Two places where the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall was celebrated in a less than ecstatic fashion: Russia and China. During Europe’s more festive observances, there was no mention that the departure of the USSR was followed in less than twenty years by the arrival of the EUSSR.In other news, a Kurdish opposition activist was executed in Iran.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, DF, Esther, Fjordman, Hans Bader, Insubria, JD, JP, Nilk, Sean O’Brian, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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“Devout Muslims — Danger for American Security”
In America, the more devout a Muslim is, the greater a threat he represents to US national security, Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis at the American Family Association, told RT.
“Not all Muslims are terrorists,” he said. But, he asked, “how can we tell the difference between those that do represent a threat, and those that do not?”
Last week’s shooting incident at Fort Hood in America left the nation in shock.
Some analysts have highlighted the idea that the man responsible for the killing spree was a jihadist Muslim. This has caused debate over the role of Muslims in the US military.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
63% — No Conflict in Being a Devout Muslim and Living in Modern Society
Like other American religious groups, Muslims believe that their religious convictions can fit comfortably in a world of rapid change and shifting values; more than six-in-ten Muslim Americans (63%) say they see no conflict between being a devout Muslim and living in a modern society, a belief they share with many Muslims around the world. Still, Muslim Americans struggle to find a balance between two worlds and two very different cultures. They divide over the best strategy for Muslim immigrants to pursue when they arrive in the United States. The largest share (43%) say new arrivals should “mostly adopt American customs and ways of life.” But 26% believe Muslims should “mostly try to remain distinct from the larger American society.” Another 16% volunteer that new immigrants should try to do both.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
9/11’s Delayed Legacy: Cancer for Many of the Rescue Workers
A spate of cancer-related illnesses among New York’s rescue services who worked at Ground Zero sparks fear of an epidemic
A spate of recent deaths of New York police and fire officers who took part in the emergency operation at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks has heightened fears that it could be the start of a delayed epidemic of cancer-related illness.
Five firefighters and police officers, all of whom were involved in the rescue and clear-up at the site of the collapsed Twin Towers, have died of cancer in the past three months, the oldest being 44. Three died last month within a four-day period.
Those three were Robert Grossman, a Harlem-based police officer who spent several weeks at the emergency site and died of a brain tumour aged 41; fellow police officer Cory Diaz, 37; and firefighter Richard Mannetta, 44.
In addition, John McNamara, a 44-year-old firefighter, died in September; and Renee Dunbar, a police officer in her late 30s, died in August.
The cluster of cancer deaths comes as Congress is under pressure to pass legislation that would provide federal help to emergency workers who have contracted illnesses since 9/11. Campaigners hope that a bill will be put to the House of Representatives by the end of the year that would set up a $10bn (£6bn) national fund for hundreds of people who now have cancer, respiratory illnesses and other diseases that may be linked to their work at the World Trade Centre site.
Up to 70,000 people took part in the massive operation at Ground Zero, including police, firefighters and construction workers who came to New York voluntarily from all over the US. Many worked for months amid a toxic soup of dust and chemicals.
Amid the pollutants within the giant pile of 1.8m tons of debris and the surrounding air were 90,000 litres of jet fuel from the two stricken planes, about 1,000 tons of asbestos that was used in the construction of the Twin Towers, pulverised lead from computers, mercury and highly carcinogenic by-products from the burning of plastics and chlorinated chemicals.
No official tally is available for the number of those who have died as a result of the 9/11 clear-up. The New York state health department has recorded 817 deaths of emergency workers but it cannot confirm categorically how many of those were directly linked to the site.
Federal funds for ill emergency workers ran out in 2003 and, since then, the onus has fallen on cash-strapped New York city, which is facing up to 10,000 claims for compensation through the courts. Families of those who have died say that the burden should be shouldered by the nation as a whole.
Robert Grossman’s father, Stephen, drew a parallel with the $3bn the federal government spent this year on buying up old cars under the “cash-for-clunkers” scheme. “They spent that, but they don’t have a dime for people who volunteered after 9/11 and ended up giving their lives for their country.”
The 911 Police Aid Foundation, a group run by and for sick police officers, says it is helping more than 100 officers who worked at Ground Zero and who now have cancer. The group is receiving new cases at a rate of about one a week, many of which are extremely rare at such young ages.
Michael Valentin, who volunteers for the group, spent about four months working around the pile of debris from the towers. He now has lymphatic tumours in his chest, as well as asbestos poisoning.
“We all have terminal illnesses, we are all going to die. We just want to help others by showing them that they are not alone,” he said.
The bill currently before Congress, which is named after James Zadroga, a police officer who died in 2006, would provide for the health monitoring and treatment of an additional 15,000 emergency workers. Paradoxically, it would not cover cancer, which was not perceived as a priority at the time the legislation was drafted though numbers have escalated since then.
Claire Calladine, a campaigner who runs the organisation 9/11 Health Now, said the fear was that the recent rise in cancer cases was just the start.
“We have only seen the tip of the iceberg. How bad will it get — that is the big question.”
| [Return to headlines] |
Airport Rules Changed After Ron Paul Aide Detained
An angry aide to Rep. Ron Paul, an iPhone and $4,700 in cash have forced the Transportation Security Administration to quietly issue two new rules telling its airport screeners they can only conduct searches related to airplane safety.
In response, the American Civil Liberties Union is dropping its lawsuit on behalf of Steve Bierfeldt, the man who was detained in March and who recorded the confrontation on his iPhone as TSA and local police officers spent half an hour demanding answers as to why he was carrying the money through Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
The new rules, issuedin September and October, tell officers “screening may not be conducted to detect evidence of crimes unrelated to transportation security” and that large amounts of cash don’t qualify as suspicious for purposes of safety.
“We had been hearing of so many reports of TSA screeners engaging in wide-ranging fishing expeditions for illegal activities,” said Ben Wizner, a staff lawyer for the ACLU, pointing to reports of officers scanning pill-bottle labels to see whether the passenger was the person who obtained the prescription as one example.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Americans Are Waking Up
Ever since Barack Obama’s election, the mainstream media and liberal commentators have been gleefully proclaiming the death of the Republican Party and predicting it could be revived only with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from “moderates” and RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). The Nov. 3 elections proved that those obituaries, in the famous words of Mark Twain, were “greatly exaggerated.”
November’s elections showed that the American people are waking up to the economic disasters Barack Obama is inflicting on America. The voters are upset and angry about Obama and his congressional cohorts creating debt for our children and grandchildren that can be paid only by middle class taxes and inflation, taking over whole industries such as health care and deceiving us with the expensive stimulus bill that creates only government (not private sector) jobs.
Some of the popular homemade signs carried at the tea party rallies said it all: “I love my country, but I don’t trust my government.”
In the most controversial election on Nov. 3, New York House District 23, Republican Party leaders made the mistake of nominating a pro-abortion, pro-same-sex-marriage, pro—Obama stimulus package and pro-card-check feminist (who ultimately endorsed the Democrat). Then they gave her nearly a million dollars of national Republican campaign funds. Conservatives rebuked the Republican Party by running a real conservative on the Conservative Party ticket, who was then endorsed by a prestigious list of Republicans led by Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, Jim DeMint and the Club for Growth.
The conservative, Doug Hoffman, lost narrowly to the Democrat (who got 49 percent of the vote), but the race taught several valuable political lessons. The road to Republican victory is to nominate a real conservative because the voters absolutely will not accept an appointed liberal, feminist or RINO.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CAIR Speaker to Muslims: OK to Attack Fort Bragg
Exhorts Islamic faithful to target planes carrying ‘82nd Airborne’
A Council on American-Islamic Relations adviser and regular speaker at its events has suggested Islamic law permits Muslims to attack C-130 military transport planes carrying the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, N.C., according to a stunning new book exposing Washington-based CAIR’s inner workings.
Radical Islamic cleric Zaid Shakir, a frequent guest speaker at CAIR events, tells his Muslim audiences: “Jihad is physically fighting the enemies of Islam to protect and advance the religion of Islam. This is jihad.”
Acceptable targets of jihad, he says, include U.S. military aircraft.
“Islam doesn’t permit us to hijack airplanes filled with civilian people,” Shakir once told a Muslim audience. However, “If you hijack an airplane filled with the 82nd Airborne, that’s something else.”
[…]
Shakir advises the Muslim community in America to wage a cultural jihad now, and a violent jihad later — once the proper “infrastructure” is in place.
He says Muslims should respect American democracy insofar as it can be exploited to help the Brotherhood one day assume power here.
And the only thing that could stop the Islamization of America, he notes, is if its people rose up and denied the subversive movement the unbridled freedom it’s heretofore enjoyed.
However, if Americans were to do that, Muslims would then be obligated, he says, to exercise their supposedly “divine legal right” to rise up and wage violent jihad, reveals the book “Muslim Mafia.”
“What a great victory it will be for Islam to have this country in the fold and ranks of the Muslims,” sermonized Shakir, who continues to be a marquee speaker at CAIR functions.
For now, he said, following the radical Muslim Brotherhood playbook, Muslims must continue to “create a state within a state.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton: ‘We Are Winning’
Former President Bill Clinton told a room full of Democratic senators Tuesday that passing health care reform — which he failed to do 15 years ago — is not only a moral issue but also “an economic imperative.”
Clinton argued that even “the most cold-hearted person” ought to support health care reform simply from an economic standpoint. He reminded Democrats of the political momentum their failure to pass reform in 1993 delivered the House of Representatives to the Republicans the following year.
“The point I want to make is: Just pass the bill, even if it’s not exactly what you want,” Clinton told Democrats. “When you try and fail, the other guys write history.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said Clinton described the ongoing tea party protests against the Democratic agenda as a sign their party was making progress.
Whitehouse quoted Clinton arguing: “The reason the tea-baggers are so inflamed is because we are winning.”
Clinton’s overall message was one the Obama administration has tried to make: not passing a bill is worse than passing one that’s not perfect.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dark Secrets of AARP Finally Exposed to Light
Executives, employees backed Obama, Dems by 14-to-1 ratio
When the AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons — one of the wealthiest advocacy groups in the U.S. — began backing the $1.2 trillion House health bill despite concerns about Medicare cuts, death panels and assisted suicide, many members shredded their membership cards, saying the organization no longer represents their interests — but AARP’s history of left-leaning activism on a host of issues may surprise its constituents.
AARP’s Nov. 5 health bill endorsement left many seniors wondering why the powerful group that claims to represent their interests would call for an estimated $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, a system many seniors have indicated that they would like to preserve.
“After carefully monitoring developments in Washington and studying the various legislative proposals, AARP’s all-volunteer Board of Directors — made up of working and retired doctors, nurses, business people, and teachers — has decided to endorse the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962/H.R. 3961) because it delivers on key priorities we’ve been fighting for,” an AARP announcement stated.
But while many seniors believe AARP offers worthwhile discounts on health and car insurance, vacations and advice on financial planning, the group has a history of left-leaning political stances and activism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Military Brass Wallow in ‘Diversity’ Fetish That Caused Fort Hood Tragedy and Betrayed Our Troops
by Hans Bader
As we and the Manchester Union-Leader noted earlier, the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan, escaped any preventive action because of a politically-correct obsession with “diversity,” which made officers reluctant to report Hasan’s extremist remarks in favor of terrorism and against non-Muslims, lest they be accused of discrimination or insensitivity.
Some military leaders, catering to liberal Congressional leaders and the Obama Administration, continue to cling tightly to the “diversity” dogma, demanding that those in the military keep silent rather than saying things that might call into question their “diversity” obsession:
“Naval Academy senior commanders decided during the World Series to remove two Midshipmen from the color guard that appeared. What was their offense? The color guard was deemed too white and too male. There was accordingly a push to make the color guard more ‘diverse.’ Two members of the color guard were removed and replaced by a Pakistani and a woman to achieve the requisite ‘diversity.’ The Pakistani unfortunately forgot his cap and shoes. He himself had to be replaced at the last minute by one of the two middies removed earlier. The midshipmen have reportedly been ordered not to speak of these events.”
Our government’s obsession with “diversity” also created the climate in which officers were afraid to report the suspicious behavior of the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal M. Hasan. Although his anti-American, pro-terrorist views were common knowledge, “a fear of appearing discriminatory . . . kept officers from filing a formal written complaint,” reports the Associated Press. As a result, he escaped any disciplinary action or review of his fitness.
The Fort Hood shooter had previously said that Muslims should rise up against the military, “repeatedly expressed sympathy for suicide bombers,” was pleased by the terrorist murder of an army recruiter, and publicly called for the beheading or burning of non-Muslims, talking “about how if you’re a nonbeliever the Koran says you should have your head cut off, you should have oil poured down your throat, you should be set on fire.” But thanks to a politically-correct double standard, nothing was done to remove him from a position where he could harm others.
The lesson of the Fort Hood shootings is that applying politically-correct double standards, rather than treating people equally, can be lethal.
(Intelligence officials knew that Nidal Hasan, the soldier who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, was trying to contact Al Qaeda. He once attended the same mosque as 9/11 terrorists.)
In a desire to curry favor with the liberal Congress that funds it (and the Obama Administration), the military has increasingly adopted politically-correct policies that abandon equal treatment. One example is racial preferences in admissions to the military academies, imposed in the name of “diversity.” (In practice, “diversity” seems to mean crude “racial proportionality”: it is harder for Asians to be admitted to the academies than for whites and Hispanics, and harder for whites and Hispanics to be admitted than for African-Americans. Such preferences are of dubious legality under Supreme Court precedent.)
In this climate of political correctness and double standards, it is understandable that officers were afraid to file complaints about Hasan, for fear that they would incur the wrath of the “diversity” police.
Even now, the Army Chief of Staff, General George Casey, denies that the military failed to pick up the obvious warning signs about Hasan, and he is more concerned that the shootings will undermine the army’s commitment to “diversity,” than he is about the tragedy itself. He claims that a backlash against diversity would be an even “worse” tragedy than the one that took place at Fort Hood. He remains wedded to a policy of “zero tolerance” for criticism of “diversity,” i.e., double standards. He seems more concerned that “diversity” will become a “casualty” of such shootings than that American soldiers will.
President Obama’s initial response to the tragedy last Thursday was embarrassing, even for some liberal journalists. Obama’s initial remarks about the tragedy came buried in the middle of a speech laced with “wildly disconnected” ramblings about an unrelated topic, starting with a “joking shout-out.” Even the liberal Boston Globe chided the president for a speech lacking in “empathy” for the victims.
In an absurd display of political correctness, early media reports chose to harp on the false claim that the killer had PTSD (which he didn’t: he never even served overseas) or the unsupported claim that he had been subjected to harassment (support groups for Muslim soldiers say they have received no recent reports of harassment).
| — Hat tip: Hans Bader | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Not Forthcoming With Fort Hood Massacre Information
A ranking US congressman said that he is concerned that President Barack Obama and his administration is being less than forthcoming with details of the Fort Hood Massacre and is withholding requested information.
U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, claims that the Obama administration may be restricting the dissemination of information and limited information provided so far to the so-called “Gang of Eight.”
Congressman Hoekstra, following up on multiple conversations with the Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, requested that Blair and the heads of the FBI, the NSA and the CIA direct their agencies to preserve all documents and materials relevant to the Fort Hood attack and any related investigations or intelligence collection activities.
A former New York City Detective and Marine put Rep. Hoekstra’s message more bluntly: “This is another example of the US government being asleep at the wheel. Our President and his minions are doing more to take attention away from the terrorism aspect of this mass-murder than they are to identify the kinks in our armor in this war on terrorism.”
“I wouldn’t put it past those leaders to ‘lose’ or ‘misplace’ evidence of terrorism in this Fort Hood tragedy,” he said. “This is a White House that’s returned us to the days of Bill Clinton when the President repeatedly ignored the culprits involved in multiple terrorist attacks.”
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Obama Refuses Public Photo Ops With Netanyahu
Another sign of major rift between leaders
JERUSALEM — The White House has not released any official photos of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting this week with President Obama — just one of several signs indicating a rift between the two leaders.
Netanyahu arrived in the U.S. last weekend to address a convention of Jewish leaders. The prime minister’s office had for weeks attempted to schedule a meeting with Obama, but no meeting was officially confirmed until Netanyahu was already on a plane on his way to Washington, sources in Netanyahu’s office said.
The only photos available to the media so far have been pictures of Netanyahu entering and exiting the White House. Any official photos taken of Obama and Netanyahu have not been released.
[…]
“Think of it: Our closest ally in the region, critical issues at stake (from Iran’s nuclear program and the recent Israeli seizure of an Iranian arms shipment meant for Hezbollah to Abbas’ announcement), yet the Israelis get no answer,” Abrams writes.
“Obama and his ‘experts’ may think they are reminding Netanyahu who is boss, but they are in fact reminding all of us why Israelis no longer trust Obama — and making closer cooperation between the two governments that much harder.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Prof Busted in Columbia Gal ‘Punch’
A prominent Columbia architecture professor punched a female university employee in the face at a Harlem bar during a heated argument about race relations, cops said yesterday.
[…]
The professor, who is black, had been engaged in a fiery discussion about “white privilege” with Davis, who is white, and another male regular, who is also white, Friday night at 10:30 when fists started flying, patrons said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Questions Central Planners Can’t Answer
As an American, I am embarrassed that the U.S. House of Representatives has 220 members who actually believe the government can successfully centrally plan the medical and insurance industries.
I’m embarrassed that my representatives think that government can subsidize the consumption of medical care without increasing the budget deficit or interfering with free choice.
It’s a triumph of mindless wishful thinking over logic and experience.
The 1,990-page bill is breathtaking in its bone-headed audacity. The notion that a small group of politicians can know enough to design something so complex and so personal is astounding. That they were advised by “experts” means nothing since no one is expert enough to do that. There are too many tradeoffs faced by unique individuals with infinitely varying needs.
Government cannot do simple things efficiently. The bureaucrats struggle to count votes correctly. They give subsidized loans to “homeowners” who turn out to be 4-year-olds. Yet congressmen want government to manage our medicine and insurance.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Sue Myrick Takes a Stand on Obama, Fort Hood and CAIR
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Representative Sue Myrick (R, NC-9), who is leading the charge nationally on issues related to terrorism. The founder of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus, she has recently called for an investigation of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
FP: Rep. Sue Myrick, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Myrick: Thank you Jamie.
FP: It is an honor to speak with you.
I’d like to talk to you today about a few things connected to our terror war, especially the tragedy that just occurred at Fort Hood and also your call for CAIR to be investigated.
Let’s start with the jihad at Fort Hood. What are your thoughts?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rupert Murdoch Doesn’t Think Barack Obama Racist, Says Spokesman
News Corporation on defensive after Rupert Murdoch backs Fox News presenter over ‘very racist’ comment by Obama
Rupert Murdoch said Obama ‘made a very racist comment’. But he ‘does not at all, for a minute, think the president is a racist’. Photograph: Hector Mata/AFP
Rupert Murdoch has been forced to deny he believes Barack Obama is a racist, after appearing to back the controversial Fox News presenter Glenn Beck’s comments about the US president.
The chairman and chief executive of News Corporation said in an interview earlier this week that Obama had made “a very racist comment” and that Beck’s views were “right”.
“He does not at all, for a minute, think the president is a racist,” a News Corp spokesman told the US website Politico.
In the interview with Sky News Australia, Murdoch was asked about the views expressed by contributors to Fox News, including Beck’s view that Obama was a racist.
“He [Obama] did make a very racist comment about blacks and whites and so on, which he said in his campaign he would be completely above,” Murdoch said.
“That was something which perhaps should not have been said about the president but if you actually look at what he [Beck] was talking about, he was right.”
Beck caused uproar in July when he described Obama had “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture”.
His remarks were made during a discussion of Obama’s reaction to the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr, an African-American Harvard academic.
Murdoch also said in the interview he thought the Obama presidency was going “badly”, citing the defection of independent voters in recent elections in Virginia and New Jersey.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sheriff to Marines: Your Service is Not Over!
‘Freedoms and liberties which we enjoy under the U.S. Constitution are under siege’
A Colorado sheriff who made headlines for his deliberate non-compliance with the politically correct attitude of his county toward Christmas, today honored the U.S. Marine Corps on its 234th birthday, along with veterans and members of other military branches.
[…]
Alderden told the Marines that when he was elected 11 years earlier, he decided he wanted his office to be the Marine Corps of law enforcement agencies.
He talked about freedom and liberty, asking the Marines to be ready, now more than ever.
“I don’t mean for this message to be overly political, certainly not partisan political, but the Marines have shed blood to defend the Constitution,” he said. “I fear what is happening in Washington, D.C., particularly with the over-reach of the federal government, intruding into areas beyond what is authorized in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”
“The freedoms and liberties which we enjoy under the U.S. Constitution are under siege,” he said.
[…]
“I look at the growth of Muslim extremism, even within our borders, most recently demonstrated just a few days ago at Fort Hood, and I fear for our country,” he said. “My message to you is simple: be vigilant. ‘Once a Marine always a Marine.’ Your service is not over.”
He quoted from the Marine Corps oath: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.”
“Foreign — and domestic,” he said. “The United States military is the best in the world. We have the best equipment. We have the finest young men and women. If our country fails, it won’t be because our military is defeated. It will be due to the complacency of the politicians in Washington, D.C., and a failed educational system.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Stakelbeck: Analysis of New Fort Hood Revelations
More troubling news is coming to light about Nidal Malik Hasan’s radical Islamic connections—and what government agencies knew about them.
Could the Fort Hood jihadist massacre have been prevented?
I analyze on today’s 700 Club at the above link.
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The Famous ‘Kelo House’ Property is Now a Vacant Lot
A decade ago, the town of New London, Connecticut claimed Kelo’s house by right of eminent domain. The plan was to demolish the residential neighborhood so that Pfizer could built a massive research and development plant on the adjacent land. Pfizer got the land for next to nothing. Five Supreme Court justices upheld the taking, ruling that although the primary beneficiary was a corporation, it met the constitutional requirement of “public use.”
Now Pfizer has announced that it is shutting down the plant.
[…]
Scott Bullock, Kelo’s co-counsel in the case, told the Examiner’s Tim Carney: “This shows the folly of these redevelopment projects that use massive taxpayer subsidies and other forms of corporate welfare and abuse eminent domain.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White House Communications Chief to Step Down
WND report documented Anita Dunn boasting of ‘control’ over media
White House communications director Anita Dunn, on whose comments about President Obama’s “control” of the media WND reported, is slated to step down from her post at the end of the month, according to sources talking to the Washington Post.
Dunn had been leading a campaign against Fox News Channel, slamming the top-rated network as an “arm of the Republican Party” and “opinion journalism masquerading as news.”
Last month, WND posted a video of Dunn in which she disclosed to the Dominican government that President Obama’s presidential campaign focused on “making” the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was “controlled.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Iranian Assassins Suspected in Scientist’s Death
Victim worked to monitor nuke testing by renegade nation
LONDON — Agents for Britain’s MI6 intelligence service are investigating if an Iranian hit squad murdered a British nuclear expert working in a high security United Nations building for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Timothy Hampton, 47, specialized in monitoring tremors caused by nuclear tests in Iran. He reported directly to the International Atomic Energy Agency and his widow, Olena Gryshcuk, is a weapons inspector for the organization.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Offers to Give Up Half of Cyprus Territory to Aid Reunification Talks
Britain has offered to give up half of the land occupied by its sovereign military bases in Cyprus if the divided island’s leaders can seal a reunification deal.
Gordon Brown is expected to unveil the initiative to kick-start the Cyprus peace process at a meeting with President Demetris Christofias at Downing Street on Wednesday.
A letter already lodged with the United Nations pledges to transfer 45 square miles if an all-encompassing agreement with local leaders can be reached.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Soldiers Suspended for Nazi Insignia
Three Czech soldiers who served in Afghanistan have been suspended after they were found wearing Nazi insignia, Czech defence officials say.
Czech defence minister Martin Bartak said their behaviour was “unacceptable” and suspended them immediately. The soldiers’ commanding officer was also suspended pending further investigation, defence officials said. “There is no place in the army for people who think this way,” said Bartak after the news was revealed by a daily newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
EU Ministers Agree to Boost Tax on Cigarettes
BRUSSELS, Nov 10 (Reuters) — European Union finance ministers agreed on Tuesday on a radical increase in minimum excise tax on cigarettes, a move to protect public health that will hit tobacco companies, diplomats said.
Under the deal, starting in 2014, the minimum tax would be raised to 90 euros ($134.8) per 1,000 cigarettes, and no lower than 60 percent of their sales price, from the current 64 euros per 1,000 cigarettes and no lower than 57 percent of the sales price.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Decide New Posts Next Week
D’Alema seen among frontrunners for foreign chief
(ANSA) — Rome, November 11 — European Union leaders will pick their first standing president and new foreign policy chief in Brussels next week, the Swedish duty presidency said Wednesday.
Italy’s Massimo D’Alema, a centre-left former premier and foreign minister, is a frontrunner for the EU foreign affairs job.
The two new top jobs were created under the Lisbon Treaty, the EU’s new beefed-up ruling charter, which goes into effect on December 1. The special summit on Thursday, November 19, will take the form of a working dinner, a Swedish spokesman said.
November 19 is the last of three possible dates for the summit which Swedish Premier Fredrik Reinfeldt set last week.
Diplomatic sources said this was an indication of how far from agreement the 27 EU members are right now.
Swedish sources said the final ballot might even be made by a majority vote, although they were going to mediate down to the wire to get the widest possible backing for both posts.
The new foreign post is expected to go to a centre-left figure while the new president of the European Council is expected to be from the centre right, although Britain is still campaigning hard for former prime minister Tony Blair.
Germany and other countries are seen as wanting a less high-profile, compromise candidate. A Blair win would appear to rule out a second centre-left figure such as D’Alema getting the other post, observers say, citing a reported deal by European Parliament conservatives and progressives to share out the positions. Among the other possible hurdles facing D’Alema, apart from his Communist past, is that some members may want the post to be filled by a woman.
Two women are among D’Alema’s three remaining rivals now that British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has made it clear he does not want the job, diplomatic sources say. They are European Foreign Trade Commissioner, Baron Catherine Ashton, of Britain and former EU employment commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou of Greece.
Romanian ex-foreign minister Adrian Severin is also still in the running, sources say. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday D’Alema had the full backing of Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government and had an “excellent chance” of winning.
If D’Alema is picked, he would also become vice president of the European Commission. Belgian Premier Herman Van Rompuy has emerged as frontrunner for the other post, the first standing president of the European Council, who will chair EU summits and also represent the EU on the world stage.
Other possibilities are Dutch Premier Jan Peter Balkenende, former Austrian premier Wolfgang Schuessel and his Luxembourg counterpart Jean-Claude Juncker.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Merkel Honours WWII Dead in Paris
Rome, 11 Nov. (AKI) — Angela Merkel has become the first German leader to commemorate the end of World War I by attending a major commemorative event in the French capital, Paris. Merkel joined French president Nicolas Sarkozy to remember those who died in the “great war” and to celebrate peace.
The significant departure from traditional Armistice Day commemorations came only two days after Sarkozy travelled to Germany to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Muslim Murder
Dresden, 11 Nov.(AKI) — A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of murdering a pregnant Egyptian woman in a German courtroom in front of her husband and young child. Alex Wiens, 28, stabbed Marwa Sherbini, who was wearing a hijab or headscarf at least 16 times on 1 July, in the same court room where the trial was held in the eastern city of Dresden.
Wiens, who admitted holding anti-Islamic views, shocked Germany and incensed the Muslim world provoking widespread protests from Egypt to Iran.
The Dresden state court also ruled that Wiens would not be eligible for early release.
During his trial, Wiens said his action was not premeditated, but prosecutors insisted he was motivated by a “hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims”.
The case began with an argument in a playground in 2008.
Sherbini, a pharmacist, is said to have asked Wiens to let her child use a playground swing where he was sitting. He refused and instead began calling her abusive names.
She took the defendant to court and he was fined 780 euros for defamation.
But when Wiens sought an appeal hearing in July this year, prosecutors said he smuggled an 18cm kitchen knife and stabbed Sherbini at least 16 times.
The 31-year-old, who was three months pregnant with her second child, bled to death in front of her husband and their three-year-old son.
Her husband was himself stabbed as he tried to save his wife, and then shot in the leg by a security guard who initially believed him to be the attacker.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
I Love Europe, But I Despair of the EU
When the European Court of Human Rights announces a ban on crucifixes in Italian schools, you can either celebrate the liberal march of secularism or deplore the illiberal attack on religious expression and national tradition.
Perhaps there is a third option which is to say that this has nothing to do with rights and everything to do with the EU’s manic drive to standardise behaviour and attitudes, in the same way as it regulates the transportation of livestock and the safety specifications of new mowers.
The crucifix is none of the EU’s business and, as we celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall this weekend and the miraculous bravery and persistence of the Christian congregation of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, who sparked the East German revolutions with candles and peace prayers every Monday evening, it is perhaps right to remember that the last Europeans to ban the display of religious symbolism in schools belonged to the communist regimes of the east.
Twenty years later, a European institution is busily enforcing secularism on the grounds that some kid belonging to a busybody Finnish-born atheist in northern Italy might have been momentarily put off his or her lessons, which I seriously doubt. It is enough to make you a Eurosceptic, but there again, Euroscepticism seems to me to be the only responsible stance of an intelligent democrat now that the Lisbon treaty is finally ratified. Scepticism is not reflex hostility, but, rather, alertness that assesses each new office, every new shadowy committee or opaque directive and asks: “Is this right for our society?”
The sceptic does not follow dreams or “lightly surrender a known good for unknown better”. That phrase comes from the Conservative philosopher Michael Oakeshott, but I stress that scepticism is not being a little England Tory or any of the other nonsense spouted by French Euro-enthusiasts last week; it is sounding a note of caution, reserving judgment and not being carried away by ideas and political structures which may not be in the interests of the common good. Scepticism suggests that EU institutions are just as capable of waste and failure as national institutions are, that their very remoteness from everyday life means that these faults may go undetected until too late.
[…]
Twenty years ago I travelled from west to east and watched the Wall fall. This week, I am making a similar trip, but to Prague instead of Berlin, to attend the celebrations to mark the beginning of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. More particularly, I want to pay homage to the man who was released from jail and became president, Vaclav Havel, because on 1 January 1990 he made a speech, which I quote whenever I can.
In it, he said that all governments, even totalitarian regimes, are the people’s responsibility. “We are all — though naturally to differing extents — responsible for the operation of the totalitarian machinery. None of us is just its victim. We are all also its co-creators. Let us not be mistaken: the best government in the world, the best parliament and the best president, cannot achieve much on their own. Freedom and democracy include participation, and therefore responsibility, from us all.” That’s an enlightened sceptic speaking, one who is worth listening to on this anniversary.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi to Press Bossi and Fini for Law Reform
On Wednesday, PM will meet allies to gauge agreement over need for reform
ROME — Wednesday could be the day when Silvio Berlusconi, Gianfranco Fini and Umberto Bossi meet to discuss the law in Italy. The premier sees reform as crucial to sidestepping the Constitutional Court’s rejection of the Lodo Alfano, the measure that suspends legal proceedings against holders of the highest offices of state. Originally, the summit of Centre-right allies was to have taken place last week. It was postponed because of Silvio Berlusconi’s one-on-one meeting with UDC leader Pier Ferdinando Casini. The regional elections will also be on the agenda.
SHARED COMMITMENT TO REFORM — The prime minister will seek a commitment to reform from his allies. He wants to see whether his majority allies are ready to support him over the various options for legal reform on which People of Freedom (PDL) experts have been working for several days, and which include shorter time-bars and the fair duration of trials.
PD TIME-BAR PROPOSAL — “So they want to talk about time-bars? Why don’t we discuss the proposal already tabled in the Chamber of Deputies by the Democratic Party (PD) in the opposition’s quota? It re-establishes reasonable timescales for the duration of trials and sanctions any time-wasting tactics that the parties might adopt”. The suggestion came from Donatella Ferranti, the PD’s group leader on the justice committee, speaking about the debate within the majority on the statute of limitations. Ms Ferranti added: “I requested a series of hearings with experts but they were turned down. We are absolutely opposed to any procedural solutions tailored to trials involving just one person”.
VITO TELLS PD: “READY TO DISCUSS” — “If there is a genuine willingness to debate on the part of the PD, so much the better. We have always been open to proposals from the opposition that represent substantial contributions to our texts”. Elio Vito, minister for relations with parliament, was commenting in a phone call on PD secretary Pier Luigi Bersani’s invitation to the government to hold a parliamentary debate on the crisis, institutional reform and the law. Mr Vito added: “We have a duty to carry out the government’s programme because that is what the electorate voted us in to do, and the main point is these reforms. We are willing to discuss the issue”.
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
Article in Italian
09 novembre 2009
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Vatican Sends ‘Paedophile Priest’ For Therapy
Florence, 10 Nov. (AKI) — The Vatican has removed an Italian priest from his daily duties and sent him for “spiritual therapy” after allegations that he sexually molested children. The Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ruled that Roberto Berti should face obligatory ‘isolation’ for eight years and undergo recovery and therapy.
According to Italian media reports, the Vatican said Berti will “for eight years be obliged to live under supervision and in a structure outside the diocese and follow a path of spiritual recovery and therapy.
“During this time, the priest is excluded from every pastoral activity,” media reports said.
Berti,who was parish priest in the central Tuscan village of Ginestra Fiorentina from the end of the 1990s to 2001, was accused by two other priests and his alleged victims who accused him of sexual and psychological abuse.
The Vatican’s decision was issued by Giuseppe Betori , a monsignor in the central Italian city of Florence in a letter sent to the current parish priest of Ginestra Fiorentina, James Savarirajan.
Savarirajan in turn placed the letter in the notice board of the church.
In the letter sent to Savarirajan, Betori spoke of the “pain and bitterness” that this issue had caused, and expressed his sympathy for those affected by the “sad consequences” of the priest’s action.
Betori said he was committed to ensure that episodes like these do not happen again.
Berti was parish priest of Ginestra Fiorentina from the end of the 1990’s until 2001, as well as the Tuscan town of San Mauro a Signa from 2001 to 2008.
According to Italian media reports, no legal action is being taken against Berti.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Centrist Movement Formed
Ex-minister and Rome mayor Rutelli claims PD ‘gone left’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 11 — Former minister and ex-Rome mayor Francesco Rutelli on Wednesday founded a new centrist movement after splitting with Italy’s main centre-left party, the Democratic Party (PD) The small Alliance for Italy movement is made up of a handful of unaffiliated moderates and former PD members who are unhappy with recently elected leader Pierluigi Bersani, a former Communist.
Rutelli, 55, led the centrist Catholic wing of the PD and claims Bersani’s election has tilted the PD back towards a kind of socialism, allegedly making it less attractive to moderate voters.
“The PD has gone left,” he said, announcing that the Alliance will hold its first convention on December 11-12 and would “very soon” work with the centrist Catholic UDC opposition party.
Reactions to Rutelli’s move were mixed.
Gianfranco Rotondi, ‘government programme’ minister and leader of a small Christian Democrat party allied to centre-right Premier Silvio Berlusconi, hailed it as “an important page in the history of Italian politics”.
But Nicola Latorre, PD Senate deputy caucus leader, said “this move looks like a mistake to me”.
Latorre said the traditions Rutelli was aiming to appeal to, liberal Christian Democracy and a New Labourish post-socialism, were still represented in the PD.
Rutelli and his followers had been hasty in quitting the PD, he argued. “ “I would rule out the possibility of any leftward drift,” Latorre said.
Rutelli has been accused of making too many moves across the Italian political landscape. A former libertarian Radical, he then became a prominent Green activist before gaining a high profile as Rome mayor from 1993 to 2001.
He was culture minister in the last centre-left government, from 2006 to 2008.
In 2002, already unhappy with the left’s socialist heritage and having become a publicly committed Catholic, Rutelli formed his own more moderate party, the Daisy. A social democratic party with some roots in Christian Democracy, the Daisy merged with the PD in 2007.
Most of the ex-Daisy members have stayed in the PD.
As well as serving in the Senate, Rutelli is head of the parliamentary national security committee.
He is married to a well-known print, radio and TV journalist, Barbara Palombelli, who has worked for both conservative and left-leaning papers and state broadcaster RAI She is currently employed by Berlusconi’s media group Mediaset.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lieberman: Radical Islam Abusing Democracy
Foreign minister sends warning to European countries during Denmark visit, saying ‘Islamic elements are using democratic tools to incite and encourage anti-Semitism’
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sent a warning Monday to European countries while visiting Denmark.
“Radical Islamic elements are abusing the democratic tools given to them by European countries in order to incite, escalate and worsen the relations within those countries and between those countries and other countries, and increase and encourage anti-Semitic incidents,” Lieberman said during a meeting with Danish Minister of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs Birthe Rønn Hornbech.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: First Islamic Party Ready for Elections
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — Madrid, NOVEMBER 10 — The first Islamic party in Spain is getting ready to have representation in the key municipalities in the administrative elections in 2011. The Renaissance and Union of Spain Party, promoted by Mustafa Barrach, a former journalist and Arabic professor in Granada, is close to Rabat, according to a report today in the ABC conservative newspaper. Member of the Al Hegira Muslim community and treasurer of the Spanish Islamic Council, Barrak aspires to gathering not only votes from the nearly 1,300,000 Muslim residents in Spain but also from immigrants who represent 10% of the Spanish population. Mustafa Bakkach, who has been living in Spain for 15 years, dedicates much of his time to supporting immigrants. The Islamic Council, an organisation inspired by the Sufi branch of Islam, is made up of a majority of Spanish converts belonging to the Yamaa Islamica-Liga Morisca. Moriscos is what the 300,000 Muslims are called who stayed on the Iberian peninsula after the expulsion of the Catholic kings and were forced to convert to Christianity and then banished for good in 1609. In the internal gazette, the organisation expounds a clearly national vocation not only for consolidation in one area or autonomous region and considers Islam the base of its principals in political activities, a determining factor for the moral and ethical regeneration of Spanish society. However, at the same time, it respects the Spanish constitution and refuses terrorism as an instrument of political struggle. The organisation does not realistically aspire to winning the municipalities but wants to obtain a discreet number of councillors in some key Spanish cities. According to ABC, the government does not hide a certain worry, since there are currently 1,300,000 resident Muslims in the country including Spanish converts and immigrants from Islamic countries of which there are 700,000 from Morocco. But there could be more than two million if illegal immigrants are counted. The politicians fears have to do with the new party eventually lead to the non-integration in urban area with high Muslim presence and that in cities where they already have a majority, the Muslims could attempt to impose their customs through municipal regulations. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Catalonia Referendum, Request for EU Observers
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 10 — The coordinators of the coming local referendum on December 13, to ask for the independence of Catalonia from Spain, are in Brussels. They want to involve the European Parliament as observer of the referendum, and to denounce the fact that the Spanish government has forbidden to hold the referendum in public offices. “Around 650,000 citizens will be able to vote in the referendum in 140 municipalities, those in which local governments have backed the initiative” explained Anna Arqué, head of the international committee that coordinates the referendum on Catalonia’s independence. The first referendum on the independence of the region from Spain was organised by the town of Arenys de Mont on September 13. From there, Arqué said, “it has spread like bushfire”. “We would like to involve international observers” she added “to validate the referendum, because this is a serious step, where people exercise their right of self-determination”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Teens Sign Up for Jihad at Stockholm Youth Centre
Swedish taxpayers helped fund a youth recreation centre in the north Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby which served as a recruiting station for the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab.
More than ten young people from the predominantly immigrant neighbourhood who spoke with Sveriges Radio (SR), said that the recruitment drive was led by a youth leader at the Kreativitetshuset recreation centre.
The recreation centre was started by a mosque and received a total of 480,000 kronor ($70,400) from the Stockholm city sports and recreation administration over four years before closing down in 2008.
“It’s horrible. There was no suggestion of this when we had contact with the association when it was created,” Per Johansson, head of the city’s department for clubs and associations, told SR.
“Their paperwork was in order when they submitted it. And during the visits we made to the facility during the first year we didn’t see anything to indicate something like this.”
The head recruiter, said to be in his thirties, showed young people video clips from YouTube which encouraged viewers to sacrifice themselves for their beliefs.
“I saw how they showed images of war victims, decapitated heads, and all sorts of horrible things while repeating the same message the whole time. It had a big impact on those who weren’t strong enough to stand up to it,” one young person who resisted the youth leaders urges to join al-Shabaab, told SR.
According to Swedish security service Säpo, al-Shabaab successfully recruited around 20 young people from Sweden, some of whom who have been killed in battle.
The news comes on the same day as the magazine Neo previewed an interview by journalist Per Gudmundson with the wife of another man from Rinkeby who was recruited by al-Qaeda in Iraq.
“I don’t think he’s done anything wrong. I see it as a part of our religion,” the man’s wife told Gudmundson, who traced the man’s journey from the Stockholm suburbs to the battlefields of Iraq after reviewing documents confiscated by the US military from al-Qaeda in Iraq hideouts near the Iraqi border with Syria.
The documents, known as the Sinjar Records, contain details about 606 foreign jihadist fighters, including the man from Sweden.
According to Magnus Ranstorp, head of research at the the Centre for Asymmetric Threat and Terrorism Studies (CATS) at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), there are hundreds of jihadists in Sweden, but the number has remained constant for several years.
“What we can see is that the number of jihadists in Sweden hasn’t increased in recent years. The size of the group is relatively constant. The security police are good at keeping tabs on these people, which occurs either through their own investigations or by having Swedes highlighted in investigations abroad,” he told the Nyheter24 news website.
He added that many Swedish jihadists attempt to join terrorist groups in order to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as in other conflict zones like Iraq and Somalia.
Ranstorp also confirmed that al-Shabaab carries out “intensive recruiting” in Sweden, often using Somali associations and groups to help their efforts.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police Fire Shots at Suspected Teen Arsonists
Police in a Stockholm suburb responding to a suspected case of arson on Tuesday night fired shots at a car carrying three teenagers who tried to run the police officers down as they attempted to flee.
Two officers from Handen. in Haninge south of Stockholm. fired three shots at the vehicle, which was carrying three 15-year-old youths. Neither the teens nor the officers were injured in the incident.
Police received a call shortly after 9pm alerting them that flames had engulfed a summer cabin in nearby Trångsund.
When police tried to stop a car suspected of having been at the scene of the fire, the driver revved the engine and turned the vehicle directly toward the police.
When the car then accelerated, one officer fired two shots. The second officer then fired one more round, according to police spokesperson Mats Nylén.
“We don’t know why they set the house on fire. At this point there’s nothing to indicate any motive other than amusement,” he told the TT news agency.
The youths are old enough to face criminal charges, but due to their young ages it remains unclear how prosecutors will proceed with the case, said Nylén.
While the fact that the police officers used their firearms has been reported, there are currently no suspicions that they acted inappropriately, according to Nylén.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Far-Right MP Wants to Send Wolves to Bulgaria
Josef Kunz, a member of the far-right Swiss People Party (SVP), also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (UDC), has said that he wants to expel wolves from his country and ship them over to Bulgaria and Romania, Dnevnik daily reported on November 11 2009.
Kunz told Swiss media that sending wolves to Bulgaria and Romania makes sense because “there is no room for wolves in Switzerland and besides, in Bulgaria and Romania, the animals will face a natural enemy — bears”.
An alternative proposal of expelling the wolves over to Italy was apparently dismissed by Kunz and his party, because sending them to Italy would only mean that they “they would return back to Switzerland”.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
UK Starts Study on Using Human DNA in Animals
LONDON — British scientists begin a new study on Tuesday to consider how human DNA is used in animal experiments and to determine what the boundaries of such controversial science might be.
Though experts have been swapping human and animal DNA for years — like replacing animal genes with human genes or growing human organs in animals — scientists at the Academy of Medical Sciences want to make sure the public is aware of what is happening in laboratories before proceeding further.
“It sounds yucky, but it may be well worth doing if it’s going to lead to a cure for something horrible,” said Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell expert at Britain’s National Institute for Medical Research, and a member of the group conducting the study.
At a media briefing in London, Lovell-Badge said there were two main types of experiments: altering an animal’s genes by adding human DNA or replacing a specific animal sequence with its human counterpart. Several years ago, human genes were added to a mouse to create a model of Down’s syndrome for scientists to study how the disease evolves, which could lead to potential treatments.
Scientists also have tried to grow human organs in animals that could one day be transplanted back into humans — like a mouse onto whose back scientists grew a human ear. “There are good reasons for doing this, but it may upset some people,” Lovell-Badge said.
Two years ago, controversy erupted in Britain after scientists announced plans to create human embryos using empty cow and rabbit eggs. Critics condemned the mixing of human and animal genetic material, though scientists said the embryos would be destroyed after 14 days and would only be used to help them learn how to create human stem cells.
Scientists said they are now trying to determine where the line should be drawn on experiments that use human material in animals. At the moment, the regulation on how much human DNA can be put into an animal is vague.
“We are trying to work out what is reasonable,” said Martin Bobrow, chairman of the group conducting the study. He and others said they recognized people might be nervous about experiments where animals were given human features or brain cells.
David King, director of Human Genetics Alert, an independent watchdog, said he was not convinced such experiments were warranted. “This is a classic example of science going too fast,” he said. “If you cannot firmly say exactly what it is you’re creating, you should not do it.”
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UK: 100 Rapists Are Let Off With a Caution: The Serious Offences That Never Come to Court
More than 100 rapists have been let off with a police caution, it was revealed yesterday. The 111 cases included 66 incidents of child rape.
The extent to which police forces have handed cautions to rapists, whose crime carries a maximum sentence of life in jail, was made public as Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced a full-scale review of the system of punishing crime with cautions and on-the-spot fines.
Mr Straw acted after a weekend when senior police chiefs and the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC called for curbs on the use of out-of-court punishments.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson also condemned the ‘uncontrollable increase in cautions’ and said that on-the-spot fines, now often used to punish offences such as shoplifting, ‘in the public’s minds equate to a parking ticket.’
The system of fixed-penalty fines and cautions has been introduced over the past six years as a way to deal with minor crime cheaply and effectively.
But the disclosure that cautions have been used repeatedly to deal with rapists is the clearest demonstration that the system is now being used to keep the most serious crimes out of the courts.
The figures released to MPs by the Home Office show numbers of cautions handed to rapists after the 2003 Sexual Offences Act became law in May 2004.
Between that date and the end of 2007 there were 45 cases of rape of adults in which the rapist admitted guilt but was released with a caution.
In a further 66 cases individuals who admitted raping a child under 13 were freed with a caution.
The figures from the Home Office gave no indication of why police chose to use cautions to punish a crime which, in the case of adult rape, typically attracts a prison sentence of five years.
Nor do they say how many rapists have been cautioned rather than tried since 2007.
A high proportion of the 66 child rapes may have involved very young offenders, and the offenders in many of the cases of adult rapes may have been intimate partners of the victims.
However no caution can be given in any case except where the suspect admits guilt. Therefore in all 111 cases prosecutors denied the courts an opportunity to examine the evidence and decide on sentencing.
Tory home affairs spokesman James Brokenshire said: ‘It is deeply disturbing to think that the rape of a young child could be dealt with by little more than a telling off. The law should protect the vulnerable, yet Labour’s caution culture is increasingly letting them down.’
Decisions to allow crimes as serious as rape to be dealt with by cautions are taken by the Crown Prosecution Service rather than police officers, the Ministry of Justice said yesterday.More…Special investigation: How could the thugs who did this get away with just cautions?
Nevertheless the punishment faced by a rapist who is cautioned does not amount to anything more than two years on the sex offenders’ register.
Figures also show cautions proliferating for lesser offences.
Last year, according to the BBC’s Panorama programme, 39,000 people were cautioned for assault causing actual bodily harm.
There were 739 cautions for the much more serious offence of grievous bodily harm.
More than half a million offenders have been given repeat cautions since 2000 and in eight years between 2000 and 2008 some 2.2million cautions were handed out in all for crimes, including burglary and assault.
Another half million penalty notices for disorder, handed out of drunkenness, shoplifting and similar more minor crimes, were handed out between 2005 and 2007. In half of the cases, the criminal did not pay up.
There are also concerns that the penalty notices are now being used for burglary and robbery.
Mr Straw said yesterday that he and Home Secretary Alan Johnson are concerned at the use of out- of- court punishments. He added that a review would be run by the Office of Criminal Justice Reform.
He denied the Government had encouraged the use of cautions to reduce the prison population.
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UK: Cameron Outlines Programme to Restore ‘Natural Bonds’ Of ‘Duty and Responsibility’
David Cameron has said that it will take more than a generation and state action to restore a culture of self-reliance in Britain.
In the most complete explanation of his political philosophy so far, the Tory leader acknowledged that individuals and communities would not take back responsibility overnight.
He repeated his attack on Labour’s record on poverty, saying that its over-reliance on economic levers such as tax credits had helped encourage rather than diminish worklessness.
The “paradox” of New Labour, he said, was that in seeking an “act of social solidarity” it had overseen the greatest atomisation of society leading to “selfishness and individualism”.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Green Home Makeover Will Cost Up to £15,000, Says Climate Watchdog Chief
The head of Britain’s climate change watchdog predicted today that households will need to spend up to £15,000 on a full energy efficiency makeover if the government is to meet its ambitious targets for cutting carbon emissions.
Warning that Britain needs to step up its efforts to reduce greenhouse gases after picking all the “low-hanging fruit”, Adair Turner said radical steps would be needed for electricity generation, cars and homes.
Amid growing concern that next month’s Copenhagen climate change summit could end in bitter failure, the chairman of the government’s climate change commission warned against using the drop in emissions caused by the longest recession since the 1930s as an excuse to relax in the fight against climate change.
The government has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 34% from their 1990 levels by 2020 but slipped off course during the economic boom earlier this decade. “When we get the figures for 2008-09 we may look to be on target, but only because we have had a thumping recession,” Lord Turner said.
“There is a danger of the government saying “look, we are back on target”. We will be back on target for the worst possible reason.”
Turner said that the UK had made “pretty rapid progress” on cutting emissions during the “dash for gas” in the 1990s, but had not maintained the progress during this decade. Tough decisions were now needed because there were limits to improvements to the internal combustion engine and Britain was running out of “easy things” to do in the home.
“After home insulation and more efficient boilers, we now need more intrusive things — double glazing, cavity wall insulation, solid wall insulation.”
He added: “We need much more of a whole house approach — one-stop shops where people can get a total report on what they need to do to their homes. It may be expensive — between £10,000 and £15,000.”
The CCC believes that the cost of the scheme would be paid for by a combination of government subsidy and higher electricity bills.
Turner said there was a case for greater state intervention in helping to reduce carbon emissions from the motor industry. Arguing that there were “limits” to what markets could achieve, the CCC chairman said: “We need support for the initial wave of electric cars.”
The government has allocated £250m to hasten the arrival of electric cars but Turner said the CCC would like to see £800m of public money spent on setting up a network of charging points. “It’s chicken and egg. Motorists won’t buy the cars unless there are enough charging points; the government is reluctant to put in the charging points while there are no electric cars.”
Ministers have accepted the CCC’s recommendation that carbon emissions should be reduced by 80% from their 1990 levels by 2050, and the first three carbon budgets covering the period up to the early 2020s were made legally binding earlier this year. Turner said his organisation was now working on a tough fourth budget.
“The 2020s will have to see the radical decarbonisation of electricity, “ he said. “That means more renewables, a significant expansion of nuclear or carbon capture and storage plants.”
He warned ministers that they would need to contemplate curbs on the expansion of air travel unless there was a way of increasing the supply of biofuels without affecting the ability of countries to feed growing populations. The government has pledged that emissions from aviation will not be above 2005 levels in 2050 and the CCC will provide a range of options for aviation in a report next month.
Turner said experts should look at the possibility of using a financial services transaction tax to help poor countries develop low-carbon growth strategies. “Any tax would have to be agreed at the global level because it would be difficult to enforce in one country. That’s why people have tended to think that the proceeds should be used for global common goods, such as the environment.”
Power stations that do not have carbon capture and storage will be taken out of commission, Turner said.
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UK: More Sad Homecomings in Wootton Bassett But the Public Mood is Changing
On the eve of Armistice Day, the heartache and grief over young lives lost in a far away conflict were never so painfully portrayed as they were at Wootton Bassett yesterday.
A mother sobbing uncontrollably; a brother numb with grief; friends and family swarming round the hearses as they paused by the Wiltshire town’s war memorial to cover them with flowers: all that sorrow, raw and exposed under a grey sky. As the cortege of six hearses passed through the town, the bereaved found their own way to express their grief. The family of Jimmy Major, the Guardsman who was only 18 when he was shot dead with four of his comrades by an Afghan policeman last week, all wore T-shirts bearing his picture and the words “RIP Jimmy”. The family of Corporal Steven Boote, 22, a Territorial Army volunteer in the Royal Military Police killed alongside him, held aloft posters in his memory.
Similar scenes have been played out at Wootton Bassett for months now and about 2,000 people were in the crowd yesterday. But two extraordinary things happened, both adding a political dimension to what has until now been a deeply personal event.
The first was that, even amid the outpouring of emotion, it was possible to sense support for military action in Afghanistan ebbing away. People who would once have given unquestioning support to the presence of British troops there were now prepared to say that perhaps it is time to pull out.
The second was the presence of Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader. Until yesterday there was a convention that party leaders do not join the crowd at Wootton Bassett. Apart from the occasional appearance of the local Conservative MP, politicians have been conspicuous by their absence. That, by and large, is how the locals like it. But yesterday, for reasons best known to himself, the BNP leader made a surprise visit. Surrounded by his usual throng of burly minders, he tried to pretend there was nothing unusual about his being there.
“I am here to pay my respects, because it is the second-worst repatriation, and because tomorrow is Remembrance Day,” he said. “These lads and many before them have made the ultimate sacrifice, and I’m as entitled as anyone else to come here today.” Did it even cross his mind that he might not be welcome? “I’m very sorry if the families of these dead soldiers don’t want me to be here,” he said. “I can understand why they would think that, because if they believe all the lies about me they must think I’m a monster.” He added: “I don’t think me being here will detract from the day.”
For some, it undoubtedly did. “He should not be here,” said Ira, a 49-year-old woman who works for a charity settling refugees. “This is about families, not political leaders. He should not be anywhere near here.. He is just doing it for the limelight. It takes the focus off the locals and the families.”
Tony Coombes, secretary of the Devonshire and Dorset British Legion, said: “Repatriations aren’t about politics. We’re here because some terribly brave young men went out there and we have come to share their loss with their families. I think Nick Griffin detracts from that, and he will certainly never get my vote.”
There were, however, some prepared to voice their support. After the coffins passed he was confronted by Madeleine Webb, a pensioner, who said: “I told him I don’t agree with his policies at all, but if he brought our troops home I would vote for him. And I’ve been a Tory all my life..
“The troops have got to come home. They are fighting a futile war. It’s like another Vietnam.” Ilona Johnson was paying her respects to her friend Warrant Officer Darren Chant, 39, one of the five killed by the policeman. Did she still support the war? “At the moment it’s raw,” said Mrs Johnson, a teacher in London. “If you had asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would have said yes, because they are doing their jobs. “But today, I say they should not be there. Bring them back. And not like they are coming back today.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: One in Five People of Working Age Contribute Nothing to the Economy for First Time in Almost 40 Years
More than one in five people who are of working age now contribute nothing to the economy, according to official figures released today.
The number of people who are classed as ‘economically inactive’ reached a record high of eight million after a 41,000 increase over the latest quarter.
The inactivity rate is now over 21 per cent of the working age population and the total is the highest since records began in 1971.
Those classed as ‘economically inactive’ also includes those who are on long-term sick leave, looking after a relative or who have given up looking for work.
The figures also showed that the number of people out of work increased by 30,000 between July and September to just under two and a half million.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pensioner Microbiologist Selling Six Boxes of Eggs a Week to Village Shop Interrogated for Three Hours by Government ‘Hen Inspector’
As an authority on bacterial diseases Professor Susannah Eykyn knows a thing or two about food hygiene.
Certainly she was confident that the three dozen home-produced eggs she wanted to sell each week at her village shop were perfectly safe to eat.
Judging by the speed with which they have now been snapped up, so are the shop’s customers.
But officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs were less impressed. After all, there’s the EC Welfare of Laying Hens Directive to be complied with.
That meant a visit from from a Defra inspector — who at one point put on a protective suit to examine the hut where she keeps her 29 hens.
A second visit by an Environmental Health officer followed.
‘His sole contribution to the whole affair was to ask what the kitchen was cleaned with and I told him Waitrose cleaning fluid which he was happy with,’ said Professor Eykyn, who, incidentally, is a viscountess.
In all, the inspectors spent some six hours poking around her home.
[…]
‘The inspector had to drive from wherever he was based to come and inspect my home and treat me like a child, I mean, where are we at in this country?
‘These jobsworth people don’t seem to differentiate between someone like me who has a few extra eggs to sell and someone who supplies Tesco with 100,000 a year.’
[Comments from JD: Check out the photos, the inspectors went in wearing biohazard suits.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Repatriation of Latest Soldiers to Die in Afghanistan Takes Place in Wootton Bassett
It was a young but confident image. The photograph, taken recently, spoke of a life ahead. Jimmy, 18 years old, a Grimsby lad new to soldiering, should have been turning 19 now. Instead, he is dead, one of the latest casualties of the increasingly deadly war in Afghanistan.
The hearse carrying his remains was one of six that processed slowly through Wootton yesterday. When it stopped at the memorial, Jimmy’s loved ones, including his mother Kim and father Adrian, crying or too shocked to cry, placed flowers on the roof. Some stroked the glass separating them from the coffin, covered in the Union Flag. A moment later, it was gone.
It was the second-largest in a long series of repatriation ceremonies that have conferred a strange status on the Wiltshire market town. Guardsman Major died last week when an Afghan policeman, either an agent of the Taliban or a man with a grudge, opened fire with a heavy machinegun on a group of British soldiers taking a rest in a fortified compound known as Blue 25, near the village of Shin Kalay in Helmand Province.
With him died Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant and Sergeant Matthew Telford, also from the Grenadier Guards, and corporals Steven Boote and Nicholas Webster-Smith of the Royal Military Police. They had been instructing a contingent of Afghan police, and were taking a rest following an operation outside the compound, when their killer opened fire. The number of dead would have made the incident headline news, but it was the manner of the men’s deaths — shot while taking a break by a man they were supposed to be able to trust — that made it the subject of yet more soul-searching about a war that two-thirds of the British public now think is un-winnable.
When Britain’s war dead come home, they are flown into RAF Lyneham, and from there are taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford for post mortem examination. Wootton lies under Lyneham’s flightpath, and so it is on the town’s high street that public gets it chance to pay its respects. The ceremony is never any less powerful for being repeated so often.
Yesterday, as the hearses approach from the airbase, the bells of St Bartholemew and All Saints’ Church toll slowly. The crowd — relatives, veterans and townspeople — straightened itself and fell silent. Then came the cortege: police outriders and six coffins, including that containing the body of Serjeant Phillip Scott of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, killed by a bomb near Sangin shortly after the Blue 25 massacre.
On a corner, a little way down from the memorial, stood Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party and newly-elected MEP. Surrounded by a bunch of minders, Mr Griffin, dressed in black overcoat and sporting a poppy, bowed his head as the convoy passed. He denied his presence represented a political stunt, but he was happy to press the flesh before and after the event.
“I wanted to come here today because this is the second-worst toll and because tomorrow is Remembrance Day,” he said.
Of his presence in Wootton, he remarked: “It’s been very low key. I’ve been talking to many people and it’s been very friendly.”
Mr Griffin denied he was trying to use the event for his own ends, but he was happy to agree with one passer-by that the war in Afghanistan should come to an end. His appearance came just weeks after senior armed forcers offices combined to attack the BNP’s “hijacking” of military traditions. “I don’t agree with Mr Griffin on everything but these troops have got to come home,” said Madeline Webb, a pensioner. “This is like Vietnam. The Russians couldn’t win and neither can we.”
After the ceremony, serving and former members of the Grenadier Guards gathered in the town’s Cross Keys pub. “It is a bitter-sweet gathering, this,” said Karl McKee. “It’s a commemoration and a reunion.” A former Guardsman from Lincoln, now in the fire service, he went on: “The sergeant-major (WO1 Chant) was a massive character. When I heard that he and Sgt Telford had died I immediately decided to come down. The regiment is always in you.” Inside the pub, members of the regiment comforted Guardsman Major’s family. One said to his brother: “That’s a special T-shirt, that. Look after it.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: State to ‘Spy’ On Every Phone Call, Email and Web Search
Every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by private citizens is to be stored for a year and will be available for monitoring by government bodies.
All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited.
Despite widespread opposition to the increasing amount of surveillance in Britain, 653 public bodies will be given access to the information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the ambulance service, fire authorities and even prison governors.
They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to obtain the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.
Ministers had originally wanted to store the information on a single government-run database, but chose not to because of privacy concerns.
However the Government announced yesterday it was pressing ahead with privately held “Big Brother” databases that opposition leaders said amounted to “state-spying” and a form of “covert surveillance” on the public.
It is doing so despite its own consultation showing that it has little public support.
The Home Office admitted that only one third of respondents to its six-month consultation on the issue supported its proposals, with 50 per cent fearing that the scheme lacked sufficient safeguards to protect the highly personal data from abuse.
The new law will increase the amount of personal data that can be obtained by officials through the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which is supposed to be used for fighting terrorism.
Although most private firms already hold details of every customer’s private calls and emails for their own business purposes, most only do so on an ad hoc basis and only for a period of several months.
The new rules, known as the Intercept Modernisation Programme, will not only force communications companies to keep their records for longer, but to expand the type of data they keep to include details of every website their customers visit, effectively registering every online click.
While public authorities will not be able to view the contents of these emails or phone calls, they can see the internet addresses, dates, times and identify recipients of calls.
Firms involved in storing the data, including Orange, BT and Vodafone, will be reimbursed at a cost to the taxpayer of £2?billion over 10 years.
Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said he had fears about the abuse of the data. He said: “The big danger in all of this is ‘mission creep’. This government keeps on introducing new powers to tackle terrorism and organised crime which end up being used for completely different purposes. We have to stop that from happening”.
David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, added: “Whilst this is no doubt necessary in pursuing terrorist suspects, the proposals are so intrusive that they should be subject to legal approval, and should not be available except in pursuit of the most serious crimes.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office also opposed the moves.
“The Information Commissioner believes that the case has yet to be made for the collection and processing of additional communications data for the population as a whole being relevant and not excessive,” a spokesman said.
Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, has criticised the amount the scheme will cost for what he said is effectively “state spying”.
He added yesterday: “It is simply not that easy to separate the bare details of a call from its content. What if a leading business person is ringing Alcoholics Anonymous?”
Ministers said that they still have to work with the communications industry to find the correct way of framing the proposal in law — meaning it will not come before Parliament until after the general election. But the Home Office yesterday insisted it would push the legislation through. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, originally released a consultation paper in April.
Only 29 per cent of respondents supported the Government approach. Meanwhile the communications providers themselves questioned the cost of the scheme and whether it was even technically feasible.
John Yates, Britain’s head of anti-terrorism, has argued that the legislation is vital for his investigators.
David Hanson, the Home Office minister, said: “The consultation showed widespread recognition of the importance of communications data in protecting the public .. we will now work with communications service providers and others to develop these proposals, and aim to introduce necessary legislation as soon as possible.”
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Conservative Leader’s Hugo Young Lecture on Poverty, Inequality and the Welfare State
“There are many things to admire about Hugo Young and his writing. The elegance of his prose. The doggedness of his curiosity. The strength of his integrity. Above all, you had to read him -
he mattered. He understood that the size and role of the state was a key issue in politics and returned to it often — and that is my subject today.
I want to extend and deepen the argument I made in my party conference speech this year, that the size, scope and role of government in Britain has reached a point where it is now inhibiting, not advancing the progressive aims of reducing poverty, fighting inequality, and increasing general well-being. Indeed there is a worrying paradox that because of its effect on personal and social responsibility, the recent growth of the state has promoted not social solidarity, but selfishness and individualism.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teenage Sex Attacker Raped Five-Year-Old Boy Just Eight Days After Being Spared Jail Over Previous Assault
A teenage rapist freed by a judge only to sexually assault a five-year-old boy days later is facing life behind bars tonight after a fellow judge ruled he may never be released.
The 16-year old had been spared a jail term after his family of his first victim then aged seven told Judge Adrian Smith their ‘Christian religion’ had allowed them to forgive him.
But just eight days after the teenager was placed on a three-year community order amid protests from prosecutors and police, the rapist lured another boy aged five from the front of his home and raped him at a house nearby.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Thousands of Job Seekers Wrongly Branded as Criminals… Because They Have Same Names as Offenders
Thousands of job applicants are being falsely branded as criminals simply because they share the same name as an offender.
More than 15,320 people have complained to the Criminal Records Bureau over the last six years to dispute the information the agency is releasing to potential employers.
Last year, a record 2,509 people challenged the CRB — twice the figure of 2002/03, and the equivalent of seven people every day.
The errors are being blamed on applicants having similar personal details to an offender, as well as identity fraud and mistakes made on court and police records.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US vs. Europe in Oracle Battle
Cultural Bent Hangs Over Oracle’s Battle for Sun
Oracle’s battle with European regulators over its acquisition of Sun Microsystems boils down to a conflict about the importance of free software and the government’s role in protecting it.
Neelie Kroes, the European Union’s competition commissioner, has been against Oracle’s efforts to buy Sun Microsystems.
The verbal salvos heated up this week after the European Union issued formal objections on Monday to a bid by Oracle, the giant software maker, to buy Sun for $7..4 billion.
Oracle immediately pilloried the objections, saying they were based on “a profound misunderstanding” of the software market.
On Tuesday, the European Union struck back, with a spokesman for the union’s competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, dismissing Oracle’s criticism as “facile and superficial.”
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Searches for Extra-Terrestrial Life
This picture taken from a terrace in Rome on October 19, 2009 shows a view of Saint Peter's Basilica at The Vatcian. Is there life on other planets? The Vatican has asked that age-old question over the past five days during a "study week" on astrobiology gathering leading scientists from around the world.
This picture taken from a terrace in Rome on October 19, 2009 shows a view of Saint Peter’s Basilica at The Vatcian. Is there life on other planets? The Vatican has asked that age-old question over the past five days during a “study week” on astrobiology gathering leading scientists from around the world.
AFP — Is there life on other planets? The Vatican has asked that age-old question over the past five days during a “study week” on astrobiology gathering leading scientists from around the world.
“The questions of life?s origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration,” said the chief papal astronomer, Father Jose Gabriel Funes.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovar Serb Voters Urged to Take Part in Election
Pristina, 10 Nov. (AKI) — About 100 Serbian intellectuals and leaders of non-governmental organisations on Tuesday appealed to Kosovar Serbs to take part in Sunday’s municipal election, despite the Serbian government’s call for a boycott.
“By taking part in the election, Kosovar Serbs would show responsibility for their own future,” the intellectuals said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Only by actively participating in the political life of Kosovo, the Serbian community can solve the most important daily problems,” the statement said.
Both the Serbian government headed by president Boris Tadic and the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who oppose Kosovo’s independence have called for a boycott, saying the participation would mean indirect recognition of Kosovo, a former Serbian province which gained its independence last February.
Almost 100 percent of Kosovar Serbs boycotted parliamentary and local election two years ago.
Belgrade organised a local election earlier this year in May, electing municipal leaders loyal to Belgrade.
Serbian minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic has said there would be no sanctions against those who participate in Sunday’s election organised by the Kosovar government, but they could no longer count on Belgrade’s support.
Kosovo’s prime minister Hasim Taci has said the election was the most important event since the declaration of independence last year.
A total of 63 countries, including the United States and the leading European Union members, have recognised Kosovo so far. Belgrade, however, is fighting a diplomatic battle to retain the control over the territory.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Human Rights Council Asks for Legislative Reforms
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 11 — The national council for human rights, a governmental organization led by former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, is asking for Article 76 of the constitution to be modified in order to facilitate candidacies for the 2011 presidential elections. The council is also asking for magistrates to supervise legislative electoral operations for the parliamentary elections in 2010, the cancelling of preventive imprisonment in trials for crimes of opinion and the liberalization of building regulations in religious areas. According to a report in the independent newspaper El Masri el Yom on a meeting of the legislative committee of the council which included Boutros Ghali, the organisation also repeated a request that the state of emergency imposed in 1981 and extended for another two years in May 2008 be withdrawn. The fight against terrorism, underlines the council, must adhere to human rights principals and conventions. The question of Article 76 of the constitution, recently reformed, is at the centre of political debate in the country in that it puts restrictive conditions on access to nominations, like having a leading role in a party that has existed for at least five years and the support of 5% of the parliamentarians in the two houses. As to creating new places of worship, the current regulations are obstacles to Christian Copt churches whose leaders have been asking for reform for some time. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Magazine Director Gets 1-Year Prison Sentence
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, NOVEMBER 11 — Idriss Chahatane, the director of weekly magazine Al Michal, has been sentenced to a year in prison by the court of appeal of Salé, on charges of having published news and statements that do not correspond with the truth. Two contributors to the magazine, Rachid Mhamid and Mustapha Hiran, were also sentenced to three months imprisonment each. The news was reported by the MAP press agency. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism: Algeria, 2 Soldiers Killed, 7 Wounded in Kabylie
(ANSAmed)- ALGERIA, NOVEMBER 11 — In the last 48 hours two terrorist attacks have been carried out in the Algerian region of Kabylie, resulting in 2 deaths and 7 injuries, 2 of whom were civilians. Two soldiers were killed and 5 injured as a homemade bomb exploded on Monday evening in Tarah, between Bouira and Medea, around 80km to the west of Algiers. According to the Algerian press, the device was triggered from a distance in order to disrupt the passage of a convoy from the Algerian People’s National Army (ANP). Also in the Kabylie, two young shepherds, aged 22 and 13, were wounded by the explosion of a device placed along the road to Sahel Bouberak, near Dellys, 50km east of the capital. Islamic armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb continue to strike in the mountainous region close to Algiers, which is heavily guarded by security forces. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Exposé: USAID Funds PA Schools for Incitement
(IsraelNN.com) The massive USAID program for the Palestinian Authority helps build schools where children learn incitement and that the State of Israel does not exist, investigative journalist David Bedein revealed to Arutz Sheva.
“This is a catastrophe,” he said. “The government of the United States prohibits Palestinian Authority incitement against Israel while it builds the infrastructure for continuing the incitement.”
He said that a USAID official told him that the agency does not examine the PA curriculum and does not check to see if any of the assistance ends up in the hands of terrorists. Bedein asserted, “They teach children about ‘martyrdom’, praise violent resistance and teach that the entire State of Israel does not exist.”
The USAID program has pumped $2.4 billion into the Palestinian Authority since 1994 for what it says are programs that “reduce poverty, improve health and education, create jobs and advance democracy.” USAID says it plans to invest another $153 million in 2010 for the development of PA infrastructure in Judea and Samaria.
Congressmembers visiting Israel this past summer were surprised to hear from Bedein about continuing incitement in PA textbooks, despite its specific prohibition in the American Roadmap plan.
As far back as six years ago, Bedein reported that the U.S. government funded an Arab lobby group in Jerusalem that “trains media professionals in the art of transforming the image of the Arab-Israeli struggle into an Arab David against an Israeli Goliath.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Army Chief Admits ‘Mistakes’ In Gaza
Tel Aviv, 10 Nov. (AKI) — The top commander of the Israeli defence forces Gabi Ashkenazi conceded on Tuesday that “mistakes” had been made during the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.
However, he was adamant that he did not lead “an army of criminal, plunderers and rapists”.
“The (Goldstone) report accuses the Israeli government of acting against the civilian population and of punishing activities,” he said.
“I have personally appointed five investigative committees, and we have found mistakes,” said Ashkenazi, quoted by Israeli daily Haaretz.
Ashkenazi also said that the army was willing to look into any complaint of misconduct against Israeli soldiers in relation to what took place during the offensive.
“I invite all Palestinians to testify if they have complaints. As of now, 60 Palestinians have delivered their testimonies,” said Ashkenazi, adding that the report called for some sort of response.
“I do not command an army of criminal, plunderers and rapists.”
The 575-page UN-commissioned report, also known as the Goldstone report accused both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of war crimes during the Israeli action in December 2008 and January 2009. A resolution in relation to the report is now due to be sent to the UN Security Council.
Last week, a resolution supporting the report by South African prosecutor Richard Goldstone was passed by the UN General Assembly by 114 votes in favour to 18 opposed. Forty-four states abstained.
Around 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli offensive, according to rights groups.
The report said Israel used disproportionate force, deliberately targeting civilians, used Palestinians as human shields and destroyed civilian infrastructure.
The report also said that Palestinian militant groups including the Islamist Hamas had committed war crimes in their rocket attacks against civilians in southern Israel.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Should Do More for Peace
From Danish: In a meeting with the Israeli foreign minister, the Danish foreign minister said Israel should make more of an effort to keep the peace process on track.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
West Bank Rabbi: Jews Can Kill Gentiles Who Threaten Israel
Just weeks after the arrest of alleged Jewish terrorist, Yaakov Teitel, a West Bank rabbi on Monday released a book giving Jews permission to kill Gentiles who threaten Israel.
Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement, wrote in his book “The King’s Torah” that even babies and children can be killed if they pose a threat to the nation.
Shapiro based the majority of his teachings on passages quoted from the Bible, to which he adds his opinions and beliefs. “It is permissable to kill the Righteous among Nations even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation,” he wrote, adding: “If we kill a Gentile who has sinned or has violated one of the seven commandments — because we care about the commandments — there is nothing wrong with the murder.”
Several prominent rabbis, including Rabbi Yithak Ginzburg and Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, have recommended the book to their students and followers.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
British Newspaper Ordered to Compensate Iraqi PM
A British newspaper has been ordered to pay Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki financial compensation for describing him as increasingly autocratic in an article, the paper said Wednesday.
An Iraqi court upheld a complaint of defamation against the prime minister and ordered the Guardian pay him 100 million dinar (52,000 pounds, 86,000 dollars), the newspaper said.
The court supported a complaint by Maliki’s intelligence service against the newspaper over the article written in April by a local Iraqi reporter.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Defence: UAE to Command Gulf Navy Task Force
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 10 — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have assumed command of Task Force 152, the multi-national unit of 24 countries which since 2004 was watched over the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, reported The National. The coalition, which includes Italy who was in command for 6 months in 2006, has the task of monitoring the waters between Kuwait and the Strait of Hormuz where 40% of the world’s oil is transported and on which faces the world’s largest gas field, to prevent and contrast terrorist activity and illegal drug and human trafficking. The ‘152’, moreover, is ready to intervene in the case of “terrorist attacks, natural disasters or any other kind of crisis”, reminded Tim Lowe, a captain from the Royal Navy during the passage of command to admiral Ahmed al Tunaiji of the Emirate Navy. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Human Rights: Turkey; 953 Women Murdered in First 7 Months
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, 9 NOV — Guldunya Toren was murdered at a hospital in Istanbul in 2004 after giving birth to a child conceived in an extramarital affair; Kadriye Demirel was killed in Diyarbakir in 2003 by her brother because she became pregnant after being raped; Birgul Isik was murdered in 2005 in Elazig by her son when she claimed on a TV show that she was subjected to violence. These are only three out of 4.063 women killed in Turkey by their relatives in the last six years and seven months. Statistics made public by Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin reveal that the number of women murdered in Turkey has drastically increased (+1.400%) in the past seven years, at an average of 4.5 women per day, 31 per week, as pro-government Today’s Zaman reports. Minister Ergin provided the statistics in response to a formal inquiry from Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputy Fatma Kurtulan regarding the number of charges filed in connection with cases of domestic violence, the number of convictions resulting from these cases and the number of women murdered since 2002. Discussing steps the government has taken to put an end to violence against women, including an education project, Ergin noted that 206 human rights seminars were held to train judges and prosecutors and added that within the scope of the education project, 164 judges and prosecutors and 150 experts serving in family courts received special training on the role of courts in combating domestic violence. Ergin said the second part of the education project will take place in 2010 and 25 prosecutors and judges will be selected to attend a five-day session where they will receive special training. The justice minister subsequently announced statistics on violence against women and the number of women murdered between 2002 and 2009. Ergin noted that 66 women were murdered in 2002, whereas this figure rose to 953 in the first seven months of this year. The breakdown of the figures provided by Ergin is as follows: Eighty-three women were killed in 2003, 164 in 2004, 317 in 2005, 663 in 2006, 1,011 in 2007 and 806 in 2008. Ergin further stated that 12,678 cases were launched in connection with violence against women and domestic violence between 2002 and July 2009, 15,564 people were brought to trial in these cases and 5,736 were convicted. There were 1,859 defendants acquitted of charges, while 794 were released on parole. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran ‘Executes Kurdish Activist’
A Kurdish opposition activist convicted of carrying weapons and working against national security has been executed in western Iran, local media have said.
Kordestan province judiciary chief Ali Akbar Gharoussi told the semi-official Fars news agency that Ehsan Fatahian had been hanged in Sanandaj prison.
Human rights groups said Mr Fatahian no evidence was given at his trial proving he had engaged in armed operations.
Officials said he had admitted to being a member of the Marxist group Komalah.
They accused Komalah of waging a low-level insurgency for decades in Iran’s northern Kurdish regions, which border Iraq.
The International Campaign for Human Rights for Iran had earlier appealed to the Iranian government to halt the execution of Mr Fatahian, who was originally sentenced to 10 years in jail for conspiring against national security by being a member of Komalah.
Subsequently, the charge of “mohareb”, or enmity against God, had been added to his indictment, and his sentence changed to execution, the rights group said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Tehran Attacks Oxford Scholarship
Tehran, 11 Nov. (AKI) — Iran has attacked Oxford University after one of its colleges established a scholarship in honour of a woman killed during street protests in Tehran in June. The Iranian embassy in London denounced the 6,600 dollar Neda Agha-Soltan graduate scholarship offered by the university’s Queen’s College.
But in a letter to the university’s chancellor, the Iranian embassy dismissed the decision as “a politically motivated move”.
Queen’s said the scholarship would help impoverished Iranians study at Oxford.
Soltan became a symbol of the wave of opposition that swept the country after president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a widely disputed election in June.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: New Push to Attract Foreign Tourists
London, 11 Nov.(AKI) — Iraq has begun promoting the war-torn country as a tourism destination. Officials this week attended a travel fair in London for the first time in a decade.
The officials have been touting the ancient city of Babylon, the original Garden of Eden and Basra, once regarded as the Venice of the East.
Visitors can now move around Iraq and see many sites for the first time.
“Our strategy now is to attract people from other parts of the world, like Europe, North America and Asia, after the security situation has improved,” said one official.
Iraq is a popular destination for Muslim pilgrims from neighbouring countries including Iran, Pakistan, Bahrain or India.
Last year it received almost one million tourists, mostly from the Middle East.
But Iraq is also hoping to attract investment to restore hundreds of hotels ruined by years of war.
The tourism delegation’s aim now is to capitalise on a fall in violence although bombings still kill hundreds of people a month.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Court Fines British Paper
An Iraqi court has ordered Britain’s Guardian newspaper to pay 100m dinars (£52,000) after ruling that it defamed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
The court awarded the damages in connection with an article published in April that described Mr Maliki as increasingly autocratic.
The Guardian’s editor said the ruling was a “dismaying development” that threatened the creation of a free Iraq.
The newspaper would “vigorously contest” the verdict, he said.
The article in question was written by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, an award-winning staff correspondent.
It quoted three unnamed members of the Iraqi national intelligence service who claimed that Mr Maliki was becoming authoritarian.
The paper said the court had heard evidence from a panel who said Iraqi publishing law did not allow foreigners to publish pieces that were critical of the prime minister or president — though it appeared to have overlooked the fact that Mr Abdul-Ahad was Iraqi.
“Prime minister Maliki is trying to construct a new, free Iraq,” said Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.
“Freedom means little without free speech — and means even less if a head of state tries to use the law of libel to punish criticism or dissent.”
The Guardian also quoted British Foreign Secretary David Miliband as saying he was “very concerned” by the ruling.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
‘Obama Must Choose — Israel or Iran’
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the US to choose between Israel and Iran on Tuesday night, according to Iranian state media.
Ahmadinejad said that for a real change in relations to take place, a choice must be made.
Speaking in Istanbul at the 25th Session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Iranian president said that it was up to US President Barack Obmaa to illustrate his motto of “Change.”
“The support of both Israel and Iran can’t go hand in hand,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA. “No change is made unless great choices are made.”
“We would welcome the changes, and wait for big and correct decisions to be made… We will clasp any hand that is extended sincerely toward us, but changes should be made in practice.”
Addressing the same conference a day earlier, Ahmadinejad said that capitalist excesses caused the global economic meltdown and are un-Islamic, as leaders at a Muslim forum touted their religion’s banking system a way to revive battered economies.
He also slammed investments that pay interest, deemed usury by Muslims, and said they had contributed to financial and social problems such as homelessness.
“Usury, which is entrenched in the capitalist system, is perhaps the main reason why the system has gone bankrupt,” Ahmadinejad said. “It is a way of accumulating capital without working. Usury, according to the Koran, is fighting with Allah.”
Ahmadinejad did not mention Iran’s struggling economy, nor did he refer to its dispute with the West over its nuclear activities.
The Islamic forum held its meeting in a plush hotel on the banks of the Bosporus Strait that divides Istanbul between the Asian and European continents. Syrian President Bashar Assad and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan were also in attendance.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Jets ‘Attack Yemen Rebels’
The Saudi air force has attacked rebels in northern Yemen following Wednesday’s killing of a Saudi security officer in a border area, reports have said.
Saudi F-15 and Tornado jets targeted strongholds of the Houthi rebels on the Yemeni side of border, spokesmen for the group and Arab media said.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
UN Urges Lebanon to Honour End of Israeli War
New York, 10 Nov. (AKI) — United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has urged Lebanon’s new national unity government to fully implement the Security Council resolution that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah three years ago.
The resolution called for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants, respect for the so-called Blue Line separating the Israeli and Lebanese sides, disarming of militias and an end to arms smuggling.
Hezbollah, which has not disarmed, is part of the new unity government formed by the prime minister-designate, five months after his March 14 coalition won parliamentary elections in June.
Saad Hariri submitted a list of ministers to Lebanese president Michel Sleiman in Beirut on Monday after tough negotiations with opposition leaders over the composition of the cabinet.
The 30-member cabinet will include 15 ministers from Hariri’s March 14 coalition and 10 from the opposition camp, which includes the Hezbollah movement.
The remaining five ministers, including the interior and defence portfolios, are to be appointed by Sleiman.
Ban said in a report to the Security Council last month that disbanding militias, especially Hezbollah, was “of vital importance” to Lebanon’s democracy and sovereignty.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by his spokesperson, he voiced satisfaction that the Lebanese political leaders had been able to agree on the new cabinet.
Ban urged the new government to quickly take up the challenges that remain to consolidate both the sovereignty of Lebanon and the institutional capacity of the Lebanese state, as called for in several accords and Security Council resolutions.
The UN played a role in trying to bridge the gap between the parties to a unity government with Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams meeting with the various factions.
On Friday he conferred with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Parliament speaker Nabih Berri.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen’s Jews Stay Put in Sanaa
AFP — Forced to flee fighting between Shiite rebels and the army in the north, Yemen’s Jews have found a new home in Sanaa, where they benefit from the special protection of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“May God keep him alive,” repeats Rabbi Yahya Yussef Moussa, the leader of the Jewish community of Al-Salem, every time he refers to the Yemeni president during an interview with AFP.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Hillary Clinton Impressed With Medvedev
In an interview to NBC TV channel, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is impressed by the performance of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
“Well, I kind of like President Medvedev myself,” she said. “I am very impressed with him and what he’s trying to do.”
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Muted Celebrations in Russia for the Fall of the Wall. And Rightly So
58% of the population does not even know by whom and why it was built. In 20 years the country has failed to achieve democracy, survives on the export of raw materials and in a year is down 12 points, according to the report on global competitiveness. 20% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — Pluralism, democracy, free market. More human rights (maybe). That the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 was a historic event leading to positive change is not so obvious in many countries beyond the former Iron Curtain. According to a poll of the Pew Research Centre — conducted in nine countries of Central and Eastern Europe on individuals over the age of 50 years — the happiest with the changes in their lives since the collapse of communism are the Czechs, Poles and citizens of the former East Germany, while those who expressed greater dissatisfaction are the Ukrainians, Bulgarians and more than others, the Russians.
Yesterday, the twentieth anniversary of the end of the Cold War, in Russia, major newspapers reported the news of the celebrations in Berlin, but not with the space that would be expected in the country that was among the protagonists of this event . The problem is that the 9 November 1989 is engraved in the history of the West, but not in that of Russia. That date is not seen as decisive for the fate of the Soviet regime (which definitively ended only two years later) and still today the intellectual debate in the former USSR does not address the issue of the Wall.
According to a survey of the Russian Institute Vtsiom, 58% of Russians — despite a good general understanding that this nation has of its history — do not know who decided the construction of the Wall. And its meaning — strengthening the position of the USSR, the protection of the communist regime from foreign influence and the attempt to prevent mass emigration — is properly understood by only in 24% of Russians. While half of respondents, 52% simply do not know why it was built.
Analysts maintain, while the reunited Germany and Europe have rapidly integrated, while the East — with China and India at the forefront — has launched an astonishing economic boom and globalization, it can be said that Russia is the only one not to have successfully ridden the wind of change blowing throughout the world during those crucial years.
According to Vladimir Ryzhkov, a professor at the High School of Economics and independent politician in Moscow, the Russian Federation has not yet overcome its instability. After two decades of experiments, from Yeltsin’s reform to capitalism from the Far West of the oligarchs, the Putin regime until the economic crisis with Medvedev, Russia is still trying to figure out which direction to take. Paying the price for this, first and foremost, are the people. In an editorial published Monday in the newspaper The Moscow Times, Ryzhkov recalls a “triple failure” of the Kremlin. “First, Russia has failed to modernize its economy or social sphere. Second, it has not been able to build an effective political system, creating instead a one-man authoritarian regime. Finally Russia has lost its international reputation and its former superpower status, leaving it almost entirely without allies or the support of global public opinion” wrote the professor.
86% of Russian exports, amounting to one third of national GDP, consist of raw materials, while 80% of imports consist of finished goods. In Soviet times the exports of raw materials were only 48% of GDP. Today, Russia is dependent entirely from exports of energy resources: over 70% of the shares on the Russian market are the companies working in the field of raw materials.
Any attempt to create a modern economy based on high technology has floundered. The average income for a Russian citizen is the same as 20 years ago, while today 20% of the country lives below the poverty line. Over 50% of national wealth is concentrated in the hands of 10% of the population: in 2008, the 53 richest Russians had a lump sum equal to 30% of national GDP. In the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, Russia has fallen by 12 places in one year to 63rd, out of about 132 countries. For the first time it is lagging behind countries like Turkey, Mexico, Brazil and even Azerbaijan.
The same regression has been recorded in the field of human rights. In the 2008 rankings compiled by The Economist on democracy in the world, Russia was the 108th place out of 167 countries.
Perhaps Russia, yesterday, had little cause to celebrate. (MAL)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Azeri Bloggers Given Prison Terms
A court in Azerbaijan has handed down prison terms to two bloggers who posted a video of a donkey seen as satirising the government.
Adnan Hajizade was given two years and Emin Milli two-and-a-half years after they were found guilty of hooliganism linked to a scuffle in a cafe.
They maintain they were arrested and convicted because of their online criticism of the authorities.
But officials deny the case was related to the bloggers’ anti-government views.
The authorities say the two were arrested in the course of a simple criminal investigation.
The donkey is seen in the video to praise the benefits of living in Azerbaijan and to congratulate the government on its positive attitude towards donkeys.
Anger
Adnan Hajizade’s lawyer, Isakhan Ashurov, said his client was charged for political reasons and that he had not been involved in violence.
Civil society organisations in Azerbaijan have expressed anger at the sentences.
Emin Huseynov, director of the Institute for Reporter Freedom and Safety, said the court’s decision was political.
“It is aimed at intimidating new media on the internet and preventing the distribution of alternative opinions,” he said.
Human rights groups and western governments have frequently called for an end to restrictions on the media and free speech in Azerbaijan.
Mr Hajizade and Mr Milli plan to appeal against their convictions.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Gordon Brown is Losing the Battle for Hearts and Minds
If Gordon Brown cannot persuade a grieving mother that her soldier son’s death was not in vain, what hope does he have of persuading the rest of us that our presence in Afghanistan is worth the price our troops are paying in blood?
For a fleeting moment this week, I experienced a rare twinge of sympathy for the Prime Minister, who has been derided and humiliated for his error-riddled letter of condolence to Jacqui Janes.
While Brown the politician is deserving of criticism on every level you care to consider, I believed that Brown the man, as awkward, clumsy and insensitive as he appears, probably meant what he scrawled in haste to a woman whose 20-year-old son was fatally wounded in a bomb explosion. It was unfortunate for him that his lousy eyesight and handwriting, and the fact that the bereaved woman was allied to a newspaper that was gunning for him, combined to create a public relations disaster.
His office failed the PM miserably in allowing the letter to be sent, but it was no reason, I thought, to condemn Mr Brown personally. Yet the transcript of his telephone conversation with Mrs Janes has expunged the smidgeon of pity I had for him. He says he is “mortified”, and so he should be — not because of the letter, but because of that call.
The conversation was his chance to redeem himself, to articulate his sadness at Jamie’s death, and make amends for what Mrs Janes perceived to be a lack of respect for her son. Difficult as it might be, his decades in public life should have prepared him for making a decent hand of it.
Can you imagine how Tony Blair would have seized the moment? No phone call there — Mrs Janes and her family would have been ferried to Downing St, appeased and comforted, and departed convinced that we had no choice but to take the fight to the Taliban, and that their questions over kit and manpower were being addressed urgently.
In Mr Brown’s blundering, stumbling phone call, there was no comfort or conviction, no shared human feeling. This was a damage limitation exercise, launched once No 10 became aware that The Sun was going to publish that shoddy letter. The PM was defensive, argumentative, determined to get his message across by bludgeoning the opposition in to submission.
And as for that opposition — well, Mrs Janes was formidable. Had she been primed to ask certain questions by journalists? I don’t know, nor do I care. She comes from a military family: as she told Mr Brown, her sons — she has an older son in the Army, too — are “fifth-generation infantry”. She had friends who died serving in Northern Ireland. She understands the demands and sacrifices of service life, and she believes that Britain is right to be in Afghanistan.
But she also believes that her son would have survived if there were more helicopters to transport casualties from the battlefield; and that more troops are needed on the ground. A lack of helicopters is cited repeatedly as a crucial handicap in Afghanistan. Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, the most senior casualty to date, said so in an email to the Ministry of Defence two weeks before his death. But Mr Brown knows better. He disputed Mrs Janes’s claims, and quibbled with her over the number of troops needed.
At a press conference yesterday, he was choosing his words more carefully, but it is too late. This Armistice Day, memories of the fallen in long-ago wars are overshadowed by the raw grief of this current war, and our confusion about why we are fighting it. Given the Government’s inability to articulate that, it is increasingly — and shamefully — falling to the military to explain. Its members know that public support for, and understanding of, their mission, is crucial to the morale of frontline troops. Gordon Brown seems not to, and there is no more devastating indictment of his leadership than that.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Blasphemy Laws and Religious Discrimination, An Attack on Pakistan’s Future
by Emmanuel Y. Mani *
Fr Emmanuel Y. Mani speaks at a press conference sponsored by AsiaNews titled “Save Christians and Pakistan from the blasphemy laws”. The international community is putting pressure on the Pakistani government to “stop discrimination and violence against religious minorities.” The country needs “a culture of interfaith harmony and peace.”
Rome (AsiaNews) — I am thankful to Asia News for organizing this press conference and I thank you all for joining this conference on behalf of the National Commission for Justice and Peace, which is a human rights body established by the Catholic Church in Pakistan working since 1985. We engage ourselves in advocacy for rights of religious minorities, labour and women in our country. I have worked with the organization ever since its inception and I am the National Director since 1995.
The particular concern that brings my colleagues and me to Europe is religious extremism and the situation of religious minorities. We would like to inform international public opinion about the institutional injustices against religious minorities, in particular against the Christian community in Pakistan. We would also like international civil society to realize the dangers involved in divorcing the state of affairs in Pakistan.
In August and September 2009, the media world, including Italian print and electronic media, carried news regarding attacks on Christians in different places in Pakistan. On March 9th, a Church was attacked in a village near Gujranwala by a mob and a Christian woman lost her life as a result. On April 22nd, a Christian settlement and a Church were attacked by armed men in Taisar Town, Karachi. Again, a Christian youth was badly injured and died due to injuries.
On June 29th, a whole Christian settlement in a village near Kasur was set ablaze, affecting more than 60 houses and 100 families. Again on July 30th, about 60 houses belonging to Christians in the village of Korian were turned into ashes by a mob. On August 1st, in the town of Gojra about the same number of houses were burnt. Seven Christians, including women and children, were set on fire while an eighth died due to a heart attack after the mob attacked his house and settlement. On September 11th, a Christian settlement and a church were attacked; in the middle of the night of September 14 and 15, a Christian youth was extra judicially killed in a jail. He was accused of desecrating the holy Qur’an.
I was a frontline team member of our organization; therefore, I am privy to the destruction and despair as a member of the fact-finding team and a witness to these incidents. There are certain common features to these incidents of extreme and organized violence. First, certain groups and organizations are orchestrating a hate campaign against the Christians (about 3 million in Pakistan). Second, the government is usually aware of building tensions but fails to control violent attacks. Third, certain laws and policies breed hatred and are used to cause religious frenzy among the people. Fourth, mosque loudspeakers and forums are used to gather and plant misconceived ideas in people with regards to blasphemy.
Blasphemy laws include Article 295, Sections B and C, and Article 298, Sections A, B and C, of the Pakistan Penal Code. These laws were incorporated into the criminal justice system between 1980 and 1986 by then President of Pakistan Zia-ul-Haq, supposedly to ensure respect for the Prophet Mohammed, his Companions and the Holy Qur’an. These laws are unique in the contemporary world because they allow dubious charges to be brought against people who have been subjected to extra judicial killings, arson and destruction of their property.
From 1986 to October 2009, at least 966 persons were accused under the blasphemy laws, 50% were Muslims, 35% Ahmadis, 13% Christians, 1% Hindus and 1% with no known religious background. At least 33 persons have been killed extra judicially after allegations were made against them; 15 were Muslims, 15 Christians, two Ahmadis and one Hindu.
These laws were freely used against Muslim and non-Muslim citizens alike. Whole communities or villages were completely devastated because everyone was made to suffer as a result of the abuse of such laws. The number of Muslim victims was high not because blasphemy laws are equal for all citizens, but because various Muslims sects used the law against one another. Nonetheless, the laws are highly discriminatory in terms of their text and scope because they are religion-specific. It is also true that, given their size in relation to the total population, minorities have proportionately suffered more.
My organization has helped many individuals who found themselves in situations where they were accused of blasphemy. Its work involves providing legal aid, sheltering victims and their families, and speaking to the authorities. I speak from experience when I say that these laws have been misused.
It is time that terror and injustice in the name of religion should end. The international community has a role to play to persuade the government of Pakistan to take the necessary action to stop discrimination and violence against religious minorities. To repair the damage, the government of Pakistan should go beyond the repeal of the blasphemy laws. It should move to build a culture of interfaith harmony and peace. It is time the government should prove its claims in action.
* P. Emmanuel Y. Mani, Director of National Commission for Justice and Peace
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Five Swedish Soldiers Injured in Afghanistan
Five Swedish soldiers have been injured in an explosion that also claimed the life of a local foreign language interpreter, the Swedish Armed Forces said in a statement on Wednesday.
The exact extent of the soldiers’ injuries is not yet known, but military spokesperson Lena Parkvall was able to provide some details.
“As far as I know, they range from serious injuries to less serious injuries,” she told the TT news agency.
While on patrol at around 10am Swedish time on Wednesday, the Swedes hit a roadside improvised explosive device west of Mazar-e-Sharif, where Swedish troops in Afghanistan are stationed.
The group was travelling in a BAE Land Systems manufactured RG32M light armoured patrol vehicle, known colloquially in Sweden as Galten (‘the boar’).
Those injured in the incident were taken to a field hospital located at Camp Marmal, home of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Regional Command for the north of Afghanistan, according to the Swedish military, which is now working to notify relatives of the soldiers involved.
“I’m deeply saddened for those affected, of course. But it shows the seriousness of the operation,” said Swedis foreign minister Carl Bildt, speaking to news agency TT on the phone from Kabul.
Bildt, whose visit to the Afghan capital coincided with the attack, said it was his understanding that the Swedish troops were working as part of a wider operation involving Afghan forces.
“Somebody has said that this was an attack on Swedish forces. That was not the case,” said Bildt.
“Apparently they had disarmed one of these explosive devices, but clearly they hadn’t found the second one and drove into it,” he added.
Two Swedish servicemen have so far lost their lives in Afghanistan. In November 2005 two lieutenants were killed by a roadside bomb in the north of the country.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Gordon Brown Signals Start of Britain’s Afghanistan ‘Exit Strategy’
Gordon Brown has signalled the beginning of a British “exit strategy” from Afghanistan, pledging to start handing parts of the country over to Afghan forces within months.
The Prime Minister said that British forces would hand over two districts of Helmand province to Afghan control by the middle of next year. “We will transfer authority district by district,” he said.
One of the first districts to be handed over is understood to be Lashkagar, the capital of Helmand.
Downing Street said that the transfers would “not necessarily” mean a reduction in British troop numbers. Officials said British forces would still have to oversee the transferred territories.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Islam ‘Recognizes Homosexuality’
Homosexuals and homosexuality are natural and created by God, thus permissible within Islam, a discussion concluded here Thursday.
Moderate Muslim scholars said there were no reasons to reject homosexuals under Islam, and that the condemnation of homosexuals and homosexuality by mainstream ulema and many other Muslims was based on narrow-minded interpretations of Islamic teachings.
Siti Musdah Mulia of the Indonesia Conference of Religions and Peace cited the Koran’s al-Hujurat (49:3) that one of the blessings for human beings was that all men and women are equal, regardless of ethnicity, wealth, social positions or even sexual orientation.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: The Only Country in the World With a Blasphemy Law
Peter Jacob, NCJP executive secretary, slams the creation of an “Islamic State” based on a law that strikes minorities as well as Muslims. Groups in government, parliament and the military back fundamentalism. The activist hopes that a “common front” can emerge to “bring democracy to the country”.
Rome (AsiaNews) — In Pakistan, an attempt is underway to create an “Islamic State” that would deny the principle of “equality of its citizens” as intended by the country’s father, Ali Jinnah, in a speech he delivered to the constituent assembly in 1947, said Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) during a press conference organised by AsiaNews on blasphemy. Pakistan is the only country in the world with a “blasphemy law”.
Over the past decades, a number of laws have been adopted that have undermined the values on which the nation was built. The constitution for example ensures that “non-Muslim cannot become president or prime minister.” Indeed, “in some cases, they are denied the right to be judges or trial lawyers,” the Christian activist said. This perpetuates “social and professional discrimination in the workplace, business and public offices.”
The blasphemy laws, he noted, are proof that in Pakistan there is no separation “between state and religion”. What is more, some groups in government, parliament, the military, police and even the courts “support confessional fundamentalism and ideologies promoted by extremists.”
Peter Jacob slams the widening campaign of violence against religious minorities of the past few decades, which culminated in the introduction in 1986 of the now infamous blasphemy laws by dictator Zia-ul-Haq. Under such laws, anyone who defiles or desecrates the Qur’an or the name of the Prophet Muhammad can get life in prison or the death penalty.
“Pakistan is the only Muslim country that has this kind of rules. Other nations like Indonesia, Nigeria and Bangladesh are examining whether they too should adopt similar legislation,” he said.
A popular movement bringing together Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, Sikhs and Muslims, who are also victims of the blasphemy laws, to fight discrimination and violence is not enough. The government must make an effort “to eradicate fundamentalism from the country”. The international community must also be brought on board since it “is already involved on the Afghan front against the Taliban who have found a refuge in inaccessible areas along the border.”
“China and India have already complained about problems caused by extremists along their border,” the NCJP executive secretary said. “India and Pakistan are also two nuclear powers,” he noted, and “a crisis in South Asia” could have consequences “at a global level”.
In order to mobilise public opinion, promote a campaign to abolish the blasphemy laws and fight fundamentalism, NCJP activists have organised a series of conferences in a number of European countries, including France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
“The battle for democracy in Pakistan must be backed by a common front that includes the government, the Christian minority and the international community. It must lead to legal and constitutional reforms that protect democratic principles and respect human rights.” (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban ‘Possessing US Ammunition’
Taliban have allegedly been found in possession of American-manufactured mines, amid reports of the Afghan militants stepping up their bombing campaigns.
On Tuesday, the Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera aired footages showing the Taliban sorting and transporting purported ‘US military ammunition’ including mines engraved with US markings.
The channel claimed the explosives had been taken during an October militant rampage through two distant US bases in the eastern province of Nuristan.
The militants are, meanwhile, reported to conduct explosions throughout the war-wrecked country on a daily basis.
The blasts have plighted both the civilian population and the US-led forces. Retaliatory attacks by the soldiers have regularly missed militant targets, killing thousands of the non-combatants instead.
Based on a new US-devised coalition strategy, the two bases and other remote outposts have been closed down as the forces are ordered to focus more on the populated areas.
Nathan Gallahan, a spokesman for NATO and the US-led military joint command center, in comments quoted by the DPA, verified that the bases had not been overrun by Taliban during the specified time.
Gallahan confirmed that all the ‘sensitive items’ had been accounted for when the outposts were shut down, the news agency added.
The New York Times reporter and former serviceman, C. J. Chivers, in May pointed to the ‘identical’ markings found on both the firearms obtained from the militants and those freighted by the US suppliers to Afghanistan.
He noted that the ammunition bore little signs of decay ‘suggesting it had been removed from packaging recently’.
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Uzbekistan: Activist ‘Beaten’ After BBC Story
An Uzbek rights activist has said he was beaten up after helping the BBC investigate the use of child labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry.
Bakhtiyar Hamrayev said he was attacked within hours of the story appearing on the BBC News website and radio.
The report found that children as young as 11 were being taken out of school to help pick the cotton harvest.
The government pledged to stop using child labour last year after some Western firms boycotted Uzbek cotton.
Bakhtiyar Hamrayev told the BBC that the attack took place in the town of Jizzakh, which lies in a cotton growing area.
For the BBC’s investigation, he said that 14- and 15-year old schoolchildren were taken to work in the cotton fields.
“In rural areas, children as young as 11 or 12 have been forced to leave their classrooms and help to pick cotton in nearby farms,” he said.
Many are housed in inadequate accommodation and made to pay for food, he added, with the result that some ended up in debt at the end of the cotton harvest.
Vital crop
The state, which controls the cotton industry, pays the children the equivalent of about four US cents per kilogram of cotton picked.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
No Celebrations for the Fall of the Berlin Wall in Beijing
Chinese media maintain a veil of silence over the anniversary. Only one newspaper with a foreign readership mentions celebrations over German reunification without me a word about the fall of Communism. For Chinese leaders, John Paul II was one of the agents behind the fall of Wall and Communism in Eastern Europe.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — As Europe and the world celebrate the fall of Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, in mainland China the anniversary has gone unreported. Prominent international public figures are in Berlin today to celebrate the start of a peaceful revolution that would see East Germany disappear, and by domino effect, bring about the end of Eastern Europe’s Communist regimes. However, no prominent Chinese will be there.
The main news item carried by Chinese newspapers and the Xinhua news agency today was the pledge made by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to provide hungry Africa US$ 10 billion worth in aid. The second most important story related the meeting between President Hu Jintao and top air force brass.
In the last two days, Xinhua has only published photos of the Berlin celebrations, without any commentary.
The only article that does mention the Wall refers to the call by the government of French President Sarkozy to bring down the barrier that divides the island of Cyprus between Greeks and Turks.
The China Daily, an English-language paper for foreigners, did publish an article about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in relation to celebrations over German reunification but did not cite the word Communism.
The fall of the Berlin Wall came a few months after the Tiananmen Square massacre (4 June 1989).
In China, where martial law was in place and the student and workers movements disbanded, news about the fall of the Wall led the authorities to tighten the screws on associations, free trade unions and the Catholic Church.
In its appraisal of events, the Chinese Communist Party saw John Paul II as an agent for the fall of the Wall.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Muslim ‘Sheikh’ Chains Himself to Court
Sydney, 10 Nov. (AKI) — An Australian man accused of sending harassing letters to the families of dead soldiers has been described by his lawyer as a man who is “preaching peace”. Man Monis, who also uses the name Sheikh Haron, appeared in a Sydney court on Tuesday with his lawyer Chris Murphy.
The 45-year-old man is accused of seven counts of using a postal or similar service to menace, harass or cause offence.
Monis allegedly sent the letters over two years, devastating the families of seven soldiers who died in Afghanistan.
Monis, wearing long flowing robes and a white turban, also chained himself to a railing outside the court.
Media reports said he was holding an Australian flag in one hand and a sign calling for Australian troops to be brought home from Afghanistan.
He was arrested by counter-terrorism police at his Croydon Park home in Sydney’s inner-west last month.
Police said he sent letters to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, accusing some of the soldiers of being criminals and murderers.
His lawyer Chris Murphy told the court his client was a peace activist.
“I don’t want to lose our soldiers. I don’t want Australia to be unsafe,” Monis said outside the court.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Father ‘Killed Son With Steak Knife’ — The West Australian
A father probably killed his son with a steak knife, uttered Allah’s name and dropped the three-year-old down a disused mine shaft, the South Australian Supreme Court has been told
Prosecutors in the case involving Aliya Zilic said that he had taken the boy, Imran, 31/2, from his mother’s Perth home a few days earlier.
Mr Zilic is on trial accused of murdering his only son during an access visit in April 2008.
He pleaded not guilty this morning at the start of a two-day trial.
Horrific details of the youngster’s final moments emerged in the court, with prosecutor Jim Pearce saying it was likely Mr Zilic had killed his son with a steak knife before dropping him down the 7m disused shaft.
Mr Pearce said the accused had told police: ‘I killed him, does it matter how?’ and ‘I said Allah’s name and dropped him in the shaft’.
The court was told Mr Zilic had an extensive history of mental health problems and psychiatrists would be called to give evidence about his mental competency at the time of the alleged murder.
During his relationship with Mirsada Halilovic he had allegedly “used and abused” amphetamines and cannabis. The couple eventually separated because Mr Zilic was domineering, abusive and had been physically violent, the court was told.
Mr Pearce said he accused Ms Halilovic of being a whore who was possessed by demons and was working for the devil.
Ms Halilovic allowed her ex-husband to see his son, although she did not like Mr Zilic to take him for overnight visits.
Mr Zilic allegedly arrived at her Koondoola home unannounced about 6am on Sunday, April 20, 2008.
He told his ex-wife he missed his son and wanted to take him to stay at his brother’s for a few days. The court was told he quickly rushed out without taking any clothes for the youngster.
It would be the last time Ms Halilovic saw her son alive.
Mr Pearce told the court Mr Zilic had then left Perth and headed to the South Australian town of Coober Pedy, 800km north of Adelaide, where he had been renting a unit.
There were sightings of the pair at businesses across WA and SA.
Ms Halilovic repeatedly tried to call her ex-husband that day and the next and found out his brother had not seen him.
He eventually answered his phone on the evening of April 21 and she spoke briefly to her son. But it will be alleged she called police when his father did not return him as promised the next day.
Prosecutors allege Mr Zilic killed his son on April 22 or 23, soon after arriving in Coober Pedy. The court was told he then left South Australia and headed to WA, to the north-west town of Kununurra.
Police searching for Imran questioned Mr Zilic in Kununurra. The court heard he initially told them he had taken his son back to his ex-wife but, after several interviews with detectives, he eventually admitted killing Imran and described where he had left his body.
He allegedly told police he left the child “in the hands of God”.
“He described how he thought Imran was the devil’s helper and he now thought that Imran was at peace with God,” the prosecutor said.
The trial is being held in South Australia because that is where Imran was found.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Sued Over Ethiopian Jailing
An American man is suing the FBI for mistreatment while he was held in jail in Kenya and Ethiopia in 2007.
Amir Meshal was arrested on the Kenyan border as he fled Somalia after the ousting of the Islamist administration.
According to the lawsuit, FBI agents interrogated him there, saying he had received al-Qaeda training in Somalia.
Mr Meshal says he was then returned to Somalia and sent on to Ethiopia for three months where US agents threatened him with torture and death.
He repeatedly denied the allegations and was released in May 2007 and returned to the United States after media inquiries and protests from human rights groups.
The US State Department said it formally protested at the time about Mr Meshal’s removal from Kenya to Ethiopia, the Associated Press news agency reports.
In April 2007, the Ethiopia government admitted that it had detained 41 “terror suspects” captured in neighbouring Somalia.
It defended the action as part of the “global war on terror”, but denied the detainees had been held incommunicado or were mistreated.
An FBI spokesman has said officials will not comment on the case.
In September, an Egyptian man received a $250,000 payout from the FBI because of the way he was treated following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Mr Meshal’s lawsuit has been filed on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“American citizens abroad who seek refuge from hostilities deserve the assistance of their government in getting home safely,” AP quotes ACLU lawyer Nusrat Choudhury as saying.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Millions Left in Dark by Brazilian Blackout
Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other cities without power for two hours after hydroelectric dam goes offline
A power failure has blacked out Brazil’s two largest cities and other parts of Latin America’s biggest country for more than two hours, leaving millions of people in the dark after a huge hydroelectric dam suddenly went offline. All of neighbouring Paraguay also lost power, but for only about 20 minutes.
The Itaipu dam straddling the two nations’ border stopped producing 17,000 megawatts of power, resulting in outages in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and at least several other big Brazilian cities, said Brazil’s mines and energy minister, Edison Lobão. He said outages hit nine of the 27 states in a country of more than 190 million people.
The cause of the failure had not been determined, but Lobão said strong storms that uprooted trees near the dam just before it went offline could be to blame. Rio was the hardest hit city, he said.
At 12.37am the lights in Rio’s Copacabana neighbourhood flashed back to life, prompting cheers and thunderous car honking.
“It’s sad to see such a beautiful city with such a precarious infrastructure,” said Igor Fernandes, a 22-year-old law student peddling his bike down a dark Copacabana beach. “This shouldn’t happen in a city that is going to host the Olympic games.”
Lobão said the hydro plant at the dam itself was working but there were problems with the power lines that carry electricity across Brazil. Brazil uses almost all of the energy produced by the dam and Paraguay consumes the rest.
In Paraguay, the national energy agency blamed the blackout on a short circuit at an electrical station near Sao Paulo, saying that failure shut down the entire power grid supplied by Itaipu. All of Paraguay went dark for about 20 minutes, said the country’s leading newspaper, ABC Color.
The company in charge of the dam, Itaipu Binacional, said the blackout did not start at the hyrdoelectric complex — the most likely cause was a failure at one or more points in the transmission system.
The blackouts came three days after the CBS’s 60 Minutes news programme in the US reported that several past Brazilian power outages were caused by hackers. Brazilian officials had played down the report before the latest outages and Lobão did not mention it.
Brazil’s official Agencia Brasil news agency said the outage started about 10.20pm local time, snarling streets in Rio, where traffic that is normally chaotic turned riotous. Cars, taxis and buses zoomed through dark intersections, honking to make their presence known as they zoomed through. Pedestrians scampered across avenues and tourists scurried back to a handful of luxury beach hotels, the only buildings with light.
Flavia Alvin, 37, a shopkeeper in Copacabana, waited with her colleagues for the blackout to end before making the long bus ride home to western part of the city. Asked if she was worried about violence or looting, she shook her head and pulled her young daughter closer.
“I’ve heard of problems like rioting in other places with blackouts but Brazilians are more relaxed,” she said. “All I can do is wait here and drink a beer.”
Subway service was knocked out in Rio and Sao Paulo, and the website of Brazil’s Globo TV said Sao Paulo subway users were forced to abandon train cars.
Some landing lights on runways at airports in the two cities went dark, affecting takeoffs and landings, according to Globo TV.
In the city of Taguatinga near the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, a second division football game was halted after lights illuminating the field went dark. No power outages happened in Brasilia.
Utility companies that provide electricity for Rio and Sao Paulo did not immediately offer explanations for why the power went off or when it would be restored, Agencia Brasil said.
| [Return to headlines] |
China’s Race Problem — How Ethnocentrism Might Foil China’s Quest to Become the Next Superpower
Earlier this year, the Center for Strategic and International Studies issued a report that found that the current ratio of 16 retirees to 100 workers is set to double in the next 15 years. In absolute terms, the number of over-65s will go from 166 million to 342 million. Someone will have to care for them, and though China has relaxed its profoundly wrongheaded one-child policy, the reform has come too late to arrest rapid aging. Moreover, as the political scientists Valerie Hudson and Andrea van den Boer noted in their book Bare Branches, China also has tens of millions of so-called “surplus males” thanks to a strong cultural preference for male children. This means that large numbers of Chinese men will have a difficult time finding wives in the near future. One obvious way for the China of 2025 to address this dilemma would be to embrace mass immigration.
Now, as China emerges as an economic and cultural superpower, those notions of Third World solidarity, always skin deep, seem to have vanished. It is thus hard to imagine China welcoming millions of hard-working Nigerians and Bangladeshis with open arms. This could change over the next couple of decades as China’s labor shortage grows acute. I wouldn’t bet on it. If China remains culturally closed, the Chinese Century will never come to pass. Instead, the United States—a country that has struggled with race and racism for centuries, and in the process has become more culturally open and resilient—will dominate this century as it did the last.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US: Secure-Border Advocate Praises Tunnel Discovery
Mexico’s Calderon has ‘declared war on a very lethal crowd of very lethal people’
The chief of the Minuteman Project says reports that Mexican soldiers uncovered a smuggling tunnel under a building in the border city of Tijuana is a good step.
But Jim Gilchrist warns the war over illegals entering the United States is far from over.
“This could mean that it’s an effort by (Mexico President Felipe) Calderon’s government to make us think they’re taking drug and illegal smuggling seriously. If it happens that it’s all for show, I’ll be very disappointed,” he said.
“However, I want to give credit where credit is due. Mr. Calderon’s government is trying to put an end to the smuggling operations,” Gilchrist said. “He’s declared war on a very lethal crowd of very lethal people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CDC Anti-Abstinence Sex Report Debunked by Insiders
Study team dissenters say results conflict with data
The overall study, called “Group-based Interventions to Prevent Adolescent Pregnancy, HIV, and Other STDs,” stated the effectiveness of programs that include condom instruction.
It was based on the compilation of 83 studies done from 1980 through 2007 and was released just in time to be considered for President Obama’s request to cut money from abstinence education programs and give it to comprehensive programs that teach kids to use condoms.
But according to Ericksen, a research analyst with the Institute for Research and Evaluation in Salt Lake City, the statistics inside the study showed no difference between abstinence education and so-called “comprehensive sex education” on key factors including teen condom use, sexual activity, pregnancy and STDs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
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