There are several stories tonight about the Algerian presidential election. Most observers say it is a sham, and that the other candidates are just there for show. President Bouteflika will coast to an easy “re-election”, consolidate his power, and crush the remaining opposition. Algeria will move that much closer to full dictatorship.In other news, an Australian hospital chapel has removed all crosses and Bibles so as not to offend Muslim patients and visitors.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Steen, TB, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Expect Greater Irregular Migrant Flows, Barroso Says
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 8 — Because of the crisis which is affecting poorer countries especially, the European Union is predicting an increase in the flow of irregular migrants. The statement was made by EU Commission president José Manuel Durao Barroso during a press conference in Brussels today. Barroso said that “Yes, the flow of immigration is increasing, and especially that of the irregular kind”. He reported that EU Commissioner for Justice, Jacques Barrot, informed the board about existing contacts with Libyan authorities who indicated such a possibility exists. Barroso emphasised that the EU will strengthen all available instruments together with Member States to counter this phenomenon.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fiat CEO Back in the USA
Marchionne working to seal deal with Chrysler
(ANSA) — Rome, April 9 — Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is back in Detroit Thursday to put the final touches on a partnership with American automaker Chrysler before the April 30 deadline to seal the deal in order to receive some $6 billion in federal bail-out funds.
The deadline was set last month by the United States President Barack Obama, who gave his support to an alliance between the two automakers in order to keep Chrysler from failing.
The alliances center on Fiat initially receiving 20% of Chrysler in exchange for its cutting-edge green technology and platforms for smaller cars.
Fiat, which will later be able to increase its stake to as much as 49%, will also get access to Chrysler plants and dealerships in the US to produce and sell its own cars, at first returning Alfa Romeo to the American market and introducing its trendy Fiat 500 city car.
Negotiations are currently focusing on convincing Chrysler’s lenders to convert debt into stakes in Chrysler-Fiat and unions to reduce costly benefits in exchange for shares in the company.
Speaking on Wednesday, Chrysler Vice Chairman Jim Presse said he didn’t see “any reason why this is not going to happen”.
To symbolise the potential strength of an alliance between the two automakers, Chrysler has put on display a Fiat 500 at its stand at the New York car show alongside its new Jeep Grand Cherokee.
“Imagine the scope of our production line together. We’re going from viable to formidable,” Presse added.
There is also a possibility that Chrysler will be allowed to fail and to be piloted through a surgical restructuring to eliminate the bulk of its debt and union obligations.
In the event Chrysler does go bankrupt, Fiat could buy what assets it wanted and avoid having to run Chrysler as it is now.
After Detroit, Marchionne may stop in at the New York car show before or after going to Washington to meet with Obama administration officials.
The Fiat CEO, who earned his reputation with his remarkable feat in turning around the Italian automaker, recently said that once the current global economic crisis is over the world would be left with only six automakers and each would have to sell at least six million cars a year to survive.
Fiat last year sold just over two million and Chrysler some 1.5 billion.
Fiat also has alliances with India’s Tata Motors and China’s Chery.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Company Executives Held Hostage Again
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, APRIL 8 — Last night, workers of a French division of a British industrial tape producing company who are on strike, held four company executives hostage to protest the closing of the company. The four executives of ‘Scapa France’, located in the eastern part of the country on the Swiss border, spent the night at the factory according to reports from police. The Scapa group, based in Great Britain, employs 1,500 people worldwide, and about 60 in their French division. This is the most recent in a series of company executives who have been held hostage by their employees in France. In the past weeks, Sony France, 3M, and Caterpillar executives have all been held hostage by workers after announcing lay-offs. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Unemployment Rate Could Reach 18% in 2009
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, APRIL 8 — Serbian National Employment Service (NSZ) expects that the unemployment rate in Serbia could increase from current 14% to 17-18%, Director of the NSZ department for employment mediation Dragan Djukic stated, reports Tanjug news agency. “As far as this year’s employment fluctuation is concerned, there is no drastic increase compared to the same period in 2008. We monitor the situation, we expect an increase of unemployment, we will see to what degree, some rough estimations show that it can rise to about 17-18% by the end of the year,” Djukic told the reporters. At the opening of the employment fair Career days 2009 at the Belgrade Arena Wednesday, Djukic said that the consequences of the global economic crisis are yet to be felt in Serbia, whereupon the stress from job loss is the most prevalent. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Internet Tyranny
The Internet now effortlessly connects us to the wider world in which our sociopolitical context is formed. We listen to radio talk-show hosts from across the country and around the world through audio streaming on the Internet. We stay in touch with friends and family through e-mail and, increasingly, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Perhaps much more importantly for those of you reading this, we get our news and our political commentary, reinforcing our political beliefs and lending support to our political worldview, through sites like this one — and through discussion boards where we gather with those of like mind.
What would be the result, then, of suddenly cutting you off from your access to the Internet, either entirely or through bandwidth and content restrictions? It would be a violation of your First Amendment rights greater than any power grab or infringement on civil rights that has been perpetrated by governments past and present, because of the sheer scope of those affected. Every modern citizen, with few exceptions, relies on the Internet to varying degrees. Those who seek to control and constrain the Internet, therefore, are the world’s worst would-be tyrants, whose efforts must be resisted at all costs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s G20 Plan Kisses Off Declaration of Independence
New international board to intervene in decisions about U.S. companies
At the G20 meeting in London, President Obama agreed to create of an international board with authority to intervene in U.S. corporations by dictating executive compensation and approving or disapproving business management decisions, Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports.
Political consultant Dick Morris said that by agreeing to create the Financial Stability Board, Obama is a “willing accomplice” to a decision that effectively repealed the U.S. Declaration of Independence and abrogated the sovereignty of the United States.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Most Chilling Words Since ‘New World Order’
Last weekend, speaking in Prague, Barack Obama took the New World Order rhetoric to soaring new heights.
“All nations must come together to build a stronger, global regime,” he said.
Assert your right as a sovereign citizen of the U.S. and repudiate moves toward global government: Sign WND’s new petition, a Re-declaration of Independence
While Bush’s earlier phrase set off alarms in some circles, it was ambiguous enough to allow for plausible deniability that he actually intended to work toward some sort of “world government.” Obama’s choice of words leaves little doubt about what he means.
Though few have so far questioned his desire “to build a stronger, global regime,” the words are clear.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Anarchist Activity Spikes Ahead of May Day Protests
An alarming spike in arson attacks by presumed anarchists in Berlin has sparked fears that traditional May Day anti-capitalist protests could see the worst violence in recent years.
According to Berlin police figures, over 70 cars — mainly upmarket models such as BMWs and Mercedes Benzes — have already been torched since January, compared to just over 100 for the whole of last year.
And as May Day approaches, arson attacks and other violent incidents have intensified — scarcely a night passes without more burnt-out cars on the streets and assaults on businesses throughout the city.
Violence has marred May 1 in Berlin for more than two decades, but a police strategy of restraint and de-escalation, combined with the swift arrest of troublemakers, has sharply reduced related crime in the past three years.
Nevertheless, police are bracing themselves for major protests throughout the city. “We are preparing ourselves, we are planning our force deployment accordingly,” police spokesman Thomas Goldack said.
The radicals are getting ready too.
In the early hours of Wednesday, around 250 left-wing activists gathered in a park in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, built a huge bonfire from stolen wooden pallets and threw bottles at a passing unmarked police car.
Meanwhile, two BMWs and a Volkswagen were torched in a different part of Berlin, with police saying they “could not rule out a political motive” for the acts.
In another act of apparently politically inspired violence earlier in the week, masked hooligans lobbed bottles and stones at the offices of German software company SAP.
More than 1,000 police officers are expected to be mobilised in case of violence on May 1.
Goldack said protests against this month’s NATO summit on the Franco-German border and the G20 meeting in London had apparently galvanised the violent parts of the left-wing activist movement.
“We saw a similar rise” in the run-up to the G8 meeting in Germany two years ago, he said.
Violent demonstrations by militant vandals against creeping gentrification in some of Berlin’s left-leaning districts are also on the rise.
In Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, the epicentre of the unrest in recent months, four different bars and cafes have found themselves the targets of particularly nasty attacks, including the spraying of foul-smelling butyric acid in toilets.
Anger has also been stoked both by the global financial crisis, which is hitting Germany hard, and rising rents in formerly cheap neighbourhoods.
Anna Schneider, a spokeswoman for the organisation “United We Stay” told AFP that “30,000 people face the risk of not being able to afford living” in the borough any more.
One resident, Gabriele Weser, who has lived in the district for 50 years, said her apartment was renovated in 1997 and the rental price has since rocketed.
She is convinced that “the soul of the neighbourhood has been sold to the capitalist devil.”
Rising unemployment and economic gloom, combined with the seething anger of many from Berlin’s poorer districts could erupt in violent clashes during some of the city’s 26th May Day demonstrations.
The protesters are also steeling themselves for an especially active May Day. According to one activist website, antifa.de , more than 20 different groups are set to march under the banner “Capitalism = War and Crisis.”
They are also set to target 1,000 neo-Nazis who are planning to march in southeastern Berlin.
“Burn, capitalism, burn,” the slogan on the site says.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Russian Investment on the Rise, Central Bank
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, APRIL 1 — Russian deposits in Cypriot banks were on the rise, at a time when other countries are losing Russian investors, Cyprus’ Central Bank said. The information, as Cyprus Mail reports today, was released by the Minister of Finance Charilaos Stavrakis who linked the development with the future possibility of decreasing bank loan interest rates. “The last official information from the Central Bank shows an increase in Russian deposits in Cyprus. This is a very positive development, which supports the policy followed for many months by the Ministry of Finance and the government to capture the Russian market, attract investment, deposits and capital,” Stavrakis said. The Minister also pointed out the importance of such a development during an international financial crisis, when other countries are losing Russian capital. Stavrakis also said that interest rates in Cyprus will slowly be decreasing, as banks gain more deposits. “At present there is a large reduction in deposit interest rates and the next step, which we all expect to see, is a reduction in lending interest rates. My prediction is that by the end of the year we will have deposit account interest rates at 2% and loan interest rates at 4%,” he said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Earthquake: Italy May Accept U.S. Help, Berlusconi Says
(ANSAmed) — L’AQUILA, APRIL 7 — Italy may accept help from the United States following the L’Aquila earthquake, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said today. After initially turning down offers of help that have poured in from abroad, Berlusconi appeared to change his mind after receiving “a long phone call” from US President Barack Obama as he toured temporary camps set up to house those who had lost their homes in the disaster. “If the United States wants to give a tangible sign of its solidarity with Italy it could take on the responsibility of rebuilding heritage sites and churches,” Berlusconi said. “We would be very happy to have this support”. The premier said Obama had said this was “an excellent idea” and would discuss it when the two leaders meet in Washington on a date yet to be set. Berlusconi said another alternative would be for the US to help rebuild “a small district of a town or a suburb” so that it could say “this was done with our contribution”. Many historic buildings and churches in L’Aquila were destroyed or damaged in Monday’s earthquake, including the apse of the Abruzzo city’s largest Romanesque church, the 13th-century Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio, and the cupola of the 17th-century Anime Sante church designed by Giuseppe Valadier. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Woman With Burqa Refused Council Housing
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, APRIL 8 — A family was prevented from moving into a council flat in Venissieux, on the outskirts of Lyon, because the mother of the family wears a burqa. In a letter from the Venissieux council housing association, parts of which were published today by the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchainé, the authorities explained that “the woman wears a burqa, which characterizes a radical religious practice incompatible with the essential values of the French community.” The prefecture of the Rodano region has confirmed receiving a letter from the authorities last July in which reference was made to the fact that “the wife wears a burqa,” and that this was used to justify “the rejection of the family’s request for accommodation as decided on by the prefecture.” A spokesperson from the prefecture said that “the prefecture had advised the family to turn to the anti-discrimination watchdog (Halde),” but did not give the nationality nor the origins of the couple in question. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Heroes and Old Trucks — the Two Italys
Incredible devotion to duty and self-centredness — the ancient contrasts of Italy in an emergency
Leading fire officer Marco Cavagna lost his life while attempting to save those of other people. He and his colleagues left Bergamo at dawn, bound for L’Aquila. By evening, Marco was looking for survivors among the rubble of the broken city. A stab of pain and he collapsed. We can only hope that at least the ambulance was working. For like many other courageous, selfless heroes, the firefighters who rushed to Abruzzo from all over Italy often arrived in elderly, ramshackle vehicles, fire engines lumbering under the weight of 20 or more years’ service. Some of them spluttered and ground to a halt on the motorways and, like the mules of yesteryear, refused to move any further.
These are the two faces of the Italian state as it squares up to what Guido Bertolaso called “the tragedy of the millennium”…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Half of Spanish Have Prejudices Against Muslims
(ANSAmed) — MADRID — One in two Spaniards (52%) has a negative opinion on Muslim people and almost the same number (46%) admits having prejudices against Jews, whilst 24% are suspicious of Christians. This data emerged from the second Annual Report for Dialogue carried out by the Pew Research Center and presented at the Alliance of Civilisations Forum which came to a close yesterday in Istanbul. The study, which has been reported on by the EFE press agency, shows a worrying situation since there are ever-decreasing numbers of people who support the idea of dialogue between cultures and religions. There are some countries, however, that show a higher rate of prejudice against Muslims: Japan (60%), India (56%), China (55%) and Brazil (53%). Furthermore, the percentages are very high when looking at the perception of Jewish people in many countries: in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt more than 95% of people have a negative opinion — double that reported in Spain. Turkey too, despite the fact that its government is a supporter of the Alliance of Civilisations, just like Spain’s (led by Jose’ Luis Rodriguez Zapatero), is an example of poor backing of intercultural dialogue. If, in 2004, 44% of Turkish people had a negative opinion of Christians, this number has risen to 74% today, says the recent report by Pew Research Centre. What is more, 76% of Turkish people say that they do not have a positive opinion of Jews. The analysis also relates the results of opinion surveys on religious issues published by the media up to the present day, such as the war in Gaza and the terrorist attacks in India. The research shows that Islam continues to be stereotypically associated with ‘terrorism’ and the West continues to be bound to the concept of ‘domination’ in 80% of the information analysed. This hardly paints the picture that the ‘diplomacy of dialogue’, promoted by the Alliance of Civilisations, has had positive effects on global public opinion in weakening prejudices, which instead seem to have been strengthened. Zapatero’s project, which Turkish PM Erdogan enthusiastically signed up to, aims to open a window of dialogue between the West and the Arab-Muslim world, from Maghreb North Africa to China. But the vision of a peaceful, multicultural world is in sharp contrast to the reticence shown thus far. The Pew Research Center’s analysis actually shows a need to give impulse to tolerance by mitigating conflicts and trying to change cultural paradigms which feed religious and political antagonism and prejudices. Within this concept, the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, proposed at the City Dialogue Forum in Istanbul that his city become the base of the Secretariat of the Alliance of Civilisations, insisting on the fact that social cohesion “is the best weapon against conflict” in an urban context marked by diversity. Hereu, say city hall sources, has indicated effective tools for avoiding segregation and favouring popular cohesion intercultural dialogue in his “city, educational, economic and cultural policies”. The Mayor of Barcelona highlighted the importance of coordination and diplomacy across cities to define the limits of knowledge and shared action for civil life and peace. The Mayor of Gaza, representing the Palestinian Association of City Halls, Mageed Abou Ramadan, affirmed that if, before, the West “was only associated with attacks”, the children and young people know that there is “space for collaboration with the West, too”, thanks to the cooperation between cities. But the road to break down prejudices still appears to be long and fraught with difficulties. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Young Bangladeshi Man ‘Attacked in Capital’
Rome, 1 April (AKI) — A young Bangladeshi was beaten, insulted and robbed by a group of five white youths as he returned home late on Saturday in Rome’s mixed Pigneto neighbourhood, he said on Monday.
The youths allegedly smashed a beer bottle in 22-year-old Abdul Kashem’s face, which gashed his neck and left his face covered with cuts.
Doctors at the nearby Vannini hospital confirmed the cuts to Kashem’s face were consistent with “an act of agression” and said they would need a week to heal.
Kashem said the youths also stole his wallet containing 140 euros and his mobile phone — which they then threw on the ground, complaining that it wasn’t a recent enough model.
He said that before the youths ran off, they told him: “Go back home to your country.”
“They were all white and spoke Italian well,” said Kashem.
“I don’t have an Italian permit of stay, so I couldn’t report the attack to the police,” he added, explaining that friends had convinced him to speak publicly about the attack.
It came less than a week after a 35-year-old Pakistani man was left in a coma after a gang of youths savagely attacked him in Rome’s deprived Tor Bella Monaca suburb. The incident drew condemnation from Pakistan’s ambassador to Italy, Tasnim Aslam.
In February, Bangladesh’s ambassador to Italy Masud Bin Momen deplored a series of attacks in Rome that had targeted Bangladeshi immigrants. In one incident a 39-year-old T-shirt seller was kicked and punched by a group of youths who allegedly called him “a dirty nigger” and stole his mobile phone.
In another incident, an Italian youth tried to set on fire three teenage Bangladeshi migrants with a spray can and a lighter, using it as a flame-thrower. The attack took place in central Rome’s multi-ethnic Esquiline neighbourhood.
Earlier in February, a homeless Indian labourer was beaten and set alight in a vicious attack in that left him with a fractured skull and burns to 40 percent of his body. The attack occurred in the coastal town of Nettuno, in the Lazio region surrounding Rome.
That attack drew criticism from Italian politicians from across the political spectrum and from the immigrant community.
Resentment towards immigrants has grown in Italy has increased in recent years as the country has become a target for mass immigration, a change that has brought severe political and social strains.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Two Frances, One a Bourgeois Paradise; the Other, an Urban Fear Zone
A grumbling, low-intensity civil war
by Theodore Dalrymple
Opening Le Figaro for March 16, however, one discovers another France: far away, it is true, both socially and geographically, but nonetheless existent and not without its importance. An article with the headline THE POLICE ARE MORE AND MORE THE TARGET OF AMBUSHES AND GUNSHOTS recounted how the police and other emergency services had been ambushed in the banlieues of Paris the night before, and ten policemen were injured by shots from hunting weapons.
A pattern seems to be emerging. The services get called out to a banlieue—in the latest case, to attend to a power outage, deliberately caused by youthful residents—and then groups of these youths, often no older than 15, confident that they remain virtually untouchable by the law, confront them with a hail of stones. A gun is then discharged on the police from somewhere or other. In the latest incident, 24 policemen were fired at, though “only” ten were injured.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Transport: Messina Bridge to Employ 40,000, Minister Says
(ANSAmed) — ROME — A total of 40,000 people will be employed in the proposed building of a bridge across the Messina Strait, linking Sicily to the mainland, Public Works Minister Altero Matteoli said. Had the government’s economic committee CIPE last month not approved some 17.8 billion euros in funds for a package of infrastructure projects, including the bridge, “we would have lost 65,000 jobs. But thanks to the package we will have 140,000 more jobs,” he added. Aside from the Messina bridge, the 17.8 billion euros will be used for the construction or completion of various key motorways, including links in northern Italy and a long-delayed highway extension between Salerno and Reggio Calabria, building new schools and prisons and key infrastructures for the Milan 2015 World’s Fair. The Messina bridge project was originally presented by Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s 2001-2006 government, when it had been a key campaign promise in the 2001 general election, but was later shelved during the two-year centre-left government headed by Romano Prodi. According to Prodi’s transport minister, Alessandro Bianchi, the multi-billion-euro project, was “the most useless and damaging project in Italy in the last 100 years”. However, during his successful election campaign last spring, Berlusconi renewed his pledge to build the bridge. The Messina bridge, which once built would be the longest suspension bridge in the world, has been hailed by Berlusconi’s government as a huge job-creation scheme that would give Italy’s image a major boost while bringing Sicily closer to the mainland in both physical and social terms. But it has been opposed by environmentalists and dogged by concerns over its safety and fears of potential Mafia involvement. When and if completed, the bridge would replace slow ferry services between Sicily and the mainland. The 3,690-metre-long bridge has been designed to handle 4,500 cars an hour and 200 trains a day. Work on the 6.5-billion-euro structure was originally scheduled to start in late 2006 and end in 2012. (ANSAmed). Current estimates are for getting construction started in mid-2010 and completing the bridge in 2016.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Terror Chief Quits After Security Blunder
LONDON, England (CNN) — Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer resigned Thursday, the London mayor’s office said, a day after he accidentally exposed a sensitive document about a terrorism investigation.
Police rushed to make a series of raids in northwest England after two news photographers at the prime minister’s residence captured Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick carrying a document containing the names of those to be arrested.
Hundreds of officers raided 10 properties and arrested 12 men, including 10 Pakistani nationals on student visas and one Briton.
The men arrested were involved in a “very serious” plot closely associated with al Qaeda and escaped al Qaeda operative Rashid Rauf, whom British intelligence have linked to the 2006 plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners, according to a security source with knowledge of the investigation.
Quick later apologized for his blunder. “I have today offered my resignation in the knowledge that my action could have compromised a major counter-terrorism operation,” Quick said in a statement.
“I deeply regret the disruption caused to colleagues undertaking the operation and remain grateful for the way in which they adapted quickly and professionally to a revised time scale.”
Steve Back, one of the photographers who snapped the image, said he was at 10 Downing Street to cover a breakfast meeting of more than 30 chief constables. He photographed Quick as he arrived towards the end of the meeting, he said.
“I didn’t know what I had until I put it in my computer,” Back told CNN. He zoomed in and was able to read parts of the document, with “SECRET” printed atop the page.
“This is a Security service led investigation into suspected AQ (al Qaeda) driven attack planning within the UK,” the document read.
It described the “planned detention” of 11 people in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.
Ironically, the bottom of the document read, “Media strategy has been ratified.”
Resigning was the only acceptable option for Quick, counter-terrorism analyst Will Geddes told CNN.
The blunder “does raise major concerns which would have led to a very major inquiry,” Geddes said.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson said he continued to hold Quick in the highest regard despite his error…
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UK: Boy Left Paralysed After Being Accidentally Run Over by His Father Sues Him for £9million
A boy of nine has sued his own father for £9million after he accidentally ran him over in the family car during a day out to a farm.
Callum Eriksson was left paralysed from the neck down following the horrific accident.
Today his mother explained how she has been forced to sue her ex-husband for causing Callum’s injuries to ensure that her son will be looked after for the rest of his life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Binmen Blockaded by Furious Householder After They Refuse to Take Garden Waste… Because it Had Five Stones in it
As showdowns go it was less High Noon, more the Breakfast Time Bin Bust-up.
On one side was a pyjama-clad householder armed with two wheelie bins. On the other, a council dustcart and its three-man crew.
But when Jason Bilton took on the binmen over their ‘jobsworth’ attitude, it turned into a stand-off that saw him holding them hostage in his street for a whole hour.
Mr Bilton saw red when the rubbish collectors refused to empty his neighbour’s wheelie bin because it contained five small stones and a sweet wrapper.
The council workers were collecting garden waste to be turned into compost — and according to the rulebook the stones, none bigger than a golf ball, and the wrapper were household waste.
Even when Mr Bilton, 39, removed the offending items, the dustmen still refused to empty the brown bin. It was apparently ‘contaminated’ with the household waste.
Stunned by such petty bureaucracy, Mr Bilton wheeled two bins into the road, trapping the lorry and its crew in the cul-de-sac in Royston, Hertfordshire..
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hamza Sons Stole £1million Worth of Luxury Cars to Fund Party Lifestyle
Three sons of the firebrand Islamic preacher Abu Hamza could face jail after yesterday admitting taking part in a £1million stolen car fraud.
Hamza Kamel, 22, Mohamed Mostafa, 27, and their 28-year-old step brother Mohssin Ghailam used the cash to fund a ‘party lifestyle’.
One of the co-accused also admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply.
The trio and three friends selected expensive cars, including models by BMW and Mercedes, belonging to owners who they knew spent long periods away from home.
Once the gang, all from West London, established the owners were away they would write to the DVLA, posing as the car owner.
They would claim to have moved and request a new log book be sent to an address.
The DVLA would then write to the registered address saying that unless it received a reply within 21 days a new log book would be posted to the bogus address.
After receiving the new documents the gang used them to change the owner to an alias.
They then used the log book to obtain replacement keys from dealerships to get around the cars’ security systems.
Some of the vehicles were sold on to unsuspecting buyers, sold abroad or used as collateral against loans taken out under false names.
The gang would default on the loan, keep the cash and the car would disappear, leaving the loan company out of pocket.
A source said: ‘The total value of the scam, including the value of the cars and the loans, was about £1million.’
These guys were just using the money for themselves. Anti-terrorist police investigated the finances and there is no evidence at all this money was spent on terrorism. They just used the cash to party.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mother Who Smacked Her Son With Hairbrush in a ‘Moment of Madness’ is Forced to Give Him Up to Social Services
A mother had her eight-year-old son taken away and put into care after she smacked him with a hairbrush for refusing to get ready for school.
The 42-year-old woman was forced to give him up to social services, after a ‘moment of madness’ when the youngster would not dress himself in the morning.
She was holding a hairbrush at the time and struck him twice on the shoulder in a bid to hurry him up.
The woman immediately apologised but her fit of frustration landed her in court after a teacher spotted the boy in pain and informed child protection officers.
The boy was then taken into emergency foster care — and the mother was ordered to appear before magistrates charged with assault.
She is now allowed to see her son for only two hours per week after pleading guilty to assault by beating.
South Somerset Magistrate’s Court heard the woman, from Yeovil, Somerset, wanted her son to look ‘perfect’ for school.
Prosecutor Judy Morris then described the boy’s subsequent behaviour and said: ‘The teacher said the boy appeared to be happy, but said his shoulder hurt and when interviewed on video said he had got up late and his mum was angry and sad.
‘She then hit him on the shoulder once with the back and once with the spikes of the hairbrush.
‘He said he was not scared of his mum, although she was really stressed out and thought she needed help as she wanted him to be perfect.’
The court heard the boy’s mother immediately apologised before taking him to school, where he later told a teacher that he was in pain.
Last night a spokesman for Somerset Council said:’Children’s Social Care are working closely with the mother to enable her to return to caring for her son.’
They refused to discuss the background to the case, or the reasons for their extreme intervention which is bound to re-fuel the debate over the smacking of children by parents.
It is illegal for a parent to hit a child if it leaves a bruise but a lighter smack or ‘reasonable chastisement’ is allowed.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK:G20 Policeman Suspended as New Pictures Reveal Victim’s Drunken Clash With Officers Shortly Before He Collapsed
A police officer caught on camera hitting a man at the G20 demonstrations in London has been suspended, it emerged tonight.
Footage taken at last week’s protests showed the policeman striking newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson and shoving him to the ground during the protests near the Bank of England. Mr Tomlinson later collapsed and died.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said tonight the officer in question had been suspended from his post.
The move came as new images revealed Mr Tomlinson had had a drunken confrontation with police just 85 minutes before he collapsed.
He can be seen deliberately blocking a police van before refusing to be moved on by an officer in riot gear.
The photographs emerged just hours after a new video which seems to show that the father-of-nine had been hit three times by police.
The footage, recovered from a broken TV news camera, clearly shows a police officer hitting the back of Mr Tomlinson’s legs with a metal baton.
It appears to back up earlier film taken by a City fund manager and released on Tuesday night, which showed an officer striking the homeless alcoholic with a baton and then shoving him to the ground.
However, the fresh pictures, which were taken by IT worker Ross Hardy, seem to complicate events surrounding the 47-year-old’s death.
‘I’d been watching some of the protests and saw this older guy standing in the road,’ he said.
‘Cops were there already but a police riot van was trying to make its way up the road towards the Bank of England.
‘Tomlinson stood out because of his football shirt and seemed in his own little world.
‘It was weird. The van approached and a cop leaned out to shout at him to get out of the way.
‘But he didn’t go anywhere. He just mumbled something and raised his arm a bit unsteadily.
‘It was then it became obvious he was drunk because he wasn’t really coherent and couldn’t move well.
‘The officer yelled at him again and when he didn’t move the riot van moved slowly up against him.
‘It just nudged him gently but Tomlinson still didn’t get out of the way. They tried nudging him again.
‘When that didn’t work four riot police moved in and dragged him on to the pavement.
‘The van moved past but Tomlinson stuck around for at least another half an hour.’
The second video, which emerged last night, shows several officers standing around failing to help Mr Tomlinson while the officer who apparently attacked him is filmed chatting to what appears to be a more senior officer.
The second video — taken by a Channel 4 News cameraman — raises yet more questions about why it took a week for it to emerge that Mr Tomlinson clashed with police before his death on April 1…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
NATO: Croatia, Albania Favour Entrance of Bosnia and Kosovo
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, APRIL 7 -Albania and Croatia supported Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo’s entrance into NATO during a ceremony today in Brussels that greeted Tirana and Zagreb’s entrance into the Alliance. Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha spoke of the need to open the doors to the Alliance to other countries in the western Balkans. “An expansion of NATO to the Balkans is fundamental and is very important to the stability of the region,” agreed the two leaders. Albania and Croatia officially entered into NATO on Wednesday April 1. This morning both of their flags were raised in front of NATO general headquarters, together with those of the other 26 allies. Their entrance was decided upon at a NATO summit in Bucharest, which froze Macedonia’s invitation due to veto imposed by Greece due to a bilateral dispute over their name. (ANSAmed).
2009-04-07 15:29
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Protesters Demand Resignation of Mayor Over Roma Eviction
Belgrade, 8 April (AKI) — Several non-governmental organisations protested in front of the Serbian capital Belgrade’s city hall on Wednesday, demanding the resignation of mayor Dragan Djilas over the recent eviction of Roma-Gypsy areas from a section of New Belgrade.
There are several make-shift Roma settlements in the Serbian capital, known as “carton cities”, but Djilas ordered bulldozers to move in last Friday, razing to the ground some fifty improvised Roma homes even before the eviction notice was given to them.
Djilas said the area had to be cleared for the World University Games to be held in Belgrade in July. The city authorities had tried to resettle the Roma-Gypsy families to containers in another Belgrade suburb of Boljevci only to meet stiff resistance from locals.
One container was set on fire and scores of families have been spending nights outside in the cold.
The protesters on Wednesday carried banners reading “Djilas resign”, “Roma Our Neighbour” and “Stop racism and discrimination”.
Djilas said the authorities would provide a shelter for Roma families which had a legal residence status in Belgrade, but it is feared that thousands of Roma-Gypsies had no residence status in the capital because they had fled from Kosovo last year.
Goran Miletic, a representative of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, told the crowd that authorities had to tackle the problems of the Roma-Gypsies urgently and called for punishing all those who advocated racial and ethnic hate.
The protests coincided with the World Roma Day and a plea by rights group Amnesty International calling on the Serbian authorities “to comply with their international obligations” and to provide basic human rights to some half a million Roma-Gypsy people living in Serbia.
“Forced evictions — carried out without assurances of alternative accommodation — are a grave violation of human rights,” said Sian Jones, Amnesty International’s researcher on Serbia.
“Eviction under these circumstances violates the right to an adequate standard of living, including the right to adequate housing, food and water as guaranteed under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Serbia is a party,” Jones added.
Serbian minister of Labor and social policy, Rasim Ljajic, said the government would enact an urgent package of measures to help the neediest Roma families.
“The position of the Roma has improved in recent years, but is still far from satisfactory,” Ljajic said. “Roma are ten times poorer that the rest of the population,” he added.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Algerian Election: Just a Formality
No surprises, nothing at stake, even less a competition, as formal as they may be, the presidential election to be held on April 9th in Algeria will simply be a formality for continuity. Nothing will prevent the president in power, Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, running as an “independent candidate” from succeeding himself to hold his third mandate as Head of State. How did this come about?! And why has change been discarded as an option?
The better informed observers have come to the conclusion that the result of these elections were announced on November 12th 2008, when a review of the constitution was approved by the two chambers of parliament amending Article 74 of the 1996 Constitution that restricted presidents to serving two mandates. The real objective of this constitutional amendment, introduced five months before the election date, was obviously that of removing the constitutional obstacle preventing Mr. Bouteflika from maintaining his presidential appointment for one more mandate. Now nothing will prevent him from governing for the rest of his life, following the best traditions of the Arab world.
A few months before this “constitutional arrangement”, the three political parties in the presidential alliance, the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale, the old single party), the RND (Rassemblement National Démocratique, created by the regime in 1997), and the MSP (Mouvement de la société pour la paix, a moderate Islamic party), supporting Bouteflika who has been in power since the 1999 election, did not make a mystery of their desire to amend the constitution so as to allow the current president to “pursue the execution of his programme and his efforts to develop the country.” In his speech made to Army officers on July 4th 2006, Bouteflika had already mentioned this amendment. At the time he indicated hope that all paths would lead to maintaining established order since the elections held on April 16th 1999…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Elections; Bouteflika, No Amnesty Without Referendum
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, APRIL 6 — “There will be no amnesty without a popular referendum. And only if armed groups give up”, said Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in wrapping up in Algiers the election campaign for the vote that next Thursday will appoint him to lead Algeria for a third consecutive term. Speaking to 5,000 young people gathered in Algiers’ Coupole Olympic complex, Bouteflika said that “I am busy with national reconciliation, we will not give in to those who insist with violence”. Bouteflika — who has been in office for 10 years — hinted that a third stage “deeper than Reconciliation” will be launched during his next mandate. The 1999 law on Civil harmony was followed by the 2005 Charter for peace, and Bouteflika thinks that the “only possible solution” for National reconciliation is to lead the country out of the violent spiral which has claimed approximately 200,000 lives since 1992. As for the upcoming elections, al Qaida is leaving no room for doubt. Today Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud, the head of al Qaida in north Africa, posted a message on the internet asking the Algerian people to desert the vote insofar as “the results have already been decided by the military junta”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: “Why Europe Ought to be Worried”
Mohammed Benchicou talks to Marco Cesario
“These elections are a farce and addressed only at consolidating the Bouteflika regime”. These are the words of Algerian journalist and author Mohammed Benchicou. Founder of the Movement of Algerian Journalists (MJA) and former editor-in-chief of the opposition’s newspaper Le Matin, Benchicou spent two years in prison for having exported Algerian Treasury Bonds from the country (at the end of a trial vitiated by many anomalies and in 2006 was awarded the Pen Award for freedom of expression. He is the author of a book that greatly criticises Bouteflika (Bouteflika: an Algerian Deception, published by Picollec), published in France but not in Algeria.
“I want people to know that there are no real elections being held in Algeria”, says Benchicou, who recently published another novel entitled “Memoires of a Free Man” in which he speaks of his life after being released from the El Harrach prison, in Algiers. The book was supposed to appear during the International Book Fair in Algiers last December, but was blocked by the printer. Censured in Algeria, this book has however been published in France (Editions Rivesneuves).
On April 9th Algerian voters will be called-upon to once again elect the President of the Republic. In spite of the presence of five other candidates, does Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s victory seem like an inevitable conclusion?
The election is only needed to consolidate his power, and these elections are a farce that is not even remotely similar to what happens in other democratic country. In Algeria there is a regime that organises parodies so as to continue to govern. Next April 9th Bouteflika will become president for life.
On November 12th 2008 the Algerian parliament approved a constitutional amendment that among other things establishes the removal of the restriction to two consecutive mandates for the President of the Republic as well as a new and less powerful role for the Prime Minister. What do you think of this amendment?
With this amendment Bouteflika has aligned Algeria to all the other Arab dictatorships. All Arab dictatorships are ruled by presidents for life. These are real dictators who prevent alternate governments in their societies and stop new generations from gaining access to power and organising life in their countries. The 1996 Constitution already contained a restraint that guaranteed alternate governments by restricting to two any consecutive presidential mandates. Algeria has returned to the status of an Arab banana-republic with a president for life. This will result in the creation of a corrupt caste, in a final break-down in relations with society and the exclusion of the young from politics.
And yet this amendment was approved by an overwhelming majority. Only 21 votes against compared to five hundred in favour. The only Member of Parliament who rebelled was Saïd Saadi (leader of the secular opposition party, RCD, Rassemblement pour la culture et la démocratie).
There is no opposition in Algeria. There are people paid by the regime to oppose it. This is part of the stage design for Bouteflika’s “disguised democracy.” This “opposition” is only needed to satisfy social dissatisfaction. These people ever leave their bunkers, they do not participate in the life of the country. They are totally discredited in the eyes of citizens. For the moment one cannot speak of real opposition. It is a pity, but perhaps other forms of reaction will take shape within society. For the moment, however, there is nothing tangible on the horizon.
What do you think of the situation concerning freedom of the press in Algeria?
The press still does exist, although it has been seriously tested. Freedom of the press has certainly taken a step backwards since the media has chosen to side with political power. In spite of all this, I believe there is still freedom of the press that is however restricted to only a few newspapers. What needs to be understood is that the regime is waging total war and this will be intensified in the course of Bouteflika’s third mandate. The regime in fact wishes to return to the single party system that existed before Algeria became democratic. The press will be the first victim of the future regime that will be elected next April 9th…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Hezbollah Leader Accused of Planning Attacks
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, APRIL 8 — The head of the Lebanese Iranian-backed Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, is accused of planning attacks in Egypt and ordering them in his speech on January 7 during the Ashura Shiite religious holiday. The accusations have come in statements by Egypt’s state prosecutor, Abdel Meguid Mahmud, issued today in Cairo, regarding the arrest of fifty Arabs who have purchased homes in Rafah, near the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, citing state-security reports. The statement accuses the Lebanese leader of sending representatives to Egypt to recruit Egyptians and persuade them to carry out attacks in the country and of training foreigners to make explosive devices. According to the investigation, the operations were aimed at disrupting public order and called for specific actions including creating business activities to provide cover, following the situation at the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and passing information to Lebanese leaders, renting apartments on the banks of the Suez Canal to keep an eye on the facilities as well as on tourist destinations in the Sinai area. Additionally, plans included making explosives, establishing connections with criminal groups to make false documents and passports to use for military training abroad and renting furnished apartments in elegant neighbourhoods to infiltrate society and make converts to the Shiite religion. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Border Homes Bought for Weapons Export, 50 Arrested
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, APRIL 8 — They would purchase homes in Rafah, close to the Egyptian border with the Gaza strip, in order to link them to underground tunnels crossing the border and then export weapons into Gaza. Last December Egyptian security forces arrested approximately 50 persons (mostly Egyptian, with a few Palestinians and Lebanese as well) who were accused of supporting or being part of the Hezbollah or Hamas movements. The news was kept secret up to now and was announced after prosecution offices in Cairo opened proceedings. Scooped late last night by Qatar’s Al Jazeera network and printed this morning by independent newspaper Masr el Youm, reports were confirmed to ANSA by lawyer Montasser al Zayat, who is busy defending some of the arrested parties. The lawyer stated that “Contracts for the purchase of homes were found and seized, but there is not the slightest evidence indicating the alleged traffic of weapons”. According to reports, the arrests were carried out in Sinai, Cairo and Port Said. The group was allegedly controlled by Lebanon’s Sami Shehab. One of his brothers, Walid, was contacted by Masr El Youm and stated that “Belonging to Hezbollah is an honour and this charge adds honour to my brother in Lebanon”. Zayat stated that he accepted the defence brief for some of the parties following requests made by families and not by any organisation. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Student-Police Clashes at Fayyoum University
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, APRIL 8 — Clashes have taken place at the University of Fayyoum (an oasis 120 kilometres south-west of Cairo) between supporters of the Moslem Brotherhood and security forces. The violence broke out when the police intervened in a heavy-handed manner to break up a group of young people who had gathered for the degree-award ceremony on the university’s campus. Three of the injured students received medical treatment before going to the police station to lodge a complaint about “police aggression”, while a further four are still in hospital. It would appear that police attempted to remove injured students from the hospital, but that doctors refused to discharge them in view of the seriousness of their injuries. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: 50 Detained Over Suspected Hezbollah Ties
Cairo, 8 April (AKI) — Prosecutors in Cairo are investigating 50 people in Egypt suspected of belonging to an Islamist group with links to militant Shia group Hezbollah, a prominent lawyer representing the men told local daily al-Youm-al-Sabi on Wednesday.
Islamist lawyer Montasser al-Zayat said state security prosecutors began interrogating the suspects on Saturday, most of whom are Egyptian citizens but who include a number of Palestinians.
Prosecutors want to discover if the suspects were aiming to set up a branch of Hezbollah in Egypt to proselytise for the group and to help it send funds to Gaza’s ruling Islamist Palestinian group Hamas and to Palestinians in the coastal strip.
The group’s alleged leader, a Lebanese citizen named as Shihab S. is among those detained for questioning.
Egypt is keen to show it is doing its utmost to stop money or aid reaching Hamas, which is at odds with the more secular and pro-western Fatah, which controls the West Bank.
The government is also worried public support for Gaza’s population may boost the popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has ties to Hamas and is Egypt’s strongest opposition force.
The prosecutors claim they foiled a plan by Shihab S. and two Palestinians to buy a house in close to the Gaza Strip’s southern Rafah crossing near the Egyptian border, allegedly for use in arms trafficking.
The plan was reportedly discovered after the Egyptian authorities imposed a ban on the purchasing of properties along the border with Gaza.
Egyptian authorities secretly detained at least 35 men in April 2007 on suspicion of plotting a coup, al-Zayat revealed several months later.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Role of Radical Islamic Groups in Israel:
Implications for Israeli-Arab Coexistence
By Lt.-Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar
- Many in the Arab world felt deep humiliation due to George W. Bush. The Islamic view is that Islam came to the world to replace Judaism and Christianity, and all of the sudden comes a religious Christian president and occupies Iraq, the capital of the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate and the beating heart of Arab history. So when Bush left office, this was viewed as a victory for Allah over the modern Crusaders.
- The core question is to whom does this country belong? According to the Arab narrative, this has been an Arab Islamic state since the days of Omar, the caliph who conquered the country in the seventh century. According to Islamic tradition, he declared that the country between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is waqf land, meaning it belongs forever to Muslims all over the world, and no one else could ever have it.
- According to Islam, land can only go one way, to become Islamic, and it can never go the other way, just like Spain, Sicily, and parts of the Balkans, which at different stages of history were lands of Islam. This is why Hamas and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood cannot even begin to consider recognizing the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state on the land of Palestine.
- At the same time, Jews feel that this country belongs to them. From the Jewish perspective, this country was populated by Jews and two Jewish kingdoms were here until 1900 years ago. We Jews were expelled with no justification and we came back to our country. This is what gives justification to the Jews having our state here and not in Uganda, Argentina or Birobijan. It even appears in the Koran that this country had been given to the Jews.
- In 2006 a document approved by the Committee of Arab Local Authorities in Israel — entitled: “The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel and their Relations with the State” — opened with the statement: “Israel is the outcome of a colonialist action which was initiated by the Jewish-Zionist elites in Europe and in the West.”
- To call Israel a colonialist state means a total denial of Jewish history, and echoes the Islamic approach to Jewish history. According to this approach, since Islam came to the world in the year 622 CE with the hijra of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, all of history before that time lost any meaning or significance…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Dangerous Policy From Israeli Gov’t, Saudi Arabia
(ANSAmed) — RIYADH, APRIL 8 — Saudi Arabia has today called on the international community to put pressure on Israel so that its newly-installed government change policies considered a threat to peace efforts. The Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud al-Faisal, said “it is now clear that we cannot wait for Israel to change its position on its own, since it has already thwarted peace efforts and the current government has announced dangerous policies.” In a joint press conference with the British Foreign Minister, David Miliband, Faisal continued, “the international community, and the United States in particular, must show their determination to make Israel change its position, which currently violates international law and which is contrary to what is necessary for peace in the region.” The head of Saudi diplomacy stressed that Arab countries still support the peace plan drawn up and agreed upon in Riyadh in 2002, and which was re-presented in 2007. The plan lays out the regularisation of relations between Arabs and Israelis and is on the basis of peace in exchange for land. In real terms, Israel would be required to give back all land occupied in 1967, to accept the creation of a Palestinian state with Eastern Jerusalem as its capital, and to accept a “fair and a lasting” solution to the Palestinian Diaspora. Miliband, in turn, asked Israelis and Palestinians not to forget the commitments made to the peace process, which he described as “never having been more important”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai Launching Women-Only Bus Service
The public transportation service will begin next April 10. At first, only seven vehicles will be used, but the service will be expanded over time. Enthusiastic comments from women, who hope for “pink” drivers.
Dubai (AsiaNews) — After inventing pink taxis and air-conditioned bus shelters, Dubai is becoming the first Gulf city to institute public transportation service for women only. The story comes from the newspaper GulfNews, which includes in its article the enthusiastic comments of many female readers.
“The ladies-only bus service will start on April 10 to accommodate the increasing number of female passengers,” says Mohammad Abu Bakr Al Hashimi, director of Planning and Business Development at the Public Transport Agency of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).
Seven buses will be provided, following a single route along the main points of the city. The service will be active from 6:30 to 9 a.m., and from 4 to 8 p.m. The official promises that the routes will be expanded over time. “We will introduce more buses and more routes after studying the response on this one route,” Al Hashimi says. The vehicles will display the sign “women only,” and the route will be called “L55.” If the service works, it will be entrusted to “female drivers.”
“I’ve been waiting for this kind of service,” says Cha. “This is truly convenient for us because we don’t have to compete with the men and there are ample seats for ladies.” “This service will encourage ladies to use the buses,” says M. Alibapu; for Vilma, who has used public transportation for years, it is a “great idea,” because on the traditional vehicles there are “only 12 seats allocated for women.” Satheesh Vasudevan, from Ajman, says that “double-decker buses” are not necessary, but only “mini buses or normal-sized vehicles”; Nikita appreciates the idea because often on the public vehicles, some of the men are “unruly.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel and US Successfully Test-Fire Interceptor Missile
Jerusalem, 7 April (AKI) — Israel, with help from the United States, successfully test-fired on Tuesday an Arrow-2 missile defence system capable of destroying a Syrian or an Iranian medium-range Shihab-3 missile, the defence ministry said.
“There was a successful test today of an improved Arrow [missile] that hit and intercepted a target more complicated than normal,” said Israel’s defence minister Ehud Barak, speaking to the media.
According to Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post, the test launch was conducted jointly with the Israeli air force and the US missile defence agency — who also funded the project — and took place near the Israeli city of Ashdod.
The company Israel Aircraft Industries and Chicago-based Boeing developed the project at a cost of more than 1 billion dollars.
The Arrow intercepted a so-called ‘Blue Anchor’ missile which simulates the nuclear-capable Iranian missile Shihab-3 (photo).
Israel has long accused Iran of training and financing anti-Israeli militant groups and has, alongside major western powers, accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran denies this, claiming its uranium enrichment programme is wholly peaceful and aimed solely at civilian nuclear power — something it has a sovereign right to under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iranian populist hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly engaged in anti-Israel rhetoric, which has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and Western nations, starting from his comments in 2005 that Israel should be “wiped off the map”.
Israel, however, neither acknowledges nor denies having a nuclear weapons programme.
However, it is believed the Jewish state possesses between 75 and 200 nuclear warheads.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Lebanon: Checchia, Lebanon Remains Our Priority
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, APRIL 7 — Whilst the Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, is having meetings in Beirut with the highest Lebanese officials, the Italian Ambassador to Lebanon, Gabriele Checchia, has repeated that, despite the economic crisis, Lebanon ‘remains one of Rome’s priorities”. In an interview published today in the French language Lebanese daily newspaper, L’Orient-Le Jour, the ambassador confirmed that ‘there is no doubt that Italy will cover (cooperation) projects in Lebanon until the end of 2010. Just like other countries,” Checchia continued, “Italy has been hit by the crisis and this could result in a drop in the budget for action in many areas of our participation. However,” the ambassador underlined, “Lebanon remains a priority and there will be no sudden interruption in our support”. Since the autumn of 2006, after the war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement, Hezbollah, the Italian Foreign Ministry activated an aid programme (Ross), which will enter its third and final phase in the coming weeks: approximately 9 million euro for another 30 projects activated by the end of 2010 for the most part in the south of the country. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: 11 Hezbollah Candidates for 7/6 Elections
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, APRIL 2 — The leader of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has announced the candidature of 11 members of his party for the parliamentary elections to take place in Lebanon on June 7. The Shia movement, which has a military wing and is supported by Syria and Iran, currently has 14 deputies out of the 128 making up the Lebanese single-chamber parliament, of which half are Muslim and half are Christian. “It doesn’t matter to us if we have fewer of our members in Parliament, if instead some of our political allies take their places,” Nasrallah was quoted as saying by the press in Beirut. Hezbollah’s foremost allies are Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s Shia Amal movement, Christian leader Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement party, and the Syrian Social Nationalist party, as well as minor political factions and several prominent figures. All except three of the 11 Hezbollah candidates were elected to Parliament in the 2005 elections, which were narrowly won by the adversaries of the Shia movement, the 14 March Alliance. According to Nasrallah, if the alliance led by Hezbollah wins the June elections it will keep “the doors open” to the formation of a national unity government.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
NATO Declares Open War on Islam
Fact International Exclusive
Amman- The appointment of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO’s new secretary-general has unveiled a new role for the organization. The essence of this role is taking Islam as an enemy.
Choosing Rasmussen, known for his anti-Islamic attitude, has infuriated many Arab Muslim state particularly Turkey by defending the right of 17 Danish papers to publish cartoons derogatory of Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in 2005. He has also angered Turkey by opposing its membership in the European Union.
Nato leaders agreed unanimously to elect Rasmussen at a two-day conference in Strasbourg, France last Saturday. The conference marked the organization’s 60th anniversary. One of the most troubling disagreements of the two-day summit was Turkey’s strong opposition to the Danish Prime Minister becoming Nato’s new secretary-general.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also complained that Mr Rasmussen had failed to sanction those responsible for a Danish newspaper’s publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohamed in 2005.
However, Ankara dropped its objection after the US President Barack Obama met privately with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and told him that Erdogan’s “objections” were answered.
Erdogan told Turkish television later that he had received “guarantees” from Obama that one of Rasmussen’s deputies would be a Turk — and that Turkish commanders would be present at the alliance’s command.
According to Erdogan, the election of Rasmussen will no serve NATO’s relations with the Muslim world at a time when the organization is in urgent need to for this relation given the NATO’s plan to expand its military operation in Afghanistan, a Muslim country occupied by NATO forces since 2001.
There were three reasons behind Turkey’s objection. The Danish Prime Minister failed to ban Denmark-based Roj-TV, seen as the mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, one of the strongest opposition parties for Turkey. Rasmussen had also failed to sanction those responsible for a Danish newspaper’s publication of the insulting caricatures and the third reason was Denmark’s objection to Turkey’s membership in the EU.
According to some observers, Turkey has its position because Gul has come under immense pressures from EU leaders who warned him that Ankara’s opposition would affect standpoint of some European states which support Turkey’s membership in the EU.
Rasmussen is Chairman of the Leftist Liberal Party, who became Prime Minister in 2001 when his bloc with the Conservative Party AND THE People’s Party won the elections. They were also able to retain power for another term in 2004.
Growing extremism
The appointment of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO’s new secretary -general would spark more hostility against Islam and Muslims, members of the “Messenger of Allah Unites Us” campaign said.
“It is a provocative step and reveals the western leaders’ insistence to reward those who instigate and nurture clash of civilization and religious feuds,” said a statement by campaigners on Sunday.
With the coming of the US democrats to power, world nations particularly the Arab and Muslim world have anticipated drastic changes in the western politics that could reflect positively on peoples’ lives across the world, said the statement.
It was just the opposite. The appointment of the extremist and racist Danish Prime Minister as NATO Secretary General came in defiance and provocation of feeling of millions of Muslims at the people and formal level.
Rasmussen infuriated many Muslims by defending freedom of speech during an uproar over a Danish newspaper’s publication of the 2005 cartoons seen derogatory to Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
“The NATO leaders’ step would spur more violence and extremism and ruin all hopes for realizing world peace and stability,” said the statement.
“It only reaffirmed the western policy makers’ acceptance and sponsorship of racist policy and that they don’t mind patronizing the systematic anti-Islamic campaigns,” added the statement.
NATO’s unanimous decision to appoint Rasmussen generates fear that more oppressive, killing, torture and tyranny policies would be carried out against Muslims through excessive use of force by this powerful organization under the pretext of fighting terror.
But this same organization has done nothing when Israel perpetrated the most vicious crimes against Palestinian children and women, the statement noted.
The decision generates greater fear that there would be more destruction, more killing and more oppression perpetrated against Muslims by this powerful organization under the pretext of fighting terrorist organization.
The statement called Arab and Muslim leaders to boycott this aggressive organization which is attempting to take control of the Arab and Muslim countries under flimsy excuses. It also called for suspending all forms of cooperation with the NATO…
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Court Approves Divorce by SMS
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, APRIL 9 — Divorced via Sms. This actually happened to a young Saudi woman who after having received a text message from her husband in which he communicated the unilateral decision for a divorce, which without the marriage having been consummated, an Islamic court in Jeddah approved the annulment procedure, reported the Saudi Gazette. The husband and protagonist of the event, who is currently in Iraq “participating in the Jihad”, or Holy War, not only sent the text message to his little over twenty-year-old wife, but called two witnesses from the wedding as well as two family members to notify them of the divorce. According to Islamic law, it is sufficient that the husband states the divorce stock phrase three times before witnesses for the divorce to become effective. The court handed over the documents stating the annulment of the marriage to the woman, suspending the “iddah”, the three months that must pass between marriages to avoid disputes over paternity, given that the spouses do not have sexual relations during the period. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey and Armenia to Make a Deal After April 24, Press
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 8 — After Monday’s meeting of US President Barack Obama with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey an agreement to find a deal between Turkey and Armenia was found but it will not be made public before April 24. The statement was made by Turkish daily Sabah wich gives details about the package of normalization in Turkish-Armenian ties to be announced after April 24. First of all, Yerevan and Ankara will establish diplomatic relations and will open embassies; secondly the two countries will set up a commission for the normalization of bilateral ties. Moreover, genocide claims will be discussed by historians; the two countries will discuss the agreement of Kars (October 13, 1921) fixing the border between Turkey and Armenia; the border will be opened and trade will start between the two countries. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
USA-Turkey: Opposition Leaders Dissatisfied With Obama Visit
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, APRIL 8 — Turkey’s opposition party leaders were not pleased with the messages that US President Barack Obama delivered during their private meetings in the Turkish Parliament on Monday in the Turkish Parliament because they fell short of their expectations, daily Today’s Zaman reported. Party leaders seized the opportunity to convey different messages to the US president, but the meetings did not produce the expected results. Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) leader, Ahmet Turk, was probably the most disappointed by Obama’s remarks, which advised the party that violence or armed struggle would not solve the Kurdish problem. Obama stressed that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a terrorist organization and that violence would not be a means to solve problems. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader, Devlet Bahceli, is concerned that Obama’s visit to Turkey may further deepen disappointment in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, refused to attend the second Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) in Istanbul, sending low-profile Azerbaijani officials to represent his country in protest of the Armenian presence at the meeting. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader, Deniz Baykal, is uneasy about Obama’s positive sentiments for Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, but is pleased to have seized the opportunity to engage in talks with the US president. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes Between Thai and Cambodian Soldiers at the Temple of Preah Vihear
Both sides accuse each other of opening fire. An emergency meeting is called for midday to avoid a deterioration in the situation and a return to conflict.
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Fresh gun fighting has broken out between Thai and Cambodian forces stationed near the contested Buddhist temple of Preah Vihear. Both armies are accusing each other of opening fire in the latest in a series of clashes which, however has caused no injuries.
General Srey Doek, Cambodia’s commander at the temple, said a Thai patrol crossed into Cambodian territory and opened fire on his men; “The Thais fired rockets and rifles at us, and we responded in the same way”. Royal Thai Army chief Anupong Paochinda, accused the other side of shooting first, before seeking to minimalise the situation “This was just a misunderstanding”. A meeting has been called for midday in an attempt to avoid a return to open conflict.
The dispute over territory surrounding the ancient temple has been ongoing for years. Cambodia and Thailand both claim sovereignty despite an International Court ruling in 1962 that it belonged to Phnom Penh. Bangkok affirms that the temple is part of its cultural tradition and the dispute surrounding it has become a political question with op position parties accusing the government of having “sold off” a piece of National history. October last it seemed the neighbouring nations had reached a deal on demarcation of the boundary limits.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kathmandu Proclaims 8,000 Maoist Martyrs
Maoist fighters who died during the civil war constitute most of the martyrs. Opposition parties as well as the ruling party’s junior coalition partners are against the move because it belittles those who “sacrificed their lives for the nation”. But the issue is also about money.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Nepal’s government has proclaimed 8,000 people martyrs. They died during the Maoist-led anti-royalist struggle which culminated in the Democracy Movement (also known as the second ‘People’s Movement’ or Jana Andolan-II in Nepali) that led to the 2006 overthrow of the monarchy. Members of the Madhesh movement who died for Madhesh rights are also included.
The list of martyrs is made up of names submitted by Maoist committees in each of the country’s 75 districts; among them 25 people who died during the second People’s Movement and 21 Madhesh activists. However the list also includes people only known by their nom de guerre or by nothing more than their ethnic background, Mongolian (most Maoist fighters are Mongolian in origin) or Madheshi.
This has not gone down well other parties. The main opposition party, the Nepali Congress (NC), and the ruling party’s main coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), have criticised the government of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal for the decision.
For NC leader Ram Sharan Mahat, such a high number of martyrs sounds like a joke and belittles real martyrs “who sacrificed their lives for the nation.”
For his part CPN-UML Secretary Shankar Pokharel called on the prime minister to lay down the rules by which martyrs can be identified.
Under the existing policy martyrdom means that the state has to compensate martyrs’ families to the tune of one million Nepali rupees (about US$ 13,000). Under the government’s plan, each family would get only 100,000 rupees
But this debate is much more than about fallen fighters; it is about the ongoing row between the ruling former Maoist rebels and the rest of the country.
The Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fought a ten-year war against Nepal’s regular army (1996-2006), which ended in the abolition of the monarchy and the first democratic elections in Nepal’s history.
Now the rebels are a cumbersome presence in Nepali society and the Maoist government seems at a loss to find a solution.
According to United Nations, the PLA still has 19,000 fighters. Their re-integration in Nepali society is going slowly and plans to bring them into the fold of the regular army is being opposed by opposition parties but also by junior members of the ruling coalition.
What is more, in early March the PLA began a new recruitment drive to bring its troop level up to 25,000.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Executes Pair for Pre-Olympics Attack
They’re put to death in front of 4,000 after conviction for killing 17 police
BEIJING — China executed two people Thursday for what a court described as an attempt to sabotage the Beijing Olympics with an attack in the far-west region of Xinjiang that killed 17 police, state media reported.
Abdurahman Azat, 34, and Kurbanjan Hemit, 29, were found guilty of a “terrorist attack on a frontier city’s border police that left 17 dead.” The attack came despite tightened security ahead of the Summer Games last August.
Before the attack, they wrote a letter saying they had to wage “holy war,” and their mission was more important than their lives and mothers, Xinhua quoted a local Communist Party official as saying in August.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Crosses, Bibles Banned From Hospital Chapel
Officials cite ‘respect’ after new Muslim prayer room opened
Administrators at a hospital in Australia have thrown the crosses, crucifixes and Bibles out of their chapel to comply with new rules that followed the construction of a special prayer room for Muslims.
According to a report in the Mosman Daily, the change has been made at the Royal North Shore Hospital in St. Leonards.
The move, according to senior members of the hospital staff quoted by the newspaper, was made to avoid offending Muslims or Hindus who may be at the hospital.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3 Missing After Wreck South of Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, APRIL 8 — Three immigrants, two men and a woman, are missing in the Sicilian Channel following the rescue of a boat with about 60 people onboard. Reports were from the survivors, including 14 women (two of whom pregnant), now onboard a Financial Guard patrol boat headed towards Lampedusa. The non-EU citizens, who have been examined by a doctor, are reportedly all in good health. According to an initial reconstruction, the raft almost capsized while the fishing boat Cesare Rustico of the Mazara del Vallo fleet was trying to rescue those onboard. In the search coordinated by the Palermo port authorities, a Financial Guard airplane and 3 motorboats — one belonging to the Italian Financial Guard and two belonging to the Coast Guard — are being used. The search is being conducted over an approximately 7-mile radius from the scene of the incident (35 miles south of Lampedusa), but none of the missing have yet been found. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Protest Against ‘Crime of Solidarity’
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, APRIL 8 — France is in uproar surrounding the idea of a hypothetical “crime of solidarity”, which would incriminate anyone offering help to an illegal immigrant. The case was brought to public attention today by volunteer organisations, including Emmaus, Cimade, Secours catholique and France Terre d’Asile, who organised demonstrations in around eighty French cities, asking for the “end to the crime of solidarity”, after two volunteers were charged, with a suspended sentence, for involvement in trafficking money between illegal immigrants and traffickers. “The crime of solidarity does not exist in France,” said the Immigration Minister Eric Besson this morning on France Inter, and so “all those who offer assistance to an illegal immigrant in good faith are not at risk of committing any crime.” Besson went on, “this is not just talk, in 65 years, since the creation of article L622-1 of the Entry and Sojourn Law for Foreigners and the right to asylum, no one has ever been charged for having merely hosted, offered food to or offered a lift to an illegal immigrant.” As for the court’s charges made against the volunteers, the minister explained that this was in essence a question of “people involved in money trafficking: they had taken money from certain illegal immigrants so as to give it to the traffickers.” The Green Euro minister Daniel Cohn-Bendit retorted: “today in France, welcoming, accompanying or simply helping a person with an irregular legal status is considered a crime. If solidarity is a crime, then charge us all with this crime.” Certain Left opposition senators, Yvon Collin and Michel Charasse, have announced a proposed bill which would put an end to the “crime of solidarity.” They argue that there is an “apparent inconsistency” between the fact that the penal code considers “anyone who aids an illegal immigrant to gain entry to or stay in France to have committed a crime which carries 5 years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros,” and “the obligation to offer assistance to someone in danger.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris Hosts Annual Muslim Congress
Paris, 9 April (AKI) — The Union of French Islamic Organisations’ 26th annual congress opens in the capital, Paris, on Friday. “Religion and contemporary society” is the theme of this year’s conference and thousands of Muslims from all over France and from other European countries are expected to attend.
The UOIF meeting is taking place in the northeastern Paris suburb of Le Bourget. Muslim scholars, experts on religion, academics and community groups have been invited.
Families are welcome, and apart from attending talks, they will be able to visit a 15,000 square metre exhibition space in which typical products from the Arab and Muslim world will be displayed. There will also be an exhibition on the life of the Prophet Mohammed.
Several Italian Muslim organisations will be attending, including the Islamic Alliance, which is laying on coaches to Paris leaving from the northern Italian city of Verona.
The prominent Swiss Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan will attend the second day of the conference, which closes next Monday.
France is home to between five and six million Muslims — the largest Muslim community in western Europe. Most are immigrants from former north African colonies including Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Abortion is a Blessing and Abortionists Are Doing Holy Work, Says Anglican Priest
The new Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massacusetts, has given a sermon describing abortions as a “blessing” for the women who undergo them. The Rev Katherine Hancock Ragsdale also thinks that the people who run abortion clinics are “heroes” and even “saints”.
Ms Ragsdale, speaking in Birmingham, Alabama, said that “when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortion — there is not a tragedy in sight — only blessing.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3 comments:
Thanks for all the good work, GoV!
... but apparently you're not getting the message: /sarcasm
Just Shut Up!
Albania is now in NATO!??
Conservative Swede was right. Nuck FATO!
NATO is nothing but U.S. little empire. I want to see it destroyed.
This or the rapid desqualification of Turkey and Albania as NATO allies (which will not happen).
NATO is the new axis of evil.
Sorry to puncture your peculiar world view, Baron, but Algeria already moved away from full dictatorship - a dictatorship that I must say I heartily agreed with since they refused to let a vicious fundamentalist Islamic party take power after it won elections in the early 1990's.
Things are slightly better, dicatorship-wise, in Algeria today than they were then.
Get your facts straight before you ignore them to spout your prejudices.
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