I couldn’t put it off any longer — I had to add a “Financial Crisis” category to the headlines list. I have a feeling that in the next six months that particular category will include more and more entries.Thanks to C. Cantoni, DP111, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, Paul Weston, TB, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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China: Rural Population Assisted, Exploited as a New Domestic Market
A new document from the communist party to support the rural population and utilize it in the current economic crisis. Preoccupation over social revolts. Hu Jintao: the army should prepare for military clashes.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — The economic crisis that is haunting China could be resolved by focusing on rural areas: by making them more developed and exploiting them as a vast potential domestic market. Meanwhile, President Hu Jintao is asking the army to prepare for “military clashes” due to the economic problems that the nation will face this year.
A document published yesterday by the state council and by the central committee of the communist party, warns that 2009 will be “the toughest year” of the century so far, because of the economic slowdown that is leading to the closing of tens of thousands of factories, and a cascade of firings. The text highlights the “special significance” of a project intended for “the development of agriculture and rural areas.” The motive is clear: to exploit rural areas as “the biggest potential for boosting domestic demand.”
In all of these years of lawless and rapid development, rural areas and their populations have been the sectors most harshly penalized: the prices of agricultural products have been fixed in order to dampen inflation; migrants are paid extremely low salaries, and are provided with no social security (and often are not paid at all); land is appropriated to build new factories; rivers and lakes have been polluted; there is a shortage of educational structures and of support for education (leading 80% percent of children among the rural population to leave school); the lack of health structures; a disparity in income between the city and countryside of between 1:4 and 1:15.
The document released yesterday is the sixth of its kind seeking to address problems in rural areas: a sign of serious concern on the part of the leadership, in the face of growing unemployment and increasingly widespread tensions. Just last month, the national statistics office said that because of the economic crisis and the closing of factories in the cities, there are at least 6 million migrants without work. But today, Che Xiwen, director of the central agricultural office, said that there are at least 20 unemployed migrants, about 15.3% of the entire rural labor force. All of them returned to their villages for the celebration of the Chinese new year, and have not returned to the city.
What the party fears is that these migrants will create social tensions in the countryside, which will be further sharpened by resentment over misery, injustice, the lack of services.
A document published yesterday is prompting local authorities to find jobs for the migrants, and increase incomes for the rural population; to defend their rights to the use of land, stopping the confiscations and unjust selling of this, and guaranteeing legal assistance to those who have been defrauded.
There’s a reason for all of this attention. The government has also promised assistance for all rural dwellers who buy household electronics, subsidizing 13% of the purchase price of refrigerators, color televisions, mobile telephones, washing machines. Supermarkets are also expected to become widespread, together with new methods of payment.
In this way, rural areas will become the new market for overproduction in the cities, hit by the global recession.
The document on assistance for rural areas does not overlook the question of security, asking the local authorities to watch over possible social tensions. “We must strengthen the public security network in countryside and prevent hostile forces from using religion to infiltrate our rural communities.”
And again in regard to security, president Hu Jintao yesterday urged the military leaders to be obedient to the communist party, and be ready to face “military clashes” this year. In addition to the social tensions created by the economic crisis, there are the anniversaries this year that could cause disorder. In 2009, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China will be celebrated, but also the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square, and the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan revolt.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Results in on Obama’s Grassroots Appeal: It’s a Bust
WASHINGTON — Few supporters are answering President Barack Obama’s call for nationwide house-party gatherings this weekend to build grass-roots support for his economic stimulus plan.
A McClatchy survey of sign-up rosters for a score of cities across the country revealed only 34 committed attendees in Tacoma, Wash., as of midafternoon Friday; in Fort Worth, Texas, only 54, and in Sacramento, Calif., just 78.
“Before the election, we would have had 500 to 800,” said Kim Mack, 46, a Sacramento city-facility manager who’s hosted house parties for political figures and causes since the mid-’90s.
Even in Washington, policy-wonk capital of the nation, only about 500 people had signed up.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stimulus to Ban Religious Worship
‘This isn’t like a convenient oversight, this is intentional’
President Obama’s proposed economic stimulus plan makes a deliberate — and unconstitutional — attempt to censor religious speech and worship on school campuses across the nation, according to a lawyer who argued related cases before the U.S. Supreme Court 20 years ago and won them all.
“This isn’t like a convenient oversight. This is intentional. This legislation pokes its finger in the eyes of people who hold religious beliefs,” Jay Sekulow, chief of the American Center for Law and Justice, told WND today.
His was the organization that decades ago argued on behalf of speech freedom on school campuses, winning repeatedly at the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, the 2001 Good News Club v. Milford Central School District decision was added, clarifying that restricting religious speech within the context of public shared-use facilities is unconstitutional.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Creator of Iconic Obama Portrait Arrested
BOSTON (Reuters) — An artist who created an iconic red, white and blue portrait of President Barack Obama that appeared on thousands of posters and T-shirts was arrested in Boston on graffiti charges, police said on Saturday.
Shepard Fairey, a Los Angeles artist whose “Hope” image of Obama hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, was arrested on Friday night while traveling to the Institute of Contemporary Art to kickoff his first solo exhibition.
Police accuse Fairey of damaging property with graffiti in several locations and issued warrants for his arrest on January 24, Boston police spokesman James Kenneally said.
An arraignment is scheduled on Monday. If convicted on all charges, he faces up to three years in jail, Kenneally said.
Fairey made headlines this week when The Associated Press claimed his Obama portrait infringed on its copyright to a photograph used for the artwork and that it should be compensated for its use.
Fairey has acknowledged that his image was based on an April 2006 Associated Press photograph of Obama.
Fairey was to appear as a guest disc jockey at a museum event on Friday to launch the 20-year retrospective of his artwork. He spent the past two weeks in Boston installing the exhibit, giving public talks and creating outdoor art including a banner on the side of City Hall, according to a museum statement.
The museum said Fairey was arrested “in connection with his efforts posting his art in various areas around the city.”
“We believe Shepard Fairey has made an important contribution in the history of art and to popular thinking about art and its role in society,” the statement said.
| [Return to headlines] |
‘I Voted for [Obama], Now I Think I Made the Wrong Decision’
[Video]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Nominee’s Porn Agenda Raises Alarms
‘Ogden has built a career representing values most Americans find repulsive’
Opposition is on the rise to the nomination of David Ogden, the man President Obama wants to be the No. 2 officer in the Justice Department, overseeing many of the cases in which the government would be involved in coming years.
According to Fidelis, a consortium of Catholic organizations working to promote religious freedom, human life and family values, Americans should be suspicious of his “confirmation conversion.”
At an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week Ogden said he belives child pornography laws are important, even though he’s previously argued against them. He also said he regretted his previous pro-porn arguments. And he said that despite his previous positions, he doesn’t think foreign law should prevail in the U.S.
Fidelis president Brian Burch said Ogden’s performances was “a textbook example of an ambitious nominee saying whatever he needs to say to get the votes for confirmation.”
Ogden’s career includes a long record of arguing against child porn laws and in favor of racial preferences and virtually unlimited abortion on behalf of clients including Penthouse, the ACLU and Playboy.
“Ogden spent his entire life arguing for far left extremist positions,” Burch said. “And he expects us to believe he has matured and abandoned those views now that he is before the Senate? What we have here is a nominee who knows that his views and Obama’s views on the law are far out of the mainstream in America, so he is adjusting his rhetoric to get the votes he needs.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Radical Rep Hails “Revolutionary” Obama
Rep. Barbara Lee, who admits in her book that she has been called everything from a radical to an anti-American communist, is very pleased with the record of her friend, President Barack Obama. In fact, she thinks he has been “phenomenal.”
At an event sponsored by the National Press Club, where she was introduced by journalist Helen Thomas, Lee said that she’s very excited about the bills that Obama has signed and the executive orders he has issued. And she thinks there is much more to come. She is even working for normalization of relations with Communist Cuba.
Lee, the chairwoman of the 42-member Congressional Black Caucus and a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is perhaps best known for casting the lone vote in the House against U.S. military action to remove the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. The Taliban had harbored the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for 9/11.
In her book, Renegade for Peace & Justice, Lee declares her support for “a world vision of peace” and a Cabinet-level Department of Peace. She favors big cuts in the Pentagon budget and reliance on the United Nations in foreign affairs.
Regarding President Obama, whom she served as a presidential campaign adviser, Lee writes in her book that “I liked his message of fundamental change, which was as close to a revolutionary message as we have had in decades.” She served as Obama’s Western Regional co-chair during the campaign “and I participated in rallies, phone banking, and behind-the-scenes advising on issues and politics.”
Lee’s effusive comments about Obama’s record and agenda were made at a National Press Club event on Wednesday night and illustrate a fact of political life that has been lost amid the media controversies over Obama’s tainted nominees and “stimulus” bill. She made it clear that, on issues ranging from the war on terrorism to federal spending bills, Obama and his “progressive” allies in Congress are winning.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Resignations at the RNC
[Comment from JD: Many GOP conservatives are not enamoured with Steele…]
A Republican source says newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has requested the resignations of the entire RNC staff and signaled a dramatic turnover at the party organization.
Some aides may be retained, though Republicans are under the impression that Steele will lead a large-scale changeover in the institution, which has about 100 staffers. Obama’s new team at the Democratic National Committee also requested mass resignations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White House, ABC in Cahoots?
Stephanopoulos at center of firestorm over journalistic ethics
Revelations that ABC’s George Stephanopoulos conducts a teleconference each morning with Democratic strategists have erupted in charges that the journalist is colluding with the Obama administration to manipulate public opinion.
The charges follow a Politico report last week that Stephanopoulos has been speaking with Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, CNN commentator Paul Begala and Bill Clinton strategist and pundit James Carville every morning for the past 17 years, ever since Stephanopoulos served in President Clinton’s campaign and staff.
One paragraph of the report in particular caught the attention of Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, a media watchdog group that seeks to expose liberal bias in reporting.
The Politico report reads, “Still, the line between journalism and politics is not always bright. Begala said he often can’t remember the originator of any particular insight: ‘We talk so much — was this my idea that James changed, or was this George’s observation that Rahm tweaked?’“
Bozell challenged Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s Sunday morning news show This Week, to explain how he can strategize daily with Emanuel and then pass himself off as an unbiased journalist.
“What’s worse than the liberal media’s sycophantic coverage of President Barack Obama?” Bozell asks on the MRC website. “ABC’s George Stephanopoulos actively helping design and deliver the administration’s strategy and message — which he is then charged with reporting.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canada: CRTC Railroads Lowell Green of CFRA Radio for Sharia Law Violation
Below is a story from the Ottawa Citizen a long time major Canadian daily. The story is about a veteran CFRA radio talk show host Lowell Green who has been broadcasting talk radio for over 40 years. I personally have been listening to him for many of those years from the mid 70s in Ottawa as a matter of fact and he is famous or infamous to many for his confrontational style of debate. If you search this blog for Lowell Green you will find a few segments of some of his shows as he is one of the very very few broadcast personalities who has the courage to actually report facts that may offend Muslims. His show on Ayaan Hirsi Alli’s book ‘infidel’ is excellent and I have the audio of it here. This story shows how the CRTC, Canada’s rough equivalent of the US agency the FCC is being used to enforce sharia law in Canada. There is no difference at all between how he treated callers on his show on Islam and terrorism and he treats callers on any show. In fact, he likely was a lot more careful than usual dealing with Islam as we all tend to be, at least in terms of how we would treat any other group responsible for the same amount of carnage and horror around the world. Once again, a Canadian government agency has been used to enforce what is in fact sharia law as we saw with the CHRC’s and McCleans Magazine and Ezra Levant and now also with the Dutch court of appeal and Geert Wilders. As we have written about many times on VTB, levers of power directing thought speech and belief crimes laws will always be used by the people that they where designed to protect us from. Not might be, but will be. Always…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: No to Turkey in EU While Troops in North
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, FEBRUARY 5 — President of Cyprus Demetris Christofias said today that Turkey should not join the EU as long as Ankara’s troops remain in northern Cyprus. “Turkey cannot be accepted as a member of the European Union while it continues its occupation of Cyprus”, Christofias said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Foster Parent Who Has Looked After 80 Children Struck Off…Because a Muslim Girl in Her Care Became a Christian
A foster mother has been struck off by a council after a teenage Muslim girl in her care became a Christian.
The carer, who has ten years’ experience and has looked after more than 80 children, said she was ‘devastated’ by the decision.
‘This is my life,’ she revealed. ‘It is not just a job for me. It is a vocation. I love what I do. It is also my entire income. I am a single carer, so that is all I have to live on.’
The foster mother said she had recently bought a larger car and had been renting a farmhouse, with a pony in a field, so that she could provide more disadvantaged children with a new life.
‘That was always my dream and then suddenly, bang, it was gone. I am now in a one-bedroom flat,’ she added.
The girl is understood to be back with members of her family, who have not been told of her conversion. A second girl the woman was fostering has been moved to another carer.
The woman insisted that, although she was a Christian, she had put no pressure on the Muslim girl, who was 16 at the time, to be baptised.
But council officials allegedly accused her of failing to ‘respect and preserve’ the child’s faith and tried to persuade the girl to reconsider her decision.
The carer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now preparing to take legal action against the council with the support of the girl, now 17, who also cannot be named.
Her case follows the controversy over Caroline Petrie, 45, the Christian nurse in Somerset suspended without pay in December for offering to pray for an elderly woman patient. She was reinstated this week.
Yesterday, Christians expressed outrage over the foster carer’s treatment, saying that it was a basic right for people to be able to change their religion and the woman should be praised, not punished.
Mike Judge, a spokesman for the Christian Institute, a pressure group which is funding her case, said: ‘I cannot imagine that an atheist foster carer would be struck off if a Christian child in her care stopped believing in God.
‘This is the sort of double standard which Christians are facing in modern Britain. In recent months, we have seen grandparents, a nurse, adoption agencies, firemen, registrars, elderly care homes and now a foster carer being punished because of the Christian beliefs they hold. It has got to stop.’
The carer, a mother-of-two in her 50s, has worked with young children for much of her life and became a foster parent for the local authority in the North of England in 1999.
In 2007, she was asked to look after the girl, who had been assaulted by a family member.
She told council officials that she was very happy to support the girl in her religion and culture.
‘We had a multicultural household and I had no problems helping the young person maintain her faith of birth,’ she said. ‘I have always prided myself in being very professional in what I do. If something works for a young person, whether I agree with it or not, I am happy to support them in that.’
But the girl, whom the foster mother describes as caring and intelligent, defied expectations by choosing not to wear overtly Muslim clothes or to eat Halal food.
The girl, whose interest in Christianity had begun at school some time before her foster placement, also made it clear that she wanted to go to church.
The carer, an Anglican who attends a local evangelical church, said: ‘I did initially try to discourage her.
‘I offered her alternatives. I offered to find places for her to practise her own religion. I offered to take her to friends or family. But she said to me from the word go, “I am interested and I want to come.” She sort of burst in.’
The carer said that the girl’s social workers were fully aware that she was going to church and had not raised any objections.
The girl had told her auxiliary social worker of her plans to convert before she was baptised in January last year, and the social worker had appeared to give her consent.
‘At that point the brakes were off,’ the carer said. ‘I couldn’t have stopped her if I had wanted to. She saw the baptism as a washing away of the horrible things she had been through and a symbol of a new start.’
Three months later, however, senior officials complained that they had not been fully informed of the girl’s intentions to become a Christian.
They said that she should have undergone counselling to ensure that she understood the implications, especially as such conversions are dealt with harshly in some Muslim countries.
The foster carer said, however, that the girl had thought about her decision very carefully and was aware that members of her family might react strongly, so she was adamant that they should not be told.
The carer said that as the auxiliary social worker knew about the baptism, she had not thought it necessary to tell the fostering team as well.
But she received a phone call from the fostering manager who was ‘incandescent with rage’ that the baptism had gone ahead.
The carer said: ‘Up to that point, we had had a good relationship, so I was quite taken aback. I was very shocked.’
In April, council officials told the girl that she should not attend any church activity for six months, so that she could reconsider the wisdom of becoming a Christian.
The carer was also instructed to discourage the girl from participating in any Christian activities, even social events. The council then told the carer there had been a breakdown of trust and in November removed her from the register.
‘It never occurred to me that they would go that far,’ she said. ‘I was concerned that the council seemed to view Christianity in such a negative light. I wonder whether if it had gone the other way — if one of my Christian young people had decided to embrace another faith — there would have been this level of fuss.’
She added that the girl has been devastated by the experience.
The carer’s solicitor Nigel Priestley said: ‘There is no doubt that the event that provoked the council was the decision by the girl to be baptised. This girl was 16 and has the right to make this choice, so for the council to react in this way is totally disproportionate. Even at this late hour, we hope that the council will resolve the issue.’
A council spokesman said: ‘From the details provided, we believe that this information relates to a child who is the subject of a final care order in favour of the council. In those circumstances, we are unable to pass any comment.
‘We would never be able to comment on sensitive issues surrounding a child in care.
‘To do so would be irresponsible and in this particular case may put the child at risk of harm.’
| — Hat tip: Paul Weston | [Return to headlines] |
French Fighter Planes Grounded by Computer Virus
The aircraft were unable to download their flight plans after databases were infected by a Microsoft virus they had already been warned about several months beforehand.
At one point French naval staff were also instructed not to even open their computers.
Microsoft had warned that the “Conficker” virus, transmitted through Windows, was attacking computer systems in October last year, but according to reports the French military ignored the warning and failed to install the necessary security measures.
The French newspaper Ouest France said the virus had hit the internal computer network at the French Navy.
Jérome Erulin, French navy spokesman told the paper: “It affected exchanges of information but no information was lost. It was a security problem we had already simulated. We cut the communication links that could have transmitted the virus and 99 per cent of the network is safe.”
However, the French navy admitted that during the time it took to eradicate the virus, it had to return to more traditional forms of communication: telephone, fax and post.
Naval officials said the “infection”‘ was probably due more to negligence than a deliberate attempt to compromise French national security. It said it suspected someone at the navy had used an infected USB key.
The Sicmar Network, on which the most sensitive documents and communications are transmitted was not touched, it said. “The computer virus problem had no effect on the availability of our forces.” The virus attacked the non-secured internal French navy network called Intramar and was detected on 21 January. The whole network was affected and military staff were instructed not to start their computers.
According to Liberation newspaper, two days later the chiefs of staff decided to isolate Intramar from the military’s other computer systems, but certain computers at the Villacoublay air base and in the 8th Transmissions Regiment were infected. Liberation reported that on the 15 and 16 January the Navy’s Rafale aircraft were “nailed to the ground” because they were unable to “download their flight plans”. The aircraft were eventually activated by “another system”.
Liberation also reported that Microsoft had identified the Conficker virus in the autumn of 2008 and had advised users from October last year to update their security patches. IntelligenceOnline reports that “at the heart of the (French) military, the modifications were, for the most part, not done.” It was only on the 16 January “three months later” that the navy chiefs of staffs began to act.
“At that point, the chiefs of staff and the defence ministry had no idea how many computers or military information systems were vulnerable to having been contaminated by the virus,” said Liberation.
The French press also reported that the only consolation for the French Navy was that it was not the only ones to have fallen victim to the virus. It said that a report in the military review Defense Tech revealed that in the first days of January 2009 the British Defence Ministry had been attacked by a hybrid of the virus that had substantially and seriously infected the computer systems of more than 24 RAF bases and 75 per cent of the Royal Navy fleet including the aircraft carrier Ark Royal.
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Fruit Producers Raise Alarm Over Italian Protectionism
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 6 — According to Spanish economic newspaper La Gazzetta, Catalonia Qualitat, the Catalan organisation of fruit producers has raised the alarm over “Italy’s change of strategy regarding fruit imports”. The organisation reports that this week a shipment of over 400 tonnes of apples was refused by distributors after being labelled “excellent colour and sweetness but unacceptable because not Italian”. The Catalan organisation claims that this protectionist strategy, which has “always been clearer in French distribution” seems to have spread to Italy now. Catalonia Qualitat “asks Spanish distributors to pay more attention to Spanish products”, reminding consumers of “the need to look at the origin of the products and to ask for Spanish produce” to “favour the local economy and reduce environmental damage from imports”. A large number of the apples eaten in Spain are imported, particularly from France and Italy. Imported apples, according to a survey carried out by Catalonia Qualitat, represent 42% of Spain’s total apple consumption in 2008 compared to 58% made up of Spanish apples. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: National Flag Flying on Basque Parliament
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 6 — After 27 years, the Spanish flag is flying again on the Basque Parliament building in Vitoria after the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Basque Countries’ High Justice Court, that the flag must be waved outside the Parliament. Up to now nationalists had made sure only the ‘ikurriña’, the Basque flag, and the flag of the European Union could be seen on the Parliament building. Anti-nationalist dailies like ABC and El Mundo and the conservative La Razon dedicated much space on their front pages to the event. The flag raising was not accompanied by any ceremony to avoid too much attention for the symbolic act. No radical Basque groups were present to protest against the initiative. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Racist Stereotypes Used in Police Training
Negro Niggersson and Oskar Negro. Two names used by Skåne police in their internal training. A participating officer reported the incident to senior officers but no inquiry was launched.
According to local newspaper Sydsvenskan a course in sequestration was held for around fifty staff at the county police department in Malmö in the spring of 2008.
The instructor displayed the names to be used in the course on a screen. Among them were Negro (Neger) Niggersson and Oskar Negro.
Several participants reacted to the use of the names.
“I could not believe what I was seeing, but I felt sorry for the instructor so I waited until afterwards,” said Jeanette Larsson, a police inspector with the department’s intelligence service, to Sydsvenskan.
The newspaper reports that several of the participating staff reported the incident all the way to the top. But Lars-Folke Piledahl, then assistant county police commissioner, denies all knowledge about the use of the names Negro and Niggersson.
The newspaper has however published an email which confirms that he had been informed.
County police commissioner Eva Årestad Radner also claims to be in the dark despite Jeanette Larsson’s email having been sent to several senior officers. Christina Wadsten Malm confirms that she received the email.
“If I receive information about such an occurrence then I report it immediately. Then I inform the commissioner or assistant commissioner. If they were not in the office then I did so over the telephone. That I am certain of. I initiated a report to the internal affairs department,” she says.
But such a report does not exist, according to Kaisy Nordin, head of the internal affairs department.
Årestad Radner could not offer any explanation as to why internal affairs was not notified.
“Normally a report would be made to the internal affairs department, but sometimes the person is confronted directly instead,” she said.
On Friday afternoon the chief prosecutor Björn Ericsson decided against pressing charges against three Skåne police officers recorded on a police video making racist and threatening comments during the unrest in the Malmö suburb of Rosengård in December.
The police dialogue in the film has caused a great deal of debate in the Swedish media and soul searching within the Swedish police, but is not criminal Ericsson has ruled.
“I have received details of the situation in which the police officers expressed themselves, and have quite simply found that what has occurred is neither misconduct nor any other offence,” Ericsson said on Friday afternoon.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Tariq Ramadan Meets Chris Hitchens
Hitchens is consistent. Can’t say the same for Tariq
A literary festival in the ancient capital city of Lombardy is as good a place as any other to survey the question of whether there is such a thing as “Western civilization” and whether it is worth defending. Here the poet Virgil was born, and here you can see the frescoes of Andrea Mantegna, painted for his feudal patrons the Gonzagas. But the great sacking of the city, which left Mantegna’s work as almost the only surviving treasure, was undertaken by a Christian emperor. And it was here, in 1459, that Pope Pius II held a “diet” to proclaim yet another crusade—this time against the Turks.
I had come here to defend atheism and secularism in general but also to have a debate with Tariq Ramadan, an Islamist academic domiciled in Geneva, who has emerged as the most sinuous and dexterous of the “interpreters” of Muslim fundamentalism to the West. He eventually declined our original debate, but there was nothing to stop me from attending his event and trying to re-stage our canceled confrontation from the floor.
French author Caroline Fourest has made an intensive study of Ramadan’s discrepant appearances in Europe and in the Muslim world, and has concluded that he speaks with a forked tongue and deliberately gives different impressions to different audiences. Having listened to him, I would say that the problem is not quite that. He possesses a command of postmodern and sociological jargon (of the sort that you may easily recognize by its repetitive use of the terms space and discourse to delineate the arena of thinkable debate), and he has a smooth way with euphemism.
Thus, he tells Egyptian television that the destruction of the Israeli state is for the moment “impossible” and in Mantua described the idea of stoning adulterous women as “unimplementable.” This is something less than a full condemnation, but he is quick to say that simple condemnation of such things would reduce his own “credibility” in the eyes of a Muslim audience that, or so he claims, he wants to modernize by stealth.
His day-to-day politics have the same surreptitious air to them. The donations he made to Hamas (donations that led to difficulties receiving a visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame, a position he eventually resigned) were small gifts directed to Hamas’ “humanitarian” and “relief” wing. He did not actually say that there was no proof of Osama Bin Laden’s involvement in the atrocities of Sept. 11, 2001; he only warned against a rush to judgment. He often criticizes the existing sharia regimes, such as that of Saudi Arabia, especially for their corruption, but such criticism is as often the symptom of a more decided Islamist alignment as it is a counterindication of it.
In Mantua, he was trying to deal with the question of dual loyalty, as between allegiance to Islam and allegiance to the democratic secular European governments under which Muslim immigrants now choose to live. He redirected the question to South Africa, where, he said, under the apartheid system there was a moral duty not to obey the law. After sitting through this and much else, I rose to ask him a few questions. Wasn’t it true that the Muslim leadership in South Africa had actually endorsed the apartheid regime? Wasn’t it evasive of him to discuss the headscarf in France rather than the more pressing question of the veil or niqab in Britain? Wasn’t it true that imams in Denmark had solicited the intervention of foreign embassies to call for censorship of cartoons in Copenhagen? And was it not the case that he owed his position as an informal cultural negotiator to the fact that his grandfather, Hassan al-Banna, had been the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist organization of which his father had also been a leader in Egypt?
He described my last question as too “offensive” to deserve an answer. He gave quite a good reply on the Danish point, saying that the imams in question had been a minority and should not have received support from foreign governments. He completely dodged the question of the veil in Britain, ignored my request that he give any reason to believe that women were wearing it voluntarily, and he admitted that the Deobandi Muslim leadership in South Africa had indeed been a pillar of the old regime. On the other hand, he added, some Muslims had been anti-apartheid, and these were the “real” ones. Indeed, on everything from stoning to suicide-murder to anti-Semitism, he argues that the problem is not with the “text” itself, or with Islam, but with misinterpretation of it. How convenient. Ramadan often relies on the ignorance of his Western audiences…
[embedded links are available at the URL, where essay continues]
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The Rise of Anti-Semitism in Europe
What’s behind 21st-century anti-Semitism?
Spiked 26.01.2009 (UK)
Sociologist Frank Furedi writes a long essay about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. He lists all number of shocking examples — in France, Germany, England, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark and Spain.
“In Spain, anti-Semitism is linked to the prevailing mood of anti-Americanism. Many public figures blame Spain’s economic crisis on America’s influence over the global financial system. This outlook appears to be underpinned by a diffuse sense of frustration about our uncertain world, where invisible forces can come to be personified in the image of the caricatured Jew.
This sentiment is inadvertently fostered by the Spanish Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which is profoundly hostile to Israel, and by the Spanish media’s frequent reluctance to distinguish between Israel and Jewish people.
Cartoons that are critical of Israel in Spanish newspapers and magazines sometimes depict medieval anti-Semitic caricatures.
At a dinner party in late 2005, Zapatero let rip against Israel. He was overheard saying: ‘Es que a veces hasta se entiende que haya gente que puede justificar el holocausto.’ In English: ‘At times one can even understand that there might be people who could justify the Holocaust.’“
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Gang of Youths Attack Pastor and His Church — Again
A gang of “20 youths” have launched another vicious attack on the Zion Baptist church, assaulting the pastor and hurling racist abuse.
Pastor Dennis Rigg and his brother Mervyn have been in and out of the church setting up for their dad’s funeral which is set for Saturday.
Yobs attacked the pastor and pelted a series of hard snowballs at their heads, as well as shouting hateful slurs relating to their Christian religion and its apparent [erroneous] relation to attacks on Gaza.
| — Hat tip: DP111 | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teenager Bludgeoned His Father to Death After GP Prescribed Him Prozac
A teenager bludgeoned his father to death with a hammer and crowbar weeks after a GP prescribed him the controversial anti-depressant Prozac.
Edward Belben, 15, battered his father Gary at least 30 times with the weapons before plunging a knife into his head.
He then attacked his mother, Tanya, 43, with the bloody crowbar and stabbed her in the face with some scissors before she managed to escape.
Belben, now 17, was today convicted of murder and attempted murder after a jury heard he had fallen in with a ‘bad crowd’ and started taking a cocktail of street drugs including cannabis, cocaine, crack cocaine and amphetamines.
But during the trial the court was told two GPs ignored national guidelines when prescribing him anti-depressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which have been linked with a range of side-effects including suicide and violence.
Belben was given Citalopram by one GP, Dr Imran Ramjan, even though its use with under-18s was banned in 2003.
When the schoolboy complained of feeling in a ‘dream-like state’, another doctor at the practice, Teresa Thomas, put him on daily 20mg dose of Prozac — the only SSRI still allowed for children — despite warnings that 12-18-year-olds should start on 10mg.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Was Put on Trial by Al-Qaeda’
The BBC’s Allan Little reported on the Balkan wars of the 1990s, following at close range the fighting between Bosnian, Serb and Croat forces. But, one day in 1993, he came face to face with a different group, the “Bosnian mujahideen”.
A year into the war, hundreds of men from other parts of the Muslim world had arrived in Bosnia. Many had come to train. Some — though we did not know it at the time — had already fought in Afghanistan.
We Western reporters knew they were there. What we did not know is that they were already part of a nascent global jihad led by a group whose name was not yet familiar to us: al-Qaeda. We thought them a sideshow — irrelevant to the much more compelling dynamic of the war between actual Bosnians.
One bright cold morning a camera crew and I drove from our house in the Lashva Valley to the town of Zenica accompanied by our translator, a brave and formidable young woman called Vera Kordic.
Aggressive
We made our way quietly through deserted outskirts. We turned into the main thoroughfare. And then we saw them: a column of men hundreds strong marching towards us in ordered ranks.
They wore green uniforms, and bandanas, and carried banners with slogans written not in Serbo-Croatian but in Arabic script. Some wore turbans and heavy beards.
The Seventh Muslim Brigade on parade in Zenica in 1996
Members of the Seventh Muslim Brigade on parade in Zenica in 1996
We saw the green shimmer of the Saudi national flag, and the red and green bands of the Iranian. They were highly charged, pumped up with a raw, aggressive energy, chanting, brandishing weapons above their heads.
Instinctively, we did what TV crews do. We started filming. Suddenly we were surrounded. I heard the cocking of an AK47 at my side, felt a pistol at my temple.
Cameramen are notoriously the most vulnerable of us. They watch the world through a viewfinder and can see only what is on the end of their lens.
Greg, our cameraman, had not seen the pistol at his own head. I told him to stop filming. We were manhandled down the street and into a walled compound.
The foreigners who had come to Bosnia had organised themselves into an independent fighting force known as the Seventh Muslim Brigade. Local commanders had little control over them.
[…]
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Italo-Albanian Chamber of Commerce: Call for Establishment
(ANSAmed) — TIRANA, FEBRUARY 5 — A request for the constitution of a Italian-Albanian Chamber of Commerce office in Tirana has been presented to Italy’s Ministry for Economic development. The initiative was promoted by the Association of Italian Businesses operating in Albania (Aiioa) with the aim of giving “further impetus to bilateral relations”. Italy continues to be Albania’s principal trading partner, with an import-export share of 35% (bilateral trade in 2008 was more than one billion euros). There was a significant increase in imports of minerals and energy products from Italy (+148%), wood products (30.38%) and textiles and footwear (+11.4%). Imports to Italy were mainly fuels, food products, machinery and spare parts, construction materials, chemical and plastic products. In 2008 it was imports of construction materials which saw the greatest increase, at 37.4%. The expansion in economic and trade relations between Italy and Albania is marked by the recent setting up of Business Albania, a kind of Confindustria across the Adriatic, which will hold its first general assembly next month. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Eulex; Serbs Block Roads Against Customs Posts
(ANSAmed) — PRISTINA, FEBRUARY 5 — Serbs in the north of Kosovo blocked major roads from Pristinat to Raska and Zubin Potok to Ribarice for an hour today, in protest against the deployment of troops from the European Eulex mission at border points with Serbia. The Mayor of Zvecan, Dragisa Milovic, spoke at the demonstration, saying that the Serbs of northern Kosovo are protesting against the creation of the new Security force (KSF) and against the unilateral decision by the Eulex mission to set up ‘customs control points’ at Jarinje and Brnjak, in the northern part of Kosovo. “This is a warning to representatives of the international community to show that the Serbs do not intend to allow the creation of a border between Kosovo and the motherland of Serbia” said Milovic, who believes that the recent introduction of the registration by Eulex of goods entering northern Kosovo from Serbia is the first step towards creating a real border. “This is unacceptable to us” he said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Real Estate: Croatia, Green Light for Foreign Ownership
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 3 — Measures included in the regulations of the agreement for stabilisation and association, on the basis of which European Union member country citizens will be on a par with Croatian citizens in terms of purchasing property, went into effect on February 1. EU citizens can purchase homes and apartments in Croatia without the current bureaucratic delays, while current regulations remain in force for foreigners. However, Croatia is firm in its policy that this liberalisation does not apply to agricultural land, forests, or national parks, which cannot be bought even by Croatian citizens. For agricultural areas, “Croatia has asked for a 12 year moratorium from the date of entry into the EU because the country wants to maintain existing limitations on the purchase of such property”, reads the disposition. As to residences and vacation homes, Croatia does not have a lot of room for manoeuvre, having already made a commitment in 2001 to liberalise the market for European citizens by 2009. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria-France: 180,000 Visas Granted in 2008
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 5 — The French embassy in Algeria granted 180,000 Schengen visas in 2008, announced the French ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, during a visit to Boumerdes, a small town in Kabylia 50 kilometres east of Algiers. “Out of the 180,000 visas granted by the consulate, over 4,400 are study visas,” the press quoted Driencourt as saying, announcing that “Algerian researchers and teachers will benefit from the new, special terms for the release of visas.” “We must bring in greater openness,” he added, noting that “talks on the circulation of teachers and researchers will start with Algerian authorities.” According to Driencourt, Algerians represent “the third largest French university community with 21,000 scholars and researchers.”(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria-Italy: Sardinian Entrepreneurs Visit Algiers
(ANSAmed)- ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 5 — “Algeria is home to people from all over the world but there are few Italians and practically no Sardinians: this is the moment to take advantage of the huge opportunities this country, so close to ours, has to offer” said Angelo Rojch, president of the Sardinia-Algeria Friendship and Cooperation Association, to ANSAmed during the visit of a delegation of Sardinian entrepreneurs and MPs organised in Algeria by the Italy-Algeria Friendship Association and the Italian Institute for Asia and the Mediterranean. (Isiamed). Sardinia “is Algeria’s closest-neighbouring piece of land and wére not there” added Rojch, specifying that the goal of this week’s mission “is to try and integrate the Italian economy, Sardinia’s in particular, into the Algerian economy though the creation of mixed Sardinian-Algerian companies”. The Sardinian businessmen are interested in various sectors, mainly marble and granite, public works, but also farming, industry and energy. During the four-day visit, the parliamentary delegation led by Lino Duilio and accompanied by Italian Ambassador to Algiers Gianpaolo Cantini has had a meeting with the president of the Algerian People’s assembly (parliament), Abdelaziz Ziari. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Trade: Italy Still Turkey’s 3rd Partner in 2008
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 2 — Italy has confirmed itself once again as Turkey’s third trading partner in 2008 with growth in trade equal to 7.5% (‘08/’07) despite the gravity of the current economic situation that the country is passing through and the consistent drop in internal demand, the worst of which occurred from the second quarter of last year, reported the Turkish State Statistics Office (TUIK) and elaborated by the offices of the Italian Foreign Trade Commission (ICE) in Istanbul, which emphasised that trade between the two countries reached 18.8 billion dollars with Italian exports reaching 11 billion (+10.4% ‘08/’07) and imports from Turkey reaching 7.8 billion dollars (+4.4% ‘08/’07). Italy remains the fifth supplier to Turkey after Russia, Germany, China, and the United States. The result is a true record for Italy considering the 3.2 billion dollar growth, up 28% compared to 2007 (2.5 billion dollars). Italy’s market share — out of the total of Turkey’s imports — is 5.5%. Turkish trading results closed 2008 negatively for 69.8 billion dollars (+11.3% ‘08/’07), a decrease compared to recent months, but in line with the international and internal crisis which affected the country’s trading. Turkish exports amounted to 132 billion dollars (+23.1%), while imports were worth 201.8 billion dollars, up by 18.7%. Russia is the primary trading partner for Turkey with trade worth 37.8 billion dollars, up 35.2% (‘08/’07) and is also the number one supplier, with 31.3 billion dollars (+33.2% ‘08/’07) with supplies almost exclusively limited to hydrocarbons (natural gas). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism: EMPA in Ankara to Define Terrorism
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 30 — The Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly has opened in Istanbul today, with the ambitious aim of assembling a definition of terrorism that the largest number of people possible will be able to share. Angela Napoli (National Alliance), a member of the anti-mafia Commission, and Doris Lo Moro (Democratic Party), the secretary to the constitutional affairs commission to the chamber, are there representing Italy. “The outcome that will emerge from this meeting, which, moreover, in my opinion, is extremely important will necessarily be a work of mediation more than anything else. It will be the expression of a belief that will try to define terrorism and that will then need to be evaluated by the internal committee of the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly”, Napoli told ANSA. As well as members of the Turkish EMPA, representatives from Greece, Jordan, Morocco, Montenegro and the Palestinian Territories will take part, alongside experts in the fight against terrorism and the drugs trade. During today’s talks, Napoli continued, “as has since been widely implied, there was also the attempt to limit the discussion about terrorism to the struggle between Israel and the Palestinians, whilst this phenomenon in fact affects the whole world. But the progress we made was very productive, and it was helpful to understand that terrorism is a problem that now leaves no country untouched.”. The National Alliance member concluded, “that is why terrorism must be understood in a very general manner and not, as often happens in some nations, only when a terrorist attack occurs and repressive laws are imposed without doing anything much in terms of prevention.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Aegean Chamber of Industry to Open ‘Sicily’ Office
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 3 — Turkey’s Aegean Region Chamber of Industry (EBSO) will open an office within its facilities to help Sicilian businessmen planning to invest in Izmir, told Tamer Taskin, chairman of EBSO Executive Board, today. The decision to open a ‘Sicily’ office came after a delegation from Sicily visited Izmir this week, as Anatolia agency reports. “The new office will help develop investment projects of Sicilian businessmen in Izmir,” Taskin said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Education: 20 Million Illiterate in North Africa
(by Franco Chiavegatti) (ANSAmed) — TUNIS — There are 20 million illiterate people in the North African region (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Mauritania), with percentages varying from State to State. This is one of the figures that emerge from the report issued by the Organisation of Education, Science and Culture (ALECSO) of the Arab League. The reported was recently presented in Tunis in a conference organised by the Arab counterpart of UNESCO. Referring to the report, Mohamed Abd Latief Kiem (UNESCO) pointed out that ‘‘Tunisia and Libya have brought in good results thanks to their efforts education’’, while ‘‘Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania continue to suffer from functional illiteracy for various reasons’’. Regarding all Arab countries together, the ALECSO report makes it clear that 99 million adults, 29.7% of the total population, are illiterate. The highest percentage is found in the group between 15 and 45 years of age: ‘‘a threat for social development in Arab countries’’, as the report called it. In his speech the Tunisian Minister for Social Affairs, Ali Chaouch, said that he was concerned about the estimates of the World Bank, according to which the number of children and young people not attending school is rising constantly. The minister spoke on Tunisia’s success in its educational programme for adults ‘For Tomorrow’s Tunisia’, which has enabled around half a million persons to learn to read, 34% of whom under 30. The Tunisian government, he added, wants to reduce illiteracy among people under 30 to one percent. According to Syria’s minister of Culture, Abd Fateh Abid, ‘‘the illiteracy rate is caused both by the crisis in the region and by economic problems and poverty’’. Part of the problem, according to Palestinian Education Minister, Guadir Founoun, is a lack of attention given to training teachers for adult education. The director of the UNESCO office in Beirut, Abdel Moneim Osman, claims the lack of good education for adults in the Arab region ‘‘is certainly caused by a lack of resources’’. ALECSO has asked official institutions, civic organisations and the private sector in Arab countries to join forces in order to fight illiteracy. (ANSAmed).
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Elections; Polls, Lieberman Kadima-Likud Influence
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, FEBRUARY 6 — Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beitenu, the radical right) will establish if the next government will be led by Benyamin Netanyahu (Likud) or by Tzipi Livni (Kadima), predict voices on the Israeli political scene in light of recent polls which show Likud and Kadima neck and neck with Israel Beitenu in a firm third place. Just days before the elections, they sustain, Lieberman’s desires will have a determining effect on the decision of the Head of State, Shimon Peres, in granting the formation of a new government to either Netanyahu or Livni, if they do in fact receive a similar number of seats. The economic daily Globes is a step ahead and sustains that, after having surpassed Ehud Barak’s Labour Party, Lieberman is now closing in on Kadima. In its poll, Likud is to receive 26 seats (on 120) Kadima 22-23, Israel Beitenu 20-21 and Labour 15-16. If in the next four days Likud were to continue to weaken and Israel Beitenu managed to accelerate, Lieberman, according to Globes, could even hope to win the elections. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Election Polls, Likud and Kadima Close,15% Undecided
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — Total opposition to any cease-fire with Hamas was expressed by the Israeli right wing strong-man, Avigdor Lieberman, whose party, Israel Beitenu, was given third place in the polls today, following Likud and Kadima for the political elections on February 10. Four days from the vote, the Likud nationalists still hold a slight lead over the centrist Kadima in the polls published by the press. The percentage of undecided voters remains very high, at least 15%, according to the Haaretz newspaper. Again according to Haaretz, Benyamin Netanyahu’s Likud is set to obtain 27 seats (on a total of 120), while the Tzipi Livni’s Kadima party would get 25, with analogous results for Yediot Ahronot and Maariv. As for Lieberman, ‘‘there can be no truce with terrorism, but only a definitive victory’’ he exclaimed yesterday during a rally in Haifa. ‘‘The Hamas regime in Gaza must be defeated soon. While we will be governing, there will be no truce with ‘Hamastan’’’. To the leaders of Hamas, Lieberman ‘‘advised’’ them to release without demands the Israeli soldier Ghilad Shalit, who has been a prisoner in Gaza since 2006. ‘‘We will not negotiate for his release by offering to liberate hundreds of Palestinian terrorists’’ he promised to his supporters, criticising the Olmert government on its way out. ‘‘Hamas must know that if Shalit does not return safe and sound, none of its leaders will be safe. So the best thing to do is to release him as soon as possible’’. His radical right wing party, Israel Beitenu, has come in third in the polls, while Ehud Barak’s Labour Party slide back to fourth for the first time in history. It seems that confessional parties and those from the right wing will ensure 65 seats in the Knesset, but much will depend on the behaviour of the Arab electorate, which could renounce voting in protest for the Israeli military operation against Hamas in Gaza. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Media: Success of Free Newspapers in Israel
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JANUARY 29 — A survey conducted by the TGI institute relating to the circulation of Israeli press, has revealed that in 2008, the face of Israeli press altered significantly, with three free newspapers managing to win the trust of a significant portion of readers (11.3%), who have since stopped buying alternative newspapers. The TGI institute reports that after the tabloid Yediot Ahronot, the second most widely-read newspaper in Israeli today is Israel ha-Yom, which is distributed free on public transport used by commuters and, in some cities, is also delivered to homes. Israel ha-Yom is considered to be politically close to the Likud party. The three free newspapers (Israel ha-Yom, 24 minutes and Post) are read by 26.9% of Israelis who read a newspaper every day. The TGI survey reveals that the major Israeli (paid-for) daily newspapers have reported a slight downturn in sales. Yediot Ahronot remains the most widely circulated newspaper in Israel (read by 36.2% of those who read a newspaper every day), followed by Maariv (14.5), Haaretz (7.3) and by the economic newspaper Globes (3.8). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Natural Gas Find Could Transform Israel’s Economy
Israel could be one step closed to energy independence after drilling companies announced the discovery of “extremely significant” natural gas reserves at an offshore drilling site in the Mediterranean about 60 miles off the coast of Haifa, Israel.
One massive pocket of natural gas is expected to contain more than three trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to feed Israel’s energy needs for 15 years, lessening its dependence on foreign fuel.
This is the largest natural gas reserve discovered in Israel, with an estimated value of $15 billion. It is three times larger than an existing drill site on Israel’s southern coast, which is expected to be depleted in five years. Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer called the discovery an “historic moment” for Israel.
The Tamar 1 site, named after the granddaughter of Israeli geologist Yossi Langotsky who helped locate the site, is a joint venture between four major stakeholders: the Houston-based Noble Energy, and three major Israeli partners Isramco Negev, Delek Drilling, and Avner Oil and Gas Exploration.
Independence from foreign fuel sources
Delek Drilling’s PR representative Shaya Segal told ISRAEL21c that it will take some time to understand the impact of the find: “First of all we don’t have the full information,” he says. “We just know there are great quantities there. In about two and a half weeks, after more tests are concluded, we will know more exactly what is there.”
In terms of Israel’s future, the impact could be enormous. “It can contribute a lot to the Israeli economy,” says Segal. “And give us independence with anything that has to do with natural gas.”
In Israel, that would mean fuelling power plants with natural gas, as opposed to the more polluting coal or oil fuel sources. “It’s much more environmentally friendly,” agrees Segal.
Biggest in US company’s history
In a press statement, the companies announced: “Subject to receipt of further data from the drill site, the estimated reserves of natural gas are likely even to increase.” And Charles D. Davidson, the CEO and chairman of Noble Energy said: “This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the company’s history.”
While the drilling is difficult — the sea floor at the site is located more than a mile underwater, the wells are covered under more than a mile of salt, and some analysts say that actualization of the wells is speculative, since transporting natural gas is difficult — Tel Aviv stocks for Isramco, The Delek Group and Avner rose more than 45 percent.
Some analysts estimate that it will cost about $1 billion dollars in infrastructure to extract the gas from the depths of the sea. Extraction of gas could begin in 2013.
The find also gives hope for environmentalists, who have been petitioning that the building of new coal-fire power plants in Israel be stopped. It will certainly be good news to Shai Agassi of Better Place, who plans to install an electric car system and grid in Israel, over the next years. One of the criticisms of his project, before this new gas pocket find, was that the electric cars would be fueled by power plants running on “dirty” fuel such as coal.
But before the champagne corks are popped, analysts caution that further investigations at the Tamar site be made. They are also insisting that while the natural gas find will boost the country’s economy for some years, Israel’s future remains in high tech, not energy.
Dan Halman, the CEO of Halman-Aldubi Group, a mutual funds firm in Israel told The Jerusalem Post: “If the Tamar site opposite the Haifa coast succeeds in producing the significant quantities of natural gas predicted, we are talking about a revolution which will have an impact on the Israeli economy for the coming generations.”
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
UN Halts Aid to Gaza After Hamas Seizure
The UN yesterday suspended food aid in Gaza after the seizure by a Hamas-controlled ministry of 10 truckloads of flour and rice intended for distribution to civilians in the Strip.
The seizure was the second in 48 hours after Hamas police took thousands of blankets and food parcels destined for Gaza residents displaced by Israel’s 22-day military offensive last month.
After the overnight seizure, Chris Gunness, chief spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which is responsible for the welfare of a majority of Gaza’s 1.4 million residents, said: “Hamas has got to hand back all the aid that they have taken and they have to give credible assurances that this will not happen again. Until this happens, our imports into Gaza will be suspended.” He said that a complaint had been filed with the Hamas de facto government and added: “There is enough aid for days, not weeks.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: In Provincial Elections Secular Parties Win, Religious Parties Lose Big
After 90 per cent of votes counted Prime Minister Maliki’s party wins in Baghdad and Basra. The premier and his allies also win in ten of 14 provinces where voting took place. Claims of vote rigging in the Sunni west are made. UN secretary general makes a surprise visit today in Iraq.
Baghdad (AsiaNews/ Agencies) — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s political bloc (State of Law) and allies swept to victory in last Sunday’s provincial elections in Iraq. Although Maliki’s party failed to get an absolute majority, the results will strengthen his government. The results were a major blow to Iraq’s largest Shiite religious party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC). And the picture that is emerging from results released by the Independent High Electoral Commission (IGEC) point towards the secularisation of Iraqi politics as voters chose nationalist parties, good government and the fight against corruption in lieu of radical religious movements. Elections were held in 14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces.
IGEC head Faraj al-Haidary announced yesterday that 90 per cent of the votes cast had been counted, but final results to assign the 440 seats up for grabs will be made public only in three weeks time because of complex voting rules on how to allocate seats. The newly elected provincial councils will then elect each provincial governor.
In Baghdad and Basra the success of the ruling party was clear cut with 38 per cent of the vote, followed by Muqtada al-Sadr’s radical Shia group and a Sunni party with 9 per cent each. In 10 of the 14 provinces Al-Maliki’s allies won. By contrast, the SIIC only got 5.4 per cent in the capital and a bit more in Basra where it came in second at 11.6 per cent.
In many other southern provinces, including Najaf, the victory of the prime minister’s coalition was less obvious. It does however set the stage for possible future coalitions as the country prepared for upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for later this year.
In Nineveh Governatorate a Sunni nationalist party came in first with 38.4 per cent of the vote, followed by the Kurdish Alliance with 25.5.
In the 2005 parliamentary elections Sunni voters had boycotted the vote, causing tensions that eventually led to violence and attacks. With this election conflict should move to the political arena and this could prove decisive in providing the area with greater security.
Allegations of vote rigging in the western, predominantly Sunni province of Anbar are the only discordant note heard so far.
Initial results there indicate that a based Sunni bloc came in first. Formed two years by local tribes who coalesced to fight al-Qaeda, this movement has been critical of Maliki’s government.
Still the relative calm that has prevailed in the country following the release of official results is another positive sign that Iraq is well on its way towards stabilisation.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made a surprise visit to Baghdad today for a series of meeting with the country’s leaders. The provincial election results were the main issue on the table.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Textiles: Turkey, Sector in Crisis, 160 Thousand Jobs at Risk
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 30 — There are more than 160 thousand jobs at risk in Turkey in the textile and clothing industry (20% of the sector’s total work force) in the next 4-6 months. The alarm was launched in a research done by the Association of Clothing Producers in Istanbul (IHKIB) whose members have been putting pressure on the government for some time for a plan to support the industry by reducing to a maximum of 50% the social contributions paid by companies who don’t fire employees in this difficult economic phase. That is, according to entrepreneurs, it would contribute to the reduction the final costs of Turkish products, increasing competitiveness in international markets. Turkey’s production capacity — again according to the IHKIB — in recent months has been reduced by over 25% with negative effects on exports to the EU as well as the US, the to primary markets for products ‘Made in Turkey’. The research highlights how the current state of weakness for the Turkish lira (TL) compared to the dollar and the euro has given relief to exporters who have not been able to profit from it during the difficult economic trend that has set in over the world. The research shows that the global crisis in the textiles sector is hitting all of the major producers, even those in the Far East, which could in the end have the positive effect of moving a substantial portion of medium to high quality production to European and American companies from their long-time havens in China and Indonesia, to countries like Turkey where the qualitative standards are higher than the Asian area. (ANSAmed).
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Turkey: Population Rises 1.3% and Exceeds 71 Million in 2008
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 27 — Turkey’s population has risen to 71,517,100 in 2008, a 1.3% increase in comparison with 70,586,256 in 2007, the Turkish Statistical Institution (Turkstat) reported. The population of 55 of 81 provinces increased, while 26 provinces recorded a decline in population in 2008, according to the results of the “Address-Based Population Registration System” announced by Turkstat. The rate of the population increase was highest in the northwestern provinces of Yalova and Tekirdag and the southeastern province of Hakkari, while it was the lowest in the northwestern province of Bilecik, the western province of Kutahya and the southern province of Isparta in 2008. (ANSAmed).
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Nepal: Journalist Federation Accuses Government of Threatening Media Freedom
A climate of “impunity” and “psychological terror”; threats and aggression, but those responsible for the violence go unpunished. The cases of two slain journalists, with local Communist Party militants involved.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — “The state and political leaders have been promoting impunity by giving protection to criminals involved in crimes against press freedom.” Bishnu Nishthuri, former president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, is speaking out following a mission to various districts of the country along the Tarai valley.
Shiva Gaunle, a representative of the Federation, asserts that some journalists have already decided to censor themselves simply to avoid threats and violence. Women suffer most from the situation.
One emblematic case is that of Uma Singh, a 26-year-old woman killed in mid-January. A journalist at a local radio station in Janakpur, she was attacked by 15 people at her home in Dhanusa. After four people were arrested, a clandestine group claimed responsibility for the killing, saying that they had accidentally killed the wrong person. The target of the murder was another journalist, Manika Jha, who had received death threats on January 11, the same day on which Singh was killed.
Maoist militants are involved in many cases of violence against journalists. In a number of these, investigations and trials do not produce any results. On February 3, the wife of Parakash Thakuri, a journalist who disappeared a year and a half ago, received a letter informing her that on October 27, on the decision of the government cabinet, her husband’s case had been withdrawn from the district court of Kanchanpur. After Thakuri’s disappearance, his wife Janaki had filed charges with the district police, accusing seven local directors of the Nepalese Communist Party (CPN) of kidnapping her husband from his apartment in Bhasi in the district of Mahendranagar.
The Federation reports that in various districts in the west, journalists work in conditions of “psychological terror,” under the pressure of threats from groups and leaders of the CPN, and of pro-independence local movements.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: Two Indian-Owned Hospitals Closed by Maoist Union Strike
The workers are asking for higher wages. The two clinics are providing only emergency services, and hundreds of people are without medical care. The Maoist prime minister is calling for an end to the “strike culture,” which has caused crisis in the economy and in commercial relations with foreign partners.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Two Indian-owned hospitals are closing because of strikes by Maoist unions, which are asking for higher wages. Manipal Hospital in Pokhara and B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Science in Dharan have suspended their activities after their personnel walked out in protest against insufficient pay.
The protests, which began on February 2, are being led by the Nepal Health Workers Union (ANHWU) and the Non-Teaching Staff Union, both connected to the ruling Maoist party. The demonstrators are asking for contracts limited to 240 working days, and an increase in pay according to compensation guidelines published by the government. The administration of Manipal Hospital says that it is “providing more salary and facilities than other hospitals in the country. Even the sanitation workers get more pay than the government announced scale.”
With 700 beds, Manipal Hospital is one of the largest university clinics in Nepal; the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Science (BPKIHS), connected to the hospital of Pokhara, has 1500 beds. The two structures have a combined 1750 medical personnel.
The strikers are forcing both hospitals to provide only emergency care, on the part of Indian physicians, and are causing a crisis for the health system of the two districts of Kaski and Sunsari where the two hospitals operate: hundreds of patients are going without care.
ANHWU treasurer Shiva K.C. says, “We haven’t shut down the hospital; we are just off-duty with our demands.” Devi Bahadur Rai, coordinator of the BPKIHS strikes in Dharan, says that the demonstrations will continue as long as “[hospital] management refuses to provide 10% of the basic salary for the provident fund.”
The protests began two days after the appeal of the prime minister and president of the Maoist party, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, “Prachanda,” to end the “culture of the bandha,” the word for strikes in Nepal. For a number of months, the Maoist unions have been straining the country’s economy severely in all the fields that involve mostly foreign companies, especially Indian.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: ‘Over 50 Militants Killed in Northwest’
Landi Kotal, 6 Feb. (AKI) — By Syed Saleem Shahzad — Pakistani security agencies on Friday killed at least 52 suspected militants in a major military operation in Khyber Agency, the area bordering Afghanistan, sources told Adnkronos International (AKI).
The operation followed bombings of two bridges through which trucks pass carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The suspected militants died and several others were injured after security forces backed by gunship helicopters bombed militants’ key positions along the border areas of Khyber and Orakzai Agencies in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt.
“The operation started all of a sudden soon after another bridge was blown up early this morning. The operation was conducted on intelligence sources by the Frontier Corps,” unnamed Pakistani intelligence sources told AKI.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide carbomb attack on Friday against a checkpoint in the town of Jamrud which officials said wounded seven people.
“Most of the militants hail from Afghanistan and other tribal areas. They were not the local residents of Khyber Agency, therefore they are trying to flee from the area. But the security forces have arranged to choke their exit,” the intelligence source told AKI.
Militants on Tuesday blew up a key bridge near the near the Ali Masjid fort, cutting off for at least ten days all NATO supplies that normally pass along the road. Militants have in the past few months stepped up attacks against NATO convoys in the Khyber Pass. These first began in early 2008.
Suspected Taliban militants in December destroyed over 450 NATO containers intended to provide extra supplies for international forces in Afghanistan just as the United States was planning to send four new American combat brigades to Afghanistan.
Every day 300 to 400 NATO supply containers are dispatched from two ports, Bin Qasim and Karachi Port, both situated in Karachi, bound for the Afghan cities of Kandahar and Kabul.
Since the Taliban attacks have intensified in the Khyber pass, the US has been negotiating with Iran and Central Asian countries to find alternative routes for NATO supplies to Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Bangladeshi Militant ‘Link’ to Mumbai Attacks
Islamabad, 5 Feb. (AKI/DAWN) — Pakistani investigators probing the Mumbai terror attacks are investigating a link to the banned Bangladeshi militant group, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B), and its possible involvement in training terrorists and planning the three-day assault.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency is expected to present a report soon and share its findings with India.
The report is likely to indicate that the Mumbai attack was conducted by an ‘international network of Muslim fundamentalists’ that spread from South Asia and to the Middle East and build the case for greater regional anti-terror cooperation.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, which translates as The Islamic Struggle Movement, is a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist paramilitary organisation active in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. It was banned in Bangladesh in 2005.
Although the contents of the intelligence report are being kept a tightly-guarded secret by Pakistan’s interior ministry, sources have told Pakistani daily Dawn it will reveal the Mumbai incident is not strictly an issue for Pakistan and India.
Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Wajid Shamsul Hassan indicated in a recent interview that investigations had revealed the terrorist attack was not planned in Pakistan.
“Pakistani territory was not used so far as the investigators have made their conclusions,” Hassan said in the interview. “It could have been some other place,” he added.
He did not identify the “other place” to which he referred. However, his remarks were dismissed by both prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi as “hasty”.
The investigators were intensely probing, the sources said, if at least one of the Mumbai attackers was of Bangladeshi origin.
A senior western diplomat confirmed the investigation and told Dawn that there was a strong possibility that one of the attackers was a Bangladeshi national.
The Mumbai attacks targeted two luxury hotels and other city landmarks in November last year.
A total 173 people died and hundreds of others were injured. One of the ten gunman survived the attacks and Islamabad later admitted he was a Pakistani citizen.
In January Pakistan bowed to international pressure and arrested 124 militants suspected of involvement in the deadly terrorist attacks.
The government said it had closed five training camps and 20 offices belonging to banned charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the outlawed Kashmiri separatist group, Lashkar-e-Toiba.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria-Cuba: Hepatitis B Vaccine Production Starts in June
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 3 — Algerian pharmaceutical group Saidal and Cuba’s Heber Biotic have signed an agreement to produce a hepatitis B vaccine in Algeria. The first phase of the agreement, reported Saidal in a communiqué, involves training Algerian personnel and collaborating in the field of technology with the Pasteur Institute in Algiers. In June, work will start on constructing a hepatitis B vaccine production lab. With a cost of 3.5 million euro, the pharmaceutical laboratory will produce 5 million doses of the vaccine in its first year. A few days ago, Saidal announced plans to create eight labs with a total investment of 230 million dollars by 2015. The pharmaceutical laboratories, which will produce drugs including vaccines and anti-tumour drugs locally, will be built in Annaba, Costantine, and Setif (east) Oran (west), Kabylie, Tizi Ouzou, and Algiers. Another lab will be built in Tamanreasset, in the extreme south of the country (2000km south of Algiers), and will produce drugs to treat diseases that are especially widespread in Africa. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fortress: 35 Dead in Sicilian Channel in Jan
(ANSAmed) — CATANZARO, FEBRUARY 5 — In January 2009, at least 62 migrants died trying to cross European borders, 35 of whom in the Sicilian Channel. The total number of the ‘victims of immigration’ since 1988 has now reached 13,431. These figures were published by the Fortress Europe Observatory. The group has published a report entitled ‘Guantanamo Libya: the new police of the Italian borders’, and a statement released by the Observatory notes that the report looks at “the inhumane detention conditions of would-be immigrants arrested south of Lampedusa by Libyan police”. The statement also expressed “serious concerns over the imminent creation of joint patrols, following the ratification of the Italo-Libyan treaty which the Italian senate recently approved”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Raft Missing South of Malta Found
(ANSAmed) — VALLETTA, FEBRUARY 5 — An Italian coast guard plan has localized the large raft with hundreds of migrants which had been missing for three days. It was found drifting 47 miles south-east of Malta. The report from the coast guard, on what the latter defined as requiring a search and rescue operation, has been transmitted to the Maltese authorities, who are assessing the situation. A military plane, according to reports from Valletta, has taken off for a reconnaissance flight. On Sunday, after the call for help from a satellite phone of one of those on the raft, most of whom from Somalia, the Maltese armed forces sent a helicopter and a patrol boat out, but both were forced to return to land due to bad weather conditions. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Protest in Favour of Mosque Saturday in Genoa
(ANSAmed) — GENOA, FEBRUARY 5 — A demonstration to support the construction of a mosque in the city has been organised by a group of pacifists, Catholics and environmentalists for Saturday in Genoa, to “give a signal”, after mayor Marta Vincenzi recently announced her opposition to the project. In a flyer to be distributed today, the organisers say that “the announcement of the construction of the mosque is a normal part of urban planning, giving Genoese Muslims the chance to practise their faith without undue difficulty, as well as a way to enrich and foster growth in the entire neighbourhood.” “The granting of an area for the building of a mosque in Genoa,” continued those promoting the initiative, “is an act of civility and a recognition of the rights of all citizens to express and practise what they believe in.” In addition, “the petitioners intend ton defend the rights of Muslims to observe their religion in compliance with the law (Article 8 of the Constitution).” “We would like this to show a sign of civility, to focus on the right of worship and to bring in dialogue with the entire neighbourhood, despite the fact that many of us are non-believers,” said Andrea Agostini of Legambiente (environmental protection agency), one of the demonstration’s organisers. On Tuesday during an on-site inspection of the suburban Lagaccio area chosen by the town council for the construction of the mosque, Minister for Community Policies Andreea Ronchi announced his support for the collection of signatures to organise a referendum on the issue. A committee of citizens in the east-central part of the city have already collected over 3,500 signatures with a petition in which it is asked that the mosque not be built, neither in the municipality in question nor in any part of Genoa.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Operation Sweetheart: How the British Engineer Flew Into Communist Russia to Rescue the Love of His Life
He was a Cambridge graduate turned 1930s adventurer. She was a beautiful nurse in Stalin’s Soviet Union. They fell in love — but then were parted for five years by the brutal regime. What Brian Grover did to win back his love would defy belief if it were a Hollywood epic. But every word of this story, set down by Grover before his death 17 years ago and now published in a new book, is true.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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