The big news of the evening is that the Holy Land Foundation was convicted of 108 counts related to the funneling of money to Hamas. Add this to the serving of CAIR (see last night’s GoV), and we can only hope that Nihad Awad has heartburn from it all.Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Islam in Action, JD, Srdja Trifkovic, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Holy Land Charity Guilty on 108 Counts!!
Over a year after escaping the first trial because of a declared mistrial theHoly Land Foundation was finally found guilty of 108 counts of funneling money to the Hamas terrorist organization in Palestine.
| — Hat tip: Islam in Action | [Return to headlines] |
How to Keep US Carmakers on the Road — Mitt Romney
If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout from the US Government that their chief executives have asked for, you can kiss the American car industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
Without that bailout, Detroit will have to restructure itself drastically. With it, carmakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labour and pension burdens, technology atrophy, inferior products and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a cheque.
[…]
First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labour agreements to align pay and benefits to match competitors such as BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, pension costs must be reduced so that the total burden for each car is not higher than that of foreign producers.
That burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford must cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with the Toyota Avalon. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering cars. But if this penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Price of Hillary
by Srdja Trifkovic
No secretary of state will come to that office with stronger pro-Israel credentials or closer ties to the Jewish community than Sen. Hillary Clinton, Douglas Bloomfield assures his readers in The Jerusalem Post. Good for them; but for the rest of us, Mrs. Clinton’s appointment as the third woman U.S. Secretary of State is hugely problematic. It heralds “the end of the world as we know it,” in many ways, although neither she nor her coterie necessarily know what they are doing. That dumb bliss may be their sole saving grace.
At the technical level, Hillary Clinton is likely to deepen the chronic crisis of the once-venerable institution at Washington’s Foggy Bottom, to which her two female predecessors have contributed in two different ways.
Madeleine Albright was an activist who will be remembered for her hubris (“If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.”), coupled with studied callousness. Asked on “60 Minutes” about the death of a half-million Iraqi children due to sanctions, she promptly responded, “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price is worth it.” Her crowning glory was her premeditated 1999 war in the Balkans, prior to which she said that “the Serbs need a little bombing.” Her State Department contributed to the formulation, as well as execution, of Bill Clinton’s doctrine of “humanitarian intervention.”
Condoleezza Rice, less evil and more obtuse, will be remembered for nothing. She was an auxilliary tool of the Bush-Cheney team, with all key decisions made elsewhere.
Mrs. Clinton will try to rebuild the relative importance of the Department of State, which will become her personal fiefdom, but her labors will not be for the better. Her appointment, the most significant among several major figures from the Clinton era, belies Obama’s rhetoric of “change” when it comes to foreign affairs. There will be tectonic shifts, cultural and moral, at home. The established premises of an imperial presidency — which in world affairs inevitably translates into the quest for dominance and justification for global interventionism — will not be challenged, however.
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
What a Single Nuclear Warhead Could Do
Why the U.S. needs a space-based missile defense against an EMP attack.
As severe as the global financial crisis now is, it does not pose an existential threat to the U.S. Through fits and starts we will sort out the best way to revive the country’s economic engine. Mistakes can be tolerated, however painful. The same may not be true with matters of national security.
Although President George W. Bush has accomplished more in the way of missile defense than his predecessors — including Ronald Reagan — he will leave office with only a rudimentary system designed to stop a handful of North Korean missiles launched at our West Coast. Barack Obama will become commander in chief of a country essentially undefended against Russian, Chinese, Iranian or ship-launched terrorist missiles. This is not acceptable.
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have proven how vulnerable we are. On that day, Islamic terrorists flew planes into our buildings. It is not unreasonable to believe that if they obtain nuclear weapons, they might use them to destroy us. And yet too many policy makers have rejected three basic facts about our position in the world today:
First, as the defender of the Free World, the U.S. will be the target of destruction or, more likely, strategic marginalization by Russia, China and the radical Islamic world.
Second, this marginalization and threat of destruction is possible because the U.S. is not so powerful that it can dictate military and political affairs to the world whenever it wants. The U.S. has the nuclear capability to vanquish any foe, but is not likely to use it except as a last resort.
Third, America will remain in a condition of strategic vulnerability as long as it fails to build defenses against the most powerful political and military weapons arrayed against us: ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. Such missiles can be used to destroy our country, blackmail or paralyze us.
Any consideration of how best to provide for the common defense must begin by acknowledging these facts…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
A Near-Riot and Parliament Besieged: Iceland Boiling Mad at Credit Crunch
THOUSANDS of Icelanders have demonstrated in Reykjavik to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank governor David Oddsson, for failing to stop the country’s financial meltdown. It was the latest in a series of protests in the capital since October’s banking collapse crippled the island’s economy. At least five people were injured and Hordur Torfason, a well-known singer in Iceland and the main organiser of the protests, said the protests would continue until the government stepped down.
As crowds gathered in the drizzle before the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, on Saturday, Mr Torfason said: “They don’t have our trust and they are no longer legitimate.”
The value of the Icelandic krona has been cut in half since January.
[…]
Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old office worker, said: “I’ve just had enough of this whole thing. I don’t trust the government, I don’t trust the banks, I don’t trust the political parties, and I don’t trust the IMF.
“We had a good country and they ruined it.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels Plans Changes to Fight Tax Evasion
The European Commission wants to close loopholes in the taxing of interest on savings in a move to crack down on tax evasion.
Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union, has already signalled its willingness to discuss the new measures because they will not affect the country’s banking secrecy legislation.
Since 2005, Switzerland has levied a withholding tax on the interest income of EU taxpayers with an account in Switzerland, which will eventually reach 35 per cent.
The EC’s commissioner for taxation and customs, László Kovács, commented on Thursday that there were loopholes in the present system.
When non-EU countries such as Switzerland and Liechtenstein signed the EU’s savings tax rules, they only covered bank accounts. He said the current scope of the EU savings tax directive needed to be extended.
“At present, it is relatively easy for individuals to circumvent it (the directive) … it is beneficial to all parties to go further in extending the scope of measures,” Kovács said.
Ways of getting round the rules included using trusts or foundations where there was no income tax, he said, or rearranging financial portfolios so that income from interest fell outside the EU’s formal definition of interest payments.
Swiss Economics Minister Doris Leuthard said earlier this month that Switzerland was open for dialogue on the issue as long as there was “protection of privacy” with banking secrecy.
Tax evasion is not a criminal offence in Switzerland; tax fraud is.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gatecrasher Jailed for Stabbing Groom and Best Man at Wedding Reception
Mr Loader said Gould had been unable to sleep on the night of the party and had gone into the kitchen to make something to eat.
Gould he said had been drinking previously, heard the music then snapped.
He entered the party with the knife in his pocket but had no intention to use it.
He said: ‘He is a young man who needs to change his life. He recognises he has problems with control, anger management and alcohol.’
Sentencing Gould today at Lewes Crown Court, judge Richard Hayward said: ‘You became annoyed by the music and had been drinking.
‘You telephoned the police, but instead of leaving it to them you decided to take action yourself.’
He said the case demonstrated the dangers of carrying a knife and the injuries which could be caused by such blades.
Gould, he added, possessed a ‘bad record’ with sixteen past convictions for 42 offences.
Mr Hayward sentenced Gould to 15 months in prison for possession of a knife and 21 months for each of the two wounding charges, to run concurrently.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Euro-MP Outlines Measures to Combat Global Slowdown
Strasbourg, 21 Nov. (AKI) — Italian European Parliament member Umberto Pirilli and other Euro-MPs are proposing a series of bold measures to help European Union countries fight back from the global economic slowdown. “To combat the global financial crisis firm action must be taken: shock therapy is needed,” Pirilli told Adnkronos-Labitalia.
“The problem is to restore confidence. Measures taken by single governments are not enough because the crisis is huge and markets are continuing to post losses,” said Pirilli (photo).
Pirilli’s conservative UEN-EA group recently presented to the European Parliament in Strasbourg a series of measures to tackle the financial crisis by restoring investor confidence and kick-starting economies.
The proposed measures include the ‘virtual transfer’ to the European Central Bank from national central banks of their gold and foreign currency reserves, or part of these, and the issuing of bonds worth five times the value of these assets. Individual states can negotiate the value of these bonds on the market.
The measures propose funding by individual EU member states for infrastructure projects and social policies, as well as those to kick-start the real economy, boost research and the exemption of these funds from the parameters of the Treaty of Maastricht.
“The transfer by individual member states of their reserves, their ‘family jewels’, is an act of faith. The issuing of bonds would be guaranteed and the Maastricht criteria would be respected, without running inflationary risks.
“The combination of these proposals can contribute to the re-launching of the European economy, which is suffering the commercial impact of the financial crisis more than the United States,” Pirilli said.
“Precisely for this reason, at a time of economic and financial crisis, Europe needs to show political unity,” he stressed.
Funding for research is key to the innovation that is needed for firms’ international competitiveness, Pirilli said.
“Competitiveness does not just depend on individual firms’ liquidity, but also on innovation, which means investing in research,” Pirilli added.
Italy invests just one percent of its Gross Domestic Product in research, half the European average (two percent), he noted. Developing countries, on the other hand, are investing between eight and 12 percent of their GDP in research, Pirilli added.
“Investing in research is important not only to stop the brain drain, but to finance long-term projects. It is exactly this injection of funding into research that can help regain competitiveness and restore confidence,” Pirilli said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Unicredit Chief Urges Continuing Credit to Keep Firms Afloat
Palermo, 20 Nov. (AKI) — To emerge from the current global economic slowdown, banks need to establish a new relationship with companies, especially those which are struggling, Alessandro Profumo, chief executive officer of Italy’s largest bank, Unicredit said on Thursday. He gave the inaugural address at the United Nations sponsored conference in Sicily’s capital, Palermo to mark World Philosophy Day 2008.
In his address to the conference on the theme ‘Finance and Economics: a virtuous circle’, Profumo underlined the need for banks to intervene swiftly when companies show the first signs of difficulty.
“It is necessary to redirect and restructure as soon signs of difficulty appear, not when the situation has totally deteriorated,” Profumo said.
To keep companies in business means doing things now that are to be avoided in normal times, he stressed.
“These include banks becoming company shareholders, or getting directly involved in complex restructuring operations, such as their sale, the close of subsidiaries and the separation of phases of production,” Profumo said.
European, especially Italian banks are more solid and less exposed to the global financial crisis than those in the United States, he stated. “But the suspension of normal inter-bank lending has made their situation difficult.”
Italy, which is still the eurozone’s third biggest economy, slipped into a recession in the third quarter of this year — its fourth recession in the past ten years. The IMF has predicted Italian GDP will contract by 0.1 percent in 2008 and by 0.2 percent in 2009.
The proportion of Italian firms going out of business in the second quarter of this year rose to 2.3 percent this year from 1.7 percent over the same period of 2007, Profumo noted, quoting data from Italy’s Chamber of Commerce.
However, on a positive note, Profumo noted that the average proportion of medium-to-long-term debt companies hold increased to 58 percent in June this year, compared with44.4 percent in 2000. “This means they are structurally more stable and are presumably able to better plan their investment decisions,” he said.
Southern Italy will suffer from the current economic crisis, Profumo told journalists on the sidelines of the Palermo conference ahead of his address.
“This because entrepreneurship is weaker, and there is greater financial hardship, “ Profumo said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Man With Axe Stuns Stockholm Congregation
Worshippers at the All Saints Church in Stockholm panicked on Sunday when a man wielding an axe and a can full of gasoline interrupted the pastor during services.
“Everyone was scared and as many people ran out the church as they could,” said witness Mathias Bridfeldt to the Aftonbladet newspaper.
The pastor was in the middle of his sermon when the man walked slowly toward the altar.
It was only after people noticed the man was holding an axe and a large gasoline canister that the congregation became gripped with fear.
The man then began speaking out load and interrupted the pastor, instructing everyone to remain calm.
“It was a unbelievably strange situation, like a shock that slowly spread,” said Bridfeldt.
“The man was really calm, he didn’t behave violently. But it was still really scary when you thought about what he had in his hands.”
A few members of the church decided to confront the man and were able to convince him to put down the axe and gas can.
He was then taken from the church and police were called.
Police took the man to St. Göran’s Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation while the pastor did his best to continue with his sermon.
“But many were still shaken and a few were crying, so the pastor had to revisit the incident one more time,” said Bridfeldt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway’s Police Headquarters Robbed
Thieves broke into the Norwegian criminal police’s headquarters in Oslo, making off with several computers, police said on Monday. Skip related content
“I can confirm that we were the victim of a robbery overnight Saturday to Sunday,” Pia Solhaug, a spokeswoman for Norway’s criminal police Kripos, told AFP.
“Several computers were taken,” she added.
According to tabloid Verdens Gang (VG), the intruders smashed a window to gain entry into the building. The robbery was discovered three hours later.
Oslo police have launched an investigation.
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Pub’s Name Changed to Avoid Offending Muslims Public Angry: No Right to ‘Wipe Away 300 Years of History’ at Saracen’s Head
BIRMINGHAM Mail readers have spoken out against the decision to change the name of a historic city pub — accusing it of being “politically correct”.
The home of the famous Saracen’s Head, in Kings Norton Green, will become known as Saint Nicolas Place said its owners, at the nearby St Nicolas Church.
Angry letters fired off to the Mail said the church had no right to “wipe away 300 years of history” for fear of offending Muslims.
Ann Spooner, of Kings Norton, wrote: “To us it will always be the Saracen’s Head.”
The 18th-century former inn was originally built as a rich wool merchant?s house in the 1400s and was given to the church in 1930. In 2004 it won £500,000 to help bring it back to its former glory in the BBC programme Restoration.
Cannon Rob Morris said the church consulted with its congregation of more than 300 and the Friends of Historic Kings Norton in reaching the controversial choice.
In 2004 the Birmingham Mail reported how the Very Rev Morris said the name was “offensive” to Muslims. But he said the reason behind the name-change was to stop people from mistaking the building — now a community centre and church office — for a pub. It was also to recognise the role of the church and its more than a million pounds’ worth of investment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Technical Tie Between Psoe and Pp, Cis Barometer
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 5 — If they went to the ballot today, Spaniards would vote in almost exactly equal numbers for the governing PSOE and the opposition PP, with support for each one at about 39.7% according to results from the Opinion Barometer of the Centre of Sociological Research (CIS). Despite all the negative economic indicators from October, the political situation in Spain has remained basically unchanged in respect of July’s Barometer, which attributed a slight lead for the PSOE: 39.5% for the PSOE, and 39.3% for the PP. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: the Speed Trap Set by Your Neighbour
Motorists will face amateur speed traps run by local volunteer groups in towns and villages across the country, it was revealed yesterday.
Under rules to be sent to police forces in the new year, bands of volunteers will be supplied with speed detection equipment and asked to use it to identify drivers exceeding limits in their area.
The guidelines, prepared by the Association of Chief Police Officers, will set a national pattern for schemes which have been trialled in some areas — often with controversy.
Drivers caught breaking limits by ‘community speed watch’ groups have their numberplates checked on the police national computer and are sent warning letters by police forces.
They can be targeted for prosecution if they get three letters for speeding through volunteer group traps. Motoring organisations warned yesterday that the proposals risk setting neighbour against neighbour and encouraging vigilantism. Some trial schemes had to be abandoned after they led to disputes between local people.
The decision to encourage speed trap volunteers follows the move by local councils to recruit members of the public to watch for breaches of rubbish collection and recycling rules.
That has been condemned by critics as an attempt to get neighbour to spy on neighbour. Acpo spokesman Trevor Hall said the guidelines would encourage national consistency in the schemes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yobs Have Overturned Your Car? Call the AA Say Police
When a gang of youths rolled his girlfriend’s parked car on its side, Simon White thought there was a good chance that the police would catch the culprits.
But instead of the swift response he had hoped for, they told him to call the AA.
‘I couldn’t believe they were telling me to call a breakdown service,’ said estate agent Mr White.
‘I explained to them that a neighbour had seen a gang of about 30 youths hanging about when he was walking his dog and had come back half an hour later to see my girlfriend’s car on its side.
‘At no point did the police ask me anything to do with solving the crime. There was no mention of witnesses, possible fingerprints, or any desire to catch who’d done it.
‘All they said was call the AA or Green Flag. When I told them there was petrol leaking from the car they said they’d call the fire brigade and then ended the conversation.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU: ETF, Italy Multicultural Model for Balkans
(ANSAmed) — TURIN, NOVEMBER 20 — Italy could become a model of social and ethnic integration for the Balkans, according to the European Union education sector experts who took part in the international conference in Turin organized by the European Training Foundation (ETF). Among those in attendance was Semsi Sainov from the Fund for Rom education. “The Balkans,” stressed Lidia Kita, the ETF head of projects for the Balkans, “need societies that are well-integrated, founded on ethnic reconciliation, non-discrimination, equal opportunities and cultural diversity. In order to respond to these challenges, ETF is committed to helping the western Balkans to support quality education contributing to the struggle against social exclusion in a complex context, made up of very heterogeneous societies.” As part of the event a visit was organized to two schools in Turin: the Leonardo da Vinci institute for the integration of Rom in Turin and the elementary school Lessona. The two schools could be considered “laboratories for living together” between Italian children and their counterparts from second-generation immigrants who are fully integrated into the city itself. According to ETF figures, which has its head offices in Turin and answers to the European Commission, the pro capita gross domestic product in the Balkans — measures in terms of buying power — is among the lowest in Europe and range between 3,652 euros in Albania and 8,327 in Croatia. Employment levels in the western Balkans are the lowest in the EU and vary between 63pct in Serbia and 45pct in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Reuters: No Comment From Germany on Kosovo Spy Report
PRISTINA, Nov 22 (Reuters) — Germany declined to comment on on Saturday on reports that three Germans arrested on suspicion of throwing explosives at an EU office in Kosovo were intelligence officers.
The explosive charge was thrown on Nov. 14 at the International Civilian Office (ICO), the office of EU Special Representative Pieter Feith, who oversees Kosovo’s governance, but caused only minor damage. The men were detained on Thursday.
A spokesman for the German foreign ministry in Berlin confirmed that three Germans had been arrested, but declined to make any further comment as an investigation was under way.
A police source in Kosovo told Reuters: “They are members of the BND”, but gave no further details.
The German weekly Der Spiegel also said the men worked for the German intelligence agency BND, and that they had told investigators they had been examining the scene of the explosion, but had not been involved in it.
[…]
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February after nine years under U.N. stewardship and is recognised by more than 50 countries, including Germany.
Four days before the bomb attack, its leaders rejected a plan by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s for the deployment of an EU police and justice mission, EULEX.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Algeria; Work Complete on Underwater Medgaz Gaspipe
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 3 — Work by Saipem has finished, to place a Medgaz trans-Mediterranean gaspipe in deep water which will transport 8 billion cubic metres of Algerian gas to Spain each year. Algeriàs Ministry for Energy announced to APS that “work to complete the compression station at Beni Saf (in the West of Algeria) and the land connections between Almeria and Albacete, in Spain are all that is needed to complete the work”. Medgaz — a consortium of Algerian company Sonatrach (36%), Spanish companies Cepsa and Iberdrola (20% each)and Endesa and Francés Gaz de France (12% each) — with an estimated cost of around 900 million euros, will be 210km long offshore and will go 2,000 metric miles deep. Contributing to the project, apart from Italy’s Saipem, are Japan’s Mitsui and Sumimoto, Britain’s Rolls Royce and the Franco-Spanish consortium Tecnicas Reunias Amec-Spie. On 17 September four workers, including one Italian, were killed in an accident on bord the sea-platform, Saipem 7000, while they were working on the underwater positioning of the Medgaz pipe. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Food: New Oil Mill in South Lebanon With Lombardy Funds
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, NOVEMBER 3 — The opening of a new oil mill is scheduled for today in Alma Ash Shaab, a city in South Lebanon seriously affected by the war in 2006. A statement published by the Lombardy region stated that it had covered half of the cost of the operation with a contribution of 118,000 euros. “The cultivation of olives” explained the representative of the President of Lombardy for International Relations, Robi Ronza, opening the plant today “a main source of income for the region, suffered from a lack of a modern oil press. A humanitarian agency for the Holy See, the Papal Agency for Middle East Relief and Development had donated the equipment on condition that the oil press was ready for the 2008 harvest, but the initiative was at risk of failure because the building was inadequate and there was no technical expertise to begin production. The plant needed modern electrical and plumbing, machines and technical assistance for start-up”. Since 15 October the oil press is working at full capacity, thanks to this help. More than 4,000 farm workers and their families are benefitting from the plant (around 20,800 people in all). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Agriculture; 5 Million Euro Gift From Belgium
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, NOVEMBER 19 — Belgium has donated five million euros to Morocco, with the aim of financing two projects in the north of the country relating to the promotion of rural micro-businesses. The news was reported by the MAP press agency, adding that two million euros will be used to finance the development of micro-businesses in the north of the country, and in particular in the the Tetouan area. It is thought that business will be helped by the concession of easy credit. Three million euros, on the other hand, will be used for professional training programs in Tetouan, M’Diq-Fnideq, Chefchaoucen and Al Hoceima. The project will contribute to the fight against poverty and therefore to socio-economic development in the region, improving job prospects and the integration of uneducated young people. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Nine Arrested in Clashes at Opposition Party HQ
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 6 — Nine people have been arrested by security forces in clashes during the morning in central Cairo, in front of the headquarters of the Opposition party Al Ghad — the most well-known supporter is lawyer Ayman Nur, who has been in prison for some time — during aggression against supporters of the political faction. The clashes were between supporters of Nur, removed from office as President of the party by a Government committee, and supporters of Mustafa Mussa, appointed as President by the same committee. The wife of Nur, journalist Jamila Ismail headed the attack on the headquarters on the first floor of a city centre building, with an exchange of stone- and firebomb- throwing . A fire in the area of Al Ghad was put out by fire fighters. Eye witnesses said that security forces had witnessed the aggression without intervening and had then arrested nine supporters of Nur. In 2005 the lawyer was sentenced to five years in prison for producing false documents to obtain authorisation to found the Al Ghad party. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mauritania: Ex-Premier in Prison for Airmauritanie Crack
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, NOVEMBER 21 — The Mauritanian Premier, Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf, ousted by the military junta which took power on August 6, was sentenced and imprisoned with another four people with the accusation of “having orchestrated the failure of the flagship airline Air Mauritanie” which he directed between 2004 and 2006 and that is currently in forced liquidation. Among the others who wound up in prison, the businessman Abdallahi Ould Moctar who chaired the board of directors between 2002 and 2006. Another ex-manager and a second businessman are under international arrest warrants. The ex-premier was arrested on August 6 together with the dismissed president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. Freed on August 11, he was stopped ten days later while participating in a protest meeting against the coup and placed under house arrest. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Arab States Import 94% of Medicines, Says Official
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 17 — Chairman of the Arab Company for Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies Mohamed Awad Tagedddin said the Arab states import medicines by 94%, calling for the need to reach cooperation in the Arab world in the pharmaceuticals domain to guarantee supply of drugs. Tageddin expected Arab pharmaceutical production to reach 2.5 billion dollars at the start of the 21st century to cover around 45% of consumption which amounts to 5.5 billion dollars. The size of investments in pharmaceuticals in the Arab world reaches around five billion dollars, he said, adding that the private sector owns its biggest share. Dumping policies adopted by factories and foreign companies are among obstacles facing the Arab pharmaceutical industries sector, he said. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: Maoist Government: Law on “Desaparecidos” Would be Retroactive
The measure, which must still be approved, provides prison sentences and fines for those who commit kidnappings, and their accomplices. The law would regulate cases of disappearance recorded between 1996 and 2006, the year in which the agreement was signed between the communist guerrillas and the coalition government. Human rights activists say there are 2,200 cases of disappearance.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — The Nepalese Maoist government has released a proposed law on the “desaparecidos,” providing prison sentences and fines for those who carry out kidnappings, and their accomplices. The law would be applied retroactively, covering the decade marked by the Maoist conflict (1996-2006); but would not apply to crimes after November 21, 2006, the day on which the communist guerrillas and the seven parties making up the coalition government signed the peace agreement.
The draft law was presented by Janardan Sharma, minister for peace and reconstruction, in the presence of the head of the justice department and Nepal’s attorney general, in addition to activists and experts on human rights. The measure would regulate the cases of disappearances recorded in the period between February 13, 1996, and November 21, 2006. It provides penalties of up to five years in prison, and fines of 5,000 euros for those who commit kidnapping; the penalties are cut in half for accomplices. If the cases of disappearance concern women and children, the penalty could be raised to seven years in prison.
The proposed law also provides for the creation of an independent commission formed by five prominent figures. These would include the president of the constituent assembly, activists, psychologists, lawyers, or experts in conflict with at least 10 years of experience.
Gauri Pradhan, a member of the Nepalese human rights commission, says that during the period under discussion, 2,200 cases of disappeared persons were reported. The relatives of the “desaparecidos” would be given compensation in the form of free health care and education, jobs, and assistance in finding housing.
The draft law must now be reviewed by Dev Gurung, the minister of justice and parliamentary affairs, who will make any necessary changes; the text would then have to be approved by the government and would go to parliament, for final ratification and implementation.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Vietnam: New Attack on Parish of Thai Ha
An official of the people’s committee tries to keep the Redemptorists occupied, while members of party organizations attack the chapel of Saint Gerardo. Summoned by bells, phone calls, and e-mails, hundreds of faithful come, and the attackers leave. The operation raises troubling questions.
Hanoi (AsiaNews) — Disturbing questions are being raised by the attack carried out Saturday night by a group of communist party activists on the chapel of St. Gerardo, on the property of the parish of Thai Ha. Similar to the one carried out on September 21, against the same target, it saw the participation of a delegate of the people’s committee of Quang Trung (the local administration), while police and security forces looked on passively at the sacking of the chapel, which did not have serious consequences only because of the immediate arrival of faithful from Thai Ha and other parishes.
Fr. Joseph Nguyen Van That, vice superior of the Redemptorist convent, who also takes care of the parish, says that “At 10 pm local time, on Saturday night, a delegate of the people’s committee of Quang Trung precinct came to Hanoi Redemptorist Monastery asking for an urgent meeting with Redemptorists, while hundreds of people attacked our Saint Gerardo Chapel.”
There were police officers, members of a women’s association, and young people of the party. They began shouting, throwing stones at the church, trying to provoke the priests and faithful present to a fight. Catholics were called to the scene by church bells, but also by telephone calls and e-mails sent to the parishes of Hanoi. At 11 o’clock, a fairly significant number of faithful were on the scene, and without responding to the provocations, they tried to enter the chapel.
The officers, who did not intervene to stop the attack, tried (in the photo) to stop the faithful from entering the church. One parishioner says that at a certain point, a group that was participating in the attack asked the police if they could set it on fire. They were instructed to “wait for an order from higher ranking officials.”
At 11:30, the growing number of faithful on the site forced the attackers to leave.
Eglises d’Asie reports that inhabitants of the neighborhood say that beginning in the afternoon, while the church was celebrating the feast of the Vietnamese martyrs, the young communists had taken up position to prepare the operation. The same thing was happening at the same time in security offices of the neighborhood.
A letter denouncing the incident has been addressed by Fr. Matthew Vu Khoi Phung, the superior of the monastery, to the people’s committee of Hanoi and to the police of Hanoi and of the district of Dong Da.
Catholics are concerned over the reasons for the attack, which came after the conclusion desired by the authorities — meaning with rejection — of the request by the Redemptorists for the restitution of the parish land. Some think it is retaliation — the land that was given to a clothing company has been turned into a public park — and are afraid of further aggression against the monastery, parish, and chapel.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Internet: First Site to Look for Muslim Soul-Mate
(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 29 — Are you a Muslim and have yet to find your soul-mate? Are you trying to flirt with one of your co-religious counterparts, or even more simply looking for new friends? Have no fear, wherever you are in the world, there are new portals to help you like Muslima.com, directed at, like its Christian version (Christiancupid.com), by Australian CupidMedia, a company that manages internet portals dedicated to looking for a mate and those who are looking for and inter-racial union, and that in total has more than 5 million users all over the globe. Yet again, love is transformed into a business: this time though, it is not about dress, or choices made at the gift shop, or catering, but criteria based on ethnic origin, religious creed, sexual tastes, particular interests, and naturally, physical appearance. Born this year, Muslima.com with its 784 thousand subscribers, is the first Muslim dating website in the world. The principal is the same as other online dating sites: after having filled out a personal profile, entering tastes and general information, you go on to physical aspect (height, eye colour, profession, and maybe even favourite sport), Muslim.com also asks to specify faith (Sunni or Shiite), as well as ethnic origin. Signing up costs nothing, you just have to be between 18 and 80, have an e-mail account, and a lot of good will. Privacy is guaranteed, in fact, to other users, only name and nickname appear. For those who want to increase their probability of finding someone to share their existence with, there is a ‘‘gold membership’’ or ‘‘platinum membership’’. For users who decide to spend 25 dollars or more, the possibility of entering more details is given, chat rooms, or having your profile highlighted compared to non-paying users, as well as having unlimited contacts are all options. Given the great success of the users, the portal has already been translated into Dutch, French, German, and Italian. One peculiarity, there is not an Arab version. Entering into the Italian page it is easy to note how from North to South there are many people who are interested in finding someone to correspond with, or ‘‘to establish a true friendship with other Muslims’’ or to find ‘‘a faithful woman’’ to marry. Perhaps because far from your country of origin, maybe because it is difficult to find someone who understands your traditions, or simply because the internet is the most rapid means to communicate, many people seem to appreciate this tool. The same idea for Christiancupid.com, which counts 62 thousand registered users today, where Christians from every latitude look for a long lasting relationship, a passing love, or a pen pal, and do it in total security, knowing that they share the same values. Here, there is also the option of becoming o ‘‘gold’’ or ‘‘platinum’’ member, obtaining various advantages in terms of interactivity with those who are interested in the profile of the user. There are also chat rooms, advice on Christian life, marriage, relationships, and ‘‘verses of the day’’ from the Bible. In a world that makes an effort to overcome differences based on race, ethnicity, religion, or personal convictions, the new frontier of online dating is discrimination. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Somalia: Pirates Want $15mln for Seized Ship, Says Islamist Leader
Mogadishu, 24 Nov. (AKI) — A Somali Islamist leader said the ransom for the hijacked supertanker Sirius Star has been reduced from 25 to 15 million dollars. “Middlemen have given a $15 million ransom figure for the Saudi ship. That is the issue now,” said Abdurrahim Isse Adou, the spokesman of the Islamic Courts Union quoted by various media reports.
Saudi oil giant Aramco’s subsidiary Vela International owns the hijacked supertanker Sirus Star, which has a 25-member crew on board from Poland, Britain, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.
The tanker is fully loaded with two million barrels of oil worth over 100 million dollars.
Last week, pirates warned that they have a machine that can detect false banknotes, said Bili Mahmoud Qabusad, spokesman for the Somali region of Puntland’s president.
According to Qabusad, the pirates probably come from the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and set sail ten days ago on their mission to hijack the Sirius Star.
A number of the pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden are belived to be former members of the Somali navy, reports have said.
More than 92 ships have been attacked his year, more than three times the number in 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau. At least 14 of these vessels, carrying over 250 crew members, are still in the control of hijackers.
An estimated 25-30 million dollars has been paid in ransom to Somali pirates this year, according to a UN report released last Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Stubborn Glaciers Fail to Retreat, Awkward Polar Bears Continue to Multiply
Second only to the melting of the Arctic ice and those “drowning” polar bears, there is no scare with which the global warmists, led by Al Gore, more like to chill our blood than the fast-vanishing glaciers of the Himalayas, which help to provide water for a sixth of mankind. Recently one newspaper published large pictures to illustrate the alarming retreat in the past 40 years of the Rongbuk glacier below Everest. Indian meteorologists, it was reported, were warning that, thanks to global warming, all the Himalayan glaciers could have disappeared by 2035.
Yet two days earlier a report by the UN Environment Program had claimed that the cause of the melting glaciers was not global warming but the local warming effect of a vast “atmospheric brown cloud” hanging over that region, made up of soot particles from Asia’s dramatically increased burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
Furthermore a British study published two years ago by the American Meteorological Society found that glaciers are only shrinking in the eastern Himalayas. Further west, in the Hindu Kush and the Karakoram, glaciers are “thickening and expanding”.
Meanwhile, all last week, ITV News was running a series of wearisomely familiar scare stories on the disappearing Arctic ice and those “doomed” polar bears — without telling its viewers that satellite images now show ice cover above its 30-year average, or that polar bear numbers are at record level. But then “polar bears not drowning after all — as snow falls over large parts of Britain” doesn’t really make a story.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Washington State Voters Legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide
Rita Marker, an attorney and executive director of the non-profit International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, calls physician-assisted suicide a Trojan Horse — a policy that enters a state’s legal system as a gift of compassion but is full of deadly consequences. In Washington, as in Oregon, the crime of assisted suicide has been transformed into a medical treatment.
“If a lethal dose of drugs is considered good medical treatment, isn’t the requirement of ‘self-administration’ both illogical and overly restrictive?” she asks. “What about the person who is physically unable to self-administer the lethal dose? After all, is there any other medical treatment that a physician can prescribe for, but not administer to, a patient?”
Once it’s legally regarded as a medical treatment there’s nothing to prevent its expansion “to include euthanasia by lethal injection and to encompass everyone from children to the frail, demented elderly.”
[…]
But in Oregon, despite increased efforts by Health Services Department officials to hide the law’s shortcomings from the public, word gets out and occasionally comes to the attention of the media — as in the notorious case of Barbara Wagner, a 64-year-old cancer patient, which was reported by the Eugene Register-Guard.
In May, Wagner’s doctor told her that her cancer, which had been in remission, had returned, but there was a new drug that would probably slow its growth and extend her life. He wrote her a prescription, but because the drug is expensive the Oregon Health Plan — the state’s Medicaid program through which she was insured — let her know via an unsigned form letter that it would not cover the cost. However, the letter said, the plan would pay for “comfort care”, including “physician aid in dying.” The drugs which would be provided free cost less than $100 — a matter not mentioned in the letter.
“They would pay to kill me, but they will not give me the medication to slow the growth of my cancer,” Wagner says tearfully in a video for the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide.
When Wagner’s story became known, others came forward to report receiving similar letters. The Oregon Health Plan director eventually admitted they send such letters to patients whom they think have little chance of surviving.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Israeli Company to Secure Vatican City
Vatican City, 20 Nov. (AKI) — An Israel-based company was awarded a multi-million dollar contract to secure sensitive areas of Vatican City. IoImage, a company based in the Israeli coastal city of Herzliya was awarded the contract, estimated to be between 4-5 million dollars. “The Vatican has the highest security demands. We got the contract after an examination that lasted three years,” said IoImage director Roni Kaz, quoted by Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
“IoImage intelligent video appliances, monitored by an IoIware Command Center, are being used to detect intruders along a 60-kilometre perimeter of sensitive areas, entry and exit gates and the wall surrounding the Vatican,” said the company in a statement on its website.
“The IoIcam….will be centrally monitored and managed by the Corpo della Gendarmeria, the Vatican’s security force from their control room.”
In 1929, Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty, which recognised the full sovereignty of the Holy See in the State of Vatican City.
The Holy See is a member of the United Nations and is considered an independent country of 0.44 square kilometres with less than 500 inhabitants.
Its world-renowned museum and library collections make it one of the world’s most important sites. The Vatican Museums alone were visited by 4.3 million tourists last year.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Race in the Third Millennium
[…]
Then there is the matter of how communism is viewed kindly relative to National Socialism (which partially explains why “big C” communism is again on the rise). We are outraged that 11 million were killed because of a racial agenda, as we should be, yet it seems that it would make modern man’s inner little girl feel better if they had been exterminated in the name of an atheistic/economic one. After all, while the communists killed about ten times as many — 100 million worldwide during the 20th century — its defenders are never lowered to where they belong, the nadir of pariah status occupied by a neo-Nazi. But, of course, godlessness and economic egalitarianism are all the rage in these enlightened times.
Many will justify such bias, claiming that the demon of discrimination cannot be exorcised without constant prayer to the god of government; there must be a bit of over-compensation in much that same way that a crooked wire cannot be made right unless it’s bent beyond straight in the other direction. But it is also true that if you keep bending it in the fashionable direction, it becomes more crooked than it was before. The yoke of tyranny isn’t less burdensome just because it’s born of an unfashionable lie’s opposite.
[…]
Another characteristic of the National Socialists is that before they gained the power to impose their agenda through the law, they did so through the lawless; they used brown-shirted thugs to intimidate and silence opposition.
We’re not like that at all.
Our mobs don’t wear brown shirts. They just storm stages (Columbia and other attacks on traditionalists at colleges), intimidate voters, steal conservative newspapers, attack conservative students and vandalize their homes, and force-feed students politically-correct ideas in academia.
Then there are the aspirations, which are sometimes expressed by readers of left-wing news sites. For instance, at a very popular site I came across a post to the effect of (I’m paraphrasing):
“Racists should be beaten and then put in re-education camps until their thinking is changed.”
This was not an uncommon sentiment at this site and was unchallenged by the other respondents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
When Seconds Count: Stopping Active Killers
Based on the Virginia Tech data, top tactics training facilities determined the first officer on scene should make entry immediately with an aggressive attack on the shooter. Every minute the officer waits for back-up, another three or more people could die.
In other words, while it was once considered suicide for a lone officer to take on an active killer, it is now considered statistical homicide for him not to do so.
Tactical Defense Institute in Adams County, Ohio developed one of the first “single officer response” programs in the nation. TDI was teaching the tactic even before Virginia Tech. Now the National School Resource Officer Organization (NSRO) is using TDI instructors to teach school resource officers nationwide how to confront a gunman immediately.
[…]
The other statistic that emerged from a study of active killers is that they almost exclusively seek out “gun free” zones for their attacks. In most states, concealed handguns are prohibited at schools and on college campuses even for those with permits. Many malls and workplaces also place signs at their entrances prohibiting firearms on the premises.
Now some tacticians believe the signs themselves may be an invitation to the active killers.
The psychological profile of a mass murderer indicates he is looking to inflict the most casualties as quickly as possible. Also, the data show most active killers have no intention of surviving the event. They may select schools and shopping malls because of the large number of defenseless victims and the virtual guarantee no on the scene one is armed.
As soon as they’re confronted by any armed resistance, the shooters typically turn the gun on themselves.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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