In an indication that the value of a Palestinian life has decreased even further relative to that of an Israeli, the government of Israel has agreed to release twenty Palestinian prisoners in return for a video — a video! — that proves Gilad Shalit is still alive. It used to be that the Palestinians had to trade a few Israelis (or their corpses) for the release of their prisoners, but now all they have to give up is a DVD.On a more positive note, consider this story from India. When her family’s household was invaded by Muslim terrorists from Pakistan, a farmer’s daughter in Jammu and Kashmir attacked one of the assailants with an axe, took his AK-47, and shot him to death, forcing his comrades to flee. Local police congratulated her on her bravery
Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Lurker from Tulsa, Sean O’Brian, Steen, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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OSU Prof Gets $1.1 Million in Stimulus to Study Alaskan Grandparents
STILLWATER, OK — A professor at Oklahoma State University received $1.1 million in stimulus to study Alaskan grandparents. The National Science Foundation made the grant possible through their pot of stimulus money. But some Oklahomans say this is just one more example of stimulus waste.
For more than ten years Oklahoma State University professor Tammy Henderson has been researching grandparents. She studies their relationships and responsibilities within their families.
“This is an opportunity for us to really build a body of research that people will be using far beyond our age,” said OSU Associate Professor Tammy Henderson, PhD.
Henderson is now continuing her research with $1.15 million in stimulus money. She and two other social science professors from the University of Alaska will be leading the research project. The research project is called “From Their Perspective: Alaskan Grandparents’ Roles, Strengths and Needs.”
“Aren’t there people here that you could study?” asked Oklahoma Impact reporter Jennifer Loren.
“Yes. But, again, if you go to another place it has implications for indigenous people here in their communities. And there’s a correlation between the geographic and the historical composition of folks in Oklahoma as well as in Alaska. So why not Alaska?” said Tammy Henderson, OSU Associate Professor.
With the stimulus funding Henderson will hire two new university employees. But, they will only be employed for the two year duration of the grant. That, she says, is how this project is stimulating.
“It is bringing two new positions to Oklahoma State University in economically challenging times,” said Tammy Henderson, OSU Associate Professor.
The team will travel back and forth to Alaska several times where a team of about 15 people will take part in the study. They’ll investigate Alaska native grandparents living in rural, semi-urban and urban areas of Alaska.
“Travel to some of the rural communities is extremely expensive and so I admit there’s some of that,” said Tammy Henderson, PhD, OSU Associate Professor.
But many Oklahomans are outraged stimulus money is being used for this project.
“If they think we need to study grandparents in Alaska, so be it. I just don’t think we should use the stimulus funds for that particular issue,” said Oklahoma State Representative Earl Sears.
Sears is one of many lawmakers who say it’s wrong to use stimulus funds this way.
“What my understanding was of stimulus funds was just that, to stimulate things in regards to job opportunities, infrastructure projects, shovel ready… I don’t see this as a shovel ready project,” said Oklahoma State Representative Earl Sears.
But OSU administrators say research projects like this are key to the success of the university and therefore key to Oklahoma.
“As a university, you know, we all need to find a way to sort of compare ourselves to each other and research funding is one of the tools we use to compare with,” said Toni Shaklee, OSU Assistant Vice President for Research.
She says research projects like this one will bring a higher caliber of faculty to the College of Human Environmental Sciences and therefore, more esteem to OSU. That translates into more students, which means more money for Oklahoma.
For Tammy Henderson, money is not the issue. For her the science is priceless.
“Is it fair? Um, I do not feel that the political answer is one that I should take as a university professor. But I will tell you as a professor who is trying to change the world by giving it good science and good theory it was a good thing to do,” Said Tammy Henderson, PhD, OSU Associate Professor.
OSU has applied for more than $100 million in stimulus money for research grants alone. So far they’ve received $3.3 million.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Zapatero Defends Tax Increase, “Out of Solidarity”
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 28 — Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has defended the tax raise that was approved last Saturday by the government and was heavily criticised by the opposition, saying it is necessary “out of solidarity” with those who are in difficulties due to the crisis and in order to “maintain the welfare system”. In an interview today on ‘Cadena Ser’ national radio, the leader of the socialist government mentioned the 1.3 million new jobless in Spain for whom unemployment benefit payments “will cost 15 billion euros in 2010, more than the almost 11 billion euros which the government expects to obtain in two years through this tax increase”. Zapatero, without making forecasts, said that he is confident that “wéll see positive signs” of economic growth in the second quarter of 2010. He continued that “getting out of this crisis one quarter sooner or later is not important, what counts is doing it all together, with social cohesion” while maintaining the welfare system of the past two terms, in which families with disabled persons were given extra support, pensions were increased, support was given when a couple has its first baby (or adopts one) and fellowships for innovation and development were increased. Regarding the labour market, the premier underlined that the “social dialogue” with manufacturers and unions has been “very successful”. Without mentioning the recent clashes with the Spanish federation of manufacturers, Zapatero stressed that “when people were talking about labour reforms they talked about cutting costs for layoffs, to give entrepreneurs more freedom and workers fewer rights”. But, according to the socialist premier, “the Spanish economy doesn’t need a change of legislation on labour, it needs a reform of its production system. On Saturday the government approved a tax increase for a total of 11 billion euros in the 2010 finance bill, including an increase of the main VAT rate from 16% to 18%, and an increase of the tax burden on capital gains from 18% to 19% for the first six thousand euros, and to 21% above that level, in an attempt to limit the public deficit to 5.3%. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Empire State Building to Glow Communist Red, Yellow
Skyscraper to blaze Chinese colors in honor of 60th anniversary of regime
New York’s Empire State Building will light up red and yellow tomorrow to honor the 60th anniversary of communist China, according to the skyscraper’s official website.
The Chinese Communist Party has been in continuous power longer than any other current government in the world, the Associated Press reported.
Chinese ambassador Peng Keyu and other officials will be present for the lighting ceremony. The skyscraper is scheduled to display the colors until Thursday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Empire State Building Turns Red-Yellow for China’s 60th
NEW YORK — New York’s iconic Empire State Building will light up red and yellow Wednesday in honor of the 60th anniversary of communist China.
The Chinese consul, Peng Keyu, and other officials will take part in the lighting ceremony which will bathe the skyscraper in the colors of the People’s Republic until Thursday, Empire State Building representatives said in a statement.
The upper sections of the building are regularly illuminated to mark special occasions, ranging from all blue to mark “Old Blue Eyes” Frank Sinatra’s death in 1998 to green for the annual Saint Patrick’s Day.
Just last week the tower turned bright red.
However, that was not to mark some other communist achievement, but the 70th anniversary of the film “The Wizard of Oz” in which Dorothy wears ruby slippers rather than the silver of the original L. Frank Baum novel.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
L.A. Times Still Conceals Obama Terror Video
Reportedly includes glowing testimonial for prof who excuses violence
The Los Angeles Times has no plan to ever release a video it stated it obtained of President Obama attending an anti-Israel event in which he delivered a glowing testimonial for Rashid Khalidi, a pro-Palestinian professor who excuses terrorism.
At the 2003 event, poetry reportedly was read comparing Israelis to Osama bin Laden and accusing the Jewish state of terrorism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muhammad Cartoonist in USA — Muslim Rioting Feared
Artist Who Set Off Muslim Fury Visits City
A Danish caricaturist is making his first tour of the United States since the 2005 publication of his cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked fury across the Muslim world, according to a Danish press freedom group that is promoting the trip.
Kurt Westergaard, in a 2008 photograph, drew a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban that looked like a bomb.
The International Free Press Society said the caricaturist, Kurt Westergaard, would appear on Wednesday in Manhattan and at Princeton University and on Thursday at Yale University, where the Yale University Press recently refused to include the cartoon in a book about the controversy.
Diana West, the vice president of the society, said Mr. Westergaard’s appearances coincided with the fourth anniversary of the original publication of the cartoon in a Danish newspaper. It showed Muhammad wearing a turban that looked like a bomb.
She said the society was commemorating the anniversary by declaring Wednesday as International Free Press Day “to mark what should have been just a completely unremarkable sheet of cartoons in a relatively small newspaper in a rather small country way far away, but became a world-shaking event that revealed the extent to which free speech in the West is in thrall to Islamic law.”
“What a sorry state we’ve come to if this causes cataclysms and rioting and fear in our own media,” said Ms. West, a syndicated columnist and author whose column is published in The Washington Examiner.
The free press society’s board of advisers includes a number of people who have been at odds with Muslims. Among them are the scholar Daniel Pipes, who has called for profiling Muslims at airports, and Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician who leads an anti-Islam party that won about 15 percent of the vote in European Parliament elections in June.
Mr. Westergaard’s cartoon was one of 12 that initially appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 and was later reprinted elsewhere. Images of Muhammad are forbidden by Islam, and as word of the cartoons spread,violent protests in Asia, Africa and the Middle East followed, with mobs attacking Danish embassies and diplomatic offices.
Last year, two Tunisians and a Dane were arrested in Denmark and accused of planning a “terror-related assassination” of Mr. Westergaard.
Ms. West said security had been tightened for Mr. Westergaard’s appearance in New York, at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative-leaning group whose offices are on Vanderbilt Avenue.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Police Department Gets Boot in West Texas Town
Marfa’s quiet country lifestyle and thriving art scene make this tiny west Texas town a favorite getaway.
But the city won’t keep its police chief and two officers when the police department shuts down October 1.
“It’s all about consolidation. What we’re trying to do is run our community as efficiently as possible,” said Marfa mayor, Dan Dunlap.
According to the mayor, the city will save $90,000 a year by hiring the Presidio County Sheriff’s Office to replace the local police department. The sheriff’s office already patrols the rest of the rugged border city.
Some residents are having doubts. They are not sure what is going to happen, or if they will be safe.
The police department will disappear, but the police chief may still have a job. That is, if he takes a position mandated by state law: the town marshal. The job is part-time, and pays $4,000 a year. So the marshal will likely spend more time back at the ranch, than protecting the streets of Marfa.
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Scandal: Fox News Hires Apologist for Cop-Killer
The “conservative” Fox News Channel (FNC) has hired Marc Lamont Hill, a public supporter of convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur, as a paid “analyst” and “contributor.” He has appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor,” hosted by Bill O’Reilly, more often than other FNC programs. James Pera, a retired San Francisco Police Sergeant who saw first-hand the violence of the BLA and the Weather Underground, asked, “Why does O’Reilly pander to this tool of the left? I don’t know. What I do know is that I am tired of hearing this bombastic blowhard continually calling people such as Hill ‘a standup guy, for coming on the program.’ Hill is not a standup guy. In my opinion, he is a left-wing radical, race-bating, white-hating propagandist.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Singing Heil Obama in Jersey
Red alert to parents: If you send your children to a public school, they may be secretly indoctrinated in the cult of Obama-worship. If that’s not your plan for your children, you had better act now, before it’s too late.
We now know that the “I pledge” video shown in Utah in August, and only afterward discovered by parents, was not isolated evidence of indoctrination of public schoolchildren in the new cult of Obama-worship. Second-graders in New Jersey were taught to sing songs of praise and fidelity to Barack Obama in February and again in June, and parents only found out about it this month.
Public schoolchildren are now forbidden to sing Christmas carols that mention the real meaning of Christmas (only songs like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” are allowed), but in New Jersey, second-graders were taught to sing lyrics from the spiritual “Jesus Loves the Little Children” in which Jesus’ name was replaced with Obama’s. They sang, “He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight/Barack Hussein Obama.”
Before Obama’s election, it was considered a political no-no for Republicans to use his middle name. Beginning with his inauguration in January, he and his followers use Hussein to glorify his Muslim heritage and connections.
The revised lyrics teach the kids that Obama will “make this country strong again.” The lyrics promote Obama’s Lilly Ledbetter law by including the line: “He said we must be fair today/Equal work means equal pay.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sullenberger’s First Post-Goose Flight: Thursday, Oct. 1
US Airways announced Wednesday morning that Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger will reunite with his first officer, Jeffrey Skiles, for his first post-accident flight Thursday.
Interestingly, the two will pilot an US Airways flight from New York LaGuardia to Charlotte, N.C., the same route they were flying before some geese intercepted them over New York City on Jan. 15 and had them land about 540 miles short on their 543-mile trip.
They’ll be operating Flight 1427, scheduled to leave LaGuardia on Thursday at 12:59 p.m. and arrive in Charlotte at 2:54 p.m.
But before they leave LaGuardia and after they arrive in Charlotte, Sully and Skiles will talk to the news media.
There’s a lot of interest in the two guys who guided a crippled US Airways flight down into the Hudson River with no deaths and only a few serious injuries on Jan. 15, so be sure and watch the evening news Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
US: Democrat Lesbian Charged With Embezzling $6 Million
Accused of stealing from insurance firm, donating to Obama, Clinton, MoveOn.org
A lesbian political activist who donated thousands to Democrats and homosexual causes is suspected of embezzling nearly $6 million from one of the world’s largest insurance firms.
Despite her $40,000 a year salary as an insurance compensation specialist, Phyllis Stevens purchased two homes valued at more than $550,000 and gave thousands of dollars in donations to Democratic Party political candidates and homosexual groups.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Court Rules in Favour of Muslim Prayer in School
Berlin school officials and parents are disappointed after an administrative court granted a Muslim high school student the right to pray in between lessons, daily Berliner Morgenpost reported on Wednesday.
The court on Tuesday ruled in favour of 16-year-old Yunus M., who attends the city’s Diesterweg Gymnasium. During a four-hour hearing, Judge Uwe Wegener said he was aware that the case was quite significant and could set a precedent.
Lawyer Margarete Mühl-Jäckel, who argued on Berlin’s behalf, insisted that allowing prayer in schools would compromise the religious neutrality of the state institutions. But the court found that the basic right to religious freedom was in conflict with Article 7 of the constitution, which requires school neutrality.
Wolfgang Harnischfeger, head of the VBS association of Berlin school leaders called the ruling “a naïve decision that misses reality in schools,” the paper reported.
Meanwhile the state parents committee said it feared the ruling would mean further reduction of a willingness to integrate among Muslim students. Head of the committee, André Schindler, told Berliner Zeitung he feared it would divide students and said the group was considering an appeal.
Berlin city government school administrators also said they would review an appeal.
“We feel we’ve been left alone on the question of space considerations,” spokesperson Jens Stiller told the paper.
He explained that because prayer has a demonstrative character, schools must make extra rooms available and criticised that the court ruling did not address that issue.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Eurocrats Demand £4.1 Million Subsidy for Using Public Transport
EU officials have asked national governments hand over extra money to tempt civil servants onto buses, trams, trains and the metro.
The new perk, which is expected to be introduced next year, will be benefit 31,380 EU civil servants, many of whom already gain from low tax rates, high salaries, pensions and a job for life.
An internal European Commission document outlining the plans says: “The main initial action will be the partial — up to 50 per cent — reimbursement of public transport season tickets to staff in order to further reduce C02 emissions and contribute to the reduction of traffic congestion in Brussels.
“The creation of a specific appropriation for reimbursing public transports’ season tickets is meant to be a small but crucial tool to confirm the EU institutions’ commitment in reducing their own CO2 emissions, in line with agreed climate change objectives.”
The demand for a green travel subsidy has been signed by the commission, Council of the EU, European Parliament, Committee of the Regions and the, little known, Economic and Social Committee.
The commission has defended the new staff benefit, even against the background of economic crisis for private sector workers and employees in national public sector jobs.
A spokeswoman said: “Even in times of crisis, the fight against climate change is a priority of this Commission. We cannot be at the forefront in fighting climate change while at the same time neglecting to take small steps that have been shown to make a real difference.
“Why should the Commission neglect any additional tool to promote sustainable means of transport while reducing its overall impact on the environment?”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
France: Where is the Life That Late We Lived?
If a Frenchman had fallen into a coma in 1978, only to reawaken in 2008, what would his reactions be? According to writer and philosopher Alain Laurent, author of La Société Ouverte et ses nouveaux ennemis (The Open Society and its new enemies), Rip Van Winkle à la française would face a long list of new realities. François Desouche gives us a glimpse:
- He would now be called a “Gaulois”, a term he remembers only vaguely as a folkloric memory from his youngest years in elementary school.
- It would now be impossible for him to go back, except at great risk, into certain suburban neighborhoods that he had known as peaceful and welcoming, and that have metamorphosed into enclaves where hooded gangs impose with impunity the law of the jungle, where even taxis don’t dare venture.
- He would be outraged that, in addition to taxes, he would have to pay for the Welfare State’s largesse, and for the financial bankruptcy resulting from “urban policies”, and for repairs of the damages caused by vandalism — the new “mass sport”, and for all the supplementary security measures.
- He would realize that schools and hospitals, formerly regarded as sanctuaries, had become arenas of violence against teachers, doctors, nurses… committed by groups of thugs or religious fanatics.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Industry Orders: Italy Draws the Revival in Europe
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — Orders in the industrial sector continue to increase in the euro area and show the most significant gains in Italy with a +3.6% in July compared to June compared to the average 2.6% rise in the EU16 member countries. According to the Eurostat report in June orders in the euro zone jumped 4% after a long period in negative territory. In Germany industrial orders increased 2.5%, in France orders were up 2%, but in the United Kingdom there was a 1.5% drop. In the entire EU orders in July increased 1.6%, after the 0.6% drop the previous month. Compared to July 2008, Eurostat underlines how the crisis left its mark with industrial orders collapsing 24.3% in the euro zone and 24.9% in the EU27 (-24.7% in Italy).(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PM Call Girl ‘Fixer’ Placed Under House Arrest
Bari, 21 Sept. (AKI) — Giampaolo Tarantini, the businessman at the centre of the sex scandal surrounding Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, has been placed under house arrest in the southern city of Bari. Tarantini was detained by Italian tax police at Bari airport on Friday in relation to alleged drug trafficking.
Tarantini’s lawyer Nicola Quaranta told journalists on Monday that prosecutor Vito Fanizzi decided to release Tarantini from jail “because he did not believe Tarantini was likely to flee the country or to tamper with evidence”.
Police last Friday detained Tarantini on suspicion of trafficking cocaine and said there was a serious danger he would flee the country.
The prosecutor who ordered Tarantini’s arrest, Giuseppe Scelsi said Tarantini had lied about the quantity of drugs he supplied to parties thrown on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda. The true figure was half a kilo of cocaine, not 50-70 grammes as he had earlier claimed.
Quaranta was speaking on Monday after prosecutors questioned his client in a local prison in Bari.
Tarantini is also under investigation for abetting prostitution, suspected corruption and for allegedly supplying cocaine to parties held at Berlusconi’s luxurious Sardinian villa.
The prosecutor who ordered Tarantini’s arrest on Friday, Giuseppe Scelsi, said Tarantini had lied about the quantity of drugs he supplied to parties on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda in the summer of 2008. The true amount was 500 grammes of cocaine, not 50-70 grammes as Taraintini had earlier claimed, Scelsi said, adding this was why he had him arrested.
Bari prosecutors last week began questioning in Milan and Rome some of the women who were allegedly paid by Tarantini to attend Berlusconi’s parties.
Taps of Tarantini’s telephone revealed him offering money to escort girls to spend the night at Berlusconi’s residences in Rome and Sardinia.
Tarantini previously told prosecutors in Bari he supplied more than 30 women — many of them prostitutes — for 18 parties organised by the premier in Rome and at his villa in Sardinia.
Tarantini said recently he “feared for his life” and there is concern among Bari prosecutors about his knowledge of organised crime in the area.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lisbon Treaty Faces New Court Challenge From Czech Senators
A GROUP of Czech senators has lodged a new constitutional court challenge against the Lisbon Treaty, alleging that it turns the EU into a “super state”.
Part of the appeal rests on a claim that the guarantees on the treaty given to Ireland by EU leaders should have been ratified by the Czech parliament. The senators hope the appeal will delay ratification until a Conservative government can win power in Britain and kill the treaty.
Senator Jiri Oberfalzer, a close ally of Eurosceptic Czech president Vaclav Klaus who helped prepare the court challenge, said that the constitutional court should state whether the EU would still be an international organisation or if Lisbon creates a new EU “super state”.
The appeal asks the court to examine whether the treaty as a whole is compatible with the Czech constitution. It also challenges the legality of the guarantees provided by EU leaders to Ireland.
“The senators claim the Irish guarantees are an international treaty which would need the consent of both chambers of the Czech parliament,” Tomas Langasek, general secretary of the court, told The Irish Times yesterday.
A previous appeal against the six most controversial parts of the treaty was heard by the Czech court last year. After several months the court ruled that these elements of the Lisbon Treaty were compatible with the Czech constitution.
The Czech government sought to reassure its EU partners yesterday, stating that it still expected to ratify the treaty this year. “I believe the constitutional court has already expressed its views on the most important six issues in the treaty and there is no problem with the compatibility with the Czech constitution,” said Stefan Fule, European affairs minister. “So I believe we can meet our commitment that we made to EU leaders in June this year to ratify the treaty by the end of the year.”
He said the Czech failure to ratify the treaty had “inflicted a certain amount of damage” on the country’s reputation. “I hope very much in the days and weeks to come we don’t worsen our situation,” he said.
But he warned it would be counterproductive for his government or any EU state to try to pressure Mr Klaus to sign the treaty. “I strongly believe that the president will add his signature once the court rules,” he added.
Mr Klaus has said he won’t sign the treaty until the Irish vote Yes and the constitutional court makes a final ruling. But treaty opponents across Europe hope he will delay his signature until next year’s British election, which the Tories are expected to win.
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Number of German MPs With Immigration Background Rises
Germany’s newly elected parliament has 15 MPs with foreign roots — more than ever before, daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Wednesday.
The last parliament had 11 representatives with what Germans call “immigration background.”
The most multicultural MPs belong to the environmentalist Green party, which has five, including Iranian-born Omid Nouripour, who entered his second term after Sunday’s election.
Meanwhile the centre-left Social Democrats have four, and the socialist Left Party now has three.
For the first time, the pro-business Free Democrats, who are also Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats’ preferred coalition partner, also have two new MPs with foreign roots — Turkish-German Serkan Tören and Iranian-born Bijan Djir-Sarai.
Meanwhile Merkel’s CDU parliamentarians include Michaela Noll, whose father is Iranian.
“The clear growth to 15 mirrors the growing weight of immigrants among voters,” the paper reported, adding that some 5.6 million German residents with foreign roots have the right to vote.
But the country’s largest group of immigrants, those from Eastern Europe, are not represented in the Bundestag, though some 2.5 million can vote in Germany, the paper said.
Many parties searched for candidates with Turkish background due to the country’s large population, but interest was limited, according to the paper. Germany’s most famous Turkish-German politician, Green party member Cem Özdemir, is co-leader of the party and thus not a member of parliament.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Trade: Italy: Exports Increase Thanks to Non-EU Markets
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 24 — The signs of recovery for Italian exports in July on the world markets (+3.1%, seasonally adjusted data compared to June) are mainly due to the boost provided by non-EU countries with a year on year increase of 7.9%. Italy overcame France to become the second European exporter to these markets with a 11.2% quota, only behind Germany (25%) according to a statement from Assocamerestero on foreign trade data released today by the National Statistics Institute (ISTAT). In terms of the main destinations for Italian goods, the group stressed that in the month of July, positive signals also came from Germany (+24.5%), France (18.8%), and Spain (17.4%). These three countries alone make up over 30% of exports. Positive data also came from areas characterised by strong a Italian business presence, like the countries in Eastern Europe (+21%, 2 billion euros). As for the main Italian export sectors, the mechanical industry and the textile-clothing-footwear sector registered a 3.9 and 1.5-billion euro surplus in July, the best performance since November of 2008. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cameron Says Tories Will Reconsider Lisbon Referendum if EU Ratifies
David Cameron has confirmed on the eve of the Irish referendum that a Tory government would reconsider its promised referendum on the Lisbon treaty if it has been ratified by the rest of the European Union by the time they come to power.
The Tory leader said that a fully ratified treaty would present an incoming Conservative government with a “new set of circumstances” that it would have to address at the time.
His comments came as opinion polls indicated that the Irish were set to reverse last year’s No vote in the country’s second referendum on the treaty tomorrow, removing one of the main obstacles to its implementation. His words did not represent any change in his stance but indicated that the Conservatives will continue to stonewall over what they would do in the event of the treaty being ratified before next May.
The results are due to be announced on Saturday as the Conservatives gather for their annual conference in Manchester, and a No vote would intensify the pressure on Mr Cameron to spell out exactly what he would do in the event of a Tory election victory if the treaty was already in force.
So far the Conservatives have simply said that they would “not let matters rest”, but declined to be more specific. The Times understands that they will maintain their refusal to say more during next week’s conference, as it will still be far from clear whether the treaty will be ratified.
In an interview with LBC radio, Mr Cameron emphasised that Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany had all yet to complete the ratification process, with the Czechs still up to six months away from finalising matters.
However, with probably eight months to go to the general election, he acknowledged that the treaty could be fully implemented by the time they achieve office.
“If this treaty is still alive, if it is still being discussed and debated anywhere in Europe, then we will give you that referendum, we will name the date during the election campaign, we’ll hold that referendum straight away and I will lead the campaign for a No,” he said.
“Now, if those circumstances change, if the Germans ratify, if the Poles ratify, if the Czechs ratify, if the Irish vote Yes to the treaty, then a new set of circumstances [apply], and I will address those at the time.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fishermen Despair at ‘Crippling’ EU Rules
A top north-east skipper warned last night that the white fish fleet is facing its biggest crisis for 30 years and called for urgent action to stop boats being forced out of business.
John Buchan claimed the annual end-of-year negotiations on rules and quotas for the next 12 months were “an irrelevance” against a backdrop of industry despair.
He hit out as Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead met the European Union’s top fisheries official to spell out concerns about the hardships facing Scots trawlermen.
Mr Buchan, owner and skipper of the Peterhead-registered Fairline, said fishermen grapple with “crippling” restrictions.
“This is the biggest crisis I have seen in the industry in 30 years,” he said.
“We are living in a recession and struggling to cope. The burden of bureaucracy on us is stifling our ability to remain viable.
“All of the ingredients we need to ride out the recession are there but current restrictions force us to dump good fish overboard.”
Mr Buchan believes vessels should be allowed to retain whatever they catch, which he insists would mean fewer fishing days and less discards — dead fish dumped in the sea because it is over quota.
[…]
Fishing rules and quotas for 2010 will be decided over the next few months.
Mr Lochhead said there was little chance of the European Commission budging over plans to cut days-at-sea by a further 10%.
He added: “New effort restrictions compounded by low fish prices as a result of the recession have made this year very tough for Scots fishermen.
“Next year looks like being no easier unless we take some radical steps to change fisheries management and attract better income from the top-quality fish we land.
“In the coming weeks and months, the Scottish Government will work with the industry to achieve a sustainable and profitable sector.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Tories Should Beware the Irish, Not Labour
If the rerun referendum backs the Lisbon treaty, Mr Cameron will have to make clear exactly where he stands on Europe
by David Aaronovitch
On Sunday night, here in Brighton, I went to an event — a “rally” — organised by Labour’s new centre-left ginger group, Compass, and its ancient left-wing paper, Tribune. For some reason those responsible failed to notice that a clue to the purpose of the gathering lay in the name — and that a rally is supposed to rally. On which basis they should have billed it as a Depressing Whinge, and I left after 70 minutes to go and watch Waking the Dead, where at least the corpses are entertaining.
By yesterday, however, a form of constructive unreality had taken hold in the conference hall as Lord Mandelson promised that Britain would remain a manufacturing nation “as long as I and the Government remain in our jobs!”, which gives industries just over seven months to relocate to Malaysia.
However, if there was little basis in His Lordship’s optimism, there was some truth in his punchy critique of the party that will almost inevitably supplant him. It has seemed irrelevant to interrogate Conservative policies for avoiding the banking crisis and then a possible slump, because they were in no position (thank goodness) to carry them out. In opposition, the Conservatives can’t do things.
But this week something will probably happen that does require them to make a clear choice, and how David Cameron handles making this choice will tell us much not about whether he will be the next Prime Minister (he will be), but whether he ought to be. The event is the rerun Irish referendum on the Lisbon treaty, in which it looks likely that the “no” side will fail to prevail, and one big hope of Tory leaders — that someone else will deliver them from an EU row — will fade.
But oh, how they have clung to the idea! Go to the Conservative website, riffle through the news from Europe, and discover — in almost the most recent posting — how the German constitutional court has valiantly delayed ratification back in the summer. And look in vain for an update from last week in which — three days before the German election, and to the expressed pleasure of Angela Merkel — the German President, Horst Köhler, signed the treaty. Now slim hope rests with 17 Czech senators delaying the process until after our own elections in the spring.
In reality, there is a significant chance that by December — with all 27 member states having ratified Lisbon — the EU could be discussing candidates for president and foreign affairs chief. And here is the formal position of Her Majesty’s Opposition: if, by the general election, the treaty is in force, it “would lack democratic legitimacy in this country and we would not let matters rest there”.
So the question — if the Irish Republic votes yes just in time for the Tory conference in Manchester — is what on earth “we would not let matters rest there” actually means. If scrutiny of the Opposition is any part of the modern journalist’s trade, it is the question that will be asked and reasked until it is answered. What “matters” will not rest?
William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, has given no clue as to what that state of matters-not- restingness might consist of. Instead, he has reassured his party that he means business and, as evidence of this, he cited how he and Mr Cameron had gone ahead with their 2005 pledge to pull the Tories out of the centre-right European People’s Party grouping in Europe, and create a new group — the European Conservatives and Reformists.
It is hard to imagine, except for the most blinkered Little Englander, a more catastrophic precedent. The EPP has people like Angela Merkel in it, the ECR has the Latvian Fatherland and Freedom Party (earning a rebuke from the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation because of its support for an annual parade by Latvian SS veterans), the EPP has President Sarkozy’s party, the ECR has, as chairman, the Polish member of the Law and Justice Party, Michal Kaminski, who has described homosexuals on air as “faggots” and demanded that Jews apologise to Poles for supposed “mass collaboration” with Soviet invaders.
Only press apathy and the destruction of Tory Euro moderates have prevented the scale of this disaster from becoming clear. One MEP, Edward McMillan-Scott, exactly the sort of brave whip-defying parliamentarian that so many profess to admire, was slung out of the party in the summer with nary a susurration from the Bold Englander Brigade.
So what do Mr C and Mr H have in mind? Some will demand a referendum after May, even though Parliament has already ratified the treaty. It will amount to a demand for a retrospective renegotiation, and it seems inconceivable that, should such a referendum go against ratification, the other 26 nations will agree to do the whole thing again.
Our own William Rees-Mogg spelt out a fortnight ago — a tad blithely you might think — that “if Britain were to withdraw from the Lisbon treaty because the British electorate had voted against it, that would be a healthy challenge to Europe. It is possible that the EU would then break up, but it is unlikely.”
It would be simpler, surely, to bypass Britain than to break up and, unsurprisingly, other Eurosceptics are less relaxed about it. The pressure group Open Europe suggests that the new government should indeed hold a referendum not on Lisbon, but on something else — a “reform package” — threatening to veto the EU budget if we don’t get our way. Presumably Britain would be offered a yes or no to this “reform package”.
One wonders if the Tories have quite understood how the world has changed since colossi such as Norman Lamont and John Redwood last thundered along the corridors of power. There is, to be sure, a huge issue of accountability and another of devolution of power.
But these are radically offset by the nature of interdependence, caused by globalisation, demographic change, the possibility of environmental catastrophe, security and future energy demands. Lisbon represents the minimum that needs to be done to allow the 27 EU states properly to co-ordinate their policies and approaches to these questions. If the new government wastes its time in counterproductive (but sceptic- pleasing) manoeuvres that jeopardise rather than enhance these objectives, it will sell Britain’s interests short.
There is no progressive agenda, Mr Cameron, that isn’t internationalist. And although leadership is certainly about taking the plaudits when you are about to win, it is far more about telling the truth to your own party, however reluctant some are to hear it.
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Kosovo: EU: 5 Mln Euros for Return of Refugees
(ANSAmed) — PRISTINA, SEPTEMBER 23 — The European Commission Liaison Office to Kosovo started today, in cooperation with the ministry for communities, the second stage of the 5 million euros project for the return and integration of refugees in Klina, Obiliq, Ferizaj and Rahovec. The liaison office — a EU statement reads — has allocated 4 million euros, the ministry for communities funds 1.1 million euros. The project was carried out by the Danish Refugee Council. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Moroccan Newspaper Closed Over Caricature of King’s Cousin
Rabat, Morocco — The Moroccan national journalists’ trade union SNPM has accused the government of breaking the law in closing the offices of a newspaper that published a caricature of the wedding of a cousin of King Mohammed VI. Such measures were not within the law, the SNPM said in a communique quoted by press reports on Wednesday.
The union also urged the government to change a legal article that requires journalists to “respect” King Mohammed and his relatives.
Police closed the offices of the daily Akhbar al-Youm in Casablanca on Tuesday, interrogating its director Taoufiq Bouachrine for hours in the afternoon.
The Interior Ministry announced legal action against the newspaper for “not respecting” a member of the royal family in publishing a caricature linked to a “strictly private” event.
The caricature shows the king’s cousin Moulay Ismail in a portable chair used in wedding ceremonies against the backdrop of a star reminiscent of the star on the Moroccan flag and of the Star of David, which is on the flag of Israel.
The caricature, the meaning of which was not clear, referred to Moulay Ismail’s marriage to a German Muslim woman over the weekend.
“The use of the Star of David … raises questions about what the authors are trying to hint at and indicates tendencies towards blatant anti-Semitism,” the ministry said.
It is not rare for the Moroccan authorities to seize issues of newspapers or to take legal action against journalists, but closing newspaper offices is very rare.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Kills Egyptian Christian, Villagers Attack Mourners at Funeral
By Mary Abdelmassih
Egypt (AINA) — Nayer Mansour Sahrab, a Muslim minibus driver, stabbed four Christian Copts on Sunday, September 27, in the village of Delga, Deir Mawas, Al Minya Governorate, killing one and seriously injuring the other three. The incident led thousands of angry Copts to rally and demand an end to the government’s policy of indifference in dealing with Coptic issues. State Security forces have cordoned the village and are still heavily present near the church.
When a Coptic family desired to board a minibus other than the one owned by Mr. Sahrab (28) an argument ensued. Mr. Sahrab was apparently “offended” that his services were declined. The Copts were beaten by Mr. Sahrab, his brother and other Muslims. Mr. Sahrab stabbed Hanna Amir Rezq (26) in his back and abdomen several times with a knife, as well as his brothers Maurice and Amin and his 20-year old nephew Ashraf Maher Amir, who was stabbed several times in the head. Mr. Sahrab fled after committing the crime, but was later arrested.
The killing caused thousands of Copts to rally in front of Deir Mawas Hospital, where Hanna Amir Rezq was taken together with the other three wounded Copts. Hanna died shortly after his arrival. According Mariam Ragy, correspondent for the Middle East Christian Association (MECA), State security prevented Copts from going into the hospital to check on the status of the injured and dispersed them by force. “Angry Copts also rallied in the village of Delga holding banners demanding a stop to Coptic persecution,” she said.
Reverend Abram, pastor of the village Saint Abram Church told the Egyptian Daily Masry el Youm that this is not just a fight between a Muslim and a Christian, “Copts are targeted and this is the second incident within one month that a Copt is killed during a fight with a Muslim. The first Coptic victim was murdered after an argument over planting some palm trees, and the second victim today was murdered over boarding a minibus.”
His Grace Aghapius, Bishop the Holy Diocese of Deir Mawas and Delga, described the village of Delga, which lies 350 km from Cairo, as “the most violent and the least safe,” giving the example of the village Muslims attacking the Copts as they entered the village church for the funeral service of the victim Hanna and on their way out to bury him. “They were pelting them with stones, cheering and singing accompanied by drum beats and Muslim women were letting out the traditional celebration sound. All this happened in the presence of security,” he told Mariam Ragy.
Eyewitnesses reported that Copts were replying to Muslims chant of “Allah is Great” with “With our soul and our blood, we will defend our Cross.”
Bishop Aghapius said that Copts were also assaulted after the burial, with Muslims smashing Coptic-owned cars, as well as attacking streets that are inhabited entirely by Copts, including El-Hamr Street, prompting Coptic inhabitants to remain inside their homes. “How could all this happen in the presence of seven State Security cars in the village, adjacent to the church?” he asks. “I am still waiting for State Security to carry out their promises of solving our problems.”
Hegomen Selwanes of Deir Mawas Diocese told Wagih Yacoub, activist with MECA that this is the second killing of a Copt by a Muslim within one month. The first killing was Fathi Gayed leading to the arrest of numerous Muslims, but prosecution seeks to implicate a 12-year-old boy, which would let the real killer get off the hook. “This incident and similar ones has encouraged Muslims that they can get away without punishment by killing a Copt. This has led Copts to protest. We cannot accept that every few days a Copt gets killed.” He also said that top Coptic attorney, Dr. Ihab Ramzy, will handle the case. “The government has to carry out an awareness campaign that the Copt is a citizen and has rights equal to the Muslim. They do not respect us.” He also added that the Copts in Delga, who are nearly 30,000 out of a population of 100,000 inhabitants, are very peaceful citizens and are always on good terms with their Muslim neighbors.
“Copts are targeted because they are meek and unable to defend for themselves,” Reverend Abram told Coptic News Bulletin. “Besides, Muslims know very well that they will never be prosecuted for killing a Copt.”. He explained that they would not dare do the same things to a Muslim, because they would get killed. “Unfortunately Coptic blood is cheap. We demand fairness and equal application of the law, for homicides committed against Copts.”
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Barry Rubin: the Gaza Report is a Disaster for Human Rights and Peace
The United Nations-sponsored Goldstone report, created for the purpose of bashing Israel over the Gaza war with phony claims of “war crimes,” is possibly the most inaccurate document ever produced by that organization.
In fact, several commission members declared the defendant guilty before being selected; sections of the report echoed previous ones by groups known for their bias; virtually all the data included are unverified claims by politically committed Palestinians who view Israel as an enemy to be destroyed; and scores of specific items can be shown to be false.
For example, the report accepts the claims of Palestinian groups regarding civilians killed despite the fact that detailed studies show many of those so listed were Hamas gunmen according to these groups’ own publications. Similarly, the report claims attacks were not against military targets when Hamas has published obituaries of its soldiers killed in said targets.
The report also repeats claims that a mortar shelling near a school in Jabalya was aimed at the school, this despite a Globe and Mail correspondent’s published findings that reports of shells landing inside the schoolyard were inaccurate, and the fact that Israeli spokespeople asserted that their forces had only returned fire from gunmen in the vicinity of the school. As in other cases, the blame belongs to Hamas, which used the school and civilians as human shields for its soldiers there.
Imagine a war in which one side (Hamas) openly declares it will wipe out the other (Israel). Imagine that this regime officially refers to its enemies (Jews) as sub-humans responsible for everything evil in history. Imagine this regime is effectively a dictatorship, punishing anyone who contradicts its positions.
Now, imagine an outside group combining the naive and sympathizers, which in effect says: Tell us how evil and terrible your enemy (i.e., would-be victim) is. We will write it all down and use it to isolate, demonize and punish them. What do you expect the result will be?
That is what has happened. Witnesses made propaganda against Israel; the UN collated, endorsed, and broadcast it…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
East Jerusalem: Fatah Leader Warns of 3rd Intifada
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, SEPTEMBER 28 — The threat of a ‘third Intifada” (a new general revolt by the Palestinians) was issued today from the West Bank by Mohammed Dahlan following yesterday’s clashes between Israeli police and Arab youths in east Jerusalem, and incursions by law enforcement officers into the sacred area of Temple Mount. Dahlan is a prominent figure in Fatah, the party of moderate President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). According to Dahlan, who was quoted by the Maan press agency, police charges on Temple Mount represent “an offence against all Muslims. Violating the sanctity of the al-Aqsa Mosque, (the Israelis) are playing with fire and are risking overstepping the red line” warned the Fatah member. The clashes began yesterday morning with stone-throwing by Arabs lined up on the mount against French tourists who were mistaken for a group of Jewish religious activists who had announced their intention of going to the site under police escort on the eve of Kippur. The site is jealously guarded by Muslims as the third holy place of Islam, but it is also considered by Jews to the original site of the temple destroyed by the Romans almost 2,000 years ago. Police charged into the mount and there were scuffles, with dozens of injuries on both sides. The wave of violence follows months of relative calm in the city, which the PNA today described as “State terror” imposed by the Israeli authorities, whom they accuse of authorising and protecting the “confrontational” march by nationalists to the site, knowing that the marchers were hostile to the peace process and had planned the initiative “in a deliberate attempt to provoke a reaction”. The reaction was seized upon in turn by Hamas supporters to call on the PNA and Mahmoud Abbas to halt any attempts at negotiations with Israel, backed by Barack Obama’s US administration. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Shalit Video to be ‘Swapped’ For 20 Palestinian Prisoners
Tel Aviv, 30 Sept. (AKI) — Israel is set to receive fresh video footage of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit proving he is alive in exchange for the release of 20 female Palestinian prisoners.
Shalit has been held in the Gaza Strip since his abduction in 2006 by Palestinian militants.
The video will be handed over after a decision by Israel’s security cabinet to release 20 Palestinian women held in Israeli jails, Israeli daily Haaretz said on Wednesday.
The video will be viewed as definite proof that Shalit is still alive.
A statement by the office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it expects the deal to be carried out on Friday.
“According to the proposal by mediators, Israel will receive updated and unequivocal proof of Shalit’s condition,” the statement by the prime minister’s office said. It did not specify a date for the release of the female prisoners.
Sources quoted by Israeli media say German mediators have already viewed the video which appears to have been filmed in recent weeks.
According to Arab sources, the armed wing of the militant Hamas movement, the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades has confirmed the deal.
Shalit has been held captive by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip for almost three years. He was seized by militants in a cross-border raid on 25 June 2006.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Defense: Turkey’s Attack Helicopter Test Flight in Italy
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 25 — A prototype of an attack helicopter which will be co-produced by Turkey and Italy is set to make a test flight on Monday in Milan, Anatolia agency reports. The combat and reconnaissance helicopter, an enhanced version of the Italian Agusta Westland’s A-129s, will be named T-129 ATAK. Turkey’s Tusas Aerospace Industries (TAI), the prime contractor, and Italy’s Agusta Westland, a subcontractor, will co-produce the aircraft under an agreement signed in 2007 for the purchase of 51 (plus 40 optional) helicopters for the Turkish Land Forces. The helicopter will be equipped with avionic and weapon systems designed and produced locally and the mission computer and targeting, navigation, communication and electronic warfare systems will be developed and produced by ASELSAN, a leading defense company in Turkey. TAI will have the right to use and administer the intellectual property of the T129 ATAK Helicopter and to sell it worldwide. The first T-129 is planned to be delivered to the Turkish Land Forces in 2013. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait to Deport 17,000 Foreigners Involved in Illegalities
(ANSAmed) — MANAMA, SEPTEMBER 28 — Kuwait is planning to deport 17,000 foreigners guilty of overstaying in the country or of involvement in illegal activities that include forgery, embezzlement and prostitution. The decision was suggested by the interior ministry which does not see any reason for keeping them in Kuwait, especially that most of them are free visa labourers, Al Jareeda daily reported on Sunday, quoting unnamed ministry sources. According to the sources, the list of the people to be deported includes 4,000 Bangladeshis, 3,500 Indians, 1,200 Egyptians, 1,000 Filipinos, 1,000 Indonesians, 1,000 Pakistanis, 1,000 Afghanis, 750 Syrians, 500 Thais, 500 Iranians, 500 Chinese, 500 Nepalese and 500 Ethiopians. The remaining people to be deported are from other countries, but their numbers vary between 50 and 100 for each nationality, the sources said. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: UNIFIL; Graziano, No War on the Horizon
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, SEPTEMBER 28 — “There is no war on the horizon” between Israel and Lebanon. The statement was made by the commander in chief of UNIFIL, Italian General Claudio Graziano, in an interview with the Lebanese daily, As-Safir. “Peace in the region is in good hands, expect unexpected turns,” said Graziano, according to whom “neither of the countries involved want war.” In reference to the arrest, some days ago, of five alleged Al-Qaeda terrorists in the south of Lebanon, Graziano said that the terrorist threat was already present in 2006 when UNIFIL sent a deployment of 13,000 men to Lebanon at the end of the conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Shia militia, Hezbollah. “We don’t take the possibility of a potential attack lightly,” said Graziano. “For this reason we are taking all the necessary precautions, together with the Lebanese army.” The general went on to state that Islamic fundamentalist cells linked to groups in the Palestinian refugee camps were responsible for the rocket attacks from the south of Lebanon against the north of Israel at the beginning of the month. “There is limited information about these cells and it is difficult to identify them,” said Graziano, adding that the Lebanese army, and not UNIFIL, is responsible for security in the camps. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Sexual Violence, British Women Send Petition to PM
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 28 — Today’s Hurriyet daily newspaper gives extensive front-page coverage to a petition sent by famous British ‘Take a Break’ magazine to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The magazine says that a Turkish cook, charged with raping three British women and one Finnish tourist in Turkey’s Aegean resort of Marmaris was set free by the court. The petition warns that if the Turkish prime minister insists on tolerating discrimination of women, the magazine will advise its millions of readers to boycott Turkey. The petition presents three demands to Erdogan: women must be treated as the equals of men, not possessions or sex objects; complaints of sexual attack and/or rape must be handled sensitively and investigated seriously by the police; women’s property must be protected from fraud and theft, especially by Turkish boyfriends. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Georgia ‘Started Unjustified War’
The war in Georgia last year was started by a Georgian attack that was not justified by international law, an EU-sponsored report has concluded.
However, the attack followed months of provocation, and both sides violated international law, the report said.
Russia said the report delivered an “unequivocal answer” on the question of who started the conflict.
But Georgia said the investigation proved that Russia had been preparing for war all along.
The report said about 850 people were killed in the August 2008 war, and that more than 100,000 fled their homes, about 35,000 of whom are still displaced.
It was commissioned by the Council of the European Union, and written by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, with the help of 30 European military, legal and history experts.
The conflict erupted on 7 August 2008, as Georgia shelled the breakaway region of South Ossetia, in an attempt to regain control over it. The previous months had seen a series of clashes.
Russian forces quickly repelled the assault, and pushed further into Georgia.
The conflict lasted for five days before a ceasefire was agreed. Russia pulled back, but built up its military presence in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
‘Not justifiable’
“The shelling of Tskhinvali (the South Ossetian capital) by the Georgian armed forces during the night of 7 to 8 August 2008 marked the beginning of the large-scale armed conflict in Georgia,” the report says.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Farmer’s Daughter Disarms Terrorist and Shoots Him Dead With AK47
An Indian farmer’s daughter disarmed a terrorist leader who broke into her home, attacked him with an axe and shot him dead with his own gun.
Rukhsana Kausar, 21, was with her parents and brother in Jammu and Kashmir when three gunmen, believed to be Pakistani militants, forced their way in and demanded food and beds for the night.
Their house in Shahdra Sharief, Rajouri district, is about 20 miles from the ceasefire line between Indian and Pakistani forces.
It is close to dense forests known as hiding places for fighters from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which carried out the Mumbai terrorist attack last November.
Militants often demand food and lodging in nearby villages.
When they forced their way into Miss Kausar’s home, her father Noor Mohammad refused their demands and was attacked.
His daughter was hiding under a bed when she heard him crying as the gunmen thrashed him with sticks. According to police, she ran towards her father’s attacker and struck him with an axe. As he collapsed, she snatched his AK47 and shot him dead.
She also shot and wounded another militant as he made his escape.
Police have hailed the woman’s bravery.
They said she would be nominated for the president’s gallantry award.
She may also receive a £4,000 reward if, as police believe, the dead terrorist is confirmed as Uzafa Shah, a wanted Pakistani LeT commander who had been active in the area for the past four years.
Supt Shafqat Watali said Miss Kausar’s reaction was “a rude shock” for the militants. “Normally they get king-like treatment but this was totally unexpected,” he said.
Miss Kausar said she had never fired an assault rifle before but had seen it in films and could not stand by while her father was being hurt. “I couldn’t bear my father’s humiliation. If I’d failed to kill him, they would have killed us,” she said.
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Cinema: Libyan Repulsions in ‘We’re Defending Europe’
(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 25 — Under the title of ‘We’re Defending Europé, the 70-minute audio-documentary by Roman Herzog, which has been previewed in Rome, concerns itself with the subject of immigration, and of repelling immigrants in particular. The documentary develops around a fixed image — an interior shot of a container used for transporting “repulsed” migrants, accompanied migrants’ voices as they head to Libya’s detention camps. The voices of the service personnel are also to be heard, as are those of Libya’s civic society and of members of non-governmental organisations. The German reporter, who works for German public networks, explains how “the ban on filming allowed us to explore the truth in depth. They would never have let us enter some of these camps with a television camera. Of crucial importance was the journalistic visa supplied to me by German radio: this opened a lot of doors. But this didn’t prevent me from being accompanied wherever I went by security officers and teams filming my work”. The documentary-maker finds two images central: “the one featuring the container, which reminded me of the Nazi’s sealed carriages, and the expression on the face of a woman prisoner I interviewed. We were in the office of one of the detention camps and she told me of the harassment shéd been through while she stared at the food that had been brought for me and my companions. At the end she asked whether she might have a little”. The documentary alternates between narrating Italy’s policy of repelling migrants back to Libya and telling how migrant flows from Africa to Europe are being stopped in Libya. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Dozens of ‘Jungle’ Charges Dropped
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 25 — Dozens of irregular immigrants, evicted from their ‘junglé encampments outside Calais three days ago and placed under arrest, may be set free after French magistrates cancelled various arrest warrants. Meanwhile another immigrant camp has been cleared today in the Calais area, just across the Channel from the UK’s shores. Magistrates in Nimes ruled to free 35 Afghan detainees. Similar decisions have come from Toulouse (freeing 13 irregular migrants) and from Marseilles (where six were falsely imprisoned). Five Afghans suffering from scabies were unable to appear before the magistrate and so remain in custody for a further 48 hours at least. 278 irregular migrants, mainly Afghans and Iraqis, were held after the destruction of the so-called ‘jungle’ encampment. While the minors — around half of those arrested — have been placed in reception centres and cannot be expelled from the country, the others have been sent to various detention centres around France. In their cases, French Immigration Minister, Eric Besson, has made it known that they are to be expelled unless they opt to return to their native countries “voluntarily” or make a request for asylum.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France Tells Britain: Let in All Migrants
FRANCE last night admitted it was fighting a losing battle against illegal migrants — and demanded Britain should open its doors to them.
A week after being forced from their shanty town, the asylum seekers were back, still seeking a passage to the UK.
Last night Calais mayor Natacha Bouchard said the Channel port would remain an immigrant dumping ground until Britain opened its borders and stopped asking France to do its dirty work.
She insisted that the British should sign up to the Schengen Agreement, a European Union accord that allows free movement of all people between European member states without the need for passports or visas.
“Calais has become a no-go area, and that’s because we have become hostages of the British Government,” said Ms Bouchard.
“Britain is unable to control its borders, so we’re doing the job for them because they’re not part of the agreement. There are still some 20 squatter camps in Calais alone.
“Britain has no right to put pressure on us. Every politician should keep repeating this.
“The more they say it, the more they’ll be throwing light on the problem which has been imposed on us.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Migrants ‘Didn’t Ask for Asylum’
Italian government replies to EC immigration concerns
(ANSA) — Rome, September 25 — None of the 757 immigrants intercepted at sea and escorted back to Libya this summer requested asylum, the Italian government claimed in a letter to the European Commission. Dated September 8 and released to ANSA on Friday, the letter answers an EC request for details regarding Italy’s controversial push-back immigration policy.
Concerns over the policy center on fears that immigrants deported at sea are being denied the opportunity to request asylum.
The Italian government, however, said that none of the immigrants taken to Libya between May 6 and August 30 “made any request for international protection or mention of persecution in their own country”.
As for concerns about the treatment of immigrants sent back to Libya, the letter argues that the North African country has ratified an African Union Convention on refugees “obliging it to guarantee protection of anyone facing persecution”.
The correspondence echoes statements by Interior Undersecretaries Alfredo Mantovano and Nitto Francesco Palma on Tuesday that the policy fully complies with international laws protecting the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.
The United Nations Refugee Commissioner, the UN Human Rights Commissioner and Human Rights Watch have all expressed concern in recent days over the policy.
The letter goes on to defend Italy’s push-back policy as “an extremely efficient means of combatting illegal immigration” noting that the number of ships landing on Italian shores had fallen by 90%.
The Italian government also called on the European Union to help Libya combat human traffickers and raise its ability to accommodate asylum seekers to “European standards”.
NAPOLITANO SAYS RIGHT TO ASYLUM “INALIENABLE”.
The Italian government has long pushed for greater EU cooperation in stemming the tide of immigrants who land on the shores of southern Europe each year.
During a meeting with Italian European Parliament MPs on Friday, President Giorgio Napolitano stressed the need for a common EU strategy on immigration which protected the “inalienable right to asylum for those forced to ask for it”.
The meeting coincided with the second national conference on immigration at Milan’s Catholic University, where Turin Mayor and Italian Association of Italian Municipal Councils (ANCI) President Sergio Chiamparino said Italy’s immigration policy ought to focus on integration.
The centre-left mayor said the government ought to bolster resources at the local level so that native residents didn’t feel like they were in competition for public services with immigrants. He also underlined the importance of cutting the red tape involved in immigration, such as the long waiting periods required to get a permit of stay.
“The future of integration is in the hands of city government, which has amply demonstrated its ability to confront the problem,” Chiamparino said and proposed government incentives for communities which took steps to furthering integration on their own.
According to the Italian think-tank Nomisma, Italy had almost four million immigrants at the start of 2009, a figure that will rise to 6.3 million in 2020 and 10.6 million in 2050.
Nomisma also noted that a rising number of immigrants are moving to small towns.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Tells EU: Non-Repulsion Policy Followed
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 25 — During the eight sea-borne repulsion operations which took place between May 6 and August 30, Italy “complied with the principle of ‘non refoulment’ (non-repulsion) as it did not deny the intercepted migrants an opportunity to apply for asylum”. The statement comes in a letter, dated September 8, sent by Italy to the EU Commission and which ANSA has viewed, in reply to Brussels’ request for information. According to those in charge of the sea-borne operation, the letter states, the people on board the intercepted boat “made no request of any kind for international protection, nor did they state that they were being persecuted in their home countries”. The letter states that 757 irregular migrants were taken back to Libya and that the operations “were conducted in conformity with applicable internal and international regulations”, as well as being “ part of the application of the Schengen frontier code”. As regards the Italo-Libyan accord, the letter underlines how Tripoli, although it is not a signatory to the Geneva convention on refugees, has ratified the African Union’s convention on refugees in Africa, which “commits Libya to guaranteeing protection not just to those being persecuted, but to all those stemming from at-risk geographical areas”. “The actions for tackling irregular migration put in place by the Italian government constitute, in their compliance with the international legal framework, a very effective policy for tackling irregular immigration”, which has led to a reduction of over 90% in the number of boat landings on Italy’s coasts. (ANSAmed).
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Italy: Almost 4 Mln Foreigners and Rising
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, SEPTEMBER 25 — On January 1 2009 there were 3 million 900 thousand foreigners in Italy. A report published by Nomisma for the second conference on immigration predicts that there will be 6 million 300 thousand in 2020 and more than 10 million 600 thousand in 2050. Between 1970 and 2000 the number of immigrants doubled every 10 years. More than half of all immigrants live in the northern part of Italy: 36.3% in the north-west, 27.3% in the north-east and 24.8% in the centre. The rest, just over 10%, lives in the southern part of Italy. The report contains an unexpected find: the arrival of foreigners in the big cities with more than half a million inhabitants is falling (-1.1%), while this number is rising in Municipalities between 5 and 20 thousand inhabitants. (ANSAmed).
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Italy: 241 Thousand Requests for Domestic Help
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, SEPTEMBER 25 — A total of 241,000 applications have been presented to give domestic helps and carers a regular contract. The news was announced during a round table during the second conference on immigration in Milan by prefect Mario Morcone, head of the department of civil liberties and immigration. By the end of this month “the total will be 300,000 applications” he added, “and this was the choice of the lawmaker”. This number was in fact the government’s forecast when it presented the measure. (ANSAmed).
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Migrants Expelled by Morocco Returned by Algeria
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 25 — Fifteen migrants, survivors of last Saturday’s shipwreck in the Straight of Gibraltar, have been expelled by the Moroccan authorities to Algeria. According to humanitarian NGOs the group has been sent back at the Algerian border however. Around 30 people, including women and children, are still missing after the shipwreck. The migrants, seven men and eight women, all from the sub-Saharan region, were on their way in a rubber dinghy to the Spanish coast when the engine broke down off the coast of Perejil. They were assisted by a Spanish rescue team and the Spanish police which took them on board, after which they were handed over to the Moroccan authorities. Sources in the judiciary system quoted by El Pais say that the Moroccan authorities have decided to expel them to Algeria. The public prosecutor’s office of Tangiers has ordered the expulsion of the survivors to Oujida, on the eastern border with Morocco. They have been taken their in two vans, with other Algerian migrants. According to the Moroccan NGO Gadem and the Beni Znassen association, they were told to cross the border with Algeria at night. But on the other side of the border they were intercepted by Algerian police forces who forced them to return to Morocco. “The Algerian police forced them to return to Morocco in two occasions” said Hicham Baraka of the Gadem NGO in a statement to El Pais. “They are exhausted and they fear that they will continue to be treated as ping-pong balls”. Meanwhile in Spain, 31 migrants from the sub-Saharan region including at least 8 children, arrived at the island of Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. The boat, according to the coastguard, was intercepted in the port of Los Marmoles. The children, two of whom are girls, are in good health. (ANSAmed).
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Holdren: Seize Babies Born to Unwed Women
Proposed government force adoption if mother refused to get abortion
Obama science czar John Holdren stated in a college textbook that “illegitimate children” born to unwed mothers could be taken by the government and put up for adoption if the mother refused to have an abortion.
Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, argued that “illegitimate childbearing could be strongly discouraged” as a socioeconomic measure imposed to control population growth.
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Expert: Jews Should Harass Arab Officials With Court Motions
(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Ehud Barak did not leave Britain despite an Arab court petition to have him arrested this week, after consulting with advisers who told him the Arab move would fail.
Dr. Ruby Seibel, formerly Legal Adviser to the Foreign Ministry and currently a lecturer on international law in the Jerusalem Hebrew University, told Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew service that Barak’s decision to remain in Britain was a sound one. He also said Israel should cooperate with Jewish groups to harass Arab officials with legal motions to have them arrested abroad, too.
“I was one of the people who were consulted before his decision to stay and I told him very clearly that there was no chance that the Defense Minister would be arrested,” Dr. Seibel said. “He has immunity just like any other minister who is invited to Britain and enjoys diplomatic immunity. In addition, the British government has no desire to have its court used for political purposes, just as we would not want a European citizen to file charges against the Serbian government in the Supreme Court in Jerusalem.”
Psychological warfare Dr. Seibel said the Arab plaintiffs were trying to frighten Israel. “Those Palestinian organizations want to embarrass us, first and foremost,” he explained. “So they will not be able to do anything against ministers because they have immunity but it is quite possible to file motions against IDF officers and there is no quick solution for that.”
“What the State of Israel needs to do is first of all, to file requests with various governments asking that they appear in our name and defend us, especially when you are dealing with friendly governments. I think that most countries can prevent the filing of such provocative motions at the first stage, before it reaches the court. Only in Britain is this not possible.”
Dr. Siebel called upon the government of Israel and the Foreign Ministry to make use of pro-Jewish organizations and to follow the Arabs’ example by filing similar motions against PA officials who visit abroad.
“We too should be bothering those terrorists, filing motions against Syrian government officials suspected of torture, and pestering Arab representatives so that they too undergo the same kind of harassment we may have to face in the near future,” he suggested.
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Success Against Al-Qaeda Cited
U.S. and international intelligence officials say that improved recruitment of spies inside the al-Qaeda network, along with increased use of targeted airstrikes and enhanced assistance from cooperative governments, has significantly reduced the terrorist organization’s effectiveness.
[…]
The most important new weapon in the Western arsenal is said to be the recruitment of spies inside al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations, a long-sought objective. “Human sources have begun to produce results,” Richard Barrett, head of the United Nations’ al-Qaeda and Taliban monitoring group, said Tuesday. Barrett is the former chief of Britain’s overseas counterterrorism operations.
Current and former senior U.S. officials, who spoke about intelligence matters on the condition of anonymity, confirmed what one former CIA official called “our penetration of al-Qaeda.” A senior administration official said that success had come “because of, first of all, very good intelligence capabilities . . . to locate and identify individuals who are part of the al-Qaeda organization.”
Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair referred obliquely in an interview with reporters earlier this month to the use of spies, saying that “the primary way” that U.S. intelligence determines which terrorist organizations pose direct threats is “to penetrate them and learn whether they’re talking about making attacks against the United States.”
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