Notice the articles on the economic crisis. The Dow tanked — no inauguration bounce. And the banking crisis in the UK is particularly serious. The recession (depression?) will last at least through the end of this year.Thanks to C. Cantoni, DK, Fausta, Holger Danske, Insubria, Islam in Action, JD, REP, Steen, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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1994 All Over Again?
Faced with 24/7 Obamamania on the media, the 60 million Americans who did not vote for Barack Obama are wondering where we go from here. Will events turn out like 1993, when another liberal president was inaugurated with the support of big majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate?
[…]
Obama’s push for imposing an additional trillion dollars in debt will benefit special interests at the expense of working Americans. That translates to many thousands of dollars in new costs for the average worker at a time when we can least afford it.
Less than half of Americans support this proposal, according to polls, and many view it as yet another bailout like the unpopular one for bankers last fall. Just as New Deal spending programs did nothing to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, Obama’s proposed “stimulus” package will simply dig us into a deeper hole.
Obama’s proposed stimulus promises to create 3 million new jobs, but even if it reached that implausible goal, the price tag would be over $300,000 per job. And would they be short-term government jobs or jobs with a future?
The proposed stimulus is not even enough for some Obama supporters, perhaps because so little of it will reach average Americans. It “falls far short” in the words of Terence O’Sullivan, general president of the Laborers’ International Union.
Of course, it falls short because government spending only bleeds the taxpayers to pay for government jobs, and what we need is private industry jobs. We need the government to stop its over-taxation and micromanagement of the U.S. economy, and to stop the unfair trade agreements and foreign-government policies that invite corporations to move their manufacturing overseas.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bank of America Soars as Lewis, Directors Buy Shares
Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender by assets, gained 31 percent in New York trading after Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis and five directors bought more than 500,000 shares for at least $3 million.
Lewis bought 200,000 shares of the bank at prices ranging from $5.98 to $6.06 yesterday, while director Robert Tillman also bought 200,000 shares for $5.77 to $5.78, according to a filing today. Temple Sloan Jr., lead director of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank, bought 41,800 shares. Buyers also included William Barnet III, Jacquelyn Ward and John Collins.
Purchases by insiders typically are seen as a vote of confidence, and the filing helped Bank of America stock regain some of the ground lost this week. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., also bought 500,000 shares of his bank valued at $11.5 million, according to a separate filing. Lewis bought his stake as the bank prepared to dismiss about 1,000 people, part of a reduction that may ultimately affect 35,000 jobs.
Bank of America shares advanced $1.58 to $6.68 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Earlier in the session, the shares reached $6.88. The company fell 29 percent yesterday to $5.10, a two-decade low, after Paul Miller, analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey Group Inc., said the bank needed to raise $80 billion of capital to reach adequate levels. JPMorgan added 25 percent today to $22.63.
Bank of America will dismiss about 1,000 people in its investment-banking unit this week, a third of the total…
The global job cuts include employees in merger advisory and equity and debt underwriting, the person said, speaking anonymously because the reductions haven’t been made public. They are part of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender’s plan to eliminate as many as 35,000 positions during the next three years to reduce annual costs by $7 billion.
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CAIR Welcomes Obama’s ‘Encouraging’ Statement to Muslim World in Inaugural Address
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today congratulated President Barack Obama and welcomed an “encouraging” statement to the Muslim world in his inaugural address.
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) commended President Obama for the overall positive tone of his address, and thanked him particularly for the statement: “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Kennedy Ends Senate Seat Bid
Makes Decision After Learning She Wasn’t Going to be Picked as Senator
Caroline Kennedy tonight withdrew her name from consideration to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate after learning that Gov. David Paterson wasn’t going to choose her, The Post has learned.
Kennedy’s decision removes the highest-profile name in the ring to step into Clinton’s now-vacant seat, as she departs after getting confirmed today as President Obama’s Secretary of State…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Michigan Bank Operates by Islamic Law
Detroit — Big financial institutions have been battered by mortgages gone bad. But a tiny Michigan bank is getting attention in the industry by turning a profit on loans without even charging interest.
Its specialty: financial products that comply with Islamic law. That means no collecting interest, no short selling and no contracts that are considered exceedingly risky.
It also rules out some of the activity that got Western finance in trouble — subprime mortgages, credit default swaps and the like.
“When you look at the economic crisis we’re in, if you were to follow Islamic or Sharia financing, you couldn’t have this crisis,” said John Sickler, corporate director for the bank, University Islamic Financial Corp. in Ann Arbor.
Islamic finance operations aren’t prohibited from making a profit. Far from it. Instead, banks that comply with Islamic law, or Sharia, earn money from fees that are part of the cost of the loan, some paid up front and some over time.
University Islamic Financial has two types of financing: one called a marked-up installment sale, the other a lease-to-purchase sale. Fees in both cases are comparable to interest payments in traditional loans, bank officials say.
For example: A seller who bought a house for $100,000 could sell it for $120,000 or even $300,000, provided that the buyer agrees it’s a fair deal. The home could be sold on an installment plan negotiated by buyer and seller.
The bank is a subsidiary of Michigan-based University Bank, and its leaders say they have talked recently with executives from two national banks hoping to learn more about the business.
| — Hat tip: Islam in Action | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Clergy Response Team
[Comment from JD: Google what these “clergy response teams” are expected to do…]
Pastors across the country have been called on by the Department of Homeland Security to join “Clergy Response Teams” in order to placate and control the people of America in the event of local or national emergencies. Jeff Ferrell, a reporter for KSLA in Shreveport, claimed that “For the clergy team, one of the biggest tools that they will have in helping calm the public down or to obey the law is the bible itself, specifically Romans 13.” This idea was affirmed in the report by Dr. Durell Turberville who was quoted as saying, “because the government is established by the Lord, you know. And, that’s what we believe in the Christian faith. That’s what’s stated in the scripture.”
(..)
Jeff Ferrell, the KSLA-TV reporter, also stated that, “Such clergy response teams would walk a tight-rope during martial law between the demands of the government on the one side, versus the wishes of the public on the other.”
First of all, the lawful demands of a “government of the people, for the people, and by the people” would be the same as the “wishes of the people.” If they are not the same, then something is not as it should be. Secondly, the “wishes of the people” who believe in God can never usurp the rights of their neighbors without doing violence to the command of God, Moses, and Christ to love our neighbor as ourselves.
God desires that every man should have the unimpaired and divine right of choice as long as that choice does not violate the right of our neighbor to make his own choices. There is a distinction between the privileges of governments granted by the people and the rights of the people granted by God, but the ministers of Christ should not be trying to walk that line as a tightrope. They should be squarely on the side of the people and their God given rights.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Halts All Guantanamo Trials
Includes case against 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Hours after being sworn in as US President, Barack Obama has called for a halt to Guantanamo war crimes tribunals, a move which will begin the long awaited process of dismantling the prison itself.
His request for a 120-day suspension of all 21 pending tribunals will bring to a halt the case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind and four co-defendants who faced the death penalty if convicted.
Military judges are expected to rule on Mr Obama’s request to halt the trials today at the US naval base.
The request by Mr Obama was widely anticipated — he had already vowed to close down the prison and its controversial military commission trial system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Hubris Spells His Doom
Obama’s faith in himself — and by extension, faith in the government he leads — is unshakeable. In his inaugural address, Obama dismissed the question of “whether our government is too big or too small.” Instead, he suggested, we should focus on “whether it works.” Yet there is apparently no situation in which Obama believes the government, led by Barack Obama, doesn’t work. The free market requires “a watchful eye”; “a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.” The government must build us “new roads and bridges,” “restore science to its rightful place,” “transform our schools and colleges and universities.” The government must bring about global equality via international redistribution: “poor nations … we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.” In Obama’s mind, the government he runs solves all problems and rights all wrongs.
What will happen when government fails?
Obama’s hubris — the belief that he can do no wrong, that he can miraculously lead America to “harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories” — will lead him to shift blame for his inevitable failures onto the shoulders of the American people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Freezes Pay, Toughens Ethics and Lobbying Rules
President Barack Obama said he is freezing the pay of senior White House staff employees who make more than $100,000 a year and imposing new ethics rules designed to diminish the influence of lobbyists.
Obama also said he is ordering federal agencies to make it easier for the public to get documents and information from the government.
“We are here as public servants, and public service is a privilege,” Obama said, addressing his White House staff and Cabinet on his first full day in office. “It’s not about advancing yourself or your corporate clients.”
The president’s directives were among his first official acts and preceded meetings with his top advisers on the two major challenges facing his administration: the faltering economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In all, Obama signed two executive orders and three presidential directives aimed at making government more open and accountable and taking steps toward fulfilling some of his campaign promises.
The president said that when top White House aides leave government, they are barred from lobbying “for as long as I am president, and there will be a ban on gifts by lobbyists to anyone serving in the administration.”
Lobbying Limits
A lobbyist who joins the Obama administration also is forbidden from working on issues they previously were involved with, he said. Any person who leaves the administration will be barred from lobbying the government for two years.
“We need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely and lets them use their time in public service” to promote their own interests when they leave, the president said. Government hiring, he said, will henceforth be based on qualifications, competence and experience, “not political connections.”
Regarding the pay freeze, which will leave pay levels for senior positions where they were under President George W. Bush, Obama said he is acting because “families are tightening their belts and so should Washington.”
There are more than 100 White House staff positions under the office of the president that pay more than $100,000 annually, including chief of staff, White House counsel and chief speechwriter.
Full Disclosure
To promote transparency in government, Obama said federal agencies and departments should err on the side of disclosing information rather than keeping it from the public when responding to Freedom of Information Act requests.
Under the directive, a White House statement said, three officials must produce an “open government” manual within 120 days. Attorney General-designate Eric Holder is ordered within the same time frame to develop new guidelines for greater disclosure.
“For a long time there has been too much secrecy in this city,” Obama said. “The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over.”
The move was another signal that Obama is making a clear break from the former administration. Bush tightened rules limiting disclosures after the Sept. 11 attacks and came under fire from Democratic members of Congress for withholding documents…
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Portland Mayor: ‘I Screwed Up’
Adams apologizes to city for lying about sex with teenager
PORTLAND — A contrite Mayor Sam Adams apologized to Portland for lying about a sexual relationship with a male teenager he was mentoring, but asked the city to consider it an anomaly in two decades of public service.
“I screwed up. I blew it. There’s no way to sugarcoat it,” Adams said during a news conference at City Hall Tuesday.
Adams coasted to victory in the 2008 election, making Portland the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor. He was sworn in Jan. 1.
The 45-year-old said he has no plans to resign, but left open the possibility: “If it were no longer in the city’s best interests that I stay, yes, I would resign.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Antidote to Obama
I have written with an air of despondency about the bleak future I see for conservatism in America. For one thing, Obama won the election by capturing the votes of virtually every demographic group imaginable, except for older white guys. And the one thing you can say about us, individually and as a voting bloc is that, alas, we’re not getting any younger.
The most discouraging sign was that Obama, the pro-choice candidate, defeated McCain, a pro-lifer, by a 2-to-1 majority among Hispanics. Apparently, their bishops had no more influence over them than I did.
During his upcoming administration, Obama has promised to out-do FDR by putting an additional 2.5 million people on the federal payroll. He has also threatened — I mean, promised — to create some sort of civilian paramilitary group that sounds suspiciously like Hitler’s brown shirts, but I could very well be mistaken. For all I know, Obama may dress them in blue.
One can easily see that President Obama intends to follow FDR’s game plan by creating a population dependent on the government’s largesse, and thus beholden to the Democratic Party. If anything, Obama’s own plans can be even more ambitious than Roosevelt’s were, thanks to those dependable enablers, Pelosi and Reid.
I know there are conservatives who are counting on the Democrats fumbling the ball, as Jimmy Carter did, and then having someone like Ronald Reagan ride in, much like the cavalry in a John Ford Western, to rescue America. But I think a far likelier scenario is that the liberals will pass the 28th Amendment, nullifying the 22nd, so that Obama won’t be limited by term limits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Stocks Slide in Dow Average’s Worst Inauguration Day Drop
U.S. stocks sank, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst Inauguration Day decline, as speculation banks must raise more capital sent financial shares to an almost 14-year low.
State Street Corp., the largest money manager for institutions, tumbled 59 percent after unrealized bond losses almost doubled. Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. slumped more than 23 percent on an analyst’s prediction that they’ll need to take steps to shore up their balance sheets. The Dow’s 4 percent slide was the most on an Inauguration Day in the measure’s 112-year history, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
“All the banks are going to have to recapitalize,” said Greg Woodard, portfolio strategist at Manning & Napier Advisors Inc., which manages $16 billion in Fairport, New York. “That’s not done. That’s in front of them, and we don’t want to try to get in front of that trade.”
The S&P 500 plunged 5.3 percent to 805.22. The S&P 500 Financials Index fell 17 percent to below its lowest closing level since March 1995 as concern European banks need more capital also weighed on the group. The Dow average slid 332.13 points to 7,949.09. Both the Dow and S&P 500 retreated to two- month lows.
U.S. financial losses from the credit crisis may reach $3.6 trillion, according to New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted last year’s economic and stock-market meltdowns.
“If that’s true, it means the U.S. banking system is effectively insolvent because it starts with a capital of $1.4 trillion,” Roubini said at a conference in Dubai today. “This is a systemic banking crisis.”
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Video: Inaugural Prayer Slam Prompts Obama Smile
Rush Limbaugh: Lowery ‘just insulted this country’
Outrage is erupting over the inauguration benediction by Rev. Joseph Lowery, an 87-year-old civil rights pioneer, for asking God to help mankind work for a day when “white would embrace what is right.”
Lowery, known for co-founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr., asked God to encourage America to make “choices on the side of love, not hate, on the side of inclusion not exclusion, tolerance not intolerance” after President Barack Obama took the presidential oath.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Emulate Abe Lincoln?
President Obama was sworn into office placing his hand on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible. That is the last Bible I would use to be sworn into office. You say, “Why? Didn’t Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation free your ancestors?” It all depends where they were living. Let’s examine the document’s text to see why.
President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, which reads, “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. ?” The key phrase is “in rebellion against the United States” because slaves remained slaves in states not in rebellion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
College Starts Islamic Finance Degree
STRASBOURG (France) — A FRENCH business school launched a degree in Islamic finance on Wednesday, as more European Muslims seek careers in a fast-growing sector run under the precepts of Sharia law.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Eluana: Cappato, Sacconi Should Answer for Subversive Blackmail
(AGI) — Rome, Jan. 16 — If Italy were a Constitutional State, its Health Minister, Maurizio Sacconi, would now have to answer for his subversive blackmail in court. Marco Cappato, European Deputy for the Radical party and Secretary of the Luca Coscioni Association, said this. ‘‘Immediately after Minister Sacconi emanated his subversion of Constitution and law, as Radical party we denounced the minister for abuse of power and aggravated coercion against the medical staff of the health clinic ‘Citta’ di Udine’, for which the minister was responsible through his threats’’ explained Cappato. ‘‘Now the blackmail and coercion of the minister seem to have hit the mark, obtaining through his intimidation that the clinic in Udine felt forced to withdraw its offer to Beppino Englaro to respect the wish of Eluana and the verdicts of the magistracy: if Italy were a democracy and a Constitutional State, a trial for subversive blackmail against Minister Sacconi should be opened at once’’ added Cappato. But it is safe to say this will not happen, at least not until the Radical party sends home a regime that has become ever more violent and irresponsible, as well as incapable of dealing with present-day problems’’. The battle over Eluana, for Beppino and for Italian rights, Cappato concludes, is the same battle fought by Marco Pannella through his hunger/thirst strike, an attempt to stop another criminal action for which those MPs are responsible who also sabotage the working of the Vigilance Commission keeping it from fulfilling its constitutional duties as indicated by the Italian President’’. The Italian Radical party and the Association Luca Coscioni have organised a demonstration in Lecco on Sunday, 17.30h at Piazza Diaz
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Frattini, No Italian Aid to Hamas
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JANUARY 20 — Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has said that no humanitarian aid from Italy is to be directed towards Hamas “as they cannot act as interlocutor”. Frattini was speaking this afternoon in Tel Aviv, where he also noted that all Italian aid will be passed to international organisations, and that the PNA remains the interlocutor for Palestinians in Italy. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Muslim Intellectuals, Sermons Online in Italian
(ANSAmed) — ROME, JANUARY 20 — Sermons in Italian from the Great Mosque in Rome will be published weekly from today on www.intellettualimusulmani.it, the association announced; on the theme of the training of Imams, it is proposing an Italian foundation, controlled by the State and active in fundraising abroad as well. “Since its start in 1995” said President of the association and consultant for the Senate Constitutional Affairs Commission, Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo, “sermons from the Great Mosque have always been translated into our language”. But there needs to be a distinction between sermons which can be in any language, and prayers, which can only been said in Arabic, “the holy language of Revelation”. As for the creation of a register for Imams, Secretary Karim Mezran said that this would imply study or an exam. “For now we would only be able to include people who have an adequate curriculum of religious study abroad”: very few so far, and at least at the beginning unable to speak Italian. Like the Imam at the Great Mosque, who studied at the al-Azhar University in Cairo. Then the proposals for a training institute surrounding the Great Mosque, with the involvement of the University Sapienza di Roma and the Pisai (Pontifical Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies), and financed through the Government-controlled foundation. “In this way, if patrons such as the Emir of Dubai want to participate in the development of the Islamic community in our country, they will be able to”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Press on Obama Inauguration
“Era of responsibility” highlighted in headlines
(ANSA) — Rome, January 21 — The inauguration of United States President Barack Obama dominated the front pages of the Italian press on Wednesday with many dailies using quotes from his inaugural address in their lead headlines.
OBAMA: AN ERA OF RESPONSIBILITY, headlined Milan’s Corriere della Sera which added beneath its banner: An immense crowd at the swearing-in ceremony. ‘‘A hand extended to Islam but a battle against terror’’.
In its editorial, Corriere observed that ‘‘over the past weeks Obama’s rhetoric of hope has turned into an appeal to the courage of Americans, their capacity to buckle down and pull out of difficult situations. On the day of his inauguration, America’s first black president completed his oratorical circle and brought the nation from the joyful days of hope to a new era of responsibility’’.
The inauguration, Corriere added, ‘‘was a celebration with little to celebrate about. Perhaps this was the reason why it did not end with a massive display of fireworks. The good news, for America, is that Obama is probably the right man to deal with these very difficult times. More than a commander-in-chief he is going to have to be a persuader-in-chief’’.
OBAMA’S CHANCE, headlined La Stampa of Turin which highlighted the new president’s statement that ‘‘A new era has begun, we are ready to lead again’’.
The editorial in La Stampa observed that ‘‘When a person firmly believes in the common good, without buckling to special interests, they can put back into motion that which had appeared to be at a standstill, in society and in its leadership’’.
‘‘Obama has brought an end to this stagnation. He won proposing hope, which unexpectedly rose just as optimism was disappearing and, as the new president himself said, heading towards a difficult, deep winter. Perhaps the moment is here for Obama,’’ La Stampa added.
‘‘IT’S THE ERA OF RESPONSIBILITY’’ headlined La Repubblica of Rome which above its banner quoted the new president who said ‘‘the world has changed, 60 years ago someone like me would not have been able to enter some restaurants’’.
The daily’s editorial led by completing the quote, ‘‘and today such a person is taking the oath for the nation’s highest office,’’ and added ‘‘these words sum up, without rhetoric or arrogance, the enormity of what we all witnessed in Washington yesterday (Tuesday), a day which sought to reconcile a divided America, torn apart by eight years of ideological warfare and a military war, by (in Obama’s words) ‘‘false dogmas and false promises’’.
According to La Repubblica, Obama’s inaugural address ‘‘demonstrated, under the guise of oratorical elegance, the claws of a deep cultural and political change’’.
Rome’s Il Messaggerro wrote that ‘‘with Obama confidence and hope have returned to the White House. The enthusiasm is great and expectations are high, perhaps too high for some. The US is not a hyper-power capable of resolving all the world’s problems. Yet it remains indispensable for the most serious ones’’.
‘‘Obama’s attention must now be focused on the economy. If it was his choice he might like to postpone foreign policy questions to better times. But this is not possible. The international situation he inherited will not allow him to,’’ the Rome daily added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Muslim Public Prayers Spur Action
Directive to prevent repeats of Milan Duomo incident
(ANSA) — Rome, January 21 — Italy is moving to prevent any more recurrences of mass Muslim prayers in front of Catholic places of worship following incidents in Milan, Bologna and Rome this month.
All three incidents took place during protest marches against the Israeli offensive in Gaza, but a mass pray-in in front of the Duomo in Milan grabbed the most headlines. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Wednesday he was working on a directive that would improve ‘‘control’’ during demonstrations, without revealing full details of the measure.
‘‘I have prepared a guideline that will be sent to all city prefects so that what happened in front of the Duomo in Milan will not be repeated,’’ Maroni told parliament.
The minister added that his aim was to ‘‘guarantee the right to protest but also the right of citizens to peacefully use the spaces in their own cities,’’ Maroni said.
Hundreds of Muslims took part in prayers in front of Milan’s Duomo on January 3 when the hour for prayer arrived during the march.
On the same day a similar incident occurred in Bologna, where hundreds of Muslims prayed to Allah in front of the Basilica of San Petronio.
In a third incident, around 50 Muslims prayed in front of the Colosseum in Rome last weekend during another protest march for Gaza. The Roman amphitheatre has close ties with the Catholic church and forms part of the Good Friday Stations of the Cross procession.
Right-wing politicians have reacted angrily to the three events, although Muslims have said they had no choice since they were obeying Islamic prayer times.
BOLOGNA PROTEST ORGANISER INVESTIGATED.
On Wednesday Bologna public prosecutor’s office confirmed that the protest organiser, Mohamed Rafia Boukhbiza, will have to answer to charges of public security violations after a Forza Italia politician lodged a complaint.
According to law, police must be notified ahead of any public prayer event.
Rafia Boukhbiza is accused of having advanced knowledge of the pray-in, since many of the Muslims used prayer rugs.
In the wake of the Milan pray-in, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa staged a Catholic mass in Piazza Duomo the following Sunday in order to ‘‘reclaim’’ the area, while the Northern League’s Attilio Fontana said he ‘‘would like to see what would happen if I went to recite the rosary in Mecca’’. Maurizio Gasparri, Senate whip for Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party, earlier this week said all three incidents were ‘‘pseudo-prayers’’.
‘‘They have nothing to do with religion — they are threatening and intimidatory acts towards the Italian people,’’ he said, adding that those who took part should be ‘‘identified and possibly expelled from the country’’.
A former interior minister, the PDL’s Beppe Pisanu, described the incidents as ‘‘a fundamentalist operation, the preliminaries of terrorism’’.
But Milan Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi has refused to condemn the mass pray-in in Milan, describing prayer as an ‘‘inalienable right’’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Some Good News From Europe
A wave of violent protest demonstrations struck Europe in the wake of the recent events in Gaza. Despite efforts of the media to downplay the incidents, ordinary Europeans realize that the vandals who demonstrate against Israel in Europe’s streets are almost exclusively youths of immigrant Muslim origin. The protests have been accompanied by anti-Semitic rants and attacks on Jewish citizens. Leftist Europeans joined in by demanding a boycott of Israeli products and local Jewish businesses. Even mainstream politicians joined the chorus of Israel bashing, hoping to attract the support of the growing Muslim electorate in Western Europe.
Some observers see disturbing parallels between the intellectual climate in contemporary Europe and the appeasement mentality of the 1930s. It seems as if Europe is in the grip of a continent-wide “Stockholm syndrome:” Europe’s media and political establishment parrots the Islamist arguments of aggressive Muslim populations who hold major European cities hostage.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Biblical Debt Jubilee May be the Only Answer
Once again, Britain leads the world in the macabre speciality of saving banks.
The Treasury’s £200bn plan to soak up toxic debt will be followed within days by a US variant from the Obama team. Germany cannot be far behind.
As one bail-out succeeds another at ever more inflated price tags, rescue fatigue is becoming palpable. People are bewildered, fearing that good money is being thrown after bad.
The doubts are understandable but there are tentative signs of a thaw in the global credit system. Libor lending rates in the US, Britain and Europe have fallen sharply. US mortgage rates have dropped from 6.5pc to 4.88pc since October. Companies can issue bonds again.
“It is easy to conclude that none of the Government’s policies are working,” said Professor Peter Spencer from York University. “We must not lose sight of the fact that they have prevented the collapse of the monetary system.”
This is not does mean that recovery is imminent. Nothing can prevent a long purge as years of credit leverage give way to debt deflation.
It means only that the downward spiral — the “adverse feedback loop” feared by central banks — has been arrested.
The first three pillars of the global bail-out are in place. Government money is rebuilding the annihilated capital of banks. This has further to run. Core lenders in the US, Europe and parts of Asia will be nationalised, but that is a detail at this point. It scarcely matters who owns the banks — unless you are a shareholder — so long as they lend.
The Fed has cut rates to zero. It is buying mortgage securities on the open market, and eying Treasury debt next. Fellow central banks are exploring their own ways to print money.
The $3 trillion (£2 trillion) fiscal blitz by the US, China, Japan and Europe plugs an emergency gap. With luck, it will keep the world economy on life-support just long enough to stop recession and banking crises from feeding on each other with lethal effect, as they did in 1931.
The latest plans to “ring-fence” bad debts in sceptic tanks puts in place the fourth pillar.
| — Hat tip: REP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Gordon Brown Brings Britain to the Edge of Bankruptcy
By Iain Martin
“They don’t know what they’re doing, do they? With every step taken by the Government as it tries frantically to prop up the British banking system, this central truth becomes ever more obvious.
Yesterday marked a new low for all involved, even by the standards of this crisis. Britons woke to news of the enormity of the fresh horrors in store. Despite all the sophistry and outdated boom-era terminology from experts, I think a far greater number of people than is imagined grasp at root what is happening here.
The country stands on the precipice. We are at risk of utter humiliation, of London becoming a Reykjavik on Thames and Britain going under. Thanks to the arrogance, hubristic strutting and serial incompetence of the Government and a group of bankers, the possibility of national bankruptcy is not unrealistic.
The political impact will be seismic; anger will rage. The haunted looks on the faces of those in supporting roles, such as the Chancellor, suggest they have worked out that a tragedy is unfolding here. Gordon Brown is engaged no longer in a standard battle for re-election; instead he is fighting to avoid going down in history disgraced completely.
This catastrophe happened on his watch, no matter how much he now opportunistically beats up on bankers. He turned on the fountain of cheap money and encouraged the country to swim in it…”
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UK: Probation for Pupil Sex Teacher
A former Aberdeen school teacher who admitted having sex with a 15-year-old pupil has avoided a jail sentence.
Alison Smith, 29, a teacher at the city’s Bankhead Academy, confessed the incident to church associates and her parents before going to the police.
Smith was placed on probation for 18 months and given 200 hours community service at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
She had been charged in July last year over the allegations of an inappropriate relationship.
The incident happened in June last year when Smith was visited at her home by the pupil.
There she had what she described as consensual sex with the boy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Senior Al-Qaeda Figure Granted Citizenship, Says Report
Sarajevo, 20 Jan. (AKI) — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the senior Al-Qaeda official credited with masterminding the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, was granted Bosnian citizenship before the attacks, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Born in Kuwait to a family originally from the Baluchi region of Pakistan, Mohammed reportedly went to Bosnia in September 1995, disguised as a humanitarian worker for an organisation called Egyptian Relief.
He obtained Bosnian citizenship in November the same year, Bosnian daily Fokus said, quoting local intelligence sources.
The newspaper said Egyptian Relief was just a cover for the Cairo-based Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Fokus said war-time authorities knew about Mohammed’s presence in Bosnia and his citizenship was kept a state secret.
Thousands of mujahadeen from Islamic countries came to Bosnia in the early 1990s to fight with local Muslims and many remained in the country after the war, acquiring Bosnian citizenship.
The paper did not specify Mohammed’s movements after Bosnia. But he was arrested in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi in March 2003 and transferred to the American detention camp for suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The 9/11 Commission Report cited him as “the principal architect of 9/11 attacks” in which over 3,000 people were killed in the United States.
Western intelligence sources believe he is one of Al-Qaeda’s most senior officials and was responsible for a series of other terrorist attacks.
He was charged by the US military commission in February 2008 with acts of terrorism, war crimes and mass murder of civilians. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Karadzic to Lodge Complaint With Hague Court
The Hague, 19 Jan. (AKI) — Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic said on Monday he will lodge a complaint against an amended indictment submitted by prosecutors at the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Karadzic (photo) told the Hague-based court he still hasn’t received all the relevant documents in the Serbian language, and said he would lodge his complaint with the tribunal by the end of January.
Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade last July, after 13 years in hiding under a false identity and swiftly extradited to the Hague, where he faces war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide charges.
Prosecutors last September expanded his indictment for genocide and crimes against humanity. The amended indictment still hasn’t been approved by the court.
During his third appearance before the court, Karadzic continued to insist he was promised immunity from prosecution after the 1992-1995 Bosnian war by US representative for the Balkans Richard Holbrooke.
Karadzic claimed Holbrooke offered him immunity from prosecution in return for his complete withdrawal from politics and public life, which he did in 1996.
Holbrooke has denied the existence of such a deal, but Karadzic insisted that the Hague tribunal was in possession of a transcript published in a book ‘Peace and punishment’ by Florence Hartman, a former spokeswoman for the tribunal prosecutors, which confirmed his claims.
Presiding judge Ian Bonomy said, however, that even if a deal with Holbrooke existed, it wouldn’t be binding on the court.
Karadzic complained that NATO forces stationed in Bosnia last month broke into and searched the home of his wife in Pale, near the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
He demanded that alleged harassment of his family be stopped.
Bonomy said the actions of NATO soldiers in Bosnia were beyond the tribunal’s jurisdiction. But he ordered prosecutors to present Karadzic all relevant documents at their disposal.
Karadzic is to appear before the court again on 19 February, the court ruled.
The trial proper is not expected to start for several months and is expected to attract vast media attention.
Karadzic alongside Bosnian wartime military chief and top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic, is held responsible for notorious crimes such as the slaughter of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 and the shelling and siege of Sarajevo during the war.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Turkey; Erdogan Hits Accelerator, Uses Nabucco
(by Marisa Ostolani) (ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, JANUARY 19 — Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan wants to speed up the process of adhesion to the European Union, and to reach this objective he threatened today to review his support for the Nabucco gas pipeline, a project believed to be strategic for the EU as an alternative to Russian gas. Erdogan produced the energy card during a visit to Brussels, his first since 2004, during which he met heads of the Commission the Council and the European parliament to relaunch adhesion negotiations which are proceeding slowly. So far Turkey has opened only 10 out of the 35 thematic chapters necessary for completion, two in 2008. Eight chapters have been blocked over the lack of recognition of the Republic of Cyprus by Ankara, the other over the slowness of reforms to Turkish society and the hostility of ‘Turko-sceptic’ countries such as France. The Czech presidency of the EU is counting on opening another two dossiers by June, as the previous French and Slovenian presidencies have done. “Now it is routine: they tell me that two are better than one, but I reply that three are better than two” remarked Erdogan. One of the chapters not yet open is the energy chapter, over which the Greek part of Cyprus (which joined the EU in 2004) has grave reservations. “If we are put in a situation where the energy chapter is blocked, we will re-examine our position” on Nabucco, said Erdogan, speaking in the morning at a conference. The project involves the construction of a 3,300 km gas pipeline able to transport 30 billion cubic metres of gas per year from the Caspian to the Austrian hub, via Turkey. Erdogan softened his tones when he spoke in the afternoon following a meeting with President of the EU Commission José Manuel Durao Barroso. “We have agreed on the need for this pipeline” said Barroso, inviting the Turkish Premier not to tie Nabucco to negotiations. “There is full support from our side for the project” which will supply an alternative to the Russia-Ukraine junction, assured Erdogan. During his visit to Brussels, Erdogan also spoke about the situation in Gaza, calling on European leaders to respect Hamas’ election victory and not to exclude its supporters from dialogue following the ceasefire declared by Israel. The Turkish Premier stressed that “a European Union with Turkey inside it would be much more efficient” in the Middle East and the Balkans. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Suez Canal Revenues Down 8 Pct on Piracy Threat
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO JAN,20 — Income from the Suez Canal, which analysts have expected to decline because of the severity of the economic crisis became clear in December, when it dropped by about 8 percent, the government said. Revenues fell to USD 391.8 million in that month, comparing to USD 426.3 million in December 2007. With the financial crisis hampering trade between Europe and Asia and pirates off the Somali coast pushing more ships to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, few observers thought the Canal could continue to profit as mightily as it had in the first half of last year. Revenues were USD 419.8 million in November, slipping from USD 467.5 million in October. Lower demand for fuel in recent months has also made it cheaper for those who are still shipping to reroute around Africa, a lengthy journey that the Suez Canal was built largely to help ships to avoid. According to state sources, the number of boats using the Suez Canal declined to 1,560 in December from 1,815 in the previous year. Income from the Suez Canal is vital to Egypt’s often cash-strapped government. Following decades of rising traffic, the canal netted USD 5.2 billion last fiscal year, about 3 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Italian Aid Arrives, Frattini Delivers Convoy
(ANSAmed) — BORDER CROSSING OF KEREM SHALOM, JANUARY 20 — Italian humanitarian aid is arriving in Gaza. Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini today handed over the first convoy of goods for the suffering Palestinian population at the border crossing of Kerem Shalom in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, a few kilometres from Rafah. Enel sent two generators to for the hospitals in Gaza and Italy sent food and medicine. “The whole country has done something for Gaza” said Frattini. He reminded that the government, Italian Regions (the president of the Tuscany Region Claudio Martini was also present), Provinces and private companies have collaborated in this operation. The Tuscany Region has also organised the transfer of ten Palestinian children from Gaza to the Meyer Hospital in Florence. The ten will arrive this afternoon. Frattini announced that Italy’s most ambitious goal is to “open a humanitarian channel” allowing the transfer of injured and sick Palestinians to hospitals in Israel and the West Bank where Italian doctors can treat them. Already many doctors, the minister said, have confirmed their availability for this initiative. At the ceremony were present, among others, Israel’s minister for social affairs and coordinator for humanitarian aid in Gaza Isaac Herzog, and Gideon Meir, Israel’s ambassador to Italy.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Has Lost Another War
Once again Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has proved that he is not formed from the same mold as Prime Ministers David Ben Gurion, Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzchak Rabin, or Menachem Begin. Compared to those erstwhile giants, he is a political pigmy, easily frightened off by civilian casualties and by negative world opinion.
By announcing a unilateral cease fire, he has, as he did in the Second Lebanon War, in 2006, let Israel lose again and let the terrorists win again.
Hamas won because it did not lose. It celebrated by firing rockets into Israel and warning that the ceasefire is contingent upon Israel’s withdrawing all its troops from the Gaza Strip and opening all borders. Additionally, a Hamas spokesman proclaimed the “right to bring arms in any way we find fit.”
Debka, the Israeli internet publication, was correct when it predicted at the outset of Operation Cast Lead that Hamas was “counting on inflicting casualties that will mount up week after week and wear Israeli forces down until they are driven into an ignominious retreat.” It was also correct when it quoted, after the operation had ended, an unnamed senior Israeli officer as saying “For this we didn’t have to go to war.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arabic Media Herald Obama Era
‘It’s a world without Bush, for the 1st time in 8 years!’
CBS News has compiled a rundown of Inauguration Day headlines and story summaries from some of the leading media outlets in the Arabic world and Iran. Here’s what the Muslim world is saying: […]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cars: Turkey; Exports Decline by 70 Percent in January
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 19 — Turkish automotive exports fell 69.3% in the first half of January due to suspensions in production during the month, state-run Anadolu news agency reported, quoting an exporters’ association. Export sales were USD 250.9 million in the first half of January 2009 against USD 818.9 million in the same period last year, the Uludag Exporters Association said. Exports to European Union countries fell between 50 and 99% during the period. Another automotive sector association said last week it saw exports falling between 15 and 20% in 2009. Turkey exports vehicles mainly to the European Union. Toyota, Renault Ford and Hyundai are among manufacturers with plants in the country. Several producers have had to suspend production as the global economic crisis bites into demand at home and abroad. Exports of vehicles and components are a key driver for Turkey’s economy and were worth USD 21.26 billion in 2007. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Falling in Love: Common Cause of Death for Turkish Women
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 20 — The deaths of three young women at the hands of their family members for wanting to marry the person of their choosing show that falling in love with the ‘‘wrong man’’ can still justify honor killings in some communities in Turkey, the Radikal daily has reported. The three recent murders, reported by the Radikal daily, show the intolerable pain of being a woman in Turkey in the 21st century. Hulya Tas (19) was killed in the middle of Istanbul in June 2007 by her brother, Okan Tas, after the family elders decided that it was what she deserved for being together with the person she fell in love with. The court reduced the brother’s sentence, taking into consideration his ‘‘enragement’’ with his sister’s sexual involvement with her boyfriend. Her brother was sentence to 17 years while six other suspects, the family members who decided on Tas’s execution, were released. Dilek A.’s faced the same fate. She fell in love with Alper Ozdemir, who was an Alevi. Dilek A.’s Sunni family did not approve despite the countless times the Ozdemir family asked for her hand for their son. The family finally agreed and on Jan 3. Ozdemir, his mother and aunt visited Dilek A.’s family home to talk about the details of the wedding. Dilek A.’s 17-year-old brother, A.A., who found out that his brother-in-law-to-be was in the house, came home with a gun and started a shooting spree, targeting Dilek A. and Ozdemir. Both died of heavy hemorrhaging. In December 2006, 19-year-old Esra Aksel was killed by her brother who got enraged when Aksel picked up the phone to talk to her boyfriend. Her brother, Ahmet Aksel, later confessed he killed his sister to ‘‘restore the family’s honor.’’ He was sentenced to 15 years. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Milanese Killed in Turkey: Today 4th Hearing in Trial
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 20 — In front of the Court of Assizes today in the city of Kocaeli, about 100km east of Istanbul, the 4th hearing in the trial against Murat Karatask, 38 years old Turkish criminal who confessed to the homicide of Giuseppina Pasqulino Di Marineo, also known as Pippa Bacca, the 33 year old artist from Milan who was raped and killed in Turkey early last April. This was confirmed to ANSA by Mehmet Eke, the lawyer of the victim’s family. Giuseppina Pasqualino left Milan hitchhiking on March 8 with a friend — both dressed in wedding gowns — to carry out an artistic performance that should have brought them to Israel crossing through the Balkans and the Middle East. On March 31 after having separated from her travel companion, Giuseppina disappeared after having accepted a ride from a man who then confessed to having raped and strangled her. The young woman’s dead body was found on April 11, naked and hidden under a thin pile of soil and sticks in an uninhabited area near the Istanbul-Ankara motorway. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Turks Sign Petition for Acknowledgment of Armenian Genocide
The new sensitivity is the result of the death of Hrant Dink, the journalist killed two years ago. People connected to his murder are also part of the trial involving Ergenekon, the clandestine ultranationalist group accused of planning a state coup.
Istanbul (AsiaNews) — “My heart does not accept that the people are insensitive to the great tragedy that the Ottoman Armenians experienced in 1915. I reject this injustice, and sharing their pain and sentiment, I ask for forgiveness from my Armenian brethren.” This is the online petition, more courageous than any before it, launched by three hundred Turkish intellectuals (journalists, writers, university professors) to ask for official recognition of the genocide of the Armenians during the first world war. It has been circulating on the internet for a month, and has already been signed by 27,650 Turkish citizens.
It may not be a petition that will change the intransigence always shown by Turkish governments toward the genocide of the Armenians, but it is certainly a sign that something is changing in the nation’s public opinion.
This is certainly one of the most significant results of the blood shed two years ago by Hrant Dink, the Armenian Turkish journalist shot to death on the streets of downtown Istanbul. Sentenced to six months for “insulting the Turkish identity,” on the basis of article 301 of the constitution, for having dared to speak, as an Armenian, of genocide in the pages of his weekly Agos and in interviews that he gave to publications abroad, he became “the enemy of the Turks,” and was essentially condemned to death by the same state justice that should have defended a citizen and his right to speak.
It was January 19, 2007, when he was killed by a young ultranationalist. Two years later, it seems increasingly clear that the killing of the founder and director of Agos — the subject of a trial still far from any conclusion — expresses all of Turkey’s problems: anti-Armenian and anti-Christian nationalism, limits on the freedom of expression, the overweening power of the security forces and some politicians, and the country’s difficulties in coming to terms with the past.
18 men are accused in the Dink trial. They are Ogun Samast, the young man who pulled the trigger, and his 17 accomplices, with very different backgrounds, but united by ultranationalist fanaticism. And it is no accident that in this major trial that has been shaking all of Turkey for more than a year, because of the involvement of well-known political and military figures, there are more men implicated in Dink’s murder. Yes, among the 86 people arrested in the case of Ergenekon, in the clandestine ultranationalist group that united bureaucrats, retired military officers, nationalists, and criminal gangs, there is Veli Kucuk, a retired general who had threatened Hrant Dink with death, and Kemal Kerincsiz, the lawyer who had repeatedly sued Dink for “denigrating the Turkish identity,” and also Fuat Turgut, the lawyer for the man who ordered Dink’s murder.
The killing of Dink was a shock for all of Turkey: everywhere there were gigantic photos of the slain journalist, candles in the street, 100,000 pro-democracy activists at his funeral with signs reading “We are all Armenians.” No one would ever have expected such visible and stirring participation. The solidarity of the democrats and intellectuals is encouraging, and there are more and more supporters for Agos, with thousands of new subscriptions, and there is encouragement from the online petition, but there is still rigidity and strong opposition.
Almost a century later, it is still difficult to confront the genocide of the Armenians in Turkey. So in spite of the fact that Turkish president Abdullah Gul has recently come out in support of the internet campaign, and has affirmed that everyone has the right to express his opinion freely, former ambassadors and diplomats have raised protests, calling the campaign a mistake and contrary to national interests. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after the angry reactions from some of the nationalists, has distanced himself from the appeal of the intellectuals who are asking for forgiveness from the victims: “I reject this campaign,” he has said, “and I do not support it. I have not committed any crime, why should I apologize?”
So ten days ago, six Turkish judges presented a petition asking for the punishment of those who organized the campaign. As if this were not enough, Arat Dink, the son of the Armenian journalist, is now on trial with a possible sentence of six months, under the infamous article 301, and the accusation of “insulting Turkish identity.” Behind the charges is the publication in Agos (of which he became editor after the assassination of his father) of an interview Hrant gave to the news agency Reuters in July of 2006, and in which he makes reference to the genocide of the Armenian people.
But how long can this stubborn opposition continue? When on September 6, 2008, President Gul visited Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to watch a soccer game between Turkey and Armenia, unlike the other heads of state he refused to enter the museum (in the photo) displaying documentaries and photographs of the genocide. Nonetheless, an increasing number of Turkish tourists and journalists are visiting this museum. “More than 500 Turks came here in 2008. That is an enormous number for us, unprecedented,” says Hayk Demoyan, director of the museum. “At first, they are always shocked. They are disturbed by what they see, and deny it. But after this, most of them begin to question the history of their own country. Without a doubt, they are different when they go back home.” This is exactly what Hrant Dink maintained, in defense of the Turkish people that he loved. When he was asked how it was possible that the Turks would not admit the genocide, he responded that this was not because of cynicism or hypocrisy, but “because they think that genocide is a horrible thing that they would never do, so they cannot believe that their ancestors would have done it. They deny it mainly because they do not understand it, they don’t know anything about it. They see it only as a threat to their identity.”
The assassination of Hrant Dink has brought to light a stirring of solidarity and awareness that was unthinkable just a few years ago. These are signs of hope, hope in a process that will certainly be slow and long, difficult and contested, but that will lead Turkey to come to terms with this “black hole” in its history, from which it will emerge stronger. Many, in fact, have no doubt: if this syndrome of denial is not overcome, with the opening of a serene discussion about all the chapters of modern Turkish history, it will be very difficult for the country to carry out its transformation from an authoritarian state to a democratic state based on the recognition of universal rights. What is at stake is not so much the past, but rather the future of Turkey. “A process is needed,” Dink asserted in an interview with Radikal in 2006, “in which information and expression are set free. With this development of our democracy, as we gradually come to understand it, our consciences will also become active. There must be freedom of expression. A Turkey that is not able to talk with itself will have nothing to say to the Armenians . . . We do not intend to remain stranded in history. What counts is safeguarding our future.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Army Attacks Media After Officer’s Suicide
Ankara, 20 Jan. (AKI) — The Turkish army has attacked local media and suggested it had failed to act responsibly after a senior military officer committed suicide on Monday. Colonel Abdulkerim Kirca fatally shot himself after a pro-government newspaper accused him of ordering the assassination of militants allegedly linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party in the 1990s.
In a statement released on Tuesday, cited by Hurriyet news, the military said certain “agencies” were failing to showing sensitivity, and their behaviour violated human rights because they did not abide by any legal or ethical rules.
“Now it is time for the authorised and responsible agencies, including responsible media organs, to take measures, instead of making verbal expressions, to fulfil their duties,” the statement said.
A funeral service for Kirca, who had been confined to a wheelchair since 1998 after being injured in a clash with PKK militants, was being held in Ankara on Tuesday.
Kirca was presented with a state honorary medal in 2004 by former president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Massacre of Christians Linked to Murder Ring?
Lawyers trying to unravel connections in martyrdom of 3
Lawyers prosecuting the murder of three Christians at a publishing house in Turkey say there may have been a larger organized force behind the five individuals suspected in the deaths.
WND has reported on the attack at the Zirve Publishing Co. office in Malatya April 18, 2007.
All five suspects in previous court appearances have pointed fingers at each other for the deaths of Tilman Geske of Germany and Turkish nationals Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel.
Authorities reportedly have said they met several Muslims for a Bible study, then were tied up, stabbed and tortured for several hours before their throats were slit.
According to a new report from Compass Direct, which has been documenting the case, attorneys working on the case now are lining up witnesses in their attempt to expand the list of defendants from the five Muslims to “subversive forces at the top of state power.”
The report said the evidence being assembled indicates the murders were instigated not by individuals but by Ergenekon, “a loose collection of ultra-nationalist generals, businessmen, mafia and journalists who planned to engineer a coup d’état in Turkey.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: India Warned Over Possible ‘Military Adventurism’
Islamabad, 20 Jan. (AKI/DAWN) — Pakistan has warned that it will befittingly retaliate against any Indian military adventurism. According to sources, quoted by Pakistani daily Dawn, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said at a briefing for foreign ambassadors, that Pakistan would act in ‘self-defence’ if there was any action by the Indian side.
The briefing, which took place on Monday, was held to update the ambassadors and heads of missions on the actions taken by the Pakistani government in response to the Mumbai terror attacks and the investigation into information provided by India about the incident.
However, Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal was not invited.
Qureshi urged India to respond positively to Pakistan’s proposal regarding engagement for meaningfully addressing the issue of terrorism, particularly the Mumbai incident.
He asked the Indian leadership to refrain from indulging in a blame game that was straining ties between the two countries.
He said the focus should remain on counter-terrorism, which required “pragmatic cooperation” rather than indulging in blame game.
“A blame game should be avoided and India should cooperate with Pakistan to help bring the culprits of this heinous crime to justice,” Qureshi said.
The minister reiterated the government’s resolve to fighting terrorism.
He reaffirmed the government’s determination to extend full cooperation and help in investigating the incident.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik informed the envoys about the “concrete steps” taken by the authorities, including detention of suspects, launching a formal inquiry and constituting an FIA team comprising experts of the Special Investigation Group.
He said the terms of reference for the inquiry reflected the government’s intent to conduct a transparent and legally tenable investigation and proceed with the prosecution in accordance with the law of the land.
The Mumbai attacks last November targeted two luxury hotels and other city landmarks over several days. A total of 173 people died and hundreds of others were injured. One gunman survived and Islamabad admitted this month he is a Pakistani citizen.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistani Muslims Attack Church, Torture Christians
At the origin of the violence is a dispute over land acquired by a Catholic of the village, and the marriage between a Christian young man and a Muslim young woman. In spite of the charges, the local police have not yet arrested anyone.
Kot Lakha Singh (AsiaNews) — Muslim groups have attacked a church and Christian homes in the village of Kot Lakha Singh, in the district of Narowal, province of Punjab. The incident goes back to January 14, and the news was released by Pakistan’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), after verifying the event with a fact-finding mission carried out on January 19.
Irfan Barkat, head of the NCJP, tells AsiaNews that the violence began with an attack on the home of William Masih, a Catholic of the village. An unspecified number of people tortured those present, including women and children, and then stole money and gold objects from the home. The crowd then attacked the homes of three other Christian families in the village, broke into the church, which is used by both the Catholic and Protestant community, and damaged the furniture and tore the liturgical books and bibles.
The events were reported on January 18 to the police of Nindo Ki, who have not yet made any arrests.
The head of the NCJP explains that at the origin of the violence is the dispute over land that Masih bought a few months ago from a Muslim. The property is also claimed by another inhabitant of the village, Noor Muhammad, who says that he is the legitimate proprietor.
Irfan Barkat says that the small Christian community of Kot Lakha Singh is made up of 25 families (Catholic and Protestant) that, in the overwhelmingly Islamic village, are subjected to constant harassment: “Muslims of the village have socially boycotted the Christians, and Muslim shopkeepers have refused to sell daily use items to Christians.”
The everyday tension has been increased by the recent marriage between a Christian young man and Muslim young woman in the village. This has irritated the Muslims, who are now trying to do whatever they can to make the Christians pay for what they believe to be an affront.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
It’s OK to Hit Your Wife, Says Melbourne Islamic Cleric Samir Abu Hamza
KEVIN Rudd has demanded an Islamic cleric apologise for telling male followers they can force their wives to have sex, and hit them if they’re disobedient.
The Prime Minister said Samir Abu Hamza’s comments had no place in modern Australia.
During a 2003 lecture also posted on the internet last year, Mr Hamza told followers that under Islamic law, men could demand sex from their wives.
Despite Australian laws requiring consent, it was impossible for a man to rape his wife even if she refused to have sex, he said.
He also said that Islamic law allowed men to hit their wives as a last resort, but were not allowed to leave them bruised or bloodied,
Mr Rudd said Mr Hamza should apologise.
“Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia — under no circumstances,” he said.
“Under no circumstances are other forms of violence, physical violence, acceptable towards women in Australia nor are they acceptable in my view to mainstream Muslim teachings.
“… Australia will not tolerate these sort of remarks. They don’t belong in modern Australia, and he should stand up, repudiate them and apologise.”
| — Hat tip: DK | [Return to headlines] |
Argentine President Meets Fidel Castro in Cuba
HAVANA (AP) — Argentine President Cristina Fernandez met with Fidel Castro behind closed doors in Cuba on Wednesday, easing rumors that the ailing former leader’s health had badly deteriorated.
“I was with Fidel about an hour or more. We were talking, conversing, he looked good,” Fernandez told reporters before boarding a flight to Venezuela at Havana’s Jose Marti International airport, concluding her state visit to the island.
Fernandez said the 82-year-old Castro wore the track suit that has become his trademark uniform since he fell ill and vanished from public view nearly two and a half years ago.
“He told me he had followed the inauguration of Barack Obama very closely, that he had watched the inauguration on television all day,” she said. “He had a very good perception of President Obama,” she said, adding that Castro told her the new U.S. president seems “like a man who is absolutely sincere.”
“Fidel believes in Obama,” Fernandez said.
Raul Castro, 77, who succeeded his brother as Cuba’s president 11 months ago, told reporters at the airport, “now you know that Fidel is fine, and not like the rumors around here.”
Castro said his older brother spends his days “thinking a lot, reading a lot, advising me, helping me.”
“Do you think if he were really gravely ill that I’d be smiling here?” Raul Castro said. “Soon I’m going to take a trip to Europe. You guys think I could leave here if Fidel were really in grave condition?”
It was the elder Castro’s first confirmed meeting with a foreign leader since a Nov. 28 encounter with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The presidents of Panama and Ecuador visited earlier this month but left without saying they had seen Fidel Castro, adding to rampant speculation about his health.
Rumors that he was gravely ill — or worse — had also been fed by the fact that he has not published any of his usually fairly regular newspaper columns since Dec. 15, and by comments from close friend and ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez saying Castro might not appear in public again.
A spokesman for Fernandez said their meeting was not part of the Argentine president’s original agenda but was arranged by Raul Castro. He said the pair met alone. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the issue.
Earlier Wednesday, Raul Castro said Obama “seemed like a good man” and wished him luck, striking a conciliatory tone not echoed by Venezuela’s government.
Obama has pledged to ease limits on Cuban-Americans’ visits to the island and on how much money they can send back home to relatives. He has also offered to negotiate personally with Raul Castro, though he has said he won’t push Congress to lift the U.S. trade embargo, at least not right away.
Cubans see those as important steps in improving U.S.-Cuba relations. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, tightened sanctions on the communist-governed country.
Obama is receiving a rougher reception from Venezuela after referring to Chavez as “a destructive force in the region” during a recent interview with the Univision television network.
“We are willing to initiate diplomatic discussions about how we can improve relations,” with Venezuela, Obama said, according to a transcript released by Univision.
Obama also was quoted as saying that he would have “to be very firm that when we see news of Venezuela exporting terrorist activities or supporting militias like the FARC, that creates problems that we cannot accept” — a reference to allegations that Chavez’s government has backed Colombian rebels who are on a U.S. list of terror groups.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said he “hopes Obama rectifies” the comments and said the new U.S. president revealed his “total ignorance” about Latin America.
“President Chavez has won 12 of the 14 elections in the past 10 years. He is the legitimate president, and his leadership has gone beyond the region and helped solidify the peoples of the world,” Maduro was quoted as saying Tuesday by the state-run Bolivarian News Agency.
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Two Landings in Lampedusa, Center Over Capacity
(ANSAmed) — After the last two landings yesterday afternoon and last night, which brought 423 migrants to Lampedusa, the immigration centre on the island is on the verge of collapse. Presently, there are 1,800 people at the immigration centre, which has a capacity of 800. Many of them have been forced to sleep outside. Last night about 15 residents of the island staged a demonstration in front of the offices of the centre in the Imbriacola neighbourhood. After the recent clampdown by the Interior Ministry, immigrants are no longer transferred from Lampedusa to other immigration centres while awaiting their immediate repatriation.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Two More Landings on Sicilian Coast
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, JANUARY 20 — Two more boats carrying immigrants arrived at the Sicilian cost last night. The first landed in Lampedusa, where 220 migrants arrived around three last night. Seven of them are women and 28 are under age. The immigrants were assisted by the Coast Guard after being intercepted by a fishing boat 20 miles from the island. The second boat had 228 non-EU residents on board, 34 of them women and one baby. In this case the Coast Guard intervened 30 miles form the coast of Ragusa. All immigrants arrived at the Port of Pozzallo at dawn, from where they were taken to the temporary shelter in the buildings of the former customs house. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Change We Cannot Believe in
While many in the country were welcoming the Obamas, the incoming president was busy putting out the welcome mat for the homosexual agenda. At the “We are One” gathering at the Lincoln Memorial on the Sunday before the Inauguration, Obama invited Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly “gay” bishop ordained in the Episcopal Church, to give the opening prayer. It seems rather strange that an event to celebrate “unity” would begin with prayer by an individual whose homosexual conduct is responsible for one of the deepest divisions in the Episcopal Church in its history, as various dioceses have severed ties with the Episcopal Church to join the more conservative international Anglican community.
But even more shocking is the fact that Bishop Robinson was asked to pray at all. When questioned about the upcoming event by the Associated Press, Robinson assured them that he would “be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer,” and — not surprisingly — that he would not use a Bible. If that is the accepted view of our new president and those attending the event, then we are indeed in for a “change,” but one actually contrary to our beliefs and very destructive of our national morality. Historically, there has never been a time when Christianity has been so openly shunned and homosexuality so expressly promoted.
[…]
Obama has not only chosen an open homosexual to open an historic event with prayer, he plans to promote homosexuality in other ways. Obama has proposed expanding federal “hate crimes” statutes to include “sexual orientation,” supported adoption rights for homosexuals, and opposed a constitutional ban on same-sex “marriage.” Obama seems determined to force change that only radical homosexuals can believe in, even in our military.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fed Coffers to be Opened for Worldwide Abortions
President set to repeal Bush, Reagan pro-life policy on 1st day in office
Officials with the Obama administration have revealed that the new president will repeal a ban on U.S. taxpayer funding of foreign abortions on his first day in office.
The Mexico City Policy, also known as the “global gag rule,” was announced by President Reagan in 1984. It prohibits non-governmental organizations that receive federal funds from providing or promoting abortions in other nations.
President Clinton rescinded the rule Jan. 22, 1993. He issued a statement calling the ban “excessively broad” and “unwarranted.”
The anti-abortion conditions “have undermined efforts to promote safe and efficacious family planning programs in foreign nations,” Clinton said.
But when President Bush took office in January 2001, he immediately issued an executive order reinstituting the pro-life policy.
“It is my conviction that taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortion or actively promote abortion,” Bush said.
International Planned Parenthood Federation and other abortion groups refused to conform to the ban. They continued to provide and promote abortions and were denied government funding for doing so.
But on Obama’s first day in office, just before the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the new president will repeal it, Congressional Quarterly reports.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Agenda? ‘Hate Crimes’ Law
White House site posts priority for special protection for ‘gays’
President Obama had not even finished his inaugural address today before his agenda was posted on the WhiteHouse website, where he promised to “overturn” the Supreme Court’s precedents on discrimination claims and to demand new laws requiring employers to provide special protections for homosexuals and others with “gender” issues.
Second on the list of priorities is Obama’s demand for federal “hate crimes” laws, which opponents fear could be used to make basic Christian beliefs subject to federal penalties and prohibitions as already has happened in other nations.
The agenda was posted as Obama’s technical team took over operation of the formal White House website from the Bush administration.
Civil rights was listed first under Obama’s “entire agenda,” and under that the first item was to “Combat Employment Discrimination.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Warren’s ‘Inclusive’ Prayer Ignites Reactions
Pastor quotes from Jewish, Christian, Muslim scriptures
Pastor Rick Warren’s invocation at President Obama’s inauguration today has ignited a flurry of critiques for using words from the Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy texts as well as including the name of Jesus ? in several languages.
Leading up to the prayer, bloggers and commentators debated whether Warren — an evangelical pastor blasted by the homosexual community for his opposition to same-sex marriage — would draft a prayer that was inclusive of the many Americans of differing religions, moralities and politics or whether it would be solely reflective of evangelical Christian theology.
Following the prayer, some criticized him for being too inclusive.
Islam expert Robert Spencer at JihadWatch.org, an organization dedicated to bringing public attention to jihad theology and defending Western society, criticized Warren for including a common refrain from Islam’s Quran ? “You are the compassionate and merciful one.”.
“‘The compassionate, the merciful’ is, of course, a reference to the invocation at the beginning of every chapter of the Qur’an except one: Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim, ‘In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful,’“ Spencer writes. “Making sure everyone feels included ? terrific. But the prayer indicates yet again that there is little general awareness of the reasons why the term ‘Judeo-Christian-Islamic values’ is a misnomer.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Google to Halt Print Ads Program for Newspapers
Google Inc will kill a program to sell newspaper advertising because it is not making enough money, a blow to its efforts to expand its ad expertise beyond the Internet.
Google will shut the Print Ads program on February 28, the company said on its blog on Tuesday afternoon. The two-year-old service was designed to help newspapers make money by enticing Google advertisers to expand into print newspaper sales.
[…]
…Google, an ad powerhouse that has expanded its empire as U.S. publishers are losing theirs, said last week it would lay off 100 full-time recruiters and close three engineering offices…
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