White supremacist father and son plotted terror attacks, court hears

Teenage milkman denies possessing material useful to a terrorist while helping to run his father's Aryan Strike Force website.
A teenage milkman spent his spare time secretly preparing violent attacks against the government, a court heard today.

Nicky Davison, 19, joined his father in the creation of Aryan Strike Force, a website demonstrating an apparent obsession with Zionist domination, a jury at Newcastle crown court was told. Computers seized in a police raid on a house in Annfield Plain, County Durham, last year yielded data showing that "ops" involving bombs were in the early stage of planning.
Davison and his father, Ian, 41, were not simply "keyboard warriors", said Andrew Edis, prosecuting. "They made a distinction between people who were associated with the group they were forming – who were just supporters who might hand out leaflets – and members, who were to be of a different category, more interested in action," he said.

"They wanted to resist what they called ZOG, which stood for Zionist-occupied government. They were fighting against the government because they believed it has been taken over by Jews, so it had to be resisted by those interested in white supremacy."
Ian Davison has already pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism and producing a chemical weapon, using homemade ricin. The poison extracted from castor beans is deadly and has been at the centre of several terrorism scares.

Nicky Davison denies three charges of possessing material useful to a terrorist while helping to run the Aryan Strike Force website. The jury was told that the group had been established in January 2008 and at the time of the police raid last June was "in the early stages of becoming active".
Edis said Davison's acknowledged extreme racism was not the issue. He said: "Having white supremacist opinions is not what Mr Davison is charged with. He is charged with taking things a step further by having a document which contained information likely to be of use to a terrorist. He was associated, with other people, as part of an organisation, preparing to do ops, in other words paramilitary activity."

The website was not merely a propaganda vehicle for supporters, who also called themselves the Wolfpack and Legion 88. It showed interest in "violence in different forms to advance the aims of white supremacy in these islands".
Shortly before the raid, Nicky Davison had posted messages on the site saying he was "concerned about the risk of detection and arrest". His on-screen name, Thorburn1488, was an obscure code relating to the work of an American white supremacist and shorthand for "Heil Hitler".

Edis said: "He was clearly associated with his father who has pleaded guilty to terrorist charges."

The raid at the house that Nicky Davison shared with his mother and younger brother found online copies of manuals including the Poor Man's James Bond and The Anarchist's Cookbook.
"These tell the reader how to make letter bombs, how to make explosives, how to make detonators, how to make bombs, how to make grenades, how to make silencers and how to make poisons," Edis said. "The prosecution does not allege that this defendant committed an act of terrorism. The charges are aimed at a young man who seems to be preparing himself, reading and getting himself informed and equipped for action."

The trial continues.

The Guardian

Man in court over mosque attack (UK)

A MAN has admitted throwing petrol over a mosque during an attempted arson attack.

Gerald Davis targeted the Muslim place of worship on Chester Road, Sunderland.

Davis, 53, of Palmerston Road, Peterborough, was originally charged with attempting to commit arson with intent to endanger the lives of Muslims.
But at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday prosecutors accepted his guilty plea to the lesser charge of attempting to commit arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

The court heard Davis has been examined by a psychiatrist who has recommended he be sentenced to a hospital order under the Mental Health Act.
He must be assessed by another psychiatrist before such sentence could be passed.

Mr Recorder Toby Hedworth adjourned sentence until May 28 and remanded Davis in custody in the meantime.
The Judge said: "The recommendation of one doctor is you be made subject of a hospital order under the terms of the mental health act.

"For that to be done there needs to be a second report from another appropriately qualified psychiatrist.

"I am going to adjourn your case for six weeks to allow the preparation of that report and allow arrangements to be made for your admission in due course to such hospital."

Davis had also admitted a charge of exposure relating to an incident two days before the mosque attack in the early hours of October 16 last year.
On December 9 last year, Sunderland Magistrates' Court heard that Davis had exposed himself to a woman at the George Washington Hotel, near High Usworth, Washington.
The victim said Davis had struck up conversation with her by the hotel's swimming pool, before dropping his towel to expose his genitals.
Sunderland Echo

Facebook announces online security measures

FACEBOOK today responded to calls to step up online security by announcing a raft of new measures to transform social networking safety.

The move means fans of the site will be able to report any unwanted or suspicious behaviour directly to child protection organisations.
Responding to mounting pressure from the Government and parents to protect its 23 million British users, it has now redesigned its abuse reporting system so users can alert the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) to any unwanted or inappropriate contact.

Managers have also agreed to establish a new 24-hour police hotline, dedicated to helping with emergencies, investigations and prosecutions.
The issue was thrust into the headlines last month following the conviction of serial rapist Peter Chapman who posed as a young boy on the site and went on to murder Darlington schoolgirl Ashleigh Hall.

The internet giant has been roundly criticised for defying calls to install a panic button on the networking site, and chiefs were yesterday urged to turn words into action following a four-hour showdown meeting in Washington DC with Jim Gamble, Britain's most senior official responsible for protecting youngsters online.

Though Mr Gamble said Facebook had not not agreed to his demands outright, he acknowledged the popular social networking destination was "one small step from doing the right thing".

Safety experts today hailed Facebook's new measures, which are designed to give individuals greater control of their online safety.
Independent child protection expert Mark Williams-Thomas termed the move "a considerable step forward in online safety" while Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute, said the site was "taking a thoughtful, proactive approach to safety on the web".
The Northern Echo

PRAGUE PUBLIC TRANSIT CO DECIDES NOT TO SACK TRAM DRIVER PROMOTING FAR RIGHT(Czech Rep.)

The Czech tram driver who put a scarf with the text Workers' Party (extreme rightist DS) behind his tram front window in January will only lose his bonus and will not be sacked as originally suggested, the weekly Sedmicka writes on its webpage yesterday. The management of the Prague Public Transit Company has agreed on the punishment with trade unions. The decision was motivated by fear of complicated legal disputes, Sedmicka writes. "We did not sack the driver, we only withdrew his January bonus," Tomas Petana, director of the company's personnel department, said. "He never violated the company rules over the ten years in which he worked here and this was decisive," Petana said. Besides, the company's management sent a "letter of rebuke" to the driver at the end of February, Petana said, adding that this meant that in the event of another violation of the rules he would be sacked instantly. At first, the company management wanted to sack the driver, arguing with a Labour Code clause speaking about unauthorised use of the employer's production means for an employee's personal need, which means for the promotion of a party abolished by court in this case. Petana said the mitigation of the originally expected punishment was influenced by the fear of a complicated legal dispute. "After speaking with lawyers, we come to the conclusion that the company would lose the dispute," trade union leader Krystof Veselka said. In early January, the driver put the sign of the extremist DS on his tram when the Czech Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) started dealing with the proposal to dissolve the party. A passenger photographed the driver and sent the photos to the media. The MHD immediately distanced itself from the affair. The NSS dissolved the DS as extremist on February 17, but the party has appealed the verdict.


Prague Monitor

NEO-NAZIS SENTENCED WITHOUT POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE FOR ATTACK ON ROMANI MAN (Czech Rep.)

On 8 April the Regional Court in Prague sentenced brothers OndÅej and Jakub Neuman to sentences without the possibility of parole for brutally attacking a Romani man in Beroun last year. The verdict, which has yet to take effect, sentenced OndÅej Neuman to four years in prison for attacking the man with a garden hoe, while Jakub Neuman was sentenced to one year in prison, according to Mediafax. Jakub Neuman, who is 27, will serve his sentence in a minimum security prison. His 24-year-old brother will serve in a maximum security prison. The conflict occurred last February in Beroun. At 1 AM, a small group of young people, including the two brothers, were trying to convince another youth they had met on the street to go the pub with them. Even though the youth had previously been friends with the brothers, he refused their invitation out of fear. Mediafax reports that the youth testified in court, “I had been told they wanted to beat me up.” At that moment, a 30-year-old Romani man passed by and asked the youth whether everything was all right. The question irritated the younger brother, who responded with insults like “What do you want, nigger?” and “Get out of here, scum”. The Romani man fled, but the younger brother caught up to him in the middle of the street and punched him in the face. The Romani man punched him back and fled again, but the brothers followed him home. A garden hoe was leaning against the gate, which the older brother grabbed and used to repeatedly strike the Romani man in the head. The brothers then left, shouting racist slogans and the Nazi salute. Police found the suspects through a mobile phone that was dropped at the scene of the incident and contained videos with fascist topics. A search in the younger brother’s home turned up other material with military and Nazi content. The younger brother did not hide the fact from the court that he was also in contact with the neo-Nazi “Autonomous Nationalists” movement.


Romea

FRENCH FAR RIGHT LEADER LE PEN TO STEP DOWN NEXT YEAR (France)

Veteran French far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen will finally step down as head of his anti-immigration party the National Front in January next year, he told reporters Monday. The 81-year-old former paratrooper founded the Front in 1972 and party members will vote for his successor at its conference on January 15 and 16. His daughter, Marine Le Pen, is favourite to succeed him. "I will not be a candidate to lead this organisation that I founded 38 years ago," he told reporters after a meeting of the party executive in Paris to decide the date of the movement's 14th congress. Le Pen's announcement was expected and comes at a moment when the party is riding relatively high in the polls following a strong showing in last month's regional elections, with just under 12 percent in the first round. While this was less than the party's record highs -- it scored 14.7 percent in a similar regional vote in 2004 -- it confirmed it had executed a comeback after a lean few years. The party claims to have 75,000 members. Marine Le Pen, the party founder's 41-year-old daughter and an accomplished media performer, is a member of the European parliament and the Calais regional council, and remains in pole position to succeed her father. The only other candidate to have officially thrown his hat into the ring is 60-year-old Bruno Gollnisch, another Euro-MP and a longstanding Le Pen ally. While never threatening a serious challenge for national power, Le Pen's brand of immigrant bashing and populist economics has won him enough support to maintain a platform in political life for four decades. He has been the convicted and fined on several occasions for street brawls and breaking hate crimes law, most notoriously for dismissing the World War II Nazi gas chambers where Jews were slaughtered as a "detail of history".

AFP

Mixed race people are 'more attractive' and successful

Mixed-race people are 'more attractive' and more successful, results of a new study suggest.

The Cardiff University study involved rating 1,205 black, white, and mixed-race faces.

Each face was judged on its attractiveness, with mixed-race faces generally perceived as more attractive.
Author of the study, Dr Michael Lewis, also suggested mixed-race people were disproportionately successful in many professions.
The study based its hypothesis on Darwin's notion of heterosis, the biological phenomenon that predicts that cross-breeding leads to offspring that are genetically fitter than their parents.

Dr Lewis said the phenomenon was mirrored in the results of his study.
"The results appear to confirm that people whose genetic backgrounds are more diverse are, on average, perceived as more attractive," Dr Lewis said.

Yet there is reason to believe that mixed-race people may not just be more attractive, but more successful.
Dr Lewis said: "There is evidence, albeit anecdotal, that the impact of heterosis goes beyond just attractiveness.
"This comes from the observation that, although mixed-race people make up a small proportion of the population, they are over-represented at the top level of a number of meritocratic professions like acting with Halle Berry, Formula 1 racing with Lewis Hamilton - and, of course, politics with Barack Obama."

Dr Lewis will present his findings to the British Psychological Society's annual meeting on Wednesday.

BBC News

Brown: voters too sensible for BNP (UK)

Gordon Brown said he believed voters were too "sensible" to fall for the BNP.

The Prime Minister hit out at the far-right party as "not British", accusing it of trying to exploit people's concerns on immigration and housing.

In an interview with the BBC Asian Network radio station, Mr Brown was asked about the rise of the BNP in areas such as Barking, east London, where its leader, Nick Griffin, will fight for a Westminster seat.

Mr Brown said: "I think you'll find the British people are far more sensible about the future; I think they see through an ideology based on race."
He added: "I think it's the job of decent people from every party to expose the BNP for what they really are.

"They're trying to exploit people's concerns about immigration and housing, they use them to push their own ideology, which is based on race.

"That ideology of the BNP is totally wrong and it's got to be exposed; it's also not British because our fathers and our grandfathers fought together in a world war to defeat ideology based on race."

North Wales Weekly

Vatican comment on paedophiles draws gay groups' anger

Gay rights activists have criticised a Vatican official who sought to link homosexuality to paedophilia when commenting on child sex abuse scandals.

The UK's Stonewall group said it was astonishing gay people should still be dealing with "such an offensive myth".
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone had said homosexuality, not celibacy, lay behind the child sex abuse scandals.

The cardinal, the Vatican's foreign minister, was speaking in Chile, where his comments were also condemned.
Cardinal Bertone was attempting to defuse the scandals currently afflicting the Catholic Church, which are largely cases of priests molesting children, mainly boys, the BBC's David Willey reports from Rome.
He added that some "surprising" initiatives regarding the sex abuse scandal would soon be revealed but did not elaborate.

'I have the documents'

Visiting the Chilean capital Santiago on Monday, Cardinal Bertone told a news conference: "Many psychologists, many psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relationship between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have demonstrated, I was told recently, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia.

"That is true. I have the documents of the psychologists. That is the problem."

Patricio Walker, a Chilean senator who helped draft anti-paedophile laws, said he would like to see what scientific studies the cardinal was referring to because he thought he was wrong.
A Chilean communist MP, Hugo Gutierrez, told AFP news agency: "Celibacy does more damage to a human being than homosexuality, which is a freely made choice.

"I'm shocked by these words from a senior dignitary of the Church."

In Rome, the head of Italian gay rights group Gaylib, Enrico Oliari, said it was "worrying that the foreign minister of a state that occupies the heart of the Italian capital would use arguments that are considered passe even in the Third World".
Aurelio Mancuso, former president of a Italian gay rights association Arcigay, said: "The truth is that Bertone is clumsily trying to shift attention to homosexuality and away from the focus on new crimes against children that emerge every day."

The Pope's spokesman has indicated that Benedict may have a discreet private meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse in Malta during his visit there this coming weekend.
The Pope should not feel he is under the pressure of the glare of the media if such a meeting takes place, Fr Federico Lombardi said, so that he can listen and communicate with them.

In Malta, 10 men have taken three Catholic priests to court for alleged child abuse in their youth and have asked to meet the Pope. There has been a high incidence of reported cases on the small Mediterranean island, whose inhabitants are mainly Catholic, our Rome correspondent notes.
BBC News