TaP has moved

As TaP hasn't many readers now and I wanted the blog to be moved to wordpress.com, I have decided to change it. People who have subscribed in it with Feedburner.com or who follow the blog on Twitter, don't need to do anything as the feed has been updated already. But if you have subscribed with Blogger's adress you need to update your link to Feedburner feed. Thanks and sorry for the inconveniences.

Germany: stabbed for wearing the veil

As I said before: you consider that using violence is based on desperation because of "injustice", and you can see that used by anyone with any motive:

Sherbini, 32, was killed in a court in the northern German city of Dresden on Wednesday shortly before she was to give evidence in an appeal lodged by her attacker.
The 28-year-old attacker, identified only as Axel W. had been convicted and fined after calling her a "terrorist" for wearing the Islamic headscarf.
According to the Egyptian press, Sherbini was three months pregnant when she was killed. She was laid to rest in her hometown of Alexandria in northern Egypt on Monday.

via AFP: Egypt cleric seeks stiff penalty as 'veil martyr' buried.

Just read Esther's post on the subject. I think the most important think of it is this paragraph:

So far this year, one hijab-wearing Muslim girl was killed in Germany for not being Muslim enough.  Another 20-year old was killed for not being a virgin.  This follows up on dozens of cases in the past few years were Muslim women were killed by their Muslim family for not being Muslim enough.  As far as I know Sherbini's case is the first one in Germany (possibly in  Europe), where a woman is killed for being Muslim.

A lot of outrage when one woman is killed supposedly because she was a Muslim. None if they are killed daily because of "Islamic culture". Fair?

UK: Bomb seizures spark far-right terror plot fear

This is the consequence of not stopping terror ideologues (or even fraternizing with them, because they were "speaking freely"): the extremists of the other side just appear to kill too:

A network of suspected far-right extremists with access to 300 weapons and 80 bombs has been uncovered by counter-terrorism detectives.
Thirty-two people have been questioned in a police operation that raises the prospect of a right-wing bombing campaign against mosques. Police are said to have recovered a British National party membership card and other right-wing literature during a raid on the home of one suspect charged under the Terrorism Act.
In England’s largest seizure of a suspected terrorist arsenal since the IRA mainland bombings of the early 1990s, rocket launchers, grenades, pipe bombs and dozens of firearms have been recovered in the past six weeks during raids on more than 20 properties. Several people have been charged and more arrests are imminent. Current police activity is linked to arrests in Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

via Bomb seizures spark far-right terror plot fear - Times Online.

I don't think that BNP (a hateful party a it is) can be blamed because some of this would-be bombers had a membership of the party. But it is worrying that this kind of possible attacks are appearing.

The internet gives it reach and scope,” said Bettison. “The big bad wolf is still the Al- Qaeda threat. But my people are knocking over right-wing extremists quite regularly. We are interdicting it so that it doesn’t first emerge into the public eye out of a critical incident like an explosion.”

So, what would happen if an attack is succesful?
Other worrysome thing is that there were no arrests made in NZ or Australia connected to this.

AUSTRALIAN police have made no arrests despite reported connections here with a plot by far-right extremists to blow up British mosques.
New Zealand authorities have confirmed they were asked to investigate links there to a terrorist network, but Australian authorities will not confirm that there is any links here. . . the Australian Federal Police rejected suggestions any arrests had been made.

I don't believe the solution against Islamism is to blow up mosques...

h/t The Iconoclast.

More here:

There are fears that ex BNP members are turning to US-style violent white supremacism which could wreck efforts to win Muslim hearts and minds. One official said: ""They are not the cleverest people but they are capable of putting together viable devices after sharing information on the internet. "Say they were successful and blow up a mosque and kill some Muslims. Not only would that be a horrific crime, it could well provoke a catastrophic response. "It would re-energise radicals and extremists and could give them a flood of new recruits just when we're starting to make progress in isolating them.

What a fair prospect! I think the solution would be to get all extremists together and let them fight each other!

Anyway, I don't think that giving money to people to support Jihad or attacks against Israel is winning Muslim hearts and minds, neither. I believe UK Government is failing to really go against Islamic extremism AND so to stop the excuses of the far-right extremists to do thinks like that. Yes, I know Islamic radicals have killed more than far-right people but a) the mass-killings made by ones justifies mass killings done by the antagonistic groups? and b) Violence is NOT the solution, specially when you attack indiscriminately against all the people in a group.

The Telegraph has more.

Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command has stepped up the number of officers in special unit dedicated to monitoring right wing extremists because of the threat.
Muslims, Jews and other minority groups have all been urged to be extra vigilant after an internal police report found that the danger has significantly increased since the onset of recession.

As I was saying, this is not a solution and really goes against anti-jihadism in general, as it strenghens the already strong, although not really factually based, feeling, of "victims" Islamists have in Europe.

Gaza: women suffer from die-hard custom of "honor killing"

M.M., a 34-year-old male resident of Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City never regretted the killing of his sister, who he believed had slept with a stranger.
"I protected the honor and dignity of my clan, and now I can walk down the street holding my head high," said the man, who spoke on condition of only using the abbreviation of his name.
Having served three years in prison for the murder, M.M. thought it was a proper price to pay to keep his family's reputation.
His case was ruled as passion killing by the local court and was given a much lighter penalty than first class murders, because it was categorized as "honor killing", in which a woman was murdered by her male relatives, often her father or brothers, for sex outside marriage.
Honor killing is not entirely rare and insular in the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip of 1.5 million population, where Israel's blockage since June 2007 has increased people's poverty as well as ideological isolation.
Seven women were killed by their family members in the name of "honor" in Gaza since the beginning of 2009, while two were killed in 2008, and eight in 2007, according to a report by the Gaza-based Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR).

via Gaza women suffer from die-hard custom of "honor killing"_English_Xinhua.

So for the Chinese agency honor killlings happen thanks to the "Israeli blockage". Even when it's clear that Hamas has been stealing aid supplies to sell them to residents. Even UN halted aid to Gaza after the theft of thousands of tonnes.

The UN Relief and Works agency said it made the decision after Hamas personnel intercepted an aid shipment for the second time this week.
In a statement, the agency said 10 truckloads of flour and rice delivered into Gaza yesterday were taken away by trucks affiliated with the Hamas-run social affairs ministry. Earlier this week, Hamas police took away thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents.

The blockage has done nothing to the reasons why these girls are savagely killed. That happens throughout the world, whether the interested are rich or poor.

NOTE: The Stop Honor Killings' web is down. Don't know why.

Honduras: after coup, instability grows

CBS:

Honduras' interim government closed its main airport to all flights on Monday after blocking the runway to prevent the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Clashes with his supporters caused the first death in a week of protests.

Police and soldiers blanketed the streets of the capital early Monday, enforcing a sunset-to-sunrise curfew with batons and metal poles. Civil aviation authorities announced a 24-hour ban on all flights at the country's main airport starting Monday morning.

Soldiers clashed Sunday with thousands of Zelaya backers massed at the airport in hopes of welcoming home the deposed leader removed a week earlier.

But military vehicles and soldiers blocked the runway. Pilots of the plane loaned by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez circled the airport and decided not to risk a crash.

Zelaya instead headed for El Salvador, and vowed to try again Monday or Tuesday in his high-stakes effort to return to power in a country where all branches of government have lined up against him.

Zelaya is banking on the confrontation keeping the pressure on the new Honduran government, reported CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.

"I call on the Armed Forces of Honduras to lower their rifles," he said late Sunday at a news conference, flanked by the presidents of El Salvador, Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador, and the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, who flew there from Washington.

"I am risking myself personally to resolve the problems without violence," said Zelaya,

If he was really interested in resolving the problems without violence, he would never return there. He just wants power back.

Meanwhile it looks like that shots which hurt several demonstrators, were fired by other demonstrators who were supporting Zelaya.

Maria Anastasia O'Grady has written a very good piece in WSJ titled: "Honduras defends its democracy".



There is a very interesting connection in drug trade: FARC-Venezuela-Honduras. Actually, 40% of the drug which enters in Europe comes from Venezuela.From this blog we have more interesting data:

Honduras and other Central American nations have become major transshipment points in recent years for Colombian cocaine, particularly as Mexico’s government cracks down on cartels.

The drugs arrive in Honduras on non-commercial aircraft from Venezuela and increasingly in speedboats from Colombia, according to the Key West, Florida-based Joint Interagency Task Force-South, which coordinates drug interdiction in region.

To combat that, Zelaya wanted to legalise drug consumption. I believe that would have been a major movement: everyone could take drugs freely. Yes, the rise on the offered drug would low the price, but the lower price and the freedom to take drugs would surely produce a rise in the people who take drugs. Regarding the rise in insecurity as a result of the drug cartels using the country to transport the drugs, I am not sure that would be ended just because of a legalization. Firstly, drug cartels are not only onto drugs, but diversify their business. So it's probable that, if a legalization arrived, they would smuggle tobacco or other things. Secondly, the legalization of drugs (as happens with tobacco) can't be done to allow any type of drug as there are some who are lethal. So, no one tells the supporters of legalization that there wouldn't be people who would take those drugs to proof their effects.

Last news: US diplomacy will not have even a meeting with an Honduran delegation who has arrived in Washington but will speak with Mel Zelaya. The reason? They haven't recognised that Government, because it wasn't elected democratically. Ja!

Obama: "We have resolved to reset US-Russian relations"

BBC NEWS | Europe | US and Russia agree nuclear cuts - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Just watch Medvedev's faces throughout Obama's speech. It's a sign of more or less, this:

Obama, Medvedev Sign Nuclear Understanding: Russia to remain nuclear; Obama to remain understanding.

WaPo has more.

Question: what has US given in return of Russia letting US planes travelling to Afghanistan through Russian air space?

Read also this post from Heritage.org.

Venezuela: "The Law will give Chávez full control over MSM"

Un update on this story. From La Prensa:

“Every one of these  legislative or administrative measures are used to stop freedom of expression, while the worldwide trend is precisely to erase every limit to freedom of expression, as happens in the region with the abrogation of the crimes of insulting authorities or the elimination of censorship”, Abreu, ex president of the Interamerican Human Rights Court.

Tomás Terán, a member of the executive committee of the Movement to Socialism, denounced just yesterday that the announcement made by the Minister of Education, Héctor Navarro, related to the control of the MSM by the new Education Act, "only wants to control all the MSM's schedule to let Hugo Chávez achieve a total control of the information given to Venezuelan society".
He also added this Govt. action is not surprising nor improvised, but that "this law to control all the independent media is passed at the same time as the Criminal Procedure Organic Code to reach the real MSM censorship so much wanted by Chávez".

Some days ago, CONATEL (MSM authority) has revoked the concessions to 240 radios because they didn't give their information on time, but in the same press conference Venezuelan Minister Cabello added they wanted to "make a more democratic use of the MSM", as "27 families controlled 31% of the radios". And??

Recently International Press Society critisized the harrasment some MSM han in Venezuela. As the blog K-Minos says:

"No one can say there are no freedom of expression in Venezuela, but we can safely say that the freedom of expression is menaced and at risk, because of the hateful statements and speeches, because of the menaces expressed against journalists and MSM nearly daily, because of shutting radio channels just because they are denouncing regional leaders, because they consider internet as a luxury so as to stop the public from using it to "save", because of expelling from the country anyone who speaks uncomfortable ideas to the Government, whether they are HRW's director or a Spanish MP. Because of recording journalists' private conversations in a clear violation of the terms of our constitution and because of a lot of other cases that any of you can have knowledge of, just visiting any of the published dailies".