POLICE CRACKDOWN ON HATE CRIME ACROSS LONDON (uk)

Raids across London have been carried out by the Metropolitan Police as part of an operation to crackdown on hate crime. A number of officers simultaneously raided properties across the city at about 0000 BST on Tuesday. Seventy-seven people have been arrested for a range of offences including serious assault and harassment. More arrests are expected to be made later. The action comes a day after the International Day Against Homophobia. The raids are aimed at bringing hate crime offenders to justice. Police are particularly focusing their attentions on homophobic and domestic violence within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.


'Gain trust'
Between March 2009 and April 2010 there were 51,839 domestic violence offences, 9,914 racial offences and 1,336 homophobic offences committed in London. To crack down on such offences the Met has about 230 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Liaison officers supporting police work. Det Supt Darren Williams said: "Today's operations represent part of the proactive approach the MPS take to bring those responsible to justice. "We know that all hate crime is under reported and this remains a challenge for us. We will continue to work hard to gain the trust and confidence of all communities so that victims feel that they can come forward and tell police. "My message to all victims is that if you feel you can't tell the police - tell someone."
BBC News

GERMAN SYNAGOGUE ATTACKED BY ARSONISTS

A synagogue in the city of Worms, in Rhineland-Palatinate state, was attacked by arsonists on Monday. The vandals left a note linking their torching of the synagogue with the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the regional paper *Wiesbadener Kurier reported. German police found eight copies of a note written in “awkward” German, claiming responsibility for the blaze. “So long as you do not give the Palestinians peace, we are not going to give you peace,” read the note. Prosecutor Klaus-Peter Mieth said the authenticity of the note was still an open question. Authorities said there was no serious damage to the synagogue.

Levi Salomon, who heads a task force combating anti-Semitism for the 12,000-member Berlin Jewish community, told The Jerusalem Post it could not be ruled out that German-Palestinians set the synagogue afire. While there are no current statistics on the rise of Islamic anti-Semitism in Germany, Salomon said he had observed an increase in expressions of Muslim-based anti-Semitism. Observers said the attackers could be from the extreme Left, neo-Nazis or radical Islamists, because what unites these groups is their hatred of Israel. Stella Schindler-Siegreich, the head of the Jewish community in Mainz, traveled to Worms and told the *Kurier, “We are a small minority in Germany and we have a such a history.”

Germans destroyed the synagogue in Worms in 1938 and it was rebuilt in 1961. In contrast to many Jewish institutions in Germany, the Worms synagogue does not have a police presence or barricades, according to Schindler-Siegreich. The synagogue was built in 1034. The Jewish Cemetery in Worms, dating from the 11th century, is believed to be the oldest in Europe. The Rashi Shul, a synagogue dating from 1175 and carefully reconstructed after its desecration on Kristallnacht, is the oldest in Germany. Prominent rabbis from Worms include Shlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi), Elazar Rokeach and Yair Bacharach. At the Rabbinical Synod held at Worms in the 11th century, rabbis for the first time explicitly prohibited polygamy.
J Post

Neo-Nazi's attempted murder charge dropped (Canada)

The Crown does not have enough evidence to prove a purported neo-Nazi tried to murder his ex-girlfriend and her new beau by blowing up their apartment, court heard Tuesday.

Prosecutor Rajbir Dhillon said alibi evidence provided by the suspect’s co-accused cast doubt on the eye witness statement of the woman.

“Police investigated that alibi and determined it was a valid alibi ... (the other suspect) likely was not present,” Dhillon told Calgary provincial court Judge Peter Barley.
“The Crown determined that there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction on either accused,” he said, in withdrawing attempted murder and other charges against Kyle Robert McKee.

“In the end the Crown is not alleging that Mr. McKee was involved in that there is insufficient evidence tying him to that.”
McKee, through defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli, did admit a single charge of making explosives after a police search of his northeast home following the attempted firebombing found a Molotov cocktail.

Barley accepted a joint submission for a one-day sentence followed by 12 months’ probation, since McKee has already served the equivalent of a 10-month jail term.

He was arrested Dec. 16, in Winnipeg, nearly a month after two explosive devices were left outside a Rundlehorn Dr. N.E. apartment on Nov. 21, occupied by Carolyne Kwiatek and her boyfriend, Tyler Sturrup.
Kwiatek said she looked out to see McKee and a youth on the balcony of her ground floor suite, Dhillon said.
“She saw two males, one of whom she identified as this offender, and a youth,” Dhillon told court.

He said Kwiatek believes the devices were placed there as a result of her relationship with McKee, “which had gone sour.”
Kwiatek woke up Sturrup, who went out on the balcony and tossed the two items into the parking lot, where one exploded.
When police arrived, they found the remnants of the detonated bomb and a second device consisting of a glass jar with coins, screws, nails and ratchet bits inside, Dhillon said.

He said both Kwiatek and Sturrup were reluctant to talk to police.

He earlier withdrew charges against the youth.

Iovinelli told Barley his client maintains his innocence on the bombing-related charges and was prepared to go to trial.
Calgary Sun

Neo-Nazi permit approved (USA)

A permit was granted late Monday afternoon for the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations to hold a rally at the Gettysburg National Military Park, according to park spokeswoman Katie Lawhon.


Aryan Nations - which identifies itself as a white-supremacist organization and has been called a "continuing terrorist threat" by the FBI - will hold the rally on June 19 from 1 to 3 p.m. on the park's lawn west of the Cyclorama Center, according to the group's website.

"Because the land is publicly owned, we're obligated to make it publicly available for exercising First Amendment rights," Lawhon said last week when the permit request was received.

And Col. Gordon Young, who heads the Maryland chapter of Aryan Nations, said he never doubted the permit would be granted.
"I told them if you don't approve me then we'll be in court and that's a fight they don't want to have," he said.

The rally will include speeches from Aryan Nations members and discussions on current events and political issues, according to Young.
"We're going to talk about immigration and how these Mexicans are pouring over our borders and taking our jobs and putting white Americans out of work. We blame them for our downfall of the economy," he said. "And we'll talk about how homosexuality is wrong and 9/11 was an insiders deal. Today's world is so screwed up and we're just trying to teach our children the right ways of life."

In 2006, the World Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had a similar rally, and park officials have said the event proceeded without complications.


"In general, the event went smoothly in 2006 and there was a lot of coordination and we had a lot of excellent assistance from other law enforcement agencies," Lawhon said.

Young, who attended the 2006 rally, agreed and cited only minimal disturbances.

"It went great and the law enforcement did a really good job. One guy ran towards us with a rainbow flag, which stands for homosexuals, but the cops grabbed him," he said. "Some of the black and Hispanic officers tried to entice our guys to say things but I told them to shut up and we're not going to stoop that low."

In response, the YWCA plans to hold a "celebration of diversity" event to draw visitors away the rally.

"There are some people who feel it's better to ignore (Aryan Nations), but people around here aren't going to tolerate this," YWCA Missions Director Ashley Andyshak Hayes said last week. "It's important for us to speak out and send a positive."
Evening Sun

Italy in Racial Crisis

Italian politics can seem bewildering and distant to many people in Britain, but yet the recent actions of Italian coalition government formed by “The Freedom Party” and led by the countries PM and financial tycoon Silvio Berlusconi needs to be examined and publicised.

Because fascism and extremism is returning to Italy, with the full knowledge of this government.

The Freedom Party gained power in 2008 with a coalition of far right extremist political parties, and these fringe extremist parties are now making their presence felt.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Milan, where they hold the majority in local government and municipal and county control.

This is how a member of an Italian anti-fascist organisation describes the situation:

“The Italian extreme right wing organisations involved are different groups; all have been recently officially admitted to be part or partner of the Berlusconi's party called PDL/Partito delle Liberta – so-called "freedom's party", the Italian national and local government of Berlusconi is doing nothing against those groups.
Their ideology and neo-Nazi symbols and Celtic crosses are spreading and so is their violence.

In the last 2 years Italy has experienced many dangerous attacks to its democratic process and has seen an escalation in the support of fascist ideology and xenophobic violence against minorities: migrants, Roma people, GLBT communities.

In recent times, both for economical and political reasons, Berlusconi's government has been showing signs of evolving into an authoritarian government which is causing growing alarm for the Italian people and their democracy.”

Already a number of neo-Nazi and fascist events have occurred this year which were full of neo-Nazi and white power symbolism and were openly supported by members of the local government. Even though they were widely publicised and persons of news worthy stature attended, no national media organisation reported on the events.

And there is more to come:

- there is a national Italian neo-fascist demonstration scheduled in Milan on 22nd May organized by Forza Nuova and its leader Roberto Fiore in which there will also be European delegations from Spanish and French neo-Nazis. Hungarian Nazi-extreme-right-wing Jobbik’s leader Laszlo Toroczkai will also be attending
- the European neo-Nazi convention, so-called "European Hammerfest 1990-2010, 20 years of European Brotherhood" is scheduled in Milan on 29th May, 2010.

The Italian anti-Racists/anti-Fascists organisations are calling out for international help and support to make people aware of what is occurring in their country with the full knowledge of their government.

It is already widely accepted that the Italian government is paying little attention to attacks on ethnic minorities and the situation appears to be getting a lot worse now that these extreme far right groups are in positions of power.

We urge everybody to contact their local MEPs about these alarming developments, and ask them to voice our/your concerns at what is occurring.

Find your MEP


In 2008 a event occurred that highlights the growing racism in that country. This video demonstrates Italy's racism and how the populous are now becoming indifferent to extremist acts..
 

Hungarian gypsies face uncertain future

Growing poverty, violence and prejudice against Hungary's Romany gypsies have exposed the fissures in Hungarian society and have left the country's gypsies facing a bleak and uncertain future.

A heavy rainstorm overshadowing his concert in downtown Budapest didn't bother the young Romany singer and special ambassador of the European Union. Ferenc "Caramel" Molnar, seemed more concerned about clouds hanging over the future of fellow gypsies, also known as Romany. They are suffering of a new wave of fire bombings, the rise of the far right and poverty.

Caramel, whose nickname refers to the color of his skin, is among the few Romany gypsies to have been able to escape rampant poverty after winning the Hungarian talent search show Megasztar, to become a megastar himself. The 28-year-old sang about life's challenges this weekend at a picnic for Romany and non-Romany in a Budapest park.
The first-ever gathering of its kind was aimed at easing tensions between the two communities. And that is necessary, explained Caramel. Two decades after communism collapsed, Hungary's gypsies face new challenges.

"Of course I was very young when communism disappeared. But I can say that the transition has brought poverty and stress to many Romany," he told Deutsche Welle.

Yet, he wants to encourage the Romany gypsies to build a better future, despite discrimination and violence that killed at least nine gypsies in the last few years.

Special ambassador
Caramel is one of the EU's special ambassadors for the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.

At the weekend concert, rain-soaked crowds watched him perform a mixture of Romany and Western style music and songs. "Let's sit around the table," was a slogan at the open-air event, where Romany and non-Romany lined up for traditional Hungarian goulash soup with bread.

"This is a symbol of unity," explained chief organizer Eszter Eva Nagy, a 27-year-old non-Roma Hungarian.

But Nagy admits that her youthful ideals often seem far removed from daily reality after the Movement for a Better Hungary, or Jobbik, entered parliament last week as the country's third largest political party.

Hungarian Guard
Jobbik has been criticized for verbal attacks against gypsies. The party also supports the banned paramilitary group Magyar Garda, or Hungarian Guard, which marched through Romany villages in uniforms and flags resembling Hungary's pro-Nazi regime during World War II.
Jobbik denies wrongdoing, saying it works in the interest of Hungarians.

The independent Budapest-based European Romany Rights Center (ERRC) suggests however that these and other groups are contributing to an atmosphere of hatred towards the roughly 800,000 Roma living in Hungary.

ERRC Programs Director Tara Bedard told Deutsche Welle that there have been fire bombings against Romany families in recent weeks. Nobody was injured, but she explains that the violence was similar to earlier, deadly, attacks.

Violence continues
"In the last two years, nine people, nine Romany, have been murdered in Hungary. The persons believed to be responsible for those attacks have been taken into police custody. However, the trial of those individuals has not yet started.”

And the arrests did little to ease tensions, she said.

"Since those individuals were taken into police custody, numerous attacks have taken place in the meanwhile. Most recently in March and April there were a number of attacks targeting Romany in two different locations in the country."
Activists say Romany gypsies, who often lack adequate housing and basic facilities, are suffering from attacks and discrimination across Europe at a time when people are seeking scapegoats for the continent's economic difficulties.
"There is a lot of hidden tension," explained Nagy. "And if we can speak about those things, or if we can just spend one nice afternoon together with another, different person, I think it's something we want to reach."

Inspired by Obama
Nagy said she was inspired to organize Saturday's rare picnic by her experiences in the United States, where she worked as a volunteer for President Barack Obama's election campaign.

Just as Obama became the first African-American president of the US, Nagy hopes qualified Romany will one day be able to take a more prominent role in Hungary's political life and help create a more peaceful future for the country.
That's music to the ears of Caramel, relaxing after an eventful concert.

"Still, we have all kinds of people here. Black and white people. They are able to talk with each other."

It shows, he says, that not all hope is lost for Hungary - and Europe.

DU World

Hunt for neo-Nazi’s deadly chemicals still continues

A stash of deadly ingredients used by a white supremacist to concoct a chemical weapon is still being hunted.

Toxic substances bought by neo-Nazi Ian Davison to manufacture ricin remains unaccounted for after he was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for his part in a terror plot.

Detectives claim only a small proportion of the substances purchased by the right-wing extremist have been found and officers will interrogate Davison in his cell to find the rest.

It is thought the remaining hoard of chemicals has the potential to kill hundreds of people.

Davison was a founder member of the Aryan Strike Force, a white supremacist website with members around the world who shared the ideals of Adolf Hitler.
The 42-year-old racist manufactured enough ricin to kill nine people and kept it in a jar in his kitchen for two years.
But on May 14th he was jailed for 10 years at Newcastle Crown Court, alongside his teenage son Nicky, a fellow member of the supremacist group, when he became the first person in the country to be convicted and jailed for producing a chemical weapon.

Davison Jnr was sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institution.

Judge John Milford said the website was operating on an “international level” and he told Davison: “The internet deploys many benefits on mankind but presents those with extreme views to exchange and feed their view with the like-minded. This is exactly what happened on this particular website.”

Davison Snr, of Myrtle Grove, Burnopfield, County Durham, previously admitted producing a chemical weapon, preparing acts of terrorism, three counts of possessing material useful to commit acts of terror and one count of possessing a prohibited weapon.

chronicle live

WARNINGS AGAINST NEO-NAZISM, RACISM ISSUED IN TEREZÍN (Czech Rep.)

Warnings against rising neo-Nazism and racism in Czech Republic were heard from speakers at the ceremonial event held Sunday to commemorate the victims that passed through the Terezín ghetto and the local Gestapo prison. Some 1000 people attended the 64th annual meeting at the National Cemetery in Terezín. "As a Jew and citizen of this country I feel threatened by neo-Nazis. The protection of democracy has to begin in time. Romanies are the target of the attacks today, Jews will come after them and then the others. Action needs to be taken," Terezín Memorial director Jan Munk said. Munk pointed to growing aggressiveness and hatred that can be seen in the streets of Czech towns, referring to far-right marches. He appreciated, however, that the reactions of state bodies to this danger are stronger. Andela Dvorakova, head of the Czech Freedom Fighters Association, said it is necessary to fight for freedom more than before. She pointed out that neo-Nazism has been spreading not only in the Czech Republic but all across the world. Senate chairman Premysl Sobotka recalled that the Nazis got to power at the time of the Great Depression when they won the support of a big part of the public through demagogy and populism. "We are passing through a global crisis now, too. And we can see political extremism rising again. One must take a lesson and not trust those who promise simple but unrealistic solutions," Sobotka said.


For Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer, the Terezin ghetto is a personal issue because his relative passed through it and most of them did not return. Fischer noted with disappointment that recent simulated elections at Czech secondary schools showed that the far-right Workers' Party of Social Justice (DSSS) is rather popular among students. According to the elections, over 7 percent of secondary school students support the DSSS. Eighty-three-year-old Bohumil Porges from nearby Roudnice nad Labem takes part in the meeting commemorating the victims regularly. Being a Jew, Porges was deported to the Terezin ghetto in 1943 and then moved to the Auschwitz concentration camp. "I was lucky to survive. And I also had a place to return. My parents were from mixed marriages and so they did not deport them," Porges said. "Most of my peers with experience from Terezin have already died. However, I am still in contact with the brothers of writer Ota Pavel - Hugo and Jiri," he added. The Nazis dragged some 155,000 Jews from all over of Europe to the Terezin ghetto in 1941-1945. Some 117,000 did not live to see the liberation of the country. About 32,000 people passed through the Gestapo prison in the Terezin Small Fortress. Some 2600 of them died in Terezin, further thousands in other Nazi camps. The Terezin Memorial has paid tribute to the victims since 1947. In 1991 the Ghetto Museum was opened. It documents the Jews' fates.

Prague Monitor

BLACK ACTOR KILLED IN RUSSIA, HATE CRIME SUSPECTED: OFFICIALS

A black actor who appeared in popular Soviet films has died in the northern Russian city of Saint Petersburg after being brutally beaten in a suspected racist attack, officials said Monday. "Tito Romalio, 59, died on May 11 in Alexandrovskaya hospital after being beaten by a 43-year-old Russian in a street in the north of the city following a conflict. The suspect was arrested," a local police spokesman said. The spokesman did not give other details, but Russian media outlets, citing anonymous police sources, reported that the attacker, identified as Khamzya Yenikeyev, beat the actor out of racist hatred. Romalio, who was of Brazilian descent, started his acting career as a child and had minor roles in such popular Soviet films as "Artyom's Adventures" from 1956 and "The Amphibian Man" from 1962. The actor often encountered difficulties with racism, the Novaya Ivestia newspaper reported, citing his friends. "Tito had a bitter fate," his friend Yelena Yakhontova told the daily. "In Russia he always lived with the brand of a 'darkie' and humiliated himself to find work. He had to get by somehow by working as a character actor." Africans and other non-whites living in Russia are frequently attacked by neo-Nazi gangs, though the authorities have claimed some success in reducing violent hate crimes recently. A total of 74 people were killed in racist attacks in Russia last year, a drop from the 120 killed in 2008, according to the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, a group that tracks hate crimes.


AFP

English Defence League EDL Website Temporarily Taken Down

Apparently the English defence league Website was taken down for an item posted about the quran. And how Islam views Kuffar (non-Muslims).

So far the only items emerging about this incident are coming from the far right anti-Islamic groups and sites.

More news will be posted as soon as we find out.


The EDL Website came back online at 10.00 am.

A $95,000 question: why are whites five times richer than blacks in the US?

A huge wealth gap has opened up between black and white people in the US over the past quarter of a century – a difference sufficient to put two children through university – because of racial discrimination and  economic policies that favour the affluent.

A typical white family is now five times richer than its African-American counterpart of the same class, according to a report released today by Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

White families typically have assets worth $100,000 (£69,000), up from $22,000 in the mid-1980s. African-American families' assets stand at just $5,000, up from around $2,000.

A quarter of black families have no assets at all. The study monitored more than 2,000 families since 1984.
"We walk that through essentially a generation and what we see is that the racial wealth gap has galloped, it's escalated to $95,000," said Tom Shapiro, one of the authors of the report by the university's Institute on Assets and Social Policy.
"That's primarily because the whites in the sample were able to accumulate financial assets from their $22,000 all the way to $100,000 and the African-Americans' wealth essentially flatlined."

The survey does not include housing equity, because it is not readily accessible and is rarely realised as cash. But if property were included it would further widen the wealth divide.

Shapiro says the gap remains wide even between blacks and whites of similar classes and with similar jobs and incomes.
"How do we explain the wealth gap among equally-achieving African-American and white families? The same ratio holds up even among low income groups. Finding ways to accumulate financial resources for all low and moderate income families in the United States has been a huge challenge and that challenge keeps getting steeper and steeper.
"But there are greater opportunities and less challenges for low and moderate income families if they're white in comparison to if they're African-American or Hispanic," he said.

America has long lived with vast inequality, although 40 years ago the disparity was lower than in Britain.

Today, the richest 1% of the US population owns close to 40% of its wealth. The top 25% of US households own 87%.
The rest is divided up among middle and low income Americans. In that competition white people come out far ahead.
Only one in 10 African-Americans owns any shares. A third do not have a pension plan, and among those who do the value is on average a fifth of plans held by whites.

Shapiro says one of the most disturbing aspects of the study is that wealth among the highest-income African-Americans has actually fallen in recent years, dropping from a peak of $25,000 to about $18,000, while among white counterparts of similar class and income it has surged to around $240,000.

In 1984, high-income black Americans had more assets than middle-income whites. That is no longer true.

"I'm a pretty jaded and cynical researcher in some way, but this was shocking, quite frankly, a really important dynamic," said Shapiro. "This represents a broken chain of achievement. In the United States context, when we are thinking about racial equality and the economy we have focused for a long time on equal opportunity.
"Equal opportunity assumes that some people who have that opportunity are going to have pretty high achievements in terms of their jobs, their work, their income, their home ownership.

"The assumption in a democracy is that merit and achievement are going to be rewarded and the rewards here are financial assets. We should see some rough parity and we don't."

The report attributes part of the cause to the "powerful role of persistent discrimination in housing, credit and labour markets. African-Americans and Hispanics were at least twice as likely to receive high-cost home mortgages as whites with similar incomes," the report says.

Although many black families have moved up to better-paying jobs, they begin with fewer assets, such as inheritance, on which to build wealth. They are also more likely to have gone into debt to pay for university loans.
"African-Americans, before the 1960s, first by law and then by custom, were not really allowed to own businesses. They had very little access to credit. There was a very low artificial ceiling on the wealth that could be accumulated. Hence there was very little, if anything, that could be passed along to help their children get to college, to help their children buy their first homes, or as an inheritance when they die," said Shapiro.
Since the 1980s, US administrations have also geared the tax system to the advantage of the better off. Taxes on unearned income, such as shares and inheritance, fell sharply and are much lower than taxes on pay.

"The more income and wealth people had, the less it was taxable," said Shapiro.

There were also social factors, the study found. "In African-American families there is a much larger extended network of kin as well as other obligations. From other work we've done we know that there's more call on the resources of relatively well-off African-American families; that they lend money that's not given back; they help cousins go to school. They help brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, with all kinds of legal and family problems," said Shapiro.

The Guardian

Cornish nationalists protest against World Cup England flags (UK)

Cornish nationalists have launched a bid to stop England flags being sold in the county’s shops in the run-up to the World Cup.

The Kernow branch of the Celtic League has even vowed to take on Tesco, with some activists calling for a boycott.

In its bid to stop ‘Englishness being forced on Cornwall by sup­ermarkets’ it has set up a campaign on Facebook – but has so far attracted only 55 members.

Even Mebyon Kernow, the Party for Cornwall which has three seats on the county’s council, refused to back the headline-grabbing campaign.
MK councillor Andrew Long said he was not offended by St George flags. He stopped short of criticising the campaign but said there were ‘more imp­ortant things to be dealing with’. He added: ‘We are a multi-cultural party who believe in respecting other peoples’ culture and tradition while encouraging Cornish culture.’
But Michael Chappell of the Celtic League said he had received ‘many complaints about the oncoming flood of St George flags’.

He added: ‘This is a foreign flag here and can be quite insulting to some.

‘If Cornwall had its own sports teams I am sure we would see more of our own flags [pictured] rather than foreign English ones,’ said Mr Chappell, adding he hoped England would ‘fall by the wayside early in the competition’.

Metro UK

CUBANS MARCH AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA

Hundreds of gay and lesbian activists, some dressed in drag and others sporting multicolored flags representing sexual diversity, marched and danced through the streets of Havana on Saturday along with the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro as part of a celebration aimed at eliminating homophobia around the world. Some of the marchers played drums and others walked on stilts as they made their way down a wide avenue in the capital's hip Vedado neighborhood, where they have held a series of debates and workshops ahead of the May 17 celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia, which participants say marks the day in 1990 when the World Health Organization stopped listing homosexuality as a mental illness. "We have made progress, but we need to make more progress," said Mariela Castro, a campaigner for gay rights on the island and the leader of Cuba's National Sexual Education Center. She is also the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro. Cuba has come a long way in accepting homosexuality. In the 1960s, shortly after the revolution, homosexuals were fired from state jobs and many were imprisoned or sent to work camps. Others fled into exile. But that began to change in the 1980s, in large part to the work of Mariela Castro's center. Recently, the government has even agreed to include sex change operations for transsexuals under its free national health system, another project championed by the center. The workshops and debates held Saturday dealt with issues such as adoption by gay and lesbian couples and whether to legalize gay marriages, a step Mariela Castro has been pushing for years, so far without success. The week of celebrations culminates Monday.


AP

Apartheid fighter Frederik van Zyl Slabbert dies (South Africa)

South Africa's governing African National Congress has paid tribute to the apartheid-era politician Frederik van Zyl Slabbert who has died aged 70.


Mr Slabbert was best known for his efforts in the late 1980s to open up dialogue between Afrikaners and the then-exiled ANC.
He was one of the few members of South Africa's white-dominated parliament to oppose apartheid.

The ANC said he had made an "indelible mark" in fighting white minority rule.

Mr Slabbert was apparently only persuaded to stand for office after a hard night's drinking.

But having been elected in 1974, he became leader of the Progressive Federal Party.

In 1985, he travelled to Zambia for talks with the still-banned ANC in an unsuccessful bid to get the government to negotiate with all political groups.

The following year, much to his colleagues' surprise, he quit politics saying he refused to be "in the slipstream of the government's repression and incompetence".

Mr Slabbert then formed the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa - which aimed to bring resistance groups and influential white figures together.

Much to the government's fury in 1987, he lead a group of 60 influential white South Africans to Senegal where they held talks with an ANC delegation.

BBC News

HUNGARIAN ROMA FEAR VIOLENCE AND FAR RIGHT

Organizations representing Hungary's gypsies, or Roma, have expressed concerns about a new wave of violence against the minority in the country and the entry of a far right party in parliament. Activists held a rare rally to express concern about these developments. Hundreds of people braved heavy rain to attend a picnic at Budapest's City Park on Saturday for gypsies, also known as Roma, and non-Roma. The gathering, which also included music from mainly Roma performers, was aimed at easing tensions between the two communities. Organizers say they are very concerned about the recent rise of the far right elements in Hungary and violence against Roma. They referred to the Movement for a Better Hungary, or Jobbik, which officially entered parliament this week as the country's third political force, after recent elections. Jobbik has been criticized for verbal attacks against Roma. The party also supports the banned paramilitary group Magyar Garda, or Hungarian Guard, which marched through Roma villages.

The Budapest-based European Roma Rights Centre says these and other groups are contributing to an atmosphere of hatred towards Hungary's up to 800,000 Roma. The organization's Programmes Director Tara Bedard told VOA there have been fire bombings against Roma families in recent weeks. Nobody was injured but she said the violence resembled earlier deadly attacks. "In the last two years nine people, nine Roma, have been murdered in Hungary," said Bedard. "The persons believed to be responsible for those attacks have been taken into police custody. And the trial of those individuals have not yet started. But since those individuals were taken into police custody, numerous attacks have taken place in the meanwhile. Most recently in March and April there were a number of attacks targeting Roma in two different locations in the country." Activists say Roma, who often lack adequate housing and basic facilities, are suffering from attacks and discrimination across Europe. Roma and non-Roma standing in line for traditional Hungarian Goulash soup, and bread, during Saturday's picnic in Budapest, told VOA they want to help end tensions.

The event's chief organizer Eszter Eva Nagy agrees. "There is a lot of hidden tension, she said. "And if we can speak about those things, or if we can just spend one nice afternoon together with another, different person, I think it's something we want to reach." Nagy says she was inspired to organize Saturday's rare picnic by her previous experiences in the United States, where she worked as a volunteer for the election campaign of President Barack Obama. Just as Mr. Obama became the first U.S. African-American president, she hopes qualified Roma will one day be able to take a more prominent role in Hungary's political life and help create a more peaceful future for the country.

VoA news

Israel concerned over rise of far right in Hungary, says ambassador

Israel's relations with Hungary are overall excellent but the strengthening of the far right in the country is a concern, the Israeli Ambassador told MTI on Thursday, ahead of the 62nd anniversary of the State of Israel on May 14.

"Israel continues to remain a close friend of Hungary as their peoples share many values," said Aliza Bin-Noun, adding that Jewish communities play an important role in Hungarian society.

"Israel and its public, especially Holocaust survivors, are at the same time paying increased attention to anti-Semitism in Hungary and are particularly concerned about the rise of the far-right," she said.

The ambassador expressed hope that the incoming government will appropriately tackle a situation in which, she noted, a far right force, the Jobbik party, has gained seats in Parliament.

"A party which encompasses anti-Semitism in its ideology and is driven by intolerance or racism must be dealt with society itself. This issue is not about Jews or Israel but about Hungarian society as a whole," the ambassador said.

Jobbik won for the first time 47 out of 386 mandates in Hungary's Parliament.

Politics Hu

Politician: Jews behind 9/11 and Holocaust (Sweden)

The Centre Party has promised to take action following revelations that one of its candidates for a parliamentary seat believes Jews lay behind the 9/11 terror attacks and the Holocaust.
Conspiracy theories surrounding an array of global events have flourished for years on the website of Ove Svidén, 73, according to a report on public broadcaster SVT’s news show Rapport.

“Who won the Second World War? The Jews! They got a state. A little remnant of a people gets a country. It’s not a coincidence,” Svidén told Rapport.

The politician also tied Jews to the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York. Writing on his website, Svidén describes how the construction of the World Trade Centre was a project dear to the heart of banking mogul David Rockefeller. But in a bid to “kill his darlings”, the ageing patriarch had the iconic twin towers destroyed, the Centre Party candidate argues.

“As a Swede it’s hard to understand the Jewish belief that a victim is necessary if anything is to be gained. But for David Rockefeller this could serve as a diversion and alibi for the person who benefited most from the events of September 9th [sic] 2001,” he writes.

As a self-styled globalist, who puts the interests of the world above those of individual nations, David Rockefeller is routinely labelled by conspiracy theorists as a would-be proponent of a totalitarian world government.
Ove Svidén is a very marginal candidate for a seat in parliament at the September general election, with his name appearing towards the bottom of the Centre Party’s ballot list.

Although his website was largely ignored for years, the party’s Stockholm chairman Per Ankersjö has now vowed to take swift action. Ankersjö said he was shocked by some of the content on the site and pledged to put an immediate stop to the printing of ballots that included Svidén’s name.

“The passages I have seen are so extreme that we’re going to have to examine whether he can stay [on the ballot slip]. I’m going to propose that we remove him. In my view he has breached our guidelines to such an extent that he can’t stay,” Ankersjö told Rapport.

The Centre Party is a junior partner in Sweden's four-party centre-right ruling coalition.

The Local Sweden

Geert Wilders, the ultra-right firebrand, campaigns to be Holland's prime minister

Radical anti-Islamic politics are under the microscope as a hero of the far right tries to capitalise on cultural divisions
In the street market outside Almere's glass-fronted Stadhuis – the council offices – stalls are selling clothes and toys, typical Dutch sausages and cuts of glistening ham. At another stall, occasional shoppers inspect piles of Islamic headscarves and ankle-length gowns. But if many of the councillors in the Stadhuis have their way, that stall will not be doing a roaring trade for much longer.

The party that won most seats in the municipal elections in Almere earlier this year – although it failed to form a governing coalition – would like to ban the wearing of headscarves in public buildings such as the Stadhuis, as well as banning the construction of new mosques. That party is the far-right Freedom Party (PVV), of Geert Wilders, the populist firebrand behind the anti-Islamic film Fitna, who has accused Muslims of trying to "colonise" his country.

Three months ago, almost a quarter of Almere's voters backed the PVV and Wilders was being tipped as a possible prime minister in forthcoming elections on 9 June. "Today Almere and The Hague," said Wilders –"tomorrow the whole of the Netherlands. This is our springboard for success."

His poll fortunes may have diminished somewhat since then, as the country's mainstream parties have toughened up their own acts on immigration. But the blond-mulleted Islamophobe may yet be credited with transforming how Holland does its politics.
The urgent question in Almere – and throughout the rest of the Netherlands – today is how significant the "Wilders moment" really was in a country better known for consensual deliberation than vituperative and divisive debate. On 9 June, will Almere prove to be a springboard to high office for one of the more radical politicians in the heart of Europe?

Outside the Stadhuis, the Islamic stallholder, a bearded Muslim in early middle age, does not seem unduly bothered by local support for the PVV. "People are very nice here," he says while selling his wares. "I've never had any problems here with anyone. In other places …yes. And there is the PVV," he concedes, "but what they say, their ideas, are really about something else."

About what then? Analysts have suggested that the PVV's recent rise was an expression of disillusionment from a population fed up with the mainstream parties.
Certainly, if Almere has become the symbol – along with The Hague – of the rise of the PVV and Geert Wilders, it is a very reluctant one. There is embarrassment at drawing unwelcome attention to "tolerant" Holland as Belgium passes its own headscarf prohibition and France moves in a similar direction. Almere does not want to be seen as in the vanguard of Europe's culture wars. Its occupants are often unwilling to talk about the coming elections, and no one here seems to have voted PVV.

Half an hour by train from Amsterdam, formidably modern Almere sits on the flat plain of the Flevoland polder –a tract of land enclosed by dykes bordering the waters of the Markermeer. Built as an overspill city for Amsterdam's growing population, the first house in this city of more than 170,000 was finished in 1976.

Its social ills are not the obvious ones of poverty and unemployment. As one resident tartly points out "We're much better off than Britain." Its residents, framed by the backdrop of the familiar shops in the city centre mall – C&A, Mango, Bodyshop and Footlocker – are what make Almere different, attracting Wilders in the first place.
Almere is one of the most multicultural cities in Holland – perhaps in Europe – hosting 181 nationalities. Just 39% of those living in the city are native Dutch, half born in Amsterdam, who were attracted by the idea of a quiet life in the midst of the green polder. The rest come from Suriname, Turkey, Morocco and Vietnam attracted by the low-cost housing. It is this obvious division that Wilders has sought to exploit.

Joop Hoogendorn, 77, is a retired sports administrator who moved to Almere six years ago from the ancient walled town of Naarden, attracted by the cheaper prices for retirement flats. Ahead of the election, security is his major concern: "Safety on the streets. We have people in the city, young people of a Moroccan background, who rob people of their telephones. And health. It is very expensive here."

At first it seems likely that Hoogendorn is a supporter of Wilders' PVV with its emphasis on "safety", its backing for civic security patrols and antagonism to the country's Muslims. But he is shocked: "I wouldn't vote for the PVV. They are discriminatory even if they are promoting city guards. My party is the [Conservative] Liberal Party. The PVV is aggressive in the way it talks. And it offers no alternatives."

There is another mystery, as author and academic Hans Moors, who has studied Almere explains. Not only is it Holland's safest city but the perception of the threat of crime from young Moroccan men – which has risen since the murder of controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 by 26-year-old Dutch-Moroccan Mohammed Bouyeri – is also a false construct. The Moroccan population in Almere is tiny.

"What happened at the last [municipal] elections was that Wilders was very successful in presenting a safety narrative of fear of crime," says Moors. "The mayor here said, 'Look, we are the safest city. It has been proven by scientific means.' And Wilders said, 'Look, here's another mayor who wants to ignore your fears'."

Moors solves the puzzle of the missing PVV voters by explaining that many of those who voted for the party are "anxious" about being identified with it, not least because, despite his claims that his party is conventionally right wing, Wilders has visibly attracted neo-fascists as supporters. In doing so he has imported a brash new rhetorical style, quickly reactive to events, that has shaken up Dutch politics.

"Almere is a passport out of Dutch politics," says Moors. "Holland isn't used to populist and discourse-driven politics." He is uncertain whether Wilders has the traction to break through in June, despite what happened in Almere. If he has changed anything, Moors believes, it will be the style in which politics is done in Holland, not the essential power relationships between parties.

It is a view shared by Mackiel Kuppenol, a 42-year-old software engineer who is walking with his wife on a bank holiday that has turned Almere into a windswept ghost town. "This is all about emotions going up and down," he says his finger describing a curve that suggests that the PVV has peaked.

"It is a protest against the mainstream political parties. I mean… you've been here? You've counted the women with headscarves in the street at any time? You can do it on one hand."

The Guardian

Attacks on Asians lead to racial tension in California (USA)

In January, an 83-year-old neighbor, also a Chinese immigrant, was beaten into a coma. Days after he died in March, Mrs. Cheng, 53, was attacked and pushed off a public-transit platform, coming to minutes later with front teeth knocked out and her mouth full of blood.

Both attacks happened within a block of her house. Now Mrs. Cheng avoids going out, gets rides to work and keeps her two daughters close to home. She doesn't want to be identified for fear of retaliation, but she doesn't want too much to be made of what happened to her, either. She repeatedly said through a translator that she just wants everyone to live in peace.

Still, such attacks and the death of a Chinese immigrant from San Francisco who was assaulted during a visit to Oakland have focused the anger of Asian-Americans here, pushing them to vent in emotional rallies their long-simmering perception that they are targets of racially motivated violence. In all cases, the perpetrators were Black teenagers, police said.
"This just sent them over the top. This is an activist city, but this isn't an activist population at all," said Chia-Chi Li, one of the organizers of a rally that drew hundreds of mostly older Chinese-Americans to the steps of San Francisco City Hall bearing signs saying, "Asians are not punching bags," and "Stop attacking the elders and the vulnerable."

In this bastion of diversity and tolerance, the tension between two of its minorities has become painful.
Although both groups have suffered discrimination over the decades, the African-American community has been declining here faster than in any other major city, while the Asian-American community has been growing, partly due to immigration.

Now almost one in three San Franciscans is of Asian descent, and many have moved into affordable, historically Black neighborhoods.
Street violence in these neighborhoods is not new, say people in the Black community. They've suffered it for years. It just never drew much attention, they said.

But seeing this violence serve as a wedge dividing two ethnic minorities that have much more to gain from working together is particularly hard, said Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who represents the district where Mrs. Cheng lives.
"It is so sad - in a wealthy city, in this city of St. Francis that harbors everyone, to see that our children are in such distress, our communities are in such distress," said Maxwell, who is African-American.

Maxwell emphasized race was not a factor in the attacks - the problem was the violence inflicted on a neighborhood.
"These kids need help. They are perpetrating violence against all of us," she said. "How are we going to protect each other and be responsible for each other?"

Police Chief George Gascon has played down the role of race in the attacks and pointed to statistics to show Asian-Americans are not disproportionately targeted in street crimes in San Francisco.

Asian-Americans make up 30 percent of the city's population, and account for 19 percent of the victims, Gason said. African-Americans are 7 percent of the population but make up 21 percent of victims.

These are crimes of opportunity, agreed Greg Suhr, police captain of the Bayview district where Mrs. Cheng lives. Victims tend to be vulnerable - the elderly, the young, women, "whoever's easiest."

Mrs. Cheng is about 4 feet 10 inches tall, he said. One of her assailants, a 15-year-old who was arrested and charged with felony assault, is 6 feet tall.
Thirty-two officers have been reassigned to foot patrol to reduce violence in Mrs. Cheng's neighborhood and other areas where assaults have occurred.

The department opened drop-in centers where Chinese-Americans can find officers who speak their language and who will take reports of crimes and offer information.

These measures were welcomed by Asians and Blacks alike. The announcement led to some frustration on the part of Black residents, however, who questioned the police chief at a community town hall on Wednesday about why such measures weren't taken when African-Americans were the victims.

Some of the violence suffered by Asian-Americans in San Francisco comes from the fact they are moving into neighborhoods that have crime, said Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco and head of the city's NAACP chapter.

"Without diminishing the seriousness of what happened to the Asian seniors - this has been happening to African-American seniors for a long time," Brown said. "If you move into a community where there is violence, you will be a victim."

In Mrs. Cheng's family, she says her elderly mother, her 13-year-old daughter, her husband, her brother and her sister have been mugged over the past 10 years.
Racism is not a word thrown around carelessly in this politically correct city. Accusations of that sort are hard for Mrs. Cheng to square with the smiles she trades with her African-American neighbors of 20 years, or with her teenage daughter's Black friends, who walk her home to keep her safe.

When Asian-Americans moved into Black neighborhoods like Mrs. Cheng's, it may have created tensions that were exacerbated by economic stresses and deep language and cultural barriers, experts say.

"From the African-American community's perspective, they feel like they're being invaded by outsiders, and they want to defend their own turf," said Edward Chang, a University of California-Irvine, professor who has studied race relations. "It invites a sense of resentment."

The incidents have led community organizations to develop a plan, as summer approaches, to involve as many kids as possible in jobs, programs and community organizations.
San Francisco can't arrest its way out of this, said Joe Marshall, president of the San Francisco Police Commission.

"You have kids that are hurt, who don't have adult guidance. said Marshall, who is African-American and directs Omega Boys Club, an organization that steers teenagers away from street violence. "They take that out on everybody. If you lock them up, they get out, do the same thing."

Zhirui Wang - whose husband, Tian Sheng Yu, died in April - is quietly calling for an end to violence.

The San Francisco painter and contractor hit his head on the sidewalk after being punched in broad daylight in Oakland. Two 18-year-olds were arrested with help from numerous witnesses, who were outraged by the attack.

"Everyone is asking what about justice? To the Yu family, it is simple," she said through a translator. "True justice is when there will be no more violence."

AZ Central

BNP husband avoids jail after growing cannabis (UK)

THE husband of BNP city councillor Melanie Baddeley and his nephew have avoided being sent to prison after admitting growing cannabis in rooms concealed in a lock-up garage.

Four mature and 20 young plants were found by police executing a search warrant at the premises at the back of Park Avenue, Wolstanton.
The street value of the potential yield of the drugs grown by Clifford Mark Baddeley and Simon Peters was estimated to be between £5,540 and £23,740.

Yesterday North Staffordshire Magistrates' Court heard that when officers went to the lock-up they noticed a strong smell of the Class B drug.
Lynn Warrington, prosecuting, told the court: "During the search officers found a door inside the lock-up cleverly concealed behind a bookcase.

"When the door was opened they discovered three rooms, including a growing room and a drying room.

"Also there were fans, filters, plant food and transformers."

The premises had been used originally by Baddeley to fix washing machines to sell on, but that came to an end following a burglary there.

Baddeley told police both he and Peters liked to smoke cannabis but had recently been receiving poor quality drugs.
Both defendants told officers that they never intended to sell any of the drugs.

Baddeley, aged 49, of Holehouse Road, Abbey Hulton, and Peters, aged 36, of Aegean Close, Trentham, both pleaded guilty to producing four mature and 20 young plants between November 1 last year and January 21.
They were both given a 12-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months, with a six month curfew order from 9pm to 6am. Magistrates ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the plants and equipment and told each defendant to pay £85 costs.

Andrew Bennett, defending both men, said: "The defendants are uncle and nephew.

"They grew cannabis for their own use. Baddeley had arthritis, he could not work and used the drug for pain relief."
Mr Bennett said as a result of this matter and a previous conviction of cultivating cannabis in 2002 his client had now stopped taking cannabis and was being prescribed pain relief.

Mr Bennett added: "He (Baddeley) said the case was of concern to him because his wife was a parliamentary candidate. Peters used the drug primarily as a relaxant. They both now wish to move on without it."
After the hearing Baddeley's wife, BNP city councillor Melanie - who contested the Stoke North seat - in the General Election, told The Sentinel she had no comment to make.

this is Staffordshire