Friday, 14 January 2011

Angry Belgians demand government break deadlock or 'money back'


Angry Belgians demand government break deadlock or 'money back'
Angry Belgians have begun demanding their partisan leaders break the political deadlock that has left the country without a government for seven months. A caretaker government has been in place since an inconclusive June 13 election.
By News Wires (text)

AFP - As Belgium extends its dubious record as the European nation that's gone the longest without a government, citizens are taking the initiative, demanding their "money back" and action on the streets.

From a movie star urging countrymen "to grow a beard for Belgium", to Facebook users calling for street marches, ordinary Belgians are venting growing frustration as a deadlock in talks to set up a coalition hit seven months Thursday.

During the last such political crisis in 2007, thousands of Belgian flags in black, yellow and red fluttered from windows in signs of nationalist protest and 30,000 people lined the streets, championing unity.

However this time round there has been little sign of popular feeling, until this week.

"We have decided to stop shaving for as long as Belgium has no government," said Benoit Poelvoorde, star of early 1990s mockumentary "Man Bites Dog" and the recent "Coco After Chanel".

"Let's keep our beards until Belgium rises again," he said on Belgian TV.

A caretaker government is running day-to-day business since an inconclusive June 13 election, but feuding politicians from the Dutch-speaking north and French-speaking south have been squabbling over devolution plans ever since.

"What do you do if you've paid for something that doesn't work? You get your money back," said website Camping 16.

The website is running an online petition where followers pitch a virtual tent outside a depiction of the prime minister's Brussels office.

On Thursday morning more than 65,000 tents were lined up outside the premier's virtual door, with thousands more setting up camp by the hour.

"For all the talk of how different everyone is here," says www.camping16.be, referring to the growing communal divisions, "we all have one big thing in common, we've all been equally taken for a ride."

Failing a coalition deal within 100 days, it added, the parties must pay back public monies received since June.

Irritation over the politicians' inability to bridge the language divide, and fears of a breakup of Belgium, are uniting Belgians from the north, south and possibly even the small German-speaking part of the country.

Some 200 artists from Dutch-speaking Flanders this week slammed separatist parties from the north on the grounds that being Belgian meant more than being Flemish.

"No Government, Great Country," says SHAME, set up by three young men in their early 20s last weekend to organise a protest on Sunday, January 23.

"We love our country," said one of the three, who met on Facebook and put their heads together to protest against what they describe as "a political masquerade" and stand up for "the greater good of the country."

The new site -- http://230111.be -- had 55,000 hits Wednesday, the daily Le Soir said.

One scathing on-line attack on the politicians, by young Dutch-speaking Kris Janssens, has attracted almost 90,000 hits in French and 130,000 in Dutch in a country of 10 million people.

Slamming their endless squabbles over more than 200 days, he says that if a plumber were to wait that long to fix a leak, he'd be taken to court.

What's holding them up, he asks? "Like who should be responsible for manning the exits and entrances on the Brussels ring road, which speaks French but is located in Flanders! They'll be squabbling over who's in charge of airspace next."

Pope Benedict clears the way for the beatification of Pope John Paul II


Pope Benedict clears the way for the beatification of Pope John Paul II
Pope Benedict's decree Friday that a miracle attributed to Pope John Paul II actually took place clears the way for the beatification of one of the most beloved popes of all time.
By News Wires (text)

AP - The pope on Friday signed off on the miracle needed for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, and set May 1 as the date to honor one of the most beloved popes of all times as a model of saintliness for the church.

Pope Benedict XVI said in a decree that a French nun’s recovery from Parkinson’s disease was miraculous, the last step needed for beatification. A second miracle is needed for the Polish-born John Paul to be made a saint.

The May 1 beatification, which Benedict himself will celebrate, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Rome _ a major morale boost for a church reeling from a wave of violence against Christians and fallout from the clerical sex abuse scandal.

Once he is beatified, John Paul will be given the title “blessed” and can be publicly venerated. Many people, especially in Poland, already venerate him privately, but the ceremony will make it official.

“This is a huge and important cause of joy,” Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz told reporters at his residence in the Polish capital.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul’s longtime secretary and friend, expressed “huge thanks” to Benedict for the decree. “We are happy today,” he said.

Benedict put John Paul on the fast track to possible sainthood just weeks after he died in 2005, responding to the chants of “Santo Subito!” or “Sainthood immediately!” that erupted during his funeral.

Benedict waived the typical five-year waiting period before the process could begin, but he insisted that the investigation into John Paul’s life be thorough so as to not leave any doubts about his virtues.

The last remaining hurdle concerned the approval by Vatican-appointed panels of doctors and theologians, cardinals and bishops that the cure of French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, was a miracle due to the intercession of John Paul.

The nun has said she felt reborn when she woke up two months after John Paul died, cured of the disease that had made walking, writing and driving a car nearly impossible. She and her fellow sisters of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity Wards had prayed to John Paul, who also suffered from Parkinson’s.

Last year, there were some questions about whether the nun’s original diagnosis was correct. But in a statement Friday, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints said Vatican-appointed doctors had “scrupulously” studied the case and determined that her cure had no scientific explanation.

Born in Wadowice, Poland, in 1920, Karol Wojtyla was the youngest pope in 125 years and the first non-Italian in 455 years when he was elected pope in 1978.

He brought a new vitality to the Vatican, and quickly became the most accessible modern pope, sitting down for meals with factory workers, skiing and wading into crowds to embrace the faithful.

He was the most traveled pope ever, visiting more than 120 nations during the third-longest papacy and covering distance equal to nearly 1 ½ trips to the moon.

His Polish roots nourished a doctrinal conservatism _ opposition to contraception, euthanasia, abortion and women priests _ that rankled liberal Catholics in the United States and Western Europe.

But his common touch also made him a crowd-pleasing superstar whose 26-year papacy carried the Roman Catholic Church into Christianity’s third millennium and emboldened eastern Europeans to bring down the communist system.

He survived an assassination attempt in St. Peter’s Square in 1981 _ and then forgave the Turk who had shot him.

He died in his Vatican apartment on April 2, 2005 after suffering for years from the effects of Parkinson’s disease. He was 84.

While adored by Catholics, John Paul did not escape scrutiny about the clerical abuse scandal which came to light in the final years of his papacy. Many of the thousands of sexual abuse cases that emerged in Europe and beyond last year concerned crimes or cover-ups that occurred under his watch.

Vatican officials have said there was nothing in John Paul’s record that called into question his path to beatification.

Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, one of the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organizations, noted that John Paul’s beatification process is not a “score card on his administration of the Holy See.”

Rather, he said, it’s a statement about his personal sanctity since beatification is way of holding up Catholics as models for the faithful.

“Pope John Paul’s life is precisely such a model because it was lived beautifully and with love, respect and forgiveness for all,” Anderson told the AP in an e-mail. “We saw this in the way he reached out to the poor, the neglected, those of other faiths, even the man who shot him. He did all of this despite being so personally affected by events of the bloodiest century in history.”

Police arrest dozens in violent protests over stalled elections


Police arrest dozens in violent protests over stalled elections
Police arrested dozens of protesters in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince on Friday as violence flared amid reports international election monitors had called for presidential candidate Jude Celestin to withdraw over charges of vote-rigging.
By News Wires (text)

AFP - Protesters angered by stalled elections erected barricades and burned tires in the Haitian capital Friday, as witnesses reported hearing gunfire and police made a dozen arrests.

The protests flared a day after President Rene Preval was handed an official report believed to recommend that his preferred successor should drop out of the race to replace him.

In the north of the capital, Port-au-Prince, burned tires scorched the ground in several places, although residents said they had been set alight during the night.

By early morning a tense calm hung over the capital, still ravaged by last year's earthquake, and a local police officer told AFP: "We controlled the situation."

Local radio and residents said however that there were rumors of a demonstration at 10:00 am (1500 GMT).

National police spokesman Gary Desrosiers told Haitian radio stations that police had made a dozen arrests, without identifying who was behind the latest round of unrest.

The trouble flared the morning after international monitors formally handed over a report believed to call for Preval's preferred candidate Jude Celestin in the polls to withdraw, following allegations of vote-rigging.

Monitors with the Organization of American States (OAS) handed over the report Thursday but the details are still not public.

If Celestin drops out, his closest rival, Michel Martelly, would face off against front-runner former first lady Mirlande Manigat, in a second round runoff.

Supporters of each candidate have clashed on the streets in recent weeks since the first round of elections on November 28. Violent protests erupted in the capital in the wake of the initial poll results released in early December.

Observers are divided over whether Celestin and Preval would agree to step aside as called for by the OAS, or whether Celestin might call on supporters to demonstrate.

The unrest comes as Haitians this week marked the first anniversary of the January 12, 2010 quake that killed almost a quarter million people and left hundreds of thousands homeless in squalid, unsanitary camps.

A cholera epidemic has also added to the country's woes, with officials Thursday reporting a slight downturn in daily fatalities as total infections reached 181,000 and a toll of 3,759 dead.

Ben Ali sacks government as state of emergency is called


Ben Ali sacks government as state of emergency is called
Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali dismisses the government and calls for early parliamentary elections as a state of emergency is declared across the country to stem the growing unrest.
By FRANCE 24 (text)

Amid increasing chaos, Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali dismissed his government on Friday and called for early legislative elections to be held within six months, state television reported. Tunisian state TV also said Ben Ali had declared a state of emergency.

A curfew which only covered Tunis has been spread to the rest of the country and expanded to cover a 14-hour period beginning at 5:00 pm, Tunisia time, added a government statement carried by a state news agency. The statement also indicated that limits would be placed on how many people could gather at once on the public highway, and gave police and military officers the authority to fire at any suspect.

Earlier in the day, thousands had gathered in the morning along one of the city’s main streets in response to a call for a general strike organised by Tunisia’s only legal trade union.

“Riot police who had surrounded the protesters on both sides of Bourguiba Avenue [one of the capital city’s main streets] hurled tear gas when people started climbing the walls of the Interior Ministry”, Cyril Vanier, FRANCE 24’s special envoy in Tunis, said. He added that the area resembled a “battlefield”.

Hundreds of demonstrators also took to the streets outside the capital, in places like Sidi Bouzid and Gafsa, where anti-authority slogans such as “Ben Ali, get out” could be heard.

Meanwhile, at least 12 more people were said to have been killed in clashes with police in Tunis and the surrounding suburbs late Thursday, according to medical sources. Prior to those reports, the International Federation for Human Rights had put the death toll since the beginning of the riots in mid-December at 66. The wave of unrest was set off when a street vendor lit himself on fire on Dec. 17 after police confiscated his stand.

Reacting to the violence, Tunisia’s ambassador to the Paris-based UNESCO, Mezri Haddad, announced that he was stepping down. “I can no longer vouch for what is going on in my country”, he said on FRANCE 24.

Ben Ali changes his tune

Faced with the protests and criticism coming from both home and abroad, the Tunisian government appeared to be changing its tack. In a televised speech Thursday evening, Ben Ali, who has been president of the North African country since 1987, said he would not change the constitution in a way that would allow him to run for president again.

“The president clearly indicated yesterday that he would pursue a more open approach in regards to the opposition, and it is clear that his administration will be reshuffled”, Tunisian Foreign Affairs Minister Kamel Morjane said on FRANCE 24. “I would not be surprised if the president allowed members of the opposition into his government”.

The president’s conciliatory tone elicited hope in Tunisia and abroad in the hours following the speech.

“We have listened attentively to the measures announced by President Ben Ali intended to restore calm and stop the violence”, Bernard Valero, spokesperson for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the press. “We encourage a continuation in this direction”.

Meanwhile, the Tunisian opposition suggested they were eyeing a role in running the country. “I am pleasantly surprised”, Nejiib Chebbi, leader of the main opposition party PDP, told FRANCE 24 on Friday. “Now we need to establish a transitional government, because Tunisians can no longer stand the president’s exclusive hold on power”.

Among human rights activists in Tunisia, reaction was mixed. Some welcomed the president’s announcement. “It’s a historic speech”, said Bouchra Bel Haj, a prominent lawyer and human rights activist in Tunisia. But others remained sceptical: “The president is playing Tunisians for fools with these empty promises”, said Mohamed Abbou, a human rights activist.

WikiLeaks gives $15,000 to soldier's defense fund


Manning’s Support Fund founder says Wikileaks donation is vital to their efforts to ensure he receives fair, open trial.

Middle East Online


bradleymanning.org

WASHINGTON - A legal defense fund for the US soldier suspected of leaking secret US documents to WikiLeaks said Thursday it has received a 15,000 dollars contribution from the website.

US Army private Bradley Manning, 23, has been held in a military brig in Virginia since July on suspicion of leaking secret US military documents and State Department cables to WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks has repeatedly said it does not know whether Manning was the source of the documents but has pledged to help with his defense.

The Bradley Manning Support Network said in a statement on Thursday published at bradleymanning.org that WikiLeaks had transferred 15,100 dollars on Monday to the legal trust account of Manning's attorney.

"In light of WikiLeaks' current fiscal challenges -- due in large part to the shameful actions of Visa, MasterCard and PayPal in cutting off services to WikiLeaks at the behest of the US government -- the Bradley Manning Support Network commends WikiLeaks for their contribution at this time," it said.

"This donation from WikiLeaks is vital to our efforts to ensure Bradley receives a fair, open trial," said Support Fund founder and steering committee member Mike Gogulski.

The group said the WikiLeaks contribution brings the total funds raised and transferred to Bradley's civilian legal defense team to over 100,000 dollars, just short of the 115,000 dollars needed "to mount a vigorous defense."

"We have seen an enormous outpouring of support internationally, in donations as well as volunteers," said Jeff Paterson, another steering committee member for the Bradley Manning Support Network.

"Internationally, people are speaking out against the unjust imprisonment of Bradley Manning, who is for all intents accused of acting out of moral conviction," Paterson said.

Manning, who worked as a low-ranking army intelligence analyst in Iraq, was arrested in May and later transferred to the US Marine Corps base at Quantico in Virginia.

US authorities have yet to say when he will be put on trial on charges of violating federal criminal and military law, including transmitting classified information to a third party.

If found guilty, Manning faces up to 52 years in prison.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Thursday that he believes the United States is trying to use Manning to build a case against him, but denied ever having heard of the soldier before his name appeared in media reports.

"Cracking Bradley Manning is the first step," Assange said. "The aim clearly is to break him and force a confession that he somehow conspired with me to harm the national security of the United States."

Abu Dhabi to pump $5.2 billion into Aldar


Aldar Properties PJSC unveils set of steps aimed to solidify company's position for long-term, sustainable growth.

Middle East Online



ABU DHABI - Abu Dhabi's government will pump 19.2 billion dirhams (5.2 billion dollars, 3.9 billion euros) into the emirate's biggest developer by purchasing assets and convertible bonds, the two sides have said.

Aldar Properties PJSC unveiled a set of steps "designed to solidify the company's position for long-term and sustainable growth," according to a statement carried by the official WAM news agency late Thursday.

These include a 10.9 billion dirhams injection in return for the transfer of assets, including the recently opened Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme park on Yas Island, as well as infrastructure assets on the island comprising roads, bridges, marine facilities and land.

The sale of residential units and land for 5.5 billion dirhams to the government is included in the deal.

In addition, and subject to shareholders approval, the company will issue convertible bonds worth 2.8 billion dirhams to be placed with the government's investment arm Mubadala Development Company.

Aldar also said it will write off 10.5 billion dirhams in impairment charges, recognising the drop in the value of assets, since property prices in the oil-rich emirate have shed more than a third of their 2008 peak value due to the global financial crisis.

"The financial framework approved by the Board today, including the convertible bond issue, will strengthen our capital structure and provide us with a stable and sustainable platform from which we can continue to capture commercial opportunities to deliver value to shareholders," said Ahmed al-Sayegh, chairman of Aldar.

"The impairment recognition reflects the adverse conditions that have affected the real estate market, but is an important step in allowing Aldar to achieve long-term sustainable growth," he said.

In a statement also carried by WAM, the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance acknowledged the agreement, saying the assets were of "important value for the economy of Abu Dhabi."

Aldar's portfolio includes commercial developments such as Central Market, Al Raha Beach, Yas Island (including Yas Mall and Yas Hotel), HQ, and Al Bateen Park.

Aldar reportedly began discussions with the government in November, after it reported a 731.2 million dirham loss for the third quarter, compared with a profit of 270.1 million dirhams in the corresponding period in 2009.

The company sold in March its racing circuit, marina, yacht club and other infrastructure at its flagship Yas Marina to the government for 9.1 billion dirhams.

Enforced disappearances in Iraq a long-term challenge


Analyst says enforced disappearances in Iraq touch whole population, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or religion.

Middle East Online


No safe place

MADRID - Asma Al-Haidari, an Amman-based Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate, says the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in Iraq touches the whole population, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity or religious belief.

The number of missing persons in Iraq ranges from 250,000 to over one million, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).

The length of time over which enforced disappearances have occurred in Iraq, starting with the Iraq-Iran war (1980-88), render this issue particularly complex, according to International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson for Iraq Layal Houraniyeh. The issue of enforced disappearances in Iraq represents, according to IMCP, “a major long-term challenge”.

Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance defines enforced disappearance as “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”

The Convention entered into force on 23 December 2010, 30 days after Iraq became the 20th state to ratify it on 23 November. It provides that “no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance” and that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.” According to the UN Human Rights Council, “secret detention amounts to an enforced disappearance.”

“No safe place”

Focusing on enforced disappearance in Iraq since 2003, Dirk Adriansens, an expert on Iraq and member of international anti-war group the Brussels Tribunal, gave a presentation at a 9-12 December conference in London organized by the International Committee Against Disappearance (ICAD). Citing 2009 surveys by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), he said 20 percent of internally displaced and 5 percent of returnee families reported cases of missing children.

Further, UNHCR published findings in 2009 showing that “many communities reported missing family members - 30 percent of IDPs, 30 percent of IDP returnees, 27 percent of refugee returnees - indicating that they were missing because of kidnappings, abductions and detentions and that they do not know what happened to their missing family members,” he said.

Adriansens added in his presentation: “A rough estimate would therefore bring the number of missing persons among the refugee population and the internally displaced after ‘Shock and Awe’ [2003 US-led military operation to invade Iraq] to 260,000, most of them enforced disappearances.”

Adriansens went on to say that by extrapolating UNHCR figures to cover the Iraqi population which had not suffered displacement, the total number of missing persons since 2003 “could be more than half a million”.

Jordan-based analyst Al-Haidari believes this number is higher, placing it in the range of 800,000 to one million. “There is no safe place in Iraq. People can be disappeared and sent to secret, illegal detention centres anywhere in the country, without the knowledge of the family or the person’s lawyer,” Al-Haidari said. “Many are assassinated and buried in secret. Many others are charged with trumped-up terrorism charges.”

Amnesty International report

A recent Amnesty International report said “an estimated 30,000 untried detainees are currently being held by the Iraqi authorities, although the exact number is not known as the authorities do not disclose such information.” In addition, there are detainees held at secret facilities, at which torture is common, it said.

A further 23,000 previously held without charge or trial by US forces are currently being transferred to the Iraqi authorities or released, though Amnesty International believes “[a state cannot] claim to be treating detainees humanely while knowingly handing them over to torturers, any more than it can knowingly `release’ detainees in a minefield and claim that their safety is no longer its responsibility.”