The immediate crisis in Pakistan has been settled by the reappointment of the judge who had been suspended from his post during Musharraf’s tenure. An immediate popular uprising has thus been avoided, but the current government — which enjoys little legitimacy — has been weakened even further.In other news, the EU is now threatening to boycott the Durban 2 conference because of the possibility that will turn into a festival of anti-Semitism. If the EU objects to it for those reasons, how bad must it be?
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, CSP, Gaia, Holger Danske, Insubria, JD, TB, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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AIG Ships Billions in Bailout Abroad
Billions of American taxpayer dollars used to bailout insurance giant AIG are flowing to some of the largest foreign banks in the world, according to new documents released by beleaguered company Sunday.
[…]
In all, AIG disclosed payments of $105.3 billion between September and December 2008. And some of the biggest recipients were European banks. Societe Generale, based in France, was the top foreign recipient at $11.9 billion, Deutsche Bank of Germany got $11.8 billion and Barclays, based in England, was paid $8.5 billion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britons Suffer 17% Plunge in Wealth
Households witness biggest drop in the value of their assets for 40 years after house price and stock market collapses
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Getty Trust Announces Steep Budget Cut
A loss of $1.5 billion in investments has forced the J. Paul Getty Trust arts institution to cut its operating budget by about 25 percent, officials said.
The Los Angeles Times quoted Getty President James Wood as saying the financial stability of the institution could “fall off a huge cliff” if it postponed the budget cuts while the U.S. economy continued to falter. The cuts in the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1, could mean some staff layoffs, fewer temporary exhibitions and a hold on the acquisition of additional works for several of the Getty museums’ collections.
[…]
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art last week announced plans to lay off 10 percent of its workforce, partly because of an endowment loss of nearly 28 percent, the newspaper said.
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IMF Poised to Print Billions of Dollars in ‘Global Quantitative Easing’
[Comments from JD: Sounds like Zimbabwe’s economic plan.]
The International Monetary Fund is poised to embark on what analysts have described as “global quantitative easing” by printing billions of dollars worth of a global “super-currency” in an unprecedented new effort to address the economic crisis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Push to Audit Federal Reserve Gains Steam
28 lawmakers join call to examine nation’s money controllers
A bill calling for the comptroller general of the United States to audit the private Federal Reserve is gaining momentum in Washington, D.C., as more and more representatives add their names to its bipartisan support.
As WND reported, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, introduced last month H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, a bill requiring that an audit of both the Fed’s Board of Governors and the Federal Reserve Banks be completed and reported to Congress before the end of 2010.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism: Crisis Worsens in Italy, Numbers Down by 10%
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 10 — “Tourism figures for February unfortunately show the signs of a worsening crisis, which weighs heavily on the companies in the sector”, said Bernabò Bocca, president of Federalberghi and Confturismo-Confcommercio commenting the results of the tourism survey the association carries out each month to monitor developments in the current economic situation. The survey on the month February was carried out from March 2 to 6, interviewing representatives of 1,226 accommodation facilities, distributed across Italy. The sample is representative for the classification in stars of the sector. After the 7% drop in numbers in January, in February a 10% drop is recorded despite the Carnival and other holidays. The number of hotel rooms “sold” in February fell by 11% (the same result as in January). The number of employees in accommodation facilities decreased by 6% in February (from -4,5% in January) with almost -5% for full-time workers (against -3% in January) and -9,5% for part-time workers (the same as in January). “We also see from ISTAT figures” added Bernabò Bocca “that hotel prices even came down in January with inflation at +1,6%, which adds to the loss of turnover of companies who are already suffering from a decline of the number of tourists. At this point companies and unions should start working together to develop the necessary instruments to stop the growing loss of jobs”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey in Top 3 Countries to Lose Its Billionaires, Forbes
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 13 — Turkey is among the top three countries to lose the highest number of billionaires as the financial crisis shrinks total riches globally, Forbes magazine reported on Wednesday in its annual tally of the planet’s richest people. Bill Gates topped the list. The number of billionaires globally fell to 793 from 1,125 a year ago, plummeting to $2.4 trillion from $4.4 trillion Forbes said, adding that the number of billionaires in Turkey in 2008 declined to 13 from 35 the previous, the highest fall after Russia and India. Turkey experienced the highest decline in the number of billionaires in the Middle East region, president and the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Steve Forbes said. Depreciation of the Turkish lira against the U.S. dollar by some 30% was the main reason for this result, he added. The Turkish economy, which increasingly feels the impact of the global financial crisis, recorded only 0.5% growth in the third quarter of 2008, the lowest since Turkey emerged from a financial crisis in 2001. The growth rate is expected to decline in 2009, while an economic contraction is forecasted. Husnu Ozyegin, owner of FIBA Holding, became Turkey’s richest person with $2.9 billion, while Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, the owner of Cukurova Holding, which has a stake in Turkey’s leading GSM operator, Turkcell, ranked second with $2.8 billion. Ozyegin was placed 221st in the global list, while Karamehmet ranked in 224th place. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Obama to Meet Sinn Fein Leaders
President Barack Obama is expected to ask Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness what lesson the Northern Ireland conflict holds for Middle East and Iraq.
The White House meeting is part of a series of events marking St Patrick’s Day and comes amid continued controversy over Sinn Fein’s reaction to the recent murder of two British soldiers and a police officer by extreme republican groups.
Martin McGuinness, first deputy minister, has been criticised for merely claiming that the deaths “betrayed the political desires” of the Irish people.
Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, has called the killings “wrong” but initially blamed army tactics for provoking the IRA splinter organizations that carried out the attacks.
Speaking yesterday in Washington, he interpreted the deaths in terms of the peace process. “Sinn Fein itself is as a much a target of the perpetrators as those that they killed,” Mr Adams said in a speech at the prestigious national press club. He called the attacks “a full frontal assault on the peace process”.
Over the weekend, Mr McGuiness signalled that he will take an upbeat message to the White House and will use the opportunity to reassure Mr Obama and his advisers that the devolved administration is firmly united in the wake of the murders.
“The fact is that we have a very successful peace process. We have a unified position in terms of our political parties,” Mr McGuiness said.
According to Northern Ireland officials, the White House wants Peter Robinson, the first minister, and Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister, who has advised Iraqi politicians, to illuminate its approach to foreign policy challenges that look as intractable as Northern Ireland once did.
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Ex-Pa. Senator Convicted of 137 Corruption Counts
Vincent Fumo, once one of the most powerful figures in Pennsylvania politics, was convicted Monday of more than 130 counts of corruption for schemes that defrauded the state Senate and others of more than $3.5 million and allowed him to live a lavish lifestyle.
The 65-year-old former state senator was found guilty of all 137 counts against him, which also included obstruction of justice for destroying e-mail evidence. The jury deliberated about the Philadelphia Democrat’s fate for about six days after a five-month trial.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: Shariah’s Brotherhood
On Friday, President Obama reiterated for the umpteenth time his determination to develop a “new relationship” with the Muslim world. On this occasion, the audience were the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Unfortunately, it increasingly appears that, in so doing, he will be embracing the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood — an organization dedicated to promoting the theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls Shariah and that has the self-described mission of “destroying Western civilization from within.”
As part of Mr. Obama’s “Respect Islam” campaign, he will travel to Turkey in early April. While there, he will not only pay tribute to an Islamist government that has systematically wrested every institution from the secular tradition of Ataturk and put the country squarely on the path to Islamification. He will also participate in something called the “Alliance of Civilizations.”
The Alliance is a UN-sponsored affair that reflects — as, increasingly do most things the United Nations is involved in — the views of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The OIC is made up of 57 Muslim-majority nations. Thanks to support from Saudi Arabia and its proxies, the Muslim Brotherhood has become a driving force within the Conference and their agendas largely coincide.
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
He’s Not ‘Doctor’ Obama
[Comments from JD: a laundry list of UK health care examples in article.]
Oh, good! After our new president saves the world economy and bails out every begging industry and state, he plans to revamp our medical care system — despite the fact, that for all its faults, it’s the best in the world on every level — doctors, nurses, hospitals and research.
My first night in London, two weeks ago, I flicked on the TV to see the British take on the events of the day, to see if the world had come to an end, and to see how their news format played out.
[…]
I read the local newspapers and saw it didn’t play out that way with Britain’s National Health Service, or NHS — the medical system American liberals want us to emulate.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lose Your Property for Growing Food?
Big Brother legislation could mean prosecution, fines up to $1 million
House Resolution 875, or the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in February. DeLauro’s husband, Stanley Greenburg, works for Monsanto — the world’s leading producer of herbicides and genetically engineered seed.
DeLauro’s act has 39 co-sponsors and was referred to the House Agriculture Committee on Feb. 4. It calls for the creation of a Food Safety Administration to allow the government to regulate food production at all levels — and even mandates property seizure, fines of up to $1 million per offense and criminal prosecution for producers, manufacturers and distributors who fail to comply with regulations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama is “Carter Redux”
We need to recall that, in terms of the votes cast in the 2008 election, President Obama did not win by a great majority. It was not a landslide. He had no real “mandate” to restructure the American government or its economy. He offered only vague promises of “change” and “hope”. Now, barely three months into his administration, as a recent Wall Street Journal article headlined, “Obama’s Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth.”
The reasons are too obvious. He is a liar. He is a Socialist. He would bankrupt the economy and impose huge deficits unto the second or third generation. He is the political return of former President Jimmy Carter, a loony liberal desperate to embrace all the regimes that hate America and wish us dead.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Orchard Park Man Pleads Not Guilty in Wife’s Beheading
Muzzammil Hassan is charged with one count of second-degree murder for the Feb. 12 death of his wife, Aasiya, whose body was found beheaded at the offices of Bridges TV in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park.
Hassan, 44, founded the Muslim-American television channel in 2004 saying he hoped to balance negative portrayals of Muslims in the post 9-11 world.
According to Orchard Park police the couple was in the process of divorcing before Aasiya Hassan was stabbed multiple times and decapitated.
After the slaying the President of the National Organization for Women’s New York chapter condemned the death as an honor killing — a characterization local victim advocacy groups oppose.
Hours after Mr. Hassan appeared in court a Quranic Recitation was held for his wife at the Islamic Center in Amherst.
“In the Western sense you could call it a memorial service,” explained Khalid Qazi, President of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York.
“People will come in, both men and women, and they will read from the Koran and send blessings to Aasiya, the deceased,” Khalid said.
Khalid also told 2 On Your Side the local Muslim Community remains “horrified, and has no satisfaction as to why such a horrible event would take place and for what reason this horrible event could take place”.
Also attending the gathering was Susan Volk Sizemore, Executive Director of the Erie County Council on the Status of Women.
“When the unfortunate domestic violence death of Aasiya took place I was asked to get more involved. We have been working very closely with the (Islamic) community and its leaders to try and help them develop specific programs for their women on domestic violence issues and connect them with the different resources in Erie County,” Sizemore said.
Sizemore also told WGRZ-TV that, “Buffalo’s a little behind the times. In other large cities the Muslim community has very developed domestic violence programs.”
Meantime, Islamic leaders like Khalid wonder if some of the inroads made toward inter-cultural understanding post 9-11 were set back by Mrs. Hassan’s gruesome slaying.
“We feel lucky to be part of the Western New York community because it has always made us feel welcome and continues to do so. But an event like this puts you behind so much, especially when it is construed (as an honor killing) by the media and those who don’t know Islam and try to be the experts on such issues.”
An interfaith memorial service for Aasyia Hassan is scheduled for this coming Sunday at the Orchard Park Presbyterian Church, 4369 South Buffalo Street, Orchard Park.
The service which begins at 6pm is open to one and all.
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
The Greens Hate Energy, America, and You!
I doubt that most Americans have a clue what the leading Green organizations like Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club have as their agenda for 2009. They have already made it known their members, so I will share it with you.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Tri-State Residents Gathered Sunday on Fountain Square in Downtown Cincinnati to Voice Their Opposition to Government Spending Bills Recently Signed by President Barack Obama.
The group called itself the Cincinnati Tea Party, modeled after the Boston Tea Party of 1773.
Many of the demonstrators carried signs with slogans that said “Honk if I’m paying your mortgage” or “Stop spending my allowance.” Some even wore tea bags on their hats to make their point.
Cincinnati police estimated the crowd at 4,000 people. Many who spoke with News 5 Sunday afternoon said they’re angry, including Congresswoman Jean Schmidt.
Protesters argued that the government shouldn’t be spending money it doesn’t have and they fear taxes and deflation will follow…
[More protests to come. See URL]
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Unity ‘09: Leftist Dem Groups Quietly Align
A broad coalition of left-leaning groups is quietly closing ranks into a new coalition, “Unity ‘09,” aimed at helping President Barack Obama push his agenda through Congress. Conceived at a New York meeting before the November election, two Democrats familiar with the planning said, Unity ‘09 will draw together money and grassroots organizations to pressure lawmakers in their home states to back White House legislation and other progressive causes. The online-based MoveOn.org is a central player in the nascent organization, but other groups involved in planning Unity ‘09 span a broad spectrum of interests, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the National Council of La Raza to Planned Parenthood, as well as labor unions and environmental groups.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Will Murdoch Publish Book by Anti-American, Anti-Semitic Terrorist?
Ironically, the book, Underground: My Life With SDS and the Weathermen, is by Mark Rudd, who is himself Jewish. But as former Congressional investigator Herbert Romerstein points out in his report, “What Was the Weather Underground?,” the American Jewish community was a particular target of the Weather Underground when Rudd was a top official of the terrorist organization and its predecessor, the SDS.
He notes that one communiqué from the Weather Underground group in California that called itself the New World Liberation Front threatened, “These Zionist ruling class pigs will not butcher poor people fighting for a just life without suffering drastic repercussions. The Jewish-American ruling class cannot protect themselves well enough for a sufficient amount of time. They should consider this carefully! We will show the Jewish-American ruling class how extremely vulnerable they are, here in the belly of the beast. Their lives will be in grave jeopardy if mad-dog Rabin imposes this massacre on the Palestinian people… We call on all comrades to move directly against all Jewish-American ruling class bloodsuckers if Rabin moves to massacre freedom fighters! These ruling class dogs are influential both here and in Israel and are extremely vulnerable!”
The Weather Underground was still writing in 1982, “Zionism is White Supremacy. Zionism is an integral part of white supremacist movement in the U.S. It is rooted in the defense of white privilege over colonized people.”
Romerstein, who investigated and exposed extremists in organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and Rudd’s SDS, notes evidence that “Some Weather Underground activists were born into Jewish families, but they were as anti-Semitic as their gentile born colleagues.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Montreal Brutality Riot Nets 221 Arrests
The Canadian city of Montreal’s 13th annual march against police brutality resulted in 221 arrests and 189 others being ticketed, police said Monday.
Initially, some 400 people gathered near a west-end subway station to start the march but officers quickly ruled it illegal as some of the protesters were carrying things that could be used as weapons, The Gazette newspaper said.
The situation deteriorated and running battles with riot police broke out. Tear gas canisters and rubber bullets were deployed as protesters smashed store windows and damaged police vehicles, the report said.
Monday morning, the force said at least $200,000 damage was done by the crowd.
Two officers also received minor injuries, Constable Laurent Gingras said.
Of those arrested, 32 of them were for criminal charges including assault, mischief, theft and possession of a weapon with dangerous intent.
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Ottawa Man Gets 10-Plus Years on Terror Charges
OTTAWA — The first Canadian charged under the new Criminal Code provisions of the Anti-terrorism Act was sentenced Thursday to an additional 10 1/2 years in prison for his role in helping a group of Islamic extremists plot to bomb London nightclubs and other targets in 2004.
In an Ottawa courtroom, Ontario Superior Court Justice Douglas Rutherford sentenced Mohammed Momin Khawaja, 29, to another decade and a half behind bars, spread over convictions on seven charges — on top of the five years he has already spent in jail awaiting trial and sentencing. Five of the convictions were charges of participating in, contributing, financing, and facilitating terror, while two other convictions pertained to Khawaja’s developing and possessing an explosive device — the so-called Hi-Fi Digimonster.
“He said he wanted to come home. I was hoping we could bring him home,” his mother Azra, who visited Khawaja behind bars earlier this week, told Canwest News Service on Thursday.
She and her husband, Mahboob, had hoped their son would be sentenced to time served for spending four years before conviction.
Khawaja told his parents he wanted them to pick up some honey, good meat, and the final episode of the Star Wars saga — just some of things he hasn’t had in jail, where he’s been a model inmate known for staying out of trouble. He spent his days working out to MuchMusic videos and praying on his mats. (There’s a painted arrow on the floor of his cell pointing to Mecca.)
“There’s a lot of new movies he hasn’t seen,” she said. “We still pray and hope he gets out,” said his mother, who hopes her son will appeal the conviction.
Khawaja’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said he was disappointed with the ruling, and will be considering both a conviction and a sentencing appeal over the coming days.
“It’s a long ways from what the Crown attorney was seeking, thankfully, but I still think the sentence is excessive,” he told reporters.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Crime: Police From 16 Countries Tracking Pink Panther Gang
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 11 — Investigators from Serbia, Italy, Montenegro, France, Spain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are to take part in a two-day long meeting of 16 police forces organised by INTERPOL to coordinate the fight against the Pink Panthers, an international band of jewel thieves whose members are mainly from countries of the former Yugoslavia. This will be the third meeting of this kind since July 2007 and INTERPOL’s creation of an ad hoc group within the Monaco-based organisation. Monaco, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and the UAE are among the countries worst hit by the 200-strong gang, which includes both men and women from Kosovo, Serbia, and Montenegro — many of whom fought in the Balkans conflict. It is thought that the group has amassed booty worth over 100 million euros through armed robberies, the most recent of which took place on September 4 when they cleaned out the jewellers at the Hotel Pagoda in Tenerife (Canary Islands), making off with over 600,000 euros of precious jewels. Two members of the gang were arrested in October in Monaco where they were doing reconnaissance for a fresh robbery. One of these two, Dusko Poznan, was wanted for his participation in robberies in Switzerland and Dubai. Milan Ljepoja, one of the central figures in the gang, was arrested in 2008 on the border between France and Switzerland. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: City’s Jews, Muslims Unite Against Racism
Islamic and Jewish organisations are working together to fight racism through a common campaign
Using the slogan ‘Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia — Not in Our City!’, the Jewish Community in Denmark and the United Council of Muslims (MFR) have created an unlikely alliance with the hope of learning more about each others’ concerns.
As part of the campaign to mark the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination posters bearing the slogan will be put up across the city, and representatives of both organisations will meet with racism and religious experts to further dialogue between the groups.
But Finn Schwarz of the Jewish Community in Denmark emphasised that the campaign is not about Jewish-Muslim relations.
‘It’s a collaboration on racism and deals with anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. For the Muslims the campaign is aimed at Danish society, while Jews want to address both the general prejudices and pre-conceptions in society as well as Muslims’ anti-Semitism,’ he told The Copenhagen Post.
Despite the willingness to work together, the organisations behind the drive admit there are extreme parties on both sides that want to disrupt the alliance.
‘There will always be marginalised people who have another viewpoint on the matter,’ Zubair Butt Hussein, spokesman for MFR, said. ‘But it’s not a viewpoint we share’.
Hussein’s positive outlook is not shared by the Danish People’s Party’s Finn Rudaizky, however, a Jewish member of the City Council. He indicated he felt the collaboration represented a fantasy world and was detrimental to the Jewish community.
But Schwarz said that stance — much like that of the many emails he has received — misses the point of the campaign.
‘It’s actually the media that has focused on the Jewish-Muslim conflict, and a research seminar has just concluded that fact,’ he said. ‘But that’s not what this project is about.’
Schwarz admitted that the campaign itself will probably not directly make any difference in people’s attitudes about Muslims and Jews. But he felt it may lead to discussions and increase awareness, which will ultimately help the parties’ cause.
He added that other on-going projects involving Jewish Community in Denmark and MFR were of more importance.
‘We have several different school outreach projects, for example. The most important thing is for people to see Jews and Muslims for themselves and to show them that things aren’t necessarily what they thought they were.’
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Sicilian Environmental Energy Plan Approved
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, FEBRUARY 27 — Sicily’s regional government has commented in a note on the approval of the island’s environmental energy plan (known as ‘Pears’), saying that from now on “each Sicilian should be able to produce his own energy”. The note continues to say that the plan is: “inspired by the internet model, in which each business, each local body, and each family will be able to present a request for funds for energy production on the island, beginning with renewable sources of energy. The capacity of old and new structures to become power plants with integrated solar and wind energy technology, the stockpiling of energy as hydrogen and its use as clean coal will be optimised. It will be possible to exchange locally produced energy through controlled networks of intelligent electronic systems.” The Sicilian region’s environmental energy plan, which will be presented on March 13 in Palermo by the island’s president, Raffaele Lombardo, and economist Jeremy Rifkin — who has been called the inspiration behind the project — “is in line with energy and climate directives from the European Parliament. Sicily will develop all four of the so-called pillars of the third industrial revolution in parallel: renewable energy, energy-positive buildings, hydrogen and ‘smart grids’ which allow the progressive de-carbonisation of Sicilian industry”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Threatens to Boycott U.N. Anti-Racism Conference
BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The EU threatened on Monday to withdraw from a U.N. conference on racism next month unless its final declaration is changed, joining a number of countries concerned the meeting could become an anti-Semitic forum.
Israel and Canada have already withdrawn from the April 20-24 World Conference Against Racism in Geneva amid fears Arab nations will use it against Israel. The United States and Australia have said they are considering doing the same.
“The main voices were very skeptical about the direction of the papers prepared there,” Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said after EU foreign ministers discussed the Geneva meeting on Monday.
“Probably we will send now from the EU a suggestion of ours and if the conference papers are in line with that, we will stay, otherwise there is a strong call to withdraw,” said Schwarzenberg, who chaired the talks.
“Some of the wording (in the conference’s draft documents) is considered to be anti-Semitic,” one EU diplomat said.
The bloc was also concerned about the mention of defamation against religion, he said. “The EU thinks this has nothing to do with human rights,” the diplomat told Reuters.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was concerned the conference “might be abused for one sided statements on the Middle East conflict.”
“I plead that we would cancel our participation unless there is in the next few days a change in the preparation,” he told reporters in Brussels.
The United States has also said it will not attend the conference unless the wording of the final declaration is altered radically. Israel is calling for a boycott of the event…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Captive Afghan Freed From Kebab House
Rome, 10 March (AKI) — Police have freed a 30-year-old Afghan man allegedly being held hostage by two Turks in a kebab house in Rome’s central Trastevere district (photo). The man was dehydrated and weak, police said, quoted by media on Tuesday.
Four unnamed individuals who worked at the kebab house and a Romanian woman are currently being questioned by police over the Afghan’s suspected abduction in Germany and transfer to Italy.
Police said they also seized several knives and a suitcase stuffed with cash from the kebab house, as well as “other items of interest to the investigation.”
Local shopkeepers said the kebab house staff seemed respectable and said they had never noticed any suspicious comings and goings, cries or arguments.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: University, Students March Against Bologna Plan
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 12 — Several thousands of university students took part in demonstrations in a number of Spanish cities to protest against the Bologna Plan to homogenise higher education in the European Union. With the slogan: ‘For a non market-driven public university, real public debate’, students gathered together by their unions demonstrated in Barcelona and Madrid, where they assembled outside the Education ministry headquarters. The protest coincides with an information campaign by the government on the advantages of the European initiative, which aims to homogenise qualifications and university teaching throughout Europe by the 2010-2011 academic year. The general coordinator of the left-wing party Isquierda Unida, Cayo Lara, took part in the march in Madrid, to express his support for the protest; he has proposed an open referendum, with a public debate in Spain’s universities on the consequences of the Bologna Plan if it is implemented. Around 6,000 students took part in the march in Barcelona, according to sources from the Coordinating committee of the students’ union quoted by the Efe agency. The marchers reached the campus of the Pompeu Fabra University, where around two thousand students have occupied the building in order to hold a debate this weekend on the future of the university. The protests have received unexpected support from the teaching staff. Hundreds of professors, lecturers and researchers from 24 public universities, including philosopher and writer Fernando Savater, fully supports “the motives” for the anti-Bologna demonstration. “The Spanish public” said the website of the Complutense university in Madrid’s Faculty of Philosophy, “should know that far from being anti-establishment Neanderthals or misinformed teenagers, the anti-Bologna students are currently the only members of the university community with the clear-sightedness, the sense of responsibility, the courage and the generosity to unbendingly defend the very concept and conditions of existence of an authentic higher education system”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Girls Mutilated in Britain
The NHS is offering to reverse female circumcision amid concerns that there are 500 victims a year with no prosecutions
The NHS is to advertise free operations to reverse female circumcisions, with experts warning that each year more than 500 British girls have their genitals mutilated.
Despite having been outlawed in 1985, female circumcision is still practised in British African communities, in some cases on girls as young as 5. Police have been unable to bring a single prosecution even though they suspect that community elders are being flown from the Horn of Africa to carry out the procedures.
The advertisement will appear from next month on a Somali satellite TV station much viewed in Britain. It features Juliet Albert, a midwife who does the reverse operations, and promises, in English and Somali, confidentiality for victims of female genital mutilation.
The advertisement was expected to help to undermine demand for girls to be circumcised, and to popularise the reversal procedure, Ms Albert said. Thousands of such operations have been carried out at specialist clinics and hospitals around Britain and demand is growing slowly
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UK: Family of X Factor Contestant Who Died After His Cancer Was Missed Ready to Sue Doctors
The family of an X Factor contestant who died after doctors failed to detect a 4.4lb tumour in his chest are planning legal action against a doctor and a hospital trust after it emerged he could have been saved.
Christopher Chaffey, 19, who auditioned for the Leeds 2006 trials for The X-Factor, was told to ‘grow up and stop worrying’ by a doctor after he contacted his GP 12 times fearing for his life, an inquest heard.
Hull Coroner’s Court heard that doctors told Christopher he was suffering from anxiety rather than picking up the developing cancer.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Heart Attack Mother Died After Yobs Threw Fireworks at Head of Paramedic Trying to Save Her
A paramedic was trapped in his ambulance by youths throwing fireworks at him while the woman he was called out to save lay dying, it was revealed today.
Heart attack victim Winifred Jones, 57, was deprived of medical treatment for vital minutes after the gang set off fireworks and hurled them at the paramedic, forcing him to take cover in his vehicle.
He was forced to wait for back-up from police, but finally risked his own safety and made a dash for the house where the woman lay.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: IRA Targets Princes
SECURITY surrounding Princes William and Harry has been stepped up over fears that renegade IRA terrorists are preparing to carry out an assassination attempt.
Close protection officers guarding the two royals have been issued with machine guns and the number of bodyguards on each shift has been increased.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Senior Judge Condemns Use of the Word ‘Honour’ to Describe Abuse and Murder Within Muslim Families
In an Appeal Court test case he ruled that the welfare of children should not be put at risk because of the ‘honour’ idea held in some Muslim families.
The judge added: ‘Arson, domestic violence and potential revenge likely to result in abduction or death are criminal acts which will be treated as such.’
The case, involving three children of a Pakistani family who were removed by social workers and taken into care, is the first childcare case touching on honour issues to reach the level of the Appeal Court, which sets precedents to be followed in other courts.
The 41-year-old father of the children asked for the right to contact with them.
He also asked that the children, who have been put in the care of white non-Muslim foster parents, should be sent to live with a Muslim family.
The children were removed from the family following the death of another child and violent incidents connected to the role of a woman in their extended family.
Their 32-year-old mother is serving a five-year jail sentence for arson.
Violence in the family began when an uncle of the three children now in state care contracted a marriage to a woman from Pakistan, who was pregnant with her first child when she came to England in 2003. The child died at the age of 27 months after suffering multiple injuries.
The dead child was said in court to have shown injuries that may have been caused by sexual abuse.
The husband was convicted of murder. However, senior members of the family made it clear that they took his side.
A grandfather described the death of the child as an accident and the will of God, and made it clear that the husband should return to live at the family home on his release.
The mother of the dead child was said by Lord Justice Wall to have been kept ‘under virtual house arrest’ and to be unaware of the name of the city where she lived. In May 2005, with the help of police and social workers, she fled to a secret location with her second child. She is said to remain in fear of her life.
The family’s campaign against the fleeing mother extended to involve the three children now in care and living with a foster family.
The mother of the three children — a sister of the husband convicted of murder — reported in 2005 that her sister-in-law had returned to the family home in the company of a friend an+d dressed in a burka and had assaulted the children.
She alleged that her sister-in-law had cut her hands and neck with a knife, poured white spirit over the clothes of one of the children, and had set fire to clothing. The story was found to be untrue, and the three children were taken into care.
The foster parents of the three children — a girl of 11 and boys of nine and five — have since had to move several times because of fears for their safety.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Trainspotters to be Banned From Stations After 170 Years Because of ‘Security Risk’
Trainspotters could be banned from King’s Cross and other major stations for security reasons, it was claimed today.
Union leaders say National Express will bar spotters from stations on the East Coast main line because they are a nuisance and pose a “security risk”.
There are suggestions of other operators following suit.
The ban, which union leaders claim “betrays Britain’s 170-year long railway heritage”, covers King’s Cross and York, which is the spiritual home of the industry and next door to the National Rail Museum.
National Express is instigating the ban as it installs automatic ticket gates at main stations along the line, say union leaders, who accused the operator of “mindless vandalism”.
Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the TSSA, the industry’s second largest union, said one of his officials had been told by a manager that trainspotters posed a “security risk”.
Endangered: Trainspotters photograph a South West Trains Class 450 Desiro at Waterloo.
He said: “Do they really think that a 10-year-old boy with a pencil and notebook is in possession of a dangerous weapon? You do wonder sometimes what planet these people are on.”
Mr Doherty added: “The barbarians have finally taken over the industry. Only people with no sense of history would commit such an act of mindless vandalism. Young trainspotters have been with us since Victorian times. Now National Express is saying they should be banned as they are a nuisance.
“The company has told us that train spotters will be banned at all its main line stations which will be installed with gated barriers.”
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Serbia: Trial Production of Punto Begins in Zastava
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 13 — In the Kragujevac automobile factory Zastava, the trial production of parts of the Punto car’s model has begun yesterday, the general manager of Zastava Automobiles Group, Zoran Radojevic, told BETA news agency. He said that the Autobody Plant had produced the first Punto body, bearing the number 7,000,001, adding that five bodies were made yesterday, and around ten will be produced by the end of day. Radojevic stated that the trial production is being monitored by the Fiat Torino director and ten experts, who are exploring the possibility of increasing the production capacity of the existing equipment, considering the great demand for Punto. “We are working on adapting the equipment, in order to harmonize the production quality with Fiat standards, and are considering the possibility of producing in the most economical way even more vehicles than originally envisaged,” he said. Radojevic added that around 100 Zastava employees are engaged in that task. He refused to say how big the increase in Punto production might be, but he reminded that the minimum envisaged production for 2009 is 15,000 vehicles. According to the Ministry of Economy, 17,880 applications for loans for the purchase of Puntos were submitted by March 11.(ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: War Crimes Suspect Attacks UN Court
The Hague, 12 March (AKI) — Serbian nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj, accused of war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia, said on Thursday he had no chance of a fair trial before the United Nations war crimes tribunal. He also accused prosecutors of extending the trial indefinitely because they had no case against him.
Seselj, who surrendered to the tribunal voluntarily six years ago, told the court that all reasonable deadlines for a fair trial had passed long ago and accused prosecutors of “buying time” because they had no case against him.
“All reasonable deadlines passed a few years ago, therefore the trial can’t be fair,” Seselj said. “In the United States I would have been freed after one year and the indictment would have been rejected,” he added.
Seselj (photo) has been charged with the persecution and murder of Muslims and Croats, crimes allegedly committed by volunteers recruited by his Serbian Radical Party (SRS) during the 1991-1995 civil war which followed the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.
Seselj has previously told the court it had no evidence against him and claimed he was being tried for verbal offences, based on his inflammatory nationalist speeches.
The trial was interrupted indefinitely last month at the request of the prosecution which claimed that the 11 witnesses had been threatened and feared for their safety.
The presiding judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said he opposed the interruption of the trial because there was a way to end it quickly, but he was outvoted by the other two judges, Frederick Harhoff and Flavia Lattanzi.
Seselj voluntarily surrendered to the tribunal on 24 February 2003. However, he has continued to run his party from his Hague jail cell.
Seselj’s trial began in 2006 but was almost immediately suspended after he went on hunger strike. The case eventually began in November 2007, after the court allowed him to defend himself.
Since it was created by the UN Security Council in 1993, the ICTY has indicted 161 individuals for crimes committed during 1991-1995 war that followed the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. Close to 60 have already been sentenced to over one thousand years in jail.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Elderly Increase, Youth Decrease
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 13 — Tunisia is growing older. The percentage of people above the age of 60 in the 1994 — 2008 period increased from 8.3 to 9.6%. Pensioners represent almost 10% of the active population. On the other hand, during the same period the percentage of people below the age of 14 dropped from 38.4 to 24%. As regards the active population, the percentage for the 15 to 59 age range is equal to 66.7% and the unemployment rate is below 14%. The female component in jobs is currently estimated at 27.4%. Figures were announced during the People’s Superior Council meeting in Tunis. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Ramadan in Summer, This Year No Day Light Savings
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 13 — Tunisia this year will not be adopting daylight savings time, announced Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, specifying that the decision is connected with the yearly recurrence of Ramadan, which this year will arrive in the Summer. Therefore, during the night which divides March 28 and 29, Tunisian clocks and watches will not be pushed forward an hour. Ghannouchi said that the publication for a decree regarding the matter is currently in course. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: First Women Motorcyclists Club in Arab World
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 13 — It is called the ‘Association des Femmes Motardes’ (Association of Women Motorcyclists), the first ever in the Arab world. The association was founded in Tunis by Hamida Saklaoui, one of the few Arab woman motorcyclists, who also participates in races in which she has already won many prizes and medals. “Magharebia” reports that Saklaoui has said that the new association, besides the financial support of its members, can count on support from the Ministry for Youth and Sport and private sponsors. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
CAIR’s War on Truth
by Steve Emerson
The FBI severs its relationship with a group due to its ties to Hamas. Though it touts itself as “America’s largest Islamic civil liberties and advocacy group,” an FBI agent has testified that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Hamas front.
A ranking member of Congress asks the Bureau for more information. He viewed the response he got back as incomplete and he pointedly asks the FBI to try again, mentioning his role on a congressional committee responsible for FBI budgets.
CAIR — frozen out by the FBI since last summer — issued a statement Thursday, accusing the congressman, Virginia Republican Frank Wolf, of having “abused his power.” His hard line, the statement says, is an act out of vengeance because CAIR has disagreed with some of Wolf’s policies and statements.
Wolf is in his 15th term and has been re-elected easily. CAIR’s disagreements with him have done little to slow his work. But the statement still tries to deflect attention from bad news for CAIR about the FBI cut-off first reported in late January by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
Evidence from the Hamas-support trial of five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) show CAIR and two of its founders were part of a Muslim Brotherhood-created support network in America. CAIR founder and current executive director Nihad Awad is listed on a telephone list of “Palestine Committee” members, along with CAIR chairman emeritus Omar Ahmad and Hamas Deputy Political Director Mousa Abu Marzook.
Other records show Awad participated in a secret 1993 meeting of Hamas members and supporters called to discuss ways to “derail” the U.S.-brokered Oslo Accords, which then offered hope for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
If CAIR wants to regain its access, the FBI has said “certain issues must be addressed to the satisfaction of the FBI.” In a letter to the FBI, Wolf sought details about those “certain issues” and asked what conditions might prompt the FBI to reverse its stance. The four-paragraph response from FBI spokesman John Miller did not address those questions, prompting a harsh rebuke.
The questions about CAIR are not plucked from thin air, but from exhibits in a terror-financing trial that ended with convictions on 108 counts. The FBI case agent called CAIR a front organization. But CAIR ignores all of this, with Awad choosing instead to attack the messenger…
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Shalit, Hamas Thinks More Time Needed for Talks
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, MARCH 16 — The differences with Israel on the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for soldier Ghilad Shalit, a prisoner of Hamas in Gaza, are still not resolved and more time is needed for negotiations, said Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Ayman Taha, today in an interview with a Saudi television network broadcast on Israeli public radio. Asked about the indirect talks with Israel in progress in Cairo with Egypt as mediator, Taha said that the biggest problem remains Israel’s refusal to release all prisoners on the list drawn up by Hamas. “We haven’t reached a turning point yet and more time is needed for negotiations” said Taha, ending hopes in Israel for a rapid and positive conclusion of negotiations. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Recognition Not on Table of Arab Talks
Backed by millions in U.S. funds, Palestinian unity missing key element
The recognition of Israel is not on the table at talks aimed at creating a unity government between Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization, according to participants taking part in the discussions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Kill for Peace: a Humane Policy?
Israel plays by rules, some encoded in its own laws or in international laws, others in long-established customs, which are part of the West’s collective consciousness. But Israel’s enemies don’t give a damn about our laws and customs.
Again and again we find that hard-won treaties or agreements mean nothing to our enemies. While Israel is word-oriented, its enemies are action-oriented. Israelis, like Americans, mirror-image and think that their enemies are like them, that they want peace, even though they have repeatedly said, “peace means the destruction of Israel.” Israelis live in a state of denial.
Even the terms used to describe the enemy—”terrorists” or “Islamic fundamentalists”—are misleading. Such terms hinder the political and military echelons from developing an appropriate strategy against the enemy. Former U.S. army intelligence officer Ralph Peters calls these terrorists “warriors.” He speaks of various types of warriors—because if we do not understand the enemy, we won’t win the war against them…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Civil Society? it is Already in the Future (and Waiting for Politics)
In Egypt bloggers have created a Human Rights Observatory. In Turkey a group of intellectuals have launched a apology petition on the internet to the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide, whcih goes against the national policies of their own country. In the Lebanon a group of 290 intellectuals signed an appeal for “peaceful civil resistance” to the war started by Hezbollah against Sunnis and Druzes. In the third millennium Muslim-Arab civil societies are moving at a speed that differs from that of the states, which act as spokespersons for a backward-looking vision of Islam resulting from post-colonial logic. Thanks to various forms of dissent, Muslim civil societies not only portray a different vision of Islam, but are also demolishing the political immobility of governments and causing profound transformations in their societies.
Those wishing to portray the Muslim-Arab world as a monolithic block in which there is no room for dissent must instead come to terms with a far more complex reality. The current series of attacks and threats against the western world, coming from “deviant elements of Islam” simply cloud the issue, making the problem even more difficult to understand. These attacks are often only superficially representative of Islam, instead nearly always have a specific political, strategic or territorial objective. Western public opinion seems unable to perceive the gap between the immobility and backwardness of government policies in some Muslim-Arab states and the extraordinary and dynamic characteristics of their respective civil societies. Often some of these countries embody a vision of Islam (or of the relationship between religion and political life) that is the result of an old and post-colonial logic that is obsolete in today’s world…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Qatar; Offshore Delivery of LNG to Dubai by 2011
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, MARCH 12 — Plans to deliver liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar to Dubai through a Royal Dutch Shell Plc offshore import terminal have been delayed for one year, it has been reported. Qatar’s oil minister said at a gas conference in Doha on Tuesday that delivery will start in 2011 as opposed to 2010, but gave no reason for the hold up, according to Bloomberg. Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Attiyah added: “We may see an LNG tanker in Dubai soon, wéll be shipping gas there during the summer months.” Dubai already imports LNG from Qatar via the Dolphin Energy Ltd pipeline that passes through Abu Dhabi, but increased demand on the back of a growth in population has led the emirate to seek additional LNG supply options. An agreement signed by Shell earlier this year will see it transport LNG from Qatar to Dubai for 15 years. The company will build a floating terminal off Dubai to receive the fule and send it to the shore through pipelines, said John Mills, vice-president for Shell gas in the Middle East in November. However, some industry experts maintain that receiving fuel at a floating platform is not reliable as poor weather and sea conditions could hamper operations. “Floating LNG plants are not a fully proven concept,” said Poten & Partners Inc.’s gas consultants Ilmars Kerbers and Graham Hartnell, at the 7th Doha Natural Gas Conference and Exhibition. Dubai needs the fuel because power demand in the U.A.E. is expected to triple to 41,000 megawatts by 2020 as the country uses its oil revenue to develop infrastructure and industries. Qatar Petroleum, the state-run energy company, aims to generate QR560bn ($154bn) in revenue through 2012 as new projects begin producing fuel, Attiyah added. Qatar plans to complete all 14 LNG production units, or trains, by the end of next year and finish by 2012 a study on its North Field, the world’s largest gas reservoir, he said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey and D-8 Secretariat Sign Headquarters Agreement
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 20 — Turkey and Developing 8 Countries (D-8) Secretariat signed “Headquarters Agreement” on Friday, as Anatolia agency reported. Selim Kuneralp, Undersecretary for Economic Affairs in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Secretary General in D-8 Dipo Alam signed the agreement. Ambassadors of Egypt, Iran, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Nigeria, the members of D-8, also attended the meeting. Speaking at the ceremony, Kuneralp said political willingness, despite geographical distance between the D-8 countries, has arisen commercial and economic cooperation among those countries. With the agreement, the Secretariat of the Developing Eight would permanently settle in Istanbul. The agreement carries legal status about the mission and activities of the Secretariat. D-8 is a group of developing countries that have formed an economic development alliance in 1997, consisting of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Independent Ballot Inspectors Needed, Experts
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 12 — An autonomous institution must be put in charge of the election process to ensure its independence from any potential government intervention, leading constitutional-law and election-law experts say, as daily ‘Referans’ reported. Erol Tuncer, the head of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, or TESAV, said despite the praise showered on the new Address-Based Electronic Census System, certain gaps in the system allowed people to tamper with it. “The mistakes in the new system were directly reflected in the voter lists,” he said. Even though he has lived in the same house for the past 21 years, Tuncer’s own name suddenly disappeared from the voter registration lists put up at the local ‘muhtar’, or headman’s offices, he said. He added: “Many thousands face the same problem but only a few lodge a complaint.” Professor Ibrahim Kaboglu from the Marmara University Faculty of Law in Istanbul said every single article of the country’s election law had been changed since it was passed in 1961. “This shows how unstable elections are in Turkey,” he said. The sudden 6-million-person increase in the number of registered voters has harmed trust in democracy, said Professor Fuat Keyman of the Koc University Department of International Relations in Istanbul, adding: “While the elections show there is democracy in Turkey, they do not necessarily mean democracy is vibrant and healthy.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: One Million Driving Licences Withdrawn in 10 Years
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 12 — Road safety continues to be one of Turkey’s most serious problems, and as the newspaper Zaman reports today, it is almost impossible to reduce the number of road accidents, even when heavy fines are issued to drivers. The newspaper reveals how figures gathered by the General Directorate for publice safety show that police have stripped one million 32 thousand dangerous drivers of their licenses after they were considered to be driving in breach of the highway code. Some 907,335 driving licenses were withdrawn from individuals found driving in a state of drunkenness; 51,153 were withdrawn for speeding offences; 28,543 were withdrawn for various other offences. The same figures reveal that between 1999 and 2008, (in a country of just over 70 million inhabitants), road accidents led to the death of 5 million 943 thousand people, whilst one million 443 thousand people were injured on the roads. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Darwin Case, Scientific World Reacts to Censorship
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 12 — The administration of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), which censored the cover-story of his own publication ‘Bilim ve Teknik’ (Science and Technique) regarding Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, was asked to resign. A group of Turkish scientists convened in capital Ankara with representatives of nongovernmental organizations and they released a statement calling on TUBITAK’s executives to resign. As daily Cumhuriyet reports today, Prof. Semih Koray, who heads the scientific organization Bilim ve Utopya Kooperatifi (Science and Utopia Cooperative), joined the ranks of the magazine’s critics, saying that censorship of Darwin in the magazine was “one of the most disgraceful acts in the history of the Republic”. Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan also directed criticism at TUBITAK for changing the March edition’s cover page. “You may like or dislike Darwin’s theory of evolution, and you may believe in it or not; this is a different thing. What has been done is wrong. The TUBITAK administration should have been more sensitive about the issue,” Toptan said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Controversy After Darwin Censured on Science Magazine
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 11 — The Republican People’s Party in Turkey (CHP, the secular, left-wing opposition) has presented a motion in Parliament against the decision of the major scientific institution in Turkey to censure an article and cover of a magazine dedicated to Charles Darwin, the British naturalist known as the father of the theory of evolution, a theory that is incompatible with the teachings of the Koran, the sacred text of Islam, which proposes creationism instead. This was emphatically reported today by the secular press, pointing out that the case of Cigdem Atakuman, director of “Science and Technology” who was fired by the magazine’s publishing house for wanting to dedicate the cover-page and a 16 page story to Darwin in the most recent issue of the magazine. Atakuman — despite denials today by State Minister Mehmet Aydin — was fired by Professor Omar Cebeci, Turkish Vice-President of Scientific Research and Technology (Tubitak), who publishes the magazine. Atakuman had decided to dedicate the cover and a story to Darwin for the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, for which UNESCO has dedicated the year 2009. According to CHP and various secular dailies ,the censuring practiced by Tubitak constitutes political meddling by the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP, Premier Tayyip Erdogan’s party) in power since 2002, which according to critics, is trying to impose Islam upon Turkish society. After years of financial and administrative autonomy, last August, Tubitak’s regulations were changed giving President of the Republic Abdullah Gul (AKP) the power to nominatethe president, Nekey Yetis, whose candidacy was rejected by the ex-president (secular) Ahmet Necdet Sezer. For Hurriyet’, the controversial decision of the Tubitak represents “a flagrant example of flattery by the government”, while for secular party ‘Vatan’, it is “a scandalous censorship that will enter into the annals of the history of science”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Number of Turkish Workers Going Abroad Drops
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 13 — The number of Turkish workers who go to foreign countries to work dropped in 2009, Anatolia agency reports. The number of workers, who were sent abroad by Turkish Employment Organization (ISKUR), dropped 66.86% in January-February, 2009 when compared with the same period of 2008. A total of 13,930 workers were sent to foreign countries in January-February 2008, while this figure decreased to 4,616 in the same period of 2009. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Only Partial Changes to Constitution, Erdogan
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 13 — The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government would make only partial constitutional amendments, not a complete change, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said today. “We will not change the constitution completely. We will make partial changes. We will make amendments on five or six issues like Political Party Law, Ombudsman Law and Election Law,” Erdogan was quoted by ANKA news agency as telling reporters. The Turkish prime minister had earlier said his government would resume talks with the opposition on drafting a new civilian constitution after the March 29 local elections. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Security Forces Seize 15.4 Tons of Heroin in 2008
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 10 — Turkish security forces seized 15 tons of heroin in 2008, a report said on Tuesday. The Counter-Smuggling and Organized Crimes Department of the Directorate General of Security released a report regarding its operations in 2008, and said that 15.4 tons of heroin was confiscated in operations, as Anatolia agency wrote. The report said that security forces impounded 39.1 tons of hashish, and 105 kilograms of cocaine in their operations in 2008. The report also said that security forces arrested more than 32,000 people in their 15,433 operations. The forces also seized 80 kilograms of morphine, 56 kilograms of opium, 8,753 liters of acidic anhydride, 681,247 synthetic pharmaceutical, 2.9 million captagon pills, 1.4 million ecstacy pills, and 163 kilograms of amphetamine. The report said that Turkey was affected by the ecstacy trafficking as a “target country”, and this illicit drug was brought to Turkey from the Netherlands and Belgium, two important ecstasy producers in the world. Also, the report indicated a rise in the number of foreigners arrested for illicit drug trafficking in 2008. The number of foreigners involved in drug trafficking was up 18.3% in 2008 over 2007. However, the number of Turkish citizens arrested abroad for drug trafficking was down 9%. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Burmese People Sacrificed on the Altar of Economic Interests, Says Indian Priest
Clergyman slams the “silence” of the international community, including India, and their tendency to dismiss human rights as an “internal affair” and do business with the dictatorship. In Myanmar today is Human Rights Day, but democracy “will be reached only on the long run.”
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — The silence of the international community with regards to the tragedy unfolding every day in Myanmar is “shameful”. Even India is interested only in “economic and commercial opportunities” and is doing nothing about “human rights”, dismissing the whole thing as “an internal matter” with the result that the military dictatorship is “enjoying all the privileges” whilst the population “continues to suffer”, this according to Father A Cyril, a Jesuit priest from Madurai, southern India, who was born in Myanmar and spent there the first ten years of his life.
The clergyman’s outcry coincides with Human Rights Day in the former Burma. For the occasion activists have launched a campaign to free Aung San Suu Kyi and the other 2,100 political prisoners held in the country’s prisons.
For Father Cyril the campaign is “good sign” and can be used to “reawaken the conscience of the international community”, but it “will not have any effect in Myanmar where the government will continue to play big brother. Anyone who puts his or her name to the signature campaign is in danger of arrest, torture and persecution.”
“In Myanmar the violation of human rights is total. The military junta does not provide a decent education and does not create job opportunities for people. There is no freedom; even religious freedom is heavily restricted. There is no freedom of movement and people are under surveillance, jailed if suspected of anti-government activities, and tortured in the most inhuman ways.”
“Real social and economic development” is an impossibility for the clergyman because the junta is not interested in “truly democratic reform.”
Father Cyril, who visited Myanmar after cyclone Nargis, spent four months in the country working in direct contact with displaced people.
The most extensive damages caused by the tropical cyclone that hit the southern part of the county on 2 May 2008 were in the area of the Irrawaddy Delta. Even now, ten months after the tragedy, the situation there remains critical.
Nargis killed about 140,000 people but affected about 2.4 million Burmese who are still waiting for assistance.
The Jesuit clergyman is upset that the military dictatorship has created “obstacles” to help and shown “unwillingness to accept foreign aid.”
“We tried to help people who lost everything in the cyclone. We tried to give them food, aid, a home, but the government prevented us. But people are still willing to fight to free themselves from an oppressive tyranny.”
The priest is concerned about the “future of the country and its liberation” because if there is democracy “the nation can grow.” Its soil is rich in mineral resources like gold and oil; its forests have precious wood; the land is fertile. But “capable and talented” people cannot express themselves because they have to “struggle to survive”, living “in terror” under the constant threat of “guns and rifles” with many killed.
“People are scared,” said Father Cyril, “but there are still some who are fighting for democracy and freedom. It is a journey that will take a long time and will be reached only on the long run. But Myanmar and its people have all it takes to emerge.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Defuses Crisis, Agrees to Restore Judge
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) — Pakistan’s government agreed on Monday to reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry as chief justice in a surprise bid to defuse a crisis and end agitation by lawyers and activists that had threatened to turn into violent confrontation.
Chaudhry’s reinstatement will cool tension but friction is likely to persist between President Asif Ali Zardari, seen as weakened by the controversy over the judge, and his emboldened rival, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
“It’s the first time in the history of Pakistan that a movement launched by the middle class has proved successful,” said retired judge Tariq Mehmud, a leader of the lawyers.
Chaudhry became a cause celebre after being dismissed in late 2007 by then-President and army chief General Pervez Musharraf, apparently because Musharraf feared the judge would challenge his strategy for holding on to power.
Sharif had thrown his support behind the anti-government lawyers’ campaign, which was bringing added turmoil to nuclear-armed Pakistan, where the government has already been struggling to stem militancy and revive a flagging economy.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced Chaudhry’s reinstatement in a televised address to the nation. Afterward, Sharif called off a “long march” protest making its way to the capital, Islamabad.
U.S. officials said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned both Zardari and Sharif on Saturday to warn that U.S. aid could be at risk unless they defused the crisis.
The officials said Clinton, who coordinated with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, had exerted strong pressure for a deal.
The crisis gripping the Muslim nation had alarmed the United States and Britain, which fear a slide into chaos would help the Taliban and al Qaeda become stronger in Pakistan.
The United States welcomed Chaudhry’s reinstatement.
“This is a statesmanlike decision taken to defuse a serious confrontation, and the apparent removal of this long-standing national issue is a substantial step toward national reconciliation,” the U.S. embassy said.
The main stock index, which has been hurt by political worry, ended 5.4 percent higher. It had fallen 1.9 percent this year after a 58.3 percent slide last year.
Some analysts saw Chaudhry’s comeback further complicating the situation in Pakistan.
“Nobody knows what his allegiance is, in terms of Pakistan’s constitution,” said Brian Cloughley, a British defense analyst familiar with Pakistan.”
Zardari, elected by parliament six months ago, had feared Chaudhry could wage a vendetta against Musharraf, which could threaten Zardari’s own position.
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Talking to Taliban is Pointless and an Act of Surrender
First of all, the Taliban is a heterogeneous group of radical Muslims. Each group has got its own warlord, and rules a state within a state. But all of them want to impose the Shari’a law, a stone-age law, which is anti-women, against modernity, and anti-non-Muslims.
The Taliban finances its local “empires” and weapons through drugs, force Afghans to pay Zakat (a kind of taxes), and blackmail development projects through “protection money”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Freedom to Criticize Religion is Being Sacrificed on the Altar of Religious Sensitivity
The Independent 28.02.2009 (UK)
According to British columnist Johann Hari, the freedom to criticize religion is being sacrificed on the altar of religious sensitivity. Case in point: The UN’s Rapporteur on Human Rights, a Pakistani, recently requested her job description be changed so she can condemn “abuses of free expression” including “defamation of religions and prophets”. Instead of condemning the people who wanted to murder Salman Rushdie,” writes Hari, “they will be condemning Salman Rushdie himself. “After Hari’s article was reprinted in the Indian Statesman, Muslims demonstrated in front of the newspaper’s Calcutta office and the editor and publisher were arrested on charges of “hurting the religious feelings” of Muslims. Among the statements deemed offensive was Hari’s comment, “I don’t respect the idea that we should follow a ‘Prophet’ who at the age of 53 had sex with a nine-year old girl, and ordered the murder of whole villages of Jews because they wouldn’t follow him.” Statesman editor Ravindra Kumar has issued an apology for publishing Hari’s article, but Hari himself is unrepentent. On 13 February, Hari wrote a follow-up column headed, “I Stand by What I Wrote.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australia Slashes Immigration as Recession Looms
Australia will cut its intake of migrants for the first time in a decade, the government said today, amid concern that skilled foreign workers could stoke resentment by taking jobs at a time of rising unemployment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Seize 4 UN Workers in Somalia
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Gunmen seized four U.N. workers in southern Somalia on Monday, a U.N. spokeswoman said, the latest in a series of attacks on aid workers in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
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A witness said a Somali translator was later released.
The witness said the three had only been in Wajid for one night and were on their way to the town’s airstrip when they were seized. The witness asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation by the kidnappers.
According to the U.N., a total of 35 aid workers were killed in Somalia in 2008 and 26 were abducted. Two aid workers have been killed this year already…
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Madagascar’s President Vows to Fight on -Spokesman
ANTANANARIVO, March 17 (Reuters) — Madagascar’s President Marc Ravalomanana will fight to the end and has discussed military support with both the United Nations and South African states, his spokesman said on Monday.
“The president plans to stay in Madagascar. He said this to the presidential guard, who told him he should be placed elsewhere, and he replied ‘I will die with you if I have to’. That’s his stand,” said Andry Ralijaona, spokesman for the president’s office.
“The president’s powers are now limited, obviously. This is becoming a military coup. He still has the power to call on external help and a network through which to call on the people,” Ralijaona told Reuters.
He outlined a series of options for Ravalomanana following the seizure on Monday of a presidential palace and the central bank by soldiers backing opposition leader Andry Rajoelina.
“The fourth option is we call for the support of the international community, from SADC (South African Development Community) and/or the U.N. This would be military and administrative support,” he said.
“This option has been discussed with both SADC and the UN.”
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Terrorists Among US
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPage Interview’s guest today is Ben R. Furman, the FBI’s Former Counterterrorism Chief. He writes a blog at blackhawkpress.com/blog, and he is the author of The Devil’s Darning Needle, a counterterrorism thriller.
FP: Ben R. Furman, welcome to Frontpage interview.
I would like to talk to you today about the infiltration of terrorists across U.S. northern and southern borders, and the groups here that support it via facilitating illegal alien immigration.
What is the state of this problem as we speak?
Furman: No one knows how many terrorists are currently in the United States, but that they are here is not debatable, and the tally goes up each day. It’s natural to be swept away by the frightening battle occurring along our southern border, and it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the flood of illegal aliens crossing over that are eluding capture, but there’s a similar problem on our northern border that can’t be overlooked and it is equally as serious.
Terrorist infiltration is a deadly ongoing problem that our counterterrorism and law enforcement agencies face, both externally and internally, and in many respects the internal obstacles are the most troubling. Rooting out terrorists is a difficult job under the best of circumstances, but it’s made more difficult by the “open border” crowd that labels the agencies or anyone trying to control illegal immigration as racists, xenophobes and bigots. And the current mantra of political correctness has darn near beaten common sense police work to death.
FP: Can you give us some examples.
Furman: Sure…
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Stem Cells: Pannella, Sacconi ‘Socialist Like Putin’
(AGI) — Rome, 4 Mar. — “I don’t trust that socialist, I don’t like him”, referring to the steps taken against the clinic ‘La Quiete’ regarding the case ‘Eluana’ and today he even called him a “socialist like Putin who, and I don’t want to offend the Russians, intervenes with unethical measures without checking who has taking the initiative for the tender: it’s really strange that the most dull-witted and unreasonable points come from the socialist member of the government” said the leader of the Radical Party, Marco Pannella, criticising Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi for granting 8 million euros for research on stem cells but banning research on embryos. He made his remarks in a press conference in the presence of geneticist Giulio Cossu, director of the Institute for stem cell research of the San Raffaele hospital in Milan and Elena Cattaneo, director of a research centre on stem cells and embryos of the University of Milan who called the tender “discriminating”. Also present were MPs Donatella Portetti and Maria Antonietta Coscioni who said they will ask questions in parliament and member of the European Parliament Marco Cappato who announced “legal steps of single laboratories against the tender”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Praising Obsession’ Creates Generation of Egotistical Pupils
Teachers “obsessed with praising” are creating a generation of egotistical pupils, a child psychologist has warned.
School staff and parents feel they cannot criticise their children for fear of upsetting them, according to Dr Carol Craig, leaving them with an “all about me” mentality.
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But Dr Craig, chief executive of the centre for confidence and wellbeing in Glasgow, said: “We are wrong in thinking we have to get the ‘I’ bigger. If we say to people the most important thing is how you feel about yourself, then if a child fails maths and feels bad, it is very tempting for them to blame it on others like teachers and parents.
“Parents no longer want to hear if their children have done anything wrong. This is the downside of the self-esteem agenda. The problem is that if you tell parents that its incredibly important that children feel good all the time, we will get people going out of the way to boost children’s self esteem all the time.”
She said an obsession with children’s self esteem was breeding narcissism.
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The conference heard how a maths teacher in one school had corrected a pupil who had placed a zero in the wrong place. The pupil replied: “Thank you, but I prefer it my way.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hurgronje on Reforming Islam
by Andrew Bostom
“…most Muslims are absolutely ignorant of the details of the doctrine of jihad. But so long as not one single Muslim teacher of consideration dreams of regarding these laws of the middle ages as abrogated, while a great proportion of the people exhibit the strongest inclination to restore the conditions which prevailed some centuries ago, so long does it remain impossible, however anxious we may be to do so, to omit the jihad from our calculations when forming a judgment on the relation of Islam to other religions.” (from C. Snouck Hurgronje’s “The Achehnese,” 1906, Vol. 2, p. 348)
Christaan Snouck Hurgronje was born Feb. 8, 1857, Oosterhout, Netherlands, and died June 26, 1936, in Leiden
A professor and Dutch colonial official, Snouck Hurgronje was also a pioneering and prolific Western scholar of Islam.
He visited Arabia (1884—85), including a stop at Mecca, while serving as a lecturer at the University of Leiden (1880—89). Hurgronje’s 2 vol. classic work “Mekka” (1888—89), describes the history of the city, and expounds upon Islam’s origins, and the traditions and rituals of the earliest Islamic communities. Translated into English as “Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century” (1931), the second volume includes many details of daily life in an Islamic culture, and also discusses the Indonesian Muslim colony at Mecca.
From 1890 to 1906 Snouck Hurgronje was professor of Arabic at Batavia, Java. He also served as an advisor to the Dutch Colonial Government for Arabian Affairs, and in 1891 he was sent for a year to Sumatra to study the Acheh uprising—the subject of “De Atjèhers”, 2 vol. (1893—94; published in English translation in 1906 as “The Achehnese”), his ethnographic account of the people of northern Sumatra, a standard reference work.
Snouck Hurgronje remained a colonial adviser until 1933, but returned in 1906 to The Netherlands, where he was professor of Arabic and Islamic institutions at the University of Leiden until his death, in 1936. An explorer, scholar, politician, and jurist, Hurgronje wrote extensively on a range of Islamic topics, and also served as a visiting professor in Egypt (1911), and the United States (1914).
Although deeply respectful of Islamic religious life, as an authoritative scholar of Islamic doctrine and history, and Dutch colonial official, Hurgronje vigorously opposed Islamic jihadism.
Here are Hurgronje’s sobering views on the prospects for fundamental reforms of Islam itself from “The Achehnese,” (i.e., the English translation version published in 1906, Vol. 2 p. 340)…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Nobody Listens to the Real Climate Change Experts
The minds of world leaders are firmly shut to anything but the fantasies of the scaremongers, says Christopher Booker.
Considering how the fear of global warming is inspiring the world’s politicians to put forward the most costly and economically damaging package of measures ever imposed on mankind, it is obviously important that we can trust the basis on which all this is being proposed. Last week two international conferences addressed this issue and the contrast between them could not have been starker.
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What a striking contrast this was to the second conference, which I attended with 700 others in New York, organised by the Heartland Institute under the title Global Warming: Was It Ever Really A Crisis?. In Britain this received no coverage at all, apart from a sneering mention by The Guardian, although it was addressed by dozens of expert scientists, not a few of world rank, who for professional standing put those in Copenhagen in the shade.
Led off with stirring speeches from the Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the acting head of the European Union, and Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, perhaps the most distinguished climatologist in the world, the message of this gathering was that the scare over global warming has been deliberately stoked up for political reasons and has long since parted company with proper scientific evidence.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Study Could Realign Climate Change Theory
The bitter cold and record snowfalls from two wicked winters are causing people to ask if the global climate is truly changing.
The climate is known to be variable and, in recent years, more scientific thought and research has been focused on the global temperature and how humanity might be influencing it.
However, a new study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could turn the climate change world upside down.
Scientists at the university used a math application known as synchronized chaos and applied it to climate data taken over the past 100 years.
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Scientists said that the air and ocean systems of the earth are now showing signs of synchronizing with each other.
Eventually, the systems begin to couple and the synchronous state is destroyed, leading to a climate shift.
“In climate, when this happens, the climate state changes..
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The Clear and Cohesive Message of the International Conference on Climate Change
“There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.” — from the Oregon Petition, signed by over 31,000 scientists
United by that conviction, over 800 scientists, economists, and policy makers arrived in New York City last Sunday to attend the Heartland Institute’s 2nd Annual International Conference on Climate Change. They came to talk a wide range of subjects, from climatology to energy policy, from computer climate models to cap-and-trade, from greenhouse gas (GHG) effects to solar irradiation. But most of all they came to help spread the word that the answer to the question posed by this year’s theme — Global warming: Was it ever really a crisis? — is a resounding NO.
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