The big news of the day concerns the banking crisis kicked off by Dubai World’s announcement it would need to suspend payments on its debt. The prospect of default has sent a tremor through the world’s financial markets. Certain British banks are particularly exposed, and one of the side effects of the crisis may be a precipitous drop in London’s real estate prices.In other news, Malcolm Pearson, Baron Pearson of Rannoch — who is familiar to regular readers of this blog — has been elected leader of the UK Independence Party.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Esther, Gaia, Insubria, JD, KGS, Nilk, Paul Belien, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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America as Texas vs. California
Texas and California are America’s two most populous states, together numbering approximately 55 million people, which is only about 6 million less than the United Kingdom, where I live. California, as everyone knows, has a coolness factor that Texas cannot match. Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and wine. Say no more. But, unless one has been living in a cave, everyone knows that the cool state is also the broke state. If Hollywood turned California’s budget and fiscal position into a movie, it would be a blockbuster horror film indeed.
Texas, on the other hand, is growing, creating wealth, and attracting the entrepreneurial and creative classes that too many people think only go to places like New York and California. This interesting post by Tory Gattis at New Geography explains why. He shares a four-point analysis from Trends magazine:
[…]
By now, the subtext of this post should be clear: the Obama administration is behaving as though California were its model for growth. Increasing unfunded liabilities, proposing $1 trillion in new healthcare spending, responding to the economic crisis with new regulatory agencies but balking on the core causes of the problem—all of this and more betrays a sinister psychology of policy making.
Like California, the Obama team and their congressional allies seem to think that entrepreneurs and business leaders will simply sit there and take it, doing their “civic duty” by paying new direct and indirect taxes, and complying like obsequious puppies with new regulatory requirements. California provides pretty good evidence that this type of “civic duty” wears thin. The best and the brightest won’t just sit there and take it. We are already seeing this in the UK, where entrepreneurs and the job-creating class are leaving (witness this rather enjoyable account of the situation by London’s mayor, Boris Johnson).
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai Debt Now British Banks Face Fresh Crisis After Investing Billions
British banks were teetering on the brink of a fresh meltdown today after it emerged they had invested heavily in crisis-hit Dubai.
An $80billion debt default in the emirate has already reawakened the spectre of a global ‘double dip’ — that the first shoots of recovery could be wiped out by a second wave of recession.
But the level of exposure that the crippled British banking sector faces is now under renewed scrutiny.
The crisis was prompted by Dubai World, the development company behind three palm shaped islands as well as an off-shore replica of the globe , defaulting on its debt.
Today it emerged that:
RBS — which has received the biggest state rescue anywhere in the world — is now effectively owned by the taxpayer.
As the money markets continued to falter, Gordon Brown moved to dispel investors’ panic, claiming that he believed British banks were ‘well-capitalised’.
Speaking at the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad, Mr Brown said: ‘I think we will find this is not on the scale of the previous problems we have dealt with.’
Asked if the Dubai situation could spark a ‘double-dip’ recession, he said: ‘You are obviously going to have setbacks with a bank here or an organisation there which has had problems, but I do believe the world has a better way of monitoring what is happening, so we can be sure that — despite setbacks — we will continue to go forward.’
Stock markets around the world have endured another turbulent 24 hours.
Wall Street plummeted 2 per cent when it opened at 2.30pm GMT this afternoon.
In London, the FTSE fell around 1.5 per cent first thing after a 3 per cent fall yesterday wiped almost £44 billion from blue-chip stocks.
The index recovered its poise to stand 0.5 per cent lower after the first hour of trading. It was at 5188.73 at 12.45pm, down from 5194.13 at start of trading this morning.
In Frankfurt, the Dax index fell 1.32 per cent to 5,540.34 while in France, the CAC lost 1 per cent to 3,639.66.
Asian markets were also under pressure overnight as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell more than 5 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei was 3 per cent lower.
Banks worldwide saw £14billion wiped off their market value yesterday.
Dubai’s rulers have done their best to calm fears, claiming the situation was under control.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum, the uncle of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, said: “Our intervention in Dubai World was carefully planned and reflects its specific financial position.
‘The government is spearheading the restructuring of this commercial operation in the full knowledge of how the markets would react.
‘We understand the concerns of the market and the creditors in particular.
‘However, we have had to intervene because of the need to take decisive action to address its particular debt burden.’
Much of the debt default falls on Dubai World, which owns property developer Nakhell.
As of August, the conglomerate had $59billion of liabilities which it now hopes to avoid redeeming for six months.
Analysts had expected that the Dubai’s oil-rich neighbour Abu Dhabi would offer financial support.
But Dubai may have to abandon an economic model that focused on developing swathes of desert with foreign money and labour.
Even the prospect of an Abu-Dhabi-backed bailout did little to allay concerns among investors, already worried the global economy may not be recovering quickly enough to justify a near doubling of prices for emerging market stocks and many commodities since March.
Tokyo traders have already dubbed the development Financial Crisis Part II.
‘The panic button’s been hit again,’ said Francis Lun, general manager of Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong.
‘The biggest worry I have is whether this will trigger a repricing in the overall emerging market,’ said Arthur Lau, a fund manager in Hong Kong with JF Asset Management.
‘This an important reminder that the credit crisis is forgotten but not gone,’ Robert Rennie, strategist at Westpac Global Markets Group, said in a note.
Asian banks, like their European peers, scrambled to distance themselves from Dubai, a desert emirate that emerged from dusty obscurity to invest in global lenders such as Standard Chartered and lure fund managers with the promise of a tax-free lifestyle.
The nerves showed in credit markets, at the centre of the financial storm triggered by the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy last year.
Asian credit default swaps, used to insure against default, were at their widest in a month, with the Asia ex-Japan iTraxx investment-grade index touching 124/129 basis points.
Dubai’s credit default swaps were being quoted as high as 500-550 basis points, some traders said on Thursday.
Dubai’s debt problems are a hangover from a property bubble that imploded after the financial crisis derailed its plans to become a magnet for tourists and a regional hub for everything from shipping to entertainment.
Banks’ exposure to a Dubai default pales in comparison to the $2.8 trillion in writedowns the International Monetary Fund estimates U.S. and European lenders will have to make between 2007 and 2010 as a result of the credit crisis.
‘Similar stories to the one in Dubai are likely to come out, leading risk money to pull out from assets such as commodities and stocks,’ said Takahiko Murai, general manager of equities at Nozomi Securities in Japan.
Japan’s biggest bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell as Japan’s Nikkei average struck a four-month closing low. It also came under pressure from weak exporters after the dollar hit a fresh 14-year low against the yen. The Australian and New Zealand dollars retreated.
Shares in HSBC Holdings, one of the bookrunners on an outstanding $5.5 billion Dubai World loan, dropped more than 7 per cent and Standard Chartered losses topped 6 per cent.
The London listed shares of the two lenders led the biggest tumble in European bank stocks in six months on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai Debt Crisis Could Lead to Fire Sale of London Properties
Shares slumped in the City for the second day running as the scale of the Dubai financial crisis became clear.
In early trading the FTSE-100 Index was down 54 points, or just over one per cent, to 5140, as fears grew that Dubai’s debts could usher in a second phase of the economic downturn.
It means that more than £60 billion has been wiped off the value of London shares in just over 24 hours.
The sell-off was triggered by an announcement by a Dubai state corporation that it could not pay its debts.
It has raised fears that Dubai investors could be forced into a fire sale of assets to raise funds, including some of London’s most prestigious properties.
Some of the capital’s most prestigious properties could be sold off in the wake of the financial crisis in Dubai, which wiped £44billion off London share prices yesterday.
Several could be put on sale if Dubai is forced to raise cash quickly to service its huge debts.
The properties include the Adelphi on the Strand and the Grand Buildings in Trafalgar Square, both owned by the giant conglomerate Dubai World’s investment arm, Istithmar.
Last month Istithmar sold two properties on Regent Street and another in Oxford Street to London group Great Portland Estates at what agents described as knockdown prices.
Dubai investors paid £155 million for One Trafalgar Square four years ago and, despite a recent upturn in the market, it would be lucky if it managed to make that much through an emergency sale today. Istithmar’s list of investments is valued at more than £2 billion.
They include a 20 per cent stake in Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian circus troupe which recently established a permanent basis in the emirate.
Another investment arm, Dubai Investment Capital, has a 17 per cent stake in Merlin Entertainments, which owns Alton Towers, Madame Tussauds and the London Eye, which is being lined up for a £2 billion stock market flotation later this year.
It also owns the budget hotel chain, Travelodge.
Last year Dubai investors bought the renowned Scottish golf course Turnberry for a reported £55million.
Other sporting interests include the Chris Evert tennis clubs in the United States, a ski resort in Aspen, Colorado, and major horse racing and stud stables including large parts of Newbury.
Dubai investors also bought the QE2 cruise liner for £50 million to turn it into a floating hotel to be moored off the Palm Islands development in the emirate.
The ship is currently moored in Cape Town, where it will be used for fans travelling to next year’s football World Cup in South Africa.
DP World owns container operations at Tilbury and Southampton docks after its £3.9 billion takeover of British shipping giant P&O three years ago and is also building the London Gateway project, which will create one of the largest shipping, freight and logistics operations in Europe.
Through DP World, Dubai also owns a stake in Elizabeth House next to Waterloo station and has interests in properties in Fulham, Brook Street, Petty France and the Nag’s Head shopping centre in Islington.
It is building the Aviator business park near Heathrow and the so-called Regent Quarter backing on to King’s Cross Station.
Dubai holds sizeable stakes in several major London-listed companies, including a 21 per cent stake in the London Stock Exchange and a large holding in Standard Chartered Bank.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
TARP, Recovery and Now … This!
Congress scrambles to write economic ‘jobs stimulus’ 3.0
Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama signed a combined nearly $1.5 trillion in federal spending in the attempt to correct the nation’s economic tailspin, but with unemployment soaring over 10 percent, Congress is gearing up to pass yet another economic “stimulus” package, perhaps as soon as January.
The Los Angeles Times reports that President Obama and fellow Democrats in particular are in process of assembling a new jobs package that would devote unspecified billions of dollars to projects meant to put people back on payrolls in 2010. The House version of “stimulus 3.0” may even be pushed through as quickly as next month.
[…]
Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, however, believes that more government spending will do nothing to solve unemployment.
“There is no doubt that the original stimulus failed to create jobs, and has in fact probably cost additional jobs and prolonged the recession,” he said. “To create jobs we need to lower the tax burden to stimulate investment, which is the exact opposite of what the Democrats did earlier this year and now contemplate again.”
[…]
Political columnist and former presidential appointee Armstrong Williams, however, disagrees:
“A second stimulus package … sorry … ‘jobs initiative’ … is the Democrats’ attempt to give the appearance that their plan is working,” Williams writes. “They know that if the levee cracks before the 2010 midterms, they will be swept out of office, just like the 1994 U.S. midterm elections. Calling a second stimulus package a ‘jobs initiative’ doesn’t change the fact that the administration’s response to the unemployment crisis has been an economic bust. It’s hard to see how more of the same will change that.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Hunger and Poverty Lines Increase in November
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 26 — The monthly income necessary in Turkey to adequately feed a family of four, referred to as the hunger line, has increased to 778 Turkish Liras (347 euro) this month from TL 757 (338 euro) last month, according to the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Turk-Is), as Today’s Zaman reports. The monthly Hunger and Poverty Line Survey, released by Turk-Is, revealed that the amount that a family of four must earn monthly in order to pay rent and meet basic needs, such as food, transportation, clothing and education, also referred as the poverty line, rose from TL 2,465 (1,100 euro) in October to TL 2,533 (1,131 euro) in November. Turk-Is stated that the living conditions of low income groups have worsened due to the economic crisis and increasing unemployment, arguing that in Turkey millions of families cannot afford diets which meet nutritional requirements and are living in conditions that fail to meet minimum standards. The statement said the minimum wage in Turkey is still TL 546.48 (244 euro) despite these figures. While the daily expenditure of a family of four should be approximately TL 85 (38 euro) to be above the poverty line, the minimum daily wage is TL 18 (8 euro), approximately one-fifth of the necessary amount, the survey stated. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Interfaith Prayer Celebrates Thanksgiving
WASHINGTON — In the United Christian Parish church in Reston, Virginia, the scene on the eve of America’s national celebration of Thanksgiving was so sublime with feelings floating in the air.
It was the night Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities from all across Virginia came together for one thanksgiving prayer to God.
“It is embracing the interfaith connection in this community,” said Rev. Joan Bell-Haynes, pastor of the church.
“We came together just to say thank you, regardless of what faith you are, what background you are. We came together to say thank you to God for who we are.”
The service started with the ringing of the church’s bell, then a rabbi blew his horn and finally a Muslim raised the call to prayer.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Jeremiah Denton: War Hero, Cultural Crusader
Classic book resurrected with ‘rest of the story’ of man who defied communists
Adm. Jeremiah Denton was introduced to the nation in an extraordinary TV interview in 1966 in which he blinked in Morse code the word “t-o-r-t-u-r-e” to alert military intelligence to his plight at the infamous Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War.
Denton, whose Navy A-6E Intruder jet was shot down over the North Vietnamese stronghold of Thanh Hoa, recounted his remarkable struggle to survive eight years of brutal captivity in a classic book that WND Books is reissuing today, including a major new section written by Denton for today’s generation.
In the new “When Hell was in Session,” the former U.S. senator and legendary American military hero tells the rest of the story, starting with the shock he experienced upon his return to the United States in 1973 to find his beloved nation had drastically changed since his capture in 1965.
“I saw the appearance of X-rated movies, adult magazines, massage parlors, the proliferation of drugs, promiscuity, pre-marital sex, and unwed mothers.”
That scenario, he writes, was coupled with “the tumultuous post-war Vietnam political events, starting with Congress forfeiting our military victory, thus betraying our victorious American and allied servicemen and women, who had won the war at great cost of blood and sacrifice.”
[…]
Denton observes that since Reagan’s time, “things have not gone as well.”
“One malady continues to worsen: the on-going influence exerted by the misinformation campaign waged by the liberal media/academic community continues to confuse the citizenry,” he writes.
In an interview with WND, Denton said one of the problems he sees today is the disdain for “ideology” by many of the nation’s most influential leaders and lawmakers.
“They are acting like ideology shouldn’t be the point for any discussion of policy,” he said, with energy in his voice belying his 85 years. “[Balderdash!] Ideology is the basis for which you evaluate any policy.”
[…]
President Obama, Denton contended, is usurping the rights of God, “as did Hitler and Stalin and the emperors of Rome.”
“They all had gods — but when they didn’t have good enough gods to constitute a culture, they went to hell,” Denton told WND. “And we are too, if we continue to believe that man, all of us individually, or our government, can determine what the rights are and set up everything else to match that. We’re done.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Appoints Anti-Israel Lobbyist to Anti-Semitism Post
J Street pick hints Jewish state to blame for hatred against its people
President Obama’s new anti-Semitism czar serves on the board of a controversial Israel lobby group accused of working against the Jewish state, while her writings suggest Israel’s policies are to blame for anti-Semitism.
Hannah Rosenthal, a former Health Department regional director under the Clinton administration, started her position earlier this week as the State Department’s new special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. She previously headed the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella U.S. Jewish organization.
Rosenthal, however, serves on the board of J Street, a lobby group that is mostly led by left-leaning Israelis and that receives funds from Arab and Muslim Americans.
J Street brands itself as pro-Israel. It states on its website it seeks to “promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically.”
J Street, however, also supports talks with Hamas, a terrorist group whose charter seeks the destruction of Israel. The group opposes sanctions against Iran and is harshly critical of Israeli offensive anti-terror military actions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The New and Improved Iron Curtain
Back in 1946, Winston Churchill, in a speech delivered at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., referred to an Iron Curtain that had descended across the continent, behind which all the capitals of the ancient states, from Berlin to Belgrade, from Budapest to Sofia, were under the boot of the Soviet Union.
Today, freedom-loving people are faced with a second such curtain. It doesn’t exist in Eastern Europe this time, but along the Potomac. On one side, there are despots like Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Waxman, Sunstein, Emanuel, Axelrod, Specter and Conyers. On the other side are those of us who are sick and tired of having ex—community organizers and their left-wing henchmen doing their best to enslave us. They treat the Constitution like toilet paper; they bribe millions of us, including illegal aliens, with cash and free health benefits, while simultaneously bankrupting the rest of us, along with our kids and their kids.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
William Federer: Fort Hood and Separation of Mosque and State
Thanks to liberal judges everywhere, virtually everyone has heard of the “separation of church and state.” But what about “separation of mosque and state?”
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an outspokenly aggressive Muslim, yelled “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “Allah is great,” before killing 14 (a victim was pregnant) and wounding 31 at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5.
He had reportedly praised Muslim suicide bombers on the Internet; refused, in the name of Islam, to be photographed with female colleagues; listed his nationality as “Palestinian,” and dressed as a fundamentalist Muslim when not in uniform. In 2007, his supervisor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center wrote an evaluation that said of Hasan, “The Faculty has serious concerns about (Capt.) Hasan’s professionalism and work ethic. … He demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism.” As National Public Radio reports, this memo was sent to officials at Fort Hood when Hasan was transferred there.
Even with all of this, some still question whether Hasan’s killing of U.S. soldiers was motivated by his belief in Islam or whether he got a pass from politically correct superiors fearful of accusations of religious bigotry.
Before we condemn as “hateful” those who dare ask such questions, it should be determined what is meant by the term “Islam.”
Is Islam 1) a religious system, 2) a political system or 3) a military system?
The answer is all three, as Muhammad was: 1) a religious leader 2) a political leader and 3) a military leader.
One may ask, what relevance does Muhammad’s life 1,400 years ago have today?
Well, since Muhammad was the best Muslim, those striving to be better Muslims are trying to imitate him, just as Christians try to imitate Jesus (WWJD, or What Would Jesus Do?).
Muhammad’s life is called “the Sunna,” which means “the way” or “the example.” By examining Muhammad’s life, we can gain insights into his followers’ motivations.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch More Worried About Their Culture Than Economy
THE HAGUE, 27/11/09 — The Dutch are more worried about their culture than about the economy. They are also much more worried about ordinary crime than about terrorism, according to a survey by the National Anti-terrorism Coordinator (NCTB) for the Government Information Service (RVD).
Respondents were allowed to say spontaneously what causes them the most concern at the moment. The loss of (Dutch) standards and values emerged as of greatest concern (18 percent). This was followed by joblessness/employment (13 percent) and safety on the street (13 percent).
Only 1 percent named terrorism and terrorist attacks. This was also the case in 2008. On the other hand, 6 percent now say radicalisation is their greatest worry, where last year apparently nobody gave this answer (0 percent).
Also remarkable is the fact that the Dutch were most concerned about the economy (41 percent) last year, but that this worry is now no longer among the top three. The survey also showed that the Dutch have become more fearful in public transport; 35 percent said they sometimes or often feel unsafe in buses, trains or metros, compared with 27 percent in 2008.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Man Gets Life After Court Rejects Appeal for Sister’s ‘Honour Killing’
A German-Afghan man who stabbed his teenage sister to death in a grisly “honour killing” was sentenced to life imprisonment after a court in Karlsruhe rejected his appeal on Thursday.
In a crime that outraged Germany, the man, identified only as Ahmad-Sobair O. knifed his 16-year-old sister Morsal 23 times as he believed she brought dishonour to their family by wearing Western-style clothes and make-up.
The Federal Court of Justice said it was “convinced that the accused committed the crime because his sister, in his opinion, had ‘stained the family’s honour’.”
The court rejected the appeal that the man was psychologically deranged and upheld the initial judgement by a lower court in Hamburg, in the north of the country.
The killer, aged 24 at the time, had said during his trial that he was “sorry from the bottom of his heart” for his actions. “That was my sister and I loved her,” he told the court, breaking down in tears.
Germany has been shocked by around 50 so-called “honour killings” since 1996, mainly in the country’s large Turkish diaspora.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Grade-A Disaster’: Anti-Market French Federalist Handed Power to Oversee the City of London by the EU
The power to oversee the City of London was yesterday given to a Frenchman known for his dislike of the free market and love of a strong EU.
The unveiling of former French foreign minister Michel Barnier was seen as a severe blow for Gordon Brown.
The Government had campaigned against his appointment as European Commissioner for financial services and the internal market.
Mr Barnier is expected to push hard to give Brussels the power to regulate financial institutions here instead of the British authorities.
He helped draw up the original European constitution and has called for an end to Britain’s EU budget rebate.
The new commissioner has also repeatedly made statements attacking ‘too much free-market liberalism’ and called for ‘intervention’.
French government officials are on record as saying they want Paris to become ‘a rival’ to London, which is Europe’s dominant financial market and vital for the UK economy.
City insiders fear tighter regulations could drive British-based finance firms offshore or push them to list on the New York stock market instead.
Senior Tory MP Michael Fallon, who sits on the Treasury select committee, said: ‘It’s a grade-A disaster to have a Frenchman with his fingers on the City’s throat.
‘Gordon Brown has been completely outwitted at such a vulnerable time for the City.’
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson reportedly argued for Britain to hold out for an economic commissioner post.
However, the Prime Minister chose to push Baroness Ashton as EU foreign affairs High Representative instead.
That left the way clear for Britain’s rivals to secure the vital positions.
German Gunther Oettinger won the new post of Energy Commissioner and Joaquin Almunia of Spain was named as Competition Commissioner.
Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: ‘We repeatedly warned that going for the High Representative post and not a senior economic brief in the Commission could have worrying results.
‘Once again Gordon Brown has put the next day’s headlines ahead of the long-term British national interest.
‘Financial services are a vital British economic interest. While we want to co-ordinate regulation internationally, the European Commission’s proposals have the potential to do serious harm to our financial services industry.’
Mats Persson, research director of the Open Europe think tank, said: ‘An industry that is vital to the UK economy and national interest will now effectively be regulated by a protectionist Europhile.
‘The Government has failed to fight for the City of London and the Anglo-Saxon way of doing business.’
Mr Barnier’s appointment will make it far more difficult for the Government to water down any proposals for tighter controls over borrowing and lending.
The Commissioner has significant leeway to set the EU agenda for financial services and is responsible for drafting new legislation.
The EU is already creating a single regulator of financial markets with the power to overrule national regulator.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Head of German Armed Forces Resigns Amid Accusations Over Afghan Military Strike That Killed 30 Civilians
The head of the German armed forces Wolfgang Schneiderhan has resigned over reports the military withheld information about an air strike in Afghanistan believed to have killed dozens of civilians.
The September 4 Nato strike, ordered by a German commander and carried out by a U.S. F-15 fighter, was the most deadly operation involving German troops since World War Two.
Initial reports suggested at least 70 civilians had been killed, but according to the Afghan government the strike killed 69 Taliban fighters and 30 civilians.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PM’s Wife Seeks €43 Mln a Year in Divorce
Rome, 26 Nov. (AKI) — The wife of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, Veronica Lario, is reported to be seeking 43 million euros a year in divorce proceedings. Lario, a former actress, announced her intention to divorce Berlusconi in May, after reports surfaced about his friendship with Noemi Letizia, the 18-year-old Naples lingerie model.
According to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Lario is seeking more than 3.5 million euros a month to maintain the lifestyle the couple shared prior to their separation.
Berlusconi has reportedly offered Lario, with whom he has three children, 200,000 euros a month.
Informed sources have said that Berlusconi considered his wife’s demand “exorbitant” and has offered between 200,000 and 300,000 euros a month.
Maria Cristina Morelli, Lario’s lawyer, declined to speak about the case to the media.
Berlusconi is believed to be worth up to 8 billion euros and is one of Italy’s richest individuals.
He had hoped for a consensual divorce settlement and wanted to avoid legal conflict over the division of his wealth between his three children with Lario and the two children from his first marriage.
Berlusconi was facing fresh pressure about his private life this week after a prostitute published new revelations about the night she allegedly spent with prime minister at his official Rome residence in November 2008.
In her book entitled ‘Gradisca Presidente’ (or ‘Take your Pleasure President’) on Tuesday, D’Addario discussed in graphic detail the night she spent with the premier.
The 73-year-old has said that he has never paid a woman for sex and preferred the pleasure of the ‘conquest’.
He has also denied any liaison with Letizia or any underage girl.
Under Italian law, couples can divorce after three years of separation.
Lario’s decision to take her husband to court means he may be forced to explain his alleged relationships with other women including showgirls and models.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Versace Boss Calls for Management Overhaul in South
Rome, 25 Nov. (AKI) — Southern Italy sufferers from inept and corrupt management which is the main cause of the underdeveloped region’s economic woes, the president of the Italian fashion house Gianni Versace, Santo Versace, has told Adnkronos.
“The south’s number one problem is its managerial class,” Versace said. “There have always been funds available to the region, but these have often vanished.”
He is the older brother of the late Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace who was brutally murdered in 1997.
Santo Versace comes from the southern region of Calabria and is an MP for Italy’s ruling conservative People of Freedom Party (PdL).
Versace expects a 30 percent drop in revenue this year and observers say the family-held firm must move quickly on its restructuring plan, including 350 job cuts worldwide, to stanch losses and return the group to profitability by 2011.
“We need a managerial class that is up to the job, something which requires a cultural and political revolution,” said Versace, who is also co-chief executive officer for Gianni Versace SpA.
The Italian state needs to step in and build infrastructure, including high-speed rail links and a highway connecting Calabria’s regional capital, Reggio Calabria, to the rest of Italy, he argued.
“The south is a gift from God. But you can’t get there easily,” he said.
Economic development in southern Italy is also being hampered by the problem of crime, according to Versace, who wants another 50,000 security forces to be deployed to boost security there.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lord Pearson Becomes Leader of UKIP
It is often argued that frontline politics needs more colour, that dull careerists are robbing it of any interest for most people.
In electing Lord Pearson of Rannoch as its new leader, the UK Independence Party has gone some way to rectifying that situation.
The Eton-educated insurance broker is always up for a public fight — the bigger the opponent, it seems, the better.
In his time he has declared war on, among others, Lloyd’s of London, the Home Office and Marxism.
However, the foe which has taken central billing in the 67-year-old’s cast of villains is the European Union.
‘Head and shoulders’
For years he has railed against its inefficiencies and incursions on the UK’s national sovereignty.
As leader of a party calling for withdrawal from the organisation, he should be in his element.
But he is also under some pressure.
Previous leader Nigel Farage — who stood down to contest a Westminster seat at the next general election — is a difficult act to follow.
A polished media performer, he took UKIP to second place in June’s European elections, returning 13 MEPs.
Mr Farage has described Lord Pearson, his chosen successor, as “head and shoulders above” his four rivals in the leadership contest.
But in the bigger fight — to raise UKIP’s profile in the face of opposition from the “main political parties” — he will be more David than Goliath.
Jonathan Aitken, the former Tory cabinet minister, would argue that it is a role well suited to Lord Pearson, born Malcolm Pearson in 1942.
He told the Daily Telegraph: “In my eyes, he has more moral and physical courage — and the remarkable tenacity that goes with those qualities — than anyone I have ever met short of an SAS commander.
“In my first week at Eton in 1956 I saw this tiny little boy on the football field, not only playing with skill but also tackling boys three times his size.”
After school, Mr Pearson started a successful and lucrative career in the City.
Dissident groups
In 1964 he founded the insurance brokers Pearson Webb Springbett, which went public in 1984.
From 1975 he was involved in the so-called Savonita Affair at the insurance underwriters Lloyd’s of London. His refusal to accept a claim involving cars supposedly lost at sea, but later found to be on sale on the Italian black market, led to reform and a new Act of Parliament.
During the 1980s Mr Pearson gave what he calls “financial and other assistance” to dissident groups in Soviet-dominated eastern Europe.
And, in 1990, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, one of his political idols and a vociferous opponent of Marxism, recommended him for a Conservative peerage, which he accepted.
While in the Lords, though, Lord Pearson’s attitude towards the EU hardened.
He says it was his membership of the Lords EU select committee, from 1992 to 1996, which “led me to become a leading exponent of the case for the UK to leave the European Union”.
Dutch MP row
In 2004, unhappy with his party’s stance on the issue, he recommended that people should instead vote for UKIP in the European elections.
Lord Pearson lost the Tory whip and joined UKIP three years later, instantly becoming one of its best known figures.
But it was earlier this year when he came to wider prominence as a politician.
Lord Pearson invited controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders to show his allegedly anti-islamist film Fitna in the House of Lords.
However, Mr Wilders was turned away from the UK in February on the grounds that he could stir up public disorder.
Lord Pearson responded with outrage, saying the visit was a “matter of free speech”.
Eventually the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal decided Mr Wilders could come and he did so in October, giving a press conference with the UKIP peer by his side.
Lord Pearson is expected to make a much stronger public stand on Islam than UKIP leader than Mr Farage did.
But Mr Farage, who will continue to lead the party in Brussels, could not have been less impartial in advocating Lord Pearson as his successor, as the UKIP leadership election approached.
He told the BBC: “There are five candidates standing. Only one of them is a serious, credible candidate and that’s Lord Pearson, who has had major achievements in his life in business and politics too… If it’s not Lord Pearson, things will be tricky.”
Some say that, if he fails in his bid to become MP for Buckingham at the next general election, Mr Farage may want to return to the party leadership.
This, it is argued, would make Lord Pearson little more than a flamboyant caretaker.
The peer, who advocates an “amicable divorce” from the EU, would probably disagree.
| — Hat tip: Paul Belien | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Council of Britain Leader to Get Life Peerage
Gordon Brown will offer a life peerage to the head of the Muslim Council of Britain, Muhammad Abdul Bari — even though government links with the organisation are officially suspended.
The news comes from an unexpected quarter — the Jewish Chronicle, which explains that ministers are keen to find a prominent Muslim to enter the House of Lords as a way of balancing the peerage given to Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks earlier this year.
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UK: Ed Balls Comes Out Fighting — for ‘Racist’ Islamic Schools
A trustee of one of the schools which Ed Balls is defending has written in a Hizb ut Tahrir journal condemning the “corrupt western concepts of materialism and freedom,” observes Andrew Gilligan.
Ed Balls has been playing politics with the issue of Islamic schools Photo: Philip Hollis
We connoisseurs of Ed Balls, a small but happy band, know from experience that the moment he gets that complacent little smile playing round his lips is the time to set the video; the moment when Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families is once more about to walk, unknowingly, into an open manhole.
Mr Balls has been having good sport with the Tories this week. On Newsnight on Wednesday, the little smile was in full operation as he expressed mock sympathy with their communities spokesman, Paul Goodman, for having to defend the “factual errors” and “irresponsible politics” of his leader, David Cameron, in the row over Islamic schools.
The Tories should have “checked their facts”, he chided. Ofsted, he told Radio 4, “have satisfied themselves that there were not problems in these schools”. The whole episode “casts real doubt on David Cameron’s judgment”, he said, sorrowfully.
Cameron had said that two schools run by members or activists of a thoroughly nasty extremist organisation, Hizb ut Tahrir, had been paid £113,000 of public money. The allegation came from a story of mine in the Telegraph four weeks ago.
The central charge is perfectly true, thoroughly documented — and a scandal. But Cameron made some mistakes in the detail, sending the Westminster media chasing down one of their classic “process issue” cul-de-sacs (whether the schools were registered, and which particular part of the Whitehall cake this slice of cash had come from) and allowing Balls to launch his attack on Cameron. He clearly thought he’d scored a bullseye: one-nil to the forces of Gordon.
But it turns out to be Ed Balls, just as much as Cameron, who’s been playing politics and failing to check the facts. The issue is not the situation with the schools now. It’s the situation at the time the public money was paid. It turns out that the schools’ chief Hizb ut Tahrir trustee, Yusra Hamilton, only resigned last month, in response to my story, long after the Government grant came in.
The headteacher of one of the schools, Farah Ahmed, who remains a trustee to this day, refuses to deny that she was a Hizb member and has written in a Hizb journal condemning the “corrupt western concepts of materialism and freedom.”
And Ofsted — far from “satisfying themselves that there were no problems” — actually condemned one of the two schools as “inadequate,” questioned the suitability of the staff, and said that it could do more “to promote cultural tolerance and harmony.” That was in November 2007.
By May 2008, according to a follow-up report, the school had been magically transformed, and was now “good”. That second report, however, was written by an inspector with, at the very least, personal connections to Islamic groups.
I fear Mr Balls’s heavy reliance on these Ofsted reports to defend the schools is about to make him look pretty silly. Ofsted is also, of course, the body that rated children’s services in Haringey “good” — in the same year that the borough was comprehensively failing Baby P.
But there’s a broader point. If taxpayer-funded schools were run by supporters of the BNP, there would be an outcry. Hizb ut Tahrir is an Islamic version of the BNP: not actually violent, but openly anti-Semitic, racist, and an enemy of liberal society.
Do Ed Balls and New Labour really want to be the friends and defenders of such people? Does Balls really think it’s good politics to be the Minister for Hizb ut Tahrir?
Not for the first time, the minister has allowed his thirst for a quick hit on the Tories to overcome his common sense. And not for the first time, he has scored a tactical victory, but dropped a massive strategic clanger.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Furious MP Uses Parliamentary Privilege to Accuse Council of ‘Kidnapping’ Nine-Week-Old Baby From Parents
Social workers who forced a couple to give up their 11-week-old baby for adoption have been accused of ‘child kidnap’ by an MP.
Staff waited until the girl’s father was out before launching a raid with police at the family home to ‘snatch the baby from the arms of her mother’.
Tory MP Tim Yeo used Parliamentary privilege to make the allegations in the Commons, saying Suffolk County Council had declared the couple to be unfit parents despite having no evidence of physical or emotional abuse.
‘This council actively seeks opportunities to remove babies from their mothers,’ he added.
‘Its social work staff do so in a manner which in my view is sometimes tantamount to child kidnapping.’
In a further claim, Mr Yeo told the Daily Mail that social services became involved only because the woman’s former husband had successfully sought custody of their son previously.
He alleged the ex-husband’s girlfriend, who works for Essex social services, had contacted a friend at Suffolk social services and a ‘ spurious’ concern over the mother’s parenting skills was concocted around an occasion when she refused to send her son to school.
The parents, who can see their daughter only once a month on a supervised visit, now plan to flee abroad because the mother is pregnant again and is terrified the new child will also be taken away.
Using fake names to protect the family’s identities, Mr Yeo said: ‘Carissa and Jim have not managed their lives particularly well but that does not disqualify them from being good parents.
‘The council could have provided help which would have allowed them to keep their daughter, Poppy.’
‘On October 27 last year, council staff — having ensured that Jim would be away from home — accompanied by police, arrived unannounced and snatched Poppy from the arms of her distraught mother.’
A legal battle was raging over her removal, he added, and throughout the process the council had repeatedly changed its grounds for intervening, alternating between blaming one parent and then the other.
‘The first doctor’s psychological assessment of Carissa declared she qualified for a diagnosis of factitious disorder [formerly known as Munchausen’s by proxy],’ he said.
‘Then a consultant forensic psychiatrist, after the briefest of assessments, decided that she fulfilled the criteria for the much more catch-all narcissistic personality disorder.
‘The first doctor assessed that Jim was ‘a pathological liar’ but later a consultant clinical psychologist ‘would not endorse the expression’.
‘The final favoured rationale given by social services for Poppy’s adoption order was based on nothing more than the possibility of future emotional abuse.’
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Vatican: Churches Can’t be Put to Immoral Use
(ANSA) — Vatican City, November 26 — Care should be taken to ensure disused churches are not turned to immoral purposes, a Vatican ‘minister’ warned Thursday. The head of the Vatican’s culture department, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravisi, cited a basilica in Hungary sold off some years ago. “It has now become a nightclub and a stripper performs her finale on the altar each evening,” he said. Ravasi, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, said it was understandable that dioceses would be forced to sell or demolish churches they could no longer afford to maintain. “Given the falling number of faithful, a problem that unfortunately exists even in the heart of Rome, and the exorbitant repair and maintenance costs, if churches contain no special art treasures then there are bound to be sales and demolitions,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
We Are All Belgians Now
How the European Union’s horse-trading over top jobs reflects murky coalition-building
EUROPE, it is said, must resist the temptation to become a giant Switzerland: ie, a smug, rich, insular place. But judging by the antics of European leaders as they filled two top European Union jobs on November 19th, the club faces another danger altogether: becoming a giant Belgium.
Lots of European countries indulge in shadowy coalition politics, with jobs divvied out among rival parties, but Belgium takes the biscuit. All Belgian governments are big coalitions, uniting parties that loathe one another, staffed by fixed quotas of ministers from the French- and Dutch-speaking communities (who also cannot stand each other). Democracy barely counts, as even parties thumped at the ballot box return to office. What is the link between this and the selection of Herman Van Rompuy as the first full-time president of the European Council, and of Catherine Ashton as a new foreign-policy chief? It is the European weakness for coalition politics, in which a quest for “balance” all too often trumps talent or merit.
There were winners and losers from the process that led to Mr Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton. The losers include those hoping for EU representatives to “stop the traffic” in Washington and Beijing. Mr Van Rompuy, an ascetic sort, has been prime minister of Belgium for less than a year: his name was pushed by France and Germany as a modest conservative from a small country who would chair EU summits without overshadowing them. Lady Ashton is capable and gets on with colleagues. But she has never held elected office and has no diplomatic experience. After a career in quasi-public agencies, she became a Labour minister, going to Brussels only in 2008 to take over the trade portfolio from Peter Mandelson. After the summit, Nicolas Sarkozy of France was asked why Lady Ashton was chosen. He gave three reasons: because it was felt a woman should hold a big EU job, because a centre-left politician was needed to “balance” Mr Van Rompuy and because “our British friends” wanted the post.
Arguably, the biggest winners were the pan-European parties that unite politicians from Europe’s centre-right and centre-left. These umbrella parties, matched by parallel groups in the European Parliament, are barely known to the voters. They strain credibility as ideological alliances. The centre-left Party of European Socialists (PES) unites ex-communists from eastern Europe with Nordic social democrats. Yet most Nordic socialists are more comfortable with the free market than some nominally centre-right parties from France or Greece, which sit in the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP).
Britain, as ever, is an outlier…
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Croatia: Roses Fashion Outlet, 41.1 Mln in Turnover
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, NOVEMBER 26 — Despite the crisis, fashion outlets continue to be a hit with Croatian consumers. A year after their opening, the shoppers, traffic and leasers continue to increase every month in the fashion outlets Sveta Helena and Roses Fashion Outlet of Sveti Kriz Zacretje. The Italian Trade Institute (ICE) office in Zagreb noted that, with its 70 shops and over 150 brands, Roses has seen over 2 million shoppers and HRK 3 million (about 41.1 million euros) in total revenue since it opened. Both shopping centres have land set aside for expansion projects in the next phases of development. While the Sveta Helena centre is weighing various options for the next development phase, in 2010 the Roses centre will be investing 20 million euros in its second phase of development.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Textiles, Good Results for Triko in 2008
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, NOVEMBER 26 — In 2008, the Croatian textile manufacturer Triko, sub-supplier of Benetton Croatia, saw positive results with total revenue at HRK 5.3 million (about 720,000 euros). According to the Italian Trade Institute (ICE) office in Zagreb, in a sector hit hard by the crisis Triko has announced that it will be hiring 75 operators (adding to the 200 current ones). The average net salary is HRK 3500 (about 480 euros). Triko also announced that it would soon be building a new production facilities in the commercial zone Lovas, and has acquired the franchising licence for Benetton. It will soon be opening four Benetton shops in Vukovar. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oil: Croatia: Survey, 2013 Requirement at 105,000 Barrels
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, NOVEMBER 19 — In four years Croatia will have a daily requirement for businesses and the population of 105,000 barrels per day, according to a report published by the portal Internet Companiesandmarkets.com and quoted by the Italian Trade Institute (ICE) office in Zagreb. It is also forecast that by 2013 Croatia could participate with a 1.86% share in the overall demand for oil in Central and South-East Europe, while its participation in the supply might seem negligible, since Croatia’s current output is at 16,000 barrels per day and will drop to almost 11,000 barrels over the next four years. The survey also says that daily requirements in Croatia may rise at an annual rate of 1.5%, more slowly than other countries in the region, increasing its oil imports from 85,000 barrels per day in 2008 to 94,000 in 2013. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Urbino: 100 Scholarships for Balkan Students
(ANSAmed) — URBINO, NOVEMBER 26 — The University of Urbino strengthens relations with the Balkans through the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative (AII) established in 2000, in which eight countries participate: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. The university’s administrative council launched 100 scholarships in homage to the Declaration of Ancona, location of the AII secretary-general who hoped to strengthen the process of the region’s political and economic integration. The scholarships are reseved for students from the five AII countries not yet part of the European Union: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptians Don’t Stop Denouncing Our Lack of Arabism. We Tried to Explain Them That We Are Berbers
As readers of The Lede will be aware, North Africa has been facing a new source of strife in recent weeks — soccer. Last Wednesday, after the Egyptian national soccer team lost its World Cup bid to rival Algeria 1-0 in Sudan, 32 police officers and 21 Egyptian fans were reportedly injured in violence. The next day, Egyptian demonstrations outside the Algerian embassy in Cairo turned violent.
The Egyptian anger was partly a response to anti-Egyptian rioting in Algeria in the days before the match, which was in turn sparked by the stoning of the Algerian national team’s bus at a previous game in Cairo the week before.*
In the days after the most recent match, tensions escalated as the governments of the two countries traded incendiary statements, and Egypt recalled its ambassador from Algiers.
According to Libya’s official news agency, an international leader has now stepped in to attempt to defuse the strife: Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
Colonel Qaddafi, known for his bombastic behavior and his iron-handed leadership, may seem an unlikely choice to fill a peacemaking role, but according to a report from the Libyan news agency, he is uniquely qualified to bridge the rift, given “the status the Leader enjoys with both sides.” The agency says that the Libyan leader’s intervention comes at the request of the Arab league, though reports on Tuesday of efforts by the pan-Arab body to find a solution to the feud made no mention of the Colonel.
In fact, Al Arabiya reported on Tuesday that a diplomatic source from the Arab League told the the broadcaster that grandstanding politicians might be part of the problem. According to Al Arabiya, the diplomat said that “one of the main proposals was a bid to ban celebrities and politicians from attending future matches between Egypt and Algeria as it was considered one of the major factors that led to the recent clashes that followed the game.”
Al Arabiya added that “Arab initiatives to solve the problem intensified in the wake of a provocative statement made by Israel and in which it offered to mediate between Egypt and Algeria.”
In recent months Colonel Qaddafi, in his role as the chair of the African Union, has expressed his desire to bring the disparate countries of the continent together. He advocates that the African Union become more like the European Union, with one passport and one currency. The current divide between Egypt and Algeria is a clear obstacle to that goal.
Diplomatic tensions between Egypt and Algeria escalated after last week’s match as each side accused the other of orchestrating the violence surrounding the two games. Observers have suggested that this aids leaders in both countries, since the fervor around soccer has roused nationalist zeal, distracting people from their governments’ shortcomings. Colonel Qaddafi, and by extension the Arab League and African Union, could by trying to redirect the ardent nationalism into a pan-African, pan-Arab enthusiasm. (Although some Algerians deny that they are Arabs at all. One of our readers, who joined the heated debate over the two recent matches between the national teams in the comments threads here on The Lede, wrote: “Egyptians don’t stop denouncing our lack of Arabism. We tried to explain them that we are Berbers.”)
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Feast of Sacrifice; Tunisia, Technology Has Effect
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, NOVEMBER 27 — Technology has made it entrance in Tunisia in rituals that precede the ‘Festival of Sacrifice’ because, thanks to cellphones, sales of sheep (the animals that are sacrificed) are keeping the prices of the animals practically the same everywhere thanks to people keeping in touch telephonically. This is happening today, while in the past the buyers would circulate the markets, buying the animal at what they found to be the cheapest price. But today the prices are completely aligned, with a farewell to competition. As regards the sheep, they are divided into two categories: under or over 40kg. It is not a trifling distinction as the price varies according to the weight. This can bring about arguments and it is for this reason that many people take their own set of weighing scales when they go to buy the animal. And if negotiations produce positive results, it is not rare to see the buyers leaving the market with the animal strapped to the back seat of their vehicles, without the traffic police saying a word. As regards the butchering, while in Tunis and in other large cities there has been a ban for some time on doing it in street outside one’s house, this doesnt go for smaller centres. So, several days before the feast, knife sharpeners and butchers enter on the scene. The former to sharpen the blades with which they will slaughter the animal, the latter to do the killing itself. All for just a few dinars. Another custom in peripheral centres is to make the sheep fight. These fights are followed by many people, with bets and great participation. But a handsome sheep is also a sign of distinction for the family that has bought it, and thus it is also common to see it being taken for a walk on a lead. Until the morning of Eid al-Adha. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Eilat Attack Prevented, Air Raid on Gaza
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — A sudden resurgence of violence is reported in Israel and in the Palestinian territories while the countries awaiting news on an prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas. The most potentially serious episode was north of the Israeli tourist city of Eilat, where last night a Israel patrol intercepted a man attempting to cross the border between Egypt and Israel. The man escaped but the soldiers found a bomb with 15 kilos of explosive in the area that was ready to be used. If the bomb had exploded in a crowded area of Eilat, military radio estimated it would have killed dozens of people. There was also tension on the border between Gaza and Israel. Yesterday Palestinian militants fired mortars at an area in the Israeli Neghev. Today the Israeli air force conducted a raid on the Jabalya refugee camp and are reported to have hit a militant cell. Of the four people injured, one is in serious condition. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lieberman Scorns Palestinian Rejection of Peace Talks
Jerusalem, 26 Nov. (AKI) — Israel’s hardline foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday said Israel “couldn’t care less” that Palestinians had rejected fresh peace talks offered by Israel. The Jewish state on Wednesday announced a 10-month halt in West Bank settlement construction to convince the Palestinian National Authority to restart peace negotiations.
“What we could have contributed, we did,” Lieberman said in an interview with Israel Radio.
“The Palestinians will make their considerations based on internal considerations that don’t need to concern us.”
Far more important were the reactions of the settlers and “Israel’s friends” around the world, he said.
Although Israel has made more gestures in the last 10 months than all previous governments, the Palestinians reacted by “cursing and quarrelling,” said Lieberman, adding that the ball was now “in their court”.
Israeli’s conservative prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced late Wednesday that Israel would freeze new buildings in the West Bank settlements for 10 months.
But he said the freeze did not apply to East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians consider as their future capital.
The security cabinet has approved Netanyahu’s proposal.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said on Thursday that Israel’s plan to temporarily freeze settlement building in the West Bank did not present any basis for resuming peace talks and was a ploy aimed at deceiving the international community.
“Netanyahu’s plan is rejected and we Palestinians consider it a ploy and a narrow-minded manoeuvre,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the PLO’s executive committee.
“It doesn’t add anything new to the efforts of resuming the peace talks and it aims to avoid international pressure that rejects the settlements,” Abed Rabbo told journalists in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israel’s plan will allow projects to be completed and will not stop building public facilities for nearly 300,000 Jews in the occupied West Bank.
Abed Rabbo said the negotiations could not resume without the full freeze of settlement buildings in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Another PLO condition for the resumption of peace talks is that Israel must recognise the borders of the territories occupied in the 1967 war as the boundaries of a future Palestinian state.
The United States has been urging the sides to resume peace talks and has said the Israeli move could help them do so.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netanyahu Proposal on Israeli Settlements a “Deception”
The Israeli premier halts settlement construction for 10 months, but rules out restrictions on the natural growth of existing settlements. Even the settlements around East Jerusalem are exempt from restrictions. According to the Palestinians construction will continue, indeed “get worse.”
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) — Members of the Palestinian Authority have criticized the proposal by Israeli Prime Minister this morning to stop, the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories for a 10 month period. “Israel talks about a slowdown, not a freeze,” said a representative of the PLO. And Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian Parliamentary deputy, adds: “What Netanyahu has announced is one of the biggest attempts at deception in his life.”
Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday announced “with pain” that Israel will limit the construction of colonies for 10 months, to give “new impetus” to peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
But he also stated that “we will not stop existing building and will continue to build synagogues, schools, kindergartens and public buildings essential to normal life.” Moreover, he added, the restrictions would not apply to Jerusalem, “our sovereign capital.” Palestinians point out that the Netanyahu proposal in practice brings nothing new and that “the development of the settlements will go ahead as usual.”
Under international law, Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories during the war of ‘67 are illegal. Nevertheless to date there are at least 500 thousand Israelis living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the Israeli population in the colonies increases annually by 5-6%.
In 2003 Tel Aviv agreed to freeze settlements as a condition for peace talks with the Palestinians, but the halt never happened. In recent years Israel has built settlements in many areas including East Jerusalem and Bethlehem, calling them “part of Jerusalem.”
According to analysts, this allows Israel to break the territorial continuity between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, laying the foundations to make Jerusalem the only “sovereign and eternal capital” of Israel forever and subtracting East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
“They want the green light to build in east Talpiyot, Gilo, Ramat Eshkol,” said a representative of the PLO. “These settlements are not even part of Jerusalem”, but were annexed to Jerusalem by law.
A few days ago the city government started the construction of 900 new homes in Gilo. According to the Palestinians the development in the West Bank will advance, indeed “things will be worse.”
In recent months the U.S. president Barack Obama had said that the bloc of settlements was a prerequisite for the peace process. Yesterday, George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy for the Middle East called the Netanyahu proposal “significant” and of “substantial impact.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
President Obama Wants the Israelis to Release 1,000 Terrorists…
The naive American President urged Israel today to release 1,000 terrorists in exchange for “peace” with the Palestinians.
Arutz Sheva reported, via Israel Matzav:
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he could “guarantee” that arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti would not be released from prison in any deal to exchange terrorists for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. “We have no intention to free the head of the murderers, a person who has been sentenced to four life terms in prison. There are red lines, and this is one of them,” Lieberman said.
In response to U.S. demands that Israel free an additional 1,000-some terrorists as a “gesture” to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, Lieberman said that previous releases of Fatah terrorists “have not proven themselves. The Olmert administration did this several times and it did not work, and we do not plan to allow it to happen,” Lieberman said.
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Residents Warned Not to Speak With US Snoops
(IsraelNN.com) Veteran settler and ex-MK Elyakim Haetzni warns Judea/Samaria towns against divulging construction information to Obama’s roving representatives.
Emissaries of the Obama administration have been traveling around Judea and Samaria in recent weeks, asking residents about construction in their towns and passing the information back to Washington. In Efrat, for instance, the “capital” of Gush Etzion, Regional Council head Sha’ul Goldstein met with an American diplomat who asked for a briefing on the pace of construction in the region.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Statistics Bureau: Muslim Growth Rate on the Decline in Israel
The birthrate of the Muslim community in Israel is declining, according to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics ahead of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice.
According to the bureau’s report, the Muslim community’s growth rate dropped one percent in 2009 to 2.8 percent, down from 3.8 percent in 2008. However, the Muslim growth rate is still the highest among all groups in Israel, with the Druze population growing at 1.8 percent a year, Christian-Arabs at 1.3 percent and Jews at 1.6 percent a year.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Beauty Which Goes Skin Deep
Cosmetic companies have unleashed a new trend that has been gaining wild popularity in the Middle East. The large, untapped market of halal cosmetics — only in the Middle East — total to almost $600 million in value. This much-hyped phenomenon is touted to expand further in the region.
A 2008 survey conducted by Messe Frankfurt estimated that annually some $150 million halal merchandise is sold across the United Arab Emirates alone, the bulk of which comprise skin care products, according to the Halal Journal of Malaysia. Forecasts quoted by the Halal Journal state that the halal industry is expected to grow at a rate of 12 percent.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Turkey: Bildt, Historic Mistake if Doors Close on Ankara
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 25 — Closing the doors on Turkey would be an historic mistake for which Europe would pay the consequences for a long time, Swedens Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, told the European Parliament today. Some people want to slam the door in Ankaras face, but if we close our door on Turkey, others will open for them, said Bildt, explaining that Turkey would turn elsewhere, to other neighbours. Something which would have consequences for us too, he concluded. But Ankara’s road towards the EU is not at all an easy one: There is still a long way to go, said EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn. Ankaras recent reconciliation with Armenia is not enough for Rehn, it must also resolve the Cyprus question, reopening its doors and airports to Cypriots: it is a crucial factor, he ended. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Turkey: Euro Parliament Concerned About Free Speech
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 26 — The situation regarding freedom of speech in Turkey and the Balkans is so worrying that new regulations are needed to safeguard the media: so says the EU Parliament, in a resolution approved today, asking the aspiring European countries to approve appropriate legal frameworks to safeguard basic freedoms. Approving a resolution presented by President of the Foreign Affairs Commission, Gabriele Albertini (Ppe), the European Parliament repeated its firm commitment to an enlargement policy which it says is one of the most successful of the EU policies which has brought benefits both to old and new member States. At the same time though, the Strasbourg Assembly notes with concern that in some countries like the Western Balkans and Turkey freedom of expression and of the media are not yet fully respected and invites them to set up appropriate legal frameworks. The Euro MPs are concerned about the fine for tax evasion imposed by the government in Ankara on Dogan Media Group (Dmg), Turkeys largest publishing group. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Health: Turkey to Warn Smokers on Packages
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 23 — Turkey will start warning smokers both in written and visual on packages as of January 1, 2010, as Anatolia news agency reports quoting the chairman of the Turkish Tobacco & Alcohol Market Regulation Board (TAPDK) Mehmet Kucuk as saying. “Besides written warnings, there will be 14 pictures on the cigarette and other tobacco product packages,” Kucuk said adding that the board would try to draw attention to the harms of cigarettes with this method. There are actually 180 different types of cigarette packages in Turkey. All the packages will be changed with the visual warning system. The cigarette packages produced till December 31, 2009 which only include written warnings can be put into market till June 30, 2010. Both visual and written warnings shall cover 65% of the cigarette packages. There will not be any cigarette packages without visual warnings in Turkey as of January 1, 2011. Turkey banned smoking on public transportation and in workplaces and malls in May 2008. It gave extra time to restaurants, bars and cafes to bring themselves in compliance with the smoking ban law. Expanded smoking ban went into effect across Turkey on June 19, 2009. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
IAEA Chief: Iran Investigation at ‘Dead End’
VIENNA — The outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday his probe of Iran’s nuclear program is at “a dead end” and that trust in Tehran’s credibility is shrinking after its belated revelation that it was secretly building a nuclear facility.
Mohamed ElBaradei’s blunt criticism of the Islamic Republic — four days before he leaves office — was notable in representing a broad convergence with Washington’s opinion, which for years was critical of the IAEA chief for what it perceived as his softness on Iran.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Lebanese Government to Endorse Hizbullah Attacks
(IsraelNN.com) The new Lebanese government formed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri will officially endorse the Hizbullah terror militia and grant legitimacy to its attacks on Israel.
Hariri’s national unity cabinet, including two members of Hizbullah, has been attempting to hammer out government guidelines ever since its formation earlier this month. A central sticking point has been Hizbullah’s insistence that its independent arsenal of weapons be officially endorsed by the state. According to the Iranian-backed organization, its arms are non-negotiable. Cabinet members of the Phalangist Party and the Lebanese Forces insist that Hizbullah weapons undermine government authority and are in direct violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The two parties initially said they would refuse to sign off on any government guidelines that left Hizbullah free to use its arsenal freely.
After nine attempts, according to Lebanese Information Minister Tarik Mitri, a draft agreement was reached on Wednesday that grants the Hizbullah demand. According to Mitri, the government guidelines will recognize the right “of Lebanon, its government, its people, its army and its resistance” to liberate Lebanese territory. The “resistance”, in this case, refers directly to Hizbullah.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Riyadh: Man to be Decapitated for Witchcraft
In a recent report, Human Rights Watch calls for the sentence to be overturned. Each year, dozens of people are convicted in the desert kingdom for acts against Sharia.
Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Saudi Arabia should overturn a death sentence imposed on a Lebanese national convicted of practicing witchcraft during a visit to the conservative kingdom, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report. The international human rights group also complained about the increasing use of charges of ‘witchcraft,’ crimes that are vaguely defined and arbitrarily used, to arbitrarily arrest and detain people across the kingdom.
The report highlights ongoing complaints over the Saudi justice system, which, whilst based on Islamic law, leaves a wide leeway to individual judges and can often result in dramatically inconsistent sentences.
Ali Sibat, a Lebanese psychic who made predictions on a satellite TV channel from his home in Beirut, was arrested by religious police in the holy city of Madinah during a pilgrimage in May 2008 and then sentenced to death by decapitation on 9 November this year.
“He was the most popular psychic on the channel,” said May al-Khansa, Sibat’s lawyer. “The number of callers, including from all over the Gulf, spiked in number when he appeared,” she added. “He was told if he confessed to witchcraft, he will be released and allowed to return to Lebanon.”
Sibat’s case is not unique. Dozens of people are arrested each year on charges like witchcraft, recourse to supernatural beings, black magic and fortune telling. These practices are considered polytheistic and severely punished according to Sharia rules.
HRW’s report also mentioned the case of Mustafa Ibrahim, an Egyptian pharmacist who was executed on 2 November 2007 for sorcery, which he allegedly used to break up a married couple.
In October 2006, a criminal court in the city of Jiddah convicted Eritrean national Muhammad Burhan for being a “charlatan,” based on a leather-bound personal phone booklet containing writing in Eritrea’s Tigrinya alphabet, and sentenced him to 20 months in prison and 300 lashes. He was eventually deported after serving more than double the time in prison.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Mufti Urges Muslims to Oppose Terrorism
Mecca, 26 Nov. (AKI) — A key Islamic leader on Thursday urged Muslims to fight terrorism and oppose suicide attacks. In a sermon to mark the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia known as the Hajj, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al Sheikh said the world was facing challenges related to terrorism and efforts were being made to destroy young Muslims.
In a sermon delivered at Arafat, he said the world knew more about Islam today than ever before and some people were trying to create misconceptions and doubts about the religion.
An estimated three million pilgrims from all around the world were gathering on the plains of Arafat for the annual pilgrimage.
Sheikh Abdul Aziz said that Islam was a religion of peace that opposed terrorism and he urged young Muslims to remain cautious.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia: Two Million Muslims Prepare to Stone Devil at Haj
MUZDALIFA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) — Some two million Muslims headed to Muzdalifa on Thursday after spending the day at the plain of Arafat to prepare to cast stones at the devil in the most dangerous part of the annual haj pilgrimage.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Pins Hopes on Spanish Presidency to Renew Vigor in EU Voyage
During his official trip to Spain, Davutoglu visited the Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba, with his Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos, on Sunday.
“We have great expectations of Spain because Spain understands the strategic asset of Turkey very well,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu who was lobbying Spanish officials and businessmen last weekend for what he called an “accelerated pace for the accession process to the EU.”
Amid growing concerns on the Turkish side that the accession negotiations were becoming increasingly politicized and the chapters requiring completion are subject to veto and blockages, Turkey embarked on shuttle diplomacy to test the waters in European capitals and initiated a drive to convince the political actors for more engagement on behalf of Turkey. Spain is set to take over the rotating presidency of the European Union starting on Jan. 1, 2010 for a duration of six months.
Davutoglu’s visit to the country covering four major cities apparently aimed to engage Spanish officials in the Turkish process in advance of assuming this leadership role and urge them in favor of the Turkish position on a number of issues between Ankara and Brussels.
Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman on a flight to Cordoba to meet his counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos, the Turkish foreign minister described relations with Spain as “excellent” and expressed his hope for movement on the stalled negotiation process once Spain takes over the presidency. He criticized some EU member countries for trying to halt the process or at least slow it down, saying this was discouraging to the Turkish side who wanted to move as fast as possible.
Turkey began EU membership negotiations officially in 2005, but has so far opened talks in only 11 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must complete. While France and Germany lead the pack in opposition to Turkish membership, Spain, in contrast, says it fully backs Turkey’s bid to join the bloc. Speaking to reporters after the meeting with Davutoglu, the Spanish foreign minister vowed to keep Turkey’s membership process as “irreversible” during their presidency and pledged to do everything possible to boost Ankara’s drive to be a full member.
Turkey hopes to be able to open at least two chapters during the Spanish presidency. The EU has suspended the opening of eight chapters, claiming Ankara refuses to allow Greek vessels and aircraft to use Turkish ports and airports. France, fiercely opposed to Turkish membership, has also unilaterally blocked five chapters. Ankara was especially infuriated when it learned the environment chapter, for which it had prepared a 1500-page strategy document for compliance with EU environmental policies, will be blocked politically by some EU member states.
Davutoglu said in Spain that an attempt to thwart the opening of new chapters is simply not understandable. “We are criticized by the Europeans for not being fast enough, but is it because of us or them?” he asked the crowd in a well-attended breakfast meeting in Madrid’s Carl Ritz hotel on Monday.
Earlier on the plane, speaking to Today’s Zaman, Davutoglu said: “We are faced with a political blockade from some countries on the opening of the environment chapter. Trying to block the process for political reasons is unfair.” Turkey has been planning to open the environment chapter next month at the Intergovernmental Conference. “In the beginning of the negotiation process, we were told that the chapter on the environment was one of the hardest to open,” he said. “But we fulfilled the opening criteria in less than a few months. Instead of encouraging, they indirectly discouraged us,” he said.
Multi-tiered strong relations with Spain
Davutoglu stresses that Turkey’s relations with Spain are not limited to the EU dimension and goes beyond that to cover bilateral relations, regional and global affairs as well. He said both countries that once fought as rival naval armadas to dominate the Mediterranean for centuries, are partners in the same place today.
The prime ministers of both countries agreed in September 2008 to hold bilateral annual summits which have upgraded relations to a new level. The first Spain-Turkey summit was held in April 2009 and the next is scheduled to take place in February 2010. On a side note, Turkish diplomats underlined that Spain had decided to postpone intergovernmental meetings because of the heavy burden of implementing the new Lisbon treaty when Spain takes over the rotating EU presidency next January, but has kept the meeting with the Turkish government on schedule. “That shows our relations are on solid ground,” said one diplomat, asking not to be named.
Davutoglu also conveyed the strong message to a group of businessmen and industrialists at a prestigious Nueva Economia Forum meeting. He said, “The dramatic growth in our bilateral trade and the development of our economic relations perfect match our political relations perfectly.” The trade volume between Turkey and Spain grew significantly in the last couple of years and has reached 8.6 billion dollars in 2008. Spain is the tenth most important trading partner of Turkey.
According to government data, there are currently more than 240 Spanish companies doing business in Turkey and around 70 Turkish companies in Spain. Spanish direct investment in Turkey has significantly increased in the last four years.
On a cultural level, the Turkish foreign minister pointed out the Alliance of Civilizations, launched in 2004 by Spain and co-sponsored by Turkey as part of an initiative to bridge different cultures in the world, has become a political reality enjoying the support of 88 countries and 16 international organizations.
The Madrid Forum held in January 2008 and the Istanbul Forum organized in April 2009 have laid the foundations of an action-oriented alliance. “I am confident that the next forum to be held in Rio de Janeiro in May 2010 will help us to continue to build upon that sound basis,” Davutoglu said.
Turkey is also hopeful that Spain will use its influence on the southern Cypriot government to push the ongoing talks between the north and south community leaders into bearing fruit. Spanish Foreign Minister Moratinos, who has very close personal ties with Greek Cyprus, is thought to be able to help in overcoming the problem.
Cyprus will continue to become an important issue during the Spanish term presidency. The upcoming elections in northern Cyprus will put more pressure on the EU to find some kind of settlement as it became obvious that moderate President Mehmet Ali Talat is certain to lose his seat to a hard-line candidate in the April 2010 elections.
“We believe that the situation is appropriate for a solution. We are going to use all our creativity and experience toward a possible settlement,” Moratinos told reporters after his meeting with Davutoglu in Cordoba on Sunday. The Greek Cypriots, on the other hvand, are avoiding rushing to an agreement in order to first see the European Council’s decision on the fate of the negotiations with Turkey by the end of this year. The council will review the negotiations on the basis of its 2006 decision after Turkey refused to open its ports to Greek Cyprus.
“With Spain’s continuing support, we believe we can inject a new vigor into Turkey’s accession process, which would create positive spillover effects in many fields,” said Davutoglu, who was on three-day four-city tour across Spain last week.
22 November 2009, Sunday
ABDULLAH BOZKURT MADRID / ANKARA
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Stokes Azeri Irritation
BAKU — On a windswept hilltop looking down at the Azerbaijani capital Baku, Turkish flags flutter over a monument that testifies to decades of close ties between the two nations.
Surrounding an obelisk bearing the Turkish crescent and star, stone blocks carry the names of dozens of Turkish soldiers who died fighting for Azerbaijan’s independence before it was absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1922.
For Turks and Azerbaijanis, who share close ethnic and linguistic roots, the monument is a symbol of what officials in both countries frequently describe as “brotherly” relations.
So it came as a shock when Azerbaijan — angry over Ankara’s efforts at reconciliation with Azerbaijan’s archrival Armenia — removed the Turkish flags flying over the monument in October.
After some soothing words from Ankara, the flags soon returned.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Children Posing With Weapons
From Norweigan: Turkish site Sehadet Zamani, thought to be run by the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) is featuring pictures of a couple of dozen children carrying weapons on its site. A year ago the site featured videos showing children going through battle and weapons training. German convert Eric Breininger is the IJU’s most well known European member.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Rising Tensions Between Orthodox and Muslims Following a Priest’s Murder
Patriarch Kirill and Grand Mufti Gainuddin try to calm things down. Fr Daniil Sysoyev, a fiery missionary, had many enemies among Islamic extremists and Russian ultranationalists. No lead has yet emerged in the investigation to find his assassin.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — Muslim and Orthodox religious leaders are trying to appease confessional tensions following the killing of a controversial Orthodox clergyman known for his outspoken criticism of Muslims. The “murder in the cathedral” of Fr Daniil Sysoyev, which took place the evening of 17 November, perhaps at the hands of a Muslim fundamentalist, might stoke tension between Christians and Muslims in Russia. The murder has set off alarm bells in a country where Islamophobia mixed with ethnic hatred have led to the highest number of violent deaths in Europe.
Ravil Gainutdin, chairman of the Muftis’ Council of Russia, extended his condolences to the Russian Orthodox Church and the family of the dead priest. The grand mufti called on people not to speculate on possible motives, and reiterated his community’s opposition to “any extreme act or act of terror”.
Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, tried to downplay the incident, urging people not to quickly draw any conclusions against this or that group. He also distanced himself from the 35-year-old dead priest who was a leading figure in the fight against Islamic extremism and ultra-nationalism.
Known as the Russian Salman Rushdie, Fr Sysoyev was shot four times in the Church of Saint Thomas in Moscow. The choirmaster was also wounded during the attack. The murderer entered the church wearing anti-flu masked and a gun with silencer.
Investigators believe that religion might be the main factor in the murder.
A missionary with the zeal of a latter-day crusader, Fr Sysoyev was also a respected theologian.
On his blog and in a recent interview with Komsomolskaia Pravda, he had said that he had received at least ten death threats by e-mail and phone (“They [radical Islamists] want to cut my head off”).
Russia’s security service, the FSB, was aware of the threats.
Given his work, it was easy for Fr Sysoyev to make enemies. Not only was he was involved in evangelisation among immigrants from the Caucasus and Asia, but he was especially known for promoting the idea in books and online that dialogue with Islam was impossible and that women were treated like slaves in the Muslim world.
His enemies included some ultra-nationalist groups and Stalinist diehards. On his blog LiveJournal, he wrote on the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution earlier this month that Christians should not even sit at the same table with Communists.
There is no clear lead in the investigation yet, but for many he was an “infidel”. His death was in fact met with cheers on Internet forums for radical Islamists, some acknowledging that they had dreamt of knifing him to death personally.
Fr Sysoyev’s funeral took place last Sunday with hundreds attending. Many of those who left the church after the function expressed anger and blamed the Muslim community, the Russian press reported.
The crime continues to resonate across the country and is putting strains on the already fragile relationship between the dominant Orthodox Church and Muslims, who constitute Russia’s second largest religious group and Europe’s largest Muslim community (20 million members).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Fighters Invade NATO Airspace
From Dutch: Two Russian TU-95 fighters invaded NATO airspace on Tuesday, without idenitfyig themselves. Dutch parliament members demannd that Russia stop with these provocations. Danish fighters escorted the Russians through Danish airspace, then they were met by Dutch fighters, and after leaving Dutch airspace, they were escorted by British fighters. Two years ago Russian fighters flew towards Noordwijk while there was a NATO gathering there..
The Russian side:
Russian strategic bombers conclude regular patrol flight news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/25/content_12539501.htm
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
American Suspect Eyed in Mumbai Attack, Might be a CIA Double Agent
Mumbai — It’s a plot that could be straight out of the bluff-and-double-bluff worlds created by John le Carre and Frederick Forsyth. Only, it seems to have played out in real life, to the tragic misfortune of hundreds of innocent people. The tantalising possibility that David Coleman Headley may have been a US undercover agent who turned rogue is vexing many here as American authorities keep the US-based Lashkar jihadi out of the reach of Indian investigators.
To make the tale even more dramatic, Headley may just have provided American intelligence agencies information that prevented a Lashkar attack on Mumbai in September. The theory — and it’s still a theory — is that Headley was used to infiltrate the Lashkar, but gradually went astray under the influence of the very terrorists he was supposed to be spying upon.
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Indonesia: The Terrorist Noordin Top Was Planning an “Bigger” Attack Than September 11
This is revealed by the Malaysian terrorist’s computer files. He was preparing an al Qaeda cell based in Indonesia and had collected “men and means” to launch attacks “bigger than the World Trade Centre”. Funds collected in Saudi Arabia to finance attacks.
Jakarta (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Noordin Muhammad Top, who died last September during a raid by Indonesian police, was setting up an al Qaeda cell to launch an attack “even more catastrophic than the Sept. 11” attack in New York. This is what emerges from the files on the computer of the Malaysian terrorist, found at his home in Solo (Central Java). He had already recruited fundamentalists and had organized a local fundraiser to finance the campaign of terror.
Indonesian police confirmed that the organization linked to Noordin had many supporters in the Malaysian extremist wing and could count on large sums of money. The death of the terrorist has only “slowed” the recruitment of volunteers for the jihad — holy war — but the threat remains “concrete”.
The scientific findings of Noordin’s computer revealed ties between the followers of the terrorist and unspecified “characters” in Saudi Arabia, dedicated to raising money to finance attacks. The sums were taken to Indonesia from Saudi Arabia by Ali Abdullah, the courier of the organization, arrested by police during the investigation into the attacks on the Marriot and Ritz Carlton, in Jakarta, on 17 July.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Thai PM Wants More Citizens Working in Qatar
DOHA: Thailand will be sending here more skilled workers especially in the construction industry as part of the Thai government’s effort to strengthen bilateral relations with Qatar.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told journalist during a press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel on Wednesday night that his administration was giving priority to deploy more of his countrymen to the construction industry here where they excel in the manpower pool.
Vejjajiva said his country is keen on having more Thai construction companies in Qatar where the industry will bring their own workers from their country, an effort that would boost trade ties between the two countries after a memorandum of understanding was reached for the setting up of a joint higher committee for international cooperation.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
The Bloody Network of Indian Maoists
Continuous attacks by the Nassaliti rebels in the Indian states of so-called “red corridor”. The exploitation of the claims of tribals and peasants, confrontation with the Marxist Communist Party that governs West Bengal, links with the rebels in Nepal. Indian Maoists continue their standoff with New Delhi and will not let go of 13 of the 28 states where they are present.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — On the night of November 24th a group of 55 Maoist rebels have blew up a government office in Kharakpur in Munger district of Bihar state. It was the latest in a series of attacks by insurgents along the so-called “red corridor” that runs through the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
The Maoists have spread to 13 of the 28 Indian states and are considered the most serious threat to the country’s internal security. The historic and strategic epicentre of the red revolt that has been sending shock waves through India for decades is West Bengal. For 32 years the Communist Party Marxist (CPM) has been in government in the state bordering Bangladesh, and has become a symbol of power. The opposition has been monopolized by the Maoists who are deeply rooted in tribal villages and forests.
The legal opposition, of course, is in the hand of the National Congress of Sonia Gandhi and the Trinamul Congress of Mamata Benerjee, but the defense of the most poor and needy tribals had been hijacked by the Maoists and many times in a violent way. Since November 2007, 69 CPM workers and 10 villagers had been killed in West Midnapore district alone. In June this year the Maoist raided the police station and kept under control the town of Lalgarh. Eleven companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had been deployed against state government’s demand of 50. (See AsiaNews 06/23/2009 Maoist rebels call for truce as military advances on their positions in West Bengal).
There is no week without news of some ambush by the Maoists. On November 20 the Maoists threaten to kill Bihar ministers’ kin since the Bihar police machinery are letting loose a reign of repression against the families of the top Maoist leader Arvind Kumar. On the same day the Tata-Bilaspur passenger train was derailed after the Maoist blew up rail tracks near Goelkera railway station.
The Naxalite movement started in the sixties when Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal of the CPI (Marxist) inspired by Mao Zedong lead a violent Santhal uprising in West Bengal Naxalbari village. In 1969 the Communist Party of India (Marxist- Leninist) was born. The history of the communist movement in India went through a fragmentation that produced three communist parties.
In 1977, when the Congress Party lost control of the central government in New Delhi the Communist Party went to power in Calcutta (West Bengal) and is still in power now. For 25 years the mythical figure of Jyoti Basu held the reins of power, but his style of governance kept changing. When Deng Xiaoping in China embraced successfully the capitalist mode of development, the communist government of West Bengal follow suit, but the most poor of the poor felt betrayed and reorganized themselves in the jungle. After Jyoti Basu, came Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who open up to many industrial houses and started expropriating agricultural land to build industrial estates alienating the farmers. “Calcutta runs after Shanghai” writes Federico Rampini.
That was the occasion when the Maoists jumped in to the fray, organized the farmers and resisted the take-over. That is what happened in Singur and Nandigram. The Tatas had to shift their Nano plant to Gujarat. This success emboldened the Maoists who multiplied their attacks.
But the presence of Maoists is not confined only to the state of West Bengal. The red belt cuts across India, starting from Nepal in the North, through West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, west Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh in the South. They put their training camps on the border regions so that they can easily escape from the police of one state crossing over the border. Recent reports in the press give the origin of the supply of their arms from Nepal, Bangladesh and China. At least 30 different groups are active across the country with a combined membership of around 50.000 activists. But their differences over their perceived revolutionary roles often result in bloody battles. Many groups are accused of land grabbing and extortion. In 2004 the Maoist Communist Centre and People’s War join hands to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist), which is now the biggest armed group ever to challenge the very existence of the Indian state. An estimated 20.000 are bearing arms, one fifth of India’s forest is under their control. And they are active in 165 districts of the 604. Now the central government is in a fix. The state governments ask assistance from the centre and request also the help of the army particularly for military aerial survey. The helicopters are vulnerable also to small arms, but the central government does not allow to return fire.
The centre has extended its full support to the Left Front government in Bengal to combat Maoist terror in the state. The move could spark fresh tension between the Congress and UPA ally Trinamul Congress whose leader, Mamata Banerjee is keen on a dialogue between the state and the Maoist Red brigade. But the Interior Minister, Chidambaram and the Bengal Chief Minister Bhattacharjee agreed that there should be “no talks with the Maoists, unless they agree to completely surrender their arms and come for a dialogue under the constitutional framework”. Bhattacharjee requested the Centre to start operations in the neighbouring Jharkhand as well, where the Naxals, on rum from Bengal, are taking shelter only to return later. But the Centre can not intervene unless it is called by the State.
But a day after Chidambaram’s tough talk Maoists kill 17 cops in Gadchiroli district, at Laheri, in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra, 18 km from the border, on 8 October. Early this year, Maharashtra state cops lost 15 men in Maekegaon and 16, including 5 women, at Hattigota, both in Gadchiroli district. According to sources, the Maoist numbered more than 300 and comprised mobile military dalams that have recently moved from Chattisgarh. Police said there were many from Nepal among attackers who were equipped with sophisticated weapons and ammunition. In two days the Maoists struck three attacks, beside Laheri, they set on fire a gram panchayat building in Irupdhori village, and killed a farmer, Suresh Halami suspected to be a police informer. These three attacks have shattered the morale of the district police.
The Maoists are very vindictive with police informers. On the 5 October, in Taliban-style execution, they beheaded a special branch inspector, Francis Indwar, and threw his body on a branch road leading to National Highway 33 that connect Patna to Jamshedpur, 20 km from Ranchi.. The officer was abducted few days before and held hostage demanding a swap for arrested Maoist ideologues Kobad Ghandy in New Delhi and Chhatradhar Mahato in Kolkata and another captured leader Chandrabhusan Yadav.
On 21 Settember, Maoists launched a massive attack on CPM party office at Enayetpur, 15 km from Midnapore, triggering a gunfight that left at least 15 people dead. Witness say that at least 10.000 tribals took part in the assault.
Going back in time the list of attacks is very long:-on July 12, twenty-three cops, including a DSP, were killed in ambush in Rajnandgaon in the state of Chhattisgarh;- on May 22, sixteen cops killed in Gadchiroli; on Feb 1, a party of policeman walk into trap laid in Dhanora, Gadchiroli district, to probe arson and 15 were killed; June 29 2008, 38 specially trained Greyhounds were killed in Malkhangiri in the state of Orissa.
There are, of course, successful police operations against the Maoists. On 16 September 8 Maoists had been gun down and a gun factory destroyed in Chinta Gufa of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh state. But a real undeclared war is going on with success and defeat on both sides.
Also on the political scene accusations and contra-accusations are hurled at each other. The Trinamul Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee accused of being sympathetic with the Maoists returned the fire suggesting that the Maoists an the Marxists of the government were two sides of the same coin. “They are working together” she said. Mamata’s outburst came a day after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asked her party to “sever links with the rebels”. CPM veteran leader Jyoti Basu, too echoed his words, charging the Trinamul with joining hands with the Maoists to unleash violence in the state. “Everyday our workers are getting killed. Our party offices are burnt. The Trinamul Congress an the Maoists are doing this together. They are taking law into their own hands” said Basu.
At the beginning of November, after being in the denial for months, the Nepalese Maoists admitted that they are extending “full support and cooperation” to the Naxals in India. A senior standing committee member of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoist (UCPN-M) CP Gajurel, was quoted in a daily as saying: “We have extended our full support and cooperation to the Indian Maoists, who are launching armed revolt.” The same newspaper had also earlier carried a report that a Maoist leader had met Indian leader Kishenji at an undisclosed place in October.
Faced with the Maoist menace the Left Front government in Bengal is now planning to spend Rs 1.600 crore for the development of the three Naxal-hit districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. The chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, at the beginning of November paid a visit to Jangalmahal in Midnapore district. In sheer defiance of the huge police bandobast for the chief minister visit, the Maoists ambushed a patrol party 50 km from Midnapore town and just 30 minutes after the CM left, killing four soldiers. Eyewitness said the Maoists sprayed bullets from AK-47 rifles, looted arms from the vehicle, and walked away without any resistance.
On 27 October, tribal activists, backed by armed Maoists, under the name of local outfit People’s Committee against Police Atrocity (PCPA) seized the Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani Express in West Midnapore district and detained it for five hours before security forces could free the hostages. The railways continue to be a vulnerable target.
What is shocking is that in these states where the Maoist revolt is burning the local governments are only busy rewarding their own cadres and forgetting the large populations. So it is with the CPM in West Bengal and also in Chhattisgarh a recent scandal has revealed that a former tribal chief minister, Madhu Koda, in four years as chief minister, has increased his declared assets of 20.000 Euro in 2005 to an estimated 60 million Euro today, with illegal investments allover the world. Before becoming a deputy he was a daily wages earner. Corruption and police atrocity seem to be the upsetting causes.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Senior Liberals Desert Turnbull
The Liberal Party is in turmoil with the resignations of five frontbenchers from their portfolios this afternoon in protest against the emissions trading scheme.
Tony Abbott, Sophie Mirabella, Tony Smith and Senators Nick Minchin and Eric Abetz have all quit their portfolios because they cannot vote for the legislation.
Senate whip Stephen Parry has also relinquished his position.
The mass resignations will put huge pressure on Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership after only just surviving a push for a spill yesterday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kangaroo Bursts Through Bedroom Window, Ransacks House
An Australian man fought off a 90-pound kangaroo after it burst through his bedroom window and rampaged around his house, terrifying his young children.
The confused marsupial smashed its way into Beat Ettlin’s home in the Canberra suburb of Garran.
“I just saw this black thing. I thought it was a lunatic ninja, an intruder,” the 42-year-old man told Sky News Online. “It just fell on top of us on the bed. A couple of seconds later I realised it was a kangaroo.”
As the creature began bouncing on their bed, Ettlin’s wife Verity tried to protect their 9-year-old daughter Beatrix who was also sleeping in their bed.
Verity, 39, told Sky News Online: “I just pulled the covers over our heads and screamed. It jumped on my shoulder, bounced across the bed and onto the bedside table. Can you imagine how close it was to my head?”
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Fifty Lashes for the Teenage Girl Who Wore an ‘Indecent’ Knee Length Skirt in Sudan
Silva Kashif was punished without her family being told after she was arrested while walking alone near her home in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
Her mother, Jenty Doro, said: ‘I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried.
‘She is just a young girl but the policeman pulled her along like she was a criminal. It was wrong.’
She said she would sue the police and the judge because her daughter is a Christian and underage.
The law states that under-18s should not be given lashes.
Doro said Khashif was taken to Kalatla court where she was convicted and punished by a female police officer in front of the judge.
‘I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried … People have different religions and that should be taken into account’ she said.
Khartoum is governed by Islamic sharia law. But although Miss Kashif is living there she is originally from the south of the country, which is not.
The government is supposed to be working to soften the impact of sharia for southerners living in Khartoum.
Her lawyer, Azhari al-Haj, said: ‘She was wearing a normal skirt and blouse, worn by thousands of girls. They didn’t contact a guardian and punished her on the spot.’
The case will add fuel to a debate already raging over Sudan’s decency laws after this year’s high-profile conviction of Sudanese U.N. official Lubna Hussein, who was briefly jailed for wearing trousers in public.
Hussein, a former journalist who used her case to campaign against Sudan’s public order and decency regulations, is touring France to publicise her book about the prosecution.
She had faced the maximum penalty of 40 lashes but was given a lighter sentence.
Arrests for indecency, drunkenness and other public order offences are not uncommon in Khartoum which is governed by Islamic sharia law.
Earlier this year Sudanese UN official Lubna Hussein was briefly jailed for wearing trousers in public.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s Leader Makes Inroads in Latin America
Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won support for his country’s nuclear ambitions and expanded his reach in Latin America in a three-country goodwill tour that took him to close ally Venezuela for his final stop.
Venezuela’s main opposition political parties condemned the Iranian president’s visit before he arrived late Tuesday, saying in a statement that President Hugo Chavez is developing a “dangerous alliance” with Teheran.
Chavez’s enthusiastic embrace of Iran, which shares his hostility toward the US and Israel, has made Venezuela a gateway for the Iranian government to make diplomatic inroads in Latin America.
In Bolivia on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad signed an agreement with leftist President Evo Morales committing Iran to help the Andean country do research on exploiting lithium, the lightweight metal used in electric cars and other batteries. Bolivia possesses half the world’s known lithium reserves.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
High School Performs ‘Gay’ Musical on Thanksgiving
Students sing for public, ‘Don’t make noise, but Daddy’s kissing boys’
Editor’s note: Description of the musical’s content includes examples of its profane, lewd and possibly racist material, which may be objectionable to some readers.
Students at a high school in Massachusetts are opening theater doors today for a free performance of scenes from their upcoming musical, a tale about a bisexual father torn between his family and his “gay” lover.
Seven students of Concord-Carlisle High School in Concord, Mass., are cast in the school’s rendition of “Falsettos,” a Tony-award-winning production described by a local newspaper as “a musical comedy about life, love and loss in which the characters renegotiate their definitions of family.”
But one organization in Massachusetts is objecting to how the plot redefines “family” and pointing to some of musical’s content — including the songs “My Father’s a Homo, “Everybody Hates His Parents” and “Four Jews in a Room B——ing” — as blatantly offensive.
[…]
Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s safe schools czar, was a teacher at the Concord Academy preparatory school when he founded the nation’s first ‘gay-straight alliance,’ before shortly thereafter founding the national Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Alliance.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Premium, The Button and the Incense
As WorldNetDaily’s Bob Unruh reported on Nov. 5, U.S. House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, stated that the government health plan currently before the Senate will require all participants to pay a “monthly abortion premium.”
It took awhile for that to sink into my head after I read it. Surely it must mean something other than what it clearly sounds like. Anything else.
“The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account — and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services,” Boehner wrote on his blog. “The commissioner must charge at a minimum $1 per enrollee per month.”
In other words, unless I misunderstand, the socialized medicine plan from hell would not only bilk other patients to provide elective abortions for those who want them, but require all enrollees — even those who view those abortions as murder — to finance them! Sure, this may be in the Constitution, but … on what planet?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Political Who’s Who of Global Warming Liars
As the global warming fraud unravels, it’s a good time to look at the politicians who have been some of the most outspoken advocates, using global warming/climate change to advance “Cap-and-Trade” legislation and other related laws and regulations.
Top of the list is President Barack Obama who has made many references to “climate change” and “global warming” to further this national and international fraud. He’ll pick up his Nobel Peace Prize in December; the same one given to Al Gore and the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change a few years back. Further proof of his mendacity will be his attendance at the UN Climate Change Conference in Denmark.
Speaking on World Environment Day last June, Obama said of global warming, “We’re going to have to make some tough decisions and take concrete actions if we are going to deal with a potentially cataclysmic disaster.” This mirrors years of similar doomsday statements by former Vice President Al Gore.
This is the kind of drivel Americans and others around the world have heard from their supposed “leaders” for far too long.
| [Return to headlines] |
1 comment:
I said, oh so loooong ago, that the words "Dubai" and "dubious" were synonymous, and it gives me no pleasure to tell you so again. The whole Dubai bubble was always a false construct, built on (1) greed (2) slave labour (3) fraternising incautiously with a culture that is STILL opposed to Western thought, democracy and freedoms. You dance with the Devil, you get your arse burnt.
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