The rioting in Malmö has picked up steam:Some 100 youths ran amok for the second straight night, setting cars and garbage bins ablaze and throwing stones at police, police said.
It seems that the Swedes at last have their very own Intifada. Break out the keffiyehs!
Thanks to Amil Imani, Islam in Action, JD, Lionheart, TB, Tuan Jim, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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BHO’s Jobs-Creation Scam
Government’s whole approach to unemployment is upside-down. To improve the well-being of people, the emphasis should be on full production, not full employment. You move toward full production as you produce more goods and services that people want.
If full employment were the horse instead of the cart, government could just put unemployed people to work building pyramids in the Mojave Desert. After a few years, it could have them tear down those pyramids, then start all over again. Obviously, nothing would be accomplished, but we would have full employment.
The point is that merely creating jobs does not produce wealth. An economy will fail if people are employed in jobs that do not produce goods and services the public wants to buy — on a voluntary basis. The old Soviet Union had full employment, but the people had no wealth. Worse, they had no freedom.
Is full employment possible in a free market? Theoretically, yes — but only if government stayed completely out of the marketplace, which it never has done. While full employment may not be possible other than in theory, one thing is certain: The closer you get to full production, the closer you get to full employment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Clouds Still Hover Over Presidential Election
by Amil Imani
[..]
As our republic embarks on a new presidential term of office, it faces a new kind of constitutional crisis. This new crisis to the republic plus an atmosphere of distrust arises from corrupted, power hungry politicians and their accomplices, the big media. Special interest abuses and partisan bias in the administration of justice are shameful acts of the servants of the people who have forgotten they have taken a sacred oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
When individuals make mistakes, the consequences are limited. However, when our elected officials make mistakes, the results can be catastrophic. It is disheartening to see the world’s best hope for freedom and democracy, the United States of America, make a gross mistake at this crucial juncture. Once again, America is at a critical point and facing troubles from within and in several hotspots of the world.
The Constitution of the United States clearly states three requirements to become the President of the United States.
| — Hat tip: Amil Imani | [Return to headlines] |
Code Pink Embraces Shoe-Thrower
Following the lead of Iraqi shoe-thrower Muntazer al-Zaidi, Code Pink on Thursday launched its own protest using footwear.
The anti-war group known for disrupting congressional hearings featuring prominent Bush administration officials gathered in Washington Thursday to put hundreds of shoes in front of the White House. The group also hung shoes outside a Marine Corps recruiting station in Berkeley, Calif.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Student Gets 15 Years in Fla. Terror Case
When two Muslim students were arrested late last year in South Carolina CAIR called it racial and religious profiling. Well the judge has called it terrorism and has sentenced one of them to 15 years in jail.
| — Hat tip: Islam in Action | [Return to headlines] |
Holder Omitted Blagojevich Link From AG Questionnaire
Before Eric Holder was President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be attorney general, he was Gov. Blagojevich’s pick to sort out a mess involving Illinois’ long-dormant casino license.
Blagojevich and Holder appeared together at a March 24, 2004, news conference to announce Holder’s role as “special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board” — a post that was to pay Holder and his Washington, D.C. law firm up to $300,000.
Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire made public this week — an oversight he plans to correct after a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry, Obama’s transition team indicated late Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Fatally Beats Woman Who Gives Him Home
12-time deportee repays compassionate stranger with murder
An illegal alien — who has been deported more than a dozen times — is being charged with first-degree murder after allegedly beating a woman to death when she took him in, gave him work and treated him like family.
Paulette Locklear, 64, and several members of her church built a small house on her property in Fayetteville, N.C., for 45-year-old Julio Cesar Ramos of Honduras, North Carolina’s WRAL-TV reported.
Locklear’s nephew, Jeremy Brewington, said Locklear reached out to Ramos.
“The family just helped him any way we could,” Brewington said. “He would come and help us work, and we would pay him. He’s just been sort of part of the family for a long time.” Locklear’s brother, Paul Brewington, said Ramos was homeless and living in the woods when his sister gave him a place to stay, according to the report.
“We just started helping him and giving him food and giving him clothes and stuff,” he said. “That’s what she was doing to this fellow — just giving him a helping hand.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Woman Convicted of Trying to Obtain Night-Vision Goggles
FORT LAUDERDALE — After representing herself at trial, an Iranian woman was convicted Thursday of trying to export U.S.-made night-vision goggles to Iran.
Sharhazad Mir Gholikhan, 31, vowed to appeal the verdict returned by a federal jury in Fort Lauderdale Is your Fort Lauderdale restaurant clean? — Click Here. after roughly 12 hours of deliberation: guilty of three export violations and not guilty of three related conspiracy charges.
Federal prosecutors said Gholikhan and her former husband, Mahmoud Seif, tried to illegally procure 3,500 sets of the military-grade goggles for Iran.
Authorities arrested the couple after a 2004 meeting in Vienna, Austria, where they had obtained a sample device from a U.S. government informant posing as an arms broker.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Pick for SEC ‘Gave Bernard Madoff’s Son a Job’
Barack Obama’s choice to head the country’s heavily criticised stock market watchdog appointed one of Bernard Madoff’s sons in a previous job, it has emerged.
Mary Schapiro — set to be named head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today — is currently chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra).
In 2001, she employed Mark Madoff to serve on the board of the National Adjudicatory Council — the division which reviews disciplinary decisions made by Finra, according to the Times.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rescue Loans Guided by Raters Who Graded Subprimes AAA
Bernanke bases hundreds of billions in emergency lending on word of firms that gave top grades to toxic securities
Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is basing hundreds of billions in emergency lending on credit ratings from companies that gave AAA grades to toxic securities.
The Fed has purchased $308.5 billion in commercial paper and lent $631.8 billion under eight credit programs, most of which require appraisals of short-term debt and loan collateral by “major nationally recognized statistical ratings organizations.” That, in effect, means Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.
It is foolhardy to rely on the three New York-based companies, said Keith Allman, chief executive officer of Enstruct Corp., which trains investors in financial modeling and asset valuation. The major raters issued top marks to $3.2 trillion in subprime mortgage-backed securities at the root of the financial crisis.
“They’re outsourcing the credit assessment to a group of people whose recent performance has been unbelievably bad,” said Allman, the New York-based author of three books on structured finance and a former vice president in Citigroup Inc.’s securitized markets unit. “If their goal is to not take a loss on these assets, they should be hiring independent analysts.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Treasury: New York Firm is Front for Iranian Bank
WASHINGTON — In the latest and perhaps most unusual attempt by the Bush administration to choke off Iran’s access to the global financial system, the Treasury Department on Wednesday designated a New York real-estate partnership as a front company for Bank Melli, one of Iran’s biggest state-owned banks.
In a related action, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a civil complaint Wednesday seeking a forfeiture of the alleged straw company’s 40 percent ownership stake in a 36-story building on Fifth Avenue near Rockefeller Center. The U.S. government had already seized more than $3.1 million in two bank accounts in the U.S.
The Treasury alleged in a statement that Bank Melli had established Assa Corp. as a straw company in order to hold the ownership stake in the prime real estate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vandals Decapitate Shepherd in Nativity Display
KINGSPORT — Kingsport police are looking for the person or persons who decapitated one of the shepherds in a Nativity scene at Church Circle.
The vandalized shepherd has been returned to storage for the remainder of the Christmas season, according to Kingsport Jaycees President Curt Rose. This is the first major incident involving the Nativity scene since a few years back when someone stole the baby Jesus statue, Rose said. “Unfortunately, it seems like there are indviduals who would want to disrupt the Christmas cheer.”
While the person who stole the Jesus statue was eventually captured and the statue returned, whoever is responsible for the shepherd’s decapitation has not been caught.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: New Gun Laws Coming to Los Angeles
‘There is no need for this type of weapon … in the hands of anybody but law enforcement’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Teenager Stabbed Outside School
[Note from the Baron: no indication here whether these are immigrant “youths”. Danish readers may be able to guess, based on the neighborhood.]
A 14-year-old boy is said to be in a serious condition after being stabbed outside a school in the Copenhagen suburb of Herlev.
According to reports, 5-6 boys were waiting outside the Hammersgård School in Herlev when the boy and a couple of his friends came out.
It is as yet unclear what caused the fighting between the two groups, which resulted in one of the boys being stabbed in the stomach.
Apart from the boy who had been stabbed, both groups of boys had left the area by the time police arrived.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Extreme-Right Hungarian Guard to be Dismantled
BUDAPEST (AFP)—-A Budapest court ordered late Tuesday the dismantling of the far-right Hungarian Guard organisation, for racial discrimination against the Roma minority.
The Hungarian Guard Traditional and Cultural Association “means to create a climate of fear, while its activities — the marching of its members in Roma-populated settlements and the speeches of its leaders — constitute a breach of the rights of other citizens,” the Municipal Court of Budapest said .
The organisation, which was formed in August 2007, rejects equal rights for the Roma and creates resentment against them, the court added.
The decision was not legally binding and the organisation has said it will appeal.
“The Hungarian Guard cannot be dissolved, the Hungarian Guard will continue to work to save the nation and society, and we will appeal the court’s decision,” noted association president Gabor Vona.
Members of the Hungarian Guard movement, in black and white uniforms emblazoned with a coat of arms similar to that of Hungary’s fascist party during World War II, have staged regular marches through Roma settlements in the countryside for the past year.
Vona argued that the offshoot movement acted independently of the main association, but the court rejected this argument, noting that, “in creating a movement, the Hungarian Guard set up a framework for activities that are illegal.”
The Guard association has launched a campaign against “gypsy crimes” and held vigils for “the victims of Roma crimes”, prompting outrage from minority politicians, Roma and Jewish groups.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Chaos in Athens as Tensions Peak
Mounting tensions between police and protesters climaxed in central Athens yesterday, as masked youths hurled firebombs at police while news that a high school student had been shot in the hand in a western suburb fueled anger.
Officers fought running battles with rioters, who pelted them with stones and firebombs and set fire to trash bins and cars. In Syntagma Square, riot police guarded a new Christmas tree, erected by municipal authorities to replace the original burnt the week before.
Groups of self-styled anarchists entered the Athens University law school from which smoke was reported to be rising in the late afternoon. Meanwhile, around 5,000 schoolchildren and other demonstrators staged a mostly peaceful march through the center.
In Peristeri, western Athens, local residents gathered to protest after a 16-year-old boy was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the hand. The boy, whose father is a teacher and a unionist affiliated with the Communist Party (KKE), reportedly suffered the injury on Wednesday night when unidentified assailants fired at him while he was standing with friends on a street corner. Witnesses claimed two shots were fired, the first of which hit the boy’s hand. The boy’s father Constantinos Paplomatas spoke of “a murder attempt… by sinister forces.” A police spokesman said that no officers had been in the area at the time.
Responding to the news, Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said that such incidents highlight “the fragile and valuable nature of social equilibrium which it is the government’s chief priority to maintain.” The KKE has planned a protest rally in Peristeri to begin at noon today…..
[Comment from Tuan Jim: Many reports have already stated that there were no police in the vicinity of this last incident at that the boy was actually treated for a wound that came from an air-rifle.]
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Melanie Phillips: Labour Finally Admits Married Parents Are Best for Children…
…but it’s still funding the destruction of society
Put the flags out! The government has finally admitted that children are best served by being brought up by their own two married parents. Well, you don?t say. For more than two decades, this statement of the blindingly obvious has been denied by the left-wingers who control our culture. Instead, they insisted that there was no such thing as a broken family, that all types of household were as good as each other for bringing up children …
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Gävle Goat’s Little Brother Torched
It has become something of a Swedish Christmas tradition for the famous Gävle goat to be burned by vandals. But while that goat has so far survived intact this year, its smaller and less famous brother in Lycksele, northern Sweden, has been destroyed.
Fire officers were called to the straw goat in the town’s main square at half past midnight on Thursday night.
“It is true that the goat has burned. The fire brigade attended and hosed it down,” said Dan Andersson of Umeå police.
A number of towns in Sweden erect straw goats in their main squares over the Christmas period. The straw goat of Gävle, first erected in 1966, has been burned many times in the run-up to Christmas.
Pyromaniacs in Lycksele “appear to be taking over the Gävle tradition,” said Andersson, who expressed disappointment that the ornament had been destroyed.
“It wasn’t enormous, but it’s a shame it couldn’t be allowed to survive,” he said.
The goat’s association with the yuletide season is believed to derive from pagan Scandinavian religion. In the 18th century the Christmas goat fulfilled a role similar to that of Santa Claus. These days, straw goats are used by many as seasonal decorations.
People keen to see whether the Gävle goat makes it to Christmas can now follow its fate via webcam.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Rioting Breaks Out in Malmö Suburb
Scores of young people rioted on Thursday night in Rosengård, the Malmö suburb in which tensions have been running high since the recent closure of an Islamic cultural centre.
Some 100 youths ran amok for the second straight night, setting cars and garbage bins ablaze and throwing stones at police, police said.
“We’ve had a very difficult evening. There have been fires burning since this afternoon in garbage bins and cars, there’s extensive damage to public property, and there’s been stonethrowing and bomb threats against police,” police spokeswoman Ewa-Gun Westford told AFP.
One person was arrested during the riots, she said.
Westford said the troubles were linked to the recent closure of an Islamic cultural centre in Malmö’s heavily-immigrant populated neighbourhood Rosengård.
The owner of the building wanted to use the space for other purposes, and the Islamic centre, which housed a mosque among other things, moved out and handed over the keys.
But a group of young people squatted the office space on November 24th, and police intervened early this week to remove the occupants and empty the offices.
Police guarded the location until Wednesday, and once they left youths tried to occupy the building again.
Riots broke out on Wednesday night, when youths set fires in the area and threw stones and bottles at police. Seventeen youths were detained during those clashes.
“The origin of the riots is the occupation of the building. But that’s not really the reason now, now other troublemakers have just joined in, taking advantage of the situation,” Westford said.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
The Czech Presidency Answers the Most Frequently Asked Questions
…4. How important is the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty for the Czech EU Presidency? And, in this context, how do you perceive the criticism from President Václav Klaus? The ratification process for the Lisbon Treaty continues: at European level, following the Irish request, the summit guaranteed the sovereignty of the Member States in security and tax policy matters. Therefore, Ireland has the possibility to repeat the referendum that took place in June 2008 when the Irish voters refused the document since it lacked these safeguards. This may happen during the Czech Presidency.
The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic has given its opinion on the six points concerning the Lisbon Treaty referred to it by the Senate and did not find them in conflict with the Czech Constitution. This made it possible to continue the ratification process in both chambers of the Parliament. The Chamber of Deputies is expected to give its opinion on the document on 3 February 2009. At the same time, the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) recommends to press for a priority adoption of the international treaties on the US anti-missile shield.
I do not see the differing opinions on the Lisbon Treaty, or direct criticism of it, as something destructive — on the contrary. I believe that even the arguments of the ‘devil’s advocates’ can only be beneficial for the debate about the future of the European Union. Indeed, public opinion polls show that the impact of an open exchange of views on the perception of the Lisbon Treaty is rather positive..…
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
UK, Luton: Drug Cartel Jailed
Three men who formed a major Class A drug cartel have been caged for a total of 28-and-a-half years.
L-R: Imran Anwar, Ghulam Ghaus and Shamim KhanImran Anwar, 36, of Portland Road, Luton, had pleaded not guilty but convicted at an earlier hearing of conspiring to supply Heroin and Crack Cocaine.
Co-defendants Ghulam Ghause, 34, of Dunstable Road, Luton, and Shamin Khan, 35, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.
All three were sentenced by Judge Peter Wright at Luton Crown Court on Thursday.
He said the prison sentences were to reflect how seriously the courts took the supply of Class A drugs and the damage they do to society.
Anwar, said to be the ringleader of the gang, was sentenced to 14 years, Ghaus said to be his right-hand man to eight years and Khan said to be at the bottom of the cartel six-and-a-half-years.
| — Hat tip: Lionheart | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘Lord Road Rage’: Peer of the Realm With £315m Fortune ‘Went Berserk’ in Attack on Motorist
One was a peer of the realm with an estimated £315million fortune, the other a council engineer.
When the Mercedes-Benz driven by Baron Kirkham of Old Cantley almost collided with Keith Pearce’s Fiat Punto, what followed did little to bridge the gap in their social status.
[…]
He is alleged to have approached Mr Pearce shouting and swearing, before attacking him.
Mr Pearce, 50, said the businessman shouted at him: ‘What the f****** hell do you think you are doing?’
Lord Kirkham allegedly had both his hands raised ‘like claws’ and went for the other man’s face, pushing his thumbs into his eyes.
Mr Pearce said: ‘Momentarily I lost vision. I presume he used his thumbs.
‘I had no chance to defend myself. I pushed him away then he attacked me again.’
He said he pushed the peer away once more before he was punched two or three times on the chin and face.
‘It was all over in just two or three minutes,’ he said.
Mr Pearce grabbed hold of Lord Kirkham’s jacket and put his arms around his neck to try and restrain him, only for the peer to start scratching his face.
The two wrestled to the ground and only parted after an onlooker told them to ‘pack it in’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Astrazeneca Row as Corruption Claims Engulf Nobel Prize
The integrity of the Nobel prize was called into question last night after it emerged that a member of the jury also sat on the board of a pharmaceuticals giant that benefited from the award of this year’s prize for medicine.
Prosecutors were studying whether AstraZeneca, the London-based multi-national pharmaceutical company, could have exerted undue influence on the award.
The joint winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine, Harald zur Hausen, was recognised for his work on the human papilloma virus (HPV), which can lead to cervical cancer. AstraZeneca has a stake in two lucrative vaccines against the virus.
Two senior figures in the process that chose Mr zur Hausen have strong links with the pharmaceutical company, which has also recently begun sponsoring the Nobel website and pro-motional subsidiary. The company strongly denies any wrongdoing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Did Rachel’s Killer Commit 109 Sex Attacks?
Chilling past of psychopath with a lust for butchering blonde mothers
He was an angelic schoolboy who grew into a monster.
This is Robert Clive Napper, serial rapist and triple killer.
Yesterday, he admitted killing Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in July 1992 — and brought to a close one of the most tragic and baffling mysteries in living memory.
Today it can be revealed that the man with a terrifying love of killing young mothers in front of their children, has been linked to 109 sex attacks.
In a dramatic finale to a slaughter which has haunted Britain for 16 years, the 42-year-old former warehouseman was sent to Broadmoor for what everyone expects will be the rest of his life.
His conviction for her manslaughter destroyed any lingering, misguided belief that Colin Stagg, formerly the chief and only suspect, had anything to do with the crime.
It also exposed a shocking catalogue of police blunders and failures which meant that Rachel and a young mother and daughter killed by Napper need not have died.
[…]
But solving the case also uncovered the blunders.
First, police missed a critical opportunity to arrest Napper in 1989 when he confessed to his mother that he had raped someone.
Then they failed to identify him as a suspect for a further series of rapes — and refused to link him to the Wimbledon Common murder despite glaringly obvious similarities.
Their misguided “obsession” with Stagg was compounded by what one senior legal figure described yesterday as the “mesmerising” influence of Paul Britton, the controversial forensic psychologist who compiled a profile of Rachel’s likely killer.
The startling list of mistakes topped a disastrous day for Scotland Yard’s reputation.
Senior officers were forced to make an unprecedented public apology to Stagg, currently enjoying a £706,000 compensation payout.
Astonishingly, there was no such apology to Rachel’s family — even though detectives were compelled to admit that had Napper been apprehended back in 1989, Rachel need not have died.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Good Samaritan Teenager Held for Hours
A kind-hearted teenager was interrogated for two hours and threatened with a criminal record by police after he attempted to help elderly residents left stranded by icy weather.
Philip Barnes, 17, went to the aid of the residents on an estate in Kendal, Cumbria, who were unable to leave their homes because the footpaths outside had not been gritted.
Determined to accomplish his act of kindness, the teenager and his friends spent hours driving around town looking for grit for the paths around the estate in Cedar Grove.
He finally found some at a railway station and went ahead with the gritting.
[…]
‘Two days later I was contacted by the police who said they had CCTV of me stealing the grit and said I was being considered for prosecution. I could not believe it.
Philip added: ‘They came to my house and questioned me for two hours.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: It’s Hard to Think of a Less Worthy Bailout Than Indian-Owned Jaguar
Could there be any less worthy case for a Government bailout than Jaguar-Land Rover? It is hard to think of one. The firm is foreign-owned, having been bought by the Indian conglomerate Tata for £1.5billion earlier this year when it already was clear the world was heading towards recession.
Moreover, Tata was buying a company notorious for manufacturing fuel-guzzling motors at a time when the oil price was soaring and when the Treasury was planning to impose punitive taxes on such ‘Chelsea tractors’.
But having already used £37billion of taxpayers’ cash in an attempt to kickstart the banking system and untold more billions trying to keep banks lending to each other, it will be hard for Labour to resist providing some help to a company which employs 15,000 and is a large and prestigious exporter.
[…]
However, this is particularly difficult in the case of the Indian group Tata which appears to want ownership without responsibility. It should be pointed out that the owners are no paupers.
Last year, admittedly in very different economic conditions, they made £3.4billion of profits on global sales of £40billion.
Tens of thousands of British jobs have been lost to Bangalore and elsewhere thanks to one of its subsidiaries, Tata Consulting Services (which provides sophisticated computer jobs).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Intel Chiefs Raise Defenses
LONDON — Britain’s intelligence chiefs — Sir John Scarlett of MI6, Jonathan Evans of MI5 and David Pepper of the Government Communications Headquarters — each have been provided with the ultimate Christmas present, a mobile fortress fitted with more gadgets than ever given to James Bond, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Their defenses are being raised because of the belief in al-Qaida’s intention to bring terror to the streets of Great Britain and concern that those dangers will reach extreme levels during the Christmas season.
[…]
The new vehicles, with top speeds of 150 miles an hour, were built in secret in a high security workshop at BMW headquarters in Munich, Germany. The blueprints were kept under lock and key, and engineers who hand-built each limousine were security cleared by German intelligence and MI5 vetting officers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Who Battered Alzheimer’s Wife to Death Weeks Before Golden Wedding Anniversary Walks Free From Court
A pensioner who battered his elderly, frail wife to death walked free from court today.
Joan Holland’s body had 126 separate injuries when police found her naked and bleeding at the family home in Lancashire.
Neighbours heard her husband James of nearly 50 years repeatedly hitting her and calling her a ‘stupid f****** bitch’ in the months before he killed her on January 7.
Retired miner Holland, 75, was described in court by his daughter as ‘overbearing’ and someone whose wishes had to be complied with.
He admitted manslaughter — which carries a maximum life punishment — and was today given a 51 weeks sentence suspended for two years.
[…]
At 11pm the night he killed the mother of his only child, a neighbour heard Holland swearing at her, then a loud bang followed by Mrs Holland screaming.
The banging continued until 3am the following morning.
And after inflicting multiple injuries on her — including stabbing her in the head and hands with scissors — Holland waited for several hours before calling an ambulance.
When police arrived at 4am they discovered the killer had spent time covering his tracks.
He tried to wash blood away from several parts of the house and claimed he found her collapsed when he got up to use the toilet.
Holland should have faced a murder trial but pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month.
The Crown accepted that he did not intend to kill or cause Mrs Holland ‘really serious harm’ — the test for whether a defendant is charged with murder.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Thug Jailed After Stabbing Police Officer and His Dog During Arrest
A man who repeatedly stabbed a police officer and his dog in a vicious attack was jailed for nine years today.
Essa Suleiman, 26, attacked PC Neil Sampson and his dog Anya as they tried to arrest him in January this year.
The policeman suffered stab wounds to his head, face and leg and the dog was stabbed in the chest during the attack, while another officer was also assaulted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Argentina Seizes Assets of Former Iranian Diplomat
(IsraelNN.com) An Argentinean court issued an order on Tuesday for the immediate seizure of assets in that country identified as belonging to a one-time Iranian diplomat who was a central figure in deadly terrorist bombings of Jewish targets in Buenos Aires.
The order was part of a civil lawsuit brought against the perpetrators of the 1994 bombing of the Jewish-Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people and wounded 300. A survivor of the attack is seeking approximately one million dollars in damages from Iran and its agents who were involved in orchestrating the operation, which was carried out by cells of Hizbullah in South America.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Former General: Israel Can’t Defeat Iran
Former National Security Council Chairman Giora Eiland warns against Israeli strike in Iran; Israel does not possess military capabilities that would enable Jewish State to completely destroy Tehran’s nuclear program, he says
Israeli officials have been repeatedly warning that Israel may end up attacking Iran, yet former National Security Council Chairman Giora Eiland says such strike would not eliminate Tehran’s nuclear program.
Speaking at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, Eiland says Israel cannot defeat Iran’s regime via a military operation.
“To our regret, there is no Israeli military capability that would enable us to reach a situation whereby Iran’s nuclear capabilities are destroyed without the possibility of recovery,” he said. “The maximal achievement that Israel can accomplish is to disrupt and suspend Iran’s nuclear program.”
“The million dollar question” is the extent of a sufficient suspension period, Eiland said.
The former general said that Israel “cannot defeat Iran,” adding that an Israeli military operation or aerial strike cannot force Iran to capitulate or end its nuclear development efforts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Olmert Wants to Meet With Syria’s Leader
In talks without pressing Damascus to cut ties with Iran, terrorists
[Comments from JD: Olmert and ilk are traitors for looking to yield territory that has been used TWICE to launch attacks on Israel. This is the height of stupidity.]
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would like to reach an agreement with Syria before he leaves office in February, and he is even willing to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to diplomatic sources speaking to WND.
Olmert is scheduled to travel to Turkey for a meeting Monday with the country’s prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss Israel’s indirect negotiations with Syria aimed at an Israeli retreat from part or most of the strategic Golan Heights. The Golan is mountainous territory looking down on Israeli population centers twice used by Damascus to mount ground invasions into the Jewish state.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Journalist ‘Regrets’ Hurling Shoes at Bush
Muntadar al-Zeidi, who was imprisoned after Sunday’s incident, wrote to the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to express his “regret” for an “ugly act”.
He faces a possible prison sentence of two years for insulting a foreign leader. The journalist’s brother says Mr Zeidi has already been beaten in prison — a charge denied by the Iraqi authorities.
“It is too late now to regret the big and ugly act that I perpetrated,” said Mr Zeidi’s letter, according to Mr Maliki’s spokesman Yassin Majid.
His meek tone was very different from the vituperative words he used to Mr Bush’s face: “This is your farewell kiss, you dog!” he then exclaimed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqis Who ‘Executed’ British Soldiers Can Face War Crimes Trial, Judge Rules
Two Iraqis accused of killing British soldiers in cold blood can be lawfully handed over to the authorities in Baghdad for trial for war crimes — despite “a real risk” they could face the death penalty, the High Court ruled today.
Faisal Al-Saadoon, 56, and Khalaf Mufdhi, 58, detained by British forces in Basra, were given until 4pm on Monday next week to challenge the unprecedented ruling in the Court of Appeal.
Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Silber, sitting in London, ordered the Government not to remove them “outside British custody” before that deadline.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia Religious Tolerance Down
[Comment from Tuan Jim: Frankly I’m surprised to see NU taking such an honest approach — they’ve generally been one of the most “mainstream” organizations — but I wasn’t expecting something quite like this.]
JAKARTA: Religious tolerance has had a bleak year in Indonesia, according to a new study by a think-tank linked to the country’s largest Islamic organisation Nahdlatul Ulama. In its report on the state of religious pluralism released last week, the Wahid Institute said that 234 violations of religious freedom occurred in the first 11 months of this year, a 19 per cent increase from last year.
Figures from earlier years were unavailable because the four-year-old institute did not carry out detailed studies before last year. The institute was set up to promote moderate Islam and named after former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid.
This year’s figures included violent attacks in the name of religion, conflicts over places of worship, and religion-inspired regulations that suppressed freedom of expression.
Almost 90 per cent of Indonesia’s population of 236 million are Muslims, with Christians, Buddhists and Hindus legally allowed to practise their faith.
But while analysts note that tensions between those of different faiths do exist, they say recent violations of religious freedom have been worsened by political jostling.
Ahead of next year’s polls, politicians have been loath to come down too hard on religious groups, even those which may use violence. The politicians do not want to alienate the growing pool of religious conservatives, the analysts say.
This is especially so in the case of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as the success of his coalition will probably depend again on the support of some Islamic parties, they say.
This led Wahid Institute researcher Rumadi to warn: ‘We must stay alert that religious issues may be used as a tool for political bargaining.’
The Wahid Institute report pointed to two major events that highlighted the worsening state of religious pluralism.
First of all was the passing of the recent anti- pornography law, which critics say will threaten art and traditional culture — from temple statues in Bali to penis sheaths on tribesmen in Papua province.
The hereditary sultan of Yogyakarta yesterday said he opposed the new law. Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, a candidate for the presidential elections, said the law was ‘the most terrible thing in the process of building our nation’.
Senior political analyst Arbi Sanit said the law was a sign of the government catering to religious fundamentalists.
Mr Arbi, who teaches at the University of Indonesia, said the Islamic radical parties initiated the move. ‘They were trying to court Muslim support… but the government didn’t dare object to this as they didn’t want to look bad.’
Second, said the Wahid Institute, was the government’s weak effort to handle the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which has had a history of terrorising society in the name of religion.
In June, FPI radicals attacked some 200 Christians, moderate Muslims and members of the minority Ahmadiyah sect who were rallying to promote religious tolerance.
Days later, the government issued a decree ordering the long-persecuted Ahmadiyah sect to stop spreading its faith, but did not ban the FPI.
University of Indonesia senior political science lecturer Maswadi Rauf said the government was ‘trapped in the middle, between two different ideologies’.
Terrorism specialist Sidney Jones said ‘poorly managed communal tensions’, which can tear apart Indonesia’s social fabric, are now the country’s biggest threat.
‘Unless Jakarta takes a tougher stance against vigilantes and in favour of religious freedom and minority rights, internal security problems are likely to increase,’ Ms Jones wrote in an article for the Jakarta Post earlier this year.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Forces Start Anti-Terror Drill
JAKARTA — INDONESIAN security forces launched a major anti-terror drill on Friday ahead of the Christmas holidays, a period when the Southeast Asian nation previously suffered bomb attacks. Indonesia has not suffered a major attack for three years, but it is still considered at risk from Islamic militants.
‘It is still fresh in our memory, tragedies in Indonesia,’ Indonesian Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri told an opening ceremony in Jakarta, noting as well recent militant attacks in Mumbai.
Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, but has large minorities of other religions including Christians and there were a series of bomb attacks on churches on Christmas eve in 2000.
The exercise involving more than 6,500 personnel will be conducted in the waters of the busy Malacca Strait, as well as hotels and transport hubs in major cities and in Bali.
The three-day drill includes a simulation of a hotel siege following the deadly attacks in Mumbai, where hotels were major targets.
TV footage showed heavily armed, balaclava-clad police scaling down the side of a hotel in Bandung in West Java to rescue hostages.
Raids often involving Detachment 88, an anti-terrorism unit funded and trained by the United States and Australia, have led to the arrest of hundreds of militants suspects in Indonesia.
But illustrating the dangers the country still faces, police recently foiled a plan to bomb an oil storage facility in north Jakarta, and in July police found bombs stored in the ceiling of a house in Palembang, Sumatra, and linked the group involved to the regional militant organisation Jemaah Islamiah.
Jemaah Islamiah has been blamed for deadly attacks in recent years in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. — REUTERS
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Politicians Divided on New Islamic Coalition
Some Islam-based parties are pushing for a political coalition to win next year’s elections, but others are questioning the relevance of such a sectarian alliance to nurture Indonesia’s democracy and pluralism.
The Islamic coalition, similar to the axis force that won Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid the presidency in 1999, is driven to reform the poor image and performance of the majority of Islam-based parties in the post-reform era.
It will also act as a strong political vehicle for Muslim politicians who require significant support in order to nominate a presidential candidate under a strict new law.
Parties have been under pressure to merge since the law ruled that only a party or coalition of parties with 20 percent of seats in the House of Representatives, or 25 percent of popular votes in the legislative elections, would be able to contest the presidential election.
All Islamic-based parties garnered less than 10 percent of votes during the 2004 legislative elections. Only the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the United Development Party (PPP) managed to grab about 10 percent of the votes each.
Recent surveys found all Islamic parties, except for the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), would see a significant drop in votes in the 2009 elections.
“We need to form a strategic coalition to make ourselves heard. This coalition of Islam-based parties will have the same platform for strategic issues relevant to the Islamic community as a whole,” Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin, who initiated the alliance, said at a discussion Thursday.
The discussion, hosted by the Center for Dialogue and Cooperation among Civilizations (CDCC) which is also led by Din, was attended by representatives from major Islam-based parties and organizations.
They included National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Muhaimin Iskandar, Azrul Azwar of the PPP, Hamdan Zoelva of the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and Busroh Zarnubi of the Star Reform Party (PBR).
At a separate forum Thursday the National Sun Party (PMB), founded by Muhammadiyah figures and activists, declared Din its presidential candidate.
“Pak Din is what the nation needs. He is an excellent alternative candidate,” PMB chairman Imam Addaruqutni said in a speech announcing his party’s presidential nomination.
Din, speaking at the CDCC discussion, said a strategic coalition is needed for Islam-based parties so they can offer an alternative and challenge the nationalist parties, especially Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), in the upcoming elections.
The PDI-P has nominated Megawati Soekarnoputri as its presidential candidate while Golkar will likely back a re-election bid for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
Hamdan and Azrul said their parties would support the Islamic coalition to promote stronger action for the interests of Muslims.
Amidhan, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and Tuty Alawiyah, a former religious affairs minister and current chair of a national communication forum for Islamic gatherings, agreed that the discussion should be immediately followed up by action to push for the coalition.
Muhaimin welcomed the establishment of an Islamic coalition, but could not say whether the PKB would join the alliance.
“We need this coalition not for the 2009 elections but for the longer term,” he said without elaborating.
Busroh quickly criticized the Din-proposed coalition, saying the pluralist country did not need sectarian politics.
“It will break up the country. Why do we need a dichotomy of Islam and nationalists while most of us are Muslims?,” he said.
Opposition was also voiced by the PKS which questioned the relevance of such a sectarian political approach.
“What we need most is a strong government to accelerate our development. I doubt that such a coalition will contribute to that objective,” senior PKS politician Mahfudz Siddiq said in a text message to The Jakarta Post.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Catholic Newspaper Faces Ban for Writing “Allah”
A Catholic newspaper in Malaysia is facing a ban for using the word “Allah” to describe the Christian god.
Unless the government changes its mind, the Herald Catholic Weekly has only two weeks left to run before its licence expires at the end of the year.
The deputy home minister Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said: “Until December 31 we are not going to announce anything. There is plenty of time till then. Let them wait.”
Malaysia is a semi-authoritarian country with strict media laws which has been ruled by the same government since independence from Britain 51 years ago.
Almost 60 per cent of the population are ethnic Malay Muslims and the remainder are ethnic Chinese or Indians following a variety of religions. These large ethnic and religious minorities claim that the government is attempting to stir Malay Muslim sentiment in attempt to deflect its unpopularity and maintain power.
“The Catholic Herald’s ‘Allah’ is seen as a threat to national security,” said Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Indian ‘FBI’ to Help Combat Terrorism
India’s parliament has passed a new law creating a version of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation — a nationwide police force operating across state boundaries.
The law is one a bunch of measures designed to quell public alarm after the Mumbai terrorist attacks that killed 170 people.
Civil rights campaigners in the subcontinent are furious that the parliament has also revived old rules allowing police to hold suspects for up to 180 days without charge.
Indian broadcasters meanwhile agreed on a new set of rules regarding their coverage of breaking crises — following accusations that their coverage of the attacks inadvertently helped the Mumbai terrorists.
With Indians in equal measure worried about the chances of another attack and derisive of their government’s handling of the Mumbai shootings, the ruling Congress party has reason to fear a coming election.
Already fighting a stiff challenge from the Right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress is keen to burnish its security credentials.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Proud Achievement for Korea
The Zaytun Unit, which has been stationed in northern Iraq, arrived back in Korea on Friday. It has been four years and three months since they were deployed there. Troop levels stood at 3,800 at one time. The total number of Korean troops stationed there over those years totaled 19,000, making it Korea’s largest overseas troop deployment since the Vietnam War……
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Japan to Accept 30 Myanmar Refugees Residing in Thailand
The Japanese government has announced that it will accept 30 refugees from the war-torn nation of Myanmar from fiscal 2010, the first time an Asian country has formally accepted refugees who reside in another nation after fleeing their home country.
The decision was made by an inter-governmental panel on the topic by 11 ministries and agencies at a meeting on Friday. There are plans to possibly increase the number accepted in the future.
The 30 will be selected during the next fiscal year, with cooperation from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR).
Under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, interviews for prospective refugees can usually only be carried out within Japan. When candidates are refugees who are living in another country after fleeing their home nation, however, the law allows government representatives to go to the refugees’ country of residence. They are currently living in Thailand.
Japan accepts refugees who have been recommended by the UNHCR as needing protection, and are deemed as families capable of fitting into Japanese society. The government will give them Japanese language lessons and job placement and training….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Philippine Communist Insurgents Declare Christmas Ceasefire
MANILA (AFP)—Communist insurgents in the Philippines Friday said they would declare a five-day ceasefire over the Christmas and New Year holidays but also encompassing their anniversary Dec. 26. The unilateral ceasefire would cover Dec. 24 to 26 and Dec. 31 to Jan. 1, “in unity with the Filipino people’s holiday traditions,” said a statement by the Communist Party of the Philippines, or CPP. This would be longer than the government’s own unilateral Christmas and New Year ceasefire that only covers Dec. 24 to Dec. 25 and Dec. 31 to Jan. 1. The longer unilateral ceasefire “would also serve to allow the holding of mass gatherings in the more than a hundred guerrilla fronts across the country to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the CPP Dec. 26,” the rebel group said in their statement. Leftist groups with ties to the CPP will take part in these celebrations in the coming days, the statement added. In the past, the government has suspended military operations against rebels on Christmas and New Year’s Day and eve as a gesture to the largely-Christian populace that considers these days to be religious holidays. However, the military has usually been on red alert Dec. 26 as the communist rebels often mark their anniversary by beginning attacks on government installations. The CPP and its 5,000-strong guerrilla arm, the New People’s Army, or NPA, have been waging an almost 40-year Maoist insurgency. In late November, the CPP turned down efforts to revive the stalled peace negotiations with the government. Maoist guerrillas murdered 94 civilians in the Philippines in the first 10 months of the year, the government has said.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: Sahiron, Jemaah Islamiyah Leader Killed in Clashes?
ZAMBOANGA CITY — The military said it was highly probable that Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sahiron and a Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant were killed in recent encounters in Sulu.
Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Nelson Allaga said there were indications that Sahiron was killed after he fell off his horse, which was shot by automatic gunfire from government troops during an encounter in Talipao last Dec. 7.
“There is a very high probability that Radulan Sahiron was killed and one JI, but we can not confirm and validate it as of the moment,” Allaga said.
Allaga added they were not able to retrieve the supposed body of Sahiron to confirm his death.
“The reason we came up with that conclusion is because in the (Abu Sayyaf) camp that was attacked by the troops, we saw the horse of Radulan lying on the ground, and he usually rides on (that) horse,” Allaga said.
The attack in Talipao also killed nine soldiers, he added.
On the identity of the slain JI militant, Allaga said they are still verifying the reports.
The reports also indicated three JI militants were among the Abu Sayyaf when troops launched the attack.
Allaga identified the high value targets as Umar Patek, Marwan and Zulkipli.
He stressed intelligence reports kept pouring in pointing that Sahiron was killed during the encounter.
Sahiron is among the high-ranking leaders of Abu Sayyaf wanted by the US government for the kidnapping of 21 tourists in the island resort of Sipadan, among other high profile kidnapping of foreigners.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief, Gen. Alexander Yano earlier revealed intelligence efforts to validate reports of the killing of a JI operative in the encounter.
Yano said there are reliable reports that “a high value” al-Qaeda-linked JI operative was among the five terrorists killed by government troops during the assault on the suspected hideout of Sahiron.
Yano, however, did not elaborate on the identity of the so-called high value target killed by troops during the encounter since they have not retrieved any dead body at the site.
Anti-terror Task Force Comet chief Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban also did not substantiate reports that a JI militant was among those killed during the assault.
Sabban said troops in the area failed to retrieve the bodies of the slain JI terrorist or any of the Abu Sayyaf bandits since they had been dragged away by their fleeing comrades.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Indians Trafficked Into Finland as Members of Film Crew
Investigations into the illegal entry of Indians into Finland are nearing closure. An international crime ring is suspected of organising the trafficking of Indian nationals into Finland.
The ring is thought to have attempted to smuggle hundreds of Indian nationals into Finland and also to have arranged for their onward travel into other parts of Europe.
A 39-year old Indian man thought to be the ringleader has been held in detention in Finland since September.
The group sought 129 visa applications, of which 117 were granted for applicants all born in the 1980’s and resident in the Punjab state in northwest India. The visas were allegedly sought for members of a film crew that would be working on a feature film and music videos.
Preliminary investigations indicate that 18 of the visa recipients arrived in Finland, eight of them illegally. Of the other alleged film crew members, dozens were apprehended in other countries such as France and the Czech Republic.
The vast majority of those who arrived in Finland were turned away. Three of them became asylum seekers and have already received residence permits. They reportedly paid money to an Indian trafficker in order to gain entry into Italy and Spain.
The preliminary investigation is expected to conclude next week, and charges should be laid at the latest on January 8.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
‘Relax Restrictions’ for Asylum Seekers With Swedish Kids
Sweden’s Migration Minister Tobias Billström has vowed to ease residency restrictions for asylum seekers who have started families with Swedish partners.
While an asylum seeker who has children with a Swede already has the right to permanent residency in Sweden, the person in question must first return to his or her home country to seek a permit, a process that can take up to half a year.
Under the current regulations, mothers with newborn children have often been left with no other option than to leave Sweden with a newborn child in order to apply for a residence permit.
But now Migration Minister Tobias Billström has said he will endeavour to “fasttrack” a new law that would enable the migration authorities to make exceptions to the law.
In an interview with Sveriges Radio, Billström said he expected the amended law to come into force in Spring 2010.
Previously, the minister had indicated that he would await the outcome of an official inquiry before giving his backing to a legislative amendment.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
9-Year-Old Called Drug Dealer Over Cough Drops
A Florida elementary school accused a 9-year-old student of selling drugs for sharing cough drops with friends.
Officials at Patterson Elementary School in Clay County decided, however, not to discipline Khalin Rivenbark, who met with the girl and her father Wednesday.
The accusation arose one day earlier when the child got into trouble after her father put some Halls Defense Vitamin C cough drops in her school bag when she was recovering from a cold, she told Jacksonville’s WJXT-TV
She later shared some with friends.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Next Taxpayer Bailout: Abortion Industry?
Will Barack Obama provide the abortion industry with a bailout of its own, costing taxpayers billions of dollars?
The Obama-Biden Transition Project posted a plan on its website called “Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration.” It is signed by a coalition of 66 groups including Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The outline lists proposed steps for Obama’s first 100 days in office including the following:
- Increase funding for Title X (which funds Planned Parenthood) to $700 million from the current $300 million
- Expand coverage of taxpayer-funded abortions under Medicaid
- Promote sex education in schools and communities at cost of $50 million
- Provide birth control at colleges
- Expand taxpayer-funded abortions to federal employees, military facilities, the Peace Corps and federal prisoners
- Increase funding for Title V Maternal and Child Health services to $850 million from $666 million
- Provide international abortion providers with $1 billion
- Increase funding for the CDC’s school HIV and STD prevention programs from $40.2 million to $66.6 million
- Increase funding for substance abuse and mental health services programs for pregnant women and mothers from $12 million to $70 million
- De-fund abstinence only programs
- Re-examine Bush administration policies that block or limit women’s access to emergency contraception
- Pass the Freedom of Choice Act
- Select judicial nominees who “demonstrate a commitment to justice civil rights, equal rights, individual liberties, and the fundamental constitutional right to privacy, including the right to have an abortion.”
Obama’s transition office is also trying to find ways to undo Bush administration policies dealing with abortion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Support Plummets for Plan to Criminalize Christianity
The Islamic nations whose leaders want Christianity criminalized sustained a severe blow at the United Nations today when the momentum on their religion “anti-defamation” proposal suddenly shifted.
WND previously reported on the plan that has been in the works since 1999, sponsored by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The “anti-defamation” law was proposed ostensibly to protect religions from criticism and attack.
However, the plan mentions only Islam as needing protection.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, has assembled a petition opposing the plan that has been signed by about 400,000 people already. He said today’s U.N. General Assembly vote, which was 86 yes, 53 no and 42 abstentions, was a dramatic shift from the vote from one year ago, which was 108 yes, 51 no, and 25 abstentions.
Because of the circuitous route to adoption in the labyrinth of the U.N., a General Assembly vote such as today’s does not automatically mean adoption. Nor does it mean the proposal will disappear.
But Sekulow told WND that the change was “huge.”
“To have basically over a 20 percent shift, this is a significant loss of momentum for the OIC,” he said, “and a clear message the world opinion is going against this special status for Islam.”
He said his organization, along with a sister group, the European Center for Law and Justice, which has a special seat at the U.N., would continue to work to build opposition to the plan.
“We hope it comes down to the OIC as the only countries supporting this, and even those will start peeling away. This was a huge victory,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cereal Production Sets New Record in 2008: UN Agency
ROME — Cereal production has set a new record in 2008 at 2.24 billion tonnes, a 5.4 percent increase over last year, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.
Developed countries account for most of the increase, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a report, adding that output in poor countries had risen only “marginally”.
While international grain prices have continued to fall in recent months, food prices remain high in developing countries, the Rome-based agency said….
….Despite the record production, 33 countries “are estimated to be in need of external assistance as a result of crop failures, conflict or insecurity and high domestic food prices,” the report said.
It singled out Zimbabwe, where the FAO estimates some 5.1 million people face food insecurity, and North Korea, where “an estimated 8.7 million people, or around 40 percent of the population, urgently need food assistance.”
In Zimbabwe, a devastating cholera outbreak “poses an additional serious threat to health and nutrition of the vulnerable population,” the FAO said.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
If Del Boy Was Around Today, He’d be Trading in Carbon Offsets
From the New York Times, December 12: Soviet scientists on board an icebreaker drifting just 300 miles from the North Pole have concluded that the world is getting hotter.
Warm-water fish are appearing in increasing numbers in Arctic seas as temperatures have risen, melting the ice caps.
The Russian explorers believe that very soon ships will be able to sail right across the Pole.
This news will be welcomed by “global warming” campaigners — except that it first appeared on December 12, 1938, and has just been republished on a website run by a former TV meteorologist, who treats the whole “climate change” racket with a healthy dose of sea salt.
The Soviet scientists also concluded that the warmer weather was almost certainly down to the rays of the sun.
And they added it would be rash to prophesy the duration of these higher temperatures, since the Ice Age was followed immediately by a period of much hotter summers than they were experiencing in the Thirties — the warmest decade of the 20th century, as it turned out.
A few short years later, by 1947, the ice caps were restored to their former glory and Britain experienced one of the harshest winters on record, lasting well into March.
We’re going through another one this year. November was the coldest for three decades.
We even had snow in October, on the day the Commons was debating its ludicrous, self-important “climate change” bill.
That was the same month China’s official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its “worst snowfall ever”.
Across the world, temperatures have plummeted. There was snow in Las Vegas this week. Much of North America has been hit by an ice-storm.
In Canada, there’s 30 per cent more ice than last year and the polar bears, who are supposed to be on the brink of extinction, are breeding at an alarming rate.
None of this has in any way deterred the “global warming” fascists. They dismiss this glaring, incontrovertible evidence as a “blip” and continue to insist the world is burning up.
[…]
In an increasingly secular Britain, “climate change” is the new religion. You don’t get much fuss about “global warming” in the Islamic world.
And it’s no coincidence that so many of those most active in the great “global warming” crusade used to sign up to communism and the more extreme, headbanging fringes of Far Left politics.
Mainstream politicians clamber on the solar-powered bandwagon because it allows them to posture as self-righteous friends of the Earth, while giving them licence to raise taxes, spend public money and impose ever tighter controls on the population as a whole.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
OPEC Loses Its Muscle
Despite bluster about cutting production, cartel unable to marshal members to halt price slide.
Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi arrived at the Sheraton, a big glass-and-steel building in the hills above the city, he told the waiting scrum of reporters that OPEC planned to cut production by a big number. Sure enough, on Dec. 17, OPEC announced cuts that amounted to 2.2 million barrels a day. Unimpressed, the market for crude drifted lower, to around $40.
This was the fourth meeting of OPEC since September. Two of them were hastily convened emergency sessions. Before Oran, the organization had announced 2 million barrels in cuts over the last three months. None of this has been enough to stem a plunge from the July peak of $147 per barrel. Despite the big cuts of Dec. 17, OPEC’s hopes are modest. Its target may be $75 a barrel, but a delegate from the Gulf doubted the price would exceed $55 in the first half of 2009. “OPEC is turning into an increasingly irrelevant organization,” said Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Neil McMahon on a recent conference call.
Why is OPEC’s reputation taking such a hit? The market views it as having let things get out of control when prices were surging. Now the cartel can’t seem to contain a downward slide, either. “I don’t think they even have compliance on [the cuts] they’ve already done,” says John Hall, a London-based analyst attending the conference. OPEC adopts production quotas for each of its members, but it rarely adheres to them. OPEC delegates reckon the 1.5 million- barrel-per-day cut announced in October reduced production by only 1 million barrels — nearly all of it from Saudi Arabia.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
Hiya,
The link for the the article UK, Luton: Drug Cartel Jailed appears to have changed:
The story is here.
MOTW
MOTW --
Thanks; I've changed the link.
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