Turning a blind eye on the campaign trail as BNP targets prize seat (UK)

British National Party activists are gathered outside the Underground station, smirking and smoking. A black man spits, twice, at their feet. “Yeah, I know who you are,” he says accusingly.

Does that happen a lot? “What’s that?” asks Richard Barnbrook, a big wheel in the party and an elected member of the Greater London Authority. That man just spat at you. “No! Deliberately?” Yes.

“I didn’t notice,” he mumbles, with a little shake of his head. “We actually get a very positive reaction from many older ethnic minority people here.”

Such a claim can soon be tested. Mr Barnbrook parades along the streets in his “trademark” beige suit which, he thinks, “adds to my charisma — everybody knows who I am”. An Asian woman shudders and moves off the pavement when she sees him approaching. A black father grabs his toddler’s hand and guides her to the other side of the road. A group of teenagers ride by on bikes, yelling obscenities. “Maybe I get a few funny looks, every now and then,” Mr Barnbrook concedes cheerfully.

Welcome to Barking, a suburban town that the BNP wants to make its own, where truth — as well as whole sections of the local population — can be just inconvenient obstacles to be sidestepped or swept away.

The decision by Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, to stand as a parliamentary candidate in Barking has inevitably brought the poison of racial politics ever closer to the surface of an already pockmarked eastern outpost of London.
At the general election in 2005, Mr Barnbrook was only 27 votes away from claiming second place ahead of the Tories. In the following year the BNP grabbed nine of the 30 borough councillor posts in the wards that make up the seat. The party secured an average 41 per cent of the vote in seven contested wards, compared with 33 per cent for Labour.
This is why Mr Griffin abandoned the North West, where he was elected as an MEP last year, and elbowed Mr Barnbrook aside for the chance to stand in Barking. It is where the BNP believes that white working-class alienation can be best exploited to gain a first crucial foothold in Westminster.
Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP for almost 16 years and veteran of many battles in a political career stretching over four decades, recognises that she is in the fight of her life. “We face a real threat from the BNP,” she says. “Griffin is here because he thinks he can win.”

She has, in the past, been criticised for relying too heavily on the black and Asian vote. There have been complaints that she has amplified “BNP propaganda” with efforts to address white voters’ sense of unfairness. Last week she called for immigrants to earn the right to benefits or council housing over several years so that “local people” have higher priority.

Ms Hodge’s campaign has not been helped by an often dysfunctional relationship with Jon Cruddas, the MP for neighbouring Dagenham, who argues that Labour’s appeal should be around shared economic interests, not racial identity. But she has been more visible lately than before, opening a campaign office after the council elections and doubling party membership locally to about 400. Although a number of the party’s older councillors have been purged and are threatening to run as independents, Ms Hodge says Labour has been revitalised. “I’m so proud. We have all had to raise our game.”
Differences within Labour have been put aside because they are far outweighed by the need to “lance the boil” of the BNP. “I am really fearful that if they get a hold here, Barking would become a no-go area for the rest of Britain,” Ms Hodge says. “They bring division and violence.”
There has been talk of Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates pulling out of the election to present a united front against racism. The consensus among them, however, appears to be that this would merely reinforce Mr Griffin’s claims that the Establishment is ganging up on him.
A greater concern for Labour is the candidacy of the Rev George Hargreaves, leader of the Christian Party, who has strong links to the big Pentecostalist churches proliferating in the area and who may shave away significant numbers of black voters from Labour. “I would much rather he was not standing,” Ms Hodge says.
Barking’s menagerie of candidates will also include Frank Maloney, the former boxing promoter, who is standing for the UK Independence Party. He launched his campaign by challenging Mr Griffin to a fist fight and with a poster that spelt Britain as Britian. The BNP enjoys pointing out that error, but should not laugh too loud. Mr Griffin launched his own campaign for Barking last year in Dagenham, having got confused about the constituency boundaries.
There is much to ridicule about a party that has only recently started wearing suits in an effort to be taken seriously. Council meetings here have descended into farce on occasion. Some BNP councillors — the official opposition — have fallen out among themselves, walked out or been thrown out for misconduct.
On the doorstep Mr Barnbrook mixes talk about wheelie bins with a promise to put immigrant families in tower blocks because, he alleges, they got homes in a Labour plot to flood the constituency with non-whites. Has he got any evidence? “Yes, through our freedom of information requests. But I can’t disclose it at this time because of data protection laws.”
Outside his house, easily recognisable by the St George and Union flags, Mr Barnbrook insists — a little unconvincingly — that he is not bitter about Mr Griffin taking over as parliamentary candidate.
“Only Nick has got an ego big enough to deal with sitting alone in the Commons,” he says. “And, anyway, to control the council would be far more prestigious. I’m better with people, I have more charisma.” So how does he get on with his neighbours? “Great,” he replies. “We have black and Muslim families living here. I get on with everybody.”
A few inquiries at homes nearby suggests that this is not quite true. One black man says that he feels uneasy leaving his young family on their own because “a lot of people come to that house, I don’t like the way they look at my children”. A few doors down, a woman says: “I’m scared of them. Please don’t print my name.”
Mr Barnbrook may try to be nice. He clearly believes in the powers of all that charisma and his special suit. The BNP is ridiculous — even pathetic. But when fomenting such fear and loathing, it is not funny.

Times Online

Germany: How to fight neo-Nazis?

BERLIN, Germany — The government of the state of Bavaria has said it will soon request that Germany's highest courts ban the country's largest far-right party, the National Democratic Party (NPD), for subverting the tenets of the national constitution.

It's a policy that is popular among most of the public, and has earned backing from both of the country's major parties. But it's also a course of action that most political elites acknowledge has little chance of success.

“There's very little chance of the courts accepting this argument,” said Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, a former justice on Germany's Constitutional Court.

This is not the first time the German government has considered how to position itself toward the crimes of the country's past. Indeed, the history of post-World War II Germany is fraught with morally dubious decisions toward the legacy of Nazism — from Konrad Adenauer's choice in the 1950s to avoid a thorough de-Nazification of his government, to the Red Army Fraction's campaign in the 1970s to purify West Germany of its Nazi-era sins by means of terrorism and murder.

Nonetheless, the contemporary German state has mostly tried in good faith to feel its way toward an ad hoc accomodation of its Nazi past, one that acknowledges the unique scourge of the Third Reich, while protecting the core freedoms of a liberal democracy. Symbols from the Nazi-era, such as the swastika or the “Heil Hitler” salute, are illegal in Germany, but far-right political groups have also been granted equal right to hold demonstrations to air their views. Holocaust denial is punishable by imprisonment, but neo-Nazi parties have been tolerated as long as they draw no explicit links with the Nazi regime.

The policies might sometimes may seem contradictory, but they are meant to hang together as a carefully managed compromise, one that pays respect both to the tragic origins and the decades-long success of the modern, democratic German state.

But, when it comes to the NPD, the country's largest far-right party, many Germans insist that the government redraw the boundaries between freedom of expression and historical deference. Indeed, the calls for action against the NPD have gotten louder in recent years, a development coincident with the party's increasing successes, especially in eastern Germany.

The party has earned seats in a number of state legislatures by winning more than 5 percent in several state-wide elections, which has also given it the right to receive government campaign financing. Charlotte Knoblauch, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, supports the renewed effort to ban the party, insisting that it's unacceptable that the party receives tax money to spread its “racist propoganda.”

However personally sympathetic German judges may be to such pleas, they say they can't do anything about the party unless the state can conclusively prove that it is explicitly subverting the German constitution. That sets the bar very high: Party leaders would have to be documented laying out plans to install a dictatorship, or belittling the victims of totalitarianism. Gathering such evidence in the public sphere is a madenning process, as NPD lawyers carefully monitor party rhetoric so that it tiptoes up to, without crossing, the legal boundaries.
The German government has tried other methods to gain damning evidence against the NPD, but those have only led to other legal difficulties. Indeed, an attempt by the federal government in 2003 to ban the party relied heavily on evidence gathered by government agents who operated as undercover spies within the NPD organization. The Constitutional Court claimed it couldn't distinguish between the government agents' observations of the NPD activities, and their own participation and possible instigation of those activities. Legal experts, including former justice Hoffmann-Riem, have suggested that the very fact that undercover government agents are still in force in the NPD organization means that any legal case against the party would be weakened from the get-go.
Interestingly, it's primarily politicians from eastern Germany, where the NPD is strongest, who have most strongly resisted calls to ban the party. They argue that the only sustainable way to combat neo-Nazi radicalism is through the normal channels of the liberal state — namely, open debate and argument. “Even if you banned the NPD party, they would just rename themselves and come back the next week,” said Andreas Adammer, a resident of Potsdam in the state of Brandenburg, where the NPD has enjoyed success in past elections.
Of course, the contrasting strategies for dealing with the NPD can and will most likely be pursued in parallel. Indeed, while Bavaria pursues its case against the NPD, some 8000 neo-Nazis are expected to gather in Dresden Saturday to mark the 65th anniversary of the Allied bombing of that city in the final year of World War II. A police presence will be on hand to ensure that the Nazi sympathizers have the opportunity to air their slogans, which compare Allied firebombing to Nazi atrocities. But, they are also expected to be met by a group of counter-protesters whose numbers will double their own.
 
originaly posted by By Cameron Abadi at globalpost.com

Editor of Antisemitic Paper Sentenced to Prison Colony on Incitement Charges (Russia)

A Russian court sentenced the editor of an antisemitic newspaper to three years in a prison colony on charges of inciting ethnic and religious hatred, according to a February 3, 2010 report by the Regnum news
agency. Konstantin Dushenov, editor of "Russ Pravoslavnaya" ("Orthodox Rus") was also forbidden from publishing for three years. He plans to appeal the verdict.

Two other staffers at the paper received suspended sentences on the same charge. The defendants got into trouble for distributing an antisemitic film around the country entitled "Russia With a Knife in the Back." Although not mentioned in the report, that film is on the federal list of banned extremist materials

ucsj.org

Nizhny Novgorod Court Sentences Neo-Nazi Gang Leader to Prison (Russia)

A court in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia sentenced a neo-Nazi gang leader to eight and a half years in prison, according to a January 25, 2010 report by the local NTA news agency. The defendant, a 19 year old man nicknamed "Fritz," headed a group of at least six teenagers, who were charged with inciting ethnic hatred. "Fritz" himself was convicted of organizing an extremist group, which carries stiffer penalties. He founded what he called "The National Socialist Workers Party of Russia" with the goal of driving all non-Russians from the city. "Fritz" drew up a charter for the party, acquired a Nazi flag, and trained his followers in combat skills. He also hoarded weapons and constructed bombs, all the while extorting money from victims.

On April 29, 2008 he threw a grenade at a car that he thought was owned by an Azeri man, blowing it up. A passerby was injured in the explosion. He and his followers then attacked a building where many citizens of
Vietnam lived. Wearing masks and armed with clubs and knives, theytried to break into the building, but police arrived in time to stop any possible bloodshed. They detained some of the gang as suspects, and
this led them to the defendants, two of whom received prison terms of 6 and 5 years, respectively. The remaining defendants got off with suspended sentences.
ucsj.org

Two Teens Arrested Over Anti-Semitic Facebook Hate (uk)

Two teenage girls have been arrested as part of a police investigation into a vehemently anti-Semitic Facebook group exposed last week by the Jewish News.

The group, which attracted more than 500 members, featured scores of offensive remarks from youths and even saw teenagers boasting about engaging in anti-Semitic behaviour.

Created by a pupil at Loxford School of Science and Technology in Ilford, the group was described by a Community Security Trust official as "one of the most shocking things I have ever seen".

This week police confirmed arrests had been made. A spokesperson said: "A 16-year-old girl was arrested in connection with the investigation. The following day a second girl, aged 17, was also arrested. Both were taken into custody at an east London police station and later bailed to a date in mid-March pending further inquiries."
The group featured messages from youths using language rife with spelling errors, profanities and teenage colloquialisms. One girl wrote: "Jews are the ones that killed prophets in the past. Dirty filthy scum-bags. No wonder they have the curse of Allah upon them. Burn Jew burn."
News of the arrests came as MPs from across the political spectrum signed a parliamentary motion prompted by last week's Jewish News front page story.
Tabled by Hendon MP Andrew Dismore, it "calls on the Secretaries of State for Children, Schools and Families and Business, Innovation and Skills to investigate these incidents and the use of Facebook generally to promote messages of hate, and to then report back to Parliament on their conclusions".

The early day motion, which also congratulates the Jewish News on its online investigation, has so far been signed by Conservative Lee Scott, Liberal Democrat Evan Harris and Labour's Louise Ellman, Andrew Love and Virendra Kumar Sharma. Speaking to the Jewish News, Dismore joined the CST in welcoming the police probe.
The offending group, which had been online for two weeks, was removed by Facebook after the school contacted the popular social networking site and the police. The Jewish News was informed about the group by a private investigator in Australia
totallyjewish.com

FA Told Racism Will Cost Them Points

The FA's own Tackling anti-Semitism and Islamophobia taskforce has warned action must be taken immediately

The Football Association must deduct points from clubs whose fans indulge in racist behaviour or risk further erosion of the English game's "moral authority", according to a report submitted by its own anti-racism taskforce yesterday. Digger has obtained a copy of the report, prepared by the chair of the FA taskforce on Tackling anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, John Mann MP, and can reveal its wide-ranging recommendations.
"The FA should implement with immediate effect the Fifa rules which allow for the deduction of points where clubs have not taken sufficient action to combat racism and bigotry in their clubs and where such abuse continues," Mann wrote. "This has been used boldly in France and Hungary – its lack of implementation by the English FA reduces our moral authority at international levels and within the wider Fifa network, including when we demand action on abuse of our own national or club players abroad."
There are concerns that any such measure will be blocked by the Professional Game Board, a powerful lobby whose representatives sit on the FA's supreme decision-making main board. So Mann also reprises important arguments raised in the long‑discarded Burns report, calling for a more "diverse representation [of] the football community" in the FA's internal structures, which "is of vital importance at this level for credibility but also for effectiveness".
At the time that the FA set up the taskforce in September 2008, its then director of corporate affairs Simon Johnson said: "We're serious about tackling racism in football." Now, after the FA's approach to minority communities was called into question this week by its hamfisted handling of an anti-homophobia campaign, its treatment of the taskforce's recommendations will be scrutinised.
The Guardian

Neo-Nazi parents lose children (Canada)

Two children at the centre of a controversial custody case involving allegations of racism and substance abuse will remain in the care of Child and Family Services, a judge has ruled.
CFS seized a now nine-year-old girl and her four-year-old half-brother in 2008 after the girl was sent to school with a swastika and racist writings drawn on her body.
The girl's stepfather fought for custody of the children, arguing CFS is infringing on his freedom of conscience, belief and association.
In a 34-page decision released Thursday, Justice Marianne Rivoalen rejected the man's Charter argument and ordered both children become permanent wards of CFS.
"Using a permanent marker on a child to publicize cultish slogans and opinions is not just irresponsible ... is not just bad parenting," Rivoalen said. "Those interferences with a child's person are batteries.
"Teaching one's child that 'black people just need to die' is not just reprehensible parenting. Advocating genocide and the wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group are crimes in this country. These children have a right to be protected from these things."

White pride supporter
Rivoalen ordered the children remain in the care of the girl's aunt -- her biological father's sister -- and uncle.
At a child protection hearing last June, the girl's stepfather testified he is a white pride supporter and that he doesn't believe in "interracial breeding." He admitted saying people of other races "should be sent back to their own country," but denied allegations he believed they should be killed.
A social worker told court the man's stepdaughter used racial epithets to describe killing black people and said "everyone who is not white should die." Court also heard evidence the man has not sought treatment for his drug and alcohol abuse, has lost jobs for using racial slurs, and rarely works.
Rivoalen said the case was not so much about racism as it was about bad parenting, both by the man and his ex-wife. Rivoalen said the children lived "in squalor and filth" and were exposed to excessive substance abuse and violence. The man shot birds and squirrels and then fed them to his dog in front of the children.
"Now add to this milieu neo-Nazi flags hanging in the windows and neo-Nazi regalia on display elsewhere in the home," Rivoalen said. "This was not a wholesome or nourishing environment in which to raise young children with developing minds and characters."
Rivoalen rejected claims by the man and his ex-wife they held "Odinist religious beliefs" and told their children the swastika was a sun symbol.
"At the time of the children's apprehensions, (they) were both neo-Nazis and white supremacists," Rivoalen said. "They cannot have it both ways. They cannot whitewash that. They have deceived no one."
CNEWS Canada

Far-Right Gears Up to Mourn Dresden Bombing (Germany)

The German far right traditionally stages a march on Feb. 13 of each year to commemorate the bombing of Dresden. This year, however, authorities have moved to prevent counterdemonstrations by the left.
In the night between Feb. 13 and 14, 1945, 796 Lancaster bombers of the Royal Air Force dropped more than 2,600 tons of bombs on Dresden, a city overflowing with thousands of refugees from the East. The next day, 311 American B-17 bombers dropped another 700 tons of bombs on the city's Baroque center. Dresden, once known as Florence on the Elbe, was virtually wiped off the map, and about 25,000 people were killed.
Commemorating such an incident is an important element in a civilized society. But it is important who is doing the commemorating, and how. There is, after all, a danger that memory becomes exploited for political propaganda. But what, then, should be the response? Should a city sacrifice democratic freedoms of assembly to deny dangerous populists a platform?
This year, the residents of Dresden spent weeks discussing such questions. But the debate yielded nothing more than a collective feeling of helplessness and legal dead ends. Dresden, as a result, will see a large concentration of neo-Nazi protestors on Saturday, the 65th anniversary of the bombing, as well as massive deployment of police -- and potentially bloody riots.
Since the 1990s, right-wing extremists have marched through Dresden every year on Feb. 13 to protest what they call the "bombing Holocaust." Holger Apfel, the leader of the right-extremist National Democratic Party of Germany in Saxony, voiced their sentiments in 2009 when he railed against the "falsification of history and denial of crimes against the German people." Members of the Spanish group Alianza Nacional also sent a delegation to Saxony to declare their solidarity with their right-wing German counterparts.

'Nazi-Free!'

A colorful group of anti-right-wing activists, determined not to allow the march to take place this year, has formed an alliance called "Nazi-free! Dresden Puts It Foot Down." The group includes celebrities like Bela B. of the rock band Die Ärzte, leftist politician Sahra Wagenknecht, singer Konstantin Wecker and the anti-globalization activists of the group Attac Deutschland.
They want to put an end to the neo-Nazi protest event, organized by the Youth National Association of East Germany (JLO), which sees the commemorative march as "an idealistic act of community." The younger generation, as the JLO states in its appeal to join the Dresden march, will "demonstrate a thousand times over that our community awareness resisted destruction." To make sure that the JLO's demonstration is a failure this year, the "Nazi-free!" alliance plans to draw on the repertoire of peaceful resistance tools, including mass blockades and civil disobedience.
It isn't a new strategy. In 2008, tens of thousands blocked access to downtown Cologne, preventing right-wing extremists from reaching an anti-Islam conference. In 2002, 15,000 people stood in the way of 110 right-wing extremists in the southwestern city of Freiburg. In both cases politicians, who were forced to reluctantly provide permits for the right-wing protests, put their faith in the power of the counter-protestors. In Dresden, however, the anti-right-wing activists suddenly found themselves facing opposition from the authorities.

A Poisonous Mood

The local public prosecutor's office launched an investigation and obtained search warrants against the group. Signs, documents, computers and hard drives were confiscated. The investigators defined the group's appeal to stage a blockade as a "public incitement to demolish an assembly," which, they said, is illegal. The mood has been poisoned ever since, with activists accusing the courts and politicians of engaging in the "rhetoric of civil war."
In Berlin, Green Party members of parliament, the Bundestag, faced sharp criticism for having held up the incriminating signs in front of the parliament building, and they are now being investigated by the State Office of Criminal Investigation for suspected violations of a law that regulates public assembly and no-protest zones.
In the eastern state of Thuringia, the Left Party chairman in the state parliament, Bodo Ramelow, faces charges of causing a public nuisance for having attached the "Nazi-free!" appeals to a streetlight in front of the state parliament building in Erfurt. Ramelow calls the charges "pure unadulterated German bureaucracy" and a "deliberate attempt to fuel hysteria" and "to criminalize activism in a civil society."

State of Emergency?

For the 65th anniversary of the Dresden bombing, the state of Saxony prefers to seek refuge in prohibitions. To that end, it first enacted a new law governing the right of assembly, which limits the right to demonstrate in the old section of Dresden and in other parts of the city on Feb. 13 and 14. The city of Dresden then banned the JLO's commemorative march, despite the fact that even constitutional experts had already voiced concerns about the state law.
In stating its reasons for the ban, the city administration cited a police state of emergency and noted: "in light of the very high degree of mobilization in the extremist right-wing and left-wing camp, violent riots are to be expected." The rest is simple math: 5,000 rioters are expected, and the city normally deploys three police officers for each protestor when that protestor is prepared to use violence. Based on this calculation, 15,000 police officers would be needed to keep the two groups apart. But the audacious theory didn't hold up for long. The Dresden Administrative Court overturned the ban on Friday, saying that it did not see the situation as a state of emergency.
Although the city will appeal the decision through a higher administrative court, prospects of a ban are hardly any better with the first court. Meanwhile, all sides are preparing for a turbulent weekend. The justice minister of the State of Saxony has already assigned judges and prosecutors to be on call, and cells have been cleared in the Dresden prison -- making at least enough room for 80 arrests.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
spiegel

Russian extremist arrested for Jew-killing brigade

Far-right activist in Russia was arrested for creating a brigade to kill Jews.
Police in Zlatoust arrested the 34-year-old suspect accused of creating a "punishment brigade" to murder Jews and people from the Causcasus, the local news agency Ural Inform Byuro reported, according to the UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union.
The suspect had announced the creation of the brigade in a local anti-Semitic newspaper that also featured lists of "enemies of the people," mostly Jews and people from other minority groups, to be killed.
Police charged the suspect with forming an extremist group and inciting ethnic hatred, according to UCSJ.

JTA

Facebook bans 30 prisoners for taunting victims (UK)

The Justice Secretary today announced that the Facebook pages of 30 prisoners had been taken down after complaints from two London families that the site was being used to taunt victims.

Jack Straw said the Government was looking at introducing rules that would prevent inmates from accessing web pages.

His intervention follows a meeting with Margaret and Barry Mizen, the parents of teenager Jimmy who was murdered in south-east London in May 2008, and Richard Taylor, the father of 10-year-old Damilola, who was killed on a Peckham estate in 2001.

During the meeting, Mr Mizen warned that killer Jake Fahri had used Facebook and Twitter to post bullying and offensive comments about his son and that other families were facing similar problems.
In response, Mr Straw, who also met officials from the regulator Ofcom and Facebook announced that it had agreed to remove the offending sites and promised further action.
Mr Straw said: “We've made requests for the removal of 30 sites and they've responded to do that positively, with no single refusal, within 48 hours, so we just want to push this forward.
“We're looking at other ways in which we can raise the stakes against prisoners who seek to use these sites. It's unlawful, it's against prison rules which is the law.”
Mr Straw said one option would be to change parole rules “to make it explicit that even if they're outside prison, but if they are on licence, they can't make use of sites in this way”.
In one case, Jade Braithwaite, 20, who was jailed for killing 16-year-old Ben Kinsella in Islington, used Facebook to boast that he was “down but not out”.
This is London

Suspect in Auschwitz sign theft arrested in Sweden

STOCKHOLM—Swedish police on Thursday arrested a former neo-Nazi leader that Polish investigators suspect of involvement in the theft of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign at Auschwitz.

Swedish Prosecutor Agneta Hilding Qvarnstrom said 34-year-old Anders Hogstrom was detained in Stockholm on a European arrest warrant.
Hilding Qvarnstrom said Hogstrom will be appointed a defense lawyer and questioned by Swedish investigators before authorities can decide on extraditing him to Poland.
Polish officials have said Hogstrom is suspected of incitement to commit theft of a cultural treasure.
The infamous sign, which means "Work Sets You Free" in German, was stolen in December from the site of the Nazis' former Auschwitz death camp in Poland. Polish police found it in the woods three days later, cut into three pieces, and charged five Polish men with its theft.
The Polish prosecutor has said he has evidence that Hogstrom visited Auschwitz together with two Poles last spring and told them to steal the sign.
Experts on Sweden's extreme-right say Hogstrom founded and led the Swedish neo-Nazi group National Socialist Front in the 1990s. During that time he helped organize yearly celebrations of Adolf Hitler's birthday and advocated repatriation of refugees to their home countries, according to Expo, a research foundation that has mapped right-wing extremists. However, Expo said he left National Socialist Front in 1999 after two of its members were convicted of a high-profile police murder and became an active opponent to the extreme-right.
Hogstrom has reportedly given conflicting information about his alleged role in the theft. Tabloid Aftonbladet quoted Hogstrom as saying he was acting as a middleman between the Polish thieves and an English-speaking buyer. But in a video clip posted Jan. 9 on the Web site of another tabloid, Expressen, Hogstrom said he had simply been tipped off about the theft and tried to stop it.
The Auschwitz sign is one of the most well-known slogans for Nazi Germany's atrocities during World War II and the Holocaust.
Between 1940 and 1945 more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau or died of starvation or disease while forced to perform hard physical labor at the camp.

YDR

AMNESTY LAMENTS 'EROSION' OF MINORITY RIGHTS IN ITALY

Amnesty International on Tuesday slammed what it called a "steady erosion" of minority rights in Italy as the country's record came under review by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. "There is a steady erosion of human rights, especially regarding migrants, minorities and possible asylum seekers," said the rights watchdog's Italian spokesman Riccardo Noury. "There are worrisome laws and practices," he said on Italian radio. Noury criticized security and anti-terrorism measures, in particular an accord between Italy and Libya that allows the Italian navy to intercept migrants at sea and return them to Libya with no possibility of applying for asylum. Noury also mentioned "norms that are not there but should have been in place long ago, such as a law that establishes torture as a crime." The Italian government came under criticism last month for its handling of a wave of violence against migrant farm workers in the southern town of Rosarno. The clashes left dozens injured and prompted more than 1,000 immigrants to leave the area, most on special buses arranged by the Italian authorities. In Geneva, Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Vincenzo Scotti told the Human Rights Council that Rome was committed to fighting racism and xenophobia. Scotti told the 47-state UN body: "The stigmatisation of certain ethnic or social groups remains a matter of serious concern for the government, state and local authorities. "We are fully aware of the challenge we are facing in this field and we are strongly committed to eradicate racist and xenophobic attitudes from our society," he added on the second day of the council's periodic review, which will run until February 19. Scotti acknowledged that an informal economy had taken hold in Italy that left migrant workers without protection.


The deputy minister detailed a project to improve housing and integration for migrants in Rosarno. He noted that 300,000 non-European workers obtained documents under measures introduced last year. The Rosarno violence prompted two UN human rights experts to call on Italy to make a "vigorous" response to "growing xenophobia" in the country. Some representatives to the council recognized the "challenge" of dealing with an immigrant population that has grown by nearly 250 per cent in the past 10 years. John Mariz of the United States voiced concern over the fingerprinting of Italy's 160,000 Roma and Sinti (gypsies), which he said "could perpetuate their social stigmatisation." Italy took a sharp turn to the right in 2008 when conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi swept to power for a third time in coalition with the anti-immigration Northern League. Their campaign emphasized pledges to fight illegal immigration and crime, often closely linking the two.

AFP

Students shocked by graffiti campus attack (UK)

A POLICE investigation is underway after a university was daubed with offensive slogans.

Swastikas and offensive wording, including "no Pakis", were sprayed on a number of buildings at Staffordshire University's Leek Road and College Road campuses at roughly 2am yesterday.

Once spotted, maintenance staff were dispatched to clean up the graffiti.
However, the incident has left students upset, with many saying they wouldn't recommend Stoke-on-Trent as a suitable destination to come and study.
Charlotte McKenzie, aged 20, came to the university from Nottingham.

The broadcast journalism student said: "The graffiti is disgusting. I came to Stoke-on-Trent already aware of the high number of BNP councillors, but gave it a chance.


"This sort of thing makes me not want to be here anymore, or recommend it to my friends.

"I have experienced racism during my time here, whether it is sly remarks or innuendos."

Rochelle Owusu, aged 18, is originally from North London.
The law and journalism student said: "I cannot believe something like this has happened at the place I chose to come to study.

"I'm only in my first year and I didn't sign up to deal with this sort of thing. This is somewhere we should feel safe."
The incident has been linked by some to the imminent university elections where current students' union president Assed Baig is fighting to hold on to his position.
The 28-year-old is facing the polls after a group of students moved for a vote of no confidence.
Mr Baig has been heavily involved in protests against the BNP and in the recent English Defence League demonstration in Hanley.
He also made headlines last year after posting an article on the union website, containing a link to a site identifying 30 BNP members living within two miles of the university's Stoke campus.
Mr Baig, who has Pakistani parents, believes the attack was a message to him.

"I have no idea who has done this, but when they write "no Pakis" outside the entrance to my work, I feel it is aimed at me, especially with the election approaching," he said.

"I cannot understand why somebody would do this, it makes me sick to my stomach."
Gary McNally, aged 24, is chairman of the Students' Union Council.
The modern and international history student, who moved to the Potteries from Newbury, said: "I think it's disgusting that people are trying to intimidate students. We need to bring the community together, from all religions, to fight this.
"This sort of thing really puts people off studying here."

A spokesman for the university said: "We wish to send a strong and clear message to say we do not tolerate racist behaviour in any form on our campuses.

"Our campuses are covered by CCTV and regular night patrols and we will be fully co-operating with police."

A police spokesman added: "We are working with the university and students' union. CCTV footage is being checked."

Witnesses are asked to call PC Keith Emery on 0300 123 4455.

Origianly post This is Staffordshire

Italy immigrants fall into clutches of mafia

Illegal immigrants to Italy get little shelter from the law - leaving them prime targets for exploitation by the local mafia, finds the BBC's Emma Wallis in Castel Volturno, near Naples.

"Immigration is not the first problem of Castel Volturno, it's Camorra, this system of illegality," says Padre Filippo, a Catholic missionary who lives and works in Castel Volturno with Italy's biggest African population.

The Camorra are the mafia in the Campania region, made world-infamous by Roberto Saviano's best-selling book and film, Gomorra.
"Castel Volturno… is a forgotten land, that Camorra is using for their business, and that is the problem. The state here is absolutely absent," says Padre Filippo.
In the vacuum left by the state, illegality reigns, and it is possible to survive here without papers.
The local council was dissolved in January for its failure to collect taxes and dispose of residents' rubbish. The town is now run by an emergency prefect.
The only real indications of the state are the road blocks manned by police, carabinieri and soldiers. They arrived in September 2008 after six West Africans were apparently shot dead by members of the Casalesi, one of the Camorra's most powerful clans. The trial is under way at the moment.

Broken dreams
Violence is not obvious in this region, but suspicion whistles through the empty hulks of villas, holiday villages and hotels that crouch menacingly along the Via Domitiana, the coast road to Naples
The buildings are a testament to the financial clout of the Camorra - but also to the absence of planning permission.
Projects halted half-way through by the state are ten-a-penny here, and are the most visible casualties of the not-so-bloodless civil war between the Italian state and the Camorra, whose tentacles easily gain a stranglehold in places like Castel Volturno, where poverty and desperation are the order of the day.
The other thing you notice all along the roads in town are bicycles, chained up along fences by the bus stops, where every morning at the crack of dawn thousands of migrant workers line up in the hope of finding a job for the day.
Cars, coaches and buses file by to pick them up and transport them to the fields or building sites, where, if they are lucky, they are paid 25-35 euros (£22-26) a day. The unlucky ones head home mid-morning, dejectedly picking up their bikes and cycling back down the road that Padre Filippo has nicknamed "the boulevard of broken dreams".
After violence against African farm workers exploded in the southern Italian town of Rosarno, in southern Italy, at the beginning of January, the uncomfortable symbiosis between organised crime and illegal immigration was laid bare.

Phantom presence
Now Italy's Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, is creating task forces to crack down on immigration. He says he hopes, by doing so, to hit organised crime where it hurts; by turning off the flow of cheap illegal labour.
Caserta's police commissioner, Guido Nicolo Longo, said that his force's aim was to check up on the migrants and try to legalise their work status, so that the revenue they generate could be funnelled to the state's coffers, instead of enriching organised crime
The proposal seems to pay lip service to a centre-left idea of integration through legalisation. But the migrants themselves, and Padre Filippo, say that that is not how it works in reality.
They complain of police checks increasing, nights spent in the cells and, at times, violent treatment at the hands of some officers.
Without any protection from the police, and desperate to work in order to survive, they become vulnerable to O sistema - organised crime - which effectively provides an alternative system to the state.
Campania's councillor for immigration, Lili De Felice, said that her region had put in place an 18m-euro (£16m) fund for services to migrants. But those without papers cannot access it. They barely speak Italian, and without the correct work permits they are just a phantom presence in a lawless town.

Forced underground
The government's new plan for integration is predicated on strict criteria, giving immigrants two years to learn fluent Italian and pass a series of citizenship tests - a time limit that many of the Ghanaians in Castel Volturno have already exceeded.
One of them, Dani, stands in a ripped coat and begs the BBC to tell the world how difficult it is for illegal migrants in Italy.
He says he has been unable to send back even 10 euros to his wife and children in the last few months, as he regularly goes for weeks without working at all.
What he thought was going to be paradise, has turned into a living hell.
Roberto Saviano, the best selling author of Gomorra, rang a warning bell in the New York Times recently.
He sees the migrants revolt in Rosarno as a way of standing up to the mafia. He believes that if the Italian authorities continue to criminalise migrants by targeting them, instead of the Camorra itself, then conversely they will push the Africans into the arms of organised crime in search of protection.
He pleads for the Africans to stay, stand up and fight the Camorra, which has infiltrated almost every inch of Campania.
But, as the sun sets low and red in the sky, sliding across rubbish dumps and the polluted river that runs into the sea, a dusty gloom falls over the town and the migrants line up along the road, hiding from the police, and hoping to find work.
For the moment, the cogs of the Camorra's wheels show no sign of stopping.
BBC

Neo-Nazis plan rally with German peers in Budapest

The Hungarian Nationalist Socialist Front (NS) will hold a rally in Budapest on March 6 with fellow German a neo-Nazis, Nepszabadsag daily said on Wednesday.
The neo-Nazi group originally planned to hold their event to commemorate a WWII battle together with the local group called the "Hungarists" - followers of the Hungarian collaborators with German Nazi rule - on February 14 at Heroes' Square.
But police issued a stern warning that they would not be allowed to gather either in Heroes' Square or at any other frequented site.
The Hungarists will instead commemorate the "Day of Honour", a WWII battle in defence of Budapest where German and Hungarian soldiers broke out of the besieged Buda Castle, in a small group up in the Buda Hills.
The Nationalist Socialist Front, however, insists on holding their event in a public space. The group has since set up a party called National Revolutionary Party, a source told Nepszabadsag. The idea is to hold the rally as a political campaign and circumvent a police ban.
NS has postponed the date to March 6 at the request of their German peers, unable to attend the February commemoration in Budapest because of a similar commemoration in Dresden coinciding with it.
politics.hu

Study finds major discrimination against Turkish job applicants (Germany)

Researchers at the Bonn-based Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) sent two applications responding to each of 528 advertisements for student internships, one application with a German-sounding name and the other with a Turkish-sounding one. Both applicants were German citizens with native German language skills.

The applications bearing the German names were 14 percent more likely receive a phone call response from the employer, and 24 percent more likely in the case of smaller firms.

“We interpret this finding as evidence for statistical discrimination,” he authors wrote.
However, the discrimination disappeared when the applications contained positive letters of reference about the candidate’s personality.
“The study shows that employers still have some things to learn when it comes to in-house human resources,” said an IZA spokesman. “Workers with immigrant backgrounds’ potential is not being fully realised.”
For the German candidates, the researchers used the names “Dennis Langer” and “Tobias Hartmann,” which were among the 30 most common first names and surnames in Germany for the years 1986 to 1988.

For the Turkish candidates, they used “Fatih Yildiz” and “Serkan Sezer” – both common for male descendants of Turkish immigrants in Germany.
Though the researchers were concerned by the results, they said the discrimination was mild compared with discrimination studies on ethnic minorities in other countries, such as Albanians in Greece, Arabs in Sweden or African Americans in the United States.
Th Local German Edition

BULGARIA SLAMMED BY COUNCIL OF EUROPE OVER MINORITY, CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, has criticized Bulgaria for failing to do enough to uphold minority and children’s rights. “More efforts are needed to better protect minorities and children and to ensure that their needs are embedded in the decision making process,” said Hammarberg, who published Tuesday a report on his visit to Bulgaria carried out in November 2009. “Protection of minorities against discrimination, racism and intolerance should be enhanced. Adequate measures should be taken to prevent and punish cases of police misconduct,“ the CE Commissioner says while also urging the Bulgarian authorities to provide reparation and find speedily a solution for pending pension claims to victims of the ‘Revival Process’, the assimilation campaign undertaken by the Bulgarian communist regime against the ethnic Turkish minority. The CE Commissioner goes as far as suggesting a Constitutional amendment “in order to better safeguard minorities’ freedom of association and assembly and to fully align practice with the Council of Europe standards.” “Evicted Roma should be offered decent alternative solutions. More generally, access to adequate housing, education and social rights remain problematic and all too often they are victims of racially motivated discrimination and violence. The authorities should urgently reverse this situation,” Hammarberg says with respect to the Roma community. The Council of Europe Commissioner recommends that Bulgaria undertake a deinstitutionalization program with respect to children with intellectual disabilities.
novinite.com

BNP to contest borough mayoral elections

Politicians today expressed their anger after it emerged that the British National Party is to field candidates for the May mayoral elections in three London boroughs.

Candidates representing the far-Right party will campaign in the boroughs of Lewisham, Newham and Hackney, sparking outrage from anti-fascist organisations and local politicians.

The BNP has not released details of who will stand but Bob Bailey, the party's London organiser, said he is convinced people will vote for the party.

He said: “We need to raise money before we can announce the full details. But it is time the BNP stood in these elections. People in these boroughs have asked us to field candidates because they are so unhappy with the other political parties.”
A spokesman for Unite Against Fascism said: “Hackney, Lewisham and Newham are proud, multi-cultural and multi-racial London boroughs. They are a living testament to everything the BNP would like to destroy.”

This is London

Journalists launch campaign to challenge BNP in run-up to election

Campaigning journalists and media workers are to launch EXPOSE, a campaign aimed at "revealing the undemocratic and racist nature" of the British National Party.The new campaign will tackle the BNP's "attempts to construct a respectable public image" and support media workers who refuse to work on uncritical programmes or material, the group announced today.

EXPOSE aims to brief reporters and news editors to help them challenge the BNP's statements and spokespersons in the run-up to the UK election, the campaigners said.

A launch rally at the Amnesty UK headquarters in London on 23 February will feature Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, columnist and broadcaster; Mehdi Hasan, political senior editor for the New Statesman; Sunny Hundal, editor of the Liberal Conspiracy blog; and Peter Hain, secretary of state for Wales.

"The political and media consensus appears to be that the way to tackle the BNP is to meet it halfway, by talking up tough anti-immigration measures (...) this conventional wisdom must urgently be challenged," said one its founding supporters, James Macintyre, political correspondent for the New Statesman.

"The BNP is not an 'ordinary' political party (...) So why does the media, including the BBC, give them so much time, space and opportunity to spread their bile?" added his New Statesman colleague Mehdi Hasan.

The campaign is also backed by the unions, with speakers at the launch event including Michelle Stanistreet, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Journalists; Pat Styles, national official for BECTU, the media and entertainment union, and Weyman Bennett of joint secretary, Unite Against Fascism.

"Journalists have a duty to hold up to the closest scrutiny the claims and activities of those who would foment racial tension and violence. The BNP's inflammatory rhetoric about immigration cannot be taken at face value," said Stanistreet.
journalism.co.uk

Russian Court Reduces Sentences For Skinhead Group Leaders

Russia's Supreme Court today reduced the prison sentences of the leaders of a group of 10 skinheads jailed in September for ethnically motivated attacks, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.

The court ruled to cut by one year the sentences of skinhead leaders Ilya Shutko, 19, and Yevgenia Zhikhareva, 18, to nine and seven years in prison, respectively. All the members had originally received sentences of three to 10 years in jail.

The court said the criminal liability on a number of charges against the two had expired.

The Prosecutor-General's Office said previously that all the crimes -- which were committed against non-Slavic people -- were done on the grounds of ethnic hatred and aimed to incite national or religious enmity.
On February 1, 2008, Kyrgyz citizen Altynbek Ashirov was beaten by five of the skinheads and stabbed to death by Shutko. In February and March 2008, the group of skinheads made three murder attempts in Moscow against Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Chinese citizens.
rferl.org

Online safety push for five-year-olds (UK)

Children as young as five are being targeted in a new online safety campaign by the UK body charged with protecting children from abuse.

The campaign uses cartoons to show five to seven-year-olds that people are not always what they seem.

It is thought 80% of children in this age group use the web and one-in-five parents of this age group worry about who their children contact online.

The campaign is being launched as part of EU Internet Safety Day.
The organisation behind the safety campaign - the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) - is one of the many which have been behind campaigns designed to help children and teenagers to keep themselves safe from online predators.
The organisation believes that by raising awareness of online risks at an early age, children will be better protected as they grow up.
When it was set up nearly four years ago, it began by running campaigns in secondary schools for teenagers and has gradually targeted younger and younger groups.

'Unnecessary risk'
Head of Ceop, Jim Gamble, said: "Unfortunately, some of the victims we see here are very young.
"People will try to find out where they are, where they go to school. Children can expose themselves to unnecessary risk.
"We do see children who are younger and younger being exposed to risk - and the risk is not always clear. There are a number of subtle messages.

"Unbelievably some of these children have access to webcams, but that's the world we live in."
Ceop says every week, among the 500 cases being reported through its "Report abuse" button found on some websites, there will be four from children at immediate risk of harm.
Anecdotal evidence suggests very young children are getting onto social networking sites aimed at teenagers and adults - where they are very vulnerable to online predators.
Jo Bryce, from the Cyber Research Centre at the University of Central Lancashire, said: "I have been into schools to give talks on e-safety and teachers have told me that six and seven-olds there are on social networking sites."
Among publicised cases of abuse of children who have been targeted individually online, however, she says, the victims have tended to be older - aged 10 and up.
Young teenage girls were most at risk.
Dr Bryce said educating children at a young age was the best approach to take.
"The focus on e-safety education for children aged five-plus is absolutely the right thing to do. Then you can build up the information over time so they can keep themselves safe," she said.
Still traumatised
One teenager has spoken to BBC News about how she was targeted online by a paedophile when she was 12.
He began messaging her after being introduced as a "friend of a friend".
Once he had won her trust, he asked her to pose in front of the family webcam and took images of her.

The man has since been tracked down and jailed for seven years. Ceop says he had targeted 30 other children.
Still clearly traumatised by what happened, the girl, who is now 17, had this advice for other young people: "When I was doing it, I didn't feel wrong. I didn't have the little feeling in my stomach. I'd just tell people 'be careful who you talk to'.
"Don't try and make friends over the internet because you never know who they really are."
'Just horrible'
She said such people would try to win you over in whichever way they could.
"They're not going to be horrible. They're not going to force you to do things. They are going to want you to stay on their good side.
"They are going to be nice to you, they're going to be really nice. You are going to think they are the nicest people in the world and deep down inside they're just horrible."
Child psychologist David Coleman says the cartoon being used by Ceop in its education programme will introduce young children to ideas which will enable them to explore online environments safely.
"Understanding what constitutes 'private' information - and recognising that people can pretend to be different online - are critical to developing safe behaviour online, which greatly reduces their vulnerability to abuse," he said.
Research from Ofcom published last autumn suggested that 80% of five to seven-year-olds use the internet and that among nine to 11-year olds, 94% do so.
At home, more than two-thirds (67%) of five to seven-year-olds were using the internet in 2009 - up from 57% in 2008.
More than a quarter of parents were concerned about the content of the website that their five to seven-year-olds visited
here's a BBC video about the whole thing



BBC

Daughter of a hero (USA)

Daughter of a hero

By Brandon Santiago on the Hanford Sentinel website

The painful images coming out of Haiti depicting the earthquake devastation add to the lineage of horrific events that have occurred in mankind's history.
The events in Haiti may have been caused by a natural disaster, but all tragic moments in time share a common trait: Human suffering.
Anne-Marie Kessler of Riverdale says she knows this all too well. She grew up in France during the Nazi occupation in World War"I can tell you that war is hell," Kessler said. "My father was gone most of the time; we resented him for it, it was difficult for our mother. We always felt he cared more for strangers than us. It was later we realized the strangers needed him more than we did. Many more would have died if he hadn't helped them."

Kessler, 79, sits in the dining room of her home, sifting through old photographs of her family. Next to the affidavit issued to her mother and father by the Gestapo for their arrest, lies a book with her father's face on the cover.
The book is "A Rescuer's Story: Pastor Pierre-Charles Toureille in Vichy France" by Tela Zasloff. It's the story of Kessler's father, a French Protestant pastor whose efforts resulted in the rescue of hundreds of refugees, most of them Jewish.
Inspired by his Huguenot heritage, Toureille participated in international Protestant church efforts to combat Nazism during the 1930s and headed a major refugee aid organization in Vichy France during World War II. After the war, he was honored by the Jewish organization Yad Vashem as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations."
Kessler said her father was one of many heading a large network of people striving to stop the rise of the Nazi regime. The network established a specialized school and home in Czechoslovakia called The Home for Christian Children.
"The Christian element of it was a front, to ward off Nazis," Kessler said. "In actuality most children who lived there were freed or escaped Jewish children from concentration camps."
Kessler is the fourth of five children in the Toureille family. The author of "A Rescuer's Story," Zasloff, got in touch with Kessler and her brother, Marc Toureille, to get their personal perspectives of their father's work.
Along with interviews with other members of the underground network, the book was compiled and published in 2003.
Marc Toureille details his memory of when the Nazis invaded France in the book.
"We turned off the lights and rushed to the windows, half hiding behind slotted blinds," Toureille said. "They had come, boots hitting the pavement, the shame, the anger, the hate ... I wanted to see them all killed."
Kessler herself remembers living with the Jewish children at the home when she was 10 years old. One day she and the children went on a field trip to a nearby river with a male teacher and chaperone who worked with her father. When they reached the river, the chaperone threw Kessler into the river with all her clothes on and told her to get out on her own.
"That was my first survival lesson; he wanted me to be tough like the Jewish children, [to] learn to endure," she said, looking at the chaperone's photo. "He had me walk barefoot through rocks to toughen my feet, because we never knew when the Germans would come; I loved that man, he was my favorite teacher."
Kessler said that in 1943, her father called her into his office one day and said he had some bad news for her.
The Germans had gunned her favorite teacher down. He was on the run in Czechslovakia, then went to Belgium, and ended up at this house in France.
"He had a little boy he never knew and he was trying to get home to him, and the Nazis found him and killed him," she said through tears.
Meanwhile her older brother, Simon, was in college, but it had been awhile since they had heard from him. Then, one day a stranger stopped her mother in the street and said "I know where your son is."
"She told my mother, 'Come to my home, tonight after dark, and make sure you're alone and I will tell you where he is," Kessler said.
The woman provided her address and her mother ventured out that night, making sure no one knew or saw when she left. She discovered her brother was fighting for the French in the underground against the Germans. The woman told her mother "My son is with your son; they're friends in underground, fighting together," Kessler said.
"I don't like when people say the French never did anything or cared, or were not thankful [for American help during the war]," Kessler said. "... because I know, I was there, and I'll be thankful until the day I die."

Immigrants wanting to settle in France to sign a 'no burka' contract

Immigrants must sign a 'no burka' contract before being allowed to live in France, the country's families minister has said.
The clause will be added to an 'integration agreement' all newcomers to France are already asked to sign.
The contract reminds new arrivals that forced marriages and polygamy are not allowed.
Minister Nadine Morano now wants immigrants to acknowledge that full Islamic face veils like burkas and niqabs are not accceptable.
She said an extra clause reminding newcomers that female circumcism was outlawed in France would also be added.
Ms Morano told French radio: 'Equality between men and women is a fundamental principle of French society.
'This applies to polygamy, forced marriages, female mutilation and the full face veil.'
She was set to propose the changes to the integration contract at a government conference today to take stock of its three-month debate on national identity.
Her call comes after months of heated national debate on whether the burka should banned.
Last month a government committee said women who wear the garment should be barred from using public transport and outlawed from public buildings like schools and hospitals.
More...French MP praises 'courage' of Calais migrants illegally headed for Britain
But the official inquiry by a group of MPs stopped short of recommending a total ban of the garments, saying they should still be allowed in private homes.
The committee's head Andre Gerin said a full ban could enflame Muslim tensions and drive some to extremism.
Such a move could also backfire as it was likely to be challenged by the European Court of Human Rights, he said.
But he added: 'We are recommending that all women must show their faces when entering public institutions or boarding public transport and keep their face uncovered throughout their presence there.
'Failure to do so should result in a refusal to deliver the service demanded.'
Ms Morano has the backing of many prominent MPs in her call to have immigrants who wear burkas banned from staying in France.
French interior minister Brice Hortefeux said in December that both women who wear veils and their husbands should be 'systematically refused' French residents' permits.
And President Nicolas Sarkozy has branded face veils 'a sign of debasement' and said they were not welcome in France.
The burka is a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with a mesh screen over the face, and the niqab is a full-body veil with slits for the eyes.
Only around 5,000 women among France's five million strong population wear the garments.
France already passed a law in 2004 forbidding students and staff from wearing veils and other religious symbols in schools as part of a drive to defend secularism.
This month Switzerland voted to ban minarets on mosques acorss the country. In September a French mother was banned from wearing a 'burkini' swimsuit at her local swimming pool.
Carole, a 35-year-old Muslim convert, was told by the manager of pool in Emerainville, near Paris, that the garment was 'inappropriate' on hygiene grounds.
The woman said she bought her burkini for £40 during a holiday in Dubai, adding: 'I was told that it would allow me the pleasure of bathing without showing off my body, which is what Islam recommends.'
She is now taking her local council to court on the grounds that the ban was not a hygiene issue but a political issue.

The French parliament will vote on a partial or complete ban within several months and the proposals could come into force by the end of the year.
Daily Mail

Human rights group urges UK governement to stop gay deportation

Human rights groups have called on the British government to intervene in an asylum case which could see openly gay Alvin Gahimbaze deported to Burundi.

Refugee charity, ‘Everyone Group’ told Pinknews.co.uk:

“We have just received news that Alvin Gahimbaze, has been removed from his home by the British authorities and taken to a London detention centre to await deportation back to Burundi after the Border Immigration Agency turned down his application for asylum.”

Last year the government of Burundi criminalised homosexuality, punishing offenders with up to two years in prison.
“His life will be in serious danger if he is deported back to Burundi due to the ethnic clashes and the serious institutional homophobia,” the charity added.
EveryOne Group has contacted the British Home Office and is now appealing to the British Government to release Mr Gahimbaze as soon as possible and cancel the deportation order.
‘Alvin’, explain the group's co-presidents, Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, “is a young man from the Tutsi ethnic group who fled Burundi with his sister when he was still a boy. The rest of his family was massacred during the ethnic clashes and he has lived in the United Kingdom since 2000. Though his sister has been granted permanent residence in the UK, Alvin now faces deportation.”
Last year over five thousand people signed a petition that would end the deportation of LGBT asylum seekers to homophobic countries. The government defended its current position, explaining:
"Enforced returns to any country will only be undertaken where, after very thorough examination of the asylum claim, it is decided that the individual would not be at risk of execution, torture, unjust imprisonment, or other forms of persecution.
"Where an asylum application has been refused, there is a right of appeal to the Asylum Immigration Tribunal or an opportunity to seek judicial review through the higher courts."
"The government recognises that the conditions for lesbian and gay people in some countries are such that there may be individuals who are able to demonstrate a need for international protection.
"However, there can be no presumption that each and every asylum seeker of a particular nationality who presents themselves as being lesbian or gay should automatically be afforded protection in the UK.”
Stonewall Housing says it has seen the number of asylum seekers and refugees approaching it for advice double in the last year.


Staff Writer Pink News

SCANDAL OF UNWANTED GYPSY SITES (uk)

Cash-strapped councils are being bullied into creating gypsy campsites that no one wants – not even the travellers. The claim has been made as town halls face a multi-million pound bill to develop an extra 7,500 sites for “gypsies, travellers and travelling showpeople” in line with new housing laws. Officials say the council-built sites will help stop unauthorised camps that cost millions in enforcement actions and planning appeals, as well as causing tensions with local communities. But critics say illegal camps, like the one that has led to the so-called Battle of Hemley Hill in Buckinghamshire, will keep springing up as travellers flout laws and use human rights laws to defend their actions. The Government’s Homes and Communities Agency claims there is a national shortage of pitches. Whitehall has allocated £100million to the end of 2011 to “house” 25,000 gypsies and travellers on new and upgraded sites but the Sunday Express has revealed the cost could top £800million by the 2016 time limit. Targets imposed by the Government mean local authorities must provide permanent sites with rubbish collection, running water, electricity and other services. In return travellers must pay rent and council tax. Some planners have claimed they are being forced into a position where swathes of the countryside could be turned into “huge gypsy sites”. Wychavon District Council in Worcestershire, which already provides 34 of the 42 sites it must have by 2017, last week turned down an application for a camp near Evesham, claiming the area was swamped with travellers. Councillor Judy Pearce, the council executive’s planning head, accused Gordon Brown of bullying by setting tough targets.

Regional planners believe Worcester, Wychavon and Malvern Hills should provide about 170 more permanent and temporary sites for up to three caravans. It currently provides 93. Ms Pearce said the figures were not realistic and did not take into account the fact that not all travellers wanted to stay in the same place. She added: “You must bear in mind that this district is well on the way to meeting the target.” Juliana Crowe, of the Worcestershire Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Partnership, said: “We would like to see a bigger focus on places in need of sites rather than just forcing numbers on ­districts.” Campaigners at Hemley Hill, where nine traveller families have lived illegally since last Easter, say official camps would make no difference. The land in the Chiltern Hills is home to a Roman road, is in the green belt and is an area of outstanding natural beauty. More than 600 objectors face an anxious wait until the outcome of a planning inquiry in April. The travellers will use laws passed by the Government as proof of the need for more sites, alleging that Wycombe District Council, which covers Hemley Hill, has made no provision for them. Town hall chiefs hurriedly commissioned a £17,000 report that came up with half a dozen potential sites, but they face opposition over those too. Protester Trisha Kelly said: “These families do not want to stay on official campsites. They know that once they settle in one place it makes it easier for the authorities to track them down. “There will be a lot more Hemley Hills and a lot more money wasted on new campsites and planning rows.” Government figures show the number of traveller caravans in England grew by more than 1,200 in the past two years to 17,900, an eight per cent rise. A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said: “It is important we have enough authorised sites to stop the vicious cycle of evictions that is costly to the taxpayer and affects the travelling community’s quality of life and the wider public.”
The Express

There’s Nothing British About The BNP – Supporting the online fight

Many great videos on You Tube that support the Anti-BNP (British national party) are often overlooked. And due to the fact that the BNP see You Tube as their own personal stomping ground the videos just don’t get the publicity they so well deserve.

Here’s one such video from a fantastic campaign called.
There’s Nothing British About The BNP.



Please support the user and his other videos at

 NothingBritish

LATVIAN FAR RIGHT GOES AFTER “DISLOYAL” RUSSIANS CARS

Latvian ultra-rightist have started another witch-hunt by threatening “disloyal car owners” who fix Russian symbols, like St. George Ribbon, or a Russian national emblem or colors on their vehicles. A website registered in the US and still operational, http://www.latvietislatvija.com (Latvian in Latvia), has published a so-called "Okupantu autoparks,” an “Occupants’ car park,” list of those who dared to decorate their cars with the Russian symbols, revealing personal data of these citizens. The black list reveals personal information and the names of 118 persons, including their home addresses and car plate numbers. The witch-hunt was organized not only in Latvia’s capital Riga, but also throughout the country. Any car seen with the abovementioned symbols was photographed and put on that list. Some people from that list have already been blackmailed by e-mail. There is a risk of their cars being smashed or desecrated with paint, but the real concern is for affected children. Latvian police says the website is out of Latvia’s jurisdiction, but the very fact of publishing personal info, probably stolen from some governmental source, is illegal, so an investigation has been launched to find out and fine those guilty. Most of the exposed “disloyal” cars are private, but in at least one case, when a driver of Renault Master belonging to Latvijas Pasts (Latvian Post) tied a St. George Ribbon to it, the end was bitter and he was fired immediately for “improper decoration of an operational vehicle’”– amid economic collapse in the country. Latvian police sees no incitement of ethnic hatred in this case, so the real patriots of the country continue with their job openly, waiting in ambush for disloyal citizens and publishing personal info on them for public use. Needless to say, the names of the crusaders themselves remain in the shadows. About 44% (up to 95% in certain regions of the country) of Latvia’s 2.3 million population are Russian-speakers, and many of them still cannot get citizenship because of it.


RT