Defense minister under fire for sacking general | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 13.03.2010

Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg has been strongly criticized for sacking General Henning Hars. The general was put into "temporary retirement" after he questioned the dismissal of a fellow officer. 

German Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg has been sharply criticized for sacking a general who wrote him a letter asking for the reason why Military Inspector General Wolfgang Schneiderhan was sacked in last year.

 

"It looks like the heads of disagreeable oddballs are rolling just because they have a different opinion than the minister," Green party speaker Omid Nouripour told the daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung.

 

Unanswered questions

 

Following Schneiderhan's dismissal in November 2009, Brigadier General Henning Hars, a former military attache to Washington, wrote a letter to the defense minister asking why the high-ranking officer had been dismissed. Hars also asked Guttenberg for his assessment of the controversial Kunduz air raid, which killed a large number of civilians in northern Afghanistan last September. Hars did not receive a response to his letter.

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

Vatican says bid to link pope to abuse has failed | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 13.03.2010

The Vatican has dismissed attempts to link Pope Benedict XVI to a raft of child sex abuse revelations in Germany, denying accusations that he had once tried to cover up the actions of pedophile priests.  

In a reaction to the widening pedophile scandal in Germany, the Vatican has rallied around the pontiff, claiming that "certain elements" had launched a targeted campaign to discredit the Catholic Church.

"It is clearly evident that in the past few days there have been some in Regensburg and Munich who, with a certain dogged determination, have sought details to personally implicate the Holy Father in the abuse issues," said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.

"To any observer it is clear that these attempts have failed," he added.

The pope's former diocese in Bavaria on Friday said he was involved in a decision in 1980 to move a priest who was suspected of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy.

Instead of undergoing therapy, the priest was assigned to a Munich parish without restrictions. Six years later, the priest was given a suspended jail sentence for child sex offenses during that period.

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

BBC News - Thousands attend anti-Berlusconi protest in Rome

Tens of thousands of Italians have been taking part in a protest in Rome's main square against the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The demonstrators, called out by the opposition and unions, accused him of changing laws for his own benefit.

The protest organisers also called for employment, education and health to be at the centre of campaigning for this month's regional elections.

A recent opinion poll showed only low levels of support for Mr Berlusconi.

His People of Freedom party has seen its preparations for the regional elections on 28 and 29 March marred by problems over electoral lists

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

EU agrees on sanctions against Iran if UN fails | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 13.03.2010

There is 'enough consensus' within the European Union to implement unilateral sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program, even if the United Nations Security Council fails to agree on a resolution.  

Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said the EU remained committed to seeking a UN resolution on sanctions against Iran, but lacking that, the 27-nation block would take action on its own.

He was speaking after an informal meeting with EU Foreign Policy Director Catherine Ashton and seven other European foreign ministers in Finland on Saturday.

"If we have succeeded in driving a common line one particular issue, I would pinpoint Iran," he said.

Germany, Britain and France have previously stated that they agree on the need for a fourth round of sanctions to restrict Iran's nuclear ambitions, but in the past some smaller EU members have expressed reservations. The details of any such sanctions package would therefore still have to be finalized.

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

Embattled Sarkozy facing new blow at hands of French voters - Europe, World - The Independent

Socialists tipped to replace centre-right as France's most popular party in regional mid-term elections

President Nicolas Sarkozy faces a severe drubbing in midterm regional elections tomorrow which will - temporarily at least - scramble the arithmetic of French politics.

According to the final opinion polls, the much-divided and quarrelsome main opposition party, the Socialists, will replace Mr Sarkozy's centre-right as the most popular single political force in France. In alliance with a booming Green movement, the centre-left seems certain to win 20 of the 22 French regions in the second round of the elections next weekend.

There is even a chance that the moderate left and Greens could sweep the board in what will be the final nationwide poll before the presidential elections of 2012. In the European elections last June, Mr Sarkozy's party, the Union Pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), topped the poll, despite his already low approval ratings. Even with its centrist allies, the UMP is predicted to score only around 27 per cent of the nationwide vote on Sunday compared to almost 30 per cent for the Socialists.

Al Jazeera: Turkey recalls envoy to Sweden

Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Sweden after its parliament narrowly voted to describe the killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War One as genocide.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister "strongly" condemned Thursday's vote, which comes only a week after Ankara recalled its envoy to the US over a similar resolution.

"Our people and our government reject this decision based upon major errors and without foundation,"Erdogan said, adding that he was cancelling a Turkey-Sweden summit scheduled next week.

Turkey, which accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks, rejects that up to 1.5 million died and that it amounted to genocide - a term employed by many Western historians.>

Al Jazeera English - Europe - Portugal slum under threat

Western Europe is one of the wealthiest regions in the world - and it is hard to find slums there.

But in Portugal, the poverty-stricken area of Cova da Moura, which sits on the edge of Lisbon, the country's capital, people live destitute lives.

Since the 1970s, the area has become home to some 6,000 people.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

France24 - Sarkozy, Brown slam US `protectionism' on defence deal

French President Nicolas Sarkozy (right) and Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown have accused Washington of protectionism, claiming the Pentagon favoured US company Boeing for a $50 billion Air Force refuelling tanker contract.

The leaders of France and Britain have accused Washington of obstructing European aerospace company EADS from fairly competing for a $50 billion Air Force refuelling tanker contract.

The trans-Atlantic dispute over a $50 billion US Air Force refuelling tanker contract reached new heights Friday, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Washington of protectionism -- a policy that the USA usually warns other countries against.

If the US "wants to be taken seriously in the fight against protectionism, they should be setting a better example", Sarkozy said at a joint press conference with his British counterpart in London.

James Bulger's killers were old enough to face trial, insists government | UK news | guardian.co.uk

The government has rejected raising the age of criminal responsibility after the children's commissioner for England argued that the killers of James Bulger were too young to have faced trial.

Maggie Atkinson, who was appointed as the commissioner last autumn, said Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who were 10 when they killed the toddler, should not have been tried for murder because they were too young to understand the full consequences of their actions.

Calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 10 to 12, Atkinson told the Times that a civilised society should recognise that children who commit offences should be treated differently from adult criminals.

But a Ministry of Justice spokesman today ruled out a change in the law. He said: "We are committed to tackling crime, and in particular intervening early with young people to prevent crime and antisocial behaviour.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - Lib Dems will not back early cuts, says Nick Clegg

The Liberal Democrats would not support any plan to cut public spending too early in the next Parliament, leader Nick Clegg has said.

Deep cuts would be "economic masochism" so early in recovery, Mr Clegg said.

In a hung parliament, the party with the "stronger mandate" had a "moral right to seek to govern", he added.

Labour said it was pleased the Lib Dems agreed with its plan to delay cuts. The Conservatives said senior Lib Dems were contradicting each other on cuts.

In his speech to the spring conference on Saturday, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable accused Labour and the Conservatives of engaging in a "phoney war over cuts weeks before an election that will affect the lives of millions of people".

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Liberal Democrats [UK]: Nick Clegg speech to Liberal Democrat Spring Conference

We do not have to live in a country where the poorest pay the biggest chunk of their income in tax. We do not have to live in a country where politics is the plaything of wealthy donors and corrupt MPs. We do not have to live in a country where the banks can profiteer at the expense of everybody else and our climate is in jeopardy. We do not have to live in a country where children's chances are determined more by their parents' background than by their own hopes and dreams.

...

Labour: the party of the many. The many disasters. You know their new slogan: a future fair for all.
If that sounds familiar, that's because they've used it before. Seven years ago. Well based on what's happened since then: it isn't a slogan - it's a warning. It's like advertising a second trip on the Titanic. Gordon Brown's unsinkable economy. Actually, there is one thing I have to give Gordon Brown credit for: He handled Piers Morgan a lot better than I did.

As for the Conservatives: the world's first offshore political party. It used to be a British party. Now it's a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lord Ashcroft, a man who collects tax havens the way some people collect beer mats. How can David Cameron claim to clean up politics, when he can't even clean up his own party chairman? The label still says Made in Britain, but the money says Made in Belize.

...

Liberal Democrats are, I believe, the guarantor of good sense. After all, we are the party of Vince Cable. We are the guarantor - whatever the outcome of the election - that no risks will be taken with Britain's financial position. Liberal Democrats have gone further than any political party in identifying cuts - we will be setting out a programme of savings of £15bn a year by 2012. From ending government contributions to Child Trust Funds to removing the top 20% of claimants from the tax credit system. From cancelling the ID card programme to abolishing the Government Offices for the Regions. We have put together, line by line, the most substantial and deliverable programme of deficit reduction in British politics. And we have taken the bold step of cutting back, dramatically, our proposals for new spending.

...

I am not the kingmaker.
The 45 million voters of Britain are the kingmakers.
They give the politicians their marching orders, not the other way round.
It's called democracy - and I kind of like it.

I like the "we're the party of Vince Cable" bit...

The brainless should not be in banking -- Willem Buiter

FDIC: Failed Bank Information - Bank Closing Information for The Park Avenue Bank, New York, NY

On Friday, March 12, 2010, The Park Avenue Bank, New York, NY was closed by the New York State Banking Department, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver.  No advance notice is given to the public when a financial institution is closed.

The FDIC has assembled useful information regarding your relationship with this institution.  Besides a checking account, you may have Certificates of Deposit, a car loan, a business checking account, a commercial loan, a Social Security direct deposit, and other relationships with the institution.  The FDIC has compiled the following information, which should answer many of your questions.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

MEXICO: Consumers on the Offensive - IPS ipsnews.net

MEXICO CITY, Mar 13, 2010 (IPS) - Mexican consumers are currently facing a combination of price rises, economic recession and lack of legal protection in the face of abuses committed by providers of goods and services.

These problems will be the main points on the agenda of the first national convention of consumer rights groups in Mexico, to be held in the capital Saturday.

"We want to build a national agenda for the consumer rights movement, to fight monopolistic practices or services that do not live up to what they promise," Dolores Rojas, campaigns coordinator in the Mexican office of the international development agency Oxfam, one of the organisers of the convention, told IPS.

Although a federal consumer protection agency (PROFECO) was created in 1976 under the Economy Ministry, it lacks legal teeth.

"There is a significant transfer of resources from consumers to the large food industry groups, which control entire markets," Alfonso Ramírez, founder and head of El Barzón, the powerful Mexican debtors' movement that arose after the 1995 crisis which decimated savings in bank accounts, told IPS.

Traditional German shipyards fear for the future | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 13.03.2010

Several changes of ownership after German reunification haven't improved the outlook for the once-proud Baltic Sea shipyards of Rostock and Wismar. But now there could be a glimmer of hope on the horizon. 

Before the eastern German shipyards in Rostock-Warnemuende and Wismar had to file for insolvency in June 2009, they were among the strongest yards in the country. But then, the global financial crisis took its toll.

"Financial institutions have behaved a bit differently since the crisis," said shipbuilder Gunnar Flemming. "The banks do have money; after all they received it from the government. But they won't spend it properly, they won't give us the necessary credits."

Flemming was one of several thousand workers who demonstrated earlier this week in front of the regional parliament in Schwerin in an effort to protect their jobs.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Shipbuilders vented their anger over job cuts in Schwerin

Since their founding in 1946, the shipyards in Rostock and Wismar were always among the biggest employers in what is now the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

After Germany's reunification, the shipyards saw a number of new owners coming and going, among them investors from western Germany, Norway and more recently Russia. All of them had promised a bright future for the shipbuilding sector on the Baltic coast, but failed to live up to expectations.

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

Farewell to fixed incomes -  Il Sole-24 Ore/Presseurop - English

Battered by the economic crisis and drowning in deficits, several EU states have opted to cut public sector pay rather than devalue their currency. The choice is unpopular but not unprecedented, reports Il Sole 24 Ore.

State salaries are no longer sacrosanct. Greece's recent decision to cut civil service pay by about seven percent is but one in a long line of similar measures adopted a little over a year ago both inside and outside the eurozone.

The story starts not on the shores of the Mediterranean, however, but on the east coast of the Baltic. According to a recent study by Swedbank in Stockholm, in October 2009 public salaries in Latvia - the little Baltic country that led the pack in the downward wage spiral - dropped back to 2006 levels. The cutbacks, which were up to 20 percent for teachers and some other branches of the public sector, were fiercely contested last winter and spring but accepted in the end.

All the forecasts of imminent devaluation were proved wrong. The country weathered last year's drop in GDP of over 17 percent. Now its balance of payments is back in the black. And its sovereign debt is no longer rated high-risk by the agencies.

Lehman Report Points Way to Plaintiffs, Not Prison, Lawyers Say - Bloomberg.com

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- A 2,200-page bankruptcy report a year in the making may point the way for plaintiffs looking to sue former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. officials, lawyers said, rather than grand juries probing possible crimes.

The report, filed by bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas in Manhattan federal court on March 11, describes off-balance-sheet transactions Lehman used to hide debt in late 2007 and 2008, deceiving shareholders about its ability to withstand losses. The firm, which collapsed in September 2008, filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history and helped trigger the financial crisis and resulting $700 billion government bailout.

Within a month of its demise, three federal criminal probes began and at least 12 subpoenas were issued by prosecutors in New York and New Jersey, lead Lehman bankruptcy lawyer Harvey Miller said at the time. Since then, no major criminal cases have been brought over the bank's failure. The new report is unlikely to change that, said attorney Jacob Frenkel.

"There is language here that would validate there being no federal criminal case brought," said Frenkel, a former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer, of the Lehman report. "There would have been language of `intent' or deliberately ignoring information."

Attorney Thomas Gorman, chairman of Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur LLP's securities litigation practice and co-chair of the American Bar Association's White Collar Crime Securities Section, said that the report may nevertheless serve as a road map for prosecutors.

Record Advance in S&P 500 Futures Shows Confidence in Economy - Bloomberg.com

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- The longest-ever gain in futures linked to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index shows growing investor confidence in the U.S. economy.

"It's a bullish indication," said Stephen Lieber, chief investment officer of Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC, which manages more than $7 billion in Purchase, New York. "There's greater confidence in the equity market. Earnings have been relatively positive."

Lettre ouverte à mes amis allemands - Alternatives Economiques		Open Letter To My German Friends
La politique d'austérité excessive menée en Allemagne depuis le début des années 2000, sous la houlette notamment du social-démocrate Gerhard Schröder, porte une lourde responsabilité dans les difficultés actuelles de la zone. Compte tenu du poids de l'économie allemande, un quart de la zone euro, sa très faible croissance depuis dix ans a plombé ses voisins, contribuant notablement à la dérive des comptes publics des autres pays. Cette politique trop restrictive, logiquement associée à une inflation très basse, a également empêché la Banque centrale d'augmenter ses taux d'intérêt pour calmer la surchauffe qui se produisait parallèlement en Espagne, en Irlande, au Portugal et en Grèce, du fait de taux d'intérêt réels trop faibles. Enfin, cette austérité excessive s'est traduite par des excédents commerciaux colossaux : 166 milliards d'euro soit 6,6 % du PIB en 2008. Des excédents réalisés aux deux tiers en Europe : en ne consommant pas assez, votre pays a posé depuis dix ans, le même type de problèmes à ses voisins que la Chine au monde...		The excessive austerity policy pursued by Germany since the early 2000s, particularly under the leadership of the Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder, bears a heavy responsibility in the current difficulties of the euro zone. Given the weight of the German economy, one quarter of the euro area, its very slow growth over the past ten years has weighed on its neighbours, contributing significantly to the drift of public accounts of other countries. This over-restrictive policy, logically associated with very low inflation, has also prevented the central bank from raising interest rates to calm the overheating that occurred simultaneously in Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece, because of too low real interest rates. Finally, this excessive austerity has resulted in huge trade surpluses: 166 billion euros or 6.6% of GDP in 2008. Surpluses achieved for two-thirds in Europe: by not consuming enough, your country has created for its neighbours in the past decade, the same type of problems as China with the rest of the world ...
Vous considérez généralement ces excédents comme un signe de la bonne santé de votre économie. Ce n'est pourtant pas le cas : vous savez bien que, du fait de cette austérité excessive, la pauvreté et les inégalités se sont envolées dans votre pays, que l'évolution démographique y est plus inquiétante que jamais et que la mauvaise qualité de votre système scolaire n'augure rien de bon pour l'avenir... De plus, en voulant à tout prix punir sévèrement les Grecs, mais aussi les Portugais et les Espagnols, trop dépensiers, vous vous tirez une balle dans le pied : vous allez priver l'industrie allemande des débouchés qui lui ont permis de survivre malgré l'anémie de votre marché intérieur... Et comme vous n'avez, me semble-t-il, aucune intention de relâcher la bride chez vous en adoptant des politiques moins restrictives, bien au contraire, votre intransigeance risque de replonger toute l'Europe dans la récession.		You generally consider these surpluses as a sign of your economy's good health. This is not the case: you know that because of this excessive austerity, poverty and inequality have soared in your country, that its demographic development is more worrying than ever, and the poor quality of your school system does not bode well for the future ... In addition, in your wish to severely punish the over-spending Greeks, but also the Portuguese and Spaniards, you shoot yourselves in the foot: you will deprive German industry of the outlets that have enabled it to survive despite the anaemia of your domestic market ... And as you don't have, it seems to me, any intention of loosening up at home by adopting less restrictive policies, (on the contrary), your intransigence risks plunging all Europe back into recession.

US-ISRAEL: Tiff or Tipping Point? - IPS ipsnews.net

Analysis by Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, Mar 13, 2010 (IPS) - "Condemn" is not a word that rolls trippingly off the tongue of a U.S. politician addressing anything having to do with actions, however objectionable, by Israel.

So it was no surprise that close observers of U.S. Middle East policy sat up a lot straighter in their seats when Vice President Joseph Biden used the word not once, but twice, during his visit to Israel this week in reference to the Israeli Interior Ministry's announcement that it intends to build 1,600 new housing units for Jews in an Arab neighbourhood of East Jerusalem.

"I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem," said Biden, considered among Israel's staunchest supporters during his several decades in Congress.

"The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of (U.S.-mediated) proximity talks (between Israel and the Palestine Authority), is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now...," noted Biden.

In a remarkable show of displeasure, he subsequently kept Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu waiting 90 minutes before joining him for an official dinner and, according to Israeli press accounts, gave top Israeli officials a private tongue-lashing over how such actions by the Jewish state incite Islamic extremism across the Arab world and beyond.

Forty-eight hours later, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, clearly rejecting Netanyahu's apology over the unfortunate coincidence of the Ministry's announcement with Biden's arrival, joined the fray.

A Colorado Mom Is Arrested in Terror Plot Case - WSJ.com

ast Easter, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31-year-old mom with a $30,000-a-year job as a medical assistant, announced to her family that she had converted to Islam. A few months later, she began posting to Facebook forums whose headings included "STOP caLLing MUSLIMS TERRORISTS!"

On Sept. 11, she suddenly left Leadville, Colo., a small town in the Rocky Mountains, for Denver, then for New York, to meet and marry a Muslim man she connected with online, her family says. Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, who is 5-foot-11 and blonde, phoned her mother and stepfather in Leadville, providing them with an address in Waterford, Ireland, they say.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

POLITICS: Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War - IPS ipsnews.net

By Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Mar 8, 2010 (IPS) - For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marja was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centres in Helmand.

It turns out, however, that the picture of Marja presented by military officials and obediently reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as a historic turning point in the conflict.

Marja is not a city or even a real town, but either a few clusters of farmers' homes or a large agricultural area covering much of the southern Helmand River Valley.

"It's not urban at all," an official of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), who asked not to be identified, admitted to IPS Sunday. He called Marja a "rural community".

"It's a collection of village farms, with typical family compounds," said the official, adding that the homes are reasonably prosperous by Afghan standards.

BBC News - Afghanistan's Kandahar hit by suicide bombers, 30 dead

At least 30 people have been killed and 40 wounded in four suspected suicide bombings in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, hospital officials say.

The first blast happened at about 2000 (1530 GMT). Police said the attackers struck near a prison, a hotel, a mosque and at a city centre road junction.

Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, is one of Afghanistan's largest cities.

The US has hinted that the volatile area could be one of the next targets for operations against the Taliban.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Kabul, says Kandahar is the Taliban's "spiritual home".

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - PM Maliki leads poll count in key Baghdad constituency

Partial results from Iraq's election show Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's coalition ahead in Baghdad, which accounts for 20% of parliament's seats.

Although there are still no results from seven of Iraq's 18 provinces, partial counts released so far this week show Mr Maliki leading in five.

He is followed closely by the former prime minister, Iyad Allawi, who heads a coalition of Sunni and Shia groups.

There have been complaints about the pace of the count for the 7 March poll.

Final results are not expected for another fortnight, after which there is expected to be a long process of coalition-building.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Deaths in Pakistan Swat blast

At least 14 people have been killed and 50 others wounded in a suicide attack in Pakistan's Swat valley.

The blast on Saturday at a security checkpoint  in Saidu Sharif town comes just a day after a twin suicide attack on a military convoy in the city of Lahore killed at least 49 people.

Speaking about Saturday's blast, Qazi Jamil, a senior police official, said the attacker was trying to get into a government building used by police and security forces.

The Reuters news agency reported another official as saying the bomber had been travelling in a rickshaw when he detonated his explosives.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Dam burst destroys Kazakh village

At least 35 people have been killed after a dam broke in southern Kazakhstan, unleashing a flood that destroyed a village, officials said.

Torrential rains and rising temperatures triggered the reservoir's burst that left hundreds of homes in ruins on Friday in the village of Kyzyl-Agash near Almaty, Kazakhistan's biggest city.

According to a state news agency, the disaster sparked the evacuation of around 1,000 people to nearby cities.

Hundreds of emergency personnel have reached the region to provide tents for the evacuees along with other much needed aid, authorities said. 

Karim Masimov, Kazakhistan's prime minister, travelled to the region in order to personally supervise the relief efforts.

"We need to have understanding for the situation of the victims ... they have suddenly been left without homes, money and documents,'' Masimov said. 

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Clashes break out near Jerusalem

Israeli soldiers have used tear gas against Palestinian women protesting at the Qalandiya crossing in the occupied West Bank near Jerusalem.

Scuffles broke out on Saturday when dozens of women tried to push through one of the crossing's gates.

The women had gathered at the crossing chanting "Jerusalem is Arab, our eternal capital", briefly planting a Palestinian flag on one of its gates.

Israel has imposed a 48-hour closure of the West Bank, not letting anyone in or out before Sunday dawn.

The Israeli military said four protesters were detained but no one was injured.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

New Fraud Cases Point to Lapses in Iraq Projects - NYTimes.com

Investigators looking into corruption involving reconstruction in Iraq say they have opened more than 50 new cases in six months by scrutinizing large cash transactions -- involving banks, land deals, loan payments, casinos and even plastic surgery -- made by some of the Americans involved in the nearly $150 billion program.

Some of the cases involve people who are suspected of having mailed tens of thousands of dollars to themselves from Iraq, or of having stuffed the money into duffel bags and suitcases when leaving the country, the federal investigators said. In other cases, millions of dollars were moved through wire transfers. Suspects then used cash to buy BMWs, Humvees and expensive jewelry, or to pay off enormous casino debts.

Some suspects also tried to conceal foreign bank accounts in Ghana, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Britain, the investigators said, while in other cases, cash was simply found stacked in home safes

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

Killer App: Drones Are Lynchpin of Obama's War on Terror - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

CIA drones are killing terrorists -- and civilians -- in Pakistan almost every day. The unmanned aircraft are becoming the weapon of choice in the fight against al-Qaida and its allies. But the political, military and moral consequences are incalculable. SPIEGEL ONLINE has investigated Barack Obama's remote-controlled campaign against terrorism.

What is the cost of rendering a terrorist harmless once and for all by killing him? During the course of 14 months, the CIA used unmanned and heavily armed small aircraft known as drones to stage 15 strikes against the presumed locations of the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. On Aug. 5, 2009, on the 16th try, the drones finally managed to kill Baitullah Mehsud.

On that day, a Predator drone was hovering about three kilometers (2 miles) above the house of Mehsud's father-in-law, somewhere in the Pakistani province of South Waziristan. The drone's infrared camera sent remarkably sharp images in real time to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The images showed the Taliban leader sitting on the roof of his house, in the company of his wife, his uncle and a doctor.

Fearing Drug Cartels, Reporters in Mexico Retreat - NYTimes.com

REYNOSA, Mexico -- The big philosophical question in this gritty border town does not concern trees falling in the forest but bodies falling on the concrete: Does a shootout actually happen if the newspapers print nothing about it, the radio and television stations broadcast nothing, and the authorities never confirm that it occurred?

As two powerful groups of drug traffickers engaged in fierce urban combat in Reynosa in recent weeks, the reality that many residents were living and the one that the increasingly timid news media and the image-conscious politicians portrayed were difficult to reconcile.

"You begin to wonder what the truth is," said one of Reynosa's frustrated and fearful residents, Eunice Peña, a professor of communications. "Is it what you saw, or what the media and the officials say? You even wonder if you were imagining it."

Angry residents who witnessed the carnage began to fill the void, posting raw videos and photos taken with cellphones.

"The pictures do not lie," said a journalist in McAllen, Tex., who monitors what is happening south of the border online but has stopped venturing there himself. "You can hear the gunshots. You can see the bodies. You know it's bad."

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

Indonesian Muslim group opposes Obama visit | www.english.rfi.fr

About 2,000 protesters from the hardline Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir, which aims to establish a Muslim caliphate, shouted "Islam united will not be defeated! Reject Obama!" and tore printouts of the American flag in Makassar, the capital of  South Sulawesi province.
 
In Solo, in central Java, 500 Hizbut Tahrir supporters carried posters saying "Expel Obama, leader of coloniser!" and "America, the real terrorist!"

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Marine life trade tops Cites agenda

An international conference on trade in endangered species has opened in Doha to tackle issues such as a ban on export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna, sharks and polar bear skins.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or Cites that opened in the Qatari capital on Saturday will be discussing 42 proposals during the next two weeks.

Apart from issues like combating elephant poaching for ivory in Africa and banning trade in polar bear skins, those focusing on sharks and tuna are likely to be among the most contentious.

Cites is the only UN body with the power to ban trade in endangered animals and plants.

A two-thirds majority of nations must back measures for them to be adopted. They would then be enforced by laws passed in member nations.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Industries hoarding greenhouse gas emission permits | Environment | The Guardian

Companies across Europe are hoarding permits to produce greenhouse gas emissions worth hundreds of millions of pounds, the Guardian can reveal.

The surplus credits have been amassed from over-allocation of permits to pollute from the European emissions trading scheme, and by buying cheap credits from carbon-cutting projects in developing countries and holding on to their more expensive official EU allowances.

The saved permits can be used to meet future targets to cut the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming and climate change without actually reducing pollution, or sold for a profit in the future.

Campaigners for tougher emissions reductions said the saved-up allowances discredited the argument of some industries that much deeper cuts in future would be "fatal" because they could no longer afford to compete against rivals outside the EU.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Slide in climate change belief is a temporary glitch | Damian Carrington | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Is the world warming and are we causing it? The number of people confidently saying yes to that question has slipped sharply over recent weeks, if opinion polls on both sides of the Atlantic are to be believed. That looks like bad news for those arguing that major changes to how we travel, power our homes and feed ourselves are needed to avoid catastrophe.

Yet a longer-term take on the data shows that interpreting the results as a collapse in confidence in climate science due to the release of the University of East Anglia emails or mistakes by the UN's climate body is not sustainable - or at least a long way from the full story. The data shows just how overwhelmingly British people accept climate change is happening and how resolute those views have been - at least until now. And even in the more sceptical US 63% of people believe that global warming has already begun or will do so in their lifetime.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - Nuclear panic in Portland over water announcement

Loud hailer announcements by a water company and a leaflet advising what to do during a radiation leak caused fears of a nuclear catastrophe in Dorset.

Emergency services in Portland were inundated with calls when Wessex Water officials used a hailer to inform residents of a cut to services.

Meanwhile, leaflets had been delivered advising people what to do during a radiation emergency at the nearby port.

One 78-year-old resident said the loud hailer left her "frightened to death".

The leaflets were distributed as part of a Nuclear Accident Emergency Plan exercise at Portland Port on Wednesday evening.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Report: The Case for Global Warming Stronger Than Ever - TIME

One of the many crimes that climate scientists have been accused of lately is that they claim absolute certainty in a field of research fraught with uncertainty. Sure, the planet is warming, say skeptics, but that's happened throughout Earth's history, long before humans were burning fossil fuels. So, how can we be sure this isn't just a natural phenomenon?

Yet a search through the much vilified Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports shows that absolute certainty is notably absent. In the most recent document, for example, published in 2007, the authors write: "Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG [that is, human-generated greenhouse gas] concentrations." (See pictures of the effects of global warming.)

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Law on Forest Rights Fails to Deliver - IPS ipsnews.net

BHUBANESWAR, India, Mar 13 , 2010 (IPS) - A four-year-old landmark law that was supposed to bring profound changes in the lives of India's tribal and forest-dwelling peoples has failed to deliver on that promise.

According to activists and government officials alike, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act - better known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 - has remained nothing more than ink on paper as general confusion, corruption, and an intransigent forest department complicate the already feeble efforts to implement it.

"Despite being a complicated law, no substantial step is even now underway to increase ground-level awareness among revenue and forest department personnel and village-level committees (the base level nodal agency to process the land claims)," says Tanushree Das of the Bhubaneswar-based non-government organisation Vasundhara. "Every level is still floundering."

"The government's handling of community or village forest land claims is a complete failure," adds Sheikh Sahajahan Bari, who works for the non- government organisation Pragati in tribal-dominated Koraput district.

"The rules governing FRA were notified more than two years back, in January 2008. (Yet) the concerned officials themselves still remain unclear on them," said Bari, who took part in a March gathering here of some 600 grassroots women leaders and activists from Orissa's 30 districts to discuss forest land and rights issues.

IRAQ: Women Miss Saddam - IPS ipsnews.net

BAGHDAD, Mar 12, 2010 (IPS) - Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year's maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.

Now they have Article 2 of the Constitution: "Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation." Sub-head A says "No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam." Under this Article the interpretation of women's rights is left to religious leaders - and many of them are under Iranian influence.

"The U.S. occupation has decided to let go of women's rights," Yanar Mohammed who campaigns for women's rights in Iraq says. "Political Islamic groups have taken southern Iraq, are fully in power there, and are using the financial support of Iran to recruit troops and allies. The financial and political support from Iran is why the Iraqis in the south accept this, not because the Iraqi people want Islamic law."

With the new law has come the new lawlessness. Nora Hamaid, 30, a graduate from Baghdad University, has now given up the career she dreamt of. "I completed my studies before the invaders arrived because there was good security and I could freely go to university," Hamaid tells IPS. Now she says she cannot even move around freely, and worries for her children every day. "I mean every day, from when they depart to when they return from school, for fear of abductions."

There is 25 percent representation for women in parliament, but Sabria says "these women from party lists stand up to defend their party in the parliament, not for women's rights." For women in Iraq, the invasion is not over.

Afghan dream becomes nightmare | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Her heart is all but broken. Dr Sybille Schnehage was the driving force behind one of the most successful aid projects in Afghanistan. She has earned the respect of Afghans of all political persuasions. But, betrayed by one of her closest friends and business associates, who used to call her 'Mother', her life has become a nightmare.

Dr Schnehage began her aid work in Afghanistan in 1994, during the civil war that followed the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989. She continued it when the Taliban were in power. Dr Schnehage was so well-respected that even the Taliban allowed local girls to attend the schools she had established in the rural northern province of Kunduz. She still has an official permit for the schoolgirls, signed by the Taliban leadership in Kandahar City. 

Radio to the rescue again: I happened to hear a brief interview with Stanley Young, a statistician, with whom I am unfamiliar. The purpose of the interview was to publicize Mr Young's investigation of statistical methods --or lack thereof-- employed by researchers to describe causality of various biological phenomena, for example, presentation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Some of Mr Young's papers are accessible from the Medscape library online. Below is an excerpt of an article summarizing a conference on design bias typified by observational studies (trolling for correlation), including Suresh Moolgavkar from the University of Washington, Berkeley's Juliet P. Shaffer, and Stanley Young from the National Institute of Statistical Sciences.

Young noted, by the time you reach 61 tests, there's a 95 percent chance that you'll get a significant result at random. And, let's face it--researchers want to see a significant result, so there's a strong, unintentional bias towards trying different tests until something pops out.

Young went on to describe a study, published in JAMA, that was a multiple testing train wreck: exposures to 275 chemicals were considered, 32 health outcomes were tracked, and 10 demographic variables were used as controls. That was about 8,800 different tests, and as many as 9 million ways of looking at the data once the demographics were considered.

The problem with models

Both Young and Moolgavkar then discussed the challenges of building a statistical model. Young focused on how the models are intended to help eliminate bias. Items like demographic information often correlate with risks of specific health outcomes, and researchers need to adjust for those when attempting to identify the residual risk associated with any other factors. As Young pointed out, however, you're never going to know all the possible risk factors, so there will always be error that ends up getting lumped in with whatever you're testing...

It's pretty obvious that these factors create a host of potential problems, but Young provided the best measure of where the field stands. In a survey of the recent literature, he found that 95 percent of the results of observational studies on human health had failed replication when tested using a rigorous, double blind trial. So, how do we fix this?

The consensus seems to be that we simply can't rely on the researchers to do it. As Shaffer noted, experimentalists who produce the raw data want it to generate results, and the statisticians do what they can to help them find them. The problems with this are well recognized within the statistics community, but they're loath to engage in the sort of self-criticism that could make a difference. (The attitude, as Young described it, is "We're both living in glass houses, we both have bricks.")

Read more...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

J. Crew violated the city's human rights law, said Irene Tung of the group, which has filed a complaint with the state attorney general's office.

Read more...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Cabbies Gouge Passengers Out of Millions, Agency Finds - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

For the past two years, thousands of taxi drivers overcharged passengers a total of more than $8 million by switching the meter to double the rate, the Taxi and Limousine Commission said Friday afternoon.

Using G.P.S. technology installed in cabs, the commission discovered more than 1.8 million trips where passengers were charged the higher rate. The total amount of the overcharge was $8,330,155, or an average of $4.45 per trip, the agency said.

The agency said that drivers manually switched the meter from the standard rate of 40 cents per fifth of a mile to the 80-cents-per-fifth-of-a-mile rate that cabbies are allowed to charge in Westchester and Nassau Counties, but not in New York City.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - Volunteers illuminate Hadrian's Wall 'line of light'

Hadrian's Wall has being lit from end to end by a team of 500 volunteers holding flaming torches.

The "line of light" is following an 84-mile (135km) national walking trail, which shadows the route of the Roman wall spanning northern England.

Volunteers, each holding a gas-powered beacon, stood at 820ft (250m) intervals.

The first torch was lit at Segedunum Roman Fort in Wallsend, North Tyneside, at about 1800 GMT.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

French singer songwriter Jean Ferrat dies | Entertainment | Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - Jean Ferrat, a left-wing French singer and songwriter whose communist convictions went along with a talent for poetic love songs that were some of the best loved in France, died on Saturday at the age of 79.

Ferrat, born Jean Tenenbaum in 1930, saw his father sent to Auschwitz during World War Two and commemorated the deportation in one of his earliest successes, "Nuit et brouillard" (Night and Fog).

He began his career in the cabarets of the postwar Left Bank before making his name in the 1960s and 70s with a succession of lyrical love songs and political chansons, one of which was banned from French television.

Among his best-known songs were "La Montagne" (The Mountain), "Potemkine," "Ma France" and "La femme est l'avenir de l'homme" (Woman is the future of man). He was also known for his adaptations of works by the communist poet Louis Aragon.

elegraph: Image of Jesus 'appears in a frying pan'

Toby Elles, 22, made the discovery after burning the food when he fell asleep while cooking.

After lifting off the scorched bacon Mr Elles, from Salford, Lancs, could not believe his eyes when the Christlike image stared back at him.

The face is complete with eyes, nose, a beard and is framed by long flowing hair.

For our rail fans - who says LA doesn't have public transportation?

LAist: Angels Flight Will Resume Service This Monday

he quirky, and sometimes questionable, funicular transport known as the world's shortest railway, Downtown's Angel's Flight, has been poised to re-open for what seems like ages. It was just this past Thursday when its operating foundation said they had passed the necessary safety inspection and had the green light to resume moving people up and down Bunker Hill, though would not give a date.

Today, however, came word that Angel's Flight will begin service on Monday March 15th--much sooner than many anticipated.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes