The most intriguing (and alarming) news story tonight concerns the looming insolvency crisis in European banks brought about by imminent defaults in Eastern European countries on billions of dollars of loans. Austrian banks bear the brunt of the danger. Some of the countries that are close to default are Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Latvia, and Belarus. Some of those have already been bailed out by the IMF, but the IMF is all but depleted of assets and can do no more bailouts.A series of Austrian bank failures could cascade and bring down the entire euro-zone, unless Austria is fiscally severed from the rest of the euro-zone — effectively dissolving the EU.
A large portion of Poland’s debt is denominated in Swiss francs, which puts that currency at risk in addition to the euro.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fausta, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, JEH, TB, VH, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Britain’s Bankers Plumb New Depths
Jon Moulton, the private equity chief, warned a City lunch this week that he feared serious civil unrest. There was, he said, a 25 per cent chance of one of the 15 member countries of the eurozone pulling out of the currency club. That, he said, would be a catastrophic shock leading to a “far greater financial crisis” than the current one.
The mind boggles at a financial crisis far worse than the current one. Is such a thing possible? Even with this one, it may already be too late to prevent social unrest, especially in Britain, which is tipped to be one of the worst-hit countries economically.
The spectacle of bankers continuing to award themselves bonuses while taking taxpayer support is feeding an extraordinary public rage and a fierce sense of injustice. With 40,000 people losing their jobs each month, it is a recipe for trouble, come the traditional rioting months of the summer.
It won’t be bankers being lynched, of course, but small shopkeepers in inner-city areas having their windows smashed and their stock looted. The only surprise is there haven’t already been antibanker demonstrations in Threadneedle Street — secretly cheered on by 99 per cent of Middle England.
The seething sense of unfairness is almost palpable. The view that a small elite not only caused the crisis, but continues to profit at the expense of everyone else, is near universal. Gordon Brown’s promise of no rewards for failure in state-supported banks is looking ever more threadbare. We now know that Peter Cummings, the highest-paid person on the HBOS board, headed a division responsible for £7 billion of losses last year, yet he was still given a reported £660,000 payoff when he left in early January clutching his £6 million pension pot.
The suggestion by Lord Myners, the City minister, that some bankers simply have no sense of the broader society around them is getting harder to refute. To be preparing to pay out billions of pounds in discretionary bonuses over the next few weeks suggests an ignorance of the public mood and a single-mindedness bordering on sociopathic.
All this may be a bit of a side show for Sir Victor Blank and Eric Daniels, chairman and chief executive, respectively, as they try to stop the water slopping over the gunwales of the combined Lloyds/HBOS. Yesterday’s bombshell was grave for the bank, dispiriting for taxpayers and damaging to the chief executive. The timing is acutely awkward, coming just 48 hours after he appeared before the Commons Treasury Select Committee. MPs might have pressed him rather harder if they had known what was just around the corner.
The £10 billion loss at HBOS is humiliating enough, but the admission that the losses are £1.6 billion worse than when shareholders were asked to approve the deal in November is worse. Lloyds got HBOS to sweeten the terms twice. With hindsight it still wasn’t enough. Mr Daniels admitted to Parliament this week that he was not able to conduct as much due diligence as in a normal deal. His shareholders and UK taxpayers are now paying a heavy price for that failure.
The 32 per cent slump in the Lloyds share price yesterday speaks volumes about the market’s fears. Although Lloyds insists its balance sheet is still strong, the need for additional capital will be back on the agenda. If HBOS’s corporate loans could have soured by £1.6 billion in the space of just a month, its surplus capital cushion could quickly be wiped out. That could lead to full nationalisation eventually.
Lloyds says that one of the reasons for the losses was the more conservative methodology it uses for gauging potential loan losses. That comes close to suggesting the old HBOS board was somewhat less than conservative itself. If the reputation of the old guard at HBOS, including Gordon Brown’s former favourite Sir James Crosby, is capable of sinking any lower in the public estimation, it will now be doing so.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Credit Crisis Could Crunch Men’s Testosterone: Doctor
The stress caused by the global economic downturn could reduce men’s testosterone levels, a British doctor warned Monday.
Chronic stress caused by redundancy, financial worries or working longer hours could make levels of the hormone drop, said Richard Petty, the medical director of a top London men’s health clinic.
Testosterone, the hormone produced by the testicles, triggers the development of male sexual characteristics. It is linked to sexual function, circulation and muscle mass, as well as concentration, mood and memory.
“When a man becomes grumpy or irritable, it’s easy to blame work or simply the effects of ageing,” said Petty.
“In the short-term, stress can increase levels of testosterone and this is useful to help people respond quickly to pressures and new situations.
“But chronic stress, which is ongoing, is a major factor in the decline of testosterone.
“Chronic stress occurs all too frequently due to our modern lifestyles, when everything from high-pressured jobs to unemployment keeps the body in a state of perceived threat.”
Lower testosterone levels of the hormone can cause lethargy, irritability, lack of concentration and a low sex drive.
[Editor’s note: duh. Being unemployed does nothing for a man’s libido. This is news??]
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Failure to Save East Europe Will Lead to Worldwide Meltdown
The unfolding debt drama in Russia, Ukraine, and the EU states of Eastern Europe has reached acute danger point.
If mishandled by the world policy establishment, this debacle is big enough to shatter the fragile banking systems of Western Europe and set off round two of our financial Götterdämmerung.
Austria’s finance minister Josef Pröll made frantic efforts last week to put together a €150bn rescue for the ex-Soviet bloc. Well he might. His banks have lent €230bn to the region, equal to 70pc of Austria’s GDP.
“A failure rate of 10pc would lead to the collapse of the Austrian financial sector,” reported Der Standard in Vienna. Unfortunately, that is about to happen.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says bad debts will top 10pc and may reach 20pc. The Vienna press said Bank Austria and its Italian owner Unicredit face a “monetary Stalingrad” in the East.
Mr Pröll tried to drum up support for his rescue package from EU finance ministers in Brussels last week. The idea was scotched by Germany’s Peer Steinbrück. Not our problem, he said. We’ll see about that.
Stephen Jen, currency chief at Morgan Stanley, said Eastern Europe has borrowed $1.7 trillion abroad, much on short-term maturities. It must repay — or roll over — $400bn this year, equal to a third of the region’s GDP. Good luck. The credit window has slammed shut.
Not even Russia can easily cover the $500bn dollar debts of its oligarchs while oil remains near $33 a barrel. The budget is based on Urals crude at $95. Russia has bled 36pc of its foreign reserves since August defending the rouble.
“This is the largest run on a currency in history,” said Mr Jen.
In Poland, 60pc of mortgages are in Swiss francs. The zloty has just halved against the franc. Hungary, the Balkans, the Baltics, and Ukraine are all suffering variants of this story. As an act of collective folly — by lenders and borrowers — it matches America’s sub-prime debacle. There is a crucial difference, however. European banks are on the hook for both. US banks are not.
Almost all East bloc debts are owed to West Europe, especially Austrian, Swedish, Greek, Italian, and Belgian banks. En plus, Europeans account for an astonishing 74pc of the entire $4.9 trillion portfolio of loans to emerging markets.
They are five times more exposed to this latest bust than American or Japanese banks, and they are 50pc more leveraged (IMF data).
Spain is up to its neck in Latin America, which has belatedly joined the slump (Mexico’s car output fell 51pc in January, and Brazil lost 650,000 jobs in one month). Britain and Switzerland are up to their necks in Asia.
Whether it takes months, or just weeks, the world is going to discover that Europe’s financial system is sunk, and that there is no EU Federal Reserve yet ready to act as a lender of last resort or to flood the markets with emergency stimulus.
Under a “Taylor Rule” analysis, the European Central Bank already needs to cut rates to zero and then purchase bonds and Pfandbriefe on a huge scale. It is constrained by geopolitics — a German-Dutch veto — and the Maastricht Treaty.
But I digress. It is East Europe that is blowing up right now. Erik Berglof, EBRD’s chief economist, told me the region may need €400bn in help to cover loans and prop up the credit system.
Europe’s governments are making matters worse. Some are pressuring their banks to pull back, undercutting subsidiaries in East Europe. Athens has ordered Greek banks to pull out of the Balkans.
The sums needed are beyond the limits of the IMF, which has already bailed out Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia, Belarus, Iceland, and Pakistan — and Turkey next — and is fast exhausting its own $200bn (€155bn) reserve. We are nearing the point where the IMF may have to print money for the world, using arcane powers to issue Special Drawing Rights.
Its $16bn rescue of Ukraine has unravelled. The country — facing a 12pc contraction in GDP after the collapse of steel prices — is hurtling towards default, leaving Unicredit, Raffeisen and ING in the lurch. Pakistan wants another $7.6bn. Latvia’s central bank governor has declared his economy “clinically dead” after it shrank 10.5pc in the fourth quarter. Protesters have smashed the treasury and stormed parliament.
“This is much worse than the East Asia crisis in the 1990s,” said Lars Christensen, at Danske Bank.
“There are accidents waiting to happen across the region, but the EU institutions don’t have any framework for dealing with this. The day they decide not to save one of these one countries will be the trigger for a massive crisis with contagion spreading into the EU.”
Europe is already in deeper trouble than the ECB or EU leaders ever expected. Germany contracted at an annual rate of 8.4pc in the fourth quarter.
If Deutsche Bank is correct, the economy will have shrunk by nearly 9pc before the end of this year. This is the sort of level that stokes popular revolt.
The implications are obvious. Berlin is not going to rescue Ireland, Spain, Greece and Portugal as the collapse of their credit bubbles leads to rising defaults, or rescue Italy by accepting plans for EU “union bonds” should the debt markets take fright at the rocketing trajectory of Italy’s public debt (hitting 112pc of GDP next year, just revised up from 101pc — big change), or rescue Austria from its Habsburg adventurism.
So we watch and wait as the lethal brush fires move closer.
If one spark jumps across the eurozone line, we will have global systemic crisis within days. Are the firemen ready?
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
G7 Sets Sights on ‘New World Economic Order’
ROME (AFP) — The world’s richest nations called Saturday for urgent reform of global finance to save the world from the economic devastation that is dragging more and more countries into recession.
Italy’s Finance Minister called for a “new world economic order” as he wrapped up the crisis meeting of finance leaders from the Group of Seven leading economies over which he presided here.
In a joint declaration, the G7 called for “urgent reforms” of the international financial system.
Tremonti said a so-called set of “legal standards” discussed in Rome would be presented at a meeting of 20 key advanced and emerging economies (G20) in London in April and a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) world powers in July.
“A new world economic order might seem rhetorical,” he told reporters. “But it is a true goal we should be aiming towards… today right here in Rome we’ve embarked on a very significant journey, both technical and ethical.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Large U.S. Banks on Brink of Insolvency, Experts Say
Some of the large banks in the United States, according to economists and other finance experts, are like dead men walking.
A sober assessment of the growing mountain of losses from bad bets, measured in today’s marketplace, would overwhelm the value of the banks’ assets, they say. The banks, in their view, are insolvent.
None of the experts’ research focuses on individual banks, and there are certainly exceptions among the 50 largest banks in the country. Nor do consumers and businesses need to fret about their deposits, which are insured by the U.S. government. And even banks that might technically be insolvent can continue operating for a long time, and could recover their financial health when the economy improves.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Rhetoric is the Real ‘Catastrophe’
In 1932, automobile production shriveled by 90%.
By BRADLEY R. SCHILLER
President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.
APIn his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today’s economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.
This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don’t come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That’s a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost — fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.
[…]
Auto production last year declined by roughly 25%. That looks good compared to 1932, when production shriveled by 90%. The failure of a couple of dozen banks in 2008 just doesn’t compare to over 10,000 bank failures in 1933, or even the 3,000-plus bank (Savings & Loan) failures in 1987-88. Stockholders can take some solace from the fact that the recent stock market debacle doesn’t come close to the 90% devaluation of the early 1930s.
Mr. Obama’s analogies to the Great Depression are not only historically inaccurate, they’re also dangerous. Repeated warnings from the White House about a coming economic apocalypse aren’t likely to raise consumer and investor expectations for the future. In fact, they have contributed to the continuing decline in consumer confidence that is restraining a spending pickup. Beyond that, fearmongering can trigger a political stampede to embrace a “recovery” package that delivers a lot less than it promises. A more cool-headed assessment of the economy’s woes might produce better policies
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Roots of the Banking Crisis
Whenever you try to solve a problem you should look at what caused the problem in the first place. In early 2009, the banking system is wrestling with hundreds of billions (if not trillions) of dollars of bad assets, known as subprime loans, marginal loans, or other vague descriptors.
Based on my years of experience as a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in banking, I can say with confidence, “Bankers are more intelligent and business savvy than government bureaucrats.”
That statement is invariably followed by the question: “So, why did intelligent bankers make so many bad loans?” The answer is government intervention and coercion.
Banking has been heavily regulated, controlled, and manipulated for political purposes for many years. Creeping socialism has existed in the banking industry for decades. Occasionally, the “creeping” aspect has been replaced by giant leaps toward a socialist state. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was more a “leap” than “creep.”
The CRA, and a host of related government lending regulations, coerced (forced) banks to make marginal or bad loans to people with low-income, unstable income, and/or poor credit histories. By supporting these laws and regulations politicians pleased special-interest groups. Politicians were repaid for their efforts with large voting blocks.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Smoking Gun
An interesting moderate Democrat Insider by the name of “Bob” to the Michael Savage radio show on February 6, 2009 told of a Democrat meeting he was invited to attend after Barack Obama was elected President. A You Tube clip can be found here. To clear his conscience he decided to go public and expose the SMOKING GUN that is being planned in this deceptive Stimulus package that he says is a “Job Patronage System.” As I am drafting this article, I heard the most current Stimulus bill has in excess of 1100 pages that no one voting on the bill will have time to read and digest and will cost $2.1 trillion with interest. I was suspicious when I heard about the first bill and then the second one that was 600 pages. Like President George W. Bush’s Patriot Bill, I get this funny feeling that it had been drafted far in advance just waiting for the right time to spring it and make minor changes as needed. All this legal jargon takes many, many hours to prepare even with a word processor.
Bob was told how the Democrat -controlled House, Senate and the Barack Obama Executive branch plan to tuck billions of dollars away from the Stimulus bill preparing for the upcoming 2011-2012 presidential election cycle. This is why many reporters are saying the money in many instances won’t be available until 2011-2012. By using Barack’s “community organization” at the national level, they want to completely overwhelm the Republicans with so much cash available to the Democrats that the two-party system will be completely eliminated assuring Barack permanent residency in the White House. There will be more employees working for the Democrats in this patronage system then in the U.S. Army. The jobs will be camouflaged in a million different ways — either a Democrat will be working for the city, the state or federal government and when the election comes around, they are going to be obliged to get the voters to the polls just like Acorn did only on a much larger scale. Savage felt this money-laundering scheme was only Phase I. He said, “Just wait until amnesty will be granted for all illegal aliens who will then vote Democrat”. Never mind it is unconstitutional to oblige anyone to submit to involuntary servitude…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
“National Service” and Conscription: a Question of Ownership
Government-mandated “community service” is integral to Barack Obama’s vision of “change.” Obama has described such service as a key element of creating “a new era of responsibility — a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.”
Actually, there is nothing novel about Obama’s emphasis on government-imposed citizen “service.” National service, in some form, has been endorsed by every U.S. president since George Bush the Elder. But none has promoted it as insistently as Barack Obama.
Of course, most Americans are hardly strangers to responsibility. They hold jobs, provide for families, and perform volunteer work for schools and churches. Thousands of acts of service occur literally every second of every day in America, both in the form of mutually beneficial business transactions and charitable deeds performed out of conviction.
The problem with such service, apparently, is that it is neither mandated nor brokered by the government. So from the perspective of those who believe that life should be organized by the state, such spontaneous service simply doesn’t count.
Before it created a small but significant scandal, the Obama campaign’s position paper on national service promised that as president he would “inspire” Americans to render “universal voluntary service.”
It was not explained how service could be both “universal” and truly “voluntary”: Was the assumption that differences over opinion regarding the proper type of “service” would simply vanish? Or would the reluctance of many Americans to surrender valuable time to carry out government-approved activities be overcome by the sheer power of Obama’s charisma?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘A Little State Control Wouldn’t Hurt Anybody’
Top Democrat spills beans on revival of ‘Fairness Doctrine’
“A little state control wouldn’t hurt anybody,” declared Jerry Brown, California’s Democrat attorney general, in on air comments yesterday about the possible reinstatement of the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.”
“You have a point of view and I have a point of view and they are different. I think the clash can sometimes illuminate the two better than just a one sided presentation,” stated Brown, during an exclusive interview with Michael Savage broadcast on the top talker’s national radio show.
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He [Savage] claimed a new Fairness Doctrine wouldn’t attempt to put conservative voices on National Public Radio.
“We made it in radio because there is an audience for us … Let the marketplace determine what people listen to and not the government,” Savage said.
“You are starting to sound as though you want a little state control over the media,” Savage added.
Brown then exclaimed, “Well, a little state control wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alert Issued for Potential Teddy Bear Bombs
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — The FBI has issued an alert to 350 law enforcement agencies in the southwest and Salt Lake City for potential Valentine teddy bear bombs after a suspicious transaction at a Wal-Mart last month.
Law enforcement sources said authorities also were on the alert at airports in case the suspected bear-bombs might be carried onto airplanes on Valentine’s Day.
The FBI said a clean-shaven male, possibly of Middle Eastern descent, purchased nine Valentine teddy bears, 20 inches tall, and 14 canisters of propane, 9 inches tall, small enough to fit inside the teddy bears. The man also bought 12 packets of BBs — small, round projectiles usually fired from air guns.
He paid in cash on January 15 at the Wal-Mart in Stevenson Ranch, California, about 25 miles north of Los Angeles. He left in a white GMC or Chevrolet delivery truck.
“After September 11, that purchase warrants that we take a closer look,” FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin said. Authorities were notified February 4, McLaughlin said.
Authorities emphasized that the man has committed no crime, but the purchase has raised suspicions and authorities want to question him about it.
At the same time, authorities want Americans to be on the lookout for suspicious packages on Valentine’s Day due to the level of concern over the purchase.
The man was captured on surveillance tape and his picture was included in the alert to law enforcement agencies.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
GM Considering Chapter 11 Filing, New Company: Report
CHICAGO (Reuters) — General Motors Corp, nearing a Tuesday deadline to present a viability plan to the U.S. government, is considering as one option a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that would create a new company, the Wall Street Journal said in its Saturday edition.
“One plan includes a Chapter 11 filing that would assemble all of GM’s viable assets, including some U.S. brands and international operations, into a new company,” the newspaper said. “The undesirable assets would be liquidated or sold under protection of a bankruptcy court. Contracts with bondholders, unions, dealers and suppliers would also be reworked.”
Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the story said that GM could also ask for additional government funds to stave off a bankruptcy filing.
GM declined to comment, the story said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
HR 45 May be More Troubling Than the Average Anti-Gun Bill
But the first anti-gun bill of the 111th Congress —- Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush’s H.R. 45 —- has caught the attention of many in the Second Amendment community as something we need to be worried about.
This is because of the extremity of the bill:
* H.R. 45 would require a federal license for all handguns and semiautomatics, including those you currently possess; and
* It would require handgun and semi-auto owners to be thumbprinted at the police station and to sign a certificate that, effectively, the firearm will not be kept in a place where it would be available for the defense of the gun owner’s family.
Pretty scary, huh? But, while this despotic nuttiness makes you wonder why a congressman from the Murder Capital of the Midwest would think that it would help to make the residents of New Hampshire, Alaska, and Wyoming comply with his blood-soaked city’s anti-gun laws, there have been other bills which are just as unconstitutional.
Rather, what makes H.R. 45 troubling is its sponsor and its timing.
Its sponsor is Congressman Bobby Rush —- a scion of the same super-corrupt Chicago political machine that produced disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich and President Barack Obama.
And as for its timing, it was introduced during the confirmation of Attorney General nominee Eric Holder — the man who tried exploit the Columbine tragedy in order to pass gun licensing as Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration.
And make no mistake about it: Licensing is only a way-station to discouraging, arresting, or humiliating gun owners and outlawing guns. Under H.R. 45, for example, the applicant must also make available ALL of his psychiatric records, pass an exam, and pay a fee.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Illinois GOP Leader Calls on Sen. Burris to Resign
CHICAGO (AP) — Just as Illinois was moving past the agony and embarrassment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s ousting, the fellow Democrat whom Blagojevich appointed to the U.S. Senate was hearing calls for his own resignation Sunday amid allegations he lied to legislators.
Freshman Sen. Roland Burris released an affidavit on Saturday that contradicts his statements last month to a House committee investigating Blagojevich’s impeachment.
“I can’t believe anything that comes out of Mr. Burris at this point,” Rep. Jim Durkin, the impeachment committee’s ranking Republican, said at a news conference Sunday. “I think it would be in the best interest of the state if he resigned because I don’t think the state can stand this anymore.”
But an adamant and sometimes emotional Burris told reporters later Sunday that he hadn’t done anything wrong and never misled anyone.
“I’ve always conducted myself with honor and integrity,” he said. “At no time did I ever make any inconsistent statement.”
Gov. Pat Quinn, who advanced to the governor’s mansion after Blagojevich was ousted over corruption allegations last month, also called on Burris to explain the contradiction.
“My opinion is that he owes the people of Illinois a complete explanation,” Quinn said, according to spokesman Bob Reed.
Durkin and House Republican Leader Tom Cross also want an investigation of Burris for possible perjury.
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Miami Banker Gives $60 Million of His Own to Employees
BY MARTHA BRANNIGAN
Lots of bosses say they value their employees. Some even mean it.
And then there’s Leonard Abess Jr.
After selling a majority stake in Miami-based City National Bancshares last November, all he did was take $60 million of the proceeds — $60 million out of his own pocket — and hand it to his tellers, bookkeepers, clerks, everyone on the payroll. All 399 workers on the staff received bonuses, and he even tracked down 72 former employees so they could share in the windfall.
For longtime employees, the bonus — based on years of service — amounted to tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases, more than $100,000.
“I retired seven years ago, and all of a sudden I get this wonderful letter and phone call,” said Evelyn J. Budde, who spent 43 years at City National Bank of Florida, rising to vice president.
“I was shocked,” said William Perry. In 43 1/2 the years at City National, he climbed from janitor to vice president. Like many longtime City National employees, he forged an unbreakable bond with the bank that continued into retirement. Perry returns regularly for the annual employees’ dinner.
Abess didn’t publicize what he had done. He didn’t even show up at the bank to bask in his employees’ gratitude on the day the bonus envelopes were distributed. He was inundated with letters soon afterward.
Asked later what motivated him, Abess said he had long dreamed of a way to reward employees. He had been thinking of creating an employee stock option plan before he decided to sell the bank.
“Those people who joined me and stayed with me at the bank with no promise of equity — I always thought some day I’m going to surprise them,” he said. “I sure as heck don’t need [the money].”
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Orange County Ca Sheriff Runs Into Strong Opposition to Her Plans to Reduce Concealed Weapons Permits
Sheriff Sandra Hutchens stood firm Tuesday against the county board of supervisors and hundreds of gun-owners threatening recall because of her controversial plan to reduce concealed weapons permits.
Hutchens, in the third public hearing on the issue in four months, told the crowd and county supervisors that her position had not changed since she first unveiled the new policy last fall — despite some minor adjustments on how she plans to revoke more than 400 permits.
“I don’t make the law. But I am required to enforce the law,” said Hutchens, reiterating her view that California state law only allows certain exceptions to the ban on concealed guns in public.
While refusing to budge on the gun permits, Hutchens seemed to attempt a conciliatory tone, wearing a pants suit instead of her official uniform, and bringing a smaller entourage that did not include a top aide disciplined for exchanging disparaging text messages during a previous hearing.
Hutchens noted state statutes that give sheriffs wide discretion in granting gun permits. Former Sheriff Mike Carona was an avid supporter of gun rights and expanding the concealed weapons permits in Orange County.
But after federal prosecutors accused Carona of trading gun permits for campaign contributions, Hutchens decided to adopt a more restrictive policy and apply it retroactively.
While all five county supervisors told her they did not agree, and warned Hutchens that she is misreading Orange County culture, they said they were powerlessness on the issue Tuesday.
[…]
Supervisor Bill Campbell lamented publicly that he could have done a better job of sensing Hutchens views before voting to appoint her sheriff in June.
While Hutchens seemed to withstand the critiques of gun activists and county supervisors, it hasn’t come without some damage.
Three different investigations are ongoing into her department’s actions during the previous two gun hearings.
[…]
Hutchens launched an internal probe into a series of embarrassing text messages that her command staff sent to each other during a Nov. 18 hearing. She also launched another internal investigation into an incident where security cameras operated by a sheriff’s investigator focused on the notes of two supervisors.
Meanwhile, the Office of Independent Review is monitoring another investigation into the increased security by sheriff’s officials at a Jan. 13 hearing on the permits. Gun owners who attended that meeting have accused the department of trying to intimidate them.
[More at link…]
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Sacramento Judge Finds Sex Offender Law Unconstitutional
In only the third such ruling in the nation, a Sacramento judge has found to be unconstitutional a statute that makes it a federal crime for someone to fail to register as a sex offender and relocate from one state to another.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton found that, in enacting the 2006 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, “Congress overstepped its authority under the (Constitution’s) commerce clause.”
Karlton made rulings this week in two prosecutions and threw them out, saying SORNA does not meet the U.S. Supreme Court’s standard for congressional jurisdiction over interstate commerce.
Federal prosecutors immediately filed notices they will appeal and asked the judge to keep the two defendants locked up until the appeals are resolved.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Pleads Guilty to Attacking Jewish Institutions
MONTREAL: An Algerian-born man was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison for firebombing two Jewish institutions in Montreal.
Omar Bulphred pleaded guilty to three counts of arson and two counts of making threats in connection with the firebombing of a Jewish boys school in 2006 and a Jewish community center in 2007. The court also was told that Bulphred wrote letters claiming the crimes were committed in the name of the Islamic Jihad militant group.
His co-defendant in the case, Azim Ibragimov, who is of Kazakh origin, pleaded guilty last year to three counts of arson and one count of making threats. He was sentenced to four years in prison. Both men were arrested in April 2007.
Judge Louise Bourdeau told Bulphred his actions could not be tolerated in a free and democratic society. Children had been inside the school just minutes before it was firebombed, and Bourdeau said Thursday that she did not want to imagine what the worst-case scenario could have been.
Bulphred, 23, apologized to the Jewish community before he was sentenced.
Defense lawyer Thang Nguyen said he believed his client was sincere and was ready to turn the page without forgetting what he has done. But Adam Atlas, officer of the board at the Canadian Jewish Congress, disagreed.. “I don’t think this is someone who regrets what he did,” said Atlas, who said that the bombings have caused people to live in fear as they go about their day-to-day activities.
Bulphred has 40 months left of the sentence because of time already served
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court Ruling Expected to Clarify Free Speech Right
Janice Tibbetts, National Post
When former police officer Danno Cusson took his dog, Ranger, to New York to help in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the visit touched off a legal dispute that reaches the Supreme Court of Canada on Tuesday in an appeal that could expand the right of journalists to free speech…
| — Hat tip: JEH | [Return to headlines] |
African Popular University to Open in Geneva
Switzerland defends anti-racism stance
Young Africans in Switzerland are slightly lost and need help rediscovering their African roots, says the director of Geneva’s new African popular university.
swissinfo talked to Kanyana Mutombo about Europe’s first African education centre, which aims to teach people about African history and culture while offering legal advice and help for new immigrants to adjust to Swiss life.
The centre, which will be financed by the canton, communes and federal authorities, will open its doors on February 20.
The university is a direct descendent of the Geneva-based Regards Africains association and related magazine, which Mutombo helped found in 1986.
The project was partly inspired by the Albanian popular university in Geneva.
swissinfo: Why are you creating an African education centre in Geneva?
Kanyana Mutombo: The university’s mission is to serve as a meeting room for African communities and others, including Swiss people.
The Africans who first came to Switzerland were young people who came here to study. They used to finish their studies and then leave, but today lots of Africans come here and stay, and the population has aged. This group of people is living here without a framework to help mobilise them.
On the one side there are lots of Africans with skills and qualifications — overqualified even.
They have skills that are not being used and we could use them at the popular university. On the other side there are needs, especially among young people and adults.
" Lots of people say they think they know Africans but it’s often via cliche’s or prejudices. "…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Court Convicts 2 in Terror Case
An Austrian court on Thursday convicted a young couple of making online terror threats on targets in Germany and Austria.
The 23-year-old man, identified only as Mohamed M., was found guilty of involvement in a March 2007 video threatening Austria and Germany with attacks if they did not withdraw military personnel from Afghanistan. The video also endorsed jihad and called for attacks during the Euro 2008 football championships. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
His 22-year-old wife, identified as Mona S., was convicted for helping him, mostly by translating texts. She was sentenced to 22 months in prison.
The verdict by a Vienna court late Thursday is the same as one handed down in March. Austria’s highest court had ordered a retrial in August. The court on Thursday also determined that both husband and wife participated in a terrorist network and that Mohamed M., through his involvement in the online video, had pursued al-Qaida goals.
Mohamed M., who had pleaded not guilty at the start of the retrial in November, stressed his innocence again Thursday. “We are not terrorists!” he told the court in comments quoted by the Austria Press Agency. The couples’ lawyer has appealed the ruling.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi Plans to Cut Telephone Surveillance Dramatically, But No One is Celebrating
Frankfurter Rundschau 13.02.2009
Tom Mustroph reports from Italy that Silvio Berlusconi plans to cut telephone surveillance dramatically, but no one is celebrating. “To independent observers of the justice system this amendment looks like an attempt to make it easier for the more corrupt members of the administrative upper class to continue their criminal activities. Many of the scandals which have rocked Italy in the past two decades would never have surfaced under the new proposed conditions. The fraud at the dairy and food giant Parmalat would never have been uncovered, Giulio Andreotti’s mafia cronyism would have remained a rumour, and even the football match fixing would never have come out.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Body in Charge of UK Policing Policy is Now an £18m-a-Year Brand…
…Charging the public £70 for a 60p criminal records check
Britain’s most powerful police body is being run as a private business with an annual income of around £18million.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), which oversees everything from anti-terrorism policy to speed cameras, was last night facing demands that it be disbanded, following a Mail on Sunday investigation into its activities which include:
- Selling information from the Police National Computer for up to £70 — even though it pays just 60 pence to access those details.
- Marketing ‘police approval’ logos to firms selling anti-theft devices.
- Operating a separate private firm offering training to speed camera operators, which is run by a senior officer who was banned from driving.
- Advising the Government and police forces — earning £32million of taxpayers’ money in the process.
- Employing retired senior officers on lucrative salaries.
Until now, ACPO’s central role in policing has not been questioned as it is seen as an essential, if sometimes controversial, public body writing the rules on police operations as well as campaigning on key issues such as the proposed 90-day detention for terror suspects and the DNA database.
But the organisation is not a public body, nor is it a police trade union or even a campaign group. It is a private company — a self-styled ‘global brand name’ — paid millions of pounds a year by the taxpayer to effectively run the nation’s police forces.
Because ACPO is a private company, members of the public cannot use the Freedom of Information Act to scrutinise its operations. Last night it came under fire from politicians and human rights lawyers, who called for its immediate reform.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, questioned whether ACPO’s role as a company with increasing national powers was ‘legal’. She said: ‘They need to be stopped in their tracks.’
At the centre of the controversy are the services ‘sold’ by ACPO and over which it has a monopoly.
The association is headed by former Sussex Chief Constable Sir Ken Jones, who earns £138,702 a year and receives a further £30,000 in pension contributions on top of his existing police pension.
Its unpaid board includes Sir Hugh Orde, Chief Constable of Northern Ireland, Sir Paul Scott-Lee, West Midlands Chief Constable, and Tim Hollis, Chief Constable of Humberside.
It also employs a number of former high-ranking police officers on lucrative short-term contracts.
Its staff bill is £1.4million a year — which averages out at £66,000 for each of its 21 employees, although that figure also includes pension contributions and retainers paid to former members of staff acting as consultants.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders, Islamic Law in Britain, and Zaki Badawi, the Late Lionized “Moderate” Muslim Leader
by Andrew Bostom
In the wake of Britain’s repulsive behavior towards Geert Wilders—barring his entry to speak at a House of Lords showing of his [1] sobering, realistic film, Fitna, and demonizing him in uninformed press accounts, left, center, and right, and pious denouncements by so-called British “leaders” from across the political spectrum—it is worth reviewing these observations by the respected British scholar of Islam, Dr. Mervyn Hiskett, in [2] Some to Mecca Turn to Pray, first published in 1993.
Hiskett noted (p. 235) the prevailing opinion among leaders of the British Muslim community (i.e., already, almost two decades ago) that unless Muslim immigrants to Britain were allowed unrestrained access to Islamic Law, Shari’a, in all aspects, Britain was to be regarded, Dar-al-Harb, or the House of War, i.e., the target of jihadism. Citing what he characterized as “a more urbane but some may consider ominous statement of the Muslim intention to brook no opposition,” Hiskett quoted Zaki Badawi (d. 2006), a Muslim scholar, and former Director of the Islamic Cultural Center, London, who was made an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) in 2004, and also appointed by The Duke of Castro as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Francis I…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Sicily Moves to Revive Fishing Industry
Palermo, 13 Jan. (AKI) — The southern Italian region of Sicily is moving to revive its potentially lucrative fishing sector, enacting several measures to boost the industry after years of decline. If nurtured, fishing could once again become one of Sicily’s primary sources of wealth, according to the regional councillor for cooperation and fisheries, Roberto Di Mauro.
“The extraordinary natural abundance of fish is not enough to ensure development,” said Di Mauro. “It needs to be combined with entrepreneurship, investment and planning.”
The region of Sicily has enacted legislation enabling central government aid to reach all types of firms that fish with nets, including tuna and swordfish fishermen. It has earmarked some 151 million euros for the sector over the next five years.
The resources will go towards modernising the region’s fishing fleet, preserving sustainable fisheries, managing fishing activities, creating services linked to the fishing sector, and promoting fish sales and the processing industry.
Di Mauro disagreed with European Union free competition rules which state that the fishing sector should not be subsidised.
“Fishing firms needs government funding to revitalise the sector, renew the fleet of vessels and to provide ‘shock absorbers’ for workers who have lost their jobs,” he said.
Sicily’s fishing sector has in recent years been weakened by dwindling credit available to firms, a problem that needs to be tackled, according to Di Mauro.
“We need to attract fresh investment, guarantee access to credit and the more rapid disbursement of funds and economic incentives in the Mediterranean region, he said.
The region is also seeking to promote cooperation between Sicily and the countries of the southern Mediterranean and create a “Mediterranean Zone”.
The fishing sector has in recent decades declined throughout Italy. The sector now turns over five billion euros annually and employs 70,000 people, according to the Federcoopesca Association.
Italy is currently the world’s 38th largest producer, while 30 years ago it was the 24th, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Kercher Suspect ‘Showed No Emotion’
Amanda Knox ‘laughing and kissing’ after murder, court hears
(ANSA) — Perugia, February 13 — An American on trial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher was laughing and kissing her boyfriend at the police station hours after the discovery of Kercher’s body, a Perugia court heard Friday.
Giving evidence at the trial of Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, British student Robyn Butterworth said Knox “seemed to show no emotion” when Kercher’s friends and flatmates were gathered at the police station on November 2, 2007.
Kercher, 21, had been found that morning semi-naked and with her throat slit in the house she shared in Perugia with Seattle-born Knox and two Italian women.
“We were all crying, but I didn’t see Amanda cry. Raffaele and Amanda were kissing, they were showing affection. Amanda was laughing,” said Butterworth.
Knox did not enter Kercher’s room after police arrived to break down the locked door, but the British student told the court she overheard Knox saying that she had found the body.
“I heard her say, ‘I’m the one who found her, it could have happened to me’, and that she had died by bleeding to death,” Butterworth said.
Kercher spent the hours before her murder with Butterworth and another British friend before returning to the shared flat.
In an address to the court Friday, Knox reiterated her innocence and said she had “faith that everything will work out”.
Sollecito was also present for the hearing.
A third defendant, Ivory Coast national Rudy Guede, 21, was sentenced to 30 years for sexually assaulting and murdering the British exchange student at a separate trial in October.
The prosecution claims Kercher was killed when all three defendants tried to force her to participate in “a perverse group sex game”.
Prosecutors say Knox was responsible for cutting Kercher’s throat while Sollecito and Guede held her down.
Knox, 21, and Sollecito, 24, are also charged with the theft of 300 euros, two credit cards and two mobile phones belonging to Kercher as well as simulating a crime to make it look like an intruder had broken into the house.
The defendants deny the charges against them.
Their legal teams are set to argue that Guede broke into the house and carried out the attack single-handedly while Knox and Sollecito spent the night at Sollecito’s house.
The trial of Knox and Sollecito, which began last month, is being held in stages and is expected to last until the summer.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
London News: Guantanamo Bay Inmate Binyam Mohamed Fit to Return to Britain
GUANTANAMO Bay detainee and London resident Binyam Mohamed is fit enough to travel to the UK if the US government agrees to his release, the Foreign Office has said.
A team of British officials, including a doctor, met yesterday with Ethiopian-born Mohamed, who has refugee status in the UK.
Legal representatives hope he will be cleared for release and return to Britain within days by a review ordered by President Barack Obama.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Nick Griffin Joins Petition for Geert Wilders
BNP leader Nick Griffin has joined the nearly 30,000 others who as of 2pm GMT have signed an online petition supporting Dutch politician Geert Wilders. The petition calls upon all freedom loving people to boycott all Dutch goods if the government of that country continues with its prosecution of Mr Wilders.
“I wrote in the comments section of the petition that the Dutch nation, which successfully stood up in the past to Spanish clerical fascism, should show the same resolve in standing up to modern Islamo-fascism,” Mr Griffin told BNP News.
The petition reads: “To: The Dutch Government:
WHEREAS Geert Wilders has exercised his fundamental human right of freedom of expression and spoken out, with facts and evidence, of the threat posed by radical Islam;
WHEREAS certain elements within Islamic communities have threatened a boycott of Dutch goods if Geert Wilders is not punished by the Dutch government for exercising his freedom of expression; and
WHEREAS certain elements in Dutch industry and the Dutch government are suggesting that Geert Wilders be prosecuted civilly or criminally, in order to prevent such a boycott;
IT IS RESOLVED that, in the event that the Dutch government attempts, in any way, to punish or prosecute Geert Wilders, civilly or criminally, for exercising his freedom of expression, the undersigned will initiate a boycott of any and all Dutch goods.”
The petition can be found by clicking here.
(Image: A front page of Holland’s De Telegraaf newspaper, reporting on the death sentence passed on Mr Wilders by Al-Qaeda. The headlines read: “Al-Qaeda orders death sentence: Jihad Against Wilders”).
Recommended Reading:
Jihad: Islam’s 1,300 Year War on Western Civilisation, by Arthur Kemp.
For centuries, violent Muslims have been trying to capture Europe for Islam. Sweeping out from its origin in Saudi Arabia, Islam has expanded through violent conquest into North Africa, the Middle and Near East, and very nearly into Europe itself, attacking through Spain, Italy, and the Balkans. Each time, the Islamic hordes were turned back by a united European military effort.
Today, the Islamic invasion is not being carried out with sieges, scimitars, or cannon, but rather by immigration, birth rates, and demographics.
Given current trends, Europe is set to be overrun before the end of this century.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Nuke Subs Crash: Brit and French Boats Collide Underwater…
The Royal Navy’s HMS Vanguard and the French Navy’s Le Triomphant are both nuclear powered and were carrying nuke missiles.
Between them they had around 250 sailors on board.
A senior Navy source said: “The potential consequences are unthinkable. It’s very unlikely there would have been a nuclear explosion.
“But a radioactive leak was a possibility. Worse, we could have lost the crew and warheads. That would have been a national disaster.”
The collision is believed to have taken place on February 3 or 4, in mid-Atlantic. Both subs were submerged and on separate missions.
Row
As inquiries began, naval sources said it was a millions-to-one unlucky chance both subs were in the same patch of sea. Warships have sonar gear which locates submarines by sound waves.
But modern anti-sonar technology is so good it is possible neither boat “saw” the other.
A senior military source said: “The lines between London and Paris have been hot.”
The MoD insisted last night there had been no nuclear security breach. But this is the biggest embarrassment to the Navy since Iran captured 15 sailors in 2007. The naval source said: “Crashing a nuclear submarine is as serious as it gets.”
Vanguard is one of Britain’s four V-Class subs forming our Trident nuclear deterrent. Each is armed with 16 ballistic missiles.
She was last night towed into Faslane in Scotland, with dents and scrapes visible on her hull. Triomphant limped to Brest with extensive damage to her sonar dome.
Triomphant has a crew of 101. Vanguard weighs 16,000 tons, is 150 metres long and has a crew of 140.
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Record Labels Make ISPs ‘Copyright Cops’ for Piracy
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — The world’s biggest record companies sued college students, a 12-year-old girl and a dead woman and still failed to stamp out music piracy. Now they’re turning to Internet service providers.
Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp., EMI Group and Sony Music Entertainment have gained leverage through court and government actions to pressure ISPs into warning customers not to steal music — in some cases with a threat to cut service. Crowded networks are helping to soften U.S. and European access providers’ resistance to working with record companies.
Irish phone company Eircom, in a settlement with music labels, said last month it will unplug customers who ignore illegal-download warnings. A law being drafted in France would do the same, while Britain may require ISPs to pass information on offenders to rights holders. The four largest U.S. labels have struck preliminary accords to work more closely with ISPs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Skinheads, Neo-Nazis Draw Fury at Dresden 1945 ‘Mourning March’
German anti-immigrant, skinhead and neo-Nazi groups in the eastern city of Dresden staged one of their biggest demonstrations since German reunification in 1990 today, as 6,000 extremists marched through the streets, police said.
Groups tied to the National Democratic Party used the 64th anniversary of the 1945 firebombing of Dresden to hold a “mourning march” through the capital of the state of Saxony. Two counter-demonstrations, led by unions and political activists, drew almost 10,000, police spokesman Marko Laske said.
Black-clad youths gathered at the city’s main train station, waving black and black-white-and-red German nationalist flags as hundreds of police wearing body armor separated them from angry protesters, many of them screaming “Nazis out!”
“There’s nothing in Germany that could compare to the scale of this Nazi march,” said Robert Kusche, an activist with Kulturbuero Sachsen, which organized one of the counter- demonstrations.
For 10 years, anti-immigrant and skinhead groups have marked the anniversary of the bombing of Dresden in Allied air raids, which took place Feb. 13-15, 1945, at the end of World War II. Their aims have been bolstered since the NPD entered the Saxony state assembly in 2004.
“They’re trying to link the victims of Dresden with the victims of Auschwitz,” Hajo Funke, an expert on neo-Nazis at the Free University in Berlin, said in a phone interview. “They represent a call for reviving the German Reich, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.”
[…]
This year’s event is being organized by a group known as the Junge Landsmannschaft Ostdeutschland that is supported by the NPD, which will seek to retain its seats in the state assembly when Saxony’s voters go to the polls in late August.
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Sweden: ‘Opposing Israeli Violence is Not Anti-Semitism’
Swedes who demonstrate over Israeli attacks are not anti-Semites. Calling them names is an attempt to silence criticism of Israeli policies, argues Stockholm-based Palestinian Alaa Kullab.
Stockholm’s Sergels Torg did not understand the reality of the Middle East, he claims.
Slinging accusations of anti-Semitism is easy. But why do people in any part of the world need to be professors of political science to go out and demonstrate against the killing of civilians, when they see it happening and broadcast live on their TVs?
Let’s be clear — hatred and agitation should not be tolerated, but people should also beware of how they describe events in the Middle East. The following statement from Stavrou’s article could also be seen as a subtle form of agitation: “Swedes, as lovers of peace and freedom, would be wise to encourage those who fight these forces of evil thousands of miles away or they might find them in their back yard. If they’re not there already.”
Accusations of anti-Semitism are a tool used to silence anyone who criticizes Israeli policies. But would any one criticizing the policy of Iran be labeled as anti-Muslim or anti-Persian? Are critics of the Chinese Government routinely described as anti-Chinese? Is condemning the Saudi Arabian government anti-Arab? Surely aggression, military occupation and violations of human and political rights should not be put beyond criticism?
Stavrou’s article also claimed: “there is no Israeli occupation in Gaza”. This is technically true — there were no Israeli forces inside Gaza — but it ignores the wider reality. Israel controls the air space, sea coast and land borders; the people of Gaza are prisoners, — within their prison they may have internal self-rule, but they are not free.
Since June 2006, the Palestinians have been paying an unimaginable social cost as they are collectively punished for electing Hamas as their government. This despite the fact that Western monitors agreed that the election was free and fair.
Since Hamas has been in power, Gaza has been sealed and no one is allowed to enter or to exit for any reason. The people of Gaza have been put on what Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, mockingly describes as ‘a diet’. Palestinians, he was quoted by The Observer as saying, will be kept thin, but not be made to die of hunger.
The only way people have been able to survive this far has been due to the tunnels that smuggle food and goods from Egypt. The illegal blockade was enforced to keep Gaza under siege — starving, humiliated, diseased, and exposed to selective assassination. The place was effectively turned into an open air prison. Only barely enough food and fuel was allowed to enter to hinder mass disease and death.
Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Reporter for human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said the blockade subjected “an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty.” Falk called it “a holocaust-in-the-making” and appealed to world governments and international public opinion “to act urgently to prevent these current genocidal tendencies from culminating in a collective tragedy”. One can agree or disagree with this statement, but can not label it as anti-Semitism; at least he, Richard Falk himself, is Jewish.
Let us forget about Gaza for a while, and assume — since it is ruled by Hamas -, the people there “deserve” what happened to them.
Let us instead talk about the West Bank ruled — theoretically — by Mahmoud Abbas, “the man of Peace.” The crucial fact to remember here is that the whole West Bank has been under military occupation for almost forty two years, forty percent of its territory is occupied by illegal settlements which have been built since the 1970s (before Hamas even existed) and almost six hundred road blocks separate cities and villages from each other.
Moreover, inhabitants of the West Bank are subject to daily military invasions of their communities and the kidnapping of civilians. Israeli actions on the West Bank violate more than sixty UN resolutions, not to mention the Geneva Convention, which requires that the occupying power respect the human rights of the occupied people. And yet, some still claim that the conflict is between Israel and “extremists”.
Some people forward a manipulative argument about the conflict in the Middle East, in which it is described as a conflict between “moderates” and “extremists”. Many claim that it is somehow linked to the attacks of September 11th 2001.
But this view is historically wrong. The conflict started long before Hamas, Hezbollah or Fatah were created. It is a political conflict between the people of Palestine and the Zionist movement (later Israel). It is a conflict that led after the 1948 War to the expulsion of about 800,000 Palestinians (out of 1,500,000 people at that time) to Gaza, the West Bank and the neighboring Arab countries. Some 531 Palestinian villages and 11 cities were destroyed. This is all well documented in a book by the distinguished Israeli professor in Haifa University, Ilan Pappe.
The process started officially in 1897 with the first Zionist convention in Switzerland in which some European Jewish groups decided to create a Jewish state. At that point in time, this same conflict could have been started in one of a number of different regions; Palestine was only one of the candidate countries in addition to Uganda and part of Argentina. However, the second Zionist convention in 1901 was the one which decided where the conflict would be: in Palestine.
For those who characterize this conflict as a fight between Israeli moderates and Palestinian fundamentalists, remember this: more than eighty years ago, there was a country called Palestine, its people were Muslims, Christians, Jews, Druze, small communities from Armenia, Morocco and Greek clerics among others; they were all Palestinians. There were no borders, no walls and no victims. For those who still defend all this conflict, occupation and confiscation of territories for the sake of keeping that country “Jewish”, I ask: how is this not religious fundamentalism?
Attacks like those on the Jewish centre in Helsingborg and the Jewish cemetery in Malmö (and similar attacks on Muslim centres, Mosques, and cemeteries) should be condemned. But these actions should not be used to silence or discredit people who oppose and demonstrate against human rights violations, anywhere in the world, especially when these violations are committed by states that claim to be democratic.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorist Threat May Come From Within
A US report has concluded that Muslim residents in Europe who train as terrorists in Pakistan are the most likely agents of terror for the continent.
Al-Qaeda is preparing for a new attack in Europe and Denmark is at the top of its list, according to the head of US National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair.
In his department’s 2008 annual threat assessment report, Blair indicated that Muslim extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda and Sunni affiliates who go to Pakistan for terrorist training and return constituted the main threat to European security. […]
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
There’s Life in the Olde World Yet
by Diana West
From Islam in Europe via De Telegraaf:
According to the most recent polls in the Netherlands, if elections were held today, the Party for Freedom (PVV), led by Geert Wilders, would come in second place with 25 seats, trailing only the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), led by the prime minister, which would carry 27.
Of course, there are nine other parties… Here’s how it all stacks up…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Transgender Gang Boss Arrested
From streetwalker to Camorra boss — A gangland first.
NAPLES — Ketty used to turned tricks but not because she had to. She needn’t have walked the streets if she hadn’t wanted to. She had plenty of money from drug dealing and a gang at her beck and call. In fact, Ketty had more cash than she could have made in a lifetime as a hooker. Why she continued working as a prostitute is hard to explain.
Ketty’s identity card says her real name is Ugo Gabriele, 27, a transsexual and Camorra gang member, or rather boss. This is the first time that a police investigation has unearthed anything similar. Ketty’s arrest shows that the Camorra has modified not just the code of honour that once forbade harming women or children but also internal gang rules. Previously, women had taken over gangs to stand in for husbands in prison but transsexuals have only been used for prostitution, or at best as dealers, since they are already on the street. In her own way, Ketty was a revolutionary. She subverted one of the Camorra’s longest-established rules, the one that invariably assigns command to men, or to their wives by proxy.
Now Ketty is plain Ugo Gabriele again and no longer in charge. Since yesterday, Ketty has been in jail, arrested by Carabinieri at the end of an investigation conducted by public prosecutors Luigi Cannavale and Gloria Sanseverino from the Naples anti-Mafia directorate. The investigation revealed Ketty’s role as a gang boss who stashed firearms, organized “debt collection” groups, which almost without exception means extortion or loan sharking, and in particular ran the drug trade on the streets. Nor were they any old streets. Ketty ran Scampia, where police reckon the drug trade is worth up to 500,000 euros a day. Once, all of that money ended up in the pockets of Paolo Di Lauro, nickname Ciruzzo ‘o milionario, and his extremely powerful clan. But then there was a gangland feud that raged on in an endless succession of murders. In the end, the breakaway secessionist faction won and proceeded to share out the district and drug dealing sites. During the gang war, Ugo Gabriele was just Ketty. Every evening, she went to the Naples station area and sat in her car or leaned on the door waiting for clients. Despite the improbably deep voice that she never quite managed to disguise, Ketty had plenty of customers because she peddled cocaine as well as sex. Where Ketty was parked, clients would be queuing up.
Naples is full of Kettys, and Valentianas, and Samanthas, and Jessicas and other transsexuals with similar names. Female prostitutes nowadays attract work using small ads and mobile phones. They stay indoors and wait for the doorbell to ring. Sex for sale on the streets means transgenders or cross-dressing “femminielli”. Their stamping grounds are Piazza Municipio, the station area, Corso Umberto, Corso Vittorio Emanuele or the avenues of Agnano and Fuorigrotta. But all they sell is sex whereas Ketty offered something extra. In the past, the merchandise wasn’t hers. Gang members gave her a few twists of silver paper and she had to hand over the cash when they returned. But after the gang war, everything changed. Salvatore Gabriele, Ugo’s elder brother, is one of the gangsters who graduated to become a boss. Since he knew he couldn’t trust anyone around him, he turned to his brother.
Salvatore wanted to extend his activities and spent a long time travelling the length and breadth of Italy, supplying large and small-scale dealers, so he left Ketty to run things at Scampia. Salvatore gave her guidelines and she did the rest. She cut the drugs (“put rubbish in” big brother Sasà would tell her and Ketty duly did so), she gave the pushers the doses to sell and kept a few bags for her own evening customers at the station. Yes, Ketty was still on the game. She’d pushed large quantities of other people’s drugs but now she didn’t need to answer to anyone. All the money from the drugs and prostitution was hers to keep. Except that the drugs brought in much more money. And every morning, Ketty went home considerably richer.
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Blame Brown: Revenge of the Whistleblower
A former HBOS executive says he has documents that prove the Prime Minister must take responsibility for the mess in the markets
The HBOS whistleblower whose revelations led to the resignation of one of the Government’s top regulators is about to release a tranche of documents which he says point a direct and accusatory finger at Gordon Brown’s responsibility for the banking crisis, and has called on the Prime Minister to resign. In a further blow to Labour, an Independent on Sunday poll showed voter support for the party evaporating, leaving it only a few points ahead of the Lib Dems.
Paul Moore, the former head of risk at HBOS, told the IoS that he has more than 30 potentially incendiary documents which he will send to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee. He says they disprove Mr Brown’s claim about the reasons for HBOS’s catastrophic losses — now estimated to be nearly £11bn — and show that it was the reckless lending culture, easy credit and failed regulation of the Brown years that led directly to the implosion of British banks.
After Mr Moore’s explosive testimony at the MPs’ banking hearing, the Prime Minister had denied the former executive’s central charges and said that HBOS’s difficulties were due to its flawed business model. Mr Moore says his documents refute this and prove the cause of the crisis can be laid at Gordon Brown’s feet. He believes Mr Brown’s failure to intervene over the reckless lending undertaken by all the banks over the past decade means he should go. “The failure goes right to the heart of the system — to the internal supervisory system and right to the top of government.”…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: New Home Office Statistics Attack
The statistics watchdog has again rapped the Home Office over the premature release of official figures. Sir Michael Scholar intervened only six weeks after he attacked the department for the early release of knife crime statistics.
Sir Michael, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, issued his new warning after the Home Office put out a press release at the end of December claiming that a record number of foreign criminals had been removed from Britain last year. The authority was concerned that the figures were released two months before they were due to be officially published, that they were put out over the Christmas period and that the text provided no context. In a letter to Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, Sir Michael said that in future such figures should be issued in a different form.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Blast Shakes Northern Kosovo Town, No Injured
Kosovo’s police say an explosion shook the tense northern town of Mitrovica, just days before the country marks its first independence anniversary. No one was injured.
Police spokesman, Besim Hoti says investigators believe unknown assailants tossed a hand grenade late Saturday in an ethnically mixed residential area in the town’s northern, Serb-dominated part. The blast caused minor damage. NATO peacekeepers were rushed to secure the site.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has warned earlier against ethnic violence, saying it would “directly threaten” the country’s interests. In a bid to undermine Kosovo’s independence, Serb leaders are urging Serbia’s government to hold a session in Kosovo on Feb. 17 coinciding with the anniversary.
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Imam in Bosnia Sex Abuse Case Found Guilty
A Bosnian court has found an Imam (local Islamic priest) guilty of sexually abusing an underage girl and sentenced him to 18 months in prison, in a case that shocked Bosnia and stirred up tensions between local media organizations and the country’s influential Islamic Community.
The family of the girl pressed charges against the Imam last year, accusing him of sexually molesting their underage daughter during religion classes. “As Allah is my witness, I did not commit this crime,” said Imam Resad Omerhodzic, who plans to appeal the ruling.
His defense attorney, Adil Lozo, accused the legal team representing the girl of manipulating the trial — which was closed for the public — by leaking information to media. He stressed that the verdict was based solely on incriminating testimony of only one out of 19 witnesses who were heard during the trial.
The leader of Bosnia’s Islamic Community, Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric told journalists that they will respect court’s ruling and suspend Omerhodzic. Yet he stressed that he considers Omerhodzic to be innocent until the end of the appeals’ period and the final verdict.
“I want to express my deep sorrow because of this event, “ Ceric said at a press conference he gave jointly with the defense attorney Lozo.
Ceric conceded that the Islamic Community made a mistake not investigating the case internally and said they have “learned a valuable lesson” and will tighten up Imams’ discipline and supervision in future.
The lawsuit, Bosnia’s first such high-level public case of alleged sexual abuse by a religious figure in recent history, was widely reported by local media.
Some TV stations, newspaper and magazines went further and investigated the case, reporting on a further four cases of girls allegedly were abused by the same Imam in the past four years. They carried disturbing testimony from some of these girls and other witnesses, including even one of the Imam’s best friends, who said the Imam had admitted his wrongdoing to him.
The reports triggered strong criticism from Bosnia’s Islamic Community. Last Friday, a three-person TV crew from one of the most popular local programs, Federal Television’s “60 Minutes”, was assaulted by what they said was a group of conservative Muslims. Two days later, a local villager due to testify for the prosecution in the trial, received threats.
Bosnia’s Islamic Community refused to comment on the trial before the verdict, and Grand Mufti Ceric, the leader of the Islamic Community, in one his sermons reportedly defended the conservative Muslim group and their actions.
Outraged at the lack of any condemnation of the beating, FTV in its evening bulletin said that Ceric “is protecting pedophiles in the Islamic Community as well as hostile Wahabbis, and is openly calling for the lynch of unsuitable journalists.”
Tensions threatened to boiled over at the Friday press conference. Incensed by the fact that Ceric appeared at the press conference together with the defense attorney and that he repeatedly avoided saying whether he will visit the abused girl and her family, journalists attacked both men with a barrage of questions and accusations.
Ceric then accused media of Islamophobia, which brought the press conference several times almost on the verge of a brawl.
“This case is about a little girl, about pedophilia, and has nothing to do with Islamophobia,” one of the journalists yelled during the tense press conference.
Analysts have said that increased tensions between the public, the Islamic community and media, have completely overshadowed the sex abuse case, which unintentionally reopened old debates about religious radicalization and the role and behavior of religious communities and their leaders in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The village of Gluha Bukovica had previously gained notoriety from being mentioned in several trials of the International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, ICTY, against Bosniak military commanders. During the war, the village was a base for groups of foreign Islamic fighters who came to Bosnia during the war to fight alongside the Bosniak-dominated Bosnian Army.
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Kosovo: Serbia, Serious Problems With USA But We’ll Cooperate
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 12 — Serbia has “serious problems regarding its bilateral relations with the United States, the main backer of Kosovo’s independence, but despite this Belgrade intends to find a way to cooperate with Washington”, said Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, cited today by the media in Belgrade. “We do not want look for issues that unite or separate us, and we want to cooperate with American state institutions, such as Congress”, said Jeremic speaking at a conference organised by the America-Serbia strategic study centre. He added that he did not expect great changes in American policy in the Balkans with Barack Obama’s new administration. The minister spoke about the 1st anniversary of Kosovo’s proclamation of independence on February 17, saying that he does not rule out attempts to destabilize the situation in Kosovo on that day. “We intend to do everything possible to find a solution on Kosovo’s future status that is not based on secession”. Jeremic added that “Serbia has a plan regarding this”. Belgrade has refused to recognise Kosovo’s independence, although 54 states out of the 192 in the United Nations have done so. (ANSAmed)
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Serbia-Greece: Union Confederations to Cooperate
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, FEBRUARY 13 — Representatives of the Greek General Confederation of Labour, which gathers some 1.5 million workers, in Belgrade agreed to cooperate with the Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia, reports BETA news agency. Serbian Confederation vice president Aleksandar Pavlovic said that the organization, which includes around 150,000 public sector workers, makes firm agreements with its European friends. “We saw Greece responding to social injustice, but it is not our aim to destroy and create chaos in the streets, but to fight the economic crisis,” he said. Pavlovic underlined that he will neither permit mass layoffs of workers nor wages to be slashed and the social fabric to be imperiled, because, he assessed, Serbia has the potential to win the fight against the crisis. Belgrade hosted members of the Greek General Confederation Presidency Philipos Thomas and Nikos Orphanos, who is also general secretary of the network of regional energy unions for Southeast Europe. Thomas said that the aim of their visit is to raise the degree of cooperation between the Greek and Serbian unions on the branch level to the level of confederations.(ANSAmed)
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TLC: Tunisia-Europe, Tunisian Fibre-Optic Cable Laid
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 13 — An underwater fibre-optic cable, constructed completely in Tunisia for the first time, will connect the country with Europe by the end of the year. The TAP agency highlights that it “will contribute to increase the country’s economic competitiveness, as well as permit Tunisie Telecom to offer businesses quality services at international standards at lower cost”. (ANSAmed).
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Algeria: Two Terrorist Attacks, Seven Dead
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 13 — APS press agency reported that seven people, including two policemen and one fireman were killed when two bombs exploded in Foul el Metlag, in eastern Algeria. Four family members, including one child and two women, were killed when a bomb blew up their car. The second explosion occurred a moment later when police and rescue workers were arriving. (ANSAmed)
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Egypt Copts Decry Attempt to “Islamize” Cairo
Governor sued for renaming country’s oldest streetsEgypt’s leading Christians have accused the governor of Cairo of trying to Islamize the streets by changing the names of some of the country’s oldest areas from Christian ones to Islamic ones.The advisor of the Coptic Pope Shenouda III, Dr. Naguib Gebrael, filed a lawsuit against Governor Abdul-Azim Wazir for changing street names without any legal or historical reason.Gebrael cited the example of Victoria Square in Cairo’s densely populated Coptic area called Shubra whose name was changed to Nasr al-Islam or the victory of Islam, the name of a fundamentalist association that offers charity services in the area.”There is a committee in charge of naming streets and squares and its members include university professors of geography and history. Did fundamentalism infiltrate this scientific committee?” he added.Gebrael stressed that Copts have nothing against Islamic names and that the lawsuit is not out of fanaticism for Christianity, but rather keenness to preserve the history of Egypt and promote tolerance and multiplicity. Shubra is one of the oldest districts in Cairo and has a considerable Coptic population…
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Israel: Kadima Sources, Livni to Lead Opposition
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, FEBRUARY 13 — Tzipi Livni has decided that she will lead Israel’s opposition in the forth-coming administration and is ready to make an announcement to that effect on Sunday during the first gathering of the Kadima parliamentary list. The leak comes from the Kadima party activists’ website. The website notes Israel’s current Foreign Minister as saying that entering into a Likud-led government in a junior position under Benyamin Netanyahu “would lose the moral profile she presented to electors”. A passage to the opposition seems by now to be the “only honourable path” open to her, the editor argues. According to military radio, this choice is nonetheless being hotly opposed by two of Kadima’s hierarchy: Shaul Mofaz and Zeev Boim, with a show-down still in course inside the party. The website adds that the only formula that might persuade Livni not to go into opposition would be that of a three-cornered government: Likud-Kadima-Israel Beitenu (the party of Avigdor Lieberman), to be directed in alternating tandem by her and Benyamin Netanyahu. (ANSAmed).
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Iran is Helping Taliban in Afghanistan, Petraeus Says
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — Iran is helping Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, said General David Petraeus, who is in charge of U.S. forces in the Central Asian nation and Iraq.
“There is a willingness to provide some degree of assistance to make the life of those who are trying to help the Afghan people difficult,” Petraeus told a conference today in the Qatari capital, Doha.
Petraeus gave no details of the Iranian assistance, which he described as taking place at “a small level.” The U.S. and its allies are watching Iran’s actions in Afghanistan “very, very closely,” he said, adding that the Persian Gulf state continues to train and equip Shiite Muslim militias in neighboring Iraq.
The Obama administration is preparing to commit as many as 30,000 more troops over the next year to beat back a renewed Taliban insurgency. Petraeus’s comments come as the U.S. is seeking to start a dialogue with Iran amid a continued standoff over its nuclear program.
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Iranian Ship Carried Munitions Supplies
A ship suspected of carrying arms from Iran to Gaza had no weaponry aboard but carried material for making munitions, Cyprus said Friday.
Cypriot authorities began unloading the cargo Friday. The government said it breached a UN ban on Iranian arms exports.
Defense Minister Costas Papacostas said more than 90 containers loaded with “raw material that could be used in the manufacture of munitions” would be stored at a naval base.
The Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk has anchored off the port of Limassol since it arrived Jan. 29 under suspicion from US officials of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas in Gaza.
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Iraq Will Demand Compensation From Israel for Destruction of Nuclear Reactor
Iraqi MPs have launched a campaign to reopen the issue of compensation from Israel, estimated in the billions of dollars, for Israel’s 1981 destruction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor [Tamuz] in 1981.
The campaign is led by Muhammad Naji, a member of the governing coalition. The demand for compensation draws on Security Council Resolution No.. 487 of 1981, which explicitly stipulates that Iraq is entitled to seek compensation for the Israeli attack on the reactor.
This campaign is also driven by a desire to balance the demands of many countries for Iraqi compensation for its invasion of Kuwait.
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Lebanon: ‘Alternative Beirut’ in First Multi-Media Guide
(by Lorenzo Trombetta) (ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 12 — An “alternative” multimedia guide to the Beirut of today and of yesterday beyond the old stereotypes of the city which sees “perennial wars”, or of the “Paris of the Middle East’, or as a symbol of “inexpressible chaos” and of “nightly transgressions”: this is the ambitious objective that has been attained by a grog of young Lebanese, all aware of the urgent need to present foreigners and Beirut city-dwellers themselves with a multi-level map of the capital city. ‘The Alternative Guide of Beirut’ is the fruit of the labours of Studio Beirut, an association set up shortly after the war between Israel and Shiite movement Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. It comprises a handful of Lebanese architects who were then joined by anthropologists and sociologists, all in their early thirties. The multi-medial guide is to be published in October both in paper format and as a DVD thanks to funding from Amsterdam’s ‘Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development’ (PCF). This first edition is to appear in English ahead of next year’s Arab version. “Lebanon’s mainstream tourist guides are superficial and commercial: they don’t help a foreigner disentangle this city’s contradictions, nor to taste its true pleasures”32-year-old Rani Rajji, one of the project’s devisors told ANSAMED. ‘But with our guide we present the city’s various areas through readings, including personal ones, of its four main levels”. Rajji says that the first reading is that of ‘how it appears to the eyes of someone who has never seen it before: it’s not just what appears to someone entering it from the airport, or travelling along the super-highway from Damascus, but it’s also that seen by somebody who, like me, only got to know the city as an adult at the end of the civil war (1975-90), when I was at last able to enter the city”. Another ‘reading” is that which describes the various authorities wielding de facto power in the city’s different quarters: ‘It is a must, more than useful, to know for example that the southern suburbs are in the hands of Hezbollah, and that the central Hamra area isn’t just the shopping drag but is flanked by the residences and offices of political leaders, each of whom has their own body guards”, Rajji continued. Then come ‘the hidden Beirut” which parades those areas which have in fact been ‘forgotten, but which offer monuments and anecdotes from our ancient and recent history ‘, and ‘Beirut of the passions”, which describes various areas in terms of ‘love”, ‘fear”, ‘flight”, ‘courage”. All of this, bound in the book, or on the DVD, is told ‘not just through writing but through music, sound tracks, video, reproductions of artists’ installations, too”. The idea has already caught on abroad and, concludes Rajji, ‘there are already some in China thinking of creating an “Alternative Guide of Shanghai”. (ANSAMed).
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Lebanon: Hariri Court, First Witnesses Moved to Hague
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 13 — “Important witnesses” in the case of the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri “have been transferred to the Hague”, where the Special Court for Lebanon will begin legal proceedings on March 1. The website of the newspaper an Nahar’, quoting anonymous sources, writes that they are people who have already been put ‘under the witness protection programme” established by the court. According to the same sources, four Lebanese judges, out of the eleven judges on the case, will take their oaths at the court’s headquarters by March 15. The ‘Future’ TV network, owned by the Hariri family, said that a group of international investigators working on the case were in Syria today. The international investigators indicated some high-level Lebanese and Syrian Defence officials as being involved in the assassination of Hariri and the other 22 people that were killed by a car bomb on 14 February 2005 in Beirut. Syria has always denied their involvement. ‘ Yesterday, The American President, Barack Obama, expressed “full support for the Special Court for Lebanon, to the end that the responsible parties be brought to justice”. (ANSAmed).
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Obama Administration Takes Softer Stance on Missile Defense
PRAGUE — The Obama administration has begun to indicate that it’s willing to reconsider the Bush administration’s push to deploy a ballistic missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland — if Russia helps curb Iran’s push to develop nuclear weapons.
Echoing Vice President Joe Biden…said the new administration wants to push a “reset button” on U.S.- Russia relations, Undersecretary of State William Burns told the Interfax news agency in Moscow last week that, “ The United States is quite open to the possibility of new forms of cooperation” with Moscow on missile defense, Iran and “the whole range of security issues with Russia .”
[…]
Treaties to approve the missile defense plans, which Russia opposes, were signed in 2008 in Prague and in Poland . Poland would be home to a missile interceptor base, and the Czech radar installation would be built about 50 miles from Prague .
[…]
While it’s a secondary issue for the U.S., missile defense is one of the most important political issues for the Czech Republic , which two decades ago helped lead Eastern Europe’s march from communism to democracy.
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UAE: Anti-Smoking Laws, Fines of Up to 200,000 Euro
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, FEBRUARY 11 — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Parliament has approved a federal anti-smoking law which lays down steep fines for transgressors: individuals or shops caught violating the new regulations will be hit with a fine of up to one million dirham, over 200,000 euros. The new package of laws prohibits selling cigarettes to minors (under 18-year-olds), as well as banning smoking, even in one’s own car, if a child under 12 is onboard. The law also forbids smoking in all public spaces, including public transport, shopping centres, hospitals and universities. The battle against smoking gained force in 2007, when Dubai became the first emirate to adopt incremental measures which have since led to the definitive and comprehensive law. Abu Dhabi has followed by instituting a law last month. (ANSAmed).
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USA Report Hezbollah Better Prepared Against Israel
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 13 — Hezbollah was better prepared to fight against Israel in 2006, according to a US intelligence report presented today to Congress. “In the case of another conflict, Hezbollah would be better prepared than in 2006” because “it continues to reinforce its military capabilities and has rearmed and trained new fighters in preparation for an armed conflict with Israel”, the annual security report presented by National Security Director, Dennis Blair, reads. According to the report, Syrian support for the Shiite movement “has continued to grow in recent years, above all after the conflict in 2006” and the United States foresees that Damascus will continue to mix in Lebanese affairs “to promote their own interests”. Blair is the third director of national intelligence and was confirmed by the Senate at the end of January. (ANSAmed).
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Afghanistan: Australian Troops ‘Condemned’ for Civilian Deaths
Kabul, 13 Feb. (AKI) — Afghanistan on Friday condemned the killing of civilians in a raid conducted by Australian soldiers without any local forces in the south of the country. The Australian defence ministry said five children had been killed in a shootout between Taliban insurgents and Australian Special Forces in southern Uruzgan province on Thursday, where soldiers were “clearing” a number of compounds.
The Afghan defence ministry said one woman and two children were killed and eight other people were wounded in the attack.
“The defense ministry condemns the martyring of one woman and two children and the wounding of eight others … in an operation by international forces … and asks international forces not to conduct operations without the coordination of Afghan forces,” the ministry said in a statement.
The commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) under which Australian troops operate issued a directive last September saying soldiers should not enter an Afghan house or mosque uninvited without having the lead from the Afghan army unless troops were in “clear danger”.
The strong statement from Afghanistan came as Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy, was due to begin talks with Afghan leaders in Kabul.
The visit by Holbrooke, the US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, comes as president Hamid Karzai faces increased pressure from Washington to defeat a resurgent Taliban and militants from Al-Qaeda.
Holbrooke is expected to meet Afghanistan’s defence and interior ministers before holding talks with Karzai on Saturday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Burma: Human Rights Expert to Visit
New York, 13 Feb. (AKI) — The independent United Nations expert on human rights in Burma was due on Saturday to begin a six-day visit to assess developments in the south-east Asian nation since his previous trip there last year, the UN announced.
Special rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana, who was appointed to his post in May 2008 by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, made his first visit to Burma last August.
In a report issued following that visit, Quintana made four key recommendations to the ruling Burmese military junta.
He urged a revision of domestic laws that limit fundamental rights and the progressive release of an estimated 2,000 political prisoners still in detention.
Quintana also advised the reform of the military, its training in human rights and recommended changes to make the judiciary fully independent, the UN noted.
The reforms needed to be completed before national elections are held in 2010, Quintana said.
Quintana will discuss the implementation of the reforms with various officials during his 14-19 February visit, the UN said.
He has requested private meetings with a number of prisoners of conscience as well as leaders of political parties.
Burma, also known as Myanmar, is ruled by a military junta which suppresses almost all dissent and wields absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions.
In 2007, a small string of protests about living standards gained momentum turned into the biggest protests seen in Burma since a popular uprising in 1988.
On the worst day of violence, on 27 September, 2007, the junta said nine people had been killed, but the death toll is thought to be far higher.
The 1988 national uprisings were triggered by the government’s decision in 1987 to devalue the currency, wiping out many people’s savings.
The government sent troops to brutally suppress the protests. At least 3,000 people are believed to have died.
Burma, one of Asia’s poorest countries, has been under military rule (photo) since 1962.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Register to Vote or This Racist BNP Man Nick Griffin Gets Elected
Pakistan Daily is urging YOU the Asian commmunity to get into the polling booths at this summer’s European Elections.
As reported in our most recent edition the far-right British National Party could win its first seat in the European Parliament by claiming just 8% of the vote! And Nick Griffin the leader of the party is standing as a candidate in the North West. He has already started campaigning for votes in the local towns. He is pictured here at the Manxman Pub in Blackburn during a meeting. The meeting was attended by local BNP canvassers including Robin Evans who gave a short speech on the night.
If you want to do something about it and stop the BNP then in the first instance you have to register with your local council to vote. The European elections take place on Thursday June 4. The proportional representation voting system used for Euro-elections increases the BNP’s chances of winning a seat.
The Asian community has long been vocal in protesting over international issues but it is time we focussed our energies democratically to ensure those who aim to divide and spread hateful messages are not given a mandate to further their cause.
Fundamentally the Asian community needs to become more active in local politics.
There have already been warnings against complacency. Harriet Harman MP said, “In the North West, where Nick Griffin, the BNP chairman, is standing, Searchlight estimates they only need about 8% of the vote to break through into the European Parliament.
“The BNP threat cannot be ignored. A new Labour analysis of council elections shows that even where they are not winning they are coming second in areas which are Labour, Liberal Democrat and Tory-held. Their poison is spreading.”
Councillor Taalib Shamsuddin was one of the first local councillors to warn of the threat. “The only way to stop Nick Griffin is a massive voter turn out on Thursday 4 June and people voting for one of the top three parties. “The deadline for voter registration is 19 May and I urge everybody to make sure there friends and family are registered to vote.”
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Suspected U.S. Missile Kills 27 in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD — Dozens of followers of Pakistan’s top Taliban commander were in a compound when a suspected U.S. missile attack hit Saturday, killing 27 militants in an al Qaeda stronghold near the Afghan border, officials said.
The strike appeared to be the deadliest yet by the American drone aircraft that prowl the frontier, and defied Pakistani warnings that the tactic is fueling extremism in the nuclear-armed Islamic nation.
In an interview unrelated to the attack, President Asif Ali Zardari said the Taliban had expanded their presence to a “huge amount” of Pakistan and were even eyeing a takeover of the state.
“We’re fighting for the survival of Pakistan. We’re not fighting for the survival of anybody else,” Zardari said, according to a transcript of his remarks that CBS television said it would air Sunday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Bans Foreigners From Travelling to Tibetan-Inhabited Areas
Wide areas are off-limits to tourists as the anniversaries of the 1959 and 2008 protests approach. Journalists expelled without warning from Tibet. The authorities are getting ready to crush any protests and do not want any witnesses.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Chinese authorities have again declared wide areas of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai, home to large ethnic Tibetan communities, off-limits to visitors. The ban is expected to remain in place until late March to prevent observers and journalists from being present on the anniversaries of the 1959 revolt (10 March) and 2008 protests (14 March), both crushed in blood.
Foreigners are banned from travelling to Gannan Prefecture in Gansu province, home to a major Tibetan monastery.
In Sichuan almost the entire prefecture of Ganzi is off-limits; this, just two weeks after it was re-opened.
In 2008 protests that broke out in Tibet had in fact spilled over into other provinces.
Wide areas of Tibet are closed off to tourists. Journalists who want to visit Tibet must get a special permit and many have been expelled without warning in the last few days.
On Thursday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu described the current situation in Tibet as “stable”. She added however that restrictions are required to “safeguard stability” in the region.
Wary of potential unrest, China last month launched a security sweep in Tibet, with at least 81 people arrested during raids on hotels, hostels, bars and other tourist venues.
According to exiled Tibetan groups, the current status of at least 1,200 Tibetans arrested in March-April 2008 remains unknown. They have however the names of Tibetans tortured or sentenced to life in prison or years in jail for crimes of opinion, not to mention at least 120 who died during the protests.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Dissident Blogger Xu Lai, Aka ProState in Flames, is Stabbed in Beijing
One of China’s most famous bloggers was stabbed at the weekend.
Xu Lai, the writer behind ProState in Flames, was speaking at the One Way Street bookshop in Beijing on Saturday afternoon when he was attacked, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported. He had been speaking for a couple of hours and was answering questions when a fracas erupted.
His wife said that two men forced Xu Lai into the men’s toilet. She chased after them and found that one was holding a vegetable knife and the other a dagger. The men escaped, leaving Xu Lai on the ground with a cut to his stomach.
Mr Xu is recovering in hospital.
A report on the English-language blog Black and White Cat noted that “Xu Lai may not have the megastar status of Han Han, but he’s very much an A-list blogger.”
The Southern Metropolis Daily said: “Xu Lai is a low-key sort of person and he’s just a science journalist who wouldn’t provoke anyone. However, there are many things on his blog that can touch a nerve and he has probably made enemies that way.”
The newspaper quoted a witness as saying that they heard one of his attackers say: “You brought this on yourself. You know why we’re doing this, don’t you?”
However, this could also refer to a personal feud as much as to any ideological vendetta over views expressed in his blog.
Mr Xu is famous for his biting and often sarcastic style in commenting on social and political issues. He is an editor at the popular Beijing News daily and his book Fanciful Animals was published last November. His blog is believed to carry many entries penned by other contributors.
Blogs are extremely popular in China, where newspapers are heavily censored. Cyberspace police patrol the internet, swiftly closing sites deemed too risqué, but they remain the most important medium for self-expression in China.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Leading Chinese Milk Brand Accused of Causing Cancer
Fresh milk from the company Mengniu, a leader in the industry, has been found to contain an additive that could cause tumors. Exasperation among consumers. Inspections being carried out on powdered milk from Danone.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — China’s health authorities are accusing Milk Deluxe, from industry leader China Mengniu Dairy, of being capable of causing tumors.
From tests carried out two days ago by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, it has emerged that the milk contained the additive osteoblast, a protein. Scientists maintain that excessive doses of the substance can cause tumors, including breast cancer for women.
The company replies that the additive is safe, and is even approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But the expert Fang Zhouzi points out that in the past the company had been found to have used dangerous additives, or “made false advertisements.”
The country has still not moved past the trauma of the scandal that exploded in September over powdered milk containing large quantities of melamine, a toxic substance that has caused the deaths of at least six infants, and kidney problems for about 300,000 more. Yesterday on the internet, many enraged citizens asked “is there any company on the mainland that can make a simple product called safe milk?”, expressing the widespread distrust that still surrounds the industry. Others complain that foods scandal like these “happen all the time.” In 2004 in Fuyang (Anhui), 13 infants died and at least 189 became sick after receiving an infant formula without any nutritional value.
The company Sanlu, at the center of the melamine-tainted milk scandal, declared bankruptcy yesterday. In January, its former CEO was sentenced to life in prison.
Melanie was also found in products from Mengniu in September, but in much smaller quantities than in those of Sanlu, and the company, despite losing a significant portion of its market share and having to destroy entire shipments of adulterated products, lost only 900 million yuan (about 90 million euros) in its fiscal year. Mengniu has always said that Milk Deluxe is produced on the company’s own farms. The product has been untouched by the melamine scandal, and is one of the company’s flagship product. Because of its good reputation, it costs about twice as much as similar products.
Meanwhile, in Shanghai, health officials are conducting inspections on Dumex powdered milk from the French company Danone, which is suspected of containing melamine. The company has vigorously denied all accusations.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Bushfires: Arsonist Named as Brendan James Sokaluk
What makes an arsonist?
The Victorian man accused of lighting one of the fatal Australian bushfires which devastated parts of south-eastern Australia last weekend has been named as 39-year-old Brendan James Sokaluk.
Sokaluk, who is believed to have been a volunteer firefighter, is charged in relation to the Churchill-Jeerelang fire in the West Gippsland region, 100 miles east of the Victorian capital of Melbourne.
He has been charged with one count of arson causing death, one count of intentionally lighting a bushfire and one count of possessing child pornography.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadists Celebrating Victoria Fires; Taking Joy in the Scenes
JIHADISTS are celebrating the worst tragedy in Victoria’s history.
Terror watchdogs said fundamentalists had blogged on websites across the globe, applauding the lives lost and destruction in the Victoria fires.
Senior analyst at SITE Intelligence Group Adam Raisman said they were posting pictures of burnt homes and devastated victims and “taking joy in the scenes”, the Sunday Herald Sun reports.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Accused of Starting Killer Australian Bush-Blaze ‘Applied for Volunteer Fireman Post’
The man accused of starting one of the worst of the killer blazes in Australia had applied for a job as a volunteer fireman but was rejected, it has been revealed.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Botswana: From Al Qaeda With Love
District Commissioners around Botswana have turned down at least three applications for marriage believed to be part of a bigger plan to turn Botswana into a terrorist sleeper cell.
The Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Lebogang Bok, confirmed to the Sunday Standard this week that they recently turned down three marriage applications involving foreign men and Batswana women.
“I’m not ready to divulge the nationalities and the names of those foreigners because of security reasons,” she said.
She said when couples were interviewed their statements were contradictory.
She further said one of the foreigners was given a few hours to round up his business and leave Botswana.
Highly classified information passed to the Sunday Standard revealed that suspected terrorists are proposing marriage to Batswana women in order to acquire resident permits and citizenships and settle in Botswana.
It is understood that District Commissioners have been inundated with marriage applications from questionable foreign men and Batswana women.
The Sunday Standard has been informed that after the marriage has been confirmed, the foreigner would disappear in to thin air.
Some of the abandoned Batswana spouses have already reported to the district commissioners that their husbands deserted them immediately after tying the knot.
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| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Kill 12 in Mexico, Including 5 Children
TABASCO, Mexico — Gunmen have killed a state police officer and 10 members of his family, including five children, authorities said Sunday.
The shooting late Saturday also killed a street vendor in front of the house of state police officer Carlos Reyes, said Tabasco deputy prosecutor Alex Alvarez. Among the five children killed was a 2-year-old boy.
“It is confirmed that (the assailants) wanted to kill the state police officer but they killed his whole family,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez said three other people were wounded the attack in the town of Monte Largo, near Mexico’s border with Guatemala.
Police hadn’t determined a motive for the attack but Alvarez said Reyes directed a car chase and raids on two homes on Wednesday that led to the death of three suspected gang members and the arrest of seven others.
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More than 6,000 people died last year in a wave of drug-related violence.
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Venezuela Expels EU Lawmaker for Comments on Election
Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — Venezuela expelled a European Union lawmaker late last night for comments it called critical of the National Electoral Council ahead of a referendum on eliminating term limits for elected officials, provoking EU objections.
Luis Herrero, a Spanish member of the European Parliament, was asked to leave “to preserve the peace and guarantee the election’s normal development,” the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in an e-mailed statement. Herrero is on a commercial flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil, the statement said.
The EU Parliament said the expulsion “shows a lack of respect for democratic institutions.” The 27-nation assembly said Herrero, who belongs to the Christian Democrats, was in Venezuela with four other members of his group to observe the referendum at the invitation of forces opposed to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
“It is unacceptable that in a country like Venezuela somebody could be detained and expelled for freely expressing his opinion,” EU Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering said in a statement today in Brussels. “Freedom of speech is one of the basics of democracy under the rule of law.”
Tibisay Lucena, president of the electoral council, appeared on television to request that the government expel Herrero for comments he made about the referendum.
Herrero criticized the council’s decision to extend voting hours in tomorrow’s referendum to 6 p.m. from 4 p.m., and said preserving the constitution was at stake, the EFE news agency reported.
Herrero and another EU representative were standing at the entrance to their Caracas hotel when members of the DISIP, the country’s intelligence service, arrived with an expulsion order, EFE said. Poettering said that, in addition to being unjustifiable, the expulsion was carried out in a way that “lacked respect for human dignity.”
Chavez has proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow him to run again when his current term ends in 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
4 Key Dems in Congress Seek Inquiry Into Arpaio Sweeps
Four leading Democratic members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Friday asked the new attorney general and Homeland Security secretary to investigate civil-rights complaints stemming from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s crackdowns on illegal immigration.
The four lawmakers called on Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to investigate complaints that deputies used skin color as the basis to search for illegal immigrants. They also asked that a federal agreement allowing the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to enforce immigration laws be terminated if any problems can’t be fixed.
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The sheriff on Friday adamantly denied his deputies use racial profiling in arrests of illegal immigrants. “We’re doing the right thing,” he said. “If I was worried, with all the allegations, why would I keep doing it? I’m not stupid, having worked for the feds for 30 years.”
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Arpaio said this week that he is worried the former Arizona governor will eliminate the provision that allows local police to arrest illegal immigrants.
Legal experts have said Arpaio’s practices were likely to get more scrutiny under the Obama administration. Holder has a track record of investigating allegations of racial profiling against police departments when he was deputy attorney general under the Clinton administration. As governor, Napolitano yanked state funding that helped pay for Arpaio’s controversial neighborhood sweeps, which critics said were aimed at arresting illegal immigrants.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome Grand Mosque Shuns Meeting of Radical Mosques
Rome, 13 Feb. (AKI) — Rome Grand Mosque’s Islamic Cultural Centre has boycotted a meeting being organised by several radical mosques from northern Italy, in a move welcomed by Moroccan immigrants in the country.
“I welcome the decision…moderate Muslims are now more than ever before showing their determination not to comprise with extremists,” said centre-right MP for the ruling People of Freedom party, Souad Sbai.
Sbai praised Rome Grand Mosque’s director, Abdellah Redouane. “ He is ranked among the principal figures representing moderate Islam,” she said.
“The fact that out of 10 people invited to attend Saturday’s meeting, not a single one is a woman shows how it has been organised by extremists,” said Sbai, who is also president of the Moroccan Women’s Association in Italy.
Italy’s largest Muslim organisation, the Union of Islamic Communities of Italy, UCOII, was organising Saturday’s meeting with the northern city of Milan’s radical Viale Jenner mosque to be held at a Rome hotel.
At the time of Israel’s 2006 July war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, UCOII sparked controversy when it published an ad in several Italian newspapers likening Israel’s actions in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories to Nazi atrocities during World War II.
It was subsequently thrown out of the Consulta Islamica, a body set up by the government in 2005 to represent Italy’s various Muslim groups.
The secretary-general Italy’s Association of Moroccans, Mustafa Mansouri, said the organisers of the meeting should acknowledge that radical mosques and their preachers cannot claim to be representatives of most Muslims.
“These people and the Italian public need to understand that the so-called imams of these prayer halls cannot represent the Muslim community, given that only a minority attends,” he said.
Italy’s Association of Muslim Intellectuals is also boycotting Saturday’s meeting.
“Apart from setting itself up as a national meeting on Islam in Italy, the project seems to be reinstating the legitimacy of organisations close to fundamentalist movements, firstly the Viale Jenner mosque,” said association president Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo.
Rome’s Grand Mosque is the only official mosque in Italy, although other makeshift prayer halls exist in various towns and cities. Muslim immigrants are eager for more mosques to be built, but have encountered opposition from local residents.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship
Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months.
Immigrants who are permanent residents, with documents commonly known as green cards, have long been eligible to enlist. But the new effort, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, according to military officials familiar with the plan.
Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.
“The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical,” said Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the Army, which is leading the pilot program. “There will be some very talented folks in this group.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Uses Songs to Deter Immigrants
They are the new secret weapon of the US Border Patrol: toe-tapping ballads with Spanish lyrics that tell of the risks of trying to cross illegally into the US from Mexico.
The songs are on a CD that has been distributed free to dozens of radio stations in northern Mexico as part of a campaign called “No more crosses on the border” — a reference both to the illegal crossings and to those who have lost their lives in the attempt.
The songs are all tragic, giving accounts of abuse, rape and death as immigrants embark on the often dangerous journey.
In one, called The Biggest Enemy, a singer called Abelardo from the Mexican state of Michoacan and his cousin Rafael set off to cross the border.
They reach the US but nature defeats them, as they wander the desert without water. Exhuasted they lie down with Abelardo waking later to find his cousin dead by his side:
“He decided to come back/ And have a burial in their town/ And as a vow/ He told his dead cousin/ If God will take my life/ That it be in my beloved land.”
The songs are part of the genre of traditional Mexican “corridos”, popular narrative ballads whose themes range from love to war.
Mexico’s drug gangs also have their own songs known as “narcocorridos”, which praise the traffickers’ heroism and their often violent deaths.
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| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
In Confronting Islamism, the Left Has Abandoned All Its Principles
Der Tagesspiegel 07.02.2009
On the 20th anniversary of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, Perlentaucher editor Thierry Chervel writes about the effects Islamism has had on on the West and on the Left: “In confronting Islamism, the Left has abandoned all its principles. It once stood for cutting ties to convention and tradition, but with Islam the Left reinstated them all in the name of multiculturalism. It is proud of having fought for women’s rights but in Islam it tolerates headscarves, arranged marriages and wife-beating. Where it stood for equal rights it is now is calling for the right to difference — and with it, different rights. Where it proclaimed freedom of expression it now emits embarrassed coughs when Islam enters the room. It once supported gay rights but now won’t so much as mention the taboo in Islam. The West’s much needed process of self-relativisation at the end of colonial era, which was spurred on by postmodern and structuralist ideas, lead to cultural relativism and a loss of criteria.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
OIC Observatory Condemns Publication of an Islamophobic Article
A spokesman of the OIC Observatory on Islamophobia deplored the publication of an article entitled “Why should I respect these oppressive religions” by Johann Hari, published by the UK newspaper “ the Independent” on January 28th,2009 and reproduced by “the Statesman” newspaper of India in its issue of February 5th , 2009.
The article has made serious insulting, derogatory and incorrect references against Prophet Muhammad that has hurt the sentiments of the Muslims all over the world. The spokesman strongly condemned the incendiary contents in the article and called for appropriate steps against publication or broadcast of materials that insult and hurt religious sentiments.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
Looks lik the beginning of the end for the Euro, which will mean he beginning of the end for the EU thankfully.
One more banking genius is Luxembourg, many many Germans deposited their savings there illegally - smuggling the money over the border. And there are police checks.
Will be Luxembourg for sale one day as it is advertized by David Černý´s
Entropa in Brussels?
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