Swine flu has arrived in force in the Gaza Strip, with three deaths from the disease — the first fatalities from H1N1 in Gaza. The Israeli authorities are concerned, and plan to send 10,000 doses of vaccine to the Gaze Strip to try to impede the further spread of the disease.
In other news, the Danish People’s Party has officially proposed a ban on minaret-building in Denmark, similar to the one which was just passed by referendum in Switzerland.
Thanks to 4symbols, C. Cantoni, Esther, Gaia, Henrik, Insubria, JD, Pundita, Sean O’Brian, TB, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Egypt: Inter-Arab Investments Only 4.5% Total Arab Worlwide
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 7 — Inter-Arab investments represent only around 4.5% of the total Arab investments worldwide. This will be one of the themes of the 9th session of the Economic Unity Council, slated for Thursday, taking place amid great challenges that require collective efforts to confront them and ease their effects, Mena reported. The global economic crisis, which the world is currently going through, requires promoting Arab cooperation especially inter-Arab investments as the Arab world possesses giant potentials and the Arab states are capable of creating a better atmosphere for investment. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jobs — Or Snow Jobs?
President Obama keeps talking about the jobs his administration is “creating,” but there are more people unemployed now than before he took office. How can there be more unemployment after so many jobs have been “created”?
Let’s go back to square one. What does it take to create a job? It takes wealth to pay someone who is hired, not to mention additional wealth to buy the material that person will use.
But government creates no wealth. Ignoring that plain and simple fact enables politicians to claim to be able to do all sorts of miraculous things that they cannot do in fact. Without creating wealth, how can they create jobs? By taking wealth from others, whether by taxation, selling bonds or imposing mandates.
However it is done, transferring wealth is not creating wealth. When government uses transferred wealth to hire people, it is essentially transferring jobs from the private sector, not adding to the net number of jobs in the economy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Defenseless Enviro-Thugs Go on Offense
At a time when leftist enviro-tyrants ought to be hanging their heads in shame, they are, instead, taking the offensive. They are not only dismissing the staggering Climategate scandal as insignificant but also redoubling and accelerating their push to enslave the world with their progress-swallowing treaties, laws and regulations.
It’s the same old leftist playbook: Approach every desired major policy change as a crisis, and demand immediate action. If the public begins to wise up to the distortions and exaggerations, elevate the threat warning from dire to urgent.
We saw it in our domestic politics in the United States when President Barack Obama’s leftist Democrats manufactured a simulated crisis over health insurance, deliberately overstating by multiples the number of uninsured as a predicate to Obama’s demand that a comprehensive bill had to be passed before Congress’ August recess.
Shortly thereafter, it came to light that Democrats had also grossly manipulated the projected costs of their proposals and flagrantly lied about such issues as rationing and government-funded abortions. All the while, these “progressives” concealed from the public the underlying facts and data and their ultimate aims, obliterating Obama’s pledge for greater transparency in government.
Like-minded global and American leftists know the jig is almost up on the fabricated global warming “consensus,” as the public is catching on to their deception (reflected by fresh polling data), and the Climategate scandal has lifted the veil on the leftist scientific community’s global conspiratorial corruption. They tell us to pay no attention to the Climategate behind the curtain and to join with them in launching the reverse thrusters on modernity and progress in deference to the global-warming hoax. Meanwhile, the Obama-leftist Environmental Protection Agency has hedged its bets (in the event Copenhagen is a bust) by declaring the air we exhale an environmental hazard.
[…]
The Associated Press reports that Copenhagen envisions a deal to transfer hundreds of billions of dollars from rich to poor countries every year over decades to help them adapt to climate change.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hijacking ‘Dry Run’ Testimony Mounts
Cover-up hinted as case recalls ‘flying imams’
Evidence that an incident on an Air Tran flight from Atlanta to Houston could have been a “dry run” for a possible hijacking is mounting, with analysts hinting at a cover-up because of an airline gag order on employees and more witnesses coming forward to say they were afraid.
The airline, meanwhile, is sticking to its prepared statements that there was an issue with a passenger and a cell phone but the matter is considered closed.
Word of the situation first came through a viral e-mail that included a passenger’s description of about a dozen Muslims causing a disturbance aboard Flight 297 on Nov. 17.
[…]
Meanwhile, a second similar incident has been related to WND by an airline employee who has asked her company to investigate. She insisted on anonymity in this report until she gets a response.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How Chinese Products Are Stealing Christmas
Dangerous toys, clothes, appliances, even baby strollers, pacifiers flood U.S. stores
WASHINGTON — Zhu Zhu Pets, furry robotic hamsters, are the hottest Christmas craze of 2009 — with millions being flown into the U.S. from China on 747s to keep up with the demand.
But, like so many other toys, clothes, appliances and even baby strollers and pacifiers on the market for holiday shoppers this season, they may be unsafe, say consumer watchdogs.
While Zhu Zhu pets have not faced a Consumer Product Safety Commission recall, a report from GoodGuide.com says they contain antimony, a toxic metal known as a carcinogen. The federal limt for antimony in products is 60 parts per million, while the Zhu Zhu has 93 parts per million in the fur and 103 in the nose.
“If ingested in high enough levels, antimony can lead to cancer, reproductive health and other human health hazards,” said Dara O’Rourke, an associate professor of environmental science at U.C.-Berkeley and co-founder of GoodGuide.com. “If these toys aren’t even meeting the legal standards in the U.S., then I would say that it isn’t worth the risk for me to bring it into my household.”
[…]
Bicycles are always a favorite Christmas gift for kids. But 6,400 distributed by Easton Sports of Scotts Valley, Calif., and manufactured in China were recalled this season because of stem failure that cause the rider to lose control.
[…]
Thinking about giving someone a kitchen appliance this year? Be warned.
Haier America Trading of New York, N.Y., voluntarily recalled nearly 54,000 blenders made in China when it was learned the blade assemblies came apart or broke, posing laceration risks.
Or maybe you were thinking about getting Dad a gas grill. About 663,000 Perfect Flame grills made in China and sold in Lowe’s were voluntarily recalled because they posed burn hazards to users. They caused at least 40 fires resulting in burns to hands, arms and faces and at least one eye injury requiring surgery.
Power adapters used with IBM back-up disk hard drives, also made in China, were recalled when it was found they were failing and exposing live electrical contacts that posed shock hazards to consumers.
[Comments from JD: As an exercise, the next time you go shopping, try to find something NOT made in China. It’s really quite incredible.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is ‘Victory’ In Obama’s Vocabulary?
The verdict is in. Not only did Barack Obama fail miserably in his speech from West Point Military Academy, but he looked angry and peevish in doing so. It was kinda like a comic delivering flat, predictable punch lines before a tough audience who wanted, but didn’t expect, much more than they got.
In Obama’s case, he had actually delivered his pseudo punch lines much earlier, when he renamed the War on Terror, “The Overseas Contingency Operation,” and when he stuck it to Gen. McChrystal by dithering as American troops died. His other punch lines included sticking it to heroic Navy SEALs after their extraordinary service in capturing a wanted terrorist, and telling Congress not to get involved in the Malik Nidal Hasan terrorist murders at Fort Hood (which is the advice he should have followed before he ended up supplying beer and snacks as a mea culpa after recklessly insulting the Cambridge Police Department), having his Justice Department give legal standing in our courts to enemy combatants (so terrorists worldwide would understand what a just system of jurisprudence we have, “cough-cough”), and curtseying to foreign potentates.
Receiving no applause for those punch lines, he fell back upon his oft-used narcissistic view of himself, which allowed him to believe he could just show up at West Point, teleprompter in tow, pivot his head side to side, and the cadets would be impressed. Well, he did, but they weren’t. As a matter of fact, I don’t think anyone but the “Towel-e-bon” in “Pock-e-ston” were impressed — and they were only impressed by a display of weakness unwitnessed in their culture.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Gigantic Military Empire
From Norwegian: As Obama is about to arrive to get his Noble Peace Prize, VG Nett reports that the US has 5,500 military bases at home and abroad, and 350,000 soldiers stationed abroad. More soldiers have died under Obama in Afghanistan than before. 488 soldiers were killed since he took office
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
The Waste of Taxpayer Dollars Never Ends
This past Fall, turning in our clunkers for cash was all the rage. Obama even took credit for “stimulating” the auto industry back to health. Well, here’s the real financial result of the program.
If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you get $4500 off the purchase of a new car, for an apparent “savings” of $1000. However, here’s a little known secret I bet the auto dealer didn’t mention — you have to pay taxes on the $4500 as income. If you are in the 30% tax bracket you will pay $1350 on that $4500. So, rather than save $1000, you actually pay an extra $350 to the feds.
In addition, now you probably have a car payment that will cost you for the next 4 — 5 years. But it gets even better. It appears than many of the car dealers actually raised the prices of the cars. Just before the Cash for Clunkers program began, LA Ford dealers were selling Ford Focus for about $12,500. During the program they stopped discounting them, instead selling for the list price of $15,500. Other dealers, from Chevy to Toyota did the same.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US to Pay $3.4bn to Settle Native Americans Land Case
The US government has agreed to pay $3.4bn (£2.1bn) to settle a long-running case over Native American land.
The Cobell case, filed in 1996, alleged the government had mismanaged billions of dollars in income from natural resources on Native American land.
Under the deal the interior department will share $1.4bn (£859m) among 300,000 tribe members as compensation and set up a $2bn fund to buy land from them.
President Barack Obama said it was “an important step towards reconciliation”.
“I heard from many in Indian Country that the Cobell Suit remained a stain on the nation to nation relationship I value so much,” Mr Obama told Congress.
He said he had pledged as a presidential candidate to resolve the issue and was proud the step had finally been made.
The secretary of the interior department also said it would aid reconciliation.
“This is an historic, positive development for Indian country,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement released by the department.
Contentious case
The dispute dates back to the 1887 Dawes Act, which seized Indian land — much of it rich in natural resources — and gave it to white-owned companies to exploit.
Under the Act, the land was divided into plots and each Indian family was assigned a parcel of land, a concept alien to their culture in which all land belonged to the tribe.
The idea was for them to be “compensated” for the use of their land, however disputes arose almost immediately, perpetuated as ever smaller parcels of land were inherited by new generations.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the parties had tried to reach an agreement “many, many times”.
“But today we turn the page. This settlement is fair to the plaintiffs, responsible for the US, and provides a path forward for the future,” he said.
Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfoot tribe and who filed the complaint in 1996, welcomed the settlement, saying the administration had listened to Native American concerns.
But she said there was “no doubt” that the final amount was “significantly” less than what those affected actually deserved.
The plaintiffs had claimed they were owed $47bn.
On its website the department for the interior said that the litigation had included hundreds of motions, dozens of rulings and appeals, and several trials.
The agreement must be approved both by Congress and a federal judge.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: US Student Arrested Over Christmas Market Thefts
A US student was arrested yesterday (Sun) after he was caught breaking into a Christmas market in Tyrol.
Police said the 21-year-old had tried to flee when officers caught him going through goods at a stand at a market in Innsbruck’s old city at 3am and ignored warning shots before jumping into the River Inn trying to escape.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: No to Minarets!
By Professor Sven Hakon Rossel
The international media — apart from Great Britain’s best newspaper The Daily Telegraph — does not know how to react properly in connection with the Swiss referendum last Sunday, November 29, with its unambiguous “no” to the construction of minarets. On the one hand, the result probably must be accepted, the journalists write, but on the other hand, the result is undemocratic and terrible to such a degree — and, furthermore, the voters have probably been led astray — so that, in fact, the result of the referendum ought to be ignored.
But this, of course, is impossible. The oldest democracy in the world has a law in place which requires a referendum to be held when it is demanded by 100,000 voters — and the outcome must be acknowledged whether one agrees or not! Furthermore, it has hardly been mentioned in the press, that also Swiss feminists have supported the referendum because of the well-known Islamic oppression of women!
Nevertheless, critical voices are heard from all over the world — mostly from politicians and journalists — but, characteristically, a majority of the letters to the editor found in the international media clearly support the outcome of the Swiss referendum. “A disgrace”, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the South African Navi Pillay exclaims, but in the forefront of the protests we find, ironically enough, a number of Islamic countries spearheaded by the EU-candidate Turkey. “This is an expression of racism and fascism”, foams the Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan with rage demanding, that Switzerland nullifies the referendum. Well, that’s perhaps what is being done, where he comes from . . . And, please do not forget that it was the very same Erdogan who pronounced the threatening statement, that minarets were the bayonets of Islam!
That precisely Erdogan’s protest is nothing but hypocritical and grotesque becomes obvious from the fact, that Christians in Turkey are neither allowed to gather publicly or in order to worship, nor are they allowed to build churches, a ban which exists in almost all Arabic countries.
The writers of the letters to the editor almost all agree that large mosques and minarets symbolize that oppression and intolerance which comes to the fore everywhere in the Koran and the Shariah laws. Time and again, the writers of the letters mention and comment on the hypocrisy to be found in the protests against the Swiss referendum inasmuch as it is common knowledge that no infidel is allowed even to approach the holy city of Mecca, whereas any Muslim is welcome to enter the Basilica of St. Peter’s in Rome. If a Muslim in Saudi Arabia converts to Christianity, he or she is being decapitated; and how come that in the year 2003 1,5 million Christians lived in Iraq, whereas today the number is reduced with 50%? Peaceful coexistence? And just think of the persecution of Christians in Iran, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan. Everybody is welcome to check these and additional statistics on the website of the international human rights organization Open Doors: www.od.org.
The Coptic Christians in ever so western Egypt are being persecuted and killed without the same mass media protesting which otherwise have been beside themselves with indignation in connection with the Swiss referendum. These are the same media which also wished to curtail our western, democratic freedom of speech in connection with the courageous publication of the satirical Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005, but apparently did not mind that the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard had to go underground and that the head of the Danish People’s Party, Pia Kjærsgaard, because of her support day and night must be protected by two bodyguards.
Furthermore, it has not escaped the attention of the international press that precisely Pia Kjærsgaard has suggested that a similar referendum about the building of mosques and minarets should also be held in Denmark, a suggestion that is also expressed by the Dutch politician Geert Wilders and various politicians in Italy. Thus, the highly respected Austrian newspaper Die Presse with the headline: “The Danish right wing exults and also demands a referendum” writes: “Also Pia Kjærsgaard’s party which is strongly critical of Islam and which guarantees the majority of the centre-liberal coalition government [in Denmark] has subscribed to the fight against the building of mosques”. And the newspaper’s correspondent, who apparently is unable to distinguish between Islam in general and its militant groups, cannot let go of labelling The Danish People’s Party as a right wing party.
It is certainly not the first time and will not be the last that this old cliché about a right wing orientation is being dug out, simply because The Danish People’s Party — once again — represents the sentiments of the general Danish public, its fear of Muslim intolerance and of militant Islamists. To the Danish as well as to the Swiss population, Muslim aggression is symbolized through the building of large mosques and minarets. However, as the same correspondent states with relief: “Of course, she [i.e. Pia Kjærsgaard] will not get anywhere with her demand for a referendum”.
But let us see. For according to the recent Megafon-poll, done by the Danish television programme TV2 and the daily newspaper Politiken, 51% of the Danish population is against minarets in Denmark. So, who, after all, is it who in our democratic Denmark, listens to the voice of the people?
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
EU’s Secretive Anti-Piracy Talks Cause Concern
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS — EU officials are working on a global intellectual property treaty which could rewrite national legislation on copyright but which is being put together in a secretive process which helps to “launder” policies that may be too unpopular to pass through normal democratic channels.
The EU and industrialised countries such as the US, Canada, Australia and Japan have since last spring been negotiating a trade pact known as Acta — the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement.
The treaty has been presented first and foremost as a way of tackling physical forgeries, such as designer handbags or or pirated DVDs. But leaks reveal that it will also have a much broader scope, including the sensitive issue of intellectual copyright on the internet.
A document from the latest round of Acta talks, held in South Korea last month, reveals that the US is pushing for a global version of the so-called “three strikes law” — a measure by which people who illegally download music or films receive warnings but ultimately face having their internet cut off and going to jail.
The leaked text, a three-page European Commission memo written by an unnamed official, purports to summarise a private briefing given by US trade officials.
“The US wants Acta to force ISPs [Internet Service Providers] to put in place policies to deter unauthorized storage and transmission of IP [Intellectual Property] infringing content (for example clauses in customers’ contracts allowing a graduated response),” it says. The term “graduated response” is jargon for the three strikes law.
France recently passed a three-strikes bill, with the UK, Spain and the Netherlands reportedly working on their own versions. But the controversial legislation is highly unpopular, with some critics saying access to information on the internet is a basic human right.
The Acta talks are taking place outside all existing multilateral treaty-making bodies such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the UN or the WTO. They are also taking place in extreme secrecy, making it impossible for elected politicians, media or the public to get access to official documents.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
France: Sarkozy Weighs in on National Identity Debate
PARIS — Faced with swelling unease over the place of Muslim immigrants in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy called for tolerance among native French people Tuesday but warned that arriving Muslims must embrace Europe’s historical values and avoid “ostentation or provocation” in the practice of their religion.
Sarkozy’s appeal, in a statement published by Le Monde newspaper, reflected concern that a government-sponsored debate on France’s “national identity,” sharpened by a recent referendum banning minarets in neighboring Switzerland, seemed to be contributing to expressions of anti-Muslim sentiment and generating resentment among Muslim citizens and immigrants.
“I address my Muslim countrymen to say I will do everything to make them feel they are citizens like any other, enjoying the same rights as all the others to live their faith and practice their religion with the same liberty and dignity,” he said. “I will combat any form of discrimination.
“But I also want to tell them,” he continued, “that in our country, where Christian civilization has left such a deep trace, where republican values are an integral part of our national identity, everything that could be taken as a challenge to this heritage and its values would condemn to failure the necessary inauguration of a French Islam.”
Sarkozy said he understood the fears of many native French at the growing visibility of Muslims, estimated at well more than 5 million, Europe’s largest community. That, he said, is what led him to propose the national identity debate managed by Eric Besson, his minister of immigration, integration and national identity.
“This muffled threat felt by so many people in our old European nations, rightly or wrongly, weighs on their identity,” he added. “We must all speak about this together, out of fear that, if it is kept hidden, this sentiment could end up nourishing a terrible rancor.”
Dismissing criticisms from leftist figures and some members of his own government, Sarkozy said the Swiss decision Nov. 29 to ban construction of minarets arose from a democratic vote and, instead of outrage, should inspire reflection on the resentment felt by Swiss people and many other Europeans, “including the French people.”
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had said he was “a little scandalized” by the Swiss vote and suggested it “means a religion is being oppressed.” Intellectuals in the Paris chattering class took their criticism further, suggesting the Swiss vote betrayed bigotry and isolationism.
But Xavier Bertrand, head of Sarkozy’s political coalition, the Union for a Popular Movement, seemed to indicate a referendum like the one in Switzerland would be a good idea for France. In an appearance before reporters, he questioned whether French Muslims “necessarily need” minarets for their mosques.
Bertrand’s stand, and Sarkozy’s entry into the controversy Tuesday, were seen against the background of regional assembly elections in March, in which the governing coalition is seeking to make inroads into provincial Socialist Party strongholds. The extreme right National Front, which could drain off Sarkozy votes, openly applauded the Swiss decision and said minarets — towers beside mosques from which the faithful are called to prayer — should also be banned here.
Along the same lines, members of parliament from Sarkozy’s coalition introduced a bill this month giving mayors the authority to ban foreign flags at city hall marriages, aiming at Algerian, Moroccan or Tunisian flags that often accompany the weddings of immigrants’ children. Similarly, a mayor from the government majority complained recently that, in his city hall, weddings more often accompanied by Arab-style ululating than polite applause.
While urging Muslims to avoid ostentation and provocation, Sarkozy avoided specific comment on another test soon to be poised for his government, this one over whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear veils that cover their entire faces. Although only a small number do so, a parliamentary commission has held three months of hearings and is expected to issue a report next month proposing legal restrictions.
The president has said publicly “the burqa has no place in France,” placing his opposition in the context of women’s rights. But since then, a number of political leaders have suggested the French constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion, would make legislating on the question difficult no matter what the angle of attack.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
France: UMP: No Foreign Flags During Weddings
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 8 — Foreign flags will no longer be allowed at foreign weddings at municipal halls in France, including the Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian colours: this was the proposal set forth in France by a group of about 100 UMP delegates, the right-wing party of President Nicolas Sarkozy, which delivered a draft law to Parliament that intends to allow mayors to “ban participants at wedding from flying flags or symbols of countries other than France.” The proposal, explained French newspaper, Le Monde, has been set forth to strike at a tradition of Algerians, Tunisians, and Moroccans, who during the weddings of their friends and relatives, parade about in their cars waving large flags with the colours of their countries of origin. Drawing a parallel with the boos received by the French national anthem at football matches, UMP representatives believe that showing foreign colours in French town halls represents “a display of a lack of respect for France’s identity.” They specified that these practices, widespread mainly in the south of France, “disturb the national conscience”. “The guests arrive on board expensive convertibles. They do not respect the driving code, they drive with eastern music playing loudly, waving Algerian or Moroccan flags. They go back and forth while speeding, and inside the town halls they shout and wave flags,” complained UMP rep, Elie Aboud, one of the 100 signees of the proposal. A plan that was anticipated at a local level in several right-wing controlled municipalities in the south of France, which have imposed a new code for proper conduct at wedding ceremonies. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Activists to Protest Against Obama Peace Prize
Vicenza, 7 Dec. (AKI) — Italian peace activists opposed to the construction of a US airbase in the northern city of Vicenza have travelled to the Norwegian capital, Oslo, to challenge the presentation of the Nobel Peace prize to president Barack Obama. “Our goal is to protest against president Barack Obama, who will be receiving the Nobel peace prize for his war policy,” said the No Dal Molin organisation on its website.
“It materialised in Vicenza with the construction of a new and devastating military base.”
No Dal Molin says that the base, which will house the 173rd Airborne Brigade, plays a leading role in Iraq and Afghanistan.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Bourbons’ Bid to Boost South
Dynasty fans to open ‘parliament’ in Naples
(ANSA) — Naples, December 8 — Admirers of the Bourbon dynasty that once held sway across southern Italy are bidding to restore its former glory with a ‘parliament’ in Naples.
The ‘Neo-Bourbonic’ Movement has declared its intention to move into Naples’ famous Maschio Angioino castle, once home to the Bourbon kings, on January 16. Their resurrected government will appoint ministers for interior and foreign affairs as well as equal opportunites between northern and southern Italy, the movement’s leader, Gennaro De Crescenzo, told Oggi magazine.
“We want to publicise our history, stir up rage, and turn it into pride,” said De Crescenzo, whose group say they have tapped into longstanding southern resentment about the way unification was imposed on the South.
Although it is unclear whether Naples city council have been informed, De Crescenzo said he was determined to open the parliament to mark 150 years since the abdication of the last Bourbon king, Franceso III.
Italy is already gearing up to celebrate in 2011 the 150th anniversary of the end of the Risorgimento, the tumultuous and often bloody movement that led to Italy’s rebirth as a single state in 1861.
Not everyone was happy with unification and some people in both northern and southern Italy think Italy should have stayed divided.
Both the Northern League, now a major political player, and the tiny Neo-Bourbons, who have been dismissed as a band of nostalgic dreamers, have played on anti-Rome sentiment.
But De Crescenzo told Oggi his group’s initiative could not be dismissed as mere “folklore”.
He stressed the members of the parliament would not be politicians but “professional people, the self-employed, lawyers, technical experts, university professors and businessmen”. “We will train a new ruling class. We will analyse laws and measures to assess their impact on the South,” he said, referring to legislation from the Italian parliament in Rome.
The Bourbon equivalent in the 13th Angevin castle will also have ministers for the economy, police, cultural heritage and communications, he said. But there would be no attempt to consult with Italy’s established political groupings, De Crescenzo said. “We have no links to parties. The League tried, because of certain common issues, but then we didn’t see them again”.
Declaring that the assembly would help the South reclaim its “dignity”, De Crescenzo stressed that while the Northern League’s purported homeland of ‘Padania’ never historically existed, “the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was a united State for 13 centuries”.
The Bourbons grew out of the French Capetian dynasty, founded in 987 AD, and eventually became Europe’s biggest royal house, holding sway in France, Spain, Italy and Luxembourg.
Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’ of France, was perhaps its most famous member.
The Spanish branch ruled southern Italy as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1734 till 1806, when Napoleon’s troops were forced out of Naples, and from 1815, when the French emperor was defeated at Waterloo, until 1860.
The largest of Italy’s pre-unification states, it is more commonly called the Kingdom of Naples.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Minister’s Dig at Archbishop
League minister’s remarks continue to draw criticism
(ANSA) — Milan, December 8 — Remarks by a cabinet minister suggesting the Archbishop of Milan Dionigi Tettamanzi should show more support for Christian Italians and less for foreigners and Islam continued to draw comment on Tuesday.
Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano voiced implicit support for Tettamanzi after the attack by Legislative Simplification Minister Roberto Calderoli, who criticized the archbishop’s condemnation of the eviction of 250 Roma gypsies from their camp. Both opposition and majority politicians also expressed concern over the remarks by the rightwing Northern League minister, which appeared in Monday’s edition of national daily La Repubblica.
Visiting Milan on Tuesday, Bertone urged “respect” for Tettamanzi, who he said was a “great pastor of the Church and its people”.
Napolitano, also in Milan for celebrations marking the feast day of the city’s patron saint Ambrose, said the Church and its ministers had an absolute right to comment on social issues. “The Church’s commitment to social issues is essential to Italian society,” he said.
Program Implementation Minister Gianfranco Rotondi, a member of a different government party to Calderoli, expressed similar views to the president. “A secular state means giving the Church the right to have its say,” said Rotondi of the People of Freedom party. Senator Roberto Di Giovan Paolo of the largest opposition group, the centre-left Democratic Party, criticized Calderoli’s Northern League party more generally. “The League claims to defend religious values but every day it attacks the Church’s social doctrine,” said Di Giovan Paolo, who chairs the Senate European Affairs Committee.
The Senate whip of the centrist Christian UDC party, Gianpiero D’Alia, said the “Northern League’s ‘religious teaching’ should be met with laughter and catcalls”.
The House whip of the small opposition Italy of Values party referred to a controversial proposal by the Northern League following a Swiss referendum outlawing the construction of new Muslim minarets.
“Am I mistaken or didn’t the League suggest adding a crucifix to the Italian flag a few days ago?” asked Massimo Donadi. “This day-on/day-off Christianity merely demonstrates the League’s lack of responsibility and dangerous efforts to play to the crowd”.
The row was sparked by an editorial that appeared in the Northern League daily La Padania on Sunday, which asked whether Tettamanzi was “the bishop of Milan or the imam of Milan”, in reference to his past defence of Islam. Defending the editorial, which also criticized the archbishop’s condemnation of the recent gypsy eviction, Calderoli said Tettamanzi should pay more attention to Christian problems. “Why has he never spoken out in defence of the cross?” asked Calderoli, referring to a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling ordering the removal of crucifixes from Italian classrooms. “Why does he only defend the Roma? Denying that people of a certain ethnic background carry out certain types of activity is refusing to recognize reality”. Monday’s attack was not Calderoli’s first on Tettamanzi, whom he described as a “secret communist” a year ago after the archbishop asked that Muslims be given prayer spaces in Milan.
There have also been series of disagreements between the Catholic Church and the Northern League more generally in recent months, usually over the issue of immigration or Islam. In August, League leader Umberto Bossi said the Vatican should “open its doors” to illegal immigrants if it didn’t like a controversial government ‘push-back’ policy, under which migrant boats intercepted at sea are forcibly escorted back to Libya.
In November, the League and the Church were at odds again, this time over the outcome of the Swiss minaret referendum, which the League greeted with delight and calls for a similar vote in Italy. The head of the Vatican’s Council for Migrants, Monsignor Antonio Maria Veglio expressed “deep concern” at the League’s response, while an annoyed editorial in Catholic daily Avvenire urged readers to give the proposal “short thrift” and accused the party of exploiting religion for its own purposes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland Stays Neutral, Vetoes Israel
From Hebrew: Israel wanted to join the interest group which included Switzerland in COP15, but Switzerland vetoed the idea.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Christian Hotel Manager in Dock ‘After Asking Hijab-Wearing Guest If She Was a Terrorist’ In Breakfast-Time Religion Row
A Muslim convert was reduced to tears after being asked by a Christian hotelier if she was a terrorist and a murderer because she was wearing traditional Islamic dress, a court heard today.
Ericka Tazi, 60, said wearing the hijab ‘triggered something’ in hotel proprietor Benjamin Vogelenzang and his wife Sharon.
She told Liverpool Magistrates’ Court she was subjected to a 60-minute tirade of abuse by the couple because on March 20, the final day of her stay with them, she decided to wear a hijab head covering and gown.
Mrs Tazi, who converted to Islam 18 months ago, spent a month at The Bounty House Hotel on Church Avenue, Aintree, Liverpool, while attending a four-week pain management course at The Walton Centre at Aintree Hospital.
The couple deny a charge, made under the 1986 Public Order Act, of using threatening, abusive or insulting words which were religiously aggravated.
Prosecutor Anya Horwood told the court that Benjamin Vogelenzang, 53, called the prophet Mohammed a ‘warlord’ and likened him to Saddam Hussein and Hitler.
He and his 54-year-old wife told Mrs Tazi, who has two grown up sons, that her Islamic dress represented ‘oppression’ and was a form of ‘bondage’, the court heard.
Ms Horwood said that a row flared when Mrs Tazi, who had worn European dress during her four-week stay, came down on the morning she was due to leave dressed in traditional Islamic dress.
She said Benjamin Vogelenzang asked her: “Why are you wearing those clothes’ and began laughing at her. She explained to him it was important to her.
‘He started to discuss his faith, he is a Christian, and the role Jesus played in both their religions.
‘He became angry and was shouting at her and at that point Sharon Vogelenzang joined in. She was saying that the clothes she was wearing represented oppression and bondage.’
Ms Horwood said Mrs Tazi walked into the dining room but was followed by Benjamin Vogelenzang who was like ‘a whirling dervish’.
She said: ‘He was agitated and upset and began repeatedly asking her was she a terrorist, was she a murderer like Mohammed?
‘Ericka Tazi kept asking him to stop and he became more agitated, saying Mohammed was a warlord and likened Mohammed to Saddam Hussein and Hitler.
‘She asked the couple to stop insulting her. She tried to explain again how important her faith was.
‘At that point Sharon Vogelenzang pointed her finger in her face, shouting, saying she had provoked this because of wearing the gown.’
Mrs Tazi came to court dressed in a hijab and gown and using a walking stick. She swore an oath on the Koran and kissed the holy book before giving evidence to the prosecutor.
She told the court that dressing in the hijab seemed to ‘trigger something’ in Benjamin Vogelenzang and that she had found the episode extremely traumatic.
Mrs Tazi, who suffers from fibromyalgia and lives with chronic pain, said: ‘He just couldn’t accept the way I was dressed.
‘He was laughing at me and it seemed to trigger something, I don’t know why, I kept saying ‘I’m Ericka’, it was my outfit that had triggered him.
‘He asked me if I was a murderer, if I was a terrorist. I’m a 60-year-old disabled woman, I couldn’t understand where it was coming from, it was shocking to me.’
Mrs Tazi said the couple told her that her dress was bondage. She told the court: ‘I was on this journey of being a convert, it was my decision, I couldn’t be in bondage if it was my decision.’
She said: ‘He followed me into the dining room and he was jumping up and down. I’ve never seen anything like it, his arms were flailing.
‘Sharon came running in, she was shouting ‘you started this with your dress’ and she was pointing in my face and I was frightened at this stage. I was absolutely traumatised by it all.
‘I kept putting my hand up saying ‘please stop it’. I just wanted to get out. If I had had the legs to run I would have run out of that hotel.’
She said she told the couple she had been a Christian and that “I’ve always had God in my life” and had once been a member of the Catholic Legion of Mary.
Mrs Tazi contacted the police that night. When questioned by detectives the couple said they had been sharing their ‘faith views’.
The court heard that Sharon Vogelenzang told officers she did not mean to be disrespectful when she referred to the hijab as bondage.
She said she was entitled to respond when her faith was challenged and that she was merely expressing her opinions.
Benjamin Vogelenzang said he had referred to historical figures, but not Mohammed, and had not meant to be offensive or insulting.
Mrs Tazi told Hugh Tomlinson QC, for the defence, that she was not trying to make a statement by wearing the hijab and denied having robust arguments about religion with other guests during her stay.
She told him her father and grandfather had fought in both world wars and said: ‘I love my country, I thought I had the freedom to wear what I wanted to wear.’
Mrs Tazi said she had thought the Vogelenzangs were a ‘genteel couple’ until the incident.
She said she tried ‘many religions’ before converting to Islam when she married.
Mrs Tazi said: ‘My journey has been a long, long journey, it was a very difficult decision to wear these clothes… I’m a normal Warrington girl who liked the Beatles.
‘I had a different life before and I’m proud. My hijab is part of my faith, it’s in the Koran.’
Supporters of the Vogelenzangs from The Christian Institute demonstrated outside the court this morning by singing songs.
| — Hat tip: 4symbols | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Honour Crime Up by 40% Due to Rising Fundamentalismby Rebecca Camber
Police have seen ‘honour’ crime surge by 40 per cent due to rising fundamentalism, new figures show.
Honour-based violence, including crimes like murder, rape and kidnap has rocketed in London during the past year.
Reported instances of intimidation and attempts at forced marriage have also increased by 60 per cent.
A report into the scale of the problem by Scotland Yard found there were 161 honour-based incidents recorded in 2007-8, of which 93 were criminal offences.
But in 2008/9 the number of incidents had risen to 256, with 132 being criminal offences.
The latest figures indicate that the trend is continuing, with 211 incidents reported in the last six months until October, of which 129 were offences — more than double the number in the same period last year.
Police define honour crimes as offences motivated by a desire to protect the honour of a family or community.
Diana Nammi, of the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation, said the group is now dealing with four times more complaints relating to honour than two years ago.
She said: ‘More women are coming forward. They are becoming more aware of their rights in the UK, that there is help available and they feel confident enough to report matters to the police.
‘But I also think cases and violence are increasing.
‘One reason is the rise in fundamentalism. The problem is increasing in communities around the UK.
‘We are seeing a rise not only in honour killings, but also in female genital mutilation and polygamy.’
She added: ‘The rise in Sharia courts is another indication of more fundamental beliefs.
‘There must be more support from the Government to organisations who are working to combat this problem.’
The Metropolitan Police also records incidents where no offences has been committed, such as complaints by women that they are under pressure to enter into forced marriages.
Recently there have been a series of horrific attacks linked to ‘honour’.
Detectives are still investigating the death of mother-of-two Geeta Aulakh, 28, who was hacked to death with a sword in Greenford, north west London last month.
An 18-year-old student has been charged with her murder.
In July, a 24-year-old Asian man from Denmark lost part of his tongue and was left blind in one eye when he had acid thrown in his face in Leytonstone.
Police believe he was attacked over his relationship with a married Muslim woman.
Two men are awaiting trial over the assault.
Campaigners believe honour attacks are on the up due to rising fundamentalism in communities around Britain.
Up to 12 people are murdered every year in the name of honour, and police fear a further 500 people are forced into an arranged marriage or attacked.
One of the most high-profile cases was that of Banaz Mahmod who was murdered by members of her own family after falling in love with a man they disapproved of.
The 20-year-old, who had left an arranged marriage and started a relationship with Rhamat Sulemani, 29, was strangled with a bootlace at her home in Surrey in January 2006.
Her father Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and uncle Ari Mahmod, 50, of Mitcham, were later convicted of the killing after the pair decided she must pay ‘the ultimate price’ for bringing shame on them.
Earlier this year, police were issued with new guidance telling them to assume honour crimes have been committed in more circumstances.
Senior officers anticipated that the move would drive up figures as in many cases only limited information is available or a potential victim refuses to help police.
Detective Chief Inspector Gerry Campbell, of the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘The description of this type of crime is misplaced. There is no honour in these crimes.’
Mr Campbell said the Met had improved its intelligence systems to better identify such crimes.
He said: ‘Ten years ago our knowledge was almost absent but we have worked hard and our knowledge has improved substantially.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Help, They’re Trying to Kick My Head in: Victim’s Desperate 999 Call as Killers Pounce in the Street
Two drunken teenage thugs stalked and murdered a stranger to steal his mobile phone and the designer boots off his feet.
Simon Ash, 35, was kicked and battered to death while taking a late-night riverside stroll.
He breathlessly dialled 999 as he fled the youths and told the operator they were ‘trying to kick my head in.’
Although he gave his general location, a police patrol failed to find him. Three-and-a-half hours later his body was discovered in a pool of blood by a passer-by.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Human Traffickers Sell Sex Slave on Britain’s Busiest Street
Pimps sold a young woman as a sex slave in broad daylight on Britain’s busiest shopping street.
A brothel owner paid just £3,000 for the Lithuanian victim, a woman in her 20s, in the transaction on London’s Oxford Street.
Police surveillance footage shows an Albanian man handing over the cash to two of his countrymen outside Selfridges department store as shoppers pass by, unaware of what is happening.
The helpless woman — guarded by a thug — is forced to watch as the men discuss the deal.
She would have been expected to earn her new ‘owner’ £100,000 a year by having sex up to 25 times a day in a brothel.
On this occasion, the woman was lucky. Police swooped to free her and her traffickers were jailed for a total of 63 years.
The Home Office estimated that in 2003, the most recent figures available, 4,000 women were trafficked into the UK for prostitution.
Police warn that the numbers of Eastern Europeans being trafficked into the UK will grow significantly in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.
A rise in so-called ‘vice activity’ has already been detected in the five Olympic boroughs of Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Greenwich, to cater for demand from 25,000 construction workers.
A special police squad has been set up to tackle the trafficking. Officers cite the example of a 16-year-old Albanian girl who thought she was coming to London for a romantic weekend with her boyfriend. When they arrived, he handed her over to pimps.
Police released the photo of the woman being trafficked on Oxford Street in a bid to raise awareness of the problem.
Seller number one, Izzet Fejzullahu — an Albanian vice gang member — is pictured selling the girl for £3,000. He was jailed for 14 years at London’s Southwark Crown Court for controlling prostitution.
Seller number two, Albanian Agran Demarku, is seen discussing the deal with the brothel owner. He was sentenced to 18 years, as was his brother, Flamur, who stood guard over the girl.
The buyer, brothel owner Gazmet Turku, was also jailed.
Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Martin, of the Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Unit, said: ‘The man to the left in the picture has £3,000 in cash in his hand, with which he is buying a human being.
‘She is just a commodity to them. She is an item for selling sex.
‘The man is buying the girl for his own brothel from the men to his right, who ran a network of nine brothels. He is simply replenishing his stock, as a shopkeeper would.
‘These women are put into slavery and exploited in the vilest way.’
Detective Superintendent Martin said 25 trafficked women had been rescued by his unit this year.
‘We have had people kidnapped and smuggled into the UK,’ he said. ‘Others came in thinking they were working in bars but were put to work in brothels.
‘Their passports were taken, they were threatened — and some were systematically raped and beaten up.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Killer With New ID Who Got Pregnant Behind Bars Wants to Live in Her Old Home
A murderess who became pregnant while a prisoner is to be given a taxpayer-funded change of identity — even though she is returning to live in her family home.
Lisa Healey, who was 15 when she tortured and killed a lonely pensioner, is due to be released on parole later this month after serving 11 years.
She gave birth to a daughter earlier this year after being seduced by an inmate from another open jail, whom she met at a Ministry of Justice forum on prison reform.
Now taxpayers face footing the bill to provide Healey and her child with new identities when the killer is freed.
[…]
In 1998, Healey and a friend, Sarah Davey, 14, murdered Lily Lilley at her home in Failsworth, near Manchester.
The girls befriended the lonely 71-year-old widow and, after being invited in for a cup of tea, tortured her for 48 hours before choking her to death.
They placed her body in a bin and trundled it through the streets before pushing it into a canal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia: 275 Mln Euro in 2010 to Adjust to EU Standards
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, NOVEMBER 30 — Croatia has reserved around 275 million euros in its 2010 financial act to support ITS adjustment to EU regulations, the Croatian press announced. The country hopes to become a member of the European Union in 2011. The figure is the highest so far to be used to bring the country’s regulations in line with European standards, and one of the few segments of the Croatian budget where no cuts have been made due to the economic crisis. In 2010 another 200 million will be used to adjust to EU standards.(ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: EU to Proceed With Trade Accord
Belgrade, 7 Dec. (AKI) — European Union foreign ministers have decided to proceed with an interim trade agreement with Serbia, after noting Belgrade’s cooperation with the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and implementation of key reforms.
Serbia and the EU signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement in April last year, as a first step towards EU membership, but the agreement was put on hold until Belgrade established full cooperation with the ICTY.
The Netherlands has insisted that Belgrade should arrest the remaining two fugitives wanted by the ICTY, wartime Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, a wartime leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia.
Mladic and Hadzic are still at large, but ICTY chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz told the United Nations Security Council that Serbia had made progress in cooperating with the tribunal.
Serbia started implementing the trade agreement in January this year, abolishing or drastically reducing customs taxes for goods imported fro EU countries.
But Monday’s decision, which still has to be approved during an EU summit next week, will open the door to Serbian exports to the EU.
EU ministers, however, cautioned that Serbia should continue its efforts to achieve further “positive results” in cooperation with the ICTY.
Pro-European president Boris Tadic has proclaimed EU membership as his main political goal and vowed Mladic and Hadzic would be arrested as soon as they were found.
The EU abolished visas to citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia last week, and government officials have said that Belgrade might apply for the status of candidate as soon as the trade agreement was unblocked.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Surplus of USD 11 Million in Trade With Iran
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, DECEMBER 1 — Serbia’s surplus in trade with Iran in the first nine months of this year was USD11 million, but Serbia’s exports in that period fell by 40% and amounted to around USD19 million, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce said, reports BETA news agency. Serbian Chamber of Commerce Deputy President Mihailo Vesovic said at an economic forum between Serbia and the Iranian province of Zanjan that the current line of trade between Serbia and Iran ought to be improved through cooperation between companies and the exchange of technology. He said that difficult inter-banking operations was the only problem in the cooperation between business people in Serbia and Iran and said that he expected this to be resolved by allowing correspondent relations between the two countries’ banks. Zanjan Chamber of Commerce President Ebrahim Jamili said that Iranian companies were interested in establishing joint companies with firms from Serbia. Representatives of 17 companies traveled to Serbia on a three-day visit as part of the Zanjan delegation. Zanjan is located in southwestern Iran on the border with Pakistan.(ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Teen Pregnancy on the Rise, One of Highest in World
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, DECEMBER 7 — Serbia has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the world, reports radio B92. Every year, about 7,000 girls between the age of 15 and 19 get pregnant in Serbia. According to data from the State Center for Family Planning, more than half of teenage pregnancies end in abortions. World Health Organization and UNICEF research shows that there has been a sharp increase in sexually transmitted diseases among Serbian teenagers as well. About 60% of unplanned teen pregnancies registered at the student polyclinic end in abortions. Less than 10% of young women ask a gynecologist for help when they notice a problem, and most hope that the infection will go away by itself in time or take drugs to combat the infections without consulting a doctor, which often worsens the situation. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Transport: Euromed Airspace, 4 Bln Euros Over 25 Years
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 26 — The creation of the Euro-Med Common Aviation Area (EMCAA), the common airspace between EU and ten Mediterranean countries, will have a total cost of 120 million euros in the first five years. Whilst the advantages, in economic terms and over a period of 25 years, total some 4 billion euros for the ten countries. This is what has emerged from the assessment of the Euro-Med Aviation project, which focuses on promoting an EU common airspace with Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. The project is financed by the EU through the Euro-Med Transport programme. According to Robert Piers, team leader of the Euro-Med Aviation assessment, after the common airspace has been set up, which the study expects to be in 2010, the annual expenditure will become approximately 15 — 18 million per year. Meanwhile the benefits overtake the costs by a long way. Amongst the most important effects, an impact in terms of opening the market, explains Piers, with profits of some 1 billion for the ten countries. There are also effects on the safety of air travel, on the management of airport traffic, with fewer delays expected, as well as positive aspects for the environment. All in all, for Piers the estimate of benefits is 4 billion euros, which also include the advantages in the reduction of ticket prices for consumers, the growth of margins for airlines and greater employment in the sector. Considering that not all countries involved are at the same level and will have to set up bilateral and multilateral agreements, one or two years delay, he concluded, compared to other countries start, does not change the conclusions of the analysis. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria-Italy: Frigate Aliseo at Port of Algiers
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, DECEMBER 7 — The Italian frigate Aliseo, arrived yesterday evening at the port of Algiers, where it will remain until December 9. The visit by the Aliseo, under command of the Captain Claudio Confalonieri, forms part of “the reinforcement of bilateral cooperation between the naval forces of Italy and Algeria” explained the spokesperson for the Algerian Navy Command, Mohamed Kaddour, as cited by APS. In service since 1983, the frigate, a missile-carrying craft of the Maestrale Class with a crew of 230, is visiting the port for its fourth time. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
First Swine Flu Deaths Reported in Gaza
A baby and two women have died in Hamas-run Gaza after contracting swine flu, the first deaths from the virus in the densely populated Palestinian territory, officials said on Monday.
Hassan Khalaf, a spokesman for the Hamas health ministry, declined to give details, but said there were four new cases on Monday of people infected with the disease in the Gaza Strip.
Khalaf added, however, that the condition of three of five people who had been confirmed on Sunday as having the virus was improving.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Gaza Border: Israeli Killed by Soldiers
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 7 — An Israeli civilian (about 30 years old) was killed last night at the Erez border crossing while trying to get over the border fence in what seems to have been an attempt to get into the Gaza Strip. After having repeatedly ordered him to stop, the Israeli border guards shot at the man’s legs “since they believed he might have been a Palestinian terrorist”. However, the man was hit in an artery and died of blood loss shortly thereafter. Reports say that he seemed to have been suffering from a mental imbalance. In a separate incident last night, a member of the elite navy forces Shayetet 13 was killed in Ashdod (south of Tel Aviv). The young man was involved in a diving drill when he suddenly lost consciousness, and all attempts to save his life proved in vain. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Govt Team to Oversee Settlement Freeze
(ANSA) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 7 — An Israeli government commission led by two ministers will be supervising the 10-month freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank recently announced by Israeli premier Benyamin Netanyahu. They will be overseeing its implementation as well as possible adjustments in response to settlers’ needs, according to reports on a government meeting. The commission will be coordinated by Defence Minister Ehud Barak (leader of the Labour party section in the government and strong supporter of the freeze), and the minister without a portfolio Benny Begin (representative of the right-wing majority in the government and figure connected with settlement circles). The setting up of the team and its constituent parts have been interpreted by the media as an attempt to calm down settlers without withdrawing the moratorium. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel-Italy: Air-Force Commander: Strong Ties
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 7 — A four-day visit to Israel has been concluded by the Commander of Italy’s Air Forces, General Daniele Tei, dedicated to exchanges of information with Israeli counterparts and consolidation of the strong ties between the two countries’ air forces. Reports of the meeting have been supplied to ANSA by an Israeli military spokesperson. During his mission, Tei visited four bases, accompanied by the commander of the Israeli Air Force (IAF), General Ido Nechushtan, and held talks with high-ranking officials and pilots. He went on to meet the head of the chiefs of staff of Israeli defence, General Gaby Ashkenazi, to discuss new projects for bilateral and multilateral military cooperation once more and flew over the border between Israel and the Palestinian territories in a helicopter to review aspects of the security conditions in the area. There was also the customary visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. . (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oldest Church in the World May Turn Prison Into Tourist Attraction
Tel Aviv — It’s believed to be the oldest church in the world, and because of it, an Israeli prison may become a tourist site. The prison is located at Megiddo, close to the Armageddon of the New Testament book of Revelation. It houses both common criminals and prisoners labeled “security detainees”.
The church was unearthed four years ago by Israeli archeologists, aided by prisoners, who, in accordance with Israeli law concerning building work at sites known for archeological pickings, were carrying out excavation work prior to the construction of
a new wing at the prison.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Peres Launches Own Youtube Channel
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, DECEMBER 7 — The Israeli head of state, Shimon Peres (86), will tomorrow launch his own YouTube channel in the presence of Chad Hurley, one of the founders of the website, who has come to Jerusalem for the occasion. Peres’ office has made it known that the intention is to release a selection of his speeches and activities, as well as to relay press conferences he attends via internet. As his office also divulges, the head of state believes that this will contribute to peace in the region as well as to inter-religious dialogue. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Religious Law Should Govern Israel: Justice Minister
AFP — Israeli Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman said on Tuesday that he intends to have the state gradually adopt Jewish religious law.
“Step by step we will impose on Israeli citizens the laws of the Torah and we will make the laws of Halacha (Jewish religious law) the governing law of the state,” Neeman said in comments aired on public radio.
“We have to impose the heritage of our forefathers on the nation. The Torah has all the answers to the questions that concern us,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Swine Flu: Gaza, 10,000 Vaccines From Israel After 1st Deaths
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, DECEMBER 8 — Israeli health authorities announced today the desire to send 10,000 vaccines against Swine Flu to the Gaza Strip, the portion of the Palestinian territory governed by the radical-Islamist party Hamas which has been under embargo and isolation for the last 2 years. The decision was made after, in recent days, the Hamas government in Gaza reported the first three fatal cases of the disease among the population of the Strip (a newborn and two women). Until now there have been hundreds of cases reported in the Gaza Strip, while in the West Bank (the other part of the Palestinian territory, under the authority of the PA and moderate president Mahmoud Abbas) the number has reached 1,300 cases. In recent days the same PNA and some Palestinian humanitarian organisations have accused Hamas of limiting the number of permits for the people of the Gaza Strip who ask to leave to seek medical treatment in Israel or the West Bank. Greatly devastated by the war last winter, the Gaza Strip has strict internal controls, as well as the block imposed on its borders by Israel since Hamas came to power (2007), with rare and partial exceptions regarding humanitarian or international aid. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
“From Teheran to Riyadh, This is How We Are Discriminated Against”
A conversation with Hossein Alizadeh
Turkey and the Lebanon are the countries most tolerant of gays; Iran and Saudi Arabia are the most homophobic. The picture painted by Hossein Alizadeh, a young Iranian who is the spokesman for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHTC) with headquarters in New York, is that of a patchy Middle East, where on the one hand embryonic gay movements appear while on the other sentences against sodomy are ferociously applied.
An interview by Ernesto Pagano.
Tell us about this organisation. When was it founded and what are its objectives?
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission was founded in 1990. Its mission is the emancipation of human rights for everyone, in all countries, to put an end to sexual discrimination, gender identity or restrictions to the expression of one’s sexuality.
What are the most important problems faced by homosexuals in the Middle East?
Sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular are considered taboo by people and by the media…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
“Turkey Will Not Surrender to European Countries Just to Become an EU Member, “ Bagis Says
Turkey’s Chief EU Negotiator said that Turkey would not surrender and commit to all demands of each and every member countries of the EU just because it wanted to become a part of the club.
In an interview on BBC show “Hardtalk”, Bagis said that Turkey’s membership was as important to EU as it was to Turkey.
“This is a relationship based on a win-win situation and either we all win or we have to look at the situation,” Bagis said.
Bagis said Turkey was a proud nation and that the European Union needed Turkey just as much as Turkey needs the EU.
“Europe has to make big decisions,” he said. “At a time when 70 percent of all the energy resources Europe needs, are either to the south or to the north or to the east of Turkey.”
Bagis went on saying, “at a time when Turkey is a bridge to these energy resources, a bridge to new consumers, a bridge to 1.5 billion consumers within 3 hours flying, a bridge to all the raw materials and a barrier to illegal immigration, a barrier to narcotics and terrorism, a partner in solving climate problem, a partner in solving the economic crisis with a median age of 28, having the fourth largest work force, can Europe afford to lose Turkey?”
Asked about recent comments that Turkey shifted its axis to the East, Bagis said Turkey had always been a bridge between the East and the West.
Stating that a bridge needed two pillars, Bagis said Turkey had neglected one of these pillars for years. He said Turkey was now trying to make them both stronger.
“Our relations with Iran, Syria, Armenia and Georgia are not alternative to relations with Europe, but they are complementary,” he said.
Bagis also reaffirmed Turkish government’s commitment to negotiations and membership to EU and added that “Turkish government would continue negotiations as long as it is fair and impartial.”
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Ahmadinejad Reportedly Claims U.S. Is Blocking Return of Mankind’s Savior
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims the United States is attempting to thwart the return of mankind’s savior, according to reports from Al Arabiya, a television news station based in Dubai.
Ahmadinejad reportedly claims he has documented evidence that the U.S. is blocking the return of Mahdi, the Imam believed by Muslims to be the savior.
“We have documented proof that they believe that a descendant of the prophet of Islam will raise in these parts and he will dry the roots of all injustice in the world,” Ahmadinejad said during a speech on Monday, according to Al Arabiya.
“They have devised all these plans to prevent the coming of the Hidden Imam because they know that the Iranian nation is the one that will prepare the grounds for his coming and will be the supporters of his rule,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
Ahmadinejad continued the rant by claiming there have been plots by both the West as well as countries in the East to wipe out his country, according to Iranian news Web site Tabak.
“They have planned to annihilate Iran. This is why all policymakers and analysts believe Iran is the true winner in the Middle East,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the site. He also alleged that foreign nations seek to control Iran’s oil and natural resources.
“In Afghanistan, they are caught like an animal in a quagmire. But instead of pulling their troops out to save themselves, they are deploying more soldiers. Even if they stay in Afghanistan for another 50 years they will be forced to leave with disgrace — because this is a historical experience,” Ahmadinejad reportedly said.
“They know themselves that they need Iran in the Middle East, but because of their arrogance they do not want to accept this reality. They are nothing without the Iranian nation and all their rhetoric is because they don’t want to appear weak.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Press Say Swiss Neutrality is Failing
Following Switzerland’s decision to ban new minarets, reaction in the Arab media has ranged from calls for sanctions to the need for self-critical reflection.
“Shame”, “Holocaust”, “Islamophobia”, “humiliation” — words that have appeared regularly in Arab press since 57.5 per cent of Swiss voters said yes on November 29 to a ban on the construction of minarets.
Most commentators wondered what could have pushed the Swiss to vote as they did, and what the consequences would be for a country that found itself attracting criticism from all sides, including from the United Nations and the European Union.
The Qatari newspaper Al-Raya was amazed at the voting behaviour of a country known for its freedom of speech and democratic principles.
According to the Assabah newspaper in Tunisia, “the stigmatisation of Islam in the West is no longer a question of mere media provocation — from now on it genuinely threatens the Muslim minority”.
Al-Quds Al-Arabi, edited in London, observed: “If Switzerland — known for its neutrality, quality of life and very high levels of education — is foundering with Islamophobia, one can no longer blame certain other European countries which appear sensitive because of unemployment and the financial crisis.”
September 11
“Why do they hate us and what does the minaret ban hide?” asked Al-Dostour in Jordan, for whom the vote reflected the rise of the European far right. It added that this was the result of a campaign against Islam led by Western political authorities and media since September 11, 2001.
The Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan said the vote was the sign of “European mental regression, a return to the Middle Ages and a desire to eliminate others”.
For a columnist in Egypt’s Al-Ahram, everything being said about creeping Islamicisation and the introduction of sharia law was “pure fantasy”.
The comments of Al-Shourouq in Algeria were hardly more flattering. Under the headline “Four minarets rock Switzerland and tear down its neutrality”, it blamed the Swiss government for allowing the vote to be put to the people. It also placed responsibility on Swiss Muslims, “who failed to unite and speak under one banner and let themselves be distorted”.
Sanctions
Some media called for a boycott of Switzerland or other sanctions. The Palestinian website Dounia Al-Watan demanded rich Arabs withdraw their money from Swiss banks.
Al-Dostour in Egypt drew comparisons between Islamophobia and anti-Semitism and pointed out how the hatred of Jews slowly gained ground in Germany, resulting in the Holocaust.
Alam Al-Akhbar, an Arab site in Turkey, invited Muslims to deposit their money in Turkish banks.
In London Al-Sharq Al-Awsat believed there was a connection between the minaret vote and the two Swiss businessmen sentenced to 16 months in prison three days later by a Libyan court for visa irregularities and tax evasion.
Dialogue
Less harsh words were found on the London-based Elaph website, which wondered whether the Swiss vote was not ultimately linked to the poor image offered to the West by Muslims in Western countries.
Similarly Al-Ittihad, a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, said one shouldn’t “insult” a democratic and sovereign country which was free to adopt whatever measures it deemed necessary.
It added: “Maybe [the Swiss voted like that] because they fear for their Christianity?”
The Moroccan daily Al-Alam asked whether the vote didn’t throw back into question the issue of interreligious dialogue — precisely what Al-Watan in Kuwait was calling for, suggesting conferences to fight Islamophobia.
The appeal for dialogue was also made on IslamOnline, a moderate site that recognises a serious crisis between the West and Muslims.
The problem, it said, “is the absence of a reasonable voice … it falls to Arabs and Muslims to be responsible for preventing problems and protecting their beliefs and customs”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Nuclear Scientist Abducted by US: FM
AFP — Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Tuesday accused the United States of abducting its nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri who went missing in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
“Based on existing pieces of evidence that we have at our disposal the Americans had a role in Mr. Amiri’s abduction,” Mottaki said at a press conference in Farsi which was translated into English by Press TV channel.
“The Americans did abduct him. Therefore we expect the American government to return him.”
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: Imam Jailed for Collecting Al-Qaeda Money
Kuwait City, 7 Dec. (AKI) — A court in the oil-rich emirate of Kuwait has sentenced a prominent local imam to seven years in jail after he was found guilty of having collected money to help fund the Al-Qaeda terror network.
According to the local daily al-Jarida, the unnamed imam, preached at the al-Hamdi mosque and apparently asked the faithful for donations to build a second mosque.
However, the news report said that the money was instead diverted to two other accomplices who were due to travel to Pakistan for training at an alleged Al-Qaeda camp.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
NASA to Launch Space Education Program for Arab Youth
AFP — NASA has teamed up with the Dubai-based Arab Youth Venture Foundation to provide students from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the chance to work on NASA missions, the US space agency said Monday.
Under the program, up to 12 engineering students from the UAE will each year join US students to work on a research project at the US space agency’s Ames Research Center in California.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis ‘In a Panic Mode’ As Shi’ite Rebels Move North From Yemen
LONDON — Jordan has sent several hundred troops from its special operations forces to help the Saudi military with its many Shi’ite units contain the Yemeni Shi’ite rebellion, which has spread deep into the Arab kingdom.
Western intelligence sources said Jordan’s King Abdullah sent the SOF units to Saudi Arabia in November 2009. The sources said the Jordanian king was acting on an urgent request from his Saudi counterpart for elite soldiers who could hunt for Iranian-backed Shi’ite rebels in both Saudi Arabia and northern Yemen.
“The Saudis are in a panic mode and don’t have the troops or capabilities to stop the Yemeni Shi’ites,” an intelligence source said.
The sources said Riyad’s need for foreign forces stemmed from a refusal by Shi’ite-dominated Saudi units to fight the Believing Youth. They said this has led to the dismantling of several local security units familiar with the Saudi-Yemeni border.
Saudi officials have not confirmed the assertion of the Western intelligence sources. But on Nov. 27, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled Bin Sultan acknowledged that Yemeni Shi’ite fighters held at least two southern Saudi villages for nearly a month. Later, officials said 15,000 Saudis had been evacuated from their homes.
The sources said Jordan has been the only Arab League state to respond to Saudi appeals for help in fighting the Iranian-backed Believing Youth movement. Believing Youth has been fighting an intermittent war in northern Yemen since 2004, but in November 2009 invaded southern Saudi Arabia and captured several border villages.
“The Saudi air force has been heavily bombing villages inside Yemen, but this has not made a dent in the capabilities of the Shi’ite rebels,” the source said. “They have been well-trained by Iran and Hizbullah and have moved steadily north in Saudi Arabia.”
The Saudi military has focused on trying to impose a blockade on northern Yemen. The Royal Saudi Naval Forces has bolstered its presence with at least four fast attack craft and missile boats and reported the destruction of weapons smuggling ships from neighboring Somalia.
“The infiltrating terrorists intended to attack our nation when they encroached upon our territories and terrorized our peaceful people,” King Abdullah said in an address to his troops. “Undeterred by religion or ethical values, the intruders shed the blood of the people.”
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Calls to Boycott Swiss Over Minaret Ban
A number of religious figures in Saudi Arabia called to boycott Switzerland and withdraw all Muslim deposits from bank accounts in the country in protest against the Swiss referendum that banned building new minarets.
The UAE-based newspaper al-Bayan reported that religious moderator Khaled al-Shamrani called for afar-reaching boycott on all good and products originating in Switzerland. He also called upon Muslims to avoid traveling to the country. Religious figure Ahmed al-Hassan called wealthy Muslims to withdraw their deposits from Swiss banks. (Roee Nahmias)
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
‘Sleeper Cells’ In Lebanon Palestinian Camps: Experts
Despite the relative calm of Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps in recent months, experts warn that Islamist groups are still operating within and could strike at any time.
At Ain al-Helweh, the largest of Lebanon’s 12 camps, which is known to harbour extremists and fugitives, small sleeper cells have kept a low profile but could mobilize quickly depending on developments, they say.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Survey: 59% of Muslim Turks Against Allowing Other Religions to Meet Openly, Exchange Ideas
ISTANBUL -Survey finds nearly 40 percent of population has negative view of Christians. More than half of the population of Muslim-majority. Turkey opposes members of other religions holding meetings or publishing materials to explain their faith, according to a recently issued survey.
Fully 59 percent of those surveyed said non-Muslims either “should not” or “absolutely should not” be allowed to hold open meetings where they can discuss their ideas. Fifty-four percent said non-Muslims either “should not” or “absolutely should not” be allowed to publish literature that describes their faith.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Pope’s Attacker Wants to Live in Italy After Release
Mehmet Ali Agca is due to be released on 18 January 2010 from Yenikent prison in the Turkish capital Ankara where he is serving a sentence for crimes committed after the papal attack.
Rome, 7 Dec. (AKI) — The Turkish gunman, who tried to kill the late Pope John Paul II in 1981, wants to move to Italy after spending more than 28 years in jail, an Italian daily said on Monday. Mehmet Ali Agca is due to be released on 18 January.
According to a report in La Repubblica, Agca wants to leave Turkey and come to Rome to pray at the tomb of the late pontiff and live here.
Agca shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on 13 May 1981. He was a member of the radical right-wing Turkish group, the Grey Wolves and was tried and served almost 20 years of a life sentence in prison in Italy.
“Once freed, I would like to be baptised. I would like to do it in front of media from all over the world, in the Vatican, exactly in front of St. Peter’s Square, the place where I struck Pope Wojtyla (John Paul II),” said Agca in an interview published in May.
After serving almost 20 years of a life sentence in prison in Italy, Agca received an official pardon from former Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in 2000 and was deported to Turkey.
He was then jailed at the Yenikent jail in the capital Ankara where he is serving a separate sentence for robbery and murder.
Agca said that he has contacted Dan Brown, author of the best-selling fiction novel The Da Vinci Code, to write a book and there is speculation about television appearances.
He will not be required to do the obligatory military service in Turkey due to what has been called his “anti-social personality”, a Turkish hospital told the Italian newspaper.
Agca converted to Christianity in 2007 and has said he wants to be baptised as a Catholic in Rome.
At first Agca claimed he was commissioned to kill the pontiff by Bulgaria on the orders of the Soviet KGB or intelligence services.
Agca later recanted, but suspicions continued about a Bulgarian connection, involving the secret services of the then Communist bloc that feared the Polish Pope’s influence on the global stage.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Not to Surrender to Some EU States, Says Minister
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 7 — Turkey’s Chief EU Negotiator said that Turkey would not surrender and commit to all demands of each and every member countries of the EU just because it wanted to become a part of the club. In an interview on BBC show “Hardtalk”, as reported by Anatolia news agency, Bagis said that Turkey’s membership was as important to EU as it was to Turkey. “This is a relationship based on a win-win situation and either we all win or we have to look at the situation,” Bagis said. Bagis said Turkey was a proud nation and that the European Union needed Turkey just as much as Turkey needs the EU. “Europe has to make big decisions,” he said. “At a time when 70 percent of all the energy resources Europe needs, are either to the south or to the north or to the east of Turkey.” Bagis went on saying, “at a time when Turkey is a bridge to these energy resources, a bridge to new consumers, a bridge to 1.5 billion consumers within 3 hours flying, a bridge to all the raw materials and a barrier to illegal immigration, a barrier to narcotics and terrorism, a partner in solving climate problem, a partner in solving the economic crisis with a median age of 28, having the fourth largest work force, can Europe afford to lose Turkey?” Asked about recent comments that Turkey shifted its axis to the East, Bagis said Turkey had always been a bridge between the East and the West. Stating that a bridge needed two pillars, Bagis said Turkey had neglected one of these pillars for years. He said Turkey was now trying to make them both stronger. “Our relations with Iran, Syria, Armenia and Georgia are not alternative to relations with Europe, but they are complementary,” he said. Bagis also reaffirmed Turkish government’s commitment to negotiations and membership to EU and added that “Turkish government would continue negotiations as long as it is fair and impartial.” (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey May Ban Kurdish DTP Party
Turkey’s Constitutional Court is considering whether to ban the country’s leading Kurdish party.
Prosecutors accuse the Democratic Society Party (DTP), which holds 21 seats in the 550-member parliament, of supporting Kurdish separatist rebels.
The 11 judges are expected to take days or weeks to reach their verdict.
Tension in the mainly Kurdish south-east of Turkey has risen in recent months despite a government drive to improve ties with the Kurdish minority.
Analysts say if the court decides to close down the DTP, it could derail Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s effort to broaden the rights of Kurdish citizens.
Several predecessors of the DTP have been shut down in the past over links to the separatist PKK, which is outlawed and classed by the US and EU as a terrorist group. But the party’s members have reformed under different names.
Some 40,000 people have died since the PKK launched its armed campaign in 1984. The government’s recent Kurdish initiative is aimed at ending the insurgency.
When eight PKK members handed themselves in at the Turkish border in October, the government and many nationalists were angry that there was a large gathering offering a hero’s welcome, reportedly organised by the DTP.
One of the party’s leaders, Emine Ayna, warned that banning the DTP would damage attempts to end the Kurdish conflict.
It “would lead to a much worse climate than the one in the 80s and 90s” when the PKK insurgency began and reached its peak, she said.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Soldiers Shot Dead in Ambush
Seven Turkish soldiers have been shot dead after gunmen opened fire on a military unit in northern Turkey, officials have said.
A further four soldiers were injured in the attack, which took place in the town of Resadiye in Tokat province.
There was no immediate indication of who was behind the attack. However, both Kurdish and leftist militants are reported to be active in the area.
Attacks on military bases in the north of the country are, however, rare.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Taliban Shadow Officials Offer Concrete Alternative
LAGHMAN, AFGHANISTAN — Like nearly all provinces in Afghanistan, this one has two governors.
The first was appointed by President Hamid Karzai and is backed by thousands of U.S. troops. He governs this mountainous eastern Afghan province by day, cutting the ribbons on new development projects and, according to fellow officials with knowledge of his dealings, taking a generous personal cut of the province’s foreign assistance budget.
The second governor was chosen by Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and, hunted by American soldiers, sneaks in only at night. He issues edicts on “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” stationery, plots attacks against government forces and fires any lower-ranking Taliban official tainted by even the whiff of corruption.
As the United States prepares to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to bolster Karzai’s beleaguered government, Taliban leaders are quietly pushing ahead with preparations for a moment they believe is inevitable: their return to power. The Taliban has done so by establishing an elaborate shadow government of governors, police chiefs, district administrators and judges that in many cases already has more bearing on the lives of Afghans than the real government.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Alden Pyle in Pakistan, Part 1
Client State. Definition: A country that is dependent on the economic or military support of a larger, more powerful country
Setting the record straight
I think Americans who don’t know anything about Pakistan tend to assume that the worst aspects of the society are rooted in extremist Islam imported from Saudi Arabia. That’s not the case; it’s just that when Wahabism intersected with the maharaja system, a way of life that had been preserved in certain Pakistan regions through various interventions, including the British Raj and U.S. actions during the Cold War, the outcome was perhaps the world’s most toxic society.
Several Americans I’ve heard speak on the topic over the years also wrongly assume the U.S. government first got involved with Pakistan when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. That is incorrect. America was there, at the beginning of Pakistan’s independence. Yet when you know something about the beginning you’ll understand why it’s rarely discussed in the USA.
Pakistan first became a U.S. client state in 1947, shortly after the country came into existence. The U.S. provided $411 million to the government to establish Pakistan’s armed forces.
So it’s a myth, which even many Western leftists believe, that the U.S. ‘sided’ with Pakistan’s military against India because India was on friendly terms with the Soviet Union. That’s not how things got started.
The U.S. chose Pakistan over India to make into a client state because Pakistan’s feudal lords reigned supreme at Independence; that, coupled with Pakistan’s rigid caste system, guaranteed that a military coup could derail any genuine democracy in the country. That made Pakistan’s military, and the country’s defense policy, easy for the U.S. to control.
India was a different story. From Scottish historian William Dalrymple’s clear-eyed eulogy for Benazir Bhutto, which Pakistan’s Chowk literary magazine republished from the U.K. Guardian…
| — Hat tip: Pundita | [Return to headlines] |
Germany to Compensate Victims of Afghan Airstrike
BERLIN, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — The German government is considering to compensate the families of Afghan civilians killed in a German-ordered airstrike in September, the German Defense Ministry said on Monday.
The ministry was in contact with a lawyer representing the victims’ families, Defense Ministry spokesman Christian Dienst told a regular press conference in Berlin.
“We have said we will be in touch with him to discuss the demands for compensation. We will look at how this is to be done in concrete terms,” Dienst said.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
India: Islamic Experts: No to the Political Exploitation of the Ayodhya Mosque
Asgar Ali Engineer doubts that the parliamentary debate on the allegations against BJP leaders will bring any results . He invites Muslims and Hindus not to follow “aggressive and ambitious ringleaders “ and work for education, development and secularism..
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — The parliamentary debate on the destruction of the mosque in Ayodhya and on those responsible for massacres is in danger of being politically manipulated for the benefit of ambitious party leaders, without helping to understand the real problems between Hindu and Muslim communities or safeguarding the secular nature of the country. Speaking to AsiaNews Muslim intellectual Asgar Ali Engineer, Chairman of the Center for Study of Society and Secularism, comments on the Liberhan report into the Hindu extremists attack on the mosque of Babar, or Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992 ( photo).
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
India: Over 1,500 Muslims Held in City
CHENNAI: On the 17th anniversary of Babri Masjid demolition, more than 1,500 activists from Muslim organisations were arrested when they held protests in different parts of the city on Sunday.
Over 500 activists, including 180 women, of the Tamil Nadu unit of Indian Tauheed Jamaat gathered near a five star hotel in Nungambakkam at 10.50 am and tried to march towards Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s house on Haddows Road.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Philippine, Muslim Rebels Resume Peace Talks
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) — The Philippines resumed stalled peace talks with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group on Tuesday, with the government’s top negotiator expressing optimism of achieving a lasting settlement.
The two-day talks in Kuala Lumpur between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), is also joined by a newly set up International Contact Group made up of Britain, Japan and Turkey.
The stop-start talks brokered by Malaysia since 2001 aim to end a four-decade Muslim insurgency that has killed 120,000 people and scared off potential investors in a region believed to be sitting on huge oil and gas deposits.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Sikhs Strive for Recognition in New Afghanistan
Decades of fighting has almost wiped out the Sikh and Hindu communities in Afghanistan. Most of them fled the country, and those who are left are struggling to find a place in Afghan society.
Sikhs and Hindus have been in Afghanistan for generations, but whereas once they thrived as a community, three decades of fighting has seen their numbers and influence diminish.
Many of them were killed during the civil war of the 1990s, when their houses, shops and properties were seized by powerful warlords.
Later, under the Taliban, they were forced to wear patches, turbans, or yellow veils to identify themselves. Now, President Karzai’s promises to them are also delivering precious little.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
China Sentences Uyghur Church Leader to 15 Years
China House Church China has sentenced an Uyghur house church leader to 15 years “criminal detention” on charges of “providing state secrets to overseas organizations”, but his supporters linked the sentence to his Christian activities.
China Aid Association (CAA), an advocacy group with close ties to house churches, said Monday, December 7, that 36-year-old Alimujiang Yimiti received the sentence October 28, but that he his lawyers have filed an appeal.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Qaeda Claims Kidnapping of Four Europeans: TV
A spokesman for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed the kidnappings of a Frenchman and three Spaniards, seized late last month in Mali and Mauritania, in an audio tape released Tuesday by Al-Jazeera television.
“Two units of the valiant mujahedeen managed to kidnap four Europeans in two distinct operations: the first in Mali where Frenchman Pierre Camatte was seized on November 25, and the second in Mauritania where three Spaniards were held on November 29,” spokesman Saleh Abu Mohammad said.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorism: Al-Qaeda Tape Claims Kidnapping of Four Europeans
Nouakchott, 8 Dec. (AKI) — Al-Qaeda’s North African branch on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the kidnapping last month of three Spanish aid workers in Mauritania and a French citizen in Mali. The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb’s spokesman Salah Abu Muhammad made the announcement in an audio tape aired by Arabic satellite TV network, Al-Jazeera.
Muhammad said the group claimed the abduction of French citizen Pierre Camatte, who was seized in Mali on 25 November, and the kidnapping of three Spanish aid workers on 29 November in Mauritania.
AQIM would soon send a message to the Spanish and French governments stating the group’s demands for the release of the hostages, said Muhammad.
Camatte, 61, is a regular visitor to Mali and leads a non-governmental organisation dedicated to fighting malaria in the region and also manages a hotel, according to reports.
Camatte was kidnapped from Menaka in the Sahel region of northern Mali, more than 1,500 kilometres from the capital, Bamako.
Located close to the border with Niger, the region is plagued by Tuareg rebels, Al-Qaeda militants and traffickers.
The three kidnapped Spanish aid workers, Albert Vilalta, Alicia Gamez, and Roque Pascual, are all employees of the Barcelona-based NGO Accio Solidaria.
They were seized on a road near the northern city of Nouadhibou when their convoy was stopped by masked men who opened fire from their Land Rover. The convoy was bound for the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
Mauritania declared a state of maximum alert after the kidnappings and sent anti-terrorism units to its desert borders to seal off all outlets for the kidnappers. The borders with Mali, Algeria and Morocco were closed.
The Al-Qaeda branch claimed responsibility for killing Briton Edwin Dyer, one of a group of six foreigners kidnapped in the Sahel in May, according to SITE Intelligence, a US-based monitoring group.
The others were all released after ransoms had been paid, according to observers , despite denials from various governments concerned.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Demands Nurses in Bolivia Wear Hijabs (Via NRP)
On Wednesday, November 24, Iranian demands that female nurses don the hijab in response to Iran’s providing $1.2 million for funding of the new El Alto city hospital in Bolivia sparked a national outcry among women’s rights advocates within Bolivia. In an international teleconference in La Paz held between Bolivian President, Evo Morales, and Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to celebrate the hospital’s opening, nurses were shown wearing hijabs as part of their new uniform regulations.
This imposition of political Islamic pseudo-religious attire from another country is causing a rift within Bolivian political ranks. Even though the Morales administration is the profoundly socialist MAS party, the Iranian demand is still seen as an affront on Bolivian cultural integrity especially in a country with a Roman Catholic majority.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
China Now Australia’s Top Source of Immigrants
China has overtaken the UK and New Zealand as Australia’s biggest source of immigrants, official figures reveal.
The latest government figures show a record 6,350 people arrived from China in the four months to October.
China’s new primacy was due largely to a fall in migration from the UK and New Zealand, as people there opt to hold on to jobs instead of moving to Australia.
Arrivals from the UK were down 28% to 5,800 and the number from New Zealand was down 47% to 4,740.
Diplomatic spats
British migration has also been affected by a cut in the number of skilled workers Australia allows to settle in the country.
Chinese migration, however, is dominated by family reunions and grew by 15% over the same period last year.
New Zealanders do not require visas to migrate to Australia and so the drop in migration from there is a direct response to economic conditions, demographer Graeme Hugo told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The upsurge in Chinese migration comes despite a series of spats this year between Beijing and Canberra.
Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto spurned a bid from Chinese state-owned firm Chinalco in favour of an offer from another Anglo-Australian company — BHP Billiton.
Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu and three Chinese staff were arrested in China on suspicion of industrial espionage.
Deepening the diplomatic chill, Australia allowed high-profile Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer to visit in August.
Since then, both sides have worked to improve ties. A survey of Chinese attitudes to Australia released earlier this month indicated that a majority of respondents agreed Australia has attractive values and a good political system.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Why Import Workers Now?
At last week’s Job Summit, there was talk of a second stimulus package, of tax credits for small businesses that hire new workers, of an infrastructure bank to select national priority pubic-works projects like the Hoover Dam and TVA of yesteryear.
But no one, it seems, advanced the one obvious idea that would have the most immediate and dramatic impact — a moratorium on all immigration into the United States.
Unemployment is at 10 percent, near the post-war high of 1983. Fifteen million Americans are out of work. Ten million more have given up looking or are working fewer hours than they would like.
We have been losing jobs every month for two years.
Why, then, are we still bringing immigrants into the United States at a rate of 125,000 a month to take jobs from fellow Americans and compete with our unemployed for the jobs that open up?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqis Top of EU List for Asylum in 2008
The EU granted asylum to 16,600 Iraqis last year — by far the largest group, forming 22% of the total, the EU’s statistical office Eurostat says.
Out of 281,120 asylum applications in total across the EU 76,320, or 27%, were successful.
France granted asylum to the largest number (11,500), followed by Germany (10,700) and the UK (10,200).
After Iraqis, the largest groups to get EU asylum were from Somalia (12%), Russia (10%) and Afghanistan (7%).
Greece took in the smallest number — less than 1% of the total.
Most of the Iraqis settled in Germany and Sweden, while Italy took in the largest number of Somalis.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Iraqis Granted Swedish Asylum
Sweden granted protection to 8,700 asylum seekers in 2008, with Iraqis accounting for almost half the total, according to new figures from EU statistics office Eurostat.
Just four EU countries took in more asylum seekers than Sweden: France (11 500), Germany (10,700), the United Kingdom (10,200), and Italy (9,700).
Aside from almost 4,000 Iraqis, Sweden’s other top recipients of asylum status were 1,540 Somalis and 655 Eritreans.
One in five successful asylum seekers across the European Union are Iraqis, the vast majority accepted by Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Some 16,600 Iraqis won the right to settle in the 27-nation bloc in 2008, the Eurostat agency said. At 22 percent, that was far and away the biggest group among 76,300 people considered at risk if they returned to their countries.
Somalia furnished the next largest number, 9,500, followed by 7,400 Russians, 5,000 Afghans and 4,600 people from Eritrea in the Horn of Africa.
Italy was the most welcoming to the Somalis, while Poland was the preferred destination for the Russians.
The figures, published ahead of UN Human Rights Day on Thursday, showed that decisions were made on 209,200 cases, with a third going to appeal.
Two thirds of all successful applicants were taken in by France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Sweden, with Austria and the Netherlands also taking in more than 5,000 applicants each.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens in Congress: Oust Obama’s Porn-Promoter
Homosexual activist Jennings now heading America’s ‘safe schools’ office
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following includes descriptions of adult themes and objectional subject material.
More than four dozen members of Congress have signed a letter to President Obama urging the removal of Kevin Jennings, the pro-homosexual activist appointed to head the nation’s office of safe schools.
The campaign is available online under the website StopJennings.org. The site tells why signers believe Jennings is unfit for the office.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bolton Slams U.N.’s ‘Adverse Press’ Crackdown
Global organization creating ‘credibility problem’ with decisions
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations’ refusal to allow a WorldNetDaily senior staff writer access to the Copenhagen summit on climate change that started this week is but the latest in a series of clashes between the world organization and media.
The standoff between the U.N.’s Department of Public Information and WND publisher Joseph Farah continues, but Farah confirmed a senior U.N. official has offered to meet with him to “discuss” a “future” relationship.
[…]
Bolton told WND: “Over the years, there have been numerous complaints about U.N. efforts to prevent adverse press coverage. Every time it happens, such as denying access or credentials, the U.N. simply increases its credibility problem.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Copenhagen’s Hidden Agenda: The Multibillion Trade in Carbon Derivatives
Architect of Credit Default Swaps behind the Development of “Carbon Derivatives”
As I have previously shown, speculative derivatives (especially credit default swaps) are a primary cause of the economic crisis.
And I have pointed out that (1) the giant banks will make a killing on carbon trading, (2) while the leading scientist crusading against global warming says it won’t work, and (3) there is a very high probability of massive fraud and insider trading in the carbon trading markets.
Now, Bloomberg notes that the carbon trading scheme will be centered around derivatives:
The banks are preparing to do with carbon what they’ve done before: design and market derivatives contracts that will help client companies hedge their price risk over the long term. They’re also ready to sell carbon-related financial products to outside investors.
[Blythe] Masters says banks must be allowed to lead the way if a mandatory carbon-trading system is going to help save the planet at the lowest possible cost. And derivatives related to carbon must be part of the mix, she says. Derivatives are securities whose value is derived from the value of an underlying commodity — in this case, CO2 and other greenhouse gases…
Who is Blythe Masters?
She is the JP Morgan employee who invented credit default swaps, and is now heading JPM’s carbon trading efforts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Socialists Demand Trillions in “Climate Debt”
Ignoring the fallacies behind the “science” of man-made global warming, a new U.N. report on “climate justice” says the U.S. and other countries owe $24 trillion in “climate debt” to the rest of the world. The report, “Climate Justice for a Changing Planet,” argues that the United States is “historically the largest global emitter” of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore has the biggest “debt” to pay…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Swine-Flu Bribe Fever!
U.N.’s H1N1 scientists linked to companies making vaccine
World Health Organization scientists are suspected of accepting secret bribes from vaccine manufacturers to influence the U.N. organization’s H1N1 pandemic declaration, according to Danish and Swedish newspapers.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical profits from swine-flu related drugs have soared — with earnings between $10 billion and $15 billion in 2009, investment bank JP Morgan estimates.
As WND reported, the WHO Director General Margaret Chan initially raised the influenza pandemic alert to its second highest level in May — but evidence reveals the agency may have made it easier to classify the flu outbreak as a pandemic by changing its definition to omit “enormous numbers of deaths and illness” just prior to making its declaration.
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“Many of the apparently impartial researchers the WHO uses, however, are paid by the companies that produce vaccines,” states a translated version of the Information article, “Strong lobbying behind WHO resolution on mass vaccination.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Free Press vs. The New World Order
It’s official!
The United Nations banned the news agency most critical of “man-made catastrophic climate” hysteria from coverage of the Copenhagen convention billed as a major leap forward for global governance.
That new agency is my own, of course — WND.
You might think the banning of a news agency, any news agency, would evoke some coverage from colleagues.
Yet, to date, not one story about the censorship has appeared on Fox News, CNN, the New York Times, the Associated Press, ABC, NBC, CBS or any other major news outlet.
I shouldn’t be surprised.
With few exceptions, the major press has not yet covered to any measurable degree the biggest development since Al Gore invented “global warming.” (By the way, unlike the Internet, he really did invent “global warming” — to his everlasting shame, except in Nobel Prize circles.)
I refer, of course, to what has come to be known as “Climategate” — e-mails from pseudo-scientists at East Anglia University that reveal an effort to spin and even change real temperature data to fit the theory and obscure the facts.
The e-mails were a new discovery, but the lying and manipulation of data is hardly a recent occurrence. It goes back 10 years.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
That the most racist state on Earth could also be a democracy has never occurred to muslims or lefties. Democracy is rule by majority, not unending, blanketing of “rights”.
Christian hoteliers cleared in Muslim woman abuse row
The case has been thrown out. The CPS thinks that it was right.
The fact that someone can go to court and face fines, a criminal record and possibly even jail just for disagreeing with someone else.
And the woman who made the charges is a recent convert. That’s what disgusts me most about this whole affair.