A 16-year-old North Carolina boy arrested for allegedly making a bomb threat against Purdue University had a secret identity as a superstar in an unusual online subculture -- one dedicated to making prank phone calls for a live internet audience, his mother admitted Thursday. "I heard the prank phone calls he made," says Annette Lundeby of Oxford. "They were really funny prank phone calls.... He made phone calls to, like, Walmart." Maybe he can entertain his cellmates with his calls for help... They're at least as smart as he is ...
Lundeby confirmed that her son was known online as "Tyrone," a celebrity in a prank-calling community that grew late last year out of the trouble-making "/b/" board on 4chan. Using the VOIP conferencing software Ventrilo, as many as 300 listeners would gather on a server run by Tyrone to listen to him and other amateur voice actors make often-crude and racist phone calls, some of which are archived on YouTube. The broadcasts were organized through websites like PartyVanPranks.com.
A former fan of Tyrone's work helped lead the police to Lundeby's son after the boy allegedly moved beyond pranks this year and began accepting donations from students eager to miss a day of school. In exchange for a little money, Tyrone would phone in a bomb threat that would shutter the donor's school for a day. "People would pay about five dollars, and they get to submit a number," says Jason Bennett, a 19-year-old college student in Syndey, Australia. "It was getting way out of hand."
Lundeby admits that her son received donations for his prank phone calls, but denies that he made bomb threats. She says her son was with her, coming home from church, at the time of the February 15 phone call that summoned a bomb squad and evacuated the mechanical engineering building at Purdue University in Indiana. Bennett didn't hear the Purdue call, but he says he heard Tyrone admit to that bomb threat later, and decided enough was enough. He contacted university police and began helping them get the goods on "Tyrone."
The case came to a head the night of March 5, when Tyrone made a series of rapid-fire bomb threats against five different schools around the United States. Bennett recorded the calls.
"This is a warning to every staff, student and anybody else who may be in the school tomorrow afternoon at 11:00 a.m.," the caller is heard saying in a voicemail message for Mill Valley High School in Shawnee, Kansas. "There are twelve bombs located throughout the entire campus at the school," the caller continues. "They are in random lockers throughout the school -- I will not tell you which lockers they are located in. There are also two in the bathroom and there is one in the gym. You have exactly one hour after 11:00 a.m. to find and disarm the bombs. That is all I have to say. All will be cleansed."
After leaving similar threats with four other schools, Tyrone gives listeners his e-mail address and asks for PayPal donations. Then he promises more calls in the morning. "I'm going to go to bed so I can fucking wake up at 6:00 in the morning and I'm going to cancel about eight or nine schools maybe," he says. "You guys have fun missing school tomorrow."
When Tyrone signed off, Bennett immediately put the recording on his own web server and provided a link to a Purdue University police detective working the case, who shared it with the FBI. Police warned the schools that very night that the calls were hoaxes, and the FBI -- armed with a search warrant and a criminal complaint -- swooped in on Annette Lundeby's home at 10:00 p.m., seized computers and arrested her son.
Lundeby insists the "Tyrone" on the recording must be a different prank caller using her son's online handle and e-mail address. "I've asked him about this and he doesn't know anything about it," she says. "There are other people who sound like him."
Bennett says Lundeby knew her son had made bomb threats. "His mother knew that he was making calls, because she'd come on the microphone when he was talking and tell him not to do any bomb threats because the house was going to get raided," he says. "He said he wasn't going to do any more bomb threats because his mom didn't approve of them. But then he did them anyway."
Lundeby denies knowing anything about her son staging bomb hoaxes. But she admits seeing a YouTube video in which "Tyrone" jokes that he's hidden a bomb in a box of take-out chicken. In that call -- laced with profanity and racist slurs -- Tyrone is heard phoning a New York cigar shop while watching on a webcam streamed though the video-feed site New York City Live. When he sees a food delivery arrive at the checkout counter, he tells the clerk, "Your chicken is here. It contains the bomb which will detonate. It's my bomb. It's the bomb that will detonate in five minutes. The fried chicken has a bomb in it."
"I'm not sure if that was him or not," says Lundeby. "If you'll notice, the guy is also playing along with him. A lot of these calls are pre-setup. The other person on the other end knew it had been preset." "He did not make the bomb threat to Purdue," she adds. "Even so, it's about the Constitution."
The arrest of Lundeby's son stoked widespread outrage on the internet after Raleigh, North Carolina's WRAL-5 reported on the case, noting that the boy is a patriotic homeschooled student with an American flag bedspread. Much of the online fury was triggered by Lundeby's incorrect claim -- uncritically reported by the station -- that the boy was being held without any legal rights on the authority of the 2001 USA Patriot Act. In truth, making telephone bomb threats has been a federal crime since 1939. The teenager is being held without bail in Indiana, but he's been formally charged, has a court-appointed attorney, and has already made three appearances in front of a judge. The case is sealed because the suspect is a minor.
Responding to the internet outrage on Thursday, the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Indiana issued a press release (.pdf) emphasizing the the teenager is not being held on terrorism charges. The case "alleges a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 844(e), which prohibits sending false information about an attempt to kill, injure or intimidate any individual or to unlawfully to damage any building through an instrument of interstate commerce," the prosecutors wrote.
"The government has filed a motion with the Court seeking to transfer the juvenile to adult status," the government added. "That motion is pending before the Court and is scheduled for a hearing during the month of May."
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2009 10:05 ||
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#1
"a celebrity in a prank-calling community"...
I'll translate: LOSER.
Sounds like he'll soon be a "celebrity" in PMITA federal prison...
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2009 12:19 Comments ||
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#3
Phoning false threats is a crime. Homeschooling and hanging flags changes that not one whit. The boy is an obnoxious idiot, the mother a fool not to take away his on-line access to begin with, not to supervise him more closely after, and especially because she tries to defend his behaviour by cloaking it in high-minded Constitutionality claims. She needs to be punished as an accessory, to learn a lesson key to good parenting. Perhaps the companies whose business he disrupted and the schools which had to close for bomb searches should sue for lost income and unexpected costs, to really drive the lesson home. I'd like to see those who paid to have their schools closed brought in to answer those charges as well.
But I'm nasty like that -- I want consequences to be painful enough to be remembered the next time the impulse tries to strike.
A man murdered his on-off girlfriend and her sister in a "brutal and depraved" attack, stabbing one of them more than 30 times, a court has heard. Mohammed Ali, 29, of Old Snow Hill, Birmingham, had been in a relationship with Yasmine Larbi-Cherif, 22. He denies murdering Ms Larbi-Cherif and her 19-year-old sister Sabrina, who were found at their flat near Birmingham city centre in September. The prosecution said there was a "sexual motive" for the killings.
David Crigman QC told the jury at Birmingham Crown Court that Mr Ali had admitted the manslaughter of the sisters on the grounds of provocation.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles the pedantic ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Mr Ali had admitted the manslaughter of the sisters on the grounds of provocation.
MADINAH: The Civil Defense teams undertaking awareness campaigns about safety measures at times of natural calamities in and around remote villages in Madinah province, where mild tremors measuring up to 3.3 on the Richter scale were registered, were appalled by the lukewarm response of some local residents. I've seen this movie..
The Civil Defense teams noticed that many people either carried on their normal lives without attending the speeches and demonstration classes conducted by the teams on safety precautions. "Instead, young men continued playing football and other games as usual, laborers did not care to stop their work and listen, and elderly people continued sipping qahwa and smoking sheesha without bothering to listen to the safety teams," Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday. Dedicated young Civil Defense worker warns of danger, locals yawn and mock him. Is there a beautiful reporter to fill the role of love interest?
Al-Muhawwas said that his department was fully equipped and prepared for any emergency. He said 2,000 emergency shelters have been readied for an estimated 60,000 people living in the earthquake-prone area, which is full of extinct volcanoes.
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[Maghrebia] Former junta leader General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz was named leader of the Union for the Republic (UPR) party, international press reported on Wednesday (May 6th). The UPR has 83 seats in the 151-member parliament. Also Wednesday, Mauritanian Party of Union for Change (Hatem) endorsed the presidential candidature of Abdelaziz, who resigned as junta leader last month to run in the June 6th election.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe has secured an additional credit line of $250-million from the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim) to help its economic reconstruction.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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Sikh police officers in Britain reportedly want the Government to develop bullet-proof turbans to allow them to serve as firearms officers without having to remove their headwear.
Sikh officers are exempt from a legal obligation to wear crash helmets because of their religion's requirement to wear a turban, but this means they cannot wear the protective headgear of firearms officers.
Inspector Gian Singh Chahal, vice-chairman of the newly-formed British Police Sikh Association, said the Home Office needs to make provisions for Sikhs to recognise their role in the police force, the Guardian reported.
"Sikh officers have been prohibited from becoming firearms officers because our religion does not allow us to remove the turban," he was quoted as telling the journal Police Review.
"There has been some research done into producing a ballistic material [for turbans].
"We would like to follow any opportunity where we could manufacture a ballistic product, made out of a synthetic fibre, that would ensure a certain degree of protection, so Sikh police officers could take part in these roles."
#1
"There has been some research done into producing a ballistic material [for turbans].
"with experimental and forensic data provided by the US Army and Marines"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2009 18:49 Comments ||
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#2
They could return to India and again assassinate
the woman they where sworn to protect, blow up
747s full of passengers...riot, murder...etc...
but do it in India, the land of non-violence, who rooted for Hitler, Stalin...etc......
Posted by: Ming the Merciless ||
05/08/2009 19:53 Comments ||
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TBILISI, Georgia Georgia released three opposition activists on Thursday whose detention had set off violence in Tbilisi, as diplomats and the countrys top religious figure stepped in to urge calm.
It was not clear whether the prisoners release would diffuse the tension in the capital, which was jolted on Wednesday night when protesters tried to break into a detention center to free the three. The police beat the protesters back with clubs, and the ensuing fray left 30 people injured.
About 3,000 people gathered in front of Georgias Parliament on Thursday to condemn the actions of the police, but there were no further confrontations. An opposition leader, Irakli Alasania, asked President Mikheil Saakashvili to meet with him and other representatives, saying the country was getting closer to civil confrontation.
Meeting with Saakashvili could help to overcome the political crisis, said Mr. Alasania, leader of the Alliance for Georgia party. It is the only way out.
European diplomats criticized the attempt to storm the detention center and warned against further violence. Peter Semneby, the European Unions special representative for the South Caucasus, said, Any action of this kind is fundamentally very dangerous in a tense situation. But he said he was encouraged by signs that dialogue could resume between the sides.
There are strong signs today that Georgia is pulling back from a situation that could have easily become very dangerous, he said.
Opponents of Mr. Saakashvili have been leading regular protests since early April, demanding his resignation. Lately, the crowds have dwindled to a hard core, including picketers who have created a corridor of shame outside the headquarters of Georgias public broadcaster, accusing journalists of pro-government bias.
As protesters tried forcibly to free the three prisoners, the patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, issued a statement early Thursday urging the government to release them. Mr. Utiashvili said the young men were freed pending trials because the patriarch appealed to police and in hopes of calming the situation on the street.
At a news conference after their release, the three accused the police of having beaten them. Revaz Revazishvili, 15, displayed fresh bruises and scratches on his chest and said he had agreed to sign a confession because the police had threatened to rape or kill him.
Mr. Utiashvili said the prisoners were not mistreated or threatened. He said that if they showed injuries, it was understandable, because they were brought to the police station after a fight.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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It's craft - but not as we know it. Meg Mundell meets a group of "craftivists" who mix DIY with mischief-making.
IT'S Monday night in a crowded Fitzroy bar and 60 people are bent fastidiously over their needlework. Despite the DJ's kooky tunes, nobody's dancing they're all too engrossed in needlework. If you reckon threading a needle is tricky, try rustling up a miniature penis in silken yarn, or illustrating hot sex in metallic thread. It's fiddly work.
Tonight is session two of Trashbag Rehab, a monthly craft evening that's not nearly as nasty as it sounds. The theme changes monthly, but this evening it's "embroidery porn". Rude scenarios have been traced onto recycled fabric, and the mostly female crowd is busy bringing them to life in thread. While stitching, they swap needlework tips, chit-chat and coloured yarns.
These crafty DIY sessions are the brainchild of the Melbourne Craft Cartel, headed by Casey Jenkins and Rayna Fahey. Part of the "craftivist" movement crafters with an activist bent the duo has declared war on "nice, safe, cutesy" craft.
"Everything we do aims to gently subvert the normal connotations of craft," says Jenkins. "The assumption about embroidery is that it's done by nice, polite women, and the assumption about porn is that it's just for crass men." Tonight aims to challenge that in a (literally) tongue-in-cheek way, "by showing that women also have a sexual appetite, and men are interested in making gentle decorative arts". It's also about having fun, she adds: "Kids get lots of opportunities to play, but adults don't."
The atmosphere is friendly, full of humour rather than sleaze. Jenkins, who spent the week downloading internet porn images and tracing them onto paper, says she was very careful about the pictures she chose: "I made sure everyone involved was participating, and looking happy."
Tonight's "pre-printed porn patterns" range from a topless 1930s damsel striking a modest pose, to some fairly graphic man-on-man action. Artist Poppy Seed, 26, squints critically at her sewn depiction of a "hand-job". "I rushed it a bit," she says, "I might unpick it and redo it in diamantes." Teacher Rahne Witarsito, 35, is sewing an oral-themed "wild-style" tapestry. "I've been engrossed for two hours," she says. "It lasts much longer than actual sex." She's never embroidered before, but she's a natural: "I'm really impressed by the delicacy of the artform."
Last month's inaugural session drew a full house of avid stitchers who created handmade "fling-ups", textile representations of female genitalia. One third of the 60-odd participants were male, the youngest an eight-year-old boy accompanied by his mum. The fling-ups were later tossed over powerlines as a form of street art.
"You see those sneakers hanging from powerlines that's drug gangs marking out their territory," says Jenkins. "So we made (the fling-ups) to reclaim the streets for women." She's also on a mission to reclaim the c-word: "I find it offensive that it's considered an offensive word, when it signifies something wonderful, warm and delightful something to be admired."
Future workshops will cover "mancraft", handmade sex toys, and crocheted explosives (the cartel has declared a "jihad on shopping malls"). Jenkins also runs Art Jam, a communal art-making contest using recycled junk, soon to be filmed for TV; Fahey runs the website Radical Cross-stitch, and is currently exhibiting her work in Sweden. The cartel also stages illegal "flock 'n' flog" sessions spontaneous craft markets in city centre alleyways and once held a stall in Bourke Street Mall encouraging shoppers to make their own Christmas cards and gifts.
"Craft is about DIY culture," says Jenkins. "By making things yourself, you're not beholden to big corporate structures. It's a way of bucking the system."
At one table, three VCA art students have whipped up some impressive work. Textile artist Jade Venus, 24, loves the communal aspect of these gatherings: "It can be isolating spending all your time in the studio. It's nice to do a project as a group."
Video and performance artist Hannah Raisin, 22, agrees: "Embroidery has that tradition of women sitting around together, having conversations."
Andrea Vasarab, 24, says tonight's workshop is tamer than last month's vagina-making session: "Embroidery's so intricate, so everyone's concentrating hard."
Last month, costume designer Hannah Cuthbertson, 25, left her vagina behind at the bar, but gained an unexpected bonus: a boyfriend. "This guy was sitting outside playing his guitar and singing. He was looking at my (creation) and we just hit it off, and now we're together."
Her new beau, Simon Rashleigh, is hosting another curbside singalong tonight. Things get a little rowdy and the police turn up, but happily the officers leave placated, clutching a hand-crafted gift: a fetching pair of embroidered breasts.
#1
"Craft is about DIY culture," says Jenkins. "By making things yourself, you're not beholden to big corporate structures. It's a way of bucking the system."
No it's a lady's sewing circle, you demented git. I swear to God some people can't even open their mouths without the words "big corporate structures" coming out.
#2
If they really cared about humanity, they'd be making clothes for poor folks or victims of weather disasters or such, instead of attempting to deal with their adolescent dysfunctions and their insecure need for attention in some useless fashion.
A too-affluent society, with too much time on their hands.
No 'corporate structure' could be more ridiculous or useless than these folks.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/08/2009 6:06 Comments ||
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#3
Actually, as a member of the Crafter-American community, I approve of this Resistance. The embroidery/cross-stitch universe has contracted in recent years to a ridiculous tyranny of Precious Moments, sappy scripture verses, noble wolves' eyes, and (wait for it) Thomas Kincade, Painter of Light. Plus endless lines of country kitschy geese with bows on their necks marching across every possible embroiderable kitchen surface.
It is a real Struggle to find fun projects that break away from the aforementioned mold, and I'm glad they're trying. I don't love the subject matter, but really. Enough with the "Home Sweet Home" already. We're grownups!
#8
Needlework is a relaxation form, much like the putatively more masculine woodcarving. I agree, it's gone awfully cutesy in recent years -- there used to be a lot more available in the way of medieval tapestry and art nouveau designs. Of course, neither is suitable for beginners or a quick evening project.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/08/2009 15:43 Comments ||
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#10
Sea and TW, I hear ya. If I get offered one more damn Precious Moments pattern, something is gonna die, horribly.
(Don't know how detailed you ladies wanna get, but you might want to check out Scarlet Quince for some incredible patterns based on classical artworks...I've also had some luck on eBay, too, believe it or not. But I'm moving towards adapting political posters on my own lately. Somehow Soviet-era ones seem strangely appropriate for some reason....with a little modification, of course.....and I'm sure that Mr Fairey won't like what I did with his "O" sign one either, but c'est la vie.)
#11
"as a member of the Crafter-American community"
oh sure, another oppressed minority :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2009 18:52 Comments ||
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#12
Cornsilk Blondie - a friends wife was the chief designer/developer for Precious Moments. Went to their wedding and never saw them again.
They were both oldest children of major Hong Kong family combines. I think he was from Jewelry or Clothes and I don't remember what she was.
Wedding was at the Seafood Restaurant in Chicago's China town next to I-57 or 55 (It's a decade ago I forget.)
more booze then you could ever drink. I think it was a 20 course dinner - 2 or 3 with whole lobsters. About 500+ guests at the dinner.
Entertainment included break dancers from another ethnic group care of a loving alderman....
Both drove new Lexus to the wedding... (that the gave each other)... Rings were.... yeah...
#13
Sea, contact me and I'll try to send you a couple of my patterns. They are DEFINITELY not "sappy". A few are created from scenes I took in Germany during one of my three tours there. Most were designed using "Pattern Maker" software. The most intricate is one of the "Church in the Rock, from Idar-Oberstein, Germany (14x20, 14-count).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/08/2009 20:31 Comments ||
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#14
I'd like to see someone do Starry Night by Vincent Van Gough.
#18
3dc, I have no doubt they are seriously raking in the dough. The designs still make me homicidal, though (they remind me of those stupid "Love Is" designs back in the 70's.....yecch!)
Old Patriot, I bet that's a gorgeous pattern! I gotta dust off my PC Stitch and start running through some of my brother's pictures.....
The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company's new jobs will be filled by workers overseas.
According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double. The proportion of GM cars sold domestically and manufactured in those low-wage countries will rise from 15 percent to 23 percent over the next five years, according to the figures contained in a 12-page presentation offered to lawmakers in response to their questions about overseas production.
As a result, the long-simmering argument over U.S. manufacturers expanding production overseas -- normally arising between unions and private companies -- is about to engage the Obama administration.
Essentially in control of the company, the president's autos task force faces an awkward choice: It can either require General Motors to keep more jobs at home, potentially raising labor costs at a company already beset with financial woes, or it can risk political fury by allowing the automaker to expand operations at lower-cost manufacturing locations.
It also creates more problems for GM in trying to re-build a brand identity. You won't be able to sell a South Korean-made car as a Buick or Cadillac, so they'll all be Chevys (Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Hummer are gone in this scenario). This means that all the foreign-made cars will be Chevys, just about, and that will further tank Chevy's brand. As evidence, I give you the Daewoo-made Aveo (you'll give it back, don't worry).
"It's an almost impossible dilemma," said former labor secretary Robert B. Reich, now a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. "GM is a global company -- so for that matter is AIG and the biggest Wall Street banks. That means that bailing them out doesn't necessarily redound to the benefit of the U.S. or American workers.
Wonder if Bob mentioned that happy thought to his friends currently in power in Washington ...
"More significantly, it raises fundamental questions about the purpose of bailing out these big companies. If GM is going to do more of its production overseas, then why exactly are we saving GM?"
That's the second question. First question: why exactly are we saving GM to begin with?
The administration has aroused similar complaints by shepherding a merger between Chrysler and Italian automaker Fiat. But it has extracted a promise from Fiat that it will build small cars in the United States.
Because Chrysler can build cars that are just as crappy as Fiats, and has ...
The complaints about GM's operations portend a potentially larger argument, a political dispute led in part by the United Auto Workers.
"The bottom line is GM would rather pay $2 an hour -- and it's a slippery slope downward," said Alan Reuther, the UAW's legislative director. "If GM is going to be getting government assistance, they ought to be maintaining their manufacturing footprint in the U.S. rather than going off to China, Mexico and South Korea."
Hard to argue that point. Let the South Koreans support their auto industry.
Labor costs in those countries are far lower. While paying a U.S. autoworker with benefits costs about $54 an hour, a South Korean worker earns about $22 an hour, a Mexican worker earns less than $10 an hour and some Chinese workers can earn as little as $3 an hour, industry sources said.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, GM chief executive Fritz Henderson met with legislators and sought to ease their concerns over the overseas operations.
You ain't the only one asking that question, Bobby-baby. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2009 12:15 Comments ||
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#3
If GM is going to do more of its production overseas, then why exactly are we saving GM?
Because, silly rabbit, GM is just a huge health-and-welfare operation for the UAW and its retirees. Has been for some years now. It sells a car now & then to defray expenses.
#5
If all the Cheverolets are built overseas... what will that do for NASCAR? Don't they have a rule about American-built cars?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
05/08/2009 16:51 Comments ||
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#6
NASCAR will switch to Honda since those cars are built in the US and use American made parts nowadays. If you look at the local content percentage for Honda vs GM, Honda by far is the most American made car.
#7
Toyota dominates NASCAR now days. I heard that the GM plan is a green one and the high end cars are out. I heard the government has decided to kill the Corvette line, and the new Camaro line.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/08/2009 19:38 Comments ||
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#8
Toyota Dominates NASCAR? They're doing well on a learning curve, but that was an overreach, sorry, Don. They may, eventually, and Michael Waltrip's and Joe Gibbs' teams have what? Denny Hamlin in the top 10? Give em a couple years and they'll be contending if not dominating
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2009 20:02 Comments ||
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#9
although, I will grant you Kyle Busch has *spit* had a good start. His selfish antics will bring karma back soon.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2009 20:20 Comments ||
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#10
I think there is a Race comming up in Bristol in August but I'm not sure.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/08/2009 20:56 Comments ||
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#11
Iheard the government has decided to kill the Corvette line, and the new Camaro line.
49Pan, they do that and I will never ever again buy a Government Motors car. (Some years, the only car they managed to get right was the 'Vette.)
#12
YAHOO NEWS > ANALYSIS says this man's US Recession = "Great Depression II" will soon be over.
Like SNOWFLAKES = FLURRIES/FLUFFIES which never dev into a de facto storm, save for causing MILYUUHNS + BILYUUHNS + TILYUUHNS, etc in PORCULON $$$ ECON BAILOUTS.
Uh, uh, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPSIES....DIDN'T NEED THE $$$ AFTER ALL. ONLY THE AUTOMAKER BANKRUPTCIES + GOVT TAKEOVERS???
EU leaders on Thursday called for a shorter working week and extra state-funded retraining programmes as recession threatens millions of jobs. However, the results of a special EU meeting on the continent's labour crisis failed to impress union leaders who are increasingly concerned about mass lay-offs.
With the recession expected to wipe out 8.5 million European jobs over two years, top officials from the Czech Republic, Sweden and Spain -- the current and future EU presidencies -- agreed to focus on identifying job opportunities, upgrading skills and encouraging labour mobility.
"We haven't signed up to those conclusions. They are not enough, it's very general," John Monks, secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation, told AFP.
The talks also revealed more philosphical rifts as the free-market friendly approach of Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and Sweden's Fredrik Reinfeldt clashed with calls for a social market economy from European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.
"We all agree on the goals, but we may not always agree on the means," Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said.
In one of the more specific conclusions, the EU said in a statement that member states should "maintain as many people as possible in jobs, with temporary adjustment of working hours combined with retraining and supported by public funding."
Always with more public funding. As we all know, that never runs out ...
While EU Labour Commissioner Vladimir Spidla told AFP the measure was "reasonable and efficient," his compatriot Topolanek warned against excessive public spending and protectionism. "The EU should work with the idea of an active individual, not a paternalist state that will take care of everything at the cost of debts and higher taxes," he said.
"We have to work through businesses and employees to try to develop our welfare model and create an atmosphere conducive to investment and jobs," added Reinfeldt, whose country will take the EU presidency on July 1.
The meeting proposed stepping up training for young unemployed, less red tape and more encouragement for people to move to where jobs can be found.
Barroso highlighted the "changing social situation" and added "there can be no economic recovery on the foundations of social collapse just as there can be no social progress in an economic desert."
The "troika" style meeting was a much-reduced version of the full-scale EU jobs summit with all 27 heads of state and government that the Czech Republic had envisaged.
Union leaders said the shrunken attendance was a sign of a lack of interest. "It's a pity it's not the major social summit which we would have preferred," said Wanja Lundby-Wedin, European Trade Union Confederation president.
However Spanish Labour Minister Celestino Corbacho declared that "this is the first time during the crisis that we are going to deal specifically with the issue of unemployment."
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister and chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, warned recently that the EU faced a "social crisis" if EU leaders failed to respond to the economic slump and job cuts. Lamenting that the summit had been downgraded, Juncker said: "Even if you don't have any ideas at this stage, that doesn't mean you should not get down to tackling the problem."
How .. European ...
The European Commission forecast on Monday that Europe was set to see unemployment rise to the highest levels since World War II with 8.5 million Europeans expected to lose their jobs in 2009 and 2010.
#1
Pretty much how we got the 40 hour, 5 day workeweek 70 years ago. They could cut the work week to 4 hours, one day, and they'd still have swarms of unemployed immigrants on the dole.
#2
If there is no work/demand, it doesn't matter how short the bureaucrats want to make the work week. The employer will only 'tool up' and hire when demand increases. Decreeing a shorter work week only makes the loss of assets/costs lesser, it doesn't create more product or service.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2009 12:21 Comments ||
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#4
Given the difficulties of firing unwanted or unneeded employees in the EU, companies are not likely to hire very many, even with a shortened work week. They'll just make the remainder more efficient. The only companies who'll hire more will be shops and restaurants, who need bodies to cover hours... of course, that's where increased employment is visible, so it's a win/win, I s'pose.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Muslims living in Europe feel far more loyalty to their country than they are often perceived to feel but have differing views on what is considered morally acceptable than their non-Muslim counterparts, a survey on coexistence said on Thursday.
The Gallup Coexist Index survey said there are several misconceptions and generalizations about Europe's Muslims because researchers often fail to consider cultural and socioeconomic differences in Europe that affect life as an immigrant.
"European Muslims want to be part of the wider community and contribute even more to society," said Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, but many found that they were not always successful.
The authors, Mogahed and Mohamed Younis, suggested that a combination of more strict views and religious practices by Muslims in certain countries had contributed to the misconception about their degree of integration, even while those Muslims were keen to integrate.
"This research shows that many of the assumptions about Muslims and integration are wide off the mark," Mogahed, the executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, said.
Out of the three European countries polled, only 10 percent of British Muslims felt integrated, while 46 percent of French Muslims and 36 percent of German Muslims felt integrated into the wider society.
Morals and democracy
" The greatest differences between Muslims and westerners lie more in eros than demos. In other words, the Muslim-west gap rests on differences in attitudes toward sexual liberalization and gender issues rather than democracy and governance "
Report
A seemingly counterintuitive finding was that European Muslims not only accepted but also welcomed the freedoms, democratic institutions, justice and human rights that characterize their societies.
Some researchers pointed out in the report that "the greatest differences between Muslims and westerners lie more in eros than demos. In other words, the Muslim-west gap rests on differences in attitudes toward sexual liberalization and gender issues rather than democracy and governance."
Muslims in Germany and Britain were more likely than the general public to say they had confidence in the judicial system, financial institutions and the honesty of elections.
Sixty-one percent of German Muslims expressed confidence in their national government compared to only 36 percent of the non-Muslim German public.
Homosexuality and honor killings
Most Muslims had little tolerance for the moral acceptability of homosexuality, abortion, pornography, sex outside of marriage and suicide.
Britain's Muslims showed zero tolerance for homosexual acts, while even in France, with the highest percentage of tolerance, only 35 percent said such acts were "morally acceptable."
On the issue of sexual relations between unmarried men and women, non-Muslim populations believed it was acceptable whereas Muslim populations generally characterized it as immoral, with a mere three percent in Britain believing it was moral.
Although stereotypes of Muslims suggest support for honor killings, poll findings showed that French, German and British Muslims actually held similar opinions to that of the general public.
Only three percent of French and German Muslims and two percent of British Muslims said honor killings were morally acceptable compared to one percent of the German and British non-Muslim publics.
Headscarf
For the past two decades the headscarf, or hijab, has been at the center of public debate with some branding it a symbol of oppression or a rejection of modern values.
The poll found that the majority of European populations believed that Muslim women should remove the headscarf in order to integrate adequately.
When asked what types of associations the European public, including Muslims, made with the headscarf equal percentages in France, about (30), and Germany, (40), said they associate the headscarf with courage. But others associated the hijab with women's oppression, religiosity and fanaticism.
The survey, described as the first of its kind, polled at least 500 Muslims in June and July of last year to generate its findings on European Muslim integration. At least 1,000 members of the general public in each country were also randomly surveyed to create comparisons on specific issues.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Lots of people differ over morals. More important differences are between Islam and Western concepts of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality of all citizens in the eyes of the law and the question of whether women are considered property or citizens.
#5
Muslims have the morals of toxic viruses
drifted down from outer space or vomited from hell
by allah-satan...
Posted by: Ming the Merciless ||
05/08/2009 19:39 Comments ||
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#6
Not all who call themselves Muslim, Ming the Merciless. But jihadis and their supporters, absolutely. What was the Arabic word for those who falsely claim jihad, does anyone remember?
[ADN Kronos] The United Nations refugee agency on Thursday strongly criticised the direct repatriation to Libya of an estimated 227 migrants who had sent distress calls only 35 nautical miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa. The operation had denied the migrants including possible asylum-seekers the protection they are entitled to under international conventions, the UN said.
UNHCR expressed its "deep concern" over the incident in which Italian patrol vessels rescued the migrants after a day of heated debate between Italy and Malta over who was responsible for the future of the immigrants following their distress call late on Tuesday.
The Italian coastal patrol vessels then accompanied the migrants to the Libyan port of Tripoli without stopping at an Italian port, a move hailed by Italy's interior minister Roberto Maroni as an "historic" turning point in the fight against illegal immigration.
UNHCR said the incident marked a significant shift in policies by the Italian government and deplored what it described as a "lack of transparency" surrounding the incident.
"I appeal to the Italian and Maltese authorities to continue to ensure that people rescued at sea and in need of international protection receive full access to territory and asylum procedures," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
An estimated 75 percent of migrants who reached Italy by sea last year applied for asylum and 50 percent of them were granted some form of protection, UNHCR noted.
The UN refugee agency's concerns were shared by human rights group Amnesty International.
"By failing to protect the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers rescued at sea, the Italian and Maltese governments have breached their international obligations," the group said in a statement on Thursday.
"The lives and safety of migrants and asylum-seekers have been placed at risk," said Amnesty's Europe and Central Asia programme director, Nicola Duckworth.
"States must ensure that any international cooperation or assistance efforts, including border controls or immigration policies, do not result in human rights abuses," Duckworth added.
Amnesty called on Italy and Malta to respect the basic rights of asylum-seekers, migrants and refugees. It also urged the Libyan authorities to introduce procedures to allow asylum seekers to apply for refugee status and give all those potentially in need of international protection access to the UNHCR in Libya.
The entry into force this month of a bilateral agreement to combat illegal immigration between Italy and Libya allows joint maritime patrols in return for millions of dollars of Italian aid for Libya.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
STRASBOURG, MAY 7 - Libyàs decision this morning to accept responsibility for three boat-loads of emigrants sighted yesterday off the Italian island of Lampedusa, represents a "good signal to the whole of the EU". So said the Vice President of the EU Commission, Antonio Tajani, speaking on the sidelines of the plenary session of the Europarliament and on the eve of his visit to Valletta.European action also has to be in "harmony" with the immigrants' countries of origin, Tajani stressed, saying that the signal sent out by Libya today was a step in this direction. (ANSAmed).
[Geo News] couple and their child were killed by unidentified gunmen at Shireen Jinnah Colony in the jurisdiction of Boat Basin Police station here on Thursday. Police said the couple received several bullet injuries and died on the spot while their child was thrown in a water tank. The identity and age of victims could not be ascertained.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] The bail pleas of accused in death case of a peasant was rejected here on Thursday by Additional District and Sessions Judge South Abdul Naeem Memon. Wali Dad of Village Essa Mohammad Khaskheli died in front of Karachi Press Club a month back where he was observing a hunger strike alongwith his family displaced from the ancestoral place. The court announcing the order reserved a few days back, rejected the bail pleas of former MPA Waryam Faqir, Dr Hashim, a Tehsil Nazim and three other co-accused and ordered arrest of the accused.
Waryam and Dr Hashim fled from the court pushing away the policemen, while their co-accused were taken into custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
What? their Police don't carry guns?
Posted by: Javick Protector of the Nebraskans3920 also known as RedneckJim ||
05/08/2009 20:52 Comments ||
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Members of the All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) warned on Thursday they would commit ritual suicide outside Chief Minister's Secretariat if the Punjab government did not accept their demands.
Following the government's move to sack over 110 employees of the Local Government Board who had been working there for the past 16 years, the APCA had staged rallies and attempted to approach Governor's House during Wednesday's protest but were forcefully stopped by police. The use of baton charge on the occasion left two protesters injured.
Protest: On Thursday, members of the APCA blocked Sanda Road, adjacent to Civil Secretariat, and shouted anti-government slogans after the government refused to accept their demands. Office-bearers of the APCA, including APCA Central President Muhammad Afzal, APCA Central Information Secretary Sultan Mujadaddi, Haji Muhammad Irshad and others addressed the protesters. The clerks, who had threatened to sell their children for money during Wednesday's protest, delivered on their promise and brought their children with them to the protest.
Children: The children came to the protest fully prepared preparation and used their placards to convey their message to the government. The prominent placards read: "Khadim-e-Ala uncle, when will you sell your children?" "Uncle Zardari, would you also sell Bilawal?" "We need our fathers to be employed instead of sasti roti." Some children used the placards to offer themselves for sale.
One of the children at the protest, Saghira, daughter of Abdul Majeed who was sacked after 16 years as a daily wager of the Local Government Board, said her parents had no option left and had to resort to desperate measures. She said the sasti roti scheme was useless if her family had no money to buy it with. She said the family's survival was not possible without her father's job. Rasheed Ahmed, a clerk who was among those sacked after 16 years of service, said the public had voted for the Sharif brothers with great hopes. He said the brothers might lose public support if they failed to understand the plight of the poor clerks. APCA Central Information Secretary Mujadaddi said the government was paying no attention to the demands of the clerks, adding the clerks had therefore decided to commit suicide on May 13. "Around five of our members would use kerosene to set themselves on fire," he said. The clerks' demands are very reasonable, especially after the salaries of the police officials were doubled, he added. The clerks were resentful of the government's decision to sack all daily wagers at once, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Whoa - for a sec there methought t'was NORTH KOREA!
#2
You just have to marvel at the breathtaking mind-on-rails that says you can't possibly find any other job than the one the government gave you. I mean, commit suicide and sell your children? These are just municipal layoffs!!
#3
Any government employee who threatens to commit suicide over layoffs ought to be encouraged, so long as explosives or anything else tending towards a murder-suicide are not included in the deal. After all, the more dead ex-employees, the fewer layoffs of actual, sane workers.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/08/2009 11:13 Comments ||
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Hmmmmmmmmm. Massachsetts is looking at a big deficeit. I wonder if Deval heard about this? Or the folks down at The Globe?
[Bangla Daily Star] The CPN (UML) is all set to choose Madhav Kumar Nepal as the leader of the next coalition that will form the government.
UML Vice-Chairperson Bidhya Devi Bhandari here on Wednesday said, "Madhav Kumar Nepal has the ability to bring together different parties. UML is going to pick him unanimously as the leader of the next coalition."
Bhandari claimed that a government of national consensus would be formed under the UML's leadership. Bhandari further said even as Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda's resignation was a democratic act, his party, Unified CPN (Maoist), is showing undemocratic behaviour by obstructing the parliament.
Earlier Maoist secretariat member Barshaman Pun said his party would not allow parliamentary proceedings if President Ram Baran Yadav does not rectify his "unconstitutional move".
Nepali Congress leader Ram Saran Mahat said the President's move averted a dangerous situation as the Maoists were preparing to capture power by taking Nepal Army under political control. "The Maoists are still possessing arms, which is a problem. They should be disarmed completely," Nepalnews quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, riot police beat back hundreds of women from Nepal's communist party who protested Thursday in front of the president's house in the capital to demand that he fire the country's army chief.
Nepal's communist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal sparked a national crisis Monday when he resigned and pulled his party from the ruling coalition in protest over the army chief's failure to integrate former communist rebels into the military.
Some 500 protesters from the women's wing of Dahal party marched on President Ram Baran Yadav's residence Thursday, chanting slogans while police used bamboo batons to beat back activists who tried to break through a cordon. Some of the women were lightly injured.
Dahal's supporters are angry that Yadav overruled Dahal on Sunday when the former prime minister tried to fire army chief Rookmangud Katawal.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] Chaos reigned in the Perak State Assembly yesterday as assemblymen from opposing sides scuffled, wrestled and screamed at one another to wrest control of the legislature.
A raucous showdown paralysed the assembly for more than five hours as the Barisan Nasional (BN) and opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) tussled for control. The BN eventually prevailed when its candidate for Speaker was installed.
The State Assembly was the last institution still helmed by the PR after the alliance was toppled by the BN through defections in February. The BN had taken over the administration, with Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir sworn in as Menteri Besar.
But the PR refused to recognise this, and has taken the BN to court. The High Court will deliver its decision on the legitimacy of the takeover on Monday.
Yesterday's assembly sitting had to be convened because the state Constitution does not allow more than six months to lapse between meetings. The last sitting was in November.
The BN also wanted to remove PR-appointed Speaker V. Sivakumar, but this took five tense hours as the PR resisted the move.
When punches were thrown, the police intervened. Plainclothes policemen pulled Mr Sivakumar from his chair and dragged him out of the hall.
BN Speaker A. Ganesan then took over the chair and presided over the opening of the assembly.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
I encourage this. The more time he spends writing letters about non-issues, the less time he has to ruin the rest of the country. Keep following your heart, Barry!
#5
Maybe finally the military will start publishing the real statistics of how many homosexuals (and those accused of homosexuality) are murdered every year.
Right now, no post commander in the world will admit that a homicide was based on an individual being killed because he was accused of being a homo.
#9
Let us count the handwritten notes by Obama to KIA and WIA servicement. 0...
But he did put the WIA on his moronic DHS target list ... he sees them as the 'enemy', along with, I'm sure, the SEALS that shot the pirates (no cutesy notes for them, either).
Oi Vey. Currently, gays can serve very constructively in the Army. But this all will change. As of right now they're not allowed to have families paid for by gov't money and wives sitting around getting fat yelping for BAH money, subsidised daycare, dependant care, housing, healthcare, food assistance, etc, etc. Once don't ask, dont tell is outta the way, they will demand equal family and housing subsidies, start shacking up with straights just to get money, and the Army will become a breeding farm for alternative lifestyles of the gay and camoflagued. The amount of BAH fraud will rise exponentially. CID is going to be pulling doubles trying to crack down on the fraud. It already goes on all the time, but soon it will be an unabated flood.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The U.S. government is pouring billions into General Motors in hopes of reviving the domestic economy, but when the automaker completes its restructuring plan, many of the company's new jobs will be filled by workers overseas. 
[Straits Times] Chaos reigned in the Perak State Assembly yesterday as assemblymen from opposing sides scuffled, wrestled and screamed at one another to wrest control of the legislature. 
