There are a lot of news stories tonight about the Netherlands. Bus drivers in Arnhem walked off the job to protest increasing violence on their buses by “youths”. Stores in an Amsterdam shopping mall (including IKEA) were closed down due to terrorist bomb threats. The Dutch have been cited by the Council of Europe for their human rights violations. And a new chief of police has been appointed for the region of Zuid-Holland, despite being a white male.Thanks to Amil Imani, C. Cantoni, CSP, Insubria, JD, Steen, TB, Tuan Jim, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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45 Percent of World’s Wealth Destroyed: Blackstone CEO
Private equity company Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) CEO Stephen Schwarzman said on Tuesday that up to 45 percent of the world’s wealth has been destroyed by the global credit crisis.
“Between 40 and 45 percent of the world’s wealth has been destroyed in little less than a year and a half,” Schwarzman told an audience at the Japan Society. “This is absolutely unprecedented in our lifetime.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Exports Plunge: Minus 25% in February
Experts were expecting a reduction of 5%. Party academics estimate that the government will have to find work for at least 50 million unemployed.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — China’s exports fell 25.7 % in February from a year earlier. Imports fell 24.1%, the General Administration of Customs also announced today. Economist’s forecasts had put the slide at 5% exports and 25% imports.
The new data confirms the worrying slowdown in the Chinese economy, the third strongest in the world, and up until now based on exports, a sector now in crisis because of the global economic situation.
Reductions in exports are creating heavy unemployment. Businesses which relied upon foreign orders are closing without notice, leaving thousands of workers on the streets without jobs. According to academics of the Chinese communist party, this year the government will have to find work for an estimated 50 million people.
In order to halt the effects of the crises, linked to exports, the government has planned to increase internal demand, by adopting a packet of measures worth 4 trillion Yuan (over 400 billion Euro) as well as tax relief for exporters and investment in large infrastructural projects.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
David Frum: an Insider’s Guide to the Obama Administration’s Mistakes
Invited by a reporter Monday to criticize President Obama’s economic plans, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, naturally brushed the question aside. “You want me to tell you what’s wrong with the fiscal stimulus package?” she said. “SO not going to do that!”
Too late! As it happens, the lecture Romer had just finished delivering at the Brookings Institute on Monday afternoon was criticism enough.
An expert on the Great Depression, Romer organized her lecture around six lessons distilled from the era. The administration she serves seems to be disregarding every one of them.
LESSON ONE: Romer warned that a small fiscal stimulus has only small effects. “While Roosevelt’s fiscal actions were a bold break from the past, they were nevertheless small relative to the size of the problem,” she said. Roosevelt’s spending increased the deficit by only 1.5 percent of GDP in 1934. And Obama? His fiscal stimulus is certainly big-almost $800 billion, or “close to three percent of GDP in each of the next two years,” Romer said. But most of that money won’t be spent until 2010 or later, meaning it’s fairly modest right now, when we really need it.
LESSON TWO: Romer argued that monetary expansion can be a powerful tool even when interest rates have reached zero. The Roosevelt administration reflated by taking the U.S. off the gold standard in 1933-and then (unintentionally) by issuing “gold certificates” against the European gold that flowed into the U.S. as war approached in the late 1930s. The Obama administration, by contrast, seems to have written off monetary policy as exhausted, and is betting everything on the power of its inadequate fiscal stimulus.
Romer expressed her concerns on this matter delicately: “In thinking about the lessons from the Great Depression for today,” she said, “I want to tread very carefully. A key rule of my current job is that I do not comment on Federal Reserve policy. So, let me be very clear-I am not advocating going on a gold standard just so we can go off it again, or that Tim Geithner should start conducting rogue monetary policy. But the experience of the 1930s does suggest that monetary policy can continue to have an important role to play even when interest rates are low by affecting expectations, and in particular, by preventing expectations of deflation.”
Behind Romer’s delicate words is a question: Why does the Obama administration talk down the importance of monetary policy? The Federal Reserve still has weapons in its arsenal, including what’s called “quantitative easing”-technical jargon for what amounts to printing more money and deliberately inflating. These measures are not only powerful, they are a lot easier to stop when they are no longer needed-unlike, say, the administration’s big spending plans.
LESSON THREE: Romer warned against cutting back on stimulus too soon-the mistake that FDR made in 1937. That may sound like a justification for the slow-release Obama fiscal plan. But as Romer notes, FDR’s stimulus was not so much ended as it was counteracted, by the imposition of Social Security taxes in 1937, for example. In the same way, the Obama administration has already announced that upper-bracket income taxes will rise in 2011. More ominously, that’s likely the date at which the administration’s cap-and-trade plan will go into effect, sharply increasing energy costs.
Romer seems worried about this problem too: “We will need to monitor the economy closely to be sure that the private sector is back in the saddle before government takes away its crucial lifeline,” she said.
LESSON FOUR: Romer noted that financial recovery and real recovery go together. But not in this administration! The stimulus plan is already enacted. A huge omnibus spending bill is rolling to the finish line. And big budget increases in fiscal 2010 seem certain. Yet at best the Obama financial plan is still a work in progress. My colleague John Makin from the American Enterprise Institute offers a tougher description: the plan, he says, is “opaque, ad hoc and unsystematic.”
LESSON FIVE: Romer urged that the recovery efforts must be global. Too bad, then, about this report in Tuesday’s Washington Post: “ Even as world trade takes its steepest drop in 80 years amid the global economic crisis, the administration is preparing to take a harder line with America’s trading partners. It will seek new benchmarks before supporting already-written trade agreements with Colombia and South Korea and is suggesting that it will dig in its heels on global trade talks, demanding that other countries make broader concessions first.”
LESSON SIX: Romer’s final lesson may be the least reassuring: Despite the chaos, loss of faith and lost wealth, the Great Depression, she said, “did eventually end.” So it did. And so did the dinosaurs. In the long run we are indeed all dead. In the short run, however, it would be nice not to be poor.
In an administration that increasingly seems baffled by the financial crisis, a White House official who is willing to pierce the illusion of happy consensus can do a real service. We don’t need jolly, bogus reassurance. We need real thinking and a more open and productive debate. The administration’s top economist has now publicly, if elliptically, served notice of the likely inadequacy of the administration’s plans. Better to correct course early rather than too late!
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Says Capitalism on Verge of Collapse
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told regional leaders on Wednesday that the capitalist system was close to collapse.
Opening a one-day summit of the 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) including Turkey, Pakistan and other neighbors, he also suggested a single currency should be used in trade between members.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Honeymoon Bliss Fading
President Obama’s honeymoon is beginning to fade.
Members of Congress and old political hands say he needs to show substantial progress reviving the economy soon.
Some Democrats have started to worry that voters don’t and won’t understand the link between economic revival and Obama’s huge agenda, which includes saving the banking industry, ending home foreclosures, reforming healthcare and developing a national energy policy, among much else.
While lawmakers debate controversial proposals contained in the new president’s debut budget — cutting farm subsidies, raising taxes on charitable contributions, etc. — there is a growing sense that time is running out faster than expected.
Democrats from states racked by recession say Obama needs to produce an uptick by August or face unpleasant consequences. Others say that there is more time, but that voters need to see improvement by the middle of next year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Calls for Tripling of IMF Firepower
The US raised the stakes in its drive for an aggressive response to the global financial crisis on Wednesday, calling for a tripling of the International Monetary Fund’s firepower and bigger fiscal stimulus measures worldwide.
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EPA Plans U.S. Registry of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to establish a nationwide system for reporting greenhouse gas emissions, a program that could serve as the basis for a federal cap on the buildup of carbon dioxide and other gases linked to global warming.
The registry plan, which was announced yesterday, would cover about 13,000 facilities that account for 85 to 90 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas output. It was drafted under the Bush administration but stalled after the Office of Management and Budget objected to it because the EPA based the rule on its powers under the Clean Air Act.
“Our efforts to confront climate change must be guided by the best possible information,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in a statement. “Through this new reporting, we will have comprehensive and accurate data about the production of greenhouse gases. This is a critical step toward helping us better protect our health and environment — all without placing an onerous burden on our nation’s small businesses.”
Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both California Democrats, had inserted language in a 2007 spending bill instructing EPA to develop a national greenhouse gas reporting system.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
For Sale: the New York Times Corporate Jet
by Micahel Calderone
It looks like Arthur Sulzberger Jr. may have to fly commercial: The Times Co. is selling its corporate jet.
Editor & Publisher pulled out this nugget from the Times annual meeting proxy.
Besides chauffeuring around the Times top executive, the jet came in handy after the Iowa caucus last year, as Times staffers avoided congestion at the Des Moines airport en route to New Hampshire.
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Lies in Plain Sight
The establishment press gives no airtime to experts with a pragmatic sense of economics. They don’t report the lavish soirees the Obamas have been throwing, or the harridan Nancy Pelosi’s squandering of taxpayer money on military jets to ferry her family and friends around the country. Not a word has been spoken with respect to Obama lying about banning earmarks and curtailing the influence of lobbyists. Most Americans would be amazed to learn that aggressor nations such as North Korea and Iran — which were supposed to have changed their tunes as soon as Obama was sworn in — have stepped up their anti-American rhetoric.
Most importantly, we don’t hear that Congress and the Obama administration are wiping their behinds with the Constitution and quite literally stealing billions of dollars from us on a weekly basis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Listen to the Gitmo Five
WASHINGTON WONKS IN DENIAL KSM: TELLING US EXACTLY WHAT HE BELIEVES.
AS White House staffer Jane Austen put it to Sen. Darcy: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single terrorist in possession of a good bomb must be in want of patient understanding.”
Unfortunately for Washington wonks determined to deny that Islamist extremists are motivated by extremist Islam, the pride and prejudice of Allah’s butchers were on public display (again) this week.
Framed in florid quotations from the Koran, the Gitmo Five — hard-core terrorists, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed — proclaimed in a filing released by a brave military judge that “We are terrorists to the bone” who regard the charges resulting from “the blessed 11 September operations” as “badges of honor.”
Desperate to placate its blame-America supporters, the Obama administration has clamped down on news from Guantanamo. Why? After their lurid criticisms of Gitmo, the Dems now have the world’s worst killers on their hands.
And they don’t know what to do. Responsibility sucks.
At the core of our inability to cope with Islamist terrorists lies Washington’s denial that fanatical Islam is even a factor. Yet refusing to accept that Islam Gone Wild is behind the actions of al Qaeda or the Taliban is akin to insisting that sex has nothing to do with making babies.
Other factors may intensify or accelerate a terrorist’s will to slaughter the innocent. But the dark heart of the matter is that these men believe they’re on a mission from their god to punish the godless (including fellow Muslims who don’t measure up).
Yet, no matter how fiercely our enemies declare that their faith compels them to kill, our elected and appointed officials continue to insist that the terrorists don’t understand themselves — that they’re really driven by economic factors or our own foreign-policy missteps, that their savage interpretation of Islam is only a ploy . . .
Shouldn’t we pay just a little attention to what our enemies say about themselves?
Radical Islam isn’t just a smokescreen. Jihad is real. And it ain’t about who got the Coca-Cola franchise in Khartoum.
As I seethe through DC meetings (always careful to wash thoroughly afterward), I’m continually disheartened by the contortions of “experts” determined to prove that enemies who regard death as a promotion aren’t really devout, that they just need hugs and massive amounts of aid.
A few weeks back, I spoke to a roomful of senior military officers. In response to my suggestion that we should listen to what terrorists are only too glad to tell us, a foreign “counterinsurgency expert” insisted that religion simply isn’t a factor.
To buttress his claim, he cited the survey every Muslims-R-Us analyst trots out: In questioning 138,000 prisoners who passed through US hands in Iraq, barely 10 percent claimed to be motivated by Islam, while 60 percent of the violent actors said they did it for money. (The rest were just in a bad mood.)
Even if every Iraqi told the complete truth, that misses the point. This isn’t about quantity, but the quality of commitment. Terrorist movements never field a majority or even a significant minority of a population. At most, a few hundred fanatics were behind 9/11.
Anyway, who paid the did-it-for-cash bunch? The religious fanatics.
Even in ethnic struggles, such as those in the Balkans in the 1990s, the violence begins with less than 1 percent of the population armed and determined. The ranks of the violent swell for various reasons, but it’s the hard-core believers in the supremacy of their blood or faith who instigate the destruction of troubled societies.
To counter that carpetbagger’s statistics, I pointed out that a sampling of 138,000 German POWs in 1945 would have shown that fewer than 5 percent were unrepentant believers in Nazi ideology. But subtract Nazism from the German political equation, and there would’ve been no World War II in Europe. True believers shatter worlds.
As for the argument that not every terrorist lived in a state of perfect religious purity before jumping into jihad, that utterly misses the point: A society’s prevailing sense of right and wrong is shaped by centuries of religious culture. American atheists conform to behavioral values ingrained in us all by thousands of years of Judeo-Christian authority.
In the Greater Middle East, even lackadaisical Muslims have been molded by the legacy of 13 centuries of Islam. Thus Mom thinks it a splendid thing that her son strapped on a bomb and became a martyr by murdering 40 innocents in a market.
Her culture admires that “sacrifice.” Ours doesn’t.
Listen to the Gitmo Five. Unlike our Washington pols, they have intellectual integrity. They’re telling us honestly who they are and why they seek to kill us.
Our response? “They don’t know what they’re talking about.”
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Grants 2 More Lobbyists Waivers
Brings La Raza immigration activist on board
The waivers were provided for Jocelyn Frye, director of policy and projects in the Office of the First Lady, and Cecilia Munoz, director of intergovernmental affairs in the executive office of the president. The two waivers were announced on the White House blog Tuesday evening, which said the exceptions were granted under a “public interest” exemption of the executive order on ethics.
Munoz was a senior vice president for the National Council of La Raza, where she supervised all legislative and advocacy activities on the state and local levels. Munoz was heavily involved in the immigration battles in Congress in recent years, and is now a principal liaison to the Hispanic community for the administration.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: Pro-Israel Talk, Anti-Israel Walk
Barely a month into the presidency of Barack Obama, a profound realization is spreading among the pro-Israel community: we do not have an ally in the White House. The growing threat that Israel and the Jewish People now face demands an immediate acceptance of the “facts on the ground” regarding President Obama’s perspective and agenda, and decisive action to prevent the frightening reality that he may play a leading role in creating.
So how exactly did this get by most Jewish voters during last year’s election? While some, including this author, warned of his dubious associations and likely course of action regarding Israel, Obama brilliantly pandered to Jewish crowds around the country with his scripted and amorphous proclamations of support for Israel, while utilizing an array of prominent Jewish surrogates in order to avoid any real accountability.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
S.F. Police Union Accuses Ayers in 1970 Bombing
Leaders of San Francisco’s police officers union have accused Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, of taking part in the 1970 bombing of a city police station that killed a sergeant.
The union leveled the charge in a letter to a conservative organization lobbying for arrests in the case, but said it had not been in contact with investigators and had no new evidence related to the bombing, which killed Sgt. Brian McDonnell.
Instead, the union cited information from a former Bay Area resident, Larry Grathwohl, who is working with the conservative group, America’s Survival Inc. of Maryland. Grathwohl asserts that he infiltrated the Weather Underground as an FBI informant and heard Ayers confess to a role in the bombing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorist Watch List Hits 1 Million
The government’s terrorist watch list has hit 1 million entries, up 32% since 2007.
Federal data show the rise comes despite the removal of 33,000 entries last year by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center in an effort to purge the list of outdated information and remove people cleared in investigations.
It’s unclear how many individuals those 33,000 records represent — the center often uses multiple entries, or “identities,” for a person to reflect variances in name spellings or other identifying information. The remaining million entries represent about 400,000 individuals, according to the center.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Canada: Khawaja Sentenced to 10 1/2 Years on Terror Charges
OTTAWA — Momin Khawaja, the Ottawa computer specialist who plotted jihad from his government desk, was sentenced Thursday to a further 10 1/2 years in jail on five terrorism-related charges, including financing and facilitating a group of British Islamist extremists plotting to bomb London and to wage religious war against the West.
Khawaja, 29, was found guilty in October, five years after he was arrested in what was seen as a key test of Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act, controversial legislation that was enacted just three months after 9/11.
The court accepted the Crown’s argument that Khawaja had agreed to build 30 remote-controlled bomb detonators for jihadists, although it is not clear that he knew where or how they would be deployed.
Khawaja was working in Ottawa as a software contractor for the Department of Foreign Affairs, when the Mounties swooped on March 29, 2004.
Hours later, hundreds of British police and MI5 security service officers fanned out across pre-dawn London. They arrested several people and seized 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, which they say was to be used in chemical attacks against public sites in and around London by a British terrorist cell directed from Pakistan.
British police charged several suspects, all of Pakistani descent, with terrorism offences. Five were convicted last year and sentenced to life terms.
Khawaja’s defence lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, suggested during pre-sentence hearings that Khawaja, who has been behind bars for five years, should serve just one day more. Greenspon contended that Khawaja’s actions were “the lower end of the spectrum” and not “true terrorism.”
Khawaja did not take the stand in his defence and has been silent on the charges since his arrest.
Crown attorney David McKercher has called Khawaja a threat to society and had asked the courts to impose a life sentence.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Court Rules on CIA Snatch Secrecy
Both sides claim victory in cleric rendition case
(ANSA) — Rome, March 12 — Italy’s Constitutional Court left both sides in a CIA rendition case crying victory after ruling prosecutors had broken state secrecy rules in some cases but not others.
The ruling meant a Milan trial into the 2003 abduction of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr will go ahead next Wednesday but prosecutors will have to do without some pieces of evidence.
In particular, certain documents on the activities of military intelligence agency SISMI have been ruled inadmissible, as well as the confession of a Carabinieri officer who said he took part in the snatch.
But prosecutors will be allowed to use wiretaps of SISMI agents.
However, the exact impact of the sentence on the trial is not yet sure, the presiding judge said Thursday.
“We shall have to wait for the explanation of the verdict,” which typically comes out weeks or even months after rulings, said Judge Oscar Magi.
Prosecutor Armando Spataro said Wednesday night’s verdict “showed we were correct” while the state’s general advocate, Ignazio Francesco Caramazza, claimed “a complete victory”.
Legal experts said the prosecutors would perhaps be hampered by not being allowed to ask questions about relations between the CIA and SISMI.
The upper and lower house caucus chiefs for Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party, Maurizio Gasparri and Fabrizio Cicchitto, reacted to the court ruling Thursday by saying the prosecutors should be punished for “damaging the Italian secret service, Italy’s reputation and the fight against terrorism”.
“This does not end here,” they said, announcing moves to call Spataro and his fellow prosecutors to account.
The Constitutional Court took two days to examine three pleas from successive Italian governments on the trial of several top Italian spies and 26 CIA agents in the abduction of Nasr.
It also considered two counterpleas, from the Milan judge and the prosecution in the case, arguing that state secrecy norms were not violated and the abduction itself was a “subversive” act that breached the Constitution. Spataro has accused Berlusconi and his predecessor Romano Prodi of using national security norms to obstruct justice and “prevent the truth emerging”.
Successive Italian governments, while denying any role in Nasr’s abduction, have argued that the probe compromised relations with foreign security agencies.
The abduction of Nasr claimed headlines worldwide and stoked discussion of the controversial US policy of ‘extraordinary rendition’, which was recently extended by President Barack Obama under the proviso that detainees’ rights should be respected.
The top Italian defendant in the case is Niccolo’ Pollari, the former head of SISMI, which recently changed its name to AISE.
Eight Italians including Pollari and his former deputy Marco Mancini are on trial with the 26 CIA agents, who are being tried in absentia.
The US agents include ex-Rome CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady and ex-Milan chief Jeff Castelli.
‘PERFECT EXAMPLE OF RENDITION’.
The Council of Europe, Europe’s human rights body, has called Nasr’s case a “perfect example of rendition”.
Nasr, the former head of Milan’s main mosque, disappeared from the northern Italian city on February 17, 2003.
Prosecutors say he was snatched by a team of CIA operatives with SISMI’s help and whisked off to a NATO base in Ramstein, Germany.
From there, he was taken to Egypt to be interrogated, allegedly under duress.
Nasr, who was under investigation in Italy on suspicion of helping terrorists, was released early in 2007 from an Egyptian jail where he says he was beaten, given electric shocks and threatened with rape.
He has demanded millions of euros in compensation from the Italian government.
Berlusconi, who was in power at the time of the events, has been called to testify at the trial.
Prodi, his predecessor and successor, has also been admitted as a witness.
The CIA was first granted permission to use rendition in a presidential directive signed by President Bill Clinton in 1995 and the practice grew sharply after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Republic: NATO Must Remain Basis of European Defence — Klaus
Prague — NATO has been one of the pillars of the free world and must remain the basis of the European defence architecture, Czech President Vaclav Klaus writes in a commentary in Hospodarske noviny (HN) when ten years have passed since the Czech Republic’s entry to NATO.
This is the only way to preserve the firm Transatlantic bond on which the postwar security in Europe is based, Klaus says.
He writes that he considers the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO on March 12, 1999 the fulfillment of one of the key priorities of the country’s post-November 1989 foreign and security policy.
All considerations about the future development of European integration in the security area should follow the priority to maintain NATO’s efficiency and ability of action, Klaus points out.
“We must not allow further enlargement to occur at the expense of the ability of action and devaluate the strength and scope of NATO’s security commitments. We must not allow for NATO’s trustworthiness and strength in the world to decline,” Klaus writes.
He says he thinks that NATO has always meant more than a mere military and security pact.
The defence alliance of the most significant democratic countries from both sides of the Atlantic are namely connected not only by joint political interests, but also by the values that these countries are prepared to develop and defend, Klaus notes.
Europe owes its unprecedented 64 years in peace exactly to the U.S. military force and the alliance with it.
“Many of us viewed NATO, even in the communist era, as one of the fundamental pillars of the free world. We saw that it had proved successful face to face to the expansion of the communist totalitarian rule and that it had considerably contributed to the victory of the free world in the Cold War,” Klaus writes.
He adds that the statesmen from the NATO member states who have contributed to the enlargement of the Alliance by the accession of the communist countries deserve great thanks.
During the ten years in NATO, Czech soldiers have proved that they are reliable allies, they have shown courage in combat actions and initiative, Klaus writes.
NATO membership has enabled the Czech military to be transformed into a modern armed force, he concludes in HN.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Republic: Qatar Sends to Czech Republic Decision on Prince Sani — Server
Prague — Qatar has at last sent to the Czech Justice Ministry the official decision by which the Qatari prosecutor’s office halted the prosecution of Prince Hamid bin Abdal Sani who was convicted of sex with underage girls in the Czech Republic, server Tyden.cz reports today.
[Comment from Tuan Jim: By islamic standards, they certainly weren’t underage.]
The Czech verdict was not valid. The Prague Municipal Court could now re-open the case on the basis of the Qatari decision.
The two-page document must first be translated from Arabic, however.
A Prague court sentenced Prince Sani to 2.5 years in prison for sex with 16 underage and juvenile girls in 2005.
The court made the decision even though then justice minister Pavel Nemec decided to hand over Sani’s prosecution to Qatar a few days after Sani was charged.
The lower court and later the Municipal Court in Prague said Nemec’s decision was illegal.
The Supreme Court, however, said law allows the minister to make such a decision.
Sani was released from custody and he left for Qatar where he was arrested, spent eight days in custody and then was investigated for several months.
The Qatari prosecutor, however, eventually halted the prosecution.
Qatar took time sending the official decision and the Czech Justice Ministry sent it several notes, Tyden.cz writes.
The decision eventually arrived in the Czech Republic in February.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Victim’s Funeral Procession in Nørrebro
The Copenhagen police has given the go-ahead for a funeral procession in Nørrebro as part of a demonstration against an ongoing gang war in the district.
The family of Mustafa Shakir Hsownay, who was an innocent victim of a shooting in the Mjølnerparken Estate in Nørrebro on February 27, has been given permission to hold a funeral procession through Nørrebrogade on Saturday.
Mustafa Shakir Hsownay’s coffin will be carried a 3.5 km stretch from Nørrebro Station to Nørreport.
“The demonstration has been registered, and since there’s nothing in the rules that says that you cannot carry a coffin during a demonstration, they have permission,” Jørgen Thomsen of the Permissions and Licensing Department of the Copenhagen Police tells bt.dk.
The family says that the procession is in protest against an ongoing gang war in the capital, according to bt.dk.
Mustafa Shakir Hsownay was killed while sitting in his car in a parking lot at the Mjølnerparken Estate on Feb. 27. Police say he had nothing to do with the ongoing gang war between bikers and immigrant gangs that has plagued the Nørrebro district in recent months.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Minister: OK to Secret Hearings
Denmark is to allow secret intelligence material to be presented in closed administrative extradition court sessions, in cases of claims of dangerous foreigners.
The Minister for Integration Birthe Rønn Hornbech (Lib) is proposing that secret intelligence material can be presented in special closed court sessions in cases involving the administrative expulsion of foreigners deemed a security risk.
Hitherto, the Security and Intelligence Service has declined to provide secret intelligence to back up expulsion orders in order not to compromise its methods and relations with other services.
Hornbech’s proposal will be contingent on all court officers and lawyers having security clearance, and that the accused is not present in court. At the same time, the proposal suggests that detained individuals, or those on restraining orders, can be denied contacts and visits with people who can counteract an expulsion.
Finally, the proposal calls for the use of electronic tags in cases in which those under restraining orders have ignored the rules governing their leave to remain in the country.
Case in question The proposals come in the wake of a controversy surrounding a Tunisian man who was administratively expelled from Denmark because of allegations that he had planned to murder a Danish cartoonist who had produced a published cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
The man could not, however, be expelled to Tunisia for fear of torture in his home country and was given extraordinary leave to remain in Denmark under special restraining orders.
The man appealed the administrative expulsion order, but the Security and Intelligence Service declined to produce its evidence in court for fear of compromising its methods and sources.
The ministerial proposals are expected to be put to Parliament before the summer recess and are based on a report in which the authors have studied how similar cases are handled in countries such as Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Canada and France.
Lawyers Although reluctant to enforce additional security clearance on defence lawyers, the Danish Bar and Law Society says the proposal is a step forward.
“The courts will be involved in more cases — but this is not a practice that would exist in an ideal world,” says Bar and Law Society Chairwoman Sys Rovsing, who adds that she would prefer full openness in all cases.
She says that additional security clearance for lawyers is not what the society would like to see. “We normally live up to our obligations or we are struck off,” she says adding that clearance should not be necessary.
“But let’s live with it for a period and see how it goes,” she concludes.
[Comment from Tuan Jim: If I heard statements like that coming from the ACLU here in the US, I think my head would explode.]
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Segolene Royal Launches Regional Solar Energy Plan
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 27 — Segolene Royal, the President of the French region of Poitou-Charantes, has launched a regional plan for solar energy with the European Investment Bank and Credit Agricole. The plans include an investment of 400 million euros, an unprecedented sum in Europe. Work on the project will continue until 2012, allowing for the installation of 650 thousand square metres of solar panels, the consolidation of the territories’ energy self-sufficiency, the creation of one thousand new jobs across the region, and the realisation of a full solar energy distribution chain in Poitou-Charentes. “This is a unique experience in Europe”, emphasises a note from the European Investment Bank which guarantees a total of 200 million euros of financing for the public bodies, businesses, associations, professionals and farmers involved. The aim is to realise a production of 73 gigawatt hours of solar energy by 2012, which would be 150% of that which was produced in the entire country in 2007 for just 2.8% of the French population. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Film: Catalonia Forces 50% Films to be Dubbed in Catalan
(ANSAmed) — Madrid, MARCH 4 — The government of the Generalitat of Catalonia wants 50% of all films shown in the region to be dubbed into Catalan, the same number that must be dubbed into Spanish. Currently only 3% of films distributed in Catalonia are dubbed into Catalan. The decision — which is likely to create further problems in the relationship between the ‘Comunitat’ and the mainly American film industry — was announced by councillor in charge of Culture Joan Manuel Tresserras. Reports in today’s media show that the councillor explained that the measure was already part of the Law on language normalisation from 1982, which has never been implemented. The initiative, which will be made part of the new film law being worked on by the regional government, means the resumption of one of the hardest battles in defence of the Catalan language, in which the Generalitat has been beaten various times in the past. As Tresserras underlined, “the market has not worked in Catalonia” due to the dominance of the Spanish language “which has frozen the situation to the time of Francoism”, when the regime forbade the speaking of the Basque and Catalan languages. Councillor Tresserras called this situation “a deficit of democracy” and “an anomaly of the cultural system”. The new film law should be passed this summer. It may not be enough though to obtain parity between Catalan and Spanish due to the fact that the big distribution companies will probably refuse to obey the law. In the past the former Catalan president Jordi Pujiol applied a system of subsidies for films screened in Catalan but he was unable to convince big distributors like Disney, which refused to increase its quota of one film in Catalan per year. Big players like Warner, Fox, Columbia, United Artist and Disney itself even appealed against the decree. The climax of the battle for the Catalan language was reached on the occasion of the first Harry Potter film, distributed by Warner, which refused to dub it into Catalan. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Interior Ministry Plans Tighter Screening of Gun Licence Applicants
Finland’s Ministry of the Interior said on Wednesday that it is putting forward changes to the country’s gun law that would tighten especially the availability of handguns.
The planned changes would further define the government’s policy draft from last autumn. The basic idea is that for every gun there has to be an appropriate use, and any person granted a licence has to be suited to carry a weapon. In order to obtain a gun, the applicant would have to be able to prove that it will be used for a serious and active shooting hobby. “The idea is to do away with the practice of shooting in the woods or behind the sauna”, says Interior Minister Anne Holmlund (Nat. Coalition Party). The suitability of those filing an application for a gun licence is to be examined more closely. The ministry is recommending an aptitude test.
A test will be developed based on a Defence Forces aptitude test called the “P2 personality test”. With the P2 test the military rates the conscripts’ mental stability and their leadership qualities. Together with the police the National Defence University will develop a new version of the test, into which questions measuring propensity to violence and mental problems will be added. Certain segments weighing leadership skills, in turn, will be left out. The aim of the test is not to produce a complete psychological profile of the applicant, but merely a result founded on a classification system, based on which questionable cases can be directed to a more detailed screening.
The authorities also want to grant the police permission to access military evaluations regarding the applicant’s fitness for service. Persons liable to military service would have to present their military identity papers or a decision regarding the postponement or the discontinuing of their service. Furthermore, the government recommends that the police be given the right to ask the applicant for permission to see the applicant’s medical certificate. Refusaling access to medical records would lead to rejection of the firearm licence application. Another proposal is to give doctors the right to inform the police of people who may be unsuited to carry a weapon for health reasons. A doctor’s certificate is already required for nearly every handgun licence. The practice was adopted after last autumn’s school shooting in Kauhajoki.
The government initiatives are meant to enter a round of comments next week. The government bill is scheduled to be presented to the Parliament in June. The law could come into force from the beginning of 2010. Later on, the gun law articles that deal with, for example, shooting ranges, bow weapons, and spray weapons are also meant to be amended.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Dispute Over Female Clergy Leads to First Sackings of Church Employees
The long-standing dispute within the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church over the ordination of women has led to the first cases in which church employees have been sacked for their opposition to female pastors. Previously church workers have only been suspended for a given term. The Langinkoski parish in the southeast of Finland has now terminated the contracts of two youth workers for their refusal to cooperate with clergywomen. According to the Kotka-based newspaper Kymen Sanomat, the Parish Council decided on the dismissal of the employees on Tuesday evening.
The reason given for the sackings was that in spite of warnings, the youth workers had refused to take part in services in which a woman pastor delivered the sermon, served communion, or was involved in the liturgy. The paper writes that in spite of being told not to, the workers in question had used material that they had drawn up themselves in their work with young people in their early teens. Langinkoski vicar Jukka Lopperi told Kymen Sanomat that the grounds for dismissal were discrimination and that the decision was the product of a conflict that had lasted years.
The Lutheran Church and organisations within the church that are opposed to the ordination of women issued a joint expression of a desire for cooperation last week. According to the statement the “parties want to work together so that nobody in the church will suffer discrimination on the basis of their gender, conviction, or view of who should be entitled to ordination”.
In 2007 a female pastor in Hyvinkää desisted from taking part in a service when a visiting clergyman from a conservative faction of the Lutheran Church refused to work at the altar with her. The issue went to court, and led to a fine for discrimination. The Finnish Evangelical-Lutheran Church approved the ordination of women in 1986.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Shooting Clubs: New Age Limits Kill Shooting Hobby
Government’s proposal to tighten gun laws has been met with a mixed response by gun clubs. The new, higher minimum age limits for gun ownership will render competitive shooting hobbies for youth obsolete, says the Finnish Shooting Sport Federation, SAL.
SAL says it fears that the Interior Ministry’s proposal, if enacted, could mean an end to competitive shooting at the junior level. SAL says it wants government to revise the proposed 20-year-old minimum age limit for handguns.
“The suggested changes would make it impossible for under 20-year-olds to compete in European and World Championship games,” says Risto Aarrekivi of SAL.
Aarrekivi, however, says the proposal’s stipulation that firearm license applicants have to be shooting club members for two years prior to applying for a permit could bring firearm clubs new members.
Hunting Not Affected
Meanwhile, the Finnish Hunting Association says it’s in favour of strict and clear-cut gun laws.
“Hand guns are rarely used in hunting, and hunting permits are granted under strict supervision,” says Lauri Kontro of the Finnish Hunting Association.
Kontro reiterated that the school shooting tragedies in Kauhajoki and Jokela had no connection to sports hunting hobbies.
Hunting is growing in popularity in Finland. Some 300,000 new hunting permits are applied for yearly.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Indian “Film-Maker” Convicted of Human Trafficking
The Vantaa District Court handed down a prison sentence to an Indian man who by posing as a movie producer in the summer of 2006 illicitly brought young Indians into Finland under the auspice of acting in movies.
The court found the man guilty of aggravated fraud and human smuggling charges and ordered him to serve an unconditional three-year prison sentence. He was also ordered to pay the Finnish state 539,000 euros in damages. This sum is based on information that those who were smuggled into Finland paid the bogus movie-maker some 15,000 euros each.
This was the largest-ever human smuggling case to come before the courts in Finland.
The defendant was part of an international criminal organisation, which managed to arrange visas for 117 people, who were said to be coming to Finland to film movies and music videos. The group had struck a deal worth hundreds of thousands of euros with a Finnish cinema production company to shoot films here.
Most of those smuggled in have been sent back to India. Three young Indians applied for asylum and have been granted residence permits.
The defendant says he plans to appeal the court’s decision.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Stop to New Bar and Restaurant Licences in Athens
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 25 — Athens’ city council decided to suspend the granting of new licences for bars and restaurants in some areas of the city that have been deemed ‘saturated” and in which the quality of life for residents ‘has been negatively influenced” by the establishments. Moreover, the city council decided to start a control committee to protect areas considered to be worthy and to make sure that the restaurants don’t illegally occupy the sidewalks with tables and seats. Offenders will have to pay a fine of 1,100 euro a day for every square metre they occupy illegally. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Hundreds of Public Officials Accused of Corruption
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 11 — Hundreds of Greek public officials risk being tried and suspended from office for corruption following the conclusions of an investigation conducted by the ombudsman for public administration. The head of the Public Administration Inspectorate, Leanderos Raditzis, has announced that he would be requesting trials for 354 tax officials and local public officials for granting building permits, who were not able to explain the origin of money or goods in their possession, in accordance with Greek law. Rakitzis has been quoted by the media as saying that he is investigating another 200 state workers that might be suspended from office. In addition, the bank accounts of another 30 officials will be investigated since their wealth does not seem to be justified by their salaries. This is the first time that the investigations by the ombudsman have led to the indictment of so many public officials. The corruption scandals have come during a time of widespread preoccupation in Greece due to the economic crisis. Both have contributed to a collapse in approval ratings for the party of Premier Costas Karamanlis.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Bus Drivers Walk Out in Protest at Aggression
Buses are at a standstill due to a walkout by drivers in the town of Ede near Arnhem, in the province of Gelderland. The trade union FNV Bondgenoten says the strike is in protest at aggressive behaviour by some passengers. In the past two weeks, two drivers have been threatened by youths.
FNV Bondgenoten says that in one of the incidents, when a female driver was threatened, police took half an hour to arrive at the scene. The union also claims bus company Veolia has failed to respond to the problem adequately. Veolia said on Monday that youth workers were travelling on its buses to assess the extent of the problem. The Ede drivers say they will only return to work if more action is taken to deal with the aggression.
On Monday, in the city of Tilburg in the southern province of North Brabant, a 17-year-old youth was arrested for an assault on a bus driver in late January. Nevertheless, figures released by bus companies Arriva and Veolia on Tuesday actually show a major decrease in incidents of aggression towards bus drivers in the province over the past year.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: White Male Candidate Nominated After All
Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst has nominated Teun Visscher as new chief of police in the region of Zuid-Holland Zuid after all. She initially refused to nominate him because she wanted a woman or a person from an ethnic minority to be appointed to the post.
The minister said she had a clear understanding with the police leadership that more women and candidates from ethnic minorities would be appointed to senior positions, but noted that most of the candidates are still white men.
In the past few days, Minister Ter Horst has met with the chairman of the council of police commanders. During the meeting, the earlier agreement on appointing more women and candidates from ethnic minorities to senior positions was tightened even further.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands First Choice for Somalians
The number of asylum requests filed by Somalians in 2008 was double the figure for the previous year — going from about 2000 to 4000.
The situation in Somalia is deteriorating. Apart from hunger, drought and a constantly unsafe situation, the increase in violence in 2007 has led since to a sharp increase in the number of refugees. About a million people have left their homes, almost half of them coming from the capital, Mogadishu.
Ismael is a typical Somalian newcomer. He fled Mogadishu and came to the Netherlands in September 2006. His journey to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport was “arranged” for a few thousand dollars. Since then, his wife and four children have joined him in the Netherlands. They’re staying in an centre for asylum seekers in the middle of the country. Ismael says:
“I had a good life in Somalia. I ran an import and export business for medicines. I had a better life in Somalia than I have here now, but it was too unsafe. As a businessman, it’s not easy to survive in that city [Mogadishu].”
Good reputation
It was obvious choice for him to come to the Netherlands. Friends and family who had come here around 1992 in the first wave of Somali refuguees told him of the possibilities for seeking asylum and reuniting families. On top of that, he already had a fondness for the Netherlands: as a football fan he had been a supporter of the Dutch national team for years.
However, Ismael — who can scarcely speak Dutch — has difficulty finding his way here in the Netherlands. Also, the support he receives from Somalians who have been here for longer leaves something to be desired.
“There are different groups of Somalians. The newcomers have contact with each other, but only have a limited amount of information about the Netherlands to share with one another. The Somalians who have been here longer live in the cities and have little contact with the newcomers, unless they are family members.”
Mutual help and solidarity is made difficult by the fact that the Somali diaspora is divided along tribal lines. The animosity between tribes and sub-tribes in the Netherlands has its roots in the conflict in Somalia.
Newcomers Although the first Somalian refugees were highly educated, the more recent ones are less so. Shukri Said, who himself came to the Netherlands ten years ago and has been working with other Somalian refugees for a number of years, characterises the newcomers:
“I can’t give an overview of the whole group, but you can see that most newcomers have had to cope with 20 years of war. In that period there was no government, and no schools. Most refugees have only attended primary school. Therefore they need a lot of guidance and support here. They’re not as self-supporting as the first group, and they have a lot more worries and problems.”
In 2002 nearly half the Somalians in the Netherlands had, at the most, five years of primary education, and only 20 percent had a secondary school diploma. As a result of the low level of education and poor command of the Dutch language, only one in three Somalians has a job. What’s more, Somalians tend to end up coming into contact with the law (i.e. the police) more often than the average resident of the Netherlands.
United Kingdom At the moment, there are about 20,000 Somalians in the Netherlands. In 2001, the number was almost twice that. So, many Somalians have cleary left the country as others have arrived; the largest group has gone to the United Kingdom.
According to estimates, about 10,000 moved to the UK in the period from 1998 to 2003. The UK is attractive because the language barrier, which is a problem even for the better-educated, is not so great there, and so they can get on their feet more quickly in Britain.
And what about Somalian newcomer Ismael — is he thinking of moving on to the UK?
“I didn’t have the chance to get a good education in Somalia. But I want to give my children the chances that I have missed. Therefore I want my children to get a good education in the Netherlands. So I won’t be transferring to another country.”
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Council of Europe Criticises Dutch Human Rights
The Council of Europe has published a critical report on the human rights situation in the Netherlands. The report criticises policy on migrants and asylum seekers.
Thomas Hammarberg, the European Commissioner for Human Rights, writes that in particular the conditions in centres for asylum seekers should be improved. For example, no separate shower facilities are available for men and women, and young asylum seekers are not properly informed of the legal proceedings in their cases.
Hammarberg also raises concerns about children’s rights in the Netherlands, particularly criticising the low age of 12 years at which children are subject to adult criminal law. In most countries the age of criminal responsibility is 14.
The commissioner also said there were serious concerns about “racist and intolerant tendencies” in the Netherlands. He called for careful use of language in the debate on integration.
The human rights commissioner carried out an inspection in the Netherlands in September. All 47 Council of Europe member states are subject to such inspections. The report makes no comparisons with other countries.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Cabinet Ignores Motion to Protest Wilders Ban in EU
THE HAGUE, 12/03/09 — The cabinet has ignored a motion in which the Lower House almost unanimously called upon it to complain in the European Union about the United Kingdom’s refusal to admit MP Geert Wilders. At the same time, however, the House is accepting that its motion is disregarded.
A month ago, Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders could not enter the UK because the British government decided that his criticisms of Islam made him a threat to public safety. The Dutch government expressed its objections, though modestly, calling Wilders’ refusal “very regrettable” rather than unacceptable. It but did not resort to serious diplomatic steps, such as summoning the British ambassador, either.
The conservatives (VVD) thereupon appealed to the cabinet to condemn the UK’s treatment of Wilders within the EU. All parties with the exception of the Christian democrats (CDA) voted in favour of this VVD motion. But in a debate in the Lower House, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said the cabinet would not accept the motion.
In protest, VVD handed in a second motion demanding that the initial motion be carried out after all. This time however, the broad majority support had evaporated. Labour (PvdA) and ChristenUnie voted against it, in a clear demonstration of the inflexibility of their coalition with CDA.
Lower House Speaker Verbeet, who is also an MP on behalf of PvdA, did support the motion. It is highly unusual in the Netherlands for MPs to vote independently instead of as a party as a whole.
PvdA MP Martijn van Dam made attempts to defend his party’s backing out by stating that the momentum had been lost. “A diplomatic signal needs to be made at once. There is no point in doing so three weeks later”.
VVD leader Mark Rutte sharply criticised the coalition’s attitude. “This cabinet is a friend to freedom of religion but is not interested in freedom of speech”. Socialist Party (SP) MP Harry van Bommel went even further by stating that the cabinet was conducting “middle finger politics” towards the House.
Wilders himself handed in a motion demanding the resignation of both Balkenende and Verhagen. “We already knew that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister are prepared to slaughter our most precious fundamental law — freedom of speech — at the altar of Islam, in order to thus please angry Muslims. But we now also know that this cabinet is flouting democracy”, he declared. The PVV motion was not supported by any party though.
PvdA MP Van Dam stated that “the most important” step now is to ensure that a member of parliament is not refused entry abroad again. More will be revealed soon, since Wilders will try to enter the UK again this spring, this time to campaign for the European Parliament elections in June.
According to Balkenende, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is considering whether to allow the PVV leader admittance next time. The Dutch Prime Minister is to see his British counterpart during an EU summit in Brussels next week and will then ask him if he has come to a decision yet, said Balkenende.
It is in Balkenende’s best interest that Brown is accommodating, since the British refusal led to the PVV becoming the largest Dutch party in a leading poll. His own CDA party especially suffered, with many supporters switching to Wilders during the past weeks.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Shops in Amsterdam Evacuated After Bomb Threat
The area around Amsterdam Ikea store and shops in the Arena shopping mall remain close as police investigate what they described as “a serious threat involving explosives”.
Shops in Amsterdam Arena shopping mall and the Ikea furniture store in southeast Amsterdam remained closed on Thursday following a bomb threat in the morning.
The area around the Ikea furniture store along A9 highway and shops in the Arena shopping mall have been evacuated and cordoned off after the threat was made at 09:00 on Thursday.
Police are currently investigating what they described as “a serious threat involving explosives”.
According to media reports, the Ikea store received a warning call targeting furniture stores. An Ikea spokesperson said the threat was not targetted specifically at the Swedish furniture chain.
In December 2002, explosives were found in Ikea stores in Amsterdam and the town of Sliedrecht, to the southeast of Rotterdam. This led to all Ikea stores in the country being closed for two days.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Police Arrest Seven in Amsterdam Terror Threat
The police have arrested seven suspects in connection with a threat to stores in the southeast of Amsterdam. The suspects are all Dutchmen of Moroccan descent. One of them allegedly has ties with a person involved in the 2004 Madrid terror attacks on commuter trains in which 191 people were killed.
The police say they received a phone call from Brussels just before midnight on Wednesday that three men intended to plant explosives in the Amsterdam stores. The caller gave the names and addresses of the men in question and the stores they intended to attack.
The police picked up the seven suspects after consultation with the national security service. The homes of the seven suspects, who are accused of preparing terrorist attacks, have been searched.
The IKEA home furnishings store and several other stores on the Arena Boulevard have been closed all day in connection with the threats. The Heineken Music Hall has also been closed, forcing the cancellation of Thursday night’s concert by US band The Killers.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Row After French Director Compares Illegals to War-Time Jews
PARIS (AFP) — A French film-maker, whose new movie depicts a Kurdish refugee hoping to swim the Channel to Britain, has angered the government by comparing its policies on illegal immigrants to Nazi-occupied France’s repression of Jews.
“To suggest that the French police are like the police of Vichy (the wartime French collaborationist regime), and that Afghans are hunted down, are the target of roundups … is intolerable,” said Immigration Minister Eric Besson. Film-maker Philippe Lioret “more than overstepped the mark when … he says that ‘the illegals in Calais are the equivalent of Jews in 1943’. That sort of thing is completely intolerable,” he told RTL radio last weekend.
Lioret made the comparison in an interview he gave about the new film titled “Welcome” to La Voix du Nord, a newspaper based in a northern French region in which lies the port of Calais.
Calais became a destination for migrants from across the world in the late 1990s with the opening of the Sangatte refugee camp, right next to the entrance to the Channel Tunnel linking France and Britain.
The camp was finally closed in 2002 but migrants still come to Calais in their attempts to get to Britain. Every night, some try to hide in trucks and trains using the tunnel or in cross-Channel ferries.
“If tomorrow you help a bloke who has no papers, you’re guilty under the offence of ‘helping a person whose papers are not in order’,” Lioret told the paper.
“What country are we living in? I have the impression that we’re in 1943 and that we’ve hidden a Jew in the cellar,” he said.
French officials helped round up around 75,000 Jews who were deported during the Nazi occupation of France between 1940 and 1944. Most of these Jews died in extermination camps. Only 2,500 returned to France after the war.
In Lioret’s film, which opens in French cinemas on Wednesday, he denounces a law here that punishes anyone who has helped an illegal immigrant with up to five years in jail.
“Welcome” tells the story of Simon, a just-divorced swimming instructor and former swimming champion, who becomes involved in the lives of illegal immigrants.
He meets a Kurd from northern Iraq called Bilal, played by Firat Ayverdi, whose previous attempt to cross the Channel in the back of a lorry has failed.
Bilal now wants to try to swim to Britain, which like many of his counterparts in Calais he perceives as being a better bet for a bright future than France.
Simon tries to dissuade him. But he is touched by Bilal’s determination and agrees to give him swimming lessons.
The Frenchman’s eyes are slowly opened to the grim realities of life for illegals in his country, and to the racism to which they are subjected.
The film also probes the ambiguous attitude of the French authorities, who allow charity groups to help illegals, but who also enforce legislation that punishes citizens who accommodate undocumented migrants.
Vincent Lindon, the actor who plays Simon, has also condemned a situation in which “illegals are sometimes treated worse than dogs.”
He told Le Parisien newspaper that when he went to Calais, he found “a town in a state of siege,” dotted with giant barbed wire fences.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Criminal Gangs Show No Signs of Leaving Sweden
More than a year after a bomb ripped through the home of a prosecutor, Sweden carries on its struggle to curb the spread of criminal gangs, AFP’s Nina Larson reports.
Prosecutor Barbro Jönsson was driving to work when a bomb exploded at the front door of her house, rocking her whole neighbourhood and sending shockwaves through traditionally serene Sweden.
“It is very hard to describe how I felt when I heard what happened. I think I still haven’t grasped how serious it was,” Jönsson, 53, told AFP more than a year after the attack.
She was prosecuting a high-profile case against a violent criminal gang called the Wolfpack Brotherhood and had just left her home in the southwestern town of Trollhättan on November 20, 2007, when the blast ripped off the front door and shattered the hallway.
Two young gang members were remanded in custody just over a month ago on suspicion they planted the bomb, which could have killed Jönsson had she been at home.
The bombing — one of the first overt attacks on a Swedish prosecutor — prompted calls to root out the swelling criminal gangs that have smashed the country’s tranquil image.
The gangs have caused a spike in a number of crimes, including extortion and loan-sharking — a gang specialty — which have jumped from 740 cases reported in 2003 to 1,715 last year, according to preliminary statistics from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
Police say it is difficult to estimate the number and size of criminal gangs in Sweden since membership can vary from day to day, but media reports indicate around 1,000 people are actively involved in at least six large criminal gangs with numerous branches across the country.
Gangs make headlines almost daily with stories of drug busts, brutal attacks on business owners unable to pay off debts, and bloody gang wars.
“This is a serious problem that has grown in recent years,” Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask told AFP.
“We used to be fairly sheltered in the Nordic countries, but unfortunately this problem has surfaced and we must react very forcefully now or else this could be extremely serious in say 10 years,” she cautioned.
Police also think that attacks like the one on Jönsson constitute a novel and dangerous twist in Swedish gang activity.
“Attacks on the judiciary are a rather new and very serious phenomenon,” said Klas Friberg, the police chief in the Västra Götaland region that comprises Trollhättan and Gothenburg.
Jönsson, who moved after the attack on her home and joined a police unit in Gothenburg working to fight gang crime, agreed.
“We risk having judges who don’t dare to judge, prosecutors who are afraid to prosecute and police who refrain from making arrests,” she said, adding that “if that happens, the first bastion against these groups will fall.”
Just four months after the Trollhättan bombing, shots were fired at the home of another prosecutor in the region, Mats Mattsson, who had worked extensively on cases involving criminal motorcycle gangs like Bandidos.
While no one was hurt in that attack either, it prompted more calls for action and sent the government and police scurrying to come up with new measures to combat the scourge.
Special police and intelligence units were created along with a “Knowledge Centre” on gang activity as part of a national strategy aimed at cracking down on gangs and blocking recruitment of new members.
“Local police have to be on their case all the time, making it uncomfortable for anyone who has not yet been fully recruited to hang around these people,” said Justice’s Ask.
Despite heightened police efforts, around 10 new clubhouses belonging to gangs like Hells Angels, Bandidos, Wolfpack Brotherhood, and Original Gangsters reportedly sprouted up across Sweden last year alone.
The highest concentration of gang units is centred around the southern towns of Malmö and Gothenburg, largely due to their proximity to Denmark, where the gangs also constitute a major problem.
“A few years ago, Denmark carried out very forceful measures against these gangs and a number of these people moved over to Sweden. Now, we hope they will move back, or rather further,” Ask said.
Erik Lannerbäck, a former member of several gangs including the Wolfpack Brotherhood and Bandidos, meanwhile told AFP that simply cracking down on the gangs would accomplish little.
“The main focus should be on getting members to leave the gangs, and to do that you can’t just lock people up and hope they’ll be better when they get out,” said Lannerbäck, who after a decade in criminal gangs began working as a counselor for troubled youths in Stockholm in 2004.
Gang members trying to get out often need protection and help paying off debts and finding a job, but most of all “they need support from people who understand them and can help them see the value in being normal, and to create a new identity,” he insisted.
Lannerbäck said he himself repeatedly tried to leave his life of crime only to be drawn back in by the promise of wads of cash or the desire to once again be feared and respected instead of stepped upon in a menial job.
“It was like a drug,” he said, adding that landing a good job where he was appreciated was what made it possible to get out for good.
“It is very important that people can leave,” Ask agreed, adding that a project to help people get out of the gangs would likely be funded soon.
“Huge efforts are needed and we need a lot of people to push in the same direction, but I think we can bring this problem under control,” she said.
“If I didn’t think (so), I wouldn’t be working in this field.”
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Protester Who Works as Baggage Handler at Luton Airport Has Security Pass Suspended After Hurling Abuse at Troops
Muslim extremist who works as a baggage handler at Luton Airport had his security pass suspended today after it was revealed he took part in a protest hurling abuse at British troops.
Jalal Ahmed was among the 20-strong group of extremists protesting when the Royal Anglian Regiment returned home from Iraq earlier this week. During their homecoming parade, he was spotted clutching a banner proclaiming: ‘Anglian soldiers: Butchers of Basra’. After he was revealed to be part of the hate-filled demonstration, his pass allowing him to go airside and work at the airport was revoked.
Ahmed, who is in his twenties and lives in Luton, works on a casual basis for Menzies Aviation, which provides baggage handling at the airport for easyJet and other airlines. He is believed to have worked there during peak periods over the past two years and would have had access to secure areas of the site.
The Muslim, who is in his early 20s, is said to have once joked he was the nephew of Osama bin Laden and was also allegedly questioned over pictures of passenger jets. He told officers he was interested in planes and no further action was taken.
John Menzies plc said he had passed all criminal and security checks but that his job would now be reviewed in light of his involvement in the protest on Tuesday. ‘All employees are subject to a five year criminal record check and airport authority checks before they can be given an airside pass to work on the airport, ‘ a spokesman said. ‘Jalal Ahmed passed these checks. We are now working with the airport authority to review the current position.’ The company insisted Ahmed would have been supervised at all times as he worked at the airport, where he is not a full-time employee. Luton Borough Council, which owns the airport, said: ‘The Council has been assured that all employees at the Airport receive criminal record and security checks. We are unable to comment on individuals. ‘The issue of security is taken very seriously by the Council and the Airport Company.’
Budget airline easyJet, which is the main operator at Luton, made it clear Ahmed was not employed directly by them. A spokesman said: ‘We are obviously working with his employers. We are working with Special Branch and we are aware his airside pass has been temporarily suspended.’
The Royal Anglian soldiers’ return home from Iraq on Tuesday was ruined by the Muslim protest, which ended in clashes with people who had turned out to support the troops. Islamic extremists waved offensive placards branding the soldiers ‘killers’ as they marched through the streets of Luton, provoking shock and condemnation.
Firebrand preacher Anjem Choudary added insult to injury yesterday by taunting the grieving families of three Royal Anglian regiment members killed by ‘friendly fire’. He said troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were ‘not heroes but closer to cowards who cannot fight, as their uncanny knack for death by friendly fire illustrates’. The three soldiers to whom he was referring — Privates Robert Foster, 19, John Thrumble, 21, and Aaron McClure, 19 — were killed in Afghanistan in August 2007 when an American F-15 jet dropped a 500lb bomb on their position.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Stop Pandering to Enemies of Our Way of Life
Radical Muslims get special treatment, says Ruth Dudley Edwards
The Government’s neurotic placating of Islamists has not yet led to the censorship of tabloids for giving vent to occasional outrage. “Hate for Heroes: Muslims in vile demo”, declared yesterday’s Sun, rightly furious that in Luton 15 or so youths had screamed “terrorists” at a homecoming parade of the Royal Anglia’s 2nd Battalion and waved banners calling the soldiers baby-killers and butchers. Other newspapers showed a group of watching women enveloped in abayas and niqabs.
In some ways the silent women were the more potent image of what disturbs readers of broadsheets as well as tabloids, their dress providing an in-your-face statement that they consider themselves proudly separate from the rest of us.
That the police arrested only counter-demonstrators will increase the average Joe’s belief that radical Muslims have reason to think of themselves as not only separate but privileged. “I am worried at how Bedfordshire police allowed this type of protest with offensive banners to take place,” said Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton South. “It seems to me that this amounted to huge provocation and was potentially racially divisive.”
She’s right, of course, but she must know that in agreeing in advance to what was bound to be an offensive protest, the police were only following what they believe to be government policy: don’t upset radical Muslims in case they blow us up. Luton has around 20,000 Muslims and is a black spot for jihadism. The police conciliate the vociferous in the hope they won’t get so cross that they bomb the airport.
Fear is the only reason that Muslim groups receive special treatment. Why else would the representatives of around two million people have money and time lavished on them in such an obscenely disproportionate way, while no one much bothers about the peaceable Hindus? And why else would the Government throw £90 million at PVE (Preventing Violent Extremism) — an unaccountable, contradictory, bureaucratically convoluted counter-terrorism initiative that has the authorities snuggle up to homophobic, misogynistic West-haters, just so long as they don’t actually use violence?
The whole mess was highlighted this week in the Policy Exchange report Choosing Our Friends Wisely, which catalogues how the Government has empowered reactionaries, marginalised moderates and driven councils and police into bed with enemies of our way of life. Due diligence has been even more lacking here than for Lloyds TSB and HBOS.
“A new generation is being radicalised, sometimes with the very funds that are supposed to be countering radicalisation,” say the report’s authors, Shiraz Maher, himself a former radical, and Martyn Frampton. For example, Tower Hamlets council awarded a substantial grant to the Cordoba Foundation, an Islamist pressure group, which in turn offered a platform to the radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which promotes the message that democracy is forbidden in Islam.
As Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly came to realise that government policy towards Muslims was counter-productive. What is necessary, she says in the foreword to this report, is to stop pandering, to give incentives for good behaviour and disincentives for bad, and to defend the Western values shared by many British Muslims. She has a special commendation for Hazel Blears, who almost alone in the Cabinet is standing up to Jack Straw in the interests of national unity, common sense and morality. Moderate Muslims, embarrassed daily by their so-called community leaders, deserve a total change of direction in government policy.
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Serbia: Minister, 7.9% of Population Under Line of Poverty
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 6 — The rebalance of the budget will provide RDS 2 billion (around 21 million euro) to RSD 5 billion dinars (around 52 million euro) for combating poverty in Serbia, Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said, reports VIP Daily News Report. “The government will secure the additional few billion dinars for combating poverty, but there is not a lot of manouvering space since difficult negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which demand saving are to follow, and a redistribution of funds in the public sector will have to be undertaken”, Djelic said during the opening of the forth National convention on reducing poverty in Belgrade. Djelic said that in 2008 He said that the number of poor was 50% lesser in Belgrade then in other parts of the country. In Serbia, 7,9% of population lived under the line of poverty, which is RSD 7,937 (around 83 euro) per person. (ANSAmed).
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Serbia: One in Four Citizens Works in Grey Zone
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 10 — Serbia PM’s economic advisor Jurij Bajec said that about 600,000 people out of 2 million employees worked in the grey zone, not paying taxes to the state, reports daily Politika. On the other hand, according to data from the National Employment Office, there are 200,000-300,000 such workers. Bajec stressed that the numbers differ mainly due to the methodology of collecting data, adding that the 600,000 cipher was reached by way of surveys. Economist Danilo Sukovic stated that the state needs to take into consideration that such employment is to a certain extent a social valve, because people have to find ways to survive in a situation when jobs are lost on a daily basis. “Until the state finds a way to stimulate small businesses, this problem will be part of our daily lives”, underlined Sukovic.(ANSAmed).
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Serbia-Spain: Accord on Avoiding Double Taxation Signed
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 10 — Serbia and Spain have signed in Madrid an agreement to avoid double taxation, which should boost Spanish investment in Serbia. So reported BETA news agency quoting Trade and Services Minister Slobodan Milosavljevic. “This agreement will provide a stimulus for Spanish investors to come to Serbia, it will make it easier for Spanish companies to operate in the Serbian market, as well as for Serbian companies in Spain”. According to the minister, the acoord will also benefit all Serbian and Spanish citizens, including athletes and cultural workers who cooperate at a national level for the two countries. Milosavljevic announced that a meeting will be held today with business people at which specific investments and improving economic cooperation and trade between the two countries will be discussed. “Foreign trade between the two countries was around USD 300 million last year,” said Milosavljevic, adding that there is a large deficit on the Serbian side. (ANSAmed).
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Energy: EU Commission, Integrated Med Market Needed
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 11 — “The development of an integrated and interconnected energy market” in the Mediterranean area is a priority for the European Commission, said Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner today at the fourth Euro-Mediterranean Energy Forum in Barcelona. According to Waldner ‘the regional harmonisation of regulations will increase energy security”, by promoting industrial and technological cooperation. “The development of a stable framework of regulations for energy production in the Euro-Mediterranean area”, is needed to achieve this, she added. With regard to the climate emergency and the need to diversify energy sources the EU Commission says that “it is important to explore the potential for green energy in the Mediterranean”, from wind to solar power, to the capture and storage of carbon. Ferrero Waldner highlighted in particular the solar power plan promoted by the Mediterranean Union. Another area of interest for the two shores is the “development of common interest energy infrastructures” said the Commissioner, who is also relying on the increase “in energy relationships between the European Union, the Mediterranean and the Gulf states”. (ANSAmed).
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Mediterranean: First Western Area Country Talks in Genoa
(ANSAmed) — GENOA, MARCH 11 — On Friday and Saturday European and African citizens from countries on the Western shore of the Mediterranean Sea will meet and exchange ideas in Genoa. The initiative, organised by the EU and the Liguria Region, in support of the creation of the Mediterranean Union (UpM), will bring together around 150 people including some Arab representatives like Ouidad Cadi Ayyad, of the Univesrity of Marrakech, and Mehla Mint Ahmed, former minister from Mauritania. The objective of the event, explained the director of the European Commission’s representation in Italy, Pier Virgilio Dastoli, the president of the Regional Council of Liguria Mino Ronzitti, and the vice president of the town council Massimiliano Costa, is to promote dialogue between regions and societies to improve decentralised cooperation and participatory democracy. Political tensions in some of the Arab countries with which the organisation had hoped to start a dialogue, like Libya and Mauritania, have made participation of members of local institutions difficult. Members of the Italian government and the president of Catalonia, Ernest Benach, are expected to be there however. (ANSAmed).
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Al Azhar Says Yes to Organ’s Explant From Sentenced to Death
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 11 — The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and head of the Islamic Research Academy Sheikh, Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi, has said that Islam allows the explant of organs from pepole sentenced to death in premeditated murder and rape cases without their approval. In press statements on the sidelines of an academy conference, the Grand Imam said those sentenced to death, according to the Islamic Sharia, have no legal say as to the fate of their bodies after being executed for crimes they had committed. He said the transplant process, according to the Sharia, must be unprofitable. Yesterday, the grand Imam said all members of the academy from Egypt and other Islamic countries unanimously agreed that the sale of any part of the body is prohibited by Islam. He said it is possible, according to the Islamic Sharia, to transplant the organs as long as the operation serves public interest and saves the patient’s life on condition it is not done for profit.(ANSAmed).
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Algeria: Newspaper Seized for Article on Bouteflika
(ANSAmed)- ALGIERS, MARCH 11 — Algerian authorities have banned the distribution of the latest issue of monthly Afrique Magazine (AM), which dedicated ample space to a story on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s ties to the military. The most recent issue of the magazine “has been seized” due to “an attack on national values” in compliance with “Article 7/90 of the Information Code”, explained an official of the Secretary of State in charge of communication cited by the local press. The controversial article entitled “Algeria, Dawn of the Generals”, talks about the relationship between the head of state and the top-ranked generals of the Algerian army, as well as the role played by the military in Bouteflika’s ascent to power in 1999 and 2004. After a change to the Constitution, which cancelled the two-term limit for the presidency, Bouteflika is running for president for a third time in elections to be held on April 9. (ANSAmed).
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Darfur: Algeria Rejects Arrest Warrant for Bashir
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 11 — Algerian Minister for Foreign Affairs Mourad Medelci has been quoted by APS as saying that “Algeria categorically rejects” the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. The decision is “a true threat to peace, security and stability”, added Medelci in stressing that Algiers “categorically rejects politics making use of double standards to deal with the crisis,” and that “Algeria supports Arab and Muslim states and foreign ones which reject the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against the Sudanese president”. “It is necessary to find an urgent and permanent solution to the crisis (in Darfur, ed.),” he said, but the ICC decision “is unfair and will not lead to peace in the region”. (ANSAmed).
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Economy: Tunisian Minister Says Trade Balance is Improving
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 6 — Tunisia’s balance of trade is showing positive results for the first two months of the year, according to the Minster for Trade and Crafts, Ridha Touiti. The minister was speaking at a periodic meeting with the press, where he emphasised how, above all, inflation dropped in February from 5.7% to 3.3% compared to the same month in 2007, thanks partly to controls on prices — which can now be said to be stable. Both imports and exports have recorded contractions, however. Mr Touiti underscored the improvement in the balance of trade in January and February 2009 compared to the same period of 2008, which has caused the deficit to decline from 793.9 to 650.4 million dinars (roughly 410 to 336 million euro) — a drop of 18%. Such a fall, he noted, is due to the improvement in trade balance in both the food and energy sectors. Looking at imports, the only increase was seen in machinery, which in the minister’s opinion, emphasises the importance of foreign investment in Tunisia. (ANSAmed).
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ENI: it Will Take Months to Purchase Stake, Libyan Ambassador
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 12 — It will take months, or even longer than a year for Libya’s stake in ENI to reach the 10% mark, according to the schedule the African state announced in December. In an interview given to the Financial Times, the Libyan ambassador in Rome, Hafed Gaddur, explains that “the right moment for the acquisition will be chosen in view of price. Following which, purchase options will be exercised gradually”. (ANSAmed).
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Israel: Shalit, Family Fears Forthcoming Netanyahu Gov’t
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 11 — The parents of Ghilad Shalit, the young Israeli soldier who has been held prisoner in the Gaza Strip by radical Islamic movement Hamas for almost a thousand days, said today that they fear that the expected coming of a right-wing government in Israel could make an agreement for the release of their son less likely. So said Shalit’s mother Aviva. She has been camping out with her husband Noam in front of outgoing centrist Premier Ehud Olmert’s residence in Jerusalem, to ask for a rapid exchange of prisoners with Hamas to guarantee the release of Ghilad. “We don’t trust a right-wing government which probably will take their time to examine the issue, letting days and months go by, which is an eternity for Ghilad” said the woman. She added that she hopes the issue will be resolved before the formation of the new government which Likud leader (nationalist right-wing) Benyamin Netanyahu, expects to complete within a week, or soon after. This morning outgoing Infrastructure Minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer (Labour) visited the Shalits in their tent. He sympathises with the couple and has invited Olmert to soon propose an exchange of prisoners with Hamas (which is asking for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit) in cabinet, in order to “bring the boy home” before the end of the outgoing government’s tenure. After several days of deadlock people are trying to revive this hope in a new round of talks in Cairo with Egypt as mediator. Noam Shalit has advised Hams to “close a deal soon” and to “understand that no better conditions can be obtained” from the next Israeli government. “The window of opportunity”, he fears, “is closing rapidly”. (ANSAmed).
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Oil: OPEC Considering More Production Cuts, Khelil Says
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 11 — The Organization of Petrolium Exporting Countries (OPEC) “will discuss the opportunity to reduce production during its meeting on Sunday in Vienna,” said Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil during a forum organised by daily El Moudjahid. “The consensus that will be reached,” said Khelil, “will guarantee market stability and will be able to bring crude oil prices to 74 dollars per barrel.” During 2008 OPEC decided to cut production by 4.2 million barrels per day. (ANSAmed).
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Tunisia: Leather-Footwear Export Triples in 10 Years
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, MARCH 6 — Tunisian exports in the footwear and leather sector have more than tripled in the last ten years, passing from a value of 162 million euros in 1997 to 494 million in 2008. Of these exports, footwear and uppers represent 85% of the total. The EU is the primary market, in particular Italy, France and Germany. In presenting this growing market, Promos, the company that works for the internationalisation of the Milan Chamber of Commerce, organised this morning a business meeting at the sector’s expo currently taking place at Fieramilano, Milan’s convention centre, in collaboration with AICE (Italian Association for Foreign Trade) and CEPEX (Tunisian Centre for the Promotion of Foreign Trade). The objective is to illustrate the opportunities in the North African country, where over 60 Italian companies operate in the sector are present, and to allow for the meeting of a Tunisian delegation with Italian and international entrepreneurs. The footwear and leather products sector in Tunisia is composed of 302 companies, of which over half are export-only. The sector employs a total of 30,000 workers. (ANSAmed).
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‘Deep Concern’ Obama Ready to Talk to Hamas
Terrorist group calls for murder of Jews, destruction of Israel
There is deep concern among Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization that the U.S. government has changed its attitude toward Hamas and may be ready to end the terrorist group’s isolation, a senior PA negotiator told WND.
“Three years of the siege against Hamas is ending,” said the PA negotiator, speaking from Ramallah on condition his name be withheld. “There is a new policy in the Obama administration regarding Hamas. We are concerned Hamas is starting to be a legitimate player in the equation of the Mideast and the PA.”
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EU Concerned on Demolition in East Jerusalem
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 11 — The EU is “deeply concerned” about the threat of demolition to approximately 90 houses in the Al-Bustan-Silwan area adjacent to the Old City in East Jerusalem. As stated in a EU press release, “if implemented, the demolition would deprive more than 1000 Palestinians of their homes and would be the largest destruction of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem since 1967”. “The EU reminds Israel of its obligations under the Roadmap and international law. Demolition of houses in this sensitive area threatens the viability of a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement, in conformity with international law”. The EU urges the Israeli authorities “to prevent the demolition of Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Street Named in Honour of Egyptian Singer
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, MARCH 11 — An Israeli village has decided to honour one of the greatest Egyptian singers ever, Umm Khaltoum, by naming a street after one of her most famous songs, ‘Anta Omri’ (‘You Are My Life’). The unanimous decision to pay homage to the singer — despite her hostility to Israel, she has a large number of fans in the country — was made by the inhabitants a small village near Jerusalem, Neve Ilan, on the proposal of an Arab from the nearby village Abu Gush. The Arab, Jawdat Ibrahim, is building his house in Neve Ilan. “I proposed this song,” said Jawdat to the local press, “to bring together the hearts of Arabs and Jews, and I explained to the committee members that it is a song loved by all. After initial surprise my proposal was approved by unanimous decision”. Umm Khaltoum, considered the Star of the East by her fans, was most likely the best known and loved singer in the Arab world in the twentieth century. On her death in Cairo in 1975, millions of Egyptians attended her funeral in tears, wanting to carry her coffin on their shoulders to the cemetery while the entire Arab world grieved. (ANSAmed).
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Iraq: Saddam Aide Gets 15-Year Jail Term for Murders
Baghdad, 11 March (AKI) — An Iraqi court has sentenced the country’s former foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, to 15 years in prison for his role in the execution of 42 merchants in 1992. Another senior official from late president Saddam Hussein’s regime, Ali Hassan al-Majid, commonly known as Chemical Ali, also received a 15-year jail term for signing the flour traders’ death warrants.
Aziz’s lawyer, Badye Arif, told Adnkronos International (AKI) his client’s conviction was a political move with no basis in law.
“The Iraqi government wants to put pressure on Aziz and force former Baathists to come to terms with it in order to bring about national reconciliation,” Arif told AKI.
“He should be released immediately, as he is an elderly man suffering from various health problems.”
Aziz, 72, has been in US custody in Iraq since US-led forces ousted former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. He is said to suffer from a heart condition and was treated last year at a US military hospital in Balad, north of Baghdad.
It was Aziz’s first conviction in the controversial Iraqi High Tribunal process, which has drawn criticism from human rights groups.
Aziz (photo) could have been sentenced to death over the executions of the flour traders who were accused in summary trials in 1992 of profiteering during international economic sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
The court issued death sentences to two top Saddam aides over the case, in which there are eight defendants. Two of Saddam’s half-brothers — former presidential adviser Watban Ibrahim and former intelligence chief Sabawi Ibrahim — were sentenced to death by hanging.
Details of all of the defendants’ sentences were not announced immediately.
Al-Majid had already received death sentences for his role in the notorious al-Anfal gas campaign against the Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s, the crushing of a Shia uprising in 1991 and the 1999 killings of Shia protesters.
Aziz was acquitted last week in a separate trial of the killings of Shia Muslim protesters in 1999.
A Chaldean Christian, Aziz also served as deputy prime minister, was considered by many as the international face of Saddam’s regime. He was the Eight of Spades in the United States’ playing card pack depicting the toppled regime’s most wanted officials.
He surrendered into US custody on 24 April 2003, days after the invasion of Iraq.
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Iraq: Suspected Iranian Bombing Kills Child
Baghdad, 11 March (AKI) — Suspected Iranian artillery killed a two-year-old child and injured his parents in the northern Iraqi village of Zarawa close to the Iranian border, Iraqi radio reported on Wednesday.
Iranian forces fired artillery rounds for two hours into the village late on Tuesday, a police official told the Voices of Iraq news agency.
The child’s mother is in a stable condition, but the father’s health is critical, the police official added.
Northern Kurdish villages in Iraq are regularly exposed to Turkish air bombings and Iranian artillery targeting the separatist Kurdistan Worker’s Party and the Party For a Free Life in Kurdistan, which oppose the Turkish and Iranian governments.
Zarawa is more than 500 kilometres north of Baghdad.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Shoe Thrower Sentenced to 3 Years
Baghdad, 12 March (AKI) — An Iraqi court on Thursday sentenced Iraqi journalist Montazer al-Zaidi to three years in jail for throwing his shoes at former US president George W. Bush at his farewell press conference in Baghdad last December. Al-Zaidi pleaded not guilty to the charge of assaulting a foreign leader on an official visit.
“My reaction was natural, just like any Iraqi,” he told the judge. His lawyers had asked for his release.
Bush managed to miss both shoes, but al-Zaidi’s gesture made international headlines and turned him into a hero in the Arab world.
As he hurled the shoes, al-Zaidi called Bush a “dog” and said they were a “farewell kiss” from those who had been killed, orphaned and widowed in Iraq.
His lawyers said al-Zaidi was just reflecting the sentiment of a war-torn country still inflamed by the US-led invasion and its aftermath.
Al-Zaidi, who was arrested and has been held in custody ever since, could have been jailed for 15 years.
His actions were condemned by the Iraqi government as “shameful” although Bush shrugged off the incident.
Al-Zaidi has claimed he has been mistreated in jail.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Prison, Whipping for 75-Year-Old Widow: Her Nephew Brought Her Bread
The poor woman is suspected of seducing two young men. She even risks being kicked out of the country. There are criticisms of abuse of power on the part of the religious police, who watch over the morality and behavior of citizens, gravely interfering in individuals’ private lives.
Jeddah (AsiaNews/Agencies) — There is great distress in the country over the sentence against a 75-year-old widow who has been condemned to 40 lashes and 4 months in prison for being with two young men, one of whom was her nephew, who were bringing her bread at her request. The religious police (muttawa) who watch over morality and behavior have been criticized for blindly applying sharia, partly for the sake of their own power.
Kamisa Sawadi is a Syrian woman formerly married to a Saudi. Last week, she was found guilty of meeting with two young men who were not her immediate relatives. One of them, Fahd Al-Anzi, is a nephew of her deceased husband; the other is his coworker, Hadiyan bin Zein. The two men, at the old woman’s request, had brought her five loaves of bread, but when they left her home they encountered the religious police, who arrested them and sentenced them as well to whipping. According to sharia, the woman is guilty. But her lawyers want to appeal above all by emphasizing that the woman breastfed the nephew when he was a baby, giving her a quasi-maternal relationship with him. In this case, the accusation should be withdrawn.
A few of the newspapers in the Middle East are criticizing the sentence and accusing the muttawa of interfering too much in people’s private lives. Some of them suspect that behind the sentence is a vendetta on the part of Fahd Al-Anzi’s father, the widow’s brother-in-law, who notified the religious police and urged them to intervene against “the scandal,” accusing the widow of “corruption.”
The poor Kamisa Sawadi has been accused twice before of meeting with men, always in connection with bread deliveries. If the sentence is upheld under appeal, she could even be expelled from Saudi Arabia and be forced to return to Syria, her country of origin.
The lawyer Ibrahim Zamzami notes that a 75-year-old woman cannot be considered a “seductress,” but sharia does not distinguish between old and young women.
Laila Ahmed al-Ahdab, who writes for the newspaper Al-Watan, is criticizing the muttawa because it bases all of its accusations on suspicions that are not confirmed by any evidence. She accuses the “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” of “misusing religion to serve their own interests.”
Last month, King Abdallah fired the chief of the religious police and an imam who had called for the killing of owners of television stations that broadcast immoral content. Many saw the action as an attempt by the king to weaken the police and its fundamentalist inspiration from Sunnism.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey, Egypt Under Fire for Textile Duties
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 10 — New Delhi has approached Turkey and Egypt asking them to remove the additional duties they have imposed on Indian cotton textile imports or pay suitable compensation. According to an Egyptian senior government official, the moves by Ankara and Cairo are actionable at the World Trade Organization (WTO), and if the discussions do not lead to a mutually-satisfactory solution, India can drag them to WTO. With the global downturn reducing the demand for most goods, countries are resorting to various protectionist measures to check imports. Egypt has hiked the import duty on cotton textile from India to 30% against the 15% bound rate at WTO. Egypt ranks fifth with exports worth $100 million. According to the government official, action can be taken against the two countries if the discussions prove that the higher duties were imposed just to reduce competition from the domestic industry without suitable provocation. However, if the two countries can prove that it was a measure against a surge in imports taken to protect the domestic industry from injury, it will be valid at WTO as it allows such safeguard measures.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Arab-Bound Trade Shows Sharp Rise
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 9 — Turkey’s exports to Egypt, Iraq and Syria have increased significantly recently, as the country focuses on nearby economies less affected by the crisis, in an attempt not to lose income from exports, as Hurriyet daily reports. Exports to Egypt rose 165% on last year, while they rose by 75% to Iraq and by 27% to Syria, according to January and February data from the Turkish Statistical Institute, or TUIK. This trend has been visible since October-November, with the emergence of the effects of the crisis, Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade authorities said, also suggesting some political developments. The outburst of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Davos over Israel’s attacks on Gaza, as well as the decline of terrorist acts and the ameliorations at Habur Border Gate are among the factors that have increased exports to these countries. Turkey’s exports to Egypt rose in value from $179 million to $474 million within the first two months of the year. Turkey’s export to Iraq, which was $4 billion according to official figures and $7 billion according to unofficial figures, is expected to surpass $10 billion this year. The export to the country within the first two months of the year rose by 75.5% from $473 million to $830 million. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Opens Education Center in Lebanon
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MARCH 9 — A women’s education center constructed by the Turkish Corps of Engineers carrying out activities under the command of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was inaugurated Saturday, as Turkish Hurriet daily website reports from the Lebanese capital. Turkish Corps of Engineers deployed in Lebanon transformed a ruined two-story school building into an education center in the Lebanese city of Tire. Turkey had completed the construction of 37 schools in Lebanon. (ANSAmed).
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Estonia: Kremlin Loyalist Says Launched Estonia Cyber-Attack
MOSCOW (Reuters) — An activist with a pro-Kremlin youth group said Thursday he and his friends were behind an electronic attack on Estonia two years ago that paralyzed the NATO state’s Internet network.
Ex-Soviet Estonia blamed the Russian government for the attack at the time, though Moscow denied involvement. The incident prompted the NATO military alliance to review its readiness to defend against “cyber-warfare.”
Konstantin Goloskokov, an activist with Russia’s Nashi youth group and aide to a pro-Kremlin member of parliament, said he had organized a network of sympathizers who bombarded Estonian Internet sites with electronic requests, causing them to crash.
He said the action was a protest against the dismantling in 2007 of a Soviet-era monument to the Red Army from a square in the center of Estonia’s capital Tallinn. The removal prompted two nights of rioting by mainly Russian-speaking protesters.
“I was not involved in any cyber-attack. What I did and what my friends did was no kind of attack, it was an act of civil disobedience, absolutely legal,” 22-year-old Goloskokov told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“Its aim was to express our protest against the policy of soft apartheid which has been conducted by the leadership of Estonia for many years and the climax of which was the dismantling of the … soldiers’ (monument) in Tallinn.”
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“We made multiple requests to these sites,” he said. “The fact that they could not withstand this is, strictly speaking, the fault of those people who from a technical point of view did not equip them properly.”
He said his action — known as a distributed denial-of-service attack — was his own initiative and he received no help either from Nashi or from Russian officials.
The creation of the youth group was masterminded by Kremlin officials and its activists have had audiences with former President Vladimir Putin, who is now prime minister. Nashi’s former leader is now the head of a government agency.
Nashi stages regular protests outside the embassies of Western states with which the Kremlin has disagreements, and its activists picket meetings of opposition parties.
Kristina Potupchik, a spokeswoman for the organization, said it had nothing to do with jamming Estonian Internet sites. “If anything did happen, it was the personal initiative of Konstantin Goloskokov,” she said.
Russian officials allege that Estonia routinely discriminates against its Russian-speaking minority and accuse European institutions of turning a blind eye.
The decision to move the Red Army monument in Tallinn was seen in Moscow as a deliberate snub to the sacrifices the Soviet Union made to liberate eastern Europe from German occupation during World War Two.
But Estonians, like many eastern Europeans, say Nazi rule was replaced by decades of brutal Soviet repression which only ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Estonia’s government denies discriminating against Russian-speakers. It said the presence of the Red Army monument in the center of the capital was causing public order problems, and moved it instead to a military cemetery.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Visas for 70,000 Bangladeshi Immigrants Revoked
The immigrants were expected to work in manufacturing, farming and construction. Permits were revoked by Malaysia’s government amid accusations that foreigners were taking Malaysian jobs. Some 3,000,000 foreigners work in Malaysia, fleeing poverty in their own countries for low-paying jobs.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Malaysia has revoked work visas for 70,000 Bangladeshis who were to begin arriving this week in response to a public outcry about migrants taking Malaysian jobs.
The would-be immigrants were to be employed in manufacturing, agriculture and construction, and would have joined an estimated 500,000 Bangladeshi already in the country, out of an estimated three million Asian migrant workers in the whole country.
These “workers are from poverty-stricken families and had to raise about 200,000 Bangladeshi taka [or about US$ 2,500] to send their son to Malaysia in the hope of escaping poverty,” said Irene Fernandez, executive director of Tenaganita, an NGO that helps migrant workers in distress. For purpose of comparison she noted that a primary school teacher in Bangladesh earned only about 800 taka (US$ 13) a month.
Malaysia’s about-face on the 70,000 visas is the direct result of the global economic crisis which is having major impact on the local labour market.
“Because of the downturn, factory owners are cutting costs by letting locals go and keeping foreigners because they are cheaper,” said Govindasamy Rajasegaran, secretary general of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress. “If this trend continues, by June we expect 400,000 local workers to be laid off.”
But foreign workers are also affected by cuts in jobs and lay-offs. Most are repatriated but many choose to go underground and take underpaid jobs just to avoid going home.
Under current rules, migrant workers are given 30 days to secure work after arriving in Malaysia or they are forced to leave the country.
“In theory, if there are no jobs they are repatriated, but in practice they . . . easily find extremely low-paid jobs that are shunned by locals,” Ms Fernandez said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
More Troops in Thai South
BANGKOK — THAI Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Thursday he would send a further 4,000 troops to the kingdom’s troubled south where a bloody five-year insurgency continues to claim lives almost daily. Mr Abhisit told reporters the extra rangers would help improve relations between authorities and the Muslim-majority population, despite vowing in January to end emergency rule following allegations of military abuses.
‘I have authorised an additional 4,000 rangers. Their mission is non-combat. They will work towards a better understanding with residents,’ Mr Abhisit said after meeting with top military officials.
‘The government can currently only maintain the status quo and… it’s not enough because there are still violent militants who have succeeded in creating a climate of fear in the area,’ he said.
More than 3,600 people have been killed since unrest erupted in the deep south in January 2004, with separatist militants employing increasingly brutal tactics including frequent roadside bombings, shootings and beheadings.
Tensions have simmered since predominantly Buddhist Thailand annexed the mainly Malay sultanate in 1902.
The increased troop levels follow the approval by the cabinet on Tuesday of a 1.2 billion baht (S$50.6 million) budget to fund an increase in the hardship allowance of soldiers, police and civilians battling the insurgency.
The allowance is to be raised from 1,500 to 2,500 baht monthly for the 60,000 personnel deployed in the three troubled southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.
Mr Abhisit said the government would reassess troop levels again in April when the cabinet decides on a further three-month extension of emergency rule — which would be the 15th since it was first imposed in mid-2005.
The premier has charged a special commission of ministers with drafting a new law to replace the emergency decree. — AFP
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Islam Has ‘No Link’ With Terrorism, Says PM
Islamabad, 11 March (AKI/Asian Age) — Islam had no links with sectarianism or terrorism, Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said on Tuesday. Addressing the National Seerat Conference in the capital Islamabad, Gillani called for the introduction of Islamic universal teachings to the world.
“Muslims around the world are victims of educational, economic and political backwardness. All negative tendencies like sectarianism, terrorism and extremism are being attributed to the Muslims. This is not right,” Gillani said.
“Muslims have to prove with practice that Islam is the religion of peace and harmony,” he added.
Gillani said that Pakistan wanted the Muslim world to adopt concerted action to formulate a comprehensive strategy to counter terrorism in all its forms.
The prime minister said it was also vital to address the root causes of terrorism. “These include injustice, sense of helplessness and economic and political deprivation,” he said.
“As the world has become a global village, we have to propagate the true message of Islam which stands for universal peace and brotherhood,” said Gillani.
The prime minister regretted that faith has come under increasing attacks in the Western world resulting in recent incidents of what he called Islamophobia.
“This is mainly due to a handful of misguided people who have by their interpretation of Islam made the religion target of our detractors,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Swat Valley: Sharia Implemented on 16 March
Only President Zardari’s signature is needed to implement the law. Two Shariatic courts will administer justice in Malakand district and Taliban militias will run the region. Women will be the first to suffer and some 400 girls’ schools could be closed.
Peshawar (AsiaNews) — The government of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) announced that Sharia will come into effect next Monday in Malakand district after President Zardari signs into law the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009. Henceforth two appellate Shariatic courts, the Darul Qaza and Darul-Darul Qaza, will administer justice in the area. Judges will be appointed to these Qazi courts by the High Court, and it will be possible to challenge verdicts delivered by the Darul Qaza court in the Darul-Darul Qaza court.
The agreement that opened the door to the introduction of Qur’anic law in the area also requires that local Taliban militias, the Tehreek-i-Nafaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi, rein in violence in the Swat Valley.
Religious minorities, including Christians, and human rights groups are very concerned about the government’s decision which effectively places the whole region in the hands of militias.
Women, who are already victims of discrimination and exclusion in society, will be the first to suffer from the application of Sharia.
Girls and young women are likely to lose the right to go to schools. Since the start of the year many have been targeted by armed groups.
Since the start of the Taliban military campaign in 2007 168 schools have been attacked, including 104 girls’ schools. An additional 400 private schools could also be shut down.
Altogether some 80,000 female students could have their education put at risk whilst about 8,000 female teachers could lose their job.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Singapore: 2 Ji Detainees Released
TWO Singaporean members of the Jemaah Islamiah terror network who were detained under the Internal Security Act have been released.
A Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) statement on Thursday said both men ‘have been cooperative in investigations and shown significant progress in their rehabilitation’ since they were detained in January 2002.
The two, Mohamed Ellias Mohamed Khan and Ja’afar Mistooki, were arrested in December 2001 for their involvement in the JI’s plans to mount attacks against several targets in Singapore. They were released on Jan 5.
MHA said on Thursday they ‘were assessed to no longer pose a security threat that required preventive detention’. Both have been released on Suspension Directions, it added.
This means their detention orders have been suspended, and they must abide by certain conditions and restrictions after their release.
Should a person fail to comply, he may be detained again.
The ISA allows for detention without trial for up to two years at a time, but detentions are extended when detainees are assessed to remain a security threat.
When they were detained, Mohamed Ellias was 29 and a manager, while Ja’afar was 40 and a freelance despatch driver.
MHA also announced the lapse of a Restriction Order (RO) for Faisel Abdullah Abdat, which expired on Feb 8 and was not renewed.
Faisel was detained in February 2003 for providing material support to an Al-Qaeda collaborator, and released on a Suspension Direction in October 2003. When this lapsed in February 2005, he was first issued with a two-year RO.
As he had been cooperative in investigations and responded to rehabilitation, he was assessed to no longer require supervision under an RO regime, MHA said.
It added that there are now 20 men in detention for terror activities, while another 42 are out on ROs, which regulate their movements and activities.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Bloggers Face Jail Without Bail for Discussing Monarchy
By Daniel Ten Kate
Suwicha Thakhor has spent two months in a Thai prison, accused by police of insulting the royal family. He says he should be allowed to express an opinion.
Arrested Jan. 14 and charged in connection with material posted on the Internet, the 34-year-old oil engineer spends his days missing his wife and three children.
“We have to be able to think freely,” Suwicha said on March 4 at Klong Prem Central Prison, his eyes red with tears. “They cannot stop ideas by sending people to jail.”
More than a dozen similar cases are pending under Thai law as a widening political divide prompts discussion on the future role of the monarchy. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, has ruled for six decades, making him an enduring force in a country that has seen 10 coups since absolute monarchy was abolished in 1932.
Succession “is the single biggest variable that shapes Thai risk,” said Robert Broadfoot, managing director of Hong Kong- based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. Equating King Bhumibol’s integrity with that of the monarchy as an institution “is an assumption that will be tested by the transition.”
Thailand’s constitution says the king “shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated.” The law, called lese-majeste — it means injury to majesty in French — makes it a criminal offense to defame, insult or threaten the king, queen, heir apparent or regent. Offenders face as many as 15 years in prison.
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Philippines: Cardinals Rosales and Vidal Pressure Arroyo for Agrarian Reform
The Catholic Church calls for “moral pressure” on members of parliament, so that the norm may benefit poor farmers in the country. Doubts concerning members of the president’s family, whose land is not included in the CARP.
Manila (AsiaNews) — The Filipino Catholic Church is supporting the poor farmers in the country, and asking for the extension of the law on agrarian reform (CARP). Last March 6, two cardinals, Gaudencio Rosales of Manila and Ricardo Vidal of Cebu, met with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to discuss the law under consideration in parliament. The cardinals express the hope that this may benefit “poor farmers” and call on politicians to “give the CARP additional five years.”
According to Fr. Anton Pascual, executive director of Caritas Manila, the president promised the two cardinals that her administration is “one with the Church” in the fight for approval of the CARP. “Malacanang [the presidential palace] is not the problem. The Church has the full support of the president.”
Arroyo’s full support is an important point for the Church, but it is the parliament that must decide whether or not to extend the law. Fr. Pascual is asking for “moral pressure” on the country’s politicians, and is inviting the bishops to “personally call on their respective legislators” in order to convince them “to pass CARP. We have three months to turn the tide to CARP’s favor.”
The effects of the law on agrarian reform — promulgated in 1988, and extended ten years later — expired in December of 2008. The authors of the CARP and farmers in the country have criticized the manner in which the law was extended to June of 2009, because it does not include a provision on “compulsory land acquisition and distribution” on behalf of poor farmers. This, he stresses, “is the heart and soul of the CARP.”
Finally, Arroyo has asked both of her sons, members of the House of Representatives, to vote in favor of the reform, and not “to break the legacy of the Macapagal family” in this matter. The president’s family has vast land holdings; there are rumors from various directions that Arroyo is more interested in “protecting property” than in the well-being of the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
From Chile, Appeal to End Embargo Against Cuba
“In order for the USA to have good relations with South America it is essential that they change their policy toward Cuba”. Speaking in Santiago del Chile, where the South American Defense Council (CDS) was formally constituted, the Brazilian defense minister Nelson Jobim stressed the need for an immediate repeal of the embargo imposed against Cuba since 1962. “We see that today, with the new president in the USA, there are favorable conditions such that and end can be brought to this unjust and discriminatory situation” echoed his Argentinean counterpart Nilda Garré, noting that Cuba has also been excluded from OAS, from which it was expelled in 1962. “Chile says that the American community must be integrated by all members” said the Chilean minister of defense, José Goñi, adding that “it is a common opinion that Cuba should be readmitted to OAS”. As for the Uruguayan José Bayardi, “a change of vision and relationship is incumbent upon the USA toward Cuba. Today, Cuba does not represent any security problem for the USA and their policies are dictated more by the internal Cuban migrant lobbies than a cold and rational analysis of the realities”. [AB]
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Americas Report: Nicole Ferrand on Islamic Terrorism in Latin America
Over the years, there has been disturbing information about the presence of radical Islamic terrorist groups in Latin America. The Americas Report has published several articles regarding this subject including a recent article on how terrorists have and could use fake or doctored passports to enter the United States to carry out attacks. In light of this information, it is important to know which Islamic terror groups are present in the region and the threat they could pose to regional security…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuela: Israel Lobbies Chavez to Curb Anti-Semitism in Venezuela
Israel has embarked on an intensive diplomatic campaign to persuade Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to rein in a recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks against Venezuela’s Jews.
Over the last week, the Foreign Ministry has asked 15 different countries that maintain ties with both Israel and Venezuela to take high-level action on this issue. The use of international intermediaries is necessary because Venezuela severed diplomatic ties with Israel and expelled all its diplomats about a month ago, in response to Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip.
“There has been a significant outbreak of anti-Semitism there, and we wanted to send messages to Venezuela’s president through several different channels in order to clarify the gravity with which we view the situation,” a senior government source said. “We wanted them to know that in Israel’s view, Chavez is responsible for the Jewish community’s welfare.” Advertisement
Two of the countries whose assistance Israel requested are Argentina and Brazil, both of whose presidents subsequently called Chavez and relayed Israel’s message. Another is Russia, and a fourth is Spain, whose foreign minister, Miguel Moratinos, is due to visit the Venezuelan capital of Caracas soon. In addition to passing on Israel’s message, Moratinos has agreed to meet with leaders of the local Jewish community.
Israeli officials believe that the strong messages have begun to have an impact on Chavez’s government: Venezuelan police recently arrested several suspects in the recent anti-Semitic attacks. However, there is still great fear among Venezuela’s Jewish community, which numbers some 15,000 people.
Members of the Caracas Jewish community, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, told Haaretz that Chavez has thus far given tacit backing to the growing anti-Semitism, and he could also stop it if he so desired, by giving the necessary orders to his security services. “There’s an atmosphere of intimidation against the Jews,” said one.
During Operation Cast Lead, the largest synagogue in Caracas was vandalized by unknown assailants, and several Jews were physically attacked. Two weeks ago, a bomb was thrown at the Jewish community center in Caracas. In response to growing public criticism of such incidents within his own country, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro made a well-publicized visit last month to the synagogue that was attacked.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Immigration Service to Reopen Old Residency Cases
Some spouses of Danish citizens who have had their application for residence rejected will have their cases reopened
The Immigration Service is set to reopen 50 applications for residency for spouses of Danish citizens that have been rejected since 2002.
Birthe Rønn Hornbech, the immigration minister, announced the about face on Wednesday, stating that immigration authorities would look into rejected applications that could be contested using the precedent-setting European Court of Justice decision in the Metock case.
Until now, Hornbech had been unwilling to order reviews of applications that had been rejected. She took the position that the country’s immigration laws took precedence over the 2007 Metock ruling, which states that non-EU spouses of EU citizens may obtain residence permits without having previously lived in an EU country. As recently as late February Hornbech had indicated that Denmark would continue to fight against any changes to its immigration laws, saying ‘If you ram your head against a wall you may as well keep doing it until there’s a hole’.
Hornbech denied that pressure from the EU had forced her to ordering the reopening.
The decision applies only to applications involving the spouse of a Danish citizen — not those of citizens of other EU countries living in Denmark.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Dept. Investigates Arizona Sheriff for Enforcing Immigration Law
By Penny Starr
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona following requests by congressional Democrats and allegations by liberal activists that the department has violated the civil rights of illegal aliens.
Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Robert Scott (D-Va.) requested the investigation, and activists groups such as National Day Laborer Organizer Network and ACORN launched petition drives and rallies in support of the probe.
The investigation focuses on Sheriff Joe Arpaio and dozens of officers under his command who were trained through the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ACCESS), which partners federal and local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. (The Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division is known popularly as ICE.)
[story continued at URL]
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Spain: Government ‘Won’t Prosecute’ if Illegals Taken in
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 11 — The Spanish secretary of state for immigration, Consuelo Rumi’, said today that the socialist government “will not prosecute” NGOs, religious congregations and people who decide to take in irregular immigrants, saying that “incorrect information has been spread” regarding the matter: the news was reported on the online edition of El Mundo. Rumi’s statements follow the debate sparked in Spain over the presentation of the immigration bill in December. Article 53.2c sets fines of up to 10,000 euros for anyone who “promotes the irregular stay of a foreigner in Spain”. Some 4 thousand signatures in protest at the “Berlusconian tones” of the article have already been collected by the Platform let’s save the receptions, says El Mundo. Rumì confirmed that the new immigration law would include a register of entries and exits from the country which would allow the movements of people arriving in Spain to be checked for a set period only.(ANSAmed).
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 11 — The Spanish secretary of state for immigration, Consuelo Rumi’, said today that the socialist government “will not prosecute” NGOs, religious congregations and people who decide to take in irregular immigrants, saying that “incorrect information has been spread” regarding the matter: the news was reported on the online edition of El Mundo. Rumi’s statements follow the debate sparked in Spain over the presentation of the immigration bill in December. Article 53.2c sets fines of up to 10,000 euros for anyone who “promotes the irregular stay of a foreigner in Spain”. Some 4 thousand signatures in protest at the “Berlusconian tones” of the article have already been collected by the Platform let’s save the receptions, says El Mundo. Rumì confirmed that the new immigration law would include a register of entries and exits from the country which would allow the movements of people arriving in Spain to be checked for a set period only.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Coed Showers Going Statewide?
Family group says ‘gender identity’ bill threatens women, children
A “gender identity” plan for coed showers, locker rooms and other public facilities already implemented in one suburban Maryland county could be going statewide, according to alarmed members of a pro-family organization.
Officials with Maryland Citizens for a Responsible Government say a plan is pending in the state legislature that is similar to Montgomery County’s permissive ordinance and now offers “one of the greatest threats to privacy, safety and security that Maryland residents have ever known.”
[…]
“With the bill’s vague wording, all an adult male has to do to gain legal access to facilities normally reserved for women and girls is to indicate, verbally or non-verbally, that he has a sense of being female at the moment,” the organization said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: the Anti-God Squad
Atheist Bus Campaign Gets into Gear in Germany
[Comment from Tuan Jim: Good timing!]
“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” The brightly colored ads were part of a provocative campaign on British buses. Spain reacted with its own string of atheist slogans, and now a German group is following suit.
Those waiting by at bus stops in Berlin, Munich or Cologne later this year may be in for a surprise. In place of ordinary commercial ads, commuters will be greeted by hard-hitting atheist slogans. That at least is the plan of a new German atheism campaign, the latest European group to use buses as a vehicle for its provocative views.
Organizers are taking a leaf out of the book of Spanish and English groups that have run similar campaigns. Right now the German organizers are trying to raise money to embellish seven buses with their ads.
Atheists pledging a euro or more to the campaign can vote on a selection of slogans, some loosely based on the British signs. Phillip Möller, one of the campaign organizers, says the German group has collected €3,500 in the first four days of fundraising. They need €16,000 euros more to fund the project.
Möller, one of the six founders, doesn’t see himself as any sort of missionary. “We just want to inform people,” he said. “In an enlightened society you should be able to say something like that without being punished.”…
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Girl Scouts’ Birthday — But Nothing to Celebrate
The Daisy and Brownie Journey programs begin innocently enough. The youngsters meet flowers and critters who encourage them to explore botany and the environment and introduce them to the U.N. concept of “global diversity..”
By the time an “enlightened” Girl Scout reaches the Seniors program, she is encouraged to become an “agent of change” for the global good and an “ambassador” for causes championed by left-leaning women’s advocacy groups. Partnerships have been formed with Planned Parenthood, and the Girl Scouts have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with gun control advocates and radical environmental groups.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Orders Homeschoolers Into Public District Classrooms
Decides children need more ‘focus’ despite testing above grade levels
A North Carolina judge has ordered three children to attend public schools this fall because the homeschooling their mother has provided over the last four years needs to be “challenged.”
The children, however, have tested above their grade levels — by as much as two years.
The decision is raising eyebrows among homeschooling families, and one friend of the mother has launched a website to publicize the issue.
[…]
Williams told WND the public school order was the worst possible outcome for Ms. Mills, who had made it clear she felt it was important to her children that she continue homeschooling.
According to Williams’ website, the judge also ordered a mental health evaluation for the mother — but not the father — as part of the divorce proceedings, in what Williams described as an attack on the “mother’s conservative Christian beliefs.”
[…]
Williams said the mother originally moved into a homeschool schedule because the children were not doing as well as she hoped at the local public schools.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Policy Discriminating Against Bible Clubs Challenged
Supreme Court asked whether Equal Access Act can be ‘circumvented’
The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether school officials at Kentridge High School near Seattle can circumvent the requirements of the Equal Access Act by denying religious student groups the rights afforded other organizations.
[…]
The members of the Truth Bible Club wish to limit the club’s voting membership to Christians, but because of the faith-based decision, Kentridge officials repeatedly have rejected the application, citing the school’s “nondiscrimination” policy.
Officials also said the name of the club is “offensive.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Labour ‘Double Standards’ as Smoking Ban is Lifted for G20 World Leaders
Labour has been accused of double standards for amending legislation to allow world leaders to use smoking rooms during the G20 economic conference.
Dozens of heads of state, politicians and diplomats will be meeting at the Excel Exhibition Centre in Docklands, London, next month.
It is believed that laws have been changed to get around the smoking ban and provide specialist rooms that the visiting dignitaries can use.
Smoking in all enclosed public spaces and places of work was banned under the Health Act 2006, and came into force in England in 2007.
It is not clear which Government department has amended the law for the venue or whether is only a temporary measure.
But the Foreign and Common Office, who is hosting the event, said it was aware of the smoking rooms and has launched an investigation.
Local authority Newham Council is also looking into the matter as environmental health officers in charge were not aware of the amendment.
Critics say the Government is flouting the ban and should apply the same concession to struggling businesses.
Smoking campaign group Freedom2choose chairman Andy Davis said: ‘This clearly demonstrates that there are alternative solutions to the current smoking ban that our government is ignoring.
‘Smoking rooms would provide welcome relief for our hospitality industry with the ban being acknowledged as one of the major factors in its current downturn.
‘Our government is accommodating the political leaders from across the globe, yet they are not prepared to accommodate millions of their own citizens.
‘This concession should now be made available to all private businesses and clubs for them to adopt if they so desire.’
Conservative MP Anne Widdecombe said: ‘It’s one law for one, and one for another, and I think that sums up this Government.’
The G20 summit, which starts on April 2, is being held under the motto ‘stability, growth, jobs’.
It is due to bring together leaders of the world’s advanced and emerging economies along with representatives of international financial institutions with the aim of restoring stability and stimulating global economic growth.
On Monday, it was revealed that consultants will be paid more than £6 million to help the Government host the event.
Junior Foreign Office minister Gillian Merron gave details of four contracts worth an expected £6,204,065 with external consultancy firms hired to “advise” on the G20.
She said Feltech/MRG, an event production company, had been hired to help stage the summit at a cost of £5,941,597 excluding VAT.
The development of the summit logo and the creation of the original globe image to overcome copyright issues cost £6,000.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
An Appeal to Cultural Muslims
by Amil Imani
There are some 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, the overwhelming majority of which are Cultural Muslims who are generally called moderate Muslims. Muslims are born into Islam, where a great many never go through the process of deciding for themselves if they want to be Muslims. It is not a religion that they choose, it is a belief they inherit. For whatever reason, this great majority of Cultural Muslims are Muslims of sort without fully toeing the line of Islam. The real Muslims are the jihadists, a small minority who lives and dies by the dictates of the Quran and the Sunna, the life examples of Muhammad…
| — Hat tip: Amil Imani | [Return to headlines] |
Regulate Armed Robots Before It’s Too Late
IN THIS age of super-rapid technological advance, we do well to obey the Boy Scout injunction: “Be prepared”. That requires nimbleness of mind, given that the ever accelerating power of computers is being applied across such a wide range of applications, making it hard to keep track of everything that is happening. The danger is that we only wake up to the need for forethought when in the midst of a storm created by innovations that have already overtaken us.
We are on the brink, and perhaps to some degree already over the edge, in one hugely important area: robotics. Robot sentries patrol the borders of South Korea and Israel. Remote-controlled aircraft mount missile attacks on enemy positions. Other military robots are already in service, and not just for defusing bombs or detecting landmines: a coming generation of autonomous combat robots capable of deep penetration into enemy territory raises questions about whether they will be able to discriminate between soldiers and innocent civilians. Police forces are looking to acquire miniature Taser-firing robot helicopters. In South Korea and Japan the development of robots for feeding and bathing the elderly and children is already advanced. Even in a robot-backward country like the UK, some vacuum cleaners sense their autonomous way around furniture. A driverless car has already negotiated its way through Los Angeles traffic.
In the next decades, completely autonomous robots might be involved in many military, policing, transport and even caring roles. What if they malfunction? What if a programming glitch makes them kill, electrocute, demolish, drown and explode, or fail at the crucial moment? Whose insurance will pay for damage to furniture, other traffic or the baby, when things go wrong? The software company, the manufacturer, the owner?
Most thinking about the implications of robotics tends to take sci-fi forms: robots enslave humankind, or beautifully sculpted humanoid machines have sex with their owners and then post-coitally tidy the room and make coffee. But the real concern lies in the areas to which the money already flows: the military and the police.
A confused controversy arose in early 2008 over the deployment in Iraq of three SWORDS armed robotic vehicles carrying M249 machine guns. The manufacturer of these vehicles said the robots were never used in combat and that they were involved in no “uncommanded or unexpected movements”. Rumours nevertheless abounded about the reason why funding for the SWORDS programme abruptly stopped. This case prompts one to prick up one’s ears.
Media stories about Predator drones mounting missile attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan are now commonplace, and there are at least another dozen military robot projects in development. What are the rules governing their deployment? How reliable are they? One sees their advantages: they keep friendly troops out of harm’s way, and can often fight more effectively than human combatants. But what are the limits, especially when these machines become autonomous?
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Space Junk Threat Worried Space Station
The crew of the international space station had a close call with space junk.
The three astronauts took refuge for 11 minutes Thursday in a Russian escape capsule before returning inside. Officials were worried that the space station might get hit with a piece of space junk.
NASA says the debris was a small piece of an old spacecraft motor and it was passing within three miles of the station…
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Why We Elect Liars as Leaders
One of the most creative uses of lying — and a key tactic for bending a population to your will — is the creation of a crisis. Now, anyone even superficially familiar with the history of the political left has heard references to the strategy of creating crises as a means of transforming society. You’ve probably heard of the “Hegelian dialectic,” a key Marxist technique whereby an idea (“We need more gun control laws!”) generates its opposite (“No, we don’t need more gun laws, we just need tougher sentencing of criminals!”), which leads to a reconciliation of opposites, or synthesis (“OK, we’ll compromise by passing new gun-control laws, but watering them down somewhat”). This is how socialist progress is achieved “peacefully” — through conflict or crisis — and always in the direction of greater socialism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
"Some Democrats have started to worry that voters don’t and won’t understand the link between economic revival and Obama’s huge agenda..."
You don't say? So there are still Democrats in LaLa land that DO see the link but are just worried that voters are too stupid to see the connection?
Obama's energy policy and kowtowing to junk science on the (non-role) of man made carbon on (non) global warming will raise the cost of energy and therefore the price of everything.
Basically, instead of performing CPR on the gasping economy, Dr. Obama-Kevorkian is pressing hard on its already gasping windpipe while emptying its pockets to buy candy.
But Dems are worried people won't see how this unique technique can help the patient???
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