Nordwave Great Britain

Gordon Brown refused to bow to pressure from unions and Labour MPs to drop plans to sell off part of Royal Mail, warning critics there was no other way to secure postal services.

 

Gordon Brown was greeted by protesters during a visit to Bristol

The Prime Minister, who was booed and jeered by protesters angry over the proposals on his way to make a speech in Bristol, said he would listen to the concerns.

But at a time when there was a huge demand for funds to get the country and public services across the board through the recession, there was no option but to seek outside help, he told them.

“I know this is difficult … we will continue to talk and address the concerns people have. But I assure you the Government is looking at how we can best prepare for the future, not only of the Royal Mail but the future of all public services in the country,” he told the Labour’s National Policy Forum.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson published the Bill paving the way for a partial sale this week, insisting it would remain in public hands even though up to 30% could be sold to a foreign firm.

Under the plans, the taxpayer will take responsibility for the deficit-ridden pension fund but an outside partner will be brought in to inject investment to the business.

At least seven ministerial aides have now put their names to a Commons motion opposing the controversial policy – with several indicating they might quit over the issue – bringing the total number of Labour rebels to 137.

But Mr Brown urged critics to face facts: “I think we all recognise that the Royal Mail, which is part of the fabric of our country, faces huge challenges.

He went on: “I do say to you that guaranteeing a £25 billion pension fund, spending £1.9 billion on the post office network, maintaining a universal service obligation can be achieved if we make the investment that is necessary to secure the Royal Mail for the future.

“And that is what’s behind our proposals to get someone to help us invest so that we can prepare the Royal Mail for the international and national challenges ahead.”

New law forces some 3,000 African asylum-seekers legally in Israel to relocate outside capital.

 TEL AVIV – Some 3,000 African asylum-seekers have to leave Tel Aviv because of an August 2008 ruling by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior.

The ruling permits asylum-seekers to reside and work only in towns and cities north of Hadera and south of Gedera, about an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv, where they now live.

The ruling was initially imposed only on newcomers but in recent months asylum-seekers living in Israel for longer periods have experienced the same constraints on their work permits, forcing them to leave their homes.

Unemployment is rife in Israel’s south and north while in Tel Aviv asylum-seekers can find menial jobs as street-sweepers or restaurant workers and are able to support their families.

Tel Aviv also has the one school in Israel that caters to the special needs of asylum-seekers’ children – the Bialik Elementary and High School in southern Tel Aviv.

On 17 February, the asylum-seekers protested in Tel Aviv against this regulation. Holding banners and chanting slogans, they asked the government to allow them to remain in Israel’s main city.

Romm Levkovits, a spokesperson for the “Moked” (hot line for foreign workers), told IRIN: “This rule uproots scores of asylum-seekers and forces them to start life anew far away from their communities, and far from the services offered to them here, like free clinics and schools. It also forces them to be far from their jobs.”

A source in the aid community told IRIN: “We feel that this is a move aimed at returning the asylum-seekers to work in agriculture at less than minimum wages. Asylum-seekers have worked before in agriculture and were treated harshly by their employers. They were finally allowed to leave the Kibbutzim [collective farms] and start a normal life, now it seems that someone in the Population Administration [part of the interior ministry] wants to force them back into ’slave labour’.”

This allegation follows Israel’s attempt to reduce the number of foreign workers, mostly Thai, needed for agricultural work.

However, Sabine Haddad, an interior ministry spokesperson, told IRIN normal jobs were available outside Tel Aviv

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=30675

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, has urged the country’s last remaining white farmers to leave the country, in a speech delivered during his 85th birthday party.
 
“Land distribution will continue. It will not stop … the few remaining white farmers should quickly vacate their farms as they have no place there,” he said at the celebration in Chinhoyi, north of the capital Harare, on Saturday.

“Let not the original owners of the farm refuse to vacate those farms,” he added.

‘Hope’ for economy

Mugabe, who has been president of Zimbabwe since 1980, admitted that his Zanu-PF party had lost March’s legislative elections.

But he said that Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mugabe’s main political rival, must work with him to tackle Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.

“Under this arrangement I want it known, as some of you were thinking we are no longer in power, we have an inclusive government with the president at the top, followed by the two vice-presidents, then Prime Minister Tsvangirai and two deputy prime ministers,” he said.

“It’s not the work of one side. It’s the work of all. We hope we shall in this co-operative way manage to bring about some appreciable turnaround of our economy.”

Agricultural output in Zimbabwe has fallen dramatically since 2000, when Mugabe launched his policy of seizing white-owned commercial farms and turning them over to native Africans.

Most of the new beneficiaries lack both farming equipment and the expertise needed to manage the land effectively.

Severe hardship

A decade ago, Zimbabwe produced enough maize to export a surplus – now, more than half the population is estimated to need food aid.

About three million Zimbabweans – a fifth of the population – have left the country to escape economic hardship or send remittances to relatives back home.

Tsvangirai was not at Mugabe’s celebrations, despite initial reports he would attend.

The MDC leader has in recent weeks appealed to international donors for $5bn in aid and investment.

Zimbabwe’s schools, hospital and sewerage have fallen into disrepair as a result of hyperinflation.

More than 83,000 people have also been affected by a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 3,800, according to the UN.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/02/20092281921141234.html

German neo-Nazi convicted of Holocaust denial

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

BERLIN: A founding member of a left-wing terrorist group turned neo-Nazi was convicted Wednesday in Munich of Holocaust denial and sentenced to six years in prison after a judge accused him of using the courtroom to spread his message of hate.

Horst Mahler — a founder of the Red Army Faction in 1970 — was convicted of incitement for posting videos denying the Holocaust on the Internet and distributing CDs promoting anti-Jewish hatred and violence.

Denial of the Nazi Holocaust is a crime in Germany.

Mahler, who initiated the Munich state court case by filing a complaint against himself, was accused by Presiding Judge Martin Rieder as using the courtroom as a stage to promote his “nationalist croaking.”

Mahler used his right to make a closing statement at the trial to give an hours-long monologue, repeating his denial of the Holocaust and expressing his sympathy for Richard Williamson, the Roman Catholic bishop whose assertion that no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust embarrassed the Vatican.

“The rage of the people is at the boiling point,” he said in defense of Williamson, telling the judges: “Watch out that you don’t get scalded.”

Rieder sentenced Mahler to one year above the maximum recommended five years in prison, saying he is “completely unrepentant and totally unteachable.”

“It was as if these people have had to die again,” Rieder said. “Therefore, the Horst Mahler show has now ended.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem hailed the verdict and sentence.

“It reinforces the message that there’s no tolerance for Holocaust denial, and it is a strong reminder that the courts should not be misused by deniers to disseminate their lies,” said the Wiesenthal Center’s Efraim Zuroff.

Mahler did not say in court whether he would appeal the sentence but prosecutor Andrea Titz said she was certain he would.

It was the latest in a string of neo-Nazi-related convictions for Mahler, who is a lawyer. In addition, a court in Mainz in 2003 found Mahler guilty of condoning a crime for saying the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States were justified and fined him several thousand euros (dollars).

He was also convicted in the mid-1970s for Red Army Faction-related activities — including several bank robberies and for helping notorious terrorist Andreas Baader, another founding member of the group, to escape from jail.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison but was released in 1980 after he made several public statements condemning terrorism and Red Army Faction methods.

Mahler then joined the far-right National Democratic Party, from 2000 to 2003, and acted as its attorney.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/…ust-Denial.php

The prominent Labour peer Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was jailed for 12 weeks today after admitting sending texts while driving shortly before his Jaguar ploughed into a stationary car on the M1, killing its driver.

He was sent straight to the cells from Sheffield crown court after a judge described his texting as “prolonged, deliberate, repeated and highly dangerous”, even though it was not directly linked to the accident.

Ahmed, 51, will serve half the sentence behind bars and the rest on licence. His solicitor said he would appeal against the sentence, claiming the peer was being made a “scapegoat” because of his profile.

His position in the House of Lords will not be affected. Peers such as Lord Archer have served much longer terms. But Mr Justice Wilkie’s comments will add to the political damage suffered by the peer, who has been an outspoken and sometimes controversial figure since he joined the Lords in 1998 as one of its youngest members and only the second Muslim member.

Ahmed has been left shaken by the tragedy, saying recently that the death of the other driver remained “at the forefront of my mind”.

The court heard that Ahmed, a property developer and JP, sent and received five texts as he drove his wife and elderly mother down the M1 from Dewsbury to their home in Rotherham in the early evening of Christmas Day 2007. The judge said the exchanges with a journalist “amounted to a conversation” that took place as the peer travelled at an average of 60mph along nearly 18 miles of the motorway.

The last message was sent two minutes and 1.86 miles before the Jaguar smashed into an Audi that had clipped the central barrier shortly beforehand and ended up facing the wrong way in the outside lane. Its driver, Martyn Gombar, 28, a Slovakian father of two living in Manchester, who had been drinking, was trying to retrieve his own mobile phone at the time of the collision.

Ahmed, who suffered facial cuts and shock, admitted dangerous dangerous driving at Sheffield magistrates court in December. The case was sent to the crown court for sentencing because the JPs decided their own powers were inadequate in the circumstances.

Today Mr Justice Wilkie told Lord Ahmed: “Only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified. It is of the greatest importance that people realise what a serious offence dangerous driving of this type is.” He imposed a 12-month driving ban and £500 prosecution costs on the peer, who has not been allowed to drive since the accident.

After the hearing, Gombar’s cousin, David Cicak, said the family had hoped for a longer prison term. He said: “He could be out in six weeks, that’s nothing. Martyn left behind two small kids with only their mother.”

Chief Inspector Andy Male, head of the South Yorkshire police road team, said the peer’s sentence “reflects the seriousness with which the courts, the Crown Prosecution Service and the police view this offence”.

Lord Ahmed’s solicitor, Steve Smith, said the peer was “very philosophical and approaching it with great dignity”, but the lawyer said he himself was “extremely disappointed with the sentence … he’s been used as a scapegoat”.

In mitigation, Ahmed’s barrister, Jeremy Baker QC, said the peer had given years of service to the community and played a significant role in interfaith relations and Britain’s overseas affairs. Ahmed came to Britain as a child from Mirpur, in Pakistani Kashmir, and played a prominent part in South Yorkshire’s local politics after graduating in public administration from Sheffield Hallam University. He has three children and two grandchildren and lives in Rotherham and east London.

He has been a frequent critic of Muslim extremism and played a part in the release of the teacher Gillian Gibbons who was jailed in the Sudan in November 2007 for naming a school teddy bear Mohammed. He fiercely condemned the award of a knighthood to Sir Salman Rushdie and was much criticised when he hosted a reception at the House of Lords for the anti-Semitic writer Israel Shamir, who used the occasion to accuse Jews of wanting to set up a world empire.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/25/lord-ahmed-dangerous-driving

 You’re unlikely to find CDs by groups like Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack sold alongside the latest hits from Rihanna and the Jonas Brothers at your local retailer.

But the white-power punk bands’ ballads are just a click away online.

With song titles like “Skinhead Superstar” and “White Warriors,” white-power bands and other hate-music recording artists have found a home in places like Apple’s iTunes and Amazon.com.

And with nothing more than a credit card, users can purchase — among other offerings — CDs by the proudly racist country singer Johnny Rebel, with songs such as the catchy little ditty “Coon Town.”

Critics of hate music are appalled to see lyrics such as Skrewdriver’s:
Are we gonna sit and let them come?
Have they got the White man on the run?
Multi-racial society is a mess
We ain’t gonna take much more of this
What do we need?

or Johnny Rebel’s:
Roses are red and violets are blue,
And n——-s are black.
You know thats true.
But they dont mind, cause What the heck?!
You gotta be black to get a welfare check!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,500104,00.html

About 100,000 people have taken part in protests in Dublin city centre to vent their anger at the Irish government’s handling of the country’s recession.

They oppose plans to impose a pension levy on 350,000 public sector workers.

Trade union organisers of the march said workers did not cause the economic crisis but were having to pay for it.

In a statement, the Irish government said it recognised that the measures it was taking were “difficult and in some cases painful”.

The pension levy was “reasonable”, the government said.

It reflected “the reality that we are not in a position to continue to meet the public service pay bill in the circumstances of declining revenue”, it added.

Reports say the plan could cost the 350,000 public sector workers between 1,500 euros and 2,800 euros (£2,500) a year.

High unemployment

There were conflicting estimates of the numbers of people at the march, which began on the north side of Dublin in the middle of the afternoon.

Protesters march in Dublin

Police said 100,000 people were on the streets, while organisers said they expected 200,000 to protest in total.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu), which organised the march, said it was campaigning for “a fairer and better way” of dealing with the economic crisis.

“Our priority is about ensuring that people are looked after, the interests of people are looked after, not the interests of big business or the wealthy,” Sally-Anne Kinahan, Ictu’s secretary general, told the BBC.

One protester said he was “sick and tired of the way this government conducts itself and what it’s doing to this country”.

“I’ve worked all my life, I’ve never broke the law, never walked out on strike. Instead I’ve went to work and done my job,” he said.

“I’ve a mortgage to pay, I’ve children to put through school, and now I’m being told I have to take cutback, after cutback, after cutback.”

Ireland, which was once one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies, has fallen into recession faster than many other members of the European Union.

The country officially fell into recession in September 2008, and unemployment has risen sharply in the following months.

The numbers of people claiming unemployment benefit in the Irish Republic rose to 326,000 in January, the highest monthly level since records began in 1967.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7903518.stm

Police have launched an investigation after a group of Bristol Rovers fans were heard hurling racist abuse at Leicester City supporters.

The incident, in which some followers of the home side chanted, “You’re a town full of Pakis”, marred the Foxes’ one-nil victory away from home on Saturday.

It is the second time in four months that Rovers fans have aimed racist taunts at City.

Similar chants were also shouted by Rovers fans the last time the two teams met, on November 1.

Foxes fan Jamie Deering, 21, from central Leicester, was at the match at the Memorial Stadium, Bristol, on Saturday.

He said: “I heard the chants coming from the other end of the ground. It’s quite shocking and, although you get it a lot outside after the match, you don’t usually hear it during the game. You expect the fans to wind each other up, but when it’s racist abuse it’s going too far.”

Another fan who travelled to the game said: “It always happens to our fans at away games. At Bristol it was quite bad. It’s not nice to have the chanting and we do normally have Asian fans and families in the crowd and you feel especially bad for them.”

John Williams, of Foxes Against Racism, said: “I’m glad some action was taken. Because rival fans know how strongly against this sort of thing we are, I think that they do use it against Leicester City fans.”

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Rovers-fans-racist-chants/article-721737-detail/article.html

In another copycat shoe-throwing incident against Israelis in Europe, Amsterdam police on Sunday arrested three people who hurled footwear at an Israeli army officer while he was lecturing at a hotel in the Dutch capital.
“Today it’s shoes, tomorrow knives and then guns,” the officer, Captain (res.) Ron Edelheid, told Haaretz.
“I was on a private visit to see my mother,” he said. “As an IDF Spokesperson reservist I volunteered to speak before the Dutch Jewish community about Operation Cast Lead.”

Dutch-born Adelheit, who immigrated to Israel many years ago, said he had filed a criminal complaint against the suspected assailants – two men and a woman – whom police arrested at the hotel.
“Fifty demonstrators waited for me outside the Apollo Hotel, chanting nasty slogans,” he said. “Three entered the room, shouting and throwing four shoes at my direction.” He said the hecklers were “typically Dutch-looking.”
Adelheit said he believed the protesters learned of the event from Jewish websites. He added the event was originally scheduled to take place at the College Hotel, until management canceled “because of threats.”
Dr. Ronny Naftaniel, who heads the Hague-based pro-Zionist CIDI organization, said the incident was aimed against freedom of expression and “an importation of an element very foreign to Dutch culture.”
Noting Adelheit was scheduled to speak tomorrow in Antwerp, one Dutch Jewish community leader joked that “in Amsterdam they threw left shoes. Maybe in Antwerp Adelheit will find the right ones to go along with them.”
Israel’s ambassador to Sweden was targeted this month by shoe-throwing protesters while speaking at Stockholm University.
The protestors were apparently imitating an Iraqi who targeted former U.S. President George Bush in December. Since then, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was also targeted with a shoe in Britain.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1066383.html

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be one of the three laureates of the Dan David Prize for 2009, awarded annually by Tel Aviv University.

Each of the laureates will receive a $1 million prize, 10 percent of which is contributed to 20 doctoral and post-doctoral scholarships.

Blair was selected to receive the prize in leadership for what the judges described as “his exceptional leadership and steadfast determination in helping to engineer agreements and forge lasting solutions to areas in conflict.”

Also receiving the prize for 2009 are Paolo de Bernardis, Andre Lange and Paul Richards, in the field of “Astrophysics – History of the Universe,” for “their discoveries concerning the geometry and composition of our universe.”

In the field of “Global Public Health,” the prize is awarded to Robert Gallo, “for his research of the HIV and T-cell leukemia viruses and especially for the development of a robust, simple blood test to detect the HIV virus.”

The three prizes are divided into past, present and future – with the prize in astrophysics going to the first category, Blair’s leadership prize in the “present” category, and the prize in public health falling into the “future.”

Ben David, a businessman and philanthropist said, “The 2009 laureates epitomize the essence of the three time dimensions; we have three scientists who shed light on the way in which our universe was formed, a great leader instrumental in resolving ongoing world conflicts, and a scientist working to alleviate human disease and suffering now and in the future.”

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1064798.html