Tuesday 23 July 2013

The European Union Times

Indian children Forced to eat Poisoned school meal

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 09:04 AM PDT

After 23 Indian children died from consuming poisoned school meals, it has emerged that victims refused the food before being made to eat it, according to the Times of India. Preliminary investigations indicate the cooking medium was laced with pesticide.
Police say that the latest case of poisoning, which claimed the lives of 23 children, was most probably caused by storing cooking oil in a used pesticide container.
However, an anonymous HRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) source told the Times of India that the cooking agent used for soyabean subzi may have played a role.
“Earlier it was thought oil was put in a pesticide container. But it seems that the lady cook used pesticide,” the source said.
The subzi looked black and smelt odd according to the source. “The school principal insisted the cooking medium cannot be bad since it had come from her husband’s shop,” he said. “When students refused to eat, the principal scolded and forced them to eat.”
“I can accept accidents can happen anywhere. But the scale of this incident and the carelessness, the sheer callousness of the response, the delay in treating the children, is shocking,” activist Dipa Sinha of the Right to Food Campaign told AFP.
The children died after eating lentils, potatoes and rice cooked with oil containing agricultural insecticide that was five times the strength sold in the market place, according to tests.
Forensic tests have shown that the oil contained a “highly toxic” form of insecticide which killed the children so quickly that some died in their parents’ arms while being taken to hospital.
The principal reportedly fled the school shortly after realizing the extent of the tragedy. “A crucial one and half to two hours were lost. Had these children been rushed to hospital immediately few lives could have been saved,” he said.
There have been violent protests in the state of Bihar. Several parents who lost children in the tragedy said they had trusted the school to serve their kids their only solid meal of the day.
“We have no food at home and it was only to ensure that my children got at least some food that I sent them to the school,” a mother who lost three children in the tragedy, Sanjudevi Mahatoshe, told AFP.
Tens of thousands of children in India have been reportedly been refusing to eat their meals in the aftermath of the tragedy. On top of this, there have been a number of reports of children taken to hospital , and one report of a scorpion found in the rice in a midday meal.
A recent Reuters review of audit reports and research papers showed officials have ignored warnings of the lack of oversight and accountability in the program. Checks in several states have found unhygienic conditions in which the food is prepared and served, and the poor quality of food itself.
“You only come and do checks when you get complaints or when there are serious cases,” Rudranarayan Ram, a local education administrator for the village of Gandaman in Bihar state, where the children died, said.
Two audit reports by the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh said the food in the scheme was often laced with stones and worms.
“If the government checks, they will find that the children who have been eating midday meals are under great physical threat,” Professor Ajay Kumar Jha at the A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies, who led a team to monitor the programme in Bihar in April said.
Another survey by the Indian Institute of Management revealed that children in Gujarat state were instructed to wash up after meals by “rubbing the playground soil on the plates and then giving them a quick rinse”.
Last year over 130 students needed hospital treatment in the western Indian city of Pune after eating a school lunch, according to the Times of India. A probe later revealed that the food was contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
The nationwide free meal scheme feeds up to 120 million children every day. The tradition has long proved to be the only encouragement to parents, most of whom are struggling to make both ends meet, to send their children to school instead of condemning kids to malnutrition and illiteracy.
While the midday meal is often the only wholesome meal poor children in India may get during the day, a government survey revealed last year that 42 per cent of children under the age of five were underweight. India is home to a quarter of the world’s hungry.
Tamil Nadu was the first Indian state to adopt a school feeding programme in 1982.
Other local governments gradually followed the example, and in 2001 India’s Supreme Court ordered all states to provide free lunches to children in state-run primary schools.
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Belgium’s King Philippe forced to reform royal finances

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 08:38 AM PDT

Belgium’s King Albert II (R) and Crown Prince Philippe pose before a reception on July 8, 2013 at Laeken royal castle in Brussels.

Europe’s ongoing financial crisis has forced European monarchies to reconsider their spending including Belgium’s new King Philippe who must reform the royal expenses.
The 79-year-old King Albert II stepped down from the throne in favor of his son Crown Prince Philippe on July 21 after reigning over Belgium for 20 years.
The new King Philippe must apply a reform of the royal finances approved by the government last month.
While the new king, his queen and father will be spared cuts, the other members of the family will see their state-paid allowances reduced and will lose their exemptions from income tax and VAT.
The royal official budget, known as the ‘Civil List’, in Belgium runs to 10.6 million euros, plus an additional nearly 18 million euros of ‘hidden costs’ per year, which is not covered in the king’s budget but is being paid by various ministries.
The Federal State also pays wages to various members of the Royal Family, including the king’s children,
Under the reform, the widow of the late King Baudoin, Queen Fabiola, will see her yearly wage of 1.4 million euros divided by three. The new king’s salary will be unchanged at nearly a million euros. His siblings Astrid and Laurent will still get more than 300,000 a year.
The total cost of Belgium’s monarchy tops 30 million euros, while the reform shaves away around one million euros.
This is while the outgoing King Albert will also keep his annual tax-free allowance of 11.5 million euros and his personal fortune.
The Belgian monarchy says its fortune is only worth about 12.4 million euros but financial experts put it closer to one billion euros, with property and contents valued at some 780 million euros.
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US to create two major economic unions without Russia and China

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 08:31 AM PDT

By early 2013 a long-term strategic goal of the U.S. foreign policy became clear. The goal is to create two economic unions to confront the growing power of the BRICS member countries and form two large markets under the control of the United States in the Atlantic and Pacific areas without the participation of China and Russia.
The Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific Partnership aim at creating an “economic” NATO, Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) between the United States and the European Union. The defense budget of its member countries amounts to approximately 58 percent of global military spending.
According to the British Prime Minister David Cameron, the effect of the new union will be expressed in the growth of the EU’s GDP by $157 billion, the U.S. – $130 billion and the rest of the world – $138 billion. The abolition of the transatlantic tariffs within five years will ensure revenue growth between the U.S. and the EU of over $120 billion. In addition, joining of the U.S. and European markets will determine the need to introduce a new transatlantic currency, which will allow restructuring or eliminating all debts denominated in dollars and euros and moving onto a new stage of economic and monetary expansion.
The outline of the economic agreement in the Pacific version with the participation of traditionally inflexible Japan is not clearly defined, but given the enormous influence of the U.S. in the largest countries of the region and surrounding areas such as Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and others, it is safe to assume that the degree of integration will be at least as high as TAFTA.
As a result, the World Trade Organization where liberal economists dragged the Russian government, threatening the collapse of many domestic industries and agriculture, will lose the ability to influence and regulate the global financial community.
The U.S. and its formal and informal allies will gain a tangible profit. The fading U.S. economy will get a boost for the development, opening up new markets in Europe and Asia. In the event of adoption of the new currency the U.S. has a real chance to get rid of heavy debts whose value exceeds the annual GDP. Those not satisfied with this order will face convincing explanations from the Navy, Air Force and the U.S. Army as well as the allies.
China and the BRICS locked in the system of their own markets will lose. In the end, Obama will provide stability to the faltering U.S. global domination structure, and with the military and economic potential of the Atlantic and Pacific allies will build, at least by 22nd century, a new geopolitical world model, in which, figuratively speaking, the movement of the sun will be controlled by Washington.
Everything was going fine. The concept of trans-Atlantic space was supported by British Prime Minister Cameron, German Chancellor Merkel, European Commission President Barroso, and French President Hollande.
Everything was fine until idealist Snowden, who, explaining what prompted him to make public the facts of the crimes committed by the U.S. authorities, said that since childhood he was raised to be fair, just and respectful of people’s rights. This classic set frequently used in the description of the U.S. government, turns out, delivered a serious blow to this country.
It turned out, for example, that the level of espionage intelligence on the territory of West Germany, the largest European power and ally of the United States, is only slightly inferior to the scale of spying on Iran, Pakistan or Afghanistan. A representation of the European Union in New York and its embassy in Washington are also entangled in a dense network of espionage.
All European countries are covered by wiretaps of the National Security Agency, the largest of the classified U.S. intelligence services. Japan also requested clarification on the fact of wiretapping of its embassy in Washington. The presidents and leaders of the European Union who a couple of months ago applauded the prospects for transatlantic integration (excluding the UK premiere) harshly condemned the U.S. and demanded an explanation from the Obama administration.
It is unlikely that these leaders and common voters in Europe were satisfied with the excuses of the fight against terrorism offered by a high-ranking CIA official Vincent Cannistraro. Diplomats and leaders of the European Union, with all due respect to their ability and moral integrity, do not look like fans or supporters of terrorism. Despite this, no other explanation was provided by the Americans. Secretary of State Kerri frankly stated that the search of the U.S. secret services (i.e., espionage) for data on other countries is normal, and this practice is not unusual.
The Americans are dragging out time, and it is certainly a winning tactic, but only in case that the flow of revelations from Snowden who confirmed that he had thousands of incriminating documents can be stopped. This is why the Sheremetyevo airport area is infested by security, and not only Russian.
In any case, Snowden’s revelations led to the fact that the plan to create a Trans-Atlantic area, not to mention the Pacific, is under a threat of a total collapse, of at least suspension. It is unlikely that even pro-American politicians in Europe will take a risk to be proactive in this area. An indefinite delay in the creation of a new economic zone under the control of the United States provides an opportunity to increase economic and military potential of the BRICS countries, primarily China and Russia. While Russia so far is quite sluggish in realizing its potential outside for various reasons, Beijing, no doubt, will be able to take advantage of the situation.
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World will no longer have confidence in US: Former CIA chief

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 08:28 AM PDT

Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden

Former CIA director Michael Hayden said other countries will no longer have confidence in the United States after Edward Snowden’s revelations about the US government’s global surveillance programs.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, Hayden said other intelligence services around the world will no longer “have confidence in the United States that we’re actually going to be able to keep secrets that we’re actually going to be able to act discreetly.”
“This is going to have an effect for a long time,” General Hayden added.
He also criticized the National Security Agency’s leaker for sparking a debate about surveillance that came “at a tremendously high price.”
“American firms doing nothing but obeying American law to protect the United States are now going to be punished economically internationally for their participation, and that’s terribly unfair,” Hayden said.
In an op-ed published by CNN on Friday, Hayden also called Snowden “the most costly leaker of American secrets in the history of the Republic.”
“Snowden fled to China with several computers’ worth of data from NSANET, one of the most highly classified and sensitive networks in American intelligence. The damage is potentially so great that NSA has taken one of its most respected senior operations officers off mission tasks to lead the damage assessment effort,” Hayden wrote.
Defense officials said the NSA is implementing new security measures because of Snowden’s disclosures.
According to NSA Director Keith Alexander, the agency had implemented a “two-man rule,” under which any system administrator like Snowden could only access or move key information with another administrator present.
Last month, Snowden revealed that the NSA was gathering millions of US phone records and intercepting some US Internet traffic.
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German intelligence cooperated with NSA as Merkel denied knowledge

Posted: 22 Jul 2013 08:20 AM PDT

The entrance to the headquarters of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND.

Der Spiegel magazine has revealed German intelligence operated one of NSA’s spying programs. Chancellor Angela Merkel had denied any previous knowledge of NSA’s tactics, adding that she first learned about them through the media.
Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, along with the domestic intelligence agency the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), used American National Security Agency’s (NSA) XKeyScore program, according to Spiegel which claims to have seen the US intelligence service’s secret documents.
The BfV office had the XKeyScore program, which was installed to “expand their ability to support NSA as we jointly prosecute CT (counterterrorism) targets.” And the BND office was tasked with showing the BfV how to operate the program, the secret documents said.
An internal NSA presentation from 2008 revealed that XKeyScore is able to expose any terms a person under surveillance has typed into a search engine and receive a “full intake” of all unfiltered data over a period of several days, including content of communications.
The program uses metadata – information about data connections – to access the targeted information.
The documents also disclosed that up to 500 million German data connections were accessed monthly by the NSA. The majority of the connections were collected through the XKeyScore program.
Documents also reveal cooperation between the NSA and Germany recently strengthened, referencing BND head Gerhard Schindler’s “eagerness and desire”.
“The BND has been working to influence the German government to relax interpretation of the privacy laws to provide greater opportunities of intelligence sharing,” Spiegel quotes the NSA as saying in January. And in 2012 Germany showed a “willingness to take risks and to pursue new opportunities for cooperation with the US.”
The document further stated that BND was NSA’s “most prolific partner” in information gathering in Afghanistan.
The magazine reports that the relationship between the two is close “on a personal level” and at the end of April, just before Edward Snowden’s first revelations about NSA spying programs, a 12-member high-level BND delegation was invited to the NSA to meet specialists on the subject of “data acquisition.”
The BND, BfV and the NSA have refused to comment about their connection.
In the meantime, Chancellor Merkel spoke out strongly in favor of an international agreement to protect electronic data.
“We should be able, in the 21st century, to sign global agreements,” Merkel told the weekly Welt am Sonntag in an interview published on Sunday. “If digital communication raises new questions worldwide, then we should take up the challenge. Germany is working for that.”
Angela Merkel is facing re-election on September 22 and has received pressure from critics to admit what she knew about the US online surveillance.
It emerged recently that Germany happens to be the most-snooped-on EU country by the American National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA’s real-time online surveillance PRISM program allows US intelligence agencies to intercept virtually any communications over the internet, phone calls and makes possible direct access to files stored on the servers of major internet companies.
In early July, US fugitive Edward Snowden accused Germany and the US of partnering in spy intelligence operations, revealing that cooperation between the countries is closer than German indignation would indicate.
Chancellor Merkel declared that she learnt about the US surveillance programs, such as the NSA’s PRISM spy program, “through the current reporting” in the media.
Yet, Angela Merkel in interview to Die Zeit weekly stressed that “America has been, and is, our most loyal ally over the decades,” but pointed out that Washington should clear up the situation with the US allegedly bugging the embassies of European countries and EU facilities, noting that “the Cold War is over.”
The German government subsequently summoned US Ambassador Philip Murphy to Berlin to explain the incendiary reports.
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Bomb explosion hits city in central Greece

Posted: 21 Jul 2013 05:06 AM PDT

A bomb explosion in central Greek city of Larissa has caused serious property damage.

A powerful bomb explosion has hit an area in the central Greek city of Larissa, home to a prosecutor, causing property damage in the area.
According to the ANA news agency, the blast occurred on Saturday, causing serious damage to a block of flats in the area.
Greece police said the blast was caused by a bomb. Further details on the incident have not been released and no one has been injured in the incident.
Officials also say that the prosecutor was not inside the building when the explosion went off.
Reports say windows were shattered, while building walls and cars were also damaged.
The attack comes days after a parcel containing explosives was intercepted at a court in the capital, Athens.
On July 19, an association representing Greek prosecutors and judges called for a strengthening of security measures, after claiming that its members were being threatened by “extreme danger.”
Athens, now struggling in its sixth year of recession, usually blames such attacks on leftists.
During an official visit to a hospital on July 19, Greek health minister Adonis Georgiadis was attacked by staff members and activists.
The country’s struggling economy has forced the government to impose harsh austerity measures over the past four years in return for multi-billion euro international bailouts to avoid default.
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Greek government moves forward with plan to sell islands

Posted: 21 Jul 2013 04:38 AM PDT

Recent reports confirm that the plan to sell off our islands is moving forward without delay.
They call it the “National Plan for using state property”. It was first drafted in September 2012 by government officials and includes several islands. Galini in the Neos Marmaras province of Halkidiki is reportedly scheduled to be auctioned next Wednesday.
In case any were unclear about it, the coalition government that intends to “save” Greece, their deal with the international loan sharks is still alive and well. Make no mistake, they plan to try and crush anyone who goes against this international frenzy on Greece.
Samaras and his buddies will piece by piece sell the country, the land that contains the blood of countless fallen heroes who gave their lives for that very same land.
This comes as a shocking event considering that the Greek government today is even considering Germany’s 2010 rogue and arrogant “advice” to “sell some of their islands”. Money comes and goes, but the land will always be there. Where’s the 300 Spartans when you need them? The final national salvation, the final national line of defense, is none other than Golden Dawn!
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Venezuela ends rapprochement talks with Washington over US ‘meddling’

Posted: 21 Jul 2013 04:19 AM PDT

Caracas brought talks with the US to an abrupt end over statements made by Samantha Power, the nominee for UN ambassador. Venezuela blasted Washington for backing Power’s “meddling agenda” after she criticized human rights in the country.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry released a statement on Friday announcing an end to rapprochement negotiations between Washington and Caracas in Guatemala.
“The Bolivarian Republican of Venezuela considers the diplomatic processes initiated in Guatemala over,” the Foreign Ministry said. They took issue with the statements of the US candidate for ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, who expressed “concern” over Caracas’ management of human right issues on Wednesday before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
She added that if she were elected, she would fight against repression in Cuba and in Venezuela. Venezuela responded with ire, harshly contesting any attempt by the US to interfere in its internal policies.
“Power says she’ll fight repression in Venezuela? What repression? There is repression in the United States, where they kill African-Americans with impunity, and where they hunt the youngster Edward Snowden just for telling the truth,” said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro following Power’s comments.
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will never accept meddling in its internal affairs. We reject the fact that a nominee for the post of UN ambassador has interference in Venezuela on her agenda,” said Elias Jaua, the Venezuelan minister of foreign affairs.
The statement went on to say that Caracas wished to build “good relations with the US” based on mutual respect for sovereignty and self-determination. However, Power’s statements contradict the stance outlined by US Foreign Minister John Kerry.
“[Venezuela] has fully demonstrated that it has a solid base in its constitution that guarantees the preservation of the practice and respect for Human Rights,” said Jaua. Furthermore, he said the world continually expresses concern about US rights abuses, referencing Washington’s failure to close Guantanamo and the practice of drone attacks.
Following Power’s words on Wednesday, Caracas sent a message to Washington, voicing Venezuela’s condemnation of her statements. The State Department responded by expressing their support for Power’s candidacy for UN ambassador.
“Samantha Power is an outstanding candidate and incredibly competent. We support her completely,” said spokeswoman for the State Department, Marie Harf.
On the rocks
US-Venezuelan relations have been under strain since 2010 when both countries withdrew their respective ambassadors. Moreover, tensions have been mounting recently over the case of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, whom Venezuela has offered political asylum.
The US is demanding his extradition over the classified cables he released that blew the lid on Washington’s covert global surveillance programs.
On Friday following Caracas’ decision to grant asylum to Snowden, US Foreign Minister John Kerry rang his Venezuelan counterpart and threatened consequences should Snowden attempt to travel to Venezuela, reported Spanish ABC media outlet, citing a source familiar with the conversation.
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US biological activities worry Russia

Posted: 21 Jul 2013 03:53 AM PDT

US Navy Reservists and active duty personnel don their M-45 Nuclear/Biological/and Chemical Warfare gas masks during an Individual Augmentee Training Course at the McCrady Training Center in South Carolina.

Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed deep concern about biological warfare activities of the United States near the Russian borders.
The Department of Information and Press of the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday, saying military biological activity of the US Ministry of Defense near Russia’s borders “causes our serious concern.”
The statement further said, “There is no documentary confirmation that all facilities, which are under jurisdiction or control of the United States and which were earlier involved in the military biological programs, are destroyed or reoriented for peaceful purposes under Article 2 of the Convention of the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons.”
The statement described as “groundless” a US statements over Russia’s violation of several country’s commitments in the control over weapons, non-proliferation and disarmament.
“As in the past few years, the United States continues to make unfounded statements that Russia allegedly violates the country’s commitments under several international treaties,” the statement said in reaction to a report by the US State Department on July 12.
The Russia fulfills consistently the requirements under the convention and regularly reports its progress in the destruction of the country’s stocks of chemical weapons to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the statement said.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, so far, Moscow has destroyed about 74 percent of its chemical weapons.
“This report produces an impression that the US despite the changes that took place in the world continue to stay in the propagandistic grips of the Cold War,” the statement concluded.
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No more GMO: Monsanto drops bid to approve new crops in Europe

Posted: 20 Jul 2013 02:41 PM PDT

The world’s largest seed corporation says it has dropped its bid to get more genetically modified crops onto the European market due to the wide-spread popular opposition. The biotech giant says it will expand its share of the natural seed market instead.
“We will no longer be pursuing approvals for cultivation of new biotech crops in Europe. Instead, we will focus on enabling imports of biotech crops into the EU and the growth of our current business there,” the US-based company said in an email statement.
The pending applications for GM crops – 6 types of corn, a soybean variety and a modified sugar beet – will be withdrawn shortly, the biotech giant stressed.
Currently, only two GM crops are approved in Europe, the MON810 maize and a modified potato created by BASF, a German biotech company. However, much of the allowed genetically modified produce is delivered to Europe as animal feed.
Europe has long expressed its concern over the effects of GM food produce on human health.
Several EU member states, including France, Germany, Austria, Spain, have banned the cultivation of genetically-modified crops.
Last September, French scientists from the University of Caen released a study showing that rats fed on a diet containing NK603, a corn seed variety resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup weed-killer, along with those given water mixed with the product at levels permitted in the United States, died earlier than those on a standard diet.
Protests against Monsanto are frequent all over the globe, online and on the streets.
In mid-June, the latest initiative against the corporation was launched. Monsanto Video Revolt was set to bypass the corporate media blackout on GMO foods and bring the issue to world’s attention. The campaign was announced by the Global Healing Center, Natural News and Natural Society, which have united to counter GM produce and the huge amounts of poisonous herbicides and pesticides being dumped all over the world.
In May, an estimated two million people, many of them in Europe, turned out for global anti-GM rallies.
In the UK, a YouGov poll released last month shows that only 21 percent of Britons are in favor of growing GM crops, with 35 percent opposed to the technology.
However, senior officials in Britain have been stepping up the campaign to bring large-scale farming of genetically-modified crops into Europe. In June, UK Environment Secretary Owen Paterson asked the EU to loosen existing controls due to the risk of being “left behind.”
Monsanto noted that they will invest in its European non-GMO seed business instead to boost the corporation’s sales.
The company’s seed business in Europe accounts for over 98 per cent of its $1.72 billion turnover in Europe.
“Conventional seeds is the area where we are focusing at this time in Europe, and we are funding the business in a way that we haven’t done for more than 15 years,” Monsanto’s President and managing Director for Europe, Jose Manuel Madero, indicated to Reuters.
The corporation is already investing $300 million to boost its seed production in France, Romania, Hungary and Turkey, with a mind to cashing in on “several hundred million dollars” more over the next five years, Madero says.
A significant part of that money – an initial investment of $150 million which could double to $300 million within a couple of years – is to be directed to Ukraine, a major global grain producer. Monsanto stressed that the total area sown with its seeds in Ukraine doubled between 2012 and 2013.
Madero wasn’t so optimistic about the corporation’s prospects in Russia, though, as there are no production facilities there.
GM crops not currently grown in Russia or in Ukraine, with the corporation stressing they are not currently seeking to push for such cultivation in those markets.
Despite harsh European opposition, Monsanto-produced GM crops and agro-chemicals are widely used in the US and in other parts of the world.
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French police clashes with hundreds of Muslim protesters in Trappes

Posted: 20 Jul 2013 12:43 PM PDT

Muslim women are not allowed to wear the face veil in France.

At least five people have been injured in France after clashes broke out between police forces and hundreds of Muslim protesters in a town west of the capital, Paris.
Clashes broke out in the town of Trappes late Friday, resulting in the arrest of at least six people.
The nearly 300 demonstrators were protesting the arrest of a man whose wife was ticketed the day before for wearing a face veil.
Officials accuse the man of trying to strangle the officer who was checking the woman.
According to a Muslim group called Collective Against Islamophobia, the officer yanked the woman by her veil and shoved her mother.
Reports say police forces used tear gas to break up crowds of angry protesters throwing projectiles.
Wearing the face veil is against the law in France. Muslim women are also not allowed to wear headscarves in schools and public buildings.
France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls denounced the violent clashes between police forces and protesters and called for calm.
Meanwhile, many say it is difficult to imagine that French politicians could not have predicted that Sarkozy’s 2011 anti-burqa law would cause such unrest.
Several Muslims are urging the French government to repeal the anti-burqa law so they can easily turn France into an Islamic country in the near future.
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TSA Expands Searches From Airports to Everywhere

Posted: 20 Jul 2013 12:22 PM PDT

TSA creates atmosphere of fear as the agency broadens its reach into our daily lives.
The TSA recently ordered airport valet attendants to search a parked car without a warrant and without prior notification given to the vehicle’s owner.
The owner, Laurie Iacuzza, told News10NBC that she found a search notice on her car parked at the Greater Rochester International Airport after she returned from her trip.
When she dropped her car off at the valet prior to her flight, she received no warnings that her car could be subjected to search.
“I think the public should be aware of the fact that if their car is going to be searched, they should be informed of it,” she said to News10NBC.
This TSA-ordered search is yet another example of the agency’s expansion beyond the concrete confinements of airport terminals and into Americans’ daily lives.
In a statement made to the LA Times, TSA air marshal Ray Dineen could not have explained the agency’s intentions more clearly.
“We are not the Airport Security Administration,” he said. “We take that transportation part seriously.”
That wasn’t just rhetoric.
In 2012, TSA agents dug through the bags and belongings of Houston bus riders while asking intrusive questions about the nature of their trips.
In response, enraged Houston residents stormed a METRO board meeting to complain about the TSA’s random passenger interrogations.
“I don’t feel like by purchasing a ticket or riding a bus that I have to forfeit my Constitutional rights and my protections and be subject to search or seizure,” passenger Derrick Broze told METRO board members.
“We don’t plan on letting this issue die if the TSA stays in our city.”
But the TSA wants to stay and expand, not just in Houston but in every American city.
Later that year, for example, TSA inspectors were spotted at a Southern California train station.
Teams of armed TSA officers prowl subways, train stations, bus stations and other mass transit hubs across the country.
Operating since at least 2010, these VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams use German shepherds to sniff passengers while tearing through their personal belongings.
VIPR teams are also expected to litter the highway with checkpoints to routinely stop, search, and radiate drivers with security scans.
The TSA even admitted in 2011 that the VIPR teams have not foiled any terrorist plots.
But they certainly make their presence known and in the future the TSA may even spread outside of “transportation security.”
Earlier this month, we reported on a video of a uniformed TSA agent handling a dog inside the Ingram Park Mall in San Antonio, Texas.
According to the reader who submitted the video, mall management admitted that they were providing the agency a “place to train.”
The TSA simply want its armed officers roaming amongst us, searching our bags and terrorizing us in the name of safety.
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UAE jails Norwegian rape victim for ‘adultery’

Posted: 20 Jul 2013 11:15 AM PDT

Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, jailed in Dubai for adultery after reporting to the police that she had been raped

A Norwegian woman has been sentenced to 16 months in jail in Dubai for adultery after reporting her sexual assault to the police.
Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, who was convicted on Wednesday, was on a business trip to Dubai when she says the attack happened after a night out with colleagues.
“I woke up and I realized I was being raped and I went down to the lobby and I asked them to call the police for me. They asked me are you sure you want to call the police? And I thought of course I want to call the police because that’s the natural reaction where I am from,” she said.
Norway’s foreign ministry has expressed hope that talks over the case with UAE officials will produce positive results. Dalelv is currently free on bail and is at a Norwegian church in Dubai.
“We hope of course, that a political dialogue can turn out to be productive in her case. But right now, we are in the midst of an appeal, and there is a lawsuit in progress, so we’ll see what the future brings,” said Kathryn Raadim, political consultant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Dalelv is appealing against the verdict. The appeal is due to be held in September. Islamic countries have one of the worst laws in the world where Christians and generally any non-Muslims are treated like second-class people. Best advice would be not to travel in these countries for no matter what reason.
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