Former neo-Nazi becomes leftist after sex change (Germany)

Before undergoing a sex change to become a woman, Monika Strub was a member of Germany's neo-Nazi NPD party. But ten years later, she is running for Baden-Württemberg's state parliament for the socialist party The Left.

"I have completely broken with the NPD," Strub told German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung this week, referring to the right-wing extremist National Democratic Party (NPD). "I am a true socialist."

Strub was a member of the NPD from 2000 to 2002. Photos show "Horst Strub," as she was known in the years before her sex-reassignment surgery, with cropped hair, a beard and a bomber jacket.

Today, the 35-year old nurse and photographer named Monika Strub is campaigning for the socialist party The Left.

Strub told Süddeutsche Zeitung she is now a victim of far-right harassment, saying she has been threatened multiple times. On Thursday. Strub said her home was vandalised after NPD stickers were placed on her windows and doors.

Meanwhile, The Left party has not tried to bury Strub's political past.

Christoph Kröpel, spokesman for The Left party in the state of Baden-Württemberg, described Strub's history with the NPD as a "youthful transgression" and said she has "fundamentally changed."

He told the paper Strub had so clearly distanced herself from her former party "that there is absolutely no doubt as to her political bearing."

The Local Germany

EU fear of north African migrants 'overblown'

Concerned about the "massive migration movements" from Libya, EU leaders on Friday (11 March) called for extra staff and money for the bloc's border agency and offered financial assistance to north African countries in stemming potential waves of immigrants.

"We need to be very upfront on the question of migratory flows. There are 200,000 displaced persons between Libya, Egypt and Tunisia," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said during a press briefing after an EU leaders' meeting dedicated to the Libyan crisis.

"If we don't deal with them humanely then there is a huge temptation for them to come to Europe and we don't have the wherewithal to deal with them," he said. The French leader warned of a "Lampedusa times ten", in reference to the Italian island just 113 km off the Tunisian coast, which has seen a massive increase in refugee boats arriving in past weeks.

Most of the young, French-speaking Tunisians arriving in Italy are actually France-bound. Right-wing leader Marine Le Pen, a candidate for the presidency in 2012, is set to kick off her pre-campaign on Lampedusa on Monday.

German chancellor Angela Merkel also indicated Europe struck a stern note. "I don't see a future for having more and more people emigrate to Europe. Of course, there is a difference when we are having a civil war situation, but the future for these people is to rebuild their countries on the ground."

In the final conclusions, EU leaders expressed their solidarity for those member states "most directly concerned by migratory movements" and said that the bloc's border agency, Frontex, should receive more personnel and equipment from national governments and extra money from the EU budget.

"The European Union will consult with the countries of the region concerned on financial and technical support to improve the control and management of borders and measures to facilitate the return of migrants to their countries of origin," the text reads. A special plan on "development of capacities to manage migration and refugee flows" is requested from the EU commission by June.

One sweetener, introduced by the more migration-friendly countries, foresees a "comprehensive approach" to migration, including visa facilities and encouraging students and pupils exchanges between the northern and southern Mediterranean shores.

But aid workers on the ground dismiss talk of a "biblical exodus" as Italian authorities have repeatedly put it.

Out of the roughly 250,000 refugees who fled Libya to neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, the number of people potentially heading to Europe is in the hundreds, Jumbe Omari Jumbe from the International Organisation for Migration told EUobserver from the Tunisian-Libyan border.

"I just came back from a transit camp where there are some 15,000 refugees, mostly Bangladeshi and Bengali, awaiting to be repatriated," he said.

Subsaharan refugees, less than 3,000, were also mostly keen on returning home, except for a couple of hundreds of Somali and Eritrean people who may try to cross over the Mediterranean.

"It's an overblown fear. Leaders should not take advantage of people suffering," the aid worker said. In order to attempt to cross over the sea by boat, migrants usually have to accumulate some money to pay off the middlemen and traffickers. "But most of these people have been stripped of all their belongings, they don't even know where to start," he stressed.

Instead of stirring up fears of massive immigration, the EU should help international organisations such as the UNHCR and the IOM with more money.

With only four flights a day, the 12,000 Bengalis who are awaiting to be repatriated could spend months in the refugee camp. Some have already started "mini riots," Omari Jumbe said.

"There is big support in terms of EU funds, but the problem is that it's piecemeal. One flight to Bengali and back costs 1 million US dollars," he explained.

The IOM has appealed for an extra €35 million from the international community to assist in the evacuation of up to 65,000 migrants caught up in the Libyan crisis. The EU this week upped its humanitarian assistance to €30 million.

euobserver

'Eta military chief' Arriola arrested in France

The suspected head of Spain's armed Basque separatist group Eta has been arrested in northern France.

Alejandro Zobaran Arriola and three other Eta suspects were seized by French police at a holiday cottage in a remote village near the Belgian border.

One of the other three detainees is also thought to be a senior militant.

Eta's campaign for independence for the Basque region has cost more than 800 lives since 1968 but it called a halt to armed attacks last year.

The four suspects were arrested at a cottage overlooking the tiny hamlet of Willencourt, population 140, south of the port of Dunkirk.

Police swooped on the house, local resident Mickael Catouillard told AFP news agency, adding that there had been a sudden swarm of cars and flashing lights.

Firearms and documents were seized inside the house, Spanish national radio said, citing counter-terrorism sources.
'Odd kind of tourists'

Local hunter Pierre Dufour told AFP that the suspects had moved into the cottage almost two weeks ago, saying they had come to tour the Belgian coast.

"They planned to stay three weeks and they paid for it all up front," he added.

According to the Spanish daily El Pais, the owner of the cottage tipped off police about the men when he found their identity documents suspicious. They had reportedly tried to pass themselves off as students.

"I too found it weird," Mr Dufour said.

"For tourists, they hardly ever went out. One day one of them, a young man, asked me the way to a baker's. He spoke with a strong foreign accent. He was very polite, very friendly."

Mr Arriola - known as Xarla - is believed to be the sixth Eta military chief to be detained since Francisco Javier Lopez Pena was arrested in May 2008.

Eta has been coming under increasing pressure to lay down its weapons and, in January this year, announced that it would cease "offensive armed actions".

But Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero rejected the declaration, saying he wanted the group to be completely disbanded.

Spanish authorities believe their campaign against Eta has crippled its operational capacity, with dozens of arrests - including a number of top leaders - made in collaboration with forces in other countries.

BBC News

Businessman who sold 'terrorist handbooks' online jailed for three years (UK)

The man who used the 7/7 bombings as a “marketing tool” to sell a terrorist handbook was yesterday jailed for three years.

Terence Brown, 47, made £62,000 by selling CDs called the Anarchist Cookbook, which instructed how to make various explosives and enter countries illegally.

Sentencing at Winchester crown court, Mr Justice Blair accepted Brown was not a terrorist. He said: “You admit you used (July 7) as a marketing opportunity to boost sales.

“Motivated only by money, you acted in a completely irresponsible way.

“The information could have been used in further incidents in this country or abroad.”

Brown, from Portsmouth, was earlier found guilty of collecting and distributing material that could have led to attacks.

Imran Khan, defending, said: “Terrorist is a label that will be attached to this defendant for some time to come.

“He has no religious, political or ideological beliefs. This was a man who was simply motivated by making money to live.”

Daily Mirror