Financial Crisis
»	Cyprus: Communist AKEL Drafts ‘Robin Hood’ Proposal
»	Italy: Businessman Commits Suicide Near Molfetta
»	Italy: Two Tax Inspectors Attacked Near Milan
	USA
»	FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Finally Wins
	Europe and the EU
»	France: Hollande Owns Real Estate Worth Eur 1.17 Mln
»	Italian Who Helped WWII Jews Recognised as Martyr
»	Put Britain’s Future in Europe to the Vote
»	Sardinia: Signatures for the “Referendum for Independence”
»	UK: Bloodless Bean-Counters Rule Over Us — Where Are the Leaders?
»	UK: Britons Want to Live Near a Pub, Research Finds
»	UK: Child Sex Trial: Rochdale Council of Mosques Response
»	UK: Clarification Regarding EDL Demonstration
»	UK: Child Sex Trial Sparks Heated Question Time Debate
»	UK: England’s Forgotten War Between North and South
»	UK: Exclusive: Men Arrested as Police Launch New Child Sex Probe in Rochdale
»	UK: Former Mayor: ‘Silly Mistake’ During Child Sex Grooming Trial
»	UK: Giant Twisting Olympic Park Sculpture Unveiled But Critics Label it ‘Godzilla of Public Art’
»	UK: Long Wait for Children in Care
»	UK: Muslim Leaders Warn of Far Right Exploitation of Rochdale Child Sex Case
»	UK: More Than 100 Homes Evacuated as Bomb Disposal Experts Carry Out Four Controlled Explosions After Two Terror Arrests
»	UK: Police Uncover ‘Second Child Sex Ring’ In Rochdale After Woman Says She Was Abused Over Six Years
»	UK: The Rochdale Diversity Awards Finalists Have Been Announced
	Middle East
»	75 Mln Euros Loan From EIB to Turkey
»	Egyptian Minister to Non-Aligned: Back Palestine
»	‘Powerful’ Explosion Hits Syrian City
»	Turkey: Ankara’s Nightmare, Post-Assad Partition of Syria
»	US to Resume Military Sales to Protest-Torn Bahrain
	Russia
»	Ukraine: Never-Seen-Before Shots of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster That Cost Two of the Four Photographers Their Lives
	South Asia
»	From the DoD: “Most ‘Green on Blue’ Attacks Individually Motivated”
»	India Becomes Main Rice Exporter in the World
»	Indonesia: Islamic Paramilitary Group Defends Christians, Hindus and Buddhists
	Sub-Saharan Africa
»	Beer Sales Drop in Nigeria, But Metal Detectors Soar
	Immigration
»	Germany: Candidates Vie for Immigrant Vote in Election
»	Italy: We Need an EU Urgent Plan Over Illegal Immigration, Terzi

Cyprus: Communist AKEL Drafts ‘Robin Hood’ Proposal

(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, MAY 11 — Ruling Communist party AKEL has drafted a legislative proposal which aims to set a so-called “luxury tax,” a scaled tax on vehicles above 3000 cc. The aim — as Cyprus Mail reports — is to tax the rich to benefit the needy. Exempted are vehicles used for public transport, ambulances, self-propelled caravans, vehicles for the disabled, and those used to transport merchandise. It has also tabled a proposal for a special construction fee for houses and apartments over 300 square metres. The fee would be paid on applying for a building permit. For properties with an area between 301 and 400 square meters, the special fee per square meter over and above the 300 square meters would be 50 euros.

For properties between 401 and 500 square meters, the fee would be 100 euros per square meter over and above the 400 square meters. AKEL proposes that the measure, if passed, be implemented as of July 1. Both proposals are currently being processed by the House Finance Committee.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Businessman Commits Suicide Near Molfetta

‘Financial woes after public agencies failed to pay him’

(ANSA) — Molfetta, May 11 — A businessman committed suicide near the southern Italian town of Molfetta Friday, adding to a rising toll being attributed to Italy’s economic crisis. Giuseppe Rennola, 46, an engineering entrepreneur, hanged himself from a tree.

He had been denied credit from banks after running into financial difficulties when public agencies failed to pay him for work, relatives said.

Austerity measures are beginning to hit hard in recession-hit Italy.

Italians who have killed themselves out of despair from the widespread economic crisis are on the rise, averaging one a day, according to the Eures think tank.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Two Tax Inspectors Attacked Near Milan

Construction entrepreneur ‘lashes out’

(ANSA) — Milan, May 11 — Two Italian tax inspectors were attacked by a construction entrepreneur in an accountants’ office near Milan Friday but were not badly hurt, local sources said.

The sources said the entrepreneur had “lashed out” at the inspectors.

The incident took place in the town of Melegnano. Attacks against the revenue collection service Equitalia have been rising as austerity bites in recession-hit Italy.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Finally Wins

Sibel Edmonds’ new book, Classified Woman, is like an FBI file on the FBI, only without the incompetence.

The experiences she recounts resemble K.’s trip to the castle, as told by Franz Kafka, only without the pleasantness and humanity.

I’ve read a million reviews of nonfiction books about our government that referred to them as “page-turners” and “gripping dramas,” but I had never read a book that actually fit that description until now.

The F.B.I., the Justice Department, the White House, the Congress, the courts, the media, and the nonprofit industrial complex put Sibel Edmonds through hell. This book is her triumph over it all, and part of her contribution toward fixing the problems she uncovered and lived through.

Edmonds took a job as a translator at the FBI shortly after 9-11. She considered it her duty. Her goal was to prevent any more terrorist attacks. That’s where her thinking was at the time, although it has now changed dramatically. It’s rarely the people who sign up for a paycheck and healthcare who end up resisting or blowing a whistle.

Edmonds found at the FBI translation unit almost entirely two types of people. The first group was corrupt sociopaths, foreign spies, cheats and schemers indifferent to or working against U.S. national security. The second group was fearful bureaucrats unwilling to make waves. The ordinary competent person with good intentions who risks their job to “say something if you see something” is the rarest commodity. Hence the elite category that Edmonds found herself almost alone in: whistleblowers.

Reams of documents and audio files from before 9-11 had never been translated. Many more had never been competently or honestly translated. One afternoon in October 2001, Edmonds was asked to translate verbatim an audio file from July 2001 that had only been translated in summary form. She discovered that it contained a discussion of skyscraper construction, and in a section from September 12th a celebration of a successful mission. There was also discussion of possible future attacks. Edmonds was eager to inform the agents involved, but her supervisor Mike Feghali immediately put a halt to the project.

Two other translators, Behrooz Sarshar and Amin (no last name given), told Edmonds this was typical. They told her about an Iranian informant, a former head of SAVAK, the Iranian “intelligence” agency, who had been hired by the FBI in the early 1990s. He had warned these two interpreters in person in April 2001 of Osama bin Laden planning attacks on U.S. cities with airplanes, and had warned that some of the plotters were already in the United States. Sarshar and Amin had submitted a report marked VERY URGENT to Special Agent in Charge Thomas Frields, to no apparent effect. In the end of June they’d again met with the same informant and interpreted for FBI agents meeting with him. He’d emphatically warned that the attack would come within the next two months and urged them to tell the White House and the CIA. But the FBI agents, when pressed on this, told their interpreters that Frields was obliged to report everything, so the White House and other agencies no doubt already k new.

One has to wonder what U.S. public opinion would make of an Iranian having tried to prevent 9-11.

Next, a French translator named Mariana informed Edmonds that in late June 2001, French intelligence had contacted the FBI with a warning of the upcoming attacks by airplanes. The French even provided names of suspects. The translator had been sent to France, and believed her report had made it to both FBI headquarters and the White House.

Edmonds translated other materials that involved the selling of U.S. nuclear information to foreigners and spotted a connection to a previous case involving the purchase of such information. The FBI, under pressure from the State Department, Edmonds writes, prevented her from notifying the FBI field offices involved. Edmonds has testified in a court deposition, naming as part of a broad criminal conspiracy Representatives Dennis Hastert, Dan Burton, Roy Blunt, Bob Livingston, Stephen Solarz, and Tom Lantos, and the following high-ranking U.S. government officials: Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, and Marc Grossman.

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France: Hollande Owns Real Estate Worth Eur 1.17 Mln

New President does not own shares and foreign accounts

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, 11 MAY — The new President of the French Republic, Francois Hollande, owns real estate worth EUR 1.17 mln and does not own any security listed on the Stock Exchange, according to his property statement published on the Official Journal. According to the French law, “the newly elected President’s statement about his/her property” is read on the same day of his/her official proclamation. Hollande’s real estate property consists of a house in Mougines, in the country’s South-East, which is worth EUR 800,000 and two flats in Cannes, in Cote d’Azur, worth EUR 230,000 and 140,000 respectively. Hollande’s total property, therefore, is below the threshold for the imposition of the property tax (EUR 1.3 mln).

Hollande has also declared he owns “several chatels” worth EUR 15,000. On the day of the statement, last March 15th, Hollande owned three bank accounts and a life insurance contract totalling EUR 10.000. Moreover, the new President pays EUR 1,500 a month for a bank mortgage. Francois Hollande also stated that he has never owned any securities, financial products and foreign bank accounts. He does not own art collection items, jewels and cars. During his campaign, the Socialist candidate had promised “total” transparency on his properties and his state of health.(

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italian Who Helped WWII Jews Recognised as Martyr

Pope puts Odoardo Focherini on track to sainthood

(ANSA) — Vatican City, May 10 — Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday recognised as a martyr an Italian who helped about 100 Jews escape the Holocaust, who died in a Nazi concentration camp, and was among the first Italians to be recognised by Israel as ‘Righteous Among The Nations’. Odoardo Focherini (1907-1944), from Carpi near Modena, is now on the way to beatification, a step away from sainthood.

An inspector for a Catholic insurance company, in 1936 Focherini became president of the Catholic activist association Azione Cattolica.

In 1939 he was named managing director of L’Avvenire d’Italia, a Catholic newspaper whose head office was in Bologna.

His activity in favour of the Jews started in 1942. The first he saved came from Poland on a train for injured people and arrived in Genoa, where the city’s cardinal directed them to Raimondo Manzini, L’ Avvenire d’Italia’s chairman.

Manzini trusted Focherini and asked him to help them.

His major activity in favour of the persecuted Jews, however, began in September 1943.

With support from his wife, Focherini contacted reliable people who helped him in providing blank identity cards, filling them in with false data and taking the persecuted Jews to the Swiss border.

He and a parish priest near Modena, Father Dante Sala, managed to help about 100 Jews to escape.

Focherini was arrested at Carpi hospital in March 1944, when he was organising the escape of the last Jew he was able to save.

He was taken to a prison in Bologna, then two labour camps in northern Italy, and deported to Germany on September 7, first to the Flossenburg camp and finally to Hersbrueck.

A septic wound on his leg caused his death on December 27, 1944.

Focherini was awarded the Gold Medal of Italy’s Jewish Communities in 1955 and the title of Righteous among the Nations from the Yad Vashem Shoah memorial site in Jerusalem in 1969. He received one of Italy’s top honours, the Gold Medal to Civil Merit, in 2007.

His canonisation process began in 1996.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Put Britain’s Future in Europe to the Vote

Britain’s increasingly fractious relationship with Brussels has become a running sore.

It was a symbolic moment in more ways than one. As the Olympic torch, freshly kindled, entered the ancient stadium to begin its journey to these shores, a strong gust of wind snuffed it out. The actress playing the high priestess was able to relight it, using a back‒up lamp kept close at hand. But the flickering fortunes of Greece’s economy — and the eurozone more generally — will not be so easily restored.

All around, the mood is grim. As capital flees Greece, its politicians struggle to form a government; unsurprisingly, given the voters’ flight to the extremes. In Italy, Germany and France, elections reveal a similar revolt against the established order. Spain has had to prop up one bank, and may have to rescue more. The Continent’s economy is shrinking, with targets for growth — and deficit reduction — receding into the distance. The departure of one or more countries from the eurozone has moved from possibility to probability: Germany appears to believe that the fallout from a Greek exit can be contained, but the Irish and Portuguese have reason to doubt it.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Sardinia: Signatures for the “Referendum for Independence”

(AGI) Cagliari — This morning, in order to obtain the calling for a referendum on the independence of Sardinia, the “Malu Entu” movement has presented more than 12,000 signatures to the Court of Appeal of Cagliari. The promoters of the initiative would like to submit the following question to voters by the end of the year: “Do you agree on the basis of the International Law of the United Nations that the people of Sardinia have the the right to freedom, with the independence of Sardinia?” According to the representatives of the Malu Entu, lead by Doddore Meloni, more than 27,000 people have adhered, even emigrated Sardinians living abroad. Today, supposedly 12,999 signatures have been presented. The representatives of the movement for the independence of Sardinia have explained that this is a propitiatory number chosen to tackle bad luck too.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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UK: Bloodless Bean-Counters Rule Over Us — Where Are the Leaders?

by Charles Moore

The inexorable march of the managerialists is creating resentment and social division.

Recently, a man got in touch with me who works for the defence services contractor QinetiQ. He wanted to complain about the way it was run. The company, in his view, suffers from “managerialism”. Managerialists, he says, are “a group who consider themselves separate from the organisations they join”. They are not interested in the content of the work their organisation performs. They are a caste of people who think they know how to manage. They have studied “The 24-hour MBA”. There is a clear benefit from their management, for them: they arrange their own very high salaries and bonuses. Then they can leave quickly with something that looks good on the CV. The benefit to the company is less clear.

I also spoke to a former senior employee of QinetiQ. He corroborated my informant’s points with gusto. He said managerialists were particularly unsuited to industries such as QinetiQ’s, where scientific knowledge is all. He put it simply: “People who are making bits of technology, or servicing them, should know about technology.” Skills are not infinitely transferable. “You used to be the editor of a broadsheet newspaper,” he said to me. “How do you think a former chief executive of Ford would perform if he suddenly came and edited a national title?” (or, he politely didn’t say, if the reverse were to happen).

The lack of knowledge at the top of a firm obviously creates a practical problem — “You don’t have people to get under the bonnet. They can only kick the tyres and change the oil.” They don’t understand the needs of the core customer. It also, in his view, creates a moral problem. The workers cannot respect their bosses. Management becomes “not symbiotic, but parasitic”.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Britons Want to Live Near a Pub, Research Finds

A third of Britons believe that it is important to have a pub close to their home as it demonstrates that they are part of a community, according to new research.

Mintel, the market research company, found that even infrequent pub-goers agree that it is important to have a good pub near where they live. “It is almost as if a pub is a bit of a status symbol for a community, even if they don’t use it much they want to know that they have the option to do so if they wish,” said Mintel. Research by the company found that more than twice as many people find it more enjoyable drinking in a pub than drinking at home. This is because of the “atmosphere and theatre” of a pub environment, Mintel said.

Despite Britons’ enjoyment of pubs, the research found that visits to pubs are falling. Mintel said that over six in ten adults over the age of 18 visit a pub regularly to drink. This is down from seven in ten people in 2007. The group found that more people visit pubs to eat than to drink.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Child Sex Trial: Rochdale Council of Mosques Response

The Rochdale Council of Mosques (RCM) has unreservedly condemned the “horrific crimes” committed by nine men convicted of sexually exploitating vulnerable young girls. Imam Chishti MBE, spokesperson for the RCM, commented: “In relation to the 9 men who have been convicted of various charges surrounding the sexual exploitation of vulnerable young girls, the RCM unreservedly condemns these horrific crimes. “The ripple effect of such crimes can sometimes be forgotten under such circumstances so as well as primarily remembering the victims, also the families, often young children of the perpetrators are left bereft of support especially when there is so much media attention. This is not a race, faith or creed issue, it is about crime and exploitation of young vulnerable girls and vulnerability goes across the colour divides. All our member Imams are at the forefront of addressing issues that are sometimes seen as taboo. The RCM will continue to work together with all agencies, the Police and the courts as part of the multi-agency approach to tackling this issue in our borough. We would like to assure the public that we have been working closely with the Consequent Management Group as well as with the Safeguarding Board and will continue to do so.”

Chairman of the RCM, Tahir Mahmood stated: “We are proud Rochdalians and will not tolerate any behaviour that seeks to divide the cohesion in our borough. We must stand together as one community and not allow any outsiders, especially from the far right, to damage the good relations that we have enjoyed for many years. We must also not lose sight of the fact that there is a wider issue of child exploitation, international trafficking and internet grooming that is almost a plague internationally. The RCM will continue to support the GMP, RMBC and other partners to work together for the betterment of our communities to eradicate such evil from our borough.”

The Rochdale Council of Mosques is an umbrella organisation established in 2004 representing 14 mosques and madrassahs across the borough. It is a non-denominational, voluntary organisation whose primary aim is to provide a platform for all the mosques, Imams and the respective management committees whereby they can jointly discuss faith and community matters.

[Reader comment missmoneypenny on 8 May 2012 at 19:54:24.]

One has to be very naive to overlook the belief of some Muslims, in the UK and worldwide, that 1) good women are virgins until their wedding day 2) those who are not are therefore dirty 3) most western women fall into the second category and are fair game. The various Muslim communities in the UK are terrified of having their dirty laundry exposed and deny the problem whenever challenged on this issue. Political correctness also scares off many white British.

[Reader comment by john from heywood on 9 May 2012 at 10:26:49.]

Well thanks for that RCM, very magnaminous of you to condemn this. Even if I accepted your assertion that this is not a race issue (I don’t) then there is no getting away from the fact that all but one of the convicted was of Pakistani heritage. The Asian community seems to be in denial of the problem to the extent that Rochdale councillors appeared in court as character witnesses for defendants. Those councillors should resign, as they obviously have such poor judgement — unfit for office.

[JP note: Unlike the national Daily Telegraph, the Rochdale News allows reader comments. The UK’s political establishment is complicit in allowing Muslims unhindered access to white girls — fair game in other words.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Clarification Regarding EDL Demonstration

Last July Sajjad and his young family were subjected to a vile and racist protest outside their Lancashire home. Readers of this website will know that 12 members of the English Defence League pleaded guilty for actions that day that included other unaceptable behaviour.

Sajjad welcomed the fact that the innocent victims that day were spared giving evidence and reliving their ordeal. In the past few days lawyers acting on behalf of the EDL have attempted to thwart and silence journalists in the Lancashire and Manchester area. The EDL claimed their guilty pleas had nothing to do with the demonstration at the Karim house. Journalists were told they would be sued or reported to the Press Complaints Commission. This afternoon the Crown Prosecution Service upon hearing about the EDL claims issued the following statement.

Chris Long Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor said: “The defendants in this case appeared before the Crown Court sitting at Preston and entered guilty pleas following a serious public order incident during a day of activity by English Defence League supporters. This included an incident earlier that day outside the home of Member of European Parliament Sajjad Karim. The events outside Mr Karim’s home form part of the prosecution case together with what later transpired in Brierfield. Twelve defendants are due to be sentenced at Preston Crown Court on 25 May 2012.”

CPS Statement 11.5.12

Once again the EDL have sought to question the honesty of Sajjad and once again they have been found wanting. Shortly after the mob protested the leader of Britain’s fascists, Nick Griffin, supported the mob by calling Sajjad’s integrity into question. Griffin called him ‘dishonest’ and said it was a peaceful protest that was not racially motivated but about animal cruelty. Four of the twelve pleaded guilty to threatening racially aggravated violent behaviour, another admitted carrying an offensive weapon — a chisel and the rest admitted using threatening behaviour. Let me repeat the gang pleaded guilty. They did so minutes before they faced a jury. Like the EDL, Griffin has been found wanting. Sajjad also spoke about the incident in the European Parliament.

[JP note: It is more likely that the Crown Prosecution Service will be found wanting by decent public opinion.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Child Sex Trial Sparks Heated Question Time Debate

The child sex trial that saw nine local men being jailed for between four and nineteen years was at the forefront of political debate on BBC TV show “Question Time” — presented by David Dimbleby. The panel was made up of environment secretary and Conservative MP for Meriden, Caroline Spelman; shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant; Liberal Democrat peer Lord Matthew Oakeshott; Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, Mary Beard and Daily Telegraph columnist Peter Oborne.

Tempers flared as members of the audience asked the panel for their thoughts on this week’s court case which saw nine Asian men from Rochdale and Oldham jailed for the horrendous sexual abuse of underage girls. Peter Oborne said: “This is a shattering, disgusting and depraved case which shocked the nation, but it is important not to jump the gun.” A female member of the audience said: “We need an open and honest debate about race without fear of being labelled racist. People are too frightened to open their mouth but if we are not honest, we are playing into the hands of the BNP. As a society we have to address race issues and stop being so politically correct.”

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: England’s Forgotten War Between North and South

by Ed West

Compared to other major European countries, England is a fairly unified land. The north and south of France are quite distinct in terms of climate, geography and language; Germany is divided both north to south and east to west, a fact borne out by Misha Glenny’s recent series about German history. As for Italy, which fairly recently celebrated its 150th anniversary, the views of northern Italians are well known.

In comparison England’s regional differences are fairly minor, reflecting both its size and the antiquity of its political union, which dates to the time of Athelstan “the Magnificent” in 927. Roughly 50 years before that, in the face of the Viking invasion, the two surviving kingdoms, Mercia and Wessex, introduced a single currency, using the pound that was (probably) first introduced by Offa of Mercia in the 8th century. If this all sounds ridiculously obscure to many people, it gives some indication as to why Englishmen perhaps value their economic independence more than Germans or Italians do. Watching Michael Portillo’s excellent documentary about the euro the other night, it’s quite clear that Greeks and Germans alike appear to be under a powerful delusion similar to that described in When Prophecy Fails. (To be honest I was more shocked that the BBC had allowed an explicitly eurosceptic documentary — far more bizarre than finding Prince Charles doing the weather.)

Athelstan is, by one of those unexplainable quirks of history, almost entirely forgotten; perhaps it is because, unlike his grandfather Alfred, he did not hire a professional PR man like Asser. Another strangely forgotten part of English history is the Battle of Towton, in 1461, the subject of George Goodwin’s highly enjoyable recent book, Fatal Colours. Towton barely registers in the national consciousness, not even as famous as Crecy or Poitiers, let alone Hastings, Agincourt or Waterloo, yet it was the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. Up to 28,000 men died that Palm Sunday, 1461, comparable with the first day of the Somme, but in a country of around three million people. As the author notes, “it was not merely a military engagement — it was a national catastrophe”, with up to one-tenth of all Englishmen and Welshmen eligible to fight being present on the North Yorkshire battlefield fighting for Edward, Earl of March, son of Richard, Duke of York, the most powerful magnate in the kingdom, and his cousin, the weak-minded Henry VI.

The king had come to the throne in 1422 at just nine months, following the death of his father Henry V, but as well as inheriting the thrones of both England and France he had also inherited, from his French grandfather Charles VI, a serious mental illness (Charles was convinced that he was made of glass). The most recent theory is that Henry VI suffered from schizophrenia, which would match many of his symptoms, such as a chronic need to avoid conflict (rather difficult for a medieval monarch) as well as long periods of catatonia. Schizophrenia can be triggered by childhood trauma, and the king certainly suffered from many of those, as his warring uncles and cousins positioned for power in the two kingdoms. When Normandy was lost, and so with it England’s French empire and the 100 Years War, the English warrior-caste’s violent energies turned inwards.

A medieval society could not survive a weak king, and the people began to fear for their safety as rival lords and their “affinities” (entourages) robbed and murdered at will. Although I’ve yet to watch Game of Thrones, which everyone I meet seems to recommend, it is apparently not too dissimilar, although there’s also something of the Sopranos in this conflict. What would in the 19th century become known as “the War of the Roses” was a conflict of blood — inter-related aristocrats vying for power for themselves, their siblings and their children. The cycle of revenge grew steadily worse, and by 1461 the rules of chivalry, whereby noblemen were spared after battle, had disappeared. Goodwin illustrates this senseless blood-spilling with his description of the execution of Owen Tudor, an elderly courtier and soldier, at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross in early 1461:

The confused old man did not understand the temper of the times; even when faced with the axe and the block, he was still expecting a pardon. It was not until the collar of his red velvet doublet was ripped off to ease the passage of the coming blow that he grasped his fate. His head was taken and placed on the market cross, where it was later tended by a mad woman. After washing the blood from his face and combing his hair, she placed a hundred burning candles around the severed head. This act, tender, even pious, in its intent, but gruesome in its context, served to mirror the distortions of a troubled age.

Edward of March, who probably ordered Tudor’s execution, had recently lost both his father and his brother Edmund at the Battle of Wakefield, to whom he was very close, which may explain the ferocity of his actions. His father, a descendant of Edward III through his fourth son, had emerged in the 1450s as the most powerful man in the kingdom, but he would not win the crown. Instead York’s decapitated head was displayed in York with a paper crown on it.

That his son was able to return from certain defeat, and to take the throne in 1461 as Edward IV, is testimony to a little remembered aspect of the War of the Roses: that it was a war of North v South. The Yorkists did have some support in the northern counties, and the Lancastrians in the south (so called because Henry IV, who had seized the throne in 1399, was the Duke of Lancaster), but generally speaking their soldiers came from different sides of the country, and this, Goodwin believes, helped to explain the savagery, since men were marching through villages greatly distant to them in distance and speech.

That the Yorkists won was down to the support of London, which even then was vastly richer and more powerful than anywhere else in England, due to its role in the export of wool. Just as in the Civil War two centuries later, London’s commercial wealth was crucial — in the nine months before Towton the city provided £13,000 for the Yorkist cause, enough to pay 26,000 archers for 20 days’ service.

So when in late 1460 the Royal army headed south from Wakefield there was a genuine terror in the capital that the northerners would sack the city. This fear the Yorkists of course promoted, as recalled in the songs of the time:

Between Christmas and Candlemas a little before lent

All the lords of the North they wrought by one assent

For to destroy the south country they did all have intend

Had not the Rose of Rouen [Edward of March had been born in Rouen] been, all England had been shent.

Another goes:

The northern men made their boast when they had done that deed

‘we will dwell in the south country and take all that we need.

These wives and their daughters our purposes they shall see…

This may explain the brutality with which the final battle was fought, and the fact that many of the corpses at the site — which are still being dug up — suggest they were unarmed prisoners. In the end London’s financial muscle won the day, a constant throughout English history, and the city continued to expand under Edward IV, who would have been one of the country’s greatest rulers had he not eaten himself to death around his 40th birthday, one of the less dignified regal deaths of the time. After that his youngest brother Richard III had Edward’s sons murdered (almost certainly, despite recent attempts to rehabilitate him), and the throne was then taken by almost the last surviving royal, Owen Tudor’s grandson Henry — who went on to marry Edward IV’s daughter Elizabeth and so unite the warring clans. As part of the Tudor propaganda machine Towton, which dwarves Hastings in size and bloodshed, was effectively hushed up, and England began to heal; never again, even during the Reformation where the counties to the east of London were considerably more Protestant than elsewhere, would the country be seriously divided as north v south again. And poor old Henry VI ended up being maced to death, although his reign was not a total waste of time — he did build a rather successful school just outside Windsor, which still produces the odd prime minister.

[JP note: Odd is le mot juste.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Exclusive: Men Arrested as Police Launch New Child Sex Probe in Rochdale

Exclusive by John Scheerhout

Police who smashed the Rochdale child sex ring believe they have uncovered a SECOND grooming scandal in the town. The M.E.N. can today reveal that several men have been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing the same girl. The alleged abuse is believed to have taken place over a six-year period when the girl was in her teens. Sources described her as ‘extremely vulnerable’. Detectives have carried out video interviews with the girl, who told them she knew the men only by nicknames. A string of suspects were tracked down by officers and a number of arrests have now been made. The men in question are all from Asian and Afro-Caribbean backgrounds, the M.E.N. understands.

Detectives are exploring possible links between the men, although none have been established so far. A file of evidence is expected to handed over to the Crown Prosecution Service within weeks. The news comes just days after nine Asian men from Rochdale and Oldham were jailed over the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13. The gang was convicted on the back of evidence from five witnesses, who suffered horrific abuse between 2008-2010. The team of detectives who investigated the case encountered 47 other girls who they believe were also the victim of sexual abuse. One is the alleged victim behind the latest arrests. The suspects do not include any of the men jailed this week.

One senior detective told the M.E.: “Enquiries are continuing. Just because the trial has finished and nine men have been convicted does not mean the operation has stopped. We are continuing to chip away, gaining the confidence of the girls.” The conclusion of the case this week sent shockwaves through the Rochdale community and sparked a major debate about whether the crimes were racially motivated.

Judge Gerald Clifton, jailing the nine, suggested they had targeted their victims because they were ‘not of your community or religion’.

But police and political leaders denied the crimes were about race — saying the men had targeted their victims simply because they were vulnerable.

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

UK: Former Mayor: ‘Silly Mistake’ During Child Sex Grooming Trial

A former Mayor of Rochdale admitted to a “silly mistake” in his decision to give evidence during the recent child sex grooming trial in Liverpool that saw nine local men being jailed for between four and nineteen years. Zulfiquar Ali, who held the mayoral office in 2010, told Rochdale Online that he had been approached by one of the accused, Abdul Qayyum around Christmas time last year and was asked to appear as a character witness. He went on to say that Qayyum, who was jailed for five years for conspiracy to engage in sexual activities with a child, was one of his constituents who he had previously helped to obtain a taxi-licence. As far as he then knew, Quayyum was a hard working family man and hence he agreed to appear as a witness in order to say this.

Mr Ali went on to say: “In fourteen years as a councillor, my decision to do this is my biggest regret. I made a silly mistake.” Speaking about the sentences, Mr Ali said that he was satisfied said that “justice had been served”. He said that it sent out “a clear message that this sort of crime was intolerable”. He added that he was “very sorry for the victims and their families” and that this case was “of wider concern to the community and that lessons needed to be learned”.

Mr Ali, who lives in Huddersfield, was a prominent politician in Rochdale until he retired. He was a Liberal Democrat councillor in Central Ward and Cabinet member for Children, Schools and Families. Another councillor who gave similar evidence, Aftab Hussain, who sits as a Labour councillor in Firgrove and Smallbridge ward, refused to comment and instead referred Rochdale Online to the Leader of the Council, Colin Lambert. Councillor Lambert said that he would comment when he had spoken with Councillor Hussain. In the meantime he issued the following statement: “While individual councillors have been reported in the media making statements regarding individuals in this case, they do not reflect the views of Rochdale Borough Council.”

[Reader comment by Chavdale Tearaway on 12 May 2012 at 07:29:03.]

A councillor giving testimony for a convicted paedophile — this is Rochdale!

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Giant Twisting Olympic Park Sculpture Unveiled But Critics Label it ‘Godzilla of Public Art’

Critics say it looks like a roller coaster gone badly awry. Fans say it’s a landmark to rival the Eiffel Tower.

London got a towering new venue Friday, as authorities announced completion of the Orbit, a 115-meter (377- foot) looped and twisting steel tower beside London’s new Olympic Stadium that will give visitors panoramic views over the city.

Some critics have called the ruby-red lattice of tubular steel an eyesore. British tabloids have labeled it ‘the Eye-ful Tower,’ ‘the Godzilla of public art’ and worse.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

UK: Long Wait for Children in Care

Children in Rochdale wait an average 733 days from entering care to moving in with adoptive parents. National guidance says the process should take 14 months or 426 days — but only four councils in the country meet the target. The Government set an interim target of 21 months (639 days) to bring councils up to scratch, but Rochdale even fails that test. The council will have to make significant improvements quickly: the Government is reducing the guidance to a 14-month maximum over the next four years. The “adoption scorecards” from the Department for Education is the first time such data has been produced and is based on figures from 2009 to 2011, and show there are widespread delays throughout the adoption process. Rochdale is one of 34 local authorities which averaged more than 700 days.

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

UK: Muslim Leaders Warn of Far Right Exploitation of Rochdale Child Sex Case

Muslim groups report upsurge in hate mail and abusive phone calls since conviction of nine men over child sex ring

Far-right groups are exploiting the conviction of nine men who were part of a gang that groomed girls for sex to create a “climate of hate” against Muslims, community leaders have warned. Muslim groups say they have seen an upsurge in hate mail and abusive phone calls since the trial ended this week and community leaders are bracing themselves for more Islamophobic attacks on individual Muslims and mosques across the UK. “We are already receiving hate mail and hate phone calls even though we issued a very strong statement condemning those involved,” said a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain. “If it can happen to MCB, you can just imagine what ordinary Muslims are facing as they go about their day-to-day business.”

Eight of the nine men convicted at Liverpool crown court for their involvement in a gang in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, that sexually exploited girls were of Pakistani heritage, and Muslim groups say far-right organisations such as the British National party and the English Defence League (EDL) have used the trial to demonise and abuse the entire community. Fiyaz Mughal, from Faith Matters, which has set up a new helpline to monitor anti-Muslim attacks, said the Islamophobic hatred prompted by the case had added to the “poison” against Muslims. “This is dangerous for community relations,” he said. “There’s lots of discussion about ‘Muslim paedos’, like saying the prophet married a young girl. All of this disgusting talk is adding to the poison against Muslims.”

The helpline, Tell Mama, was launched at the same time as the trial began in February and is the UK’s first for those wanting to report Islamophobia and record anti-Muslim attacks. About 20% of the cases so far are linked to the EDL, Mughal said, adding: “About half of those cases are online activity where there is invariably a mention of ‘Muslim paedos’.” Suleman Nagdi, spokesman for the Leicestershire Federation of Muslim Organisations, who has held talks with EDL representatives in the past, said: “There’s a climate of hate in relation to this … We need to tackle the problem, but people within the BNP, the EDL are increasing the rhetoric … It does have an adverse effect within the city … I am sure it will build within the next few weeks.”

Security outside Liverpool crown court, where the nine men were tried, was stepped up after hundreds of EDL and BNP protesters picketed the building. The trial was almost derailed when the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, tweeted that seven verdicts had been reached. One of the defendants has now launched an appeal claiming Griffin’s tweet showed jury confidentiality was breached. The beginning of the trial was also delayed for a fortnight in February when two Asian defence barristers were attacked outside the courtroom.

The latest surge in Islamophobic abuse comes amid concern that the failure of the BNP in recent elections will see some smaller groups turning to more violent street action. There have been a growing number of attacks on anti-racists and trade unionists as well as rising hostility to Muslims. The MCB spokesman said Muslims were used to “low-level hatred”. “People expect that nowadays, from their fellow travellers on the underground or buses,” he said. “That sort of thing happens all the time.” But he said communities were preparing themselves for more serious attacks following the publicity surrounding the grooming trial. “The graffiti on the door of a home, mosques and community centres attacked, a pig’s head through the door … it is bound to increase because the racist are waiting for opportunities like this.”

The BNP lost every seat it was contesting in last week’s local council election and it is now left with just three councillors from a high of 57 three years ago. In a separate move, the EDL leader Stephen Lennon has announced that he is to become deputy leader of the small British Freedom party, which some analysts fear could replace the BNP as the main far-right party.

[JP note: When all else fails, pull out the Islamophobia canard. ]

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

UK: More Than 100 Homes Evacuated as Bomb Disposal Experts Carry Out Four Controlled Explosions After Two Terror Arrests

More than 100 homes have been evacuated as bomb disposal experts carried out four controlled explosions this morning.

Two men were arrested last night on terrorism charges following the discovery of suspected explosives in a garage during raids on two properties in Cheltenham, according to police.

Officers arrested a 52-year-old man from the Hester’s Way area under the Explosive Substances Act.

They later found suspected explosives at a house in nearby Up Hatherley and arrested a 31-year-old local man, Gloucestershire Constabulary confirmed.

The controlled explosions took place at 11.30am today, after 15 residents spent the night in a nearby hall and 13 vulnerable people were rehoused.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

UK: Police Uncover ‘Second Child Sex Ring’ In Rochdale After Woman Says She Was Abused Over Six Years

Nine men have been arrested in what officers are treating as separate from that of the group of men jailed this week for similar offences

The alleged victim is thought to be one of 47 girls questioned in relation to the original child sex ring

Men arrested in latest inquiry are not thought to have known members from other grooming trial

Arrests come as police continue to hunt other suspected members of original case

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk believes sexual exploitation is a ‘wider problem’ in the area

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

UK: The Rochdale Diversity Awards Finalists Have Been Announced

Health Award: Great Places Housing Group, Rochdale Health Connections Team, and Rochdale MIND,

Housing Award: Abdul Jabbar, Great Places Housing Group, Khubsuret House — St Vincent’s Housing Association.

Workforce Diversity Award: Greater Manchester Police — Rochdale Division, Great Place Great Places Housing Group, and Rochdale Council Youth Service,

Cohesion Award: Dr Abdul Shakoor, Rochdale Council Youth Service, Syke Community Base, and the New Shamwari Project.

The awards are sponsored by Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, Hopwood Hall College, Great Places Housing Group, A+B Carpets and Arif Cash & Carry. Anyone interested in further information on the Rochdale Diversity Awards should contact Abdul Hamied on 01706 516606 or email abdul@kyp.org.uk

The Rochdale Diversity awards, which are being run by Kashmir Youth Project (KYP), will culminate with an awards ceremony on Friday 18th May 2012. The awards aim to recognise the contributions made by local organisations and residents in promoting and supporting cohesion and diversity through service delivery.

Abdul Hamied, KYP Chief Executive (Secondment from Rochdale MBC), is co-ordinating the awards. He said: “Considering that this is the first year of the Rochdale Diversity Awards, the number of nominations and the quality has been very good. This shows the excellent diversity and cohesion work that is taking place within our great borough of Rochdale. We are confident that the success of this year will lead to further service improvement and that next year the awards will be even better.

[Reader comment by PhilScholes on 11 May 2012 at 00:51:48.]

After the way they ignored a 13-year-old cry for help from being raped by Pakistani men, Rochdale Police should not be up for any award.

[JP note: Bad timing, indecent and unseemly: ‘excellent diversity and cohesion work’ in the ‘great borough of Rochdale’? Perhaps Mr Hamied could be a bit more forthcoming about the criteria. Any decent town would cancel this tawdry initiative out of shame and disgust, but we know the liberal left has long passed the point of no return, and has therefore forfeited the right to be included in the UK or any decent society as a credible voice.]

— Hat tip: JP

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75 Mln Euros Loan From EIB to Turkey

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MAY 10 — Development Bank of Turkey (DBT) signed 75 million euro loan agreement with European Investment Bank (EIB) for Development of Small and Big Enterprises (DBT Loan for Renewable Energy and Energy Productivity). DBT has been cooperating with EIB since 2002 and the new agreement has been signed to continue the cooperation. The loan — as Anatolia news agency reports — will be used in the areas of preventing climate change, renewable energy for greenhouse gas emission, energy productivity and productivity of energy in losses of electricity in distribution. (ANSAmed).

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Egyptian Minister to Non-Aligned: Back Palestine

Ministerial meeting in Sharm, with Iranian minister

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MAY 9 — Egypt has appealed to the countries of the Non-Aligned movement to continue to recognise the state of Palestine and to show solidarity towards detainees in Israeli prisons. The appeal came from Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr during the opening session of the organisation’s ministerial assembly, with Egypt in the presidential chair before ceding to Iran in August. Iran was represented by Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi. Mr Amr also invited the non-aligned nations to support Palestine’s request to become a full member of the United Nations. The conference opening in Sharm el Sheikh today is the first high-level initiative to take place in Egypt since last year’s revolution. “Today’s conference and the documents it will approve constitute the pillars of the movement’s role as an active player in international multilateral relations and they will be the first step towards making the summit in Iran planned for this year a success,” the Egyptian minister said.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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‘Powerful’ Explosion Hits Syrian City

Syrian activists have reported a large explosion in Syria’s second city Aleppo, near regime offices. It comes hours after Syrian state television said security forces had foiled a would-be-suicide bomber in the city. A large explosion struck the Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday, close to the ruling Baath party’s headquarters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

“A big explosion was heard near Al-Jabiri Square. It targeted an office of the Baath party, according to initial reports,” the Britain-based watchdog said in a statement. “The blast was powerful but we do not know what was the origin of the explosion,” the Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman added.

No casualties from the blast have yet been reported, although witnesses said a guard at the headquarters was shot dead by an unidentified gunman soon after the explosion.

It comes just hours after Syrian forces claimed to have foiled an attempted suicide bomber in the city. State television reported that the would-be bomber, whose car was laden with 1,200 kilograms of explosives, was killed in the operation.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Turkey: Ankara’s Nightmare, Post-Assad Partition of Syria

With Alawi state on Mediterranean, risking domino effect

(ANSAmed) — ROME — The nightmare scenario for Turkish diplomacy takes the following form: an exploding of Syria that has up to now been held together in the iron grasp of the Assad dynasty, leading to the risk of a partition of the country along lines of ‘ethnicity’, leading to an Alawi state bordering the Mediterranean, a Kurdish state between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan and a Sunni state on the remainder of the territory.

This is not officially talked about in Ankara, but according to political analyst Abdullah Bozkurt, the idea gives rise to “true concerns” along Turkey’s corridors of power. There is indeed an impression that the moves of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad over the past months have been in this direction. Faced with a revolt by a Sunni majority, among which there is a strongly influential Alawi minority — that of the al-Assad clan — the regime appears to be working towards a kind of ‘community-based cleansing,’ preparing the way for a partitioning of the country. The rocky Mediterranean shore, a traditional territory of the Alawites who make up 12-15% of Syria’s population, around the cities of Latakya, Banyas and Tartous (which is the base for the Russian Mediterranean fleet), would form the nucleus of an Alawi state that would remain under Assad’s control. In this state the minority would be safe from pressures of the Sunni majority. Under the French protectorate following the First World War, there already was an Alawi state of Latakia between 1922 and 1936, which was allied with the French against the Sunnis. According to Bozkurt, Assad would try to enlarge this ‘state of Latakya’ to take in a slice of traditionally Sunni territory, especially at Homs, a key position on the Damascus-Aleppo axis. This is why the city has been the fulcrum of the heaviest clashes with the armed opposition. Another preparation for creating the Alawi state was the alleged bombing by the regime of Sunni areas of Latakya during Ramadan. This led to a mass exodus of thousands of refugees into Turkey. There is nothing new about tensions between Sunnis and Alawis or Alawites, followers of the sect founded by Ali, the Prophet’s son-in-law, who are considered to be liberal and pro-Western Muslims.

Tensions have been seen not only in Syria but in Turkey, too, where Alawis represent a fifth of the population. If the Syrian crisis were to lead to partition, Turkey and for other Middle Eastern states would risk seeing the opening of a Pandora’s box of minorities. According to daily paper Zaman, the Sunni part of Syria, close to the Erdogan government, would be cut off from the Mediterranean. An Alawi state would also upset Iran, cutting of communication lines with Lebanon’s Hezbollah. A possible division into three of Iraq, into Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites would then become more probable. The Alawi community in Lebanon might be tempted to join up with their Syrian brethren, and Turkey could be exposed to seeing the balance of power upset between the Sunni majority and Alawi minority, whose presence is especially strong in Istanbul and along the 300-mile-long border with Syria. This is an area where Turkish policies hostile to the Damascus government fall on stony ground. Among Turkish Alawis in Hatay and in Istanbul, pro-Assad demonstrations have taken place and the government has been forced to move the Sunni refugees from Syria further to the North in order to avoid incidents. The creation of a Kurdish state in Syria between ar-Raqqah and al-Qamishli would also aggravate the situation in Turkish Kurdistan.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

US to Resume Military Sales to Protest-Torn Bahrain

The United States says it will partly resume military sales to Bahrain despite the crackdown on popular protests by the Gulf emirate’s rulers since early last year. Bahrain hosts a major US naval headquarters.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Ukraine: Never-Seen-Before Shots of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster That Cost Two of the Four Photographers Their Lives

These are the haunting images that captured the true scale of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The black and white shots, taken in the weeks following the 1986 Ukraine tragedy, revealed the truth behind the tragedy Soviet authorities were trying to hush up. But despite helping the outside world to understand what happened that fateful April 26 day, the pictures have had a devastating human cost.

Of the four photographers chronicling the tragedy, Anatoly Rasskazov and Valery Zufarov have died from radiation-related diseases and Igor Kostin is constantly ill from the exposure.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

From the DoD: “Most ‘Green on Blue’ Attacks Individually Motivated”

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2012 — The Defense Department believes recent incidents in which members of the Afghan National Security Forces have attacked their coalition trainers are individual acts of grievance, a senior DOD spokesman said today.

“It’s often difficult to determine the exact motivation behind an attacker’s crime because they are, very often, killed in the act,” Navy Capt. John Kirby, deputy assistant secretary of defense for media operations, told reporters at the Pentagon.

Kirby said these types of attacks have only been tracked since 2007. Fifty-seven such attacks, he added, have occurred during this time.

“Based on the limited evidence that we have been able to collect, we believe that less than half, somewhere in the neighborhood of three to four out of every 10 [attacks] is inspired, or resourced, or planned or executed by the Taliban or Taliban sympathizers,” he said. “In other words, that it’s related to an infiltration attempt.”

Kirby said it may not even be a deliberate infiltration, but a “legitimate soldier or police officer [who] turned Taliban.”

Yet, the majority of attacks, he said, are acts of individual grievance.

“You know how seriously affairs of honor are to the Afghan people,” Kirby said. “We believe, again, that most of these [attacks] are acted out as an act of honor for most of them representing a grievance of some sort.”

The spokesman said Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan, believes the recent video of U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of Taliban inspired at least one attack….

[Return to headlines]

India Becomes Main Rice Exporter in the World

Indian exports should reach 7 million tonnes by 31 August. US Department of Agriculture data show that India should surpass Vietnam and Thailand. Favourable weather and more investments helped the bumper crop. The 3-year ban (2008-2011) on exports of non-basmati varieties also boosted supplies to local markets and reduced prices.

Mumbai (AsiaNews/Agencies) — India is set to surpass Vietnam and Thailand as the world’s biggest exporter of rice in the world. Already the world’s largest rice grower after China, India benefitted from favourable weather and government investments.

Exports could climb to 7 million metric tonnes in the year ending 31 August, said Samarendu Mohanty, a senior economist at the International Rice Research Institute. That is more than double the 2.8 million tonnes exported in 2010-2011.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, Thailand exported 10.5 million tonnes last year, but is expected to ship only 6.5 million this year. Vietnam should export 7 million tonnes this year, the same as last.

The harvest in India could climb by 7.7 per cent to 103.4 million tonnes from 96 million tonnes a year earlier. State reserves of rice and wheat jumped 21 per cent to 53.4 million tonnes as of 1 April.

The minimum purchase price of the common variety of raw rice increased to an all-time high of 1,080 rupees (US$ 20) per 100 kilograms.

In 2008, India banned exports of non-basmati varieties to stock local markets and keep a lid on prices. The measure was successful because rice prices dropped by 17 per cent.

Last September, the Indian government lifted the ban. Since then exports of non-basmati varieties have exceeded 4 million tonnes.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Indonesia: Islamic Paramilitary Group Defends Christians, Hindus and Buddhists

It’s called Banser and is a branch of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), a movement established in 1926 which aims to protect all minorities in the country. Recently, they foiled an attack by Islamic fundamentalists against a Canadian writer. According to members of NU “Muslims and Christians believe in the same God,” spread of radical Islam depends on the “ government that supports them for fear of losing votes.”

Yogyakarta (AsiaNews) — Canadian journalist and author Irshad Manji was threatened with death by Islamic fundamentalist groups for having written a book about Islam and freedom entitled Allah, Liberty and Love. For weeks, members of radical movements have stopped the author from presenting the book, often by attacking people attending meetings. Only during a speech at the headquarters of the Free Journalist Alliance in South Jakarta, were there no assaults, thanks to the intervention of members of Banser, the paramilitary group of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the Shiite Muslim movement that defends the country’s ethnic and religious minorities ..

Founded in 1926 by Kiai Hajj Hasyim Ashari — grandfather of the late Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, nicknamed Gus Dur — over the years has become a flag of moderate Islam. NU gave birth to the paramilitary unit Banser and the Gerakan Pemuda Ansor youth wing.

Kiai Hajj Husein Nuril Arifin, a Muslim leader of Semarang (Central Java province), told AsiaNews: “True Islam supports the spirit of tolerance and love among human beings. With Christians, we believe in the same God The differences are in how we practice our faith: there is no reason to worry about those who exercise a faith different from ours. Muslim leaders should practice this spirit of tolerance, rather than just talk at seminars and conferences. “

According Aan Anshori, a member of the NU, the problem in Indonesia is that “the government is afraid of losing the support of Muslim fundamentalist groups,” and this is why the will not take the necessary measures to stop them. “If we look at the attacks on Irshad Manji — he explains — they were radical Islamists: in the book he speaks of freedom [Hurriyah], Justice [‘Adalah] and social equality [musawwa]. Ideas that these groups do not adhere to”.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Beer Sales Drop in Nigeria, But Metal Detectors Soar

(AGI) Abuja — The terrorism drama in Nigeria is changing the habits of Nigerian consumers. The attacks, the bombs and the almost daily violences of the Boko Haram islamic groups brought about, as Nicolas Vervelde, CEO of the Nigerian Breweries, the largest beer producer in the country, a drop in the consumption and sales in the North of Nigeria, the area most affected by terrorism. “The people — the manager said — are more reluctant to go out, because of fear, but also because they no longer feel inclined to have fun”. On the contrary, the problem of security caused an increase in the sale of metal detectors. The situation is the same in Abuja, the new capital purposedly built to move the administrative heart to the centre of Nigeria. It is easy to see that over the last few months there was a clear drop in the customers of hotels, restaurants, shopping centres and bars. Those who still dare to go, must patiently stay in a queue at the entrances, so that the security staff may conduct body and car searches, though it is difficult that these checks (as many people think) will be able to intercept bombs or terrorists. The most important effect of these checks seems to have been the boom in the sales of security devices, absolutely parallel to the drop in the sales of beer. Nigeria is the major consumer of beer in the Continent.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Germany: Candidates Vie for Immigrant Vote in Election

Ahead of balloting in Germany’s most populous state, candidates are trying to reach out to the many residents of migrant background. With 2 million such people eligible to vote, they could tip the scales. Voters go to the polls Sunday to elect a new state government in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

The state’s previous minority government of Social Democrats (SPD ) and Greens collapsed in March after failing to win parliamentary backing for its 2012 budget. That made a snap election necessary. By the time polls close Sunday evening, the migrant-background vote could prove to be the decisive factor.

North Rhine-Westphalia has about 4 million inhabitants with a migrant background. More than 2 million of them are eligible to vote, making up 15 percent of the state’s electorate.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Italy: We Need an EU Urgent Plan Over Illegal Immigration, Terzi

(AGI) Rome — The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Giulio Terzi will ask the European Union for an “urgent plan” to cope with illegal immigration.The request will be made on the occasion of the meeting of the European Council for Foreign Affairs, to be held in Brussels next Monday. Immigration is “a theme that must be discussed on a European level, so that the tools the the Eu already has may be financed”, said Terzi, hinting at the alert over a worsening of the phenomenon launched by Tripoli. Terzi underlined that Italy and Libya signed a partnership agreement about the theme of migration flow and integrated control of borders .

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

	Financial Crisis
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»	JPMorgan Chase Loses Big in Derivatives Gamble
»	Meet Your Global Tax Collector
»	Obama: Europe is Slow on Crisis
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»	Caroline Glick: Professor Netanyahu’s Lessons
»	Estonia to Open Maritime Museum in Seaplane Hangar
»	Eurotunnel Offers to Buy Seafrance
»	France’s Hollande Declares 1. 17m Euro Assets
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»	Germany: Eurozone Would Survive Greek Exit
»	Germans Can’t Fathom US Aversion to Obama’s Healthcare Reform
»	Greece: More Than Half Police Officers Voted Neonazi Party
»	Iranian Death Threat Sends Rapper Underground
»	Italy: Fliers Signed Red Brigades Found in Town Near Milan
»	Norway: Victim’s Brother Hurls Shoe at Breivik
»	Norway: Witnesses Relive Breivik’s Pitiless Murders
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»	UK: Anglo-Jewry’s Leaders Must Act
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»	UK: Muslim Sex Gangs Not Asian
»	UK: Man Stabbed to Death in Front of His Family ‘For Asking Parents of Crying Child in Restaurant if She Was Okay’
»	UK: Protesting Bigots
»	UK: Starkey Makes ‘Cultural’ Link to Gang Jailed for Sexually Exploiting Girls
»	UK: Schools Are Deliberately Failing to Correct Spelling Errors to Avoid ‘Damaging Pupils’ Self Esteem’
»	UK: Scandal of Care Firms That Failed to Protect Girls From Grooming
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»	Bosnia: As Ratko Mladic Trial Begins, Followers Are Poised to Take Power in Srebrenica
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Chinese Import-Export Drops. Doubts About Recovery

Exports grew by 4.9, but forecast increase was 8.5. Imports grew by only 0.3 compared to 5.3 in March and 11% forecast. Domestic demand in sharp decline. At the Canton Fair orders down by 2.3% compared to last year.

Beijing (AsiaNews) — Chinese exports and imports slowed in April, raising fears for a real recovery in the second world economy. Among the causes of the slowdown are the lowering of domestic demand and the European crisis.

Figures released today show that exports increased by 4.9 % in April, compared to an average annual growth of 8.5 and 8.9 in March. Imports grew by only 0.3% compared to 5.3 in March and 11% forecast.

The figures show a slowing Chinese economy which in recent years — with the credit crisis — has seen large injections of public money with inflation and high property prices. The government then attempted to correct the imbalance by restricting the volume of loans and raising the value of the Yuan. The slowdown in the month of April is one of the first signs or the knock-on effects of this policy, but experts fear in the near future there will be even more problems, with many concerned that 2012 will be one of the most negative years to date in China.

The reduction of import-export is mainly due to falling domestic demand. For example: in April crude oil imports fell to 22.21 million tons, the lowest volume since December. But the demand from abroad has also dropped. The Chinese economic model always depended on exports, facilitated by highly competitive prices. But the global crisis in the U.S. and Europe has decreased the demand from these countries. A few days ago, on May 5, the Canton Fair, a semiannual event for trade, closed. Export orders fell by 2.3% compared to last year. Even companies linked to the production of Christmas decorations and toys have seen a reduction in requests, resulting in further layoffs and plant closings.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

EU Sees Italy on Track to Balance Budget

GDP to recover slightly in second half of 2012

(ANSA) — Brussels, May 11 — Italy is on track to balance its budget in 2013 and will not need any additional budget austerity measures, while its economy should begin to pick up in the second half of 2012, the European Union’s commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, said on Friday.

Rehn made his remarks during the presentation of the EU’s latest economic forecast which showed Italy’s GDP falling by 1.4% this year, as opposed to its prediction of a 1.3% drop in February, while the economy should expand by 0.4% in 2013, slightly less than the 0.5% indicated by the Italian government.

According to the commissioner, Italy’s economy would continue to retreat in the first half of 2012 to then see a “slight recovery” in the latter half of the year that should gain momentum next year.

Rehn said he was “very pleased with the support Italy has given to boosting investment” which he said would not only boost its economy but also that of the EU as a whole.

In its spring forecast, the EU said that Italy will balance its budget in 2013 “thanks to a supplementary budget adjustment equal to over half a percentage point of GDP”.

The EU report said Italy would have a budget deficit equal to 2% of GDP in 2013 and 1.1% in 2013. This was significantly greater than the respective deficits of 1.7% and 0.5% forecast by the Italian government.

According to the EU, Italy’s massive public debt will be 123.5% of GDP this year and 121.8% in 2013, which was in line with Rome’s prediction of 123.4% and 121.6% respectively.

Unemployment in Italy, which currently stands at 9.8%, its highest since January 2004, is expected to continue to rise this year and next by more than a full percentage point over the previous two-year period, while in the EU unemployment will hit a record 11% in 2012 and remain at the same level in 2013, the report said.

The spring report showed GDP in the euro area stalling in 2012, slipping by 0.3% to then pick up next year with an increase of 1%, while for the full 27-nation EU GDP will be unchanged this year to then climb by 1.3% in 2013.

The 17-nation euro area is also expected to see a budget deficit equal to 3.2% of GDP this year and 2.9% in 2013, while in the EU as a whole the deficit will be 3.6% in 2012 and 3.3% next year.

Looking at the EU economy as a whole, Rehn said “while a recovery is apparent the situation remains very fragile,” to then added that “without further concrete actions growth will remain slow”.

According to the EU commissioner, high unemployment will continue to depress spending in the EU, while banks will continue to keep credit tight in order to improve their own balance sheets.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Eurozone Fights for Its Future on All Fronts

The eurozone was fighting on four fronts on Friday, with deficits clouding growth, Greek membership at risk, Spanish banks in trouble, and the outlook hanging on talks between paymaster Germany and a new French president.

EU forecasts showed the eurozone heading for only a slow recovery from recession later this year and still struggling with budget deficits, limiting the options if governments want to bolster growth.

Meanwhile Greece, the epicentre of the debt crisis, was in limbo as political leaders tried to form a government after voters Sunday rejected the austerity policies agreed in exchange for a massive EU-IMF bailout deal.

Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, who backed the debt rescue plan as finance minister, has been tasked with forming a coalition by Saturday after the largest two parties failed, with new polls a distinct possibility.

Germany, the EU’s strongest economy, insisted on Friday that whatever the outcome, Athens must stick to the terms of the bailout accord. “We want to help Greece … but Greece has to want to be helped. If they deviate from the agreed reform path, then the payment of further tranches of aid is not possible,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said. “We want to keep the eurozone together. The future of Greece in the eurozone now lies in the hands of Greece,” he added.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble appeared to suggest the eurozone could cope if Greece left, noting: “Europe won’t sink that easily. “We have learned a lot these past two years and have built protection mechanisms,” Schaeuble told the regional Rheinische Post. “The danger of contamination for other countries in the eurozone has become weaker and the eurozone as a whole has become more resistant.”

Whether Germany can hold the line on Greece may depend on relations with France, the second-biggest eurozone economy where an anti-austerity backlash in Sunday’s presidential poll helped put Socialist Francois Hollande in office.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel openly supported the loser Nicolas Sarkozy in the election and the ‘Merkozy’ power couple had appeared confident that they would continue to set the rules on resolving the eurozone crisis. Hollande, who campaigned strongly for a much greater focus on growth, meets Merkel on Tuesday for an exchange on the crisis which could be crucial.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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India: Central Bank Moves to Strengthen the Rupee

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asks exporters to convert 50 per cent of their foreign exchange holdings into rupees. They will also have to use their entire foreign exchange holdings before buying any more. Since august of last year, the rupee lost 21 per cent against the US dollar.

Mumbai (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s central bank, has asked exporters to convert 50 per cent of their foreign exchange holdings into rupees within 14 days in order to boost the Indian currency. In 2011, the Indian rupee was one of ten worst performing Asian currencies.

Since August of last year, the rupee dropped 21 per cent against the US dollar. It reached its lowest point on 15 December at 54.3 rupees per US dollar.

This morning, following the RBI’s move, it stood at 53.83.

Exporters now have to use their entire foreign exchange holdings before buying any more.

This “will reduce demand for foreign currencies” and help shore up the rupee as a result, said Dariusz Kowalczyk of Credit Agricole-CIB.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Anti-Tax Protesters Clash With Police in Naples

At least one demonstrator hurt

(ANSA) — Naples, May 11 — Some 200 anti-tax protesters clashed with police in Naples Friday.

The demonstrators threw eggs full of red paint at an office of the tax-collecting agency Equitalia, as well as letting off firecrackers.

They then threw bottles and stones at police officers who had moved in to protect the office.

The police baton-charged the crowd and at least one protester was hurt.

Protests against taxes have been rising in recession-hit Italy as austerity bites.

A businessman held a revenue-service clerk hostage for six hours a week ago.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Yield Falls at Bond Auction

Down to 2.34% from 2.84% despite Greece fears

(ANSA) — Rome, May 11 — The yield fell at an Italian bond auction Friday despite rising fears of fresh turmoil in the eurozone because of the Greek government deadlock.

The yield on 12-month Treasury bonds fell to 2.34% from 2.84% a month ago.

The Treasury easily sold all seven million euros’ worth of bonds, with demand measuring 12.5 million euros.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Human-Sized Dummies Hung Around Rome in Protest at Suicides

Monti government should step down, says group responsible

(ANSA) — Rome, May 11 — Members of the far-right party La Destra, mimicking the recent wave of suicides being attributed to the economic crisis, hung numerous life-sized dummies from bridges and around the city of Rome early Friday. Party spokesperson Giuliano Castellino said that the suicides were like a “war report” and were caused by “cuts and elimination of rights from a non-elected government imposed by Europe”.

“How many people have to die before this government goes home?” said Castellino.

Premier Mario Monti took the helm of a government of technocrats in November after Silvio Berlusconi resigned amid the euro crisis. Italians who have killed themselves out of despair from the widespread economic crisis are on the rise, averaging one a day, according to the Eures think tank. La Destra has planned a protest for June 9 in Naples, calling it a day against the “government of banks and loan sharks”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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JPMorgan Chase Loses Big in Derivatives Gamble

The biggest bank in the US has squandered $2 billion (1.54 billion euros) in an investment aimed at profiting from the eurozone debt crisis. The mistaken gamble has thrust the regulation question back into the spotlight.

The huge loss had emerged over the past six weeks in an investment portfolio originally designed to help the bank control financial market risks, JPMorgan Chase announced late on Thursday.

Admitting that there were “many errors, sloppiness and bad judgment” involved in managing the portfolio, JPMorgan’s Chief Executive Jamie Dimon told a hastily scheduled news conference that the investment “proved to be riskier, more volatile and less effective as an economic hedge than we thought.”

“We will admit it, we will learn from it, we will fix it, and we will move on,” Dimon said, adding that the bank would seek to unload the portfolio in a “responsible manner” to limit damage to its shareholders.

However, analysts told the AP news agency they were skeptical that the investment had been designed to protect against financial market risks, and that the bank appeared to have been betting for its own profit.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Meet Your Global Tax Collector

With characters like George Soros and his self-serving institution behind the OECD, Soros having been convicted and fined for insider trading in 2002, a conviction that was more recently upheld by the European Court of Human Rights,” it would be laughable for such an enterprise to pose as international arbiters fighting financial fraud. Yet that is exactly what the OECD portends to do — and most recently announced the creation of “Tax Inspectors Without Borders.” Its name invoking the equally well-intentioned, but ultimately fraudulent “Reporters Without Borders,” another Soros-US State Department building block for what is to be a “global empire,” it aims to “to help developing countries bolster their domestic revenues by making their tax systems fairer and more effective.”

In reality it aims at imposing an international standard upon tax collection, and as each nation is financially destroyed by international bankers, IMF loansharking, and foreign-funded destabilization, the austerity measures demanded to be paid in “bailouts” and for “reconstruction” will be managed and coached by the OECD’s new tentacle to ensure every unit of currency ends up in globalist coffers.

— Hat tip: JD

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Obama: Europe is Slow on Crisis

US President Obama criticised Europe’s sluggish response to the eurozone crisis. “Europe is still in a difficult state partly because they didn’t take some of the decisive steps that we took early on in this recession,” he said. The president injected $800 billion into the economy soon after taking office.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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CAIR Asks Pentagon to Dismiss Officer Who Taught ‘Total War’ On Islam

Washington, May 10, 2012 — Training suggested destroying Mecca and Medina using ‘Hiroshima’ tactics

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today called on the Department of Defense (DoD) to dismiss the instructor who taught fellow officers that only a “total war” on Islam would protect America, that they should use “Hiroshima” tactics, target civilian populations, and abandon the Geneva Conventions. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently applauded the DoD for dropping the Islamophobic training course attended by senior officers and for instituting a complete review of training relating to Islam and Muslims. CAIR is asking that the officer who taught that course at the Defense Department’s Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., be dismissed from his position at the college.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Congressman Calls for Immediate Resignation of TSA Head, Calls Agency ‘Bloated, Broken Bureaucracy’

(NaturalNews) The phrase, “bloated, broken bureaucracy” could apply to a number of federal government agencies, but without question there is no more apt description of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). In fact, one could add a few more adjectives, such as inept, arrogant, self-serving and — did I say inept?

So bad is the agency’s performance and reputation that more and more lawmakers are calling for this sad experiment in government-run airport security to come to an end. The latest call comes from Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., who says that, for starters, TSA chief John Pistole should step down immediately.

Citing thousands of complaints about the agency in recent months, along with a litany of outrageous “searches” and behavior — all in the name of “just doing our job” (the same excuse the Nazi guards used in the Nuremberg trials) — Broun has basically pointed at the hulking 800-pound gorilla in the room in stating the obvious.

“It is clear that the TSA has become nothing more than a bloated, broken bureaucracy which uses its extensive power to violate traveling Americans’ civil liberties while doing little to ensure their safety,” Broun said in a letter to Pistole.

— Hat tip: JD

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Creating a New Vision of Islam in America

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a leading moderate Muslim leader in the U.S., was once the lead cleric associated with the proposed Islamic community center some critics called the “ground zero mosque.” In late 2010, a debate over the location of the community center, now called the Cordoba House, became a contentious issue during the midterm elections.

During the debate, Rauf was called a “radical Muslim” and a “militant Islamist” by critics of the proposed community center. He was accused of sympathizing with the Sept. 11 hijackers and having connections to Hamas. “For those who actually know or have worked with the imam, the descriptions are frighteningly — indeed, depressingly — unhinged from reality,” political reporter Sam Stein wrote last August for The Huffington Post. “The Feisal Abdul Rauf they know spent the past decade fighting against the very same cultural divisiveness and religious-based paranoia that currently surrounds him.”

In his new book, Moving the Mountain, Rauf details the events in his own life that have shaped his religious philosophy. He also recounts the struggle to build the Lower Manhattan community center, which was designed to bring together Muslims with people from other religions. “That was my goal,” he tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross, “because the world needs that today. Now, what happened at that time clearly wasn’t the perfect solution, and what happened did not reflect my dream or my purpose in the right way. But the dream still exists and continues to exist.”

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Ex-White House Hopeful in Swiss Passport U-Turn

Former White House hopeful Michele Bachmann said on Thursday she has decided to withdraw from having Swiss nationality as well as a US passport, because, she proclaimed: “I am a proud American citizen.”

The Republican and Tea Party favorite, who is running for re-election in the House of Representatives, made the U-turn announcement a day after a spokesperson said Bachmann was taking up Swiss citizenship for which she has been eligible through marriage for years.

“Today, I sent a letter to the Swiss Consulate requesting withdrawal of my dual Swiss citizenship, which was conferred upon me by operation of Swiss law when I married my husband in 1978,” the Minnesota congresswoman said in a statement.

“I took this action because I want to make it perfectly clear: I was born in America and I am a proud American citizen. I am, and always have been, 100 percent committed to our US Constitution and the United States of America.

“As the daughter of an Air Force veteran, stepdaughter of an Army veteran and sister of a Navy veteran, I am proud of my allegiance to the greatest nation the world has ever known,” she added.

On Wednesday, US media quoted Bachmann’s spokeswoman Becky Rogness as saying that some of the couple’s children had recently “wanted to exercise their eligibility for dual-citizenship so they went through the process as a family”.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Liberalism and Group-Think

As I was sitting in a restaurant eating breakfast and reading the newspaper, I perused the voting records of the nine Supreme Court justices during 2003. We had three conservative justices: Rehnquist, Thomas, and Scalia; three liberal justices: Stevens, Ginsberg, and Souter; and three moderate and/or unpredictable justices: O’Connor, Kennedy, and Breyer. The conventional wisdom is that the conservatives and liberals typically vote as a block and the moderate/unpredictable judges determine the outcomes. I decided to check to see if this was really true.

I scanned over the 5-4 and the 6-3 votes and did a quick and dirty tabulation by scribbling on the margins of the newsprint. I found that the three liberal justices voted as a block 95% of the time for the 5-4 and 6-3 votes. The three conservative justices voted as a block 60% of the time on these votes. Thus, the conservative judges seemed to have far more independence of mind than the liberal justices.

Why did the three liberal justices almost always vote the same? I brainstormed and lined up all of possible answers I could think of. I systematically eliminated most of them as inadequate or implausible. In the end, the only explanation on my list which made sense was that the three justices came from the same ideological faction. But that could only be a partial answer. Supreme Court judges are appointed for life, are very independent, and can think and write what they like. Ideological similarity of background could account for the 60% agreement among the three conservative judges. It is an inadequate explanation for the astounding 95% agreement of the three liberal judges. Something was missing. I put forward the proposition that the missing ingredient was the phenomenon of group-think.

[…]

Welles’ book lacks the craftsmanship, erudition, and brilliance of the books by Tuchman and Adizes. His forte is explaining concepts. He offers a clear explanation of group-think and fills a gap left by Tuchman and Adizes.

“What is stupidity?” Welles asks. “Stupidity promotes maladaptive behavior by denying us information” and thus corrupts learning. This is achieved through the use of an inappropriate ‘schema’ — a master cognitive plan by which each person organizes information. It provides a ‘mental set’ which provides a context for interpreting behavior and a program of behavior. We become emotionally involved with the schemas we identify with and follow them to our own detriment. The schema rationalizes the believer’s relationship to the world while defining what he considers proper behavior in it. Invariably, each schema is accompanied by an ideology…The self-deceptive aspect of human nature is due to the role the schema plays in binding people together.”

[…]

Language is manipulated by group-think and “…affects the process of perception and makes it so ambiguous that people can accept clear discrepancies between their beliefs and actions in many important ego-defining situations…With perception rendered so ambiguous and subjective, stupidity is invited, if not promoted, as people usually can find some verbal framework in which they can rationalize their behavior and (find) some scapegoat or excuse to explain away their behaviors. Thus, it appears that the verbal nature of our schemas shapes human perception by blurring the boundary between unwelcomed fact and desired fancy.”

— Hat tip: JD

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Machine Casts Phantom Votes in the Bronx Invalidating Real Ones

Tests on an electronic voting machine that recorded shockingly high numbers of extra votes in the 2010 election show that overheating may have caused upwards of 30 percent of the votes in a South Bronx voting precinct to go uncounted.

WNYC first reported on the issue in December 2011, when it was found that tens of thousands of votes in the 2010 elections went uncounted because electronic voting machines counted more than one vote in a race.

A review by the state Board of Election and the electronic voting machines’ manufacturer ES&S found that these “over votes,” as they’re called, were due to a machine error. In the report issued by ES&S, when the machine used in the South Bronx overheated, ballots run during a test began coming back with errors.

— Hat tip: JD

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Naming Street for Cop Killed at Mosque Could ‘Open Old Wounds, ‘ Locals Say

HARLEM — Harlem community board members told NYPD representatives that they will check with imams at two Harlem mosques before deciding whether to rename a street after a cop killed 40 years ago at the Nation of Islam Mosque No. 7 — saying it might open “old wounds.” “The biggest concern is you are opening up old wounds. This was explosive. Harlem was split down the middle,” a Community Board 10 member told Inspector Rodney Harrison, the commanding officer of the 32nd precinct, Wednesday night. Harrison had come before the board in a push to name 123rd Street, between Frederick Douglass Boulevard and St. Nicholas Avenue — near the 28th Precinct station house — after Officer Phillip Cardillo. Harrison, who was joined by several former officers at CB 10’s transportation committee meeting, countered: “We are not looking to open old wounds but to heal old wounds.” Cardillo was killed April 4, 1972, after he and four officers responded to a fake “officer down” call from Mosque No. 7, at 116th Street and Lenox Avenue. The officers were beaten and Cardillo was shot. He died six days later. A member of the mosque was acquitted at trial for the shooting death.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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New WTC Tower May Not be Crowned Tallest U.S. Building

Because of a design change and architecture semantics, the new World Trade Center tower rising in New York City may come up short as the tallest U.S. building when it is completed, the Associated Press reports. The developer is eliminating a fiberglass-and-steel enclosure around the 408-foot-tall needle atop the 1,368-foot-tall tower, saying it could not be properly maintained or repaired.

As a result, it’s not clear whether the naked needle will be considered a spire or an antenna, a key distinction to the authorities on building height: Antennas don’t count. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey describes the needle as an “antenna tower.” Without a spire designation, One World Trade Center would be shorter than Chicago’s Willis Tower, nee Sears Tower, still the nation’s tallest building at 1,451 feet.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Spring Fling: Prehistoric Horseshoe Crabs Spawn on Moonlit Beach

The arthropod orgy was well underway when Breanne Preisen trudged over the low dune onto the narrow beach, where tens of thousands of horseshoe crabs were getting down to the age-old business of reproduction. “There’s a female,” Preisen said, pointing at one of the peculiar sea-things crawling along an undeveloped stretch of the Delaware Bay shoreline. “She has a male attached to her.”

Preisen inspected the cluster of horseshoe crabs more closely, then corrected herself: “Two males!” She smiled. “It’s basically a mad dash to see who can get their boys to her girls first. That’s why they always come, just to mate. That’s it. I think it’s pretty cool.”

In one of nature’s longest-running — and oddest-looking — spring flings, spawning horseshoe crabs have been coming ashore here every May and June since prehistoric times. The shoreline is the breeding epicenter of a keystone species that’s being monitored closely by environmentalists and scientists after suffering a sharp population decline.

The ancient reproductive ritual is a surreal spectacle, with the bay’s beaches becoming crowded at high tide with harmless creatures that look like flattened Army helmets on top of hairy red spider legs. The long, bayonet-like spikes on the backs of their shells only add to the otherworldly allure of the living fossils, which leave millions of fertilized eggs in the Delaware sand each year.

Of course, there’s more than mere voyeuristic value to the Limulus polyphemus species: Horseshoe crabs and their eggs are food staples for endangered sea turtles as well as migrating shorebirds, and their unique blue blood contains an agent used to test drugs and prosthetic devices for infectious bacteria and to diagnose spinal meningitis.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Stakelbeck: Anti-Semites Threaten Ahead of My Speech At Portland State

I’ll be giving a speech this Monday night, May 14th, at Portland State University on behalf of Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

Already, anti-Semites on campus are making threats: they have defaced posters promoting the event with swastikas and pro-Palestinain slogans.

Needless to say, these outrageous intimidation tactics will not work. This is not 1944 Germany.

Click here for my latest blog, which has all the details.

— Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck

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The ‘GlobalMay Manifesto’ of the Occupy Movement

The global Occupy movement wants a better world. Such a world is possible, and here’s how …

We are living in a world controlled by forces incapable of giving freedom and dignity to the world’s population. A world where we are told “there is no alternative” to the loss of rights gained through the long, hard struggles of our ancestors, and where success is defined in opposition to the most fundamental values of humanity, such as solidarity and mutual support. Moreover, anything that does not promote competitiveness, selfishness and greed is seen as dysfunctional. But we have not remained silent! From Tunisia to Tahrir Square, Madrid to Reykjavik, New York to Brussels, people are rising up to denounce the status quo. Our effort states “enough!”, and has begun to push changes forward, worldwide.

This is why we are uniting once again to make our voices heard all over the world this 12 May.

[…]

[JP note: Enough already.]

— Hat tip: JP

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TSA Toddler Terror: Family Marched Off Plane; 18-Month-Old on No Fly List

TSA agents at Fort Lauderdale Airport ordered a family to get off a plane they had already boarded, saying that their eighteen-month-old child was on a no fly list as a terror suspect.

The child’s parents said they believe they were flagged up and ordered to leave the JetBlue flight because they and their daughter are of Middle Eastern descent.

“It’s absurd. It made no sense. Why would an 18-month-old child be on a no-fly list?” the girl’s father told ABC affiliate WPBF News.

The parents, who wish to remain anonymous, are both US citizens, born and raised in New Jersey, which is where they were headed before being ejected.

The family said that after they were “humiliated, embarrassed and picked on” they were marched off the plane, and ordered to stand in the terminal for half an hour by TSA agents.

“We were put on display like a circus act because my wife wears a hijab.” the father said, referring to his wife’s traditional head scarf.

The TSA agents then eventually said that the family could re-board the flight without offering further explanation as to what had occurred. The family declined the offer and left the airport, saying they felt too ashamed to get back on the plane after the incident.

— Hat tip: JD

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US Military Court Taught Officers ‘Islam is the Enemy’

Pentagon suspends course after study materials posted online suggested that Mecca and Medina may have to be obliterated

A course for US military officers has been teaching that America’s enemy is Islam in general and suggesting that the country might ultimately have to obliterate the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina without regard for civilian deaths, following second world war precedents of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Why Was the US Military Teaching ‘Total War’ On Islam?

by Mark Mardell [BBC’s North America editor]

America’s top military officer has condemned a course taught about Islam at one of America’s top military schools as “totally objectionable”. It is not surprising. The story, first broken by Wired, is fairly astonishing, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, must be furious. The course taught officers there was no such thing as moderate Islam and that they should consider the religion their enemy. It advocated “total war” against all the world’s Muslims, including possible nuclear attacks on the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the wiping out civilian populations. The Pentagon has confirmed the course material found on their website is authentic.

‘Something weird’

As far as I can see this is not intended in any sense as a rather sick academic exercise in stretching the bounds of what could be thought. It is actually what the officer teaching it believes. In other words: completely nutty stuff that would disgrace the wilder fringes of the blogosphere. So, not surprisingly, Gen Dempsey has ordered a full investigation into what other US military schools might be teaching about the religion. The voluntary course aimed at senior officers was taught at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, for a year. Gen Dempsey described the course as “counter to our values of appreciation for religious freedom and cultural awareness” and “just objectionable, academically irresponsible”.

It came to light when one of the officers on the course complained last month. There is now an investigation into how the course was approved and why it was part of the curriculum.

A lieutenant colonel has been suspended from teaching, but for the moment keeps his job. The Pentagon hopes a full report will be out by the end of the month. What does seem rather surprising is that all those commanders, captains and colonels must have sat through the course and not felt the need to tell someone that something rather weird was going on.

[JP note: Why not? The perspective of Mark Mardell is even weirder, but this comes as no surprise given the BBC’s lamentable record.]

— Hat tip: JP

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‘Occasional’ Canadian Passport Getting El-Shukrijumah Around the World

If Osama bin Laden had allegedly not been snuffed one year ago, would he be flying all over the world conducting al Qaeda business?

Sounds farfetched until you consider that’s exactly what his handpicked heir apparent, Adnan el Shukrijumah is doing.

“A terrorist trial in New York has revealed how a fugitive Canadian is alleged to have instructed al-Qaeda recruits how to fire AK-47 rifles, how to lob hand grenades and how to shoot shoulder-mounted rocket launchers.” (The Globe and Mail, May 6, 2012).

“The same training camp was attended by an important al-Qaeda fugitive known as “Hamad” — allegedly a pseudonym for Adnan El Shukrijumah, an alleged al-Qaeda planner of terrorist attacks and reputed to occasionally travel on a Canadian passport.”

How is it that Adnan El Shukrijumah is “reputed to occasionally travel on a Canadian passport? (Hello, Canadian authorities!).

— Hat tip: JD

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15 Firms to Bid for Gas Drilling Rights Off Cyprus

Major oil and gas companies such as Russia’s Novatec, Italy’s ENI, France’s Total, and Malaysia’s Petronas are among 15 firms and consortiums that are seeking to carry out exploratory drilling for gas deposits off southern Cyprus, the island’s commerce minister said Friday, despite Turkey’s strong objections.

The minister, Neoklis Sylikiotis, said the companies that applied for a license to drill by Friday’s deadline also include ones from Canada, the UK, Norway, Israel, South Korea and the U.S., surpassing the government’s hopes.

The bids come as the small east Mediterranean island nation is reeling from Europe’s financial crisis. It economy is projected to shrink by half a percentage point of GDP this year, and unemployment is hitting record highs.

“We’ve all had great expectations from this licensing round and I can tell you not only have the results not belied those expectations, they’ve exceeded them by far,” Sylikiotis told a news conference.

He said the companies want to drill in areas close to a natural gas field that the U.S. firm Noble Energy discovered last year and which is estimated at 5-8 trillion cubic feet (140-230 billion cubic meters). That’s enough to meet this crude-oil dependent island’s energy needs for decades while leaving plenty for possible export, officials said. The Cypriot field lies close to an Israeli gas deposit that’s more than double in size.

Noble Energy was the only company that sought a license to drill inside the island’s 19,700 square mile (51,000 square kilometer) exclusive economic zone during in an initial licensing round in 2007. The zone is carved into 13 sections, or blocks, and Sylikiotis said most companies are looking to drill in blocks 9 and 2, which lie above Noble Energy’s gas find.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Caroline Glick: Professor Netanyahu’s Lessons

In all of our many conversations that took place over the better part of the past decade, I never asked Prof. Benzion Netanyahu what led him to become an historian. Certainly it was a function of his concern for his nation and his recognition that our very existence hung in the balance. Certainly, too, it was a function of his insatiable intellectual curiosity.

I don’t know whether his decision was the function of a specific event or simply a natural progression of his life’s path. But through the lessons that he taught me both directly, and through the books he wrote, I can understand why once he embarked on his journey into Jewish history, the path he eventually took became inevitable.

Netanyahu died last week, at the age of 102.

A good place to begin a study of his long life and its impact on his actions is with his first major work, his biography of Don Issac Abravanel, the leader of the Jews of Spain at the time of Spain’s final expulsion of the community in 1492. Abravanel was an extraordinary scholar of philosophy and Jewish teachings as well as a financial genius. The former brought him renown among his people. The latter attracted the monarchs of Portugal and Spain and the leaders of Italian city states…

— Hat tip: Caroline Glick

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Estonia to Open Maritime Museum in Seaplane Hangar

Estonia will open the Baltic states’ largest maritime museum in a hangar once used by Charles Lindbergh. The main attractions at the €15 million ($20 million) Seaplane Harbor will be a British-built submarine dating from the 1930s and a life-size replica of the 184 seaplane, a British two-seater designed by Short Brothers.

The unique concrete hangar housing the museum was built in 1916-17 when Estonia was part of czarist Russia. Its most famous guest was Lindbergh, the U.S. aviator, who flew there from Moscow in 1933 as part of his tour around Europe. The hangar was a closed military zone from 1940, when the Soviet Union annexed Estonia, until 1991 when the Baltic state regained its independence.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Eurotunnel Offers to Buy Seafrance

Eurotunnel, the operator of the Channel tunnel between Britain and France, is offering to buy all assets of liquidated ferry company SeaFrance for €65 million, a lawyer said on Thursday.

The offer is designed to outmanoeuvre a rival bid by Sweden’s Stena Line and another by French shipping firm Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and Danish ferry company DFDS, which only want to purchase one or two ships, Jacques Tellache, a lawyer representing former SeaFrance employees, told AFP.

“Eurotunnel is offering €65 million ($84 million) for the entirety of the tangible and intangible assets,” Tellache said after a commercial court hearing in Paris. “This means the three ships but also the buildings, the counters in Britain, the stocks of oil and fuel oil, the computers.”

A Eurotunnel spokeswoman confirmed the company had made a global offer including “ships, stocks and the brand”, and said the firm would create 560 jobs.

Eurotunnel has said it would rent the ships to a workers’ cooperative of ex-SeaFrance employees, SeaFrance SCOP. SeaFrance, which employed 880 people in France and 130 in Britain, owned three of the four ships it ran across the Channel before a French court ordered it closed in January amid liquidation proceedings.

Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and DFDS are offering €30 million for SeaFrance’s Berlioz ship, €25 million for sister ship Rodin or €50 million for both, a source close to the case said. Stena Line is offering €30 million euros for Rodin.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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France’s Hollande Declares 1. 17m Euro Assets

(AGI) Paris — French public disclosure laws reveal that Francois Hollande’s real-estate assets amount to 1,17m euro.

The Official Gazette has the freshly appointed French president owining property in south-east France’s Mougins (800k euro), two apartments in Cannes (230k and 140k euro respectively).

Hollande is also registered as having three bank accounts, with total deposits worth 8k euro) and a life insurance policy with a 3.5k euro premium. Upon taking office in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy declared assets worth 2m euro.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Germany Weighs Ban on Salafists After Clashes

Germany is considering a legal ban on ultra-conservative Salafist Muslim groups, its interior minister said on Wednesday after violent clashes with the police. Last weekend, Salafists turned on police protecting far-right anti-Islam protesters during a regional election rally in the western German city of Bonn, injuring 29 officers, two of them seriously. Police arrested 109 people. The far-right protesters had infuriated the Salafists by waving banners showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. There have been similar clashes in other German towns in the past week, including in Cologne, where around 1,000 police were mobilized on Tuesday to keep Salafists and far-right activists far apart.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Germany: Eurozone Would Survive Greek Exit

German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble has said the eurozone would survive if Greece left it, with the single currency structures more robust than two years ago. “We want Greece to remain in the eurozone. But it also has to want this and to fulfil its obligations. We cannot force anyone. Europe will not sink that easily,” he said in an interview with Friday’s edition of the Rheinische Post.

“The idea that we would not be able to react quickly to something unforeseen is wrong”, he said. “We have learned a lot and built defences.” He said that the contagion risk for other euro countries had lessened and that the eurozone as a whole was more resilient.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Germans Can’t Fathom US Aversion to Obama’s Healthcare Reform

In Germany, people are baffled by how hostile a country as religious as the United States can be to the principle of mandatory healthcare insurance. Not even conservatives question the system, which businesspeople say gives Europe’s largest economy a competitive advantage.

As the United States Supreme Court considers whether requiring people to have health insurance is unconstitutional, Germans are bewildered as to why so many Americans appear to be against universal coverage.

They also question the continued portrayal of US President Barack Obama and his health reform backers as socialists and communists, noting that healthcare was introduced in Germany in the 19th century by Otto von Bismarck, who was definitely not a leftist, and is supported by conservative and pro-business politicians today.

“It’s a solidarity principle,” says Ann Marini, a spokesperson for the National Health Insurers Association. “Not every ‘S’ automatically means socialism.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Greece: More Than Half Police Officers Voted Neonazi Party

Upsetting result revealed by newspaper “To Vima”

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 11 — More than half of all police officers in Greece voted for pro-Nazi party Chrysi Avgi’ (Golden Dawn) in the elections of May 6. This is the disconcerting result of an analysis carried out by the authoritative newspaper To Vima (TheTribune) in several constituencies in Athens, where 5,000 police officers in service in the Greek capital also cast their ballot.

At some polling stations Chrysi Avgi’ obtained 19 to 24% of votes.

Others, like Agios Panteleimonas and Kypseli, traditional strongholds of the party, reached 15 to 18%. According to the newspaper, at the 11 polling stations (from 806 to 816) located near the police station (Ellas), Chrysi Avgi’ received most votes, reaching 18.64% at station 813 and 23.67% at number 816.

Other polling stations situated at a short distance from the ones mentioned before, where police officers do not vote, recorded 12-14% of votes for the Golden Dawn party.

Moreover, the four polling stations located near the riot police station (MAT), used by the police, recorded percentages between 13 and 19 for Chrysi Avgi’.

These figures, To Vima underlines, are impressive, considering the fact that other polling stations close to the riot police station reached 7-10% of votes for the pro-Nazi party. Based on the electoral lists, 550 to 700 people have voted at each of these voting stations, of which 20 to 30% police officers. This means, the newspaper worked out, that 45 to 59% of police officers have voted for Chrysi Avgi’.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Iranian Death Threat Sends Rapper Underground

A Germany-based rapper has cancelled his concerts and turned to the police for protection. An Iranian ayatollah proclaimed one of Shahin Najafi’s songs blasphemy, opening the door for him to be killed.

Najafi said on Friday he had cancelled concerts in Europe, but that he wanted to continue working despite the threat to his life.

“I am young, and I am an artist, and I have to perform,” the 31-year old told German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, saying that he couldn’t accept the idea of living underground for a long amount of time.

Najafi’s manager said the Iranian-born musician was receiving police protection.

Iranian Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani had accused Najafi of insulting a Shiite Islam prophet in his song “Imam Naghi,” Iranian news agency Fars reported on Wednesday. The cleric’s comments can be interpreted as a call to all Muslims to kill the 31-year-old musician.

Najafi rejected the allegation his song was insulting to the prophet.

“I am just as critical of Islam as I am of Judaism or Christianity,” Najafi said in an interview with WDR radio, adding that it was not the first time he had been warned by Iranian clerics over his songs.

Before he came to Germany in 2005, Najafi was an underground musician and political activist at home in Iran. His songs and albums are available there on the black market and on the Internet. He is known for lyrics critical of Islam.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy: Fliers Signed Red Brigades Found in Town Near Milan

No reference to ‘kneecap’ attack of Italian executive

(ANSA) — Milan, May 11 — Four fliers harking back to the 1970s Red Brigades (BR) leftist terrorist group were found in different locations in the town of Legnano near Milan Friday morning, police said.

Investigators said that the printed messages with the distinctive five-pointed star of the BR were taped outside the offices of the the inland revenue agency Agenzia delle Entrate, national pension agency INPS, and a company and contained “political declarations”.

There was no reference to the recent ‘kneecap’ attack on the chief executive of Italian nuclear-energy company Ansaldo Nucleare, Roberto Adinolfi, in Genoa, police said.

Various groups have tried to resurrect the now-defunct Red Brigades, a network responsible for a wave of terrorist violence in the 1970s and 80s.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Norway: Victim’s Brother Hurls Shoe at Breivik

Dramatic scenes unfolded at Oslo district court on Friday morning as the brother of one of Anders Behring Breivik’s 69 Utøya shooting victims threw a shoe at him, shouting at the right-wing extremist in English to “go to hell”. While a coroner was wrapping up the autopsy reports on the victims of Breivik’s July shooting massacre on Utøya island, a man suddenly got up and threw a black shoe at the right-wing extremist seated just a few metres away from him.

The shoe attack was followed by applause, “bravos” and tears among the many survivors and victims’ family members seated in the courtroom, and led to a brief suspension of proceedings on the 17th day of the trial.

The shoe did not hit Breivik but landed on one of his lawyers, Vibeke Hein Baera, who was sitting between the accused and the onlookers. “Luckily, it was just a shoe,” Hein Baera told AFP after the incident.

The attacker, a man of Iraqi origin whose brother was one of the 69 people Breivik shot dead on Utøya on July 22, was quickly brought under control by security guards and escorted out of the courtroom as he continued to shout in English, through tears of anger, “Go to hell!”

The episode recalled a similar attack on former US president George W. Bush, who during a visit to Baghdad in December 2008 was the target of a shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist.

When the proceedings resumed a few minutes later, Breivik addressed the onlookers. “If someone wants to throw something at me, do it at me while I’m entering or leaving, and not at my lawyer,” he said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Norway: Witnesses Relive Breivik’s Pitiless Murders

Anders Behring Breivik, who is on trial for killing 77 people in Norway last year, mercilessly murdered youths on Utøya island, ignoring their pleas for him to spare their lives, witnesses testified Thursday.

On the 16th day of the self-confessed killer’s trial, the Oslo district court heard heart-wrenching testimony from young people who saw their friends fall under the hail of Breivik’s bullets last July 22nd.

Lars Henrik Rytter Øberg, an 18-year-old high school student, told the court how — from the icy waters he had thrown himself into to escape the bullets — he had seen Breivik walk towards a boy who was trying to protect his head with his arms and had shot him.

“His face was marble,” said the young man, who had come to court wearing the traditional red trousers worn by students before during the festivities leading up to their final high school exams. “He seemed very calm,” Rytter Øberg added.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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One in Ten Swedish Teen Girls ‘Forced’ Into Sex

One in ten female high school students in Sweden has been forced to take part in some sort of sexual act, according to a new study from Linköping University. And in about half of the cases, the perpetrator was the same age as the victim.

“It is easier to talk about it if it’s not someone at school, if it is someone from outside. Then you can get support. But when it happens on your doorstep it becomes a question of who to believe,” said Carl Göran Svedin, professor of child-and-youth-psychiatry at the university, to Sveriges Television (SVT).

In the study, researchers asked 3,500 students in their final year of high school (gymnasium) in 2009 a series of questions regarding sexual relations at the behest of the Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs (Undomsstyrelsen), a government agency that works to ensure that young people have access to influence and welfare.

One in ten of the teenage girls stated that they had been forced to take part in penetrative sex; orally, vaginally or anally — against their will. To prosecutor Ulrika Rogland the figures were nothing new. She told SVT that the abuse rarely gets reported, especially if they have occurred at a party with alcohol involved.

“Those that you approach might say ‘what, of course you wanted to. You went with him after all’,” she told the broadcaster. This often results in the victim feeling guilty and responsible and choosing not to report.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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The French Will Never Leave the Cafes Now

Socialist France moved further to the left of Putin’s Russia. The French just elected President the leftist Francois Hollande who professes to be the protector of the poor, wants more government handouts (stimulus), and rejects the austerity measures that his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy had cobbled with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor.

The promise to restore generous social welfare programs brought many enthusiastic French to the polls. They were angry with Sarkozy’s vulgar demeanor, his anti-immigration and integration rhetoric, and immediate intentions to reduce the national debt which is unmanageable without austerity measures.

Hollande promised to tax the “rich,” a mirror image of our government’s rhetoric, “the rich don’t pay their fair share.” It was instantaneous music to the ears of the French work ethic. They take pride in reduced workweek, tenure on the first day of work, extended vacations paid by the state, and early retirement. “C’est la vie” and it is very self-indulgent.

Handing out more government dependence (stimulus money) means that the French will never have to leave the cafe’s now. Occupying all chairs, sipping wine, and chain-smoking, they will be looking down their noses at the inferior uncouth American tourists walking by in their dreadful tennis shoes and awful blue jeans, smiling like idiots.

Socialists have given up any pretense of preserving their national identity — Muslim immigrants who refuse to integrate into French society and remain in their self-appointed ghettos, no longer accessible to French citizens, will eventually outnumber them.

— Hat tip: JD

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The Non-Jewish Jews Who Became the Scholars of an Ideological Dreamworld

by Colin Shindler

During Jewish Book Week in February 1958, the great Marxist historian, Isaac Deutscher, gave a talk entitled “The Non-Jewish Jew”. It was later published and became required reading for the student revolutionaries of the 1960s. Deutscher tried to explain why some Jews embraced the revolutionary imperative and relegated their Jewishness to a secondary level. As an ilui (child prodigy) of the yeshiva of Chrzanow in Poland, Deutscher supplanted God with Lenin and Trotsky at an early age. Although he moved beyond the Jewish community, he never renounced his Jewishness. He believed that non-Jewish Jews symbolised “the highest ideals of mankind” and that Jewish revolutionaries carried “the message of universal human emancipation”. He regarded such figures as optimists. And yet his father, the author of a book in Hebrew on Spinoza, disappeared in the hell of Auschwitz.

Deutscher argued that such Jews existed on the borderlines of various civilisations, religions and cultures. And from there on the margins, they were able to clearly analyse societies and events — and guide humanity into more benevolent channels.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK Bans Self-Defense Expert From Entering Country

The UK government has banned self-defense expert and former US Navy Seal Tim Larkin from entering the country after Larkin planned to hold seminars instructing people how to protect themselves against rioters and criminals.

“Tim Larkin tried to board a plane from his home in Las Vegas on Tuesday, but was given a UK Border Agency letter saying “his presence here was not conducive to the public good,” reports BBC News.

The banning order reflects how the coalition government is continuing the previous Labour Party’s policy of discouraging British citizens from using any kind of self-defense whatsoever given the fact that private ownership of firearms is all but completely outlawed.

Larkin was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at The Martial Arts Show conference in Birmingham and to hold a seminar in Tottenham, two areas hit by violence during last year’s riots. Unlike many methods of so-called “self-defense,” Larkin’s program actually teaches (shock, horror), methods on how to incapacitate an attacker.

Larkin told BBC Radio 4 that the banning order was a “gross over-reaction” and said the real reason behind it was because he had publicly criticized the country’s laws on self-defense, which are ambiguous at best and leave victims completely vulnerable to criminals.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Asian Sex Gang ‘Were Acting Within Cultural Norms’

David Starkey risks fresh controversy by claiming that Asian men jailed over a major child sexual exploitation ring were “acting within their own cultural norms”.

The historian said “nobody ever explained” to the men — eight of Pakistani origin and one from Afghanistan — that women could not be treated in this way. Dr Starkey called for better teaching of English history to create a “common identity” and overcome the challenges of multiculturalism. But the comments are likely to prompt condemnation just a day after the men were handed sentences of between four and 19 years for the offences. Liverpool Crown Court heard the group plied five victims with drink and drugs and “passed them around” for sex. The girls were abused at two takeaway restaurants in the Heywood area of Rochdale by the men aged between 24 and 59. The takeaways are now under new management.Speaking at a conference staged by Brighton College, the private school in East Sussex, Dr Starkey said that the “only way we are going to get to be able to survive as a multi-cultural society is if we re-address the story — the real story — of English history”.

The historian, author of books including Elizabeth and The Private Life of Henry VIII, said: “If you want to look at what happens when you have no sense of common identity, look at Rochdale and events in Rochdale, where you have groups that are absolutely and mutually uncomprehending. Those men were acting within their own cultural norms. Nobody ever explained to them that the history of women in Britain was once rather similar to that in Pakistan and it had changed.” He said a “genuine approach to the teaching of English history” should look at the origins of modern feminism. “It is a fundamental story,” he said. “And it seems to me that if we are to make this highly diverse society work, and I desperately hope that we do, what we should be focusing on is the astonishing record of change without revolution in English history in which the political system of king, lords and commoners, has proved flexible enough to spread from a tiny deeply selective electorate to a wider and wider group who have been incorporated, have been brought in and made to feel welcome.”

Last year, Dr Starkey provoked controversy after blaming “black culture” for initiating the London riots, saying that in today’s society “whites have become black”.

[JP note: Muslim sex gang, not Asian.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Anglo-Jewry’s Leaders Must Act

by Geoffrey Alderman

Last month the Times of Israel carried an essay by one Shimon Cohen attacking the distinguished former leader of Australian Jewry, Isi Leibler, who is now based in Israel. In March Leibler — a onetime senior vice-president of the World Jewish Congress — had launched a blistering critique of the current leadership of British Jewry. Cohen, the head of a public-relations company whose clients include some of Anglo-Jewry’s good and great, took issue with Leibler’s exposé of the “trembling Israelites” in charge of this world. “British Jewish life,” Cohen insisted, “is experiencing something of resurgence, proud of its heritage, connected to Israel and finding its voice. Far from running for cover, British Jews are walking tall.”

Leibler is capable of defending himself. I want rather to bring to your attention two sets of developments that seem to me to warrant consideration at the highest levels of the Anglo-Jewish world. In so doing I want to assure Mr Cohen that I do not mind which particular moneyed macher addresses these matters of principle. The important thing is that they are addressed, and solutions found. And that there is no hint of a fudge. The first concerns the strange goings-on behind the closed door of the taxpayer-funded Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust. Last week the Trust was to have hosted a workshop entitled “The Role of Negotiation in Dealing with Conflict”. The session was cancelled following pressure from Unison, whose anti-Jewish inclinations drove it to object to the choice, as presenter of this workshop, of a distinguished Israeli academic who is a known authority on crisis management and conflict resolution.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Bloodlust at the 1922 Committee

“Civil war” was how one MP described Wednesday night’s 1922 Committee. The meeting amounted to what I’m told was “collective bullying of Nadine Dorries,” who called David Cameron and George Osborne “arrogant posh boys” on TV two weeks ago. The HuffPost reported on the Committee’s anger at Ms Dorries this morning — but I’m told the feeling of the group wasn’t as one-sided as it may seem. Tempers frayed during the meeting when a traditionalist was sworn at for an interjection and told to sit down for suggesting that UKIP posed a threat to the Tories. “The way they treated him was a disgrace,” an observer said. Conspiracy theories on No 10’s orchestration of the stand-off are flying from those on the Right of the party today. While unlikely, I’m told the event has left many of the old guard feeling isolated because — as Tim Montgomerie, the editor of Conservative Home, said in a Times column last week — many MPs privately agree with Ms Dorries’ view.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: How to Avoid Airport Security: Wear a Burka

White airline passengers are routinely stopped and searched unnecessarily at Britain’s airports just so staff can prove they’re not ‘racist’.

Even when customs officials have been tipped off about a black drugs mule arriving on a plane from the Caribbean, they deliberately intercept a number of innocent white passengers so they can’t be accused of discrimination.

John Vine, chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, says staff try to ensure the right racial ‘mix’ even though they have no legal right to detain people on such grounds.

This is because they are petrified about being hammered with allegations of racism every time they stop and search someone from an ethnic minority background.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Muslim Sex Gangs Not Asian

By Glen Jenvey for Asian Tribune

The recent British media reports on the Rochdale sex gang describing them as ‘Asian’ are both offensive and unfair. The use of the blanket term Asian by the media to describe these criminals’ brands all Asians as potential offenders and attributes either implicitly or often explicitly this kind of behavior to Asians in general, which is both racist and offensive to a large section of the law-abiding Asian community. Why is it that the national press can’t bring itself to use the words Pakistani or Afghan sex gangs in their reporting of these cases or more to the point Muslim sex gangs! Why is it in their efforts to be politically correct they must print headlines that not only twist and hide the truth but libel all Indians and Asians in general with racial and criminal slurs of the worst kind.

The offenders in Rochdale and previous Muslim criminal gangs were acting from a religiously inspired cultural perspective that is incompatible with British society and is not shared by the Asian community. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Christianity all have an older religious and cultural tradition in Asia than Islam with a moral code that is compatible with British law and values. It’s disgraceful that the media should use such racial terms to link the sexual abuse crimes committed by these Muslims with all Asians. I speak as part of a Tamil family whose members fought bravely in the Second World War for the British and are proud of both their cultural heritage and the place they have earned in British society. The people in my community are all more than tired of the problems associated with Muslim drug gangs, Muslim sex gangs and Muslim supporters of terrorist groups. The funds raised by Muslims for Islamic terrorists are used to finance attacks on Indian as well as British innocents; in Mumbai and in London.

The Sikh community’s contribution to British culture and society has also been a loyal and honorable one. How unfair it is to associate them with the kind of behavior we’ve seen from Muslims? Sikhs also have a long and proud history in both the British and Indian military and as a valued part of British society. A Sikh told me today,’ the problem lies in the Muslim community and the politically correct left wing press and weak political leadership’s failure to do anything about it’. I spoke with a Christian friend from Goa in India today as well , who told me how upset his brother was at being labeled as a ‘sex beast’ by the British media. His brother had just read a British newspaper article describing all Asians as ‘sex beasts’! Buddhists are also upset with the British media calling the British Press racist in their careless and frankly reckless use of the term ‘Asian’ in reporting these criminal cases.

It not only puts a racial spin on the story which is unjustified but demonizes the whole British Asian community. British Asians are disgusted with the racist slurs and reporting in the UK media. Why do they insist on introducing a racial element where there is none? Why do you not report on the real problems within the Muslim community and Islam? I myself have already complained to the press complaints commission and urge all British Asians to do the same in an effort to put an end to these racial slurs.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Man Stabbed to Death in Front of His Family ‘For Asking Parents of Crying Child in Restaurant if She Was Okay’

A father out celebrating his daughter’s birthday was brutally knifed to death in front of his horrified family just because he asked if a crying child was alright, a court was told yesterday.

Alan Smith, 63, was stabbed at least five times as he sat with his partner, daughter and son-in-law in a cafe in east London.

His alleged killer, Matthew Quesada, became enraged when Mr Smith approached him in the BB Cafe to ask if his young daughter, who was crying, was okay, the jury heard.

Quesada responded ‘What’s it to you? What’s it got to f****** do with you?’ before storming out of the cafe.

‘Humiliated and angered’ by what happened and ‘bent on exacting revenge’ Quesada, then aged 25, ran to his girlfriend’s home to drop off the girl and grab a weapon.

With a knife concealed up his sleeve,He then raced after the family as they entered a second diner — the Roma cafe — where they had gone to eat to avoid any further trouble.

It was there that Quesada allegedly launched a ‘frenzied and wordless’ attack, stabbing Mr Smith in the head and body.

As Estelle Jenkins tried to get between her father and his attacker, Mr Smith struggled up from the bolted down table before falling to the floor where he kicked out in a vain attempt to stop the onslaught, the court heard.

Quesada only fled when the victim’s son-in law Mark Jenkins threw a chair at him, halting the attack, as Mr Smith’s horrified partner Denise Facey looked on, the court was told.

As Mr Smith’s life ebbed away an air ambulance doctor had to perform emergency heart surgery on a cafe table that formed a ‘make-shift operating table.’

He was flown to hospital where he died from his wounds, three of which were fatal.

Quesada, now 26, denies murdering Mr Smith on March 26 last year.

Roger Smart, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey jury Quesada accepts he stabbed Mr Smith and the issue will be his state of mind at the time.

— Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo

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UK: Protesting Bigots

Once again a performance by the Jerusalem Quartet has been disrupted by bigots. Things hardly started well when the director of the Brighton Festival, Andrew Comben, in an astonishingly crass misjudgment, prefaced the concert with a warning that there was likely to be disruption. The benighted musicians must wonder whether it is worth their while performing in a country that permits these thugs to act with impunity. It is time for the Crown Prosecution Service to make it clear that, while demonstrations outside are perfectly legitimate, those which take place inside, disrupting a performance, will be met with the full force of the law.

[JP note: One law for Muslims, crumbs for the rest.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Starkey Makes ‘Cultural’ Link to Gang Jailed for Sexually Exploiting Girls

Historian calls on schools to teach English history to ethnic minorities to make them ‘English citizens and English men’

David Starkey has risked fresh criticism for describing a largely Pakistani gang jailed for sexually exploiting young girls as “acting within their cultural norms”. Speaking at a conference for private school headteachers in Brighton, the historian said the gang’s actions were evidence of “what happens when [a country like Britain] has no sense of common identity”. “Nobody ever explained [to these men] that the history of women in Britain was once rather similar to that in Pakistan and it had changed,” Starkey told his audience of more than 100 headteachers.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Schools Are Deliberately Failing to Correct Spelling Errors to Avoid ‘Damaging Pupils’ Self Esteem’

Teachers are being told not to correct more than three spelling errors at a time to avoid damaging pupils’ self-confidence, an MP revealed yesterday.

Andrew Selous highlighted the practice at a secondary school in his South West Bedfordshire constituency but fears it is widespread across the country.

The Tory MP condemned not correcting all errors in a piece of work as a ‘false kindness’ which denies pupils ‘fundamental’ skills needed in the job market.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

UK: Scandal of Care Firms That Failed to Protect Girls From Grooming

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A network of private children’s homes was under fire last night over failures to protect youngsters from street grooming gangs.

As MPs accused the firms — which charge councils over £250,000 for each troubled youngster — of letting down vulnerable girls, Ofsted launched an investigation.

It came after a 15-year-old, who was meant to be receiving around the clock ‘solo’ care, went missing 19 times in three months for up to two weeks at a time.

Instead of trying to find her, they would resort to text messages asking: ‘When are you coming back?’

Staff had no idea that she was being groomed by a group of mainly Pakistani-born men until she handed them a note. It later transpired that 25 of the men sexually abused her in a single night.

Now it has emerged that another 15-year-old, who was placed at a solo home in Rochdale run by the same firm six years earlier, died of a heroin overdose after she too was groomed for sex.

The following year the company’s founders sold it to a group of private equity investors for £26million, who in turn sold it on for an undisclosed sum last month.

[…]

Figures released last night reveal there are 343 solo care homes across England, many charging councils almost ten times more than the annual fees at Eton.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

UK: The British Landscape Was Created by British Writers

by Harry Mount

That’s the overwhelming feeling you get after seeing the British Library’s staggering new show, Writing Britain, which opens today. Not only are you bowled over by the treasures on show — the manuscripts of Lewis Carroll, Wordsworth, Jane Austen, Auden, Brontes various, they go on and on… — but you also begin to see how, unwittingly, our views of Britain have been shaped by literature. We see northern moorland through Wuthering Heights, Picturesque ruins through the prism of Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, industrial decline through Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, gloomy modern England through Philip Larkin, picturebook British countryside through Edward Thomas’s Adlestrop. To see all these writers in the flesh, as it were, on the page, is to see the creation of the British landscape in the British imagination. Worth a visit.

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

UK: You Are Going Have to Spell Out How Self-Defence Instruction Would Incite Vigilante Violence Mrs May…

Tim Larkin is not welcome in Britain because of his self-defence teachings.

[…]

There can only be one reason for the ban on Larkin, and it’s the pompous and self-serving conceit held by our criminal justice authorities that no-one may take the law into their own hands.

Their prevailing doctrine holds that no-one may fight back against an attacker. You must wait for the forces of law and order to come and do it properly. Rather than defend yourself, surrender your goods.

You have in any case provoked your assailant by advertising your wealth.

You can’t expect to drive around in a nice car without expecting someone to steal the briefcase off the back seat. Thieves only steal because you are flaunting your property in front of them.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Welcome to France, Where the Anti-Israel Vote is Now Key

In a fascinating piece on the recent presidential elections in France, French political analyst Michel Gurfinkiel contrasted the fortunes of left and right in the 18th and 17th districts in the north of Paris. The 18th voted overwhelmingly for the left; the 17th for the right. With no significant socio-economic differences, what could explain such radically contrasting voting patterns? The answer, Gurfinkiel said, was the distinct “ethnic and cultural” make-up of the two areas. In other words, the 18th district is mostly Muslim and “neo-French”; the 17th is not. Recognition of the alliance between political Islam and the ideological left is not new, of course. It was gestating as far back as the 1960s when writers such as Herbert Marcuse sought to harness the revolutionary potential of third world movements that the Western proletariat had so conspicuously failed to provide. Following the end of the Cold War, and especially after 9/11, it became clear that the anti-Western ideology par excellence was going to be Islamism. With more than a billion potential adherents, this was a force to be reckoned with. And if the price of the alliance was dropping or de-prioritising support for the rights of women, gays and, of course, the state of Israel and Jews in general, then so be it.

What is new is that this alliance is now starting to be politically significant in European electoral politics. In countries with large and growing Muslim populations — in France, Muslims make up at least 10 per cent of the population — capturing the Muslim constituency may already be a factor in determining the overall result. There are no ethno-religious breakdowns of the vote, but given the narrowness of his victory — Francois Hollande won 51.6 per cent to Nicolas Sarkozy’s 48.4 — it is quite possible that, in the absence of a sizeable Muslim population, Sarkozy would be breezing into his second term. It is a staggering thought, and the implications are vast. France’s Jewish community, for example, has largely been reasonably well-integrated into mainstream politics and society, despite a strained relationship between France and Israel for decades, more or less regardless of whether left or right held power. But if we have now reached a tipping point where it is no longer possible for left-wing parties to win elections without retaining the bulk of the Muslim vote, the future for French Jews, especially those with a strong affinity for Israel, may be bleak. This is not to say that French Muslims are only concerned about Israel. Like their non-Muslim counterparts, they vote on a variety of issues. But the Palestinian cause is clearly something that they and their communal leadership care about deeply. And if I can work out what that implies for French policy towards Israel under Francois Hollande, you can be sure that his strategists can work it out too.

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

Bosnia: As Ratko Mladic Trial Begins, Followers Are Poised to Take Power in Srebrenica

A ruling this week means Muslims who fled Srebrenica will no longer be able to vote there, making a Bosnian Serb mayor likely

Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb warlord of the 1990s, goes on trial for genocide next week at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, almost 17 years after his forces sealed control of eastern Bosnia through the mass murder of more than 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica. Following a decision in Sarajevo this week, however, Mladic’s followers are poised finally to take political power in the small hilltown whose name has joined Guernica and Oradour in the horrors of history lists. Deciding on the conduct of local elections in Bosnia in October, the country’s election authority declined to make Srebrenica an exception that would have enabled native Bosnian Muslims who escaped the slaughter to vote for the mayor there.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

Tunisia: First Salafi Party Approved

Tunis, 11 May (AKI) — The Tunisian government on Friday for the first time approved the formation of the north African country’s first Salafi political party, according a report.

The government licensed the Reform Front party making it Tunisia’s 118th legal party, the Al-Maghreb newspaper reported.

Mohammed Khoja, the head of the Reform Front, has said his party is committed to democracy.

Islamist parties were banned under Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali who was the Arab world’s first state leader to be toppled during last year’s Arab Spring protest movement.

The Salafi branch of Sunni Islam is closely associated with a puritanical interpretation of religion.

The moderate Islamist Ennahda party now heads the government after winning 42 percent of seats in Tunisia’s first free parliamentary election in October.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

UN: Prisoners Still Face Torture in Post-Gadhafi Libya

The UN special envoy for Libya has called on the interim government to address allegations of torture in militia-run prisons. Rights groups, meanwhile, have criticized two new laws for resembling Gadhafi-era practices.

The United Nations reported on Thursday that thousands of prisoners in post-war Libya are still being detained in militia-controlled prisons, often in secret, and at times facing torture.

The Libyan Justice Ministry currently controls 31 detention centers housing around 3,000 detainees across the vast north African nation, according to UN special envoy for Libya Ian Martin. Another 4,000 detainees remain in militia-controlled facilities, Martin told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

The UN’s special envoy said that although the interim government has official authority over dozens of prisons, in practice it often shares control over those facilities with Libya’s revolutionary militias.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Israel Facing Major West Bank Uprising Over Palestinian Hunger Strike

Israel has been warned that it faces a major uprising in the West Bank after six Palestinian prisoners taking part in one of the largest and most protracted hunger strikes ever staged in its jails were said to be close to death.

Palestinian militant groups and moderate politicians alike have predicted that years of relative tranquility could be brought to an abrupt and violent end if any of the 1,600 inmates now refusing food were to starve to death. The International Committee of the Red Cross said this week that the six inmates who have declined sustenance the longest are “at imminent risk of dying”. None of the six, who have all been admitted to prison hospitals, has eaten for the past 50 days. But the greatest concern is directed at two men, Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab. By Thursday, both men had refused food for 74 days, one more than managed by Kieran Doherty, the longest surviving of the 10 Irish militants who died during the Maze Prison hunger strike of 1981. Bobby Sands, the best known of the prisoners and the first to die, succumbed after 66 days. The two men’s act of defiance, initially a largely solitary affair called to protest their incarceration without trial, has spiralled into a major crisis for Israel. The vast majority of the 1,600 inmates demanding better prison conditions and and end to the practice of detention without trial have now been on hunger strike for 24 days and an ever growing number are having to receive medial attention.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

Afghan Commanders Show New Defiance in Dealings With Americans

Afghan commanders have refused more than a dozen times within the past two months to act on U.S. intelligence regarding high-level insurgents, arguing that night-time operations to target the men would result in civilian casualties, Afghan officials say. The defiance highlights the shift underway in Afghanistan as Afghan commanders make use of their newfound power to veto operations proposed by their NATO counterparts.

For much of the past decade, NATO commanders have dictated most aspects of the allied war strategy, with Afghan military officers playing a far more marginal role. But with the signing of an agreement last month, Afghans have now inherited responsibility for so-called night raids — a crucial feature of the war effort.

To Afghan leaders, the decisions made by their commanders reflect growing Afghan autonomy from Western forces as NATO draws down, and prove that Afghan forces are willing to exercise more caution than foreign troops when civilian lives are at stake.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Bail Bid by India Marines Turned Down

Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone to stay in custody

(ANSA) — New Delhi, May 11 — A southern Indian court on Friday turned down an application for bail by two jailed Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen while guarding a tanker against pirates in February.

Earlier Friday the court extended the marines’ preventive detention ahead of trial until May 25.

The pair, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, are at the centre of a dispute over jurisdiction between Italy and India.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

India: Moon and Venus Set Over Historic Old Delhi Mosque

The moon and Venus set over an iconic monument in Delhi in this skywatcher’s photo. Skywatcher Ajay Talwar of The World At Night shot this celestial pair setting over Jama Masjid or the mosque of Jahan-Numa (meaning “the world-reflecting” in Persian) Jan. 26, 2012 . The mosque was built in the 1650s by the emperor Shah Jahan, who was also behind the Taj Mahal. Venus and the moon both appear to glow above the monument in the spectacular image. Venus, about 27.8 million miles from Earth, is one of the brightest planets in our night sky. This blazing hot planet has a high reflective quality, called albedo, which makes it shine in the sky. [Photos: Venus and Crescent Moon in April 2012] Editor’s note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo you’d like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

Indonesia: Police Failed to Protect Ahmadiyah Mosque From Attacks by Islamic Fundamentalist Group in Singaparna

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION — URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-071-2012

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — –

ISSUES: Freedom of expression, Freedom of religion, Minorities, Police negligence

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — –

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the attack directed by an Islamic fundamentalist group, Islam Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI) towards an Ahmadiyah mosque in Singaparna, Tasikmalaya, West Java. The attack took place on Friday, 20 April 2012. The police was present at the time of the attack yet it did not take any action to prevent or stop the attacks directed towards the mosque. As of the time of writing, the police have not named anyone as suspects.

Case Narrative

According to information AHRC obtained from a witness, Doni Sutriana, at around 8 in the morning two police Mass Control (Pengendalian Masyarakat, Dalmas) trucks arrived in the location where the Baitul Rahim mosque is located. One platoon of police was deployed to Baitul Rahim mosque. On the previous day, there was news received from the police, the village officers as well as the religious affairs office that the FPI would come to the mosque. The FPI said it wanted to come to the mosque to put a banner which reads that the local villagers refuse the presence of Ahmadiyah in their area.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

Man Wearing Afghan National Army Uniform Kills American Soldier, Official Says

A man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform opened fire on coalition troops in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing an American and wounding two others, officials said.

“An Afghan Army soldier turned his weapon against US soldiers inside an Afghan-US military base in Kunar Province, killing one US soldier and injuring two others,” provincial police chief Ewaz Mohammad Naziri told AFP.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

The Future of Islamic Intellectualism in Indonesia

In a show of force, members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) broke up a book launch and discussion featuring Canadian Muslim feminist Irshad Manji at the Salihara Cultural Center in Jakarta on May 5. It was said that the FPI accused Manji of violating a primary tenet of Islam by promoting homosexuality. Viewing the incident in a bigger picture, the unjustified action is linked to a series of efforts initiated by Muslim hard-liners in the last few decades to circumscribe and restrict the intellectual activities focusing on Islamic matters. It is not an atypical case that these vigilantes would exert physical force and violence to intimidate or dissolve public discussions, seminars, lectures and book launches. The situation is, of course, unfriendly to any intellectual and academic activity.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

Farming Aquarium Species to Save Them

Shawn Garner watches over 18 tanks of hundreds of tiny sea horses, bobbing among the artificial sea grasses and plastic zip ties provided to give their tails a hitching post. “It’s the coolest animal in the world,” he said, showing them off with a touch of both pride and awe. “It has a head like a horse, a tail like a monkey and a pouch like a kangaroo.”

Garner, supervisor of the Mote Marine Laboratory’s sea-horse conservation lab, is one of several experts across the country trying to raise ornamental fish and other wild marine species in captivity. These researchers, many working at aquariums and zoos, are engaging in the kinds of farming operations once reserved for fish sold in food markets and restaurants.

For sea horses, the stakes are high. Nearly one-fourth of the 36 sea-horse species assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature are threatened with extinction.

Three factors account for the deaths of tens of millions of sea horses each year: the Chinese medicinal trade, accidental catch by shrimp trawling and other fishing operations, and habitat destruction.

“Being able to breed and raise sea horses is one part of the solution. Unfortunately, it’s not the only solution,” said Heather Koldewey, head of global conservation programs for the Zoological Society of London, adding that fishing restrictions and other coastal protections are also essential.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Lack of Babies Could Mean the Extinction of the Japanese People

Japan has a problem, a lack of children, and it seems likely there will be even fewer in the future. Japanese researchers have now warned of a doomsday scenario if it carries on this way with the last child to be born there in 3011 and the Japanese people potentially disappearing a few generations later.

Academics from the city of Sendai, which was hit hard by last year’s tsunami, calculate there are now 16.6 million children under the age of 14 now in Japan. And they say that number is shrinking at a disturbing rate of one every 100 seconds. So if you do the mathematics, as they did, then the country will have no children within a millennium.

Another study recently showed Japan’s population is expected to fall a third from its current 127.7 million over the next century. Government projections show the birth rate will hit just 1.35 children per woman within 50 years, well below the replacement rate. Now academics have created a population clock to highlight the fall and encourage public debate on the issue.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Sony Slides to Three-Decade Low on Strategy Doubts

Shares in Sony Corp slumped more than 7 percent to near 32-year lows, as investors doubted the Japanese consumer electronics giant has a strategy to fix its loss-making TV business and compete in the smartphone market against Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.

The last time Sony shares were this low, in the summer of 1980, its first Walkman portable cassette player had just gone on sale in the United States. So far this year, Sony has seen more than $3 billion wiped off its market value.

The maker of Bravia TVs, Vaio laptops and PlayStation games consoles on Thursday posted a record annual loss of $5.7 billion, but forecast a first profit in five years as it looks to halve losses at its ailing TV business. The net profit forecast was below analysts’ expectations.

Japanese firms, which long dominated the global TV industry, have been overtaken by Samsung and LG Electronics, which are rolling out next-generation sets using organic light emitting display (OLED), in a reshaping of Asia’s flat panel sector. A stronger yen, which erodes the value of exports, has also not helped.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Spain: Ancestor Giant Panda Found in Aragon

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MAY 10 — Two upper molars have been found in a fossil bed in Nombrevilla, in the province of Zaragoza (Aragon). The find was sufficient to identify a new bear species that included the oldest giant panda known so far, that lived 11 million years ago, an ancestor of the pandas that currently live in China. The fossil of this bear, ‘Agriarctos beatrix’, are now part of the collection of the Natural Science Museum. It was identified by palaeontologist Juan Abella, first author of the article published in Estudios Geologicos, the Spanish media report. The find places the giant panda in the Miocene period and moves the group’s origins 2 million years back, from 9 to 11 million years ago, in an area in the basin to the north-east of Spain.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Ethiopian Muslims Protest Government ‘Interference’

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) — On the outskirts of Addis Ababa, a muezzin leads a solemn sermon at a mosque before thousands of worshippers stamp their feet to protest against what they say is the Ethiopian government’s interference in religious affairs. Protests are uncommon in tightly-controlled Ethiopia, and the unrest has caused concern in the predominantly Christian nation that takes pride in centuries of coexistence. The government fears hardline Islam is taking root in the Horn of Africa country, which has long been seen by the West as a bulwark against militant Islam in neighbouring Somalia. “We are observing tell-tale signs of extremism. We should nip this scourge in the bud,” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told parliament last month. The protesters accuse Meles’ government of interfering by seeking to impose the beliefs of a little-known sect as doctrine. They say the government is promoting the Al Ahbash, an Islamic movement that opposes ultra-conservative ideology and rejects violence. The protesters broadly say they adhere to moderate Sufi-inspired values and not the ultra-conservative Salafist interpretation of Islam. “Call me a terrorist but I will defend my religion,” said the muezzin in his sermon, denouncing the Al Ahbash movement.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

Irish Court Says it Had to Free Man Set for Deportation

THE IRISH SUPREME Court has said it was required by law to direct the release of an Algerian man who had so violently resisted deportation Garda (Irish police) concluded he could not be safely deported and returned him to jail.

The case of Nazih Kadri highlighted a problem with the Immigration Act that could only be addressed by legislation, all three judges agreed.

Mr Kadri, the judges believed, should not be entitled to benefit from his unlawful conduct in physically resisting deportation in “the most extreme way”, including resisting all attempts by garda to move him, shouting he would be killed and threatening to kill himself, forcing himself to vomit on garda, and butting his head against a car window and on the ground in Dublin Airport.

Mr Kadri’s “egregious” behaviour demonstrated the often appalling difficulties facing Garda immigration officers, Mr Justice Nial Fennelly said.

However, the law was clear and Mr Kadri had to be freed as he had been detained from February 8th last for an aggregate period of more than eight weeks, in breach of section 5.6 of the Immigration Act, the court found.

The court could not adopt a purposive interpretation of a provision designed to protect personal liberty, Mr Justice Fennelly said.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke agreed Mr Kadri had to be released and said the precise type of measures that could, or should, have been put in place to deal with the sort of problems that arose in this case was “not a given”.

Such measures required legislation and could not be introduced by the court via “a strained interpretation” of the law, he said.

Agreeing, Mr Justice John MacMenamin said the effect of section 5.6, as determined by the court, was Mr Kadri had benefited “as a result of his own wrongdoing”.

The judges made the comments in separate judgments yesterday outlining their reasons for freeing Mr Kadri on April 27th last after finding his detention was unlawful.

They disagreed with a High Court decision of April 13th that Mr Kadri’s detention was lawful because he had committed fresh breaches of a deportation order, giving rise to a power to make a new arrest of him and to issue a new detention notification.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Fennelly noted Mr Kadri came here in October 2006 and claimed asylum, which was refused.

In August 2009, the Minister for Justice made an order for his deportation and Mr Kadri was later notified he had to leave the State by October 8th, 2009.

He failed to do so and “very probably” took steps after that to evade deportation, including not residing at an address in Waterford where he was required to reside, the judge said.

On February 8th, 2012, Garda arrested him in Drumcondra, Dublin, and brought him to Cloverhill Prison.

On February 20th, 2012, the High Court refused to grant Mr Kadri an order restraining deportation.

Arrangements were made for deportation on March 29th, 2012. After violent behaviour at Dublin Airport that day, Garda concluded it would be impossible to deport him and that he could not travel unescorted from Gatwick to Algiers as had been arranged.

He was taken to Wheatfield Prison, where he remained until freed on April 27th last.

The Supreme Court ruled his detention was unlawful once eight weeks had expired from when he was detained in Cloverhill on February 8th.

Section 5.6 clearly provided that a person shall not be detained under this section for a period or periods exceeding eight weeks in aggregate, it held.

— Hat tip: McR

[Return to headlines]

Millions of Illegal Immigrants Are Using a Massive Scam to Get Bigger Tax Refunds Than You Are

Did you know that illegal immigrants all over the United States are using a massive scam to receive tax refunds from the federal government that are often in excess of $10,000? It is estimated that 2 million illegal immigrants are filing fraudulent tax returns each year and that they are pulling in more than 4 billion dollars in tax refunds every year that they are not entitled to. They are doing this by abusing the additional child tax credit and the IRS knows all about it and yet they refuse to do anything to stop it. Illegal immigrants are filing tax returns that sometimes claim 10 or 12 nieces and nephews as dependents, and most of the time those nieces and nephews do not even live in the United States. So while you and I are being taxed into oblivion, many illegal immigrants are often pulling in tax refunds that are well into five figures. At a time when the federal government is absolutely drowning in debt, this is the type of fraud that desperately needs to be cracked down on, and yet the IRS refuses to take action.

[Return to headlines]

Bad Mommy

In 1960, as a young wife living with my husband on his Ivy League campus, I had a front-row seat when the Feminist Movement made its debut. I was doing nothing, according to Obama mouthpiece, Hilary Rosen, because, after all, caring for our infant son, taking care of our home, and supporting the efforts of my equally hard-working husband, Steve, was—ala Rosen’s characterization of worthy activity—the very definition of sloth.

[…]

Today, a good number of the above-mentioned radicals make up the 70-or-more members of the Socialist Party of America, many of whom now “occupy” Congress, along with the current Secretary of State, Clinton, who wrote her thesis at Wellesley on her favorite Marxist radical Saul Alinsky, and Secretary of Defense Panetta, who has not only gutted our military but recently told Congress that any future military actions would depend on the “permission” he would seek from the corrupt cesspool on 1st Avenue in New York City known as the United Nations.

According to writer Mychal S. Massie, National Chairman of the conservative Black think tank Project 21, “The majority of Americans never understood that the antiwar demonstrators of the late ‘60s were not just college students… they were hardcore Marxists whose goals were…to take over colleges and universities by becoming administrators and tenured professors.”

“Ask yourself,” Massie adds, “how terrorists and avowed Marxists like Angela Davis, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Ward Churchill, and other members of the most violent domestic terrorist groups end up as tenured professors and chairmen of their departments.”

The result of the 1960’s tsunami-like social upheaval—especially in the leftist bastions on the East and West coasts where European nanny-state socialism was as irresistible then as it is to leftists today—were children raised on the permissive childrearing philosophy of pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock, “educated” by teachers who strangely thought that feelings trumped academic discipline, and indulged by parents who were never indulged themselves. These ingredients—and the relentless drive of Communists and Socialists to topple America’s dazzlingly successful experiment in republican democracy—created the fertile environment for the decadent and violent decade of the sixties to flourish.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

	Financial Crisis
»	Breaking a German Taboo: Bundesbank Prepared to Accept Higher Inflation
»	British Bookies Suspend Betting on Greek Euro Exit
»	Croatian Economy to Shrink 1.0 % in 2012: Central Bank
»	Dutch Central Bank Warns We Face a ‘Lost Decade’ of Low Growth
»	Finnish Central Banker Says Rich Greeks Should be Taxed
»	Foreign Investors Return to Iceland
»	French Economy to Continue Flat in Q2: Central Bank
»	German Bank Breaks Anti-Inflation Taboo
»	German Exports Hit Record in March
»	Grexit Would be ‘Regrettable, But Not Fatal’
»	Italy: Monti Clarifies ‘Human Cost’ Comments
»	Legalising Cannabis Would Solve Spain’s Deficit Problem, Says Branson
»	Merkel Rejects Call for More Credit Growth
»	Spain: Gov’t Nationalizes 100% of Bankia’s Controlled BFA
»	Spain: Protests and General Strike Against Education Cuts
»	Spain Calms Market Fears With Bankia Takeover
»	Spain: Valencia Pays More Than Greece for Six-Month Debt
»	Spanish PM Defends EU Fiscal Pact, Austerity Policy
»	Too Poor for Stimulus?
	USA
»	Anti-Sharia Rally Set in Lansing
»	Brookfield Mosque Earns Support of Plan Commission
»	FBI’s Mueller Lies About Purging of Truth From Training Material About Islam and Jihad: “Political Correctness Had Nothing to Do With it”
»	Justice Department Planning to Sue Arizona Sheriff Arpaio Over Alleged Racial Profiling
»	Reusable Grocery Bag Carried Nasty Norovirus, Scientists Say
	Canada
»	Teaching Muslim Children Jihad and Jew-Hatred in Toronto
	Europe and the EU
»	Austrian Imperial Underwear Sold Off
»	Ayaan Hirsi Ali Wins Axel Springer Award
»	Belgium: Waterloo Battle Site Gets a Facelift
»	British Jubilee Gibraltar Visit Annoys Spain
»	British Schools Fail Our Children Say Eastern European Immigrants Who Would Rather Return Home Than Rely on the NHS
»	Cowboy Hat Courier Nabbed in Norway
»	Disclosure of Romanian Pimping Ring in Helsinki Speaks of Arrival of Criminal Groups
»	Ending on a Sour Note: How the World’s Top Stradivarius Dealer Misplayed
»	France: UMP Parliamentary Elections Slogan ‘Choose France’
»	France: Man ‘Killed Neighbour Over Dead Goldfish’
»	German Drops Mayan Skull, Endangers Mankind
»	How Right-Wing Extremists and Islamists Are the Same
»	Hungary Limits Boat Traffic on the River Danube
»	Michelle Bachmann Takes Swiss Citizenship
»	Netherlands: ‘Crucial’ Van Gogh Watercolour Bought by Museum
»	Norway: Kebab Chaos in Oslo as Hungry Punters Fight Over Free Food
»	Scotland: Ditched Helicopter Passengers Safe
»	Switzerland: Angry Alpine Tour Guide Chopped Down Crosses
»	Too Easy to be Europeans When All is Well, Barroso
»	‘Turbulence’ Warning as EU Marks 62nd Birthday
»	UK: 77 Years for Asian Sex Beasts… 50 More on the Loose
»	UK: Asian Sex Gang: Young Girls Betrayed by Our Fear of Racism
»	UK: Child Sex Grooming: The Asian Question
»	UK: Defence Secretary Philip Hammond Announces U-Turn Over Carrier Fighter Jets
»	UK: Harry Potter Manuscript on Show
»	UK: Mosque Rallies to Help Victims of Famine
»	UK: Muslims, ‘Sex Gangs’ And White Working-Class Women
»	UK: Mohammed Shafiq: An Obsession With Racism That Left Vulnerable Girls at the Mercy of Sex Predators
»	UK: Outrage as Police Repeatedly Taser Terrified Alzheimer’s Sufferer in Front of His Wife Because He Didn’t Want to Go Into Care — Then Tie Him Up in His Living Room
»	UK: Press May Face Fines From New Watchdog if Codes of Conduct Are Broken, PCC Chief Warns
»	UK: Rochdale Grooming Trial: Police Knew About Sex Abuse in 2002 But Failed to Act
»	UK: The Conservative Party is Failing to Define and Promote Its Vision
»	UK: Teacher at Local Mosque Gets Six Years in Jail
»	UK: The Horrific Consequences of the Islamophobia Witch-Hunt
	Balkans
»	Albania Gives EU Green Light on Organ Probe
	Mediterranean Union
»	European Parliament for Euro-Mediterranean Free-Trade Zone
	North Africa
»	Egypt: Italy-WFP Agreement for Food Supply
»	Tuaregs’ Ties With Libya Linked to Mali’s Crisis
	Israel and the Palestinians
»	Israeli City Reportedly Bans Girls From Singing at Youth Conference
	Middle East
»	Behind Foiled Jet Plot, Stronger Saudi Ties
»	China, Russia Call for End to Syria Violence
»	Iraq: Former Insurgent Stronghold Faces Challenges
»	Kuwait: Bill Proposed to Prevent ‘Female Judges’
»	Lebanon: NGO Amel: Alert for Exploitation of Foreign Women
»	Turkey: EU Tourists Tripled in 10 Years, Tourism Minister
	Russia
»	Russian City Launches Bid to Become European Culture Capital
»	Russia Foils Plot to Attack 2014 Olympics
»	WWII Victory Day Still Stirs Controversy in Latvia
	South Asia
»	Aeroflot Says to Keep Flying Superjet Despite Crash
»	Jihad Against America: Relations Remain Icy Between Pakistan and the US
»	Superjet 100 Disaster in Indonesia: Russia’s Prestige Project Crashes Into Volcano
	Far East
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	Culture Wars
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	General
»	Microsoft Returning Windows to ‘The Digital Dark Ages’?

Breaking a German Taboo: Bundesbank Prepared to Accept Higher Inflation

Germany’s central bank has indicated it may tolerate higher inflation in Germany as the price of rebalancing economies within the euro zone. The move marks a major shift away from the Bundesbank’s hardline approach on price stability. Economists have hailed the decision as a “breakthrough.” Inflation is a political hot button issue in Germany, where the hyperinflation of the early 1920s has not been forgotten and many people still have a deep-rooted fear of their money losing value.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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British Bookies Suspend Betting on Greek Euro Exit

(LONDON) — British bookmakers Ladbrokes and William Hill have suspended betting on whether crisis-hit Greece will leave the eurozone, citing on Thursday political uncertainty in the country.

Athens was plunged into fresh crisis over the weekend as angry voters rejected austerity measures, leaving politicians struggling to form a viable government and raising fresh doubts over Greece’s eurozone membership.

“While the uncertainty continues in Greece, we have suspended betting on all markets in relation to a withdrawal,” a Ladbrokes spokesman told AFP. “We will pay out on an official statement of intention (to withdraw). The odds were slashed to 1/3 from 4/6 this morning before we pulled it.”

A bookmaker offering odds of 1/3 means someone would need to bet GBP 3 ($4.8, 3.7 euros) to win back just GBP 1 plus their stake. In a separate statement on Thursday, Ladbrokes rival William Hill added that it had stopped taking new bets on which would be the first eurozone member to exit the bloc.

“As the Greek financial crisis continues, William Hill have suspended their market on which country will be the first to quit the eurozone — for which Greece was the red hot favourite at 1/4,” it said. The group has also suspended bets on the euro ceasing to exist by December 2015.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Croatian Economy to Shrink 1.0 % in 2012: Central Bank

(ZAGREB) — Croatia’s economy will shrink 1.0 percent this year, the central bank governor said on Thursday and warned the structural reforms are needed in the Balkans nation that joins the European Union in 2013. “We estimate that this year gross domestic product (GDP) will contract by some 1.0 percent due to a reduction of consumption and exports,” governor Zeljko Rohatinski said.

Rohatinski, who also forecast 3.5 percent inflation this year, stressed that “only deep, painful structural reforms” would help the country overcome economic hardship. “The government is aware of that,” he emphasised.

Croatia’s economy was flat 2011. It was the third consecutive year the Balkan country’s economy, based mostly on its tourism industry on the Adriatic coast, saw no growth.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Dutch Central Bank Warns We Face a ‘Lost Decade’ of Low Growth

There is a risk of a ‘lost decade’ of low economic growth in Europe, during which the Netherlands will be particularly vulnerable because of its enormous mortgage debt, the Netherlands Bank (DNB) said in a report on Thursday. The bank says European leaders must continue with austerity measures in order to get their finances in order. Only then will confidence in the economy return.

They must also undertake structural measures to improve the growth and competitive opportunities of EU countries, says the bank. Because the Dutch mortgage debt is so high, the bank is pleased with the plan by the five-party coalition to only give mortgage tax relief where the actual loan is repaid, rather than just the interest on the loan.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Finnish Central Banker Says Rich Greeks Should be Taxed

Bank of Finland governor and former EU commissioner Erkki Liikanen has advised Greece to tax the rich as a way to solve the country’s debt crisis. “The kind of country where the rich don’t pay tax at all …. undergoes extreme unfairness,” he told public broadcaster Yle.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Foreign Investors Return to Iceland

Iceland, one of the first European countries to experience a financial meltdown has seen foreign investors return, with mainly Americans buying up sovereign bonds last week worth $1bn, the Wall Street Journal reports. “This transaction is an important milestone for Iceland,” said Finance Minister Oddny Haroardottir.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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French Economy to Continue Flat in Q2: Central Bank

France’s central bank forecast zero growth for the second quarter Thursday, marking two quarters running of stagnation just as president-elect Francois Hollande gears up to take charge of the economy. France’s gross domestic product should remain “stable” in the second quarter compared to the first quarter, which also saw zero growth, the Bank of France said in statement.

France’s INSEE statistics institute has said it expects 0.2 percent growth in the second quarter. The French economy grew by only 1.7 percent last year and slowed to just 0.2 percent in the last quarter, mirroring a wider slowdown in the 17-nation eurozone as a whole.

In January, the government was forced to slash its 2012 growth forecast from 1.0 percent to 0.5 percent, bringing it into line with the International Monetary Fund’s estimate. France’s struggling economy was a key factor in Hollande’s win over outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy in Sunday’s French presidential election.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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German Bank Breaks Anti-Inflation Taboo

In a marked shift from its age-old taboo of accepting higher inflation, the German Bundesbank on Wednesday (10 May) said it may tolerate a devaluation of the common currency to help out crisis-hit countries suffering under a strong euro.

Jens Ulbrich — who heads the economics department for Germany’s central bank — told a public hearing in Berlin that it would hurt to weaken his country’s powerful export model and to loosen its national financial policies just to help other countries.

He added however, that as “periphery” countries face economic restructuring — decreasing labour costs and making it easier for employers to hire and fire — Germany might have to live with a higher inflation rate. “In this scenario, Germany is likely to have above average inflation rates in the future,” he said.

Echoing comments made by European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi last week, the German banker added that euro states should create a “real fiscal union” in which countries hand over a portion of their sovereignty on fiscal matters to a European body.

Since the beginning of the crisis, the Bundesbank has been the most wary of any sort of inflationary policies and consistently opposed interventions by the European Central Bank, such as the €1 trillion in cheap bank loans that helped bring down Italy and Spain’s borrowing costs.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday joined a chorus of economists calling for Germany to spend more and allow for higher wages so as to shrink the big gap that exists between the southern, crisis-hit euro countries and the economic powerhouse of Europe.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble last week also suggested a shift in the low-wage-to-keep-strong-exports policy, saying German workers should have wage increases. “If anyone deserves a pay rise, it is the Germans,” he joked.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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German Exports Hit Record in March

(FRANKFURT) — German exports grew to a record level in March, boosting a trade surplus by 16.8 percent from the February level on strong demand from outside the European Union, official data showed on Wednesday. Germany’s trade surplus grew to 17.4 billion euros in March, the figures showed, but exports to the eurozone fell on a 12-month basis.

The German economy, the biggest in Europe, exported goods worth 98.9 billion euros ($128 billion) in March, up 8.4 percent from the figure for February and beating the previous record from March 2011, the national statistics office Destatis said. On a 12-month basis, exports to countries outside the European Union grew by 6.1 percent to 41.9 billion euros while exports to countries in the crisis-hit eurozone contracted by 3.6 percent to 38.1 billion euros.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Grexit Would be ‘Regrettable, But Not Fatal’

With Greece apparently unable to form a government and the leader of one party rejecting the country’s bailout commitments, warnings are growing across Europe that Athens may have to leave the euro zone. German editorialists say it would be a shame but probably wouldn’t mean the end of the common currency.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy: Monti Clarifies ‘Human Cost’ Comments

‘I was not referring to suicides’

(ANSA) — Rome, May 9 — Italian Premier Mario Monti has issued a statement clarifying his comments on the ‘human cost’ of Italy’s economic crisis.

“I was not referring to suicides,” he said after the Italian press on Tuesday linked his statements to the country’s growing rate of suicides amid the economic crisis. “I was speaking about the human consequences of the crisis, that obviously are many, which should make us think about who brought the economy to this state and not who is trying to get us out of it.

“Those who were listening heard that I was not referring to any government in particular”.

Monti’s unelected emergency administration replaced Silvio Berlusconi’s in November with the primary aim of fixing the economy before elections next year. “I was referring to the fact that this government, which by its nature has a short tenure, needs to worry about the long term,” he added. “I am sorry that everything can be misinterpreted or manipulated.

“We are certainly not here to make political criticism of any kind”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Legalising Cannabis Would Solve Spain’s Deficit Problem, Says Branson

The official opening of Barcelona’s Cannabis Museum yesterday proved to be the perfect opportunity for experts to renew calls for the legalisation of the drug, with Richard Branson saying that Spain could solve its deficit problem by legalising cannabis alone.

The multi-millionaire founder of the Virgin emporium is also a member of a global commission on drugs policy which includes five ex-presidents and Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, and which concluded last year that the war on drugs had failed and called for experiments in decriminalisation.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Merkel Rejects Call for More Credit Growth

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected calls from her center-left opponents for economic stimulus policies that rely on new debt, warning that taking on more credit would just push Europe deeper into crisis. Angela Merkel made it clear in the German parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday morning that she was still opposed to the issue of taking out further credit to stimulate the European economy.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Spain: Gov’t Nationalizes 100% of Bankia’s Controlled BFA

Treasury majority shareholder with 45%, Spain’s 4th bank

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MAY 10 — The Spanish government will nationalize 100% of Banco Financiero y de Ahorro (BFA), controlled by Bankia, Spain’s fourth bank, getting control of 45% of its shares. Bankia will inject only “strictly necessary” capitals for the recovery of the banking group.

According to sources of the Economy Ministry, quoted by Spanish media today, a process of conversion into shares of the EUR 4.46 bln loan delivered to the banking group in 2008 by Zapatero’s government through the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) will be implemented, resulting in the state indirectly holding 45% of Bankia’s capital and being the banking group’s main shareholder. According to sources, the State’s intervention does not imply the administration of an external commissioner for the bank; however, it is a “necessary step to take in order to guarantee solvency, reassure clients and dispel the markets’ doubts on the bank’s need for money.” BFA is the eighth nationalized bank in Spain since the beginning of the crisis. Nationalization was suggested yesterday by Bankia’s new Chairman, Jose’ Ignacio Goirigolzarri, during his appointment, Goirigolzarri replaced Rodriguo Rato, formed IMF director and Economy Minister during Aznar’s government, who had resigned earlier. In order to reassure international markets and investors about lack of contamination of toxic assets in the Spanish banks’ balance sheets, the government led by Mariano Rajoy is intentioned to increase the coverage of problematic construction and real estate loans, allocating further reserves totalling between EUR 32 and 42 bln, according to sources quoted by EL Pai’s today. These resources would enable the recovery of approximately 30% of the credit portfolio in order to fund the construction and real estate sector, whose reconstruction currently totals 7%. According to Spanish media, the proposal of further significant reserves (adding to EUR 53 bln allocated through the reconstruction decree adopted by the government in February) stirred discontent in the sector, which must also tackle a decrease in revenues.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Spain: Protests and General Strike Against Education Cuts

(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MAY 10 — Protests continue in Spain against cuts for 3 billion euros to public education finances included in the government’s 2012 budget.

The public school state organization has announced a “day of struggle” for today, with strikes and demonstrations in various Spanish cities and which precedes the national strike announced for May 22 by the trade unions and associations of teachers, primary, high-school and university students. The news has been reported by sources inside the CcOo, Fete-Ugt, Stes and Cgt unions, by the Confederation of students’ parents, the CEAPA, by the student union and by the state confederation of the pedagogic innovation movement, who will all gather into squares to shout “No to the dismantling of Public schools. No to social suicide”.

The protests have been called for in about twenty cities including Barcelona and Madrid, where a procession will begin from the Ministry of Education, whereas a day of strike has been called by the pubic universities of the capital, the Complutense and the Politecnica.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Spain Calms Market Fears With Bankia Takeover

Spain stamped out immediate fears of a banking catastrophe Thursday by nationalising its fourth-largest listed bank, Bankia, and salvaging its balance sheet, strewn with red ink. Bankia’s stock slumped. But the rest of the financial sector rallied after the dramatic U-turn by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government, which had refused to countenance using public money.

The government announced the state would take a 45-percent stake in Bankia by converting a state-backed loan of 4.465 billion euros ($5.8 billion) into shares in the parent company. The transaction, announced late Wednesday, means the government “will take control”, an Economy Ministry statement said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Spain: Valencia Pays More Than Greece for Six-Month Debt

Region of Valencia sells 500 million euros of short-term bonds on Thursday

Yields reach seven percent, which is higher than Greece, Portugal and Ireland

The highly indebted region of Valencia sold 500 million euros of six-month bonds on Thursday, but had to pay yields of seven percent. That’s higher than the cost of debt for the three euro-zone countries that have come to symbolize the financial crisis: Greece, which pays 4.947 percent; Portugal, 2.226 percent; and Ireland, 0.988 percent.

Valencia carried out the operation to refinance a debt that was due to be repaid today, and will be followed by another two repayments: 500 million euros on May 9, and 473 million on May 27. In total, the region will have to renew five billion euros of public debt over 2012.

Given that its rating has been lowered to junk-bond status, the region has repeatedly warned that it will need help from the central government to cope with its finances.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Spanish PM Defends EU Fiscal Pact, Austerity Policy

Spain supports the EU’s fiscal pact on cutting budget deficits and will continue to pursue its austerity policies at home, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Wednesday. “Spain, which has signed the EU fiscal compact, holds that this treaty must remain in place in the future,” the conservative leader said as popular pressure grows on eurozone leaders to focus more on growth than on austerity. Rajoy said “deficit reduction measures are a good policy.”

The election of Francois Hollande as French president at the weekend on a promise to add growth measures to the EU fiscal pact signed in March has reopened the growth versus austerity debate in Europe.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Too Poor for Stimulus?

After two years of austerity, growth is suddenly back in fashion in Europe, following calls by the incoming French president, François Hollande, for measures to boost the economy. But the EU’s planned “growth pact” is likely to be too small to help the crisis-hit countries of southern Europe.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Anti-Sharia Rally Set in Lansing

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — The bills, HB 4769 and SB 701, have been called anti-Sharia legislation. Its sponsor, Michigan Rep. Dave Agema (R-Grandville), said the bill is aimed at barring the implementation of foreign laws. While the law does not mention Sharia or Islamic law, local Muslim activists and others say the bill is aimed at Muslims. “This is not controversial — this is a no-brainer,” said Agema in a prepared statement Wednesday. “Why would we ever surrender our Constitutional rights by eroding or supplanting them with wholly incompatible foreign laws? Millions have fled persecution from oppressive regimes to come to America, whose bulwark of freedom is ourConstitution. I urge my legislative colleagues to act swiftly to pass these bills.”

Metro Detroit Muslim activist Dawud Walid, the executive director of CAIR-Michigan, said: “All who reside in Michigan have the fundamental right to practice their sincerely held, bona fide religious beliefs, as long as those do not violate the U.S. and Michigan constitutions and laws.” Walid added that Agema’s bill “could not only adversely affect Michigan Muslims, but also followers of other religions, including Judaism and Christianity, for whom courts routinely order reasonable accommodations for the observance of religious laws.” Also on Wednesday, CAIR released a list of organizations that includes the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Jewish Voice of Peace, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee — Michigan and the National Action Network which oppose the bills.

— Hat tip: JP

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Brookfield Mosque Earns Support of Plan Commission

Brookfield, WI, USA (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) — Following overwhelming support at a public hearing Monday night, city plan commissioners unanimously backed construction of a mosque in Brookfield, sending the plans to aldermen for final approval. The voice vote drew applause, handshakes and hugs among the approximately 30 people who stayed to hear the vote after the hearing that packed the Common Council chambers and two overflow areas. Commissioner Gary Mahkorn, one of two aldermen whose district includes the mosque site, said he was “so proud” of the community for its support of religious diversity and freedom of religious worship, despite concerns some raised about Islam and terrorism. “We’re a welcoming community,” Mahkorn said. “I’m proud of this community. I’m proud of this country.” Mushir Hassan, project manager for the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and a Brookfield resident and physician, said he was bouyed by the positive reaction Monday. “We’re obviously very encouraged,” Hassan said. “It’s just very heart-warming the degree of support we’ve got from the greater community.”

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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FBI’s Mueller Lies About Purging of Truth From Training Material About Islam and Jihad: “Political Correctness Had Nothing to Do With it”

Political correctness does not dictate how the FBI trains its counter-terror agents, bureau Director Robert Mueller said during a sometimes testy congressional hearing Wednesday.

A recent purge of FBI training documents came because some of the materials that were being used relied on inaccurate information or stereotypes linking Muslims to terrorism, Mueller told members of the House Judiciary Committee.

Several committee members raised concerns that the bureau was sacrificing national security for politically correct considerations, citing the overhaul of the counter-terror training curriculum as a source of particular worry.

Mueller provided few details as to what standards were used to determine which documents would be scrapped. He refused to identify the outside Islamic experts the bureau relied on to judge whether training materials accurately reflected Islamic beliefs and Muslim behaviors.

“I can say absolutely and with certainty that political correctness played no role in the efforts I undertook to make certain that we will give the best training to our personnel,” Mueller said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Justice Department Planning to Sue Arizona Sheriff Arpaio Over Alleged Racial Profiling

Federal authorities said Wednesday they plan to sue an Arizona county sheriff and his office over allegations of civil rights violations, including the racial profiling of Hispanics. The U.S. Justice Department has been seeking an agreement requiring sheriff Joe Arpaio office to train officers in how to make constitutional traffic stops, collect data on people arrested in traffic stops and reach out to Hispanics to assure them that the department is there to also protect them.

Arpaio has denied the racial profiling allegations and has claimed that allowing a court monitor would mean that every policy decision would have to be cleared through an observer and would nullify his authority. DOJ officials told a lawyer for Arpaio on April 3 that the lawman’s refusal of a court-appointed monitor was a deal-breaker that would end settlement negotiations and result in a federal lawsuit.

The “notice of intent to file civil action” came Wednesday from Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez in a letter to an Arpaio lawyer.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Reusable Grocery Bag Carried Nasty Norovirus, Scientists Say

Oregon public health officials have traced a nasty outbreak of norovirus infections in a group of soccer players to an unlikely source: a reusable grocery bag contaminated with what some experts are calling “the perfect pathogens.”

The incident is raising questions, once again, about the cleanliness of the portable shopping bags that many consumers use to avoid the paper vs. plastic impact on the environment.

“We wash our clothes when they’re dirty; we should wash our bags, too,” said Kimberly K. Repp, an epidemiologist with the Washington County Department of Health and Human Services in Hillsboro, Ore. Her work is published this week in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

— Hat tip: JD

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Teaching Muslim Children Jihad and Jew-Hatred in Toronto

The living, ignoble tradition of teaching jihad and Islamic Jew-hatred to Muslim children

A complaint filed by Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center has prompted an investigation of the East End Madrassah, an Islamic school which operates out of David and Mary Thomson Collegiate Institute, a public high school in Toronto. As reported by the National Post, East End Madrassah’s level 8 curriculum, posted on its website, was found to contain invocations for jihad warfare and Islamic Jew-hatred.

What was not discussed, almost axiomatically, is that these calls for jihad against non-Muslims, and rationalizations for Muslim Jew-hatred, were drawn, in appropriate context, from the Koran, and Sunna (the hadith, the Muslim prophet Muhammad’s words and deeds, and sira, the earliest pious Muslim biographies of Muhammad), Islam’s most important, sacralized canonical sources. This glaring omission—failing to identify, let alone elaborate upon, the canonical Islamic references often plainly cited in the “offending” curricular materials—is entirely consistent with the coverage of similar stories in recent years, for example from New York City, and Fairfax, Virginia, in the US, and indeed virtually all mainstream reportage on the education of Muslim children attending Islamic schools in the West.

Just as predictably, representatives of the Jewish community reacted with shock and indignation that their delusion of a Canadian cultural relativist paradise had been momentarily shattered. Avi Benlolo, President and CEO of the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, opined

To think that this is happening right here in Canada, in our backyards, in our own country where we promote tolerance, diversity, understanding, human rights, and bringing those types of concepts over the from the ancient world if you will, its just unbelievable.

David Spiro, Greater Toronto Co-Chair of The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, in a 5/7/12 press release, added…

— Hat tip: TV

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Austrian Imperial Underwear Sold Off

A fan of Austrian royalty has paid 6,250 for a pair of underpants once worn by the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph at the annual Imperial auction in the Vienna Dorotheum auction house. The underpants were specially designed for the Kaiser to be worn while riding.

Franz Joseph was Emperor of Austria from 1848 until his death in 1916. He is known for keeping the Austrian Empire together during times of political hardship.

Also sold at the same time was underwear that had been especially ordered by the country’s beloved Empress Elisabeth “Sisi”, but it fetched less — just over 3,000 — because she had never worn it.

Although Elisabeth had a limited influence on Austrian politics, she became a historical icon. The Empress is now thought to have been a non-conformist who abhorred conventional court protocol, as well as a free spirit who valued an individual sense of freedom above anything else.

Following the suicide of her son, Rudolf, she withdrew from public life. Her murder by an anarchist in Geneva, Switzerland in 1898 ended the life of a woman who has since become known as an enigmatic and tragic figure.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali Wins Axel Springer Award

Former Dutch MP and anti-Islam campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali is to be awarded the Axel Springer award on Thursday, according to press reports. The award is presented by the Axel Springer Academy for Journalism, named after German journalist and media magnate Axel Springer, who died in 1985. It is being given to Hirsi Ali in honour of her ‘uncompromising fight for the rights of Muslim women’.

Hirsi Ali currently lives in New York with her husband, the Scottish historian Niall Ferguson, and baby son.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Belgium: Waterloo Battle Site Gets a Facelift

Almost 200 years after the French cavalry charge at Waterloo, bulldozers rolled into action Wednesday to spruce up the memorial site of the battle that humbled Napoleon. Where cannon balls once thundered across fields, construction workers began breaking down walls in a project that will see the demolition of restaurants, stores and parking lots considered eyesores in the rural area south of Brussels.

The goal is to bring more beauty to what Victor Hugo once described as a “dreary plain,” the place where Prussian and English troops handed Napoleon’s army a decisive defeat on June 18, 1815. The centrepiece will remain the Lion Mound, a 40-metre (130-foot) tall cone of earth and grass topped by a lion statue that was erected in honour of victorious Prince William of Orange.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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British Jubilee Gibraltar Visit Annoys Spain

Spain told Britain it was “upset and uncomfortable” at a planned visit by Britain’s Prince Edward to the disputed territory of Gibraltar, the Spanish foreign ministry said Thursday. In talks with Britain’s ambassador in Madrid Giles Paxman, ministry official Santiago Cabanas “expressed how upset and uncomfortable the government is with the visit” by Edward and his wife Sophie Rhys-Jones from June 11-13, a statement said.

The visit is part of a summer of celebrations to mark the 60th year on the British throne of Edward’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, the British embassy in Madrid told AFP. It made no immediate direct reaction to Spain’s complaint.

Gibraltar, a largely self-governing enclave complete with British pubs and red telephone boxes nestled under a cliffside at the eastern neck of the Mediterranean, is a rare diplomatic sore point between London and Madrid.

Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht but has long argued that it should be returned to Spanish sovereignty. Britain refuses to renounce sovereignty against the wishes of Gibraltarians. The last British royal visit to Gibraltar was by Edward’s sister, Princess Anne, in 2009, which likewise annoyed Spain.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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British Schools Fail Our Children Say Eastern European Immigrants Who Would Rather Return Home Than Rely on the NHS

Eastern European immigrants complain that British schools are failing to challenge their children, a survey has found.

Some take trips home to see medical specialists because they regard the NHS as too slow to provide treatment.

The concerns of parents from Poland and other Eastern European countries were recorded in a paper published yesterday by the Government’s Economic and Social Research Council.

— Hat tip: JD

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Cowboy Hat Courier Nabbed in Norway

A smuggler travelling across Sweden’s western border recently baffled customs officials who found over 500 cowboy hats stashed in the back of his car along with a large quantity of booze and cigarettes.

“This is our largest seizure of cowboy hats,” said Morten Nystuen of the Kongsvinger customs to the Glomdalen.no news website. “We’ve had to confiscate clothes before, but never cowboy hats,” he told the paper.

The driver was reportedly a Polish man who was travelling across Sweden’s (wild) western border from Arviken towards Norway’s capital Oslo on Tuesday night.

When officials searched his car, they uncovered some 12,400 cigarettes, 20 kilograms of tobacco, 144 litres of beer and 32 litres of wine. And crammed in the back of the vehicle were 540 cowboy hats. The booty had a street value of 121,000 Norwegian kroner ($20,742).

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Disclosure of Romanian Pimping Ring in Helsinki Speaks of Arrival of Criminal Groups

Police in Helsinki report suspicions of several Romanian citizens pimping, as second Roma beggars’ camp is dismantled in Vantaa

Finland’s police are expecting the upcoming summer to be a busy one because of foreign criminal groups. “Their influence will certainly extend over the entire Southern Finland region”, says Detective Superintendent Petri Rainiala from the Helsinki Police Department. The groups have already begun to become active.

On Wednesday, the Helsinki police announced that they had rolled up a Romanian pimping ring. According to Rainiala, this was otherwise a very typical pimping case, but the fact that one of the Romanian women who were being pimped out is only 16 years old makes the crime aggravated. She has been taken into custody by social authorities. The arrests were made in Helsinki on Monday. By then the pimping ring had managed to operate for a few weeks. A total of three to six Romanian citizens have been suspected of pimping and aggravated human trafficking.

It has been predicted that as the summer is approaching, lots of people without accommodation are coming to Finland, for example Roma beggars. “This year it has been positive that no children have been spotted among the campers”, reports Chief Inspector Maarit Pikkarainen from the East Uusimaa Police Department. Pikkarainen believes that when police have started to evict unauthorised camps actively in Helsinki and Vantaa, it can be expected that the Roma will start looking for campsites in other municipalities in the region.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Ending on a Sour Note: How the World’s Top Stradivarius Dealer Misplayed

Dietmar Machold was the world’s most successful dealer of Stradivari instruments — and probably a fraud. Many instruments have disappeared, while creditors are demanding €100 million that is owed to them. Once a high society favorite who lived in a castle, Machold now awaits trial in a Vienna prison.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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France: UMP Parliamentary Elections Slogan ‘Choose France’

(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MAY 10 — After “The Strong France” of Nicolas Sarkozy, defeated at the presidential elections, the main party representing the right which has been ousted, the UMP, has chosen “Choisissons la France” let’s choose France as their slogan for the parliamentary elections on July 10 and 17, sources within the party have reported. The slogan seems to have been decided during a lunch at the National Assembly organized by the Secretary General of the UMP, Jean-Francois Cope’, and to which were present, among others, the Prime Minister Francois Fillon, the chairman of the Assembly, Bernard Accoyer and the Foreign Minister Alain Juppe’.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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France: Man ‘Killed Neighbour Over Dead Goldfish’

A man is being held by the police over suspicions he might have killed a 55-year-old neighbour in a village near Le Mans over an incident involving dead goldfish. Mario P., as he is called according to the daily Le Parisien, was being held in custody in the village of Bessé-sur-Braye, 55 km from Le Mans on Wednesday.

Mario P. was taken in for questioning after the body of 55-year-old neighbour Philippe Emery was discovered on Tuesday upside-down in a bin full of water. Emery’s head had been smashed and it is suspected he might have drowned.

Mario P. is suspected of killing the victim over an incident early February involving dead goldfish. Mario had lent the victim his goldfish while he was away. But the victim left Mario’s aquarium on his doorstep, where the fish died in the cold.

Since this incident, Mario P. and his neighbour had stopped speaking to one another. Mario P. was also seen washing his courtyard — which he shared with the victim — with bleach and plenty of water.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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German Drops Mayan Skull, Endangers Mankind

An ancient Mayan skull stolen from Tibet by Nazis — said to have magical powers to enable humanity to survive the December 2012 apocalypse — has been dropped by a lab assistant in eastern Germany, chipping its chin. The volcanic rock skull, named Quauthemoc, was dropped — or, more eerily, may have fallen of its own accord — during a photo-shoot at a laboratory in the small town of Glauchau, Saxony.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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How Right-Wing Extremists and Islamists Are the Same

Last weekend, Salafist Muslims and anti-Islam right-wingers faced off in Bonn, and 29 police officers were injured as a result. The two groups appear to be diametrically opposed, but a deeper look reveals they have a great deal in common. The totalitarian worldview has many manifestations.

Pro-NRW shares its Islamophobic views with many other right-wing extremist groups. “Since Sept. 11, 2001, it has become clear that anti-Semitism has been on the wane and Islamophobia has taken its place,” says Backes. Islamophobia is an ideological phenomenon that has taken place across Europe — in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Great Britain and elsewhere — and has become the core belief uniting right-wing groups.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Hungary Limits Boat Traffic on the River Danube

Hungary’s new law limiting the number of cargo barges allowed on the Danube has been in effect since the end of April to the annoyance of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.

The limit on cargo barges on the River Danube in Hungary has been in effect since the end of April with Hungary citing environmental reasons. Instead of nine barges in a pushing unit there must now be only four — and with less cargo onboard.

The law might have been put in place to prevent the excess of barge traffic being slowed down and stopped by the historically low water levels. In 2011, several “bottleneck” shallows prevented effective barge traffic, and the Hungarian stretch of the Danube was only navigable during 170-180 days per year. The limit of barges would allow the barges that remain to move more freely.

An EU agreement also directs Hungary to guarantee unrestricted navigability of the Danube for 300-310 days a year by 2014. The Austrian Chamber of Commerce has evaluated the Hungarian law, and say it is incomprehensible and counterproductive.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Michelle Bachmann Takes Swiss Citizenship

Fond of saying she’s proud to be American, former presidential contender Michelle Bachmann also frequently has spoken of her family’s Norwegian ancestry. Now the Republican lawmaker is touting new-found ties to Switzerland, after being granted dual citizenship, US media reported.

“Congresswoman Bachmann’s husband is of Swiss descent so she has been eligible for dual citizenship since they got married in 1978,” said her spokeswoman Becky Rogness said in a statement given to the Politico.com website and other US media.

The lawmaker from Minnesota, 55, who currently is running for re-election to the House of Representatives, reportedly in just the past several weeks went through the application process for Swiss citizenship, along with some other members of her family.

“Recently some of their children wanted to exercise their eligibility for dual citizenship so they went through the process as a family,” the spokeswoman said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Netherlands: ‘Crucial’ Van Gogh Watercolour Bought by Museum

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has bought the watercolour Pollard Willow by Vincent van Gogh. ‘This specific work was on the museum’s wish list as a major potential purchase, because it is one of the most representative watercolours from Van Gogh’s period in The Hague, and until now, there was a gap in our collection here,’ said museum director Axel Rüger.

The painting shows a path along a canal with a pollard willows. In the background are the buildings of the depot at the former Rijnspoor railway station. Van Gogh wrote about the painting in a letter to his brother Theo, describing it as ‘a sombre landscape’.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Norway: Kebab Chaos in Oslo as Hungry Punters Fight Over Free Food

Fighting broke out on the streets of Oslo on Wednesday, as hundreds of mostly young people gathered outside a new fast food restaurant promising free kebabs to its first customers.

Police said a number of people were lucky not to have been crushed when they were pushed to the ground in a stampede. Hungry Oslo dwellers assembled in front of the new Bislett Kebab House outlet in Prinsdal long before the advertised 5pm opening time, newspaper Dagbladet reports.

“They were planning to hand out free kebabs, but at 4.30pm we received reports of a chaotic situation. There were huge amounts of people arguing, yelling and fighting in the queue, with cars spread out all over the road,” Even Gjørstad of Oslo police told the paper.

Police said they had little option but to tell the restaurant’s owners to shut up shop for the evening since they were unable to control their unruly clientele.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Scotland: Ditched Helicopter Passengers Safe

The first passengers rescued from a helicopter that ditched in the North Sea have arrived at hospital.

Fourteen people — 12 passengers and two crew — were on board the aircraft when it came down 25 miles off the coast of Aberdeen shortly after midday.

The EC225 helicopter, operated by Bond Offshore, had been on its way from Aberdeen to the offshore Maersk Resilient rig and the Ensco 102 rig. Rig operator Conoco Phillips said the passengers were contractors on their way to support the drilling rigs.

Two of those on board worked for Halliburton and the others were from Ensco, Brundt and Stag, Conoco Phillips said. The companies could not be immediately contacted for comment.

A Bond spokesman said: “A low pressure oil warning light came on and the helicopter made a controlled descent and landed in the North Sea. It didn’t crash.”

The alarm was raised and a major rescue launched. Everyone on board was recovered from the sea and put in life rafts. They were then being flown back to Aberdeen for medical checks, although it is understood no-one was injured.

First Minister Alex Salmond said it was a “very concerning” time for the friends and family of the people on board the helicopter.

He said: “Thankfully it has been confirmed that all on board have been rescued and the indications are they will all be admitted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on a precautionary basis.

— Hat tip: Nick

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Switzerland: Angry Alpine Tour Guide Chopped Down Crosses

A mountain guide who vandalized three wooden crosses on the mountainside has been sentenced in court. Patrick Bussard, a mountain guide from Fribourg, sawed down three crosses in the Fribourg Alps between October 2009 and spring 2010 in protest against the Christian church imposing its symbols on the natural landscape, newspaper Tribune de Genève reported.

His lawyer, Jean Lob, has confirmed that he intends to appeal Bussard’s suspended 90-day fine. Bussard maintained that he had achieved his intended goal by bringing the matter to the public attention for debate.

However, lawyers for the prosecution were not convinced of his professed motives, looking instead at the fact that Bussard had gone through hard times. First, he had suffered a climbing accident for which he had to pay 50 percent of the costs, which in turn forced him to sell his cottage.

“He sought and found something to divert his resentment,” said Attorney General Fabien Gasser. The judge, Philippe Vallet, appeared to agree with the prosecutor’s logic, and queried why, if Bussard simply wanted to raise the debate, he had continued his cross-chopping activities after it had been made clear in the newspapers how much offence his original act had caused.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Too Easy to be Europeans When All is Well, Barroso

(AGI) Florence — “We need Europeans for all season. It is too easy to be Europeans when all is well, when the sun is shining”, as Eu Commission President Jose’ Manuel Barroso said on the occasion of the conference on the state of the Union in Florence. “The most dangerous of anti-European positions — he added — is pessimism. The real problem is not Euroscepticism, but the depressive and depressed attitude of Europeans. We must fight the intellectual fascination of pessimism, because it creates a counter-productive attitude. When things are well, it is all due to the politicians who often criticize, when things are wrong they blame Brussels. If this is the attitude — Barroso concluded — no wonder they say Europe is not very popular.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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‘Turbulence’ Warning as EU Marks 62nd Birthday

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Wednesday warned Europe faces “turbulence” and called for a “coalition of the willing” on growth as the European Union celebrated a tense 62nd birthday.

“The greater warmth, the greater insistence that (French president-elect Francois) Hollande puts on the issue of growth are welcomed by Italy. I think they can be reconciled with budget discipline,” Monti told reporters.

Hollande’s call, to adjust fiscal rules adopted this year to combat the eurozone debt crisis so they include more growth measures, has left Europe in disarray, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejecting any changes.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has echoed Germany’s refusal. There is also growing concern over the political confusion in Greece, where pro-austerity parties failed to win a majority in weekend elections, casting doubt on vital European Union and International Monetary Fund bailouts.

Monti was speaking at a conference in Florence with key EU officials ahead of informal talks between EU leaders on May 23 that will include Hollande as French president for the first time.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: 77 Years for Asian Sex Beasts… 50 More on the Loose

A GANG of sex fiends jailed for 77 years may have had another FIFTY members — who are still on the loose, it emerged yesterday.

Cops are set to swoop in the next few days on at least four men said to be involved in the abuse of girls as young as 13.

The gang in Heywood, near Rochdale, Greater Manchester, passed around teens for sex after plying them with booze.

And police are still trying to establish the identities of gang members known to the girls as Juicy, Mamma, Pino, Goofy, Manni and Arfan.

At least one is believed to have fled to Pakistan.

Yesterday Judge Gerald Clifton delivered a damning verdict on the nine convicted men, saying they were driven by “lust and greed”.

He said the white girls were targeted because they were not in the mainly Pakistani gang’s “community or religion”.

The judge said the victims were “raped callously, viciously and violently” — some driven around the area so they could be provided for “customers”.

He added: “This involved the grooming and sexual exploitation of several girls. Most of you were many years older than they were.

“They were going through a period in their lives full of difficulty and misery. One had left her parents’ home, another had been in care for years.

“You attracted them to your company with flattery, free food and alcohol.

“Some of you acted as you did to satiate your lust, some of you to make money. All of you treated them as though they were worthless and beyond respect.

“I believe that one of the factors that led to that was that they were not of your community or religion.

“Some of you raised the suggestion that this prosecution was triggered by racial factors — that is nonsense. What triggered this prosecution was your lust and greed.”

The judge said that the sentences passed would be the same for “white or Asian” men.

The oldest defendant, the 59-year-old ringleader who cannot be named, was banned from the court after calling the judge a “racist b*****d”.

He was sentenced in his absence to 19 years in prison.

The judge said he was an “unpleasant and hypocritical bully” who raped and trafficked a girl of 15 using threats of “violence and blackmail”.

Two others were also convicted on Tuesday of rape, as well as other child sex crimes.

The other six — all from Rochdale — were found guilty of crimes including sex assault, conspiracy and trafficking.

Abdul Aziz, 41, was jailed for nine years; Adil Khan, 42, eight years; Abdul Rauf, 43, six years; and Hamid Safi, 22, four years. Abdul Qayyum, 43, and Mohammed Amin, 44, were each caged for five years.

About 20 supporters of far-right groups, including the BNP and EDF, protested outside with signs yesterday.

‘This prosecution was the result of your lust and greed’ … Judge Gerald CliftonAlias Yousaf, solicitor for gang member Khan, later said his client would be appealing after claims that a member of the jury was communicating with a far-right group.

Last week BNP leader Nick Griffin tweeted that seven men had been convicted — before the jury gave their verdicts. Mr Yousaf said it “compromised” his client’s right to a fair trial.

Police have apologised to victims for delays in investigating the offences, which took place in 2008 and 2009. One girl made a complaint in 2008, but crown prosecutors failed to press charges. Yesterday, ex-MP Ann Cryer claimed that police at the time were “petrified of being called racist”.

She said: “This is a scandal. They reverted to the default of political correctness.”

The investigation which eventually led to prosecutions began in late 2010.

Its head, Det Insp Michael Sanderson, last night said of the 11-week trial: “These defendants have never shown the slightest bit of remorse.”

— Hat tip: Nick

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UK: Asian Sex Gang: Young Girls Betrayed by Our Fear of Racism

Vulnerable teenagers were abandoned to their abusers because of our society’s nervous respect for their ‘different’ culture.

Nine white men are found guilty of grooming young Asian girls, aged between 13 and 15, whom they picked up on the streets of London. The girls were lured with free fish and chips before being raped or pimped as prostitutes. One Asian girl from a children’s home was used for sex by 20 white men in one night. Police insist the crimes were not “racially motivated”.

Imagine if that story were true. Would you really believe that race was not a factor in those hateful crimes? Do you think that, despite conclusive DNA evidence from a girl raped by two men, the police would have hesitated to press charges because the suspects were white and it could make things a bit sensitive in the white community? Would the Crown Prosecution Service have refused to prosecute, allowing the child-sex ring to flourish for three more anguished years?

OK, now let’s try switching the ethnic identities round. Change the fish and chips to kebabs, London to Rochdale, white to Asian and vice versa and you have the case that ended yesterday at Liverpool Crown Court. Nine British Muslim men were jailed for a total of 77 years for rape and trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation. The whole case made for disturbing reading, but somehow it was the tiny, paralysing details that made it real. Like the fact that one of the convicted men, father-of-five Abdul Rauf, was a religious studies teacher at a local mosque. Rauf asked his 15-year-old victim if she had any younger friends, and drove some of the girls to meet other men, who had sex with them despite knowing they were under-age.

You will already have noticed a lot of embarrassed evasiveness about this disgusting case, particularly on the BBC. Turning a blind eye to appalling, illegal practices because “it’s their culture” is what has brought our country to this obscene pass. I have watched it unfolding since I did my teaching practice in 1982 in Southall, west London. I remember being encouraged to “teach the children their own culture” even as I found myself wondering why British Muslim girls couldn’t be taught the enlightened beliefs of the egalitarian land in which they lived.

When it comes to women’s rights, not all cultures are created equal, particularly those whose attitudes are frozen some time in the mid-14th century. But we weren’t allowed to say that.

— Hat tip: Nick

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UK: Child Sex Grooming: The Asian Question

by Paul Vallely

Special Report day one: As nine men are jailed for a total of 77 years for abusing young girls, what do we actually know about the cultural side of such crimes?

Outside Liverpool Crown Court a large group of protesters gathered as the trial began of the nine Asian men from Rochdale who have just been jailed for grooming underage girls for sex. The demonstrators carried printed banners that read: “Our Children Are Not Halal Meat”. Some had more improvised, handmade posters saying “Paedo scum”, “Lock ‘em up” and “Hang ‘em”. These were the combined pride of the British National Party, the English Defence League and a couple of other far-right groups — called the North West Infidels and the Combined Ex-Forces. They had been brought together by websites claiming there would be a media blackout of the trial of what they described as “Muslim paedophile grooming gangs” charged with “countless abhorrent sexually motivated charges against children and minors”. Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP and a Member of the European Parliament, was there to give a video interview for the BNP website. “The mass street grooming of young girls from the English community is only being carried out by Muslims. All the paedophile groomers in this particular sort of crime — on the street, in gangs — are Muslims. That’s the common denominator,” he explained fluently. “You only have to read the Koran or look at the Hadith — the expressions of what the Prophet did in his life- to see where Muslim paedophilia comes from,” he continued. “Because it’s religiously justified so long as it’s other people’s children and not their own.” This is pretty poisonous rhetoric. And the BNP website prefaces it with an atmospheric recording of the Muslim call to prayer. Some of the protest placards are written in cod Urdu script. The message is clear.

The overall statistics give the lie to such claims. Greater Manchester Police, in whose area the offences took place, has declared that 95 per cent of the men on its sex offenders register are white. Just five per cent are Asian. But things do look different when the focus is narrowed to crimes involving groups of men grooming girls on the street. In 18 child sexual exploitation trials since 1997 — in Derby, Leeds, Blackpool, Blackburn, Rotherham, Sheffield, Rochdale, Oldham and Birmingham — relating to the on-street grooming of girls aged 11 to 16 by two or more men, most of those convicted were of Pakistani heritage.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Defence Secretary Philip Hammond Announces U-Turn Over Carrier Fighter Jets

In an embarrassing about-turn, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond announces plans to acquire the jump jet version of the US-built F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, reverting back to an order originally made by the former Labour government.

The Coalition had made much political capital out of their decision, contained within 2010’s Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), to scrap Labour’s order and switch to the more capable, and less expensive, F-35C variant for the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers.

However, the Government has now been forced to switch back and order the original fighters in the face of “unacceptable cost growth and project delays”, according to the Defence Secretary.

Mr Hammond told the Commons the costs of fitting the necessary catapults and arrestor gear — “cats and traps” — had now more than doubled to £2 billion.

He also said delays to the F-35C programme meant they would have not been operational until 2023 — three years later than planned.

By abandoning the plan to fit “cats and traps” to one of the carriers while mothballing the other, he said it opened up the possibility that both new ships, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth, could eventually become operational.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: Harry Potter Manuscript on Show

J.K. Rowling’s manuscript for first Harry Potter novel to be exhibited at British Library.

The original manuscript of the first Harry Potter novel is going on show in a new exhibition a stone’s throw from the station where the teenage wizard caught the Hogwart’s Express. The work, including a scene from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone where the character catches a train from Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station in London, is part of an exhibition at the nearby British Library.

JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books have sold more than 450 million copies, been translated into 74 languages and have inspired a series of hit films. Her first post-Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy, will be published later this year.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: Mosque Rallies to Help Victims of Famine

An MP has visited one of the places of worship which rallied to his appeal to raise money for famine-struck Somalia. Jon Ashworth, Leicester South MP, received a £500 cheque from the Darus Salam Mosque, Highfields, Leicester, in front of about 100 worshippers. The money will be used towards the cost of a £3,000 ambulance. Last year, Mr Ashworth encouraged all places of worship to raise cash to help the humanitarian efforts. He said: “I am very pleased Darus Salam Mosque raised over £500 towards the cost of the ambulances for Somalia following my appeal to places of worship to raise funds for humanitarian efforts following the devastating famine in Somalia last year.” He said Leicester had close ties with Somalia so it was heartwarming so see such a good response. Nizan Chowdhury, a trustee and general secretary of the Darus Salam Trust, said: “Darus Salam Mosque was honoured to be able to assist in this crucial appeal. “The ambulances purchased will provide essential care to the citizens of Mogadishu.”

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Muslims, ‘Sex Gangs’ And White Working-Class Women

by Brendan O’Neill

If you want an insight into how cowardly public debate in Britain has become, look no further than the controversy over the Rochdale Asian sex gang. The discussion about the despicable crimes committed by these eight Pakistanis and one Afghani has revealed extraordinary levels of relativism and self-censorship in modern Britain. Indeed, it seems it is now virtually impossible to have a serious discussion about problematic cultural attitudes, because to do so would apparently offend minorities and, even worse, stir up the passions of the latently racist white masses. And so, in the name of protecting Muslim communities’ sensitivities and dampening down white working-class people’s alleged savagery, we keep quiet about certain things; we gag ourselves.

One of the most striking things about the Rochdale debate is its competitive scaremongering. It’s hard to know which side is worse: those who spread panic about the existence of sinister “networks” and “rings” of sex criminals and paedophiles across Britain, as if gangs like this exist everywhere, in every corner and community in the UK; or the coppers and commentators who stoke up fear about BNP thugs and ignorant white people who will apparently be provoked into violence if they so much as glimpse a headline containing the words “Asian sex gang”. One side wants us to view the existence of sex gangs like the one in Rochdale as commonplace in our allegedly misogynistic era; the other tries to convince us that ordinary people are a racist pogrom-in-the-making who must not be told that some Asians did some bad things.

Even the news reporting of the nine men’s crimes has been shot through with a scaremongering vibe. Using words like “ring” to describe the men’s gang and “trafficking” to describe their exploitation of young white women gives an impression of a super-evil, well-organised network of abusers. Such terminology, borrowed from the lexicon of feminist fearmongers, elevates the men’s depraved opportunism into a coherent, cult-like activity. We often see this today — small groups of no-marks with weird sexual habits being described as a “ring” or even an “international network”. This nurtures the nonsense notion that sects of paedophiles are widespread. Indeed, as the Deputy Children’s Commissioner Sue Berelowitz rather madly told the Today programme this morning, these networks exist “across every single ethnic and religious group, so there are victims and perpetrators across all ethnic and religious groups”. In short, “rings” of perverts are everywhere.

Part of the motivation behind this crazy claim is to try to attenuate the allegedly racist instincts of the white mob. They are second only to “paedo networks” in the list of people most feared by the Great and the Good. The reason Berelowitz and others insist, without evidence, that there are “networks of abusers” in “every single ethnic group” is because they are terrified of what the masses might do if they get the impression that something like the Rochdale sex crimes are an exclusively “Asian thing”. As one hack says, “Professional racists are keen to get their crowbars into cases such as this”, and so maybe the authorities should eschew words like “Asian” or “culture” when discussing this instance of grooming. It speaks volumes about the elite’s fear of white working-class communities that they feel more comfortable promoting the BS idea that all communities harbour networks of weirdos than they do grappling with what might be distinctive about the Rochadale gang.

The truth is that there is something specific going on here, something which is more prevalent among Asian communities, particularly Muslim ones, than among other communities. For a variety of reasons — mainly because the attitudes and behaviour of white working-class women are so profoundly at odds with the outlook of conservative Muslim communities — there is a tendency among many Muslims to look upon such women as inferior, as “sluts”. What’s more, in our era of multiculturalism, ethnic minorities are implicitly encouraged to distance themselves from their “host community” and even to view the host community’s culture as inferior to their own, as more shallow, hedonistic and consumer-orientated than their own authentic cultural lives. Mash these things together and it isn’t really surprising that there are some cut-off, conservative ethnic groups which now view young, white, possibly “fallen” women as unworthy and acquire a superiority complex over white “slags”. In Rochdale, certain individuals took that sense of cultural superiority in a terribly abusive direction.

[JP note: No reader comments allowed at this article — another feeble attempt to stifle debate.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Mohammed Shafiq: An Obsession With Racism That Left Vulnerable Girls at the Mercy of Sex Predators

As nine men are sentenced to a total of 77 years for running a child-sex ring, Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, accuses the Pakistani community of failing to challenge the abuse and urges police to not be frightened in addressing the issue.

Over recent years, there has been mounting evidence of this vile phenomenon, where groups of British Pakistanis deliberately target defenceless girls, often from care homes, by plying them with alcohol and gifts before systematically abusing them.

Yet too often, the authorities who should be protecting the young, like the police, social services and the courts, have failed to act against these predators because of hyper-sensitivity about race.

[…]

While the vast majority certainly do, as evidenced by the deluge of text messages and emails I have received in support of my work to highlight the problem of predator gangs, some community leaders appear to think it would be better if the whole issue were swept under the carpet.

They claim that by highlighting the scandal, I am doing the dirty work of Right-wing extremists such as the BNP —helping to taint Pakistanis with the smear of criminality.

But this is nonsense. The damage has been done by the criminal activity of the gangs themselves.

The truth is that we will win far more respect by challenging abuse, rather than colluding with its cover-up.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Outrage as Police Repeatedly Taser Terrified Alzheimer’s Sufferer in Front of His Wife Because He Didn’t Want to Go Into Care — Then Tie Him Up in His Living Room

Police shot Peter Russell with several Taser stun rounds, before manhandling him to the living room floor

His arms and legs were tied together and he was carried outside ‘like a bag of potatoes’ in full view of horrified neighbours

Two months later Mr Russell is still receiving psychiatric treatment in hospital and his wife Diane, 50, remains traumatised

Alzheimer’s Society says the incident illustrates a lack of understanding in society of dementia.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Press May Face Fines From New Watchdog if Codes of Conduct Are Broken, PCC Chief Warns

A new newspaper regulator should be able to force editors and publishers to pay compensation if they break codes of conduct, the head of the Press Complaints Commission said yesterday.

Lord Hunt said every newspaper owner should sign a contract with the new regulator. If they broke its code, the regulator would have the power to fine newspapers.

Speaking in central London, Lord Hunt said the media industry needed ‘independent, effective and robust’ self-regulation.

Comment by Mike in London:

If the new regulator is the Media Standards Trust then freedom of the press will be crushed and they’ll have full control over what can be published. This enquiry has been led by Common Purpose, an insidious Marxist institution masquerading as a charity, they also run the Media Standards Trust so you can see their interest in destroying the PCC and the obvious conflict of interest.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Rochdale Grooming Trial: Police Knew About Sex Abuse in 2002 But Failed to Act

Police and social workers failed to tackle the issue of Asian men grooming under-age white girls for up to a decade, the Daily Telegraph can reveal.

The mother of a girl who gave evidence in the trial of nine Asian men convicted of child sex offences has shown this newspaper evidence that suggests the authorities were aware of the abuse as long ago as 2002. An official report by a sexual health adviser, which was passed on to social workers and police in 2005, detailed the kidnap and rape of an underage girl in Rochdale, where the gang was operating, but the authorities failed to act. They have now been accused of ignoring evidence of the rapes because they were frightened of being accused of racism. The latest development came as the nine members of the gang were jailed for between four and 19 years as a judge told them they treated their victims as “worthless”. Some of the guilty men had tried to claim the police investigation was triggered by racism, as their victims were white, but Judge Gerald Clifton told them the prosecution was triggered by their “lust and greed”.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: The Conservative Party is Failing to Define and Promote Its Vision

by Roger Scruton

Roger Scruton is a writer and philospher.

When in office the Labour Party applies itself not only to the task of government, but also to the more long-term business of developing and advancing its vision of British society. It loses no opportunity to promote its supporters to positions of influence, and invents quangos and committees to replace the old-fashioned associations of volunteers to whom the Tory party would occasionally make appeal. These quangos and committees speak not for civil society but for a new class of professionals, usually paid by the state and committed to its expansion. The Labour Party also uses all avenues of patronage (including the honours system) to create a favourable establishment, and to persuade its followers that ‘the long march through the institutions’ will benefit them just as much as it benefits the Party. As Baroness Ashton discovered, you can start off as secretary to CND, and then leap from quango to quango to become European Commissioner for foreign affairs, provided you are a member of the Labour Party. All this has proceeded apace under New Labour, with results that are everywhere visible today — a damaged constitution, universities, schools and cultural institutions wedded to a kind of soft leftism, and a civil service that has internalised the belief that it is not there to govern Britain but to change it.

In the face of this we all breathed a sigh of relief when David Cameron became Prime Minister. We naturally hoped that the Conservative Party would take the opportunity not merely to arrest the quangofication of our country, but also to define and advance a real alternative to the left-liberal orthodoxies. We know that Conservatives are reluctant to think philosophically. As Edmund Burke taught us, philosophy is dangerous, since it tends to define politics in terms of long-term goals and ideals, to the detriment of the real work of government, which is the reconciliation of individual freedom and inherited order. Nevertheless, politics requires a foundation of beliefs, values and affections, and it is to those that the Tory party has in the past made appeal. It has defined itself as the Party of the nation, representing the national interest abroad and our inherited constitution at home. It has stood for free association against bureaucratic control, and for a thriving civil society protected by a constitution that acknowledges and reconciles the conflicting ambitions of its members. From this stance it is possible to derive a philosophy; but it is the stance, not the philosophy, that matters. And it is a stance that has been radically jeopardised by the coalition.

For the Liberal Democrats are not, and never have been, the Party of the nation. Their outlook is well represented by Nick Clegg, who describes himself as an internationalist, but who would be better described as a cosmopolitan nihilist. Thanks to his presence in government, the Conservative Party finds itself wedded to policies that do not merely involve massive interference in the values and beliefs of ordinary people but also require yet more hammer-blows against our frail constitution, already half in ruins from New Labour’s modernising zeal. In every area where conservatism has something important to say, and something yet more important to do, the Conservative Party now hesitates to endorse the instincts of those who voted for it. Conservative voters turn to UKIP only reluctantly, however, knowing that their real national loyalty is enshrined not in the words ‘United Kingdom’ but in the forbidden name of England.

Things would have been better had the Conservatives followed the precedent set by the Labour Party and turned their attention to the business of defining and promoting their vision, instead of improvising in response to the daily emergencies of office. We find ourselves in a country where, despite the prevailing conservative sentiments of voters, our institutions and establishment figures, our civil service and our universities, speak out only for the socialist orthodoxies. The new establishment represents not England or Britain but abstract ideas, such as multiculturalism, social inclusion and equality — all of which, on examination, are names for the State. Yet the Conservative Party takes no opportunity to begin the long, slow but necessary task of replacing that establishment with something more in keeping with the national spirit.

The fact is that the Tory Party has lost touch with its constituency, through ignoring the long-term standpoint that they share. I don’t doubt David Cameron’s sincerity or his underlying conservative instincts. But there is a case to answer, and he must answer it. How is it that a government dominated by the Conservative Party and with a Conservative Prime Minister devotes its energies to issues that are calculated to alienate its supporters, while failing to address the real matters that concern them?

[Reader comment by Patsy Sergeant on 10 May 2012 at about 0945 hrs.]

Mr. Scruton, I would like to say that reading your article is like sipping a fizzy bitter lemon through a straw, and slowly relishing both the bubbles and the acidity!

The first sentence is a blind (I think!) to lead in the unwary, in other words every word however small carries the same weight, and it should be read with that in mind — and then the meaning changes! It is not often that one can read and relish an article, enjoying every phrase, however small!

Of course what you have said is quite correct, and goodness knows how the present political situation is going to be sorted out, in this country. I put a comma after the ‘out’ of the previous sentence, because if anybody watched Michael Portillo’s Great Euro Crisis on BBC2 yesterday evening, it becomes obvious that the whole of Europe is in a similar or even worse state of ‘change’ if not actual insecurity. With that particular problem in mind, we do not need a politically immature senior minister, with little or no experience of government, trying his utmost to push us into closer commitment to the EU and the euro!

— Hat tip: JP

[Return to headlines]

UK: Teacher at Local Mosque Gets Six Years in Jail

Married father-of-five Abdul Rauf, 43, of Darley Road, Rochdale, was jailed for six years for conspiracy and six years, concurrently, for trafficking for sexual exploitation.

The religious studies teacher at a local mosque asked a 15-year-victim if she had any younger friends and would drive some of the girls to other men, who would use them for sex, despite knowing they were underage. Zarif Khan, in mitigation, told the judge Rauf’s fall from grace was “particularly significant”.

[JP note: Six years of prison da’wa.]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: The Horrific Consequences of the Islamophobia Witch-Hunt

by Melanie Phillips

So now we can see the outcome of the witch-hunt against ‘Islamophobia’. With the conviction yesterday of nine men for organised sexual crimes from rape to sex trafficking, the full horrific details of more than two decades of sexual violence against young, predominantly white girls living in children’s homes in the north of England have been revealed.

The gang lured an officially estimated 47 girls (the figure may well be higher) aged 12 to 16 with gifts, alcohol and drugs before passing them around to have sex ‘with several men a day, several times a week’ in flats, houses, cars, taxis and kebab shops. After phone calls inviting them to come and have sex with a girl, men would turn up to do so by the taxi-load. One 13 year-old was forced to have sex with 20 men in one night. Terrible as all this is in itself, there is far worse. For this monstrous abuse could all have been stopped years ago. The authorities had evidence this was going on as long ago as 1991. The question immediately arises: how on earth could a blind eye have been turned to all this by the social services departments under whose care these girls were living, as well as by the police to whom they went for help?

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Albania Gives EU Green Light on Organ Probe

Albania’s parliament has approved legislation granting the European Union permission to investigate claims that civilian captives from the 1998-99 Kosovo war were murdered by organ traffickers.

American prosecutor John Clint Williamson, who heads an EU investigation task force, described Thursday’s vote as “a strong statement of Albania’s commitment to accountability and the rule of law.”

A Council of Europe report by Swiss politician Dick Marty alleged that the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army ran detention centers on Albania’s border during neighboring Kosovo’s war for independence from Serbia. It says civilian captives, including Serbs, were killed there and their organs sold on the black market. Both Kosovo and Albania have denied those allegations.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

European Parliament for Euro-Mediterranean Free-Trade Zone

Arab Spring Commitment, Schulz; democracies first, Rinaldi

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, 10 MAY — After the Arab Spring revolutions, the European Union must push on the accelerator of a project for a Euro-Mediterranean free-trade area. The European Parliament reiterates its challenge in a report adopted today by a vast majority (479 in favour, 64 against, 40 abstentions). “The European Parliament”, the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz commented, “ will ensure that all business and foreign affair interests of the EU move forward hand in hand with the basic values of human rights, democracy and a free society.” Schulz is the President in office of the Union for the Mediterranean’s parliamentary assembly and emphasized that this report is “the final evidence of consistency and genuine commitment by the European Parliament to strengthen the cooperation between both sides of the Mediterranean.” According to the report’s rapporteur, Niccolo’ Rinaldi (Idv), “the economic and social deterioration” in the Arab Spring countries “might affect their first steps topwards democracy”, that is why it is necessary to translate the EU’s commitment into “free-trade agreements with the pioneers, especially Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.” According to the EU MPs, the European Union should also work on concrete actions for local SMEs, with the help of European financial institutions and the EIB, but also thanks to the “issuing of visas for students and entrepreneurs”, Rinaldi concluded.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Egypt: Italy-WFP Agreement for Food Supply

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MAY 10 — The Italian ambassador to Egypt, Claudio Pacifico, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP)’s representative in the country, Gianpietro Bordignon, are signing a deal in Cairo today for two and a half billion euros worth of food supplies, in support of Egypt’s food safety system.

The agreement, which has the financial backing of Italy’s development cooperation body, will see the WFP purchase 1,100 tonnes of refined white sugar on the international market and 1,000 tonnes of vegetable oil, which will be delivered to the Ministry of Resources and Internal Trade, which will in turn distribute the goods to around 600,000 people in Beni Suef, one of the Egyptian governorates with the lowest levels of food safety. “This scheme demonstrates not only the lengthy partnership between the Italian government and the WFP, but is also the expression of the special and deep relations that exist between Italy and Egypt,” said ambassador Pacifico. Italy remains at Egypt’s side during the transition, supporting its efforts towards sustainable socio-economic development and at the same time responding to its most urgent needs”.

Bordignon observed that WFP’s assisted food programme in Egyptian schools is financed mainly through an innovative debt swap mechanism put in place by the Egyptian and Italian governments, the first phase of which was completed in 2006. The second phase, which takes place in the governorates of Beni Suef, Minya and Fayoum, will take the total value of debt swap financing up to 15 million dollars, Bordignon explained, and is geared towards giving access to education to around 185,000 of the area’s poorest children and supporting 98,500 families through food safety support.

Egypt is the world’s leading importer of wheat, bringing in from abroad more than 50% of its domestic requirements, much of which is used in producing typical Egyptian bread, which benefits from government subsidies.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Tuaregs’ Ties With Libya Linked to Mali’s Crisis

Tuareg soldiers from Mali fought for Moammar Gadhafi in Libya until his regime ended in 2011. They returned to Mali and rejooined a long-standing rebellion against the government. Malians blame the crisis on Libya.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Israeli City Reportedly Bans Girls From Singing at Youth Conference

An Israeli newspaper says a central city has agreed to a request by an Orthodox religious group to ban girls from singing at a youth conference next week. The Haaretz daily reported Thursday that the Kfar Sava town council imposed the ban to respect the wishes of the Bnei Akiva religious youth group. Various youth movements are set to participate in the conference.

Strictly Orthodox Jewish men do not listen to women singing for reasons of religious modesty. Neither Bnei Akiva nor Kfar Sava officials could immediately be reached for comment.

There have been a series of incidents in recent months in which religious extremists have attempted to impose their beliefs on society, most notably a campaign for segregated bus lines. The drive has sparked outrage among Israel’s secular majority.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Behind Foiled Jet Plot, Stronger Saudi Ties

U.S.-Riyadh Intelligence-Sharing Is Seen at Post 9/11 Highs

U.S. and Saudi intelligence services are sharing security information and surveillance technology in their covert operations against Yemen’s branch of al Qaeda, according to people familiar with this cooperation, describing operations on a scale unimagined in the years of mutual blame for security failures surrounding the attacks of Sept. 11, 2011.

New details of the U.S.-Saudi cooperation have emerged in the days after reports that U.S. and foreign intelligence services had foiled a bid by Yemen’s Al Qaeda branch to bring down a U.S. jetliner. Officials familiar with the operation later confirmed that the plot was uncovered when a Saudi agent successfully infiltrated the Yemeni group, volunteered for the suicide mission, and then handed the alleged explosives and a trove of intelligence to Saudi intelligence.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

China, Russia Call for End to Syria Violence

China and Russia on Thursday urged all parties in Syria to “stop violence” after suicide attackers detonated massive bombs in Damascus during morning rush hour, killing at least 55 people. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government blamed the attacks — which also wounded nearly 400 people — on “terrorists”, while the opposition accused his regime of staging the bombings to threaten UN observers.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Iraq: Former Insurgent Stronghold Faces Challenges

Nine years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, predominantly Shiite Sadr City remains in a state of neglect. The recent discovery of oil seems unlikely to change things in Baghdad’s biggest slum.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Kuwait: Bill Proposed to Prevent ‘Female Judges’

Five lawmakers proposed amendments to the current law that governs judiciary work in Kuwait, which if implemented, will disqualify female citizens from being appointed as judges or prosecutors.

The draft law presented by MPs Khalid Al-Sultan, Ammar Al-Ajmi, Abdullatif Al-Omair, Nayef Al-Merdas, and Dr Mohammad Al-Kandari, includes an amendment to Article 19 of Law Number 23/1990. This is to change item (A) which states that a member must be ‘a Kuwaiti Muslim,’ and add the term ‘male’ to the statement.

An explanatory memorandum attached with the amendment proposal adds that “the aforementioned item in its current state might exclude women from assuming judicial posts; a much debated move from a religious standpoint.”

“In a bid to prevent any misjudgment that calls for nominating female citizens to judicial posts, this draft law clearly seeks to add a condition according to which only a Muslim male citizen qualifies to be appointed as a judge or prosecutor”, the memorandum reads.

— Hat tip: RR

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Lebanon: NGO Amel: Alert for Exploitation of Foreign Women

Alert for exploitation of foreign women, goal is preventing suicides

(ANSAmed) — ROME — Mistreated, enslaved, sometimes abused. According to estimates, very often, even every single week, some of them can’t take any more and decide to put an end to their life. They are so upset that they commit suicide. We are talking about foreign women workers who migrated to Lebanon in search of a job. They come from Ethiopia, from Bangladesh, from Philippines and from other countries. 200,000 women in total, of 13 different nationalities. They often are illegal immigrants; however, most times their identity documents are seized by their “masters”. The NGO Amel (“Amel means work in Arabic) tries to help them by supplying social, psychological and medical care. Zeina Mohanna is her organisation’s coordinator of the project for the defence of migrant women in Lebanon. These days, she is in Italy with a delegation of Egyptian, Jordanian and Lebanese social workers in order to study a system providing protection and assistance for migrants and enabling the fight against human trafficking in her country.

The NGO she works with is one of the major organizations in Lebanon and has obtained the status of consulting member of the United Nations (Ecosos). “Amel”, Mohanna told,” manages a wide network of healthcare points all over Lebanon’s territory, especially in the Valley of Beqaa, in southern Lebanon and in the suburbs of Beirut.” The NGO provides assistance also to refugees from Iraq and Sudan and, now, to approximately 12,000 Syrian evacuees. “Our goal is to support anyone who needs help, regardless of their religion or other things.” The phenomenon of suicide among foreign workers is of particular concern. Human Rights Watch had already exposed such phenomenon in 2008-2009. Physical and verbal abuse, impossible working hours, total prohibition to leave the house they work in, very low salaries, passport seizure are all common facts. “These women”, Mohanna continues, “access the country through a so-called sponsorship. They are registered under the sponsorship of their employer or someone else in the family. And then, their identity documents are automatically seized.” That’s when the sponsor becomes the person responsible for the worker’s actions.

“We are fighting in order to allow these women to enter Lebanon through a visa and a regular working permit. We want to prevent them from becoming the property of their employer.” The phenomenon is even enhanced by recruiting agencies. There are 520 of them all over the country, Mohanna specified. Only 160 of them are regularly registered in the syndicate and are, therefore, legal. All the other are completely unlawful and they often promise jobs that do not actually exist. Helping these women to get out of this situation is possible. “We are asking for them to be protected either by a specific law regulating their work and their rights or by ordinary labour legislation, just as any other worker.” An awareness-raising campaign is much needed. “Part of our work consists of raising awareness of both Lebanese citizens and migrant women, making them understand their rights and inviting them to ask for help to people who can support them.” Amel organised a help line for those who need social, psychological, medical and legal assistance. “We work with Caritas, Un ponte per.. and other organizations. This afternoon in Rome, Mohanna will take part in the conference “The Mediterranean, a sea of slaves”, organised by “Un ponte per..”, focusing on data and main issues related to immigration and exploitation of foreign workers in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

“We are here to learn best practices implemented in Italy and to study how to organise the “shelters” (reception centres for first aid of women needing assistance and subjected to mistreatment, e.n).

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Turkey: EU Tourists Tripled in 10 Years, Tourism Minister

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MAY 10 — In the last 10 years tourists coming from the EU into Turkey have almost tripled and today represent 54% of visitors in the country. The data was given in Brussels by Ertrugul Gunay, Turkey’s Tourism Minister, during a meeting at the European Parliament.

Gunay said that “with 31.4 million tourists, Turkey has in 2011 been the sixth destination worldwide and has increased its sector by 9.8%” A large portion of these tourists is made up of EU member state citizens, “who counted only 6.5 million in 2000 and are now 18 million”. The minister pointed out that the EU’s tourism “which is the third economy in the Union” has everything to gain from Turkey’s entrance to the EU, making it “more stable and dynamic”.

Gunay then expressed his “dissatisfaction” regarding the failed talks on instruction and culture, something he maintains is instead “crucial for effectively joining the EU” The minister concluded that Turkey’s entry in the EU “will no doubt bring benefits in several areas, economical, social and cultural”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Russian City Launches Bid to Become European Culture Capital

The Russian city of Perm launched its bid on Thursday to become the European Capital of Culture. The Kremlin is hoping the EU will open its competition to cities outside the EU post-2019. Perm also opened an office on Thursday in Brussels and aims to strengthen Russia-EU ties.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Russia Foils Plot to Attack 2014 Olympics

Russia’s security service has thwarted a plot to stage attacks during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, according to the country’s anti-terrorist committee. Moscow alleges that Chechen rebels were behind the plans. The National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK) in Russia said on Thursday it uncovered an attempt by Caucasus militants to carry out attacks on the southern city.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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WWII Victory Day Still Stirs Controversy in Latvia

Latvia’s large Russian minority gathered Wednesday to mark 67 years since Nazi Germany surrendered to the Soviet Union, in a commemoration still controversial in the Baltic state. Thousands of all ages converged on Riga’s Soviet Victory Monument to lay flowers while veterans proudly displayed their medals as pro-Russian political groups handed out leaflets, under the eye of a heavy police presence.

Known as “Victory Day” to Russians, May 9 remains a divisive date in Latvia. Ethnic Russians — comprising more than a quarter of the ex-Soviet state’s two million population — regard it as a celebration of the day Nazi forces surrendered to the Red Army in Berlin in 1945, according to Moscow time. But most ethnic Latvians see it as the start of a harsh 50-year Soviet occupation of their country.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Aeroflot Says to Keep Flying Superjet Despite Crash

Russia’s flag carrier Aeroflot said it would not ground its fleet of six Superjet 100 planes despite the crash of one of the jets during an exhibition flight in Indonesia with all aboard feared killed. “Aeroflot does not intend to stop operating the SSJ (Sukhoi Superjet 100) aircraft,” the company said in a statement released on its Twitter account. “All the SSJ undergo daily technical inspections and the flights are being performed according to schedule,” the statement said.

Aeroflot is one of only two companies alongside Armenia’s national carrier Armavia to fly Russia’s first post-Soviet jet airliner. It has placed an order for 30 aircraft as part of ongoing efforts to replace its last remaining Soviet-era jets.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Jihad Against America: Relations Remain Icy Between Pakistan and the US

Washington and Islamabad have barely been on speaking terms since US forces killed Osama bin Laden last year. But with American and NATO troops set to leave neighboring Afghanistan soon, nuclear-armed Pakistan has little motivation to improve relations. Hatred of the US is growing in the country.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Superjet 100 Disaster in Indonesia: Russia’s Prestige Project Crashes Into Volcano

In a nightmare for Russia’s aviation industry, the country’s new Superjet 100 has crashed into a mountainside during a demonstration flight in Indonesia. The disaster could jeopardize the ambitious Superjet project, which Moscow had hoped would be an aviation success story.

A Russian demonstration flight of a new Superjet 100 ended in tragedy Wednesday, when the plane crashed into the side of a dormant volcano in Indonesia, presumably killing the approximately 50 people on board.

The flight was meant to showcase the Sukhoi Superjet 100, a regional jet and the new star of the aviation industry in Russia, where news of the crash was met with disbelief.

The plane disappeared from radar some 20 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta on Wednesday. The area of the crash is known for its haze, and the crew had requested permission to lower their altitude to 6,000 feet (1,800 meters). The cause of the crash, though, remains unclear. In addition to the Russian crew, the passengers included airline representatives and a handful of journalists.

Rescue workers in helicopters spotted the wreckage on the rocky ridge atop Mount Salak on Thursday morning, and rescuers have since recovered the first bodies of the passengers. “We haven’t found survivors,” search and rescue team spokesman Gagah Prakoso told Indonesia’s Metro TV.

About 1,000 rescue workers are taking part in the recovery operation at the remote and rugged crash site on the 7,254-foot (2,200-meter) mountain, which is some 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Jakarta.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Japan: U.S. Senator Sounds Alarm About ‘Precarious’ Fukushima Situation, Warns of Imminent Release of Radiation

(NaturalNews) U.S. Senator Ron Wyden is, as far as Senators go, an honorable guy. I don’t agree with all his politics, but I actually used to live in his district in Oregon when he was a congressman (1981 — 1996), and I remember him standing out as someone who genuinely seemed to care about the People.

To my knowledge, Sen. Wyden is the only U.S. Senator who has actually visited the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility and warned the U.S. public about what he saw. And what did he see? A wrecked, half-collapsed building site littered with massive collections of nuclear fuel rods that now threaten the entire Northern hemisphere with a radiation apocalypse.[url]

When Wyden returned to the USA following the visit, he immediately issued an urgent warning, now reprinted on his website. In the watered-down language of political correctness, the warning is still quite strong. As his website says: [url]

“Wyden’s principal concern is the relocation of spent fuel rods currently being stored in unsound structures immediately adjacent to the ocean. He strongly urged the Ambassador to accept international help to prevent dangerous nuclear material from being released into the environment.”

He then went on to say, in his own words: (emphasis added)

“The scope of damage to the plants and to the surrounding area was far beyond what I expected and the scope of the challenges to the utility owner, the government of Japan, and to the people of the region are daunting. The precarious status of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear units and the risk presented by the enormous inventory of radioactive materials and spent fuel in the event of further earthquake threats should be of concern to all and a focus of greater international support and assistance.”

[…]

Virtually nothing is happening. All the governments involved (Japan and USA, primarily) are playing a ridiculously stupid game of pretending there is no problem. The Japanese government, for its part, has decided that instead of admitted to a radiation problem, it’s easier to just tell Japanese citizens they have a mental disorder if they’re concerned about radiation [url]

The U.S. government plays a similar mind game, raising the allowable levels of radiation exposure by thousands of times and then declaring Fukushima fallout to be suddenly safe! [url]

— Hat tip: JD

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South China Sea Dispute is Turning More Turbulent

The waters in the South China Sea are rougher than ever, stirred up by an escalating row over rival claims in the region. China appears more ready than ever to flex its muscle to wrestle control. The month-long dispute between China and the Philippines over claims in the South China Sea has risen to a new level of concern, with hints of economic retaliation and even war.

The two are among six nations — together with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam — that have staked claims to waters and island groups in the South China Sea. The area is home to heavy shipping lanes, rich fishing waters and, perhaps most important, a potential wealth of mineral resources.

Since early April, China and the Philippines have been locked in a standoff at the Scarborough Shoal where they have stationed non-military vessels. Both claim to own the string of small islands in the South China Sea, about 230 kilometers from the Philippines and more than 1,200 kilometers from China.

Beijing has suspended tourist travel to the Philippines and stiffened inspections on the country’s fruit. China is the single biggest buyer of Philippine bananas. Through government-controlled media, China has also warned of military intervention, if the dispute escalates any further.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Nigeria: ‘Boko Haram is a Symptom, Not a Disease’

The radical Islamic group Boko Haram has carried out a number of violent and deadly attacks in Nigeria. Their bombings and drive by shootings have killed hundreds of Nigerian civilians, both Christian and Muslim.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

South Sudan Accuses Khartoum of Truce-Breaking Airstrikes

South Sudan has claimed that Sudan has resumed a campaign of aerial bombardment against it, violating a UN cease-fire. Meanwhile, Khartoum accuses its neighbor of supporting rebels in the region of Darfur. A military spokesman for South Sudan alleged on Wednesday that Sudan had launched a series of air attacks, violating a UN cease-fire.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Sudanese Refugees Fear Return Home

Some of Cairo’s South Sudanese refugee population were hoping to return home. New hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan leave refugees disappointed and doubtful.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Denmark: Activists Work to Put More Control in Asylum Seekers’ Hands

A city community centre is the setting for a fight to improve conditions for asylum seekers and fundamentally change attitudes toward foreigners

In a quiet corner in the city district of Nørrebro is a community centre called the Trampoline House. Run by asylum seekers, activists and curious Danes, the house’s users are offered a range of activities and services, from counselling and language lessons to hairdressing and tailoring.

Independently funded, the house operates outside the official asylum system and actively seeks to influence asylum law. Over the past six weeks, The Copenhagen Post has kept track of its latest campaign to encourage the government to live up to its promises.

“Asylum seekers should have the opportunity to work and live outside asylum centres,” the government wrote in their common policy after their election win last September. “Failed asylum seekers are thereby built up as people and are given better skill sets.”

The current system, they argue, can turn some asylum seekers — many of whom have travelled thousands of miles fleeing conflict and persecution — into passive and isolated individuals with little control over their own lives. While this may only apply in extreme cases, the consensus among the asylum seekers, aid agencies, social workers and activists who spoke to The Copenhagen Post was that hundreds of lives would improve if asylum seekers were allowed to live and work outside centres, thus returning to them a degree of the control that they had long been deprived of.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Dozens of Migrants Stopped Off Sicily

Illegal crossings resume amid good weather

(ANSA) — Mazara del Vallo, May 10 — Italian police escorted 42 immigrants to shore off the coast of Sicily early Thursday. Travelling by fishing boat, the immigrants were all men and believed to be from nearby Tunisia. Police were verifying their identities at a local holding center. Migrant crossings from North Africa to southern Italy have recently resumed because of good weather.

Last week police stopped 79 Egyptian migrants and 15 suspected traffickers on a fishing boat off this same western Sicilian port.

— Hat tip: Insubria

[Return to headlines]

Italy: Police Arrest Two Tunisians Over Perugia Rampage

Perugia, 9 May (AKI) — Police have arrested two Tunisians after urban warfare broke out late Tuesday in the central city of Perugia between gangs of immigrants when a North African was stabbed.

The two Tunisians face charges of resisting arrest and of causing damage when gangs of immigrants ran amok, smashing store windows and overturning rubbish bins in one of Perugia’s main shopping streets.

Witnesses reported hearing several shots being fired around midnight, shortly before the North African was stabbed in the stomach and the head.

The North African has since been operated on in hospital, where his condition was described by doctors as serious.

Police said they were investigating a suspected feud between rival immigrant gangs that may have sparked the late-night rampage.

On the orders of local magistrates, police in Perugia earlier on Tuesday arrested seven Albanian suspects following a year-long probe that investigators say smashed a major drugs and prostitution racket in the city.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

[Return to headlines]

Spain: Madrid Begins Denying Health Cards to Illegal Migrants

Region takes measure just 10 days after central government announcement of policy change

Order criticized by patient associations, such as AIDS advocacy group Seisida

Half-a-million illegal migrants stand to lose health coverage

The Madrid regional government has ordered its officials not to hand out health cards to migrants who cannot prove they are legal residents of Spain. In an administrative order dated May 4, the Madrid government began restricting illegal migrants from accessing medical services just 10 days after the central government issued a decree proposing changes to Spain’s free-treatment-for-all policy as part of a series of budget cut measures.

The order has already been criticized by patient associations, such as the AIDS advocacy group Seisida. According to the internal document, which was given to EL PAÍS, any migrant who cannot present a residency card will be denied free healthcare. Beforehand, migrants only had to show that they were registered on municipal rolls in order to apply for a health card.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

Spain: Charity is the Only Medicine, PP Tells Foreign Residents

Health Minister informs illegal immigrants they will have to rely on NGOs for medical aid

Illegal immigrants who require medical assistance will have to rely on charity from now on — or, to use politically correct language, on “partnerships with non-profit groups.” That was the solution proposed by Health Minister Ana Mato and the ruling Popular Party’s health spokesman, José Ignacio Echániz, shortly after announcing that foreigners without residency papers will no longer have access to free state health care and prescription medicines.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

UK: Lesbian PCSO ‘Fondled Colleague’s Breasts and Groped Male Officers During String of Sexual Assaults’

A lesbian police community support officer sexually assaulted five colleagues, fondling one woman’s breasts and groping a male officer in his patrol car, a court heard yesterday.

Sylvia Cooper, 45, subjected officers of both genders to a string of unwanted sexual advances, persistently touching their genitals and slapping their bottoms, it is alleged.

Sylvia Cooper, 45, is accused of attacking male and female officers between 2009 and 2010 when she worked as a PCSO with West Midlands Police

Court heard Cooper had such a lecherous reputation colleagues deliberately changed their shifts to avoid coming into contact with her.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

Microsoft Returning Windows to ‘The Digital Dark Ages’?

The biggest lawsuit in Microsoft’s history dominated the 90s, when the company battled accusations that it was stifling browser competition. Rival Netscape couldn’t survive, but the Windows giant was ultimately forced to strip Internet Explorer from its operating system in a landmark ruling. That conflict may be brewing up again.

Mozilla, the developer group behind the popular Firefox browser, argued Wednesday night that Firefox is being banned from certain versions of Windows 8, the forthcoming tablet-centric OS from Microsoft — returning Windows users to the dark ages before competition.

“The upcoming release of Windows … and Microsoft’s browser practices regarding Windows 8 Metro signal an unwelcome return to the digital dark ages where users and developers didn’t have browser choices,” wrote Harvey Anderson, Mozilla general counsel, in a Wednesday night blog post.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

[Return to headlines]

	Financial Crisis
»	EU: Barroso and Schulz: Fiscal Treaty Will Not be Renegotiated
»	German Export Machine Defies Crisis, Picks Up Speed in March
»	‘Greece Out of Euro’ Calls Multiply in Germany
»	Greece: Composer Theodorakis Express Support for Syriza
»	Greek Leftists Seek Coalition Repealing Bailout
»	IMF Tells Germany to Do More for Eurozone
»	Italy: Monti Must Explain Meaning of “Human Consequences”, PDL
»	Italy: Integration Should Spur EU Growth, President Napolitano Says
»	Italy: Monti Wants Technology Investments Exempt From Deficit Rules
»	Juppé: Greek Situation ‘Extremely Worrying’
»	‘No Alternative’ To Austerity: German Leaders Threaten End to Greek Aid
»	Portugal’s War on Corruption Still Lacking: Report
»	South African Unemployment Rate Rises to 25.2%
»	Spain to Force Banks to Raise Bad-Loan Provisions
»	Spanish 10-Year Bond Yields Spike Above 6.0%
»	UK: This Omnishambles is No Joke
	USA
»	Adam Yauch Was a Muslim Hero
»	Al Qaeda Colon Bomb Forces Universal Airport Colonscopies
»	Backlash Against Muslims? Then Why Are Their Numbers Growing?
»	Black Conservatives Should be Listened to
»	DuPage Nixes Mosque Plan Near West Chicago
»	Islam-Offending US Teacher Forced to Apologise
»	Pfizer and Merck Under Investigation for Colluding With Obama Administration on Health Care Overhaul
»	Second Victim Dies in Beating of Elderly Couple, As Suspect Could Face More Charges
»	SpaceX Shows Off Manned Dragon Capsule at Space Expo
»	The Global Climate Change Initiative, More Waste of Taxpayer Dollars
»	The Most Dangerous Man in the World
»	Time to Terminate Big Wind Subsidies
»	US Ready to Bet $60 Million on 3D Printing
	Europe and the EU
»	‘Anonymous’ Hackers Expose Norway Rivals
»	Belgian Beer Triumphs on Export Markets
»	Cardinal Bagnasco Unhappy With Low Turnout in Local Polls
»	Child Sex Ring Jailed in Britain
»	David Cameron: Euro Needs Single Government
»	Denmark: Breivik Show Will Go on
»	Denmark: Teen Arrested in Folkets Park Assaults
»	Denmark: Roskilde to Rock All Year Round
»	EU Leaders Should be Like Putin, Says Romanian FM
»	Europe Has Reached a Watershed Moment and Leaders Need to Refocus
»	France: 93 % of Muslims Voted for Hollande
»	Germany: Cop Suspended for Radical Islamist Beliefs
»	German Government Forced to Hand Over Secret Documents That Exposed Euro Flaws — Before They Became a Reality
»	Huge Satellite Envisat is Dead in Space
»	Islam Seminar at Mackintosh Hall in Gibraltar
»	Italy: Four Ciarelli Clan Members Held Over Pescara Fan Murder
»	Italy: Police Raid World’s Oldest Bank
»	Italy: Ex-Fiat Workers Vent Anger in Front of Tax Office
»	Italy: Law on False Accounting to Fight Corruption, Di Pietro
»	Italy: Senate Passes ‘Golden Share’ Bill Into Law
»	Italy: Tax Evasion Rife in Rural Bed and Breakfasts and Health Spas
»	Mini Mammoth Once Roamed Crete
»	Netherlands in Treaty With India for Healthcare Personnel
»	Norway: Bank Tells Customer: We Don’t Take Cash Anymore
»	Norway: Breivik ‘Whooped With Joy’ On Killing Spree
»	Polish President Asks Ukraine to Repeal Outdated Laws
»	Stakelbeck on Terror Show: A Conversation With Geert Wilders
»	UK: ‘Targeted Because They Were Not Part of Your Community or Religion’: Judge Blasts Sex Grooming Gang ‘Driven by Lust and Greed’ As They Are Jailed for Total of 77 Years
»	UK: 9 Men Sentenced for Rape of 631 Teenagers Over 5 Years
»	UK: Bournemouth Councillor Suspends Herself After EDL Twitter Comment
»	UK: Daughter of Widow, 94, Tells How She Tried to Save Herself From Yob as £5,000 Reward is Offered for Arrest
»	UK: Drug-Dealing Armed Robber Might Escape Deportation; ‘it Would Violate His Human Rights’
»	UK: For Queen and Country Muslims Go the Extra Mile
»	UK: Grooming Offences Committed Mostly by Asian Men, Says Ex-Barnado’s Chief
»	UK: Keith Vaz Says Child Sex Ring Case ‘Not Race Issue’
»	UK: Live: Nine Men Sentenced for Sex Abuse of Young Girls in Rochdale
»	UK: Muslim Council Condemns Shocking Sexual Abuse
»	UK: Manchester Sex Trafficking Case ‘Not About Race’, Say Police. Do They Expect US to Believe That?
»	UK: Pensioner Fights Off Sword-Wielding Robber With Pen He Was Using for Sudoku Puzzle
»	UK: Rochdale Grooming Trial: Split Views on Race Issue
»	UK: Rochdale Grooming Trial: Police Accused of Failing to Investigate Paedophile Gang for Fear Appearing Racist
»	UK: Two Not Charged in Rochdale Grooming Gang Case: One Already in Jail, The Other ‘A Victim’ Herself
»	UK: The Truth About ‘Asian Sex Gangs’
»	UK: The End of the Media Mogul?
»	US Self-Defence Guru Tim Larkin Barred From Britain
»	Wave of Violence in Germany Over Party’s Use of Anti-Muslim Cartoons
»	World’s Largest Telescope Eyes Swiss Funding
	Mediterranean Union
»	Energy: EU Aims at New Partnership With South Med States
	North Africa
»	Egyptians Choose S Arabia Over Turkey as Model: Poll
»	Morocco: ISESCO Condemns Holy Quran Burning by American Pastor
»	Morocco: Optimism After Election Hollande
»	What the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt Wants
	Middle East
»	Bomber in Al Qaeda Plot Was ‘Double Agent, ‘ Say US Reports
»	Iraq Demo Over ‘Anti-Islam’ Magazine Turns Violent
»	Kuwait: ‘Prince of the Believers’ Gets 10 Years Jail Term
»	Saudi Arabia: World’s First Underwater Mosque Built in KSA
»	Saudi Arabia: Breast Cancer Battle Starts by Breaking Taboos
»	Turkey Tired of ‘Government Controlled’ Media
»	Turkey: Ankara’s Nightmare, Post-Assad Partition of Syria
	Russia
»	Chess Greats Duel in Moscow in Echo of Soviet Epic
»	Russian Police Detains Opposition Activists on Victory Day
»	Russian Parliament Confirms Medvedev as PM
»	Superjet: Russia’s Great Aviation Hope
	Caucasus
»	Azerbaijan: Singing Its Own Praises: Azerbaijan’s Eurovision P.R. Blitz
	South Asia
»	Bangladesh Teacher Arrested Over Burns on Pupils’ Legs
»	Indian Court Further Delays Marines’ Hearing
»	Indonesia: Islamists Warn ‘Satanic’ Lady Gaga
»	Malaysia Police Hold Five Over Dutch Boy Kidnapping
»	Pakistan: Slain Adnkronos Reporter to be Honoured in Washington
	Far East
»	Philippines: Imelda Marcos: The “Poor” Widow of Dictator Among the Richest Politicians in the Country
»	The Worrying Truth About the Chinese Economy — Part II
	Sub-Saharan Africa
»	South African Police Seize $6.8 Mln Assets From Rhino Poachers
	Immigration
»	EU Judges to Consider Qatada Case
»	House Votes to Stop Obama Immigration Lawsuits
»	Italy: North African’s Stabbing Sparks Rampage in Perugia
»	Netherlands: Iraqi Asylum Seekers Set Up Camp in Protest at Rejection
»	Out of Bulgaria and Romania: Wave of Immigrants Overwhelms German System
	Culture Wars
»	Beastie Boy Adam Yauch: Not Just a Celebrity Activist
»	Obama Tells ABC News Same-Sex Marriage Should be Legal
»	Obama ‘Evolves’ To Support of Gay Marriage
»	UK: Why Liberals Turn a Blind Eye to the ‘Grooming’ of Girls
»	World-Weary Swiss Seniors Seek Suicide Help
	General
»	Electronics of the Future May Thrive on Bacteria
»	How Telerobotics Could Help Humanity Explore Space
»	Is Einstein’s Greatest Work All Wrong-Because He Didn’t Go Far Enough?
»	Mission to Mars: Why Russia & US Should Tag Team Red Planet
»	Mysterious Blob Filmed in the Deep — And No-One Can Work Out What it Could be
»	Psychopaths Have Different Brains to Normal People — and Current ‘Therapies’ For Killers May be Useless

EU: Barroso and Schulz: Fiscal Treaty Will Not be Renegotiated

Asked by German broadcaster WDR for a one-word answer on whether the fiscal treaty will be renegotiated, EU commission and parliament chiefs Jose Barroso and Martin Schulz both said “No”. Changing the fiscal treaty featured high in the new French president’s election campaign — though details always remained unclear.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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German Export Machine Defies Crisis, Picks Up Speed in March

Although recession has engulfed their main markets in Europe, German firms in March exported more than ever before in a single month. With imports similarly at a record high, Europe’s biggest economy helps others, too.

In March, German companies sold goods worth 98.9 billion euros ($128.5 billion) abroad — the highest volume of exports since first records were taken in 1950, the German Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, said Wednesday. The previous German export record had been set in March 2011, Destatis added, which had now been surpassed by 0.7 percent.

Compared with inflation and seasonally adjusted February figures, exports rose by 0.9 percent, supporting analysts’ assumptions that Germany might avoid a technical recession, which is two consecutive quarters of contraction.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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‘Greece Out of Euro’ Calls Multiply in Germany

German politicians have called for Greece to leave the eurozone and return to the Drachma, as the country fails to form a government following Sunday’s election in which mainstream parties were punished for EU austerity measures.

“We should make Greece the offer to leave the eurozone in an orderly fashion, without leaving the European Union,” said Klaus-Peter Willsch, budgetary expert for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.

He told Wednesday’s business daily Handelsblatt it was not up to the Germans to tell the Greeks how to live, but the election results indicated that the Greeks were not willing to make the effort required to make their country competitive. “The dogma that no country can leave the eurozone has already caused too much political damage in Europe,” he said.

He was joined by the deputy chairman of the CDU’s parliamentary faction, Michael Meister, who told the paper that although it was not the aim of EU partners to throw Greece out of the common currency, “it is clear that if the new Greek government, contrary to expectations, does not keep to the contracts, it will have to accept the consequences already announced.”

Frank Schäffler, a finance expert from the CDU’s coalition partner the Free Democratic Party, also said he was open to a possible exit of the Greeks from the eurozone. He told the Handelsblatt that although the Greeks must be given time to sort themselves out, “one must be prepared.”

He said dozens of private studies had been carried out into the possibility. “The government should now, at the very latest, draw up a plan B,” he told the paper.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Greece: Composer Theodorakis Express Support for Syriza

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 9 — The renowned composer Mikis Theodorakis last night expressed his support for Syriza and the efforts of its leader, Alexis Tsipras, “to form a government that will terminate the memorandum and will seek to recover our country’s national sovereignty”. He was speaking after a meeting with Tsipras, Manolis Glezos MP and constitutional law expert Yiorgos Kassimatis. Theodorakis called on all “patriots” and “creative Greeks” to assist in bringing Greece to self-sufficiency, progress and rebirth.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Greek Leftists Seek Coalition Repealing Bailout

The party charged with the task of forming Greece’s new government has said it will scrap international bailout agreements if it can form a government. But whether they will achieve the latter is unclear. The leader of Greece’s left-wing party Syriza, Alexis Tsipras, said Tuesday that he would reject all EU and IMF-backed austerity measures should his party succeed in forming a coalition, after Greece’s general election launched the country into fresh political turmoil.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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IMF Tells Germany to Do More for Eurozone

Germany’s economy is doing well in its recovery, but the country should be more “active” in helping the rest of the eurozone cope with the crisis, the International Monetary Fund has said.

“As the euro area’s largest economy, Germany can play a pivotal role in addressing the challenges posed by the crisis. Articulating more clearly the Economic and Monetary Union’s shared vision of an appropriate post-crisis architecture will help in restoring market confidence,” the Washington-based body said in a country report published on Tuesday (8 May).

As exports are picking up again, “the conditions are in place in Germany for a domestic demand-led recovery,” driven by consumption and investment.

The IMF also said that the EU’s economic powerhouse should allow for its workers to get higher wages. This is in line with France and other southern countries’ criticism about Germany’s well-performing economy: That it keeps its wages low to boost production and exports, at the expense of less “competitive” euro-states.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy: Monti Must Explain Meaning of “Human Consequences”, PDL

(AGI) Rome — Premier Mario Monti must explain the meaning of his words and to whom he was referring when he spoke about “human consequences” of the crisis yesterday, as asked by 42 Pdl parliament members in a parliamentary inquiry. “It is a moral and political duty, for Cabinet President Mario Monti, to expplain clearly what he meant when he spoke about ‘human consequences’ on May 8 2012, with a clear reference to the chain of suicides, and to whom he was referring if not to the Pdl party when he specified: ‘those who brought economy to this state’“, the 42 parliamentary members wrote. Among the signers there are the deputy president of the Pdl group at the Lower House, Maurizio Bianconi, the former ministers Renato Brunetta, Maria Stella Gelmini, Giorgia Meloni and the deputies Viviana Beccalossi, Pietro Laffranco, Michele Scandroglio and Marcello De Angelis.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Integration Should Spur EU Growth, President Napolitano Says

‘Must not be confined to consolidation and stability’

(ANSA) — Florence, May 9 — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday called for fiscal integration among EU economies that would aim to bolster growth.

“Integration cannot be confined to…fiscal consolidation and financial stabilization. It must seek to promote convergence between the economies and prospects for renewed, stronger and sustainable growth on a European scale,” he said at the conference ‘The State of the Union’ in Florence. Italy has upped its push for growth measures in the eurozone after Socialist candidate Francois Hollande won France’s presidential elections, the parties that passed austerity measures in Greece were hit at the ballot box in the vote there and left-wing and grassroots parties made big gains in Italy.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Monti Wants Technology Investments Exempt From Deficit Rules

Premier says move would be compatible with fiscal discipline

(ANSA) — Florence, May 9 — Italian Premier Mario Monti continued his drive to get the European Union to do more to promote growth on Wednesday when he suggested exempting some technology investments from budget-deficit calculations.

Italy, like many countries hit by the eurozone debt crisis, is suffering the effects of austerity after Monti’s emergency government of technocrats passed a tough package of tax hikes and spending cuts in December.

The former European commissioner, who replaced Silvio Berlusconi as premier in November, is now seeking to put growth at the top of both the domestic and European agendas.

He proposed that “investments in broadband and the digital agenda” should be encouraged by leaving them out, for three years, of the calculations for the Fiscal Compact that European leaders recently signed in order to protect the euro.

Monti added that there would “nothing evasive” in this for budget discipline. The premier, who recently said Italy would come close to hitting its target of balancing the budget next year, also applauded the importance French president-elect Francois Hollande has given to promoting economic growth. “The greater warmth, the greater insistence that Hollande puts on the issue of growth is welcomed by Italy,” he said. “I think this can be reconciled with budget discipline”.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Juppé: Greek Situation ‘Extremely Worrying’

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said Wednesday that the situation in Greece was “extremely worrying” after elections punished mainstream parties backing an EU-IMF bailout package.

“The situation is extremely difficult, extremely tense. The result of the elections showed a very strong reversal for the two governing parties and an increase of extremes, so it is extremely worrying,” he told Europe 1 radio.

Greece is facing a political impasse after the vote Sunday pushed out the parties accepting an EU-IMF bailout package that included harsh austerity measures.

After the conservative New Democracy party failed to form a government Monday, the task has fallen to radical left-wing party Syriza — whose leader, Alexis Tsipras, said Tuesday the vote had “clearly nullified” Greece’s loan agreement.

“The questioning of the treaties that were painstakingly negotiated … risks sparking turbulence that will be difficult to control,” Juppé said.

Juppe was to attend his final cabinet session as foreign minister later Wednesday after President Nicolas Sarkozy was ousted by Socialist François Hollande in France’s election on Sunday. Hollande has vowed to renegotiate the EU’s fiscal pact to put emphasis on economic growth as well as austerity but is facing fierce resistance from Germany.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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‘No Alternative’ To Austerity: German Leaders Threaten End to Greek Aid

The Greek left-wing politician tasked with forming a new government after the country’s parliamentary elections has called the Greek bailout agreement invalid. Several German leaders responded Wednesday by demanding that Greece stick to the negotiated austerity measures if it wants to receive future international financial aid.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Portugal’s War on Corruption Still Lacking: Report

Portugal’s efforts to crack down on corruption as it grapples with deep recession are being hindered by a lack of political will and poor coordination, according to a report published Monday.

The study drawn up under the auspices of the Portuguese arm of global anti-corruption group Transparency International paints a picture of widespread graft and impunity which has undermined public confidence.

“Poor coordination between various agencies, lack of specialised judicial enforcement authorities and a lack of political will to adopt a coherent strategy against corruption are the main flaws in Portugal’s anti-corruption efforts,” said National Integrity System assessment, the first on Portugal.

Transparency rates Portugal as the 18th most corrupt country in Europe and 32nd in the world, and the report said the results from the survey were worse than expected for a developed and industrialised country within the EU.

The report also pointed to the risks of corruption associated with the current austerity measures aimed at pulling Portugal out of its deep economic malaise.

The rush to undertake such policies as privatisations “can hide very shady deals”, it said, while warning that budget cuts in the justice and public administration sectors could made public officials and judges “more susceptible to pressures or bribes”.

The government is slashing spending and raising taxes to meet the terms of its 78 billion-euro ($104 billion) bailout agreed with the EU and International Monetary Fund a year ago. But the austerity has plunged the country into a deep recession.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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South African Unemployment Rate Rises to 25.2%

South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 25.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 from 23.9 percent in the previous quarter, official data showed on Tuesday.

The unemployment rate jumps to 33.8 percent if the number of disenchanted are factored in, while informal estimates put unemployment as high as 40 percent.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Spain to Force Banks to Raise Bad-Loan Provisions

Spain’s government on Friday will force banks to boost their financial cushion against risky property assets, an official said, as Madrid struggled to soothe international worries. “There will be new provisions” against property-related assets demanded in a package of banking sector measures to be issued on Friday, an economy ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday, without giving further details.

The extra money set aside against risky loans and seized real estate linked to the distressed property sector could amount to 35 billion euros ($45 billion), said business daily Cinco Dias. That figure comes in addition to the 53.8 billion euros in provisions already demanded in a reform announced in February.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Spanish 10-Year Bond Yields Spike Above 6.0%

The interest rate on Spain’s benchmark 10-year bonds soared above 6.0 percent on Wednesday, a borrowing rate widely believed to be unsustainable for the crisis-hit Spanish government.

Shortly after mid-day yields on the secondary market were 6.028 percent, up sharply from 5.817 at Tuesday’s close, as investors worried over the possible fallout of the crisis in Greece where anti-austerity parties made huge gains in general elections on Sunday. The yield on Germany’s benchmark bonds meanwhile fell to a record low level of 1.521 percent.

“The extreme fragility of the political landscape in Greece and the increasing likelihood that the next loan installment from Europe and the IMF will be blocked means risk aversion will dominate the markets,” BNP Paribas analysts said in a note.

Investors are flocking to the safety of German sovereign debt amid talk of Greece reneging on commitments to international creditors agreed in return for rescue loans and a debt write-off earlier this year.

Italian bond yields, which had eased from danger levels in recent months, jumped to 5.578 percent, up from 5.441 percent on Tuesday. French benchmark yields rose to 2.888 percent, up from 2.804 percent. “The chance of Greece leaving the eurozone risks putting the very idea of Europe into question on the markets,” said analysts at brokerage Aurel BGC.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: This Omnishambles is No Joke

by Martin Bright

[…]

We are staring into the political abyss and we think it is mildly amusing to talk in terms of an omnishambles. But this is no joke. At the heart of government, as we contemplate the consequences of the double dip recession and rising interest rates, there is an ideas vacuum. The coalition’s best minds, Steve Hilton and Richard Reeves, have announced their departure for the Unites States, which is where European intellectuals fled during the 1930s.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Adam Yauch Was a Muslim Hero

The Beastie Boy was about more than his “right to party” — he spoke out against Islamaphobia before the term existed.

Brooklyn, NY – In 1998, the Beastie Boys walked up to the VMA mics in matching utilitarian grey outfits, Ad-Rock sneering at the cameras as if to imply it was about time. Behind him, Mike D and MCA (whose birth name was Adam Yauch) followed in single-file, not particularly cheery, stiff — as if walking to the gallows. After a brief round of thank you’s from Mike D, Yauch approached the mic in front of the screaming crowd, and assumed a solemn tone. He began, “I think it was a real mistake that the US decided to fire missiles into the Middle East. I think it’s very important that the US look into non-violent means of resolving conflicts.” Applause from the crowd mixed with a few loud heckles. Yauch attempted to calm the crowd and explain what he had meant, knowing full well his message needed to be concise. A month earlier he was booed at a show in the heartland of the United States for saying the same thing.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Al Qaeda Colon Bomb Forces Universal Airport Colonscopies

Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t President Obama say that he had decimated Al Qaeda? Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t President Obama kill Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda Yemen head Anwar al Awlaki? So what’s with the news that the CIA just foiled an Al Qaeda bomb plot in Yemen to blow up a US airplane over One World Trade Center with a non metallic bomb inserted inside the colon of an Al Qaeda suicide bomber? Why is our national defense beginning to sound like a scene from “Get Him to the Greek” with Jonah Hill clenching his buttocks to protect Russell Brand’s heroin?

If you mow your lawn and cut off the tops of the weeds the weeds will always come back. Unless you get down on your hands and knees with your $2 weeder and pull out the roots of the weeds the weeds will always come back. The root of the Al Qaeda bomb plot is the Koran which states “Make War on the Christians, Jews and Infidels, all non Muslims, and I will reward you with 72 virgins, 80,000 servants each, eternal paradise with Allah, crystal clear streams and endless wine with no side effects.” (Koran Chapter 9:5, 29-30, 111, Chapter 56, Hadith.)

Was the scene inside the situation room during the raid on Osama bin Laden President Obama’s version of “Mission Accomplished?” Sigmund Freud said that a person’s personality is determined by the age of 5. President Obama is the son of a Muslim father. President Obama went to elementary school in the world’s most populous Muslim nation Indonesia. President Obama stood in Cairo and said “Islam is a great religion.” How can we expect a Muslim President to protect us from nuclear armed Muslim Pakistan or to stop Muslim Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons to attack US within the coming months while he is busy rallying support for the ground zero mosque? How is your puppy going to feel with a fiber optic camera on a tube passed through her anus every time she wants to travel?

[JP note: If this is parody, it is too close to the bone for comfort.]

— Hat tip: JP

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Backlash Against Muslims? Then Why Are Their Numbers Growing?

Jonathan S. Tobin

Most of the mainstream media still takes it as a given that there is an ongoing and brutal post-9/11 backlash against Muslims in America that fuels discrimination against followers of Islam. The fact that there is virtually no evidence for this assertion and much empirical data to argue for the opposite conclusion has not prevented liberals and radicals masquerading as the representatives of American Muslims to continue to claim the existence of a backlash. As we’ve previously noted, FBI hate crime statistics consistently show attacks on Muslims are rare and constitute a fraction of the far more prevalent bias crimes committed against Jews. Nor has the relative paucity of Muslim villains in popular culture or the reflexive support for Islam on the part of American leaders debunked the backlash myth.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Black Conservatives Should be Listened to

Lloyd Marcus, Professor Walter Williams, Dr. Thomas Sowell

On May 02, 2012, one of America’s bravest warriors spoke out against the tyranny of the liberal Democrat establishment.

No, he’s not one of our brave military warriors fighting against our enemies in the world of terrorism or the scarred fighting fields of Afghanistan instead, he is fighting the stubbornness of his fellow black Americans in an attempt to wake them up to the fact that the liberal Democrats in America are using them to make themselves look like saviors while burying them deeper in the dregs of indebtedness and abject or hopeless poverty.

That brave warrior is Lloyd Marcus, a black conservative, and he spoke out against liberal Democrat tyranny in an article titled “The ultimate appeal to persuade fellow blacks to stop voting Democrat” on May 02, 2012 online, in the freedom and democracy loving Canada Free Press (CanadaFreePress.com) which touts in its masthead, “Because without America there is no Free World.”

— Hat tip: JD

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DuPage Nixes Mosque Plan Near West Chicago

A plan to transform a house near West Chicago into a mosque has been rejected by the DuPage County Board. The board voted 15-3 against granting Islamic Center of Western Suburbs the conditional-use permit it needs to use the home at 28W774 Army Trail Road as a religious institution.

— Hat tip: JP

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Islam-Offending US Teacher Forced to Apologise

Saudi students in US protest anti-Islam remarks by female American teacher

A female university teacher in the United States had to apologise to her Saudi students for offending Islam after they protested her behaviour to the management, Saudi newspapers reported on Tuesday. The students went straight to the teacher’s direct manager and complained that she had placed anti-Islamic pictures with abusive remarks in their books. They threatened that in case no action was taken, they would go to the chairman of the University of Central Arkansas in the southern state of America. “We went into the office of the manager of the institute where we study and submitted a protest…we told her that if she does not take action against the teacher, we will go to the head of the university,” Saudi student Ahmed bin Daheem Al Hajour said, quoted by the Saudi Ajel newspaper. The manager did take action as promised and forced that teacher to apologise to us by sending messages to each of us on our Facebook pages…. she even removed her son’s picture from her Facebook page and replaced it with the flag of Saudi Arabia.”

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Pfizer and Merck Under Investigation for Colluding With Obama Administration on Health Care Overhaul

(NaturalNews) Most Americans have no idea what truly went on behind closed doors during the crafting and illegitimate passing of Obamacare, also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But a congressional investigation currently underway is seeking to unearth the dirty details, including how drug giants like Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. greased the financial wheels to make sure their pharmaceuticals received preferential treatment as part of the health care overhaul.

As reported by Bloomberg, Republicans from the House Energy and Commerce Committee have been toiling for roughly a year now to obtain key documents, emails and other pertinent information exposing the truth about Big Pharma’s role in the creation of Obamacare. But to date, neither the Obama White House nor Big Pharma has cooperated in any significant way in releasing any of this information, according to the committee.

“This has been like pulling teeth, trying to get information,” said Congressman Michael Burgess (R-Tex.), to Bloomberg. Besides Pfizer and Merck, drug companies Amgen Inc., Abbott Laboratories and AstraZeneca are also being pressed by Rep. Burgess and his allies for information, as are industry lobbyists, lawyers, and several doctor and hospital groups.

What is it they hope to find? To start, it is already clear that Big Pharma agreed to provide price discounts on drugs in exchange for their being covered as part of Obamacare. But other secret deals between Obama and the drug industry were likely made as well, and Rep. Burgess wants to know what those were and under what terms they were negotiated.

— Hat tip: JD

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Second Victim Dies in Beating of Elderly Couple, As Suspect Could Face More Charges

An Oklahoma man suspected in a brutal home invasion — already facing a murder charge for allegedly killing an elderly woman — could face additional charges after the death last week of her husband, a D-Day veteran.

Bob Strait, a 90-year-old Tulsa resident, died on Friday, and a medical examiner is determining his cause of death, News On 6 reports.

He was injured March 13 when, police say, Tyrone Woodfork, 20, entered the house and attacked, allegedly beating and sexually assaulted Strait’s 85-year-old wife, Nancy Strait, who died two days later. The couple had been married for 65 years.

Woodfork was arrested a day after the incident when he was spotted driving around in Strait’s vehicle, a Tulsa Police Department spokesman told FoxNews.com.

Woodfork was booked into the Tulsa County Jail on March 15 and is being held on charges of first degree murder, first degree burglary, armed robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon.

Bob Strait was a World War II paratrooper who took part in the D-Day invasion as part of the 101st Airborne Division, where he was awarded a Bronze Star, News On 6 reports.

— Hat tip: Takuan Seiyo

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SpaceX Shows Off Manned Dragon Capsule at Space Expo

As private spaceflight company SpaceX puts the finishing touches on the interior of its prototype crewed capsule, the firm brought a life-size model of the vehicle to display here at the first annual Spacecraft Technology Expo.

The design of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule recently passed a series of key reviews, during which a group of NASA engineers and former space shuttle astronauts tested how well they could maneuver inside the spacecraft. The NASA team practiced entering and exiting Dragon under normal and emergency scenarios, and they also evaluated the layout of the vehicle’s controls and instruments.

“This milestone demonstrated the layout of the crew cabin supports critical tasks,” SpaceX Commercial Crew Development Manager Garrett Reisman said in a statement. “It also demonstrated the Dragon interior has been designed to maximize the ability of the seven-member crew to do their job as effectively as possible.”

SpaceX let attendees of the expo — which runs from May 8-10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center — see what the NASA evaluators saw. The company displayed the test version of Dragon at a special exhibit called the “Human Spaceflight Park,” which includes full-size and scaled models of various other rockets and spacecraft, including XCOR Aerospace’s suborbital Lynx space plane.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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The Global Climate Change Initiative, More Waste of Taxpayer Dollars

President Obama signed on September 22, 2010 the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, elevating foreign development assistance to a national priority status involving development, diplomacy, and national security.

According to Richard K. Lattanzio, analyst in Environmental Policy, the Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI) aims to “foster low-carbon growth, promote sustainable and resilient societies, and reduce emissions from deforestation and land degradation.” (Congressional Research Service)

GCCI is actually three programs, adaptation assistance, clean energy assistance, and sustainable landscapes. The total budget request for FY 2013 is $769.5 million. It may seem like a rounding error when compared with the trillions spent in the past four years, but it is significant.

— Hat tip: JD

[Return to headlines]

The Most Dangerous Man in the World

Ed Note: This is a speech I first gave to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 1996, just four years after the UN’s Earth Summit in Rio. At the time I gave this address there were strong indications that Maurice Strong could be chosen as the next UN Secretary General. It didn’t happen, but that didn’t diminish his influence over the body. In fact, In 1996 all roads in the UN led to Maurice Strong. This speech represented the first time that the CPAC audience and most conservatives had ever heard of the radical agenda of the environmental movement. It was probably the first time the term Sustainable Development was ever heard by a conservative audience. In fact, at the time I gave this speech, environmentalism was the most popular and most powerful movement in the world. Yet, here, 15 years before “Climategate” I was revealing the very root of what was to become the “Climate Change” movement and its drive to destroy the industrial West. By the way, tapes of this speech became the most popular of any ever produced by the American Policy Center and continues to be one of our best sellers. TD

[…]

So, when Maurice Strong speaks of Man’s consumption of meat, the use of air conditioning, or the ownership of suburban housing, can there be any doubt what he plans for the future? Can there be any doubt where he intends to take the United Nations once he’s Secretary General?

Maybe this will make it clearer. In yet another interview, Maurice Strong said, “It is not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation states, however powerful.” That’s the Constitutional sovereignty of the United States he is talking about. And what does he plan to do about it?

You may have heard recent reports that the United Nations is floating the ideas for global taxation to fund the UN’s activities. There has been a lot of whining that the UN can’t live on its members’ contributions and that sound economics demand that it find an independent way to sustain itself. The media is reporting these taxation ideas as just possibilities. But the plan is very well along toward implementation, and Maurice Strong is the driving force behind it.

[…]

But there’s more — Maurice Strong, the man who will soon rule the United Nations’ empire, the man who will control the UN’s army and its massive income and will be unelected by any of us — wants to write a novel.

During an interview for “West” magazine, Strong mused about the plot of his novel. It reveals much about how the man thinks.

According to Strong’s book idea, each year, world leaders would meet in Switzerland for an economic forum. These leaders would decide that the only way the planet could survive would be for the rich nations to voluntarily agree to reduce consumption. Strong goes on to explain that, in his novel, the rich countries do not sign such agreements, so the world leaders decide the only way to save the planet is to bring down industrialized societies.

They create a secret society and place its members in strategic government positions and at the helm of critical financial institutions. Then at meetings of the forum in Switzerland, mercenaries are hired to hold the world leaders hostage while the members of the secret society proceed to crash the world’s economy by jamming the gears of the commodity and stock markets preventing any of the world’s markets from closing.

Within hours, “the rich countries…” Strong stopped the story and flicked his fingers as if he were tossing a cigarette butt. — gone.

— Hat tip: JD

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Time to Terminate Big Wind Subsidies

Unprecedented! As bills to extend seemingly perpetual wind energy subsidies were again introduced by industry lobbyists late last year, taxpayers finally decided they’d had enough.

Informed and inspired by a loose but growing national coalition of groups opposed to more giveaways with no scientifically proven net benefits, thousands of citizens called their senators and representatives—and rounded up enough Nay votes to run four different bills aground. For once, democracy worked.

A shocked American Wind Energy Association and its allies began even more aggressive recruiting of well-connected Democrat and Republican political operatives and cosponsors—and introducing more proposals like HR 3307 to extend the Production Tax Credit (PTC). Parallel efforts were launched in state legislatures, to maintain mandates, subsidies, feed-in tariffs, renewable energy credits, and other “temporary” ratepayer and taxpayer obligations.

To confront the growing onslaught of wind industry pressure and propaganda, citizens should understand the fundamental facts about wind energy. Here are some of the top reasons for opposing further handouts:

Energy 101. It is impossible to have wind turbines without fossil fuels, especially natural gas. Turbines average only 30% of their “rated capacity”— and less than 5% on the hottest and coldest days, when electricity is needed most. They produce excessive electricity when it is least needed, and electricity cannot be stored for later use. Hydrocarbon-fired backup generators must run constantly, to fill the gap and avoid brownouts, blackouts, and grid destabilization due to constant surges and falloffs in electricity to the grid. Wind turbines frequently draw electricity from the grid, to keep blades turning when the wind is not blowing, reduce strain on turbine gears, and prevent icing during periods of winter calm.

— Hat tip: JD

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US Ready to Bet $60 Million on 3D Printing

Today’s 3D printers can already create robots and artificial body parts layer by layer based on computer designs. But the U.S. government has much bigger plans for the futuristic technology — it wants to reshape American manufacturing by offering up to $60 million for a new 3D printing institute.

Unlike traditional factories, 3D printing technology offers the flexibility of tweaking digital designs on the fly and then rapidly “printing” the physical object on demand. The new Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute would harness 3D printing as the first of up to 16 centers dedicated to U.S. manufacturing innovation — part of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation announced by President Obama on March 9.

“This pilot Institute will serve as a technical center of excellence, providing the innovation infrastructure to support manufacturing enterprises of all sizes and ensure that the U.S. manufacturing sector is a key pillar in an enduring and thriving economy,” according to the Air Force Research Laboratory’s solicitation issued yesterday (May 8).

The Department of Defense has taken the official lead on the 3D printing effort, but civilian agencies such as the Department of Energy have also promised funding. Any university or research institute that eventually hosts the new institute is expected to match the taxpayer contribution for a possible total budget of $120 million.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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‘Anonymous’ Hackers Expose Norway Rivals

Norwegian police have confirmed the arrests of two suspected hackers after members of the Anonymous collective revealed the identities of a group of young people believed to be behind a spate of recent attacks on major websites. According to internet activists Anonymous Norway, the so-called distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks were perpetrated by a group calling itself DotNet

[ers.

Among the organizations targeted by the hackers were security police service PST, DnB bank, a range of IT news websites, and national lottery firm Norsk Tipping. The National Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) on Wednesday revealed it had arrested two suspects, an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old, in connection with attacks carried out in recent weeks.

The crimes of which they are suspected carry a maximum sentence of six years, NCIS said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Belgian Beer Triumphs on Export Markets

Belgian beer exports rose to 11 million hectolitres last year. Belgian beer is in increasing demand abroad and its special ales in particular that are doing well.

The Federation of Belgian Brewers reports that Belgian beer exports surged by 4.7% last year. In money terms the increase was even more impressive, but exact figures are not yet available.

78% of Belgian beer exports go to other EU countries, especially neighbouring countries. Exports beyond the EU have risen by 17%. It’s especially the Japanese — up a thumping 73.5% — and the Americans — plus 16.7% — that have fallen for Belgian beer.

The lion’s share of Belgian beer exports consists of lager, but the increase is most pronounced among special beers. Grimbergen, Affligem and the Trappist beers Westvleteren, Orval and Chimay posted impressive increases in their export figures.

Leuven-based AB InBev is responsible for half of all Belgium’s beer exports. AB InBev markets popular brands including the Stella Artois lager, the Hoegaarden white beer and abbey beer Leffe.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Cardinal Bagnasco Unhappy With Low Turnout in Local Polls

(AGI) Vatican City — Following local elections in Italy, Cardinal Bagnasco said he hopes everybody can make serious contributions. Asked by reporters to comment on the results of local elections in several Italian cities on Sunday and Monday, the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, said he hopes “everybody, without distinction, can make serious and constructive contributions to help deal with the problems that are already being seriously addressed by the government and the parliament”. Bagnasco went on to say that “the government will take into account the results of the vote”. Pending the final results, he said that “the first element to be considered is the lower turnout which is evidence of indifference to the dynamics of politics and parties”. Referring to the low turnout, Bagnasco added: “We can’t be pleased, because voting is a fundamental expression of democracy”.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Child Sex Ring Jailed in Britain

A group of nine men of Pakistani and Afghan origin were sentenced to jail Thursday for grooming white British schoolgirls for sex, using drink and drugs.

The men, aged between 22 and 59, were convicted Wednesday of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children under the age of 16, and other offences.

Passing sentence at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England, judge Gerald Clifton gave them prison terms ranging from four to 19 years. Some of the girls were as young as 13 at the time.

“All of you treated them as though they were worthless and beyond any respect,” Clifton told the defendants. “One of the factors leading to that was the fact that they were not part of your community or religion. “Some of you, when arrested, said it was triggered by race. “That is nonsense. What triggered this prosecution was your lust and greed.”

The abuse took place in the market town of Rochdale outside Manchester in northwest England.

Eight members of the gang were of Pakistani ethnic origin. They included taxi drivers, a takeaway worker and a religious studies teacher. Some were married fathers. The other gang member was a 22-year-old Afghan illegal immigrant who will be deported once he has served his four-year sentence for conspiracy and trafficking.

Clifton said the group had been “grooming and sexually exploiting” several young girls.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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David Cameron: Euro Needs Single Government

British Prime Minister David Cameron told the Daily Mail newspaper that a successful eurozone requires a single government “There’s nowhere in the world that has a single currency without having more of a single government,” he said in Wednesday’s edition. The eurozone accounts for 40 percent of UK’s exports.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Denmark: Breivik Show Will Go on

Director says he has no plans to drop play based on mass muderer’s manifesto

Christian Lollike, the artistic director of Café Teatret, says he has no plans to drop the play based on the manifesto written by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.

A story that appeared Monday afternoon on the website of public broadcaster DR seemed to indicate that Lollike was planning to cancel his controversial piece, ‘Manifesto 2083’. Lollike seemed to indicate that he felt Breivik’s public trial had accomplished what the director had stated were the goals of the play, namely to “demystify” Breivik and allow the public to hear the murderer’s own voice.

But Lollike now says that was a misunderstanding on the part of DR.

“There is nothing to the story, and DR has promised to correct it. We are not cancelling the play,” Lollike told Berlingske newspaper. “The trial obviously affects us, but I will only drop the play if I cannot write anything interesting.”

‘Manifesto 2083’, which is scheduled to premiere in the autumn, was to be based on a manifesto Breivik published containing his personal philosophy, racist propaganda, diary entries and bomb-making instructions. Lollike said the point of using Breivik’s own material was an attempt to show how a seemingly normal man could turn into a uniform-wearing mass killer that killed 77 Norwegians last summer.

Lollike said he now plans to change the play to include material other than the manifesto. “All I can say right now is that the entire play will not be based on the manifesto,” Lollike told Politiken newspaper.

Lollike has been the subject of controversy since he announced in January that Café Teatre would stage a play about Breivik. He was accused of being insensitive to the victim’s families and giving a mass murderer attention in a crass effort to sell tickets.

Pia Kjaersgaard, the leader of Dansk Folkeparti, was one of the most vocal critics of the play and she remains opposed to its production. “It is insensitive and distasteful even to think about turning this unspeakable tragedy into a play,” said Kjaersgaard to DR Kultur.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Denmark: Teen Arrested in Folkets Park Assaults

Investigation continues in brutal attack on tourists

Copenhagen Police have arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with Saturday afternoon’s attack on three men and one woman in Nørrebro’s Folkets Park.

The 16-year-old appeared before a magistrate in city court and is now being detained in a secure location. He was not jailed due to his age.

One of the victims was stabbed three times and suffered a collapsed lung during the attack. The four victims were driving near Folkets Park when they were assaulted by a group of between 10 and 12 people.

The area around the park is known for its open-air drug trade and has a history of gangs and violence. The most notorious example is the stabbing murder of an Italian tourist in 2003. In mid-April of this year, shots were fired at a car as it drove down Stengade. The shots apparently came from inside Folkets Park. In a separate April incident, three Polish victims were assaulted with guns and knives on Kapelvej.

“This cannot continue,” Lau Thygesen of the Copenhagen Police told bt.dk. “There cannot be areas of Copenhagen that are unsafe for people to enter.”

Police say that the 16-year-old in custody is known in the area and that they are continuing to look for other suspects. The search is being hampered because the victims were so shaken by the attack. Even though the assault occurred in broad daylight, neighbours said they could not identify the perpetrators.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Denmark: Roskilde to Rock All Year Round

Long-planned rock museum clears final financial hurdles and will open in 2014

For many, the name Roskilde is synonymous with music and instantly brings to mind thoughts of four summer days of concerts and camping. In the near future, the tunes won’t be confined to just a few days in July, and fans will get the chance to enjoy rock music in Roskilde all year round. The long-planned Danmarks Rockmuseum recently received the final financial donations needed to start the project, which has been in the works for about ten years.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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EU Leaders Should be Like Putin, Says Romanian FM

“(Russian President) Putin is a very competent man, it would be good if leaders in Europe and our country were as competent,” Andrei Marga, Romania’s new foreign minister said during parliamentary hearings. The Liberal minister is set to clash with the country’s president on the issue, a staunch pro-Atlanticist.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Europe Has Reached a Watershed Moment and Leaders Need to Refocus

By now you will know the result of the French Presidential election — and it could be momentous. We are at a watershed moment — not only in France but across the whole of Europe.

By Roger Bootle

The common European money — the euro — is just the most important addition to this list. It wasn’t willed by the people but was rather thrust upon them by their leaders, without sufficient thought or preparation. They have created a monster which threatens to destroy the European economy — and with it, to threaten the world.

The euro is not the sum total of Europe’s ills. Things were going wrong before it was created. European leaders have been focused on utterly the wrong things. Their dreams have been about building unity when they should have been about creating excellence — even if that means diversity, which it has throughout most of our European history.

The fault lies primarily with Europe’s governments, which have been pursuing a chimera. They are big, but that does not make them effective. On the contrary, they are hopelessly ineffective at doing what governments have traditionally been there to do — defend citizens against internal and external danger.

Whether it is crime, immigration or defence, the modern European state is a pathetic failure. Big, dithery, expensive — but incompetent. That is the critique from the right. From the left now comes the complaint that the state is failing in its role as provider of “social security”, under the onslaught of globalisation and market pressures.

The decline of Europe is the result of the interaction of economics and politics. Economic prosperity has allowed indulgence in self-destructive habits: degenerate politics have perpetuated the sources of decline, as politicians have dished out various opiates to the people.

Across Europe the people are stirring. Will the elites respond? If not, we are we going to be faced with something very ugly. The combination of economic collapse, lack of faith in political institutions, xenophobia and racism could be deadly.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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France: 93 % of Muslims Voted for Hollande

Via La Vie:

According to a poll by OpinionWay and Fiducial for Le Figaro, 93% of Muslims voted for Hollande. 7% voted for Sarkozy. The poll was conducted May 6th among 1000 voters.

According to the polling agency, there are about 2 million Muslim voters. 59% of Muslims voted for Hollande in the first round. 23% voted for Jean-Luc Melenchon (Left Front) and 7% voted for François Bayrou (Democratic Movement). Sarkozy got 4% of the Muslim vote in the first round

— Hat tip: JP

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Germany: Cop Suspended for Radical Islamist Beliefs

Western German police chiefs have suspended an officer after they discovered he belonged to a branch of Salafist Muslim fundamentalists, and had been distributing radical religious material, it was reported on Tuesday.

“Disciplinary action is underway, with the aim to dismiss the man from the police force,” North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Ralf Jäger confirmed on Tuesday. It is the first time a policeman has been suspended for radical beliefs in Germany.

The head of the Essen police force told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that the suspended officer does not believe in the German constitution, which is required of police officers — rather he holds Islamic law to be paramount. When questioned by state security if he lived under Islamic law, he said only that “what he believed privately was his business.”

He has also admitted to having contact with radical Salafists who promote violence towards non-believers.

It also emerged that the 31-year-old, identified only as Ali K., had worked with the police intelligence service, spending six months in 2009 with a mobile observation team who were instructed to keep an eye on extremist activity.

Background checks showed that he was a Muslim but had no fundamentalist beliefs at that time.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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German Government Forced to Hand Over Secret Documents That Exposed Euro Flaws — Before They Became a Reality

The German government has been forced to hand over hitherto secret documents that expose the flaws of the euro — and the misgivings of European politicians — in the years before it became a reality.

Der Spiegel news magazine made a successful request for the release of the euro files at a time when the odds on Greece quitting the common currency within 18 months rise to 75 per cent and the chances of a complete shattering of the eurozone have never been higher.

Born in 1998 and introduced across the continent four years later, the euro was always a time bomb waiting to go off. Many of Helmut Kohl’s aides had huge doubts at the time — and pinpointed Italy as the weakest link.

— Hat tip: JD

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Huge Satellite Envisat is Dead in Space

The European Space Agency declared the death of its massive Earth-observing satellite Envisat today (May 9) after a month of mysterious silence from the school bus-size spacecraft.

Envisat is the world’s largest Earth-watching satellite for civilian use, with ESA officials touting its 10th anniversary in space earlier this year. The $2.9 billion satellite was originally designed to snap high-resolution photos of Earth for five years, but managed to last 10 years during its successful mission.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Islam Seminar at Mackintosh Hall in Gibraltar

GIBRALTAR (Spain), 17 Jumada Al-Thani/8 May (IINA)-Moroccan Workers Association last week organised a two-day seminar and exhibition on Islam at the Mackintosh Hall. It included speakers from UK and invitations to all other major religions in Gibraltar who were represented. There were numerous explanatory posters about Muslim culture, exhibits on display including the Koran, religious artifacts, symbols and clothing. Speaking to the Chronicle Mr. Sarsri said that “co-existence, tolerance and acceptance of others” is a central tenet of the Islamic religion. “In the past Moroccans working in Gibraltar did not have stability. Now as we become more and more integrated, into the local community with more naturalisations taking place, we thought it would be appropriate to do an event like this, so that people better understand what Islam is,” he declared. “We want to show the real nature of our religion and our true intentions,” he said.

“People of different faiths should have no problem with each other. Hate is a crime for us. While we believe that our route to salvation is the correct one we have no ill feeling toward people of other religion whatsoever,” he added.

[JP note: Liar.]

— Hat tip: JP

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Italy: Four Ciarelli Clan Members Held Over Pescara Fan Murder

(AGI) Pescara — Four Ciarelli clan nomads are being held over the murder of Pescara fan Domenico Rigante. The men were arrested by the flying squad last night, in connection with the killing 24 year old Domenico Rigante on 1st May. They are now in prison, accused of murder, attempted murder, carrying illegal weapons, breaking and entering and threatening behaviour. Three of the men are brothers, cousins of Ciarelli, the 24 year old who was arrested on Saturday for shooting Rigante, and a nephew.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Police Raid World’s Oldest Bank

Siena, 9 May (AKI) — Italian finance police on Wednesday raided the headquarters of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the world’s oldest bank, on suspicion of market manipulation related to its 2007 purchase of Banca Antonveneta.

Investigators believe Italy’s third-largest bank may have obstructed regulatory activity and misled financial markets when it bought the smaller lender from Spain’s Banco Santander, the Siena prosecutors office said in a statement.

The investigators are looking into how MPS financed its 9 billion-euro acquisition of Antonveneta.

The Tuscan bank said it will “assure the maximum collaboration” with investigators.

MPS was founded in 1472.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Ex-Fiat Workers Vent Anger in Front of Tax Office

Termini Imerese, 9 May (AKI) Hundreds of former Fiat workers demonstrated Wednesday in front a tax-collection office in a Sicilian town where the automaker shut a plant to protest against bleak work prospects.

The Equitalia tax office has become a sort of symbol for disgruntled Italians to vent their anger against a weak economy, high unemployment, and a government that raised taxes, reformed pensions and waged a war on tax cheats to put its finances on firmer footing.

The Termini Imerese assembly plant in northern Sicily where Fiat made its Lancia’s Ypsilon brand closed in December and employed around 1,400 workers.

Armed with a rifle and two pistols, a 54-year-old businessman in financial difficulty last week took 15 hostages at the Equitalia tax collection office in the city of Bergamo. He released all but one hostage and threatened to kill himself before being arrested after a six-hour standoff.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Law on False Accounting to Fight Corruption, Di Pietro

(AGI) Rome — “On false accounting we want to see whether the government and its parliament majority will pass from words to facts. We have always asked for the elimination of this shameful regulations”, as Italia dei Valori president Antonio Di Pietro said. Di Pietro is the first proposer of a law to bring back the offence of false accounting. “The offence of false accounting — he added — was one of the few regulations that still worked against corruption, before Berlusconi eliminated it. Now we are at casting out nines: if they really want to fight corruption and tax evasion our proposal must be rapidly passed” ..

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Italy: Senate Passes ‘Golden Share’ Bill Into Law

Changes rules on ‘strategic’ holdings

(ANSA) — Rome, May 9 — The Senate on Wednesday passed into law a reform to Italy’s golden-share policy changing the state’s veto power in companies in strategic sectors of the economy.

The decree redesigns the Italian policy of special government powers in the sectors of defence and national security, energy, transport and communications, in compliance with parameters defined by the European Union.

The measure is a response to a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling against Italy in 2009 for criteria which the ECJ said were “too vague and imprecise” and penalized investors who could not predict a government veto.

The golden share had long been criticised by the EU and the former European commissioner for the internal market, Charlie McCreevy, who repeatedly said that “golden shares have no place in the single market”.

Supporters of the golden share argued that the state should have veto powers in companies which operate under a government license which cannot be bought or sold, as in the case of transport, telecommunications and utilities.

Under the new decree, the government can only veto acquisitions in those sectors made by parties outside the European Union.

Special provisions were made for defence contractors such as Finmeccanica, retaining some government veto rights in the interest of national security.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Italy: Tax Evasion Rife in Rural Bed and Breakfasts and Health Spas

Rome, 9 May (AKI) — Over a quarter of rural bed and breakfasts, health spas and resorts are dodging taxes, according to the results of recent raids carried out across Italy by tax police.

The raids uncovered some 1,000 people being employed off the books in rural bed and breakfasts, health spas and resorts and uncovered tax irregularities in 1,700 enterprises out of 6,000 targeted.

The highest proportion of tax evasion was in the south (36 percent), followed by the north (26 percent) and the lowest in central Italy (23 percent), according to tax police.

While some of the businesses were paying no tax at all, others were not declaring the full amount of their takings. One rural bed and breakfast near the northwestern port city of Genoa issued regular invoices to guests but recorded only half the amount they paid, police said.

Another bed and breakfast owner in the eastern coastal city of Pesaro refused to allow guests to pay with bank cards, telling each one that his machine was out of action, and made them pay cash without giving them a receipt.

During the raids, police also seized meat and other foodstuffs which were past their sell-by date, which in some cases had been altered by hand with a biro. They also uncovered rotting fruit and unlabelled soft drinks.

Italian agriculture group Coldiretti praised the crackdown. “Too many outfits are are out there which are not officially recognised as rural bed and breakfasts and which are damaging the agriculture sector’s image and unfairly taking away business from it,” said the group.

The number of rural bed and breakfasts in Italy has virtually doubled over the last decade and the official number is over 20,000 according to Italy’s central statistics office Isat.

Official Italian rural bed and breakfasts are typically small farms where guests are should to be able to enjoy homecooked fresh, organic produce.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Mini Mammoth Once Roamed Crete

Evolution crafted pint-sized pachyderm on Mediterranean island.

Scientists can now add a ‘dwarf mammoth’ to the list of biological oxymorons that includes the jumbo shrimp and pygmy whale. Studies of fossils discovered last year on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea reveal that an extinct species once thought to be a diminutive elephant was actually the smallest mammoth known to have existed — which, as an adult, stood no taller than a modern newborn elephant.

Previously, the ancient pint-sized pachyderm was known only from fossilized teeth unearthed in Crete in the early twentieth century. Even though those molars had some features that were characteristic of mammoths, the scientist who described the species at the time placed it on the elephant branch of the tree of life, mistakenly thinking that a mammoth couldn’t have co-existed on the tiny island with another known species of elephant. But reanalysing those teeth and another fossil molar found at the same site last summer revealed a distinctive pattern of ridges and loops in tooth enamel that is seen only in mammoths, says Victoria Herridge, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Netherlands in Treaty With India for Healthcare Personnel

NEW DELHI, 09/05/12 — Health Minister Edith Schippers expects that a treaty can shortly be signed between the Netherlands and India on the exchange of personnel such as nurses.

The minister is currently leading an economic mission of some 20 companies and institutions. She has discussed areas that are interesting for partnership including vaccinations, biotechnology and ICT in healthcare. She was not yet able to give details of the treaty.

Schippers sees big opportunities for Dutch companies in the Indian healthcare sector, currently estimated at about 50 billion euros. India is among the top three countries with the fastest-growing investments in this area. The minister expects that the Netherlands can also advise India in the area of health insurance.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Norway: Bank Tells Customer: We Don’t Take Cash Anymore

A returning Norwegian traveller wanting to pay cash into his account thought bank staff were pulling his leg when they told him they no longer accept bank notes.

Last week, Bjart Berge headed to his local Nordea branch in Stavanger city centre to deposit his remaining dollars after returning from a trip to the United States, only to be told the bank no longer handles cash of any kind over the counter, newspaper Bergens Tidende reports. “I thought it was an April Fool’s joke; I couldn’t believe it was true,” Berge told the newspaper.

The Stavanger branch stopped taking cash on May 1st, bringing it in line with company policy. Of Nordea’s 98 branches in Norway, only nine still handle cash. Nordea spokesman Thomas Sevang explained that the bank was in the process of automating all its cash services and was installing new machines for withdrawing and depositing cash across its network.

“He (Berge) has encountered the bank of the future,” said Sevang. But in the bank of the present, none of the deposit machines take dollars, and the bank was not able to say when this would become possible. “You can take money out of an ATM in either Norwegian or foreign currency,” said Berge. “The same should apply for deposits. But when that possibility doesn’t exist, it’s a bit early to cut the umbilical cord.”

Nordea’s Sevang said he understood it wasn’t optimal for the customer to have to ask a friend to deposit the dollars in another bank before having the money transferred to his own account.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Norway: Breivik ‘Whooped With Joy’ On Killing Spree

Anders Behring Breivik whooped with joy as he shot dead dozens of people on his murderous killing spree last July, a witness told an Osloo court on Wednesday. Tonje Brenna, secretary-general of the ruling Labour Party’s youth wing (AUF), said she could see the 33-year-old right-wing extremist holding his gun as he stood three to four metres above her hiding place on Utøya island.

“I am absolutely certain I heard cries of delight when his shots hit their intended targets. If I were to spell it out, it would maybe be: ‘woo-hoo’. They were obvious scenes of happiness,” the 24-year-old Brenna told the court.

Prosecutor Svein Holden pointed out that Breivik has denied this to be the case, but Brenna said she was sure of what she had heard as she lay playing dead on a rock near the so-called Lovers’ Path where many of her peers were killed.

Brenna described how she and two boys had led an estimated 20 youths down a cliff face. But the hideout did not protect all of its occupants, with Breivik returning several times to fire shots down at the group.

“There were mini-avalanches of rocks and soil as people fell down. One relatively big rock landed on my neck and I’m fairly sure this rock was hit,” she said, explaining how close she believes she came to being shot.

To help ward off the desperation and fear, she said the young people tried to encourage each other by saying things like: “We’ll be home in the warmth tomorrow watching the Saturday movie with our parents”.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Polish President Asks Ukraine to Repeal Outdated Laws

(AGI) Warsaw — In the dispute between the Ukraine and Europe concerning the detention of Yulia Timoshenko, Broisaw Konorowski, the president of Poland which together with the former Soviet republic will host the European Soccer Championships, spoke out today demanding that the Ukraine repeal its “anachronistic” laws used to pass prison sentences on politicians, even when charges involved decisions made when in power. The former Ukrainian prime minister Timoshenko has been sentenced to serve a seven-year prison sentence for abuse of power.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Stakelbeck on Terror Show: A Conversation With Geert Wilders

On this week’s edition of Stakelbeck on Terror, we sit down for a wide-ranging interview with Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders.

Al Qaeda wants him dead. The British government once labeled him a security risk. Even in his own country, some want him thrown in prison—or worse. Such is the price today for speaking out against Islamic jihadists.

Wilders—who leads the Freedom Party, Holland’s third largest—has been called “Islam’s Public Enemy Number One” because of his bold stance against the Islamization of Europe.

In his new book, “Marked for Death: Islam’s War Against the West and Me,” he describes his personal ordeal and lays out his case against Islam and multiculturalism.

Click the link above to watch the interview.

— Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck

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UK: ‘Targeted Because They Were Not Part of Your Community or Religion’: Judge Blasts Sex Grooming Gang ‘Driven by Lust and Greed’ As They Are Jailed for Total of 77 Years

A judge today said nine men preyed on white girls as young as 13 for sex ‘because they were not part of your community or religion’ as he jailed them for a total of 77 years.

The men, all but one originally from Pakistan, were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after they were convicted of luring up to 47 girls into sex with drink, drugs, fast food and free taxi rides over a number of years.

One girl was subjected to a horrific ordeal when she was raped by 20 men in a single night.

Opening his sentencing remarks, Judge Gerald Clifton said: ‘All of you treated (the victims) as though they were worthless and beyond respect.

‘One of the factors leading to that was the fact that they were not part of your community or religion.

‘Some of you, when arrested, said it was triggered by race. That is nonsense. What triggered this prosecution was your lust and greed.’

The hearing took place amid tight security with police standing guard in the courtroom and around the building amid fears of a large demonstration or disruption by far-Right groups.

The ringleader, a 59-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for a total of 19 years for conspiracy, two counts of rape, aiding and abetting a rape, sexual assault and a count of trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation.

The defendant was previously banned from court because of his threatening behaviour and for calling the judge a ‘racist b******’.

Simon Nichol, defending, earlier said that his client did not wish to attend the sentencing hearing and had ordered the barrister not to put any mitigation before the judge on his behalf.

Mr Nichol said: ‘He has objected from the start for being tried by an all white jury and subsequent events have confirmed his fears.

‘He does not take back any of the comments he has made to your honour, to the jury, or to anyone else in the court during the course of the trial.

‘He believes his convictions have nothing to do with justice but result from the faith and the race of the defendants.

‘He further believes that society failed the girls in this case before the girls even met them and now that failure is being blamed on a weak minority group.’

The judge called the defendant an ‘unpleasant and hypocritical bully’.

— Hat tip: Gaia

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UK: 9 Men Sentenced for Rape of 631 Teenagers Over 5 Years

(AGI) London — Nine men of Pakistani origin are accused of having raped 631 teenage girls from youth shelters over the past five years, the Times of London reports, explaining that on Tuesday the rapists were all found guilty of sexual violence by a court in Liverpool. The victims, writes the Times, were drawn from centers, drugged or made drunk and taken to apartments, pubs and clubs with the complicity of the taxi driver to Greater Manchester, in Lancashire, and West Yorkshire where they were systematically raped. Two of the girls from shelters in Manchester and Rochdale died because of the violence. According to the Times investigations verified that the youth shelters, which have over 1,800 teenagers, registered 631 cases of girls between the ages of 12 and 16 being used for sexual purposes, of which 187 in the last ten months alone. The trial, which saw nine men between 22 and 59-years of age sentenced, among whom eight were of Pakistani origin and one Afghan exile, out of a total of 26 arrests and 56 questioned, revealed that many cases could have been avoided if the police had not ignored a complaint made in 2008 by a social services employee who spoke of “clear evidence of sexual exploitation organized in youth centers.” At the same time, a complaint by a 15-year-old girl claiming to have been raped by ten men was considered not reliable by the police. The behavior forced the Manchester police and Rochdale social services to publicly apologize for mistakes that “delivered children into the hands of rapists.” .

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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UK: Bournemouth Councillor Suspends Herself After EDL Twitter Comment

A Bournemouth councillor has apologised “unreservedly” after saying online that only the English Defence League “sticks up for the English”. Conservative councillor Sue Anderson said she had suspended herself from the party and referred herself for disciplinary procedures. She made the comment via her Twitter account on Saturday. Ms Anderson said she had also referred herself to Bournemouth Council’s Standards Board.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Daughter of Widow, 94, Tells How She Tried to Save Herself From Yob as £5,000 Reward is Offered for Arrest

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

A 94-year-old who was savagely attacked in her own bed has told relatives how she was ‘screaming for help but no one came’.

Great-grandmother Emma Winnall was found unconscious and covered in blood when carers came to check on her on Tuesday morning last week.

And a £5,000 reward was offered today for information leading to a conviction in the case of the brutally beaten pensioner.

She had a fractured skull, a broken arm and wrist and a partially severed finger. The beating was so severe that the frail widow’s palms were bruised from her attempts to protect herself, while blood had splattered on to the walls behind her bed.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Drug-Dealing Armed Robber Might Escape Deportation; ‘it Would Violate His Human Rights’

A drug-dealing robber from Jamaica could be allowed to stay in the UK after complaining that being sent home would violate his human rights.

Despite an order for deportation, Peart could now be allowed to stay in the country after a ruling by three senior judges at the Court of Appeal in London.

Lord Justice Moore-Bick said that, among other things, a lower judge had failed to take proper account of the effect deportation might have on his young son.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: For Queen and Country Muslims Go the Extra Mile

LONDON, May 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ —

Thousands expected for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee charity walk

Muslims from across Britain are heading for London — to honour Her Majesty The Queen. They will converge on the Tower of London on May 13th for a 10km charity walk which is expected to raise up to half a million pounds for The Queen’s charities. The charity walk is an annual fixture in the community’s calendar and in recent years has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for British charities each year. This year a special effort is being made in honour of the Diamond Jubilee. Mayor of London, Boris Johnson; Secretary of State for Communities, Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP; and a number of senior figures from charities; the Metropolitan Police; and the Armed Forces together with various diplomats and parliamentarians will attend the historic walk. The occasion will also see the launch of 100 special buses in London congratulating The Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. The banners on the London buses will also sport the Jubilee Logo and the Ahmadiyya Muslim motto: Love for All, Hatred for None. The charity walk & the bus campaign are a prelude to a series of activities to mark the Jubilee celebrations including:

• A letter from the worldwide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, to Her Majesty The Queen congratulating her on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee
• Interfaith peace symposiums and jubilee dinners across the country
• Ahmadiyya Muslim mosques being lit up and decorated and sporting the British flag
• Prayers for the Queen
• Charity events in aid of British charities
• Blood drives to donate blood in the UK

The National President of the UK Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mr Rafiq Hayat, said:

“We share in the national pride and joy at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. As Muslims, we feel we are duty bound to serve Queen and country and we regard this as an important act of faith. Love for our country and its monarch is our Islamic obligation. It is with a tremendous sense of national pride and civic duty that we participate in this charity walk that provides a testament to our faith and sense of duty to Queen and country. Our mosques throughout Britain will be decorated for the Jubilee and will host dinners or organise street luncheons to mark this historic occasion.”

The event is entirely organised by an army of volunteers with every penny being raised going to charity.

Contact: Basharat Nazir, media@ahmadiyya.org.uk, Tel +44-7703-483-384 OR Mahmood Rafiq, Tel +44-7971-060-962,

www.loveforallhatredfornone.org

www.alislam.org

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Grooming Offences Committed Mostly by Asian Men, Says Ex-Barnado’s Chief

Martin Narey urges inquiry into why Pakistanis and Afghans are ‘overrepresented’ in child exploitation crimes in northern towns

The former head of Barnardo’s has said that grooming of teenage girls for sex in the north of England appears to be “overwhelmingly” carried out by men of Pakistani and Afghan origin and urged and investigation into the issue. Martin Narey’s comments came as nine men — one from Afghanistan and the rest of Pakistani backgrounds — await sentencing for being part of a child exploitation gang that passed vulnerable girls around a group of men for sex in the Heywood area of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in 2008 and 2009.

He said he was not stigmatising the Asian community as a whole, noting that during his time managing the prison service — prior to joining Barnardo’s — sex offenders were “overwhelmingly white”, but the Labour MP Keith Vaz warned that the BNP was setting the agenda.

Narey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “For this particular type of crime, the street grooming of teenage girls in northern towns … there is very troubling evidence that Asians are overwhelmingly represented in the prosecutions for such offences.” The former Barnardo’s chief executive said he did not know the reason for their “overrepresentation” and rejected the idea they were specifically targeting white girls. He suggested that vulnerable girls on the streets were more likely to be white, while Asian girls subjected to strict parenting were more likely to be at home and so less prone to fall victim to such crimes. He added: “I’m not saying this is just Asian or Pakistani men… [but] street trafficking in the north does appear be overwhelmingly about Pakistani and Afghan men.”

Vaz, chair of the home affairs select committee, warned against generalisations and said the criminal justice system “shouldn’t dance to the tune of the BNP”. Security outside Liverpool crown court, where the nine men were tried, was stepped up after hundreds of English Defence League and BNP protesters picketed the court. The trial was almost derailed when the British National party leader, Nick Griffin, tweeted that seven verdicts had been reached, which was an alleged contempt of court. The trial was also delayed for a fortnight at the outset in February when two Asian defence barristers were attacked outside the courtroom by the far-right. Vaz told the Today programme that the police themselves had said that it was not a race issue, citing Greater Manchester’s assistant chief constable, Steve Heywood, who said: “It just happenst hat in the particular area and time the demographics were that these were Asian men.”

Vaz, the MP for Leicester East, said: “It’s quite wrong to stigmatise a whole community … This is where it all ends up. It’s already extended from ‘Pakistani men’ into ‘Asian men’ — that’s a very wide group.” He added: “What the BNP is saying is that this is a crime committed by Pakistani men and Asian men — that’s wrong.” Narey said the fact that the BNP were trying to make political capital out of the issue should not prevent discussion. Abdul Aziz, 41, Abdul Rauf, 43, Mohammed Sajid, 35, Adil Khan, 42, Abdul Qayyum, 44, Mohammed Amin, 45, Hamid Safi, 22, Kabeer Hassan, 25, and a 59-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons will be sentenced on Tuesday.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Keith Vaz Says Child Sex Ring Case ‘Not Race Issue’

Leading MP Keith Vaz has insisted the case of an Asian paedophile gang that exploited dozens of vulnerable white teenagers is not a “race issue”.

Mr Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said the “appalling” offences of the kind carried out by the gang needed to be looked into but it was important not to “stigmatise a whole community”. He made the remarks after nine men from Rochdale were convicted for their role in a child sex ring.

Police and social workers have been accused of failing to investigate the gang for fear of being perceived as racist, allowing them to prey on up to 50 young white girls.

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood acknowledged that officers could have dealt with the case “better than we did”. But he denied that the girl’s complaints had been “brushed under the carpet” because officers were reluctant to confront the issue of race.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: Live: Nine Men Sentenced for Sex Abuse of Young Girls in Rochdale

Nine members of the Rochdale sex grooming gang were today being sentenced at the end of the dramatic 11-week trial. The gang members were convicted of abusing five under-age white teenagers. They plied the troubled girls with drink and drugs before raping them and ‘sharing’ them with other men as far afield as Leeds and Bradford. Reporter John Scheerhout is at Liverpool Crown Court, and will update the live blog below with the sentences as they are read out …

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Muslim Council Condemns Shocking Sexual Abuse

There should be no place within Britain’s Muslim communities for paedophiles or sexual abusers, said the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) today, reacting to news of nine men’s guilt in an appalling grooming case. The men were found guilty of grooming teenage girls, following a 10-week trial in Rochdale. The court heard that these men used alcohol and drugs to help them prey on vulnerable young women.

Despicable

“These are despicable and wicked acts which must not be tolerated within any society or any community,” said Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the MCB. “No abuser should feel safe to hide their actions within their community,” he said. “Our hearts go out to the victims, and our thanks to the police and those within the community who helped bring this case to court. I was outraged when I read of this case. There can be no justification whatsoever for this evil behaviour. There can be no religious or cultural explanation. It is simply abuse of humanity.” He called on leaders within all communities to remain on their guard, create awareness and report such behaviour to the authorities as their duty.

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Manchester Sex Trafficking Case ‘Not About Race’, Say Police. Do They Expect US to Believe That?

by Damian Thompson

Six members of a gang who preyed on under-age girls in Rochdale, Greater Manchester have become the first in Britain to be convicted of sex trafficking. All the men were of Asian background; all the victims were white. Yet were are asked to believe this:

Commenting on the case, Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood denied that it was about race. He said: “It is not a racial issue. This is about adults preying on vulnerable young children. It just happens that in this particular area and time the demographics were that these were Asian men.”

Perhaps Mr Heywood would like to explain why some spokesmen for the Asian community don’t agree with him. Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, says: “There is a significant problem for the British Pakistani community, there is an over-representation amongst recent convictions in the crime of on-street grooming, there should be no silence in addressing the issue of race as this is central to the actions of these criminals.” And Jerome Taylor, religious correspondent of the Independent and a specialist in South Asian politics, has tweeted this:

Sadly, the far right will dominate the debate over sex-grooming gangs because of left’s refusal to see the issue as race/culture specific.

But it’s not just the Left’s failure. How did the police manage to leap in one generation from a racist canteen culture — overtly and disgracefully hostile towards blacks and Asians — to disingenuous political correctness?

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Pensioner Fights Off Sword-Wielding Robber With Pen He Was Using for Sudoku Puzzle

Mr Dowe had just completed his Sudoku puzzle and was sitting down in the living room when Storey forced his way into the pensioner’s home.

Moments later Storey threw a bed sheet over his victim’s head and repeatedly punched him.

Michael Bunch, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court: ‘He (Mr Dowe) heard the living room door open and strike the back of his chair.

But Mr Dowe refused to give in to his attacker and began to fight back. He grabbed the pen he had been using to do the puzzle and struck out at Storey, the court heard.

— Hat tip: JD

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UK: Rochdale Grooming Trial: Split Views on Race Issue

The conviction of nine Asian men for grooming and abusing white girls has prompted strong, split opinions on whether race is an issue in such cases. A Muslim community leader has said there is a “problem” of British Pakistani men thinking “white girls are worthless and can be abused”. And the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) said it was “investigating why there may be a majority of Asians in these particular kinds of offence”. But police said grooming was “not a racial issue” and MP Keith Vaz also said “no particular race or religion” tended to be involved.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Rochdale Grooming Trial: Police Accused of Failing to Investigate Paedophile Gang for Fear Appearing Racist

Police and social workers were last night accused of failing to investigate an Asian paedophile gang for fear of being perceived as racist, allowing them to prey on up to 50 young white girls.

The nine men from Rochdale were yesterday convicted of abusing five vulnerable teenagers after plying them with alcohol, food and small sums of money in return for sex.

However, the true number of victims, who were “passed around” by the gang, is likely to be nearer to 50, police have admitted. Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have now apologised after they failed to bring the case of the first victim — Girl A — to trial following her cry for help in August 2008. One 13 year-old victim became pregnant and had the child aborted while another was forced to have sex with 20 men in one night, Liverpool Crown Court heard. Complaints to social workers and the police were ignored because they were “petrified of being called racist”, former Labour MP for Keighley Ann Cryer said. Mrs Cryer, who has campaigned to bring the issue of Asian sex gangs to light, said the girls had been “betrayed” and condemned to “untold misery” by the police and social services. “This is an absolute scandal. They were petrified of being called racist and so reverted to the default of political correctness,” she said. “They had a greater fear of being perceived in that light than in dealing with the issues in front of them.”

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: Two Not Charged in Rochdale Grooming Gang Case: One Already in Jail, The Other ‘A Victim’ Herself

Two alleged members of the child sex grooming gang didn’t face trial as it was ‘not in the public interest’. One of them, Anya Miah, was a fugitive from the law when he was working as a chef at the Balti House in Heywood. Although jurors were told ‘Chef’ took part in the sexual abuse, prosecutors decided it was not in the public interest to charge him as he was already serving a long jail sentence for another sex crime. Miah, 53, of Picton Square, Oldham, was jailed for 15 years in February last year. He had repeatedly sexually abused a young girl over a three-year period in the late 1980s. The second alleged member of the gang who did not face charges is a young mum, now 19, dubbed The Honey Monster in court because of her size. She helped recruit fresh girls for the gang. From the age of 15, she became an enthusiastic helper, earning a finder’s fee of £10 or £20 every time she brought a girl to one of the sex parties. She introduced a steady stream of new girls and had a year-long sexual relationship with the 59-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: The Truth About ‘Asian Sex Gangs’

Despite the conviction of nine Asian men for child exploitation in Rochdale and worrying signs in the statistics, racial profiling won’t help potential victims

In January 2011 the Times proclaimed a “conspiracy of silence” around groups of Pakistani men sexually exploiting white British girls. Political correctness and fear of appearing racist had trumped child protection, the paper claimed. Soon the terms “Pakistani” and “Asian” were being conflated, much to the disgruntlement of other British Asians and a heated media debate ensued around the “Asian sex gang” problem. Jack Straw demanded the Pakistani community take responsibility, while BNP leader Nick Griffin gleefully decried “Muslim paedophilia”, campaigning with natty slogans such as “Our children are not halal meat”. The EDL were regulars at major trials: either in the courtroom taking notes or outside spitting hate.

The defendants in question are at most nominally Muslim. Practising Muslims certainly aren’t supposed to have sex with children. But race has proved a contentious and enduring feature of this crime’s coverage. Opinions have been vociferous and commentators have rushed to explain a racial profile that is yet to be established clearly. And there have been official studies and action plans. Today saw the culmination of a major investigation, the latest in a series of high-profile trials involving large groups of adults sexually exploiting British children. All nine of those found guilty of crimes in the area of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, had conspicuously Asian names.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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UK: The End of the Media Mogul?

British lawmakers declared Rupert Murdoch unfit to run a major international company. Does this mark the end of the all-powerful media mogul in a democratic society?

Last week, British lawmakers found that Rupert Murdoch should take “ultimate responsibility” for the illegal practice of phone hacking that has corroded his global media empire.

A cross-party parliamentary committee said the 81-year-old lacked credibility, adding that his company was guilty of “willful blindness” toward its staff at the News of the World tabloid.

It’s the latest in a series of blows for the man who has held sway over British politics for decades.

In the report, his company’s British newspaper arm was also criticized for misleading parliament during its investigation into the hacking of phones belonging to prominent public figures and victims in high-profile crimes.

That scandal led to a public outcry against scandal-mongering journalism and to the closure of the Sunday tabloid News of the World last summer. Initially, “rogue reporters” were blamed for the incident, but it has since emerged that the practice was widespread. Several journalists from the mass-circulation Sun newspaper, also owned by Murdoch, have now been arrested over allegations of phone hacking and bribery.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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US Self-Defence Guru Tim Larkin Barred From Britain

Tim Larkin, a US self-defence instructor who teaches pupils to “inflict crippling pain from injury to easily damaged body parts” has been barred from Britain where he was due to give seminars in areas hit by last year’s riots.

Tim Larkin, who runs Target Focus Training and has been accused of promoting vigilantism, was turned back at the airport in Las Vegas on Tuesday with notice that he had been denied entry by British interior minister Theresa May.

He had been due to speak at the Martial Arts Show in Birmingham and give classes in areas including Tottenham in north London, where a rioting and looting broke out last August. Mr Larkin’s website says the core of Target Focus’ philosophy is that “violence is rarely the answer, but when it is, it’s the only answer”.

It claims he has been teaching “elite military and law enforcement agencies in 58 countries” for 20 years. In a statement, the Home Office said: “We can confirm that the individual in question is subject to an exclusion order.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Wave of Violence in Germany Over Party’s Use of Anti-Muslim Cartoons

GERMANY is beginning to regret its decision to allow a far-right political party to display anti-Muslim cartoons near mosques as part of an electioneering campaign. Spikes in violence at recent gatherings — including a major riot on Saturday that left two police officers seriously injured with stab wounds — have triggered fears of more bloodshed. Courts in Germany took the view that cartoon images of the Prophet Mohammed and Allah — both outlawed under Islam — were acceptable in a country where freedom of expression is enshrined in the constitution. But with resistance growing to the tactics of the radical Pro NRW party, Germany is looking to defuse tensions.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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World’s Largest Telescope Eyes Swiss Funding

Switzerland is contributing around SFr65 million ($70.2 million) towards the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world.

The government on Wednesday gave the green light to paying five per cent of its costs, ensuring Swiss scientists would have access to the telescope, which according to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) will gather 100,000,000 times more light than the human eye.

The revolutionary ground-based telescope will have a 40-metre in diameter main mirror and will be “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”, the ESO added.

The E-ELT will take 11 years to assemble at a total cost of SFr1.3 billion. It will be built on Cerro Armazones, a Chilean mountain at an altitude of 3,060 metres and about 20 kilometres from Cerro Paranal, home of ESO’s Very Large Telescope.

The ESO said the telescope would tackle the “biggest scientific challenges of our time” and aim for a number of notable firsts, including tracking down Earth-like planets around other stars in the habitable zones where life could exist — one of the Holy Grails of modern observational astronomy.

It will also perform “stellar archaeology” in nearby galaxies, as well as make fundamental contributions to cosmology by measuring the properties of the first stars and galaxies and probing the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

The ESO will take the final decision on construction and financing in June.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Energy: EU Aims at New Partnership With South Med States

Sources to be diversified

(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — A new EU-Southern Mediterranean partnership for energy: this is one of the proposals sent out by a report approved by the European Parliament’s energy commission. According to the document, the European Union’s objective must now be to reduce the reliance on Russian supplies and diversify sources. The idea has stemmed from here to exploit the enormous potential of solar energy held by regions in the South Mediterranean and the request by MPs in the European Commission to elaborate common strategies with the suppliers and key partners for the benefit of the whole Union.

According to the EU’s energy commission, if members states decide to join forces with the European Commission, the Union will also hold a stronger position when contracting energy deals with third parties. The report speaks of “new sources for non Russian petrol, gas and electricity for those countries which rely too much from the single supplier.” Russian gas amounts to 24% of all gas consumed in the EU but 12 states out of 27 actually employ up to 48%. The European Parliament’s plenary council vote on the report is expected in June.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Egyptians Choose S Arabia Over Turkey as Model: Poll

The majority of Egyptians prefer Saudi Arabia over Turkey as a model for the role of religion in governance, a poll says. Six out of ten want Shariah while secular figures are paradoxically still most favored by society

Most Egyptians see Saudi Arabia as a better model than Turkey for the role religion should play in government as they want Islam to play a major role in society and believe the Quran should help shape the country’s laws, a recent survey indicated.

When asked which country, Saudi Arabia or Turkey, served as the better model for the role of religion in government 61 percent said Saudi Arabia. Only 17 percent choose Turkey while the remaining 22 percent responded that neither country was an appropriate model, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. Results of the survey in Egypt are based on 1000 face-to-face interviews conducted from March 19 to April 10. The sample taken was representative of the country’s adult population.

A majority of Egyptians, 64 percent according to the survey, continue to believe Islam plays a positive role in their country’s politics. According to the survey, Egyptians want Islam to play a role in shaping the nation’s laws as the majority, 60 percent to be exact, said Egypt’s laws should strictly adhere to the Quran. About 32 percent say the country should follow the values and principles of Islam but not strictly follow the teachings of the Quran. However, most also endorse specific democratic rights and institutions which do not exist in Saudi Arabia, such as free speech, a free press and equal rights for women. Among those who choose Saudi Arabia over Turkey as the best model for Egypt, two-thirds also said democracy is preferable to any other kind of government. More than six out of ten people, or 64 percent, said it is very important to live in a country with a free press. Sixty-one percent responded with freedom of speech.

Army still popular

Despite the country’s ongoing political conflict, many of the organizations and leaders who played key roles in last year’s revolution, such as the military, the Muslim Brotherhood and the liberal April 6 Movement, remain popular. While the military’s ratings may have dropped since 2011, a majority of Egyptians continue to view the military, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and the country’s ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi in a positive light. However, the influence of the military has dropped from 88 percent to 75 percent when compared to figures from 2011. Tantawi is well regarded by 63 percent of Egyptians, although his favorability rating has fallen from last year’s 90 percent.

Of people surveyed 83 percent said religious leaders have a very good or somewhat good influence on the country. Despite the political turmoil which has surrounded the military over the past year 75 percent of Egyptians have continued to say it has a good influence in the country. Ex-Mubarak foreign minister and current presidential candidate Amr Moussa is also very popular with the Egyptian public with 81 percent giving him favorable ratings, down only slightly from 89 percent in 2011…

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Morocco: ISESCO Condemns Holy Quran Burning by American Pastor

RABAT, 17 Jumada Al-Thani/8 May (IINA)-The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) strongly condemned the insane gesture by Terry Jones, pastor of an Anglican church in the US state of Florida, who burned copies of the Holy Quran in callous disregard for the feelings of Muslims in the world. In a communiqué released today, ISESCO faulted Quran burning as being despicably racist and disdainful to Islam, and an intolerable affront to international law and the basic principles of human rights. ISESCO called for an international campaign to deter reoccurrence of similar crimes, and urged on the Florida church to severely reprehend the perpetrator and denounce such an act of aggression against revealed religions.

— Hat tip: JP

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Morocco: Optimism After Election Hollande

No illusions on immigration politics, hope for more respect

(ANSAmed) — RABAT, MAY 9 — The election of Francois Hollande in France, Morocco’s main partner, is not expected to change the relations between the two countries. But Morocco has closely watched the French elections. Morocco does not expect France to radically change its immigration policies, but does expect more respect and dignity for migrants, more than under Sarkozy. The outgoing president, in the eyes of most Moroccans, has dusted off reactionary ideas, in spite of the cultural diversity present in France, considered by Morocco to be France’s real wealth. Focusing on Francois Hollande, his statements on the Renault factory opened in Tangiers are still an open question, but could be seen in the context of the electoral campaign. What Morocco expects from Hollande is a more balanced approach to the Middle East conflicts and the question of the Union for the Mediterranean, without forgetting about national sovereignty regarding the Saharan conflict. According to the results of the ninth foreign constituency, 9,415 of the 30,056 French citizens living in Morocco with a right to vote have voted for the socialist candidate Franois Hollande and 7,664 for outgoing president Sarkozy.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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What the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt Wants

by Hugh Fitzgerald

Watch the election rally for the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi here.

Egypt now has its “democracy” and its “freedom.” And that means the Jihad against Israel will be not a minor theme, not a major theme, but the theme, of Egyptian political life. And the American government refuses to understand this, and despite the best efforts of the well-informed to end aid to the Egyptian military — the aid that makes an assault on Israel more, not less likely, and that makes the task of Israel’s Defense Ministry even more hellish than it already is — the Obama Administration refuses to recognize what has happened in Egypt. And the press, of course, whose members could take in the same material as is sometimes put up here, the videos and transcripts supplied so usefully by MEMRI, they do not do so?

Why don’t they? Why don’t they help inform the public, rather than continue to misinform and mislead and confuse it? Why does that happen here, and in the United Kingdom, and in France, and all over Europe? Why?

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Bomber in Al Qaeda Plot Was ‘Double Agent, ‘ Say US Reports

A man under orders from al Qaeda to blow up a US-bound airliner was a double agent, according to media reports. The operative is believed to have infiltrated the group and volunteered for the mission.

The al Qaeda plot to bomb an airliner heading for the United States was disrupted with the help of a Saudi double-agent, according to media reports from the Washington Post and the New York Times late on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia’s intelligence service played a pivotal role in planting operatives within the group known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

One man is reported to have spent several weeks undercover in Yemen, where a bomb designed specifically to escape detection at airports was being prepared for an attack.

The agent is understood to have volunteered for a mission to smuggle the bomb aboard an aircraft and detonate it. CIA operatives spent weeks tracking the bomb, which was eventually handed over by the Saudi agent after he left Yemen.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Iraq Demo Over ‘Anti-Islam’ Magazine Turns Violent

ARBIL, Iraq — Thousands took to the streets of the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil on Tuesday as a rally to demand swift punishment for a magazine editor who ran a story decried as “against Islam” turned violent. Demonstrators gathered in front of the Kurdish parliament building in Arbil to protest the article published in the latest issue of Al-Hamsa (The Whisper), a monthly magazine published in Kurdish and Arabic in the regional capital.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Kuwait: ‘Prince of the Believers’ Gets 10 Years Jail Term

Kuwait’s criminal court recently sentenced a non-Kuwaiti in his fifties to ten years in jail with labor for pretending to be a prophet, said security sources. Lawyers Duwaim Al-Muwaizri and Adel Abdul Hadi sued the suspect for his claims.

Notably, the man had published online calls for people to convert to a doctrine that rejects all social and religious systems followed in Kuwait.

Commenting on the verdict, lawyer Al-Muwaizri said the suspect would have been executed if the recently approved law had been published in the official gazette.

“The suspect stated before the prosecution that he is the prince of the believers (amir al-momineen), the caliph of the Muslims and that people would have to believe him,” said Al-Muwaizri. He said the suspect claimed to have followers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who support him financially.

Informed sources said the suspect was sentenced to death in KSA and that he is currently an unemployed retired Kuwait army soldier who used to live in Jahra.

— Hat tip: RR

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Saudi Arabia: World’s First Underwater Mosque Built in KSA

A group of private Saudi divers said they have built what they describe as the first underwater mosque in history and that they performed prayers inside it just after it was completed, Almadina Arabic reports.

The divers used massive plastic pipes filled with sand to construct the symbolic mosque under the water off the northwestern town of Tabuk, close to the border with Jordan, according to the newspaper. “One of our colleagues came up with this idea last summer and we decided to carry it out,” diver Hamadan bin Salim Al Masoudi, said. “We have just completed the construction of the mosque. When we put the final touches on it, it was time for afternoon prayers, so we performed group prayers in the first underwater mosque in history,” he added.

The story follows last Wednesday’s announcement that the shipbuilding arm of Dubai World has signed a deal to develop undersea hotels in Dubai with a Swiss firm. Drydocks World unveiled an agreement with BIG InvestConsult, which holds the technology rights, to build the World Discus Hotel. The hotel, featuring a discus-shaped residential underwater building connected to another discus above water, will be funded by BIG which is in talks with other investors. “Drydocks and Maritime World is appointed as the exclusive main contractor for construction of the new concept hotels and cities floating in the Middle East,” Drydocks said in a statement.

Extravagant projects were the hallmark of Dubai during the 2002-2008 boom years but many were put on hold or cancelled following the downturn. However, its logistics, trade and tourism sectors have performed well since and, benefiting from its status as a safe haven amid the Arab Spring, Dubai has been making a recovery. On Wednesday, the firms said two developments with five hotels attached to them are planned in the Middle East. The Swiss firm is eyeing the coast of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. “We are in the design and fabrication side for the project; it’s the same concept as rigs,” Khamis Juma Buamim, chairman of Drydocks World told reporters. This project has seven different types of designs and each will cost in the range of around $50m (AED 184m) to $120m (AED 441m). The amount varies based on the design. The discussions are to build these around the world, not just the UAE,” he said.

[JP note: Can’t wait until the Supreme Islamic Space Commission (SISC) put a mosque on Mars.]

— Hat tip: JP

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Saudi Arabia: Breast Cancer Battle Starts by Breaking Taboos

Deal with General Electric on prevention campaign

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI — Breast cancer has a strong ally in Saudi Arabia: a conservative cultural tradition and a great decency, factor that delay prevention and therapy. But now the oil state has decided to throw its feelings of shame and social stigma regarding this issue overboard.

In fact several awareness campaigns have been organised, and technical measures have been taken in the medical field to fight the most widespread form of cancer in the country. Saudi Arabia has also started to work together with international organisations and institutions to fight against the existing ignorance, shame and suspicion. The most recent campaign was set up by princess Al Shaalan, the wife of king Abdullah, and General Electric. The programme is divided in four stages: the creation of a special website (www.healthymagination.me/ar, a GE project in which a billion USD is invested in cancer research over the next five years) with information in Arabic and English on prevention and on the instruments that are available for every woman to protect her health; the creation of a call-center; the availability of three mobile clinics to reach the more remote and rural parts of the kingdom, and the possibility of interventions at the Fahad Medical City in Riyadh. Breast cancer is the most common form among women in Saudi Arabia with an average rate of 18%, higher than the global average of 16%. Seventy percent of women are diagnosed when the tumour has reached a terminal stage, because they wait too long before visiting a doctor. This causes the mortality rate to be very high, made worse by the fact that 30% of cases of breast cancer are found in women under the age of 40. The taboo on a simple form of prevention, mammography, is hard to break in a country with a very strict sexual segregation — from bars to schools and sport, recreation and cultural events — and a strict dress code that covers the entire body. So going to a doctor is, paradoxically, a “courageous” decision in Saudi Arabia. In March, the month that was dedicated to the prevention of breast cancer, imams were asked to address the question in their sermons. In 2010 the disease was made more “visible” by the creation of the largest human pink ribbon ever created. The next goal is to remove the social stigma on women that have breast cancer. Patients are asked to talk about their disease in a short video that is posted on YouTube. Men will also be asked to be more involved, asking them to wear a pink ribbon for example or, more importantly, convincing them not to divorce their wife when she get breast cancer.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Turkey Tired of ‘Government Controlled’ Media

A growing number of young Turks are turning to social media, complaining that mainstream media are being increasingly controlled by the government.

Sitting in a busy cafe in downtown Istanbul, Hale holds her Blackberry, while sipping tea, and checks the latest events in Turkey.

“I am trying not to use the phone to check Twitter,” says Hale, “I only check for hot news, or something urgent, mostly there is in Turkey. But I check newspaper sites less now because I get most of my information from Twitter.” “You have blogs, you have news sites. So, I don’t care what the mainstream media does,” she says.

Hale is part of a growing phenomenon, according to media and Internet expert, Associate Professor Yaman Akdeniz, of Istanbul’s Bilgi University. Akdeniz claims the media is increasingly seen as under the thumb of the government since its third successive landslide victory last year. “Since the elections,” says Akdeniz, “we can feel that the media is not directly but indirectly controlled by the government.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Turkey: Ankara’s Nightmare, Post-Assad Partition of Syria

With Alawi state on Mediterranean, risking domino effect

(ANSAmed) — ROME — The nightmare scenario for Turkish diplomacy takes the following form: an exploding of Syria that has up to now been held together in the iron grasp of the Assad dynasty, leading to the risk of a partition of the country along lines of ‘ethnicity’, leading to an Alawi state bordering the Mediterranean, a Kurdish state between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan and a Sunni state on the remainder of the territory.

This is not officially talked about in Ankara, but according to political analyst Abdullah Bozkurt, the idea gives rise to “true concerns” along Turkey’s corridors of power. There is indeed an impression that the moves of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad over the past months have been in this direction. Faced with a revolt by a Sunni majority, among which there is a strongly influential Alawi minority — that of the al-Assad clan — the regime appears to be working towards a kind of ‘community-based cleansing,’ preparing the way for a partitioning of the country. The rocky Mediterranean shore, a traditional territory of the Alawites who make up 12-15% of Syria’s population, around the cities of Latakya, Banyas and Tartous (which is the base for the Russian Mediterranean fleet), would form the nucleus of an Alawi state that would remain under Assad’s control. In this state the minority would be safe from pressures of the Sunni majority. Under the French protectorate following the First World War, there already was an Alawi state of Latakia between 1922 and 1936, which was allied with the French against the Sunnis.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Chess Greats Duel in Moscow in Echo of Soviet Epic

Chess world champion Viswanathan Anand of India goes up against Israel’s Boris Gelfand in Moscow on Friday, in the first game of their battle to decide the world title — and $1.5 million in prize money. The last time two grandmasters clashed for the world crown in Moscow the Cold War was still raging and chess was one of its biggest psychological guns.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Russian Police Detains Opposition Activists on Victory Day

Russian police detained opposition activists including protest leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow early Wednesday ahead of the tightly-policed Victory Day parade. Police in riot gear detained several dozen including Navalny at an unsanctioned gathering in a small park on early Wednesday morning ahead of the parade on Red Square watched by newly inaugurated President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny’s lawyer Nikolai Polozov told Moscow Echo radio station that Navalny was being charged with disobeying police, facing a maximum punishment of 15 days in police cells. He said that 23 others were detained but were expected to be released shortly.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Russian Parliament Confirms Medvedev as PM

Russia’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly confirmed former head of state Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister after he was nominated by newly inaugurated President Vladimir Putin. Medvedev was backed by 299 deputies in the State Duma with 144 voting against his nomination, sealing a job swap with Putin who until his inauguration Monday had served as premier for four years.

Medvedev’s approval had been guaranteed after the ruling United Russia party and the largely pro-government bloc of the ultra-nationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky pledged their support. Putin then signed the decree meaning that Medvedev formally assumed his duties as premier.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Superjet: Russia’s Great Aviation Hope

The Sukhoi Superjet 100, the Russian jet which has gone missing in Indonesia, is a brand new passenger plane built by Russia in a bid to lift its civil aviation industry from a post-Soviet crisis.

The Superjet only made its first commercial flight last year and if a major accident is confirmed it would be the first disaster to involve the aircraft, which is made by legendary Russian planemakers Sukhoi.

The plane is crucial to Russia’s hopes of becoming a major player in the modern aviation market and improving its image in an industry scarred by frequent crashes of ageing Soviet-era jets.

The mid-range Superjet airliner is designed to carry up to 98 passengers and is a direct rival of similar aircraft produced by Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier.

So far it is being flown by two airlines, Russia’s Aeroflot and Armenia’s Armavia, although orders have been confirmed with several more. Its first commercial flight was operated by Armavia in April 2011 and Aeroflot followed later that year.

The demonstration flight in Indonesia was part of a tour called Asian Roadshow aimed at promoting the aircraft abroad that started May 3 and earlier took in Kazakhstan and Pakistan. It was due to go on to Laos and Vietnam.

In August last year, Indonesian regional carrier PT Sky Aviation agreed to buy 12 of the planes, with deliveries due to begin in 2012. The Superjet project is a joint venture between Sukhoi and Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica, which is part of the aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Azerbaijan: Singing Its Own Praises: Azerbaijan’s Eurovision P.R. Blitz

Last May, Ell & Nikki, an obscure duo from Azerbaijan, won the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. The country’s President, Ilham Aliyev, treated the musical win like a military triumph, describing it as “a victory for the people of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani state.” By winning the pan-European singing contest — which, kitschy as it is, unites the region like little else — Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku, earned the right to host this year’s show, which will be broadcast to more than 100 million people at the end of May.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Bangladesh Teacher Arrested Over Burns on Pupils’ Legs

Bangladeshi police have arrested a teacher from a religious school who allegedly placed a burning hot iron rod on the legs of her pupils for failing to pray regularly.

The teacher, Jesmin Akther, has made no comment. Police said she went into hiding after parents complained. Officials say 14 girls, aged between eight and 12, received burn injuries. Bangladesh banned corporal punishment in educational institutions, including religious schools (madrassas), in 2010. “Acting on a tip-off, we raided a house in the old part of Dhaka and we arrested Jesmin Akther, who is accused of burning the legs of her students. We are seeking to remand her in custody for seven days,” police officer Shafiqul Islam told the BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan in Dhaka.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Indian Court Further Delays Marines’ Hearing

‘Release on bail’ a possibility, says judge

(ANSA) — New Dehli, May 9 — The Indian supreme court in New Dehli on Wednesday put off a hearing until July 26 to decide jurisdiction for two Italian anti-piracy marines who allegedly killed two Kerala fishermen, Jelestine Valentine and Ajesh Binki, on February 15. Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone are being held in a jail in the city of Thiruvananthapuram and have been at the centre of a diplomatic row between India and Italy since being detained in February after an incident that took place while they were guarding the Enrica Lexie tanker.

The court said that the government had no objections to the two marines being transfered to another structure and that they had the “right to ask for release on bail”.

The Italian government believes that, regardless of who has jurisdiction, the marines should be exempt from prosecution in India as they were military personnel working on an anti-piracy mission.

— Hat tip: Insubria

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Indonesia: Islamists Warn ‘Satanic’ Lady Gaga

A HARDLINE Islamic group has warned it would not let Lady Gaga set foot in Indonesia.

The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) vowed to mobilise 30,000 demonstrators to protest the US artist’s June 3 performance in Jakarta and to intercept her at the airport. “We will stop her from setting foot on our land. She had better not dare spread her satanic faith in this country,” said FPI Jakarta chairman Salim Alatas. Her style is vulgar, her sexual and indecent clothes will destroy our children’s sense of morality. She’s very dangerous,” he said.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Malaysia Police Hold Five Over Dutch Boy Kidnapping

Malaysian police said Wednesday they had arrested five people over the kidnapping of a 12-year-old Dutch boy who was returned to his family last week. Nayati Moodliar was abducted while walking to the Mont Kiara International School located in an upmarket suburb near the capital Kuala Lumpur on April 27.

He was found last Thursday by his family at a highway rest stop north of the capital where the kidnappers left him. Police said a ransom was paid. Bakri Zinin, head of the federal crime investigation department, told AFP that police investigating the case had arrested four men and a woman in Kuala Lumpur and northern Malaysia since Monday. The five were in custody and under investigation for kidnapping, he said.

Police are still looking for two other Malaysians, one of who is believed to have fled to Europe. Bakri said police would alert Interpol about the man. Police have also recovered some of the ransom paid by the Moodliar family for the boy’s release, though Bakri declined to reveal any figures. Local media reported the ransom was 300,000 ringgit ($100,000).

The kidnapping drew wide attention with even Prime Minister Najib Razak calling via Twitter for the safe release of the boy, who has dual Dutch and South African nationality.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Pakistan: Slain Adnkronos Reporter to be Honoured in Washington

Washington, 9 May (AKI) — Slain Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad’s name will be included on the Journalists Memorial at the Newseum in Washington.

The badly beaten body of Shahzad, 40, who worked as a correspondent for Adnkroknos International and Southeast Asia bureau chief for the Asia Times Online was found in a canal 150 kilometres southwest of Islamabad in May 2011, two days after he disappeared in the capital.

“He was killed for writing the truth and for this he sacrificed his life,” the Newseum said in a statement, using the words of Shahzad’s brother.

The 14 May ceremony will honour Shahzad and 71 other journalists who last year lost their lives because of their work.

The memorial is a two-story glass structure bearing the names of reporters, photographers, editors and broadcasters who have died in the line of duty, the Newseum says on its website.

Suspicion over Shahzad’s murder has fallen strongly on ISI, which in an unusual move denied involvement in his death. Days before Shahzad’s disappearance he published an article in Asia Times Online alleging links between Al-Qaeda and officials in the Pakistani navy.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Philippines: Imelda Marcos: The “Poor” Widow of Dictator Among the Richest Politicians in the Country

This is shown by the ranking published by the Philippine parliament commission to fight corruption. With assets of 22 million dollars the parliamentarian ranks second after the boxer Pacquiao. For years she has declared herself poor. Filipinos held slaves by a few rich and powerful political families.

Manila (AsiaNews) — With its wealth of 22 million U.S. dollars, Imelda Marcos, widow of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos is the country’s second richest parliamentarian, after the boxer Manuel Paquiao. The news, which has emerged in recent days, has shocked the Filipinos, who fear the great influence of the former first lady and her family in Filipino politics more than 20 years after the death in exile of the dictator. AsiaNews sources explain that despite the “tabloid gossip” the question of the Marcos family shows the endemic problems of politics in the Philippines for decades in the hands of the same families.

“These families — they say — control the finance and base their power on clientelist relations, using the money to buy votes during elections. The system is consolidated and is difficult to change.”

In these years, Imelda Marcos has always declared herself to be poor and penniless, although there were rumors about the immense fruits of her husband’s crimes. Once elected deputy in 2010, she moved into a luxury apartment in one of the most fashionable parts of Manila and wears jewelry and designer clothing at parliamentary sessions, in sharp contrast to her vaunted poverty. On April 30, by virtue of the transparency policy promoted by President Aquino all MPs and Filipino senators have published their financial situation. As a deputy Marcos was forced to declare the list of assets.

According to sources, the continued success of Marcos was made possible through culture that characterizes the country, still based on clans and not on individuals. “Every Filipino — they explain — is tied to their land of origin. Once elected, politicians do everything to offer as many privileges as possible to their won people.” This enabled Marcos to reappear on the political scene after her return from exile in the ‘1990s. In fact, despite the crimes of the dictator, the people of Llocos Norte (northern Philippines) continue to elect members of the family. To date, as well as his widow, his son Ferdinand Jr. is campaigning on the political scene, a former governor of North Llocos elected to the Senate in 2010, and his daughter Imee, elected governor in the same region where previously her brother had held power.

“Even Aquino — sources tell — is part of this system and, unfortunately, no different from others. Despite the good name and the apparent modesty of the President his relatives have huge estates and money invested in major Philippine companies.”

The immobility of the Philippine political system is also visible in the parliamentary elections to be held May 13, 2013, for the renewal of the Assembly and Senate. The sources stress that from the lists of candidates little or nothing has changed, the names are always the same. Moreover, few people are able to finance an election campaign to destroy the system of patronage, especially in rural areas. To combat the problem, the Church began offering training courses since 2010 for young people about the true meaning of politics.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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The Worrying Truth About the Chinese Economy — Part II

Now on to the main argument in John Lee’s brilliant analysis, which concerns the second phase of China’s economic reforms:

“In a rapidly industrializing system, the Party faithful realized, urban elites determined the fate of authoritarian governments. The great lesson of the East European and Soviet revolutions learned in Beijing was that authoritarian regimes become irrelevant to their own elites at their very considerable peril.”

Thus following the Tiananmen Square massacre, China’s leaders ensured that the “most important and lucrative sectors of the economy” would be dominated by a select group of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). For instance, the state controls almost the entire banking sector in China and thus the accumulated savings of the Chinese people:

“Even though state-controlled enterprises produce 30-50 percent of all output in the country, they receive more than 75 percent of the country’s capital, and the figure is rising. SOEs received more than 95 percent of the stimulus monies lent out in 2008-09 and an estimated 85 percent in 2010… the assets of SOEs amount to more than 66 percent of all assets in the country, up from 60 percent in 2003. This is the reverse of what occurred in China during the first ten years of reform, when the majority of new fixed assets were effectively controlled by the emerging private sector.”

While the state encourages the SOEs to compete against one another and allows the existence of millions of privately-owned enterprises, the whole system is ruthlessly managed to enhance the control of the Communist Party — and to do so despite China’s participation in world markets. Lee describes this system as “corporate Leninism” and he warns that it poses a massive challenge to the international liberal order created by the west. The cosy assumption that China will follow the same economic and political pathway as countries like Japan and South Korea is profoundly mistaken:

“It is a characteristic of the denatured Enlightenment mentality to think that the way the West developed in this regard essentially fell from the sky as the only logical possibility… China is too important to ignore, too big to intimidate and too formidable to browbeat. It will not march along a well-trodden path to some inevitable destination, just because Western observers are too intellectually lazy or culturally smug to imagine other possibilities.”

We have been warned.

[JP note: Link to John Lee’s article China’s Corporate Leninism here http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1231 ]

— Hat tip: JP

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South African Police Seize $6.8 Mln Assets From Rhino Poachers

South African authorities Wednesday seized assets worth almost $7 million of a game farm owner and two veterinarians accused of rhino poaching, police said. Prosecutors, police and environmental officials “seized assets in the region of 55 million rands ($6.8 million, 5.2 million euros) believed to have been acquired through criminal activities, particularly rhino poaching,” national police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo said in a statement.

More than 161 people are currently on trial for rhino poaching or the illegal trade in rhino horn. More than 200 rhinos have been poached in South Africa since the start of the year.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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EU Judges to Consider Qatada Case

Europe’s human rights judges will meet to consider whether Abu Qatada’s appeal over deportation should be allowed to go ahead. A panel of five judges will hold talks on Wednesday about whether the case involving the Jordanian terror suspect should be heard by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. A spokeman for the court has said it is possible they will not reach their final decision immediately and, even if they do, they may not announce it until later. They are also unlikely ever to reveal any reasons for their decision. Qatada’s appeal, lodged on April 17, prompted a row with Home Secretary Theresa May over whether the three-month appeal deadline from the court’s original decision on January 17 expired on the night of April 16 or 17. It will remain unclear whether Mrs May was right to claim that Qatada’s appeal was made too late as the judges are likely to simply state whether or not the appeal against deportation can go ahead. Very few Grand Chamber appeals are successful, but if the appeal is granted, Qatada, 51, is likely to apply to a senior immigration judge for bail and could be freed from Belmarsh high-security jail within weeks.

— Hat tip: JP

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House Votes to Stop Obama Immigration Lawsuits

The House voted early Wednesday morning to stop the Obama administration’s lawsuits against state immigration laws. The amendment, which strips funding so that the Justice Department cannot pursue the lawsuits, passed 238-173. Twelve Democrats voted for it, while six Republicans voted against it.

The amendment specifically applies to laws in Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri, Utah, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Indiana. The Obama administration and immigrant-rights groups have sued to block laws in each of those states.

“Instead of using tax dollars to sue states, the Department of Justice and other branches of this government should start focusing on enforcing existing immigration laws,” said Rep. Lou Barletta, a Pennsylvania Republican who as mayor of Hazleton oversaw a city ordinance cracking down on illegal immigration. “Until they do, the Department of Justice should not receive one federal tax dollar to sue states.”

Last month the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Obama administration’s challenge to Arizona’s crackdown law, which requires state and local police to check the legal status of those they are investigating whom they suspect of being in the country illegally.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Italy: North African’s Stabbing Sparks Rampage in Perugia

Perugia, 9 May (AKI) — Gangs of immigrants ran amok in the central Italian city of Perugia late Tuesday after a North African man was stabbed, smashing store windows and overturning rubbish bins in one of the main shopping streets, according to police.

The unnamed North African was taken to hospital, where his condition was not critical, doctors said. Police were called to Perugia’s Corso Vannucci after residents and witnesses said they heard several shots being fired during the disturbances which broke out at around midnight .

Police said they were investigating a feud between rival immigrant gangs that may have triggered the late-night rampage.

On the orders of local magistrates, police in Perugia earlier on Tuesday arrested Albanian seven suspects following a year-long probe that investigators say smashed a major drugs and prostitution racket in the city.

— Hat tip: C. Cantoni

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Netherlands: Iraqi Asylum Seekers Set Up Camp in Protest at Rejection

A group of some 50 failed Iraqi asylum seekers have set up camp outside the refugee centre in Ter Apel, urging the immigration service to re-open their cases, Nos television reports on Wednesday. At the end of last month, 76 Iraqi nationals were told their applications for asylum were being refused because the country is now safe enough to return to. The group of 56 in Ter Apel disagree.

Last year, a group of 45 Somali asylum seekers set up a similar camp in the Groningen village after they were refused permission to stay in the Netherlands. The immigration service agreed to look into their cases again and several were granted refugee status, Nos said.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Out of Bulgaria and Romania: Wave of Immigrants Overwhelms German System

Worlds are colliding as a flood of impoverished Bulgarians and Romanians stream into Germany, overwhelming authorities. But efforts to help integrate the new residents have been sluggish and many of the immigrants find themselves awash in system they don’t understand.

In their hands they hold plastic bags filled with letters from German authorities and reminders from debt collection agencies, most of them unopened.

“Why do Germans write so many letters?” asks one Bulgarian woman, shaking her head in disbelief as she stands in a long line outside the Verikom advice center in Hamburg. “In our village we didn’t even have a mailman,” she says.

To ease her frustration, she has sorted her baffling assortment of mail. Yellow envelopes are overdue payment notices and therefore dangerous. Letters bearing a heraldic eagle are from the state. Colored logos usually mean bills from telephone companies.

Worlds have been colliding ever since increasing numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians began streaming into Germany. In many ways the authorities are just as overwhelmed by the often penniless European Union citizens as the immigrants themselves are by the realities of life in Germany.

This week, the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration (SVR) will present its 2012 evaluation. The annual report, which analyzes collaboration on integration policy between national, regional and local authorities, comes to a sobering conclusion: Coordination is inadequate, while effective cooperation is largely non-existent.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Beastie Boy Adam Yauch: Not Just a Celebrity Activist

by Hadley Freeman

My brief encounter with Adam Yauch taught me that he was a musical pioneer, a champion of independent films, and a man who was true to himself

As is only right for a man who packed such diversity into less than half a century, it is impossible to choose just one detail from the career of the Beastie Boy Adam Yauch that sums up why his death last week at the cruelly young age of 47 feels so especially sad.

There’s his film company, Oscilloscope Laboratories, which was behind some of the best indie films since its inception in 2008, including Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop and the breathtaking documentary about Maurice Sendak, Tell Them Anything You Want. Or there’s the very funny 30-minute movie he made last year in which he satirised his own image, Fight For Your Right (Revisited). Seth Rogen, Danny McBride and Elijah Wood play the Beastie Boys, circa 1987, having just left the video for (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) and acting as bratty and hedonistic as the Beasties were thought to do then and, undoubtedly, did.

[…]

— Hat tip: JP

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Obama Tells ABC News Same-Sex Marriage Should be Legal

President Obama declared for the first time on Wednesday that he supports same-sex marriage, putting the moral power of his presidency behind a social issue that continues to divide the country.

“At a certain point,” Mr. Obama said in an interview in the Cabinet Room at the White House with ABC’s Robin Roberts, “I’ve just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

The comments end years of public equivocating over the divisive social issue for the president, who has previously said he opposed gay marriage but repeatedly said he was “evolving” on the issue because of contact with friends and others who are gay.

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Obama ‘Evolves’ To Support of Gay Marriage

President Obama said Wednesday that he now supports same-sex marriage “personally,” reversing his opposition amid growing pressure from his liberal Democratic base and some of his own administration officials.

“At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Mr. Obama told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in an interview arranged specifically on the hot-button issue at the White House. He said his position has evolved “over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors.”

Mr. Obama added that he came to the decision “when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or Marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained … because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage.”

He is the first president to support same-sex marriage, although he didn’t say in the excerpt aired by ABC how or whether he would pursue it as administration policy. The president did say he still supports the concept of states deciding the issue on their own.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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UK: Why Liberals Turn a Blind Eye to the ‘Grooming’ of Girls

by Ed West

To understand how a modern liberal will come down on any complicated issue, simply look for a victim. It’s been the case in every major battle of the last 50 years, and it’s an almost infallible guide to Leftist thinking. The conviction yesterday of nine men in Rochdale on “grooming” charges, a rather gentle word for the sexual abuse of children, is a classic example. Almost immediately the Guardian produced a comment piece denying that there was a racial element. Sunny Hundal made the same point, even while linking to a criminal justice report which seemed to suggest the opposite. The BBC this morning went out of its way to deny there was a cultural element to this phenomenon.

Yet if the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of a particular type of crime come from one ethnic group, we can say that this crime has a racial or cultural element; if the vast majority of their victims come from another group, definitely so. To deny this seems bizarre. As Norman Dennis once wrote: “One of the unintended effects of teaching statistics to students in social-affairs departments is that a historically unprecedented large number of people have been equipped with the tools that enable them to dismiss out of hand all figures but those they want to believe.” Yet despite several prominent Pakistani-Britons saying as such, the liberal media still see their primary job as dismissing these figures in order to defend their favoured victims.

[…]

[JP note: Still too sensitive a topic for the Daily Telegraph to allow reader comments — similarly, for the Damian Thompson piece.]

— Hat tip: JP

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World-Weary Swiss Seniors Seek Suicide Help

New figures show that more and more Swiss seniors are taking advantage of assisted suicide even when they do not suffer from any terminal diseases. The latest reports from Exit, the organization that offers assisted suicide to the Swiss, show that one in every five French speakers and one in every three German speakers opting for assisted suicide are not suffering from a life-threatening illness, newspaper Tribune de Genève reported.

This section of the elderly are coming forward in ever increasing numbers, citing “weariness of life” together with a bad bill of health as the main reason for the decision. Although not terminal, many suffer from debilitating health, with incurable problems such as blindness, incontinence and mobility issues greatly reducing quality of life.

Exit is able to assist these people because, although they are not quadriplegic or suffering from terminal illnesses, they nevertheless meet the required criteria: the person’s prognosis must be for an incurable health issue leading either to death or disability, and physical and psychological pain and suffering must also be present.

“In addition, sometimes the last great hope (for some of these older people) in the winter of their lives is to join those who have already left,” Jérôme Sobel, president of Exit in the west of Switzerland, told the newspaper.

Sobel explained that the expansion of types of cases taken on by Exit occurred as a result of requests from the organization’s members. Nevertheless the practice is not without its critics.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Electronics of the Future May Thrive on Bacteria

Researches in the UK and Japan have turned to nature (read, magnetic bacteria) to help produce electronics on a nano scale. They say the bacteria could help us make better hard drives and faster internet connections.

Researchers at Britain’s University of Leeds and Japan’s Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have used a type of bacterium that “eats” iron to create tiny magnets inside themselves, similar to those found in traditional hard drives.

The research could lead to much faster, higher density hard drives and a range of other high-performance, environmentally friendly electronic devices, the scientists say.

“We’re forever trying to make electronic components smaller but are quickly reaching our limits with traditional manufacturing techniques,” Sara Staniland from Leeds University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, told DW. “Nature can help us.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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How Telerobotics Could Help Humanity Explore Space

Advances in telerobotics are in high gear here on Earth, enabling scientists to plumb the deepest oceans, extract resources from dangerous mines and even carry out high-precision surgery from thousands of miles away.

Now researchers are considering ways to adopt and adapt telerobotics for more far-reaching duties — in outer space. The ability to extend human cognition to the moon, Mars, near-Earth objects and other accessible bodies remotely could curb the challenges, cost and risks of deep-space exploration, some scientists say.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Is Einstein’s Greatest Work All Wrong-Because He Didn’t Go Far Enough?

From a farmhouse in the English countryside, gentleman scientist Julian Barbour plots to take relativity to its logical extreme and redefine the very nature of gravity, space, and time.

by Zeeya Merali

From the March 2012 issue; published online May 1, 2012

Perhaps the most far-reaching aspect of Barbour’s view of gravity is that it could reconcile general relativity and quantum mechanics, the physics of the subatomic realm, marking a major step toward the long-sought theory of everything. This incompatibility tortured Einstein in his later years and has flummoxed physicists ever since. The crux of the problem is that the quantum realm of the extremely small is defined by uncertainty. Before observing a subatomic particle, there is fundamentally no way of predicting exactly where you will find it when you measure it. Quantum equations describe only the probability of finding a particle in a certain place. This fuzziness is not due to poor measurement; it is an intrinsic property of particles on the quantum scale. In many, many experiments, quantum particles, when measured, turn up in various locations with the same frequencies as predicted by their probabilistic equations.

The problem comes when theorists try to combine relativity with quantum physics. Quantum mechanics still relies on the absolute measurements of time that Einstein discarded. String theorists have tried to reconcile the differences but keep running into roadblocks: For instance, the ripples caused by uncertainty might cause such frenzied gyrations of Einstein’s space-time that every location would be riddled with black holes, an impossible outcome. In other words, relativity and quantum mechanics seem to be hopelessly at odds.

“Most physicists are trained to get on with calculating things and not worry too much about these contradictions,” Barbour says, but to him, they were key. In his true Machian theory, there is no space-time fabric that could be torn apart by quantum fluctuations. In fact, there is no fundamental dimension of time to create conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics, removing any obstacle to coming up with a complete theory of gravity that works in both cosmic and quantum realms.

Gryb, Koslowski, and Gomes took their first tentative steps toward developing a theory of quantum gravity. They hope to show that Barbour’s model, unlike Einstein’s, does not cause gravity to flare up to infinite levels in tiny regions. Without those infinities, there should be no fundamental obstacle to uniting Barbour’s theory with quantum mechanics. Such a marriage could lead to astonishing new insights, like an explanation of what happens inside black holes and what conditions were like at the moment of the Big Bang, when the whole universe was born. “That’s the dream we are working toward now, although the math is tough,” Gryb says with a touch of understatement.

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Mission to Mars: Why Russia & US Should Tag Team Red Planet

Russia is ready and willing to partner with the United States for a manned mission to Mars, a senior Russian space official said recently.

And while NASA has not yet entered into any formal agreement to pursue the Red Planet, the agency’s chief agrees that international cooperation is the way to do it.

“I have to say that currently there is no country that could organize a manned spaceflight to Mars and a safe return,” Sergey Saveliev, the deputy head of Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos), said April 12 at the United Nations headquarters here to mark theInternational Day of Human Space Flight.

“We strongly believe that this project can be accomplished only through international cooperation,” Saveliev said through a translator. “In this field, Russia is ready to cooperate with the United States, with Europe and with other countries.”

— Hat tip: Fjordman

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Mysterious Blob Filmed in the Deep — And No-One Can Work Out What it Could be

A mysterious ocean ‘blob’ has been recorded by a deep-sea remote-controlled underwater camera.

The creature looks like nothing seen before, with speculators suggesting it is everything from a jellyfish to the remains of a whale placenta.

While, at a quick glance, the description of a jellyfish makes sense, the creature has organs and appendages never spotted on a jellyfish before.

Meanwhile it could be a whale placenta, but if that is the case then the hexagonal shapes on the skin are a mystery.

— Hat tip: JD

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Psychopaths Have Different Brains to Normal People — and Current ‘Therapies’ For Killers May be Useless

Psychopaths have physically different brains from ‘normal’ people — and may be ‘born to kill’.

In scans by scientists, they had less grey matter in the areas of the brain important for understanding other peoples’ emotions.

Psychopathy — a disorder suffered by many (but not all) violent criminals — is characterised by an inability to ‘empathise’.

Now it seems it might be caused by a structural abnormality in the brain.

The new finding may mean that there is simply no point treating psychopaths with current ‘behavioural’ treatments.

— Hat tip: JD

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