Pakistan is descending further into instability and chaos. The government is arresting political leaders, and many have gone into hiding. Opponents of the regime are planning a march on the capital.In other news, emergency workers in Spain are protesting in their underwear.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, CB, CB2, Fausta, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, KGS, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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The Difference Between Wealth and Profit
Frank Shostak, an adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute and a frequent contributor to Mises.org is chief economist of M.F. Global. His January 6, 2009 article is of substantial interest to anyone trying to understand whether government intervention will help solve our economic problems. You can find the article, titled “Why Congress Must Stop the Fed’s Massive Pumping.”
In his article, Shostak refers to “false activities.” He says “False activities cannot survive without the support of monetary pumping; they cannot secure goods and services without money out of thin air.” With this single statement, Shostak provides the answer to why government intervention with TARP — or, stimulus — funds will not bring the American economy back to life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Police: U.S. Teens Were Hit Men for Mexican Cartel
LAREDO, Texas (CNN) — Rosalio Reta sits at a table inside a Laredo Police Department interrogation room. A detective, sitting across the table, asks him how it all started.
Gabriel Cardona, who shows his tattooed eyelids, worked as a hit man for a Mexican cartel.
Reta, in Spanish street slang, describes his initiation as an assassin, at the age of 13, for the Mexican Gulf Cartel, one of the country’s two major drug gangs
“I thought I was Superman. I loved doing it, killing that first person,” Reta says on the videotape obtained by CNN. “They tried to take the gun away, but it was like taking candy from kid.
Rosalio Reta and his friend, Gabriel Cardona, were members of a three-person cell of American teenagers working as cartel hit men in the United States, according to prosecutors. The third was arrested by Mexican authorities and stabbed to death in prison there three days later.
In interviews with CNN, Laredo police detectives and prosecutors told how Cardona and Reta were recruited by the cartel to be assassins after they began hitting the cantinas and clubs just across the border.
[…]
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Rupert Murdoch Should Kill This Book
Since [Rupert] Murdoch has shown that he can be sensitive to the victims of murder, and their families, he should reconsider his decision to publish through HarperCollins the book, Undergound: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen, by Weather Underground terrorist Mark Rudd. Like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Rudd was a member of the Cuban-trained Communist gang that waged violence and murder in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. In the book Rudd talks with pride of his involvement in terrorist acts, including the planned bombing of a servicemen’s dance at Fort Dix, where hundreds of military personnel and their wives and girlfriends could have been injured or killed. He says in the book that our U.S. military personnel deserved a “taste” of what the Army had been doing during the Vietnam War.
[…]
The book is scheduled to go on sale on March 24 and Rudd’s national speaking tour, also advertised on the HarperCollins website, begins about the same time. In fact, the HarperCollins publicity department says there will be a major marketing campaign for the book, including:
- National broadcast and print media campaign
- 25-city national radio campaign
- College marketing, including mailings to college book stores and newspapers
- Online promotion, including E-mail notifications excerpts, and social networking sites
This is nothing less than an effort by Murdoch’s company to use its resources to promote this communist terrorist and his communist views to millions of Americans, especially young people and students. It is morally wrong and runs the risk of setting the stage for the creation of another violence-oriented student movement. In fact, Rudd brags in his books that there are already some 200 chapters of a “new SDS” on college campuses. The SDS was the communist student organization that spawned the Weather Underground. Today, Rudd, Ayers and Dohrn have come together in a new Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wal-Mart Looks to Hispanic Market
Wal-Mart plans to open its first Hispanic-focused supermarkets this summer in Arizona and Texas as the largest US retailer continues its drive to expand its dominance of the US grocery business.
The pilot stores, named Supermercado de Walmart, will open in Phoenix and Houston in remodelled 39,000 sq ft locations occupied previously by two of Wal-Mart’s Neighborhood Market stores.
The retailer said that the stores were in “strongly Hispanic neighbourhoods” and would feature a “new lay-out, signing and product assortment designed to make them even more relevant to local Hispanic customers”. The staff will also be bilingual.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
BNP Member Attacked With Hammer
A British National Party (BNP) member was attacked with a hammer when protesters arrived at a campaign event in Greater Manchester.
Violence broke out as 30 people surrounded a BNP vehicle outside the Ellesmere Pub in St Helens Road in Leigh on Friday evening, said police.
Tony Ward, 48, was hit with a hammer and later treated in hospital.
A 25-year-old man arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm has since been given police bail.
Officers arrived at the pub to discover the BNP’s trailer had been overturned, said a police spokesman.
A traffic diversion was put in place on St Helen’s Road, while the trailer was removed and the road was closed. It has since reopened.
One witness told BBC News: “They had hammers and they smacked the vehicle to pieces, smashed all the windows and tore off the bumper, completely decimated it.
“I was shocked at what I saw.”
A BNP fundraising event had been due to take place at Pure nightclub in Leigh, but it was cancelled at the last minute.
Simon Darby, the party’s deputy leader said: “This was a violent attack by a group of thugs in which one of our members was badly injured.
“But we will not be put off.”
The BNP’s Nick Griffin has been in the area to host the event, said Mr Darby.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Britons Who HATE Britain: the Muslim Extremists Hell-Bent on Segregation Rather Than Integration
This was the scene that greeted homecoming soldiers in Luton this week. Behind it is a community where integration has abjectly failed, breeding a small but rabid band of poisonous fanatics
The call to morning prayers begins at dawn: ‘Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar’ (Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest). The voice echoes across the rooftops from an amplifier on a minaret at Luton Central Mosque.
Outside, men in beards and tunics are arriving. They slip off their shoes, douse their faces in water, then kneel with foreheads meeting the carpet.
So it was yesterday, Friday — the most sacred day of the week for Muslims.
The mosque, with its distinctive golden dome dominating the skyline, is the most visible symbol of Islamic life in the town. It was also one of seven Muslim centres in Luton chosen to receive Home Office funding last year for a project called ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’.
So far, £200,000 has been handed out via grants from the council. Another £400,000 has been set aside to capture the ‘hearts and minds’ of young Muslims.
In the wake of the scenes which greeted soldiers taking part in a supposedly morale-boosting homecoming parade in Luton this week, some might wonder whether this is money that has been well spent.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Cornered Finance Ministers Offer Dialogue
Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg have put their heads together in an attempt to avoid the ignominy of featuring on an international tax fraud blacklist.
On Sunday evening, the weather in Luxembourg was damp and foggy — and so too the outcome of the meeting between the three finance ministers: host Luc Frieden of Luxembourg, Switzerland’s Hans-Rudolf Merz and Josef Pröll from Austria.
At a media conference at Senningen Castle, the ministers stressed that banking secrecy had to be defended.
“The Swiss government decided on March 6 that bank secrecy will stay intact but also that cooperation would improve regarding tax offences,” said Merz, offering a promise of dialogue to Switzerland’s critics.
Peter V Kunz, a business law professor at Bern University, said Merz was making a “political statement”.
“He has to find middle ground between the international community and Swiss politics,” Kunz told swissinfo on Monday.
Underlying Merz’s remarks, aimed at his home audience, was this subtext: the three tax havens were willing to talk about how they could better tackle tax crimes. As to what kinds of reforms the three countries are open to, the finance ministers said they were open to ideas…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Economy Breeds Racism in Hungary
March 13 | As Eastern Europe feels the full brunt of the global meltdown, they are succumbing to the ugly by-product of tough times: racism. In Hungary the gypsy population has already suffered two deaths with more predicted. The Sydney Morning Herald ‘s European Correspondent Paola Totaro and photographer Penny Bradfield gauge the mood at the Roma village of Kerepes on the outskirts of Budapest.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
France: First-Time Ban on Sale of Drink or Tobacco to Minors
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 10 — France’s National Assembly (its lower house of parliament) yesterday approved a bill which would impose a ban on the sale of alcohol and tobacco to persons under 18 years of age, raising the present limit from 16 years of age. The bill was proposed by Health Minister, Roselyne Bachelot, and requires approval by the Senate before being enacted into law. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Anarchist Incursions in Athens and Salonica
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 13 — Dozens of hooded youths presumably linked to the anarchist movement raided the city centre of Athens and Salonica today spreading destruction and disappearing before the arrival of police forces. These actions provoked the angry reaction of citizens and more criticism of the government and police by the opposition party. In Athens some five dozen masked youths, as reported by eyewitnesses, carried out a commando-style action to destroy the windows of at least three banks and numerous shops, and also damaged approximately 30 parked vehicles. After spreading panic amongst the passing crowd, they disappeared into the alleys of the fashionable Kolonaki district. A little earlier a group of masked individuals carried out a similar action in the city of Salonica, shouting that a young anarchist under arrest must be set free. Pasok, the socialist opposition party, reported “inertia and absence” by the government and police forces. The Mayor of Athens invited the government to “effectively protect” the city’s historical and shopping centre. Government spokesperson Evangelos Antonaros condemned the violence and pointed out that a special unit is being set up to deal with such episodes in the city. Today’s bout of anarchic violence is a reminder of the serious incidents which broke out in December when a student was killed by police forces and coincides with a new wave of terrorist attacks which are also mainly aimed against banks, so much so that there is a hint of coordination. The main armed group. ‘Revolutionary Fight’, claimed responsibility for two dynamite attacks in recent days (which fortunately claimed no victims) against Citibank in Athens, and warned that it will continue to strike against political and economic interests and against police forces, while also assuring that it will avoid spilling the blood of civilians. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Healthcare: Alert in Spain, Shortage of 7,000 Doctors
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 5 — The lack of doctors in Spain has become a true emergency, to the point that the regional authorities have asked the Health Minister for an urgent increase of at least 7,000 in the university Medicine Departments in the upcoming academic year to be able to meet the needs of the health system. Currently, according to a report presented yesterday by Minister Bernat Soria to Parliament, there is a deficit of about 3,200 professionals, which will reach 9,000 in 2015 and 25,000 in 2025. The lack of medical personnel concerns mainly general practitioners, geriatric specialists, psychiatrists, medical oncologists, radiographers and anaesthesiologists. Spanish professionals show little interest in working in primary healthcare, as demonstrated by the results of competitive interviews for general practitioners in 2007: of the 1,859 jobs available, 13% remained vacant. To cover future needs, a greater number of medical students is needed, and Minister Soria has asked the Education Minister to increase restricted entry levels for students by 2,000 next academic year, from 4,906 students in 2007-2008. An increase, which for 2009-2010 must reach 7,000 students per year, a number that was initially set for 2012. For years, Spain has relied on doctors from abroad, mainly coming from Latin America and Poland. The phenomenon of Spanish doctors going abroad to Portugal or other EU countries due to greater social prestige is one of the main problems in the national health service. The Minister of Science and Innovation with authority over the university system, Cristina Garmendia, promised that university offers “will be planned according to the new expectations” of the health minister. But the discrepancy has already exploded in a palpable way in a town in Catalonia where, due to a serious lack of medical personnel, foreign professionals have been working since last June without waiting for their qualifications to be validated by the Health Ministry, just to cope with the emergency during the summer. In Catalonia, 154 doctors were lacking, and 2,000 will be necessary to satisfy the estimated lack of doctors by 2012. To avoid the obstacle posed by the legal recognition of their credentials, a unique bilateral agreement was necessary to streamline the required procedures expected by article 18 of the law regarding professional organisations. The article will be broadened, ministry sources explained, so that the qualifications of foreign specialists are recognised uniformly across the country, although “it has professional effects, but not academic ones”. Last summer already saw an initiative by the Generalitat (autonomous regional government) leading to protests from the Official College of Doctors of Barcelona and the Doctors Union of Catalonia. They complained that the hiring of foreign doctors without “legally recognised” specialisations was “illegal”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Internet: France, Anti-Piracy Laws Discussed in Parliament
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 10 — Debate over the anti-piracy laws began today in the French parliament, with ministers discussing the draft law against internet piracy of films and music in France. The law suggests that warning emails are sent, and after six months, an official notice will be sent to the home address of those who illegally download files from the internet. The most controversial part of the plan relates to the suspension of internet connection for those who repeatedly pirate works, that is, those who continue to download material illegally a year after the first warning messages. A new body is to be set up to deal with this issue, known as the Watchdog for the circulation of works and the protection of rights on the internet, which is to finance the sending of 3,000 official documents and 10,000 emails every day. Amongst other proposed measures is a plan to make internet providers inform customers on how to make their connection more secure. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Strait Bridge: Over 40 Thousand People Will be Employed
(ANSAmed) — SALERNO — “At full regime there will be over 40 thousand workers employed for the construction of the Strait of Messina Bridge, but the positive effects of the project will be felt sooner”, the president of ANAS, Pietro Ciucci, said in Salerno. The effects of the bridge’s construction, he added, “will be felt before the construction sites are opened because there is a design phase that will involve hundreds of engineers”. “There is the problem of finding a solution to land issues”, he affirmed, “which means works, surveys and expropriations. The effects of the bridge will not be felt only upon the bridge’s opening”, he added, “positive signs will arrive much sooner if this project starts from the point where it stopped three years ago”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Little Wonder Liberal Muslims Feel Betrayed
Nick Cohen: Their views are seldom heard as ministers prefer to court radical Islamists
No political movement can hope to win arguments if it turns the best and bravest into its foes. For the most courageous British Muslims, the Labour government and wider liberal society already seem slippery and hypocritical. Soon, they will be irredeemably tainted.
Take Ansar Ullah, a Bengali leftist from the old school. Like many secularists of his generation, his life has been dominated by the struggle against Jamaat-e-Islami. The party’s name is rarely mentioned in our public life, although its supporters in the Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamic Foundation are on the radio almost daily. The Bengali equivalents of British Observer readers know it all too well. They regard Jamaat as we regard the BNP: the sworn and potentially deadly enemy of all their best principles.
To stop the breakaway of its effective colony during the 1971 Bangladesh war of independence, the Pakistani army began by massacring the male students at University of Dhaka and forcing the women to be soldiers’ sex slaves. It targeted intellectuals and political opponents and, inevitably, the Hindu minority. Jamaat was on Pakistan’s side. Journalists at the time, and the researchers from the Bangladeshi War Crimes Fact Finding Committee since, claimed that a militia staffed by Jamaat members murdered 150 academics and journalists, including the BBC’s man in Dhaka, Nizamuddin Ahmed.
The allegation that Jamaat would want to exterminate liberals was hardly far-fetched. Maulana Mawdudi, its founder, has as a great a claim as Sayyid Qutb of the Muslim Brotherhood, to be the first to argue for a totalitarian Islamic empire. “The establishment of an ideological Islamic state requires the Earth,” he said. “Not just a portion, but the entire planet.”
Ullah told me with considerable satisfaction how Jamaat had been thrashed in the last Bangladeshi elections. Then he turned to politics in his native Britain and all the pleasure vanished from his voice.
There seems no decent limit to the willingness of the British state to flatter Jamaat. After Prince Charles visited its stronghold at the East London Mosque last year, the Queen was so pleased she featured footage of his tour in her Christmas message. When Lord Phillips, the lord chief justice, declared that in his learned opinion sharia could apply to Muslim women, he made the announcement in the mosque’s conference centre, an understandable choice of venue, since Jamaat is one of the most misogynist organisations in the country.
I might have explained to Ullah that Charles Windsor was the most reactionary member of a reactionary family and that the English judiciary is nowhere near as liberal as the Daily Mail believes, but I could not explain away the behaviour of the Labour government.
On the one hand, Hazel Blears has proved she is not a fairweather feminist or selective anti-fascist. She will argue for freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and gay and women’s rights regardless of her opponents’ colour or creed. On the other, Jack Straw and Gordon Brown engage in serpentine contortions as they attempt to cover all bases and keep potential voters in Labour’s innercity seats happy. In the confusion between the principled position of Blears and the desire of her colleagues and the civil service to appease, the government has created a “tackling violent extremism” strategy that panders to extremists.
Author Ed Husain, who made the journey from Jamaat and Hizb ut-Tahrir to liberalism, tells me that a senior Jamaat supporter is now an adviser on religious policy. In the past, he saw him in the East London Mosque. Now, he sees him in Whitehall. Last week, the Observer ran the story of how Daud Abdullah, a member of the government’s Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, had signed a declaration in Istanbul opposing the ceasefire in Gaza and advocating attacks on Royal Navy ships if they imposed an arms blockade.
On the same day, the Conservative thinktank Policy Exchange issued a report on how the government’s counter-terrorism strategy was backfiring because the state showed no willingness to discriminate between reactionaries and moderates. Many of its examples were familiar — the West Midlands Police and Crown Prosecution Service attacking Channel 4 for exposing a homophobic preacher who preferred theocracy to democracy and the Met making a far-right ideologue an adviser on “countering extremism”, even though he was the subject of an Interpol “red notice” at the time.
The evident dangers to national security and to the interests of British Muslims who want to enjoy the benefits of liberal democracy do not trouble the cynics of the political left. They assume that if they mouth the necessary pieties and scratch the right backs, the votes will pile up in our Tammany Halls.
But disreputable manoeuvres come at a price and Labour does not notice how its tactics repel thoughtful people from the Muslim world. The pioneer in rejecting treacherous friends was Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The death threats from Islamists her espousal of feminism brought earned her nothing but insults from Dutch leftists and English liberals. She ended up working for a conservative institute in Washington because her natural allies would not offer her their protection and support.
Ullah unconsciously picked up on her exasperation when he told me he was a Labour party member who found the behaviour of his government mystifying. “They never want to talk to people like me,” he said. When I asked Shiraz Maher, the co-author of the Policy Exchange report, why he had not offered his work to the leftish Fabians or Institute for Public Policy Research, he guffawed. They would never print what he wrote. For this Muslin liberal, the left was no longer a home but an obstacle.
Ed Husain did not laugh but exploded with anger. “Where is the centre-left movement combating extremism?” he thundered. “Who on the left stands on the side of Muslims who want to support secularism and pluralism? Do they think that fascists only have white skins?”
I had no answer for him, but sensed that his furious questions were a better indicator of the bankrupting of the long period of Labour dominance than any opinion poll.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Stores Reopen After Foiled Terror Plot
Amsterdam, 13 March (AKI) — Swedish furniture giant Ikea and other stores in a major Amsterdam shopping area reopened on Friday after anti-terrorism police arrested seven Dutch Moroccans on suspicion of planning bomb attacks there.
The seven suspects include six men and a woman and one is related to a man connected to the deadly 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, police said.
“As far as we can tell, no-one involved has a history of terrorist involvement,” district attorney Herman Bolhaar told journalists.
The Dutch national anti-terrorist coordinator said there was no reason to implement extra security measures in the country following the threat in the south-east of the capital, the Volkskrant daily reported on Friday.
The current threat level in the Netherlands is already at its second highest level, which means there is a realistic chance of a terrorist attack, according to the daily.
After the arrests on Thursday, Amsterdam’s police chief Bernard Welten said police had reduced the threat of attack but the risk remained.
Police on Thursday sealed off a busy shopping street, ordered dozens of shops to close, cancelled a concert by the American band The Killers and raided a number of buildings in Amsterdam (photo) and Belgium.
Police said they had acted on a telephone tip-off a day earlier from an anonymous caller in Belgium who had warned of attacks intended to cause numerous casualties.
The caller gave the names and addresses of the three men, who were arrested Thursday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Religion: Coptics, 5,000 Souls in Search of Home in Rome
(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 12 — ‘We need a space where children can follow the catechism and learn Arabic, so that they are not on the streets. We have been waiting months for an answer from the local authorities, but for now they are silent”, said Monsignor Barnaba El Soryany, Bishop of the diocese of the Coptic Orthodox church in Rome, which was founded in 1996 by the Patriarch of Alexandria Shenouda III, and which depends on a vast territory which reaches as far as Turin. The Coptic community has complex and fascinating rites which are still little known in Italy, although it numbers 35,000 throughout the peninsula. ‘In the 1970s when many Egyptians began emigrating to Europe and the USA there were no Coptic churches”, said El Soryany. Over the years though, as ever more believers arrived, the Patriarch of Alexandria allowed the setting up of two dioceses in Italy and the foundation of several parishes. In Rome alone there are around 5,000 people who adhere to the faith, but places of worship have been trimmed down to the bone, and during services in the only functional church in via Bargellini in the Tiburtino district, people are crowded in on top of each other. The church, which is dedicated to Saint George, was founded in a former Ama depot (the company which collects refuse in the capital) which is still in partial use. The space was granted to them by Mayor Rutelli and thanks to efforts by worshippers was transformed from a garage into a place of worship. The Patriarchy bought the monastery in Rome in via Laurentina, which is the episcopal headquarters, but it was the Vatican which gave the Coptic church a hand. ‘In 1994 Pope John Paul II allowed us to use the church of St. Paul the Apostle which remained in use until September 1997” and then became unusable. Since then the Coptic Orthodoxy had to move into various churches in the centre of Rome, finally settling in the church of St. Mina in piazza della Trasfigurazione”, which was offered to them by the parish, said El Soryany. Although it does not have the money needed to purchase anything, the Coptic church is in a position to refurbish a building. ‘We would be happy to get a hangar” said El Soryany. ‘It would take us maybe a year to raise the funds, but we would have our own space at the end of it”. The Coptic church in Italy does not receive funds from the Patriarch in Alexandria, in fact: ‘our diocese provides for those in High Egypt, where poverty has reached extreme levels. Last winter, with the donations that we got from members of our community, we bought thousands of blankets for parishes which depend on the dioceses of Sohag, Luxor and Aswan”, he said, shaking his head. So it is difficult to imagine how the Coptic Orthodox community, the first Christians in the East, will be able to buy a whole property without the help of local institutions. And they are waiting for a visit from Mayor Gianni Alemanno. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Protest in Underwear Outside Madrid Council
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 12 — Around fifty emergency workers in Madrid’s tunnel network demonstrated this morning in their underwear outside the headquarters of the City council in Cibeles square, to demand adequate clothes and equipment in order to do their jobs. The demonstration, which was organised by the Comisiones Obreras union as part of an open-ended strike by staff, was aimed at getting wage increases linked to qualifications, and at condemning the lack of proper equipment. The unions claim that the City council has withdrawn four lorries meant for emergencies and emergency overalls in reflective colours made of fireproof materials, which until now were used by workers during accidents in the tunnels. The service was contracted out in 2005 by the council to Emesa, which withdrew the emergency vehicles following several sabotage incidents, according to sources from the company. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Council Spends £7,000 Investigating Why Member Left Meeting for 25 Seconds
When councillor Sean Holden popped out of a planning meeting for a cup of tea, he probably didn’t expect that anyone would even notice.
Mr Holden was absent for just 25 seconds.
But his actions set off a row with officials and culminated in an eight-month investigation costing £7,371.
Today, after being cleared of misconduct by an independent panel, he insisted the situation was ‘ridiculous’.
‘It was such a petty thing to cost so much,’ he said.
‘It was just a cup of tea. I hadn’t had a drink for an hour, so I was thirsty. I must have been gone for 25 seconds, certainly no more than that.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Government Adviser on Islamic Terror Arrested After Man is Stabbed at His Home
A Muslim who advised the Government following the July 7 London bombings has been arrested after an alleged stabbing.
Inayat Bunglawala, 39, was held on suspicion of attacking another man at his £300,000 home.
Mr Bunglawala, who also briefed former Security Minister Tony McNulty on the threat posed by Islamic radicals in the UK, was arrested two weeks before Christmas last year.
The identity of the alleged victim is unknown and it is not clear what circumstances led to the alleged attack in the early hours of December 13 last year.
Mr Bunglawala has been released on bail while the Crown Prosecution Service considers bringing charges.
Mr Bunglawala is one of the most prominent members of the Muslim Council of Britain, an organisation which advises the Government on extremism and counter-terrorism.
After the July 7 London bombings in 2005, he was one of seven Muslims appointed to a Home Office taskforce tackling radicalisation in the UK.
Last week, Mr Bunglawala was featured on the BBC and in many newspapers as the moderate ‘voice’ of British Islam after the Luton anti-war demonstrations.
Critics claim his arrest will once again focus attention on the MCB.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Phil Woolas Escapes Injury After Anarchists Storm Office Calling for ‘No Immigration Controls’
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas escaped uninjured tonight when protesters stormed into his constituency office.
The MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth was talking to a constituent when more than a dozen members of Manchester No Borders entered and started filming and putting stickers on the walls.
The group said they wanted ‘all immigration prisons, specifically Pennine House at Manchester airport’ abolished.
[…]
‘My assistant called the police and two officers attended.
‘I left the building on police advice and the group left the building later on — there was no violence or damage.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: School League Tables Are to be Scrapped and Replaced With ‘Wellbeing’ Charts
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls wants to tear up the traditional ranking system in favour of grading schools on their pupils’ health and wellbeing as well as their exam results.
He laid out plans yesterday to ‘revolutionise’ the performance system with report cards which will mark schools from A to E.
The rating will also be based on how pupils and parents view the school.
Critics accused the Government of trying to disguise failing schools by introducing non-academic indicators, such as measuring the number of children doing sport or the take-up of school lunches.
They claim that meddling with the exam league tables will only lead to confusion for parents and distort educational standards.
Under the plans, schools judged to do well at promoting pupil ‘wellbeing’ may score a good grade overall, even if their exam results are poor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Duke, the Dame and the Dictator: Why Has Prince Andrew Been Cosying Up to Dubious Oligarchs and Colonel Gaddafi?
Since the sale of the house last year, Andrew’s circle of rich and influential friends abroad has grown and now includes an intriguing new member.
He is Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the 35-year-old second son of oil-rich Libya’s ageing dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Gaddafi Jnr, said to be the favourite son, has a PhD in governance and international relations from the London School of Economics and is also an architect with his own agency in Tripoli. But most importantly, he acts as his father’s international ‘fixer’.
Through Saif, an engaging figure who has a house in London and who has been a guest at Buckingham Palace, Andrew has cemented a growing friendship with Colonel Gaddafi.
Once a feared and hated figure who sponsored state terrorism, Gaddafi is now, at 66, the internationally rehabilitated chairman of the African Union.
Good reason for the Prince to visit Libya officially on behalf of British business, but he has also been making private journeys, unaccompanied by any staff, to the North African state.
He and Colonel Gaddafi have met no fewer than three times in the last seven months.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Italian Exports Rise 21% to 773 Mln in 2008
(ANSAmed) — SARAJEVO, MARCH 12 — Trade between Italy and Bosnia-Herzegovina increased in 2008 with Italian exports totalling 777.3 million euros, a 21% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. A message from the Italian Foreign Trade Commission (ICE) in Sarajevo read that foreign investments increased ,totalling 701.4 million euros. In particular, Italian investments ranked 9th behind Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, and Holland, and totalled 11.5 million euros, mostly in the manufacturing sector. In the same time-period, Bosnian exports to Italy totalled 431 million euros, an 8.2% increase. Italy was Bosnia’s 4th trade outlet behind Croatia (591.48 million euros), Serbia (481.65 million euros), and Germany (467.06 million euros). Italy exported mainly manufactured goods, machinery, and means of transport to Bosnia, which on their own represented 66% of all exports, followed by raw materials excluding oil and chemical products (8%), food and beverages (6%). Italian imports from Bosnia included mainly manufactured goods, machinery, and means of transport, which on their own represented over 80% of the market, followed by raw materials, excluding oil and chemical products (12%) and the food and agricultural sector (3%). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Croatia: Solve Dispute With Slovenia Quickly, EP Says
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 11 — “The European Parliament is urging the Croatian government and the governments of neighbouring countries to quickly resolve all their disputes”, said the European Parliament in a resolution which was debated today and which will be voted on tomorrow without major modifications. The appeal was made to Zagreb and Ljubljana to find an agreement over border disputes which are blocking Croatia’s negotiations to join the European Union. The EU assembly said that good neighbourly relations “remain a key element in the European integration process” and is asking that the Slovenian and Croatian governments put into effect an informal agreement made in 2007 allowing the International Criminal court in the Hague to resolve the border controversy. In its resolution the European parliament is asking for greater efforts to reform the judicial system and measures against criminality and corruption. It is also inviting Zagreb to respond “immediately” to the request by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia prosecutor for “several key military documents”. The European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn told the European Parliament “We are asking Zagreb urgently to do everything in its power to hand over the requested documents”. (ANSAmed).
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Serbia: Thirteen Reservists Sentenced to 193 Years in Jail
Belgrade, 12 March (AKI) — A special Belgrade war crimes court on Thursday sentenced 13 former Yugoslav reservists to between five and 20 years each for killing 200 Croat prisoners at Ovcara farm in Vukovar, eastern Croatia, in November 1991.
Judge Vesko Krstajich said the suspects were guilty of “murder, torture and inhuman treatment of war prisoners.”
The court acquitted another five members of the paramilitary group accused of killing Croat prisoners in the Vukovar massacre.
Vukovar had been under siege for months by the former Yugoslav Army during the war for Croatia’s independence that erupted in July 1991.
It was the second trial of former reservists. In the first ruling at the end of 2005, 14 out of 16 reservists were sentenced to a total 231 years in prison. But the Serbian Supreme Court annulled the verdict and ordered a new trial.
At the repeat trial on Thursday, the court sentenced Miroljub and Stanko Vujovic, Predrag Milojevic, Djordje Sosic, Miroslav Djankovic, Ivan Atanasijevic and Sasa Radak to 20 years. Six others got from five to 15 years.
Former reservists’ commanders, known as “Vukovar three” were tried and sentenced by the Hague-based United Nations war crimes tribunal in 2007.
The tribunal sentenced two former Yugoslav army officers to 20 and to five years respectively for failing to prevent the Ovcara killings carried out by paramilitary reservists under Yugoslav army command.
The tribunal acquitted a former Yugoslav army captain over the same charges.
The court is planning to end its work in 2010, and has been gradually turning remaining cases over to local courts in the Balkans. Several war crimes trials are currently under way in Serbian and Bosnian courts.
However, the European parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution demanding the extension of the ICTY’s mandate for at least two years.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt-Italy: Ministers to Open Spinning and Weaving Factory
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 12 — The Egyptian and Italian ministers of trade and economic development, respectively, will open next week a high-tech spinning and weaving factory in Alexandria’s Borg el-Arab city (north of Cairo) and witness the inking of two cooperation agreements in the plastics and wood industries. Egyptian Minister of Foreign Trade Rashid Mohamed Rashid said Thursday he and Italian Minister of Economic Development Claudio Scajola will open the Italian-funded spinning and weaving factory employing top-notch equipment. The 70-million EGP (about 10 million euro) factory will export all its production to lure more Italian investments into the Egyptian textiles sector with the high-quality long-staple cotton being used in manufacturing clothes, Rashid said. The two ministers, who will start economic and trade cooperation talks on Sunday, will witness the signing of two cooperation agreements between the Egyptian Foreign Trade Ministry and the Italian Plastics and Rubber Processing Machinery and Moulds Manufacturer’ Association (Assocomaplast), the Italian Wood Industry Federation (Federlegno-Arredo), and the Italian Association of Foreign Trade (AICE). The two ministers will also attend a meeting of the Egyptian-Italian Business Council during which the 2009-2012 action plan will be ratified. The council is the official authority implementing an Egyptian-Italian program for cooperation in the economic, trade and financial domains. While in Egypt, Scajola is scheduled to hold meetings with Premier Ahmed Nazif as well as the ministers of petroleum, electricity, energy, international cooperation, communications, and transport. (ANSAmed).
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Economy: Tunisia, Expected Investment From Carlyle Group
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 12 — It appears that Tunisia is to benefit from the Carlyle Group’s private investment programme, which ha announced that it has freed a total sum of 500 million dollars in order to set up an investment fund for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), to be known as ‘Carlyle MENA partners’. The plan will be related above all to investment in the health, energy, financial services, industrial, infrastructure, technology and transport sectors. As well as in the MENA area, the group plans to invest in Turkey, in constituent countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar), in Lebanon, Jordan and in Pakistan. Operations will be coordinated from offices in Cairo, Dubai and Istanbul. (ANSAmed).
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Terrorism: Clashes in Eastern Algeria
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 12 — One policeman was killed and another seriously injured in a shootout with two members of an armed Islamic group in Barika, near Batna (400 km east of Algiers). According to reports in the Algerian press, two men carrying Kalashnikovs were reported by inhabitants to security forces, who then surrounded the zone. After a violent shootout, the two managed to make a getaway. Security sources in Kabylia have been quoted by APS as saying that three extremists had been killed by the army in Souk El Tenine, near Tizi Ouzou (100 km east of Algiers). In the same area, a policeman had his throat cut and was burned in a fake checkpoint between Sunday night and Monday morning. Three people, including the attacker, were killed and eight were injured in a suicide attack Saturday on the barracks of municipal security forces in Tadmait. (ANSAmed).
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Gaza: Exchange of Prisoners, Consultations in Jerusalem
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, MARCH 13 — In a climate of cautious optimism, Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert will today conduct consultations with Ofer Dekel, the Israeli envoy who has been conducting do-or-die negotiations with Hamas, under Egyptian mediation in Cairo, for an exchange of prisoners. The meeting between Olmert and Dekel is to take place while, near the Premier’s residence, the parents of Ghilad Shalit — the corporal captured by Hamas in June 2006 — remain camped out in a tent. The protest of Shalit’s parents has had a profound effect on local public opinion. Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, cites Palestinian sources in a report which claims Israel and Hamas are close to an agreement on the number and importance of the Palestinian prisoners which will be freed in exchange for Shalit. The newspaper claims that Israel, however, is still insisting that a number of the prisoners they release be exiled abroad, or relocated in the Gaza Strip if they are of West Bank origin. This, Israel hopes, would limit the repercussions of their liberation on Israeli security. (ANSAmed).
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Hamas ‘Arrests’ Islamists for Israeli Attacks
Gaza, 9 March (AKI) — The ruling Hamas government in Gaza is reported to have arrested 10 gunmen from the Islamist Al-Quds Brigades recently for allegedly firing rockets at Israel, a senior Islamic Jihad source has told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.
According to the source, cited on the daily’s Ynet website, the men were arrested in the southern area of the Gaza Strip, near the town of Khan Younis. Among the detainees was a senior jihad field commander.
The news site said one man was detained by Hamas, while the other nine were released, but only after they were coerced into signing a statement declaring they would stop firing rockets at Israel.
The senior source also said that the head of Hamas’ internal security forces had told the detainees that they must adhere to the pacts made between Hamas and the Islamic Jihad leadership since the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza ended in January.
The news was released ahead of power-sharing talks between Hamas and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority this week.
Hamas’ warnings aside, the source said that it was the Islamic Jihad’s right to retaliate against the killing of its operatives. “We don’t understand how we are expected to observe the ceasefire when the occupying forces violate it,” he said.
“It was only a few days ago that they killed one of our operatives, Khaled Shaalan, and took out two others in the al-Maghazi refugee camp (in central Gaza) and a third in (the northern Gaza town of) Beit Lahiya.
“We — as all the other Palestinian groups — have the right to respond to all acts of aggression and to the crimes committed against our people. The rockets are part of our resistance… especially when the enemy cannot tell the difference between a Hamas, Jihad or Fatah operative,” continued the source.
The Islamic Jihad, he added, demands the Palestinian government support the Gaza resistance rather than oppose it and “refrain from applying the same policies as the West Bank government, which persecutes the warriors and jails them.”
The source then called on all of the Palestinian groups to unite and condemn the arrest of any of the resistance’s operatives.
The Al-Quds Brigades is the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist organisation Palestinian Islamic Jihad and is particularly active in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Government, Netanyahu Last Try With Kadima
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 13 — Likud, the nationalist right-wing Israeli party which is headed by the designated Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, has made one last attempt to establish a broad-based government with the centralist Kadima party. The news was reported on Israeli public radio and in the major Israeli online news sources. According to the leaks, private talks have just restarted, despite the firm ‘no’ Netanyahu received from the outgoing foreign minister and Kadima leader, Tzipi Livni, the day after the neck in neck vote on February 10. Until now, Livni has rejected proposals for an alliance with the right, stressing that she doesn’t want a single change made to the future executive, arguing that Likud cannot offer sufficient guarantees for the ongoing peace process with the Palestinians, as part of the ‘two peoples, two states’ solution, as supported with renewed determination by Barack Obama’s US administration. Without support from Kadima (or from Ehud Barak’s Labour party), in recent days Netanyahu has been obliged to retreat from his proposal to form a single government of right and far-right wing parties. This is an idea which he continues to press for, but which would in any case only provide him with a meagre advantage in the Knesset (65 seats out of 120), which would itself be divided between lay and confessional belief groups and which could potentially make relations with the international community more difficult. (ANSAmed).
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Italians Plan Museum in Bethlehem Dedicated to Palestine
(ANSAmed) — GENOA, MARCH 11 — A museum dedicated to the traditional Palestinian imagery in Bethlehem close to the Church of the Nativity is being planned by a Milan visual arts group, Studio Azzurro, announced one of the founders, Francesco Rosa, yesterday at the Palazzo Ducale at the review of Mediterranean events held at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa. “We are planning the ‘Riwaya Museum’ for UNESCO, the museum of traditional stories, which will be a permanent site and will be built in the Bethlehem Peace Center in Manger Square in Bethlehem,” explained Rosa. “Our idea is to recover the identity of a population through narration, focusing the path on various symbols like maternity, which is very strong in that area, and the beauty of the area, leaving out the appalling tragedy that has taken place in the past decades. We are planning an interactive museum that says something to the Palestinians, especially the children.” In the future the museum will be placed in the underground portions of the centre, where two ancient Roman cisterns were discovered. (ANSAmed).
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An Arab Criminal Court to Try ‘World Powers’?
Activists and members of various Egyptian political parties proposed the creation of an “Arab and Islamic criminal court” to prosecute the crimes committed by world “powers”, starting from US and Israeli. The proposal was made at a seminar held at the media union headquarter in Cairo, after which a statement was released expressing support to Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir, who faces an arrest warrant issued last week by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in the Darfur region. “The Arab criminal court could prosecute the crimes committed against the Palestinians by the Israeli leaders and those committed against the people of Iraq by the former US administration of George W. Bush”, said Mustafa Moussa, head of the ‘Al Ghad’ party (Tomorrow), specifying that a petition will be presented to the Egyptian parliament to promote the initiative. Moussa added that the court will not begin works immediately, stressing the urgency to “draw up an updated report on the crimes committed in Arab nations by foreign governments”. The ‘Al Ghad’ leader, spokesperson of the initiative, explained that “in case of indictment, the accused should face arrest on entering the territory or air space of any Arab nations”. The ICC decision against al Bashir, taken based on charges filed by the court’s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, was widely criticised by Arab and African nations that denounced the “double standards” of the international court in judging African and Arab political leaders, ignoring the crimes committed by the world “powers” in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestinian Occupied Territories.
[BO]
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain Signs Up to USD 1.2 Bln GCC Power Grid Project
(ANSAmed) — MANAMA, MARCH 12 — Bahrain has followed Saudi Arabian in signing up to a USD 1.2 billion agreement to establish a GCC-wide power grid. The deal will allow Bahrain to exchange power with other member countries once the first phase of the grid goes live in May, officials said. The power plan, which aims to give member states access to floating power capacity in the region consists of a North Grid — Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar — and a South Grid connecting the UAE and Oman, Bahrain’s Works Minister Fahmi Al Jowder said in comments published by Gulf Daily News on Thursday. The final phase of the power project would see both grids connected. “Bahrain and other GCC nations will now greatly benefit since they can draw the reserve power from the grid in times of emergency, thus eliminating any shortages in the future,” he told the paper. Electricity and Water Authority chief executive Dr Abdulmajeed Al Awadhi said that the general agreement signed on Wednesday would be followed by the Power Exchange Trade Agreement (Peta) on April 2, in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. He said the Peta, once signed by all members, would define the buying and selling terms between the Gulf states. Bahrain has already paid $134 million towards the $1.2 billion cost of the project. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Kuwait Oil Giant Planning USD 80 Bln Investment
(ANSAmed) — KUWAIT CITY, MARCH 12 — A top official at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation announced that the company would invest about $80 billion over the next five years to increase production and expand refinery capacity, Arabian business online reports. On the oil price which was at $46 a barrel, Sheikh Nawaf Saud Nasir Al Sabah, deputy managing director and general counsel, thought it was now “not far away form the comfortable zone”. The official, who was speaking at the sidelines of the Wharton Global Forum in Dubai, admitted the global economic crisis had forced the company to rethink some of its timings to achieve its goals. But he added: “Our essential elements remain unchanged. We are planning to deploy our considerable resources to position ourselves to capture market opportunities on the way down and on the inevitable way up.” He revealed that about $80bn would be spent in a five-year plan which would include increasing production capacity to three million barrels per day (bpd) next year with an extra 500,000 bpd over five years. He said the company also intended to expand its refinery capacity in Kuwait to 1.4m bpd through building a new refinery and upgrading existing ones. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Turkey: EP; Get on With Reforms, Fight Against Corruption
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 11 — Turkey must make progress along a pathway of reforms in the country which has slowed down in the last three years and adopt a strategy against corruption if it wants to join the European Union. These were the central points of a European Parliament resolution which was discussed today before voting on it tomorrow. The members of the European parliament are pointing their fingers towards freedom of press and expression, “which still are not fully protected”, with the frequent censorship of websites or pressures and trials against journalists who criticise the government. This matter has also been emphasised by Olli Rehn, Eurpean Commissioner for Enlargement, who said that “Freedom of expression, of press, are the foundations of a democracy when they are respected”. Strasbourg also invited the government in Ankara “to start, as a priority, a political initiative capable of favouring a lasting solution to the Kurdish issue”, creating social and economic opportunities for citizens of Kurdish descent, and condemning “violence by Pkk and other terrorist groups within Turkish territory”. The European parliament’s resolution also “expresses worry for the increase in so-called crimes of honour that is being registered in Turkey”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Turkey: EP to Ankara, Concern Over Reforms Slowdown
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 12 — The European parliament has expressed concern over the continued slowdown in the reforms process in Turkey in its third consecutive year. A resolution was approved today in which the Parliament ‘deplores the fact that the efforts initially taken by Ankara to fundamentally reform the constitution ‘have flowed into a debate on the veil and have emphasised the polarisation of Turkish society”. Amongst other things the Assembly in Strasbourg explained that freedom of expression and freedom of the press ‘are still not fully protected” and it noted ‘the frequent censure of websites ,and pressure and legal action against journalists who criticise the government”. The Parliament also called for all religious communities to be able to practice without restrictions, especially in terms of education and the building of places of worship. Stressing the need to make systematic efforts to improve impartiality and the professionalism of the magistrature, the resolution urged the Turkish government to make further efforts to get rid of torture and mistreatment, inside as well as outside official detention centres and ‘to put an end to the culture of impunity”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Internet: RSF; Egypt, Syria and Tunisia ‘Enemies of the Web’
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 12 — Egypt, Syria and Tunisia are on the blacklist of 12 countries considered to be ‘enemies of the internet” by Reporters Sans Frontieres’, a Paris-based organisation which defends the freedom of the press. In a recently published report, RSF notes that in the incriminated’ countries, the internet is not a vehicle for freedom, but is is comparable to a large business’s intranet’ which is subject to endless restrictions. Web users who manage to surf freely risk jail if they are discovered. RSF’s blacklist also contains Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. A further ten countries, including Australia and South Korea, have instead been defined as ‘under observation’ for having adopted measures seen as ‘worrying” by the RSF. (ANSAmed).
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Iran “One or Two Years” From a-Bomb, Says Russian Experts
The head of a strategic arms research centre at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow says that once Iran gets a nuclear weapon it would be “untouchable” and could broaden its support for groups and movements like Hamas and Hizbollah. His statement contradicts his own government’s official position.
Moscow (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Iran could have the A-bomb in “one or two years,” said Vladimir Dvorkin, head of a strategic arms research centre at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
When asked by reporters how close Iran was to having a nuclear weapon, Dvorkin, a retired general and veteran player in US-Soviet disarmament talks in the 1970s and 1980s, said “One can speak of one or two years.”
Dvorkin, who voiced his personal views and not those of the Russian government, contradicted US intelligence reports and his own government’s view that Iran is still far from having a nuclear weapon.
“In the technical sense, what may be holding them back is the lack of enough weapons-grade uranium,” Dvorkin said.
More importantly, “I consider this a significant threat” because Iran “has effectively ignored all the resolutions and sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council”. As “a nuclear state [it] would become untouchable, allowing it to broaden its support” for organisations such as Hamas and Hizbollah.
Officially, Russian diplomats have downplayed US and Israeli fears that Iran is on the verge of building an atomic weapon, while Moscow has resisted calls for tougher sanctions on Tehran for its disputed nuclear programme.
Similarly, Iran’s clerical rulers have continued to claim that their nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
In developing this programme Russia has played an important role by helping to build a civilian nuclear power plant in Bushehr, which is now finished and undergoing testing.
Early this month the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused Tehran of concealing 209 kilos of uranium, noting that it was unable to achieve any “substantive” progress in the investigation intended to reveal whether Tehran’s nuclear programme has military aspects.
“Regrettably,” said an IAEA statement, “as a result of the continued lack of cooperation by Iran in connection with the remaining issues which give rise to concerns about the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme, the agency has not been able to make substantive progress on these issues.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Cleric Calls for Release of Bush ‘shoe-Thrower’
Baghdad, 13 March (AKI) — A prominent Shia Iraqi cleric has called for the release of Iraqi journalist Montazer al-Zaidi, a day after he was sentenced to three years in jail for throwing his shoes at former United States president George W. Bush.
Sheik Suhail al-Iqabi said the sentence against al-Zaidi was “a verdict against the Iraqi people who reject the American occupation.”
Al-Iqabi, who supports hardline Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, made the remarks during Friday prayers in Baghdad’s Sadr City.
On Thursday, Iraq’s Criminal High Court invoked article 223 of the Iraqi Constitution and sentenced al-Zaidi for the shoe-throwing incident that occurred last December.
The article provides for punishment of between three and 15 years in prison for assaulting a foreign leader on an official visit, al-Birqadar said.
However, al-Zaidi’s sentence will not final unless it is ratified by the Court of Cassation which has a month to uphold or amend the verdict.
On Thursday, the Iraqi Journalists’ Syndicate and the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory appealed to Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to pardon al-Zaidi.
The incident in which al-Zaidi also hurled insults at Bush, was broadcast around the world. Iraqi officials have described it as shameful.
Al-Zaidi threw his first shoe at Bush as he yelled “This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog,”
As he threw his second shoe, he said: “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” As Bush avoided the shoes, al-Zaidi was quickly wrestled to the ground by security guards.
In the Arab world, throwing your shoes or exposing the soles of your shoes is one of the worst signs of disrespect.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Rights Group Calls for Halt to Mass Executions
London, 13 March (AKI) — Campaign group Amnesty International on Friday urged Iraq’s justice minister to stop the execution of 128 prisoners on death row, amid reports the authorities are planning to start executions in batches of up to 20 from next week.
“The Iraqi government said in 2004 that reinstating capital punishment would curb widespread violence in the country,” said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa programme.
“The reality, however, is that violence has continued at extremely high levels and the death penalty has yet again been shown to be no deterrent.”
“In fact, many attacks are perpetrated by suicide bombers who, clearly, are unlikely to be deterred by the threat of execution.”
On Monday, the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council informed Amnesty International that Iraq’s presidential council (comprising the president and the two vice-presidents) had ratified the death sentences of 128 people whose sentences had already been confirmed by Iraq’s top court, the Court of Cassation.
Amnesty is concerned because the Iraqi authorities have not disclosed the identities of those on death row and many of them may have been sentenced to death after trials that failed to satisfy international standards.
It called on the Iraqi authorities to make public the identities, charges, arrest dates, place of detention, trial and appeal dates of all 128 people facing execution.
Most are likely to have been sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, whose proceedings consistently fall short of international standards for fair trial, Amnesty said.
“Iraq’s creaking judicial system is simply unable to guarantee fair trials in ordinary criminal cases, and even less so in capital cases, with the result, we fear that numerous people have gone to their death after unfair trials,” said Smart.
Torture of detainees held by Iraqi security forces remains rife, and the CCCI does not properly investigate — if at all — allegations of torture by suspects during pre-trial detention, Amnesty said.
“The Iraqi government should order an immediate halt to these executions and establish a moratorium on all further executions in Iraq,” the group said.
Scores of people have been executed and many hundreds sentenced to death in Iraq since August, 2004.
Amnesty warned the true numbers could be much higher as there were no official statistics for the number of prisoners sentenced to death.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islam and the Art of Aircraft Maintenance
By Claire Berlinski
On the morning of February 25, Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 from Istanbul crashed short of the runway at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, killing nine passengers and crew.
On Wednesday, Dutch authorities released a preliminary report indicating that the crash was caused by mechanical failure, exacerbated by severe pilot error: The aircraft’s altimeter — which had malfunctioned twice in the past eight landings — was faulty, and the pilots failed to note this or respond appropriately. It has further been reported that a trainee pilot with less than 25 hours’ experience of flying this kind of plane was at the controls.
Spokesmen for Turkish Airlines, or THY (Turk Hava Yollari) as it is known locally, and European aviation experts have been quick to assure the public that the accident was an anomaly. Turkish Airlines’ standards of maintenance and training, they insist, are the equal of any major European airline.
Immediately after the accident, European Commission Vice President and Commissioner for Transport Antonio Tajani, who is Italian, declared that Turkish Airlines had always had good safety and security inspection results.
The investigation is not yet complete, and it is premature categorically to assign blame for it. But confident assertions that there is no cause to be concerned about the safety standards at Turkish Airlines are equally premature.
The Islamic AKP has packed the airline with political and religious allies
There have over the last few years been numerous accounts in the Turkish press of serious discontent among Turkish Airlines’ employees with the company’s new managerial cadre. Employees have come forward with claims that Turkey’s governing AKP, a party associated with political Islam, has packed the airline’s management and staff with unqualified political allies and co-religionists.
The AKP came to power in November 2002 and appointed the new THY management in 2003. The most serious charge — made by senior pilots, union officials, technicians and cabin crew, both on and off the record — is that new managerial policies have encouraged lax standards of aircraft maintenance and the hiring of unqualified staff.
Indeed, according to a story published last autumn in Turkish Forum, a serious and respected online publication, the Turkish Pilots’ Association had warned the Civil Aviation Authority, and other relevant ministries and international bodies of their concerns.
On the one hand, these reports must be treated with some scepticism: they have appeared in the notoriously partisan Turkish media in the context of a bitter dispute between Turkish Airlines’ management and the Turkish Air Workers Union, not to mention in the context of the exceptionally savage and frequently paranoid feuding between the AKP and its secularist rivals. On the other hand, it seems reckless simply to dismiss these claims out-of-hand.
Consider, for example, this interview with two veteran Turkish Airlines’ pilots, published in the same Turkish Forum article.
pilots, fearing recrimination, asked for anonymity, but the head of the Turkish Air Workers union, Atilay Aycin, the then-president of the Turkish Pilots’ Association, Tuna Gurel, and the president of the Turkish Cabin Crew Association, Berna Tanyolac, all went on record to corroborate the pilots’ accounts. All emphatically agreed that Turkish Airlines’ safety had been compromised.
In the article, the pilots claimed that under the new management, pilots were regularly asked to exceed safe numbers of flying hours. Demands to do so, they claimed, came directly from the new senior executives. They complained as well of personnel shortages: new pilots, they said, had been hired en masse but it was debatable whether their training was adequate.
The climate of cronyism and favouritism among the new management, they added, had so demoralised pilots and cabin crews from the old guard that they were “losing their work ethic”.
Experienced crew had been forced into retirement, the pilots said, even as the number of aircraft, passengers and destinations was sharply increased; and although many new employees had been hired, their qualifications were allegedly inadequate.
They charged that many of the new cabin crew, for example, were graduates of religious Imam Hatip schools rather than of technical universities — Imam Hatip schools were, the pilots said, classified as ‘trade schools’ and the Imam Hatip alumni were therefore ‘camouflaged’ as trade school graduates. This is no trivial claim, if true: the main responsibility of cabin crew is not to serve meals, but to handle in-flight emergencies or evacuations.
Technicians were given maintenance tasks after two or three hours of training
The president of the Turkish Pilots’ Association, Tuna Gurel, claimed that 400 experienced workers had been laid off in the previous year, with 355 of them being forced into retirement — even though the Turkish Airlines fleet had expanded by 25 per cent. In all, 1,500 had been laid off since the AKP-appointed management came to power in 2003 .
“If you ask Turkish Airlines management,” said Gurel, “they will tell you that they let 1,500 employees go but hired 2,500 more. But when you look at quality, you know that the hiring does not match the firing.” He claimed that technicians who should, in principle, have received two years of hands-on experience before assuming authority for maintenance tasks were now given the job after two or three hours of training.
As the head of the labour union, Gurel has reason to dramatise the putative consequences of layoffs. But disturbingly similar claims have surfaced previously in the Turkish press, also sourced to THY employees. For example, Tempo Dergisi, a serious news magazine belonging to a major media conglomerate, interviewed a technician who claimed to be responsible for engine maintenance: he admitted that he was not licensed to do this job.
Other maintenance workers complained that when they approached their supervisors with concerns about an aircraft, they were told: “Find a way to get this plane airborne. Stamp the documents.”
These workers also claimed that manufacturers’ guidelines on the replacement of parts were not being followed, that insufficient time and personnel were allocated for ground checks, that maintenance work that should take eight hours was being done in three or four.
In the same article, another source claimed that the number of people officially on staff was misleading: many were in fact on leave or in military service. This employee also complained that new hires were unqualified: “We have to teach them their jobs. Some of them are graduates of foreign universities, but they have no experience of airplanes — and they’re above us in rank.”
He reiterated the claim that cronyism — and ostensible piety — seemed to govern hiring decisions. “During former managerial times we had Christmas parties. Now in that department they’re praying with copies of the Koran. The management building now contains significantly more people who are praying, especially on Fridays.
“When they go for the noon prayer, they don’t sign themselves out, even though you’re supposed to do that even if you go to the bathroom.”
Workers sacrificed a camel after getting rid of a troublesome batch of planes
He is not alone in making such claims. In the wake of the crash, a source at Turkish Airlines — someone who has nothing to gain by noting this publicly and, in fact, everything to lose — claimed that airplanes requiring pre-flight inspection go shortchanged if they are on the ground in the mornings at prayer time.
And in December, 2006, it was widely reported that Turkish Airlines workers had sacrificed a camel on an Istanbul airport ramp as a gesture of thanks for having at last got rid of a batch of troublesome planes.
We do not yet know exactly what caused Flight 1951 to crash, though trade union leader Aycin has no doubts: “This is a work-related accident, work-related murder,” he has said.
But the portrait of Turkish Airlines painted in the press is disturbing. Given the nature of Turkish politics and the Turkish media, it is perfectly plausible to imagine that these accounts are slanderous, planted, fictitious and designed to score political points. But also given the nature of Turkish politics, it is plausible to imagine that they are not. Taken together, they suggest that a considerably more aggressive investigation of the airline is warranted before confidently assuring passengers that there is no reason to be alarmed.
| — Hat tip: CB | [Return to headlines] |
Sex, Drugs and Islam
By Spengler
Political Islam returned to the world stage with Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1979 revolution in Iran, which became the most aggressive patron of Muslim radicals outside its borders, including Hamas in the Palestinian territories and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Until very recently, an oil-price windfall gave the Iranian state ample resources to pursue its agenda at home and abroad. How, then, should we explain an eruption of social pathologies in Iran such as drug addiction and prostitution, on a scale much worse than anything observed in the West? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it appears that Islamic theocracy promotes rather than represses social decay.
Iran is dying. The collapse of Iran’s birth rate during the past 20 years is the fastest recorded in any country, ever. Demographers
have sought in vain to explain Iran’s population implosion through family planning policies, or through social factors such as the rise of female literacy.
But quantifiable factors do not explain the sudden collapse of fertility. It seems that a spiritual decay has overcome Iran, despite best efforts of a totalitarian theocracy. Popular morale has deteriorated much faster than in the “decadent” West against which the Khomeini revolution was directed.
“Iran is dying for a fight,” I wrote in 2007 (Please see Why Iran is dying for a fight, November 13, 2007.) in the literal sense that its decline is so visible that some of its leaders think that they have nothing to lose…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Trade: Syria, Limits on ‘Made in China’ Products Decided
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, MARCH 11 — A decree was released by the Syrian Economy Minister to limit imports of ‘Made in China’ products based exclusively on their country of origin. The import documentation, specified the Italian Foreign Trade Institute (ICE) in Damascus, must come from China and be certified by the Syrian embassy in China. The decree will be applied to all importation operations of Chinese products, except for those that are parts of investment projects. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Editor Fired for Picture of Darwin on Magazine
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — Cigdem Atakuman, the editor of the science and technology magazine of the Scientific & Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), made Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, the cover story of the magazine. Later, she was taken from office by TUBITAK’s deputy chairman Professor Omer Cebeci and fired, as today Milliyet daily reports. The cover of the magazine was changed. Professor Cebeci excluded the related story from the magazine before it was published. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared 2009 as the ‘Year of Darwin’ because of his 200th birthday. After Cebeci’s intervention, the magazine was published with the cover story on “global climate change”. The theory of evolution is incompatible with the Quranic account of creation. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Green Light Given to Abu Dhabi Master Plans
(ANSAmed) — ABU DHABI, MARCH 12 — Three master development plans slated to help transform Abu Dhabi into a major international hub have been given the green light by members of the Urban Planning Council. According to Arabian Business online, the details of the mega projects, which include the Capital District Concept Plan, Khalifa B Master Plan and Shahama and Bahia Revitalisation Plan, will be officially unveiled at the upcoming 2009 edition of Cityscape Abu Dhabi. Falah Mohammed Al Hababi, general manager, Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC), said the approval of the three plans was a major step towards the realisation of Plan Abu Dhabi 2030. Once completed, the 4,500 hectare Capital District Concept Plan will serve as a second government and economic centre in Abu Dhabi and would eventually be a sustainable, vibrant, compact, mixed-use city of 370,000 residents. The Capital District would comprise high density transit oriented communities, major universities, hospitals and knowledge-based employment sectors, as well as a lower density residential neighbourhood. At the heart of the District will be local and national government infrastructure, federal buildings, embassies and international institutions. Initiated by the UPC in August 2008, the Khalifa B Master Plan consists of three main components including a vision for public spaces and community facilities, a second master plan focusing on creating a vibrant new mixed-use area and a third component outlining the design guidelines for the development of a high quality neighborhood. The UPC has also approved plans for the revitalisation plan for the communities of Shahama and Bahia along the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway first unveiled in June last year. The project will also address the lack of community facilities, parks, shopping and housing in the area. A new town centre with transport hub and full array of amenities will also be delivered as part of the project. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: Peace in Danger, Maoist Rebels Recruiting New Combatants
The People’s Liberation Army wants to increase its numbers to 25,000. The decision comes in response to the army’s statement that it has enlisted 2,800 new personnel. Many young people, especially the unemployed, are ready to enter the ranks of the rebels.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — The Maoist rebels are recruiting new combatants. Violating the agreement reached with the government under the aegis of the United Nations, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) wants to increase the number of its forces to 25,000, 6,000 more than the 19,000 estimated by the UN. The agreement stipulates the dissolution of the PLA, with the integration of the rebels into the regular army, or their reinsertion into Nepalese society.
The commanders of the PLA say that this is a response to the recruitment announced in February by the army of Kathmandu, which has enlisted 2,800 new recruits. The defense minister and Maoist leader Ram Bahadur Thapa had ordered the army to stop recruitment, and the dispute is now in the Supreme Court awaiting a ruling.
PLA commander Nandakishor Pun, nicknamed Pasang, says: “The peace agreement is equally applicable to both the sides. If one side goes on recruiting, the other can’t hold patience.” The Maoist rebels intend to reinforce all of their divisions, spread out in seven encampments. “We give preference to youths who are ready to sacrifice and have vigour. For the purpose, we will also give priority to combatants disqualified by the UN.”
Most of those responding to the call of the rebels are unemployed young people, many of whom are former emigrants who went back home after losing their jobs.
Maoist party secretary Jhalanatah Khanal has told the PLA to stop its recruitment immediately, saying that “breaking such agreement [with the government] may cost the ongoing peace process.” Vim Rawal, also a member of the party, has resigned from the Special Army Integration Committee (SAIC), a body that monitors the process of integrating the rebels into the army. Rawal says that he made the decision because of the “changed political context inside and outside the party.” Prime minister Prachanda, leader of the Maoist party and head of the SAIC, recalls that the rebels have long ignored his party, but adds: “All PLA are ready to obey the committee [editor’s note: SAIC] and I am assured that we can stop whenever we want.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Political Leaders in Hiding as Hundreds Arrested
Islamabad, 12 March (AKI) — By Syed Saleem Shahzad — As thousands of Pakistani lawyers and political activists clashed with security forces in their bid to march to the capital, Islamabad, many political leaders went into hiding on Thursday to avoid arrest.
Police have arrested hundreds of lawyers, political workers and other opponents in the past few days in a crackdown designed to avert the long march calling for the reinstatement of deposed judges.
Former international cricketer turned politician Imran Khan emerged from hiding briefly and announced he would appear outside Islamabad’s district court on Monday to lead the political protest in central Islamabad.
“I did not escape. In fact, this is a strategy to avoid arrest. I shall definitely appear at the district court on 16 March and lead the procession all the way to the Constitution Avenue (in) Islamabad,” the former cricket champion Imran Khan told a local television talk show from an undisclosed location.
“I cannot describe where I am based because this is what the government wants to know.”
Defying the nationwide crackdown and protest ban, lawyers and political activists congregated at the Sindh High Court in Karachi — site of the largest rally of the country — and began to march.
The protests carried flags and punched their fists in the air as they marched in Karachi, Quetta and Lahore, demanding that president Asif Ali Zardari reinstate judges sacked by former president Pervez Musharraf.
The protesters managed to reach the highway in buses and cars but were met by large numbers of police who charged at them with batons.
Dozens of protesters were arrested in Karachi including the deputy chief of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami Party, 90-year-old Professor Ghaffour Ahmad and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and leader of the lawyers’ movement, Munir A. Malik.
Pakistan’s television channels channels appeared to be supporting the protest. On Thursday they were broadcasting the address of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in which she announced that deposed Supreme Court justice Iftikhar Chaudry would be restored to power if she was elected.
They also showed old footage of Zardari in which he signed a deal with Nawaz Sharif, opposition leader and head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N to restore Chaudhry.
Revolutionary poetry written by a late communist poet Habib Jalib is also being broadcast by television stations.
The sackings in November 2007 of some 60 senior judges, including the then-chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, provoked countrywide protests and ultimately led to Musharraf’s resignation.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
To Please China Nepal Deploys Police Against Peaceful Protests
Police in anti-riot gear are deployed in great number to monitor potential flash points, including temples where Tibetan Buddhists pray. A woman in exile for the past 40 years talks about the situation.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — A massive deployment of Nepali police yesterday prevented demonstrators from commemorating the 50th anniversary of Tibetans’ uprising against Chinese domination on 10 March 1959.
In Kathmandu many Tibetan monks and nuns gathered in temples to pray at dawn.
As soon as some young people began shouting anti-Chinese slogans outside the Buddha Temple police took them into custody and spirited them away in truck on charges of instigating anti-Chinese activities. They were however released soon after.
Nepal’s Maoist government had reassured Beijing that it would prevent demonstrations on that day of the anniversary. A police ring in full anti-riot gear was deployed around China’s embassy in the capital’s Baluwatar district and around its visa office in Hattisar. Traffic in both areas has been restricted since Monday.
At least 14,000 Tibetan refugees live in Nepal. Several rallies were staged last year against Chinese repression in Tibet. Police arrested hundreds of peaceful protesters, causing international criticism.
“I have been in exile since I was 32,” said Gendu Sherpa, a 75-year-old Tibetan woman who yesterday prayed with others. “Perhaps God will tell me that I will die in my native land, when Tibet will be free. . . . Few Tibetans are in Kathmandu now. The others are on their way to Tibet to commemorate the anniversary,” she told AsiaNews.
A day earlier, Monday, more than 140 Tibetans were arrested on the border between Nepal and China, secretly trying to cross it.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Police Release Footage of Four Men in Karaoke Bar Attack
Police have released footage of four men believed responsible for rampaging through a central Sydney karaoke club and later throwing a molotov cocktail at the venue.
Four men of Asian and white European appearance smashed property at the Elizabeth Street club, including bar fridges, plasma televisions, bottles of alcohol and a data terminal about 3am (AEDT) on August 2 last year.
The same bar was targeted five months later when eight males entered the club and lit molotov cocktails about 8.45pm (AEDT) on December 4, 2008.
The club’s emergency sprinkler system doused the flames and the business suffered minor damage, police said.
The culprits escaped.
“Detectives suspect the same intruders may be responsible for both incidents and have released security footage in the hope they’ll be recognised by members of the public,” a NSW police statement said.
A reward of up to $1000 is has been offered for information that leads to a conviction.
Anyone with any information should call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Accusations Against Al-Bashir: Arab Countries Against Arrest Warrant
The presidential elections expected to take place at the end of the year “shall not be delayed or modified” on account of the arrest warrant issued against Sudanese president Omar Hassan al Beshir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last week. Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, vice president of the national electoral commission added that “the organization of the next elections is proceeding quickly”. Sources near the presidency, moreover, told the ‘Asharq al Awsat’ daily that the Sudanese government shall take “selective” measures for the president’s trips abroad. Beshir, “would continue to travel despite the arrest warrant, but only in friendly countries and his movements shall be kept in the strictest confidence”. Meanwhile, the president of Sudan has received declarations of support from the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt and Kuwait. Meeting yesterday in Riyadh, king Abdallah Bin Abdel Aziz al-Saud, Syrian president Bashar el Assad, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and the emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah have discussed “strategies to support the Sudanese head of state and contrast a situation that hurts the dignity of all Arabs and their rulers”. The spokesman for the Egyptian presidency Suleiman Awad said that the four countries “agree on the need to put pressure, through regional and international organizations, to block the criminal proceedings launched against Beshir”.[AB]
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Qatari Emir’s Envoy in Khartoum to Invite Sudanese President to Attend Arab Summit
KHARTOUM, March 14 (Xinhua) — A personal envoy of Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani arrived in Khartoum on Saturday to meet Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
Diplomatic sources told Xinhua that the envoy, Hamad bin Nasserbin Jassem al-Thani, the Qatari minister of state, was to deliver a message from the Qatari Emir to invite the Sudanese president to attend an Arab summit scheduled in Doha during this month.
Sudanese officials have said that President al-Bashir will take part in the Doha summit meeting as long as he is invited despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC)against him on March 4.
The participation of al-Bashir in the Doha summit is expected to be the most important activity for the Sudanese president abroad after the ICC decision.
But the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, which signed a goodwill agreement with the Sudanese government in Doha last month, has threatened to boycott the next round of negotiations if it observed al-Bashir showing at the Doha summit.
In the arrest warrant, the ICC judges charged the Sudanese president with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but turned down three counts of genocide on the ground that the evidence provided by the prosecutor was insufficient to support the accusation.
However, it is generally doubted how the arrest warrant will be carried out for the ICC has no police or other forces to directly implement its decisions.
Sudan does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, saying it has not ratified its founding treaty.
The 30,000 strong international peacekeeping forces already deployed in Sudan, including the UNMIS in southern Sudan and the UNAMIS in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, have not been mandated to fulfill any ICC decision.
Shortly after the issuance of the arrest warrant, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor in charge of the al-Bashir file, called on the ICC members to use the opportunities of al-Bashir’s visits abroad to arrest him.
The London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted an anonymous Sudanese official as saying on Wednesday that the Sudanese president would continue to make foreign trips but his travel would be “subject to a selectivity process.”
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Destabilizing Mexico
Apparently, Mexico is in a losing battle with drug cartels whose escalating violence is providing cover for Marxist insurgents to become active. The newest cartel murderous offensive raises troubling questions about the ability of the Mexican government to provide safety and security for its citizens, and heralds a future of bloody anarchy if officials cannot regain control of the streets. As a result, the United will be coming to the rescue. President Obama recently announced that he was looking at possibly deploying National Guard troops to contain the violence but ruled out immediate military force.
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Liveblogging the Lula-Obama Press Conference
Obama introduces Lula by praising his progressive policies.
1:05 Lula in turn, starts by stressing the importance of trade between the countries. He goes down the list:
- strengthen our nations’ trade,
- common goals,
- biofuels,
- historic opportunity to improve the relations with Latin America.
- Doha round of negotiations (on free trade and tarriffs)
Obama’s talking progressive policies, Lula is talking about free trade and business.
Question on the economic crisis and China’s debt holdings:
Obama “the stability of our economic system and our political system is extraordinary”
Lula: “The worse the situation. the worse the investment gets on developing countries. This is the problem we’re facing. Brazil is the least affected country but we also have the possibility to get out of the crisis…But the fact is that money has vanished and if we don’t make credit supply flow again, we’ll be hurting.”
Question in Portuguese on energy policy:
Brazilians don’t understand how a clean fuel can not reach US markets because of US tarriffs [which amount to 54 cents a gallon but I need to check that]
Obama: “We have a lot to learn from Brazil on clean energy development, change ideas and technology. The issue of Brazilian ethanol has been a source of tension; it’s not going to change overnight…over time this source of tension can get resolved.”
Lula 1:15PM: “This is the 1st meeting that we’ve had. My answer is your question: I can understand the concern with carbon emissions and climate change. Tony Blair, Sarkozy, former Pres. Bush, have all discussed this. Slowly the countries will be convinced and slowly other countries will join the biofuel effort. I have talked to President Obama and things will move forward as people start changing. Thank God that Brazil has had for years control of this technology, and I’ll show Pres. Obama a flex-fuel vehicle we have developed.”
Obama then says we have a flex fuel vehicle but not the right gas station.
Lula ate Obama’s lunch on this answer.
1:20PM Question on g-20:
Obama goes into a totally defensive answer questioning the reporter’s sources and then goes on to talk about having an international body to account for amount of stimulus every country is doing so governments can keep track. An absurd answer if there ever was one. Then “we’re going to make sure that the systemic reasons of this crisis won’t happen again.”
I hope Obama did not point to Lula when he mentioned “very poor countries.”
Lula: “We presidents all talk too much.” Whoot! “We can not afford to go to [the G20] looking for someone to blame. We need to find the answers. We must have a special credit supply to the poorest countries and we also need to strenghten international institutions like the IMF, World Bank. We’re on a large ship, and it’s leaking. Two key words: re establish and restore credit in the world, re establish and restore confidence. We must have confidence in democracy. This crisis is an extraordinary opportunity to prove the goals that elected us: that we are capable to deal with major issues….The bottom line is that we need is to create jobs, to create demand and consumption, and to generate development, so we’re very optimistic. We have to make joint decisions.”
1:23PM Question in Portuguese on dangers of protectionism and will the US purchase Brazilian goods.
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Agent Accuses Sutton of Cover-Up in Drug Murders
Informant in case handled by prosecutor of Ramos-Compean seeks asylum
A Mexican national’s appeal in federal court for asylum because of his work as an American government-paid informant against the drug cartel marked another chapter in a case in which a former Drug Enforcement Agency special agent continues to allege the U.S. government — including U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton — is hiding its complicity in the cartel’s murder of more than a dozen people.
[…]
“Instead of investigating my complaints, Sutton complained about me to the DEA and the Justice Department in Washington,” Gonzalez told WND. “My superiors in Washington told me to leave this matter alone and to be quiet.”
[…]
“The Mexicans are smart enough to remain silent in the ‘House of Death’ case, because they could easily blackmail the U.S. government, since the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice were involved at the highest levels in covering up the case,” Ramirez told WND.
“And they’ve done just that,” he continued, “considering the border and immigration policies that were implemented as well as prosecutions of law enforcement officers.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ahmed Hafiene, Integration is Possible
(by Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — ROME — You may remember him as Hassen, the Tunisian mechanic who in the movie ‘La giusta distanza’ (the right distance) by Carlo Mazzacurati (2007) is unfairly charged with the death of the young Mara. But this is not Ahmed Hafiene’s (born in Tunis in 1966) only meeting with Italian movies. He is the first Arab actor to compete for the 2008 David di Donatello thanks to ‘La Giusta Distanza’, and in 2002 he already claimed the Golden Bayard in Belgium and the Golden Tanit in Carthage. He also starred in ‘La Straniera’ by Marco Turco, taken from a novel by Younis Tawfik, which still has to open in movie theatres. “Scontro di civilta’ per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio” by Isotta Toso, taken from a novel by Amara Lakhous, and “Il nostro uomo” by Marco Campogiani, a debut on the unusual relation between and Arab man accused of terrorism and two policemen are also about to be released. But the Italian audience still recognises him as Hassan. Despite his Tunisian roots, he has almost been adopted by Italians and is in a unique position to observe immigration phenomenon between the two countries. He says that |’Hassan’s integration is the result of his steps towards Italian society, taken without forgetting his Arab and Muslim heritage. He incorporates the moral values he grew up with but also those he has taken from Italian society, such as his job, freedom of choice and therefore the rejection of the marriage arranged by his mother. The two cultures always have and always will share common values, and in my opinion they are a fine bridge towards integration”. And how is this immigration phenomenon viewed in Tunisia? “The young generation in Tunisia has two attitudes. On one side there are the youth who studied in university or who followed professional training or who hope to keep up their studies in Italy: a gesture appreciated by families and society alike. Then there is the youth that has no tangible plans, which moves towards the unknown only to escape from hardship, and this is viewed by families and society in general as an irresponsible behaviour. In any event, I think than no Tunisian leaves for ever. A proverb that I repeat every day says that |Being simple on earth is better than being great in the land of others”‘. Recently Tunisians have been come to the forefront in the uprisings and incidents which occurred in Lampedusa’s CIE facilities. He says that |’Violence never leads to a solution. These immigrants are only driven by the fear of being sent back home. This violence is a sign of tiredness”. As for the women who also put their lives at risk in these crossings, in spite the traditions of their society, |’even the women have dreams like men. When a woman leaves her Africa and decides to move away this is a sign of a social disaster, of the absence of a future in your own land”. But once they settle in Italy, are Tunisians open to true integration? “It depends on their cultural background: integration is achievable through culture. I heard a pun in Italian which I enjoyed which goes like this: Tunisians are just like Italians, except that they are Muslims’. This means that there always has been an exchange between our peoples, and it has ancient origins”. Coming back to movies, is Italian cinema well known in Tunisia? “It has been widely appreciated and followed since the |80s, albeit dubbed in French and linked to the French market. Now only a few Italian movies make it there. But there are initiatives by the Italian cultural institute in Tunis and a season of Italian movies that could change everything. On March 26 ‘La giusta distanza’ will open the second season of Italian cinema in Tunisia”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Barrot: Rights Respected in Lampedusa Centre
(ANSAmed) — LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO) — Following his visit to the Lampedusa Centre for Identification and Deportation (CIE), the EU Commissioner for Civil Justice and Liberty, Jacques Barrot, has said that, “despite everything, it seems to me that the Italian authorities are doing their utmost to guarantee decent conditions for the migrants. Beyond respecting the non-EU citizens’ rights and dignity, there is however the problem of where these people will go. We have to find a solution for that issue too”. Barrot has frequently stressed that “the possible asylum-seekers are at the centre of my concerns”. “I was assured that in Lampedusa the procedures for political asylum seekers are fully respected, that migrants are made aware, also thanks to the NGOs present, of the possibility of presenting their asylum request and that they are given correct instructions for their files”, Barrot confirmed. The EU commissioner met migrants accommodated at the centre. He said “I have seen distressing cases of Tunisians who want to return to their country but who are waiting for authorisation to be reunited with their families. There are these specific problems in addition to all the rest. The stories of the boys who I talked to really touched me,” he continued, “they are desperate because they have no idea what their future holds”. For Barrot, “it is essential to understand how we can ensure that Europe remains strict on the problem of illegal immigration and the trafficking which is behind the voyages to European and, at the same time, be open and united in relation to migrants. The countries of the EU must be more united”, added the commissioner, “for example by having a more generous policy on visas. It cannot however be ignored,” he concluded, “as I tried to explain to the migrants that I met, that our countries are currently in a period of great crisis”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Thousands of Immigrants Expelled This Year
Rome, 12 March (AKI) — More than 3,000 illegal migrants have been expelled from Italy since the beginning of 2009 as part of the government’s crackdown. Interior minister Roberto Maroni announced the figures in an interview aired on Radio Rai Uno.
“More than 3,000 illegal immigrants were expelled. We want to intensify this action, because whoever comes to Italy to work can enjoy all rights, except voting, but those who do not come to work, must be expelled,” said Maroni.
Maroni (photo) also said that Italy’s agreement with Libya to control illegal immigration was being implemented “with difficulty”.
“Today, a Libyan delegation will arrive in Italy to look at the patrol boats that Italy will provide for the surveillance of Libya’s coast. As soon as they depart and begin patrolling, the influx of immigrants from Libya will stop,” he said.
Italy and Libya last month signed a protocol for a bilateral accord originally endorsed in December 2007 to combat illegal immigration.
The signing of the protocol took place during Maroni’s visit to the Libyan capital, Tripoli. It followed the Italian Senate’s ratification of the Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation Treaty between the two countries.
Under the treaty Italy will give Libya millions of dollars in aid while Libya will allow the Italian military to join its naval force in monitoring the country’s coasts against illegal immigration.
Maroni said that more than 30,000 immigrants had arrived on the Sicilian coast in 2008.
He said that as soon as patrols begin in Libya, the southern Italian island of Lampedusa “will be freed from this burden.”
Lampedusa is a tiny island that is closer to Africa than the European continent and a favourite drop off point for people smugglers, particularly during the summer months.
Hundreds arrive each week in search of a better life in Europe aboard people smugglers’ boats which mostly set sail from North Africa, notably Tunisia, Libya and Morocco.
In mid-February, asylum seekers set fire to an immigration centre in Lampedusa allegedly after some detainees accepted food, breaking a pact for a hunger strike.
“The illegal immigrants who set fire to the Lampedusa immigration centre behaved in this manner because they hoped to be transferred to another immigration centre and then be released,” said Maroni.
The centre has been transformed by the conservative government of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi from a temporary assessment centre for medical and social aid, to a permanent holding facility.
According to official figures compiled by the Italian government and the United Nations’ refugee agency, around 36,000 boat people arrived in Italy last year — a 75 per cent increase over the number of arrivals in 2007.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lampedusa: Amnesty, EU to Inspect Human Rights
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 12 — The European Union must “apply greater pressure on Italy to assure that human rights are not violated in Lampedusa”, underlined Amnesty International, the day before Vice-President of the EU Commission Jacques Barrot visits the island. In a letter addressed to Barrot, Amnesty expressed, “its concern over the treatment of asylum-seekers and immigrants on Lampedusa, after an ad hoc decree by the Interior Ministry in January”. “Italy’s decision to detain migrants and asylum-seekers on Lampedusa for the duration of the procedure, rather than transferring them to the mainland, has had a serious impact on their human rights,” said Nicolas Beger, the director of the EU office of Amnesty. “The current situation on Lampedusa,” he added, “prevents the construction in the EU of a true area of justice, liberty, and safety based on respect for fundamental rights”. According to Amnesty, the conditions in the immigration centre “put the minimum standards called for in human rights regulations in jeopardy”. The European Commission, underlined the humanitarian organisation, “has rightly recognised the urgency of the situation”. Barrot “must now examine if the new regulations introduced by the Italian government constitute a violation of European legislation and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union”. For this reason Amnesty International has asked Brussels to “pressure the Italian government to re-establish the rapid transfer system for migrants and asylum-seekers from Lampedusa to the mainland” and “to ensure that the procedures for deportation are implemented with full respect to the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Malta: Migrants: Aid Agency Suspends Activities
The Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) international aid organisation today announced the suspension of its activities in the centres where immigrants and asylum seekers are detained in Malta. In a statement, the aid agency accuses the government of Malta of not allowing an “independent” and efficient humanitarian intervention. “Despite repeated requests by MSF to the Maltese authorities to improve conditions in the centres nothing has changed”, says the statement. According to the aid agency, the centres of the Mediterranean Island are “in unacceptable conditions”, with “unhealthy and promiscuous” facilities, “overcrowded” spaces, a lack of basic necessities and “inadequate” hygienic services. In the statement, Medecins Sans Frontiers underlines that it will not suspend assistance to the migrants that just arrived, which are always more since the middle of last year.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Held After 17-Year-Old is Beaten to Death Walking Under a Bridge
Four Eastern European men were arrested yesterday after a 17-year-old boy was murdered on his way home from a night out in a cathedral city.
Student Darren Loader was beaten to death in a savage attack under a railway bridge after being ambushed by two men as he walked with two girls.
He received horrific head injuries in the attack in Hereford on Thursday night. One of the girls suffered a broken arm as she tried to fend off the attackers.
Darren and the injured girl, who is also 17 but has not been named, were rushed to hospital and he was placed on a life support machine. But he died early yesterday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vikings Were ‘Model Immigrants Who Lived Happily Alongside Ancient Britons’
For more than a thousand years they have had a reputation for raping, pillaging and engaging in violent conquests.
But new research suggests that this violent image of the Vikings may be a little unfair.
In fact, some academics claim that the Norsemen were ‘model immigrants’ who lived side-by-side in relative harmony with the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic locals.
In 793 the Vikings launched their first brutal raid on England, hacking monks to death and terrifying villagers at a priory in Lindisfarne.
But they soon became an ‘integral part of the fabric of social and political life’, according to academics at Cambridge University.
Dr Fiona Edmonds said: ‘The latest evidence does not point to a simple opposition between ‘Vikings’ and ‘natives’.
‘Within a relatively short space of time — and with lasting effect — the various cultures in Britain and Ireland started to intermingle.’
Researchers say the Vikings should been seen as an early example of immigrants who were successfully assimilated into British and Irish culture.
A combination of new archaeological evidence and analysis of the language, literature and coinage of the period was used to come to this surprising new conclusion.
The findings appear to fly in the face of accepted theories about the Vikings and their barbarous ways.
But researchers are insistent that this is more than just an attempt to manipulate history to fit modern-day political correct attitudes.
Dr Maire Ni Mhaonaigh, who is co-organising the three-day conference in Cambridge on the subject, genuinely believes modern-day Britons today can learn from such positive immigration.
She said: ‘Most people’s image of the Vikings centres on their arrival and disruption but that only continued for a very short period of time.
‘Afterwards they started building settlements and interacting with the locals and became assimilated into their culture and influenced them in many ways.
‘As such they provide a clear example of how a particular group came into a sophisticated established society and the resulting interaction was positive.
‘Both societies profited and modern day people can take a lesson from this that two cultures coming together can learn from each other.’
| — Hat tip: CB2 | [Return to headlines] |
Bin Laden: Gaza Offensive is a ‘Holocaust’
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called Israel’s offensive on Gaza a “holocaust” and blamed Arab leaders for not doing enough to stop the fighting in his latest audio recording aired on Al-Jazeera.
Bin Laden accused some Arab countries of “collaborating” with Israel on the offensive earlier this year that killed about 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza. He did not name any specific Arab countries in the brief audio recording played on Al-Jazeera Saturday.
The Arabic satellite network did not say how it obtained the recording, and the authenticity of the tape could not be verified.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Low-Energy Bulbs ‘Worsen Skin Disorders’ and Those at Risk Should Have Medical Exemption, Say Doctors
The phasing out of traditional light bulbs could cause misery for thousands who have light-sensitive skin disorders, medical experts warned yesterday.
Dr Robert Sarkany said some low-energy bulbs gave vulnerable people painful rashes and swelling.
He backed calls by patient groups for the Government to give medical exemptions for those at risk.
[…]
Halogens are more expensive — costing around £1.99 each — while critics say the fluorescent type have an unattractive harsh light and take up to a minute to warm up to full strength.
But medical charities say the light from low-energy bulbs triggers migraines, epilepsy and rashes.
Dr Sarkany, a photodermatologist at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, St Thomas’ Hospital, in London, said he has treated patients for rashes caused by exposure to low-energy lamps.
Some suffer from lupus, a disease of the immune system that can cause skin to become hypersensitive to sunlight.
But Dr Sarkany said lupus sufferers were also reporting an adverse reaction to fluorescent lights.
He added: ‘Patients with lupus feel strongly about this. They feel their skin deteriorates with fluorescent lights and have taken this issue to Parliament.’
A spokesman for Skin Care Campaign said: ‘The main concern is over the intensity of the ultraviolet light from low-energy bulbs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism: Web Allows for Virtual Religious Tourism
(ANSAmed) — NAPLES, FEBRUARY 25 — Going to Jerusalem to visit the sites of the holy city, which are precious to three great monotheistic religions, used to mean that traveller had to adapt to customs and traditions which come together as in no other place on earth. No more. If you are unwilling to bow to all these myriad codes of conduct you can now just go online. The web now offers all kinds of travel opportunities, and you can even visit some of Christianity’s most holy sites whilst still in front of the computer. Since its launch four months ago on the Jewish Sukkot’ (Feast of Tabernacles) festival, a new website, www.ipraytv.com, allows the would-be traveller to avoid the pitfalls of real travel and visit (virtually, at least) some of these sites. The site has grown rapidly and now numbers more than thirty thousand registered users. A large number of internet users (of both Christian and other faiths) registered on the site at Christmas, as the site was offering a live web cast of Bethlehem’s Christmas celebrations. “This website is the only provider of ‘religious services’ able to offer views of Holy Sites through simulcast technology, which allows people to connect live with Jerusalem”, reads a page on the website. Indeed, thanks to the adoption of this technology, Ipraytv users can enjoy new pictures of nine Holy Land sites, including the Mount of Olives. The creators of the site have also got a new project in mind for Easter: they want to put a live video stream of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Tomb of the Garden on the site. “According to scripture, Jerusalem is at the centre of the universe,”, says Mike Peros, founder and managing director of IPrayTV, “so it is important that people see the actual origin of Bible-based western civilisation”. Peros went on to say that: “our aim is to further expand this service so that millions of people all over the world can pray simultaneously for peace in Jerusalem”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
3 comments:
So the Turkish airlines crash was of quranic and AKP origin.
I remember some strange questioning about quran in TAIR last year.
Pakistan: Political Leaders in Hiding as Hundreds Arrested
Price of Financial Aid to Pakistan: Billions of Dollars
Price of Global War on Terrorism: Hundreds of Billions of Dollars.
Watching Terror Central ... er, Pakistan's government prohibit large public demonstrations on the pretext that they could prompt a terrorist attack against such large crowds: EFFING PRICELESS.
Reap as you sow, you terrorist bastids. Now you cannot even publicly protest your government's fascism because of the way you love killing people so damn much.
Pakistan. A Muslim nation with nukes. Not a sensible person in the room.
Corruption a prerequisite for entering politics i.e. an entire nation run like Chicago.
Traitorous army protectors of Taliban, and likely Osama bin Laden.
Training ground for and exporter of jihadists to the Anglosphere.
Poorly educated inbred breeders on Welfare rolls in every Western nation.
What's not to like?
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