The Irish are getting fed up with immigrants. According to the latest poll, 72% of them want to see a reduction in immigration. How many of these same people voted “Yes” to the Lisbon Treaty? Evidently no one told them that being part of the EU means that they have no choice: they must accept more immigrants in the name of diversity. Lots of immigrants.In other news, the creatively-spelled Libyan dictator Moamar al-Gadhaffi will act as an honest broker between Egypt and Algeria in the conflict over the recent incidents that occurred between the two countries due to a football match. The post-match “festivities” in Algeria left 18 dead.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Esther, Fjordman, Gaia, GB, Insubria, JD, RRW, Sean O’Brian, Steen, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Bail-Outs Would Imperil Democracy, Warns IMF
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, has warned the financial elite that its behaviour has stretched the patience of Western democracies to near snapping point, precluding any possibility of a second rescue if recovery falters.
Public opinion will not tolerate any further bail-outs, he told the CBI’s annual gathering in London. “The political reaction will be very strong, putting some democracies at risk,” he said.
Speaking in near apocalyptic tones, Mr Strauss-Kahn — a French socialist, with an eye on the Élysée — said public anger was so great that it would be almost impossible for French or German leaders to orchestrate another rescue if the credit system seizes up again.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Cracks of Transparency Daylight Appear as Congress Puts Spotlight on the Fed
By Jerry McConnell
At long last and after many years of effort, a light has been directed into the deep, dark secrets of the Federal Reserve; a breakthrough that could make government operations more above board and honest in future years.
As reported in the New York Times Business section on November 19, 2009, by Edmund L. Andrews, for at least the past 25 consecutive years, Ron Paul, Conservative Republican Congressman from Texas, has attempted to introduce legislation in every session of Congress to bring the Federal Reserve Bank under increased scrutiny and transparency. Paul had been unsuccessful in all of his previous attempts to make this huge government financial operation subject to normal oversight and investigative services, the House Financial Services Committee…
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IMF Chief: Global Economy Still Fragile
‘Difficult to claim crisis is over when unemployment is at historic highs’
LONDON (AP) — The international economy is still fragile and vulnerable to shocks despite recent improvements in financial markets, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund said Monday.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn told business leaders in London that he believes the worst of the economic crisis has passed—but that problems remained.
“The economy remains very much in holding pattern—stable and getting better but still highly vulnerable,” he said in a speech to the Confederation of British Industry, the country’s main business lobby group.
“It is difficult to claim that the crisis is over when unemployment is at historic highs and getting higher still.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
USA: ‘Real’ Jobless Rate: 17.5% Unemployed
Discouraged workers no longer looking kept out of official stats
As experts debate the potential speed of the US recovery, one figure looms large but is often overlooked: nearly 1 in 5 Americans is either out of work or under-employed.
According to the government’s broadest measure of unemployment, some 17.5 percent are either without a job entirely or underemployed. The so-called U-6 number is at the highest rate since becoming an official labor statistic in 1994.
The number dwarfs the statistic most people pay attention to—the U-3 rate— which most recently showed unemployment at 10.2 percent for October, the highest it has been since June 1983.
The difference is that what is traditionally referred to as the “unemployment rate” only measures those out of work who are still looking for jobs. Discouraged workers who have quit trying to find a job, as well as those working part-time but looking for full-time work or who are otherwise underemployed, count in the U-6 rate.
With such a large portion of Americans experiencing employment struggles, economists worry that an extended period of slow or flat growth lies ahead.
“To me there’s no easy solution here,” says Michael Pento, chief economist at Delta Global Advisors. “Unless you create another bubble in which the economy can create jobs, then you’re not going to have growth. That’s the sad truth.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgian in US Court Admits Iran Arms Dealing
AFP — A alleged Belgian arms dealer on Monday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to export fighter jet engines and parts to Iran, US justice officials said.
The US Justice Department said in a statement Jacques Monsieur now faced a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a 250,000-dollar fine following the guilty plea at a court in Mobile Alabama.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Cass Sunstein: Censor Hannity, Right-Wing Rumors
Cites websites for ‘absurd’ reports of Obama’s ties to Ayers
Websites should be obliged to remove “false rumors” while libel laws should be altered to make it easier to sue for spreading such “rumors,” argued Cass Sunstein, Obama’s regulatory czar.
In his recently released book, “On Rumors,” Sunstein specifically cited as a primary example of “absurd” and “hateful” remarks, reports by “right-wing websites” alleging an association between President Obama and Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers.
He also singled out radio talker Sean Hannity for “attacking” Obama regarding the president’s “alleged associations.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Defendant in Mosque Burning Case Sentenced to 14 Years
Columbia man has been sentenced to just over 14 years in prison for his role in the firebombing of a Maury County mosque last year.
Michael Corey Golden, 23, was sentenced to federal prison in court this morning. He and two other men had pleaded guilty to burning down the Islamic Center of Columbia.
The three men painted swastikas and racist phrases like “white power” on the center before setting it ablaze with two homemade Molotov cocktails, according to court documents.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Dems’ Demographic Must-Haves
There are three groups the Democrat Party will relinquish no more easily than a jihadist will give up his hatred. They are blacks, Hispanics and women. The reason is simple — it is because Democrats know that to lose even one of these groups, said party would practically cease to exist. Specific to that reason they will go to any lengths and take any measures to keep their sine qua nons on the farm.
In circa 1892, the question was asked, “Why were blacks so often the target of Klan violence? [The reason:] according to African-American Rep. John Roy Lynch, ‘More colored men than white men are persecuted simply because they constitute in larger numbers the opposition to the Democrat Party.’ African-American U.S. Rep. Richard Cain of South Carolina, a bishop in the (African Methodist Episcopal) denomination, agreed, declaring: ‘The bad blood of the South comes because the Negroes are Republicans. If they would only cease to be Republicans and vote straight-out Democratic ticket there would be no trouble. Then the bad blood would sink entirely out of sight.’“ (“Democrats and Republicans: In Their Own Words”; Civil Rights Platform Comparison; page 14 bottom)
Today, the progeny of that Klan, sans their ancestral flowing robes and hoods, viciously savage Justice Thomas by what he rightly called “a high-tech lynching.” We witnessed them viciously attack Dr. Condoleezza Rice, The Honorable Janice Rogers Brown and Ken Blackwell, to name but a few.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: Political Islam is Bent on World Domination
You might have missed it, but the Islamic Apology Police were on the case of the Republican governor-elect of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell this week. It seems that following the jihadist attack on Fort Hood, the Rev. Pat Robertson, a longtime ally of McDonnell’s, criticized Islam on his television show.
And no one in these not-just-politically-but-also-Islamically-correct times is permitted to do that — not even, as we have learned to our horror, senior Army personnel when presented with incontrovertible evidence that a jihadist is in their ranks.
Speaking on “The 700 Club,” Robertson called Islam “a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination.”
Here’s what we know: Islamic law (Shariah) punishes “leaving Islam” with death. Islam has a bloody history of expansionism. Almost exactly two-thirds of Muslims in four countries polled in a 2007 survey by University of Maryland/WorldPublicOpinion.org favored both Shariah and the caliphate. And the Muslim Brotherhood’s manifesto for “a grand Jihad” in America calls for “destroying the Western civilization from within” so that Islam is “victorious over all other religions.”
Robertson’s statement could be considered humdrum were it not verboten for Americans to say anything about Islam that is not sanitized.
But in bizarro world as we know it, Robertson’s statement — particularly the notion that Islam is “a violent political system” — showed up as political smoke around McDonnell, carefully tended for days by The Washington Post and a rogue’s gallery of Muslim Brotherhood associates.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-CNN Anchor Lou Dobbs is Considering Running for President in 2012
Former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has never been elected to any government office, but he said Monday he’s considering a run for the White House in 2012.
During an interview on WTOP radio in Washington, Dobbs fueled rumors he’s seeking a bid for public office, possibly the highest office in the land, when asked if speculation about an Oval Office bid is “crazy talk.”
“What’s so crazy about that?” Dobbs, 64, replied. “Golly!”
So, is it crazy talk or is it real, the radio station persisted.
“Well, I’ll tell you this much — it’s one of the discussions that we’re having,” he said. “For the first time, I’m actually listening to some people about politics.”
“I don’t think I’ve got the nature for it,” he added. “[But] we’ve got to do something in this country and I think that being in the public arena means you’ve got to be part of the solution.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feds Find Link Between Chinese Drywall, Corrosion
Conclusion supports complaints by thousands of homeowners
The federal government said Monday that it has found a “strong association” between problematic imported Chinese drywall and corrosion of pipes and wires, a conclusion that supports complaints by thousands of homeowners over the last year.
In its second report on the potentially defective building materials, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said its investigation also has found a “possible” link between health problems reported by homeowners and hydrogen sulfide gas emitted from the wallboard coupled with formaldehyde, which is commonly found in new houses.
The agency, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, continues to study the potential health effects, and the long-term implications of the corrosion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Horrified Passengers Forced to Stay in Same Subway Carriage After Man ‘Stabs Stranger to Death in Row Over a Seat’
Petrified passengers were trapped on a subway train with a killer who stabbed a stranger to death in a row over a seat, police claim.
Vagrant Dwight Johnson was sat with his bag of belongings on the seat next to him when another passenger demanded he moved it because he wanted to sit down.
When Mr Johnson, 36, pointed out there were plenty of empty seats on the late-night train, Gerardo Sanchez — a pest exterminator who was still wearing his uniform — is said to have pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the neck and hands.
One of the horrified passengers pulled the emergency cord as the train pulled out of the Rockefeller Center station, in New York.
Sanchez, 37, is then alleged to have prized open one of the carriage doors and dropped his knife on to the tracks, before the train began moving again.
The passengers were forced to stay in the same carriage as the alleged killer for several minutes until after it had stopped at the next station, 53rd Street.
Then police officers kept the train doors closed while they searched the train for the crime scene.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Joe and Barack: Our National Nightmare
In a Democratic fundraising speech in Iowa over the weekend, Vice President Joe Biden told party loyalists that opponents of the Obama administration’s agenda “should be worried about us, for we are their worst nightmare.” Duh.
Finally we can agree on something, Joe. Even the liberal New York Times reports that at the current level of federal spending, the annual interest on the national debt will exceed $700 billion by 2019 — compared with $202 billion this year. Some forecasters predict it will be much higher. This additional half-trillion dollars a year in interest is more than our current combined expenditures on education, energy, homeland security and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Oh, and the Times isn’t even factoring in the cap-and-trade nightmare you and Barack have in store for us, Joe — you know, that urgent legislation to catapult the nation back into Third World status based on hysteria generated by fraudulent science and corrupt zealots and politicians.
Nor is the Times including in its calculations the additional debt that would result from Obamacare.
Joe, when the New York Times is sounding the warnings over the exploding national debt, you and Barack insist not only on not reversing your disastrous course but also on making it worse. How can reasonable people assume anything other than that you are trying to run this nation into the ground financially?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lieberman Digs in on Public Option
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, speaking in that trademark sonorous baritone, utters a simple statement that translates into real trouble for Democratic leaders: “I’m going to be stubborn on this.”
Stubborn, he means, in opposing any health-care overhaul that includes a “public option,” or government-run health-insurance plan, as the current bill does. His opposition is strong enough that Mr. Lieberman says he won’t vote to let a bill come to a final vote if a public option is included.
Probe for a catch or caveat in that opposition, and none is visible. Can he support a public option if states could opt out of the plan, as the current bill provides? “The answer is no,” he says in an interview from his Senate office. “I feel very strongly about this.” How about a trigger, a mechanism for including a public option along with a provision saying it won’t be used unless private insurance plans aren’t spreading coverage far and fast enough? No again.
So any version of a public option will compel Mr. Lieberman to vote against bringing a bill to a final vote? “Correct,” he says.
[…]
Rather, his objection is based on fiscal risk: “Once the government creates an insurance company or plan, the government or the taxpayers are liable for any deficit that government plan runs, really without limit,” he says. “With our debt heading over $21 trillion within the next 10 years…we’ve got to start saying no to some things like this.”
Mr. Lieberman also notes that the public option wasn’t a big feature of past health-overhaul plans or the campaign debate of 2008. So he says he finds it odd that it now has become a central demand — which it has, he suspects, because some Democrats wanted a full-bore, single-payer, government-run health plan, and were offered a public option as a consolation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nonie Darwish: Free Speech Suppressed at Columbia, Princeton
On Nov. 17 and 18, I was to speak at Columbia and Princeton Universities on “Shariah Law and Perspectives on Israel” — but hours before I was to speak, the events were abruptly canceled.
According to the daily Princetonian, Princeton Imam Sohaib Sultan said he played a role in changing the sponsor’s opinion of me. Sultan said, “Darwish’s appearance on campus could offend the Muslim community,” adding, “I have a very good relationship with the [Center for Jewish Life.]” The imam, Muslim Students Association and Arab Society all said that, to Muslims, I am akin to the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads and neo-Nazis. According to Shariah, their claim could be right in the sense that Muslim blasphemy and apostasy laws regard those who question Islam as enemies of the state, a crime punishable by death.
I understand why Jewish groups disinvited me after Muslim pressure, since they are the ones who must live daily with Muslim groups who can make life unpleasant. Jewish groups are trying to make friends with Muslims to show the world “it can happen.” They are trying to accomplish in the small world of campus life what Israel has failed to accomplish for generations. Sadly, they cannot see that appeasement has already been tried and failed in real life. For centuries, Jews, Copts, Assyrians, Kurds, Lebanese Christians and others had to live under Shariah where they could not have equal rights under the law with Muslims. Those who attempted to live under self-rule were crushed. Minorities have left and are leaving the Middle East to escape forced Islamization and Arabization. Women are still being stoned, and apostate and honor killers are getting away with murder.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama: The Approval Gap Silently Shrinks to a Few Points
Not that it matters politically because obviously she’s a female Republican dunce and he’s obviously a male Democratic genius.
But Sarah Palin’s poll numbers are strengthening.
And President Obama’s are sliding.
Guess what? They’re about to meet in the 40s.
Depending, of course, on which recent set of numbers you peruse and how the questions are phrased on approval or favorable, 307 days into his allotted 1,461 the 44th president’s approval rating among Americans has slid to 49% or 48%, showing no popularity bounce from his many happy trips, foreign and domestic.
Riding the wave of immense publicity and symbiotic media interest over her new book, “Going Rogue,” and the accompanying promotional tour, Palin’s favorable ratings are now at 43%, according to ABC. That’s up from 40% in July.
One poll even gives her a 47% favorable.
Most recent media attention has focused on the 60% who say she’s unqualified to become president. Her unfavorable rating is 52%, down from 53%, which still doesn’t ignite a lot of optimism for Palin-lovers.
On the other hand, 35 months before the 2008 election, that Illinois senator was such a nobody that no one even thought to ask such a question about him. Things seem to change much more quickly these days.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Study: 3 in 4 U.S. Mosques Preach Anti-West Extremism
Secret survey exposes widespread radicalism
An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America has exposed widespread radicalism, including the alarming finding that 3 in 4 Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism, WND has learned.
The Mapping Sharia in America Project, sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, has trained former counterintelligence and counterterrorism agents from the FBI, CIA and U.S. military, who are skilled in Arabic and Urdu, to conduct undercover reconnaissance at some 2,300 mosques and Islamic centers and schools across the country.
“So far of 100 mapped, 75 should be on a watchlist,” an official familiar with the project said.
Many of the Islamic centers are operating under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt.
Frank Gaffney, a former Pentagon official who runs the Center for Security Policy, says the results of the survey have not yet been published. But he confirmed that “the vast majority” are inciting insurrection and jihad through sermons by Saudi-trained imams and anti-Western literature, videos and textbooks.
The project, headed by David Yerushalmi, a lawyer and expert on sharia law, has finished collecting data from the first cohort of 102 mosques and schools. Preliminary findings indicate that almost 80 percent of the group exhibit a high level of sharia-compliance and jihadi threat, including:
Ultra-orthodox worship in which women are separated from men in the prayer hall and must enter the mosque from a separate, usually back, entrance; and are required to wear hijabs.
Sermons that preach women are inferior to men and can be beaten for disobedience; that non-Muslims, particularly Jews, are infidels and inferior to Muslims; that jihad or support of jihad is not only a Muslim’s duty but the noblest way, and suicide bombers and other so-called “martyrs” are worthy of the highest praise; and that an Islamic caliphate should one day encompass the U.S.
Solicitation of financial support for jihad.
Bookstores that sell books, CDs and DVDs promoting jihad and glorifying martyrdom.
Though not all mosques in America are radicalized, many have tended to serve as safe havens and meeting points for Islamic terrorist groups. Experts say there are at least 40 episodes of extremists and terrorists being connected to mosques in the past decade alone.
Some of the 9/11 hijackers, in fact, received aid and counsel from one of the largest mosques in the Washington, D.C., area. Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center is one of the mosques indentified by undercover investigators as a hive of terrorist activity and other extremism.
It was founded and is currently run by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Imams there preach what is called “jihad qital,” which means physical jihad, and incite violence and hatred against the U.S.
Dar al-Hijrah’s ultimate goal, investigators say, is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state governed by sharia law.
Another D.C.-area mosque, the ADAMS Center, was founded and financed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has been one of the top distributors of Wahhabist anti-Semitic and anti-Christian dogma.
Even with such radical mosques operating in its backyard, the U.S. government has not undertaken its own systematic investigation of U.S. mosques.
In contrast, European Union security officials are analyzing member-state mosques, examining the training and funding sources of imams, in a large-scale project.
Some U.S. lawmakers want the U.S. to conduct its own investigation.
“We have too many mosques in this country,” said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y. “There are too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully.”
| — Hat tip: GB | [Return to headlines] |
Tear Up Your AARP Cards
But I can and do support McCain’s call for tearing up those AARP cards.
It’s time for all Americans to shut down that phony, fraudulent operation once and for all.
This is not a group that is looking out for the interests of retirees. It’s an organization that is promoting socialism. It’s promoting the narrow, anti-American agenda of the extreme wing of the Democratic Party that currently has a stranglehold on power in Washington.
[…]
Why would AARP do this?
The answer is simple — money.
This is not, as you might have believed, a group that gets most of its revenue from memberships. Instead, it is an organization in the pocket of insurance companies that stand to profit handsomely from the government takeover of health care.
AARP received $249 million from membership dues last year, but a whopping $653 million in royalties from insurers referred by AARP.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tomas Sowell: How Politicians ‘Solve’ Problems
After the cascade of economic disasters that began in the housing markets in 2006 and spread into the financial markets in Wall Street and even overseas, people in the private sector pulled back. Banks stopped making so many risky loans. Homebuyers began buying homes they could afford, instead of going out on a limb with “creative” — and risky — financing schemes to buy homes that were beyond their means.
But politicians went directly in the opposite direction. In the name of “rescuing” the housing market, Congress passed laws enabling the Federal Housing Administration to insure more and bigger risky loans — loans where there is less than a 4 percent down payment.
A recent news story told of three young men who chipped in a total of $33,000 to buy a home in San Francisco that cost nearly a million dollars. Why would a bank lend that kind of money to them on such a small down payment? Because the loan was insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
The bank wasn’t taking any risk. If the three guys defaulted, the bank could always collect the money from the Federal Housing Administration. The only risk was to the taxpayers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Colleges Teach Anti-Israel, Pro-Iran Courses Thanks to Alavi
(IsraelNN.com) An Iranian front organization is donating huge sums to American academic institutions who employ pro-Iran, anti-Israel professors and speakers, according to back-to-back reports by the New York Post and New York Times.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated to the prestigious Columbia University and Rutgers University for Middle East and Persian studies programs, according to the papers. The courses are taught by professors who openly slur Israel and express sympathy for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime, as well as terrorist groups Hizbullah and Hamas.
The Alavi Foundation, which recently had up to $650 million seized by United States federal law enforcement, donated $100,000 to Columbia University in 2007 after the institution agreed to host Ahmadinejad, who is responsible for a bloody crackdown on protesters last summer following a controversial election in Iran, and who frequently denies the Holocaust, as well as Israel’s right to exist as a state.
Last year, Britain’s director of the Brunel University Center for Intelligence and Security Studies, Anthony Glees, reported that up to 48 British universities have been infiltrated by Muslim fundamentalists heavily financed by major Muslim groups, to the tune of more than a quarter billion Sterling.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Why So Many Liberians in the US When That Country is Pretty Stable Now?
Apparently we have a category for temporary asylum (for humanitarian purposes!) and we brought thousands of Liberians here years ago. In February, I reported that many where supposed to be deported to Liberia by March 31st, but a public relations campaign, spearheaded by Senator Jack Reed of one of America’s highest unemployment states, Rhode Island, was waged to keep them here. Guess he won. We lost.
| — Hat tip: RRW | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Gang Member Escapes in Canada
Two armed men wearing hospital masks overpowered two prison guards and helped a third man escape custody from Hamilton General Hospital today.
Police alerts were issued throughout the GTA following the morning escape from the hospital at Victoria Ave. and Barton St. at around 11:30 a.m.
Police identified the escaped prisoner as Fawad Nouri, 24, a man who was shot by Hamilton Police in January following an armed robbery of a Tim Hortons on Stone Church Rd. and Upper James St.
Six years ago, Nouri was accused of pointing a sawed-off shotgun at a Toronto Police officer and reaching for her gun following an armed robbery at a flea market.
The prisoner was taken to the hospital for undisclosed care by two guards who were overpowered by two men armed with handguns. Police said the suspects wore green surgical masks during the break-out.
Police said the two guards were escorting Nouri out of the hospital when they were knocked to the ground.
The trio then fled in the correctional services van, hitting an ambulance while fleeing the parking lot.
The van was later found at Victoria and Birge St., about a block away. The men then drove away in a silver-coloured Hyundai Tiburon.
Police also said they may also have a scanner capable of monitoring police calls.
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New Mosque in Rimouski
From French: the Muslim community of Rimouski (Quebec) now has its own place for prayer. The community have until now been using a classroom in the local university, but it was only available for an hour a week.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Severe Reactions to Swine Flu Vaccine in Canada: WHO
GENEVA — An unusual number of severe allergic reactions to swine flu vaccinations have been recorded in Canada, where a batch of the vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been recalled, the WHO said on Tuesday.
“An unusual number of severe allergies to the vaccine have been detected in Canada,” World Health Organization spokesman Thomas Abraham told AFP.
“The Canadian authorities are conducting the appropriate investigations on the vaccines” and “recalled a batch of vaccine from GSK.”
“We need to understand what happened in Canada,” he added.
GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman Gwenan White told AFP that the affected doses of its Aprepanrix vaccine had caused reactions to the heart and lungs.
Ms. White added that some 172,000 doses are involved, although she declined to reveal how many of those had already been used.
GlaxoSmithKline has asked Canadian medical authorities to stop administering vaccines from the affected batch, Ms. White said, adding the company’s investigations were ongoing.
WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham said that the WHO had not changed its recommendations regarding swine flu vaccines.
Last week, the WHO said checks on many of the 30 deaths recorded following mass pandemic flu vaccinations had so far ruled out a direct link to the vaccines.
The fatalities made up a minute fraction of at least 65 million doses of swine flu vaccines which have been administered, said the WHO, citing data from 16 countries.
For every 10,000 doses of vaccines administered, only one report of adverse effect had been logged.
Of every 100 reports of adverse effects, five are serious cases such as death, the WHO said.
More than 6,750 people have died worldwide since the virus appeared in April, according to WHO data.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Woman Blames Standoff on Party Crashers
Uninvited guests surprise friends celebrating birthday
OTTAWA — Sarah Kamani will always remember her 25th birthday party. It had good friends, drinks and chocolate cake, and it and ended with a bang when an Ottawa police tactical unit broke down the door to her downtown hotel room.
Kamani was one of nine people in a seven-hour standoff with police early Sunday morning at the Minto Suite Hotel on Lyon Street near Slater Street.
She spent 4 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the hotel room with four friends and four strange men who had crashed her party, one of whom is charged with possessing a weapon. Police said they discovered a handgun outside the building after it was reportedly tossed from a hotel window.
The guns and gangs unit is investigating the incident.
Kamani and her friends — Cayley Gumersell, 21; Sara Staniszewski, 19; Nadia Riaz Dossa, 24; and Mallory Grey Burke, 22, all of Ottawa — were charged with obstruction of police and mischief in connection with the standoff, which ended when a tactical unit kicked open the door and called for the occupants to exit one at a time.
“I was like the first one to go,” Kamani said.
All nine surrendered, though Gumersell said one of the men had passed out on the bed. A police release said a man had been discovered “hiding in the bedroom.”
Police also said negotiators had attempted to convince all the occupants of the unit to exit, but they refused.
Kamani said she did not know any of the men previously, and she hadn’t seen anyone carrying a handgun.
She had returned to the third-floor hotel suite after clubbing with her girlfriends to discover it full of people she hadn’t invited, she said.
Gumersell estimated about 30 people were there, taking advantage of the liberal supply of alcohol and food Kamani had laid in.
When she asked them to leave they began “disrespecting” Kamani, Gumersell said.
Kamani found an ally in Abdulaziz Hezam Abdullah — also uninvited — who banished everyone from the room except her friends and the three other men, Gumersell said.
Gumersell said she did not know how police were alerted, but, when they arrived, Abdullah refused to open the door.
Police negotiators kept calling the room, but “Abdullah didn’t want anybody talking to police,” Gumersell said.
“Because of all their criminal history, they didn’t want to have to deal with the cops,” she said, adding that Abdullah and two of the other men mentioned having prior weapons charges.
Abdullah, 23, who lists a Calgary address as his most recent, has been charged with possession of a dangerous weapon, careless storage of a firearm, unauthorized possession of a firearm, possession of a restricted weapon, possession of a firearm obtained by crime, two counts of possession of a firearm when prohibited, obstruction of police and mischief in connection with Sunday’s incident.
Warsame Mohamed Abdul-Kadir, 25, of Ottawa, has been charged with breach of undertaking, obstruction of police and mischief.
Adil Hassan Omar, 26, of Ottawa, is charged with breach of recognizance, obstruction of police and mischief.
All three men have previous convictions. Earlier this year, Abdullah pleaded guilty to occupying a motor vehicle knowing a prohibited weapon was inside after another passenger in the car, Ahmed Zalal, fired two shots at a man outside a Tim Hortons on Jan. 7, 2008. Zalal missed his target, but seriously injured another man. Abdullah was credited with two years of time served for the year he spent in pre-trial custody.
Abdul-Kadir has a 2005 conviction for obstructing police and carrying a concealed weapon.
In 2007, Omar pleaded guilty to drug and weapons possession charges. He is barred for life from owning weapons.
The three men and Staniszewski appeared in court Monday. Staniszewski was released, and the men were held in custody.
Kamani, Gumersell, Dossa, Burke and Mohamad Sobeh, 19, of Ottawa, are to appear in court Dec. 22. They are each charged with obstruction of police and mischief.
Kamani says she enjoyed the first part of her night.
“I had the best birthday, to be honest,” she said, “until the end.”
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi ‘Rockstar of the Year’
‘Inimitable’ lifestyle says Rolling Stone
(ANSA) — Rome, November 23 — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s lifestyle has earned him the accolade of ‘Rockstar of the Year’ from the Italian edition of Rolling Stone magazine.
“His lust for life and his inimitable lifestyle have earned him an incredible international popularity, especially this year,” said a citation on the cover of the December edition, due out Tuesday.
The term ‘rock&roll’ “isn’t enough” to do justice to the headline-grabbing premier, said editor Carlo Antonelli.
Party animals like Rod Stewart, Brian Jones or Keith Richard, even in their wildest years, were “novices” in comparison, he wrote.
Berlusconi, who had a torrid summer amid revelations about his private life, was picked in a unanimous vote by Rolling Stone staffers.
The Italian premier, 73, outstripped all rivals in his ability to “live in the limelight” with exploits “worthy of the best rockstars”. The cover picture of a stylised Berlusconi was done by American illustrator Shepard Fairey, who designed the Hope posters for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Obama came second in Rolling Stone’s in-house poll for the person who best represented rock&roll values.
Pope Benedict XVI was third because he’s coming out with a CD of chants this month on the same label that produced Nirvana.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
British Police Arrest People ‘Just for the DNA’
More than three-quarters of young black men are on system, watchdog says
LONDON — Britain has built the world’s biggest DNA database without proper political debate and police routinely arrest people just to get their DNA profiles onto the system, the genetics watchdog said in a report on Tuesday.
The Human Genetics Commission, which advises the government on the social, legal and ethical aspects of genetics, called for a review of the database and said new laws must be passed to govern its use.
In a damning report, the commission said “function creep” had transformed the system from a DNA store for offenders into a database of suspects.
More than three-quarters of young black men aged between 18 and 35 are on the system, the report said.
Set up in 1995, the database contains the DNA profiles of five million citizens, eight percent of the population, making it the world’s biggest in proportion to population size.
“Parliament has never formally debated the establishment of the National DNA Database and safeguards around it,” commission chairman Professor Jonathan Montgomery said in a statement.
“It has developed through amendments to laws designed to regulate the taking of fingerprints and physical evidence before DNA profiling was developed.
“It is not clear how far holding DNA profiles on a central database improves police investigations.”
The report quoted an unidentified retired senior police officer as saying that “it is now the norm to arrest offenders for everything” in order to obtain a DNA sample.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Britons Back Baby Limit
A third of Britons would support law to limit number of children per family
Almost a third of Britons would support a law capping the number of children per family, according to a survey by the London newspaper Metro.
Limiting parents to having just one or two children was necessary to combat over-population, according to 29% of those surveyed.
Less than half said they would oppose such a law, similar to those imposed on Chinese families who restrict parents to one child per family.
The British population is currently 61 million and is set to exceed 70 million by 2029. However, none of the main political parties has ever suggested limiting the number of children families can have.
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Burqa Barbie: Veiled Oppression
In the event you missed it: just in time for this year’s Judeo-Christian holiday season and Mattel’s 50th anniversary is Barbie dressed in traditional Islamic garb. In other words, it’s a “Burqa Barbie” that was “unveiled” last Friday at the Salone dei Cinquecento in Florence, Italy, as reported in the UK’s Daily Mail here (MailOnline). The “Burqa Barbie” is one rendition of about 500 Barbie dolls that are part of an auction benefitting Save the Children Charity…
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Dutch Anti-Islam MP Unwelcome in Turkey
The government of Turkey is unwilling to meet a delegation of Dutch MPs if anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders is among them. Turkish daily Aksam reports that the Ankara government is worried that Mr Wilders will use the visit to challenge Islam.
Geert Wilders, leader of the opposition Freedom Party, has said he is determined to travel to Turkey in January. He said he wants to explain to the Turkish people why their country does not belong in the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
EU ‘Prez’ Champions ‘Global Management of Planet’
Proclaims G20, Copenhagen climate summit steps toward 1-world government
In accepting his appointment to be the first permanent president of the European Council in the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy affirmed his belief that the new world order would be dominated by international organizations that would seek to destroy the last vestiges of nation-states on the face of the globe, Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports.
In the following speech captured by BBC and posted on YouTube, Van Rompuy proclaimed, “2009 is the first year of global governance with the establishment of the G20 in the middle of the financial crisis.”
[…]
In the following widely viewed YouTube video, Mario Borghezio, a member of Italy’s Lega Nord who is also a member of the European Parliament, pointed out in a speech to the European Parliament that Van Rompuy is a frequent attendee at Bilderberg Group and Trilateral Commission meetings.
[Comments from JD: Both videos viewable at URL above.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: November 18 Soccer Match — Update
[video rutube.ru/tracks/2636694.html?v=db88298acb95681a776a7420b7fe5df0]
The scene above took place in Toulouse after last Wednesday’s game. The French flag was pulled down, and replaced by the Algerian flag. A YouTube video of the act, that I had orignally included in this post, has been removed. However, a reader of François Desouche made a copy at RuTube. I have not been able to acces it, but those of you with faster computers may not experience that difficulty.
An article in La Dépêche gives the reactions of Jean-Paul Makengo (left), adjunct in charge of diversity and equality at the Capitole de Toulouse (City Hall). It should be added that a conference of the European coalition of cities against racism was being held in Toulouse at the time of this “event”. He begins by saying that flags can be flown from balconies of private apartments, but that public areas must be respected. He goes on to explain the reasons for the eruption of disrespect:
- How do you analyze the pulling down of the French flag, replacing it with the Algerian flag?
- There are two things. First, you can see the foolishness of a group of fans that must not be confused with the notion of not liking France.
But we are also faced with a population that suffers from a lack of pride, and when a stigmatized group exists collectively, it demonstrates that fact in public. Unfortunately, that often means damage or attacks on the symbols of the Republic. In general, people systematically sent a negative image of themselves by society eventually exhibit their difference through acts of provocation. But you mustn’t confuse fans who “act like fools” with a communitarian closing of ranks.
- What do you suggest we do to prevent these paroxystic reactions?
- For them to stop there must be an effort on both sides: these populations must realize that they are fully French, and France also has to consider them as Frenchmen. You can’t ask them to make an effort towards us, if you continually remind them of their difference.
The photo below attests to the activity in Paris on the Champs-Elysée’s the night of November 18. For more photos click here.
However the 6-minute video below gives an even more vivid glimpse at the “festivities” on the Champs-Elysées.
François Desouche provides a city by city synopsis of the toll taken by the outbursts of Algerian nationalism last Wednesday after the game. There are also about twenty videos showing scenes from most major French cities besides Paris. Included among the cities are Montreal and Brussels. Here is just a sampling of some statistics:
Lyons: a good twenty cars burnt. Numerous fires, and projectiles thrown at firemen. About 1200 persons wandered about all evening in the chaos of the downtown area, wearing the Algerian flag around their neck and hurling smoke bombs and firecrackers. They blocked traffic between Rhône and Saône and broke three store fronts.
Avignon: The downtown area was completely blocked. Hundreds of people filled the streets after the game, carrying Algerian flags and standing on top of cars. (…) By 11:30 p.m., a dozen fires, including six cars had been put out by the firemen.
Grenoble: The police had to use tear gas; they arrested at least three people early in the evening. Several cars were burnt and an armored van was hit by stones.
The city of Roubaix in the northern department of le Nord experienced special problems. According to a post at François Desouche the trouble there was pre-organized:
The State prosecutor Frédéric Fèvre (…) hypothesized that the actions had been prepared and organized in advance.
“We found ourselves in darkness just one minute after the game ended. The whole street was affected,” relates a journalist from la Voix du Nord who was in the neighborhood of Epeule that evening. According to the D.A. it was in fact a “sabotage” of an transformer at Place Carnot that cut off the electricity to parts of Epeule.
The article states that 450 homes were deprived of electricity, and that there had been other attempts to rig the transformers.
Another troubling element of this inquiry was the discovery that evening of “caches” of projectiles (…) and bags containing paving bricks and incendiary devices.
“It was totally irresponsible,” observed Frédéric Fèvre who gave details of the evening’s toll: thirty-five cars damaged, including twenty-six that were burnt, a hundred containers burnt, ten store fronts smashed, two attempts to vandalize shops — avoided thanks to police intervention, an attempted arson at a social center, and thirty-seven arrests in Roubaix.
Nine people were immediately arraigned before a judge, while twenty-eight held in custody were released.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Merkel Expects ‘Thank You’ As GM Repays Loans
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday she was expecting a “thank-you letter” from General Motors after the US firm paid Berlin back for huge loans to keep its Opel unit afloat.
“I can tell you that the last funds (received by) General Motors have been paid back, which means that the Opel operation has not cost the German taxpayer a cent,” Merkel said in a speech in Berlin.
She added that she expected “a comprehensive thank-you letter from General Motors in a few years” and defended her decision to offer the €1.5-billion ($2.2-billion) loan to the Detroit-based car giant, saying: “It was absolutely right … to build a bridge.”
The loan was due to be repaid by November 30.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Guerrillas to Continue to Act Against Papandreou
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 19 — Greece’s anarchist-insurrectionist guerrillas have announced that they will “continue to act” through armed resistance to fight against “the largest classist and social attack since the post-WW II period” from the new Socialist government under Giorgio Papandreou. In a document sent to the weekly magazine ‘To Pontiki’ (‘The Mousé) and published today, the group Revolutionary Struggle (EA) said that “with the slogan ‘save the country from bankruptcy’,” Papandreou has continued the political line of the previous centre-right government and “is preparing to unleash the largest classist and social attack since the post-WW II period, as planned and imposed by the European Union”. An attempt which is “bound to fail” since “it will fail to get the necessary social legitimization”. EA has openly challenged the Minister for the Citizen Protection (Interior) Michalis Chrisochoidis, saying that his much “publicised” hard-line, “anti-terrorist” stance had done nothing but create a “few obstacles” for the guerrilla. The group has also denied any responsibility for the 27 October attack on a police station in which 6 officers were injured, and it seems in this way to support speculation that the attack may have been the work of the Groups of Popular Proletarian Self-Defence (OPLA). The latter have also claimed responsibility for the attacks, though police instead had said that it must have been the EA. In a previous claim of responsibility for the explosion in front of the Athens stock exchange in September, the EA announced that it would have continued to carry out “large-scale attacks” on “those responsible for the economic crisis”.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary: Ethnic Tensions Boil Over
Members of the outlawed paramilitary group, the Magyar Gárda (Hungarian Guard), are to be prosecuted for allegedly disregarding a court ban in the wake of a tense standoff with members of a local Roma community in a town in northeast Hungary.
According to evidence gathered, “persons were witnessed acting in a leadership capacity towards the civic group legally disbanded by the courts,” said Éva Novodonszki Egyed, spokeswoman for Borsod County police. As of Thursday last week, a further six people had been arrested in connection with unrest over the preceding weekend.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ex-President Attacks Berlusconi Reforms
Rome, 23 Nov. (AKI) — Former Italian president and prime minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has expressed deep concern about legal reforms that he claims are challenging the future of democracy in Italy. In an interview published in the Italian daily, La Repubblica, he launched a personal attack on prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his government for introducing “barbaric” legal reforms and using a “pickaxe” to demolish the Constitution.
“We live in a sad time,” Ciampi said. “In the final years of my life I never imagined having to witness a similar “barbarisation” of political action, such a brutal and systemic attack on the institutions and values in which I believe.”
Ciampi was prime minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and president from 1999 to 2006. He is currently a Senator for life in the Italian Senate.
He said his bitterness arose from what was happening to the country’s justice system but also the decline of collective values.
“You get a sense that there is a continual manipulation of the rules, an unrelenting loss of the cardinal points of our lives,” he told the Italian daily La Repubblica.
Ciampi spoke about the Lodo Alfano law that was declared unconstitutional by the Italian Constitutional Court in October 2009 and the draft law on shortened trials.
“Reform is made for citizens, not for individuals. I have always supported this idea and am now more than ever convinced of it.”
The same Italian newspaper on Monday published what it claimed were 18 examples of laws, including the Lodo Alfano, passed by the conservative Berlusconi governments that have benefited the premier and his companies.
The left-leaning newspaper released details of the laws as Berlusconi’s conservative ruling coalition is seeking to cap the length of criminal trials in new legislation.
The move has generated a bitter political debate in Italy and his opponents have described it as a cynical attempt to manipulate the law to help him resolve legal action against him.
According to the report, key laws passed since 2001 have offered the prime minister financial and legal benefits spanning his media interests, sporting investments and even planning controls on his Sardinian holiday home, Villa Certosa.
Berlusconi is facing fresh prosecution over accusations of tax fraud and false accounting over the acquisition of TV rights by Mediaset, his television company.
Two trials in which Berlusconi is accused of tax fraud and bribery are among those that would be “timed out” by the new bill.
In 2008, a law was passed to raise the Value Added Tax from 10 to 20 percent on the pay-TV network Sky Italia, the main private competitor of Mediaset, a television empire headed by Berlusconi’s son Pier Silvio.
Berlusconi already indirectly controls three of Italy’s seven terrestrial television channels, as well as three operated by the state-owned RAI which answers to a parliament dominated by his supporters.
The prime minister’s sporting investments were also included in legislative changes, according to La Repubblica.
Berlusconi is the owner of top Serie A football team A.C. Milan, and in 2002 the so-called ‘football-saving decree’ law was passed, allowing sports associations to ‘dilute’ the depreciation of players in 10 years with considerable tax benefits.
Forbes recently ranked Berlusconi as the 72nd wealthiest individual in the world with net assets of 6.5 billion dollars
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Transsexuals to be Deported After Prostitute’s Death
Rome, 23 Nov. (AKI) — Italian authorities are moving to deport 10 Brazilian transsexuals who were reportedly friends of Brenda, the prostitute at the centre of a sex and drugs extortion scandal found dead in Rome on Friday. According to Italian media, nine of the transsexuals were living illegally in Italy.
They are expected to be deported from Italy within a week and return to Brazil.
“They are people who engage in prostitution and are thus checked just like any other prostitutes,” said Maurizio Improta, head of the immigration office.
On Friday, the transsexuals said they feared for their lives after the death of the Brazilian prostitute Brenda, which some have claimed was murdered and may have been ‘silenced’.
Brenda was found dead after a fire broke out at her apartment in northern Rome early Friday.
She made headlines after allegedly having more than one sexual encounter with the former governor of the Lazio region Piero Marrazzo in an extortion, sex and drugs scandal, which led to the governor’s resignation in October.
One of the transsexual prostitutes, Natalie, has been granted a permit of stay because she is considered a witness in the case involving Marrazzo, who resigned as governor, when news of his relationship with Brenda and Natalie broke in October.
Rome’s public prosecutor said that the case would be investigated as a homicide after an autopsy showed that Brenda had suffocated from the smoke during the fire.
Further questions have been raised about the quantity of alcohol she drank before the fire occurred and whether she had consumed drugs that night
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lech Walesa Libel Trial Starts in Poland Over Spy Claim
A libel trial has started in Poland over charges former President Lech Walesa once worked as a communist spy.
The court case pits the anti-communist leader against his one-time ally and successor as president, Lech Kaczynski.
The court case was adjourned until 18 December to allow more time for preparation.
Mr Walesa, now 66, is seeking a retraction of a claim made by Mr Kaczynski that he spied for the communist secret service in the 1970s.
He is also seeking 100,000 zloty (24,000 euros; £21,700) in damages.
Neither man was present in the Warsaw court for the start of Mr Walesa’s lawsuit.
Denied allegations
“As long as I have a court verdict favourable to me, nobody — not even the head of state — can publicly state that it’s not true,” Mr Walesa was quoted as telling a Polish television station ahead of the trial.
The former Solidarity leader has always denied he worked as a communist agent, and was cleared of earlier spying allegations by a special court in 2000.
Judges concluded that former SB security service agents had forged documents in his file in a bid to prevent him receiving the Nobel Peace prize in 1983.
Earlier this year he threatened to leave Poland after a second book accused him of being a communist spy as a young man.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Minister Tells Italians to Skip Lunch
Workers taking too long to eat, says Rotondi
(ANSA) — Rome, November 23 — Lunch breaks are a wrench in the workday gears, according to Government Programme Minister Gianfranco Rotondi on Monday who asked Italians to keep them short or skip them entirely.
During a popular Web show, Rotondi complained that the lunchtime ritual “brings the country to a standstill” and confessed “I’ve never much cared for it myself”.
Like in many Mediterranean countries, lunch breaks in Italy range from one to two hours during which many shops and offices close up entirely.
“At the very least we could find a better way to distribute lunch breaks,” said Rotondi.
The minister gave Germany as a good example, where he said employees working nine hours a day took 45 minutes at most.
“A recent study shows that most Germans work through their lunch breaks, while the English only take theirs three days out of five,” he said.
Rotondi later clarified that he “wasn’t proposing the government abolish lunch breaks,” but that he had abolished his own and suggested other Italians do likewise.
But he did suggest closing parliament’s lunch buffet, a gourmet affair which costs the Italian government around five million euros per year.
“MPs eat too much, they get fat and that’s unhealthy,” said Rotondi.
The minister denied, however, that MPs had an easy job or worked less than average Italians.
“In fact, MPs work an awful lot,” maintained the minister, who said the job was “difficult and often frustrating, because there’s never enough time for everything”.
“When you first get elected, you think you can change Italy. But after a few months of insults and debates, you start getting discouraged”. “MPs aren’t privileged,” concluded Rotondi, calling the “misconception” hurtful both to politics and politicians.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: PSOE: Compensation for Descendants of Expelled Moriscos
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 24 — In the fourth century after the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain, a motion presented by the socialists in the Spanish parliament asks the government to end a historic injustice, and to take the necessary steps to recognise and strengthen economic, social and cultural ties with the communities in North and Sub-Saharan Africa that house the descendants of the Moriscos that were expelled in the XVII century. We must grant “institutional recognition and a compensation to the descendants of the Moriscos”, said sources of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) to ANSAmed. The initiative was taken by a socialist MP of Granada, José Antonio Perez Tapias. On April 9 1609, king Philip III, on request of the Duke of Lerma, signed the decree which ended the presence in Spain of the Andalusian Muslim minority, which until that time had stayed in Spain under the sovereignty of Christian monarchs. Three hundred thousand people, descendants of the Moors who had lived on Spanish ground for around 900 years, had to leave the peninsula. It was the final act of an expatriation that started in 1492, after the Catholic Kings conquered Granada, with the forced conversions of Moriscos ordered by Cardinal Cisneros. Many decided to leave their cities, but tried to stay in Spain illegally. Most of them moved to North Africa however, to the Rif region and the Maghreb, particularly in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania and Mali. The goal of the socialist initiative is to recognise the injustice that has been done to this group, the motion explains. This injustice, according to Perez Tapias a product of religious intolerance, of the policy of forced conversion or exile, of the resentment of the Christian population and the claim to form a Christian kingdom, without minorities that might shed doubt on its cohesion. There are no records of a census of the heirs of the 300,000 people that were expelled from Spain 400 years ago. The compensation, the socialist group explains, is meant to be symbolic rather than economic. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cynicism, Cheap Stunts and Why Voters Still Don’t Trust the Tories
But the unsettling fact for David Cameron is that the Tories have consistently failed to be as far ahead in the polls as they need to be.
Because of the peculiarities of the electoral arithmetic, they need an enormous swing to win an outright majority. Yet they have generally failed to have an opinion poll lead big enough to bring that about.
This is all the more remarkable since the almost total implosion of the Labour government should be providing the Tories with an open goal. Nevertheless, David Cameron is struggling to ‘seal the deal’ with the voters.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jealous Tesco Worker Murdered Lover and Cut Up Her Body With Circular Saw
A jealous boyfriend murdered his lover and cut up her body with a circular saw after she started internet dating, a court head today.
Jamal Bakhit, 25, stabbed Rahmona Ahmedin, 23, to death at her home when she tried to end their four-year relationship.
The former criminology student then packed her dismembered body into two suitcases and dumped them beside the A1301 in Hinxton near the border between Essex and Cambridgeshire.
Swedish-raised Miss Ahmedin, of Islington, north London, had been seeing up to three different men in the months before her death.
She had also fallen pregnant but had a termination against the wishes of Bakhit, who wanted to keep the child.
Bakhit, who was jailed for life after being convicted of murder, played the part of the concerned boyfriend when he reported her missing to Islington police station.
He claimed he last saw Ethiopian-born Miss Ahmedin alive when she travelled to Bristol on June 6 last year to visit a friend.
The Tesco worker even sent text messages on her mobile phone and used her bank card to make it look like she was still alive.
But a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court took just an hour-and-a-half hour to convict him of murder following a three-week trial.
Bakhit showed no emotion as he was later ordered to spent at least 20 years behind bars.
Jurors heard the victim’s body was found by horrified truckers Philip Lear and Derek Lumley in the early hours of June 18 last year.
Mr Lear and Mr Lumley — who were sleeping in their cabs after parking up at the truck stop — were awoken by Miss Ahmedin’s burning corpse which passing motorists mistook for a bonfire.
Firefighters extinguished the flames by splashing the body with handfuls of water to disturb the crime scene as little as possible.
Signs of insect life in the charred, dissected corpse indicated Bakhit had stowed Miss Ahmedin for several days before she was torched.
Tests also found Miss Ahmedin had been doused in petrol.
A postmortem revealed slightly built 5ft-tall Miss Ahmedin had also suffered a defensive stab wound to her right hand as she desperately fended off Bakhit’s blade.
Pathologist Dr Nathaniel Cary identified the cause of death as a stab wound to the chest which was likely to have caused a prolonged agonising death.
‘A stab of that kind would not be expected to cause a particularly rapid death,’ he said.
Bakhit had been captured on CCTV at Birchanger Green Services — just a few miles from the Hinxton layby — in his VW Golf about an hour before the discovery of Miss Ahmedin’s body.
The African, who had taken over a launderette in Fulham, west London, admitted driving along the M11 but claimed he was travelling to Colchester, Essex, to recruit a worker for his business.
Paul Purnell QC, defending Bakhit, tried to convince the jury Bakhit was ‘a suspect’ rather than ‘the suspect’ with all the men in her life.
‘She was in contact with people she had met through the [dating] website who were engaged in physical, sexual contact with her and who had visited her flat,’ said the barrister.
Detective Constable Stuart Brown, who filed Miss Ahmedin’s missing person report, described Bakhit as ‘calm and calculated’ when he reported her disappearance.
The officer told the court: ‘It was just his demeanour — the fact he seemed to be making a report as if he already knew where the report was going.’
Miss Ahmedin’s friends Brenda Lukwago and Zelia Vanderpuije desperately tried to contact Miss Ahmedin in the days after her disappearance.
They demanded Bakhit let them search her flat on the Peabody Estate for clues but Bakhit claimed there was no electricity and the pair were left to grope around in the dark.
A police search later uncovered a knife wrapped in plastic on a kitchen work top and Miss Ahmedin’s belongings such as her purse, handbag and make-up bag.
Detectives never discovered the cutting tool used to slice Miss Ahmedin’s body into three pieces.
Bakhit, of Fulham, west London, denied murder.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lord Lawson Calls for Inquiry Into Cover-Up Over Climate Change Data
While most are impossible to interpret out of context, climate change sceptics have seized on some that appear to show scientists manipulating raw data about historical temperatures.
In one alleged email, scientists discussed how climate data should be best spun and presented to selected journalists.
The emails also appear to discuss ways of dodging Freedom of Information requests from a climate change sceptic seeking raw data.
Lord Lawson called for the university and Natural Environment Research Council, which funds the unit, to launch an open, independent inquiry.
‘Astonishingly, what appears, at least at first blush, to have emerged is that the scientists have been manipulating the raw temperature figures,’ he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lord Monckton: Prosecute the Climate Change Criminals
Lord Monckton, who challenged Al Gore on man-made climate change and was rebuffed by a gaggle of peevish Democrats, wants the climate “scientists” caught red-handed fiddling with climate stats prosecuted.
“They are not merely bad scientists — they are crooks. And crooks who have perpetrated their crimes at the expense of British and U.S. taxpayers,” writes Monckton. “With Professor Fred Singer, who founded the U.S. Satellite Weather Service, I have reported them to the UK’s Information Commissioner, with a request that he investigate their offenses and, if thought fit, prosecute.”
Monckton does not hold out much hope for that, however. “But I won’t be holding my breath: In the police state that Britain has now sadly become, with supine news media largely owned and controlled by the government, the establishment tends to look after its own.”
The corporate media is doing its best to downplay the story. “Revelation of a series of embarrassing e-mails by climate scientists provides fodder for critics, but experts believe the issue will not hurt the U.S. climate bill’s chance for passage or efforts to forge a global climate change deal,” reports Reuters. Anthony Leiserowitz, the director of the Yale Project on Climate Change, said the release of the emails will be remembered mostly as “embarrassment” to the researchers. “But there’s no smoking gun in the e-mails from what I’ve seen.”
No smoking gun? The so-called researchers colluded to modify climate data in favor of their man-made climate change fairy tale.
“The tiny, close-knit clique of climate scientists who invented and now drive the ‘global warming’ fraud — for fraud is what we now know it to be — tampered with temperature data so assiduously that, on the recent admission of one of them, land temperatures since 1980 have risen twice as fast as ocean temperatures,” writes Monckton in a bog entry today. “One of the thousands of emails recently circulated by a whistleblower at the University of East Anglia, where one of the world’s four global-temperature datasets is compiled, reveals that data were altered so as to prevent a recent decline in temperature from showing in the record. In fact, there has been no statistically significant ‘global warming’ for 15 years — and there has been rapid and significant cooling for nine years.”
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UK: Mother of Man Murdered by Fergie Aide Under Police Guard After Killer Escapes From Prison
The mother of a man murdered by the Duchess of York’s former aide was today being protected by police after his killer escaped from jail.
Jane Andrews, 42, went on the run from East Sutton Open Prison in Kent just three days after she was moved from a more secure jail.
Andrews, who was jailed for life for knifing to death her boyfriend Thomas Cressman after he refused to marry her, is believed to have attempted suicide before absconding.
Mr Cressman’s mother Barbara, 81, said today she had ‘double bolted the doors and windows’ of her home as police continued their manhunt.
‘the police said they were keeping a close eye on me, which makes me feel better.
‘My grandchildren are staying with me so I’m fine. It’s very upsetting to know she’s escaped.’
[…]
Prison officers realised Andrews, jailed in 2001 for killing her wealthy boyfriend Thomas Cressman, was missing when they carried out their 8pm roll-call on Sunday.
Mr Cressman’s brother Rick today slammed the authorities for allowing Andrews to move to a lower security prison.
He said: ‘She has moved to an open prison and what has she done? She has tried to commit suicide yet again and now she has managed to escape prison.
‘Part of me feels like saying we told you so. It was too early, too premature to be doing it.
‘Jane Andrews is manipulative and devious and she knows exactly what to say and how to convince people to get what she wants. She has managed to wrap all these people around her little finger to get everyone believing it was the right thing to do. She is dangerous.
‘We are really screwed up as a society. We are not looking after the people that matter. We have just got our values wrong.
‘I would like to meet Jack Straw and tell him that they have got to start realising that criminals are exactly what they are. But they are more concerned about rehabilitating offenders and getting them out of prison rather than protecting society.’
[…]
Andrews, a builder’s daughter from Cleethorpes, killed Mr Cressman at the house they shared in West London after he made clear he would not marry her.
She bludgeoned him with a cricket bat before stabbing him in the chest with an 8in knife and fleeing the scene.
The picture which emerged at her Old Bailey trial was of a ruthless gold-digger who killed in cold-blooded revenge for the snub.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teenage Muslim Takes on WND
Hi there. I am a 17-year-old Muslim living in the U.K.
I accidently landed on your website and found the things you were saying to be false. It is offensive that you advertise DVDs on “the rise of radical Islam.” There is no such things as “radical Islam.” Islam comes from the Arabic word salam, which means “peace.” Those “so-called” Muslims who practice terrorism are not the true followers of Islam.
[Comments from JD: See the rest of the letter to the editor of WND (from a teenage muslim in UK) at article link.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Italy Welcomes Extension of UN Peacekeeping Mission
New York, 18 Nov. (AKI) — Italy on Wednesday welcomed the United Nations Security Council’s extension of the European Union force (EUFOR) in Bosnia for another year. Italy currently contributes some 900 security personnel to the 6,500-strong force tasked with keeping peace in the Balkan country.
“The resolution adopted confirms the urgent importance the international community attaches to its operations to stabilise the region,” Italy’s foreign minister Franco Frattini said in a statement.
“It is to be especially applauded as it confirms the EU’s positive contribution to stability and security in Bosnia Herzegovina,” the statement continued.
EU is seeking to support a political process and reforms that will help Bosnia Herzegovina achieve its objective of membership of the bloc, the statement noted.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted the resolution a day after a UN human rights expert reported that political disputes were still impeding the return of over 117,000 people displaced by the fighting during the 1992-1995 war.
The 15-member body stressed that “a comprehensive and coordinated return of refugees and displaced persons throughout the region continues to be crucial to lasting peace.” It placed responsibility for peace and development with in the country with Bosnians.
EUFOR’s mission is to ensure continued compliance by all sides in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the bloody war in which up to 100,000 people died.
EUFOR assumed peacekeeping responsibilities in 2004 from a stabilisation force led by NATO.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: FAP to Assemble Chinese Vehicles
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 24 — The Priboj Automobile Factory (FAP) in southwestern Serbia has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Chinese Dongfeng company, reports radio B92. FAP and Dongfeng signed the agreement in Belgrade, according to which the Priboj factory will assemble Chinese trucks starting in 2010. Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said that the memorandum specifies that four models will be produced in the first phase, though he did not mention how many trucks would be assembled in all. The Serbian government will set aside up to 1 million euros for the modernization of equipment in FAP during 2010, Dinkic said. Dongfeng is one of the largest truck producers in the world and manufactures some 1.2 million vehicles annually. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Death Toll in Football Festivities Up to 18
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, NOVEMBER 20 — The number of victims of the celebrations in Algeria after last Wednesday’s victory of the national football team against Egypt in Khartoum, has gone up. According to Civil Defence, quoted by news agency APS, 18 people have died and 312 have been injured in 211 road accidents that took place while people were celebrating the fact that Algeria has qualified for the 2010 World Championship. A total of 145 people have had a heart attack after the victory of their national team. An earlier report published yesterday spoke of 14 dead and more than 250 injured. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cinema: Heliopolis, What Remains of Bygone Cairo
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — A movie on the frustration of youth and the stagnation of political life in Egypt has been praised by Egyptian and Arab critics, but may well fail at the box office, much like other indie movies still under production in Egypt. The movie is called ‘Heliopolis’, by young director Ahmed Abdallah. Last May the movie was noticed in Cannes, and finally it has also been screened in Cairo, on occasion of the 33rd International Festival which ended last Friday. The director set his movie in a nostalgic but bitter scenario which quietly criticises the social and political reality of modern day Egypt. Ali, the main character played by famous Egyptian actor Khaled Aboul Naga, is very nostalgic about the places he once knew and adored. He feels great admiration for Heliopolis, the neighbourhood where many buildings and structures remain to bear testimony of the contribution of Belgian architects called in by baron Empain. During an interview Abdallah explained that I wanted to shoot a movie on ethnic and cultural differences which existed at the time; I think that Helipolis is the only city district which is still fighting to hold on to its cosmopolitan spirit. The neighbourhood is home to people who belong to different races, religions, cultures and social classes, while Cairo, the parent City, is rapidly losing its multicultural character. I wanted to seek out the reasons for these changes while also including some of my personal stories. From the very beginning of the movie the director moves away from the traditional and commercial approach which denote movie making in Egypt. The six main characters have to deal with the daily hurdles and worries which ruin their days and life in general: Ibrahim, a graduate student who is preparing a research paper on the minorities and the changes which ruined the appealing Heliopolis area; Adel, a young Coptic doctor who is forced to abandon the places he loves in order to join his family in Canada; a young couple on the hunt for an apartment for married life; Inji, a young female working as receptionist in a modest Heliopolis hotel who lies to her family, sending them letters where she claims to be living in Paris. However it is the young drafted policeman that represents the most important character in the movie: locked in his watchtower, he dodges boredom by singing old tunes he hears on the radio and shares his bread with a stray dog. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt-Algeria: Press, Amr Moussa Asks Gaddafi to Intervene
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 24 — The Secretary-General of the Arab League has asked Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to “mend the divisions that have been created in this stage of inter-Arab relations”, MENA press agency reports, quoting the Libyan daily Al Zahr Al Akhadr, regarding a telephone call made yesterday by Amr Moussa to Gaddafi. “Colonel Gaddafi, leader of the Libyan revolution and president of the African Union” the newspaper added, “is able to mend these divisions in inter-Arab relations thanks to his regional and international position”. The article refers to the serious — political and diplomatic — tensions caused by the football match for World Cup qualification between Egypt and Algeria. The match has given rise to various clashes between groups of supporters and to aggression against Egyptian residents in the North African country. Many commentators on Egyptian television have urged the secretary-general of the Arab League to intervene as peacemaker. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gaddafi ‘To Mediate’ In Egypt-Algeria Football Row
Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has agreed to mediate between Algeria and Egypt in an increasingly heated row over football, state media says.
Libyan news agency Jana reported that the Arab League had asked Col Gaddafi to intercede between the two nations.
Each side accused the other’s fans of violent attacks after last week’s vital World Cup play-off, which Algeria won.
Diplomatic spats have followed and Algerian tour operators have now suspended all trips to Egypt.
Algeria’s Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni has accused the Egyptian authorities of failing to provide the players with adequate protection.
Meanwhile, Egypt has accused the Algerian authorities of orchestrating a campaign of violence against its football fans.
The BBC Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says repeated appeals for calm and rational thinking have been ignored.
He says politicians on both sides appear to believe they can boost their popularity by playing the nationalist card.
Embassy protests
Jana news agency reported that Arab League chief Amr Musa had asked Col Gaddafi to play the role of mediator.
“As chairman of the African Union, the Guide of the Revolution [Col Gaddafi] is going to work to bridge the gulf that has opened up between Egypt and Algeria,” Jana reported.
Algeria qualified for the World Cup by beating Egypt 1-0 in a play-off match held in Sudan on 18 November.
But Egyptians were incensed by reports that Egyptian fans had been attacked as they left the stadium in Khartoum.
Hundreds of Egyptians protested near the Algerian embassy on Thursday and Friday.
Fifa inquiry
And Egypt threatened to quit international football for two years after complaining to football’s governing body, Fifa, about the behaviour of Algerian fans in Khartoum.
But Algeria and Sudan have accused Egypt of exaggerating the post-match violence.
Fifa has opened an inquiry into the Khartoum incidents.
It has already begun disciplinary proceedings against Egypt after an earlier match between the two nations on 14 November in Cairo.
The Algerian team bus was pelted with stones before the game and three of the team’s players were injured.
The teams needed the play-off after they finished tied at the top of their qualification group with equal points and an identical goal difference.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Nuclear Power From 2020
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, NOVEMBER 18 — Energy, Environment and Mining Minister Amina Benkhadra said today that Morocco’s energy strategy includes nuclear energy for power production on the long run. In an address in response to a Chamber hearing, the minster specified that the construction of a 100 Mw nuclear plant will start in 2020. At the same time a 200 Mw solar energy plant will come online, which will raise the share of solar energy produced in the country to 10%. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Anti-Christian Riots Spread in Upper Egypt, Video Shows Looting and Burning
by Mary Abdelmassih
Upper Egypt (AINA) — On Monday November 23, 2009 Muslim rioters looted and burned Coptic Christian businesses in the village of Abou Shousha, which lies 25 KM from Farshoot. The terrorized Coptic inhabitants of Abou Shusha have stayed indoors, their shops are closed and their children are being kept away from school. They fear a repeat in their village of the Muslim violence which engulfed the town of Farshoot less than 36 hours earlier (AINA 11-22-2009).
The Middle East Christian Association (MECA) reported that at least three large Coptic stores and a pharmacy were looted and burnt in Abou Shusha and that the fire brigade arrived one hour late, although their headquarters is only 8 KM away from the village. “They gave the pretext of being busy in Farshoot, which is untrue, as Farshoot had a quiet night,” said Wagih Yacoub of MECA. “Coptic and Muslim neighbors tried to put the fire out.” A video posted by Free Copts shows the Abou Shusha fires.
Bishop Kirrillos of Nag Hamady Diocese said that a mob from the neighboring village of Abu Tesht torched the businesses in Abou Shusha. MECA reported that three girls were assaulted in the street by having bricks hurled at them. No serious injuries were reported.
On November 22, in a joint communiquÃ(c) from fourteen Egyptian human rights organizations and lawyers called on President Mubarak to immediately intervene to save the Copts from the wrath of the mob and the subversive leaders behind them, who are seeking to sow discord and divisions among the Egyptians in the name of religion and “to hold accountable all involved in the incitement or attacks on the peaceful Copts in Farshoot.”
The signatories to the statement asked President Mubarak to take the necessary measures to hold accountable the security force officials, who played the “role of spectator in the looting, arson and attacks on Coptic property in Farshoot.”
The communiquÃ(c) strongly condemned the deportation and evacuation of the Copts in Farshoot from their homes and villages by the security forces, in violation of the provisions of the Egyptian Constitution which stipulates in Article 50 and 51 of the Code “No citizen may be prohibited from residing or be forced to reside in a specific area except in the circumstances set out in the law.
The NGOs’ statement stressed the right of the Coptic victims for compensation for the material losses and psychological damage, and strongly condemned the burning and insulting of the symbols of Christianity by the Muslims fanatics, and demanded everyone involved to be charged with the crime of “contempt of a heavenly religion.”
It is estimated that over 80% of Coptic businesses have been destroyed in the 48 hours of violence in Farshoot. A video prepared by Free Copts advocacy shows Muslim mobs chanting Allah Akbar (God is Great) while looting and burning Coptic businesses and shops
The Egyptian Union for Human Rights (EUHRO) advised that it is preparing a file with all the financial losses and damages to Coptic-owned businesses and property in Farshoot in preparation for filing a civil and a criminal case against the Egyptian Prime Minister, the Governor of Qena and the perpetrators.
“They want the Copts to be poor and are therefore destroying the Coptic economy in these areas,” explains Wagih Yacoub.
Bishop Kirollos again condemned the grave violations against Christians and their property, affirming his belief that the attacks were preplanned. “Students of Al-Azhar Institute in Farshoot, were incited by their Dean who sent them out on a rampage against the Copts. They were joined by a great number of locals,” he said.
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OIC Secretary General Calls on Islamic World to Examine Convention on the Rights of the Child to Surmount Hurdles Impeding Implementation
The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, delivered a speech before the opening session of the International Conference on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in the OIC Member States held over 23th and 25th November 2009 in Cairo, the Arab Republic of Egypt with the participation of H.E. Ms. Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt’s First Lady.
Ihsanoglu emphatically mentioned that the adoption of the CRC by the UN General Assembly in 1989 implies that the OIC member States commit to the CRC stipulations and turn them into concrete action by articulating proper laws and policy programs. He also emphasized that this commitment entails examination of the commitment to the CRC at the meetings scheduled to take place as part of the ongoing conference in order to pinpoint and exchange views on the hurdles that hinder adequate implementation and discuss the ways and means of surmounting existing obstacles.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Offers Award for Captured Israeli Troops
(ANSAmed) — GAZA, NOVEMBER 24 — While the exchange of prisoners with Israel and the release from Gaza of Corporal Ghilad Shalit seem to be on the way to a solution — after three and a half years of indirect negotiations -, Hamas is already thinking ahead and is planning to kidnap more Israeli troops. “Our strategy is simple,” a member of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, told ANSA. “We offer money to anyone who manages to capture an enemy soldier”. The movement offers one million Jordanian dinars per prisoner, the equivalent of USD 400 thousand, enough for an entire family to live a very comfortable life. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Orthodox Church Sues Turkey Over Worship in North
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, NOVEMBER 23 — Cyprus’ Greek Orthodox Church says it has sued Turkey for allegedly preventing worship at religious sites in the Turkish Cypriot north of the divided island. Church lawyer Simos Angelides — as local media reported — said Monday the lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights concerns 520 churches, monasteries, chapels and cemeteries. He said the court’s past rulings hold Turkey responsible for the north because it maintains 35,000 troops there. Angelides said Orthodox Christian faithful cannot worship at those sites because they are either derelict or have been converted to mosques, army barracks, stables or nightclubs. He said Turkey committed “ethnic and religious cleansing” on Cyprus in 1974 when it intervened after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Bans Best-Selling Paper Over Bahai Temple
Iran on Monday shut down a best-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, for carrying a picture of a temple belonging to the outlawed Bahai sect, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The press watchdog “banned Hamshahri over carrying a picture of the Bahais’ temple and encouraging tourists to visit this place on its front page” on Sunday, IRNA said, without giving a timeframe for the ban..
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Lashes Out at Wilders
Turkey’s foreign ministry has fiercely criticised Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, calling his ideas racist and fascist.
A delegation of Dutch MPs are planning to visit Turkey early in January. A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman says relations between his country and the Netherlands will suffer if Mr Wilders is part of the group. He says neither Turkey’s government nor members of its parliament are willing to meet the populist Dutch MP.
The spokesman stressed Mr Wilders was not welcome in many European capitals and that a similar view prevailed in Ankara. Mr Wilders argues the row demonstrates that Turkey is not a democratic country and does not belong within the European Union.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Governor Asks Dutch Troops Not to Pull Out
The governor of Uruzgan pleads with the Dutch government to reverse its decision and not to leave their jobs half-finished, reports the Financial Times.
London — The governor of an Afghan province pleaded Tuesday with the Netherlands not to withdraw troops from the region next year, warning its job is “only half finished,” a report said.
Asadullah Hamdam, the governor of Uruzgan, said he has been asking the Dutch government to reverse its decision, amid fears a pullout will create instability in the region undergoing critical economic development.
“The people of Uruzgan are very familiar with the Dutch — they have spent a lot of time here — and they are asking them to stay,” he told the Financial Times newspaper.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty: Nearly Half of Tajik Women ‘Regularly Abused’
Amnesty International has accused Tajikistan of failing to protect its women, saying nearly half are raped, beaten or abused by their families.
According to Amnesty, women are regularly subjected to humiliation not only from their husbands but also in-laws, causing many to turn to suicide.
The report’s authors say the government should introduce laws and support services to tackle domestic violence.
Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, is the poorest former Soviet republic.
‘Family property’
Women have limited rights and job opportunities. Many drop out of school early to enter marriages that are often polygamous or unregistered.
“Women are being treated as servants or as the in-laws’ family property,” Amnesty’s Tajikistan expert Andrea Strasser-Camagni said in a statement.
“They have no-one to turn to, as the policy of the authorities is to urge reconciliation, which… reinforces their position of inferiority.”
Up to one million Tajik men travel abroad every year in search of seasonal work.
In some cases, they stop sending remittances or do not return home, leaving their wives vulnerable to abuse by in-laws, says the BBC’s Central Asia correspondent, Rayhan Demytrie.
Some men even divorce their wives by sending text messages announcing they have separated, she adds.
Many women are driven to commit suicide but relatives usually cover up such incidents by presenting them as accidents, our correspondent says.
Violence against women is widespread across the entire Central Asian region, where most societies are patriarchal.
In Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, old traditions such as kidnapping young brides are still quite common — forcing some young women in rural areas to marry against their will.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Barack Obama’s Delay in Troop Decision ‘Hitting UK Public Support for Afghan Mission’
Barack Obama’s delay in deciding whether to send more US troops to Afghanistan has contributed to falling public support in the UK for the mission, according to Bob Ainsworth, the British Defence Secretary.
He said the “hiatus” caused by President Obama’s lengthy consideration of the call for reinforcements and the rising death toll had made it harder to make the case for the action.
And he also called on MPs of all parties not to exploit the war for political gain in the run-up to the election — accusing the Tories of “undermining” the operation with false claims. President Obama summoned his war council on Monday, with an announcement on a potential surge of fighters in the region expected after Thanksgiving in the US, probably next week.
It is more than three months since he began deliberating a call by the top US commander on the ground, General Stanley McChrystal, for an additional 40,000 troops.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
German Afghan Troop Decisions Await Obama Strategy
Germany will wait for U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision regarding the strategy for Afghanistan before weighing options on its troop levels, Germany’s minister of defense, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, said Nov. 19 in Washington.
“We are all eagerly awaiting for the announcement the president is to make over here,” Guttenberg told a packed room at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign policy think tank in Washington.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
India: Attack on a Church in Karnataka. 56th Case in 2009
Entrance doors ripped off, windows and furniture destroyed, cross also ripped off the top of the building. The President of the Global Council of Indian Christians: “The wave of incidents against Christians is increasing in Karnataka and other states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There is a climate of “growing religious intolerance”.
Bangalore (AsiaNews) — On the night of 17 November, a group of unknown people attacked the Beersheba Church of God of Humanabad in Bidar district, State of Karnataka. At 3, some unidentified persons broke into the church, ripped the doors of entrance, destroyed windows and furniture, removed the cross from the top of the building.
The Christian community of the Beersheba Church of God, eighty faithful led by 32 year-old pastor Chandrapa Devadas, informed the police of Humanabad and local media. Commissioner N. Sathish Kumar met with members of the community ensuring prompt investigation, promising the capture of those responsible within three days and more attention to the safety of local Christians.
It is the latest in a series of acts of vandalism against a place of Christian worship in Karnataka recorded in recent weeks (see AsiaNews, 10/11/2009, “ Karnataka: Hindu infiltrate Christians to accuse them of forced conversions”).
Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) comments on the events in Humanabad, telling AsiaNews that “the spate of incidents against Christians is increasing in Karnataka and other states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP ), reflecting a growing religious intolerance”.
With the attack of Humanabad the number of violent episodes against Christian places of worship in Karnataka, during 2009, now stands at 56. The last one was on November 12 when a group of radical Hindus from the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) stopped construction of a church in Bhadravati in the district of Shimoga. Extremists reported the pastor of the local community to the authorities the accusing him of forced conversions. The Shimoga Development Authority investigated the priest asking him to respond to the accusations made by the VHP.
The president of the GCIC says: “The government is failing in its duty to protect Christian minorities and keep at bay the Hindu radicals …. The chain of political acquittals of the BJP, Manoj Pradhan, one of the main instigators of the violence in Kandhamal, has made it clear to fundamentalists that they can get away with anything, without having to face justice”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Hindu Leaders Are Blamed for Mosque Plot That Led to Carnage
The destruction of a mosque by Hindu radicals that led to some of the bloodiest religious riots in India since Partition was “meticulously planned” by politicians including a former Prime Minister, according to a leaked report of the official investigation.
The razing of the 16th-century Babri mosque — in the northern town of Ayodhya, on December 6, 1992, by an estimated 150,000 Hindus — led to national violence in which about 2,000 people died, mostly Muslims.
The demolition also cemented the power base of the Hindu fundamen-talist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power four years later. BJP hardliners had long claimed that the mosque stood on the birthplace of Lord Rama, the Hindu warrior god, and had campaigned for a Hindu temple to be built on the site.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
India Launches Ballistic Missile
India has test-fired its intermediate-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile, Agni-II.
The surface-to-surface missile was test-fired off an island in Orissa state in eastern India, officials say.
With a range of more than 2,000km (1,250 miles), the missile can carry a nuclear payload of 1,000kg.
The Agni series are among India’s most sophisticated missiles. A long range version was successfully test-fired last year.
The Agni-III missile, tested last year, has a range of more than 3,000km (1,865 miles) and could hit targets as far off as Beijing and Shanghai, analysts say.
The Agni-I has a range of 750km (470 miles).
The Agni (literally “fire” in Hindi and Sanskrit) missile family is believed to be the mainstay of the Indian missile-based strategic nuclear deterrence.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Lawyers Explain Pakistan Trip by ‘Guantánamo Swede’
Lawyers representing a former Swedish terror suspect who spent time in the United States’ Guantánamo Bay prison, claim their client was not traveling to any trouble spots when he was arrested in Pakistan in August.
Mehdi Ghezali was arrested on August 28th along with fellow Swedes Munir Awad, 28, 19-year-old Safia Benaouda, and their two and a half-year-old boy while traveling with a group of other foreigners near Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab province.
The group was suspected of traveling from Quetta to Miranshah, the main city in the lawless region of northern Waziristan, where they were to meet an alleged Taliban leader named Zahir Noor.
After spending more than a month in the custody of Pakistani officials, Ghezali and the other Swedes were released on October 11th. No terror charges were ever filed, although Ghezali was cited for entering the country without a proper visa.
In an attempt to clear the air surrounding the circumstances of the trip, Ghezali’s attorneys, Peter Althin and Anton Strand, have provided an account of their client’s trip in an article in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.
According to the lawyers, Ghezali and his Swedish companions were in Pakistan as a part of a pilgrimage to celebrate Ramadan in a “larger Pakistani city”. At the time of their arrest, one of the Swedes had claimed they were heading to a meeting with a Muslim revivalist movement in the city of Lahore.
The lawyers explain that the decision to travel to Pakistan arose while the group was traveling through other countries in the Middle East and that the trip was arranged by a tour operator, which had told Ghezali and the other Swedes that visas could be arranged en route.
Althin and Strand are highly critical of both the Swedish state and the media over the way they’ve treated their client.
The attorneys explain that, despite Ghezali being released from Guantánamo in 2004 without being accused of any wrong doing, he and his family have been under the surveillance of Swedish security service Säpo ever since.
“The situation seems familiar to all of us who’ve read Franz Kafka,” the attorneys write.
They also feel the Swedish media’s coverage of Ghezali has been marked by “xenophobic undertones”.
They add that their client simply wants to be “left in peace.”
“As no government agency has ever accused him of terrorism or spying, it seems a reasonable request that the Swedish press corps can also abstain from formulating those types of accusations,” write Altin and Strand.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: ‘No Intention to Convert Children in Shelters’
KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24, 2009) : Muslim welfare homes and shelters have never intended to convert children under their care, Muslim Welfare Organisation Malaysia secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Abdul Hamid Othman said today.
“It is never our intention to convert the children who come to our welfare homes. We do have shelters with multiracial children and we allow them to practice their own religions,” he told a press conference at a specail law briefing on amendments to the Islamic family Law at Masjid Wilayah Persekutuan here today.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Terrorism That’s Personal
[Comments from JD: WARNING: Horrifying photos.]
Terrorism in this part of the world usually means bombs exploding or hotels burning, as the latest horrific scenes from Mumbai attest. Yet alongside the brutal public terrorism that fills the television screens, there is an equally cruel form of terrorism that gets almost no attention and thrives as a result: flinging acid on a woman’s face to leave her hideously deformed.
Here in Pakistan, I’ve been investigating such acid attacks, which are commonly used to terrorize and subjugate women and girls in a swath of Asia from Afghanistan through Cambodia (men are almost never attacked with acid). Because women usually don’t matter in this part of the world, their attackers are rarely prosecuted and acid sales are usually not controlled. It’s a kind of terrorism that becomes accepted as part of the background noise in the region.
This month in Afghanistan, men on motorcycles threw acid on a group of girls who dared to attend school. One of the girls, a 17-year-old named Shamsia, told reporters from her hospital bed: “I will go to my school even if they kill me. My message for the enemies is that if they do this 100 times, I am still going to continue my studies.”
When I met Naeema Azar, a Pakistani woman who had once been an attractive, self-confident real estate agent, she was wearing a black cloak that enveloped her head and face. Then she removed the covering, and I flinched.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pilgrims Flock to Nepalese Temple as 200,000 Animals Are Slaughtered to Honour Hindu Goddess
Animal welfare protesters have staged mass demonstrations as thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals.
Thousands of buffaloes, goats, chickens and pigeons will be killed today and tomorrow at the temple in the jungles of Bara district, about 100 miles south of Katmandu, to honour the Hindu goddess Gadhimai.
Activists and other religious groups say the killings, which are carried out by slitting the animals’ throats with swords, are barbaric and conducted in a cruel manner.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Secret U.S. Plan to Support Afghan Militias Echoes Canadian General’s Ideas
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A secret U.S. plan to support anti-Taliban militias, which is raising concerns about further destabilizing Afghanistan, echoes similar ideas being voiced by the head of Canada’s army.
Lt. Gen. Andrew Leslie, chief of land staff, has been arguing in recent interviews that tribal militias should be factored into Afghanistan’s security architecture.
Over the weekend, reports emerged that the U.S. is doing just that with a program dubbed the Community Defence Initiative.
Said to have the support of NATO’s Afghanistan commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the program aims to provide resources to encourage tribal groups to fight the Taliban.
Supporting militias is a tactic that was debated by a group of international advisers early after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, but was ruled out because warlords were considered too strong, Leslie said.
Now, it seems, things have changed.
“The Afghan National Army now is a powerful entity, and so there is no longer the same danger of arming tribal auxiliaries,” Leslie said in an interview last week before news of the U.S. initiative emerged in weekend media reports.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Accuses Russia of “Illegal Occupation”
The Japanese government has adopted a document claiming that Russia “illegally occupies the South Kuril Islands.”
It is a response to a suggestion by a Japanese parliamentarian concerning Japan’s more active involvement in economic projects in the South Kurils — even if it requires “temporarily agreeing” with Russia’s right to govern the islands.
The government’s answer was not equivocal.
“The Russian Federation illegally occupies four northern islands,” Itar-Tass quotes the document it received from Japan’s Foreign Ministry. “Under these circumstances, our citizens cannot travel to these islands, because of Russia’s territorial claims. Russia’s position does not coincide with our position on the northern territories, and there is no change in this situation.”
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Can Somali Pirates be Defeated?
Why have the world’s most advanced navies failed to end piracy in the seas around Somalia?
[…]
It is true there has not been a successful hijacking since July in the Gulf of Aden, the corridor between Yemen and Somalia which leads to the Suez Canal. That is of enormous importance, since 20% of the world’s shipping travels this way.
But the pirates have not been defeated. They have just moved south into the Indian Ocean, continuing to plague the waters known as the Somali Basin. This is where the British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, were seized from their yacht.
The first problem for the European force is one of simple geography.
Along with other navies concerned about the piracy problem, it has to patrol an area the size of western Europe. They could be several days away from a vessel when it is boarded by pirates.
So there is only a tiny chance of catching the pirates in the act of trying to board a civilian vessel — and even then, the warships are limited in what they can do. Often they cannot use the immense firepower at their disposal.
“This is not so much an enemy, that would sound like a war — and we’re doing legal work with military means,” says Cdr Pieter Bindt, commander of the EU’s anti-piracy taskforce.
“They [the pirates] are very adaptive; they react to what we do and they have a very large area where they can start from: the Somali coast, which is thousands of miles long.”
‘Why not just blow them out of the water?’ I asked.
“In the Western world we like to have due process in legal issues,” he said. “It would be the same as if somebody in London looking like a burglar would be shot on sight, we just don’t that.”
[…]
The pirates know the law. When they see a naval frigate coming, they dump their weapons, boarding ladder, and even satellite telephones over the side. This is what has happened with the pirates being tracked in the operations room.
Everyone fully expects them simply to return to shore to re-equip themselves and a few days later set out to sea again, hunting for vulnerable ships. The ransoms, often several million dollars, are enough to comfortably pay for new equipment.
[…]
The task force may even have encountered the same groups of pirates several times, having released them on previous occasions.
“It is just like the policemen in Amsterdam catching junkies who steal bicycles,” said one of the Dutch officers on board. “They kick them out after arresting them and then see them back in the police station the following morning.”
There have been a number of prosecutions but there has yet to be a single conviction.
So, with huge sums at stake, the pirates seem to be as busy as ever and the waters off Somalia remain dangerous for merchant vessels.
Currently, the pirates are holding 10 merchant ships. They can be seen lying at anchor off the Somali coast; their crews — totalling some 236 people — are hostages.
The EU force could overwhelm the hijackers. But the risk to the hostages is too great. Once in possession of a ship, the chances are the pirates will collect their ransom.
“If the pirates are already on board, then there is not much that we can do — if you value the lives of the hostages,” said Cdr Bindt.
All of the foreign naval firepower now deployed here is a potent deterrent but the pirates are remarkably persistent.
No surprise then that a number of merchant navies, including the French and the Spanish, are starting to take armed personnel with them on board.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Jailed for Wearing Pants, Sudanese Journalist in Paris
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, NOVEMBER 24 — She managed to leave Sudan hidden beneath a niqab. The journalist who was put in jail in her country, Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, for dearing to wear “indecent” pants arrived in Paris with a “courageousness that is important for Arab and African women”, underlined French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, who received her on the eve of the World Day against Violence Against Women. “The article of the penal code, which according to the judges that sentenced me, bans women from wearing pants does not exist, it exists only in their heads,” underlined the journalist who was put in jail in July together with other women who were wearing pants. Since they pled guilty, the women were whipped as punishment. Lubna refused and ended up in jail. She was released from jail on parole and in the meantime wrote a book, “40 coups de fouet pour un pantalon” (40 lashes for a pair of pants) published by Plon, which will presented tomorrow morning to Cape, the foreign press association in Paris, for the initiative of the Arab press club and the association for the defence of women, Ni Putes Ni Soumises (neither whores nor subjects). In the book, in addition to telling her story, Lubna writes about the condition of women in her country where sharia law is applied. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil — 300 Companies Certified Halal
300 Brazilian companies have already recieved halal certification, guarenteeing that their products may be consumed in Muslim companies reports The Brazil-Arab News Agency.
Halal certification guarentees that food is produced according to the regulations of Islamic law and so is allowed for consumption by around 1.3 billion Muslims worldside.
“Ninety per cent of Brazilian companies are currently getting ready to receive halal certification,” Ali Saifi, Vice President of the Centre for Promotion of Islam to Latin America (CDIAL) told The Brazil-Arab News Agency.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland: Poll Shows Hardening of Attitude Towards Immigrants
THE VAST majority (72 per cent) of people want to see a reduction in the number of non-Irish immigrants living here, according to an Irish Times /Behaviour Attitudes opinion poll.
Overall, a total of 43 per cent say they would like to see some, but not all, immigrants leave the State, while 29 per cent would like to see most immigrants leave. In contrast, just over a quarter (26 per cent) would like to see the number of immigrants remain as it is.
In a reversal of trends from polls in recent years, younger people’s attitudes towards immigration have hardened the most.
For example, 81 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 would like to see the number of immigrants fall, compared to 69 per cent in the 25-44 age group. People in rural areas and those from less well-off backgrounds are also more likely to support a reduction in the number of foreign workers based here.
The findings are contained in a national poll on “Ireland Today” of 1,004 adults. It was conducted between October 12th and 26th this year at 100 sampling points across the State. The economic downturn is so acute it is causing many to consider leaving the country.
A total of 13 per cent say they are likely to emigrate over the next five years. Some 40 per cent of those in the 18-24 age group say they are likely to emigrate, while 15 per cent say they don’t know what they will do. The proportion of people likely to emigrate falls to 22 per cent among 25-34-year-olds.
When asked what had become more important in your life compared to a year ago, most people (77 per cent) chose financial security from a list of 18 topics.
Other items which people rate highly include the health service (70 per cent), financial independence (67 per cent) and time spent with family and friends.
As the downturn takes it toll with job losses and lower earnings, this poll shows the precarious financial position facing many people. For example, one-third say they have no savings at all. Of those with savings, the average amount saved by an adult was just under €8,000.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Town Launches Campaign Against Illegal Immigrants
Mantova, 23 Nov. (AKI) — A tiny northern Italian community is the latest to launch a campaign to rid the city of illegal immigrants. The city of San Martino dall’Argine near Mantova has issued a decree urging townspeople to report illegal immigrants to local authorities.
“Anyone who knows of the presence of illegal immigrants in the city’s limits is asked to communicate that as soon as possible to the mayor, the municipal police or to the local office of statistics for all necessary proceedings,” said the city administration. “Thank you for your co-operation.”
Mantova is located in Italy’s northern Lombardy region.
For the past week posters have been placed around schools, near factories and other buildings in the town outlining details of the local decree.
According to a report in Italian daily La Repubblica, the town has 1,800 inhabitants and the lowest percentage of immigrants in the province.
“The objective is to inform (people) about the regulations,” said mayor Alessandro Bozzoli, an independent in an administration dominated by the anti-immigrant Northern League and conservative People of Freedom parties.
“We have to be careful if we rent our houses, hopefully not outside the law, to illegal immigrants.”
The Italian daily said no-one had reported any illegal immigrants since the council issued the order.
“This is a senseless witch hunt,” said Emanuele Zanotti, a centre-left councillor. “There was really no need for it.
“There’s a risk of putting people against each other in a community where everyone knows each other. Italians and foreigners. In our area it is a useless initiative.”
The controversial campaign began after another small town, Coccaglio, in the northern Italian region of Lombardy launched a campaign to “clean-up” the city of immigrants, before the Christmas holiday season next month. The town council dubbed the operation “White Christmas”.
Coccaglio has a population of 7,000 residents of which more than 1,550 are immigrants, most of them from Morocco, Albania, and from the former Yugoslavia. In 1998, there were 177 immigrants living in the town.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Urges EU Migration Help
Med states bear brunt, deserve funds, Maroni says at summit
(ANSA) — Venice, November 24 — Interior Minister Roberto Maroni on Tuesday urged the European Union to help Mediterranean countries deal with migration pressures. Addressing a summit of western Mediterranean interior ministers, Maroni said more resources were critical if such countries were to effectively manage the large number of African migrants entering Mediterranean countries en route to the EU. He recalled that the EU was in the process of finalizing its home affairs policy programme for the next five years, providing a “historic” opportunity to request more help. The so-called Stockholm Programme, drawn up to succeed the five-year Hague Programme, is expected to be finalized and signed at the EU summit in mid-December. “It is to be hoped the Mediterranean will receive enough resources and attention to help it deal with the great challenges posed by immigration to this area,” Maroni said. “In order to better manage legal immigration, the procedures for fighting illegal immigration and human trafficking must first be strengthened”. The daylong summit in Venice was attended by the EU’s five Mediterranean countries, as well as five North African states: Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania. In addition to discussing migration, ministers also considered the issue of terrorism, Maroni said after the conference. All delegates agreed that the Internet was a crucial battleground in the fight against terrorism, he said. “We have decided to join forces to prevent the radicalization and recruitment of terrorism and prevent new information technologies, such as the Internet, being used for terrorist purposes,” the Italian minister explained. “This is an important decision that will see us working together to block such sites and the exchange of dangerous information in our ten countries”. Ahead of the conference, Maroni met with French Immigration Minister Eric Besson for bilateral talks on migration matters. Sources said they agreed to raise joint proposals for additional resources at the next European council of interior ministers at the end of November. The centre-right governments of President Nicolas Sarkozy and Premier Silvio Berlusconi have several times adopted a common approach to migration in the context of the EU. Last month, Sarkozy and Berlusconi sent a joint letter to the European Commission and the EU’s duty president calling for “concrete decisions and actions” in migrants’ countries of origin. Sarkozy reiterated his determination to fight illegal immigration on Tuesday, stressing there would be no amnesties for migrants arriving in France without documents. The immigration issue was also raised at a separate bilateral meeting between Italian Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi and his Spanish counterpart Celestino Corbacho in Rome on Tuesday. Both men agreed on the need for “more robust cooperation in tackling migration flows,” sources said, while Corbacho remarked afterwards that there “a growing need for a coordinated immigration policy”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Patrol Intercepts Somali, Eritrean Migrants
(ANSAmed) — BARI, NOVEMBER 23 — A boat carrying around 80 migrants to Italy was intercepted on Monday by Libyan patrol boat which brought them back to North Africa, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). UNHCR spokesperson Laura Boldrini said the migrants were mainly Eritreans and Somalis who had the right to request political asylum. “These people have been transferred to a Libyan detention center and it’s unclear how long they will have to remain there,” said Boldrini. According to the UN spokesperson, the Libyan patrol crossed into Maltese waters to intercept the migrants before they had a chance to ask for asylum in Europe. Bolrdini said the episode “suggests that asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean have even fewer guarantees than we supposed”. Italy’s push-back immigration policy is based on an agreement with Libya allowing migrants intercepted in international waters to be sent back to the North African country. The policy has resulted in a 90% drop in arrivals since it was launched in May but it has come under heavy fire from the centre-left opposition in Italy, the Catholic Church, humanitarian organisations and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, who say Libya does not have a system in place to deal with asylum claims. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Liberals Reject Immigrant Citizenship Course
The Liberal Party has voted against a proposal from the party leadership for the introduction of mandatory courses for all immigrants seeking Swedish citizenship.
The party members voted 83-71 against the controversial proposal at the party conference in Växjö in southern Sweden. The decision is a setback for the party hierarchy which first announced the idea in March 2008.
“Of course I am disappointed, I wanted the proposal to go through,” integration minister Nyamko Sabuni said.
The proposal to introduce mandatory citizenship courses for immigrants met with fierce opposition at the conference. Many voiced a fear that if adopted it would risk the party being associated with the far-right Sweden Democrats.
“It is silly to connect integration policy with the Sweden Democrats, that is to ascribe them power which they do not hold,” Sabuni said.
The course is proposed to be obligatory for all applicants for Swedish citizenship and would be held by county councils at no cost to the applicant. Many speakers questioned what exactly the course is supposed to teach.
Gunnar Nordmark from Växjö considered the proposal to indicate that the Sweden does not trust immigrants and warned that racist organisations are starting to brutalize the integration debate.
“We unintentionally risk dancing with the wolves,” he said.
Those who defended the proposal argued that teaching the shared founding principles of Swedish society is important not least for the boys and girls who are forced to live within honour cultures.
Others pointed out that the Liberal Party must have clear goals with its integration policies and have the confidence to address the problems so as not to leave an open playing field for the Sweden Democrats.
The Liberal Party conference comes to a close on Sunday at Växjö concert house.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Achtung! Prosecutor Says Only Jail Deters Homeschooling
Erupts in anger when Nazi foundations of ban cited
In Germany, many Christian families object to the public-school system because it advocates for sexual and social activities that conflict with biblical teachings. The sex-education program, for example, is explicit.
Mueller also erupted when Dudek asked local school officials called to testify if they knew the current laws that criminalize homeschooling are based on laws from 1938.
“All those Nazi laws have been suspended, and this one is democratic, and you’ve got to accept it, and that’s it,” Mueller argued loudly, reports said.
Dudek said the facts don’t support the claim.
“The ‘Schulpflicht’ — the laws that require school attendance — are on the books in the German states,” he said, “and have been traced back to the ‘Reichsschulpflicht Gesetz’ [federal compulsory attendance laws] which was passed in 1938. Except for the removal of references to the Nazi party, these laws are identical or substantially the same as the laws passed by Hitler’s government, criminalizing parents who keep their children home for school.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Katherine Kersten: At U, Future Teachers May be Reeducated
They must denounce exclusionary biases and embrace the vision. (Or else.)
Do you believe in the American dream — the idea that in this country, hardworking people of every race, color and creed can get ahead on their own merits? If so, that belief may soon bar you from getting a license to teach in Minnesota public schools — at least if you plan to get your teaching degree at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus.
In a report compiled last summer, the Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group at the U’s College of Education and Human Development recommended that aspiring teachers there must repudiate the notion of “the American Dream” in order to obtain the recommendation for licensure required by the Minnesota Board of Teaching. Instead, teacher candidates must embrace — and be prepared to teach our state’s kids — the task force’s own vision of America as an oppressive hellhole: racist, sexist and homophobic.
The task group is part of the Teacher Education Redesign Initiative, a multiyear project to change the way future teachers are trained at the U’s flagship campus. The initiative is premised, in part, on the conviction that Minnesota teachers’ lack of “cultural competence” contributes to the poor academic performance of the state’s minority students. Last spring, it charged the task group with coming up with recommendations to change this. In January, planners will review the recommendations and decide how to proceed.
The report advocates making race, class and gender politics the “overarching framework” for all teaching courses at the U. It calls for evaluating future teachers in both coursework and practice teaching based on their willingness to fall into ideological lockstep.
The first step toward “cultural competence,” says the task group, is for future teachers to recognize — and confess — their own bigotry. Anyone familiar with the reeducation camps of China’s Cultural Revolution will recognize the modus operandi.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Global Warming Fraud: Somebody Needs to Go to Jail
By Alan Caruba
The revelations that scientists at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) doctored the data supporting the global warming claims of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) means that EVERYTHING attributed to or based upon “global warming” is invalid. It means the Kyoto Climate Protocols that nations agreed to on December 11, 1997 and which entered into force on February 16 2005, and all subsequent agreements based on “global warming” have no validity, scientifically or as the basis for public action by any nation, state, province, city or town…
| [Return to headlines] |
Majorities Reject Banning Defamation of Religion: 20 Nation Poll
As the UN General Assembly prepares to debate a proposal calling for nations to take action against the defamation of religion, majorities in 13 of 20 nations polled around the world support the right to criticize a religion.
On average, across all countries polled, 57% of respondents agree that “people should be allowed to publicly criticize a religion because people should have freedom of speech.” However, an average of 34% of respondents agree that governments “should have the right to fine or imprison people who publicly criticize a religion because such criticism could defame the religion.”
The issue of whether freedom of speech should extend to discussions of religion has stirred considerable controversy in recent months. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a group of 56 Muslim nations, is championing a proposed U.N. resolution that calls on all nations of the world “to effectively combat defamation of all religions and incitement to religious hatred in general and against Islam and Muslims in particular.”
Of the seven nations where most people agree with that criticism of religion should be prohibited five have overwhelmingly Muslim populations — Egypt (71%), Pakistan (62%), Iraq (57%), Indonesia (49%), and the Palestinian territories (51%). Another two — India (59%) and Nigeria (54%)— have historically been plagued by sectarian violence.
The resolution was passed by the U.N. Human Rights Council in March and is expected to come before the General Assembly before the end of 2009. Similar resolutions have gained the rights panel’s approval since 1999 and have been passed by the General Assembly since 2005.
Human rights advocates and several Western governments, including the United States, oppose the resolution, saying it restricts freedom of expression and could be used to curb religious freedoms rather than protect them. This week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States “will stand against discrimination and persecution. But an individual’s ability to practice his or her religion has no bearing on others’ freedom of speech. … Differences should be met with tolerance, not with the suppression of discourse.”
Zamir Akram, a representative of the OIC, defended the resolution earlier this month, saying that the organization “attached great importance to the exercise of freedom of belief and expression, but the exercise of this right carried with it duties and responsibilities, including the need to fight against hate speech.”
WorldPublicOpinion.org conducted the poll of 18487 respondents in 20 nations. This includes many of the largest nations—India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Russia—as well as Mexico, Chile, Germany, Great Britain, France, Poland, Ukraine, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, and South Korea. Polling was also conducted in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The margins of error range from +/-3 to 4 percentage points. The surveys were conducted across the different nations between April 25 and July 9, 2009.
Support for the right to criticize religion is strongest in the United States, with 89%, compared to just 9% support for government restrictions. Chile is next with 82% support, followed by Mexico (81%), Britain (81%), Germany (76%), Poland (68%), Azerbaijan (67%), France (66%), Russia (61%), South Korea (59%), Turkey (54%), Kenya (54%), and Ukraine (53%). In addition, 68% of Taiwanese and 81% in Hong Kong agree the ability to criticize religion should be a right.
Though the strongest supporters of restrictions on criticism of religions are in Muslim countries a separate poll by WPO in 2008 showed that overwhelming majorities said it is at least somewhat important for people to have the right to express any opinion, including criticism of the government or religious leaders. This included Indonesia (94%), the Palestinian territories (94%), and Egypt (80%) — Iraq and Pakistan were not included in the survey. In fact, clear majorities in every one of the 20 nations included in that poll took the same position, ranging from 69% in India to 98% in the United States.
However the 2008 poll also asked whether governments should have the right to prohibit certain political or religious views from being discussed, and Indonesia (55%) was one of only three countries where a majority answered in the affirmative. Kenya (67%) and Thailand (63%) did so as well. Egypt was evenly divided, 49% yes and 49% no, while more people in the remaining 16 countries said governments should not have such a right.
The two non-Muslim countries where majorities responded to the recent WPO poll by saying governments should be able to fine or imprison people for criticizing religions are India and Nigeria. Both were founded in the 20th century with borders that were drawn by former colonial powers in a way that encompassed a variety of religions, including a large Muslim minority. And both have since experienced periodic spates of sectarian violence that have frequently involved Muslims. This suggests that their support of government restrictions may stem not from a popular push to defend Islam — Muslims make up roughly half of Nigeria’s population but just 13% of India’s — but from a broadly shared desire to maintain order by curbing criticism of religions.
In Nigeria, that is borne out by the fact that Muslims and Christians respond almost identically to the poll question. Fifty-four percent of Christians and 53% of Muslims favor government restrictions, while 45% of Muslims and 43% of Christians say criticism of religion should be allowed.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Remote-Controlled Nanocomposite Invented for Drug Delivery Inside Body
[Sarcasm: Perfect for dissidents of the future!]
The application of an external, alternating magnetic field heats the magnetic nanoparticles, causing the gels in the membrane to warm and temporarily collapse. This collapse opens up pores that allow the drug to pass through and into the body. When the magnetic field is turned off, the membranes cool and the gels re-expand, closing the pores and halting drug delivery. No implanted electronics are required.
“We have developed an implantable system that can provide on-demand, reproducible drug release whenever the patient — or other operator — wants, for as long as needed, and with the intensity that is desired, using a trigger that is external to the body — in this case an oscillating magnetic field,” Daniel Kohane told Nanowerk Spotlight Journal.
| [Return to headlines] |
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