The appalling, disgusting, shameful administration of President Barack Hussein Obama has pressured Honduras into accepting the return of ousted President Mel Zelaya. If there was ever an indication of the depths to which our foreign policy has sunk, this is it.In other news, about a hundred illegal Kurdish immigrants have landed by boat on the coast of the Italian province of Calabria.
Thanks to Amil Imani, C. Cantoni, Diana West, Fausta, Insubria, JD, KGS, LN, NRTW, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Central Banks Chill Asset Rally
The liquidity tide is turning. Authorities across large parts of the world have either begun to tighten the spigot or are taking steps to wean their economies off emergency stimulus. This is a treacherous moment for markets.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Recovery Not Certain, Draghi Warns
Bank of Italy governor says country needs reforms
(ANSA) — Rome, October 29 — While the global economic free-fall appears to have stopped, it is not for certain that a long-lasting recovery has began, Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi said on Thursday.
In an address marking World Savings Day, Draghi explained that a real recovery needed to be “based on factors other than special economic policy measures” adopted to deal with the crisis.
Draghi, who is also chairman of the Group of 20’s Financial Stability Board (FSB), observed that in regard to the Italian economy, “the acute phase of the crisis is over and gross domestic product was back on the rise in the third quarter after declining for over a year”.
Nevertheless, he warned, while some factors did appear favorable, others remained critical including the slump in domestic consumer demand.
The employment picture also remained gloomy, he added, with a 3.3% year-on-year drop in people holding jobs in September, a trend expected to continue for the rest of the year.
After this past year’s global financial crunch and subsequent economic downturn, Draghi observed, “nothing will be the same again and all players on financial markets, starting with banks, should accept this fact”.
According to the FSB chairman, “the market place should not forget that that the crisis was the consequence of its own imprudence”.
New market rules to ensure that a similar situation does not occur again, Draghi said, “must be introduced gradually in order not to hinder the economic recovery”. Looking at Italian banks, Draghi observed that “our banking system weathered the crisis better than many others. But we must not let our guard down because the system remains very fragile”.
Evidence of this, the governor added, was the fact that “the quality of credit continues to deteriorate sharply and the effects of the recession have already cut significantly into bank profits”.
In order to meet the challenges of the future, Draghi said, Italy “urgently needs to get back on the road to reforms to create the conditions for a greater economic growth, which is the foundation of financial stability”.
“We need to tackle our economy’s structural weaknesses in order to foster a lasting recovery, one which is not just based on exports,” he added.
GOVT TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES WITH CREDIT, TREMONTI SAYS.
Also marking World Savings Day was Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti who in his address said that the Italian government was examining ways to help small businesses obtain and manage credit once the current one-year moratorium on loan payments expires.
“We are thinking about one or more assistance funds, the structure of which need to be compatible with the market,” the minister explained.
The moratorium, he added, “was good but it is not enough”. The Italian Banking Association (ABI) and associations representing small businesses and other enterprises, including farms, signed an accord in August to suspend payments on borrowed capital for one year, although interest on the capital will still have to be paid. The accord also suspended payments on capital included in leasing agreements, for both real estate and non-real estate assets, and extended by 270 days the deadlines for the prepayment of short-term loans. One approach the government may take, Tremonti said, could be adjusting taxation, granting greater deductions, “because personally I prefer to help businesses directly rather than work through the banks”. “In any case, there will probably be a combination of approaches”,” he added. In his address, Tremonti also spoke about Italy’s pension system which he said “is one of the most stable in Europe”. This stability was obtained, he explained, “thanks to the consent of our institutions and a responsible position adopted by the social parties”. Looking at Italy’s position in Europe, Tremonti said “we are on the same level as France and Germany and in a more solid position than Britain, Ireland and Spain. In fact, in many ways we are better off than Germany and France”.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi sent a message to mark World Savings Day in which he said “the worst part of the financial crisis would appear to be behind us and, while slow, a recovery has begun”. According to Berlusconi, the economic downturn is being overcome “thanks to the decisions made on a global level as well as the fact that all institutional, social and economic players in this country fulfilled their roles in a positive way”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jamie Glazov: Sean Penn’s Cuba Odyssey
Sean Penn is in Castro’s Cuba on another one of his political pilgrimages. This time he’s seeking an interview with his hero, the communist despot Fidel Castro.
Penn scored interviews last year with two of his other secular gods: Cuban president and executioner Raul Castro and Marxist tyrant Hugo Chavez. Now he is apparently on assignment for Vanity Fair to meet and interview Castro.
This is only to be expected from Penn, of course, since few Hollywood stars represent liberal Hollywood better in terms of venerating communist and Islamist butchers than Penn. A member of leftist anti-war organizations Not In Our Name and Artists United to Win Without War and an avid supporter of MoveOn.org, he has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, a leader in fellow traveling and a champion of jihadi terrorists.
Let’s take a little look back at Penn’s romance with tyranny and terror:
[…]
Penn continued his anti-war activism throughout the war and after, which included another trip he took to Iraq in late 2003, during which he demonized U.S. efforts to defeat the jihadists and bring stability to the country. During that trip, Penn had to be saved by U.S. soldiers while conducting interviews in unsafe places. He did not reflect, naturally, on whether he owed any gratitude to the U.S. — or on why he was being attacked in the first place and by whom. In other words, moral clarity eluded him even when he himself was saved by his own nation from those who hated him and wanted him dead.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Muslim Mafia’ Linked to Detroit FBI Shootout
Book: CAIR chief gave thousands to cop-killing jihad cell leader
Already under increased scrutiny after revelations in a new book, the Council on American-Islamic Relations now is defending itself against documented links to a federal case that drew national attention this week when an indicted Detroit imam was killed in an FBI raid.
Internal documents from an undercover investigation by the authors of “Muslim Mafia” show CAIR helped finance the legal appeal of Muslim cop-killer Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, who is named in the Detroit criminal complaint as the spiritual leader of a radical group that calls for violent action to establish a sovereign Islamic state within the U.S.
The federal complaint also states one of the 11 indicted followers of the imam who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the FBI Wednesday, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, attended a mosque “affiliated with CAIR” in Windsor, Ontario, just across the Canadian border from Detroit.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Congressman Defends CAIR
‘We should be encouraging all Americans to engage in the U.S. political process’
A Muslim congressman says there is no need to investigate interns who may be placed with members of strategic security committees by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who took his oath of office holding his hand on a Quran instead of a Bible and had CAIR staff members working on his campaign, read a statement in Congress criticizing the call for an investigation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Proof! White House Part of Push for ‘Obama Art’
Judicial Watch obtains e-mails from NEA on controversial call to artists
Freshly uncovered e-mails detail White House involvement in the National Endowment for the Arts’ controversial conference call encouraging artists to create work that promotes the Obama agenda.
[…]
“These e-mails shed new light on a very serious Obama administration scandal,” Judicial Watch said in a statement. “The NEA is supposed to foster the arts, not serve as a propaganda machine for the Obama White House. We will continue our investigation so we can provide the truth to the American people about this scandal.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sting: Obama is ‘Sent From God’
Pop singer: ‘We are here to evolve as 1 family, and we can’t be separate anymore’
British recording artist Sting says President Barack Obama could be the answer to the world’s problems — the divine answer.
“In many ways, he’s sent from God, because the world’s a mess,” he said in a new interview with the Associated Press.
The comments from The Police’s lead singer, whose real name is Gordon Sumner, are just the latest in a long series of statements suggesting Obama’s connection to the supernatural.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Arrests Compel US Muslims to Talk About Their Faith
The surge in arrests is setting off alarms among both native-born Muslims and immigrants groups. In some cases, these people say, federal authorities have overstepped their bounds.
“The FBI has shown that they consider it prudent from their point of view to be more aggressive with the Muslim community, and I think that’s largely because they can get away with it and there’s not going to be too much of an uproar,” says Ihsan Bagby, general secretary of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA). Mr. Bagby finds the practice of sending informant agents into mosques without any provocation “well past acceptable.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why Your Representatives Should Make You Mad as Hell
On top of their six-figure salaries and the millions in taxpayer dollars spent to maintain offices in their home state and in the nation’s capital, Congress also enjoys other benefits such as free life insurance, a generous retirement plan for life, 32 fully reimbursed road trips home a year, and travel to foreign lands. Then there are the ‘extras,’ including discounts in Capitol Hill tax-free shops and restaurants, free reserved parking at Washington National Airport, use of the House gym or Senate baths for $100 a year, free fresh-cut flowers from the Botanic Gardens, and free assistance in the preparation of income taxes.
Unfortunately, there’s more. While more than 15 million Americans are currently out of work and the rest of the nation is laboring longer hours for less pay, Congress enjoys a three-day, Tuesday-to-Thursday work week. Believe it or not, since returning to session, the only time the House of Representatives has actually voted on a Friday was when they approved a 5.8 percent increase in their own budget.
Then there’s the way Congress manages the nation’s checkbook, running up deficits and spending outlandish sums of money on pork barrel projects. If you or I were to manage our finances this way, we’d quickly find ourselves out on the streets.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Worker Advocate Calls on Newt Gingrich to Rescind Endorsement of Big Labor Ally Dede Scozzafava
Gingrich accused of hypocrisy, asked to apologize to concerned Americans who signed his anti-Card Check Forced Unionism petition
| — Hat tip: NRTW | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi Tells Ballarò — “The Opposition in Italy is the Communist Judiciary”
Premier’s phone call to RAI3 programme: “Publicly owned television puts prime minister on trial without right of reply”
MILAN — In a surprise phone call to the Ballarò TV programme, the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi again attacked judges — on the eve of the Mills appeal verdict — and publicly owned television. He also referred to his phone call to Piero Marrazzo about the video of the Lazio regional president.
ATTACK — Silvio Berlusconi’s intervention arrived at the end of the discussion programme in which Rosi Bindi and Pier Ferdinando Casini debated current affairs issues, including cuts to the IRAP regional business tax and the crisis, with ministers Ignazio La Russa and Angelino Alfano. But Mr Berlusconi’s first thrust was aimed at the judiciary: “The Italian anomaly is not Silvio Berlusconi. It’s the communist public prosecutors and magistrates in Milan who have been attacking Berlusconi in every way they can since he entered politics. Public prosecutors are the real opposition in Italy”. The premier then berated presenter Giovanni Floris over the programme’s content and repeated the attack on public television he has made on other occasions: “You put me on public trial without right of reply on television paid for by all Italian citizens. I remind you that television is not your property. I have seen the contributions of leftwing politicians. I have observed this festival of falsehoods and defamation. Italy’s publicly owned television has an absolute predominance of leftwing journalists and leftwing programmes, and it attacks the government”. The situation is “unique in the whole of the western world”. Mr Berlusconi went on: “The latest poll, which I have here in front of me, says that the government has a 54% approval rating, the prime minister is on 68% and the Democratic Party, which has gone back to being the Communist Party with Bersani’s election, is on 25%”.
QUESTIONS AND QUIP — After this outburst, Giovanni Floris managed to offer some sort of right of reply and the atmosphere became more relaxed. Mr Berlusconi replied to several questions on Giulio Tremonti (“We have cleared up all the misunderstandings with certain members of the government and the policy of rigour continues”), on the reduction of IRAP (“It will be done as soon as possible and this will depend on how the crisis evolves”) and one from Concita De Gregorio, editor of l’Unità newspaper, on the Marrazzo affair. The premier replied: “My daughter told me about the Marrazzo video speaking as daughter to father. Mondadori turned it down because Mondadori is not La Repubblica or l’Espresso. I phoned Marrazzo and gave him the agency’s phone number, leaving it up to him whether to make a statement about what had happened”. As the programme closed, there an exchange of banter with Floris: “Prime minister, how is your scarlet fever going?” the presenter asked. “Come to my home and I’ll be happy to infect you”, quipped the premier.
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
Article in Italian
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
England Chief Medical Officer Calls H1N1 Vaccine Resistors “Extremists”
The Chief Medical Officer in England has described those who are speaking out against the mass swine flu vaccination campaign as “extremists”.
England Chief Medical Officer Calls H1N1 Vaccine Resistors Extremists 301009vaccineThe comment made by Sir Liam Donaldson, the government’s senior advisor on health matters, was highlighted in a Times of London article today.
“We have had a lot of unfair public criticism and attacks in an attempt to scare people about a vaccine that’s potentially life-saving,” Donaldson said in reference to anti-vaccination posters depicting the H1N1 shot as a “weapon of mass destruction”.
“We have seen it before with vaccines like MMR [the combined jab for measles, mumps and rubella], and now extremists are doing the same thing again.” he added.
Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Health Secretary added:
“Vaccination is our best defence against this virus and I urge everyone who is in the priority groups to accept the vaccine when invited to do so.”
Donaldson’s remarks are ill thought out considering the fact that senior neurologists have voiced concerns over the adjuvants in the H1N1 flu vaccine and the fact that it has been rushed through safety procedures, with manufacturers provided with blanket immunity from potential lawsuits.
In addition, multiple opinion polls have revealed that half of GPs in Britain have severe reservations and doubts over the safety of the shot.
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Europe’s Obama Fatigue: Bush Was Better for Europe. No, Seriously.
U.S. President Barack Obama is so beloved in Europe that he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize (which he later won) just 12 days after taking office for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples.” A Pew survey this summer found that 93 percent of Germans, 91 percent of French people, and 86 percent of Brits believed Obama “will do the right thing in world affairs,” a stunning turnaround from their views on the last administration. Yet, this perception belies the reality that Obama has done much less for Europe than his predecessor.
Despite George W. Bush’s defiant “you’re with us or you’re against us” public stance, he actively solicited advice and input from his NATO partners. Obama, by contrast, is saying all the right things in public about transatlantic relations and NATO but adopting a high-handed policy and paying little attention to Europe. And Europe is taking a hint.
The signs are telling, the most important but least reported of which are Obama’s choice of staffing. To be sure, there are some very prominent Atlanticists in the administration. Gen. James Jones, the previous chairman of the Atlantic Council and former supreme allied commander, is national security advisor. And current Atlantic Council Chairman Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) has just been appointed as co-chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. But many important working-level posts in both the State Department and the National Security Council (NSC) are unfilled. Most notably, the EU portfolio at the State Department has been treated as a political hot potato, currently being handled as an additional duty by the Balkans director.
With such a dreadfully weak human infrastructure at home, it’s no wonder next week’s U.S.-EU summit is expected to be a non-event. The preparations have thus far mostly focused on protocol rather than policy. The Europeans are particularly irritated that the luncheon will be hosted by Vice President Joseph Biden rather than the U.S. president himself. Under the previous administration, Bush regularly presided.
On Afghanistan, which all agree is the alliance’s most critical mission, the Europeans are also feeling a bit lorded over. As Jackson Diehl put it, the region’s leaders are “frustrated that they must watch and wait — and wait and wait — for the [U.S.] president to make up his mind.” Mark Mardell, BBC’s North America editor, reported “a growing sense of frustration” at the NATO defense ministers meeting in Slovakia last week over being held in limbo.
Even in Britain, where the public loves Obama, the government has been obsessed, after repeated slights — the infamous CD set gifted to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a press conference canceled due to light snow (or was it fatigue?), being denied a private meeting with Obama at the Pittsburgh summit, etc. — with the notion that the two countries’ “special relationship” is over. To be sure, some of this is overblown — and hardly new — but Obama has been less solicitous of his country’s most natural ally than any U.S. president in memory.
America’s relationship with France bounced back markedly after Nicolas Sarkozy was elected to replace Jacques Chirac. But there have been more than a few bumps since Obama took office. “Obama’s policies are not the Atlanticism that Sarkozy was expecting,” Macleans quotes Hall Gardner, a professor of international politics at the American University of Paris, as saying. “There’ve been several elements of disagreement between the two.”
Some of this can surely be attributed to Sarkozy’s personal pique over upstart Obama stealing some of his thunder — what the press has dubbed his “Obama complex” — as the U.S. president did by swooping in to take credit for China’s concessions at the G-20, for example. But there is legitimate frustration over the handling of issues as well. Most famously, of course, Sarkozy complained at the United Nations that “President Obama dreams of a world without weapons but right in front of us two countries [Iran and North Korea] are doing the exact opposite.” There are also sharp differences over troop levels and strategic objectives in Afghanistan, Turkey’s candidacy for the European Union, and the future of the French nuclear arsenal.
But if Obama’s ratings are slowly falling on the continent, one place where they are already low — lower than Bush’s, certainly — is in the countries that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dubbed “New Europe.” While Bush made Eastern and Central Europe a top priority — as evidenced by the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic and the push for NATO expansion for Georgia and Ukraine — his successor is clearly more concerned about relations with Russia, the very country whose influence New Europe is trying to avoid.
Obama’s handling of the policy reversal on missile defense, in particular, has drawn sharp rebukes from the region, mostly on the execution rather than the policy itself. A Polish official was quoted by United Press International proclaiming that, “Waking Czech Prime Minister Fisher at midnight European time, and calling President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Tusk — who refused to take the call — 70 years to the day that Russia invaded Poland — is politically inept and very offensive.” Another official added, “this simply confirms how unimportant Europe is to the U.S., despite President Obama’s words to the contrary.”
To be sure, this criticism is somewhat overstated. But, as Bush learned to his chagrin, perception can become reality.
And indeed, while most European heads of state dutifully congratulated Obama after the surprise announcement of his Nobel win, the European press was as stunned as their American counterparts. The Independent’s Ian Birrell assessed that Obama was being “once again lauded for his symbolism and potential rather than his actual deeds.” Peter Beaumont of The Guardian equally snarked, “The reality is that the prize appears to have been awarded to Barack Obama for what he is not. For not being George W. Bush. Or rather being less like the last president.”
It would be ironic, indeed, if the Europeans started longing for the good old days of the Bush administration. But that nostalgia is closer than you might think.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Puts Figure on Green Aid to Push Climate Change Deal
Europe is to breathe life into the faltering search for a new global deal on climate change by pledging billions of pounds in financial support for poor countries, the Guardian can reveal.
European heads of state will formally recommend this week that rich countries should hand over around €100bn (£90bn) a year to nations such as India and Vietnam by 2020 to help them cope with the impact of global warming. The pledge is expected to come at the end of a two-day summit of European leaders on Thursday and Friday, and before negotiations on a new climate treaty in Copenhagen in December.
[…]
Such a move would leave the US with a bill running to tens of billions a year, unlikely to go down well in Washington.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Infamous Islamist Imam Forswears Terror
In 2001, imam Mohammed El Fazazi of Morocco preached that it it is a Muslim obligation to “slit the throats of non-believers” in a Hamburg mosque. Among his listeners and star pupils were Mohammed Atta, Ramzi Binalshibh and Marwan al-Shehhi, three of the men who participated in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Today, eight years later, Mohammed El Fazazi has foresworn acts of terrorism against Western targets. “I admit that I went too far and overshot the target,” he wrote in an open letter to his daughter, who lives in Hamburg, and Muslims living in Germany.
Muslims living in Germany, he said, should draw attention to themselves and their issues through “peaceful demonstrations, strikes and protests that are far removed from indiscriminate attacks” and the “killing of innocent people with the argument of killing kuffar,” or non-believers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Foreign Missions: 224. 8 Mln Allocated
(AGI) — Rome, 28 Oct — The decree law for refinancing of foreign missions until 31 December 2009 has set aside 224.8 million euros. “Compared with the 181 million already allocated,” said Defence Minister La Russa, “the rise in expenditure to 224.8 is justified by the additional 400 soldiers to Afghanistan and a slower than expected return of troops from Kosovo.” La Russa said that the difference between 181 and 224.8 million was the burden of the Foreign and Defence Ministries, and noted that in the November-December period soldiers in Afghanistan numbered 3150, those in Lebanon 2080.
La Russa said that “in Lebanon there has been a very small reduction in the form of 20 soldiers. The reduction of the contingent in Lebanon will be larger when we hand over the command. However, a brief lengthening of the Italian mandate is possible.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Al-Qaeda Linked Terror Suspects Go on Trial
Bologna, 29 October (AKI) — The trial of five Muslim terrorism suspects has began in the northern Italian city of Bologna. The suspects were arrested in 2007 by Italian anti-terrorism police in the cities of Ravenna and Imola in the Emilia-Romagna region. They have been charged with subversion aimed at committing acts of international terrorism and fraud. An unnamed sixth suspect who is on the run is being tried in absentia.
The defendants are accused of plotting terrorist acts in Iraq and Afghanistan and recruiting other jihadist sympathisers to carry out the planned attacks, according to prosecutors.
Following a three-year investigation, prosecutors issued police with six arrest warrants in August 2007. The five suspects were named as: Khalil Jarraya, head of a suspected jihadist-Salafite cell with links to Al-Qaeda; fellow Tunisians Hecmi Msaadi, Mohamed Chabchoub and Chedli Ben Bergaoui; and Moroccan national Mourad Mazi.
Jarraya, known as ‘the colonel’ because he had fought on the side of Muslims during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, is an illegal immigrant from the Tunisian city of Sfax. He was living on ‘zakat’ or alms given to him by pious Muslims who attended the mosque in the city of Faenza, where he lived with his family, according to investigators.
Msaadi, aged 31 is a resident of Imola and according to investigators was at the time of his arrest poised to travel to Iraq. Chabchoub, 41, who like Jaraya is from Sfax, is married and has two daughters. An IT expert, he was allegedly in contact with other suspected terrorists via the Internet.
Ben Bergaoui, aged 34 anni, a resident of Imola, was arrested at Bologna’s train station as he was about to take a train to the northwestern port city of Genoa and board a ferry for Tunisia. Thirty-three-year-old Mazi, is also a resident of Imola.
Several witnesses have already been heard, including the imam of Imola’s mosque. The imam told the court on Wednesday that unauthorised funds had been gathered at the mosque to help the families of needy mosque goers.
The trial has been adjourned until 20 January.
The police investigation of the suspected cell began after police found a box full of documents in Arabic and jihadist CDs at a property in Imola, according to local press reports.
The cell members are also accused of providing logistical and financial support to international terrorism although defence lawyers say the documents and CDs only indicate the suspects were interested in radical Islamic ideology.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Northern City Ban ‘Sex Shops’, Laundrettes and Kebabs
Prato, 29 October (AKI) — The northern Italian city of Prato has decided to ban the sale of sex-shops, laundrettes and the sale of kebabs in the city-centre. It claims the move is aimed at preserving Prato’s cultural, traditional and environmental heritage.
“Our intention is to contain the cases of urban decay which is being seen in many parts of Prato’s historic centre, and thus to improve decorum, which will upgrade the entire city,” said the municipality of Prato said in a statement.
The municipality has singled out certain businesses which it considers considered “incompatible” with this aim.
“Among the incompatible activities inside the Urban Pedestrian Zones (APU) are the handcrafted cooking of foods such as Kebabs and similar, which are different from those ‘traditional’ ones, as well as self-service laundrymats, game rooms, sex shops, discount and hard-discount stores, phone centres, Internet points and money transfer places,” said the note.
“Activities considered incompatible with the area’s cultural and environmental characteristics cannot be set-up.”
The move has already been approved temporarily by the district council and will become part of new regulations for the historic centre, to which the current centre-right administration will give final approval in the next few months.
Prato, located in the region of Tuscany and has a population of 185,000 inhabitants. Since the 1950s it has been a destination for immigrants from within Italy also a substantial number of Chinese immigrants in recent decades.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Modena Cherry Jam Gets EU Label
‘Amarene Brusche di Modena’ stretches Italy’s food lead
(ANSA) — Brussels, October 29 — A traditional sour cherry jam produced near Modena has become the latest Italian food speciality to obtain a European Union protected label for its unique quality.
The Amarene Brusche di Modena jam was awarded a PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) seal by the European Commission on Thursday along with ‘grelos’ turnips from northern Spain and meat-and-vegetable-filled dumplings from Germany, ‘Schwabische Maultaschen’.
Some 850 European products have been awarded one of the EU’s three protected origin laurels, which aside from the PGI include the PDO (Protected Denomination of Origin) and the TSG (Traditional Guaranteed Speciality).
The last Italian laureate was ‘Ciauscolo’, a large sausage from the Marche region, which got a PGI in August.
Italy far outdistances France and Spain for the number of its products which have qualified for one of the three EU quality seals, about 180.
Recent additions have included Sicily’s ‘Pagnotta del Dittaino’ bread with a PDO label; Roman suckling lamb, abbacchio romano, which earned a PGI label; and Modena’s balsamic vinegar with a PGI label.
Italian culinary glories like Parmigiano, buffalo mozzarella, mortadella, lardo di Colonnata, Ascoli olives, pesto sauce and Pachino plum tomatos have been protected for some time but lesser-known munchies like Mt Etna prickly pears and Paestum artichokes have also swelled the ranks along with saffron from San Gimignano and L’Aquila.
A range of salamis, rices, honeys and nuts are also on the protected list.
Some other notable recent Italian entries have been: a golden tench from Piedmont, the Tinca Gobba Dorata, which got a PDO; salty anchovies from the Ligurian Sea, which got a PGI; the Casatella cheese from Treviso, which got a PDO; a spring onion from Nocera Inferiore, which got a PDO; a chestnut from Roccadaspide, also in Campania, which got a PGI; bread from Matera in Basilicata, which got a PGI; an onion from Tropea in Calabria, which got a PGI; and a salame from Sant’Angelo in Sicily, which also got a PGI.
Several up-and-coming regional wines have earned TGIs.
PDO identifies a product whose characteristics are exclusively dependant on a geographical origin and whose productive phases all take place in the specified area.
PGI defines a product whose characteristics can be connected with its geographical origin and that has at least one productive phase located in the specified area.
TGS distinguishes a product, whose raw materials, composition or recipe, production method or transformation, are of a traditional type.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Marrazzo Resigns After Sex Scandal
Lazio president says ‘extreme suffering’ led to decision
(ANSA) — Rome, October 27 — Lazio Region President Piero Marrazzo handed in his resignation on Tuesday in the wake of a sex scandal which rocked the political establishment last week.
“As a result of my extreme suffering, I am no longer useful to the citizens of Lazio,” the former president said in an open letter to his staff.
“I have always worked for the good of the community and hope that I will be recognized for it regardless of my personal errors”.
Marrazzo, of the opposition Democratic Party (PD), became the subject of a sex scandal last Friday amid a probe into charges that four Carabinieri police had blackmailed him over a video showing him with a transsexual prostitute. On Tuesday, Deputy President Esterino Montino expressed concern for Marrazzo’s health and said he was in “worrying condition”.
Montino said Marrazzo made the decision “to cut all ties with his political life” in the hopes of putting the scandal behind him.
On Monday, Marrazzo checked into a Rome hospital where he was diagnosed with acute stress and ordered to take a month’s rest. His lawyer, Luca Petrucci, told reporters that the former president had gone to a religious retreat near the capital to recuperate.
He was forced to change locations, however, as his original retreat, the Abbey of Montecassino southeast of Rome, was besieged by an army of reporters.
Marrazo had initially suspended himself from office and appointed Montino to oversee the region’s administration in his stead.
The PD leadership hoped that Marrazzo would postpone his resignation until December, which would have avoided a snap election and given the PD time to find a replacement candidate for the regional elections next March.
However, center-right MPs argued that Lazio had no provision allowing the delegation of power to deputies and clamored for an early vote.
Marrazzo’s resignation means that elections in Lazio could now be held on March 9, but since regional elections are scheduled to take place in several Italian regions on March 28, many MPs urged the government to take that into consideration.
Meanwhile, prosecutors probing the case against the Carabinieri who blackmailed Marrazzo said the former president was not under investigation. Marazzo, 51, a former TV journalist for state broadcasting corporation RAI, won the Lazio regional elections in 2005.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Marrazzo: Berlusconi, Gave Him Number of Agency With Film
(AGI) — Rome, 28 Oct — In Vespa’s book “Donna di cuori”, Berlusconi returned to speaking about the Marrazzo matter, pointing out the methods of his intervention (the information of daughter Marina, and the refusal by Mondadori to buy the film). “I saw the video,” said the Premier, “I picked up the phone and called president Marrazzo. I told him that there were images in circulation that could harm him, I gave him the number of the agency that offered the video and he cordially thanked me.” Vespa observed: it was said that you could have bribed the governor. “I did the exact opposite,” responded Berlusconi, “of what left-wing leaders would have.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mentally Ill Man Behind Gothenburg Bomb Scare
A man wearing a bomb belt paralyzed central Gothenburg on Thursday evening when he boarded a tram heading for the city centre and threatened to blow it up.
The belt was later shown to contain explosives.
The man has since been identified as a 61-year-old suffering from a psychological disorder and is known to the police.
Police were forced to close Linnégatan and evacuate restaurants in the vicinity at around 5.30pm on Thursday evening, after the man threatened to blow up the number 6 tram.
Police units were able to storm the tram carriage at the Linnégatan/Olivedalsgatan stop and promptly overpower the man.
They forced him to remove his clothing, arrested him and then took him to Sahlgrenska hospital.
“The passengers were evacuated without problems. No one was hurt,” Frans Dahlén at Västra Götaland police told the TT news agency.
Bomb technicians have been able to conclude that the belt contained explosives. It could not however be detonated as the necessary electrical cables had not been correctly attached.
Traffic was seriously disrupted as a result of the police cordons covering the streets south of Linnéplatsen, one of the main thoroughfares in the western Swedish city.
The cordons were lifted at around 10pm and the city returned to normal.
The man is now suspected of attempted devastation endangering the public. He was also charged a month ago with firearms offences, according to a report in local newspaper Göteborgs -Posten on Friday morning.
The charges date back to September 6th when police were called to the 61-year-old’s home and were met with a note on the door which read: “I do not want any visits from neighbours. The situation has intensified. 357 Magnum!”.
Police then persuaded the man to open his door, at which point he explained that he was not feeling too good and that he planned to commit suicide, reaching for a shotgun in his kitchen.
The man will be appointed with a public defender on Friday and a remand hearing will probably take place on Sunday, the newspaper reports.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Spain ‘Angry’ At Israel’s Move to Extend Italy’s UN Command
Jerusalem, 29 October (AKI) — A decision by Israel to allow Italy to maintain control over a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has sparked a diplomatic row with Spain. Media reports said the Spanish government was ‘angry’ at the decision by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Italy is currently in charge of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
Netanyahu secretly asked Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to extend for at least six months UNIFIL military commander Claudio Graziano’s tour of duty rather than handing over control to Spain as previously planned, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.
Haaretz said the issue has turned “into a serious diplomatic incident” and that Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak was asked to explain Israel’s actions during his visit to Madrid earlier this week.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli Defence Forces said that although there was no problem with a Spanish command of UNIFIL in principle, the current situation in Lebanon is “very sensitive at this time”. The IDF said replacing Graziano could create coordination problems and “destabilise the situation.”
In late August, the UN Security Council extended UNIFIL’s mandate for an extra year, commending its role together with Lebanon’s armed forces in restoring calm in the south of the country.
However, Italy’s foreign minister Franco Frattini said that Italy has the intention of handing over the command of UNIFIL to Spain and that only the UN can ask Italy to continue in the command of the peacekeeping force.
“Nobody has made a request to us about it. The request must come from the UN, from the secretary general,” said Frattini who also denied claims made by Spanish daily El Pais of a possible reduction of troops in Lebanon.
“We have just confirmed the missions, and with the same numbers (of troops). Therefore I once again deny El Pais’s claims once again,” said Frattini.
UNIFIL, established in 1978, is tasked with ensuring that the area between the Blue Line — demarcating the border between Israel and Lebanon — and the Litani River is clear of unauthorised weapons, personnel and equipment. UNIFIL also helps Lebanese armed forces ensure security.
According to the UN, there are 12,235 military personnel, supported by some 321 international civilian and 653 local civilian staff.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Summon Italian Ambassador
Bern ‘concerned’ over raids on Swiss bank branches
(ANSA) — Geneva, October 28 — Swiss authorities on Wednesday summoned Rome’s ambassador to Bern to explain the raids carried out by Italian finance police on 76 branches of Swiss banks in Italy on Tuesday, a government spokesman said.
Swiss Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin defined the actions by the Finance Guard, backed up by revenue service agents, as “a discriminatory act” and said his government was “concerned” over the raids, the Swiss ATS news agency reported.
Tuesday raids were the latest and most high-profile development in Italy’s crackdown on tax evasion, which has also included offering a tax amnesty for Italians who declare their foreign-held assets.
The 76 Swiss bank branches and finance company offices were ‘visited’ to determine whether they were providing “prompt and correct information” to Italian authorities, a statement from the Finance Guard said on Tuesday.
Italy announced in August that it was investigating the financial positions of 170,000 Italians believed to have assets abroad.
Earlier this month, Italian tax authorities estimated that the amount of financial assets held abroad illegally by Italian was in the neighborhood of 300 billion euros.
The Finance Guard said it based this calculation on data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and that it included 125 billion euros deposited by Italians in Switzerland and 86 billion in Luxembourg.
The Italian government is cracking down on tax evasion in order to compensate for falling state revenue caused by the global economic downturn.
The government also needs to raise cash to offset the cost of tax cuts it has promised.
In order to lure capital back to Italy, the government’s tax amnesty, approved at the start of the month, said Italians need only pay 5% of back taxes owed to the state and would be given immunity from related crimes, including false accounting and illegally exporting capital. The Treasury estimates that it will raise some 4.5 billion euros from the amnesty.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Arctic Sea Ends Mystery Voyage in Malta With Russian Guards
The cargo ship allegedly hijacked by pirates amid claims that it was smuggling missiles to Iran has ended its three-month odyssey in Malta after being tested for nuclear contamination.
The Arctic Sea was allowed to enter the Grand Harbour in Valletta last night after the Maltese Civil Protection Department declared it free of radiation and chemical hazards. The Maltese-registered ship had been the focus of speculation that it was carrying Russian S300 advanced air-defence missiles to Iran.
Despite repeated promises to take it into port, the Russian Navy had held the Arctic Sea in international waters since seizing it from suspected pirates on August 17 off Cape Verde near West Africa, 2,500 miles (4,000km) off course.
The ship had been under guard by two Russian warships since then. An attempt to dock at Las Palmas in Grand Canary failed last month after disputes over the presence of Russian military officers. Algeria also refused to allow the Arctic Sea to enter its waters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Boney Blair’s EU Bid in Crisis: Brown in Angry Clashes as Even Socialist Allies Will Not Back Ex-PM
Tony Blair’s audacious bid to become Europe’s first president is in crisis today.
As even Labour’s socialist allies refused to back him, Gordon Brown clashed angrily with other EU leaders, telling them to ‘get real’ and support the Blair candidacy.
The Prime Minister, for years Mr Blair’s most bitter rival, effectively launched the former leader’s presidential campaign at a summit in Brussels, hailing him as a ‘hard-headed champion of Europe’.
But France and Germany — seen as holding Mr Blair’s fate in their hands — were ‘going cold’ on the idea of handing him the new position, according to well-placed diplomatic sources.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: New Vetting Checks Designed to Protect Children Have Gone ‘Too Far’, Judges Rule
Criminal record checks have gone ‘too far’ and must be tilted back towards those wanting to work with children, the new Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
In a victory for campaigners fighting the rise of the Big Brother state, the Justices ordered an overhaul of enhanced criminal records bureau checks against anybody seeking a job with a vulnerable adult or child.
In particular, the presumption in favour of disclosing ‘soft intelligence’ against an applicant came under attack.
Each year, around 20,000 people have details of this type of information disclosed to potential employers, in many cases scuppering their hopes of gaining a job.
But Lord Neuberger said soft intelligence may constitute nothing more than ‘allegations of matters which are disputed by the applicant, or even mere suspicion or hints of matters which are disputed by the applicant’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia-Law Enforcement Cooperation Accord Signed
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, OCTOBER 29 — Interior Minister Ivica Dacic and Israeli Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich signed an agreement on law enforcement cooperation, reports radio B92. The agreement, signed in Jerusalem is related to the fight against drug and human trafficking, terrorism and organized crime. After the signing, Dacic said that the agreement is very useful because both Serbia and Israel have gone and are still going through a very difficult period, which has forced both states to maintain strong police forces. Dacic went on to say there is a number of areas in which the police forces of the two countries can cooperate, especially the battle against terrorism and organized crime, as well as information gathering and telecommunications. Aharonovich stressed the need to extend cooperation with Serbia because organized crime knows no borders. The Israeli minister also emphasized his interest in “personnel exchange programs”. At the meeting, Lieberman said that Serbia’s path to EU membership could be a solution to the problem of instability in the Balkans. “Political relations between Serbia and Israel are good, but cooperation should be deepened in the economic and cultural fields,” Lieberman said, mentioning the recent annulment of visas between the two countries. During the day, the Interior Ministry delegation visited the Yad Vashem Memorial Museum dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Audit Board, Spending ‘Deviations’ For EU Presidency
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 29 — Controversy in France refuses to subside regarding the expenses sustained by the government during the 6-month term of the EU presidency for the country. The president of the State Audit Board, Philippe Seguin, in a radio interview with Europe 1, returned today to highlight the “deviations” and “errors” by Sarkozy’s EU presidency from a public finance perspective. “There are a certain number of deviations and a certain number of errors,” said Seguin, adding: “operations were poorly planned, there was no real strategy.” According to a report compiled over the past days by the State Audit Board, Paris reportedly spent a million euros per day during his 6-month term as head of the EU, for a total of just over 170million euros. In particular, the report highlights record spending to organise the Mediterranean Union summit (2008) on July 13 at the Grand Palais. Everything cost over 16 million euros, including more than one million euros just on dinner and 245,000 euros to install a shower requested by President Sarkozy. In Paris, there is no international convention centre, replied Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Bernard Valero, explaining that “in the absence of specific infrastructure, we had to adapt a place like the Grand Palais. This is why we spent so much”. UMP spokesperson, Frederic Lefebvre of the majority, spoke about “slander”. According to him, the cost of the shower “is the result of a large group of expenses” involving also “the preparation of 8 halls with toilettes for the heads of state.”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Reporter Claims Thugs Beat Him for ‘Offending’ Leader’s Wife
Tunis, 29 October (AKI) — A Tunisian journalist, Salim Bukhazir was admitted to hospital after allegedly being beaten up by three thugs near his home in the capital. He said his assailants told him he had “offended” Tunisian president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s wife, the Quds Bars news agency reported on Thursday.
Bukhazir told Quds Bars the thugs threatened him and beat him up and said he believed they had been sent by the Tunisian government to intimidate him.
He said the thugs abducted him late on Wednesday in the capital’s Bardu district and took him to an unknown location before threatening him with a knife and beating him around the head and body.
Bukhazir received hospital treatment for a fractured nose, swellings to several parts of his body and damage to his left eye.
He said his assailants told him he had disrespected Ben Ali’s wife Leila al-Tarabulusi in comments he made to the BBC about a book about her, ‘The Queen of Carthage’ which was recently published in France.
The book describes the considerable power wielded by Tunisia’s First Lady and her family.
Bukhazir spent eight months in jail last year for assaulting several policemen. He has always denied the charges, and described his arrest as an act of revenge for several articles he wrote describing corruption in Tunisia.
Ben Ali, who has been in power since 1987, won a fifth term in office in multi-party elections in 2009. Human rights groups and the opposition criticised the polls as unfair.
Official results gave him ninety per cent of the vote and his party also won the majority of seats in the parliament.
Although freedom of opinion and expression is guaranteed by the Tunisian constitution, the government tightly controls the press and broadcasting. Discussion of corruption and human rights in the media is taboo.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas: Fatah and Islamic Movement Behind Clashes
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, OCTOBER 27 — Last Sunday’s chaos on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount has been masterminded by a “unified” Palestinian “command” including al-Fatah, Hamas and members of the Islamic Movement in Israel. The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot focused on the news today. The three organisations reportedly had set up a joint ‘operations room’ in the eastern part of Jerusalem. This explains, according to the newspaper, the arrest of Hatem Abdel Kader (a former PNA minister and well-known al-Fatah member in east Jerusalem) and a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Israeli police sources have told Yediot Ahronot that in the past months the al-Fatah movement seems to have become more radical. Some of its members have expressed themselves in favour of armed battle against Israel. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
TV: Abbas Disappointed by Obama, Resignation Possible
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, OCTOBER 27 — Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is said to have told Barack Obama in recent days that he intends to resign from office as he no longer considers a resumption of the peace process as viable due to the White House’s “surrender” to Benyamin Netanyahu’s government. The news was announced yesterday evening on Channel 10 on Israeli TV, reporting on leaks regarding the contents of a recent telephone call between Abbas and Obama. During the conversation, Abbas is said to have been utterly pessimistic about the prospect of a resumption of negotiations solicited in recent months by the advent of Obama, the US president’s statements and the latter’s initial attitude of putting more pressure on Israel. Pressure which has however not driven Netanyahu’s government to start freezing settlements in the Palestinian Territories, as set out in the accords signed in 2003 as part of the Road Map. As far as the Palestinians can see, this pressure now seems to have been weakened: so much so that Abbas described Washington as having surrendered. Thus the PNA leader — the only Palestinian representative to be recognised unanimously by the West despite his 74 years and his repeated moments of political weakness and who has recently been exposed to a wave of criticism from the most radical Palestinian factions and from the streets due to his alleged yielding to Washington — told Obama clearly that he is tempted to stand aside. He said that he did not want to stand in the elections that he himself had just announced for January 24 in an open challenge with Islamic rivals from Hamas (currently in power in the Gaza Strip).(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
U.N. Probe of Israel ‘Used False Witnesses’
‘Did you try to validate any of these invented details? Well you didn’t!’
A U.N. investigator who accused Israel of war crimes was misled by false witnesses and Palestinian misinformation, charged the chief medical officer of an Israeli army brigade that was previously falsely accused of committing a massacre.
“You have let yourself be misled by fabrications made by either terrorists or even doctors. … Did you by any chance try to validate any of these invented and inciting details? Well you didn’t!” wrote David Zangen, an Israeli reservist officer and physician.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video Message From Obama: Don’t Forget Rabin’s Pledge
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, OCTOBER 29 — US President Barak Obama, in a video message that will be broadcast on Saturday at a mass gathering in Tel Aviv in remembrance of Premier, Yitzhak Rabin, killed by a Israeli ultranationalist 14 years ago, will urge Israelis to not forget their commitment to peace. According to reports today in Haaretz, with this gesture, requested by Dalia Rabin, daughter of Yitzhak Rabin, Obama wants to directly address the people of the Jewish state, considering his low popularity in the eyes of Israelis. This situation, reported the daily, worries Obama’s advisors, who believe that this low popularity could hinder the ability of the president to make progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. According to various surveys conduced in the past months in Israel, Obama has the support of 6-10% of Israelis, many of whom believe that he is hostile to their state. A visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, expected to arrive on Saturday night, would be, according to Haaretz, part of an attempt to favourable influence public opinion in the country. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Amil Imani: Saluting Cyrus the Great on His Day
October 29th has been designated as the international day of Cyrus the Great, a matchless king of Persia. Commemorating Cyrus the Great is synonymous with honoring the glorious ancient Iranians and Iranians’ way of life. Palpable reminders to Iranians and all liberty-loving people of the world of this just king’s reign stand in the field of Pasargad.
| — Hat tip: Amil Imani | [Return to headlines] |
Economy: Turkish Businessmen Complain for Syrian Bureaucracy
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 29 — As more Turkish entrepreneurs begin to do business with Syria as a result of recent improvements in bilateral relations between the two countries, difficulties and frustrations with Syria’s trade system are starting to come to light, Today’s Zaman reports. “The absence of Turkish banks in the country and the frequent cancellation of public tenders are the two greatest issues impeding Turkish businessmen’s entry into the Syrian economy”, Turkish Commercial Counselor in Damascus, San Kaan Ozdemir, said. “Turkish businessmen operating in Syria also face customs-related problems”, Ozdemir stated, explaining that “often different duties are charged for the same products and the bureaucratic process in customs also takes a long time causing great economic losses to businessmen attempting to transport perishable products”. “Obtaining work permits also takes a long time due to bureaucratic obstacles, which sometimes leaves Turkish investors waiting for months. Syrian regulations also restrict foreign workers”, the counselor declared. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
In the Muslim World, Creationism is on the Rise
It’s hard to say exactly how much support the theory of evolution enjoys in the world’s Muslim countries, but it’s definitely not very much. In one 2006 study by American political scientists, people in 34 industrial nations were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the idea that human beings evolved from earlier life forms. Turkey, the only Muslim country in the survey, showed the lowest levels of support — barely a quarter of Turks said they agreed. By comparison, at least 80 percent of those surveyed in Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, and France agreed. (The United States ranked second lowest, after Turkey, at 40 percent.) Turkey is widely seen as the most culturally liberal Muslim nation, and on attitudes about evolution, other polling has borne this out: A recent study of religious attitudes found that only 16 percent of Indonesians, 14 percent of Pakistanis, and 8 percent of Egyptians believed in evolution.
| — Hat tip: LN | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Rejects Deal to Ship Out Uranium, Officials Report
WASHINGTON — Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, according to diplomats in Europe and American officials briefed on Iran’s response.
The apparent rejection of the deal could unwind President Obama’s effort to buy time to resolve the nuclear standoff.
[…]
A senior European official characterized the Iranian response as “basically a refusal.” The Iranians, he said, want to keep all of their lightly enriched uranium in the country until receiving fuel bought from the West for the reactor in Tehran.
“The key issue is that Iran does not agree to export its lightly enriched uranium,” the official said. “That’s not a minor detail. That’s the whole point of the deal.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iran-Turkey: Erdogan in Teheran for Trade and Atomic Crisis
(ANSAmed) — TEHRAN, OCTOBER 27 — Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan has been in Tehran for a few hours, leading an economic delegation. He is set to meet, amongst others, the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Turkey is a country attempting to alleviate tension in the Iranian nuclear crisis. The arrival of Erdogan in Iran was reported by the official IRNA press agency which also announced meetings with First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi, President of Parliament Ali Larijani and Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, who greeted Erdogan at the airport. The visit is destined to strengthen bilateral relations, writes IRNA pointing out that Erdogan is leading an important economic and trade delegation that includes ministers, MPs and businessmen. Trade between Turkey and Iran totals the equivalent of some 12 billion dollars and the two countries are looking to take it up to 20 billion dollars (equal to 13.2 billion euros). Official Turkish sources last week announced that during the visit “issues of regional and international order will be brought up.”(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: Veil No Longer Required for Women Deputies
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, OCTOBER 29 — Women no longer have to wear a veil in parliament: Kuwait’s Constitutional Court took this decision, another victory for women in the oil State, after it was decided almost ten days ago that women no longer need the approval of their husband to get a passport. Islamist MP Hamad Abdulaziz Al-Nashi, explains the Kuwait Times, had denounced the illegitimacy of the election of Asil Al-Awadhi and Rula Dashti in parliament, because by not wearing a veil during their political activities outside the parliament or inside the parliament building, they violated the Muslim law. The Court has responded that the law is not specific on the issue and that the Constitution guarantees personal freedom and no discrimination based on gender or religion. “This is no personal victory, but a victory of the Constitution”, said Al Awadhi, underlining that “wearing or not wearing a veil has no impact on the quality of one’s political performance”. Women in Kuwait obtained full political rights in 2005, but only in May of this year four women were elected in Parliament. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Israel for Extension Italian UNIFIL Command, Press
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 29 — The Italian command of the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon will end soon, “but everybody is asking us for General Graziano to stay in the lead for some more time” said Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa in a television interview. “People don’t talk much” about the mission, La Russa continued, “because our troops are doing an excellent job, much appreciated by others. Our task is to keep Hezbollah from receiving weapons, in support of the Lebanese government”. The minister will accompany Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on November 3 in his visit to the Italian contingent in Lebanon. The Israeli press focuses today on the issue of the extension of Italian UNIFIL command in the south of Lebanon. The newspaper Haaretz writes about a recent top secret meeting between Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, about the extension of Graziano’s command by another six months at least. Spain, Italy’s possible successor to lead the mission, may not agree with the idea. According to Haaretz, the Israeli military general staff agrees with Netanyahu’s initiative, convinced that the current situation in Lebanon — in which several incidents have taken place in the past weeks, including the launch on Tuesday of a new Katyusha rocket on Israel — is rather sensitive at the moment. Replacing UNIFIL command at this moment is feared to cause “instability”. This may explain the ‘secret’ telephone call to Berlusconi, to support a possible Italian request to extend Graziano’s command. Netanyahu’s move — bypassing the country’s foreign ministry which would have preferred to see Israel stay out of the issue — could lead to a “diplomatic incident” with Madrid, Haaretz claims. The Zapatero government does not seem to accept the form of the Israeli intervention, nor the “generic” explanations on the country’s preference. Now Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is expected to explain the situation during his visit to Spain, originally scheduled to discuss routine bilateral cooperation.(ANSAmed).
2009-10-29 10:56
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New Al-Qaeda Video May Show First Footage of Terror Chief Since 2007
The video is deliberately blurred, the view is only partial, and it lasts for just a few short seconds.
But that is enough for the tantalising question to be raised: Is this the first video footage of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to emerge in more than two years?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Vessel of Turkey’s Muslim Brothers Has Surfaced in Calm Waters
By Soner Cagaptay
I am often asked these days why Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is so upset with Israel. “It’s so dramatic” people say, adding: “Why did the AKP uninvite Israel to Anatolian Eagle” (a NATO air force exercise held in Turkey)? “Is this the beginning of the end of Turkish-Israeli ties that go back to 1949 just as Israel is most worried about Iran?”
The AKP’s snub follows harsh anti-Israeli rhetoric by party leadership, and an incendiary television series on Turkey’s publicly funded TV network that depicts Israelis as cold-blooded and evil. So people ask: “Why is the AKP doing all this now?” My answer is simple: The AKP is doing and saying what it believes: the party, rooted in Turkey’s own Muslim Brotherhood movement, has always hated Israel, and now that the AKP is comfortably in charge in Turkey, it will oppose Israel with any means available as well as promote other aspects of the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda.
The AKP was born out of the Welfare Party (RP), the motherboard of Turkish Islamists since the 1980s. Islamism in Turkey, though traditionally nonviolent, possesses six virulent characteristics; it is anti-Western, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, anti-European, anti-democratic and holds anti-secular sentiments, all of which are adopted from the Muslim Brotherhood.
When RP came to power in a coalition government in 1996 it attempted to implement this Turkish Muslim Brotherhood agenda, but was opposed by a secular, pro-western bloc, which included various media outlets, opposition parties, NGOs, businesses and the military. When massive demonstrations and a well-coordinated public relations campaign brought the party down in 1997, the EU and the US stood aside.
The Islamists drew a valuable lesson from this experience as they rebranded themselves, turning away from the six-pronged Muslim Brotherhood agenda to become more likeable and gain popular support. The AKP emerged out of this rebranding in 2001 as it declared that it had jettisoned the six elements of the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood ideology.
In 2002, when the AKP came to power, the world and Turks alike celebrated the victory as a first instance of the Islamists’ moderation. But far from harboring a genuine desire to moderate, the Turkish Islamists simply caved to external pressures, including the courts, media outlets, businesses and the military, as well as the US and EU, which forced the AKP to abandon the Muslim Brotherhood ideology.
Yet the AKP did not forget its roots: once in power, it followed a two-pronged strategy to eliminate the domestic and external pressures that drove the RP from power in 1997. The party promoted EU accession while simultaneously cracking down on internal checks and balances, and maintained good ties with the West while nurturing anti-Western sentiments at home.
In due course the party successfully neutered the domestic forces that had forced its predecessor to step down from power. It used legal loopholes to pass the media into the hands of its supporters, resulting in half of the Turkish media falling into the hands of pro-AKP businesses and the rest facing massive putative tax fines. Large, secular Turkish businesses fear the AKP’s financial police and tax audits, while judges and generals have been targeted in the Ergenekon case for allegedly planning a coup against the AKP government. Illegal and legal wiretaps are now common, justified as necessary for collecting evidence for the Ergenekon case. Whether there was actually a coup plot, Turkey’s judges, opinion makers, generals, businessmen, political leaders and plain citizens are fearful of opposing the government because they worry that their private conversations will be wiretapped or they will be arrested for association with the alleged coup.
Just as it has nearly eliminated domestic checks, the AKP has also paralyzed external checks to its power. Although the party maintained amiable ties with Israel and the United States and even pushed for EU accession after coming to power, in reality the AKP’s rhetoric has demonized the EU, US and Israel. The party has labeled US and Israeli policies as “genocidal” and bashed the West for “being immoral.” Even though those who promoted the idea of the Islamists’ moderation dismissed such rhetoric as harmless domestic politicking, the rhetoric has had devastating consequences: today, few in Turkey care for the West, most people oppose EU accession, many Turks hate America and almost no one likes Israel.
Fast forward to the Anatolian Eagle incident. After paralyzing domestic opposition and planting the seeds of anti-western sentiments in Turkish society, the AKP now feels free from the checks and balances that have traditionally forced Turkey’s Islamists to behave. If the AKP is a political submarine that has cruised underwater, spotted by its rhetorical periscope, now this submarine is surfacing: the party is re-embracing the ideology of the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood.
We are witnessing the Muslim Brotherhood’s take on foreign policy, highlighted by its approach to Turkish-Israeli ties. After seven years of vehement anti-Israeli rhetoric, the Turkish public has now embraced the AKP’s position against Israel and the party is comfortably chipping away at the foundations of Turkish-Israeli ties, something it has always wanted to do. Today, it is Israel; tomorrow it is EU accession and cooperation with the United States, for instance on Iran. At this stage, the US, the EU and Israel have little leverage and few allies left in Turkey, and AKP policies, promoting the agenda of the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood and countering the US, EU and Israel, will find little resistance and much support inside Turkey. Turkey’s Muslim Brothers have played a smart game indeed, changing the color of their vessel, then sailing deep and surfacing only when the waters were calm and clear.
Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author of “Islam, Secularism and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who Is a Turk?” This commentary first appeared on bitterlemons-international.org, an online newsletter.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey-USA: PM Erdogan to Meet Obama in December
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 29 — Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on December 7, according to a statement by Erdogan’s office. Turkey and the United States have been working together in a wide range of cooperation areas from Iraq to Afghanistan, from the Balkans to the Middle East, from the East Mediterranean to the Caucasus, from fight against terrorism to energy supply security and global financial crisis, the statement said. At their meeting, the two leaders would discuss regional and global issues, as well as bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States who are two close allies and strategic partners, it added. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Hero Contractor Recounts Fighting Off Taliban
For two hours, a civilian contractor held off Taliban commandos with an AK-47, saving the lives of 24 people in a Kabul, Afghanistan, guest house. But while others are praising Chris Turner’s courage, the 62-year-old former hippie refuses to be called a hero.
“The real heroes were the three U.N. guards and the Afghan guards who lost their lives defending all of us,” Turner told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Thursday from Kabul.
In the predawn darkness a day earlier, Turner and more than two dozen others who lived in a walled compound in Kabul were violently awakened by explosions and small-arms fire. The Taliban, who had been concentrating their attacks in the countryside outside the capital, had targeted the compound, where many United Nations workers were living while preparing to monitor a run-off presidential election.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton Questions Pakistan’s Willingness to Go After Bin Laden
In her Toughest Talk Yet, Clinton Asserts That Al Qaeda Has ‘Safe Haven’ in Pakistan
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dropped the diplomatic language today and said she finds it “hard to believe” that Pakistan couldn’t get al Qaeda’s leaders “if they really wanted to.”
Clinton made her sharpest comments during a three day diplomatic offensive in Pakistan, a U.S ally where she has generally praised Pakistan and its military for its willingness to take on the Taliban along its rugged frontier with Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: Which Target is Our Own Bullseye?
Pakistani jihad death squads were much in the news this week. In Peshawar, Pakistan, they bombed a marketplace, claiming more than 100 lives, and in Chicago, they were thwarted, according to an FBI affidavit, from carrying out a planned attack on a newspaper in Denmark to kill two Danish journalists, cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and cultural editor, Flemming Rose.
It’s important to link these events to put them into proper perspective. According to the FBI, the Danish operation — busted in Chicago with arrests of David Coleman Headley (aka Daood Gilani) and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, both of Pakistani origin with American and Canadian citizenship, respectively — was planned in conjunction with Pakistani jihadists. One is identified as Individual A, a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the jihadist group behind the 2008 Mumbai massacre, among other atrocities. The other is identified as Ilyas Kashmiri, operations chief of Harakat-ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI). Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal writes that Kashmiri is “considered by U.S. intelligence to be one of Al Qaeda’s most dangerous commanders.” Roggio further notes that LeT and HUJI, along with several other Pakistan jihadist groups, including Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammed, have merged with Al Qaeda in Pakistan and operate under the name Brigade 313.
While the triggermen behind the Peshawar carnage have not been identified yet, it is highly likely, to say the least, that they come from this same jihad network. So, let’s probe a little. Let’s think beyond the scenes of the Pakistani market-turned-charnel-house, and the newspaper office in Denmark spared from a similar fate. Let’s think beyond the “terror” to the point of the terror — a place we as politically correct multiculturalists are never supposed to go: The point of Islamic terror is to assert Islamic law. Period.
In the Pakistani case, the terror further enmeshes the United States in misbegotten efforts to “stabilize” the jihadist-riddled government, but that serves Islamic law as well. Such terror further asserts the power of those who bring Islamic law to a nation that already embraces its brand of “justice” as the findings of an August Pew poll confirm yet again. An overwhelming 78 percent of Pakistanis believe those who leave Islam should be killed, 80 percent favor whippings and cutting off hands for crimes like theft and robbery, and 83 percent favor stoning adulterers.
And how many billions did the Obama administration just shovel down that hole?…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Women Banned From Wearing Trousers and Jeans
Banda Aceh, 28 October (AKI/The Jakarta Post) — Women wearing jeans and other trousers in Indonesia’s West Aceh will now face Islamic Sharia police, as will clothes vendors selling slacks for women. West Aceh Regent Ramli M.S. issued the controversial regulation on Tuesday.
Those found wearing tight trousers, such as jeans, will have them cut by Sharia police, and will be forced to wear loose-fitting attire.
“We have issued the regulation to further enforce Islamic Sharia (law) granted by the central government,” Ramli told Indonesian daily The Jakarta Post by phone on Tuesday.
To anticipate the huge number of slacks to be cut by police during raids, the West Aceh regency administration has prepared around 7,000 long skirts, which will be provided for free to those caught wearing trousers.
According to Ramli, the new regulation will be effective as of 1 January, 2010.
The regulation also prohibits clothes vendors in the regency from selling slacks or jeans to women.
To implement the regulation, the West Aceh administration will issue an order for Sharia police to conduct raids and patrols in every district in the regency.
The raids will mainly target the regency capital of Meulaboh.
Ramli said he was positive the policy would spark some protest among residents across Aceh, especially in West Aceh.
However, he said he would insist on enforcing the regulation despite possible protests. Although it has yet to be implemented, women in Meulaboh have voiced objection to the ban.
As women, they slammed the regulation as discriminatory, saying it violated their right to freedom of expression.
“I’m surprised the mentality of the Aceh leader is so old-fashioned and primitive.
“There are many other things the administration should handle rather than regulating what women in the province should wear,” said a medical worker in Meulaboh, Lola Amalia.
She said the West Aceh administration may have suffered from the euphoria of Islamic Sharia without thinking about the reality of people’s conditions.
“I doubt the regulation is the wish of the West Aceh community at large. One of the regent’s tricks is to seek sensation,” said Lola.
Lola said she was confident the regulation would not be implemented effectively in Aceh society, adding that in principle she had no qualms about wearing clothing regarded as appropriate and in accordance with Islamic Sharia.
However, she said she was unaware which type kind of clothing the administration regarded as appropriate for women in West Aceh to wear.
“It will not be possible for the government to force every woman in West Aceh to wear long skirts.
“Not all women like to wear such clothing,” said Lola.
Ramli previously issued a regulation prohibiting government agencies from serving members of the public who wore “un-Islamic” clothing, such as tight jeans and slacks, to government offices.
Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that strictly enforces Islamic Sharia law, a move that was implemented to suppress the separatist movement in the mainly Muslim region.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jakarta: More Violence Against Students of Christian Theology
The police chased the students of Setia from the temporary seat set up in former town hall in West Jakarta. A group of students and teachers is under investigation, five arrested. In July 2008 a Muslim mob had attacked their school, forcing the students to flee. The Christian building wanted by a construction company.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Police in Jakarta has driven the students of Christian theological Institute Arastamar (STT Setia) from the land of the former town hall in West Jakarta. The students were holding their lessons there after they were forcibly removed — in July 2008 — from their campus in Kampung Makassar, east of the capital. The raid police started on 26 October. After three days of clashes and protests by Christians for their umpteenth banishment, a group of students and some teachers were indicted on charges of resisting a public officer. Five students were arrested, pending trial.
In the summer of 2008 a mob of angry Muslims stormed the original headquarters of the theological Christian Institute, in East Jakarta. The violence was sparked by accusations — perfectly fabricated- of the theft of a motorcycle by a student and the illegal construction of the Christian’s building. In Indonesia, in fact, stringent laws govern the construction of churches or non-Muslim institutions, for which a specific authorization is needed.
Following the assault, about 1,500 students have had to leave the building, initially taking refuge in the nearby police headquarters and the headquarters of a political party of Christian inspiration. The Setia, Protestant biblical studies institute, founded in 1987 by Pastor Mathew Mangentang, has over 29 branches around the country and the Jakarta branch hosted thousands of students.
Having escaped the violence of Islamic fundamentalists, students and professors set up a makeshift school at the site of the former government office in West Jakarta. But that building had long been disputed between the municipality and the Sawerigading foundation. Recently, the Indonesian Supreme Court ruled that ownership of land and the building belongs to the foundation. Following the ruling, the police implemented the measure to clear the site, despite the resistance of the young Christians.
Sukowaluyo Mintorahardjo, leader of Setia, strongly denies the charge that the institute falsified documents for the construction of buildings, as advanced by some Muslim personalities. “It’s a false and baseless charge — he says — as we had all the permits from the outset”. Referring to the attacks of July 2008, he adds economic issues are at the heart of the matter. “About 8 / 10 years ago a construction company approached us, and instead of engaging in a friendly deal — he explains — we were ordered to leave.”
The area where the Christian theological Arastamar Institute (STT Setia) is situated, in fact, has a high commercial value and is in the hands of a single construction company. The fact remains that — to date — the Christian students have no place to carry out the lessons, a group of pupils and teachers are under investigation, and five students have been arrested.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Army Picks Up Trail of Al-Qaeda Operative Wanted for 9/11
Pakistani troops fighting Islamist militants in the mountains of South Waziristan have picked up the trail of a leading al-Qaeda figure wanted in connection with the attacks on America on September 11, 2001.
The Times was shown yesterday the German passport of Said Bahaji, a close associate of the September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. The army said that it found the passport and other documents in a mud compound in the village of Shawangai.
The documents, which show that Bahaji, 34, has been in Pakistan since early September 2001, appear to provide the strongest evidence yet of a direct link between Pakistani militants and al-Qaeda’s high command.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sumatra: Muslims Protest Against a Catholic Chapel
A few days after opening, the Muslim community in Pangkalan Kerinci launched a petition against the structure .. Building first started 2002 but protests only mounted in recent days. Thousands of faithful wanted a place to meet and pray.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — A petition against the opening of a chapel, a protest movement that has also affected the local forum for interreligious dialogue and an injunction requiring the district chief to move the building. However, the tenacity of thousands of Catholics in Pangkalan Kerinci, Pelalawan district, Sumatra, has defeated Muslim resistance and the inauguration of the place of worship was held without incident.
On 18 October Mgr. Martinus Situmorang, bishop of Padang, presided at the official opening of the prayer hall of the Sacred Heart Parish in Pangkalan. During the ceremony, the bishop urged Catholics to maintain a strong faith and be patient, stressing that “the work of God the merciful always wins in the end.”
Mgr Situmorang celebrated a Mass in a soccer field adjacent to the chapel, for fear that the protests of the previous days could result in violence. The function — attended by at least 2,500 faithful — was concelebrated by Father sapto Nugroho, Provincial Superior of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who anticipated the “appointment of 100 local Catholics” wanted by the bishop, to whom “ the task of creating a new parish church” was entrusted.
The idea of opening a prayer room was first born in 2002, when three priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — Fr. Titus Purbasaputra, Fr. Eko and Brother Johannes — were sent to Pangkalan Kerinci in Riau Province (Sumatra Island) for the care of the local faithful. The area is now famous for its wealth of oil and gas, still unknown at the time. The Church entrusted them the task of building a place of worship, not a real church, to avoid triggering protests from the Muslim community. The term “prayer room”, in fact, implies a more “neutral” exception in the eyes of the Islamists and local religious leaders.
Construction work started in 2002 without any sign of protest or anger from the Muslims. Fr. Titus explains that after seven years in the district town of Pelalawan, the number of believers has grown to 4500, with about 1,300 families. The problem, explains the priest, is that “we are scattered in four different districts. Each district may be up to 100 km distant”. For this reason he had decided to build the parish hall of prayer, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
With only a few days to go to its inauguration rumours spread that the Christians wanted to build a church. This started a massive campaign of protest by Muslims in the area, who have drawn up a petition and distributed posters with provocative slogans.
Local Islamic leaders, having collected more than 243 signatures, have appealed to the Forum for Interfaith Dialogue (Fkub), calling for the “demolition” of the building. It resulted in a meeting attended by the Pelalawan Chief District, who ordered the move. Despite the pressures and threats, the bishop was able to inaugurate the building, cutting the ribbon so that even the Catholics of Pangkalan Kerinci have a place to congregate and pray.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: Jolo: Fear of Attacks, Masses Cancelled for the All Saints and All Souls
Bishop Angelito Lampon “precautionary measure”. There will however be brief moments of prayer at the cemetery and the blessing of the graves. The decision follows attack on the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Caramel. On July 7 last another attack caused 6 deaths and 40 wounded.
Manila (AsiaNews) — Mgr Angelito Lampon, Apostolic Vicar of Jolo, has cancelled masses for the feast of All Saints and All Souls, 1 and 2 November. The decision was taken following an attack at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Caramel, October2 7. The launch of a grenade damaged the building. The prelate explains that this is a “precautionary measure” and the faithful can participate in “moments of common prayer.”
In a statement posted on the website of the Philippine Bishops Conference (Cpcp), Msgr. Angelito Lampon confirms the cancellation of the mass originally planned at the cemetery; instead he will lead brief moments of prayer for the dead and bless the graves. The Justice and Peace Commission of the Vicariate of Jolo said the attack on October 27 caused minimal damage to the roof and windows of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Caramel, but there were no injuries nor casualties.
The town of Jolo, the capital of the province of Sulu in southern Philippines, is a majority Muslim area, the scene of attacks and violence in the past. Abu Sayyaf gangs are active in the area, a Filipino Islamic fundamentalist movement linked to terror network al Qaeda.
On July 7, 2009 another attack targeted the cathedral of Mount Caramel: the launch of a grenade caused the deaths of six people, wounding forty others.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Chavez: Sean Penn May Make Film in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez said he met privately with actor Sean Penn on Wednesday, and that the Oscar-winning celebrity may film a movie in Venezuela.
Penn may shoot a film based on a novel by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier, which is set largely in the jungle along Venezuela’s southern Orinoco river, Chavez said. He appeared to be referring to Carpentier’s 1953 novel, “The Lost Steps,” about an American anthropologist and composer’s journey into the jungle region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Honduran Government Caves in to US Pressure, Agrees to Zelaya’s Restitution
The BBC phrases it tactfully: Honduras rivals resolve deadlock
The interim leader of Honduras says he is ready to sign a pact to end its crisis which could include the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya.
Roberto Micheletti said the agreement would create a power-sharing government and require both sides to recognise the result of November’s presidential poll.
Mr Zelaya said the deal, which requires the approval of the Supreme Court and Congress, would be signed on Friday.
…
The opponents had earlier been told by US Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon that they had to reach an accord in order to ensure international support for the election on 29 November.
Afterwards, Mr Micheletti announced that a power-sharing deal had been reached that included a “significant concession”.
“I have authorised my negotiating team to sign a deal that marks the beginning of the end of the country’s political situation,” the interim leader told a news conference.
“With regard to the most contentious subject in the deal, the possible restitution of Zelaya to the presidency” would be included, he said.
Mr Zelaya described the accord as a “triumph for Honduran democracy”, and said he was “optimistic” of returning to power.
Noticias 24, however, states it as it is: Micheletti sucumbe a la presión de EE.UU. y acepta la restitución de Zelaya (Micheletti caves under US pressure and agrees to Zelaya’s return). Noticias 24 lists the main points of the agreement…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Around 100 Kurds Land in Calabria
(ANSAmed) — CROTONE, ITALY, OCTOBER 28 — Around one hundred immigrants of Kurdish ethnicity have disembarked on Italy’s Calabrian coast, between Steccato di Cutro and Botricello, near Crotone. The immigrants were on board an old fishing boat twenty metres in length, which came ashore overnight. They then left the area on foot. Their arrival was reported to the police by some passers-by. The immigrants were tracked by the Carabinieri and local police. They had divided into small groups and were scattered along the coast as far as Catanzaro. The last group was found near the station in the sea-front area. The immigrants, who include several women and girls aged between 9 and 17, are to be taken to the reception centre of Sant’Anna di Isola Capo Rizzuto for identification. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Immigrants Now 7.2% of Population
Caritas says one in 14 residents a legal alien
(ANSA) — Rome, October 28 — There are over 4.5 million legal immigrants in Italy, amounting to one in 14 residents, according to a report released Wednesday by Catholic charity Caritas.
According to the report, legal aliens now account for 7.2% of the population, exceeding the European Union average of 6.2% for the first time ever.
Earlier this month, national statistics bureau Istat, placed the number of foreign residents at the beginning of the year at 3.8 million, amounting to 6.5% of the population.
Both organizations agreed that a surge in 2008 brought more than 400,000 new residents into the country.
According to Caritas, some 300,000 immigrants gained residency in the first nine months of 2009.
The coordinator of the group’s report, Franco Pittau, estimated that the number of legal aliens in Italy would top 12 million if current immigration trends continued.
“Istat estimates that the immigrant population will increase by 250,000 per year, but that’s less than what we’re seeing,” said Pittau.
Caritas said it expects immigrant workers to play an ever greater role in the Italian economy, where they are already a major help to the national pension plan and an important source of tax revenue.
According to the report, foreign workers pump over 7 billion euros per year into the national retirement fund and pay the government 3.2 billion euros in income taxes.
Moreover, just one in 25 foreign residents will be in retirement ten years from now compared to one in five Italians, a factor Caritas said will help to keep the Italian pension system afloat.
The report added that foreigners made up a growing portion of Italy’s tax base, with the number of immigrant workers rising by 200,000 last year.
There are a total of two million foreign workers in Italy, who produce some 10% of the country’s gross domestic product, the organization said.
According to Caritas, immigrant workers are more willing to move and accept a wider range of tasks than many Italians, and are at greater risk of work accidents.
Over 143,000 foreign workers were injured on the job last year and 176 killed.
The organization noted also that foreign-run businesses have demonstrated resilience to the economic downturn, increasing by 10% in 2008 and generating 6.4 billion euros.
Caritas is among Catholic human rights groups at odds with the government over its tough stance on immigration, which includes a bilateral arrangement with Libya adopted in May to forcibly escort migrants intercepted in international waters back to north Africa.
Last month, Italy enacted a law which makes illegal immigration a criminal offense, punishable by summary expulsion from the country and fines of up to 10,000 euros.
The law is now before the constitutional court following a ruling by a judge in Turin earlier this month who said it may be in violation of the Italian constitution.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Greece: Mixed Patrols at Ports
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 28 — Mixed Italian and Greek patrols to inspect for illegal immigrants have entered into effect in Bari and Brindisi on one side and at the ports of Patras and Igoumenitsa on the other. The operation, which consists of test inspections for both passenger and cargo transit, aims to slow human trafficking to Italy and Europe, which occurs in particular with the transport of illegal immigrants in containers, trucks, or other vehicles leaving the ports in Greece. As for the Italian side, the mixed patrols are headed by the Central Management of Immigration and Border Police, and on the Greek end they are being organised by the Coast Guard. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants each year reach Greece mainly from Turkey, with the objective of reaching the rest of Europe, starting with Italy from the ports of Patras and Igoumenitsa, which connect the two countries regularly. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: A-Maize-Ing Cargo! 14 Illegal Immigrants Caught Sneaking Into UK in Tanker Carrying 25 Tonnes of Starch Powder
A tanker driver looked on in astonishment as he watched 14 illegal immigrants emerge from his cargo covered from head to toe in maize starch.
Frenchman Ludovic Buns had transported 25 tonnes of the powder from Calais, France, to a packaging company in Devizes, Wiltshire.
But when he pulled up at DS Smith Packaging on Tuesday evening he heard strange noises echoing inside the tanker drum.
He peered inside to find 14 stowaways — seven men and seven teenagers from Iraq and Afghanistan — caked in white powder.
They were all arrested and taken into custody that night.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Advocacy Group Also Blasts ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Episode
It’s not just Catholics who are causing a stir about the recent Curb Your Enthusiasm episode that featured Larry David’s character accidentally splattering urine on a painting of Jesus. The Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is now calling on HBO to apologize for the episode, in which Larry David’s character accidentally splattered urine on a painting of Jesus.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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