The most interesting of tonight’s news articles concerns the “Facebook invasion” by zealous mujahideen.
It has been my repeated contention that in the art of information warfare the enemy remains far ahead of us. This story is yet another example of that fact: while we excommunicate one another for being “neo-Nazis” or racists, the enemy calmly and professionally infiltrates and subverts all our information outlets.
It’s enough to make a grown man cry.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, DK, Insubria, JD, Paul Green, Steen, TB, Tuan Jim, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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California: State Deficit Nearly $15 Billion, Governor Says
California’s budget deficit this year has ballooned to nearly $15 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday, warning that the state faces “financial Armageddon” unless lawmakers take decisive action.
The projection of a $14.8 billion gap at the end of the fiscal year in June surfaced just a month after the governor announced an $11.2 billion shortfall, and the deteriorating economy is likely to make the problem even worse next year, Schwarzenegger said.
Without action this year, the state could be staring at a deficit as great as $40 billion by June 2010, an administration official said. Schwarzenegger is expected to share the bad news with legislative leaders in a budget negotiating meeting today.
“If we don’t put aside our ideological differences and negotiate to solve this problem, we’ll be heading toward our financial Armageddon,” Schwarzenegger said at a hastily called news conference at the state Capitol.
Schwarzenegger said he’s frustrated by the Legislature’s inability to find a compromise solution, and he singled out the Republicans for being “very vague and never specific” about what they want in negotiating the budget.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dear President Obama
by Barry Rubin
Dear President Obama:
They say that you prefer the name Barry and so it pleases me no end that another Barry is finally president of the United States. In addition, I once worked as a community organizer so we have two things in common.
On that basis, then, I hope you don’t mind my making some suggestions about how you might think about the Middle East. I’m not looking for a job in Washington. In fact, as I look back on my life, I note that if I’d been successful in some obsession for a U.S. a government post I would have been a proud participant in such endeavors as the catastrophic mishandling of Iran’s revolution, the failed U.S. dispatch of troops to Lebanon, the botched trade of arms for hostages with Iran, the crashed peace process, and the Iraq war.
So don’t be misled! Today, everyone’s talking about how wonderful you are. Those are the people who want jobs, favors, and access. There are others who want something else from you—like control over Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, or Georgia—who are more likely to be psychopathic than sycophantic.
Your expressed theme for your administration’s Middle East policy can be described in one word: conciliation. You think that your predecessors made unnecessary enemies and blocked, rather than furthered, progress. Building on the basis of your perceived popularity and sincere good will, you believe that it is not so heard to make friends with Iran and Syria, soothe grievances that have caused Islamism and terrorism, and solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Good luck. We hope you succeed.
But please bear in mind some important points as you go along in this effort…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Joe the Plumber Says McCain ‘Appalled’ Him
‘I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him’
‘Joe the Plumber’ told conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday that he felt “dirty” after hitting the campaign trail with Republican presidential nominee John McCain and “seeing some of the things that take place,” Politico reported.
Joe Wurzelbacher said he was specifically put off by McCain when it came to talk of the $700 billion bailout.
“When I was on the bus with him, I asked him a lot of questions about the bailout because most Americans did not want that to happen,” Wurzelbacher told Beck. “I asked him some pretty direct questions. Some of the answers you guys are gonna receive they appalled me, absolutely. I was angry. In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Minnesota Ballots: Land of 10,000 Fakes
What is the point of having a hand recount of ballots in the Minnesota Senate race if the Democratic secretary of state is going to use the election night totals in precincts where it will benefit Democrat Al Franken?
Either the hand recount produces a better, more accurate count, or there was no point to the state spending roughly $100,000 to conduct the hand recount in the first place.
But that is exactly what the George Soros-supported secretary of state has agreed to do in the case of a Dinkytown precinct near the University of Minnesota. The hand recount of the liberal precinct produced 133 fewer ballots than the original count on election night and, more important, 46 fewer votes for Franken.
So he’s proposing to defer to the election night total over the recount tally.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Vows to End Global Warming ‘Denial’ After Gore Talks
CHICAGO (AFP) — President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday his administration would brook no further delay in tackling climate change after discussing global warming with former vice president Al Gore.
Sitting between Gore and his vice president-elect Joseph Biden following the hour-long meeting, Obama told reporters: “All three of us are in agreement that the time for delay is over. The time for denial is over.
“We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this is a matter of urgency and national security, and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That is what I intend my administration to do,” he said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
You Call This ‘Vital Infrastructure’?
Governors lined up first when they met with Obama to ask for $136 billion or more in immediate projects.
But mayors were also fleet of foot. A joint request from the U.S. Conference of Mayors claims they have $73 billion in projects “ready to go.” And, they promise, they will add many more by January! They claim all projects could be started during 2009, providing fast, fast economic stimulus. That’s highly questionable. At best.
Yet the mayors deserve thanks for posting their wish list online. It gives us a peek at their priorities. They include some road and bridge projects that are no doubt important. But there’s a multitude of projects of dubious virtue.
So, what are some of these “vital infrastructure” projects that justify running up even more federal debt? We find 56 requests for museum funding, for starters. They include…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium Detains Al-Qaeda Suspects
Belgian police say they have detained 14 people suspected of being members of the al-Qaeda network.
They include a man believed to have been about to launch a suicide attack, officials said.
Federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle said police did not know where the suspected suicide attack was to have targeted.
The detentions came as a two-day European Union leaders’ summit was due to start in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on Thursday afternoon.
A total of 242 police officers carried out 16 raids in Brussels and one in the eastern city of Liege, officials said.
Police seized computers, data storage equipment and a pistol during the raids, reports say, and the men and women arrested are due to appear before anti-terrorism judges later.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Crisis: Spain, Minister’s Christmas With National Products
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 10 — This Christmas will be “in Spanish-style”, with consumption of national products and holidays in Spanish locations, “both in the mountains and on the coast”. This is the hope of the Spanish Minister for Industry, Tourism and Trade Miguel Sebastian, in order to “foster employment” and “deal with this difficult moment of crisis” in the Spanish economy. In statements quoted by the media, Sebastian stressed that last year in Spain Christmas products had been imported in the textiles sector, as well as that of toys and food, for a total value of 4.5 billion euro. If these products hadn’t been bought abroad, noted Sebastian, Spain could have generated 93,800 job places. “We could all do something in these times of difficult,” he said during a visit to a Xixona factory, which produces the nougat of the same name which is typical for the Christmas celebrations, and urged citizens to buy national products to “attenuate the crisis.” Sebastian said that he hoped the Wise Men would “bring Spanish toys”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Czech President: Democracy and Freedom Are Losing Ground in Europe
President Vaclav Klaus: Thank you for this experience which I gained from this meeting. I did not think anything like this is possible and have not experienced anything like this for the past 19 years. I thought it was a matter of the past that we live in democracy, but it is post-democracy, really, which rules the EU.
You mentioned the European values. The most important value is freedom and democracy. The citizens of the EU member states are concerned about freedom and democracy, above all. But democracy and freedom are loosing ground in the EU today. It is necessary to strive for them and fight for them.
I would like to emphasize, above all, what most citizens of the Czech Republic feel, that for us the EU membership has no alternative. It was me who submitted the EU application in the year 1996 and who signed the Accession treaty in 2003. But the arrangements within the EU have many alternatives. To take one of them as sacrosanct, untouchable, about which it is not possible to doubt or criticize it, is against the very nature of Europe.
As for the Lisbon Treaty, I would like to mention that it is not ratified in Germany either. The Constitutional Treaty, which was basically the same as the Lisbon Treaty, was refused in referendums in other two countries. If Mr. Crowley speaks of an insult to the Irish people, then I must say that the biggest insult to the Irish people is not to accept the result of the Irish referendum. In Ireland I met somebody who represents a majority in his country. You, Mr. Crowley, represent a view which is in minority in Ireland. That is a tangible result of the referendum.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Citizenship Test ‘Unfair’
Many of those who planned to take the government’s new citizenship test decided not to after learning it had been changed
An even 5500 applicants nationwide were scheduled to take the Danish citizenship test on Wednesday, but many did not because they did not realise that the format had been changed.
Previously, the 40 questions for the test had been taken from a database of 200 questions, making it possible to study for the test. But as of a change initiated at the beginning of October, questions are now randomly taken from a 180-page book.
In addition, the number of right answers for receiving a passing grade was increased from 28 to 32 and the time limit reduced from one hour to 45 minutes.
Jyllands-Posten newspaper gave the test to native Danish students at Copenhagen’s Technical Academy to see how they would fare. Only 6 out of 21 tested passed.
‘The questions are simply too difficult,’ said one student. ‘Why should you have to know a bunch of historical things to become a Dane? The test should have more questions about our current society.’
In Odense, 114 out of 435 applicants dropped taking the test Wednesday, while in the Jutland towns of Vejle, Silkeborg, Randers and Horsens, around 25 percent of those who paid the 600 kroner application fee did not take the test.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Human Rights Question Divides Politicians
The government and the Danish People’s Party are at odds over a Tunisian man being allowed to visit the neighbourhood of his alleged target
The issue of ‘tolerated stay’ has previously halted budget negotiations and is now threatening to divide the government and their traditional parliamentary ally, the Danish People’s Party (DF).
Tolerated stay came to prominence in the last few months when the Danish intelligence agency (PET) unsuccessfully tried to have two Tunisian men deported after they were charged with planning to murder one of the cartoonists behind the controversial Mohammed drawings.
One of the Tunisian men chose to leave voluntarily, but the other man has remained in Denmark. His situation became a hot media and political issue when it was found that he only had to report weekly to the police and still lived in the neighbourhood of the cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard.
Last month, the 2009 budget was secured after the government agreed to DF’s demand to introduce tightened regulations for those on tolerated stay.
The proposed law change is currently being treated by parliament. The Justice Ministry has informed MPs that any changes cannot affect people’s basic human rights, such as seeing their family.
Media reports say that the proposed change would require those on tolerated stay status to live at the Sandholm asylum centre in northern Zealand and report to police every morning.
But the Justice Ministry has indicated the government would be violating the European Convention on Human Rights if the Tunisian was prevented from spending weekends at home with his family, 10 minutes away from the home of his alleged target.
The Prime Minister acknowledged during his weekly press conference that human rights must be respected.
‘We can only detain people on the basis of a ruling (from a court of law).’
Pia Kjærsgaard, DF’s party leader, told Ekstra Bladet newspaper that the government was making a fool of itself by maintaining that any legal changes were at odds with the convention. She said DF is willing to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Police Attacked in Support of Greek Teen
Demonstrators take to Copenhagen streets in sympathy protest
A violent demonstration against police by young people protesting the recent shooting death of a Greek teenager in Athens resulted in the arrest of 62 people, reported public broadcaster DR.
Around 150 youths gathered at Israel Plads square in downtown Copenhagen for the unannounced sympathy demonstration late yesterday evening. But when police showed up and required there be a leader present who would be legally responsible for the event, the group began to leave the area in an uproar.
A splinter group of around 50 protesters then moved through the inner city vandalising property — 25 of whom were arrested at Nytorv square.
Other protesters again met up with the splinter group at City Hall Square where the youths continued their violence, walking up Vesterbrogade street and throwing rocks, bottles and paint at officers. Police arrested as many of the remaining participants as they could.
Despite the attacks on officers and the vandalism, police said all the youths would probably be released from custody before Thursday morning.
Protesters said they had gathered to hold a sympathy demonstration for a 15-year-old boy who was gunned down by Greek police in Athens earlier in the week. The issue has caused days of rioting and violence in Greece.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Parliament Rejects Easing of Immigration Laws
Parliament has rejected proposed changes which would have made it easier for refugees to obtain residence permits, reports the daily Helsingin Sanomat.
This included voting down a provision which would have made it easier for them to claim residency for family members still abroad.
The government has been wrangling with immigration issues in order to bring national legislation on accepting refugees or returning them to their home countries more in line with the European Union’s policies.
This time, however, Parliament said the current plans went far beyond the EU, making the law too lax and subject to interpretation….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Finland: Upsurge in Complaints of Racist Comments Online
Police have received a record number of complaints concerning racist comments on the internet, reports the newspaper Kaleva.
Hundreds of such complaints have been filed this year, compared to just 14 last year. Half of those cases were classified as libel and half as incitement to racial hatred.
The Council for Mass Media also reports an upsurge in complaints related to immigration-related comments.
The council’s chair, Pekka Hyvärinen, says he has been astonished by the brutality of the comments in some online comment threads.
“I worked as a reporter in South Africa during the apartheid era, and I did not encounter this kind of language even there,” he told the Oulu-based daily.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Fresh Riots Overnight Italy and Spain
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 11 — There were fresh disturbances overnight in Italy and Spain following the killing of a student by Greek police on Saturday. Yesterday evening cobblestones were prized from Rome’s streets and thrown at security personnel standing guard at Rome’s Saudi Arabian Embassy, as well as at officers of the Municipal Force. These events came during an unauthorised protest march after a sit-in in front of the city’s Greek Embassy. One member of the armed forces was concussed and a demonstrator arrested. There were also scuffles in Bologna, in front of the office of the Greek Honorary Consul. Five police officers were injured. There were several incidents yesterday evening in Madrid and Barcelona leading to the injury of officers and the arrest of several demonstrators during two demonstrations held in protest at the death of the fifteen-year-old student. In Madrid, around 200 youths attacked a police station in the city centre shouting “police murderers”. According to Spanish daily El Mundo website, several officers were injured and at least nine demonstrators arrested. In Barcelona, around 400 youths, many of Greek origin, marched through the streets causing damage to facilities and to some banks. In clashes with the police, two demonstrators were arrested and two officers slightly injured. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
How Europe Escaped Speaking Arabic
By Michael Novak
The Western world has never taken Islam with the full seriousness it has earned. Down through history, once Islamic armies have conquered a land, with very few exceptions, that land has remained Muslim. A Christian will wish in vain that the great circle of Christian lands around the Mediterranean (and on up into Syria, Iraq, Iran, and northwards into Georgia) had not fallen irretrievably into Muslim hands, most of them before 732 A.D. For Christians who think that the future of the world favors movement in their direction, a study of the latent dynamism of Islam is not a little unsettling.
Edward Gibbon, finishing up his The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-78), was able to imagine how easily serene little Oxford could have been dominated by tall Islamic minarets before his birth, and the accents in its markets would have been Arabic: “ . . . the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet” (469).
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Muslim Cemetery to Open in South
Bari, 10 Dec. (AKI) — Local and national Muslim officials on Saturday are expected to attend the opening of the first Muslim cemetery to be created in the southern Italian region of Puglia. Mustafa Mansouri, from the Moroccan Confederation in Italy and Italian MP and president of Italy’s Association of Moroccan Women, Souad Sbai, will join representatives from Rome’s Grand Mosque at the official inauguration.
The Islamic community of Gioia del Colle in the province of Bari believes the cemetery is an important breakthrough.
“I believe such an initiative, among the first in the central south and definitely the first in Puglia, is the natural consequence of the Muslim community’s strong roots in the city of Gioia del Colle,” the city’s mayor, Pietro Longo, told Adnkronos International (AKI).
“It could also lead to the establishment of the first mosque in Puglia.”
An agreement to build the cemetery was announced at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in October
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Refugee Advocate is ‘Swede of the Year’
Anita Dorazio, a 72-year-old advocate who pioneered health clinics for refugees in hiding, has been named Swede of the Year for 2008 by the weekly news magazine Fokus.
Dorazio, who resides in the upscale Stockholm suburb of Lidingö, opened her first underground clinic in the back of neighbourhood café and book store in 1995 with the help of infectious diseases specialist Anders Björkman.
At the time, providing health care to refugees in hiding was a little known issue and Dorazio depended on volunteer healthcare workers, many of whom had experience working in makeshift clinics in developing countries, according to Fokus.
At Dorazio’s urging, a second clinic opened in Gothenburg in 1998. In the last decade, a number of similar clinics have been launched around the country, all drawing inspiration from Dorazio’s original café clinic on Lidingö.
In honouring Dorazio, Fokus cited her “tireless, engaged, and goal oriented work for the rights of refugees” saying that her efforts have “contributed to a tolerable existence for many vulnerable refugees”.
“Her efforts have also put Swedish refugee policy in focus as well as the continued fight for people’s equal value in Sweden,” wrote Fokus.
Dorazio now represents the Swedish Network of Asylum and Refugee Support Groups (FARR) as she continues her nearly 40 year career supporting refugee rights.
In 1999, she, along Hédi Fried, was awarded the Eldh-Ekblad peace prize, an annual award given by the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (Svenska Freds).
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Moscow Ready to Help Lukoil for Repsol
(ANSAmed) — MOSCOW, DECEMBER 10 — The Russian government, if the necessity arises, is ready to give political support to the Russian company Lukoil in its attempt to purchase a part of the Spanish oil company Repsol, a project that has been hotly debated in Spain: announced the Russian Energy Minister, Serghei Shmatko, quoted by the Interfax agency. “Russia is interested in the entrance of Lukoil in the European energy share market”, stressed the minister, reminding that by purchasing a part of Repsol, Lukoil would become the second largest private company in the world for extraction, with the potential for almost 120 million tonnes per year and doubling its refining possibilities. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Housing Sector Crashes But Companies Richer
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 9 — The building industry in Spain has been on its knees for months, but this hasn’t stopped the main companies in the sector from distributing millions in dividends to its shareholders. In 2007 an enquiry by daily newspaper Publico found that the giants Acs, Ferrovial, Acciona and Sacyr had 700 million euro in dividends after the budget from the previous financial year, when the 5 companies together earned 4.9 billion euro. Even though the five companies reduced their earnings by 4% in 2007, dividends have increrased by between 2% and 40%, according to the figures quoted by Publico. In particular Acs, the top business in the sector, controlled by the March family of bankers, had 22% of shares which now, by converting dividends into chares has become 24%; similarly for Alberto Cortina and Alberto Alcocer (from 12.5 to 14%), and Florentino Perez (from 11 to12%). With 40% of dividends distributed between shareholders the Marches have received 129 million; Cortina and Alcocer 73 million and Florentino Perez 64 million. The Entrecanales family, majority shareholder of Acciona, increased its dividends by 28%, after a return of 25% on the shares they hold with Endesa. President José Manuel Entrecanales, who controls 59.8% of Acciona, pocketed 140 million euro. The Del Pino family, majority shareholder of Ferrovial (controls 58.3% of capital) decided to increase its dividend by 22% in 2007, despite the halving of profits during the same year due to the depreciation of the purchase of British airports by BAA. Sacyrd increased its dividends in a more contained way (1.7%) granting 25 million euro to its president, Luis del Rivero however, as well as José Manuer Loureda, the company’s founder. And while shareholders share out the profits, the housing market continues to be paralysed. Buying and selling of used houses has fallen by 70% in three years in Spain, according to a report by the Network of real estate experts. Transactions in the used housing market has not risen above 13,000 a month, according to the President of the Network Eduardo Molet, a lower number than the 19,000 indicated by ministerial figures which include 6,000 in inheritances, donations and exchanges, and therefore not purchases or sales in reality. The Network’s statistics show a total of 47,000 housing transactions in the last 5 years, with a 70% lower volume than the previous three years. Molet has asked the Government to lower the property transfer tax which is 7% in Spain, and to bring it in line with the other European countries where it is no higher than 1% in some cases, and in the case of England, doesn’t apply to apartments worth less than 300,000 euro. The price of houses is also in free fall, down by 7.8% in November compared to the same month in 2007, according to the index of Housing Markets drafted by the taxation company Tinsa. This is the ninth consecutive fall since the start of the year, which has brought house prices to a level similar to May-June 2006. Houses in metropolitan areas and those on the Mediterranean coast have suffered the most. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Transport: Green Light From EU to Baltic-Adriatic Corridor
(ANSAmed) — VILLACO (AUSTRIA), DECEMBER 10 — The European Union is to include the realisation of the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor among its top priorities. So announced EU transport commissioner, Antonio Tajani, to the presidents of the Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto regions, Renzo Tondo and Giancarlo Galan, and to the governor of Carinzia, Gerhard Doerfler, during the trilateral talks between the three regional authorities in Villaco (Austria). Tondo contacted Tajani by telephone to hear confirmation of the EU’s interest in financing the Baltic-Adriatic corridor which is of great interest to both the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia. Until now the corridor was not among EU’s priorities. The importance of the project — which has been the eternal wish of Galan — is due to the fact that it will intersect with Corridor 5, putting the ports of the north in contact with those of the Mediterranean, thus favouring the transport of goods between western and eastern Europe. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Police: ‘We Need Crime Breathalysers for PCs’
UK police are hoping to one day develop a breathalyser-style tool for computers that could instantly flag up illegal activity on any PC it’s attached to.
Detective superintendent Charlie McMurdie, architect of the UK’s Police Central E-crime Unit (PCeU), said frontline police ideally need a digital forensic tool as easy to use as the breathalyser, to help them deal with growing numbers of computers being seized during raids on suspects’ homes.
McMurdie said such a tool could run on suspects’ machines, identify illegal activity — such as credit card fraud or selling stolen goods online — and retrieve relevant evidence.
She told silicon.com: “Do we need to seize five computers in a suspect’s house or could we use a simple tool to preview on site and identify there’s that one email we are looking for and we can then use that and interview the person now, rather then waiting six to 12 months for the evidence to come back to us?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tougher Love
If these are tough times, they are also times for tough love. Yesterday James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, unveiled his long-awaited white paper on welfare reform, announcing a radical overhaul of the benefits system in Britain to come into effect in 2010. Under the government’s plans, virtually all benefits will require claimants to do something in return, with income support for single parents being abolished. Only the parents of babies under one and the severely disabled will be exempted from having to seek or prepare for work….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Lajcak, for Rs Not Independence Nor Abolition
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADO, DECEMBER 10 — The Republika Srpska (RS), a largely Serb area in Bosnia and Herzegovina, cannot expect any kind of secession from the Sarajevo government. Yet at the same time, it cannot be abolished either as it is an autonomous part of the Bosnian state. This was the message of the high representative of the international community in Bosnia, Miroslav Lajcak, during a visit to Belgrade today. Lajcak, a guest in Serbia of President Boris Tadic and the foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, has outlined in worried tones the actual situation in Bosnia. Speaking to journalists, Lajcak said that among recent developments, recent Stabilisation and Association Agreements between Sarajevo and the EU were a “success”, but he lamented the persistent problems in the country, which was the worst hit of the wars of secession from Yugoslavia in the 1990s. “There is still too much tension, too much confrontation and too much nationalist rhetoric”, said the high representative. Lajcak has therefore openly wrapped Bosniàs politicians over the knuckles, accusing them of looking out for only their own ethnic and denominational interests without “looking after the rest of the country”. He also said that proclamations of hypothetical independence for the RS (launched every now and then by Serbo-Bosnian leaders) and calls for the “abolition of the RS” (often invoked by Islamic and Bosnian-Croats) were “irresponsible”. The diplomat adjudged both these two outcomes to be “impossible”. In this context, Lajcak has urged Belgrade to not throw fuel on the fire and to show itself as “constructive”, underlining the importance of the new, pro-European Serbia of Tadic for stability in the entire Balkan region as well as its “responsibilities” in maintaining peace in Bosnia “as outlined in the post-war Dayton agreements” of 1995. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Healthcare: Piedmont-Backed Oncology Ward Opens in Bosnia
(ANSAmed) — TURIN, DECEMBER 9 — The radiotherapy department of the Oncology Centre at Bosniàs Zenica Hospital will soon be active. This has been the latest objective of collaboration between Italy’s Piedmont Region and the Zenica-Doboj Canton. The protocol of understanding between the two regions, which envisages the joint development of a cervical tumour screening programme, goes back to its signing in 2004, under a cooperative relationship already under way in 1995. The Oncology Department was officially opened on 15 May this year and the training programme for medical and nursing staff at Turin’s AOU Molinette and in Belgrade has been completed. Today, the hospital is ready to open its doors. Piedmont’s operatives, having spent six months travelling around the area helping Bosnians prepare for the opening, are now to remain available on a distance link. January will see the start of new training courses for radiological technicians and pathological anatomy staff. This has all been made possible by the commitment of the Piedmont Oncology Network and the Valle d’Aosta, by the Piedmont Region, by the San Paolo Company and the CRT Foundation, who financed the renovation of the buildings and the training programmes for the personnel. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Serbia: Fondiaria Sai 100% Owner of Ddor Novi Sad
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, DECEMBER 9 — Italian insurance company Fondiaria SAI announced that it completed the purchase of 100% of shares in the insurance company DDOR Novi Sad, reports VIP Daily News Report. Fondiaria bought 83.32% of the DDOR capital in January, and it increased its ownership share in November. In 2007, DDOR made revenues of RSD13 billion RSD (150 million euro), and the expenditures amounted to 12.8 billion (148 million euro). (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: ICC, Belgrade Government Accuses EU of “Hypocrisy”
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, DECEMBER 9 — There are signs of growing disillusionment with the EU in the pro-Europe government in Belgrade. Today a minister of the Serbian government accused the EU of “hypocrisy” following the note released yesterday in Brussels concerning relations with Serbia. In the note, which was written during the last Council of Foreign Ministers, the “progress” made by the former-Yugoslav republic in recent times was recognised but it was also said that a further effort ‘towards full cooperation’’ with The Hague International Criminal Court (ICC) was required. These words have apparently irked Rasim Ljajic, the minister responsible for relations with the ICC, who said that the words hide the “hypocrisy” of the EU towards his country. In Ljajic’s judgement, the arrest last July of the ex-leader of Serbia, Radovan Karadzic (who was at the top of The Hagués wanted list) “is obvious proof of Serbiàs political will to fully cooperate with the court”. He continued to say that instead of “adequately valuing this”, the EU is continuing to set “further conditions” on the arrest of two fugitives from international justice, including in particular the ex-head of the Bosnian Serb Army, Ratko Mladic. The truth, summed up Ljajic, is that “26 of the 27 countries of the Union already recognise that there is full cooperation and would be ready to formalise a trade agreement, the whole thing is being conditioned by the single veto of Holland”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Israel Accord in Civil Aviation Sector
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 9 — The European Union and Israel signed an agreement in the civil aviation sector which will eliminate national restrictions imposed in bilateral agreements for air service between EU member states and Israel. The accord was signed at the EU Council of Transport Ministers, by the Vice-President of the Commission with Transport authority, Antonio Tajani, and by the Israeli Transport Minister, Shaul Mofaz. The agreement, underlined Tajani, is “good news for Israeli passengers and European airlines because it ends legal uncertainties of the bilateral agreements”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Israel: Yes to Tighter Relations, Arab States Disagree
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 10 — The European Union is to strengthen relations with Israel to the disagreement of several Arab countries, who are asking for guarantees for the Palestinian population and for the future of the peace process in the Middle East. The EU Foreign Ministers have decided to increase high-level contacts with Israel, replacing the old action plan — which had hitherto regulated relations — with a new system which fixes the regularity of meetings at ministerial level and opens the doors to Israel’s participation at key EU meetings such as that of the Political and Security Committee (PSC, or COPS in French). An initial summit between the EU and Israel will take place in April 2009, during the Czech presidency of the organisation. The new, strengthened agreement over cooperation provides for three meetings per year at Foreign Minister level and the possibility for each president of the EU to invite a leader of Israeli diplomacy to a meeting of PSC (COPS) ambassadors. The EU has said that it is also ready to look at ‘‘the possibility of inviting Israel to take part in civil missions’’ within the defence and security policy, but on ‘‘a case by case basis and when there are common interests at stake’’. Furthermore, the EU has committed to an informal dialogue with the Jewish state on strategic issues ‘‘at least once a year’’. If some some member states are ‘‘more critical than others of Israel’’, the Czech foreign minister, Karl Schwarzenberg, said, his French colleague, Bernard Kouchner, replied that there is no need to see ‘‘any significant policy’’ in this strengthening of relations. Above all because alongside the deepening of relations with Israel, a strengthening of ties with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has also been approved. ‘‘Of course’’, admitted Kouchner, ‘‘it will be slightly more complicated to strengthen relations with the Palestinians given that their state does not exist’’. Such prospects are not enough for some Arab countries, like Egypt — the recognised (even by the EU) mediator in the peace process in the Middle East — which has declared itself ‘‘stunned’’ by the EU’s decision. ‘‘Israel has not encouraged any opening in the peace process in recent times, and in fact has sped up the installation of the settlers’’, said the Egyptian foreign minister, Aboul Gheit. For Gheit, the Europeans ‘‘have signed a blank cheque for Israel, which will allow it to continue its policy with catastrophic consequences for the peace process’’. The PNA has also been strongly critical, urging the EU to take ‘‘more balanced decisions to maintain the momentum of the peace process’’, noted the spokesman of the president of the PNA, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). Meanwhile, today the EU Human Rights Council, which has asked Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza and free many jailed Palestinians, has launched the idea of consulting an international criminal court to check whether Israeli political leaders and military commanders in Gaza should be put on trial for violating international law.(ANSAmed).
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Israeli Envoy Accuses U.K. Church of Anti-Semitism
Christmas carol service featured lyrics to seasonal favorites blasting Jewish state
Ron Prosor, Israel’s Ambassador in Britain lashed out against the Church of England on Wednesday for having approved an anti-Israel carol that was sung as part of a service, according to the Times of London.
The carol was part of an “alternative” event called ‘Bethlehem Now: Nine Alternative Lessons and Carols’ that took place at the end of November in the Wren church of St James’s in Central London, and was organized by anti-Israel campaigners, including one liberal Jewish group.
The carol Twelve Days of Christmas was sung as: “Twelve assassinations/Eleven homes demolished/Ten wells obstructed/Nine sniper towers/Eight gunships firing/Seven checkpoints blocking/Six tanks a-rolling/Five settlement rings. Four falling bombs/Three trench guns/Two trampled doves/And an uprooted olive tree.”
“It was appalling to see a church allow one of its most endearing seasonal traditions to be hijacked by hatred,” Prosor told the Times, accusing the Church of having failed to condemn such a carol which provokes anti-Semitism and disregards years of efforts to bridge gaps between the two religions.
“Unfortunately, the criticism from within the Church of England, that should have echoed with bold moral clarity, has instead sounded like a silent night, but far from holy,” he said.
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Israel: Shift to the Right, Likud Still Favoured in Polls
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 10 — Likud is still the favourite party of Israelis despite its shift to the right following its members’ voting in Monday’s elections. According to an opinion poll carried out by daily Haaretz, Likud would receive 36 seats if elections were to take place (out of a possible total of 120), two more than in the preceding opinion poll. In the outgoing Knesset (parliament) Likud has 12 seats. Haaretz also speculates that the Kadima centrist party would win 27 seats and Ehud Barak’s Labour party 12 seats, were elections to take place. Yediot Ahronot has published another poll which shows Likud with a strong advantage at 31 seats, followed by Kadima (24) and the Labour party (11). (ANSAmed).
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Mid-East: Sderot, ‘We Are Afraid’, Child’s Message to Olmert
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 10 — “Mister Prime Minister, I want to tell you that the Qassam rockets make a frightful noise, my legs shake when I hear them, and my heart beats quickly… Mister Prime Minister, help us. Everything is difficult for us here. We want to live like the other children of Israel”: this was the message delivered yesterday to Ehud Olmert by Orel Levi, a little girl who goes to the fourth grade in an elementary school in Sderot (Neghev), the city most hit by Palestinian rockets in recent years. Olmert, in the city for an inspection, was very touched. Today, he called for a meeting in Jerusalem to examine the situation of the borders with the Gaza Strip. “I also told Olmert that life here wasn’t fit for children” added the twelve year old Oren Elias from Sderot. “For the last eight years we have been bombarded. What can we do about it, forced to run from one safety zone to the next or the constant search for a ‘betonada’ (a protective cement block)?”. “Olmert has not given us concrete responses, in general he has promised that he will increase the city’s defences. But his visit — added Oren — was useful in any case. I think that he will do something now, because he has seen with his own eyes that the children living here are afraid of the Qassam rockets”. “For example, I don’t think it is right that my little sister, who is just five years old, should have to think about this kind of thing. A little girl — Oren continues — should live her childhood, not think all the time about rockets”. “Olmert and the other leaders to come after him — foresees Oren — will have to do what is possible to put an end to the rockets. I really hope so. In the meantime, when I’m really scared, my parents hold me close, then I feel stronger”. (ANSAmed).
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Rome Christmas Markets to Help Babies in Jerusalem
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 9 — This year the Christmas presents in Rome are helping babies in Jerusalem. The mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, presented this morning a “Mercatini della pace” (Christmas Markets of Peace) initiative, which will are currently taking place in 5 Roman squares until January 7. In Piazza Bologna, Viale America, Piazza Fiume, Piazza del Popolo, and on the pier in Ostia there will be stands set up with artisan made products, multi-ethnic antiques, and modern collectibles. Proceeds from sales will be used to build a nursery school in Jerusalem for Catholic, Muslim, and Jewish babies. “It is an ambitious project — explained Alemanno — because in the nursery school that will be built, babies will grow together. We hope to be able to communicate the results of sales directly to the mayor of Jerusalem who I invite to come here to Rome”. And to avoid controversy that could be caused by the use of the squares in Rome, the mayor specified: “initiatives like this one do not occupy our squares, but enrich them”. (ANSAmed).
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U.S. Accused of Meeting Secretly With Terrorists
Hamas political adviser says Obama administration will favor dialogue
JERUSALEM — The U.S. recently held secret talks with Hamas in hopes of establishing some sort of relationship with the terrorist group in control of the Gaza Strip, charged a member of the rival Fatah organization.
“The Palestinian delegation in Egypt has precise information about secret talks between Hamas and the U.S. These talks are ongoing and took place as recently as in the last weeks,” said Saed Kamal, a Fatah legislator and a former Fatah ambassador to Egypt.
Fatah is the U.S.-backed party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Kamal was speaking to the Saudi Arabian Okaz newspaper in an article published today and translated from Arabic by WND.
He continued: “These talks don’t aim to bring recognition to Hamas but they bring together common interests of both sides and go with the interests of Hamas. These talks are behind the fact that Hamas is not enthusiastic to renew the Palestinian national dialogue.”
Hamas, responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks, officially is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Hamas’ charter calls for the murder of Jews and destruction of Israel.
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department confirmed to WND it would violate U.S. law for any American official to talk with Hamas.
Ahmed Yousef, Hamas’ chief political adviser in Gaza, claimed to WND today his group has held talks with U.S. officials, including members of both Democratic and Republican parties. He said he is not encouraged the Bush administration will engage with Hamas, but said he believes the incoming administration of Barack Obama will favor dialogue.
He also said Hamas is in talks with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who serves as the main envoy for the “Quartet” of Russia, the U.S., the EU and the U.N.
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Energy: Turkey; Gas Prices Drive Istanbul to Use Coal, Wood
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 11 — As natural gas prices in Turkey rose 60% over the last 10 months for both residential and industrial use, some people are planning to replace natural gas heating systems with coal- or wood-burning stoves as Hurriyet daily reports. Recent debates as to whether stove sales have boomed in response to natural gas price increases, are ongoing. Stove sellers of Istanbul claim there has not been an actual boom in sales, but believe it is too early to say. “Stove sales have increased a little, with more and more people asking about stove prices,” said Sukru Akac, 70, who has sold stoves for over 50 years at the stove market in Istanbul’s Eminonu. “It is still warm outside. Many people look at stoves but not so many are buying yet. When the weather becomes colder, we expect a greater increase in stove sales,” said Akac. The Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation, or BOTAS, announced the price of natural gas for residential properties would increase by 22.5% as of November 1. However, earlier price increases have not yet been reflected in bills as people have not used natural gas for heating since last winter and only in the past month have the temperatures decreased enough to justify turning on the heaters. “As soon as people get their first gas bill, most low- and middle-income owners will rush out to buy stoves,” said Recep Kapakci, a salesperson at the Eminonu stove market. “People wrongly think that the price increase is around 20%, however since last winter, there has been around a 100% increase in gas prices for residential use,” said Kapakci. However, some stove sellers are pessimistic, saying their customers are already low-income people and are too poor to buy new stoves. (ANSAmed).
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Environment: Turkey May Miss Out Poznan Climate Meeting
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 28 — Turkey may soon lose its chance to become an active participant at the Poznan Climate Change Conference in Poland next week if it does not quickly ratify the UN-led Kyoto Protocol, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases to battle climate change, daily Today’s Zaman writes. “Although the government sent legislation to Parliament seeking approval of the Kyoto Protocol in June and the bill is waiting at Parliament, legislators have so far been too busy to make the issue a priority”, officials said. “Neither the government nor Parliament has a negative stance on the approval of the Kyoto Protocol, but that the political agenda has been too full to address it”, Mustafa Ozturk, deputy chairman of Parliament’s Environment Commission, said. So far 176 countries have signed the protocol. Since Turkey has not signed, however, it has been excluded from previous meetings. Turkish officials said that in the post-Kyoto agreement era Turkey will still have its own reasons for implementing the protocol, but that it also needs to actively participate in the process to voice its concerns. Hilal Atici, head of Greenpeacés Mediterranean energy and climate campaign, said Parliament cannot make excuses for not making the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol a priority. (ANSAmed).
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Human Rights: Turkey Guilty of Violation of Speech Freedom
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 9 — Turkey has to pay two journalists jointly 4,000 euro for violating their freedom of speech, the European Court of Human Rights ruled today as reported by local press. The two men, publishers of a Turkish weekly, were fined in 2002 in Turkey for publishing statements by Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned former leader of the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (Pkk). The Turkish court found the journalists guilty of violating anti-terrorism laws. The Strasbourg court in its ruling stressed the decisive role of the press as “public watchdog” in a democratic society. “The press had the job of taking on controversial subjects and publishing them in the scope of its legal obligations and the State may curb these rights only in especially grave circumstance”, the European court ruled. (ANSAmed).
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Iran to Send Relief Ship to Gaza
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran’s Red Crescent announced on Wednesday that it is sending a relief ship to the Gaza Strip, in the face of an Israeli blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.
“We are sending a consignment of a 1,000 tonnes on a ship to Gaza the beginning of next week,” Red Crescent secretary general Ahmad Moussavi was quoted as saying on the organisation’s website.
“There is the possibility of our ship being blocked just as the Libyan ship was blocked,” he added referring to a vessel intercepted by Israel a month ago.
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Iraq: UN Calls for More Action on Missing Kuwaiti
New York, 10 Dec.(AKI) — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed “serious concern” at the poor progress in recovering the remains of Kuwaiti and other nationals missing since the 1990 Gulf war.
“I am also concerned at the absence of progress with regard to finding the Kuwaiti archives,” Ban wrote in a report to the UN Security Council.
Ban noted that Gennady Tarasov, the High-level Coordinator for the issue, reported that security conditions in Iraq had improved to allow exhumation to resume at sites known to contain Kuwaiti prisoners of war and to allow the assessment of new mass graves.
The Iraqi Minister for Human Rights, who heads the body authorised to exhume graves in the country, explained that it only had 12 individuals able to perform the task. They are currently occupied with the exhumation and identification of victims of the previous regime as well as casualties of the Iran-Iraq war.
In his report, the Secretary-General extended his “heartfelt condolences” to the families of the 236 Kuwaiti and third-country nationals whose remains have been identified to date.
While noting Iraq’s positive stance over the humanitarian process of identifying and repatriating missing Kuwaitis as well as finding the documents, he stressed that statements of goodwill need to be translated into concrete action.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Haj, Pilgrims Make Tea at Mobile Phone Charging Points
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 10 — To facilitate pilgrims charging their mobile batteries, authorities have set up several points at various places in the Mena valley, outside the city of Mecca. But some innovative pilgrims have made other uses of this facility by making tea, Arab News reported. Some enterprising ones have not only made tea, but also sold it at lower prices than those of normal shops. But some of the pilgrims who wanted to charge their batteries were not convinced and complained for having to wait. Other pilgrims appreciated the better quality of the tea made at the charging points. For the third day today pilgrims threw stones to the Devil from the Jamarat Bridge, a ritual started on Monday with the Aid el Adha. Yesterday, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, called for internal dialogue within Islam in a speech delivered at the royal palace in Mina during a reception for leading Muslim dignitaries. “Today we are in need of dialogue within the Muslim Ummah itself”, he said, pointing out that “sedition, ignorance, and fanaticism constitute obstacles that are threatening the hopes of Muslims”. The king, as quoted by Asharq Al-Awsat website, also stressed that terrorism “is caused by extremists who represent no one but themselves even if they put on an Islamic character. Islam is innocent of their acts”. (ANSAmed).
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Refuses to Meet Former US President
Beirut, 10 Dec. (AKI) — The Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah has refused to meet former US President Jimmy Carter. Carter’s spokesman said on Wednesday that the organisation which is now represented in parliament, had rejected a request for a meeting.
“I understand that some of the leaders of Hezbollah have said they were not going to meet with any president or former presidents of the United States,” said spokesman Rick Jafculca.
Carter arrived in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Tuesday with an American delegation for an official visit.
He is also due to visit Syria where he will meet President Bashar al-Assad and Palestinian Hamas officials in exile in Damascus.
Hezbollah, led by radical cleric Hassan Nasrallah, is backed by Syria and Iran and is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel the US, and Canada and others.
Carter who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 brokered the historic Camp David peace accord signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on in 1978.
He has retained an active interest in Middle East issues since he left office
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Media: Al Jazeera Network to Expand Its Presence in Turkey
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 3 — The Al Jazeera Network has launched its English and Arabic news channels on Turksat’s new digital cable platform, network’s official announced. “The launch of the Al Jazeera channels on Turksat will substantially increase Al Jazeeràs presence in this important market where the network already broadcasts to over eight million households and the continued expansion of our reach in Turkey is integral to our growth in the region and our international distribution efforts”, Phil Lawrie, Al Jazeera Network’s Director of Global Distribution, said as reported by Turkisg press. Bridging Europe and Asia, and with a population of 70 million, Turkey is at the heart of world affairs and a key market for the Network. Both Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic are already carried on Turksat’s free-to-air satellite Dth platform (reaching 6 million households) and Al Jazeera English is carried on Digiturk’s DTH service (reaching 2 million households). Al Jazeera English already reaches over 130 million households worldwide and Al Jazeera Arabic is available in over 50 million homes across the globe. This new advance grants even more viewers access to the network’s unique content and fresh perspective on international news. (ANSAmed).
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Terrorism: Fatah Al-Islam, Leader Captured or Killed in Syria
(ANSAmed) — ROMA, DECEMBER 10 — Radical Islamist group Fatah al-Islam announced that its leader had been “captured or killed” and named his successor, a US intelligence monitoring service reported yesterday quoted by Middle East Online. The group said Shaker al-Abssi and two other members of its group were ambushed in Syria while trying to link up with other Islamic militants from Iraq and Afghanistan, SITE Intelligence Group Monitoring Service reported. The three were either captured or killed in the ensuing gunfight with members of the Syrian security forces, said the statement. Abu Mohamad Awad had been named to succeed Abssi at the head of Fatah al-Islam, said the group. SITE said the statement, the authenticity of which has still not been confirmed, was posted on Islamic militant website on Monday. Fatah al-Islam fought a fierce three-month battle with the Lebanese army last year in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, which left some 400 people dead, including 168 soldiers. In November, Fatah al-Islam reportedly claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in Damascus that left 17 dead in September. (ANSAmed).
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Turkey: Foreign Writers Invited to Promote Country’s Image
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 9 — Turkey is planning to invite foreign writers and artists in 2009 to promote the country’s image with “emotional expressions” for tourists, Anadolu news agency reported quoting Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister, Ertugrul Gunay. “People are more impressed by expressions full of emotions than advertisements on billboards, magazines, Tv channels or newspapers. Therefore, we will give priority to more inter-active methods in 2009 and invite a number of foreign writers and artists to Turkey”, the minister declared. “Our new advertising will be broadcast and published in nearly 80 countries beginning from the 1 January 2009”, Gunay said, adding that “we will invite foreign critics of food, travel and music as well as artists to Turkey. Their positive remarks about Turkey will impress people”. (ANSAmed).
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Turkey: 2,500 Butchers Injured During Islamic Festival
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 9 — Around 2,500 people were injured in Turkey as they were trying to slaughter sheep and cows in the Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, Dogan News Agency reported. Muslims around the world celebrate the Festival of Sacrifice to mark the end of the haj by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrify his son Ismail on God’s command. (ANSAmed).
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Russia Plans ‘Liquidation’ of Ministries
Dozens of Christian organizations on the list
Dozens of Christian organizations that have been providing social services, ministry and other help inside Russia are being targeted for “liquidation” by the nation’s Ministry of Justice, according to a new report.
The information comes in a newsletter from a leader with an American Christian organization, Youth With A Mission, who reported he found a declaration recently on the webpage of the Russian Ministry of Justice listing the pending “liquidation” of 56 religious organizations.
The American ministry leader was out of the country and unavailable today, but his wife, contacted by WND, explained the pressure on evangelical groups is coming from a combination of resurging Russian hatred for the West, and pressure from Orthodox churches to ban outside organizations.
However, the ministry leader’s wife asked that her husband’s name not be used, because he continues to work in Russia, and could be targeted for retaliation.
She told WND all of central Asia is seeing an increasing level of persecution of Christians, since there are Muslim majorities in many locations.
“[Russian authorities] definitely want [Christians] out. They are targeting them,” she said. “They are allowing only three-month visas, and then you have to leave. Obviously you can’t do long-term ministry there.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Berlusconi, No More Troops. Extend Caveat
(AGI) — Rome, 10 Dec. — The Italian military contingent in Afghanistan will not increase. The Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced the news during the presentation of Bruno Vespa’s book. He added however that the terms for our troops have been extended, so that “they will be able to do more than they would have been able to do before”. Making reference to the meeting yesterday at Palazzo Chigi with the US general David Petraeus, Berlusconi explained that “no reference was made to an increase of Italian troops in Afghanistan, we did not talk about an increase in troops which remain, there are 2,300 of them. For now, — he added- there is no request and so there is no provision.” Berlusconi underlined however that there have been changes to the terms for the Italian military in Afghanistan and that Italian troops “will be able to do more than they would have been able to do before”.
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India — Pakistan: Mumbai Terrorists All Pakistani, Indian Muslims Condemn Them
Indian police identify attackers as tensions with Islamabad remain high. Pakistan does not make public charges against extremists it arrested. Mumbai Muslims condemn the attacks, refuse to bury attackers.
New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The 10-men group that carried out the Mumbai attacks that killed at least 172 people and wounded another 300 were all Pakistani, Indian authorities said. Meanwhile Mumbai Muslims condemn the attackers and terrorism
Mumbai police Chief Rakesh Maria yesterday said that Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman, the only terrorist who was captured alive, gave some of the attackers’ names and place of origin.
A US newspaper quoted Mumbai Police Deputy Commissioner Deven Bharti as saying that the ten men were part of a commando trained for such actions and that another 20 are ready to act against India.
India has blamed Pakistan-based Islamic extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for the attacks and has reproached Islamabad for not cracking down on the group despite outlawing it in 2001.
In recent days Pakistan arrested 16 extremists, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, considered LeT’s director of operations, but this has not eased tensions between the two countries which remain high.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi yesterday stated that his country did not want war with India. He said however that Pakistan was “fully prepared in case war is imposed on us,” adding that those arrested would be tried in Pakistan.
However, charges against the men have not yet been made public. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani today said only that they had been “detained for investigation.”
Not many experts believe that Pakistan will take any systematic action against LeT because of the possible protests that might generate in the country.
Questions are also being raised about Islamabad’s intention vis-à-vis the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, which has thousands of followers, runs more than a hundred schools and is widely believed to have bankrolled Lashkar-e-Taiba.
For the United States, LeT is a terrorist group and India has called on the United Nations to put in on its terrorist list.
In India local Muslims have firmly condemned the Mumbai attacks.
In Mumbai the Bada Kabrastan Muslim cemetery has refused to bury the dead terrorists. The city’s other Muslim cemeteries have refused as well.
“The ideology of the terrorists is inconsistent with the tenets of Islam,” said Mr Tai, president of the Muslim Council Trust. For him the gunmen “aren’t Muslims and don’t deserve a burial in Muslim graveyards.”
Meanwhile demonstrations against terrorism have taken place (pictured).
India’s population of 1.15 billion people includes about 150 million Muslims, who are largely marginalised.
Some 52 per cent of Muslim men and 91 per cent of Muslim women are unemployed. Almost half of Muslims over the age of 46 are illiterate and Muslims also account for 40 per cent of India’s prison population.
Significantly though, no ethnic or religious incident has taken place in retaliation for the attack.
Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi, director of Markaz-ul-Ma’arif, a local madrassa in Jogeshwari, a Mumbai suburb inhabited largely by Muslims, pointed out that at least ten Hindu extremists were arrested last month for rigging bombs on motorbikes that tore through a crowd of Muslim worshippers in the western town of Malegaon.
“People now understand that no single religion has a monopoly over terrorism,” Mr Qasmi said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Rising Violence Against Domestic Workers in Asia
Jakarta, 10 Dec. (AKI) — Source IRIN — In 2004, Rima, a domestic helper in Hong Kong, was repeatedly beaten and raped by her employer until she met a fellow Indonesian who took her to the police.
In December 2001, the badly beaten and bruised body of 19-year-old Muawanatul Chasanah, a domestic helper in Singapore for nine months, was found in what became known as “the worst maid abuse case” in the city-state.
These are just two stories chronicled in Dreamseekers: Indonesian Women as Domestic Workers in Asia, published by the International Labour Organization. They are just a fraction of the thousands of cases of abuse against Indonesian female migrant workers, many of which go unreported.
“Everybody believes there is substantial under-reporting,” Lotte Kejser, chief technical adviser for trafficking in the ILO’s Jakarta office, told IRIN.
About 80 percent of workers leaving the country are women seeking work as domestic helpers. And over the past decade, according to the National Commission on Violence Against Women Indonesia, incidents of violence against Indonesian women have steadily increased.
To draw attention to this abuse, the commission and rights agencies have been campaigning to raise awareness among Indonesian women of their rights.
The campaign, said Sri Wiyanti Eddyono, a commissioner, was organised at the community level, with the commission working with local NGOs to conduct forums or theatre productions to make women more informed and, therefore, empowered.
“Last year, the cases of violence against domestic workers (employed abroad) was huge — around 5,000 of the reported 22,000,” Sri Wiyanti told IRIN. “This year, we gathered more than 25,000 reports from across the country and overseas.”
She said their statistics included cases of domestic violence, migrant worker exploitation, women trafficking and sexual abuse. Migrant worker abuse and domestic violence, she said, made up the majority of reported cases.
“Overseas domestic workers are probably the group of workers that experience the most systematic form of abuse — sexual, physical, mental,” Kejser said, explaining that their work situation often rendered them powerless and completely dependent on their employers.
This year, with legislative and presidential elections scheduled for 2009, the commission is using the 16-day focus on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women to encourage women to put the issue high on the political agenda.
“First on the list is the ratification of the convention on migrant workers,” Sri Wiyanti said, referring to the UN Convention on Migrant Workers, a comprehensive international treaty regarding the protection of migrant workers’ rights, which Indonesia has signed but not ratified.
According to Kejser, Indonesian migrant workers are among the least protected in the world. From high placement fees and poor training to lack of legal papers and government support, low salaries and lack of benefits, Indonesian migrant workers fare worse than those from countries such as the Philippines.
“There is no clear explanation as to why the convention hasn’t been ratified yet,” she said, “but ratifying it would obligate the country to protect migrant workers, for instance, by lowering placement fees, negotiating better work conditions overseas, and ensuring better support from embassies.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Masohi in Recovery, Two Named Suspects
The situation in Masohi, Central Maluku regency, was gradually returning to normal Wednesday after the region was rocked Tuesday by a clash between two groups that injured five people, damaged 67 houses and set a church on fire.
Some vendors in Binaya market had resumed their activities Wednesday and a number of residents had returned to their homes after seeking refuge at the barracks of the 731st Kabaressy Infantry Battalion.
The Central Maluku Police have named two people, Welhemina Holle and Asmara Wasahua, as suspects for sparking the riot.
The debacle began when Welhemina, a teacher at an elementary school in Masohi, allegedly insulted Islam during an after-class tutorial for sixth graders.
The students reported the matter to their parents, prompting the local branch of the Indonesian Ulemas Council to ask the police to take action against the teacher.
Welhemina is being charged under Article 156 of the Criminal Code on blasphemy, which carries a maximum of 15 years’ imprisonment….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Porn Law Casts a Shadow Over Human Rights
The newly enacted anti-pornography law threatens to further stain Indonesia’s already sullied human rights record, rights groups warn, as Bali prepares to spearhead national opposition to the law.
Activists have expressed deep disappointment in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who signed the much-criticized bill into law days before the celebration of World Human Rights Day, which falls every Dec. 10.
Ifdal Kassim, chairman of the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said the law, which would invade people’s privacy, could trigger human rights violations….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Cases of Religious Violence Up: Report
Religious violence is on the rise in the world’s largest Muslim country according to a report by the Wahid Institute, which places the blame on the government for its failing to crack down on radical groups.
The institute, a moderate Islamic think tank founded by former president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid to promote pluralism in Indonesia, reported that religious freedom-related violence had increased throughout the country, with 232 cases reported this year compared to 197 last year.
Many of the incidences of violence were perpetrated by state authorities, according to the annual report released on Human Rights Day, Wednesday…..
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: 9/11 Terror Suspect Freed in North
Kuala Lumpur, 10 Dec. (AKI) — The Malaysian government has released five terror suspects, including Yazid Sufaat, who was accused of aiding terrorists during the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. Interior Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Sufaat, allegedly linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group, was released from the Kamunting detention centre in the northern Malaysian state of Perak.
“He was considered a threat to public security in Malaysia because he was part of Jemaah Islamiyah, trying to establish an Islamic government within the region,” said Albar.
“Yazid Sufaat and four others were released on 4 December”.
However, Malaysian Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said Sufaat was released with another Malaysian on 24 November.
“We released him as he had shown remorse and repentance after almost seven years of rehabilitation,” said Hassan quoted by Malaysian English language daily The Star.
“He was released on several conditions. He has to report to the police regularly and cannot leave Selangor without police permission. Our officers will also be monitoring him as well as several others who have been released over the past years to ensure they do not go back to their old ways,’’ he said.
Sufaat, arrested in December 2001, is accused of having housed several of the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks when he lived in the United States. The terrorists allegedly used his house as a meeting place for Al-Qaeda members.
Among those who visited his house were 9/11 attackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. Both were named by the American FBI as the hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon in Washington.
Sufaat was also accused by US authorities of helping convicted 9/11 conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui.
The other suspects that were released include two Thai separatists and two Malaysians suspected of aiding foreign intelligence groups.
Jemaah Islamiyah is widely considered South-East Asia’s most dangerous terrorist organisation and responsible for the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in 2002.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Moves on Mumbai Accused
Pakistan has put the founder of an Islamic militant group accused of having links to last month’s Mumbai attacks under house arrest.
Cleric Hafiz Mohammad Saeed set up the group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India says planned and carried out the attacks.
Pakistan is also closing offices of Mr Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity, after it was put on a UN blacklist.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the multiple attacks, which killed 173 people in India’s financial capital.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry told the BBC that Jamaat-ud-Dawa buildings would be shut across the country immediately.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Court Approves Islamic School in Bass Hill
THE Land and Environment Court (LEC) has given conditional approval for an Islamic school to be built in Sydney’s southwest, despite the controversial plan having been rejected twice by Bankstown Council.
The 1200-student school in Bass Hill was given the green light by the court as long as the existing plan is amended.
Bankstown Council first voted against the proposal in December last year, saying the Al Amanah College had failed to address traffic and environmental concerns.
In July the college took a revised development plan to the Land and Environment Court, which asked the council to comment on the amended proposal.
That proposal was again rejected by Bankstown Council in October.
However, the LEC today said it would approve the proposal, as long as the bulk of the development was reduced, and traffic, noise and other concerns were addressed.
The school will still cater for 1200 students.
Bankstown mayor Tania Mihailuk said the council was disappointed with the court’s decision, saying it stood by its original rejection of the development.
“We are disappointed. In this case we believe the application is not compliant, but the court has chosen to approve that application despite that non-compliance,” she said.
“Bankstown City Council still stands by its decision that the size and the scale of the development is not appropriate for the site.”
Bankstown’s opposition to the school has led to accusations that race had played a part in its decision, particularly when one councillor in October asked if a study had been done on the school’s likely impact on racial harmony in the area.
The controversy has been compared with the case of an Islamic school in Camden, which was rejected on planning grounds earlier this year amid a strident anti-Muslim campaign.
Ms Mihailuk said there was no similarity between the two, saying that while a strong community campaign had accompanied the development’s rejection by the council, race was never an issue.
“We didn’t have what occurred in Camden,” she said.
“The majority of objections have been on planning considerations. I don’t think that we had that campaign of race that took place there.”
Principal of Al Amanah College, Mohamed el Dana, said the school would work to ease community concerns about the development.
“We are ready to work positively with everyone, and we would like to assure everyone that school will bring peace and will promote harmony in the area,” he told Macquarie Radio.
“And if anyone has any concerns about the school plan, we will be happy to discuss the concerns of local residents.”
The LEC will next review the development plan on December 19.
| — Hat tip: DK | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Refugees Adapt Better When They Decide Where to Live
Refugees who choose where they want to live are able to adapt to Swedish society more quickly than those who are assigned housing by the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket), a new study finds.
A study presented on Thursday by the National Board of Housing, Building, and Planning (Boverket) shows that those who chose their own place of residence were able to secure employment faster and purchase their own apartments sooner than others, Sveriges Radio reports.
Refugees have had the right to choose where they want live in Sweden since 1994, but that right has been opposed by many.
Critics argue that it leads to segregation and cramped living conditions because refugees end up moving in with friends and relatives.
The result, argue critics, is delayed integration into Swedish society.
But the findings of the housing board’s study show that just the opposite is true.
“They clearly have friends and acquaintances to fall back on when they seek asylum here in Sweden. They have, quite simply, a social network which they use through living there and that helps them even after they’ve applied for asylum,” said Malmö University lecturer Pieter Bevelander to Sveriges Radio.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Pelosi ‘Mugged’ for Emphasizing ‘Christ’ at Christmas Event?
Reverend says attack on House speaker is proof of relentless war on Christian holiday
Pelosi was a guest speaker at the annual U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree lighting ceremony Dec. 2. She reminded the crowd of “all the gifts God has given us and how blessed we are” and asked Americans to pray for world peace.
[…]
The crowd cheered and the Air Force band played “O Christmas Tree” and “Joy to the World.”
But then something curious happened.
VIP guest Rev. Rob Schenck of Faith and Action, a Capitol Hill missionary, said he approached Pelosi to thank her for keeping “Christ-mas” as the Capitol, according to AOL News. He emphasized the word “Christ.”
Pelosi reportedly smiled and shook his hand. Schenck said he started to walk away, but Pelosi followed him. Then she captured his attention by putting her hand on his arm.
“You know, I got mugged for that,” she told the reverend.
Schenck said he didn’t read into her statement.
“At first I didn’t understand what Mrs. Pelosi was saying, so I simply nodded and thanked her again,” Schenck said, according to Christian News Wire.
But he said Pelosi persisted.
According to Schenck, with a serious look on her face, Pelosi said, “No, you ought to know, I really got mugged for that.”
He said her expression showed “consternation” and “frustration.”
Schenck said he believes Pelosi was speaking about the political price she paid for participating in the Christmas celebration when she used the term “mugged.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Will Idaho Remain a Homeschool-Friendly State?
An Idaho state representative is turning up the heat on homeschoolers.
According to the Idaho Values Alliance (IVA), Idaho State Representative Donna Boe is concerned that parents are not “getting the job done” at home, even though IVA executive director Bryan Fischer says home schoolers routinely outperform public schools.
Despite the statistics, Fischer notes Boe is proposing some questionable legislation. “She is proposing legislation that would add criminal offense of educational neglect to Idaho’s code,” he explains. “And what this would do is it would allow child protective services and even the courts to intrude into families that home school their children under the suspicion that they are not getting an adequate education.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
8 Really, Really Scary Predictions
Known as Dr. Doom, the NYU economics professor saw the mortgage-related meltdown coming.
We are in the middle of a very severe recession that’s going to continue through all of 2009 — the worst U.S. recession in the past 50 years. It’s the bursting of a huge leveraged-up credit bubble. There’s no going back, and there is no bottom to it. It was excessive in everything from subprime to prime, from credit cards to student loans, from corporate bonds to muni bonds. You name it. And it’s all reversing right now in a very, very massive way. At this point it’s not just a U.S. recession. All of the advanced economies are at the beginning of a hard landing. And emerging markets, beginning with China, are in a severe slowdown. So we’re having a global recession and it’s becoming worse.
Things are going to be awful for everyday people. U.S. GDP growth is going to be negative through the end of 2009. And the recovery in 2010 and 2011, if there is one, is going to be so weak — with a growth rate of 1% to 1.5% — that it’s going to feel like a recession. I see the unemployment rate peaking at around 9% by 2010. The value of homes has already fallen 25%. In my view, home prices are going to fall by another 15% before bottoming out in 2010.
For the next 12 months I would stay away from risky assets. I would stay away from the stock market. I would stay away from commodities. I would stay away from credit, both high-yield and high-grade. I would stay in cash or cashlike instruments such as short-term or longer-term government bonds. It’s better to stay in things with low returns rather than to lose 50% of your wealth. You should preserve capital. It’ll be hard and challenging enough. I wish I could be more cheerful, but I was right a year ago, and I think I’ll be right this year too.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How a Real “War Within Islam” Would Look
by Andrew Bostom
Will “Elkie” Ihsanoglu Lead the OIC Lodge Against “Anti-Islamic Terrorists” in Pakistan’s “Lawless Tribal Belt”?
Mordechai Nisan, [1] writing a decade ago, observed that already by the mid-1990s the world’s then over 50 Islamic nations had amassed considerable economic and military power—both of which have further increased during the subsequent 10-years:
The Muslim umma [global community] was by the mid-1990s numbering approximately one billion believers, possessing over 50 Muslim states, and in control of a little less than a third of United Nations membership; moreover, possessing more than 50 per cent of known crude oil resources and a combined military arsenal of conventional and non-conventional weaponry second only to the combined Western bloc of states. The international balance-of-power could not in the aftermath of the end of the Cold War ignore the Muslim civilization and its awesome pretensions to playing a dominant role in global affairs.
Nisan’s cogent observations continue to have obvious implications for the so-called “[2] war within Islam” narrative promoted by policymaking, academic, and media elites across the political spectrum, and reaffirmed, vociferously, in the aftermath of the recent jihadist carnage in Mumbai, India. For example, Boaz Ganor—acclaimed as a terrorism expert, and currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at The Hoover Institution—[3] opined in the San Francisco Chronicle on 12/5/08,
This is not Islam but a cynical, calculated misuse of Islam…It is also not the responsibility of the United States alone to deal with this global growing threat, but rather the obligation of all of Western society and the civilized world, including — and perhaps primarily — the Muslim world itself, which stands revolted and terrified by the ideas and atrocities perpetrated by the jihadists. It is time for moderate Muslims to save Islam from the jihadists.
“Cynicism” and “calculated misuse,” versus attacks entirely consistent with [4] the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad war (including jihad terrorism) across a 13-century continuum, notwithstanding, I agree with Ganor’s admonition that it is “primarily” the responsibility of “the Muslim world itself” to confront jihadism. But it was documentary filmmaker Sean Langan’s harrowing account ([5] just reported in the NY Daily News 12/6/08) of his three-month captivity by a resurgent Taliban/Al Qaeda within Pakistan (in the so-called [5] “lawless tribal belt”), along the Afghanistan border, that clarified how a moral, intellectually honest, and concrete “war within Islam” should be waged, without delay. Langan has identified—once again—those who must be the obvious targets of a campaign by Muslims to “reclaim Islam” from radical, barbaric “hijackers” of their faith…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Human Rights: 60th; EU Report, Situation in Libya Worrying
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 10 — Serious concern about Libya which continues its disrespect for basic rights, while Iran keeps violating human rights and while the situation in Russia is deteriorating: this emerges from the latest EU report on human rights presented today. No progress has been made since last year’s report in Libya, where, the report drawn up by the Commission and the Council states, concerns about “respect for political rights (no parties are allowed)” remain high, as well as for “the judiciary system which is not independent and for torture and the death penalty which are a regular occurrence”. In Iran “human rights continue to be seriously violated”. In fact, “in many respects the situation has worsened, with an alarming and growing application of the death penalty also for very young people, in a country where the sentence can also be given to people under the age of 18”. The EU remains “concerned also on the deterioration of the human rights situation” in Russia, in particular regarding justice, freedom of opinion, assembly and press, and the situation in Chechnya and other regions in the north of the Caucasus. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: From Aisha to Rania, Women Patrons Bring Culture
(by Cristiana Missori) (ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 27 — Sultanas, queens, ladies of war, and above all patrons of culture. Contrary to what most people think, inside the Muslim world, women have covered very important roles. It was a cosmopolitan world, that which extended from North Africa to the Middle East, from Afghanistan to China. Addressing this theme is one of the must important scholars in the field of Islamic art and architecture, Dalu Jones, present in Rome for a meeting organised by the Averroé Centre. “In the courts — the researcher reminded — women usually spoke at least four languages, and had to know calligraphy, poetry and music. They worked in thousands on tapestries, embroideries, and on jewellery. They chose and decided what to produce. In a word they decided what would be in style for that year”. So, the patronage of these women developed in a very different way from that which we tend to see today. Those women had a social role: they built universities, madrasses (Koranic Schools), hospitals and streets. “Let’s consider the Karaouine University in Fez, in Morocco, founded by a female patron”, Jones remarks. It was in fact Fatima al-Fihri, that in the year 859 A.D., who invested in the foundation of this important university with the inheritance she received from her father — a rich merchant — to the end that her community, that of Karaouine, would benefit from it. “Or Zubayda (the wife of Calif Harun al-Rachid, 786-809), who commissioned along the road from Baghdad to Mecca a series of water works and rest stops for the benefit of pilgrims during their journeys”. The history of Islam is full of examples of this kind. A chain of contributions that has never been interrupted since the era of Aisha (the Prophet’s wife), sustains Dalu Jones. “In India — the scholar continues — where Muslims held domain for 8 centuries, the Begum Dynasty (which reigned over the state of Bhopal from 844 to 1926) saw four Sultanas reign on the throne. It was again a woman who founded the college in Aligarh in the 800’s”. Now this institution is one of the most important universities in the contemporary Islamic culture of the country. Even in religion, women have held a fundamental role: “they were even mystics”, the expert reminds. The most famous of all was perhaps the Iraqi Rabia al Adawiyya, one of the greatest saints in the Islam of the eighth century. “In the end, Jones says, behind the veil it was possible to do many things. These women also wanted others of their kind to be educated. For this reason they spent their own money, not that of their consorts”. What then is the difference between them and their European cousins? “Islamic women patrons did more than those of Europe”, Jones replied. “Catherine dé Medici was a protector of artists, but she didn’t use her money. Maybe Katherine the Great did, but out of vanity”. And today? “Female patronage in the Arab world is still present, but in a different form: Suzanne Mubarak and the reconstruction of the Library of Alexandria; the wife of the Emirate of Qatar, Moza bint Nasser al Missned, started the Qatar Foundation, which among other things allows Arab artists to express themselves freely; the Queen of Jordan, Rania, who for the last five years has sent 50 Muslim artists around Europe”. “Beyond these — Jones concludes — there is not much patronage. The reality is that the context has changed, forcing women into a minor context”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadist Calls for Facebook Invasion
A MEMBER of an Islamic jihadist forum who urged supporters last week to wage a “YouTube invasion” by uploading propaganda videos has called for a similar attack on Facebook.
The SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based monitoring service, reported that the appeal for a “Facebook invasion” was made on Tuesday on al-Faloja, a password-protected jihadist forum.
After praising the “great success” of the “YouTube invasion”, the forum member using the name Omar Abdul Hakim called on other members to start using Facebook, describing it as “a podium to reach millions of people”.
“We will use Facebook as a new and exclusive media tool to fight the media offensive on jihadist media, its forums, and its websites and in order to reveal the Crusaders,” Hakim wrote according to SITE.
The forum member posted instructions on how to register on and use Facebook and outlined “goals of the invasion” as “reaching the vast base of Muslims who subscribe to Facebook” and “participating and interacting with them”.
“Let us start to post publications, articles, Islamic and jihadist pictures,” Hakim wrote.
Facebook’s terms of service prohibit “organisations or groups that promote or glorify hatred, violence, intolerance, racism or discrimination” and it “reserves the right to delete or disable access to any such Facebook pages”.
| — Hat tip: Paul Green | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists Abandon Global Warming ‘Lie’
650 to dissent at U.N. climate change conference
WASHINGTON — A United Nations climate change conference in Poland is about to get a surprise from 650 leading scientists who scoff at doomsday reports of man-made global warming ? labeling them variously a lie, a hoax and part of a new religion.
Later today, their voices will be heard in a U.S. Senate minority report quoting the scientists, many of whom are current and former members of the U.N.’s own Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
About 250 of the scientists quoted in the report have joined the dissenting scientists in the last year alone.
In fact, the total number of scientists represented in the report is 12 times the number of U.N. scientists who authored the official IPCC 2007 report.
Here are some choice excerpts from the report…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sofia: Introduction to the Presentation of the Book “Blue, Not Green Planet”
It is my great pleasure to be again in your country — after more than two years — and to have the opportunity to present my book “Blue, not Green Planet” here today…..
I want to start with the clarification of one frequent misunderstanding, which I so strongly realized last week while making an interview with a reporter from your daily Trud. I repeatedly see that people confuse two basically different things — a necessary protection of the environment (necessary because there is no doubt that we have to take care of the rivers, lakes, seas, forests and air) and an irrational attempt to fight or even to protect the climate. I am very much in favor of rational efforts when it comes to environmental protection, but I resolutely reject any attempts to change — or as I frequently hear to combat — climate.
After having spent years studying this issue I came to the conclusion that we have been constantly deceived. The Great Global Warming Debate is not about temperature or CO2 levels. It is not a scientific dispute inside climatology. It is a clash between those who want to change us (not climate) and those who believe in freedom, markets, human ingenuity, and technical progress. It is a dispute about us, about people, about human society, about our values, about our habits, about our life……
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Sofia: the EU, Global Warming and the Current Economic Turmoil
Thank you for the invitation to come here again. I remember quite vividly the positive atmosphere here, in the same hall, a few years ago. I was here in November 2004 — just after the Czech Republic’s EU accession — and spoke about the EU. A lot has changed since that time. Bulgaria entered the EU and by now has certainly made its own first experiences with the membership. I assume (and hope) your expectations were not excessive and didn’t cause a big expectations-reality gap to arise.
I am visiting your country in the moment of our preparations for the EU presidency which we take seriously and will be able — I am sure — to organize it in a standard way. I would also like to say very explicitly that for us the EU membership has no alternative. Recent, rather insensitive reactions to some of our views on the Lisbon Treaty, which were coming from the old EU countries, reminded us — to my great regret — of our non-democratic past. We both — the Czechs and the Bulgarians — have to insist that no one is the owner of the EU, not to speak of Europe. ….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |