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Woman Maimed In Bus Attack
Badly-burned woman critically ill as French protests take nasty turn
A 26 year old Marseilles student became the latest victim of France's autumn riots when a gang of teenagers boarded and set fire to the bus she was travelling in. Mama Galledou, who is of Senegalese origin, is said to be fighting for her life in hospital, but doctors warn that if she does survive, she will be scarred for life.
80 Die In "Al Qaeda" Madrassa Raid
The Pakistan army claims that 80 al-Qaeda "militants" died in an air raid on a madrassa religious school near the border with Afghanistan.
Newspaper Tries To Get Readers Killed
Your correspondent usually enjoys reading his Economist while travelling to work on the Paris Metro. There's something grimly satisfying about browsing the world's leading liberal newspaper among passengers with their noses in France's dismal hard-left dailies. But the cover of this week's Europe edition might prove a red, white and blue rag to some of my more belligerent fellow-travellers.
Surely the Economist can't have so many readers in socialist France that it can risk losing them to hard left assassins?
Mass Appeal
A poll carried out for You Gov shows that an overwhelming number of Britons support calls for a referendum on "whether powers over fishing, farming, rules and regulations, law-making and borders (should be) returned to the British Parliament from the European Union."
77 percent say they're in favour of such a vote - only 12 percent oppose it (11 percent don't care). Support for this theoretical referendum, which is being promoted by Speak Out is strong across the political spectrum. Nearly 90 percent of Tory supporters like the idea of a referendum, but even among Europhile LibDems support runs at around 70 percent.
Hat tip: EU Serf
Poll: Brits Want Troops Out
Support falls for Tony Blair's Iraq strategy
An opinion poll carried out for Britain's Guardian newspaper suggests that over 60 percent of Britons want British forces to leave Iraq by the end of the year. 45 percent apparently want an "immediate" withdrawal.
Kim Not So Sorry After All
China scotches claims of North Korean contrition, warns more tests may follow
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said today that media reports that North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-Il had apologised to a Chinese envoy for October 9th nuclear bomb test were "inaccurate." He added that while Kim has "indicated that the DPRK has no plans for a second nuclear test but if other countries impose more pressure, the DPRK may take further steps."
1956
Olivier Kamm has an excellent post on the Hungarian uprising. Here's a key quote:
"The Soviet ambassador to Budapest, Yuri Andropov, urged unrelenting bombardment of the city, after which Soviet troops turned artillery fire not only on the barricades but on residential areas. To those who resisted, I extend my admiration and respect."
Also check out Adam LeBor in The Times.
Ramadan Arrest Ban?
British cops' fury as authorities order no arrests during Muslim prayer times
Officers in the Greater Manchester Police force are reportedly angry following an internal email instructing police to avoid arresting suspects while Muslims are at prayer during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
According to a report in The Observer, officers were send a memo listing prayer times, and told not to follow up arrest warrants during these times for reasons of "religious sensitivity."
Muslim Staff Fight Paris Air Ban
Baggage handlers appeal against withdrawl of security clearance
Four Muslim workers at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport are appealling against a decision by local authorities to withdraw their security passes. The men claim the ban amounts to anti-Muslim discrimination - for its part, the local council argues the move was based on "an assessment of terror risk," rather than a move against their religion.
BBC Staff: Yes, We Are Biased
"Impartiality summit" reveals deep bias among stars and executives
A leaked account of a high-level summit on the BBC's impartiality shows that the broadcaster's top professionals allow their left-leaning sympathies to govern the Beeb's output.
According to the Daily Mail, which jumped on the leaked report with understandable glee, BBC staff:
- Would allow a Bible to be chucked in a bin on a comedy show, but never the Koran
- Promote an anti-American agenda
- Are dedicated to the promotion of multiculturalism
Quote Of The Day
U2 were performing in Hampden Park, Glasgow, to a sell-out audience.
In the middle of the concert Bono hushed the crowd, asking for complete silence. Then he slowly started clapping his hands, clap-clap-clap-clap-clap.
Holding the audience in awestruck silence he says softly and seriously into the microphone "You know every time I clap my hands a child in Africa dies..."
A voice from the back row shouts "well f***ing well stop doin' it then!"
- From a poster on the Guardian's Comment is Free pages.
Kim: No New Tests
Report claims North Korea nuclear test was a one-off (for now)
Diplomatic sources in China say that North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il has given his assurance to a Chinese envoy that he has no further plans for nuclear bomb tests.
UPDATE: So Sorry - Kim "apologises" to China for tests. Click for more details.
Iran: Don't Forget About Us
What with all the fuss over North Korea's nuclear bomb test, one has to feel sorry for Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose position as the world's most dangerous lunatic has been taken by Kim Jong-Il.
Germany Taxes Internet TV
From David's Medienkritik comes news that Germany has found a way of integrating the internet into its economy: By taxing it.
Class Conscious
How we change. The Guardian has an interview today with Ian Bone, the founder of Class War. Thanks to his advocacy of violence as the sole means of overthrowing the "ruling classes" in the 1970s and 80s, Bone rejoiced in the tabloid title "Britain's most dangerous man."
Execution Of Pakistan Briton Postponed
Prince of Wales believed to have urged for mercy
The British prisoner due to hang in Pakistan for murdering a taxi driver in 1988 has had his sentence postponed. Mirza Tahir Hussain, 36, was due to die on November 1st, but following interventions by Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair Pakistani authorities have put his execution on hold for a further two months.
The orders for the stay came from President Pervez Musharraf's office, reports Agence France-Presse.
Suicide Attack Kills Two Children
British troops injured in Afghanistan attack
Reports are coming in that at least two children have been killed and several injured in a suicide attack in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistan's Helmand province.
Rice Confirms US "Nuclear Shield"
Sec. of State hopes to stall Asian arms race with defence guarantee for Japan and S. Korea
Condoleezza Rice has reaffirmed the USA's committment to defending Japan in the event of North Korean aggression. Speaking after the Tokyo stop of her four nation tour to rally support against North Korea's nuclear test, she said "The United States has the will and the ability to meet the full range of its deterrent and security commitments to Japan."
Iran Blocks Broadband
What about a Made For Iran initiative?
The EU is not alone in looking at ways to regulate technology it doesn't approve of: Iran, too, hopes to stem dissenting voices, this time by taking the drastic step of banning high-speed internet connections.
Video Blogs Come Under EU's Eye
Here's one in the eye for free speech from the EU's Big Brother department: The EU wants to extend its broadcasting regulations to cover internet broadcasts such as YouTube and video blogs.
According to The Times, the proposal "would require websites and mobile phone services that feature video images to conform to standards laid down in Brussels."
Dodgy Diversity
The EU has come up with a new logo to celebrate its 50th anniversary (never mind that it's only been a union for 15 of these, or that no-one asked anyone if they wanted to join a union in the first place).
That's the new logo on the right: It was designed by a Polish student in response to an EU-wide competition. The organisers say it "Gives a graphic interpretation to the voice of all Europeans, especially the new generations...these Europeans look for peace, stability and prosperity without taking anything away from their rights of individuality and diversity."
Hmm... looks to us like one of those arse-achingly PC playschool logos public bodies have to come up with to show how on-message they are - like this one, from the Devon and Cornwall police, below.
Security Council Deadlocked
Venezuela and Guatemala slug it out for a place on the UN's top body
Voting for the Latin American seat on the UN's Security Council entered a second day as neither state was able to reach the two-thirds majority required to secure a place on the body.
Both are duelling to win one of the ten non-permanent seats. However, neither side is willing to back down in a more-than-usually ideologically fraught round of vote chasing.
Rice Heads To Asia
Condi pushes Asian leaders to get tough
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flies to Asia today for meetings with the leaders of Japan, China and South Korea. The stated purpose of her mission is to review the response to North Korea's nuclear test on October 9th: However, Dr Rice will be pressing her counterparts to ensure that the tough wording of the UN Security Council resolution they signed up for is followed through.
North Korea: Sanctions "A Declaration Of War"
US spooks claim NK is preparing a second test
Pyongyang says that the United Nations sanctions agreed last week to punish the North Korean regime for testing a nuclear bomb amount to "a declaration of war."
"It cannot be construed otherwise (...° because it was based on the scenario of the U.S. keen to destroy the socialist system," said North Korea's foreign minister in an interview carried on the state's official propaganda broadcaster. For its part, Pyongyang "wants peace but is not afraid of war."
US Population Reaches 300 Million
Sometime today, the USA became a nation of 300 million people. Obviously, nobody knows if this milestone citizen is a new addition to the estimated 50 million believed to have crossed the border from Mexico in the past ten years, or if he or she is a newborn in one of America's busy labour wards, but the US Census Bureau is putting the time of delivery at 11.46 GMT.
Rome Train Crash Kills One
One person was killed and over a hundred injured when a high speed train crashed into the rear of another on Rome's underground railway system. At least five of the injured are reported to be in a serious condition.
Sir Richard The Lionheart
The Chief of the General Staff Sir Richard Dannatt believes that Christian values are under threat in Britain and that continuing to fight in Iraq will only make the situation worse.
His views, first published in the Daily Mail last Friday sent shockwaves through the Government and caused a storm in the media, who scrambled to digest the enormity of his statement: It's perhaps the first time in four hundred years that a high-ranking general has broken rank in such a way.
Ségo Speaks
If she becomes President, Socialist contender Ségolène Royal will seek to end Britain's opt-out from the European Union's 48-hour working week. Speaking in an interview with The Times, she singles out the British exception as one of her few concrete European policies.
Just why Mme Royal should be so offended by British working practices is one issue; quite another, much more important one, is how we have reached a state of affairs whereby a French presidential contender can scheme to change laws affecting other nations.
Quote Of The Day
"If tomorrow the Israel/Palestine issue was resolved to the total happiness of all parties, it would not diminish the amount of terrorism coming out of al-Qa'ida by one jot. It's not what they're after... Yes, it's a recruiting tool, rhetorically. Many people see there's an injustice there, and it helps them to get people into the gang, but it's not what they want. What they want is to change the nature of human life on earth into the image of the Taliban. If you want the whole earth to look like Taliban Afghanistan, then you're on the same side as them. If you don't want that, you're not. They do not represent the quest for human justice. That, I think, is one of the great mistakes of the left (...)
"Go away and die - that's all bin Laden wants you to do. It's not just about Iraq, it's about ham sandwiches and kissing in public places and sex with girls you're not married to."
"It's about life."
- Novelist Salman Rushdie, speaking in the Independent.
Headline Of The Day
Do a Google search for Britain's Daily Express and you'll see the rag describes itself as "The world's greatest newspaper." Yeah, right. Click on the link and you'll find that the newspaper's tendency to excitable hyperbole is not confined to its search engine listings. How about this for the most hysterical front page of the day?
Government Pulls Funds From Muslim Groups
Britain's Communities Secretary (really) Ruth Kelly announced yesterday that Muslim community groups who fail to abide by guidelines on fighting extremism. The first casualty of this new tough line on organisations who are ambivalent about condemning terrorism is the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which the government previously viewed as one of the most important voices of mainstream Islam.
Although Ms Kelly did not name the MCB in her speech, it is reported the group had its support pulled because it boycotts Holocaust Memorial Day, attacks police operations against terror suspects and refuses to come off the fence in the fight against extremism.
Off The Map
If you're going to win readers trust when covering sensitive issues, it helps to get the name of the country right. Someone forgot to tell the International Herald Tribune.
High Office
An Italian television programme which claimed to show that sixteen out of fifty politicans tested "positive" for cannabis or cocaine use has been pulled hours before broadcast.
A River In Egypt
Two days since North Korea's nuclear weapons test and how does CND, the UK's anti-nuclear weapons pressure group react? Well, if you check their home page, it's with a call for Britain to leave NATO, demands to scrap Trident and a spirited defence of Iran's excuses for its dodgy nuclear program.
Hat tip: Harry's Place
Update to NK's nukes: France's defence minister speculates the test might have failed, or was faked.
News Round-Up
As an interesting follow-up on EURSOC's story this weekend on Britain's Christian identity, Melanie Phillips looks at how some in the church are fighting back against PC marginalisation.
Also in the news comes a disturbing report that two Alitalia passenger jets were "sabotaged" in a supposedly secure hangar while the company entered talks on job losses.
News On The Net
A survey reveals that Europeans now spend more time online than they do reading newspapers and magazines. According to the FT, new media consumption isn't just eating into the time which would previously have been spent reading the papers - it is expanding the total time we spend on the media.
NK Joins Nuclear Club
The world became a more dangerous place at 1.36 GMT this morning when North Korea carried out its threat to test a nuclear bomb.
The state news agency reported that the test was an "historic event that brought happiness to our military and people". The US has not confirmed the test beyond noting that a "seismic event" took place at the test site, though Russia's military is said to be "100 percent certain" a bomb was detonated in Gilju, in the country's north east.
While some observers say that the bomb - if that's what it was - could not be carried on one of the North's missiles while others suggest that it may have been a primitive device, the test raises tensions on the unstable region to unwelcome new levels.
It's safe to say that this is one club that didn't want Pyongyang's bizarre dictator Kim Jong-Il as a member.
Sarko's EU Tax
France's centre-left presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy outlined his Euro-vision in Sunday's Telegraph. In the column, he calls for a revised "mini constitution", the removal of national vetoes on sensitive security-related issues and, perhaps most controversially, an overhaul of the EU budget to allow the union to be funded by a Euro-tax.
Veiled Threat
Muslims make up only around 4 percent of Britain's population, but at times it seems as if they're making up 100 percent of the news. Today's storm was signalled by former Home and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw MP, who wrote in a newspaper column that he asks Muslim women who call into his constituency surgery to remove their veils.
What gives Jack Straw the right to demand who wears what in his office? Straw, and others like him, should be reminded now and again that they're the servants of the people, not their masters. Since when was calling into your MP's office a sacred act? The public elected him and pay his wages - and so should have a right to visit him dressed in a clown suit with face paint if they see fit.
The Media Gap
The Times reports that seizures of the kind of radioactive material terrorists could use to build a 'dirty bomb' have doubled in the past four years, perhaps indicating that al-Qaeda is stepping up its campaign to build a nuclear device.
Over on Tim Worstall's invaluable blog, however, he demonstrates that the newspaper is getting into one of its periodic flaps about what is a fairly minor threat (though adds that the press is mercifully missing a related, very real danger). Gripping stuff.
I Predict A Riot
NEWS ROUND-UP: French cops complain hoodlums in the estates have launched a jihad against the law; British and American universities lead the world (still); a 72 year old councillor faces compulsory sensitivity retraining for cracking a stale joke.
Breaking News...
Tories in internet mugging.
The blogosphere should carry a health warning :
MORTAL DANGER! DON’T COME HERE IF YOU HAVE NO SUBSTANCE.
Bedside Manner
Following on from the appalling news that an angry Muslim was able to wander into a hospital and abuse a paratrooper who had been injured in Afghanistan while he lay in bed, Drinking From Home looks up the Army rumour boards to see what squaddies are saying about the intrusion.
Return Of The Tatlerite Tories
The Tories are at it again.
Whenever someone mentions Europe the Tories narrow the debate down to something that is largely meaningless and then go on about making a stand, trying to appear tough.
Are they taking lessons from John Major?
Don't Mention The War
Have you signed the Oneseat.eu petition to end the European Parliament's crazy gravy train between Brussels and Strasbourg yet? One man who doesn't want you to is the EU Parliament's president Josep Borrell, who attacked northern European MEPs (the main drive for the petition has come from Sweden), adding that "some Nordic country" does not understand the significance of Strasbourg because they did not suffer enough during World War Two.
Bloc Party
The UN's deputy secretary general Mark Malloch Brown has told the EU Observer that in future, the European Commission is likely to take a single European seat on EU bodies. The end result of this, of course, would be France and Britain surrendering their permanent seats on the UN Security Council in favour of a single EU seat.
Red Alert
Different media for different eras, then. As David Cameron attempts to appeal to today's yoof with a vlog, it's worth looking at an early attempt by a "Man of the people" to connect with the youth vote.
It's not a pretty sight (or sound - the mute option is advisable) but there's a lesson in there for us all.
Davespace vs Jarvspace
Despite a plug from EURSOC yesterday David Cameron's Webcameron blog isn't quite setting those hit counters spinning. The introduction video has registered only 56 views, while his "clean up politics" vlog has a slightly better 341 hits.
Compare this to singer Jarvis Cocker, whose MySpace page Jarvspace has registered a mighty 195756 listens to his new song "C**** are still running the world." Not safe for your office, you understand, but perhaps Dave can learn something from Jarv.
News Round-Up
A British Muslim schoolteacher whose anti-Christmas rant brought a childrens choir to tears is made a schools inspector; A French teacher goes into hiding after attacking Islam and Mohammed; and further confirmation that despite what the BBC claims, the Cartoon Jihad has been good for Danish business.
World Wide Wet
Conservative party leader David Cameron has unveiled his latest media strategy: The Webcameron. In the series of video blogs, the Tory leader can be seen discussing policy in a variety of "no jacket required" domestic situation. In the first webcast, Cameron can be seen tidying up after breakfast in his Notting Hill home while musing on corruption in politics.
Outfoxed
Fox News is ten years old. Predictably, rival media groups are getting their knickers in a twist about the anniversary and "what it means" for the news industry.
