Pakistani blasphemy death sentence demos draw thousands | RFI

Pakistani blasphemy death sentence demos draw thousands | RFI: "Thousands of Pakistanis demonstrated and took part in strikes Friday against moves to scrap the death penalty for blasphemy. Religious parties and groups say the move is the result of foreign interference in the country’s affairs."

Sergei Tsapok criminal group accused of murdering 12 people in the Kushchevskaya settlement

Investigation Committee (SK) has brought a criminal charge against eight suspects from the Sergei Tsapok criminal group accused of murdering 12 people in the Kushchevskaya settlement, SK spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Monday. The criminal group faces charges of a group murder, Markin added.

"Two other members of the criminal group searched for by police will be prosecuted as the defendants," Markin said.

The same criminal group has been suspected of murdering six more people. A 62-year-old man and his 33- year-old son were found dead in the settlement of Kushchevskaya on September 16, 2003. Two members of the Tsapok criminal group, Andrei Bykov and Vitaly Ivanov, are the presumed assassins.

In a separate incident a 61- year-old man was found dead in his house in Kushchevskaya on November 9, 2008 with the signs of forcible death on his body. The investigators have established a link to the Tsapok gang, in particular, to Vladimir Alekseyev, Igor Chernykh and Vitaly Ivanov, the SK spokesman said.

The investigation also proved the Tsapok gang’s involvement in the murder of two young men on June 28, 2010. The assassins opened gunfire at a BMW car, killing two men inside it.

Another victim, a woman, was attacked in the settlement of Kanelovskaya in the Krasnodar territory on August 16. The woman received numerous injuries and was robbed of money and valuables totally worth 500,000 roubles. The Tsapok gang, including the ringleader himself and his fellow bandits, Vladimir Alekseyev, Igor Chernykh and Sergei Karpenko, are believed responsible for the incident.

The investigation also suspects the Tsapok gang of one more murder committed on the ringleader’s order by Sergei Ryabtsev and Andrei Bykov who were armed with a shotgun and a pneumatic pistol.

half mile drug tunnel that connected two warehouses here in San Diego with a home in Tijuana

half mile drug tunnel that connected two warehouses here in San Diego with a home in Tijuana was discovered Thursday.

The Thanksgiving Day find led to at least nine arrests and a seizure of more than 20 tons of marijuana.

Two men were found in the water in wetsuits on the Felixstowe side and brought to shore by the Harwich lifeboat crew

SEVERAL men have been arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling after reports of people in the water at Harwich International Port.

Just before 6am, on Sunday, November 28, the police, coastguard, air and sea rescue, and the Essex police marine unit were called, to Parkeston Quay, after reports of three people alongside the Stena Britannica.

Two men were found in the water in wetsuits on the Felixstowe side and brought to shore by the Harwich lifeboat crew, at about 7.30am.

They were arrested and taken to Colchester Hospital by ambulance for suspected hypothermia.

Three more men were arrested later in a nearby car.

Two Afghans accused of converting to Christianity, including a Red Cross employee, could face the death penalty

Two Afghans accused of converting to Christianity, including a Red Cross employee, could face the death penalty, a prosecuting lawyer said on Sunday.

Musa Sayed, 45, and Ahmad Shah, 50, are being detained in the Afghan capital awaiting trial, the prosecutor in charge of western Kabul, Din Mohammad Quraishi, told AFP.

"They are accused of conversion to another religion, which is considered a crime under Islamic law. If proved, they face the death penalty or life imprisonment," Quraishi said.

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Quraishi said Sayed, who works for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) had already confessed and there was "proof" against Shah.

The ICRC's spokesman in Kabul, Bijan Frederic Farnoudi, confirmed Sayed's arrest and said the detained man had worked for the organisation since 1995.

Farnoudi said ICRC representatives had visited Sayed in prison "in accordance with its mandate".

"During such visits, the ICRC has met Mr Musa (Sayed) several times and intends to visit him in future," Farnoudi said.

Sayed and Shah were arrested in late May and early June, days after local television broadcast footage of men reciting Christian prayers in Farsi and being baptised, apparently in a house in Kabul.

The government launched its own investigation and suspended two aid groups, Norwegian Church Aid and Church World Service of the US, after the television program reported the two men were proselytising, which is illegal in the devoutly Islamic country.

Several Afghan MPs have expressed their anger over the case, with one from western Herat even calling for the men to be dragged from their homes and publicly executed.

French police seized 111 kilograms of cocaine -- worth about $9.3 million -- from a luxury apartment on the outskirts of Paris on Saturday.

French police seized 111 kilograms of cocaine -- worth about $9.3 million -- from a luxury apartment on the outskirts of Paris on Saturday.
Four people were detained in the incident -- two French, one Iranian and one Venezuelan, police told CNN affiliate BFM-TV.
Paris Judiciary Police Director Christian Flaesch called the location of such a large seizure unusual.
"It's rare, indeed, to find this in an apartment," he said. "It's usually in a warehouse or boats but not in apartments. You obviously need an important network to bring such a quantity to France and to have the capacity to distribute it after that."
Video of the apartment in Neuilly-sur-Seine showed the cocaine packaged in dozens of clear plastic bags lying inside several suitcases.
The apartment belongs to a Saudi family, according to BFM-TV, and police believe the suspects illicitly obtained a key to use the space as a safe house or distribution point.
There is no indication the Saudi family was aware of the operation, police told BFM-TV.
"We are extremely satisfied," Flaesch said. "This represents considerable work for the police officers of the anti-narcotic brigade and the result is here with 111 kilos of cocaine, a cash amount, luxury items, clothes and an investigation which started several weeks ago with the central direction of the judiciary police."

Kuwait International Airport, given laxatives, which pushed 76 capsules containing heroin out of his intestines

Kuwaiti airport authorities have seized an aged Afghan passenger who had swallowed 750 gm of heroin in a bid to smuggle it into the oil-rich emirate, the Arabic language daily Alanba reported on Sunday.

Airport customs inspectors at the Kuwait International Airport suspected the passenger when they noticed he was confused while searching his baggage.

“When they did not find anything suspicious in his luggage, they took the man to hospital, where tests showed there were strange objects inside his belly…he was given laxatives, which pushed 76 capsules containing heroin out of his intestines,” the paper said.

It quoted customs chief Mubarak Al Qahtan as saying they succeeded in seizing the heroin because of their “wide experience in such smuggling methods.”

The paper said the Afghan told police that he had brought the drugs for an unidentified person who was supposed to meet him at the airport.

“The defendent will be interrogated by the anti-drug inspectors so they can identify the unknown dealer,” it said, adding the Afghan has been charged with smuggling narcotics and that he faces execution according to the Kuwaiti law.

Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) foiled a heroin smuggling bid and arrested a passenger

The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) foiled a heroin smuggling bid and arrested a passenger and an official of the Airport Security Force (ASF) from Jinnah International Terminal here on Saturday. ANF sources said that they stopped the flight on runway after getting information from sources about smuggling heroin from a private airline number EK-605 from Karachi to Dubai. As the ANF officials had received reliable identification, they caught the passenger and recovered over three kilogrammes heroine from his possession. ANF sources said that the smuggler was identified as Hamid, who narrated during the preliminary investigation that he was going to Dubai when he got the said heroin packet from an ASF officer. Meanwhile, with the help of CCTV cameras the ANF traced the ASF officer Ismail and arrested him. Further investigation is in process. staff report

infamous and dangerous Caminito del Rey walkway

MAN who had been missing for several days was rescued, at a height of 100 metres, on the infamous and dangerous Caminito del Rey walkway, located between Alora and Ardales

Local drug arrests led to bust of national cocaine ring, police say » Ventura County Star

Local drug arrests led to bust of national cocaine ring, police say » Ventura County Star: "Hundreds of kilos of cocaine. Cash-filled suitcases. Cross-country deliveries in private planes. Celebrity connections. Flashy cars.
These were elements of an alleged drug trafficking ring discovered during a seven-month investigation that began with low-level drug arrests in eastern Ventura County, authorities said Wednesday.
A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted 14 people in connection with the alleged smuggling ring, including the head of an entertainment company, celebrity disc jockey Darrin Ebron and a Chatsworth man suspected of supplying large amounts of cocaine to the organization, authorities said. Five of the suspects had been arrested and the rest remained at large Wednesday.
The ring is suspected of moving cocaine from Los Angeles to Baltimore, but it was uncovered and pursued by Ventura County investigators, authorities said."

Death Sentence for Sorcery

Saudi Arabian court rejects 'sorcery' death sentence
Amnesty International has welcomed a decision by the Saudi Arabian Supreme Court this week not to ratify the death sentence on a Lebanese man convicted of "sorcery".

The court in the capital Riyadh said that the death sentence for 'Ali Hussain Sibat was inappropriate because there was no proof that others were harmed as a result of his actions.

The court ordered that the case be retried in the original lower court in Madina with a view to considering commutation of his death sentence and deportation to Lebanon at the end of his sentence.

"The Supreme Court's decision is a welcome step and may lead to 'Ali Hussain Sibat's no longer facing the death penalty," said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa programme.

"However, we continue to urge that he be immediately released as he was convicted solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression."

The "sorcery" charges against 'Ali Hussain Sibat relate to his former role as a presenter on the Lebanese satellite TV station Sheherazade, in which he gave advice and predictions about the future.

He was sentenced to death by a Madina court on 9 November 2009, following his arrest by the Mutawa'een (religious police) in May 2008 while he was visiting Saudi Arabia on a form of Muslim pilgrimage, umra.

VOA | Burma May Soon Release Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi | News | English

VOA | Burma May Soon Release Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi | News | English: "Burma's military rulers appear to be on the verge of releasing pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, after detaining her for most of the past two decades.

On Friday, a day ahead of her scheduled release, government officials told the French news agency her release was a certainty, although no time was mentioned.

And Tin Oo, vice chairman of her banned National League for Democracy party, said his sources told him her release order has been signed.

Authorities increased security in Rangoon as supporters gathered near her lakeside home and at the party's headquarters."

Two Spaniards in “Grave Danger” in El Aaiún | SpanishNews.es

Two Spaniards in “Grave Danger” in El Aaiún | SpanishNews.es: "pro-Sahari NGO Thawra has alerted that two of its collaborators, Javier Sopeña and Silvia Garcia in El Aaiún are in grave danger.
The organization has denounced that the Moroccan security forces are searching for them, putting in danger their security.
Approximately 20,000 Sahrawis have camped outside the territory’s main cities for weeks to protest the Moroccan occupation and systematic human rights abuses.
On Monday Moroccan armed security forces attacked the camps using live ammunition, tear-gas and high-pressure water cannons. The clashes left hundreds of protestors arrested and dozens dead.
The current clashes in Western Sahara are the most violent since a ceasefire between Morocco and the Sahrawi government was agreed upon in 1991."

five years since the immigration flare-up that put the borders of Ceuta and Melilla on the world map.

five years since the immigration flare-up that put the borders of Ceuta and Melilla on the world map. In late September of 2005, hundreds of men from sub-Saharan Africa tried to reach EU soil by crossing the land borders of the two North African cities. Five of the men were shot dead by [Moroccan] border patrols. A total of 11 died in the siege, many more were injured by the barbed wire on top of the fences.

It is now clear, with five years’ hindsight, that the incident marked a turning-point in EU immigration policy. What occurred in 2005 threw into painful relief that the migration issue had to be shunted to the top of Europe’s political agenda.

Anti-immigrant sentiment spreading across Europe
What happened ushered in a new stage in EU external border policy. Ceuta and Melilla are now the most heavily guarded border posts in the EU. And ironically enough, Morocco is doing its best to help guard borders it considers illegitimate and colonialist. Over the past five years, rapid progress has been made towards creating a European Corps of Border Guards, and the budget for Frontex (European External Borders Agency) has grown exponentially. The EU’s external borders definitely won’t be what they once were.

The fact is the EU border regime discriminates on the basis of country of origin. Look at the list of countries whose nationals need a visa to enter the EU – which they often don’t get – and lo and behold: you’ll see a remarkably large number of Muslim and/or developing countries. So clearly, if implicitly, candidates are filtered according to religion and wealth. Certain contingents are thrown onto the “undocumented aliens” heap, a burden that then has to be divided up among the EU member states. But nobody is born undocumented – or a “burden”, for that matter. It is governments that define and construct these categories.

Closing down the access roads to the EU generates a vicious circle by artificially increasing the number of undocumented immigrants, which sows panic in the resident psyche. That in turn supplies electioneering fodder to populist politicians. The upshot: a cloud of anti-immigrant sentiment spreading across Europe.

Europe - less a fortress than a gated community
Meanwhile, the closing of the Ceuta and Melilla passage has given rise to a perverse game of cat and mouse between border patrols and would-be immigrants, channelling the latter towards new and more dangerous routes. The EU has been silent about the deaths of undocumented immigrants attempting to reach its shores. Out of protest, alternative organisations like United Against Racism or No Borders try to count the casualties: they estimate roughly 13,000 have died since the external borders of the Schengen Area were sealed off in 1993.

In the meantime, a wholly different territorial reality is taking shape in Ceuta and Melilla, one of vigorous and intensifying cross-border interaction. Witness the swelling ranks of workers and shoppers plying between the two Spanish cities and the Moroccan provinces of Tetuan and Nador. Daily life around the EU borders in África now verges on a flying trapeze act, swinging back and forth between efforts to reinforce the perimeter ordained by the EU and implemented by Spain, on the one hand, and autonomous cities keen on interacting with the country of Morocco that surrounds them, and whose economy is ready to take off.

And yet, in spite of the changes taking place on the ground, there is no prospect of even slightly demilitarising the border, given the anti-immigrant sentiment taking hold of the EU. Even as it liberalises worker mobility within the Union, the EU border regime is cherry-picking immigrants from outside the EU with a view to admitting only those with economic value to add. So Europe is beginning to look less like a fortress than a gated community: a residential complex in which, driven by fear of crime and of the projected loss of well-being and cultural identity, the wealthy are digging themselves in, cutting themselves off from the rest of society. And by doing that, the EU is widening the development gap – which in turn fuels what it defined as a problem, namely illegal immigration – and cementing a global system of apartheid.

It's the global boom and bust, not the immigrants, threatening the Spanish way of life

economic downturn has hit Spain hard, especially its immigrant workers, among whom unemployment is 10% higher than the national average. But are calls for them to return to their native countries caused by financial worries or by fears about how Spain is changing following unprecedented immigration to the country in recent years?
"Immigrants who can't find work should go home now," Jose Luis Roberto tells me.
He is the president of the political party Espana 2000. But I wonder if it is not the lack of jobs, but what he says next that is the real reason he wants immigrants to leave.
"We don't want Muslims here who don't integrate and whose religion is incompatible with Spanish culture."

Spanish shoppers have largely forsaken open-air markets
Espana 2000 may be a small party, with only three members elected to council level and only 3,000 members nationwide, but its views cannot be dismissed.
The rate of immigration into Spain over the last few years has been extreme, not just for the numbers - during the boom 500,000 migrants were arriving every year - but because it has been so sudden.
'All suffering together'
In 1999, Spain was a country with barely any immigrants at all. Today they make up 12% of the population.
Moroccans form the second largest immigrant group here. Many of them are young men who have come to Spain alone.
They are under-schooled and under-skilled, so they stand little chance of finding employment in the current downturn.
"I'm not saying Spain is racist," says Mustafa Assan.
He has worked here for 14 years. He has married and had children in Spain and, even though he has not been able to find work for a year now, he says he cannot even consider going back to Morocco.
Spain is his country and I can hear it in the easy, colloquial way he speaks the language. His every gesture utterly Spanish.


Spain had changed anyway, with the economic liberalisation and investment that came with membership of the EU
"Sufrimos juntos," he says - "We're all suffering together." (Spanish people cannot find work either.)
I met Mustafa in a bar in El Ejido in the south. He was having coffee, waiting for his number to come up in the unemployment queue.
Local hub
Bars play a particular role in Spanish life.
Local bars are the lynchpins of the community, so perhaps they are a useful measure of how much immigration is changing Spain.
The bar is where workmen go for a cognac at 6am.
By 10.55am, coffee cups and saucers line the tables, ready for the white-collar workers who descend from the surrounding office blocks and are back at their desks five minutes later, leaving the bar deserted but for stained cups and cigarette butts.
When my family came to visit me in Barcelona, I had to introduce them to Juan, the owner of my local bar. Not to have done so would have been rude.
It was Juan who fed me for free when I locked myself out of the flat without my wallet. It was Juan who got a ladder and climbed in through the open window to let me back in.
I knew he was struggling during the recession but, when I came back from a work trip and found the bar closed for good, I was not the only one on the street to be horrified.
Juan's bar has been replaced by a clothes shop you find on high streets all over the world.
Shopping habits
The downturn has changed Spain for good, perhaps more than rapid, high rates of immigration.
Spain had changed anyway, with the economic liberalisation and investment that came with membership of the European Union.

A neighbourhood bar is often the centre of local activity
Spanish shoppers have forsaken the open-air markets for the French-owned supermarket chain Carrefour.
And it is sad. You do not tend to talk to people at the supermarket checkout.
You cannot help but get caught up in conversation at the market, though.
There is always an old lady in front of you in the queue, inspecting a cut of meat to cook for her son's visit.
"He's a doctor you know," she'll say, before giving the stall owner and the rest of the queue a full description of his house, job and beautiful children, as well as an aside about the wife who is not quite good enough.
When I first lived here in 1995, everyone went to the market. In the handful of supermarkets there were then in Barcelona, there was not a single brand name I could recognise.
Now the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who have set up shops all over the city stock PG Tips tea and Heinz baked beans.
Because despite the speed with which the immigrant community has grown, there has also been rapid, deep integration.
And the bar I chose as a replacement for Juan's bar is proof. It is staffed by one Filipino and two Bangladeshis who run the gamut of local greetings as if they had been born here.
"Hola, nena," they say, greeting everyone in Catalan slang.
In another bar, run by Chinese immigrants, the owner's children pester the customers for help with their Catalan homework. The customers do not seem to mind, this is after all their local neighbourhood bar. The centre of goings-on.
"It's the global boom and bust, not the immigrants, threatening the Spanish way of life,"

Eighty per cent of British Muslims identify themselves as Muslims first and British second.

time has not arrived when a German chancellor can talk about immigration and ethnic divides without it arousing anxiety and old fears throughout Europe and beyond.

So when German leader, Angela Merkel, said last weekend that her country's approach to multiculturalism -- known disparagingly as multi-kulti -- has "utterly failed" it caught international attention more firmly than would similar words from other European leaders.

But Germany's failure to either integrate its 16 million immigrants and particularly the four million Turks, or enfold these people in a multicultural embrace is far from unique.

Across Europe multiculturalism and integration of immigrants has failed just as surely as in Germany.

To a large extent this is because no European government has made a serious stab at developing a coherent immigration policy.

For the most part newly arrived communities have been left to work out their own salvations.

In far too many cases this has led to the rise of separate and parallel communities unattached to the mainstream of their new countries.

The situation has been exacerbated, of course, by the development of the European Community, which now includes the free movement of people among the 26 member nations.

This has seen, for example, the recent campaign by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to expel Gypsies, the Roma, who have travelled to France from eastern Europe in search of work and trade.

Even more central has been a rising tide of suspicion aimed at Muslims as terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States by Islamic militants coincide with persistent immigration pressures from the Middle East and North Africa.

As well as in Germany, these pressures are evident in Spain, Italy, Britain, Holland, Sweden and France, where two years ago there were prolonged riots in the grim apartment developments beyond Paris's Peripherique ring road where most of the city's Algerian and other North African immigrants live.

One result in Europe has been an extraordinary shift of voter support to far-right politicians preaching various anti-Muslim creeds in countries like Holland and Sweden, which have reputations for almost excessive tolerance.

Merkel's announcement of the death of multi-kulti and her plans to introduce policies aimed at assisting immigrants to integrate are a response to similar shifts in public opinion.

Polls show that about a third of Germans believe the country is "overrun by foreigners."

The premier of Bavaria, who is politically allied to Merkel's right-of-centre Christian Democratic Union, last week called for an end to immigration from Turkey and Arab countries.

And Thilo Sarrazin, a controversial public servant and member of the left-leaning Social Democratic Party, has been fired from his position as senior official of the Bundesbank after writing a book saying immigrants who fail to integrate are contributing to Germany's decline.

"Turks are conquering Germany in the same way as Kosovars conquered Kosovo -- with a high birthrate," he wrote.

In Holland the anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders and his Freedom party may well join a conservative coalition government after inconclusive elections in June.

Wilders, who is on trial for allegedly violating hate speech laws, believes the Koran is a book that promotes violence and should be banned, there should be a mass deportation of Muslims, and that a tax should be levied on women wearing Islamic head scarves.

In Sweden in September a party with neo-Nazi roots, Sweden Democrats, won seats in parliament for the first time.

But there are some reports from the Swedish industrial city of Malmo that intense immigration by Muslims from the Middle East has led to persistent attacks on the city's Jewish residents.

Economic uncertainty throughout the EU, high unemployment among immigrants and the generous social services payments that are common throughout Europe have undoubtedly added to suspicions over immigrants who have failed to integrate.

Negative views of Muslim immigrants are common throughout Europe according to recent polls, and are matched by isolationism among the immigrants themselves.

Eighty per cent of British Muslims identify themselves as Muslims first and British second.

In Spain and Germany 70 per cent of Muslims make the same distinction. And 40 per cent of British Muslims think terrorist attacks on fellow Britons and Americans are justified.



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/Europe+right+wing+profits+from+failure+integrate+immigrants/3698203/story.html#ixzz12tvZgtzV

Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, details Inverbrackie centre plans

Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, details Inverbrackie centre plans
Federal Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen, joined ABC Adelaide's 891 Mornings program to explain the recent announcement to create a Commonwealth Government immigration centre in the Adelaide Hills.
Facing opposition and concerns from local communities about the lack of consultation with residents over the decision, the Minister quite plainly stated 'it is our responsibility and it is our decision.'
"It is Commonwealth land and all of the costs will be borne by the Commonwealth," Mr Bowen told 891 Mornings.
In an announcement to transform an old Defence housing area in Inverbrackie into a low-security detention centre for immigrants waiting processing, both state and local governments still seem to be scrambling for details.
Local health requirements
With locals fearing the results on local infrastructure of the arrival of 400 extra residents, Mr Bowen said the residents' needs would be met by the Federal Government.
"The Department of Immigration brings in all the necessary medical support.
"We bring in our own doctors, our own psychiatrists, our own nurses," Mr Brown said.
He said if hospitalisation was required for a detainee, they would be taken to a local facility, 'but that is a very, very rare occurrence'.
Schooling
With 400 residents expected to be held in the centre, a large number would be children, requiring educational programs and teachers.
Mr Bowen said the department discusses opportunities with local schools, including the possibility of increasing local staffing, classroom and equipment levels.
"We pay for that, but we do all of that in consultation with the local school."
If the school is unable to cope with the additional requirements, Mr Bowen said the government would organise alternative arrangements.
"We won't send anyone to school that the school won't cope with."
Late notice
Mr Bowen said although communities in future would be given more notice, the Inverbrackie site needed to be developed quickly to be suitable to accept detainees from December.
He said that once the initial shock of the announcement passes, the local communities usually welcome the additional benefits to local economies and funding.
"At the end of the day, when the Federal Government's got land there, [the] Federal Government owns it, the Federal Government's got a responsibility to sort out where these people get housed and the Federal Government is paying for any costs that are involved," Mr Bowen said.
"It is our responsibility to make these decisions."
Site changes
The Federal Government has budgeted $10 million for the transformation of the site from a housing estate to a low-security detention facility.
A containment fence would be constructed around the site, with facilities for doctors and nurses also constructed.
Buildings would also be constructed for educational and general usage.
Food and other resources would be trucked into the site.
Mr Bowen assured that although there was a large amount of vacant land around the site, it would not expand past the allocated 400 person accommodation recently announced.

Canada immigration officials look set to step up efforts to prevent illegal immigration

Canada immigration officials look set to step up efforts to prevent illegal immigration with the introduction of a new bill on Thursday.
The bill is expected to strengthen Canadian immigration enforcement, a measure designed to discourage illegal immigration into the country.

The move is in response to the arrival of 500 Tamils, brought to the country illegally by people smugglers.

“This phenomenon calls into question the most basic obligation of a sovereign country: to control its own borders,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.
“I do worry about the consequences of not acting. Because a failure to act, and act strongly, will inevitably lead to a massive collapse in public support for our immigration system,” he added.
While details of the bill have not yet been announced, it is expected to introduce heavier penalties for people smugglers while still protecting genuine refugees.

China geared up to send a high-powered delegation to India to put the strained ties back on track

As China geared up to send a high-powered delegation to India to put the strained ties back on track, a state-run daily today cautioned that the two countries should to be guarded against efforts by elements from within and outside to derail ties.

Zhou Yongkang, ranked ninth in the hierarchy of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), will be visiting New Delhi towards the end of this month to hold talks with top Indian officials, officials said here.

The visit by Zhou, member the influential Politburo Standing Committee in-charge of political, legal and legislative agenda, has set off speculation that China is making efforts to warm up to India and to repair the damage caused by a host of issues, especially the denial of visa to Lt Gen B S Jaswal on the ground that he headed troops in Jammu and Kashmir, which China regards as disputed.

After the incident, India had put on hold all the defence exchanges between the two countries. Zhou's visit is more or less confirmed but the dates are under finalisation, an official here said.

Costa Rica submits a request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to step into the Colombia-Nicaragua maritime border dispute

Costa Rica submits a request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to step into the Colombia-Nicaragua maritime border dispute, saying that it affects the country's interests in the Caribbean Sea.

The ICJ, which will adjudicate the dispute between the two countries, held a hearing Friday to process Costa Rica's request, reports El Espectador.

This action follows a similar request on the part of Honduras to be involved in the conflict, which will be processed next week.

Colombia supports Costa Rica's intervention, while Nicaragua opposes it.

Paul Reichler, a legal expert from the Nicaraguan delegation, said that "Costa Rica has not shown how the verdict [in the dispute with Colombia] will affect their legal interests."

"The legal interest of Costa Rica is already defined in the 1977 treaty" Reichler said, claiming that Costa Rica now has interests beyond that line.

Julio Londoño Paredes, an international relations professor who heads the Colombian delegation, pointed to the 1977 treaty as well, saying that its purpose was to "preserve peace and promote collaboration between countries" and should therefore be respected.

"Costa Rica has met all the requirements" to participate in the dispute, Paredes added.

The dispute began in 2001 when Managua asked Bogota to define their maritime boundary.

In 2007, the ICJ recognized Colombian sovereignty over the islands of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina, and said they would determine the other maritime boundaries which are under dispute.

In July 2010, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega threatened military action if Colombia handed out oil concessions in the disputed territory.

More people will have crossed Finland’s border with Russia this year than ever before.

More people will have crossed Finland’s border with Russia this year than ever before. This year is seeing an increase of about ten per cent, breaking the previous record, which was set in 2008. The land border between Finland and Russia is crossed once every four seconds, writes Helsingin Sanomat.

Before the end of the year, it is estimated that about 8 million people will have crossed the Finnish-Russian border, which means an average of one person crossing every four seconds.

Two thirds are Russian citizens. Traffic has increased especially at the Nuijamaa crossing near Lappeenranta, as well as the Imatra crossing, both of which are popular among Russians taking shopping trips to Finland.

Russia withdrew its border guards from a land strip disputed between South Ossetia and Georgia

Russia withdrew its border guards from a land strip disputed between South Ossetia and Georgia, Russia's Foreign Ministry's web-site reported on Tuesday.

The border checkpoint has been placed near Perevi village for two years after a brief armed conflict between Georgia and Russia in August 2008. The check point has been moved deeper into South Ossetian territory with no obstruction from Georgian police, the ministry said.

The ministry said that the European Union (EU)'s observation mission has assured Moscow that upon withdrawal of the Russian guards, the land vacated would not be occupied by Georgian forces. The security there will be provided by the EU's mission.

Russian border service guards the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in accordance with the agreements signed between Russia and those two Georgian breakaway regions in April 2009.

France, Russia and China, permanent members of the Council demanded the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Gaza and an independent investigation

France, Russia and China, permanent members of the Council demanded the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Gaza and an independent investigation on the tragedy, which left at least 10 dead and several dozens injured among the international activists that made up this fleet.

Israel’s traditional ally, the United States, didn’t specifically demand the end of the
blockade. Instead made a call for its softening and regretted the deaths, while the UK requested the lifting of the access to Gaza limitations.

According to a report delivered by UN deputy secretary for political affairs Oscar Fernández Taranco at least 6 Israeli troops were also wounded.

Palestinian sources said the death toll reaches 19 people and accused the Israeli troops of seizing the ships and preventing the aid from arriving into Palestinians handsAmong the Council’s non-permanent members Brazil expressed its consternation and demanded the end of the blockade which violates the international law, a motion backed by the Mexican representative, Claude Heller
Turkey, the country from where the fleet departed, call the incident a murder, and pointed out that a state that commits such crimes loses all legitimacy in the eyes of the international community.

Buxton Harrison was found dead shortly after midday with his throat slashed.

Investigators are now probing the murder of a Westmoreland businessman who was found dead at his home this afternoon. He’s 57-year-old Buxton Harrison. The police say Harrison was found dead shortly after midday with his throat slashed. It’s reported that Harrison’s father, who had visited the house, found the body. No motive has been established for the killing. However, the police say a van belonging to the deceased is missing.

Indian soldiers on Saturday encountered and killed 10 heavily armed terrorists in separate border areas of J&K.

Indian soldiers on Saturday encountered and killed 10 heavily armed terrorists in separate border areas of J&K. Officials say equipment and technology — ground sensors and electrified fences along the LoC — have made it difficult to infiltrate and driven terrorists to desperation. The terrorists have started taking greater risks by trying to sneak into the Valley in March and April, instead of the traditional infiltration season between May and August when the snow-bound routes across the LoC are fully open. Defence spokesman Lt Col J S Brar said six terrorists were killed in an ongoing operation against the infiltrators at Keran along the LoC in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. Earlier, three terrorists were killed in the operation that Army’s 12 JAK Rifles launched in a densely forested area on Wednesday evening. ‘‘One terrorist was killed on Wednesday while two more were killed on Thursday,’’ a source said. The operation was launched when security forces noticed the movement of some terrorists in the area, who are believed to have been part of a group that sneaked into India from PoK on Wednesday. The spokesman said the operation was on when the reports last came in. ‘‘A search operation is still in progress and the identity of the slain terrorists is yet to be ascertained.’’ In another encounter at Kalakote in Rajouri district, security forces killed two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, following a tip-off from the army’s Counter-Intelligence and Surveillance Unit. Defence spokesman Lt Col Biplabh Nath said arms, ammunition and sophisticated navigation equipment, including a GPS device, a satellite phone, a compass and a matrix sheet, were recovered from the two terrorists — Abu Soraab and Abu Osama. Around the same time, two more LeT terrorists, including a battalion commander, were killed along the banks of Merul river in the neighbouring Poonch district. The defence spokesman identified the two as Rehmatullah and Nisar Ahmed. ‘‘The slain terrorists were responsible for reviving the LeT in Kishtwar district,’’ he said. CISU has warned of an increase in the infiltration attempts from across the border. Apart from the technology, the security forces have also over the years effectively countered infiltration, thanks to effective human intelligence gathering. The success reflects in the considerable decrease in violence in J&K. In 2009, the violence dipped
by around 20% to its lowest levels since 1989. Seventeen terrorists and eight soldiers were killed in March last year in a protracted gunbattle along the LoC in Kupwara. The battle to thwart the heavily-armed terrorist mini-incursion had lasted five straight days and broken a lull that had set in as snow blocked the infiltration routes. J&K CM Omar Abdullah had said last year that earlier, the rule of infiltration was that it was nonexistent during the winter months. June to September used to be the peak infiltration season, before the passes closed up yet again. Now, March-April is seen as the peak infiltration, when the snow starts melting and makes the ground sensors dysfunctional.

Cayman Islands are seeking British help to tackle an ongoing wave of violent crime that has included five murders, a kidnapping for ransom,

Authorities in The Cayman Islands are seeking British help to tackle an ongoing wave of violent crime that has included five murders, a kidnapping for ransom, and a rash of gang-related shootings. Police Commissioner David Baines says Caymanian authorities have asked the UK for 14 officers with experience in fighting gang-related crime. Commissioner Baines says the 14 will include specialists.

violence and crime at the U.S.-Mexico border continues unabated.

In yet another example of violence spreading north of the border, a deadly Mexican gang is actively plotting to kill U.S. law enforcement officers and their families in Texas, according to a Department of Homeland Security alert that warns U.S. cops to wear body armor and vary routes to avoid being tracked.The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars to fight Mexican drug cartels yet they continue to be the nation’s largest supplier of illicit narcotics and violent Mexican gangs have expanded into every region of the country, including idyllic rural areas.

"This is hardly earth-shattering news since Mexico has long represented the single greatest drug trafficking threat to the U.S., despite Uncle Sam's multi billion-dollar effort to halt the northbound flow of narcotics. The costly investment has failed miserably, according to a federal report that reveals Mexican heroin production has actually doubled in the last year," state officials from the public-interest group Judicial Watch.

Thousands of metric tons of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine were smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico in the last year and tens of billions of dollars in drug proceeds flowed back south, according to the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center. The cargo is usually transported in private or commercial vehicles, through cross-border tunnels or subterranean passageways and low-flying ultra light aircraft. Much of it is smuggled across the Southwest border through the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation in Arizona. Once in the U.S. the drugs are distributed by feared street and prison gangs, which have spread from urban cities to suburban areas once thought to be impenetrable by such corruption. Nearly 1 million criminally active gangbangers representing about 20,000 street gangs in more than 2,500 cities sold drugs in the U.S. for Mexican cartels last year. Issued this week, a government directive instructs area law enforcement officers -- local and federal -- in El Paso to be extra vigilant because the Mexican-based Barrio Azteca gang is retaliating for a recent sweep targeting its thugs for murdering two Americans at the U.S. Consulate Juarez, according Judicial Watch. Dubbed “Operation Knock Down," the huge crackdown focused on the lethal Barrio Azteca gang, which operates in El Paso jails, and its counterpart in Mexico, which is allied with the renowned Juarez drug cartel. In all, 54 gang members and their criminal associates were arrested in El Paso’s largest law enforcement operation which involved more than 200 officers from 21 agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)."This annoyed the gang’s hierarchy, so its military-style leadership quickly issued a “green light" authorizing the murder of El Paso area law enforcement officers," according to the Homeland Security alert.
The notoriously violent gang was founded three decades ago and its leader appears on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. It’s not uncommon for Mexican drug cartels to openly issue hits on law enforcement officers who may interfere with their lucrative enterprise, though it doesn’t happen as often in the U.S. as south of the border.
A few years ago Mexican drug traffickers offered a $200,000 bounty for the deaths of U.S. federal agents along the border as well as bounties on drug-sniffing dogs, according to Judicial Watch officials. A principal "player" in the Mexican drug-trafficking enterprise is Los Zetas. Los Zetas were originally a security force used by the Gulf Cartel in their trafficking operations. The Zetas, whose origin includes former members of the Air Mobile Special Forces Group of the Mexican military, have evolved into not only a security force but a drug trafficking organization in their own right.

southeast Arizona rancher likely was killed by an illegal immigrant

The body of Robert Krentz, 58, was located before midnight Saturday on his 35,000-acre ranch about 35 miles northeast of Douglas after his brother reported that he had lost radio contact with Krentz earlier in the day.southeast Arizona rancher likely was killed by an illegal immigrant, but there's no evidence to suggest there was any confrontation that led to the shooting, authorities said Monday.At a news conference Monday, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said Krentz was out checking water line and fencing on the land Krentz's family has ranched since 1907. Krentz had weapons with him in his all-terrain vehicle but didn't use them, according to Dever.Investigators said Krentz apparently came upon one person when he was shot. Krentz was heard telling his brother "illegal alien" on the radio earlier Saturday, and the area of the killing is a known smuggling corridor, according to authorities.
While Krentz was still in his vehicle, mortally wounded, he managed to drive the ATV away from the scene at a high rate of speed before becoming unconscious. The ATV still had its lights on and the engine running when authorities found it.Foot tracks were identified and followed approximately 20 miles south to the Mexico border by sheriff's deputies, U.S. Border Patrol trackers and Department of Corrections dog chase teams, authorities said.The sheriff's office said Krentz's body was transported to the Cochise County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy to determine approximate time of death.So far, there have been no suspects identified and no arrests.

"We are assuming he escaped south into Mexico," Dever said of the shooter.

Dever told a Tucson newspaper that while investigators don't have a motive yet, retaliation has been raised as a possibility. The day before the shooting, the victim's brother, Phil Krentz, reported drug smuggling activity on the ranch to the Border Patrol.Agents found 290 pounds of marijuana on the ranch and followed tracks to where they found and arrested eight illegal immigrants. All were still in custody when the shooting occurred, the Arizona Daily Star reported.U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., whose Congressional district covers the area, issued a statement saying Krentz's killing is a horrible tragedy that deserves a swift and strong response."The cold-blooded killing of an Arizona rancher is a sad and sobering reminder of the threats to public safety that exist in our border communities," Giffords said. "It has not yet been determined who committed this atrocity or why, but I know that federal and local authorities are mobilizing every possible resource to locate and apprehend the assailant."Giffords said if Krentz's killing is connected to drug cartels or smugglers, the federal government must respond appropriately.
"All options should be on the table, including sending more Border Patrol agents to the area and deploying the National Guard," Giffords said.Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said government has a clear responsibility to aid law enforcement resources at all levels along the border."I call on our federal and state governments to work together to bolster the law enforcement resources needed to better protect Arizonans living on the border," Goddard said.Meanwhile, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer joined U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in calling for federal officials to send more National Guard troops to the Mexican border."The federal government must do all it can within its power to curb this violence and protect its citizens from criminals coming across the border from Mexico," McCain wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor.U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall of New Mexico, along with Rep. Harry Teague, said Napolitano's agency needs to take more security steps and increase the Border Patrol's presence in the Boot Heel of New Mexico.

Iran continues to pose a threat to the integrity of the international financial system due to its failure to stamp out terrorist financing or money la

Iran continues to pose a threat to the integrity of the international financial system due to its failure to stamp out terrorist financing or money laundering, an international body tasked with combating financial crime said Thursday.
The statement from the Financial Action Task Force came as it published a list of rogue countries that have failed to take sufficient action against terrorist funding and money laundering. They include Angola, North Korea, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Sao Tome and Principe.
Iran must immediately criminalize terrorist financing within its borders and begin reporting of suspicious transactions to meet international standards on countering money laundering and funding of terrorist activities, the task force said in a public statement.
The FATF also urged other countries to advise their banks to pay special attention to their business dealings with Iran and Iranian companies and renewed a call for countries to apply "counter-measures" to protect their financial sectors from money laundering and terrorism financing from Iran.
The FATF said that, if Iran fails to take further action, the task force will consider calling on its member countries to strengthen their counter-measures in June.
The FATF said Angola, North Korea, Ecuador and Ethiopia have weaknesses in their safeguards against money laundering and terrorist financing and hadn't committed to an action plan, developed with the FATF, to address them by February. It said Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Sao Tome and Principe have weaknesses that still must be addressed.
The FATF also issued a list of 20 legal jurisdictions that, while they still have deficiencies in the way they deal with money laundering and terrorism financing, have gone as far as developing an action plan with the task force.
These countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Greece, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Paraguay, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Yemen.
The FATF said it is yet to review a large number of financial jurisdictions, but it has begun an initial review of some and will report its findings on these later this year.

Iran, Angola, North Korea, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, São Tomé and Príncipe

The FATF has named 8 countries as not having sufficient money laundering regulations in place: Iran, Angola, North Korea, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, São Tomé and Príncipe. The FATF criticised the following 20 countries for deficiencies in their anti-money laundering regime, while recognising that they had high level political commitment to improve: Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Greece, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Paraguay, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Yemen. international financial crime watchdog has named and shamed countries that are failing to stop dirty money entering the financial system, a move welcomed by Global Witness. However, conspicuously absent are major financial centres and secrecy jurisdictions, many of which also have serious weaknesses in their anti-money laundering regulations. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the intergovernmental group that sets the global anti-money laundering standard, has issued a list of countries which are failing to do enough to crack down on financial crime. The 28 countries include Iran, Greece and Turkey.

“This list is a welcome move by the FATF and will put significant pressure on the named countries to take money laundering seriously,” said Anthea Lawson, a campaigner with Global Witness. “However, the rich countries at the heart of the FATF need to get their own house in order and ensure that they too are meeting its standards”.
The task force has reverted to type by focusing mostly on poorer countries, while ignoring the substantial loopholes in the anti-money laundering systems of many rich jurisdictions. No countries have fully met the FATF standard, not even the United States, which has led the global campaign against dirty money. Global Witness has exposed how banks, including Barclays, Citibank, HSBC, and Bank of America, have been able to do business with corrupt regimes, facilitating corruption and denying some of the world's poorest people a way out of poverty. A recent report by a U.S. Senate committee detailed how foreign officials and their family members exploited holes in the anti-money laundering framework to bring millions of illicit dollars into the U.S. The list is based on the latest round of peer reviews carried by the FATF and its regional bodies. The reviews measured whether countries had laws on the books, rather than whether those laws are actually being implemented and enforced effectively. This should be the next stage of the FATF’s reviewing and blacklisting process.



Global Witness investigates and campaigns to prevent natural resource-related conflict and corruption and associated environmental and human rights abuses.