out of the country as long as four years ago but immigration officials have admitted that he remained in Lancashire.
Paul Houston’s daughter Amy was killed when she was hit by a vehicle driven by Ibrahim in Blackburn in November 2003.
He had no licence or insurance and was jailed for four months.
The following year he was again caught driving while disqualified.
Bosses at the UK Border Agency said steps to deport Ibrahim had been “prolonged” but were ongoing.
The agency denied that the case had been mismanged.
Mr Houston, of Argle Street, Darwen, said: “It is an insult to Amy’s memory that he is still in the country.
“He says that it is not safe for him to return to Iraq but I have no concerns for his well being because he showed none for ours when he killed my daughter.
“The fact that he still has not been deported is a joke.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Women Are Increasingly Turning to Crime in Sweden
According to a new study reported by The Local newspaper, Swedish women are increasingly turning to crime. While men have only committed 26 percent more crimes since the study was last conducted in 1995, women are committing 86 percent more crime.
The statistics come from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, which found that women were responsible for 10 percent of all violent crimes and threats in 2007. Men are still guilty of about 80 percent of all crimes in Sweden, but the stats show that women are increasingly breaking the law.
The total number of criminal cases against women in Sweden has risen from 2,500 in 1995 to 4,700 in 2007. Speaking to Sveriges Radio, the Councilmember Solveig Hollari said “we’re seeing that an ever increasing number of [criminal] suspects are women. It’s rising in most types of crime and perhaps is most noticeable in specific forms of threats or violent crime.”
Areas in which women are also excelling at a faster rate than men include fraud and traffic violations. The Council suggests that the statistical increase concerning women may be due to wider recognition that women are capable of violent action, as well as a general increase in the reporting of crimes.
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Croatia: UN War Crimes Tribunal Jails Serb Leader on Appeal
The Hague, 8 Oct. (AKI) — The United Nations’ Hague-based Yugoslav war crimes tribunal on Wednesday sentenced on appeal the former leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, Milan Martic, to 35 years in jail.
The tribunal reaffirmed Martic’s earlier conviction on 15 counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, persecution, torture, deportation, attacks on civilians and destruction of civilian areas.
The appeals chamber dismissed nine grounds of Martic’s appeal, but reversed his conviction for alleged crimes in the towns of Benkovac, Cerovljani, Vukovici and Poljanak.
Martic, who was the president of a self-proclaimed Croatian Serb state, had appealed his conviction and sentencing to 35 years in prison in June 2007.
His lawyers had demanded an acquittal based on “factual errors” in the verdict, while prosecutors demanded a life sentence.
Martic, 53, pleaded not guilty. He said the shelling of Zagreb in May 1995 — for which he is also held responsible — was retaliation for a Croat offensive the east in which thousands of people were expelled and scores killed and wounded.
He surrendered to the tribunal in May 2002 after several years of hiding in Serbia.
According to the charge-sheet, Martic was a part of a “joint criminal undertaking”, allegedly headed by late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic to create a unified Serb state after the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.
Milosevic himself was accused of war crimes and died in his Hague jail cell in March 2006 before he was actually sentenced.
Martic in his appeal stated that the panel of judges presided by South African Bakone Moloto, who passed the original sentence, was biased and didn’t take into account all the defence’s arguments.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ethnic Minorities May be Sent Back to Kosovo
Members of ethnic minorities from Kosovo living in Switzerland may soon be sent home, the Swiss migration office said on Friday.
Roma and Slav Muslims still faced discrimination at the beginning of the year, but the situation has now changed, migration office spokesman Roman Cantieni told German-language Swiss television.
He said their status should now be re-examined.
Kosovo, whose population is over 90 per cent Albanian, unilaterally declared itself independent of Serbia in February.
The Swiss Refugee Council believes any change is premature. Spokesman Yann Golay told the same programme that life is still difficult for minorities in Kosovo.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Ahtisaari’s Nobel Peace Prize Win Shocks Observers
Belgrade, 10 Oct. (AKI) — Serbian politicians and analysts reacted with dismay when this year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari on Friday for three decades of mediation around the world.
Ahtisaari (photo) mediated in the Balkan conflicts and forged a plan for the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. He also brokered a landmark peace deal in 1995 between Jakarta and separatist rebels in the Indonesian province of Aceh.
Belgrade analyst Cvijetin Milivojevic laughed at the news that Ahtisaari had been awarded the peace prize.
“Ahtisaari negotiated no peace in Kosovo, but awarded ethnic Albanians a state on Serbian territory,” Milivojevic told Adnkronos International (AKI).
“He was, in fact, rewarded for carrying out the orders of the major powers,” Milivojevic added.
Ahtisaari was the only international mediator whose plan was not approved by the UN Security Council, but was implemented in Kosovo by a policy of force, said Serbia’s former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica.
“It only confirms that the mentors of a false Kosovo state are exerting pressure in all fields,” said Kostunica, a staunch opponent of Kosovo’s independence.
But Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders all agreed that the award had gone to the right person and that it represented another “victory for Kosovo”.
“This is an exceptionally important recognition that is no doubt more than deserving,” said Kosovo’s President Fatmir Seidiu.
Kosovo Serb leader, Milan Ivanovic, disagreed with Seidiu.
“Ahtisaari is the last person who should get the Nobel peace prize,” he said.
He created a one-sided pro-Albanian plan for solving the Kosovo problem which completely ignored Serbs and the interests of Serbian state, Ivanovic told Serbian news agency Beta.
“He contributed nothing to peace, but was in the service of world powers which destabilised the situation in the Balkans for a long period,” Ivanovic added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Secret Plot to Let 50million African Workers Into EU
MORE than 50 million African workers are to be invited to Europe in a far-reaching secretive migration deal, the Daily Express can reveal today.
A controversial taxpayer-funded “job centre” opened in Mali this week is just the first step towards promoting “free movement of people in Africa and the EU”.
Brussels economists claim Britain and other EU states will “need” 56 million immigrant workers between them by 2050 to make up for the “demographic decline” due to falling birth rates and rising death rates across Europe.
The report, by the EU statistical agency Eurostat, warns that vast numbers of migrants could be needed to meet the shortfall in two years if Europe is to have a hope of funding the pension and health needs of its growing elderly population.
It states: “Countries with low fertility rates could require a significant number of immigrants over the coming decades if they want to maintain the existing number of people of working age.
“Having sufficient people of working age is vital for the economy and for tax revenue.”
The report, by French MEP Francoise Castex, calls for immigrants to be given legal rights and access to social welfare provision such as benefits.
Ms Castex said: “It is urgent that member states have a calm approach to immigration. To say ‘yes’, we need immigration … it is not a new development, we must accept it.”
The proposals include the creation of a “blue card” system, based on the American green card, that provides full working and welfare rights.
Blue card holders would be entitled to move freely across the EU, setting up home in any of the 27 member states.
Last night Sir Andrew Green, of MigrationWatchUK said: “England, with Holland, is already the most crowded country in Europe.
“As it is, we have to build the equivalent of seven cities the size of Birmingham over 25 years for the immigrants the Government already expects.
“Yet again the ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy of the EU produces absurd results. These would be ridiculous proposals if they were applied to the Britain.
“The Government must ensure that these work permits are not valid for the UK.
“Higher levels of immigration are the last thing we need with a recession approaching.”
And Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: “When ministers are talking tough about efforts to control immigration, they need to provide a clear explanation that national policy is not being undermined through the backdoor in Brussels.”
The UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage attacked the move as “an outrage”. He said: “The sooner Britain gets back control of immigration policy, the better.”
The proposals — part of the Africa-EU Partnership signed in Portugal last December — also warns of the negative effects of mass immigration and calls for “better integration of African migrants”.
It calls too for a compassionate approach to the eight million illegal immigrants already living in the EU.
It states: “Irregular migrants must not be treated like criminals. Many risk their lives seeking freedom or the means
of subsistence in Europe. As long as the EU has a higher standard of living than those countries to its south and east, the temptation to come will exist — especially if there are jobs to be had.”
The declaration calls on the EU to assist African governments to set up migration information centres “to better manage labour mobility between Africa and the EU”.
The first was the job centre opened in Bamako, capital of Mali, on Monday. Other centres are expected to open soon in other west African states and later in north Africa.
Yesterday the Daily Express revealed that, in an apparent contradiction of immigration policy, thousands of migrants — like Kanoute Tieny from Mali — are being given up to £5,500 in grants by the EU to return home to Africa.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to implement an EU-wide immigration plan by the end of the year when he stands down as head of the Council of the European Union.
This body implements policy proposed by the European Commission and discussed by the European Parliament.
French immigration minister Brice Hortefeux has represented all the 27 EU states, including Britain, in a succession of whirlwind tours through west Africa to help create a strategy.
Last night the Home Office said the UK had nothing to do with this EU plan.
A Border Agency spokesperson said the initiative is aimed at promoting legal migration routes in the Schengen area of the EU which the UK opted out of. The area includes most but not all member states.
“We therefore retain full control of our own borders and our asylum system.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: USAID Project Aims to Empower Underprivileged Women
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 9 — Aimed at breaking social barriers and building women’s professional and leadership skills is a three-year project under the name ‘Young Women’s Leadership Program’ (YWLP). The YWLP, launched by USAID in partnership with the Center for Development Services (CSD), will focus on women in underprivileged areas, empowering them to play active roles in the private, public and civil society spheres. The CSD is implementing this project along with Microsoft and Barclays Bank and also aims to wipe illiteracy among women in governorates all over Egypt. The YWLP is working at enhancing young women’s leadership skills through a skills-based program comprising of ICT, English language and leadership training. The project is currently being implemented in three governorates in Egypt — Cairo, Beni Suef and Minya — in seven non-governmental organizations and throughout its duration hopes to have targeted 6,600 women. Dibb explained that the program’s activities extend beyond helping women but also teaches parents how to help their daughters overcome the barriers they face. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oil: Libya Suspends Supply to Switzerland
(ANSAmed) — GENEVA, OCTOBER 9 — Libya has decided to suspend its oil supplying activities to Switzerland, announced the Swiss agency ATS, quoting a spokesman for the Libyan company Tamoil. The spokesman, Laurent Paolielli, did not give details on possible motivations. He reminded, however, that Tripoli had threatened to close off supplies as soon as last July, after the arrest in Geneva of Hannibal, the son of Libyan leader, Muammar Gheddafi. Rolf Hartl, director of the Swiss oil union, said that the decision will not produce any effects, explaining that Switzerland will be able to satisfy its needs by turning to other suppliers. Switzerland imports 2.5 million tonnes of oil from Libya every year. The federal department of foreign affairs, said its spokesman, cannot comment on the news as it has not received any official communication on the matter. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
USA: Libyan Funds to Compensate 1980s Terrorism Victims
(ANSAmed) — WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 9 — Libya has begun to deposit “considerable funds” for compensating the victims of terrorism in the 1980s, the US State Department announced. The compensation agreed by the two countries concerns victims of terrorism in the 1980s, both American and Libyan, of a total of 1.8 billion dollars. The compensation includes families of the Lockerbie victims, the area of Scotland where Pan Am flight crashed in December 1988 after an attack, with 259 people on board. Everyone died, plus eleven people on the ground. Libyan secret services were accused of the attack. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Waiting for Minority Quota Election Law Given the Green Light
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Iraq’s Presidency Council approved the provincial election law, but also asked parliament to reinstate Article 50 which guaranteed minorities 15 seats on six provincial councils, 13 for Christians and one each for Shabaks and Yazidis.
President Jalal Talabani (a Kurd) and vice presidents Tareq al-Hashemi (A Sunni Arab) and Adel Abdul-Mahdi (a Shia Arab) have formally approved the long-awaited provincial election law, opening the way for elections on 31 January 2009, but they also told parliament to reinstate guaranteed minority seats on provincial councils.
This decision meets demands made by Christians, who have demonstrated in various parts of the country, for the reinstatement of the quotas.
Mosul, Baghdad and Kirkuk are some of the places where Christians protested, confident also of the backing of UN special representative for Iraq Staffan de Mistura who had said he was “surprised and disappointed” that Iraq’s parliament dropped Article 50, hoping that it would be “reinstated into the legislation as soon as possible”.
Naseer al-Ani, Presidency Council chief of staff, announced the unanimous approval of the election law by council members, adding that Article 50 will be submitted to parliament for a vote.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Christian Families Flee Mosul in Fear of Attacks
Mosul, 10 Oct. (AKI) — At least 75 Christian families have fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul fearing a wave of attacks that have recently targeted members of the religious minority.
“Twenty-five Christian families left their houses in Mosul on Wednesday and were then followed by 50 families on Thursday,” reported the news agency Voices of Iraq, quoting a security source.
“The official records indicated five Christian individuals were killed in the past few days,” Brig. Khalid Abdelsattar, spokesman for Ninewa Operations Command told VOI.
“Terrorism has taken aim at all Iraqis and Christians, who like all people, are targeted by terrorism and armed groups,” the spokesman stressed.
On Tuesday a Christian man and his father were both shot dead, while in another incident unknown gunmen forced their way into a pharmacy in an eastern neighbourhood of Mosul and killed a Christian who worked there.
Mosul is the capital of the Nineveh Governorate, located some 405 kilometres to the north of the capital, Baghdad.
The city is home to the second-largest community of Christians in Iraq after Baghdad. Iraq’s Christian minority is persecuted by Al-Qaeda in Iraq and by Shia militias.
Iraq is home to the Chaldean Catholic Church, one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, but hundreds of thousands of Christians have been forced to flee Iraq to escape the violence and the economic crisis caused by the war.
There are now around 700,000 Christians in Iraq, compared with over a million before the US invasion in 2003, according to censuses carried out by the country’s dioceses.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Explosion in Palestinian Camp
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 10 — Two people were wounded this afternoon in an explosion in the Palestinian refugee camp Ain el-Helweh in southern Lebanon, reported Lebanese communist party radio ‘Voice of the People’ in Beirut. The radio station specified that a bomb exploded near the home of a member of the fundamentalist group Jund al-Sham (Soldiers of the East) in the camp on the edge of the port city of Sidon, 40km south of Beirut. Ain el-Helweh, the largest of the 12 refugee camps in Lebanon, is theatre to sporadic clashes and assassinations between the various factions that control it. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Four Killed in Gun Fight in Damascus, TV
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 9 — At least four people were killed today in Damascus during “violent fighting between police and a group of terrorists”. It was reported by the Pan-Arabian TV network, al-Arabiya, citing Syrian security sources, according to which the clash took place in Yarmuk street, not far from the Palestinian refugee camp of the same name. The network affirmed that two of the suspected terrorists were arrested by security forces and that a police agent was seriously wounded. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Warships Visit Libya on Way to Venezuela
Russian warships, bound for Venezuela for joint naval exercises next month put in Saturday at the Libyan port of Tripoli for refueling.
The rare visit by the Russian warships to the port of Tripoli was the latest signal of warming ties between Libya and Russia, Librya’s main backer during the Soviet era.
The warships, led by the nuclear-powered heavy missile cruiser Peter the Great, left their home base on Sept. 22 in a show of strength by Moscow as it forges links with Caracas.
Libya was seen as a rogue state by Washington until it agreed to give up a weapons of mass destruction program.
Last month U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Libyan leader Moammar Qaddhafi in Tripoli, the first such visit in 55 years.
Libya wants to expand ties with Russia which it sees as counterbalance to U.S. influence in the Mediterranean region.
Vladimir Putin, when Russian President, visited Libya in April to strengthen energy ties with the OPEC member and discuss the possibility of Russian cooperation in building an atomic power plant in Libya.
Putin said Libya was also seeking to buy Russian weapons.
Russia and Venezuela announced their joint military exercises last month amid high tensions between Moscow and Washington and Russian irritation at the presence of U.S. warships near Russian waters in the Black Sea.
The exercises with Venezuela will be closely watched by Western navies as the first such projection of Russian power close to U.S. shores since the demise of the Soviet Union.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Vips to Join Bali Demo Against Pornography Bill
Bali, 10 Oct. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Several national figures and representatives of mass organisations from across Indonesia plan to address a rally on Saturday on Bali against the pornography bill currently being examined by MPs.
The VIPs will address the rally on how the controversial anti-porn bill threatens the pluralism and unity in the vast, mainly Muslim archipelago of Indonesia.
The bill seeks to set a moral tone across Indonesia by defining pornography as acts that incite sexual desire.
Organisers expect around 5,000 people to attend the rally in in Bali’s provincial capital, Denpasar, which will also include a variety of art performances.
Well-known figures scheduled to take part in the march include Regional Representatives Council member GKR Hemas, popular singer Franky Sahilatua and noted filmmaker Garin Nugroho.
Representatives from Jakarta’s pro-democracy and pluralism movement the Bhineka Tunggal Ika Alliance and similar organisations from South and North Sulawesi and southern East Nusa Tenggara province have confirmed they will participate in the march as well.
The rally is slated to start from the Bajra Sandhi (Bali people’s struggle) monument in Denpasar’s upscale Renon area and to wind up in Puputan Badung square, around an hour’s walk northward from Renon.
During the march, participants plan to carry on their shoulders a giant red and white flag specially prepared for this rally. “It shows we are not sect oriented,” he added.
He said once participants have reached the Puputan Badung square, art performances and key speeches would be delivered from a giant stage.
The rally is the third in the past few months organised by the Bali People’s Component (KRB) comprising human rights and student activists.
“It should be bigger than the last mass rally in term of participants. People from traditional villages around the island have also been invited to come,” said KRB coordinator I Gusti Ngurah Harta.
Indonesian lawmakers may approve the controversial bill next Tuesday even though it has been strongly opposed by many organisations and regions around the country.
Hardline Islamic parties back the bill, which has won the support of Golkar, the country’s largest party, but is opposed by the Democratic Party of Struggle, backed by Indonesia’s former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Balinese legislators, artists and tourism operators last month travelled to to Jakarta to lobby MPs for the bill to be dropped.
If visitors to the bikini-clad island are forced to cover up under the proposed anti-pornography legislation, this could seriously damage tourism there, Balinese lobbyists fear.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Orissa: Christian Villages Burned, 12,000 People Missing From Refugee Camps
Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews) — About 12,000 people have disappeared from the refugee camps set up by the government of Orissa to accommodate the Christians fleeing from the violence of Hindu radicals and from their destroyed villages. Meanwhile, a dozen more houses have been burned, while the government of the state assures that it is doing everything possible to maintain security.
Since August 24, a campaign of attacks against Christians and their institutions has been underway in the district of Kandhamal, killing 60 people and forcing 50,000 more to flee. Of these, at least 15,000 have been accommodated in refugee camps overseen by the government. But the Christians do not feel safe; in recent days, attacks have been conducted by Hindu fundamentalist groups against Christians in the camps, with threats and attempts to reconvert them to Hinduism. No Christians from the outside are permitted to enter the camps, and even volunteers and medical personnel from nongovernmental organizations are closely monitored, under the suspicion of wanting to favor conversions to Christianity.
Meanwhile, news of more burned villages is coming from the diocese of Bhubaneshwar. Yesterday, in the village of Balligada, 25 homes belonging to Christians were first ransacked and then set on fire. On October 7 in Phiringia and Sujeli (G. Udayagiri), six homes were attacked and destroyed.
The increasingly tense situation is in contrast with the assurances from the government of Orissa, which claims it is able to maintain security. According to the government, the Christians who leave the refugee camps are returning to their villages. In reality, according to sources in the diocese, Christians are leaving Orissa in search of more secure areas.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UN: More Than 250,000 Refugees Return to Afghanistan
New York, 7 Oct. (AKI) — The United Nations’ refugee agency says over a quarter of a million Afghans have returned home this year from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran due to security and economic worries.
Since January this year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has assisted 248,951 registered Afghans to repatriate from Pakistan and 2,929 from Iran.
“Many said they returned to Afghanistan because they could not afford the high cost of living in exile amid the current food and fuel crisis,” the agency said in a statement. “Others cited security uncertainties as a reason for leaving Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.”
Most of this year’s returnees — some 63 per cent — have gone to eastern Afghanistan, while another 13 per cent have returned to the capital, Kabul.
More than five million Afghans have returned home since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, including over 4.3 million that have been repatriated with UNHCR assistance, mostly from Pakistan, Iran and other countries.
In an effort to address some of the longer-term needs of the returnees, UNHCR and the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs will co-host an international conference in Kabul on their return and integration on 19 November.
The UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation operation from Pakistan will be temporarily suspended at the end of this month and will resume in March 2009.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Announces Plan to Resume Nuclear Disabling
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Sunday it will resume disabling its key nuclear complex after the U.S. dropped the country from a terrorism blacklist — a breakthrough expected to help energize stalled talks aimed at ending the country’s atomic ambitions.
The spat was the latest of many between Pyongyang and Washington that threatened to scuttle progress before eventually being settled since the international talks aimed at dismantling the communist country’s nuclear program began five years ago.
This weekend’s developments raised hopes that stalled international nuclear talks could quickly resume and help improve ties between Washington and Pyongyang — Cold War adversaries, still technically at war.
Experts still predict a long, bumpy road ahead before North Korea’s nuclear program is ever dismantled.
The next stage “will be more complicated,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea expert at the Sejong Institute, a private security think tank near Seoul.
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Demographics: Malta, Immigrant Arrivals Surpass Birth Rate
(ANSAmed) — LA VALLETTA (MALTA), OCTOBER 10 — The impact of immigrant arrivals on the island-state of Malta is so high that for the first time it has surpassed the birth rate. The statistics which were supplied by the Immigration Commission show that in Malta there are 40 immigrants for every square kilometre, an average that surprisingly surpasses the population density per square kilometre in Finland. According to the Commission, until 2001, only 3,153 immigrants landed in Malta, 2,271 of which obtained residence permits in other countries, like Canada, the US and Australia. Residence programs were suspended in 2002 when the immigrant boat arrivals began. The Interior Minister in La Valletta admitted that only 28 of the people went on to other EU countries and 141 others were accepted by the United States from 2006-2008. The Maltese government is under pressure from public opinion to find a solution to the immigration problem, while the opposition is pushing for assistance from the EU. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Spain, 50 Migrants Missing After Shipwreck
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 9 — Searches are taking place along the coastline of Spain on the lookout for around 50 migrants of Moroccan origin, who (according to a survivor) were involved in a shipwreck. The survivor was found on a beach 40 kilometres north of Rabat, near to the body of a man — presumably one of the victims of the wreck. According to Moroccan security sources cited by EFE news agency, the survivor is a young man — originally from Sale (Rabat). According to his testimony, the boat had fifty people on board when it set sail from the Moroccan coast at around 11.30pm on Tuesday night. However, after a half hour of sailing it capsized and almost all those on board fell into the water and are now missing. Since yesterday, the Moroccan police, with the help of helicopters and planes, has been patrolling the area of the shipwreck in the search for the missing people. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: 260 Migrants Land in Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), OCTOBER 9 — A large boat with 260 immigrants on board was aided 40 miles south of Lampedusa by Police patrol boats. The boat, 15 meters long was pointed out by the Sirio patrol boat that had previously collected another 143 non EU citizens on three other boats. With the arrival of the last 400 migrants on the island the situation remains critical in the centre where this morning about 1500 people were hosted in a structure that has a capacity for 700 people. A first group of 175 was boarded on a ferry headed to Porto Empedocle; another 100 will be transferred by plane to the temporary centre in Crotone. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Karamanlis, to Create European Coast Guard
(ANSAmed) — LA VALLETTA, (MALTA) OCTOBER 10 — The creation of a European Coastguard is one of the hypotheses the EU must take into consideration to deal with the illegal immigration emergency in the Mediterranean. The Prime Minister of Greece, Kostas Karamanlis, said this during a joint press conference with the Premier of Malta, Lawrence Gonzi, during his 2-day State visit to the island. “Frontex must be reinforced, not abandoned” said Karamanlis, in response to a question in which he was asked to comment the recent statements of mission leader Illka Laitinen, who in an interview admitted that the joint patrols have “failed”. Karamanlis underlined the importance of more cooperation between the EU member States in dealing with the immigration emergency, inviting European partners to start a discussion on the possibility to create a European Coastguard. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 30,000 Illegal Migrants Entered Country This Year Says Govt
Rome, 9 Oct. (AKI) — A total 30,000 illegal immigrants have entered Italy so far this year, the country’s Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni told the Parliament on Thursday, adding that migration has risen “exponentially”.
The Government has allocated seven million euros for the construction of new reception centres for illegal immigrants and over 109 million euros to run these centres, said Maroni (photo).
On top of these sums, the Government has earmarked 747,000 euros to handle the arrival of illegal immigrants at Italy’s borders, he said.
Eight million euros have been allocated in 2008 and 32.5 million euros in 2009 and 2010 to accommodate asylum-seekers and refugees, Maroni stated.
Migration to Italy has risen “exponentially” from 500,000 people in 1987 to almost 3.5 million this year, Maroni noted.
He was speaking the same day that Italy’s central statistics agency ISTAT released data showing a record 3,432,651 foreigners were resident in Italy on 1 January this year, an increase of 16.8 percent over 2007.
Most immigrants (62.5 percent) live in the north, a quarter in central Italy and 12.5 percent in the south, according to Istat.
Almost half of Italy’s foreign residents are from eastern European countries, with Romanians forming the most rapidly growing community, especially in Italy’s southern regions.
There were 625,000 Romanian citizens resident in Italy on 1 January this year, an 82.7 percent increase compared with 2007, when Romania joined the European Union.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ahtisaari’s Well Deserved Prize
by Srdja Trifkovic
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded last Friday to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari. The mainstream media claimed matter-of-factly that this was the “global trouble-shooter’s” reward for many years of “helping end strife” in troublespots ranging from Kosovo to Namibia and Indonesia. The Norwegian Nobel Committee hailed Ahtisaari (71) “for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts.” The claim is ridiculous: Far from being a peacemaker, Ahtisaari is an obedient apparatchik of the global elite class whose job it is to help impose “solutions” decided upfront by his paymasters in Washington, New York and Brussels. He is therefore eminently deserving of this particular honor.
There have been controversial Nobel peace prizes over the years — Yasser Arafat comes to mind, not to mention Menachem Begin — but over the past two decades the institution has degenerated into farce.
Last year it went to Al Gore for his “Inconvenient Truth.” Enough said.
In 1992 the panel of five Norwegian worthies gave it to Guatemalan “activist” (i.e. leftist self-dramatist and fraud) Rigoberta Menchu, whose deservedly forgotten autobiography was cut out of whole cloth. (The brother she “watched die of malnutrition” was later found to be alive and well fed.)
In 1999 the laureate was Bernard Kouchner, a shameless self-promoter and currently Sarkozy’s foreign minister. This quintessential ‘68-er has been piggybacking of human misery for decades. Kouchner’s outpouring of pornograpic compassion, elicited by the plight of the “Boat People,” prompted even his very own Doctors Without Borders to disown him. His mending of fences with the French right — and current gainful employment — came in the aftermath of his failed bids for the post of the director of the World Health Organisation and the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees.
Ahtisaari is in good company. His most high-profile mission to date — Kosovo — is an unresolved problem made worse by him than it had been before him, or that it would have been without him. His support of the Albanian cause and insistence on independence as the only option is what the United States wanted, and he performed on cue. That his “plan” is detrimental to peace and stability in the region needs no restating.
It is ironic that the Nobel Committee announced its decision in the same week when Serbia’s resolution to have the International Court of Justice consider the legality of Kosovo’s self-declared independence was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly. It’s a bit like giving Neville Chamberlain the 1939 peace prize for Munich 1938…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Ultra-Orthodox Wig Shop Unveils ‘Sarah Palin Wig’ Based on Alaska Governor’s Famous Locks
America’s most controversial hockey mom has inspired a new item made for religious women that probably isn’t sold up there in Alaska, gosh darn it!
The ‘Sarah Palin Wig,’ based on the hairstyle of the Last Frontier State governor and GOP vice presidential candidate, is the latest head covering to go on sale at Sheitel.com, a Brooklyn wig shop and Web site for Orthodox Jewish women who maintain modesty by concealing their natural hair.
“One of our stylists thought it would make a good style, so we produced it,? said Boruch Shlanger, one of Sheitel.com’s owners, in an e-mail to The Shmooze. “It is very easy to maintain, and is a very classic look, yet fashion forward!”
Made of 100% human hair and available for $795 (marked down from $895), the wig is the first of its kind inspired by the otherwise ‘folliclely challenged’ Republican ticket — but it is not the only one influenced by a potential American president. ‘There had been requests for Hillary Clinton wigs in the past,’ wrote Shlanger, who temporarily produced Clinton sheitls, ‘but none recently.’
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
World Bank Under Cyber Siege in ‘Unprecedented Crisis’
The World Bank Group’s computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned.
It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution’s highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank’s network for nearly a month in June and July.
In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month.
In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank’s senior technology manager referred to the situation as an “unprecedented crisis.” In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public.
The crisis comes at an awkward moment for World Bank president Robert Zoellick, who runs the world’s largest and most influential anti-poverty agency, which doles out $25 billion a year, and whose board represents 185 member nations. This weekend, the bank holds its annual series of meetings in Washington — and just in advance of those sessions, Zoellick called for a radical revamping of multilateral organizations in light of the global economic meltdown.
Zoellick is positioning himself and the bank as an institution that can help chart a new path toward global financial stability. But that reputation, more than ever, depends on the bank’s stable information infrastructure.
The fact that the information vaults of the World Bank have been repeatedly pried open won’t help Zoellick’s case.
While it remains unclear how much data has been pilfered from the bank, it’s a lot. According to internal memos, “a minimum of 18 servers have been compromised,” including some of the bank’s most sensitive systems — ranging from the bank’s security and password server to a Human Resources server “that contains scanned images of staff documents.”…
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
1 comment:
World Bank Under Cyber Siege in ‘Unprecedented Crisis’
In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month.
Yet one more excellent to eject China from the World Trade Organization and revoke its "Most Favored Nation" trade status with the USA.
Anyone who thinks that these Sino-based hackings have gone on without the express approval, if not direct participation, of the Chinese government is a few tacos short of a fiesta.
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