The news feed remains light, since our email is still down.Take a look at the news about the financial crisis: Ireland, California, the rest of the USA, and the price of gold.
Also take note of what an Egyptian cleric named Zaghloul Al-Naggar has to say about the Joooos…
Thanks to Aeneas, Gaia, Henrik, KGS, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Economic Crisis Transforming Finance Industry
(Op-ed) by Mark Cliffe (Chief Economist and Global Head of Economics and Strategy Research, ING Financial Markets)
The crisis is still far from over, and just when we think we understand it, another surprise pops up.
Nevertheless, there is broad agreement on at least some of the causes, and the responses to these will help define the future shape of the financial world.
The crisis has wrong-footed observers repeatedly. This should make us wary of firm predictions of the new financial world. This sense of humility is reinforced by the realisation that the full extent of the damage caused by the crisis has not yet been realised. Thus the current tally of losses incurred by banks worldwide is around US 700bn, but the final bill could be a mutiple. As a result, the rules of the game may change several times before the picture becomes clear.
The law of unintended consequences has been at work in spectacular fashion in this crisis. Just one example should suffice: the previous celebration of the efficiency gains from the risk-spreading arising from the global distribution of structured credit instruments has given way to an awful realisation that the risks were concealed, and through the application of leverage, effectively multiplied in the process. Sadly, the law of unintended consequences will continue to apply. The severity of the economic downturn sparked by the turmoil will make everyone determined to avoid a repeat. The hope is that the prospect of a more conservative and robust financial system will revive confidence. But the danger is that same prospect will make lenders and borrowers even more cautious in the short term, complicating efforts to revive the global economy. Thus banks, under pressure to raise their capital adequacy ratios to more ‘prudent’ levels in the face of a recession, will find it harder to step up their lending.
Some of tomorrow’s rules may look rather like yesterday’s. Now that the credit boom has turned to bust, the financial sector is reverting to more traditional conservative practices. High returns from investment banks and hedge funds turn out to have been based on high levels of borrowing; they have been brought down to earth, in some cases with a crash. Suddenly, conservatively run banks with diversified sources of funding and large pools of retail savings are looking smart. The outsourcing of risk evaluation to the now embattled credit ratings agencies has given way to the idea that in-house credit skills are to be prized. Lending multiples have been reduced, and the cost of loans has risen to better reflect their risks. Even if these trends start to reverse in the next economic upswing, the reversal will be more cautious than it was in the past. If the price of this is a slower recovery, it is widely seen as a price worth paying for more stable and sustainable growth.
The credit boom was based on the belief that risks could be sliced, diced and priced efficiently by the financial markets. Fair value accounting was founded on the notion that market prices are the best measure of ‘value’. Banks started to rely on the wholesale money markets, believing that they would always be a liquid source of funds. These beliefs have been shaken by the crisis, which revealed that the financial markets fell well short of the perfection of the economics textbooks. When it came to the crunch, they lacked the large numbers of fully informed buyers and sellers required to produce viable prices and continuous trading. Some financial markets, old as well as new, simply shut down as a cloud of uncertainty over the scale and location of losses descended on the financial sector. Crucially, this led to a collapse in lending between, and to, banks. This massive market failure will have to be addressed in the new financial world. Transparent securities on open exchanges will be essential to the creation of liquid markets.
Those who borrowed excessively are going through a painful learning experience. Some have been bankrupted as falling asset prices have combined with rising borrowing costs. Even those who escaped this fate will heed the lesson. In countries like the US and the UK, where consumers borrowed heavily to fuel their spending, thrift will become fashionable. More expensive credit and the wealth losses that consumers have suffered will stimulate a rebuilding of savings. For their part, the banks, having discovered that the money markets can be a fickle source of funds, will be keen to cultivate retail savers by offering attractive interest rates and services…
[continue reading at URL]
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Gold Hits the Thousand Mark
Gold over US$1,000 an ounce in New York
Gold futures for April delivery rose as much as $23.80, or 2.4 per cent, to $1,000.30 an ounce.
Analysts expect the gold rally will continue as investors lose confidence in their financial assets.
It is believed some investors are buying gold to protect their capital, fearing the fiscal stimulus packages which are being granted will not be enough to bring economies out of recession.
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Ireland Not Euro Zone’s Weakest Link, Says Trichet
by LARA MARLOWE in Paris
[…]
Speaking at the European-American Press Club in Paris, Jean-Claude Trichet [ECB president] said: “There is no weak link. The euro area is a very intertwined, single-market economy with a single currency. Speaking of any particular country in the euro area as a weak link is an error of judgment.”
The German finance minister, Peer Steinbrück, suggested on Monday that members of the euro zone might have to bail out countries facing payment difficulties, though this was not foreseen in euro-zone regulations.
Mr Trichet seemed to discount the possibility. “I consider that it is extremely important that each government is fully responsible for its own policies, and for its own fiscal policies particularly,” he said.
“The first responsibility lies with the various governments concerned. It seems to me implicit in what minister Steinbrück said. I have no other comment.”
The European Commission on Wednesday initiated disciplinary procedures against Ireland, France, Greece, Latvia, Malta and Spain for running excessive public deficits. Mr Trichet did not mention any of the six by name but said that “the fact the commission has initiated excessive deficit procedures is a good thing”.
“The commission had to do it,” he added. “Confidence today depends on correctly calibrating decisions, and on the ability of leaders to demonstrate that . . . things will return to normal. We must never lose sight of the medium and long term.”
The ECB president chose his words carefully, speaking of “tension” rather than “crisis”, and “turbulence” instead of “recession”.
[…]
Mr Trichet called the crisis “the first full-scale, very, very difficult test of the globalised economy we built progressively, almost biologically, by spontaneous evolution, under the pressure of globalisation, extraordinary technological innovations and the unification of the world after the collapse of the Iron Curtain.”
Historic, economic, technological and scientific factors “contributed to profoundly change the structure of the world economy. He advised against looking for scapegoats, because the responsibility was diffuse and widespread.
“All must change. We must consider that the entire system has shown itself to be too fragile, not resilient enough. We must patiently build a world market system, with no quick fixes. Of course it will be a market, the only system that creates wealth, but with what is needed to resist crashes and fluctuations.”
The “primary objective” of the ECB was maintaining price stability, which Mr Trichet defined as price increases of below, but close to, 2 per cent. Since the euro was created, inflation in the euro zone has averaged 2.2 per cent The ECB is responsible for steering short-term interest rates, but since last September, when money markets virtually ceased to function, it has prevented a liquidity crisis by providing unlimited refinancing to the banks of the euro zone, Mr Trichet said.
The ECB has temporarily extended the list of assets eligible for use as collateral. Through an agreement with the US Federal Reserve, it is providing unlimited access to dollars. Because of these steps, “the Eurosystem’s balance sheet rose by around €600 billion since June 2007”, Mr Trichet noted.
ECB measures were able to overcome the liquidity shortage in the interbank market. “However, they cannot eliminate the increased concerns regarding credit risk,” he said. “In this regard, the conditions in the money market have not yet normalised and remain strongly affected by an elevated degree of risk aversion.”
Prior to the crisis, repeated warnings by central bankers were not heeded, Mr Trichet said. Now there is “an emerging consensus” that central bankers, who “have no short- or medium-term vested interests”, should be given more responsibility for economic policy-making.
“I have indicated publicly that we are available, if Europe thinks we can be useful. Article 105.6 of the Maastricht Treaty foresees the possibility of giving more responsibility to the European Central Bank.”
Mr Trichet referred repeatedly to the necessity of restoring confidence in economic and financial systems. It was “an abrupt loss of confidence striking simultaneously the financial system as well as the real economy, the industrialised countries as well as the emerging economies”, that precipitated the crisis last September.
“Confidence is the condition for returning to a normal situation. We are doing everything in our power to strengthen it,” he said.
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Obama Government to Weed Out Weaker Banks
In case of a deeper recession, the Obama government has decided banks will receive requests for additional information about their assets.
In the coming weeks, financial regulators will launch a campaign to determine which of the largest US banks should get bigger shares of cash from the US bank bailout.
While the largest US banks appear to be well capitalized for the moment, the Obama administration wants to ensure that they are robust enough to withstand a more severe economic downturn.
The administration has tried to ease market fears that the government was poised to nationalize some large banks.
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Thousands at Dublin Economy Protest
Up to 120,000 people have marched through Dublin in an emotional and angry national demonstration over the Irish Government’s handling of the economic crisis.
The sheer size of the turnout meant it had to set off earlier than was organised, with the parade stretching the entire length of its two kilometre route at one stage.
Hundreds more lined the streets of the city centre, many clapping and cheering, as both public and private sector workers came together under the banners of several trade unions for one the largest demonstrations ever seen in the capital.
The demonstrators marched past the Dail (Irish Parliament) for a rally at Merrion Square, where the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) general secretary David Begg accused a wealthy elite of “economic treason” by destroying the country’s international reputation.
Mr Begg told cheering crowds which thronged the wide Georgian avenue running down towards Leinster House that there was fear and anger throughout Ireland among school leavers, mortgage-holders and people finishing work without decent pensions.
“There is fear about how to keep body and soul together,” he said.
“There is anger then, because everybody knows that it is not our fault, that a business elite has destroyed our economy and has as yet to be made accountable for it.”
As the rally got under way at Merrion Square in the city’s southside, the last of the protesters were still setting off from Parnell Square, two kilometres away on the north side of the river Liffey.
The city centre was brought to a virtual standstill with several streets and roads closed down, in an outpouring of anger at the Government and banking chiefs.
Originally planned as a protest at public sector cutbacks and pension levies, organisers later called on all workers, from the public and private sector, to turn out in a “national demonstration” against the Government’s handling of the downturn.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Administration Sides With Bush on Prison Matter
The Obama administration has agreed with former president George Bush that detainees from the US air base in Bagram, Afghanistan cannot challenge their detention in US courts.
The ruling upholds the former Bush administration’s policy on the issue.
Last year the US Supreme Court ruled that prisoners at the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could file such court petitions because the United States has jurisdiction over that facility.
But the Justice Department has now ordered the US air base in Afghanistan is different because it is in a currently operating war zone.
President Obama last week ordered the continuation of another Bush administration policy when he backed the state secrets privilege, which calls for the dismissal of a lawsuit involving allegations that the CIA arranged for suspects to be flown overseas to be tortured.
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Prison Ministry on Lockdown
A Christian legal defense organization has filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
The Rutherford Institute is representing Wingspread Ministries, a Christian prison outreach ministry that sends Bibles and other religious materials to prisoners. Attorney Doug McKusick is handling the case.
“Part of their ministry is to write personal letters to prison inmates and express their Christian religious beliefs to these inmates,” he explains, “and try to have a religious relationship and help the prisoners develop their religious beliefs and their personal relationship with Christ.”
The ministry also mails brochures and Bibles to inmates, but McCusick says prison officials recently brought that to a screeching halt. “They were told that they couldn’t send books and materials directly to prisoners, that this was a security risk,” he points out. “And they were also told that they couldn’t write personal letters to certain inmates.”
McKusick says the volunteers write about their own stories and relationship with Christ to help make the Bible more relevant to the inmates. The Institute argues the prison system actions violate the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
[ed. note: how many Korans are permitted through those prison gates? Just askin’…]
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Pro-Marriage Speech Garners Professor’s Profane Wrath
After being called a “fascist” by his professor, a Christian California student has filed suit against his college for violations of his free-speech rights.
Less than a month after voters in California decided to amend their state constitution and protect traditional marriage, Jonathan Lopez — in a public speaking class — shared his beliefs on faith and marriage. David French of the Alliance Defense Fund picks up the story:
“Jonathan talked about his faith — and one of the things he talked about in context of his faith was…marriage,” says French. “He read from the dictionary definition of marriage. The professor stopped the class, called him a ‘fascist b_____d’ — [he] used the expletive — [and] told the class that anyone who wanted to could leave if they were offended….”
According to an ADF press release, when no one got up to leave, the instructor simply dismissed the class, effectively ending Lopez’s speech — which violated the student’s free-speech rights, adds the attorney, especially since other students made speeches on other subjects. Religious speech, notes French, apparently was excluded from the open-ended speech assignment.
“You just cannot shut down student speech like that,” states French, who explains that Lopez was well within the confines of his professor’s assignment, and that the professor’s actions not only constitute viewpoint discrimination but also comprise “retaliation” because he disagreed with Lopez’s religious beliefs.
According to the ADF attorney, the professor was not yet finished. “When [Lopez later] complained about what was an obvious act of censorship, he was threatened with expulsion by that same professor,” he says.
The speech professor is identified as John Matteson of Los Angeles Community College. ADF reports that after Proposition 8 (the marriage-related constitutional amendment) was approved on November 4, Matteson told his entire class: “If you voted yes on Proposition 8, you are a fascist b_____d.”
Ultimately Matteson refused to grade Lopez’s November 24 speech, and wrote on the evaluation: “Ask God what your grade is.”
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Schwarzenegger Terminates Public Spending
Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a $130 billion budget on behalf of the people of California.
Governor Schwarzenegger signed into existence the budget that will raise sales and income taxes across the board for the first time in 17 years.
With his pen, the governor has also slashed government spending by 11 per cent over a two-year period.
That brings the state’s budget back to the level it was in 2005, when California was riding high on housing sales.
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White House: Obama Opposes ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Revival
President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, a spokesman told FOXNews.com Wednesday.
The statement is the first definitive stance the administration has taken since an aide told an industry publication last summer that Obama opposes the doctrine — a long-abolished policy that would require broadcasters to provide opposing viewpoints on controversial issues.
“As the president stated during the campaign, he does not believe the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated,” White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told FOXNews.com.
That was after both senior adviser David Axelrod and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs left open the door on whether Obama would support reinstating the doctrine.
“I’m going to leave that issue to Julius Genachowski, our new head of the FCC … and the president to discuss. So I don’t have an answer for you now,” Axelrod told FOX News Sunday over the weekend when asked about the president’s position.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
British Government Calls Summit Over Rising Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism has become such a problem that the Foreign Office welcomed nearly 100 legislators from 35 countries to a conference this week aimed at tackling the issue.
The inaugural conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA) is the first of its kind to receive such prominent Government support. The two-day summit was held in the Houses of Parliament and at Lancaster House.
The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, said: “Anti-Semitism has been with us for millennia, but has mutated in form and expression through the ages. Today it has adapted to new technologies and has no defined borders.
“The internet age, with its manifold benefits, has the downside that hate is able to travel faster and further than ever before. Modern and innovative solutions are essential if we are to combat this. So is international co-operation.”
Attacks on UK Jews increased following the Israeli offensive in Gaza in December.
Speaking at the event, Irwin Cotler, a former Attorney General of Canada, said: “What we are witnessing today — and which has been developing incrementally, sometimes imperceptibly, and even indulgently, for some 35 years now — is a new sophisticated, globalizing, virulent and even lethal anti-Semitism, reminiscent of the atmospherics of the 30s, and without parallel or precedent since the end of the Second World War.”
France’s Council of State took the opportunity to coincide their formal recognition of the countries role in deporting Jews to concentration camps. While the senior court admitted culpability beyond simple obedience of Nazi demands, they ruled out further reparations for the victims.
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Denmark: PM Condemns Council’s Cooperation With Muslim Group
The city council has been criticised for working together with a Muslim group accused of supporting extremist policiesPrime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen came out in support of fellow Liberal Party member Karen Jespersen, the social welfare minister, over her comments…
The city’s integration committee contacted the organisation, asking them to assist in the creation of educational material about extremism. But statements by the organisation’s imams that they would not condemn the practice of stoning and certain points regarding women, have prompted Jespersen to blast the group as well as the city’s proposed co-operation with it.
Three Liberal politicians on the city committee later strongly criticised the minister’s comments as being detrimental to relations with the nation’s Muslims.
But Rasmussen jumped to the defence of Jespersen.
‘I share Karen Jespersen’s concern about the organisation’s statements regarding women and stoning. As it has not been possible to get a clear rejection of these practices from the imams, I have to agree with Jespersen’s position,’ the prime minister told Information newspaper.
Jespersen has had several run-ins in the past with Muslims over her comments about the religious group.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Eurojust Supports Wire-Tapping of Skype Conversations
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — EU’s judicial cooperation agency Eurojust will take the lead in finding ways to help police and prosecutors across Europe to wiretap computer-to-computer phone conversations enabled by programs such as Skype.
“We will sit together with all member states to see how this can be done technically and legally,” Joannes Thuy, Eurojust spokesman told this website.
Mr Thuy stressed that the wiretapping would not affect “normal users”, but would have to be carried out only as part of a criminal investigation.
Eurojust’s talks with prosecutors and police officials from member states, as well as legal experts would be led by Italian prosecutor Carmen Manfreda.
“There are 30 different legal systems all across the EU, so we expect the talks to take several months before first results are presented,” Mr Thuy added.
Skype, an Danish-Swedish business developed by Estonian programmers that was sold to E-Bay in 2005 and has over 350 million customers worldwide, is said to be un-spyable by intelligence services.
In its press release, Eurojust says that “Skype has so far refused to share its encryption system with national authorities.”
However, Skype claims that it has “extensively debriefed Eurojust on our law enforcement programme and capabilities.”
“Skype cooperates with law enforcement where legally and technically possible. Skype remains interested in working with Eurojust despite the fact that they chose not to contact us before issuing this inaccurate report,” Brian O’Shaughnessy, head of corporate communications at Skype said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Opens Covert Talks With ‘Blacklisted’ Hamas
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
European nations have opened a direct dialogue with Hamas as the US intensifies the search for Middle East peace under Barack Obama.
In the first meeting of its kind, two French senators travelled to Damascus two weeks ago to meet the leader of the Palestinian Islamist faction, Khaled Meshal, The Independent has learned. Two British MPs met three weeks ago in Beirut with the Hamas representative in Lebanon, Usamah Hamdan. “Far more people are talking to Hamas than anyone might think,” said a senior European diplomat. “It is the beginning of something new — although we are not negotiating.”
Mr Hamdan said yesterday that since the end of last year, MPs from Sweden, the Netherlands and three other western European nations, which he declined to identify, had consulted with Hamas representatives.
“They believe they made a mistake by blacklisting Hamas,” he said, referring to the EU decision in 2003 to add the political wing of the movement to its list of terrorist organisations. “Now they know they have to talk to Hamas.”
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
Helicopter Takes Prisoners From Greek Jail
A daring helicopter pick-up from a high security prison in Athens has resulted in the escape of two of Greece’s most infamous criminals.
The helicopter landed in Athens’ highest-security prison, Korydallos, to uplift serial armed robber and kidnapper Vassilis Paleokostas and his Albanian helper Alket Rizai.
It is the second time in three years that a helicopter has been used to help the same men escape from the same prison.
Three years ago the men managed to escape when a hijacked helicopter, arranged by Paleokostas’ brother, landed in Korydallos’ central yard at exercise time.
On that occasion, the guards simply thought it was a visit by prison inspectors.
This time, the men were able to clamber aboard after the helicopter pilot landed on the jail’s roof and threw them a rope ladder.
The aircraft has since been found abandoned with the men thought to have fled into the mountains.
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Swiss Weigh Bank Secrecy Options Amid UBS Deal
By MARTIN GELNAR
ZURICH — A deal between Switzerland’s largest bank UBS AG and U.S. authorities has Switzerland weighing the options of its banking secrecy laws and has triggered some protest.
Last week, Swiss authorities bowed to pressure from the U.S., consenting to the transfer of confidential data of around 250 UBS clients to the U.S. Department of Justice. The deal, reached under the threat that UBS would be indicted in the U.S., is likely to have far-reaching consequences.
Switzerland has declined to take part in a U.S. Senate hearing on offshore financial centers as a reaction to U.S. pressure, Sunday newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported.
However, Switzerland’s position in the row with tax authorities from the U.S. and other countries is considered weak. In fact, Switzerland’s government had no choice but to vet the deal, most observers say.
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown refused to invite Switzerland to a meeting of G-20 countries on Apr. 2 in London, where information exchange between tax authorities is expected to be a prominent item on the agenda, Swiss weekly NZZ am Sonntag reported, despite intense Swiss efforts to take part in that meeting.
The deal between UBS and U.S. authorities is set to change the legal framework for Switzerland’s banking industry, experts say.
Beat Bernet, a banking professor at the university of St. Gallen, told SonntagsZeitung the country will have to rethink its banking secrecy laws, under which minor forms of tax evasion are punishable by penalties only.
After the UBS’s deal with the U.S. Department of Justice, the European Union will now push for similar concessions, Bernet said.
One consequence of the agreement may be the loss of client money at Switzerland’s big international banks UBS and Credit Suisse Group.
“There will surely be further outflows, also because clients will find the bank’s cant safeguard their private data in a critical situation,” Mr. Bernet was quoted as saying.
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Swiss Decline US Senate Invitation to Attend Hearings
[…]
Switzerland declined an invitation to the March 4 hearing by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Finance Ministry spokesman Roland Meier said.
The Internal Revenue Service is seeking to force UBS to turn over records for an estimated 52,000 U.S. customers who allegedly violated American tax laws by concealing Swiss accounts worth at least $14.8 billion.
The IRS lawsuit filed in Miami came only hours after UBS agreed Wednesday to pay $780 million and disclose up to 300 UBS account holders suspected of tax fraud, in a deal with the U.S. Justice Department.
“Switzerland notes that despite the agreement, U.S. authorities have launched a civil lawsuit against UBS,” Meier said. “Switzerland regrets that the Department of Justice has threatened UBS with unilateral measures, despite cooperation of UBS and Swiss authorities with the U.S. authorities.”
The topic of the March 4 hearing is “Tax haven banks and U.S. tax compliance — obtaining the names of U.S. clients with Swiss accounts.”
Swiss financial authorities have acknowledged that the disclosure of up to 300 suspected tax frauders occurred under intense pressure from the U.S. Justice Department.
The move prompted anger in Switzerland at UBS’ business practices and what many saw as heavy-handed treatment by U.S. authorities. It also sparked a nationwide debate over the country’s cherished banking secrecy, which some said they fear might come to an end.
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UK: Alarm Over Rise of BNP
Take action to stop far-right party winning seats in European elections, Brown is urged
By Nigel Morris, Deputy Political Editor
The British National Party is on course to win its first seats in the European Parliament this year, Gordon Brown has been warned. Senior Labour figures have told the Prime Minister they believe two BNP candidates are likely to be sent to Brussels under the proportional representation system of voting, The Independent has learnt.
They fear Labour’s campaign for the European election in June has been too slow to get off the ground and its lack of preparation is allowing the BNP to win over disaffected Labour voters.
Yesterday, the far-right party was celebrating a surprise win in a council by-election in Swanley, Kent, where the BNP candidate took 41 per cent of the vote after Labour’s support collapsed.
It is the first time the BNP has won an election in a southern English county, and shows it is broadening its appeal beyond its traditional northern heartlands. The party also polled more than 28 per cent of the vote this week in a council by-election in Thringstone, Leicestershire — a seat it had never contested before.
Mr Brown has been told the BNP has a strong chance of fielding successful candidates in the North-west of England and Yorkshire and the Humber. A senior Labour source told The Independent yesterday: “We have got to get our act together — and very quickly. No one is focusing on the European elections; no one knows who is in charge.”
Last night, the former minister Peter Hain warned that every political party was guilty of “complacency” over the threat posed by the BNP.
He said: “Everybody across the political spectrum — especially the Labour Party — has to prioritise beating the BNP with a vigorous strategy based on grassroots politics to win local trust and also making sure we deliver on affordable housing and deliver on jobs.
“There is very fertile territory for [the BNP] now. When people are losing their jobs and there is an economic downturn… it’s heaven-made for them.”
Labour officials believe the BNP is well placed to attract support from the UK Independence Party, which won 16 per cent of the vote at the last European election, but has since imploded. They are also worried that disillusionment with the Government among traditional Labour voters will tempt them to support the BNP or not turn out at all.
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BNP Wins Seat on Sevenoaks District Council
The British National Party advanced into suburbia when it snatched a council seat on Sevenoaks District Council in Kent on Thursday night.
Paul Golding, who was once expelled from the party for allegedly attacking its only ethnic minority councillor, comfortably won Swanley St Mary’s ward, in a by-election caused by the resignation of a Labour councillor. Mr Golding called it an historic day for the BNP.
It is the first time that the far Right party has won a seat in the South East outside London, where its success has been limited to working-class areas.
The party narrowly failed to take a seat at nearby Bexley, southeast London, last month and on Thursday it made a strong showing in wards in Yorkshire, the Midlands and Lewisham, South London.
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One of the Lewisham seats was won by Duwayne Brooks, a friend of Stephen Lawrence, who was with the black teenager when he was murdered in a racist attack in 1993. Mr Brooks said that he hoped that being a councillor would give him a strong voice on issues such as knife crime.
In Swanley, Mr Golding hailed what he called “an outstanding result”. He added: “It has implications far beyond just Sevenoaks and bodes well for the entire South East and the upcoming Euro elections.”
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Gul Nawaz Khan Admits ‘Ghost Vote’ Local Election Cover-Up
Reading
A man admitted lying to an election court to cover up a fraud in which hundreds of “ghost” voters elected a Tory councillor. A jury heard that Gul Nawaz Khan, 57, of Slough, lied to the court last year to cover up the actions of the candidate Eshaq Khan and his supporters in the run-up to the Slough council elections in May 2007, in which Lydia Simmons, a former Labour mayor, was defeated. Eshaq Khan admitted conspiracy to defraud and pervert the course justice before the start of the trial. The trial of five other men continues at Reading Crown Court.
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hazel Blears to Attack Political Correctness
Hazel Blears is to attack the “creeping tendency” of political correctness which has led to Christians being targeted for practising their beliefs.
In a hard hitting speech, to be made in the last week of February, the Communities Secretary will suggest that the pendulum has “swung too far” in favour of not offending minorities.
Her remarks will be seen as a thinly veiled attack on Harriet Harman, the Commons leader, who has made a series of left wing speeches and announcements in recent months about equal rights for minorities.
Ms Harman has faced accusations of manoeuvring herself for the leadership if Labour loses the next election.
It comes after a community nurse, Caroline Petrie, was suspended from after offering to pray for a patient. The story led to widespread criticism of her employer, North Somerset Primary Care Trust, who later offered Mrs Petrie her job back.
Ms Blears, who last week called on jostling cabinet minsters to “get a grip”, will say that public policy-makers are too anxious about offending people and need to be more robust in their approach.
She will point to a number of judgements recently which she feels were spurned by an overzealous commitment to political correctness.
A text of her speech, released to this paper, said: “This country is proud of our tradition of fair play and good manners, welcoming of diversity, tolerant of others. This is a great strength.
“But the pendulum has swung too far. It seems that every week we hear a new story — the nurse suspended because she offered to pray for a patient, the school banning Christmas decorations, the town hall reluctant to fly the Union flag — about people getting into a panic because someone, somewhere, might get offended.
“Worse, at times leaders have been reluctant to challenge absolutely unacceptable behaviour — forced marriage, female genital mutilation, or homophobia — because they are concerned about upsetting people’s cultural sensitivities.
“This flies in the face of another of our traditions — open debate, rational inquiry, and plain old common sense.
“We would do well to be a little less anxious and a little more robust.”
Ms Blears will say that minority beliefs and traditions should not go unchallenged in Britain when they break the law or harm others.
“There is a line when respect for other cultures is crossed and a universal morality should kick in.”
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Polygamy Claimants Keep the Money
Ministers decided not to force through plans to cut benefits to hundreds of polygamous families in the UK after officials advised that the move would be too politically sensitive.
Internal documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal that ministers from four departments ordered an “urgent review” of the position of up to 1,000 men with “multiple wives”, amid complaints that they were claiming millions in benefits.
However, the Government decided against altering the status of polygamous families after it was warned that it could contravene human rights legislation — and officials assured that the benefits system was geared to ensure there was “no financial advantage to claiming for those in polygamous marriages”.
Details of the response to the complaints came after the Tory frontbencher Baroness Warsi accused politicians of failing to deal with the issue because of “cultural sensitivity”. The Muslim peer urged the Government to consider the mandatory registration of all religious marriages to stop men in Britain from marrying more than one woman.
Four departments embarked on the review in 2006 following a parliamentary question on the benefits payable to polygamous families. Ministers were told that, before 1988, benefit was paid to anyone who could establish they were in polygamous relationships, but “this was narrowed to polygamous marriage following press interest in people in hippie communes living off the state”.
Britain recognises polygamous marriages from countries where such unions are legal, although a man is prevented from bringing another wife into this country if a woman is already living as his wife in the UK.
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Revealed: the Full Extent of Labour’s Curbs on Civil Liberties
Audit report highlights ‘permanent erosion’ of freedoms since 1997
By Michael Savage, Political Correspodent
The full extent of state powers to detain people without charge, cover up Government errors, hold the DNA of the innocent and share personal data between public bodies has been revealed in a devastating analysis of the erosion of civil liberties in Britain over the past decade.
Almost 60 new powers contained in more than 25 Acts of Parliament have whittled away at freedoms and broken pledges set out in the Human Rights Act and Magna Carta, according to a new audit of laws introduced since Labour came to power in 1997. The dossier, compiled by the Convention on Modern Liberty, criticises police powers to detain terror suspects for 28 days without charge, new stop-and-search powers handed to police (allowing them to stop people without reason at airports and other designated areas), and restrictions on the right of peaceful protest.
It is the first time such a picture of the erosion of rights under Labour has been published. The rise in surveillance in Britain is also documented, including new laws allowing individuals to be electronically tagged, and the legal interception of letters, emails and phone calls.
Control orders, designed to confine terrorist suspects who have not been found guilty, are also cited. The orders, created under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 2005, can include the power of house arrest and electronic tagging.
“The right to privacy has been eroded, perhaps permanently, by broad powers to intercept, collect, store and share our private information,” the dossier states.
The Coroners and Justice Bill, currently going through Parliament, is accused of seeking to hand the state the power to prevent embarrassing revelations of Government failure becoming public. Coroners are currently able to criticise the Government and any of its agencies that cause a death. But the Bill would hand the state new powers to suspend inquests, or force them into secret. It would also allow Government agencies to share personal data.
David Davis, the Conservative MP who resigned as shadow home secretary and called a by-election to campaign against what he described as the Government’s growing attack on British liberties, said the measures cited in the report give hundreds of bodies the power to “snoop, spy and bug” on the public.
“It is a real, serious, systemic problem,” Mr Davis said. “I cannot believe it is happening. It’s up to us to make sure it is stopped.”
Mr Davis said that he did not regret leaving his post as shadow Home Secretary to fight the cause “for a second”. “We had to put a check on this process, dribbling away, salami slice by slice,” he said. “And if I’d found a cheaper way of doing it, I would have done it more cheaply.”
Henry Porter, one of the organisers of the Convention on Modern Liberty, said that there was “little doubt that there is a crisis of liberty in Britain”.
“We needed an account to show the legislative programme that swept away many centuries-old rights and transferred so much power from the individual to the state actually existed,” he said. “We now have that evidence [and can] oppose what is happening to one of the world’s oldest democracies.”
A spokesman for the Home Office said that CCTV surveillance and the use of a DNA database were “essential crime-fighting tools”.
“The Government has been clear that where surveillance or data collection will impact on privacy they should only be used where it is necessary and proportionate,” he said. “The key is to strike the right balance between privacy, protection and sharing of personal data.”
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Terrorist Threat ‘Exploited to Curb Civil Liberties’
Security measures brought in after September 11 attacks ‘undermined the rule of law’
Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5, has accused the Government of exploiting public fear of terrorism to restrict civil liberties.
Her comments came on the same day as a report published by international jurists suggested that Britain and America have led other countries in “actively undermining” the rule of law and “threatening civil liberties” in the guise of fighting terrorism.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Dame Stella said that a series of increasingly draconian policies have led British citizens to “live in fear and under a police state”.
The 73-year-old said: “Since I have retired I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the Government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people’s privacy.
“It would be better that the Government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state.”
Dame Stella, who became the first female head of MI5 in 1992 and held the position until 1996, has long been a vocal critic of the Government’s plans to introduce ID cards and lengthen the amount of time terror suspects are held without charge to 42 days. In the interview yesterday, she also criticised the United States.
She said: “The US has gone too far with Guantanamo and the tortures. MI5 does not do that. Furthermore it has achieved the opposite effect: there are more and more suicide terrorists finding a greater justification.”
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
Blast in Crowded Cairo Tourist Area Kills 4
Bomb goes off outside café located near historic Hussein mosque; Egyptian police say two foreigners among the dead; several more injured
A bomb exploded Sunday in a crowded Cairo market frequented by tourists, killing four people and wounding several more, said police and medical sources.
Among the casualties were two foreigners, according to Egyptian police.
A security official who did not have an exact breakdown of the wounded said they included French and German tourists.
The blast took place in the famed Khan el-Khalili market in medieval Cairo, frequented by tourists and locals alike. Blood could be seen, on the marble paving stones in front of the historic Hussein mosque.
A police colonel at the scene said the small bomb went off outside a cafe near the mosque kicking up stone and marble fragments, which wounded the passersby.
Riot police cordoned off the area and sniffer dogs could be seen as worshippers were being evacuated. A security official said police were attempting to defuse a second bomb. Fire engines were also on the scene. The Egyptian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
MEMRI: Egyptian Cleric: I Am ‘Absolutely’ Calling to Wage Jihad Against Jews Egypt/Antisemitism Documentation Project
Egyptian Cleric Zaghloul Al-Naggar: The Arab World Is Ruled By the Scum of the Earth and the Garbage of All Nations; I Am ‘Absolutely’ Calling to Wage Jihad Against the Jews, Who Are Devils in Human Form
The West Wanted To Avenge Its Defeat In The Crusades, So It Gathered These Dispersed [Jewish] Communities… And Planted Them In The Heart Of The Arab World”
Zaghloul Al-Naggar: “I have written about the conspiracy against the Palestinian people, and about how this abominable conspiracy was hatched by Britain and France, in collaboration with several Western countries. In our days, this conspiracy has been adopted by the U.S.
“This conspiracy has many causes. The West wanted to avenge its defeat in the Crusades, so it gathered these dispersed [Jewish] communities — the scum of the earth and garbage of the nations — and planted them in the heart of the Arab world, thus saying to us: ‘We’ve returned, after you drove us out of this blessed land.’
“The Jews used to live a life of squalor and humiliation, and were fought and persecuted in Europe and the whole world. I lived in Britain from the early 1960s, and many stores and restaurants still had a ‘no dogs, no Jews’ sign. The Jews wanted to escape the humiliation imposed on them by the West, and to shift it to the Arab nation. In this case, two goals coincided: The Jews’ goal was to have a state, which would protect them from their humiliation all over the world, and the goal of the West was to avenge its defeat in the Crusades, by returning to the region.
“This conspiracy began in the 17th century CE, when the Jews convinced the British to form the Zionist-Crusader Committee. This committee devised the general outlines of the conspiracy. Later, Europe, because of its hatred for the Islamic Caliphate, launched a fierce war of attrition against the Islamic countries, and the Caliphate eventually collapsed.
[…]
“In the tenth century CE, there was a kingdom called the Khazar kingdom, near the Caspian Sea, which was called the Khazar Sea back then. This kingdom was ruled by a tyrannical dictator, who fabricated lies about his neighbors, just as Israel does today. Throughout history, the Jews have excelled at getting close to rulers. They got close to Bulan, the king of the Khazars, and convinced him to convert to Judaism. King Bulan converted, and made Judaism the religion of the Khazar kingdom. Most of the people who belong to Judaism today are of Khazar origin. They come from Mongol Tatar races, which have nothing to do with the Arab region, or with Jacob, Abraham, and Moses. Therefore, the Jewish claim to a right to this land is totally groundless.” […]
I Am ‘Absolutely’ Calling To Wage Jihad Against the Jews “The Jews have never been faithful to agreements.”
Interviewer: “Right.”
Zaghloul Al-Naggar: “That is how they are described in the Koran. They are not faithful to treaties or agreements. They depend upon American and Western aid. We — the Arab states, governments, and officials — made a huge mistake in dealing with this as a political issue, when it is, in fact, a religious issue.”
Interviewer: “An issue of faith.”
Zaghloul Al-Naggar: “The Prophet Muhammad said: ‘If [the enemy] treads upon even an inch of Muslim land, Jihad becomes a duty, and a child should set out on Jihad even without his parents’ permission, a wife without her husband’s permission, and a slave without his master’s permission.’“
Interviewer: “So are you calling to wage Jihad?”
Zaghloul Al-Naggar: “Absolutely. There is no solution…”
Interviewer: “But who has the right to declare Jihad?”
Zaghloul Al-Naggar: “Let me be clear. Jihad is the only way to resolve this issue. With the Jews, one cannot achieve anything by means of peace, or a settlement, or open borders, or diplomatic and commercial ties. They are devils in human form. Many people think that Judaism is a religion, but today’s Jews are not really Jews, and have nothing to do with Moses and the Torah. They are a gang of evil thieves who stole this land. By nature, a thief who knows he has no right to the land imposes his presence by means of force, by bloodshed, by excessive massacres, by excessive killings, and by destruction, in order to prove that he has rights in this region.”
Interviewer: “True.”
Zaghloul Al-Naggar: “This is the nature of thieves.”
Interviewer: “Right.”
Zaghloul Al-Naggar: “It is inconceivable that we deal with this band of thieves as a state. We made a big mistake by treating them as a state. This is not a state. These are gangs of evil thieves and murderers…” […]
“The Arab World is Ruled by the Scum of the Earth and the Garbage Of All Nations… Not a Single Arab Leader Understands or Implements Islam”
Interviewer: “Yes.”
Zaghloul Al-Naggar: “There is not a single Arab leader who understands or implements Islam.”By occupying the Arab and Islamic countries, the Western world has managed to exclude Islam completely from the decision-making. All kinds of impure scoundrels seized power. The Arab world is ruled by the scum of the earth and the garbage of all nations. We pray that Allah will guide them. Either that, or that He would relieve us of them all.”
[…]
I blame the Islamic countries as well, not just the Arab countries. I say to Iran: Where are your missiles? You raise the banner of Islam, but where are your missiles? Where are all the soldiers you parade in military marches? I say to Hizbullah: Where are your missiles? When will you use them, if not now? I say to Syria, part of whose land has been occupied for over 30 years: Where is your army? Where are your missiles?”
[…]
excerpts from an interview with Egyptian cleric Zaghloul Al-Naggar, which aired on Al-Rahma TV on January 6, 2009.
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Gaza, Palestine: Palestinian Man Dead, 6 Wounded and 2 Missing in a Tunnel
By Saed Bannoura
Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip reported on Saturday at night that one resident was killed and six other were wounded after inhaling gas apparently fired by Egyptian border police into a tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Eyewitnesses said that Egyptian forces fired a gas bomb into a tunnel in Al Salaam area causing one resident to suffocate to death, while six other were wounded and treated for gas inhalation, the Maan News Agency reported.
The eyewitnesses added that two residents are still in the tunnel; and that attempts to locate them were still underway.
Medical sources at Yousef Al Najjar Hospital in Rafah stated that the killed resident and the six wounded residents were all moved to the hospital.
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PA to Free Hamas Prisoners in W. Bank
The Palestinian Authority, ahead of reconciliation talks with Hamas set to commence Wednesday in Egypt, announced Sunday that it would release 80 Hamas prisoners currently held in PA jails in the West Bank.
A Fatah official quoted by Israel Radio confirmed the decision and senior Hamas official Salah Bardaweel said that the inmates would be released Monday.
The PA’s decision is “a step in the right direction, but still not enough,” Bardaweel added.
On Saturday, Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said that for the talks to succeed, the PA must first release all “political prisoners” from its West Bank jails.
A PA official in Ramallah said over the weekend that the Obama administration has given the Palestinian Authority a “green light” to talk to Hamas about forming a Palestinian unity government.
The official said that Washington had also given Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the go-ahead to resume his efforts to achieve reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.
“The new administration has a different policy than that of [former US president] George W. Bush,” the official told The Jerusalem Post. “The administration of President Barack Obama believes that a Hamas-Fatah government is good for stability.”
Fatah and Hamas officials confirmed that the Egyptians had invited them to the talks.
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Palestinian Christians Urge Pope to Call Off May Visit to Israel
A group of Palestinian Christians has asked Pope Benedict XVI to call off his planned visit to Israel and the West Bank this coming May.
The 40 community activists wrote to the pope that his visit would “help boost Israel’s image and inadvertently minimize Palestinian suffering under Israeli occupation.”
The group urged the pope to link his visit to a series of Israeli measures, including improved access to Christian places of worship and halting taxation of church properties.
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Christians from the West Bank, like their Muslim counterparts, need special permits to reach Jerusalem and its holy places.
The pontiff is to visit the Holy Land May 8-15, including stops in Jordan, the West Bank and Israel.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week confirmed the pope’s spring pilgrimage, avoiding any mention of tense Catholic-Jewish relations over the pontiff’s rehabilitation of a Holocaust-denying bishop. This will be first by a pope to the Holy Land since John Paul visited in 2000.
Catholic-Jewish relations have been extremely tense since Jan. 24, when Benedict lifted excommunications of four renegade traditionalist bishops in an attempt to heal a schism that began in 1988 when they were ordained without Vatican permission.
One of the bishops, Richard Williamson, denies the full extent of the Holocaust and says there were no gas chambers.
The Vatican has ordered him to recant but he so far has not done so, saying he needs more time to review the evidence.
Faced with Jewish anger over Williamson’s remarks on the Holocaust, the pope said during a meeting with American Jewish leaders on Thursday that “any denial or minimization of this terrible crime is intolerable.”
A detailed itinerary of the pope’s visit is not yet available.
It would be the third visit of a reigning pontiff to Israel since the state was created in 1948.
Pope Paul VI made a one-day stopover from Jordan in 1964, but since the Vatican and Israel did not yet have diplomatic relations, he avoided any statement or act that could be interpreted as even indirect recognition of the Jewish state.
In March 2000, Pope John Paul II made a five-day pilgrimage to Israel and the Palestinian territories, during which he visited Christian and Jewish holy sites.
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Iraq Invites France Back to Build Nuclear Plant
Iraqi minister of electricy Karim Wahid invited France Sunday to resume its aid to Iraq to build a nuclear power plant, three decades after a Paris constructed reactor near Baghdad was bombed by Israeli warplanes. Enlisting France’s help comes amid Iraq’s struggle to fund its way to 24-hour power coverage.
“We have had very good relationships with French companies,” the minister told AFP in an interview.
“ I am willing to enter into contacts with the French nuclear agency and to start to build a nuclear power plant, because the future is nuclear “
Karim Wahid, Iraqi minister of electricity”I am willing to enter into contacts with the French nuclear agency and to start to build a nuclear power plant, because the future is nuclear,” he said. “This is my perspective.”
Under former dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq sealed a 1976 deal with France to build the Osirak nuclear reactor, where construction started in 1979.
But in June 1981, during the Iran-Iraq war, Israel sent warplanes to bomb the unfinished reactor south of the Iraqi capital, charging that Saddam’s aim was to build nuclear weapons.
Then French premier Jacques Chirac cultivated a special relationship with Iraq during the 1970s. As French president two decades later, he opposed the US-led invasion which toppled Saddam over alleged weapons of mass destruction.
“ My coming here is to tell French companies the time has come, come and invest “
Nicolas Sarkozy, French President “France has not shown up yet (in post-Saddam Iraq). They will come hopefully,” said Wahid, adding that France, whose President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Baghdad on February 10, had “been a good friend to Iraq.”
“My coming here is to tell French companies: the time has come, come and invest,” Sarkozy told a joint news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the first ever visit to Iraq by a French president.
Sarkozy said a large French business delegation would follow him to Baghdad by the end of the summer. Defence, energy and water were all key sectors for cooperation with Iraq, he said.
“We are ready to listen to the requests of the Iraqis.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Marnie Pierce: Dubai Adultery Case Briton is Behind Bars
A British mother convicted of adultery in Dubai has been taken to jail to start her three-month sentence after an emotional parting with her two young children.
A friend said Marnie Pearce, 40, was hysterical when she had to hand over her two sons to her former husband. She fears Ihab El-Labban, an Egyptian, will leave the country with Latih, seven, and Ziad, four, and she will never see them again.
The friend, who asked not to be named, said Miss Pearce, a teaching assistant, had given herself up and asked to be taken to jail after a spell in hiding in Dubai with her sons, following her failure to overturn her conviction in January.
Her former husband was present at the arranged meeting and took charge of their sons.
Before going to the authorities, Ms Pearce said: “Handing myself in is the hardest thing I have ever done, but for the sake of the children I have no choice.
“I have been waiting for three weeks in the belief that I may have been granted bail or the charges dropped. I still do not know, but for the sake of my babies we must move on.
“I don’t regret hiding away with them, to spend as much time as I can with them as I may never see them again. We have snuggled and cuddled and played and laughed.
“They have cried rivers and they will continue too. I have told them mummy must go to prison because if I don’t eventually the police will come and look for us.
“I can’t even begin to put into words the feelings of desperation, loss, fear and numbness that I feel.”
A friend of Miss Pearce added: “The hand-over was very emotional and Marnie was hysterical. She spent her first night in jail on Thursday. The hand-over was pre-arranged and took place at the Dubai prosecutor’s office.”
Miss Pearce has vehemently denied the charge against her. Instead, she alleges her former husband made false claims against her after their nine-year marriage broke down more than a year ago.
He, however, has denied acting illegally or maliciously. Mr El-Labban also denies that he intends to leave Dubai with his two sons.
Her ordeal began in March last year when she was arrested at her home in Dubai. Police, accompanied by her former husband, burst into her villa while she says she was having tea with a fellow Briton, who she insists was simply fixing her computer.
Miss Pearce, originally from Bracknell, Berkshire, was accused of adultery — an offence under Dubai law — four months after their marriage had broken down. In November, she was convicted of adultery and sentenced to six months in jail.
In January, the Emirate’s Appeal Court upheld her conviction but reduced her sentence to three months. The court also fined her 3,000 dirhams (£600) and ordered her to be deported after she completes her sentence.
Miss Pearce had been unable to leave the UAE after a travel ban was imposed on her and her passport was taken away. Her children’s British passports have been surrendered, but she fears her former husband will take their children out of the country using their Egyptian passports.
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
UK and US Put Iran at Heart of the Agenda
In Hillary Clinton’s first meeting as Secretary as State with David Miliband, she emphasises a co-operative foreign strategy
Iran dominated Hillary Clinton’s first meeting as Secretary of State with another foreign minister, as she and David Miliband discussed ways of curbing its nuclear ambitions.
The two leaders met shortly after Iran launched a satellite, using technology that the Pentagon indicated could one day be used to develop a nuclear, warhead-carrying, ballistic missile. Asked whether the launch of the satellite posed a threat, Mr Miliband declared that “anything which adds to international tension should be of concern.”
The focus of Mrs Clinton and Mr Miliband’s remarks to the media was on urging the Iranian leadership to take up last week’s appeal by President Barack Obama that Tehran “unclench its fist” and rejoin the international community.
Mr Miliband described the Obama administration’s willingness to talk to Iran a “new dimension” in efforts to end Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and said that yesterday’s talks were “very positive indeed”.
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
State Oil of Azerbaijan Looks to the West
Azerbaijan’s state oil monopoly has proposed a pipeline to Europe.
State Oil Company of Azerbaijan officials have suggested a pipeline could run from the Caspian Sea, across Turkey to the Balkans and the rest of Europe.
The European Commission has been trying to invest money in a pipeline which would bypass Russia, and a deal with Azerbaijan would help Europe reduce any dependence on Russian energy supplies.
In January, Russia cut natural gas to Europe through its Ukraine pipeline because of a contract dispute.
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Pakistan to Hand Out Free Rifles
Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province officials have announced they will provide rifles to local residents as protection against the Taliban.
30,000 rifles, which have been confiscated from terrorists over the years, will be handed out to residents of rural areas in a province which is rife with Taliban and al Qaeda extremists.
The new ‘Village Defence Rifle’ program, has ordered the distribution of rifles to local residents, but has stipulated the guns will be taken back if not used against militants.
Extremist attacks in Pakistan have killed more than 1,600 people in the last two years.
Much of the violence has been concentrated in north-west Pakistan.
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Taliban Agree to ‘Permanent Ceasefire’ in Swat Valley … But Only if Sharia Law is Imposed
A ‘permanent ceasefire’ has been agreed between the Taliban and Pakistan in the north western Swat valley, a senior government official confirmed today.
Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah — who is also known as Mullah Radio because he uses illegal FM radio to spread his message — was expected to announce the ceasefire later today.
Syed Mohammad Javed, Commissioner of Malakand, said after a meeting with Swat elders: ‘They have made a commitment that they will observe a permanent ceasefire and we’ll do the same.’
About 1,200 people have been killed and between 250,000 and 500,000 people have fled the valley which lies within the Malakand division of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.
However the ceasefire will come at a cost as Pakistan agreed to the imposition of Islamic law as part of the ceasefire agreement.
Western governments, and many Pakistanis, have been alarmed by the government’s offer to reinstate Islamic sharia law in Malakand if the Taliban agreed to peace.
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
UK Hears of Bomb-Making Sympathizers in Afghanistan
British electronic components have been found in roadside bombs.
The Telegraph newspaper has revealed the devices which enable Taliban fighters to detonate roadside bombs come from the UK, either by mail or through British Muslim sympathizers who arrive in the country.
The crude, home-made devices are being used in attacks against British patrols.
They are either mobile phones filled with explosives and more sophisticated devices that can be used against military vehicles.
Last August, Brigadier Ed Butler, the former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan, said there were “British passport holders” in the Taliban ranks.
It was also revealed that British surveillance monitors listening to Taliban radio had heard fighters speaking with regional British accents.
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Secretary of State Has Her Own Style
By Glenn Kessler
BEIJING, Feb. 22 — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s blunt and unadorned style of diplomacy has been evident throughout her maiden voyage the past week in Asia. She questioned the efficacy of sanctions against the repressive junta in Burma, spoke openly about a possible succession crisis in North Korea and admitted that she expected to make little progress on human rights in China.
To a certain extent, these comments crossed taboo lines in international diplomacy. U.S. officials generally do not say their sanctions have failed, or speculate about the future government of another country, or suggest that a carefully watched human rights dialogue is largely a farce.
Clinton’s willingness to speak frankly — combined with an extensive effort to get beyond ministerial meetings in order to hold town hall meetings and conduct local TV interviews in the countries she visits — suggests she will put a distinctive personal stamp on the Obama administration’s foreign policy. What is emerging is something less rigid, less cautious and more open.
Before her meetings in Beijing, for instance, Clinton said she would raise human rights issues with Chinese officials. “But we pretty much know what they’re going to say,” she said.
Clinton’s comments have stirred outrage in the human rights community, where she was once viewed as a hero for having confronted the Chinese government, in 1995, over its record. Activists say that without public, sustained international pressure on human rights issues, nothing will change in China.
Clinton says she does not understand the fuss. In her view, speaking clearly — and not obfuscating through diplomatic artifice — helps enhance the policy, rather than undermine it.
“I think that to worry about something which is so self-evident is an impediment to clear thinking,” Clinton told reporters traveling with her. “And I don’t think it should be viewed as particularly extraordinary that someone in my position would say what’s obvious.”
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Solar Revolution in Beijing
China has decided to power 30,000 homes with solar energy.
An experimental solar thermal plant, capable of generating up to 2.7 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, will be constructed at a cost of $14.7 million.
The plant, to be built in a suburb of Beijing, should be running by 2010.
The plant will cover 32 acres and include 100 curved mirrors that track the sun and redirect the rays to a receiver.
The receiver’s solar thermal power will generate steam that will run through a power turbine.
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Pirates Seize Vessel Off Somalia
Pirates in the Gulf of Aden have seized a Greek-owned cargo ship.
The BBC’s Jonah Fisher, on board a UK warship 100km (60 miles) away, said the captain of the MV Saldanha radioed that pirates had boarded his ship.
The Saldanha is now heading to Somalia under pirate command after the UK navy’s HMS Northumberland judged it was beyond its remit to pursue the ship.
The warship is part of an EU task force patrolling the waters off the unstable Horn of Africa to deter pirate attacks.
But when the captain of the Saldanha made contact with HMS Northumberland, he told the ship that pirates had warned the British warship to stay away.
Trying to retake captured ships is not what the EU’s anti-piracy task force does, our correspondent reports from on board the UK vessel.
After sending a helicopter up to take a closer look, the frustrated commander of HMS Northumberland had to accept there was nothing more his men could do.
Rising tide
The MV Saldanha was reportedly sailing under a Maltese flag when it was hijacked.
The Greek merchant marine ministry confirmed the Saldanha was seized, adding that the ship was manned by a 22-strong crew, Reuters news agency reported.
The ministry said the ship was loaded with coal and was heading to Slovenia, Reuters said.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Controls Tightened in Britain
The British Government has ordered the tightening of immigration controls to counter the rise in unemployment.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said that the tough economic conditions have caused the government to re-think the immigration rules.
From April, non-EU workers without a job will need to have a masters degree, instead of the current bachelors degree, and a previous salary of at least $44,000 to enter Britain.
The Home Office has estimated the move will mean 12,000 fewer immigrants each year.
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Why Catholic Indulgences Are Making a Comeback
By Bonnie Rochman
It sounds too good to be true. Now, for a limited time — the year of St. Paul, to be specific, which ends in June — say a prayer, pop by a designated church and qualify for an indulgence that deducts time from your scorching sojourn in the cleansing fires of purgatory.
Indulgences…have been part of Catholic doctrine since the Crusades. When the Church offered them for sale in the 1500’s — call it mercy for money — religious reformer Martin Luther protested. These days, they can’t be bought. “How does that MasterCard ad go?” muses Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Some things are priceless.”
The pardons have fallen by the wayside in the past few decades, but they’re being revived in conjunction with a new emphasis on the importance of charity in Christian life. Catholicism, with 67 million followers in the U.S., is big on formulaic repetition of the Hail Mary and Our Father variety. But the Vatican is starting to move away from that and toward, according to the church’s Manual of Indulgences, a “greater zeal for the exercise of charity.”
It’s no longer enough to repeat a prescribed number of prayers; you also have to do good such as volunteer at a soup kitchen, help resettle refugees or donate to a worthy cause. Much like many high schoolers have to fulfill a community service requirement, Catholics too are being urged to become do-gooders. “The church’s teaching has evolved,” Walsh says. “Part of indulgences is not just saying special prayers, but also doing good works.”
At the core of indulgences is sin, which can lead to either eternal punishment, i.e., hell, or time spent in purgatory, a place of suffering where imperfections are scrubbed away in preparation for entering heaven. Confession erases eternal punishment, but temporal punishment remains. Plenary, or full, indulgences are the equivalent of a get-out-of-purgatory-free card. Partial indulgences simply shorten your stay…
[continue reading at URL]
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2 comments:
Baron --
I've taken the time to produce my own rebuttal and analysis of the Decline of the West to both Fjordman and Takuan Seiyo.
While I agree completely on their views on the decline of the West, I disagree on the "Why" completely, and thus the remedy.
You can find it here and you are of course free to excerpt it or quote as much as you want.
Short version: I believe deep economic trends and social changes driven by technology, mostly cheap oil causing overseas manufacturing and the rise of the Phil Knight types (or Steve Jobs) magnified PC/Multiculturalism, along with deep changes in women's behavior.
Not cultural marxists, who's appeal only results from the deep forces at work, rather than creating them.
Hope your email gets sorted.
MEMRI: Egyptian Cleric: I Am ‘Absolutely’ Calling to Wage Jihad Against Jews
The West Wanted To Avenge Its Defeat In The Crusades, So It Gathered These Dispersed [Jewish] Communities… And Planted Them In The Heart Of The Arab World”
If only this were actually true. It would mean that the West was well aware of Islam's threat and knew precisely what would most humiliate the typical Muslim eggshell ego.
Later, Europe, because of its hatred for the Islamic Caliphate, launched a fierce war of attrition against the Islamic countries, and the Caliphate eventually collapsed.
Again, if only this were true. A widespread awareness of what Islam's global caliphate really portends might have then survived into this era and better informed our current actions regarding the Muslim threat.
I Am ‘Absolutely’ Calling To Wage Jihad Against the Jews “The Jews have never been faithful to agreements.”
Anyone who believes even one iota of the foregoing taqiyya need only watch the video, "Relentless".
With the Jews, one cannot achieve anything by means of peace, or a settlement, or open borders, or diplomatic and commercial ties ...
As is usually the case, irony is utterly lost upon the typical Muslim. If the end result was not so horrific, Islam's congenital inability to engage in autoscopic or introspective thought would be hilarious. Instead, it produces the most gruesome distortions of fact and reality since the Nazis or Soviet Communism.
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