The screws are being turned on Israel in anticipation of Bibi. Hillary has promised $900 million to rebuild Gaza — and, mind you, we’re going to make sure that none of it gets into the wrong hands. Yup. Right.Not only that, both the British Foreign Secretary and the Obama administration are pressing the Israelis to give up all settlements in the territories, and Milliband even insists on a two-state solution which confines Israel within its pre-1967 borders.
Thanks to Aeneas, C. Cantoni, CIS, ESW, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Mr P, TB, Tuan Jim, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Asean: Global Crisis a ‘Hurdle’ to Economic Integration
Bangkok, 27 Feb.(AKI/Jakarta Post) — The global financial crisis is poised to become a major hurdle for Southeast Asian nations and their ambitious plans for regional economic integration.
Several members of ASEAN have already undermined the common market spirit with calls to buy local products and bans on hiring foreign workers amid the global economic slowdown.
The economic crisis was expected to dominate the latest ASEAN summit of ten regional member states. The summit began in the beach resort town of Hua Hin in Thailand on Friday.
Indonesian industry minister Fahmi Idris recently called on civil servants to buy local products because of shrinking export demand.
The move came after trade minister Mari Elka Pangestu introduced import restrictions on 500 products last December, a move intended to crack down on illegal products.
The Malaysian government banned the hiring of foreign workers in factories, stores and restaurants in December, and this has had a big impact on 100,000 Indonesian migrant workers because they work mainly in the manufacturing industry. Kuala Lumpur has also ordered companies to lay off foreign employees first if they need to slash their workforce.
Although ASEAN leaders reiterated a commitment to a fully integrated free market by 2015 at a meeting of economic ministers in Thailand this week, the recent protectionist measures send signals that countries may refrain from action while economic uncertainty continues.
ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said the integrated market plan would be harmed by the “protective” measures, saying they were only short-term mechanisms adopted to cope with the economic downturn.
“Short-term measures are necessary to cope with short-term shocks. But in the end we have to open up and aim for full integration to come online with the global economic system,” he said recently.
He said members were aware any short-term reaction would not solve their problems.
“In the final analysis, we have to export again. You have to compete again because you cannot seal off your economy when others are moving forward.”
Mari said recently ASEAN member states were still meeting targets for the integrated community, although each country was also under pressure to tackle its own domestic economic woes.
Among the targets adopted in 2007, countries must eliminate tariffs and other barriers in 12 priority sectors, including agricultural, rubber and wood-based products, automotive, electronics and textiles by 2010.
“We might have missed some deadlines but in general we are moving ahead with ASEAN economic integration,” she said.
The biggest victim of protectionism may be tiny but prosperous Singapore, a country with only 4.6 million people that relies on foreign trade for the lion’s share of its economic survival.
Singapore slipped into recession last year as its economy growth shrank to 1.2 percent from 7.7 percent in 2007.
“Singapore cannot call on people to buy local products because we import almost everything and our economy depends on foreign trade. We also cannot ban foreign workers because it would make Singapore as an international hub less competitive for foreign investors, who might prefer to have far broader choices in human resources,” said Alain Khaiat , a member of Singapore’s delegation to the ASEAN cosmetic committee, a forum under ASEAN cooperation.
Almost all 10 ASEAN members can rely on their own domestic markets at a time when foreign demand is slowing.
Thailand, which is predicted to have zero growth this year, has been trying to raise people’s purchasing power through cash initiatives to the needy.
Indonesia is expected to survive the turmoil better than other members because the country of some 230 million has a vast domestic market. Domestic consumption represents 65 percent of its gross domestic product growth.
Berly Martawardaya, an economic analyst at the University of Indonesia, said countries around the world would be more cautious about free trade and investment amid the global downturn.
However he said it should not put prolonged pressure on the integrated market plan because that would reduce the region’s competitiveness on a global scale.
“The crisis may last one to two years and the benefit of protectionist measures should not overwhelm the bigger advantage of a more integrated and open-market system,” he said.
In a recent report, the International Labour Organization warned that the economic downturn would increase the number of jobless in Asia by 7.2 million in 2009, lifting the region’s unemployment to 5.1 per cent from 4.8 per cent last year.
Thailand, the host of the ASEAN summit, has been hit particularly badly by the slowdown and was expected to post figures on Friday showing a sharp fall in overseas trade.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Local Steel Producers Urge Gov’t for Import Duties
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, Feb 20 — Local steel producers are urging the Egyptian government to impose duties on imported steel from abroad, especially Turkey. Local producers say that many foreign steel producers have large backlogs of steel rebars reserves and the outbreak of the global crisis forced them to sell cheap in overseas markets. Egypt’s state-run Iron and Steel Company urged the government to impose more tariffs on imports of steel to protect local manufacturers, especially state-owned steel factories. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Crisis Takes Toll on Suez Canal Revenues
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 18 — Suez Canal revenues fell 20% to $332.4 million in January, compared to $414.2 million in the same month last year. Revenues were also down from $391.8 million in December. The number of vessels using the waterway was 1,313 in January, down from 1,690 in January 2008 and from 1,560 in December, based on state figures, reportedly a five-year low. The government said last Tuesday growth of Suez Canal revenues fell sharply to 1.4% in the second quarter of the current 2008/09 fiscal year from 22% in the same period a year earlier. Egypt’s economy grew at an annual 4.1% rate in the second quarter of the 2008/09 fiscal year, compared to 7.7% in the same period a year earlier. The Suez Canal Authority said in early January it would leave unchanged its transit tolls for 2009 despite its expectations that the global financial crisis will reduce traffic. The waterway earned a record $5.4 billion in 2008, up 16.7% from 2007. On average each year the authority hikes tolls by 3%. However, last April rates were doubled to 7%. The economic slowdown has also pushed shipping rates down to around $18,000 a day from $163,000 before the crisis. The revenue in December was 6.7% down compared with the previous month.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Renewing the ‘Old Deal’?
Let’s examine the words, for instance of Henry Morgenthau, one of Roosevelt’s closest friends and confidantes. In 1939, he was serving as FDR’s treasury secretary — and he was growing weary of what he acknowledged were the failures of the administration’s efforts to spend their way out of the Depression.
[…]
“We have tried spending money,” Morgenthau testified before his fellow Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee. “We are spending more than we have ever spent before, and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong … somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. … I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. … And an enormous debt to boot!”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Minority Groups to Get Extra Government Help to Protect Them From the Recession
Ethnic minorities could receive extra help during the recession following Government fears they will be hardest hit as the economy deteriorates. Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell announced a controversial drive to ensure ethnic minority workers are not ‘left behind’. He warned that employment levels amongst ethnic minorities fell by ten percentage points in the 1990s recession, more than other groups. Mr Purnell, announcing the initiative in a speech to Labour’s Black Asian and Minority Ethnic annual general meeting in Leicester, said it was vital to ensure the mistakes of previous recessions were not repeated. ‘In the past too many were left behind in bad times. Ethnic minority workers suffered most in the Tory recessions,’ he said. ‘Employment levels amongst ethnic minority workers fell by 10 percentage points in the 1990s recession — much worse than rest of the country. ‘Just think of the waste of human potential. Whole communities were abandoned, families where no one then worked for generations.’
But the Government’s focus on minorities drew criticism from Conservative MPs, who warned it risked entrenching division. Shipley MP Philip Davies said: ‘This is simply outrageous. The Government should be targeting support at all who need it. ‘The Government should be colour blind when it comes to looking who needs help. Doing otherwise will only entrench racism, as far as I’m concerned. ‘The Government should be looking now to help the groups that have already been hit, like savers. ‘This is the sort of thing that gives politics a bad name — ministers talking to different groups and telling them what they want to hear. It drives me to distraction.’ A spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group said: ‘At a time when so many people are feeling the pinch, the Government should be allocating help on the basis of need. ‘Lots of people are suffering hard times in the recession. The last thing they need is for the Government to play politics with different ethnic minority and gender groups. ‘Instead, it should concentrate on an honest effort to help us all through the recession.’
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will assess the impact of unemployment on ethnic minorities, women, the disabled and older workers and advise ministers on steps to take. Business groups have warned that women may bear the brunt of the economic downturn, since they are more likely to be employed part-time or on temporary contracts and may be first in line when jobs are cut. Mr Purnell said in previous downturns, unemployment amongst older workers had also been deeper and more prolonged and said the talents of a generation of disabled people had been “squandered”. ‘Over half a million people were pushed onto incapacity benefit and forgotten about,’ he said. ‘But, as much as the Tories might have wanted them too they didn’t just disappear. We still bear the scars of those decisions in so many communities and households today. ‘In this recession evidence so far is that its effects, however painful, are being spread across the population more evenly. But we will not take any chances.’
Mr Purnell said EHRC chairman Trevor Phillips had agreed to work with the Government to assess whether any groups were suffering disproportionately in the recession. ‘When we identify particular problems, we will know we need to adapt our policies to make sure that no one is left behind this time,’ he said.
A spokesman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: ‘This recession has had a terrible impact for hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their job or are under threat — men and women, the old and young, white, black or Asian, students struggling to find a job, disabled people.
‘We want to understand the patterns that are already starting to emerge.
‘Are women more at risk than men? Are older workers more at risk than younger? Are disabled people more at risk than others? Are people in poorer parts of Britain more at risk than the wealthy? And, if they are, why and what can we do about it?
‘By developing a clear understanding of what is happening on the ground we can make a difference this time round.’
But shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May said: ‘This is typical of Labour’s dithering response to the recession.
‘All James Purnell is promising is quarterly reviews and more reports. The recession is hitting all groups and all parts of the country.
‘The heart of the problem is still about getting credit flowing through to businesses to help them stay afloat and keep people in jobs.
‘That’s why they should adopt our £50 billion loan guarantee scheme and relax the rules to allow people on jobseekers allowance to take training courses immediately.”
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Communists: Obama ‘Best Opportunity in Decades’
Crowds plot next steps in ‘expansion’ of U.S. president’s victory
President Obama’s leadership is “one of the best opportunities that Americans have had in decades,” declared a civil rights activist addressing an overflow crowd at a gathering sponsored by the official newspaper of the Community Party USA.
The Peoples Weekly World last weekend held its 35th Annual African American History Month celebrations in Connecticut, drawing large crowds in both Hartford and New Haven, including high school students who participated in an arts competition with the theme “Dear President Obama, My dream is … .”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Leftists Worship at Altar of Death Cult, Says Book
‘United in Hate’ author explains alliance between jihadists, self-hating Americans
In “United in Hate: The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror,” author Jamie Glazov says there’s an unholy alliance between jihadists and people like Michael Moore, Sean Penn, Ted Turner and Noam Chomsky, and, at the heart of the mutual admiration is a willingness to accept massive numbers of deaths to achieve their objectives.
What’s bound to be most infuriating to those Americans and many other westerners mentioned in the book is the way Glazov uses their own words to make the point.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Eligibility Tops AOL News
Internet reports mock ‘Birthers’ who want constitutional proof
Internet giant America Online headlined its daily news coverage today with a story and polls covering the “Birthers,” a group of people it describes as “fringe conservatives convinced that Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because of supposed questions surrounding his birth status.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama + Congress = Economic Chaos
Ronald Reagan was right, “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
The political and financial math is easy to calculate. It doesn’t take an MBA or a rocket scientist to figure it out — just an honest assessment of Washington’s present landscape. Here’s how the equation pans out:
America’s political love affair with President Obama + The Democratic majority’s coercions in Congress = Trillions of dollars in new debt for Americans (or more economic chaos)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rule by Fear or Rule by Law?
Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of “an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs..”
Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.
According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of “all removable aliens” and “potential terrorists.”
Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complained about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not go to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind of “new programs” require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
This Prayer Approved by the White House?
On the other hand, sign me up as an opponent of any prayer that is vetted by any government official or agency. For reasons having less to do with the Constitution and more to do with the nature of prayer, I cannot imagine that a Christian minister could in good conscience allow the government to edit or approve a prayer.
Gilgoff’s report contains some shocking details:
During Obama’s recent visit to Fort Myers, Fla., to promote his economic stimulus plan, a black Baptist preacher delivered a prayer that carefully avoided mentioning Jesus, lest he offend anyone in the audience. And at Obama’s appearance last week near Phoenix to unveil his mortgage bailout plan, an administrator for the Tohono O’odham Nation delivered the prayer, taking the unusual step of writing it down so he could E-mail it to the White House for vetting. American Indian prayers are typically improvised.
Though invocations have long been commonplace at presidential inaugurations and certain events like graduations or religious services at which presidents are guests, the practice of commissioning and vetting prayers for presidential rallies is unprecedented in modern history, according to religion and politics experts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What is Terrorist Travel?
Latest Installment in Video Series
WASHINGTON (March 2, 2009) — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s refusal to even use the word “terrorism” in remarks prepared for a congressional hearing last week underlines the fact that she has yet to commit to upholding the laws that derive from the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations on border security.
To highlight the importance of these measures, Janice Kephart has prepared the latest installment in her “Border Basics” educational video series, this one entitled “What Is Terrorist Travel?” Kephart, the Director of National Security Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies and former counsel to the 9/11 Commission, concludes that securing against terrorist travel is essential to eliminate the fraud that enables people to enter, stay, and work in this country for illegal purposes.
Among the laws based on 9/11 Commission recommendations which Napolitano is now responsible for are:
| — Hat tip: CIS | [Return to headlines] |
Canada: Editorial: Take Off the Veil
Another controversy has erupted over the question of when Muslim women should be required to unveil themselves for public purposes — and once again we see the painful, inexorable problems that this retrograde social convention presents in a civilization where these women are expected to live a formally independent existence.
The plain fact is that burqas and niqabs can only be considered normal in places such as Saudi Arabia, where women are subservient to men, and so there is never any need for females to exercise an independent human identity. All the elaborate bizarro-feminist defences of veiling, the claims we sometimes hear that they are actually a way of cherishing and elevating femininity, crumble to dust in the face of this simple fact.
Unfortunately, multicultural societies — such as Canada proudly professes itself to be — must have tolerance for some social conventions that most of us deem offensive. Should this category include the veil? That depends how the veil is categorized.
If the veil is merely an accoutrement of certain cultures, we have every right to expect our authorities to declare that we are not one of those cultures, and we can oblige its removal at certain times — at an electoral poll, in a driver’s-licence photo, in a courtroom and in other contexts where the wearing of a mask would be regarded as unacceptable.
On the other hand, if wearing the veil is regarded as an iron-clad obligation imposed by Islam (a premise that Tarek Fatah convincingly refutes), then its female adherents can make a theoretical claim to be exercising the freedom of religion that liberal democracies guard so fiercely. But that is a premise most moderate Muslims are rightly wary of supporting, because the implication would be that Islam’s core view of women is fundamentally dehumanizing, and therefore entirely incompatible with life in the West — in which case every instance of veil-wearing should be regarded as suspect.
Herein lies the irony: Those who seek to require the abandonment of the veil in certain urgent contexts are actually the tolerant ones — even though they are often cast as bigots by Islamists. That is to say, they are defending the right of Muslim women to live as Muslims within our culture, and, by extension, their right to wear the veil except in certain fleeting instances. It is a position that recognizes that a Western way of life and certain misogynistic (as we regard them) social customs can co-exist.
Various prominent Canadian Muslim women have recognized this corollary, which is why they are backing Ontario Justice Norris Weisman’s recent decision to require the key witness in a Toronto sexual-assault case to testify uncovered.
Judge Weisman was able to establish that the woman’s objections to doing so were not a matter of being afraid; such fear is an accepted part of sexual-assault trials, and can be accommodated without violating the accused’s essential right to be confronted with the witnesses against him. Instead, the witness stood on her Muslim “honour,” arguing that as a general rule she should not have to show her face to men eligible for marriage. Judge Weisman rightly dealt with this as a motive with no proper claim to recognition in a Canadian court of law.
The woman’s lawyer, David Butt, intends to appeal that decision. He must do his best for his individual client, but it will be a disaster if he can find an appeal court willing to uphold the dangerous and untenable proposition that religious freedom requires us to alter evidentiary standards for witnesses of Muslim faith.
Since the issue of “reasonable accommodation” flared up two years ago in Quebec, a great deal of energy has been expended in the discussion over what degree of special treatment for minorities is “reasonable” in a liberal democracy. In this regard, people of good faith can argue about what kind of ethnic headgear should be permitted on a soccer field or motorcycle. But the buck must stop when others’ basic rights — such as the right to a fair trial — are at stake. Equality before the criminal law is the one precinct where any hint of “un-reasonability” is most likely to alienate the majority, with fatal consequences for both social peace and the reputation of Islam within our society.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Canada: Woman’s Right to Testify in Veil a Religious Freedom?
TORONTO — The Ontario Human Rights Commission is arguing that a provincial court judge failed to recognize the religious freedoms of a Muslim woman when he ordered her to testify at a sexual assault trial without a veil known as a niqab.
The government agency is asking for special permission to be allowed to intervene at a Superior Court proceeding hearing an appeal of the lower court decision because of its 45 years of “expertise” in the area of human rights.
“The commission can offer the court assistance and expertise in the area of accommodation particularly in relation to discrimination based on creed or religious belief,” states an affidavit by Barbara Hall, chief commissioner of the human rights body.
The Superior Court hearing is scheduled to begin this morning in Toronto.
The hearing stems from a ruling last fall by provincial court Justice Norris Weisman.
He ruled that the woman must remove the veil that covers everything but her eyes while testifying at the preliminary hearing of two men accused of sexually assaulting her.
Lawyers representing the two men argued they should be permitted to see the demeanour of the woman while she testified, as part of their right to a fair trial. The defence suggested that demeanour would help determine the credibility of the woman.
The prosecution responded that the woman ought to be permitted to wear an article of “religious dress” if that was her preference.
While he observed that it was an “admittedly difficult decision,” Judge Weisman noted that the witness had a photo taken for her driver’s licence without a niqab. The photo was taken by a female employee, but “numerous males in modern society” might see the non-veiled picture.
“I find that the complainant’s religious belief is not that strong,” concluded Judge Weisman, who ruled that the woman should have to testify without her niqab.
The woman appealed the ruling to the Superior Court and last week
the Human Rights Commission filed documents seeking to be allowed to participate in the hearing.
“The court had a duty to accommodate her religious beliefs and failed, procedurally and substantively to do so,” the commission argues. Ordering the removal of the niqab was a “drastic measure” that was not necessary to balance the rights of the defendants, the human rights agency suggests.
The Superior Court hearing this morning before Justice Frank Marrocco will only determine whether the woman may wear the niqab at the sexual assault trial of the two accused, although it could be used as a precedent in other cases.
It is unusual for an outside party such as a government agency to be permitted to intervene in a criminal trial.
The commission says it can assist the court in interpreting the Ontario Human Rights Code and help explain issues of human rights.
“The commission’s intention, if it were allowed to intervene, would be to articulate the current state of the law in respect of the duty to accommodate religious beliefs and practices and to explain how Mr. Justice Weisman’s ruling is inconsistent with the current state of the law,” the government agency argues.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Canada: Campuses Awash in Tension Over Israel Apartheid Week
As hostilities in Gaza cooled off last month, campuses across Canada were actually heating up in preparation for “Israel Apartheid Week.”
On a dour Sunday afternoon at Toronto’s Ryerson University, left-leaning teachers and students hosted a conference called “Gaza: War? Occupation? Apartheid?”
The sparsely attended gathering held on Feb. 1 was low-key and not too fraught. The only tense moment was when a student awkwardly presented himself at the registration table, disdain flickering in his eyes. He did not take issue with a cartoon that portrayed a Gazan toddler with a teddy bear about to be blown to bits by an Israeli missile — an image that would later that month be banned from other campuses. Instead, he identified himself as a South African Jew and told the pro-Palestinians that he thought the apartheid comparison to Israel was inaccurate.
The two sides exchanged lukewarm arguments; they saw no future in further discussion, and the Jewish
student walked away. Elsewhere, though, the lead-up to Israel Apartheid Week
has been more tense, especially at Toronto’s York University.
At York, two police forces are investigating possible hate crimes.
As anyone familiar with a bachelor’s degree from the past 40 years can attest, Israel’s behaviour has been an inexhaustible hobby horse for activists. But the combined freight of the Gaza conflict and the emergence of Israel Apartheid Week has put unusual strain on free speech on campuses in the past month.
“It’s easier to make noise about something where no one has to come up with any solutions,” said Jeff Rybak, author of What’s Wrong with University. “You can just be angry.”
While Mr. Rybak said Canadian students are nowhere near as militant as the Greeks, for example, he frets over the opportunity costs of such distant, insoluble fixations. “It frustrates me when time is spent on this issue that can’t be solved, when they could be addressing issues where they have real power.”
An event that began four years ago in Toronto, IAW, as it is also called, kicked off on 40 campuses across the globe yesterday.
Though much of the rhetoric is familiar, the tactics used to attract attention to Israel’s alleged atrocities in Gaza has taken a turn for the shrill and, sometimes, threatening.
In early January at the University of Manitoba, the school’s Muslim Students’ Association put up a series of posters near a campus bookshop that drew irate complaints. One of them depicted a Jewish fighter plane targeting a baby stroller. Another featured a caricature of a hooked-nosed Hasidic Jew with a star of David, pointing a bazooka at the nose of an Arab carrying a slingshot; a third one showed an Israeli helicopter with a swastika on top, dropping a bomb on a baby bottle.
The school forced their removal the same day.
With outcries from pro-Palestinian groups and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the University of Ottawa has banned the poster that depicted the doomed Gazan boy with the teddy bear, as did its competitor across town, Carleton University….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: the Ghost of Haider Dominates Vote in Austria
Austrian right-wing populist Jörg Haider may have died last October, but his presence was impossible to ignore in a regional election in the Austrian state of Carinthia on Sunday. His party did better than ever before.
It was one of those rare, touching moments in politics. On Sunday night in the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt, Claudia Haider popped up on stage during Gerhard Dörfler’s election victory celebration. The widow was carrying a small gift for the newly re-elected governor of Carinthia, wrapped carefully in white paper. Dörfler turned away from the cameras to unwrap his present discreetly before holding it out for all to see: A silver framed photograph of Dörfler together with Claudia Haider’s recently deceased husband.
Jörg Haider’s presence was everywhere in Carinthia on Sunday. Prior to Haider’s death last October — after he crashed his car driving under the influence of alcohol at twice the legal speed limit — the right-wing politician was one of Austria’s most popular politicians. This weekend, his party, the Alliance for Austria’s Future (BZÖ), proved that it could survive without its charismatic leader. In state elections, Dörfler and his party received 45.5 percent of the vote, more than the BZÖ had ever received when Haider was still alive.
“I am surprised by the result,” said his widow Claudia. “I didn’t know that gratitude was a category in politics.”
The BZÖ, for its part, made it clear on election night that it saw the vote as a tribute to the party’s founder. There is a picture of Haider in a prominent place in the foyer of the state capital building in downtown Klagenfurt — framed in gold this time. Throughout the evening, party functionaries stood near the photo when the television cameras pointed their direction. He was a constant presence in the party’s campaign, and the BZÖ Web site has a prominent link to what they call “Jörg Haider TV,” a collection of videos featuring the beloved politician.
The strategy seems to have succeeded beyond all expectations. Even as opinion polls predicted a tight race between the BZÖ and the center-left Social Democrats (SPÖ), the SPÖ ended up with just 28.8 percent, well behind their right-wing rivals. Instead of returning to its pre-Haider dominance in Carinthia, the SPÖ ended up losing to Haider’s ghost.
“We really didn’t expect such a result,” said Reinhart Rohr, the SPÖ’s lead candidate in the campaign, complaining that the vote had been marked by “irrationalities.” “Apparently the Haider Factor played an important role.”
Haider burst onto the political scene in the early 1980s. His was a fresh, and loud, new voice within the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), a far-right grouping that fit well as a backdrop to Haider’s populist attacks on the country’s political establishment, represented by the SPÖ and the center-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). Haider’s occasional slip-ups — praising Nazi labor policies at one point in the early 1990s, for example — merely fuelled his reputation as a politician not afraid to attack the status quo.
His constant, often xenophobic, attacks on immigration and his vocal opposition to accelerating European Union integration earned him support from Austria’s largely EU-critical population. Indeed, for a time in the 1990s, Haider’s influence on the populist right extended far outside the borders of Austria.
Under Haider, the FPÖ rose to become a force in Austrian national politics, becoming part of the national governing coalition in 2000. But in 2005, he left the party to create one of his own. The BZÖ’s rise quickly proved that it was Haider himself that the voters wanted. On Sunday, the FPÖ, which won 42.4 percent of the vote in the state’s last elections in 2004, couldn’t even top the 5 percent hurdle required for representation in state parliament.
Whether the BZÖ will now be able to ride its popularity in Carinthia to nation-wide influence remains to be seen. Last September, just weeks before Haider died, the party received a surprisingly strong 11 percent of the vote in nationwide general elections.
The next time voters go to the polls, though, the BZÖ will likely be unable to rely on the posthumous charisma of the party’s founder. Dörfler, who likes to chop wood in his spare time, is now faced with the task of further solidifying his party’s hold on Carinthian politics while the beaming young followers that Haider surrounded himself with will look to extend the party’s influence.
But the Haider myth began to dissipate already on Sunday evening — at the Wienerroither restaurant in Klagenfurt. The joint was packed with BZÖ supporters, many of them young and dressed up in Austrian folk costume. Party head Uwe Scheuch took the floor. “We have become even stronger in the post-Jörg Haider era,” he yelled to the crowd. He then dedicated the “historic victory” to the party’s founder. And said it was time to “move on.”
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: City Shootings Leave Two Dead
City tension mounts as the most recent shooting outside Café Våren (pictured above) raises the weekend death toll to two more victims (Photo: Jason Heppenstall)
A frustrated city woke to yet more news of shootings in the escalating gang crimes that are fast becoming a feature of life in the capital
Three more shootings — on Friday, Saturday and one in the early hours of this morning — have left two people dead and four others injured.
The shootings are a further escalation of the gang violence that has become almost commonplace in the city over the past few months.
On Friday, a man was gunned down near the Mjølnerparken area in the city’s northwest quarter. He later died of his wounds at Rigshospitalet.
Witnesses say a silver-coloured van with 3-4 passengers drove away from the scene.
On Saturday night, a Faeroese passenger in a car was shot in the back by two young men on a bicycle. Police say the man had no gang connections and was on his way to a concert with the vehicle’s driver.
Medical reports listed the victim as being in a serious but stable condition at Rigshospitalet.
Another shooting at around 2:40 this morning completed the weekend of violence and was the most serious of the three. One man was shot outside Café Våren in the city’s Amager district, while three more were shot inside the bar.
According to police the first victim was forced down onto his stomach on the sidewalk outside the bar by two men, after which they shot him in the leg and buttocks. The two men then went into the establishment and sprayed the locale with shots from automatic weapons, injuring a man and woman and killing another man.
Police say all of the incidents are related to ongoing gang disputes. In addition, Café Våren is known to be a hangout for a Hells Angels recruitment branch.
Investigating officers indicated that the incidents on Saturday and Monday were carried out by young men with immigrant backgrounds, while they had no additional information as to the perpetrators of Friday’s shooting.
The newest wave of shootings has led to Copenhagen Police considering putting even more officers on the streets of the city’s Nørrebro district. On Tuesday an additional 35 officers were sent out to patrol the quarter after last week’s shootings.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: One Man Was Killed on Sunday Night in Amager, Another Shot and Killed on Friday and Yet Another Shot and Seriously Wounded on Saturday in the Nørrebro District of Copenhagen as a Spate of Shootings in the Capital Continues.
Police remain without clues as to the attackers in all three cases, and three men who were detained in connection with Saturday’s episode were released again. The three, who were all wearing bulletproof vests, were driving near the scene of one of the attacks in a black Polo vehicle, but police said they could not be connected to the shooting.
Sunday In Sunday evening’s shooting, two masked men forced a man outside a café to lie on his stomach after which he was killed with two shots. The two then fired into the café, hitting three people all of whom are said to be in a stable condition.
“Two people were in front of the café and stopped a victim. He was simply laid on his stomach and shot twice,” Police Investigation Chief Tommy Keil tells TV2 News.
Saturday In Saturday evening’s shooting, two men coasting in a rented vehicle looking for a parking space prior to going to a concert, were accosted by three cyclists. Shots were fired and one of the two men in the car took a bullet in his back. His condition is described as critical but stable.
In Friday’s episode a 25-year-old man was killed when unknown assailants let loose a rain of automatic weapons fire.
Police say that neither of the victims of the weekend’s shootings in Nørrebro had any connection to an ongoing gang war between bikers and immigrant gangs, with police suggesting the attacks were a mistake.
Sunday’s episode appears less clear, as the café in question is close to a Hells Angels Club and is known to be a haunt of AK81 members. AK81 is a support group of the Hells Angels, but police have not released details of those targeted in the attack.
Task force The current gang war between bikers and immigrant gangs has been going on for several months and has prompted the Copenhagen police to set up a dedicated 35-man task force to attempt to stop open-street attacks.
But the extra patrols do not seem to have been enough, and the Copenhagen police is considering applying for reinforcements from other police districts.
“One of the first things we will be doing on Monday is to find out whether we should be doing things differently,” says Copenhagen Police Chief Superintedant Per Larsen.
But he adds that it can be almost impossible to find perpetrators.
“If you really want to do something as crazy as what’s going on at the moment, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. However many officers we put on the job, we cannot guarantee it won’t happen again,” Larsen says.
Rescue personnel afraid At the same time it seems that victims of shootings may have to wait longer for rescue services to attend to the wounded.
Inhabitants at the Mjølnerparken Estate in the Nørrebro district have complained that a medical ambulance waited up to ten minutes before attending to a victim. The ambulance waited until police arrived and secured the area.
But the police, fire and rescue services are in agreement that in cases of serious danger, ambulance personnel should wait for an area to be secured before attending a victim.
“If rescue personnel are hit, they are unable to help anyone,” says Parliamentary Health Committee Chairman Preben Rudegaard.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Minister Calls for Urgent Anti-Gang Measures
Following yet another weekend of shootings in the Danish capital, Finance Minister Brian Mikkelsen is calling for an indication from police as to whether new legislation is necessary to stamp out the current gang war and armed attacks.
“The developments that we have seen in recent weeks are unacceptable and I fully understand the concern within the population. I have asked the National Commissioner and the Copenhagen police — who know where the problems are — to report back quickly as to whether there is a need for special initiatives, including legislation, in the current situation,” Mikkelsen says.
“I am open to all good suggestions from the police and will decide on them very quickly. We must do everything we can to stop this,” he adds.
Following Sunday night’s attack, during which one man was killed and three injured, Copenhagen police authorities have decided to deploy more officers on patrol to stem the gang war.
Sunday’s events came in the wake of armed attacks on Friday and Saturday during which one person was killed and another seriously injured. None of the random victims of Friday’s, Saturday’s or Sunday’s attacks appear to have had any connection to either immigrant gangs or bikers.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Airbus Faces A400m Order Cancellations Due to Delays
The project to develop the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft may collapse due to severe development delays. Germany may cancel its order for 60 planes by a March 31 deadline. If other European buyers follow suit, Airbus would face billions of euros in repayments.
European aircraft manufacturer Airbus may be facing billions of euros in repayments due to potential order cancellations resulting from severe delays in the development of its A400M military transport plane.
The European military procurement agency Occar has reminded the countries involved in the A400M project that they can cancel their purchase contract on March 31 because a “critical milestone” hasn’t been achieved. The maiden flight of the aircraft, originally planned for January of last year, still hasn’t taken place.
Airbus parent company EADS says that due to many technical problems, it remains unclear when a prototype will be able to lift off.
If Airbus does not soon explain how and when it can solve the problems, the German Defense Ministry will consider ending the contract, according to sources in the ministry.
If German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung were to agree with the six other countries to exercise their right to cancel the deal, Airbus, which has been promised state aid by France for its civilian aircraft production, would face financial trouble.
According to a contract agreed on in May 2003, Airbus would have to repay billions of euros in down payments within 60 days. The German defense ministry expects that French President Nicolas Sarkozy will soon urge German Chancellor Angela Merkel to stick with the project, even if the A400M is delivered far later than planned, performs less well than expected and ends up costing more.
But that is precisely what Jung is so far refusing to do. He rejected calls from EADS for a change in the contract which also envisage high fines in the event of delivery delays.
Berlin has ordered 60 aircraft for more than €8 billion. Paris wants to buy 50. A total of 192 planes worth €20 billion have been ordered by nine countries.
Commissioned by seven European NATO countries in 2003, the A400M was at first hailed as Europe’s most ambitious cross-border arms procurement project. But problems have plagued the project almost from the start. The software controlling the steering mechanism has proven challenging, the propeller engines are too loud and the plane is still too heavy.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland early last month, Airbus CEO Thomas Enders hinted to SPIEGEL ONLINE that the project may eventually be cancelled. “We want to build the plane,” he said. “But not at any price.”
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Call for More Tax Income Support for Finnish Lutheran Church
[Comment from Tuan Jim: I’d be interested in a discussion on the general merits of maintaining national churches — specifically the use of public funds for these churches — do they not have the same tradition of offering/tithing — or are there just so few attendees to support any of these churches?]
Archbishop Jukka Parma of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has called on government to compensate the church for tax income lost as a result of the ongoing economic decline.
“The church should also be compensated, because municipalities are receiving support,” said Paarma in an interview published in the online version of the newspaper Kaleva. The online daily reported that the Archbishop’s request had been forwarded to Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.
Currently the church receives 1.75 percent of corporate tax income, compared to about three percent some ten years ago. State support for the church with tax revenue is based on its execution of social tasks, such as maintaining cemeteries.
The cost of maintaining cemeteries in Finland currently exceeds the church’s income from taxation, and last year the church spent 100 million euros on funerals. If the church’s tax income declines as expected, it will receive 70 million euros from government.
“Funeral expenses do not fall, even in the face of a recession,” said the Archbishop.
The creeping fall-off in church membership is leaching away at church finances more than the general recession, since it depends on its membership to gather much-needed church taxes. Corporate taxes contributed by government accounts for one-tenth of church income.
Paarma says the church has no intention of cutting back on its basic services, such as community outreach, education, church services or pastoral care. On the other hand, the church may have to red line areas such as management, finance, cemeteries and real estate.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: From 2010 Obligatory Service for Army Only
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 16 — All troops due for call to service in Greece will only serve in the country’s Army from 2010, announced Defence Minister Evangelos Meimarakis. He added that compulsory military service for the Air Force and Navy will be progressively abolished. The minister also said that military service will possibly be shortened to nine months, and that the adjournment of military service for post-graduate studies will be abandoned. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
How UK Defence Firms Suffer for Mod Euro-Mania
There was much excitement last week when a trade union warned that, unless the Government stepped in, a British vehicle manufacturer would have to close its doors, putting 6,000 people out of work. When the big car firms all denied that this referred to them, it emerged that the firm in question was a Birmingham-based van maker LDV, hardly a household name, but still employing 850 workers, with 5,200 dealers and suppliers dependent on it staying in business.
What is truly shocking, however, is the story behind LDV’s plight, which arises from one of the greatest scandals in the murky saga of Britain’s defence procurement. In 1998, to compensate for Britain’s failure to join the euro, Tony Blair agreed with President Chirac at St Malo that we would play a central role in building a “European defence identity”, independent of the US. This led in 1999 to the Helsinki accords, committing Britain to integrating her defence effort with the EU.
The result was a dramatic shift in the Ministry of Defence’s procurement policy. Wherever possible, Britain would in future buy from European rather than American suppliers. Over the next few years contracts worth billions of pounds accordingly went to EU-based firms.
One of the MoD’s biggest projects was re-equipping the Army with 8,000 new trucks, the largest such contract in the Army’s history. Two of the three bidders were US-led consortia: that led by the US truck-maker Stewart & Stevenson also included three British firms, one of which was LDV. On paper the bid looked ideal. The vehicles were battle-proven, met all the MoD’s specifications, and the trucks would be built by LDV in Birmingham, creating thousands of new jobs.
To observers’ astonishment, however, in 2004 the contract, then worth £1.6 billion, went instead to a German-owned firm, Man-Nutzfarzheuge (which in 2000 had swallowed up Britain’s last major truck manufacturer, ERF). The Man trucks failed to meet the MoD specifications in two crucial respects — as was confirmed by the National Audit Office in 2006 — one being that they were unsuited to hot climate conditions like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Furthermore, the fact that they were to be assembled in Vienna meant that British taxpayers would be creating thousands of Austrian rather than British jobs. The loss of this contract was a body blow to LDV, which was eventually bought up by the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
The Man vehicles, however, were found to be so unsuitable that the MoD had to pay for extensive modifications, costing hundreds of millions of pounds. The exact additional cost has never been revealed, because the MoD says it is subject to “commercial confidentiality”.
Then, one after another, the projects awarded by the MoD to EU rather than US firms came unstuck. An Italian firm supplied 400 Panther command vehicles, for £166 million, which proved so useless that they have never been deployed. Had we bought US cruise missiles instead of 900 EU Storm Shadows at £1 million each, we could have saved £830 million. We committed £5 billion to buy five Type-45 destroyers, solely because these were equipped with EU-made missiles, when by buying US-designed Arleigh-Burke destroyers we could have got much more capable ships at a saving of £2 billion.
So it went on, with frigates, unmanned aerial vehicles, radar and sonar systems. In several cases the EU alternatives, such as the A400M transport aircraft, proved so flawed or late in delivery that we had to lease cheaper and more efficient US equipment to fill the gap. My colleague Dr Richard North, on his Defence of the Realm blog, estimated in 2006 that these blunders had cost British taxpayers at least £8.8 billion.
The MoD may belatedly have now reversed its “Europe-first” policy, but we are still paying the bill, as was evidenced when LDV executives recently attempted a management-buyout to save their firm from closure. Ironically, Stewart & Stevenson, the consortium leader in that 2004 bid. was bought in 2007 by BAe Systems, so that, as a British company, it might have qualified to win the truck contract after all.
When LDV last week pleaded for Government aid, the trade minister Ian Pearson loftily responded “the British taxpayer cannot be expected to pay for the company’s losses”. What he didn’t admit, of course, is that if it hadn’t been for his own Government those losses would never have arisen. And for the British taxpayer to pay up to £2 billion to keep Austrian workers employed is, it seems, perfectly acceptable.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Islet Hit by Migrant Crisis
Strong winds keep dozens of immigrants on Agathonisi and supply ships at bay Authorities on the tiny Aegean islet of Agathonisi have warned of a crisis situation, as dozens of illegal immigrants who have arrived there from neighboring Turkey cannot leave due to strong winds that are also keeping ferries at bay as provisions run out.
As winds reaching 8 on the Beaufort scale isolate the island and supplies dwindle, tensions have been rising as there is not enough food to go around, community leader Evangelos Kottoros told Kathimerini.
The migrants, from various countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, number around 75, exceeding the islet’s permanent population of 70. “They are not violently disposed but there is an issue of survival. When people are cold and hungry, they don’t think straight,” Kottoros said. He said migrants from different ethnic groups had been fighting over who should be able to sleep in a small storeroom authorities have provided for them. Also migrants have been knocking on residents’ doors, asking for help. “Everyone has made an effort to help these unfortunate people but we are people too and we have problems,” Kottoros said. The community leader said he and the three policemen stationed on the island had warned of a crisis situation two years ago when the island started coming under pressure from an influx of illegal immigrants from Turkey.
Sources said that Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos intervened yesterday and that efforts were being made to send a ship to the islet to remove the migrants.
According to Kottoros, strong winds have not stopped smuggling ships from arriving on the islet. He said 351 migrants have arrived so far this year, compared to 43 in the same period last year. “What will happen when the weather gets better? Smugglers have realized that Agathonisi is unguarded and keep sending people,” the community leader said. Last summer, when Agathonisi was deluged with hundreds of migrants, Kottoros called on the government to supply it with its own coast guard so it could keep smugglers at bay. Authorities on nearby Patmos blocked the island’s ports to migrants last summer, increasing the influx to the smaller islet.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Global Cultural Forum to be Held in North
Roma, 27 Feb. (AKI) — The northern Italian city of Monza will in late September host a global cultural forum that aims to rival the annual economic forum in the Swiss city of Davos, Monza’s mayor, Marco Maria Mariani told Adnkronos. The event will take place at Monza’s magnificent 18th-century Villa Reale on 26 and 27 September.
“The cultural world’s equivalent of the Davos forum will take place in our city,” Mariani said.
“It is a very important development for us, especially as we are becoming a province,” he stated. Mariani also noted that the art city of Florence had been one of the original competitors to host the event.
Monza, located in the region of Lombardy, is best known for its world-famous Grand Prix motor racing event. This year it will become the capital of the new province of Monza and Brianza.
Culture minister Sandro Bondi first announced that the government had proposed that Italy host a global cultural forum, during a visit to Adnkronos headquarters in Rome last December.
“We are working with UNESCO to create a global cultural conference in Italy,” Bondi said during a meeting with Adnkronos group president Giuseppe Marra (photo).
Bondi’s proposal was welcomed by culture ministers in the Middle East.
Egypt’s minister for culture, Farouk Hosni said Rome could play a “strategic role” in building a cultural bridge between Europe and the Arab world, and in particular with countries in the Mediterranean.
Iraq’s culture minister Maher Dilli al-Hadithi also welcomed the proposal.
“Italy is in a position to host such event, as it is the guardian or caretaker of arts and literature and the cradle of civilisation and the world’s cultural heritage,” al-Hadithi told Adnkronos International (AKI).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Colosseum Lit Up for Montana Vote
US state abolishes death penalty
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — The Colosseum was lit up Monday night to celebrate a senate vote in the American state of Montana to abolish the death penalty, the Catholic Sant’Egidio community said.
The initiative, in collaboration with the city of Rome, is repeated every time a death sentence is commuted or capital punishment abolished anywhere in the world. The Sant’Egidio community has been actively campaigning worldwide against capital punishment and has collected over five million signatures in favor of this in 153 countries.
The signatures were handed over to the United Nations in November 2007.
Rome has become the symbol of the global movement A City For Life — A City against the Death Penalty, to which over 900 cities currently belong.
While the Montana vote was applauded as a humanitarian gesture, accordng to the New York Times it was also linked to economic reasons and the need to curb state budgets.
Aside from Montana, assemblies in New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Maryland are also considering abolishing the death penality as a cost-cutting measure.
According to the New York daily, prosecutions which carry a death sentence are much more expensive than those with a maximum life sentence.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Small Turnout for Wilders in the US
Geert Wilders, leader of the populist Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Dutch parliament, attracted a fair amount of media attention in the US last week. But members of Congress had little time for the man and his film.
Earlier in February the controversial anti-Islam campaigner was refused entry into the United Kingdom despite being invited by a member of the British parliament’s House of Lords. He flew to London anyway, accompanied by dozens of journalists, but was sent back at Heathrow airport on February 12. His visit to the US was a lot more tranquil.
No danger
Geert Wilders walked calmly towards the Capitol in Washington. There, in the heart of American democracy, he had an important appointment. His film Fitna was to be screened, at the invitation of the Republican senator Jon Kyl. Wilders’ bodyguards were relaxed last Thursday afternoon. There was no danger here.
Christine Brim of the Center for Security Policy (CSP) was waiting at the entrance to the Lyndon B. Johnson auditorium. The CSP had organised the screening. “We have invited all 535 members of Congress,” said Brim hopefully.
The CSP’s reputation has been better in Washington. It is headed by Frank Gaffney, a neo-conservative former staff worker with Ronald Reagan who still defends the invasion of Iraq. Another member is the ultra-conservative James Inhofe, who calls the effect of human activity on global warming a “hoax”. The reputation of senator Kyl, who invited Wilders and the CSP, has sufferered less damage over the recent past. The conservative Kyl is considered a hawk on defence but does not avoid compromise and is also respected by Democrats.
Strategic location
The Lyndon B. Johnson auditorium is strategically located. Most senators pass it on their way to meetings. On Thursday, former presidential candidate John McCain, a friend of Kyl’s, was drumming up some staff workers a few metres from the auditorium. Senator Inhofe rushed past — uninterested. Bob Bennett, a conservative from Utah — the same. And John Kerry, another former presidential candidate, walked dreamily by after leading a packed meeting on the improvement of America’s relations with Muslim countries.
It looked for a long time as if Fitna would only be seen by CSP people and staff workers of members of Congress. Five minutes before it was due to start there were around forty people there — not one of them a member of Congress.
Frank Gaffney arrived at the last minute. And just before the doors closed, Jon Kyl appeared. But a few moments later the doors reopened and he was gone again. The organiser of the event strode out into the hall. Kyl’s spokesman could not explain why the senator had missed the screening, but according to Brim it had to do with president Obama’s budget presentation. “The senator had to go to the White House.”
“Countless media”
On Friday morning, the CSP and Wilders repeated the screening in the National Press Club, now no longer behind closed doors. There were five camera teams — two Dutch and three American. Among the American journalists was David Frum, an influential conservative columnist, and Joshua Keating of Foreign Policy magazine.
Questions came mainly from Dutch reporters. Wilders’ supporters were unhappy with the line of questioning. They were treating Wilders unfairly. Wilders explained that “the Dutch press is left-wing”.
Wilders later talked up his trip. He had been on CNN twice, on FoxNews twice, had talked to the opinion editors of The Wall Street Journal, done an interview with The Boston Globe and made contact with “countless other media”. And of course there was Kyl’s “friendly invitation” which allowed Wilders to watch Fitna “with members of Congress”. Asked by the Dutch press which members of Congress had attended the screening, Wilders was lost for words.
“The names are secret,” said Brim after the screening. But Gaffney eventually came up with two: the unknown Roger Wicker (Mississippi) and Ed Royce (California). What did he think of the turnout? Members of Congress are busy on the day the budget is presented, he replied. “And this was literally the only time Wilders had to see us.”
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Riot Police Take Action in Maastricht
In Maastricht on Sunday, riot police stepped in to prevent a clash when 300 left-wing demonstrators attempted to disrupt a march by Voorpost, an extreme right group. The 200 Dutch-Belgian Voorpost members, who do not approve of drug use, came to the city to protest against its drugs policy. Adding to the confusion was a group of local football supporters who, says the city’s mayor Gerd Leers, only increased the “forbidding atmosphere.”
When the left-wingers attempted to cross a bridge across the River Maas to block the Voorpost march, the riot police prevented them from doing so. In the skirmishes that ensued, bottles and fireworks were thrown and a police van was vandalised. Police arrested ten demonstrators from both sides.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Eindhoven Builders Stoned
[Comment from Tuan Jim: Just out of curiosity — is this normal behavior for Dutch folks — or is this one of those *special* parts of town?]
Builders in Eindhoven were pelted with stones on Thursday night and Friday morning as they were driving pilings home beside the Philips football stadium. It’s thought the stones were thrown by angry local residents. The builders had been given permission to work until 6.00 p.m. but continued long after the deadline had passed. In addition, residents had just received a letter informing them that the building works would last an extra three weeks.
Dozens of residents say the pile driving has caused them health problems. Many say they are suffering from headaches and sleeplessness and are having difficulty concentrating. They have brought a legal action against the city council to put an end to the building work.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
New ‘Iron Curtain’ Will Split Eu’s Rich and Poor
Eastern European countries gave an apocalyptic warning yesterday of hordes of unemployed workers heading west as a new Iron Curtain divides rich from poor inside Europe.
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Western leaders were told yesterday that five million jobs could be lost in the “new” European Union countries of the East unless radical action were taken to bail them out.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Norwegian Women Turn to Sweden for Gender-Based Abortions
In Norway it is against the law to get an abortion based on the sex of the unborn child. However, The Local newspaper reports that some pregnant Norwegian women who are not happy with the gender are going to Sweden to have the child aborted.
This poorly kept secret has entered the public spectrum from new details that were uncovered by a medical ethics consultant based in Oslo. “We know that it happens as people have told us,” said director Sissel Rogne at the Biotechnology Advisory Board to the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.
These cross-border abortions are a well known fact confirmed by gynaecologists in Sweden, such as Lars Hamberger who works in Gothenburg. Some gynaecologists are sympathetic to the plight of the pregnant women, many of whom come from ethnic minority backgrounds.
“If they have three, four girls and are from Turkey the demands on them to produce a boy are strong,” Hamberger stated. Norway has a ban in place that prohibits women from identifying the gender of their unborn child before 12 weeks of pregnancy. Both Norway and Denmark will not allow an abortion after 12 weeks, but in Sweden the limit is 18 weeks so many women simply cross the border if the gender of their unborn child is the wrong one.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Many EU Nations Do Not Track Anti-Semitism
VIENNA (AP) — Most EU countries fail to compile statistics on anti-Semitism, complicating efforts to gauge the level of animosity toward Jews within the 27-nation bloc, according to a new report.
Often, anti-Semitic incidents do not make it into official records because they are not labeled as such or because victims or witnesses do not report them, the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights says in a report issued Monday.
“The agency’s data collection work shows that most member states do not have official or even unofficial data and statistics on anti-Semitic incidents,” the report says. The researchers noted that even when countries compile information, it often can’t be used for comparative purposes because it’s collected in different ways.
Reed Brody, a Brussels-based spokesman for Human Rights Watch, described anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incidents as serious and growing problems in Europe and said the lack of statistics was hindering efforts to effectively fight them.
“It’s difficult to develop an effective response when we don’t know the exact scope and contours of the problem,” Brody said.
Although the report notes recent examples of anti-Semitic incidents in other EU countries, it only breaks down country-specific data for nine countries — Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
The agency says it did not have enough information to conclusively calculate an overall trend in anti-Semitic activity for the period between 2001 to 2008. But it notes that in the countries for which data is available there appears to be a decrease in such offenses in 2007 and most of 2008.
That follows an increase in anti-Semitic activity between 2001 and 2002, between 2003 and 2004 and again in 2006, according to the report. However, the report warns against making direct comparisons between countries since statistics are compiled in different ways.
The report also said a number of attacks against Jews and synagogues have been reported by the media in France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Britain since the Dec. 27 start of Israel’s three-week military offensive in the Gaza Strip, during which an estimated 1,300 Palestinians died. It also cited recent reports of anti-Semitic incidents in Cyprus, Spain and the Netherlands.
The report did not give a total number of incidents but said German authorities recorded 292 anti-Semitic offenses during the fourth quarter of 2008. In France, home to western Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, the Interior Ministry recorded 48 anti-Semitic acts and 65 threats between Dec. 27 and Jan. 26, according to the report.
“While it is too early to draw conclusions, there are indications that this rise could partly be affected by the situation in the Middle East, as well as by the global financial crisis,” said agency director Morten Kjaerum.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Bollywood Style Advert to Promote Catalan
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 17 — The ‘piece de resistance’ of a campaign run by the regional government of Catalonia, first broadcast on Catalan television and radio yesterday, is to be a Bollywood-style advert, intended to “foster” Catalan and to promote “the common language of Catalonia”. With the slogan “Encomana el catala” (promote Catalan), the campaign aims to encourage those who speak Catalan not to speak Spanish when talking with immigrants who would be able to understand them. The advert shows a young mixed race boy go into a bakery and begin talking in Catalan with the owner, just as the Indian-looking workers speak Catalan amongst themselves as the boy walks out, and as do passersby, and Latin-American waiters in a bar serving a group of young girls who sing in Catalan, dancing and creating a Bollywood-style joy. The campaign, which cost 230,000 euros, is part of a series of events and initiatives organised by the Consortium for Linguistic Standardisation. As Josep Lluis Carod Rovira, the councilor for linguistic policy to the Catalan government, presented the advert yesterday in Barcelona, he stressed that knowledge of Catalan is “an element of cohesion” which is as important as health or education. This is the “common language” in Catalonia, which “with 250 languages, is not a bilingual but a multilingual nation.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Garzon Calls Halt to D3m and Askartasuna for 3 Years
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 18 — Judge Baltazar Garzon has ordered Askartasuna and D3M (Democracia 3 Milliones), radical left-wing independence political parties, both believed to have close ties with the ETA, to suspend all activities for 3 years. The parties’ election list for the upcoming Basque elections on March 1 had previously been rejected by the Supreme Court. Sources in the judicial system say that Garzon upheld the arguments of the Public Prosecutor, who on February 6 asked for a precautionary order, considering the two organizations part of the “institutional front” of the ETA since they allegedly take orders from the armed group and under the direct protection of the Batasuna party (banned since 2005). The judge of the Audiencia Nacional has order Askartasuna and D3M offices closed, as well as the suspension of their right to “public, private, organizational, group, or any activity”, including calling for demonstrations, press conferences, electoral acts, or electoral posters. The precautionary order includes freezing Askartasuna and D3M bank accounts, and closing their websites to prevent any propagandistic activities. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Road Blocks Set Up Against Moroccan Tomatoes
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRAUARY 19 — They have been warning they would mobilise for some days, and now they’ve taken to the streets: more than one thousand Spanish farmers have set fire to five thousand kilos of tomatoes and set up a roadblock on the Mediterranean motorway in Spain’s Almeria region to protest at Morocco’s ‘systematic violations’’ of export quotas for market garden produce. Called by farmers’ associations Asaja and Coag, protests are targeting a new EU agricultural agreement being negotiated with Morocco, allowing Maghreb countries to export increased amounts of produce. Clashes with the police have already been reported. The farmers, mainly tomato producers, have gathered at Nijar, in Almeria, setting up their roadblock at kilometre 471 of Spain’s Mediterranean motorway, one of the main arteries leading into southern Spain, interrupting traffic for hours on end. In a gesture of protest, around fifty demonstrators subsequently set fire to five tonnes of locally produced tomatoes. Police attempts to remove the roadblock led to clashes with the protesters. ‘This is not a matter of protectionism,’’ said the regional secretary of COAG, Andres Gongora, ‘but of defending ourselves from a mass onslaught of Moroccan tomatoes into the European market. There have been continual violations by Morocco of the agreement in place since 2001, which establishes minimum prices and conditions’’. The union representative went on to give a concrete example: ‘Moroccan tomato import quotas for January were set at 31 million kilos, but France’s market of Perpignan alone states that it sold 42,000 tonnes of Moroccan tomatoes”. On February 9, farmers associations and Spain’s fruit and vegetable producers and exporters federation, FEPEX, called for their rights to be upheld at the European level. Spain’s producers fear the effects of an increase in supply, which would lead to a fall in prices especially for produce such as tomatoes, beans, citrus fruits, pepper and strawberries. Acting in concert, Spain, Belgium and Poland have recently sent a letter to the European Commission expressing the concerns of farmers and asking ‘that the interests of the sector be borne in mind by the EU’’. The present agreement between the EU and Morocco fixes an initial export ceiling of 175,000 tonnes of tomatoes between the months of October and May, to which a further amount of between 25,000 and 45,000 tonnes per year may be added. Should these limits be exceeded, Morocco becomes liable to pay customs tariffs. In the re-negotiated agreement, which is nearing the completion stage, Morocco is attempting to increase the initial ceiling to 200,000 tonnes. Through their demonstrations in Nijar, Spain’s sector associations are also protesting against ‘inexistent border controls’’ on the entry of Moroccan produce into Europe. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalonian Govt. to Open ‘Embassy’ in Morocco
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 19 — The Catalonian government will have its own delegation in Morocco and Asia in 2010, after inaugurating delegations last year in Berlin, London, and New York, and will soon open others in Buenos Aires and Mexico. In Morocco, as announced today by the Vice-President of the Generalitat, Josep Lluis Carod Rovira, in response to a question in the Catalonian Parliament, the delegation that was closed in 2004 in Casablanca will be reopened. In the face of controversy in recent weeks due to the expenses associated with opening Catalonian embassies’ in the world during a time of crisis, Rovira underlined that the government, aside from executing the mandate of the Catalonian statue of autonomy, has the political “will to do exactly this” abroad. According to Carod, the Catalonian delegations do nothing other than “adequately channel” the actions of the various departments and councils of the regional government and other institutions promoting business and culture. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 1/3 of Judges Take Part in 1st Judicial Strike
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 18 — About one third of the 4,400 Spanish judges will be taking part today in the first judges strike in the history of Spain, according to the two unions who called for the strike to demand pay increases and improved judicial structures after negotiations with José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government failed. The unions estimate that about 2,000 judges will participate in the strike. The protest was approved by the Minister of Justice, who did not recognise the judges’ right to strike, considering them as one of the powers of the state. The Spanish Superior Judicial Council also did not support the protests, doubting its constitutional validity. In a statement today to Cadena Ser, Spanish Superior Judicial Council spokesperson Gabriela Bravo said that “there is no legal coverage for the strike”, but avoided comments on possible sanctions against the judges that have abstained from work stating that “individual cases will be considered”. (ANSAmed).
2009-02-18 13:52
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Strike: Fini, Don’t Suppress Right But Harmonise it
(AGI) — Rome, 26 Feb. —The right to strike cannot be ‘‘suppressed’’, but it must be ‘‘brought in line’’ with ‘‘the other rights of all citizens in a balancing operation that must take social evolution into account’’. Gianfranco Fini, Speaker of the House, opened the session on the presentation of the annual report of the Authority on strikes and the day after the announcement of the government’s wish to reform the law on strikes in public services he underlines that the right to strike ‘‘cannot compromise other rights which are equally guaranteed in the Constitution, like the right to health, security, education, welfare, freedom of mobility and communication’’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Demo Against Police Racism in Malmö
Over one hundred demonstrators marched in Malmö on Saturday in protest against police racism.
Demonstrators carried banners calling themselves “Ape son’s of bitches army against racism”. Several of the demonstrators bore paper masks depicting ape faces.
The demonstration began with a short speech in Rosengård, a predominantly immigrant suburb of Malmö, by local resident Pia Ibarra who drew reference to recent revelations of racism within Skåne police.
“We have been attacked by the police for years. The frightening thing now is that they do not even try to hide it,” Ibara said.
The demonstration received a large police escort as it made its way to the police station on Excercisgatan in central Malmö. Three short speeches were made and the crowd then dispersed.
Some stone throwing and an incident of suspected knife crime were reported by police who otherwise confirmed that the demonstration passed off peacefully.
A series of revelations have emerged in recent weeks including a police video with officers making racist and threatening comments and the use of names such as Neger (Negro) Niggersson and Oskar Neger for internal training purposes.
Sweden’s national police commissioner, Bengt Svensson, has since launched an independent inquiry into racism within the police force in Skåne in a bid to restore confidence in the police.
“The investigator will examine whether there are deficiencies in the work to build an ethical system of values within the Skåne police and what can be done differently. This has never been done before and is incredibly important,” Svensson said on launching the enquiry on February 7th.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Volvo Pay Raise ‘Insulting’: Reinfeldt
Volvo Group’s plan to raise the salaries of 250 top executives is “insulting” according to Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
“This is obviously provocative, given that the company has problems,” the Prime Minister said on Sveriges Television (SVT) Sunday night.
Volvo’s compensation committee wants to raise the ceiling for bonuses and for the company’s stock option programme.
At Volvo’s upcoming annual meeting on April 1st, the compensation committee plans to propose raising the ceiling for the “performance-based variable salary” of 250 executives from 50 percent to a maximum of 60 percent of their fixed salaries.
It also proposed raising the maximum allotment of shares to senior executives by 50 percent, it added.
Charges of greediness and bad timing have emerged as the company struggles with difficult market conditions.
At the same time as a pay raise is planned for Volvo Group executives, the company is planning to lay off 7,700 people in Sweden, where it employs a total of 30,000 workers.
Now Reinfeldt has added his voice to the chorus of criticism, pointing out that Volvo asked the state for economic support — and was turned down.
“Now we have yet another argument [against Volvo receiving state aid] — there are obviously resources available at the company,” he told SVT, adding he found the proposal “insulting”.
Christer Gardell, head of the Cevian venture capital firm, Volvo’s major shareholder, called Volvo’s proposed execute pay raise “totally crazy”.
“As the main owner it makes me angry to hear these arguments” for boosting executive pay, Gardell told SVT.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Criminals ‘Laughing’ at Community Sentences Which Have Failed to Cut Prison Population
Community sentences introduced four years ago to cut the prison population are failing, according to a new report.
Probation officers do not believe the new system deters crime and the community sentences are broken more often than the old ones, researchers were told.
Offenders are said to be ‘laughing’ at the sentences, seeing them as a soft option compared to jail.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Soldiers Deserve Better
A report today from the Healthcare Commission has praised the frontline care received by injured soldiers on the battlefield, describing it as “exemplary”. The Army has also been commended for taking seriously the mental traumas endured by young men and women exposed to the pressures and horrors of conflict. Problems for injured or traumatised soldiers have tended to arise when they leave the theatre of war and become the responsibility of the NHS; or when they retire from the Armed Forces and must rely upon civilian treatment.
At the weekend, Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry VC said it was “disgraceful” that veterans were not getting the care and help that they needed. He used his high profile as the recipient of the country’s highest honour for valour under fire to condemn the inadequacy of the NHS in coping with the special requirements of former soldiers. It needs to be said once again that military casualties are only being treated in NHS hospitals because successive governments sold off military hospitals to property developers to help raise cash, a scandalously short-sighted policy whose implications are now clear.
If there is no going back to the days of dedicated hospitals for soldiers then it is incumbent upon the NHS to ensure that the treatment is as good as it would have been if they still existed. They can learn much from today’s report, not just about how to treat soldiers but all emergency cases. L/Cpl Beharry’s concerns must also be taken seriously and acted upon, not just ignored once the immediate fuss subsides. If we expect these often very young people to put their lives on the line for their country, then the least their country can do in return is to ensure they are well looked after if they suffer physical or mental injury as a consequence.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Yes, Big Brother Britain is a Menace. the Irony is, It’s the Civil Liberties Lobby Who Are to Blame
Its claim that Britain is turning into a police state is clearly over the top (and reveals no small ignorance of what terrors a true police state inflicts). Its alarmism over closed-circuit TV and DNA profiling pays scant regard to their usefulness in catching criminals. And there’s more than a whiff of an underlying agenda to paint Britain as worse than the tyrannies and rogue states that threaten its interests, with a corresponding anxiety to downplay the terrorism threat against this country.
Nevertheless, we should, indeed, be concerned about some of the ways in which freedom is being compromised. Some local councils are making wholly inappropriate use of anti-terrorist legislation to snoop on citizens, while other public bodies — such as the Charity Commission, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the BBC — are able to make deeply questionable use of further surveillance powers.
[…]
It may be thought a curious irony that the Human Rights Act was introduced in 1998 to tackle precisely the concerns expressed last weekend of a slide into tyranny — and yet liberty has been seriously eroded in the past decade.
In fact, this isn’t curious at all. Although the campaigners would sooner cut off their hands than admit it, the one has followed directly from the other. The idea that human rights law expands freedom was always a serious mistake. It has the opposite effect.
One of the main reasons the State has resorted to gathering intelligence within Britain on such an alarming scale is the collapse of the ability to control our borders. And that was brought about by the systematic refusal by the courts, on human rights grounds, to keep out or deport a range of undesirables.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Will You Open Fire on UK Citizens’ Army Personnel Being Asked
In a stunning conversation with a friend, who is a serving member of the Armed Forces, over the weekend, it was revealed that transfers to regiments and other units in the UK on home duties are being undertaken by the MOD based upon whether an individual was prepared to ‘open fire’ on UK citizens during civil disturbances.
I found this long and extracted conversation to be both bizarre and frightening. I will state at this point that he is someone that I have known for years, and trust implicitly. The fact that service personnel are actually being asked in special briefing sessions whether they would fire on their own nationals indicates that the rumours about the Army being put on standby are indeed very true.
As if to add weight to this, it was reported yesterday as a tag on a posting about UKIP by Richard North on EUReferendum that plans for Army involvement were well advanced…
| — Hat tip: Mr P | [Return to headlines] |
Montenegro: Council of Europe Wants Electoral Modifications
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, FEBRUARY 26 — “If there is the necessary political will, Montenegro will be able to hold elections in line with European standards on March 29,” was the conclusion of a parliamentary delegation of the Council of Europe that has just concluded its visit to Montenegro. The delegation, led by European Parliament member, Andreas Gross, also congratulated Montenegro for its active participation in the pre-electoral process of civic society and the media, and for the quality of work done by both. At the same time, however, the delegation expressed concern over the fact that Montenegrin authorities have not followed the recommendations made by the Council of Europe and other international groups after the latest elections. A particular concern of the EU is that party leaders can change up to 50% of the candidates on their lists until polls close, since this does not respect the standards of a democratic election or the principles of parliamentary democracy. It is necessary to outlaw this practice as soon as possible. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
From Hammams to Ancient Theatres, EU Saves Med
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 26 — From hammans to ancient theatres, through the port cities and architecture in general, to the audiovisual heritage in the care of Italy’s RAI broadcasting. These and other treasures of Mediterranean culture are the 12 stars projects going through to the quarter-finals of Euromed Heritage, the regional programme sponsored by the European Union which has been funding experts and institutions from the countries in the region since 1998, for a total of 57 million euro. The Euromed Heritage programme has so far involved almost 400 partners from the two shores of the Mediterranean. The aim of the latest phase, which ends in 2011, is to give greater opportunities for the populations of the Mediterranean to regain their cultural identities, by financing twelve projects for three years, with a total budget of 13.5 million euros. So, lining up in the starting blocks is the Athena project for the protection of ancient theatres, coordinated by Jordan’s Ministry for tourism and antiquity, and including partner institutes such as the Department of Surveys, analysis, environmental design and architecture at Rome’s La Sapienza University. Another winner of the Euromed Heritage competition is the Hamamed project, which aims to draw attention to the common cultural tradition of the hammam, or the Turkish baths. The hammam is not only part of the collective memory of the Arab Islamic world, but it also represents an architectural heritage which is a feature of urban centres but is in danger of disappearing. The Mare Nostrum project is concerned with the protection of the historic heritage of the Mediterranean port cities, and is led by the Department of restoration and conservation of architectural heritage at the University of Florence, along the routes of the ancient Phoenicians The French national audiovisual institute is leading the Medmem project, partnered by RAI, which is working on sharing audio-visual material on the cultural heritage of the Mediterranean; the collection is being enriched by authors, teachers and researchers from several countries to bring more than 4,000 videos on one website in French, English and Arabic. Other initiatives deal with the value of traditional architecture as an element of cultural identity, as well as knowledge of water management in the Mediterranean regions, highlighting the importance and usefulness of the preservation of this expertise. All the projects are focused on safeguarding centuries-old cultural features such as the Medina in Tangier in Morocco, the Siwa Oasis in Egypt and another project (called Tangeri-Siwa) which will try to improve the conservation of the Berber language Siwi and the ancient architecture of the old city.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Egypt: Task Force of Italian Security Specialists
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 24 — The Italian Employment Ministry will create a ‘task force’ of qualified Italian specialists to cooperate with Egypt in the following areas: controlling immigration; the intersection of supply and demand; training to encourage legal immigration; and the promotion of the establishment of a mixed group of specialists to look into issues relating to cooperation between the two countries. This is the announcement of “great political importance” that the Employment Under-Secretary of Work, Pasquale Viespoli, speaking to ANSA, examined with the Egyptian workforce and migration minister Aisha Abdel Hady, in a meeting prior to the launch of a working-cooperation project, within the framework of the partnership with the EU. “The Italian project that we are presenting today has won a competition in which other countries such as France and the Czech Republic competed, but the Italian project won through since it was the most reliable.” Ambassador Bayumi represented the Minister for International cooperation, who thought up the working project, and spoke of the “19 projects which have been planned and carried out in collaboration with Italy in Egypt”, quoting as an example a project relating to a water quality control test in the Nile and another relating to improving investment possibilities. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: France to Lend Euro 200 Million for Water Project
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, FEBRUARY 19 — France has approved a Euro 200 million financial aid package to Jordan as part of a funding to a vital water project to help the kingdom deal with its chronic drought, an official said today. French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade Anne-Marie Idrac said the loan is part of the French government’s assistance to Jordan to face the growing water challenges. Idrac statement was made following meetings with Prime Minister Nader Dahabi and senior members of the government to discuss ties between the two countries including means to boost economic cooperation and French private sector investments in the Kingdom. The French diplomat was accompanied by several businessmen and investors, the minister met separately with Minister of Industry and Trade Amer Hadidi on bilateral ties. Jordan is one of the most water impoverished countries in the world. A long delayed project to pull water from the southern aquifer of Disi to Amman and central cities has hit a snag due to lack of finance. A Turkish company is scheduled to start building a pipe line of 250 km to Amman, where the capital and other cities would receive fresh water for the next 100 years. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nuclear: Algeria to Have a Power Station Every 5 Yrs, Minister
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, FEBRUARY 24 — After purchasing its first power station in 2020, “Algeria will have a nuclear power station every 5 years” said Algeria’s Minister for Energy and Mines, Chakib Khelil, on national radio. APS news agency reports that Khelil said “Towards 2020, Algeria will probably have its first nuclear power station and will have a power station every five years”. The Minister also pointed out that Algeria has signed agreements to develop nuclear energy with France, the USA, China and Argentina and is currently in negotiations with Russia and South Africa. A bill on nuclear energy is currently under government scrutiny and includes the creation of a national agency for nuclear security and a company for electro-nuclear research and development. Khelil said however that “more importance will be given to solar energy, which is less polluting”. There are two small experimental nuclear reactors in Algeria, in Draria, near Algiers, which was build by Argentina, and in Ain Oussera (250 km south of the capital) which was built by China. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism: Tunisia Least Expensive Mediterranean Country
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 19 — Tunisia is the country on the southern shores of the Mediterranean where a tourist’s average expenditure is only 354 dollars, as against 970 dollars on average in Turkey, 950 in Morocco and 830 in Egypt. Experts in the industry report that the gap is due to the kind of visitors which the country attracts, particularly those who enjoy seaside holidays, and is mostly made up of the European middle classes. Another negative factor is the indebtedness of Tunisian hoteliers, who accept tour operator offers simply to “fill their tills.” In any case, the outlook for Tunisian tourism can be considered positive, due to the opportunities it offers for thalassotherapy, golf and tourism linked to medical treatment. And early results confirm this optimism, since overnight stays in 2008 cost an average of 96 dinars (around 50 euro), as against the 89 dinars recorded in the previous year. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Foreign Minister: No Gaza Bill for Israel
The Danish foreign minister says that Israel will not be presented with a bill for reparations for the destruction of Gaza.
Denmark considers damages from Israel (13. jan.) Dutch-Danish Gaza proposal angers Egypt (20. feb.) Denmark and some 85 other countries are expected to donate millions of dollars to re-build Gaza, but Israel will not be presented with a bill for destruction in the strip, according to Denmark’s Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller (Cons.) who is taking part in a donor conference in Egypt.
“No — there will be no demands for reparations from Israel. It’s very difficult to provide the evidence necessary — it would require us being able to prove that Hamas did not fire rockets from the targets that Israel bombed,” says Per Stig Møller…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
EU Ready to Monitor Gaza Borders With Egypt
Gaza City, 27 Feb. (AKI) — The European Union is ready to resume its monitoring mission at the Rafah border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Friday. According to the Palestinian news agency, Maan, Solana said the EU would participate in the operation of the crossing when it had received approval from all the relevant parties.
Solana spoke to the media during a visit to the Erez border crossing in the north of the coastal strip, Solana also expressed the European Union’s support for the Palestinian reconciliation talks taking place in Egypt.
“We came to Gaza to express our solidarity with Gazans and to see what the recent Israeli war has caused in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Under a 2005 agreement with Egypt, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority, the EU sent observers to monitor the operation of the Rafah crossing under Egyptian and Palestinian control.
The Border Assistance Mission was suspended when Egypt and Israel decided to close the crossing in June 2007.
Solana’s visit to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip was his first since Hamas took full control of the territory in 2007.
He was not scheduled to meet any representatives of the Hamas-run de facto government.
Meanwhile, Maan said Israel unexpectedly closed the Kerem Shalom terminal, the main crossing point for humanitarian aid and commercial goods in Gaza on Friday.
Raed Fattouh, director of the imports department in Gaza, told Ma’an, “The Israeli side informed us that they closed the crossing without mentioning any reasons.”
Israeli military spokesman, Major Peter Lerner, said that the crossing was closed at the request of the Palestinians, who wanted to do maintainance work on the crossing.
More than 1,330 Palestinians were killed and more than 5,400 others were injured during Israel’s recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The military action ended on 18 January with separate ceasefires announced by Israel and Hamas.
Palestinian officials from Islamist Hamas movement and the moderate Fatah faction met in Cairo on Thursday for talks aimed at forming a unity government.
The Egyptian-brokered talks between 12 Palestinian factions began on Thursday after 18 months of disharmony between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Rocket Launching Intensified, Ashqelon Schools Closed
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 2 — Palestinian rocket fire aimed at Israel has been stepped up in Gaza, with six rockets launched at the city of Sderot (Negev) during the night. Two buildings suffered damage, with yet another rocket being shot this morning. In the Israeli city of Ashqelon (with 120,000 inhabitants) north of the Gaza Strip, schools are closed today due to an initiative undertaken by parents. In their opinion, the buildings housing the schools are not able to provide sufficient protection against the rockets now being shot by Hamas. Yesterday premier Ehud Olmert threatened “a decisive and harsh” reaction to put an end to attacks from Gaza. However, no retaliation has yet been taken, apparently in part due to bad weather conditions. Some observers have said in today’s press that the Israeli government may have decided to postpone any military operations in Gaza to avoid negative fall-out on the international economic summit underway today in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt). Despite the high level of tension on the ground, border crossings for trade between Israel and Gaza will remain partially open today. According to Israeli military sources, about 200 lorries with humanitarian aid headed for the Palestinian population will be entering the Gaza Strip. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary Clinton Pledges $900 Million for Rebuilding Gaza
Hillary Clinton began her first visit to the Middle East as US Secretary of State today by warning that the region must press ahead towards a peace agreement.
She was speaking at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, where donors are gathered to pledge billions for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
“We cannot afford more setbacks or delays, or regrets about what might have been had different decisions been made,” Mrs Clinton said. The United States would pledge $900 million (£638 million) to Gaza, she added.
Saudi Arabia has already earmarked £1 billion, and it looked likely that the conference would raise the $2.8 billion that it is estimated is needed to rebuild the homes, factories and infrastructure that were destroyed in the blistering Israeli offensive against Gaza in December last year.
Neither Israel nor Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, were present at the conference, leaving it unclear how aid will be channelled to the Gaza Strip, where thousands of families are homeless and living off survival rations because of an Israeli blockade that has lasted almost two years.
| — Hat tip: Aeneas | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: White House Protests Jewish Construction
Closely monitors building in capital areas intimately tied to Judaism
President Obama’s administration is carefully monitoring Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem and has already protested to the highest levels of Israeli government about evidence found of housing expansion in those areas, according to informed Israeli officials speaking to WND.
The officials, who spoke on condition that their names be withheld, said in recent weeks Obama’s Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, oversaw the establishment of an apparatus based in the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that closely monitors eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods, incorporating regular tours on a daily basis.
Said one Israeli official: “If the U.S. notices even one bulldozer on the region of E1, they immediately call us on the level of [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and ask Olmert what that bulldozer is doing there and whether we are planning anything in Jerusalem.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy to Give $100 Million to Gaza
Israel must ‘make sacrifices’ for peace, Berlusconi says
(ANSA) — Sharm el-Sheikh, March 2 — Italy will contribute 100 million dollars to help Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Premier Silvio Berlusconi told an international donors’ conference here Monday.
Berlusconi also reiterated Italy’s idea for a ‘Marshall Plan’ for the Palestinian economy, saying it would be one of the priorities of Italy’s term at the helm of the Group of Eight this year.
‘‘There can be no real peace between two peoples divided by such different living standards,’’ he said, urging leaders from 70 countries to help raise Palestinian living standards.
Berlusconi reiterated that major hotel groups and top multinationals had been contacted with a view to building infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank, including airports to boost tourism to the Holy land.
The Italian premier also proposed a connection between the Dead Sea, whose level is dropping, and the Black Sea, to expand arable land and provide energy.
He offered the Sicilian town of Erice as a venue for peace talks that would reaffirm a two-state solution.
Berlusconi urged Israel to make ‘‘sacrifices’’ for peace.
He said Israel should form ‘‘a government that wants peace and make the sacrifices that peace entails’’.
The Italian premier also urged the two Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, to reconcile under the leadership of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, ‘‘the right person’’ to push for peace and oversee Gaza aid flows.
So far Hamas has refused to accept Abbas, posing question marks about how much aid will actually get into Gaza.
Hamas, an Islamist militant group which periodically fires rockets into Israel, is boycotted by Israel and the Western powers.
In all, the donors pledged around some $3 billion to help Gaza after an Israeli offensive that killed 1,300 people, wounded many more and left some 16,000 homeless. Before the conference, Berlusconi met with Abbas and had a working breakfast with leaders including United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and host Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Milliband: Palestinian State in Pre-1967 Borders
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 25 — The security of Israel is important for the security and stability of the Middle East, and will only come about with the creation of a Palestinian State which can live next to Israel. ‘This is why we clearly state that the Israeli settlements are illegal, that the Palestinian State must be created within the pre- June 1967 borders and that Jerusalem must me the common capital of the two States. The British position is clear’’. British Foreign Minister David Milliband made this statement to journalists in Cairo following a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his counterpart Ahmed Abul Gheit. Milliband also stressed ‘the importance for the countries in the region to support the Arab initiative (of February 2002, ed.) and the commitments of this initiative which grants Israel security and normalization with all the Arab countries in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian State. Since the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002, Saudi Arabia has proposed a peace plan for the Middle East by offering Israel recognition by all the Arab states — currently only Egypt and Jordan have signed peace treaties with Tel Aviv — in exchange for the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the occupied territories in the war of 1967. With regard to contacts under way between Al Fatah and Hamas, Milliband said that the commitment of the European Union is one of support for the founding of a transitional Palestinian government which includes the factions and which is made up of technocrats, under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). The Palestinian government will be ‘the result of Egyptian efforts in sponsoring inter-Palestinian reconciliation” said Milliband. Today in Cairo talks are under way with the Al Fatah group, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas, ahead of talks extended to include all the factions, due to start during the day. ‘We insist on the necessity for this future government to concentrate on humanitarian aid and reconstruction, apart from preparations for the elections. This government must re-establish the principle of a single Palestinian government and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) must have power over the West Bank and Gaza, because it is important to create one joint Palestinian State. This corresponds to our concept of the solution and the future of the Middle East’’, said Milliband. The conference for the reconstruction of Gaza, which takes place on March 2 in Sharm el Sheikh, and which Milliband will attend ‘must be centred around political and economic reconstruction’’ the British minister concluded. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Shalit: Press, Israel for Extended Contact With Hamas
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, FEBRUARY 27 — Israel desires to begin indirect and extended contact with Hamas in Cairo to agree on a prisoner exchange which will see the liberation of Israeli Corporal Ghilad Shalit who has been a prisoner in Gaza since 2006, affirmed the newspaper Yediot Ahronot. Yesterday an Israeli emissary, Ofer Dekel, arrived in Cairo with a list of 100 Palestinian detainees, all involved in the carrying out of serious attacks, who in exchange for Shalit, Israel could free together with another 100 prisoners held for more minor offences. Dekel, according to the paper, said that he was ready to return to Cairo next week if Hams shows the desire to close the negotiations. Israel, according to Yediot Ahronot, is proposing that Israeli and Hamas negotiators sit in separate rooms in Cairo with Egyptian officials going back and forth between them. (ANSAmed).
2009-02-27 10:09
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Any Criticism of Hamas Shouted Down in the Arab World
Al Ahram Weekly 12.02.2009 (Egypt)
Amr Hamzawy of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is sick to the teeth of hearing any criticism of Hamas shouted down in the Arab world. Criticism, so the argument goes, “constitutes an unhealthy departure from religious and national consensus and is at best an intellectual frivolity that must be put off until a later date. The danger of this position is that it carries totalitarian implications prohibiting the exercise of the intellect and any free expression of convictions when considering Hamas and its actions. The Arabs have long suffered the consequences of this type of silencing. After issuing a certificate exonerating Hamas of any responsibility for the war on Gaza and suspending rational enquiry into the movement’s choices and practices, the manufacturers of resistance narratives insist upon another type of exception, undermining freedom of thought and the right to differ.”
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Archbishop Hails Aziz Acquittal
Iraqi deputy PM ‘could not have acted differently’
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — The Catholic archbishop of Kirkuk on Monday hailed a decision by an Iraqi court to acquit Tareq Aziz, the Christian former Iraqi deputy premier under the Saddam Hussein regime, of crimes against humanity.
Msgr Louis Sako told ANSA that Monday’s ruling was just because Aziz ‘‘lived in a time and in a regime when he could not have acted any differently’’.
‘‘Aziz and other men in Saddam Hussein’s regime were working under an absolute, ruthless, totalitarian dictatorship in which anyone who opposed the leader was killed,’’ said Sako, describing Aziz as ‘‘a very educated man and a diplomat of great worth’’.
‘‘Tareq Aziz could not do any differently and now it is right that he is judged without the spirit of vendetta,’’ Sako said, calling for other Christians who collaborated with Saddam and who are awaiting justice should receive the same treatment.
Sako said Pope Benedict XVI ‘‘should be cheered’’ by the news of Aziz’s acquittal and called for an end to the death penalty in a democratic Iraq.
Aziz had been on trial along with 13 others for their roles in the killing and displacing of Shi’ite Muslims in Baghdad and the holy city of Najaf in 1999.
The Iraqi military was ordered to quash uprisings in the cities following the assassination of Shi’ite cleric Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr.
Three of the men on trial, including Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as Chemical Ali, were sentenced to death and four others received life imprisonment.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told ANSA that Aziz’s acquittal showed ‘‘the full independence’’ of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, which was set up to deal with genocide and war crimes committed between 1968 and 2003.
Aziz, 72, met Pope John Paul II in Rome in February 2003 in a peace-brokering mission, weeks before an American-led military strike toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.
He turned himself in to American soldiers the following April.
A Chaldean Catholic, Aziz was considered a protector of the Christian minority in Iraq and the only ‘presentable’ face of Saddam’s regime.
He is currently involved in two other trials.
In March, a ruling is expected on his role in the execution of 42 merchants and businessmen accused of manipulating food prices in Baghdad in 1992 when Iraq qas under United Nations sanctions.
On Monday, another trial began in which Aziz is accused of having a role in the killing and deportation of thousands of Shi’ite Kurds in 1983.
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Hillary Clinton Offers Handshake of Friendship to Syria
It was a brief but significant gesture: in the hubbub of the Gaza donor’s conference on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, Hillary Clinton shook hands and exchanged a few words today with her Syrian counterpart, Walid Mouallem.
In the Middle East, where even the slightest gesture is closely scrutinised, the brief encounter was seen as a sign that Washington was prepared to mend fences with Syria, whose leader Bashir al-Assad was treated as a pariah by the Bush Administration…
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Jordan: US Grant USD 100 Million for Development Projects
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, FEBRUARY 25 — The US agreed to provide Jordan with a total of USD 100 million in financial grants this year to help the kingdom carry out political and economic reform projects, an official said today. According to Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Suhair Al-Ali two thirds of the finance will be utilized to lift the financial burden on the treasury stemming from external debt. It will also be used to funding several development projects of the executive programme of the ‘We are All Jordan’ initiative within the National Agenda,” Al-Ali said, during the signing ceremony with officials from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Additionally, around USD 9 million, will go for economic opportunities and boost the partnership between the public and the private sectors and USD 19 million for the youth sector and fight poverty. Around USD 2 million to be invested in good governance and democracy programmes, said the minister in a statement. US officials hailed the relation with Jordan saying the amount of financial assistance is one of the highest in the world. “The agreements reaffirm our commitment to working with our Jordanian friends as they strive to build a better future for themselves and their children,” said US ambassador to Jordan Stephen Beecroft, during the ceremony. The US last year agreed to a USD 660 million economic and military assistance programme for 2009. (ANSAmed).
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Jordan: Prime Minister Reshuffles Cabinet
(by Mohammad Ben Hussein) (ANSAmed) — AMMAN, FEBURARY 23 — Jordan’s Prime Minister Nader Dahabi on Monday changed Foreign, Interior and Finance ministers in a broad government reshuffle to bring harmony within his team and strengthen his mandate ahead of economically and politically tough year. Foreign minister Salah el Bashir has been replaced by former minister of Communication and Media, Nasser Judeh, an outspoken US educated technocrat. Influential Interior Minister, Eid Fayes who helped restructure security apparatus in the aftermath of 2005 Al Qaeda bombing in Amman, in which 60 people died and 100 injured, has been replaced by former Interior Minister Nayef al Qadi. The announcement put an end to weeks of speculations. The new cabinet is expected to be sworn before King Abdullah later on Monday, said the newly arriving minister of political development, Musa Mayta, former head of a leftist party. Mayta’s arrival is seen as an attempt by authorities to bridge the gap with the opposition, which has been overlooked in the past few years when forming governments. The opposition said the government is not fulfilling promises to implement political reform by amending crucial legislations such as elections and political parties laws. With the arrival of Mayta, dialogue could be initiated between the two sides in the coming months. The reshuffle comes against the back drop of a the war on Gaza and an the arrival of hardliner Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, whose approach to the peace is far from what Jordan would hope. At least 8 new ministers were replaced including Finance Minister Salem Khazaleh, who shouldered the responsibility of lifting the country from its current economic doldrums in light of the global economic recession. Khazaleh was replaced by Omar Razaz in the Finance Ministry after being accused of acting too late to carry out an emergency plan that could have cushioned the economy from the ripples of the crisis. Dahabi’s new government of technocrats and western educated ministers will face an uphill battle to turn the economic wheel on and handle an ever complicated file of security, triggered by regional conflicts, said a former prime minister who preferred to be anonymous. Jordan, a country that depends on foreign assistance to keep its anemic economy alive, has been caught in the midst of a global economic recession. Official forecast for this fiscal year looks everything but positive amid soaring budget deficit due to shrinking revenues and cancellation of major investment projects by foreign and local investors. Unemployment and poverty, both at 14.5%, remain the most vexing challenges to face Dhahabi, along with a heavy foreign debt. Dahabi, former head of Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZA) does not have to present his government to the parliament for a vote of confidence, according to the Jordanian constitution. But he consulted with senior members of the house before putting the final touches on his first reshuffle. Dahabi’s government is the sixth since Abdullah took over in 1999 after his father, the late king Hussein. (ANSAmed).
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Lebanon: Israeli Spy “Head of Anti-Hezbollah Network”
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 18 — Reports from Beirut newspaper an-Nahar indicated that an alleged Lebanese spy, arrested and accused of working for Israel, had been managing a network with “more than 12 members” in southern Lebanon with the responsibility of pinpointing the operative centres of the anti-Israeli Shiite movement Hezbollah. “Well-informed” sources cited by the newspaper specified that Marwan F., a 40-year-old manager of a petrol station and car dealership in Nabatiye (about 60km south of Beirut) headed a spy network for the Israeli state and was attempting to monitor the movements of the Shiite militia, trying in particular to find the launch pads used for Hezbollah rockets. According to sources, Hezbollah secret services found the network headed by Marwan F. and notified the secret services of the Lebanese army. News of the arrest of an alleged Israeli spy was reported on Monday in the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, which has ties to the Shiite movement. (ANSAmed).
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Changes Codes After Arrest of Israeli Spy
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 19 — The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah has changed its security codes after the arrest of the alleged leader of a spy network who may have been active for years in the south of Lebanon, working for Israel collecting information on the armed wing of the Party of God, as reported by the Lebanese press this morning. The arrest was announced on Monday. Quoting a “source close to Hezbollah”, the Lebanese daily al-Balad pointed out that Marwan Faqih, alleged leader of a network of at least 12 spies and owner of a car dealership in Nabatiye (around 60km south of the capital), was arrested in January on indications from Hezbollah security services. The sources claims that Faqih was exposed “by accident”, when a car electrician found a small camera connected to a satellite communication device in one of the cars used by a Hezbollah member. After a more thorough search it was found that “dozens” of vehicles of the Party of God, purchased from Faqih’s dealership, had been equipped with the same device. According to the source, Faqih was considered to be a “trustworthy man” by Hezbollah. The Lebanese press has reported that the alleged spy had been working for Israel since the mid ‘90s. (ANSAmed).
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Missing US Journalist Roxana Saberi ‘Arrested’ in Iran
Iran said today that an Iranian-American journalist whose family have not heard from for three weeks was arrested for engaging in “illegal” activities because she continued to work after the Government revoked her press credentials.
Roxana Saberi, 31, who has reported from Tehran for the BBC and other news organisations, called her father in the United States on February 10, saying that she had been arrested for buying a bottle of wine.
“She called from an unknown place and said she’s been kept in detention,” Mr Saberi said from Fargo, North Dakota, where her family lives.
“She said that she had bought a bottle of wine and the person that sold it had reported it and then they came and arrested her,” he said, adding that the wine purchase was just an excuse to arrest her.
Ms Saberi said that she had already been held for ten days, and called back moments later to say that she would be released in two more days. Neither her family in the US nor her friends in Tehran have heard from her since. Mr Saberi said that he was going public with the information because of fears for his daughter’s safety.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry, which confirmed Ms Saberi’s arrest, did not say why her press credentials had been revoked in 2006, or whether she was still being held…
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Saudi Arabia: Education Deters Militants From More Violence, Says Official
Riyadh, 27 Feb. (AKI) — Only one in ten terrorists return to the Al-Qaeda terror network after completing re-education programmes in prison, a senior Saudi Arabian official has claimed. General Mansur Bin Sultan al-Turki, spokesman for the interior ministry, discussed the rate with the Arab daily, al-Quds al-Arabi.
He was interviewed after international concern about former Saudi detainees of the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba who have reportedly fled to neighbouring Yemen to rejoin Al-Qaeda terror cells there.
“Our re-education programme intends to give a new beginning to those who are stained by terror crimes in a way in which they can change their ideas and return to the straight and narrow,” he said.
“You have to say that attending this programme is not based on decisions by the authorities to free these terrorists from prison. Our programme continues once the former prisoners have left prison, and been reintegrated in society.
Saudi security officials have praised the methods used by the prisons in the country and their efforts to also force the prisoners to memorise Islam’s holy book, Koran.
A former detainee in the US military prison camp in Guantanamo who became an Al-Qaeda commander last week surrendered to the Saudi authorities.
Mohammed al-Awfi, who had been released from a Saudi centre for those returning from Guantanamo, appeared on an Al-Qaeda video last month to say he had joined the group’s regional wing in Yemen as a commander.
Awfi, was on a wanted list of 85 Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants issued by Saudi Arabia this month.
The announcement of the Saudi wanted list followed a move last month by Al-Qaeda’s branch in neighbouring Yemen to name Awfi and a fellow Saudi released from Guantanamo as commanders.
He reportedly contacted Saudi authorities before surrendering in neighbouring Yemen in February.
Saudi Arabia has put hundreds of militants through a rehabilitation programme which included education by clerics to “correct” their thinking and financial help to start a new life.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: USA Hopes IMF Deal Will be Signed, Ambassador
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 19 — The United States ambassador to Turkey expressed hope that a new agreement will be reached between Turkey and the International Monetary Fund, Hurriyet Daily reported. “This is a decision to be taken by Turkey and IMF, but as a friend of Turkey we hope that an agreement can be achieved”, James Jeffrey, US ambassador in Ankara, said at meeting held by the Turkish-American Business Association. Talks between the government and the IMF were suspended last month. Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the stall came after the IMF had “unacceptable demands”. Jeffrey, without elaborating further, noted that “U.S. believed the new IMF program could be beneficial to Turkey in this challenging environment”. “Turkey is a very attractive country for American investors, but there are a number of steps Turkey should take to make its economy more hospitable to foreign investment”, Jeffrey declared. (ANSAmed).
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Turkey: Corruption Fight at the Beginning, EU Head Delegation
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 19 — “Despite its efforts and progress, Turkey still has a considerable way to go to fight corruption and has to equip itself to cooperate at the EU-wide level”, Marc Pierini, Head of EU delegation in Turkey, said. “A transparent public administration, an efficient law enforcement system and an effective judiciary, as well as a strong and independent Council of Ethics are very important indicators of progress toward full application of the Rule of Law and ultimately of reinforcing democratic principles”, Pierini said during the conference on legislative and judicial ethics held in Ankara within the framework of a Council of Europe project. Pierini said corruption not only exists in Turkey but also in the EU countries. “This is why the EU has developed a large body of policies and instruments for the fight against corruption”, the official declared, assuring the European Commission’s support for Turkey in its fight against corruption. (ANSAmed).
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Turkey to Implement Reforms With or Without IMF, Minister
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 20 — Turkey is set to establishing economic reforms with or without International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the aim of bringing Turkey to the point where it does not need international institutions funds is the main aim, Economy Minister Mehmet Simsek said todday. An agreement with the IMF would be meaningful if it is inline with Turkey’s interests and provides relief and assistance during such a period, Simsek told reporters in a conference in Ankara. However, he said that Turkey should take the required steps and establish reforms with or without an agreement with the IMF. “But, what we need to do in principal is to initiate these reforms with or without the IMF and bring Turkey to a point where it would not need international institutions. “Talks between the IMF and Turkish government for a loan agreement are yet to be finalized. The negotiations between the parties were suspended in late January when Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the Fund made two unacceptable demands, the details of which he did not elaborate. The Turkish government has been criticized over its reluctance to seal an IMF deal, after the latest USD 10 billion accord expired in May, ahead of the upcoming local elections due to the spending curbs imposed by the Fund. (ANSAmed).
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Afghanistan: Taliban Bomb, Not Canadians, to Blame for Three Slain Children
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A Taliban improvised explosive device, possibly rigged from old Soviet munitions, is responsible for killing three young children and injuring another last week in a village southwest of Kandahar City, a Canadian investigation has found.
Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance said the children, thought to be 13, 10 and four, were likely foraging for scrap metal when they picked up the device and carried it to a nearby village where it went off. Their conclusions were based on the blast pattern, fragments found at the scene and eyewitness accounts.
Canadians do conduct firing ranges nearby, but Gen. Vance said they were not the cause of the explosion.
“Our ammunition did not and could not do this,” he said. “The results of the investigation are conclusive.”
The investigation was conducted by the military’s national investigation service in conjunction with the Afghan National Police.
Villagers had expressed anger about the firing ranges, saying they were too close to their homes, rattling windows and scaring women and children. Gen. Vance said Canadians conducted the range a safe distance away, but he understands their concerns.
“Out of respect for them we’ll move it somewhere else. It was a good spot to do a range. We’ll find another good spot.”
The Canadian findings contradict at least some accounts by villagers, who claim it was an incoming mortar round that killed the children.
The blast left a small crater in the sand near Mohammed Bin Rashid Village, a cluster of houses for disabled people, near the village of Salehan, about 15 kilometres southwest of Kandahar. The area is known both as a Taliban stronghold and one that is littered with landmines and unexploded ordinances.
The blast last week sparked a macabre protest in Kandahar City as angry villagers brought the mangled bodies of the dead boys to the front of a government office. Dozens of them yelled “death to Canadians” and other anti-western and anti-government slogans.
One man who lives close to Salehan said he’s still skeptical of the Canadian findings.
“I don’t believe Taliban planted the mine,” Mohammed Azim said. “The Taliban plant mines on the roadside or on routes officials and NATO troops use, but this wasn’t one of them — it was just a place where kids play, close to their homes.”
Collecting scrap metal to sell is a common way for people here to make money. Almost any time Canadian soldiers conduct a firing range they are followed closely by children and other villagers scrambling to pick up the bits of discarded shells.
Hajji Shah Baran, the Panjwai district chief said he is certain it was not the Canadians who caused the explosion.
“I have seen the fragments and they seemed old, perhaps left in the ground for long time,” Baran said. “I cannot say it was planted by the Taliban, I cannot say if it was brought by someone else, but I can say it was not fired or left by the Canadians.”
Kandahar Gov. Tooryalai Wesa confirmed the results of the investigation and said families will be compensated as a result of the blast.
Gen. Vance said he understands why villagers immediately assumed it was Canadians who were responsible for the deaths.
“I can’t imagine what goes through the mind of a parent who has just lost their children. Had it happened to me, if my daughter had died in such a way, I probably would have fired off in all directions too,” Gen. Vance said.
“I feel great sympathy for these people. The fact that it happened at all is the tragedy.”
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Burmese Refugees in Malaysia Abused, Handcuffed, Victims of Profiteers
Source talks to AsiaNews about visiting a refugee centre, describing its horrors: a hundred people living to a room without blankets to sleep; women humiliated and forced to strip; the canteen selling ordinary items at exorbitant prices; a profiteer who knows “everything about everybody.”
Yangon (AsiaNews) — Hundreds of Burmese are being held in remote Malaysian refugee centres, locked up and handcuffed in prison-like conditions. Relatives and friends are forced to be body searched and registered; unscrupulous merchants sell goods at exorbitant prices; women are abused, humiliated and forced to strip in front of guards. All of the refugees had to flee their homeland to escape abuses by the ruling military junta.
Without papers the refugees are treated like criminals, packed in rooms a hundred at a time without any basic human rights.
One source working for an NGO that is in touch with the refugees spoke to AsiaNews about one such centre, describing its horrors.
“It took us about four hours to reach there,” said the source, who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons. “It is situated in a very remote area where public transport is not made available. [. . . ] I gave my handset and identity card to the officers whereas my friends gave their passport and handset.”
This was followed by a body check by a female officer, and a statement to a counter officer that included “the name, sex and also body number” of the person visitors wanted to see.
During the “30 minutes” of waiting the source saw episodes indicative of the type of atmosphere that prevails in the centre.
“I saw one of the female detainees walking with a handcuff and that really caught my attention. I was very surprise and upset to see what was going on. I was just thinking to myself, why handcuff a female? How can she escape? Even if she escapes how could she get away because the detention centre is so isolated and far? It doesn’t make sense. She is not a criminal. Does she deserve this treatment just because she doesn’t have a proper document?
Talking to camp inmate is also prison-like. “We got a chance to speak to the detainees through a phone and see them through a glass,” the source said. “Each one is given an allocated time of approximately 15 minutes.”
“If we wanted to get something for them we had to buy it from the centre’s canteen. I was very surprised by the price of the things: it is so expensive. But we have no choice because we can’t bring in goods from outside.”
“When I commented about the price the shop owner said she had to pay RM 5000 for her monthly rent. That is why she has to charge more.”
A man in the canteen offered to sell airplane tickets, at a huge price that varied according to a prisoner’s ethnic background, Burmese or Vietnamese.
“Laughing while quoting” fares, the profiteer said that he was “so experienced that he could tell me how long an inmate had been detained. That shows how much he seems to know things in the centre; he seems to know everyone, from the officers to the detainees.”
“When I told him that prices were too high he told to keep quiet, otherwise prisoners might pays for my remarks.”
The stories refugees had to tell depict a world with harsh rules. Women are forced to “undress and squat”; are “humiliated and embarrassed”; forced to go topless like the men because not allowed to cover themselves.
“There are about 100 people to a room and not everyone has a blanket. Is that how we treat a person” who has fled his or her country without papers?
Lastly, the source launches an appeal on behalf of the refugees, that they not be forgotten: “For those of you out there doing your best to bring light at the end of the tunnel; please continue doing that. I believe the little light that we shine can make a difference. For those of you who are unable to do that, have courage. I believe it would make a big difference in others’ life.” (DS)
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Indonesia: Java Mudflow is Human Rights Threat, Says Key Body
Jakarta, 26 Feb. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — The displacement of thousands of mudflow victims from their homes in the East Java town of Sidoarjo by a mud volcano may constitute a human rights violation, Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights said.
Since May 2006, the volcano has been spewing out approximately 2,500 cubic metres of mud per day — equivalent to the contents of a dozen Olympic-size pools.
Levees have contained the mudflow since last November, but further breakouts are possible as the mud flow continues, experts have said.
The commission said it was highly unlikely the incident was a natural phenomenon and had instead been caused by PT Lapindo Brantas, a mining company owned by the family of coordinating welfare minister, Aburizal Bakrie.
The company should be held responsible for the devastating consequences of the disaster, the commission deputy head Hesti Amirwulan told journalists.
Besides displacing around 13,000 families from their homes, the mudflow also led to an explosion at a gas pipeline belonging to state-oil firm PT Pertamina, which killed 14 people (photo).
“There were deaths and injuries, and thousands of people were displaced from their homes, “ Hesti said. “The military was mobilised in the now-inundated areas to control the disaster. It is the commission’s task to see whether or not gross rights violations indeed took place.”
The commission on Tuesday called for the immediate establishment of an ad hoc investigation team to collect evidence related to the Sidoarjo case.
In its research it has found that violations of at least 15 economic, social and cultural rights of mudflow victims occurred during the displacement process.
Some of these included the right to settlement, food, health, education, security and to live and work.
The commission criticised the Indonesian government for issuing regulations that failed to protect the victims, while blaming local administrations for acting too slowly and showing negligence in dealing with victims and their rights.
It also accused central and local politicians of not paying sufficient attention to resolving the mudflow case early enough.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysian Government Defeated by History: Christians Have Used the Word “Allah” for Centuries
On February 27, the diocese of Kuala Lumpur is going to court against the government, which has prohibited the use of the term for reasons of safety. But the Constitution and history are on the side of the Christians. The Minister of the Interior has given permission to use the word “Allah,” but only if the phrase “for Christians only” is printed on the cover.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) — Next February 27, the first hearing will be held in the lawsuit of the archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur and the Catholic weekly Herald against the government, which has prohibited the use of the word “Allah” in Catholic publications. All of the Christian Churches of Malaysia are closely following the battle, which is creating problems for them as well, with bans and confiscations of books and catechisms. The prohibition comes from the ministry of interior security, according to which the use of the word “Allah” in a non-Islamic publication “could create confusion and harm public order.” The archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur is defending its right to use the word “Allah” by referring to article 10 of the Constitution (freedom of expression) and article 11 (freedom to practice one’s own religion). Without even mentioning that the archdiocese has on its side more than four centuries of documented history, in which the use of this term on the part of Christians has never created problems. In fact, Christians used the word “Allah” to refer to “God” even before the existence of the Malaysian state.
For more than a year, the weekly Herald has been the target of a press campaign and of criticisms on the part of Islamic associations and newspapers, which demand that the use of the word “Allah” be reserved only for Muslims. This is due to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the country, but also to the ambiguity of the legal system, which is secular in the Constitution, but influenced by religious membership and Islamic on the legislative level.
The central government seems not to want to expose itself too much in resolving the question, and is trying to find some sort of piecemeal solution. After the security minister prohibited the use of the word “Allah” and was taken to court, last February 16, in the official Gazette, the interior ministry published an order according to which all Christian publications are permitted to use the word “Allah,” but only if the front page clearly states that the publication is “for Christians only.”
For all of the Christian communities, this decision is insufficient. First of all, because it is “an exception” to a domestic security Order, which by norm affirms the “prohibition” of the use of the word “Allah.” The second reason is historical. From extensive documentation compiled by the Catholics in recent months, it clearly emerges that Christians have used the word “Allah” for more than four centuries. A Malay-Latin dictionary printed in 1631 demonstrates that for the Latin word “Deus” (“God”), the Malay word is “Allah.” This means that use of the term was widespread well before the publication of the dictionary. According to some Catholics, “the word ‘Allah’ is not a new word in the theological vocabulary of the Christians since the time of the Sultanate of Malacca [16th century], of the Straits Settlements [1826], of the Federation of Malaya [1948], and later of Malaysia [1963].” It is only in 1992 that a Malay dictionary appears defining the word “Allah” as “the God of Islam.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: More Beheadings in Troubled Muslim South
Narathiwat, 26 Feb. (AKI) — Suspected Islamist rebels have decapitated three people in Thailand’s Muslim dominated south in the past week, police said on Thursday.
Three people were killed late on Wednesday in the southern Thai province of Narathiwat , and one of the victims was decapitated, police said.
Forty-seven people, often soldiers, have been beheaded in Thailand’s three Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani since 2004. An estimated 3,300 people have been killed in the conflict.
Experts say the region’s Islamic schools or ‘pondok’ are fomenting the Islamist rebellion.
Demands by Thai Muslims include the introduction of Islamic law and making ethnic Pattani Malay (Yawi) a working language in the region. They also want an improvement in the local economy and education system.
The conflict began in January 2004 and reflects the long-standing alienation of the area’s inhabitants who are predominantly Malay in ethnicity and language and practising Muslims.
During the 1970s and 1980s secular ethnic Malay groups such as The United Front for the Independence of Pattani (Bersatu) and the Pattani United Liberation Organization (PULO) fought for a separate state in the region
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: Military: Reds Destroy P100m in Property
BACOLOD CITY, Philippines-At least P100 million worth of private property were bombed or torched by suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on Negros and Panay islands since last year, according to the military.
These included almost P70 million worth of communication facilities and heavy equipment owned by construction firms in the four provinces of Panay Island, according to Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Civil Relations Group in Western Visayas.
On Negros Island, about P32 million worth of farm equipment, four delivery trucks, communication facilities of Globe Telecom and facilities of sugar plantations were burned or bombed by rebels belonging to the Komiteng Rehiyonal-Negros, said Maj. Nathaniel Villasor, 303rd Infantry Brigade Civil Military Operations chief.
The reason for the destruction was the failure or refusal of the companies to pay the “revolutionary tax” demanded by the communist rebels, the two military officials said in a joint Army-police press conference at the Negros Press Club in Bacolod City.
The officers said investigation by the 303rd IB showed the NPA was charging sugar planters from P5,000 to P10,000 per hectare as revolutionary tax.
In terms of destruction to property, the hardest hit was northern Negros with more than P16 million in losses, they said.
“This only shows how desperate the NPA in Western Visayas is in getting funds to augment its logistical resources to sustain its armed struggle against the government,” Villasor and Marquez said.
Last week, suspected rebels raided for the fourth time since last year the farm of sugar planter Lope Consing in Cadiz City, burning two farm tractors estimated at P800,000, police said.
Villasor said they noted that the rebels stepped up raids in northern Negros after the pullout and redeployment of the Army’s 15th Infantry Battalion to Mindanao.
Lt. Mark Andrew Posadas of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division yesterday said they hoped the arrival of the 62nd Infantry Battalion from Samar would minimize if not totally stop the NPA attacks.
Records of the 303rd IB showed that from 2002 to January 14 this year, 67 civilians, including barangay officials, had been killed by the NPA.
Sixteen soldiers, policemen and militiamen were listed in military reports as victims of summary executions.
The Philippine Army in Western Visayas and the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office have issued a joint statement denouncing the “anti-people, anti-development” activities of the NPA, citing the continued burning of farm equipment, vital installations, liquidation of civilians, and recruitment and use of minors in propaganda activities.
The statement also denounced the silence of human rights groups on rights violations committed by the rebels and what they said were fabricated accusations leveled against them by activist organizations.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: MILF Rebels Attack Coastal Villages
COTABATO CITY, Philippines-Residents of coastal villages of Kalamansig town in Sultan Kudarat province fled anew due to fear of more attacks from Moro rebels, civilian and military officials said on Monday.
As this developed, a clash between soldiers and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Maguindanao left two soldiers wounded on Sunday.
Kalamansig Mayor Rolando Garcia said by phone that the still undetermined number of residents had sought refuge in the town center and in nearby Lebak town.
Garcia said the exodus started late last week amid reports of a renewed MILF aggression.
He said the fleeing residents were not taking any chance because of previous experiences.
Asked what has been triggering the attacks, Garcia said some Moro residents were claiming lands titled to Christian settlers.
In December, at least six civilians were killed when MILF rebels raided several coastal villages of Kalamansig and Senator Ninoy Aquino towns.
In January, the attack was repeated, prompting the military to conduct a series of air raids. At least 10 rebels were reportedly killed in the air strikes.
Major General Alfredo Cayton Jr., commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division based in Maguindanao, said he already ordered the deployment of additional troops to thwart any attempt by the rebels to attack Kalamansig villages.
Eid Kabalu, MILF civil-military affairs chief, said the offensive by MILF rebels in Sultan Kudarat was not organizational in nature.
He said some members were indeed locked up in land disputes with some residents and this triggered the attacks.
“It’s personal in nature,” he said.
In Maguindanao, government security forces intensified the manhunt against the group of MILF leader Ombra Kato.
“Two government troopers were wounded in a clash Sunday in the marshland of Maguindanao and North Cotabato following the intensified offensive,” Colonel Jonathan Ponce, 6th ID spokesperson, said.
He said the military believed that Kato’s group also suffered fatalities during the mid-afternoon clash in the village of Muslim in Datu Piang town but “we have no body count.”
Kato carries a bounty of P10 million for allegedly leading attacks on civilian communities in North Cotabato starting in July 2009.
At least 10 civilians were killed in the attacks that were allegedly triggered by the government’s indecision to sign the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD).
The MOA-AD, which would have given the MILF larger territory under an autonomous government, was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
S. Korea: [Editorial] ‘Terrorism’ in the Nat’l Assembly
Ruling Grand National Party lawmaker Chun Yu-ok at the National Assembly yesterday was attacked by several of women affiliated with Minkahyup, a coalition of families advocating democracy. They grabbed Chun’s hair and beat her face and neck while swearing. As Chun said, this brutal act clearly shows the dismal state of Korean democracy.
The attack is apparent retaliation for Chun’s push for a revision bill on a re-trial of the 1989 incident at Busan’s Dongeui University. In 2002, dozens of Dongeui students found guilty of the deaths of seven police officers in a 1989 protest were recognized as pro-democracy activists by the Commission for Democratization Movement Activists’ Honor-Restoration and Compensation. Chun challenged the decision Tuesday by saying she will submit a revised bill on a law to compensate those who took part in pro-democracy movements. Police also said Chun’s assailants committed the attack out of anger over her legislative activities.
Those involved in the university case received 25 million won (16,300 U.S. dollars) in compensation along with a government decoration. They have been hailed as “pro-democracy activists” though they killed seven police officers. Chun has stepped forward to correct a wrong of the left-leaning commission, a group which has turned violent protesters who burned police officers to death into freedom fighters. The assault against Chun, therefore, is tantamount to a challenge to free democracy.
The legislative activities of a lawmaker are simply not a right granted by the public and the Constitution, but also an obligation. Assaulting a legislator who does his or her job is an anti-constitutional act that negates the value of the Constitution, and also constitutes treason. As such, the assailants should undergo strict prosecution. Those who orchestrated the attack should be also brought to justice. Law enforcement agencies should also identify the involvement of the association of those involved in the Dongeui incident and the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement, which participated in a news conference to protest the revision in front of Chun’s office the same day.
Such a terrorist act that ignores law and order is closely related with the overall social atmosphere in which the public show little respect for law and order and law enforcement agencies. The lawmakers who took the lead in trampling on law and order by tearing down National Assembly facilities with hammers and power saws must first reflect on themselves.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
New Zealand: Three-Strike Law May Breach Rights
The proposed “three strikes and you’re out” law could lead to such severe punishment it would breach fundamental human rights of New Zealanders, according to the National Government’s own legal advice.
Attorney-General Chris Finlayson has found the three-strikes bill has an “apparent inconsistency” with the section of the Bill of Rights protecting New Zealanders against cruel, degrading or “disproportionately severe” punishment.
Three strikes would see those convicted of a third serious offence sentenced to life imprisonment with a 25-year non-parole period.
It is a key Act policy and has been introduced to Parliament by National as a condition of the minor party’s agreement to support the Key Administration — with National reserving judgment on whether it will support the legislation further.
As Attorney-General, Mr Finlayson is required to report any bill that appears inconsistent with the Bill of Rights.
His concerns relate to the inconsistencies it would lead to, such as “the imposition of a life sentence for offences that would otherwise be subject to a penalty of as little as five years”.
Mr Finlayson said this could lead to a sentencing judge effectively being left with a choice between a sentence of less than five years or a life sentence.
It could also lead to sentencing judges having to impose significantly more severe sentences on an offender on his third strike than on a more culpable, but non-qualifying, offender who committed a similar crime.
Mr Finlayson said the bill did not reflect the differences between an offender whose previous offences happened in the “distant past” and one who committed three crimes in quick succession without gaining convictions that would make him or her eligible for the three-strikes penalty.
He pointed out the existing provision for preventive detention already allowed for certain offenders to be kept in prison forever and applied to almost all of the three-strikes offences.
Mr Finlayson said the legislation could result in “disparities between offenders that are not rationally based” and “gross disproportionality at sentencing”, which raised the apparent inconsistency with the Bill of Rights.
The minister drew the conclusion even after noting a Supreme Court ruling that the particular section of the Bill of Rights could be invoked only when the punishment complained of reached “the very high threshold of outrageousness”.
Mr Finlayson’s report was done in his capacity as Attorney-General and is not his opinion as a National MP and minister. It is based on advice from the Crown Law Office.
The three-strikes provision was included in National’s Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill, which has gone to a select committee for consideration.
* Know your rights
What three strikes would do:
Criminals convicted for a third time of a serious violent offence will be sent to prison for life with a minimum non-parole period of 25 years.
What the Bill of Rights says:
Everyone has the right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
New Zealand: Change Bill of Rights, Says 3-Strikes MP
The Act MP who designed the proposed “three strikes and you’re out” law says if it breaches fundamental human rights, the solution is simple — change the Bill of Rights.
David Garrett dismissed a report by Attorney-General Chris Finlayson that found three strikes had an apparent inconsistency with the section of Bill of Rights protecting New Zealanders against cruel, degrading or disproportionately severe punishment.
Mr Garrett had not read the report, but told of its findings yesterday said: “So what?”
“Alter the Bill of Rights Act. We’ve got too hung up on people’s rights.”
Three strikes would see those convicted of a third serious offence sentenced to life imprisonment with a 25-year non-parole period.
As Attorney-General, Mr Finlayson is required to report on any bill that appears inconsistent with the Bill of Rights. The report is not his views as a National MP or minister.
Mr Garrett said the Attorney-General’s report focused on three strikes being punishment, when it was equally a protective measure.
“It is saying you have blown two chances; despite two warnings you have come out and done this behaviour again and we are not going to allow you to remain in the community to become a killer.”
Mr Garrett, a former legal adviser to the Sensible Sentencing Trust, said the concerns were not Mr Finlayson’s personally but those of “some oik in Crown Law”.
Mr Garrett said the Attorney-General’s report only pointed out that it “may” breach the Bill of Rights.
He said a full determination would be made by the courts and would not be relevant until the the first “three-striker” complained, which would be at least 15 years away. If the offender was successful, Parliament could change the Bill of Rights.
“I’m actually more interested in a victim’s rights than a criminal’s rights. We are talking about the “rights” of someone who has served at least two sentences for violent offending and just been sentenced to a third lot.
“I’m not interested in that person’s rights quite frankly. He should have the rights to be fed adequately, to get medical care and not to get tortured — and that’s it.”
Mr Garrett said official figures he obtained last year showed there were 78 killers in jail, who at the time they killed had already served at least three sentences for violence. This meant if there had been a three strikes law at the time “their victim wouldn’t have been killed because the killer would have been banged up”.
Three strikes is a key Act policy and has been introduced to Parliament by National as a condition of the minor party’s agreement to support the Key Administration — with National reserving judgment on whether it will support the legislation further.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Mauritania: Girls Being Force-Fed for Marriage as Junta Revives Fattening Farms
Campaigners in Mauritania accuse the new military regime of turning a blind eye to a cult of obesity among young girls being groomed for suitors
Mauritanian women wait to vote, but since a coup last year their rights are being eroded and old customs such as fattening for marriage are back. Photograph: EPA
Fears are growing for the fate of thousands of young girls in rural Mauritania, where campaigners say the cruel practice of force-feeding young girls for marriage is making a significant comeback since a military junta took over the West African country.
Aminetou Mint Ely, a women’s rights campaigner, said girls as young as five were still being subjected to the tradition of leblouh every year. The practice sees them tortured into swallowing gargantuan amounts of food and liquid — and consuming their vomit if they reject it.
“In Mauritania, a woman’s size indicates the amount of space she occupies in her husband’s heart,” said Mint Ely, head of the Association of Women Heads of Households. ‘‘We have gone backwards. We had a Ministry of Women’s Affairs. We had achieved a parliamentary quota of 20% of seats. We had female diplomats and governors. The military have set us back by decades, sending us back to our traditional roles. We no longer even have a ministry to talk to.” Mauritania has suffered a series of coups since independence from France in 1960. The latest, in August last year, saw General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz seize power after the elected president tried to sack him.
A children’s rights lawyer, Fatimata M’baye, echoed Ely’s pessimism. “I have never managed to bring a case in defence of a force-fed child. The politicians are scared of questioning their own traditions. Rural marriages usually take place under customary law or are overseen by a marabou (a Muslim preacher). No state official gets involved, so there is no arbiter to check on the age of the bride.” Yet, she said, Mauritania had signed both international and African treaties protecting the rights of the child.
Leblouh is intimately linked to early marriage and often involves a girl of five, seven or nine being obliged to eat excessively to achieve female roundness and corpulence, so that she can be married off as young as possible. Girls from rural families are taken for leblouh at special “fattening farms” where older women, or the children’s aunts or grandmothers, will administer pounded millet, camel’s milk and water in quantities that make them ill. A typical daily diet for a six-year-old will include two kilos of pounded millet, mixed with two cups of butter, as well as 20 litres of camel’s milk. “The fattening is done during the school holidays or in the rainy season when milk is plentiful,” said M’baye. “The girl is sent away from home without understanding why. She suffers but is told that being fat will bring her happiness. Matrons use sticks which they roll on the girl’s thighs, to break down tissue and hasten the process.”
Other leblouh practices include a subtle form of torture — zayar — using two sticks inserted each side of a toe. When a child refuses to drink or eat, the matron squeezes the sticks together, causing great pain. A successful fattening process will see a 12-year-old weigh 80kg. “If she vomits she must drink it. By the age of 15 she will look 30,” said M’baye…
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: El Piolin Interviews President Obama
President Obama was a guest on “El Piolin por La Mañana” (on of the nation’s popular radio shows that boast an enormous Latino following).
[…]
During the interview, Obama pledged his support of the Latino and immigrant community and his continuing commitment to fixing our broken immigration system. You can read the full transcript after the jump, but here is a good highlight:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I’ve said every time I’ve been on the show, Piolin, we’re going to make sure that we begin the process of dealing with the immigration system that’s broken. We’re going to start by really trying to work on how to improve the current system so that people who want to be naturalized, who want to become citizens, like you did, that they are able to do it; that it’s cheaper, that it’s faster, that they have an easier time in terms of sponsoring family members.
And then we’ve got to have comprehensive immigration reform. Now, you know, we need to get started working on it now. It’s going to take some time to move that forward, but I’m very committed to making it happen. And we’re going to be convening leadership on this issue so that we can start getting that legislation drawn up over the next several months.
[…]
Well, you know, the key thing right now is obviously we’ve got to make sure that all the people who are involved in immigration reform issues, that they sit down together and they start thinking about how we’re going to approach this problem. Politically it’s going to be tough. It’s probably tougher now than it was, partly because of the fact that the economy has gotten worse. So what I’ve got to do is I’ve got to focus on the economy, I’ve got to focus on housing, and make sure that people feel a little bit more secure; at the same time, get the various immigrant rights groups together and have them start providing some advice in terms of what strategies we’re going to pursue in Congress.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Immigrant Entrepreneurs Valuable Resource, Experts Agree
Rome, 24 Feb. (AKI) — The number of immigrant entrepreneurs is growing rapidly in Italy and they are making a significant contribution to the country’s growth and international development. That was the finding of several speakers who met in Rome on Tuesday as Italian Catholic aid groups, Caritas and Migrantes, presented the country’s first-ever report on the phenomenon.
“An important change is the number of immigrants who have set up their own businesses after working as employees for a number of years,” said the coordinator of the immigration report, Antonio Riccio.
Data from the Caritas-Migrantes dossier fed into the new ‘Immigrant entrepreneurs in Italy’ report, published with the Ethnoland Foundation.
“There are now 165,000 immigrants who own a company in Italy and the number is rising. This is a source of development for Italy and for immigrants’ countries of origin,” Riccio said.
The number of immigrant-owned firms has tripled since 2003 and is growing at a rate of around 20,000 per year — while the number of Italian-owned firms is declining.
Using data from the Bank of Italy, Riccio said immigrants now contribute 9.2 percent of Italy’s gross domestic product and the remittances they send back to their countries reached 6 billion euros in 2007.
For the Ethnoland Foundation’s president Otto Bitjoka, the fact that immigrants produce almost 10 percent of Italy’s GDP makes research on immigrant entrepreneurs “obligatory”.
“Immigrants have the same problems as other entrepreneurs, especially access to credit and training — without which there can be no growth,” Bitjoka stated.
The Ethnoland foundation was set up to give immigrants information on available business tools, to encourage entrepreneurship and to inform Italians, especially Italian trade associations and banks about them.
Most of the 83,578 immigrant-owned Italian companies currently operate in the industrial sector, and 65,549 are mainly Eastern European-owned building firms.
A total 77,515 entrepreneurs operate in services and 10,470 in the clothing, shoes and footwear sector, most of whom are Chinese.
Immigrant-owned firms generate employment for a total 500,000 people, a significant figure in the current economic recession, where joblessness is predicted to reach 8.2 percent this year.
Between 2003 and 2008, the number of companies owned by Romanian immigrants increased the most (61.2 percent), followed by Albanians (48.5 percent), Tunisians and Bangladeshis (38.5 and 38.0 percent respectively), Egyptians (32.2 percent) and Moroccans (27.4 percent).
The great majority of Moroccan entrepreneurs in Italy own trading companies, while Romanians and Albanians own building firms, and Chinese own manufacturing and trading businesses, according to the report.
The northeastern region of Lombardy has the greatest number of immigrant company-owners (30,000), followed by the centre-northern Emilia Romagna region (20,000), and the northern Piemonte and Veneto regions and central Lazio and Tuscany regions (with 15,000 each).
The concentration of immigrant entrepreneurs varies considerably from one region to another. The province of Milan and the province of Rome are those hosting the highest number (17,297 and 15,490 respectively), followed by the province of Turin (11,662).
Of the nearly 3.5 million foreigners who are legal residents in Italy, one in 21 is currently an entrepreneur, compared with one in ten Italians.
With the right assistance, the number of immigrant-owned companies in Italy could reach 365,000 employing over a million people, according to the Ethnoland Foundation.
Immigrant craftsmen (63,646) and female-owned businesses (27,000) are areas where there is particular potential for growth, Ethnoland noted.
Matilde Di Venere, the head of the Italian artisan association, Confartigianato’s Europe section said immigrant entrepreneurs were following in the footsteps of Italian small businesses of the 1960s and 1970s and said they were encountering similar problems.
“We are witnessing a very important phenomenon that needs to be monitored and met with policies and services,” Di Venere said.
“It is also a sign of integration in Italy because it means a network of contacts with institutions and the local community.”
Cumbersome Italian bureaucracy and poor legal knowledge, problems in obtaining and renewing permits of stay, non-recognition of academic and professional qualifications and access to credit are the main obstacles immigrant entrepreneurs face.
Di Venere and other speakers called for measures to help entrepreneurs who are among immigrants that have chosen “the legal route” especially as they are among the most vulnerable in a period of global recession and shrinking employment.
Italy’s Banking Association (ABI) is currently working to give immigrant entrepreneurs greater access to credit and take account of their evolving needs, in partnership with banks, firms and trade associations.
According to an ABI study, around 70 percent of immigrant entrepreneurs in Italy had banking facilities in 2006 and the figure has risen 12 percent in the past two years, the conference was told.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Immigrants Begin Street Patrols in Northern City
Padua, 27 Feb. (AKI) — Immigrants in the northern city of Padua were due late on Friday to begin street patrols, offering their own response to a recent wave of violent crime including rapes allegedly committed by immigrants against Italian women.
The patrols are the initiative of Egyptian-born journalist Ahmed Mohamed and the first ones were due to set off from the headquarters of local La9 TV station and head for Padova’s high-immigrant Stanga district.
Friday’s patrol was due to be led by representatives from the local Romanian, Bulgarian and Moroccan associations. Many of the rapes and other violent crimes against women that have recently shocked Italy have allegedly been committed by Romanians and Moroccans.
“It should be known that foreigners want the government to show zero tolerance to illegal immigrants and those who commit crimes — they damage the reputation of those of us who live respectably,” Mohamed told Adnkronos International (AKI).
“We are among immigrants who want more security and more of a sense of identity. We don’t just want rights but also a sense of duty towards our host country,” he added.
“Security must be guaranteed to all and crime does not have a particular skin colour. For this reason we want more safety on the streets and more legality,” Mohamed concluded.
In an tough emergency security decree issued last Friday, the conservative Italian government authorised unarmed patrols of ‘concerned citizens’. The controversial measure has stoked fears among the opposition that it will encourage gangs of vigilantes to roam Italy’s streets.
The emergency decree also provides for a mandatory life sentence for the rape of minors or attacks where the victim is murdered. It allows illegal immigrants to be kept in preventative custody for up to six months instead of two months previously.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: President of the Norwegian Parliament (Storting), Torbjoern Jagland, Warns Politicians Against Creating a Heated Debate on Immigration.
Instead, he calls for what he calls a reflected debate.
- This is very often the way it goes when it comes to immigration issues in this country. People quickly burst out with provoking comments and create opposition and conflicts. I think politicians too often contribute to this instead of trying to lead a civil dialogue and reflected discourse, Jagland says.
- It think it would be wise to have a reflected debate on what is suitable and what isn’t, and what is best for the Norwegian society, the President of the Storting says.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Submission in Advance
20 years after the fatwa was issued against Salman Rushdie, Islamism has the West more firmly in its grip than ever before. By Thierry Chervel
The Koran tells the truth — says the Koran. The Koran is just a story say “The Satanic Verses”. They blurt out the truth. They place the myth within a picaresque novel where revelation is constantly rearranging itself to conform to the vagaries of everyday politics. The “Verses” write themselves into historical conditionality, they tell how the myth was fabricated. The novel was written at the apex of the postmodern corrosion of the concept of truth. And that is recognisable in its tangled wilderness of miracles, versions and visions. But its goal is quite clearly blasphemy — at least, according to the administrators of that particular truth. Ayatollah Khomeini never read the novel, but he was quite clear about the challenge it contained and he acted accordingly — like the thunder god he is caricatured as in the novel.
Postmodern culture had not reckoned with the fury of the Ayatollah’s reaction. After all, was there ever a more peaceful time than the 1980s?
Yes, in 1968 left-wing intellectuals were still taking the run-up to a world-historical salto mortale, only to find themselves landing with bums in university chairs — pension entitlements included. But it was a cheerful awakening. The postmodern movement was an airy island of refuge for all those who no longer wished to believe in the “grand narratives.” In 1966 it had still been somewhat painful when Michel Foucault wrote off the dispute between Hegelians and Marxists as a tempest in a teapot. But now intellectuals were comfortably settling into a hammock of relative truths, reflexive constructions, ironic allusions. The theorists of world revolution, who had recently been so agitated, now divided the variegated world neatly into the pigeon-holes of systems theory, post-structuralism and gender studies. The situation seemed stable. Nothing was serious. Life was post-historical long before Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History.” Simulation theorists were having the time of their lives.
But today they are still nursing their bloody noses. Three reality shocks — the AIDS epidemic, the fatwa, and finally the collapse of the Wall — hauled them abruptly back down to earth. Or might they still be dreaming?…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Yes We Can Means No You Can’t
The WORld Management System (WORMS) is good at creating slogans that encourage people to act without thinking. It is a “talent” that has been cultivated for decades, Professor Ross L. Finney’s book, A Sociological Philosophy of Education, published in 1929 explained to students and fellow sociologists that they needed short slogans in order to force-feed their new philosophy of life. He wrote:
Granted that the old sayings now current express as a rule an antiquated philosophy of life, that only means that we need a new set of sayings. It is only by the use of such shorthand symbols that the minds of socii can operate together; and if our old symbols no longer epitomize the philosophy by which we are living, then we need new proverbs, slogans, couplets, catechisms, epigrams, and witticisms that will express that new philosophy of life by which we are to operate the new society.
As rapidly as possible we must reduce our new philosophy of epigrams, and drill them memoriter into the memories of dullards. Of course the new coinage waits upon the smelting of the new intellectual bullion; but the bullion must be minted as fast as it is produced. In the fields of the new humanities, accordingly, the phrase maker has a real function to perform. If his coins ring true, are beautiful, and of convenient size, they will soon find their way into general circulation, there to predetermine collective thought and action. We need a new Poor Richard! And it is principally through the schools that this new coinage of the collective intellect should be paid into general circulation. It is not enough that we teach children to think, we must actually force-feed them with the concentrated results of expert thinking. P. 394-495.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
this an an interesting article. for muslims obama is one of them:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/muslim-barack-obama-opinions-contributors_islamic_president.html?feed=rss_popstories
Obama willing to scrap plans for Europe-based missile defence systems if Russia promises to pressure Iran. It is painful to watch the stupidity of this administration in action.
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