The AMA’s official endorsement of the House health care bill has caused a revolt within its own membership. Some members are so incensed that they will propose a resolution that would withdraw the organization’s support for the bill.In other news, women in the UAE can now serve as muftis and hold other religious offices, thanks to their country’s emancipation laws.
Thanks to Barry Rubin, Esther, Gaia, Insubria, JD, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Broader Measure of U.S. Unemployment Stands at 17.5%
Previous recorded high was 17.1% in December 1982
With the release of the jobs report on Friday, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment tracked by the Labor Department has reached its highest level in decades. If statistics went back so far, the measure would almost certainly be at its highest level since the Great Depression.
In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982.
This includes the officially unemployed, who have looked for work in the last four weeks. It also includes discouraged workers, who have looked in the past year, as well as millions of part-time workers who want to be working full time.
The official jobless rate — 10.2 percent in October, up from 9.8 percent in September — remains lower than the early 1980s peak of 10.8 percent.
The broader rate is highest today, sometimes 20 percent, in states that had big housing bubbles, like California and Arizona, or that have large manufacturing sectors, like Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island and South Carolina.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Many California Jobs ‘Saved’ By Stimulus Never in Jeopardy
25% of 110,000 reported positions never in danger — ‘Not a real number of people … like a budget number’
Up to one-fourth of the 110,000 jobs reported as saved by federal stimulus money in California probably never were in danger, a Bee review has found.
California State University officials reported late last week that they saved more jobs with stimulus money than the number of jobs saved in Texas — and in 44 other states.
In a required state report to the federal government, the university system said the $268.5 million it received in stimulus funding through October allowed it to retain 26,156 employees.
That total represents more than half of CSU’s statewide work force. However, university officials confirmed Thursday that half their workers were not going to be laid off without the stimulus dollars.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
AMA’s Endorsement of House Health Care Bill Sparks Internal Uprising
The American Medical Association’s much-touted endorsement of the House health care reform bill has triggered a revolt among some members who want the endorsement withdrawn.
Some members are outraged that the group’s trustees made the endorsement without the formal approval of the organization’s House of Delegates.
On Monday, delegates will vote on a resolution offered by some members that, if approved, will withdraw the AMA’s endorsement of the bill.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI Agents in the US Have Recovered Two Highly Inflammatory Al Qaeda Videos.
The videos have been recovered from the house of Pakistan-born Canadian, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was arrested last month along with another accused, David Coleman Headley, a Pakistan-born American national.
The new videos were recovered from the house of 48-year-old Rana, who has been living in Chicago for nearly a decade.
Produced by the media wing of Al Qaeda, one of the videos is titled “Bombing of Denmark Embassy”.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Fort Hood Shooting: Texas Army Killer Linked to September 11 Terrorists
Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a “spiritual adviser” to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.
[…]
Five of the 13 victims were fellow mental health professionals from three units of the army’s Combat Stress Control Detachment, it was disclosed yesterday.
It is understood that Hasan had been due to be deployed with members of those units in coming months. Whether he deliberately singled out other combat stress counsellors is another key question.
What does seem clear is that the army missed an increasing number of red flags that Hasan was a troubled and brooding individual within its ranks.
“I was shocked but not surprised by news of Thursday’s attack,” said Dr Val Finnell, a fellow student on a public health course in 2007-08 who heard Hasan equate the war on terrorism to a war on Islam. Another student had warned military officials that Hasan was a “ticking time bomb” after he reportedly gave a presentation defending suicide bombers.
[…]
Yet away from his strident attacks on US foreign policy, he came across as subdued and reclusive — not hostile or threatening. Soldiers he counselled at the Walter Reed hospital in Washington praised him, while at Fort Hood, Kimberly Kesling, the deputy commander of clinical services, remarked: “Up to this point, I would consider him an asset.”
Relatives said that the death of Hasan’s parents, in 1998 and 2001, turned him more devout. “After he lost his parents he tried to replace their love by reading a lot of books, including the Koran,” his uncle Rafiq Hamad said.
[…]
Speaking in the West Bank town of al-Bireh, Mr Hamad said his nephew “loved America” and could only have been caused to snap by an as yet unexplained factor. “He always said there was no country in the world like America,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “Something big happened to him in Texas. If he did it — and until now I am in denial — it had to have been something huge because revenge was not in his nature.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fort Hood Gunman Had Told US Military Colleagues That Infidels Should Have Their Throats Cut
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America’s Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.
He also told colleagues at America’s top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July.
Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe.
It was the latest in a series of “red flags” about his state of mind that have emerged since the massacre at Fort Hood, America’s largest military installation, on Thursday.
Hasan, armed with two handguns including a semi-automatic pistol, walked into a processing centre for soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he killed 13 and injured more than 30.
Fellow doctors have recounted how they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about religion and that he openly claimed to be a “Muslim first and American second.”
One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints.
Another, Dr Val Finnell, who took a course with him in 2007 at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Maryland, did complain about Hasan’s “anti-American rants.” He said: “The system is not doing what it’s supposed to do. He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out. I really questioned his loyalty.”
Selena Coppa, an activist for Iraq Veterans Against the War, said: “This man was a psychiatrist and was working with other psychiatrists every day and they failed to notice how deeply disturbed someone right in their midst was.”
One of Hasan’s neighbours described how on the day of the massacre, about 9am, he gave her a Koran and told her: “I’m going to do good work for God” before leaving for the base.
A civilian police officer who shot him, bringing the rampage to an end, said Hasan appeared “calm” during the massacre, hiding behind a telephone pole and shooting fellow soldiers in the back as they tried to get away.
“He was firing at people as they were trying to run and hide, said Sgt Mark Todd. “Then he turned and fired a couple of rounds at me. I didn’t hear him say a word, he just turned and fired.”
Hasan flinched after he was shot and slid down against the pole still clutching his gun, which had a laser sight on it. The officer kicked away the weapon and handcuffed him.
He said: “The guy was breathing, his eyes were blinking. I could tell that he was fading out and he didn’t say anything. He was just kind of blinking.”
Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security, said there had been “strong warning signs” that Hasan was an “Islamist extremist”.
The committee would ask “whether the Army missed warning signs that should have led them to essentially discharge him, he said. He added: “The US
Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone.”
But General George Casey, the Army’s Chief of Staff, said it was “speculation” that military authorities failed to pick up on warning signs. “I don’t want to say that we missed it,” he said.
Asked if military authorities had missed warning signs Gen Casey, the Army’s Chief of Staff, added: “We have to go back and look at ourselves ,and ask ourselves the hard questions. Are we doing the right things? We will learn from this.
“It’s too early to draw conclusions but we will ask ourselves the hard questions about what we are doing and the changes we should make as a result of this.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Obama: For the Next Eight Years…
Q Good morning, Mr. President, President Obama. I am the Vice President of Navajo Nation. I got one small question to you. I watched the message you gave us a while ago. It’s very good, I like it. And your commitment — you have fulfilled your commitment. But one thing I’m worried about, on behalf of all the Nation here and also the Navajo Nation, what this administration — you went and reached out to the Native American Nation, which you’re doing it now. It would be nice, it would be — if you could work with us with the congressional people and make it a mandate that we should — that the United States government should work with the Indian Nation, because every four years — and I know you’re going to win your reelection, you have another — some numbers of years. (Applause.) But the thing I’m worried about is the end of the term and what happens with all the plans that we’re going to be putting together with your administration — our administration. I supported you, and Navajo Nation did. What happens to all of that?
I really don’t want to stand here and complain about we’ve been lied to again. Through the histories of all Indian Tribe — the treaty that were made between the United States and Indian Tribe, it’s been broken a lot. How can we make it so solid that it stays there, no matter who, what administration comes in? I think we need to work on that, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. Look, obviously the executive branch’s job is to implement law. Now, a lot of these treaties, a lot of these consultations are embedded in law and we’ve got to make sure that they’re implemented. So for the next eight years — the next four years, at least, let me not jump the gun — (laughter) — for the next three years and one month — (laughter) — that I’m assured of this current position, we are going to make sure that we put the infrastructure and the framework in place so that a new dynamic, a new set of relationships have been established.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Officer Describes Firefight That Downed Hasan
KILLEEN, Texas — One of two police officers who confronted the alleged Fort Hood killer says he shot Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan before kicking the man’s weapon away, handcuffing him and ending the nation’s worst killing spree on a military base.
Sgt. Mark Todd joined Sgt. Kimberly Munley, hailed as a hero for her actions, in a firefight with Hasan that lasted less than a minute. Todd, 42, was not wounded, but the exchange left Munley injured and Hasan critically wounded.
Seconds after Todd arrived on the scene, he said he saw a calm-looking Hasan, his gun drawn and his fingers pointing at people.
“He was firing at people as they were trying to run and hide,” Todd told The Associated Press Saturday.
That’s when Todd, a retired soldier who now works as a civilian police officer at Fort Hood, said he shouted at Hasan.
“I told him stop and drop your weapons. I identified myself as police and he turned and fired a couple of rounds at me. I didn’t hear him say a word … he just turned and fired.”
There has been confusion since Thursday’s rampage about whose bullets actually brought down Hasan, who was shot four times. At first, Munley’s supervisor said it was her shot to Hasan’s torso that leveled him, but Army officials would only say that an investigation was under way.
Munley was down by the time he engaged Hasan, Todd said. He wasn’t sure if Munley had wounded the suspect, because “once he started firing at me, I lost track of her.”
Todd said he fired his Beretta at Hasan. Hasan flinched, Todd said, then slid down against a telephone pole and fell on his back. Todd says he then heard bystanders say “two more, two more.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Oops: Republican Jumps Gun on Health Care Vote
US President Barack Obama’s Democratic allies got an unlikely vote of confidence Saturday, as a top Republican foe prematurely declared defeat in the fight over remaking US health care.
Mike Pence, the number three Republican in the House of Representatives, put a statement on his official Internet site denouncing final House passage of White House-backed legislation — hours before the vote was expected..
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Orlando Shooter, US Army Fort Hood Shooter Both Linked to Psychiatric Drugs
US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan shot and killed 13 people and wounded 30 others in a violent attack at a Texas Army base this past week. He reportedly opened fire at the Fort Hood army base without any particular reason or motivation. In fact, as a psychiatrist, he had counseled many other soldiers on how to cope with the consequences of extreme violence (losing limbs, mental anguish, etc.).
As an army psychiatrist, he was also allowed to prescribe powerful psychiatric drugs to both his patients and himself. Many psychiatrists self-medicate, and Hasan was extremely anxious about the possibility of being sent overseas by the army, according to statements from family members (Reuters, below). Although official confirmation will probably never be made, it seems altogether likely that Hasan was treating himself with powerful psychotropic medications.
Orlando shooter confirmed on psych drugs
It’s been a busy week for violent, drug-induced outbursts in the USA. Orlando shooter Jason Rodriguez is now confirmed to have been on psychiatric medications when he went on a shooting spree in an Orlando office building last week, killing one person and wounding five others.
In a televised interview with Fox News, the former mother-in-law of Rodriguez goes on the record saying, “He was under medication …for control of the brain.” That video segment is available here…
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Overpopulation Mantra Overheating as Copenhagen Approaches
With the disastrous Copenhagen treaty in sight, selling the overpopulation story is obviously considered crucial for the agenda. After all, the entire climate change mythology depends in the end on the role of man as a scourge on the environment. So, it follows, less people means less global warming. But the agenda has hit a snag. Whenever people are confronted by those who tell us that we are to die if mother earth is to survive, alarm-bells go off warning us that all is not well. This danger sign is not there for nothing. Human instinct has had many centuries of experience with bloodthirsty tyrants, and therefore tends to rebel against tyranny approaching. All propaganda now serves to subdue this human instinct, lest the ‘global citizens’ stop the unfolding of the agenda in its tracks and bring forth the ropes.
During a visit to India in July of this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed not only the administration’s commitment to tackle ‘global climate change’, but also her willingness to link it to overpopulation. After a roundtable discussion with Indian Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh, Clinton openly pondered this supposed link:
“One of the participants”, Clinton stated, “pointed out that it’s rather odd to talk about climate change and what we must do to stop and prevent the ill effects without talking about population and family planning.”
“That was an incredibly important point”, she added. “And yet, we talk about these things in very separate and often unconnected ways.”
Clinton’s comments are no spontaneous thought-experiment, falling out of the clear blue sky. Just a couple of months earlier Mrs. Clinton accepted the Margaret Sanger Award out of the hands of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), professing deep admiration for eugenicist Maragret Sanger. Clinton stated:
“I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision, (…). I am really in awe of her.”
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Reality Raises Its Head and the Media Wakes Up About the Obama Administration’s Middle East Failure
by Barry Rubin
There’s something big happening in the air regarding American media coverage of the Obama Administration. With the Washington Post in advance, the New York Times waking up the tiniest bit, the Los Angeles Times trailing far behind, and a lot of other newspapers getting tough, reality is seeping into their coverage. Even the Boston Globe, America’s most liberal newspaper, is strongly criticizing Obama.
The Globe remarks:
“It takes more than scripted eloquence for presidents to connect with their fellow Americans. It requires a visceral ability to grasp the scope of tragedy, calculate its impact on the national psyche, and react swiftly to it. Ronald Reagan did it after the Challenger explosion….So did Bill Clinton, after the Oklahoma City bombings.”
After all, the president didn’t go to the celebrations commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall; or the christening of the USS New York with steel from the World Trade Center and families of those murdered in that building attending; or visit the Fort Hood wounded; or even treat the latest attack with due seriousness. And of course his Arab-Israeli policy in his ruins while the Iran issue is making a fool out of the administration.t
On foreign policy, more and more things are becoming harder to deny:
—The Obama Administration has failed to charm any Arab states or Iran into changing their policy, even to a tiny extent.
—Iran doesn’t want to make a deal over its rush to get nuclear weapons.
—Engagement with Syria is going nowhere while Damascus continues to help murder American soldiers in Iraq without any Administration criticism or protest.
—Despite its over-ambitious goals and arrogant boasts, the administration has failed completely to advance any Israel-Palestinian peace process.
—Israel is proving flexible while the Palestinian Authority refuses even to talk no matter how much the Administration panders to and coddles it.
—The administration has no strategy in Afghanistan and can’t make up its mind.
As the Obama Administration’s first year in office comes toward an end, it has failed, failed, failed, in the Middle East…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Troops’ Continental Insignia Bears U.N. Colors
Indicates advancement of plan to integrate North America
NEW YORK — Troops in the United States’ USNORTHCOM ranks appear to have adopted a shoulder patch showing a North American continental design, with an emphasis on United Nations colors, giving evidence of the strength of a plan to integrate North America.
The patch reveals the continent of North America in the orange and blue colors typical to the U.N.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yoga Against Sales Tax
Yoga practitioners are criticizing a Missouri sales tax that applies to yoga classes, claiming they should be exempt because the lessons include spiritual elements.
A Missouri Department of Revenue official sent letters to 140 yoga and Pilates centers on Oct. 13, telling them they must collect sales tax on the fees for their classes and services and pay them beginning Nov. 1, if they weren’t already.
The sales tax on money paid to places of “amusement, entertainment or recreation, games and athletic events” isn’t new, said revenue spokesman Ted Farnen. He said the letters were sent so the businesses would know that yoga centers offer the same types of fitness services that the Missouri Supreme Court has found taxable.
The state gets about 4 percent sales tax; local communities charge sales tax on top of that, though the amount varies.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Book: Communists Set Up First Drug, Arms Traffic in Bulgaria
The book, entitled “The Empire of Communist International Trade Companies,” by investigative journalist Hristo Hristov, claims that it was the communists and state secret services who created the first arms and drug smuggling routes.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
British Youth: Hitler Was a Soccer Coach
Study carried out ahead of British Remembrance Day reveals alarming ignorance among UK schoolchildren’s knowledge of world wars, with one in 20 believing Holocaust was celebration marking end of WWII
One in six children in Britain believe Auschwitz is a World War Two theme park, and one in four think the atom bomb was dropped on Pearl Harbor — a study conducted in the UK among 2,000 schoolchildren showed.
The study, published in the Daily Mail on Friday, tested children between the ages of nine and 15 on their knowledge of facts of both world wars, and reveals disturbing ignorance of the kids’ knowledge of the circumstances, the dates, and the people at their center.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Crucifix: Spain Says New Law Will Not Order Its Removal
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 5 — The sentence by the Strasbourg Tribunal ordering the removal of crosses from public schools will be taken into consideration by the Spanish government in a future law on freedom of religion, according to Spanish Justice Minister Franciso Caamao, whose comments were quoted by media sources today. However, the future regulation is frozen for the time being while awaiting better political conditions, according to legislative sources cited in today’s paper Publico. And the law will not order the elimination of all crucifixes from public classrooms, either state-recognised or religious ones, protected as they are by the 1979 Concord between Church and state, which the Zapatero government has repeated said it does not intend to modify. The removal of religious symbols from public schools was already made compulsory in Spain by a sentence passed by the Constitutional Tribunal in 1982. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Environment: Sicilian Region Sets Up Two Wildlife Oases
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, OCTOBER 30 — With a signed decree from the regional chairman for Agriculture and Forestry, Michele Cimino, the region of Sicily has founded two oases for wildlife protection and refuge, called ‘Ponte Barca’ and ‘Largo Gorgo’. ‘Ponte Barca’ is in the Paternò area of Catania, while ‘Largo Gorgo’ is in Montallegro (Agrigento). The ‘Ponte Barca’ oasis will be ready for use next Friday. Cimino commented, “it will be one of the most environmentally valuable areas, thanks to its naturalistic richness and ease of access for tourists, enthusiasts, scholars and students. The goal is to promote and encourage the conservation, refuge, stopover, and reproduction of certain species of wildlife, protecting them during migration”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fear That UK Islamic Schools May Groom Children for Terror
FEARS are emerging that vulnerable children might be groomed for religious extremism or even terrorism at taxpayers’ expense.
Muslim pupils are being taken out of classes and sent to study at Islamic schools, or madrassas.
A pilot scheme, the Open Madrasah Network, has received a £550,000 government grant to pay for under-achievers to attend lessons in Arabic, Urdu and religion.
The classes, described as booster lessons for primary and GCSE age pupils, are already running at four madrassas in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
If pupils show improvement, the scheme is likely to be rolled out nationally.
But critics say it will lead to the risk of taxpayers’ money being spent on “suspect” organisations.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “These institutions are devoted almost entirely to pumping Islam into the heads of their pupils. We need to know who will keep tabs on these indoctrination centres to ensure taxpayers’ money is properly spent.
“Although there is no suggestion that the Yorkshire scheme is suspect, if this kind of idea rolls out, who knows what will happen?”
There are almost 1,600 madrassas in Britain, where 200,000 children attend evening classes to study the Koran.
But anti-terror police fear that extremists could indoctrinate pupils with anti-Western sentiments.
Last year, pupils at madrassas reported being slapped and punched by teachers.
The row prompted Keighley MP Ann Cryer to say: “We should have some sort of review into how madrassas are run.
“They seem to be a law unto themselves.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: WWII Island Massacre Trial Annulled
Kefalonia war crime defendant dead
(ANSA) — Rome, November 5 — A trial against an ex-Nazi officer for the WWII execution of Italian soldiers on the Greek island of Kefalonia was annulled Thursday because of the defendant’s death in Germany this summer.
The judge at a military court in Rome called off the preliminary hearing after verifying that ex-lieutenant Ottmar Muhlhauser died at his Munich home in July.
Muhlhauser, who would have turned 89 in September, was accused of having headed a team tasked with executing officers from Italy’s Acqui Division on Kefalonia when Italy switched sides in the war in 1943.
The incident formed part of the backdrop to Louis de Bernieres’ 1993 bestselling book Captain Corelli’s Violin, turned into a Hollywood film in 2001. The Italian premier’s office, the National Association of Partisans and the Acqui Division’s survivors association were standing as plaintiffs to the proceedings, as permitted in Italian criminal trials.
At the time of his indictment, Muhlhauser was the only surviving officer from the German division.
However, his commanding officer, General Hubert Lanz, was sentenced to 12 years at Neuremberg, mainly for the Kefalonia Massacre. He served three years.
Of the 11,500 Italian soldiers stationed on the island, thousands were killed during fighting, shot or drowned.
The precise number of fatalities is unclear but at least 2,300 are known to have died over the course of two weeks.
Some historians have put the figure as high as 9,400.
The Kefalonia (Cephallonia) Massacre is thought to have been the second-largest slaughter of prisoners of war during World War II.
The events were fuelled by the Italian Armistice on September 8, 1943, which left Italian soldiers who had been fighting alongside and under Germans in an extremely difficult position.
The commander of the Italian division on Kefalonia initially received contrasting orders and then reportedly dithered about whether to surrender, resist or join the German troops nearby.
He eventually decided to resist, and hundreds of his men died in the ensuing battle, which started on September 15.
But the massacre itself only started once the Italians were defeated and surrendered, on September 21.
Accounts from the few survivors and the diary of an Austrian soldier involved in the massacre suggest thousands of soldiers were either gunned down while trying to surrender or summarily executed after being taken prisoner.
Although long-standing international laws of war strictly prohibit the execution of enemy prisoners of war, the Germans had apparently received orders to execute the men as traitors.
Muhlhauser also believed this, according to interviews conducted in 1967 when German authorities started investigating the incident.
During the interviews, which are now part of the Italian record, Muhlhauser defended his actions.
“They were traitors and there is only one response to betrayal: execution,” he said.
The German prosecution resulted in the acquittal of Muhlhauser and his co-defendants on the basis he had not committed the charge of “aggravated murder”.
Interviewed again in 2004, Muhlhauser said the Germans had also received a direct order “from the Fuhrer”.
“This made it clear that those belonging to the Italian division should be treated in all ways like traitors,” he said.
Earlier this year, Italy’s top military prosecutor expressed anger at the fact former Nazis sentenced to life by Italian courts for their part in other atrocities are not serving time.
He specifically pointed to sentences against 15 ex-Nazis who continue to live in Germany and Austria, despite their convictions in Italy and the issue of European arrest warrants by Italian prosecutors.
Only three former Nazis have ever been jailed in Italy for war crimes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Messina Bridge Fund OK
Work on world’s longest bridge to start by year’s end
(ANSA) — Rome, November 6 — Italy on Friday approved the last key start-up funds for a much-heralded bridge connecting Sicily to the Italian mainland.
Some 1.3 billion euros were earmarked for work on the bridge, a long-cherished project of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, which is expected to start by the end of the year.
Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa, who is from Sicily, said “today is a particularly important day in Italian history”.
“My grandfather spoke of a bridge like this as something that would bind Sicily and Calabria. He saw it as a sort of redemption for our island”. “Many years have gone by but the time has now come”.
“It’s important not only for speeding up transport links. “It is first and foremost a cultural and moral redemption”.
The opposition Democratic Party said the move disproved the government’s claim that the bridge would pay for itself.
The small Italian Communist party said the money would be “welcomed by the Mafia”.
The Messina bridge, which once built would be the longest suspension bridge in the world, was originally greenlighted by Berlusconi’s previous government eight years ago but was shelved by an intervening centre-left government.
Berlusconi revived the project when he returned to office in May of last year.
Supporters hail the project as a huge job-creation scheme that would give Italy’s image a major boost while bringing Sicily closer to the mainland in both physical, psychological and social terms.
But it has been opposed by environmentalists and dogged by concerns over its safety and fears of potential Mafia involvement.
The 3,690-metre-long bridge has been designed to be able to handle 4,500 cars an hour and 200 trains a day and would replace slow ferry services between the island and the mainland.
The 6.5-billion-euro bridge is set to be completed in 2017.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘No Bar on Crosses’
Strasbourg ruling ‘not coercive’ says Berlusconi
(ANSA) — Rome, November 6 — A landmark European Court ruling against crosses in classrooms doesn’t oblige Italy to take them down, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Friday.
“It is not a coercive sentence and there’s nothing stopping us keeping the crucifixes in the classrooms,” the premier said.
Therefore, he said, a proposed referendum to keep the crosses was not needed.
Nonetheless, after almost a week of popular outrage, Italy is appealing the sentence by the European Court of Human Rights.
The appeal was framed by the cabinet Friday and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini was appointed to shepherd it through.
The ruling could be repealed or altered by the appeal. Otherwise, it will go into effect in three months’ time.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) made its much-publicised ruling Tuesday, upholding an appeal from a Finnish-born Italian citizen who had vainly made her case in Italian courts.
The ECHR ruled parents must be allowed to educate their children as they saw fit and children must also have freedom of religion.
It also said crosses might offend or frighten children brought up in other religions.
The woman, Soile Lautsi, was awarded 5,000 euros in damages.
Italian Catholic politicians reacted with outrage, saying the court was betraying Europe’s Christian roots.
They argued that the cross was a traditional cultural symbol and not a mark of religious affiliation. The leader of Italy’s largest opposition party, ex-Communist Pierluigi Bersani, said the court should have shown more “common sense”.
The Vatican called the ruling “short-sighted” while Italian bishops said it was “ideological”.
The European Commission did not comment on the ruling because it is from a non-European Union court.
The Strasbourg-based ECHR upholds the 1950 Convention on Human Rights for the 47-member Council of Europe, the continental-wide human rights body.
The EU’s top court, sometimes confused with the ECHR, is the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The EU’s new Lisbon Treaty, set to come into force in January, does not cite Christianity as part of the Union’s common heritage.
This was despite loud calls from conservatives, renewed after the cross decision.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Khatami Honored With Danish Global Dialogue Prize
Controversial selection for intercultural award draws both praise and criticism from international experts and politicians
Former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami and Iranian philosopher Dariush Shayegan are the recipients of the first ever Global Dialogue Prize — a selection that has awoken controversy among many human rights organisations and politicians.
The award carries with it a 500,000 kroner cash prize and is sponsored by Aarhus University, the City of Aarhus, the Poul Due Jensens Foundation at Grundfos, and tourist agency VisitAarhus Events.
According to the award’s website, the prize goes to ‘scholars and researchers in the humanities and other fields of scholarship and science relevant to intercultural value research…and acknowledges outstanding achievements in the advancement and application of intercultural value research’.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Might Lose More Soldiers
From Norwegian: Norway is concerned that McChrystal’s strategy will lead to more Norwegian soldiers killed
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Envoy ‘Doubts’ On D’Alema
Diplomat says communist past may be a factor for EU post
(ANSA) — Brussels, November 5 — The chances of former Italian premier Massimo D’Alema becoming the European Union’s future ‘foreign minister’ appeared to suffer a blow on Thursday when a Poland diplomat said his country and other ex-Warsaw Pact members “may have a problem” with the ex-Italian Communist Party (PCI) figure getting the post. According to Poland’s permanent representative to the EU, Jan Tombinski, “it would be better to have someone whose authority could not be questioned because of his past political affiliations”.
Tombiski later clarified that his observations in no way represented any formal opposition from his government to D’Alema’s candidacy. However, the ambassador added that for him the best candidate for the new job, created in the EU’s governing Lisbon Treaty which goes into effect in 2010, is British Foreign Secretary David Miliband of the Labor Party.
This especially after the candidacy of ex-British prime minister Tony Blair to fill the revised position of European Council president appears to have faded.
Because of the center-right majority in the European Parliament, the president’s job is expected to go to someone from that camp, which means that the post of top diplomat will go to someone from the center left.
While Ambassador Tombinski did not rule out that Blair’s candidacy could make comeback, he observed that in diplomatic sources it was “99% certain” that Belgian Premier Herman Van Rompuy will be elected president when the EC holds a special meeting, expected later this month.
D’Alema rose through the ranks of the former Italian Communist Party (PCI), serving at one time as head of its FGCI youth chapter, and was on its executive committee when the party became the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) in 1991 and then the Democrats of the Left (DS) in 1998, before it merged with centrist parties in 2007 into the Democratic Party.
He served as chairman of the PDS-DS from 1994 to 1999 and was premier from October 1998 to April 2000 and foreign minister from May 2006 to May 2008. photo: Massimo D’Alema
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Rise of French Evangelicals Puts Secularism in a Spin
Number of churches has climbed from 800 in 1970 to more than 2,200 today
As evangelical services go, this gathering on a rainy Sunday is nothing unusual. In countless churches across the US and many countries, it would be a staple means of Christian worship.
But this is not the American Bible Belt. It is the Church of Paris-Bastille, and this congregation is one of a growing number of evangelical communities spreading through France and prospering in spite of its secular — and Catholic — traditions.
From a postwar population of about 50,000, French evangelicals are now estimated to number 450,000 to 500,000. According to the Evangelical Federation of France, the number of churches has risen from 800 in 1970 to more than 2200 today.
[…]
So the emergence of evangelicals as a force has raised eyebrows, with some critics questioning whether their beliefs are compatible with the values of a secular republic. They are associated in many minds with the politically powerful movement of the US religious right.
Jean-Francois Colosimo, a writer and religious historian, provoked a furious backlash from evangelicals when, after it emerged that France’s intelligence services had launched a “census” of the domestic population, he said: “Everything in France would seem to ban a politico-religious mixture. But laicite is fragile and temptations are present” — a direct reference to the evangelicals.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Legal Steps to Take Obese Boy Away From Parents
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 4 — The attorney’s office of Orense, Galicia, has taken legal steps against the parents of the obese 9-year-old boy, charging them with abduction of a minor, sources in the Audiencia Provincial said, quoted by Europa Press. The boy’s parents refuse to hand the boy over to the social services of the regional council of Galicia, to bring him to a juvenile protection centre for treatment, as decided by the Court of Ourense. The chief prosecutor of the Audiencia Provincial, Florentino Delgado, has underlined that the step has been taken to protect the boy, and that it has nothing to do with the focus on the issue by the press. (ANSAmed)
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UK: ‘Soldiers Are Dying for Afghan Democracy as British Values Crumble’, Says Bishop
The Government has allowed the scandal of bankers’ bonuses and MPs’ expenses to “chip away” at the values of British society yet “throws” soldiers at Afghanistan to fight corruption there, the Bishop of Lichfield has said.
The Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill used his Remembrance Sunday sermon to question the morality of sending soldiers to die so a democracy can be constructed when freedoms in this country are being eroded.
Speaking to the congregation at Stoke Minster, Staffordshire, he said: “We are throwing our soldiers at a nation where the structures are endemically corrupt. We are trying to train up police in a society which is divided and where terrorism reigns. That is a difficult task for our troops and we salute them.
But the point which we can consider is this: is it true that in our own society we are chipping away at the values which make our freedoms possible? You can’t make a democracy in Afghanistan without shared public values and citizens who are not corrupt and violent.
“But in our own country corruption and violence are not entirely absent. The bankers who have gambled away our futures mostly still fail to see that there has been wrongdoing and still argue that they should be given bonuses when most of us know they should be given penalties
“Some of our MPs have filed false expense claims, though very few in Staffordshire, thank goodness.”
He blamed “ignorance but not malice” for the Government’s decisions, but added that their actions are “dismantling… our own country”.
“… our legislators are chipping away at the very Christian values on which our society and its freedoms are based,” he said.
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UK: Anger Over Plan to Dig Up 350,000 Bodies in Historic London Cemetery for Muslim Burial Site
But plans are afoot to dig up the ancient graves at Tower Hamlets Cemetery — and reopen it as a 21st century burial site.
Officially it would be known as a “multi-faith” cemetery but it is likely that it would principally answer calls for a Muslim graveyard in the largely-Asian East London borough.
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The local newspaper has been bombarded with letters from historians and nature lovers declaring: “There is no way we’ll allow them to dig up our ancestors.”
But the Labour-controlled council’s environment spokesman Abdal Ullah appeared to be in no doubt about the feasibility of the plan when he said: “To preserve the respect and dignity for everyone, I think most of the graves would have to be cleared out and we’d start afresh.”
He said a corner of the cemetery would be reserved for Muslims who are buried in shrouds at a depth of 6ft and on their side facing Mecca.
By law, any graves more than 75 years old can be removed.
At the cemetery yesterday, liaison officer Ken Greenway — the only paid member of staff tending the 33-acre site — said he was astonished that anyone would even contemplate such a move.
“I’m against it and I have to stand up for that because of the huge value of this site today,” he added.
“It’s a beautiful haven for wildlife and people.”
The City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery was opened in 1841 by an Act of Parliament.
During the Second World War it was bombed five times and some headstones still bear the marks of shrapnel hits.
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Other markers have gone altogether, torn down when the graveyard was deconsecrated as a Church of England cemetery by another Act of Parliament in 1966 when it was deemed to be full.
The intention was to create an open space for the public, which led to two bomb-damaged chapels being demolished and a swathe of graves cleared.
In 1986 ownership passed from the Greater London Council to Tower Hamlets and in 1990 the Friends of the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park was set up.
Seven years ago the park became the borough’s first nature reserve and it is now tended by 1,600 volunteers.
It is home to 27 species of butterfly, a rare bumble bee, woodpeckers, sparrowhawks and the elusive firecrest.
Some 8,000 schoolchildren visit every year for outdoor nature lessons.
Professor David Bellamy, who is patron of the Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, said: “Tower Hamlets Cemetery is still a place of peace and reflection as it has been since it was saved from becoming just another part of East London’s urban sprawl.
“Now in its new guise as a local nature reserve and green lung, people of every colour, creed and kind share their humanity with that of other living things.
“I can only pray that the wisdom of all faiths can together discover the right way ahead for this very special part of East London’s heritage.”
Last night the council was insisting there were no plans to re-open the park as a cemetery.
“It is a popular and historic nature park and if there were any proposalsto alter the look or the functionality, there would be a full consultation with interested parties,” said a spokesman.
However the council admitted it had been looking at “options” for burial sites.
And Lib Dem group leader Stephanie Eaton said she had received a letter from the council chief executive admitting the park was one of the options being considered.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mother Trailed by Policeman and Warned by Council for Telling Off Son at Checkout
A mother who reprimanded her children at a supermarket was secretly followed by an off-duty policeman and interrogated by fellow officers who reported her to social services.
The 34-year-old, who has had no previous problems with the police, was horrified when she was visited at home by two uniformed officers six weeks after the incident.
They said she had been seen by the off-duty officer who had trailed the family to their house — a 15-minute walk away — to get their address.
During the visit, the officers asked the mother what forms of discipline she imposed on her 11-year-old son and four-year-old daughter.
When she admitted she occasionally gave them a smack ‘as a last resort’, they advised her to stick to the alternative methods she already used, such as withdrawing treats and banning television.
She later received a letter from the local council informing her that the ‘chastisement’ of her children in public had been put ‘on record’.
The mother, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect her children, admits that on the day she took them to the supermarket in Southampton in early August they had been unusually badly behaved because bad weather had kept them indoors.
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She admits she threatened her son in the store with a ‘hiding’ if he did not behave and had given him a mild smack earlier in the day for quarrelling with his sister.
But the mother, a regular churchgoer and a bookshop manager, whose 40-year-old husband was until recently a logistics controller at an international aerospace company, said that she smacked her children only ‘two or three times a year, if that’. She said her children had been running around the shop aisles, bickering and fighting with each other. When she reached the till, she made them sit on a bench but they started quarrelling again.
She said: ‘I went over to them, carrying my bags of shopping, and my words were something like, “How dare you behave like this — you’ve been arguing and fighting all day. If you carry on like this you’re going to get another hiding like the one you had earlier.”‘
She admitted her language might have sounded harsh but said she had wanted her son to get the message she was really angry.
Her rebuke had the required effect because her children were later very apologetic. Towards the end of September, however, two policemen knocked at her door.
‘I have never been in trouble with the police before and I have a great respect for them, so I was absolutely shocked,’ she said.
‘When they told me about the off-duty officer, I couldn’t believe it.
During the conversation, the police warned her that, in some cases, they had the right to go into schools and talk to children directly, which she said was ‘intimidating’.
Two weeks later, in early October, a letter arrived from Southampton City Council’s Children’s Services Department. Though the letter said no further action would be taken ‘at this time’, it added: ‘We would like to advise you that we do keep the information on record.’ The woman said she felt she had been ‘treated like a criminal’.
Hampshire Police confirmed that an off-duty officer had reported the incident to its child protection team.
A spokesman said: ‘It was not an ordinary telling-off and because of what the woman said and the way her children reacted to it, it gave our officer reasonable grounds for concern. We followed this up, as you would expect any police force to do.’
A spokesman for Southampton City Council said the letter was ‘standard practice’, adding: ‘It is very important that we keep records of any concerns raised to us about children in the city.’
Under the law, mild smacking is allowable under a ‘reasonable chastisement’ defence against common assault. However, punishment that creates visible bruising, grazes, scratches and cuts can lead to action.
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UK: Mother Blinded After Asking Drunken Yob to Stop Swearing in Front of Her 13-Year-Old Daughter
A mother blinded in a sickening attack after she asked a yob to stop swearing in front of her 13-year-old daughter today accused the law of failing victims.
Seamstress Julie Hobson, 38, needed surgery to remove her left eye after she was repeatedly punched by Thomas Wilkinson.
A shocked neighbour who tried to intervene later said the force of the blows seemed enough to ‘knock her head off’.
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UK: Secret Court Takes Four Months to Give Elderly Their Own Money, And Then Charges £400 for the Privilege
The secretive and controversial Court of Protection — which controls the finances of some of Britain’s most vulnerable people — is taking an average of four months to release people’s cash, while charging them £400 to apply for it.
The latest shocking revelation about the court comes in the wake of a Mail on Sunday investigation into widespread concerns about the way it is run.
The court, which has attracted nearly 4,000 complaints from the public in the past two years, oversees money belonging to people with dementia or other forms of mental incapacity.
[…]
People complained to us about how:
- Court officials paid the proceeds of a house sale into the wrong account.
- A relative was accused of abusive behaviour towards a court official on a visit to his home — even though the official had never visited him.
- One claimant was charged £4,100 in legal fees to withdraw £5,800 of their own money.
- Elderly clients died before requests for cash were agreed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: the End of the Great Deception
The EU has achieved the goal it has worked stealthily towards for so long — a supra-national government which is now beyond our recall, writes Christopher Booker
By Christopher Booker
So the trap has snapped shut. It was somehow apt that the politician who finally let the EU get the constitution it has craved so long should have been President Vaclav Klaus, the veteran anti-Communist who predicted, just before the Czech Republic joined the EU in 2004, that it would mean the end of his country as “an independent sovereign state”. And what a delightful irony that Pravda, of all newspapers, greeted the news last week with the headline: “Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the EU is now a reincarnation of the Soviet Union”.
Tomorrow, as the EU’s leaders gather in Berlin to celebrate the end of that wall, they will also celebrate the rise of a new one — a wall they have built around themselves, that separates Europe’s politicians from all their subject peoples. From December 1, the Lisbon Treaty comes into force. (How long before they give it back its original name, “A Constitution for Europe”?) The EU will at last have the supreme government it has wanted so long — unelected, unaccountable and, as even its own polls show, less popular with those it rules over than ever before. But what do the politicians care? They have the power, and we now have a government we can never dismiss.
Of course David Cameron never wanted a referendum, which would have been a huge embarrassment to him. His promise of one was a cynical gimmick to curry favour with Euro-sceptic voters — a trick he is now repeating with a promise to work for the repatriation of powers which he must know he will never get. To do so would require a new treaty and the agreement of 27 governments to something which, as they are already making abundantly clear, is simply not on offer.
Where Mr Cameron is entirely at one with his Labour and Lib Dem counterparts is that they must never admit or explain just how much of Britain’s governance has already been given away, leaving Westminster with little more power than a rather grand local council. None of them will ever discuss this because they all belong to that new Europe-wide political class that governs us from behind its wall, without ever having to ask us for our consent.
In a wistful way it has been amusing to see that former Foreign Office mandarin Sir Christopher Meyer much in evidence of late, bemoaning the way Foreign Office morale has sunk so low because so much of its old power and influence has passed to “other departments in Whitehall”. What he means, of course, is that its power has departed not elsewhere in Whitehall but to this amorphous new entity which is even now constructing its own foreign ministry and diplomatic service, with embassies around the world, to replace almost everything of significance our Foreign Office once stood for. This is why the child we now have as our Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, can’t wait to be part of it.
Three years ago, when I was in the beautiful city of Prague to assist President Klaus in launching a Czech edition of my history of the “European project”, The Great Deception, I was intrigued to note that outside every Czech ministry there hung two flags, one Czech, the other the EU’s ring of stars. It was an honest recognition of how their country was governed, a practice I suggested the British Government should follow.
The only difference now is that our ministries should cease to fly the Union Jack and hoist instead what is officially known in Brussels as “the Union Flag”, that same ring of stars which, from December 1, will symbolise the true government we live under.
As a final thought, since the EU is to become a government with “legal personality” in its own right, how long will it be before its President, under the constitution, is accorded international precedence over the Queen as our head of state? Like much else in this sorry story, our new rulers will start by denying that they are even thinking of such a thing. But now they have their constitution, I bet it can’t be long.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Italian-Croatian Consortium to Build Gas Pipeline
(ANSAmed) — NAPLES, NOVEMBER 5 — A Croatian-Italian consortium, ‘Dalekovod-Ghizzoni’, will carry out work on the second and third stretches of the gas distribution network in the Croatian regions of Lika and Dalmatia. The Italian Trade Commission (ICE) in Zagreb announced that the contracts were signed recently by the consortium and the national operator of the gas distribution system, Plinacro. The total value of the operation is 59.6 million euros: Italian company Ghizzoni, which was previously the main constructor of the three stretches of the Pola-Karlovac gas pipeline in 2006, will carry out the engineering work and specialised assembly, while Croatian company Dalekovod will carry out the building work. Work on the first stretch of the new pipeline is expected to start this month, and will be completed in a year, while work on the second stretch could start in March 2011. The project is supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB). (ANSAmed)
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Croatia-Slovenia: What the Agreement Includes
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 4 — The bilateral agreement signed today by the governments of Slovenia and Croatia includes the creation of an international Tribunal to determine the land and sea borders between the two countries, the treaty of conjunction for Slovenia offshore and a regime of use of the maritime areas concerned. “The Tribunal will apply international law, equity and principles of good neighbourliness,” said a statement by the representatives of Croatia in Brussels. The statement continues to say that the tribunal will be made up of five members: one appointed by Croatia, one by Slovenia, and the President will be chosen by common agreement, along with the other two members, who will be selected from a list of candidates well-known for their abilities in international law, and supplied by the President of the European Commission and the Commissioner for Enlargement. If the two countries are unable to agree on the appointments, the President and the other two members of the Tribunal will be chosen by the President of the International Court of Justice from the same list. The proceedings will start from the date of the signing by Croatia of the Treaty of adhesion to the EU. >From that moment, the two sides will have one year to submit their own documentation. The majority decision of the Tribunal wil be binding for both countries and will constitute the final resolution to the dispute. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: Presidential Election; Results of First Polls
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, NOVEMBER 2 — Just under two months before the presidential election in Croatia, the first polls released today show that there are four favourites, two left-wing and two right-wing, to succeed President Stipe Mesic after ten years. The social-democrat Ivo Josipovic, law professor at the university of Zagreb, composer of classical music and deputy, is ranked first in the polls with 24.6%. Second place, 7% below Josipovic, stands another social-democrat, the powerful mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandic, who however still hasn’t officially announced his candidature. Bandic is seen as a centre populist, though he has been part of the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for many years. In the past months he has taken his distance from the party however due to conflicts with its president. He has been elected as mayor of Zagreb for the third time. The polls give third place and 13.1% to Nadan Vidosevic, president of the Croatian Chamber of Economy, manager and brother of the Croatian ambassador in Rome. Vidosevic was removed from the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), after announcing his plans to run for president. HDZ in fact already had an official candidate, Andrija Hebrang, who has been minister several times between 1990 and today. Despite the support of the country’s biggest party, Hebrang only get 11% in the polls due to his right-wing, rigid and old-fashioned image. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia-EU: Jeremic, Request for Adhesion by the End of Year
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 5 — Serbia intends to present its request for adhesion to the EU by the end of the year. This is what the Serbian Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic, announced today in Brussels in the Euro-Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission and after meeting with the commissioner in charge of enlargement, Olli Rehn. “We will naturally continue with consultation, but adhesion to the European Union is a strategic objective for Serbia”, Jeremic highlighted, according to whom the most recent commission report on Serbia’s progress in reforms has shown improvements and is an encouragement to continue doing more. In fact, Serbia’s path towards European integration must surpass Holland’s veto to the application of the interim agreement with the EU, that which leads to adhesion. But the go-ahead from the Hague will not arrive until the head prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribune for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Serge Brammertz, recognises Belgrade’s full collaboration, considering Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, the last two war criminals sought after by the Hague tribune, are still at large. “The Serbians have made significant progress in the last year”, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, stated, hoping for progress in the interim agreement and a positive outcome for Brammertz’s current trip to Belgrade. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
China PM Reaches Out to Muslims in Cairo Speech
CAIRO — Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao sought to reassure the world’s Muslims about his country’s goodwill towards them in Cairo on Saturday, at a time when Beijing is criticised for the treatment of its own Muslim minority.
“The relationship between Chinese civilisation and Islamic civilisation goes back years,” Wen said in a speech delivered at the Cairo-based headquarters of the 22-member Arab League.
“China is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country. The basic policy of the Chinese government is to ensure equality among all ethnic groups and speed up the economic development of all regions,” he said.
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Egypt: Opposition Leader Nour Accuses After US Visit Ban
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 5 — The opposition leader, Ayman Nour ,who was falsely imprisoned for three years after being a candidate at the presidential elections of 2005 and freed last February, has accused Gamal Mubarak, the son of the Egyptian president, of blocking his planned visit to the US, refused him by the Egyptian authorities. Yesterday Nour reported the fact that he was illegally blocked from going to the US next week, where he was invited by the Council on Foreign Relations and by associations of Egyptian-Americans. According to reports by independent newspapers Al Masri el Yom and Al Shourouk [tomorrow], the leader of the Ghad party said that Gamal himself is due to go to the US in December, to meet the same Egyptian residents who were set to meet him. Gamal Mubarak, said Nour on the issue of the possible candidate to the succession of his father at the next presidential elections, wants his voice alone to be heard abroad. The decision to block my departure, he added, announcing that he will try to participate in the two meetings via videoconferencing or internet, is a violation of my constitutional and political rights. Imprisoned on charges of having falsified signatures on documents for the recognition of his party, Nour was freed three years later with the official reason being his bad health conditions. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: India to Set Up Suez Industrial Zone
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 5 — India’s Minister of Industry and Commerce Anand Sharma and Egypts Minister of Trade Rachid Mohamed Rachid signed an agreement last week to establish an Indian Industrial Zone in the Suez development area, The Daily News of Egypt reported. The zone is expected to give Indian entrepreneurs better access to European/North American markets in a low tax area, while bringing Indian expertise — particularly in the development of SME’s — to Egypt. After meeting with Prime Minister Nazif, when the PM invited India to establish the zone, Sharma had attended negotiations of African trade ministers preparing a statement to make at the WTO meeting in Geneva. Rachid and Sharma announced the future partnership between their respective countries after the conclusion of the WTO press conference. Both ministers described the zone as an example of maintaining momentum in the face of the economic crisis. India and Egypt maintained positive GDP growth this year, at 7.4 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Videos Taken on Cell Phones Spark Religious War
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 5 — Even videos taken on cell phones have become a source of new tensions in the already difficult relationship between Christians and Muslims in traditionalist ‘Upper Egypt’, the southern part of the country. Sparking the new inter-religious violence in a society where religious fanaticism is wide spread on both sides, now cheap Chinese cell phones than can capture young women not paying attention to their privacy in intimate moments. But with large family that want to revenge the affront immediately. The most serious case, among those reported today in The Egyptian Gazette, is the one that ended tragically in Assuit where a Christian showed a video of a young Muslim being too affectionate with her fiancé. Three people were killed after hundreds of angry Muslim threw stones at the houses and stores of Christians and set fire to their cars. Similar reactions happened after a young Copt near Dairut showed a video of another Muslim girl. When the parents of the girl found out they nearly killed the Copt and several people were injured in the violence. Between two villages there was nearly a war on the first day of festivities celebrating the end of Ramadan, says the newspaper, when a young Christian dared to photograph a girl who had taken off her veil. Her parents were furious and wanted to punish the boy but when the boys parents refused to turn him over, according to police reports, public disorder exploded. The boys parents offered to pay 10,000 Egyptian lira (about 1,300 euros) in damages to the girls parents. Yet another incident, the attacks, including about twenty stores and vehicles set on fire, happened after a Christian merchant accused a woman of stealing a cell phone and hiding it under her niqab, ripping off her face veil. Even if there were no cell phones, the Muslims and Copts would still fight, Copt lawyer Mamdouh Nakhla told ANSA. Its now twenty years that Ive worked on the relationship between the two religions in Egypt. In the past the situation was not so tense, but in the last ten years a climate of violence has been created especially in the saiid. Both side suspects the other, everyone hunts the other to attack for the slightest mistake. For example, continued the expert, Christian women in Assiout were forced to cover their hair to having dared to walk on the street without a veil. And the stores that sell alcohol were forced to close by threats to the owners and continuous attacks on their warehouses. A climate of intolerance and inter-religious violence that brings to mind the recent film, “Hassan&Morcos” with Omar Sharif and the popular Egyptian actor Adel Imam, and, concludes Nakhlam it continues to get worse. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Anne Frank’s Diary Offends Lebanon’s Hezbollah
Anne Frank’s diary has been censored out of a school textbook in Lebanon following a campaign by the militant group Hezbollah which claimed the classic work promotes Zionism.
The controversy erupted after Hezbollah learned that excerpts of “The Diary of Anne Frank” were included in a textbook used by a private English-language school in western Beirut.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: New Ambassador in Iraq, Replaces Murdered Colleague
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 3 — After more than four years, since the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq was killed by Al Qaeda terrorists, Cairo is sending a diplomatic representative to Baghdad. The announcement was made today by Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, during a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiar Zibari, which focused on re-starting economic and political cooperation between the two countries. The new Egyptian ambassador, Sherif Shanin, will take up his post in Baghdad within one week. His predecessor, Ihab el Sherif — the first Arab ambassador to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein — was assassinated in 2005 by al Qaeda, a severe blow to President Mubarak’s foreign policy. In the press conference regarding the meeting, the Baghdad diplomat pointed out that he does not believe that Syria is involved in the recent bloody attacks in Iraq but that some Iraqi who live in Syrian territory are responsible and are being sought by Iraqi justice. The statement followed accusations yesterday from Iraqi premier Nouri al-Maliki who appealed to the UN to stop interference from countries bordering Iraq, saying that among those arrested for the dual attack on October 25 in Baghdad were some who confessed to having received help from the Syrian Baath party. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Holocaust: Hezbollah Against Diary of Anne Frank in Arabic
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 5 — There has been an outcry in Israel over the news reported today by daily newspaper Haaretz that Hezbollah militants are carrying out a campaign of intimidation against the release in Lebanon of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank, which has recently been translated into Farsi and Arabic. The famous diary had been only available in Lebanon in English until now, and thus was not accessible to the greater general public. The idea that the diary, written by a young Jewish girl between 1942 and 1944 in an attic in Amsterdam who would later end up in a Nazi death camp, can now be read by any Arabic speaker is evidently unacceptable for Hezbollah, which in recent days has been trying to find legal way of prosecuting anyone selling the book. Last week, Hezbollahs television channel launched an appeal to the judicial authorities on the matter, on the basis of a report by the Committee for the boycotting of Zionist products which considers the release of the Diary of Anne Frank to be in violation of the ban of Israeli goods. Quoting the same reason, some time ago the Lebanese minister for Information, Tarek Mitri, had banned the showing in cinemas of the Israeli animated film Waltz with Bashir. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: First Women Muftis in United Arab Emirates
(by Alessandra Antonelli) (ANSAmed) — DUBAI — Thanks to the country’s emancipated legislation, the women of the United Arab Emirates have already claimed their right to exercise many of the professions once considered exclusive male strongholds: from the space shuttle to aircraft hangers, from the halls of the country’s parliament, its courts and financial institutions, to the salons of high art, just about every profession now has its female practitioners. The final bastion is perhaps the prestigious religious title of Mufti, and this too appears to be about to acquire a female face. Under a project launched with the blessing of the country’s leadership, Dubai could see, in 2010, the first women Muftis in the modern era of Islam, invested with full judiciary powers — thus bringing back to life a tradition with roots in Mohammed’s times. “It is clear that women are just as able as men to promote acts of virtue and prohibit acts of vice,” said the Grand Mufti of Dubai, Ahmad Al Haddad, pointing out that “this is no more than was done by the female contemporaries of the Prophet Mohammed and those who followed”. It is not unheard of that women be entrusted with religious offices: in Jordan, women Imams have been preaching for years; Egypt saw the title of Islamic Notary conferred on a woman in 2008, with the power to celebrate marriages and grant divorces and in Abu Dhabi, women consultants work at the Fatwa Centre (on issuing religious edicts). Nonetheless, their functions are limited compared to those of their male counterparts, and most of them are seen as women providing services to other women. Dubai’s Muftis, on the other hand, will be as fully empowered as their male colleagues, issuing their judgements on all matters, whether ‘feminine’ or not, from the Sharia (Koranic law) to morality, from prayer to behaviour in public. In order to be able to do so, months of study and preparation in the Sunni al Maliki school, the one followed in the Emirates, is required. There are at present already six female candidates interested in studying for the religious/juridical qualification, but this number could grow as applications are being accepted until the start of the courses, scheduled for the beginning of next year. The consigning of Mufti status to women has already given rise to controversy between the country’s authorities and Muslim academics, with Egypt’s Al-Zahar University, one of the leading authorities in the Islamic world, ruling against the notion that a woman could be appointed to the position of Grand Mufti. But this is not a cause for excessive concern with Al Haddad, as “it regards the possibility of having a woman as the Grand Mufti of a state, and this is not what we are working towards at present”.(ANSAmed).
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Saudi Arabia Converts Foreigners
Around 5,480 people converted to Islam in Saudi Arabia through the ‘Bring me to Islam’ cell phone hotline service, media reports said on Thursday.
The service, provided in 12 languages, was launched to raise awareness among foreign communities in the kingdom, the Saudi daily Okaz reported.
Any person can suggest names of non-Muslims he thinks they might convert to Islam through text messages to the hotline, along with their numbers and the language they speak.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Suspect Told ‘There’s Something Wrong With You’
FORT HOOD, Texas — There was the classroom presentation that justified suicide bombings. Comments to colleagues about a climate of persecution faced by Muslims in the military. Conversations with a mosque leader that became incoherent.
As a student, some who knew Nidal Malik Hasan said they saw clear signs the young Army psychiatrist — who authorities say went on a shooting spree at Fort Hood that left 13 dead and 29 others wounded — had no place in the military. After arriving at Fort Hood, he was conflicted about what to tell fellow Muslim soldiers about the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, alarming an Islamic community leader from whom he sought counsel.
“I told him, ‘There’s something wrong with you,’“ Osman Danquah, co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, told The Associated Press on Saturday. “I didn’t get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn’t seem right.”
[…]
Finnell said he did just that during a year of study in which Hasan made a presentation “that justified suicide bombing” and spewed “anti-American propaganda” as he argued the war on terror was “a war against Islam.” Finnell said he and at least one other student complained about Hasan, surprised that someone with “this type of vile ideology” would be allowed to wear an officer’s uniform.
But Finnell said no one filed a formal, written complaint about Hasan’s comments out of fear of appearing discriminatory.
“In retrospect, I’m not surprised he did it,” Finnell said. “I had real questions about what his priorities were, what his beliefs were.”
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Turkey Has Sudden Change of Heart When it Comes to War Crimes (Via Dagelijkse Standaard)
Turkey should arrest Sudan’s president if he visits Istanbul because of an international warrant against him for atrocities in Darfur, human rights groups said Friday.
Turkey, however, has indicated that it would welcome President Omar al-Bashir, who will reportedly arrive in Istanbul on Monday for a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference, a bloc of Muslim countries.
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Russia: Obama to Sign Nuke Deal Before Noble
From Norwegian: According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, Obama wants to sign a new Russian-American agreement on nuclear weapons before Dec. 10th (Noble Ceremony). The Russians answered that they’re not the ones holding up the deal.
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Ministers Question Future of Afghan Mission
Cabinet ministers have begun to question the future of Britain’s combat mission in Afghanistan as pressure on Gordon Brown mounts over the conflict, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.
Senior Labour figures close to the Prime Minister have spoken about fears and “frustrations” over the “trajectory” of the campaign, which has claimed the lives of 231 British troops since 2001.
Their comments followed last week’s public comments from Kim Howells, the former Foreign Office minister who is now Mr Brown’s intelligence and security watchdog, who called last week for the “great majority” of Britain’s 9,000-strong force in Afghanistan to be withdrawn.
As pressure grew on the Prime Minister to plot a firmer strategy and timetable for the UK mission, the British commander of the unit which lost five men last week after they were shot by a rogue Afghan policeman spoke for the first time of the “monstrous” and “treacherous” act.
Lieutenant Colonel Roly Walker, who leads the 1st battalion Grenadier Guards, said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph that the dead men would never be forgotten — but vowed to continue with the task of taking the fight to the Taliban.
A new poll today shows a fresh drop in public support for the Afghan conflict with nearly two-thirds of voters believing it to be a lost cause.
Some 64 per cent of those quizzed in a ComRes survey for the BBC One Politics Show today felt the war was “unwinnable” while 63 per cent thought British troops should be withdrawn as quickly as possible.
A cabinet minister told The Sunday Telegraph of the “dissatisfaction” among Labour MPs and added that Mr Howells knew there were many others in the party who shared his views.
He said: “There are some in the cabinet who are unhappy and nervous about our mission and there is growing frustration about the trajectory of the campaign. The lack of any obvious progress is another factor.
“We are told we are not going to withdraw but there does not appear to be any alternative.”
Another cabinet member, close to Mr Brown, said: “We didn’t get into this war to create the new state of Afghanistan. What we want to do is to leave. There are problems. All our advice rightly shows us that there are clear links between what we are doing there and our own national security.
“But on a day-to-day basis nobody knows why we are there. We need to communicate this more effectively.”
Last week Mr Brown tried to regain the initiative on Afghanistan when he delivered a speech telling Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, to deliver an end to the corruption which has plagued his government and contributed to the danger to British forces.
He said: “We cannot, must not, and will not walk away.”
But the Prime Minister found himself under attack from senior former military leaders with Lord Guthrie, ex-chief of the defence staff, accusing him of “dithering” over a pledge to send 500 extra British troops to Afghanistan.
Ministers supporting Mr Brown, however, hit back by attempting to pin the blame on Barack Obama, the US President, for failing to act on a top-level recommendation to send 40,000 extra American forces.
A senior source at the Ministry of Defence said: “Even if we wanted to change our strategy, how could we when Obama is keeping us in limbo over his plans. There is a great deal of frustration both here and over the road [The Foreign Office] about this.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Taliban Fights Girls
From Norwegian: In the two years the Taliban has been controlling the Swat area, 200 schools, mostly girls’ schools, have been destroyed.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Sudan: “A Muslim Can Never Commit Genocide.”
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has pushed back his planned visit to Turkey, Turkish aviation officials said on Sunday, adding that the controversial leader canceled his Sunday flight without any explanation.
It was not clear whether al-Bashir will come to Turkey on Monday or Tuesday for a summit of Islamic nations, the officials added, according to a report by the Doðan news agency.
The statement came hours after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan defended al-Bashir’s visit by saying, “Those world leaders who criticize us, have they ever visited Darfur? Their information is solely based on what the rapporteurs are reporting. These kinds of moves will not contribute to world peace,” Erdoðan said Sunday in an address to party members.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Whiff of a Smoking Gun
Why did new Labour secretly open Britain’s borders, while pretending to control the numbers under its so-called “managed migration” policy?
Two weeks ago Andrew Neather, a former speechwriter for Tony Blair, wrote an article saying Labour had allowed immigration to rocket in order to turn Britain “truly multicultural” and “to rub the right’s noses in diversity”.
The heart of his claim was that uncontrolled mass immigration had been a deliberate, covert policy to change the country’s demographics.
But Labour’s core vote, the white working class, were drawn to the BNP at the resulting pressure on jobs, homes and schools.
Alan Johnson, the home secretary, has said Labour was “maladroit” on the issue: the immigration door was left wide open because of “cock-up” not a “conspiracy”. But Neather’s account may be only half the story.
Chris Mullin, a former minister, recalled in his memoirs that ministers had “barely touched the rackets that surrounded arranged marriages . . . terrified of the huge cry of ‘racism’ that would go up
.. . . There is the added difficulty that at least 20 Labour seats, including Jack (Straw’s), depend on Asian votes”.
With up to 80% of ethnic minorities voting Labour, it is obvious that the more immigrants who get the right to vote, the greater is Labour’s electoral share. Perhaps Mullin has stumbled on a smoking gun.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 115,812 Abortions in 2008, 10,221 Under 18
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 5 — The number of abortions in Spain is continuing to rise: in 2008, 115,812 women underwent an abortion, 3.2% more than in 2007. According to data released by the Ministry of Health and Social Policy, some 10,221 abortions were carried out on minors aged between 15 and 18, 1.2% less than in 2008. According to ministerial sources, the data reflects a stabilisation in abortions, since the increase of 10.3% in 2007 on the previous year and an increase of over 6% over the years from 2004 onwards. Only 2% of abortions were carried out in public hospitals. Catalonia, Madrid and Andalusia were the autonomous communities with the highest number of abortions, with over 20,000 each. Abortions were carried out in more or less equal measures on Spanish women (54.5%) and foreign women resident in Spain (43.6%), as well as 1.7% non-resident. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Strict Dutch Church Learns About Gays
A group for gays in the Dutch Reformed Church has given Education Minister Ronald Plasterk a teaching manual on homosexuality.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bid to Block Paedophiles on Facebook Fails Over Concerns About Human Rights Laws
Government plans to prevent paedophiles using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have failed over concerns about human rights laws.
The Home Office has been forced to climb down after announcing in April that it was putting measures in place to restrict registered sex offenders from accessing internet sites used by children.
The new law would have applied to more than 30,000 sex offenders on the register, according to the Observer. Failure to comply would have carried up to five years’ imprisonment.
However, concerns that the plan is incompatible with the right to privacy has forced the Home Office to shelve it.
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