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Wednesday, June 7, 2006

The 27,000-pages of documents released on Tuesday reveal that while the United States and West Germany knew the location of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann two years before his capture, the fact was kept secret. The documents were declassified as part of the Nazi War Criminals Disclosure Act of 1998.

West German Intelligence informed the US in March 1958 of the whereabouts of the senior Gestapo officer, who was living under the alias “Clemens” in Argentina where he had arrived seven years earlier.

It was not US policy at the time to go after Nazi criminals since they were still recruited for Cold War operations.

“It now appears that West Germany could have captured him in 1958, if it wished to,” said University of Virginia historian Timothy Naftali. He also said that CIA helped West Germany at the time to suppress part of Eichmann’s diary – which was in the possession of Life magazine – that would have embarrassed West German national security adviser Hans Globke, himself a former Nazi.

Eichmann was captured by Israelis in 1960 in Argentina. He was tried in Jerusalem and received the death penalty.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov voiced expectations on Tuesday that the process of resolving the country’s long-standing name dispute with Greece will receive a new impetus, given the new government in Athens. He said that a compromise is possible, if the process continues under the auspices of UN resolutions and talks focus only on the name, and not on the Macedonian identity and language.

Ivanov added that any compromise shouldn’t “be offensive” to either Macedonia or Greece.

“A compromise is possible if the process is under the auspices of the UN resolution and only the name [of Macedonia] is discussed,” said Ivanov, as quoted by the MIA news agency. “A solution which is not insulting either for Macedonia or for Greece is a compromise.”

Greece and the Republic of Macedonia have been at odds over who has the right to the name of Macedonia — which is shared by a province in northern Greece — since 1991, when Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia.

Monday, April 25, 2011

The international organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to publicly address China’s recent crackdown on dissidents, during her visit to the country from April 25th to 28th.

In an open letter HRW called on Prime Minister Gillard to address the increasing use of repressive force in China. According to HRW at least 39 lawyers and activists have been arrested and between 100 and 200 others have been victims of repressive measures such as house arrest, since February 16th.

Prime Minister Gillard is currently on a tour of Asia which included a stop in the disaster hit regions of Japan. She told Australian media before departing that she would “of course be raising human rights (with China).” “Our view of course is that we raise human rights. We have a human rights dialogue with China. That dialogue was in session as recently as December last year.”

HRW’s Asia advocacy director Sophie Richardson said that whilst Prime Minister Gillard has expressed concern in Canberra, “the test is whether she will do so publicly in Beijing”

The issue of human rights in China is of particular interest in Australia following the disappearance – and feared arrest – of Australian citizen and pro-democracy activist Yang Hengjun in China last month. The political blogger and writer disappeared in Guangzhou in March and although he has since resurfaced, he has not publicly stated exactly what happened during the two day period that he was missing.

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Tuesday, January 1, 2008

A fire in the Borrabbin National Park between Southern Cross and Coolgardie Western Australia, has so far burnt out 29,000 hectares and killed three truck drivers when the convoy they were travelling in was engulfed by the flames. Great Eastern Highway the primary road for all traffic from Perth heading to the East Coast of Australia has been closed. An alternate route is in place, police are diverting traffic at Norseman. The diversion adds 250 km(160 mi) for the journey to Perth.

The three truck drivers died on Sunday night after they joined a convoy that was released from Coolgardie after being told that the road was safe. Kieran McNamara director general of the Department of Environment and Conservation(DEC) admitted that it had been caught out by its decision to reopen the road at 8pm (wst) on 30 December.

Mr McNamara said “The decision was made with the advice from people at the firefront, and with the latest weather forecasts, and was judged to be the right decision and the safe decision at the time and in those circumstances… Regrettably and with hindsight, that’s not how it’s turned out.”

The driver of another truck in the convoy that was destroyed escaped with burns to his hands and was rushed through the fire front by firefighters to Yellowdine, another driver was rescued uninjured and return to Coolgardie, a spokesman for Whiteline transport the owners of this truck were thankful their driver survived unharmed saying the cost of the vehicle lost was about AU$400,000 plus cargo. Police confirmed that four trucks were destroyed by the fire.

Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia reported that they were fighting the fire without using water. All efforts were focused on building fire breaks with heavy machinery to contain the fire, that 90 volunteer fire fighters on the scene were there to defend the bulldozers.

The fire is still burning on a 150 km (90 mi) front, DEC spokesman says fire fighters are hoping to bring the fire under control with an expected cool change on Wednesday. The Weather Bureau has forecast temperatures to return above 40°C(105°F) by Thursday.

Local Police say that Great Eastern Highway will remain closed until the fire is under control and the damaged vehicles have been removed from the scene, at this stage its not expected to occur before Sunday.

Friday, April 7, 2006

At least seventy civilians were killed, with many more injured in an apparent suicide attack at the popular Buratha mosque in northern Baghdad soon after the Friday prayers. Police have said that two of the bombers were dressed as women. The attack comes a day after the Iraqi interior ministry issued a warning about possible attacks on mosques.

The chief imam of Buratha mosque, Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, who is also a member of the Iraqi parliament, stated that Shias are being targeted “as part of this dirty sectarian war waged against them as the world watches silently.”

Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr on the other hand asserts that recent bombings were in fact the work of the US-led coalition forces. Regarding Thursday’s Najaf bombing, he was quoted as saying: “This is not the first time that the occupation forces and their death squads have resorted to killings”.

Sadr further charged the occupying forces, and more specifically the United States, with “killing religious Shia clerics in order to start a sectarian strife”.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a statement, urging all parties to remain calm: “I urge all Iraqis to exercise restraint in the wake of this tragedy, to come together to fight terror, to continue to resist the provocation to sectarian violence and to pursue justice within the framework of Iraq’s laws and constitution.”

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Nine firefighters were killed on Monday while battling a massive fire at a furniture warehouse in Charleston, South Carolina.

Firefighters were called to the scene of a massive blaze at the Sofa Super Store in Charleston, S.C. at around 6:30 p.m. EST. At around 7 p.m., nine firefighters were sent inside the inferno to rescue people who were trapped inside the building. They rescued two before the ceiling collapsed on top of them. All nine firefighters who were inside the warehouse died. They are:

• Capt. William Hutchinson, 48
• Capt. Mike Benke, 49
• Capt. Louis Mulkey, 34
• FF Mark Kelsey, 40
• FF Bradford Baity, 37
• FF Michael French, 27
• FF James “Earl” Drayton, 56
• FF Brandon Thompson, 27
• FF Melven Champaign, 46

The disaster recalls Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire that killed six firefighters on Dec. 3, 1999, in Worcester, Massachusetts. The chief of the Worcester Fire Department flew down to South Carolina for the memorial service.

Saturday, December 29, 2018

On Wednesday, lawmakers of German ruling coalition parties — Christian Democratic Union of Germany ^{((de))German language: ?Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands} (CDU), Social Democratic Party of Germany ^{((de))German language: ?Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands} (SPD), and Christian Social Union in Bavaria ^{((de))German language: ?Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern} (CSU) — announced they were considering imposing new mandatory taxation Muslims would have to pay, which the government would distribute as funding to mosques. The lawmakers said this was a possible solution to stop funding and finance of the mosques in Germany from foreign countries and institutes.

The proposal would introduce taxes for Muslims similar to the mandatory taxes the state collects from practicing Protestants and Catholics in order to fund the churches.

Official estimates indicate Germany has around 4.4 to 4.7 million resident Muslims. Mosques currently receive funding from foreign sources. Press reports indicate Gulf countries provide funding to mosques and imams. Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs ^{((tr))Turkish language: ?Diyanet ??leri Türk-?slam Birli?i} (D?T?B) is reportedly one of the biggest foreign institutes currently funding mosques in Germany. D?T?B is under direction by the Turkish government and reportedly influences over 900 German Muslim communities.

Speaking to Deutsche Welle, Seyran Ates, founder of a progressive mosque in German capital Berlin, said German Islam “has a huge influence from outside, from foreign countries”. Ates went on to say, “They [German Muslims] have to take care about their own religion here in Germany. So Muslims in Germany should do something for Islam in Germany”.

Thorsten Frei of CDU told German daily Die Welt this is an “important step” enabling “Islam in Germany to emancipate itself from foreign states”. CSU’s Michael Frieser said, “Mosques must be open and transparent”.

Describing the idea of the new tax as “worthy of discussion”, Burkhard Lischka of SPD noted: “We need to work with the states on this issue, since the church tax is then responsibility of the states”.

Some other European governments, similarly to Germany, mandate Christians pay church taxes in order to fund the churches; including Austria, Italy, and Sweden.