The Financial Times — not known as a wild-eyed raving loonie rag — has a sobering analysis of the financial crisis, and what lies ahead, both in the USA and abroad.Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fausta, GL-T, Insubria, JD, LL, Tuan Jim, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Crisis: Syria, Gov’t Brings in Measures to Protect Industry
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, FEBRUARY 9 — Reduce production costs, facilitate access to credit, eliminate dumping in the import sector and promote export are the aims of the measures adopted by the Syrian government in its efforts to bear up under the weight of the global economic crisis and to support industry, with especial attention given to the textile sector. The Italian foreign trade commission in Damascus (ICE) has reported on the most significant decisions out of an overall 25 measures and recommendations: the unification of duties on cotton at a rate set with the cooperation of industrial chambers of commerce; a minimum price provided for all imported clothing; a 16% reduction in petrol prices; the revision of duties on the import of products for the local engineering sector; and the elimination of pecuniary sanctions for delays in restitution of loans by producers. Also, according to the government, electricity costs will be reduced and access to credit will be facilitated with competitive interest rates, while the possibility of a further reduction in the company tax for exporters will be assessed. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Emirates: Dubai’s Economic Growth Estimated at 2.5% in 2009
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, FEBRUARY 9 — Dubai’s economy will grow by 2.5% in 2009 despite the difficult climate, declared the government’s chief economist, Raed Safadi, releasing the official figure confirming the results of various independent research published in recent weeks. “We have lowered our forecast,” Raed Safadi said to the newspaper Emirates Business, specifying that the current “challenges” are exports, as well as the real estate and tourism sectors, while maintaining optimistic that the past six years of budget surplus will allow for the management of the effects of the global financial crisis. In 2008, Dubai’s economic growth was +8%, and according to estimations defined in 2007, the Emirate should have had an annual growth rate of +11% until 2015. The figures have now been corrected to a rate between 4-6% annually. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: BDF Predicts 0.6% GDP Drop in First Quarter
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, FEBRUARY 9 — The Bank of France (BdF) is expecting the country’s economy to have contracted by 0.6% in the first quarter of 2009. This would be the second consecutive quarter of negative growth, meaning that France is officially in recession. In its monthly economic note published today in Paris the BdF also highlighted the poor business performance. Initial data on GDP growth in 2008 is expected on Friday from Insee (the French statistics office), but already most economists are predicting extremely negative results from the fourth quarter, with a contraction of 1%, and growth for the whole of 2008 at around 0.7-0.8%. Economy Minister Christine Lagarde signaled last week that a situation like that of the fourth quarter of 2008 “has never been seen” with a “collapse of industrial production in November and December”. The government is awaiting the publication of the results from the central statistics institute in order to revise its predictions for 2009, which for now remains at between +0.2 and +0.5%.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Production Down 12.2% in December, -4.3% in 2008
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 10 — Industrial production in Italy collapsed in December by 12.2% compared to the same month in 2007 and by 2.5% against November 2008. According to statistical institute Istat, the production index, adjusted for the number of working days (December 2008 had one more working day than in 2007), saw a fall on trend of 14.3%, the largest fall since January 1991. December’s drop was the fourth successive monthly decrease in industrial production, say ISTAT pundits, who point out that the production saw a fourth-quarter drop of 7.5%, the biggest quarterly fall in this historic series, or since 1990. There were 20 working days last December, compared to the 19 in the same month of 2007. The whole of 2008 experienced a drop in production of 4.3%, both in raw terms and when adjusted for the number of working days (there were in fact 253, as in 2007). Looking at the main industrial sectors, it emerges that in 2008, compared to the previous year, there were negative trends for all sectors: down 5.9% for intermediate products, -5.2% for tools, -2.7% for consumer goods (with a drop of 5% for durable goods and -2.1% for non-durables) and -1.9% for Energy products. Looking at economic sectors, comparing 2008 to 2007, there was an increase in the energy sector only (+0.4%), while there were more significant decreases in the leather and footwear sectors (-10.2%), of wood and wood products (-9.8%) and mining (-9.3%).(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lawmakers in 20 States Move to Reclaim Sovereignty
Obama’s $1 trillion deficit-spending ‘stimulus plan’ seen as last straw
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shttp://xandernieuws.punt.nl/?id=503406&r=1&tbl_archief=&
MAP
Red: States may rely on their sovereignty
Light red: The States is also considering doing
The following States have invoked the right to their sovereignty, or are planning to do so:
1. Washington
2. New Hampshire
3. Arizona
4. Montana
5. Michigan
6. Missouri
7. Oklahoma
8. Hawaii
9. Californië
10. Georgia
In addition to these 10 states, another 10 states are considering similar action:
11. Colorado
12. Pennsylvania
13. Arkansas
14. Idaho
15. Indiana
16. Alaska
17. Alabama
18. Nevada
19. Maine
20. Illinois
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Socialized Medicine
Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.
Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).
The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”
(..)
Tom Daschle is out of the picture, but his greasy fingerprints are all over this one. He stated in his book that the reason that Hillarycare didn’t work was because the people found out about it. This time it must be done swiftly and without too much detail. This fits that bill.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stimulus Plan Caters to the Privileged Public Sector
This all means that the potential price tag for swelling the public workforce could ultimately run into the trillions, a number Washington and Wall Street now use the way we used to talk about billions. At very least, we should be asking new public workers, or those whose jobs are being bailed out by the stimulus package, to make the kind of sacrifices demanded, say, of those working at General Motors. We could, for example, make them wait ‘til age 60 or even 65 to retire.
To no one’s surprise, much of this favoritism has to do with party politics. The basic truth is that auto and other industrial workers, like those in construction, have become somewhat expendable in the eyes of some Democrats — in part because they do not always follow the party line. In contrast, public-employee unions are the politically correct rock upon which much of the party now rests.
This oversized influence is relatively recent. Yet as private-sector unions have waned, those in the public sector have waxed. They have been able to extort enormous benefits out of City Halls, counties, states and, of course, Congress.
In the process, they have become — like the Wall Street financiers before them — a kind of privileged class. In the case of some Chicago garbage men, they often don’t work anything near 40 hours a week but are paid as if they did. Others engage in elaborate schemes to take advantage of injuries, real or imagined. Who would have thought that punching tickets for the Long Island Rail Road would be so hazardous that many retired employees use these “injuries” to collect disability money — in order to play golf or take another job?
This can all get very expensive, especially given the poor immediate prospects that the stock market can finance these additional pensions. Some day the millennial generation should initiate a class action suit for placing this unconscionable burden on them.
Right now, though, there’s little reason to expect President Obama and the majority Democrats will change direction. The public sector unions are often among the largest contributors to Democratic campaigns. They have also cultivated strong ties with the Washington media — some of whom, like The Washington Post’s Harold Meyerson, have argued over the years that these public workers are increasingly synonymous with the future middle class.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Obama’s New Tarp Will Fail to Rescue the Banks
The banking programme seems to be yet another child of the failed interventions of the past one and a half years: optimistic and indecisive. If this “progeny of the troubled asset relief programme” fails, Mr Obama’s credibility will be ruined. Now is the time for action that seems close to certain to resolve the problem; this, however, does not seem to be it.
All along two contrasting views have been held on what ails the financial system. The first is that this is essentially a panic. The second is that this is a problem of insolvency.
Under the first view, the prices of a defined set of “toxic assets” have been driven below their long-run value and in some cases have become impossible to sell. The solution, many suggest, is for governments to make a market, buy assets or insure banks against losses. This was the rationale for the original Tarp and the “super-SIV (special investment vehicle)” proposed by Henry (Hank) Paulson, the previous Treasury secretary, in 2007.
Under the second view, a sizeable proportion of financial institutions are insolvent: their assets are, under plausible assumptions, worth less than their liabilities. The International Monetary Fund argues that potential losses on US-originated credit assets alone are now $2,200bn (€1,700bn, £1,500bn), up from $1,400bn just last October. This is almost identical to the latest estimates from Goldman Sachs. In recent comments to the Financial Times, Nouriel Roubini of RGE Monitor and the Stern School of New York University estimates peak losses on US-generated assets at $3,600bn. Fortunately for the US, half of these losses will fall abroad. But, the rest of the world will strike back: as the world economy implodes, huge losses abroad — on sovereign, housing and corporate debt — will surely fall on US institutions, with dire effects.
Personally, I have little doubt that the second view is correct and, as the world economy deteriorates, will become ever more so. But this is not the heart of the matter. That is whether, in the presence of such uncertainty, it can be right to base policy on hoping for the best. The answer is clear: rational policymakers must assume the worst. If this proved pessimistic, they would end up with an over-capitalised financial system. If the optimistic choice turned out to be wrong, they would have zombie banks and a discredited government. This choice is surely a “no brainer”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Army Official: Suicides in January ‘Terrifying’
One week after the U.S. Army announced record suicide rates among its soldiers last year, the service is worried about a spike in possible suicides in the new year.
The Army said 24 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in January alone — six times as many as killed themselves in January 2008, according to statistics released Thursday.
The Army said it already has confirmed seven suicides, with 17 additional cases pending that it believes investigators will confirm as suicides for January.
If those prove true, more soldiers will have killed themselves than died in combat last month. According to Pentagon statistics, there were 16 U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq in January.
[…]
Platoni also said that while the military has made a lot of headway in training leaders on how to deal with soldiers who may be suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, “there is still a huge problem with leadership who shame them when they seek treatment.”
The anti-depressants prescribed to soldiers can have side effects that include suicidal thoughts. Those side effects reportedly are more common in people 18 to 24.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
GM Cutting 10,000 Jobs
[Comment from JD: Remember, all this while GM is investing $1 BILLION in Brazil.]
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors announced Tuesday it is cutting 10,000 workers, or 14% of its salaried jobs worldwide. A third of those job losses will be in the United States.
The troubled automaker also said it will cut the pay for its remaining U.S. salaried staff.
GM (GM, Fortune 500), which is preparing to present a long-term viability plan to the Treasury Department next week, said the cutbacks are part of the restructuring plan it submitted to Congress on Dec. 2 when it was first asking Washington for federal assistance.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Film Uncovers ‘Homegrown Jihad’
Group left off terror list operates 35 training camps across U.S.
A jihadist group responsible for nearly 50 attacks on American soil is operating 35 training camps across the nation, but its name cannot be found on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Exposing Jamaat ul-Fuqra’s threat to the U.S., putting it on the terror list and shutting it down is the aim of a documentary film premiering tomorrow night at the Landmark Theater in Washington, D.C., at 7:30 p.m.
The film’s producer, the Christian Action Network, or CAN, says there’s no charge to attend the showing of “Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around the U.S.,” and DVDs are available at its website. A trailer for the film can be viewed online.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obamania Short Lived
Three weeks into his term, the illegitimate usurper, Also Known As (AKA) Obama, is already losing ground in the polls. Boyish good looks, a slim physique, and flashing pearly whites only go so far. Not even great oratory skills can save the day when there is nothing behind the façade that is of merit and the teleprompter isn’t around. The obvious lack of experience is glaringly evident as is the communist agenda.
[…]
Showing his ineptness right out of the gate, AKA started his term off right by going on Arab television where he bowed down and kissed the ground upon which the insane leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, walks. Way to go, AKA, just the right amount of groveling to make the crazy Iranian extremist and every other Middle-Eastern Islamic masochist read you for the inept, inexperienced charlatan you are! Maybe if you perform some of that oratorical mojo that made idiotic women swoon, scream and faint during your campaign, these mad hatters of Middle-Eastern despotism will fall under your spell, too. Don’t bet on it, but hey, it’s worth a try, right?
Meanwhile, cut the Pentagon budget by 10 or 11%, undermine the United States’ ability to protect and defend itself, take the money and give it to your buddies in the community organizing business, ie, your communist friends. Who cares if our nation is secure against external threats; after all, “harmony” (oneness of mind) under the mantel of your oppressive communist/fascist agenda is much more important!
And in the interests of stifling the growing dissension to your communist/fascist agenda, set up deliberately deceptive (communists are always deliberately deceptive) websites like Born Again American (http://www.bornagainamerican.org/) that claims to represent the American spirit but really represents the communist ideology you hold so dear! Freedom, liberty and justice are not about signing pledges, contributing lyrics, and leaving messages pledging oneself to the collectivism of communist thought and practice. And while the lyrics are deliberately catchy and appealing, they say absolutely nothing of value to the cause of the freedom, liberty and justice on which this nation was founded; they don’t hold a candle to the National Anthem or America the Beautiful. (Note to readers: one can get the general aura of the Born Again American website in and of the fact that the singers appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Winfrey being a promoter of AKA and such eastern mysticism apostasy as is practiced by New Age gurus Eckhart Tolle and Rhonda Byrne.)
And true to form, AKA is pushing the Porkulus Package hard. Campaigning on “change”, AKA is now resorting to fear tactics to push the theft of $780 billion in pork barrel spending that will not, despite AKA’s claims, stimulate the economy just as prior bailouts have failed to stimulate the economy, but will push America ever closer to the inevitable depression and the planned destruction of the country. One Democrat close to the Chicago political machine admitted the Porkulus Package is intended, specifically, to keep the communists in the White House forever! (See YouTube video from The Savage Nation show below). Yet we have fascist Senate Republicans like Susan Collins (ME), Olympia Snowe (ME) and Arlen Specter (PA) and Independent Joseph Lieberman (CT), crossing the aisle to aid their communist counterparts accomplish the goal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Reviewing Ban on Photos of Military Coffins
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama said he is considering whether to overturn a Pentagon policy that bans the media from taking pictures of the flag-draped coffins of U.S. troops returning from the battlefield.
A leading military families group says the policy, enforced without exception during the administration of former President George W. Bush, should let survivors of the dead decide whether photographers can record their return.
At his first prime-time news conference as president on Monday night, Obama said his administration is reviewing the policy with Defense Department officials. He noted that he was informed Monday that four U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq, making the question timely.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Octuplets’ Mom on Welfare, Spokesman Confirms
LOS ANGELES — The Southern California mother of octuplets receives $490 a month in food stamps and three of her first six children are disabled and receiving federal assistance, her publicist confirmed Monday evening.
Spokesman Michael Furtney said Nadya Suleman did not want to disclose the nature of the disabilities, or the type or sum of the payments.
Furtney confirmed the public assistance payments after two sources told The Los Angeles Times that Suleman was receiving food stamps and federal supplemental security income.
“In her view these are just payments made for people with legitimate needs and are not, in her view, welfare,” Furtney said. “She just believes that there are programs for people with needs and she and her children qualify for some of them.”
[…]
An in-vitro procedure typically costs between $8,000 and $15,000. Asked on NBC how she was able to afford the treatments, Suleman said she had saved money and used some of the more than $165,000 in disability payments she received after being injured in a 1999 riot at a state mental hospital where she worked.
[…]
On Sunday, Suleman’s mother, Angela Suleman, seemed to contradict her daughter’s account, telling a Web site the fertility specialist who helped her daughter give birth to the octuplets was not the one who aided in the birth of her first six children.
In an interview with celebrity news Web site RadarOnline.com, Angela Suleman said she and Nadya’s father pleaded with her first fertility doctor not to treat their daughter again. She said her daughter went to another doctor.
“I’m really angry about that,” Angela Suleman said of the doctor’s decision to perform the procedure. “She already has six beautiful children. Why would she do this? I’m struggling to look after her six. We had to put in bunk beds, feed them in shifts and there’s children’s clothing piled all over the house.”
Angela Suleman said Nadya’s boyfriend was the biological father of all 14 children, but that she refused to marry him.
“He was in love with her and wanted to marry her,” she said. “But Nadya wanted to have children on her own.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Obama Wants Control of the Census
Counting citizens is a powerful political tool.
President Obama said in his inaugural address that he planned to “restore science to its rightful place” in government. That’s a worthy goal. But statisticians at the Commerce Department didn’t think it would mean having the director of next year’s Census report directly to the White House rather than to the Commerce secretary, as is customary. “There’s only one reason to have that high level of White House involvement,” a career professional at the Census Bureau tells me. “And it’s called politics, not science.”
[…]
Mr. Chapman worries about a revival of the effort led by minority groups after the 2000 Census to adjust the totals for states and cities using statistical sampling and computer models. In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Department of Commerce v. U.S. House that sampling could not be used to reapportion congressional seats. But it left open the possibility that sampling could be used to redraw political boundaries within the states.
Such a move would prove controversial. “Sampling potentially has the kind of margin of error an opinion poll has and the same subjectivity a voter-intent standard in a recount has,” says Mr. Chapman.
Starting in 2000, the Census Bureau conducted three years of studies with the help of many outside statistical experts. According to then Census director Louis Kincannon, the Bureau concluded that “adjustment based on sampling didn’t produce improved figures” and could damage Census credibility.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alpi-Med: Chambers of Commerce Involved in Initiative
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 9 — The cross-border chambers of commerce from the five regions involved in the political make-up of the Alpi-Med Euro-Region are uniting their efforts to contribute to the realisation of the project. Representatives from the regional unions of chambers of commerce from Piedmont, Liguria, Valle d’Aosta, Paca and Rhone-Alpes met at the headquarters of Unionecamere Piedmont to discuss the initiative’s strategy. Among the courses of action decided on last July 2 in Marseilles are the creation of an annual economic report which will contain all of the Euro-Region’s figures, as well as the creation of the requisites to access European funding. The two objectives could be achieved in the sharing of a single chamber of commerce office in Brussels. ‘We are sure of the strategic role that Italian and French chambers of commerce cover inside the economic area of the Euro-Region, 110 thousand square kilometres of territory inhabited by almost 17 million people and with a GDP of 447 billion Euros.’’, commented Ferruccio Dardanello, president of Unioncamere Piedmont, ‘We think that continued concrete cooperation between our regions is fundamental’’. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Church of England Votes to Ban Clergy From Joining BNP
Clergy will be banned from joining the British National Party after the Archbishop of Canterbury called on the Church of England to “name names” in the fight against racism.
The governing body of the Church of England, the General Synod, voted overwhelmingly to follow the lead of the police and bar ordained priests, trainees and lay staff from becoming members of racist political parties, specifically including the BNP.
It will require discplinary rules for vicars to be rewritten, and some critics claimed the move could still breach human rights and trigger employment tribunal cases because the BNP is a legal organisation.
Others warned that far-right parties could get around the rules by changing their names, or by claiming their members are merely supporters rather than official members.
However the vote was carried by 322 votes to 13, with 20 abstentions, amid claims that the BNP is trying to promote itself as a Christian group, and fears that there are “racist undertones” in the Church that leave ethnic minorities “scandalously under-represented” among clergy.
In 2004, the Synod affirmed that voting for a racist party is “incompatible with Christian discipleship” while since 2006 candidates for positions in the priesthood have been screened for racist attitudes…
| — Hat tip: GL-T | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Rep: Vatican Praising Czech EU Presidency for Debate Over Child Care
Vatican — The Vatican has appreciated the effort of Czech EU presidency to open a debate about the care for children, Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, said in a speech during the Tuesday meeting with EU ambassadors in the Vatican.
As a diplomatic office of the country now presiding the EU, the Czech embassy had staged the meeting to which it invited Cardinal Bertone.
Bertone reacted to the recent proposal by Czech EU presidency to start a debate on the targets the EU has set in the sphere of care for children and that involves an increase in the number of pre-school facilities.
The proposal has aroused criticism by the European Parliament saying the Czech Republic is forcing the women to give up their jobs in favour of their “natural role,” which means care for children.
At a meeting of EU ministers last week in Prague, it was decided not to change the aims.
Bertone said the experience of the Czech Republic in which 25 percent of children had been in nurseries in the Communist era constituted a major opportunity for all EU members to reconsider the freedom of families and to focus on the interest of children.
Bertone cited the statistics attesting to the “crisis of family” and stressed that no other institutions could replace the contribution of family.
The Vatican is therefore opposed to the efforts “seeking the reinterpretation of human rights on behalf of alleged struggle with discrimination,” Bertone said.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Middle-East Media Cries Fowl Over Pork Procedure
Poultry producers are scrambling to save their exports to the Middle East after reports there that Danish chicken is injected with pig protein
Denmark’s multi-million kroner export of chickens to the Middle East is in danger after a TV report created confusion about methods used by poultry producers to increase the sale weight of their products.
A TV2 report last week showed that water and salt can be injected into slaughtered chickens in order to increase their sale weight, and that the process meant that chicken breasts contain as much as 40 percent salt and water. During the programme, a similar process using pork protein was described.
The programme, however, never stated that the procedure was not used by poultry producers, and based on the broadcast media in the Middle East have begun to warn consumers that chicken exported from Denmark contains pork, in violation of Muslim dietary restrictions.
One Saudi Arabian newspaper, Al Watan, reported that 40 percent of all Danish chickens contain pork and water, according to the Danish Embassy in Riyadh.
The embassy has requested that the newspaper and other organisations that have reported the news issue a correction.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Ganley Says Libertas Became a Recognised Party Despite Best Efforts of Brussels
LIBERTAS WAS “formally recognised as a political party against the best efforts by Brussels”, the group’s founder Declan Ganley has said. He “had been reliably told” that officials in Brussels were instructed to find one comma out of place, one “i” not dotted, he said.
Two supporters in eastern Europe had been “nobbled” he said, “but there were plenty of others”.
The party was now recognised in all 27 EU countries, he said, and referred delegates to its website www.libertas.eu.
Mr Ganley was speaking in a panel discussion at a conference in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, at the weekend. It was organised by the Catholic John Paul II Society and co-hosted by the pro-life Human Life International group. Mr Ganley was responding to a question from the floor as to whether he was setting up a political party.
He also assured delegates of his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, referring to earlier opening remarks in which he quoted from Pope Benedict’s recent encyclicals, Deus Caritas Est and Spe Salvi , “with their message of God’s love”.
Reflecting on Ireland’s history he continued, “our faith and our rights are strong today because we have suffered the yoke of oppression . . . we grew stronger and we grew free”.
He queried whether “we have lost something” and noted the address of the pope at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome immediately prior to his election in April 2005. There, the pope criticised a “dictatorship of moral relativism . . . in a world where faith in God is seen as a threat”, Mr Ganley said.
He went on to criticise “a media obsessed with breaking down the domestic church . . . and the family” and reminded delegates that “the essence of our faith is that all life is sacred”. He concluded: “Yes we must, we must take risks for truth.”
In the later question-and-answer session, he said any guarantees given by the EU on social and ethical issues “were not worth the paper they are written on”, where the European Court of Justice was concerned.
He continued that: “the laws of the union have primacy over the laws of any member state . . . If there is a conflict, union law rules.”
He continued: “I have been called a liar, a murderer, an arms dealer, a CIA agent, a KGB agent — all of those things, all are filthy lies, but even if [such things were true] it doesn’t change the truth of what we are saying is in this treaty.”
He said that on average more than 80 laws a year came from Brussels. However, he also warned one should “never become a Eurosceptic”. The EU, he said, was “a lesson learned from the bloodfest suffered on this continent for hundreds of years”.
All had been touched by it, including families such as his own and his wife’s. “The miracle of [the European Union] is that it has ended [the violence and war that] was on the European continent and so is deserving of our support.”
However, he continued, “for it to succeed, its legitimacy and its vitality has to come from you”.
The problem was, he said, that “the Brussels elite holds you in contempt . . . telling you to vote again. They told the French, the Dutch, and now you, to vote again . . . taking us for absolute fools, uninformed idiots.”
Ireland, he said, “made the most pro-European statement [in rejecting the Lisbon Treaty]. We want Europe to be strong, but it is also going to be accountable.”
During the same discussion NUI Senator Rónán Mullen said he would be voting No in the next Lisbon Treaty referendum if it could not be guaranteed that Ireland would retain its independence on “certain sensitive social and ethical issues”.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: ‘Europe is Suffering From Too Little Democracy’
Germany’s high court is taking a closer look at the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, the document meant to replace the failed EU constitution. Early indications are that it doesn’t like what it sees. If Germany says no, the treaty is likely dead. Commentators can’t decide whether or not that is good.
It is hardly a novelty that a European Union treaty lands before the German Constitutional Court. For years, the guardians of Germany’s constitution have periodically taken a look at EU integration to make sure that Berlin is not exporting too much of its sovereignty to Brussels. And the answer has always been the same: This time it’s okay, but don’t go too far.
This week, though, with the Treaty of Lisbon — the EU’s blueprint for the reform of the 27-nation bloc’s decision-making process — under consideration, indications are mounting that the German court may put its foot down. During oral arguments on Tuesday, justices asked unexpectedly critical questions and raised the possibility that the court could reject the treaty outright or demand a nationwide referendum.
Referring to the shifting of law-making competencies from Berlin to Brussels, Justice Udo Di Fabio pointedly asked whether the shifting of responsibilities to the European Union “is beneficial to freedom” or whether the trend toward Brussels should more accurately be seen as an “endangerment of freedom.”
The skeptical tone from the bench continued on Wednesday. “One has to look at things soberly: How much power does the Bundestag (eds note: Germany’s federal parliament) still have?” asked Di Fabio. A second justice, Rudolf Mellinghoff, said he didn’t really understand how Germany’s parliament would benefit from handing over competencies to the European Union…
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Gordon Brown Calls for World Bank and IMF Reform
Setting out the aims of the G20 summit in London to a group of economists and academics on Monday, the Prime Minister said leaders should use the event in April as an opportunity to reform the institutions.
“I believe the IMF and World Bank will have to change their role quite dramatically. These institutions were built for a world of local capital flows, not global capital flows. The institutions we have inherited are not equipped for the tasks we have to deal with in the future.”
He said bold solutions were needed to avert future crises and suggested that changes are needed to the way the institutions are funded: “I see a big argument about how the IMF and the World Bank are to be financed, one that will require us to talk about the reserves in different countries, talk about what sort of loan or bond facility we can develop, perhaps with the Arab states, even sovereign wealth funds,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Largest University in France Founded in Strasbourg
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, FEBRUARY 6 — “Elle est unique”, or ‘she is the only one’, was written on posters hung all over Strasbourg including the railway station and on public transport in an enormous advertising campaign launched to announce the establishment of the largest university in France with 42,000 students, 21% of whom are foreigners. The University is located on four main campuses and is the result of merging the three largest universities in the city, attended by 17 Nobel Prize winners over the years. Louis Pasteur, March Bloch, and Robert Schuman Universities all began the 2008-2009 academic year separately, but in January of 2009 they joined to form the University of Strasbourg (UdS), officially inaugurated yesterday by Superior Education and Research Minister Valerie Pecresse in the midst of student protests unrelated to the creation of the mega-university, but due to university reform involving students, professors, and researchers. The decision to make Strasbourg one of the main university centres in Europe was made in February 2007 and will make the city’s university internationally competitive for research and fund raising, making UdS an important element regarding private businesses and the state, which will now have to allocate funds for building to enlarge the campus. As a multidisciplinary university, research and training courses offered by UdS cover all four sectors recognised by the Education Code including law, economics and management, humanities and social science, and science and technology. The Law, Economics, and Management College includes the International Centre of Intellectual Property and the University Centre of Journalistic Education. The Humanities and Social Science College includes art, languages, applied social sciences, physical activities and sports science and methods, psychology, and the Catholic and Protestant Theology department. The Science and Technology College includes an observatory, and the Health college includes the medicine, pharmacy, and dental surgery departments. For the region of Alsace, with its combination of French and German cultures, the university has always been a centrepiece, with its open and pluralist tradition from the creation of the Protestant grammar school in 1538, to the founding of the first university in 1621. The new university’s charter states that it shall be multidisciplinary, have a European identity, and have an open and international dimension. More than 21% of the 42,000 students enrolled are foreign nationals, and together with 5,200 professors and employees form a dynamic community that covers all fields of study in strict collaboration with Cnrs (National Centre for Scientific Research), Inserm (National Centre for Health and Medical Research), and Inra (National Institute for Agricultural Research). 54 year old Vice-Chancellor Alain Beretz, who was also vice-chancellor of Louis Pasteur from June 21 2007, was appointed by the UdS Executive Board on their first vote. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Let Them Arrest Me’: Dutch MP Vows to Defy Home Office Ban and Fly to Britain to Show Anti-Islam Film
A right-wing Dutch politician who has been banned from Britain said today he planned to defy the authorities and fly to the UK, stating ‘Let them put me in handcuffs’.
Geert Wilders had been invited by the UK Independence Party (UKIP) peer Lord Pearson to show his anti-Islam film ‘Fitna’ and hold a Q&A session in Parliament tomorrow.
The 17-minute documentary features verses from the Koran — which it brands a ‘fascist book’ — alongside images of the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist attacks.
It equates Islam’s holy text with violence and ends with a call to Muslims to remove its ‘hate-preaching’ verses. After being alerted to the private screening, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith barred Mr Wilders on the grounds that his visit was a threat to ‘community harmony and therefore public security’. But Mr Wilders today said he planned to contravene the ban and defiantly announced his intention to arrive in the UK tomorrow. He told Radio Netherlands today: ‘I’ll see what happens at the border. Let them put me in handcuffs.’
The ban brought a furious response from the Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen — a political opponent of Mr Wilders — who complained directly to the Foreign Secretary David Miliband in a ‘curt’ telephone call. ‘The fact that a Dutch parliamentarian is refused entry to another EU country is highly regrettable,’ he said. However, Britain is refusing to give way, even though Mr Wilders is a democratically-elected politician and the leader of a legitimate political party. A defiant Mr Wilders, who claims to have visited the House of Lords in December, called the decision ‘cowardly’ and vowed last night to go ahead with his visit. ‘Let them try to detain me,’ he said. ‘I’ll see what happens at the border. Let them put me in handcuffs. We are talking here about a European Union country, one of the oldest democracies in the Western world.’
While Mr Verhagen said the Dutch government would press Britain to reverse the ban, Lord Pearson said he was ‘very surprised’ to hear the news. Under UK and EU immigration rules, a person can be refused entry to Britain, ‘if his exclusion is justified on grounds of public policy, public security or public health.’
The Home Office refused to comment on the individual case of Mr Wilders. But a spokesman said: ‘The Government opposes extremism in all its forms. It will stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country. ‘We endorse the original condemnation of the film ‘Fitna’ by the Dutch Government, and feel that it serves no constructive purpose. ‘The British Government has absolutely no connection with any screening of this film that may take place in the House of Lords or anywhere else in the UK. It is a matter for the House of Lords or any other venue as to whether they choose to show it. ‘Freedom of speech is a fundamental right, but one that must be used responsibly and not as a cover for causing offence and division. We fully appreciate the sensitivities around the portrayal of any religious figure or text.’ The film, which has been posted on the internet, was originally to have been shown last month but the screening was cancelled following fierce protests from the UK’s Muslim community.
Supporters of free sppech also condemned the move by Britain. Tory MEP Daniel Hannan said: ‘It’s true that Geert Wilders is a controversialist, who takes pleasure in causing offence. I wouldn’t vote for him if I were Dutch. ‘But what I think of him is neither here nor there. Freedom means the freedom to express any opinion, however eccentric, however offensive. The Dutch foreign minister, a political opponent of Mr Wilders, has complained to David Miliband. Good for him. ‘Whether our government is actuated by cowardice or authoritarianism, it’s equally ugly. We are a meaner country than we were this morning.’ A Foreign Office spokesman refused to comment on the diplomatic row, saying simply: ‘The two ministers spoke today.’
Mr Wilders has urged that the Dutch government to ban the Koran in the same way it did Adolf Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf’ and warned of a ‘tsunami’ of Islam swamping the Netherlands. He is currently facing prosecution in Amsterdam for incitement to hatred and discrimination, a rarely punished crime in the generally liberal Netherlands which carries a maximum one-year prison term. As a result of hs controversial views, he has lived for five years with round-the-clock security because of his fierce criticism of Islam. His Freedom Party holds nine of the Dutch parliament’s 120 seats.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
‘Nazis Should Serve Terms’
Warrants on 15 German and Austrian war criminals ‘ignored’
(ANSA) — Rome, February 11 — Former Nazis sentenced to life by Italian courts should serve the terms, Italy’s top military prosecutor said Wednesday.
The failure to carry out the sentences against 15 ex-Nazis living in Germany and Austria was a ‘‘serious problem,’’ Military Prosecutor General Fabrizio Fabretti said.
Only three former Nazis have ever been jailed in Italy for war crimes, he noted.
Erich Priebke, 85, was extradited from Argentina and sentenced to life for his part in a reprisal outside Rome that killed 335 men and boys; his ex-commander Karl Hass, arrested after coming from Switzerland to Priebke’s trial with witness immunity, died in prison aged 92 in 2004; and ‘Butcher of Bolzano’ Michael Seifert, 85, found guilty of 18 murders, was extradited from Canada last year.
Fabretti noted that since Priebke was now under house arrest, Seifert was the only war criminal in an Italian jail.
Italian prosecutors have issued European arrest warrants for the other 15 without success, he said, urging the defence ministry to request a formal move from the justice ministry.
One of the crimes involved is the slaughter of 560 people including 116 children at the Tuscan village of Sant’Anna di Stazzema, which forms the background to a recent Spike Lee film.
In 2007 Italy’s supreme court upheld life sentences against SS officer Gerhard Sommer, 87, and NCOs Georg Rauch, 87, and Karl Groper, 85.
German and Austrian authorities have not complied with the 15 warrants but Germany has in some cases suggested the terms be served in Germany, Fabretti noted.
Italian prosecutors applied to the justice ministry on this basis but received no reply.
Therefore, Fabretti said, he felt ‘‘duty-bound to report the stalemate to the defence ministry’’.
In response, Defence Undersecretary Giuseppe Cossiga said he would inform Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa, who would in turn submit the question to Justice Minister Angelino Alfano.
In a separate case, Italy and Germany are disputing compensation for the relatives of 203 victims of a wartime atrocity in Tuscany.
Italy’s supreme court ordered the compensation in a landmark ruling in October but Germany appealed to the International Court of Justice in December, arguing that Italy was breaching postwar treaties.
The two countries have set up a panel to review WWII issues.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Romania: Accuses Italy, Government Inciting Xenophobia
(AGI) — Rome, 10 Feb — Fresh accusations by the Romanian government against Italy: Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu has condemned the behavior of ‘‘some representatives of the Italian Government’ as ‘‘utterly deplorable’’, who ‘‘are inciting people to xenophobia through their extremely aggressive rhetoric which borders on provocation. I want to say very clearly that this behavior is not European’’ said Diaconescu on ‘Romania Actualitati’ radio.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Acid Attack Sends Eleven to Hospital
Fumes from what police believe to be acid thrown into an apartment near Jönköping in central Sweden have sent 11 people to hospital.
In addition to the two people in the apartment at the time of the attack, two police officers and seven emergency workers also sought treatment for exposure to the substance, which authorities initially suspected to be hydrofluoric acid, according to Sveriges Television (SVT).
Initial reports had put the number of victims at 13, but the figure was adjusted downward to 11 later in the day on Wednesday.
Police are also less certain about the exact nature of the substance, admitting that they have no idea what the substance could be.
“They’re on their way here from emergency services in Gothenburg to do a quick test,” police inspector Lennart Wennblom told the TT news agency at lunchtime on Wednesday.
The attack took place around 2am in a the Öxnehaga residential area of Husqvarna outside of Jönköping.
According to police, five windows were broken and and the liquid was thrown into the apartment, but exactly how remains unclear.
The two people in the apartment at the time, both in their twenties, were awakened by the sound of breaking glass.
“When police and emergency services arrived on the scene they said it was a brownish liquid which immediately caused severe throat irritation,” said Jönköping police spokesperson Nils-Erik Eriksson to the TT news agency.
Everyone present in the apartment has been admitted to hospital for observation for the next 48 hours.
According to Wennblom, all the victims feel well and police continue to work on uncovering a motive for the attack.
Hydrofluoric acid is highly corrosive and can quickly penetrate skin, sometimes weakening bones underneath. It can also interfere with nerve functioning, sometimes delaying awareness of any developing chemical burns.
If it penetrates the blood stream, hydrofluoric acid can also cause cardiac arrest.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Stockholm Anti-Fascists Admit to Mugging Right-Wing Extremist
The Stockholm chapter of Antifascist Action (AFA) admitted on Tuesday that its members had carried out a violent attack against a prominent right-wing extremist in Stockholm.
In a posting on its website, the left-wing extremist group said it chose to attack 35-year-old Vavra Suk, editor of the newspaper of the far-right National Democrats, because police had hindered AFA’s ability to counteract a right-wing political demonstration earlier in the week.
“The large police presence made it hard to act against the meeting. Therefore we chose another strategy. We attacked outside the National Democrats’ party offices in Rågsved [south of Stockholm]. When Vavra Suk came there, he and his car were attacked, the party’s sound equipment and propaganda were destroyed, and a handheld computer was confiscated,” AFA wrote on its website.
The group went on to argue that police interference gave AFA the right to act on its own initiative.
“That police persistently try to protect Nazis and racists is nothing new. Nor is it anything new that AFA Stockholm would hardly let themselves be stopped just because of that. We attack when we think it’s most appropriate, whether it’s at a fascist activity, at their party offices, or in a fascist’s home,” said AFA.
According to Mikael Wessling, lead investigator with Stockholm’s southern district police, there are still no concrete suspects in the case.
However, since the attack took place during the daytime on a weekend, there were many witnesses.
“We’ll see where the evidence leads us,” he told the TT news agency.
Sweden’s security police, Säpo, have also joined the investigation in line with a government mandate that they keep track of violent political extremist groups.
A spokesperson for Säpo said there have been more violent incidents that normal within political extremist circles, but that it’s too early to classify the development as a trend.
According to earlier assessments by Säpo, the normal scenario for violence by extremist groups in Sweden is that Nazis or other right-wing extremist groups try to organize a demonstration, prompting left-wing extremists to attack.
But from a societal perspective, each side is infringing on the other’s political and democratic rights.
According to Säpo, individual politicians and decision-makers in state agencies sometimes receive threats from the groups, but the agency doesn’t see the situation as a threat to the Swedish state.
Neither side has grown in size, when viewed over a long-term perspective. The violent extremist factions from both the right and the left consist of about 100 individuals on each side.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Students Are Revolting: the Spirit of ‘68 is Reawakening
[Comment from JD: This is a direct result of communist indoctrination at schools. The communists from the 60s are now teaching our kids — note last paragraph.]
Around the UK, thousands of students have occupied lecture theatres, offices and other buildings at more than 20 universities in sit-down protests. It seems that the spirit of 1968 has returned to the campus.
While it was the situation in Gaza that triggered this mass protest, the beginnings of political enthusiasm have already spread to other issues.
John Rose, one of the original London School of Economics (LSE) students to mount the barricades alongside Tariq Ali in 1968, spent last week giving lectures on the situation in Gaza at 12 of the occupations.
“This is something different to anything we’ve seen for a long time,” he said. “There is genuine fury at what Israel did.
“I think it’s highly likely that this year will see more student action. What’s interesting is the nervousness of vice chancellors and their willingness to concede demands; it indicates this is something that could well turn into [another] ‘68.”
Beginning with a 24-hour occupation at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) on 13 January, the sit-ins spread across the country. Now occupations have been held at the LSE, Essex, King’s College London, Birmingham, Sussex, Warwick, Manchester Metropolitan, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Sheffield Hallam, Bradford, Nottingham, Queen Mary, Manchester, Strathclyde, Newcastle, Kingston, Goldsmiths and Glasgow.
Among the demands of students are disinvestment in the arms trade; the promise to provide scholarships for Palestinian students; a pledge to send books and unused computers to Palestine; and to condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza.
[…]
John Rose, 63, former student organiser at the London School of Economics in 1968; now a lecturer and author on the Middle East
“I arrived at the LSE in ‘66 as an extremely naive liberal student and I left in ‘69 as a revolutionary socialist. It changed our lives. I was one of the student organisers with Tariq Ali and attended all the demonstrations and occupations. We did think a revolution was coming; we thought mass action of students might overthrow capitalism and bring genuine equality. It took us some time to realise that wasn’t going to happen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya-EU: Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner in Tripoli
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI — FEBRUARY 9 FEB — European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero Waldner will be in Tripoli today to meet with government representatives to discuss the development of relations between the European Union and Libya, which started with an initial agreement in November. Ferrero Waldner will begin a second round of negotiations to reach a definitive agreement. The European Commission reports that her visit will serve to start a financial cooperation program between the European Union and Libya which will last until 2013. More than 25 experts from the European Commission will participate in the negotiations to relaunch relations between Libya and the European Union. Ferrero Waldner is also expected to visit the Islamic Call Society of Tripoli. According to Ferrero Waldner, “Libya has the potential to become a key partner of the EU in the Mediterranean”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: 1000 Students/Year for Italian Cultural Institute
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, FEBRAURY 10 — About 1,000 Libyans per year including students, professionals, tourism workers, and government employees, study the Italian language at the Italian Cultural Institute of the Italian Embassy in Tripoli. “We offer students courses adhering to the European standard of foreign language certification thanks to agreements with Italian universities like the one in Perugia”, said Ondina Baradel, a worker at the cultural institute. Despite efforts, they are not able to satisfy demand; there are long waiting lists, and the few classrooms and teachers are not enough. “Funding is insufficient, and it decreases year by year, and we are also suffering the effects of the economic crisis that Italy is going through,” lamented Pietro Roselli, the director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Tripoli. A few days ago the cultural events proposed by the director of the institute for 2009 were approved by the Foreign Minister of Cultural Events, but not all of them will take place. “We will do the events that occur regularly with the population and local institutes,” explained Roselli. This year “Expressions” a contemporary art project sponsored by the Province of Rome and the San Nicola da Mira and Valle dell’Aniene Associations, taking place with the collaboration of the Academy of Superior Studies in Tripoli is on the agenda. Last year the event brought a group of young contemporary Libyan artists to Rome where they visited the Borghese Gallery, the Modern Art Museum, the Modern Art Gallery of the Foreign Ministry, and the State Mint. This year, from being just an artistic exhibition, “Expressions” will also turn into an art studio with art classes and an evening presentation of the trip to Italy. Another project financed by the EU, “Antenna Mediterrnaneo”, with the collaboration of Elisabetta di Costanzo, will bring a film exhibition about women and equal rights in the workplace to Tripoli. Among the conferences scheduled will be, Doctor Laura Barattin of the “Carlo Bo” University of Urbino on “The Restoration Project of Tripoli’s Red Castle”, already partly finished, and Savino di Lernia, professor of Ethnoarchaeology at ‘La Sapienza’ University in Rome that with Giuma Anag, the director of the Department of Archeology of Libya, which in the spring will present a book entitled “The Memory of Art: Cave Paintings in Acacus, between the Past and the Future”, the combined work in Acacus and Messak led by the Italy-Libya archeological mission. One of the projects “provides a cycle of Italian courses for local trainers who then can spread Italian language and culture in Libya”, concluded the director of the institute, Pietro Roselli. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism: Algeria, GSPC Founder Calls for Surrender
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 10 — Continued appeals for surrender are being launched by Hassan Hattab, founder of the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, (GSPC, today known as Al Qaeda for the Islamic Maghreb), with an audio message being broadcast on Al Jazira satellite TV yesterday in which he calls on fighters in Islamic groups to lay down their arms. “What you are has nothing to do with Jihad. It harms Islam and partakes in the spread of fitna (discord, ed.) within the Moslem nation,” Hattab said. “I call on you to follow the example of the Emir AbuTamine,” the message continues, recalling the surrender of Al Qaeda Maghreb’s highest official, who press reports say handed himself in to the authorities at the beginning of February. “Pay no heed to the false Fatwas that encourage you to bear arms”, “be wary of false words, spread through the Internet and on CDs, which authorise you to kill Moslems,” Hattab urged. On January 18, Hattab himself sent a letter to members of armed Islamic groups inviting them to surrender and thus bless the amnesty measures envisaged by the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation. In September of 2007, Algerian authorities announced Hattab’s surrender, but since then the former Emir has never appeared in public and did not appear in court for his various trials. Having been a member of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), Hattab founded the GSPC in June 1998 — it is said in a council with Osama Bin Laden — to ‘clean up’ GIA’s bloody image. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Transport: Suez Canal, End of 2008 Sharp Decline in Traffic
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 10 — In December maritime traffic on the Suez Canal sharply declined according to the Informare website. 1,560 ships crossed the canal in December with a 14% decline compared to December 2007, including 280 oil tankers (-13.8%) and 1,280 other ships (-14.1%). In all of 2008 traffic increased by 21,415 ships (+4.7%) compared to 20,444 ships in 2007. 3,795 oil tankers (+10.3%), and 17,620 (+3.6%) other types of ship crossed the canal in 2007. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Right-Wing Politicians Face Protests Amid National Vote
Umm al-Fahm, 10 Feb. (AKI) — As Israel began voting in national elections on Tuesday, a right-wing politician was led away by security forces and another was barred from entering the predominantly Arab town of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel amid violent protests.
Israeli Knesset or Parliament member Aryeh Eldad had to be taken away from the town, after an Arab-Israeli mob tore down the fence of a polling station, as they yelled “murderer”.
Election front-runners Tzipi Livni and Binyamin Netanyahu made last-minute appeals to Israel’s voters as polls opened in a general election that pollsters have said is too close to call.
As Livni cast her ballot in Tel Aviv, the Kadima chairwoman and current foreign minister vowed that victory was “within reach.”
Eldad — known for his anti-Arab rhetoric and fierce opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state — was in the town of Umm al-Fahm overseeing the polling station.
Later, far-right activist Baruch Marzel was stopped from entering the town to oversee the election after intelligence concerns about a threat to public safety, said Israeli daily Haaretz.
The alleged threat came a day after dozens of residents of Umm al-Fahm gathered to block Marzel, who was appointed to the local election committee.
Marzel, head of the Jewish National Front political party or Hazit, was also a former member of the terrorist organisation Kahane Chai.
One of his party’s aims is to encourage “adamantly and decisively…the emigration of our enemies…conquering the land is moral and expelling the enemy is moral. The Torah of Israel is the primary source of human morality, and according to one of its mitzvahs, Israel must conquer and liberate the Land,” said the party’s English language website.
Clarifying why Marzel should not enter the town, a city councillor said anybody advocating transfer of Arabs was not welcome in Umm al-Fahm.
“Marzel will not enter here. We welcome any other Jewish person who does not want to expel us,” said city councillor Raja Agbariyeh, quoted by Haaretz.
“We’re coming to condemn this racism and fascism,” Israel’s Army radio quoted one of the protesters as saying.
The violence took place as more than five million Israeli voters were expected to take part in the national elections.
Binyamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party and its main centrist rival Kadima are seeking control of the 120-member Knesset or Parliament that will ultimately determine who will be prime minister.
Likud has been the front-runner in the election race since November, when foreign minister Tzipi Livni of the ruling Kadima party was forced to call a new election. Livni was unable to form a new government when prime minister Ehud Olmert resigned over serious corruption allegations.
While the gap between Likud and its closest rival, Kadima, has since narrowed, the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party is also drawing support from traditional Likud supporters.
Current Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak from the centre-left Labour Party, although not a front runner, could become a crucial coalition partner in any future Israeli government.
The election race has focused on security issues in the wake of Israel’s three-week Gaza offensive against Hamas.
More than 1,330 Palestinians were killed and another 5,400 were wounded in Israel’s military attacks that were initiated to stop Hamas firing rocket attacks at Israel.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: ‘Hundreds’ of Terrorists Waiting to Enter Gaza
Top jihadist warns Israel, Egypt could be targeted
TEL AVIV, Israel — There are hundreds of Muslim “fighters” from around the world receiving military training in the Egyptian Sinai desert where they are waiting to enter the bordering Gaza Strip, according to a senior terrorist interviewed by WND.
“These fighters have money, weapons. They are waiting to enter Gaza and receiving trainings in the Sinai,” said the Gazan terrorist, a top member of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Hamas-allied group responsible for a large number of recent attacks against Israel.
“The thing that is preventing them from coming in is an agreement on the borders,” said the Committees leader, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mideast: Hamas Critics Targeted in ‘Deadly Campaign’
London, 10 Feb. (AKI) — Human rights group Amnesty International has accused the Gaza Strip’s ruling Hamas movement of conducting a “deadly campaign” of abductions, killings, and torture against those accused of “collaborating” with Israel. In a report released on Tuesday, Amnesty said at least two dozen men had been shot dead by Hamas gunmen and scores of others had been shot in the legs, kneecapped or inflicted with other injuries since the end of December 2008.
Others had been subjected to severe beatings which have caused multiple fractures and other injuries, or otherwise tortured or ill-treated, Amnesty said.
The report summarises the research of an Amnesty International fact-finding team which visited Gaza during and after the recent Israeli offensive which killed more than 1,330 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis died during the three-week offensive that began on 27 December.
Amnesty said most of the victims attacked by Hamas were abducted from their homes and later dumped — dead or injured — in isolated areas, or found in the morgue of one of Gaza’s hospitals. Some were shot dead inside hospitals where they were receiving treatment for injuries.
The fact-finding team which visited Gaza during and after the Israeli offensive recorded testimonies from a number of victims, as well as medical sources and eyewitnesses who corroborated their stories.
“Scores of others are too afraid to speak publicly for fear of retribution by Hamas forces and militias,” Amnesty said in a statement.
Amnesty is calling on the Hamas de-facto administration to immediately end the campaign of abuse and to agree to the establishment of an independent, non-partisan national commission of experts to investigate the claims.
The targets of Hamas’ deadly campaign include former detainees accused of “collaborating” with the Israeli army who escaped from Gaza’s central prison when it was bombed by Israeli forces on 28 December 2008, as well as former members of the Palestinian Authority security forces and other activists aligned with the Fatah Party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
The campaign began shortly after the beginning of the three-week Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008 and continued after a ceasefire took effect on 18 January 2009, Amnesty said.
Among the cases investigated by Amnesty were what it called the deliberate killings of three brothers from the Abu Ashbiyeh family, Atef, Mohammed and Mahmoud, from Jabalia in northern Gaza, who were all killed within 24 hours of escaping from Gaza’s central prison.
One of the brothers, Mahmoud, 24, reportedly reached the family home in the afternoon of 28 December but an hour later a group of gunmen came to the house and took him away. His body was found hours later in the morgue of Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya (north Gaza) with abdomen and head wounds.
The following day the bodies of his two brothers, 26-year-old Mohammed and 39-year-old Atef, were found in the morgue of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, both with gunshot wounds in the head, chest and abdomen.
The three had been in detention since March 2008 and were accused of “collaborating” with the Israeli army.
In one case, Hamas apologised for one deliberate killing in a public statement obtained by Amnesty International.
Hassan al-Hijazi, 37 years old, was abducted on 7 January 2009 by three masked gunmen from his family home north of Gaza City.
The gunmen immediately shot him in the legs and chest and dumped his body near the house. A Hamas communiqué, dated 12 January 2009, refers to the killing of Hassan al-Hijazi, a commander of the Abu ‘Ali Mustapha Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and stated: “Hamas assumes the entire responsibility for this mistake… [and] will hold accountable those responsible for this act… [It] offers condolences to the family of the martyr al-Hijazi.”
In another case, members of the Hamas political leadership reportedly apologized to the family of 51-year-old Jameel Shafiq Shaqqura, who died on 6 February 2009, seemingly as a result of the torture he was subjected to during his detention by the Hamas Internal Security forces in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on 30 January 2009.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Palestinian’ Women Urged to Sacrifice Their Children
[Video]
In this two-part video shown on Hamas’ al-Aqsa television and Lebanon’s al-Quds television, respectively, the granddaughter and wife of ‘giants’ of terrorism, ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam and Abdallah ‘Azzam, respectively, urge ‘Palestinian’ women to sacrifice their children.
And you thought human sacrifice ended 3,000 years ago….
Let’s go to the videotape…
| — Hat tip: LL | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain: Shiite Dispute With Iran, Emirate is Arab Country
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, FEBRUARY 9 — Gulf News reports that Al Wefaq, the most important Shiite party in Bahrain, has responded harshly to the recent claim of an Iranian politician who said that if the citizens of the Emirate were called to vote in a referendum, they would choose to be part of Iran. “Bahrain is an Arab country which respects its friends, including the Iranians, but this friendship mustn’t be interpreted as the right to interfere in our national affairs, doubt its loyalty and weaken its sovereignty”, declared Mohammed Al Mizal, Al Wefaq secretary, in a letter sent to the Iranian parliamentarian, Darioush Ghanbari. Previously, in 2007, another newspaper named Kayan unleashed serious diplomatic tension between Manama and Teheran, which was eased with a visit of the Iranian foreign minister to the oil-rich island of Bahrain. Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni royal family although 70% of its population is Shiite, like most Iranians. This imbalance has led to periodic sectarian clashes in the past. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Defense: Israel Participates in Air Exercise in Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 10 — Despite tense and critical relations between Israel and Turkey over Gaza issue, Israeli air force has been participating in a combat air exercise in Turkey, The Middle East Newsline website reported quoting turkish military sources. Officials said Israel has been invited to the Anatolian Eagle air combat exercise in February 2009 together with other Middle East countries air forces including Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. “The Israeli Air Force participated in this exercise only five times, with an average of 10 aircraft in each”, Turkish General Staff spokesman, Maj. Gen. Metin Gurak, said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Tourist Detained in Falluja
Held at checkpoint and sent back to Italy on first available aircraft. Embassy’s embarrassment
Bashar Yacoub couldn’t believe his eyes. But when the European visitor calmly repeated that he only wanted to “visit the city”, the reception manager at the Coral Palace Hotel, Baghdad, had to take him at his word. Mr Yacoub was looking at the first western tourist to arrive since the war began in 2003, and what’s more a tourist with no guards and no translator. And an Italian passport.
The adventure of Como-born Luca Marchiò, 33, ended abruptly two days after his encounter with Mr Yacoub when he attempted to visit the once notorious and still violence-torn city of Falluja. A soldier at a checkpoint detained the unlikely tourist, perhaps suspecting him to be a foreign jihadist, and escorted him to the barracks. “The authorities told me I couldn’t stay overnight”, Mr Marchiò told the New York Times. “Their advice was to go back to Baghdad”. What actually happened, as the Italian Embassy in Baghdad explained to Corriere.it, was that Mr Marchiò was handed over to the police, who looked after him until they could put him on a plane to Istanbul, from where he will return to Italy. An embassy official said: “For us, this is the end of the matter”.
EMBARRASSMENT AND CONCERN — The incident created a considerable amount of concern and not a little embarrassment. No one, not even his parents, was aware that Mr Marchiò was in Iraq. “We knew nothing about this”, said his mother, Marinella. “Luca lives away from home and he’s always travelled a lot, even to war zones, for his job. As his mum, I say: ‘Unfortunately’“. Luca’s father, Daniele, is more sympathetic (“Tell him off? What about? He’s not 15 years old and he wanted to go and see things for himself. He hasn’t done anyone any harm”). Daniele Marchiò confirms that he heard about the incident from a press agency, not the Italian foreign ministry. In fact, the Italian authorities knew nothing about Luca’s trip. The New York Times says that it notified the Italian embassy, which then attempted to reconstruct Luca Marchiò’s astonishing itinerary.
STAGES ON THE JOURNEY — From Italy, Mr Marchiò headed first for Egypt. He moved on to Turkey and then travelled overland to Iraq on a ten-day visa valid only for Iraqi Kurdistan, the most northerly and safest part of the country. But no sooner had Luca crossed the border than he hopped into a taxi to Baghdad, where he later strolled into the Coral Palace. “I’m a tourist”, he told the reception manager. “I want to see the most important cities in the country. I want to see and understand what is going on, and find out the real situation. I think every country in the world should be visited”. Mr Yacoub attempted to dissuade him. When he was asked if Iraq, and Falluja in particular, was ready for tourists who didn’t happen to be Shiite pilgrims, he replied with an emphatic negative. But to no avail. For a modest 40 dollars, Mr Marchiò purchased a tour of the city at the hotel, and set off to see the statue of Sheherezade, the narrator of the “Tales from the Arabian Nights”, the artificial lake at the University of Baghdad, Abu Jaafar al-Mansur Square on the banks of the Tigris, the Zawra’a Park and the Karada shopping district. “When it got dark, he started to get nervous and wanted to go back to the hotel”, said Ramez Fa’eq, 23, the guide the hotel had found for him. The next day, Mr Marchiò left for Falluja on a public minibus. A few hours later, Mr Yacoub received a phone call from the police. “I was expecting it”, he said. “Obviously, they were very worried about him. Iraq isn’t ready for tourists yet. Admittedly, security is much improved but in this country, you’ve got to be ready for anything, at any time”. Mr Marchiò had a visa valid for Kurdistan but not for the rest of the country, which was enough to set in motion the procedure for his expulsion.
DOUBTS — Is that the end of the matter? It could be but there still remains the question of why Mr Marchiò was in Iraq. The embassy is quite sure: “He told us he was only a tourist. This is unusual, to say the least, since our web site still classifies Iraq as a very high-risk country that should be visited only with an appropriate security framework in place, and only after consulting the Italian embassy in Baghdad or the foreign ministry in Rome. What would have happened if he had been abducted? “It’s best not to think about that”. According to the embassy, Mr Marchiò is not a journalist. “He told us he used to work at the chamber of commerce in Como. He didn’t say he was a journalist”. At best, this is an omission because, as his parents confirm, Luca was employed in the chamber of commerce’s press office. He is also a freelance journalist and has written books on high-risk countries. Daniele Marchiò explains: “A few days ago, Luca was in Israel during the Gaza war”. The New York Times Falluja correspondent, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, is less generous: “My first impression was that it must be one of two things: either he is a schizophrenic or he has a death wish. I thought the situation was hilarious when we offered to help him get back to Baghdad safely and he refused, saying he was only a tourist here to see the city and wanted to leave on a bus alone. Some said he’s simply mad, some said he’s a spy. I think he’s one of those people who like to act like a hero. Now when he gets back to Italy he can say he visited the city of Falluja”.
Davide Casati
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: 51% of NIS to Gazprom, 400 Mln Euro From Moscow
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 3 — Serbia has taken a 400 million euro payment from the Russian energy giant Gazprom for the purchase of 51% of NIS (Naftna Industrja Srbije), the Serbian oil company. The agreement was signed in Moscow on December 24 2008 in the presence of the presidents of both countries, Russian Dmitri Medvedev and Serbian leader Boris Tadic. The Serbian government holds the remaining 49% of NIS and has its own representatives on the board of directors and the oversight committee. The agreement with Belgrade also includes the construction of the ‘South Stream’ gas pipeline by the Russians, to transport Russian gas to the Balkan countries passing through the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, to Italy. Press reports in Belgrade today stress the news of the arrival of the 400 million euro from Gazprom. Among others, the daily newspaper Blic, in a front page article, notes that a similar amount represents a breath of fresh air for the dinar, the Serbian currency which has been greatly weakened in recent months by the global crisis which is severely undermining Serbia’s economy. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Gazpromneft Officially New NIS Owner
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 10 — Russia’s Gazpromneft has officially taken control of Serbia’s oil monopoly NIS today, reports radio B92. The Russian company held a shareholder assembly in Nov Sad today, electing a new NIS managing board, with Dmitry Malishev as its president. Earlier, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic met with a Gazpromneft delegation to discuss the company’s plans for NIS. According to a statement from the government, the Gazpromneft delegation, led by CEO Aleksandr Dyukov, stated that the strategic goal of the new owners was to turn NIS into the leading oil producer in South-East Europe. NIS’s new board of directors, which features six Russian and five Serbian members, was also elected at the shareholder assembly session today. On February 2, Gazpromneft paid Serbia EUR 400 million for a 51% stake in NIS, while also committing to invest EUR 547 million in the company’s modernization from now until 2012. NIS is the only company in Serbia entitled to produce derivatives, and owns two refineries and over 500 petrol stations.(ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
India: With Political Discrimination in the Wake of Pogroms, Orissa Christians Cannot Vote
In Kandhamal refugees are left off voters’ list. More than 70,000 have no papers, segregated in refugee camps, far from their villages. They might find it impossible to vote in the upcoming federal and local elections, scheduled for April and May.
Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews) — Orissa’s anti-Christian pogroms are having more political fallout. After being on the receiving end of violence last August Christians now could experience outright political discrimination in the upcoming April-May elections.
The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) is warning that more than 70,000 Christian voters might not be able to exercise their right to vote in federal and local elections. Some 50,000 Christians who fled their villages at the height of the anti-Christian violence and tens of thousands who followed them afterwards into neighbouring states are now without identity papers or voters’ cards, which were burnt during the pogrom, unable to go back home.
GCIC National President Sajan K. George wrote to the chief election commissioner and the Election Commission of India, urging them to rapidly find a way to have the names of Christian voters on the voters’ lists.
“For us the fact that the names of voters forced into refugee camps are not on voters’ lists is a sign of bad faith’. Mr George said. Depriving someone of their voting right “is a way to disenfranchise and stifle the Christian minority.”
The authorities in Kandhamal district in association with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) are planning to hand out new identity cards and duplicates of electoral photo identity cards (EPIC) to the population. However, unless refugees go back home they cannot get them.
Local sources told AsiaNews that refugees cannot go back to their home villages because majority Hindus still claim that they were forcibly converted and continue to discriminate against them.
“A man left a refugee camp to go back to Nuaschia village to fix his home which had been destroyed during the attacks. After a whole day of work removing the rubbles he went back to the camp for the night. The next day he was back in the village to continue working on his house, but found it full of human excrements,” a source said.
“The government has allocated so little money, 10,000 rupees (US$ 200), to compensate people who had their homes destroyed or damaged,” a Christian from Kandhamal said.
The government “also said that it was safe to go back to our villages. But the fact is that it is not; there still is fear and insecurity. Many Christians have accepted the money but bought shacks in other villages. None of them have yet to go home.” (NC)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: No Seats for Religious Minorities in Islamabad Senate
On March 4, voting will be held for the renewal of the country’s upper house. Islamabad has repeatedly promised a law to guarantee the rights of non-Muslims. According to the government, the conditions are not right, and the discussion has been pushed back to 2012. Activists are afraid of new episodes of marginalization.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — In the elections for the renewal of the senate, scheduled for March 4, there will be no seats reserved for religious minorities in the country. The Pakistani government has made the decision despite repeated reassurances on the part of representatives of the Pakistan People’s Party. Human rights activists are concerned because they fear new episodes of political marginalization and religious persecution toward non-Muslims.
On December 16, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other ministers of the coalition government had promised five seats for minorities in the senate. According to representatives for the minorities, the question has never been addressed in a serious manner, and the law has remained a superficial issue. They claim that conditions are not right to guarantee representation for religious minorities in the upper house before 2012.
Mehboob Sada, director of the Christian Study Centre in Rawalpindi, issues an appeal through AsiaNews: “All the religious minorities in the country should unite and make their voices heard on such an important question.” Criticism is also coming from the Sikh and Hindu minorities in Pakistan. Sardar Bishan Singh, former president of the Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee, says that “religious minorities feel isolated because the political system has not matured enough to maintain a secular stance for representation in the legislature, irrespective of caste, colour or creed.” Hari Motwani, general secretary of the Pakistan Hindu Council, adds that legislation protecting minorities “would project a positive image of the country abroad.”
The Pakistani senate is composed of 100 seats, 14 of which are assigned to the candidates of the four provinces into which the country is subdivided, together with four women and four technocrats; eight others are given to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and the last four go to the district of Islamabad.
Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti says that a proposed law for guaranteeing representation for minorities will be presented in the next few days to the National Assembly. The Catholic parliamentarian had drafted a norm to protect minority interests last April 28, but the proposal had no practical follow-up.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
S. Korea: [Editorial] Police Chief Nominee as Political Scapegoat
Kim Seok-ki resigned yesterday as Seoul police chief and withdrew his nomination for the head of the National Police Agency. He did so to take responsibility for the Jan. 20 deadly clash between police and squatters that killed six people in Seoul’s Yongsan district. The administration apparently concluded that retaining Kim will burden the government and hinder the smooth operation of the National Assembly at this critical time. His resignation is the second for a national police chief or designate over a police crackdown on violent protests. The first was Huh Joon-yeong, who resigned as head of the National Police Agency in 2005. This development will clearly dishearten rank-and-file officers who keep law and order in the country.
It is no overstatement that Korean laws and regulations have been rendered useless due to those who resort to illegal means and violence to get their way. This deplorable situation dates back to when Korea was under military dictatorship. It is disturbing to see violent and illegal activities continue to undermine law and order even after the country achieved democracy. If the situation goes unchecked, this will hurt the interests of the people and hamper national development.
Under the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration, staff at the presidential office protected violent protesters. Former national police chief Huh later confessed that senior presidential aides who had served time in prison for taking part in protests asked him to release those arrested for illegal demonstrations. Given the officials’ explicit tolerance for illegal protests launched by their acquaintances, it is not surprising that police at the time turned a blind eye to violent demonstrations taking place every weekend in downtown Seoul. Huh stepped down after a farmer was killed in a bloody clash between police and farmers who wielded bamboo spears and steel pipes. The Roh administration sacrificed Huh to win cooperation from the Democratic Labor Party in passing a budget bill.
Since the inauguration of the Lee Myung-bak administration, illegitimate and violent protests have become almost a daily routine. Those who lost power are banding together with street protesters against the government. Candlelight vigil protesters created national chaos for three months, attacking police and newspaper companies and even threatening the presidential office. The protest of evictees in Seoul’s Yongsan district was no exception. The squatters protesting a redevelopment plan threw firebombs, bricks and golf balls down onto the streets. They spread paint thinner and hurled firebombs, killing a police officer.
If the government makes a national police chief a political scapegoat, law enforcement cannot exert its legitimate power against violent and illegal protests. No advanced democracy allows demonstrators to beat police officers. If the government allows the national police chief to resign over the crackdown on illegal protests, it cannot stem violent and illegal protests or maintain law and order. It is truly upsetting that the government’s surrender to violent forces and their defenders have played a part in Kim’s resignation.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Wildfires Could Fuel ‘Forest Jihad’ Terrorists, Experts Say
[Comment from JD: Osama talked about this in 2008: wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=78573]
Firefighters and homeowners aren’t the only ones keenly watching Australia’s massive wildfires, responsible for killing at least 173 people in the southern part of the continent.
Terrorism experts suspect Muslim extremists are watching closely, too — and taking note of the devastation.
While Australian authorities have revealed no evidence linking the wildfires to extremists, terrorism experts say the large death toll, the huge swath of destruction and the massive financial blow to the country are proving to Islamic terrorists that arson can be a highly effective — and simple — tool of holy war.
In November, an extremist Web site called on Muslims to launch a “forest jihad” in Australia, Europe, Russia and the United States. The posting, which quoted imprisoned Al Qaeda terrorist Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, said setting forest fires was legal under “eye-for-an-eye” Islamic law.
“Scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to our lands,” the posting read.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Italy Pledges Patrol Boats to Deter Militant Attacks
Luanda, 10 Feb. (AKI) — Italy’s foreign minister Franco Frattini on Tuesday pledged to send two boats to help patrol the Niger Delta in Nigeria, where troops are battling militants known for targeting foreign-owned petroleum companies.
Armed attacks by rebels from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, including kidnappings and the hijacking of vessels, have cut Nigeria’s crude oil exports by more than 20 percent since 2006.
The Italian patrol boats will come from the fleet of the country’s tax police and will not include crews, Frattini said.
Frattini told journalists about the decision to send the vessels during a visit to the Angolan capital, Luanda, shortly before he flew to Nigeria on the second leg of a five-day trip to Africa. The visit will also take him to Sierra Leone and Senegal.
Nigeria is Africa’s leading oil producer and the fifth-biggest source of oil imports to the United States.
Frattini’s trip, which began in Angola on Monday, is aimed at boosting Italy’s economic ties with several African countries and increasing Italian business there.
According to Radio Netherlands, MEND rebels claimed responsibility for an attack on a gas plant belonging to the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell last week.
MEND said the attack took place in Utorogu in the oil-rich Niger Delta in the south of the country.
However, the Nigerian military said it repelled the attack, killing three rebels. One Nigerian soldier and two Shell employees were wounded.
MEND ended a five-month ceasefire just over a week ago in response to an army attack on its fighters.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Slavery: Still a Painful Reality in Mauritania
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 10 — “Slavery is a painful reality in Mauritania” said President of the Mauritanian organisation SOS Slaves Bairam Ould Messaoud, at a debate in Tunis. “There are families who still have slaves and use them in their homes and farms, without any intervention by the authorities”, especially in the far east and south of the country. Ould Messaoud pointed out that slavery has been against the law since 1984, and said that the ban has never fully worked because “slaves are tied to their owners by intellectual, religious and financial bonds”. He also pointed out that the government made reforms to the law in 2006, tightening financial sanctions against law breakers. However, added President of the Association of Women Support of the Family, Aminatou Bent, this law has never been observed in practice. And she maintains that the authorities are doing little “to end the suffering of many young women who are victims of varying types of abuse, including sexual abuse”. Young women who are usually taken from the poorest regions of the country, or who have come to the capital to escape areas affected by the droughts of recent years, according to Sarah Al Sadeq, a Mauritanian activist. In her opinion government action is completely insufficient in tackling and even in recognising the situation. Unfortunately, she said “community organisations do not have the financial resources to draw up precise classifications, while the authorities are unlikely to give much attention to the problem”. According to Mauritanian journalist Maryam Bent Mohamed Laghzaf, “freed slaves cannot be socially independent, as they are in a state of poverty. Because true slavery is financial, and not racial, as many people assume. Many patrons have freed their slaves, but the freed slaves find themselves in very difficult economic circumstances which make them want to go back to living under the authority of their former patrons”. “The State”, said Mohamad Lamain Ould Idad, Human Rights commissioner for Mauritania “is currently engaged in a fight against the effects of slavery and is offering equal opportunities for all social categories”. In his opinion the Mauritanian government insists that slavery belongs to the past and what little remains of it will soon disappear. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Would Drop Travel Restrictions to Cuba
While most of the nation focused on the stimulus bill winding through Congress, nine representatives introduced a bill calling for an end to the 46-year-old ban on travel to Cuba.
The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 4 would allow American citizens unrestricted travel to Cuba for the first time since 1963. The bill by Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., and eight co-sponsors would also lift limits on travel by Cuban exiles living in the United States. The president would not be able to regulate travel to the island unless an armed conflict or armed danger arises.
The bill has gone too far, said Francisco “Pepe” Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation. Cuban exiles should visit their families whenever they want, but tourists shouldn’t spend money in resorts that Cubans are barred from. “It’s improper and should not be allowed until the Cuban government makes some reforms,” he said.
That’s not the case for Jose Lopez, president of the Broward County Click here for restaurant inspection reports Latin Chamber of Commerce and a staunch supporter of the trade embargo.
“It’s a betrayal and it’s not going to resolve anything,” said Lopez, who left Cuba in 1961.
Tourism dollars spent in Cuba will inject more oxygen into the dying Castro regime, he said. Lopez also thinks Cuban exiles who want to return to the island whenever they please are abusing their refugee privilege.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chavez: Bigger Threat to U.S. Than Osama?
Authors of new book say Venezuelan dictator has desire, power to bring America to its knees
WASHINGTON — Authors of a new book who were sympathetic to Hugo Chavez’s 1998 presidential bid to “eradicate poverty” in Venezuela now say he is a greater threat to America’s national security than Osama bin Laden and has the means and motive to bring the U.S. to its knees.
In “The Threat Closer to Home: Hugo Chavez and the War Against America,” Douglas E. Schoen and Michael Rowan say the U.S. is oblivious to Chavez’s intentions to use oil as an asymmetric weapon of war, as well as terrorism, in attacks that could rival 9/11 in their impact on the economy and infrastructure of the nation.
Venezuela’s oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia, they point out, and Chavez has demonstrated a willingness and the ability to manipulate the foreign import market.
“Prior to the summer of 2008, Chavez personally shorted the oil market of 3 million barrels a day,” they write. “Leading OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), he had every producing nation but Saudi Arabia following suit.”
They blame Chavez for worsening the economic downturn of 2008, “which may be the worst since the Great Depression.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hugo Chavez Bans Lech Walesa
Communists never have liked Walesa, have they?
by Fausta
On Tuesday Nobel Prize winner Lech Walesa gave an interview to Noticias 24 where he spoke about his upcoming visit to Venezuela. My translation (emphasis added. If you use this translation, please link to this post. Thank you):
Q: In a few days you’ll travel to Caracas at the invitation of Venezuelan civil society groups, who met you in Warsaw to discuss the failures of the State’s rights and democracy in the South American country. What do you expect from this trip?
LW: During Poland’s Communist era, when I traveled around the world to meet heads of state, presidents, royalty, no one could believe in the possibility of a peaceful transition in communist countries in a few years’ time. And we managed to shed the Communist yoke without bloodshed. I believe that this spirit of freedom, with the same methods, will spread throughout the world. No one has invented a better system than democracy. And that is my message to the people I’ll be meeting in Venezuela. I’m very interested in meeting students and NGO members. In Venezuela’s case one can not talk about a democratic system administered by the [ruling] power. Venezuela’s opposition is weak and divided internally, without powerful arguments with which to confront President Chavez. It needs our support.
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
EU Offers Libya 20 Mln in Aid for Borders
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, FEBRUARY 10 — The EU has offered Libya 20 million euro to finance patrols of its southern borders and curb illegal immigration. “I have offered 20 million euro to the Libyan Government to set up management projects on its southern frontier which include the supply of know-how, training and the necessary equipment,” announced European Commissioner, Benita Ferrero Waldner, at the close of talks with representatives of the Libyan government, held in Tripoli to define a framework agreement between the EU and Libya. “I am sure that by the end of the year at the latest we shall reach the signing of an accord,” the Commissioner for External Relations and Neighbouring European Policy told a press conference. Today’s has been the second round in the negotiations following those held in Brussels in November. Austrian-born Ferrero Waldner expressed her satisfaction with the talks, stressing how this “is an historic moment in relations between the European Union and Libya: it was Libya herself who wanted to reintegrate with the international community and we acknowledge this”. In relations between Tripoli and Brussels “we can make big strides” Ferrero Waldner said, turning to Libya’s Foreign Minister, Abdulrahaman Shalgam. Apart from the issue of immigration, other themes touched on were political dialogue, trade relations, transport (especially by air), the environment and energy with the aim — reports an Italian source in the delegation — of “developing a dialogue on energy policies to include everything: gas, oil, solar energy”. Ferrero Waldner’s delegation also met the General Secretary for European Affairs of the Libyan government, Al Obeidi, and the head of these negotiations with the European Union, Mohammed Siala. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Maroni: Doctors Do Not Have to Report
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 9 — “We have not introduced any obligation for doctors to report illegal immigrants, we have simply removed the ban on the possibility of reporting them”, said Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, during a radio program. Maroni noted that “in 1998, a ban on doctors reporting illegal immigrants was introduced. It went so far as to arrive at the aberration whereby a doctor who wanted to report an illegal immigrant was committing a crime”. The minister proceeded to say that “several newspapers have put something untrue on their front pages by writing that reporting immigrants was obligatory. That is false. If the doctor does not want to report the immigrant then he does not do so. But it is not right to punish a doctor who perhaps wants to report an illegal immigrant injured by a girl that he has raped”. Maroni therefore underlined that “all European countries have a situation that we want to introduce ourselves, and there is therefore no ban on doctors reporting illegal immigrants. In Germany, in fact, they are obligated to do so”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia Stops Ship’s Attempt to Embark
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 10 — Ten people about to put to sea with the aim of reaching Italy illegally and immigrating clandestinely, were arrested by the officers from the Coast Guard in Djerba and Zarzis. The officers, who got wind of the attempt, blocked the group at the moment of departure and sequestered the two boats that were to be used for the crossing, as well as a large sum of money, about 210 thousand dinars (close to 62 thousand euros). (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Abortion and Orwell
Under the guise of “access to primary care,” the Regents of the University of California have been conducting an experiment on women in Concord, Los Angeles and San Diego. Exploiting a pilot project program enacted in 1973 to address a gerontology workforce shortage, Healthcare Workforce Pilot Project (HWPP) #171 allows women seeking medical care to become subjects of social research.
The purpose of this experiment? “Demonstrate the role of advanced practice clinicians in expanding early pregnancy care.”
That’s Orwellian for “training non-physicians to perform first trimester abortions.”
In the pilot project, approved in 2006 without legislative oversight, Planned Parenthood sites in three California cities suspended state regulations to use Nurse Midwives, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants to perform surgical abortions by suction aspiration.
The performance of this procedure by these personnel is prohibited by the Business and Professions Code of the state, the Board of Registered Nursing and the Medical Board of California. HWPP #171 avoids this practice ban in their application to the program by asserting that “the access to early abortion services is an important public health goal.”
It is interesting, in the language of distortion, to note the population that is the focus of this public service. Though reporting that abortion rates have risen among poor and low-income women, the program sponsor at the University of California admits that the goal of the pilot project is to expand abortion practice and access, “particularly in underserved areas.”
The project director, an attorney, apparently believes that the underserved populations of California-overwhelmingly Latino and African-American-would benefit from even higher rates of abortion: “It will create providers in underserved areas that need them the most…and integrate abortion services into previously existing health care networks.”
At least this doublespeak is consistent with the stated goals of Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger: “Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.” (Woman, Morality, and Birth Control, New York Publishing Company, 1922.)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Barcelona Creates First Gay Library in Europe
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 10 — Barcelona, the European capital of gay tourism has added rainbow colours to its culture with the creation of the first specifically homosexual public library in Spain. Barcelona Civil Rights Councilman Joaquim Mestre announced the initiative under a city plan for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transsexuals (LGBT) for 2010-2014. The library, which has not been given an official destination yet, will bring together, “important documentary sources” distributed throughout various libraries in the city. Mestre explained that it will be “organised around investigative and educational foundations”, including historical memory about widespread historical repression suffered by the gay and lesbian community in Spain, but also “to strengthen rights”, aiming to eradicate bullying in schools against gay teenagers. “Even though Barcelona is at the cutting edge for recognising these rights, discrimination continues in all aspects of life, including work and school”, underlined the councilman. For this reason, Barcelona will be the first city in Europe to establish a participatory municipal policy to guarantee citizens’ rights to homosexuals and transsexuals residing in or visiting the city and will be effective from 2010. The 4 year programme “will not start from nothing”, because as the civil rights councilman explained, it is based on 30 years of municipal policy directed at gays, lesbians, and transsexuals. Until September, the groups involved and town administrators will analyse the gay rights situation in Barcelona and 28 European cities including London, Rome, Valencia. A series of initiatives will be adopted autonomously by the City Administration to confirm the city as a friendly destination for gay tourism, one of the sectors least affected by the economic crisis, and commerce directed at these groups. The councillor explained that these will be “two fundamental sectors for the city”. It was estimated that about 600 people work in 60 businesses specifically targeting the needs of the homosexual community living in Barcelona, which is estimated at between 64,000 and 160,000 people, in addition to thousands of tourists arriving each weekend. The city plan aims at contributing to giving “visibility and full social normality” to the homosexual groups, concluded Mestre. According to him, the Popular Party in the city government is opposed to the initiatives, and has cast doubts on the need to create “a specific library for homosexuals”, which would not be created based on principals “coherent with sexual liberty”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Elementary Announces Janitor Sex-Switch
Letter to parents includes ‘resources’ for transgender children
An elementary school in Oxford, Mass., has sent a letter to parents announcing that the night janitor who finished the last school year as a man would begin the next as a woman.
[…]
The letter also includes a list of websites for parents to seek additional information on transgender issues.
Brian Camenker, president of MassResistance, however, told WND that the links provided as “Internet resources” were shocking, especially coming from an elementary school.
“The links they provide were to radical homosexual and transgender sites,” Camenker said. “It is really scary that the people teaching our young kids consider this normal and something kids should be involved in.
“Some of these websites,” Camenker added, “even suggested children should be involved in that kind of activity.”
Included, for example, was a link to the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation, which declares on its website, “Our children aren’t pink or blue — but rather — various shades of purple.”
The TKPRF website further states the group “is committed to the premise that Gender Identity Disorder is something a child can’t control, and it is society that needs to change, not them,” and that the group will “strive to encourage families to allow their children the ability to grow up free of gender roles.”
Another site parents were directed to declares, “We promote the understanding and acceptance of all people: Transgender, Transsexual, Crossdresser, Agender, Gender Queer, Intersex, Two Spirit, Hijra, Kathoey, Drag King, Drag Queen, Queer, Lesbian, Gay, Straight, Butch, Femme, Faerie, Homosexual, Bisexual, Heterosexual, and of course — You!”
“The school is pushing a radical and dangerous agenda on the fragile minds of young kids,” Camenker told WND. “It’s utterly reprehensible.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Global Television for Our Future Global Leader
[Comment from JD: The planning for the birth of a global propaganda channel..]
Surprise and even shock were among the reactions to my recent column about how elite members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, were considering a proposal for a new global television network to usher in a state of “global governance.” It sounded authoritarian, even totalitarian, to some.
Here are more of the troubling details.
The media proposal, which was included in “The Global Agenda 2009” report, is to create “a new global network” with “the capacity to connect the world, bridging cultures and peoples, and telling us who we are and what we mean to each other.” Several prominent U.S. media figures signed on to the alarming and controversial proposal.
Isn’t it nice that we might have a TV network telling us “who we are?” And “what we mean to each other?” Perhaps we will learn that we are global citizens. Perhaps a global leader of some sort will tell us that. Who might that be?
This outlandish and frightening proposal doesn’t come from a fringe organization. The WEF is an exclusive club of very rich and powerful people from around the world. It describes itself as “an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.”
This year’s conference featured speeches by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Chinese Premier We Jiabao. Many U.S. corporations, including some getting Wall Street bailout money, were sponsors. News Corporation, the parent of Fox News, was a “strategic partner” of the event.
Valerie Jarrett, Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison, represented the Obama Administration at this year’s event and called leaders from all nations to “seize gladly” the duties of collaborating and boldly embrace “a new era of global financial responsibility.”
But the WEF also envisions cooperation and collaboration in global media ventures. It asks, “How can we save journalism to help it save the world?” Clearly, this is advocacy journalism on a global scale.
Indeed, the list of “Recommendations” says it is imperative to start “Communicating a global agenda, and motivating and mobilizing people to support it…”
Is this journalism? Or is it brainwashing and propaganda?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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