The news feed is being published early today because I’m going out of town again overnight, this time to visit the Future Baron in his den of infamy at graduate school.Once again, there are items from the backlog included in this post, and I’m not done yet — if I get to them before they’re completely stale-dated, there will be more.
I have in hand a new essay from El Inglés, but ran out of time before I could post it. With luck I will get to it tomorrow evening.
Thanks to Amil Imani, C. Cantoni, Insubria, JD, KGS, TB, TV, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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10,000 Absentee Ballots in Gwinnett Are Flawed
Votes will have to be transferred to new ballots
Gwinnett County elections officials will have to hand-copy votes from at least 10,000 absentee ballots onto new ballots that can be read by a machine.
The original ballots, designed to be filled out by hand, are flawed because of a printing error. The circle beside the candidate’s name is too thick and somewhat misshapen, and consequently an optical scanning machine won’t be able to read the votes on Election Day.
The county discovered the problem last week during routine testing.
Gwinnett had already mailed out 19,700 flawed ballots before it realized the problem.
Of those, 10,000 have already been marked and sent back by voters, said Lynn Ledford director of Voter Registration and Elections for Gwinnett County.
The printing mistake was not apparent to the naked eye, Ledford said.
The elections office will now have to transfer the votes from those 10,000 ballots onto new ballots so an optical scanning machine can read them, Ledford said. If more of the flawed ballots come back, that number will increase.
County spokesman Joe Sorenson said correcting the errors could be complicated.
“[Election workers] are going to have to take the bad ballots, take a look at what each choice is, and mark that choice for the second ballot,” Sorenson said. “There will be two sets of eyes on each ballot.”…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Supporting McCain? No, Not Really
The media embraces a silly theory based on Internet forum posts by “desktop jihadists.”
Lefty bloggers and pundits are ecstatic over a Washington Post article published Wednesday which reported that online forums frequented by al-Qaeda enthusiasts have expressed support for John McCain. According to the article, forum postings gloat over the present economic downturn, and hope that a McCain presidency and a continuation of the war on terror would play into their quagmire strategy:
In language that was by turns mocking and ominous, the newest posting credited Al Qaeda with having lured Washington into a trap that had “exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy.” It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world.
The reality, however, is that this is just more wishful thinking on the part of the establishment media trying to give Barack Obama cover for his wrong-headed opposition to the surge in Iraq.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Ayers, Dohrn: ‘White Supremacy’ Responsible for America’s Troubles
New book blames race for ‘bigotry’ in society
Unrepentant terrorist William Ayers and his wife, onetime federal fugitive Bernardine Dohrn, are releasing a new book that blames whites for the problems in the U.S. since its independence from Great Britain more than two centuries ago.
According to Amazon.com, the soon-to-be released book, “Race Course Against White Supremacy,” includes personal essays “by two veteran political activists” on “white supremacy and its troubling endurance in American life.”
“Arguing that white supremacy has been the dominant political system in the United States since its earliest days — and that it is still very much with us — the discussion points to unexamined bigotry in the criminal justice system, election processes, war policy, and education,” the Amazon posting states…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ayers’ Influence Off-Limits at News Briefing
‘No comment’ to question about Obama’s terrorism links
The influence that unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers has over Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, a potential future president, is off-limits at White House news briefings.
“That’s it. I’m not going to answer it,” Dana Perino, the president’s spokeswoman, told Les Kinsolving, WND’s correspondent at the White House, just as he had begun asking a question.
Kinsolving had opened with a question about U.S. Secret Service bans on security clearances for individuals with known associations with terrorists.
“This morning a spokesman for the Secret Service told me that to be an agent you have to have a Bachelor’s degree, three years in law enforcement, and undergo a complete background check. When I asked if the applicant had any record of association with terrorists, I was told that would not be tolerated. And my first question is, is that the White House office’s understanding of the qualifications to be a Secret Service agent?” he asked.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Furor Over Acorn Allegations Gaining Momentum
WASHINGTON — The furor over ACORN’s national voter registration drive exploded with new controversies Friday, including a call by Barack Obama for an independent prosecutor, a Supreme Court ruling over voter access and the disclosure of a death threat against an ACORN worker.
What remains unclear is whether the campaigns of Obama and John McCain will reach a truce over voter access to the polls by Election Day or whether their legal and rhetorical battles will persist to the finish line — or beyond.
Republicans allege that the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now is engaged in rampant voter fraud, but they’ve offered no proof of such a systematic effort. The GOP does have evidence that some of the group’s 13,000 canvassers submitted fraudulent applications, but ACORN says it alerted authorities to most of the phony forms.
Democrats counter that the GOP is trying to whip up fears of voter fraud so it can knock students and low-income minorities off the voter rolls to enhance McCain’s chances of victory.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled an attempt by Republicans to challenge the validity of 200,000 voter registrations in Ohio, saying that the party lacked the standing to sue.
The Republicans had sued to force Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, to provide county election officials with lists of registrants whose personal information did not exactly match Social Security or driver’s license data, a step that would leave those voters vulnerable to eligibility challenges.
Tensions began to escalate Thursday with disclosures that the FBI is investigating ACORN and the possibility that it’s engaged in a vote-fraud scheme…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
House Democrats Contemplate Abolishing 401(K) Tax Breaks
Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-California, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute.
A plan by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic-policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, contains elements that are being considered. She testified last week before Miller’s Education and Labor Committee on her proposal.
At that hearing, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, testified that some $2 trillion in retirement savings has been lost over the past 15 months.
Under Ghilarducci’s plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5 percent of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3 percent a year, adjusted for inflation.
The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Law Threatens Thousands of Military Votes
SPRINGFIELD — An obscure state law and an ambiguous federal ballot form are combining to invalidate some of the thousands of absentee votes being cast this fall by Virginians overseas, most of them in the military.
State officials confirmed Thursday that they’ve instructed local registrars to set aside any vote submitted on a federally furnished write-in ballot unless the ballot includes both the name and address of the person who witnessed the vote. An advisory to registrars was distributed earlier this week, said Susan Pollard, a spokeswoman for the State Board of Elections.
Every absentee ballot requires the signature of a witness, who vouches for the identity of the voter. The witness address requirement is specified by Virginia law but not spelled out on the federal form.
Virginia voters: Let your public official know how you feel about this issue.
Follow the 2008 races at Military.com’s Election Center.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that the state does not require the witness address for absentee voters who opt for a different, state-furnished form.
“I want to count these votes, but under the law we cannot,” said Rokey Suleman II, the voter registrar in Fairfax County, where the problem came to light.
“The law stinks…. That said, I cannot ignore the law,” he added…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims in U.S. Praise Powell’s Remarks
For many Muslim- and Arab-Americans, comments former Secretary of State Colin Powell made over the weekend about what in their view is the Islamophobia surrounding Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy were a much-needed salve on a festering sore.
On Meet the Press Sunday, Powell said what many Muslims and Arabs said they have waited to hear from a prominent figure like Powell throughout the 2008 presidential campaign.
Addressing the false rumor that Obama is a Muslim, Powell said: “The really right answer is: What if he is? … Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council of American Islamic Relations’ Chicago office, called Powell’s comments “a real morale booster.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obamanomics
By Amil Imani
Obama’s economic plan is a recipe for long-lasting disaster. Keep in mind that wrecking anything, as opposed to building things, requires very little time and effort. Obama’s plan is deceptively attractive, while in reality it is a huge wrecking ball that will capsize the already listing ship of our economy. Here is a partial list of reasons why. Judge for yourself.
Obama is proposing a trillion dollars in new spending. Where is he going to get the money, given the government’s present huge budget deficit? From the filthy rich and blood-sucking corporations, that’s where, he says. A terrific vote-getting scheme. But will it work?
Obama doesn’t tell you that in the present world money is like water. It flows to the lowest ground. And the lowest ground for money is found in places where it can make more money — not locations where it is seriously tapped by government. For example, Ireland where the corporate income tax rate is 11% and not the United States, which has the second highest rate in the world. As it is, one of the biggest reasons that many corporations set up their businesses abroad is the high cost of doing business here at home. Hence, a great many jobs are lost to overseas enterprise…
| — Hat tip: Amil Imani | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Mystery Man on Energy
By Max Schulz
In his speech at the Republican National Convention, former Senator Fred Thompson said that one question people will never have to ask of John McCain is, “Who is this man?”
In truth, the comment was intended to say more about Barack Obama than McCain. It goes to the heart of many people’s reservations about Obama — namely that after two years of campaigning, Americans have at best a vague sense of who this man is. As Victor Davis Hanson has pointed out, Obama remains a mystery, and it’s difficult to say what we know about how he will govern.
That is particularly the case on energy — among the most compelling issues in this long campaign. If the polls and the conventional wisdom are to be believed, Obama will sweep to victory in two weeks along with sizable majorities of Democrats in both houses of Congress. Anyone trying to get a read on what his energy policy would be will have a hard time reaching real conclusions. The more one studies his positions and his campaign performance, the more likely one is to ask Fred Thompson’s question: Who is this man?…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Our $700 Billion Gift to China
It should surprise no one that Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi worked so tirelessly on behalf of the $700 billion bailout of troubled financial institutions.
After all, the Democrat leadership had plenty to cover up — about 30 years of policies that led inevitably to the collapse of the mortgage industry.
But, why, some wondered, did the plan get such enthusiastic support from Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell?
My theory is simple: This wasn’t so much a bailout of American financial institutions as it was a bailout of China. And McConnell, in particular, has a long, inglorious track record of voting in China’s best interests.
Let’s review some history…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Durban 2 From Canada’s National Post
In an earlier post to Vlad I placed an article by a former CSIS man making the claim that the NDP party of Canada had been bought by Islamist forces for an Islamic agenda. I believe this National Post story may provide evidence for that claim…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Britain: Five Terror Suspects Arrested
Birmingham, 21 Oct. (AKI) — Five terror suspects were arrested by British police in the central city of Birmingham on Tuesday. The five men, aged between 29 and 26, were arrested under anti-terrorism laws on suspicion of being involved “in the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism,” police said in a brief statement.
Police raided five homes and two businesses early on Tuesday but stressed that the raids were not in response to an immediate threat to the public. Police released no information about the nationality or identity of the arrested men.
Britain’s domestic intelligence service MI5 says on its website that the current terror threat level is ‘severe’. It said there is a strong likelihood of future terrorist attacks and a continuing high threat level to the United Kingdom.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Two Men Found Guilty of Terror Plot
Copenhagen, 21 Oct. (AKI) — A Danish citizen of Pakistani origin and an Afghani national were found guilty on Tuesday of preparing a terrorist attack after they were filmed mixing explosives.
Hammad Khuershid was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Abdoulghani Tokhi was sentenced to seven years by a court in the town of Glostrup, just outside the capital of Copenhagen. Both are in their early 20s.
The men were arrested after an anti-terror raid that saw Danish agents filming them as they were carrying out a test blast. The explosives were reportedly the same as those used in the 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people.
Both men claimed the explosives were going to be used for fireworks.
At the trial prosecutors alleged that Khuershid had ties to an Al-Qaeda operative but they were unsure whether the attack was going to take place in Denmark or abroad.
Investigators claimed to have found bomb-making manuals in the men’s homes.
Tokhi has a residency permit to live legally in Denmark, but authorities said he would be deported after completing his sentence.
There have been several anti-terrorism raids, arrests of terrorism suspects and a terrorism trial in Denmark since 2005. That was the same year that the country attracted widespread condemnation from Muslims around the world after Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
Denmark is also involved in the war in Afghanistan and maintains a small contingent of troops in Iraq.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Flanders: Morelleke Forelleke
Things have looked better for Marie-Rose Morel, the former Miss Flanders who became a member of the Flemish Parliament in 2004. Shortly before, Vlaams Blok (VB) had welcomed Morel as a new icon. She was meant to represent the respectable face of Vlaams Blok. (In fact the party changed its name into Vlaams Belang later that year.) Morel immediately set to lure away voters from the N-VA, the party she herself had turned her back on. In those days, Vlaams Belang party president Frank Vanhecke lovingly called her Morelleke Forelleke, a pet name that is hard to translate (my little trout?). If her political opponents did not take her seriously at first, her slick debating skills soon changed that. These days, however, headlines no longer focus on Morel’s political instinct, but rather on her private life. Readers are presented with sordid details about her messy divorce, as rumors of an affair with Frank Vanhecke (which she vehemently denies) just will not go away. This, combined with a power struggle within the prty’s highest ranks, prompted De Standaard to call her “the Yoko Ono of Vlaams Belang”. A recent book by former VB sympathiser Jurgen Verstrepen has rekindled these old rumors. Back in 2004, Verstrepen supported Morel as the respectable face of VB. Now that he has defected to Lijst Dedecker, Verstrepen does not hesitate to wash Vlaams Belang’s dirty linen in public. Morel has announced she will sue Verstrepen, which just reinforces the impression that she is forever on the defensive. No wonder she sympathises with Sarah Palin!
Morel’s story is symbolic of the VB saga. For years, this party for the disgruntled attracted voters who were unhappy about just about anything (francophones, immigrants, criminals or politics in general). To the dismay of more traditional parties, it became “the party that never loses an election” and in 2004 gained no less than 24% of the votes.
The first cracks appeared in 2006 in Antwerp, when the mayor Patrick Janssens (Flemish socialist SP.A) halted its seemingly unstoppable rise. But now a far greater threat is showing up on Vlaams Belang’s horizon: Lijst Dedecker (LDD) and its loudmouth president Jean-Marie Dedecker have become the new champions of the disgruntled. Next to LDD, Vlaams Belang looks like something it abhors — traditional, old school politicians. Opinion polls show that LDD may become even bigger than Vlaams Belang at the 2009 Flemish elections. Anticipating this, Vlaams Belang activist Filip Dewinter now claims a “moral” victory, because more people are warming to the idea of Flemish independence. Just like Morel, he is on the defensive.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Defends Separate Classes for Immigrant Pupils
Rome, 22 Oct. (AKI) — Italy’s conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday denied that his government’s decision to introduce separate school classes for immigrant children who fail language and other admission tests are racist. “They are accusing us of racism but this is not true at all. We are talking about a common-sense measure to aid integration,” Berlusconi told journalists in the Italian capital, Rome.
“ There are classrooms where pupils are speaking ten languages. They need to master Italian. The first thing is to teach Italian. Then the children can study other subjects,” Berlusconi said, adding that the separate classes will actually aid integration.
Italian MPs voted last week to introduce separate classes in state schools for immigrant children who fail language and ‘general evaluation’ admission tests.
The anti-immigrant Northern League tabled the legislation which has been criticised by immigrant leaders, Italy’s opposition and Catholic churchmen.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Mortgage Crisis: Spain Out of G8, Diplomatic Pressure
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 22 — Steady nerves and diplomatic pressure on all sides: Spain does not want to be left outside the G8 summit on the financial crisis in November in the USA, something that Madrid is greatly concerned about and which is now almost a personal challenge for Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero. The Spanish Government today welcomed statements made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said that he was “convinced that Spain will have a place in the coming summit, considering its weight in the world economy”. Sarkozy is ready “to defend the case for Spanish participation with the American hosts of the summit”. So all is not yet lost. Yesterday it was Sarkozy himself who chilled Madrid when he remarked in a European parliamentary debate that an invitation to Madrid could “create problems with Poland and its 38 million inhabitants” (Spain actually has a similar population, that is, 40 million), saying further that it would not be him who “decides the G8 member countries”. The exclusion from the next ‘conclave’ is made worse by the fact that China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico will probably join the G8 countries, as the G20 countries: the club of the ‘big ones’ has opened the door to countries which for many are now ex emergingy countries (Beijing and Delhi being real powers), while Madrid — eighth largest economy in the world — could remain outside the group. The wound is even more painful when you consider that the ‘Super G’ will not be just any summit, but a chance to redefine capitalism for the next few years. Confirming that the ‘G8 dossier’ is now one of Spain’s foreign policy priorities was the news that Zapatero will take part in the EU-ASEM summit this weekend in Beijing instead of Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega: the aim is to gain support from other European leaders. For now Zapatero can ount of the support of Britain’s Gordon Brown, as well as the clear message announced by Sarkozy today. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Murky Truth Behind Swiss Suicide ‘Clinic’ Dignitas
Dignitas is operating at present in a building on a shabby industrial estate
The Swiss call it the Gold Coast, the string of silent, discreetly guarded villas fringing Lake Zurich. Bankers, tycoons and the heirs to family fortunes live here, so the lakeside is fenced off and there is only one narrow rocky strip where the public can plunge into the water.
That is where hundreds of small fragments of bone were recently washed ashore, the macabre flotsam from leaking crematorium urns. Who is dumping human ashes in the lake in such industrial quantities? Accusing fingers were, rightly or wrongly, pointed at the assisted-suicide organisation Dignitas, which claims to have helped 100 Britons to die. These include, most controversially, a 23-year-old rugby player who had been paralysed in a training accident.
The Crown Prosecution Service is deciding whether to press charges against the parents of Daniel James after it learnt that they had accompanied him to Dignitas, where he ended his life last month. The case has provoked sympathy and condemnation in almost equal measure because, unlike most previous cases, Mr James was not terminally ill. But that is not the only cause for concern about the organisation.
“I calculate that about 300 Dignitas customers have had their ashes dropped into the lake over the years,” said Soraya Wernli, who once worked in a senior position there. Police were unable to pursue an investigation because no laws were broken but the authorities did issue Dignitas with a warning that too much human ash could pollute the Gold Coast, against local regulations.
One thing is for sure: it is not how British families imagined the final resting place for their relatives. But then so little about about the workings of Dignitas matches its idealised image…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nobel Laureate: Palestinians Need a State, Israelis Need Peace
Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari said Saturday it is a disgrace that the international community has not managed to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, blaming the failure on a lack of political will.
In an interview with Swedish Radio, Ahtisaari said he was ashamed that neither Europe nor the US have been capable of reaching a solution yet.
“How can we, year after year, seriously say that we are trying to reach a solution when we aren’t?” he asked. “I’m ashamed, I have to admit that.”
The broadcaster also quoted him as saying he hoped the next US president would use his first year in office to try find a permanent solution in the Middle East…
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
One-Third of Swedes Want to Live in Gated Communities: Study
One in three Swedes wants to live in a gated community which prohibits unauthorized people from entering, a new study shows.
Most interested in the security provided by such living situations are young singles, of which 41 percent reported wanting to live someplace surrounded by fences or requiring a door code for entry.
Meanwhile, only 26 percent of families with small children said they desired the additional security measures.
The study also reported that less than one fourth of the survey’s respondents — 23 percent — want to live in areas which feature cultural, ethnic, and social diversity.
The results come from a report entitled BoTrender 08 (‘Living Tends ‘08’) carried out by the Tyréns Temaplan consulting company and based on responses gathered in August from 5,000 Swedes aged 18- to 70-years-old who live in apartments or are considering living in apartments in the future.
“I don’t think that those who answered the study were thinking of barbed wire, high walls, and guards, but rather a more secluded area with checks on who enters,” said Tyréns Temaplan’s Mia Wahlström to the Svenska Dadbladet newspaper.
Göran Cars, a professor of urban studies at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), said the study shows people place a high value on safety and security when it comes to where they live, but expresses his reservations about what a proliferation of gated communities might mean for Sweden.
“I would consider it deeply tragic of there was a propagation of gated communities. That would mean my city would lose some of its appeal; its diversity of people and activities. The city’s services would become impoverished and it would lose its international competitiveness,” he told SvD.
Pointing to trends in the United States, a country in which gated communities have become increasingly popular, Cars added that the trend can actually result in public places becoming less safe.
He believes that society has a choice to make when it comes to dealing with rising rates of crime and violence.
“On the one hand, we can accept the increase violence and insecurity. Then everyone who can afford to will choose to live in protected area. On the other hand, we can vigorously combat the violence and abuse which damages our security and safety by giving police and social services more resources,” he said.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Plumbers and Electricians Asked to Report Signs of Child Abuse
Council workmen who have regular access to people’s homes are to be trained to detect early signs of child abuse.
Repair men, plumbers, electricians and housing officers will be urged to report seemingly unexplained injuries, or behaviour patterns which could indicate neglect or abuse.
One of the first such schemes in the country is expected to be approved by councillors in Lincoln at a meeting next week.
Around 200 staff from City of Lincoln Council will be trained taught to recognise a checklist of possible warning signs and pass them on to social services.
Possible “indicators” of abuse they will be asked to look out for range from cigarette burns and scalds to habits such as rocking back and forward or girls constantly twisting their hair.
They will be taught that children who insist on wearing long sleeves even on hot days could be concealing injuries…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Constitutional Court Says “No” to Basque Referendum
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 12 — With a decision unanimously taken yesterday, the Spanish Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the law approved in June by the Basque Parliament, on proposal by the regional government’s president, Juan José Ibarretxe, for the calling on October 25 of a people’s consultation on self-determination. The Basque government, according to the ruling reported today by the media, is not competent to call a referendum on sovereignty, a faculty which the Constitution assigns exclusively to the state. The Supreme Court ruled on the appeal presented by the government, through the state public prosecutor’s office, and on the appeal promoted by the People’s Party to the Basque law of consultation. In the 34 page-long ruling, the Court blocks the way to new initiatives on self-determination which might be promoted by other regions, which, as in the case of Catalonia, have regulated in their Statute of Autonomy the right to promote people’s consultations. According to the ruling, in fact, “the respect of the Constitution imposes that the projects of revision of the constitutional order are carried out openly and directly through the path which the Constitution envisages for these purposes”. Therefore, “implementations through other ways are not allowed, neither by the autonomous communities or any other body of the state, because above everything there is always the will of the Spanish people, exclusive holder of the national sovereignty”. The ruling is based on three arguments mentioned in the appeal presented by the state public prosecutor’s office: the incompetence of the Basque legislator to promote a referendum with these characteristics; the procedure followed for the calling of the consultation and the basic ‘material’ unconstitutionality of the questions which the president of the Basque government plans to ask the electorate of the Basque countries. The Basque executive power criticised the ruling as “a further demonstration of the perverse effects generated by the politicisation of justice”. The ‘lehendakari’ Ibarretxe, who in the past few days had announced his intention to appeal “from a personal point of view” to the Strasbourg Court if the Constitutional Court rejected his referendum proposal, called today an extraordinary meeting of the Basque government, at the end of which he will read an “institutional declaration”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Laser Man’ Calls on Supreme Court to Lower Sentence
A man serving life in prison for a series of brutal attacks on immigrants has turned to Sweden’s Supreme Court in a bid to have his sentence reduced.
court after his request for an early release was refused by the Örebro District Court in April this year.
Prosecutors highlighted the seriousness of Ausonius’s crimes and stressed the likelihood of him returning to a life of violent crime if released. The Court of Appeal later upheld the decision.
Ausonius was convicted in 1995 for one case of murder and ten attempted murders of immigrants, as well as eight bank robberies.
Born in 1953, Wolfgang Zaugg was the son of German and Swiss immigrants. As an adult he changed his name to John Ausonius in order to appear more Swedish. He also dyed his black hair blond.
In 1979 he became a Swedish citizen. He combined a successful flirtation with stocks and bonds with a deep-seated hatred of immigrants.
Some ill-advised investments put a serious dent in his comfortable lifestyle and he began robbing banks to maintain his position.
At the end of the summer of 1991, Ausonius targeted his first immigrant victim. Two Eritreans saw a circle of red light rest on their compatriot’s body before he was hit.
The man survived but Laser Man terrorized Stockholm’s immigrant population for a further eighteen months.
In November 1991 he shot his fifth victim, Jimmy Ranjbar, an Iranian student. Ranjbar did not survive the attack.
In all Ausonius shot eleven immigrants in the Stockholm and Uppsala areas. Many of his victims were shot in the head and experts believe further casualties were only prevented by Ausonius’s incompetence when modifying his weapon.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Albanian Mother and Child Drown Near Greece
(ANSAmed) — TIRANA, OCTOBER 20 — A 20-year-old woman and her three-month-old baby girl have drowned in a lagoon in southern Albania, after the boat carrying them capsized. Onboard there were 13 people trying to avoid police checkpoints and cross the border with Greece. Albanian police have said that the incident occurred while from 20 to 25 people onboard two wooden boats were crossing the lagoon before reaching the village Xarre, near the border with Greece. The woman’s husband has survived and has been hospitalized in a state of shock. Albania banned the use of motorboats three years ago in order to stem human trafficking across the Adriatic to Italy. Since then, poor Albania looking for a better life use land routes towards Greece. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Albania, Death Toll of Sunken Boat Reaches 4
(ANSAmed) — TIRANA, OCTOBER 21 — The number of victims has risen to four in Sunday’s accident in a lagoon in the south of Albania close to Greece when a boat with illegal immigrants sank around 50 metres from the shore. Apart from a 23 year old mother and her three month old daughter found yesterday evening, at midday today two more bodies were brought out of the water by divers, while a 17 year old boy is said to be missing. The news was announced by Tirana News 24 and confirmed to ANSA by the police. The bodies found today are of two men, one around 30, the other between 24 and 25 years old, and according to police they could have been the organisers of the trafficking of the immigrants. Initial investigations have identified four persons believed to be responsible for the accident which happened while the 20 to 25 people on board two wooden boats were crossing the lagoon to reach the village of Xarre on foot, close to the Greek border and separated from the rest of the country by a channel. The route from one shore to the other is made by barge and is almost always controlled by police. To avoid being discovered the immigrants used local fishing boats hoping to reach the other shore and continue towards Greece by land. One of the boats, with 13 people on board, capsized due to the weight. Albania has banned the use of motorboats for human and drugs trafficking over the Adriatic to Italy for three years. Since then poor Albanians looking for a better life abroad having been coming over land to Greece. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
European Takes Closer Look at Islamic Financing
PARIS: With commercial bank financing tight, Europeans have been taking a closer look at Islamic banking.
“The potential is there,” Ahmad Jachi, the first deputy governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, said at a conference this past week in Paris. “It’s a matter of really enabling and creating the market.”
Islamic banking has already been integrated into the British and German banking systems, and banking executives at the conference said efforts were under way to allow Muslims in France to bank and invest under regulations that conform to Shariah, the legal code of Islam.
Estimates of the Islamic banking market’s current size vary from $500 billion to $1 trillion. It has only about 5 percent of the overall banking market, but attendees at the conference, which was sponsored by The Economist, said Islamic banking has a huge potential for growth, since one-sixth of the world’s population is Muslim.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that the Islamic banking sector has grown 10 percent to 15 percent a year over the past decade.
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Immigration: Italian Ambassador to Libya, Cooperation Needed
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, OCTOBER 24 — “The agreement signed on August 30th between Italy and Libya will surely bring important results on the illegal immigration front. It is already active in some places, in others they are waiting for the ratification from the two Parliaments, but surely relations between the two countries, thanks to this agreement, have greatly improved”. This was said by the Italian ambassador to Libya, Francesco Trupiano, today in Palermo to meet with entrepreneurs of the Sicily branch of the Confindustria (Confederation of Italian Industry), as well as economic and cultural operators of the island. “We are not talking about strategic-military alliances yet — said Trupiano — but about collaborations for defence and security in the Mediterranean, also from an international terrorism perspective”. (ANSAmed)
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Italy-Libya: Italian Ambassador, First in Import and Export
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, OCTOBER 24 — “Despite the forceful entrance into the market of China and Korea, Italy continues to be the top country which exports to Libya. With 21% of the market it is clearly ahead of the second exporter, Germany, which follows with 7%”. This was said by the Italian ambassador in Libya, Francesco Trupiano, today in Palermo. “Furthermore, Italy — he continued -, is also its top importing country. We import mainly gas and oil from Libya”. Relations between the two countries are good on a cultural level as well. “Over the years — explained Trupiano — important collaborations between universities and experts, particularly in the field of archaeology have developed. Relations with the population are excellent and we hope that political problems will be resolved as well with the agreement signed on August 30”. (ANSAmed)
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Italy: Aeroplanes, Deal Between Finmeccanica and Mubadala
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 20 — Finmeccanica and Mubadala, an investment and commercial development firm based in Abu Dhabi (capital of the United Arab Emirates), have announced the signing today, in the presence of Gianni Letta, undersecretary to the Prime Minister, of an industrial partnership agreement in the high technology sector. Finmeccanica and Mubadala — a statement reads — will collaborate in the production of aeronautical components in compound materials for the civilian sector at the new plant in Abu Dhabi. Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica subsidiary, will supply technology, technical assistance and specialised training and will relocate aero-structure production to the new plant. Activities are to begin this year, and are to reach full output before 2011. “This agreement is a part of our group’s strategy to develop new alliances and consolidate our international presence, in particular in the Middle East”, Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, president and chief executive officer of Finmeccanica, comments. “Mubadala is a prestigious partner with noteworthy resources and commercial abilities, and whose expansion policy combines with Finmeccanicàs objective of establishing a solid and profitable alliance in this — concludes Guarguaglini — rapidly growing market”. Mubadala Development Company is a sovereign fund, that is, a company which is entirely controlled by the UAE government in Abu Dhabi with a large investment portfolio in many sectors. Its interest in Italy isn’t new: Mubadala holds, in fact, 5% of Ferrari, which it bought from Mediobanca three years ago, and 35% of the aeroplane manufacturers Piaggio Aero Industries, bought in 2006. The company manages in total a portfolio worth billions of dollars, and for its international partnerships, like that sealed with Italy’s Finmeccanica today, Eads, Rolls Royce, Northrop Grumman and SR Technics can be counted. (ANSAmed).
2008-10-20 14:29
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PNA: EU Funds to Help Improving Electricity Network
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 21 — The Palestinian National Authority has awarded six contracts worth over 10 million euro, provided by the European Union through PEGASE, to buy vital supplies to upgrade the electricity network throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. The Palestinian Energy and National Resources Authority (PENRA), which is part of the Palestinian Authority, will soon begin a widespread programme to rehabilitate the electricity network, making it safer and more efficient, in 168 camps, villages and cities across the West Bank. The European Union contribution of 10.15 million euro will procure the necessary equipment (poles, cables and transformers) to enable this vital rehabilitation work to go ahead. PEGASE is the main financing mechanism of the European Union, the largest donor to the Palestinians. In 2008, the European Union has committed over 67 million euro to support the development of infrastructure projects. The funds are part of an overall EU assistance package that was pledged at the Paris donor conference in December 2007. The European Union’s assistance programmes through PEGASE address the priority needs of the Palestinian people, as identified by the Palestinian authority.(ANSAmed).
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PNA: EU Funds to Help Provide Clean Environment
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, OCTOBER 21 — Eleven Palestinian governorates will get a helping hand in providing a cleaner environment, with the procurement of rubbish collection vehicles, containers, and heavy equipment to help manage dump sites. The Palestinian Authority has now awarded the contracts for the procurement of the equipment, using just over 5 million euro provided by the European Union as part of its ongoing programme to support the development of Palestinian infrastructure through PEGASE. The contracts will be managed by the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government. The EU’s EUR 5.23 million contribution will enable the Palestinian Authority to purchase a total of 2758 garbage containers, 38 solid waste collection trucks and 15 pieces of heavy equipment for solid waste management, which will serve 26 municipalities in the West Bank. The 26 municipalities were identified by the local authorities as those in most urgent need for support in managing the disposal of solid waste.(ANSAmed).
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Egypt: Internet, Blogger Condemns Repressions
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 23 — While a well-known Egyptian blogger, Nora Younis, received a prize for human rights from the US organisation Human Rights First, others are arrested or are persecuted in their homes. The Arab Network for Information on Human Rights reported that Younis received the prize for “her extraordinary efforts in the defence of human rights and for the promotion of democracy in Egypt”. But in the same days the security services “are carrying out an aggressive campaign against bloggers and Internet activists in many cities around Cairo”. One of the targets is Christian blogger Hani Nazeer Aziz, whose brother was arrested and whose sister was threatened with arrest unless they handed him over to security forces. After Aziz was arrested his blog was cancelled. The campaign is also against Islamic bloggers like Mohamed Khairi, Mohamed Adil, Bilal Alaa (with the blog ‘The country is ours’) and Husam Yahia (‘The voice of freedom’). Khairi and a student from the faculty of engineering at Cairo University arrested at his home at dawn on 22 October: his computer was confiscated. The other three escaped but their homes have been searched. (ANSAmed).
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Egypt: First Sentence for Molestation of a Woman
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 22 — For the first time an Egyptian court sentenced a man to three years in prison and the payment of a fine of 5,000 Egyptian pounds (a little less than 700 euro), for having touched a woman’s breast and propositioning her obscenely. The man, Sherif Gomaa, came across his victim, a film director, in the residential quarter of Heliopolis and, after having followed her, reached out for her proposing an intimate relation. The woman reported the episode to police and the investigation which followed brought with it Gomaa’s arrest and his sentencing, which occurred yesterday. Some weeks ago, having news of the case, the Egyptian Centre for Human Rights (ECHR) requested the sentence that was then applied to the case. For months, an intense campaign to define what exactly constituted the crime of sexual molestation and its judicial regulation has been in course by human rights organisations, among them ECHR and ECWR, the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights. The latter released statistics according to which 82% of Egyptian women and 93% of foreign women are victim to molestation in the street, at work or on public transport. Until now, no sentence has ever been issued for these crimes. (ANSAmed).
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Israel: Shas Out of Gov’t Coalition, Livni in Trouble
(by Aldo Baquis) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, OCTOBER 24 — The current Israeli premier, Tzipi Livni (Kadima), has registered a resounding lack of success when the orthodox Sephardite party, Shas, reported today that it will not stay in the coalition government when she takes control, substituting the outgoing premier, Ehud Olmert. One month ago, with a victory in the primary elections of the Kadima party, Livni seemed on top. Some one already called her the “new Golda Meir”. Now, after weeks of unnerving negotiations with Labour and other minor parties, they are facing a fork in the road that wherever it may lead, will go in an undesired direction: they can settle for a restricted government, or inform the head of state, Shimon Peres, of having failed in the objective to create a new coalition. In this case, even if it is not automatic, it is probable that the legislature be dissolved two years early, and Peres announce elections, which will have to be carried out within three months. To decide on these dramatic developments was in good measure an 87 year old rabbi, Ovadia Yossef, for 20 years the spiritual leader of the orthodox and proletariat Shas party. Early in the morning he called the top leaders of the party. After prayer, the latest proposals from Livni were put on the table regarding the two vital questions for Shas: assistance to the under-privileged classes and the exclusion of Jerusalem from future negotiations with the Palestinians. Livnìs positions appeared disappointing. After a quick few phone calls to members of the Council of Sages of the Bible, the attack on the Kadima leader began: Shas will remain out of its government. Now time is running out. Livni was hoping to announce the formation of a new government on Monday, with the re-opening of Knesset (Parliament) after the summer break. Maybe, say her collaborators, they can hope for an agreement with Shas. But the feeling is that behind the scenes the leader of the right wing opposition, Benyamin Netanyahu (Likud), has made sone very inviting promises: in case of anticipated elections, according to polls, he would come out the winner. And in Kadima, number 2, Shaul Mofaz is rowing against Livni, impeding her in various ways. (ANSAmed).
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Middle East: PNA, Without Own State Instability Will Remain
(ANSAmed) — RENDE (COSENZA), OCTOBER 24 — The Palestinian people are “asking for a fair and total peace”, which can only be reached “through the proclamation of a sovereign State, with Jerusalem as its capital and within the territory occupied in 1967. This is the basis for “peaceful coexistence with the Israeli people”. Otherwise, “the region will encounter yet further problems and will remain a cause of instability in the world”. These are the words of the Palestinian National Authority’s Vice-Minister for Youth and Sport, Musa Abu Zaid, who was speaking today in Rende at the Euro-Mediterranean conference on the charity sector, which is linked to the 2008 Rexpò forum on social responsibility. “The Palestinian people”, added the PNA’s government representative, “have played an active and guiding role in the resistance of the occupation of Israel, acting in the love of liberty and independence. Consequently, they have paid a high price in terms of martyrs, wounded people, and those who have been arrested and expelled, just as they have suffered the destruction of economic, social and educational infrastructures, which has had a serious impact on the younger generations, in particular”. (ANSAmed).
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Middle East: Palestinian Stabs Two Israelis in Jerusalem
Jerusalem, 23 Oct. (AKI) — A Palestinian man stabbed an elderly man to death and injured a policeman after he was stopped for a security check in Jerusalem in Thursday. The attack took place in the southern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo. Mohammed Salem al-Badan was allegedly stopped in the street for a security check by two police officers. The man is then reported to have pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the policemen.
The assailant, a Palestinian from the village of Tuqu near Bethlehem in the West Bank, was shot in the stomach by the injured policeman as he fled from the scene.
As he was being captured, he stabbed an elderly man who later died of his wounds.
Al-Badan, 20, as well as the police officer were taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.
Palestinian news agency Maan reports that Israeli forces immediately raided the small West Bank town of Tuqu and threatened to demolish al-Badan’s home.
Later Israeli forces are reported to have arrested the man’s sister, Maysa, as well as another young man named Mohammed ash-Shair.
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Chaldean Bishop of Kirkuk: Christians Being Driven Out of Mosul for Political Reasons
The prelate launches an appeal, calling upon all to defend the minorities in Iraq, and the Christian minority, the target of many attacks, especially in Mosul. For the bishop, the Christians are victims of a political game connected to the upcoming elections, and to the project for a Christian enclave in the plain of Nineveh. An appeal to the Christians of the West as well, that they denounce every act of violence and to demonstrate solidarity and fellowship.
Kirkuk (AsiaNews) — Since the beginning of October, Mosul has seen yet another wave of violence against Christians. The city and the community of the faithful have already paid a high price in blood in the past, with the killing of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, Fr. Ragheed Gani, and dozens of others. Mosul, a multiethnic city, is inhabited by Christians of various confessions, Sunnis and Shiites, Yazidi, Arabs, Turkmen, and Kurds. These killings of a confessional nature make coexistence increasingly difficult, and are increasing the accusations between the Kurdish government, responsible for order in Mosul, and the central government. Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, wanted to share with the readers of AsiaNews his concerns about these events.
What is happening in Mosul? How can this constant carnage be defined? In one week, there have been 12 deaths; 1,000 families have left their homes for villages in the plane of Nineveh; 5 homes have been destroyed in explosions. Fear, solitude, and apprehension dominate the Christian minority. The memory of Dora [1] has not disappeared in Baghdad. If the situation continues in this way, Christians will be forced to a new “mass emigration.”
But the attacks in Mosul have a special character: they do not seem to be connected to gangs of criminals, because this time they are not asking for any ransom. It is possible that there are fundamentalists behind the killings. But how can the indifference of the local and central authorities be explained when a vehicle with a loudspeaker is driven around the neighborhood of Sukkar, ordering the Christians to leave?
I think that there is a political motive behind all this violence.
This campaign to drive out the Christians could conceal benefits of a political nature ahead of the upcoming elections in January of 2009, and the controversy over the approval of the provincial election law. The current law eliminates the quota reserved by tradition for Christians (and other minorities). Intimidating them and driving them out goes hand in hand with denying them representation. But the hypothesis cannot be excluded that the violence against the faithful also serves to reinforce the proposal for a Christian enclave in the plane of Nineveh.
We forcefully ask for government intervention to protect all Iraqis in difficulty, but above all the Christians, who are currently the most vulnerable. This is also a responsibility of the forces of occupation.
We are calling for the intervention of the international community to protect the minorities in Iraq, especially in the upcoming provincial elections. And we ask with particular urgency for the intervention of the United Nations and the European Union, that they call upon the Baghdad government to respect minorities in the upcoming elections.
The Iraqi parliament has approved a law that does not recognize the rights of minorities. This will lead to the definitive destruction of ethnic and religious minorities in this country, and will accelerate the exodus of the Christians.
We ask the Christians of the West not to be concerned solely about stock markets and the economy, but to denounce every form of violence and demonstrate solidarity and fellowship with us.
[1] Dora is a Baghdad neighborhood where in recent years there have been killings of Christians, abductions of faithful and priests, and attacks on churches. This violence has led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people. Greater security was restored after the “surge” by the American and Iraqi military.
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Concerns Over Health of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
A string of cancelled appearances has led to speculation about the health of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
This week alone the usually hyperactive leader cancelled a keynote speech at the last minute and a cabinet meeting had to take place without him. A speech to a martyr’s commemoration event was also called off.
A senior aide, Amir Mansour Borghei, told journalists the president was “indisposed”.
The absences have sparked rumours that Mr Ahmadinejad, 52, is suffering from a long-term illness that may stop him running for re-election next year.
Shahab, the Iranian news website, reported that this week’s events were the latest in a series of cancellations and said the president had previously pulled out of engagements because of listlessness caused by low blood pressure.
In May, Mr Ahmadinejad failed to appear at events in three consecutive weeks, including a rally where he was due to meet voters face-to-face. Aides blamed an overcrowded schedule.
Citing “sources close to the government”, Shahab said doctors had advised the president to cut his workload if he wanted to avoid becoming sick.
The reports will be a blow to the pride of a leader who is known for his energetic style and micro-managing of government affairs.
They come at a time when Mr Ahmadinejad is wrestling with acute political problems including near 30 per cent inflation, rising unemployment and plummeting global oil prices.
Issa Saharkhiz, an Iranian political analyst, said the reports could have been fanned by opponents who are preparing to run against the president.
“I’m not sure if these health problems are permanent or just a result of tiredness,” he told the Guardian…
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Iraq: ‘Terrorists’ Infiltrated Mosul’s Police, Claims Christian MP
Baghdad, 24 Oct. (AKI) — An Iraqi Christian MP claims that terrorists have infiltrated the police forces of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where many Christians live. “We ask that security agents in Mosul be replaced, because many terrorists have infiltrated its ranks,” said Christian MP Younadim Yousef, quoted by Iraqi news agency Voices of Iraq in the wake of several murders of Christians in Iraq in recent weeks.
Yousef also asked the Iraqi government to do its best to allow Christian families to return to their homes and grant them financial compensation for their woes.
At least 12 Christians have been murdered in Mosul in the past few weeks, a number of Christian homes have been destroyed, and hundreds of families have fled.
Sunni groups have accused Kurdish militias of seeking to alter the ethnic composition of northern Iraq and of responsibility for the recent murders of Christians in Mosul.
Mosul is home to the second-largest community of Christians in Iraq after capital Baghdad.
The Chaldean Catholic Church is 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 800,000 Christians in Iraq, compared with over a million before the US invasion in 2003, according to censuses carried out by the country’s dioceses.
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Lebanon: Shoot-Out Between Political Activists, 4 Injured
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 20 — Four people were injured last night in a shoot-out which took place in the Borj Haidar area of Beirut among activists of the movement Mustaqbal of the Sunni leader Saad Hariri and supporters of the Shia movement Amal under Parliament speaker Nabih Berri. According to pres reports, the public disorder started out as a simple argument and rapidly degenerated into a shootout. Among those injured, according to the website of daily an Nahar, are al Mustaqbal activists, one of whom was injured by a firearm and two others by knives. The shoot-out ceased when the army intervened and the two groups were separated. (ANSAmed).
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More Violence in Mosul: Father and Son Killed Because They Were Christian
Despite the hopes of the government and part of the population, the massacre of Christians continues in Iraq. The killing could be another signal for the Christians to leave the country. Prime minister al Maliki promises to “punish the guilty and their supporters.”
Mosul (AsiaNews) — The Iraqi government is asking Christians to remain in Iraq, but is doing nothing to stop them from being slaughtered. Yesterday in Mosul, in the Sanaa neighborhood, a father and son were killed: no further details are available at this time on the method of the attack or the identity of the two victims, but their death must be seen in connection with the violence in recent weeks against Christians in the city.
The pogrom of the Iraqi Christians resumed at the beginning of October, and in a couple of weeks there have already been 14 deaths, plus 10,000 people who have fled from the massacre, toward the plain of Nineveh. Five homes have been destroyed in bombing attacks. An apparent calm has been seen in recent days, so much so that appeals have been launched calling for exiles to “return to their homes.” According to a source for AsiaNews in Mosul, yesterday’s murder could be “a signal to the Christians from terrorists or extremist groups,” making clear to them that “they must leave the city.”
Although half of the Christian population has left the city of Mosul because of fear of the violence, Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki is calling on them to “stay” and to “collaborate in the reconstruction of the country.” Yesterday the prime minister (in the photo) met with a delegation of religious leaders, to whom he confirmed that “the violence in Mosul is part of a precise political plan in the country,” although he did not specify who is responsible for the attacks.
Al Maliki Is asking the Christians “not to give in to the criminal plan,” and to remain in Iraq in order to contribute to the rebuilding of the country: in order to do this, he expresses his hope that there may be “the help and collaboration of the entire society,” so that it may be “the Iraqis themselves who defeat those who want to drag the nation into chaos and wipe out the presence of Christians.” The prime minister also promised that the guilty “will be punished,” and that their supporters will also be stopped.
Finally, the prime minister promises that “the presence of Christians among the security forces and police will be increased, including at the officers’ level”: previously, the rank of officer had always been reserved for Muslims. Al Maliki says that the presence of Christians within the army should help them to “remain in their homes and on their land,” feeling safer and better protected. He recalls that the destruction of the community would do “enormous damage to the entire Iraqi people,” and calls upon the Iraqi ministry for migrants to do everything it can “to facilitate their return home.”
Yesterday, Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, once again denounced the campaign of extermination against the Christians, emphasizing “the political game connected to the upcoming elections,” and to the plan, which he has always opposed, to create “a Christian enclave in the plain of Nineveh.” Now it is a matter of understanding what concrete action the central government will take in order to defend the Christians from persecution. On October 21, a delegation of the faithful from Mosul met with local and national political leaders, including the deputy prime minister, Rafeaa al-Eissawi, the mayor of the city, and the governor of Nineveh. The Christian delegation gave the deputy prime minister a letter asking for the return home of families that have fled, action from the government to protect them, complete security for students returning to school and adults returning to work, and compensation for the people whose homes have been destroyed.
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Turkey: EU Reforms Rescue Governing AKP From Being Closed
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 24 — Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) survived from being banned by the Constitutional Court because of its reforms on the European Union and boosting woman rights. The reasoning in the closure case against AKP was published Friday in the Official Gazette, as Hurriyet daily website reports today. The Court decided to reject demands to ban the AKP in its critical ruling at the end of July. The Court, however, issued a serious warning for the AKP for being “focal point of anti-secular activities.” The Court considered Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks on lifting the headscarf ban saying “What if it is a political symbol” as an activity that harms secularism. On the other hand AKP’s EU reforms and steps it took to boost women as well as non-Muslim minorities rights were the policies that rescued the ruling party from being closed. The reasoning said although AKP took some steps that harm democratic and secular structure of the Turkish republic, it did not promote or use violence acts to do that. (ANSAmed).
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‘Troika’ to Coordinate Gas Exports
Three biggest gas reserve holders meet to discuss joint decision-making on gas sales. Their goal is to maintain high prices and control the market the way OPEC controls oil.
Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Representatives from Russia, Iran and Qatar, respectively the world’s 1, 2 and 3 gas reserve holders, met in Tehran on 21 October to discuss trilateral cooperation and the possibility of forming a cartel of gas-exporting countries, similar to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhussein Nozari said the three “have almost 60 per cent of the world’s total gas reserves” and are “seriously interested in forming an organisation of gas-exporting countries.”
But wanting a deal and striking it are not the same thing since “gas, unlike oil, is not sold on the world market,” Charles Esser, an energy analyst, told Radio Free Europe. The exception is “liquefied natural gas, LNG, which is still a very small share of the market.”
“The transportation of natural gas to consumers also differs greatly from transporting oil,” Esser noted. “Most of the [gas] market is [. . .] ‘stranded’,” requiring land infrastructures like pipelines “from certain suppliers with whom” consumers “have very long-term contracts, sometimes 25-year contracts,” Esser said.
Furthermore, the three countries have different interests to address, and it is doubtful that all parties are really interested in a global gas cartel.
For this reason Russia, which has been trying to build a cartel to set prices, might fall back on a ‘Gas Troika’.
“We have agreed to hold regular—three or four times per year—meetings of the ‘big gas troika’ to discuss key issues of gas market developments,” said in Tehran Gazprom Chief Executive Aleksei Miller.
A committee of technical specialists would meet in Doha, Qatar’s capital, next week, he added.
For Esser though Russia might not be that keen on the idea anyway, more interested instead in holding down its own hegemonic position than in allowing other countries to sell more gas,
“A more likely result would be a kind of coordination to maybe restrict some competition” and “keep market prices higher,” Esser said.
Concern about gas price hikes this and last year and OPEC’s refusal to increase oil output have led consuming countries to oppose such a possibility.
Europe already uses a huge amount of gas—more than 300 billion cubic metres annually—and one of its main suppliers, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, said that the price of gas for Europe could reach US$ 500 per 1,000 cubic metres next year.
Meanwhile Russia has invited—along with Iran and Qatar—Algeria, Indonesia, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela to forum of gas-exporting countries on 18 November.
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The “Super-Projects” of Sargsyan, and Energy Dependence on Russia
Armenian President Sargsyan announces “ambitious economic projects,” like a new rail line to Iran, and a nuclear power plant. Debate is growing over whether this means an intention to break free from Russian control, or to solidify it. Experts: Yerevan does not import gas from Iran because Moscow “doesn’t want this.”
Yerevan (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, speaking to parliament on October 2, stated that “the time has come for Armenia to implement ambitious economic projects, super-projects,” including a new rail line to Iran and a new nuclear power plant, which will soon be begun by an investment foundation “that will fund large-scale programs.” Meanwhile, no details are being provided about these projects, and discussion is growing about whether they represent a desire to break free from Russian hegemony, or to solidify it.
The news agency Eurasianet reports that opposition member of parliament Stepan Safarian, a supporter of closer relations with the West, maintains that “an attempt is being made to strengthen Armenia’s foreign policy.” Armenia’s invitation for a visit from Turkish President Abdullah Gul last September is also interpreted in this light.
But Sevak Sarukhanian, deputy director of Yerevan’s Noravank Foundation for Strategic Research, observes that “on the contrary, it will deepen Armenian-Russian strategic cooperation, since Russia will have its share in both construction projects.” He notes that the country’s railway system is already managed by Russian Railways, and that Armenia depends on Moscow for nuclear fuel and technology for its existing nuclear facilities.
And above all it must be remembered that about 80% of Armenia’s electrical grid is under direct Russian control, including the hydroelectric facility in Hrazdan, one of the largest in the southern Caucusus.
Years ago, Yerevan announced the opening of the 140-kilometer gas pipeline from Iran, to bring 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas into Armenia each year, to be increased to 2.3 billion by 2019. The project is strongly supported by Tehran, which is believed to want to create a pathway for its own gas into Europe. On October 7, Rasoul Salmani, director of Iran’s national gas company, announced that it would begin working on October 13. For each cubic meter of gas, Armenia must pay 3 kilowatt hours of electricity. But following this, Lusine Harutiunian, a spokeswoman for Armenia’s energy ministry, said that the country already has enough energy provided by Russia through Georgia (2 billion cubic meters of gas in 2007), and that “there is no need to import additional gas,” adding that she does not know when Iranian gas would begin to be used. In any case, it would be converted to electricity and given back.
Analyst David Petrosian comments that “it is clear that Armenia refused to receive Iranian gas as a result of Russian pressure. Russia controls almost the entire energy system of Armenia through its state corporation. It seeks to keep Armenia in a state of dependence. Armenia will receive gas from Iran only when Russian gas is in short supply.”
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Afghanistan: Student Gets 20-Year Term for Downloading Rights Material
Kabul, 21 Oct. (AKI) — A journalism student who downloaded and distributed an article on women’s rights from the Internet has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in Afghanistan.
Seyyed Parwiz Kambakhsh, arrested a year ago, was sentenced to death by a court in Balkh. But a Kabul appeals court on Tuesday reduced the sentence to 20 years in prison.
“This is an unjust sentence,” defence lawyer, Mohammad Afzal Nourestani, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
“We will appeal to the Supreme Court. During the hearing they did not consider that my client is not the author of the article, that it was downloaded from an Iranian site and he had to ask several friends to read it.”
During the appeals process, Parwiz Kambakhsh was tortured and mistreated.
“My client says he was tortured in Balkh prison and during interrogation was forced to admit to being the author of the article that appeared to be the work of an Iranian blogger.”
On 28 November Seyyed Parwiz Kambakhsh will receive the Information, Safety & Freedom watchdog’s Press Freedom award in Siena.
Last year the award was given to Iranian Kurdish journalists, Adnan Hassanpour and Hiwa Boutimar, both of whom have been sentenced to death by an Iranian court.
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China Calling for International Help to Arrest Eight “Muslim” Terrorists
An eight-name list of alleged Xingjian terrorists is released. They are accused with carrying out attacks during the Olympics. But for experts Beijing has failed so far to come with any evidence. The Uyghurs living in the oil- and mineral-rich region have been victims of a virtual cultural genocide.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — In an unprecedented move Chinese authorities today released a wanted list of eight Xingjian “terrorists” it said had carried out attacks aimed at the Beijing Olympics, calling on the international community for help in capturing them.
“The eight are all key members of the ETIM, and all participated in the planning, deployment and execution of all kinds of violent terrorist activities targeting the Beijing Olympics” and foreign objectives, said Wu Heping, a spokesman with the Ministry of Public Security, who did not however go into details about they are supposed to have done. The ETIM stands for the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and, according to Beijing, is linked to al-Qaeda.
One of the suspects, Memetiming Memeti, is considered the ETIM leader. A police statement said that he received help from “certain western Asian countries”, including explosives to carry out terror attacks on targets in China and overseas. The other suspects were involved in attacks as well as training and recruiting terrorists.
Strategically located resource-rich Xingjian has been rocked by attacks this year, including the killing of 16 armed police just before the August Olympics. Beijing blames Islamic militants for the incident.
In April mainland authorities also arrested tens of alleged terrorists accusing them of being involved in terror plots targeting the Olympics, including suicide bomb attacks and the kidnapping of athletes. None of these claims could be independently verified.
China has in turn been accused of carrying out cultural genocide in the region by trying to eliminate the language and culture of indigenous Uyghur to the benefit of ethnic Han immigrants who hold positions of power and privilege. The end result of this policy has turned the Uyghurs into a minority, eight million of the region’s 19 million people or 46 per cent.
Beijing has also issued a series of edicts that have made life difficult for Muslim Uyghurs. For example, sermons at Friday prayers cannot run longer than a half-hour. Prayers in public areas outside the mosque are forbidden. Government workers and non-religious people cannot be “forced” to attend mosque services—a generous wording of a law that prohibits government workers and Communist Party members from going at all. Imams may not teach the Qur’an in private. Studying Arabic is allowed only at special government schools. Students and government workers are compelled to eat during Ramadan. Passports have been confiscated to force Uyghurs to join government-run hajj tours rather than travelling illegally to Makkah. And when they can travel official trips can cost US$ 3,700. And last but not least, anyone applying for Hajj must be vetted by police and show that they have the means to go.
For Dilxat Raxit, spokesperson for the World Uyghur Congress, the terrorist “list has political motives [. . ..]. They [Chinese authorities] have produced no evidence to support these claims.”
For the same reason the United States has refused to repatriate about 255 Chinese Muslim Uyghur who fled Afghanistan to Pakistan after the US attacked it in October 2001.
After their capture they were sent to Guantanamo where they have been held for years. But now they are on the verge of being freed but will not be repatriated for fear that China might jail them without cause.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Raped ‘For Reading Holy Bible’
‘Let your Jesus help you’
AN Iraqi Muslim man allegedly raped a Muslim woman as “punishment” for her reading the Bible.
Campbelltown District Court in Sydney’s west yesterday heard Abdul Reda Al Shawany twice sexually assaulted the woman, a practising Muslim, and then said to her: “Let your Jesus help you.”
Al Shawany, 52, has plead not guilty to two counts of having sexual intercourse without consent between September 1 and 27, 2002, at a unit in Warwick Farm.
At the first day of the week-long trial yesterday, Crown prosecutor Michael O’Brien outlined the case and told how the woman allegedly kept the clothes and underwear she was wearing on the day of the alleged rape in a plastic bag for about three years.
The woman initially reported the matter to police but did not want to take it further because she felt “ashamed”, Mr O’Brien said. She later changed her mind and Al Shawany, of Hillsdale, was arrested in July 2005 and the woman provided police with the clothing.
The Crown alleges swab samples from the accused had the same DNA as the semen sample taken from the woman’s clothing.
“The complainant was born a Muslim and raised a Muslim and was a Muslim all her life,” Mr O’Brien said.
He said when the woman came to Australia from the Middle East she began listening to Christian teachers and reading the Bible.
He said the woman — who wears the Muslim hijab — had received threats from members of her faith for reading the Bible but had not converted to Christianity.
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Senegalese President Wade Opposes Idea of Sanctions
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade is opposed to the idea of international sanctions threatened against Mauritania by the European Union and African Union. On the sidelines of a conference in Dakar, Wade stressed that “sanctions never touch the leaders… It’s the people who end up being sanctioned”, though making it clear that “Senegal does not condone the August 6 coup in Nouakchott”. The President added that he prefers “personal mediation” to the application of sanctions, explaining that there are institutions in Mauritania that have not been dissolved, such as the National Assembly and Senate, and “they should be consulted”, considering many members expressed support for the coup. Following a meeting a few days ago with a delegation of Mauritania’s military junta, the EU gave a one-month deadline to restore constitutional order or face “appropriate measures”. The European stand, rejected by the junta that said it would “not move backwards”, was fully backed and shared by the AU. Sporadic protests against the coup have been broken up by security forces in the capital, while news arrived yesterday of the arrest of former government minister Isselmou Ould Abdel Kader, accused of defaming the country’s military leadership for comments made during a programme broadcast on state television.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Task Force to Fight Somali Pirates
Seven ships led by Italian move in
(ANSA) — Nairobi, October 21 — An Italian-led NATO task force is sailing into place to stop pirates off Somalia, military sources told ANSA Tuesday.
The seven warships have reached Djibuti and are gearing to move against the pirates who have made Somali waters the most dangerous in the world.
More than 60 ships have been hijacked by pirates off Somalia this year, more than double last year’s total.
The mission is under the command of Italian Admiral Giovanni Gumiero on board his flagship, the destroyer Durand de la Penne.
There are six other ships: two German, one American, one British, one Greek and one Turkish.
As well as fighting pirates the task force will escort cargo ships carrying United Nations food to the starving population of Somalia, wracked by a seemingly endless civil war.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Uganda: An Editorial Targets Western ‘Double Standards’
“Some of these economists were amazed that the US, UK and other European governments that were the ones forcing the Ugandan government to divest itself of business and not interrupt the market forces are now instead scrambling to save their private sector companies that have been run into insolvency by imprudent management.”: such is the introduction of an editorial that was recently published by the ‘Monitor’, a Kampala daily newspaper, which captures the doubts and ‘bad feeling’ of African politicians and observers confronting the possible consequences of the high risk ‘sub-prime’ mortgage crisis that originated in the United States. “the rush by Western governments to rescue their distressed financial institutions has provoked disbelief and wonder among economists here who view those interventions as contradictory” says the Monitor. In the article, entitled ‘The Western response to crisis reflects double standards’ mentions the government efforts to use taxpayers’ money to save the banks authorized by the US Congress in early October: “a massive $700 billion spending package that will be pumped into several key financial institutions and pull them back from the brink of collapse. The UK has also announced plans to pour vast amounts of cash into the national financial system and partially nationalize some of the country’s biggest banks Barclays, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of Scotland and others.” Such policies, says the Monitor, contrast sharply with the economic policies that were imposed on Uganda to be able to rely on financing from financial institutions dominated by the US and their European allies. “In 2002 — says the article — World Bank and IMF, which mostly tout the preferred economic policies of influential western governments, forced the NRM to sell Uganda Commercial Bank, Uganda’s largest bank then, to South Africa’s Stanbic at $19 million, a price said to have lower than its true value. The two institutions argued that UCB had to be sold because it was badly managed and was tottering on the brink of bankruptcy.” Lawrence Bategeka, a professor of economic policy at the University of Makerere, has denounced the ‘hypocrisy’ of many western governments: “which compels poor countries like Uganda to part with some of their most prized public commercial institutions because governments are not supposed do business while the same governments are currently doing the opposite of what is expected.” The editorial, published by The Monitor, considered to be close to the opposition, concludes with a quotation from the ‘shadow’ minister of finance: “Any reasonable government will support companies that play a major role in the economy. UCB was a countrywide bank, the largest in the country but the NRM foolishly allowed silly advice from the IMF and World Bank to sell them”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Controversial Housing Opens for Asylum Seekers
Containers are being used as emergency accommodation for asylum seekers as Switzerland experiences an influx of new applicants.
The eastern canton of Graubünden has adopted this solution and has set up three containers on a patch of waste ground in the industrial area of Waldau/Landquart, not far from the cantonal capital, Chur.
The first eight occupants have already been in Switzerland for some time, and their request for asylum has been turned down.
The men, four Algerians, three Iranians and an Afghan, all aged between 30 and 40, are waiting to be sent back to their own countries.
For some, this is the last stage in a long saga. Before being moved to the containers they had been accommodated in a holiday home in Valzeina, a hamlet at the top of a mountain overlooking Landquart. Some of them had been there for up to ten months.
Ahmed, a 36 year-old Algerian, had already lived in the canton for several years: he even has a seven-year-old son, born to a Swiss mother.
“It’s my son who keeps me here. Otherwise, how could anyone put up with such treatment?” he says.
His friend Moncef, who came to Switzerland six years ago, stays silent, whether because he is weary of the whole business or because he is afraid that anything he says might be used against him…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Health of Migrants and “Security Bill”: Increasing Concerns
“It is an idea that blatantly breaches the Constitutional right to health and yet another message of rejection to migrants”, said to MISNA Berardino Guarino, director of projects for the Astalli Centre in Rome, run by the Jesuit Refugee Service for the assistance of asylum seekers and migrants, commenting the recent news of an amendment to decree no. 733, the so-called ‘Security bill’, in discussion in the Senate Joint Constitutional Affairs and Justice Committee, which aims to eliminate the principle for doctors of “not reporting to authorities” when immigrants seek medical care. Substantially, it wants to eliminate a fundamental passage of decree 286/1998 that establishes: “access to the health care system for foreigners not complying with laws related to legal entry and residence should be guaranteed without any type of indications to authorities, save for cases in which a medical report is mandatory, under the same conditions of an Italian citizen”; on eliminating the article, doctors would be obliged to report the irregular immigrants. According to Guarino, after absurd proposals on migrants presented in the past months by the government, important issues are still not being addressed: “No serious political proposal has been made on integration, an increase in migrant quotas, refugee protection”. If the amendment should be passed, some are even speaking of a sort of a conscientious objection: “doctors should object; their duty is providing care and not police work”, said to MISNA Sister Valeria Gaudini, a Comboni missionary, who in Verona works in the rehabilitation of victims of the prostitution ring. According to Father Beniamino Rossi, a Scalabrinian missionary and organiser of the International meeting of Loreto on migrations, the proposal is merely fruit of “an institutional racist culture, which today consents racist behaviours that are passed off as reasonable. This is what is occurring in Europe, with concepts being passed such as that of ‘useful migration’ as the only legitimate one”. Numerous organisations of the judicial and health fields have also expressed concerns on the amendment. According to the Judicial Studies Association on Immigration, the amendment “is in complete contrast with art. 32 of the Constitution that safeguards health as a fundamental right of the individual and as a collective interest, and guarantees free medical care to the indigent”; Doctors Without Borders also warns against “posing barriers to access to medical care” with the consequence of “condemning these people to a dangerous health marginalisation”. The risk of distancing migrants from the public health system is the creation of a “parallel health service system, beyond the control and verification systems of public health”, emphasised the Italian Association of medicine of migrations; the doctors also underline the short-sightedness of a measure that, distancing needy people from health care “will have repercussions on collective health, with the risk of eventual outbreaks of infective diseases”, thwarting continuous progress made in the treatment of diseases migrants contract in Italy due to difficult living conditions.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Boat With 250 Rescued South of Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), OCTOBER 24 — A boat with about 250 migrants on board was hooked this morning by a patrol boat from the Palermo harbour office some miles south of Lampedusa. The craft was spotted last night and was, therefore, kept under surveillance. Another two units from the harbour office are on the scene helping to de-board the non-EU’s. For some days now, landings have not been recorded in Lampedusa due to bad weather conditions. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: 43 Somalis Rescued Off Malta
(ANSAmed) — VALLETTA (MALTA), OCTOBER 20 — Forty-three Somali immigrants were rescued over the night by the Maltese Marine about 88 miles south of Malta. The group — of 30 men and 13 women — were reached in time after an SOS from a satellite telephone was picked up by the central operating unit of port authorities in Rome, who in turn sent on the emergency message to Malta. A Maltese military plane immediately spotted the rubber dinghy in very precarious condition, and a motorized patrol boat was sent to take on the immigrants. The latter had been at the mercy of the waves after losing its motor overboard, and the craft was already starting to sink. All of the immigrants are in good condition and were initially taken to Valletta to then be transferred to the Safi detention centre. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Morocco; 28 Non-EU’s Rescued Off Tangiers
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, OCTOBER 21 — A vessel that was adrift with 28 Moroccan nationals on board was rescued off of Tangiers (Morocco). It was the passengers who made the call for help from a cellular phone (without however being able to say exactly where they were), when the boat’s motor stalled in open waters and the weather conditions started to worsen. The rescue operation, which included a helicopter and more than one patrol boat, finished in the rescue of the castaways and their arrest. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Cardinal Warns Against Alienating Immigrants
Brussels, 21 Oct. (AKI) — Second and third generation Muslim immigrants in Europe risk serious alienation from the societies in which they live, France’s Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard told a conference in Brussels on Tuesday. The youngsters suffer “a lack of success at school, unemployment, the feeling of not truly belonging or having a stake in the future,” said Ricard, whose diocese covers the southwestern French city of Bordeaux.
Ricard argued that Islam may appear to offer young Muslims an identity and pride that their societies do not. He said the anger and violence they feel towards what they perceive as an unjust ‘police state’ (photo) can drive them into the arms of extremists.
“They risk being attracted by most conservative and anti-Western strands (of Islam), and Muslim communities can be tempted to form an anti-society,” he said.
This can lead to “a radical rejection” of the West by Muslims and the resulting rejection of Muslims by non-Muslims in Europe, Ricard warned.
He called for communities and politicians to work together to prevent situations that can spark violence and to integrate young Muslims in the countries in which they live.
France has one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe — five to six million out of a population of 62.3 million people or 8 to 9.6 percent.
French-born descendents of African and Arab immigrants complain of being marginalised, denied educational opportunities and forced to live in grim high-rise tower-block ‘ghettos’ on the outskirts of towns and cities.
Relations between young people and police are traditionally tense in some high-immigrant suburbs of Paris and other major French cities. Less than a year ago, the deaths of two teenage boys, whose motorbike collided with a police car last November, sparked riots in a northern Paris suburb.
The accidental death by electrocution of two immigrant youths in 2005, allegedly while they were hiding from police in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, sparked several weeks of rioting in cities across France — the worst it has seen.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malta-Cyprus: Immigration, Interior Ministers Agree Policy
(ANSAmed) — LA VALLETTA, (MALTA) OCTOBER 24 — Malta and Cyprus have committed to tackling the problem of illegal immigration in the Mediterranean, in line with the European Union agenda. The activation of the measures agreed upon in the new Pact on Immigration is among the priorities of the two Mediterranean island-countries. The issue was discussed in Nicosia by the Maltese Minister for the Interior, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, and his Cypriot counterpart, Neoclis Syliciotis. The two men came to an agreement over the necessity of implementing the joint system for the immediate repatriation of immigrants that do not have international protection. Further, Malta and Cyrus will insist with the EU that the agreements with third countries for the repatriation of immigrants be sped up. Finally, the two ministers will insist that the mechanism for moving immigrants in smaller member countries to other countries be put in place immediately.. The Maltese minister also met the Cypriot Minister for Justice, Kypros Chrsytomides, for a meeting over the consolidation of the relations between the police forces of the two States and also about the exchange of legal information and the fight against organised crime. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Alarmism’s Flimsy Foundation
Forget pretty much any news reporting you see that attributes disastrous phenomena to global warming, because it’s all designed to create a fog surrounding the core issue: is climate change human-caused or not?
A most recent example is from Monday’s Washington Post, in which alarmist reporter Kari Lydersen (who has a long record of such journalism, in addition to work she does for leftist publications such as In These Times and the Progressive, on topics including “environmental racism”) told about how waterborne diseases are expected to multiply due to future climate devastation:
Now, scientists say, it is a near-certainty that global warming will drive significant increases in waterborne diseases around the world.
Rainfalls will be heavier, triggering sewage overflows, contaminating drinking water and endangering beachgoers. Higher lake and ocean temperatures will cause bacteria, parasites and algal blooms to flourish. Warmer weather and heavier rains also will mean more mosquitoes, which can carry the West Nile virus, malaria and dengue fever. Fresh produce and shellfish are more likely to become contaminated.
The inevitable devastating consequences, as in so many environmentalist reporter articles, dominate the opening paragraphs of Lydersen’s piece. She follows by asserting that a trend of heavier rainfalls “will accelerate,” citing the 2007 report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I asked Lydersen where in the IPCC report it states with certainty that heavier rainfalls would rapidly increase, and she promised to get back to me on that — “That was paraphrasing, not a direct quote from the report,” she told me in an email. I’m sure…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kindergarten Sex Ed Mandatory in England
LONDON — It’s a controversial idea in a land known for prudishness about sex — teaching kids as young as 5 about the birds and bees.
But with one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Europe, the British government is bringing sex education to all schools in England — including kindergartens.
While countries like France, Holland and China already require sex education, few places demand that it be introduced at such a young age.
‘‘It’s vital that this information doesn’t come from playground rumor or the mixed messages from the media about sex,’’ Schools Minister Jim Knight said Thursday, announcing that sex ed would be added to the national curriculum.
English schools now are required to teach basic lessons on reproduction as part of the science curriculum. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have separate education departments and standards. Only Scotland makes sex education voluntary.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Observers to Monitor U. S. Vote
Stung by international criticism of its presidential and congressional elections, Russia is striking back by sending a team of observers to monitor the U. S. presidential poll on Nov. 4.
Andrei Nesterenko, a spokesman with Russia’s Foreign Ministry, says Moscow will have eight election observers attached to a monitoring mission conducted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
The OSCE, which has infuriated the Kremlin in the past by criticizing elections in Russia and other post-communist states, is sending 62 election observers to the United States.
The mission, headed by Audrey Glover, the top British diplomat, includes a core of 13 international experts from the OSCE’s office in Washington and 48 international observers who will be deployed in teams of two around the country.
In addition to visiting polling stations on Nov. 4, they will study the election campaign, media coverage and issues of voter registration, identification and voters rights…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stalin’s Army of Rapists: the Brutal War Crime That Russia and Germany Tried to Ignore
Relations between Russia and Germany have not been good since Vladimir Putin’s nationalist sabre-rattling this summer, but they are about to get a whole lot worse.
A new film about to be released in Germany will force both countries to re-examine part of their recent history that each would much prefer to forget. Yet it is right that the ghastly truth should finally be acknowledged.
The movie, A Woman In Berlin, is based on the diary of the German journalist Marta Hillers and depicts the horror of the Red Army’s capture of the capital of the Third Reich in April and May 1945.
A German girl walks past Soviet troops in a scene from A Woman In Berlin
Marta was one of two million German women who were raped by soldiers of the Red Army — in her case, as in so many others, several times over.
It was a feature of Russia’s ‘liberation’ and occupation of eastern Germany at the end of World War II that is familiar enough to historians, but which neither country cares to acknowledge took place on anything like the scale it did.
For Russia, the episode besmirches the fine name of the Red Army that had fought so hard and suffered so much in its four-year campaign against the Wehrmacht.
The courage and resilience of the ordinary Russian in what they called the Great Patriotic War is incontestable, and for every five German soldiers killed in action in the whole of World War II, four died on the Eastern Front.
Yet the knowledge that the victorious Red Army committed mass rape across Prussia and eastern Germany as they closed in on Berlin degrades its reputation, which is unacceptable to many Russians today.
When the historian Antony Beevor wrote about it in his book Berlin: The Downfall, the Russian ambassador to London, Grigory Karasin, accused him of ‘an act of blasphemy’, saying: ‘It is a slander against the people who saved the world from Nazism.’…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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