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

Tony Avery, who teaches English to foreigners to stand for "fascist" BNP

A MAN who teaches English as a foreign language is to stand as a Parliamentary candidate for the British National Party.

Tony Avery, who teaches English as a foreign language, is expected to stand as prospective parliamentary candidate for Enfield North and as councillor for Turkey Street.

According to the BNP website, Mr Avery has worked as a garage manager and "spent several years in Mayfair, looking after 300 company accounts, including many of London’s foreign embassies."
He says he has worked for 12 years for councils in London, although does not explain what his role was.
He said: "I trained as an ESOL teacher in 2005, but found it difficult to find community organisations willing to accept me. They preferred their own nationalities.

"I believe that today’s fashionable left-wing view of equality reeks of hypocrisy: treating certain ethnic groups
preferentially is a flawed philosophy, and can be divisive in itself."

He has also edited several videos for BNP TV.
The BNP, which restricted its membership to people of "Caucasian origin" until 2009, originally formed as a splinter group from the National Front.

It’s leader, Nick Griffin, appeared on BBC’s Question Time last year, when he insisted he was not a Nazi.
He defended being pictured with David Duke, the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, which has carried out racist attacks across parts of America.

When asked why he had previously played down the Holocaust, he said: “I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial.”
Tony Thake, of the Enfield Island Village Residents’ Association, which was built on the site of a former munitions factory, said: “I have no doubt that people believe the BNP is a racist organisation.

“This is a former industrial area where there have traditionally been a lot of working class. There are some generations whose fathers had good industrial jobs. You can convince people sometimes the reason they aren’t getting a house or job is all the fault of immigrants.
"About a quarter of people here are in social housing so they are much more likely to be targeted by the BNP. Some residents feel they have been in queues for long periods of time.

"But a lot of ethnic minorities have been here for many generations, so we’ve really moved on from dividing people – they are as British as anybody else.”
A snap poll of residents in Turkey Street, conducted by the Enfield Independent, showed that two were sympathetic to the idea of a cap on immigration and said they would therefore consider voting BNP, while six others were against to varying degrees.

Nick Lowles, editor of anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, who is also a Chase Side resident, said: “Certainly the BNP are picking up a protest vote because people are fed up with the mainstream political parties. But it is a dangerous protest. The presentable face of the BNP is not the true face of the BNP. You just have to look at the leader Nick Griffin, who is a hardline fascist. What he says now about the Holocaust is that he can’t talk about it. Well you either believe the Holocaust happened or you don’t.

“The BNP divides communities, it is no answer to the problems people face.”
In response to the news, Unite Against Fascism North London is planning to hold stalls and leafleting campaigns in Enfield, with a public meeting on April 18 at an as yet undecided venue.

The final list of Parliamentary candidates will be announced on April 20.

Mr Avery could not be reached for comment.

Endfield Independant

New Leader Assails Far-Right Party’s Rise (Hungary)

The incoming prime minister, Viktor Orban, vowed Monday to defend Hungary from the ascent of a far-right party and its black-clad paramilitary branch, which have railed against the Roma community and called the capital “Jewdapest.” Mr. Orban, 46, the leader of Fidezs, the party that defeated the incumbent Socialists in first-round parliamentary elections on Sunday, said he was unhappy over the rise of the far-right party, Jobbik, which won 16.7 percent of the vote. “No radical party will be allowed to get rid of law and order in this country,” he said. “Democracy in this country is strong enough to defend itself.”


NY Times

Extremists cancel march commemorating Allied bombing

Czech rightist extremists have decided to cancel their planned march through the centre of Usti nad Labem to commemorate the April 1945 Allied bombing of the town, according to the information published at the webpage of Autonomous Nationalists.

They cancelled the march as the town centre was blocked by the group We Don't Want Neo-Nazis in Usti.
Usti police spokeswoman Veronika Hysplerova told CTK yesterday that rightist extremists' activities would be monitored and if they prepared any event, the police would be ready.
The far-right radicals organised a march through Usti last April.

At least 512 people died and hundreds of buildings were destroyed or damaged in the bombing of Usti, an industrial centre of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, by the U.S. airforce on April 17 and 19, 1945.
Extremists' opponents stressed that the march was to be held briefly before the anniversary of birthday of Adolf Hitler on April 20.
Last year the march of some 200 extremists was guarded by the police. They intervened against the leftist activists trying to thwart the march, which was also attended by neo-Nazis from Germany.

This time, the extremists' webpage only publishes an appeal that candles should be lit instead of the march.
A mass, commemorative meetings and cultural events will be held, and church bells are to ring on April 17 and 19, in the hours when bombs hit the town 65 years ago.

Prague Monitor

JUDGE RULES ON GOOGLE BULLY VIDEO (Italy)

An Italian judge said he convicted three Google bosses of violating the privacy of an autistic teenager because the internet giant tried to profit from an online video of him being bullied.

Milan judge Oscar Magi said in his ruling he believed Google executives bore responsibility because the company intended to make a profit by selling advertising on the site where the footage was posted.

"In simple words, it is not the writing on the wall that constitutes a crime for the owner of the wall, but its commercial exploitation can," judge Magi wrote in the 111-page document, obtained by the Associated Press.
The three employees were given six-month suspended sentences in a criminal verdict that drew swift condemnation from defenders of internet freedom.
Google said it was studying the decision, "but as we said when the verdict was announced, this conviction attacks the very principles of freedom on which the internet is built", it added.

"If these principles are swept aside, then the web as we know it will cease to exist and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear. These are important points of principle, which is why we and our employees will vigorously appeal this decision."

Judge Magi said his decision should be interpreted as a requirement that internet service providers must screen the enormous amount of video that passed through their sites.
"But on the other hand, there also is no such thing as the endless prairie of the internet where everything is allowed and nothing can be banned," he wrote.
The trial, he said, should be read as an "important signal" that a danger zone is being reached for criminal responsibility for web masters.

"There is no doubt that the overwhelming speed of technical progress will allow, sooner or later, ever more stringent controls on uploaded data on the part of website managers," he said.

Daily Express

Jewish group praises Germany for its prosecution of Nazis

In its annual report on the international community's efforts to bring ex-Nazis to justice, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has awarded Germany the highest possible grade. This is the first time Berlin has earned an "A."
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which describes itself as a Jewish human rights group, has recognized Germany's increased effort to prosecute former Nazis by awarding it top marks in its annual report on the international effort to bring World War Two war criminals to justice.

"There's been a monumental and highly significant change in German prosecution policy," the center's head, Efraim Zuroff, told Deutsche Welle.
"German authorities and judges are taking a more proactive stance to investigating and prosecuting Nazi war criminals, and for this reason we are proud to award Berlin our highest mark," he said.

Zuroff singled out Germany's willingness to "prosecute non-Germans as well as Volksdeutsche - ethnic Germans - which for many decades was not the case." He also lauded Berlin's willingness to put non-officers on trial too.
Zuroff highlighted two examples that illustrate the change in German policy: the ongoing proceedings against John Demjankjuk - an 89-year-old Ukrainian national accused of being accessory to thousands of murders while a guard at the infamous Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland - and the conviction of Heinrich Boere, an SS officer sentenced last month to life in prison for murdering three Dutch citizens during World War Two.

'Complete failure'
Germany and the United States were the only countries to earn the top "A" grade from the Wiesenthal Center, while a number of countries were criticized in the report.
The center listed Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine along with Australia, Canada and Hungary as countries "whose efforts (or lack thereof) have resulted in complete failure during the period under review."

Zuroff said that no legal obstacles to the prosecution of suspected Nazi war criminals existed in those countries, but that there was a general "lack of political will" to carry out the process of bringing elderly suspects to justice.
The report said the most disappointing case was that of Sandor Kepiro, who was convicted by Hungary of helping to organize the murder of at least 1,200 civilians in Serbia in 1942. Kepiro has never been punished for his crime, although the Wiesenthal Center has located him in Budapest.

DU World

SA police investigate sex link to Terreblanche killing (South Africa)

South African police are investigating allegations of sexual assault prior to the killing of white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche.

A lawyer for one of the two accused men said Terreblanche tried to have sex with at least one of the defendants.
Mr Terreblanche's body was found on a bed with his trousers pulled down.
Police had initially said the killing was over a wage dispute, but are now exploring the possibility that the killing was an act of self-defence.

"We are not going to focus on one thing," said Musa Zondi of the Hawks, South Africa's elite criminal investigation unit, which has taken over the investigation.

"We will investigate all pertinent facts that have a bearing on the matter."

Gen Jan Mabula, head of the Hawks in North West province confirmed to South Africa's City Press newspaper that the suspects' clothes had been sent for forensic examinations.

Terreblanche was discovered at his farm in Ventersdorp on 3 April after having been beaten to death.

Two black farm workers have been charged with his murder.
Puna Moroko, the lawyer representing one of the accused men - 28-year-old Chris Mahlangu - told South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper the attack was triggered by a sexual assault.

"My instructions from my client are that there was some sodomy going on and it sparked the murder of Mr Terreblanche," he said.
The lawyer representing the other defendant - a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named - made no comment on the sodomy allegations.
Mr Moroko claimed the accused men were given large quantities of alcohol before Terreblanche allegedly tried to have sex with "one or both of them".

Terreblanche was leader of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), a white supremacist group, and believed firmly that whites and blacks should be kept apart.
AWB spokesperson Andre Visagie strongly dismissed the sexual assault allegations.

"The media must choose now whether they want to ­regard Terreblanche as a racist or as the rapist of a black youth," the City press newspaper quoted him as saying.

BBC News

BNP short of candidates to take Barking and Dagenham

The British National Party's hopes of seizing Barking and Dagenham council suffered a blow today after it emerged it is fielding only 34 candidates.

The far-Right party holds 12 seats and would need 14 more to take the council, but eight of the wards it is contesting are Labour strongholds. Until a few days ago it was confident it would have candidates standing in all 51 wards.
There are questions over several BNP hopefuls after it was reported they registered at “front addresses” to get round rules that candidates must live in the area.
Dagenham Labour MP Jon Cruddas said: “It's clear on the doorstep that local residents are turning away from the extreme politics of the BNP.
"The fact that they have really struggled to get local candidates to stand in the council elections, suggests the chances of them creating the political earthquake they said they would in the borough, are diminishing by the day.”


This is London

As loathsome as ever: Nick Griffin's BNP is STILL the party of racist lies, violent thuggery and vicious anti-semitism

The Cross of St George is blowing in the breeze outside Clive Neal's end of terrace in Barking. Mr Neal is 61. He took early retirement from the Dagenham Ford plant in 2002 when car production finally stopped and many thousands of jobs were lost.

Gradually, since then, and probably before, he says, the street he still lives in, the area he grew up in, and the country he was once so proud of has changed 'beyond all recognition' and no one - certainly not anyone from the Labour or Conservative parties - bothered to knock on his door and ask him what he thought about it, or the effect it might be having on his life.

Clive Neal used to vote Tory, but now he informs me, though not in a belligerent way, that 'I will be voting BNP', adding: 'We're losing our sense of what it is to be British and this upsets and frustrates me.'
Does that make him a racist? Mr Neal, a quietly spoken, almost shy man, who lives in the same house on the vast Becontree Estate that he used to share with his parents, insists not.

Farther up the road, single mother Karen Woodward, 39, says she will also be voting BNP. As will the woman, in her late 50s, at the pebble-dash terrace at No50, and the 34-year-old former builder, now registered disabled, at No52 ('I've never voted BNP before, but I'm going to because the country is in a mess').

The grandmother a few doors up? BNP. The middle-aged man at the house with a dodgy extension; BNP. His next-door neighbour; BNP. Two pensioners, behind the blue and brown doors, across the street; both BNP. A third pensioner, male, walking along the pavement. 'Yes,' he would be voting BNP, too.

The underlying electoral statistics confirm the anecdotal evidence.

The BNP is the official opposition on Barking and Dagenham Council after winning 12 of 13 seats it contested in the 2006 local elections, polling more than 40 per cent of the popular vote in six wards. In reality, this means that on every street in Barking (pop: 166,000), there are at least 38 people who in the recent past have voted BNP.

BNP stickers in windows and the Cross of St George, like the one in Clive Neal's garden, have become an intrinsic part of the urban landscape. No longer, it seems, is allegiance to the BNP something to be ashamed of; not here, anyway
This is why Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, is standing for Parliament in Barking. Griffin versus Labour's big hitter Margaret Hodge is one of the key sub-plots of the General Election. It is also a litmus test for our political system, with the MPs' expenses scandal and continued fears over immigration at the very top of the political agenda.

Figures last week revealed that virtually every extra job created under Labour - an extraordinary 98.5 per cent of 1.67 million new posts - has gone to a foreign worker.

It's a gift for Griffin and the British National Party, which is fielding more than 300 candidates nationally; but especially so in Barking. The Ford car factory once employed 50,000. Now it's 2,000. Unemployment is running at about 8 per cent. Decent jobs - any jobs - are scarce
BNP posters promising 'British jobs for British workers' already mock Gordon Brown's use of the same phrase more than two years ago. 'When we say it, we mean it,' the poster declares. Even the BNP, however, couldn't have imagined the chasm between Brown's 'jobs pledge' and Brown's record.

The BNP slogans have been backed up by effective community campaigning: clearing graffiti, picking up litter from parks and streets, even taking old folk to the bingo.

The tactics have convinced many of the white working-class who do not see themselves as racists that the new BNP, epitomised by Cambridge graduate Griffin, has evolved from the football terraces and shed the Third Reich nostalgia of the old National Front from which it emerged in the early Eighties.

These are the uncomfortable facts about the BNP and Barking, as well as other party strongholds like Burnley and Stoke. Behind them lies a story which tells us everything we need to know, if we didn't already, about Nick Griffin's 'reformed' BNP.
Let's begin with immigration, an issue which the major parties - particularly Labour - have singularly failed to address, and which the BNP has ruthlessly and shamelessly exploited in Barking.

Barking, overall, has fewer people from ethnic minority backgrounds than the London average. Around 75 per cent of the 167,000 population are white British, according to an Audit Commission report published in January.

The majority of the non-white community, however, is concentrated on the vast Becontree Estate, where Clive Neal lives.

Over the past ten years, half the council's housing stock - 20,000 properties - were sold under the 'right-to-buy' scheme. These new owner-occupiers subsequently moved out of Barking to places like Basildon, Billericay, and Southend in what became known as the 'white flight'. Many of those who took their place in Becontree were Afro-Caribbeans, mostly from other parts of the capital or other parts of the country.

The transformation of Becontree resulted in a notorious BNP leaflet called 'Africans for Essex'.

The leaflet has been dropping through letter boxes in Becontree over the past few weeks. The leaflet claims that the Government has paid African immigrants up to £50,000 to move to Barking to ensure 'safe Labour majorities in the future'.

In fact, the cash incentive scheme - residents in London boroughs are eligible for grants to buy their own homes to ease the pressure on council waiting lists - is open to everyone, not just immigrants or specifically African immigrants.

Guess how many took advantage of the scheme to move to Barking? Just 39 in the past six years. Of these, six were white, 15 were Asian, 13 were black (African and Caribbean) and five did not have their ethnicity recorded.
Just 39, then, in a total population of 167,000.

Yet many residents in Barking are utterly convinced that the 'Africans for Essex' conspiracy exists. Perhaps this is as much an indictment of the Labour Party, which has encouraged mass immigration to Britain while crushing any honest debate on the subject, as it is of the BNP.

The same might be said of other BNP propaganda portraying Margaret Hodge as a witch-like figure handing out the keys of the few remaining council homes to a queue of stereotyped foreigners in burkhas and turbans carrying suitcases. 'Enjoy Your New Home', Hodge is telling them. Behind her an angry white mob screaming: 'What About Us?'

It's a grotesque caricature, of course. But like all caricatures there is an element of truth in the xenophobic rhetoric. At present, those considered to have the greatest need are automatically able to jump housing lists, meaning new immigrants with children sometimes leapfrog people with longer-standing links to the community who may have been waiting longer.

Margaret Hodge, to her credit, raised this issue in 2007. The response of senior Cabinet members, among them Alan Johnson, now Home Secretary, was that Hodge's legitimate concerns were simply 'grist to the mill of the BNP'.
Three years on, the government has now effectively conceded that Margaret Hodge was right all along. Communities Secretary John Denham has just announced that local authorities should favour the children of long-standing residents when allocating council houses.

Indeed, Margaret Hodge, who became MP for Barking in 1994 and is now Minister at the Department for Media, Culture and Sport, has been the target of what can only be described as an ugly, vicious and highly personal campaign by the BNP.

On the doorstep, the BNP likes to use her maiden name Oppenheimer. Born in Egypt, she came to Britain with her Jewish parents, who were refugees from Nazi-occupied Austria.

Bob Bailey, 44, a former Royal Marine, and leader of the BNP on the local council, denied this when I contacted him this week.

'No, that's not true,' he insisted. 'We don't talk about the Labour Party on the doorstep, everyone knows they are rubbish. We want to talk about what we are doing, not what those clowns are doing.' What about his own description of Hodge as 'Margaret (the Egyptian) Hodge'.

'I don't think so,' he replied, then added: 'but that is where she was born, isn't it?'

In fact, 'The Egyptian' reference is on a BNP website called London Patriot. It was posted on March 3 - by Bob Bailey.

'I've been the subject of criticism and attacks in the Press all my career,' Hodge reveals back at her Whitehall office, off Trafalgar Square.

'But I'm in my 60s now and I have never met any anti-semitism before. My parents were subjected to it. I remember this incident when we were kids, when we had a car accident. My father got out the car to apologise to the other driver, but this man looked at my father and said: "You bloody Jew."

'It stuck in my memory. That is probably the only time I have experienced anti-semitism, until now.'

Margaret Hodge was also accused by Nick Griffin of having a personal financial interest in plans - since cancelled - to build a new prison in the borough. Griffin was later forced to apologise for the lie, which appeared in BNP literature. I learnt of another incident - involving Cllr Bailey - during my inquiries in Barking which is also worth reporting.

It concerned a young black student nurse who was conducting an exit poll for the Labour Party in the 2006 local elections. She should have said 'I'm from Labour', before approaching voters outside, but she forgot. It was an honest mistake.

But Bailey overheard her. He is said to have then told her: 'I know who you are. I've got your phone number.'

The girl burst in to tears. Not long afterwards, a car drove past the polling station with four thugs inside. 'Go home you n*****, one of them shouted at the student.

'Oh, dear, burst into tears,' Cllr Bailey replied sarcastically when the allegation was put to him this week. Did he know about the car-load of racist yobs? 'Don't think so, don't think so. Ask another question. Ask another question.'

Well, there was one. 'Is he a racist pig?' Not my words, but those of an opposition councillor who attacked Bob Bailey in the council chamber for his tirade against Nigerian churches in Barking. (Cllr Bailey is now facing suspension as a councillor.) 'I have been called so many names,' he said, 'It's water off a duck's back.'

Cllr Bailey, who works in security, is part of Nick Griffin's campaign team. The two have been out, side by side, canvassing on the Becontree Estate.

They are, of course, hoping desperately that they can increase the 0.7 per cent of the popular vote gained in the last general election in 2005. While the BNP has become the most successful fascist party in Britain since the Thirties, we should remember that its percentage of the popular vote was minuscule.

But their presence as a rising political force in Barking certainly cannot be denied. Apart from anything, they stand a chance of taking the local council. Those elections are also being held on May 6. Remember, they won 12 out of the 13 seats they contested last time.

This time round they are fielding many more candidates. What if they won? The BNP controlling a £600million budget - it's a sobering thought.

'I think Barking would become a no-go area,' says Hodge. 'People wouldn't buy houses in the borough, and businesses wouldn't want to come and invest here.'

But she adds ominously: 'If we don't really expose them for what they are over the coming weeks and if we don't convince people that Labour can actually respond to people's frustrations and aspirations, we're in danger of the BNP winning.'

Griffin, according to the antifascist organisation Searchlight, is already fighting a losing battle, against the (even) more extreme elements in the BNP.

'The reality is that too many in his party are wedded to the BNP's old street-fighting roots,' said a Searchlight spokesman.

Evidence, if any were needed, is here in the the list of the BNP's prospective parliamentarians. Among them are Martin Wingfield (Workington), jailed after failing to pay a fine imposed for inciting racial hated back in the Eighties; Ian Mellor (North West Leicestershire), fined £400 for carrying an offensive weapon; and Julian Leppert (Chingford and Woodford Green), who drives a car with a number plate that looks like 'Nazi' (NA51).
Not forgetting Mark Collett, 29, who was the BNP's publicity director - until he was arrested a few days ago on suspicion of threatening to kill Griffin.

Griffin is the BNP's Dr Jekyll. But be assured that Mr Hyde is still there behind the scenes - both in his colleagues and in his own poisonous mind.

There is no 'new' BNP. There is only the old one, and it's as loathsome as ever, as those who have been on the receiving end of the party's tactics in Barking know only too well.

Daily Mail

BNP's Mark Walker repeats claims that dismissal was a “hatchet job”

A JUDGE has described the behaviour of a BNP parliamentary candidate sacked from his job as a teacher as “scandalous”.

But Mark Walker hit back last night, repeating his claim that the dismissal was a “hatchet job” and branded the leak of a report into the case as “gutter politics” aimed at scuppering his chances of victory on May 6.

A tribunal report leaked to The Northern Echo reveals that Sedgefield candidate Mr Walker would have been sacked by Sunnydale Community College, in Shildon, County Durham, last year regardless of his sickness record.
He was suspended as technology teacher in 2007 amid claims he sent inappropriate emails to a 16-year-old former pupil and watched pornography on his laptop at work. No illegal content was found on Mr Walker’s laptop.
The report said: “In October 2007, the headteacher met with the child protection officer of Durham County Council and reported her concerns in relation to the claimant’s conduct and in particular the email correspondence.

“Durham County Council asked the NSPCC as an independent child protection agency to make inquiries.”
Following a lengthy dispute, he was dismissed because of his sickness record after he became ill following the allegations. He appealed against the decision, saying he had been victimised because of his allegiance to the BNP.
His case was thrown out in January after a tribunal hearing in Newcastle, but the details were not made public.
In the report, employment judge Andrew Buchanan said Mr Walker’s illness was triggered by his own actions.
He said: “If he had not acted in the way that he did towards that former pupil, he would not have had reason to be stressed and anxious and he would not have become ill.”

He said Mr Walker’s “culpable and blameworthy conduct contributed to his dismissal to the extent of 100 per cent” and that “he was the author of his own unfortunate illness”.

He said that joining a demonstration staged outside the school to support him made him eligible for dismissal.
Speaking about the demonstration, held on an induction day for new pupils, Judge Buchanan said: “The claimant’s conduct during the time of his suspension was, frankly, scandalous.

“For a teacher to be associated with a rowdy demonstration at the school gates on a day when pupils new to the school were being inducted demonstrates a failure to observe professional standards which this tribunal finds breathtaking.”
The tribunal also said failure to agree to a health report in February 2008 amounted to unreasonable conduct.

Judge Buchanan said Mr Walker’s membership of the BNP was “of no relevance”, but said: “The tribunal does not accept that the headteacher herself was motivated by antipathy to the BNP, but recognises that that party does provoke antipathy in many people.”
Judge Buchanan added that Mr Walker’s brother, Adam, a BNP candidate for Bishop Auckland, became embroiled in the dispute.

He wrote a letter to 80 Sunnydale staff saying attempts were under way to “destroy his brother’s life”.
Judge Buchanan said: “The claimant clearly was also cognisant of and supportive of the attempts of his brother and others to write to the staff and to seek to undermine the authority of the headteacher.”

Mr Walker said last night that the report was full of unfounded allegations for which dates, times and venues were missing.
He rubbished claims he was involved with the former pupil and said emails described in the report as extremely worrying were innocent.

He said: “All I was doing was responding out of politeness.
“Lots of teachers stay in touch with former pupils. I never taught her, she was never in my care.

“The email was to say ‘hello, how are you doing?’.”
He also said he was being persecuted for being a BNP member and said he planned to take further action against his former employer, Durham County Council.

He said: “Any fair-minded person can see there is no substance to support any of those bogus allegations.

“It is obvious that this is a smear campaign against me and I hope that the public can see through it.”

The Northern Echo

Across Europe, support for populist parties is on the rise (Germany)

In recent months, extreme right-wing and populist parties have won significant gains in regional and parliamentary elections in Europe. For them, times of crisis are a boon.
As Europe grows together, expanding its visa-free zone toward Iceland and the Ukrainian border, many citizens are beginning to see themselves firstly as Europeans rather than as citizens of their individual countries.

But not everyone supports the breaking down of national barriers. In recent months, xenophobic and right-wing parties have made spectacular political gains across Europe.

In Hungary on Sunday, the far-right Jobbik party won well over 16 percent of votes in parliamentary elections, marking the first entry of an openly right-wing extremist party into parliament. With the country hard-hit by recession, Jobbik capitalized on rising nationalism and a resurgence of anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsy sentiment to win votes.
Jobbik's rise echoes that of France's right-wing Front National party, Italy's xenophobic Northern League and the Netherland's conservative Party for Freedom, which all saw dramatic gains in recent elections.

Although right-wing ideology takes different forms across Europe, it shares a common strategy: exploiting the fears of voters in times of crisis. Right-wing populists focus on their followers' discontent, says Wolfgang Kapust of German public broadcaster WDR.
"They offer easy answers to complicated problems: the economic situation, unemployment or social insecurity," said Kapust. "Above all, they want to get rid of, deport or 'send home' foreigners and 'the others.' "

Parliamentary problems
But because right-wing movements define themselves through separation from that which is "alien," it is difficult for them to pool forces beyond their nation states. That's reflected in the European Union.
"Right-wing extremists and populists are opposed to a supra-national political institution like the European Union," says Kapust. "They want a Europe made of nativist countries. They want to maintain the identity of their own countries."

In the European Parliament, right-wing attempts to merge into one group have been unsuccessful.

"The differences are too large between the national movements," says Kapust. Right-wing parties remain protest parties, incapable of joining coalitions.

French nationalism
However, exclusion from coalitions does not mean that far-right parties are without influence. Often, nationalist parties succeed in exerting pressure on the conservative parties of the center, which fear they could lose potential voters to the far right.
This was seen in regional elections in France in February. The right-wing Front National, whose 81-year-old leader, Jean-Marie le Pen, has advocated sending African immigrants back to the continent, registered strong gains at the expense of French President Nicholas Sarkozy's conservative UMP.
The regional elections offered conservative voters a chance to show Sarkozy that they didn't approve of his policies since taking office, says Elisabeth Cadot, French expert at Deutsche Welle.
"Many who were disappointed by Sarkozy's national politics voted Front National again," said Cadot.

Immune to scandal
While non-established and extremist smaller protest parties often disappear quickly from view, the more moderate right-wing populist parties tend to survive. Many observers were surprised when the results of Italian regional elections in March showed that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had survived his numerous public scandals, including a corruption trial.
Berlusconi managed to stay in power due mainly to his skilful coalition building with other right-wing populists, said Stefan Koeppl, an expert on Italy at the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing. He pointed out that Berlusconi's own party came in rather weak.
"The winners are not his political opponents, but his allies, such as the far-right Northern League," said Koeppl.

Moreover, added Koeppl, Berlusconi's brushes with the law were nothing new - he has been known for his affairs, scandals and slip-ups since he came to power.
"Anyone who has forgiven him for the past 15 years is not likely to be put off by recent allegations," said Koeppl.

A special case
Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom made major gains during municipal elections in March, has sought to distance himself from traditional far-right platforms such as anti-Semitism.

Instead, Wilders has taken pains to present himself as a defender of democracy, while sharply criticizing the growth of Islam in Europe. Wilders has called the Koran a "fascist book" and argued that "there is no such thing as a 'moderate Islam.' "

Still, Kapust sees parallels between Wilder's party and other movements that show less fear of contact with the far right end of the political spectrum: "The development in the Netherlands is clearly connected to the minaret ban in Switzerland and the 'pro' movements in Germany," he said.
Swiss voters decided in November to amend the country's constitution to ban the construction of minarets. That step was lauded by pro-Koeln and pro-NRW movements in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. The linked groups, which hold seats on local councils, campaign on an anti-Muslim platform, decrying what they describe as the "Islamicization" of society.

Political scientists label the activities of such groups "anti-Islamic racism."

DU World

Police Urge Calm at Neo-Nazi Mosque Demo (Sweden)

Police in Gothenburg sought to ward off clashes on Sunday as neo-Nazi demonstrators opposed to the construction of a new mosque met with resistance from counter-demonstrators.

Police formed a human barrier as the demonstrators shouted slogans at each other from a distance of 100 metres at lunchtime on Sunday.

"Our aim is to keep the two groups apart," police spokesman Niklas Eriksson told news agency TT.

A heavy police presence prevented attempts from both sides to cross the lines just days before construction is scheduled to start on a new mosque at Keillers Park on the island of Hisingen.
Police said the anti-mosque demonstration, headed by known local neo-Nazis affiliated with the Nordisk Ungdom ('Nordic Youth') group, consisted of around 100 people. Some 300 people joined the counter-demonstration led by Nätverket Mot Rasism ('Network Against Racism'), an anti-fascist umbrella group that has come in for stiff criticism for its tolerance of extreme elements.
Police said anti-mosque demonstrators had secured a permit for their rally, which started at midday. Their intention was to march to Lindholmen and the premises of a construction firm set to begin work on the new mosque this Tuesday.
The Local Sweden

HUNGARY'S RIGHT-WING OPPOSITION CLAIMS ELECTION WIN

Hungary's conservative opposition party, Fidesz, has secured a convincing victory in parliamentary elections, ousting the Socialists. Fidesz leader Viktor Orban said Hungarians had voted "to defeat hopelessness". The far-right Jobbik party, which capitalised on anti-Semitism and anti-Roma sentiment, will enter parliament for the first time. The final division of seats will only be decided after the second round. This will be held on 25 April. Mr Orban, who is set to be the next prime minister, said: "Hungarians voted on Hungary and Hungary's future. Today Hungary's citizens have defeated hopelessness. "I feel it with all my nerves and know it deep in my heart that I face the biggest task of my life. I will need all the Hungarian people to solve that." Mr Orban, who was Hungary's prime minister from 1998-2002, promised to cut taxes to stimulate the economy. The country has been badly hit by the global financial crisis, and has had to be bailed out with 20bn euros (£18bn) from the IMF, the World Bank and the EU. The Socialist government of Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai imposed a tough austerity programme to reclaim some of the money, but measures like tax rises and salary and pension cuts have made it very unpopular.


'Clear mandate'
Preliminary results indicated that Fidesz had won 206 seats in the 386-member parliament, the Socialists 28, and Jobbik 26. President Laszlo Solyom said the results had brought a "fundamental shift" in Hungarian politics. "It is unprecedented... for a winning party to secure such a clear and broad-based mandate that we can see now from the numbers," he told reporters. Conceding, Socialist party chairwoman Ildiko Lendvai said: "If results do not change materially, then one thing is clear: the Hungarian Socialist party has lost the opportunity to govern. "But it has not lost, moreover it wants to grasp the opportunity to be the strongest opposition party." The result was a stunning defeat for the Socialist party, which has governed Hungary for the past eight years, and a remarkable victory for Fidesz, says the BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest. The results were announced by the Central Election Commission after several hours of confusion, during which polling stations were kept open later into the evening to allow those queuing outside them to vote. The final division of the 386 seats in Parliament will only be decided after the second round of the election in two weeks' time, says our correspondent, but Fidesz looks close to achieving its goal of a two-thirds majority in the new Parliament. That would allow them to make deep structural reforms, including changes to the constitution, he adds. Jobbik, known for its anti-Semitic and anti-Roma (Gypsy) rhetoric, has risen from nowhere in the last few years, gaining almost 15% of Hungarian votes in European elections last year. Turnout was about 64%, slightly lower than the first round of general elections in 2006.

BBC News

ANTI-SEMITISM STIRS AS HUNGARY GOES TO POLLS

Rabbi Shmuel Raskin and his 50 guests were celebrating the Jewish festival of Passover last weekend when two stones smashed though the double-glazed windows of his home in the centre of Budapest. Police said they had probably been fired from a sling. The group continued with its ceremonies, but in silence and behind closed shutters. The incident was one of a series of hate attacks in Hungary amid an atmosphere of heightened racial tension in the run-up to today’s general election. During a recent speech by Gabor Demszky, the mayor of Budapest, a mob chanted “Jewish pigs” and “To the concentration camps”. Election posters have been smeared with yellow Stars of David and anti-Semitic slogans. Budapest rabbis describe racial epithets being shouted as they walk their children to school, slogans such as “Jews go to Israel” are daubed in the streets, accompanied by swastikas, while cars bear stickers with the slogan “Jew-free car”. Critics connect the abuse to the rise of the extreme right-wing Jobbik party, which has been accused of anti-Semitism and xenophobia. The increase in violent attacks on minorities — a dozen Roma (gypsies) have been gunned down in recent years — has coincided with the emergence of Jobbik, which won 15% support in the European elections held in 2009. Opinion polls suggest that it will attract between 13% and 20% today. Although the centre-right Fidesz opposition party of Viktor Orban, the former prime minister, is expected to win a landslide victory, Jobbik, led by Gabor Vona, a 31-year-old former history teacher, could become the second-largest party following a populist campaign dominated by attacks on corruption and “Roma crime”.

The party denies accusations of neo-Nazism but Gordon Bajnai, the caretaker prime minister, warned that the “monster” was at the door and threatening to “crush” Hungarian democracy. Jobbik is linked to a paramilitary blackshirt group, the Hungarian Guard, which was banned in 2008 but has resurfaced at election rallies. Robert Fröhlich, chief rabbi at the Dohany Street synagogue, said to be the largest in Europe, complained about Nazi salutes. “Insulting Jews on the street is nothing new here, but now it’s done more brazenly,” he said. The country has been hit hard by the recession and had to be bailed out by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Unemployment is above 11% and inflation is almost 6%. The rise of anti-Semitism has gone hand in hand with a renaissance of Jewish culture in Budapest as the old ghetto has been transformed into the city’s most vibrant district, filled with trendy shops, hotels, bars and galleries. Observers have suggested that the increased confidence and visibility of the Jewish population has created a backlash among other Hungarians. Adam Schonberger, a Jewish community leader, complained that successive governments had failed to tackle the issue of minorities in education and political debate. “The government must declare that Hungary is a country of mixed ethnic and cultural traditions and not a home to one single nation,” he said. More than 500,000 Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust and 100,000 still live in the country. Between 8% and 10% of Hungary’s 10m inhabitants are Roma. Krisztian Szabados, head of the Political Capital Institute, a think thank, said racism had been “swept under the carpet” for decades. “Jobbik have simply delivered extremism to an electorate that demands it. No mainstream party has seriously tackled the antagonism towards minorities that has been here for decades.”

The Times Online

ARAB LEAGUE FACES FINE OVER HOLOCAUST CARTOONS (Netherlands)

The Dutch branch of the European Arab League should be fined €1,000 for publishing a cartoon which implies that Jews invented the idea that six million people died in the World War II holocaust, the public prosecution department said on Thursday. The Dutch representative of the League Abdlmoutalib Bouzerda should be fined an additional €500, the department said. Bouzerda put the cartoon on the group's website four years ago in answer to the Danish cartoons poking fun at Mohammed. But the department decided to prosecute, saying the Danish cartoons 'do not insult Muslims nor incite hatred'.. The AEL said it published the cartoon to draw attention to double standards in society. The league does not think any of the cartoons should be subject to prosecution, Bouzerda told the court.
Dutch News

FISCHER UNDER FIRE OVER ALLEGED 'SIEG HEIL!' PARLIAMENT HECKLE (Austria)

Incumbent president Heinz Fischer has been accused of shouting "Sieg Heil!" during a parliamentary debate in December 1989. Reports from  (Thurs) say that Fischer – back then the Social Democrats’ (SPÖ) whip – shouted the Nazi salute at the end of a speech by Freedom Party (FPÖ) MP Siegfried Dillersberger. A spokeswoman for the president – who took office in 2004 and announced his decision to run for a second term last November – said Fischer commented on the MP’s speech by saying "That’s almost a ‘Sieg Heil mentality’!" She claimed Fischer was unable to remember exactly what he said, adding that the statement was recorded incorrectly by the meeting’s protocol. Stefan Bachleitner, the head of the left-winger’s election campaign team, said: "It doesn’t surprise me such allegations come up now, a few days ahead of the election." Fischer had around 75 per cent of the vote in polls before the "Sieg Heil" accusations emerged. It has been Barbara Rosenkranz, the FPÖ’s candidate for president, who caused public outcry with several statements regarding Austria’s Nazi past. Rosenkranz – whose husband publishes a far-right news magazine – tried to calm the debate. She declared under oath that she had never doubted the existence of gas chambers at concentration camps as is claimed. Rosenkranz has between 10 and 15 per cent in polls, while political analysts warn of a record-low participation. Rudolf Gehring, the third candidate in the 25 April election, has meanwhile been confronted with harsh criticism after launching his presidential election campaign at a Viennese church. Viennese vicar general Franz Schuster wrote to the city’s parishes today saying he "condemns any instrumentalisation of the Church for political purposes." Schuster added: "Party politics have no place in the Church." Gehring, head of the non-parliament Austrian Christians Party (CPÖ), marks the start of his election campaign at a church in Vienna-Döbling Tuesday evening. Around 30 supporters gathered at the St. Paul parish to celebrate a mass with the real estate manager. Analysts said Gehring – who opposes euthanasia and abortion – did not stand a chance of winning more than five per cent support in the 25 April election.


Austrian Times

BISHOP 'BLAMES JEWS' FOR CRITICISM OF CATHOLIC CHURCH RECORD ON ABUSE (Italy)

A furious transatlantic row has erupted over quotes that were attributed to a retired Italian bishop, which suggested that Jews were behind the current criticism of the Catholic church's record on tackling clerical sex abuse. A website quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism, considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is. The comments, which have been denied by the bishop, follow a series of statements from Catholic churchmen alleging the existence of plots to weaken the church and Pope Benedict XVI. Allegedly speaking to the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers." The interview was spotted on Friday by the American Jewish Committee, which said Babini was using "slanderous stereotypes, which sadly evoke the worst Christian and Nazi propaganda prior to world war two". On its website, the American Jewish Group Committee quoted bishop Vincenzo Paglia, an official at the Italian Bishops' Conference, as saying Babini's remarks were "entirely contrary to the official line and mainstream thought of the Catholic church". As the interview appeared on Italy's main newspaper sites today, complete with the American reaction, the Bishops' Conference rushed out a statement quoting Babini denying he had ever given the interview in the first place. "Statements I have never made about our Jewish brothers have been attributed to me," he said. Babini has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticising homosexuality. As cases of alleged priestly abuse emerge in the US and Europe, Benedict's handling of proven molesters before he became pope in 2005 has now been questioned in cases in Munich, Wisconsin and, most recently, in California, where his signature appears on an 1985 letter resisting calls to defrock a paedophile priest.


The Guardian

Leading Moscow judge gunned down (Russia)

A leading judge from Moscow's city court has been shot dead at his apartment building in the Russian capital, court officials have said.

Eduard Chuvashov was shot by unknown gunmen who fled the scene, police told the Ria Novosti news agency.
He had presided over several cases involving nationalist organisations and had received many death threats.

In February, he sentenced nine members of a neo-Nazi skinhead group called the White Wolves to up to 23 years in jail.

BBC News

Elections 2010: BNP hopes hit by candidate drought (UK)

THE British National Party's plans to make decisive gains at the polls are in disarray after only four new city council candidates came forward.

The far-right party has nominated just six members for the May 6 local elections in Stoke-on-Trent – and that includes two councillors defending their seats.
It follows the high-profile resignations of former BNP group leader Councillor Alby Walker and his councillor wife Ellie. Their decision to become independents reduced the BNP contingent to seven councillors, and left just one far-right member in the Abbey Green ward.
Group leader Councillor Michael Coleman admitted he felt let down over the election nominations.

Twenty of the council's 60 members are up for re-election next month, before every councillor goes to the polls next year.
Mr Coleman said: "I approached about 25 people who were all interested in standing. But because they would only be elected for one year many of them felt it was too big a commitment.

"I have had a bit of a falling-out with people over this and it has caused a rift within the group.
"We thought we would be able to put up about 14 candidates this year.

"The Alby Walker situation has also damaged us to a degree, as some of the people who would have stood for us have left because they feel he has been treated badly."
However, Mr Coleman remains bullish. He said: "We have people in the wards where we want to have a presence and we also have three Parliamentary candidates in the city, which is really good."
Mr Coleman also rejected suggestions that the newly-emerged England First Party may undermine BNP support in key wards, including Weston and Meir North, where deputy BNP group leader Councillor Anthony Simmonds is fighting to keep his seat.

Mr Coleman said: "I think it is just vengeful hatred from former members directed against myself and possibly a few others in the BNP. They are out to try to damage us, but they won't stop us."
Professor Mick Temple, politics lecturer at Staffordshire University, is sceptical about Mr Coleman's excuses and believes the far-right party has had its day in the city.
He said: "I think the low number of nominations demonstrates that the BNP's support is not as strong within the community as they maintain.
"If they really were challenging the mainstream parties then you would have thought they would be putting up some decent candidates, particularly as a General Election always generates a much higher turnout."

He added: "I think they have been hurt by the Alby Walker issue, as he was seen by many as the more acceptable face of the BNP."
Mr Walker, who is fighting BNP deputy leader Simon Darby for the Stoke-on-Trent Central Parliamentary seat and defending his Abbey Green council seat, said : "It's a poor show to only find six candidates. It shows I really was the backbone of that group, and that they are in decline now."

This is Staffordshire

Racist Scottish Defence League hijack army logos for website

ARMY chiefs have declared war on the neo-Nazi Scottish Defence League for using Royal Regiment of Scotland logos to boost its membership.

Top brass have hit out at the racist SDL for hijacking the historic badges and emblems for political gain and tarnishing the good reputation of the armed forces.

The official SDL website features the Royal Regiment of Scotland logo and the words "Support Our Troops" alongside pictures of badges reading "Scottish Casuals".
A shaven-headed SDL thug was also spotted brandishing an army flag at a recent demonstration in Glasgow.

The Army insist the anti-Islamic SDL was breaking copyright laws.
They said: "Emblems, logos and insignia belonging to the army are Crown copyright and cannot be used without permission. It is very unlikely that this, or any other politically-affiliated group would be given that permission"

And Colonel Bob Stewart, former UN commander in Bosnia, added: "It is utterly contemptible and disgraceful that this group should use emblems and badges of the Royal Regiment of Scotland."

A rag-tag mob of SDL fanatics - who are closely linked to the BNP - brought chaos to Edinburgh last month during a tense stand-off between the far-right group and anti-fascist protesters.
The Daily Record

Conservatives ignored secret report on extremist Polish allies (UK)

David Cameron forged his controversial EU alliance with rightwing Polish politicians despite a secret report by his own party which warned that they had homophobic and nationalistic tendencies, senior EU figures have told the Observer.

The report, drawn up by Tory officials in 2007, concluded that the Conservatives should be wary of a link with the Polish Law and Justice party (PiS) because its members were on the far right, with some tending towards antisemitism.

Two years later, however, the concerns raised in the internal document were brushed aside as Cameron split from Europe's mainstream centre-right group to form a new alliance with Law and Justice and other right-of-centre parties in other member states.
One of the Law and Justice MEPs, Michal Kaminski, who has been accused of blatant homophobia and supporting antisemitic causes in his past, was appointed to lead the group. The party was in mourning yesterday after one of its most senior figures, the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, was killed in a plane crash in western Russia.

Kaminski denies being a homophobe, despite having defended public remarks in which he described gay men as "poofs".
Ten days ago the Observer asked the Tories to confirm the report's existence, and for an explanation of why its findings were not acted on, but the party has not responded.
The revelation that the Tory leadership received internal advice from its staff to reject Law and Justice will raise new questions as to how William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, and Cameron have been able to claim their new partners are from Europe's "mainstream".

A former Polish MEP, Jozef Pinior, said he had been shown a summary version of the report in 2007 by "Conservative friends" in the parliament. It contained advice "not to break away from the European Peoples party (the mainstream centre-right group) ... it made clear it was too politically dangerous", he said.

Edward McMillan-Scott, the former Tory MEP who was expelled from the party after raising concerns about Kaminski and Law and Justice, said: "I knew the report existed but I never saw it. I took my party at its word at the time when it said that it would not sign up with those from the wild fringes of European politics. But I was wrong."
Another senior EU source said: "We know about the report. The main piece of work runs to 200 pages or so. It was thorough. Serious concerns were raised about Law and Justice and several other potential allies at that time."
The Guardian

Confusion over BNP's election campaign (UK)

The BNP leader, Nick Griffin, yesterday started his campaign to become an MP as a Sunday Telegraph investigation uncovered apparent electoral irregularities involving the far-Right party.
As well as challenging Labour for the parliamentary seat of Barking in east London, the BNP’s main hope is to take control of the local council. But at least three BNP council candidates in the borough appear to have registered at "front addresses" to get around the requirement that local authority candidates must live in the area.

According to the electoral register, Eddy Butler, until recently the BNP national election organiser, lives in Loughton, Essex, 10 miles from Barking. Neighbours there said they had seen him within the last few days.
However, he has submitted nomination papers giving an address in Ellerton Gardens, Dagenham. Mr Butler also recently registered himself on the roll at this address but neighbours shown pictures of him did not recognise him.

At the Dagenham address, the curtains both upstairs and downstairs were drawn in the middle of the afternoon yesterday. Contacted by telephone, Mr Butler admitted he still visited his Loughton property, that he owned the house and that members of his family still lived there, but insisted that he now lived in the rented Dagenham house.
Another BNP candidate in Barking and Dagenham, Chris Roberts, lives in Benfleet, near Southend, around 20 miles from Barking. However, in his nomination form, Mr Roberts gives an address in Arden Crescent, Dagenham — which is the home of the BNP’s London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook. Again, Mr Roberts recently registered on the electoral roll at this house.

A third candidate, Gavin Cardy, gives an address in Sylvan Avenue, Chadwell Heath. The electoral register indicates that his permanent address is actually in Fulham in west London.
If the three are not genuinely living at addresses where they have registered, they could be guilty of electoral fraud and could be disqualified if elected.
Mr Roberts and Mr Cardy were not available for comment, but Bob Bailey, the leader of the BNP group on Barking council, said: "As far as I know, they have all genuinely moved address. It’s all pukka."

Mr Barnbrook said: "Chris Roberts spends enough time at my house to fulfil what the law says, and that’s good enough."
The BNP has struggled to find enough genuinely local candidates in Barking. The Sunday Telegraph has learned that, including Mr Butler, Mr Roberts and Mr Cardy, it had found only 34 candidates for 51 council seats.
Party sources admitted that other candidates had been rejected by council officials for not giving local addresses on their nomination papers.

A spokesman for the anti-fascist group Searchlight said: "There are clear signs that the BNP campaign is faltering."
Mr Griffin said yesterday he was "very confident" about the Westminster contest. However, private polling for Labour is understood to show that the BNP leader is a potential drag on the ticket.
The Telegraph

RISE OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN SCOTLAND (uk)

Attacks ranging from verbal abuse to vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries have coincided with events in the Middle East, says the report written by two Scots academics, due to be published in the journal of the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs next week. The document accuses the Scottish Trades Union Congress of bias after the STUC called for sanctions against Israel last year. The study was compiled by Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and former head of the philosophy department at Glasgow University, and Kenneth Collins, chairman of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre and visiting professor at the medical faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They wrote: “There has been historically little anti-Semitism in Scotland, and in particular good relations with the churches. Recently there has been a significant increase, much of it associated with events in the Middle East. “Specifically, the Scottish trade union movement has pursued a policy of boycotting Israel despite a dialogue with the Jewish community aimed at understanding both sides of the conflict.” It is claimed that in 2008, 10 out of 541 anti-Semitic incidents recorded in the UK (1.8%) occurred in Scotland.

However, in 2009 this increased to 30, according to the Community Security Trust, a charity that “represents British Jewry to police, government and media on anti-Semitism and security”. The authors continued: “Events in the Middle East, often accompanied by popular conflation of Israelis and Jews, have a habit of leading to outbreaks of anti-Semitic activity. “These include anti-Semitic daubing at synagogues and cemeteries as well as threats and verbal abuse.” The study claims some Jews in Scotland believe community relations are deteriorating after the STUC opted to boycott Israel last year. The authors said: “The report of the STUC delegation [to Palestine] itself showed considerable bias in the way information was presented and their decisions were made. In fact, subsequent reports indicated that the STUC had already decided on a boycott and divestment policy and their visit was intended to confirm the decision.” David Moxham, deputy secretary of the STUC, said yesterday: “The study is a very partial account. It is out of context and attempts to show that we have approached this in a biased fashion. We are biased to the extent that we don’t consider the situation in the Middle East to be a conflict between equal partners. We do think that Israel does have an enormous responsibility to change its activities, as does the international community.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “There is no excuse for any form of hate crime; it is simply not acceptable and it will not be tolerated. That is why Scotland has tough legislation to prosecute those who carry out crimes based on discrimination. Only by working together can we all prosper in an equal, modern Scotland.” The document describes a long-standing Jewish community in Scotland which numbered 18,000 in the 1950s but is now around 10,000, largely due to emigration. About half live in the Glasgow suburb of East Renfrewshire. A further 1,119 Jews are living in Glasgow itself and 790 in Edinburgh. The study said the Jewish community in Scotland is more aged than wider Scottish society, and some 2.5% live in a medical or care establishment – the highest proportion of all religious groups in Scotland. Around 30% of Jews were of pensionable age, compared to 19% of the general population, and the study said: “In line with historical Jewish employment patterns, 27% of those working were self-employed, compared to a national proportion of 11%. Jews had higher educational qualifications, and more than twice the proportion of Jews were in higher managerial and professional occupations than in the wider community.”

Herald Scotland

ANOTHER MOLOTOV COCKTAIL FOUND IN ROMA HOUSE (Czech Rep.)

Another Molotov cocktail was found Thursday in a house in which Czech Romanies have been living and the local police said the liquid seems to be the same as that used in two cocktails thrown by unknown persons into another Roma house in Opava on Saturday night. None of the three Molotov cocktails burnt and nobody was injured. Sona Bradacova, spokeswoman for the regional police, said the police have been investigating the case. Nobody lived in the flat in which the bottle was found today and the windows of the room were permanently opened, she said. The incident was reported to the police by one of the house's residents. At night on March 14, unknown perpetrators threw a Molotov cocktail into a Romany house in Ostrava, which is the centre of the north Moravian region. The Molotov cocktail then fell into a room where a teenage girl was sleeping but it did not break. The girl woke up and managed to extinguish the burning wick and the carpet that had caught fire. The police investigate the case as an attempted murder.

The most serious arson attack afflicted a Romani family in Vítkov near Opava April 2009 when three Molotov cocktails burnt the house down. Three people were injured. A baby girl suffered burns on 80 percent of her body yet doctors succeeded in saving her life. The police caught the perpetrators, all right-wing extremists from north Moravia. Charged with an attempted racially-motivated murder of several people, their trial will start at the Ostrava court on May 11. They face up to 15 years in prison, but even life imprisonment, if found guilty. Kumar Vishwanathan, an activist working with the Romani community in the region, said previously that no such attack should be underestimated. He said much will depend on the court verdict in the forthcoming trial of four right-wing radicals suspected of the arson attack in Vitkov.

Prague Monitor

HUNGARY PARTY TO FOLLOW EUROPEAN EXTREMISM'S MOVE AWAY FROM FRINGES

It has been a good few weeks for racists, populists and rightwing radicals across Europe. A comeback for Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front in French regional elections. Big gains in Italy for the anti-immigrant Northern League. The Islam-baiting campaign of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands has taken his Freedom party to 25% and poll position ahead of June's general election. And this weekend, Hungary is facing its biggest political earthquake in 20 years of democracy. On Sunday, the mainstream right and the neofascists are expected to take over the Westminster lookalike parliament on the banks of the Danube. It will be a landslide victory. The left and the liberals who have run the country for eight years, taking Hungary to the brink of bankruptcy and into the arms of the International Monetary Fund, will be reduced to a rump. The next prime minister, Viktor Orban, a combative populist, is leading his centre-right Fidesz party to a huge majority, running at more than 60% in the opinion polls. He may even secure a two-thirds majority enabling him to rewrite Hungary's constitution at will. But the biggest breakthrough will be for Jobbik, the extremist antisemitic and antigypsy movement "for a better Hungary", which will win seats in the parliament for the first time and may emerge as the second biggest party. "It's a flood that's coming. Everyone knows it's coming. We're just waiting for it. Will we drown or will we swim," said Pal Tamas, director of Budapest's Institute of Sociology. "People are trying to use the antifascist argument against Jobbik. But it's not working. It's being very poorly received." During the past week a rabbi's home in the capital has been attacked during Passover and a Holocaust memorial was defaced. Budapest Jews have taken to the streets to protest. The country's large and marginalised Roma and gypsy communities are bracing themselves for a surge in racism and harassment.

Roma solution

"In terms of the gypsy issue, the situation in certain parts of the country is akin to civil war," said Jobbik's young leader, Gabor Vona. "Now only drastic interventions are capable of helping ... we must produce an environment in which gypsy people can return to a world of work, laws and education. And for those unwilling to do so, two alternatives remain: they can either choose to take advantage of the right of free movement granted by the European Union, and leave the country, because we will simply no longer put up with lifestyles dedicated to freeloading or criminality; or, there is always prison." Though banned, Jobbik maintains a "Hungarian guard" of paramilitaries who dress in 1940s fascist paraphernalia. Vona wants this "gendarmerie" to police Roma "ghettos". "Jobbik is openly legitimising anti-Roma violence. It is openly antisemitic. And it will do very well on Sunday," said Anton Pelinka, an Austrian political scientist working in Budapest. Gaspar Miklos Tamas, a liberal and veteran anticommunist dissident, wrote this week that "a national tragedy" was befalling Hungary. "There are many factors, but the most important is the success of the post-fascist Jobbik party." Jobbik won 15% of the vote in last summer's elections to the European parliament and could repeat the trick on Sunday, threatening to push Hungary's governing socialists into third place. The breakthrough comes as the far right across Europe becomes more than a fringe presence. In France a fortnight ago, the xenophobic National Front won 11% of the vote in regional elections, with 20% of those who voted for Nicolas Sarkozy three years ago opting for the far right. Silvio Berlusconi's rightwing coalition coasted to victory in Italian regional elections last week, but the real winner was Umberto Bossi's Northern League which captured the regions of Piedmont and Veneto and made big inroads in the working-class areas of northern Italy, normally a stronghold of the left.

Ahead of the Dutch elections, Wilders appears to be going from strength to strength, while later this month in Austria, the far-right mother of 10, Barbara Rosenkranz (left), whose husband publishes a neo-Nazi newsletter, will contest the Austrian presidency with the support of the country's bestselling tabloid, the Kronen Zeitung. In Belgium the extreme right separatist Vlaams Belang party has been joined by mainstream rightwing parties, so secessionists now enjoy almost 50% support among Flemish voters, according to the polls. A conventional explanation for the breakthrough of the far right sees the success as a protest vote, waxing and waning depending on the performance of the mainstream parties of the centre-right and left. "This is not such a big victory for Jobbik and Fidesz, more a result of the failures of the previous government and its incredible incompetence," said Julius Horvat, head of European studies at Budapest's Central European University. But analysts detect a more durable pattern, particularly in western Europe, entrenching the far right as an established presence in politics.

"This is no longer a sudden surge that then vanishes. The far right has become a permanent fixture in our societies now," said Jean-Yves Camus, a specialist in European radical movements at the Paris thinktank the Institute of International and Strategic Relations. In France, Le Pen has been a major factor in politics for 25 years. In Austria, the far right has been a key player since the late Joerg Haider hijacked the political agenda in the 1990s. Today in Rome, the "post-fascist" National Alliance of Gianfranco Fini held a centre-right conference on whether Italy should be transformed into a presidential system modelled on France. This week Bossi held a "summit" with Berlusconi to push his agenda of federalising Italy, meaning his wealthy northern power base stops subsidising the south. The Northern League has been in government in Italy for seven of the past nine years. In Denmark the far right has long been propping up a conservative government in parliament, and in Switzerland it is the strongest party. The far right leaders are now central and not peripheral players in their national politics.

Disaffected conservatives
Political scientists note that while there is much talk of "neofascism", in western Europe some of the most successful parties are rooted less in 1930s European fascism than in disaffection with mainstream conservativism. Whether out of opportunism or conviction, many have shifted to the far right to exploit the potent issues of immigration and Islam and to broaden their electoral base. This has occurred in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy. "What's new is that some of the conservatives have moved to the radical right, rejecting multiculturalism, Islam and immigration," said Camus. "It's … a radical right that is disconnected from the traditions of European fascism." In colonising the far-right territory, these former conservatives are winning over traditional leftwing voters. Where previously their powerbase was made up from small businesses, shopkeepers, and lower middle class, they are now making inroads into the working-class vote among those hostile to immigration and worried about job losses. In Hungary and in the young democracies of central Europe, the situation is different. "In post-communist Europe, it's the old-fashioned far right. In Western Europe, it's the postmodern far right," said Pelinka. "In central Europe it's still the old enemies — the Jews, the gypsies, the national minorities." If wealthy societies of western Europe are seized by new phobias, in the east old prejudices die hard. While 55% of Hungarians do not want Romas as neighbours, half are opposed to a homosexual or lesbian next door and 22% are averse to having a Slovak, Romanian or a Jew for a neighbour,according to a poll by Pal Tamas, leading Hugarian sociologists.
The Guardian

BNP activist admits explosive charge (UK)

However, David Lucas, of South Road, Lakenheath, denied two further charges when he appeared before Ipswich Crown Court for a hearing into his case yesterday.

The 49-year-old pleaded not guilty to having an explosive substance under suspicious circumstances and possessing a prohibited weapon.
A fourth charge of possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life was withdrawn by the Crown Prosecution Service during the same hearing.
Lucas is due to stand trial for the two allegations he denies on July 26 at the Crown Court.

The charges relate to April 23 last year.

The charge of possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances can only be brought by police with the authorisation of the Attorney General.
Lucas is currently on conditional bail. He is required to live and sleep each night at his address in South Road, Lakenheath, or at a caravan at Hockwold, Norfolk.

Lucas must also not make contact with William Hudson or Robert Chipperfield and not take any steps to leave the country.

His passport remains with police.

eadt

CALLS FOR CONDEMNATION OF NEO-NAZI ATTACK (Slovenia)

The NGOs, civil initiatives and youth sections of coalition SocDems, Zares and LibDems associated in the campaign "For All Families" called on Thursday for a public condemnation of the attack of a group of neo-nazis on a student in the lobby of the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts (FF) on Tuesday. The campaign - which was set up in support for the new family law bill, which allows gay adoptions and is currently in parliamentary procedure - called on all who oppose the ideas of neo-nazism and neo-fascism to condemn all hate-based movements and actions. According to the campaign, organised forms of neo-nazism and neo-fascism are on the rise in Slovenia, with extreme rightist groups under false pretense of patriotism spreading hatred and intolerance based on nationality, race or creed.


The lack of public condemnation of acts of violence, like Tuesday's attack on the 29-year-old, give extremists courage for new forms of hostility.

STA

Terreblanche laid to rest in South Africa

The funeral of South Africa's white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, who was killed at his farm on Saturday, has taken place without major incident.

Several police and army units were deployed to prevent possible clashes between supporters of Mr Terreblanche and the local black population.

About 3,000 people commemorated his controversial life in the rural north-western town of Ventersdorp.

Mr Terreblanche led the Afrikaner Resistance movement, the AWB
The ceremony at the Afrikaner Protestant Church ended with some mourners performing Nazi-style salutes.

Following the ceremony, Mr Terreblanche's coffin accompanied by the mourners travelled to his farm, about 10km (six miles) away.

Thousands of AWB supporters gathered in the town, with the mourners including armed men in camouflage as well as young children, says the BBC's Karen Allen.
South Africa's trade union federation, Cosatu, held a mass meeting on the other side of the town.
Our correspondent says the effect of this meeting - called to discuss recent farm violence - was unclear.

On the one hand, it was a way of occupying black farm workers who otherwise might have turned up at the funeral, she says.
But on the other hand, it could be seen as a somewhat provocative gesture given the timing, she adds.
The church where the service was held is normally attended mostly by white South Africans.

Some had travelled long distances to take part in the funeral.
As a gesture of reconciliation, dignitaries from the local black community were invited to attend the service, our correspondent says.

But just a handful of them took up the offer.

Murder charges
Two of Mr Terreblanche's workers have been charged with his murder.
Although the authorities stress that the killing had more to do with money than politics, it has led to a period of heightened racial tension.
The death of Mr Terreblanche and the rising popularity of Julius Malema of the ANC Youth League are destroying South Africa's hard-won peace, opposition leader Helen Zille said.

White groups and opposition parties blamed Mr Malema for singing an apartheid-era song at rallies, that includes the lyrics "shoot the Boer [farmer]".

The ANC has rejected that link, but accepts that the song and the debate around it was polarising society.
It has now instructed its members to stop using it.

BBC News

'Racist motive' in Pole's murder (UK)

A Polish man was kicked about the head and had his throat stamped on during a suspected race-hate murder in Newry.

The claim was made in the High Court in Belfast during a challenge to grant bail to the teenager accused of killing Marek Muszynski.
Adrian Cunningham, 19, from Lisgullion Park, Newry, faces a charge of murdering Mr Muszynski at Upper Edward Street in the city in July 2009.

The challenge to bail failed, but the the bail conditions were tightened.
Prosecutors said Mr Muszynski, 40, was confronted by two men after leaving an off-licence and taken to an alleyway after they told him a suspicious car was following him.

It was alleged that he was knocked to the ground, beaten and robbed of some small change before his trousers were pulled down.
The court heard that after the fatal attack, Mr Cunningham, then bought drink and a takeaway meal to eat at a flat where he changed his clothing.

Emotions
A district judge granted him bail on Wednesday but on Friday the prosecution mounted a High Court appeal, claiming he may flee or be targeted for possible reprisals because emotions are still running high.
Crown counsel Gareth Purvis said: "Police would say this was an extremely violent, unprovoked and also, they believe, racially motivated attack."

He told the court the victim had been a vulnerable man who depended on a local soup kitchen for food.
A judge was told Mr Cunningham, who is charged along with two other men allegedly stood on the victim's throat with one foot and lifted his other leg so all the weight bore down on him.
According to the prosecution Mr Muszynski's head was kicked and bounced about from side to side.

Sociology
"Police are regarding this incident as a hate crime, purely because of the applicant's admissions of racial taunts made at the scene," Mr Purvis added.
Remarks allegedly shouted included: "Go back to your own country, you're not wanted in Ireland."

A defence lawyer claimed his client, represented the "most unlikely criminal".

He said Mr Cunningham hoped for a career in hairdressing and had undertaken a foundation degree in sociology while on remand.
The accused's father, a senior civil servant, gave evidence to stress how the family would monitor him if granted bail.
Upholding the original decision to release Mr Cunningham on bail, Lord Justice Girvan said that none of the prosecution's objections to bail could be sustained.

However, he imposed further conditions, including requirements for any passports to be surrendered and for Mr Cunningham to live with his parents.
He was also banned from going within half a mile of a city centre bar where witnesses in the case were located.
BBC News