10 Years on: Britain Happy to Have Stayed Out of the Euro
A decade after the euro came into circulation, the British are more hostile than ever towards a currency that faces a battle for survival, and cannot hide their satisfaction at holding on to the pound. Yet such sentiment masks the fact that while the eurozone is struggling, the British economy is not exactly booming either.
According to a poll in the wake of Prime Minister David Cameron’s veto at a crunch European Union summit, 65 percent of Britons said they believe the euro is doomed and only one in five respondents thought it would survive. The Sunday Times newspaper caught the mood with its headline: “It’s bad, but at least we’re outside the eurozone.”
Anyone who hates Europe and the euro “can boast in the pub that they were right all along,” it said. Despite the hostility to the euro, the tangible benefits of Britain’s decision to stay out of the single European currency appear to be limited. Figures from the European Commission show that Britain’s public deficit in 2011 will be greater than that of Greece and its debt will be roughly equal to that of France, despite an unprecedented set of painful austerity measures. Meanwhile, unemployment is at a 17-year high and inflation is twice the rate of the eurozone.
Essentially, Britain is still paying the bill for the financial crisis of 2008 which caused deep damage to its banking and financial services sectors, in which it is the leading nation in Europe. Financial services were the reason given by Cameron for dramatically using the veto on a revamped EU treaty because he fears new regulations from the bloc would restrict the City of London’s room to manoeuvre.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Defying the Euro Crisis: Will German Growth Stall in 2012?
The global economy is at risk from all sides, with the European debt crisis, a weak US economy and a slowdown in China. But most German companies are still doing well, and executives are optimistic about 2012. Experts wonder, however, how long the export-driven German economy will be able to elude the gathering storm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Despite Crisis Greece Doesn’t Want to Give Up Euro
Ten years of the euro have left Greece’s economy in tatters, but the single currency remains highly popular among Greeks who fear a return to the drachma would be catastrophic. Politicians never fail to hammer it home, but the polls also confirm it: Greeks want to stay in the eurozone.
“Our position in Europe is non-negotiable,” Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said recently. “Greece is and will remain part of a united Europe and the euro,” added Papademos who was governor of the country’s central bank when the currency went into circulation a decade ago and went on to become a vice president of the European Central Bank.
Strong support for the euro — up to 80 percent according to polls — has held up despite the deep recession and the bitter austerity measures Greece must impose to get its bailout funds. Unemployment has rocketed, with nearly half of young people now without a job. Moreover, the possibility of Greece leaving or being forced out of the eurozone is no longer an idea entertained only by the lunatic fringe.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Greeks in November that this would be the result if they didn’t quickly accept new bailout conditions — triggering compliance but renewed market unease.
The British weekly The Economist, which has long argued Greece will end up eventually defaulting on its massive debt, recently organised a conference in Athens on a possible exit from the eurozone. Even former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, popular in Greece for his backing of the country joining the European Union, has described its adoption of the single currency as a “serious mistake”.
That mistake enabled successive Greek governments to go on a borrowing binge that resulted in today’s unmanageable debt. “The debt comes from the fact that Greek leaders always confused the notion of credit with revenue,” said historian Nicolas Bloudanis. “Joining the single currency allowed the country to borrow at low cost which let the political class reinforce its electoral base by recruiting state employees hand over fist,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
East Europeans Happy to Wait in the Wings for the Euro
The eurozone debt crisis has taken some of the shine off joining the euro, with most of the Eastern European countries waiting in the wings happy to wait a while longer.
Nearly 70 percent of Czechs oppose their country of 10.5 million adopting the euro, with just 18 percent in support, according to a poll by the SANEP institute published in November. Prime Minister Petr Necas has said on numerous occasions that his government won’t set a date for the Czech Republic joining the single currency during its term in office which expires in 2014. The Czech National Bank and the finance ministry recommended in mid-December not setting an adoption date and not entering the ERM II mechanism in 2012 — the two-year waiting room for eurozone candidates which pegs their currencies to the euro.
Nearly three-quarters of Poles want to stay outside the euro, while 22 percent want to join, according to a poll published at the beginning of December. Poland, eastern Europe’s powerhouse with a population of 38 million, has not set a euro accession date but plans to meet all entry criteria by 2015. “It is a strategic objective. We want to join the eurozone, but not right now,” Marek Belka, the governor of Poland’s central bank, said at the beginning of December.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone Banks Park Record Amount of Funds at ECB
Eurozone banks deposited a record amount of overnight funds at the European Central Bank on Monday, official data showed Tuesday as banks remain extremely wary of lending to each other. Banks put 411.8 billion euros ($535 billion) on deposit for 24 hours at the European Central Bank, beating the previous record of 384.3 billion euros seen in June 2010.
The level of deposits at the ECB bank is an indicator of the reluctance of banks to lend to each other on the pivotal interbank market. The money deposited earns an interest rate of 0.25 percent, which is less than the rate available on the interbank market. Banks become reluctant to lend to each other notably when they are concerned about the capacity of the borrower to repay the loan.
Last week, 523 banks borrowed a record 489.2 billion euros from the ECB in a brand-new three-year lending facility, a move which the European Systemic Risk Board said would ease funding pressures on banks. The ECB agreed to make the cash available so as to avert a possible credit crunch, charging just 1.0 percent interest. But the deposit data suggest the banks are now simply parking the cash with the ECB.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Alarm Over Growing Soup Kitchen Users, Fewer Funds
5 mln more needed in 2012, Restos du Coeur chairman
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 27 — Restos du Coeur, the most widespread network of soup kitchens for the poor in France, will need at least 5 million euros more from now until the end of 2012 to meet growing demand due to cuts in public funding. This was announced by the chairman of the association by the same name, Olivier Berthe, in statements to the media calling for generosity on the part of the nation. The number of those who coming to the “restaurants of the heart”, he said, “is steadily rising”. Over the past three years there has been a 25% increase, and last year the association served over 109 million meals to 860,000 beneficiaries, thanks to the mobilisation of 60,000 volunteers across France. However, while experiencing growing efforts, funds are becoming ever slimmer. European subsidies, paid through the Food Aid to the Indigenous Programme, have been at the same level for many years and may soon be cut, alongside French state agencies which can afford to spend ever less on these initiatives. “The result is that we must do ever more with less,” said Bezier, noting that Restos du Coeur (which in addition to soup kitchens manage social reinsertion programmes) receive a third of their funding from state money and two thirds from private donations. The association’s request for aid has come only a few days after French president Nicholas Sarkozy’s visit to the Resto Du Coeur logistics centre in Vitry-sur-Seine, in the working-class outskirts of Paris, during which he praised the “exceptional work” done by those working within the association.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany More Than 2 Trillion Euro in Red
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, had debt totalling 2.028 trillion euros ($2.65 trillion) at the end of the third quarter of this year, according to provisional official data published on Tuesday. That represents a fractional increase of 0.5 percent or 10.4 billion euros over the figure recorded for the end of the second quarter, the national statistics office said in a statement.
The lion’s share of the debt, or 1.289 trillion euros, was attributable to the federal government, while the regional states had debt totalling 610 billion euros and the municipal authorities had debt of 129 billion euros. The total figure represents more than 80 percent of Germany’s gross domestic product of 2.5 trillion euros in 2010, way above the 60-percent ceiling laid down by the European Union.
Nevertheless, the German debt ratio is better than many other eurozone countries. Italy’s, for example, stands at 120 percent, and the eurozone average at more than 85 percent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Christmas Bonus Evaders Soar
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 27 — Five times as many companies as last year in Greece have failed to pay their staff the Christmas bonus this year, according to the number of complaints registered with the competent authorities in the country. With the economic crisis deepening, about 1,500 companies did not pay the Christmas bonus, amounting to a full month’s salary, to their employees as daily Kathimerini reports.
This compares with just 300 such cases last Christmas. Labor Inspection Squad (SEPE) special secretary Michalis Chalaris said that after the completion of the complaints’ monitoring, the squad will proceed to filing charges, which can lead to prison terms of up to six months plus a fine ranging between 25 and 50% of the money owed to employees, according to law. Complaints are set to exceed 2,000, as employees can file their complaints by December 31 on phone number 15512 or the local labor inspection authorities.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Honeymoon Over for Europeans and Their Money
The euro, rolled out as a cash currency with a string of promises about easy travel, European unity and stable prices, has left crisis-rattled consumers decidedly ambivalent a decade on. On the streets of Berlin, Madrid, and Bratislava, the view is similar: despite its clear upsides, the transition to the euro hiked the cost of living even as it introduced deep political and economic uncertainty in the bloc.
The euro, the most tangible manifestation of European integration in everyday life, has become a symbol of the debt crisis and the economic downturn. “Since we rolled out the euro in France, we gave up our purchasing power,” fumes Viviane Vangic, 37, in the Paris city centre. Eighty-five percent of Germans believe that the euro has pushed up prices, according to a recent survey.
And Maria Angeles in Madrid says that “when we went to the euro, what used to cost 100 pesetas now costs a euro” or 160 pesetas. Although the statistics do not bear out this impression, showing about two-percent inflation each year over the last decade, the accusation of a built-in price hike is widespread among those who remember their old currency.
This is particularly true among the newcomers to the euro. “All the prices have gone up since we adopted the euro. It has always been hard for pensioners to make ends meet,” says Elena, a 72-year-old in Bratislava, Slovakia, which adopted the euro in 2009.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Measure of Fear: Banks Bunker Hundreds of Billions in Deposits at ECB
Just before Christmas, the European Central Bank flooded the financial markets with 500 billion euros — a move that may not ultimately have the desired effect of stabilizing banks. Instead of passing that money on in loans to businesses to spur the economy, European banks have redeposited the money with the ECB at low interest rates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caught on Tape: Clerk Punches, Knocks Out Armed Robber
Clerk Then Makes Suspect Clean Up His Own Blood
HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — A clerk at a business in Western North Carolina punched a would-be robber and knocked him out cold just minutes after the man barged in with a gun and demanded money.
It happened about 15 minutes before closing time Friday night at We Buy Gold store in Hendersonville.
“When he came through the door he told me had a gun and he even flashed it,” said Derek Mothershead. “I stood up and threw my hands up and said, ‘Take the money.’“
Mothershead said the man came behind the counter with a bag.
The punch knocked out the would-be thief. Mothershead was able to grab the man’s weapon and realized it was a pellet gun.
“When I pulled it out of his waistband I started laughing,” said Mothershead. “I said, ‘Man, you came in here with a fake gun?’“
Mothershead said he dragged the man over to a desk and held him down with one hand and called 911 with the other.
The man, later identified as Mostafa Hendi, eventually regained consciousness.
“He kind of begged me, begged me to let him go,” Mothershead said. “I said, ‘You came in and tried to rob us. You’re going to jail.’“
While they waited for police and paramedics, Mothershead gave the man a roll of power towels, sprayed the floor with cleaner and told him to clean up his own blood.
“At the time you really don’t think you hit somebody as hard as you do, but looking back at the tape I can say I hit him pretty hard, I guess,” Mothershead said.
Hendi remains behind bars on a charge of attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon. His bond was set at $100,000.
“There was just an opportunity there where I thought that I could actually do something and justice could be served, and I thought that’s what needed to be done,” said Mothershead.
We Buy Gold has dealt with others robberies at its 30 locations between Western North Carolina and the Upstate.
“It’s not even worth hitting us,” said Mothershead. “We’ve got a fast-retrieval money system in order and we really don’t carry that much money to begin with, so there’s no point in hitting us.”
| — Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo | [Return to headlines] |
Couple in Deadly Grapevine Shooting Had Recently Split
GRAPEVINE — Friends of the family fatally shot Christmas morning said Monday that one of the seven victims was a woman who had left her husband and moved to a Grapevine apartment with their two children.
One of the dead was a middle-aged man dressed as Santa Claus. Investigators believe that he killed the other six before shooting himself, Grapevine police Lt. Todd Dearing said.
Late Monday, Dearing declined to identify the victims or discuss further details.
But online property records led reporters to neighbors who identified three of them — Fatemeh Rahmati, who left her husband, Aziz Yazdanpanah, this year and moved with a son and a daughter, Nona Yazdanpanah, to the apartment complex in the 2500 block of Hall-Johnson Road.
Aziz Yazdanpanah stayed in the family’s home two miles away in Colleyville.
On Monday, police were trying to work out the timeline of the bloodiest crime in Grapevine history.
The victims were found beside open gifts near a Christmas tree in the apartment, according to police. Two handguns were found.
“We don’t know if [the killer] was with them or he came over later,” Dearing said.
The dead — four women and three men — were “related either by blood or marriage,” Dearing said. Three lived in the apartment, he said.
He said police would not release any information about the victims until the medical examiner rules in the case.
A spokesman for the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office told The Associated Press that the victims had been tentatively identified, but that the office couldn’t confirm the names because the state driver’s license fingerprint database wasn’t available on the holiday.
Police received a 911 call from the Lincoln Vineyards Apartments late Christmas morning, but no one spoke on the other end. When a patrol officer arrived, he saw bodies slumped around the living room.
No one answered the door. When officers forced their way in, they found the bodies around newly opened presents and a Christmas tree.
House foreclosed on
Property records show that a bank had foreclosed on Aziz Yazdanpanah’s Colleyville house in the 5400 block of Sycamore Court in 2010, but he was still living there, neighbors said.
Carrie Stewart and Fred Ditmars lived across the street for more than four years and described Aziz Yazdanpanah as friendly.
“He welcomed us when we moved in. He watched our house when we were out of town,” Stewart said.
Stewart and Ditmars recalled Aziz Yazdanpanah expressing concern about a year ago that his daughter was being harassed because of her ethnicity. In their conversations, Yazdanpanah mentioned that he owned a gun, Stewart said.
“He was very protective of his family,” Stewart said.
Another neighbor, Allison Baum, said she was close friends with Nona Yazdanpanah, who had hoped to be a lawyer someday. The two girls were classmates at Colleyville Heritage High School last year.
“We carpooled every day together. When her parents separated, I would pick her up from the apartment,” Baum said.
In February, Nona participated in a state competition in Fort Worth of students involved in DECA, an international organization that promotes careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges, according to a school news release.
Baum recalled Nona Yazdanpanah complaining about her parents fighting before they separated.
“I knew they were separated. I knew things were rough, but I never thought anything drastic would happen,” Baum said.
As soon as she heard news reports about the killings at the Grapevine apartment, Baum said, she texted Nona Yazdanpanah but did not receive a response.
“I just keep waiting for her to come here,” Baum said. “They were all good people.”
Baum said the separation was very difficult on the family’s father.
Baum said the family was Muslim but celebrated Christmas as a cultural holiday. The parents were originally from Iran.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
First Pictures of Family Gunned Down on Christmas Day by Estranged Husband and Father Dressed in a Santa Suit
The crazed gunman dressed in a Santa suit who gunned down two families while they were opening their presents on Christmas morning was the father and estranged husband of three of his victims.
Aziz Yazdanpanah, who had separated from his wife in March, is believed to have opened fire at an apartment in Grapevine, Dallas — just after the family opened their gifts — before turning the gun on himself.
Just hours before the families were killed, the group had thrown a large Christmas Eve party at their ranch. Dozens of friends and relatives celebrated late into the night, according to WFAA8.com.
Friends say Yazdanpanah, 56, likely showed up unexpectedly the next morning as he had not been invited to the party.
The victims have been identified as his wife Nasrin Rahmaty, 55, the couple’s two children Nona Yazdanpanah, 19, and her brother, Ali, 15.
Yazdanpanah also killed his sister-in-law’s family. Zohreh Rahmaty, 58, who was Nasrin’s sister, and her husband, Hossein Zarei, 59. Their daughter Sahra Zarei, 22, was also shot.
Mona Hosseiny, 27, who grew up with the children, told WFAA8: ‘They were as close as siblings. They basically called each other sister, brother. They were everybody’s best friend and everybody loved them so much.’
After the Yazdanpanahs separated, Ms Rahmaty moved with her children to the Grapevine apartment. They were having financial troubles and recently declared bankruptcy.
Despite their problems, family friends say they never expected anything like this: ‘During the years, we sensed things, but not to the point he would take his own children’s lives.’
Two pistols were recovered from the home, said Sergeant Robert Eberling of the Grapevine police department, who called it a ‘gruesome crime scene’ and the worst outburst of gun violence in the town’s history.
A community of about 46,000 people some 20 miles northwest of downtown Dallas, Grapevine is known for its wine-tasting salons and was recently proclaimed by the state Senate as the ‘Christmas Capital of Texas’ for its abundance of annual holiday-season events.
‘This is obviously a terrible tragedy,’ Mayor William Tate said on Sunday night in a statement given to Reuters. ‘The fact that it happened on Christmas makes it even more tragic. This appears to be a family situation and anyone who has a family will be incredibly saddened by that happened.’
Police dispatched at about 11:30am local time on Sunday, found the bodies in the first-floor living room of a two-story unit in the Lincoln Vineyards apartments, police said.
The 911 caller never spoke to police, and officers did not see the telephone when they arrived, officials said.
Eberling said he believed police had to kick in the door to enter. No neighbors reported hearing gunshots, he said.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
VA GOP Primary: Mitt V. Ron — But No Conservatives!
UPDATE DECEMBER 27 EVENING! Matt K. Lewis (Daily Caller) reports that Rick Perry files court challenge to Virginia ballot access rules. The link to the filing is here.
* * * * *
“And when an unresolved presidential primary rolls into Virginia, voters should be able to choose from the full slate of remaining major candidates—not just those who were able to collect 10,000 petition signatures, including 400 from each congressional district.” — Ashby Law
What a mess! And what’s an honest conservative to do in the March 6, 2012 Virginia Republican primary election?
The Virginia Republican Rube Goldberg primary rules here and here allowed only Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Ron Paul to qualify for the March 6, 2012 primary ballot. (We are grateful to Moe Lane and Paula at RedState for unearthing the details over the holiday weekend of this latest adventure of the Virginia branch of the Stupid Party.)
Virginia to Conservative GOP Primary Voters: Our Way or the Highway?
Our concern is about effectively disenfranchising thousands of Virginia conservative voters during the GOP primary.
Whether the other non-qualifying or non-competing GOP candidates “knew or should have known the rules,” the rules themselves are flawed. They may or may not be the “Virginia Way” but they are not the American Way.
The many Virginia conservative voters will have to “choose” between a slick governmentalist and a widely recognized loon — or worse as Leon Wolf points out today.
Even more painful, Virginia conservatives cannot even write in their own primary candidate.
What will the Virginia GOP Establishment now do about this flawed ballot-access system?
The new (and useful) Transom daily email newsletter today declares —
“Virginia’s rules are a vestige of the Byrd-machine past and not reflective of how the overwhelming majority of states put up requirements. But the effect of this, if it stands, is simple and obvious: Ron Paul will win Virginia. It’s a primary that has no party registration and will be the only question on the ballot, without the possibility of write-ins (banned in Virginia primaries), and no incentive for Romney to devote resources here versus more competitive states, it’s an opportunity for Paul to really maximize his sizable following in the Old Dominion. And that’s why the Virginia GOP is scrambling today to find a way to get either Perry or Gingrich back on the ticket, through litigation or otherwise.” (Underscoring Forum’s.)
We would demur only from the Transom’s suggestion that the practices of the “Byrd-machine past” are indeed in the past. In our view, the Virginia GOP has inherited many of the attributes of a “machine” culture. It is just a well-manicured “ruling class” organization — not the traditional thuggish image of a Tammany Hall — but a machine all the same.
The Ron Paul Temptation for Virginia Conservatives?
In the other part of the GOP forest, some Virginia conservatives — even otherwise capable leaders — are or have been Ronulans.
They may well see a Paul victory as fatally embarrassing the GOP Establishment in Virginia. And such a victory is quite possible because the primary is an open one and Democrats can participate with their own “operation chaos.”
[see links at the URL above]
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Even Austrian Darkness Cannot Overcome the Light
In February of this year, an Austrian teacher, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, was found guilty of “denigration of religious beliefs of a legally recognized religion” because, during a seminar course on Islam, she stated that “Muhammed had a thing for little girls.” Sabaditsch-Wolff’s conviction was appealed, but it was upheld earlier this month.
The conviction was upheld despite the well-attested historical fact that Muhammed married his wife Alisha when she was six years old, and had relations with her by the time she was nine. Given the shift in the juridical climate in Europe, in which Sharia law is a growing force, Sabaditsch-Wolff would clearly have been wiser to simply state the facts rather than interpret them in a manner which can be taken as negative.
But one wonders when, in Western society at least, sexual relations with a nine-year-old became something that can be construed as positive—or, if such a thing can be construed as positive, one wonders why stating that Muhammed had a thing for little girls should be considered a denigration of Muhammed. Does this have something to do with global warming?
It is inescapable, as I may have said before, that a post-Christian society in which Christianity will define itself in opposition to Christianity. Moreover, because Christianity strengthens and corroborates our perception of the natural law, this very often means a post-Christian society must define itself in opposition to truth itself…
| — Hat tip: Salome | [Return to headlines] |
France: Muslim War Graves Attacked
Thirty war graves of Muslim soldiers who fought in World War I have been attacked and defaced in the southern city of Carcassonne. Racist insults and swastikas were painted on the graves, which are identified by the Islamic symbols of the star and crescent. Slogans including “France for the French” and “Arabs out” were painted on some of the gravestones, reported daily newspaper Le Figaro.
The graves of Muslim soldiers in the same graveyard were attacked earlier this year in September. Abdallah Zekri, president of a body that monitors Islamophobia, condemned the attacks on the graves of soldiers who “died for France.” He pointed to a “significant and very worrying increase in Islamophobia in France.”
He said such attacks are up by 34 percent in 2011. In November alone, these included six fires at mosques in the country. The graves were cleaned and a religious ceremony to honour the dead is planned for Tuesday morning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Historian Wants Ban on Communist Uniforms
A prominent historian of communist East Germany and its Stasi secret police has called for a ban on the public display of communist era uniforms or insignia.
“This is not only tasteless, but violates the dignity of the victims of this dictatorship,” Hubertus Knabe, the director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, where the Stasi ran a huge prison, told the BZ newspaper this week.
“For years, we’ve been experiencing an increasingly careless way of dealing with the relics of the communist dictatorship in Germany,” he added.
Communist-era insignia has become increasingly chic in western Europe, where young people sometimes wear t-shirts or military caps with the infamous hammer and sickle.
In parts of Berlin, surplus East German military supplies are sold on the streets and street hawkers pose in old army uniforms for pictures with tourists.
But Knabe says the commercialization of the communist era is wrong and should be compared to idealizing the Nazis. In Germany, it is illegal to publicly display insignia like the swastika that are commonly associated with the Nazis.
Knabe told the BZ that there is no other country where “you can freely walk around on the street in the uniform of a fallen dictatorship.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Die in Cold Snap
Tramp burns to death in Bolzano, homeless woman dies in Milan
(ANSA) — Rome, December 26 — Italy’s cold snap claimed two lives Monday when a tramp burned to death in Bolzano after huddling too close to his fire and a homeless Ecuadorean woman was found dead in Milan.
In Genoa a 77-year-old woman died after inhaling fumes from a broken heater and three neighbours who saved her daughter suffered severe intoxication.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Sixty Group in Mourning, Wicky Hassan Dies in Rome
Co-founder and creative spirit of the group, 56 years old
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 16 — Wicky Hassan, co-founder and creative spirit of the Sixty Group and owner of the clothing brands Miss Sixty and Energie, died this morning in Rome. A refugee from Libya, where he was born in Tripoli 56 years ago, he arrived in Rome at the end of the ‘60s after the hunt for Jews in the North African country. He has been one of the most active and brilliant fashion creators of the past years.
Hassan, founder, majority shareholder and creative mind of the Sixty Group, had been fighting a tumour for four years. The group has expressed its deepest sorrow and has underlined that “in the past years, since the illness was diagnosed, Wicky Hassan had relentlessly worked preparing his company for the future. Specifically, he had dedicated time with immense humanity to creating a strong design team which could implement and carry on his vision.” “Besides ensuring a continuity in style”, the statement continues, “Wicky Hassan had also taken steps to ensure the future governance of the group entrusting Piero Bongiovanni, current CEO of the company and his management team with the powers necessary to ensure business continuity.” “Today we have lost one of the world’s great fashion designers.
A man who was able to express great love for design and for his company as well as take a firm stand against all discriminations”, stated Piero Bongiovanni.
“Wicky a friend, a visionary, a man of great values. A partner I had the privilege of working with over the past years. He will remain in our hearts for ever”, stated Renato Rossi, co-founder of the Sixty Group.
His most recent quality leap was the acquisition of such a prestigious brand as ‘Roberta di Camerino’, but Wicky Hassan never forgot that he owed his fortune to jeans. Because it was jeans that represented the soul of the Sixty Group, which Hassan co-founded (along with Renato Rossi) in 1989, and which were at the height of its creativity: it was no coincidence that they formed an essential component of every collection and represented way over half of the fashion house’s sales. The business was built on rock-solid intuition, the linking of denim and fashion thanks to tireless experimenting with fabrics and an eye for the trends in what the young would wear.
Born in 1955 in Tripoli into a Jewish family already active in the fabrics sector, Hassan arrived in Italy in 1967 when Libyan Jews were being forced by the regime to flee the North African country. His first stop was Rome, then the Hebrew grammar school in Milan, and then back to the capital. And it was here that Hassan started his ascent into the world of fashion: in 1983 his shop ‘Energie’ in Via del Corso became a focal point — partly thanks to its alluring window displays and special effects. From this period came his collaboration with cartoonist and artist Andrea Pazienza. Successes mounted: ‘Energie’ became a brand. In ‘89 the partnership with Renato Rossi from which Sixty Group was born. The first ‘Energie’ collection followed and the house received the blessings of the sector. Over the following years, the group consolidated and appeared on the world stage — large in scale with branches abroad. Under its umbrella grew brands such as Miss Sixty, Energie, Killah, Murphy & Nye and Refrigiwear (in ‘93). Successful labels that are appreciated everywhere.
It’s not surprising that in 2006, the Pitti Immagine Award went to Wicky Hassan, in recognition of a creative intuition which by now had become a standard to be imitated. The acquisition of a brand as famous as ‘Roberta di Camerino’ — a relative success in the luxury segment — represents the latest achievement of a Group that has no intention of stopping to rest upon its laurels. There was an element of chance in the way the whole operation was born and thanks also to the personal friendship between Hassan and Giulia Coen Camerino. “It’s an extraordinary brand, “ Hassan said at the time, “one of the few capable of competing with French couturiers,” and this says much about the Group’s market outlooks. Very close to the practising Hebrew community, the funeral took place today (with the attendance of Rome’s Mayor, Gianni Alemanno), given that tomorrow is the Sabbath and religious practice prevents the celebration of a funeral on that day. The Chair of Rome’s Jewish community, Riccardo Pacifici, called him a ‘just person’ for his works of charity. Hassan never made a secret of his homosexuality, indeed he often struck out against prejudice and discrimination. A long-term relationship with a companion stretched over years, Hassan was very close to the three adoptive children.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Radical Islam Claims Another: Gregorius Nekschot, RIP
Gregorius Nekschot, the controversial Dutch cartoonist, has had enough. January 1, he is putting away his pens for good, he told Dutch daily de Volkskrant today, and heading on to a new chapter in his life.
Nekschot — a nom-de-plume — gained renown in 2008, when Dutch law enforcement officials raided his house in the early morning hours, pulling the sleeping cartoonist from his bed in response to allegations of racism and discrimination. Those charges were the handiwork of Abdul-Jabbar van de Ven, a radical imam in the Netherlands who, among other things, praised the murder of Theo van Gogh by a radical Muslim in 2004, and has called for the death of Dutch MP Geert Wilders. Van de Ven apparently found nothing hypocritical in charging Neckschot with abusing the right to free expression in his cartoons — which are often admittedly offensive and distasteful, such as the one depicting an Osama bin-Laden look-alike fornicating with a bear. Nekschot was held for 30 hours, and his computer and CDs impounded; it took two years before the case was ultimately dismissed by the courts…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Police Hunt ‘Halloween Mask’ Killer
The shooter who killed one man and injured two others at a cafe in Malmö in southern Sweden on Monday wore a mask similar to those worn by robbers in the 2010 Hollywood film “The Town”, according to police, who said Tuesday they have yet to make any arrests in the case. Several witnesses have told police that the perpetrator wore a rubber mask with the face of an elderly man similar to masks featured in “The Town”, said investigative leader J-B Cederholm of the Malmö police. “We’ve chosen to go public with the photo [from the film] because it corresponds to what witnesses describe,” he told the local Sydsvenskan daily. “Whether it’s exactly alike or not, I can’t say.”
Some fifteen people were in the café when the shots were fired on Monday evening, and police have interviewed several of these witnesses during the night. “I was sitting at the table next to the victim. A guy came in with a Halloween mask and a pistol in each hand. He didn’t say a word, he just fired, and fired, and fired. A bullet or two hit the floor, and others hit his friends’ legs and hands,” said a witness to newspaper Aftonbladet. The 27-year-old victim, who died from his injuries, was sitting at a table playing cards when the masked man entered the café shortly before 8pm on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Abdul Khalazai Pleads Guilty to Raping a Woman on Folkestone Seafront
by Paul Hooper
A young woman was raped on Folkestone seafront after going there following a row with her partner.
The victim had begged her attacker to stop, but Abdul Khalazai ignored her tearful pleas and continued the attack.
Canterbury Crown Court heard that when the girl later relived her terrifying ordeal it triggered “such emotions that they were some of the most shocking ever seen by officers”.
Khalazai, 18, of Albert Street, Whitstable, pleaded guilty to rape and was ordered to be locked up in a secure hospital indefinitely.
He had escaped from his native Afghanistan and arrived in the UK in 2006 in the back of a lorry.
Within a year he had carried out his first attack, sexually assaulting a stranger in the street.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Officially and Unofficially, The Euro Reigns in the Balkans
The eurozone crisis has not prompted panic in the Balkans even though the euro is the currency of reference here and Montenegro and Kosovo use it despite being a long way from membership. Throughout the region, loans are taken out and savings made in euros while salaries are determined based on the European single currency.
“In the past, all of us in the Balkans were in love with the German mark. Since it disappeared, the euro rules,” explained Zoran Jovanovic while sipping coffee at the popular Belgrade Biblioteka cafe. “It is the case in Belgrade, Zagreb, Podgorica, Skopje, Tirana, Sarajevo or even Pristina, everyone thinks in euros,” said the 40-year old architect.
While some European Union states struggle for years to fulfill the strict economic and monetary criteria to enter the single-currency zone, Kosovo and Montenegro have already made the euro their national currency. Podgorica unilaterally adopted the euro after it proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2006. Pristina started using the euro as soon as the currency went into circulation in 2002. Before the euro was introduced, the two capitals which were at odds with Belgrade and had abandoned the dinar and used the German mark.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Court Rules Against Virginity Tests
Cairo (CNN) — An Egyptian administrative court issued an order Tuesday banning virginity tests for female detainees, months after several women alleged they were subjected to such examinations following a March protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
The ruling comes in the case of Samira Ibrahim, a 25-year-old marketing manager who took the country’s military led-government to court in August, alleging she was among those subjected to the test after her arrest during the March 9 protest. She said she faced death threats after bringing the case.
“Justice has been served today,” Ibrahim told CNN. “These tests are a crime and also do not comply with the constitution, which states equality between men and woman. I will not give up my rights as a woman or a human being.”
Aly Hassan, a judicial consultant affiliated with Ministry of Justice, said the order only affects the use of such tests in military prisons and on women in temporary detention.
“Those tests are not considered a crime or else the file would be in the Criminal Court,” Hassan said. “It’s the circumstances of the alleged test that may be in question here.”
In March, the human rights group Amnesty International reported that Egyptian troops beat, shocked and strip-searched women arrested during the protest in Cairo and forced them to submit to virginity tests.
Egyptian authorities initially denied requiring virginity tests, but in May, a senior general who asked not to be identified acknowledged the practice.
The general said the tests were performed as a safeguard against the women accusing authorities of sexual assault, and he defended the tests.
“The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine,” the general told CNN at the time. “These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs).”
But Ibrahim said her treatment clearly showed the tests were meant to “degrade the protesters.”
“The military tortured me, labeled me a prostitute and humiliated me by forcing on me a virginity test conducted by a male doctor where my body was fully exposed while military soldiers watched,” she said.
Another protester arrested in the March 9 protest, Salwa Hosseini, offered a similar account, according to an Amnesty International report on the allegations.
In addition to Ibrahim, a member of the No to Military Trials to Civilians group, Maha Mamoun, joined the legal action even though she was not subjected to a test, said Ahmed Ragab, an attorney with the Hisham Mubarak Law Center who handled Ibrahim’s case.
Ragab said government lawyers initially denied that the tests were administered and the case was repeatedly delayed before Tuesday’s ruling.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
The Salafist Party’s Plan for the Pyramids? Cover Them in Wax
For now members of the Nour (The Light) Salafist party, which won 20 per cent of the vote in recent elections, are talking about putting an end to the ‘idolatry’ represented by the pyramids.
This means destruction — along the lines essayed by the Afghan Taliban who blew up the Banyam Buddhas — or ‘concealment’ by covering them with wax. Tourists would presumably see great blobs rather than the perfectly carved steps.
This last suggestion was made by Abdel Moneim Al-Shahat, a Nour candidate for parliament. Apart from wanting to do away with this ‘rotten culture’, this gentleman also wants to ban the Nobel prize winning novels of Naguib Mahfouz, one of many great Egyptian writers.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Young Girl “Shameless”, Zealots Spread Terror
Ultra-Orthodox on rampage in Beit Shemesh, 3 TV crews attacked
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBE 27 — “They called me shameless, brazen. They even spat at me”. Naama Margulis, a skinny, bespectacled girl approaching her eight birthday, tells the television cameras that she has become afraid to travel the 300 metres that separate her hom in Beit Shemesh (west of Jerusalem) from her school. This is because the feared “Sikarikim” are waiting along the road. The self-styled “guardians of modesty” have established that the Margulis family, though they live devoutly, are an affront to public decency, claiming that the young girl is an “unbearable person” because, they say, “she does not dress modestly enough”. Speaking on television, the young girl says that she has been spat at and called “bawdy”. Two minutes on the television news on the commercial Channel 2 were enough for little Naama’ to ignite the tinderbox that is Beit Shemesh, a sleepy town previously inhabited by working-class Sephardis, before being left to its fate on the margins of the major Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road, and becoming a delicate ultra-Orthodox suburb in the last decade. Here the first generation of religious fanaticism has been unashamedly consummated. A year ago, the first “Taliban women” appeared, Orthodox Jewish women covered from head to toe by numerous layers to hide their shapes. Alongside them, the aggressive “Sikarikim” began to lay down the law. The “guardians of modesty”, whose name is evocative of the zealots who 2,000 years ago, under Roman occupation, would stab integrated Jews with a “Sika” (dagger).
Compared to the “Taliban women”, the unfortunate Naama also appears to the Sikarikim to be a walking example of indecency that should be eradicated. For some time already, though this was not previously known, pavements in Beith Shemesh have been separated by gender, forbidding women from walking past the synagogues frequented by extremists. Hardline rabbis in the town have also been giving explicit orders to women not to stay in the streets for longer than family needs dictate and not to gather at the entrance to homes. There is probably no other place in Israel where hardline rabbis have such an ability to lay down the law.
This week, Naama’s brief television appearance led to an escalation in the situation. Television crews descended on Beit Shemesh. Reporters were surrounded by hostile crowds and three of them were attacked. “We were about to be lynched,” one cameraman says. When the town authorities tried to remove signs ordering the separation of the sexes in th streets, mass protests were staged, with police forced to disperse the troublemakers. The signs reappeared soon after,
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Defence: Helicopter Makers Prepare for Turkish Face-Off
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 20 — Many of the world’s major helicopter manufacturers are expected to compete for a multibillion dollar contract to potentially co-produce thousands of light utility choppers in Turkey’s upcoming large-scale helicopter tender, as daily Hurriyet reports. The U.S. Sikorsky Aircraft, which won a separate 3.5 billion USD competition to lead the production of more than 100 larger utility helicopters for Turkey over Italy’s AgustaWestland in spring 2011, became the first major international company to formally announce it would also seek to win the light utility helicopter contest in May. At the time, procurement chief Murad Bayar said Turkey would soon begin to design and develop a military and civilian light utility helicopter, probably with a foreign partner and possibly with Sikorsky Aircraft. Bayar said Sikorsky, a leading manufacturer of various rotary-wing aircraft, did not have a helicopter in the category of light utility platforms, which weigh between 4,500 kg and 5,500 kg, the type of chopper Turkey wants to develop. “Turkey and Sikorsky Aircraft can work on this matter together. If it happens, it happens. If it does not, we are ready to work with any other company,” Bayar said. Sikorsky has teamed up with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in the co-production of the larger T-70 utility helicopter, a Turkish version of the U.S. S-70i Black Hawk International. Later, an AgustaWestland official said, “We will be available for Turkey if Turkey wants to work with us.” His remarks were in line with advice by former Italian Deputy Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, who had urged AgustaWestland to pursue all helicopter competitions.
“AgustaWestland needs to pursue all opportunities and chances in the helicopter field,” Crosetto said in Istanbul earlier this year. “They will have to fight in a tight market.” In November the pan-European Eurocopter became the latest major rotary-wing aircraft maker to announce it would also seek to win Turkey’s light utility helicopter contract.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gulf: Islamic Bonds Up 62%, Bolstered by European Crisis
5.6 billion euros sold
(ANSA) — DUBAI,DECEMBER 27 — Interest in sukuks (Islamic bonds) has risen by 62% in the oil-rich Gulf region. The six monarchies and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sold bonds in compliance with the Sharia (Koranic law regulating economic and financial aspects of society as well) worth 5.6 billion euros, the highest since 2007, according to the UAE daily The National. The sale of bonds issued by GCC (which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman) governments and banks was fostered by the sovereign debt crisis shaking up Europe, according to regional economic analysts.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Maronite Patriarch Calls for Surrender of Arms
Leaving them to national army alone
(ANSA) — VATICAN CITY, DECEMBER 27 — The Maronite Catholic Patriarch, Bechara Rai, has expressed the hope that the Beirut will undertake to free Lebanon of all armaments, leaving them only to the legal use of the armed forces. During a Christmas mass celebrated in Bkerke on December 25, Patriarch Rai emphasised how “it is the state’s duty alone to ensure the security of citizens and peace throughout the country, to gather up all arms and to place them under the sole control of Lebanon’s legitimate forces, so that Beirut and the whole of Lebanon be freed of arms”. The sermon was reported on Vatican Radio, which cited the missionary press agency, Asianews.
The words of the head of the Maronite Church appear to give voice to the hopes of many MPs, who over the year have issued calls for a “demilitarised” Beirut following the bitter armed clashes involving Hezbollah. It also echoes calls by the charitable Islamic association Burj Abi Haidar for a demilitarised Tripoli.
But as AsiaNews points out, the Patriarch’s words are aimed principally at the Hezbollah situation. This is the only armed group that has never laid down its weapons, with the justification that it needs to be constantly prepared to fight Israeli forces. In this respect, the Patriarch added: “The state has subsume all defence and security missions under one sole political authority and to increase confidence in its armed forces”.
The Christmas Mass was also celebrated by Emeritus Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir and by the Vatican’s Nuncio to Lebanon, Msg.
Gabriele Caccia. Apart from the country’s head of state, Michel Suleiman, other politicians present at the mass were from the opposition ranks of Catholic MPs, including the leader of Kataeb, Amin Gemayel, and the head of the Free Patriotic movement, Michel Aoun, who is close to Hezbollah.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tehran Threatens to Close Down Global Oil Tanker Traffic
(AGI) Tehran- In case of UN sanctions, Iran threatens to close down the Strait of Hormuz and block global oil-tanker traffic.
“If sanctions are adopted against Iranian oil, not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi was quoted as saying to the IRNA Press Agency.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey, Libya Discuss Turkish Companies’ Return
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 19 — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey and Libya are assessing losses incurred by Turkish construction companies during the anti-Gadhafi uprising as well as discussing their return to the country. Erdogan, as local media reported, also said Saturday that Turkey would support efforts to restore security in Libya, saying the country was sending material to equip police and that a security delegation would travel there next month. Erdogan was speaking at a news conference with the visiting chairman of Libya’s National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.
Turkish companies were involved in Libyan construction projects worth billions of dollars before the outbreak of the anti-Gadhafi uprising in February.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Warships Shell Narrow Water Between Israeli, Cypriot Gas Fields
Cypriot President Demetris Christofias has warned Turkey to stop its warships shelling the strip of water dividing the Cypriot and Israeli gas exploration zones in the eastern Mediterranean. Debkafile’s military sources report Wednesday that Turkish warships began turning their guns on the strip dividing Israel’s Leviathan gas field from Block 12 of Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone-EEZ, where a large gas field was recently discovered. Neither Israel nor Cyprus reported the Turkish attacks, which are staged in international waters, but both reinforced their naval units around the gas fields.
It was the Cypriot president who broke the silence Friday with a warning: “If Turkey does not change its gunboat diplomacy and stop playing the part of regional police officer, there will be consequences, which, for sure, will not be good — either for the whole region or the Turkish people and, first and foremost, for Turkish Cypriots.” On Thursday, Israel canceled the $90 million sale to the Turkish Air Force of Elbit’s hi-tech LOROP-Long Range Oblique Photography military surveillance system. Israeli defense sources said the transaction was canceled lest SAR radar or LOROP technology find their way into the hands of Israel’s enemies, such as Iran.
According to military sources, Israel timed the deal’s cancelation as a warning to Ankara to back off from its campaign of harassment in and around Israel’s gas fields. Jerusalem, Athens and Nicosia are economic and security partners in the exploration and development of eastern Mediterranean gas resources. The same firm, Noble Energy Inc of Houston, Texas, is working both Cypriot and Israeli fields. Shares in the U.S. company are held in Cyprus by the Cypriot national energy company and in Israel by Delek Drilling LP and Avner Oil Exploration LLP.
The recent discovery that the gas fields are much bigger than first believed has raised the stakes around them. The three governments involved are looking forward to becoming major gas suppliers to Europe and so reducing the continent’s dependence on Russian and Turkish gas pipelines. Noble Energy’s latest estimate, published Dec. 19, added 6.3 percent to the Leviathan well’s untapped potential, raising it from the previous estimate of 16 to 20 trillion cubic feet. Nicosia too will shortly issue an upwardly revised estimate of its gas field.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Man Kills Former Girlfriend Killed, Buries Her in Desert
Death sentence handed down
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, DECEMBER 27 — A 25-year-old man has been sentenced to death in the United Arab Emirates for having killed his former girlfriend and buried her in the desert, reports the local press. The man, who was only said to have been of “Arab” nationality, was found guilty by the court in Al Ain, an oasis in the Abi Dhabi province, of having killed his 21-year-old former girlfriend Iman after she repeatedly refused to get back together with him.
According to the Sharia, the Koranic law applied in Muslim countries, the victim’s family can pardon the assassin and save him from death in exchange for money. Iman’s family, however, has insisted that the death sentence be carried out. In the United Arab Emirates the death penalty is provided for in cases involving murder, rape, drug trafficking, armed robbery and apostasy. However, it is rarely implemented.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Muslim Terrorists Killed Shahbaz Bhatti, Interior Minister Says
The murderers are believed to be members of Sipah-e-Sahaba. During Christmas-related events, Paul Bhatti, national harmony advisor to the prime minister, praised the minister. “I want to carry on my brother’s mission to serve humanity in order to create an atmosphere of peace, love and stability in the country,” he said.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — Those who murdered Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, belong to Sipah-e-Sahaba, a Muslim terrorist organisation, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said during a Christmas event at Islamabad’s Fatima Church. In cooperation with Interpol, Pakistani authorities are making all possible efforts to bring them back to Pakistan after they fled to Dubai. Paul Bhatti, brother of the slain minister and national harmony advisor to the prime minister, praised the Interior minister’s statement. “Rehman Malik’s statement will bring an end to the rumours that have been surfacing regarding Shahbaz Bhatti’s murder,” he said.
Police sources in Islamabad said the two suspects, Zia-ur-Rehman and Malik Abid, are already in Pakistan. Some local newspapers claimed instead that the murder was due to a dispute among relatives over assets and properties.
During some pre-Christmas events, Paul Bhatti called on the Water Ministry not to cut power to Churches during the Christmas period in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jehlum, to allow Christians to celebrate christmas according to tradition without hindrance or problems. The ministry had planned a number of blackouts to save energy.
In Rawalpindi, the national harmony adviser visited disabled children at the St Joseph’s Hospice, bringing gifts. “I want to carry on my brother’s mission to serve humanity in order to create an atmosphere of peace, love and stability in the country since I do not seek political status or monetary benefits”, Dr. Paul said.
“The core truth that makes Christmas such an extraordinarily special time is that God became a human being and, precisely because in the limitless vastness of his glory, he became one of us, his experience of our limitations has changed our experience of what it is to be human or better, has revealed what it is to be truly and fully human,” Mgr Rufin Anthony, bishop of Rawalpindi-Islamabad, said in his christmas message. “Because God became human, we can embrace our humanity fully, in ourselves and others. Because God became human, we can love without fear and forgive without recompense. Because in becoming human, God has shown us that love is possible, that it works.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Sends 40 Tonnes of Aid to Philippines
Tents, blankets, water purifiers to storm survivors
(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — Italy has sent an emergency flight of 40 tonnes of badly needed aid to the storm-stricken population of the Philippines, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
On December 16-17 tropical storm Washi reaped more than 1,000 victims and left more than 300,000 homeless.
The Italian aid department plane left from Kuala Lumpur and arrived on the island of Mindanao, the epicentre of the storm, with tents, blankets, emergency-repair material, water containers and purifiers, the ministry said. The 500,000-euro operation will see the aid distributed by the Philippines welfare ministry, it added.
Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi “instructed the aid department to make an urgent humanitarian flight to bring a rapid response to the immediate needs of the survivors,” the ministry said
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Another Italian Ship Seized by Pirates
Oil tanker captured off coast of Oman
(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — Another Italian ship has been seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
An oil tanker, the Enrico Ievoli belonging to Naples company Marnavi, was captured near the coast of Oman with 18 crew members aboard, including six Italians.
“The pirates are aboard but we are all well,” Agostino Musumeci, the commander of the Enrico Ievoli, said in a telephone conversation, according to Marnavi Chief Executive Domenico Ievoli.
Last week another Italian oil tanker, the Savina Caylyn owned by the Neopolitan company Fratelli D’Amato, was freed after being hijacked by Somali pirates in February.
The Italian foreign ministry denied the pirates’ claim that a ransom was paid.
In October an Italian ship hijacked off the coast of Somalia with 23 people on board was freed after an operation by British special forces.
Last year pirates in the region are believed to have earned $80 million from ransom money.
Earlier this year governments reached an international agreement that they would not pay ransom.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Tanker Hijacked Off Oman Coast
(CNN) — An Italian tanker with 18 people on board was hijacked off the coast of Oman, officials said Tuesday.
The chemical product tanker, Enrico Ievoli, was on its way from the United Arab Emirates to the Mediterranean Sea when it was seized, according to the company that owns the ship. It was carrying caustic soda.
Of the 18 people on board, six are Italian nationals, five are Ukrainian and seven are Indian, the company — Marnavi — said.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Terzi Calls on International Community
‘Do more to defend religious freedom,’ FM says
(ANSA) — Rome, December 27 — Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi on Tuesday urged the international community to avert a fresh wave of violence in Nigeria after Christmas Day bomb attacks on Christian churches that killed dozens.
The attacks, by an Islamist terrorist sect called Boko Haram, “must not be the spark for a fresh wave of violence,” Terzi said. “It is up to the international community to do its utmost to avert it,” he said, urging the United Nations to “do more” to defend freedom of religion.
Terzi said Boko Haram, “half sect, half militant terrorist organisation that refuses Western traditions” had become “extremely dangerous, with widespread and repeated attacks since its leader was killed two years ago”.
The area where leader Imam Mohammed Yusuf was killed by Nigerian security forces in 2009 had seen more than 700 deaths, Terzi recalled.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU-IOM: Migration Accord on Tunisia, Libya and Egypt
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, DECEMBER 27 — The European Union (EU) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), have signed a cooperation accord in Tunis on the management of migratory flows following the events in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. The accord entails the EU’s setting up a fund of 9.9 million euros to finance a three-year programme which will start on January 1.
The IOM will take charge of the enactment of the programme in Tunisia and Egypt.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Rescue, Arrests of Italy-Bound Illegals in Greece
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 27 — Seventeen people, identified as would-be illegal migrants and an alleged migrant smuggler, were rescued from a stalled speedboat off the isle of Erikoussa, north of the Ionian island of Corfu, on Saturday by the coast guard, as reported by ANA news agency. Authorities were notified that the vessel was drifting in the sea region, with a patrol boat dispatched to the scene. The boat had been reported stolen from a Corfu marina. The alleged migrant smuggler was arrested and will be led before a local prosecutor, while the illegals were transferred to a border patrol unit.
Further south at the western port of Patras, a total of three non-EU nationals were arrested during attempts to board Italy-bound ferry boats with forged travel documents. In one instance, the 62-year-old driver of a truck and his 62-year-old companion were also arrested for stowing away one of the migrant inside the tractor trailer. Finally, in the extreme northwest port of Igoumenitsa, one foreign national was arrested along with the driver and co-driver of an Italy-bound lorry early Sunday morning, after authorities discovered that the former possessed and displayed forged travel documents with the purpose of illegally exiting Greece and entering Italy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Village in Uproar Over Asylum Centre
Local officials from Bettwil, in northern Switzerland, have collected almost 10,000 signatures against federal plans to build a refugee centre in the village of 560 inhabitants. Bettwil has been mobilizing for weeks against federal plans to accommodate up to 100 asylum seekers in a former military barracks in the village, located in the canton of Aargau. The federal government plans to host between 80 and 100 refugees for a period not exceeding six months.
In the village, cars carry protest stickers and streets are covered with posters that read: “Yes to solidarity, no to the asylum centre”, or “Massive asylum centre, no,” the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports. Before Christmas, both the mayor and a committee representing Bettwil citizens travelled to Aargau to bring the signatures and convey their opposition to the government’s plan.
According to Jacqueline Wiederkehr, one of the members of the committee, the Federal Council failed to give the people of Bettwil a chance to voice their opinion prior to the decision. The mayor of the remote village, Wolfgang Schibler, went further, saying cantonal and federal authorities had acted with “arrogance.” Schibler has denied accusations of xenophobia, and is seeking to distance himself from extreme right-wing groups supporting his cause.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Surface of Pluto May Contain Organic Molecules
The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted new evidence of complex organic molecules — the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it — on the frigid surface of Pluto, a new study finds. Hubble observations revealed that some substances on Pluto’s surface are absorbing more ultraviolet light than expected. The compounds in question may well be organics, possibly complex hydrocarbons or nitrogen-containing molecules, researchers said.
The dwarf planet Pluto is known to harbor ices of methane, carbon monoxide and nitrogen on its surface. The ultraviolet-absorbing chemical species may have been produced when sunlight or super-speedy subatomic particles known as cosmic rays interacted with these ices, researchers said. “This is an exciting finding because complex Plutonian hydrocarbons and other molecules that could be responsible for the ultraviolet spectral features we found with Hubble may, among other things, be responsible for giving Pluto its ruddy color,” study leader Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
