Brussels Puts Forward Financial Sector Tax Options
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — ‘Nothing is certain but death and taxes’ goes the saying, with a new proposal from the European Commission designed to get the European financial sector to pay more of the latter.
As cash-strapped governments cast around in search of new funding sources, Thursday’s (7 October) non-legislative communication from the commission weighs up the viability and potential revenue gains to be made from a financial transactions tax (FTT) and a financial activities tax (FAT).
“We must make sure that the financial sector is making a contribution to public finances,” said the EU’s taxation commissioner Algirdas Semeta. “This is especially important due to its receipt of support during the financial crisis.”
The financial sector in Europe and elsewhere is currently exempt from paying Value Added Tax (VAT).
In its paper, the commission advocates EU support for the FTT at the global level, but reiterates recent comments made by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet that a unilateral European attempt to push ahead with the tax would result in firms moving their financial transactions to a different jurisdiction.
Swedish attempts to introduce a similar tax in the 1980s caused a sharp decline in the trading of certain financial products within its borders, with Stockholm now one of the leading EU opponents of the tax. Others argue that the issue of relocation is overblown.
London is also a strong opponent to the tax however, with studies showing the City would bear the brunt of a European FTT due to the huge volume of trades that take place inside the square mile. US opposition is also seen as a major stumbling block to its eventual implementation.
Conversely, France and Germany are vocal supporters of the measure, popular among many voters and NGOs as a means to raise badly needed funds to fight poverty and climate change.
Reacting to the publication, the European Trade Union Confederation said it was deeply disappointed. The plans are “unsatisfactory in that they deflect from the aim of taxing short-termist, highly speculative transactions based on high speed trading that do not serve the needs of the real economy,” said general secretary, John Monks…
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment at 10.1% in September
Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, increased to 10.1% in September — up sharply from 9.3% in August and 8.9% in July. Much of this increase came during the second half of the month — the unemployment rate was 9.4% in mid-September — and therefore is unlikely to be picked up in the government’s unemployment report on Friday.
[…]
See charts at link.
| [Return to headlines] |
Government Spending Up Nine Percent
Basic government spending rose by 9 percent in fiscal 2010, driving the country to a $1.291 trillion deficit down $125 billion from 2009, but still the second-largest hole on record, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.
CBO said the 9 percent rise in spending for defense, social programs, entitlements and interest on the debt was “somewhat faster than in recent years” a stark evaluation at a time when President Obama and Congress are working to convince voters they are pursuing a fiscally frugal course in Washington.
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
International Monetary Fund Warns of Fresh Worldwide Crisis as Bank Regulation is Failing
The world could face a fresh financial crisis unless large-scale reforms of the banking system are made, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has warned.
Speaking at a Washington press conference, Strauss-Kahn said: ‘We need huge enhancements in global supervision.’ Otherwise the risk is that the ‘holes and loopholes in the system are the seeds of the next crisis’.
His remarks came as European banking regulators meeting in London are poised to take tougher-than-expected action on pay, by imposing a cap on bonuses.
Brussels also stepped up the heat on banks by backing a ‘transactions tax’ that could see financial groups taxed on profits and executive pay.
Only last week it was revealed that Goldman Sachs bankers in London had quietly been granted special share bonuses worth tens of millions of pounds.
The IMF’s managing director made it clear that he is not satisfied that new capital requirements — such as those arranged at Bank for International Settlements — are enough to rein in reckless behaviour.
‘Regulation is fine, capital requirements are fine,’ he said dismissively, before weighing into banks and governments for not implementing ‘consistent’ regulation.
Banking supervisors from around the world, including the Bank of England, have been struggling to come up with a mechanism that will bring an end to the idea that banks ‘are too big to fail’.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
The Bill Gates Income Tax
If Washington’s most famous billionaires are really worried about their state’s finances, they’d write personal checks to the government and leave everyone else alone.
Framed on a wall in my office is a personal letter to me from Bill Gates the elder. “I am a fan of progressive taxation,” he wrote. “I would say our country has prospered from using such a system—even at 70% rates to say nothing of 90%.”
It’s one thing to believe in bad policy. It’s quite another to push it on others. But Mr. Gates Sr.—an accomplished lawyer, now retired—and his illustrious son are now trying to have their way with the people of the state of Washington.
[…]
In the past decade, the nine states with the highest personal income tax rates have seen gross state product increase by 59.8%, personal income grow by 51%, and population increase by 6.1%. The nine states with no personal income tax have seen gross state product increase by 86.3%, personal income grow by 64.1%, and population increase by 15.5%.
It’s striking how the high-tax states have underperformed relative to those with no income tax. Especially noteworthy is how well Washington has performed compared to states with no income tax.
[…]
Over the past 50 years, 11 states have introduced state income taxes exactly as Messrs. Gates and their allies are proposing—and the consequences have been devastating.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Three Horrifying Facts About the US Debt “Situation”
Since too often financial articles consist of some stooge blathering on and on with opinions instead of facts, I thought today we’d simply focus on some FACTS about our current financial system which few if any want to acknowledge.
#1: The US Fed is now the second largest owner of US Treasuries.
That’s right, this week we overtook Japan, leaving China as the only country with greater ownership of US Debt. And we’re printing money to buy it. Setting aside the fact that this is abject lunacy, this policy is trashing our currency which has fallen 13% since June… as in four months ago. Want an explanation for why stocks, commodities, and Gold are exploding higher? Here it is.
| [Return to headlines] |
Christopher Hitchens and Tariq Ramadan Spar Over the Peacefulness of Islam
On the day a Federal District Court judge told the would-be Times Square bomber that she hoped he would spend his life sentence thinking about whether “the Koran wants you to kill lots of people,” Christopher Hitchens and Tariq Ramadan took the stage at the 92nd Street Y to debate the question, “Is Islam a religion of peace?”
Neither man liked the question.
“This is not the right question to ask,” Ramadan said in his opening remarks. “It doesn’t mean anything.” It didn’t mean anything when George W. Bush called Islam a religion of peace, said the Swiss scholar, barred by the Bush administration from entering the United States on anti-terrorism grounds in 2004.
The right question, he said is “do we have something helping us toward peace?” Ramadan seemed to be saying that Islam served that purpose, though he never said so outright. “The Koran is the word of God,” he said. “The problem is not the book. The problem is the reader.”
In his rebuttal, Hitchens would agree with Ramadan about the perils of reading, but said that the fault did not always lie with the reader. “In reading the Koran,” Hitchens said, “I can’t tell if it’s the word of god, but I can hope it’s a sign of god having a bad day.”
Ramadan argued that religion was “instrumentalized” (he used the word five times) by bad actors who distorted it. With a penchant for becoming emphatic when stating the obvious, Ramadan said, “Islam is a religion for human beings. But we are not peaceful human beings.” The “diversity” within Islam—”Maimonides spoke Arabic better than me,” he said—led to the risk of “lots of wars.” Turning to Hitchens, a former Trotskyist and trade union organizer, Ramadan said, “You see what some did with Marx. Is therefore all Marx bad? No.”
[…]
After the debate a viewer said of Ramadan, “He was very articulate, but it sounded like he was talking around what would have gotten him in trouble.” This quality was apparent several times in the evening, not least when the moderator, Laurie Goldstein of the New York Times, asked Ramadan if he really meant to say that Turkey was becoming “more progressive” as its government became increasingly Islamic.
Ramadan, who had said Turkey was “progressing” and “moving to become more democratic,” responded by saying, “We don’t know what to call the leaders now. Islamists? Ex-Islamists? They have new thoughts on the rule of law promoting what they are trying to promote.”
But he never said what new thoughts either the Islamist or ex-Islamists had in mind.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Hacked Voting System Stored Accessible Password, Encryption Key
An internet-based voting system that was hacked last week by researchers at the University of Michigan stored its database username, password and encryption key on a server open to attack.
Alex Halderman, a computer scientist at the university, has detailed the vulnerabilities and hacking techniques his students used to completely control the system last week. The hack allowed them to change votes and program the system to play his school’s fight song “Hail to the Victors” after each voter cast their ballot.
The hack, unnoticed by election officials until researchers notified them, forced election officials to take the system offline and adopt a contingency plan for the November elections.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hevesi to Plead Guilty to Felony in Case on State Pensions
Former State comptroller Alan G. Hevesi was in custody on Thursday morning and was expected to plead guilty to a felony count stemming from a state pension scandal, several people with direct knowledge of the case said. He was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan.
Mr. Hevesi has been a subject of a lengthy investigation focusing on allegations that his friends, family and associates sold access to the state’s $125 billion pension fund, one of the world’s largest, to reward allies, pay back political favors and reap millions of dollars for themselves.
Mr. Hevesi’s plea would make him the highest-ranking state official convicted in the case. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to a separate felony after admitting that he had used state workers to chauffeur his ailing wife, but he avoided jail time in that case after he agreed to resign.
| [Return to headlines] |
Justices Signal Intent to Dismantle First Amendment
The Supreme court heard arguments Wednesday concerning the highly-publicized funeral protest case, and they appear to be set to limit free-speech by permitting lawsuits against those that offend others. The Supreme Court, including Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer, sound ready to rule in favor of this new limit. The Los Angeles Times reports:
Kennedy said “certain harassing conduct” was not always protected as free speech. “Torts and crimes are committed with words all the time,” he said, referring to legal wrongs that result in lawsuits. “The First Amendment doesn’t stop state tort law in appropriate circumstances,” Breyer commented later.
Though the case is about funeral protests, Breyer said the court’s ruling will have an impact on the Internet, since it tests whether personal attacks can lead to lawsuits.
This mirrors regulations proposed in H.R. 1966 which appears to have stalled in congress. This bill included vague and difficult to define terms allowing citizens to be sued for offending people online. Ars Technica covered the controversy:
HR 1966 was introduced in April by US Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) and it’s supported by 14 other members of Congress. According to the text, individuals who bully others via any electronic means could face fines, two years in prison, or both. This, of course, could include those nasty text messages you sent to your ex on Saturday night, the questionable e-mail you sent to your brother, or those forum posts you made in which you called for someone who liked the new Star Trek movie to jump off a building.
This legislation didn’t stall in the UK where draconian equality and politically correct regulations have been active for several years. These regulations allow citizens to sue others for any and every possible offense even if it was only perceived by the plaintiff. These rules have been particularly difficult on employers, reports Mail Online:
The legislation, championed by Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman, introduces a bewildering range of rights which allow staff to sue for almost any perceived offence they receive in the workplace.
It creates the controversial legal concept of ‘third party harassment’, under which workers will be able to sue over jokes and banter they find offensive — even if the comments are aimed at someone else and they weren’t there at the time the comments were made.
These regulations, and others like them, have crippled their nation’s ability to prosecute and deport illegal immigrants. Police work in fear of enforcing immigration laws because they don’t want to appear racist. The UK has thousands of unchecked illegal immigrants free of prosecution while their police stand by with their hands tied. Ryan Kisinel of Mail Online wrote, “Police fear asking questions about their nationality because they will be hung out to dry by politically correct regulations.”
| [Return to headlines] |
Obama as Roman Emperor — The Rise and Fall of the Propaganda Master
To understand Obama’s fall, we must understand his rise; and to do that, we must look to ancient history. It was neither for his resume nor his policies that America fell in love with him. In fact, Obama’s policy priorities have turned out to be quite unpopular.
It was instead by following the lead of Rome’s greatest emperors that Obama won (temporarily) America’s awe and devotion. This sort of ruler cult begins to crumble, of course, when the ruler is required to make decisions and take positions under unprecedented media scrutiny.
In the art of self-promotion through images, Obama’s closest parallels lived long before the age of YouTube and the 24-hour news cycle. Rome’s first emperor, Augustus (63 BC — AD 14), was a master of manipulating what “mass media” there was. Through the propagation of carefully crafted, semi-divine portrait types, vague but appealing buzzwords, and abstract association with heroes of the past, Augustus and his successors won the public’s support.
Augustus’ fixed “portrait-type” was disseminated and recreated for public consumption across the empire in the form of statues, coins, and other artworks…
Compare to iconic Obama posters…
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
Sarah Palin Takes a Big Step Toward 2012 Run for President
…Sarah Palin is raising new speculation in conservative circles that she is already preparing for a 2012 presidential bid. In the latest and clearest example of her plans, Palin met with some 50 national conservative leaders Wednesday in Palm Beach, Florida where she discussed economic and diplomatic policy and led some to declare that she’s in the race.
“This was an indication that she’s strongly considering running,” said one insider. “She was very knowledgeable and gave intelligent answers, despite how she’s been characterized,” added the insider. “And she was extremely charming.”
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
The Best and Worst Run States in America: A Survey of All Fifty
[…]
24/7 Wall St. has completed one of the most comprehensive studies of state financial management ever performed by the mainstream media. It is based on evaluation principles used in the award-winning Best Run States In America ratings published by the Financial World Magazine during the 1990s. These studies were used by state governments to evaluate the efficiency of their own operations. The new 24/7 Wall St. study is meant to help businesses and individuals examine state operation with an unbiased eye.
Top Ten:
Wyoming, North Dakota, Iowa, Vermont, Minnesota, Utah, Virginia, New Hampshire, Maryland, and Hawaii…
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
The Gift of Obama’s Foreign Policy
As the antithesis of Bush is learning, foreign dictators are likely to bite the hand that strokes them.
The Obama reset foreign policy has, in an unintended way, brought clarity to America’s traditional role in the world. After 2004, “blame Bush” proved an easy way for Europeans and American liberals to delude themselves into thinking the world’s problems neither predated nor transcended George W. Bush: Tensions arose, America was at fault, Bush was the culprit, presto! Remove Bush, elect his antithesis, and a natural state of calm would return.
But suddenly Barack Obama’s brief tenure has reminded us that, in fact, almost all the world’s crises arose before the Bush presidency and continued during and after it. Examine current American foreign policy toward every region, and one of three general patterns emerges: Either things are no better since the end of 2008, or they are much worse, or the Obama administration has reverted to the Bush way of doing things — despite constant assurances to the world that Bush was at fault, American foreign policy was now reset, and global animosity arose out of past misunderstanding, insensitivity, and American hubris.
Take first our most vocal and overt enemies. Fidel Castro, after a few mixed messages, is still recycling his 1960s anti-American boilerplate. Syria’s Bashar al-Assad is cementing relations with Iran and Hezbollah, and doing nothing to help matters either in Iraq or in the Mideast generally, despite being assured by Obama that he can do business with someone who is not “smoke ‘em out” George Bush.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Campbell’s Soup Catering to Islam
Famed company says products certified by Hamas-linked team
The Canadian division of the Campbell’s Soup company, known to generations for its “M’mmm, m’mmm, good” slogan, is selling products approved as “halal” for Muslims by an organization with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the massive movement that has spawned terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida and Hamas.
The move has triggered a Facebook-based boycott plan and the outrage of a multitude of online forum participants, including Kenny Solomon who cryptically wrote: “Stock … Sold as of the opening bell tomorrow. Letter . Mailed about ten minutes ago. Items in my kitchen … In the garbage. I won’t even donate it.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Spikes Child-Porn Case Against Muslim Preacher Targeted by CSIS
Kiddie-porn charges have been dropped against a Muslim preacher, with a judge ruling that “threats and intimidation” by CSIS agents railroaded the man into handing over evidence.
In 2007, Brampton’s Ayad Mejid had had enough of a long-standing Canadian Security Intelligence Service investigation. Targeted as a suspected supporter of terrorism, he lent his laptop to authorities to try to prove his innocence. CSIS agents who searched the laptop without a warrant passed it to Toronto Police detectives, who in turn arrested Mr. Mejid. Police alleged that they found child-pornography images inside.
On Wednesday, on the eve of a long-delayed trial, a court ruled that any Crown evidence against Mr. Mejid was moot. Faulting CSIS for being beyond aggressive, Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly tossed the case.
“The intrusion into Mr. Mejid’s computer on the basis of consent obtained by threats and coercion was not merely technical in nature or the result of an understandable mistake,” Judge Kelly found. “Simply put, it was produced under compulsion.”
The written decision says CSIS spent years targeting Mr. Mejid, convincing him to take a polygraph test, threatening to expose an alleged extramarital affair, and directing law-enforcement agencies to search for porn on his computers. Prior to his handing over his laptop, CSIS agents told him his “life would change” if he did not co-operate.
“The CSIS conduct in seizing and searching Mr. Mejid’s computer in the circumstances of false misrepresentations is reprehensible,” Judge Kelly wrote.
Anser Farooq, Mr. Mejid’s lawyer, said his client has always denied links to terrorism or perusing child pornography. “He’s said from day one, ‘This was not mine.’ “
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Audio Report: Islamic Numbers, Influence Surging
‘Situation really bad for Christians where Muslims are now in the majority in Europe’
However, International Christian Concern Islam watcher Jonathan Racho says that the increasingly large Western European Muslim community is growing in militancy as well as in numbers.
“If you go to places like the U. K. and France, some cities in Sweden and Holland, you can already see some cities where Muslims are very significant because of their numbers,” Racho began.
“In the U. K. there are some places where there are so many Muslims [that] non-Muslims can’t go there. They are called ‘no-go’ areas for non-Muslims,” he explained.
“Because of this, human rights violations are happening. We have reported attacks on Christians in a neighborhood in the U. K. Evangelists were stopped by the police for preaching the Gospel. The Muslim policeman stopped them and said they couldn’t preach in that area,” Racho said.
“There’s been some scary situations. I’m not trying to be alarmist, but I’m just stating the facts. The situation is really bad for Christians in some areas where Muslims are now in the majority in Europe,” Racho added.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Free Speech on Trial in the Netherlands
The hate speech trial of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders began in Amsterdam on October 4. Prosecutors say Wilders incited hatred against Muslims when he made remarks describing Islam as fascist and compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf. Wilders argues that he has a right to freedom of speech and that his remarks were within the bounds of the law. If convicted of any of the five charges against him, Wilders faces a hefty fine and/or up to one year in prison. He could also be barred from seeking re-election for public office.
The Wilders trial, which is expected to last about a month, represents a landmark case that likely will establish the limits of free speech in a country where the politically correct elite routinely seek to silence public discussion about the escalating problem of Muslim immigration.
At the start of his trial, Wilders, whose popularity and influence in the Netherlands are at an all time high, said he speaks for more than one million Dutch voters, and he vowed not retract a word. “I am on trial, but on trial with me is the freedom of expression of many Dutch citizens,” he told the Amsterdam district court. “I can assure you, I will continue proclaiming it.
“I have said what I have said and I will not take one word back,” Wilders continued, “but that does not mean I have said everything attributed to me.” Wilders, who has a round-the-clock police guard because of death threats, then invoked his right to remain silent and refused to answer judges’ questions.
| [Return to headlines] |
Freedom of Speech on Trial in the Netherlands is a Hint of Things to Come in America
By: Mark Tapscott
Dutch political leader Geert Wilder is on trial for exercising a right most Americans take for granted — the right to speak our minds on any topic whatsoever and to say whatever you and I choose to say on that topic, regardless of how inflammatory, idiotic, or brilliant it might seem to anybody else.
Others, too, have the right to point out how inflammatory, idiotic or brilliant they might find any of our comments. In America, we have confidence that when everybody gets to speak their mind, the truth will ultimately prevail. It is a cornerstone constitutional right of the American republic, along with freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. These rights are the essence of the Western tradition of individual liberty, freedom of thought, and conscience.
But there are no such rights in Islamic countries. And radical Jihadists are pushing to extinguish rights like freedom of speech that are intrinsic to Western civilization in outposts they’ve established in places like Europe. In the Netherlands, for example, the specter of political correctness being used to silence all criticism of Islam heralds the repression in store for every person who comes under such rule.
Dutch political leader Geert Wilders has fought this Islamified PC and is now on trial for doing so, accused of committing a “hate crime” by speaking these lines:
“We must stop the tsunami of the Islamization. This hits us in the heart, in our identity, in our culture.”
Speaking such words can be construed as putting Islam in a negative light, which under Islamic Sharia law is a criminal offense. Under the current PC repression embedded in Dutch law, Wilders could be sent to prison for a year for speaking those words.
Examiner columnist Diana West has been closely following the Wilders trial and the steady march of Islamic-manipulation of PC law to spread repression across Europe. Check out her analyses here and here.
Then watch the following clip from Wilders’ trial. I hate subtitled movies but this clip is a chilling preview of what is ahead for America if we continue to be apathetic, naive or stupid about what is happening across the pond in Europe. It’s also happening right here in places like our college campuses:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
French Veil Ban Clears Last Legal Hurdle
France’s constitutional court has approved the law set to ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public.
It approved it almost in its entirety, making one small change: the law will not apply to public places of worship where it may violate religious freedom.
The proposed measure had already been passed by parliament. It is due to come into force next spring.
The ban has strong public support, but critics point out that only a handful of French Muslims wear the full veil.
The law makes it illegal to wear garments such as the niqab or burka, which incorporate a full-face veil, anywhere in public.
Under the ban, persons found wearing a full veil in public will face a fine of 150 euros (£130) and/or a citizenship course.
Those found to force women to wear a full veil will face a 30,000-euro fine and a one-year jail term.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders is on Trial for US All
[It should be noted that Cranmer is undoubtedly the UKs leading religio-political blogger, his decision to back the Wilders cause is not without significance.]
It is unfortunate that the opening day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham should be so comprehensively upstaged by the trial of the century… …But liberty is rather more important than welfare.
And togetherness in the national interest is not simply a fiscal policy for the economic objective of sustaining the nation’s AAA credit rating, but a spiritual commitment for the political objective of sustaining the peace and security of the realm.
How can we coexist ‘together’ when our fundamental freedoms borne of religious strife are being systematically eroded in order that future strife may be prevented now?
| [Return to headlines] |
German University Starts Seminars for Imams
They intervene in cultural conflicts, marital disputes and dealings with the German authorities: Muslim spiritual leaders deal with the everyday and the soul. Osnabrück University has become the first in Germany to offer seminars for imams. Many hope it will prove a boon for integration.
“Islam also belongs to Germany,” said German President Christian Wulff during Sunday’s speech to mark the 20th anniversary of German reunification. The comments provoked massive outrage.
Conservative politicians are now warning against treating Islam the same as Christianity and Judaism. But parallel to the heated debate, democratic Islam is embedding itself in Germany: For the first time ever, imams are going to be trained at a German university. It is a development long fought for by many German politicians. The signal sent out by Osnabrück could hardly be more important. The German state is creating partners in its dialogue with Islam: imams trained in state institutions.
It is a project that is urgently needed. Many of the almost 2,000 imams preaching in the country speak hardly any German. They do not spend long in Germany before returning to their homelands, such as Turkey. They are not integrated in German society and as a religious and social authority they also prevent members of their community from becoming more integrated.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Hungary’s Toxic Sludge Reminiscent of 2000 Romania Disaster — But Much Worse
The largest, most dangerous environmental disaster in Hungary’s history is unfolding this week after a containment pond dam broke Monday, releasing more than 35 million cubic feet of toxic sludge. The red slurry has now seeped into the Danube River and authorities are worried about widespread damage to water supplies.
[…]
the toxic sludge disaster is reminiscent of a spill in Baia Mare, Romania, in 2000 that released 4.6 million cubic feet of cyanide-tainted water into nearby rivers. Although the area has been deemed safe for residency, some traces of the spill still remain in the area.
But almost 10 times that much toxic sludge was released in Hungary, and much of it is still sitting on the ground in the surrounding villages.
[…]
In Romania, the tainted water was whisked away from the area relatively quickly by rivers, where it dispersed. A UN report found that much of the river life recovered relatively fast because contaminants came and went quickly.
That will not be the case in Hungary, where villages are buried under feet of sludge…
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
Italy to Become Next European Country to Ban Burka After Government Report Recommends Forbidding it in Public
Italy is set to become the next European country to ban the burka after a government report ruled in favour of the proposed legislation.
MPs from the anti-immigration Northern League party, a member of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s ruling right wing coalition, have presented the proposal in a bill.
It comes just weeks after France banned the wearing of burkas and other forms of face veils — a decision which prompted al Qaeda terrorists to vow revenge.
An Interior Ministry report now being considered by the Constitutional Affairs Commission says that if introduced the law should make clear burkas and other face coverings were being banned not for ‘religious reasons but for security reasons.’
As part of their investigation the Interior Ministry heard from several leading Muslims on the use of the burka and several pointed out there was no mention of its use at all in the Koran.
Ejaz Ahmed, of the Italian Islam Committee said: ‘The use of the burka and the niqab does not have its origins in the Koran — in fact it is not even mentioned in the Koran.
‘The burka has nothing to do with religion and was being worn even before Islam was founded — it was worn by the Romans, Byzantines and Persians and wearing it is not a religious obligation.
‘There is no connection between the burka and the niqab with the Islamic religion — the burqa should be banned to respect women’s dignity and the safety of the public given that in Pakistan many suicide bombers have hidden devices under burkas.’
However others from the Islam Committee ruled that the burka was part of Muslim culture.
Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo said: ‘The government risks inflaming Islamophobia by introducing this law.
‘They think that by saying it is for public safety they are washing their hands of it but any ban of the burka will simply be exploited.’
The Interior Ministry report to the Commission said: ‘The law should consider public safety and consider that wearing such clothing prevents immediate recognition by the forces of law and order and, if necessary being described by witnesses.
‘Recognition of a person must be guaranteed especially in light of the risk from international terrorism.
‘The law should avoid any reference to Islam or religion in order so as not to fuel controversy.’
Italy has more than one million Muslims but it is rare to see women wearing the full burka.
There have been incidents, especially in northern cities such as Milan and Verona, where women wearing it have been asked to remove at least the face veil.
Technically it is illegal to be seen in public wearing anything that prevents immediate identification and there have been several cases in recent months of zealous officials fining burka wearing women.
Earlier this year Amel Marmouri, 36, was fined £430 for wearing a burka at her local post office in Novara and her husband Ben Salah Braim said he would keep her indoors rather than let her go out uncovered.
There has also been a backlash against the ‘burkini’, a bathing costume that is suitable for Islamic dress.
Several Muslim women who have used swimming pools wearing burkinis in Italy have been asked to leave, with officials claiming the garments are ‘unhygienic’.
The Northern League’s proposal aims at amending a 1975 law, introduced amid concern over domestic terrorism, which bans anyone wearing anything which makes their identification impossible.
The Constitutional Affairs Commission is expected to report back later in the autumn and the law is unlikely to go through parliament until next year at the earliest.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Jihad Threatens Europe
The travel advisory issued on Sunday by the US State Department in Washington is neither standard, nor exaggerated. It is based on concrete intelligence from agencies in the US, Pakistan, Britain, France, and Germany. A picture has come together in recent days justifying the warning and the beefed up security measures in Europe.
In general, the elements posing a threat are two jihadist cells — i.e. al-Qaeda or an organization operating under the terror network’s influence. The group planning terror attacks in Britain and Germany (and in Sweden, too, apparently) is hiding, organizing, and training in the tribal area in western Pakistan. Its members are Muslims with German and British citizenship and it is led by extremist religious figures. They arrived in Pakistan and Afghanistan about a year ago in order to train and join the jihad. Now, they are trying to carry out missions in their home countries.
[…]
The Mumbai model
The preferred method of attack is shooting attacks and taking hostages. This modus operandi, which was successfully executed last year in Mumbai, India, does not necessitate the smuggling and transport of large explosive devices, nor the expertise required to operate them. It allows the perpetrators, British and German citizens, to reach their targets unhindered, armed with assault rifles and handguns that can be obtained on the local market and hidden in handbags.
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
Radical Islam Has Outmanoeuvred West, Says Blair
Western democracies have been “outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised” by violent Islamist extremists, Tony Blair has claimed.
In a speech in New York, the former prime minister said that warnings over the past week of terrorist plots against Europe should remind people that they remained under threat.
Mr Blair said a “narrative” that Muslims were under attack from the US and its allies, who acted out of support for Israel, had been allowed to take hold, aided by “websites and blogs”.
A fresh confrontation was needed because it would be impossible to defeat extremism “without defeating the narrative that nurtures it”, he said.
“The practitioners of extremism are small in number. The adherents of the narrative stretch far broader into parts of mainstream thinking,” Mr Blair told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“It is a narrative that now has vast numbers of assembled websites, blogs and organisations.”
Mr Blair said it was “absurd” that some people were surprised at how powerful Islamist extremist groups were, given the amount of funding they received and indoctrination they spread.
“Measure, over the years, the paucity of our counter-attack in the name of peaceful coexistence,” he said. “We have been outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised.”
Mr Blair said a tendency to “sympathise” with extremism was not only dangerous but also disempowering for moderate Muslims, because it made people resent them as much as extremists.
He said he was “intrigued” by the fact that Western leaders, including President Barack Obama, felt the need to condemn Terry Jones, a pastor who threatened to burn a Koran.
“Suppose an imam, with 30 followers, in Karachi was to burn a Bible,” he said. “I can barely imagine a murmur of protest. It wouldn’t be necessary for the president of Pakistan to condemn it because no one here would remotely consider he supported it.”
Mr Blair also called on the West to make it “crystal clear” to Iran that its acquisition of a nuclear bomb would be unacceptable to the “civilised world”.
“Go and read the speech of Iran’s president to the United Nations just days ago here in New York, and tell me that is someone you want with a nuclear bomb,” he said.
He emphasised that the achievement of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians would remove “much of the poison which the extremists use”.
And he defended the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, saying: “Whatever you think of the original action, we enabled the people to choose their government.”
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Embassy Sponsors Irish Muslim Business Conference
The U.S. Embassy in Dublin has sponsored a seminar on Muslim entrepreneurs and business in Ireland. A main point of the conference was the need for Sharia law compliant financial products to be used.
The U.S. Embassy supported the conference as part of President Obama’s outreach to Muslims around the world.
Ambassador Dan Rooney congratulated the organizers on Wednesday and said that the U.S was “solid partners” in the venture. He gave a copy of President Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope “ to Imam Hussein Halawa, of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, who opened the event.
At the conference, Thomas Cooney, academic director of the Dublin Institute of Technology, stated that 76 per cent of Muslim business people in Ireland say securing finance is their biggest problem and 90 per cent said there is a need for financial products to be compliant with Islamic law.
There are 45,000 Muslims in Ireland and Islam is the third largest religion reported on census forms.
Imam Hussein Halawa said the Muslim culture was deeply dependent on ethics in business and that the paying or charging of interest on loans was forbidden.
“The Islamic objective is to avoid all transactions leading to disharmony among people,” he said.
Tayyibah Taylor, the founder of the American Muslim women’s magazine Azizah, said Islam was more than a religion, it was a way of life.
“If you would feel uncomfortable about having the activity you are doing spread across the front page of a newspaper, you shouldn’t do it,” she said.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK Blast Suspect Tiger Hanif ‘Wanted Revenge’
A Muslim arrested in the UK carried out bombings in India 17 years ago to “get revenge” on Hindus, his extradition hearing in London has been told.
Mohammed Hanif Umerji Patel allegedly financed attacks with funds donated to a refugee camp he helped set up, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.
India is seeking Mr Patel, known as Tiger Hanif, over two blasts in Surat, Gujarat, which killed a girl of eight.
He was traced to a grocery shop in Bolton by UK police.
‘Live grenade’
The court heard he had a prominent role in setting up the camp for Muslims made homeless during religious unrest in Surat in 1992.
Interpol had circulated his photograph and description worldwide.
Prosecutor Clare Montgomery QC said: “The refugee camp had a fund that was set up to collect donations and it was agreed by this defendant and three other witnesses that the fund would be employed to buy weapons.”
She said witness statements from a co-conspirator revealed a meeting was called and the men decided to obtain weapons “for revenge”.
They planned to throw a live grenade into a busy market on 27 January 1993, but aborted the plot when they saw police, she explained.
They successfully exploded the device at the same site the next day, killing an eight-year-old girl on her way home from school, Ms Montgomery added.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Don’t Have Children Unless You Can Pay for Them: Storm Over Minister’s Message to Jobless Parents as Coalition Clamps Down on Benefits
A Cabinet minister has provoked a storm by suggesting that the workshy should stop having children if they cannot afford them.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt called on the jobless to take responsibility for their families.
He said it was not the duty of the state to fund an increasing number of offspring with benefits.
His provocative comments came days after Chancellor George Osborne announced that no family should receive more than £500 a week in benefits.
Opponents, including new Labour leader Ed Miliband, branded the remarks ‘abhorrent’ and ‘cruel’, but Tory backbenchers offered generous support.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Traveller Swindled £31,000 in Benefits to Send His Children to Private School
A traveller who fraudulently claimed £31,000 of benefits while sending his children to exclusive private schools was today jailed for 18 months.
Matthew Newland drove a BMW and spent £10,000 a year to put his daughter through prep school.
His two sons were also sent to an elite school costing £7,000 each per annum.
Meanwhile, Newland was living in a static caravan owned by his mother-in-law and earning £90,000-a-year as a roofer despite claiming a raft of handouts.
He claimed he was unemployed, needed a hoist to get in and out of bed and into the bath and had to have a friend to help him move around.
However, investigators saw him walking around perfectly normally.
When police finally caught up with him, Newland skipped bail and fled to Australia.
He eventually returned to Britain and was arrested on arrival at Heathrow.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Why Facebook Addicts Are at Most Risk of Losing Their Friends Because People Get Sick of Their Updates
It should surely come as a warning if you are an over-zealous Facebook user.
The most addicted members of the social networking site are the most likely to be ‘defriended’ — because their online pals get bored with their constant and trivial updates, a study has found.
Being boring is the number one crime on the website that has an estimated 500million users worldwide including 27million in the UK alone, according to the research.
| [Return to headlines] |
Academics Boycott the Truth
by Phyllis Chesler, PhD
[a] professor of English at the University of Southern California, Dr. David Lloyd, managed to garner 900 academic signatories from 150 universities for his letter-petition in favor of culturally and academically boycotting Israel.
Last year, Lloyd sent this letter-petition to President Barak Obama soon after he took office. According to Dr Fred Gottheil, Lloyd’s letter petition (which cannot be found online) “was notable not only for its criticism of Israeli policy — that is standard fare among the set of academics who subscribe to a post-colonial view of the world — but rather for its demonizing of the Jewish state…
Dr. Gottheil…painstakingly tracked down 675 of the original signatories and… asked these same academics who are, ostensibly, concerned with social justice issues, to sign a statement-petition which opposed the widespread abuse of women in the Middle East, including in the disputed Palestinian territories.
Gottheil specifically mentioned and documented “honor-killing, wife-beating, female genital mutilation” and the systematic “discrimination against women, gays and lesbians in the Middle East.”
…According to Gottheil, less than 5% of these same academics (27 people!) signed his statement-petition. And, most shocking, (but not surprising to me), literally only five of the169 Women’s Studies academics signed his statement. As Gottheil puts it:
“In other words, 95 percent of those who had signed the Lloyd petition censuring Israel for human rights violation did not sign a statement concerning discrimination against women and gays and lesbians in the Middle East.”
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
Israel on War Alert
Jewish state fears Iran ally will attack
Israel is on heightened alert for possible attacks by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization in Lebanon, according to a senior Israeli defense official speaking to WND.
The official said the Jewish state is concerned Hezbollah might try to spark a conflict to deflect attention from an international tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who died in a car bomb explosion in 2005.
The probe is reportedly set to indict members of Hezbollah for the murder. The indictments may come as soon as the next few weeks, reports have claimed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Arrests Two Muslim Clerics Over ‘Terror Links’
Israeli police have arrested two Muslim clerics on suspicion of having links to terror groups.
The men, both from the northern Israeli town of Nazareth, are accused of “being involved in supporting terrorism,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
One of the men, Nazem Abu Slim, was reported to be an imam at a mosque in the town known for preaching a radical version of Islam.
The second man, Shaykh Nazem Abu Salim, reportedly attends the mosque.
Mr Rosenfeld gave no further information on the arrests as the case was subject to a gagging order.
Israeli media reported that the men had been trying to encourage worshippers at the mosque to join militant Islamist groups.
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
How Arms Deals Are Shaping the Mideast
A record U.S. arms deal with Saudi Arabia is part of an effort to put pressure on Iran, partly by strengthening alliances with oil-rich neighbors also concerned by Iran’s rise.
From 2005 to 2009, the US sold up to $37 billion in arms to Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
The recent US-Saudi deal, which is expected to be submitted to Congress for approval soon, could be worth as much as $60 billion.
It would include 84 new Boeing F-15 fighter jets and upgrades to another 70 of them, as well as three types of helicopters: 72 Black Hawks, 70 Apaches, and 36 Little Birds.
[…]
Many argue that the main reason for the US-Saudi deal is concern about Iran’s rising power — and suspicions it is developing nuclear weapons. The US is increasingly concerned with Iran, and sees Gulf states — particularly Saudi Arabia — as essential partners in containing the Islamic state.
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
Iran President Thanks Pope for Condemning Koran Threat
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written to the Pope, thanking him for condemning an American pastor’s threat to burn the Koran last month.
In his letter, Mr Ahmadinejad also called for closer co-operation between Iran and the Vatican.
Florida pastor Terry Jones was planning to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
He called it off after world leaders including US President Barack Obama and the Pope strongly condemned the plan.
The threat alone had sparked protests around the world.
President Ahmadinejad thanked Pope Benedict XVI for his stance in condemning a plan which he said “hurt the hearts of millions of Muslims”.
The letter was delivered to the pontiff by the Iranian Vice President, Mohammad Reza Mirtajodini, and a copy of it is on the president’s website.
Mr Ahmadinejad also called for “a close co-operation of divine religions to restrict destructive moves such as ignoring of religious teachings, influencing people to be materialistic, which were eroding human societies”.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis Arrest Filipino Catholics at Mass
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi police raided a secret Catholic mass in Riyadh last week and arrested a dozen Filipinos and a Catholic priest, charging them with prosyletising, a local daily reported on Wednesday.
The raid took place as some 150 Filipinos were attending the mass in a Riyadh rest house on Friday, the second day of the weekend in Saudi Arabia, Arab News said.
The twelve Filipino men and the priest, whose nationality was not specified, were “charged with prosyletising,” the daily quoted an official from the Philippine embassy in Riyadh as saying.
They were all released Sunday on guarantees by sponsors or embassies, the report said.
Saudi Arabia bans the practice of any religion aside from Islam. However, small, low-key prayer services inside expatriate compounds and in Filipino gatherings are tolerated by officials.
With more than one million workers in Saudi Arabia, Filipinos comprise the bulk of the Christian community inside the kingdom.
Filipino activists confirmed the arrests to Agence France-Presse, saying they had been released, but could not confirm the arrest of a priest.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
The Other Existential Threat: Iran’s Bomb and Israel
by Daniel Gordis
In August, two pieces of news about Iran’s nuclear ambitions were revealed almost simultaneously. The first was that Iran had fired up its first nuclear reactor. The second, delivered in an ostentatious leak to the New York Times, was that the Obama administration had determined that Iran was at least a year away from a “dash” necessary to complete a working nuclear weapon—and that the White House had succeeded in convincing Israel that there was no imminent threat.
The reactor news suggested the seriousness with which Iran was pursuing its nuclear ambitions. The “dash” story suggested the degree to which the United States was determined not to view the working Iranian reactor as a crisis requiring immediate and determined attention…
[…]
For hundreds of years, Jewish life in Europe was a matter of either hoped-for toleration or a struggle to survive against the periodic outpourings of violent Jew-hatred. During the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290, the Spanish Inquisition some 200 years later, the state-encouraged pogroms that would sow terror in Jewish communities across the continent intermittently in the centuries that followed, and the culmination of all this hatred in the Nazi death machine…the Jewish experience in Europe was fundamentally one of defenselessness. What happened to the Jews was whatever their enemies determined should happen to them.
The creation of the State of Israel fundamentally changed not only that reality but also the self-perception that accompanied it..The creation and survival of the Jewish state in the late 1940s ended a millennium of abject Jewish vulnerability and brought to an astonishing close a long and anguished history in which Jews were assigned the role of victim-on-call.
Many people are put off by the Israeli national affect, which they take to be a mix of arrogance and bravado. This is a misperception of an attitude that is born, in truth, out of collective relief: We Jews no longer live—and die—at the whim of others. That sense of security would evaporate the minute Iran had the weapon it seeks. Even if Israel does possess a second-strike capability, and even if the U.S. could be counted on to punish a nuclear attack on the Jewish state, the existential condition of the Jews would still have reverted to that experienced in pre-state Europe. It would mean that Jews by the tens of thousands could die because someone else determined that it was time for them to do so. No action that Israel could take in response would change that fundamental reality…
[…]
… Israel is bone-weary. On its campuses, increasing numbers of faculty members espouse the notion that Zionism is colonialism. Draft evasion is at an all-time high. The international delegitimization of Israel haunts day-to-day life.
Perhaps most important, today’s Israeli parents are the first generation to send their children to war unable to console themselves with the notion that theirs will be the last generation of children that will have to fight.
[…]
It is therefore critical that the world understand what is at stake for Israel. Should Israel strike first, the international community will need to understand what motivated that strike. Indeed, a true grasp of the stakes for Israel might be the only thing that could avert the need for an Israeli strike.
If Barack Obama could come to understand in precisely what way this is a matter that goes to the heart of Israel’s very existence—and, one might add, the existence of the Jewish people as a people, because we cannot survive a second act of mass murder in a single century…
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
Eight Killed in Pakistan Shrine Bombing: Police
KARACHI — Eight worshippers including two children were killed in twin bomb blasts Thursday at a packed Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, officials told AFP. Senior police official Hamid Parhial gave the toll, adding that 65 people were also injured, and said it was a suspected suicide attack. The bombs exploded at the entrance of the shrine to Sufi saint Abdullah Shah Ghazi as devotees packed it for a weekly gathering in Karachi’s seaside Clifton district. Provincial home minister Zulfikar Mirza said an investigation into the attack was already underway and that the government had decided to seal all shrines in the city immediately over security fears. “It was a terrorist attack,” he said. The shrine’s floor was spattered in blood, said witnesses. Slippers, sandals and flowers brought by devotees to lay at the tomb littered the area. Witness Gul Mohammad said he was outside the shrine when two huge blasts were heard in quick succession. “I rushed inside and saw blood and human flesh,” he said. “Some bodies were lying on the ground and several people wounded in the blasts were crying in pain. Then ambulances started arriving and moving the injured to hospitals.” Ambulances with sirens blaring were seen ferrying casualties to hospitals as police and paramilitary soldiers cordoned off the shrine. Doctor Seemin Jamali of Civil Hospital Karachi said 10 women and seven children with serious injuries were among those admitted. There was no claim of responsibility for the latest attack but the Pakistani Taliban has been blamed for similar bombings in the past.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Newborn Baby Killed After a Monkey Snatches Her From Cot Then Drops Her From Roof
A new-born baby died after being dropped from the roof of a house after being snatched from her cot by a macaque monkey.
The child’s mother had left the room to visit the bathroom in her house in Seremban, 35 miles south-east of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
When she returned, the child had vanished. The 26-year-old, identified only as Revathy, eventually found her infant lying on the ground, her face and neck badly bitten.
She had suffered multiple injuries as a result of being dropped from the roof.
Revathy’s father-in-law, Valayutham, 70, was in the living room but he did not hear or see the macaque monkey enter the house through an open window.
‘I’d gone to get a glass of water and didn’t realise what was happening,’ he said.
‘When we realised the baby was missing, we frantically searched all over the house — then saw her body covered in blood lying outside’.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Urges on Taliban
Members of Pakistan’s spy agency are pressing Taliban field commanders to fight the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan, some U.S. officials and Afghan militants say, a development that undercuts a key element of the Pentagon’s strategy for ending the war.
The explosive accusation is the strongest yet in a series of U.S. criticisms of Pakistan, and shows a deteriorating relationship with an essential ally in the Afghan campaign. The U.S. has provided billions of dollars in military and development aid to Pakistan for its support.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Dr. Ryan N. Maue’s 2010 Global Tropical Cyclone Activity Update
Update: Current Year-to-Date analysis of Northern Hemisphere and Global Tropical Cyclone Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) AND Power Dissipation Index (PDI) has fallen even further than during the previous 3-years. The global inactivity is at 33-year lows and historical where Typhoons form in the Western Pacific.
While the North Atlantic has seen 15 tropical storms or hurricanes of various intensity, the Pacific basin as a whole is at historical lows!
In the Western North Pacific stretching from Guam to Japan and the Philippines and China, the current ACE value of 48 is the lowest seen since reliable records became available (1945) and is 78% below normal. The next lowest was an ACE of 78 in 1998. See figure below for visual evidence of the past 40-years of tropical cyclone activity.
[see chart at link]
| [Return to headlines] |
Sea Shepherd Deliberately Sank Protest Boat to Gain Sympathy
Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd deliberately sank its own high-tech protest boat to gain sympathy after a January collision with a Japanese whaling ship, the former skipper of the boat said Thursday in a public spat with the conservation group’s founder.
New Zealand anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune said the protest boat Ady Gil was salvageable after the collision, but he was ordered by Sea Shepherd head Paul Watson to scuttle it.
“Paul Watson was my admiral,” he said on New Zealand radio. “He gave me an order and I carried it out.”
Sea Shepherd denied Watson issued such an order, and said it had been unable to tow the boat and stop it from sinking.
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Muslim Sect Members Kill Political Leader
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Members of a radical Muslim sect shot and killed a political leader in northern Nigeria, the latest attack by a group that engineered a massive prison break last month, a police commissioner said Thursday. Police commissioner Ibrahim Abdu told The Associated Press that investigators believe members of the feared Boko Haram sect shot and killed Awana Ngala, the leader of the state’s ruling All Nigeria People’s Party. The attack came only three hours after suspected group members shot two security agents stationed Wednesday night outside the home of the speaker of Borno state’s House of Assembly. Ngala’s killing could mark the 11th slaying by the Boko Haram sect in recent weeks. The group has lately been responsible for a rash of killings committed by Kalashnikov-carrying men riding motorcycle taxis, and Ngala’s death fits that profile. Many of the killings targeted those who testified against group members in open court after a 2009 riot that sparked a security crackdown that left more than 700 people dead. Abdu said no arrests have been made. “We have intensified our investigations on the serial attacks and killings,” Abdu said. Boko Haram — which means “Western education is sacrilege” in the local Hausa language — has campaigned for the implementation of strict Shariah law. Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is divided between the Christian-dominated south and the Muslim-held north. A dozen states across Nigeria’s north already have Shariah law in place, though the area remains under the control of secular state governments.
[…]
| — Hat tip: DF | [Return to headlines] |
Zimbabwean Man Drugged, Raped by Female Gang
A Zimbabwean man has accused a gang of three women of kidnapping, drugging and raping him in the fifth sexual attack targeting male victims in under a year, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old man told police he was offered a lift in the southern city of Bulawayo but passed out in the vehicle after he was grabbed from behind and his face covered with a cloth.
He said he fell unconscious again after being given a substance that tasted like alcohol.
“After he woke up he was naked and the ladies took turns to rape him and abused him,” police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told AFP.
The man told police he passed out after the assault but was later dumped by the women.
“The ladies also took his money, $US300 ($A308) and mobile phone,” said Bvudzijena.
“The intentions by the three women are not clear but we suspect it could for ritual purposes,” he said.
The incident on Friday was the fifth such attack reported in several parts of the country, carried out by groups of women of varying size.
“It could be one or more gangs involved which is doing this. In all cases the victims are caught unaware and they are given drugs which make them dizzy,” said Bvudzijena.
“A docket for aggravated assault has since been opened in these cases.”
The first attack happened last November when three women kidnapped an 18-year-old man, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.
In February, a group of four women forced a 25-year-old to have sex with them at gunpoint.
Last month, a 44-year-old man, who was ordered to wear a condom, was targeted by two women while a man stood guard.
A 30-year-old man was also drugged by three women, two of whom had guns, and sexually assaulted.
Under Zimbabwean law, the charge of rape applies only to women victims.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Why Mexican ‘Pirates’ Are Targeting US Tourists on Falcon Lake
The attack that allegedly killed the missing American tourist David Hartley on Sept. 30 while he was jet-skiing with his wife was not the first such incident on the 60-mile-long body of water straddling the United States and Mexico.
[…]
Since April 30, five incidents of armed robberies or attempted theft have been reported on Falcon Lake: one in April, two in May, and one in August. The fifth ambush allegedly ended in gunfire last week with the possible death of Mr. Hartley.
“This is a new situation where [drug-trafficking] groups feel they own public spaces,” says Humberto Palomares, a security expert at the Tamaulipas campus of the Colegio de Frontera Norte (COLEF).
[…]
| [Return to headlines] |
EU Approves Deal With Pakistan on Readmission of Illegal Immigrants
BRUSSELS, Oct 7 (KUNA) — European Union interior ministers meeting in Luxembourg Thursday adopted an agreement between the EU and Pakistan on the readmission of persons staying illegally in their respective territories.
The main objective of this agreement is to establish rapid and effective procedures for the identification and safe and orderly return of those persons, noted an EU statement.
The agreement will most likely enter into force on 1 December 2010. It will apply only to those persons who entered into the territories of Pakistan and of the EU member states after that date.
The agreement covers both readmission of own nationals of the two parties and of third country nationals or stateless persons. The European Commission estimated that about 13,000 illegal Pakistanis have been arrested in EU member states in recent years.
The agreement also includes a number of other procedural rules, such as the time-limits for the readmission applications, the modalities for the transfer of the returnees, the cost of the transfer and the protection of personal data of the returnees.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Judge Blasts Homeschool Family’s Reunion Hopes
Rules child ‘state-napped’ in 2009 must remain in social services custody
A judge in Sweden’s administrative court has ruled that social workers will continue to have custody of a boy who was seized by police from a jetliner as he and his parents were preparing to move to India, according to a new report.
The decision by Judge Peter Freudenthal was reported by the Home School Legal Defense Association, which along with international attorneys working with the Alliance Defense Fund already have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights for help reuniting the family.
[…]
“This case is so egregious that the only explanation for the decision is that judges and social services authorities are simply trying to cover their tracks because they know they have grossly violated the basic human rights of this family,” Donnelly said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Urged to Lift Immunity for Criminal Conduct at the U.N.
An American employee of the United Nations says she cannot understand how the U.S. court system can allow the U.N. to be “above the law.” The comment follows a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear her case alleging sexual harassment by a top U.N. official.
Cynthia Brzak questioned the implications of absolute immunity for other cases of wrongdoing by U.N. officials, from the Iraq oil scandal to the sexual exploitation and rape of African women and children in exchange for food.
“The United Nations is an organization, not a government,” she said Tuesday. “How can the U.S. allow an organization to be above and beyond the law? This is a stain on all Americans say we stand for.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Father Banned From Going on Mechanics Course Before His ‘Road Trip of a Lifetime’… Because He’s a Man
John Mandy’s retirement dreams have stalled after being told he can’t go on the mechanics course he wanted because he’s the wrong sex.
Mr Mandy, 58, of Stockport, Manchester, had sensibly planned to tune up his skills ahead of a trip of a lifetime around Europe in a VW camper van with wife Joy, 57.
But his plan failed as the one local evening class he could find — at Trafford College — only accepts women so that men can’t ‘intimidate’ them in lessons.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Now Police Are Ordered to Protect ‘Doggers’ Indulging in Outdoor Sex With Strangers From Hate Crime
Police have been ordered to stop anyone taking in part in illegal outdoor sex being abused or verbally taunted as it can cause them to suffer post traumatic stress.
An extraordinary new Hate Crime Guidance Manual has been handed to officers telling them to arrest anyone suspected of committing a hate crime against those engaged in ‘dogging’.
Although it notes that outdoor sex can have an ‘impact on the quality of life of people using these locations for leisure pursuits’ — for example dog walkers and tourists — the rights of those cottaging, cruising or dogging must be taken into account by officers.
It states that even though ‘outdoor sex is unlawful’, people who take part in it still have rights which protect them from becoming victims of hate crime.
The manual, issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers of Scotland last week, states that people who take part in open-air sex are ‘more susceptible to hate crime’ and can suffer ‘post traumatic stress and depression’ if they are abused, Police Review revealed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Microsoft Proposes Government Licensing Internet Access
A new proposal by a top Microsoft executive would open the door for government licensing to access the Internet, with authorities being empowered to block individual computers from connecting to the world wide web under the pretext of preventing malware attacks.
Speaking to the ISSE 2010 computer security conference in Berlin yesterday, Scott Charney, Microsoft vice president of Trustworthy Computing, said that cybersecurity should mirror public health safety laws, with infected PC’s being “quarantined” by government decree and prevented from accessing the Internet.
“If a device is known to be a danger to the internet, the user should be notified and the device should be cleaned before it is allowed unfettered access to the internet, minimizing the risk of the infected device contaminating other devices,” Charney said.
Charney said the system would be a “global collective defense” run by corporations and government and would “track and control” people’s computers similar to how government health bodies track diseases.
Invoking the threat of malware attacks as a means of dissuading or blocking people from using the Internet is becoming a common theme — but it’s one tainted with political overtones.
| [Return to headlines] |
