Climate-change skeptics are taking a beating these days even in France, where people long resisted the green creed.
Paris bookstores brim with guidebooks — including one shaped like a toilet seat — that tell readers how to help save our planet. Yet the dissidents refuse to shut up, even now that Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize and the U.S. government has agreed to negotiate a new global-warming treaty by 2009.
The most conspicuous doubter in France is Claude Allegre, a former education minister and a physicist by profession. His new book, ``Ma Verite Sur la Planete'' (``My Truth About the Planet''), doesn't mince words. He calls Gore a "crook" presiding over an eco-business that pumps out cash. As for Gore's French followers, the author likens them to religious zealots who, far from saving humanity, are endangering it. Driven by a Judeo-Christian guilt complex, he says, French greens paint worst-case scenarios and attribute little-understood cycles to human misbehavior.
Allegre doesn't deny that the climate has changed or that extreme weather has become more common. He instead emphasizes the local character of these phenomena.
While the icecap of the North Pole is shrinking, the one covering Antarctica — or 92 percent of the Earth's ice — is not, he says. Nor have Scandinavian glaciers receded, he says. To play down these differences by basing forecasts on a global average makes no sense to Allegre.
He dismisses talk of renewable energies, such as wind or solar power, saying it would take a century for them to become a serious factor in meeting the world's energy demands.
(SomaliNet) Police in Somalia's northern breakaway region of Puntland continued their search operations Thursday for two foreign female aid workers kidnapped a day earlier by gunmen, a minister said, AFP reports. "The policemen are continuing their search operations around the mountainous area where the kidnappers are hiding," Puntland Trade Minister Abdishamad Yusuf Abwan told AFP.
The minister could not provide detailed information on the health situation of the two women, a Spanish doctor and an Argentine nurse working for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). "We don't know much about them so far but they could be facing difficult conditions because of long hours of walking in rough areas," Abwan said. "It's been more than 24 hours now but no-one can exactly say what their situation is right now," he added.
The two women were snatched by armed men in the Puntland port of Bosasso on Wednesday, two days after the release of a French cameraman who was held hostage for eight days. Police hunted down the kidnappers and engaged in an exchange of fire with them on Wednesday, capturing two suspects.
On Thursday, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos urged the authorities of Puntland to ensure that the two hostages would not be hurt and added that Spain's ambassador to Kenya was on his way to Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/28/2007 00:00 ||
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PARIS - The six French aid workers sentenced to eight years of forced labour and fined almost 9 million dollars for attempting to kidnap more than 100 African children could be flown out to France by Sunday, the Nouvel Observateur magazine said on Thursday.
Supporters of the LArche de Zoe (Zoes Ark) aid organization meanwhile have criticised the sentence as too harsh.
They should feel lucky. If I had been in charge they would each have 30 years in a Turkish prison for kidnapping. That's what this was, pure and simple.
One of the defence lawyers, Gilbert Collard, called the situation a legal scandal.
I agree, but not the way he thinks ...
The trial, which was over in a few days, was seen as a face-saving measure for Chad. French President Nicolas Sarkozy had promised after the arrests to get all French detainees out of Chad, no matter what they have done.
The aid workers in October attempted to kidnap bring 103 African children to France to house them with foster families with the possibility of future adoption.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/28/2007 00:00 ||
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A Bangladeshi anti-crime agency arrested eight suspects Thursday following the theft of two rare 1,500-year-old statues that were headed to France for an exhibition, an official said. Col. Gulzar Uddin Ahmed of the Rapid Action Battalion said authorities were using information given by the suspects to carry out raids on premises near the capital to recover two terra-cotta statues of Hindu god Vishnu. The statues were discovered stolen Sunday from a high-security cargo area at Dhaka's international airport.
"The suspects belong to a criminal gang, and we believe they were directly involved in the theft," Ahmed said. He did not elaborate.
Local television reports said the statues may have been broken up and disposed of. The private NTV network said police were questioning city cleaners who claimed to have found pieces of the statues at various garbage dumps.
The latest arrests come a day after an adviser to Bangladesh's cultural affairs ministry stepped down following criticism over the theft. Cultural Affairs and Education Adviser Ayub Quadri said he resigned for "personal reasons." "I am not sure if it's my personal failure. But since I am in charge of the ministry, I share some of the responsibility," Quadri told reporters before his resignation Wednesday.
The statues a bust and a full-length depiction of Vishnu in fired clay were insured for a total of $65,000. The Vishnus were among 143 artifacts collected from five major museums that Bangladesh had agreed to send to France for an exhibition at the Guimet Museum in Paris, due to open early next year. The first consignment of 42 objects was flown to Paris on Dec. 1.
Following an outcry over the missing statues, the government decided Tuesday not to send the remaining artifacts to France, and plans to ask for the return of those sent earlier to Paris, officials said.
Why? They're safer in Paris than in Dhaka.
The government informed the French Embassy in Dhaka on Wednesday that it would not be possible to "go ahead with holding the exhibition of the items as planned" at the Guimet Museum, Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain said.
The embassy expressed regret over the cancellation in a statement, but said Paris respected the government's decision. "We fully respect this decision, while regretting the cancellation of an event that would surely have enhanced the cultural presence of Bangladesh throughout the world," the statement said.
Bangladesh had asked Interpol to help trace the stolen statues, and had tightened controls along the Indian border to prevent them from being smuggled out. "These are masterpieces and very valuable to our cultural heritage," said Shamsuzzaman Khan, a former head of the Bangladesh National Museum, where the most valuable of the relics are normally housed. "The government should not have agreed to send them abroad."
Vladimir Putin's controversial youth movement is to send a select group of activists to study at British universities - despite its disdain for Britain and its harassment of the British ambassador in Moscow.
The 100,000-strong Nashi group, which is reportedly funded by the Kremlin, is to pay for dozens of its activists to study in the UK - because the excellence of the education will help make Russia a "world leader".
The move comes as Russia is threatening to close the offices of the British Council - which promotes UK education overseas - in St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg as part of a diplomatic row.
Nashi recently restarted its campaign against the Sir Anthony Brenton, the British ambassador, following his speech on democracy to opponents of President Putin whom they described as "fascists".
Sir Anthony has described the campaign as "psychological harassment bordering on violence", and complained that it also impacted on his wife and children. His car has been followed and he has been picketed on trips out of Moscow.
Yet despite its views on Britain, Nashi states: "We lag behind in knowledge and experience vital for making Russia a 21st-century world leader. British education is rated highly all over the world. The graduates of British universities are in great demand. This is because of the high quality of education and also control from the government."
Relations between Moscow and London have been soured by Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, wanted over the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London. Britain has refused to extradite Boris Berezovsky, who is accused of financial crimes by the Russians.
An embassy source said: "The British government supports young Russians who wish to study in the UK. This is a core activity of the British Council's three offices in Russia.
"We are delighted that Nashi clearly supports the objectives of the British Council."
(ANSA) - Rome, December 28 - The Italian government on Friday approved a decree allowing the expulsion of immigrants on the grounds of public security concerns.
The decree will enable local authorities to expel legal immigrants - even from European Union countries like Romania - if they are deemed to pose a threat to society. The new decree also provides for immediate expulsions on the basis of suspicion of terrorism threats. The decree is expected to lead to some 1,200 expulsions, many of them Romanian gypsies (Roma) who have recently topped crime statistics. Officials said the decree would soon be followed by a measure aimed at stopping violence against gays - a provision which threatened to derail an original version of the decree.
Welfare Minister Paolo Ferrero said the decree would also be followed by a new immigration law to bring illegal immigrants into the open, promote integration and fight immigrant-related crime. He called for a ''comprehensive commitment'' from the government on immigration reform.
The new immigration bill, drafted by Ferrero and Interior Minister Giuliano Amato, will be put to parliament next month. Friday's decree is a new version of one issued in November which was set to expire.
That first decree came in response to a spate of violent crimes culminating in the murder and suspected sexual assault of a middle-aged naval officer's wife by a Roma. The decree was scrapped amid fears that scores of immigrants expelled under the November decree could soon return with impunity because the measure would not be converted into law by the end of the year.
The move, embarrassing for the government, became necessary when President Giorgio Napolitano announced that there were ''erroneous references'' in the bill which was about to go to the House for final approval. The implication was clearly that he might not sign the legislation into law, leaving dozens of recent expulsions without any legal basis.
The fresh measure does not contain the provisions regarding discrimination against gays which were slipped into the first decree at the last minute. These provisions, which were the source of a fresh bout of quarrelling in the centre-left coalition, will now be put into a separate draft law.
According to Italian media, almost 500 immigrants have been expelled under the first decree.
#1
This is exemplary. Bravo Italy ! The Roma may be thieves, but I think your major problem is the illegal muzz parasites from northern Africa. Put them aboard a leaky barge, tow them south a hindred kilos and hope for a gale.
The last remaining U.S. independent counsel, David Barrett, after spending $21 million over 10 years, on Jan. 12 finally will close down his investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros' lying to FBI investigators about hush money paid to an ex-mistress.
The political significance is that the Barrett report's shocking allegations of high-level corruption in the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department are likely to be concealed from the public and from Congress.
A recently passed appropriations bill, intended to permit release of this report, was altered behind closed doors to ensure that its politically combustible elements never saw the light of day.
Continued on Page 49
Sen. Barack Obama kicked off the countdown to the Iowa caucuses yesterday with a sharp attack on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - raising the specter of a "secretive" history and problems in her husband's administration.
"You have to ask yourself, who's talked the talk, because that will be the measure of how seriously they take this stuff," Obama said. "If they've been secretive in the past, they'll be secretive as president," he said at an Iowa rally. "If they haven't been all that strong on lobbyists in the past, doesn't matter what they say in the campaign - they won't be that strong about it when they are president."
The "secretive" charge has been lodged by Clinton critics who question why thousands of pages of material from Hillary's days as first lady haven't been released.
Clinton, campaigning with her husband, took a veiled jab at Obama. "Some believe you can get change by demanding it, and some believe you can get change by hoping for it," she said. "I believe you can get change by working really, really hard for it. And I think it takes strength and experience to be able to make change in our political system," she went on. "We don't have any time to waste."
Meanwhile, on the GOP side, Rudy Giuliani began a three-day tour of Florida. His personal doctor yesterday gave him a clean bill of health, a week after the former New York mayor was hospitalized when he suffered a "significant headache."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"...they won't be that strong about it when they are president."
"THEY" are running for president? Ain't that an interesting way to put it, BO.
SHIMLA: Riding an anti-incumbency wave, the BJP on Friday swept back to power in Himachal Pradesh winning an absolute majority ousting Congress in the Assembly elections capping a year of triumphs in Gujarat, Punjab and Uttarakhand.
Conforming to the cycle of the ruling party being ejected from power in the hill state, the saffron party bagged 41 seats, five short of two-thirds majority in the 68-member Assembly. In the outgoing House, BJP had only 19 MLAs. Congress, which yielded ground to an impressive performance by BJP in all parts of the state, secured only 23 seats, down by 18. The bad tidings came for the party on its 123rd Foundation Day.
The BSP, which played the spoiler for Congress by cutting into its traditional vote bank of Dalits, made its debut in the state winning one seat while Independents took away the remaining three.
P K Dhumal (63), a professor of English literature, who was named as BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate, led the saffron surge winning from Bamsan in Hamirpur district beating his schoolmate and Congress candidate retired colonel B C Lagwal by 26,000 votes. Dhumal, who also represents Hamirpur in Lok Sabha, is likely to be chosen as the leader of the BJP's Legislature Party tomorrow and may be sworn in for a second term as Cheif Minister on Sunday.
The Congress, which went to the polls under the leadership of grand old man of Himachal politics and five-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, suffered on BJP's campaign plank of corruption, price rise and unemployment. Three ministers bit the dust in the polls, while Singh survived the saffron sweep retaining his Rohru seat in Shimla district winning by a margin of 14,000 votes. The defeated ministers were Raj Kishan Gaur(Agriculture), Ramlal Thakur(Forest) and Kuldeep Kumar(Industries).
Boy howdy, an election without riots, explosions and assassinations. Pakistain should take notice.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/28/2007 07:05 ||
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#1
Local muzz likely to go to the "mole" mode for the next year or so, to avoid being stacked and torched. Actions/reactions.
The financially and demographically struggling National Council of Churches (NCC) is mulling over a new Social Creed for the 21st Century that will succinctly articulate its left-leaning political activism. Many of the NCCs heterodox officials and activist supporters could not affirm traditional Christian theological creeds. For them, political creeds are the desired alternative.
This new creed is supposed to update the Social Creed of 1908 developed by the NCCs predecessor church council, and which focused on rights for laborers, child labor laws, and old age pensions. The NCC, and its predecessor Federal Council of Churches, were founded by religious and political progressives. Not until the1960s did far-left radicalism began to displace the NCCs formerly mainstream liberalism.
It is not enough to celebrate the centennial of the 1908 social creed, a Presbyterian drafter told the NCCs General Assembly in November 2007. It can strengthen the common witness of our communions on a broad range of social concerns far broader than in 1908.
Continued on Page 49
#1
The NCC should just declare itself the "Church of the Goracle and Global Warming" and be done with it, since the left is its god. The old God is a Republican after all...
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
#5
or go back 1700 years or so (pretty much the same words)...
Credo in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentem; factorum coeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium.
Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula [Deum de Deo], Lumen de Lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri; per quem omnia facta sunt; qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de coelis, et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine, et homo factus est; crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est; et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas; et ascendit in coelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris; et iterum venturus est, cum gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos; cujus regni non erit finis.
Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre [Filioque] procedit; qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur; qui locutus est per Prophetas. Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum; et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi seculi. Amen.
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.
Climate-change skeptics are taking a beating these days even in France, where people long resisted the green creed.
A Bangladeshi anti-crime agency arrested eight suspects Thursday following the theft of two rare 1,500-year-old statues that were headed to France for an exhibition, an official said. Col. Gulzar Uddin Ahmed of the Rapid Action Battalion said authorities were using information given by the suspects to carry out raids on premises near the capital to recover two terra-cotta statues of Hindu god Vishnu. The statues were discovered stolen Sunday from a high-security cargo area at Dhaka's international airport.
(ANSA) - Rome, December 28 - The Italian government on Friday approved a decree allowing the expulsion of immigrants on the grounds of public security concerns.
Sen. Barack Obama kicked off the countdown to the Iowa caucuses yesterday with a sharp attack on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - raising the specter of a "secretive" history and problems in her husband's administration. 
