Financial Crisis
»	Booming China Lures Key Professors Home From US
»	Declaration of Recovery is a Lie
»	Failures in Money Control Becoming More Obvious
»	Obama’s Latest Stroke of Brilliance… Let Corrupt Regimes Decide How to Spend US Aid Money
	USA
»	“How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sharia?” Ask Stuart Dunnings, III
»	At Bargain Ticket Prices Obama Can’t Even Fill a 650 Seat Room!
»	Bill Clinton and the Ground Zero Mosque: A Perfect Fit
»	Pakistani Radicals Go Wild After Female Terrorist Sentenced in New York City
»	U.S. Walks Out as Iran Leader Speaks
»	Wake Up! He’s a Communist!
	Europe and the EU
»	Abba Stars Sue Denmark’s Far-Right
»	Finland: Environment Minister Discloses Links to Government-Sponsored Mining Project
»	Finland: Defence Forces to Recruit Somalis for Peacekeeping Mission
»	Holy See Defends Laundering Probe Bankers
»	Netherlands: Indonesian Ambassador ‘Unwise’ To Say PVV Voters May be ‘Psychotic’
»	Tongue-in-Cheek Maps of European Stereotypes
»	UK: CCTV of Serial Rape and Murder Suspect
»	UK: Jobless Couple Demand Bigger Home for Family of Eight
»	UK: Men Arrested in Gateshead Over Suspected Koran Burning
»	UK: Police ‘Failing to Tackle Yob Behaviour’
»	UK: Parents’ Fury After Police Send Riot Van to Hand Out Parking Tickets Outside Disabled School
»	UK: Six Arrested After Burning of Koran on 9/11 ‘For the Boys in Afghanistan’ Is Posted Online
»	UK: Shame of Muslim Cleric Who Exposed Himself in Bristol Park
	North Africa
»	Muslim Brotherhood: We Plan to Participate in Egypt Polls
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Obama Calls for Peace in the ‘Holy Land’ of Israel and Palestine Within a Year
	Middle East
»	Stuxnet Computer Worm ‘Targeted Iranian Nuclear Power Station’ In World’s Most Sophisticated Virus Attack
	South Asia
»	India: Supreme Court Orders Ayodhya Mosque Verdict Postponed
»	India: Photos: The Awful Squalor Found at the Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village as Time Runs Out for Organisers
»	Indonesia: Sumatra: Fundamentalists Kill Three Police Officers in Revenge Attack
	Latin America
»	Colombia FARC Rebel Mono Jojoy Killed — Army
	Immigration
»	Austria: Majority Approve Debate Following Sarrazin’s Claims
	Culture Wars
»	Mosque Trip Violated Rights, Lawyer Says
»	UK’s Homosexual Population Size Revealed: Just 1.5% of Britons Say They Are Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual
	General
»	F.D.A. And European Regulators Severely Restrict Avandia, Citing Heart Risks
»	So That’s Why Bono Calls it the One Foundation

Booming China Lures Key Professors Home From US

SAN FRANCISCO (Sept. 23) — When Weiping Li came from China in 1982 to study engineering at Stanford University, he didn’t plan to stay long. But after earning his Ph.D., he found that the best opportunities were in the United States, and he was pleased to land a job as a professor of electrical engineering at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

He became a U.S. citizen and raised a family. But earlier this year, he left the U.S. to work in a country where the economy is booming and universities are investing in the future: his native China.

Recruited under a Chinese government program called the “Thousand Talents,” Li was named dean of the prestigious information science division of the University of Science and Technology of China. As an incentive, the university gave him a 2,000-square-foot house and a tax-free relocation payment of nearly $150,000.

“I see it as an opportunity,” said Li, a USTC alumnus. “It’s just like why we came to the U.S. The U.S. at the time had more opportunities than we could imagine in China in 1982.”

Professor Yigong Shi, who walked away from a top research position in the United States to become the dean of life sciences at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University in 2008, poses beside bottles of bacterial culture in a university lab in Beijing.

Frederic J. Brown, AFP / Getty Images

Li is one of hundreds of top Chinese-born scientists who are returning to their homeland to take prestigious posts at universities and research laboratories. China’s goal is to jump-start innovation in science and technology, an area that has lagged behind even as the country’s economy has surpassed Japan to become the second largest in the world.

Known as “sea turtles,” the returning scientists are offered the chance to set up their own laboratories, head university departments, or take other high-level jobs in academia and business. Two returnees from Europe have been appointed government ministers of health and science and technology.

“They are going after the A-grade players,” said Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur-turned-academic with ties to Harvard Law School, Duke University and the University of California at Berkeley. “They are basically doing everything they can. They give you labs. They give you everything you want. They make you feel like a national hero.”

High-profile returnees include Yigong Shi, who left Princeton University to become life sciences dean at Tsinghua University; Rao Yi, who left Northwestern University to become life sciences dean at Peking University; and Shiyi Chen, who left Johns Hopkins University to become dean of engineering at Peking University.

China has waited patiently for decades for some of its brightest and most accomplished scientists to return. Until recently, it could not offer high-quality research facilities, adequate funding or an attractive research environment.

But in the past few years, the government has invested heavily in infrastructure, constructing campuses and science parks to accommodate what it hopes will be a boom in homegrown technological advances, particularly in such fields as nanotechnology, computer science and pharmaceuticals. The government’s goal is to turn new discoveries into products as quickly as possible.

Richard Appelbaum, a professor of sociology and global studies at UC Santa Barbara, said he recently visited a vast new research facility outside Shanghai.

“This is a science park the size of a city,” he recounted. “It’s all brand-spanking-new buildings that have been put up by the government of Suzhou. They are occupied by all these startup companies, working in biology and at the interface of nano and biology. It’s all very impressive, at least to an outsider.”

With the “Thousand Talents” program, China is not only luring “sea turtles,” but also showing new flexibility by negotiating part-time deals with “sea gulls,” who split their time between universities in China and the U.S.

One “sea gull” is UC San Francisco professor Chao Tang, who also is founder and director of the Center for Theoretical Biology at Peking University, where he teaches part of the year.

A leader in the field of quantitative biology, Tang said holding positions at the two universities gives him the best of both worlds: He can stay connected with experts in his field in the U.S. while still being part of the transformation of science in China.

Tang recognizes that people with his skills provide a crucial component that China is lacking as it attempts to accelerate its capacity to innovate.

“They need people like us to be leaders, to build up institutes, to build up centers, to build up departments and to attract young people around us,” he said. “They have almost everything else: money, buildings, bright students. But what is needed is what is called the ‘soft environment.’ People plus the system. To build a system you need people.”

U.S. researchers are finding it increasingly difficult to win federal grants, and public universities such as University of California have been faced with massive budget cuts. Meanwhile, top scientists in China are more concerned about how to spend money than how to get it.

“At our center, I don’t know anyone who is worried about grants,” Tang said. “Should we spend the time to write another grant? How can we spend it? That’s always the attitude.”

Tang said he is building a new lab for his center at Peking University modeled after his lab at UCSF. Peking University has tried to persuade him to return to China permanently, he said; he may make the move once his children are older.

“I always had the sense that I should give back to China, that I should find a way to pay back, or to help them with education and science,” he said. “For me it’s very tempting. They are developing very fast.”

Tang said the U.S. should not be concerned about a brain drain to China and will benefit from cooperation between scientists in the two countries.

“I think it’s for the good,” he said. “People go back to China and they have ties here. There is more collaboration and healthy competition. I think the U.S. needs competition. I think the U.S. has been comfortable for too long.”

Professor Hao Li, who works with Tang at both UCSF and Peking University, said he also has been recruited to return to China and is considering making the move when his children are older. He said the sense of a resurgent China is compelling.

“You get the feeling this country is really doing something new,” he said. “The economy is doing well and they have resources to put in different areas; they have the money to put into science and technology.”

He said the primary issue for Chinese universities is what kind of program a researcher wants to undertake.

“From the university’s side, they want to know what you want to do back there,” he said. “What kind of program do you want to run? They are not just interested in a good research lab. They are more interested in building a field. The emphasis is on leadership.”

In deciding whether to return full time, Hao Li said he faces a difficult personal decision.

“It’s not an easy thing to say I am going to leave this place where I have been working 10 or 20 years,” he said. “You build lots of connections. Overall it’s still clear that research here, like biology at UCSF, is way above Chinese universities. There are years to go for them to catch up.”

In his new role as dean at USTC, Weiping Li recently returned to the U.S. on a recruiting mission with other university leaders. The delegation met with officials at American schools, including UC Berkeley and Stanford, and held recruiting events around the United States.

At one event in Santa Clara, Calif., in the heart of the Silicon Valley, about 200 people — many of them USTC alumni — came to learn about the possibility of finding a university position in China. Unlike the previous generation of students, many plan to return to China soon, in part because of the opportunities there and in part because it has become much harder since 2001 to get a visa to remain in the U.S.

USTC is seeking to increase that proportion of its faculty that holds overseas degrees from 8 percent now to 30 percent as quickly as possible, Weiping Li said. “We are looking for any qualified people,” he said. “Every quarter we do a review and hire. It’s not on an annual basis. It’s on a quarterly basis.”

In taking his new post, he said he was not simply motivated by the financial incentives or a duty to repay his homeland; he saw a chance to take on a new challenge.

“China has resources, buildings and labs and infrastructure,” he said. “We have great students. We have all the lab equipment, and buildings going up so quickly. The only thing is, who is going to sit in these offices?”…

— Hat tip: DS

[Return to headlines]

Declaration of Recovery is a Lie

David Rosenberg of Gluskin-Sheff weighs in on the NBER’s claim that the recovery ended in June of 2009:

Well, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) made it official yesterday, and told us what Statistics Canada apparently knew back in April — the recession ended in mid-2009. The equity market rejoiced, which itself is amusing since supposedly the stock market is a discounting mechanism, but it goes to show that old news sells well. At the same time, there goes our “single-scoop” theory and the same bulls that told us how all we would get was a soft landing heading into 2008 are telling the masses that double-dips never happen.

Just remember this: the NBER also told us some years back that the prior recession ended in November 2001. Yet because we had a limbless recovery — one hand and one leg perhaps — the bull market in stocks and bear market in bonds was delayed for a year and a half back. And this recovery, with its sub 1% pace of real final sales, goes down as the weakest on record.

So, the recession technically ended 15 months ago; tell that to the 15 million unemployed and the 42% share of these ranks that have been looking for a job fruitlessly for at least six months.

[Return to headlines]

Failures in Money Control Becoming More Obvious

As quantitative easing again gets underway the failure of QE1 becomes more obvious. The crisis worsens and the illusion of any recovery is light years away. Over the past three years almost $13 trillion that we know about has been thrown down a rat hole to bail out banking, Wall Street, insurance and selected elitist entities. The dollar figure is probably much higher. We will never know, because the privately owned Federal Reserve makes its own rules. Everything they do is a state secret. The five successful quarters were only a mirage. The funds have been vaporized among lending and financial institutions worldwide. There has been no accounting and there never will be as long as the Fed is not audited and investigated. We are in an inflationary depression and have been since February 2009. Massive injections of liquidity do not work, nor have they worked for centuries under these conditions. You cannot resurrect an insolvent country in a system that is corrupt. The controll ers of the US economy are about to lead the American economy and financial structure into a great dark pit. The US and the world is soon to face a global breakdown deliberately engineered by the forces of darkness. As usual the Fed was late in applying remedial therapy and that will prove costly. The funding of US debt by foreigners has become very costly and some are jumping ship and some are even using their dollars to buy gold. The game is changing, but will other countries risk a worldwide collapse by not rescuing the US economy? We don’t know but it doesn’t look promising. Monetization is coming and most nations are frozen in the headlights. Washington and NYC have applied pressure over and over again, but their arrogance has not gone unnoticed. There is a pretense of control as unemployment climbs and stability comes more into question. Headlining unemployment, U3, at 9-3/4% is dumb, when anyone with any sense can see U6 and the bogus birth/death ratio. Yes, unemployment is 21-5/8% and for those who want to see the truth it is visible worldwide. Real estate continues to descend, as the consumer reduces debt and consumption.

Much of the public is deeply disturbed and that has been borne out by the primary elections and the success of the Tea Party. People are thrashing around for answers with 14.3% living in poverty, 44 million on food stamps and every day more jobs are lost to free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing. It is not surprising that Tea Partiers and secessionists want to dramatically change Washington and make radical changes in how the one party-two party system works. People have finally had it. They know full well where trillions of dollars went. That the US and European banking system were temporarily rescued. These were the same people who caused the problem in the first place and the public unceremonially is thrown a bone, like some stray dog. It is time for Americans to use their voting power to remove these criminals they voted into office. After January 2, 2011, America will have a lame duck president and a gridlock that will keep congress from creating any furth er damage. This will only be the beginning as people vent their anger at Wall Street and banking and its den of thieves. This tidal wave of rejection will really manifest itself when the elitist insiders in retribution collapse the stock and bond markets. Mark our words that will happen over the next few years, as will dollar devaluation and debt default. The ball has just started to roll and where it will all end up no one knows. The temple of the Federal Reserve and Wall Street could very well be doomed to destruction. The public now understands that Wall Street and banking own the Fed and they really make all the decisions and are the creators of all inside information. they profit on almost every trade. They cannot lose. They own the game. That is why for the last 18 months there has been an exodus of funds from the stock market to bonds, gold and silver and commodities. Naked shorting is rampant and the SEC and CFTC do nothing about it. Front running, known as flash tra ding, rigs every trade. More than 70% of trades are computer, black box driven by pros. Is it any wonder gold and silver hit new highs every day, Weiner & Waxman bring legislation to regulate coin dealers, when in fact they want to collect data on coin and bullion buyers. America has turned into a cesspool.

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Obama’s Latest Stroke of Brilliance… Let Corrupt Regimes Decide How to Spend US Aid Money

He’s so smart.

With unemployment at record levels, with the deficit skyrocketing, with the national debt piling up, Barack Obama announced a historic new development plan this week… for foreign countries. Under Barack Obama’s brilliant new development plan, corrupt regimes will decide how to spend US taxpayer-funded aid money instead of being dicatated to. President Obama announced the plan Wednesday at the United Nations. And, of course, he calls this another historic initiative.

— Hat tip: JD

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“How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sharia?” Ask Stuart Dunnings, III

by Andrew Bostom

[…]

As reported in the Detroit News, Dunnings categorically rejected intense pressure from local Muslim leaders to pursue charges against a Lansing Michigan man who admitted to burning a Koran outside an East Lansing mosque. For example, Dawud Walid, executive director of the Hamas front and unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation jihad terrorism funding trial, Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan, argued vociferously that the Koran burner, whose identity has been protected by local authorities, face federal charges. Walid fumed,

Not to prosecute this hate crime would send a terrible message to bigots that there will be no legal repercussion against those who intimidate Muslims at their houses of worship.

But Dunnings refused to abide the hypocritical, taqiyya-laden arguments by the Sharia-supremacist organization CAIR and its Michigan spokesperson. Prosecutor Dunnings simply “..didn’t find there was any violation of Michigan law.” Elaborating, Dunnings further denied there was any evidence of a “hate crime,” and he also affirmed that the act itself was Constitutionally protected free expression, as had been determined previously for flag burning

Burning a holy book, whose pages were found outside the Islamic Center of East Lansing on Sept. 11, doesn’t qualify as a hate crime…We don’t have a hate crime. There was no threat of physical intimidation because (the man who burned the Koran) was the only one there at the time…The act also was protected by the First Amendment.

— Hat tip: Andy Bostom

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At Bargain Ticket Prices Obama Can’t Even Fill a 650 Seat Room!

Over at the left-wing Daily Beast, Gail Sheehy has a story that should make every Obamaite tremble in fear of November 2. As Sheehy reports it, in New York President Obama couldn’t even fill a room that holds 650 even though they slashed the ticket prices from $500 to $100 a person to get in. On the 22nd Obama appeared in New York for a fundraiser but organizers found that attendees were harder to come by than ever. As Sheehy points out, this is six weeks before the elections.

Less than two months and Democrats can’t garner enough enthusiasm to sell 650 tickets to see the president up close and personal. Initially tickets were priced at $500 a person but as the event neared, panic set in and emails began to gush from the organizers offering bargain basement, slashed ticket prices in order to fill the room. Sheehy paid just $100 to stand in the same small room with The One and she only anted up after half a dozen emails pleading that she come.

— Hat tip: JD

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Bill Clinton and the Ground Zero Mosque: A Perfect Fit

by Srdja Trifkovic

Former President Bill Clinton declared his strong support for the Ground Zero mosque in an interview broadcast on September 12. He also suggested a clever new spin to the promoters of the project. Much or even most of the controversy, he said, “could have been avoided, and perhaps still can be, if the people who want to build the center were to simply say, We are dedicating this center to all the Muslims who were killed on 9/11.” Dedicating the mosque to the Muslim victims, he claims, would show that not all Muslims are terrorists: “We’ve all forgotten: There were a lot of Muslims killed on 9/11.”

First a trivial point: according to the Islamic activist sources, which are certain not to offer an underestimate, the number of Muslims killed on 9-11 in all three locations was 31, or about one percent of the total. (That number excludes the perpetrators themselves, but the same sources would claim that, since they were terrorists, they were not true Muslims anyway. Such claims are known as taqiyya.) Thirty one innocent lives is inherently “a lot,” but it is significantly less than three percent, which Islamic activists routinely claim is the share of their coreligionists in the overall population of the United States. There are two possible explanations for the discrepancy: either the activists exaggerate their numbers by some 300 percent, or two-thirds of the potential Muslim victims of 9-11 had been warned of the pending attack and wisely refrained from turning up for work. The gap is even more striking if we consider that the Muslim population of the Tri-State Region is at least twice the national average.

The substantive point concerns a key theological consideration regarding Muslim victims of Jihadist attacks, which Bill Clinton decided to omit from his pitch. He must have done so deliberately: it is inconceivable for a former President—with all the resources of research and expert opinion at his disposal—to make a high-profile pronouncement on the Muslim victims of a Jihadist attack, and yet to be unaware that Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, has given an authoritative opinion on the matter. According to Muhammad, any Muslims killed in the course of indiscriminate attacks on “infidel” settlements are to be viewed strictly as collateral damage:…

— Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic

[Return to headlines]

Pakistani Radicals Go Wild After Female Terrorist Sentenced in New York City

Aafia Siddiqui (DOB used: March 2, 1972) is an MIT alumna in biology, originally from Pakistan. She went missing in 2003 and has three children. In August 2008 she was captured outside an Afghan government building with documents giving recipes for explosives and chemical weapons. During questioning by FBI agents and U.S. military officers she grabbed a gun and started firing on the officials. She was shot in the gut by a soldier and started screaming that she wanted to kill Americans. She was brought to New York in August 2008 to face charges.

[…]

A New York court’s decision to sentence Pakistani neuro-scientist Aafia Siddiqui with 86 years of imprisonment for shooting at U. S. soldiers in Afghanistan has triggered outrage across the country with protesters taking to the streets in many places. Though the verdict came in around 10 p.m., protesters were up in arms in several cities of the country even as the American-educated neuro-scientist’s mother and sister were on television venting their anger at the American justice system.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

U.S. Walks Out as Iran Leader Speaks

UNITED NATIONS — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran made a series of incendiary remarks in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, notably the claim that the United States orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks to rescue its declining economy, to reassert its weakening grip on the Middle East and to save Israel.

Those comments prompted at least 33 delegations to walk out, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, all 27 members of the European Union and the union’s representative, diplomats said.

The annual General Assembly started formally on Thursday, with scores of presidents, kings and ministers expected to address the gathering over the coming week. The speeches often fail to break new ground or lack electricity, so the occasional theatrics inevitably attract considerable attention.

Mr. Ahmadinejad rarely disappoints on that scale, although he seemed to go out of his way to sabotage any comments he made previously this week about Iran’s readiness for dialogue with the United States. The theme of his often flowery speech was that the capitalist world order was collapsing and he cited three examples: the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, and the pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.

He said there were three theories about the origins of the Sept. 11 attacks, including “that some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime.”

The United States Mission to the United Nations swiftly issued a terse response. “Rather than representing the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian people, Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and delusional as they are predictable,” it said in a statement.

It was not the first time Mr. Ahmadinejad espoused the theory, but never before so publicly. “The majority of the American people as well as other nations and politicians agree with this view,” he said.

Mr. Ahmadinejad obviously delights in being provocative during his annual visit to the United Nations. He framed his comments about Sept. 11 as an examination of opinions, an approach he has used repeatedly in questioning the Holocaust.

But his assertion that the majority of Americans agree with him surely lacked any factual basis.

[Return to headlines]

Wake Up! He’s a Communist!

Make no mistake: The political struggle currently ensuing in America has long since ceased to be one of well-intentioned citizens disagreeing over policy. This is a matter of devoted, mainstream, well-informed Americans resisting the subjugation of our nation by communist operatives and their coalition of deceived supporters and committed acolytes.

[…]

Over the last 20 months, between the actions and policies of the Obama administration and developments that have taken place as a result of same, the background has become very much foreground. The machinations and designs of the administration have carried more urgency, and their words have become shrill. Likewise, terms like “progressive” and “socialist” have increasingly been replaced with “Marxist,” “communist” and “totalitarian” by their opposition.

[…]

So is nationalism now more “extreme” than communism? Because nationalism is what we need, and communism is what we’re getting.

You want extremism? How about the president appointing yet another anti-capitalist radical in Elizabeth Warren as the non-titular head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, while circumventing Senate confirmation, to occupy an office devoid of political regulation? A woman who claims that capitalism doesn’t work — which admittedly it tends not to when government regulates business into near-insolvency, overtaxes companies and individuals and makes minimum wage demands that artificially drive up consumer prices.

[…]

Or, how about Obama signing executive order No. 13544, which officially adopted the Codex Alimentarius, a policy against which business interests have been fighting for decades? This one — a stealth proviso of Obamacare, by the by — is intended to bring access to all vitamins, minerals and natural health remedies and technologies under government control. This means that Washington can now classify all of these as “controlled” — like prescription drugs.

You mean the communists don’t care whether or not the American people want communism? Big shock, huh? Yes, the concepts of liberty, self-determination, and unalienable rights in particular are antithetical to the ideology of these posers.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Abba Stars Sue Denmark’s Far-Right

Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, the Abba stars behind the hit musical Mamma Mia have instructed their lawyers to contact the Danish People’s Party after the far-right party used and changed one of their songs to honour its leader.

Andersson, who last year donated a million kronor ($145,694) to aid the EU election campaign of Sweden’s Feminist Initiative, has reacted angrily to the Danish anti-immigrant party taking liberties with his copyrighted material, reported news agency TT Spectra.

“They can bugger off,” Andersson told the agency.

Björn and Benny’s hit song Mamma Mia is the source of their anger after it given a revamp by the Danish People’s Party youth league in honour of the party leader, Pia Kjærsgaard.

The young nationalists amended the text to “Mamma Pia” and gave the leader a rousing rendition at the party congress, but declined to seek the permission of the Swedes first.

“Firstly, you can not just re-write songs as you like and secondly we want them to understand that we have absolutely no interest in supporting their party,” said Benny Andersson.

The multi-millionaire artists have now instructed their record company Universal to pursue legal action against the party.

Pia Kjærsgaard recently visited Sweden to support the campaign of the Sweden Democrats, speaking at a rally in Höganäs in Skåne. The party has been held up as something of a model for the party, but is not something that the former Abba stars want to be associated with.

“Abba never allows its music to be used in a political context. This is something that we have pointed out to the Danish People’s Party,” Andersson said to TT Spectra.

— Hat tip: TB

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Finland: Environment Minister Discloses Links to Government-Sponsored Mining Project

Minister of the Environment Paula Lehtomäki has disclosed that her family owns close to 300,000 euros in shares in the Talvivaara Mining Company. Three years ago, the Finnish government decided to invest 60 million euros in infrastructure developments at the Talvivaara nickel mine.

A possible conflict of interest could occur next spring when government is to decide whether or not to grant the company a permit to extract uranium. The mine, which also contains cobalt, is located in Sotkamo, eastern Finland.

Lehtomäki’s husband owns 51,320 shares in the mining company. As of Wednesday’s rate, his shares were worth about 270,000 euros. In addition, Lehtomäki’s two minor children own around 3,550 shares, which are valued at around 19,000 euros. The shares were purchased early this year. Lehtomäki herself does not own a stake in the company.

On Tuesday, Lehtomäki told Parliament of her ties to the company.

She said she was disappointed in the brouhaha that has arisen over the situation. Lehtomäki added that she has not taken part in government decision-making concerning the company this year.

Lehtomäki, a Centre Party MP and former minister of foreign trade and development, was named as environment minister in 2007. During her maternity leave in 2005-06, she was replaced in government by Mari Kiviniemi, who is now prime minister.

— Hat tip: KGS

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Finland: Defence Forces to Recruit Somalis for Peacekeeping Mission

The Finnish Defence Forces plans to recruit Somali men and women living in Finland to serve as interpreters in the Atalanta crisis management operation in the Gulf of Aden. In addition to language skills, the recruits must have military training and be able to handle weapons.

The operation will rely on local interpreters as well as interpreters trained in Finland. The Defence Forces say the interpreters are central to the mission.

“Interpreters’ roles are extremely important. A large number of conflicts and problems arise from misunderstandings due to language. An interpreter will be able to overcome language barriers and improve the group’s safety,” says Joni Lindeman of the Defence Forces.

The Somali League says it is certain the job will attract applicants. This year around 100 Somalis living in Finland have taken part in military training.

The Finnish minelayer Pohjanmaa is to participate in an EU operation to repel pirate attacks on UN ships delivering food aid to Somalia.

— Hat tip: KGS

[Return to headlines]

Holy See Defends Laundering Probe Bankers

Vatican City, 23 Sept. (AKI) — The Vatican has moved to defend the president and chief executive of its bank, who are involved in a formal money laundering investigation. In a letter to the London-based Financial Times newspaper on Thursday, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said there had been a “misunderstanding” over two disputed money transfers and that it had been cooperating fully with Italian and international authorities.

“The current problem was caused by a misunderstanding (now being examined) between the IOR (Vatican bank) and the bank that received the tranfer order,” Lombardi wrote in the letter.

The inquiry was launched after two suspicious transactions were reported following a tightening of controls by the Bank of Italy.

Police said said on Tuesday they had seized some 23 million euros deposited by the bank at Italy’s Credito Artigiano bank as a precautionary measure and were investigating the Vatican bank’s president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and CEO Paolo Cipriani.

The suspect transactions involved 20 million euros sent to the German bank J.P.Morgan Frankfurt, and three million euros sent to the Banca del Fucino, an Italian bank.

Lombardi said since Gotti Tedeschi’s appointment a year ago he had been working “with great commitment to ensure the transparency of the IOR’s activities” and to put the Vatican on the “white list” of sovereign states deemed compliant with international money laundering norms.

“The Holy See reiterates its complete confidence in the managers of the IOR and its desire for complete transparency in the operations it undertakes,” Lombardi concluded.

The Italian bishops’ conference newspaper Avvenire called the probe “offensive and inexplicable”.

The probe risks straining relations between the Vatican and Italian authorities, especially over the issue of sovereignty and jurisdiction.

It is not the first time that the Vatican bank has been mired in scandal, however.

In November last year, investigators were reported to be probing the Vatican bank for suspected money laundering of 60 million euros via one or more accounts it opened with Italy’s largest bank, UniCredit.

IOR owned a small part of the Banco Ambrosiano and was held partially responsible for the a fraud scandal that led to the bank’s 3.5 billion dollar collapse in 1982. At the time Banco Ambrosiano was then Italy’s largest lender.

The bank was also entangled in the 1990s Enimont corruption trials involving government officials.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Netherlands: Indonesian Ambassador ‘Unwise’ To Say PVV Voters May be ‘Psychotic’

PVV leader Geert Wilders has urged the Dutch foreign minister to summon Indonesia’s ambassador to the Netherlands because of his ‘scandalous statements’ about the anti-Islam party and its supporters.

Ambassador Yunus Effendi Habibie says in an interview with Thursday’s Financieele Dagblad that the planned October visit by Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhynono would be ‘very much in doubt’ if the PVV is part of the next coalition government.

‘Of course the president will not come here if there is someone in the cabinet who says Islam is backward. I do not want my president to be seen as a clown’ the ambassador told the paper.

The ambassador went on to say that the relationship between the Netherlands and its former colony would be hurt if Wilders joins the government.

And, he suggested, the people who voted for Wilders could be ‘psychotic’

Unwise

Foreign minister Maxime Verhagen told Nos tv that the ambassador’s words about PVV supporters were ‘unwise’.

‘I did not think it wise how he described the PVV voters,’Verhagen said. ‘An ambassador should not make comments about the electorate.’

Verhagen said he planned to make contact with the ambassador later on Thursday.

Indonesia is the biggest Muslim country in the world. Wilders has repeatedly called for a ban on immigration from Islamic countries.

— Hat tip: DF

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Tongue-in-Cheek Maps of European Stereotypes

Americans think Italy is full of “Godfathers” while for the French we are “Noisy Friendly People”

MILAN — There is a Europe of the common market and continent-wide peace, the Europe of Schengen and open borders. And there is another Europe of enduring stereotypes that survive the centuries. Proof comes from the London-based Bulgarian artist Yanko Tsvetkov, who has mapped some of the stereotypes that have always pervaded the Old World. Tsevtkov’s aim is to describe how the citizens of European Union countries see their neighbours and what was an experiment is now a runaway success with more than half a billion visitors logging on to the artist’s Mapping Stereotypes website to view the cheeky charts.

EUROPE SEEN BY ITALIANS — One of the first maps depicts how Italians see Europe but the overall picture is less than flattering. The only thing Italians know or admire about France is the “Première Dame”. Tsvetkov labels France seen through Italian eyes as the “Bruni Empire”. Our affinities with Spain are acknowledged (“Italian Dialects”) and Portugal is best known to Italians for its South American connections (“Brazil”). Stereotypes abound as we move on to Hungary (“Porn Stars”) and Romania (“Thieves”). Bulgaria means “Babysitters” and the former Yugoslav republics remain “Uncharted”. Russia registers on the Italian map only for “Gazprom”, our supplier of energy for winter heating, and Ukraine is the land of “Women with Braided Hair”. Poland for us will always be a “Papal State”. The United Kingdom means “Wembley Stadium” and Belgium, with its capital Brussels, is “Europe” whereas Holland is know only for “Hemp”. Paraphrasing Orson Welles’ one-liner in The Third Man, Switzerland to Italians means only cuckoo clocks whereas the precision-obsessed Germans are “Clock Addicts”. Sweden for us is “Volvoland”, Finland is the land of cellphone makers, Denmark is full of Vikings and Turkey brims with belly dancers. But perhaps the most penetrating stereotype concerns Italy itself. The country is split in two, the north being labelled the “Italian Republic” and the south “Ethiopia”.

ITALY AS OTHERS SEE US — Italy comes off no better if we look at the maps of the country as seen by other Europeans and Americans. For Americans, Italy is the land of “Godfathers” and for the French, we are “Noisy, Friendly People” while the Germans see us as the home of “Pizza and Museums” and the British bundle us in with the rest of the “Evil Federated Empire of Europe”.

OTHER STEREOTYPES…

Francesco Tortora

English translation by Giles Watson

www.watson.it

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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UK: CCTV of Serial Rape and Murder Suspect

Police hunting for a serial rapist and killer have issued CCTV images of a suspect.

Detectives want to question him about the murder of Michelle Samaraweera, 35, and the rape of three other victims in Walthamstow, East London. Miss Samaraweera was raped and strangled in May, 2009. Her body was found in a park. She was last seen at about 1am doing late-night shopping at a nearby Somerfield supermarket.

The suspect was caught on camera going in and out of the store after Miss Samaraweera went in, and police believe he followed her when she left.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Jobless Couple Demand Bigger Home for Family of Eight

A jobless couple today demanded a bigger council house for their family of six children — all named after celebrities, soap characters and rappers.

Unemployed Wayne and Jenna Sandercock say it is ‘outrageous’ that their local authority won’t give them a bigger home for their brood.

Their latest children, born on September 5, are twins called Roni and Roxi — named after the blonde Mitchell sisters in BBC’s EastEnders.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Men Arrested in Gateshead Over Suspected Koran Burning

Six Tyneside men have been arrested after filming themselves apparently burning copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Police said the men, all from the Gateshead area, were detained after a video appeared on the internet.

They were arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred and released on bail pending further inquiries.

Plans by a US preacher to burn copies of the Koran on 11 September resulted in widespread condemnation.

‘Mutual respect’

In a joint statement, Northumbria Police and Gateshead Council said: “The kind of behaviour displayed in this video is not representative of our community as a whole.

“Our community is one of mutual respect and we continue to work together with community leaders, residents and people of all faiths and beliefs to maintain good community relations.”

Two men were arrested on 15 September and a further four on 22 September.

In the video a group of men are seen pouring fuel over what appear to be copies of the Koran and setting light to them.

Plans by a US preacher Terry Jones to burn copies of the Koran, sparked worldwide protests and brought condemnation from American president Barack Obama.

— Hat tip: DF

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UK: Police ‘Failing to Tackle Yob Behaviour’

Police are failing to get to grips with neighbourhood yobs because they do not take the problems they cause seriously enough, a report has concluded.

The study says around 14 million incidents of anti-social behaviour take place each year — the equivalent of 26 every minute.

Figures unveiled by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) found that just two in five of those reporting problems were aware of any action being taken in response.

Just over half felt their call had made any difference, the report also revealed.

And the survey of more than 5,000 people who had reported anti-social behaviour (ASB) said one third had been intimidated by yobs as a result of their tip-offs.

It formed part of a wider study that suggested police should stop downgrading calls about ASB and that officers should take to the streets to intervene in problems earlier.

Chief inspector of constabulary Sir Denis O’Connor said combating ASB was not seen as “real police work” and “does not have the same status as ‘crime’ for the police”.

“The public do not distinguish between anti-social behaviour and crime,” he said.

“For them, it’s just a sliding scale of grief.”

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Parents’ Fury After Police Send Riot Van to Hand Out Parking Tickets Outside Disabled School

Police have been accused of being ‘heavy-handed’ after sending a riot van to hand out parking tickets at a disabled school.

Parents were stunned when the vehicle pulled up as they were helping the children in wheelchairs from the school to their cars.

Officers were accused of being ‘rude’ for dishing out on the spot penalties as they waited at Hilltop Special School in Maltby near Rotherham.

Many of the 90 youngsters at the school are ferried to and fro by council mini buses and taxis — and their drivers were also given stiff warnings.

The tea-time operation left parents and head teacher Peter Leach surprised — but South Yorkshire Police are unrepentant and have vowed to continued to target parents.

One of the victims Dave Phillips was handed a £30 fixed penalty when he stopped for five minutes to pick up his wheelchair bound son Matthew, aged 16.

He had driven 15 miles from his home in Retford, Nottinghamshire, and parked outside the school before being confronted by a police woman.

He said : ‘The police response has been heavy handed — and it’s the kids they are penalising not us. The police behaviour was unpleasant and completely unnecessary.

‘Nine officers and a police van created an intimidating atmosphere around the school. I was approached by a young policewoman who told me to “move” — not “excuse me sir” — it was just a total ignorant attitude .

‘I explained to the officer I was going to park here for five minutes to get my son. I said ‘He’s a wheelchair user and we have got a side loading lift’, — “not my problem” was the reply, “move it” so I said “no, I’m stopping here I’m going to put my son in.”

‘She said: “You shift” and when I pointed to my son in his wheelchair she replied: “Move it.” I refused and she gave me a £30 ticket — but it was her attitude that annoyed me more.

‘I’ve been parking in the same spot for the last 12 years, there are no yellow lines or restrictions to be seen.

‘Nine officers outside a disabled outside a disabled school, it’s disgusting . There was no courtesy, if that’s public policing it’s a disgrace.’

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Six Arrested After Burning of Koran on 9/11 ‘For the Boys in Afghanistan’ Is Posted Online

Six suspects were seized after allegedly setting fire to the Muslim holy book in the backyard of a pub.

The men, who hid their faces, then posted the video of the burning on the popular website.

In the film the gang are seen gathered round a copy of the Koran in the backyard of The Bugle pub in Leam Lane, Felling, Gateshead.

Appearing with what seems to be tea towels wrapped around their heads, the men show the holy book to the camera before dousing it with fuel from a red can and lighting it.

One man in a grey Adidas tracksuit and white trainers, who has a blue cloth wrapped around his head makes a series of obscene gestures towards the book as it burns.

Laughing, the track-suited gang shouts ‘This is for the boys in Afghanistan. September 11, international burn a Koran day, for all the people of 9/11.

‘This is how we do it in Gateshead, right.’

One man then attempts to add more fuel, but instead sets the plastic petrol can on fire.

He then kicks the book across the yard, leaving a trail of flames which he is forced to hastily stamp out.

Police visited The Bugle last Wednesday after the video was posted online.

Two men were arrested on suspicion of stirring racial hatred, and have since been released on bail.

On Wednesday four more Gateshead men were arrested and bailed. None were charged.

The incident follows tensions in America after an extremist Florida pastor threatened to burn 200 copies of the Koran on the ninth anniversary of the attacks.

Terry Jones, of the Florida-based Dove World Outreach Centre, was warned by President Barack Obama that the controversial plan could be used to recruit extremists.

The event was eventually called off after U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates personally contacted Jones and told him soldiers serving in Afghanistan would be put at greater risk by his protest.

It does not appear that Jones was ever threatened with arrest, however.

The pastor claimed he had agreed to cancel the event on the condition that controversial plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York were axed.

Claiming ‘victory for America’, he said Muslim leaders had agreed to move the location of the Islamic centre.

But Sharif El-Gamal, who is behind the proposals to build the 13-storey centre near the site where Muslim terrorists killed 3,000 people in 2001, denied that any talks had taken place and said the mosque would go ahead as planned.

Back in Gateshead, a barman at the Bugle, who refused to give his name, said: ‘I had nothing to do with the fire. I smelt the smoke so I went outside to put it out.

‘The police came to the pub and searched it. We were closed for hours.

‘They took my mobile phones, some empty boxes the phones had been in, some CDs and DVDs, and all the tea towels.

‘They arrested me and another man and took us to the station. They were asking questions about who had been burning the book.’

He claimed the pub has been targeted by the police because some customers had links to the English Defence League, a far-Right movement which protests against ‘Muslim extremism’.

Around 30 men mounted a three-hour peaceful protest outside Gateshead Police Station after the initial arrests were made.

In a joint statement, Northumbria Police and Gateshead Council condemned the book burning.

‘The kind of behaviour displayed in this video is not at all representative of our community as a whole,’ said the spokesman.

‘Our community is one of mutual respect and we continue to work together with community leaders, residents and people of all faiths and beliefs to maintain good community relations.’

Police confirmed the arrests were in relation to burning the book, not for making, distributing or watching the video.

‘On Wednesday, September 22, four men from Gateshead were arrested on suspicion of stirring racial hatred,’ a spokesman said.

‘The arrests followed the videotaped burning of what are believed to have been two Korans in Gateshead on September 11.

‘Two other men have previously been arrested and bailed in relation to this incident. Enquiries are ongoing.’

— Hat tip: DT

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UK: Shame of Muslim Cleric Who Exposed Himself in Bristol Park

AN imam invited from Libya to preach in Bristol has been jailed after pleading guilty to indecently exposing himself in the city centre.

Bristol magistrates heard Abrahim Ghait, a young imam celebrated for his knowledge of the Koran, exposed himself to a 28-year-old woman in Castle Park as she made her way home from the gym.

He also admitted an allegation that he showed a 12-year-old girl in the park his genitals in a separate incident.

Magistrates sent the 25-year-old, who had come to Britain on a visit to preach during the Muslim festival Ramadan, to prison for six weeks.

But his friend Mohamed El Haddad, the head of the UK Arabic Society which invited the imam to Bristol, said he believed Ghait had only pleaded guilty in the hope that he would get a non-custodial sentence, which would have allowed him to go home to Libya where he had urgent business.

Mr El Haddad said there was no way the imam would have committed the acts, and that it would destroy his future and reputation.

Magistrates were told that Ghait is a famous imam in Libya, lauded for having memorised the entire Koran by the time he was 17 and being able to recite lengthy passages from memory.

They were told that he had been sponsored by the Bristol-based UK Arabic Society to come to the UK and preach at mosques in the city during Ramadan.

Ghait was staying at a flat on Croydon Street in Easton when the incidents happened.

Richard Levene, prosecuting, told the court that on August 13 a 28-year-old woman was walking through Castle Park on her own at 7.45pm, making her way home from the gym. It was alleged she saw Ghait standing behind a bin near a footbridge, and as she walked towards him he stepped out, trousers down and exposing himself. The court was told that despite there being young children nearby he looked at the woman, then down to his exposed groin which he was holding, and then back to the woman, before she walked off and called the police.

Three days later, on August 16, it was alleged he performed a similar act in front of a 12-year-old girl.

The court heard that although Ghait could only speak Arabic, it was claimed he told the girl his genitalia was named “Lexie”.

He was later arrested.

Ghait then appeared before magistrates at a hearing intended to vary his bail application before the case went to trial. But instead he pleaded guilty to two charges under the Sexual Offences Act, of exposing his genitals with intention that someone would see them and be caused alarm or distress.

Sue Cameron, defending, said that Ghait had been through a huge culture shock in coming to the UK, and that he was from a very isolated background in the Libyan desert and didn’t really know much about the world.

The court was told that Ghait was very concerned about people in Libya finding out.

His defence also argued that he had extremely bad piles and was due to have surgery at home.

Magistrates jailed Ghait for six weeks on each charge, with the sentences served at the same time.

He was also put on the Sex Offender Register for seven years.

Ghait was invited to Bristol through the UK Arabic Society to lead prayers during Ramadan for the Somali Muslim community at the St Paul’s Settlement community centre on City Road.

Mr El Haddad and Mrs Cameron told the Evening Post that when Ghait first appeared before magistrates in Bristol on September 2, the bench had strongly indicated that a custodial sentence was unlikely.

Mr El Haddad said Ghait had only pleaded guilty to avoid having to wait in the UK for a trial, which had been due to take place in November, and in the hope of receiving a suspended sentence so he would not have to explain why he was away for so long. He also wanted to get back for his brother’s wedding and to study for a masters degree.

Mr El Haddad added: “The situation is unacceptable and I don’t believe he did it.

“He only pleaded guilty because he wasn’t expecting to go to prison, and because of the pressure on him to go back home quickly.

“There is no way that he would have done something like this. Do you think that a leader of a church would harm its community?

“It was a park, in the middle of the town, in the middle of the day.

“He was here leading people in prayer, it was in Ramadan when he was fasting, and he is not supposed to even look at a woman.

“He is a world-famous imam of a mosque in Libya and has spent 15 years learning the Koran.

“It is destroying the future of a key person. It is crazy, and I just can’t believe it.”

Ghait also visited Bristol to preach in 2007. He is one of 21 imams the UK Arabic Society, a charity, has brought to the UK from Libya in 2010 to preach.

— Hat tip: DF

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Muslim Brotherhood: We Plan to Participate in Egypt Polls

CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s main opposition group, does not plan to heed calls for a boycott of November’s parliamentary elections, a senior member of the moderate Islamist movement said on Thursday.

“The official decision has still not been announced by the movement’s political bureau,” but “the plan for the Muslim Brotherhood is to participate in the legislative elections as in all elections,” the group’s spokesman Hamdi Hassan told AFP.

“We have said that we will boycott the vote if there is unanimity among the opposition parties on such a boycott, but this is not the case. Instead, the opposition parties are gradually announcing their planned participation, so the position of the Muslim Brotherhood is to do likewise.”

Hassan said the group planned to field “at least 160 candidates” for the 506 seats being contested, with the number potentially rising to allow members to run for some of the 62 seats reserved for women.

But he warned that if the government ended up “falsifying” the vote there would be “unprecedented violence, because the people no longer fear the security services.”

He also slammed a decision taken three years ago to replace the judges previously responsible for monitoring the polls with appointed officials.

The officially banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood clinched 20 percent of seats in the 2005 legislative polls by running as “independents,” in a surprise win that commentators said rattled the ruling National Democratic Party.

Earlier this month Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN nuclear chief turned Egyptian reformer, called for a boycott of the upcoming elections and warned of civil disobedience if demands for political reform are not met.

But the only other party to join him so far is the small al-Ghad party, whose founder Ayman Nur was the sole serious challenger to incumbent Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election.

Members of Egypt’s liberal Wafd party voted in favour of participating in the November elections at their general assembly on Friday, although 44 percent supported a boycott.

Widespread irregularities were reported during elections in May for the Egyptian parliament’s upper house, with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie saying security officials had removed posters of his movement’s candidates and prevented them from campaigning or meeting electors.

— Hat tip: DF

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Obama Calls for Peace in the ‘Holy Land’ of Israel and Palestine Within a Year

Barack Obama today challenged the UN to push for peace in the Middle East in order to create an independent Palestine and secure Israel within a year.

Exhorting world leaders to push past years of cynicism and pessimism, the U.S. President urged them to press forward with renewed determination.

In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, he admitted the peace process had encountered ‘few peaks and many valleys’.

But he warned that without an agreement, ‘more blood will be shed’ and ‘this Holy Land will remain a symbol of our differences, instead of our common humanity’.

As Obama spoke, Israel’s seat in the hall sat empty because it was a Jewish holiday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was present, listening to the president through a translator’s earphone.

Obama’s call for a Palestinian state drew a burst of applause from throughout the hall but his one-year timeline is hugely ambitious.

He made no mention of the militant Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip and refuses to accept Israel’s right to exist.

[…]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the administration’s special Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell have been meeting with officials from both sides and other interested parties this week in New York but seem to have made little headway.

Faced with the real possibility of the collapse of negotiations, Obama implored the international community to get behind the idea of peace and forget favoritism to one side or the other.

— Hat tip: JD

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Stuxnet Computer Worm ‘Targeted Iranian Nuclear Power Station’ In World’s Most Sophisticated Virus Attack

The world’s first cyber ‘super weapon’ may have been designed to attack a nuclear power station in Iran, experts believe.

A computer virus called Stuxnet has been described as the most sophisticated ‘worm’ ever created and has already infected more than 45,000 networks worldwide.

A ‘worm’ is a type of computer virus that can reproduce by sending copies of itself to any PC that is connected to the infected machine.

Now internet security experts fear that Stuxnet, which was first detected in June, is the first ‘worm’ specifically created to target real-world infrastructure such as power stations and water plants.

— Hat tip: JD

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India: Supreme Court Orders Ayodhya Mosque Verdict Postponed

(Reuters) — The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Allahabad High Court to delay a potentially explosive verdict on whether Hindus or Muslims own land around the demolished Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

The deferral of the verdict, which many fear could have sparked off religious riots, will be a relief for the government, which already has its hands full dealing with a rebellion in Kashmir and rushing against the clock to set right preparations for the Commonweath Games.

(For slideshow: Ayodhya braces for court Verdict, click here)

The decades-old case over the 16th century Babri mosque in Uttar Pradesh state is one of the biggest security challenges in India this year, along with a Maoist insurgency and a Kashmiri separatist rebellion, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said.

Hindu mobs demolished the mosque in the town of Ayodhya in 1992, claiming it was built on the birthplace of their god-king Rama. The demolition triggered the worst religious riots since partition in 1947, and some 2,000 people died.

The Supreme Court prevented the lower court from delivering the judgement on Friday as originally slated and it is now unclear when the verdict will come.

The top court will now hear an appeal for a stay on the verdict on Sept. 28, filed by a person who said the matter could be settled out of court.

“The petitioner obviously believes that if the Supreme Court lends a helping hand, a soothing touch, it is possible that the warring parties will see reason and try and bring a solution,” Supreme Court lawyer Mukul Rohtagi told reporters.

The oldest of the suits being decided dates back to 1949, and Rama is one of the petitioners. Under Indian law, a deity is a legal person and can own property.

BOTH SIDES DISAPPOINTED WITH RULING

Lawyers for both sides said they were disappointed by the delay, saying the chances of a re(For more news visit Reuters India)conciliation after years of litigation were slim.

“I think that there is no chance of reconciliation,” said Zafaryab Jilani, the lawyer for the Muslim body fighting the case. “Both parties are rigid and ready for the court judgement.”

Similar sentiments were voiced by Ranjana Agnihotri, lawyer for the Hindu litigants, who added: “I think some politicians did not want this judgement to come out.”

Federal and state governments had been on top alert ahead of the verdict, beefing up security and banning public meetings, processions and bulk mobile text messages that could have been used to spread rumours and organise riots.

The verdict could prove a major political quandary for the government led by the Congress Party, a left-of-centre party with secular roots.

A verdict in favour of the Hindus would force the government to uphold the verdict, making it unpopular with Muslims, a key vote bloc.

A ruling for the Muslims would mean the government would have to push Hindu groups out of the site, a political minefield.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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India: Photos: The Awful Squalor Found at the Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village as Time Runs Out for Organisers

New pictures released today have revealed the full squalor facing competitors arriving at the Commonwealth Games athletes’ village.

The pictures, taken by a BBC undercover reporter, show dirty bathrooms, exposed electricity cables, bedsheets covered in animal footprints, and flooding in filthy toilets and basins.

An advance party of English athletes is due to arrive in Delhi today despite safety and accommodation concerns that could see the team pull out of the crisis-hit Commonwealth Games, which start on October 3.

On Tuesday, 23 people were injured when a footbridge collapsed and yesterday the ceiling of the weightlifting arena fell in.

[…]

Child labourers were photographed yesterday installing seats at main stadium and women carted dirt on their heads as the last minute preparations continued.

The build-up to the October 3 opening ceremony has been plagued by construction delays, allegations of corruption, terror threats, monsoons and an outbreak of dengue fever.

There was more bad news for the organisers yesterday when part of the ceiling of the weightlifting arena fell in just 24 hours after a footbridge — near the Jawaharlal Nehru complex, the centrepiece of the Games — collapsed.

— Hat tip: JD

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Indonesia: Sumatra: Fundamentalists Kill Three Police Officers in Revenge Attack

The authorities confirm that this morning’s attack that left three agents dead was carried out in reprisal for a raid carried out against a group of terrorists last Saturday. Police chief warns that fundamentalists are robbing banks to finance their activities.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Security forces are baffled and outraged by the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of three police officers this morning in northern Sumatra province, a crime that strongly resembles another one that took place in Central a few months ago.

Police spokesman Inspector General Iskandar Hassan said that the attack was closely related to last Saturday’s police raid against a terror group in Aceh.

“About 12 people took part in the attack,” local Police Chief General Oegroseno said, in what amounts to an act of revenge for what happened last week. In any event, it “was unpredictable”.

The Indonesian government reacted angrily to what happened. Security Minister said that all his forces were on alert. “I issued orders to police to hunt them down,” he said, at all costs.

Across the country, the influence of Muslim terrorists appears to be increasing uncontrollably, and bank robberies are becoming the preferred method of self-financing. European terrorist groups had done the same in the 1970s, but for Indonesia, it is something new. Now, General Bambang Hendarso Danurix said, “Fundamentalists are increasingly showing signs that they too are getting into holdups as well”.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Colombia FARC Rebel Mono Jojoy Killed — Army

BOGOTA, Colombia, Sept 23 (Reuters) — Top Colombian FARC rebel commander Mono Jojoy has been killed in combat, an army spokesman said on Thursday.

The death of Mono Jojoy would be severest strike against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, since two top commanders died in 2008. Mono Jojoy, whose other name was Jorge Briceno, was considered the FARC’s top military chief.

— Hat tip: Fausta

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Austria: Majority Approve Debate Following Sarrazin’s Claims

A majority of Austrians regard Thilo Sarrazin’s controversial ideas a “justified approach” to re-discuss integration issues, a poll has shown.

Viennese researchers Karmasin found 51 per cent of Austrians said the outgoing Deutsche Bundesbank executive board member’s statements were a good starting point to kick off a discussion about Austrian immigration and integration issues. Only 39 per cent said they did not agree, magazine profil reports today (Mon).

German pollsters said recently six in 10 Germans consider the German Social Democrat’s (SPD) remarks — made in his new book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (Germany Abolishes Itself) — a justified bid to start a fresh debate about immigration and integration of Muslims and other ethnic groups.

Another result of Karmasin’s survey is that 48 per cent of Austrians said Deutsche Bundesbank’s decision to dismiss Sarrazin over his claims were unjustified. Thirty-four per cent said the bank made the right decision.

Sarrazin sparked a Europe-wide debate by claiming willingness to work and intelligence quotient partly depended on people’s ethnic origin. Germany’s Muslim community was especially angered by his statements.

He said: “I don’t have to accept anyone who lives on social benefits, rejects the state (of Germany), does not care properly for the education of his children and permanently produces new headscarf-girls.”

Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Heinz-Christian Strache controversially said Sarrazin would deserve asylum in Austria. Strache called on the “Sarrazin hunters” to face reality. “They have no idea what’s going on and dream of an ideal world,” he said.

Strache also advised Social Democratic (SPÖ) Vienna Mayor Michael Häupl to “read Sarrazin’s book carefully”, adding that his party, the FPÖ, has been pilloried as well by pointing out where bad developments occur.

The FPÖ boss claimed the Viennese department has become an “Islamist party”. Häupl hit back by calling Strache “a stupid person”.

The Vienna FPÖ’s poster campaign features slogans such as the SPÖ “protects men who force their women to wear headscarves”.

The right-wing party is tipped to improve its share in the 10 October Vienna city election. It garnered 14.8 per cent in 2005. Pollsters OGM also said the FPÖ’s Styrian branch has the potential to double its share in the provincial ballot of 26 September (2005: 4.6 per cent).

Meanwhile, public opinion research firm IMAS said 42 per cent of Austrians thought foreigners, asylum seekers and immigrants were treated better by authorities than themselves.

— Hat tip: AMT

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Mosque Trip Violated Rights, Lawyer Says

Threatens to sue Wellesley schools without resolution

A lawyer for the Wellesley mother who allegedly recorded five sixth-grade boys participating in an Islamic prayer service during a school field trip is arguing that taking students to any house of worship violates their civil rights.

Robert N. Meltzer, a Framingham lawyer who specializes in constitutional law, said that when the Wellesley School District took the students to a Roxbury mosque last May, the trip violated the students’ First Amendment rights because they were too young to consent to the religious message. Even if some of the students had not bowed their heads during the prayer service, Meltzer said, the trip would still have been inappropriate.

“We view this as a very simple constitutional law case,” said Meltzer, adding that he will file a federal class-action lawsuit against the school district if the disagreement cannot be resolved. “We believe that a school cannot bring middle-school children to any house of worship. Period.”

— Hat tip: JD

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UK’s Homosexual Population Size Revealed: Just 1.5% of Britons Say They Are Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual

Just one in 100 people in the UK say they are gay or lesbian, the first ever survey of British sexual identity has revealed.

A further one in every 200 people are bisexual, according to the data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

More than 480,000 consider themselves to be gay or lesbian and a further 245,000 say they are bisexual.

The data revealed men were twice as likely as women to describe themselves as gay or lesbian while London was revealed to have the highest numbers polled and Northern Ireland the lowest.

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F.D.A. And European Regulators Severely Restrict Avandia, Citing Heart Risks

In a highly unusual coordinated announcement, drug regulators in Europe and the United States said Thursday that Avandia, the diabetes medicine made by GlaxoSmithKline, will no longer be widely available.

The drug’s sales will be halted entirely in Europe, and patients in the United States will be allowed to receive it only if they have tried every other diabetes medicine and have been made aware of the drug’s substantial risks to the heart.

The steps all but ensure that sales of Avandia — $1.19 billion last year, and $3.2 billion as recently as 2006 — will plunge to almost nothing as other regulators follow suit.

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So That’s Why Bono Calls it the One Foundation

All this time I thought that maybe ONE was an acronym or something, but it looks like the Bono’s organization is so named because just one percent of the money raised makes it to its promoted destination:

Bono’s anti-poverty foundation ONE is under pressure to explain its lavish salaries after it was revealed that only a small percentage of money it raises reaches the needy.

The non-profit organisation set up by the U2 frontman received almost £9.6m in donations in 2008 but handed out only £118,000 to good causes (1.2 per cent).

The figures published by the New York Post also show that £5.1m went towards paying salaries.

So ONE (percent)(tm) paid out around $8 million (US) to employees to monitor the disbursement of about $185,000? How did these guys not end up in charge of the stimulus?

[Return to headlines]

	Financial Crisis
»	Jobs or Entitlements, But Not Both
	USA
»	Andrew Bostom: The Islamintern is Coming to (Chi-) Town
»	Debate Over Afghanistan ‘Almost Tore White House Apart’
»	Democracy is Not Freedom
»	Doc of the Day: Feds’ Guide to Snitching on Your Terrorist Neighbor
»	Ground Zero Mosque Site Already Open for Prayers… Despite Derelict Building Having Holes in the Floor
»	Mr. Norquist, Let’s See What This Contract Says First!
»	Review: Long-Time St. Louis Activist Exposes Historic Disasters of Socialism in Latest Book
»	Service or Sacrifice
»	Trial to Open for Christian Missionaries Arrested at Arab International Festival in Dearborn
»	Video: Two Men Charged in Violent Racist Beating of White Teen
»	Video: It Begins… The Ohio Democrat Party Chairman is Now Calling Tea Party Patriots “F***ers.”
	Europe and the EU
»	Algerian Women Suicide Bombers ‘Poised to Strike Europe’
»	Controversial Prophet Mohammed Cartoons to Return
»	Denmark’s Burning
»	Italy: League Mayor Threatens Defiance in School Symbols Row
»	Italy: ‘Burqa Ban’ Debate Back in Spotlight
»	Sweden: Riksdag Revamp Could Limit Far-Right: Reports
»	Sweden Democrats Tip Scales in 30 Councils
»	The English Defense League: The New Face of Europe?
»	UK: Pensioner Takes Dogs for Walk… And Returns to Find Locks Changed and a Family Living in His Home
»	UK: Supporters of Ousted Tower Hamlets Mayoral Candidate Mobilise Online Campaign
»	UK: They Are Furious, But British Voters Won’t Hold a Tea Party
»	Vatican Bank in Money-Laundering Probe
	North Africa
»	Egyptian Coptic Church Accused of Stockpiling Weapons
»	Libya ‘Pleased’ With Unicredit Investment
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Palestinians Admit Peace Talks Are a Sham
	Middle East
»	Abu Dhabi: Woman Raped in ‘Public’ Inside Car in Capital
	South Asia
»	Afghanistan: Italians Doing ‘Fantastic’ Job Says Petraeus
»	Afghanistan: Italy ‘To Send More Trainers’
»	Militants Cut Both Feet Off Actress Starring in Afghan Film Critical of Taliban
»	Was Stuxnet Built to Attack Iran’s Nuclear Program?
	Far East
»	China Blocks Export of Crucial Minerals to Japan as Dispute Escalates
	Immigration
»	Angela Merkel: Germany Will Become Islamic State
	Culture Wars
»	The Strange Case of J.B. Matthews, The Religious Left and the Censure of Senator McCarthy

Jobs or Entitlements, But Not Both

Wealth redistribution on the other hand chops up the ladder, and strands 90 percent of the population on the ground floor.

At a conference, Bill Gates mourned that people weren’t willing to die 3 months earlier, in order to keep public school teachers employed. But why draw the line at only 3 months, NHS certainly hasn’t. Think of how much you could save by not treating terminally ill patients at all. And what about babies born with birth defects. And the mentally retarded. Just imagine how many more union employees could featherbed to their heart’s content, if only we killed every mentally retarded baby at birth. Forget eugenics in the name of genetic superiority, when we can have eugenics in the name of public sector unions. Because when there are no jobs someone has to pay, even if they’re struggling for breath on a ventilator at the time.

But Socialism calls for these kinds of tough choices. If J.D. Rockefeller had stomped around hospital wards looking for patients to pull the plug on so he could hire ten more coal miners, there would be a movie about it. And you just know it would win a heap of Oscars. But when Bill Gates does it to make sure that New York City school teachers on permanent suspension for sexually harassing students still get their paycheck, even if we have to stuff a pillow over granny’s face, it’s downright noble.

Killing people for capitalism is evil, killing people for socialism is idealistic. Capitalism gets There Will Be Blood. Socialism gets The Motorcycle Diaries. But for all his faults, the old robber barons did a lot more to help people, than the socialists with all their red flags and their red hands did. And paradoxically, without the Rockefeller Foundation, plenty of graduates with a Masters in Philosophy and a Minor in Student Radicalism would never have gotten the chance to carve up the American educational system into a sham of a farce that mainly teaches how awful capitalism is.

— Hat tip: JD

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Andrew Bostom: The Islamintern is Coming to (Chi-) Town

President Obama’s adopted home town will host an event next week that epitomizes Sharia encroachment: the global Islamintern is coming to Chi-town.

Next Tuesday through Thursday September 28-30, 2010, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), our era’s “Islamintern,” in cooperation with the American Islamic College (AIC) is sponsoring a program at the AIC’s Chicago campus, entitled, “The Role of the OIC and The scope for its relations with American Muslims.” Founded in 1969, the OIC is now a 56 state collective which includes every Islamic nation on earth. Currently headed by Turkey’s Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the OIC thus represents the entire Muslim umma (or global community of individual Muslims), and is the largest single voting bloc in the United Nations (UN).

John Laffin, the late (d. 2000) military historian, and prolific writer on Islam, warned already in 1988 that the Jedda-based OIC, under Saudi Arabia’s patronage, was persuading Muslim nations to jettison even their inchoate adoption of “Western models and codes,” and revert to pre-colonial era (pre-Western) retrograde systems of Sharia, or Islamic Law. The Saudis proffered sizable loans and grants from their institutions in return for the more extensive application of Sharia in these targeted OIC countries. Laffin also noted the unprecedented Saudi distribution of media and print materials which extended to non-Muslim countries, including tens of millions of Korans, translated into many languages for the hundreds of millions of Muslims (and non-Muslims) who did not read Arabic. He concluded at that time,

Propaganda is carried on from Riyadh on a scale comparable to Moscow’s effort to spread Communism

Fast forward two decades to June, 2007, when President Bush, during a re-dedication ceremony for the Saudi-funded Islamic Center Washington, DC announced that a special US envoy to the 56 Muslim nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) would be appointed. According to the President, this envoy’s mission would be to “listen and learn.” Within a day of Mr. Bush’s announcement, investigative journalist Steve Emerson warned that the appointment of such an envoy was a potentially serious error, observing appositely, …

— Hat tip: Andy Bostom

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Debate Over Afghanistan ‘Almost Tore White House Apart’

The debate on Afghanistan policy caused major divisions in the White House, according to a new book, provoking bitter rows and bickering between senior advisers to President Barack Obama.

During the long debate in 2009 about to what degree to escalate the war, two officials expressed doubt that the Afghan war strategy would work, while the meaning of a July 2011 deadline to begin withdrawing US troops was misunderstood by some generals. “Obama’s Wars” by Bob Woodward, the best-selling author who broke the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, chronicles the often heated debates inside the White House.

According to an advance copy obtained by the New York Times, it portrays the president as a calm, professorial presence who could at times snap and show his frustration. It says he grew tired with the military demanding more and more troops for Afghanistan. Among his staff and aides there was regular back-biting. Vice President Joe Biden called Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy to Afghanistan, “the most egotistical bastard I’ve ever met.” There is scorn expressed for James Jones, who has never been highly rated in Washington. Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, worried that General Jones would be succeeded by his deputy, Thomas Donilon, who would be a “disaster”. Gen David Petraeus, then chief of the central command region that included Iraq and Afghanistan, is said to have avoided contact with David Axelrod, the senior strategist, whom he regarded as “a complete spin doctor”.

Despite criticism from Republicans that he doesn’t have the stomach to defend America, the author says that Mr Obama strongly supported the CIA drone attacks on al-Qaeda militants in Pakistani territory. Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, reportedly asked a security adviser, “who did we get today?”. Mr Woodward has written more than a dozen bestsellers, several of them offering detailed accounts of major decision-making processes in different White House administrations.

— Hat tip: JP

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Democracy is Not Freedom

American principles are based upon the core element of the Declaration of Independence — equal justice. This is the system of law that applies the same law to every person and which implements the concept of a higher law — labeled under the Declaration as “Unalienable Rights.” These are the rights imbued and inherent within each of us that allow all people to lead a life of one’s own, with the liberty to act and the right to the use and enjoyment of one’s private property.

Under equal justice, government power accordingly is limited. Such is the foundation of the American Republic. Today, that Republic is in near ruin. When a Republic that is granted limited power is replaced by a democracy with virtually unlimited power, the political recognition of unalienable rights is lost and mob rule replaces individual rights.

Democracy utilizes a different system of justice called social justice. Social justice generates differing results to different groups of people depending on the law’s finding of “common good.” Because the “common good” changes from day to day, no one can ever know who will have what rights tomorrow.

In an attempt to provide “equity” to all groups, social justice creates overlapping castes, each representing a “common good” de jour and each clamoring for more power. But no principle regarding the protection of the ideal of private property exists under social justice. Private use of property may be granted “interim protection” under social justice law, but only when such a conclusion is thought to advance the common good. Yet, even when seeming protections of unalienable rights arise under social justice, they can be retracted later on when they have served their purpose because perceptions of “common good” are always subject to “change.”

— Hat tip: JD

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Doc of the Day: Feds’ Guide to Snitching on Your Terrorist Neighbor

That dude next door, man — I used to think he was an OK guy, but now all the bags of fertilizer from Home Depot piled up in his garage are starting to worry me. And what’s with that beard? He’s not a — you don’t think —

For today’s Doc of the Day, here’s a handy pamphlet prepared by federal law enforcement to help you navigate the uncertainties of an age of homegrown terrorism, helpfully illustrated with pictures of New Mexico-born extremist preacher Anwar al-Awlaki and New York food-cart guy/sleeper agent Najibullah Zazi.

Be on the lookout, warn the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism Center, for such “indicators of possible terrorist activity” as “behavior that could indicate participation in surveillance of potential targets,” “travel or interest in traveling overseas to attend violent extremist institutions or paramilitary camps,” or checking out “websites and reading materials that advocate violence and then initiating action in support of this activity.” See something? Say something!

— Hat tip: DF

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Ground Zero Mosque Site Already Open for Prayers… Despite Derelict Building Having Holes in the Floor

The site of the proposed Ground Zero mosque is already open for prayer, despite officials describing conditions as ‘immediately hazardous’.

Several hundred worshippers are currently using the building, which is in Lower Manhattan, for services once a week.

The building currently has holes in the floor and no proper automatic sprinkler system.

City inspectors have handed out warnings about the state of the property on August 1 and September 3.

In spite of the violations the owners of the 152-year-old building were handed a temporary permits from the city to use it.

‘The two violations will not impact the current temporary place-of-assembly permit, which allows the space to be occupied’, said Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani..

This news will anger those who were opposed to the building of the Islamic centre — especially with it coming so soon after the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

— Hat tip: Gaia

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Mr. Norquist, Let’s See What This Contract Says First!

Here we go again, the Washington ruling class, led by the likes of Grover Norquist (Americans for Tax Reform), expects Tea Partiers to line up behind a new Contract for (from? with?) America once the smart people get it together.

Norquist, Dick Armey and other establishment Republicans have been busy since at least the beginning of the year trying to keep the Tea Parties in line and off some issues of great concern to conservative activists. Sorry Grover, but the issue of spending alone doesn’t fire up the majority of Tea Partiers all by itself.

And, your condescending tone doesn’t help your cause either— “Shiny objects,” “flapping tongues,” and “gorilla dust.” Really now!

From Grover Norquist at Fox News :…

— Hat tip: RRW

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Review: Long-Time St. Louis Activist Exposes Historic Disasters of Socialism in Latest Book

St. Louis patriot Fred Sauer recently released an amazing new book: A Simple Guide: How Liberalism, A Euphemism for Socialism, Destroys Peoples and Nations.

This is one of the most unusual, fascinating, and thorough unwrappings of socialism that you will ever read.

The author first provides a concise examination of the economic outcomes of the various nations who took the bitter pill of socialism in the 20th Century. Having provided this context, he then systematically exposes the major political actions and techniques that Liberals have used in the last 100 years to subvert representative government and achieve single party control of our great nation.

The conclusions are devastating. They reveal just how dangerous is the precipice upon which the United States of America finds itself at this time in our history.

— Hat tip: JD

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Service or Sacrifice

National Day of Service: Deliberate attempt to drain the day of its meaning, to obscure the tragedy with feel good sentiments about the environment and community projects.

Three years ago Reverend Lennox Yearwood was comparing the captured Al Queda and Taliban terrorists to civil rights heroine Rosa Parks, and demanding the shutdown of Guantanamo Bay. But last year Reverend Yearwood was conducting a conference call on behalf of the Obama Administration laying out plans to turn the commemoration of the terrorist attacks of September 11th into a “National Day of Service”.

While there is nothing wrong with giving blood, picking up trash off the sidewalks or serving as a volunteer dance instructor—some of the projects listed by the official 911 Day of Service website, they are not what the commemoration of 9/11 is about. They are instead a deliberate attempt to drain the day of its meaning, to obscure the tragedy with feel good sentiments about the environment and community projects that do not address the meaning of September 11.

9/11 was indeed a Day of Service, but not the sort of generic service that the Obama Administration has in mind. It was a day when police officers and firefighters rushed up story after story, through thick choking smoke and weighed down by their equipment in the hopes of saving lives. Many died. Some are still dying now, year after year. That was their service.

[…]

The attempt to erase 9/11 from collective memory, particularly the memory of American schoolchildren

The new 9/11 is to be a day full of smiles. A deep drink of the waters of Lethe, exchanging memory for upbeat forgetfulness. To return once again to 9/10, to a world in which our biggest challenges are trash in the park and the lack of dance instructors in Harlem. All of it dressed up in cheerful rhetoric about coming together to serve, but what are we serving besides suicidal pacifism stamped with a colorful logo.

The author Francis Fukayama famously said, “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” The attempt to erase 9/11 from collective memory, particularly the memory of American schoolchildren, who are the key target of this project, that new generation of Americans who grew up in the shadow of the lost towers, will insure that this is a tragedy and an atrocity that will be repeated over and over again… until we not only remember, but actually understand what it is we are remembering.

— Hat tip: JD

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Trial to Open for Christian Missionaries Arrested at Arab International Festival in Dearborn

Four Christian missionaries arrested in June at the Dearborn Arab International Festival are heading to trial today after a judge denied a motion to dismiss the case.

Attorneys for the evangelists, who are part of a group known as “Act 17 Apologetics,” say their clients were attempting to engage Muslims in a dialogue about their faith.

But critics argue the suspects hoped to cause a scene at the festival, and Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad explained they were arrested for disorderly conduct to ensure they did not provoke violence from other attendees.

Defense attorney Robert Muise of the Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center sought to dismiss the case on the grounds the arrests were unconstitutional — an argument law professors say has merit — but the Detroit Free Press reports 19th District Court Judge Mark Somers on Friday denied the request.

“I think the evidence will show they did absolutely nothing wrong,” Muise told the newspaper, explaining he’s confident his clients will prevail at trial.

The case is being watched closely by First Amendment scholars and political pundits.

— Hat tip: KGS

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Video: Two Men Charged in Violent Racist Beating of White Teen

WARNING: Graphic content

The two men robbed the teen, burnt him, beat him, p***ed on him and whipped him with this own belt for four hours.

Two men who were questioned and released by Seattle police after a West Seattle teen was beaten in a racially charged attack have been charged in connection with the May 25 assault. One of the men was arrested Tuesday evening.

DNA recently linked Ahmed Mohamed and Jonathan Baquiring to the attack in which a 16-year-old boy was robbed, taunted with racial insults, burned with a lit cigarette and punched repeatedly. Mohamed, 22, and Baquiring, 21, each were charged Monday with first-degree robbery and malicious harassment, the state’s hate-crime statute.

[…]

The victim, Shane McClellan, said he was walking home around 2 a.m. when two men, whom he described as black and Filipino, asked him for a light.

He said the two men then robbed him and beat him for four hours, whipping him with his own belt while saying things like, “How do you like it, white boy?” and “This is for enslaving our people,” according to the police report.

— Hat tip: JD

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Video: It Begins… The Ohio Democrat Party Chairman is Now Calling Tea Party Patriots “F***ers.”

Via Michelle Malkin— Ohio Democrat Party chairman Chris Redfern says out loud what all of his cohorts really feel about the grass-roots Tea Party patriots. Here he is cursing activists who reject the notion that federally-subsidized health care is a right.

— Hat tip: JD

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Algerian Women Suicide Bombers ‘Poised to Strike Europe’

Rome, 22 Sept. (AKI) — European airports and other transport hubs are on “high alert” amid fears of a spate of attacks by Algerian female suicide bombers, Israeli intelligence website Debka said on Wednesday, citing counter terrorism sources.

Security has been stepped up at London’s Heathrow, Amsterdam’s Schiphol and airports in Mocow, Berlin and Rome, as well as at major European railway and underground stations, Debka said.

The commander of French police and security services Frederic Pechenard said on radio Wednesday they had “serious evidence coming from reliable intelligence sources telling us there is a risk of a major attack.”

Al-Qaida in North Africa was targeting France in particular, he said.

The threat included “the assassination of an important figure or an attempted mass casualty attack on a crowded public area like a metro train or department store,” Pechenard said.

One of the main prospective targets for the suicide bombings is reportedly the Gare du Nord station in Paris, where trains depart for London and cities in Italy, Belgium and Switzerland.

Besides French intelligence, Debka said the “reliable sources” referred to by Pechenard were Algerian intelligence DGDS, Algerian military intelligence, the Moroccan DST and the United States AFRICOM which coordinates anti-terror activities against Al-Qaeda in the Horn of Africa and the Sahara region.

Debak said these sources had reported that Al-Qaeda in North Africa (AQIM) had assigned to Europe and France in particular a number of Algerian jihadist women trained to carry out suicide bombings on trains and stations.

Security has been massively stepped up at St Pancras International Train Station in central London and on England’s four mainline rail services. Security has also been ratcheted up on the Eurostar service, connecting London to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and major cities in Germany, Debka said, citing “our counterterrorism sources.”

“A single bomber aboard one of the Eurorail multi-country links could wreak havoc along the entire line,” Debka said.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Controversial Prophet Mohammed Cartoons to Return

(CNN) — The cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked protests worldwide four years ago will be republished in a new book soon.

Staffers at Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten said the cartoons will be in a book created by cultural editor Flemming Rose and will be titled “The Tyranny of Silence.”

Rose could not be reached for comment.

The book is scheduled to hit stores on September 30, staffers said.

The cartoons were published in September 2006 and sparked worldwide protests after the reprinting of the caricatures in other publications.

Islam forbids depictions of Mohammed. Many Muslims were also furious at the drawings themselves. One of them showed the religious figure wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.

In January of 2007, a Norwegian newspaper reprinted the drawings.

Some European papers later published some of the cartoons as a way of covering the controversy, some papers said.

— Hat tip: DF

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Denmark’s Burning

Jyllands-Posten, 21 September 2010

“Danish ghettos ravaged by fire,” alerts the Jyllands-Posten. Every week in troubled Danish neighbourhoods, four fires on average burn down kindergartens, trash containers, cars and motor scooters, reports the Danish daily, based on fire department reports in the country’s three biggest cities. According to one sociologist quoted in the paper, these acts are perpetrated by a hard core of ethnic youths who want their neighbourhoods to “take on the image of a dangerous ghetto”. Fewer than 1% of the arsonists are ever apprehended.

— Hat tip: DF

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Italy: League Mayor Threatens Defiance in School Symbols Row

Minister orders removal of party’s green flower

(ANSA) — Rome, September 20 — A Northern League mayor who created a storm by plastering a school with his regionalist party’s symbol has threatened to defy Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini’s order to remove the emblems.

Gelmini sent Oscar Lancini, the mayor of Adro near Brescia, a letter at the weekend telling him to have the League’s green Sole delle Alpi (Sun of the Alps) flower taken down.

But Lancini, who had the symbol put on the school’s windows, desks, wastepaper baskets and doormats, has said the only order he would follow would be one from party leader Umberto Bossi.

“I am first and foremost a League activist, being mayor of Adro comes after that,” Lancini said Monday.

“I am waiting for my party leader to tell me what to do.

Then I’ll obey”. Gelmini refused to comment on Lancini’s possible disobedience Monday, replying “enough” with an exasperated tone when asked about the row that has been raging since the school reopened last week after a major renovation Lancini has justified his actions by saying the symbol is also linked to the area’s Celtic heritage.

But the move has been criticised by parents’ groups and opposition parties and the local branch of the CGIL trade union is planning legal action to remove the symbols of a party that frequently takes extreme positions on immigration issues.

They argue politics should be kept out of the classroom.

ItaliaFutura, a think tank set up by Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, went as far as to say in a editorial on its website Monday that the unity of the country was at risk if such initiatives are not nipped in the bud. Even several members of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) party, which is allied with the League, have said Lancini had gone too far.

“Gelmini was right to say that the symbol is not compatible with a school, which should belong to everyone,” the PdL’s governor of Lombardy Roberto Formigoni said Monday.

Lancini, however, suggested he felt no obligation to bow to the national institutions, saying they did not help him renovate the school.

“The Italian state should be ashamed because this school didn’t cost it a cent,” he said.

“When I asked for money, I found all the doors closed and we had to make do ourselves. I’m proud to be the mayor of this town where the local people contributed 300,000 euros (for the school)”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: ‘Burqa Ban’ Debate Back in Spotlight

Premier’s party presents Senate motion on issue

(ANSA) — Rome, September 21 — National debate over a ‘burqa ban’ was back in the spotlight on Tuesday following an official request for the Senate to discuss the security implications of Islamic face coverings. Senator Ada Spadoni Urbani of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party group (PdL) presented a motion on behalf of her party addressing the issue. The motion is aimed “at resolving the public security issues raised by the custom of wearing the burqa or other clothing that prevents accurate identification,” she explained. “This is not intended to discriminate in any way against religious beliefs”. Urbani also said the motion was not prompted by recent legislative initiatives in other European countries to outlaw Islamic face coverings in public.

“We decided to take this action to meet the ever growing number of demands for safeguards from the Italian public and police,” she said. “This has nothing to do, as some have suggested, with what is going on in France and some other European countries”. News of the motion comes after several days of media coverage on the burqa and the niqab, which covers the bottom part of the face only.

The rightwing Northern League party promised a bill on the issue on Friday, while a row has been simmering for a number of days over whether a mother should be permitted to wear a face veil while dropping her child off at nursery school. Other parents at the school in the small Lazio village of Sonnino had reportedly complained to the school’s head that the woman’s niqab scared their own children. On Monday, Sonnino Mayor Gino Cesare Gasbarrone announced a compromise had been reached following a meeting with all parties whereby the woman had agreed to remove the veil once on the school premises. “The imam and his wife were entirely willing to accommodate the demands of our village’s families and those mothers who asked the woman to reveal herself in class to avoid scaring the children,” he said. Meanwhile, the Northern League proposal, a translation of the recently approved French bill, will join eight other draft laws already under consideration by parliament. The bill would prevent women from wearing a face veil in public, including in schools, on public transport or in any kind of office. The penalty for transgressors would be a fine of between 150 and 300 euros or alternatively some kind of community service “aimed at encouraging integration”, explained League Deputy Whip Carolina.

But unlike other proposals, the new bill will also punish anyone “who forces someone else to wear it, using either physical or psychological violence”.

This offence would be punishable by a year in prison and a 30,000 euro fine.

A 1975 law already prohibits any mask or clothing that makes it impossible to identify the wearer.

In its current form, it permits exceptions for ‘justified cause’, which has been interpreted as including religious reasons in court rulings against local attempts to ban the burqa and niqab.

Most of the bills currently before the Italian parliament would amend the 1975 law to make specific reference to Islamic face coverings.

Commenting on the Sonnino case, Isabella Bertolini of the PdL said the case demonstrated a “growing imperative for a complete ban on the burqa in all places, not just in schools”. “Our society’s flexibility leads our institutions at all levels to interpret laws in the most politically correct way possible, causing incalculable damage,” she said. The Movement of Moderate Muslims also said a law was needed in light of the case, describing the solution agreed upon as “paradoxical” and “degrading” to the woman in question.

“This is the perfect example to show that a law prohibiting the full veil in public places is not only appropriate but absolutely necessary, in order to clarify once and for all that you do not go around with your face covered in Italy, either inside or outside a school, or anywhere else,” said the movement’s president, Gamal Bouchaib.

According to Bouchaib, the decision to allow the woman to continue wearing the niqab around Sonnino was a mistake, which allowed her to be used to “promote extremist attitudes that do anything but promote integration”. A survey published on Friday by polling institute Panel Data suggested 73% of Italians thought Islamic face coverings should not be worn in public. Of the 1,000 adults polled, nearly a third were opposed because they felt such veils were a degrading practice imposed on women by others. Just under 30% blamed the burqa and niqab for lower levels of integration, while 20% cited security concerns.

There are no estimates of how many women wear the face veil in Italy, where Islam is the second largest religion after Catholicism with around 1.2 million faithful.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Sweden: Riksdag Revamp Could Limit Far-Right: Reports

Members of several Swedish political parties are calling for a restructuring of the Riksdag to minimize the influence of the far-right Sweden Democrats.

The parties are investigating whether it is possible to shift the make-up of parliamentary committees to reduce the sway of the far-right, anti-immigrant party which was voted into parliament for the first time at the weekend’s general elections, several Swedish dailies reported.

Both Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s Moderate Party and the main opposition Social Democrats are reportedly involved.

The far-right party won 5.7 percent of the vote and 20 seats in parliament, according to an initial count.

As things stand, that would be enough for it to automatically have a representative on parliamentary committees, which today count 17 members each.

But the Moderate Party was investigating the possibility of cutting the number of committee seats to 15, the Aftonbladet daily among others reported, citing unnamed sources.

Such a move would block the Sweden Democrats from representation on the committees and reduce their influence in parliament.

The Moderate Party looks set to create a new minority government after Sunday’s vote along with three centre-right coalition partners.

The parties themselves refused to comment until after the final tally of votes, including ballots cast overseas, was completed. That is due late Wednesday or early Thursday.

But there were signs of opposition from some members of Reinfeldt’s coalition, including a senior member of the Liberal Party, according to one report.

“It is better having them inside the tent pissing out that keeping them outside pissing in,” Carl B. Hamilton, a deputy with the party, told the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily.

Blocking the far-right from the parliamentary committees “will allow them to play the martyr,” he added.

“It is unwise to give them that possibility,” he said.

— Hat tip: KGS

[Return to headlines]

Sweden Democrats Tip Scales in 30 Councils

The Sweden Democrats hold the balance of power in 30 of Sweden’s 290 municipal councils, the anti-racist magazine Expo revealed on Wednesday in a compilation of election results.

Mattias Karlsson, the party’s press director, told Expo that the party would support the coalition that would have the most impact on its policies with their support, underlining that there would be no key decision or guidelines to determine which coalition to support.

One of the 30 municipalities where the Sweden Democrats hold the balance of power is Bjuv in Skåne, where it won 19.6 percent support and six seats.

The party’s leader in the municipality, Allan Jönsson, revealed that before the elections, discussions took place with one of the other parliamentary parties in the municipality. He declined to tell Expo which it was.

“I cannot reveal that,” he told the magazine, which once had best-selling author, Stieg Larsson as its editor.

“We with the Sweden Democrats in Bjuv work a little differently than many other party divisions in the country. We are willing to cooperate with all parties as long as it benefits the citizens of the municipality best.”

The party, on paper, also holds the balance power in larger municipalities such Norrköping, Borås and Västerås.

In all the 27 municipalities, the Sweden Democrats tipped the scales between the coalitions, with the help from local parties or parties without parliamentary representation.

In many municipalities, the Sweden Democrats hold the balance of power together with the Swedish Senior Citizen Interest Party (Sveriges pensionärers intresseparti, SPI) or other local parties of discontent, the report said.

In Haninge, the party holds the balance of power with the Socialist Justice Party (Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna). In Gislaved in Småland, the Sweden Democrats hold the balance of power with the Communist Party, which refuses to cooperate with them, according to the magazine.

The Communist Party’s front man in Gislaved, Curt Vang, believes that in practice, the party will not hold the balance of power.

“In Gislaved, the Centre Party has previously worked with the Social Democrats, but in the last term, was part of the Alliance,” he explained. “They will probably switch to the Social Democrats or the Alliance will come to terms with the Green Party.”

In the previous legislative period, the Sweden Democrats held the balance of power in a handful of municipalities. Karlsson believes that the party’s representatives at the municipal level must be much tougher in any negotiations that may occur in the near future.

“We need to be tougher in negotiations and clearer about what we want,” he said to the magazine.

In Landskrona, a former party stronghold, the Sweden Democrats declined by a full seven percentage points. Karlsson argued that accordingly, Landskrona is a place where the party needs to place more demands in negotiations.

“It is about living up to the voters’ hopes,” he said.

Separately, Sweden Democrats’ electoral success means that the party can nominate more than 40 new jurors in southern Skåne and receive a total of 120 jurors in Skåne courts, according to TV4 News Malmo on Wednesday.

Included in this allocation would be the administrative courts (Förvaltningsdomstol), which are charged with among other things, handling applications for asylum.

Earlier, chief prosecutor Sven-Erik Alhem warned that it could lead to people with different ethnic backgrounds having less confidence in the courts, but Carina Herrstedt, the Sweden Democrat’s second vice chairperson, said it is “horrible to believe” that there would be reason for concern.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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The English Defense League: The New Face of Europe?

by A. Millar

A group of extremist Islamists attacked the returning soldiers as “butchers of Basra,” “baby killers,” and “terrorists” during a homecoming parade not long ago in the city of Luton. With years of anti-British “political correctness,” and a political class that has failed to tackle Islamism with seriousness, this proved to be too much: the crowd that had turned out to cheer on the soldiers was soon making their disgust known to the Islamists; the two groups had to be held apart by police. Within a few days, a video was floating around the internet, showing the aftermath: calling themselves the “United People of Luton,” thousands of (mostly) young men had taken to the streets in a rowdy, and chaotic show of anger and frustration, chanting “no surrender to the Taliban,” “we are Luton,” and, directed at the Islamists, “scum.”

A short time later, the English Defense League [EDL] emerged from the United People of Luton, and, in a little over the year since its founding, has become the largest street protest movement in Britain.

The EDL has also inspired the recent establishment of independent leagues in the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, and other EU states; the movement is attracting international attention — including from the Israeli-based Haaretz and the US-based Dissent.

Strident opposition to integration — from politicians, the media, and Islamist extremists — has led to serious social problems, not only for long-settled British citizens, but also for immigrants and the children of immigrants. These range from the high rates of unemployment among Muslims, the forced marriage of school girls (and to a lesser extent school boys), to honor violence against women and girls, and violence against homosexual Muslims. Opponents of integration know of these problems, but ignore them. It would appear that their intention was not to make life easy for immigrants, but to make life easy for themselves.

Mass immigration into Europe, is, in some sense the “Americanization” of Europe, according to Christopher Caldwell, author of Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West, who has said that over the last few decades — especially over the last ten years — Europe has become increasingly multi-ethnic, and multi-religious, and multi-everything. In this sense, it resembles the US, especially its cities, such as New York; however, because the EU was intended as a “counterbalance” to the US — and an exemplar of a more socialistic, statist, and allegedly moral and ethical way of doing things — Europe has enacted immigration and integration in an almost opposite way. Consequently, as immigration has increased, instead of becoming more like the US, Europe has become less like it.

In the US, newcomers may be encouraged to feel proud of America’s achievements in the world, its democracy, its opportunities. Immigrants might retain significant aspects of their culture, their religion, or values from their former homes, but, largely, they are also proud to be American, and proud to have democracy, liberty, free speech, and the other opportunities for which they came. In Britain, however, immigrants have been encouraged to remain separate from the rest of society, to refrain from learning the language of the host culture, and from integrating. The Archbishop of Canterbury appeared to encourage the adoption of some sharia into Britain in 2008; a few months later, Stephen Hockman, QC, former chairman of the Bar Council, called for aspects of sharia to be formally incorporated into British law.

The routine devaluing of British culture is a gift to Islamists who want to separate Muslims from non-Muslims in the UK — or, worse, who intend to impose sharia on everyone, like it or not. The organization hosting Hockman, as he delivered his appeal for a sharia-lite Britain, was none other than the now-banned Islam4UK, an Islamist group descended from al-Muhajiroun, which has been linked to one in seven convicted terrorists in the UK [pdf].

Although Hockman suggested that incorporating Sharia into British law would help Muslims integrate, practically he was advocating integrating Britain into Sharia law. Many British people fear that this is precisely what is occurring, and would prefer that everyone accept British law and liberty, and muddle along together. How unlikely this seems, listening to Britain’s elected representatives. When then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally addressed the issue of uncontrolled immigration and announced that immigrants would be required to learn English and sign up to British values, David Cameron absurdly accused him of aping far-Right and neo-fascist political parties.

As Natan Sharansky has described in Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy, multiculturalism has allowed the politically radical to use those identities which they deem “progressive” and “anti-colonial” to destroy the majority culture, which they view as “reactionary” and “colonial.” For the radical Left, the media and political class, Englishness is firmly “reactionary” and “colonial.” To defend national values is taboo, if not regarded as outright “extremism.” To extend liberty to everyone is, we are told, “human rights imperialism.”

Several of the organization’s members traveled to New York recently for the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In a move, however, that one US conservative blogsite has compared to the deportation of Geert Wilders from the UK last year, the organization’s leader, Tommy Robinson, was reportedly stopped by two police, or TSA, officers and taken into custody before being put on a plane back to the UK. The reason given, apparently, was that Mr. Robinson had filled out his entry form improperly.

While at the World Trade Center area, EDL members spent the morning speaking to the press and members of the public.

Another EDL leader, Kevin Carroll, mentioned that he and others in the movement were visiting the US:…

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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UK: Pensioner Takes Dogs for Walk… And Returns to Find Locks Changed and a Family Living in His Home

A pensioner who took his dogs out for a walk returned to find a family had moved into his home.

George Pope, 72, was unable to get into his council house because the locks were changed.

Mr Pope left his home in Barking, Essex, to take his dogs out to nearby Parsloes Park last Thursday, September 16.

The arthritis sufferer, who needs a stick to walk, started feeling ill and decided to stay at a friend’s house until he was well enough to go home.

But when he returned to his house on Saturday morning, he was stunned to discover his locks had been changed.

He claims a man then walked up the path to his house and accosted him.

‘I said, “This is my place”. But he said, “This is our property and we intend to stay here unless you go to court”. It made me feel ill.’

He added: ‘I have been shaking ever since. I get panic attacks. It’s just terrible.’

Mr Pope immediately called the council and police.

But he claims they told him the new occupants could not be evicted because they were themselves victims of a scam.

Mr Pope said police claimed the residents, who he believes are from Lithuania, had paid £3,000 to a bogus estate agent to rent the property themselves for six months.

The retired Dagenham Ford worker, who was forced to stay with friends, said: ‘Police told me it looked like a civil matter.

‘But the squatters were using my home, my gas and my electricity — it’s absolutely disgraceful.’

Mr Pope went back to his house on Monday morning to find all his belongings had been thrown out.

Neighbours then helped the him gather up his documents, photographs and clothes.

Mr Pope suspects illegal estate agents of occupying buildings and letting them for money.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Supporters of Ousted Tower Hamlets Mayoral Candidate Mobilise Online Campaign

SUPPORTERS of Lutfur Rahman have mounted an email campaign urging the replacement candidate council leader Helal Abbas not to accept the nomination, claiming it will split the party in Tower Hamlets. He has been asked to run by Labour HQ today instead of Mr Rahman today. A sample message posted on Lutfur Rahman for Mayor’s web page said: “I am asking you to stand by Tower Hamlets Labour Party members and not to accept the NEC’s invitation.. You know very well the division your candidacy would cause in the local Party and the community which can only benefit our opponents.” It adds that the former council leader thanks people for their support.

Mr Rahman was the clear winner in the party’s selection securing 433 votes from the 881 members who voted. Supporters of Mr Rahman have also been asked to contact Ann Black who is the chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee to support the local party’s choice and drop its decision to field Mr Abbas. London Assembly member John Biggs, who came second in the selection process, said he would support the party’s candidate. The deadline for nominations for candidates have to be received by Tower Hamlets council by Friday.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: They Are Furious, But British Voters Won’t Hold a Tea Party

Politics in the United States is currently dominated by the Tea Party movement — named after the Boston Tea Party, but focusing its ire on the growth of government under President Obama. In primary elections from Florida to Massachusetts to Alaska, Democrats and Republicans who thought they had a safe ticket to a Congressional seat have been rejected in favour of the insurgents.

The Tea Partiers were best described by Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, as “a movement that blew up in a reaction to spending and threatened tax increases”. And their philosophy enjoys wide support. According to the pollster Scott Rasmussen, more than half of the electorate now “favour” the Tea Party’s ideas, 35 per cent actively support it, and between 20 and 25 per cent claim to be members.

Understandably, then, many people have wondered whether we might see a similar phenomenon over here. The closest thing to date is probably my own group, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which has tens of thousands of grassroots supporters for its low-tax, small-state agenda. But the truth is that a mass movement along the lines of the Tea Party would be difficult or impossible to sustain.

That doesn’t mean the British public aren’t angry about wasteful spending and high taxes. But the Tea Party is best understood as part of a wider phenomenon. In many countries, our own included, the recession has provoked fury among ordinary taxpayers, who face real hardship but are still expected to pay the bills for feckless politicians and bloated bureaucracies.

In Germany, for example, the government faced a huge backlash over the proposed bail-out of Greece, from voters who didn’t see why they should subsidise decades of irresponsibility. That’s why the bail-out took so long to organise, why European leaders saw Angela Merkel as so intransigent in negotiating its terms — and why the consequence has been a previously unimaginable surge in German Euroscepticism.

In Australia, a revolt against proposed new climate change levies and mining taxes saw the government depose its leader and then lose its status as the largest party in parliament. And even in South Korea, where government spending stands at just 30.6 per cent of GDP and taxes at 31.4 per cent, the equivalent of the TaxPayers’ Alliance has enlisted an incredible 1.35 million members via the internet, making it the largest NGO in the country.

So what about Britain? In a way, we have already had our version of the Tea Party, in the form of the fury over MPs’ expenses. Yet anti-spending sentiment has also been gaining ground more broadly. The public have increasingly told pollsters that they would prefer lower taxes and lower spending to more spending and even higher taxes. One of the reasons Britain kept its solid credit rating was, according to Moody’s, the ratings agency, an “apparent consensus among the public that fiscal retrenchment (including cuts in expenditure) is both inevitable and desirable”. At the election, all three main political parties campaigned, to some degree, on a platform of spending cuts (while avoiding any specifics as to where those cuts would fall).

So in some ways, Britain is further down the road than the United States. President Obama is still planning even more increases in public spending. We have had the same kind of increases, and are now facing what comes with them: higher taxes and rising interest payments on our debt (effectively, a second mortgage for every family). While politicians (and the public) may not enjoy the cuts, they know that there will be greater problems if they don’t get the public finances under control.

There is another important difference: we lack the political institutions that give movements like the Tea Party their bite. For example, we don’t have primaries that let voters kick out candidates who don’t represent them properly. And because voters understand that MPs are more likely than Congressmen to do what their parties tell them, they tend to vote along party lines to a greater extent. That makes it harder for a Tea Party-style movement to show results, and motivate its supporters.

In fact, if there is any disruptive new movement in Britain, it’s likely to come from the Left, in the form of strikes and protests over the cuts. In a recent letter to The Guardian, several potential protesters, including Tony Benn, resolved to campaign “with the level of determination shown by trade unionists and social movements in Greece”. Let’s not forget that those protests, attacking unavoidable cuts and protecting absurdly generous public sector pay and pensions, resulted in the deaths of three people — including a pregnant woman — after a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the offices of a bank. That’s not the kind of thing anyone wants to see here. But I’m still confident that even in the absence of an official Tea Party, the quiet voice of the British public, and its acceptance of the case for cuts, will make itself heard above the din of the vested interests.

Matthew Elliott is the founder of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, and is currently working on the No2AV campaign.

— Hat tip: JP

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Vatican Bank in Money-Laundering Probe

Chairman placed under investigation

(ANSA) — Rome, September 21 — Vatican Bank Chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi is under investigation for suspected failure to observe Italy’s money-laundering laws, police said Tuesday.

Another top executive of the Istituto per le Opere Religiose (IOR) bank is also under investigation, they said, without naming him.

Currency police have impounded, as a precautionary measure, some 23 million euros the IOR has deposited at the Credito Artigiano SpA, a private bank that is part of the Credito Valtellinese group.

It is the first time such action has been taken against the IOR, which, as the Bank of Italy recalled Tuesday, is to be considered a non-European Union bank.

The probe was opened by Rome magistrates to determine whether a 2007 Italian law on transparency in regard to the identity of account holders was violated.

The possibility that the Vatican accounts violated this law was raised by the Bank of Italy special ‘financial intelligence’ unit, which on September 15 suspended two transactions ordered by the IOR from its account with the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano because they were deemed suspicious.

These involved 20 million euros sent to the German bank J.P.Morgan Frankfurt, and three million sent to a central-Italian bank, Banca del Fucino.

The IOR is said to hold 28 million euros at the Credito Artigiano branch.

On November 25, investigators were also said to be focusing on one or more accounts IOR opened with Unicredit, Italy’s biggest bank, through which some 60 million euros has transited over the past three years.

The accounts were opened at a branch of Unicredit, then Banca di Roma, located on the avenue which leads into St Peter’s Square, via della Conciliazione, in Italian territory.

Judicial sources said the probe was centered on clarifying the “opaque screen” which hid the identity of the person, persons or organizations that had actual control over the IOR accounts.

Investigators were also said to be trying to discover the beneficiaries of cheques and bank drafts issued from the IOR accounts and who ordered them.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Egyptian Coptic Church Accused of Stockpiling Weapons

by Mary Abdelmassih

(AINA) — A new wave of defamation by Islamists against Coptic Pope Shenouda III and the Coptic Church is seen by many observers as a serious provocation to sectarian violence against the Copts, and the possibility of Egypt being dragged into civil war.

On September 15, Qatar-owned Al-Jezirah TV broadcast a program called Without Limits, presented by moderator Ahmad Mansour, who hosted the Islamist Dr. Selim el-Awah, former Secretary-General of the World Council of Muslim Scholars, which has stunned and enraged Copts inside and outside of Egypt. “El-Awah is simply threatening Copts that the forthcoming chaos after Mubarak dies will see mass violence against the Copts,” says Magdy Khalil, Coptic activist and head of Middle East Freedom Forum.

The program alleged the Church has its own militia and hides weapons and ammunition in monasteries and churches, preparing for a war “against the Muslims.” el-Awah said that “Israel is in the heart of the Coptic Cause,” and the Church gets weapons from Israel. He cited as evidence an incident in mid-August, in which the son of a priest in Port Said, Mr. Joseph El-Gabalawy, was falsely accused of importing weapons from Israel. Although he was cleared of charges and released, as the imported goods were children’s fireworks from China and did not belong to him, he is still detained by State Security.

The television program also charged the Church of concealing Muslim converts to Christianity, besides abducting and torturing Christian converts to Islam. Out of the thousands of Christian woman who converted to Islam, willingly or unwillingly, el-Awah mentioned only two wives of priests whom he claimed converted to Islam and consequently were imprisoned in monasteries, Wafa Constantine and Mary Abdallah. Speaking on the latest crisis over Camelia Shehata, about whom Muslims fabricated rumors of her conversion to Islam, he said that she never converted to Islam and was handed over by State Security to her two married sisters (AINA 11-1-2015).

The nearly two-hour program went on to accuse the Coptic Church of being a “State within the Egyptian State,” allegedly taking advantage of the weakness of the present regime, behaving as if it is above the law. The Church was also accused of making an “inheritance” deal with the regime to support President Mubarak’s son in succeeding his father as president in exchange for benefits.

Selim el-Awah said that ever since Pope Shenouda came out of detention, having been banished to a desert monastery by the late President Sadat in 1981 and released by President Mubarak in 1982, there has been “scientific preparation” to demand the division of Egypt into a Muslim State and a Coptic secular State”

He warned that if the status of the Church remains as such, the “country will burn” and called on Muslims to go out in demonstrations as the “only answer left to counteract the strength of the Church.” He said “If they go out to the streets, who can control them?”

“For the first time since the establishment of the State of Israel,” says Magdy Khalil, “someone has accused the Coptic Church of stockpiling weapons from Israel as a prelude to waging war on Muslims, claiming that Israel is at the heart of the Coptic issue.”

In response to the seriousness of the accusations, the Church aired a program on its own TV channel, Agape, denying all allegations and accusing Al-Jezirah of being hostile towards Egypt. It discussed the whereabouts of the two priests’ wives, who had marital problems but never converted to Islam. “Constantine chose to remain in a monastery and Abdallah lives in a house alone with her children paid by the church,” said Father Abdelmassih Baseet.

In a Middle East Freedom Forum press release on September 20, Magdy Khalil said that what Dr. Selim el-Awah said “amounts to incitement to murder and ethnic cleansing of a minority, which are crimes in Egyptian and international law” and if Al-Awah’s words of hate and incitement are overlooked by the Egyptian government, “this would mean that they are partners in these crimes.” The Forum invited national lawyers, Muslims and Christians, to join its campaign for the prosecution of Dr. el-Awah for crimes of incitement.

Dr. Naguib Gobrail, legal counselor to the Coptic Church and president of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations, presented on September 20 a memorandum to the Prosecutor General against Dr. Selim el-Awah and Al-Jezirah’s Egyptian moderator Ahmad Mansour, accusing both men of propagating lies which would affect social peace and harm national security. The memo went on to say that they accused the Church of storing weapons and Christians of “high treason,” since these weapons would “normally be used against the State and their Muslim brethren,” a claim, if true, would subject 15 million Christians to the charge of high treason, which carries the death penalty.

Coptic attorney Mamdouh Nakhla, head of AL-Kalema Centre for Human Rights, told Freecopts the TV program included reference to a terrorist plan for several massacres to be committed against the Copts. “el-Awah said that the simple Coptic citizen will be the real victim of those massacres, while the Coptic clergy will hide in the monasteries,” said Nakhla. “Such remarks should not be ignored and el-Awah should be questioned about the facts and what information he knows about those plans.” He added that he will present a complaint to the prosecutor general against el-Awah and Al-Jezirah Channel for spreading unfounded lies that could provoke incitement against the Church and the Copts.

The Egyptian media has accused el-Awah of claiming the Church is storing weapons without having any evidence. Al-Jezirah was accused by renowned writer Salah Issah, editor of Cairo Daily, of not adhering to the Press Charter, which prohibits covering anything that would cause sectarian strife, stressing the network has committed professional errors.

Observers see that el-Awah statements of September 15, coming only two days after the call of the banned Front of Al-Azhar Scholars, on September 13, to boycott Coptic businesses, professionals and schools, only confirms that there is secret coordination between the Islamist religious groups, “who have one thing in mind, which is to burn the homeland,” say Muslim thinker Ayman Abdel Rassol. He added that weapons are stored in mosques, especially in upper Egypt. Abdel Rassol called for the prosecution of Dr. el-Awah for crimes of incitement.

A Muslim demonstration is called for Friday September 24, in Alexandria demanding the disposal of Pope Shenouda III.

Khalil recollects similar circumstances taking place at the end of the seventies when rumors circulated about a plan by Pope Shenouda to establish a Coptic state in the Upper Egyptian Province of Assiut, and about the storage of weapons in monasteries, “those rumors were justifications for a series of attacks against the Copts over decades,” he said.

He believes that this dangerous talk by Dr. el-Awah is an introduction to the destruction of the Copts in the event of a the outbreak of chaos in Egypt after Mubarak’s death. “It will not be like what happened in the seventies, but it could evolve to become like the Armenian genocide that occurred in Turkey in 1915,” said Khalil.

— Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih

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Libya ‘Pleased’ With Unicredit Investment

Bank’s top brass said to be divided over foreign interests

(ANSA) — Milan, September 20 — The Libyan Central Bank (LCB) said in a statement on Monday that it was “extremely pleased” with its investment in Italy’s biggest bank UniCredit, which it defined as “long-term,”.

The statement came amid rumors of a clash between UniCredit CEO Alessandro Profumo and Chairman Dieter Rampl over Libya recently increasing its stake in the bank to some 7.5%, making the North African country its biggest shareholder.

The LCB holds 4.9% of UniCredit while the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) is reported to have just recently increased its stake from 2% to 2.5%, a move which has also had political repercussions within the government of Premier Berlusconi.

Berlusconi’s key government ally, the devolutionist and anti-immigration Northern League, is opposed to Libya increasing its stake in UniCredit.

The premier, on the other hand, has been actively courting Libya and flaunts his personal relationship with strongman Col.

Muammar Gaddafi.

The opposition Italy of Values (IdV) party has staunchly opposed Libya expanding its stake in UniCredit and has demanded Profumo’s resignation.

There are also fears among UniCredit’s other shareholders that Libya may seek to launch a hostile takeover bid for the bank, something which both the LCB and LIA have denied.

In its statement on Monday, the LCB recalled that its initially investment in UniCredit dated back to the beginning of the 1990s, when it bought a stake in Banca di Roma, which was later merged into UniCredit.

The LCB also explained that in 2008, in response to an invitation to make a strategic investment, the central bank increased its stake in UniCredit also to further bolster economic relations between Rome and Tripoli.

In order to quell fears over a Libyan takeover of the bank, the LCB said it did not intend to take such action and stressed that “the central bank is an independent institution governed by 2005 Libyan banking laws. All rules and regulations regarding the central bank are decided by its governing board.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Palestinians Admit Peace Talks Are a Sham

While Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas puts on a show of playing nice with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the sake of the Obama Administration, the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon this month assured the Arab world that the current negotiations are just part of a larger plan to delegitimize Israel.

The Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported that on September 9, Ambassador Abdullah Abdullah insisted that “the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.are not a goal, but rather another stage in the Palestinian struggle. to isolate Israel, to tighten the noose on it, to threaten its legitimacy, and to present it as a rebellious, racist state.”

So much for genuine talks leading to lasting peaceful coexistence.

Like Abbas, Abdullah is sticking to Yasser Arafat’s conclusion decades ago that Israel cannot be defeated in one knock-out blow, but must be slowly whittled away at.

Of course, Abdullah’s remarks were not reported by the mainstream media, because they were spoken and reported on in Arabic. It seems Arabic is the language that simply doesn’t matter. You can say anything, reveal any nefarious plot, and everyone will simply brush it off because you said so in Arabic.

But, can anyone imagine an Israeli ambassador, speaking in either English or Hebrew, saying that Israel was only in the current negotiations to reveal the Palestinian Authority as liars with the ultimate goal of delegitimizing the “Palestinian cause” into oblivion?

[Translation of the Al-Hayat Al-Jadida story was provided by Palestinian Media Watch]

— Hat tip: CR

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Abu Dhabi: Woman Raped in ‘Public’ Inside Car in Capital

A woman passing by a park in Abu Dhabi heard the victim screaming and called the police

A Pakistani man lured an Ethiopian woman into his car and raped her in public in the middle of the day in Abu Dhabi, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The man offered the Ethiopian a lift and took her to a street near the Khalidiaya park in the middle of the capital to rape her inside his vehicle.

“After hesitation, she accepted his offer and got into the car. He then tied her up and threw her on the back seat,” the Arabic language daily Emarat Al Youm said.

“He drove away and parked the car on a street near Khalidiya park at around 12 noon and raped the woman after beating her up.”

The paper said the woman was about to go to the police when he grabbed her and threw her back into the car. He then called his friend and joined hands in beating her up again to prevent her from calling the police.

A passing woman heard her screaming and called the police, who rushed to the scene and arrested the two, the paper said.

The woman told the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court that she was beaten up and raped but the convict denied the charges, saying he had sex with her for money.

— Hat tip: KGS

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Afghanistan: Italians Doing ‘Fantastic’ Job Says Petraeus

‘We appreciate sacrifice,’ ISAF chief says after 30th death

(ANSA) — Rome, September 20 — Italian troops in Afghanistan are doing a “fantastic” job, US Commander-in-Chief David Petraeus said Monday.

“The Italians are doing a fantastic job and we appreciate their commitment and sacrifice,” Petraeus said in an interview on Italian radio three days after Italy suffered its 30th military death since its Afghan mission began in 2004.

(Speaking at the lying-in-state of Lt Alessandro Romani, a special forces member killed by insurgents Friday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Romani “was there to root out the die-hards, the Taliban we will never be able to reach agreement with”.) Petraeus praised the Italian contingent in the NATO-led ISAF force for “managing to establish an effective and constructive relationship with our Afghan partners and also with the representatives of the civilian authorities”.

He voiced the hope these results could be “consolidated”.

Italy’s troops have “shown great capability” in leading ISAF’s Regional Command West, Petraeus said.

Looking to the political horizon, the NATO commander noted that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was about to name a new ‘peace council’ aimed at encouraging insurgents to disarm.

“We are convinced that this is a crucial step which must be conducted with respect for the rights of all,” he said.

“It will concern all those who, on a voluntary basis, agree to put down their arms and re-integrate into society”.

Petraeus noted that this was a “mechanism already tried in Iraq with good results”.

Italy has some 3,300 troops in ISAF, slated to rise to around 4,000 by the end of the year. It also has some 500 Carabinieri in the European Union-led EUPOL police training mission.

Last week NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen asked Italy for more military trainers and Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said the armed forces were ready to comply with the request.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Afghanistan: Italy ‘To Send More Trainers’

Up to 150 more instructors, La Russa says

(ANSA) — Rome, September 21 — Italy is set to send between 100 and 150 more military trainers to Afghanistan as requested by NATO, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said Tuesday.

“I believe that an increase of this kind is useful because it enables us to reach the objective we have set, to disengage as early as possible,” the minister told a radio show.

Asked about the violence that plagued the weekend elections and on Friday brought Italy’s 30th military death, La Russa said this was a consequence of the increased presence of the NATO-led ISAF force.

“There aren’t just patrols any more. There is real control on the ground. This has resulted in relatively peaceful zones, like the western province where Italians operate, becoming dangerous ones”.

La Russa was asked for more instructors by NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen last week and again on Monday by US commander David Petraeus, who said Italy was doing a “fantastic” job in Afghanistan.

As he had after his talks with Rasmussen, the minister stressed that the decision to send more trainers had to meet with cabinet approval. “I am working to do this without extra budget costs, if it goes through,” La Russa said, cautioning that the decision “is still not definitive”.

Italy has some 3,300 troops in ISAF, slated to rise to around 4,000 by the end of the year. It also has some 500 Carabinieri in the European Union-led EUPOL police training mission.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Militants Cut Both Feet Off Actress Starring in Afghan Film Critical of Taliban

A Director’s Many Battles to Make Her Movie

LOS ANGELES — Sonia Nassery Cole knew that shooting a movie on location in Afghanistan could get her killed. The most vivid reminder came a few weeks before filming, she said, when militants located her leading actress and cut off both of her feet.

But Ms. Cole, an Afghan expatriate with a flair for the dramatic and a history of not taking no for an answer, had her mind made up. Unable to find another actress to take the part — the film is overtly critical of the Taliban — Ms. Cole, 45, decided to play the role herself.

“Come hell, come shine, I was going to make this movie,” said Ms. Cole, a novice filmmaker whose primary job is running the Afghanistan World Foundation, a charity focused on refugees and women’s rights.

Ms. Cole, who holds both Afghan and American citizenship and lives in Los Angeles, has been a fixture in Afghan relief efforts since she wrote to President Ronald Reagan as a teenage refugee, and he unexpectedly invited her to the White House. She fled Afghanistan in 1979, although she is murky about the details, explaining that she plans to write a memoir.

“The Black Tulip,” a tragic love story that Ms. Cole finished at Warner Brothers, is scheduled for its premiere at the Ariana Cinema Theater in Kabul on Thursday. (Military leaders will get a private viewing on Wednesday at NATO’s International Security Assistance Force headquarters.) The Sundance Film Festival is a likely next stop, and Afghanistan has submitted the picture as its entry for best foreign film at the next Academy Awards.

It is extraordinarily rare for a feature film to be shot on location in Afghanistan. Even films like “The Kite Runner,” the sweeping 2007 movie about two Afghan boys from different economic backgrounds, was mostly filmed in Kashgar, China, because Kabul was too dangerous and because it proved impossible to secure insurance coverage.

Afghanistan at one point had a bustling film industry, but the Taliban banned motion pictures and closed or destroyed theaters. Activity has returned — Ms. Cole leaned heavily on a local casting director and the Afghan Film Organization, which is organizing the premiere — but the current American-backed government has remained cautious. “The Kite Runner,” for instance, was not released in Afghanistan because of fears that it would inflame ethnic tensions.

Ms. Cole’s only previous film experience was directing “The Breadwinner,” a 2007 short documentary about an 8-year-old Afghan boy who supports his family by selling calendars. To make “The Black Tulip,” she tapped her extensive network of government and philanthropic contacts, begun when President Reagan connected her with the Afghanistan Relief Committee.

For instance, the singer Natalie Cole, a celebrity ambassador for the Afghanistan World Foundation (but not related to Ms. Cole), recorded two songs for the film’s soundtrack. Henry A. Kissinger is a friend from Ms. Cole’s younger days spent in neoconservative social circles.

Even with the support, making “The Black Tulip” was anything but easy. Days on location sometimes began at 4 a.m. because security was easier to provide with fewer pedestrians around, she said. Before the film wrapped production last fall in Kabul, Ms. Cole survived a bomb blast that shattered the windows of her hotel, machine gun fire and grim telephone threats warning her to go home.

Three senior crew members — her cinematographer, a producer and a set designer — did just that, abandoning Ms. Cole in the middle of production.

“I know I broke her heart,” said Keith Smith, the cinematographer who left. “But I could feel death. I didn’t sign up for that.”

Ms. Cole said she bore some of the responsibility for the defections, conceding that she painted a sanitized picture of life in a war zone while hiring a core crew in Los Angeles. But David McFarland, the cinematographer who replaced Mr. Smith, said he understood why she kept some details to herself.

“As the director of this film, she needed us to focus on our jobs and not be freaked out,” Mr. McFarland said. “What was she supposed to say? ‘Oh, I got a note this morning saying we would all die on the set today. O.K., go focus on doing good work!’ “

Mr. McFarland said Ms. Cole did not tell him the reason she was also acting in the movie until after they finished filming. The woman who was to play the role, Zarifa Jahon, now lives with a relative in a remote area of the country, according to Ms. Cole, the local casting director and Latif Ahmadi, head of the Afghan Film Organization.

The only person aside from Ms. Cole who fully understood the danger of the project may have been her son, Chris. Before leaving last fall for Kabul, she gave him a list of instructions to follow if she ran into trouble.

“It said: ‘If I am abducted, do not make a deal to get me released. Let them torture me. Let them kill me,’ “ said Mr. Cole, who left a job in investment banking to help his mother produce the film. “It was horrible to hear that from your mother. But she was insistent.”

“The Black Tulip,” which has a primary cast of 11, takes place from 2001, just before the Taliban were routed from power, to the present day. A Kabul family seizes on a new window of freedom and opens a restaurant called The Poet’s Corner, where artists and writers are encouraged to make use of an open mic. But the Mansouri family soon learns that the Taliban are not gone and pays a mighty price for daring to embrace culture again. Ms. Cole plays the passionate mother, Farishta Mansouri.

The tale is all too real: just this month an article by the McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Hashim Shukoor detailed how Taliban insurgents had been trying to reimpose their conservative views on music stores — close, or we’ll blow it up — in the city of Jalalabad.

Ms. Cole would not disclose the film’s budget, which she financed by selling personal property, mortgaging her home and relying on credit cards. But it wasn’t cheap. Ms. Cole said at one point she had to pay $5,000 for an old microphone. The same seller then demanded an additional $5,000 from a crew member before handing it over. Mr. McFarland recalls driving hours around the city looking for a light bulb.

“I spent a small fortune on extortion and security,” said Ms. Cole, who often listed fake locations on production schedules to minimize danger. “Every couple of days, a random crew member would threaten to turn off the generator if I didn’t pay him a large sum of money.”

“You start becoming paranoid very quickly,” she added. “Is that crew member you don’t recognize there to help you or is he there to kill you?”

— Hat tip: heroyalwhyness

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Was Stuxnet Built to Attack Iran’s Nuclear Program?

A highly sophisticated computer worm that has spread through Iran, Indonesia and India was built to destroy operations at one target: possibly Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor.

That’s the emerging consensus of security experts who have examined the Stuxnet worm. In recent weeks, they’ve broken the cryptographic code behind the software and taken a look at how the worm operates in test environments. Researchers studying the worm all agree that Stuxnet was built by a very sophisticated and capable attacker — possibly a nation state — and it was designed to destroy something big.

Though it was first developed more than a year ago, Stuxnet was discovered in July 2010, when a Belarus-based security company discovered the worm on computers belonging to an Iranian client. Since then it has been the subject of ongoing study by security researchers who say they’ve never seen anything like it before. Now, after months of private speculation, some of the researchers who know Stuxnet best say that it may have been built to sabotage Iran’s nukes.

Last week Ralph Langner, a well-respected expert on industrial systems security, published an analysis of the worm, which targets Siemens software systems, and suggested that it may have been used to sabotage Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor. A Siemens expert, Langner simulated a Siemens industrial network and then analyzed the worm’s attack.

Experts had first thought that Stuxnet was written to steal industrial secrets — factory formulas that could be used to build counterfeit products. But Langner found something quite different. The worm actually looks for very specific Siemens settings — a kind of fingerprint that tells it that it has been installed on a very specific Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) device — and then it injects its own code into that system.

Because of the complexity of the attack, the target “must be of extremely high value to the attacker,” Langner wrote in his analysis.

Langner is set to present his findings at a closed-door security conference in Maryland this week, which will also feature a technical discussion from Siemens engineers. Langner said he wasn’t yet ready to speak to a reporter at length (“the fact of the matter is this stuff is so bizarre that I have to make up my mind how to explain this to the public,” he said via e-mail) but others who have examined his data say that it shows that whoever wrote Stuxnet clearly had a specific target in mind. “It’s looking for specific things in specific places in these PLC devices. And that would really mean that it’s designed to look for a specific plant,” said Dale Peterson, CEO of Digital Bond.

This specific target may well have been Iran’s Bushehr reactor, now under construction, Langner said in a blog posting. Bushehr reportedly experienced delays last year, several months after Stuxnet is thought to have been created, and according to screen shots of the plant posted by UPI, it uses the Windows-based Siemens PLC software targeted by Stuxnet.

Peterson believes that Bushehr was possibly the target. “If I had to guess what it was, yes that’s a logical target,” he said. “But that’s just speculation.”

Langner thinks that it’s possible that Bushehr may have been infected through the Russian contractor that is now building the facility, JSC AtomStroyExport. Recently AtomStroyExport had its Web site hacked, and some of its Web pages are still blocked by security vendors because they are known to host malware. This is not an auspicious sign for a company contracted with handling nuclear secrets.

Tofino Security Chief Technology Officer Eric Byres is an industrial systems security expert who has tracked Stuxnet since it was discovered. Initially he thought it was designed for espionage, but after reading Langner’s analysis, he’s changed his mind. “I guessed wrong, I really did,” he said. “After looking at the code that Ralph hauled out of this thing, he’s right on.”

One of the things that Langner discovered is that when Stuxnet finally identifies its target, it makes changes to a piece of Siemens code called Organizational Block 35. This Siemens component monitors critical factory operations — things that need a response within 100 milliseconds. By messing with Operational Block 35, Stuxnet could easily cause a refinery’s centrifuge to malfunction, but it could be used to hit other targets too, Byres said. “The only thing I can say is that it is something designed to go bang,” he said.

Whoever created Stuxnet developed four previously unknown zero-day attacks and a peer-to-peer communications system, compromised digital certificates belonging to Realtek Semiconductor and JMicron Technology, and displayed extensive knowledge of industrial systems. This is not something that your run-of-the-mill hacker can pull off. Many security researchers think that it would take the resources of a nation state to accomplish.

Last year, rumors began surfacing that Israel might be contemplating a cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Bushehr is a plausible target, but there could easily be other facilities — refineries, chemical plants or factories that could also make valuable targets, said Scott Borg, CEO of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a security advisory group. “It’s not obvious that it has to be the nuclear program,” he said. “Iran has other control systems that could be targeted.”

Iranian government representatives did not return messages seeking comment for this story, but sources within the country say that Iran has been hit hard by the worm. When it was first discovered, 60 percent of the infected Stuxnet computers were located in Iran, according to Symantec.

Now that the Stuxnet attack is public, the industrial control systems industry has come of age in an uncomfortable way. And clearly it will have more things to worry about

“The problem is not Stuxnet. Stuxnet is history,” said Langner in an e-mail message. “The problem is the next generation of malware that will follow.”

— Hat tip: Wally Ballou

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China Blocks Export of Crucial Minerals to Japan as Dispute Escalates

Sharply raising the stakes in a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain, the Chinese government has placed a trade embargo on all exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles.

Chinese customs officials are halting all shipments to Japan of so-called rare earth elements, industry experts said on Thursday morning.

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Angela Merkel: Germany Will Become Islamic State

Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germans have failed to grasp how Muslim immigration has transformed their country and will have to come to terms with more mosques than churches throughout the countryside, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

“Our country is going to carry on changing, and integration is also a task for the society taking up the task of dealing with immigrants,” Ms. Merkel told the daily newspaper. “For years we’ve been deceiving ourselves about this. Mosques, for example, are going to be a more prominent part of our cities than they were before.”

Germany, with a population of 4-5million Muslims, has been divided in recent weeks by a debate over remarks by the Bundesbank’s Thilo Sarrazin, who argued Turkish and Arab immigrants were failing to integrate and were swamping Germany with a higher birth rate.

The Chancellor’s remarks represent the first official acknowledgment that Germany, like other European countries, is destined to become a stronghold of Islam. She has admitted that the country will some become a stronghold.

— Hat tip: JD

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The Strange Case of J.B. Matthews, The Religious Left and the Censure of Senator McCarthy

Religious Left, Social justice, Reds in Our Churches.

While the term “Religious Right” is one of the most frequently used terms in the political lexicon, notably since the rise of what is usually referred to as the Evangelical Churches, the Political Left is alive and well and a strong crutch for the Democratic Party calling for “social justice”. During the first term of the Eisenhower administration, the role of American churches in politics became a major issue and helped precipitate the campaign to defame and censure Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.

Joseph Brown Matthews was an important witness for McCarthy, testifying before Congressional committees and had the advantage of personal experience as an organizer for communist front organizations before World War II. He took pains to explain that naïve and busy people of good will including many clergymen who were often duped into signing petitions and lending their names to what appeared as ostensibly good causes, but unaware that the leading personalities in these organizations were fronting for the Communist Party.

“In June 1953, Matthews was appointed as McCarthy’s research director and in July published an article called “Reds in our Churches” in the conservative American Mercury magazine. In it, Matthews referred to the Protestant clergy as “The largest single group supporting the Communist apparatus in the United States.” The result was a public outrage at Matthews as well as “his boss”, Senator McCarthy. Time Magazine led the charge against Matthews and what it called “This astounding and inherently uncheckable statement.”

Reds in Our Churches

His authorship of the controversial article “Reds in Our Churches “exposed sophisticated communist manipulation to promote religious dissension in the United States. McCarthy’s critics seized the opportunity to label his efforts as a “Crusade against all Protestant ministers”, a view that Matthew certainly had not intended. In his Mercury article, he specifically pointed out that the great majority of all clergy in America were loyal but that a highly visible minority operating under the guise of “social justice” lent the support of the Religious Left to a variety of Liberal causes. Exaggerated and inaccurate commentaries of his intentions were used to win among many U.S. congressmen to lend support to censure of McCarthy as an extremist.

— Hat tip: JD

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	Financial Crisis
»	Fed Leaves Rates Unchanged; Remains Ready to Buy Up Debt
»	Missouri Tells Judges Cost of Sentences
	USA
»	Barack Obama: The Man Who Would be God?
»	CBN Exclusive: The Muslim Brotherhood in America
»	Genocide Wiped Out Native American Population
»	Islam’s Tentacles Enveloping U.S.
»	Murfreesboro Mosque Spokesperson Camie Ayash Had Florida Felony Record
»	Srdja Trifkovic: the Worst GOP Candidate in History
»	States Can Seek Constitutional Amendment to End Federal Debt Binge
»	Taxpayers Foot Giant Bill to Keep Heads of State Safe at Annual United Nations Meeting
»	USA: Is the Tea Party Pro-British? Why the US Conservative Revolution Could Save the Special Relationship
	Canada
»	Canada Selling ‘Green Scam’ To California?
	Europe and the EU
»	An Alternative to the New Wave of Ecofascism
»	Europe: The Rise of the Far-Right: Europe’s Worrying Trend
»	Italy: Funeral Held for Country’s 30th Afghan Military Death
»	Italy: Unicredit CEO Profumo Expected to Resign Over Libyan Stake
»	More Thai Women in Swedish Sex Report
»	Roma: Belgium Joins Caravan of Shame
»	Roma: Axis of Weevils
»	Sweden Democrat Members Exposed in Leak
»	UK: Hospital Doctors Lost Student, 17, While She Lay Dying of Meningitis and Even Took a 30-Minute Break, Inquest Told
»	UK: Lutfur Rahman is Sacked as Labour Candidate
»	UK: New Report: Debunking the Islamisation Myth
»	UK: Newman Had an Unlikely Part in the Lord of the Rings
»	UK: Report Demonstrates How City is Changing
»	UK: Three Police Officers and a Patrol Car Rush to… Children Playing Football in the Street
»	Vive La Différence
	North Africa
»	Egypt: Hamas Intelligence Agent ‘Arrested’
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Israel’s Allies in 1948; The USSR, Czechoslovakia, American Mainline Churches and the Left
	Middle East
»	Bahrain: Sunni Authorities in Manama Revoke Nationality of Shiite Ayatollah
»	Caroline Glick: Who Lost Turkey?
»	Iran: President Ahmedinejad Threatens U.S. With War ‘Without Boundaries’
»	Iraq: Poverty and Unemployment Among Northern Christians
	Russia
»	Kremlin Declares War of the Last Tsar of Moscow
	South Asia
»	Slovenian Troops “Illegally in Afghanistan”
	Latin America
»	Luis Fleischman: Beyond Electoral Illusions: The Totalitarian Regime of Hugo Chavez
»	Mexico Paper Seeks Ciudad Juarez Drug Gang Guidance
	Immigration
»	Aunt Zeituni: ‘The System Took Advantage of Me’
»	Germany: SPD Boss Calls for Tougher Integration Methods
»	Italy: Frattini Backs Hard Line on Criminal Immigrants
»	Video: Obama Has No Intentions of Enforcing Our Immigration Laws
	Culture Wars
»	Republicans Raise Money for Gay Agenda
	General
»	Found: Genes That Make Kids Smart
»	IPCC Studies and Reports Have Nothing to Do With Climate Change
»	Review: Books Puts Heat on Global Warming Propagandists

Fed Leaves Rates Unchanged; Remains Ready to Buy Up Debt

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday left benchmark interest rates unchanged and announced no new steps to speed the plodding economic recovery, though it reaffirmed that it could start buying vast quantities of government debt if unemployment does not improve. Led by its chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed’s policy-setting committee postponed a pivotal decision on whether to begin a big new push to stimulate the economy by creating money and buying large amounts of Treasury securities, a strategy known as quantitative easing.

In its announcement, the Fed said it saw the pace of economic growth slowing, and little to no evidence that inflation would pose a problem in the near future, justifying a continuation of exceptionally low interest rates.

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Missouri Tells Judges Cost of Sentences

When judges in Missouri sentence convicted criminals, a new and unusual variable is available for them to consider: what a given punishment will cost the state, says the New York Times.

For someone convicted of endangering the welfare of a child, for instance, a judge might now learn that a three-year prison sentence would run more than $37,000 while probation would cost $6,770.

[…]

…The practice has touched off a sharp debate, says the Times. Proponents consider it an overdue tool that will force judges to ponder alternatives to prison more seriously. But critics dismiss the idea as unseemly…

The shift here comes at a dire time for criminal justice budgets around the country:…

• Michigan has closed prisons.
• Arizona considered putting its prison system under private control.
• California has searched for ways to shrink its incarcerated population.

Numerous legal experts on sentencing issues say Missouri’s new policy makes sense. Economic considerations play roles in all sorts of legal decisions, says Rachel E. Barkow, a law professor at New York University, so why not let judges understand the cost of their choices?

Others, like Paul Cassell, a law professor at the University of Utah, argue that Missouri’s plan counts certain costs but fails to measure others — the societal price, for instance, if someone not incarcerated commits another crime…

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Barack Obama: The Man Who Would be God?

A long-forgotten interview from 2004 provides insight

When writing about Barack Obama’s religious orientation recently, I pointed out that while I do believe he favors Muslim over Western culture, bowing before another — even God — is above his humility grade. I further mentioned that in keeping with this self-centeredness, Obama is (like all leftists) someone who denies moral reality.

Ironically, after penning my piece, I became aware of an interview Obama once gave — one quite relevant to the topic at hand. It was conducted in 2004 by Chicago Sun Times religion reporter Cathleen Falsani while Obama was running for the U.S. Senate, and it offers great insight into the nature of Obama’s “faith.” I think you’ll be interested to hear what he had to say.

— Hat tip: JD

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CBN Exclusive: The Muslim Brotherhood in America

From Erick Stakelbeck:

I wanted to direct you to a new special edition of my show, Stakelbeck on Terror.

I’m joined by an expert panel in discussing a jihadist organization what many consider the greatest long-term threat to America’s national security: The Muslim Brotherhood.

Watch as former FBI special agent John Guandolo, ex-CIA officer Brian Fairchild and leading investigative journalist Patrick Poole break down the Brotherhood’s history, its goals and its infiltration of leading U.S. government and educational institutions.

It’s an in-depth discussion on the Brotherhood’s American nexus that you won’t see on any other network. Watch at the above link.

Here is a breakdown of the segments:

Segment 1: The Brotherhood’s History (top of the show)

Segment 2: The Brotherhood’s American Network (5:52 into the show)

Segment 3: The Brotherhood on Campus and Beyond (11:22 into the show)

Segment 4: The Brotherhood: An Insurgency with Nazi Ties (17:22 into the show)

Segment 5: The Brotherhood’s Leading American Front Group: CAIR (22:20 into the show)

And stay tuned to the October 4th edition of Stakelbeck on Terror for the conclusion of my discussion on the Muslim Brotherhood: we’ve established that there is a problem. Now what is the solution?

— Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck

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Genocide Wiped Out Native American Population

Physical traces of ethnic cleansing that took place in the early 800s suggest the massacre was an inside job.

Crushed leg bones, battered skulls and other mutilated human remains are likely all that’s left of a Native American population destroyed by genocide that took place circa 800 A.D., suggests a new study.

The paper, accepted for publication in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, describes the single largest deposit to date of mutilated and processed human remains in the American Southwest.

The entire assemblage comprises 14,882 human skeletal fragments, as well as the mutilated remains of dogs and other animals killed at the massacre site — Sacred Ridge, southwest of Durango, Colo.

Based on the archaeological findings, which include two-headed axes that tested positive for human blood, co-authors Jason Chuipka and James Potter believe the genocide occurred as a result of conflict between different Anasazi Ancestral Puebloan ethnic groups.

“It was entirely an inside job,” Chuipka, an archaeologist with Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants, told Discovery News.

“The type of event at Sacred Ridge is on the far end of the conflict spectrum where social relations completely melt down,” he added, mentioning that the Sacred Ridge “occupants were targeted to take the blame.”

Chuipka and Potter analyzed objects excavated at Sacred Ridge, which was a multiple habitation site of 22 pit structures, some of which may have operated as communal ritual facilities for a population that extended beyond the immediate site inhabitants. This suggests the residents at one point exerted some social control in the area.

The unearthed bones and artifacts indicate that when the violence took place, men, women and children were tortured, disemboweled, killed and often hacked to bits. In some cases, heads, hands and feet appear to have been removed as trophies for the killers. The attackers then removed belongings out of the structures and set the roofs on fire.

“I think that the major event was preceded by social stress within the community that may have been exacerbated by a period of drought,” Chuipka said. “The scale of the mutilations suggests that it was planned and organized in the preceding days or weeks, and that the violence took place in a relatively short period of time — a few days.”

“All evidence points to a rapid event, which is only possible with coordination and complicity within the community,” he added.

The researchers ruled out other possible explanations, such as starvation cannibalism, traditional preparation of the deceased, and even individuals targeted for practicing witchcraft. Cannibalism, for example, usually involves bone marrow processing. Witch roundups tend to affect a relatively small number of victims.

In this case, a large group of people was dispatched at one time.

For a separate study, John McClelland, lab manager of osteology at Arizona State Museum, analyzed teeth from human remains within the Ridges Basin region, including Sacred Ridge.

He found that the population at Sacred Ridge in the early 800s was distinct from others in the area.

“The individuals at Sacred Ridge whose remains were disarticulated and processed were not a random selection from among the overall population of Ridges Basin,” McClelland determined. “In addition to the biological differences, they appear to have had a somewhat different diet and may have experienced a higher level of juvenile growth disruption.”

At least two other separate studies have come to similar conclusions, suggesting the genocide victims at Sacred Ridge belonged to an ethnic group that was different from that of other nearby populations.

Given basic established patterns from more recent ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Rwanda, the researchers think political structures that had been keeping ethnic conflict at bay probably broke down at Sacred Ridge.

“What we can learn from Sacred Ridge is that archaeological sites are not simply piles of rock and refuse, but that they were occupied by people that were involved in complex webs of social relations,” Chuipka said. “Sacred Ridge is a case where social relations melted down and the solution chosen was absolute and shocking.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Islam’s Tentacles Enveloping U.S.

The proposed Ground Zero mosque in New York City has been a focal point for those wanting to expand Islam’s influence in America, but it’s not the only front on which the nation is facing the advance of Muslim interests.

There are more than 3,000 mosques in the U.S., and work is being done on several major projects that have neighbors alarmed to the point of resistance.

One of the hot-button mosques is the proposed Temecula Valley Islamic Center. Land for the project was purchased several years ago, but a number of people in the Southern California town have an organized campaign to derail the project.

[…]

American Family Association policy analyst Bryan Fischer says 80 percent of the mosques being built are funded by Middle Eastern money. Most are also acting as training academies.

“Every single mosque is potentially a training and recruiting center for jihadism. We know that 80 percent of the mosques in America are built with Saudi money. The Saudi Arabian government is sending education materials to these mosques that teach them to spill the blood of infidel Christians and Jews,” Fischer explained.

— Hat tip: JD

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Murfreesboro Mosque Spokesperson Camie Ayash Had Florida Felony Record

The Tennesseean broke a story, tonight, about Islamic Center of Murfreesboro’s (ICM) spokesperson Ms. Camie Ayash’s prior felony convictions and imprisonment in Florida for Grand Theft. Sources inform us that information was presented to the new Rutherford County Sheriff last Friday, who affirmed that his predecessor’s investigations would continue into other matters regarding board member Mosaad Rawash of the ICM.

The Tennessean revelations will be an embarrassment to CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 who interviewed Ms. Ayash in the wake of the Arson incident at the ICM expansion projects on Veals Road in Rutherford County.

“According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Ayash was jailed from May 2006 to March 2007 for stealing more than $300,000 from a former employer.

“It was something that happened when I was young,” said the 32-year-old Ayash. “I’m not proud of it. I never claimed to be perfect.”

Ayash admits that she served time. But she claims it occurred in 2001 or 2002, before she moved to Tennessee and converted to Islam…

— Hat tip: Andy Bostom

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Srdja Trifkovic: the Worst GOP Candidate in History

“Conservative” Joseph DioGuardi’s “sensational” election as the GOP Senate candidate in New York has shaken up the Republican Party, gloats the Tropoja-based Albanian Minerals President M. Mujaj in the Wall Street Journal Blog. “The American people have spoken,” this self-styled compatriot of ours is telling us. “The American way of life needs to be rebalanced. Households need to stop spending what they don’t have. Local and state governments need to slash their budgets to live off whatever tax revenues they generate [….] The American people voted for change.”

What Mr. Mujaj does not mention is that former Congressman DioGuardi is the founder and well-endowed president of the Albanian American Civic League, a lobby group for the KLA-run “independent” province of “Kosova.” This is a significant fact, crucial to the funding of his candidacy, which he curiously does not mention on his campaign website. Even more curiously, the League’s aacl.com site—full of information on DioGuardi’s KLA connections—has been mysteriously dormant for weeks. There is, nevertheless, ample evidence out there that DioGuardi and his wife have been, for years, key fundraisers and apologists for the terrorist KLA in this country. It is unsurprising that he omits this aspect of his career from his pitch to the voters of New York, but it is curious that no one has called attention to the fact thus far.

As for Tropoja, it is a town in northern Albania best known not as a hub of mining in general, or as the HQ of DioGuardi’s friend Mr. Mujaj’s Albanian Minerals in particular, but as the gruesome site of a “clinic” known as The Yellow House in which hundreds of Serb civilians kidnapped in Kosovo by the KLA in 1999 were brought to be murdered for organ harvesting. As my friend Julia Gorin wrote two and a half years ago,…

— Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic

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States Can Seek Constitutional Amendment to End Federal Debt Binge

During the 1980s, 33 state legislatures invoked their power to apply for a convention to draft a balanced budget amendment.

The effort fell short by just one state of the two-thirds majority needed to force Congress’ hand to call the convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitution.

Why did the effort fail? Some legislators worried that a convention would not be limited to a specific subject and it would spin out of control to rewrite the entire Constitution. Sadly, this fear was baseless..

A new Goldwater Institute report, written by Senior Fellow Robert Natelson, shows the country’s Founders rejected drafts of Article V that contemplated a wide-open convention that could “run away.”

Instead, the authors of the Constitution intentionally picked language that calls for conventions of limited scope so state legislatures could target specific topics, such as a restriction on the federal government’s ability to borrow money.

There’s also no reason to fear a “runaway” convention because three-fourths of the states — at least 38 of them — still would have to ratify whatever proposed amendment was drafted by the convention.

State Senator Chuck Gray of Arizona and U.S. Senator John Cornyn of Texas are right to urge state legislatures to reconsider invoking Article V to limit the federal government’s ability to take on more debt.

No matter who controls Congress, the federal government has been incapable of putting its fiscal house in order. Article V gives the states the power to end the federal debt binge….

Source: Nick Dranias, “States can seek constitutional amendment to end federal debt binge,” Goldwater Institute, September 16, 2010.

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Taxpayers Foot Giant Bill to Keep Heads of State Safe at Annual United Nations Meeting

It will cost taxpayers a pretty penny to protect a petty Iranian tyrant while he visits New York.

Security for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and 190 other world leaders gathering for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly could cost $5 million to $7 million, officials said.

“This is the biggest number of heads of state that we’ve had here at any one time,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Monday.

The NYPD gets about $20 million every two years from the State Department for these kinds of expenditures, Kelly added.

Security costs aren’t broken down by leader, he added. But it’s a safe bet Iran’s leader will see a lot of NYPD blue.

— Hat tip: JD

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USA: Is the Tea Party Pro-British? Why the US Conservative Revolution Could Save the Special Relationship

by Nile Gardiner

This may seem like an odd question for a political movement inspired by the infamous Boston Tea Party of December 1773, which helped spark the American Revolution against the rule of King George III. But as the hugely successful modern-day grassroots organisation threatens a new revolution on Capitol Hill this November, and may play a key role in ejecting Barack Obama from the White House in 2012, policy makers in London should be thinking about the positive implications for Anglo-American relations of a conservative-dominated, post-Obama era in the United States.

I’ve written extensively on how the Obama White House has been the most anti-British presidency since the Suez crisis of 1956, and predicted months before Obama’s election win that his leadership would be damaging for the US-British alliance. As I wrote back in July 2008 on the pages of The Sunday Telegraph:

Britain’s chattering classes should be careful what they wish for. Senator Obama promises change and a bold new course for the United States. The end result may be an America that looks away from Britain and erects higher barriers to trade and investment. The special relationship has lasted over 60 years as the most powerful and successful partnership of modern times. Unfortunately it might not survive the next presidential election.

I will make another prediction here on the future of US-UK relations — the conservative revolution that is sweeping America, and which may transform the White House two years from now, offers the best hope for saving the future of the Special Relationship.

The Obama presidency has been an unmitigated disaster for Anglo-US ties, from Barack Obama’s relentless campaign to destroy the UK’s biggest company, to Hillary Clinton’s betrayal of America’s closest ally through backing Argentina’s call for a UN-brokered settlement over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. The Obama administration’s sneering view of Britain was perfectly summed up by a senior State Department protocol officer in March last year:

There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.

Under Barack Obama and Gordon Brown US-UK relations hit its lowest point in nearly half a century. There have been more positive signs under David Cameron, but there remain some deep-seated tensions below the surface, which will be impossible to resolve while Obama remains in power.

My sense is that the next Republican administration in Washington will seek a far warmer relationship with Britain than the Obama team. It could also be the most Eurosceptic White House since the birth of the European project. While the Obama administration has been openly Eurofederalist, the Bush administration was split down the middle on the issue of European integration, with the State Department in favour and the Pentagon fervently opposed. Most US administrations have been mixed in their views on Europe — the next one will be more decisively against.

There is no doubting the fact that the Tea Party movement is primarily focused at present upon domestic policy issues. It is largely driven by intense opposition to Obama’s Big Government agenda, and by a belief in low taxation and reduced government spending, greater individual freedom and limited intrusion by the state. But it is also at its heart a movement that cherishes a belief in American exceptionalism and US leadership, worships the concept of national sovereignty, and is suspicious of supranational institutions such as the United Nations or the European Union that seek to impinge upon America’s ability to act independently. In other words, it stands for almost everything the current US administration does not.

The main heroes of the Tea Party are, of course, America’s Founding Fathers. But its members also look to more recent leaders for inspiration — in the United States, Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater for example, and across the Atlantic, to Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. In conversations I have had with an array of Tea Party supporters in recent months, almost all have expressed a huge admiration for the Iron Lady and her achievements across the Atlantic. There have also been frequent nods of support for the cost-cutting measures of the new Cameron-led Coalition — and many have asked the question — if they can cut the deficit in London, why can’t we do it in Washington too?

It is accurate to describe many of the key players in the Tea Party as instinctively pro-British. Sarah Palin, by far the most powerful figure in the movement, is known to be an admirer of Lady Thatcher, and has reportedly sought a meeting with the former prime minister in London. Senator Jim De Mint of South Carolina, the most influential backer of the Tea Part on Capitol Hill, has been a powerful proponent of the US-UK Defence Trade Cooperation Treaty, which is set to be ratified shortly by Congress after a long delay. Glenn Beck, the charismatic Fox News host and Tea Party favourite who’s recent rally drew hundreds of thousands of conservatives to Washington, has lambasted President Obama for his shoddy treatment of Great Britain.

Outside of the immediate confines of the Tea Party itself, several of the leading lights of the American conservative movement, including likely presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, are strong Atlanticists, who would seek to significantly advance the Special Relationship if they come to power. Unlike the Obama administration, the new wave of conservative leaders in the United States recognise Britain as America’s most important ally, are suspicious of EU-style supranationalism, and understand the great sacrifices that the US and UK have made in the defence of liberty and freedom across the world. One thing is certain if President Obama loses the White House in 2012. His successor definitely won’t be throwing a bust of Sir Winston out of the Oval office.

— Hat tip: JP

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Canada Selling ‘Green Scam’ To California?

On a visit to the legislature by British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore found himself wondering what bill of goods this huckster was selling the Golden State? Turns out it was just more “green” snake oil.

DeVore decided to “follow the money” and discovered a “green energy scam that costs California taxpayers millions while robbing California of jobs due to higher electricity costs and electricity imports.”

DeVore reminds Californians that in 2005 the state had to sue Powerex, the Canadian energy producer, when it was discovered that it was complicit in “rampant market manipulation that ended up costing California consumers millions.” DeVore reports that in March of 2005 Powerex settled and only refunded a fraction of the profits it had made from its California customers.

Of course, one of the reasons that this situation became so easy to carry off is due to her absurd environmental laws, California is unable to produce its own energy at necessary levels.

[…]

It gets even more absurd from there. DeVore notes that while California is killing itself with its environmental laws and while British Columbia is being enriched by unfair energy prices off the backs of California, the BC energy industry is actually importing more energy than it makes and it has done so for ten of its eleven years of existence.

And where does it get the power it imports? Coal and gas-fired energy plants in Washington State and Alberta Canada. It is some of this power Powerex turns around and sells to naive Californians who imagine that the hydro-electric power it is supposedly getting from British Columbia is “clean energy.”

— Hat tip: JD

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An Alternative to the New Wave of Ecofascism

It is time to acknowledge that mainstream environmentalism has failed to prevent climate catastrophe. Its refusal to call for an immediate consumption reduction has backfired and its demise has opened the way for a wave of fascist environmentalists who reject democratic freedom.

One well-known example of the authoritarian turn in environmentalism is James Lovelock, the first scientist to discover the presence of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. Earlier this year he told the Guardian that democracies are incapable of adequately addressing climate change. “I have a feeling,” Lovelock said, “that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.” His words may be disturbing, but other ecologists have gone much further.

Take for example Pentti Linkola, a Finnish fisherman and ecological philosopher. Whereas Lovelock puts his faith in advanced technology, Linkola proposes a turn to fascistic primitivism. Their only point of agreement is on the need to suspend democracy. Linkola has built an environmentalist following by calling for an authoritarian, ecological regime that ruthlessly suppresses consumers. Largely unknown outside of Finland until the first English translation of his work was published last year, Linkola represents environmentalism pushed to its totalitarian extreme. “An ecocatastrophe is taking place on earth,” he writes concluding several pages later that “discipline, prohibition, enforcement and oppression” are the only solution.

Linkola has a cunning ability to blend reasonable ecological precepts with shocking authoritarian solutions. His bold political programme includes ending the freedom to procreate, abolishing fossil fuels, revoking all international trade agreements, banning air traffic, demolishing the suburbs, and reforesting parking lots. As for those “most responsible for the present economic growth and competition”, Linkola explains that they will be sent to the mountains for “re-education” in eco-gulags: “the sole glimmer of hope,” he declares, “lies in a centralised government and the tireless control of citizens.”

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Europe: The Rise of the Far-Right: Europe’s Worrying Trend

The stridently anti-immigration platform of the Sweden Democrats secured the party 5.7 per cent of the vote — and 20 parliamentary seats — in Sunday’s general election, enough to deny the governing Centre-Right coalition of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt a majority. While it might surprise some to see an extremist party prosper in this traditionally tolerant liberal democracy, it is actually part of a worrying new trend in European politics. Sweden has become the third EU member state since June to find itself without a governing majority after elections marked by the rise of far-Right, anti-immigration or separatist parties. The Netherlands and Belgium are in the same position. Far-Right parties are currently in government in Italy and also sit in the parliaments of Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia, as well as in the European Parliament.

The rise of extremist sentiment has been fuelled by immigration and has been exacerbated by the economic crisis; when unemployment rises, so does anti-immigrant sentiment. Underlying it is an increasingly ugly strand of Islamophobia. What is most worrying, however, is the inability or unwillingness of mainstream political parties across Europe to confront these issues. As we have seen in this country, the refusal of the political establishment over many years to conduct a mature debate on immigration has played into the hands of the British National Party. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy is taking pre-emptive action against a resurgent National Front, which performed strongly in March’s regional elections, with his expulsion of illegal Roma immigrants. However, Europe’s leaders need to develop a more sophisticated approach to the many challenges posed by economic migration if the extremists are not to continue to prosper.

— Hat tip: JP

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Italy: Funeral Held for Country’s 30th Afghan Military Death

Rome, 20 Sept. (AKI) — A somber state funeral was held in Rome on Monday for Lt. Alessandro Romani, a member of the Italian special forces who became Italy’s 30th military death in the 9-year-old Afghan war when he succumbed to wounds received last week during an exchange of gunfire with suspected insurgents.

Romani, 36, a native of Rome, was hit by gunfire when he and other troops were sent to apprehend militants spotted by an unmanned aircraft planting a bomb on the road between Farah and Delaram. Both cities house NATO bases.

The state funeral in the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Rome was attended by high-ranking government officials like Italian president Giorgio Napolitano and Minister of Defense Ignazio La Russa.

In basilica’s first row of pews were Romani’s mother and father, seated in front of the alter among other family members.

“Those who have a reason to live also have a reason to die,” said archbishop Vincenzo Pelvi, who oversees Catholic rites administration for the Italian military. “In Afghanistan Alessandro wanted bombs to stop putting an end to the dreams of children, that women were no longer disfigured and stoned to death, and that men were no longer tied to a pole waiting to be executed in front of the eyes of their children.”

Another soldier was being treated at a military hospital in Ramstein, Germany for wounds suffered during the same firefight, according to an Italian military spokesman.

Italy has it will have around 4,000 troops serving in Afghanistan by the end of the year.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Unicredit CEO Profumo Expected to Resign Over Libyan Stake

Milan, 21 Sept. (AKI) — Alessandro Profumo, the chief executive officer of Italian bank UniCredit, may step down from his post on Monday when the board of directors meets. His resignation would come amid a spat over Libyan investments that caused prominent shareholders to lose confidence in the Milan-based executive’s management , according to news reports.

The board is expected to appoint chairman Dieter Rampl as the interim CEO at the meeting that begins at 6 pm.

Some banking foundations have been vociferous in their distaste of Profumo’s management after Libyan investors increased their stake in Italy’s largest bank creating concern that the northern African country’s influence is UniCreit is increasing.

According to a filing with Italian stock-market regulator Consob, the Libyan Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund , boosted its UniCredit stake to 2.6 percent from 2.1 percent as of 31 Aug. This is on top of the almost 5 percent of the bank in the hands of the Central Bank of Libya.

Profumo, 53, nicknamed “Mr. Arrogance” by former colleagues at consultant agency McKinsey, did not tell other managers about the Libyan moves but denied he had any involvement in encouraging them in to become invest in his bank.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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More Thai Women in Swedish Sex Report

The number of Thai and Nigerian women exploited for sexual purposes in Sweden has increased, according to a police report on human trafficking.

The number of reports involving the exploitation of mentally handicapped women has also increased, according to a report on human trafficking from Sweden’s National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen) released on Tuesday.

“Alarming,” Kajsa Wahlberg of the police board told news agency TT.

Last year was the first time Nigerian women were reported to have been involved in the sex trade in Sweden, likely as a result of the introduction of a law in Norway prohibiting the buying of sexual services that came into effect on January 1st, 2009.

In addition, the number of exploited Thai women has increased. There were also several reports of the pimping of exploited mentally handicapped girls last year.

The trafficking of Nigerian prostitutes has previously been a large problem in the rest of Europe. In Sweden, however, they have only appeared on a small scale in Gothenburg.

A trial is currently under way in Stockholm exposing a Nigerian prostitution ring. The exploited women involved were forced to undergo a voodoo ritual in their home countries, where they were intimidated into submission and repaying debts to the masterminds behind the ring.

The police board estimates that about 50 Nigerian women were exploited in the sex trade in Sweden last year. They often lack education and many of them are illiterate.

The Thai women who come to Sweden and are exploited for sexual purposes often come here through marriage or on visitor visas after being invited by Swedish men who then sell them into work in apartments, hotel rooms or at Thai massage parlours.

In the Stockholm area alone, police estimate that there are about 90 Thai massage parlours.

“Most offer sexual massage,” said Wahlberg.

The police have never seen so many cases of sexual exploitation of girls and women with mental disabilities as were reported last year. Cases have been reported by police authorities in Stockholm, central Gävleborg and southern Skåne.

“They are totally unscrupulous men who exploit these helpless girls,” said Wahlberg.

Other facts from the report reveal that the majority of women who were trafficked to Sweden in 2009 came from eastern Europe, Russia, Estonia, Romania, Hungary and Albania.

Most of the traffickers were men, but some were women, coming from Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Sweden, Estonia, Nigeria and Thailand.

There were also examples in which the traffickers exploited the victims for several purposes. In one case, two Czech women were trafficked to Sweden to steal during the day and prostitute in the evenings and nights.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Roma: Belgium Joins Caravan of Shame

Le Soir, 20 September 2010

“Belgium also implicated in the Roma affair,” announces the front page of Le Soir. The Belgian daily reports that the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is preparing to file a complaint with the Council of Europe over the attitude of three Belgian regions toward “travelling people”. The FIDH claim there is an “insufficient number of suitable camping grounds, a disproportionate number of expulsions and the lack of official recognition of travellers’ trailers and caravans as ‘lodging’.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Roma: Axis of Weevils

Nicolas Sarkozy defiance of Europe — loudly supported by Silvio Berlusconi — isn’t just about the Roma, it is an attack on the community’s core values and the right of the public to know what is being done in their name, says columnist Barbara Spinelli

In an interview in Le Figaro, Silvio Berlusconi has now officially rallied to Nicolas Sarkozy’s defence on the Roma expulsions that are driving a wedge between the French government and the Union. Not only that, he has censured the justice commissioner for her remarks about Paris, adding that “Mrs Reding would have done better to discuss the matter in private with the French officials rather than expressing herself in public the way she did”.

This invitation to render European politics secret, which he now reformulates as a request to settle disputes between the Union and member states behind the closed doors of chancelleries, points up a specific conception of Europe, of its influence on its component states, and of the supranational law it administers. This conception essentially denies the primacy of that law — with its directives and its Charter of Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty — over the conduct and laws of nation states. It is ceaselessly wearing away at the European idea, delegitimising European law. And yet that law, which gives member state governments so much grief, remains in force.

Cabal of nationalists

European law and principles are being gutted in the name of national sovereignties, which are not disappearing, to be sure, but which must bow to the supremacy of the community in some domains. European power has not been formally rejected (it couldn’t be anyway), but subjected to a tenacious desire to see it camouflaged, concealed, just as Molière’s Tartuffe seeks to hide his own libidinous desires, imploring: “Cover that breast I cannot bear to see. Such a sight offends the soul and brings forth guilty thoughts.” The conspiratorial silence, the secret negotiations between Brussels and member states, the refusal to allow a space for public discussion of human dramas like that of the Roma, now a “people of the Community” if ever there was one. As in France in the age of Molière and Louis XIV, there is a “cabal” of die-hard nationalists in present-day Europe who admit the validity of European law but would keep it concealed, like Dorine’s beautiful bosom in Tartuffe.

The die-hards are hell bent on keeping up the fiction of absolutely sovereign states free to do as they see fit without interference from Brussels. These are the same die-hards who, when convenient, rail against Europe’s “democratic deficit” and its badgering tight-lipped bureaucracy. And this hypocritical number happens to be a French postwar speciality, now perpetuated by Mr Sarkozy.

But the Franco-Italian front reveals something else about the whole Roma affair. Neither the French nor the Italian leaders seem to recall the raison d’être — if they ever actually knew it — of this overly outspoken, finger-wagging Europe. They’ve apparently forgotten that the European Community was created after the war for the precise purpose of laying down a new supranational law under which states could no longer engage in wrongdoing behind the smokescreen of their little sovereign nations.

Danger of return to the past

It is not astonishing that on 14 September Viviane Reding, a Christian Democrat commissioner, should stress the danger of returning to the past, to the persecution of Jews and Gypsies in the last war. That was strong language, for which she subsequently apologised and which many deemed excessive, but which remains an inescapable reminder. A reminder of how the Union was formed post-1945, and why Europe is the promise everyone made to themselves that certain things would never happen again — thanks to the pooling of what used to be absolute national sovereignties.

On 16 September in Brussels, Europe fell out over the Roma issue: there were even reports of “violent altercations” between Barroso and Sarkozy. Even if Germany is not above reproach either (having expelled a great many Roma to Kosovo), Chancellor Merkel stands by the commission and its right to impose overarching laws and values. So does the Belgian government. The innocents are indeed few and far between, but the only government to openly back the French is Italy. And it’s the only one to share Sarkozy’s view of the commission. When he invited Reding to take in the Roma in her own country, Luxembourg, the French president treated the commission as an assembly of national representatives, and not of representatives of Europe’s common interest.

Pact of silence broken

It is possible that the conspiratorial silence may be over now. Barroso’s institutional pride in his commission is intermittent at best, and some member governments (Spain, Czech Republic) are very jealous of their sovereignty. But the pact of silence has been broken, essential matters are now being thrashed out in public: the Roma issue, like that of Austria in the days of Jörg Haider, has given rise to a European agora. Barroso’s commission would have stuck to politics being done in secret if the European Parliament hadn’t roundly condemned the expulsions on 9 September.

One of our great federalists, Mario Albertini, said the real Union would be born the day federalism “becomes a daily political struggle (…so that) the man in the street realises that, just as there are socialists, Christian Democrats and liberals, there are also European federalists”. And that is what has been happening since the beginning of the summer, thanks to the Roma and the political struggle they have triggered over Europe’s raison d’être.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Sweden Democrat Members Exposed in Leak

A register of over 5,000 people who are either members or have registered their interest in the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats (SD), has been published on the internet.

“It is an old database… which the attacker presumably got hold of in the weekend’s hacker attack. We have filed a police report,” SD press spokesperson Erik Almqvist told the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily.

But according to several Swedish bloggers rumours began circulating in the weeks running up to Sunday’s general election that the Sweden Democrats’ member list had been obtained by hackers back in April.

Either way the list was published on Monday and is presented as a search engine enabling visitors to the site to “Get to know your local Sweden Democrats” and “Find a friend near you” with the possibility to search according to town, street address or telephone number.

According to Almqvist the information has not been actively collected by the party, but has been filed by the applicants themselves.

Almqvist argued to DN that the details have been published in order to scare current and potential members, although sought to play down the importance of the information.

“It is not particularly sensitive information really, but we know that there is a significant level of threats directed against the members of our party,” he said.

The website where the register has been published is registered to Gottfried Svartholm Varg, one of the founders of file sharing website The Pirate Bay and whistleblower website Wikileaks’ web host PRQ, which is hosting the site.

While it has been confirmed that the website’s IP address does in fact belong to PRQ, it remains unclear whether Svartholm Varg is in fact the person behind the site.

The whole situation is muddied still further by the fact that Mikael Viborg, who operates PRQ, has previously been employed by the Sweden Democrats as their legal counsel.

The Sweden Democrats website has been the target of a series of hacker attacks during the election campaign and was not accessible at 6am on Tuesday.

— Hat tip: KGS

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UK: Hospital Doctors Lost Student, 17, While She Lay Dying of Meningitis and Even Took a 30-Minute Break, Inquest Told

A 17-year-old girl at one of the country’s top independent schools was ‘lost’ by doctors in a hospital as she lay dying of meningitis-related blood poisoning, an inquest heard today.

Clementine Nicholson, known as Clemie, collapsed at £24,000-a-year Rugby School and was rushed to Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry but she died the next day of meningococcal septicaemia — blood poisoning caused by the same type of bacteria that causes meningitis.

The condition needed to be treated within six hours if there was any chance of survival, the inquest at Coventry Magistrates Court heard, but Dr Patodi sent her for an unnecessary CT scan and even took a 30-minute break.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Lutfur Rahman is Sacked as Labour Candidate

It’s official. The Labour Party has today issued the following statement:

“Having received a number of serious allegations concerning both the eligibility of participating voters and the conduct of Lutfur Rahman, the National Executive Committee has decided to investigate the allegations made.As a result, administrative action has been taken to remove Lutfur Rahman as a candidate pending the investigation. Nominations for Tower Hamlets mayor close this week and in the circumstances the NEC had no option but to impose another candidate. The NEC has voted to select Helal Abbas Uddin as Labour’s candidate.”

[JP note: a commentator, Mike Clark, at Harry’s Place has pointed out that Labour’s National Executive Committee have chosen to replace a Muslim with another Muslim:]

Mike Clark

21 September 2010, 4:33 pm

Andy Newman writes:

Once the Labour Party NEC decided to suspend Rahman as candidate, in the face of Gilligan’s Islamophobic witchhunt, then they could not choose the person who came second in the poll for the Labour Party candidate selection, John Biggs, without it looking like they were choosing a white British candidate in preference to a Bengali.

That’s remarkably honest of him. I think he is right. They know that Andy’s friends use Islamophobia as a political tool and quite openly lie about it to the local population to gain votes. They would have lied their heads off if they put the second place white candidate in place, so the NEC have actually discriminated against the white candidate on the basis of his race.

It’s extremely ironic. For all the talk of racism against Muslims the only race discrimination here has taken place against a white non-Muslim.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: New Report: Debunking the Islamisation Myth

[A couple more readers’ comments from the lengthy debate at Harry’s Place about Mr Standing’s report on Islamisation in the UK.]

[…]

Israelinurse

20 September 2010, 10:19 am

Generally speaking I have a lot of respect for Edmund Standing’s work, but in this instance I’m really not sure what he’s trying to prove. Beyond the ‘keep calm and carry on’ overall message of this report there is something else which I do not know whether to categorise as sinister or terminally naive. The use of the ‘2010 University of Exeter Report’ (p7, ref. 9) gets alarm bells ringing straight away. This report, co-produced by Bob Lambert, comes out of the European Muslim Research Centre at Exeter which enjoys some very dodgy funding.

http://globalmbreport.com/?p=2091

I certainly would not have used a reference from such a source in any report I wanted to be taken seriously.

[…]

Rather than wait for Edmund Standing’s rather bizarre scenario depicted on pages 16 & 17 of this report to come to pass, the more healthy route for British society (and others) would be to begin to address the real concerns of all its members instead of branding them as hysterical or racist. Such an attitude certainly does not help the moderate Muslims or ex-Muslims trying to combat extremism within society as a whole.

[…]

Don’t lecture me.

20 September 2010, 12:46 pm

paul fauvet,

“So McGrath (“Don’t lecture me”) has had his town changed about his ears. So what? We all have. Is there a single town in England that looks the same as it did ten or twenty years ago?”

I am now living in a suburb straight out of the Middle East, I don’t recognise the culture, the people and see only very few remnants of the way of life I grew up with. I’m not a victim of being unable to adjust to inevitable progress and change. I have been dumped into an alien country without ever moving! I didn’t ask for it, I don’t like it and I wont be condescende to by Idiots that can’t accept it is happening.

[…]

mettaculture

20 September 2010, 4:36 pm

It is important to never forget that islamist push Sharia and Halal as a wedge political strategy, in fact the demand for these two things is always indicative, without exception of islamist activists at work. So to allow the agenda to be determined by opposition to everything the EDL might claim is wrong-headed and dangerous. Their demonstrations always have someone carrying a placard saying ‘One law for All’. The premise of Standing’s argument implies that a liberal egalitarian secularist, non racist who expects equal treatment before the law irrespective of ethnicity or faith, cannot oppose Sharia (and the underlying islamist agenda) without showing themselves to be a hysterical fantasist and EDL type obsessing about ‘Islamization’. Sorry Edmund what this article shows is that in reacting reflexively with your liberal principles you have just been played as a patsy by Islamists and their apologists using the easiest ‘deploy multicultural cover’ ruse in their strategy book.

[…]

Dont lecture me

Where do I start?

Stephen:

“From the sublime to the ridiculous. Is boredom the M.O of most posters here?

What else would you posts inspire? But there was a serious point in my post.. Shops change ownership all the time.”

Yes, what else would my posts inspire? You have trouble with objectivity? You take my reality on the ground here as a personal slight? Doesen’t fit your preferred word view? Too bad, It’s the same today as it was yesterday regardless of your emotional state. Businesses do change ownership, but it’s not usual for them the change ownership enmasse, becoming the property of particular cultural elements seemingly intent on a land grab, and whose business models bare no relationship to the needs of the community they once served. For example; my post office is now a halal ice cream parlour. Another pub is being refitted as a travel agent offering visa processing and Hajj packages. The old folks home is an Islamic meeting hall.. If all a community needed to survive were takeaways, curry houses and Mosques, Preston would be thriving. It’s local business infrastructure has been dismantled and replaced with short term, and short sighted funding projects for the enlargement of the Islamic ghetto that already exists. Yes Edmund, there’s no such thing as Islamisation.

[…]

Devorgilla says:

“In the UK, Muslim immigration is indiscriminate (many uneducated) and drawn from parts of the Muslim world like Pakistan which are culturally backward.”

It’s not just that. Aggression and dominance are markers of many Muslim communities too. Ordinary neighboring areas are finding themselves embattled, something that has never traditionally been a component of your average joe’s existence in modern times. It’s a culture war.

Johnny….

“I live in Lancashire, and first visited Preston about 15 years ago; in the last 8, I have got to know it quite well. I have never recognised it in the way DLM describes it.”

How can I possibly argue such concrete refutation? “middle east” johnny is a metaphor, not a rigid facsimile. “There are also many pubs and nightclubs in the city centre, especially Friargate and Fishergate — as you must know: incongruous with any town in the Middle-East. I know of no Islamic attempts to close them down. (In fact, I have seen some Muslim lads drinking in them!)” What gift do you posess Johnny that allows you to determine religion by glance? Former pubs, now Muslim owned: The Stephensons arms,

The Meadow Arms, The County arms, Mr Pickwicks, The Edinborough Castle, The Red Lion, The lamb e.t.c. there are more.

Islamisation is a myth.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Newman Had an Unlikely Part in the Lord of the Rings

Standing in a field on the edge of the Lickey Hills on Sunday, I caught a breath of Tolkein’s mythical version of England, writes Christopher Howse.

The suburbs of Birmingham hardly seem a likely model for J R R Tolkien’s Shire, in Middle Earth, but standing in a field on the edge of the Lickey Hills on Sunday, I caught a breath of that mythical version of England. Cofton Park had been chosen as the place for the beatification of John Henry Newman because it is close to the place where he spent parts of the summer and chose to be buried.

Between the park and that house stands a cottage where the 12-year-old Tolkien, his brother and mother lodged when she was sick in 1904. Earlier, they had lived next to Sarehole Mill, the original for Hobbiton Mill — spoilt, in The Return of the King, by the industrialising henchmen of Saruman.

Tolkien’s true inspiration, of course, was philology, or so he thought. For him, a language naturally went together with a mythology, and England had lost its own. So he invented one.

In Farmer Giles of Ham, according to the irresistible deductions of that hard-headed Anglo-Saxonist Tom Shippey, he made Tamworth, near Birmingham, the capital of the Middle Kingdom. For Newman fans it is more familiar from The Tamworth Reading Room, his essay on the difference between knowledge and wisdom.

It was a protégé of Newman’s who had brought the Tolkien family to the postman’s cottage. Tolkien’s father was dead, and his mother had taken the brave step of becoming a Catholic, to the disgust of her few relations. Father Francis Morgan, who had acted for a time as Newman’s chaplain, saw that this sick, isolated woman could do with some country air, and found them the lodgings, next to the Oratory house at Rednal. Since then, the Longbridge motor works have eaten up the land, like Saruman producing infernal engines. Now the works are empty. Yet there still seem no signs of the Shire being cleansed.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Report Demonstrates How City is Changing

Council aims to renew its equalities policy in wake of study’s findings

THE changing face of Sheffield’s population has been revealed in a report which shows the number of ethnic minority residents has more than doubled in the last 20 years.

The figures have been released by the city council as it looks to renew its equalities policy, which aims to make particular efforts to ensure minority groups receive fair treatment and access to services, rather than simply treating everyone the same” […]

– Sheffield’s inhabitants are getting older, with the proportion of 0-14s set to shrink despite a rising birth rate, while 65 to 79 year-olds are expected to increase by 10,000, or 20 per cent, in the next 20 years. The 80 plus population is to rise by 10,000, equivalent to 40 per cent on current levels.

– The amount of people from ethnic minorities rose from 36,500, or seven per cent, in 1991, to 82,400, or 15.5 per cent, in 2007 and is set to grow further, as 29 per cent of births are in minority groups.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Three Police Officers and a Patrol Car Rush to… Children Playing Football in the Street

Police were accused today of being ‘heavy handed’ after three officers were dispatched to issue a ticking off to two boys — for playing football in the street.

Henry Worthington, 12, and his brother Alex, 11, were told their kick-abouts in a cul-de-sac outside their home after school were illegal and could result in them getting anti-social behaviour orders.

Their father Anthony, 43, of Timperley, Greater Manchester, was also sent a letter from officials at Trafford Council warning him his two sons could be in breach of the 1980 Highways Act which outlaws ball games.

The incident comes after Greater Manchester Police revealed it was preparing to cut more than 3,000 jobs due to the government’s anticipated 25 per cent cut in spending.

Today, Mr Worthington, an engineer, said: ‘Sending three officers over simply to give a warning about kids playing football in the street is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

‘My boys are not hooligans. They are good lads who cause no trouble and I prefer them to play outside the house so I know they are safe. They haven’t interfered with a car or any pedestrians so I don’t see what the problem is.

‘They play for a local football club on the weekend and they just want to practise their skills outside their house with their friends. It’s not as if they’re out all hours 24/7, it’s just half an hour after school.

‘I’m absolutely appalled that the police are not out there catching real criminals. I feel like my family is being persecuted.

‘When I was a lad the police were not out persecuting children for playing football. Now you get three policemen coming to my door to tell us off for it.

‘It’s a joke-and a total waste of police resources given that they are facing massive cuts.

— Hat tip: JD

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Vive La Différence

In January the new permanent president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, renewed the European Union’s urgent call for a new tax. There was no time to waste: Brussels needed the dough to preserve what Van Rompuy called the “European way of life.” As a statement released by his office last November put it, “The financing of the welfare state…will require new resources.”

As the reaction against Obamacare demonstrated, if the president of the United States said he needed more money to preserve the “American way of life” and then made clear he meant ponying up more money for welfare schemes, most voters would wish him an unemployment check without delay. But they would be shocked to discover in Peter Baldwin’s very amusing book, The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America and Europe Are Alike, that the “European way of life” pretty much describes how people in, say, Iowa live.

In fact, Baldwin, a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, reached his conclusion in a distinctly Midwestern way: he harvested. Baldwin’s numbers — fertilized by studies from the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and other international organizations and institutions, where statistics grow as thick and high as Iowa corn — fill his book. They show that despite our assumptions, despite a thousand op-eds, and a couple of centuries of squabbling and bickering, and even wars and revolutions, the statistical differences between Western Europe and America are trivial — in fact less than the differences between various European states.

[…]

One graph after another in this highly contrarian and entertaining book shows a big black line indicating where America stands in the European tables, and it’s almost always somewhere in the middle, often with Scandos and the make-believe Luxembourgers a notch or two above us, the British and Irish a notch or two below.

[…]

Who knew that in the U.S., taxes are more progressive than in all of Europe? Or that American social welfare policies are as generous as Van Rompuy’s cherished continental welfare state? Or that the Germans are even more litigious than Yanks? Or that for education, state spending by Americans and Europeans is about the same and achieves about the same results? Or that Americans have been more successful in reducing carbon dioxide output per unit of GDP than nine European countries, some of them notoriously sanctimonious? Or that the French, Austrians, Swiss, Germans, and Italians — with their expensive public transportation networks — all own more passenger cars per capita than Americans do?

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Egypt: Hamas Intelligence Agent ‘Arrested’

Cairo, 20 Sept. (AKI) — A top Hamas intelligence agent has been arrested in Egypt on suspicion of participating in activities designed to compromise national security, Arabic newspaper al-Ahran reported on Monday, citing a security source.

Mohammed Dababish was accused of taking part in the killing of a border guard along the Gaza Strip, among other crimes, according to the daily, which said he was apprehended last week while returning from a trip to Syria.

Dababish is part of an unit that oversees intelligence inside of Gaza.

Dababish is believed to have been involved in a failed attempt to smuggle sophisticated radio equipment into Gaza which is embargoed by Egypt and Israel, according to the source.

Egypt has arrested a number of Hamas officials since one of its soldiers was killed in a border shooting early this year. Egypt believes Hamas was involved in the shooting.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Israel’s Allies in 1948; The USSR, Czechoslovakia, American Mainline Churches and the Left

The nearly universal belief, never challenged by the media, is that the United States was wholly or largely and “morally” responsible for fully supporting Israel on the ground from the very beginning of its independence in May, 1948. The world has been inundated with a tsunami of Arab propaganda and crocodile tears shed for the “Palestinians” who have reveled in what they refer to as their Catastrophe or Holocaust (“Nabka” in Arabic).

Their plight has been accompanied by unremitting criticism that the United States was the principal architect that stood behind Israel from the very beginning with money, manpower and arms. The fact is that President Truman eventually decided against the pro-Arab “professional opinion” of his Secretary of State, General George Marshall and the Arabists of the State Department. He accorded diplomatic recognition to the new Jewish state but never considered active military aid. His own memoirs recall how he felt betrayed by State Department officials and the American U.N. Ambassador, Warren Austin who pulled the rug out from under him one day after he promised Zionist leader Chaim Weitzman support for partition.

American Jewish voting in the 1948 Presidential election leaned heavily for President Truman but also cast a substantial number of votes for third party “Progressive” leader Henry Wallace who had spoken out even more strongly on behalf of American support for the Zionist position and aid to Israel. It was actually not until the administration of President John Kennedy in the early 1960s that the first American arms shipments were made to Israel.

— Hat tip: JD

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Bahrain: Sunni Authorities in Manama Revoke Nationality of Shiite Ayatollah

The decision is linked to a series of measures against the Shiites, who are the majority of citizens. Measures against another cleric and arrests among those who participated in protests against discrimination. Government concern over increasing power of the Shiites in the region.

Manama (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The government of Bahrain has withdraw the passport of one of the most influential Shiite leaders, Ayatollah Hussein al-Najati (left in photo), who is also the representative of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, highest Shiite religious authority in Iraq, in the small kingdom. The decision to revoke the nationalities of both al-Najati and his family, apparently for bureaucratic reasons, falls within a range of measures that the authorities (Sunni) are taking against the majority Shiite community, in the lead up to parliamentary elections, scheduled for October 23.

On Sunday, just hours before the announcement of the decision against al-Najati, another penalty against a Shiite cleric, Sheik Abdul Jaleel Al-Miqdad, was unveiled. He has been banned for two weeks, from leading Friday prayers. The measures appear as a reaction to demonstrations and Al-Miqdad protests in August over the arrests of more than 250 Shiites. While a further 23 activists have been accused of plotting to topple the government and destabilizing the country. On Sunday there were four more arrests related to the protests. As for al-Najati, whose role in the demonstrations has not been clarified, he recently signed an appeal of the major Shiite religious leaders for an end to street protests, the release of prisoners and the opening of a dialogue between government and opposition.

The Shiites, who account for 70% of 530 thousand citizens of the small state, have long complained of being discriminated against by the Sunni monarchy and its government. They argue that the constituencies for the parliament were designed to ensure a majority for the Sunnis, that Sunnis from other states have been naturalized and recruited in the army and police (about 60 thousand men), while the civil service is full of Sunnis, especially in the areas of defence and interior and in senior roles, that the Sunnis are favoured in the allocation of houses as well as in government intervention.

The authorities in Bahrain feel threatened: last week, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa asked the government to “fight terrorism”. The underlying concern is related to the increasing importance that the Shiites are gaining in Iraq in general and the increased Iranian influence. Last year there were moments of tension in relations between Manama and, following a declaration by Ali Akbar Nateq Noori, an advisor to the Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei, according to whom Bahrain is the 14th province of Iran. Similar statements were made just days before by a deputy, Daryush Qanbari.

The behaviour of the government of the small kingdom is closely followed by both Sunni authorities of other countries in the area, as well as Shiite, but so far there has been no comment from Tehran or al-Sistani.

Rather than by religious conflict, then, Bahrain’s actions are for political reasons. The kingdom enjoys a discrete religious freedom — Christians, especially foreign workers, are 10% of the population — it has diplomatic relations with the Vatican, it is the first Gulf state to have allowed the construction of a Catholic place of worship and year Last King Hamad donated land for the construction of a second, responding to a request by Benedict XVI.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Caroline Glick: Who Lost Turkey?

You have to hand it to Turkey’s Islamist leaders. They sure know how to get their way. In the seven years since they first took power, the Islamist AKP party has successfully transformed Turkey from a staunch ally of the US and Israel and a member of NATO into a staunch ally of Iran and a member of NATO.

And that’s not all. Turkey’s Islamist leaders have used the Western language of democracy and freedom not only to abandon the West. They have used that language to destroy the foundations of Turkey’s Western-style secular democracy and transform the governing system of NATO’s sole Muslim member into a hybrid of Putinist autocracy and Iranian theocracy.

On September 12, the AKP took an enormous step toward consolidating its achievements and expanding its power. The Islamist regime won a national plebiscite on constitutional amendments that remove the remaining obstacles to its absolute power…

— Hat tip: Caroline Glick

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Iran: President Ahmedinejad Threatens U.S. With War ‘Without Boundaries’

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad warned the Obama administration today that if Iran’s nuclear facilities are attacked, the U.S. will face a war that “would know no boundaries.”

The Iranian president, who is in New York for the annual meetings of the United Nations General Assembly, spoke at a breakfast meeting with reporters and editors at Manhattan’s Warwick Hotel.

He said that Iran is on the brink of becoming a nuclear power, and warned Israel and the U.S. against attacking its nuclear facilities.

— Hat tip: JD

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Iraq: Poverty and Unemployment Among Northern Christians

Families living in villages in Zakho District are worn out by the lack of work, food and basic services. “We depend entirely on aid from humanitarian organisations and the Church,” some say. Children have a hard time integrating in schools where Kurdish is the language of education.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) — Iraqi families that fled north have to endure unemployment, poverty, lack of basic services, shortages of food and fuel and poor prospects. Many of them are Christian from Baghdad and Mosul and found refuge in Zakho District, Dohuk Governatorate (Iraqi Kurdistan). After years, their living conditions have not improved. Ankawa.com recently published a report on their dramatic situation.

Unemployment remains the main problem. The main breadwinners have had to seek work in Baghdad or nearby Erbil. Children have had to quit schools unable to study in Kurdish, a language they do not know. Those can study often do not have the money to buy school material, which is expensive given the wages of average families. Joblessness is closely related to the fact that when work is available, it is in the farming sector, whilst most migrants come from cities and do not have the necessary experience to work on farms.

In practical terms, survival depends on aid provided by humanitarian organisations operating in the area and the Church. Representatives of the local Christian community are able to provide families with US$ 50 a month, which is inadequate to help even the smallest of families.

Food prices are rising because of the lack of control by the authorities. Many families get food rations provided by the government but only in their place of origin. However, travelling to Baghdad, Basra or Mosul to get them means paying for high transportation costs and especially take risks given the insecurity that prevails in those areas.

Food is not the only thing in short supply. Getting fuel and basic services is also an uphill battle. The Kurdish government provides free medical coverage as well as water and electricity but all other public services are in a poor state. Roads are rundown or in ruin. Villages and towns are unclean. All this contributes to disease and epidemics. Adequate housing is also in scarce supply for those who fled the cities in the past six years. Many are forced to live in convents or parish buildings, two or three families per room.

With families going through their savings, poverty is widespread. For young people, the future at home is bleak, given the country’s instability and deadlocked political situation. Emigration, legal or not, is seen by many as the only hope, but the lack of means makes it hard to do.

Frustration and depression are widespread, closely linked to the realisation that everything has been lost. Families from Baghdad’s Dora neighbourhood say they left their homes into the care of neighbours, but armed gangs have seized them by force. Similarly, women have been forced to wear the veil and Christian residents now have to pay the Jizya, the poll tax for non-Muslims.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Kremlin Declares War of the Last Tsar of Moscow

For weeks the mayor Luzkhov and his wealthy wife are the subject of an public campaign that highlights their personal interests and mismanagement of the Russian capital. Behind TV campaign, the hand of the government that wants to get rid of the long time first citizen, the undisputed master of Moscow for over 18 years. The possible successors.

Moscow (AsiaNews) — The army of Russians ex-kingpins ousted from the Kremlin and forced into exile in Europe could soon count among its new recruits, the mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov and his wife, the oligarch Elena Baturina. The powerful governor of the capital is now at loggerheads with President Dmitri Medvedev and his “resignation” seems imminent. This has been confirmed by a hard hitting press campaign to discredit him organized and carried out on state television NTV. According to foreign media, the richest couple in the country has already prepared for their golden exile in Austria and England, and possible candidates to the mayor’s chair have begun to circulate.

The sins of the richest couple in Moscow

In the eyes of the Kremlin, the Luzhkovs wield too much power in an area of such strategic importance as the capital. During the nearly two decade reign of her husband, Baturina has risen from being a simple clerk to the city’s ‘ brick oligarch. “ With a net worth of 2.9 billion U.S. dollars, the business magazine Forbes says she is the third richest woman in the world and has no competitors at home. It is no coincidence that in the last 10 years the real estate market in Moscow has become an inextricable mix of speculation and corruption, which is dominated by a class of unscrupulous real estate magnates. According to activists for the protection of historical heritage the local government is complicit in this, with up to 80% of construction projects involving real estate development company Inteko, which belongs to the mayor’s wife, in fact.

In fact it is this charge of putting personal interest ahead of the common good that the Kremlin has made against Luzhkov. Last week a heavy advertising campaign aimed at discrediting the image of the first citizen and his powerful wife started. The channel NTV, under the control of the Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom, which has always been close to Medvedev, broadcast a series of reports on the privileges of the couple, who immediately began a libal action against the broadcaster. The general manager of the network, Vladimir Kulistikov, said he is ready to prove the truth of the facts and push ahead in what is now an “open war”. Luzkhov has been battling demands of his resignation for months: the Russian President has not forgiven the mayor for his chaotic management of the fire and smog emergency, that devastated the capital this summer or for having challenged his decision to suspend the Moscow-Saint Petersburg highway project, after massive protests.

Luzhkov exploits power struggle between Medvedev and Putin

But beyond the official political reasons, the disappearance of Luzkhov according to some analysts, should be tied to the underlying power struggle between Medvedev and Putin, in view of the 2012presidential election. Putin, a fellow party member of Luzhkov’s in “United Russia”, may decide to defend not accept any resignation and thus open a confrontation with the president. But this would be a drastic solution that currently does not really benefit anyone. The Luzkhovs have taken a vacation and there are many who believe that they will not return home. According to the Financial Times, the couple are seeking refuge in London, where Baturina is already the owner of the second largest residence in the British capital after Buckingham Palace, the Witanhurst, estimated at 100 million pounds. Illustrious fellow countrymen like billionaires Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea, and Boris Berezovsky, the most powerful of Yeltsin-era oligarchs already reside in the English city. Precisely because of the strong presence of Russian expatriates, the British capital has been nick named Londograd.

However, if the couple chooses to disappear altogether from the scene, according to the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, they could choose to retire to Kitzbuhel in Tyrol, where Baturina has already made investments.

Thus speculation has begun on the succession to the post of Mayor of Moscow, which is appointed by the Kremlin. The Russian newspaper Vedomosti reveals a list of three eligible candidates: Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin, Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoygu, former governor of Kaliningrad Georgij Boos.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Slovenian Troops “Illegally in Afghanistan”

LJUBLJANA — The union of the Slovenian military has sent a letter to the country’s President Danilo Turk regarding troop deployment in Afghanistan.

The letter informed Turk that the Slovenian government was “illegally sending troops” taking part in NATO operations.

The union informed the commander-in-chief that the Slovenian government was unconstitutionally and illegally sending Slovenian soldiers to Afghanistan.

President of the Slovenian Armed Forces Union Gvido Novak added in the letter that it was necessary for parliament to make a decision first before Slovenian troops could participate in offensive, war actions.

Reports said that without a state of war being declared, the decision cannot be made without parliament, while the government is yet to send its proposal to MPs, only a week before the deployment of the Slovenian troops in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Colonel Vojteh Mihevc, the commander of the 14th contingent of the Slovenian Armed Forces which is supposed to be deployed to Afghanistan, has not denied that the army would be used in offensive operations outside the country’s borders.

Novak warned in his letter that new Slovenian military mission to Afghanistan will not be peacekeeping and defensive any longer, and that it will be a war mission whose goal will be to defeat the enemy.

That is why the union has called upon the president to, in accordance with the Constitution, make a decision to protect Slovenian troops from missions that the government is unconstitutionally and illegally sending them to, and to protect them from committing planned and deliberate criminal acts while performing their tasks without a legal basis, said the letter.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Luis Fleischman: Beyond Electoral Illusions: The Totalitarian Regime of Hugo Chavez

On September 26, Venezuela will hold parliamentary elections. Since Hugo Chavez was elected to the presidency in 1998, Venezuela has been transformed from a country with democratic institutions to one where the president controls all branches of government. The upcoming elections serve the purpose of making Chavez look like he is presiding over a free society but in reality provide no real chance for change. In this context, it is important to understand the true nature of the present Venezuelan political reality.

Many observers, journalists and scholars have tried to define the Chavez regime. Some have referred to it as being neo-populist and others have called it an illiberal democracy. Neo-populist refers to a regime characterized by the mobilization of marginal masses led by a charismatic leader. Indeed, Chavez has established a direct and authoritarian relationship with the people and has redistributed state funds amongst the poor in order to secure their support and win legitimacy for his regime. The legislature, the judiciary and other branches of government and civil society have become subordinated to his will and executive authority. Such was the case with regimes like that of Juan Peron in Argentina in the 40’s and 50’s and with some differences the government of Getulio Vargas in Brazil in the 30’s and 40’s.

An illiberal democracy is a regime that mixes authoritarianism and elections. This type of regime uses democracy to take power and then governs in authoritarian ways.

Undoubtedly, the Chavez regime includes aspects of both populism and illiberal democracy. However, I would argue that the Chavez regime is moving beyond populism and illiberal democracy in the direction of totalitarianism.

Zbigniew Brzezinski defined totalitarianism as a system of government where instruments “of political power are wielded without restraint by centralized leadership … for the purpose of affecting a social revolution , including the conditioning of man on the basis of certain arbitrary ideological assumptions… in an atmosphere of coerced unanimity of the entire population”. This provides a good definition of where the government of Venezuela is heading…

— Hat tip: CSP

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Mexico Paper Seeks Ciudad Juarez Drug Gang Guidance

A Mexican newspaper in the heartland of the country’s drug war has asked cartels for guidance on whether it should publish stories on the conflict.

El Diario de Juarez has become known for its strong reporting from the deadly streets of Ciudad Juarez.

But the killing of a 21-year-old photographer last week prompted the newspaper to run a front-page editorial asking: “What do you want from us?”

Rights groups say journalists are regularly being targeted by drug gangs.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a US-based advocacy group, says more than 30 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2006.

Many of those killed were reporting on crime or corruption, the group says, adding that the climate of fear has led to a widespread culture of self-censorship among fearful media workers.

El Diario’s editorial, published on its front page on Sunday, was its second since Luis Carlos Santiago, 21, was shot in Ciudad Juarez on 17 September. He later died of his injuries, although an intern who was also shot, Carlos Sanchez, survived the attack.

“The loss of two reporters from this publishing house in less than two years represents an irreparable sorrow for all of us who work here, and, in particular, for their families,” the newspaper said.

Describing the drug lords as the “de facto authorities” within Ciudad Juarez, the newspaper asked the cartels: “We ask you to explain what you want from us, what we should try to publish or not publish, so we know what to expect.”

It highlighted the lack of progress in the investigation into the 2008 death of Armando Rodriguez, shot dead outside his home in view of his family.

But the editorial insisted it was not “a surrender”, saying instead that it had simply become “impossible to do our job in these conditions”.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Aunt Zeituni: ‘The System Took Advantage of Me’

President Obama’s Aunt Speaks Exclusively With WBZ-TV

“If I come as an immigrant, you have the obligation to make me a citizen.” Those are the words from 58-year-old Zeituni Onyango of Kenya in a recent exclusive interview with WBZ-TV.

Onyango is the aunt of President Barack Obama. She lived in the United States illegally for years, receiving public assistance in Boston.

‘I Knew I Overstayed’

Aunt Zeituni, as she has come to be known, first surfaced in the public light in 2008, in the final days of the Presidential election. Then-candidate Obama said that he was not against the possible deportation of his aunt. “If she has violated laws, then those laws have to be obeyed,” he told CBS’s Katie Couric. “We are a nation of laws.”

Onyango had violated the law, and she knew it.

“I knew I had overstayed” she told WBZ-TV’s Jonathan Elias when the two sat down one-on-one.

Assigned Public Housing

Zeituni Onyango said she came to the United States in 2000 and had every intention of leaving. Then, however, she says she got deathly ill and was hospitalized. When she recovered, she said she was broke and couldn’t afford to leave.

For two years Onyango said she lived in a homeless shelter, before she was assigned public housing despite thousands of legal residents also awaiting assistance. “I didn’t take any advantage of the system. The system took advantage of me.”

“I didn’t ask for it; they gave it to me. Ask your system. I didn’t create it or vote for it. Go and ask your system,” she said unapologetically.

And she’s right. The system provided her assistance despite her status as an illegal immigrant.

Ordered to Leave the Country

In 2004 a judge ordered Zeituni Onyango out of the country, but she never left. She stayed, hiding in plain sight. In 2005 she attended her nephew’s swearing in as the junior Senator of Illinois. In 2008 she was invited to, and traveled to D.C. for President Obama’s inauguration.

However her nephew, she says, never pulled any strings for her.

“Listen. Obama did not know my whereabouts.”

‘Heaven’ Pays Her Bills

Onyango hired a top immigration lawyer from Cleveland to help fight her case. We asked how she afforded that lawyer, when she claimed poverty.

“When you believe in Jesus Christ and almighty God, my help comes from heaven,” she responded.

‘Public Enemy Number One’

When asked about cutting in line ahead of those who have paid into the system she answered plainly, “I don’t mind. You can take that house. I will be on the street with the homeless.”

“To me America’s dream became America’s worst nightmare,” she said adamantly. “I have been treated like public enemy number one.”

Granted Asylum

She is still living in South Boston public housing, unemployed, and collecting about $700 a month in disability, she says. And now, Zeituni Onlyango is in this country legally.

In May 2010, Onyango’s case went back before the same judge who ordered her out of the country in 2004. This time she was granted asylum in the United States. The ruling said a return to Kenya might put Onyango in danger.

Did her nephew, the President of the United States influence that immigration judge? “No influence at all, from nobody, from nowhere,” Onyango said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Germany: SPD Boss Calls for Tougher Integration Methods

The head of Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party, Sigmar Gabriel, has told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the country should get tough on immigrants who are unwilling to learn the language and integrate. He says they should be supported, but that the government and society should also make demands.

Sigmar Gabriel, the head of Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party, is calling for tougher integration policies in his country. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE on Monday, he said that immigrants who refuse to participate in programs offered by the government to help foreigners integrate are as unwelcome as hate preachers who have found homes in some of the country’s mosques and receive their funding from abroad.

The SPD leader’s comments attracted criticism from the Green Party. Veteran Green politician Volker Beck described his words as the “beating of the drum against immigrants with cheap populist politics.” Gabriel’s statements reflect a tougher tone in the language of his party, which has long been aligned with the country’s labor movement and governed together in Berlin with the immigrant-friendly Green Party before conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel came into power. His comments have also highlighted a divide within the party on integration policy.

“The question of penalties surely shouldn’t be at the center of the integration debate,” Sebastian Edathy, a member of the SPD’s parliamentary group told the website of the newspaper Handelsblatt. “Instead we should be looking at the question of how we can deal with this through a better and more targeted education policy.” Edathy added, however, that foreigners must participate in integration programs designed to cater for them.

The SPD in recent days has initiated procedures to oust from the party Thilo Sarrazin, a member who resigned from his position on the board of Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, over passages in his new book and remarks he made in interviews suggesting that Muslim immigrants are dumbing Germany down, that Jews share a specific gene and that immigration is gradually overwhelming ethnic Germans. He has also argued that many Turks and Arabs living in Germany are unwilling to integrate. Regardless whether his theories are racist or not, Sarrazin has struck a chord with many Germans about the country’s integration failures in recent decades. This, in turn, has put the SPD officials under pressure not to expel Sarrazin.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Italy: Frattini Backs Hard Line on Criminal Immigrants

Rome, 20 Sept. (AKI) — Italy’s foreign minister Franco Frattini on Monday urged a hard line against immigrants who commit crimes and voiced support for French president Sarkozy’s controversial policy of repatriating thousands of Roma Gypsies. The Roma “commit crimes,” Frattini said.

“To dismiss Sarkozy as xenophobic was a very serious error by the European Union,” Frattini said in an interview with Italy’s RAI 1 public TV channel.

He was referring to remarks made last week by EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding, who announced the bloc was planning legal action against France over the Roma deportations.

The deportations have drawn international condemnation in recent weeks. Officials in France have dismantled over 100 illegal camps.

“The Roma commit crimes,” Frattini said.

“Europe needs to undertake serious self-criticism over its security policies,” Frattini stated.

“When citizens go to vote, they are not looking for a bureaucratic response but want immigrants who commit crimes to be deported,” he claimed.

His comments followed the election on Sunday in Sweden for the first time of 20 far-right MPs to the 349-seat parliament.

The five billion dollars annually demanded by Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi last month to prevent Europe being ‘swamped’ by immigrants from Africa is “too little” Frattini concluded.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Video: Obama Has No Intentions of Enforcing Our Immigration Laws

Obama regime has radically changed the federal immigration enforcement stategy to REDUCE the threat of deportation for millions of illegals.

The American Political Action Committee (AmeriPAC) posted an article online on September 17, 2010 titled, “Obama Gives Illegals Get Out of Jail Card Free” written by Alan M. Gottlieb, Chairman that shows that “the Obama regime has radically changed the federal immigration enforcement stategy to REDUCE the threat of deportation for millions of illegals.”

The article goes on to explain that Obama has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to dismiss deportation cases for those illegals who haven’t committed “serious crimes.”

To my way of thinking, just crossing the border without legal authority is a “serious crime” and using that criterion they should ALL be deported. But even so, if more tolerance could reduce that violation of our laws to less than a “serious crime,” we know that it will only be a matter of hours, and more likely minutes, before they do commit a “serious crime.”

And as Gottlieb further states, “Obama has turned a blind eye on the surge in violent crimes committed by illegals across the country and is now giving them more rights than law-abiding Americans.”

There is no question that Obama’s prime motive for ordering such a radical order counter to proper law enforcement and protection of our sovereignty laws is as apparent as a bright floodlight: ‘Keep them here until at least after they have voted on November 2, 2010.’ He must think that we Americans are as dumb as most of the actions are that he takes every day. He isn’t fooling anyone but himself and just piling up more and more evidence to be used against him for impeachment.

On the other hand, perhaps he has seen the projections that have surfaced in YouTube.com video that has recently surfaced and is now making the rounds of the Internet landing in my INBOX today, Sep. 18, 2010. If true; I say ‘if’ because nowhere on the film did I see any mention of its author(s), origins or persons responsible for production, it is a very chilling and nerve-rattling video about 7 minutes in length titled simply, “Demographic problem” with detailed statistics, some with printed sources and all believable. Check it out for yourself and you decide.

— Hat tip: JD

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Republicans Raise Money for Gay Agenda

The civil war in the Republican Party takes another turn on Wednesday night when Sarah Palin basher Nicolle Wallace lends her name to a fundraiser for a pro-homosexual group called American Foundation for Equal Rights. Wallace, an adviser to the 2008 McCain for President campaign, figures prominently in Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue, as someone determined to get her on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric so that she could be sandbagged by the left-wing anchorwoman.

American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) supports the “right” of a homosexual judge in California to unilaterally overturn the state’s ban on homosexual marriage.

Meanwhile, with Senator John McCain adamantly opposed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a vote Tuesday on legislation to repeal the 1993 law against open homosexuals serving in the military. Repeal has already passed the House.

— Hat tip: JD

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Found: Genes That Make Kids Smart

SCIENTISTS have identified more than 200 genes potentially associated with academic performance in schoolchildren.

Those schoolchildren possessing the “right” combinations achieved significantly better results in numeracy, literacy and science.

The finding emerged from a study of more than 4000 British children to pinpoint the genes and genetic combinations that influence reasoning skills and general intelligence.

One of its main conclusions is that intelligence is controlled by a network of thousands of genes with each making just a small contribution to overall intelligence, rather than the handful of powerful genes that scientists once predicted.

The researchers believe their work could eventually lead to genetic tests to predict babies’ academic potential.

“This kind of research could help us develop genetic tests to predict which kids are at risk of developing problems with their schooling, so that we could intervene to help them,” said Robert Plomin, professor of behavioural genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, who will describe his work today at a meeting of the Royal Society.

In his research, Professor Plomin built up a database on the academic ability of 4000 children, partly from teacher assessments and partly by having the youngsters sit a battery of cognitive tests. Then he and his colleagues analysed the children’s DNA, looking for tiny variations in their genes.

There are potentially many millions of these variations, but the team restricted their search to looking at the million or so of the most common, to find out which gene variants were most frequently found in children with either a high or low level of academic achievement.

“Out of the gene variants we looked at, a couple of hundred are emerging which seem to have a small but significant relationship with ability in maths and English,” said Professor Plomin.

Such research reflects a long-term trend away from the idea that particular aspects of human physiology, appearance and behaviour are controlled by just a few genes.

This idea arose from early breakthroughs in which illnesses such as multiple sclerosis and breast cancer, or features such as hair and eye colour, were found to be strongly influenced by variations in the structure of just one or a few genes. Some scientists then predicted similar results for anything from heart disease to intelligence.

In recent years, however, it has become clear that most aspects of human development, health and behaviour are controlled by huge networks of individual genes, of which humans have about 25,000.

Research into height, for example, has picked out 300 genes that affect how tall people will grow, but even these genes can only explain 15 per cent of the total variations in human height. It implies that hundreds more genes must also play a part.

The scale of the search needed to track down all the genes involved in complex areas such as intelligence was beyond scientists’ abilities until recently. The deployment of computers means they can now begin to work out the interactions of these genes.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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IPCC Studies and Reports Have Nothing to Do With Climate Change

Every prediction or projections, as the IPCC evasively call them, have been wrong.

Most people have no idea what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) actually studies. They believe their reports are complete reports of climate change. This misconception is mostly because the IPCC arranged it and does little to correct it. In fact, they only look at that portion of climate change caused by humans. Here’s how they limit their study.

“The definition of climate change the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article 1, defines climate change as: ‘a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’. The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between climate change attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and climate variability attributable to natural causes.”

The problem is you cannot determine the human portion of climate change if you don’t know how much it changes naturally — and we don’t. The IPCC assumes humans cause most of the changes that are occurring and set out to prove that is true.

Everything they’ve done is contrary to normal scientific practices yet is presented to the public as solid science. The IPCC has done nothing to publicly or formally disavow claims that the science is settled. It is not settled because it never began, or worse, was deliberately diverted.

[…]

The most damaging evidence against CO2 is the assumption that an atmospheric increase causes a temperature increase. The assumption is wrong. In every record of any length for any period of history temperature increase precedes CO2 increase.

— Hat tip: JD

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Review: Books Puts Heat on Global Warming Propagandists

In a just world, a fellow like Brian Sussman would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A reluctant whistleblower is one who seeks his country’s good, first and foremost.

Of course, in our world, Brian Sussman is a troublemaker.

A media figure in the San Francisco Bay area, Sussman has exhaustively researched the “global warming/climate change” debate, and his new book, “Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes the Global Warming Scam,” is an astonishing read. It is engrossing, disturbing and one of the best books I’ve read in the past two or three years.

The author spent 20 years as a television science reporter and meteorologist, so his insights into the virtually diabolical left-wing agenda concerning climate change is invaluable for those who really want to understand.

The really hot theme that emerges from Climategate is that a globalist agenda is driving the bus, and the Americans onboard are increasingly becoming puppets not only for their own government, but those who infest the United Nations.

In his book, Sussman shows clearly that “science” has been hijacked by activists in academia, who never let their Marxist worldview take a holiday. He also exposes those who are becoming rich from the climate change debate; how the U.N.’s policies are shaping our environmental laws and how it all affects the average consumer.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

	Financial Crisis
»	‘Governator’ Asks China to Bail Out California
»	House GOP Wants You to Report Stimulus Signs
»	Obama’s Great Leap Forward
»	Principles for Economic Revival
»	Sen. DeMint: ‘It’s Going to Take a Few Years’ to Repeal Obamacare
»	The Number One Economic Indicator
»	UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First
»	Union Bosses Blow Pension Funds on Politicians — Now Want Government Bailout
»	We’re in a Spending Nightmare
	USA
»	Boeing Launches Search for Crucial Rare Earth Elements
»	Chicago Man Charged in Plot to Set Off Bomb Near Cubs’ Wrigley Field Home
»	Chuck Norris: Trigger the Vote!
»	Did Ground Zero Mosque Imam Lie About Muslim Law vs. U.S. Law?
»	Jimmy Carter; “I’m Probably Superior to Other Ex-Presidents”
»	No Science, Fake Science, And the Destruction of the Nation
»	Police Identify Individual Responsible for Qur’an Desecration
»	Rx Drug Use Increasing if You Have Insurance
»	Sen. Kaufman: GOP Waging ‘Holy Jihad’ To Extend Tax Cuts
»	The Sword & Shield to Stop the Islamization of America
»	Three New Science Envoys to the Muslim World
	Europe and the EU
»	Anti-Immigration Party Formed From Skinhead Movement Seizes Balance of Power in Sweden
»	Denmark: Hirsi Ali Takes on Right-Wing Party
»	Election Marks ‘End of an Era’: Swedish Press
»	France: Bettencourt; Police, Secret Service Action Legitimate
»	France Faces Imminent Terror Threat
»	Greece: Deal With UAE, Germany for Sale of Shipyards
»	Report Shows Almost 50% of Girls Under 18 Feel Unsafe in UK Cities
»	Spain: Two Suspected Hitmen for Colombian Cartels Arrested
»	Sweden: Moderates and Greens Call for Time
»	UK: Freed Terror Suspects May Sue Police for False Arrest Over Alleged Plot to Attack the Pope
»	UK: New Report: Debunking the “Islamisation” Myth
»	UK: Now Ten Babies by Ten Women for Britain’s Most Feckless Father… And it Will Cost the Taxpayer £1.5m by the Time They’ve All Grown Up
»	UK: Two Gateshead Men Arrested for Watching 9/11 Koran Burning Video
	North Africa
»	Applause and Tension Over Rajoy’s Visit to Melilla
»	Western Sahara: Spain Caught Between Algeria and Morocco
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Olmert: US Agreed to Absorb 100,000 Palestinian Refugees
	Middle East
»	Missing Iraqi Antiquities Located in PM Maliki’s Office
»	Will Extracting US Forces From Iraq Require Going to War With Iran?
	Far East
»	Has China Outgrown the One-Child Policy?
	Immigration
»	Amnesty Makes Inroads Among Evangelicals
»	Drop in Illegal Immigration in Va. Due in Part to County Law Against Illegal Immigration, Demographer Says
»	East German Mozambicans Campaign for Rights
»	Finland Looks to Cut Income Support for Young Refugees
»	Germany: De Maizière Calls for More Tolerance Towards Immigrants
»	Italy-Libya: Mogavero (Cei), This is War Against Immigrants
»	Senator Menendez Wants CIR During Lame Duck Session
	Culture Wars
»	Christianity Gets Flayed at Home of Liberty Bell
	General
»	Bloodsucking Warrior Worms Destroy and Eat the Enemy
»	Former Al Qaeda: Islamist Terror Damages Islam
»	Metal Smasher Makes Aluminum as Strong as Steel
»	Superiority Complex: The Left, Muslims, Islam
»	Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Dogs
»	U.N. Calls for Sustainable Development, Global Governance
»	Why We Need a New Green Revolution to Stop Hunger

‘Governator’ Asks China to Bail Out California

Schwarzenegger begs communist nation to help state avoid bankruptcy

Is China a friend or an enemy?

With the continuing economic downturn in the United States, it’s hard to tell whether China is a major part of the problem or a central part of the solution, Jerome Corsi’s Red Alert reports.

While the Obama administration is preparing to pressure China to stop unfair trade practices, including keeping the yuan artificially low on foreign-exchange markets to boost Chinese exports, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is courting China to finance high-speed rail in the state as a way to create jobs and possibly keep the state from having to declare bankruptcy.

— Hat tip: JD

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House GOP Wants You to Report Stimulus Signs

Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee — led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) are turning to the public in their effort to find out just how many promotional signs were erected using stimulus dollars.

Known as crowd-sourcing, the effort asks the public to take pictures of promotional signs erected along roadways and at other stimulus-funded projects and submit them to the Republican committee staff.

The effort asks people to “be a citizen watchdog” and to help Republicans document what they call “propaganda signs.”

“This project harnesses the American public’s help in getting answers about why the Administration has insisted on wasting potentially $192 million taxpayer dollars on pro-stimulus advertising even as the spending splurge has failed to meet the President’s own sales pitches,” the Committee’s Republican website says.

The picture-gathering campaign is being paired with a new interactive effort by committee Republicans to document the proliferation of stimulus signs. The centerpiece of that effort is an interactive national map that plots the location of each sign — including a picture of each one.

Republicans, sensing an impending electoral wave, are using the stimulus signs to point out that the program funding them — President Obama’s signature Recovery Act — has not achieved its widely touted goals of lowering unemployment and sparking an economic recovery.

“Signs of President Obama’s failed $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — also known as the “stimulus” — are popping up all over the country,” a statement on the GOP map Web site reads.

“The White House wants Americans to believe that these taxpayer funded billboards are signs of an improving economy created by government spending instead of the cold, hard reality that more than 14.9 million Americans can’t find jobs,” the Web site adds.

The Web site criticizes the signs — which the White House has recommended be erected — as trying to distract the public from the failure of the stimulus program.

“Signs don’t put America back to work, but they are being bought and paid for with your tax dollars in an effort to help President Obama and his pro-stimulus spending allies in Washington keep their jobs. This is an outrage and we need your help to hold them accountable.”

GOP Website to which pictures can be sent here.

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Obama’s Great Leap Forward

The White House released a report entitled “100 Recovery Act Projects That Are Changing America” to counter criticism of the stimulus as a failure. Vice President Joe Biden said,

“With Recovery Act projects like these, we’re starting to turn the page on a decade of failed economic policies and rebuild our economy on a new foundation that creates good middle class jobs for American families.”

And the Vice President is spot on. The Recovery Act has created some great jobs.

The report covers some $7.5 billion spent to create about 27,400 jobs — as best as can be gleaned from the report, including giving the projects the benefit of doubt when the jobs figures are unclear.

That works out to about $273,723 per job.

— Hat tip: JD

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Principles for Economic Revival

George P. Shultz, a fellow at the Hoover Institution…

says the priorities that should guide policymakers as they seek to restore more rapid growth are:

First, take tax increases off the table:

Higher tax rates are destructive to growth and would ratify the recent spending excesses.

Second, balance the federal budget by reducing spending:

…begin by rescinding unspent “stimulus” and Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds, ratcheting down domestic appropriations and repealing entitlement expansions, most notably the subsidies in the health care bill.

Third, modify Social Security and health care entitlements to reduce their explosive future growth.

Fourth, enact a moratorium on all new regulations for the next three years:

…regulations should be transparent and simple, pass rigorous cost-benefit tests and on market-based incentives instead of command and control.

Direct and indirect cost estimates of regulations and subsidies should be published before new regulations are put into law.

Fifth, monetary policy should be less discretionary and more rule-like. The Federal Reserve should announce and follow a monetary policy rule…

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Sen. DeMint: ‘It’s Going to Take a Few Years’ to Repeal Obamacare

[…]

“It’s going take a few years” to repeal the health-care reform bill, DeMint told CNSNews.com. “What we can do after this election is delay the funding and implementation of the bill and then get a president in 2012 who understands this is going to ruin medicine and bankrupt our country.”

The Ryan plan, “A Roadmap for America’s Future,” has only 13 co-sponsors in the House and has not become a platform for the 2010 mid-term elections. CNSNews.com asked DeMint if the Ryan plan should be similar to the 1994 “Contract with America,” the platform that helped Republicans retake Congress that year.

“Paul Ryan’s roadmap to the future is the only comprehensive legislation now that fixes our tax code, saves Social Security and Medicare and fixes our health care system and begins to cut spending over a long period of time,” DeMint said.

“The fact that it has been so difficult to get congressmen and senators to even have a hearing on something like this just tells you that our focus is not on the national interest, it’s on self-serving political interests that are symbolized by this earmark factory,” he added.

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The Number One Economic Indicator

Credit growth in America is broken. Since late 2008, the U.S. has seen its first deep and protracted decrease in loans outstanding in the last 40 years.

[see chart at link]

If you factor out the accounting adjustments, loans outstanding have fallen by almost $1.5 trillion in just two years. A phenomenal decrease in credit, and thus American spending power.

The most interesting thing is this indicator has not recovered. While investment inflows in many sectors this year have lifted stocks, commodity prices, and trade numbers, loans have continued to fall.

Americans are not borrowing. Even low interest rates can’t make them. Meaning the engine that drove the last few decades of growth is now broken. Without such support, it’s going to be difficult (probably impossible) for America to return to the surging economic times it enjoyed leading up to 2007.

[…]

The only encouraging point is loans haven’t been disappearing as fast as they were. Over the last three months, the trend has flattened.

This could help stabilize things. But it’s sure not a recovery. With this indicator lagging, we’re not going to get back to the good old days anytime soon.

[Return to headlines]

UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First

The UK’s tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.

The proposal by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.

Currently employers withhold tax and pay the government, providing information at the end of the year, a system know as Pay as You Earn (PAYE). There is no option for those employees to refuse withholding and individually file a tax return at the end of the year.

If the real-time information plan works, it further proposes that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first.

“The next step could be to use (real-time) information as the basis for centralizing the calculation and deduction of tax,” HMRC said in a July discussion paper.

HMRC described the plan as “radical” as it would be a huge change from the current system that has been largely unchanged for 66 years.

Even though the centralized deductions proposal would provide much-needed oversight, there are some major concerns, George Bull, head of Tax at Baker Tilly, told CNBC.com.

“If HMRC has direct access to employees’ bank accounts and makes a mistake, people are going to feel very exposed and vulnerable,” Bull said.

And the chance of widespread mistakes could be high, according to Bull. HMRC does not have a good track record of handling large computer systems and has suffered high-profile errors with data, he said.

The system would be massive in terms of data management, larger than a recent attempt to centralize the National Health Service’s data, which was later scrapped, Bull said.

If there’s a mistake and the HMRC collects too much money, the difficulty of getting it back could be high with repayments of tax taking weeks or months, he said.

“There has to be some very clear understanding of how quickly repayments were made if there was a mistake,” Bull said.

HMRC estimated the potential savings to employers from the introduction of the concept would be about £500 million ($780 million).

But the cost of implementing the new system would be “phenomenal,” Bull pointed out.

“It’s very clear that the system does need to be modernized… It’s outdated, it’s outmoded,” Emma Boon, campaigner manager at the Tax Payers’ Alliance, told CNBC.com.

Boon said that the Tax Payers’ Alliance was in favor of simplifying tax collection, but stressed that a new complex computer system would add infrastructure and administration costs at a time when the government is trying to reduce spending.

There is a further concern, according to Bull. The centralized storage of so much data poises a security risk as the system may be open to cyber crime.

As well as security issues, there’s a huge issue of transparency, according to Boon.

Boon also questioned HMCR’s ability to handle to the role effectively.

The Institute of Directors (IoD), a UK organization created to promote the business agenda of directors and entreprenuers, said in a press release it had major concerns about the proposal to allow employees’ pay to be paid directly to HMRC.

The IoD said the shift to a real-time, centralized system could be positive as long as the burden on employers was not increased. But it added that the idea of wages being processed by HMRC was “completely unacceptable.”

“This document contains a lot of good ideas. But the idea that HMRC should be trusted with the gross pay of employees is not one of them,” Richard Baron, Head of Taxation at the IoD, said in the release.

A spokesperson for Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was not immediately available for comment.

— Hat tip: Fausta

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Union Bosses Blow Pension Funds on Politicians — Now Want Government Bailout

The election cycles of 2006 and 2008 cost the labor unions many, many millions of dollars to get all those liberal Democrats elected and reelected to Congress and the presidency.

Where did those bribe bucks come from? Were they in some union slush fund? Do you suppose that all those bribes came out of the pension fund money that the suckers, er, members paid into for retirement benefits? It is becoming common knowledge that the various union pension funds may not be there when Joe or Jane ‘lunch pail’ retires.

That is why the union bosses are banging on the doors of all of the liberal Democrats’ looking for payback; payback in the form of “stimulus” or “bailout” tax dollars for getting them elected plus unfair legislation that would take away the secret ballot when union strong-arm tactics are needed to increase membership numbers.

[…]

The first thing these union bosses want is the CJSBA “bailout” money that Obama can just give to them out of unspent stimulus on newly established slush-type funds. Considering the simplicity of the other bailout plans, that will be the easiest one to obtain and with the almost total absence of paper tracking and bookkeeping on those funds, these union bosses can spend it any way they want. But they know that they had better refill the pension funds and SOON.

Then comes the legislation that tells a lie just in the title of the bill: “Employee Free Choice Act” (EFCA) when in fact is will be the “Employee Forced Choice Act” by taking away the traditional American way of fairness ‘Secret Ballot’ from union members and forcing them to just sign a card that a union goon (like a Black Panther) will shove in their face and demand their signature.

However, anti forces are not sitting on their hands and a top economist is warning Congress that these bills would create a ‘Ponzi scheme as bad as Bernie Madoff’s’ as Christopher Neefus, CNSNews.com reports on September 05, 2010 by citing Ms. Diana F. Roth, a former chief economist in the U.S. Department of Labor that “implementing card check (EFCA) would allow unions to swell their ranks with new members who would have to be signed up and pay money into failing union pension plans.

“It shouldn’t be allowed. It’s a ponzi scheme as bad as Bernie Madoff, the new union members could be entered into a multi-employer plan that is badly under-funded, and the wages they would pay into the fund would not go toward their own retirement, but would likely go to fulfill liabilities already owed to new and existing retirees.”

— Hat tip: JD

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We’re in a Spending Nightmare

There’s an old saying that, when you are in a hole, stop digging.

The president, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat-controlled Congress are in a deep political ditch, and they won’t stop digging.

The health-care deform bill was passed by Congress and signed by the president against the will of a majority of the American people. The Cap-and-Trade-and-Tax-and-Kill bill passed the House against the will of the people, and the members who signed it did not even read it.

The $862 billion non-stimulus bill has not worked as advertised, so they passed another emergency $26 billion “jobs bill” (code for more payoffs to the unions). Last week, the Senate passed a $30 billion so-called small business loan fund that the House will pass and the president will probably sign.

— Hat tip: JD

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Boeing Launches Search for Crucial Rare Earth Elements

Boeing has signed a deal to deploy remote sensing technology to map out U.S. deposits of rare earth elements. The rare earth family of minerals is the real-life version of the precious element “unobtanium” in James Cameron’s movie “Avatar.” They are used to make everything from military hardware to humble cell phones, but could soon be in short supply as worldwide demand outstrips mining production in China.

The aerospace and defense giant announced today that it will confirm rare earth mining claims held by U.S. Rare Earths, Inc. at locations in Idaho and Montana and also aid in the search for new deposits. “They’re very interested in finding and validating domestic reserves,” said Patrick Kennedy, public relations coordinator for U.S. Rare Earths. This marks the latest step in a global race to hunt down rare earth deposits. China currently supplies as much as 97 percent of the world’s rare earth oxides, but has recently taken steps to cut back on exports and feed the growing demands of its own industries.

New rare earth mines in the U.S., Australia, Canada and South Africa won’t start up until at least 2014, based on industry estimates. But major corporations such as General Electric and Toyota have begun quietly moving to secure their own supplies in case of a shortfall.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Chicago Man Charged in Plot to Set Off Bomb Near Cubs’ Wrigley Field Home

A 22-year-old Chicago man angry with the city’s mayor was charged by federal prosecutors with plotting to detonate a bomb near Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team.

Sami Samir Hassoun, who also discussed an assassination attempt on Mayor Richard M. Daley according to prosecutors, was arrested yesterday by members of the Chicago-area Joint Terrorism Task Force.

“He wanted to transform the City of Chicago. He wanted to make a statement,” Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Chicago office, told reporters after Hassoun appeared before a federal magistrate today. He intended to “kill as many people as he could” by planting the explosive in a neighborhood full of bars, clubs and restaurants, Grant said.

Hassoun, who is identified in an FBI statement as a Lebanese citizen living legally in Chicago, is charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and with trying to destroy real property using an explosive. The first charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, while the second has a top term of as long as five years.

Hassoun blamed Daley for “weakening” the city’s security and planned to use the attack to drive him from office, according to the complaint against him. Hassoun discussed the possibility of an assassination attempt on the mayor with the FBI’s confidential source, prosecutors said.

Daley Plaza

The location near Wrigley Field was chosen after Hassoun talked about other plots with the FBI source, including a biological weapons attack at the Richard J. Daley Plaza, the state courthouse forecourt named for the incumbent mayor’s father.

Hassoun hoped he would be paid for a sustained campaign, Grant said. Investigators believe Hassoun acted alone and isn’t affiliated with a terrorist organization, Grant said.

Lance Lewis, a spokesman for Daley, declined to comment. Daley said Sept. 7 that he wouldn’t seek a seventh term as mayor next year.

Hassoun, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and blue canvas slip-on shoes, appeared today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox. The suspect, who was accompanied by Federal Public Defender Dan McLaughlin, wasn’t required to enter a plea. Hassoun told the court he will hire a private lawyer.

Cox scheduled a bail hearing and a so-called probable-cause hearing for Sept. 22. After today’s appearance, Hassoun was remanded to the custody of federal marshals.

Trash Can

Hassoun planted an inert device in a trash can south of Wrigley Field at about 12:10 a.m. yesterday and was immediately arrested, according to the criminal complaint. The FBI informant had shown Hassoun the device, which appeared to be a bomb, prosecutors said.

The device, concealed in a backpack, had a timer that Hassoun set for 20 minutes, Grant said.

The case is U.S. v. Hassoun, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Chuck Norris: Trigger the Vote!

What are the stakes? They’re huge. Our current president has said himself that he’s more interested in accomplishing his agenda than in being re-elected. Once these midterms are over, the White House will be politically unleashed to wreak havoc by pushing the most extreme policy agenda that its self-appointed social engineers can devise. If you think Obamacare was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Consider just a few of the policy items coming up on the Second Amendment front. Since 2001, the United Nations has been working to develop a global gun-control treaty. Right at the get-go, John Bolton (Bush’s ambassador to the U.N.) poured cold water on that idea in a fiery speech that ignited world condemnation.

But the ragtag army of delegates pushing for global gun-ban “harmonization” — many representing despots, human rights violators, and tin-pot dictators, by the way — simply bided their time. In 2008 they got the U.S. president they wanted, and new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasted no time changing the red flag to green.

Now the U.N. cabal is back to drafting a proposed “Arms Trade Treaty” filled with global disarmament mandates, and this time it’s likely to garner the necessary “consensus” of U.N. delegates, including the United States. The president can sign treaties, but they must be ratified by the U.S. Senate. So only the Senate can keep the citizens of our unsuspecting nation from having the Second Amendment stripped from the parchment of our Bill of Rights. If you live in one of the 38 states hosting a Senate election this year, consider that when you’re deciding whom to support with your ballot.

— Hat tip: JD

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Did Ground Zero Mosque Imam Lie About Muslim Law vs. U.S. Law?

In a jaw-dropping statement by Ground Zero Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, he claimed Muslim and American legal concepts essentially agree. He said, “America is a Shari’ahcompliant state.” Is this true? Is the US primed for Muslim law? Or, is Rauf capitalizing on how little Americans understand Islam? Perhaps, in declaring subjective propositions, Rauf believes he has little to lose, but much to gain. Maybe Rauf is employing taqiyyah, (holy deception), to sell Islam to America?

Rauf’s statements, if disproved, would badly discredit his explanation for the Ground Zero mosque’s purpose. The intent of this essay is to analyze Rauf’s idea that Muslim Shari’ah and American law agree. This is done by comparing the US Constitution in a few essential Amendments—1st, 5th & 8th—to see if Islamic and American law are in fundamental agreement.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Jimmy Carter; “I’m Probably Superior to Other Ex-Presidents”

In an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, former President Jimmy Carter, who has been a target of the right through the years, lauded his own post-presidency, telling Williams, “I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents.”

[…]

“The Carter Center has decided, under my leadership, to fill the vacuums in the world,” Carter said. “When the United States won’t deal with troubled areas, we go there and we meet their leaders who can bring an end to a conflict, or an end to human rights abuse, and so forth. So I feel that [I] have an advantage over many other former presidents in being involved in daily affairs that have shaped the policies of our nation and the world.”

Before Barack Obama was sworn in as president in January 2009, the living presidents (and then-President-elect Obama), gathered for an Oval Office photo shoot — with Carter notably standing off to the side, apart from the group.

[see that remarkable photo at the MSNBC link]

— Hat tip: Joshua Pundit

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No Science, Fake Science, And the Destruction of the Nation

The greatest science fraud in the history of mankind.

Any scientist who has not sold his soul to the environmental movement will tell you that the reason that greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), do not cause any warming is due to the fact that they have to conform to the laws of thermodynamics. The first law states that “energy can be neither created nor destroyed. It can only change form.”

Energy produced by coal, natural gas, oil, or nuclear is energy that has changed from one form of matter to another. The attack on these sources of energy is a direct attack on the economic success of America and it is one that is at a dangerous peak of activity generated by the Obama administration, primarily through the Environmental Protection Agency.

There is simply no such thing as “dirty energy.” The push for so-called clean or renewable energy is a fiction to advance the use of the two worst, most unpredictable and unreliable forms of energy, solar and wind. They exist solely because of government subsidies and mandates. They produce little over three percent of the energy used nationwide every day.

— Hat tip: JD

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Police Identify Individual Responsible for Qur’an Desecration

Police have positively identified the individual responsible for the desecration of the Qur’an on Saturday, Sept. 11.

The individual voluntarily surrendered to police officials on Wednesday, Sept. 15 following the establishment of a $10,000 reward fund. None of the reward funds were paid out to obtain the information leading to the individual’s identity. The individual continues to cooperate with police and FBI officials. The investigators have determined that this was an isolated incident.

It is expected that the police investigation will be completed early next week. The case will be forwarded to the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office for review. No further information will be released until a decision is made about filing charges.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Rx Drug Use Increasing if You Have Insurance

Prescription drug use in the U.S. has been rising steadily in the past decade and the trend shows no signs of slowing, the CDC says in a new report.

The study, published in the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief No. 42, says the percentage of Americans who took at least one prescription drug rose from 43.5% in 1999-2000 to 48.3% in the 2007-2008 period.

The use of two or more drugs increased from 25.4% to 31.2% over the same decade, and the use of five or more prescription medications jumped from 6.3% to 10.7%.

The report also says that in the 2007-2008 period:

One of every five children and nine out of 10 older Americans reported using at least one prescription drug in the month prior to being surveyed.

22.4% of kids up to age 11 used at least one prescription drug.

29.9% of young people 12-19 used at least one prescription drug.

48.3% of people between 20 and 59 used at least one prescription medication.

88.4% of Americans age 60 and over used at least one prescription drug, more than 76% used two or more prescription drugs in the past month, and 37% used five or more.

People without health insurance or a regular place to go for medical problems had less prescription drug use compared to those with such benefits.

The report notes that prescription drug use increased with age, that women were more likely to use such medications than men, 53.3% to 43.2%, and the non-Hispanic white population had the highest prescription drug use at 54.3%,

compared to 42% of black non-Hispanics and 33.9% of Mexican-Americans.

The CDC also says that:

People with a regular place for health care were 2.7 times as likely to have used prescription drugs in the past month compared to those without the benefit.

People with health insurance were about twice as likely to have used at least one prescription medication in the past month as those without health insurance.

People with prescription drug benefits in their health insurance plans were 22% more likely to use prescription medications than those who did not have that benefit.

According to the 2007-2008 data, the most commonly used drugs were:

Bronchodilators for children up to age 11.

Central nervous system stimulants for youths 12-19.

Antidepressants for people 20-59.

Cholesterol lowering drugs for adults 60 and older

.

Among kids under age 6, penicillin antibiotics were the most frequently use prescription drugs.

The report says diuretics and beta-blockers were commonly used in adults and older Americans, with such medications used most often to treat heart problems and high blood pressure.

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Sen. Kaufman: GOP Waging ‘Holy Jihad’ To Extend Tax Cuts

Republicans are fighting to extend tax cuts for high earners with the intensity of a “holy jihad,” a Democratic senator charged Monday.

Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) said he didn’t see any room for compromise with Republicans on the extension of income tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of the year, blaming the GOP for being unflinching on tax rates.

“We talk about bending — it’s incredible. There’s no bending! Pick up your morning Washington Post and find out what Republicans are willing to bend on,” Kaufman said during an appearance on CNBC. “This is like a holy jihad to keep the tax cuts going.”

At issue are the tax cuts passed early in the presidency of George W. Bush, which will revert to their rates preceding the tax cuts, unless Congress acts. Democrats, led by President Obama, want to extend all the breaks except for households earning more than $250,000 per year and individuals earning over $200,000 per year.

Republicans have pushed for a permanent extension of the current tax rates, or, barring that, at least a two-year freeze on all tax rates.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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The Sword & Shield to Stop the Islamization of America

God’s Gift of Unalienable Rights & Article VI of the Constitution.

This is an encouraging paper, because it explains the moral and constitutional justifications to stop the islamization of our country.

We face a grave threat — the Muslims are infiltrating our country and taking over. We seem powerless to resist: Our governments won’t acknowledge the threat; we are told Muslims have “constitutional rights” to come here, proselytize everywhere, build mosques, and implement shariah in their communities and in the public square; and our governments are letting them do it.

The Muslims seek to replace our Constitution with shariah — their totalitarian political, economic, military, social & legal system — with the goal of incorporating our Country into a global Islamic caliphate.

They are making progress in islamicizing our Country because we are not resisting.

And the dreadful message we are getting from all sources is that our Constitution renders us powerless to resist islamization.

But read on, and I will show you how our Constitution & Declaration of Independence — properly understood — actually give our federal, State & local governments justification and authority to stop the islamization of our Country. Once we understand two things, it becomes clear what we may — and must — do:

— Hat tip: JD

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Three New Science Envoys to the Muslim World

Senator Richard Lugar (R—IN) has announced three new science envoys to the Muslim world: former NSF director Rita Colwell, currently at University of Maryland, College Park, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; Gebisa Ejeta of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana; and Alice Gast, president of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

They will join Bruce Alberts, former president of the National Academy of Sciences and editor-in-chief of Science (publisher of ScienceInsider); former NIH director Elias Zerhouni, and Nobel Prize winner Ahmed Zewail of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The envoys program was announced last fall by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following a June speech in Cairo in which President Barack Obama called for a “new beginning” in relations with the Muslim world. The White House quoted the envoys as saying their travels have been fruitful thus far.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Anti-Immigration Party Formed From Skinhead Movement Seizes Balance of Power in Sweden

Sweden was today coming to terms with the emergence of a far right party into mainstream politics.

The anti-immigration Democrats now hold the balance of power in Sweden after the centre-right government failed to win an outright majority.

Unemployment and the flood of foreigners into the south of the country have been blamed for the rise of the group, which began life as a faction of skinheads.

Now the party will enter Parliament for the first time, with 20 seats.

Despite denials they are racist, both main blocs have ruled out working with them.

A preliminary count showed Fredrik Reinfeldt’s coalition winning 172 seats in the 349-member parliament. The Social Democrat-led centre-left opposition was set to secure 157.

The Democrats’ leader, Jimmie Akesson, won 4.6 per cent of the vote and told chanting supporters: ‘Today we have written political history together, I think that’s fantastic.’

Analysts had said before Sunday’s election that a hung parliament, with Reinfeldt’s centre-right Alliance coalition having no overall majority, would unsettle investors and the currency duly weakened in trading this morning.

‘An uncertain parliamentary situation is always negative for a currency, but the market pretty quickly goes back to focusing on other things,’ Handelsbanken analyst Claes Mahlen said.

‘I don’t think the view of Sweden will change dramatically’

‘If this outcome stands we will have a scenario that most Swedish voters wanted to avoid — that is that we have a xenophobic party holding the balance of power,’ said Ulf Bjereld, a political scientist at Gothenburg University…

— Hat tip: Gaia

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Denmark: Hirsi Ali Takes on Right-Wing Party

Danish People’s Party’s annual congress saw prominent Somali rebuking their policies

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a 40-year-old former refugee and a prominent critic of religious extremism, addressed the 15th annual party congress of the Danish People’s Party (DF) on Saturday.

She spoke about the importance of integrating non-Western immigrants in Europe and teaching boys about women’s rights and sexual morality in the West from an early age.

After building up the party faithful by suggesting that immigrants should enter into a contract to respect the conditions in Danish society, Ali stoked the fire further by saying in English: ‘I do not understand Danish, but I’ve heard rumours that your party will stop all immigration from non-western countries?’

After meeting applause again from the crowd, Ali turned on them with the rebuke, ‘I too am from a non-Western country,’ and that ‘it is wrong to say that all non-Westerners can’t be integrated into Denmark’.

The response that time was considerably less enthusiastic, but nevertheless party leader Pia Kjærsgaard remained supportive of Ali. As Kjærsgaard said to her: ‘You are many people’s idol, and you are my idol.’

DF has a tradition of inviting controversial guest speakers. In 2008, it was addressed by Mohammed cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

Like Westergaard, Ali lives under a constant threat to her life and required a heavy security presence at the meeting. Ali has lived with death threats since composing the screenplay for the 2005 Theo van Gogh film Submission,

In 2005, she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She now works for the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.

— Hat tip: TB

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Election Marks ‘End of an Era’: Swedish Press

With the far-right Sweden Democrats headed to the Riksdag for the first time and the traditional dominance of the Social Democrats apparently broken for good, the Swedish press on Monday reflected on the consequences of a new political era.

“The (centre-right) Alliance’s victory marks the end of the Social Democrats’ long dominance of Swedish politics. The election’s unpleasant back side is the (far-right) Sweden Democrats’ advance,” leading daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) said in an editorial entitled “The end of an era”.

The Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper meanwhile said it was time for Swedes to “draw up a new national image” on Monday morning as it hammered out the three central changes to Sweden’s political landscape, “a centre-right government without a majority, a crashed social democracy and a kingmaker party with roots in the far-right”.

The paper also noted that in the absence of a majority in parliament — the exiting coalition obtained 172 seats in the 349 seat parliament — “Fredrik Reinfeldt … now has to invite in the Green Party to talks in order to build a government that is able to act”.

It predicted a “shaky ride ahead for the election’s winner”.

Swedish media seemed just as concerned with the complicated parliament ahead as with the historical defeat of the Social Democrats, which have dominated politics here for most of the century.

Recalling that the Social Democrats had been in power “for 83 percent of the time since 1932”, DN said “the time when one party was subscribed to power and could decide of everything is gladly over”.

With Mona Sahlin as their leader, this election marked the Social Democrats’ worse score since 1914 and “the party will never again feel like it owns Sweden”, Göterborgs-Posten (GP) said.

“In other countries, it’s obviously not strange for a centre-right government to be re-elected, but this is Sweden, it’s a never before seen phenomenon,” said SvD.

The paper noted that with no party sharing the Sweden Democrats’ anti-immigrant views, Sweden has also been an exception.

Tabloid Expressen meanwhile deplored that “obscure forces have taken Swedish politics hostage”, calling on Reinfeldt to immediately find an agreement with the Greens, to whom the outgoing prime minister reached out late Sunday.

Aftonbladet said “the nightmare scenario has happened”.

“Fredrik Reinfeldt is thinking of staying with his government, and it will probably be under the influence of the far-right,” it said.

— Hat tip: TB

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France: Bettencourt; Police, Secret Service Action Legitimate

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 14 — French counterespionage acted “legitimately” to uncover who was the informant of daily newspaper Le Monde journalists in the Bettencourt case and discovered that at the source of the news leak was a high-level ministerial functionary. This is what has been announced in a note from the director general of the French national police, Frederic Pechenard, after the newspaper yesterday denounced a violation by the French Cabinet Office of the law regarding the secrecy of journalist sources.

Le Monde reports in particular that the counterespionage services were used by President Nicolas Sarkozy to uncover who was the informant of the newspaper’s journalists on the matter. Pechenard explains that the national police had “legitimately searched for the origin of the leaks which were reported to it”, acting in the “framework of its mission to protect the security of the institutions,” reads the note. It added: “information that reached the services indicated that the author of these ‘leaks’ was a high-level functionary, a member of the ministerial cabinet, held to professional secrecy, as well as to respecting the penal code naturally.” “There were no phone interceptions of any sort,” underlines the Interior Ministry.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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France Faces Imminent Terror Threat

France is at immediate risk of a major terror attack by Islamist radicals and has reinforced urgent security measures introduced last week, officials say.

Asked about reports that an attack might be imminent, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said on Monday that the threat was real and that “we have stepped up our vigilance”.

Separately, a source close to the Interior Ministry confirmed that police were investigating reports that a female suicide bomber might be preparing a strike in Paris, but added: “That’s not necessarily the most worrying thing.”

Instead, the source explained, Paris was concerned with intelligence received from an allied foreign spy agency that al-Qaeda’s North African branch, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was planning an “imminent” attack in France.

“It’s a threat which we think might target transportation,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity and without giving further details except that the warning was received on Thursday last week.

The Interior Ministry played down the specific risk to transport, insisting that the threat was “against totally undefined targets”.

Meanwhile, according to a police source, authorities have learned that two dormant Islamist networks in France have been revived to receive and host groups of jihadi radicals returning from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Separately, officials from Paris’s Grand Mosque confirmed that their rector, Dalil Boubakeur, had been placed under police protection and provided with an escort as he moves about the city.

Boubakeur is a moderate figure who has worked with France’s government on issues of Muslim integration and has been threatened by radicals.

Last Tuesday, hundreds of tourists were moved away from the Eiffel Tower as it was briefly evacuated following a hoax bomb threat.

France’s national terror warning plan, known as “Vigipirate”, was already at alert level “reinforced red” — one step down from the highest level, scarlet, which would represent a precise and imminent threat.

The warnings were the latest in a series given over the past 10 days since the head of France’s DCRI domestic intelligence agency, Bernard Squarcini, said France had never faced a greater “terrorist threat”.

They come at a time when France has been the target of violent threats on jihadi websites, including from known armed militant leaders, over its ban on the full-face Muslim veil and its overseas military operations

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Greece: Deal With UAE, Germany for Sale of Shipyards

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, SEPTEMBER 17 — The Greek government has signed a deal with German group Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems and Arab group Abu Dhabi Mar for the sale of 75% of shares in the Skaramangas shipyards, to the Arab group by the German group. So announced by the Greek Defence Minister Evaggelos Venizelos.

Amongst other things, the deal provides for the building of two submarines for the Greek Navy. The minister said that today there will be a meeting of the National Defence Council and the Inter-ministerial Commission for Privatisation to give the go-ahead to the operation. The deal will then be presented in parliament for final approval.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Report Shows Almost 50% of Girls Under 18 Feel Unsafe in UK Cities

One in five respondents to survey by children’s charity Plan UK said they felt threatened by gangs

Almost half of girls aged up to 18 feel unsafe in the UK’s biggest cities and are often scared to go out in their own neighbourhoods, research by the Plan UK children’s charity has shown.

One in five respondents said they felt threatened by gangs, and 17% said they feared someone would assault them.

More than 40% said they knew someone who had been attacked or assaulted.

[…]

The surveys showed that more than 50% of girls in London thought crime in their local area had gone up in the last few years. Ten per cent of girls living in cities in the Midlands knew someone who had been assaulted in their neighbourhood in the last six months.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Spain: Two Suspected Hitmen for Colombian Cartels Arrested

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 14 — Spanish police, in collaboration with Colombian police, arrested two Colombians in hiding in Valencia today, who are believed to be among the worst killers in the Colombian drug trafficking cartels, accused in their country of over 200 murders, kidnapping and torture. According to legal sources cited on El Pais’ website, Mauricio Alberto Gonzalez Sepulveda, also known as “Ronco”, 44-years-old, and Henry Norberto Valdes Marin, known as “Pollo”, 36-years-old, both believed the belong to the drug trafficking cartels of Envigado and Nord Del Valle, were arrested.

Based on the accusations, they are involved with the part of the Colombian cartels that deals with extortion and collections and they continued their criminal activity in Spain. Accused of murder, illegal weapons possession, torture, drug trafficking and kidnapping, they were brought in front of the Audiencia Nacional before extradition to Colombia. Collaboration between Colombian police and European officers was key to capture the two criminals. Valdes Marin had changed his fingerprints to avoid identification. After the cartel was dismantled by extreme-right wing paramilitaries of Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, several members fled from Colombia and moved to Europe to continue collecting money on behalf of the Colombian cartels, carrying out murders, extortions and kidnapping. ‘Pollo’ is accused of involvement or carrying out nearly 200 murders in Colombia, including that of footballer Albeiro Usuriaga, known as El Palomo, in February of 2004, a crime committed in a working class neighbourhood by a 15-year-old boy.

Gonzalez Sepulveda, who was on the most wanted list for the Envigado cartel, was taken into custody in Eliana, in Valencia. He fraudulently married a Spanish citizen to obtain a residency permit. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Sweden: Moderates and Greens Call for Time

The Moderate and Green parties both held press conferences on Monday afternoon calling for time to enable the election results to be completed, with Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt promising an orderly process to a new Alliance government.

“We will now conduct the same process that we undertook in 2006 — that we take responsibility based on the election result that we have got,” Reinfeldt said.

Reinfeldt called for patience to enable the election results to be completed and analysed properly. He underlined the importance that time is taken to digest the result and promised that when the Riksdag reopens on October 5th, the work will be complete.

“We will do this without using words such as chaos…but instead exactly as we are — with the orderliness that is expect of us, at the pace that is outline,” he said, pointing out that he has until October 5th before the government has to be in place.

Reinfeldt addressed the issue of the entrance of the Sweden Democrats into Sweden’s parliament and observed that only 7,000 votes were the difference between the anti-immigrant party gaining mandates.

He recognised however that the support for the Sweden Democrats has not only come from the party’s “core voters” with “roots in the 1980s far-right movements”, but could also include those who have lost faith with Sweden’s direction, and perhaps politicians, in general.

Reinfeldt stated that the process of any discussions with the Green Party will be conducted between the parties and not through the media.

Reinfeldt confirmed however that discussions would be opened among the Alliance coalition partners this afternoon.

The Green Party held a press conference immediately after the Moderate Party leader.

Spokesperson Peter Eriksson opened the press conference by stating the current situation and issue a clarification on the party’s viewpoints.

Mirroring Fredrik Reinfeldt’s comments, he also argued that the vote count is not yet completed and that the Alliance could still secure a majority. He, and co-spokesperson Maria Wetterstrand, also warned of difficulties for the Alliance coalition to sustain a minority government.

“We have not bee given a mandate from our voters to open negotiations with the Alliance over whether to build a government or to join a cooperation,” Maria Wetterstrand argued, proceeding to list a series of Alliance government policy initiatives that the Green Party finds unnaceptable.

Peter Eriksson continued to express regret over the entry of the Sweden Democrats into parliament and argued that all of the “seven” parliamentary parties (thus excluding the Sweden Democrats) should take part in taking responsibility for Sweden’s governance.

“If Fredrik Reinfeldt gets in touch then we will suggest that deeper and broader contact is taken with all the Red-Green parties.” Eriksson said adding, “We think it is reasonable that the largest party in the parliament (the Social Democrats) should also take part.”

Both Fredrik Reinfeldt and the Green Party spokespersons confirmed that no contact has yet been made between the parties.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: Freed Terror Suspects May Sue Police for False Arrest Over Alleged Plot to Attack the Pope

Six street cleaners arrested over an alleged plot to attack the Pope could try to sue the police after being released without charge, detectives fear.

The men were detained by counter-terrorism officers at a cleaning depot in central London after police received intelligence suggesting they were planning an atrocity against Benedict XVI.

But late on Saturday they were freed after police found no evidence to support their initial suspicions.

It was reported that the men — all of North African origin — were arrested after jokingly discussing how to harm the Pope in a work canteen.

A colleague is said to have overheard their comments and alerted counter-terrorism officers.

The concern among senior officers and counter terrorism officials is that the men could try to take legal action against the Met for unlawful arrest and detention.

For such a move to be successful, they would have to prove that the actions of officers were disproportionate and ill-informed, and the evidence available did not reach the threshold of reasonable suspicion to merit their arrests.

A security source said: ‘The intelligence which prompted these arrests was received very late in the day and detectives had only a few hours to assess the quality of it before taking action.

‘As far as the Met are concerned, the arrests were proportionate and justified, but there is a strong feeling that the legal-aid vultures will soon be circling around this case.’

Security sources dismissed reports that the men had merely had a light-hearted conversation about attacking the Pope.

One said: ‘We do not recognise this version of events. The intelligence received suggested this was a very serious situation.’

As part of the investigation, police searched eight homes in north and east London and two business premises in central London, including the street cleaning depot.

The Met said the searches had revealed no weapons or suspicious materials.

The BBC quoted Scotland Yard sources as saying that the men posed no credible threat, while the Sunday Mirror said the men had been reported after they were overheard sharing a joke in their canteen.

One of the men reportedly said: ‘It would be pretty difficult to shoot the Pope, wouldn’t it, as his car is bulletproof?’

Another allegedly replied: ‘Yeah but I bet an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) would get through easily enough.’

The six are aged 26, 27, 29, 36, 40 and 50. The 29-year-old was arrested at home in north London shortly before 2pm on Friday.

The five others had been held at gunpoint as officers swooped on their base while they were preparing to start their shift shortly before 6am.

They work for Veolia Environmental Services, a contractor which employs 650 on-street staff to keep the streets of Westminster clean.

A huge security and public order operation swung into action as the Pope arrived in Britain.

Thousands of officers were involved in the operation from forces including the Met, Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders, West Midlands and British Transport Police.

The cost of policing the papal visit, coordinated by South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, will exceed £3million.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman yesterday said: ‘Six men who were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on Friday were all released without charge late on Saturday night and early this morning.’

— Hat tip: Gaia

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UK: New Report: Debunking the “Islamisation” Myth

by Edmund Standing

Summary:

In the post-9/11 West, we have seen the worrying growth of a paranoid, bigoted approach to Muslims which increasingly views them as an undifferentiated mass, as an inherent Other, and as a powerful fifth column conspiring to destroy the West and enslave it to Sharia law.

[…]

The ‘Islamisation’ myth is a dangerous myth, and a myth that must be repudiated if we are to develop as a nation and articulate a positive vision for the future.

[From the comments section]

Don’t lecture me.

20 September 2010, 8:34 am

I live in a Northen town. Over the last 20 years I’ve seen it completely transformed. I would go as far as to say that the local culture has been completely supplanted. My local Bycicle shop has become the towns Muslim forum. My Gym is now a Mosque. My local pub is now an Islamic girls School. Green grocer is now an Islamic book shop, the local butchers is now the Al Jubail hairdressers. There are eleven Mosques within a half mile radius of my house, three of which are fighting to expand. My high street now consists of a plethora of dingy halal takeaways… The local coal merchant is now a Halal meat processing plant that gets routinely busted for employing illegals. The once football hostel is now accommodation for visiting clerics and local Imams. The RAF club is now a Pakistani resurant. MY local confectioners is now another Curry house, as is the Sweet shop.Two local bookmakers are now asian boutiques and due to flight I am one of two of the original people left on my street. I was born in the house that I currently live in and I am 38 years old. I don’t recognise the local people anymore and I feel estranged to the place I grew up. Islamisation is a myth? No it isnt.

[JP note: Where do they find all these dhimmis? There is a full-scale invasion (the American historian, William Hardy McNeill, might call it a case of macroparasitism) of the UK taking place and up pops another clueless observer on Harry’s Place to tell us this is a myth. None so blind as cannot, or will not, see. Also beware of writers capitalizing the word ‘other’ — they tend to have difficulty distinguishing their elbow from their fanny. Finally, I cannot even begin to imagine what sort of ‘positive vision for the future’ Mr Standing manages to conjure up in his stupid, diminutive brain. And no, I won’t be reading his inane report.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Now Ten Babies by Ten Women for Britain’s Most Feckless Father… And it Will Cost the Taxpayer £1.5m by the Time They’ve All Grown Up

After fathering eight children by eight mothers, Keith Macdonald might have done enough to put women off him for life.

But despite his appalling track record, the 25-year-old is expecting a ninth and tenth — by two more women.

As most of the mothers and children are largely dependent on benefits, they are likely to cost the taxpayer £1.5million by the time all the children are 16.

Unemployed Macdonald — described as Britain’s worst father — had his first child at the age of 15 and has abandoned every one.

When his latest offspring are born he will have fathered ten children by ten mothers in only ten years. And there have even been claims from two former girlfriends that he may have fathered a further four.

But the binman’s son, who lives on £44 a week income support and wakes up with a can of lager each morning, contributes just £5 a week to their upkeep.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Two Gateshead Men Arrested for Watching 9/11 Koran Burning Video

In a disturbing development, Northumbria Police in Gateshead last week arrested two men after they watched and shared a video on Facebook of a man burning the Koran in the US during the recent 9/11 commemoration at Ground Zero in New York.

The men were drinking in the Bugle pub, Leam Lane, Gateshead, when they were arrested after watching and sharing the videos.

Around 30 people staged a protest outside Gateshead police station on Wednesday evening, the 15th of September, following the arrests.

The group stood outside the doors to the police station with an England flag for about three hours watched by a contingent of uniformed officers.The protesters had gathered at around 8pm after the two men were arrested earlier in the day on ‘suspicion of inciting racial hatred’.

The protest continued until around 11pm when the two arrested men were bailed pending further enquiries.

— Hat tip: Dazed & Confused

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Applause and Tension Over Rajoy’s Visit to Melilla

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 16 — Opposition People’s Party leader Mariano Rajoy arrived today in Melilla for a controversial visit that has rekindled tension between Spain and Morocco, disputed beforehand by Moroccan Prime Minister Abas el Fasi. Nationalist party Istiqlal’s leader Abas el Fasi called the visit a “provocation” and an “open attack on the dignity and national sentiment of Moroccans”. Received at the airport by the President of Melilla, Juan Jose’ Imbroda, Rajoy was welcomed upon his arrival to the city centre by applause and shouts of “president, president” by groups of residents, while several Muslim activists protested. In contrast to former Premier Jose’ Maria Aznar’s visit a month ago to the autonomous city, the PP leader did not go to the Moroccan border, where Moroccan activists had gathered to protest. Tensions on the borders of the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla were rekindled in June, with the appearance of banners saying “occupied city”, hung by a group that advocates for the liberation of the two cities. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Western Sahara: Spain Caught Between Algeria and Morocco

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 17 — ‘Rabat and Algiers press Madrid over Sahara’, is today’s headline on the front page of the newspaper El Mundo. The daily writes that Morocco is preparing “a high-level offensive at the UN General Assembly, in an attempt to win the battle for the Western Sahara”. According to the article, the debate on the region that will be held next week in the UN headquarters “is causing Morocco and Algeria to put high pressure on the Spanish government, which is now trying to keep an impossible balance between the opposition views of these two neighbouring countries”. Rabat refuses to celebrate the referendum on self-determination for the former Spanish colony, approved by the UN. The country has offered an alternative, proposing a plan for autonomy, which has been rejected by the Polisario Front and by Algeria. Special UN envoy for the region, Christopher Ross, has told Morocco that any decision on the region’s future must be approved by the Sahrawi people. The Spanish Premier, Jose’ Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, will have an informal meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with the Moroccan monarch Mohamed VI. It will be the first meeting after the border tensions in Melilla. According to El Mundo, “putting more pressure” on the two autonomous Spanish cities in Morocco is part of Morocco’s “offensive” to convince Spain “to back its position and not to block its plans”.

This strategy reportedly also includes the checks which will be carried out by the Moroccan police, according to the newspaper, on inhabitants of Melilla who live outside the enclave. Algeria on the other hand “wants Spain to keep supporting the rights of the Sahrawi” and has asked to apply the UN resolution on the right of self-determination.

The article reveals that “the progressive estrangement of the two governments has caused a break of the agreements with Repsol and Gas Natural”. Gas Natural has appealed against the verdict of the international arbitration on August 16 for error of form. The company has to pay USD 2 billion to the Algerian State-controlled company Sonatrach for raising gas prices, according to the verdict. Yesterday’s visit by the number two of the Spanish Foreign Ministry to Algiers, according to the analysis, is part of an attempt to improve the ties with the North African country, which has apparently not appreciated the fact that a ransom has been paid for the release of the Spanish aid-workers who had been kidnapped by Al Qaeda.

“Spain”, the article concludes, “is looking terribly weak in front of the confrontation of Morocco and Algeria”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Olmert: US Agreed to Absorb 100,000 Palestinian Refugees

Ehud Olmert said that during his tenure as prime minister he had reached an agreement with the Americans for them to absorb 100,000 Palestinian refugees as part of a peace deal, adding that he struck a deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas according to which Israel would absorb “a minimal amount” of refugees.

“The numbers discussed were below 20,000, but this would require and end to the conflict and a Palestinian announcement that they would not make any more demands,” Olmert told a Geneva Initiative conference Sunday evening.

[…]

Olmert claimed the Obama administration is not hostile towards Israel, saying, “There is no difference between (former US President George W.) Bush’s positions and (Barack) Obama’s positions.

“Obama would have been very pleased if the proposals presented by the current (Israeli) government would have been the same as those presented by us (Olmert’s government),” he said.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Missing Iraqi Antiquities Located in PM Maliki’s Office

More than 600 antiquities have been returned to the Iraqi National Museum after they were found in boxes in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office.

The missing historical artefacts, some dating back thousands of years, had been smuggled out of Iraq at various times and ended up in the US.

They were moved back to Iraq in early 2009 but went missing after that.

Antiquities Minister Qahtan al-Jubouri blamed “inappropriate handover procedures” for their disappearance.

It is not clear exactly how the artefacts disappeared from view after being returned to Iraq.

But the 638 items were found on Sunday packed in cardboard boxes in a storage room for kitchen equipment in the offices of Prime Minister Maliki.

The objects include jewellery and clay tablets as well as bronze figurines.

“It’s a very important collection,” said Amira Eidan, the director of the Iraqi National Museum.

“Some [are] from the beginning of the Islamic era, others are from [the] Sumerian period, some [are] Babylonian, Hellenistic — different periods and different cities.”

Tens of thousands of artefacts chronicling some 7,000 years of civilisation in Mesopotamia are believed to have been looted from Iraq in the chaos which followed the the US-led invasion in 2003.

Despite international efforts to track items down, fewer than half of the artefacts have so far been retrieved.

— Hat tip: Sean O’Brian

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Will Extracting US Forces From Iraq Require Going to War With Iran?

[…]

At about the same time that Iraq was liberated from Saddam’s tyranny by US forces, reports began to surface regarding Iran’s rapidly developing program to produce weapons of mass destruction.

Now here are some points to remember:

One: If Saddam did have nukes, where are they? It’s not as though American forces did not search for them. They had detailed intelligence of the neighborhoods, street names, house numbers, and even down to the rooms where these WMDs were supposedly located.

Two: If Saddam did have nukes and knew he was going to be beaten and occupied by the Americans, and also knew he could never use his nukes against the US, he would have gotten rid of them. If so, where did they go?

Three: Saddam hated the Iranians but his hatred of Americans dwarfed his hate of Iranians. The only way he could have gotten rid of his WMDs as the US invasion began was to offer them to the Iranians or perhaps to the Syrians.

Preposterous, you say? Think again.

Saddam did send his air force, mostly MiG 29s to Iran in 1990-91, after his invasion of Kuwait. There is therefore a precedent. And according to intelligence reports at the time scores of trucks were reported to have left Iraq for Syria.

So today’s battle plans call for attacking Iran in order to get rid of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear threat. At the same time this would finally resolve the issue of Saddam’s missing WMDs, thus closing the chapter on the Iraq war.

The end result of sanctioning an attack by Israel against the Islamic Republic, it is believed in some circles, will encourage the people of Iran to rise up against the regime and install a democratic form of government.

That is wishful thinking as the opposite is more likely to occur…

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Has China Outgrown the One-Child Policy?

China’s one-child policy may have slowed population growth in the world’s most populous country. But it has also produced a rapidly aging population, a shrinking labor force, and a skewed sex ratio at birth, perils that many demographers say could threaten China’s economy and social fabric. As the most spectacular demographic experiment in history, the one-child policy is unprecedented in its scope and extremity. The measure is so sacrosanct that officials who have dared in the past to hint at its dissolution have been quickly silenced. But a growing number of experts contend that the policy, which turns 30 next week, has run its course.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Amnesty Makes Inroads Among Evangelicals

Research demonstrates that elites and the rank-and-file in many segments of society (e.g., business, religion, organized labor) are split over immigration issues.

Elites tend to manifest post-American, cosmopolitan ideologies, while their grassroots members preserve deep-seated patriotic beliefs and attitudes, including with regard to immigration.

This phenomenon has become more pronounced in recent times in religious groups. The views on immigration that are common among elites have spread among more conservative parts of American religion — at least with respect to organized religion’s leadership levels. The lobbies of more theologically (and politically) liberal institutions, such as the United Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, plus the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have long advocated mass amnesty, nonenforcement, and virtually uncontrolled immigration policies. Their biblically suspect immigration positions are now spreading… as the advocacy positions of certain evangelical denominations:

•A handful of evangelical organizations have adopted positions on immigration that approach the open-borders positions of the Religious Left.

•The shift toward promotion of mass immigration and amnesty among several evangelical leaders reflects the same disconnect between elite opinion and mass opinion within other segments of society.

•The leftward movement by the Religious Right on immigration appears driven by a few convinced leaders willing to play internal church politics to forward their cause.

•Achieving adoption of official resolutions favoring amnesty has, in notable instances, involved less-than-honest tactics.

•Liberal politicians have used the evangelical open-borders converts to serve their political purposes and to advance their amnesty/guestworker political agenda…

[…]

Leftward, Christian Soldiers…

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Drop in Illegal Immigration in Va. Due in Part to County Law Against Illegal Immigration, Demographer Says

An ordinance against illegal immigration in Virginia’s Prince William County is partly responsible for the decline in that state’s illegal immigrant population, according to a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, as reported in The Washington Post.

Demographer Jeffrey Passel co-wrote the Sept. 1 Pew Hispanic Center report, entitled “U.S. Unauthorized Immigration Flows Are Down Sharply Since Mid-Decade.” The report shows the number of “unauthorized immigrants” in Virginia declined substantially between March 2008 and March 2009.

Although the Pew report does not explain why the decline took place, on the day the study was released, The Washington Post reported the following: “The number [of illegals] in Virginia fell by 65,000 to 240,000, a decline that Jeffrey Passel, author of the report, attributed to the economy as well as to stricter legislation passed in Prince William County in 2007 and 2008.”…

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East German Mozambicans Campaign for Rights

A handful of tattered photos are all that remain of Mozambican Anacleto Amade’s two years in East Germany, where he worked in the 1980s under a labour scheme between the then-communist allies.

But his memories of friendships abroad and walking in the snow are scant comfort now. Like most of the 15,000 Mozambicans sent to work in East German factories, Amade said he has never been paid his full wages.

“When I see those pictures, the emotion is enormous, it is big. It is the size of the world. Because no one’s story is the same,” the 41-year-old said.

While in East Germany, the Mozambicans were paid only 40 percent of their salaries, they say. They were told the rest was sent to Mozambique for investment and pay-out upon their return.

But after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the labour pact ended and they were sent home to a nation that was still a Cold War proxy battlefield. They received only about $350 dollars (€270) each.

The Mozambicans in East Germany worked in steel, construction, manufacturing and textiles industries from 1979.

Locally they’re known as the MadGermans, meaning “those from Germany” in the Shangaan language.

“It’s pejorative,” MadGerman Association president Zeca Cossa said from their base at a park across from parliament in the Mozambican capital Maputo.

“We were there to learn these trades to build Mozambique. Then we returned and we were all unemployed. They told us ‘We don’t have money’,” said Cossa.

He believes the group was sent to repay East Germany for the weapons sold on credit to liberation party Frelimo during Mozambique’s fight for independence against Portugal from 1964 and during the civil war that ended in 1992.

“We didn’t go to train. We went there to work off Mozambique’s debt,” he said. “We were used like slaves.”

The MadGermans’ situation reflects nagging problems that remain in the country, one of the world’s poorest, after the 16-year civil war that pitted the communist Frelimo government against rebels supported by apartheid South Africa.

Despite the economy’s projected 6.5 percent growth this year, 60 percent of Mozambicans do not have work.

But the MadGermans see more sinister reasons behind their failure to build a life in their home country. They say the government, the nation’s biggest employer, refuses them work because they demonstrate for their rights.

“Most Africans don’t see. Even when they do see, they don’t speak,” said Cossa. “We who were in Europe can see.”

“But in Mozambique, if you talk, they kill you,” he said, referring to a demonstration in 2003 when police shot dead one of the group.

Every Wednesday around 300 MadGermans march through the city’s streets. Earlier this year they even attempted to storm parliament.

The labour ministry afterwards said it would make some payments to nearly 1,800 former workers, “definitely closing” the case, state radio reported.

However, the group’s reputation as troublemakers complicates finding a job anywhere. “Even when you work, when they find out you’re a MadGerman, you lose your job,” said Rose Ester Libombo, who worked in a lamp factory in Erfurt for two years.

“When they find out, they think you could make a noise, because we insist on our rights. They call us marginalised, confused,” said Libombo.

These days she sits waiting in the dusty park with other MadGermans in the shadow of a tattered German flag hanging off a tree stump, while street vendors dodge the refuse and heaps of ash as they ply their trade.

Asked about the way forward, Libombo smiles faintly. “I don’t have plans. You need money to make plans,” she says.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Finland Looks to Cut Income Support for Young Refugees

The government wants to slash income support given to underage asylum seekers, reports the Seinäjoki-based newspaper Ilkka. Officials suspect that children have been sending their parents money that is intended to cover their own basic needs.

Currently, unaccompanied children receive up to 290 euros per month while their applications are processed.

The Interior Ministry proposes that unaccompanied children applying for international protection in Finland would instead receive pocket money ranging between 25 and 45 euros per month.

By the end of August, 2,700 people had applied for asylum in Finland this year, 200 of them children. Most young asylum seekers come from Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Finland provides refugees arriving in the country with more direct income support than any other European Union country.

— Hat tip: KGS

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Germany: De Maizière Calls for More Tolerance Towards Immigrants

Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière on Monday said German society needed to be more tolerant and accepting of immigrants. Meanwhile SPD boss Sigmar Gabriel suggested getting tough with foreigners unwilling to integrate.

Speaking to the daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, de Maizière said there needed to be a “culture of welcoming” in Germany that the government could not provide on its own. He said though immigrants needed to make greater efforts to integrate, Germans also needed to recognise the contributions of foreigners.

“Without immigration, combined with openness and tolerance, our country would be much poorer,” he said. “Fearmongering isn’t valid. We have to invest in building trust between people.”

The conservative Christian Democrat de Maizière also said Islam was “rooted” in Germany and there shouldn’t be neither “prejudice nor euphemisms” in the current debate about the integration of Muslims in German society sparked by former Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin.

“Successful integration is determined by several factors. Most important is the personal responsibility of the immigrant,” he said. “We must demand this.”

The head of the centre-left opposition Social Democrats, Sigmar Gabriel, told the website of news magazine Der Speigel on Monday that Germany should take a tougher line with those immigrants unwilling to make an effort to integrate into society.

“Whoever continually rejects integration offers cannot stay in Germany — just like preachers of hatred in mosques paid from abroad,” he said.

Gabriel also said the country’s politicians had to take Germans’ concerns about safety seriously.

“Where there are criminal flash points, regardless of whether they are German or foreign, we need a stronger police presence on the ground,” he said, explaining that integration had to be bolstered by better language offerings, family centres, as well as all-day schools and trainee programmes.

But he also said integration success stories needed better promotion.

“Germany can be proud that so many children from guest worker families are now scientists, skilled workers, or entrepreneurs,” Gabriel said.

The SPD leader also defended the decision to kick Sarrazin out of the party because of his inflammatory rhetoric against Muslim immigrants.

“His theories are a mixture in the tradition of racial purity from the 1920s,” he said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy-Libya: Mogavero (Cei), This is War Against Immigrants

(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 14 — “What aggravates this episode even more is that one of the reasons used to justify Libya’s fire is that it was deemed to be a boat carrying immigrants. The matter does not soften the seriousness of profiles, if evolving rejections become armed attacks then we are looking at a declaration of war against immigrants”.

Speaking to ANSA, the statement was made by monsignor Domenico Mogavero, bishop of Mazara del Vallo and president of the Council of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) for legal affairs.

Mogavero emphasised that “The problem is always the same, in other words jurisdiction over the waters of the Mediterranean: Libya claims 72 miles of territorial waters for itself, international law only recognises 12 and therefore the problem remains unsolved because none of the two positions can be joined up. At this point what really worries us is the fact that there is no political initiative to deal with or even look at the situation. We are witnessing real and tangible inertia by the Italian government”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Senator Menendez Wants CIR During Lame Duck Session

On…”Al Punto,” the Spanish-language TV network Univision’s Sunday morning news program, Sen. Robert Menendez said he will introduce “comprehensive immigration reform” legislation in hopes of getting it passed during the upcoming lame duck session of Congress.

“If we are going to be ready for the opportunity that perhaps will exist during the session after the elections — where many senators are retiring and have the freedom to vote without political considerations — we have to have something so that we can make progress at that moment in November,” the New Jersey Democrat said in an interview with host Jorge Ramos.

If the bill does not pass in November, he said, he and other supporters of the legislation will be ready to move when the new Congress convenes in January.

In a separate segment of the same program, Ramos interviewed Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who rejected claims that the state’s controversial new immigration law, widely known as SB 1070, is racist and anti-Hispanic.

“The Hispanic population is part of our DNA, and that’s why it’s so painful when persons think that it is based in racism,” Brewer said. (This is a translation of the program’s Spanish-language voice-over of her remarks.) She called Hispanics “a fundamental part of our culture.”

“We passed SB 1070 because we can’t accept the costs of illegal immigration,” Brewer told Ramos.

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Christianity Gets Flayed at Home of Liberty Bell

Guide: ‘George Washington didn’t even attend church!’

A Christian chaplain has written to officials at the nation’s historic Independence Hall in Philadelphia asking them to provide a better experience for visitors after a tour guide there dissed the Christian beliefs of the Founders, saying, “Washington didn’t even go to church.”

The letter from Pastor Todd DuBord, now the chaplain for the enterprises of actor, martial arts champion and philanthropist Chuck Norris, was sent to the superintendent of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, where some of the nation’s founding documents were assembled and where the Liberty Bell now is exhibited.

[…]

Among the guide’s statements that DuBord challenged:

• “George Washington didn’t even attend church!”
• “While the NPS guide physically hunched over, mimicked and mocked one carrying and swinging an oversized Bible in his hand, he said to the crowd: ‘Even if I said the founders were Christians, how could we really know? Just because people carry a big ol’ Bible in their hand, they can still be atheists!”
• “Most of these men owned slaves. How could good Christians do that?”
• “We know that Benjamin Franklin was a deist.”
• “We don’t really know for sure about their religion. It’s open for interpretation. You’ll have to do your own study on that.”

“In the very house in which they adopted a Creator-filled Declaration of Independence, not one positive comment was made about any one of the Founders’ Christian faiths,” DuBord wrote.

He said the group was stunned, then ordered quickly by the guide into the next room.

— Hat tip: JD

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Bloodsucking Warrior Worms Destroy and Eat the Enemy

Parasitic worms may possess warrior castes just as social insects do — fearsome soldiers that rip and swallow enemies with their mouths to protect their colonies.

These bloodsucking worms could shed new light on how sociality evolved, researchers said.

Trematodes are parasitic flatworms commonly known as flukes. These flattened oval or worm-shaped creatures feed off their hosts’ blood using muscular, pumping mouths — as they have no anuses, their bodily wastes blurt out from their mouths as well. [Video — Watch a trematode devour its enemy whole.]

It might seem unlikely that trematodes can form complex societies, since their brains consist only of a pair of nerve cell clusters. Still, researchers now find these flatworms can form colonies with standing armies and castes of reproductive breeders, just as seen with termites.

Slow, fat breeders

Scientists focused on trematodes infecting mollusks such as marine snails. These parasites castrate their hosts and clone themselves over and over again, reaching numbers totaling up to 40 percent of their victim’s mass. Several different species of trematodes can infest a single host at the same time.

Past studies had revealed the flatworm species known as Himasthla species B, which infects the California horn snail, Cerithidea californica, had reproductive breeders roughly 1.5-to-2-millimeters long. (For comparison, a pinhead is 2 mm in diameter.) However, in addition to these “primary morphs,” the investigators discovered smaller, thinner “secondary morphs,” which possessed relatively huge mouths they used as weapons.

“These sleek, agile soldiers defend the worm colony from invaders,” said researcher Ryan Hechinger, a zoologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “The other caste is comprised of reproductives, which are slow, big, fat, slug-like things that specialize on creating offspring.”

The warrior worms are each 0.5 percent to 4 percent the size of breeders in terms of bulk, yet their mouths are roughly the same size as those of their swollen compatriots. Whereas breeders barely moved, warriors were very active, wriggling about five times more…

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Former Al Qaeda: Islamist Terror Damages Islam

Forget Western elite apologists and the aggressive American Muslim leadership, the Arab/Muslim heartland has little difficulty comprehending the American sensitivities about building a mosque on ground zero. 58% of the Arab world saw the mosque as “a project of folly” and even more, 63% consider America to be a tolerant country. They know that if the West is beginning to view Islams suspiciously, it is because Islamists attempts to convert the world by force to Islam is giving the religion a bad name. So, instead of demanding that the world treat Islam as if it has nothing to do with Islamism, they demand that Jihadist cease and desist their terrorist activities. Noman Benotman, A Libyan former Al Qaeda member writes:

In New York, your un-Islamic actions have caused hurt, loss, pain and anguish to thousands of innocent people and their families. One consequence is that those Muslims seeking to build a House of God in New York are today being compared to Nazis.

And now we hear that on the anniversary of your attack an American preacher is even planning to burn the Quran in revenge! Indeed Muslims living in democratic and free societies around the world are now experiencing the consequences of your irresponsible acts.

[…]

As he hoped, the letter got the attention of American Indian Muslim CNN talk show host, Fareed Zakaria. As could have been expected, Zakaria saw an opportunity to forward his contention that Al Qaeda alone is a threat…

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Metal Smasher Makes Aluminum as Strong as Steel

Snuffing out a cigarette butt with a 10-ton boot would be excessive, but using the equivalent on certain metals can yield amazing results. By smashing an aluminum alloy between two anvils, researchers have created a metal that’s as strong as steel but much lighter. If the process can be commercialized, it could yield better components for aircraft and automobiles, as well as metal armor light enough for soldiers to wear in battle.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Superiority Complex: The Left, Muslims, Islam

The people of most nations have a natural tendency to believe themselves superior because of their culture, religion and way of life. Such a belief not only makes for a healthy dose of national pride, but also serves as an immune system rallying the people to fight off invasions and maintain their way of life against the winds of change.

Today in the First World however, liberals attack such beliefs in their own countries as reactionary and dangerous. Those who do believe that their country is better or that their culture is superior, are mocked as ignorant, stigmatized as bigoted and routinely compared to Nazis. This is the liberal reductio ad absurdum which reduces all forms of pride in one’s group, any sense of cultural worth and national exceptionalism to jackboots and straight armed salutes. Pinning all the blame on the “National” half of National Socialist, while completely overlooking the “Socialist” part, which had a good deal to do with the economic problems that the Nazis decided to loot their way out of, not to mention the centuries of historical context that made Nazism what it was, was a convenient way for globalists to attack nationalists for reasons that had nothing to do with WW2. And everything to do with their ideological belief that the Nation-State was the great enemy of human progress.

But what happens when people who do believe that their culture, their nationality and their religion are superior immigrate into nations where the host population has been taught that they are no better than anyone else?

Contrary to liberal dogma, the result can never be tolerance. Only intolerance. And when the cultural and national sense of superiority of new immigrants is encouraged, while that of the native population is discouraged, conflict is inevitable. Under such conditions, assimilation and adaptation are out of the conquest. Why would you want to adapt to an inferior culture? Why would you respect people who don’t respect themselves?

Violence by new immigrants is met by appeasement which only feeds an existing superiority complex. Liberals treat every act of violence as a response to discrimination by a racist host society, that must be remedied with more benefits, apologies and kowtowing. A process that only convinces the new immigrants that they really are superior. Because for all the talk of tolerance, they are entitled to special privileges, that the natives not. New immigrants who come from cultures where there is no notion of equality, and a wide gap between the high and the low, may accept tolerance from their betters, but not from their inferiors. Tolerance and charity from your inferiors is an insult that must be answered by showing them their place.

[…]

The common denominator is that First World countries with very generous immigration policies are being depicted as monsters for trying to exercise some very limited authority over immigration. The United States is a country of immigrants, France and England are filled with refugees and their children, and their children’s children. Israel has taken in everyone from Sudanese refugees to Vietnamese boat people. But somehow it’s never enough. Because domestic liberals will always insist that immigrants from more backward parts of the world, have more rights than the country’s own citizens, particularly than those citizens who used to be immigrants and actually paid their dues. Instead liberals prefer refugees, bordercrossers and migrant workers, often with shady backgrounds and little to contribute except social problems.

[…]

The great triumph of liberalism has been to hijack a formerly optimistic culture, and transform it into a pessimistic one, feeding it nightmares about nuclear war, global poverty, pollution and global warming. Snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, they successfully turned the American dream into the American nightmare. Liberal culture took an America which had been the symbol of commercial triumph, and forced it to see itself as its enemies saw it, glutinous, barbarous, ignorant and violent. And that pattern has held true across the First World, from Australia to Israel to Italy. Only a handful of nations with a great deal of national integrity and resistance to outside influences, such as Japan, have been able to resist being force fed this mirror history of themselves, in which everything that they valued proved to be a crime of one sort or another.

— Hat tip: JD

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Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Dogs

Dogs are the most diverse-looking mammals around

From the droopy Bassett hound to the sleek-and-slim Weimaraner, dogs show an amazing diversity in body shape. A study published in The American Naturalist in 2010 found that the differences between dog breeds’ skulls are as pronounced as the differences between completely separate mammal species. A Collie skull, for example, is as different from a Pekingese skull as a cat’s skull is from a walrus’s.

All of this diversity makes dogs a great species for studying how genes work, allowing researchers to link genes to certain traits — like what makes Shar-Peis wrinkly and dachshunds so stubby.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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U.N. Calls for Sustainable Development, Global Governance

The 65th meeting of the U.N. General Assembly kicked off this week with a call from its new president, Joseph Deiss, for the 192-nation body to reclaim the “center of global governance,” in order to achieve sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000.

[…]

The goals of sustainable development are quite worthy and can be achieved much more efficiently through free market forces. This approach, however, eliminates the need for the bureaucracy that defines, implements, and enforces sustainable development through the U.N. plan. The U.N.’s version of sustainable development requires government to define what constitutes sustainable development in a given community through the adoption of a comprehensive land use plan and related international codes. Citizens are required to comply with the plan or face serious fines, penalties, and even the loss of property.

People — especially politicians — need to step back and consider this question: is the function of government to dictate the behavior of its citizens by limiting their individual freedom? Marxists must reply with a resounding “yes.” This is precisely the effect of the U.N.’s version of sustainable development.

Many Americans, on the other hand, believe that the legitimate function of government is to do precisely what the citizens who created it and the Constitution instruct it to do — and nothing more. Many Americans believe that they should be able to live where they choose, and can afford to live. This fundamental choice is taken away from people subjected to comprehensive land use plans that dictate where, and under what conditions, people must live. Freedom and sustainable development are mutually exclusive.

— Hat tip: JD

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Why We Need a New Green Revolution to Stop Hunger

World leaders are meeting in New York this week to discuss progress on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. The world’s nations have failed miserably in addressing one of the main goals, the fight against hunger. Researchers believe that small farmers, not large-scale farms, are the key to feeding the planet. By SPIEGEL staff.

Food was scarce for Dorca Mutua last summer. No rain had fallen for months. Mutua, 35, watched as first her calf and then her cow died. “There was no more grass,” the farmer says. What little she was able to coax from the ground was only enough to provide her family with one meager meal of corn porridge a day.

In 2004, Mutua had moved with her eight children and her mother-in-law to Vololo, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, where she bought two hectares (five acres) of land. Her husband had died, and land in their home village was too expensive.

Mutua had little knowledge of agriculture and no money for expensive tools or modern seeds. Irrigation was out of the question. When the nearby river ran dry — and it ran dry often — Mutua set out with a donkey and a few canisters and walked to the next river, which was 20 kilometers away. She went there and back every two days.

She tried everything. She constructed terraces to help keep moisture in the soil, with no success. She tried planting trees to retain water, but in vain. Three small mango trees on her plot of land have borne no fruit and are slowly withering.

The Backbone of Food Production

Dorca Mutua’s family reveals the modern face of hunger. Along with the urban poor living in slums in the developing world’s megacities, small farmers often suffer the most from poverty and deprivation, laboring all day without ever having enough to eat.

Yet it is these small farmers who form the backbone of global food production. Despite miserable conditions, around 2 billion farmers produce the daily bread for most of humanity.

“More than half of the world’s grain demand is produced by small family farms,” says Carlos Seré in Nairobi, one of the leaders of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). These small farmers, Seré says, will prove crucial as the global population increases by a further 2 to 3 billion people during the coming decades.

Categorical Failure

This Monday, world leaders are gathering at United Nations headquarters in New York City to address the UN’s “Millennium Development Goals.” The fight against hunger, along with education and healthcare, tops the list.

The delegates have failed categorically on the first point. Leaders at the UN summit in New York in the millennium year 2000 declared food security their top priority, setting a goal of reducing the number of hungry in developing countries by half by 2015, compared to 1990 levels. That would involve reducing the total to around 600 million people.

No discernable progress has been made toward this goal. In fact, quite the opposite is true — the number of hungry has increased sharply in recent years, at times to over 1 billion. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 925 million people currently suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Estimates say a further billion are undernourished, suffering from so-called silent hunger. Undernourished children grow more slowly, their mental development is often delayed and they are more susceptible to diseases. One study showed that people who had received insufficient vitamins and minerals as small children later earned 40 percent less than those who had been well nourished.

If the world leaders gathering in New York are serious about changing course and reducing hunger in a sustainable way, they must answer a crucial question: What actually helps?

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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	Financial Crisis
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»	Globalists Plan to Dismantle Middle Class With UN Tax
»	October DC March Against Free Will
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	USA
»	Chicago Police Officers Stage Mass Protest Against Supt. Weis
»	Florida Couple Pleads Guilty to Abusing Filipino Workers
»	Message to Muslims: I’m Sorry
»	‘Obama Has Underestimated the Frustration in the Country’
»	Obama and Minions Call Constitutionalists ‘Extremists’ And ‘Crazy’
»	Obama Urges Blacks to Vote and ‘Guard the Change’
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»	Postulants Not Kicking the Habit
»	The War on Home Appliances
»	TV Station Fires Veteran Anchor for ‘Misconduct’
	Europe and the EU
»	Dutch Anti-Semitism Reaches Record High
»	France: Roma: Sarkozy, We Will Continue to Dismantle Camps
»	Netherlands: Rotterdam Calls for Help Housing Bulgarians
»	Netherlands: Rightwing Coalition Agrees on Minimum Sentences
»	Roma: Commissioner Reding’s Statements Unacceptable, Zapatero
»	UK: Daily Mail Comment: Pope Gives Britain a Lesson in Candour
	Balkans
»	Radical Islam on Rise in Balkans
	Mediterranean Union
»	Citizens From Both Shores Suffer From Stereoypes
»	North and South Hope for Positive Effects
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Air Force Confirms Choice of F-35 Fighter Jets
»	Netanyahu for ‘Slow’ Colonisation, Press Reports
»	PNA: EU Launches Nablus Security Compound Construction
»	West Bank: Wanted Hamas Man Killed, Different Versions
	Middle East
»	Bahrain: Elections, Step Back for Women in Politics
»	Iran Denies Detaining Seven U.S. Troops
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20 Signs That the Economic Collapse Has Already Begun for One Out of Every Seven Americans

For most Americans, the economic collapse is something that is happening to someone else. Most of us have become so isolated from each other and so self-involved that unless something is directly affecting us or a close family member than we really don’t feel it. But even though most of us enjoy a much closer relationship with our television sets than we do with our neighbors at this point, it is quickly becoming undeniable that a fundamental shift is taking place in society. Perhaps you noticed it when two or three foreclosure signs went up on your street. Or perhaps it got your attention when that nice fellow down the street lost his job, and he and his family seemingly just disappeared from the neighborhood one day. The Census Bureau made front page headlines all over the nation this week when they announced that one out of every seven Americans was living in poverty in 2009. Every single day more Americans are getting sucked out of the middle class and into soul-crushing poverty.

Unfortunately, most Americans don’t really care because it has not affected them yet.

But this year, millions more Americans will discover that the music has stopped playing and they are left without a seat at the table.

Meanwhile, neither political party has a workable solution. They just like to point fingers and blame each other.

The Democrats blame Bush for all the poverty and advocate expanding programs for the poor. Not that there is anything wrong with a safety net. But the “safety net” was never meant to hold 50 million people on Medicaid and 40 million people on food stamps. The number of Americans on food stamps has more than doubled since 2007. So do we just double it again as things get even worse?

The truth is that welfare programs are only short-term solutions. Unfortunately, the Democrats do not understand this. What Americans really need are good jobs.

The Republicans are so boneheaded that they don’t even like to talk about poverty because they think it is a “liberal issue”. Some conservative commentators have even been so brutally cold as to mock the “99ers” (those who have been unemployed so long that even their extended federal benefits have run out).

Instead of showing some compassion and being the party of the American worker (as they should be), the Republicans are often very uncompassionate and they allow the Democrats to be “the party of the poor” by default.

Both political parties need a big wakeup call. There is a tsunami of poverty sweeping the United States, and somebody better wake up and do something about it. More handouts will help people get by in the short-term, but there is no way that the federal government can financially support tens of millions more poor Americans.

How long is it going to be before the “safety net” simply collapses under the weight of all this poverty?

The path we are on is not sustainable.

The economy is falling apart, and somebody better wake up and do something before even more Americans find themselves drowning in poverty.

The following are 20 signs that the economic collapse has already begun for one out of every seven Americans…..

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Globalists Plan to Dismantle Middle Class With UN Tax

Globalists representing 60 nations will meet at the UN this coming week to push a tax on world financial transactions in the name of solving poverty and climate change, formally launching a massive program to bankrupt the middle class and enrich the coffers of global government.

“Spearheaded by European Union countries, the so-called “innovative financing” proposal envisages a tax of 0.005 percent (five cents per $1,000), which experts estimate could produce more than $30 billion a year worldwide for priority causes,” reports CNS News.

As Ira Stoll, editor of FutureCapitalism.com, points out, new taxes always start off small so as to not be resisted by the people forced to pay them, and are then always gradually increased.

“When people suggest taxes, they always start out ‘small,” said Stoll.

“But once the door is opened to the idea of ‘global taxes,’ you can bet they won’t end small. Never mind all the issues about whether development aid actually helps poor countries or just winds up empowering corrupt local dictators and their cronies.”

The call for a global transaction tax arrives in the aftermath of a leaked UN blueprint which outlined how elitists plan to re-brand global warming in an effort to dismantle the middle class by instituting a “global redistribution of wealth” via carbon taxes.

The aim is to “limit and redirect the aspirations for a better life of rising middle classes around the world,” in other words to reduce the standard of living for the middle classes in Western Europe and America.

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October DC March Against Free Will

For years, we have been telling American citizens that the Communist Party USA and Socialist Party USA members joined forces in an operation known today as the Democratic Socialists of America. Instead of working outside the two party systems, they established DSAUSA to work inside the two party system.

We have documented that both the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus are legislative apparatuses of the Democratic Socialists of America, all of which is openly documented on the DSAUSA site. The communist are not coming folks, they are already here, and they are the most effective political juggernaut in America today!

On October 2, 2010 — The Democratic Socialists of America have organized a March on DC to defend public sector labor unions for government employees paid for by your tax dollars. In other words, they are marching against every American taxpayer.

SEIU, now the nation’s largest labor union, is openly promoting the Democratic Socialist event on 10.02.10 and just wait to see which politicians show up in support.

Labor unions represent only 17% of the nation’s work force, only 9% of the nation’s population. Yet through their unified and well organized efforts, they run this country today, via their Progressive and Black Caucuses and today’s Democratic Socialist Party, the DNC.

Who represents the other 91% of the nation, the other 83% of American workers who still believe in FREE WILL and the right to work, earn, own and pass down, without the tyranny of labor union thugs and an abusive government?

There are only 22 right to work states left in America. They are the most fiscally sound and individually prosperous states in our union. The 28 forced unionization states are the most bankrupt states in our nation.

— Hat tip: JD

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States Working Harder to Collect Online Sales Taxes

[…]

Sales taxes or similar levies have always been in place on most online purchases in most states. But they are almost never paid. And with their budgets in crisis, states are more determined than ever to get their share.

[…]

The confusion boils down to who does the collecting and when. As with everything involving tax legislation, there are exceptions and other complications from state to state. For example, if you live in Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon, which have no sales taxes, none of this applies.

Online retailers like Amazon.com typically don’t add the tax, except in the states where they’re based or where they have physical facilities like warehouses or distribution centers. Amazon, for example, collects sales taxes only in Washington (its home state), Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota and New York.

The tax is still supposed to be paid, however. And if the seller’s not responsible, then you, the buyer, are. In general, you’re supposed to voluntarily file your own report and pay the standard tax on your out-of-state online purchases. (The appropriate forms are available on state tax agency websites, revenue officials are happy to remind you.)

South Carolina, like most states, relies on consumers to be honest. But if you happen to be audited and you haven’t paid up, you could be in for a world of hurt.

“The Department of Revenue realizes that there is concern and there are issues with collecting the use tax,” Fairwell said. “But we aggressively go after that.”

Numerous other states are considering legislation or studying proposals that would crack down on non-payment of online taxes:

•The Alabama Department of Revenue is sending letters to random taxpayers, telling them to review their last three years of online purchases and send in a check. •In February, Colorado enacted the so-called Amazon law, declaring that online retailers were part of an “economic nexus” with state residents. Under the law — which has been challenged in federal court — Amazon and other online retailers are required to calculate the sales tax on every transaction and tell their customers how much they have to pay the state. They’re also required to disclose the identities of their customers and how much they spent, which has set off a fierce dispute over Coloradans’ privacy rights. Amazon says the law was enacted “over our strong objections.”

‘Amazon laws’

States that are currently considering requiring out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on online transactions:

• California
• Connecticut
• Illinois
• Iowa
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• New Mexico
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Wisconsin

Source: msnbc.com research/Alex Johnson

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Chicago Police Officers Stage Mass Protest Against Supt. Weis

The Chicago police officers’ union protested Wednesday outside the Chicago Police Department’s South Side headquarters against Police Superintendent Jody Weis.

Approximately 250 officers some chanting “Jodi Weis is a coward,” marched to protest what its members say is a dangerous manpower shortage, and to show their displeasure with the way their boss has run the department.

The officers, many of which were off-duty according to the officers’ union, carried signs that read “More Police No Weis”, “Free Cozzi”, “Resign”, “No Manpower No Weis”, and “Dump Weis”. The signs all appeared to have been made by the same printer.

Weis said Tuesday he wasn’t not concerned by the protest, and that he would not resign.

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Florida Couple Pleads Guilty to Abusing Filipino Workers

Sophia Manuel, 41, and Alfonso Baldonado Jr., 45, were owners of a labor contracting service based in the Florida city of Boca Raton.

Manuel and Baldonado “conspired to obtain a cheap, compliant and readily available labor pool, by making false promises to entice the victims to incur debts,” read a Department of Justice statement, quoting court documents.

“The defendants then compelled the victims’ labor and services through threats to have the workers arrested and deported, knowing the workers faced serious economic harm and possible incarceration for nonpayment of debts in the Philippines.”

Once the workers arrived at Manuel and Baldonado’s Florida residence, the couple confiscated their passports, then “housed them in overcrowded, substandard conditions without adequate food or drinking water; put them to work at area country clubs and hotels for little or no pay; required them to remain in the defendants’ service, unpaid when there was insufficient work.”

[…]

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Message to Muslims: I’m Sorry

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Many Americans have suggested that more moderate Muslims should stand up to extremists, speak out for tolerance, and apologize for sins committed by their brethren.

That’s reasonable advice, and as a moderate myself, I’m going to take it. (Throat clearing.) I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs.

I’m inspired by another journalistic apology. The Portland Press Herald in Maine published an innocuous front-page article and photo a week ago about 3,000 local Muslims praying together to mark the end of Ramadan. Readers were upset, because publication coincided with the ninth anniversary of 9/11, and they deluged the paper with protests.

So the newspaper published a groveling front-page apology for being too respectful of Muslims. “We sincerely apologize,” wrote the editor and publisher, Richard Connor, and he added: “we erred by at least not offering balance to the story and its prominent position on the front page.” As a blog by James Poniewozik of Time paraphrased it: “Sorry for Portraying Muslims as Human.”

I called Mr. Connor, and he seems like a nice guy. Surely his front page isn’t reserved for stories about Bad Muslims, with articles about Good Muslims going inside. Must coverage of law-abiding Muslims be “balanced” by a discussion of Muslim terrorists?

Ah, balance — who can be against that? But should reporting of Pope Benedict’s trip to Britain be “balanced” by a discussion of Catholic terrorists in Ireland? And what about journalism itself?…

— Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo

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‘Obama Has Underestimated the Frustration in the Country’

The Tea Party movement has enjoyed a comet-like rise since last year. It provides a haven for voters for whom the mainstream Republican Party is not conservative enough, and its popularity is widely attributed to dissatisfaction with US President Barack Obama and frustration with the lackluster US economy. Many observers expect its rise will force the Repubican Party to move further to the right.

On Thursday, German editorialists look at what the latest victory means for US politics.

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

“The spectacular successes of the grassroots conservative movement could turn out to be a political boomerang for the opposition Republicans, whose chances for the midterm elections were looking good or even very good. The Republicans will now be drawn further and further towards the right, meaning that they will no longer be an option for non-ideological voters who are disillusioned with the Democrats. In this way the Republicans could jeopardize their own future success. The Democrats’ best campaigner isn’t Obama, but rather the anti-establishment front of its opponent.”

The conservative daily Die Welt writes:

“This sort of nomination is intended as a putsch against the Republican establishment, but it doesn’t solve the Democrats’ problems. They are threatened by a massive loss of support in the midterm elections, where the whole House of Representatives and a third of the Senate and a large chunk of the governor posts are up for grabs. But the Republicans’ goal is to regain the majority in both houses of Congress. If they fail to accomplish this double whammy, the Democrats can breathe a sigh of relief.”…

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Obama and Minions Call Constitutionalists ‘Extremists’ And ‘Crazy’

Taking the lead from other despotic totalitarian leaders, their lackeys and adherents, The Obama and his minions have launched an all-out battle campaign against any—the majority of us—Americans (soon to be known and “Obama-ians” if the Marxists have their way) who believe the US Constitution should be followed by those who govern. Note: I suspect that as Obama & Co rules rather than governs, The Obama believes it doesn’t apply to him.

It is now “radical” and “crazy” to follow US law and not the emerging sinister ObamaLaw. A prime example of this is the Obama’s and his DOJ’s refusal to support US laws protecting US citizens and our country’s Southern border from foreign invaders and then suing the States (think Arizona) and Sheriffs (think Sheriff Joe Arpaio) who do so. Note: The ObamaLeft is again using lapdog Alan Colmes who appeared on Megyn Kelly’s FNC show 17 September and called Conservative candidate for Nevada Senator Sharron Angle “crazy,” “extreme,” and “paranoid.” Poor simple Alan hasn’t had a successful gig since Hannity & Colmes folded.

Even the Democrat plants and ruling elite within the Republican Party (aka “RINOs”) are now openly fighting against We-the-People who want to restore our Republic to its Constitutional and God given rights roots.

— Hat tip: JD

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Obama Urges Blacks to Vote and ‘Guard the Change’

President Barack Obama, seeking to fire up an important part of his support base ahead of November’s elections, told black leaders on Saturday he wanted their support to “guard the change” he was delivering.

“I need everybody here to go back to your neighborhoods, and your workplaces, to your churches, and barbershops, and beauty shops. Tell them we have more work to do. Tell them we can’t wait to organize. Tell them that the time for action is now,” he told the Congressional Black Caucus.

The words of America’s first black president showed a deliberate effort to recapture the enthusiasm that had helped him win the White House in 2008, after polls showed African- Americans much less likely to vote than whites this year.

“It’s not surprising that a lot of people may not be feeling that energized or that engaged right now,” he told an annual awards ceremony hosted by the organization representing black members of the U.S. Congress.

“A lot of folks may be feeling like politics is something they get involved in every four years when there’s a presidential election, but they don’t see why they should bother the rest of the time,” he said.

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Pennsylvania Homeland Security Targeted Tea Parties

In November, Pennsylvania’s Homeland Security issued a bulletin stating that two Tea Party rallies against illegal immigration might attract “white nationalists.” The report was issued by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, an Israeli company. “I think it is one of the more bizarre things I’ve ever heard,” Karen Kiefer, a Tea Party activist from Scottdale, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Saturday. “A lot of people say they never feel safer than at a Tea Party rally. They got $103,000 in taxpayers’ money to compile these bogus lists? That is absolutely shocking.”

Appearing on the Alex Jones Show on Thursday, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen discussed the involvement of the Israeli company in an effort by Pennsylvania’s Homeland Security to spy on activists exercising their First Amendment.

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Postulants Not Kicking the Habit

A handful of Roman Catholic convents are contradicting the decades-long slide in the number of women choosing to devote their lives to the sisterhood. And at least two of them are doing it by sticking to tradition, including the wearing of habits.

The number of nuns in the U.S. has dropped dramatically over the last several decades as more women in religious life approach retirement and are not replaced with younger sisters.

But the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville have remained an exception for years. The order has 27 postulants entering the convent this fall, likely the largest group of new nuns in training in the country, according to religious scholars.

Sisters at St. Cecilia’s and other thriving U.S. orders typically are younger, which makes them closer in age to potential newcomers. These orders also emphasize traditional practices, like wearing long, flowing black-and-white habits, and educating students.

In 1965, there were 179,954 U.S. religious sisters, while today that number is around 57,544, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

More than nine in 10 women religious, who have taken final vows, were 60 or over in 2009. At St. Cecilia’s, the median age for the 272 sisters in the order is 36; the youngest sister is 18, the oldest 101.

Potential postulants see “young vibrant women, obviously happy with what they’re doing” at St. Cecilia’s and other growing orders, said Mary Gautier, senior research associate at CARA.

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The War on Home Appliances

[In] Europe, where bureaucrats systematically are targeting the conveniences of modern life [plan] to fight the imaginary problem of global warming — sorry, “global climate disruption” — the European Commission has before it a proposal to reduce the electricity used by the humble family vacuum cleaner, the London Telegraph reported. It’s only a matter of time before the bureaucracy on our side of the Atlantic sucks up this bad idea.

[…]

…If vacuums have less suction, homeowners will need to spend more time vacuuming, and the supposed “energy savings” will never materialize. The same thing happened in 1992 when congressional plumbers decided to redesign America’s commodes. Government-mandated low-flow toilet models were so ineffective that they required multiple flushes on each use, resulting in no net savings in water use.

[…]

Congress already has regulated light bulbs, toilets, shower heads and washing machines. It’s only a matter of time before it adopts Europe’s forthcoming ban on fully functional vacuum cleaners. Forcing the public to return to push brooms and washcloths is not going to save the polar bears any more than Mr. Carter’s temperature austerity contributed to world peace. The new House and Senate should make repeal of these pointless appliance regulations a priority next year.

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TV Station Fires Veteran Anchor for ‘Misconduct’

Doug McKelway was placed on indefinite suspension in late July after his run-in with ABC7’s news director and general manager, Bill Lord. In a letter to McKelway this week, the station said it was terminating his contract immediately, citing insubordination and misconduct.

Amid the ongoing BP oil spill in July, McKelway covered a Capitol Hill demonstration by environmental groups protesting the influence of oil-industry contributions to members of Congress.

In his piece, McKelway said the sparsely attended event attracted protesters “largely representing far-left environmental groups.” He went on to say the protest “may be a risky strategy because the one man who has more campaign contributions from BP than anybody else in history is now sitting in the Oval Office, President Barack Obama, who accepted $77,051 in campaign contributions from BP.”

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Dutch Anti-Semitism Reaches Record High

According to Dutch police statistics, the 48% increase represented 209 reported anti-Semitic incidents in 2009.

That accounted for 9.4% of discrimination- based incidents in the Netherlands, although Jews constitute only 0.3% of the country’s 16.6 million people.

In 2008, the police registered 141 anti-Semitic incidents. Anti-gay attacks rose 13% in 2009 when compared to the previous year, and amounted to 35% of all discrimination-based incidents.

There were 428 anti-homosexual incidents in 2009; in 2008, 308 incidents were registered.

The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel said in its statement that “In January 2009 alone, CIDI — an independent watchdog organization — documented 98 attacks against Jews. This figure included nine physical assaults. The remaining incidents were threats and hate speech.

“During the whole of 2009, CIDI documented 167 anti-Semitic incidents — constituting an increase of 55% compared to CIDI’s 2008 report. Out of these, 35 were serious incidents, involving violent attacks or threats of violence, damaging synagogues and monuments and anti-Semitic graffiti of Jewish- owned buildings.”

The rise in attacks prompted human rights groups to urge the Dutch government to take action.

“CIDI and the gay rights organization COC called on the upcoming government of the Netherlands — whose makeup is being determined in coalition talks following a recent election — to address the growing anti-gay and anti- Jewish trends apparent in the report,” CIDI noted in its statement.

Dutch observers say that the Netherlands’ 1 million Muslims (about 5% of the population), largely from Morocco, coupled with anti-Israel leftists have contributed to a hostile climate for Jews in the Netherlands.

— Hat tip: KGS

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France: Roma: Sarkozy, We Will Continue to Dismantle Camps

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 16 — France will continue to dismantle “the illegal camps” on its territory, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a press meeting in Brussels after the EU summit.

“France has acted and will continue to act in the spirit of the EU directive”, Sarkozy added. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Netherlands: Rotterdam Calls for Help Housing Bulgarians

Rotterdam city council needs urgent assistance in housing hundreds of immigrants from central and eastern Europe, city council executive Hamit Karakus says in Friday’s NRC.

In particular the arrival of Bulgarians with little chance of finding work is taxing city housing, Karakus says.

Despite earlier assurances, the government has not done what it should, leaving the council struggling to cope with the influx, Karakus said

Low skilled

City council research published on Friday shows most Bulgarian newcomers are low-skilled, arrive in groups and rely on the ‘grey and illegal’ jobs market.

Despite being party of the EU, people from Bulgaria and Romania need a work permit to get a job in the Netherlands.

Some 4,000 Bulgarians live in Rotterdam, mostly Turkish-speaking, the research shows.

In 2007, Rotterdam organised a special summit of local authority leaders to discuss the ‘problems’ being caused by the influx of Polish workers.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Netherlands: Rightwing Coalition Agrees on Minimum Sentences

THE HAGUE, 18/09/10 — The conservatives (VVD), Christian democrats (CDA) and Party for Freedom (PVV) have reached agreement on the main points of justice policy. Under their accord, there will be statutory minimum sentences to which judges must adhere.

Minimum sentences do no currently exist in the Netherlands. VVD, CDA and PVV have however agreed that a floor should be introduced for certain crimes if the suspect is found guilty. This was an emphatic PVV wish.

The three parties expect to conclude negotiations shortly on a VVD-CDA minority cabinet to receive ‘tolerance support’ from parliament from the PVV. The accord on security policy has been obtained by TV programme Nieuwsuur (formerly Nova).

Under the accord, the incoming cabinet also wants to add 3,000 extra police officers. The Netherlands currently has around 50,000. They must also be on the beat more and less burdened administratively.

Additionally, the three parties want the number of regional police corps to be cut to 10 from 25. They will then be in line with the court regions, of which 10 are also to survive.

These 10 police corps will come directly under the responsibility of a Security Minister. This post is now called the Justice Minister, but will be expanded with the inclusion of responsibility for the police, which currently still lies with the Home Affairs Minister.

The VVD will likely supply the Security Minister. One of the candidates being named is MP Fred Teeven, who was a top prosecutor in an earlier life.

The three parties also want a stricter regime for psychiatrically disturbed criminals. They will have fewer opportunities to leave so-called TBS clinics for escorted or unescorted leave.

The Dutch police union (NPB) is sceptical. “Since Columbus, I have heard in every cabinet formation that there are to be extra police,” says spokesman Jan Willem van der Pol. “This always fails to happen; we are only confronted with cutbacks.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Roma: Commissioner Reding’s Statements Unacceptable, Zapatero

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 16 — Spanish Prime Minister Jose’ Luis Zapatero — talking during a press conference after the EU summit — has called the statements made by the vice president of the European Commission, Viviane Reding, “unacceptable. Reding has drawn a parallel between the expulsion of Roma from France and events that took place during the Second World War.

These “words are out of place”, added Zapatero.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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UK: Daily Mail Comment: Pope Gives Britain a Lesson in Candour

He attacked the aggressive atheism in British society. Confronting his Hitler Youth past, he described his first-hand observations of how the Nazis’ contempt for religion allowed this most evil regime to take root.

He apologised for the child abuse scandal. But he was critical of our age’s addiction to instant gratification — our obsession with alcohol and sex and money were causing great harm to our society, he said.

Yesterday, he followed this with a stirring attack on attempts by the politically correct Left-wing establishment to prevent the celebration of Christmas, for fear of offending other faiths.

What a contrast to our own Archbishop of Canterbury, who is so petrified of appearing irrelevant in the modern world that he utters barely a word about the critical moral issues facing this country.

Witness how yesterday, when delivering prayers alongside the Pope at Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop offered only theological vagaries about the dark ages of Christianity.

— Hat tip: JD

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Radical Islam on Rise in Balkans

An online music video praising Osama bin Laden has driven home a troubling new reality: A radical brand of Islam embraced by al-Qaida and the Taliban is gaining a foothold in the Balkans.

“Oh Osama, annihilate the American army. Oh Osama, raise the Muslims’ honor,” a group of Macedonian men sing in Albanian, in video posted on YouTube last year and picked up by Macedonian media this August. “In September 2001 you conquered a power. We all pray for you.”

Although most of Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian minority are Muslims, they have generally been secular. But experts are now seeing an increasing radicalization in pockets of the country’s Islamic community, particularly after armed groups from the ethnic Albanian minority, which forms a quarter of the population of 2.1 million, fought a brief war against Macedonian government forces in 2001.

It’s a trend seen across the Balkans and has raised concerns that the region, which includes new European Union member Bulgaria, could become a breeding ground for terrorists with easy access to Western Europe. Many fear that radicalized European Muslims with EU passports could slip across borders and blend into society.

— Hat tip: JD

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Citizens From Both Shores Suffer From Stereoypes

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 15 — European citizens and citizens of the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean suffer from distorted and stereotyped views of one another. This is one of the conclusions of the Anna Lindh Foundation’s ‘Euromed Intercultural Trends 2010’ reports, which was presented in Brussels today.

The study is based on the first Gallup inquiry which involved 13,000 people in the area, across thirteen different countries: Bosnia Herzegovina, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Sweden and Great Britain in the north, and Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey for the southern and eastern Mediterranean.

The report states that one in three people had some contact with a citizen from another country in the region last year. There is, however, an incorrect perception and a lack of mutual understanding, particularly with regards to values.

Almost six out of every ten people interviewed in the southern and eastern Mediterranean think that the most important value for European parents to teach their children is that of learning to be independent (57%), which was only considered a priority for one in five Europeans, followed by curiosity (44%), which was of prime importance for only 13% of Europeans.

On the other hand, Europeans underestimated the value of religion, which is fundamental for 62% of those interviewed in the southern and eastern Mediterranean, as well as curiosity (7% in Europe against 19% on southern and eastern shores), independence (14% against 20%), and obedience (28% against 35%).

Family solidarity, which those in the Mediterranean believe is value for 17% of Europeans, is actually a factor that links both sides of the sea, and constitutes a priority for 56% of those interviewed in Europe and for 41% of those in the southern and eastern Mediterranean. Obedience is also fundamental for 23% of inhabitants of the Old Continent, against 36% of their counterparts. A large divide is immediately apparent in terms of respect for other cultures: this is in first or second position in the value table for 58% of Europeans, but only for 18% of those interviewed on the southern and eastern Mediterranean. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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North and South Hope for Positive Effects

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 16 — A project like that of the Union for the Mediterranean (UFM) will bring about positive effects in the world of innovation and business for example, according to nearly half of the people from the north and south shores, while one-third say do not rule out the possibility of helpful consequences. At the same time, the majority of people see the region as a potential source of conflicts, according to the key points found in the report, ‘Euromed intercultural trends 2010’ presented by the Anna Lindh Foundation in Brussels. The study is based on the first Gallup poll conducted on 13,000 people in 13 countries: Bosnia Herzegovina, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Sweden and Great Britain for the north shore; Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey for the south and east shore of the Mediterranean. According to the report, between 34% and 48% of those interviewed think that the Union for the Mediterranean could result in advantages for their respective societies, while between 22% and 38% believe that it is a possibility. The minority of those interviewed did not believe that they will benefit at all from the UFM in various areas: 8% believe that there will be no positive consequences in regards to innovation and business, 16% regarding individual liberties and rule of law and 25% in terms of moral values. Regarding the expected effects in their respective regions, over 45% of people from the south and east shore believe that they will see a growing focus on environmental issues and 46% expect for the power of the younger sector of the population to increase. For 46% of the people in the north shore countries and 46% for people in the south, one of the effects will be a greater respect for cultural diversity.

One-third of Europeans think that effects will boost entrepreneurship and social solidarity and 30% believe that greater importance will be placed on environmental issues. In terms of the image of the region, those who were interviewed often had a positive outlook: over three-fourths believed that the distinguishing traits are hospitality, lifestyle and food, a common cultural legacy and creativity. But for the majority of people, the Mediterranean is also identified as an area that is a potential source of conflict. In this case, a difference of perception is more evident between the two shores. Europeans more often associate the region with lifestyle and food compared to the residents of the south and east (90% north compared to 75% south), but at the same time they see a potential source of conflict (73% north compared to 61% south), in particular among Germans (83%), Swedes and Greeks (82%), who have a different outlook compared to the French (62%). A preoccupation that is shared by 75% of Lebanese citizens and 69% of Moroccans, but which is much less of a worry in Turkey (41%). As for intelligence, the creativity factor is the most distinctive element in the area for Moroccans (86%), followed by the English, Germans and Greeks (85%). (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Air Force Confirms Choice of F-35 Fighter Jets

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, SEPTEMBER 17 — Israel’s Air Force announced that the F-35 fighter of US company Lockheed-Martin has been selected as its future fighter plane.

The choice was confirmed by premier Benyamin Netanyahu, according to a government statement. The premier stated that “The purchase of this fighter, the most advanced in the world, is a major step in Israel’s military growth”.

One of the characteristics of the F-35 is its ability to operate at a distance without being detected by radars.

The statement did not provide the number of aircraft that will be purchased, but in recent weeks the local press reported a number of 20 and that the order is worth 2.75 billion dollars.

The first aircraft should be delivered to the Israeli Air Force in 2015. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Netanyahu for ‘Slow’ Colonisation, Press Reports

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, SEPTEMBER 13 — On the eve of the Sharm El Sheik summit (Egypt) with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli premier Benyamin Netanyahu is preparing to opt for “slow colonisation” which would calm the apprehensions of his government’s nationalist ministers but not give rise to a crisis in talks with the Palestinian Authority. According to today’s press, at the end of September — when the 10-month moratorium on new Jewish building projects in the West Bank expires — Netanyahu will be tacitly adopting the policy drawn up by his predecessor Ehud Olmert (Kadima): the annual construction of about 2,000 housing units for settlers, 90% of which in homogenous zones of Jewish settlement within the West Bank.

Yesterday Netanyahu told Likud ministers that 19,000 housing units “are on the table”. He added that Israel would not agree to a total settlement freeze, but that it is not necessary to carry out all the projects. “Between 0 and 1 there are intermediate options,” he said. An extension to the freeze on Jewish building projects in the West Bank is one of Mahmoud Abbas’s priority requests. In Sharm El Sheik tomorrow, Netanyahu, on the other hand, will be reiterating the request that Palestinians recognise the Jewish character of Israel as part of definitive peace accords.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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PNA: EU Launches Nablus Security Compound Construction

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SET 17 — The construction of seven buildings in Nablus for the national security forces, the ministry of Interior, the Governorate, the prisoner reform and rehabilitation Centre, and the palestinian civil police has began.

According to the Enpi website (www.enpi-info.eu), the security compound (Muqata’a) is due to be be ready in the first quarter of 2012. “The rule of law — the European Union representative, Christian Berger — is a cornerstone for a future Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority has made significant achievements in this sector in the previous year”.

This contribution represents the European Union’s support to security sector reform of the Palestinian Authority. All designs for the buildings have been developed by the ministry of Public Works and Housing in close cooperation with the involved parties. EUPOL COPPS — the EU Mission supporting the Palestinian Police and rule of law sector — assisted in the design reviews for the prison reform and rehabilitation Centre. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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West Bank: Wanted Hamas Man Killed, Different Versions

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, SEPTEMBER 17 — The killing of a well-known member of the armed wing of Hamas, Ayad Abu Shaalbya, 38, last night in a village in the West Bank during an operation run by the Israeli army, is the subject of contradicting versions. The incident took place in the village of Nur a-Shams, in the province of Tulkarem, while an Israeli military unit was carrying out arrests of a dozen wanted Palestinians. An Israeli military spokesman reported that Ayad Abu Shaalbya (who had in the past spent several years in prison in Israel) “ran towards the servicemen in a suspicious manner, hiding his arms behind his back.” The spokesman said that the man had ignored repeated warnings to stop and the soldiers, feeling threatened, had opened fire in his direction, killing him. But Abu Shaalbya’s brother told the Ynet website that the Hamas member “was killed in his own bed, with a shot to the neck and two to the chest.” According to this version, the man was alone at home. The other arrests in Nur a-Shams took place without incident. Today’s incident — on which the Israeli army has already opened an inquiry — took place while the border posts for transit between Israel and the West Bank remain closed, on the occasion of the Jewish fasting of Kippur which begins this evening and lasts one day. For its part, daily paper Maariv reports that another leader of the armed wing of Hamas Nassat al-Karmi, 33, is also being actively looked for in the West Bank. It is believed that al-Karmi (who operates in the area of Hebron) and Abu Shaalbya were part of the same illegal cell. Al-Karmi, explains Maariv, is suspected of having organised two attacks in which four Israelis were killed in Hebron and two people were injured in Ramallah 20 days ago. Al-Karmi has been repeatedly detained in Israel and he was released at the beginning of the year. It seems that he had been operating underground since then. The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, has resumed its activity to coincide with the resumption of the peace talks between Israel and the PA, in an attempt to make them fail. Over recent days, the commander of the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, Ahmed Jaabri, has repeated from Gaza that his organisation is opposed to any negotiations with Israel and instead practices “all-out Jihad (holy war).”“ (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Bahrain: Elections, Step Back for Women in Politics

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, SEPTEMBER 16 — Parliamentary elections in Bahrain will have a small female presence: just hours before the closing of the registration period less than 10 women submitted their names, a remarkable step back compared to the legislative elections held in 2006, when there were 23 female candidates. On that occasion only one woman, Latifa Al Gaud, made it into parliament, the first in all Arab countries of the Gulf.

Al Gaud, who will also run on October 23, emphasised that “women should be really involved in the Country’s politics and not limit their participation during the elections”.

However, this is not an easy task. Of the three main political fronts in Bahrain, Al Asala systematically stated its objection to women in politics, while Al Wefaq, the predominant party in parliament, and Islamic Menbar both admitted to the potentially negative impact on voters of female candidatures. For now the only party with a woman running for election, Munira Fakro, is Waad, traditionally Bahrain’s most liberal movement.(ANSAmed)

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Iran Denies Detaining Seven U.S. Troops

The semi-official Fars news agency reported earlier in the day that border guards had detained seven U.S. troops as they tried to illegally enter the Islamic state. The agency later withdrew the story, which had given no source.

Iran’s Arabic-language television al-Alam quoted Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in charge of Iran’s border security, as denying that any such incident had happened in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

In Washington, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman said: “Reports by state-run Iranian media that seven U.S. soldiers were detained after crossing into Iran are false.”

A spokesman for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Captain Ryan Donald, said no U.S. soldiers were missing…

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Iraq: Arrest Warrants for 100 Officials Issued Over ‘Torture’

Mosul, 17 Sept. (AKI) — Judges on Friday issued arrested for 100 military and police officials suspected of torturing prisoners in the northern Iraqi city Mosul.

“Severe beatings” were used to coerce confessions from prisoners, according to Deldar el-Zibari, a senior local official who spoke with German news agency dpa.

“There are official documents and evidence confirming the occurrence of torture,’ he said in the Friday dpa report.

El-Zibari said the Iraqi defence ministry was slack in enforcing accountability creating a delay in getting arrest warrants issued.

London-based human rights group Amnesty International on 13 September released a report which estimates 30,000 Iraqis are being held in Iraqi prisons without trial.

Many of the detainees are tortured and held in secret prisons, according to the report.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Lebanon: UNICEF Italy, Stay at School Project Started

(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 17 — The objective of a project by the Italian arm of UNICEF, begun yesterday under the direction of its Chair, Vincenzo Spadafora, is to reduce the number of those who leave off their education early in twenty Lebanese schools over the coming three years.

“The direct beneficiaries of this project during its first year of activity will be the more than one thousand students aged between 7 and 11. This will then be extended to cover a total of 2,000 students over the planned three years, up to the end of the project”. Spadafora was addressing a press conference held at Shama today at the base of the UNIFIL command, under the direction of Italy’s Garibaldi Brigade, a conference also attended by the country’s Deputy Education Minister, Fadi Yarak and by Italy’s General Giuseppe Nicola Tota.

The project, entitled “Schools friends of the children” will also involve the donation of sports equipment, which is to take place over the coming weeks. “Like UNICEF Italia,” Spadafora said, “we have already transferred 90,000 euros last month, collected by our volunteers in Italy, and I am pleased to announce that a further 200,000 euros are about to be transferred from the country’s income tax-free donations scheme, ‘5 in a thousand 2009”‘.

Also on next Monday, 32,000 Palestinian children attending the 75 schools run by UNRWA in Lebanon will be donated kits of study materials supplied by UNICEF. The mission will continue to the Rashidieh camp, where projects linked to micro-credit will be presented and to the villages of Deir Dalloum and Fnaidek, and then on to the Nahr el Bared camp.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Moscow’s Measures Against “Extremist Sects”

An initiative of the Department of Labour and social security in the region of Khanty-Mansiisk: establishing a militia of volunteers and checkpoints to ensure that members of “totalitarian” sects such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants, Scientologists, can not carry out their activities.

Moscow (AsiaNews) — Measures to combat “extremist sects” are being implemented at a local government level in Russia. These include the idea of creating an army of volunteers to monitor activities in cultural institutions, to establish a sort of checkpoint in cultural centres, cinemas, so that these places give no space to representatives of “totalitarian cults.” They are all directives contained in a letter that the Deputy Director of the Department of Labour and Social Security of the autonomous region of Khanty-Mansiisk sent to directors of local cultural institutions, which can be viewed on the website portalcredo.ru.

The letter explains that “destructive sects and groups whose activities are causing irreparable damage to society and the individual” are spreading across Russian Federation territory. The department has thus prepared material “to combat the participation of members of these sects in cultural and social events”.

In addition to initiatives already mentioned, the authorities intend to carry out a media information campaign and make clinics and hospitals record cases of refusal of medical treatment based on “sectarian motivation.”

Two lists were attached to the letter: one of the organizations deemed extremist in the Russian Federation and that of the “best known totalitarian groups that have substantial activities in the country. Among them — 265 in all — appears “Herbalife”, “Amway” and “Word of Life,” which is duly registered at the Federal Ministry of Justice. The list also includes Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, the Church of Scientology and the Seventh-day Adventists.

The initiative of the authorities of Khanty-Mansiisk confirms the difficult situation of certain religious bodies in Russia, faced with actions that behind the justification of fighting extremism, have a character of persecution. Federal justice has particularly targeted Jehovah Witnesses who are accused of being a “cult” with an “unfriendly attitude towards other churches.” Authorities probably do not like some of their practices such as conscientious objection to military service, the refusal to use weapons, to surrender to blood transfusions and the demand for total devotion of followers to the community.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italian Officer Killed in Afghanistan

Special forces casualty in firefight with insurgents

(ANSA) — Rome September 17 — One of the two members of Italy’s special forces in Afghanistan wounded Friday in a firefight with insurgents has died, defense ministry sources have told ANSA.

The casualty was named as Lt. Alessandro Romani of the 9th Col. Moschin assault regiment.

The firefight took place in the Bakwa District, in the western Farah Province, after a group of insurgents had planted a roadside bomb, military sources said. The special forces were called into action when an Italian drone spotted the insurgents planting the bomb. They came under fire as they were landing their helicopter, the sources added. Initially, Lt. Romani and a private were said to have only suffered minor shoulder wounds, one more seriously than the other.

Lt. Romani’s death was later confirmed by the Italian command headquarters in Herat.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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NATO Wants More Italian Trainers in Afghanistan

‘Ready to comply’, defence minister responds

(ANSA) — Rome, September 17 — NATO would like Italy to send more instructors to Afghanistan as part of the build-up of Afghan military forces, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said Friday after meeting NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Rome.

La Russa said the armed forces were ready to comply with the request if the government approved it.

He said the increase “would be quantitative rather than qualitative because we’re already top quality”. The role of military trainers was crucial to the goal of starting to hand command to Afghan forces “from every standpoint” by the end of 2011 and complete it by 2014, La Russa said. Italy has some 3,300 troops in the NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan, slated to rise to around 4,000 by the end of the year. It is also part of the European Union-led EUPOL police training mission.

In other remarks after his talks, La Russa said Italy wants to keep its forces in western Afghanistan, where it has been based since the start of its mission in 2004.

If they were sent to other parts of the country, the redeployment should be limited to neighbouring areas and command should stay in Italian hands, the minister said.

La Russa added that the Italian zone could be among the first to be completely handed over to Afghan command after insurgents are driven out or defeated.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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China: Pictures: Impressed Chicoms Come Out With Latest Oba-Mao Wear

The Chicoms continue to be impressed with the example set by our American President. The UPI reported on the latest Obama wear on the streets of China.

— Hat tip: JD

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It’s Un-Australian … Rally Condemns Push to Ban Burqa

Islamic values are superior to “flawed” Western secular values and non-Muslims are in no position to lecture Muslims about the oppression of women, a speaker said yesterday at a Sydney rally against proposals to ban the burqa.

“Despite the intense negative propaganda against Islam and in particular the lies about its treatment of women, the number of Western women embracing Islam continues to rise at a rapid rate,” said Fautmeh Ardati, a member of the Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir. “By turning their backs on this flawed way of life, it is testament of the superiority of Islamic values over Western values.”

Women did not wear Islamic dress out of freedom of choice, Ms Ardati told the Lakemba rally.

“Because to use freedom of choice as a justification, then we are also accepting of women who undress out of this same freedom of choice, and we can never do this as Muslim women. We dress like this because it is the command of Allah, not any man.”

Women had two options, she said. “The Western secular way of life, which robs a woman of her dignity, honour and respect, where she is considered little more than a commodity to be bought and sold, or the option of Islam, where a woman’s dignity, respect and honour are priceless.”

Later she cited high rates of rape and domestic violence and said: “They are in no position to be lecturing us about oppression and subjugation.” Ms Ardati was one of five speakers at the rally, held at Parry Park, in reaction to a recent unsuccessful attempt by the NSW MP Fred Nile to introduce a bill banning the burqa.

The Premier, Kristina Keneally’s recent statement re-affirming the right of Muslim women to wear the burqa was welcomed but Ms Ardati said the support of key politicians did not mean Muslims could “relax”.

“Even if this bill is not passed in NSW now, who knows what will happen in one week, one month or one year?” Ms Ardati said.

There were about 2000 people at the rally, with men and women segregated by a row of plastic markers. Male speakers spoke to the crowd from a podium at the front. The two female speakers spoke from the women’s section, meaning most of the men had their backs turned to them.

Sheikh Shady al-Suleiman said Muslims loved Australia but rejected interference in the practice of their religion. “Keep away from our affairs,” he said.

Umm Jamaalud-Din said Mr Nile’s “un-Australian” bill had “open[ed] the floor to racist elements that exist within Australian society” who would now feel they could vilify, abuse and possibly assault Muslim women.

“I feel empowered by the knowledge that I am in control of displaying my beauty to whom I choose,” she said.

“I can move freely throughout society without being subjected to the eyes of every Tom, Dick and Harry and not be judged on face value but rather for who I am as a person.”

Earlier, organisers had told people not to speak to the media. One woman wearing a burqa said she would have to ask her husband before speaking to the Herald. When asked if she needed her husband’s permission to speak, she said: “We are allowed but we choose not to.”

— Hat tip: Nilk

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US Couple Accused of Trying to Sell Nuclear Secrets to Venezuela

Couple caught in an FBI sting by an agent posing as a representative of the Venezuelan government

An American nuclear scientist and his wife were arrested yesterday, accused of conspiring to sell atomic secrets to Venezuela after allegedly being caught in an FBI sting by an agent posing as a representative of the Venezuelan government.

The pair worked at the Los Alamos nuclear research establishment and had security clearances. Venezuela, whose leader Hugo Chávez, has a strained relationship with the US, was not involved.

[…]

According to the indictment, he offered in 2008 to provide information to help build within 10 years a secret underground plant for plutonium, needed for a bomb, and an above-ground facility that would look as if it was a civilian power plant.

The US justice department in a statement claimed Pedro Mascheroni delivered to a “dead drop” post box a disc with a coded 132-page document with “restricted data” relating to nuclear weapons. He allegedly asked for $793,000 (£503,000) and in June last year received $20,000 from an undercover agent.

Originally from Argentina but a naturalised US citizen, he allegedly adopted as his codename “Luke” and asked about Venezuelan citizenship.

— Hat tip: JD

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Australia: Compensation for Injured Asylum-Seekers

Dozens of asylum-seekers have received a total of $5.4 million in compensation payouts from taxpayers for injuries they suffered while in detention.

Official figures obtained by News Ltd reveal that more than 50 immigration detainees have pocketed an average of $100,000 each over the past two years.

News Ltd says the federal government has refused to detail the reasons for the multi-million-dollar payouts to detainees, saying only they were related to wrongful detention or injuries suffered in detention.

A Department of Immigration spokesman said compensation payouts and disease outbreaks are “inevitable” given the large number of asylum-seekers in detention.

“This is a department that deals with 26 million interactions with human beings every year — border crossings, visas, compliance,” spokesman Sandi Logan said.

“It’s the law of averages — some may well choose to litigate against us or, in some rare cases, we may be at fault and have to pay out under Comcare and Comcover.”

— Hat tip: Nilk

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Spain: ‘Mecca’ Disco Changes Name After Threats

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 16 — Threats in Arab, English and Spanish increased on the internet by Islamic radicals, including videos inciting a boycott of Spanish interests. In the end the owners of the trendy ‘Mecca’ discotheque in Aguilas (a tourist location in the Murcia province) caved in and decided to change the name of the club, which reopened on June 18 after being shut for a decade. They will also remove the cupola on the roof reminiscent of the minaret. The report was made by the club promoters, five members who rented the premises to renovate and reopen it with the same name and fittings it had when established in 1987. Problems began to emerge on September 2, when a construction worker of Moroccan origin refused to work on the club’s renovation because of its appearance and name, the Mecca, deeming it offensive for Muslims. The episode immediately led to the controversial position of Mohamed Hamed Ali’, the president of the Spanish federation of Islamic religious bodies (Feeri), who supported the worker for what he defined “a lack of respect towards Islam and Muslim people”. The businessmen initially downplayed criticism. “It is the same as saying that the basque people offend the Christian religion because they refer to the Bilbao stadium as the Cathedral”. But they soon had to change idea when the club’s website was flooded with threats, which have been reported to the police.

In the end they addressed representatives of Murcia’s Islamic community to seek mediation. Yesterday Mohamed Reda el-Qady, secretary of the Union of Islamic Communities in Murcia (Ucid), one of the Spanish regions with the highest rate of Maghreb immigrants, visited the club premises with the owners to ascertain on location what led to such forceful complaints. Today, during a press conference, the owners announced the decision to change the name of the club and to root out certain decorations, such as the crescent moon on the cupola and the minaret. The Ucid secretary believe in the need to “Remove the offending decorations” to end the controversy. Reda el Qady condemned the internet threats and emphasised that “the disco has been there with that name for a long time” without anyone being offended in the past. He also hoped that, in light of the agreement, threats and attacks will cease. The owners commented that in the end it is only a disco. In future it will be named ‘the Garden’ or ‘the Tower’ or one of the other 2,000 suggestions posted on the club’s website in response to an online survey carried out by the club owners to defuse controversy. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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America’s Sexual Revolution: Engineered by Pedophiles

How 1 secretly twisted scientist destroyed nation’s morality laws

[Comments from JD: WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A shocking report at WND’s “Taking America Back” conference in Miami, Fla., contends the sexual revolution of the 1960s and beyond was manufactured by a single pedophile with deep financial backing.

Dr. Judith Reisman, author of “Sexual Sabotage: How One Mad Scientist Unleashed a Plague of Corruption and Contagion on America,” unveiled at the confab a hidden history of scandal and scientific fraud that she says convinced not only America’s legal system but also its culture to unjustifiably embrace sexual deviancy.

Reisman explained how Dr. Alfred Kinsey, a scientific pioneer who was lauded in the 1950s for his research and who launched modern-day sexology, received his financial backing from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1941 and used it to twist science and law to fulfill his licentious agenda.

For example, Kinsey’s landmark study from 1941-1945 claimed to describe the “normal” sexual practices of “everyday” Americans. Reisman contends, however, that Kinsey didn’t have access to the majority of “normal” American men and women, who were engaged with World War II at the time, and so he used a tainted sample.

“Eighty-seven percent of his subjects,” Reisman stated, “were sex addicts, homosexuals, criminals, rapists, prostitutes, pedophiles and prisoners.”

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Teenagers to be Awarded ‘GCSE in Sex’

Teenagers will learn how to use a condom and obtain the morning after pill as part of the first GCSE-style qualification in sex.

Pupils will be able to gain the equivalent of a D grade under the new course which has been devised to raise awareness of issues surrounding relationships, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases.

The Government-funded qualification is being offered in nine schools and colleges for the first time this term with plans to expand it across the country.

Last night, the move sparked outrage among families’ groups who claimed it legitimised sexual promiscuity and failed to make any reference to marriage.

But Suzanne Cant, research manager at the qualifications provider NCFE, which is running the course, said: “Sexual health education should play a part in the curriculum for all young people.

“The latest figures show teenage pregnancy rates are falling, but not falling at a fast enough rate to meet Government targets. Meanwhile, annual diagnoses for sexually-transmitted diseases are already in the hundreds of thousands — and increasing all the time.

“Part of the way to tackle these issues is through education and [the] qualification offers a formal way to assess and certificate learners to help ensure the right messages are being delivered and understood.”

NCFE — which used to stand for Northern Council for Further Education — formally launched the Level 1 award in sexual health awareness this week following official accreditation by Ofqual, the exams regulator. Level 1 examinations are equivalent to low-level GCSEs graded D to G.

The course, which is aimed towards students who are not yet ready to take full GCSEs, and takes just nine hours to teach,asks pupils to give the names of male and female sexual organs, describe two examples of “risky sexual behaviour” and outline two methods of contraception “that would be suitable for a young person”.

Students, who will be encouraged to take the course between the age of 14 and 16, are taught about the age at which someone can access sexual health services “without parental consent”.

Another question asks pupils to outline “two things it’s important to remember when using a condom” and list two places where emergency contraception, such as the morning after pill, may be obtained.

A further section focuses on HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Pupils are asked how HIV can be transmitted and to outline one possible consequence of not having Chlamydia treated.

Norman Wells, from the Family Education Trust, said: “In spite of its name, this new qualification is more about promoting sexual experimentation and the use of contraception by children than it is about promoting sexual health.

“The only sure way of avoiding sexually transmitted infections is to keep sexual intimacy within a faithful lifelong relationship, yet this course makes no mention of marriage or of commitment and faithfulness.

“Instead, the focus is on telling pupils how to use contraceptives and how they can access them behind their parents’ backs. Schools exist to assist and support parents in the education of their children, not to undermine them in this way.”

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “There are hundreds of qualifications that are accredited by Ofqual for a plethora of different ages, abilities and settings. We rightly trust heads to choose what is best for their pupils.”

Most students already receive sex education at secondary school, although Labour dropped plans to make lessons compulsory in primaries earlier this year as part of the Parliamentary “wash-up” before the General Election.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: What Do You Think Made You Become a Heterosexual? Just One of the Bizarre Questions Council Chiefs Are Asking Staff on ‘Diversity’ Course

The quiz, devised by managers at Buckinghamshire County Council, is part of an equality and diversity course called ‘Respecting Sexuality’.

Questions, which are described as a ‘twist’ on those routinely asked of homosexuals, include ‘What do you think caused your heterosexuality?’, ‘Is it possible your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?’, and ‘If you’ve never slept with a person of the same sex, how do you know you wouldn’t prefer it?’

The course, which encourages staff to ‘have a better understanding’ of the challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender colleagues, includes a film which follows the experience of four fictitious employees.

The film is said to ‘build in intensity’ and can provoke a variety of reactions. Trainers’ notes state: ‘Initial reactions to the stories vary widely, with heterosexual (straight) people often dismissing the stories as exaggerated or rare and homosexual (gay people) immediately recognising the issues and emotions explored here as honest and relevant.’

The Buckinghamshire council course is just one of a series of publicly funded equality and diversity sessions uncovered in a series of Freedom of Information requests by The Mail on Sunday.

Cardiff, Slough and Cheshire West and Cheshire councils have also incorporated quizzes in their sessions. In Slough, employees ask colleagues questions from a specially prepared grid such as ‘Can you sing a few lines from a Supremes song?’ and ‘Do you read The Guardian?’

Staff at Cardiff City Council are challenged to name the inventor of the ‘great British classic car the Mini’, and to identify the symbol used to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: ‘With huge pressure on the public finances, and council tax nearly doubled over the last decade, it is vital that councils show they can start cutting back on waste to keep down taxes and avoid unnecessary pressure on services.

‘To see councils wasting money on such a ludicrous, politically-correct exercise in that environment is disgusting. ‘Ensuring that councils don’t discriminate doesn’t require such insane attempts at a superficial understanding of different communities.’

A spokesman for Buckinghamshire County Council said its quiz was devised to help staff in its adoption service. He was unable to say how many had taken part or at what cost.

‘The questions from the quiz are not used as a quiz directed at individuals, but some of the questions are used as a tool during the course to provoke the attendees’ thought process and to enable the attendees to put themselves in someone else’s shoes,’ he added.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that managers at Brighton and Hove City Council had taken part in a diversity seminar called Adventures in Lesbianandgayland which invited them to imagine they had now woken up in a world where homosexuality was dominant.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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Video: Obama Drops ‘Creator’ From Declaration Quote

President gives no credit to author of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness

President Obama removed the reference to the “Creator” from the Declaration of Independence when he quoted a portion at a meeting of the Congressional Hispanic Congress.

Obama said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

But the the actual quotation is:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The video, where the reference appears shortly past the 22-minute mark:

— Hat tip: JD

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The New York Times and BBC; Just the News They See Fit to Print

The most influential book written about why intelligent, dedicated and noble men with the highest motives fell under the hypnotic spell of Communism remains The God That Failed, a collection of thirteen essays by Arthur Koestler, Ignazio Silone, Richard Wright, Andre Gide, Louis Fischer, Stephen Spender, R. H. S. Crossman and the book’s editor Steven Engerman. The essays chronicle the noble motives that drew these individuals to the Party, its cynical manipulation of their idealism and their ultimate disillusionment and sense of betrayal.

I underwent a similar experience with respect to lesser but still enormously powerful gods in the realm of ideas and a world-view that boasted, like the Kremlin, of being the “vanguard” of progressive humanity and the ultimate reference guide for any political question or doubt. I refer to the two media organizations that for some remain idols in the pantheon of news gathering and interpretation. No evidence to the contrary, no matter how persuasive or corroborated by independent investigation, can match the unearned epithets of praise or the mantra of authority conferred on a statement by …”I read it in The New York Times” or “I heard/saw it on the BBC.”

[…]

…The New York Times, precisely because of its Jewish ownership, large readership and many reporters and employees, did not want to be seen to take the lead in pleading any special or parochial Jewish cause. This remains largely true to this day with a few notable exceptions.

What is also almost comical however is that this same newspaper today pleads for special consideration on behalf of Muslims among America’s immigrant population who may be suspected of either being illegal immigrants or sympathetic to terrorism and Muslim extremism. So eager is the paper to avoid the taint of being accused of racism, that it bends over backwards to find extenuating circumstances to excuse extremist opinion among American Muslims or in any way holding them suspect of not being patriotic.

[…]

For The New York Times, their audience is global and they seek to portray events from what they consider a “global perspective”. Their employees are recruited world wide and are aware of the line their employers pursue. This means first and foremost NOT to appear as presenting an identifiable American identity. The same conclusion can be made “in spades” regarding the BBC! Anyone who still has a warm, glowing positive recollection of the BBC from World War II’s memories of the blitz and the noble RAF should remain locked in their time machine with the dial permanently set at 1939-45.

— Hat tip: JD

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	Financial Crisis
»	OneUnited Bank Received Special Treatment Beyond What Was Disclosed
»	Warning! U.S. Economy ‘Just Like Argentina’
	USA
»	City Plans to Bill Pastor for Security Around Planned Quran Burning
»	Michigan: $10,000 Reward in Koran Burning Case
»	Texas Hammers EPA on Science of Global Warming
»	Unions Find Members Slow to Rally Behind Democrats
	Canada
»	16-Year-Old Alex Hayes Killed in Hit-and-Run — Samira Mohamed Daoud Charged With Drunk Driving, Possession of a Stolen Vehicle and Many More
	Europe and the EU
»	Britain Goes Halal… But No-One Tells the Public: How Famous Institutions Serve Ritually Slaughtered Meat With No Warning
»	Crooks Behind Britain’s Biggest Tax Fraud Given 10 More Years in Prison for Failing to Pay Back £184 Million
»	Cyprus: Out of Wedlock Births Quadruple in a Decade
»	France: Bettencourt; Le Monde Accuses Elysee, Which Denies
»	Hitler’s Unfulfilled Dream of a New York in Flames
»	Italy: Police Seize €1.5 Bln in Suspected ‘Mafia Assets’
»	Italy: School’s Back With Fewer Lesson Hours and Limit on Absences
»	Italy: Culture Minister Snubs Tarantino as an ‘Elitist Snob’
»	Italy: Brusca Probed for Money Laundering
»	Roma: France and EU Clash Over Repatriation Measures
»	Spain: 100 Lances Kill Bull in Popular Fiesta
»	UK: Muslim Plot to Kill Pope
»	UK: Twisted Values of the Noisy Bigots
	Mediterranean Union
»	EU-Morocco: Brussels, First Approval for Fish and Agriculture
	North Africa
»	Egyptian Muslim Radicals Fabricated Story of Priest’s Wife Conversion
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Raft of Command Appointments in Military
	Middle East
»	Mother of Baby Dumped in a Plane Toilet Bin Claims She Was Raped by Her Employer
»	Turkish Exporters Interested in Arab Countries
	Russia
»	The Russian Orthodox Church Calls for Same Legal Status as Catholics in Ireland
	South Asia
»	Indonesia: Ex-Minister Questioned in Sarong Scandal
	Far East
»	Mao’s Great Leap Forward ‘Killed 45 Million in Four Years’
	Australia — Pacific
»	Aborigines Sue Bolt Over Racial Writings
	Sub-Saharan Africa
»	Zimbabwe: Mugabe’s Darkest Secret: An £800bn Blood Diamond Mine He’s Running With China’s Red Army
	Immigration
»	Moratorium on Muslim Immigrants?
»	Political Scientist Hamed Abdel-Samad: ‘Islam is Like a Drug’
	Culture Wars
»	Students Booted for Giving Teachers Krispy Kremes

OneUnited Bank Received Special Treatment Beyond What Was Disclosed

From the moment Boston-based OneUnited Bank began seeking a federal bailout in the summer of 2008, it received special treatment that went beyond what the Treasury Department or the bank and its political supporters have previously disclosed.

Congress adjusted the law and regulators broke with customary practices, despite an explicit internal warning that the bank was in financial trouble. Among other exceptions, the bank was allowed to count as part of its capital $12 million in federal bailout money — before the aid arrived.

OneUnited was the only bank to receive all of these considerations among the 707 recipients of money from the Troubled Assets Relief Program, according to documents and interviews.

A close look at how OneUnited — which is now at the center of an ethics investigation involving Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — won bailout money shows how the Treasury Department, federal regulators and another influential lawmaker helped it despite its record of bad investments and extravagant spending.

— Hat tip: JD

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Warning! U.S. Economy ‘Just Like Argentina’

Corsi suggests Dems working on Value Added Tax, nationalization of retirement dollars

MIAMI — The United States’ economy is “just like Argentina in its final days of thrashing around before the financial collapse,” according to New York Times best-selling author Jerome Corsi, a senior staff writer for WND and a speaker at this weekend’s “Taking America Back Conference” at the Doral Resort.

[…]

“This is not a recession,” he said. “This is NOT a recession. It’s not a depression. This is what globalism looks like. This is the result of decades of the Democrats and GOP alike pursuing another Marxist dream.

“The bureaucrats will make sure the government employees will make twice what you do. The government salaries now are twice private employees’,” he said. “But no government employee can be paid unless the money first is stolen from you.”

[…]

He said the Obama administration already knows the nation effectively is bankrupt, and after the November election likely will insist on a plan to force individuals to buy government debt through their retirement accounts, and the creation of a Value Added Tax, a government surcharge that is added at each level of a product’s manufacture and sale.

— Hat tip: JD

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City Plans to Bill Pastor for Security Around Planned Quran Burning

Orlando, Florida (CNN) — The city of Gainesville, Florida, plans to send a bill estimated at more than $180,000 to Pastor Terry Jones for security costs surrounding his controversial threat to burn Qurans on the anniversary of the September, 11, 2001, attacks, a police spokeswoman said Friday.

Police agencies spent more than a month working on security plans to ensure the community surrounding Jones’ Dove World Outreach Center — the planned site of the burning — was safe, according to Gainesville police spokeswoman Cpl. Tscharna Senn.

Jones also told authorities he received numerous death threats because of the planned protest, which he called off amid increasing pressure from world leaders.

The Gainesville Police Department said it spent more than $100,000 while the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spent an estimated $80,000 during the weekend of the planned demonstration.

“We have 286 sworn officers and almost everyone was working either at the Dove Center or at other soft targets,” Senn said. “Unless you were sick or injured you were working” the day the burning was to take place.

Officers secured malls in the region, the University of Florida’s football stadium and areas around the church in the days leading up to the planned event.

Jones said Friday that the church was “not aware that we would be billed for security.”

“If we had known this in advance, then we would have refused to have security,” he said.

Some have accused authorities of over preparing.

“It’s easy to say we over prepared but if something horrible had happened we would have been criticized for being unprepared,” Senn said.

The planned burning prompted demonstrations by Muslims around the world this week, including Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia and India.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Michigan: $10,000 Reward in Koran Burning Case

The East Lansing Police Department is seeking the publics help to find who is responsible for burning and desecrating a Koran. The incident happened on September 11. It was found at the front door of the Islamic Center of East Lansing.

The department is offering $10,000 for any information that would lead to the identification and prosecution of those responsible for this act.

Those with information are asked to call Det. Sherief Fadly at 517-319-6814.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Texas Hammers EPA on Science of Global Warming

In legal briefs, attorney general says science is unreliable.

Essentially putting global warming science on trial, Texas officials on Thursday expanded their arguments in a lawsuit meant to prevent the federal regulation of greenhouse gases.

In motions submitted Thursday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott accused the federal Environmental Protection Agency of relying on faulty science for its proposals to regulate greenhouse gases.

The briefs build on a federal suit filed in February by Texas and other states against the EPA, which in December issued an endangerment finding that carbon dioxide emissions threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.

— Hat tip: JD

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Unions Find Members Slow to Rally Behind Democrats

The Democrats will depend on labor unions — the shock troops of their political campaigns — to offset two new developments this election cycle: Tea Party enthusiasm and corporations’ ability to spend unlimited amounts thanks to a Supreme Court ruling.

Labor leaders, alarmed at a possible Republican takeover of one or both houses of Congress, promise to devote a record amount of money and manpower to helping Democrats stave off disaster. But political analysts, and union leaders themselves, say that their efforts may not be enough because union members, like other important parts of the Democratic base, are not feeling particularly enthusiastic about the party — a reality that, in turn, further dampens the Democrats’ chances of holding onto their Congressional majorities.

[…]

A.F.L.-C.I.O. leaders say that they will spend around $50 million on races in 26 states and that unions already have 1,500 full-time campaign workers on the ground. The service employees have budgeted $44 million for the election, while other unions will spend tens of millions of dollars more. All told, labor strategists say their ground troops will make more than 10 million phone calls to members’ homes, distribute millions of fliers at workplaces and knock on millions of doors.

— Hat tip: JD

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16-Year-Old Alex Hayes Killed in Hit-and-Run — Samira Mohamed Daoud Charged With Drunk Driving, Possession of a Stolen Vehicle and Many More

Woman charged in one of three hit-and-runs in court Saturday

Three killed in separate accidents; 40-year-old suspect lost licence before for impaired driving

OTTAWA — After three separate hit-and-run accidents left three different people dead within 90 minutes of Ottawa overnight Thursday, two people have been arrested and charged with impaired driving — with one appearing in court Satuday — while police hunt for the third.

In Ottawa, a 40-year-old woman made an brief court appearance Saturday morning. She was in court after a teen riding a bicycle was struck and killed by a vehicle Thursday.

Samira Mohamed Daoud will next appear by video on Sept. 17.

Daoud was dressed in a blue top, had her hair in a bun, and appeared tired. Previous to Saturday’s court appearance, Daoud had already lost her licence for impaired driving.

The charges against Samira Mohamed Daoud include criminal negligence causing death, failing to stop at the scene of an accident, drunk driving and possession of a stolen vehicle.

— Hat tip: Vlad Tepes

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Britain Goes Halal… But No-One Tells the Public: How Famous Institutions Serve Ritually Slaughtered Meat With No Warning

Some of Britain’s most revered institutions are serving up halal meat to diners — without their knowledge.

A Mail on Sunday investigation — which will alarm anyone concerned about animal cruelty — has revealed that schools, hospitals, pubs and famous sporting venues such as Ascot and Twickenham are controversially serving up meat slaughtered in accordance with strict Islamic law to unwitting members of the public.

All the beef, chicken and lamb sold to fans at Wembley has secretly been prepared in accordance with sharia law, while Cheltenham College, which boasts of its ‘strong Christian ethos’, is one of several top public schools which also serves halal chicken to pupils without informing them.

Even Britain’s biggest hotel and restaurant group Whitbread, which owns the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre chains, among many others, has admitted that more than three-quarters of its poultry is halal.

Animal welfare campaigners have long called for a ban on the traditional Islamic way of preparing meat — which involves killing animals by drawing a knife across their throats, without stunning them first — saying it is cruel and causes unnecessary pain.

But a spokesman for Twickenham, which sells only halal chicken despite not advertising the fact, insisted that the lack of transparency ‘had never been an issue’ and said: ‘Our consideration is more for those who want halal, to ensure they get it.’

The extent of halal meat consumption was revealed as the Pope, on his first visit to Britain, emphasised the need to preserve traditional Christian customs.

He indicated that long-held values were being eroded and that ordinary people and institutions should strive to protect them.

Animal rights group Viva!, whose supporters include Heather Mills, and Joanna Lumley, said in a statement: ‘Other practices which may be undertaken for religious reasons, such as polygamy or the stoning of adulterers, are not permitted in the UK.

‘Religious freedom does not override other moral considerations and the suffering caused by this form of slaughter is so severe that it cannot be allowed to prevent action be taken. Consumers can do their bit by boycotting places that persist in selling meat from unstunned animals.’

An RSPCA spokesman added: ‘The public have a right to know how their meat is produced. Many people are extremely concerned about animal welfare. What The Mail on Sunday has discovered shows that people are not being kept informed.

‘The key to a more humane death for these animals is that they are stunned before slaughter.’

However sharia law expressly forbids knocking the animal out with a bolt gun, as is usual in British slaughterhouses.

Instead, it must be sentient when its throat is cut, and the blood allowed to drip from the carcass while the slaughterman recites a religious phrase in praise of Allah.

Halal meat is being served across Britain, even in areas with a very small Muslim population.

Other institutions secretly serving up meat that is halal — or ‘permissible’ — include Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and one of London’s ­biggest NHS Trusts, Guy’s and St Thomas’. A spokesman for the London hospitals admitted: ‘The only way people using the canteen would know they were eating halal chicken would be if they asked a member of staff directly.’

Britain’s Muslim community is exempt from regulations which require animals to be stunned before death, as is kosher meat prepared for the Jewish market.

Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, secretary of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, said: ‘I don’t object to people of different religious groups being catered for but it’s not something that should be imposed on everybody else.

‘The vast majority of people in this country would not want meat of this origin. The outlets have a duty to let their customers know because some will object very strongly, not least because of the animal welfare implications of halal.’

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: ‘We suspected that meat killed by the halal and kosher methods was being used for general consumption but we never imagined it was so widespread.

‘It is disgraceful that people aren’t being told if the food they are being served is from meat that has not been stunned prior to slaughter.’

Whitbread, which also owns Table Table restaurants, Costa Coffee shops and Premier Inn hotels, admitted last night that 80 per cent of the chicken it served comes from halal poultry suppliers, including some in Muslim-dominated Turkey.

A Whitbread spokesman said: ‘We don’t specify halal as a requirement in our procurement. We base our decision on quality and price. It just turns out that we source that amount of chicken from suppliers that happen to be halal.

‘It is not mentioned on any of our menus because we don’t think there is customer demand for that information. But if people started asking then we would definitely provide it.’

Rival operator Mitchells & Butlers, which owns the Harvester, Browns and Toby Carvery restaurant chains, as well as pub chains All Bar One and O’Neill’s was even more opaque about the source of its meats. A spokesman said it had a ‘broad range of suppliers’ but declined to specify how many of these were halal-certified.

Ascot racecourse said it was easier to store and cook only type of meat. ‘All our chicken is halal. This is not advertised as the menus are kept as simple as possible,’ said a spokesman.

Cheltenham College boarding school in Gloucestershire admitted: ‘We have not sent a letter, nor is there any note on menus that informs parents and pupils that the chicken served in the canteen is mostly halal.’

Marlborough College, in Wiltshire, admitted that while halal chicken is usually only served to Muslims, it had ‘occasionally’ served it to all pupils. The school refused to say whether parents and pupils had been informed of this.

A Football Association spokesman confirmed: ‘All the beef, chicken and lamb sold at Wembley Stadium is halal which means a large proportion of the meat on offer to our customers falls into this category. Pork, which is forbidden to Muslims, is also served at the stadium.

In 2003 government advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, published a report which declared that the halal method of killing ‘would inevitably trigger a barrage of sensory information to the brain in a sensible [conscious] animal’.

Experts who contributed to the report concluded that ‘such a massive injury would result in very significant pain and distress in the period before insensibility supervenes’.

Muslim leaders insist that animal welfare measures are observed during slaughter. Guidelines issued by the Islamic Cultural Centre in London state that ‘no stress or discomfort’ should be inflicted on the animal and that the knife must be sharp and clean.

More than 40 million cattle, calves and sheep and more than 850 million poultry are slaughtered every year in Britain.

The vast majority are stunned before slaughter but UK law allows the Jewish and Muslim communities to kill animals by religious methods without any form of stunning.

A number of requirements have been put in place, however, in an attempt to reduce animal suffering.

The rules state that the throat must be cut with one rapid, uninterrupted movement of the knife. Both carotid arteries and both jugular veins must be severed.

In addition, the knife must be inspected before each animal is slaughtered to ensure that it is of sufficient size and sharpness.

But welfare campaigners say the rules are not enough.

The Government’s independent advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, says sheep may lose consciousness within five to seven seconds of the cut.

But research has shown that some calves remain brain-responsive for up to two minutes. This is because the carotid arteries can contract after the cut has been made, effectively sealing the severed ends and maintaining blood pressure in the brain.

The RSPCA says all meat produced from animals that have not been stunned before slaughter should be clearly labelled so that it can be easily identified by consumers.

Sharia law states that the abattoir involved in the process must be under the ‘close and constant supervision’ of an Islamic religious organisation.

Under these rules, the cut must be made to the right side of the neck by cutting the two carotids, the two jugulars, the windpipe and the gullet, but without breaking the spinal cord.

The carcass must empty of blood and a specific time should be allowed until the animal ceases to move before the next stage of the production process — de-skinning and removing the internal organs — may begin.

— Hat tip: Gaia

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Crooks Behind Britain’s Biggest Tax Fraud Given 10 More Years in Prison for Failing to Pay Back £184 Million

Syed Ahmed, 37, and Shakeel Ahmad, 38, were part of a 21-strong gang who brought luxury houses and sports cars with the proceeds of a £37.5 million pound VAT sting.

They were sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in 2007 for their part in the “missing trader” VAT con, in which they cheated the system through the import and export of computer parts.

A judge ordered them to re-pay crime profits of £92.3 million each by September but the pair missed the deadline and on Thursday, they were told they must serve an additional ten years behind bars, HM Revenue and Customs said.

The £184.6 million is the largest ever confiscation order issued by the UK courts. It was made in July.

Richard Meadows, assistant director of criminal investigations for HMRC, said:

“This will send the strongest message yet to criminals that they cannot hide, even in prison, from our actions to reclaim their criminal profits.

“We are determined that this money will be restored to the nation’s finances in what is the largest confiscation order ever secured in the UK.

“Their prison sentences now total 34 years and they will still have to re-pay the outstanding confiscation order.”

Ahmad, from Middlesex, and Ahmed, from Slough, Berkshire led the complex VAT scam over a number of years.

They used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle, buying multi-million pound properties in and around London, alongside flashy cars including a Ferrari.

The confiscation order was based on assets bought and owned by the mob, including two blocks of flats in Dubai worth £80million called the Royal Oceanic Tower and the Yacht Bay Tower.

They also owned a £4.5million luxury apartment in Knightsbridge, West London, a £2million Harrow home, a £1.5million place in Iver Heath, Bucks, and a £500,000 riverside flat in Battersea, South London.

The crooked gang owned high-powered cars, including a Ferrari 360 Modena convertible and a Mercedes 500CL.

Ahmed and Ahmad were behind MST Associates (UK) Ltd, in Uxbridge, West London, and ran a “missing trader” VAT fraud.

The firm imported computer processing units from Europe — mostly Ireland — VAT free.

They would then be sold on more cheaply, but with VAT added, through a chain of companies involved in the plot and sham invoices would be issued.

Once the goods had been sold on a number of times, they would be exported back to the EU.

The exporter would then claim a VAT credit from Revenue and Customs for the tax paid on the purchase of the goods.

— Hat tip: Gaia

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Cyprus: Out of Wedlock Births Quadruple in a Decade

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, SEPTEMBER 13 — An EU report into marriage, birth and government spending trends has revealed Cyprus has the highest marriage rate, the second lowest percentage of births out of wedlock, and the smallest healthcare budget.

The Eurostat report, released last week, shows that despite having the second fewest children born outside of marriage, after Greece, the percentage quadrupled between 1998 and 2008.

In 1990, the report says, just 0.7% of births were out of wedlock in Cyprus, compared to an EU average of 17.4%. By 1998 out of wedlock births rose to 2.1%, compared with 25% for the EU. By 2008, out of wedlock childbirths rose fourfold to 8.9%.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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France: Bettencourt; Le Monde Accuses Elysee, Which Denies

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, SEPTEMBER 13 — The Elysée Palace ‘totally’ denies the claims made by newspaper Le Monde, which today on its front page denounces the “violation” of the law on confidentiality of journalistic sources by the presidency of the Republic and announces an immediate report. According to Le Monde, France’s intelligence agency has been used to discover who leaked information to the newspaper’s reporters in the Bettencourt affair.

“The Elysée Palace totally denies the Le Monde allegations and the presidency of the Republic confirms that it did not give any instruction whatsoever to any agency”, said the presidency in a short statement to France Presse.

Le Monde claims in its opening article that “in order to identify the source of the information that appeared in our newspaper regarding the Woerth-Bettencourt affair and to try and end this leak to the press concerning the investigation, the Elysée Palace used methods in July that are in direct violation of the law on confidentiality of sources”.

The same newspaper also printed an editorial on its front page with the title ‘Le Monde, the Elysée and freedom of information’: “Le Monde”, it reads, “cannot allow this violation of confidentiality of sources, for its own sake and for the sake of those who consider this law from 1881 in the 2010 version an increase of legitimacy recognised to reporters.

This concern over civic transparency justifies our report to the public prosecutor’s office, to make sure that freedom of press is strictly respected in this case and in others”.

According to a reconstruction, the Elysée Palace decided to use the intelligence services to find the “mole” after an article published on July 18-19, with the title ‘Patrice de Maistre creates problems for Woerth couple’. Several transcripts of the arrest of de Maistre, who manages the possessions of L’Oreal heir Liliane Bettencourt, were quoted in the article. De Maistre mentioned, among other things, the circumstances in which Florence Woerth, wife of the Labour Minister, was hired by Clymene, the company that managed the heir’s wealth. This testimony showed several inconsistencies with the reconstruction of these event made by Woerth.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Hitler’s Unfulfilled Dream of a New York in Flames

Even before World War II, Nazi strategists came up with a number of plans to strike New York City — whether with super missiles, kamikaze pilots, long-range bombers or secret agents. Some were ambitious and some were foolish, but all of them failed.

[…]

The teams had been sent to America to blow up railroad bridges, power plants and tunnels, to paralyze industrial facilities vital to the American war effort and to demoralize the American civilian population. One historian has dubbed it “the most daring sabotage plans in history.” But it turned out to be a major headache for their German superiors. The German agents blew their cover after a mere two days in the field, and prompted the FBI to launch its largest manhunt to date.

— Hat tip: JD

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Italy: Police Seize €1.5 Bln in Suspected ‘Mafia Assets’

Palermo, 14 Sept. (AKI) — Italian police on Tuesday impounded 1.5 billion euros in assets from a Sicilian businessman involved in renewable energy who is suspected of having ties with the mafia. It was the country’s biggest property seizure in the war it has declared against organised crime networks like the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the Camorra from Naples.

“It was (Italy’s) biggest seizure of assets,” Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni said in a television interview on “Mattino Cinque”, a breakfast show on media-tycoon prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Canale 5.

Anti-mafia authorities have opened probes into alleged mafia money laundering operations in Italy’s renewable energy.

Anti-mafia police from Trapani on Tuesday seized the property belonging Vito Nicastri, a businessman based in the Sicilian province of Trapani. Nicastri had been arrested for alleged fraud in the solar and wind energy sector.

Investigators say he has ties to mafia fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro.

Maroni on 15 August said Italy in around a year had seized suspected mafia assets worth 15 billion euros.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: School’s Back With Fewer Lesson Hours and Limit on Absences

One thousand classes fail to comply with 30% cap on immigrant students

ROME — Secondary education has had a makeover. Latin has disappeared from the curriculum for scientific secondary schools while classical institutes have less geography and more mathematics. The 30% cap on non-Italian students in each class has turned out to be a damp squib. Few students have been moved and a thousand classes have exemptions. But there are also timetable reductions, badges for students and automatic failure for more than 50 days’ absence. Today is the first day of the school year, bringing lots of new developments and plenty of old problems, from teachers who have been on short-term contracts for years to overcrowded classrooms, missing principals and non-compliant buildings.

NEW SECONDARY SCHOOLS — The reform starts in first-year classes, involving almost 600,000 students, while other years will follow the old curriculum. There are now only six courses of study, the previous 365 experimental courses having been eliminated. Scientific secondary school remain the most popular with 115,000 enrolments, three times the number for classical schools. Human sciences schools, which replace the old teacher-training institutes, have attracted 27,000 students. Taken together, music and dance institutes have just over a thousand students, filling all the places available. The magnetic card distributed to many secondary-school students two years ago can be used to record arrivals and departures but the decision will be left up to individual schools.

SUBJECTS — The disappearance of Latin from scientific schools, and the precedence for mathematics over geography at classical institutes, are not the only changes. All courses of study will devote more teaching hours to science, physics and mathematics, always the Achilles heel of Italian students. Developments will be monitored to see whether this solves the problem or whether a new approach is required. Foreign languages also get a boost and are compulsory in all five years of secondary education. In the final year, one subject will be taught in English, a method already trialled in various schools. Across the curriculum, the total number of class hours per week falls, for example from 36 to 32 in technical and professional institutes. The duration of lessons in all secondary schools has been extended from 50 minutes to 60.

LIMIT ON NON-ITALIANS — The cap on foreigners has been applied for the first time. No class will be able to have more than 30% non-Italians. Education minister Mariastella Gelmini, who has often said that the limit is necessary to integrate youngsters from other countries, signed the circular following rejection of the Northern League’s proposal of “insertion classes” for non-Italians struggling with the language. But what does the cap mean in practice? Very little. First, the minister explained that non-Italians born in Italy, or who speak Italian well, are not included in the 30%. She then said that classes could obtain permission to exceed the limit in particularly difficult circumstances. Just under a thousand exemptions have been granted, mainly to schools in Lombardy, Lazio, Tuscany and Lazio. In the end, partly because of staff cuts, few students have been moved to comply with the limit while classes that exceed it continue to do so. It shows that all too often politicians talk about school but real school is rather different.

OVERCROWDED CLASSES — Legally, the maximum number of students per class should be 25 but the limit can be waived if it is not possible to form another class. In other words, the limit exists only in theory. It has always been exceeded but with staff cuts in recent years, the situation has deteriorated. The record is held by a technical school in Genoa with a class of 38 students. However, it is too soon to say how far overcrowding has increased generally. At the beginning of the school year, students are usually moved from class to class to ease the worst situations.

UNFILLED POSTS — Unfilled teaching posts are another chronic problem that has worsened this year…

Lorenzo Salvia

English translation by Giles Watson

www.watson.it

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Culture Minister Snubs Tarantino as an ‘Elitist Snob’

Venice, 17 Sept. (AKI) — The “elitist” taste of American movie director and jury president of this year’s Venice Film Festival Quentin Tarantino has prompted the Italy’s government to play a larger role in choosing the Venice Film Festival’s jury, said Italian culture minister Sandro Bondi.

“Tarantino is the expression of an elitist, relativist and snobbish culture that takes no account of popular taste and feelings,” Bondi said in an interview with the magazine Panarama released on Friday.

“His vision influences his critical judgements, even about foreign films,” he said.

Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere,” the slow introspective story of a Hollywood actor’s emptiness on Saturday took Venice’s top prize, the Golden Lion.

Monte Hellman, Tarantino’s executive director of his 1992 debut film, “Reservoir Dogs”, also won an award for his body of work.

“Since the funds are the state’s, from now on we want to get involved in the selection of jury members,” Bondi said.

The festival’s budget this year was 12 million euros, including 7 million from the Italian government.

It’s not the first time Bondi has made headlines on the international film festival circuit nor has he been shy about publicly criticising what he considers inaccessible art.

In May he snubbed France’s Cannes Film Festival because it screened the controversial Italian film “Draquila: Italy Trembles” that satirises prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his government’s response to last year’s devastating earthquake in L’Aquila.

In a 2008 interview with Italian women’s magazine Grazia Bondi admitted that he finds contemporary art puzzling.

“It’s really difficult for me to find beauty in contemporary art. If I visit a show, like many people I pretend to understand. But sincerely, I don’t understand,” he said.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Brusca Probed for Money Laundering

Ex-Mafia head could be thrown out of protection programme

(ANSA) — Palermo, September 17 — Jailed Mafia boss and informant Giovanni Brusca is under investigation for money laundering and attempted extortion, judicial sources said Friday.

Brusca, 53, serving life for the 1992 murder of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, has turned state’s evidence but police now believe his family has continued using his ill-gotten gains on his orders.

Police on Friday raided premises about a dozen premises belonging to relatives and acquaintances in Palermo, Rome, Milan, Chieti and Rovigo after wiretaps revealed Brusca still held millions of euros in disguised properties and was using them for illicit purposes.

They found some 200,000 euros in the home of Brusca’s wife.

In the other searches, investigators said they had turned up “important” documents.

As well as illegally putting his money in other persons’ names and laundering cash, Brusca is accused of attempted extortion.

He reportedly wrote a letter to an acquaintance asking for “a favour” and threatening him if he didn’t come through.

“I’ll bust your head,” the ex-Cosa Nostra boss is said to have written.

Brusca is in danger of being thrown out of the witness protection programme, judicial sources said.

He is set to be questioned by anti-Mafia prosecutors in his cell on Friday afternoon. Brusca is not the first top mafioso to revert to crime after being admitted to the state’s witness protection system.

Others include Totuccio Contorno and Balduccio Di Maggio.

Brusca was arrested in May 1996.

At the time, he was reckoned to be the acting military head of Cosa Nostra, after the January 1993 arrest of Toto’ ‘The Beast’ Riina and with overlord Bernardo Provenzano, eventually arrested in 2006, still in the shadows.

As well as for the massive bombing that killed Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards, Brusca is also serving life for ordering the murder of the 12-year-old son of an informant.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Roma: France and EU Clash Over Repatriation Measures

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 16 — Tension is still high between France and the EU with reference to the measures that France is implementing to repatriate Roma people.

Today, during the European summit in Brussels, the French president had a harsh exchange of views with the head of the European executive, Jose’ Manuel Barroso. This did not induce Sarkozy to retrace his steps, and in commenting on the controversial policy on Roma people France reasserted that it will continue to dismantle illegal campsites on French soil. Sarkozy stated that “France acted and will continue to act in the spirit of the European directive”, and specified that in any event dismantling activities will concern “all illegal camps”, no matter what the nationality, origin and ethnicity of the camp residents.

Sarkozy also said that German chancellor Angela Merkel stated that she will also dismantle illegal campsites in Germany. He stated “We will see: I am ready to support Merkel”. Nicolas Sarkozy also commented on the harsh attack against France by EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. Statements which, he stated, “shocked the feelings of all my countrymen”.

Responding to the press, Barroso commented about Reding’s statements that “It is true that we heard exaggerated comments: yesterday commissioner Reding acknowledged it, I think others should do the same”. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Spain: 100 Lances Kill Bull in Popular Fiesta

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 14 — Platanito was the name of the 550-kilo bull killed today by the pikes of dozens of lancers on horseback (among which a woman, for the first time) who had previously hounded the animal around the streets of the town of Tordesillas (Valladolid). The episode occurred during the town’s Toro de la Vega competition, the controversial ‘fiesta’ that this year has once again led to violent protest from environmental organisations. The rider who won the prize for delivering the fatal blow to the animal, whose agony lasted 12 minutes, was 26-year old Marcos Rodriguez from Tordesillas, who was declared the winner by the town’s mayor, Maria del Milagro Zarzuelo, at the end of the event, which was attended by an audience of 35,000 and had only one victim: Platanito.

The traditional bull festival in the town in the Castilla y Leon region has, as ever, been condemned by animal rights groups, who have demanded the abolition of a ‘barbaric tradition’ that dates back to the 14th century. The event involves riders on horseback pursuing a bull, who is struck by hundreds of lances, pushing it into a pine forest on the other side of the River Duero, where the animal inevitably meets its end. Defenders of the questionable spectacle, which local authorities describe as “an event of national cultural interest”, say that the animal does not suffer.

But the event’s many detractors, first among them the animal rights associations such as Igualdad Animal or El Refugio, as well as many of the town’s inhabitants, have branded it “savage torture, worthy of the Black Spain of 200 years ago”. The chair of El Refugio, Nancho Paunero, has written to Prime Minister Zapatero, asking for the abolition of “such a cruel spectacle”, as part of the framework of laws protecting animals, which the government is committed to approving during the current term.

To counter the initiative by animal rights groups, the pro-bullfighters of Unidad Regionalista de Castilla y Leon made an appeal to the local population on the eve of the event, calling for mobilisation “in defence of the taurine fiesta and of the traditions of the community” at the end of October. In a statement, they also demanded “the right of the town to celebrate its own patron saint’s fiesta in peace”, without the presence “of foreigners who come to insult and slander Tordesillas”. Last year, a video from the environmentalist association Igualdad Animal, in which the torture and the agony of the Tordesillas bull was filmed, was seen around the world.

“I think that the town experiences the tradition peacefully and with respect,” said the mayor, “the same respect that we demand for ourselves. The competition cannot be made bloodless, as this would mean not killing the bull, and this would no longer make the event a fiesta,” he added. The town paid 7,500 euros for the torture and butchery of Platanito. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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UK: Muslim Plot to Kill Pope

ISLAMIC terrorists disguised as street cleaners allegedly hatched an audacious plot to blow up the Pope.

The threatened attack was foiled at the 11th hour after police raided a cleaning depot in London as the suspects prepared to start their shift yesterday.

Last night six men — all believed to be North Africans aged between 26 and 50 — were being questioned by detectives.

Five suspects were detained at the cleaning depot and the sixth was held at his home yesterday afternoon.

Searches were being carried out at 10 addresses across the capital and police seized computers, mobile phones and other items.

Pope Benedict XVI was said to have remained “totally calm” when he was informed about the threat yesterday morning.

A £1.5million ring of steel has been put in place for the first official Papal visit to Britain and security procedures were immediately reviewed but the Pontiff’s schedule continued as planned.

It is feared plotters with links to Al Qaeda planned “a double blow to the infidel” by assassinating the head of the Roman Catholic church and slaughtering hundreds of pilgrims and well-wishers.

The suspected plot was smashed after Scotland Yard officers swooped on the depot in Marylebone, central London, at 5.45am after a tip-off just hours earlier.

A security source said last night: “We had to act and arrest them. We had reasonable grounds to suspect they would carry out an attack.

— Hat tip: Kitman

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UK: Twisted Values of the Noisy Bigots

For a country that prides itself on religious tolerance, this has been a shaming week.

Thanks to the BBC and a noisy cabal of self-important atheists and Catholic-haters, we have been subjected to wall-to-wall attacks on the Pope and his Church.

Leading this vicious anti-Christian charge were Stephen Fry — who seems to get smugger by the day — and Richard Dawkins, who described Pope Benedict XVI as a ‘leering old villain in a frock . . . whose preaching is responsible for the deaths of countless Aids victims in Africa.’

Put aside for one moment the sheer crudeness of this personal abuse, and imagine the outrage if the world’s most senior Imam was accused of being a leer ing criminal who encouraged the spread of sexually transmitted disease.

Yet, in a case of breathtaking double standards, the Left is given airtime to attack the Pope — and by implication 42 million Christians in this country.

[…]

But, then, for decades now, Christians in Britain have been made to feel their faith is not just unfashionable, but shaming and ignorant.

— Hat tip: JD

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EU-Morocco: Brussels, First Approval for Fish and Agriculture

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 16 — The European Commission authorised the EU/Morocco trade agreement project for the fisheries and agricultural sectors. The agreement must now be examined by the European Council and Parliament.

Brussels stated that the agreement promises advantages for one of main European exports, processed agricultural products, which are meant to be gradually and fully deregulated in the next decade. Pasta products are not included.

As regards agricultural products, Morocco will allow the immediate deregulation of 45% of the value of imported products from the EU, before passing to 70% over the next decade. Full deregulation is instead provided for fruit and vegetables, food preserves, milk and cheese products, oleaginous plants (except for fava beans, sweet almonds, apples and tomato pasts, which will be subject to tariffs) and cereals (except for common and durum wheat and derivatives). The European Union responded to this opening by allowing the immediate deregulation of 55% of Moroccan imports. Improvements over concession in the fruit and vegetable sector (80% of EU imports) accounted for sensitive situations. Production calendars thus remain unchanged for tomatoes, strawberries, zucchini, pickles, garlic and clementines, where concessions were granted in the form of tariff quotas. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Egyptian Muslim Radicals Fabricated Story of Priest’s Wife Conversion

By Mary Abdelmassih

(AINA) — After the return of the missing priest’s wife to her family by State Security on July 23, Egyptian radicals sheikhs have spread rumors that she converted to Islam, exploiting the issue for an outright smear campaign against the Coptic Church and its Pope Shenouda III. The sheikhs paint an image of “Their suffering Muslim sister in a monastery where she is tortured for having chosen to convert to Islam.”

Camelia Shehata, wife of Father Tedaos Samaan, priest at St. Georges Church in Deir Mawas, Minya Governorate, disappeared on July 19, resulting in Coptic demonstrations against State Security for refusing to help her husband find her (AINA 7-23-2010). Father Tedaos accused a Muslim teacher working with her in the same school of being behind her abduction in order to force her conversion to Islam. After 5 days of Coptic sit-ins and the intervention of members of parliament, State Security found her and handed her back to her family.

According to the official version by State Security, Camilia had a row with her husband and left home, staying with one of her relatives in Cairo. The Church kept silent as usual, as per a tacit agreement with Security not to discuss abduction cases.

What re-ignited the “Camilia Affair” a few days later was a video on the Islamist website “Observatory of the Islamic Resistance to Christianizing” which gave a different story. Influential Salafi sheikh Abu Yehya, from Samalut, who is known for his paid activities in procuring Christians for conversion to Islam, said that Camilia fled her marital home and went to him to convert to Islam. He claimed that Camilia had proclaimed the shahada, or declaration of Muslim faith, 18 months earlier and has secretly studied the Koran. Allegedly he traveled with her to Cairo and went to Al-Azhar to register her conversion officially, however, they were delayed there until the police arrived and arrested them both.

The website showed Camilia clad in a veil but this was disputed by various Coptic organizations, who claim the photo was reworked in Photoshop, in a similar fashion to photos of Marilyn Monroe and Angelina Jolie, who are portrayed wearing veils, though they have never worn them.

This story was taken up by other Salafi radical sheikhs who appeared on Islamic TV channels, after adding to it that the church was imprisoning Camilia in one of the Coptic monasteries in Ain Shams (there are none there), where she was given mind altering drugs “until she became insane” according to Sheikh el-Howeiny.

The media joined in the smear campaign against the Church, accompanied by Muslim demonstrations outside mosques during Ramadan in Cairo and Alexandria against the Coptic Patriarch and Church and the infidel Christians, demanding that Camilia, as a Muslim, should be “freed from her captivity in the Coptic monasteries, to practice Islam” and calls for her appearance in public.

Previously Pope Shenouda had confirmed that Camilia never converted to Islam, and no one had the right to know where she is.

There were also calls for Muslim siege of the Coptic Patriarchate in Cairo to force her freedom. Islamist lawyers started filing cases against the church to subject the monasteries to inspection either because they keep ammunition there, or for keeping Christian women who have converted to Islam. Khalil said that Muslims are known “to fabricate a mountain of lies and end up believing them.”

To the surprise of many, Camilia appeared on September 8, in an 11-minute video published on the website of the Egyptian daily El-Youm7, which had one of its reporters present during the shooting of the video, and who confirmed the authenticity of the video.

Camilia said that “she is a Christian with all her heart”, denying rumors about her conversion to Islam, adding “I’m talking to you in full freedom and without any pressure or intimidation. I am appearing in order to defend my husband, my child, my church and my religion which is Christianity.” She denied having been subjected to torture, brainwashing or being detained in a monastery or church. “This is illogical because the Church teaches us to love, but I assure you that I am in a safe and pleasant place.”

Camilia stressed the Church does not force anyone to stay in or enter into Christianity; it gives no electric shocks, drugs for hallucination or engages in brainwashing, as was rumored. She refused to talk about her personal life, stressing that what happened between her and her husband is personal and no one has the right to interfere in it, also only her husband has the right to look for her, and no one else is entitled to do so or demand her return.

This did not put an end to the sheikhs demands of seeing her in person, “because the woman who appeared on the video is not Camelia but a “double” of her, according to Zoghby, another Sheikh. A website dedicated to her said the woman who appeared in the video had a different front tooth and her eyebrows were thicker.

On September 9, for the first time on official Egyptian TV stations, State Security sources confirmed that Camilia Shehata was the one who appeared on the video.

Sheikh Saeed Amer, Chairman of the Committee of Declaration of Islam at Al-Azhar, stepped-in and denied that Camilia ever came there or that her case came before him.

After this information became known, Muslim lawyer Nizar Gorab filed a complaint to the Prosecutor General against Abu Yehya for inciting sectarian strife by fabricating false stories, reported AlArabiya.net on September 11. Ghorab had previously championed Camilia’s case by approaching the UN Human Right Council, the EU and Human Rights Watch, asking for her release as she was held against her will and deprived of becoming a Muslim by the authorities, which is against her rights to religious freedom.

Observers believe this crisis is spiraling out of control despite efforts to contain it.

Coptic activist Magdi Khalil believes that “Egypt is on the verge of chaos and change of regime and there is a plan for Copts to pay the price of this predicted chaos, by directing the surplus violence, hate and barbarism towards them.”

Nearly 500 Muslims demonstrated in front of Amr Ibn-el-Ass Mosque in old Cairo on their Eid-Feast on September 10 calling on President Mubarak to “free Camilia.” They chanted “If Camilia is still OK, then why have you used a double for her?” They distributed computer CDs with her story.

On September 13, an association called the “Front of Al-Azhar Scholars,” which has been banned in Egypt and operates from Kuwait, issued a statement on its website calling for the boycott of Coptic businesses, professionals and schools “After the church became a source of Egyptian intimidation and terrorism to the State and the Nation.”

Magdy Khalil said that the main players in the forthcoming chaos in Egypt is an interaction between political and Salafi Islam, a large portion of State Security who are radicalized and who want to direct violence towards the Copts and not the Regime. “Saudi Arabia is the main funder of what is happening to the Copts in Egypt,” he said.

He believes that those players who fabricated the Camilia story will surely fabricate new ones, aiming at agitating and “heating up” the Muslim street and creating mounting chaos. “When the real chaos takes place, they will go into the field to destroy, loot and kill the Copts.”

— Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih

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Raft of Command Appointments in Military

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, SEPTEMBER 17 — A raft of nominations has been approved for commanding positions in the country’s armed forces (the Tsahal) on the eve of the Yom Kippur celebrations. According to a communique’ from the Defence Department, the appointments were agreed between Minister Ehud Barak and the retiring head of Chiefs of Command, General Gaby Ashkenazi, whose replacement — who takes office in February next — will be General Yoav Galant, named at the start of this month.

The new appointees are linked to that of Galant, although the fact that their nomination has come before he takes command comes as a bit of a surprise.

Among the big names are that of General Tal Russo at the command of the highly sensitive Southern front, the one that has up to now been in Galant’s hands e from where the bloody Cast Lead offensive against Hamas militias in the Gaza Strip during December 2008 and January 2009 had been launched. Russo will in turn be replaced by General Yaakov Ayash form the Operational Directorate of the Chief of Staff, while a further change of guard affects the similarly sensitive head of military intelligence, where General Aviv Kochavi will take over from veteran Amos Yadlin.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Mother of Baby Dumped in a Plane Toilet Bin Claims She Was Raped by Her Employer

A Philippine woman who gave birth to a baby on a flight from the Middle East and then left him in the rubbish bin on the plane said she was raped by her employer, a politician who has spoken to the woman said today.

The baby was found by a security guard at Manila’s airport last Sunday in a bag of rubbish unloaded from a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain.

The bag apparently came from a toilet on the Gulf Air jet which flew to the Philippines from Saudi Arabia.

Lani Mercado, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, said she met the mother, who told her that she had been raped by her employer while working as a maid in Qatar.

She became pregnant and her employer’s wife forced her to return home.

Ms Mercado said the woman managed to hide her pregnancy and board a flight.

‘She had labour pains in the plane. Then she gave birth.’

She said the woman, who is married and has two children, told her she abandoned the baby because she was afraid of what her family would say.

— Hat tip: JD

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Turkish Exporters Interested in Arab Countries

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 17 — Turkish exporters have focused on Arab countries and Turkic republics in the recent years due to Turkey’s developing commercial ties with these countries, as Anatolia news agency reports today. Dogan Narin, chairman of Turkish-Arab Businessmen’s Association, said that the association had been working to boost social, cultural and economic relations with 22 Arab countries as well as Turkic republics.

Narin said Turkey was now making 25% of total exports to Arab countries and Turkic republics. Trade with Arab countries helped the country weather global economic crisis more easily, he said adding that Turkey’s exports to those countries reached USD 16 billion and imports from them were USD 8 billion between January and July 2010. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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The Russian Orthodox Church Calls for Same Legal Status as Catholics in Ireland

Patriarch Kirill spoke at a meeting in Moscow with Irish President McAleese. Orthodox parishes in Ireland are registered as “charitable organisations”. The request in line with the Orthodox Patriarchate policy of strengthening its presence abroad.

Moscow (AsiaNews) — The Moscow Patriarchate has asked Dublin to change the status of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ireland and make it similar to that of Catholics, no longer as a “charitable organization”, but a Church in every respect. The request, which affects 1,500 people, was made on 8 September during a meeting in Moscow between Irish President Mary McAleese and Patriarch Kirill. It was the first state visit to the Russian Federation for McAleese.

“His Holiness raised the issue of granting the Russian Orthodox Church a similar status to that of the Catholic Church in Ireland. This is a very important goal,” stated Fr. Georgy Zavershinsky, head of communications for External Relations Department of the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The priest explained that tRussian Orthodox parishes in many Western countries are registered as charitable communities, similar to other small communities or sects. Besides Ireland, this is also the case in Britain.

Patriarch Kirill spoke of the situation of Orthodox parishes in Ireland: “In general, in the twentieth century there were several waves of emigration from the Soviet Union, and the people established themselves in Western countries, including Ireland. When I talk of these people, I refer not only to citizens of the Russian Federation, but also to the Moscow Patriarchate and the Church of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Taken together, many of them now live in Ireland where we have five parishes, and some are very active (eg, Dublin).

The president promised to start bilateral consultations between ministers to discuss the issue and if necessary between the premier of the two countries. Today the Russian Orthodox Church in Ireland has about 1500 faithful, out of a total population of 4,150,000 inhabitants.

The words of Kirill confirm the policy initiated by the successor of Alexius II towards a strong promotion and strengthening of the presence of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, from China to the Caribbean, throughout south-east Asia and Europe. Of note, however, that in Russia the Catholic Church is not recognized among the four official religions (Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist) which enjoy a privileged status.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Indonesia: Ex-Minister Questioned in Sarong Scandal

Jakarta, 16 Sept. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — Former Indonesian social service minister Bachtiar Chamsyah underwent questioning at the Corruption Eradication Commission Thursday in connection with alleged graft in procurement of sarongs between 2006 and 2008.

“The questioning was related to sarongs procurement. I answered several questions related to my assets as previously announced,” he said after questioning.

Bactiar denied any wrongdoing and claimed that in the procurement project he had issued a policy which complied with the law.

“I gave my disposition to the secretariat general, asking him to execute the procurement according to the existing rules. But, the details were not my business,” he continued.

Bachtiar is implicated in three corruption cases during his tenure at the ministry.

The commission arrested Bachtiar on 5 Aug. due to alleged corruption in the procurement of sewing machines and the importation of cattle between 2004 and 2006, which was estimated to have caused the state Rp 27.6 billion (2.4 million euros) in losses.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Mao’s Great Leap Forward ‘Killed 45 Million in Four Years’

Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history, an expert who had unprecedented access to official Communist Party archives said yesterday.

Speaking at The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival, Frank Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based historian, said he found that during the time that Mao was enforcing the Great Leap Forward in 1958, in an effort to catch up with the economy of the Western world, he was responsible for overseeing “one of the worst catastrophes the world has ever known”.

Mr Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history from 1958 to 1962, when the nation was facing a famine, compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Aborigines Sue Bolt Over Racial Writings

HERALD Sun columnist Andrew Bolt is being sued under the Racial Vilification Act by a group of Aborigines led by 73-year-old activist Pat Eatock over two columns he wrote last year.

In the first column, published under the headline ‘‘It’s so hip to be black’’ in the paper on April 15, 2009, and on his blog under the headline ‘‘White is the new black’’, Bolt enumerated a list of light or white-skinned people who identified themselves as Aboriginal, and suggested their choosing to do so was proof of ‘‘a whole new fashion in academia, the arts and professional activism’’.

He added that ‘‘for many of these fair Aborigines, the choice to be Aboriginal can seem almost arbitrary and intensely political’’.

Pat Eatock was one of those identified. She is acting on behalf of at least six others.

On August 21, 2009, Bolt revisited the topic in a column headlined ‘‘White fellas in the black’’, in which he derided the granting of an award for Aboriginal artists to white-skinned painter Danie Mellor and an indigenous scholarship to white-skinned academic Mark McMillan.

According to the statement of claim lodged in the Federal Court on September 7, law firm Holding Redlich is acting on behalf of a group who ‘‘by a combination of descent, self-identification and communal recognition are, and are recognised under law as, Aboriginal persons’’.

The document also states that the applicants ‘‘were offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated’’ by Bolt’s writings.

Financial damages are not being sought, but the group has asked for an order restraining Bolt and the Herald Sun from publishing any material containing ‘‘substantially similar’’ content in the future, and for the removal of the two columns from the website.

‘‘We see this as a really important case,’’ said Joel Zyngier, an employment and discrimination lawyer at Holding Redlich, which is running the case pro bono.

‘‘We see it as clarifying the issue of identity — who gets to say who is and who is not Aboriginal. Essentially, the articles by Bolt have challenged people’s identity. He’s basically arguing that the people he identified are white people pretending they’re black so they can access public benefits.’’

Bolt’s first column pointedly stated he was not making any such claim, though the sincerity of that statement has been questioned.

‘‘I’m not saying any of those I’ve named chose to be Aboriginal for anything but the most heartfelt and honest of reasons,’’ he wrote in the piece published in April 2009. ‘‘I certainly don’t accuse them of opportunism, even if full-blood Aborigines may wonder how such fair people can claim to be one of them and, in some cases, take black jobs. I’m saying only that this self-identification as Aboriginal strikes me as self-obsessed, and driven more by politics than by any racial reality.’’

Liberty Victoria president Michael Pearce, SC, said his organisation had concerns about the potential impact on freedom of speech.

‘‘It is easy to imagine that it caused offence and hurt to the people against whom it was directed. However, hurt and offence are caused by all sorts of speech all the time.

‘‘It would be impossible to proscribe all speech which causes hurt and offence.’’

Although the action seeks to prevent Bolt from expressing such views again, Mr Zyngier is adamant it is not an attempt to impose a gag order on the columnist.

‘‘We’re not seeking to make this a case about freedom of speech, because it’s not,’’ he said. ‘‘The issue is essentially about whether or not other people can define identity, and in particular Aboriginal identity, based on how you look.

The matter is listed for a determination hearing on September 29.

— Hat tip: Nilk

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Zimbabwe: Mugabe’s Darkest Secret: An £800bn Blood Diamond Mine He’s Running With China’s Red Army

Across a remote tract of southern Africa, naturally fortified by mountains and patrolled by hundreds of soldiers with dogs trained to tear intruders apart, teams of mining experts are hard at work.

Yet they are not speakers of Shona, the native language of this land on the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. No, thousands of miles from home, under a broiling African sun, these slim, pale-skinned figures are members of the Chinese military.

Working alongside henchmen from one of Africa’s most murderous regimes — headed by Robert Mugabe — the Chinese are here to oversee Beijing’s investment in the world’s most controversial commodity: blood diamonds.

High-ranking officials of China’s People’s Liberation Army, they have been striving to escape detection for their role in this blood-thirsty — but hugely lucrative — trade.

For here, carved out of the African bush, is a runway big enough for huge cargo planes. There is also sophisticated radar equipment, a fully-operational control tower and comfortable barracks for the Chinese officials overseeing the entire operation.

[…]

The reason for the secrecy became apparent during an undercover investigation at the fields, where I found conclusive evidence of collusion between China and Mugabe. In an official — but highly-confidential — agreement between the two countries, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and Mugabe’s military chiefs are plundering this diamond find, believed to be the biggest in the history of the world and worth an estimated £800 billion.

So vast are the riches that diamond experts believe the gems from Marange — in a country of less than ten million people — could account for more than a quarter of all diamonds mined around the globe, and could even trigger a massive slump in diamond prices if the stones come on the market and cause a glut.

Not that the people of Zimbabwe will see any of these riches. Instead, in return for the gems, the Chinese are paying Mugabe’s thugs in guns and ammunition, ensuring his regime can stay in power despite international condemnation of his atrocities.

The two countries — both with appalling human-rights records — are involved in a vile scramble for loot at Marange, and there is clear evidence that Mugabe and his generals are also personally stealing millions from the trade.

Secret documents obtained by the Mail reveal that the company given the rights to the diamond fields — called Mbada Diamond Company — is fronted by Mugabe’s trusted former personal helicopter pilot, with Chinese military officials as silent partners.

[…]

For, while Mugabe insists these diamonds will be for benefit of his people, the truth is they are already being used to fund a war chest designed to keep him and his generals in power, while millions more are siphoned into their personal accounts. That much was made clear to me during a chilling conversation I had as night fell this week near the diamond fields.

— Hat tip: JD

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Moratorium on Muslim Immigrants?

Radical solution to homeland insecurity stirs controversy at conference

A proposal on how to stop the spread of Islam in the U.S., suggested from the floor at WND’s “Taking America Back” conference in Miami, Fla., stirred a rousing response from the audience but received an even more impassioned reply from the platform.

“I propose a moratorium on Islamic immigration and mosque construction in the U.S.,” an unidentified attendee suggested during a panel discussion on Islam, “until the Quran is scrubbed of its passages that are incompatible with our Constitution.”

The audience responded in spontaneous applause.

But the panel on stage gave a surprising response that quickly made the audience rethink its enthusiasm.

— Hat tip: JD

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Political Scientist Hamed Abdel-Samad: ‘Islam is Like a Drug’

In a SPIEGEL interview, Egyptian-German political scientist Hamed Abdel-Samad talks about his childhood as the son of an imam in Egypt, why he thinks Islam is a danger to society and his theories about the inevitable decline of the Muslim world.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Abdel-Samad, Germany is currently a divided country because of the controversial author Thilo Sarrazin, whose new book “Germany Does Itself In” has triggered a heated debate on immigration and the willingness of Muslims to integrate into German society. Are you part of the pro- or anti-Sarrazin faction?

Hamed Abdel-Samad: Neither.

SPIEGEL: Have you discovered the happy medium in the integration debate? Or are you trying to avoid offending both your German friends and your fellow Muslims?

Abdel-Samad: I don’t like the nature of this debate at all. Some are standing in judgment over Sarrazin while others are cheering him on without further reflection. Sarrazin has become a lightning rod for everything. Whether he is seen a hero or a scapegoat, Sarrazin has unintentionally become the friend of the idle and the clueless. All failings and accusations can now be addressed to one person: Superman Sarrazin.

SPIEGEL: Are you saying that Sarrazin and his theories are overrated?

Abdel-Samad: I’m against Sarrazin’s expulsion from the SPD (the center-left Social Democratic Party, which has started proceedings to expel Sarrazin), and I believe that an open debate over integration in Germany is desperately needed. But his conclusions don’t do us any good, because they’re outdated. Germany isn’t doing itself in, but it is changing through immigration, and that’s a good thing. We should talk about the problems of living side by side, the failings of immigrants and what needs to be done for them.

SPIEGEL: And Sarrazin, the provocateur, is preventing this from happening with his theories on biology and race?

Abdel-Samad: He certainly isn’t promoting it. It doesn’t help us resolve the impasse of integration. You can see what’s happening at the moment, the way people are becoming entrenched. A CDU (the center-right Christian Democratic Union) politician keeps emphasizing, again and again, that foreigners should learn how to speak German properly. An SPD politician, after having condemned Sarrazin’s statements, is listing examples of successful integration. A Turkish idealist will sing the Green Party’s multicultural hymn. Meanwhile, a furious critic of Islam tries to pin the blame for all Germany’s problems on the Turks.

SPIEGEL: You’re referring to Turkish-German sociologist Necla Kelek, who enthusiastically introduced Sarrazin’s book at its official launch.

Abdel-Samad: Thilo Sarrazin is merely the proof that we have a problem. He is the messenger, and his message is that a tense culture of controversy prevails here. We have scaremongering, apologetics and hypersensitivity.

SPIEGEL: Should we have pretended that Sarrazin’s book didn’t exist?

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Students Booted for Giving Teachers Krispy Kremes

Legal team explains principal wants ‘Christian’ acts halted

A New Mexico school principal who has demanded that a team of students cease their “Christian” acts has suspended three after they gave fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts with Bible verses to their teachers, according to a complaint from a legal team.

“Some teachers are worried about their students giving them bullets, and this school suspends students over a Bible verse,” said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the Liberty University School of Law.

“These students are living their Christian beliefs by showing kindness,” he continued. “It is outrageous that the Roswell school officials are mean to these students solely because they are hostile to their Christian faith.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

	Financial Crisis
»	Obama Endorses Global Taxes on Eve of U.N. Summit
»	Spain: Banca Santander Buys 70% of Poland’s Zachodni Bank
»	The Emerging Global Fed
	USA
»	Bad Breath Sniffer to Hunt for Life on Mars
»	Diana West: Burned for Being American
»	School Apologizes After Students Pray to Allah on Field Trip to Mosque
»	Shortage of Single Ladies Drives Men to Commit
»	White House Science Czar Says He’d Use ‘Free Market’ To ‘De-Develop the United States’
»	White House Solves the Problem of Global Warming Overnight… By Officially Changing the Phrase to ‘Global Climate Disruption’
»	White House: Global Warming Out, ‘Global Climate Disruption’ In
	Canada
»	Mosque Near North Pole Soon
	Europe and the EU
»	Counter-Terror Police Arrest Five ‘Algerian’ Street Cleaners in Dawn Raid Over Alleged Plot to Attack the Pope on UK Visit
»	Drugs: From South America to Spain, ‘Brain Thief’ Arrives
»	Germany: Berlin Denies Planning Roma Deportations
»	Italy-Croatia: Exiled Requests Should be Reassessed, Frattini
»	Italy: ‘Most Thefts Done by Roma’, Says Bossi
»	Italy: Xenophobic Party Tables Anti-Burqa Bill
»	Italy: EU Parliament VP to Organise Campaign for Iranian Woman
»	Light Trapped on Curved Surfaces
»	Pope’s Battle to Save Christmas: Don’t Let Atheists Crush Your Traditions, Benedict Tells Britain
»	Roma: EU Presidency Wants Union to Ensure France’s Respect
»	Roma: France: About 160 Deported to Romania
»	Science Fraud in Swedish Transplantation Biology
»	Stakelbeck Interviews Former Spanish President Aznar About New Group
»	Sweden Democrat Fears Islamic Revolution
»	Sweden: Man Comes Clean Over Elevator Urine Puddles
»	UK: 6 Arrested in Suspected Pope Terror Plot
»	UK: Exiled Pakistani Politician Fatally Stabbed in London
»	UK: Leaders of 14 Unions Back November Demo Against Racism and Islamophobia
»	UK: Was the Taliban Behind Attack on Pakistani Politician Stabbed to Death Outside His London Home?
	Balkans
»	Bosnia: Kosovo Example Strengthens RS Separation, Serbs
»	Italy-Croatia: Zagreb Soon in EU With Rome’s Support
	North Africa
»	Libya: Al Jazeera, Revolutionary Committees Challenged
»	Sahel Military Leaders in Algiers
»	Spain: Rajoy Visit to Melilla is a ‘Provocation’ For Morocco
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Caroline Glick: the Perils of Diplomatic Theater
»	‘Hamas Commander’ Killed
	Middle East
»	Pentagon to Funnel US Arms to Yemen to Fight Al-Qaeda
»	Saudi Arabia: Activist Calls for End of Male Control of Women
»	Turkey: Strasbourg Court, Ankara Guilty of Dink’s Death
»	Yemen: Motorcycles Banned in Southern Province
	South Asia
»	All the Time Necessary in Afghanistan, Zapatero
»	India: Kashmir: Muslims Try to Burn a Christian School (Only in Name)
»	Indonesia: Muslim Hardliner Suspended Over Attack on Church Leaders
	Sub-Saharan Africa
»	Niger: French Nationals Abducted in North
	Immigration
»	The Streets of Neukölln: Has Integration Failed?
»	UK: Foreigners to Have a Say on Voting Reform: Commonwealth Citizens to Take Part in Referendum
	Culture Wars
»	8-Year-Old Expelled From Two Years of School for Bringing Toy Gun in Backpack
»	Is Your Child a “Prehomosexual”? Forecasting Adult Sexual Orientation
»	UK: Pink News Misrepresents Qaradawi’s Views on Homosexuality
	General
»	Do You Know When You’re Wrong? Gray Matter Shows Introspective Ability is Not Black and White

Obama Endorses Global Taxes on Eve of U.N. Summit

In a classic case of misdirection, while the media are preoccupied with the fate of the Bush tax cuts, President Obama is preparing to attend a United Nations summit next week to endorse “innovative finance mechanisms” — -global taxes — -to drain even more wealth out of the U.S. economy.

A draft “outcome document” produced in advance of the September 20-22 U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) commits the nations of the world to supporting “innovative financing mechanisms” to supplement foreign aid spending.

The term “innovative financing mechanisms” is a U.N. euphemism for global taxes. But the document actually goes further, praising the “Task Force on International Financial Transactions for Development” for its work on the subject of mobilizing additional “resources” for countries to achieve the MDGs. This is a body tasked with proposing and implementing global tax schemes.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Spain: Banca Santander Buys 70% of Poland’s Zachodni Bank

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 10 — Banca Santander has acquired 70.36% of the Polish bank Zachodni (BZ WBK) for around 2,938,000 euros in cash, according to a communique’ issued to the National Stock Exchange Commission.

The acquisition of BZ WBK will be realised by the institution under Emilio Botin via a public offer to purchase 100% of the capital, which will automatically be contended by AIB, sources inside the Spanish bank say. Following this, Santander will acquire the 50% stake that Ireland’s AIB holds in BZ WBK Asset Management for 150 million euros in cash.

The acquisition of the two packages of shares owned by AIB in the Polish bank and in BZ WBK Asset Management will generate a commercial fund for Santander worth around 2 billion euros and will have an estimated impact on the group’s core capital of around 40 base points.(ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

The Emerging Global Fed

The Federal Reserve has been a nightmare for the American people. It inflates the money supply, thereby devaluing already-existing money and placing a massive hidden tax on the people via rising prices. It also uses its monopoly power to cause interest rates to go up or down, usurping the rightful place of the market and causing massive malinvestment and generally an improper and unproductive allocation of resources.

The Fed also causes the boom-and-bust cycle through its manipulations of the currency and credit supply. It serves as the government’s partner in perpetually expanding the “welfare-warfare state,” allowing the state to spend far more than it could ever hope to reasonably raise through direct taxation. And of course, the fact that all Federal Reserve notes enter the economy as debt with interest attached (but never created) has led to a situation where it is literally mathematically impossible to pay off the debt. In sum, the consequences of such a system have been disastrous for average Americans — hence the growing calls to audit and even end the Fed.

But now, imagine such a system at the global level. And it isn’t just a mental exercise; the global central bank is already emerging. As bad as the Fed has been for America — and indeed the world — a similar system at the international level would be far worse. Disaster might even be an understatement.

One of the most serious threats posed by a global central bank and world fiat currency is the fact that it would allow the emerging planetary regime to print its own money and finance its activities independently. That means wealth could be secretly siphoned away from all of humanity to pay for armies, tax collectors, courts, bureaucracies, law enforcement, wealth redistribution, propaganda, and much more. With no limits. But to advocates of such a system, that is one of its primary benefits.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Bad Breath Sniffer to Hunt for Life on Mars

IF THERE’S life on Mars, we might smell it before we see it. A chemical involved in bad breath and flatulence in humans could lead us to alien microbes on the Red Planet.

The sulphur-containing molecule methyl mercaptan is naturally produced in significant quantities on Earth only by microbes, including some that make their pungent presence known in the human body. NASA’s next Mars rover is highly sensitive to the smelly chemical, which could betray the presence of Martian microbes, says Steven Vance of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The instrument in question is the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, which will fly on the Curiosity rover — set to land on Mars in 2012. TLS was designed to analyse the carbon isotopes in Mars’s methane to search for signs that the gas has a biological origin. But the isotope tests might produce ambiguous results, so finding methyl mercaptan would help bolster the case for Martian microbes, Vance says. TLS should be able to detect the gas at concentrations below 100 parts per billion, according to his team’s tests on a similar spectrometer (Planetary and Space Science, DOI: 10.1016/ j.pss.2010.08.023).

The researchers are also planning to check TLS’s sensitivity to other gases produced by terrestrial microbes, like ethane. “We’re demonstrating its ability to look at additional biomarkers and hopefully that will help us in our search for life,” Vance says.

Kenneth Nealson at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, says finding several potential indicators of life in the same place would make it a good target for follow-up missions. “I think you’d get pretty excited,” he says. “You’d want to make sure that the next lander would spend time at that site.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Diana West: Burned for Being American

Another Sept. 11 is behind us, leaving something new and disturbing, a dark spawn to examine with plenty of careful soul-searching.

That legacy begins with the reflexive, lockstep process by which an American citizen, Terry Jones, was simultaneously depicted and denounced as a raving lunatic for even conceiving of his plan to burn copies of the Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of demonstrably Koran-inspired attacks. In society’s fearful fervor to distance itself from Jones, there was evidence of that same politically correct lie that has plagued us from Day 1: that there exists no logical and discernible connection between what the Koran commands and what happened on 9/11. Thus, Jones’ lawful, harmless symbolic stunt making the connection — burning copies of the Koran at his Florida church — became a paralyzing taboo, and Terry Jones was demonized with impunity, even by many who defended his free-speech protections and constitutional rights.

It’s not that his plan required hosannas, ovations or even a Cracker Jack prize. But there was something alarming in the rush of invective that prefaced even arguments in the man’s defense. In these apparently obligatory denunciations, there was something very nearly dehumanizing — and particularly when the name-calling could be heard as sympathetic vibrations to the violent explosions of outrage over Jones that brought death and destruction to Islamic lands including (so far) Indonesia, Afghanistan and India.

Even with the Constitution on his side, Jones was in effect stripped of equal standing in the eyes of his fellow citizens. Little wonder, then, that his bank actually called in his church’s mortgage; his insurance company actually canceled his church’s policy; and his Internet server actually pulled the plug on his website — all repercussions of his planned 9/11 demonstration. Inside of a week, Jones achieved a state on nonpersonhood that exceeds that of most convicted criminals, despite the fact that the only law he contemplated breaking was Islam’s.

Jones’ state of disgrace was perhaps never more apparent than during a live appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Co-host Mika Brzezinski, worked up over the “blood” Jones personally, as she believed, would have on his hands, cued panelist Jon Meacham to deliver to Jones, standing by live, an honest-to-goodness New Testament homily on forgiveness — an MSNBC first? — and to appeal to him as a “fellow Christian” to drop his plans. Jones’ reply? He was never permitted to open his mouth.

“Well said, Jon Meacham,” said Mika Brzezinski as Meacham’s sermon ended. “And Pastor Terry Jones, we appeal to you to listen to that. And we don’t really need to hear anything else, so thanks.”

So thanks? Talk about potted palms…

— Hat tip: Diana West

[Return to headlines]

School Apologizes After Students Pray to Allah on Field Trip to Mosque

A Massachusetts school district has apologized to parents after a group of schoolchildren participated in midday Muslim prayers during a field trip to a Boston-area mosque.

The incident occurred in May when a social studies class from Wellesley Middle School toured the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, one of the largest mosques in the Northeast.

Parents were told their children would be learning about the architecture of a mosque and they would be allowed to observe a prayer service. But the students wound up being given a lecture on the Prophet Muhammad, and some boys participated in a midday prayer service.

The field trip was videotaped by a parent whose child was on the trip. At one point, the video shows a spokeswoman for the mosque telling students, “You have to believe in Allah, and Allah is the one God, the only one worthy of worship, all forgiving, all merciful.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Shortage of Single Ladies Drives Men to Commit

Wedding bells ring sooner for women in places where single ladies are scarce, according to a new study of metropolitan areas in America.

Where single women are rare, women marry earlier, researchers reported Aug. 4 in the journal Evolutionary Psychology. The shift may be because the ladies have more men to choose from, while the men have extra motivation to put a ring on it.

“Women are basically getting snapped up, because the guys want to get her before somebody else does,” study author Daniel Kruger, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan, told LiveScience.

Attack of the single woman

Kruger first became interested in studying the effects of gender imbalance on the marriage market when he caught a glimpse of a magazine cover on a trip to New York City.

“It had this cover picture on it that said, ‘Attack of the Single Woman,’ and it had this giant woman with a big red dress like Godzilla tromping through the city,” Kruger recalled. “It made me wonder just what would happen to these relationship dynamics if there really was a surplus of single women.”

To find out, Kruger analyzed census data on marriage age and gender imbalances in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in America. Using the data, he calculated what’s called an operational sex ratio, which is the number of sexually available men per 100 sexually available women, multiplied by 100. A ratio of 100 means a balanced population, while numbers larger than 100 indicate a surplus of men. A ratio of 110, for example, means 11 men are available for every 10 women. A ratio of 90 would mean nine men are available for every 10 women.

After controlling for income and race, Kruger found that in areas where women were scarce, women married slightly earlier. Men’s average age of marriage didn’t change relative to the abundance of potential mates, but they did show more variability in the age when they married than women did. That’s likely because guys who can snag a women will settle down quickly, Kruger said, but because women can be more choosey, other men may have to build up their finances and social status before they can catch a bride.

“[Some guys will] settle down and take the women before other guys can,” Kruger said. “But other guys will have to work more and thus they’ll get married at later ages.”…

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

White House Science Czar Says He’d Use ‘Free Market’ To ‘De-Develop the United States’

[Video] From CNS News: In a video interview this week, White House Office of Science and Technology Director John P. Holdren told CNSNews.com that he would use the “free market economy” to implement the “massive campaign” he advocated along with Population Bomb author Paul Ehrlich to “de-develop the United States.”

[Return to headlines]

White House Solves the Problem of Global Warming Overnight… By Officially Changing the Phrase to ‘Global Climate Disruption’

Global warming could be a thing of the past, thanks to the Barack Obama administration.

No, the White House has not single-handedly managed to stop the apparent rising temperature — but it does think the terminology oversimplifies the problem.

According to U.S. science adviser John Holdren, the public should start using the phrase ‘global climate disruption’ because it makes the situation sound more dangerous.

During a speech in Oslo, Norway, Mr Holdren said global warming is a ‘dangerous misnomer’ and is not an accurate description of the issues facing the planet.

It comes as Congress prepares to adjourn for the season without completing work on the stalled climate bill, which, after facing a barrage of obstacles, was declared effectively dead in the Senate in July.

But advisers believe using the new terminology could help to drive the message to ordinary people — and put the bill back on the agenda for next year’s legislative session.

Referring to the Democrats launch of a new logo, Republican pollster Adam Geller told Fox News: ‘They’re trying to come up with more politically palatable ways to sell some of this stuff.’

Mr Geller added that the phrase ‘global warming’ is easy to criticise.

‘Every time we’re digging our cars out — what global warming? (Global climate disruption is) more of a sort of generic blanket term, I guess, that can apply in all weather conditions.’

Mr Holdren is not the first scientist to make the recommendations. In 2008, NASA said the term ‘global warming’ should be avoided because temperature change ‘isn’t the most severe effect of changing climate’.

‘Changes to precipitation patterns and sea levels are likely to have much greater human impact than the higher temperatures alone,’ its report said.

It’s not the first terminology change the White House has pushed for — previous examples include ‘man-caused disaster’ and ‘overseas contingency operation’.

— Hat tip: Gaia

[Return to headlines]

White House: Global Warming Out, ‘Global Climate Disruption’ In

From the administration that brought you “man-caused disaster” and “overseas contingency operation,” another terminology change is in the pipeline.

The White House wants the public to start using the term “global climate disruption” in place of “global warming” — fearing the latter term oversimplifies the problem and makes it sound less dangerous than it really is.

White House science adviser John Holdren urged people to start using the phrase during a speech last week in Oslo, echoing a plea he made three years earlier. Holdren said global warming is a “dangerous misnomer” for a problem far more complicated than a rise in temperature.

[…]

“They’re trying to come up with more politically palatable ways to sell some of this stuff,” said Republican pollster Adam Geller, noting that Democrats also rolled out a new logo and now refer to the Bush tax cuts as “middle-class tax cuts.”

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Mosque Near North Pole Soon

(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 15 -After a 4-thousand-kilometre-long land and river ways journey , the mosque called the “End of the World” will arrive on a ship at its destination, the Canadian town of Inuvik in the extreme far north of Canada, 200 kilometres from the North Pole.

The population of Inuvik is 4000 people including about one hundred Muslims. Muslims in the small town — reports Al Arabyya — had been used to praying in a small transportable building, said the architect Ahmed Alkhalef, who added that when the mosque arrives on September 24 the Muslims living in Inuvik will be able to pray together, whereas in the last prayer only about twenty people took part since the house-mosque did not have the space for everyone. The first prayer of the new mosque, built according to a Canadian architectural style and commissioned by a wealthy Saudi national (the total cost was about 100,000 dollars) is scheduled for November 1. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Counter-Terror Police Arrest Five ‘Algerian’ Street Cleaners in Dawn Raid Over Alleged Plot to Attack the Pope on UK Visit

Police arrested five street cleaners in a dawn raid today after receiving information they were allegedly plotting to harm the Pope.

The suspects were arrested by Scotland Yard at 5.45am at business premises in the centre of London and are now being questioned by counter-terror detectives.

They were working for Veolia Environmental Services, a contractor which employs 650 on-street staff to keep Westminster’s streets clean.

Searches are underway at properties across the capital but Benedict XVI’s schedule in the city is currently continuing as planned.

His security was reviewed following the arrests but so far it has not been altered and he went ahead with a service and appearance in Twickenham, west London, this morning.

The men, aged 26, 27, 36, 40 and 50, were arrested by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command as their shift was about to start.

They are being held under the Terrorism Act 2000 at a central London police station and will be questioned by detectives.

Some of the group are of North African origin, including Algerian.

Leith Penny, Westminster City Council’s director for city management, said: ‘Veolia and Westminster City Council work closely with the relevant authorities to constantly ensure that all the people working on their behalf are subject to right to work checks as prescribed by the Home Office to assess their eligibility to work in the country.

‘We are confident that these checks are robust and we will continue to work with the police and other authorities during this investigation.’

The suspects were held at Veolia’s Chiltern Street depot, where staff are responsible for cleaning streets in the Marylebone area.

The Pope was not set to visit anywhere in that area before leaving his Wimbledon base for Birmingham on Sunday morning.

The cleaning depot was searched by police as well as their homes in north and east London and the suspects will be questioned by counter-terrorism officers later today.

Sources said no weapons, bomb materials, maps, planning materials or other suspicious items have been found.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘Today’s arrests were made after police received information. Following initial inquiries by detectives, a decision was made to arrest the five men.

‘Following today’s arrests the policing arrangements for the Papal visit were reviewed and we are satisfied that our current policing plan remains appropriate. The itinerary has not changed. There is no change to the UK threat level.’

— Hat tip: KGS

[Return to headlines]

Drugs: From South America to Spain, ‘Brain Thief’ Arrives

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 13 — It is known as ‘texe’ or even ‘basuco’, or the ‘brain thief’, as it has been dubbed by the mothers of South American drug addicts. A new, extremely cheap and devastating drug, made from the leftovers of cocaine production, which creates a near immediate addiction has arrived in Spain. After eating away at the health of the youth of the South American suburbs, ‘texe’ is spreading at a worrying rate in the city of Barcelona and Baix Llobregati and in the provinces of central Catalonia, according to warnings from police, healthcare and social workers, reports the Periodico de Catalunya today. It costs just 10-15 euros per gram, making it a widely consumed drug. The proof of how much it is being used, explained sources, is that many more of the pipes used to smoke the drug are being sold. Each gram yields about four or five doses, which has made it a true drug for the poor, with devastating effects on its consumers’ health.

“Currently, out of the 65 people that we have in drug addiction treatment in Catalonia, 18 have used basuco,” explained the director of the Progetto Uomo NGO, Oriol Esculies, while speaking to the daily. The association warned that many of ‘texe’ addicts are adolescents age 14-15 living in unstable conditions. Healthcare workers explained that the dangerous drug, since it is made from cocaine residue, contains few active principles and many toxic substances, such as hydrochloric acid, ammonia and kerosene. It has much more destructive effects on the health of users compared to cocaine. “When smoked, it has serious impacts on the respiratory system,” explained psychiatrist Carlos Roncero, the head of the drug treatment facility at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. “Since it is mainly composed of chemical substances that are not suitable for human consumption, such as acid and kerosene, it can severely damage the nervous system,” he added.

Aggressive reactions, followed by euphoria and psychotic crisis are several of its effects. Since they quickly wear off, users immediately need to take another dose. Police and healthcare workers are warning people about the risks of this drug turning into a veritable social plague. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Germany: Berlin Denies Planning Roma Deportations

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Friday repudiated statements by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Germany is planning deportations of Roma people similar to the controversial programme in France.

“There are no such considerations,” Westerwelle told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, adding he believe there had been a “misunderstanding.”

The foreign minister’s comments came after government spokesman Steffen Seibert also said Chancellor Angela Merkel had not told Sarkozy of such plans either at the European Council or in discussions on the sidelines, as the French President had recently claimed.

Meanwhile Green party EU parliamentarian Reinhard Bütikofer called on Merkel to come out with clear statements on the Roma issue.

In an interview with daily Frankfurter Rundschau he said she must “be clear with her close friend Sarkozy” that EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has been right to compare the Roma expulsions with the fate of millions of Roma and Jews in German-occupied Europe in World War II.

France has been under fire for weeks over Sarkozy’s drive to deport Roma, previously called Gypsies, living in travelling communities in France back to Romania and Bulgaria, and Paris now faces the threat of European legal action.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Italy-Croatia: Exiled Requests Should be Reassessed, Frattini

(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, SEPTEMBER 15 — “I hope that the pending requests [of those in exile] that were frozen can be reassessed” in light of new principles established by Croatia’s Supreme Court. So said the Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, who was speaking during a press conference following the second mixed commission meeting held today in Zagreb.

Frattini referred to August’s verdict by the Supreme Court in Zagreb, which favours extending the benefits of Croatian law on denationalisation to foreign citizens. The verdict recognises the parity of treatment between Croatian citizens and foreigners and constitutes an important step forward, albeit one limited to well defined categories of potential beneficiaries. Cases covered by international treaties such as the Treaty of Osimo in 1975, but positive developments to the question would allow the issue of indemnities due to Croatia over assets nationalised in the former Zone B to be resolved.

“My request is for full implementation of this verdict,” Frattini explained.

The Foreign Minister expressed his appreciation at constitutional developments made in favour of minorities in Croatia. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Italy: ‘Most Thefts Done by Roma’, Says Bossi

League leader joins row after Berlusconi backs French expulsions

(ANSA) — Rome, September 16 — Northern League leader Umberto Bossi stomped into the row over France’s Gypsy expulsions Thursday, backing French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial policy on the grounds that “most thefts are done by Roma”.

“Yes, Sarkozy is doing the right thing with the expulsions,” said the outspoken head of the regionalist party that frequently assumes extreme stances on immigration and is the junior partner in Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government.

“Most thefts are done by Roma. Naturally they are not the devil, but working people come home and find it ransacked and that’s no fun”.

The comments come after Berlusconi threw his weight behind Sarkozy following a reprimand from European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who compared the policy of sending Roma migrants back to Romania and Bulgaria to the Nazi Holocaust. “Reding would have done better to discuss this subject in private with French officials” Berlusconi said. “The Roma problem is not specific to France. It concerns all Europe”.

Sarkozy had already returned fire on Reding Wednesday, saying her home nation Luxembourg should take in the Roma to solve the problem if she did not like his approach.

Reding subsequently said she regretted the way her comments had been interpreted, but she won the backing of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the row threatens to overshadow Thursday’s summit of EU leaders in Brussels.

The Commission says the policy, which has been blasted by human rights groups, the Catholic Church and even members of Sarkozy’s government, breaks European law on free movement of people.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Italy: Xenophobic Party Tables Anti-Burqa Bill

Rome, 17 Sept. (AKI) — Italy’s anti-immigrant North League party on Friday introduced a bill to the lower house of parliament that would ban the burqa. Wearing the burqa will be punishable by a year in prison, fines of 150 to 300 euros for the wearer and 30,000 euros for anyone forcing a woman to don the face-concealing Islamic garment.

Anyone coercing a minor or a disabled woman into wearing a burqa will be eligible for a 60,000 euro fine.

If a woman is wearing the burqa of her own volition, the 150-300 euro fine can be reduced, if she agrees to do community service aimed at better integrating Muslim immigrants.

“This bill represents a step forward because we are not just facing a problem of public order, but — we believe — an offence to women’s dignity,” said Northern League member of parliament Carolina Lussana, presenting the bill to journalists.

“It is also a violation of the principle of equality between men and women enshrined in our Constitution,” she said.

The bill is likely to draw criticism from many Muslim immigrants, but 73 percent of Italians believe the burqa should not be allowed to be worn in public places, according to a recent poll by Panel Data.

The right-leaning Northern League’s bill came just days after France’s upper house of parliament, the Senate, voted by 246 to one to ban the burqa.

Under the new French law, women will be fined or jailed for covering their faces in public.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Italy: EU Parliament VP to Organise Campaign for Iranian Woman

Rome, 17 Sept. (AKI) — European parliament vice-president Roberta Angelilli intends to help organise a Italian and European networks of women in support of an Iranian woman death-by-stoning has been suspended.

“We decided to build a network of women for Sakineh,” Angelilli told Adnkronos International (AKI) in an interview on Friday. “It would be a bipartisan grouping of diverse political interests on the European and national level.

“All politicians would be involved to keep interest going in this case and to try to bring forward a motion by the European Parliament that would guard the rights of women and all the people in Iran.”

AKI’s newly launched ‘Flowers not Stones!’ campaign aims to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, a mother of two who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery and helping kill her husband.

Following international pressure, Iranian authorities have said they would not carry out the sentence for the time being, but she still faces execution by hanging.

Angelilli considers the suspended sentence an important victory for the international campaign because there is much more at stake than the life of one woman.

“Now we have to mobilze public opinion and consciousness even more because it can cause a crisis in the countries that are more sensitive to public opinion that a United Nations resolution. There are many women in the same situation who are less known that Sakineh…The mobilization that was launched for Sakineh was a positive message of peace that contrasted with stones.”

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Light Trapped on Curved Surfaces

LIGHT, which in everyday experience travels in straight beams, has been trapped on complex curved surfaces. The feat is not just a parlour trick — it could help people visualise how light travels in the curved fabric of space.

According to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, gravity is the result of an object’s mass deforming space itself, like a bowling ball on a trampoline. To model how light’s path would change in space curved by gravity, Ulf Peschel of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany and colleagues constructed smooth 3D objects and sent laser beams shooting along their surfaces (Physical Review Letters, in press).

They took advantage of the fact that light bends, or refracts, when it moves from one medium to another. In their simplest experiment, they shot laser light at the edge of a solid glass sphere. The angle of the beam was chosen so that the light — initially travelling in air — would be bent just enough when it entered the glass that it would keep reflecting off the inside surface of the sphere, and so travel along it. When the light inside the sphere reflected off its inner surface, some was also transmitted through the glass, creating a glowing ring on the outside surface (see image).

The team also constructed an object shaped like two trumpet bells stuck end to end — called a hyperbolic surface. The object was made out of aluminium and then coated with oil. Light sent into the oil layer was confined there, bouncing between the metal and air boundaries. The beam spread out ever more quickly, generating a trumpet-shaped glow (see image).

For the light to be trapped in two dimensions, the object’s surface needed to be smooth enough to cleanly reflect most of the light into the oil layer rather than scattering it at all angles. That required diamond polishing machines that have only become available in the last 10 years or so, Peschel says.

The experiments help visualise how light travels in space warped by gravity. The sphere, for instance, represents how space is bent around a star or other mass — light passing through this warped space bends in an effect called gravitational lensing. The hyperbolic surface, which has so-called negative curvature because its surface curves up and down at the same time, like a saddle, just might represent the shape of the universe.

“It’s a beautiful fundamental experiment,” says Ulf Leonhardt of the University of St Andrews in the UK, who was not involved in the work. “It’s just fun, good physics.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Pope’s Battle to Save Christmas: Don’t Let Atheists Crush Your Traditions, Benedict Tells Britain

The Pope issued a clarion call to defend Christianity last night, saying Christmas was at risk of being struck from the calendar.

In a strongly worded speech delivered in Parliament, Benedict XVI bluntly told politicians not to ‘silence’ religion and discourage public celebration of its most important festivals.

And in a thinly veiled attack on controversial equality legislation, he said laws which forced Christians to act against their consciences were wrong.

‘There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere,’ he told senior politicians and public figures.

‘There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.’

He spoke as security was tightened around the Papal visit after the arrest of six central London street sweepers over a suspected terror plot to attack him.

Scotland Yard said there would be no change to his public itinerary, which will see him lead prayers in Hyde Park this evening and travel to Birmingham tomorrow.

In Westminster Hall, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown sat side by side for what was their first meeting in months — and which was probably a tricky encounter in light of Mr Blair’s explosive memoirs.

The pair chatted civilly as they waited for the Pope, but their body language at times told a different story.

Former Tory PMs Baroness Thatcher and John Major were also in the audience, which applauded the Pope vigorously before and after he spoke.

Benedict, who is now half way through his UK trip, insisted Christianity should not be forced to the sidelines and festivals including Christmas and Easter altered to avoid offence.

In his speech, the Pope said he was voicing his concern at the growing marginalisation of religion — particularly of Christianity — even in nations which place a great emphasis on tolerance.

‘There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or least relegated to the purely private sphere,’ he said.

‘There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.

‘And there are those who argue — paradoxically, with the intention of eliminating discrimination — that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience.

‘These are worrying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square.’

The Pope said a moral failure was to blame for the global financial crisis.

He said: ‘There is widespread agreement that the lack of a solid ethical foundation for economic activity has contributed to the grave difficulties now being experienced by millions of people throughout the world.’

And he said that, just as governments had come to the rescue of the banks, judged ‘too big to fail’, they must now act to help the world’s poorest people.

He said: ‘Here is an enterprise, worthy of the world’s attention, that is truly “too big to fail”.’

He then urged those present to use their ‘respective sphere of influence’ to ensure religion was involved in discourse ‘in every sphere of national life’.

The Pontiff spoke close to the spot where Sir Thomas More was sentenced to death, as he addressed a huge audience of 1,800 dignitaries including four former prime ministers.

— Hat tip: Gaia

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Roma: EU Presidency Wants Union to Ensure France’s Respect

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 16 — The European Union must guarantee that France respect rights, said the EU presidency in reference to the issue of France’s deportation of Roma people. Reminding his partners of the EU Commission’s role as guardian of EU treaties, was outgoing premier Yves Leterme, whose country ensures the 6-monthly rotating presidency of the EU.

“All agree that it is the Commission which must keep watch over the correct application of the commitments made by France,” said Leterme on his arrival at the EU summit, where the issue of Roma communities and the clash between the French government and EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding are on the agenda.

“The Commission must take on its responsibilities,” said Leterme, also saying that European citizens who enjoy the right of circulation must in turn “show respect for property rights and for the rules which allow for free circulation.” Tension rose yesterday between France and EU Commissioner Viviane Reding after the latter’s statements on the controversial crackdown by President Nicholas Sarkozy on nomadic and Roma communities. Sarkozy reacted by suggesting that Reding take in the Roma into her country, Luxembourg. It was a statement meant to provoke and it served its purpose: in the evening the commissioner backed down a bit. In an official statement, the French government acknowledged Reding’s “apology”, especially as concerns “her outrageous statements against France” which compared the latter’s anti-nomad policy to that during WWII in a veiled manner.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sided with the French: Reding, who is also the vice president of the EU government, “would have been wiser to discuss the issue privately with French leaders, before expressing herself in public as she did,” the premier told French daily Le Figaro, expressing his hope that “Italian-French convergence will help to rouse Europe to deal with the issue of shared policies.” (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Roma: France: About 160 Deported to Romania

(ANSAmed) — BUCHAREST, SEPTEMBER 15 — About 160 people from France’s Roma community, including 12 children, landed in Bucharest yesterday evening on two flights from Marseilles and Paris. According to the Agerpres agency, French authorities have announced that the 160 Roma people had agreed to “voluntary deportation”, with the adults receiving 300 euros each and the children 100.

The deportations have come after the latest circular in which French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux requested that prefects dismantle illegal camps. The measure has led to harsh criticism from EU Commission vice president Viviane Reding as concerns France’s policies on the Roma community. The commissioner, head of Justice and Fundamental Rights, has announced that an infraction procedure will soon be opened against France.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Vasile Blaga has said that Romania’s entrance into the Schengen area, scheduled for 2011, cannot be conditioned by social inclusion of Roma people.

“Romania must comply with European directives even after its entrance into the Schengen zone: if an individual does not have the means with which to support himself after 90 days, any member state can send him home,” said Blaga, noting the government’s measures to speed up social integration of Roma.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Science Fraud in Swedish Transplantation Biology

A week ago, the Swedish Research Council’s expert panel for the investigation of suspected science fraud delivered its findings regarding Suchitra Holgersson, professor of transplantation biology in the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. The panel finds Holgersson, who joined the Academy two years ago, guilty of severe science fraud in several cases where she has fabricated data (published i.a. in the Blood journal) and distorted results, and also in that she has forged documents in attempts to mislead the expert panel itself during the investigation.

Professor Holgersson’s own PhD students blew the whistle on her. Being a woman and an immigrant isn’t any easier in science than anywhere else. But among Holgersson’s students, whose work has been compromised by her fabrications, are immigrant women too.

— Hat tip: mriggs

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Stakelbeck Interviews Former Spanish President Aznar About New Group

I was honored to sit down this week with the former President of Spain, Jose Maria Aznar, to discuss an important new group he recently founded called Friends of Israel.

It is an international initiative consisting of several global leaders who have come together to defend Israel’s right to exist.

You can watch part of my interview with President Aznar at the link above.

The entire interview will air on an upcoming episode of my new show, Stakelbeck on Terror.

— Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck

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Sweden Democrat Fears Islamic Revolution

An Islamic revolution akin to the one that swept through Iran in 1979 could easily take place in Sweden, claims the second highest ranking member of the far-right Sweden Democrats.

“It can happen really fast,” said Sweden Democrat party secretary Björn Söder to the TT news agency.

Söder is number two behind party leader Jimmie Åkesson on the Sweden Democrat party list. As party secretary, his role is to stake out the party’s line on key issues.

The Iranian revolution came up as Söder was explaining statements made by Sweden Democrat international secretary Kent Ekeroth, who could also find himself with a seat in the Riksdag following Sunday’s vote.

Ekeroth said previously that “Sweden and western countries are at risk of going out with a whimper” because of the influence of Islam, drawing a connection to 1400 years of Muslim aggression.

Nor did Ekeroth see any real distinction between ordinary Muslims and militant Islamists.

“I think that he brings up a very timely problem and as I see it, Islamification is a question of destiny for the entire western wold,” Söder told TT.

According to Söder, all Muslims are “bearers of an ideology”.

“It’s a political ideology disguised as religion. And I think that it’s a very appropriate subject to address, otherwise we’ll be facing the same problem that Iran did in 1979. It can happen really fast.”

Söder explained his argument by pointing out that the socialists made common cause with the Islamists to overthrow the shah in Iran.

“But when the Islamists came to power, they wiped out the socialists too. And I’m saying that if we don’t take the Islamification that’s taking place in western Europe right now seriously, maybe history will repeat itself,” he said.

When asked to clarify whether he thought an Islamic revolution was possible in Sweden and other western countries, Söder answered in the affirmative.

“Yes, Sweden is being Islamified right now. We’ve taken up countless examples of how Sweden is adapting to Muslim demands and we’re seeing how mosques are popping up like mushrooms from the ground in Sweden and all over Europe. It’s not necessarily the case that we’ll all become Muslims, but that we will have to obey Sharia,” Söder said.

“Through Muslim immigration and rapid propagation, as well as through Turkey’s membership in the EU, Europe can become dominated by Muslims.”

The theory of a so-called “Eurabia” has been roundly rejected by scholars of Islam, who compare it to anti-Semitic views of an international Jewish conspiracy.

But Söder claims his view isn’t simply a conspiracy theory, and goes on to lament what he sees as Swedish culture’s weakened ability to keep Muslim influences out.

“Unfortunately, it’s been weakened through several decades of ridicule and belittling, which means that its very marginalized and threatened,” he said.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Sweden: Man Comes Clean Over Elevator Urine Puddles

A man has expressed remorse to his neighbours over his habit of peeing in the lift in a block of rental flats in Borås in western Sweden over a period of several years in 2000s, reported the local Borås Tidning daily.

“I have a very bad conscience for the elderly man on one of the bottom floors who has had to take the blame,” the man wrote in a note posted in the block of flats, exposing his lewd practice.

The man continued his unneighbourly habit over a period two years. Despite having found alternative arrangements for the past four, he felt the time was right to come clean and posted the note in stairwell for all to see.

“Hi. It was me who urinated in the lift between 2004 and 2006. I know that there were a few grumpy faces and angry notes and I have a very bad conscience for the elderly man on one of the bottom floors who had to take the blame,” the man wrote.

The newspaper reported that the note has been verified as genuine by an acquaintance of the man, confirming that he is plagued with remorse and has promised to work to become a better person.

The man signed the note and also left his telephone number in case any of his neighbours felt the need to get in touch.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: 6 Arrested in Suspected Pope Terror Plot

Street cleaners detained ‘on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism’

LONDON — British police staged a pre-dawn raid at a London garbage depot Friday, arresting five street cleaners in a suspected terrorist plot against Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of his state visit to Britain. A sixth person was arrested later in the day.

The Vatican said the pope was calm despite the arrests and planned no changes to his schedule. But the arrests overshadowed a major address by Benedict to British politicians, businessmen and cultural leaders about the need to restore faith and ethics to public policymaking.

The sixth man, aged 29, was arrested Friday afternoon at a home in north London, police said.

[…]

Police declined to say whether the men were British or give details of their ethnicity. However, the BBC reported the men were not British nationals. Sources told Sky News that the suspects were Algerian.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Exiled Pakistani Politician Fatally Stabbed in London

London and Karachi, 17 Sept. (AKI) — Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi was on Friday in mourning after an exiled leader of the MQM party was assassinated in London. Imran Farooq was stabbed and beaten to death outside his home in north London late on Thursday, according to police

Most shops and schools were closed and no public transport was available in Karachi, guns were fired across the city and some vehicles were torched after the MQM announced 10 days of mourning.

Farooq was a founding member of the MQM (Muttahida Quami Movement), a former opposition party which is now part of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party led alliance.

He not been active in politics for the past two years, but the MQM party is the most influential in the southern port city of Karachi, which is also Pakistan’s commercial capital.

An unidentified source cited by Pakistan’s Dawn News said a lone assailant had been lying in wait inside the apartment block where Farooq lived on the first floor. He was attacked with a knife as he climbed the stairs to his flat and beaten around the head.

Police said 50-year-old Farooq was treated by paramedics but was declared dead at the scene of the attack about an hour later. Police have opened an investigation into his murder.

Raza Haroon, a member of the MQM central coordination committee, said: “He was a gentleman, a very, very soft spoken person with a lot of knowledge, and who was very outspoken as well.

“It’s a very huge loss to the party to have lost a senior leader, in such a manner.

“This is an irreparable loss and a great tragedy for the MQM.”

Farooq had not been active in politics for about two years. He claimed asylum in Britain 11 years ago after more than seven years on the run from Pakistani police who accused him of involvement in murder and other serious crimes. He denied the charges.

There are fears his killing could spark fresh ethnic and political violence in Karachi, which has seen hundreds of targeted killings this year.

Up to 100 people were killed and hundreds wounded in several days of clashes in Karachi in August after MQM member Raza Haider, a Shia Muslim, was shot dead with his bodyguard while attending a funeral.

The MQM represents the descendants of Urdu-speaking migrants from India who settled in Pakistan after the partition of the Indian subcontinent at the end of British rule in 1947.

The MQM’s main rivals for power in Karachi are ethnic Pashtun politicians. The MQM leadership is based in the north London suburb of Barnet

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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UK: Leaders of 14 Unions Back November Demo Against Racism and Islamophobia

The general secretaries of the GMB general union and the UCU lecturers’ union have both signed up to support the national demo against racism, fascism and Islamophobia on Saturday 6 November.

Backing from Paul Kenny and Sally Hunt means that the leaders of 14 trade unions, representing millions of workers, have now signed up to support the demo called by UAF and backed by the TUC, the Muslim Council of Britain and Love Music Hate Racism.

Labour leadership rivals Ed Balls and Diane Abbott are also among those who have signed the statement backing the march and carnival, which will take place in central London.

Statement supporting the 6 November demo

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the rise in fascism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and racism. The English Defence League has organised events across the country, stirring up hatred, Islamophobia and racism — running riot in some cases and provoking violent attacks on Muslim, black and Asian communities and on Mosques and Mandirs (Hindu temples).

Alongside this the British National Party has received unprecedented electoral support for a fascist organisation in Britain.

Despite losing many council seats in the elections this year, the BNP’s share of the vote overall continued to rise and it has two elected members of the European Parliament. This is in the context of a wave of Islamaphobia and racism in Europe and the USA, including threats to burn copies of the Qur’an, attacks on Mosques and Islamic cultural centres, bans on Muslim women’s full-face veils and the construction of minarets. In France, the Roma people have been singled out and subjected to mass expulsions. Now, more than ever, we must unite to turn back this tide of hatred.

We stand against the rise of racism, fascism, Islamophobia and antisemitism and support the demonstration on Saturday 6 November.

Signed:

Derek Simpson joint general secretary, Unite the union, Tony Woodley joint general secretary, Unite the union, Keith Sonnet deputy general secretary Unison, Paul Kenny general secretary GMB Ed Balls MP, Diane Abbott MP, Billy Hayes general secretary, CWU, Tony Kearns deputy general secretary, CWU, Chris Keates general secretary, NASUWT, Christine Blower general secretary NUT, Kevin Courtney deputy general secretary, NUT, Sally Hunt general secretary UCU, Mark Serwotka general secretary PCS, Hugh Lanning deputy general secretary PCS, Matt Wrack general secretary FBU, Bob Crow general secretary, RMT, Jeremy Dear general secretary NUJ, Pete Murray president NUJ, Gerry Conlon Guildford Four, Paddy Hill Birmingham Six, Runnymede Trust, Napo, POA, Musicians Union

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Was the Taliban Behind Attack on Pakistani Politician Stabbed to Death Outside His London Home?

The Taliban may have ordered the brutal murder of an exiled Pakistani politician on the streets of London, it was feared last night.

The theory emerged as Scotland Yard’ s Counter Terrorism Command took charge of the investigation into the murder of Dr Imran Farooq.

Dr Farooq, a founding member of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), was stabbed and beaten to death outside his north-west London home late on Thursday afternoon.

It is understood detectives are hunting a lone Asian man in connection with the attack, which was witnessed by several people.

Initially, the murder — in broad daylight — appeared to be a clumsy attack carried out by someone with a personal grudge.

But the possibility that Dr Farooq, 50, was the victim of a political assassination appeared to gather credence after MQM members in London claimed the Taliban had issued a fatwa against party officials for their staunch opposition to Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan.

— Hat tip: JD

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Bosnia: Kosovo Example Strengthens RS Separation, Serbs

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 15 — The example of Kosovo, which has seen its independence legitimised by the International Court of Justice and by the resolution adopted by the UN, has strengthened the separatist drive of the Republika Srpska (RS) in Bosnia Herzegovina. This is according to Nebojsa Radmanovic, a Serbian member of the tripartite Bosnian Presidency.

“Following the verdict of the International Court of Justice and the positions taken up towards Kosovo by the major powers, nobody can cast doubt over the right of the Republika Srpska to separate from Bosnia Herzegovina,” said Radmanovic in an interview today with the Belgrade newspaper, Vecernje Novosti. In his opinion, “90% of Serbians and Croatians do not want to live in Bosnia Herzegovina as it is today. The reason for this is the desire of Bosnian Muslims to create a centralised state”.

“Attacks on the Republika Srpska strengthen its desire for independence,” added Radmanovic, who believes that the support of major powers for Kosovo’s independence has created numerous problems in Bosnia, in the Balkans as a whole, and in the rest of the world.

On the basis of the Dayton peace agreement that put an end to the war in 1995, Bosnia Herzegovina, where political elections are scheduled for October 3, is made up of two entities, the Republika Srpska, which has a mainly Serbian population, and the Croatian-Muslim Federation, with the two linked by weak central institutions.

The Serbian component of the RS in particular, concerned at losing its autonomy, is opposed to all efforts to strengthen the structure of the central state in Sarajevo, one of the conditions for the country to join the EU and NATO. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy-Croatia: Zagreb Soon in EU With Rome’s Support

(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, SEPTEMBER 15 — The stabilisation of the western Balkans, strongly urged by Italy in a European perspective, is making another step forward with the upcoming membership of Croatia in the European Union, proposed by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini for the first six months of 2011. And even though negotiations with Brussels are still open on “sensitive chapters” such as justice and competitiveness, from Zagreb — where he was taking part in the second mixed commission — Frattini launched a message of optimism. Italy, said Frattini, “believes that Croatia can successfully sign the EU membership treaty by the end of the first half of 2011, so that 2012 will be the year of Croatia’s entry into the EU family” and he asked them to “actively deal with the final, most sensitive chapters relating to justice and competitiveness.” The European prospect remains “essential” for the “stability and prosperity” of the western Balkans, reads the joint statement signed by Frattini and his Croatian colleague Gordan Jandrokovic.

It is equally crucial to have “common willingness” to “strengthen regional cooperation” such as the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative and the Central European Initiative (CEI) also in view of a European Adriatic-Ionian macro-region. In this field, “we are committed,” explained Frattini, “to presenting joint projects to be financed with European funds”.

An European and a regional dimension, thus, but also bilateral, given the fact that economic relations between Rome and Zagreb are “excellent” and Italy is the primary partner of the Balkan country. From infrastructure to transport, from agriculture to the environment and energy: the sectors in which bilateral cooperation will be strengthened are extensive, reads the final statement from the mixed commission, which saw the participation of the Agriculture Minister Giancarlo Galan, and the Deputy Minister for Infrastructure, Roberto Castelli. Croatia, on the other hand, despite having some domestic difficulty in the fight against corruption and in economic recovery, is creating a regional role along the lines of “moderation” which appeals to Italy. As a supporter of the territorial integrity of Bosnia, Zagreb has intensified dialogue with Belgrade despite having immediately recognised the independence of Kosovo. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Libya: Al Jazeera, Revolutionary Committees Challenged

(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 16 — Abolish the Libyan revolutionary committees because they are illegitimate, was the request that surfaced at a forum organised in Tripoli by the lawyers’ union and sponsored, according to Al Jazeera, by Saif Al Islam, one of the sons of Colonel Gaddafi. The request came from representatives and activists from Libyan society, according to whom, the committees are in conflict with the laws of the state.

“The revolutionary committees are illegitimate,” commented legal expert Omar Alhabbasi, who added that they are not based on the law. “I am not saying this against someone in particular,” said Alhabbasi, who added that his ideas are in agreement with the project of Saif Al Islam Gaddafi. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Sahel Military Leaders in Algiers

(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, SEPTEMBER 15 — Security chiefs of Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger are meeting in Algiers today in a bid to strengthen cooperation in the struggle against Al Qaeda for the Islamic Maghreb. Few little information has leaked out on the meeting, which will be a closed-door affair.

The Algerian press reports that the meeting will focus on the search for the huge sums of money that the North African branch of Al Qaeda has in its possession, as well as the creation of a joint security cell specialised in monitoring armed groups’ activities from all the countries involved. It is a cell which will plan special operations and widen the prerogatives of the Sahel Chiefs of Staff Committee, which was formed in April and is based in Tamanrasset in the Algerian Sahara.

“Al Qaeda has millions of euros at its disposal”, obtained though kidnapping Western nationals and an ever-growing smuggling trade in the Sahel, said a source close to Niger security services quoted by the press: “it is necessary to halt the money laundering of this money which Al Qaeda is attempting to invest in the region.” Over the past few years the terrorist organisation has built up a treasury of at least 50 million euros paid by Western countries for the release of their nationals taken hostage in the Saharan Sahel. According to Kamel Rezag Bara, advisor to the Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Spain is the country which has paid the most, about 8 million euros, followed by Italy, which for the release of the Cicala couple reportedly paid 3.6 million euros, and Austria, with 2.5 million euros.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Spain: Rajoy Visit to Melilla is a ‘Provocation’ For Morocco

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 15 — The Moroccan Prime Minister, Abas El Fasi, in his role as Secretary General of the nationalist Istiqlal party, has today described the visit to Melilla by the leader of the Spanish People’s Party, Mariano Rjoy, scheduled for tomorrow as a “provocation”. In a letter to Rajoy, published by MAP news agency and quoted on the online edition of El Mundo, El Fasi says that the trip represents “an open attack on the dignity and the national sentiment” of Moroccans. Rajoy’s visit to the Spanish enclave in Morocco risks opening a new chapter of tensions between the two countries after the conflict of recent weeks between Madrid and Rabat regarding border control between the two autonomous cities. A crisis which had been resolved with a joint cooperation development agreement following a meeting between King Mohamed VI and King Juan Carlos in the Moroccan capital. After the deal, the former PP Premier, Jose’ Maria Aznar, made a surprise visit to Melilla, triggering criticism and accusations of disloyalty and irresponsibility within the socialist ranks. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Caroline Glick: the Perils of Diplomatic Theater

The current flurry of diplomatic activity is deeply disturbing. It isn’t simply that the Obama administration has strong-armed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into participating in diplomatic theater with the PLO whose successful completion will leave Israel weaker and less defensible. It isn’t merely that the newest “peace process” diverts our leadership’s attention away from Iran and its nuclear weapons program.

The most disturbing aspect of the latest round of the diplomatic kabuki is that Israel’s leaders and Israel’s staunch friends in the US are enthusiastically participating in this dangerous project.

True, Netanyahu is in an unenviable position, situated as he is between US President Barack Obama’s rock and hard place. Instead of standing up to this hostile American leader, Netanyahu is desperately seeking a magical concession to get Obama off his back…

— Hat tip: Caroline Glick

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‘Hamas Commander’ Killed

Ramallah, 17 Sept. (AKI) — A Hamas commander in the West Bank was shot dead Friday by Israeli soldiers.

Iyad Shilbaya, a commander of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was killed during a raid to arrest him in the northern part of the occupied West Bank , according to an Israeli military official.

Hamas at the end of August claimed responsibility for the killing of four West Bank settlers but it isn’t clear if Shilbaya was involved.

Palestinian and Israeli forces have arrested dozens of suspects following the killing including 12 people arrested late Thursday night.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Pentagon to Funnel US Arms to Yemen to Fight Al-Qaeda

The US State Department has reportedly raised concerns that with President Ali Abdullah Saleh facing rebellions in the north and south of the country he could divert the additional weaponry, coast patrol boats and aircraft from its intended purpose.

The terror threat from Yemen has escalated in the past 18 months, with estimates that about 300 al-Qaeda members or cells are operating there.

The gravity of the situation deepened after the failed Christmas Day attack on a flight heading for Detroit.

— Hat tip: JD

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Saudi Arabia: Activist Calls for End of Male Control of Women

(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 15 — Saudi Arabian women’s rights activist Wajeeha Alhuwaider has called for the political leadership in the country to abolish rules granting male authority over women, said Al Jazeera’s website, which stressed the controversy that the request has created. Alhuwaider’s requests were directed to the Saudi leaders, with a comments made in an American newspaper. Another request by the same activist, directed at American President Barak Obama, before meeting with the Saudi monarch in June, contributed to firing up the debate. In the most recent request, the Saudi activist described women in her country who are forced to cover their body as birds covered by the oil in the Gulf of Mexico. These birds can barely walk and consequently, continued Alhuwaider, they do not have control over their lives. A different stance was taken by Islamic activist and journalist Amira Salem, who believes that Alhuwaider’s and America’s requests are two sides of the same coin. Speaking with Al Jazeera, Amira Salem said that “the requests are an extension of the American strategy that is focussed on the rights of Saudi women. Riyadh is under constant pressure from the Americans,” continued Salem, “to implement reforms starting with women”. “There is an enormous project of Westernisation, based on the issue of Saudi women,” commented Islamic writer Ibraheem Assakran, who added that they are strongly insisting to put an end to Sharia law regarding women, which are in conflict with the West. “They want,” added Assakran, “women and men to see each other and become friends like in the West.” (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Turkey: Strasbourg Court, Ankara Guilty of Dink’s Death

(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, SEPTEMBER 14 — The European Court of human right today ruled against Turkey because it failed to protect the life of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist killed by nationalists on January 19, 2007. Turkey was also ruled against for having violated Dink’s freedom of speech, sentencing him for insulting Turkey’s identity. The Court then ruled that Ankara will have to pay 100,000 euros to Dink’s family for moral damages.

In their ruling, the Strasbourg judges emphasised how the facts not only prove that Turkey’s law enforcement authorities, which were informed about the imminent murder, did nothing to protect the journalist, and that, despite evidence against them collected by justice and investigation authorities, there was no trial. The Court then claimed that Ankara violated article 2 of the European Convention on human rights which sanctions the right of life, both in substantial and in procedural terms. The judges also ruled against Turkey for having violated Hrant Dink’s freedom of speech.

The Court stated that not only Ankara would have trouble proving that its ruling was provided by the law or that it pursued a legitimate purpose, but above all that it was needed in a democratic society. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Yemen: Motorcycles Banned in Southern Province

(ANSAmed) — ROME, SEPTEMBER 16 — In Yemen, authorities recently imposed a ban in several cities in the south of the country on motorcycles for security reasons, reports Al Sharq Al Awsat. The daily underlined that the decision coincides with the start of the trial against several suspected Al Qaeda members.

Citing local sources, the daily said that motorcycles cannot be used in the city of Zangibar, the capital of the province of Abin, and in Jiar, as well as other minor towns. The ban will remain in effect until a new order is issued. The use of motorcycles has increased significantly, according to the daily, in attacks on intelligence officials and security officers, during the last three months in the province of Abin. These terrorist acts have killed or injured a dozen people.

Authorities in Yemen began to register all motorcycles in the province of Abin in August. The total number of these vehicles is over 5,000. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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All the Time Necessary in Afghanistan, Zapatero

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 15 — “We are in Afghanistan for the international security of our country and we will remain there for all of the time that is needed,” reiterated Spanish Premier Jose’ Luis Rodriguez Zapatero today, while speaking to Congress. The premier announced the arrest of four people linked to the murder of two Guardia Civil members and their interpreter on August 25 at the Spanish base of Qala i Naw in Afghanistan.

In today’s session on the participation of Spanish troops in the NATO mission in Afghanistan, Zapatero paid tribute to the 93 civilians and soldiers who have died in the country since 2002. He reiterated Spain’s commitment to the multilateral mission, which “has the political support of the EU” and is based on “broad international consensus”. “The objective of the instilling peace makes sense when peace does not exist,” he observed. The socialist leader did not mention any withdrawal date for Spanish troops: “We have to remain there, assuming responsibility as long as necessary, while the security of the country, global security and Spanish security are at risk.” Spain has deployed 1,500 military servicemen in Afghanistan and 40 Guardia Civil officers, who have the responsibility of training Afghan police. Zapatero said that military participation in NATO’s ISAF mission, which began in 2002, has cost over 1.9 billion euros, which add on to the 220 million euros allocated for civilian cooperation from 2006-2012. A decision will be made at the NATO summit in November in Lisbon on how and when the transition of the security of the country will be made to the Afghan armed forces, indicated by President Hamid Karzai as 2014. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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India: Kashmir: Muslims Try to Burn a Christian School (Only in Name)

It is the St Francis School, owned by Muslims, who use the Christian name to attract more students. Four dead and 19 injured in Mendhar, while protests spread in Kashmir. The influence of fundamentalist groups on the masses, dragged from their villages to demonstrate. Missionary priest Jim Borst under police protection.

Mendhar (AsiaNews) — A mob of Muslim radicals have tried to burn a school with a Christian name (St. Francis School), unaware that it is governed by Muslims and Christian in name only. The police managed to stop the arsonists, but fired into the crowd, killing four people and wounding 19. Christian leaders say “these people are being manipulated.

The protest against the “Burn the Koran” campaign is spreading in several areas of Kashmir and has already left 22 dead and hundreds injured. The events used the announced (but subsequently cancelled) desecration of the Koran in the United States, to increase the tension against the Indian government, which refuses to grant autonomy to the region, also disputed by Pakistan.

After three days of demonstrations and violence, protests erupted yesterday in Mendhar, about 60 km from Poonch near the border with Pakistan. From 10 am at least 3,000 people gathered also from nearby villages, marching towards the school of St Francis and the residences of teachers.

The crowd were stopped by the police who used firearms, batons and tear gas grenades. In the clashes four demonstrators were killed and 19 wounded. The mob destroyed dozens of government offices, the police station and burned at least eight cars.

The irony is that the school targeted is Christian in name only and is owned by local Muslims, even if the teaching staff is made up of Christians from Kerala.

Mgr. Peter Celestine, bishop of Srinagar tells AsiaNews: “The so-called St Francis School has nothing to do with Catholic Protestant or evangelical institutions. They only use the Christian name to attract students. This shows that even for the local Muslims, Christian educational institutions have a very high standard”.

“These people — he added —are rounded up from nearby villages and incited to attack, inflamed by religious zeal.”

In recent days, however, some Catholic schools were affected. Among them the Good Shepherd’s School of missionary Jim Borst, in Pulwama. The mob burned the main building and two other buildings were looted. Witnesses said the protesters were from villages under the influence of “Allahwales” and Devbandis “fundamentalist groups close to the Wahhabis.

Local people, Muslim, expressed solidarity with the missionary and say they are ready to help re-start the school. Fr. Jim, for his part, sent a letter to the families linked to the school, promising to reopen immediately as soon as the curfew ends. Meanwhile the priest is under police protection to prevent attacks against him.

On 14 September another school risked being burnt: it is the Christ School in Poonch. Only police intervention stopped the mob just 500 meters from the building.

Fr. Matthew, the principal told AsiaNews: “We have 1522 students and only 40 are Christians, 40% of the students are Muslims, then there are Hindus and Sikhs. We have always enjoyed a deep respect from the locals. Many Islamic authorities have expressed their displeasure at the attempt to burn the school and condemned the attack. But people are manipulated and have been driven to a frenzy by false news reports”.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Indonesia: Muslim Hardliner Suspended Over Attack on Church Leaders

Jakarta, 17 Sept. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — The hardline Islam Defenders Front (FPI) group has indefinitely suspended its chairman in Bekasi near Jakarta. The move came after police declared him a suspect for his alleged role in an attack on two local protestant church leaders last Sunday.

FPI leader Munarman said Muharli Barda’s suspension would enable the Bekasi chapter of the organisation to run unhindered.

“Muharli has become non-active since Wednesday. He has been replaced by Ustaz Abdul Qodir,” said Munarman, a former human rights activist.

Munarman said Muharli was in a mosque two kilometres away from the place where eight people attacked Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) pastors Asian Lumbuan Sihombing and Luspida Simanjuntak. Sihombing was stabbed in the abdomen, while Simanjuntak was beaten around the head.

The pastors required hospital treatment after the attack.

Munarman also demanded proof local people approved of a plan to build a HKBP church in Pondok Timur, Bekasi, which Munarman said was the root of the problem before the incident took place.

He said 60 local residents had signed their consent as required by the 2006 joint ministerial decree places of worship, but one of them claimed his signature had been falsified.

“This is a matter of law, not hatred against the HKBP,” Munarman said.

The hardline FPI group is known for raiding bars, attacking transvestites and going after those considered blasphemous. In Bekasi the group has been opposing establishment of churches, citing lack of locals’ consent.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Niger: French Nationals Abducted in North

Niamey, 16 Sept. (AKI) — Six people including five French nationals working for construction company, Vinci, and the nuclear energy firm, Areva, were kidnapped in northern Niger.

Five of the people abducted late Wednesday are French nationals, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters.

A Vinci spokeswoman said its employees had been working on an earth-moving project under Areva’s supervision.

The companies have bolstered security in the region of the West African country and say they are working with French and Niger authorities to secure the release of the hostages.

A local branch of Al-Qaeda is known to operate in northern Niger and neighbouring Mali.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is believed to earn money from ransom payments for the return of hostages.

French director Michel Germaneau was abducted in Niger and executed in July in nearby Mauritania.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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The Streets of Neukölln: Has Integration Failed?

Thilo Sarrazin’s controversial book has sparked a heated debate about immigration. But what’s it really like on the streets of Germany’s integration flash points? David Wroe and Ruth Michaelson report from Berlin’s Neukölln district.

Ersun Karaduman’s life just doesn’t jibe with the statistics so often cited by Thilo Sarrazin.

The outgoing Bundesbank board member Sarrazin claims in his inflammatory new book that unintelligent Muslim immigrants are largely incompatible with German society, but Karaduman says with some pride that his German is better than his Turkish.

Born in Berlin, the 20-year-old still helps out at his father’s store on Neukölln’s Donaustrasse while finishing his degree in international marketing. And though he does not yet have German citizenship, he plans to apply for it soon.

His father may fit the stereotype of the small retailer which the now disgraced Sarrazin used to dismiss many Arabs and Turks as being good only for selling fruit and vegetables, but Karaduman is happy to have inherited his father’s aspirational drive.

“My father is my hero … He had nothing when he came from Turkey. Eight years later he was married to my mother, he worked every day, we had food and clothing and a home,” he says. “He’s shown my brothers and me what is possible, and my mother reminds us all the time that we can’t risk everything he’s done for us.”

Of Sarrazin, Karaduman says: “He doesn’t know Neukölln; he doesn’t know us.”

Neukölln, the heavily Turkish and Arabic district in southern Berlin, is the area that Sarrazin and other integration critics most often point to when the subject of Germany’s immigration problems arise. Roughly one in five Neukölln residents is unemployed and that figure rises to 30 percent when restricted to the immigrant population.

Social problems are reportedly twice as high as in Berlin on whole, and some 40 percent of youths there have no post-high school education, even vocational training.

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF BERLIN’S NEUKÖLLN DISTRICT

The district’s mayor, Heinz Buschkowsky, is blunt in admitting the challenges he faces.

“Our society is hurtling towards a massive problem and we can no longer afford to rely on powers of persuasion,” he told Berlin daily Tagesspiegel recently. “We are sleepwalking into a crisis.”

Nobody denies there are problems in Neukölln, but people who spoke to The Local on the streets, in the shops and on the housing estates of the district this week were adamant that there is as much cause for optimism as despair. Sarrazin and his numerous supporters among ordinary Germans are wrong to claim that immigrant communities are not interested in integrating with mainstream society, these people say.

This view was poignantly illustrated in June by the harassment of Ibrahim Bassal, an immigrant Neukölln shopkeeper who proudly hung up a 20 metre-long German flag during the football World Cup to support the country’s national team only to have it torn down by leftist extremists.

Indeed, there are many people working and striving to lift these communities out of the welfare traps, the education failures, high crime rates and cultural gulfs that now beset them.

A new role model

Eighteen-year-old Merve, a tall woman of Turkish descent, and remarkable maturity and poise, has a hard-headed and unvarnished view of the problems facing her district. There is too much dependency on Hartz IV welfare benefits, she says. Parents are failing as role models and children are growing up with no expectations.

“Hartz IV is very comfortable for their parents,” she says. “The children see their parents unemployed and they think that is life — ‘I’ll be unemployed too.’ They turn to stealing, to graffiti, to making weapons. Even I get offered drugs … and I wear a headscarf.”

But Merve herself is an example of her young generation’s potential. Despite not having the crucial Abitur school qualification that allows entry to university, she is doing a special two-year early childhood development course to become a kindergarten teacher.

“Things have to change and that’s why I want to become a kindergarten teacher,” she says. “Parents need to motivate their children and push them more. But also politicians and businesses need to help — they need to focus on getting the youth into jobs and make sure there are enough apprenticeships.”

Sezen Tatlici is a member of Deukische Generation, a young German-Turkish group that advocates integration. She agrees that having better role models is vital for immigrant youths in Neukölln, because many are growing up without any pressure to succeed.

“When you have low expectations of people, those people will live down to those expectations,” the 27-year-old says, explaining how she was told by a teacher she wouldn’t achieve Abitur or make it to a university-track high school. “Some teachers think the Turkish and Arabic kids are not as intelligent as the other kids. A lot of kids don’t have the self-confidence to get over that.”

Hopes dashed

Moussa El-Ghazi, a 20-year-old of Palestinian background who works at a fast-food chicken restaurant on Neukölln’s Sonnenallee, is one of those who feels rejected and disenfranchised. El-Ghazi says he sent out 80 applications to get a vocational training place after he finished school and was either turned down or heard no answer at all.

“I feel like shit about it,” he says. “You don’t want to write any more (applications) after that. You don’t have any confidence and motivation after 80 people turn you down. I had the qualifications, so I have to think it was prejudice.”

There are figures to back up his suspicions. In February, researchers at the Bonn-based Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) found that Turkish job applicants were clearly discriminated against. Job applications bearing German-sounding names were 14 percent more likely to receive a phone call response from an employer, and 24 percent more likely in the case of smaller firms — evidence of “statistical discrimination,” the researchers said.

A fearsome reputation

El-Ghazi went to Neukölln’s infamous Rütli School, which made headlines in 2006 when teachers wrote a letter to the city government saying the school should be closed because they could no longer control the violent students.

There was, no doubt, a serious problem. But a security guard — a native German — outside the school this week said he talks to the students every day and they are, for most part, good kids. He subscribes to the widely-held view that some tabloid newspaper reporters paid students to behave violently during the media frenzy over conditions at the school.

Indeed, the question arises as to what extent Neukölln deserves its reputation. Many people in the area say the area has been unfairly written off and that politicians like Sarrazin, along with sensation-seeking journalists, come down hard the moment something goes wrong, when in fact there are problems all over Berlin as with any big city.

Certainly, Neukölln’s problems, particularly when it comes to crime and public safety, are modest compared parts of London or Paris.

British librarian Mark Ellis, 46, who moved to Neukölln from the notoriously tough east London suburb of Stepney nine months ago, says he’s aware of the reputation of the area, but thinks it is overblown.

“I do understand there are problems here,” said Ellis, who was drinking in a pub near the Neukölln town hall. “I had my lunch in the park the other day and there was this guy circling in front of me, just going back and forth until he finally came over and said, ‘Are you the police?’ And I said, ‘What are you talking about? I’m a librarian eating my sandwiches.’

“But after five years of living in Stepney, I don’t feel in the least bit scared or intimidated in Neukölln.”

Integration from the grass roots up

Tatlici from Deukische Generation says the single most important thing that can be done to overcome the problems in Neukölln is German language education from a young age. She also shares the view of Mayor Buschkowsky that day care should be firmly enforced from a young age.

That way, immigrant children are speaking German and mixing with German children even as toddlers — a crucial step to improving their language skills and thereby their education prospects. It’s a view shared by a majority of education experts.

“People say (the youths) speak Turkish instead of German,” she says. “But you should hear their Turkish — it’s not good either. They’re between two identities.”

Until such a policy is put in place, Neukölln residents are doing some of the work themselves. On the ground floor of a building on a rather grim housing estate building on Morusstrasse, a group called Kinderclub Rollberg, part of the Arabic Culture Institute, runs integration programs for children and families.

“We speak German here … language is the important first step,” explains Mohammad Jamil, a Palestinian who helps run the project. “The kids speak German to each other. We don’t talk about religion and politics — those are fine, but we leave them at home. We don’t want the kids to feel like outsiders.”

Instead, the project encourages children from all backgrounds to join in sports, art, music and recreation activities. It offers language and integration courses — some for women only — and holds events where officials from the police or the city’s youth services officials come to explain how these institutions work.

It’s hard for the likes of Jamil and co-worker T.N. Gunaratnam, a Tamil from Sri Lanka, to stomach the sweeping statements by commentators like Sarrazin that immigrants in Neukölln don’t want to integrate.

“We want to integrate with the German people,” he said. “Not for Sarrazin or Angela Merkel, but for ourselves.”

David Wroe/Ruth Michaelson (david.wroe@thelocal.de)

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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UK: Foreigners to Have a Say on Voting Reform: Commonwealth Citizens to Take Part in Referendum

Hundreds of thousands of foreigners could help decide the future of Britain’s electoral system in next year’s referendum on voting reform.

More than half a million Commonwealth citizens in the UK will have a right to vote on whether Britain swaps first-past-the-post elections for an alternate-vote system, data released under freedom of information laws reveals.

Ministers have confirmed that anyone eligible to vote in Westminster elections can also have their say in next May’s vote.

That includes citizens from 53 Commonwealth countries, just 14 of which give Britons any say in their elections.

Voting rights for Commonwealth citizens stem from the days of colonial rule.

— Hat tip: JD

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8-Year-Old Expelled From Two Years of School for Bringing Toy Gun in Backpack

Samuel Burgos has fond memories of his friends at school, but he only gets to see them in pictures now.

The 8-year-old boy hasn’t been in school for a year and will likely miss another year if the Broward County School Board has its way.

Burgos was suspended from school in November after a teacher found a toy gun in his backpack. But when the boy went to register to go back to Pembroke Pines Charter School, he was told he will be expelled for this school year, too, as part of the county’s zero tolerance weapons policy.

— Hat tip: JD

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Is Your Child a “Prehomosexual”? Forecasting Adult Sexual Orientation

There are signs, some would say omens, glimmering in certain children’s demeanors that, probably ever since there were children, have caused parents’ brows to crinkle with worry, precipitated forced conversations with nosy mothers-in-law, strained marriages and ushered untold numbers into the deep covenant of sexual denial. We all know the stereotypes: an unusually light, delicate, effeminate air in a little boy’s step, often coupled with solitary bookishness, or a limp wrist, an interest in dolls, makeup, princesses, dresses and a staunch distaste for rough play with other boys; in little girls, there is the outwardly boyish stance, perhaps a penchant for tools, a lumbering gait, a square-jawed readiness for physical tussles with boys, an aversion to all the perfumed, delicate, laced trappings of femininity.

So let’s get down to brass tacks. It’s what these behaviors signal to parents about their child’s incipient sexuality that makes them so undesirable—these behavioral patterns are feared, loathed and often spoken of directly as harbingers of adult homosexuality.

However, it is only relatively recently that developmental scientists have conducted controlled studies with one clear aim in mind, which is to go beyond mere stereotypes and accurately identity the most reliable signs of later homosexuality. In looking carefully at the childhoods of now-gay adults, researchers are finding an intriguing set of early behavioral indicators that homosexuals seem to have in common. And, curiously enough, the age-old homophobic fears of parents seem to have some genuine predictive currency.

In their technical writings, researchers in this area simply refer to pint-sized prospective gays and lesbians as “prehomosexual.” This term isn’t perfect—it manages to achieve both an uncomfortable air of biological determinism and clinical interventionism simultaneously. But it is, at least, probably fairly accurate.

Although not the first scientists to investigate the earliest antecedents of same-sex attraction, J. Michael Bailey, a psychologist from Northwestern University, and Canadian psychiatrist Kenneth Zucker published the seminal paper on childhood markers of homosexuality with their controversial 1995 review article in Developmental Psychology . The explicit aim of this paper, according to the authors, “was to review the evidence concerning the possible association between childhood sex-typed behavior and adult sexual orientation.” So one thing to keep in mind is that this particular work isn’t about identifying the causes of homosexuality, per se, but instead it’s about indexing the childhood correlates of same-sex attraction. In other words, nobody is disputing the genetic factors underlying adult homosexuality or the well-established prenatal influences; but the present work is orthogonal to those causal models. Instead, it is simply meant to index the nonerotic behavioral clues that best predict which children are most likely to be attracted, as adults, to those of the same sex, and which are not.

By “sex-typed behaviors,” Bailey and Zucker are referring to that long, now scientifically canonical, list of innate sex differences in the behaviors of young males versus young females. In innumerable studies, scientists have documented that these sex differences are largely impervious to learning and found in every culture examined (even, some researchers believe, in youngsters of other primate species). Now before that argumentative streak in you starts whipping up exceptions to the rule—obviously there is variance both between and within individual children—I hasten to add that it’s only when comparing the aggregate data that sex differences leap into the stratosphere of statistical significance. The most salient among these differences are observed in the domain of play. Boys engage in what developmental psychologists refer to as “rough-and-tumble play,” which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, whereas girls shy away from wrestling and play-fighting, instead preferring the company of dolls to a knee in the ribs.

In fact, toy interests are another key sex difference, with boys gravitating towards things like toy machine guns and monster trucks and girls orienting towards neotenous dolls and hyperfeminized figurines. Young children of both sexes enjoy fantasy—or pretend—play, but the roles that the two sexes take on within the fantasy context are already clearly gender-segregated by as early as two years of age, with girls enacting the role of, say, cooing mothers, ballerinas or fairy princesses and boys strongly preferring more masculine characters, such as soldiers and superheroes. Not surprisingly, therefore, boys naturally select other boys for playmates, and girls would much rather play with other girls than with boys.

So on the basis of some earlier, shakier research, along with a good dose of common sense, Bailey and Zucker hypothesized that homosexuals would show an inverted pattern of sex-typed childhood behaviors (little boys preferring girls as playmates and infatuated with their mothers’ make-up kits; little girls strangely enamoured by field hockey or professional wrestling…that sort of thing)…

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: Pink News Misrepresents Qaradawi’s Views on Homosexuality

There’s a report published today at Pink News entitled “Ken Livingstone promises new gay rights measures if elected London mayor”. Having given a sympathetic account of Ken’s newly announced policies in support of the LGBT community, the article ends:

“He has a good gay rights record, implementing the first civil partnerships register for gay couples in London in 2001. However, he was criticised in 2005 for inviting to London and embracing the homophobic Islamist cleric Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has called for gays and lesbians to be killed.”

Leaving aside the fact that Ken didn’t invite Qaradawi to London, and that the visit took place in 2004, let us state one more time: Qaradawi does not call for “gays and lesbians to be killed”. The source for this accusation is a passage in his book The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, which was written in the late 1950s when Qaradawi was a young, orthodox, Al-Azhar trained scholar who had not yet developed his own distinctive interpretations of Islam, and in that book he restricted himself to providing a summary of traditional rulings by Islamic jurists on a range of issues.

The offending passage on homosexuality reads as follows: “The jurists of Islam have held differing opinions concerning the punishment for this abominable practice. Should it be the same as the punishment for fornication, or should both the active and passive participants be put to death? While such punishments may seem cruel, they have been suggested to maintain the purity of the Islamic society and to keep it clean of perverted elements.”

On the face of it, this does sound horrendous. If Qaradawi was not himself calling for homosexuals to be executed, he was apparently unwilling to criticise Islamic scholars who did. But this is to misunderstand the nature of the punishments that Qaradawi was referring to. Under the various schools of sharia law homosexuality is treated as a sub-section of adultery. The Islamic jurists who formulated the legal position on this issue in the years following the Prophet’s death were trying to put a stop to the barbaric practices associated with a backward tribal society which did lead to individuals (mainly women) being killed in order to defend the “honour” of the family or community.

These early jurists ruled that it wasn’t adultery, and by extension homosexuality, that was a crime but rather the sexual act itself, and further that four independent witnesses to the sexual act were required for a conviction. The result was to preserve the draconian punishments — stoning etc — as a symbol of extreme social disapproval while raising the evidential requirements so high that in practice it was impossible to sentence anyone to those punishments. So when Qaradawi was discussing the penalties for gay sex in The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam it was these symbolic punishments he was referring to. In a 2006 interview on Al Jazeera, when asked about the Islamic position on homosexuality, Qaradawi again summarised the views of the early Islamic jurists:

“The schools of thought differed over the punishment. Some of them would punish as they would the fornicator/adulterer, so distinguishing between married and unmarried men, and between married and unmarried women. And some of them said the punishment of the two is equal. And some of them said we throw them from a high place, like our Lord did to the People of Lot. And some of them said we burn them.”

But Qaradawi continued: “There is disagreement, so it is possible for us to choose from them in our era what is most appropriate, and what is lightest, recognising how widespread the tribulation is: because tribulations and sins being widespread is something in Islamic legal theory that causes things to be lightened.” So it would appear that Qaradawi’s view now is that in the modern world the draconian punishments are no longer applicable, even symbolically, to the “crime” of gay sex.

Indeed, in this 2006 interview Qaradawi went on to state that “we don’t lock the doors before the homosexuals. No! They have committed sins, but it is within their ability to repent to God”. Which is much the sort of thing you would expect to hear from, say, Vincent Nichols or Jonathan Sacks. Does it really sound like someone who believes gay men and lesbians should be killed?

Yet, basing themselves on a partial and distorted translation of this 2006 interview by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a hardline right-wing Zionist organisation with a record of misrepresenting Qaradawi, Pink News reported it at the time under the headline “Muslim cleric backs gay burnings”!

So by all means criticise Qaradawi’s opinions on homosexuality, which like those of many leading religious figures are reprehensible. But the LGBT community shouldn’t fall into the trap of attributing to Qaradawi views he doesn’t hold and thereby contributing to the prevailing hysterical right-wing discourse about the Islamic threat to western civilisation.

— Hat tip: JP

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Do You Know When You’re Wrong? Gray Matter Shows Introspective Ability is Not Black and White

Differences in people’s ability to gauge their own accuracy may be linked to having more volume—and more connections—in the prefrontal cortex

When answering a question, your accuracy in assessing whether you have gotten the answer right—or wrong—might depend on the volume of gray matter in a certain part of your brain, according to a new study.

Introspection—or metacognition, self-awareness about one’s thinking—is a high-level mental process. “Accurate introspection requires discriminating correct decisions from incorrect ones, a capacity that varies substantially across individuals,” researchers behind the new findings explained in their study.

For the study, researchers used simple visual stimuli to test 32 healthy subjects’ perception—and how confident they felt about their assessment of a geometric image. The tests were customized to each individual’s level of perceptual skill, in order to keep each subject’s accuracy score at 71 percent, so that the test was consistently difficult for all subjects.

“Someone who has good introspective ability will accurately be able to know” if they were correct in their assessment of an image, explains Steven Fleming, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London and co-author of the new study.

The study team found “considerable variation” in subjects’ accuracy in assessing their own evaluations of the images, which was to be expected based on previous research. Fleming and his colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate the subjects’ whole brains for differences in structure and composition in order to look for correlations with introspective ability.

Test subjects’ accuracy in assessing their own performance “was significantly correlated with gray-matter volume” in the right anterior prefrontal cortex, the team wrote in their study report, published online September 16 in Science. Subjects with more accurate introspective assessments also tended to have denser connections between that area of gray matter and the axon-filled white matter that connected it.

“We were surprised that we could find differences in the structure in this region that were linked to something high-level like introspective ability,” Fleming says…

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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