“Obama Win Triggers Run on Guns” — now that’s a dog-bites-man story if there ever was one. Gun owners know darned well that the new administration will disarm them if it possibly can. Expect a massive resistance by gun owners and dealers. In some of the reddest states — Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas come to mind — the resistance may become openly organized as things deteriorate.Let’s say like the Chinese adage
We’re living our lives in interesting times
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Steen, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
- - - - - - - - -
Bill Ayers: Bombings Weren’t Terrorism
In TV interview says Republicans ‘demonized’ him to damage Obama
The college professor also argued to “Good Morning America’s” Chris Cuomo today that the bombing campaign by the Weather Underground, the group he helped found, was not terrorism.
The Weather Underground bombed the Capitol, the Pentagon and the New York City Police Department in protest of the Vietnam War.
“It’s not terrorism because it doesn’t target people, to kill or injure,” Ayers said.
Ayers became a boogeyman for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, who demanded to know more about Obama’s relationship with his Chicago neighbor. Palin accused Obama of “palling around … with a terrorist.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Road to Damascus
John Perazzo shines light on anti-Israel leanings of senior foreign-policy adviser
A Harvard-trained lawyer and Rhodes Scholar, Robert Malley is no newcomer to the Obama team. In 2007, Obama selected him as a foreign policy adviser to his campaign. At the time, Malley was (and still is today) the Middle East and North Africa Program Director for the International Crisis Group (ICG), which receives funding from the Open Society Institute of George Soros (who, incidentally, serves on the ICG Executive Committee).
In his capacity with ICG, Malley directs a number of analysts who focus their attention most heavily on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the political and military developments in Iraq, and Islamist movements across the Middle East. Prior to joining ICG, Malley served as President Bill Clinton?s Special Assistant for Arab-Israeli Affairs (1998-2001), and as National Security Adviser Sandy Berger?s Executive Assistant (1996-1998).
Robert Malley was raised in France. His lineage is noteworthy. His father, Simon Malley (1923-2006), was a key figure in the Egyptian Communist Party. A passionate hater of Israel, the elder Malley was a close friend and confidante of the late PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat; an inveterate critic of “Western imperialism”; a supporter of various revolutionary “liberation movements,” particularly the Palestinian cause; a beneficiary of Soviet funding; and a supporter of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. According to American Thinker news editor Ed Lasky, Simon Malley “participated in the wave of anti-imperialist and nationalist ideology that was sweeping the Third World [and]… wrote thousands of words in support of struggle against Western nations.”
In a July 2001 op-ed which Malley penned for the New York Times, he alleged that Israeli — not Palestinian — inflexibility had caused the previous year’s Camp David peace talks (brokered by Bill Clinton) to fall apart. This was one of several controversial articles Malley has written — some he co-authored with Hussein Agha, a former adviser to Arafat — blaming Israel and exonerating Arafat (the most prolific Jew-killer since Adolph Hitler) for the failure of the peace process.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Win Triggers Run on Guns
Buyers said to fear crackdown on their rights, civil unrest
HOUSTON — A week after the election of Barack Obama, gun buyers across the country are voting with their feet, flocking to gun stores to stock up on assault rifles, handguns and ammunition.
Some say they are worried that the incoming Obama administration will attempt to reimpose the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. Others fear the loss of their right to own handguns. A few say they are preparing to protect themselves in the event of a race war.
But whatever the reason, gun dealers in red and blue states alike say they’ve never seen anything like the run on weaponry they’ve been experiencing since Election Day— surpassing even the panic buying in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“People are terrified of losing their right to protect themselves,” said DeWayne Irwin, owner of Cheaper Than Dirt, a large gun store in Ft. Worth. “The volume is 10 times what we ever expected. It started with assault rifles, but at this point people are buying ammunition, high-capacity magazines, Glocks—it’s all flying off the shelf. With the economy the way it is, people are worried about instability. They are scared of civil unrest.”…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pro-’Gay Marriage’ Rallies Planned Nationwide
Protests in all 50 states aim to pressure California Supremes to overturn Prop. 8
DES MOINES, Iowa — Same-sex marriage advocates have marked today as a “National Day of Protest” and are planning marches around the country to rally against California’s Proposition 8, a voter initiative that passed on Election Day, defining marriage in the state as strictly between one man and one woman.
Organizers have march leaders and groups coordinated in all 50 states, even in towns as small as Decorah, Iowa, population 8,172.
[…]
The planned day of protest is being coordinated through a website called Join the Impact, which states its movement seeks to “look forward toward what needs to be done now to achieve one goal: Full equality for ALL.”
Join the Impact has served as a clearinghouse for international supporters of the protest, enabling the groups to coordinate their marches to begin at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time, across the U.S. and in at least nine other countries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vermont Town Grows Divisible Over Pledge of Allegiance
‘We don’t want to isolate children every day … or make them feel they’re different’
WOODBURY, Vt. — No one is sure when daily recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance fell by the wayside at Woodbury Elementary School.
But efforts to restore them have erupted into a bitter dispute in this town of about 800 residents, with school officials blocking the exercise from classrooms over concerns that it holds children who don’t participate up to scorn.
U.S. schoolchildren have long been able to opt out of reciting the pledge for religious reasons. But unlike other pledge controversies, this one centers on how and where schoolchildren say it, not whether they should.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Considers Legalising Vigilante Groups
The Italian parliament is considering the legalisation of citizen vigilante groups as part of a further crackdown on law and order.
Unauthorised patrols of several northern Italian cities have been underway for the last year and authorities have turned a blind eye to them as concerned locals fight back against rising crime rates.
Under the proposals by the anti-immigration Northern League, the vigilante patrols would have the backing of the local police. The plan is now to be considered by the Italian Upper House.
Another controversial proposal by the Northern League the introduction of a referendum before a mosque or other place of worship is built.
The League is part of centre right Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition. Mr Berlusconi was elected on a tough law and order campaign.
Northern League MP Mario Borghezio said: “Thanks to the initiatives of the Northern League these ronde (vigilante) patrols will soon be working with the forces of law and order.
“Now all honest citizens will no longer feel that they have to hand over the areas where they live to criminals, drug dealers and prostitutes. It’s a very proud day.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Melting Pot Cracks as Muslims Reject Christian Names in France
They are born in France and called Louis, Laurent or Marie but they want to become Abdel, Said or Rachida. Such requests from immigrants’ children for name changes are mounting in the French courts and worrying a state that lays store on melding a single national culture.
In a sign of a new assertiveness, children with families from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco are reversing the old custom in which immigrants from the old colonies gave French names to their children.
Driven by a feeling that they do not belong to their Gallic Christian names, the applicants are meeting resistance from judges who are reluctant to endorse what they see as a rejection of France.
Under France’s strict administrative laws, an official change of first name requires court consent. Until 1992 parents could only register their babies with names from an approved list.
“The way I look is out of sync with my name,” said Jacques, 25, who wants to adopt a name from his parents’ native Algeria. He rejected the standard view that a French name overcomes the persisting reluctance of French employers to recruit nonwhite minorities.
“There is a double-take when I send a job application and then turn up for the interview. They hesitate, as if the person they have summoned could not be me,” he said.
There is abundant evidence that, despite antidiscrimination laws, French employers discriminate against job-seekers with foreign names. Nadine, who is in her forties, failed to convince a Paris court to let her go back to Zoubida, the name she had before naturalisation. “I want to return to my roots,” she told Judge Anne-Marie Lemarinier, according to Le Monde newspaper.
“My name change makes me feel guilt towards my family.” The judge replied: “Madame, I can understand that you want to identify with your community but the law does not have to bend to people’s moods.”
Frédéric Grilli, a Melun lawyer who acts for applicants, said that there was a connection between the desire to claim Maghebrin (North African) identity and France’s three-year-old ban against girls wearing Muslim headscarves in state schools.
Dominique Sopo, president of SOS Racism, a campaign group, said that France’s policy of integration was failing. “It rejects, stigmatises and consigns to the ghetto. This incites a retreat into community identity,” he told The Times.
“There is an enormous gap between political speeches on integration and the reality. But who can believe that changing a name can change something? It is sad to have got to that point.”
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Pro-Independence Catalans Burn Photos, Absolved
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 29 — 16 supporters of independence have been cleared with the crime of offences against the Crown after burning photographs of the monarch in Girona on 22 September 2007. Judge José Maria Honrubia cleared the 16 defendants after the Public Prosecutor altered the charge of offences against the Crown to the less serious crime of disruption of public order. The decision was called “incomprehensible” by the judge, as evidence had not been submitted in the meantime. “The crime of offence is either a crime or it is nothing” said Honrubia as he cleared the defendants. The L’Audiencia Nacionale also archived the enquiry against four Catalan supporters of independence who had burned photos of Juan Carlos during a demonstration on 11th September marking the national day of Catalunya. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: HIV Illegal ‘May Have Infected More Than 400 Women’
Jamaican reveler prowled UK nightclubs to pick up women
An illegal immigrant may have infected hundreds of women with HIV in a string of one-night-stands, it has emerged.
The infected Jamaican reveller prowled nightclubs to pick up women and then spent almost a year unchecked in hospital where he looked for sex with vulnerable patients.
Health officials have written to more than 400 women to warn them they might have the deadly virus after having unprotected sex with him.
The immigrant, who arrived in the UK on a visitor’s visa in 2002, has admitted he cannot remember how many woman he has slept with.
He told doctors he had sex, which was often unprotected, with women he met in two nightclubs in Leicester — the now-defunct Dark Club and the Burlington Club.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Prosecution Drops Lewd Jesus Statue Case
Says no crime since sign warned visitors of nature of art exhibition
A Christian woman has accused the Crown Prosecution Service of “pandering to a secularist agenda” and overseeing a “miscarriage of justice” after her private criminal prosecution over a statue of Christ with an erection was administratively transferred to the CPS, only to be dropped six weeks later.
Emily Mapfuwa brought her private prosecution against Gateshead’s Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art for “outraging public decency” after it exhibited work by controversial artists Terence Koh, including the highly controversial statue of Jesus.
[…]
But Ms Mapfuwa and the Christian Legal Centre, which has supported her action, say that the statue’s offence to Christians should be taken as seriously as the outrage among Muslims caused by the publication of inflammatory cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In the incident earlier this year, a number of media outlets in the UK refused to publish the cartoon because of the offense it might cause to Muslims. Ms Mapfuwa claims the Crown Prosecution has refused to show equal sensitivity towards Christians and the British legal system has caved into a growing secularist agenda.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Muslim Leader Criticises Arch-Rival for ‘Undermining Country’
Sarajevo, 14 Nov. (AKI) — The leader of the biggest Muslim party in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sulejman Tihic, has criticised his arch-rival Haris Silajdzic of extremist behaviour and of “undermining the country”. Tihic, president of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) said on Friday that Silajdzic, the leader of the Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina and a Muslim member of the country’s rotating state presidency, was just criticising other politicians without making any constructive proposals.
“Silajdzic offers nothing new, no concrete solutions, just criticisms of politicians who are striving for the economic and political stability of Bosnia-Herzegovina and its drive to join the European Union,” Tihic told daily Glas Srpske.
Silajdzic has blocked constitutional reforms demanded by the EU and insisted on the abolition of the country’s two entities , created by the Dayton peace accord that ended the 1992-1995 civil war.
He is a wartime ally of late president Alija Izetbegovic, who led Bosnia to independence from the former Yugoslavia.
Tihic reached an agreement with Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and Croat leader Dragan Covic last week on constitutional reform and a population census, which was criticised by Silajdzic.
Tihic said Bosnian politicians were divided between those who want stability and reforms and those who are undermining the Dayton agreement.
He said Silajdzic belonged to a “block which is destroying Bosnia-Herzegovina, because he persistently advocates extremist positions and policies based on his personal dictate.”
Tihic said Bosnia must build internal dialogue among its three ethnic groups and nurture good neighbourly relations with Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro.
“The past war and internal conflicts have shown that nothing can be solved by force,” Tihic concluded.
Under the Dayton peace accord, Bosnia was divided into two entities, a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb entity, each with most state powers.
Silajdzic’s call for Bosnia’s entities to be abolished has prompted Serb demands to hold a referendum on independence.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Defence Minister Opens Conference on Balkans in WW1
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 13 — Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac opened today an international conference entitled “The Balkans, 90 Years After World War One,” which is dedicated to the events in the Balkans and in Serbia in the period between 1914 and 1918. According to Sutanovac, Serbia gave a huge contribution to the victory of The Entente Powers in World War I, and in its many battles the Serbian army gained a reputation among its allies and a respect of its enemies. He reminded that the price Serbia had paid for the victory was very big, since it had lost as much as 28% of its inhabitants and 57% of its male population. Today, when we discuss the relations between Europe and Serbia, we have to say that the victims of World War One, as well as of World War Two, are embedded into foundations of modern Europe, he said. The conference has gathered around eminent experts from Serbia, France, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Canada and Montenegro. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Eni; Scaroni, Libyan Share is Small
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, NOVEMBER 10 — Libyan investment in Eni capital “is a small thing” said Managing Director of Eni, Paolo Scaroni, outside a meeting on energy in Milan. With regard to the presence, indicated recently in an interview with a representative of Libyan finance, Scaroni said he did not know if the share had increased or not. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Industry: Dassault Negotiates With Tripoli on Rafale
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, NOVEMBER 11 — Negotiations between French aircraft constructor Dassault Aviation and Libya on the possible selling of the Rafale, its multipurpose fighter, will continue. A manager of the constructor’s sales deportment said this to AFP on the sidelines of the Defence and Security Show (LibDex) opened yesterday at the military airport of Miitigua, on the outskirts of Tripoli. “The talks will continue, it’s a long and complicated process” he said, adding that Dassault “hopes the Rafale will satisfy the Libyan air force” which intends to renew its fleet which is tens of years old. If the negotiations are successful, it will be the first time for Dassault that it sells a Rafale to a foreign country. The talks started in December during the visit of colonel Gaddafi to Paris. Earlier Paris had announced the signing of an agreement with Tripoli specifying that the country wanted to acquire 14 Rafale aircrafts, 35 helicopters and other military equipment for a total of 4.5 billion euros. The protocol prescribed exclusive negotiations until July 1, 2008. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: ‘Yes’ to New Constitution, Bouteflika Re-Electable
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 12 — The Algerian parliament has adopted the constitutional revision which eliminates the two mandate limit for the presidency. The current president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in office since 1999, will therefore be able to stand for a third mandate at the next elections which are expected to take place in April. Five hundred deputies and senators out of the 529 present voted (by show of hands) in favour of the new constitution. There were eight abstentions. The three parties which make up the presidential alliance: FLN (National Liberation Front, the ex- single party); RND (National Democratic Group); and the Islamic Movement for Society and Peace (MSP, ex-Hamas) and The Worker’s Party (PT, Trotskyite) all voted for the constitutional revision introduced by Bouteflika. The historic opposition parties were against the reform, including members of the Group for Culture and Democracy. Other than the re-election of the President, the new constitution introduces the post of Prime Minister instead of Head of the Government and several articles for “the glorification and protection of the symbols of the Revolution” and to support a greater political participation for women. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Medfilm Festival: Egyptian Comedy Looks at Religious Differences
Rome, 12 Nov.(AKI) — In his latest film Egyptian producer Adel Adeeb takes a comic approach to religious conflict between Muslims and Christians. ‘Hassan Wa Morqos’, which is screening at the 14th annual Mediterranean Film Festival in Rome, looks at the friendship between a Coptic Christian priest and a Muslim preacher.
“It is not just about Islam only,” Adeeb told Adnkronos International (AKI). “Artists are concerned about human beings. We put it from the point of view of a human being, from the point of view of an artist not from a point of view of a rabbi, or a priest or a sheikh or a government.”
Adeeb is one of Egypt’s leading producers. ‘Hassan W Morqos’ (or Hassan and Morkos) is one of 12 films in the MedFilm Festival’s official competition.
Adeeb is known for producing a series of blockbusters that have had widespread success in Egypt and across the Arab world.
‘Morgan Ahmed Morgan’ blended drama and comedy in a family saga while ‘The Yacoubian Building’ was a controversial film about social taboos including government corruption, police violence and homosexuality.
In his latest film he takes a lighter look at sectarian differences and is pleased at the positive reaction it has received from audiences.
“For me I wanted to analyse it so I went to many cinemas,” he told AKI. “When a Christian joke is said about a Muslim, half the screening room started to laugh and then they stopped laughing. They were afraid.
“The same when there is a Muslim joke about a Christian. Half of them started laughing and then they stopped. After 20 or 25 minutes both of them laughed like crazy. Because this is real, this is life.”
“Egyptians love to laugh, they solve their problems by laughing or by crying. But at the end laughter eases everything, this is what happened in this movie.”
Adeeb who heads the Cairo production company, Good News for Film and Music, is working on a new film based on the role of the media and how it can influence political change.
“We are working on a movie about this now, because the media in Egypt has been crazy for the past 15 years,” he said.
“Try to imagine there are around 200 newspapers crucifying the government and the president — we are asking for more democracy. It is ridiculous. People who have a pen and paper they have become more savage than other human beings.”
He said the media can be proactive and it can also destroy the economy and humanity.
“We need to stand up and think about this actually,” he said.
The MedFilm Festival features 177 films from 41 countries. It is supported by the Italian government , the city of Rome and the region of Lazio surrounding the capital, as well as several foreign embassies.
Adnkronos International (AKI) is a media partner of the festival which runs until 16 November.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: New Left-Wing Ticket; Oz, Labour Role Finished
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 14 — The Israeli Labour Party seemed to have to an end with its role and the Israeli left will come up with a new party list at the February elections. Starting with the structure of the Meretz Party. The announcement came at a press conference in Tel Aviv Friday. “The Labour Party appears to have concluded its historical role”, author Amos Oz, one of the organizers of the new initiative, told ANSA. The new list — which hasn’t yet a final name — hoped to beat the Labour Party in size and create a new hub in Israeli political life. The “extended list” will be based on the structure of the Meretz Party and will be open to other social forces. Those supporting the move included former officials of the Labour Party, such as former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg and former minister Uzi Baram. Those attending the press conference included, in addition to Meretz leader Haim Oron — also Tzali Reshef, a founder of “Peace Now”, and Yossi Kuchik, former adviser to Labour leader Ehud Barak. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mideast: Israel; Likud Counterattacks With Begin Jr.
(by Aldo Baquis) (ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 3 — After keeping silent for nine years, the son of the late Premier Menachem Begin, Benjamin (Benny) Begin, 65, came suddenly to the fore Sunday by saying he would be at the side of Benjamin Netanyahu at the next elections to bring the Likud back to power. “A real surge in membership is underway”, a very satisfied Netanyahu told the press. Knocking at Likud’s door are well known names in the hope of being included on the election ticket: Dan Meridor (former adviser to Menachem Begin), Yair Shamir (son of former premier Yitzhak Shamir), Moshe Yaalon (a general on the reserve list) and so on. But the name of Benny Begin stood out among all of them. Since Begin Jr. was regarded as a kind of ‘prince’ in Likud, since he inherited from his father not just a distilled “ideological purity” but also an inborn modesty and exemplary integrity. While Tzipi Livni can boast in the forthcom,ing electoral campaign about her “clean hands” (as a turning point after the scandals involving her predecessors Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert), Likud can now counter her by pointing to the incurruptible Begin Jr., who, as an MP, caused a sensation when he said that, he alone out of 120 MPs, preferred to take the bus rather than a car paid by taxpayers to go to the Knesset. But Begin Jr. brings with him also an awkward legacy: ideas close to the far right, which can hardly harmonize with the popular centrist policy embraced by Likud in recent years. In 1993 Begin Jr. attacked the Oslo agreements with PLO, warning that they were the result of a “trap set by Yasser Arafat” to weaken Israel and later to defeat it. His political pessimism hasn’t diminished since. Concerning the far right, the head of Shin Bet (internal security) Yuval Diskin issued a warning Sunday, saying it may pose a serious risk for Israeli democracy. He wasn’t referring to Likud, no doubt, but to fringe groups of ultras settlers, which in the past found “patron angels” in that party. During a cabint meeting, Diskin said there are hundreds of ultras settlers in the Occupied Territories, enjoyng the backing of thousands of people. They don’t have a proper hierarchical order but they are determined to sabotage any attempt at an Israeli pullout from the West Bank. If they were driven with their shoulders to the wall, “they migth resort to shooting arms”. One cannot rule out, he said, a new assassination attempt, such as the attack in which a religious zealot killed Labour Premier Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995. Also Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer, of the Labour Party, found an electrified climate in the Territories. “Dyas like the ones before Rabin’s assassionation might come back”, he warned. “Those people — he stressed referring to ultras settlers — nourish devilish thoughts. We frea them and they understand our weakness”. “What should be done?”, some cabinet members inquired. “We need to carry out a raid — said Bel Eliezer, a former general — and seize a few hundreds of them and lock them up in jail at last”. But after the cabinet meeting ended, the government announced far more moderate measures. As far as possible, the government said, state aid will not go to illegal settler outposts in the West Bank in the future. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Education for Women Has Long Way to Go in Turkey, Survey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 5 — Women in Turkey receive less education than men in the country, and both men and women stop their education earlier than their counterparts in other countries, according to statistics reported in the government’s 2009 action plan and published by Today’s Zaman. Nearly 80% of women aged 25-64 in Turkey are educated only at the elementary level or lower, and only 8% have received higher education. According to the government’s action plan, which is based on 2006 data, the number of men and women in Turkey who have not completed secondary school is 40% higher than in other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and the nations of the European Union. Women in particular are not receiving enough education; the government program reports that while there is an even distribution between the sexes in education in other OECD countries and in the EU, women are at a disadvantage in Turkey. Among Turkish women aged 25-64, 15% have received a secondary education (21%for males), while only 8% have gone to university or higher (12%for males). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Human Rights: Turkey, First Monthly Report on Refugees
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 14 — In October six refugees died, 3,708 were arrested or detained and 25 were deported, according to the first monthly report of the Human Rights Research Association (Ihad), which decided to regularly monitor and report on refugees’ rights, daily Today’s Zaman reports. “Refugees are a very serious problem Turkey must face. Because of its geographic location, it will always be a target or transit country”, Ayse Bilgen, Ihad chairwoman, said, adding that “this huge problem cannot be solved only by the efforts of civil society organizations; the European Union and the government have much work ahead. Because of this, we would like provide the public with accurate information, thereby bring attention to the problem”. The report notes that 3,708 refugees were arrested in various parts of the country, from Ankara to the border with Greece and the Aegean coast. The refugees were citizens of Afghanistan, Algeria, Armenia, Bangladesh, Burundi, China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Palestine, Pakistan, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Uzbekistan. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Medfilm Festival: Iranian Actress Slams Censorship
Rome, 14 Nov. (AKI) — Growing censorship in Iran is putting pressure on anyone wanting to express their ideas if these do not conform to those of the government, leading Iranian actress and film director, Niki Karimi, told Adnkronos International (AKI). Karimi was in Rome to showcase her new movie ‘3 women’ directed by Iranian filmmaker Manijeh Hekmat.
“The situation in Iran has got much worse in recent months, where it is threatening the very existence of cinema. Of course, box office films and ‘recommended’ films will continue to be made,” Karimi told AKI.
“But unless there is a change of policy, movies that have something to say will disappear. It’s an unpleasant time, and we are all hoping for an improvement,” she said.
In the last year, Iran’s hardline authorities have suspended the publication hundreds of books and the release of dozens of films, pending their authorisation by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Orientation. Many books and films approved by the previous government have been withdrawn and pulped.
“Acting, taking photographs or directing a movie are instruments that allow the expression of an idea. The key to being able to express a thought is the freedom to do so,” said Karimi.
“If you are free to express your thoughts, I believe cinema is the best tool, as it allows you to do this through words and images,” she added.
Karimi gives an excellent performance in ‘3 women’ as the central character — a 40-year-old carpet expert who is incapable of communicating with her troubled daughter and her mother.
The three women’s search for missing Persian rugs becomes a metaphor for Iranians’ search for identity and their struggles for democracy across three generations.
“As I see it, the main characters of ‘3 women’ are looking for themselves and those pieces of their memory that they have lost and which are preventing them from overcoming the obstacles they face and communicating,” Karimi concluded.
The 37-year-old Karimi has starred in many Iranian films. She has directed two movies and his currently working on a third. She also recently held her first photo exhibition in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
‘3 women’ was one of twelve films competing for the top prize at the MedFilm Festival, which is taking place in Rome until Sunday. A total 177 films from 41 countries are being shown at the festival.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Communists: No More Private School
Nepal’s Maoist government declares plan to put all children in public institutions by 2010
Kathmandu, Nepal — The massive election win last April by Nepal’s former rebel Maoists put them in the position to set the government agenda, and bring about drastic changes they promised during their campaign.
But their initial proposals on education “ to end private investment in schools and distribute academic certificates to Maoist fighters “ have left many Nepalese worried.
They’re concerned that their new government will take the country in too radical a direction that favors its former fighters and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology.
“Recent statements by Maoist leaders are indicative of their political immaturity,” says Krishna Khanal, a political scientist at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. “They have made strange announcements to please their cadres and fighters.”
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) wields considerable legislative power to advance its policies. The group, which fought a 10-year insurgency from 1996 demanding a new constitution and an end to monarchy, is the largest party in Nepal’s 601-member special assembly. With 220 seats, it has twice the representation of the second biggest party, the centrist Nepali Congress.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Agrees to $7.6 Billion IMF Loan Program
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan reached an agreement in principle with the International Monetary Fund on a $7.6 billion loan package aimed at preventing the nation from defaulting on foreign debt and restoring investor confidence.
The loan “will be used for the balance of payments and to build our foreign reserves,” Shaukat Tarin, the de facto finance minister, said today at a televised news conference in Karachi.
Pakistan, a center in the war on terrorism, has been forced to seek IMF assistance after its foreign-exchange reserves shrank 75 percent in the past year to $3.5 billion last week, the equivalent of one month’s imports, and a group of donor nations declined to provide funds. Hungary, Iceland and Ukraine also have negotiated IMF packages in recent weeks as the global economic crisis has radiated beyond the financial sector.
“The IMF loan will help in stabilizing the economy only if the government shows the political will to implement the Fund’s program,” said Samiullah Tariq, head of research at InvestCapital & Securities Ltd. in Karachi. Pakistan’s civilian governments from 1988 to 1999 did not complete seven separate IMF loan programs because of “tough” IMF conditions, he said.
“The IMF didn’t give us any conditions different from our economic stabilization program,” Tarin said. “The IMF counseled us to increase the key interest rate to curb inflation,” he said.
No Net Borrowing
The State Bank of Pakistan, the nation’s central bank, increased its benchmark interest rate by 2 percentage points, the most in more than a decade, to 15 percent on Nov. 12, citing inflation that reached 25 percent in October, a 30-year high.
The government of President Asif Ali Zardari aims to reduce the budget deficit to 4.3 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2009, from 7.4 percent last year. It also has pledged there will be no net borrowing by the central bank in the fiscal year.
The IMF regards Pakistan’s targets as “realistic and achievable provided we show discipline and determination,” Tarin said.
The Fund’s board will vote on the loan program “shortly,” Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said today in an e- mailed statement in Washington.
The IMF funds would be available over 23 months and have an interest rate of 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent, Tarin said. They will have to be repaid by 2016.
Pakistan last completed an IMF loan program in 2004 during the military government of former President Pervez Musharraf.
Balance of Payments
Pakistan’s economic crisis mounted after Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party-led government, which came to power in March, was paralyzed for almost six months by political wrangling. The rupee in October plunged to an all-time low and the balance of payments deficit in the first three months of the fiscal year started July 1 widened to $3.95 billion, from $2.27 billion a year earlier. The deficit reached a record $14 billion last year.
Standard & Poor’s yesterday cut Pakistan’s debt rating to CCC from CCC+, the lowest level in 10 years, citing the risk of a default on external debt payments of $3 billion due in the next 12 months.
Pakistan’s economy has “deteriorated significantly” and growth may slow to a six-year low, the IMF said in an Oct. 20 report. Growth is likely to weaken to 3.5 percent in the current fiscal year from 5.8 percent last year, the IMF said. The government forecasts the economy will expand 5.5 percent in the fiscal year.
‘Give Confidence’
Pakistan expects to get the “maximum” amount of funds upfront from the IMF to meet $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion of needs this fiscal year, Tarin said. The country may receive the first installment this month, he said.
The IMF loan “will give confidence to investors, and it will help us in seeking more aid from friendly countries and other lenders” such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, Tarin said.
Pakistan will seek financial support from the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ group, which is due to meet on Nov. 17 in the United Arab Emirates. The group, which was established last month to help Pakistan stabilize its economy, includes the U.S., U.K., China and Saudi Arabia.
“The ‘Friends of Pakistan’ group wanted us to get an IMF endorsement for our economic program,” Tarin said.
| [Return to headlines] |
Islamist Rebels Whip 32 Dancers in Somalia
MOGADISHU (Reuters) — Islamist insurgents whipped 32 people in Somalia on Saturday after arresting them for taking part in a traditional dance in rebel-held territory south of the capital Mogadishu.
Fighters enforcing a strict form of sharia law have been slowly advancing on the city, raising the stakes in their two-year rebellion and undermining fragile U.N.-brokered peace talks to end 17 years of chaos in the Horn of Africa nation.
Last month, they stoned to death a young woman accused of adultery in the rebel-controlled southern port of Kismayu.
Islamist spokesman Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow said those arrested had been warned several times against dancing.
“We arrested 25 women and seven men who were dancing near Balad (town). We released them after whipping them. We warned them many times, but they wouldn’t listen,” he told Reuters.
“The dancing of men and women together is illegal and totally against Islam. We neither killed them nor injured them, but only whipped them according to the Islamic law,” Adow said.
Last month’s stoning to death of the woman in Kismayu was the first such public killing by the hardline militants for about two years and drew international condemnation.
Witnesses said the woman was 23, but the United Nations said later that the victim was a 13-year-old girl who had apparently been raped by three men while visiting her grandmother.
The Islamists last carried out public executions when they ruled Mogadishu and most of south Somalia for half of 2006. Allied Ethiopian and Somali government forces toppled them at the end of that year, but they have waged an Iraq-style guerrilla campaign since then, gradually taking back territory.
As when they controlled the capital in 2006, the Islamists are again providing much-needed security in many areas. But they are unpopular with many moderate Muslims in Somalia for also imposing fundamentalist practices such as banning various forms of entertainment denounced as anti-Islamic.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrants — Fini: Wrong to Block Influx
(AGI) — Rome, 13 November — Blocking the inflow of immigrants to Italy would be the wrong choice, is the firm conviction of the Speaker of House of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini. Speaking on Channel One News, he said: “Bossi, whose name is also on anti-illegal immigrant legislation, is sure to know that we have to be clear on this: the illegal immigrant must not be allowed to remain in the country, but that very law also expressly envisages a decree each year stating how many extra worker the economy is in need of”. “Therefore, blocking the influx decree would not just be self-contradictory, because it would encourage illegal immigration and black labour, but would also be mistaken”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrants — Fini: Time is Ripe for New Citizenship Law
(AGI) — Rome, 13 November — The time has come for a new citizenship law for those immigrants living in Italy who recognise the values of their new homeland. The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini, told Italy’s Channel One News: “From President Napolitano a very equitable and innovative message has arrived. Each year around 30 thousand foreign nationals attain Italian citizenship and President Napolitano has said that we should not so much stress how many years of stay are necessary for attaining citizenship, as much as on their true adherence to the basic values of our society”.
Fini stressed: “There are many foreign nationals arriving in Italy with residence permits tied to a job contract and who them may become Italians after some years have passed.
Obviously, as Napolitano said, if they fully share the basic values of our society. I’m thinking especially of those children already studying in our schools and who support our football teams, who speak with our dialects in some cases.
These, he concluded, are the Italians of tomorrow and I think the time has come for new legislation”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
USA: School District Fakes Records for Immigrant Teachers
Administrators hand out bogus Social Security numbers to foreign employees
For years, even after being advised by a state agency to stop, a major school district in Texas dodged administrative hassles by hiring foreign nationals as teachers and issuing them fake Social Security numbers.
The Dallas Independent School District, according to the Dallas Morning News, has been hiring Mexican and Spanish citizens for years to deal with a shortage in bilingual teachers.
The school district’s Office of Professional Responsibility began an investigation, however, after it received a tip in July that many of the foreign teachers were being issued false Social Security numbers in order to push through bureaucratic red tape and get them on the payroll more quickly.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Cold War’s Missing Atom Bombs
In a 1968 plane crash, the US military lost an atom bomb in Greenland’s Arctic ice. But this was no isolated case. Up to 50 nuclear warheads are believed to have gone missing during the Cold War, and not all of them are in unpopulated areas…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
World Leaders Pledge Action Plan to Fight Crisis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — World leaders grappling with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s pledged on Friday to deliver a concrete plan to ward off recession and prevent future meltdowns.
But prospects for joint action on growth, let alone a major overhaul of the world financial system, looked slim with host President George W. Bush resisting bold moves before leaving office in two months and President-elect Barack Obama absent.
Europeans said a broad framework for reforms with a timeline for further action will be released when the summit wraps up on Saturday.
“We share a determination to fix the problems that led to this turmoil,” Bush said at a White House dinner for leaders of the Group of 20 advanced and developing economies.
Emerging market countries warned time is running out to stem the economic damage from credit market turmoil that began about 17 months ago.
“If we don’t take quick action we run the risk of falling into a depression,” said Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega, adding both regulatory reform and concerted government spending were needed.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a top Indian economic policy-maker, piled on the pressure for developed countries to inject large amounts of government money into their economies. “If we are facing the most serious crisis in the world economy since the Great Depression then we need to take a lot of possibly unorthodox and special steps,” he said.
The euro zone, the world’s second largest economic block, tumbled into recession in the third quarter. The United States and the United Kingdom are fast headed there, which would risk pulling the world into its deepest slump in many decades.
Asian economies heavily dependent on exports to the West are particularly vulnerable. China, South Korea and Japan said at the summit they were considering steps including currency swaps, which would strengthen their regional defenses against the global financial upheaval.
| [Return to headlines] |
3 comments:
Words of wisdom
(from my favorite Swedish blogger Kurt Lundgren)
Better having Parkinson and spill half the grog, than having Alzheimer and forgot where you put it.
C.S.
Quite true! My poor father-in-law had both...
Baron;
What guns are you talking about?
There are no guns here!
You people must be hearing backfires from tractors or something...
Post a Comment