Being Muslim doesn’t protect you from the Somali Pirates: a Turkish merchant vessel has been attacked.In other news, the Prophet Mohammed’s carpet was auctioned off for $5.5 million. The article doesn’t say whether the carpet flew unaided to its new owner.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, Gaia, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, islam o’phobe, JD, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Crisis: Spain; Seat, One-Year Wage-Freeze is Not Enough
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 20 — Management at Seat’s Martorell factory (Barcelona) do not think that the proposed one-year-long freeze on wages will be enough to enable it to produce the new Audi Q3 at the plant and thus avoid cutting 1,500 jobs. The measure was approved by a referendum held among the factory’s 13,000 workers and passed with a 65.5% majority of the workforce, but company bosses say it will be necessary to freeze wages for at least two years to avoid having production transferred to Bratislava. According to press reports, when presenting the group results Seat’s president, Eric Schmitt, stressed that ‘the referendum is an important step, but unfortunately says nothing on the two years without a wage rise”. It was an undertaking he had called on the two main unions to make. These are the Comisiones Obreras and CGT, which assumed a position opposed to the referendum. Speaking to the press, UGT General Secretary, Candido Mendez, for his part highlighted how “Seat workers have shown responsibility and that needs to be accompanied by austerity measures and cuts in the scandalously high dividends unjustly received by the managers of many large companies”. The chair of Seat’s board of directors and the vice president of the Volkswagen group received remunerations worth 9.5 million euro in 2008, according to a report in El Pais, compared to the 2.8 million received in 2007, while pocketing 6.5 million in stock options. Overall, the German group has almost trebled executive pay, going from 16.4 million to 45.3 million. Seat ended 2008 with earnings of 44.4 million euro thanks to revenues from dividends on group subsidiaries, including branches of the gear-maker, Gearbox. In fact, the group made an operating loss of 141 million compared to revenues of 44 million in 2007. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey-IMF: Erdogan Confirms His Opposition on New Condition
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 20 — Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, has reiterated his opposition to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditions for a stand-by agreement that had caused an indefinite suspension of the new deal, daily Today’s Zaman wrote. According to Erdogan “IMF must not act differently with Turkey and must abide by the predetermined rules of the negotiations”, hinting that “a deal is not likely to be determined otherwise”. The talks between the IMF and Turkish officials are still in progress with hopes boosted as the IMF recently suggested it may step back from its latest conditions. Speaking on a live broadcast on the TGRT Haber news channel, Erdogan stated that he has occasionally warned IMF officials to avoid the perception that Turkey is a country teetering on the verge of a collapse. “Stick with what was agreed to initially, and don’t change your conditions while the talks are in progress. I have told them that we will not welcome you if they come with new offers for every session of talks” the Prime Minister said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
What President Obama Should Know About Recessions
The tools are in place to get us out of the recession, and could already have been used to good effect.
Ideal and Actual Anti-Recession Policy
As macro-economies falter and the aggregate demand for labor falls, monetary authorities should automatically expand the money supply so as to quickly restore the original demand for labor and corresponding wage level. Failing to do so invites many workers to erroneously maintain their previous wage demands in the face of a falling aggregate demand for labor and thereby lose their jobs, creating inefficiently low aggregate employment levels.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Tale of Two Courageous County Sheriffs
All around us, the power of the federal government is manifested by hundreds of presidential executive orders, thousands of un-read legislation emanating from the U. S. Congress and millions of bureaucratic rules, regulations, restrictions and ordinances, issuing forth from the government’s massive bureaucracy … laws, rules, regulations, restrictions and ordinances that in most cases, bear no resemblance to constitutional law, much less constitutional authority. These people don’t seem to care about constitutional law or constitutional authority, they just do it, because they can and it takes an alert citizenry to challenge them.
How do you fight such a monster? The following story depicts one way…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Author, Activist Condemns Muslim Faith at Palm Beach Talk
Anyone who believes that Muslims can be assimilated into Western societies is in for a rude awakening, according to Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Ali, who spoke at The Society of the Four Arts Tuesday, has reason to suspect Muslims’ good will. She was born in Somalia, suffered genital mutilation as a child and was forced into an arranged marriage, according to her official biography. She rejected her Muslim faith and fled to The Netherlands, where she became a member of the Dutch parliament.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese-Made Drywall Ruining Homes, Owners Say
Homeowners’ lawsuits contend the drywall has caused them to suffer health problems such as headaches and sore throats and face huge repair expenses.
The drywall is alleged to have high levels of sulfur and, according to homeowners’ complaints, the sulfur-based gases smell of rotten eggs and corrode piping and wiring, causing electronics and appliances to fail.
[…]
In a neighborhood in Homestead, Florida, owners of homes with Chinese-manufactured drywall say the dwellings smell like rotten eggs, especially on humid days, according to CNN affiliate WPLG-TV.
Electronics and appliances with copper components stopped working in short order, and copper pipes and wiring turned black, homeowners told the Miami station.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s ‘Spend, Spend, Spend’ Budget Will Bankrupt America, Warns Top Republican
A top Republican who snubbed Barack Obama’s offer of a Cabinet post has dealt another damaging blow to the president by claiming his economic policies would bankrupt America.
Judd Gregg warned Mr Obama’s ‘spend, spend, spend’ budget plans would leave the U.S. trillions of pounds in debt.
‘This clearly creates a scenario where the country’s going to go bankrupt. It’s that simple,’ said the senator who changed his mind after initially accepting the Commerce Secretary job.
He spoke out as Mr Obama was preparing to address the nation in yet another attempt to sell his financial recovery plan to a sceptical public on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Set to Become Most Populous Country in EU
Soaring population will force millions to flee water shortages in search of refuge — and, according to new figures, Britain will be one of the world’s ‘lifeboats’. On the eve of a major population conference, Science Editor Robin McKie asks: could the UK cope?
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels ‘Recreating Soviet Bloc in Europe’
THE leader of the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, has warned that a “Europe of states” is in danger of turning into a “state of Europe”, legislating on almost every aspect of people’s lives but lacking in democracy and transparency.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, President Vaclav Klaus drew parallels between Brussels and the failed communist dictatorships of eastern Europe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Closer EU Integration in US Interest, Says Clinton
DEEPER EUROPEAN political integration, including the enhanced EU foreign policy role envisaged in the Lisbon Treaty, is in the United States’ national interest, according to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mrs Clinton said that, while treaty changes are strictly a matter for EU member states to decide, the Obama administration would welcome a more coherent foreign policy role.
“I think there would be advantages in having an interlocutor who represented decisions taken by the EU. It wouldn’t in any way eliminate the bilateral relations which the United States pursues with individual countries but on a number of matters, the EU being organised in that way could facilitate decisions,” she said.
“I believe [political integration is] in Europe’s interest and I believe that is in the United States’ interest because we want a strong Europe.
[…]
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Far-Right Dutch MP to Appeal British Ban
THE HAGUE (AFP) — Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, best known for the anti-Islam film “Fitna,” said Friday he had appealed against a decision by Britain to block his entry to the country in February.
“I have appealed to the British asylum and immigration tribunal,” the Dutch member of parliament told AFP, adding that he had a British and Dutch lawyer working on his case.
Wilders was detained by immigration officials on arrival at London’s Heathrow airport on February 12 before being sent home.
British authorities said he was turned back to stop him spreading “hatred and violent messages,” but the action was condemned by the Dutch government.
Wilders had been invited to screen his 17-minute film in the House of Lords. The private screening later went ahead in his absence.
The film, which likens Islam to Nazism and juxtaposes images of the 9/11 attacks with pictures of the Koran, has been described as “offensively anti-Islamic” by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Wilders declined to say whether his appeal had been accepted by the court, but said he would find out in 28 days when his first hearing would take place.
“I would like to be present (for the appeal) if the British authorities allow me to,” he said.
Asked to comment, a British ministry of justice spokeswoman said: “We are unable to comment on the detail of individual cases.”
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Madness: We Need to Cut Our Population in Half, Says UK Green Advisor
JONATHON PORRITT, one of Gordon Brown’s leading green advisers, is to warn that Britain must drastically reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society.
Porritt’s call will come at this week’s annual conference of the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), of which he is patron.
The trust will release research suggesting UK population must be cut to 30m if the country wants to feed itself sustainably.
Porritt said: “Population growth, plus economic growth, is putting the world under terrible pressure..
“Each person in Britain has far more impact on the environment than those in developing countries so cutting our population is one way to reduce that impact.”
Population growth is one of the most politically sensitive environmental problems. The issues it raises, including religion, culture and immigration policy, have proved too toxic for most green groups.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Hopes U.S. Will Not Let it Down on Shield
BRUSSELS (Reuters) — Poland said on Sunday it hoped the new U.S. administration would not abandon plans to station a missile defence system on its territory.
President Barack Obama’s administration is reviewing U.S. security policy, including the missile shield plan. This has prompted speculation he might shelve a project that has angered Moscow, with which Washington wants to mend ties.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Poland had taken “something of a political risk” in signing an agreement with the Bush administration to host the system.
“When we started discussing this with the United States, the U.S. assured us they would persuade the Russians that it was purely defensive and it would be a non-controversial decision,” he told the annual Brussels Forum conference.
“We signed with the old administration; we patiently wait for the new administration, and we hope we don’t regret our trust in the United States,” he said, adding that Russia had continued to threaten to deploy missiles near Poland if the shield were deployed.
At the same event, U.S. Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, who is expected to be named the new U.S. under secretary for arms control and international security, said the missile system would not be deployed until it had been proven to work.
She said the current missile threat to deployed troops and southern Europe was from short and medium-range missiles, against which there was already a defence capability.
She said NATO needed to develop a short- to medium-range system, something that could involve cooperation with Russia.
“We could certainly bolt on the long-range system once it has been tested and create a suite of systems that have complete coverage for everybody,” she said.
NATO member Poland has said it expects the shield project, designed to counter possible threats from what Washington calls rogue states such as Iran, to go ahead eventually after the review and hopes to complete technical talks next month.
Under the deal agreed last year, Poland would host 10 ground-based interceptors, and in return Washington promised to station a Patriot missile battery on Polish territory for a period before the end of 2009.
Warsaw sees that as a symbolic security guarantee to counter an assertive Russia, and U.S. and Polish diplomats say this will go ahead independently of any decision on the missile shield.
Russia opposed NATO’s admission of the three ex-communist countries in 1999 and is campaigning strongly against Georgia and Ukraine, former Soviet republics, being allowed to join an alliance that Russians still view with deep distrust.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A Common Sense Copper … at Last
Well done Sir Paul for putting police back on the beat. Now all we need are politicians who will reverse the OTHER stupid mistakes of the Sixties
Yes, you can turn the clock back. The stupid mistakes of the Sixties can be shown up for what they are, and people in positions of power can begin to reverse them.
I am greatly heartened by the words of Sir Paul Stephenson, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who said last week that police officers should return to patrolling the streets — alone.
Sir Paul has also said that ‘we have got to maximise the feeling that uniform is governing the streets so people feel safe to walk them’.
I am not sure how many years I have been arguing, in this column and elsewhere, that the whole point of the police force is to prevent crime and misbehaviour by being visible and accessible.
What I am sure of is that, when I first started, the official response — from government, from police chiefs, from ‘experts’ — was always the same. Foot patrols were an antiquated Victorian idea. They were futile, as they hardly ever interrupted a crime in progress. And there weren’t enough officers to do the job. Unconvinced, I and (after a while) some others argued back. The manpower excuse was a plain lie. We have never had so many police officers at any time in our history.
The point of foot patrols wasn’t to catch criminals after they’d broken the law, but to stop people doing bad things in the first place. They also put the police back in touch with the public, curing them of their current delusion that they are an elite corps and the public are irritating ‘civilians’. Their presence gives confidence to the law-supporting, who are then more willing to stand up against loutishness.
And Sir Paul grasps that it is essential that his officers normally patrol alone. Good for him. I’ve seen pairs of policemen so absorbed in their own chat that they’ve failed to notice offences being committed six feet away. Anyway, it’s much harder to approach them when there are two of them. You feel as if you’re interrupting something.
[…]
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bunglawala Will Not be Charged in Stabbing Incident
An influential Muslim who advises the Government on combating terrorism will not face charges, despite stabbing a man at his home.
Prosecutors have decided that Inayat Bunglawala acted in self-defence when a drunk turned up at his £300,000 house in Luton, Bedfordshire, in the early hours of the morning.
After a scuffle, the 25-year-old man was left bleeding from six knife wounds to his back, requiring emergency surgery that confined him to hospital for four days.
But the Crown Prosecution Service has accepted Mr Bunglawala’s version of events and has dropped the case — to the immense anger of the injured man and his family.
The man, who has asked to not be named, has no history of violent behaviour but admits he was drunk and that he has no recollection of the incident.
Mr Bunglawala, a prominent member of the Muslim Council Of Great Britain, says he was defending the home where he lives with his wife Tahmina and three young children from an intruder who smashed a window, attempted to kick in the door and — when confronted — tried to throttle him.
The man Mr Bunglawala stabbed used to live in the house and says that he arrived there following an evening of drinking in a local nightclub.
A friend put him into a taxi, paid the driver, and gave his drinking companion’s former address — unaware that he had moved out more than a year earlier.
Exactly what happened next is the crux of the case, but at 2.10am police arrived at the house.
They found the 25-year-old nearby, bleeding profusely, and arrested him on suspicion of burglary.
Later that day, December 13 last year, they also arrested Mr Bunglawala in connection with the stabbing.
He was later bailed and told friends: ‘I naturally believed that the intruder had violent intentions towards me and my family.’
The stabbed man said: ‘I was drunk. I remember the nightclub and the next thing I knew I woke up in hospital, bleeding profusely.
‘I had been stabbed six times. One of the stab wounds was an inch or so from my spleen and damage there could well have killed me.’
Two of his wounds were deep — one to the shoulder and another to his left side.
Surgeons at Luton and Dunstable Hospital had to open his abdomen to check for damage to internal organs.
When The Mail on Sunday first approached Mr Bunglawala about the incident, he instructed leading media lawyers Carter-Ruck, whose solicitors typically cost about £400 an hour.
On Friday, the firm sent a letter to this newspaper claiming that the ‘so-called “victim”‘ had attempted to unlawfully break into Mr Bunglawala’s home.
They said Mr Bunglawala called the police when he became aware that the man had got into a porch area and was kicking the front door, breaking a window in the process.
The lawyers say their client then got a knife in an attempt to scare off the man.
When he came out of the house, the drunk man ran at Mr Bunglawala, forcing him to the floor and trying to throttle him.
With the man on top of him, Mr Bunglawala apparently inflicted the stab wounds.
Last week, the Crown Prosecution Service said Mr Bunglawala had no case to answer.
A spokesman added: ‘Mr Bunglawala was clearly faced with an extremely frightening situation when confronted by a heavily intoxicated, confused and incoherent assailant who later remembered nothing of the incident.
‘Mr Bunglawala had good reason to fear, not only for his own safety but for that of his wife and children.
‘In the circumstances, we have insufficient evidence to show that Mr Bunglawala’s actions were other than reasonable self-defence.’
Mr Bunglawala is now said to be considering bringing charges against the man.
However, the parents of the 25-year-old, a heating engineer and a local government employee, said they were ‘sickened’ by the CPS’s decision not to prosecute.
His mother said: ‘Mr Bunglawala has been treated very lightly by the police and the CPS. My son is embarrassed that he was so drunk.’
Mr Bunglawala, a former civil servant with Revenue & Customs, was appointed to a Home Office taskforce tackling radicalisation in Britain after the July 7 London bombings in 2005.
He now runs an Islamic website.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Breaking News : Passengers Evacuated From Plane at Gatwick After Suspicious Package Found on Board
An Emirates airliner has been evacuated at London’s Gatwick Airport after report of ‘suspicious device’ on board, police say, according to CNN.
All passengers and crew have been taken off the aircraft which landed safely earlier Sunday morning following a flight from Dubai. The plane is now in a holding area, Sussex Police say.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Girl, 3, May Never Smile Again After Being Scarred for Life in ‘Devil Dog’ Attack
A three-year-old girl may never be able to smile again after being scarred for life by a ‘devil dog’ who had savaged another child months earlier.
The owner of the powerful Japanese Akita fighting dog escaped prosecution for the first attack, which left the boy, 7, requiring 40 stitches, because the animal was on ‘secured’ property.
But the family of first victim Charlie Faulding were furious the dog wasn’t put down and were taking legal action against its owner when another neighbour’s child was seriously mauled last week.
[…]
Mr Faulding, a horse trainer, said: ‘It is disgusting. To think the dog’s owner left this animal unguarded and near children.
‘He knew what this dog was capable of but he didn’t stop this little girl playing near it. It is simply unbelievable. It didn’t even have a muzzle on.
‘We have been fighting to have this devil dog destroyed since Charlie was attacked and the only thing that made that happen was another attack on an even younger child. That child could have died.’
The dog’s owner Mohammed Asam Bashir has now had Tyson put down. The first attack happened at his family home, where the dog was kept in a secure pen behind a wall and padlocked gate.
The second attack was at his business address at a different location.
Mr Bashir has been unavailable for comment.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Macedonia Holds Polls Crucial for EU Bid (AFP)
AFP — Macedonians began voting Sunday in presidential and local elections seen as crucial for the country’s EU membership bid, amid tight security to prevent violence that has marred previous polls.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Industry: Tunisia, Kromberg & Schubert Announces Hiring
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 20 — No crisis for the more than sixty foreign businesses that are involved in the production of cables for the automobile industry in Tunisia, reported Tunisie Affairé. The daily announced that Kromberg & Schubert will hire more than 600 workers by year’s end to employ in its Beja production facility, bringing the total number of employees to 2,000. Tunisia supplies 2% of the sector’s global needs and 6% of that of Europe (Italy, Germany, France), while the total number of employees on the national level is 25,000. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oil: Libyan Company Wants to Buy Canadian Verenex
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, MARCH 20 — The National Oil Corporation of Libya (NOC) has announced that it will exercise its “right of pre-emption” to buy Verenex, a Canadian oil company operating in Libya, blocking an offer made by Cnpc of China. “We will exercise our right of pre-emption to buy Verenex,” said NOC President Chokri Chanem, specifying that the company has not yet set a price for the offer to acquire Verenex, NOC’s partner in the Ghadames Basin, 250km south of Tripoli. Ten oil fields have been discovered by Verenex since it began activity in the Ghadames Basin in September of 2006. At the end of February, the company had announced that it received a 400 million dollar offer from Cnpc, which needed to be approved by two-thirds of the shareholders and NOC as a partner company. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Auction: Prophet Mohammed’s Carpet Sold for USD 5.5 Mln
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, MARCH 20 — A pearl-studded carpet believed to have been created in India more than 100 years ago as a gift for the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed has been sold in Qatar for almost $5.5 million dollars, the auctioneers said as reported by Arabian Business online. Sotheby’s auction house said it had expected bidding for the Pearl Carpet of Baroda to start at $5 million and believed it would fetch a much higher price. But the starting price was brought down to 4.5 million dollars because there were few buyers, Sotheby’s spokesman Habib Basha said in Doha. “We had to reduce the opening bid to 4.5 million and the pearl carpet (eventually) sold at $5.458 million, including commission and fees,” he said. The eventual buyer was one of three bidders but he wishes to remain anonymous, Basha added. The carpet is traditionally believed to have been commissioned by the maharajah of Baroda as a gift for the prophet’s tomb, which is located in the Muslim holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia, Sotheby’s said on its website. The maharajah died before the donation was made and the pearl carpet remained in his family. It has an entirely embellished surface, studded with an estimated two million natural seed pearls known as “basra” which were harvested from the waters of the Gulf, it said. The carpet was exhibited in 1902-3 as a highlight of the great Delhi Exhibition, and was later moved to Monaco. It was showcased again over 80 years later in 1985 in New York. The carpet was among a host of Islamic art items on auction in Doha. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Auto: Turkey; 1 Millionth Car Manufactured at Toyota
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 20 — Japanese automotive giant Toyota manufactured its one millionth car at its factory in the northwestern town of Adapazari, daily Sabah wrote. Japanese executive Maruwasa said that the company would not fire any employees despite the current economic crisis. According to Tamer Unlu, CEO of the company’s Turkey branch, “Toyota’s investments in Turkey had reached 1.2 billion euros”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s Khamenei Says Obama Overture Not Enough
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei says Tehran seeks U.S. policy shifts, not merely ‘changes in words.’ The U.S., he says, could begin by ending economic sanctions and retracting ‘hostile propaganda.’
Reporting from Tehran and Beirut — Iran’s most powerful figure dismissed President Obama’s extraordinary Persian New Year greeting, insisting Saturday that the U.S. administration’s actions must match its rhetoric before Tehran would alter its foreign policy, in an apparent attempt to keep the political establishment unified behind an anti-American posture.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is Iran’s highest spiritual, military and political authority, told supporters in his hometown of Mashhad that “changes in words” would not be enough to convince Iran that the Obama administration was sincere in its outlook.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Held on Suspicion of Plane Bomb Hoax
(AFP) LONDON (AFP) — Police arrested a man Sunday on suspicion of being involved with a bomb hoax, after a note was found on an Emirates plane suggesting there was a suspicious device on board.
The note was found about ten minutes before flight EK 011 from Dubai to London, carrying 184 passengers, touched down safely at the capital’s Gatwick Airport, the airline said.
It prompted explosives experts to search the plane and luggage while officials interviewed passengers.
Sussex Police said a man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a bomb hoax following the incident, which they were called to at 6.48am Sunday.
“This was potentially an extremely serious situation and we immediately mounted an emergency response,” Chief Inspector Ed Henriet said.
“All the agencies worked together to provide a coordinated response and minimise disruption and the airport operated as normal during this time.”
An Emirates spokesman said later that the plane had been “thoroughly inspected by the airport authorities and has been now given all relevant clearances.”
He added: “For Emirates the safety of its crew and passengers is of paramount importance.”
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Tourism: Iranians Prefer Turkey During Nevruz Holiday
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 20 — Iranian people preferred Turkey as a tourist destination during the Nevruz holiday that is tomorrow, Anatolia News Agency wrote. “More than 16,000 Iranian people entered Turkey through the Gurbulak border crossing in the last three days to spend the Nevruz holiday”, the executives of the Gurbulak Customs Directorate, said.. The authorities said the Iranian people would spend their vacation in various parts of Turkey and they went to holiday resorts in Turkey by Turkish buses. Nevruz, the world’s oldest festival which is celebrated by festivities under various names in many communities, is being celebrated in the Turkish World as “the beginning of the new year in Turkish calendar with 12 zodiac divisions represented by animals”, since 5000 years. Some accept this day as the day God created Earth, some as the day Prophet Noah stepped on Earth after the Flood. Some accepts it as the day first human-being is created and some as the messenger of Spring. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: 64,000 Unregistered Weapons Seized in 5 Years
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 18 — The number of unregistered weapons seized by Turkish police in the last five years has risen to 64,897, and the authorities are also working on the social aspects of stray bullet fire, Today’s Zaman reported. With a tradition of firing guns at weddings, circumcision ceremonies and when sending men off to perform their compulsory military service, Turks fire guns on a fairly frequent basis, which has been confirmed by research conducted by an American anti-firearms organization. Seven hundred people are killed in Turkey annually by stray fire, leaving behind a tearful trail of mothers and fathers, friends and relatives. According to the group’s study, Turkey is first in the world in gunfire as part of celebratory events. According to the study, countries like Turkey, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have a serious problem with firearm control. The Turkish National Police Department has tightened inspections regarding firearms after the organization’s study painted this negative picture. Those about to hold weddings or large feasts or other parties are summoned to the local police station in some areas and warned not to fire weapons at the events. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Children Drawn Into Armenia Row
Serdar Kaya is 43 and has never been to court before; now he’s suing the Turkish ministry of education.
The father of an 11-year old girl, Mr Kaya is angry that she was forced to watch what he calls a “very bloody propaganda film” at school.
Sari Gelin, or “Blonde Bride”, was commissioned by the Turkish General Staff and distributed in recent months by the education ministry.
It is an attempt to counter what Turkey calls “baseless” claims that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against the Armenians in 1915.
The DVD was sent to all elementary schools with a note instructing teachers to show it to pupils and report back.
At the school of Mr Kaya’s daughter, children as young as six had to watch.
“This film is not fit for adults, let alone children,” he says. Serdar Kaya Serdar Kaya has applied to the courts to sue the Turkish education minister
“They’re promoting discrimination, branding certain people as ‘others’ and teaching children to do the same. My daughter will not be part of this enmity.”
Mr Kaya has applied to the courts to sue Education Minister Huseyin Celik, arguing the film incites ethnic hatred against Armenians.
There are around 50,000 Turkish-Armenians left in Turkey, mostly in Istanbul.
[…]
| — Hat tip: islam o’phobe | [Return to headlines] |
Piracy: Somali Pirates Attack Turkish Commercial Vessel
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 20 — The Turkish General Staff said that pirates staged an attack on a Turkish commercial vessel named MV Ulusoy 8 in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday night. General Metin Gurak, the head of the Communication Department of the General Staff, also said that Turkish Giresun frigate, assigned to protect commercial vessels against piracy in the Gulf of Aden, prevented the attack. In 2008 pirates attacked 111 ships in the waterway, hijacking 42 of them and receiving tens of millions of dollars in ransoms. Three of these vessels were Turkish cargo ships. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: 17 Dead and 50 Lost in Shipwreck
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 20 — An inflatable boat headed for Italy with about one hundred people on board sank yesterday afternoon off the coast of Sfax, Tunisia, causing 17 deaths and 50 missing, though 33 people were taken to safety by the Tunisian Navy, reported the Tunisian Arab language newspaper ‘Achourouk’ today. According to initial reports, the vessel left Sunday afternoon from Libya to then enter Tunisian waters, presumably heading towards Italy. Near the Kerkennah Islands, the vessel, which was carrying twice its capacity, sank. The Tunisian Navy was alerted by a telephone call from one of the passengers and some fishermen managed to rescue 33 people and recover 17 bodies. About 50 people, women and children among them, are currently missing. It seems that the organiser of the voyage was a Libyan who charged each passenger 1,200 dollars. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fury as British Taxpayers Set to Fund New Detention Centre in Calais for Illegal Immigrants Trying to Get in to Britain
A new detention centre for illegal immigrants near Calais has received planning permission and is near construction, it emerged today.
A government document obtained by the Sunday Telegraph shows that Britain is funding half of the cost of the 500,000 euro (£470,000) centre in the French port, where migrants have been sleeping rough as they try to smuggle themselves into the UK.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Andrew Bostom: From the Armenian Golgotha to the Holocaust—foreshadowing Attitudes of the German Military?
Grigoris Balakian, 1876-1934: “The German officers would often speak of us as Christian Jews and as blood sucking usurers of the Turkish people.”
This past week I was privileged to receive an advance copy of the soon to be released (March 31, 2009, according to the publisher, Random House) first time English translation of Grigoris Balakian’s epic personal memoir of the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1918, “Hai Koghkotan,” “The Armenian Golgotha,” originally published in Vienna, in 1922. The 1922 volume 1, and the second volume (which apparently “fell into a void for lack of funding,” was found among Grigoris Balakian’s sister Rosa Antreassian’s post-humous papers in 1956, and published in Paris in 1959) are presented in a very accessible, elegant English translation by Grigoris Balakian’s grandnephew, Professor Peter Balakian—an accomplished scholar of the Armenian Genocide himself—with the able assistance of two colleagues, Anahid Yeremian, and Aris Sevag.
Modern genocide historians who have been wont to re-examine the disintegrating Ottoman Empire’s World War I jihad genocide against its Armenian minority through the prism of The Holocaust, often cite a comment by Hitler that the mass killings of the Armenians served the Nazi leaders as an “inspirational” precedent for predictable impunity. During August of 1939, Hitler gave speeches in preparation for the looming invasion of Poland which admonished his military commanders to wage a brutal, merciless campaign, and assure rapid victory. Hitler portrayed the impending invasion as the initial step of a vision to “secure the living space we need,” and ultimately, “redistribute the world.” In an explicit reference to the Armenians, “Who after all is today speaking of the destruction of the Armenians?,” Hitler justified their annihilation (and the world’s consignment of this genocide to oblivion) as an accepted new world order because, “The world believes only in success.”
Grigoris Balakian’s eyewitness account of events from 1915-1918—recorded in his diaries during World War I, and already published by 1922—provide a unique, independent confirmation of this ideological, and genocidal nexus, and antedate The Holocaust by two decades. Specifically, Balakian’s striking observations (on pp. 280-281) from a chapter entitled, “The Treatment of the Armenians by the German Soldiers” capture attitudes of German military officers towards the Armenians that foreshadow, chillingly, the genocidal depredations they would inflict upon European Jewry during World War II…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
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