Well, the descent of the dollar has officially begun. The Chinese sold off $34 billion of Treasury bonds in December, and are no longer the largest holder of US sovereign debt. The coming dollar inflation is not showing yet at the retail level, but there has been a jump in wholesale prices, and unemployment claims have risen.Also: in Austin, Texas, a man stole an airplane and flew it into a building housing IRS offices. No connection with the current financial crisis was immediately obvious.
Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, KGS, Lurker from Tulsa, TB, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Beijing Unloads Treasuries: $34 Billion of Debt Dumped
Chinese officials express growing unease about ability to finance swelling liability
China appears to be making good on a long-standing threat to dump U.S. Treasuries.
Foreign demand for U.S. government bonds and Treasury bills tumbled by the largest amount on record in December, according to monthly data from the U.S. Treasury Department. And China led the way, cutting its holdings by $34.2-billion (U.S.) and relinquishing its title as the world’s largest holder of U.S. government debt to Japan.
In recent months, top Chinese officials have expressed growing unease about the ability of the United States to finance its swelling debt, without triggering a major devaluation of the dollar.
China has now cut its holdings of Treasuries by $45-billion over the past five months, or “a long enough period to hint strongly at a trend,” Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at RBS Securities Inc., said in a research note.
[…]
Of arguably much more consequence and relevance to Hussain’s thinking is a paper that he co-authored for the Brookings Institution in August 2008, titled “Reformulating the Battle of Ideas: the Role of Islam in Counterterrorism Policy.”
Co-written with Al-Husein N. Madhany, Hussain argued in the study that the US embrace the “hearts and minds” part of the war on terrorism by embracing Islam.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Would Ban Federal Currency in SC
PITTS INTRODUCES LEGISLATION TO REPLACE PAPER MONEY WITH GOLD, SILVER COINS
South Carolina will no longer recognize U.S. currency as legal tender, if State Rep. Mike Pitts has his way.
Pitts, a fourth-term Republican from Laurens, introduced legislation earlier this month that would ban what he calls “the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin” in South Carolina.
If the bill were to become law, South Carolina would no longer accept or use anything other than silver and gold coins as a form of payment for any debt, meaning paper money would be out in the Palmetto State.
Pitts said the intent of the bill is to give South Carolina the ability to “function through gold and silver coinage” and give the state a “base of currency” in the event of a complete implosion of the U.S. economic system.
“I’m not one to cry ‘chicken little,’ but if our federal government keeps spending at the rate we’re spending I don’t see any other outcome than the collapse of the economic system,” Pitts said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China Sells $34.2bn of US Treasury Bonds
Analysts fear Beijing’s move may suggest a loss of faith in American government’s economic policy
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has said he is ‘a little bit worried’ about the safety of his country’s investments in US bonds. Photograph: Greg Baker/AP
China sold $34bn (£21.5bn) worth of US government bonds in December, raising fears that Beijing is using its financial muscle to signal that it has lost confidence in American economic policy.
US treasury figures for the period ending in December 2009 show that, following the sale, China is no longer the largest overseas holder of US treasury bonds. Beijing ended the year sitting on $755.4bn worth of US government debt, compared to Japan’s $768.8bn.
Since the sub-prime crisis that began on Main Street USA grew to engulf the global economy, China’s leaders have repeatedly expressed concerns about US policy. December’s $34bn sell-off made only a tiny dent in Beijing’s total holdings of US assets, which amount to well over $1tn when stakes in American companies, as well as treasury bills, are taken into account.
But the news intensified concerns about China’s appetite for bankrolling ever-widening American deficits. Premier Wen Jiabao told reporters last year: “We have made a huge amount of loans to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I’m a little bit worried.”
When Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, visited China last summer, he sought to reassure his hosts, using a speech to promise that “the United States is committed to a strong and stable international financial system. The Obama administration fully recognises that the United States has a special responsibility to play in this regard, and we fully appreciate that exercising this special responsibility begins at home.”
But Allan Meltzer, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said China’s bond sales should be a wake-up call for Washington. “The Chinese are worried that we have unsustainable debt levels, and we do not have a policy for dealing with it,” he said.
China’s sales contributed to a record drop in foreign holdings of short-term treasury bills in December: in all, net overseas holdings of short-term bills fell by $53bn. The previous record was $44.5bn in April last year.
However, there was little sign that world investors as a whole have lost their confidence in the dollar as the safe-haven currency of choice: overall, the US saw a net inflow of $60.9bn, as investors more than offset sales of short-term debt by buying longer-term securities and shares.
Japan, Britain, Luxembourg and Hong Kong made sizeable purchases, with the UK buying $24.9bn of US government debt.
Some analysts warned that it would be a mistake to read too much into one month’s data, particularly since the current crisis in the eurozone makes investors’ main alternative to the dollar look particularly unattractive.
David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York, said: “China may not be too happy with us right now, but you have to ask: what else are they going to do with their money?”
Ho-fung Hung, author of China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism, said it was hard to tell whether China had a long-term strategy for selling US debt. “I think decision-makers know very well that any large-scale selling of US treasuries won’t do any good to the Chinese economy, which still needs a sustained recovery of the US economy to pull up its export sector. Such selling will also devalue China’s existing holdings of treasuries,” he said.
“Dumping treasuries will also entail the problem of what to buy in return — definitely not euro or yen assets at the moment.”
However, America must sell an unprecedented volume of treasuries in the coming years to finance its record deficit, and pay the cost of bailing out Wall Street and kick-starting the economy with a $900bn stimulus package. Any evidence that foreign investors are beginning to doubt Obama’s promises to bring the public finances under control will spread alarm in Washington.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Tax Amnesty Brings Home 85 Bln Euros
Lion’s share returns from Switzerland
(ANSA) — Rome, February 17 — Italians brought home some 85 billion euros in capital and other assets hidden abroad thanks to the government’s tax amnesty plan, the Bank of Italy reported on Wednesday.
The sum, updated to February 15, was more than 10 billion euros less than what the Treasury claimed had come back to Italy at the end of December.
In its report, the Bank of Italy said that the lion’s share in returned assets came from Switzerland, almost 60 billion euros, while Luxembourg was a distant second with 7.3 billion euros and Monaco third with 4.1 billion euros.
Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti predicted in mid-December that over 80 billion euros would be declared during the amnesty, equal to more than 6% of Italy’s GDP.
The amnesty, the deadline for which was extended at the end of the year from December 15 to April 30, allows Italians a chance to legalize their hidden assets and accounts without having to pay back taxes, only a one-off penalty fee, initially 5% on their value.
The controversial initiative also shields them from prosecution for related crimes like accounting fraud and illegally exporting capital.
The government hopes that the assets repatriated to Italy will give a boost to the national economy, which has only recently begun to recover from the recession brought on by the global economic downturn.
When the deadline was extended to April 30 the Treasury said the date would be “definitive and final”.
The extension was needed, Tremonti explained at the time, “because the amount of assets being declared and the paperwork involved was too much for us to process in time”.
The terms of the amnesty deadline extension raises to 6% the penalty on assets declared by the end of February and 7% until the end of April.
According to the Treasury, the success of the amnesty was in part thanks to efforts of leading countries in the Group of 20 to work together in cracking down on tax havens.
“The era of tax havens is over forever. To hold assets in these havens is no longer convenient, neither economically nor in regard to taxes. The return is too low and the risks too high,” the Treasury observed.
Based on the figures released on Wednesday, the Treasury stands to collect some 4.25 billion euros in penalty fees, slightly less than the 4.5 billion euros originally expected.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Scajola Exchanges Insults in Senate Debate Over Fiat Plant
Rome, 17 Feb.(AKI) — Italian industry minister Claudio Scajola lost his temper in a heated debate in the Senate on Wednesday over the future of the Fiat car plant in Sicily. Scajola was provoked by Costantino Garraffa, a Sicilian senator with the opposition Democratic Party, who accused him of being a liar.
“You are rude and a liar,” screamed Scajola in response.
Garraffa later told Adnkronos International (AKI) he accused Scajola for lying about the amount of funding the state has set aside to help convert Fiat’s Termini Imerese plant for other purposes.
Garraffa said the national government planned to put aside 50 million euros, not 300 million euros in its share of spending.
“I called him a liar, a Pinocchio,” he said referring to the Italian fairy tale of a wooden puppet whose nose grows as he lies.
Scajola has said the Sicily region and the state government had earmarked a total of 450 million euros to convert the plant that Fiat plans to close, probably in 2011.
He told the Senate that the government had received 14 conversion proposals which can include projects from “multimedia, tourism, agro-industrial” sectors.
Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government is trying to limit job losses as the economy struggled to emerge from its worst recession since World War II.
Fiat has resisted pressure from labour unions and the government to save the plant and jobs in an area already with high unemployment. The plant employs around 1,400 people.
“This exposes a weakness in the government,” Garraffa told AKI.
There was no-one available for immediate comment in Scajola’s office on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ISAE: GDP +1% in 2010, + 1.4% in 2011
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 18 — GDP in Italy will increase by 1% in 2010. This is the forecast by the Institute of Studies and Economic Analysis (ISAE) which has revised its forecast of 0.4% growth in its previous forecast (October 2009) upwards. The new forecast is slightly lower than the government’s most recent one which, in the stability programme, indicated a growth of 1.1%. The recovery is being driven, explains a note from the ISAE on the forecasts for the Italian economy, by the strengthening of world trade. In 2011, GDP will rise to 1.4% thanks to the consolidation of domestic and international factors of recovery. These dynamics, explains the ISAE, would permit the recovery of some 40% of production losses experienced in the 2008-2009 two-year period. ISAE estimates that in 2010 Italy will have a deficit at 5.1% and a rising debt at 117.2%. The forecast places the net debt of public administrations at 5.3% of GDP in 2009 (2.7% in 2008), in line with official data. In the two-year period forecast, the ISAE indicates the deficit in relation to the GDP would be at 5.1% in 2010 and 4.6% in 2011. The debt-GDP ratio, which returned to rising in 2008 and 2009 (114.8% in the ISAE estimate) would increase to 117.2% this year and to 118.2% in 2011. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: China Owns 18% of Madrid-Issued Bonds
(ANSAmed)- MADRID, FEBRUARY 18- According to Treasury data, quoted today by newspaper ABC, for December 2009, Chinese investors control 18% of Spain-issued bonds, while as early as 2000 their presence was barely noticeable. If French investors are still at the top when it comes to buying Spanish public debt (with little more than 25% of the total, compared to 21% in 2000), China sees a spectacular increase. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
USA: Jobless Claims, Inflation Jump as Economy Wobbles
The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly surged last week, while producer prices increased sharply in January, raising potential hurdles for the economic recovery.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 31,000 to 473,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That compared to market expectations for 430,000.
Another report from the department showed prices paid at the farm and factory gate rose a faster than expected 1.4 percent from December after a 0.4 percent gain in December, as higher gasoline prices and unusually cold temperatures helped boost energy costs.
“When you have PPI moving up and still no progress in the jobs situation, that doesn’t bode well for continued improvement in equity prices,” said Alan Lancz, president at Alan B. Lancz & Associates in Toledo, Ohio.
Last week was the survey week for the employment report for February, which is scheduled for release in early March.
The labor market, hardest hit by the worst recession in seven decades, has lagged the economic recovery that started in the second half of 2009. The economy has lost 8.4 million jobs since the start of the downturn in December 2007.
The PPI report may give investors, who keeping a wary eye on inflation following massive efforts by the Federal Reserve to pull the economy out of its worst slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s, something to worry about.
“The bottom line is that the Fed is going to have some decisions to make at its next meeting, since it seems inflation is now back on the table,” said Lancz.
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Déjà Vu Within New York City’s Prison System
A Muslim prison chaplain with a murder conviction in his background is charged with attempting to smuggle razor blades and scissors into a New York City jail. His immediate supervisor, who is also the executive director of the prison ministerial services that oversees 500-plus people and has other duties involving prisoners and their families, was paroled early on a 15-year-to-life sentence on drug charges and spewing anti-U.S., Jew hating remarks sponsored by the MSA, an organization founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization with ties to terrorists and terrorism. Despite his radical ideology known since 2005, he is permitted to continue in his capacity at taxpayer expense.
The issue of freedom of speech notwithstanding, we are supposed to be a country at war with adherents to the very ideology that is espoused by a Muslim in charge of over 500 people — both paid and volunteers — within our prison system, a known hotbed of radicalization and recruitment. This is an obvious open door to our enemies in the very city that lost thousands of people on 9/11. Is it mere coincidence that Barack Hussein Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Homeland Security secretaryJanet Napolitano, and Dora B. Schriro, appointed last September as commissioner of corrections for the NYC DOC have endorsed and embraced the concept of using the criminal justice system in New York to handle Muslim terrorists? No.
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Duke Rape Accuser: ‘I’m Going to Stab You [Expletive]!’
Duke Lacrosse Rape Accuser Charged with Attempted Murder
The woman who was at the center of the phony Duke lacrosse rape case was arrested today and charged with attempted murder.
The Durham Police Department told ABC News that Crystal Gale Mangum got into an argument with her boyfriend, Milton Walker, shortly after midnight on Thursday.
The arrest warrant claims that Mangum, 33, scratched, punched and threw objects at Walker before taking all of his clothes and setting them on fire in a bath tub. Firefighters were sent to the home to extinguish the blaze.
Police said they had to evacuate three children, ages 10, 9 and 3, from the apartment because of the fire. It was not immediately known whose children they were.
Mangum is charged with first-degree attempted murder for communicating a threat because she allegedly told Walker in front of officers, “I’m going to stab you [expletive]!”
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Feds Mooove Against Farmer — For Having Cows!
Government complains: ‘You produce food for human consumption’
U.S. Food and Drug Administration agents have demanded to inspect a Pennsylvania farm described by its owner as private, arguing, “You have cows. You produce food for human consumption.”
The confrontation developed just days ago at a farm near Kinzers, Pa., belonging to Amish farmer Dan Allgyer.
According to a report from the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, the agents were Joshua Schafer and Deborah Haney from the federal government agency’s Delaware office.
The agents “drove past Allgyer’s ‘No Trespassing’ signs and up his driveway almost to his barn, where Allgyer happened to be outside,” the report said. “Allgyer approached the car, the agents got out and Allgyer asked them why they were there. They produced a piece of paper, asked Allgyer if he was Dan Allgyer, which Allgyer confirmed, asked him his middle initial and phone number, entered the information on the paper, told Allgyer they were there to do an inspection.”
The report from NICFA, which was based on information provided by Allgyer, said the agents then “started reading the paper to him, saying it gave them jurisdiction to be there.”
“You produce food for human consumption,” an agent stated, according to the report. “You have cows. You cannot be consuming all the milk you produce. If you get a milk truck in to move all this milk you sell milk to the public, therefore we have jurisdiction.”
After Allgyer said, “This is a private farm, I do not sell anything to the public,” the agents accused him of refusing an inspection.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Figures. Michelle Obama Stocked White House Library With Books on Socialism
Rob Port visited the White House today and took this picture in the library. (The American Socialist Movement and The Socialist Party of America)
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Oklahoma: Gatorade Plant in Pryor to Close
PRYOR, OK — PepsiCo announced Thursday morning that it’s closing its Gatorade plant located in Pryor’s Mid-America Industrial Park.
In a news release, the company says the decision to close was a difficult one, but was made to keep Gatorade’s overall manufacturing capacity in line with current market demands.
The company says regular manufacturing and shift work is now done but some crews will work through the final closure.
The closure will impact 100 employees at the facility. The target date for completing that is about three months from now.
The Pryor plant was the largest of PepsiCo’s nine manufacturing plants around the world.
Pat Burke, PepsiCo regional spokesperson, says the company worked very hard over the past year to keep the plant going.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Pandering to the Islamic Conference
Controversy is swirling around President Barack Obama’s choice of a young American Muslim lawyer, Rashad Hussain, to serve as his special envoy to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Behind this fracas looms the even larger question of whether the U.S. should be sending the OIC any special envoy at all.
The tussle over Hussain has so far come down mainly to a he-said/she-said dispute over an article published in 2004 by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. The reporter, Shereen Kandil, quoted Hussain as saying that Sami al-Arian—a man who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist group—was the victim of “politically motivated persecutions.” Somehow that quote later disappeared from the online article. Fox News reports that Kandil stands by her original account. A White House official, defending Hussain, told Fox this week that the quote came not from Hussain but from al-Arian’s daughter.
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Peril in the Islamic Infiltration of US Military From the Palaces to the Tombs: A Pandora’s Box of Peril
There is an extensive and complex system of Islamic infiltration within our U.S. Military and our federal and state prison systems. Islamists have been busy recruiting new followers to Islamic jihad, or war against the West, with the help of a “fifth column” of individuals and organizations in place in all branches of our government, supportive non-governmental organizations (NGO), and even the media.
The depth of the infiltration is significant and the consequences ominously prescient. Most recent statistics available show that one out of three African-American inmates in U.S. prisons convert to Islam while incarcerated. The type of Islam to which they convert teaches the same ideology as the 9/11 hijackers, which is the “Wahhabi” or “Salafi form of Islam that originated in and is continually being exported from Saudi Arabia. Scholarly debate of the interchangeability of the terms or the terms themselves aside, it is important to understand that the ideology behind this “fundamentalist” form of Islam is completely incompatible with the culture, politics, and social fabric of the West. Nonetheless, it is being embraced by numerous groups, agencies and individuals inside the United States.
The high rate of conversion of inmates to Islam, and specifically the Wahhabi brand of Islam is no accident. The lack of oversight of teaching materials brought in to prisons to facilitate their conversion is no accident. The influx of Wahhabi chaplains into our prison system and military is no accident. The entire process is by design, and consists of a sophisticated combination of personnel placement, funding, and an active support structure of numerous interrelated entities and individuals
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Report: Pilot Intentionally Flew Plane Into Austin Building Housing IRS
AUSTIN — CNN is reporting that the pilot of a small single-engine airplane flew the plane early Thursday from a Georgetown airport and then crashed it into an office complex in North Austin about 25 miles away.
Quoting a “federal official,” CNN also reported that the unnamed pilot had set his home ablaze before stealing the plane.
The pilot has been identified as Joseph Andrew Stack, television station KXAN reported.
The seven-story office building, described as the Echelon building, is in the 9400 block of Research Boulevard, according to Austin fire officials. The site is near U.S. 183 and MoPac. The crash happened about 10 a.m.
Spokeswoman Helena Wright said officials do not yet know whether the aircraft was private or commercial.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said there is no reason to believe that terrorism or criminal activity is involved.
Initial reports were that the Austin field office of the San Antonio FBI were in the building, but it was later learned that the FBI offices are in a nearby building. The building does contain offices of the Internal Revenue Service, according to reports.
Assistant Fire Chief Harry Evans at about 11:15 a.m. told reporters near the scene of the crash site that firefighters were in the building battling a massive blaze, but there was no immediate word on casualties.
“Understand,” he said, “this is very, very, very early. We’re inside the building and there are all kinds of things they could find.”
Also at the briefing was Scott Berry, Austin police spokesman, who urged people to stay away from the area. He said traffic lights are not working because electricity has been cut to allow firefighters do their work.
The nearest airport is Austin Bergstrom International Airport, which is some 15 miles away, in southeast Austin, and the crash site is reportedly on the flight path for that airport.
The Austin American-Statesman is offering live streaming video of the plane crash via traffic camera: here.
Austin-Travis County EMS Assistant Director James Shamard told the Statesman that smoke is visible for at least a mile.
The Statesman reported that two people were unaccounted for.
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Small Plane Crashes Into Austin, Texas, Office Building
A small single-engine plane crashed into a seven-story office building in Austin, Texas, around 10 a.m. local time Thursday.
An NTSB official told Fox News that they are investigating this as an intentional act, and said it appears the pilot set his own house on fire and then got in his plane and flew it into the building. An NTSB spokesman, however, told FoxNews.com that “we can’t confirm any of that.”
Authorities said they have identified the pilot, but are not yet releasing the name.
An Internal Revenue Service office is located inside the building.
IRS Agent William Winnie said he was on the third floor of the building when he saw a light-colored, single engine plane coming towards the building, TheStatesman.com reported.
“It looked like it was coming right in my window,” Winnie said, according to the Web sit.
Winnie said the plane veered down and smashed into the lower floors. “I didn’t lose my footing, but it was enough to knock people who were sitting to the floor.”
SLIDESHOW: Small Plane Crashes Into Austin Office Building
The Austin American-Statesman newspaper reported on its Web site that EMS officials have taken two patients to the hospital, and that there are several “walking wounded” at the scene. Paramedics have set up a triage center at the scene.
Harry Evans, an assistant chief with the Austin Fire Department, said one person from the building was unaccounted for.
“There may be other injuries, we are unsure at this time,” Evans said during a news conference Thursday.
Heavy smoke could be seen coming from the building at 9420 Research Boulevard. Several local witnesses on Twitter reported seeing flames coming out of the building and lots of broken glass.
Dozens of fire trucks were on scene and the building was evacuated.
Early reports that the building housed the FBI field office in Austin later turned out not to be true. An FBI spokesman told Fox News that the FBI office in Austin is near where the plane crashed, but not in the same building. There are some federal offices in the building, though authorities couldn’t identify which ones.
The FBI spokesman also told Fox News that as of 10:30 a.m. local time. there was nothing to indicate that this targeted the FBI or that the crash was terrorism-related.
“The building lies along a flight path,” the spokesman said, so right now it looks like an “accident.”
KXAN is reporting that emergency crews are on the scene, and two people are still unaccounted for, according to fire officials. The station also reported that the collision shook the entire building, and the entire front of the structure is gone.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Study by President’s New Envoy to Muslim World Made Case for Using Islam More to Combat Terrorist Ideology
As ABC News was first to report, President Obama over the weekend announced that he was picking to serve as special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Rashad Hussain.
Hussain is currently in the White House counsel’s office and has been a Department of Justice trial attorney, a staffer for former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.
This week some media outlets — Politico, Fox News, the National Review — have focused on whether Hussein in 2004 said at a Muslim Students Association conference protested the prosecution of Sami Al-Arian.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Other Stupid Things John Brennan Said
It’s bad enough that John Brennan, President Obama’s national security deputy, thinks Gitmo jihadi recidivism is “not that bad.” But in his talk last week with Islamic law students at New York University, Brennan made even more reckless comments about our counterterrorism programs while pandering to one of the worst Muslim grievance-mongers and sharia peddlers in America.
During the question-and-answer session, Brennan welcomed a question from Omar Shahin. He identified himself as the head of the “North American Imams Federation.” What he didn’t mention was his role as the chief ringleader of the infamous flying imams. You remember them: They were the six Muslim clerics whose suspicious behavior — provocatively shouting “Allahu Akbar!” before boarding the plane, fanning out in the cabin before take-off, refusing to sit in their assigned seats, requesting seat-belt extenders, which they placed on the floor — led to their removal by a U.S. Airways crew in 2006.
In coordination with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Shahin and his radical delegation attempted to shake down the airline with a discrimination lawsuit and bully the citizen “John Does” who flagged the imams’ security-undermining behavior. CAIR mouthpiece Ibrahim Hooper blasted “anti-Muslim hysteria” by those who saw something and said something about the imams’ in-flight shenanigans. Shahin ranted in a teleconference strategy session in 2007 that, indeed, he and his cohorts were spoiling for the incident and planning to engineer “many, many cases” to sabotage airline security efforts.
As head of the Islamic Center of Tucson in Arizona (home to past jihadi dry-run plotters), Shahin preached that his followers must put Islamic sharia law above Western laws. He told the Arizona Republic that he doubted Muslims were behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, concluding: “All of these, they make it up.” Brennan didn’t appear to know who Shahin was. Somebody around him should have briefed him. Shahin’s involvement in Hamas-linked charities and radical Wahhabi “youth groups” has earned the Jordanian-born naturalized citizen increased FBI scrutiny over the years.
Instead, Brennan treated him as just another innocent Muslim with “reasonable” concerns about the government. “We came to this country to enjoy freedom,” Shahin began with faux, flag-waving emotion. “We feel that since September 11, we aren’t enjoying these values anymore. … Also, we feel that there’s a big lack of trust between Muslims’ community and our government. … My question: Is there anything being done by our government to rebuild this trust?”
Instead of countering the narrative, exposing Shahin’s true intentions and vigorously defending America’s homeland security apparatus, Brennan dutifully genuflected to the gods of political correctness. Obama, he told the militant 9/11 inside-job theorist and jihad white-washer, is “determined to put America on a strong course.” Continued…
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We’re All on Obama’s Enemies List
Despite whatever muddled bureaucratic maneuvering and political posturing may take place, President Barack Hussein Obama is motivated by one overarching goal: the gradual but ultimately total destruction of the American people’s civil rights. Whether his minions are arrogantly proclaiming that the American people should have “no expectation of privacy” in their comings and goings because Glorious Leader Obama says so, dramatically expanding the power of the National Security Council (to make it more “elastic” — never a good sign in federal agencies), or trying to turn the Department of Homeland Security into a brownshirted domestic federal police force that can round up the American people and place them in camps, Obama’s policies inevitably, inexorably and invariably lead to more government control and less freedom. The opposite is never the case.
When Barack Hussein Obama’s audacious power grabs affect the daily lives of broad swaths of our citizenry, as they do whenever he targets consumer technology, many people are rightly alarmed. We’ve seen this over and over again. He and his storm troopers want to be able to track your phone without a warrant and whenever it suits them. Will it be such a leap when they decide your phone calls are no more private than your GPS location data? These are the people, after all, who want to control the Internet (when they’re not turning over control of key portions of its infrastructure to foreign powers). These are also the people who set up an e-mail address so your fellow citizens could inform on you to Glorious Leader Obama whenever you dared to express an opinion contrary to the Democratic Party line.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why You Subsidize Google’s Soviet-Style Net
Google certainly likes to throw a party. Its annual, roving Zeitgeist conference sees politicians and policy-makers beating a path to the door for inspiration. As a result, Google and policy makers have got very, very cosy together. But how much are ordinary net users and taxpayers subsidising Google?
The answer is a lot, and it’s certainly getting more from us than it’s paying for.
One estimate I’ve seen comes via analyst Scott Cleland, who certainly has a horse in this race: one of his jobs is chairman of NetCompetition, the telcos’ lobby group. But let’s use this as a starting point, and then go on to see why it’s important in ways the business pages of the kebab wraps haven’t clocked yet…
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Bad Weather: Spain, Black-Out on Tenerife
(ANSAmed) -MADRID, FEBRUARY 18 — A black-out has left the 900,000 inhabitants of the island of Tenerife completely without electricity since 12.00pm today. The black-out, according to sources from Unelco-Endesa, quoted by Europa Press, was caused by an accident at the electricity power station in Las Caletillas, in the Candelaria province of Tenerife. The whole of the Canary islands archipelago has been hit by heavy rain since this morning, with winds of up to 120 km per hour. The regional Government has ordered the closure of schools and extra-curricular activities, including festivities to mark the end of Carnival, throughout the islands, due to the difficult meteorological conditions. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Beware of Greeks Seeking Gifts
The E.U. doesn’t have the power to bail out failing states.
Over the decades there have been many battles about the rights of states and the ability of the federal government to interfere with local prerogatives, but Hamilton understood that the strong federal structure provides a framework within which these issues can be resolved. What does this have to do with Greece? It points out one of the basic flaws in the European experiment that is the eurozone: There is no strong federal structure that can come to the aid of individual members of the currency union. Indeed the rules of the union specifically forbid bailing out any member states.
Many observers recognized this design flaw when the eurozone was created, and reinforced the idea when weaker economies like Greece were allowed to enter. The initial premise was that fiscal standards for membership, combined with the benefits of staying in the eurozone, would create the discipline necessary to restrain fiscal intemperance. Dream on!
It was clear to anyone willing to look that the standards for membership were being fudged for Greece and others. But the benefits of joining were viewed as significant. Member countries have (generally) reduced their borrowing costs by eliminating currency risk. If investors see membership as reversible, that could change quickly. There was always the hope that the monetary discipline of the common euro currency would induce fiscal discipline as well. That was wishful thinking, given the undisciplined history of weaker members of the union.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Police Release Kjærsgaard Arrestees
Danish police have released five people detained this morning in connection with investigations into threats against Pia Kjærsgaard.
The Copenhagen police has released five men detained earlier today in connection with an investigation into threats against the Danish People’s Party Leader Pia Kjærsgaard.
“We have released those concerned. We do not have evidence to support a remand in connection with the investigation that has been carried out,” says Ass. Comm. Jørgen Aabye.
The five were detained following receipt of an anonymous letter by the Danish People’s Party which included five names, and which the party sent on to the police. Police would not say whether the five names in the letter were identical with those detained.
One of those detained will be sent to a remand hearing later in the day, but not in connection with Pia Kjærsgaard.
“Something to do with counterfeit money,” Aabye says.
Earlier today the five were detained in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen after what the Danish People’s Party Press Department called threats that were worse than usual.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
France: Islam: Anti-Minaret Party in Regional Elections
(ANSAmed) — BESANCON, FEBRUARY 17 — An electoral list from the extreme right, whose political programme includes opposition to minaret building, has been admitted to France’s regional elections in March. The list — presented in the Franche Comte region along the border with Switzerland, comprises a few different right-wing party lists and is called “La Ligue Comtoise-Non aux Minarets” (Franche Comte Anti-Minaret League) — has been admitted by the Besancon prefecture since it “complies with electoral regulations”. However, many citizens have filed petitions against it, holding that it is “against the values of the Republic”. In Lorraine there is also a “No to Minarets” list of the rightwing party Mouvement National Republicain (MNR). On November 29, a Swiss referendum was held to ban the building of new minarets, with the ‘yes’ vote claiming victory (57.5%). A few days later, a survey in France by the IFOP Institute for Le Figaro showed that 46% of those polled were in favour of a ban on minarets, while 40% supported their construction and 14% did not give an opinion. As concerns mosque building, on the other hand, 41% were against, 19% in favour, 36% did not care one way or the other and 4% chose not to answer. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
French Net Censorship Plan Moves Forward
“French lawmakers have voted to approve a draft law to filter Internet traffic that Slashdot previously discussed. The government says the measure is intended to catch child pornographers. The Senate, where the government has a majority, will soon give the bill a second reading. If the Senate makes no amendments to the text, that will also be its final reading, as the government has declared the bill “urgent,” a procedural move that reduces the usual cycle of four readings to two.”
(…)
Opposition deputies tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to require blocking only of specific URLs or documents to avoid this problem. They also wanted a judge to review the list of blocked URLs each month to ensure that sites were not needlessly blocked, and to make the filters a temporary measure until their effectiveness was proven, but those amendments too were rejected by the government majority.
Once the filter system is in place, say its opponents, it could be used to limit access to other Internet sites.
President Nicolas Sarkozy is already thinking along those lines. In a speech to members of the French music and publishing industries in January, Sarkozy said that authorities should experiment with filtering in order to automatically remove all forms of piracy from the Internet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutor Quits in Graft Probe
Achille Toro accused of tipping off suspects
(see previous story on site).
(ANSA) — Rome, February 17 — An Italian prosecutor named in a high-profile corruption probe resigned from the magistrature on Wednesday.
Rome Prosecutor Achille Toro quit after Italy’s supreme court asked investigators to confirm claims by suspects that he tipped them off about the probe into alleged graft in public tenders for the construction of the original site of last year’s Group of Eight summit in Sardinia.
Toro’s resignation is irrevocable because he has been in the judiciary for 40 years, judicial sources said.
The probe involves contracts with Italy’s Civil Protection department whose chief, Guido Bertolaso, offered to step down last week.
Bertolaso, 59, was back on the job dealing with disaster relief in southern Italy Wednesday.
Four main suspects arrested in the probe saw their appeals for release denied Tuesday.
They are: the head of the state public works office, Angelo Balducci, 54,; Rome businessman Diego Anemone, 38; the Tuscany region’s public works contractor Fabio De Santis, 61; and state official Mauro Della Giovampaola, 44.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Graft Claims Up Twofold in 2009
‘No antibodies for corruption tumour,’ says court
(ANSA) — Rome, February 17 — Reports of graft and corruption more than doubled in 2009, the Italian Audit Court said Wednesday during the ceremonial opening of its judicial year.
Judge Tullio Lazzaro, the court’s chairman, described the phenomenon as a “malignant tumour” on the nation and said that the state lacked the “antibodies” necessary to fight it.
Lazzaro added that he was “increasingly pessimistic” about the government’s ability to contrast corruption, an issue he said came down to the country’s ethics.
“If there’s not a sound, ethical basis for taking action, nothing police or judges do will cure Italy of this illness,” he said.
The statement met with bipartisan approval with Justice Minister Angelino Alfano praising the audit court judge for his “courage”.
“What Lazzaro said is right in step with the government’s goal of reforming the judiciary,” he said.
Anna Finocchiaro, the Senate whip for Italy’s largest opposition group, the Democratic Party, said she found the report “extremely worrying” and underlined the “dual responsibility of public institutions to adopt cleansing reforms and guarantee the honesty of those responsible for drafting them”. According to the report, complaints of corruption rose by close to 230% last year while claims of graft and bribery were up by 153%.
There were a total of 221 corruption investigations between January and November 2009, 219 graft probes and 1,714 inquiries into cases of official misconduct.
The Audit Court identified a direct relationship between regional gross domestic product and corruption claims, saying the wealthiest and most productive areas of the country were also the ones at greatest risk.
As a result, the relatively prosperous region of Tuscany, currently the center of a public works scandal making headlines in the media, accounted for the largest number of corruption claims, followed by Lombardy, the financial and industrial powerhouse of Italy.
The Court said that corruption and wasteful spending in general arose from a wide range of factors, such as unfinished public works. Decrying the phenomenon as an “enormous waste” of taxpayer money, the court listed several examples of expensive building and public service programs paid for in full or in part, but never finished.
Offending projects included a half-built tract of highway in the Veneto region, an unfinished penitentiary in the northeastern Friuli Venezia-Giulia region and an empty pit in the courtyard of a Calabria retirement home once intended to become a swimming pool.
Mismanagement in public services like healthcare were also cited by the court as “useless” public sector spending.
It named ineffective and costly cancer screening, cosmetic dental work, excessive prescription of drugs and frivolous surgery as examples of squandered public funds.
Private consultants were another source of waste, said the court, suggesting their numbers had grown excessive and their real contribution often dubious.
The court noted that private consultants were involved in 1,077 convictions last year for corruption and malfeasance.
Lazzaro, however, added that overzealous state auditors also had to claim their share in the blame for wasteful and insufficient government by “instilling a climate of fear” among public administrators.
“There are real, tangible consequences for this kind of behavior, such as the foreign company which chooses not to invest in Italy, because the legal systems in other countries are more efficient and less meddlesome,” he said.
The judges said that to better fight corruption and regulate the nation’s spending, far-reaching reforms were needed to revamp the Audit Court itself.
Mario Ristuccia, the court’s general prosecutor, said its role and function needed to be redefined and that “occasional” fixes like the ones adopted to address specific budget worries in the past, were unequal to the task at hand.
Lazzaro suggested that the court’s budget be determined by parliament instead of by the government, saying this would reinforce its ability to work independently.
Last June, the state Audit Court estimated that graft costs Italian taxpayers some 50-60 billion euros a year.
However, convictions for corruption rose substantially in 2009, recovering some 117 million euros compared to 18.8 million euros in 2007.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Civil Protection Chief Back on the Job
Bertolaso to head up landslide relief amid corruption probe
(ANSA) — Rome, February 17 — Civil Protection Chief Guido Bertolaso, who tendered his resignation last week over an investigation into corruption charges, headed to Calabria on Wednesday to supervise relief efforts in areas devastated by landslides.
“If the Chamber of Deputies will permit, I would like to leave for the areas affected by landslides at once, as it is my habit to oversee these operations personally,” he said during a Lower House commission hearing.
The question arose as Bertolaso responded to queries about a bill to revamp the civil protection agency, when MPs suggested his time might be better spent in Sicily and Calabria where a rash of mudslides has forced thousands of people from their homes. Bertolaso, 59, offered to step down last week when he was listed among suspects in a graft probe into public tenders to build the original site of the 2009 Group of Eight summit on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena. The civil protection chief has denied taking bribes or striking sex-for-favours deals with businessmen involved in the construction of the venue, which was later moved to the quake-hit town of L’Aquila in central Italy.
Still on the job after Premier Silvio Berlusconi turned down his resignation, Bertolaso on Wednesday asked permission to get back to work. He also briefed MPs on the House environment committee on the civil protection agency’s response to the landslides unleashed by downpours in southern Italy this weekend.
He said that the agency had responded “immediately” and that despite “considerable damage” to homes and buildings, the lack of injuries or deaths was a “big step forward” for crisis management in Italy.
The civil protection chief’s first destination was the Calabrian town of Maierato, where all 2,300 residents were evacuated on Tuesday after a portion of hillside broke off, flooding the town with mud and debris. He will later head to the northeastern Sicilian town of San Fratello, which is being slowly buried beneath a massive mudflow.
Some 1,500 people have already fled their homes in San Fratello, with the remaining residents holding their breath in anticipation of rain forecast through Thursday.
San Fratello is just across the northeastern tip of Sicily from communities around the city of Messina, where 37 people were killed in flash floods last October.
Deforestation, illegal building and weak infrastructure have received much of the blame for all three disasters, as well as the over 200 smaller landslides which have blocked roads and broken water mains around Calabria since Saturday.
BERTOLASO DEFENDS HIMSELF IN OPEN LETTER.
Before leaving, Bertolaso released an open letter to civil protection personnel defending himself from the accusations against him.
He said he owed it to the workers and volunteers shocked and upset by the charges to prove his innocence.
“I neither chose nor deserve to stand on the gallows from which I now address you,” he wrote.
He renewed his faith in the Italian legal system, but said the media was holding a “muckraking” trial of its own with the goal of “smearing an innocent person without the means to defend himself”.
Bertolaso said that the investigation on his account was “worse than a tsunami” and that he felt like a “flood victim”.
The civil protection chief made many of the same claims on a prime-time political talk show Tuesday night, adding that he “couldn’t exclude” the possibility he was the victim of a “political trap”. Culture Minister Sandro Bondi suggested as much on Tuesday, claiming that Bertolaso was a victim of machinations against the premier, allegedly the real target of the attacks.
However, opposition leaders continued to insist that Berlusconi accept his resignation, with former graft-busting magistrate and head of the Italy of Values party Antonio Di Pietro threatening a motion of no confidence if he did not.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Corruption a ‘Serious Disease’, Says Court
Rome, 17 Feb. (AKI) — Corruption is a “serious disease” in Italy according to a report by one of the country’s top courts. The state audit court said on Wednesday the number of cases reported to the Italian tax police rose by 229 percent in 2009 compared to the previous year.
The number of corruption cases reported to the court rose by 153 percent last year.
The court’s prosecutor-general Mario Ristuccia and president of the court, Tullio Lazzaro, released their report at a ceremony to mark the start of the judicial year.
They said that “too often” there was an absence of adequate internal controls in Italy’s public administration.
The interior ministry, the heads of the Carabinieri paramilitary police and the tax police have reported 221 crimes of corruption in public administration from January to November 2009, and 219 criminal incidents of bribes.
In 2009, the court handed down 1,077 guilty verdicts in relation to a total amount of 246 million euros and more than one in ten of those cases (11.7 percent) were related to the incidence of corruption.
The incidence of corruption was highest in regions where there is high public spending and a large number of government employees — the northern region of Lombardy surrounding Milan, and the southern regions of Campania, Sicily, Lazio and Puglia.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Scottish Singer Embraced by Sanremo Fans
Sanremo, 17 Feb.(AKI) — Susan Boyle, the Scottish singing sensation, received a standing ovation at northern Italy’s Sanremo Music Festival on Tuesday. Boyle, the 48-year-old, who gained international attention after her performance on a British talent show, was a special guest at the 60th annual cultural festival.
On the opening night of the five-night festival, Boyle performed “I Dreamed a Dream” the song from the popular musical Les Miserables she performed for judges last April on the television show, Britain’s Got Talent.
During her rehearsal, Boyle received an ovation from the orchestra as well as the attendant festival staff, according to the singer’s website.
Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream” album topped the American Billboard chart and 701,000 copies were sold in the first week of release in November, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Boyle’s album has sold around eight million copies around the world since its release.
The Sanremo Music Festival was founded in the northern Ligurian town in 1951 and inspired the Eurovision Song Contest. Fifteen artists are competing in this year’s contest.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Moluccan Church Arsoned in the Netherlands
Translation: VH
The fire that has raged last night in a Moluccan Church in Houten [between Utrecht and the troubled Culemborg] was lit on purpose, as the police has stated. There would have been a brick thrown inside after which a fire occurred.
The Foundation Moluccan Institute for Church and Society is the main user of the building at the Oud Wulfseweg. Since 2007 there also is a space arranged as an Islamic prayer room.
The fire fighters pulled out with large equipment and had the fire quickly under control. Yet the fire department could not prevent a large part of the Moluccan Church being significantly damaged.
It is not clear who is behind the arson.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
One Italian MP Tests Positive to Cocaine
(AGI) — Rome, 18 Feb. — One of the 232 Members of Parliament who between November 9 and 13 voluntarily underwent drug testing has tested positive to cocaine. The results were provided in a statement released by the Anti-Drug Policy Department led by Under Secretary Carlo Giovanardi. There is no information concerning the name of the MP or Senator who tested positive. 147 parliamentarians given permission for their names and results to be published. .
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Nine-Year-Old Sold Drugs to Malmö Police Officer
A nine-year-old boy in Malmö has been caught trying to sell a bag of amphetamines to an undercover police officer. His father has been arrested for using his young son as a drugs courier.
The plain-clothes officer was visiting an apartment on Eriksfältsgatan in Malmö following up on another police matter when the doorbell rang. When the police officer opened the door he caught sight of a young boy clutching a bag of white powder, local newspaper Kvällsposten reports.
The police office took the bag from the nine-year-old’s hand at which point the boy demanded 2,000 kronor ($277) in payment. When the police officer showed identification the boy fled.
The police officer was able to apprehend the boy and established that his father, a 41-year-old man previously known to the police, had sent him to deliver the package.
“He is previously known to us, but we would never have thought that he would use his nine-year-old son as a drugs courier,” Inspector Daniel Jonasson in Malmö told the newspaper.
The 41-year-old has been arrested after an interview on Tuesday on suspicion of drugs offences. The boy has been left in the care of relatives.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Accord ‘Needed’ To End Row Over Iranian Treasure
London, 16 Feb. (AKI) — An international row over an ancient Persian treasure highlights the urgent need for a global accord regulating cultural artefacts, an international expert has told Adnkronos International (AKI). Siavush Ranjbar-Daemi, a researcher and commentator on Iran at London University, suggested that the United Nations play a role in drafting the accord.
“UNESCO should step in and chart a global memorandum of agreement or treaty,” Ranjbar-Daemi told AKI on Tuesday, referring to the United Nations Educational, Scientfic and Cultural Organisation.
“There is no international law regulating cultural artefacts.”
Iran on 6 February announced it had cut its links with the British Museum and would ban British archaeologists from working in Iran.
The move was announced after the museum said it needed to keep a 2,500 year-old clay cylinder known as the Cyrus Cylinder for another six months due to unspecified “practicalities”.
Hamid Baghaei, head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation, said the decision to keep the cylinder was unacceptable and politically motivated.
Baghaei has reportedly said his organisation would send a letter of complaint to UNESCO.
The museum’s action came amid worsening diplomatic relations between Iran and the UK, which it has accused of fomenting the opposition protests that followed president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election last June.
“The low level of relations between the two countries have had a pretty heavy impact on cultural and academic institutions involved in Iran,” said Ranjbar-Daemi.
A day after Iran’s announcement, the museum released a statement strongly defending its action but declined to comment further on Tuesday.
“The British Museum has acted throughout in good faith, and values highly its hitherto good relations with Iran,” it said in the 7 February statement.
“It is to be hoped that this matter can be resolved as soon as possible.”
Ranjbar-Daemi suggested the British Museum was afraid that Iran may claim the artefact as a piece of its natural heritage and not return it to Britain.
“Iran is looking for a way of chastising the UK vis-a-vis public opinion and showing how it is acting in an imperious and patronising way regarding Iranian culture,” said Ranjbar-Daemi.
The London academic holds dual Iranian and British citizenship and is completing a PhD on contemporary Iranian history at the University of London.
Ranjbar-Daemi is also a member of the British Institute of Persian Studies, one of the few remaining British institutions still operating in Tehran.
The British Museum has proposed holding an international workshop in London in June to study the new tablets, including scholars from Iran.
It also said it was willing to loan Tehran’s National Museum the cylinder and the two new tablets in the second half of July.
“Iranians should be able to see the Cyrus Cylinder on display in their country. It’s their heritage.
“But on the other hand, the British Museum is not breaking any law and the cylinder should be preserved,” he stated.
By severing cultural ties with Britain over the cylinder, Ahmadinejad is tapping into a vein of nationalism and resentment over the fate of ancient artefacts seized by foreigners and now held in museums outside Iran, Ranjbar-Daemi said.
“Ahmadinejad and his team are trying to portray themselves as the guardians/custodians of Iran’s political heritage and to acquire political kudos,” he said.
The Cyrus Cylinder was discovered at an 1879 excavation at Babylon, Iraq. It contains inscriptions written in Babylonian cuneiform on the orders of Persian King Cyrus the Great after his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC.
The cylinder has been described as the first human rights charter, as it advocates the return of deported peoples to their homelands and freedom of expression throughout the Persian empire.
Iranians consider Cyrus the Great, one of ancient Persia’s greatest historical figures, as the founding father of Persian civilisation.
Ranjbar-Daemi said he believed the row over the Cyrus Cylinder could act as a catalyst in “several hundred other similar disputes” around the world.
“It’s not outlandish to think that Egypt could launch cultural cases against other countries, for example.
“There are more Egyptian artefacts than Iranian ones abroad,” he noted.
Ranjbar-Daemi is a correspondent for Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper and reported for the daily from Tehran during last year’s elections.
He told AKI it was now too dangerous for him travel to Iran, because of the number of recent arrests there.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Gordon Brown Says Britain is Prepared to Protect Falkland Islands as Row With Argentina Escalates
Britain has made ‘all the preparations necessary’ to protect the Falkland Islands, Gordon Brown said today.
His reassurance comes amid Argentinian efforts to control shipping in the region.
The Argentinian government has issued a decree that tightens control over shipping in the area ahead of British efforts to start oil and gas exploration off the islands’ waters.
Mr Brown said he did not expect a need to send a task force to the area, saying: ‘This is oil drilling that is exploration for the future.
‘It is perfectly within our rights to do this.’
He believed the Argentinian government understood this and that ‘sensible discussions’ will prevail.
The Ministry of Defence has denied reports that a naval taskforce is on its way to the Falklands.
A spokesman it was ‘maintaining’ British force levels in and around the Falkland Islands, adding it was ‘just business as usual’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mother’s Fury as Nanny State Brands Her Healthy Daughter, 5, ‘Fat and at Risk of Heart Disease’
The mother of a fit and healthy five-year-old girl has been left outraged after ‘nanny state’ health officials branded her daughter overweight and at risk of cancer and heart disease.
Susan Davies, 38, was stunned when she was sent a letter alerting her to a height and weight measurement check her daughter Lucy had undergone at school.
The document stated ‘the results suggest your child is overweight.’
It added that this can have ‘implications on health and wellbeing’ and listed conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer which she could be vulnerable to.
Lucy is 3ft 9ins tall and weighs 3st 9lbs — ironically within the recommended healthy range of a five-year-old child.
But, based on her body mass index (BMI), she ranked just one per cent outside the healthy category.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Saudi Prince Quizzed Over Murder of Servant ‘is on CCTV Hitting Aide’
The Saudi prince arrested over a servant’s murder is being investigated in relation to a previous attack on the man in the same London hotel, it emerged last night.
Scotland Yard detectives have seized CCTV footage of an alleged assault by the 33-year-old multi-millionaire on his aide in a hotel lift last month.
Sources at the five-star Landmark Hotel told the Mail that the incident was recorded and had been handed to murder squad officers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ashton Visiting Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 17 — European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will be in the Balkans for three days, from today until February 19. The Vice President of the European Commission will be in Bosnia Herzegovina first, to then move on to Serbia and Kosovo. “The EU’s door is open to the entire region once the necessary conditions have been met,” said Ashton in a statement before her departure. “The Western Balkans,” said the High Representative for EU foreign policy, “are an important priority for the EU. We are committed to a future in the EU for the entire region, but consolidation of stability and progress towards the EU are the responsibility of the region’s leadership and population.” Ashton will be meeting with political leaders and civil society representatives, as well as representatives of the EU mission in the region, including the EULEX mission in Kosovo and the EUFOR ALTHEA and EUPM in Bosnia Herzegovina. The political situation in Bosnia is of especial “concern” to the EU, given the deadlock in political dialogue and the lack of progress and reforms, which may hold the country back from EU integration while the rest of the region moves forward. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Committee Wants Advisory Role
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 17 — The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) wants to have an advisory role within the framework of the Mediterranean Union, together with the partners of the network of committees in other countries of the region. This key Euromed project, according to Filip Hamro-Drotz, in charge of foreign relations, will be approved in the EESC plenary session in progress in Brussels. “In our foreign relations” Hamro-Drotz explained, “the Euromed region is at the centre and we have already established cooperation with many countries based on the Barcelona process, to strengthen the social dialogue and build a network of economic and social Committees. Now we want to give a contribution to the Mediterranean Union”. In the wake of these relations between the two shores, economic and social committees have in fact been created in the whole Mediterranean area, and “one will be formed in Morocco as well”, announced the chief of EESC foreign relations. The idea is, to present a proposal at the Mediterranean Union summit in June, together with the partners of the Southern shore. “We have already created preparatory groups, because we cannot take a unilateral initiative. The main issue is to give advice to the Mediterranean Union on issues like energy security, immigration, employment and agriculture. It is not clear yet how we will organise this”. (ANSAmed) .
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Archaeology: Zahi Hawass, Mysteries of Tutankhamun Genealogy
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 17 — Marriages between relatives in the family of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, “King Tut”, who died aged 19, were extremely common and were almost certainly the reason for the weakness and illnesses that caused his death. This is what has been said by the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawass, and several researchers who participated in the research project on the DNA over recent years, during a packed press conference in the entrance hall of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, illustrating CAT scans and research from laboratories that have brought about the reconstruction of part of Tut’s family tree. The scholars say that there is no doubt that the pharaoh was son of the heretic Akhenaton — the pharaoh who attempted to modify the religiousness of the Ancient Egyptians by introducing the monotheism with the god, Aton, as a substitute to the polytheism of Amon — and grandson of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. Amongst the journalists and operators present in large numbers and the scholars on stage, surrounded by microphones and TV cameras, were three glass display cases with the remains of three mummies — one man and two women — almost certainly linked to the young pharaoh, who, 88 years after the discovery of his tomb heavily laden with precious ornaments in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, continues to fascinate millions of enthusiasts. “There are still many mysteries in his genealogy, but Tut could hold many surprises, after further assessments that we are doing on two fetuses found in another tomb”, said Hawass towards the end. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Mufti: Marrying Off Young Brides is Like Adultery
(ANSAMED) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 17 — Marriage between a young Egyptian girl and a wealthy Arab man from the Gulf region is the equivalent of adultery, was Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa’s response to public prosecutor Abdel Meghid Mahomoud, who asked for an opinion in line with Islamic law after the trials of several individuals accused of marrying off minors to rich Arabs in exchange for large sums of money. The story was reported recently in the local press. The phenomenon of minors forced into marriages was discussed in a conference organised in December by Egyptian Minister of Family Moushira Khattab, who provided shocking data on minors sold into marriage in Egypt: 10,000 cases of marriages have been discovered, including over 4,000 in Cairo alone. A widespread phenomenon, despite a 2008 amendment to the law on minors raising the minimum age for marriage from 16 to 18, both for boys and girls, and also setting a penalty of two years in prison and a for the ‘maazoun’ — notary publics- who issue contracts for these types of marriages. The need for tighter inspections emerged from the conference: a committee of three inspectors, two magistrates, and a representative for notary publics, were given the task of inspecting all of the data on marriages in Egypt; the Family Minister announced stricter inspections on age, which in the absence of a birth certificate, can be calculated with a dental exam, and has started an awareness campaign. Since January minors have been able to report forced marriages to a special phone number. The tradition of offering young girls to be married to rich men is rooted in Egyptian society, mainly in the villages where poverty pushes many basically to sell the youth of their children: one indicative case, cited in a recent report from the Family Minister, revealed a father who sold his little girl for the equivalent of 80,000 euros. Illegal marriages occur thanks to corrupt notary publics, which in exchange for a bundle of cash, will falsify the age of the brides, who are minors. Preying on the poverty of families living in rural areas in the country are also organised crime groups, which promote sexual tourism, offering money in exchange for the favours, which are then legitimised by marriage to the young girls. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam — Algeria: The Algerian Church Has the Same Right to Spread Its Message (As Muslims Do)
Algeria’s Minister of Religious Affairs is incensed when the bishop of Algiers calls for the repeal of laws that limit freedom of conscience and worship in his country, where a Protestant church was recently set on fire. The minister tells him to do what his French predecessors did for years, namely prevent Muslims from converting to Christianity.
Rome (AsiaNews) — Abdallah Ghoulamallah, Algerian Minister for Religious Affairs, organised on 10-11 February a conference on the topic “Freedom of Worship, between Divine Legislation and Positive Law”. It is important to note the use of expressions like “freedom of worship” in lieu of “freedom of conscience” and “divine legislation”, which refers to “Sharia” or “Islamic Law”.
The ministry invited the four bishops of Algeria to the event; they are Ghaleb Bader, archbishop of Algiers; Alphonse Georger, bishop of Oran; Claude Rault, bishop of Laghouat-Ghardaia; and Paul Desfarges, bishop of Constantine-Hippone.
He also invited members of the clergy from France like the Archbishop of Lyon Philippe Barbarin, the bishop of Créteil Michel Santier, who is in charge of inter-faith dialogue, Fr Christophe Roucou, in charge of the SRI (Service des Relations avec l’Islam), and Rev Claude Baty, president of the Fédération Protestante de France, plus two friends of Muslims, Fathers Michel Lelong and Christian Delorme. Invited at the last moment, the two bishops could not make it. Other prominent figures from different backgrounds were also invited.
The purpose of the event was to show that Algeria was a tolerant country.
The address by the archbishop of Algiers
Jordanian-born Mgr Ghaleb Moussa Abdallah Bader was ordained archbishop of Algiers on 17 July 2008. He holds a Doctorate in Canon Law and one in Philosophy from the Angelicum. His main research was on the great 10th century Arab Christian philosopher Yahya Ibn ‘Adi. He is familiar with the system of religious tolerance in place in the Kingdom of Jordan. In a speech full of nuances, he spoke about Ordinance Nº 06-02 bis, which strongly limits non-Muslim worship, expressing a desire to see things get “back to normal”. Such legislation might be justified under exceptional circumstances, he said, but that was not the case in Algeria. “Why go back to a normal situation? Is it not time to review, if not repeal this regulation?”
We know that for more than three years the right of Christians to worship has come under tight government control. The minister claims that Christians are not the target, but in fact, they are the ones who are affected by it. Recently, on the night of Saturday 9 January and Sunday 10 January, the Tafat Protestant Church in Tizi Ouzou was ransacked and then set on fire. Despite complaints by Reverend Krireche, the authorities did nothing.
On 25 January, the country’s four Catholic bishops said that they “were profoundly saddened” and “very concerned by the obstacles put up here and there against Christian worship.”
“They cannot hide their outrage,” they said, “over the profanation of Christian symbols. They are equally outraged when they hear about the profanation of symbols of the Muslim religion in this or that country around the world. They want to express their compassion and feelings of goodwill towards their brothers and sisters who have been attacked in their religious life. They are confident and continue to hope that the path of conviviality and profound respect among all will continue.”
The reaction of the Minister of Religious Affairs
Bishop Ghaleb Bader’s address greatly upset Minister Ghoulamallah. In his speech, he praised the bishops of Algiers who were in office before and after independence (Card Léon-Etienne Duval and Mgr Henri Teissier), “who never questioned [Algeria’s] reality and laws, who were close to the Algerian people.” He added, “I hope the archbishop who comes from an Arab country will learn from Teissier, who is still with us, and ask him for advice on what Algerians can and cannot accept”.
We cannot but be taken aback to see a minister lecture a bishop, even a new one, and ask him to follow his predecessors. Of course, a lot of forethought is needed in such situations, but one must be quite clear in upholding fundamental principles. At the same time, we can understand that French bishops might have adopted a different attitude than an Arab bishop, given France’s colonial past.
Final thoughts
Often, a distinction is drawn between Catholics and Protestants, with the latter accused of “proselytising”. Even if that were true, there is no comparison between proselytising done by Protestants and that done by Muslims, not only towards Christian minorities in Muslim nations, but also in traditionally Christian nations. What is unacceptable are the very human means that a propagandist may use to spread his faith, taking advantage of others’ weaknesses. Yet, if all we do is “propose” our faith without ever imposing it, the more so if we offer to share our happiness with others, then that cannot be construed to be proselytising. In any event, it is not up to the state to legislate in the matter.
It is high time that everyone be allowed to enjoy freedom of conscience, not just freedom of worship (under external control). Islam claims to be a “tolerant religion”; some even claim it is the most tolerant religion, arguing that Christianity forced non-Christians to convert . . . citing the inquisition and colonialism as evidence. In doing so, they forget for example that the French state forbade Christian Churches to convert Muslims to Christianity for almost a century.
In practice, there is no Muslim state that grants Muslims and non-Muslims the same degree of freedom. Because politics and religion are interwoven with one another in Islamic tradition (and this despite claims by some Western intellectuals that Islam is more secular than other religions), the state is an agent of propaganda for Islam through the media as well as its laws and regulations.
In Algeria (as elsewhere), the Churches, and more broadly Christians, simply want to be left alone. They want the same right to announce the Gospel to anyone willing to listen to their message as Muslims have the right to announce the Qur’an to anyone willing to listen to theirs. It is good that the bishop of Algiers, following the example of Pope Benedict XVI, had the courage to tell everyone, quietly but with resolve and clarity, that freedom of religion remains as fundamental a right as freedom of conscience and the equality of citizens.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Italy and Malta Urge End to Swiss Blacklist
Rome, 17 Feb. (AKI) — Italy and Malta on Wednesday urged Switzerland to relax its restrictive travel ban on Libyans after a top-level meeting in Rome. Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini and his Maltese counterpart Tonio Borg met the Libyan foreign minister Musa Mohamed Kusa after the north African country imposed a retaliatory ban on visas for citizens from 25 European nations.
Frattini said Rome was asking Tripoli to allow the entry of all citizens from Schengen member nations that are not involved in the diplomatic dispute between the oil-rich state and Switzerland, which is outside the European Union.
“Italy and Malta once again appeal to Switzerland to step up negotiations for an agreement with Libya, to deal with the unresolved problems and to abolish the list of names inserted in the Schengen Information System distributed in the past few days,” the ministers said in a statement released after the meeting.
Libya’s relations with Switzerland soured when Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Hannibal was detained in a Swiss jail in July 2008 after he and his wife were accused of beating their servants in Geneva.
Swiss authorities dropped their criminal investigation after the two servants received compensation from an undisclosed source and withdrew their complaint.
The Schengen agreement provides for the removal of systematic border controls between the participating countries in the European Union, as well as others such as Switzerland.
After Wednesday’s talks, Frattini telephoned the head of the Swiss foreign affairs department, Micheline Calma Rey, for a “useful exchange of views about the trilateral talks”.
The Italian minister said that all involved had expressed a commitment to “find a solution to the visa crisis”.
Both Frattini and his Swiss counterpart agreed to remain in contact in the next few days.
Switzerland has placed restrictions on visas for Libyan passport holders, particularly against key figures, and asked other members of the Schengen treaty to do the same.
Swiss media reports on Wednesday said the government had reiterated its intention to continue the policy begun in November 2009.
Frattini has said Switzerland, was abusing the agreement and holding “hostage” the 25 member Schengen zone.
Over the past few days, dozens of Italian and Maltese nationals, many of them business travellers, were turned away at Tripoli airport and put on return flights home.
Gaddafi visited Italy for the first time in June 2009 after the country agreed to pay the North African nation 3.5 billion euros over 25 years to compensate for its occupation from 1911 to 1943.
That paved the way for closer commercial ties and increased efforts by Libya to contain illegal immigration.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Facebook, Over One Million Users
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, FEBRUARY 17 — Over one million Tunisians (exactly 1,133,400, some 10% of the population) use Facebook. According to the most recent statistics, percentage-wise this puts the country in first place in North Africa with Morocco at 4.1% (1,280,860 users) and Egypt with 2.98% (2,431,040). The largest number of users in Tunisia, 41.5%, are in the 18-24 age group whilst 28.4% are in the 25-34 age group. Again according to these statistics, the percentage of people who use Facebook in Tunisia is higher than the percentage of people using it in large countries such as Russia and Japan. The news was reported by the infotunisie website. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
30 Million Euros From Norway to PNA for 2010 Budget
(ANSAmed) — OSLO, FEBRUARY 17 — The Norwegian government has announced that it has allocated 240 million kroner (almost 30 million euros) to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), to help the Authority balance its 2010 budget. The Norwegian assistance is part of the commitments made in Paris in December 2007. In a conference in the French capital, the international donors have promised to donate 7.4 billion dollars in three years to the PNA. Norway asked Israel today to relax the restrictions it has imposed on the movements of people and goods in Palestinian territory. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dance: Yair Vardi, Strengthen Ties With Italy
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 16 — Making Israeli modern and contemporary dance in Italy known is the goal of Yair Vardi, the director of the Suzanne Dellel Center of Tel Aviv, one of the most important dance centres in the world. Vardi recently visited Rome to strengthen the centre’s already strong ties with the Auditorium at the latest “Equilibrio” event, which offered an overview of contemporary dance. Yair Vardi is a legend on the international arts scene: a dancer and choreographer, she lived in Great Britain for over 10 years, where in 1983 she founded a dance centre in Newcastle. In 1989 she established the ‘Suzanne Dellal Center’, which soon became a point of reference on the contemporary dance scene in Israel. In the heart of the historical Neve Tzedek neighbourhood in Tel Aviv, the centre is the beating heart of Israeli dance, so much so that here, dance is discussed in terms of ‘before and after’ the centre was opened. Since then, Vardi has managed the centre with absolute success. Many consider it to be “living”, with seven to nine festivals each year with about 600 events, 400 of which are exclusively focussed on dance, while the others concentrate on theatre. “I would define Israeli dance,” said Vardi, while speaking with ANSA, “with three adjectives: energetic, passionate, and aggressive. It also mirrors Israeli society, which is in constant movement, always ready to change”. Vardi says that she does not regret her past as an artist: “I did what I was supposed to do. Now I understand that my strength is serving everything that serves dance and the world of dance”. The effort to keep the Suzanne Delle Center at a level of international importance is “immense, also because government funding and funds from other institutions and the City of Tel Aviv only make up one-third of the budget. A small share for the enormous amount of events that are held at the centre, which has become a place where one comes to ‘see’ and ‘feel’ culture in the city”. There are two objectives for Vardi’s projects for Italy: the first involves the Vertigo Dance Company, with choreography by Noa Wertheim; the second is ‘Rooster’, a new production by Barak Marshall, which has enjoyed great success in Tel Aviv. “Both were phenomenal: two extraordinary productions, and I would like to make them known in Italy,” she explained, announcing that “although it is not a done deal”, ‘Rooster’ could be one of the leading performances in the next season of the Roma Europa Festival. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Peace Process: S.Craxi, Fundamentalism Common Enemy
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, FEBRUARY 18 — “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has lasted too long and is an excuse for too many”, but the two sides now have “a common enemy, fundamentalism”, which will be “the only winner” if the peace process is not resumed quickly. This was the message given today by Italian Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Stefania Craxi, to chief negotiator from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Saeb Erekat and Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Daniel Ayalon, at the end of the final day of a visit to the West Bank and Jerusalem. “We need to act quickly because time is not on the side of peace”, said Craxi, who confirmed that she had seen “signs of hope” during the talks, but also elements of a persistent “concern”. Among the former, she mentioned the maximum willingness by the PNA — which was expressed to her yesterday by President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and confirmed today by Erekat — to accept at least the American proposal for indirect preliminary talks: until conditions arrive for a real and true resumption of talks, so far impossible — according to the Palestinians — because of the absence of a complete freeze in Jewish settlements. During her mission, Stefania Craxi, after a visit to Jericho, met representatives from Italian NGOs working in the Palestinian Territories, where concerns were raised over Israel’s new visa policies. Concerns which “the Government is working on” regarding the need to go back to granting “working visas and not tourist visas” to the aid workers” said Craxi, and which “have already been voiced to Ayalon”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
West Bank: ‘Pink Taxis’ In Hebron, Women Only
(ANSAmed) — HEBRON, FEBRUARY 16 — The West Bank city of Hebron, known for its strong religious traditionalism, is preparing the introduction of a phenomenon that has already been seen in other Muslim countries: the ‘women-only’ taxi. Hazem at-Takwai, one of the inventors of the initiative, told press agency MAAN in Hebron that these taxis will be painted pink. According to polls, nearly all Palestinian women in Hebron appreciate the novelty. At-Takrawi added that the project will guarantee a job to around a hundred women taxi drivers, most of them graduates, who had difficulties finding other types of work. Women-only taxis, MAAN added, are already in service in Cairo, Dubai and Tehran. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Why Isn’t There Peace? One Reason: Few People Know How Much is Being Offered
by Barry Rubin
I’ve been having a dialogue through correspondence lately with someone describing himself as a moderate Palestinian who lives in the United States. What most impressed me in the exchanges—both from what my interlocutor said and how he described the views of other Palestinians—is the total lack of comprehension on their part-those who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip along with those who live elsewhere, both moderate and radical—about Israeli positions toward peacemaking that are easily available on the public record.
Among Palestinians, as more broadly with almost all of the public in the Muslim-majority world and a lot of the elite classes in Europe, there exists a mythical Israel, reminiscent of the fabricated antisemitic stereotypes of the past, that has little to do with reality. They believe Israel isn’t interested in peace, doesn’t offer the Palestinians anything, opposes any real Palestinian state, intends to keep the West Bank (until Israel’s withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip they would have added that territory as well), and is led by intransigent hardliners. Such a conception was comprehensible—if not fully accurate—describing the situation in parts of the 1980s but has nothing to do with the last 20 years.
In 2010 they have no idea what Israel actually offered in the 1990s’ peace process, or at the Camp David summit in 2000, or what President Bill Clinton offered with Israel’s agreement in December 2000, or what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proffered in 2008, or what is in the current Israeli government’s peace offer in 2010. All proposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state, the first three in close to 100 percent and the last three as equivalent to 100 percent (with some small, equal land swaps) in size to the pre-1967 West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Lacking any knowledge of these offers, or at least knowing only very distorted ones, they can maintain that Israel has offered “nothing” and that therefore the continuation of the conflict is not due to Palestinian intransigence but Israel’s alleged opposition to the creation of a real independent Palestinian state. This reminds me of how Mahmoud Abbas, today leader of the Palestinian Authority, responded to some reasonably accurate descriptions in the Palestinian media of what Israel offered in 2000 at Camp David. It is better, he said at the time, not to talk about these things at all, presumably lest some Palestinians might think that it was a reasonable deal.
Anyone who actually lives in Israel knows that—whether they like it or not—Israel is ready to make big conessions and take reasonable risks to achieve peace. They know, whether or not they agree, that the overwhelming majority is ready to accept an independent Palestinian state as long as it is willing to end the conflict and live side by side in peace.
Outside Israel, far fewer people than should do so understand this reality.
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Barak to Syria: Don’t Test Us
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, FEBRUARY 17 — Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said today that Syria could better not test Israel in a new conflict, but at the same time he urged Damascus to start peace talks. In a speech in Jerusalem to leaders of Jewish organisations, Barak said: “I don’t advise any of our neighbours, including Syria, to challenge us. Having said that, I believe that it is in our interest to open negotiations to start a peace process”. “Syria’s President Bashar Assad” Barak continued, “should start negotiations as soon as possible. We all know what will be on the agenda. This is the right moment, we shouldn’t wait ten or twenty years, or for another conflict”. Syria has made it clear that it will only resume peace talks, which were interrupted in 2000, if Israel makes an explicit commitment to withdraw from the Golan Heights, occupied by the country in the 1967 conflict. Israel considers the Golan Heights as strategically important, but has indicated that it is willing to withdraw from almost the whole area. Israel in turn wants Syria to stop supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and to end its alliance with Iran.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hezbollah Ready for “Eye-for-an-Eye” With Israel
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 17 — The Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah does not want war with Israel, but is prepared to respond to any attack in an “eye-for-an-eye” manner, in the words of the movement’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. “Israel has threatened to carry out strikes on Lebanese infrastructure. Israel’s infrastructure is vaster and more advanced than ours,” said Nasrallah yesterday. The latter then addressed Israel and said that “if you strike Beirut’s Rafik Hariri international airport, then wéll hit Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. If you carry out strikes on our ports then wéll hit yours, if you hit our power plants or our refineries, then we will do the same to yours.” “This is my announcement today, to say that I accept any challenge,” said Nasrallah in a message broadcast on a huge screen before thousands of Hezbollah supporters in Beirut suburbs as part of “Martyrs’ Day” celebrations. “We do not want war, but will concern ourselves with the dignity of our population,” the Hezbollah leader said, adding that “the resistance and the army are able to defend Lebanon and we do not need anyone else.” In 2006 Israel launched a wide-ranging operation against Hezbollah militants lasting over a month, in which it attacked the Beirut airport and Lebanese infrastructure and targeted bridges and artery roads in particular.” A few days ago Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri had said that he was concerned over the “escalation” seen in the threats Israel posed to the Middle East, and that he feared the possibility of another Israeli war in Lebanon. Hariri had then added that “there will not be any divisions within Lebanon. We will stand up to Israel. We will stand by our people.” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had immediately replied by saying “as the premier of a coalition government, Hariri is only a hostage of Hezbollah, which has veto power within his Cabinet.” At the same time, the Foreign Minister ruled out Israel’s having any intention to conduct another raid in Lebanon after the conflict in the summer of 2006, warning however that this did not mean that the country was willing to be subjected to any more missile launching by Shia militants without reacting. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: In Mosul: 20-Year-Old Student Killed, For Christians it is Like Good Friday
The bullet-ridden body of Wissam Georges is found in Wadi Al-ayn neighbourhood. The young man vanished early in the morning, on his way to school. His murder is the fourth killing targeting Christians in three days. For Mosul Christians, the city has “become immured to this tragedy”.
Mosul (AsiaNews) — Wissam Georges, a 20-year-old Christian student, was killed today in Mosul, northern Iraq, this according to local police who found his bullet-ridden body. His death is the fourth targeted murder in three days against the Christian community. Among Christians, the assassinations are seen as “a real massacre, like Good Friday.” The city itself has become “immured to this tragedy.”
Police found the young man in the residential neighbourhood of Wadi Al-ayn, the same where an attack was perpetrated against a Chaldean Church. His body was riddled with bullets, a local source said.
Wissam Georges, 20, was studying to be a teacher. He had disappeared in the early morning on his way from Madida in north-west Mosul to the teachers college where he was taking a course to upgrade his training.
This is the fourth murder targeting the Christian community in three days, a real massacre, according to a source that spoke to AsiaNews on condition of anonymity. “It is like Good Friday, with no end in sight.”
“We have been abandoned by everybody,” he added. “It is as if the city has become used to this endless tragedy.” (DS)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Murdered Hamas Leader, UK and Irish Passports False
(ANSAmed) — LONDON, FEBRUARY 16 — Nine people believed to make up the murder squad responsible for the killing of Mahmud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas leader killed in January in Dubai, are neither British nor Irish, said the spokespeople for the Foreign Ministries of the two countries, who added that the passports which the nine used to travel to Dubai are fakes. A spokesperson for the Irish Foreign Ministry announced that three of the suspects, identified as Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron, are not in the list of Irish citizens holding passports and that their documents are clearly false, as they show a passport number with no letters and with an incorrect number of digits. As for the identity and nationality of the other six, whom the Dubai authorities believe to be British, the Foreign Ministry in London stated that their passports are also false.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Debate on Law Simplifying Issuing Gun Licenses
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 16 — In Turkey, where according to official statistics, each year about 3,000 people are killed by guns, a controversial draft law that would make it easier to obtain a gun license has sparked a debate, wrote daily Milliyet today. The secular newspaper pointed out that, based on current laws (which should be partially modified by the draft law), those who wish to obtain a license to possess and carry a firearm are required to present a medical certificate on their mental health issued by a state hospital and signed by six doctors to the relative authorities. The draft law under examination by a parliamentary committee since August 4 reduces the number of doctors who need to sign the medical certificate to one, and it also includes the possibility of obtaining a preliminary gun licence for six months. Various websites such has Haber 3 report that there are several MPs from various parties that are lobbying for Parliament to approve the draft law. The purpose is reportedly to obtain another gun license for those who have had theirs previously revoked for improper use of firearms. According to data provided by the Umut Foundation (Hope, an anti-gun group), in Turkey, 60% of murders involve the use of a firearm, one out of ten people own a gun, one home in three possesses a gun, more or less legally, and at least 280,000 drivers travel with a gun in the glove compartment of their car. Furthermore, aside from victims of crimes in which a gun is used, in Turkey it is very common for people to be killed by gunshots because of people shooting during celebrations, including weddings and after football victories. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Strasbourg Condemns Non-Publishing of Apollinaire
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, FEBRUARY 16 — Strasbourg’s judges today condemned Turkey for not authorising the publishing of the novel “Les onze mille verges” by Guillaume Apollinaire, and of having thus hindered access by Turkish people to a piece of work which belongs to Europe’s literary heritage. The appeal was filed in 2004 by editor Rahmi Akdas who in 1999 had decided to publish a Turkish version of Apollinaire’s novel. The copied of the book were however confiscated from him and Akdas also had to pay a fine because he was sentenced, according to the criminal code, for wanting to publish “obscene or immoral material capable or awakening and exploiting the population’s sexual desire”. The European Court of human rights recognised that national judges are in a better position than international ones when it comes to the definition of what is “immoral” within the boundaries of a State, also in light of that what is moral or immoral changes in time and space. However the Strasbourg judges condemned Turkey for having violated the right of expression of editor Akdas, emphasising that, in the case of Apollinaires novel, this is a text that was first published more than a century ago which in time gained the recognition of being a literary work. The Court therefore ruled that “the recognition of the cultural, historical and religious peculiarities of the single Member States of the Council of Europe cannot be stretched to the point of preventing access to a work of European literature in a given language, in this case Turkish”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Ambassador in Rome Still Under Investigation, Ankara
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 16 — Turkey’s ambassador in Rome Ali Yakital was not found guilty of sexual molestation and his position is still being examined by an internal investigation led by Turkeys Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Today the Ministry specified, as reported by Hurriyet Daily News on-line, in a statement disseminated by spokesperson Burak Ozugergin, that an internal investigation relative to claims of sexual molestation levelled against the diplomat is being carried out in the context of the relative laws and that proceedings are still in being”. The statement indicated that ambassador was recalled to Ankara. In the morning, citing an unspecified source of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkey’s private network Ntv reported that the investigation of Yakital was over and that the diplomat admitted to being guilty of the charges against him. Ntv added that the ambassador resigned or opted for early pension. The investigation was opened after that two employees of the Turkish embassy in Rome complained with their superiors in the Ministry of being the target of sexual molestation by the diplomat. In her statement the embassys number two diplomat in charge reported that “He tried to kiss me on the lips and cheeks twice”. A second officer (described as the embassy’s number four) reported that “once the ambassador called me into his room and asked me to turn around. Then he commented on my fitness and my weight”. Male officers working in the embassy allegedly confirmed the reports of the two women and admitted to being aware of the alleged facts for some time. The ambassador always rejected the accusations of sexual molestation, claiming that he kissed his employees “in a fatherly manner”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Ergenekon Case, Is Civil War in the Judiciary
(by Furio Morroni) (ANSAmed) — ANKARA, FEBRUARY 17 — “Is civil war in the judiciary”, wrote this morning daily Haberturk referring to the arrest and detention of Erzurum Chief Public Prosecutor Ilhan Cihaner taken into custody by Erzincan Special Prosecutor Osman Yanal Tuesday after a raid into his office and residence. Following a seven hour interrogation, Sanal asked to Erzurum 2nd Criminal Court to arrest Cihaner, the first time a prosecutor in Turkey had been arrested. Erzurum 2nd Criminal Court arrested Cihaner under charges of being a member of Ergenekon, a clandestine group charged with plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, misconduct, slander and intimidation. The newspaper was right. Infact, less than 24 hours after the arrest of Cihaner, 42, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) — which gathered at an extraordinary meeting to discuss Cihaner’s arrest — decided unanimously to strip Sanal and the three other judges who arrested Cihaner, saying that they abused their powers, and decided to make a criminal complaint for abuse of power. Turkey’s powerful judiciary has traditionally been a bastion of the conservative secular establishment which suspects Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party of having an Islamist agenda. But AK Party denies any such ambition. The Union of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV) showed the first reaction saying “this is violation of laws made by unauthorized people regarding a public prosecutor who should be tried in the Supreme Court of Appeals”. “The government is attempting to take over the judiciary. It is trying to bring into line the judges and prosecutors whom it can not influence. We will file a criminal complaint,” said YARSAV. Cihaner also currently faces trial on charges of “abuse of power” and “falsification of documents” due to a probe he had launched in the eastern Erzincan province in 2007 into a number of religious communities. Last year, Justice Ministry inspectors uncovered irregularities in the probe. An investigation was launched into Cihaner on the grounds that he failed to inform the justice minister about his probe into the Ismailaga religious community. Cihaner is accused of carrying out the investigation illegally, in violation of established legal practices, and overstepping his authority. If Cihaner is found guilty, he may face consecutive prison terms of up to 26 years. Meanwhile, Supreme Court’s Chief Public Prosecutor announced earlier today that it launched a criminal investigation into alleged misconduct of Erzincan and Erzurum prosecutors. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Calls in Israeli Ambassador Over Dubai Hamas Murder
The British government has called in the Israeli ambassador to discuss the use of fake UK passports by the alleged killers of a Hamas commander in Dubai.
Gordon Brown has also ordered an inquiry into the passports, which bear the names of six British-Israelis who are not the men pictured.
Dubai police believe 11 “agents with European passports” killed Palestinian militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January.
Israel said there was no evidence to link its secret service.
Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, refused to issue any formal denial in line with a “policy of ambiguity” on security matters.
He told Israeli Army Radio: “There is no reason to think that it was the Israeli Mossad and not some other intelligence service or country up to some mischief.”
‘Full investigation’
It is expected that the Israeli Ambassador, Ron Prosor, will meet with Sir Peter Ricketts, head of the diplomatic service, on Thursday.
Sir Menzies Campbell, former Liberal Democrat leader and member of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said the ambassador had to be questioned.
“The one institution that does know whether Mossad was involved in this matter is the Israeli government and I expect that the senior civil servant in the Foreign Office will say ‘well, now’s your chance to tell us one way or another’,” he told BBC’s Newsnight.
Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn has called for Mr Prosor to be expelled from the UK if he cannot provide “adequate assurances”.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency has been asked to look into the fraudulent use of the passports.
It has confirmed that photographs and signatures on the passports used in Dubai do not match those on passports issued by the UK.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “We have got to carry out a full investigation into this. The British passport is an important document that has got to be held with care.”
The Foreign Office said the British embassy in Tel Aviv was ready to support those affected by the Hamas shooting case.
The men whose names appeared on the passports have dual British and Israeli citizenship.
They are Melvyn Adam Mildiner, Paul John Keeley, James Leonard Clarke, Stephen Daniel Hodes, Michael Lawrence Barney and Jonathan Lewis Graham. They all deny involvement in the killing.
Several of them have spoken of their shock at being implicated in the crime.
Salford-born Mr Hodes, 37, said he had not left Israel for two years and was “in shock”.
“I don’t know who’s behind this. I am just scared, these are major forces,” he told Israeli television.
Hamas killing
Police in Dubai have issued arrest warrants for 11 suspects they want to question about the killing of a senior Hamas official in Dubai. The suspects include six men travelling on false British passports.
Three other suspects, including one woman, were travelling on false Irish passports. Two further suspects had French and German papers. Dubai police say they appeared to be a professional hit-squad.
Dubai police say the suspects only spent a day in the country. Here two of them are seen arriving at a local shopping centre. Three others were filmed arriving at the same centre. The suspects did not make contact by phone.
Police allege that one of the suspects, pictured on the left pulling a trolley, went to a hotel to put on a disguise. He is seen entering a men’s toilet and later left wearing a wig.
Their alleged victim, Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh is seen at the hotel reception, circled in red above. At the bottom of the image the head of one of the suspects can just be seen. As Mr Mabhouh leaves, the suspect follows.
Mr Mabhouh is followed into the lift by a number of the suspects, including two pictured here in tennis gear. It is thought he had been followed from Syria to Dubai where he wanted to buy weapons for Hamas.
When Mr Mabhouh leaves the lift, the police say he was followed by one of the suspects, who appeared to be trying to establish which room he was staying in. He was later killed in his room.
The details of the suspects and their passport photos were released by officials in Dubai earlier this week.
Three of the other suspects used Irish passports.
Authorities in the Irish Republic have confirmed that while the numbers were legitimate, they did not match records for the names which had been used — Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron.
Its Department of Foreign Affairs said officials were urgently trying to contact the three citizens who hold or have held passports with these numbers.
France and Germany have also reportedly raised doubts over the identities of two suspects who used a French and a German passport.
Mr Mabhouh was murdered in his hotel room in Dubai on 20 January.
Reports have suggested he was there to buy weapons for the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas.
Two Palestinian suspects were being questioned about the murder. Police said they had “fled to Jordan” after the killing and have not released their names.
Officials in Dubai, who have issued arrest warrants, said the team appeared to be a professional hit squad, probably sponsored by a foreign power.
They released CCTV footage which they said showed some of the suspects in disguises, including wigs and false beards, in the hotel near Dubai’s international airport.
The suspects allegedly trailed Mr Mabhouh when he arrived in Dubai from Syria.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Operation Moshtarak: British Army Unleashes Latest Weapon in Battle With ‘Dishonourable Enemy’
The Army has used a new weapon against Taliban roadside bombs in Afghanistan for the first time, the Ministry of Defence has said.
Royal Engineers fired the Python rocket-powered mine clearance system to blow up improvised explosive devices (IEDs) lined along a route in Helmand Province as part of the ongoing Operation Moshtarak.
The Python, which is mounted on a trailer pulled behind a Trojan armoured engineer tank, shoots a snake of high explosives high into the air and on to a minefield, where it explodes, detonating the mines.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
India: Terror Leader Ilyas Kashmiri Warns British Athletes Will ‘Face Consequences’ If They Visit Commonwealth Games in India
Terrorists have warned British athletes to “face the consequences” if they visit India this year for the Commonwealth Games, Indian Premier League cricket tournament or Hockey World Cup.
The chilling warning was issued by one of the terrorist masterminds accused of orchestrating the Mumbai attacks in November 2008.
“We warn the international community not to send their people to the 2010 Hockey World Cup, IPL and Commonwealth Games… Nor should their people visit India — if they do, they will be responsible for the consequences,” said Pakistani terrorist leader Ilyas Kashmiri.
Kashmiri, a former Pakistani commando whose 313 Brigade is an operational arm of al-Qaeda, has vowed to continue targeting foreigners in attacks across India.
[…]
The Commonwealth Games are due to take place this October.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Bekasi: Islamic Groups Against the Protestant Church, It Promotes Proselytizing
At least 16 extremist movements have ordered an end to the charitable activities and worship. They attempt to hide “forced conversions”. Leaders of the Protestant Synod: unfounded accusations. In 2009 over 200 cases of violations of religious freedom. The Catholic church of Saint Mary wins the legal battle against the authorities of Purwakarta.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Islamic extremist groups in the district of Bekasi, about 25 km east of Jakarta, have launched an ultimatum to the faithful of Galilee Church : end religious activities because they “incite disharmony” between Muslims and promote proselytizing . Indonesian Protestant Church leaders respond that the charitable initiatives do not hide ulterior motives and true conversions “must come from the heart.” Meanwhile, the faithful of the Catholic church of Saint Mary have won the legal battle against the authorities of Purwakarta, the place of worship has obtained the building permit, revoked recently by the local government.
Galilee Church is located in the Taman Galaxy, in the sub-district of Jaka Setia, South Bekasi. On
Leading Christian and Muslim figures in Indonesia have expressed concern and are attempting to calm the row. Slamet Effendy Jusuf, a former Golkar politician, head of the Committee for Interreligious Dialogue in the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) states that “the initiative launched by extremist groups is against the law” and Muslims “have to go to the police” if they are in possession of evidence that testifies attempts of forced conversion. Pastor Gomar Gultom, secretary general of the Synod of Protestant Churches (PGI), confirms support for charitable activities but “conversions are out of the question” beacuse a change of faith “must come from the heart.”
The police, meanwhile, reject the accusations of inefficiency and their slow pace in defending the Christian communities that end up in the crosshairs of Islamic extremists. Speaking at a public debate in Jakarta yesterday, the inspector general Soedjarwo Imam stated their response is not slow, but “open-minded,” “to prevent an escalation of violence against minorities, specifically the Christians.” Confirming this climate of tension, Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace has issued a new document which shows that in 2009 there were over 200 cases of violations of religious freedom.
But some good news has emerged from the Indonesian archipelago. An email sent to Mgr. Johannes Pujasumarta Pr, Bishop of Bandung, explains that the Church of Saint Mary has won the lawsuit against the authorities in Purwakarta. The building permit (IMB), previously withdrawn by the local government, was confirmed by the courts, so the faithful can have a place of worship to pray and celebrate mass.
The Civil Court issued the verdict in Bandung on 15 February. Now the building has now been officially aggregated to the parish church of the Holy Cross. The originally small chapel, therefore will now be transformed into a small parish — founded in January 2009 — which will have as its patron saint, the Virgin Mary.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Coffee King Lavazza Dies
Third-generation exec expanded empire, started popular ads
(ANSA) — Turin, February 17 — Italian coffee king Emilio Lavazza died in his native Turin Wednesday. He was 77.
Lavazza took over the reins of the family firm in 1971 when his father Giuseppe died after helping grandfather and founder Luigi turn a 19th-century grocery store into a domestic and international powerhouse.
Emilio, chairman from 1979 until 2008, followed the family recipe of seeking beans ever farther afield and consolidated its domestic share with premier products such as the famous Lavazza Gold and Grand’ Espresso which, together with its less pricey varieties, lay claim to almost half the Italian market.
Starting in the 1980s, Lavazza produced award-winning TV ads featuring cinema stars like Nino Manfredi and TV personalities like Paolo Bonolos, whose Heaven-set spots the company recently accused Nespresso of copying. Emilio Lavazza also started up ‘real’ Italian coffee bars abroad in an attempt to beat back behemoths like Starbucks, most recently venturing into the Indian market on a joint venture with the Barista Coffee chain.
Branded as ‘Italy’s Favourite Coffee’, Lavazza can now be found in supermarkets worldwide, produced in four factories in Italy, six in Europe and one in the United States.
With an estimated turnover of almost one billion euros, Lavazza is one of Italy’s biggest food groups, rivalling the country’s pasta, tomato, cheese, ham and olive oil giants.
It is the country’s largest ‘mono-product’ company.
Emilio Lavazza was honoured for his services to Italian industry in the 1990s, becoming a ‘Knight of Labour,’ and received an honorary degree from Turin University in 1993.
He served several terms as president of the Italian association of food manufacturing and was a longtime executive in the Turin industrialists’ union. Among the first to pay tribute to the late entrepreneur was Enzo Ghigo, head of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party in Piedmont, the region around Turin.
“The Piedmontese industrial world has lost one of its most prestigious names, an old-style entrepreneur, tenacious and highly innovative,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Canes Three Women Over Extramarital Sex
Three Malaysian women have been caned by the authorities for having extra-marital sex, say officials.
They are the first women to receive such a sentence under Islamic law in the country.
The punishments come as another Malaysian woman waits to hear whether her caning — for drinking beer — is carried out.
Malaysia’s majority Malays are subject to Islamic laws, while the large Chinese and Indian minorities are not.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the punishments had been carried out in a prison outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on 9 February.
The women were each hit up to six times. One is reported to have since been released from prison.
Officials did not say how the canings were carried out, but analysts said such punishments were usually light for women, intended to be largely symbolic.
“Even though the caning did not injure them, they said it caused pain within them,” the Reuters news agency quoted Mr Hishammuddin as saying.
He told state media he hoped the punishments would not be “misunderstood so much that it defiles the purity of Islam”.
“The punishment is to teach and give a chance to those who have fallen off the path to return and build a better life in future,” he said.
Meanwhile the case of Kartika Sari Dewa Shukarno, sentenced to six strokes of a rattan cane for drinking beer, is being reviewed by the authorities.
She was arrested at a hotel in December 2007, but her case has been repeatedly delayed.
She has said she is willing to be caned as she respects the law, and asked for the punishment to be carried out in public.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Christians Outraged in Lahore Over Release of Young Domestic Worker’s Murderer
Angry protests receive judge’s decision to release Chaudhry Muhammad Naeem, charged with the murder of Shazia Bashir. Police, doctors and prosecutors are accused of complicity with the accused. The silence of political and legal authorities is deafening to many on Facebook.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — Pakistani Christians have strongly protested the release on bail of a Muslim lawyer accused of raping, torturing and killing last month Shazia Bashir, a 12-year-old Catholic girl, employed in his household as domestic worker. They have appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a symbol of judicial independence in Pakistan, to take immediate action against the court’s decision.
The girl’s parents (mother pictured) led the protest as demonstrators shouted slogans and carried banners, proclaiming “Innocent Shazia’s blood calls for punishment of a ruthless murderer and corrupt doctors” and “The bail of murderer raises questions for rulers.”
Last Saturday, Judge Shafiq-ur-Rehman of the Lahore Court released Muhammad Naeem, his wife and son on bail.
The accused’s lawyer said the girl’s autopsy report did not prove she was murdered, but indicated instead that she had died from an infection caused by old injuries.
In his opinion, the case was not about murder, especially since 14 days of police investigation did not yield any evidence that would suggest that Muhammad Naeem or any member of his family was involved in the girl’s death.
The Christian community has rejected the lawyer’s claims as well as the results of the autopsy, pointing out that Shazia’s body showed signs of torture and sexual abuse.
They claim that the powerful former head of the Lahore Bar Association locked the girl in his house against her will and killed her when she refused to work for him.
In protest, a group of Christians blocked the road outside the Lahore Press Club, and burnt the picture of a Jinnah Hospital official, whom they accuse of falsifying the girl’s death certificate.
In two weeks of hearings, Christian lawyers and anyone trying to represent the victim’s family have receive threats and experienced acts of intimidation (see Fareed Khan, “Lahore, Muslim lawyers will ‘burn alive’ anyone who defends murdered 12 year old Christian”).
Activists have also alleged that defence lawyers, police, judges and government authorities have worked together, coming close to colluding, in order to bury the case.
The Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) and the Human Liberation Commission of Pakistan (HLCP) have organised the Christian protest. Their leaders have complained that in Shazia’s case, justice was assassinated by the powerful machinery of the state, which seeks to save the skin of the murderer, Muhammad Naeem.
They also blame doctors for playing a shameful role in doctoring the medical report, and police for manipulating the investigation.
Not only has the appeal against bail reached Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, but it has also seized public opinion, finding its way on online discussion forums and the social network Facebook.
For many in cyberspace, the silence by the chief justice and the minister of mminorities is deafening.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Two More Senior Taliban Leaders Are Arrested
Two senior Taliban leaders have been arrested in recent days inside Pakistan, officials said Thursday, as American and Pakistani intelligence agents continued to press their offensive against the group’s leadership after the capture of the insurgency’s military commander last month.
Afghan officials said the Taliban’s “shadow governors” for two provinces in northern Afghanistan had been detained in recent days hiding inside Pakistan. Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban’s leader in Kunduz, was detained in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad, and Mullah Mohammed of Baghlan Province was also captured in an undisclosed Pakistani city, they said.
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Mongolia: Harsh Winter Wipes Out Millions of Cashmere Goats
Snow and cold destroys plant life, with no grass left under the snow. Livestock dies from hunger and cold. Herders are one third of the workforce. Now many could lose everything and be forced to move to the cities looking for a job.
Ulaan Baatar (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The cold winter that brought heavy snowfall, icy winds and temperatures averaging minus 35 Celsius has also killed more than 2,000,000 heads of livestock, especially cashmere goats, known for their soft and warm wool. The survival of Mongolia’s nomadic herders, who account for approximately one-third of Mongolia’s labour force, is at stake. This year’s harsh winter comes on top of a very dry summer, which hampered the ability of many herders to gather sufficient supplies of fodder and hay.
Mongolian herders are used to cold winter, but very few if any remember one like this one, the harshest in living memory. Khurmatai, who like many herders goes by one name, told Eurasianet that even when it was very cold, like in 2001, “there was grass under the snow.” However, “This year there is nothing but sand”.
With little access to pastureland and limited fodder stores, herders must take a measured approach to protecting their animals. Khurmatai keeps the weakest animals in a stone corral next to his home, a meagre pile of hay spread on the ground. He fears they will not survive until spring.
On a recent day, he lost 20 goats, huddled in the corral, covered with snow. Though 200 animals remain in his flock, “before spring we will lose most of them for sure, if the weather continues like this”.
Other herders have left their weakest animals to die in an attempt to keep the best ones alive. When they die, they skin the animals and sell the hides, even though that will bring in less than half of what they would make were they to sell wool sheared from live animals in the spring.
Herders left without a flock to shepherd by spring would have little choice but to move with their families to a village or a city to look for a job.
According to the United Nations, 19 of Mongolia’s 21 provinces have been hit by what officials call a “humanitarian disaster”.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that as many as four million of 144 million animals nationwide could die before spring. Families with smaller herds are particularly vulnerable.
An eight-province assessment mission by FAO found that 21,000 herding families had suffered losses of 50 per cent or more.
Several countries, including China and Australia, have sent emergency aid to Mongolia, but herders generally live in vast regions that are hard to reach, partly because of heavy snowfalls that isolated entire villages.
Scores of herding communities, their flocks devastated, migrated to the capital and provincial cities after the harsh winter in 2001.
Many families did not find employment and were thrust into poverty. Others fear this year might bring the same.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: “If We Follow This Path, We Will be Like Alabama in the Twenties”
Jean Léonard Touadi talks to Alen Custovic
“Since the Nineties Italy has been experiencing a real social creation of an enemy. The result is that, over time, a number of reflexes and slogans become sedimented in the collective imagination and in symbolic frameworks of daily life, contributing not only to social instability but also to the business of fear.” Jean Léonard Touadi, Congolese by birth and Italian by adoption, a university professor and a member of parliament for the PD, comments for Resetdoc on the “hunt for the black man” that took place in Rosarno, Calabria, at the beginning of January.
What do these events in Rosarno reveal?
As soon as I saw the tragic images from Rosarno, I caught the first available plane and went there. What I found were the same elements I had seen in Castel Volturno, the same dangerous mix of organised crime, illegal labor and serious unease. Personally, I have studied the history of blacks in the United States and what I saw in that town in Calabria looked like what happened in Alabama during the Twenties in the past century. I never expected to see anything similar in Italy in 2010.
Reports also showed immigrants, especially Africans, armed with bars and sticks, crossing the town and causing destruction and chaos. Why all this anger?
I was the first person to make an appeal against violence, trying to make people understand that even if they are totally in the right, violence puts them in the wrong, as well as them being cleverly manoeuvred and exploited. I tried to teach those young people that the history of black people, from the United States to South Africa, teaches us that then best results have been achieved thanks to non-violence.
What do you think of comments such as “excessive tolerance” or “ticking bombs” made by important political personalities?
That day I experienced the answers as a citizen rather than as a politician. I was amazed by the election strategies used to address even such a complex and delicate issue. Bad politics often use aggressive mechanisms in which differences are emphasised. It is true that ever since the Nineties Italy has been experiencing a real social creation of an enemy. The result is that over time a number of reflexes and slogans become sedimented in the collective imagination and in symbolic frameworks of daily life, which contribute not only to social instability but also to the business of fear.
Were events in Rosarno really so totally unexpected?
One must bear in mind that Rosarno was already a municipality under the administration of an external commissioner and hence there were already serious problems there. The law establishes that the commissioner must send a quarterly report to the Ministry of the Interior. I would like to know where this report is and what it said. Is it possible that none of these problems ever came to light?
What role do you believe the ‘Ndrangheta played in these clashes?
Thanks to my experience and my visit to Rosarno, as well as authoritative interlocutors such as the Libera association, I have understood that in those areas nothing of any importance happens without the approval of Mafia bosses. In fact I am still wondering who were the two mysterious people who started the clashes. Perhaps investigations might lead to very interesting developments. Faced with threats and real danger, many immigrants left because they no longer felt safe.
So the ‘Ndrangheta is involved?
One interesting thing I experienced personally, was seeing people with sticks, bars and even axes threatening immigrants, luckily separated by police cordons…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Teacher Cries ‘Hate Crime’ Over Bible Left on Desk
‘I can’t believe the cruelty and ignorance of people sometimes’
An eighth-grade teacher has accused her students of committing a “hate crime” and being “cruel” because they left a Bible on her desk and a Christmas card with the word “Christ” underlined.
Melissa Hussain, an Apex, N.C., science teacher at West Lake Middle School, is suspended with pay and may lose her job after she purportedly clashed with students on the subject of religion and sent students to the school office when they asked about the role of God in creation during a lesson about evolution.
Hussain wrote on her then-public Facebook page that it was a “hate crime” when her students left a Bible on her desk, according to the Charlotte News & Observer. She complained about students singing “Jesus Loves Me” and wearing Jesus T-shirts.
Hussain said she “was able to shame her kids” over the incidents.
“I can’t believe the cruelty and ignorance of people sometimes,” Hussain wrote on the social networking site.
She said she wouldn’t let the Bible incident “go unpunished.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Governments Plan for Warming Based on Corrupt IPCC Science
There is no need for any government action on CO2, global warming or climate change. But as usual governments are making the situation worse as they waste billions preparing for warming when cooling is the future. The misdirection is caused by the corrupted science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change particularly their omission of major solar changes. My last article identified the Milankovitch Effect, a solar mechanism excluded from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
This article examines the second major solar mechanism ignored and identifies the machinations used to avoid or exclude the research and evidence.
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Why the Chinese Are Not Enemy Number One in Cyberspace
The Atlantic 01.03.2010 (USA)
James Fallows met with a series of secret service experts to learn more about the threat posed by China in cyberspace. The picture of the world that he now has looks like this: “‘The Chinese would be in the top three, maybe the top two, leading problems in cyberspace,’ James Lewis, a former diplomat who worked on security and intelligence issues and is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington, told me. ‘They’re not close to being the primary problem, and there is debate about whether they’re even number two.’ Number one in his analysis is Russia, through a combination of state, organized-criminal, and unorganized-individual activity. Number two is Israel—and there are more on the list. ‘The French are notorious for looking for economic advantage through their intelligence system,’ I was told by Ed Giorgio, who has served as the chief code maker and chief code breaker for the National Security Agency. ‘The Israelis are notorious for looking for political advantage. We have seen Brazil emerge as a source of financial crime, to join Russia, which is guilty of all of the above.’“
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
France's answer to McDonald's looks like it is starting to go halal:
Link
I guess I've paid my last visit to a Quick restaurant.
I've thought for some time now that the biggest threat to domestic tranquility was inflation, not the everyday brand but hyper-inflation. I can see the possibility and the ramifications are truely frightening. I fear the rampant spending spree Obama and his keynesian advisors are taking us on will lead to a total economic collapse that will bring about wide spread civil unrest and uncontrolable violence. I pray that will not be the case. Perhaps I listen to Glenn Beck too much, but then he does connect the dots. Maybe the Chinese are selling the Treasury bonds while they still have some value--just a thought!
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