Far right Jobbik spokesman resigns due to gay pride march images (Hungary)

Jobbik the far right Hungarian party that has been notoriously labelled anti-Semitic and racist, have been dealt a blow to their nationalist image today when photographs of the parties spokesman András Király appeared online.

For a party that is trying to sell it self on traditional Hungarian family values the last thing they wanted to see was a prominent member enjoying an occasional toke and attending a gay pride march in Canada. (images can be found Here)

Obviously this tolerance for alternative lifestyles is not an image a far right nationalist party want to portray and András immediately resigned from the party when the story broke.

Anti-fascists ask for Hackney help (UK)

An anti-fascist group has called on Hackney residents to help fight the British National Party (BNP) in east London.

The rallying call came from Nick Lowles, national coordinator of Hope not Hate, at a meeting in Stoke Newington last night.
Lowles told activists that Britain faced “a far-right threat like never before”.
The BNP is currently the second largest party on Barking & Dagenham Council and the borough is a major target for the party.
According to anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, if the votes cast by Barking and Dagenham voters in the 2008 Greater London Authority elections are repeated in the upcoming local elections, the BNP would win 21 council seats placing it “neck and neck in another nine”.
The BNP already holds 12 seats on the Barking and Dagenham council and needs only another 14 to win overall control.

Party leader Nick Griffin is also standing as a parliamentary candidate in Barking and aims to unseat former Cabinet minister Margaret Hodge. Lowles said that although the BNP presence in Hackney was small, activists in the borough had a key role to play in preventing the party making gains in nearby areas.

He called on Hackney people to join campaigners gathering in Barking on April 17. Activists will deliver a special 12-page newspaper to every house in the borough.

Lowles also asked activists to make calls to voters in Barking and Dagenham to help identify those sympathetic to the anti-BNP campaign and encourage them to register to vote – a campaign method pioneered by Barack Obama.
Andrea Enisuoh, coordinator of Hackney Unites, said: “We can’t sit on our hands while the borough down the road is taken over by fascists.

“We don’t want them to get a foothold anywhere. We have to address the threat by tackling the issues that make them popular and take them on about the facts.”

Denis Lenihan, a member of Hackney Unites, said: “We can connect with voters in Barking more easily than politicians can. We face similar issues to people there as we live in a similar borough”.

Matt Collins, director of Searchlight Educational Trust, said: “While part of it is identifying people who can help, another part is persuading people that they will be voting to live under an apartheid council.”

A BNP membership list leaked in 2008 revealed nine members lived in Hackney.
Hackney Post

Poland jails three men for Auschwitz theft sign

A Polish court has convicted three men for the theft of the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign from the former Auschwitz death camp last December.
The trio were given jail sentences ranging up to two-and-a-half years.
The court in Krakow said the men had admitted the theft, and so the case did not have to go to trial.
Two other Poles remain in custody over the theft of the 5m (16ft) wrought-iron sign, which was quickly recovered and found cut into three pieces.

The authorities in Stockholm said last week that a Swedish former neo-Nazi accused of instigating the theft will be extradited to Poland to face trial.
The sign had been half-unscrewed, half-torn from above the memorial site's gate.

A replica sits on top of the entrance, while the original is being repaired.

The sign - the words on which translate as "Work sets you free" - symbolises for many the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

Its theft caused outrage in Israel, Poland and around the world.

More than a million people - 90% of them Jews - were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in occupied Poland during World War II.

BBC News

Nazis exaggerated Dresden death toll, German historians conclude

This item has been posted due to the fact that many Neo-Nazi's on line like to use the Dresden bombing as a rebuttal to what the Nazi's did during the war, so many of them will not be happy about this news item, including holocaust denier David Irvine and UK's BNP leader Nick Griffin.

Nazi claims that as many as 500,000 people died during the Allied bombing of Dresden in the Second World War were exaggerated, a group of German scientists have concluded.
Official estimates by the local authorities after the end of the war estimated the number of dead to be around 25,000.

But far-right groups claimed that up to 500,000 people were killed in the attack, by 1,300 British and US bombers between February 13 and 15 in 1945.
Allied critics have claimed that the attack constituted a war crime which had no strategic aim since Germany was already close to defeat and the targets were civilian rather than military.

Now, five years of research by a team of historians from the Dresden Historians’ Commission has confirmed that 25,000 died in the celebrated Baroque city.
The team reviewed records from city archives, cemeteries, official registries and courts and compared them to published reports and witness accounts.
Their study also shows fewer refugees fleeing the Eastern Front were killed in the bombing than previously thought, and dismissed claims that many of the victims' bodies were never recovered.
The historians said their findings would have far-reaching implications for how people saw the final chapter of the war and the role of the Germans.
But some were quick to condemn the findings. Within an hour of their publication, 150 protesters had marched on Dresden town hall and Ralf Lunau, the city’s cultural commissioner, announced that: “This has not ended the debate at all.”
Among those who claimed Dresden was a war crime was controversial British historian David Irvine. In his 1963 book, The Destruction of Dresden, he cited figures in a Nazi document reporting that 202,400 people had perished.
According to Frederick Taylor, another historian cited by The Times, the Nazis had simply added an extra '0' to the total.
The bombing has long been a cause of Anglo-German tensions and when the Queen visited the city in 1992, eggs were thrown at her by protesters demanding an apology.

The telegraph

TENSIONS AFTER ATTACK ON ROMANI FAMILY SUBSIDE(Czech Rep.)

The tension that hit Bedriska, Ostrava's neighbourhood with mainly Romany population, after the attack on a local family this weekend has subsided now and the locals have dropped up their original plan to form home guards, Coexistence NGO head Kumar Vishwanathan told CTK yesterday. Coexistence is a civic association focusing on work with the Romany minority. "Peace has prevailed. The locals have placed confidence in the police's work. They won't organise home guards or patrols on their own," Vishwanathan said. A wave of fear arose among the locals after an unknown perpetrator's arson attack on a Romany family house in early hours on Sunday. The police, along with Vishwanathan, had lot to do to talk the locals out from forming a home guard unit to defend themselves against potential assaulters. "We talked to everybody there last evening once again in an effort to calm the situation down. We managed it. Although no one understands the attack, no panic persists there," Vishwanathan said. "We fear, mainly for our children. We will set up patrols to guard our neighbourhood," Jiri Koller, the neighbour of the afflicted family, told CTK on Monday.
The Molotov cocktail the perpetrator threw in a local house fortunately did not flare up, except of the burning wick, and no one was injured. "The residents had a good luck. If the bottle had broken, it could have caused a fire. The house would have flared up quickly and the fire could have afflicted the neighbouring family as well. Up to eight people were threatened," Ostrava criminal police head Radovan Vojta told journalists. A similar attack elsewhere in north Moravia injured three members of a Romany family last April. A two-year girl suffered burns on 80 percent of her body. Four suspects, all far-right radicals from north Moravia, have been charged with attempted racially motivated murder. Their trial will start in May. The police on Monday said nothing indicates that an organised group of right-wing extremists was behind the attack in Bedriska. By no means was it "another Vitkov case," they emphasised. Vishwanathan said he shares the view. "It does not seem that an organised criminal group intervened from outside. It seems to be a culmination of a problem inside the [Bedriska] locality, he said.
The police on Monday warned the Bedriska Romanies against setting up home guards, which the officers said, would complicate the situation in the problematic neighbourhood. "It is not necessary. We have no information about another imminent attack. We've reinforced police patrols in Bedriska," said Ostrava police director Tomas Landsfeld. According to the Labour and Social Ministry, there are ten Romany ghettos, similar to Bedriska, in Ostrava, the north Moravian centre with 315,000 inhabitants. The population of these excluded areas is estimated at up to 6,600. Most Romanies have been moved there intentionally in recent years. Most adult residents are jobless, with only elementary education. The families live on social allowances. In many such localities usury, drug trafficking and thefts are flourishing.

praguemonitor

JUSTICE MIN. REJECTS SAME GENDER MARRIAGE (Denmark)

Homosexual and lesbian couples are still not to be allowed to enter into marriage in the country’s town halls according Justice Minister Lars Barfoed (Cons) in a memorandum to Copenhagen council. “We have received a memorandum saying that Lars Barfoed has rejected our demand. The non-socialists in the city council voted in favour of the proposal, so I find it strange that our justice minister says no,” says Social Democratic Social Affairs Spokesman Lars Aslan Rasmussen. In his memorandum, Barfoed says that he feels it best to maintain the current state of affairs under which there is a difference between a registered partnership and marriage. Homosexual and lesbian couples are currently able to enter into registered partnerships. “We think that as long as homosexuals and lesbians are unable to enter into marriage, this is discrimination. It would be the same if immigrants needed another marriage ceremony than Danes,” Lars Aslan Rasmussen says, adding the issue is particularly a problem at the current time as a result of hate crimes against homosexuals.

politiken

Magistrate tried to evict naked Romanian tenant by throwing her property downstairs while friend hurled racist abuse (UK)

A respected magistrate's reputation lay in tatters yesterday after she was convicted of unlawfully evicting a Romanian tenant.

Stephanie Lippiatt, 63, was arrested as she tried to remove Maria Percec and her boyfriend George Stanka from a property she owned in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.
Widow Lippiatt, allegedly told Miss Percec, 28, that she was a 'Romanian ****'.

She will now be sentenced alongside her 6ft 7in henchman who has admitted a race charge.
After her arrest Lippiatt - a magistrate for over 20 years and a Samaritan's volunteer - was recorded by an officer outside the police station saying: ‘They are bloody foreigners and they will get away with it.’
She was also convicted by the jury at Croydon Crown Court of causing criminal damage to Miss Percec's property, but was acquitted of that offence being racially aggravated and was also found not guilty of racially aggravated assault.
Victor Hawes, 41, who assisted Lippiatt, pleaded guilty to racially aggravated criminal damage and both defendants will be sentenced on April 7.

‘She came in and started swearing at me to “get the f*** out of the house”,’ ex-box room tenant Miss Percec told the jury during the seven-day trial. ‘She pushed me and stamped on my feet.’
Miss Percec told the jury Lippiatt was unhappy about the tenant's boyfriend George Stanka, 31, staying regularly overnight in her room and demanded a rent increase from £150 to £250 per month.
‘She said “I want more money or you are out of here.” That's all she spoke about. More money,’ said Miss Percec.

‘The £250 was way too much. The house was in really bad condition, it was a very old house.
‘The room was tiny, I have now got a room six times that size.’
Lippiatt, who has a rental portfolio of eight properties, denies being a slum landlady although the defence team conceded the property was not ‘Buckingham Palace’.

The couple were naked in bed when Lippiatt and Hawes began banging on their door late at night, demanding they leave the property.

‘It was really loud banging, like someone hitting the door with a fist three times,’ explained Miss Percec, who had managed to throw on a dressing gown before the defendants burst in.
‘She pulled the covers off George. He was naked and she looked at him and shouted “get the f*** out”.’

Miss Percec told police Lippiatt hurled a chest down the stairs then deliberately trampled on her belongings, before tossing items out the front door.
The couple were also intimidated by Hawes. ‘Victor was behind her, he's massive, the size of the whole door. You can't compete with that force,’ said Miss Percec.
Lippiatt also shouted: ‘You are not living in my house. You are not living on my back,’ the jury was told.

Miss Percec told police Hawes repeatedly racially abused and swore at them.
Throughout his race rant, filmed on Mr Stanka's mobile phone, Lippiatt is standing next to him in earshot.
The jury were played the footage in which an enraged Hawes throws the tenants' belongings down the stairs and Lippiatt is seen kicking items out of the front door.

‘I was left with bruises on my feet and around my knee,’ said Miss Percec. ‘The police saw it and took photos the next day.
"She was trying really hard to hurt me and push me and get me out of that room. I have been abused verbally and physically.’

The jury was told Hawes also called the couple ‘Romanian cockroaches’.
Lippiatt claims Miss Percec has done a ‘hatchet job’ on her so her evidence would be believed and to bolster a compensation claim.
The JP told the jury: ‘Last year when I was 62, I would have said it wouldn't have even crossed my mind that I could find myself in this position.’
After two decades on the bench Lippiatt finally discovered what it felt like to be a defendant when police locked her in a cell.

‘I completely lost control of myself. I was screaming and I was crying and I was begging them to let me out.’
She lost her removals businessman husband Clive when he was killed by a drunken motorcyclist.

dailymail

Racism storm over £38,000 ‘Indians-only’ job advert (UK)

A racism inquiry was under way last night after a firm advertised a £38,000-a-year job for someone 'preferably of Indian origin'.

The advert, which appeared on a popular recruitment website, was placed on behalf of a computer company based in Britain and India.
It stated: 'Minimum six years of experience in IT . . . The person should be a UK citizen with security clearance from the UK Government. Preferably of Indian origin.'
The advert was removed last night from jobsite.co.uk as the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched an investigation.

The wording was condemned by Conservative MP David Davies.
He said: 'It is quite clearly racist. I call on the EHRC to show resolute action in dealing with cases of anti-British discrimination.'
The advert, for the Bristol-based post at technology company Torry Harris, was spotted by IT consultant Vince Silva of Chepstow, Gwent.

He said: 'I have never seen a recruitment advert like this before, and think it is appalling job applicants could be discriminated against in this way.

'It raises a wider question about the way in which some big companies in Britain are bringing in IT workers from abroad instead of recruiting them here.'

Recruitment agency McGregor-Boyall Associates said the advert had been placed in error.
Spokesman Farhaan Majid said: 'This is a mistake. I put the advert through like this when I shouldn't have done.'
He added: 'Some companies prefer to employ people of Indian origin because they are immediately available and don't mind moving.
'Often people in Britain . . . have mortgages and don't want to move.'

The recruitment firm's managing director Laurie Boyall said: 'It should not have been put up, and was cut and pasted from material sent to us by a client in India.'
Jobsite.co.uk said advert content was the responsibility of advertisers and it did not check listings before they were placed on the site.
Torry Harris declined to comment, but the EHRC said: 'It is unlawful to discriminate against a job applicant on the basis of their nationality...We will be looking into the matter.'

Earlier this week a supermarket supplier was accused of discriminating against British workers after insisting recruits for production line jobs at a factory in East Anglia must speak Polish.

Cooked meats contractor Forza AW, who placed the ad, said it had been an 'error'

daily mail