Kurds in northeastern Syria have come a step closer to forming an independent state. They had already achieved a measure of autonomy after Syrian government troops pulled out of the region last year, but their status has now been formalized by the declaration of a “transitional civil administration”.
In other news, one of the culturally enriched perpetrators of last year’s riots in Sydney has been sentenced to 12 months in jail. The case has a Mohammed Coefficient of 100%.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, Nilk, 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.
CDU and SPD Join Forces Against Eurobonds and Shared Debt
(AGI) Berlin, Nov 17 — German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with the newly formed Grosse Koalition that she is preparing to rule, does not intend to change her rigorous economic policy.
The CDU-SPD group leader at the Bundestag, Volker Kauder, told the German Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “We have already clarified with the SPD that, with respect to the European Union, the chancellor will be able to pursue the policy adopted up to now against eurobonds and debt sharing”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Fake Dentists Number Up to 15,000 in Italy
‘Economic crisis, allure of cheap care, largely to blame’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — There are between 10,000 and 15,000 unauthorized dentists operating in Italy, the Italian Association of Dentists (ANDI) said Friday. Driving the phenomenon is the economic crisis, with more and more Italians looking for cheap dental care and fraudsters willing to fill the void, ANDI experts said at their national conference in Rome. “The phenomenon is an old one, over 70 years old, facilitated by dummy corporations that are rarely reported.
Italians should be more careful, because the health risks are very high,” said Mauro Rocchetti, vice president of ANDI. ANDI added that these unauthorized dentists are in addition to the more than 58,000 dentists operating legally in Italy, a number the group considers excessive. “There is one dentist for every 1,000 people in Italy,” said President Gianfranco Prada. “That number should be more like one for every 2,000 people, also because at the moment roughly 800 students are entering dental school every year”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Is Eurozone Trying to Become a Bigger Germany?
As Albert Edwards of Societe Generale writes in a report titled Prepare for the next phase of global currency war — should we blame Germany? dated 14 November, 2013, “In the run-up to the crisis they all promoted an inappropriately loose monetary policy that caused a credit and housing bubble, runaway domestic demand growth, ostensibly sound government finances and burgeoning current account deficits, all financed by a surplus nation…predominately Germany.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Dentistry Spending Slumps 30% From 2007 Due to Crisis
Increasing number of Italians turning to dentures
(ANSA) — Rome, November 15 — Italians seeking to save in the wake of recession are starting to scrimp on dentistry and are turning more to dentures, the Italian Association of Dentists (ANDI) said Friday.
At its annual congress, the group said Italian families’ spending on dentistry has dropped 30% since 2007. “One musn’t let down one’s guard when it comes to dental health,” said association president Gianfranco Prada. “We must remember that delaying these types of cures leads to even bigger expenses further down.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Finance Minister Sees No Need for Extra Measures
(AGI) Rome, Nov 17 — Neither extra measures, nor cuts would be needed, Italy’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Fabrizio Saccomanni, said in an interview with the newspaper Corriere della Sera. However, he added that to deal with the national debt, which is still a source of concern for the European Commission after it released Italy from special monitoring, it would be necessary to post a larger amount of spending review savings for 2014.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
More Than Half Italian Males Aged 25-34 Still in Nest
35% of females
(ANSA) — Rome, November 13 — More than half Italian males between the ages of 25 and 34, 52.3%, are still living at home because they have been unable to find enough economic independence to leave the nest, Istat said Wednesday.
Fewer Italian females in the same age bracket, 35%, were in the same predicament, the statistics agency said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Raise Minimum Wage to $100.00 an Hour
“When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” — Thomas Jefferson to Charles Hammond, 1821. ME 15:332
Every few years, the same bleeding heart members of the Democratic/Communist Party USA start beating the drum to raise the minimum wage. Factually challenged bureau-rats in some state legislatures also want to continue punishing the employer by passing higher minimum wages in the private sector…
I knew nothing about the “Fed” and our debauched currency until I was 40 years old when I was handed a book that had a lot of information about it; that’s where my journey began 23 years ago. I read the chapters on the “Fed” and said, what a minute, that can’t be right. The “Federal” Reserve is part of our government. After all, it’s called the Federal Reserve! How wrong I was. Dozens of books later, thousands of hours of reading them, Dr. Vieira’s two volume tome, Pieces of Eight, as well as so many of his speeches, I learned the truth about the central bank. It IS the head of the beast dragging us over the abyss. A ravenous beast devouring everything in its path, sucking the life blood of this country for 100 years come Dec. 23, 2013.
Pieces of Eight: The Monetary Powers and Disabilities of the United States Constitution — should have won a Pulitzer Prize in economics. That two volume set is available at Amazon; every State Law Library received one. Most major law-school libraries received one as well as a few big-city libraries. The cost of that book is about average for law books of the same caliber. If you live near a State Law Library or law school, call and see if you can check out a copy if they have it. The three [articles linked] below are certainly required reading:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Jamie Martin
The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes,Harry Dexter White and the Making of a New World Order by Benn Steil
Princeton, 449 pp, £19.95, February, ISBN 978 0 691 14909 7
When an ailing John Maynard Keynes travelled to the American South in March 1946, he was delighted by what he found. The ‘balmy air and bright azalean colour’ of Savannah offered a welcome reprieve from the cold and damp of London, he wrote on arriving, and the children in the streets were livelier company than the ‘irritable’ and ‘exceedingly tired’ citizens of postwar Britain. Keynes was in Savannah for the inaugural session of the board of governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, two institutions he had helped found at the Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944. He was desperate to persuade the Americans not to place the headquarters of the two institutions in Washington, where he feared they would function more as appendages of the American state than as truly international bodies, but their location in the American capital was all but a fait accompli, requiring only a handful of votes from the odd array of allies the US had assembled at the meeting. Keynes’s last effort to check the growth of American power had failed. He died six weeks later…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
“Barack the Incompetent” — It Has a Nice Ring, Doesn’t it?!!
Historians will look back upon Obamamania with a sense of disbelief and humor, every bit as much as those studying the Tulipomania (see Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds). That Obama’s powers to mesmerize, amaze and compel have dissipated is the most pedestrian observation, recalling Lord Byron’s famous lines;
The spell is broke; the charm is flown!
Thus is it with life’s fitful fever:
We madly smile when we should groan:
Delirium is our best deceiver.
But politics, much like society, requires displays of the symbols of civil religion — sacraments and sacrifice. So it is fitting that since Barack has violated the sacred trust of Americans by misusing the authority loaned him by the people, he be removed. His astonishing incompetence, added to his annoying chutzpah and insipid bombast have left a residue of distrust and cynicism at the workings and authority of government.
While Barack’s endless pratfalls have left a warning about the dangers of neo-liberalism, there must still be a public atonement for all of his reckless, selfish and disastrous actions. Obama must be removed from public office. ObamaCare must be officially repudiated as much as the cult of Stalin, and the terrifyingly corrupt Democratic Party must be de-Liberalized. This means they must surrender all of their ruinous and anti-American policies or be forced from public life.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Brookville Church’s Multifaith Campus Unites Protestants, Jews and Muslims
The Brookville Reformed Church is carrying out an unusual experiment: congregations of Protestants, Jews and Muslims are not only sharing the same worship space, but intentionally learning about each other’s religions and forming a multifaith campus where they stress the commonality of their beliefs.
On Sunday, they will hold a special Thanksgiving service where religious leaders from each of the groups will preach — but base their homilies on the religious text of one of the other religions. A Muslim leader will preach about the Torah. A Protestant minister will preach about the Quran. A rabbi will preach on the New Testament.
The groups are also marking the day with an official declaration that the church grounds are now a “multifaith campus.” They will dedicate a new sign that lists all their names and even changes the name on it from the Brookville Reformed Church to the Brookville Church to be more inclusive…
[JP note: Yuck.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The facts reveal that he was stupid enough to believe ObamaCare would work. He let the law go into effect knowing that Healthcare.gov was not ready to sign up people and that millions were going to lose the insurance plans they had. Some argue that that was brilliant; evil but brilliant.
Wayne Allyn Root, the author of “The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide” and commentator, wrote that, as far as ObamaCare is concerned, “This is a serious, purposeful attempt to hijack American and destroy capitalism. This is a brilliant, cynical, and purposeful attempt to damage the U.S. economy, kill jobs, and bring down capitalism.’
Playing devil’s advocate, I would argue that ObamaCare is the ultimate example of how utterly stupid liberal programs to alter the nation’s economy are. Why would anyone think that the government could possibly take charge of one sixth of the nation’s economy and arguably the finest healthcare system in the world, and not completely ruin it?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Millions at Risk as Tornadoes, Damaging Storms Hit Midwest
Intense thunderstorms and tornadoes sweeping through the Midwest Sunday have caused significant damage in parts of central Illinois while an official says around 53 million people in 10 states are at risk of severe weather.
The central Illinois community of Washington appeared particularly hard-hit. A state official says emergency crews raced to the area amid reports that people were trapped in buildings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Stabilized Footage of JFK Assassination Shows Car Slowed Down Before Head Shot (Video)
When it’s bouncing around and playing back at a jittery 18 frames per second, the infamous Zapruder footage of John F. Kennedy’s assassination feels almost unreal. But when it’s stabilized with additional interpolated frames bringing it to a steady 30 frames per second (like we’re used to seeing on TV) it suddenly becomes much more real.
With computer-generated in-between frames you’ll want to take this particular footage with a grain of salt, but YouTuber antdavisonNZ has given us a remarkable and eerie new perspective on the events that unfolded almost 50 years ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Teens’ ‘Knockout Game’ A Growing Danger With Deadly Results
A recent string of attacks tied to a dangerous game called “Knockout” — where unsuspecting residents are targeted and sucker-punched — is being investigated as possible hate crimes. New York police are looking into the growing trend, WPIX reports, after attacks in predominately Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Toronto Mayor Ford Previously Ordered Out of Office by Judge
As the City Council voted Friday to strip Mayor Rob Ford of most of his powers ahead of its stated plan to take away the remainder Monday, a story surfaces revealing Ford has been officially removed from office, before.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland rendered a decision nearly a year ago ordering Ford to abdicate in light of his violation of the Toronto Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and related actions that followed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
10 Griffons in Cyprus to Avoid Extinction
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, NOVEMBER 14 — Ten griffon vultures, with a wingspan of 2.3m to 2.8m and weighing between 4.5kg and 15kg are due to arrive from the Greek island of Crete today as part of an EU co-funded collaboration between Greece and Cyprus to save the glorious birds from extinction, as Cyprus Mail reports.
The birds (the largest on this island) will be transported by Cyprus Airways and will join 15 others already here that arrived from Crete in an effort to enhance the vulture population, whose numbers are too low to ensure their survival. Where there used to be at least 100 vultures in the 1960s, a population census in 2011 estimated there were only six to eight birds living in the wild in the south west, according to www.gypas.org, the Gypas project’s website. In the past, vulture numbers have diminished because they were hunted, killed by poison aimed for foxes and dogs, disturbed during breeding or because of intensified farming methods. They were declared an endangered species in 2003 and protected by law, but with only one or two couples breeding every year and even if their little ones did survive, the Cypriot birds were still vulnerable to diseases from inbreeding, as well as climate change. So, BirdLife Cyprus, the Game Fund and the forestry department started mulling a rescue plan to supplement the local bird population. The vulture populations in Greece and Spain were the only ones that could afford to lose some of their members to other countries. Crete, which boasts a vulture population of over 400, was deemed the most suitable, genetically and geographically as well as in terms of the countries’ ecological profiles. In September 2011, rescue efforts started in earnest and the Gypas project was launched with the ten latest arrivals marking the project’s closure, though there is work cut out for Cyprus-based conservationists. The GYPAS project is 80% funded by the EU, with the rest coming from the National Game Funds of Greece and Cyprus.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Grooming Gangs Pimp Roma Girls for European Union Passports
It is claimed at least two people have been questioned by police over allegations of underage girls being targeted by Asian men.
The vulnerable youngsters are said to be coerced into having sex with men they believe are their boyfriends.
The abusers believe the girls will one day make wives either for themselves or relatives and friends desperate to leave Pakistan.
One leading Roma resident, who asked not to be named, said: “They see the girls on the streets and start talking to them, telling them they are beautiful, taking them out in their cars, making them feel good.
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
France: Four Muslims Arrested for Sending Jihad Fighters to Syria
PARIS (Reuters) — French police have arrested four men suspected of belonging to a militant cell channelling fighters to Syria to join Islamist rebel groups battling President Bashar al-Assad’s government, police sources said on Friday.
One 24-year-old man, suspected of organizing journeys to Syria, was in touch with several “fixers” who facilitated travel between Turkey and Syria, while another previously fought with an Islamist group in Syria, the sources said.
A court ordered the men to be jailed temporarily pending further questioning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Thieves Rob Petrol-Station Machine With Vacuum Cleaner
3,000 euros stolen near Salerno
(ANSA) — Salerno, November 13 — A gang used a vacuum cleaner to suck 3,000 euros out of a petrol station self-service machine near Salerno Wednesday.
The robbers escaped before police arrived on the scene following an automatic alert.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Prays for Persecuted Christians
(AGI) Vatican City, Nov 17 — Pope Francis expressed support to people persecuted because of their religion, during Sunday’s Angelus prayer. “At this moment I am thinking of our many Christian brothers and sisters who suffer persecution because of their faith. There are many, maybe more than at the dawn of Christianity. Jesus is with them and so are we with our admiration and our prayer,” he said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Italian Arrested for Involvement in Zaragoza Blast
35-year-old woman among five suspected anarchists detained
(ANSA) — Madrid, November 13 — A Italian woman was among five suspected anarchists arrested in Spain on Wednesday for involvement in a bomb attack on Zaragoza’s cathedral last month.
The October 2 blast in the El Pilar Basilica caused minor damage but no injuries.
Investigators suspect that 35-year-old Italian woman Valeria Giacomoni was a “collaborator” of the hard core of the anarchist group that included two Chileans, Monica Andrea Caballero Sepulveda and Francisco Javier Solar Dominguez, who are thought to have actually planted the bomb.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Sacred Mysteries: Granada — A Tale of Two Mosques
by Christopher Howse
The return of Islam to Spain is not so much a persistent historical presence as an imagined history
In Granada, the Calle de Elvira is old, narrow, shady, shabby, smelly and seedy, in other words, far preferable to the parallel Gran Via that was cut through the neighbourhood in 1895 to link the station to the cathedral and the Alhambra. Just inside the 11th-century Moorish gateway stands a single-storey stone chapel with a Gothic parapet, on the site of a bookshop that was run, before his startling conversion, by St John of God, the 16th-century advocate of humane nursing for the mad. Next door is the Rashid Ahmed takeaway (“Comida Pakistani”) and, opposite, a halal butcher.
If you climb up the hill to the left, into the Albaicín district, you reach the Plaza San Nicolás, where tourists stand to look out over the palace and gardens of the Alhambra on the other side of the valley. The 16th-century church of San Nicolás itself was closed the last time I was in Granada, as bits were falling off. But, if you turn your back to the Alhambra and stand on the corner that the church makes with the Calle Espaldas de San Nicolás, you’ll see at the end of the street a white tower (pictured, right) that looks quite like the tower of San Nicolás. It is a functioning mosque.
Granada was of course, in 1492, the last Moorish city to surrender to the “Catholic Kings”. The return of Islam today has loud historical resonances. The Grand Mosque of Granada, as it calls itself, is now celebrating the 10th anniversary of its controversial opening. It is the brainchild of Abdalqadir as-Sufi, born in Scotland in 1930 and christened Ian Dallas. He became a Muslim in 1967 and spent years seeking permission from the city council of Granada to build a mosque here. What I had not realised, until I read a fascinating chapter in In the Light of Medieval Spain (Palgrave, £61), is that, down the hill, a mosque had long been functioning in Granada that is more open to the mainstream of Islam than the cliquish Albaicín mosque. Near the Plaza Nueva, next to the Oasis Backpackers’ Hostel, stands the al-Taqua mosque. It has been there since the 1980s.
When it was founded, the local area, the Calderería, was known for drugs and muggings. Now it is a touristy criss-cross of streets lined with Moroccan teashops and North African craft outlets. Up the hill, the Albaicín has been even more upwardly mobile, changing “from a working-class barrio to a theme park” in the words of a protester against the encroachment of estate agents. Separateness from workaday life is accentuated at the Albaicín mosque by its founder Abdalqadir as-Sufi’s rather odd brand of Islam. He started the so-called Murabitun World Movement, taking its name from the 11th-century Almoravid dynasty that ruled North Africa and al-Andalus in Spain. He has strong views on questions such as zakat, the pillar of Islam that enjoins alms-giving. This, he insists, should be paid with coins of silver and gold.
In his chapter of In the Light of Medieval Spain, Prof David Coleman examines the rival claims of the upper Albaicín mosque and, in the lower town, the al-Taqua mosque, to be heirs of the Islamic polity of al-Andalus before 1492. He writes of an historical “haunting” of today’s issues by centuries-old wrangles. Thus, in 2008, the cultural director of the Albaicín mosque, Abdalhasib Castiñeira, argued that the treaty of surrender of 1492, which guaranteed the right to Muslims to worship in perpetuity, should be applied to the present-day Muslims of Granada and those of his mosque in particular.
To me, it seems not so much a persistent historical presence that haunts the present day, but an imagined history, grasped by groups and brandished as flags for modern rivalries.
“The Train in Spain” by Christopher Howse, (RRP £16.99), is available from Telegraph Books at £14.99 + £1.35p&p. Ring 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK Wiretapped 350 International Hotels, Says Spiegel
(AGI) Rome, Nov 17 — Britain’s electronic wiretapping service has monitored at least 350 hotels around the world, frequented by diplomats and government delegations, Der Spiegel online reported. The Royal Concierge programme enabled the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to keep tabs on the travel plans of ambassadors and heads of state. The revelations are based on information from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, currently being given temporary asylum in Russia.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Prince Charles is to mark his 65th birthday with a radical attempt to force the three main party leaders to help him stop a ‘lost generation’ of young people drifting into crime and unemployment.
In a highly unusual move, the Prince will be joined this week by David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg to try to recruit a ‘community army’ of nearly two million young people.
The Prince regards this as the most important event surrounding his landmark birthday.
Announcing the initiative in today’s Mail on Sunday, the Prince writes that youngsters will be encouraged to take part in a range of activities — from helping the elderly and disabled to joining the scouts or guides and clearing up the countryside.
In return they may be rewarded with better chances of finding work or getting a promotion. The Prince wants concrete recognition for those who have served the community, including that they be put to the front in competition for jobs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Advice on Respectful Treatment of Muslims Arrested in Torquay
ADVICE has been given to Torquay Police on the best way to treat Muslims held in custody. A representative from the Torbay Islamic Centre was invited to the custody unit to make sure best practice and correct standards were being met. He gave advice on a range of matters which would be important to Muslims arrested and held in the Torquay cells. It follows guidelines about best practice from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Sgt Howard Brugge of Torquay custody said: “We wanted to identify how we looked after Muslim detainees and were visited by Dr Ali from the Torbay Islamic Centre. “Torquay didn’t have any issues but we wanted to make sure things were being done in a respectful way.”…
[JP note: Alahu Akbar.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
To Woolwich, for the Remembrance Walk for Lee Rigby, on the eve of the trial of the men indicted for his murder.
The trial of Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale begins at the Central Criminal Court Old Bailey tomorrow. With the permission of Drummer Rigby’s family a group of local men (whose privacy I will respect and not name) organised a walk today in his memory through Woolwich, passing the place where he died to the barrack gates where memorial flowers continue to be laid on the safety of MOD ground.
We went there early and could see that Remembrance Day tributes and poppies had been laid, including some hand-made circles of poppies which were obviously the work of children, although whether from local schools or uniformed organisations I don’t know as I couldn’t read the labels. They had also laid a similar wreath at the memorial to a Spitfire pilot downed in 1940 which sits by the Barracks gate.
The walk came past in complete and dignified silence. Local people and their families joined football fans and there were men and women from many of the patriotic groups, March for England, the EDL, the Casuals, and the Infidel groups, including (but not confined to) SEA, NWI and others and those who came independently…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Saudis Spread Their Ideas Around the World — Why Don’t We?
by Ed West
The persecution of Christians, the greatest story never told in the Western media, is finally building momentum as a story, after a year which has seen villagers massacred in Syria, dozens of churches burned down in Egypt’s worst religious violence for centuries, and the Peshawar atrocity in which the suicide-bombing of a church killed more than 80 people.
Earlier this week several MPs discussed the issue in Parliament, Fiona Bruce saying that ‘We should be crying out with the same abhorrence and horror that we feel about the atrocities towards Jews on Kristallnacht.’ And Baroness Warsi will say in a speech in Washington today that: ‘A mass exodus is taking place, on a Biblical scale. In some places, there is a real danger that Christianity will become extinct.’
Warsi made the same point on the Today programme this morning, and I applaud her, but an aspect rather missing from the coverage was the fact that the vast majority of serious anti-Christian violence is carried out in the name of Islam. It would be like discussing anti-Semitic pogroms of the medieval period without mentioning Christianity, its theology, history and practice.
That is telling, since one of the reasons for the media’s voluntary blackout on this issue is our fear of appearing to be inciting hatred against Muslim. This allows the persecutors to get away with it, which is ironic since most violence carried out against Muslims is also done in the name of Islam.
The simple fact is that Islamic law as it is applied in Egypt (where apostasy is extremely difficult and dangerous, and family law was based on Sharia even before the revolution), Iraq and the Gulf States is incompatible with religious liberty. There is no way around that. In Iraq, most bizarrely, the US government presided over a constitution that introduced elements of Sharia…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Verbal or Physical Attacks on Armed Forces Personnel ‘To be Hate Crimes’ Under New Proposal
Assaults on Armed Forces personnel would become a specific crime entailing tougher penalties for offenders, under a new law to be voted on by MPs this week.
Verbal or physical attacks on members of the Army, Air Force or Navy would be categorised as hate crimes under an amendment to the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
The proposal by Labour MP Thomas Docherty would give troops the protection currently afforded to ethnic minorities, gay people and the disabled.
An attack on a member of the Armed Forces or their family would be classed as an aggravated crime if a court establishes that it was motivated by the victim’s association with the military.
The move is backed by Shadow Defence Secretary Vernon Coaker and many Conservatives. The Ministry of Defence, however, said last night that Service chiefs did not want members of the Armed Forces to be singled out for special treatment.
One in five troops has been verbally abused while in uniform, and one in 20 has been physically abused, according to a survey commissioned last year by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft. More than 9,000 Service personnel were quizzed as part of the research…
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Any item of clothing that covers the face and makes it impossible to identify individuals is open to abuse. Like many, I look with increasing exasperation on the niqab — which covers the face — and the burka — the garment that covers the entire body. That said, I do not believe in a blanket ban on the niqab. But the quid pro quo is that when everyone else in society is expected to identify themselves, a Muslim woman wearing a niqab should not be exempted.
It’s time we tackled head on the genuine security concerns and social consequences of face-veiling in modern Britain. It is not only reasonable, but our duty to insist individuals remove the veil when they enter identity-sensitive environments such as banks, airports, courts and schools. Legally speaking, there is no basis for any exception to be made, but the sad fact is exceptions are being made because we have become too spineless to do anything about it.
Let me make this clear: it is our duty to adopt a policy barring the wearing of niqabs in these public buildings. Here’s my test: where a balaclava, motorcycle helmet or face mask would be deemed inappropriate, so should a niqab. It’s simple really.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UN Slams ‘Racist Attacks’ On French Black Politician
The UN human rights body on Friday condemned the “racist attacks” on French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, including a far-right magazine cover likening her to a monkey, warning that “xenophobia and intolerance” are on the rise in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Serbs Revote in Tense Northern Kosovo City Amid High Security
Minority Serbs in a tense northern Kosovo city cast ballots under tight security, redoing a vote that was stopped when masked men attacked staff and destroyed voting materials.
Special police units in bulletproof vests backed by armed NATO peacekeepers stood outside polling stations to prevent a repeat of the electoral violence that stopped the Nov. 3 poll in Mitrovica.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Suez Canal Targeted as War in Sinai Spreads
The eccentric but dangerous war in the Sinai Peninsula is spilling over into the rest of Egypt, with ships targeted in the Suez Canal
The puff of smoke as the rocket hits the ship is unmistakable. The muttered invocation of “Allahu akbar” on the video soundtrack declares the attacker’s ideology. What the strike will mean for the Suez Canal, the world’s most militarily sensitive stretch of water, is not so easy to judge. The Sinai Peninsula is the scene of a murderous, often eccentric, but dangerous war that is spilling over its boundaries — marked, on the western side, by the Canal. Besides Egypt itself, Israel, America and world’s leaders are anxiously watching its apparently irresistible spread…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Deputy Intelligence Chief Kidnapped
(AGI) Tripoli, Nov 17 — Libya’s deputy intelligence chief has been kidnapped in Tripoli according to a local security source.
Mustafa Noah, who heads the espionage unit, was on his way back from a visit to Turkey. He was not accompanied by body guards and kidnapped at Tripoli’s airport where he was seized and forced into a car. This kidnapping is another sign of the chaos reigning in the country due to rivalry between various militias.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
More Clashes in Tripoli as Death Toll Tops 40
(AGI) Tripoli, Nov 16 — Fresh clashes erupted in Tripoli on Saturday following violence between militias and protesters asking for the disarmament of the former rebels. The growing death toll from Friday’s clashes in the Ghargour district rose to 40, with more than 400 people wounded, Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani said. The clashes broke out as thousands of demonstrators heading for the militias’ headquarters in the Libyan capital were attacked with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pentagon Chief Welcomes Egypt’s Ending Emergency Law, Curfew
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) — U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Saturday phoned his Egyptian counterpart Abdul Fatah al- Sisi to welcome the end of the emergency law and curfew imposed by the Egyptian military in August to crack down on protests. “Secretary Hagel welcomed the end of the emergency law and curfew in Egypt and reiterated that the United States values the rights of all people to express their views peacefully,” Pentagon’ s Assistant Press Secretary Carl Woog said in a statement…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Amnesty Slams Qatar Migrant Worker Exploitation
Construction companies in Qatar, which is experiencing a massive building boom ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, are involved in widespread abuse of migrant workers, according to Amnesty International.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Boeing, Emirates at Center Stage of Dubai Air Show
Boeing is expected to launch its 777X at the Dubai Air Show that starts Sunday with a blockbuster order from Middle Eastern airline Emirates.
Boeing is expected to launch its 777X at the Dubai Air Show that starts Sunday with a blockbuster order from Middle Eastern airline Emirates.
The carrier is set to place the biggest order yet in aviation history in coming days, in a commitment the company has called “enormous,” for as many as 150 upgraded Boeing 777X planes.
Already the largest long-haul airline, such a purchase would set Emirates further apart from rivals and secure its position as the dominant carrier for the next generation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dubai’s Emirates Air Orders 150 Boeing 777X Planes Worth $76 Billion
Order Helps Make the Model Largest Product Launch in Commercial Jetliner History
Emirates Airline on Sunday placed a $76 billion order with Boeing at the Dubai airshow for 150 of the manufacturer’s new 777X aircraft, helping make the model the largest product launch in commercial jetliner history.
The Dubai-based carrier, which is the world’s largest international airline by capacity, is the biggest scalp so far for Boeing as it is the largest operator of the manufacturer’s current 777 fleet, with more than 120 in service.
Qatar Airways, meanwhile, placed an order for 50 Boeing 777X worth $19 billion, and Emirates said it had purchase rights for a further 50 777X. Earlier on Sunday, Etihad Airways became the second customer to order the 777X, purchasing 25 aircraft in a bulk commitment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Jonathan Spyer
Western news coverage tends to depict Israel as the chief advocate for a hard line against the Iranian nuclear program.
But the concerns of the Gulf states, in particular Saudi Arabia, are of equal or greater urgency.
Since the foundation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the US has performed the role of protector for Riyadh. The departure of the British from the Gulf area in the early 1970s meant that the small Gulf monarchies also came to depend on the US for protection.
Washington has bases up and down the Arab side of the Gulf.
But the mere presence of these bases no longer bring a feeling of security. The Arab monarchs and emirs of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates) are watching with dismay as US President Barack Obama’s administration seeks rapprochement with Tehran.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Israel, Saudi Arabia Cooperating on Possible Attack on Iran
With nuclear talks set to resume Wednesday, Sunday Times reports Israel, Saudi Arabia heightening cooperation, in bid to formulate contingency attack plan on Iran should talks succeed in reaching agreement, but fail in halting Iranian nuclear program
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Kurds Announce the Creation of Their Autonomous Region
The decision follows military successes against jihadist groups, giving Kurds control of the border with Iraq. Ankara reacts with irritation, concerned about its own Kurdish question.
Istanbul (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Syria’s tragic situation is getting even more complicated. The country’s Kurds have announced the “formation of a transitional civil administration for the area of Western Kurdistan-Syria.”
Yesterday’s announcement by the Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) was made in Qamishli, north-eastern Syria, and comes after Kurdish forces successfully seized border posts with Iraq, hitherto occupied by jihadist groups.
In July, Kurdish leaders had already announced plans to create a provisional government in the region after Syrian government forces decided to pull out a year ago to prevent Kurds from joining the rebels.
Syrian Kurds represent 10-15 per cent of the country’s population, and are concentrated in the country’s north-eastern Syria, next to Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan.
Language, culture and a desire for a state of their own connects people in all three areas (four if we consider Iran’s Kurdish region).
Because of such aspirations, Kurds have been oppressed by all these states at one time or another. However, whilst Iran and Syria have usually cracked down on Kurds, their brethren in Iraq exercise a de facto and de jure level of autonomy that comes near independence.
In Turkey, home to 18-20 million Kurds, the Kurdish issue is very much central to the political debate. For decades, Ankara has in fact sought to curb Kurdish ambitions, especially their desire for unity.
More recently, Turkish authorities started building a wall on the border with Syria in what is being seen as an attempt to divide the Kurdish areas.
Last night, in his first statement after the declaration of a provisional administration in Syrian Kurdistan, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused the PYD of “not keeping its promise.”
“We told them to avoid a de facto administration declaration that could divide Syria,” said Davutoglu as he referred to autonomy talks held this summer with PYD leader Saleh Muslim.
For Ankara, this is complex issue given its impact at home and on the role it wants to play in the Middle East.
“It is now obvious that more Kurdish autonomy is unstoppable,” said an opinion piece in Hurriyet, one of Turkey’s main newspapers. The region’s “Kurdish context requires the urgent settlement of Turkey’s own Kurdish question.”
“This all allows and actually demands Turkey’s assumption of a major player role in the Kurdish equation. Ankara could bring Iraqi and Syrian Kurds together and into its sphere of influence by developing economic, social and cultural integration. It looks like this is Ankara’s game plan.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: Cameron in Dubai to Drum Up Business
DUBAI, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) — British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Dubai on Saturday in a mission to help British business and support Dubai’s bid to host the World Expo in 2020. Cameron stopped off in the Gulf emirate on his way back from the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka.
In his tweet, Cameron said he came to Dubai to support British businesses and Dubai’s bid to hold the Expo 2020.
Cameron toured the exhibition halls ahead of the opening of the 13th Dubai Airshow, the biggest biennial airshow in the Middle East, which will start on Sunday. Sources said the prime minister is backing British defense firm BAE System’s campaign to sell its the military aircraft Eurofighter Typhoon system to the United Arab Emirates in a multi- billion dollar deal…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: 29 Taliban Militants Killed in Raids: Gov’t
KABUL, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) — Twenty-nine Taliban militants have been killed in separate military operations across Afghanistan since early Saturday, the country’s Interior Ministry said Sunday. “In the past 24 hours, Afghan National Police (ANP) conducted several clearance operations with the cooperation of army, National Directorate for Security (NDS) and the (NATO-led) Coalition Forces in Kandahar, Zabul and Herat provinces. As a result 29 armed Taliban were killed, 19 wounded and 10 others arrested,” the minsity said in a press release…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
As Bangladesh’s Political Crisis Deepens, People Are Endangered and Poverty Spreads
Violent strikes (hartal) by the country’s main political parties have paralysed the country’s economy. The latest episode has left 20 people dead and dozens badly burnt. As vegetable prices rise, unsold milk turns sour. Meanwhile, opposition leader Khaleda Zia and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina continue their tug-of-war ahead of next year’s elections.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Bangladesh’s political instability is threatening the survival of ordinary people. As a form of protest, general strikes (hartal) by the main parties are leading to clashes and violence. As time goes by, this is crippling the economy.
One example is the latest strike by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition party, which is now on its fourth day.
Since it began, 20 people have died and 30 people have suffered severe burns. Farmers have also been prevented from bringing their produce to market because of road blocks and attacks.
Al-Amin, a lorry driver, suffered burns to 30 per cent of his body during the recent strike and is in hospital in critical condition at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The fire also burnt his throat. Monir, 14, died trapped in his father’s lorry, which some protesters had set on fire.
In addition to life and limb, people now fear for their pockets. According to estimates by the Bangladesh Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union, a one-day strike meant that about 400,900 litres of milk went bad or had to be sold at bargain price to prevent it from going sour.
For this reason, at least 100,500 dairies in recent months have not been able to sell their products on a regular basis, and about 5,000 lorry drivers have not been paid.
The same goes for vegetables. As deliveries decline, markets receive less and less produce, and the few who have been able to sell ask for prices that few ordinary people can afford.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, the main political parties continue their tug-of-war.
Yesterday, Prime Minister and Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina said during a rally in Gopalganj that “one day” BNP leader Khaleda Zia must assume responsibility for the victims of recent strikes.
The latest strike has the same reason as previous ones. Zia wants a caretaker government, independent of political parties and with members not planning to run for office, to organise the general elections set for January 2014, a request Prime Minister Hasina has ignored.
In 2011, she changed the law so that an independent cabinet would not be mandatory, but remains committed to setting up a caretaker government with representatives from all sides, which she would chair, to prepare the elections.
Two days ago, Hasina asked her ministers to resign, which they promptly did.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Mother Teresa Award Goes to Fr Cedric Prakash, A Jesuit Who Has Fought for Gujarat Muslims
For the priest, the award dedicated to Mother Teresa “comes as a challenge that we transcend our own small world and reach out in more tangible ways to those who hunger and thirst for love, dignity and justice.” He is the director of the Prashant Centre of Human Rights and Peace, and a defender of the victims of 2002 massacres.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — The award is a reminder of Mother Teresa’s legacy and “comes as a challenge that we transcend our own small world and reach out in more tangible ways to those who hunger and thirst for love, dignity and justice,” said Fr Cedric Prakash, director at the Prashant Centre for Human Rights Justice and Peace in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) as he accepted the Mother Teresa International Award for Social Justice. This recognition “shows how much the world today needs the blessed and the work of the Missionaries of Charity,” he told AsiaNews.
Fr Prakash has been involved for years in defending human rights in India. In particular, along with the Prashant Centre, he has helped the victims of sectarian violence between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.
A friend of AsiaNews, the Jesuit is appreciated for his unconditional quest for justice, and fearless criticism of the actions of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has been blamed for the massacres.
The Harmony Foundation, an association founded in 2005 to ensure that the legacy of Mother Teresa, upholds her legacy with a main annual award, plus a number of minor ones. This year, Sam Childers, an activist-biker who works with child soldiers, also received the award.
For Fr Cedric Prakash, Mother Teresa “Mother Teresa epitomised charity and compassion in the highest sense of the word.” She “showed how to care for the unloved, the dying, the destitute, the widow, the orphan and the neglected in society. [. . .] After her death, her sisters, the Missionaries of Charity, silently continue their selfless service, caring for the poorest of the poor and those living beyond the fringes of society.”
This award, the Jesuit clergyman said, “is a recognition of the current situation, where the gap between rich and poor is widening ever more. And with it, social injustice grows.”
This year the prize recognises “total compassion and unconditional reaching out to the poorest of the poor, the dying destitute, the unloved and the uncared of this world.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal’s Radical Maoists on a Rampage to Stop Elections
Assaults, arson and bombings are reported across the country. Two buses are bombed in the capital, critically injuring three passengers. On 19 November, Nepalis are called to elect a new Constituent Assembly. Ahead in the polls, Nepal’s Maoist party is embroiled in a scandal over leader Prachanda’s passion for luxury and excess.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Radical Maoist groups are involved in a violent campaign to prevent elections on 19 November. Led by a former Maoist official, Mohan Baidhya, they have carried out violent actions across the country, including ambushes, vandalism, arson and bombs.
Yesterday alone, public and private buses were attacked, in one case in Kathmandu with a bomb. In this incident, which occurred in Samakhus, near central Kathmandu, nine people were seriously injured, three critically with burns on more than 50 per cent of the body.
Another bus with 50 people on board was attacked in the Siraha District when a group of extremists threw a petrol bomb. In this case, everyone was able to escape without injuries.
Elections are coming next week after five years of political chaos and four coalition governments, which proved unable to draft a democratic constitution after centuries of Hindu monarchy.
Nepal’s main political parties, the Congress Party (conservative) and Unified Communist Party of Nepal(Maoist) or UCPN(M), told voters that once in power they would draft a constitution within a year.
UCPN(M) President Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka Prachanda, is best poised to win. However, he and his party’s leadership have come under fire for their lavish lifestyle, a far cry from their ideals of social change, economic growth and lasting peace.
Prachanda and his family especially have come in for heavy criticism. “That family just loves to spend, whether it’s Prachanda blowing money on hair gel or Rolex watches, his wife buying saris all the time or his son Prakash, obsessed with changing his mobile phone every two weeks,” said Bishnu Pariyar, a former guerrilla fighter who became one of Prachanda’s aides.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal’s Poor Outcasts Drink Lethal Alcohol to Fight the Cold
As winter sets in, hundreds of people are poisoned by home-made alcoholic beverages. In the southern part of the country, six people recently died from drinking methyl alcohol used against the cold. For many people, the deaths were caused Hindu evil spirits.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Often forced to live in tin shacks without proper clothing, Nepal’s poor have tried to counter the cold of recent months by drinking home-made alcoholic beverages, with a high risk of poisoning.
Every year, dozens of people die in the poorest villages from the cold. The authorities usually ignore the problem and have done nothing to help the people at risk, who could survive if they had proper woollen clothes and stoves.
The latest case occurred yesterday in the village of Portaha, Sihara District (southern Nepal) on the border with India.
Six people from the Mushahar community, low-caste Hindus marginalised by the rest of the population, died after drinking a home-brewed alcoholic beverage.
The tragedy has so shaken the villagers to push the elderly to organise a magic ritual to ward off the evil spirits held responsible for the tragedy.
Nathuni Shadaya, who lives in Portaha, is convinced that “some evil entities are attacking the village. All the residents, including my mother, began to pray to the spirits. We are organising a special meeting with Hindu holy men to appease the demons and stop their wrath against us.”
Local authorities accuse the government and politicians of ignoring these tragedies. In order to avoid doing something, they prefer to leave these people at the mercy of superstition.
The six Mushahar were poisoned from a mixture of methyl alcohol, which is very harmful to the human body, said Sihara District chief health officer Shankarlal Karna.
“With the cold season,” he explained, “the poor and marginalised do not have the opportunity to buy warm clothes, so to protect themselves from low temperatures, they resort to highly alcoholic beverages. These are home-brewed and sold cheaply, resulting in dozens of people dying each year from poisoning.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Told to Turn Their Backs on ASIO
HUNDREDS of Muslims attending a community meeting in western Sydney were warned yesterday that they should refuse to co-operate with Australian governments and their agencies, including ASIO and the federal police.
The annual conference of Hizb ut-Tahrir heard speakers say the federal government had a covert plan to marginalise and suppress activist and traditionalist Islam under the guise of engagement and fostering harmony with moderates in the community. Several men and one woman described what they claimed were either oppressive or “Keystone Kops”-style operations by ASIO agents, such as offering $500 bribes for information, including on Australian Muslims who may have gone to fight in Syria. Hizb ut-Tahrir, which operates internationally, calls for the creation of a world caliphate to rule all Muslims according to traditional principles and sharia…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sydney Man Mohammed Issaka Jailed Over 2012 Protest Against Anti-Islamic Film Innocence of Muslims
A man involved in a violent Sydney protest over an anti-Islamic film last year has been jailed for up to 12 months.
Mohammed Issaka has been imprisoned for offences that include assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. The 44-year-old was involved in a protest in central Sydney in September 2012. Issaka refused to stand up for a judge at a previous court appearance, but he later apologised. A magistrate at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court has noted that Issaka’s behaviour is unacceptable to the community…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Failed Monsanto GMO Corn Pushed on African Countries With Help of Bill Gates
According to a recent statement from the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), failed GM corn from Monsanto is now being pushed on African countries with help from the Gates Foundation. This maize, known as MON810, has been grown in South Africa for 15 years, where it “failed miserably”. But so as not to call the seed a complete waste, Monsanto and Bill Gates are now pushing it into countries like Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya — countries that need agricultural help.
“Monsanto got the science completely wrong on this one. Independent biosafety scientists have discovered that the inheritance of resistance in African stem borers is a dominant, not recessive, trait as erroneously assumed,” explained the Director of the ACB Miriam Mayet. “Hence the insect resistance management strategies that Monsanto developed, and accepted by our regulators, based on these erroneous assumptions, were utterly ineffective.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Britain’s Decency is Being Cynically Exploited by Asylum Seekers
The shocking case of Jumaa Kater Saleh undermines confidence in the UK’s asylum system
The British are a compassionate people and we have a long history of welcoming the persecuted to our shores. But we have every right to be furious when our generosity is exploited, and when the system put in place to help the vulnerable becomes bogged down by bogus claims and bureaucratic incompetence.
Today The Sunday Telegraph can report on a galling example of the system gone wrong. In November 2004, a 16-year-old Sudanese boy, Jumaa Kater Saleh, smuggled himself into the UK in the back of a lorry. Saleh claimed to be from the persecuted Zaghawa tribe, although the Home Office found his story to be “vague, unsubstantiated and lacking in detail”. His asylum application was rejected but he was allowed to stay in Britain until he reached 18. When the big day came, he should have simply returned home. But a series of delays allowed him to stay a lot longer.
Indeed, Saleh was still in the UK at the age of 19 while his status was under review as part of a “legacy scheme” set up to deal with backlogs. Then, in May 2007, Saleh and a gang of men lured three girls to a house in Dartford, Kent, for sex. He was arrested and put on trial, and during the proceedings he and his fellow defendants showed a talent for causing chaos. There were eight pre-trial management hearings and each defendant claimed the need for a separate interpreter (at a total cost of £25,000) and a second barrister. Once they were convicted, the men launched a further unsuccessful appeal.
After he had served his time in a young offenders’ institution, Saleh should have been automatically deported under the UK Borders Act 2007 as a foreign-born criminal. He resisted this, appealing first that he was guaranteed protection under the UN Refugee Convention and humanitarian legislation, then, after his lawyers dropped these claims, bringing a case under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Saleh was relocated to the Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre, at an estimated cost of more than £40,000 per year to the taxpayer. He retained a lawyer from a firm that makes millions out of legal aid cases. In February 2011, based on troublingly superficial analysis, a court found that it would breach European human rights law to deport Saleh and he was freed. Incredibly, he then sued the UK Government for detaining him too long at Harmondsworth. He was awarded compensation, and while the sum has yet to be set, it will doubtless make him rich by Sudanese standards.
Adding all the figures together, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose that Saleh’s nine years in this country have cost the taxpayer at least £350,000 so far. The British public have been let down on multiple fronts. First, the lion’s share of blame lies, of course, with Saleh — a convicted sex offender who exploited the kindness of the society that played host to him. Second, human rights lawyers deployed every legal ruse to help their client and, in the process, presumably made themselves a lot of money. Toufique Hossain, the man who represented Saleh in his compensation bid, told this newspaper that while his firm was initially working on legal aid rates, now that the Government has lost its case the taxpayer will have to finance their costs “at private rates, which can be three or four times as high”.
And, finally, the Home Office displayed incompetence when it failed to provide adequate representations. Compare this official sluggishness to the over-reaction shown towards the Fijian ex-soldier Filimone Lacanivalu, who had every right to remain in the UK after serving at least four years in the Army, but who filed his paperwork late and was subsequently detained and threatened with deportation. Happily, he has now been granted residency.
Clearly, the system is overloaded. An open-ended detention policy is slow-moving, expensive (£186 million was spent on detention and removal in 2011-2012) and an open goal for those seeking to extract money from the taxpayer. Moreover, the British justice system is being undermined by the European Convention on Human Rights. The Tory promise to repeal Labour’s Human Rights Act, which enshrines the convention in British law, will not do enough to address the problem, because the “rights” that cause us such difficulty will remain separately enshrined in the European Convention.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of such cases is that they undermine confidence in our asylum system. It is understandable that persecuted people should wish to seek refuge in our free and ordered society. But stories like Saleh’s make a mockery of both the genuine rights of the disadvantaged and the generosity of the host nation. The Government must act now to restore confidence in the competence and fairness of the British justice system.
[Reader comment by Vlad the Inhaler on 17 November 2013 at about 08:30 am.]
“The shocking case of Jumaa Kater Saleh undermines confidence in the UK’s asylum system”. The public has never had any confidence in the UK’s asylum system. It is a conduit allowing criminals, economic migrants and alien “religions” to turn a civilised country into a third world hellhole. And this goes for the entire Western world.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
N.J. Bill to Offer In-State Tuition, Financial Aid to Illegals
After a decade-long effort by advocates, a bill that would charge in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who grew up in New Jersey appears well on its way to landing on the governor’s desk.
The state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee today voted eight to three with one abstention to approve the measure (S2479), which advocates say will affect tens of thousands of New Jersey residents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Roger Daltrey: ‘I Will Never Forgive Labour for Their Immigration Policies’
Roger Daltrey, The Who frontman, says that he is angry that Labour’s mass immigration policies have taken jobs from his friends
Roger Daltrey, the lead singer of The Who, says he will never forgive Labour for their mass immigration policies as he says they “destroyed the jobs of my mates”. The musician, who once supported the party, says that they have let down his generation by allowing an influx of workers which resulted in jobs being undercut because of “stupid thinking on Europe”. It is the immigrants who get wrongly blamed for the problems, Daltrey says, when actually it was a political mistake which caused them…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Europe and the Global Struggle for LGBT Rights
by Charles Radcliffe
The European Union is seen by many as a torchbearer in the global struggle to secure human rights and equal treatment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. From Kampala to Kathmandu, EU officials regularly meet with representatives of foreign governments and encourage them to tackle homophobic violence and discrimination. In recent years, the EU has denounced a slew of anti-gay measures introduced in several eastern European and African countries, and supports LGBT rights activists working in these and other regions. European advocacy at the United Nations is helping fuel momentum for LGBT rights abuses to be addressed at an international level.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Rome’s Mayor Says He Favours Same-Sex Marriage, Adoption
Italian capital to formally register civil unions of gays
(ANSA) — Rome, November 14 — Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said Thursday that he is in favour of same-sex marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples.
Rome will soon register civil partnerships, the mayor added.
“I am not afraid of the word ‘marriage’ between persons of the same sex,” Marino said during a television forum on Repubblica TV.
“We in Rome, as we have promised, we will register civil unions,” he said.
He added that he had “no opposition” to adoption of children by same-sex couples.
Marino offended organizers of Rome’s Gay Pride event in June when he refused to attend the event, saying he wanted to spend time with his family.
Organizers said that was disrespectful.
Marino said then that even though he would not attend the event, he would “stand with the participants in the fight against discrimination”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland is to join the rest of the UK by agreeing to legalise gay marriage later this week.
The Scottish Parliament’s 128 MSPs will disregard massive opposition to the radical plan by voting on Wednesday to allow same-sex couples to marry…
The decision to press ahead with the move comes despite the Scottish Government’s biggest ever public consultation revealing that more than two-thirds of respondents opposed the plan.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Maoist Class War Wrecked Our State Schools
by Janet Daley
For too long teachers have thought it wrong to transmit ‘posh’ standards of literate speech, or encourage their pupils to betray their own culture
It was all over the media last week: a veritable tidal wave of eloquent regret and outrage over the destruction of the grammar schools. Set off by a political storm over social elites and the resurgence of a private school monopoly on power, it became a thunderous chorus of denunciation of that edict which had undermined the state education system. One commentator after another, supported by legions of letter writers to newspapers and commenters on websites, joined in the public grief over what was once described as the greatest act of vandalism ever committed by a British government against its own people.
None of this was new or unfamiliar — but this time the outpouring was so unflinching in its anger that it silenced even the usual critics. What feeble scraps of argument were flung against the flood of personal testimony and unanswerable historical evidence did not stand up to examination…
[Reader comment by poppey on 17 November 2013 at about 08:30 am.]
Very true Janet, this leftist plot goes back nearly 50 years now, Labour set the agenda, and it’s union paymasters saw to it the state schooling I knew was destroyed and replaced with “Humanist” and PC “Culture” based on mass immigration of dysfunctional backward minorities dependent on OUR charity.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
The Kurds got royally screwed by the western division of their homelands. I would like to see a Kurdish state that encompasses north-eastern Syria, northern Iraq, southern Turkey and northern Iran.
Do you think anyone could make an argument against that? I don’t.
Interesting article, its just a shame the media didn’t get excited about this at the time! now we have universal mediocrity enforced by the unions and their political servants!
Only one half-hearted cheer for the Kurds from this quarter. Back in 1895 and 1915, they did a lot of the Turks’ dirty work on the Armenians and Assyrians; and even now, they are squeezing the Assyrian Christians of norther Iraq. I’d change my view if I saw some evidence of a real respect for minority religions (including ex-Muslims) on their part. Further, I wonder how much the Kurds would be able to make an independent Kurdistan a truly viable states rather than another Afghanistan located a bit further west.