Archive for July, 2009

The Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) urged the RTL Television’s management to withdraw the dismissal of cameraman Ivan Cvirn after he arrived at yesterday’s government session in a t-shirt that “was not to the liking of Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor” and stressed that reporters are not guests in the government building because they come there to report.

Prime Minister Kosor said she will not tolerate reporters to offend her and other ministers with their clothing. The Journalists’ Association responded by saying that Ms. Kosor treats reporters as guests in the government building, reports Javno.com.

Igor Cvirn arrived at the government session in a t-shirt that read “I don’t need sex, the government f…. me every day”, which insulted Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor who asked of reporters and cameramen to be careful not to insult government members with their clothing and slogans.

The five-day strike by South Africa’s municipal workers is over, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) said on Friday.

“It’s over … we signed an agreement this [Friday] afternoon,” Samwu general secretary Mthandeki Nhlapo said.

“Our workers will return to their posts on Monday,” he said.

The union agreed to a revised offer from the South African Local Government Association (Salga) of a 13% wage hike, he said.

Samwu’s members had initially demanded a 15% increase.

Imatu’s regional manager, Shadow Shongwe, said his union had also signed the wage agreement.

“The wage dispute has finally been resolved and the agreement that is now in place has been endorsed by the unions.”

He said Imatu members would return to work on Monday at about 11 am.

“By then we would have reached every corner of Imatu to convey the terms of the settlement,” Shongwe said.

Pressure on the government has also come from poor township residents, who have demonstrated to back their demands for better living conditions for millions of black South Africans who still lack adequate housing, electricity and water 15 years after the end of apartheid.

A double-digit pay settlement could put added strain on the economy, which fell into South Africa’s first recession since 1992 because of reduced local and global demand.

Analysts said above-inflation increases, such as the one won by Samwu and Imatu, could compound the impact of a 31,3% increase in electricity prices granted to Eskom last month and push inflation higher.

“We believe such wage growth and the Eskom tariff increases will keep core inflation high over the next year,” said Peter Attard Montalto, emerging markets economist at Nomura International.

The full story here.

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• South African workers end strike (news.bbc.co.uk)
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Police in central Moscow detained almost 50 protesters, including Eduard Limonov, a leader of the Other Russia opposition coalition, over an attempt to hold an unauthorized march on Friday, reports Russia Today.

“Police detained 47 people over an attempt to hold an unsanctioned protest – a March of Dissent – on Triumfalnaya Square,” spokeswoman Zhanna Ozhimina said.

According to eyewitness accounts, about 200 protesters turned out for the march, and there were around 50 reporters.

City Hall had refused to give the Other Russia coalition permission to hold the march, it but decided to go ahead with the event anyway.

When permission to hold the march was denied last week, Limonov said he had been detained by police five times for taking part in dissenters’ marches and challenged all fines that had been imposed on him.

Other Russia said it would hold marches on the last day of July, August, October and December.

Meanwhile, Other Russia’s website runs a story on the Kremlin’s continuing violent attacks on human rights workers:

Violent attacks against Russia’s leading human rights activists continued this week, as one leader was found dead and another was shot in the face and seriously injured.  The two unconnected incidents marked the latest downturn in a tragic summer and deadly year for Russia’s rights community.

Andrei Kulagin, the regional director of a non-profit group named Spravedlivost (Justice) in the northern Republic of Karelia, was found murdered on July 22nd.  According to the group’s press-service, Kulagin had disappeared on May 14th, and was not heard from until his body was found in a sand quarry not far from Petrozavodsk.

Kulagin was a fierce advocate for the humane treatment of prisoners, and had worked closely with local prison officials.

The Other Russia also cites the hospitalisation of Albert Pchelintsev, 38, the regional director of the “Against Corruption, Deception and Dishonor” movement. According to the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, Pchelintsev was attacked on Saturday evening as he returned home. Unkown assailants shot him in the face and mouth and Pchelintsev currently remains in critical condition after having undergone reconstructive surgery.

Read more here.

Posted by Andrew Z. Giacalone

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Airbus said on Thursday it was urging airlines to switch most speed sensors on about 200 jetliners to U.S.-made parts in the wake of the Atlantic jet disaster, anticipating a European safety order.

The move affects Airbus A330 or A340 planes fitted with sensors manufactured by France’s Thales, like the Air France A330 passenger jet which crashed en route from Brazil to Paris on June 1, killing all 228 people on board.

Airlines are being urged to switch at least two thirds of the sensors — known as pitot probes — on each plane to parts supplied by U.S. aerospace company Goodrich, which already supplies most of the 1,000-strong A330/A340 fleet.

Confirmation of the switch came after Reuters reported that European safety authorities were drawing up proposals to make such a change compulsory in the wake of the disaster.

“We issued an AIT (Accident Information Telex) a few minutes ago recommending that A330 and A340 operators fit at least two probes supplied by Goodrich,” Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said late on Thursday. About 200 of the 1,000 A330s and sister A340s in operation are fitted with Thales sensors, Schaffrath said.

No deadline has been set, though one may be imposed if, as expected, safety authorities make the move compulsory.

Apparently faulty speed sensor readings due to icing may have contributed to the crash but were unlikely to be the sole cause, which remains to be identified, investigators say.

With hopes fading of recovering the aircraft’s cockpit recorders, the investigation has focused on a handful of error messages sent out automatically from the aircraft that raise doubts over the speed data given to the pilots.

Some airlines including Air France have already said they are upgrading speed sensors, but the new guidelines mean several may also have to change suppliers.

Read the full story here.

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Heavy rains across the southern Philippines have resulted in massive flooding in many low-lying areas of Mindanao Island, with villagers either marooned inside their houses by waist-deep waters or forced to evacuate, according to disaster relief officials on 30 July.

Large swathes of farmland covering more than 2,486ha in the central Mindanao towns of Pigcawayan, Alamada, Libungan, Midsayap, Aleosan, Pikit and Tamontaka have also been damaged by floods, according to the Office of Civil Defence in Manila.

Some 40 houses were destroyed in the town of Sultan Mastura in Maguindanao province, where tens of thousands have already been displaced by almost a year of fighting between government forces and separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels.

Some 159,775 people in central Mindanao or about 31,955 families have been affected so far, and while flooding in some areas has subsided, large parts remain inundated, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, said.

The department said relief and medical supplies were being rushed to the area while makeshift soup kitchens have also been set up in schools converted into evacuation centres.

Bai Soraida Ampatuan, regional social welfare secretary, said disaster relief officials were struggling to assist families hardest hit by the flash floods. She said some families had opted to stay inside their inundated homes, but many had moved to evacuation centres.

“If the rains continue, the number of evacuees might increase,” Ampatuan said. She said among the hardest hit was Maguindanao Province, where more than 100 villages were still knee- or waist-deep in water.

Read the full story here.

The Diary of Anne Frank has been added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. The UN organisation for education, science and culture has now listed 193 documents as significant for the history of humanity.

The English Magna Carta and the German Song of the Nibelungs (Nibelungenlied) are among the other works added to the register on Thursday. King John’s signature of the Magna Carta in 1215 guaranteed his subjects much greater political freedom. The Song of the Nibelungs is the most important German heroic epic poem of the Middle Ages.

Anne Frank’s diary is one of the top ten most read books in the world. UNESCO says it gives a true impression of daily life in the Netherlands during World War II and shows the impact of Nazi occupation on an individual life. Anne Frank died at the age of 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, shortly before it was liberated in 1945.

Read the full story here.

Pope Benedict XVI is to release a CD of songs, prayers and music in time for Christmas, the Vatican said Friday, according to Italian wire service, ANSA.

The CD is to be released on the Geffen UK label, whose parent company Interscope-Geffen-A&M is better known for stars such as Eminem, Guns N’ Roses and the Pussycat Dolls.

But the pontiff did not spend time in a recording studio laying down tracks for the album, the Vatican was quick to explain.

Vatican Spokesman Federico Lombardi said Benedict’s songs and prayers were taken from the archives of Vatican Radio and the pope had had no direct relationship with the record label.

Lombardi said Vatican Radio had made available eight tracks of the pope giving sermons and prayers in different languages for a total of ten minutes, which Geffen Records have mixed to music.

According to British daily The Guardian, Benedict will be singing a Marian prayer and reciting litanies in Italian, Portuguese, French and German to the accompaniment of eight pieces of modern classical music specially composed for the album.

The paper said the CD would be entitled Alma Mater and would be released on November 30 ”in time for the Christmas rush”, while some profits would go to children’s charities.

Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, also released a similar CD, consisting of him singing chants and reciting prayers over various musical backgrounds.

The album, Abba Pater, sold a million copies in three days when it was released in 1999.

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An Italian parliamentary committee will begin investigating presumed links between the Mafia and Italy’s Secret Services with regards to the assassination of anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino.

Borsellino was killed by a car bomb on July 19, 1992.

The investigation follows a report by Italy’s La Repubblica which suggests that Borsellino’s assassination by the Mafia may have been aided and abetted by Italian Secret Services as part of an agreement between the Italian government and Sicilian organized crime.

During the early 90s, the Sicilian Mafia had begun a terrorism campaign against the Italian State in order to reach a compromise on the reduction of prison sentences for convicted Mafiosi. The terrorism campaign saw the bombing of the Florentine museum, in 1993, which killed 5 people, and other major Italian tourism sites were targeted as well, including the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

While former Interior Minister Nicola Mancino denies the Italian government ever entered in agreement with the Mafia, former Mafia boss Toto Riina, now incarcerated and speaking through his lawyer, hints at the government’s involvement in Borsellino’s death. ‘Do not always look to me,’ Riina is quoted as saying,  ‘but look within yourselves.’

Francesco Rutelli, the former Mayor of Rome, is now leading the committee’s investigation and has stated that he would like to question Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi in regards to his knowledge about the links between Mafia and State. In a 1992 interview which has received limited airtime in Italy, Borsellino also indicated a possible connection between Cosa Nostra and then-businessman Silvio Berlusconi.

‘We have repeatedly requested [Berlusconi] for an audience,’ Rutelli said in regards to his attempts to interview the Italian PM as part of the committe investigation. “But he has never had time for us.”

Posted by Andrew Z. Giacalone

The interview with anti-Mafia magistrate Borsellino below:

At least 50 Iranians were arrested when thousands of people gathered in Tehran and other cities to commemorate those killed in the country’s post-election unrest, a senior police official tells Press TV.

Mourners swarmed Tehran’s main cemetery, Behesht-e-Zahra, on Thursday on the 40th day since the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman whose death shocked Iranians and people around the world, and a score of others were killed.

A vast deployment of anti-riot police, who used tear gas and batons, were on the scene to maintain order after former presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi arrived at the cemetery to visit the victim’s graves and offer prayers.

He, however, was barred by the police from leaving his car, turning the gathering violent.

“About 50 of the participants of yesterday’s gatherings were arrested, but most of them were released shortly after their detention,” Tehran police commander Brigadier General Azizollah Rajabzadeh said Friday.

The protests, which spread to other districts in the capital city following the Behesht-e-Zahra gathering, were also used by Iranian opposition to once again question the outcome of the disputed June presidential election.

The opposition claims the election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected by a landslide, was “fraudulent”.

Thousands of mourners and protestors gathered around the Grand Mosalla, an enormous half-built mosque in central Tehran, but were dispersed by security forces.

Brig. Gen. Rajabzadeh said the detainees who had major roles in yesterday’s unrest would be handed to Judiciary officials, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported.

At least 30 people, according to Iranian lawmaker Farhad Tajari, were killed in post-election violence in Iran.

According to the Tehran police commander, no police officers were injured in yesterday’s protests.

There are no reports available of possible casualties and injuries among protesters.

Sir Bobby Robson has died at the age of 76. The former England manager, who had fought a long battle with cancer, passed away at his home this morning.

“It is with great sadness that it has been announced today that Sir Bobby Robson has lost his long and courageous battle with cancer,” read a statement released by Robson’s family. “He died very peacefully this morning at his home in County Durham with his wife and family beside him.

“Sir Bobby’s funeral will be private and for family members only. A thanksgiving service in celebration of Sir Bobby’s life will be held at a later date for his many friends and colleagues.

“Lady Robson and the family would very much appreciate it if their privacy could be respected at this difficult time.”

Stricken by cancer Robson had looked frail when, in a wheelchair, he made his final public appearance last Sunday. Appropriately it was at St James’ Park, the home of the Newcastle United team he always supported and, for five uplfiting years, managed.

The occasion was a fund-raiser for Robson’s cancer charity involving a re-run of the England v West Germany Italia 90 semi final featuring many of the original participants. That World Cup semi-final saw England, then under Sir Bobby’s charge, lose to Germany on penalties in the cruellest moment of Robson’s often glittering managerial career.

Read the full story here.

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