Empty Seats At Inauguration [ 612 ]

Ministers To Face Empty Seats At Inauguration Of Judicial Year

• sabato 30 gennaio 2010, alle 15:30

Magistrates association (ANM): “No to personalised laws and no to insults to magistrates”. Justice minister says: “They have ruined a day that is for ordinary citizens

ROME– Magistrates all over Italy will take action after agreeing to a hard-hitting form of protest. Justice minister Angelino Alfano and his representatives will be speaking to empty chairs at Saturday’s inauguration of the judicial year. It is a very visible way of expressing “concern at legislation currently under way” and saying no to “personalised laws that destroy the judicial system”.

CONSTITUTION AND REPORT – At the ceremonies to be held at all appeal court districts, magistrates will be carrying a copy of the Italian constitution to “symbolise their strong attachment to the judicial function and the constitution”. They will leave the hall when the minister or ministry representative is due to speak in order to “testify to their concern at legislation currently under way, which threatens to destroy justice in Italy, and at the absence of initiatives necessary to ensure the efficiency of the system”. Magistrates will return at the end of the speech. Presidents of local branches of ANM, the magistrates’ association, will then read a document drafted by the central executive council (“No more laws without reason or coherence, designed exclusively for individual judicial processes, and which have brought criminal justice in this country to its knees. No more insults or attacks”). After this, presidents will hold up a copy of the report “Europe’s Truth about Italian Magistrates”, which will be handed to the president of the appeal court. Copies of the report will be distributed to all those present. Following the ceremony, each local executive will hold a media briefing at which the ANM document and the report will be presented and problems specific to each district explained.

REACTIONS – Politicians reacted to news of the magistrates’ decision. The People of Freedom’s (PDL) national coordinator, Sandro Bondi, said the initiative was “a profound, outrageous infringement of the democratic and constitutional order. A clear stance on the part of all institutions to safeguard legitimate democratic prerogatives is now a matter of urgency”. In contrast, the Italy of Values (IDV) group leader in the Senate, Massimo Donadi, referred to “a just protest at a disgraceful law. Alfano has shown on a thousand occasions that he is not the minister of justice. He is Berlusconi’s anti-magistracy commissioner”.

ALFANO – Later on, the justice minister replied: “I am the minister of justice, I serve my country and I have sworn on the constitution. Unlike those who are going to follow ANM’s short-sighted suggestions, I will be present at the inauguration of the judicial year at the Supreme Court of Cassation, in the presence of the president of the republic”, announced Angelino Alfano, the justice minister, in a note. Mr Alfano continued: “Similarly, I will be going tomorrow to the appeal court at L’Aquila, where the justice service has started to function brilliantly again after the earthquake, thanks to the efforts of the institutions and of many public servants. Instead of inaugurating the judicial year, ANM has decided to inaugurate an election campaign in view of the upcoming vote for the magistracy’s ruling council, the CSM, which will be held in the spring. ANM has opted to ruin a day that is about Italian citizens and their right to justice. The image ANM is offering of itself does not coincide with the image and sense of ethics of the thousands of magistrates who every morning serve Italy and the institutions they represent”.

English translation by Giles Watson

Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 ..[ 611 ]

Reports: Russia's Superjet to be certified in July

Sukhoi Superjet 100

by Associated Press

Posted on January 27, 2010 at 7:53 AM

MOSCOW – Russia's much-anticipated regional passenger aircraft, the Sukhoi Superjet, should be given flight certification by the summer, officials reportedly said Wednesday.

The Superjet, produced by Russian airline maker Sukhoi in association with Italy's Alenia Aeronautica, has been widely seen as Russia's chance to gain a competitive foothold in the international passenger airline market.

The jet, which seats 75 to 95 people, has a range of about 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) and is priced at $29 million a piece.

Superjet is designed compete against other regional craft such as the Embraer E-Jets and the Bombardier CRJ program. Locally, it will replace Russia's aging fleet of Soviet-designed Tu-134s and Yak-42s in moving people across Russia's vast spaces.

Sukhoi has orders for 122 aircraft from airlines across Europe and at home, where Russia's biggest carrier Aeroflot — which has ordered 30 Superjets — recently withdrew its creaking, Soviet-era Tu-154 fleet from service.

But persistent delays over the Superjet engines have set back delivery dates, making Wednesday's announcement by Industry Minister Viktor Khristenko a welcome development.

Khristenko told the parliament the Superjet 100 had gone through the final certification tests last year and is likely to receive a so-called type certificate in July, RIA Novosti and ITAR-Tass reported.

"The granting of the type certificate is scheduled for July 2010," he was quoted as saying.

A type certificate is awarded to a manufacturer to certify that a plane's design fulfills current requirements for aircraft safety standards. The certificate, which clears the way for Superjet to be delivered and used by Russian airlines, is awarded by Russia's Aviation Register of the Interstate Aviation Committee. The company is also applying for an EU certificate.

Russian carriers account for more than half of the Superjet order portfolio to date, and companies in Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Spain, Poland and Armenia make up the rest.

Sukhoi officials recently announced they expect the first deliveries in mid-2010.

The new jet arrives at a time when Russian airlines are facing rising fuel costs, with kerosene costing more than twice what it did a year ago. Analysts say the new jet will.

Taiwan , the $6.4bn USA weapons sale,,, [ 610 ]

China hits back at US over Taiwan weapons sale

The US has a treaty obligation to help towards Taiwan's defence (BBC,11:10 GMT, Saturday, 30 January 2010) China has announced a series of moves against the US in retaliation for a proposed weapons sale to Taiwan worth $6.4bn (£4bn). Beijing said it would suspend military exchanges with the US, impose sanctions on companies selling arms, and review co-operation on major issues. Ties are already strained by rows over trade and internet censorship. Taiwan's president welcomed the sale, saying it would make his country "more confident and secure". Beijing has hundreds of missiles pointed at the island and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control if Taiwan moved towards formal independence. Taiwan and China have been ruled by separate governments since the end of a civil war in 1949. Strained relations The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says China's latest moves are what the US would have expected, as the US view is that military exchanges are of limited use. US Taiwan arms plan announced China's Xinhua state news agency quoted the defence ministry as saying: "Considering the severe harm and odious effect of US arms sales to Taiwan, the Chinese side has decided to suspend planned mutual military visits." "We strongly demand that the US respect the Chinese side's interests", it added, calling for the sale to be stopped. The foreign ministry, meanwhile, said it would impose sanctions on US companies selling weapons to Taiwan, and that co-operation on major international issues would be affected. Our correspondent says it is not clear what impact such sanctions might have. Xinhua also said the US defence attache had been summoned. Defence ties between the two countries have been difficult for several years because of differences over Taiwan, but the two countries' leaders pledged to improve them in 2009. 'More confident' The moves came after Mr He said the arms deal would have "repercussions that neither side wishes to see". "The United States' announcement of the planned weapons sales to Taiwan will have a seriously negative impact on many important areas of exchanges and co-operation between the two countries," Mr He said in a statement published on the foreign ministry website. Earlier China summoned US Ambassador Jon Huntsman to give a warning about the consequences of the deal and to urge its immediate cancellation. Taiwan, meanwhile, welcomed the US move. "It will let Taiwan feel more confident and secure so we can have more interactions with China," the Central News Agency quoted President Ma Ying-jeou as saying. The Pentagon earlier notified the US Congress of the proposed arms sale, which forms part of a package first pledged by the Bush administration. PROPOSED ARMS SALE 114 Patriot missiles ($2.81bn) 60 Black Hawk helicopters ($3.1bn) Communication equipment ($340m) 2 Osprey mine-hunting ships ($105m) 12 Harpoon missiles ($37m) Source: Defense Security Co-operation Agency Friday's notification to Congress by the Defense Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) was required by law. It does not mean the sale has been concluded. US lawmakers have 30 days to comment on the proposed sale, Associated Press reported. If there are no objections, it would proceed. The arms package includes 114 Patriot missiles, 60 Black Hawk helicopters and communications equipment for Taiwan's F-16 fleet, the agency said in a statement. It does not include F-16 fighter jets, which Taiwan's military has been seeking. Our correspondent says the deal has been in the pipeline for a long time and is nearing its conclusion, but China does want to stop it. Beijing has previously warned the US not to go ahead with arms sales to Taiwan. TAIWAN-CHINA RELATIONS Ruled by separate governments since end of Chinese civil war in 1949 China considers the island part of its territory China has offered a "one country, two systems" solution, like Hong Kong Most people in Taiwan support status quo Guide to Taiwan flashpoint Last week US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton angered Beijing with a call to China to investigate cyber attacks on search giant Google, after the company said email accounts of human rights activists had been hacked. The DSCA said the proposed sale would support Taiwan's "continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and enhance its defensive capability." It added: "The proposed sale will help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region." The US is the leading arms supplier to Taiwan, despite switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. Washington regards it as an obligation to provide Taiwan with defensive arms.

Islamist movement Hamas accuses Israel..[ 609 ]

Hamas promises vengeance as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh is electrocuted in Dubai

(Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

The father of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh holds his son's picture. The Hamas military leader was behind the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers

James Hider, Middle East Correspondent30-1-2010

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas accused Israel yesterday of assassinating one of its military chiefs in Dubai — a man who helped to found the group’s armed wing and who was behind the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in the first intifada 21 years ago.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was a key to the continuing operations to smuggle weapons into the blockaded Gaza Strip, was killed in a hotel in Dubai on January 20, Hamas officials said. He is believed to have been behind the attempted smuggling of truckloads of weapons into Gaza through Sudan last year — a convoy that was blown up by Israeli jets while still in Africa.

Hamas officials refused to specify the circumstances of his death until an inquiry had been held, and hinted that the delay in announcing the killing was part of an attempt to capture his assassins. Dubai police said they had begun a manhunt but suspected that the killers had already left the emirate using fake European passports.

They said: “The culprits left a trace behind that points to them and will help in chasing and arresting them.” The police promised to work with Interpol to track the killers down.

Mr al-Mabhouh’s brother, Faiq, said that the death was caused by electrocution. “The first results of a joint investigation by Hamas and the United Arab Emirates show he was killed by an electrical appliance that was held to his head,” he said. Security sources quoted in Gulf media said that as well as electrical burns, al-Mabhouh’s body bore traces of strangulation.

Israel has so far declined to comment on the charges but in the past has carried out numerous overseas assassinations of Palestinian military leaders, as well as killing a number of officials inside the Palestinian territories in airstrikes, including Hamas’s wheelchair-bound spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in 2004. His successor, Abdelaziz al-Rantissi, was killed in an almost identical helicopter attack a month later.

Izzat Rashaq, a senior Hamas official in Damascus, said that Mr al-Mabhouh, a 50-year-old father of four from the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, had masterminded the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon, during the first Palestinian uprising against Israel in the late 1980s. He is believed to have pioneered the tactic of abducting soldiers to exert pressure on Israel. Hamas has been holding one soldier, Gilad Schalit, inside Gaza for 3½ years. The two soldiers were kidnapped on two occasions in 1989. The body of one was discovered seven years later.

Mr al-Mabhouh had been in Israeli prisons on different occasions before being exiled and taking up residence, together with many other Hamas leaders, in Damascus. He was killed a day after he arrived in Dubai. Hamas did not say what he was doing in the Gulf city, which many militant groups use as a financial hub.

Hamas, which Israel has blockaded in Gaza for three years and which it tried to topple in a brief war last year, said that it would “retaliate for this Zionist crime at the appropriate time and place”. It added that Mr al-Mabhouh was buried yesterday in a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus.

His alleged assassination may have been the latest operation by the Israeli spy agency Mossad and its special forces to hunt down the Jewish state’s enemies and kill them. In 1972, after Palestinians from the Black September organisation killed nine Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, Israeli agents tracked down and assassinated the masterminds of the attack across Europe and the Middle East.

One of the highest-profile assassination attempts was of Khaled Meshaal in Jordan in 1997, when Israeli agents squirted poison in his ear. Jordanian police caught the two agents and held them until Israel agreed to hand over the antidote to the toxin, and the Hamas leader survived.

Israeli special forces also killed the Fatah co-founder, Khalil al-Wazir, widely known as Abu Jihad, in his home with his family in Tunis in 1988. He was shot while watching TV news of the Palestinian uprising.

One of the assassinations attributed to Israel, but which it has never acknowledged publicly, was of Imad Mughniyeh, the head of Hezbollah’s armed wing and the world’s most-wanted terrorist before Osama bin Laden carried out the September 11, 2001, attacks.

He had been behind deadly attacks against Jewish organisations in Argentina and had transformed the Lebanese militia into the most successful guerrilla group in the Arab world. He died in an explosion in his car in Damascus in 2008.

Wake Up, America...![ 608 ]

Up, America!

24.11.2009

To my Fellow Americans, “I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within” - General Douglas MacArthur. What exactly did General MacArthur mean? Let me try to explain. The United States was founded as a Constitutional Republic based on liberty and the unalienable rights of the individual; and where the government exercised it’s limited power and authority with the consent of “We the people”. But slowly, over the course of the past 100 years, “invisible” forces have turned us into a socialist “Democracy” where government is the Ultimate power and authority; where every action of our lives is legislated and restricted, and where Rights are becoming nonexistent. (If that sounds like an absurd statement, then think about this: the United States, a supposed Free society, has a population of 300 Million; yet this Free society has a total of 2.3 million adults held in prison; or one in every 99.1 adults. That puts the US far head of ANY other country: including Communist China, a supposed repressive society. China has a population of 1.3 Billion people, yet they have only 1.5 million people behind bars). To those who believe that we continue to be a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, and that the government is limited in it's power and authority as enumerated in the Constitution, I say take the blinders off your eyes and wake up! If you do, and honestly seek the truth, this is what you will see. That today the true seat of Power in Washington is the “Invisible Government”, which exercises its total control from behind the scenes. Who is this Invisible Government? It is a small elite group of individuals who own and control the Giant International Banks and Corporations, and who exercise their control through the Military-Industrial Complex. Through their foundations and organizations, like the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission , they train and groom those who would be the “movers and shakers” of both U.S. political parties; in other words, they own and control the Republican and Democratic parties.