You’ll notice several stories in tonight’s news about close ties being forged between Italy and both Libya and Turkey. The Berlusconi government cracks down on immigrants at home, but is promoting a strong Mediterranean policy in its external relations.There are too many Obama stories to take note of. But pay attention to one in particular: the co-chair of Obama’s transition team said on TV that the Messiah will be ready to “rule on Day 1”.
That’s RULE.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, DJ, Folly, Frontinus, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Jungle Jim, Paul Green, RP, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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0bama Pals Around With IRA Terrorists
Most of us are well aware of 0bama’s connections with domestic terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. And also of his connection with Palestinian terrorist Rashid Khalidi. The above picture, taken approximately one year ago, shows that he also ‘pals around’ with IRA terrorists Rita O’Hare and Gerry Adams.
This photo was reported by the Irish Times on November 6 of this year (subscription required).
A PHOTOGRAPH showing US president-elect Barack Obama with an IRA fugitive wanted over the attempted murder of a British soldier has emerged.
Yesterday Sinn Fein released the picture of Senator Obama with party president Gerry Adams and general secretary Rita O’Hare, one of the most prominent ‘on the runs’.
It was taken about a year ago when Mr Adams was in Washington DC holding private meetings with members of Congress.
The Belfast woman has been wanted in Britain and Northern Ireland since being charged with the attempted murder of a soldier in her native city in 1971.
| — Hat tip: Jungle Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Wants Crony to Replace Him in Senate
Valierie Jarrett is Chicago lawyer, one of Democrat’s closest advisers
(CNN) — A prominent Democratic source close to Barack Obama confirmed Sunday that Valerie Jarrett is Obama’s choice to replace him in the Senate.
Jarrett is a Chicago lawyer and one of Obama’s closest advisers. She is also one of the leaders of Obama’s transition team.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Economy Won’t Stop Obama’s Priorities, Aides Say
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The economic crisis will not stop President-elect Barack Obama from expanding health care, overhauling education and energy policy, and passing a middle-class tax cut soon after he takes office in January, senior aides said on Sunday.
[…]
He is likely also to move quickly to reverse certain executive orders by President George W. Bush’s outgoing administration. These include orders on stem cell research and oil and gas drilling in some areas, Podesta told Fox News Sunday.
“I think across the board, on stem cell research, on a number of areas, you see the Bush administration even today moving aggressively to do things that I think are probably not in the interest of the country,” Podesta said.
“They want to have oil and gas drilling in some of the most sensitive, fragile lands in Utah that they’re going to try to do right as they (are) walking out the door.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Even Now, Plans Under Way for Obama National Holiday
A civil rights organization in Kansas has launched a campaign to designate Nov. 4 as a national holiday, commemorating the election of Barack Obama as president.
“The reason why I want to have this holiday is because it marks the day America grew up,” said Sonny Scroggins, founder and president of Bias Busters of Kansas, the organization pushing for the holiday.
Scroggins told WND that America has for too long focused on what our ancestors did during legalized slavery, but the election of Obama shows that we no longer allow race and gender to be the deciding factors in guiding our nation, but integrity and honor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gore: Revolution That Elected Obama Could Save Earth
‘It really was overwhelming. It couldn’t have happened without the Internet’
Former US vice president Al Gore said an Internet revolution carrying Barack Obama to the White House should now focus its power on stopping Earth’s climate crisis.
The one-time presidential contender turned environmental champion told Web 2.0 Summit goers in San Francisco Friday that technology has provided tools to save the planet while creating jobs and stimulating the crippled economy.
“The young people who have been inspired by Barack Obama’s campaign and the movement that powered Barack Obama’s campaign want a purpose,” Gore said.
“One of the reasons we were all thrilled Tuesday night is it was pretty obvious this was a collectively intelligent decision.”
The Internet’s critical role in Democrat Obama’s victory in the presidential race against Republican John McCain was a “great blow for victory” in addressing a “democracy crisis” stifling action against climate change, Gore said.
[…]
“Web 2.0 has to have a purpose” Gore said.
“The purpose I would urge is to bring about a higher level of consciousness about our relationship to this planet and the imminent danger we face. We have everything we need to save it.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Spokesman Says ‘Obama Ready to Rule on Day 1’
[Video]
The co-chair of Barack Obama’s Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett, appeared on Meet the Press this weekend and used, shall we say, an interesting word to described what she thinks Barack Obama will be doing in January when he’s officially sworn into office. She told Tom Brokaw that Obama will be ready to “rule” on day one. It’s a word that reflects the worst fears that people have for Obama the “arrogant,” the “messiah,” that imagines he’s here to “rule” instead of govern.
Jarret told Brokaw that “given the daunting challenges that we face, it’s important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one.”
Someone needs to get to Jarrett and inform her that American politicians are not Kings and do not “rule” from office. But if this is the attitude of Obama’s transition team, what does The One himself imagine he is about to unleash? Could the fears that Obama thinks he is being anointed America’s King be far off with this sort of talk flying about?
| — Hat tip: Frontinus | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Plans Guantanamo Closure, US Terror Trials
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Obama’s advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice.
During his campaign, Obama described Guantanamo as a “sad chapter in American history” and has said generally that the U.S. legal system is equipped to handle the detainees. But he has offered few details on what he planned to do once the facility is closed.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Students Defend Former Asheville Teacher
ASHEVILLE — The Cumberland County school system is investigating the actions of a former Asheville teacher criticized for “belittling” a student who voiced support for presidential candidate John McCain.
But the parents of that student, and the student herself, said Friday that teacher Diantha Harris did nothing wrong.
[…]
Harris on Friday said she regrets making the comment about her student’s father. She said she was not intending to advocate for one candidate over another.
“I called the parents, and I apologized,” she said. “And apologized to Cathy. If I could take anything back from that video, it would be that statement. I should not have said that.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Terry McAuliffe Forms Committee for Possible Virginia Governor Run
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe signs candidate papers, as he explores a possible run for Virginia governor.
RICHMOND, Va. — Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe signed papers Monday necessary to run for governor in Virginia next year.
McAuliffe told The Associated Press he set up a campaign committee and will tour Virginia for the next 60 days before making his candidacy certain.
He also said he would be announcing political advisers over the next week.
McAuliffe just finished a series of barnstorming campaign appearances across the state on behalf of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. In each, he rallied local party activists and volunteers for Obama and the Democratic ticket.
He said he won’t formally announce a decision until Jan. 7, but neither his tone or nor his words were those of an undecided candidate.
“I think I can make a difference. I think I can go out and fight for people. I think I can create jobs. I think I can take this state in a new direction, and the thing I’d like to do, too, is to come out with some big, bold ideas. I think that’s what this state has to hear,” McAuliffe said in the interview.
McAuliffe would face two other Democrats who have been active for nearly a year in an already contentious nomination fight to succeed Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.
| — Hat tip: Folly | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark’s Foreign Minister: Obama is a Hawk
Denmark’s Foreign Minister says that Barack Obama will have to go to war without a UN mandate — just like George Bush.
Europe is in for a surprise when President-elect Barack Obama takles over the helm of the world’s leading military power, according to Denmark’s foreign minister, who sees Obama as a security policy hawk.
Although Per Stig Møller accepts that Obama is suggesting more dialogue with countries such as Iran, basically he sees continuity in Obama’s and Bush’s security policies.
Same track
“I just want to stress that American foreign policy is a massive machine which has basically run on the same track from president to president,” says Stig Møller.
“The rhetoric is different. The way of listening to others will be different — and therefore we can expect other demands. Obama will be demanding more of Europe than the Bush administratioin did. But Obama is, of course, a security policy hawk, as all American presidents are,” he says.
The reluctant sheriff
Per Stig Møller says that Obama himself has said that the United States will continue to be the world’s reluctant sheriff and reserve the right to go to war with a coalition of the willing without the support of the United Nations.
Stig Møller says he expects Obama to need to create a coalition of the willing…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Mohammed Cartoonist Murder Plot Suspect Halts Budget Negotiations
The case of a Tunisian-born man awaiting deportation for plotting to kill a Mohammed cartoonist put parliament’s budget negotiations on hold
The status of a man facing deportation for his part in plotting to murder Kurt Westergaard, one of Jyllands-Posten newspaper’s Mohammed cartoon artists, interrupted budget negotiations at parliament this weekend.
Under pressure from the nationalist Danish People’s Party, the government broke off budget negotiations to address concerns that immigrants suspected of committing crimes, such as the Tunisian-born man, are not living under adequate police supervision.
Immigrants who have been ordered deported for committing a crime or who are a security risk to the Danish state may remain in Denmark on ‘resigned residence’ status if they face persecution in their home country. A new agreement will see them housed in the secure ward at Sandholm Asylum Centre, 30 kilometres north of Copenhagen.
Authorities have now arranged for the transfer of the Tunisian-born man arrested in February on suspecion of plotting to kill Westergaard, to the centre. He had continued to live in the Jutland city of Århus, where Westergaard and his family reside, according to MetroXpress newspaper.
The suspect has not yet been deported because he may face torture in his homeland. While living at Sandholm, he will be allowed to come and go as he pleases from the centre but must report each morning to police.
Westergaard, who drew the cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb-shaped turban, said he was pleased about the transfer, but added he was still unsatisfied that the man is allowed to move freely about.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: 82 School Arson Cases
New figures show that between two and three schools suffer from arson each week.
The number of cases of arson at schools has risen dramatically this year.
According to figures from the Danish Emergency Management Agency, there had already been 82 cases of school arson in the first nine months of 2008. This compares with 50 in 2006 and 85 in all of 2007.
70 million
The winter half-term holidays were the worst hit, and although the final bill has not yet been worked out, more than 70 million kroner is thought to have gone up in smoke during that week alone. That does not include cars, containers and houses set on fire.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
DPP Wants a Codex Holmiensis Back From Sweden
The Danish People’s Party is demanding the return of a Codex Holmiensis and a survey of what else Sweden has of Denmark’s history.
The Danish People’s Party has demanded that the government grants DKK 500,000 in the upcoming budget to detemine what Danish historical cultural treasures Sweden may have plundered from Denmark during the wars the two have fought.
At the same time, the government’s support party is calling for a Parliamentary decision ordering the government to begin an exchange between the two countries of cultural treasures plundered from each other.
“We must have an idea of what they have,” says DPP Foreign Policy Spokesman Søren Espersen.
Platform
The return of plundered Danish cultural treasures has been part of the Danish People’s Party platform since 1996 and has been supported to varying degrees by changing governments.
To date, however, none of the items plundered by Sweden during the wars of the 17th century have found their way back to Denmark. Among the items found in Sweden are the bridal gown worn by Queen Margrethe I (1353 — 1412) and a first edition of the Codex Holmiensis.
The Codex Holmiensis, or Jyske Lov, is the Danish Code of Jutland instigated by Valdemar II in 1241 to cover the areas of Funen and Jutland down to the River Eider. Its famous preamble states: “With law shall the nation be built” or in Danish “Med lov skal land bygges”.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Policeman: Lindh Murder Investigation ‘Full of Mistakes’
The investigation into the assassination of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003 was just as poorly handled in the first 24 hours as the Olof Palme investigation in 1986, according to a former police chief.
In his new book released on Monday, Kris i Ledningen för Svensk Polis (‘A Crisis in Leadership for the Swedish Police’), former Stockholm police superintendent Eric Rönnegård reveals several serious shortcomings within the Swedish police force, including how police conducted the Lindh murder investigation.
“It’s hard to find a more blatant example of a lack of competence, responsibility, and leadership than the Anna Lindh murder,” Rönnegård told the TT news agency.
He critique goes against a view commonly held by the public that the Lindh murder investigation was handled professionally and smoothly, a portrayal put forward by former Stockholm county police chief Leif Jennekvist in his own book about the investigation.
But Rönnegård claims the investigation was just as poorly handled in the first 15 hours as were the first 12 hours of the investigation into the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme, and he puts blame squarely on police chiefs.
The knife attack against Lindh was first classified as a serious assault and judged like an “attack against just anyone”.
Police chiefs never thought that the victim was the country’s foreign minister. No reinforcements were called in and the plan for dealing with exceptionally violent crimes was never put in place.
No police worked overtime and the department heads went home that evening to sleep, according to Rönnegård’s account.
“Police chief Leif Jennekvist watched the television news that night and saw a crying prime minister [Göran Persson] and realized that Anna Lindh wasn’t just wounded slightly. He then called Stockholm police chief Carin Götblad and asked if they could increase the size of the investigation. The answer was that it would depend on the outcome a meeting set for the next morning,” said Rönnegård.
Lindh fought for her life throughout the night and died the following morning.
Rönnegård believes the case should have immediately been considered an extraordinary event which then would have triggered a plan for dealing with exceptionally violent crimes. The plan includes an array of measures designed to get police working on the investigation quickly and effectively.
“What’s normal is to not get locked in waiting for a set appraisal but rather to operate on the assumption that the worst has happened,” he said.
Rönnegård believes the country’s police chiefs lack the necessary competence to lead investigations of the most serious incidents. Lindh’s murder was one of those incidents.
Filling police chief positions with bureaucrats and letting them head up operations leads to constant mistakes when things “heat up”, according to Rönnegård.
In his book, he explores a number of other noteworthy incidents in recent years in which he believes the police haven’t done a good job of carrying out their duties
“I’ve written a book to spark debate and try to change the structural problems which are known to exist within the police force but toward which government after government has turned a blind eye,” said Rönnegård.
Jennekvist, currently police chief for Stockholm’s southern district, dismissed the criticism laid out in Rönnegård’s book.
“I haven’t read the book and I’m not going to either. Rönnegård’s claims don’t add up in any regard. I have a hard time seeing that we made any mistakes,” said Jennekvist to TT.
He doesn’t think police were sloppy during the first day of the investigation.
“Quite the opposite, just look at the great efforts police made around [department store] NK in the first hours. Just finding the baseball cap [belonging to the killer] was unbelievably valuable,” he said.
Sweden’s National Police Commissioner Bengt Svensson, on the other hand, partially agrees with Rönnegård’s critique.
“Parts of the critique are important. But we’ve taken that into consideration and understand these issues better today. Police chiefs who have operationally responsibility on a day-to-day basis also have responsibility during extraordinary incidents,” he said.
He added that he couldn’t comment on the performance of specific individuals or events related to the Lindh investigation but that “it’s important that people with responsibility for different things within the agency have the right training”.
He also said that major changes to the leadership within Sweden’s police departments have taken place since the time of Lindh’s assassination.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Fr. Gheddo: I Am Happy With the Victory of Barack Obama
by Piero Gheddo
Milan (AsiaNews) — I am content with the electoral victory of Barack Obama. The truth is that I’m happy that he won. We will see what he will be able to do, but for the moment I am happy, for three specific reasons:
1) We are living in the time of television, the internet, and all of the other media that transmit news and images in real time. Politics now also take place in this context. I think that as a black man, Obama is well suited to give a different and more positive image of America in world public opinion. I am also happy because today America is often looked upon poorly, even hated, all over the world, both in Europe and on the other continents. On September 11, I was in Bangladesh, at the leper colony in Dhanjuri. We had heard nothing about the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York. The morning afterward, traveling by car to Dinajpur, we passed towns and cities where the people were celebrating, but we didn’t know why. Then we found out: the people were happy over the humiliation suffered by America and by the West in general, even though 70% of the state budget of Bangladesh is provided by England, the United States, and other Western countries through the UN. The events of the past century have demonstrated that the United States of America plays a fundamental role in the defense of democracy and human rights. Out of 180 countries in the world, 67 are recognized as “democratic.” I hope for a better future for humanity, and I believe that the United States can be positive in this sense, just as all of the Christian West can be. The black African countries demonize European colonialism, but now that they are experiencing Chinese colonialism, everyone agrees in saying that this is much worse!
2) Obama is the first black president of the United States. The people of the most powerful country in the world have overcome racial prejudice, handing Obama a decisive victory over his opponent. I think that this fact will have a very positive impact on all forms of racial discrimination, which are still very present, especially toward black people in Europe and in other parts of the world. A black president as head of the United States of America, as a sign of redemption for black people all over the world, is an extraordinary event. As a missionary, I have seen up close the humiliation of black Africa and of black people in various northern and Latin American countries. This milestone makes me happy.
3) America, as a country and as a people, has preserved a different image of religion, according to the constitutional charter signed by the founding fathers in 1788, which is still in effect, with some amendments. As soon as he found out that he was the new president of the United States, Barack Obama exhorted the crowds in Chicago, concluding with these words: “God bless you, and God bless America.” In Italy, a secularized country like the rest of the European community (living as if God did not exist), this would not be possible. Even our constitution does not mention God by name. The United States, with all of its personal and collective defects and sins, is essentially a Christian country, in which religion is at the basis of popular sensibility, the national culture is respectful of religion, and the presence of religion is widespread and much more broadly shared than in Europe. Except in the intellectual fringes, there is no militant atheism in America as in the European community. America’s national roots are not in the Enlightenment, nor are they anti-clerical, and American culture has not been influenced by the Marxist and Nazi ideologies that have shaken and devastated our continent.
I have no judgment on the person of Obama, whom I do not know, nor do I know what he will do as America’s president (even he doesn’t know this), but for these two reasons I am happy that he won the election and that he is the new president of the United States of America.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrant Men Are Forced to Marry, Too
Stories of Turkish girls forced into arranged marriages in Germany are well known. But hardly anyone talks about the men who are forced into marriage — sometimes harassed, blackmailed or beaten.
Azad will never forget that day in September 2005. It was the day of his wedding in Stuttgart, but for Azad it was filled with hours of shame. “It’s really bad, when you have to force yourself to have sex with a relative,” says the 20-year-old Kurd. “It’s sick. With my first cousin.”
When Azad was 16, his parents informed him that he was to be engaged to a cousin from eastern Anatolia, who was also 16. When he refused, his mother threatened to commit suicide. “You will find me hanging from a rope in the basement,” she said. At 17, Azad and the cousin were married in a civil ceremony during a family vacation in Turkey. When he was 18 his bride came to Germany, and ornate wedding invitations were sent out. The wedding ceremony took place in a midrange hotel in southwestern Germany. “It was pure horror,” says Azad…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Radicals Make Mockery of Hate Laws
JUST days after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced tough new measures to name and shame foreign-based extremists and prevent them coming from abroad to stir up hatred in the UK, firebrand preacher Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad cocked a snook at her new initiative, the Evening Standard can reveal.
More than 200 Muslims at a packed public meeting in Tower Hamlets were told by organiser Anjem Choudary: “We have a special surprise, a special treat for you. Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad will be joining us on a live feed from Lebanon.” He added: “As Muslims, we will not submit to any man-made law, any government, or any prime minister — Bush or Brown — or [to] Jacqui Smith. We submit to Allah.”
Choudary, who with Bakri led the fanatical Al-Muhajiroun organisation — notorious for its glorification of terrorism and the 9/11 attacks before its banning and dissolution in 2004 -warmed up the crowd, two Sundays ago, with his own inflammatory rhetoric.
“It is our religious obligation to prepare ourselves both physically and mentally and rise up against Muslim oppression and take what is rightfully ours,” he said. “Jihad is a duty and a struggle and an obligation that lies upon the shoulders of us all. We will not rest until the flag of Allah and the flag of Islam is raised above 10 Downing Street.”
To loud cheers of “Allah Akbar” [God is great], he railed: “There are three types of Muslims, those in prison, those of us that are on our way [to prison] and non-practising Muslims. Brothers and sisters, if you do not fear your home being raided by the Kufar [non-believer] police, you are not enforcing the Sharia.”
Later, in front of a huge banner that exhorted “Muslims rise against British oppression”, he introduced the star turn, 50-year-old Omar Bakri, who was standing by in Lebanon. A giant screen, six-feet high and six-feet wide, had been set up to project the image of the extremist known as “the Tottenham Ayatollah”. He was refused re-entry to the UK in 2005 as “not conducive to the public good” after vowing that Muslims would “give the West a 9/11 day after day after day”.
But when a problem with the live internet video feed failed to yield a picture, Mr Choudary phoned his colleague from the stage and put the receiver to the microphone. The connection was loud and clear and Bakri spoke for 15 minutes.
Apart from a group of elders with long groomed white beards sitting in the front row, most of the 200 men in attendance were Muslims in their late teens or early 20s, mostly dressed in shalwar kameez with westernised accessories — trainers, hoodies and jackets. At the back of the hall, segregated by partitions, were more than 50 women wearing burkhas.
“Do not obey the British law,” Bakri told them.
| — Hat tip: Paul Green | [Return to headlines] |
Man Hauled Before Court for Letting His Wheelie Bin Fall Over and Spill Rubbish
A homeowner was taken to court for dumping rubbish after his wheelie bin was knocked over causing waste to spill on to the road.
Gary Rostron has blasted the authority for wasting taxpayers’ cash after magistrates threw out the case.
Council chiefs had accused the 34-year-old of ‘incorrectly placing his rubbish bags beside his collecting receptacle’ and issued him with a £60 fixed penalty notice. Mr Rostron refused to pay claiming the wheelie bin had simply fallen over and officials took legal action.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mortgage Crisis: Spain; Government Approves Family Aid
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 3 — The Spanish government has given a helping hand to families that are struggling under the weight of the financial crisis. The plan consists of a series of emergency measures which includes a (maximum) two year moratorium on the payment of 50% of mortgage rates for the newly unemployed and for self-employed people with families. The measures, announced today in a press conference by the Spanish premier, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, also include an extension of the time limit for the settling of savings accounts for buying a house (up until now fixed at four years) given the current “difficulty in obtaining credit”. In essence, families can avoid paying half their mortgage rate, up to a maximum of 500 euros a month, from 1 January 2009 and for the following 24 months. The measure only concerns mortgages that do not exceed 170,000 euros — the average mortgage in Spain is 173,000 euros, according to the National Statistics Institute — which the government calculates therefore involves 500,000 families. Families with mortgages worth more than this figure “should not have problems”, since, presumably, they have higher incomes. Zapatero, who announced the measures at the end of a meeting with representatives of the trade unions Comisiones Obreras and Union General de Trabajadores and from the Industrial Confederations (Ceoe), has emphasised that this clearly shows that the “objective of the government is to support the families that are in the greatest difficulty”, following the approval of the plans to aid to the banking sector (worth 50 billion euros) over the last few weeks. As for the initiatives to stimulate the job market, the premier has announced that “a new rebate of 1,500 euros” will be created for those who take on unemployed people with families on a permanent contract — it is the “biggest rebate programme ever”. Furthermore, pension contributions will be deducted for businesses which create new jobs in strategic sectors of innovation and renewable energy. The new packet of measures, which will cost the government 170 million euros between 2009 and 2010, will be approved at the next meeting of the Cabinet. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims’ Free Speech ‘Threatened’
Governments across Europe must do more to safeguard freedom of speech for Muslim reformers who face threats from extremists, a think tank has warned.
The UK-based Centre for Social Cohesion highlighted the cases of 27 writers, including Sir Salman Rushdie, activists, politicians and artists.
The centre said they had suffered violence and intimidation for criticising Islam or seeking reform.
It said governments had a duty to ensure free speech for all citizens.
The report — Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech within Europe’s Muslim Communities — said official failure to offer victims the protection they needed had left “significant numbers” of Muslims unable to express themselves.
Rushdie fatwa
It said this also created the impression that more Muslims were opposed to free speech than was actually the case.
The centre called for European governments to “promote greater religious and social harmony by demonstrating that they see Muslims and those of Muslim background as complete citizens, neither restricted in their freedoms nor unduly permitted to issue threats against others”.
Sir Salman was among the cases highlighted.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Neo-Nazis Are Back, German Jews Warn
The head of Germany’s Jewish community revealed that she received death threats which made her fear for her life yesterday in an interview given to mark the 70th anniversary of the infamous Nazi “Kristallnacht” pogrom that paved the way for the Holocaust.
Charlotte Knobloch, the president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, issued a dire warning against the rise of neo-Nazi parties and said she frequently received death threats.
“There are people out there who would rather see me in a cemetery,” said Mrs Knobloch, 76, who experienced Kristallnacht as a six-year-old when she fled on to the streets of Munich with her father after his shop was attacked by Nazis. “Sometimes I fear for my life,” she added.
Mrs Knobloch called for a government ban on the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) which has made a series of sweeping gains in regional state elections in Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Pro-Abortion President Who Will Harm America’s Blacks
by Mark Tardiff
Dear Editor,
As a confrere of Fr. Gheddo from the United States, I would like to respond to his recent article “I am happy with the victory of Barack Obama.”
I can understand Fr. Gheddo’s happiness about the election of an Afro American as President, given the disgraceful history of racism in the United States. I vividly remember how painful it was for me, as a patriotic American, to learn, during my high school years, about the history of slavery and racism in the U.S. The nadir of the story was the case Dred Scott vs. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856). It is bad enough when an evil as great as slavery is tolerated. In this case, however, the Supreme Court of the United States, the supreme judicial authority of the country, declared that slavery was justified by the Constitution, and so was part of the fundamental order of the land. The Court quoted the words of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among them is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’) and then ruled that these words were never meant to apply to blacks, who were only regarded as property.
Tragically, Mr. Obama’s stand on abortion contradicts the historical significance of his election.
In the cases Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), and its companion Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179 (1973), the Supreme Court declared that the performance of abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, right up to the moment of birth, was legal. Any restriction, the Court ruled, had to include a health exception, but since this exception had to include emotional and psychological aspects, the distress of a pregnant woman at having to bear a child was sufficient reason for an abortion at any stage. The Court explicitly declared that “the unborn have never been recognized in the law as persons in the whole sense,” thus excluding them from that community of persons enjoying the inalienable right to life in the same way that the Dred Scott Court had excluded blacks from the inalienable right to liberty.
Mr. Obama is strongly dedicated to not only preserving, but actually extending, the present abortion regime in the United States. While he was a Senator in the Illinois State Legislature, he opposed a measure that would have mandated medical treatment for babies who survived an abortion procedure and were born alive. His reasoning was that such a law might, by implication, call into question the exclusion of the unborn from the protection of the law. His uncompromising stand in favour of treating the unborn as “legal nonpersons” is tragically ironic given the fact that he belongs to a race that was treated in exactly the same way in the past.
What compounds the tragedy as well as the irony is that Afro Americans are disproportionately targeted in abortion. Blacks make up 12% of the U.S. population, but 35% of all abortions are performed on black women. Afro Americans are the only minority in the U.S. which is declining in population. Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S. has 78% of all their clinics in minority neighborhoods. This distribution is consistent with the thinking of its founder Margaret Sander, an enthusiastic eugenicist, who wrote that “colored people are like human weeds and are to be exterminated.” Afro Americans understandably voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Obama, embracing a historic chance to affirm their place in U.S. society. Tragically, all too few of them realize that the candidate they think will bring them much more political prominence strongly supports Planned Parenthood and its abortion policies which, if present trends continue, will reduce the black vote to insignificance by 2038. This, too, falls in line with the strategy of Margaret Sanger. She realized that whites trying to eliminate the “human weeds” would be met with suspicion. She laid great emphasis on recruiting black leaders who would convince their people to cooperate in their own destruction.
It is beyond tragic that the first Afro American elected as President of the United States is a man that Margaret Sanger would have approved of, rather than one that Martin Luther King would have approved of.
Sincerely,
Fr. Mark Tardiff
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Active Registry for Paedophilia and Violent Inmates
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 21 — The penitentiary institutes of the Spanish Minister of Justice and Pardons have created a registry of 62,000 names of detainees, with personal data, that will be consultable in real time by magistrates and public attorneys to avoid errors in releases from prison. The registry, renamed the penitentiary social informative System, was approved in the past weeks by the government, to avoid new cases like those of little Mari Luz, a three year old child kidnapped and killed by a pre-offender for paedophilia crimes, set free despite a finalized sentence. The catalogue, started on last October 11th, includes the medical, psychological, education, and family history of the inmate, which will have to be consulted by surveillance magistrates before deciding to grant parole or house arrest. Data relative to the inmate, authorized by Privacy watchdog groups, regard the information of the family background and residence outside of prison, information on prospective diseases or illnesses, mental health, and prospective psychiatric treatment received, as well as prospective drug use, and treatments in course. They will be used mainly in cases of sexual and paedophilia related maltreatment and violence. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Sofia, Confessions of a Queen, Controversy
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 30 — A queen “relaxed, talkative, and a distinguished maruja”, an illustrious housewife, busy with the arduous task to desacralise and make the monarchy common. This is the personal portrait of Sofia of Greece, wife of Juan Carlos, outlined in the book-interview by journalist Pilar Urbano “La Reina Muy de Cerca”, edited by Plantera, presented today in Madrid. And yet, opinions, even political, that the “illustrious housewife” who on November 2nd will celebrate her 70th birthday, expressed for the first time publicly, her opinions on gay marriage and abortion, created a reaction of “indignation” in gay and lesbian association, as well as left wing parties. To the point that the gay, lesbian, and transsexual Federation (Felgtb) asked the Royal Family for an official amendment of Sofia’s statements. “I can understand, accept, and respect that people have other sexual tendencies — stated Sofia in the book- , but that they are proud of being gay? That they get on floats and have parades?”, she stated in reference to Gay Pride parades hosted in the capital. “If all of us who are not gay were to go out and demonstrate… we would cause traffic to collapse. If these people want to live together, dress like brides and get married, they can, it is their right to do so, but don’t call it marriage, because it is not”. Gay Pride “is a symbol of our fight against homophobia; in parading, think about the marriage of his son Felipe” was the annoyed reply of the president of the Felgtb, Antonio Poveda. According to Poveda, “many gay and lesbian mothers ask why the queen understands the Prince who married a woman who is divorced, but does understand that other mothers want happiness and marriage for their own children”. For the spokesperson of the Congress of left formation, from the Izquierda Unida party, Gaspar Llamazares observed that “luckily in Spain, the king reigns, but does not govern, and neither does the queen”, reminding that for gay marriage, Parliament gave equal dignity to heterosexual marriages. For the deputy of the Galician Nationalist Block, Olaia Fernandez, the queen has “broken the principal of neutrality” of the monarchy, which “has to respect the ideological pluralism of the state”. If the Psoe spokesperson in Congress, Antonio Alonso, did not comment, for the spokesperson of the Pp in the Senate, Pujalte, “this is about personal opinions”. Sofia is a very much loved figure in Spain and has conquered fame as a discreet and professional councillor since she was married 46 years ago in Athens to Juan Carlos, who was Prince at the time. For this reason, her publicly expressed opinions were surprising. In the book, she says that she is “absolutely” against abortion, defining the teaching of religion in schools as necessary, because “children need an explanation of the origin of the world and life”. She is contrary to euthanasia, but in agreement for a dignified death. About to turn 70, the portrait of Sofia that emerges from Urbano’s book- which is 13 years after the first book — is very personal, mainly because it dedicates a large part of its “secrets” to Felipe’s wife, Princess Letizia, who has a determined role in promoting the future of the monarchy”, a new future of common monarchs. “All European monarchies- is in synthesis, according to Urbano, the Queen’s idea — have a strong necessity to socialise the monarchy, to make it common”. The book also includes an opinion about Premier Zapatero: “He is a young president, and very involved in his responsibilities, and not at all superficial or greying”. Pilar Urbano assured that the book received the consent of the Royal House, even if the Zaruela Palace is not commenting on the book. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Free Trade Fears Cloud Sweden’s Embrace of Obama
Amid the excitement in Sweden over Barack Obama’s victory, there remains real concern among members of the political and business establishment over how the US president-elect will approach the issue of free trade.
“Our hope is that he doesn’t follow through on what he’s said about free trade,” Moderate party secretary Per Schlingmann told The Local.
In the course of his campaign, Obama made a number of statements which raise questions about his support for free trade.
“If we continue to let our trade policy be dictated by special interests, then American workers will continue to be undermined,” he told an audience at a campaign rally in Michigan in June.
“Allowing subsidized and unfairly traded products to flood our markets is not free trade.”
Among other things, Obama also called for trade agreements with tougher labour and environmental protections, as well as a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) linking the US with Mexico and Canada, the benefits of which he said had been “oversold” to the American public.
Obama’s positions worry free trade advocates who fear the president-elect’s less than enthusiastic support of free trade may portend a more protectionist attitude on the part of the United States.
“I hope that [Obama] doesn’t follow through on his statements about free trade. I can’t say for sure what will happen, but I hope his policies are wiser than his past comments,” said Erik Ullenhag, party secretary for the Liberal Party (Folkpartiet).
Swedish exports the equivalent of about 50 percent of its GDP annually, whereas the US exports goods and services equivalent to about 8 percent of GDP.
As a result of Sweden’s much greater reliance on external trade, free trade receives much wider support among most of the country’s major political parties.
Leif Pagrotzky, a Social Democratic trade minister in the government of Göran Persson, admitted that “there was something to” the concerns people had about Obama’s trade stance, but added that free trade has also suffered during the administration of President Bush.
“The Bush administration has put a black eye on free trade. Things have taken a large step backwards,” he said.
“I’m not worried [about Obama’s free trade views] because things can’t get much worse, and I’m hopeful they can get better.”
Speaking Wednesday morning to an audience attending an election watch breakfast sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce, Börje Ekholm, the CEO of Sweden’s influential Investor holding company, also cautioned against reading too much into Obama’s past comments regarding free trade.
“I think it’s important that we don’t exaggerate the anti-trade stance of Obama. I think he’s smart enough not to upset the free trade patterns of the world economy,” he said.
“What’s important is having a president with clear and strong leadership,” he added.
As Sweden and the United States, along with the rest of the world, struggle to cope with the fallout from the current financial crisis and the onset of a recession, others emphasized the importance of openness to helping revive the global economy.
“The world, and especially Sweden needs more openness and more free trade,” said Henrik von Sydow, a Moderate member of the Riksdag.
Current minister of agriculture and member of the Centre Party Eskil Erlandsson agreed.
“It’s important to open up so our societies can come together, and not to close things off. I hope that president [Obama] will open things up because we need to the US to help our economy get going again,” he said.
While also expressing his hope that the Obama administration will be able to distance itself from the president elect’s past comments on free trade, Mauro Gozzo, chief economist with the Swedish Trade Council (Exportrådet) didn’t see reason for grave concern, explaining that any movement on trade policy won’t likely happen anytime soon.
“I don’t expect much to happen in the early years. I’m not optimistic, but I’m not pessimistic either,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Fresh Set of Fires Plagues Ystad
After a month of relative calm, the town of Ystad in southern Sweden was hit by another series of fires believed to be purposefully set early Monday morning.
No one was injured by the blazes.
Firefighters received the first call shortly before 3:00am in response to a fire in the enclosed porch of a house in central Ystad which contained offices used by the municipality to conduct daily activities.
The porch was completely destroyed by the blaze.
Shortly before 4:00am, another call came about a fire in a multi-family dwelling. While the fire turned out to be minor, the building’s stairwell had been filled with smoke.
In the interim, emergency crews had received calls about two other fires, one in a waste bin outside a building and another in a garbage dump outside a restaurant.
The cause of the fires has yet to be determined, but initial evidence suggests they were purposefully set.
As of 6:00am Monday, no suspects had been arrested.
In early October, Ystad was hit by another series of fires believed to be set by the “day break pyromaniac”.
A 44-year-old man, who had been suspected in a serious of arson in connection with several previous fires, was arrested.
The man was detained and prosecutors had requested he be remanded in custody. But the man was released following his remand hearing because the district court didn’t think the evidence against him was strong enough.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK Prime Minister: Time to Build Global Society
Says international financial crisis giving leaders unique opportunity
LONDON (Reuters) — The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday.
In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, Brown — who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions — will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order.
“The alliance between Britain and the U.S. — and more broadly between Europe and the U.S. — can and must provide leadership, not in order to make the rules ourselves, but to lead the global effort to build a stronger and more just international order,” an excerpt from the speech says.
[..]
“My message is that we must be: internationalist not protectionist; interventionist not neutral; progressive not reactive; and forward looking not frozen by events. We can seize the moment and in doing so build a truly global society.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Utrecht Most Dangerous City in the Netherlands
The city of Utrecht is the most dangerous city in the Netherlands, according to a police survey published on Friday. Amsterdam is in second place followed by Eindhoven, Den Bosch and Rotterdam.Of the country’s four major cities (The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht) only The Hague — the seat of the Dutch government — avoids a listing in the top ten most dangerous places in terms of crime statistics.
The safest place in the Netherlands is the village of Ferwerderadiel in the northern province of Friesland, the survey concludes.
The list is based on crime figures for thefts, break-ins, violence and vandalism but does not include murder statistics. The research covers the period 2004 to 2007.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: EU, Corruption Widespread; Minorities Not Protected
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 5 — Widespread corruption, high unemployment, weak administrative apparatus and unprotected minorities: the European Commission paints a dark picture of Kosovo in its first report on the state of the country after its declaration of independence in February. In the Commission’s opinion, the Kosovan government has not respected its commitments with regard to representation of minorities “whose living conditions have not improved”. The government in Kosovo, explains the report, “has no strategy for reconciliation and dialogue between the various communities”. Furthermore, notes the Commission, in several regions with a Serbian majority, the government exercises only a limited authority over the police, courts, customs, transport and borders. Overall, in the whole territory of Kosovo, pubic administration remains “weak”. As for the maintaining of law and order, the Commission has drawn attention to “the weakness of the justice system which has not managed to send a strong signal to say that ethnic violence will not be tolerated”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia: Parliament Approves New Premier, Pahor
(ANSAmed) — LJUBLJANA, NOVEMBER 7 — Slovenia’s parliament has passed a vote of confidence on newly-elected Premier, Borut Pahor, who is to lead the centre-left coalition government, promising to prioritise economic aid to overcome the financial crisis. The Premier, who has a four-year mandate, obtained 59 votes in favour and 24 against from the single-chamber parliament consisting of 90 seats. Pahor, 45, booked nine further votes from the 50 MPs belonging to his four-party coalition. Pahor had called on opposition members to “overcome future obstacles together”, allowing the country to “catch up with more developed nations as soon as possible”. “The Government’s task is to support the healthy part of the economy, exports in particular, to find measures to sustain those who are weaker and to follow job-creating policies”. The centre-left coalition under Pahor narrowly beat the centre-right one of his predecessor, Janez Jansa, in September. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Turkey: Frattini, We Strongly Support EU Membership
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 5 — “The Italian government will support the inclusion of Turkey in the European Union with all its strength” said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, speaking at the Italo-Turkish Forum, indicating that the Italian Parliament will give a “clear word” when necessary with the “enormous majority” of the Berlusconi government, but also with “the opposition” which it knows it can “count on”. “Turkey’s inclusion will not be a problem, but it will be part of the solution for strengthening Europe” in relations with other countries, such as the Caucasus region, he added. A “strategic outlook” is what is needed in relations with Turkey, said Frattini, noting that in January Ankara will become a member of the UN Security Council and Italy will have a “special relationship” here, in view of reforms to the Security Council. Frattini stressed the need to build “a structured intergovernmental dialogue” at the Italo-Turkish Summit in Smirne on 13th November, and Italy’s “ambition” in “representing Turkey as a special partner in Europe”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Frattini, Gaddafi Welcomed in Italy as Friend
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 30 — “If the leader of the Libyan revolution, Muammar Gaddafi, desires to visit Italy, he will be welcomed as a friend”. This is what the Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, assured today from the Foreign Ministry at the Farnesina, opening a meeting on the agreement between Italy and Libya recently drawn up, at which were present, among others, the Libyan Colonel’s son, Saif El-Islam Gaddafi, and Tripolìs Foreign Minister, Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Frattini; Reliable Country, Exceptional Partner
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 20 — “Libya is a reliable country that the international community recognises as such, and it is an exceptional partner for Italy and a country with which we are interested in working together”. This was said by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, during a meeting at the Italian Foreign Ministry on an agreement between Italy and Libya signed on August 30th by Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Colonel Muammar Ghadafi. The head of the Italian Foreign Ministry explained that the agreement has “an historic importance and for the first time widens relations between Italy and Libya in cultural, economic, and scientific fields and enriches collaboration between the people and not only between the states”. Frattini also defined the agreement as a “courageous political gesture made by Berlusconi” in which there is a “recognition of colonial suffering” perpetrated on the Libyan people during Italian occupation. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Ambassador Reminds Napolitano of ‘82 Soccer World Cup
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 27 — ‘‘The great love of the Arab people for Italian soccer”, referring in particular to Paolo Rossi who in 1982 brought Italy a victory in the World Cup, was a topic of conversation between the Saudi Arabian ambassador, Ahmad El Khattami, during an encounter with President Napolitano, with the 22 representatives of the Arab League associated countries. References to Paolo Rossi and Italian soccer ended a greeting and thanks from the controversial tones in talks about Israeli policy in the Middle East, from the development of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory and the construction of a dividing wall. Referring to the necessity of guaranteed security for Israel underlined by President Napolitano in his greeting, Khattami said: “Israel cannot live in peace and security until they have fully satisfied fair and legitimate Arab requests”. And that is “after the withdrawal from all the territories occupied in ‘67, taking this golden opportunity of an Arab initiative for peace and normalisation of relations with Israel’’. Khattamìs speech was preceded by another warm greeting from the Syrian Ambassador at the Arab League, Yusuf Ahmad, who had denounced United States foreign policy in the Middle East as “the greatest obstacle to the peace process because “it continues to support Israel’s extremist policies and for the invasion of Iraq under false pretences”. The ambassador referred to yesterday’s raid in which a squad of US helicopters attacked a building in Syrian territory killing eight civilians. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
TLC: Telecom; Libyan Fund Negotiating Share
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 30 — The Libyan sovereign wealth fund is “negotiating with Telecom Italian” for the acquisition of a share of the group. This was reported by the Bloomberg agency. “Our people — said Saif al-Islam Ghadafi, son of the Libyan leader, according to Bloomberg reports — is speaking with Telecom. I think that they are discussing an investment in capital”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Sharp Increase of Italian Investments, +141.8%
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 21 — According to the data supplied by the Treasury Undersecretary (General Direction of Foreign Investments) and worked out by the Trade Commission of Istanbul, in the first eight months of 2008 the presence of Italian investors in Turkey increased further. In August, 83 new Italian-owned companies were set up, taking the total amount to 674. A total of 162 million dollars (141.8% more than the 67 million dollars in the period January-August 2007) was invested in the country, representing 1.8pct of total foreign investments in Turkey in this period, with a stock of around 4.6 billion dollars. Also in August, as in the previous months, the flow in Italian investments opposed the trend of total foreign capital invested in Turkey: 11.2 billion dollars (-28,2% from the same period in 2007 with 15,6 billion dollars), of which 9.2 billion dollars directly invested from overseas (-30,8%). In total, in Turkey on August 31 20,742 companies with foreign capital were present (674 Italian, equal to 3.3%); 3.516 companies are German (17% of the total), 2.012 British (9,7%),1.625 Dutch, 1.002 Iranian (4,8%), 928 US-owned (4,5%). The UK invested most in Turkey in the past 8 months (1,8 billion dollars, followed by the Netherlands (1,3 billion dollars), Germany (939 million dollars) and the countries of the Persian Gulf (1,7 billion). Of the 20.742 foreign-owned companies in Turkey, 53,2% (11.039) have their headquarter in Istanbul; followed by Antalya (12,8%), Ankara (6,5%), Mugla (6%) and Smirne (5,9%). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Fifth American President (Since Mubarak Has Been in Power)
by Federica Zoja
The media in Cairo enthusiastically welcomed the event too, emphasising its historical importance. At times they also exploited the democratic element as a litmus test for the shortcomings of the local political system. “The first black President in the White House and the fifth American president since Mubarak came to power” denounced the independent daily newspaper Dustour. Equally, there are those who do not hide their doubts, and at times their scepticism. “Will Obama be with us or against us?” wrote the periodical Rose El Youssef, expressing a shared fear…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas and the New Power Configuration in the Palestinian Territories
In an historically complex geo-political context, which is that of the Israeli-Palestinian, this contribution proposes to analyse the present division of Palestine between the main political powers: Fatah, OLP and Hamas. This scenario becomes always more controversial, especially after the Hamas election victory of 2006.
The Gaza Strip and the West Bank: the two realities
On the 14th June, 2007, the militiamen of Hamas conquered the last stronghold of Fatah and declared “victory” in the Gaza strip. The victory of the Islamist Sunnite group ended 10 days of ferocious fighting, during the course of which the militiamen of the Executive Force of Hamas overpowered the security forces loyal to Fatah. The spokesman of Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, announced the “Second liberation of the Gaza Strip”, making it explicitly understood that the first liberation came about as a consequence of the Israeli unilateral withdrawal from the Palestinian territory, in 2005. During the course of the same day, the military wing of Hamas — the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades — announced the execution of Samih al-Madhun, at that time, leading commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and number One on the Hamas wanted list.
The execution of Madhun had been filmed and, a few days later, exhibited online in Youtube, probably by journalists of the Hamas television network “al-Aqsa TV”. The video showed the Fatah commander being dragged along the street and then shot by masked men. The military victory of Hamas determined the cessation of administrative activities of the Fatah organization in the Gaza Strip, and the division of the Palestinian territories into two distinct political entities, under two distinct power structures. The Gaza Strip is presently under a de facto government of Hamas, guided by Ismail Haniah, and assembled for the first time, on the 19th June, 2007, and is supported by the militiamen of the “Executive Force” of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
The West Bank, instead, is under the Fatah Government, which partially maintains the Palestinian structure of Authority within the limits of the West Bank territory, and up to June, 2007, enjoyed the support of the United States, the European Union and Israel. The fundamental difference between the two “governments” is that the Hamas government represents a new power structure originating from the armed victory of a Palestinian faction: while the West Bank government represents the continuation of the power structure defined “Palestinian Authority”, created following the Oslo Agreements of 1993 between Israel and the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine (OLP), and historically dominated by the Fatah movement.
To evaluate the scenarios in the course of 2008, it is necessary to identify and compare intentions and ability of the two power contenders, Fatah and Hamas…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Armed Forces; Country Declares War on Shirkers
(by Carlo Giacobbe) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, OCTOBER 28 — The medical certificates were real enough, just a shame that the illnesses were all faked. A case of normal absenteeism has taken on a different guise in Israel, where the feigned sufferers are service personnel of the ‘tsahal’, maybe the most mythical armed forces of the modern era. Since the founding of the Hebrew State 60 years ago, the word ‘tsahal’ has always had a ring of pride about it, representing one of the better sides of Israel: efficient but without the super-human rhetoric of Hollywood soldiers, courageous without the barrack-room machismo that often sullies military environments. But in recent months something has been giving way and many youngsters, had they the choice, would very much prefer not to don the grey-green shirt. And they are willing to pay to avoid doing so. Which is how hundreds came to a deal with five doctors of Kafr Qassam, an Arab-Israeli area 30 kilometres from Tel Aviv, who have been arrested following an investigation conducted by police officers under false guises and bearing concealed TV-cameras. The medics were ‘handing out’ the falsified certificates from their own cars: furtively swapping headed notepaper for banknotes. One day off duty cost 50 shekel, just under ten euro, less than a household help gets per hour. So it’s easy to understand how the low price led to a multiplying of those buying spells of leave. The police have so far uncovered hundreds of sham sickies, including some members of the famed combat units. Sometimes it was the soldier’s families who put up the money. There are indications that the phenomenon of draft-dodging has gone beyond simply that of slinking away from a few days of parade-ground bashing, deeply affecting a society where, just a few years ago, military service was considered an honour by the young men and women: more than a duty, a right. Now open complaints are heard that the three-year period of service for men and of two for women, is too long. A few weeks ago, Israel’s Procurator General, Menachem Mazuz, ordered the opening of a criminal inquiry into the New Profile organisation, which offered draft-dodging advice on its website. Mazuz was acting on a request from the army’s Solicitor General, who had for months viewed the site with suspicion. And so two different worlds have somehow collided: the Haredim, the ultra-orthodox with their black robes, who have always been exempt from the draft, and the sons and daughters of well-to-do parents. They don’t ever speak to each other, but both share the same stand — let others do the marching, the exercises and learn the discipline of the military life. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: False Certificates to Soldiers, 5 Doctors Arrested
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, OCTOBER 28 — About 100 false medical certificates, costing around 50 euro, allowed Israeli soldiers to have a few days off from military life: this came to light today after an investigation conducted under maximum secrecy by undercover police officers, with the aid of video cameras and recordings. The operation resulted in the arrest of five doctors, who are assumed to be Arab-Israelis but whose details are not known. According to the online edition of Haaretz, in many cases doctors ‘dealt’ the false certificates directly from their cars, with quick exchanges of official documents for money. The health workers were all working out of a medical centre near Kafr Qassam, an Arab-Israeli town about 30 km east of Tel Aviv. According to investigators, around 100 Israeli soldiers are involved including many special forces soldiers. The scamming doctors, according to police, required 50 shekel for every day off prescribed. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Middle East: Rice, No Israel-Palestine Peace in 2008
(by Giorgio Raccah) (ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, NOVEMBER 6 — On her eighth visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since peace negotiations were resumed at the Annapolis conference a year ago, State Secretary Condoleezza Rica recognised that a peace agreement in 2008 is not realistically possible. Ms Rice, who met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today in Jerusalem and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in the evening, told press that the early elections in Israel on 10 February had created a ‘‘different situation’’ which means an agreement is unlikely. The fact that the Bush mandate expires in January and that of Palestinian President Abu Mazen (Mahmud Abbas), does not help the peace process either, even if an extension seems probable. Ms Rice hoped to move the peace process forward however, and according to diplomatic sources, will prepare a document for the Barack Obama administration reporting progress made in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. ‘‘We hope that the process started in Annapolis has laid the basis for the constitution of a Palestinian state, when political circumstances permit’’. The State Secretary will meet Palestinian leaders in Ramallah tomorrow and may visit Jenin — the city where responsibility for security was handed back last May to Palestinian forces — before leaving for Egypt. She will take part in a meeting on Sunday in Sharm El Sheikh, of the Quartet (USA, EU, Russia and the UN) with representatives from Israel and the Palestinians for a stock-taking on the state of negotiations and on the steps taken towards agreement. At the end of the month Prime Minister Olmert will travel to Washington at the invitation of President Bush, for what Israeli sources have described as a last-minute attempt to reach agreement and obtain a number of American commitments before the start of the new US administration. Rice’s meetings come ahead of those which open in Cairo next week with the aim of national reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions, above all between Hamas, who seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, and the Fatah party of President Abu Mazen. However Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front of Ahmed Jibril today threatened to boycot talks unless their activists arrested on the West Bank by the Palestinian Authority are released. At the same time Hamas — considered to be a terrorist organisation by the US — said it is ready to open serious dialogue with President elect Obama. Hamas also threatened not to extend the relative ceasefire under way with Israel since June if it does not obtain a clear commitment by Israel to stop military operations in Gaza, like the one carried out two days ago when six militants were killed, according to an Israeli spokesman, in an attempt to stop a hostage-taking attack on Israeli citizens. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Monks and Priests Brawl at Jerusalem Holy Site
[Video, in French]
A brawl erupted in Jerusalem Sunday between rival monks at one of Christianity’s holiest sites, and police have detained two clergymen for questioning.
| — Hat tip: DJ | [Return to headlines] |
Sheik Attacks Obama in a Hamas TV Friday Sermon
[Video: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1904.htm]
Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon, delivered by Sheik Abdallah Abu Jarbu’, and aired on the Hamas Al-Aqsa TV on November 7, 2008.
Sheik Abdallah Abu Jarbu’: Barack Obama has won. Is he good or bad for the Arabs? Before you talk about this or that, you should know that no American leader has ever won their elections, unless he pledged his loyalty to the Jews in advance. Obama went to the Wailing Wall, put on their skullcap, shed tears just like they do, and lamented their sorrow, but he did not mention the Palestinian people at all. He talked about the suffering of the Jews and about the Holocaust, but he did not even mention the people of Beit Hanoun, who were killed while sleeping in their homes.
[…]
Before you talk about a black leader reaching such a high post, I say that you must first check whether his heart is black or white. His heart cried over the suffering of the Jews, but did not cry over our suffering.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Men Should Sexually Harass Israeli Women: Leave the Land So We Won’t Rape You
[Video: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1903.htm]
Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on October 31, 2008.
Interviewer: Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam has proposed that young Arab men should sexually harass Israeli girls wherever they may be and using any possible method, as a new means in the resistance against Israel.
[…]
Interviewer: We have with us the lawyer Nagla Al-Imam from Cairo. Welcome. What is the purpose of this proposal of yours?
Nagla Al-Imam: This is a form of resistance. In my opinion, they are fair game for all Arabs, and there is nothing wrong with…
Interviewer: On what grounds?
Nagla Al-Imam: First of all, they violate our rights, and they “rape” the land. Few things are as grave as the rape of land. In my view, this is a new form of resistance.
Interviewer: As a lawyer, don’t you think this might expose Arab youth to punishment for violating laws against sexual harassment?
Nagla Al-Imam: Most Arab countries… With the exception of three or four Arab countries, which I don’t think allow Israeli women to enter anyway, most Arab countries do not have sexual harassment laws. Therefore, if [Arab women] are fair game for Arab men, there is nothing wrong with Israeli women being fair game as well.
Interviewer: Does this also include rape?
Nagla Al-Imam: No. Sexual harassment… In my view, the [Israeli women] do not have any right to respond. The resistance fighters would not initiate such a thing, because their moral values are much loftier than that. However if such a thing did happen to them, the [Israeli women] have no right to make any demands, because this would put us on equal terms — leave the land so we won’t rape you. These two things are equal.
[…]
I don’t want young Arab men to be interrogated. I want these Zionist girls with Israeli citizenship to be expelled from our Arab countries. This is a form of resistance, and a way of rejecting their presence.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Ataturk Biopic Causes Controversy in Turkey
A documentary about the life of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey, is causing controversy with its revelations about his depression, fondness of women and heavy drinking.
The film, entitled “Father of the Turks”, was released late last month to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish republic, largely thanks to a man who transformed a Muslim nation into a secular state.
Directed by journalist Can Dundar the film records his authoritarian nature, military genius and his reforming and visionary energy in building a new and modern state on the ruins of the Ottoman empire.
But it also portrays him frankly as a three-packets-a-day heavy smoker, a heavy drinker whose fondness for alcohol caused cirrhosis of the liver and his death at the age of 58, his deep depression in his final days when he sought solace in female company.
The film has already been seen by half a million Turks. A 1993 film by the same director on the last year of Ataturk’s life won wide acclaim and was distributed to schools.
This time, though, the reaction has been more mixed.
In Turkey Ataturk enjoys a heroic status, with statues and memorials to be found everywhere. Every school has a bust of him and millions of devoted Turks visit his mausoleum each year. It is an offence to denigrate his memory.
The film has attracted violent criticism in some quarters.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Baghdad Market Blasts Kill 28 in Deadliest Recent Attack
BAGHDAD (AFP) — At least 28 people were killed, including women and schoolgirls, and dozens wounded in a triple bombing in a Baghdad market on Monday, the deadliest attack to rock the Iraqi capital in months, security officials said.
The attackers detonated a car bomb in the Sunni district of Adhamiyah, then minutes later a suicide bomber ran into the resulting melee and blew up, according to defence and interior ministry officials.
A third explosion caused by a roadside bomb around 30 metres (yards) from the first two blasts tore through the market moments later, according to an Iraqi police officer who was on the street when the attack took place.
An interior ministry official said at least 68 people were wounded in the rush-hour Baghdad attack, which wreaked the heaviest toll in Baghdad since June 17 when 51 people were killed and 75 wounded in a car bombing.
Monday’s attack took place on Kassra street, a road lined with restaurants and tea shops popular for breakfast with Iraqi security forces, as a bus carrying young school girls drove past, according to witnesses.
“There was a huge explosion and before I went out to look another bomb went off,” said Fadel Hussein, a waiter at a teahouse near the scene.
“Heavy smoke was everywhere. There were so many bloody victims on the ground, we helped to evacuate those people to ambulances,” Hussein told AFP.
The US and Iraqi military cordoned off the area, which was littered with glass, mangled metal and scorched cars as sobbing parents desperately searched for their children.
One woman in her 40s and wearing a black abaya, the traditional black Arab dress, sat on the ground crying uncontrollably.
“I’m waiting for my husband who is inside the area looking for my son. I hope he is still alive,” she sobbed.
Witnesses told an AFP photographer that some schoolgirls in the bus had died in the blast.
Seats in the wrecked interior of the minibus were heavily stained with blood, while its exterior was riddled with fist-sized shrapnel holes. Girls’ shoes lay strewn on the blood-stained street.
Among those killed were three policemen, three women and five children, police said.
The Medical City hospital received 37 wounded people, including several women and children and two Iraqi soldiers, a medic said.
However, the US military put the toll at four killed and 34 wounded.
Meanwhile in Baquba, a restive city north of Baghdad, a female suicide bomber killed four Sunni guards belonging to Awakening councils and wounded at least 15 civilians at a checkpoint.
A doctor who examined the remains of the attacker said she was likely a 13-year-old girl.
The United Nations envoy to Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, condemned the attacks that “aimed at re-instilling fear, distrust and division among the public just as Iraq prepares itself to assume political normalcy with the upcoming provincial elections.”
On Sunday, Baghdad set January 31 as the date for long-awaited provincial elections seen by Washington as a key benchmark towards national reconciliation but also capable of stoking further conflict among Iraq’s divided communities.
The bombings also came as Sunni militias which have played a key role in driving Al-Qaeda fighters from Baghdad began receiving pay cheques from a Shiite-led government that has long eyed them with suspicion.
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Beware This Saudi Deal to Help Bail Out Britain. It Comes With a Devastating IOU
by Melanie Phillips
With all eyes fixed upon the political excitements in the U.S, few have paid much attention to a trip made by the Prime Minister several thousand miles in the opposite direction.
A week ago Gordon Brown, accompanied by his new best friend the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, went cap in hand to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to ask them to help bail out the stricken economies of the West by pumping billions into the International Monetary Fund.
It is more than a little strange that the British Prime Minister should have apparently taken it upon himself to speak on behalf of the IMF. But the real concern is that asking for help from Saudi Arabia is not like tapping your friendly neighbourhood bank manager for a bigger overdraft.
No, this loan comes with a devastating IOU — nothing less than a big slice of control over Britain and the West by a regime at the heart of the attempt to bring about the Islamisation of the free world.
Granted, this country is facing a truly grave financial crisis. But does this mean we should remortgage the future of the West to those whose most radical elements are actively engaged in seeing it destroyed?
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Anti-Riot Drills Taking Place in Tehran
Tehran, 10 Nov. (AKI) — More than 30,000 police agents and members of the security forces were expected to take part in a series of anti-riot drills in the Iranian capital, Tehran, from Monday. During the drills, eight roads will be closed to traffic to facilitate the movement of the security forces over the next week.
The drills’ aim was for the country to “be ready to confront the psychological aggression of the enemy,” said recently ousted Interior Minister Ali Kordan.
Kordan also spoke about the “cultural aggression” of some religious minorities such as the Bahai and the Wahabis. He also said that ethnic minorities and those who propose a secular democracy instead of an Islamic democracy are a “danger to the Islamic Republic.”
Kordan also spoke against modernism, feminism which he claimed were against tradition, and the Internet, which he said was a “challenge” to the government.
Kordan was impeached on Tuesday after admitting he lied about a fake degree from a top British university.
Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has backed Kordan and called the move ‘illegal’.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Christians Trickling Back to Their Homes in Mosul
Baghdad, 6 Nov. (AKI) — Source IRIN — About 400 Christian families, (some 2,400 individuals) have returned to their homes in the northern city of Mosul after a spate of threats and killings led them to flee in early October, according to officials.
“We have so far registered nearly 400 Christian families who have returned to their houses and jobs, and resumed normal lives thanks to the deployment of security forces,” said Jawdat Ismaiel, head of the Ministry of Displacement and Migration in the province.
“Christians are no longer fleeing the city. Instead, more are coming back, especially when they hear that those who have returned are no longer being threatened and have resumed their daily life,” Ismaiel said.
Jamil Zaitoni, head of the Assyrian and Chaldean Council, an NGO in Mosul, hailed Iraqi government efforts to ensure security.
“Thank God, Christian families have begun returning to their homes… We expect them all to return over the next few days,” Zaitono said, adding that no threats or violence had been registered against any of the returnees thus far.
The Iraqi government on 30 October said it would offer each returnee Christian family one million Iraqi dinars (about US$865), and 300,000 (about $250) to those still displaced, according to Ismaiel.
He also said the government had granted Christian government workers and students leave of absence from work and classes until 1 November.
By 3 November, he said, 115 displaced Christian families had received a one-off payment of 300,000 dinars; his teams hoped to reach about 200 other families on 4 November. The one-million-dinar payments were expected to be made soon.
In a speech at a conference in Baghdad on Islamic-Christian dialogue on 3 November, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged to protect Iraq’s Christian minority.
“We all feel ashamed that such disgusting events take place in Iraq where one man kills another for reasons of identity or religion and ethnic background,” al-Maliki said.
“We will make all efforts to keep our Christian brothers honoured and respected in Iraq, for they are an essential component of its society,” he added.
Anti-Christian violence in Mosul, the provincial capital of Nineveh, some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, erupted on 4 October when gunmen started targeting Christians and threatening others, forcing them to leave the city.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) estimated that more than 2,200 families, or some 13,000 people, fled their homes.
It said this represented about half the province’s Christian population. Some 400 families had crossed the border into Syria, while others had gone to safe areas to the north and east of Mosul and to neighbouring Dahuk, Arbil and Kirkuk provinces.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni extremists are believed to be behind them.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Int. Min. in Syria, Fresh Blow at Fatah Al-Islam
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 10 — After three years of tense relations between Syria and Lebanon, Lebanon’s Interior Minister Ziad Barud was due in Damascus Monday to discuss security cooperation with Syrian officials. Barud’s visit to Syria occurred the day after Syrian authorities dismantled one more cell of Fatah al-Islam, an extremist group drawing inspiration from al-Qaeda to be found also in Syria. On his visit to Damascus Barud was accompanied by the head of Internal Security Forces (ISF — police), General Ashraf Rifi, and Security Chief, General Wafiq Jezzini. It was the first visit by a Lebanese interior minister since 2005 when yilding to pressures in the wake of the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri in Beirut, Syria put an end to 29 years of political-military tutorship in the Country if the Cedars. Syria last week indirectly accused the al-Mustaqbal party led by the Hariri family and at the head of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Lebanon, with funding the “terrorist attacks” occurred in Syria last September and blamed on Fatah al-Islam. Al-Mustaqbal rejected the accusation, describing the extremist group as a “pupptet in the hands of Damascus”. On the eve of Barud’s arrival Beirut’s military security service held up five alleged members of Fataah al-Islam, who took part in the battle fought against the Lebanese Army in summer last year, in the north and south of the country. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Mass Hunger Strike Over Detained Reformists
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 3 — The first mass hunger strike in the history of Saudi Arabia has been called by the lawyers of human rights activists and political reformists who have been detained without formal charges or trials. The initiative, which will take place in the oil-producing kingdom for 48 hours beginning on November 6, was not mentioned in the newspapers but its proclamation has been spread on blogs, websites and through the social networking site, Facebook. Amongst those participating, and risking their own arrest, are lawyers, intellectuals, university students and relatives of the prisoners. “Our message to the government is that you cannot imprison people on conscientious grounds without triggering consequences”, explained a lawyer and writer, Walid Abu Al Khair, “whilst we also wish to remind the prisoners that they are not alone”. Amongst the 11 people that have been detained are a judge and several university professors, such as Matruk Al Faleh, lecturer in political science at the University of King Saud of Riyadh. So far 26 people have publicly said that they will adhere to the strike but the definitive list of participants who will remain in their homes without eating or drinking for 48 hours will be published in the coming days. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: 40 Percent of Turkish Youth Unemployed, Study
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 30 — To lure foreign investments, Turkey often boasts about its large and young population, but a recent report has shown that this advantage can be seen as a menace as well. The report, titled “Investing in Turkey’s Future Generations: Transition from School to Job and Turkey’s Development,” prepared by the Human Development Dialogue (Hdd), operating in Turkey under the supervision of the World Bank, shows that 40% of Turkey’s youth are neither economically active nor in education. Another 40% are in education, while only 30% are employed and contributing to the economy. The unemployment rate among youth, defined statistically as those between 15 and 24, is more than twice the overall unemployment rate in the country, the report claimed. The report — as daily Today’s Zaman reports — pointed out that the rates of youth participation in the labor force are well below European Union averages. It described the situation as “alarming” and called on the government to take swift measures to curb the trend. The report focused on the major problems youth often encounter as they are looking for jobs and proposes solutions to these obstacles. It said the country has to invest in the young segments of its population to fully take advantage of its potential, adding, “If the large youth section of the population fails to find a place in the labor market and in society, the risks will also be quite large.” It laid out the main risks of these high rates, with the report showing the possibility of rising tensions in the social and economic structure of the country. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Private Sector to be Strangled With Dollar Debts
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 24 — The rising currency rates have also created a threat of repayment failure of short-term external debts in the private sector, which are near $56 billion as of August, according to recent statistics from the Central Bank published by Today’s Zaman. While increasing the risk by the rising amount of debts denominated in Turkish Liras (YTL), the debt burden is at the same time trapping the private sector, by reducing the chances of finding resources from abroad due to diminishing liquidity everywhere amid the global financial meltdown. The same figures also show that the short-term external debt stock of the private sector has increased by $14.3 billion during the eight months between January and August 2008. Of the total short-term debt, $24.9 billion belongs to banks while $29.1 billion makes up the liabilities section of the balance sheets of other companies. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
“Holloway Suspect Involved in Thai Sex Trade”
Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the disappearance case of US teenager Natalee Holloway, has been filmed in Bangkok where he was allegedly recruiting Thai girls to work in the sex industry in Europe.
In images secretly shot by crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, Mr Van der Sloot is shown accepting a one thousand euros advance payment for his services. Independent lawyer J.P. Plasman says that by receiving the money Mr Van der Sloot has committed a punishable offence.
Judicial authorities in Thailand have requested copies of the images broadcast on Sunday by Dutch commercial tv channel SBS6…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Maldives Saves to Buy a New Homeland
In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, the newly elected president of the Maldives says his nation intends to start setting money aside to buy a new homeland. President Mohamed Nasheed wants to guard against his people being displaced should their islands disappear due to rising sea levels.
The island nation, which lies in the Indian ocean, has a population of less than 400,000 and earns billions of euros a year from tourism. However, the majority of the islands that have made it such a desired tourist destination lie just 1.5 metres above sea level.
This is why President Nasheed wants to use part of the nation’s income from tourism to buy a new homeland. “We do not intend to live for decades in tents as climate refugees,” he said.
He is considering land on the island of Sri Lanka because its culture, food and climate are similar to that of the Maldives. He has also said Australia is an option because it has so much space.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Nuns in Somali Kidnap
Aid workers snatched from border village in Kenya
(ANSA) — Nairobi, November 10 — Two Italian nuns have been captured by a Somali kidnap gang in northern Kenya, reports said Monday. It is the first time the gangs are believed to have operated across the border.
The nuns had been carrying out humanitarian aid work in the village of El Wak when they were kidnapped by armed men and taken into Somalia, Somali media sources said.
Kidnappings of humanitarian aid workers by Somali fundamentalist guerillas are increasingly frequent in the war-torn East African nation.
The Italian foreign ministry said it was working closely on the case with Kenyan authorities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Caritas; 4 Million Foreigners in Italy
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 30 — Legal immigrants in Italy number about 4 million, making up 6.7pct of the Italian population, slightly higher than the EU average in 2006 of 6pct. The largest foreign community — which has doubled over the past two years — is the Romanian one with an estimated million immigrants, according to an annual dossier on the presence of immigrants in Italy as of 31 December 2007, drawn up by the Italian caritas and the Migrantes Foundation and presented today in Rome. Foreign citizens are between 3,800,000 and 4 million, according to the dossier, which stressed that the figure is not in contrast with what has been reported by ISTAT’s count of almost 3 and a half million, since in the Caritas survey also those without official residence yet are counted. Over the past year the foreign population has increased by about half a million. Of them, 62pct live in the north (over two million), 25pct in the centre (a few less than a million) and about 10pct in the south (almost half a million). After the Romanian population, which has doubled in two years and is at about a million, the largest communities are the Albanian one (402,000) and the Moroccan one (366,000). Among immigrants in 2007, there were an estimated 251,190 newly employed, 63,000 births, 32,744 minors coming onto Italian soil due to family reasons, 60,810 with permits for family reasons, and 200,000 EU members who arrived without registering but with the intention to live here. “At least half a million foreigners have already settled in Italy and become part of the underground labour market, but without any working papers,” estimated the Caritas-Migrantes dossier. “Illegal work among immigrants,” noted the report, “is extremely widespread not only in families but also in businesses to a degree unknown in other industrialized countries.” In three years (2005-2007) about a million and a half requests to hire foreign workers were submitted. In addition, in three years the gaining of citizenship for foreigners doubled. In 2007 38,466 foreigners became citizens. However, the Italian figure is one of the lowest in the EU, where 700,000 cases of citizenship were registered, almost 2,000 per day. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Italy; Remittances of 6 Bln to Home Countries
(ANSAmed) — VENICE, NOVEMBER 7 — The amount of money sent home by (the almost three million) immigrants in Italy over the last year totals up to six billion euros. This is the equivalent of a flow of cash equal to 0.4% of the total national wealth produced, and the figure has grown by almost a factor of ten (up 927%) between 2000 and 2007. The data are taken from research carried out by the Centro Studi Sintesi in Venezia which analysed not only the amount, but also the nature and destination of remittances made by immigrants in Italy. According to the study, the average immigrant sends a little more than 2,000 euros back to their country. Often they do this to provide for their relatives but it is not unusual for the money to be used for savings to create new businesses. More than a quarter of the money that leaves Italy is sent from the Lazio (26%), partly due to the high number of money transfer operations being run from the capital. Lombardy, Tuscany and the Veneto follow in second, third and fourth place with a share of the remittances amounting to 20.6%, 14.4% and 6.7%, respectively. The Lazio region also stands out for the highest remittances in relation to GDP per region (0.94%) and for the total sum transferred out of Italy by each resident in the region (4,766 euros). Also coming in above the national average for remittances per person were the regions of Tuscany (3,702), Sardinia (2,875) and Campania (2,864). The most consistent increase in remittances in the period 2000-2007 were in Val d’Aosta, Tuscany, Piedmont and Umbria. At a provincial level, only Rome had a quarter of all remittances (24.9%), followed by Milan, more than ten percentage points back (13.6%). Two Tuscan provinces were next with Prato at 7.4% and the regional capital, Florence, taking 4.0%. In general it is notable that the increase in remittances in the period 2000-2007 has been spread over almost all of Italy, although particularly concentrated in the centre and north of the country. The country was received the highest amount of remittance money in 2007 was China with a total of 1.6 billion euros. In second place, Romania was the destination for 13.1% of all remittances. Next up were the Philippines and Morocco. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Spain, People Hurt in Charge on Melilla Barrier
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 10 — A fresh wave of 150 immigrants trying to get into Melilla — the Spanish enclave in Morocco — has resulted in an unknown number of people getting hurt. At 5am the migrants — all from sub-Saharan Africa — arrived en masse at the Beni Enzar border crossing, the most important of four entrances to the city, and proceeded to try and get into Spanish territory, reports the EFE agency citing sources from security forces. Police and Civil Guards used tear gas and rubber bullets to stop the charge. The skirmish has resulted in various light injuries to police and an unknown number of injured migrants. The rapid closure of the Beni Enzar frontier stopped the migrants from getting into Spanish territory but the migrants began to throw stones at police, including riot squads from Seville, who then used tear gsa to force the migrants to disperse as a Spanish police helicopter watched over the area. In the end the migrants were seen off with the help of Moroccan security forces. On 2 November, three agents of the Civil Guard were slightly injured by a group of 13 immigrants trying to get into Melilla from the Mezquita river. This is the fifth attempt made by migrants to cross the border since 26 October’s torrential rains damaged part of the six metre-high double-layered metal barrier that protects the city. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
“Christians and Muslims: Resuming Dialogue, Thanks to the Pope”
by Samir Khalil Samir
For two days, from November 4-6, Islamic and Catholic experts are meeting at the Vatican, after years of chilly relations due to the growth of fundamentalism. Everything has now resumed, thanks to the address of Benedict XVI in Regensburg, where he affirmed that religion embraces reason and excludes violence. The most urgent theme: religious freedom, so that every community may be guaranteed the right to proclaim and spread its faith.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Far Will Deleveraging Go?
Credit will still have to shrink to keep leverage at precrisis levels.
The global economy is in recession. Will this lead to depression? And if not, how long and deep will the recession be? The answers to both questions depend on the extent of deleveraging by financial institutions.
The amount of risk-free or “tier-one” capital a bank is holding is a good reverse indicator of how leveraged it is. Globally, financial institutions had about $5 trillion of tier-one capital on the eve of the credit crisis. Those in the United States and European Union had about $3.3 trillion of tier-one capital supporting a loan book of some $43 trillion.
Then came the crisis.
How much did they lose? There are three answers…
| — Hat tip: RP | [Return to headlines] |
Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al-Qaida Around World
Attacks authorized since 2004 against militants in Syria, Pakistan, elsewhere
WASHINGTON: The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.
These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President George W. Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: Pope Appeals to Envoy for More Churches in Egypt
Vatican City, 6 Nov. (AKI) — Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday called for more Catholic churches in Egypt, to cater particularly for the needs of tourists. Benedict made the remarks during the presentation of Egypt’s new Ambassador to the Holy See, Lamia Aly Hamada Mekhemar, the Vatican said in an official statement.
“In your country, the Catholic Church also wants to enter into contact with the many visiting Catholic tourists who wish to practice their religion,” said Benedict.
“I am convinced that they will soon be given the chance to pray to God in a dignified fashion at appropriate places of worship in the new tourist sites that have come into being in the last few years.”
“It would be a good signal to the world if Egypt were to favour relations of friendship and fraternity among religions and peoples, in accordance with its ancient and noble traditions”.
Benedict also praised Egypt “as a land of hospitality for countless refugees, both Muslim and Christian, who have sought security and peace in its territory”.
The pontiff then expressed the hope that “this noble tradition may continue for the good of everyone”.
Benedict also spoke about the reciprocal understanding and respect that exists between Islam and Christianity and pointed out that although much progress has been made in this field, “there still remains a long way to go”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Why the U.S. Should Oppose “Defamation of Religions” Resolutions at the United Nations
by Steven Groves
For the past several years, the United Nations Human Rights Council and General Assembly have adopted resolutions recognizing and promoting the concept of “defamation of religions.” Proponents seek to establish an international ban on any speech that would insult, criticize, offend, or disparage any person’s religion. Specifically, the Organization of the Islamic Conference has suggested that national legislatures pass laws to ensure protection against “defamation of religions.”
Such a ban, however, could not withstand legal scrutiny in the United States. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects free speech and expression, even when speech is offensive or insulting. Moreover, a religious “speech code” would disrupt the assimilation of religious minorities that has occurred throughout U.S. history and could breed resentment rather than understanding among America’s religious communities.
The U.S. government has spoken out strongly against the “defamation of religions” effort at the United Nations. The next U.S. Administration should oppose the further promulgation of “defamation of religions” at the U.N. and must resist any attempt to legitimize the concept within the United States. Given the penchant of some federal judges—including justices on the U.S. Supreme Court—to rely on the decisions and opinions of international courts and organizations, the “defamation of religions” effort at the United Nations must be confronted…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
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