Archive | March, 2008
Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), released a bombshell in the form of Fitna – a self-proclaimed documentary and wake up call to Europe in the face of growing Islamicization. Arabic for “disagreement and division among people”, Fitna has caused much division among nations and even within the ranks of those critical to radical Islam. Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist whose bomb-laden depiction of Mohammed resulted in worldwide riots and death threats, publicly condemned Wilders’ use of his drawings due to the film’s sweeping indictment of Islam as a whole. Web host Network Solutions suspended film’s website and video streaming company LiveLeak hosted the movie for only two days. Pakistan briefly banned YouTube while Al Qaeda has issued a fatwa against the blonde instigator. Controversy, thy name is Geert.
[...more]
BETWEEN ZHARI and PANJWAII, Afghanistan -- Sgt. Malcolm Thomson was a tactical tracker with the South African Defense Force in 1978, hunting for guerrillas in Angola.
Three decades later Thomson, who is referred to as Grandpa by younger troops, acts as a patrol commander on convoys that sometimes hunt for the improvised explosives that the Taliban bury under roads in order to kill Canadian troops and Afghan civilians.
[...more]
EDMONTON - The corporate plane that crashed near Wainwright on Friday, killing all five people aboard, lost its wings as it started to spiral out of control, an investigator said today.
[...more]
When Ivy Harnett's husband told her to rush to her cabin window Sunday to see a polar bear, she assumed he was simply teasing.
Fogo Island — off Newfoundland's northeast coast — is not, after all, noted for its array of subarctic wildlife.
[...more]
The appeal hearing for a Montreal man facing execution in Saudi Arabia didn't go well Monday, as his lawyer was sent out of the courtroom while the session continued behind closed doors.
[...more]
German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber was to be in court Monday seeking release from a Toronto detention centre where he's been held while he awaits extradition.
[...more]
Though used for years, microscopic yellow tracking dots created by some colour laser printers have recently raised privacy concerns with the European Commission.
[...more]
OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is announcing a mini-shuffle of his shadow cabinet today, replacing defence critic Denis Coderre with Bryon Wilfert, who is moving from associate foreign affairs critic.
[...more]
Always a tense time in Atlantic Canada, this year's seal hunt has proved no exception, with a conservation group clashing with the Canadian Coast Guard in the Gulf of St. Lawrence just three days into the annual seal hunt.
[...more]
OTTAWA - The RCMP didn't break any rules when they announced a criminal investigation into the federal Finance Department in the middle of the 2005-06 election campaign, because there were no clear rules to break, concludes a report by the RCMP's watchdog.
[...more]
I am deeply saddened by the loss of life in the recent tragic events in Tibet. I am aware that some Chinese have also died. I feel for the victims and their families and pray for them. The recent unrest has clearly demonstrated the gravity of the situation in Tibet and the urgent need to seek a peaceful and mutually beneficial solution through dialogue. Even at this juncture I have expressed my willingness to the Chinese authorities to work together to bring about peace and stability.
[...more]
Stephen Taylor | Earth Hour
-- Earth Hour was 'celebrated' worldwide on Saturday in order to raise "awareness" of climate change and our wasteful consumption of energy. I was made aware of this event by the huge (approx) 50 ft full colour banner hanging from Ottawa city hall, the countless full colour flyers taped to lamp posts downtown, the wall to wall TV network coverage that has been burning up the microwaves, the buckets of black ink used to print clever 'lights out' themes on the front pages of newspapers produced from dead trees. [...more]
The Star | Chantal Hebert: No breakup yet for Dion, Ignatieff
-- By all accounts, the emergency meeting that Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion held with his demoralized Quebec team last week had an uncommon share of surrealistic moments.
[...more]
BBC | Turkey court considers party ban
-- Turkey's constitutional court has decided unanimously that it can hear a case aimed at closing down the country's governing AK Party.
[...more]
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission began announcing official results Monday of elections the opposition party claims to have won, after a delay that heightened fears of rigging and brought security forces onto the streets.
[...more]
CBC | Cancer inquiry shifts to politicians
-- The spotlight at Newfoundland and Labrador's inquiry into flawed breast cancer tests will move this week to the political arena.
[...more]
A new poll paints a devastating picture of a Liberal party completely reduced to a rump in Quebec if an election were held today.
"For the Liberals, they are in a worse position than they were in the middle of the sponsorship scandal," political commentator Jean Lapierre told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.
[...more]
For Bryan Adams, tears were "not enough" for the tragedy that was playing out more than two decades ago in Ethiopia.
Today, for Brenda Martin, tears are enough to send many Canadians into one of their periodic fits of hypocrisy and narrow moralization when there is word that a Canadian has run into legal difficulties in a foreign country.
[...more]
There was a unique dance Saturday as about 1,300 chanting protesters shuffled their feet and stretched out their arms as they encircled the legislature.
"Hold hands, hold hands," instructed organizers.
Then came the victory yell as the human chain extended twice around the buildings in the biggest environmental protest since Clayoquot Sound rallies 15 years ago.
[...more]
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell says he had no idea the province's top cop has been under investigation by police for nine months.
Campbell said he learned about the investigation at about 5:30 p.m. on Friday when Solicitor-General and Minister of Public Safety John Les phoned him about the probe -- and offered his resignation.
[...more]
Even those who are habitually dismissive of the U.S. political process seem to be entranced by this fierce struggle between senators Clinton, McCain and Obama. They are all impressive candidates. No other country has recently fielded such a formidable trio of contenders for its highest office, and they are a good deal more prepossessing than George W. Bush, Al Gore and John Kerry have been in the last eight years.
[...more]
All you need to know about how rotten the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) is -- how undemocratic and anti-freedom it has become -- is that in hate-speech complaints, the commission has a 100-per-cent conviction rate.
No one who has ever been hauled before it for allegedly uttering hate speech has ever been acquitted.
[...more]
Ford Motor Co. will reopen a shuttered engine plant in Windsor, Ont., with financial help from the Ontario government, industry sources say.
Ford officials and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty are scheduled to announce in Windsor on Monday that the Essex Engine Plant will assemble a new generation of fuel-efficient V8 engines, which will restore about 300 jobs, the sources said.
[...more]
BEIJING (Reuters) - Tibet's capital Lhasa was calm on Sunday following a brief burst of unrest weeks after a bloody uprising against Chinese rule, but in Greece and Nepal flurries of pro-Tibet protest continued.
[...more]
Popularity: 25% [?] [...more]
VLADIMIR PUTIN, the Russian president, is to raise plans for a tunnel to link his country with America when he meets his US counterpart, George W Bush, next Sunday.
The 64-mile tunnel would run under the Bering Strait between Chukotka, in the Russian far east, and Alaska; the cost is estimated at £33 billion.
[...more]
GENEVA — Like Paul Revere, Konrad Hummler sounded the alarm last week as he made his way by train and by plane to his bank’s branches across Switzerland. This country’s storied role as secret banker to the world’s wealthy is under threat like never before, Mr. Hummler warned.
[...more]
THE terror felt by ordinary Basrawis trapped by the attacks and counterattacks of recent days followed years of growing fear as Shi’ite militias tightened their grip on the city.
I was in Basra three months ago when British commanders officially handed over control to Iraqi security forces even though everyone knew the strength of the militias.
[...more]
Zimbabwe's opposition party claimed an overwhelming victory against President Robert Mugabe in yesterday's presidential election, saying that the flow of results showed its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, had 'massacred' the ruling Zanu-PF party.
[...more]
