The UN General Assembly finally passed the landmark Arms Trade Treaty. The document requires signatory countries that export arms to make sure that those exports do not contribute to human rights abuses, organized crime, or terrorism. Shipments deemed harmful to women and children will also be banned.
In other news, Islamic radicals attacked a power station in Peshawar in northwest Pakistan, kidnapping nine people and killing seven of them after setting fire to the installation.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, Gaia, JP, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Underwater: The Netherlands Falls Prey to Economic Crisis
The Netherlands, Berlin’s most important ally in pushing for greater budgetary discipline in Europe, has fallen into an economic crisis itself. The once exemplary economy is suffering from huge debts and a burst real estate bubble, which has stalled growth and endangered jobs.
Michel Scheepens is familiar with risk. The 41-year-old oversees the energy market for the Dutch bank ING, and it’s his job to determine whether his employer should finance such projects as a wind farm in Cyprus or a gas-fired power plant in Turkey. Until now, it was always other people’s money that was involved.
For some time, however, Scheepens has been experiencing what a poor investment feels like on a personal level. Six years ago, the father of three bought half of a duplex for his family in the commuter town of Nieuw-Vennep, near the North Sea coast. The red brick building cost €430,000 ($552,000), but the bank generously offered him a loan of €500,000, so that there was enough money left over for renovations, along with notary and community fees. Scheepens had intended to resell the house after a few years, as is common in the Netherlands. But then prices tumbled following the Lehman bankruptcy. If the family were to sell the house today, it would have to pay the lender €60,000. His house is “onder water,” as Scheepens says.
“Underwater” is a good description of the crisis in a country where large parts of the territory are below sea level. Ironically, the Netherlands, once a model economy, now faces the kind of real estate crisis that has only affected the United States and Spain until now. Banks in the Netherlands have also pumped billions upon billions in loans into the private and commercial real estate market since the 1990s, without ensuring that borrowers had sufficient collateral.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Campaign Aims to Change How Muslims Are Perceived
Members of WNY Muslims will hand out roses to passers-by downtown and at the University at Buffalo’s North Campus in Amherst on Wednesday, along with inspirational quotations from the Prophet Muhammad, as part of a “Roses of the Prophet: iLove” event to change how Muslims are perceived.
The organization also will drop off buckets of roses for patients at Sisters Hospital and its St. Joseph Campus. The outreach event is designed to spread awareness about Islam, combat misperceptions and stereotypes, and encourage Muslims to become actively engaged in the community. The roses will be distributed at Lafayette Square downtown and at the UB Student Union from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
DNA Transistors Pave Way for Living Computers
Computers made from living cells, anyone? Two groups of researchers have independently built the first biological analogue of the transistor — an integral element of modern electronics.
It should make it easier to create gadgets out of living cells, such as biosensors that detect polluted water.
A transistor acts as a switch, converting electrical inputs into output signals via logic gates. Now, Drew Endy at Stanford University in California and colleagues have designed a transistor-like device that controls the movement of an enzyme called RNA polymerase along a strand of DNA, just as electrical transistors control the flow of current through a circuit.
A different enzyme acts as the input, which depending on the sequence of the logic gates, either stops or starts the flow of polymerase. The device can also amplify its flow, another important function of transistors, allowing them to power other components in the circuit.
Because combinations of transistors can carry out computations, this should make it possible to build living gadgets with integrated control circuitry.
A similar device has been built by Timothy Lu and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but amplification gives Endy’s device the edge.
Such devices will be key building blocks in cellular machines, says Paul Freemont at Imperial College London, who was not involved in either study.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Group Claims Win on DuPage Mosque Dispute
Federal judge declares county’s zoning denial ‘arbitrary and capricious’
A federal judge has ruled that DuPage County was “arbitrary and capricious” when it denied permission for an Iranian Muslim group to build a mosque on a 3-acre residential property near west-suburban Naperville. Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer issued a 70-page summary judgment Friday that could force the county to reconsider the zoning petition of the Irshad Learning Center…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Candidate Could Become Germany’s First Black MP
In July 1991, two youths punched Karamba Diaby in the face and chased after him in a racist attack in Halle, a bastion of neo-Nazis in eastern Germany. Now he’s about to campaign in the city to become the first black member of the German parliament in the September general election.
Diaby, 51, who has a PhD in chemistry, was born in Senegal and has spent almost three decades in Germany. He moved to East Germany in 1985 before the fall of the Wall to study at the University of Leipzig before moving to Halle a year later. He has been nominated as the candidate for the center-left Social Democratic Party. The fact that he has been given the third slot in the party’s list of candidates means he has a very solid chance of securing a seat in the Bundestag, or federal parliament, in Berlin.
“It could be that some people have problems with the color of my skin,” he told SPIEGEL. “But I hope I will be accepted because I am involved in many projects.”
Diaby gained German citizenship in 1991, is married to a German and has two children. He doesn’t like talking about what campaigning is like for a black person in Germany. He doesn’t want to belittle the problem of racism in eastern Germany, but he doesn’t want to accuse all voters of racism either.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Lego Denies Discontinuing Jabba’s Palace Over Race Claims
Toy manufacturer Lego has denied claims by Austria’s Turkish community that it is withdrawing one of its Star Wars products because of allegations it was riddled with racist stereotypes.
In January the Turkish Cultural Community of Austria took exception to Lego’s “Jabba’s Palace” featuring the slug-like arch-criminal from the bloc-busting film series. The organisation claimed his palace resembled the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul and that the accompanying figures depicted Orientals and Asians as people with “deceitful and criminal personalities.” Calling for Lego to scrap the product, the organisation also took exception to Jabba’s fondness for the Middle Eastern water pipe and keeping Princess Leia as a chained slave dressed only in a skimpy belly-dancer’s outfit…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: First Prayer at Thessaloniki Mosque After 90 Years
Nearly 50 students performed their prayer at the mosque which has been closed to worship since 1923 and is now used as an exhibition hall.
The first Muslim prayer was performed after 90 years at Yeni Mosque in the Reek city of Thessaloniki. A group of students from the Medrese-i Hayriye school in Komotini visited Thessaloniki and performed a noon prayer on Saturday at the mosque by receiving a special permit from Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Dutch Muslims Celebrate Converts Day
AMSTERDAM — Bringing a galaxy of noted speakers and converts from across the Netherlands, Dutch Muslims held a reception Sunday, March 31, to celebrate new people embracing Islam. “I am very happy today,” Hans, a 72-year old Dutch father, told Kuwait news agency (KUNA). Hans embraced Islam during the National Converts Day of Dutch Muslims at the Blue Mosque in Amsterdam
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
New School is a First for Scottish Muslims
SCOTLAND’S first Islamic secondary school is to be opened in its biggest city, prompting fears it could cause rifts with the wider community.
Abbotsford House, a former state school in the city’s Gorbals area, has been bought for £400,000 by a group known as the Glasgow Community Education Association (GCEA). It plans to rename the B-listed Victorian building ‘The Islamic Institute’. The school will provide private secondary education to boys and girls, as well as a nursery and will be funded by parents, businessmen and others in the Muslim community. The GCEA has in the past claimed that attending mainstream schools was resulting in “unsocial behaviour” among Glasgow’s Muslim youngsters. But the establishment of the school raises questions over inclusivity and whether denominational learning could cause community rifts…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: More Young People Suspected of Committing Serious Crimes
Young people under the age of 18 are more and more often suspected of committing serious crimes, according to a new compilation of figures from news agency TT, Statistics Sweden and the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
Since the late ‘90s, young people are the suspects in twice as many robberies now. The number of drug crimes in which young people are suspects has quintupled, and the number of rape cases in which young people are suspects has more than octupled.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Gather at the Annual Meeting of French Muslims
Muslims from all walks of life have gathered just north of Paris. This is where the difficult question of Islamophobia is being raised. There are no official figures on the total number of Muslims in France, but several estimates show, 6 million Muslims live here…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: East London Mosque Holds Open Weekend
The East London Mosque opened its doors to the public at the weekend to allow non-Muslims to gain an insight into Islam.
The Mosque, and neighbouring London Muslim Centre, is home to one of the largest Muslim congregations in Europe.
Organised by the Islam Awareness Project, the open weekend aimed to offer an insight into how a Mosque functions, including through a viewing of live prayer gatherings…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Hospital ‘Death Pathway’ Bribes Will be Scrapped: Victory for the Mail as Ministers End Payments
Cash bribes to hospitals to put patients on to the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway will be ended, families have been told.
The disclosure means that the NHS payments — which amount to at least £30million — are likely to be stopped later this year.
A Health Department inquiry is underway into the Pathway, which was originally developed to ease the last days and hours of dying patients.
Care Minister Norman Lamb spoke to families of Pathway patients in Leeds in the first of a series of meetings designed to feed their views into the inquiry, which was launched in February and will report in the summer.
One of those at the meeting was Alyson White, who said her grandmother Marion Haigh died over a period of 12 days after Bradford Royal Infirmary withdrew fluids and food.
The family said 82-year-old Mrs Haigh, who had early stage cervical cancer, was eating and drinking before being put on the Pathway.
Miss White said that Mr Lamb acknowledged that people were ‘terrified’ of the Liverpool Care Pathway.
She added: ‘He is appalled that people feared they were not getting cared for but put to death in hospital. He said he would definitely be looking to stop any form of financial payment to hospitals to put patients on the Liverpool Care Pathway.
‘He said that most definitely he didn’t believe that hospitals should be gaining from patients dying on the LCP.’
Payments to hospitals to hit targets were first revealed by the Daily Mail last autumn.
Some have been paid hundreds of thousands of pounds a year for reaching targets for LCP deaths.
For example, the hospital trust in Blackpool was last year paid £450,000 in return for ensuring 35 per cent of patients who die in hospital are on the LCP. Families have protested that relatives who were not dying have been placed on the Pathway.
Tory MP Fiona Bruce has told how she saved her father’s life when she pulled him off the Pathway.
She had already seen her mother die an ‘agonising’ death when she was put on an end-of-life pathway after brain surgery two years earlier.
Miss Bruce said her 83-year-old father was admitted to a hospital, which she did not name, suffering from an unidentified illness that left him ‘weak and frail’.
After a few days, a nurse had ‘almost casually’ told her: ‘He has not long to live. We are putting him on the Liverpool Care Pathway.’
Miss Bruce told a meeting in Parliament there had been ‘no discussion, no explanation, no consultation’ between the family and the hospital staff.
She said that her mother’s ‘heart-rending’ death after being deprived of food and fluids — without her family being consulted — had left her with a sense of ‘terrible guilt’.
The Congleton MP contacted her sister and they insisted their father was removed from the Pathway. He was placed in a nursing home. ‘Now, well over six months later that elderly man is very much alive, eating well, getting up when he wants and resting when he doesn’t, enjoying visits from his family,’ she said. ‘He is looking forward to his 85th birthday.’
An end to payments for Pathway targets would free hospitals from the suspicion of taking money in return for the deaths of patients.
Analysts believe the inquiry will also recommend that no patient should be put on the Pathway without either their own consent or that of their closest family.
Another likelihood is a change of name so the tainted title of Liverpool Care Pathway is no longer used.
Mr Lamb said: ‘It is important that I respect the independence of this review but I have already made clear that I have serious concerns about the use of financial incentives and that they should only ever be used if they demonstrably improve patient care.’
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ministers Can’t Just Carry on Attacking the ECHR. They Must Pledge to Take Britain Out of it
by Paul Goodman
I suspect that Chris Grayling would like Britain to leave the ECHR. I have no evidence whatsoever for this guess, but it’s consistent with the carefully-chosen words he used on the matter when I interviewed him for this site last year. This morning, he writes in the Daily Mail about the court and the convention. He writes: “I think we have given up far too much of our own sovereignty. We have given up too many of our own democratic rights. We need to reverse the changes…I would bring forward reforms in this Parliament and not the next. But we don’t have the votes to bring that business to the House and then deliver it.”
The Justice Secretary is right to remind readers that the Conservatives can’t simply pass whatever measures they like through the Commons. (Some of them seem to have difficulty in grasping the point.) But the problem his piece points to is obvious: what are the reforms that he would bring forward? We don’t know — and the longer we don’t know, the more the words of Ministers who hint at radical measures are likely to be compared to those of King Lear: “I will do such things, -/ What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be./The terrors of the earth.”…
[Reader comment by Kingbingo on 2 April 2013 at about 9:30 am.]
The ECHR is a total farce, do most people know that less than half of the court’s judges had any judicial experience before arriving in Strasbourg? They are mostly lefty campaigners and academics parachuted in to use the ECHR to bludgeon through leftie and integrationalist agendas where all else fails. The only thing madder than the ECHR is that we happily agree to be bullied by them.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: PM Wades in to Save Sheep From Drowning
A WEST Oxfordshire sheep found herself the darling of the media yesterday after being rescued by David Cameron. The Prime Minister and Witney MP discovered the drowning ewe, since named Swampy, after hearing her bleating loudly on his neighbour Julian Tustian’s farm. Mr Cameron contacted his armed police protection team and, together with two officers, he pulled the sheep out of the boggy ground. Although the rescue happened on March 1, the news broke yesterday and Mr Tustian, 43, found himself receiving calls from news organisations including The Sun and BBC Radio 5 Live…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Polly Toynbee’s Guardian Goggles
by Jake Wallis Simons
The homepage of the Guardian website this morning carries an unparalleled masterpiece of an April Fool. “Our readers have been telling us that they want a more immersive way of experiencing the Guardian,” says Alan Rusbridger in the opening sequence of the video. “And so today I’m excited to reveal the latest ground-breaking innovation by the Guardian”. This is the Guardian’s new “augmented reality spectacles”, which provide “a direct connection to a Guardian universe” complete with “a constant stream of specially curated liberal and Left wing opinion”.
There is an “on-board mini Monbiot” which makes disapproving grimaces when the wearer contemplates purchasing food that has not been sourced ethically. There is “proprietary anti-bigotry technology” which “automatically protects you from harmful opinions before they even reach your eyes”, by blocking out articles in the Daily Mail, should the wearer be tempted to pick it up. There is even a finger-wagging Polly Toynbee avatar. “Let us do the thinking so you can get on with the living”, says the voiceover…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Parliament Has Become the Worst Enemy of Free Speech
Too many of our laws are being used simply to silence ‘unacceptable’ views, writes Philip Johnston
The cause of free speech has produced some unsavoury champions down the years, but few can have been less attractive than John Wilkes. During the current debate about press regulation, this 18th-century degenerate has often been cited as an exemplar of the sacrifices made in defence of liberty. Indeed, in his time, Wilkes was a national hero. Yet today, his reputation has dwindled almost to naught, and his name and activities are highly unlikely to feature on Michael Gove’s list of historical facts that all schoolchildren are expected to learn…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Big Bang That Happened Today
Even though the Guardian and Mirror are overstating their collective case, today is still a day of momentous policy changes. You can see our quick checklist of the biggest — which includes a couple that didn’t make it into the Guardian’s main round-up — below. Although, before you do, it’s worth noting that there’s more to come later this month, from another increase in the personal allowance to the first trial of the Universal Credit. Here are today’s measures…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Words Matter. Don’t Choose Them Too Carefully
By Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC.
Nobody who listened to George Osborne’s Budget speech could have been in any doubt about what he was trying to say. If anyone missed the message about “aspiration” at the first mention, or the second, they would surely have picked it up by the sixteenth. Yawn! The aim of building an “aspiration nation” and helping “hard working people who want to get on in life” was reinforced days later by David Cameron in his immigration speech, in which he also found three opportunities to remind us that Britain was in a “global race”, a theme he first introduced at last year’s Conservative conference.
Consistency is vital. Almost nobody will have heard either speech, which is why it is a rule of politics that once you are sick of repeating a message people are just about beginning to hear it. But while I welcome the emergence of this theme, which I hope Cameron and Osborne will stick to and develop, I hope it does not herald the emergence of that tiresome political fixation, the search for “magic words” that will instantaneously transform sceptical swing voters into true believers…
[JP note: Nob.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Mass Poisoning Hits Al Azhar University
Brotherhood urges Al Azhar Shaikh to take ‘firm decisions’
Share on linkedinShare on facebookShare on twitterShare on emailMore Sharing Services0.Cairo: At least 540 students at Egypt’s religious Al Azhar University had suffered food poisoning, reported the health Ministry on Tuesday.
The poisoning was blamed on unhealthy meals that students had eaten at their dormitory in Cairo. The cases angered the university’s students, who on Tuesday held a mass protest and blocked the traffic outside the headquarters of the institution in the suburban Cairo area of Nasr City.
State television reported that President Mohammad Mursi had visited some sick students at a Cairo hospital.
Essam Al Erian, a senior official in the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, said that the mass poisoning was the result of “old corruption” at the university overseen by Al Azhar.
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Prosecutor Sends TV Host to Trial for Insulting Activist
Egyptian prosecutor-general Talaat Abdullah ordered on Monday that television host and channel owner Tawfik Okasha stand trial before a court of misdemeanor for insulting political activist Galila Abdullah Abdel Hamid…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Storm Libyan Justice Ministry
Tripoli — Members of the Libyan Interior Ministry’s Supreme Security Committee (SSC) on Sunday (March 31st) besieged the justice ministry in Tripoli. The protestors demanded Minister Salah Marghani’s resignation after his recent televised remarks where he called some armed groups illegitimate and their prisons illegal.
“Those who attacked the ministry want to intimidate us,” Marghani said on Sunday at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Ali Zidan. “However, the building may be stormed and the justice minister may get killed, but justice won’t die, given that justice is God and justice is truth, and falsehood won’t prevail over truth.”
He added that the SSC militias had stormed the building in protest at government plans to hand the Metiga airbase prison to the justice ministry. Marghani said that the attackers would “be held to account legally either locally or internationally”. He noted that employees were evacuated of the building in the early morning…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Law Reflects Islamic Movement’s Philosophy on Education
GAZA, April 2 (Xinhua) — Hamas lawmakers have passed an education law that reflected the Islamic movement’s philosophy in terms of gender and ties to Israel. The law would take effect at the beginning of the new school year in September and would apply only in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has been holding sway since routing forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of the secularist Fatah party in 2007.
The new rule boosts separation between the two sexes in schools and goes further to what it calls “feminizing girls’ schools,” which stands for excluding male staffers from female schools. With the gender issue, the law sparked a controversy and deepened doubts that Hamas is steadily imposing an Islamic hue on the society, where the traditionally-conservative 1.7 million population endure the outcomes of an Israeli economic blockade that is meant to isolate the militant Hamas group…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Hamas Orders Schools in Gaza to be Segregated by Gender
Palestinian girls over the age of nine must not be educated by men or alongside boys in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas ministry of education announced on Monday.
Gender segregation is already in effective in the majority of schools in the Palestinian territory but from the next school year, it will be enforced by law in every one of Gaza’s education establishments, including Christian and private schools and those run by the United Nations…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Croatian Weapons Appear in Hands of Syria’s Rebels: Report
DAMASCUS, April 1 (Xinhua) — A Syrian newspaper revealed on Monday that Croatian weapons have started to appear in the hands of armed rebels in Syria’s southern province of Daraa. Al-Watan newspaper said the weapons include rocket launchers, surface-to-air missiles in addition to medium, light and sophisticated arms which have recently entered Syria through Jordan after the United States trained thousands of “terrorists” to use the weapons in Syria…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Opposition: Britain is Best Hope for the Rebellion
A senior Syrian opposition figure has attacked the United States for its inaction against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, saying that Britain and France were now the best hope for salvaging the rebellion.
Mr Walid Saffour, the opposition’s official envoy to London, said the refusal of Barack Obama’s administration to intervene in the two-year Syrian civil war was “humiliating to the Syrian people”. “The British and French stance [on Syria] is better and more advanced. It is better than the US which refuses to take action,” Mr Saffour told The Daily Telegraph…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Teenager Kills American Soldier
An Afghan teenager killed an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan by stabbing him in the neck while he played with a group of local children, officials said Monday. The soldier, Sgt. Michael Cable, 26, was guarding Afghan and American officials meeting in a province near the border with Pakistan when the stabbing occurred last Wednesday, two senior American officials said…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Angelina Jolie ‘To Use Jewellery Line to Fund Afghan Girls’ Schools’
Angelina Jolie reportedly plans to fund girls’ schools in Afghanistan with the proceeds of a jewellery line going on sale this week that she helped to design.
Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, funded the girls-only primary school in an area outside Kabul that has a high refugee population, E! News said in an exclusive report. The school educates 200-300 girls, E! said. It showed pictures of the school, which opened in November, and a plaque acknowledging Jolie’s contribution…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Burma: Nationalist Monk U Wirathu Denies Role in Anti-Muslim Unrest
U Wirathu is a 45-year-old Buddhist monk from Mandalay’s Masoeyein Monastery who has acquired notoriety for spreading anti-Muslim sentiments under his nationalist “969” campaign. It encourages Burmese Buddhists to shun Muslim businesses and communities.
U Wirathu was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003 for inciting religious conflicts, but was released in January 2012. In October, he organized protests against the international Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s plan to open a Burma office.
In a recent interview with The Irrawaddy’s Thalun Zaung Htet he blames some of the communal violence in Meikhtila on March 20-22 on the Islamic community, and claims his campaign played no role in the anti-Islamic unrest.
QUESTION: According to government figures, the death toll of the conflict in Meikhtila is 42. You went there to stop the rioters, why have there been so many deaths?
ANSWER: The death toll was highest on the second day of the unrest and most victims were Muslims who were stuck inside a mosque, mainly Muslim students from the madrassa and some civilians. Local village officials had hid them there to protect them.
After that, at 4 am early morning when the police guards were gone, the hidden Muslims became agitated and shouted slogans in unison. So the townspeople found out the Muslims are there and then they were surrounded. To the left of the group was a mosque and at the right side there was a burned area and in front there was a field, so there was no place for them to run. Then, one of the Muslims shot a slingshot at one of the Buddhist monks and the crowd became angry. Then they [the Muslims] threw bags containing acid at the crowd, which had just stood and watched the situation. The Muslims stayed inside but continued to throw things. I was there on the night of 20th March and [88 Generation Student leader] Min Ko Naing and [dissident monk] Shwe Nya Wah Sayadaw, were also there. Then, 20 Muslim people came out and fought with the Burmese crowd outside. Then people died there, almost 10, 11 deaths occurred. Security personnel saved the rest of the persons in hiding. These were the most deaths that occurred at one spot in Meikhtila. Other casualties were burned in fires. The only group killing was this case, the other deadly incidents involved just one or two people…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India: Nothing Incriminating Against Girls Islamic Organisation, Say Cops
A week after issuing a circular asking senior Mumbai Police officers to keep a watch on Girls Islamic Organisation, the women’s wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, with regard to “brainwashing of girls towards jihad”, the Special Branch — the intelligence wing of the city police — on Monday said it had not found anything adverse against the body…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Militants Attack Power Station in Pakistan
Dozens of militants attacked a critical power station in the north-west of Pakistan on Tuesday morning, killing seven people and disrupting electricity supplies to more than a hundred thousand people.
They struck before dawn with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. The attack in Peshawar is a reminder of the deadly threat facing Pakistan as it prepares to go to the polls next month. Mohammad Ishaq, a local police official told the Reuters news agency: “They entered the grid station and started setting ablaze each and every thing. They kidnapped nine people and killed five of them later and threw their bodies in the fields.” Although no-one has yet claimed responsibility, suspicion will fall on the Pakistan Taliban…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Train Derails in Bangladesh Hartal Violence, Some 40 Injured
DHAKA, April 2 (Xinhua) — Some 40 people were injured Tuesday morning when six compartments and the locomotive of a passenger train veered off the tracks in eastern Bangladesh as miscreants removed several fish-plates hours of before the opposition sponsored hartal began. Nazrul Islam, superintendent of Railway Police, told Xinhua the railway communications between Dhaka and premier seaport city Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka, also came to a halt due to the derailment that occurred early morning…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Vast Cache of Rare Earth Elements Found in Japan’s Mud
Japan keeps finding treasure in deep-sea mud. For the second time in two years, a Japanese team has announced vast deposits of rare earth elements on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.
Rare earth elements are not rare, but they are hard to find in easy-to-mine minerals. Right now China produces about 97 per cent of the world’s supply, which is used in many common technologies, from LCD screens to the batteries in hybrid cars.
Two years ago, Yasuhiro Kato and colleagues at the University of Tokyo announced they had found mud below international waters that is rich in rare earths. The latest discovery is nearby but is inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, so the nation will not need to negotiate mineral rights.
Kato hopes that the new find will help weaken China’s monopoly on rare earths. Currently, Japan imports more than 80 per cent of its rare earths from China so when China restricted its exports in 2010, Japan had to endure skyrocketing prices.
If Japan could produce 10 per cent of its own rare earths, Kato predicts that China would lower its prices in order to impede Japan’s development project. “This is a very effective resources strategy,” he notes.
Kato’s team will explore the new rare earth resources for the next two years, before mining begins.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Massive Seafloor Craters Found in Waters Off New Zealand
WELLINGTON, April 2 (Xinhua) — An international team of scientists have found what they believe are the world’s biggest “ pockmarks” — craters formed by seafloor eruptions of gas or fluids — in waters off New Zealand. The New Zealand, German and U.S. scientists found the pockmarks at a depth of about 1,000 meters on the seafloor of the Chatham Rise, about 500 km east of Christchurch…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Africans Move Against REDD Initiatives in Continent
African participants at the World Social Forum in Tunisia have taken a historic decision to launch a No REDD in Africa Network and join the global movement against REDD. Participants from Nigeria, South Africa, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Mozambique, Tunisia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Tanzania participated in the launch of the network recently.
REDD, an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation; as well as REDD+ are carbon offset mechanisms whereby industrialized Northern countries use forests, agriculture, soils and even water as sponges for their pollution instead of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at source…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ethiopia: Muslim Protesters Face Unfair Trial — Open Hearings to Family, Independent Monitors, Media
press release
The prosecution of 29 Muslim protest leaders and others charged under Ethiopia’s deeply flawed anti-terrorism law raises serious fair trial concerns. The trial is scheduled to resume in Addis Ababa on April 2, 2013, after a 40-day postponement.
The case has already had major due process problems. Some defendants have alleged ill-treatment in pre-trial detention. The government has provided defendants limited access to legal counsel and has taken actions that undermined their presumption of innocence. Since January 22 the High Court has closed the hearings to the public, including the media, diplomats, and family members of defendants…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Mali: Visiting Tomb of Askiya the Great
More than 500 years after its erection, the pyramidal tomb of Muhammad Askiya the Great, still remains in its original mud structure in Gao city in Mali. Gao, in present-day Mali, is believed to be the burial place of Muhammad Askiya the Great, one of the Emperor’s of Songhai. Askiya’s tomb, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was built at the end of the 15th century…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: One Killed, Many Injured in Ekiti Political Violence
Ado-Ekiti — Signs of political desperation are showing earlier than usual in Ekiti State, where Mr, Ayodele Jeje, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Erijiyan-Ekiti in Ekiti West Local Government Area of the state was shot dead at the weekend by people suspected to be political thugs…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Why Western Education is Compulsory on All Muslims — Cleric
Zaria — Zaria-based Islamic scholar Sheikh Muhammad Awwal Adam Albani has identified the acquisition of western formal education as a necessity for all Muslims. Speaking to our correspondent in Zaria yesterday, Sheikh Albani said the Muslims world requires technological development in order to face the current challenges facing them…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The AP Drops ‘Illegal Immigrant’
The Associated Press on Tuesday announced it will no longer use the term “illegal immigrant” or “illegal” to describe a person — but did not say which term, if any, should take its place.
The AP Stylebook has been updated to state that it no longer sanctions the use of “illegal” or “illegal immigrant” for a person, senior vice president and executive editor Kathleen Carroll wrote in a blog post. The Stylebook now directs that “illegal” should only be used to describe an action, “such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally,” Carroll noted.
The AP aims to label “behavior” instead of “people,” Carroll wrote, pointing out that “the new section on mental health issues argues for using credibly sourced diagnoses instead of labels. Saying someone was ‘diagnosed with schizophrenia’ instead of schizophrenic, for example.” The AP, she said, is working on “ridding the Stylebook of labels.”
“And that discussion about labeling people, instead of behavior, led us back to ‘illegal immigrant’ again,” she said. “We concluded that to be consistent, we needed to change our guidance. So we have.”
Carroll added that the AP will continue to examine the best way to describe “someone in a country without permission.” The AP has decided now that using “illegal” only to refer to an action, not a person, is the best way to go “for now.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Chris Grayling: Let’s Join Forces With Labour to Deport Abu Qatada
Tory Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has invited Labour to join forces to end the human rights “madness” keeping extremist Muslim cleric Abu Qatada in Britain.
Mr Grayling says the system has gone “badly wrong” when the UK cannot deport a man “who so obviously despises what we stand for”, and said Conservative attempts to change human rights laws have been thwarted by their Liberal Democrat Coalition partners. The justice secretary said the Conservatives would change human rights laws immediately in order to deport Qatada, but they cannot secure enough votes in Parliament, and has appealed to Ed Miliband to support “support radical reform of our human rights laws”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Does Religion Still Have a Place in Today’s Politics?
by Paul Goodman
The recent row between Churches and state over welfare policy shows how the power of the clergy is waning, argues Paul Goodman
The Church’s report was seen as an attack on the Government, and the counter-assault from the Conservatives came quickly. “Pure Marxism,” said a Cabinet minister. A Tory MP added that it had been produced by “a load of Communist clerics”. The Prime Minister complained to a friend that the document contained “nothing about self-help or doing anything for yourself”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
United Nations General Assembly Approves Landmark Arms Trade Treaty
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to approve the first-ever treaty to regulate the enormous global trade in conventional weapons, for the first time linking such sales to the human-rights records of the buyers.
The vote on the Arms Trade Treaty came after an attempt to achieve a consensus on the treaty among all 193 member states of the United Nations failed last week, with Iran, Syria and North Korea blocking it. Those three countries, often ostracized as pariahs, contended the treaty was full of deficiencies and had been structured to be unfair to them.
The treaty would require states exporting conventional weapons to develop criteria that would link exports to avoiding human rights abuses, terrorism and organized crime. It would also ban shipments if they were deemed harmful to women and children. Countries that join the treaty would have to report publicly on sales every year, exposing the process to levels of transparency that rights groups hope will severely limit illicit weapons deals.
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“The document requires signatory countries that export arms to make sure that those exports do not contribute to human rights abuses, organized crime, or terrorism.”
hopefully that ends the UK’s and France’s crooked effort to arm the musturds in Syria………