Remember the wind-powered rotating skyscrapers of Dubai?
Well, the building boom in the Emirates is over, thanks to the financial crisis. Most of the huge and expensive construction projects have been cancelled or are on hold. Not only that, foreign laborers are being laid off at an astounding rate — 45% of them are unemployed and are being sent home.
They’re returning to countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, and Malaysia. None of their home countries is in good shape economically, and not many jobs will be available for them when they get there.
This does not bode well.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, CSP, Diana West, heroyalwhyness, Holger Danske, Insubria, JD, Steen, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Crisis: Spain; Discounts in Sex Industry as Well
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 9 — In times of crisis in Spain, discounts to boost consumer spending were also recorded in the flourishing sex, clubs and brothels markets where the collapse in demand in the past year has led to the introduction of special deals. Turnover in the sector, according to the online portal of El Mundo, fell by 40% in the past year, and so faced with this prospect the oldest job in the world has introduced “low cost” deals. A big hit in Valencia is the “relax bonus”, where some clubs, like the Parais, a pioneer in the sector, offer a pass for four ‘dates’ with the fifth one free. Managers told El Mundo that the promotion has drawn more clients. In times of recession layoffs are inevitable, but only cleaning or administrative staff are dismissed: the prostitutes working in the night clubs continue to resist the crisis. According to the Parais management, the profile of the women applying for the oldest profession in the world is changing: now also bank employees or supermarket cashiers without any experience in the world of prostitution are interested. Apart from the crisis, night clubs are also facing the problem of police roundups of illegal foreigners. The closing and confiscation of two of the most popular brothels in Catalonia recently caused created quite a stir. The managers — who had no criminal records — were arrested on charges of illegal prostitution, violation of labour rights, white-slave trade and corruption. But this is only an exception, usually these roundups end with the illegal workers being reported, women without rights who are hit hardest by the crisis. According to the National Association for Prostitution Clubs (Anela), turnover fell by 35% and the number of clients by 20% in the past months. “The clients stay away because they don’t have money” explains Anela. The association underlines that many entrepreneurs are forced to stop offering board and lodging to the prostitutes. The Association Pro Human Rights (Apdh) so far hasn’t measured a significant increase in the number of Spanish or foreign prostitutes on the streets. The effects of the crisis can also be seen in the main Spanish newspapers where sex ads, which are allowed by law, cover entire pages. Many club owners admit that they have reduced “the number of advertisements to just two, where previously they were more than ten”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai: Massive Projects Wind Down, Immigrants Return Home
The economic crisis is affecting the construction industry most of all. In 2009, 45% of the workers in the sector will lose their jobs. The Dubai Economic Council is earmarking 10 billion euros to confront the crisis. Hundreds of cars have been abandoned at the Dubai airport by foreigners fleeing from debts after losing their jobs.
Dubai (AsiaNews/Agencies) — More than 50% of the construction projects in Dubai face delays, or even cancellation. Residential and commercial buildings expected to be completed between last year and 2012 are being hit by the global crisis. The Dubai Economic Council has announced funding of 50 billion dirham (more than 10 billion euros) to inject liquidity into the market, suffering from the flight of foreign capital. Although the country does not foresee a collapse like those being seen in other economies around the world, it is not expecting an easy 2009.
The first to pay the price are foreign workers, at every level. Those who lose their jobs automatically lose their visas as well, and have 30 days to find a new job, or leave the country. Debts and missed payments are punishable with imprisonment, and this is contributing to panic among the immigrant workers.
At the airports, it has become commonplace to see hundreds of cars abandoned in the parking lots, with keys still in the ignition and credit cards scattered on the seats. They are the cars of middle and high-level workers who have lost their jobs, and are fleeing the country to avoid legal problems.
The hundreds of blue-collar workers, especially the construction workers employed in massive construction projects, are in the same situation as the immigrants employed in offices and commercial activities. For them, who earn an average of 900 dirham a month (a little less than 200 euros), it is more difficult to return home, and many of them have nothing but poverty to look forward to there.
Every day, dozens of people leave the camps where the construction workers in Dubai live. It is estimated that in 2009, at least 45% of foreign workers in the industry will lose their jobs. Hayri Taban, assistant camp boss at the Bin Belaila Baytur labor camp, which hosts about 5,300 people, says that between 50 and 70 workers are returning home each day. “Many companies are closing their business, two out five projects have already been cancelled and we have already sent 1,300 laborers home since last month.”
The Bin Belaila Baytur labor camp also hosts the personnel employed in the construction of the Burj Dubai and Silver towers, the two tallest skyscrapers in the world, a project valued at 122 million dollars. Many of the workers come from India, the country with the highest number of immigrants in the Emirates, where almost 50% of the population is made up of foreign workers.
With the closing of the construction sites and the persistence of the crisis, there are some who are predicting a bona fide exodus in the next few months. According to the newspaper The Hindu, the Indian embassy in the Emirates has reserved 20,000 seats on flights to India over the next month.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nobel-Prize Winner Backs World Currency
KAZAKH President Nursultan Nazarbayev has won backing for his plan for a single world currency from an intellectual architect of the euro currency, Nobel-prize winner Professor Robert Mundell.
Nazarbayev, speaking at an economic forum in the glitzy new capital he has built on the Kazakh steppe, defended his proposal for the “acmetal” world currency saying it might “look kind of funny” but was not.
And he received intellectual support from the Canadian economist Prof Mundell, who helped lay the intellectual groundwork for Europe’s single currency.
“I must say that I agree with President Nazarbayev on his statement and many of the things he said in his plan, the project he made for the world currency, and I believe I’m right on track with what he’s saying,” Prof Mundell said, adding the idea held “great promise”.
Mr Nazarbayev and Prof Mundell urged the Group of 20 leading developed and developing economies to form a working group on the proposal at their summit on the global economic crisis in London on April 2.
“We should deliver our thoughts and the thoughts of this conference to the leaders of those countries,” Mr Nazarbayev said, referring to the G8 and G20 nations.
Mr Nazarbayev, who has held his post since Soviet times and has seen his oil-rich state hit badly by the crisis, unveiled his proposal last month and said yesterday the UN should oversee the currency’s introduction.
Though a boost for what might seem an other-worldly plan, Prof Mundell has previously suggested single currencies are only appropriate for countries with similar economies.
Mr Nazarbayev’s coining of “acmetal” combines the Greek word “acme,” meaning peak or best, and “capital.”
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Pelosi Open to Second Stimulus
[Comments from JD: Read while humming the song from the movie “The Never Ending Story”…]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday she is open to introducing a second stimulus bill, but it’s too early to determine the size of such a package and the timing on another major economic measure.
“We have to keep the door open to see how it goes,” Pelosi told reporters Tuesday following a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing on the economy.
“We hope it will be sooner rather than later that [the stimulus] catches fire in Washington, D.C. But we aren’t waiting,” she said.
“This is a fiscally sound package,” she said. “This is market-oriented.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Real Estate: Massive Drop in Cyprus Property Sales
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, MARCH 9 — Cyprus property developers and real estate companies are in the grips of their worst ever period, as sales of property have fallen by a staggering 65%, reports Phileleftheros. Only 558 property sale documents were registered at the Land Registry last month, in comparison to 1,581 for the same period last year. January sales fell by 72% and December 2008 saw a fall of 65%. In a dramatic contrast to the national picture, property prices in Nicosia have risen despite the economic crisis and a slump in house purchases. A survey carried out by the Cyprus Contractors’ Association said property prices have gone up by 3%. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: After the Boom, Now Victims of Mortgages
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 10 — The excesses of the housing boom in Spain is weighing on the shoulders of the private sector, which unlike the United States has not developed a full mortgage market outside of the banks and does not have sufficient regulatory instruments. Consumer associations say that it is not enough to hand back the keys to the house to cancel an outstanding mortgage. To add insult to injury the banks expect to get not only the mortgaged homes, from thousands of insolvent customers but also the difference in the market value of the property. In other words they are asking customers to pay out of their own pockets the part which the bank will not be able to recover from selling the property at auction, starting a spiral of debt and legal action. Banking sources referred to the law: “In Spain, it is not like in the United States, there, the customer hands over the keys and cancels the mortgage. Here he has to respond with the rest of his assets”. They explain to the Mortgage Society that the banks can recover the outstanding amount using mortgages or legal action, and that “in the case where the value of the property is insufficient to pay the debt, the bank can make up the amount owed using other assets belonging to the customer”. Lawyers for consumer associations have condemned the practice, which is now commonplace: “several bodies are charging payment duties: they take the house and cancel the mortgage. But often the company which initially valued the property (during the purchasing process, Ed) is the same one, except that this time it sets a lower value and the debtor has to cover the difference with another loan”. A group of households in Barcelona has set up ‘People hit by Mortgages’, which condemns this kind of procedure. The president of the Society of Bank, savings banks and insurance Customers, Manuel Pardos, says that two years ago “companies gave higher mortgages, as much as 80% of the value of the property, so that they could cover the other costs. But the valuations were inflated and have now come down a lot”. Now that the housing bubble has burst, loans are being paid back with interest. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Associated Press Countersues Fairey for Hope Poster
by Igor Kossov
The Associated Press has filed a counter-lawsuit against artist Shepard Fairey over his use of an AP image as the basis for his famous “HOPE” poster of President Obama. Last month, Fairey sued AP, claiming that his use of the image constitutes “fair use.”
According to Paid Content, Mannie Garcia, a freelance photographer working for AP, took the picture of Obama’s face in April 2006. Fairey later took Garcia’s photograph and created the stylized red white and blue poster that became an icon of President Obama’s campaign.
AP only discovered Fairey’s source after Obama won the election. On February 4, AP said that use of the photograph requires its permission and entered negotiations with Fairey’s attorney. Preemptively, Fairey filed a federal lawsuit against AP to try and get a declaratory judgment that no permission was necessary. According to Paid Content, the wording in Fairey’s lawsuit read:
“Fairey transformed the literal depiction contained in the Garcia Photograph into a stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that creates powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message that has no analogue in the original photograph.”
AP does not agree. In the countersuit, the company said that “Fairey has done nothing that would excuse his blatant copying of, and creation of derivative works based on, the [AP photo],” Reuters reported. AP said that the image has been copied in its entirety and that Fairey has illegally profited off the hundreds of thousands of stickers, t-shirts and other merchandise bearing the image.
“This lawsuit is about protecting the content that The Associated Press and its journalists produce every day, with creativity, at great cost, and often at great risk,” said Tom Curley, president and CEO of AP.
In order to win the suit, Fairey needs to prove to the court that his poster was “transformative” of the original photograph instead of mainly “derivative.” There is no universal standard for transformation…
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Florida Muslims Visit Tallahassee to Meet Lawmakers
TALLAHASSEE — More than 100 Florida Muslims came to the capital Tuesday to meet lawmakers on Florida Muslim Capitol Day.
The visit prompted House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Delray Beach to speak on the Capitol steps, questioning the group’s leader, Ahmed Bedier.
“I’ve said it all along and I will say it again: Everyone, every Floridian has the right to come to Tallahassee and to petition their government,” Hasner said. “But what is fundamental to our democracy is responsibility, accountability and transparency, and the people of Florida and my fellow legislators have the right to know about the well-documented information about the person who is leading this group.”
Last month, in an e-mail that was forwarded to Jewish lobbyists, Hasner asked about starting “an information campaign in opposition to” Florida Muslim Capitol Day, sponsored by the Tampa-based non-profit United Voices for America.
The group was founded by Bedier, who once led the Tampa office of the Council on American-Islamic relations. Critics say there are links between Bedier and the militant Islamist group Hamas, because of Bedier’s former job at CAIR. Bedier has called the allegation “ridiculous” and “nonsense.” He has said his job was to advocate for equal rights for Muslims.
“This day is about including all Floridians in the political process, celebrating diversity and promoting civic participation for the betterment of the entire state,” Bedier said in a statement Tuesday. “All people of conscience should unite in repudiating those who seek to divide Floridians along ethnic, racial or religious lines.”
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Islam in America, Part Four: Lawfare
Military strategist Karl von Clausewitz famously said, “War is merely politics by other means.”
It could just as easily be said that “lawfare” is war, politics and religion by other means.
What is lawfare? Lawfare is sometimes known as “stealth jihad,” “soft jihad,” “legal jihad” or “creeping sharia.” In the same way that Muslim terrorists hijacked American planes and flew them into American buildings on 9/11, some Muslims are hijacking the West’s freedoms and legal system to undermine civilization itself. The strategy might even be called “jihadist jujitsu.” (also see parts 1-3)
As expert Brooke Goldstein of the Legal Project of the Middle East Forum) explains in a new report in The Counter Terrorist (Feb/March 2009), in the last decade, lawfare involves Islamist activists,
“Filing a series of malicious lawsuits in American courts and abroad, designed to punish and silence those who engage in public discourse about radical Islam. (…) The lawsuits are often predatory, filed without a serious expectation of winning, and undertaken as a means to intimidate, demoralize, and bankrupt defendants.
“Claims are often based on frivolous charges ranging from defamation to workplace harassment, from ‘hate speech’ to ‘Islamophobia,’ and have resulted in books being banned and pulped, thousands of dollars worth of fines, and publishing houses and newspapers rejecting important works on counter-terrorism out of fear of being the next target.”
Twenty years ago, the West was shocked when Muslim leaders issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Today, the West itself permits Muslims to issue virtual fatwas of their own, in the form of lawfare suits that chill freedom of speech just as effectively…
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
New Center Revives North America Agenda
Presses Obama administration to advance continental integration
Arizona State University has created a new trilateral research center to advance the continuing globalist agenda to integrate the United States, Mexico and Canada into a North American configuration.
The North American Center for Transborder Studies, or NACTS, makes clear that while North American integration advocates may have backed off promoting the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America as their vehicle to create a North American Union, the globalist effort to integrate North America economically and politically continues under different names.
[…]
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Statistics, in 1993, the year President Clinton signed NAFTA into law, the U.S. enjoyed a nearly $1.7 trillion favorable balance of trade with Mexico, exporting approximately $41.6 billion and importing approximately $39.9 billion.
By 2008, the trade balance had reversed, such that the U.S. had a negative $64.4 billion trade balance in Mexico’s favor, after the U.S. exported approximately $151.5 billion to Mexico and imported $215.9 billion.
With Canada, the U.S. in 1993 already had a $10.7 billion negative trade balance, which had expanded to a $74.2 billion negative by the end of last year.
What these data would suggest is that the net new jobs created under NAFTA in North America are likely being created in Mexico and Canada, not in the U.S.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. manufacturing sector has lost approximately 4 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, nearly 25 percent of the total manufacturing workforce.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Hollywood: Backing Evil in Tehran
Last week, a group of prominent actors and movie executives from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences visited Iran.
[…]
And Hollywood has benefited from Obama’s largesse. Although Obama has proved himself a feckless economist, he is an excellent strategist, which means he pays back his friends. And so he tried to shoehorn a $246 million tax break for Hollywood into the stimulus package. And so he appoints Pitt the unofficial domestic ambassador to New Orleans and Clooney the unofficial ambassador to Sudan. And he appoints the Academy his unofficial ambassador to Iran.
This latest move, using Hollywood to reach out to Tehran, is pure FDR. During World War II, FDR requested that Hollywood begin producing pro-Soviet films. One of those films, “Mission to Moscow” (1943), was based on Ambassador Joseph Davies’ experiences in the United Soviet Socialist Republic. It reflected Davies’ pro-communist leanings and included a famous sequence whitewashing the Stalinist purge trials of the 1930s.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Stays the Course on Terrorist Financing
[…]
As President Obama changes course on many national security policies, he has indicated that he plans to stay on the path charted by the Bush administration when it comes to tracking terrorists’ money.
In January, he asked the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Stuart Levey, to remain on the job.
On Wednesday morning, a congressional committee will hold a hearing about a recent terrorism finance tracking program that teams up Treasury and Defense department officials.
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Rush Limbaugh is Not the Problem
by Diana West
Forced to the ramparts to defend Rush Limbaugh against the spurious, low-down attacks of the Obamedia-plus-hangers-on, conservatives are letting the real enemy of conservatism slip away. That enemy would be George W. Bush, whose stealth political legacy is a tectonic lurch Left for what is popularly thought of as “conservatism.” The resulting chaos—crisis, in fact—is exactly what the new collectivist-in-chief has seized on, not to change America’s direction, but to accelerate its Leftward shift. This continuity is what conservatives are failing to appreciate and assess, much to the detriment of their own coherence and political message. I tried to get at this jarring continuity between 43 and 44 in last week’s column on the Obama return of the Churchill bust to the British when I wrote:
Somewhat complicating our understanding of the incident is the fact that even as George W. Bush may have retained the knickknacks of that same civilization, the 43rd president did more to break with it maybe than any previous president, certainly more than any previous Republican president. Yes, he ordered the military to war upon attack by Islamic terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, to fight ill-defined “extremism.” But Bush was first and always an internationalist, a globalist, with no national calling, for example, to stem the massive illegal Hispanic influx that has transformed large swaths of the United States by replacing their Western, English-speaking heritage with a Third World, Spanish-speaking culture.
In countless ways, President Obama is merely extending and expanding policies already initiated by his predecessor. From securing the border, which neither man has considered a priority, to securing a Palestinian state, which both men have considered a priority, to a shared belief in bailout packages that are nationalizing the economy, a neutered lexicon with which to address Islam, and legalizing millions of illegal aliens, there is in both leaders a transformational impulse, intensified and now recognized as radicalism in Obama’s case. Does this Bush-Obama nexus represent the place where what we once called “white guilt” and “black rage” overlap? It’s possible.
Of course, there’s more…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Secret State Police Report: Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, Libertarians Are Terrorists
Alex Jones has received a secret report distributed by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) entitled “The Modern Militia Movement” and dated February 20, 2009. A footer on the document indicates it is “unclassified” but “law enforcement sensitive,” in other words not for public consumption. A copy of the report was sent to Jones by an anonymous Missouri police officer.
The MIAC report specifically describes supporters of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as “militia” influenced terrorists and instructs the Missouri police to be on the lookout for supporters displaying bumper stickers and other paraphernalia associated with the Constitutional, Campaign for Liberty, and Libertarian parties.
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Self-Proclaimed Ex-Terrorists Tell Western Michigan University Crowd to ‘Wake Up’
KALAMAZOO — To illustrate his point, self-described former Islamic terrorist Kamal Saleem lay down on the Miller Auditorium stage before an audience of 1,300 people Tuesday.
America is similarly asleep to the threat of an Islamic fundamentalism bent on destroying Western culture, spreading Islamic Shariah law worldwide and has no qualms about using violence to achieve those goals — including in the United States, Saleem said.
“America didn’t know what to do with 9/11. They hit the snooze button and went right back (to sleep). Today we gotta wake up as a nation,” Saleem said.
“A great speaker said, ‘My people perish for the lack of knowledge.’ Today knowledge is given to you,” he told an audience whose members at times applauded and other times vocally disagreed during the more than hourlong presentation Tuesday.
The title of the presentation, “Why We Want to Kill You,” and the posters promoting their appearance drew criticism from faculty and students in recent weeks.
Audience members waited as long as 45 minutes to get in to Miller, passing through metal detectors.
Western Michigan University student Ngeyan Almutairi, a Muslim, said afterward that the speeches were full of hate and misinformation about Islam.
“It’s hate speech when he said Muslims are terrorists and want to kill Americans. It’s hate speech,” Almutairi said.
Saleem and Shoebat have taken their message to college campuses and churches around the country.
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorists Say September 11 Attacks Are Their Badge of Honour
FIVE men accused of planning the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York have reportedly acknowledged and boasted of their role, saying they are proud of the event that killed nearly 3000 people and calling it “a model of Islamic action”.
In a document filed with the military commission trying them, the men described themselves as “terrorists to the bone” and sought to justify the attacks.
“To us, they are not accusations,” the document reads. “To us they are a badge of honour, which we carry with honour. Many thanks to God, for his kind gesture, and choosing us to perform the act of jihad for his cause and to defend Islam and Muslims.”
The document, titled The Islamic Response To The Government’s Nine Accusations, bears the names of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, who are being held in a high-security camp at Guantanamo Bay.
It says that killing and fighting Americans is a “great legitimate duty in our religion” and that the attacks were an offering to God. A Pentagon spokesman said the men had written it. However, lawyers for two of the men said they had not discussed the document with them and could not vouch for its authenticity.
The document, which is riddled with religious rhetoric and scriptural references, describes the men as the “9/11 Shura Council” — the Arabic term for a consultative assembly. The men say the terrorist killings were a response to US support for Israel, the war in Iraq and other US actions, and were justified by their Muslim faith, “a religion of fear and terror to the enemies of God: the Jews, Christians and pagans”.
It also mocks US intelligence agencies for failing to discover the plans and being unable to prevent the attacks.
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Who’s Next on Obama List for Intel Chairman?
By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
Yesterday’s news by Intelligence Director Dennis Blair that Obama’s choice for top intel analyst would not be Charles “Chas” Freeman allowed the nation a collective sigh of relief.
It spares the Obama administration continuing damage from the self-inflicted wound of yet another very bad personnel decision.
Far more importantly, the country may be spared the adverse security consequences of having its National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) skewed to suit the boss. That of course, leaves the question, Who’s next? Who will be the next choice to fill the position vacated by Freeman for chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC)?
The danger of Obama’s choice was very real. In the years since Freeman retired from his career in the Foreign Service, he capitalized on relationships developed during previous official postings in Beijing and Riyadh. He actually worked in various capacities for the Chinese and Saudis, relentlessly promoting the party lines of those who paid his freight.
Along the trail, Freeman established a record of naked partisanship on behalf of actual or potential adversaries like the House of Saud, the Chinese Communists, the Iranian mullahs and even the terrorists of Hamas. He reliably attacked his friends’ enemies, including Israel and Taiwan, and disagreed with the liberation of Iraq and critics of Wahhabism.
In other words, Chas Freeman was a man who could no more be expected to render impartial and objective intelligence estimates than would any other agent of influence for hostile powers. The question is, Who on earth thought otherwise?
The blame game for this fiasco is already underway. Even before Ambassador Freeman asked to have his designation as NIC chairman withdrawn on Monday, administration sources put out the word that the director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, was responsible for this selection, not the president.
For his part, Blair backpedaled, not disavowing the appointment but saying the vetting of Freeman’s financial information had not been completed.
In Washington circles, the message was unmistakable: Team Obama was positioning itself, in the face of growing Democratic and Republican opposition to Freeman, to cut its losses by throwing this appointment under the bus as it had numerous others in recent weeks.
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Canada Joins Transatlantic Union Effort
Working along with U.S for free-trade deal with European Union
Canada has decided to join the United States in negotiating a transatlantic free trade agreement with the European Union.
According to Canada’s daily Financial Post, Canada and the EU have come to an agreement on the areas they would like to negotiate in a free trade deal that Canadian government officials believe could expand Canada’s economy by approximately $12 billion.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Airlines’ Limit on Liquid in Hand Luggage to be Lifted
Ban imposed after alleged plot to blow up transatlantic flights has cost aviation industry £100 million
Airline passengers will be able to carry any amount of liquid in hand luggage under Government plans to relax restrictions after the upgrade of airport X-ray machines.
Passengers will no longer be limited to 100 millilitre bottles and will be able to buy duty-free alcohol without the risk of it being confiscated.
The screening technology is undergoing secret tests at laboratories in Germany, where scientists are checking its accuracy in detecting bottles of hydrogen peroxide and other liquids that can be turned into bombs.
The ban on liquids was imposed overnight in August 2006 after the discovery of an alleged British terrorist plot to blow up transatlantic flights. Eight men are on trial at Woolwich Crown Court accused of planning to detonate suicide bombs on seven flights departing from Heathrow within hours of each other.
The liquid ban has cost Britain’s aviation industry more than £100million in increased security costs and lost duty-free sales. BAA, which has seven British airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, had to employ 3,500 more screening staff. Two tonnes of alcohol a month are still being confiscated at Heathrow alone, along with thousands of bottles of perfume and other toiletries.
A senior Whitehall source said that the ban would be lifted at a limited number of airports, possibly as soon as this autumn.
| — Hat tip: heroyalwhyness | [Return to headlines] |
Catholics Demonstrate Against the Vatican
More than 1,000 Catholics have demonstrated in the central Swiss city of Lucerne against the pope’s conservative policies.
The protest was prompted in part by Benedict XVI’s rehabilitation of four traditionalist bishops, including a British prelate who is a Holocaust denier.
Also criticised were the Catholic Church’s attitudes towards sexuality and women.
However, protestors said that people should not leave the Church out of frustration. According to recent media reports, enquiries about this have increased.
The pope lifted the excommunication of the four members of the dissident Society of Saint Pius X at the end of January.
It was then revealed that one of them, Richard Williamson, had made statements denying the full extent of the Nazi holocaust. The Vatican responded that it had not known about Williamson’s views beforehand.
The issue was also discussed at the two-day assembly of the Swiss Bishops Conference in Chur last week. Bishops said that the attempts at reconciliation had been “badly handled” by the Vatican.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Snatch Secrecy Hearing Starts
Constitutional Court to rule on govt, prosecution pleas
(ANSA) — Rome, March 10 — Italy’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday started considering pleas on state secrecy regarding the CIA’s abduction of a Muslim cleric from Milan in 2003.
In a closed-door session, the Court will examine three pleas from successive Italian governments on a currently suspended Milan trial of top Italian spies and 26 CIA agents in the abduction of imam Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr, also known as Abu Omar.
It will also consider two counterpleas, from the Milan judge and the prosecution in the case, arguing that state secrecy norms were not violated.
The prosecutor alone filed almost 300 documents in support of his argument.
Given the complexity of the case, the Constitutional Court is expected to issue its ruling later this week.
Judicial sources say that an adverse ruling would mean the landmark rendition trial having to start from scratch.
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus’ Pensioners on the Poverty Line, Report
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, MARCH 10 — More than half of Cypriot pensioners have been living below the European Union’s poverty threshold, according to this year’s report on social protection and social inclusion, as Cyprus Mail reports. The 2009 “Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion” says that while 16% of the total population have been living below the poverty threshold, matching the EU average, and only 11% of the 18-64 age-group did so. “The risk of poverty rate for the age group over 65 reaches up to 52% — the highest by far among all EU countries — with the risk rate for persons living in one-person households reaching 70% within this age group.” The report is based on completed data for 2007 and defines the poverty threshold as 60% of a country’s average income. For Cyprus, the poverty threshold in 2007 was euro8,719 for one-person households and euro18,311 for a standard family, defined as two adults with two dependent children under the age of 14. The living standards of people below the poverty threshold vary greatly across the EU. For example, the poverty threshold is less than euro250 per month in the Baltic States, Hungary and Slovakia, but euro900 per month or more in the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and the UK. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Sword Attacker Shot Dead
Two police officers were wounded in a sword attack by a mentally ill man whom they were forced to kill in self-defence
Two officers were forced to shoot a mentally ill man dead after he attacked them with a sabre and knife when he was due to be committed to an institution.
The police officers went to the home of the 32-year-old former soldier on Kronborggade Street in the Nørrebro district last night as he was due to be committed, but were attacked by the man.
Both officers received a number of slashes to the head with a sabre and knife, before the ill man wrestled a service gun from one of the officers. The police opened fire and the man died from three shots to the chest, shoulder and stomach.
The man died at the scene, while the officers were rushed to Rigshospitalet where their condition is reported to be stable.
Chief Superintendent of the Copenhagen Police, Per Larsen, told TV2 News that the police actions were ‘by the book’ in this tragic case.
‘The officers were attacked and defended themselves. It is fortunately something we don’t see very often. Their colleagues are deeply shocked by the event,’ said Larsen.
The public prosecutor has announced that a routine investigation will be conducted into the incident to determine if the actions of the police were lawful.
It has emerged that the dead man had previously been deployed abroad with the Danish armed forces.
Flemming Vinther from the Army’s Private and Corporal Association told DR news that the man had contacted the association more than a year ago.
‘He was not doing well, apparently because of a mission he had been deployed on during the 1990s, but we never heard from him again before this tragic day.’
Vinther said that there had been an agreement for the man
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Election Day in Italy: Franceschini, the Effects of the Lega
(AGI) — Rome, 10 Mar. — Dario Franceschini has strongly criticised parliament’s choice not to hold a referendum on the electoral law on June 14 and 15. “I believe that each one of us should have courage in our own political choices even if they are unpopular and tiring to explain, such as the negation of the elections in a single day,” he said, “and not to adopt hypocritical stances to try and cover over their worth when it is already very clear: since the majority is able to stick together on this, the Lega has to take responsibility for a measure which means that the referendum will certainly not be approved.” The Secretary of the PD (Democratic party) pointed out that this “unification of elections would lead to a saving of 460 million euros,” which in these times of economic crisis could be used “immediately for road safety initiatives, to put petrol in hundreds of police cars which remain in their garages every day due to a lack of resources” or to take on an extra 5,000 officers. “This should be a source of shame, a shame that due to political shrewdness 460 million euros have been chucked away.” Franceschini did not hide his worries relating to the referendum, which “does not resolve the problem of huge waiting lists.” In any case, “it is your choice to prevent quorum being reached,” he added, “and I think that you are already planning to do this next year when the referendum on Alfano’s law takes place. Since there are also regional elections, your first cause of concern should be to prevent them combining the two.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Is Fogh for NATO — the Plot Thickens
Private chats with Brown and Merkel.
Speculation as to whether Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is leaving Danish politics for the secretary-generalship of NATO has now reached the point that it is more a question of when rather than whether his candidacy becomes public.
According to politiken.dk’s information, Fogh Rasmussen’s recent visit to London and Berlin, officially to discuss Afghanistan and climate change, included pre-agenda, private one-on-one conversations with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Although the content of these meetings has not been made public, the inference is that Fogh Rasmussen has been seeking assurances from two of the main European NATO actors, that if he were to seek the NATO job, he would have their support. He is already believed to have the support of France.
Secrecy
Fogh Rasmussen further fanned the flames of conjecture on Tuesday, when he began his regular weekly news conference by saying that he would not be answering any questions about NATO.
He has previously been quite categorical that he is not seeking an international posting and that he would remain prime minister of Denmark ‘as long as the electorate wants me to.’ He has just over two years left of the electoral period.
His emphatic denials notwithstanding, normal diplomatic behaviour when ministers seek senior international posts, is that a candidacy is not made public until there is a relative degree of certainty that the individual will get the post. This in order not to suffer the embarrassment of being beaten, or to allow opponents time to rally opposition.
Media
Recent international media reports have made it clear that the larger European NATO countries have already pledged their support for Fogh Rasmussen.
Most recently, the Financial Times wrote that a private agreement had been reached between Britain, France and Germany that Fogh Rasmussen would be their candidate for the secretary-generalship. Prior to that, the Süddeutsche Zeitung also wrote that Fogh Rasmussen was the most likely candidate.
A spanner in the works could be Turkey’s position. The International Herald Tribune has reported the director of a senior Turkish think tank as saying that his country would not support Fogh Rasmussen, although it would not veto his appointment if no other countries shared its concerns.
EDAM Director Sinan Ülgen told the IHT that Turkey’s problems with Fogh Rasmussen derived from “his stance toward the PKK and because of the cartoons issue.” He went on to say that Turkey would prefer a non-European secretary-general because of its tense ties with the European Union — making a Canadian candidate ideal.
United States
Vital to Fogh Rasmussen’s chances is the position of the United States, which has not yet declared who it can support.
The American Vice President Joseph Biden said in Brussels yesterday that Washington is still considering which candidate to support, implicitly making it clear that Fogh Rasmussen definitely is a candidate.
His closest rival now appears to be the Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
Canada
The Washington Post said that Vice President Joe Biden would be attempting to convince European allies in coming days to support MacKay’s candidacy. MacKay himself said: “That’s new to me. I have never had any discussions with Vice President Joe Biden about it.”
But he added that; “I don’t think that traditions, in the sense that geography should be a restriction on any position within NATO, should apply given the fact that Canada … is a 60-year participant in NATO.”
The post of secretary-general of NATO has traditionally been reserved for a European, while the top military post of the Alliance has traditionally been from the United States — effectively barring Canada from any of the two senior NATO posts.
Waiting
Vice President Joe Biden’s statement on Tuesday suggests that Washington may be treading water to see where other NATO countries place their support — and in particular whether Turkey is able to muster other countries in its opposition to the Danish prime minister and support for Canada.
In a seemingly unrelated event, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller leaves for Washington on Friday for official meetings with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. The Danish Foreign Ministry denies that the visit is at all connected to the end game of the secretary-generalship of NATO.
Others
Other candidates for the political leadership of NATO have also been mooted, including Poland’s Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, the Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and the former British Defence Secretary Des Browne.
NATO has 26 members including eight whose territories were formerly part of the Warsaw Pact.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Islamists Are the Main Terrorist Threat, Says Report
Rome, 10 March (AKI) — The Italian government investigated 216 terror threats against Italy last year, concluding that Islamist cells were the “primary threat to the public interest, both inside Italy and abroad,” according to a report released on Tuesday.
The extent of the terror threat was revealed in an anti-terrorism report presented to the department of information security.
Al-Qaeda’s leadership “is still playing a central role” in international terrorism, the report said, adding that investigators were giving priority to probes of jihadist plots.
In Italy, Islamist terror cells were “fluid and scattered”, tending to coalesce around “charismatic individuals,” the report stated.
Prisons are an increasingly important jihadist recruiting ground, where convicted Islamist terrorists are indoctrinating young detainees, the report said.
It said the northern region of Lombardy is one of the main strongholds of Islamist radicalism, “where elements already known to the police are being joined by new recruits and gradually replaced.”
Another hotspot is the southern Campania region surrounding Naples. “Here, foreign extremists are finding synergies with North African counterfeiters,” said the report.
Other sensitive areas include the northern Piemonte, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna regions and the central Tuscany region, the report noted.
“The threat to Italy has become a rapidly changing and unpredictable one,” it said.
The report stressed the importance of the Internet to Islamist terrorists in Italy and elsewhere.
“The Internet has become a primary reference point and source of inspiration for so-called lone terrorists seeking to wage jihad,” the report said.
The “multinational” nature of jihadist cells and networks, the increasing number of “home-grown” militants, and the importance of the Internet for radicalising, recruiting and training, characterise Islamist terrorism throughout Europe, the report concluded.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Living Will: Finocchiaro, We Are Breaking Pdl’s ‘Regime’
(AGI) — Rome, 26 Feb — “I believe what is happening in Parliament regarding the living will is very important” said Anna Finocchiaro, president of the PD group in Senate. “Thanks to our work, our proposals, our amendments, also in the PDL a discussion has started of which the press has also become aware. We hope” continued Finocchiaro “that the PDL will stop talking about crusades and making serious accusations. The PD has worked patiently to unite the party instead of dividing it.
The role of politics is to try and hold the community together without dividing it and it is our duty to introduce laws that are broadly shared, protecting the right to health, the principle of the secular nature of the State and individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution. This is the objective of the PD in Senate”. “Exactly the opposite” underlined the president “of what the PDL has tried to do which wanted to impose, with an ironclad text, a law in which the State abuses its powers. We consider freedom of mind on ethical issues the key to make a good law. Regarding for example chapter 6 of article 5, I would like to remind that our amendment is no extempore invention but the product of three years of work which represents the prevailing opinion in our big party trying to come to a shared solution with much patience. It is our duty to introduce a good law. The text of Calabro’ according to us and many right-wing members is not good”.
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Netherlands: More Mentally Handicapped in Youth Gangs
The Ministry of Justice is investigating the number of mentally handicapped youngsters who are active in youth gangs. This investigation will be carried out in the framework of a larger study on the nature of youth gangs in the Netherlands. This was announced by Minister of Justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin after questions by the Christian Democrats referring to statements by the police that the number of mentally challenged in the youth gangs is increasing. There are an estimated 440,000 mentally handicapped young people in the Netherlands.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Admits Mistakes in Bishops Row
Vatican failed to research Holocaust denier on Internet
(ANSA) — Vatican City, March 11 — Pope Benedict XVI has admitted to making “mistakes”, including not checking the Internet, when he lifted the excommunication of a Holocaust denier and three other ultra-traditionalist bishops.
In a personal letter to the world’s Catholic bishops leaked by two Italian dailies (Il Foglio and Il Giornale) Wednesday, the pope says he wishes to “contribute to peace within the Church” by clarifying events surrounding the rehabilitation of the four breakaway bishops in January — a move which caused a rift between Jews and within the Church.
The pope refers to an “avalanche of protests” from Catholics following the rehabilitation, which he says has caused polemics “of a vehemence unheard of in a long time”.
The Vatican said Wednesday that Benedict’s letter will be officially presented on Thursday.
According to the leaks, Benedict says in the letter that the first “mistake” was the Holy See’s failure to learn that British bishop Richard Williamson was a Holocaust denier by not checking the “Internet”, where his comments were posted. Williamson recently reiterated his belief that there were no gas chambers and that only 300,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis, not six million.
Following tension with the Jews over the matter, the Vatican said the pope had no knowledge of these comments when he rehabilitated the bishop.
Benedict says in his letter that from now on the Vatican will pay greater attention to the Internet as an information source, Il Foglio said.
The second “mistake” was that of a “not sufficiently clear” manner of explaining the bishops’ rehabilitation, the leaks report the pope as saying.
The lifting of their excommunication was “personal” and does not imply the canonical recognition of the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), to which the bishops belong.
Benedict explains that SSPX will only be recognised if — during negotiations — the society accepts the Second Vatican Council, over whose liberal reforms the society originally split with Rome.
The pope defends his decision to rehabilitate the bishops within a context of Christian unity, explaining that one must “have at heart the unity of believers” in a world where “God is disappearing from the horizon of men”.
Il Foglio said that in his letter Benedict criticises SSPX for “many unpleasant things — arrogance, self-importance and unilateralism”, but says he has also received a series of “moving declarations of gratitude” from some members of the society, which includes 491 priests worldwide.
POPE ‘SADDENED’ BY CATHOLICS’ REACTIONS.
Il Giornale reported that Benedict says he is “saddened” by the fact that Catholics have acted with “hostility” towards him over the affair.
“For this reason I am very thankful to our Jewish friends who helped to clear up the misunderstanding promptly and re-establish an atmosphere of friendship and trust”.
After initial tensions with Jews over Williamson’s rehabilitation, the Holy See worked hard to defuse the situation and Jewish leaders said they were satisfied after the pope issued an explicit condemnation of Holocaust denial.
Polemics within the Church have continued, however, with Swiss bishops earlier this month voicing “deep concern” over the bishop’s rehabilitation, saying it had prompted more Catholics to leave the church.
The head of the Bishops Conference, Kurt Koch, told the Swiss news agency ATS that the decision was taken “with too little preparation” and its announcement was given with too few details.
According to Wednesday’s leaks, the pope in his letter announces that the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which was responsible for healing relations between the Holy See and SSPX, will be merged with the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in order to involve a wider section of representatives in any eventual reconciliation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Supreme Court: Insulting Islam is Not Insulting Muslims
THE HAGUE, 11/03/09 — The Supreme Court yesterday produced an important ruling in principle in favour of freedom of speech. The highest court of the Netherlands acquitted a man of insulting Muslims although he dubbed Islam a tumour.
The Supreme Court quashed a ruling by an appeal court in Den Bosch. As had a district court earlier, the appeal court did find the man guilty. Yesterday’s acquittal can have consequences for all future court cases on insulting followers of a faith or ideology, including the notorious case against MP Geert Wilders.
According to the country’s highest court, people expressing themselves offensively about a religion are not automatically guilty of insulting its followers, even if the followers feel insulted. “The statement must unmistakeably refer to a certain group of people who differentiate themselves from others by their religion,” ruled the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court acquitted a man who in November 2004 stuck a poster in his window with the text: ‘Stop the tumour that is called Islam’. While people may not insult believers, they can insult their religion, according to the Supreme Court. “The sole circumstance of offensive statements about a religion also insulting its followers is not sufficient to speak of insulting a group of people due to their religion.”
The appeal court in Den Bosch had ruled that “in view of the bonds between Islam and its believers,” as well as being unnecessarily offensive to Islam the poster was also offensive for those who practise Islam. But “the appeal court thereby gave too wide an interpretation of the expression ‘a group of people according to their religion’, as it occurs in Article 137c.”
The case was about Article 137c of the Criminal Code, which makes offensive statements about a group of people an offence. It was not about incitement to hatred or discrimination, the Supreme Court stressed.
Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Wilders, meanwhile internationally known for his struggle against Islam, will be tried for insulting Muslims as a group. The court that will handle his case will have to take yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling into account.
Originally, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (OM) did not want to prosecute the MP, because it did not consider any of his statements a punishable offence. But in January, an appeal court in Amsterdam ordered the OM to change its mind.
As well as for insulting Muslims, Wilders will also be on trial for incitement to hatred and discrimination against Muslims. When the Wilders case will come to court is not yet known.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: Scajola Signs Accord on Renewable With Serbia
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 9 — Italia has launched a strategic cooperation agreement with Serbia in the Energy sector. Minister for economic development, Claudio Scajola, signed an agreement protocol today with Serbia’s Energy minister, Petar Skundric, aimed at cooperation over the development of renewable energy sources, which Italy will be able to rely on to reach its quotas laid down at the European level for the construction of hydroelectric and thermal plants, as well as the setting up of networks between Italy and Serbia, and neighbouring countries. The agreement also includes the development of the Peop, the oil pipeline which will connect the port of Constanta on the Black Sea with Trieste. This is a project which has so far not raised much interest from Italian business, but which will be the subject of further examination beginning next week. However there is already involvement in other programmes on the part of Italian businesses: Seci-Maccaferri in the hydroelectric area, Terna in the interconnections and Edison for the thermal plants. “Many investments have stopped due to the financial crisis: lets immediately start those which are ready then”, said Scajola at the end of meetings today with Serbia’s Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, deputy Prime minister and minister for the Economy, Mladan Dinkic, and Energy minister Skundric. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Serbia: Chinese CRBS to Build Infrastructures for Fiat
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, MARCH 9 — The Chinese CRBS construction company, which built the Bird’s Nest stadium for summer Olympic games in Beijing, would probably build the infrastructure for Fiat Srbija Company, reports daily Vecernje Novosti. The delegation of this company arrived in Kragujevac and they so far offered building the highway from Kragujevac to intersection with Belgrade-Nis highway near Batocina, as well as the northern and southern beltway around the city. CRBS Company, as reported, planned to locate their headquarters for southeast Europe in Kragujevac.(ANSAmed)
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EIB Working to Relaunch the Union for the Mediterranean
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — The Mediterranean branch of the European Investment Bank (EIB), FEMIP (Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership), “is working as usual” while waiting for the work of the Mediterranean Union to resume after the war in Gaza, said the vice president of the EIB and head of FEMIP, Philippe De Fontaine Vive, during a press meeting in Brussels. “I am convinced” — said de Fontaine Vive — “that diplomats will re-launch the Mediterranean Unione before the meeting of Economy Ministers in July”. The Ecofin of the Mediterranean, the vice president explained, will be held “in Brussels to coincide with the Ecofin EU meeting and satisfy the request of the ministers of the southern shore to meet their European colleagues”. Looking further ahead, De Fontaine Vive stated: “I count on Spain as on-duty EU president in the first half year of 2010 to give an impulse to the Mediterranean Union”. Making a prediction for 2009, the countries in which FEMIP is thinking of funding economic activities are “Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Syria” said the vice president, with new entry Jordan. Jordan is traditionally strongly backed by the USA, but in recent years relations have considerably improved, particularly with the Development Ministry”. “Apart from the Palestinian drama” — added De Fontaine Vive — “the main problem in 2008 was the arrival of the financial crisis in the USA and Europe. But in the countries south of the Mediterranean Sea significant growth was recorded, more than 5%, because they are less affected by speculation”. This year the head of FEMIP wants to keep the same level of investments as in 2008 or even higher still. The EIB shall continue to finance structurally important projects “with priority for economically and socially interesting projects” on the environment, energy and infrastructures, “for the benefit of the general public”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Med: EU Delegates Meet in Palermo to Develop Cooperation
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, MARCH 10 — Globalisation, with specific reference to populations moving in the Mediterranean area, climate change and energy resources. These are the topics of the seminar held in Palermo which brought together the European programme management authorities that support Mediterranean policies. A note states that more than 50 delegates from almost all EU countries “were able to debate management methods and criteria for one of the largest programmes to take off this year”. The initiative was promoted by the secretariat of the ‘Iteract sharing expertise’ programme, which has the ‘task of identifying and disseminating sound governance practices within European cooperation programmes in order to improve their efficiency and effectiveness’. These objectives reflect the EU’s strategic directions provided by the Lisbon and Gothenburg agendas: growth, employment, competition and sustainability. Sicily was chosen for the meeting “because it is the Region which gained the largest number of financed projects: effectively, out of 600 submitted projects, only 50 received financing and 18 of those can be traced back to Sicilian entities, both public and private. This first tender includes the possibility of using approximately 40 million euros, 18 of which will be allocated to Sicily”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Medicine: Thalassaemia Cooperation Out of Funds
(ANSAmed) — RIVA DEL GARDA (TRENTO, ITALY), MARCH 10 — Funds have run dry for a project pursued since 2003 by the Mediterranean Institute of Hematology, which performed bone marrow transplants for over 200 Palestinian, Kurdish, Egyptian, Syrian, and Lebanese children, and which is a step away from its first gene therapy operation to cure thalassaemia. “We started a programme for medical treatment, training, and research, initially financed with 60 million euro by the previous Berlusconi government, which also involved the Foreign, Health, and Finance Ministers, and the Lazio Regional government. We laid out a proper organization, but the Prodi government gave the minimum financing of 3 million euro in the ‘mille proroghe’ decree (a decree used to pass emergency measures during the same year) and the current government did not re-finance it,” said Maria Grazia Roncarolo, now the scientific director of the San Raffaele Institute in Milan. It is the researcher with her group from the Telethon Institute of Genetic Therapy (TIGET) who made gene therapy a reality. “It is a shame because our project is not only a treatment project, but also has great value in foreign policy as a tool for peace and credibility for Italy,” said Roncarolo during a conference with all of the Telethon researchers in Riva di Garda (Trento). With her at the conference was Marco Andreani from Rome’s Tor Vergata University group: “In Damascus we had opened a centre for bone marrow transplants with the idea of bringing therapy there to cure thalassaemia,” explained the researcher. In Italy, at San Raffaele and Tor Vergata, many centres have been opened for children from Mediterranean countries who are sent to Italy to have genetic diseases treated. But now the future of these centres is in doubt. “It is a paradox,” observed Roncarolo, “that a country should invest in research then abandon the project when it is close to its objective.” For Roncarolo, it is important that the management of similar projects “be entrusted to professionals who understand that this is a professional project, and not a project for solidarity, which has goals of treatments, training, and research, as well as sharing expertise.” Just consider, she added, that in Damascus alone “ we have trained 135 people, and we performed the first bone marrow transplant with them and now they are working without us”. Andreani said, “last week in Jerusalem, he met up with our Palestinian colleagues regarding the treatment of 25 children with thalassaemia, ready to come to perform transplants in Italy at San Raffaele or Tor Vergata”. Each operation would cost 100,000 euro, “but right now,” said Andreani, “that amount is unavailable. Someone with authority must make these funds available, we are currently acting to seek financing from the Italian government”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mediterranean: EIB, 1.3 Billion Invested in 2008
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 9 — The Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP), the European Investment Bank’s financial instrument for the Mediterranean area, furnished 1.3 billion euro to support private businesses and infrastructure in the Mediterranean countries in 2008. According to the financial report presented today in Brussels, FEMIP financed a total of 20 projects, nine in the Maghreb, nine in the Middle East, and two cross-border projects. The priorities were to support private businesses and create a positive climate for investments with efficient infrastructure and adequate banking systems. Among the projects financed by FEMIP was the construction of a second container terminal in the Tangier port in Morocco for a cost of 40 million euro. FEMIP also purchased a 25% share in the Carbone Maroc Capital Fund, the first investment fund specialising in the purchase of carbon credits generated by renewable energy for sale on the global carbon market, as set up in the Kyoto protocol. Other projects include a 37 million euro loan for infrastructure projects in Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia and a 275 million loan for power plants in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Lombardy Artisan and SME Mission Kicks Off Tomorrow
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, MARCH 10 — A mission in Tunisia dedicated to artisan businesses and small and medium enterprises from Lombardy will take place from March 11 to 14. The mission was organised by Promos, the Special Agency for Internationalisation of the Milan Chamber of Commerce and by the Lombardy Regional Councillor’s Office of the Artisan and Service Industry. The event, which is part of a project called ‘The artisan industry of Lombardy in Tunisia’, was organised at the same time as the ‘Salon de la Creation Artisanale’ scheduled to take place in Tunis, where 8 of the 22 companies of the Lombardy region following the mission, will present their products. “Tunisia is one of the benchmark countries in the Mediterranean region,” according to Promos, “and this is proven by the fact that in 2007 Tunisia was the second biggest destination country for Italian exports with 12.9%, just behind Turkey (31.7%). In our country, there are 506 Tunisian companies with an Italian stake, 134 of them in Lombardy alone. This mission allows us to further strengthen trade relations with Tunisia and allows our companies to participate in the most important trade fair for the artisan industry in Africa”. “Close economic relations,” said Domenico Zambetti, Councilman of the Artisan and Service Industry in Lombardy, “have progressively consolidated partnerships between Lombardy and the Tunisian state. After an economic-institutional mission in February, the Lombardy Regional Councillor’s Office of the Artisan and Service Industry will accompany its artisan companies to discover new commercial outlets ahead of the ‘Tunisian Week’ scheduled to take place in Milan in May, during which we will hold a specific seminar for our companies. Regional excellence has confirmed that Lombardy is aware of the outside world”. During the mission, the delegation from Lombardy will meet Commerce Minsiter Ridha Touiti, the Vice-Minister of Industry and Energy and SMEs Abdelaziz Rassaa, and Tourism Minister Khelil Lajimi. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Population Divided Over Oil Revenue Sharing
(by Fausto Gasparroni) (ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI — “The distribution of wealth”, is a project that has become a mantra in Libya in recent days, a magic formula, at times fought over and debated by thousands of citizens when called upon to express their opinion about leader Muammar Gaddafi’s proposal to hand over oil revenue directly to the population, even if it means dismantling a part of the state administration. Libyans will express their opinion in the hundreds of Basic People’s Congresses in Libya, the first step of “direct democracy” in Libya. The congresses, which will meet until Sunday with citizens from all social and educational groups including both men and women, will express their conclusion to the General People’s Congress set to meet on March 2. According to Libyan law, the final decisions will be applied through base committees, an executive “branch” of the popular congresses. The discussion over the past days on a topic that directly effects the citizens economically has not been widely agreed upon. The bases seem to be divided between those who favour un immediate redistribution of resources (26.2 billion dinars this year, about to 20.2 billion dollars to be divided between about 5 million residents), who are fighting against the corruption of ministerial oligarchies in the government, and those who believe that the country is “not yet ready” and fear administrative chaos and an indiscriminate rise in prices, who are asking for a 3-5 year postponement. The costal city of az-Zawiyah, numbering 350 thousand residents, 30km west of Tripoli reflects the split: even if everyone is asking for Gaddafi’s proposals “to be studied closely and deeply, and implemented in the best way possible”. Among the most controversial issues is the idea to give monthly subsidies to only part of the population, including the 1.5-2 million of the poorest people in the country. Fear about the method used to select the beneficiaries and the possibility that new biases coming into play are widespread. Also, many wonder who will be responsible for the jobs of the ministers who have just been removed from office, including health, education, and infrastructure? According to Rashid Zayed, 40 year old member of the ‘Open Sea’ Congress, “Libyans are simple people, and wealth should be used in the proper way. If it is given to an individual, what will they do for us? Roads? Hospitals? There is also the risk that prices will rise disproportionally. Instead, the government must continue to examine services that are of public interest, and build a stronger country”. Others propose to give only part of the revenue, mainly to the unemployed. Others do not want to hear the reasons. “The revolution was born for the poor, and we are the poor”, yelled a veiled Ms. Aisham Muftah, a worker at the phone company in az-Zawiyah. She said, “We cannot postpone the distribution of wealth, because otherwise the rich will continue to become richer and the thieves will continue to steal”. The same situation is being seen in Surman, a town of 150 thousand residents, 40 km west of the capital, which shows all the same divisions. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oil: Libya-UAE Sign Agreement to Expand Ras Lanouf Refinery
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, MARCH 10 — In Tripoli at the headquarters of the Libyan national oil company, NOC, an agreement has been signed between United Arab Emirates company Trasta and NOC to jointly restructure and expand the Ras Lanouf refinery, located about 600km east of the capital. The agreement, which gives rise to Lerco (Libyan Emirates Refining Company) was signed by NOC President Shukri Ghanem, and Trasta chief Issa Abdullah al Gharir. The agreement will allow the two companies to increase the capacity refined per day by 220 thousand barrels, for an estimated turnover of 175 million dollars. The agreement has defined a restructuring of the refinery that will develop productivity and product quality. These objectives will be reached with the construction of new high technology units to produce unleaded petrol and meet high levels of demand for this type of fuel. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism: Algeria, Police Officer Killed in Kabylie
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, MARCH 10 — A police officer was killed on Sunday evening at a bogus road-block set up by an armed Islamic group at Boghni, near Tizi Ouzou (100 km east of Algiers). The killing came a few hours after the suicide attack on a security forces barracks in the same area of Kabylie. According to reports in today’s Algerian press, the 52-year-old man was identified and killed with a cut to his throat. The armed group then set fire to the officer’s car with his body inside it. Three persons, including the attacker, died and eight were injured on Saturday evening in a suicide attack on a barrack of council security forces at Tadamit, a location in the Berber mountains. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
British MP, Head of “Long Live Palestine” Aid Convoy to FI: “It is a Shame to be Under Protection and Custody of the Killers of Palestinian Children”
Al Areesh- British MP and human rights activists George Galloway said that despite all the challenges and difficulties, he has managed to arrive into the Gaza Strip heading an aid convoy in support of the impoverished Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
“Finally we arrived into the Palestinian lands. The rules, the obstacles and difficulties during our laborious trip did not prevent us from supporting our Palestinian brothers to lift the unfair blockade,” Galloway said in exclusive remarks to Fact International. “Gaza will not die.”
Galloway arrived into the Gaza Strip a couple of days ago leading a humanitarian convoy, entitled “Long Live Palestine..lifeline from Britain to Gaza families.
He expressed his deep thanks and gratitude for all the people who welcomed him and his colleagues accompanying the caravan and facilitated their way into Gaza.
This convoy traveled for thousands of kilometers for the sake of children, women and elderly people old in Gaza, and victims of Israel’s brutal war machine, he said Those people are still resisting and struggling courageously on their land and from their homes which have been destroyed by the Israeli bulldozers.
The British deputy has faced harsh criticism by western political circles over the years and sacrificed several top positions for defending human rights. He never relinquished his noble principles and values. He devoted his lifetime to support righteousness and justice and to fight against oppression, tyranny and hypocrisy. He has always been critical of the western forces which support the Zionist entity.
Galloway is a strong proponent of the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights including their right to establish their independent state. “Palestine will not die,” he said
He hailed the Arab people’s sacrifices for liberating Palestine. Those people believe in justice and the right of the Palestinians to live with dignity and freedom on their land. They did not forget Palestine because it is always present in their hearts.
He added “I am sending a message to the entire world to clarify that the British people are not enemy of the Muslims.” “Toni Blair does not represent all the British people.” “ We also represent the British people and we came here to expose Israeli crimes against the great Palestinian people.”
Galloway emphasized that millions of the British people support justice and the right of the Palestinian people to establish their state without interference or control by any other party. “We came here because we believe in unity of the Palestinian people. We hope to support the Palestinian people who had suffered a lot from the Israeli war crimes. This shameful silence towards the Israeli crimes will cause a lot of sufferings for the Palestinians.
The super powers headed by the United States, are pursuing the double standard policy in dealing with Israel and Palestine. “I repeat once again Palestine will not die,” he said.
Regarding coordinating with the Israeli Authorities to facilitate entery of the aid convoy to the Palestinian lands, Galloway said we refused to get into the Gaza Strip through Al Auja crossing because it is under the control of the Israeli authorities. We do not want to coordinate with the Israelis. Therefore, we took our way through Rafah border crossing. “We will return through this crossing to avoid meetings or talking to the Israeli side,” he said.
“ It is a shame to be under the protection and custody of the killers of the Palestinian children,” Galloway said.
He said that most of the people who accompanied the convoy belong to the poor British community, who worked hard daily to collect aids for Gaza families. They saw the massacre committed the Israeli forces against Gaza families, leaving most of them homeless.
The Israeli forces carried out a devastating war and massacres, with support of several countries in the region. There was a horrible silence. It was an Arab and International conspiracy, he said.
He sharply criticized the Egyptian Government measures regarding the aid convoy. It (the government) honored us in the morning during a public conference and attacked us in the evening. The Egyptian security carried brutal attacks against the people accompanying the convoy. They did not provide us with the protection we need.
Galloway concluded by saying “long live Palestine” and raised up his hand with the sign of victory.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
FBI’s Embarrassing Response to CAIR Questions
by Steve Emerson
A U.S. Congressman who serves on a committee controlling the FBI’s budget is blasting the Bureau’s response to a set of questions regarding an FBI freeze on contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported January 29th that evidence tying CAIR and its founders to a U.S.-based Hamas support network prompted the Bureau to sever routine outreach meetings with the organization. That evidence was part of the government’s prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which ended in November with the conviction of five former officials on 108 counts.
“[I]f CAIR wishes to pursue an outreach relationship with the FBI, certain issues must be addressed to the satisfaction of the FBI. Unfortunately, these issues cannot be addressed at the local level and must be addressed by the CAIR National Office in Washington, D.C.,” an October letter from Oklahoma City Special Agent in Charge James E. Finch said. Similar letters were issued in other states.
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, (R-VA), wrote to the FBI on February 2nd asking for details about the FBI move. He addressed his questions to Michael Heimbach, an assistant director for the Counter Terrorism Division. Among them: whether there were conditions that could end the freeze, and what were the “certain issues” referenced by Finch that needed to be addressed by CAIR.
FBI spokesman John Miller responded in a four-paragraph letter dated March 9th, but hand-delivered last Friday:
“‘Formal’ relationships as defined here means appointing or accepting CAIR or its representatives on any organized committee or group sponsored by the FBI. However, representatives of CAIR have the same access to the FBI as any other persons and are encouraged to report any crime or violation of civil rights.”
The letter did not address most of Wolf’s questions and he expressed his displeasure in a response released today:
“For six years I served as chairman of the appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the FBI and count myself among the Bureau’s strongest supporters,” Wolf wrote. “Having resumed a leadership role this year as ranking member on the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee, it is important to me that the FBI provide timely and detailed responses.”
He didn’t find that in Miller’s letter, so he repeated his questions and asked that they be answered by Friday “by someone who works on counter-terrorism, rather than a public affairs officer. Other members of Congress, both House and Senate, have expressed interest in and additional information about the Bureau’s position as it relates to CAIR. I would think the Bureau would be embarrassed to send the insufficient response I received.”
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza: Four Containers of Aid From Liguria Region
(ANSAmed) — GENOA, MARCH 9 — Volunteers from the association “Creativi della notte music for peace” are leaving Cristoforo Colombo airport in Genoa tonight, to distribute four containers of aid to the Gaza Strip. The volunteers will arrive in Cairo tomorrow, then from Alexandria they will reach Rafah on around March 15, whilst the containers, which are being transported by ship, are expected to reach Alexandria tomorrow or Wednesday. The aim of the mission, as outlined during a press conference, is to distribute 1,800 20kg packages of food, medicine and hospital equipment to the population most affected by the war, and to film and photograph their work, and the living conditions of civilians in Gaza. The written and photographic log will be available online every day from the site www.creatividellanottemusicforpeace.org. The 2009 aim is to raise funds to fill 12 containers to send to the Palestinian and Saharawi populations. The association began the Solidar Scuola project, to raise awareness amongst students of the extremely difficult living conditions caused by war, poverty and natural disasters, and through Solidarbus, it will travel to all the Ligurian provinces to collect basic necessities. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinian Family Sues Israel Over Gaza Raid
Nazareth, 10 March (AKI) — A Palestinian family has filed a lawsuit seeking more than 200 million dollars in damages from outgoing Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and other senior officials over Israel’s recent offensive in the Gaza Strip. The al-Samouni family filed the lawsuit on behalf of 79 family members — 29 of whom were killed and 45 wounded during Israel’s military action — in a court in the town of Nazareth.
The family wants 851 million Israeli Shekels (200 million dollars) from the Israeli government citing “criminal negligence.”
The lawsuit is seeking the compensation from outgoing Olmert, defense forces chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi and current defence minister Ehud Barak for damages caused during Israel’s three-week offensive against Gaza which ended in January.
However, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said the courts have previously rejected similar lawsuits filed by Palestinians demanding compensation for injuries caused by military operations.
“They were sitting at home, in a place meant to provide them with quiet, peace and rest — far from the firing. There is no disagreement over the fact that this was criminal negligence on the part of the military force, which murdered and injured innocent people who were simply present at their home,” said attorney Mohammed Foukara quoted by Yedioth Ahronoth.
Last week a similar claim was made by a family from the Jabaliya refugee camp, after 11 children were killed and five others injured. The family is claiming 43 million dollars in compensation.
The al-Samouni family lived in the Zaytoun suburb, located in east Gaza.
According to the lawsuit, the family’s three-storey building was burnt down by a tank shell allegedly fired by IDF forces. Seven family members were killed.
The following day 22 other family members were killed as they were shelled while they gathered in shelter.
The three-week Israeli military offensive on the Hamas-ruled coastal territory began on 27 December and ended on 18 January. Palestinian medical officials said more than 1,330 Palestinians were killed and more than 5,400 others were injured.
Some estimates said that over one-third of those killed in the military offensive were women and children. The military offensive caused widespread damage and destruction in the coastal strip and humanitarian organisations have been working to restore the provision of food and other aid in Gaza.
Thirteen Israelis — including ten soldiers — died during the Israeli military operation.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Territories: Survey, Popularity of Hamas Rises
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, MARCH 9 — The popularity of Hamas has risen in comparison to that of Fatah, which, despite a downturn in appeal to citizens, remains the Palestinian organisation with the most backing in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. The prime minister of the de-facto Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, is expected to win the presidential elections to replace the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). This result could be avoided however, if the popular Fatah member, Marwan Barghuti, who is currently in prison in Israel, were to put himself forward as a candidate. These are the two outcomes of a regular survey of public opinion, carried out in recent days on a representative sample of the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR). There was a 3% margin of error. According to the PSR, if presidential elections were called, Haniyeh would take 47% of votes and Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) would take 45%. In Gaza, where Hamas is in power, Abbas would take 50% of the votes and Haniyeh would have 44%. But if Marwan Barghuti were to stand in place of Abbas, Barghuti would take 61% of votes and Haniyeh would get 34%. The popularity of Hamas compared to last December is growing, from 28% to 33%, whilst Fatah’s popularity has fallen from 42% to 40%. Fatah’s lead is much larger in Gaza (+12%) than in the West Bank (+3%). Some 71% of Palestinians consider their living conditions to be worse before the Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza; 25% however think that living conditions in the West Bank are good, (as against 7% in Gaza). Some 63% of Palestinians think that a Hamas victory in presidential and legislative elections would aggravate the isolation and boycotting of Gaza; 61% on the other hand think that a Fatah victory would improve the situation. At the same time, 47% of those questioned think that a Hamas victory would increase the split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and only 24% think that it would help bring the two territories closer together. The rapprochement of the two territories is considered 37% probable if Fatah were to win, and 31% probable if Hamas were to win. (ANSAmed).
2009-03-09 19:04
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
After Jail, Christians Pray for Saudi King Abdallah
Fr. George Joshua was arrested in 2006 by the religious police, for celebrating Mass in a private residence. In 2007, he founded a group that has been joined by more than 500 people. They are praying for the well-being of the kingdom, and for freedom of religion. The priest invites Christians in India to make a “positive contribution to Saudi society.”
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — Praying for Saudi king Abdallah; for the well-being of the country and for religious freedom; for the Christians of India, who should make “a positive contribution” to the society that welcomes them. In this spirit, Fr. George Joshua, an Indian Catholic priest of the Malankara rite, has created prayer groups that every day, 24 hours out of 24, 7 days a week, alternate Masses, recitation of the Rosary, and meditations for religious freedom and for the prosperity of Saudi Arabia.
In 2006, Fr. George, who is from Kerala, became familiar with the rigors of the Saudi jails: the bishop had sent him to the Arab country to prepare Indian Christians for Easter. The religious police in the kingdom arrested him at the end of the Mass, and put him in jail for four days (see: In a Saudi jail I shared the suffering of the Crucified Christ, says Father George). In Saudi Arabia, it is prohibited to practice any religion except for Islam.
During the spiritual retreat after his experience in jail, Fr. George had a vision of “a chalice cup planted on the map of the Saudi kingdom”; he says that he received a “call” to pray for the country, in which God gave him “the opportunity for an experience” of profound faith. On May 1, 2007, Fr. George founded the Christ Army for Saudi Arabia (CASA), made up of groups that “pray and fast” for the well-being of the Saudi kingdom. As of today, more than 500 people have joined the initiative.
“Our primary prayers are for the king of Saudi Arabia,” the priest explains, “and for the prosperity and richness of the Saudi kingdom who so generously welcome tens of thousands of Indian to work there, thus leading to an better lifestyle and improved standard of living in their native India.”
Fr. George has talked with Indian nurses who are working in the Saudi kingdom. “75% are Catholics from Kerala. I tell them they should serve their patients with the love of Christ, serve the sick with tenderness and love.” He also recalls the many laborers in the factories and industries of Saudi Arabia; they come from a society, that of India, that is “multicultural, interconfessional, and pluralist,” and can “make a responsible and positive contribution to Saudi society.”
“In Saudi Arabia,” Fr. George concludes, “when Christians and our dear Muslim friends interact so closely on a daily basis, each respecting the other as individuals and respecting each other’s religion, it gradually builds up fraternal collaboration. All this will be fulfilled through our prayer cells of CASA.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Saddam’s Sister ‘Fights’ Legal Action
Baghdad, 10 March (AKI) — The family of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has appealed to US president Barack Obama to stop a legal move by Jordanian authorities to prevent the late dictator’s eldest daughter, Raghd, from any involvement in political activity in her host country.
“Raghd lives in Amman under the protection of the Jordanian King Abdullah II,” a family source told Adnkronos International (AKI).
“So the Iraqi government sent its Jordanian counterpart an international arrest warrant to prosecute her under claims that she’s supporting factions from the Iraqi resistance.”
The source said Amman should continue its hospitality for the family of Raghd, because there was “no proof” to verify the accusations.
“It is not obliged to accept the Interpol arrest warrant, particularly because it is certain that Raghd has no relations with the Iraqi armed resistance factions and has not conducted any political activity since arriving in the kingdom (of Jordan).
Raghd and Rana, Saddam’s two daughters, have lived with their sons in Amman under the protection of Jordanian authorities, since King Abdullah II decided to accept the family for humanitarian reasons in July 2003.
Raghd was married to Hussein Kamel and Rana was married to his brother, Saddam Kamel. In 1995 Saddam and Hussein and their wives defected and Hussein gave information to the CIA, MI6 and other organisations about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
In 1996 the group returned to Iraq believing they had been pardoned for their actions, but the brothers were killed in a raid on their return after being accused of treason.
In a separate development, Iraqi forces at the weekend arrested seven men accused of trying to revive Saddam Hussein’s banned Baath party.
Colonel Ali Ismail, head of an Iraqi army brigade in Diyala province, said the men were arrested on Friday in the area northeast of Baghdad.
The arrests were made a day after prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia, called for forgiveness for former Sunni allies of Saddam whose party was made illegal after the 2003 allied invasion that drove him from power.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Women’s Activity Participation in Society Up, Study
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, MARCH 9 — Official figures showed a rise in the contribution of women in the job market and political life, with 14.7% out of the country’s labour force in 2007, a study by the Department of Statistics showed today. Figure also showed that women’s participation in political life increased over the past two decades, with 12.7% women out of the overall make-up of the senate, a council appointed by the king, while in 1990 the figure stood at 2.6%. In the elected lower house of Parliament, women’s presence sky rocketed from 1.3% in 1993 to 6.4% in 2005, as six seats were allocated for women under a special quota. The increased participation of women is in fact due to laws that empowered women in the political life, with the elections law increasing the quota of women from 4 to six in the last polls. Women’s participation in local business also jumped with figures showing that percentage of women who received small loans to start their own business went up from 7% in 1995 to 44% in 2007. In the judiciary sector, women presence also increased with the first female chief of court appointed in 2007. The figures were released as the world celebrated the international women’s day on Sunday. Jordanian activists say rights of women in the kingdom remain bellow expectations due to what they say “discriminating laws” in favour of the male counterparts. Violence against women remains rampant, with at least 20 women killed every year in the name of honour, while killers receive sentences that do not exceed one year behind bars. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New Report Highlights Tensions on Israel-Lebanon Border
New York, 10 March (AKI) — The recent hostilities in the Gaza Strip have posed the most serious challenge to peace between Israel and Hezbollah since the adoption of a United Nations resolution which helped end the so-called July war in 2006, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said in a new report.
Rockets fired into Israel from southern Lebanon and return fire have led to heightened tensions along the so-called Blue Line that separates the Israeli and Lebanese sides of the border and “endangered the cessation of hostilities agreement,” Ban wrote in his latest report to the Security Council on Resolution 1701.
The 2006 resolution called for renewed respect for the Blue Line, the disarming of militias and an end to arms smuggling, among other measures.
“The firing of rockets from southern Lebanon towards Israel, which I condemn in all instances, constituted a serious violation” of the resolution, Ban said. The attacks were launched from sites close to populated areas, including a school in session at the time, “putting innocent civilians at risk,” he said.
Ban added: The fact that the Israel Defense Forces returned fire with artillery shells into Lebanese territory on 8 and 14 January without providing prior warning to UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) is also a cause for serious concern,” noting that these acts endangered civilians, as well as UN peacekeeping troops and soldiers of the Lebanese Armed Forces.
“At the same time, I was encouraged by the measures that were taken by all parties to avoid an escalation,” he wrote, with the resolution’s mechanisms having served as an “effective deterrent and prevented an escalation of the situation in southern Lebanon.”
But he cautioned that these incidents “also highlight the precarious nature of the current cessation of hostilities and the necessity for both parties to take further steps to address a number of unresolved issues,” including disarming militant groups.
Ban reiterated his call on Israel to immediately end all over-flights of Lebanese territory which violate Lebanon’s sovereignty and Resolution 1701.
The report also called on all Lebanese leaders to exercise restraint ahead of the 7 June parliamentary elections, which “will bring added challenges that may test the country’s frail domestic stability.”
The 2006 Lebanon war was a month-long conflict between Hezbollah guerrillas and the Israeli military. The conflict began on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006.
The war formally ended in September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon.
Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009 provoked outrage across the Arab world and sparked worldwide protests against Israel. More than 1,330 Palestinians died in Israel’s offensive and another 5,400 were injured. Thirteen Israelis died during the conflict.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Kurds, Digging for Mass Graves Starts in South East
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 9 — Turkish investigators began a series of excavations today in south east Turkey as part of an investigation into the existence of mass graves in which ethnic Kurds are said to have been buried after being killed by security forces. According to Anadolu news agency, the digging started near the town of Silopi, in the province of Sirnak, upon the order of a magistrate who opened an official investigation following the publication of numerous newspaper articles affirming that many people that disappeared in the 1990s, the most violent period of the Kurdish rebellion in the region, may have been summarily executed and buried in common graves. The press reports also say that the bodies of the victims may have been buried in graves that were then filled with acid, or buried along the road that connects Silopi to Cizre. The south eastern region of Turkey, with a majority Kurdish population, was the site of bloody battles between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK has been fighting since 1984 for the creation of an independent Kurdish nation in the region. The government in Ankara, along with the EU and the USA, considers it a terrorist organisation and accuses the PKK of being responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, since 1984. (ANSAmed).
2009-03-09 19:59
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: European Bank Gives Record Loan to Country
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MARCH 9 — The European Investment Bank (EIB) provided 2.7 billion euro of loan to Turkey in 2008, the bank management said during the annual news conference in Bruxelles, as reported by Anatolia news agency from the Belgian capital. The bank granted 1.8 billion euro to Turkey in 2006, and the amount of loan provided by the bank to Turkey was 2.1 billion euro in 2007. The European Investment Bank opened two offices in Turkey in 2008, including one in the capital Ankara and another in the commercial hub of Istanbul. The amount of loan the bank granted to Turkey between 2004 and 2008 reached 8.3 billion euro. The bank provided loan worth 51.5 billion euro to 27 European Union (EU) member states in 2008, and 6.1 billion euro to countries outside the EU zone. Turkey received 44% of the outside-EU-zone loans. The European Investment Bank provided 1 billion euro of loan to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in 2008. Some 700 million of the loan was for transportation projects, and 300 million for making public buildings in Istanbul more resistant to earthquakes. Also, the bank granted 700 million euro loan for small and medium scale enterprises, and allocated 350 million euro for small and medium scale infrastructural investments. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Prosecutors File Second Indictment in Ergenekon Case
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, 10 MARCH — Turkish prosecutors filed the long-awaited additional indictment for the controversial Ergenekon case in an Istanbul court today, as Anatolia news agency reports. The 1,909-page additional indictment in the ongoing Ergenekon case means that more than hundred people in Turkey will stand trial on charges of forming an illegal organization to provoke a series of events that would pave the way for a military coup. The High Criminal Court in Istanbul will have two weeks to decide whether to approve the indictment, and if approved, the trial process will start for the 56 suspects named, 21 of who are currently being held in prison. The second indictment relates to those detained after the sixth wave of the operation on July 1, 2008 and includes retired generals and prominent journalists. Over 80 people were named and are currently standing trial in the first indictment filed in 2008. In the second indictment, 12 suspects were accused of “leading an illegal organization” while eight of them also face the accusation of “attempting to overthrow the Turkish government by using force”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Crackdown on ‘Martyrs’ Books
JAKARTA — INDONESIA is cracking down on radical publishing houses that have printed a Martyrs Trilogy of books by the three executed Bali bombers, a terrorism expert said on Wednesday.
The books by Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra were written in prison ahead of their executions by firing squad in November for their roles in the nightclub bombings that killed more than 200 people in Bali in 2002.
Terrorism analyst Sidney Jones, senior adviser at the International Crisis Group think tank, said the Indonesian government had for the first time made efforts to prevent the spread of the bombers’ message of Islamist violence.
‘These three men in prison were prolific writers and just as they were about to be executed there was competition among radical publishing houses for their works,’ Ms Jones told reporters.
‘For the first time that I recall the Indonesian government actually took a lot of steps to try to ensure that these, first, didn’t get published and then didn’t reach a wide audience.’ Ms Jones said the ‘so-called Martyrs Trilogy’ — a book by each of the three Islamists — had been ready in December but interference from the state intelligence agency delayed its release for months.
The agency even ‘bought up all the copies’ of one of the first print runs, she said.
The books were available at an Islamic book fair in Jakarta last week but were ‘not prominently displayed at all,’ she said.
‘The point is that for the first time there is actually a real attention on the part of the Indonesian government to what’s published and how it’s distributed,’ she said.
The government came under frequent criticism during the trials and in the lead up to their executions for allowing the bombers to speak to the media and spread their calls for jihad or ‘holy war’ against the West. — AFP
| — Hat tip: Holger Danske | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: New Delhi Sends ‘Commandos’ to Protect Embassy
Islamabad, 10 March (AKI) — The Indian government has sent a special unit of trained commandos to Pakistan to protect top diplomats and secure its embassy in Islamabad. There is growing international concern about Pakistan’s political instability and a surge in militant attacks, such as the deadly attack that targeted the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore last week.
A senior Indian official revealed on Tuesday that the 16 Indian commandos were transferred to the embassy in Islamabad last month.
“They will perform VIP security duties after assessing the situation there,” N.R. Das, head of India’s elite Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), told the media.
He said the commandos were in charge of protection of diplomats at the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu and would now do the same in Pakistan.
The CISF provides security for 269 industrial locations throughout India, including power plants, defence production facilities, airports and oil refineries.
The security personnel are trained in commando skills and unarmed combat.
Das said the security of the Indian Embassy was handled by the Pakistan government.
Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed when gunmen opened fire on the Sri Lankan cricket team and team officials in Lahore last week.
Six members of the Sri Lankan team were also injured in the attack, the first on a national team since the massacre of Israeli athletes by Islamic militants at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Arrests Opposition Leaders Ahead of Planned Rallies
Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan to be placed under house arrest as government cracks down on protests
The crisis engulfing Pakistan deepened this morning after the government issued orders for opposition leaders, including Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif, to be placed under house arrest ahead of planned rallies against the ruling administration.
Police have arrested scores of lawyers and opposition leaders today and, according to reports on Pakistani television, orders have been issued for the detention of Sharif, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League N party (PML-N), his brother Shabhaz Sharif, the Jamat-e-Islami leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, and Khan, who is the head of Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Many opposition leaders are said to have gone into hiding. Pakistani lawyers, supported by opposition leaders, are due to begin a protest tomorrow dubbed the long march to demand the restoration of judges removed from office by the former president Pervez Musharraf.
President Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has failed to fulfil a pledge to restore the justices since being elected last year.
The clampdown will increase fears for the stability of the country as the government struggles to contain violent extremists.
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Mauritania: Gaddafi Seeks End to Political Crisis
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MARCH 10 — The current President of the African Union, the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has personally committed himself to resolving the political crisis in Mauritania following the coup d’etat on August 6 2008. Gaddafi himself travelled to Nouakchott to hold talks with those responsible for the crisis, as part of a diplomatic mission which was awarded to Libya by the Mauritania delegation during a meeting held in Paris on February 20. After meeting in Tripoli last week, last night Gaddafi held a meeting with the President of the High State Council (the executive of the military body currently holding power), General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who deposed the first ever democratically elected Mauritanian president (in power since 2005), Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. He will later hold talks with the opposition leader during Abdallahi’s government, Ahmed Ould Daddah, and representatives of the National Front for the Defence of Democracy which supports Abdallahi’s return to power. This afternoon Gaddafi is to lead prayers for the Mouloud festival which celebrates the birth of the prophet Mohammed, in front of over 2,000 guests from around the world, and tomorrow he will give a speech to the Mauritanian parliament before meeting women’s groups to discuss the crisis with them. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: 31 Immigrants Rescued at Sea
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MARCH 9 — A group of 31 foreign nationals without travel documents were picked up by port authorities today off the Oinousses islands. The illegal immigrants, including two women, were picked up by a coast guard motor launch about 0.7 nautical miles south east of Vatou Island; they said they had left the Turkish coast in a rubber launch which they destroyed when they saw the coast guard vessel approaching. All the immigrants were taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure and the Chio Port Authority has begun an official investigation. According to a statement from the Mercantile Marine, 371 illegal immigrants were arrested, 11 people were arrested for human trafficking, and 12 boats were confiscated in February. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: A False Problem
The suggestion of Gianfranco Fini, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, to ‘Italianise’ the Friday Sermon was only of media importance, and thus will have no effect on the political agenda. The proposal is concealing a wish to control mosques in Italy, so would it not be more useful to look thoroughly into the issues surrounding Muslim immigrants? Gianfranco Fini cannot continue acting like an ordinary citizen or an exponent of the opposition. He must apply his ideas on immigrants in general and on ‘Italy’s Islam’ in particular, within his political alignment.
President of the Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini has chosen an international stage to reaffirm his position regarding the presence of Islam in Italy. Whilst in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, Fini stated, “Preaching in mosques must be done in Italian. The Koran must be preached in the language of the country where the Muslim lives”. Is it right to take this very Italian and inappropriate debate abroad? Would it not be more useful for the government to first look thoroughly into the issues surrounding Muslim immigrants?
These are the two questions which I would like to ask the President of the Chamber of Deputies. ‘Italianising’ the Friday Sermon is an imaginary problem, or at the very least it is not a priority. In my opinion, Fini’s statement was only instrumental (only to appear on the spot and not to be shadowed out by his “comrades” Berlusconi and Bossi), and thus there will be no effect on the political agenda. There seem to be many doubts surrounding the issue, and I will discuss a few below…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Maroni: Centres for Illegals in Every Region
(ANSAmed) — LA SPEZIA, MARCH 10 — “We must increase the availability of space for illegal immigrants because we cannot on one hand ask that all illegal immigrants be deported and on the other not approve new immigration centres and new measures,” said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni during the inauguration of a new fire station in la Spezia. “To be able to proceed as we are doing with the deportation of all illegal immigrants,” continued Maroni, “we must have immigration centres. Our plan is to have a centre in every region in the coming years. It is not fair that an illegal immigrant is caught in one region that does not have a centre, and is transferred to a centre in another region. It is not fair because another region is taking care of a problem that should be shared by everyone. This is the plan that we will act on in order fully to implement our order that all illegal immigrants must be repatriated”. Maroni also added that “There will not be other regulations or any stricter laws regarding illegal immigration. It has all already been written in the legislative decrees and in the draft law currently being discussed in Parliament. There is no need for any other regulations; we need to implement them, apply them, something that we are doing progressively”. “I think that this is the correct path, we will continue in this direction, rejecting all controversy based only on ideological prejudice and we will continue to implement the points that we expressed in the electoral campaign in the past months”. Maroni said that he is not in agreement with those who believe that Italy is not a hospitable country: “Those who want to live honestly, in peace, and respecting the law can come to live here. The Romanian community like many other communities is numerous, active, and well-integrated with the exception of a few people who are dealt with individually in the legal system: there is no need to generalize.” (ANSAmed).
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Milan: Employment Support for Moroccan Women
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, MARCH 10 — To help with the development of Moroccan migrant women entrepreneurs in Lombardy, and in particular in the provinces of Milan, Brescia and Bergamo where more than half of the immigrants from the North African country live; this is the main objective of the ‘Weave Development’ project presented in Milan by the Soleterre NGO. The principal aim is to create two centres, one in Milan and another in Settat, Morocco, in the Chaouia Ouardiga region, which is where most of the immigrants to Italy come from. The centres will assist women in finding training opportunities and business support methods, encouraging synergy and exchanges with public and private entities. The initiative is within the sphere of a partnership that involves Italian institutions and agencies, including the Province of Milan, the Lombardy Region, the Moroccan Ministry for Tourism, the Hassan II Foundation and other bodies in Morocco. (ANSAmed).
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11 Dead in Geneva County Shooting Spree
Hell came to Samson Tuesday in the form of a deranged gunman whose killing spree left 10 victims dead before he turned a gun on himself.
The gunman, identified by eyewitnesses and a former high school classmate as Michael McLendon, 27, began his mad, violent rampage in Kinston, where one victim was found dead in a burned house, according to authorities.
McLendon then went to Samson where he rampaged through a neighborhood, killing four adults and a 1-year-old child at one residence, and two other people at nearby homes. A 3-month-old infant was also injured in the shootings.
He then went on a random shooting spree through Samson, shooting and killing a woman at a Big Little store on State Highway 52 and another victim at Samson Pipe and Supply.
McLendon also opened fire on Bradley TrueValue Hardware store. Luckily, no one was injured.
“We were just business as normal and all of a sudden there were bullets flying and glass was everywhere,” owner David Bradley said. “We realized what it was and grabbed our guns but then he was gone.”
After McLendon left Samson he fled to Geneva, where he encountered law enforcement officers. Geneva County deputies rammed the suspect’s Mitsubishi Eclipse in front of Alabama Title Loans on State Highway 52, near Wal-Mart.
Gunfire was exchanged and Geneva Police Chief Frankie Lindsey was shot in the shoulder, though his wound was not serious. A chase then continued to Reliable Products where McLendon took his own life.
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Eleven Killed in Alabama Shooting Spree
Birmingham, Ala., March 11 (Reuters) — Eleven People Including the Suspected Gunman and His Mother Were Killed in a Shooting Spree and Car Chase in Southern Alabama on Tuesday, Authorities and Local Media Said.
The shooter, who was in his mid-30s, killed five people including the wife of a local deputy sheriff and her 3-month-old baby at a mobile home in Samson, according to Wynnton Melton, mayor of nearby Geneva, Alabama.
His other victims included his own mother, two people killed at a convenience store and a man in a pickup truck who died during a car chase as the gunman apparently fired at random, said Melton.
In all 10 people plus the gunman died, according to the website of the Dothan Eagle newspaper.
The shooting began in Samson, a small town in the southeastern part of the state and ended after a car chase and gun battle in Geneva, the county seat about 12 miles (20 km) away, according to the FBI and local police.
“Officer Ricky Morgan rammed his car to distract him and was rewarded with a hail of bullets,” said Melton. “One bullet grazed the shoulder of police chief Frankie Lindsey.”
[…]
Guns are widely available for purchase in the United States, a country that prides itself on the right to own weapons for self defense and hunting.
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Gunman Kills 15 at German Shooting Spree
German police say a gunman has been killed following a shooting spree that began at a school near Stuttgart and left 15 people dead.
Police say a youth dressed in military-style fatigues walked into a classroom at the Albertville technical high school in the town of Winnenden mid-morning Wednesday and opened fire. Authorities have identified the shooting suspect as a 17-year-old former student who was previously known to police.
A police spokeswoman said the suspect escaped the scene by car and was later killed in a nearby town. She said the dead include three teachers, nine students, a resident near the school and two others in addition to the suspect.
Police closed all schools in the region and warned local residents to remain indoors as scores of helmeted police hunted for the gunman and helicopters circled the town.
Officials say the school has an enrollment of 1,500.
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Sandiego City Schools Boss Wants District Pay Cut
The superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District is asking all employees to take a pay cut.
Superintendent Terry Grier will release a plan Tuesday asking all district employees to take a 1.5 percent pay cut and also to make a $100 pre-tax contribution to their benefits package, according to district spokesman Jack Brandais.
The board is scheduled to meet at noon Tuesday to discuss the plan and should vote on it later in the day.
The plan would have to be OK’d by the school’s unions prior to its passage.
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Serfing the Third Wave
In 1954 the Reece Committee investigated the inner workings of tax exempt foundations, such as those run by the Carnegie, Rockefeller and Ford families. The investigation was brought forth in part because of growing suspicion that these organizations were un-American. It was ultimately revealed that these tax exempt foundations were working in tandem, using foundation money to meddle with our minds.They needed to change our way of thinking, and using the power and influence of their organizations, they promote the idea of global government. One important way to capture and control us (the enemy) was uncovered, get us young and vulnerable, and teach us to love our servitude.
America was being slowly lead down a path of collectivism, in fact one report uncovered by the Reece committee summarized the third wave we were sleep-walking into, it was from the American Historical Foundation (est. in 1889) and states, “the day of the individual in the United States of America had come to an end, and that the future would be characterized, inevitably, by some form of collectivism…”
The harsh changes of the third wave are aimed at the individual and the Reece Committee was not the only proof of the war on for our minds. Former KGB propagandist, Yuri Bezmenov, revealed soviet secrets of psych warfare that were not only introduced to children by their teachers, but also spread through Hollywood by various artists (directors, writers, actors, poets, musicians, painters,) and pushed ahead by government leaders, and the press. They are all working against the individual, knowingly and unknowingly, in an attempt change our perception of reality. America has been attacked from the inside, through soviet ideological warfare.
Yuri has given some insight as to how effortless brainwashing an entire society can be. First the people must be demoralized, and that can take about fifteen years to indoctrinate a single generation, and when they are grown they will lead the next generation, parroting the doctrine. Once the majority has been reprogrammed they will react properly to the planned destabilization, and accept the Stalin or Lenin type leaders that will rise. Then a generated crisis will be used to make people more agreeable, and finally, normalization, (which may never end) making the brainwashed society find normalcy in a way of life that no one of sound mind would ever willingly accept.
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Twice in two years they have fought in Iraq. Twelve of their regimental comrades paid the ultimate price there and in Afghanistan.
Careful conversation with locals at Marston’s and Red House Market revealed that the compound residents use a lot of food stamps and frequent the county health department. They also are very aggressive with strangers asking questions about them. I am told they mostly shop at the Lynchburg Wal-Mart.