Hammers fans accused of racially abusing own players' relatives (UK)

Families of two West Ham players claim they were victims of racist abuse - from their own fans.

West Ham are investigating after guests of strikers Victor Obinna and Freddie Piquionne were involved in a row with fans during Saturday’s defeat to Manchester United.

Angry relatives of Obinna confronted supporters in the Main Stand after they and guests of Nigerian frontman Obinna were abused.

The families were sitting in a box behind fans watching the game when they claim a small section began hurling racist abuse at them.

An altercation is understood to have taken place after at least one family member left the box to go downstairs and confront fans.

A source said: “Some of the stuff they said was disgusting. You just don’t expect to hear that from people supporting your own team.

“These were families of the players who didn’t do anything to deserve that. It’s a disgrace.”

The families are believed to have declined the opportunity to speak to police but a formal complaint is now being considered.

A West Ham spokesman said: "We take these allegations very seriously and are looking into them. If there is found to be any wrongdoing, then we will take appropriate action."

Mirror Football

Blackburn protests 'to cost Lancashire Police £500,000' (UK)

Policing demonstrations by the English Defence (EDL) and opposing groups in Blackburn could cost about £500,000, it has been estimated.

The estimated cost, by Lancashire Police Authority, is something the force can "ill afford", its chairman said.

On Saturday, about 2,000 EDL supporters gathered on Northgate with about 500 rival protesters at a separate site.

Twelve people were arrested during the demonstrations.

Some shop owners said the event had led to a drop in trading.
'Matter of judgement'

A 48-year-old man, from Blackburn, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and others were arrested on suspicion of offences including breach of the peace, affray, being drunk and disorderly and using threatening words or behaviour.

Even though the force faces having to make savings of £42m over the next four years, it said it had a duty to ensure people were safe particularly at events such as demonstrations.

"One of the things you have to do in circumstances like this is to make sure you have sufficient resources to do the job you have to do," Malcolm Doherty, chairman of the Lancashire Police Authority said.

He said it was a "matter of judgement" for senior police officers to decide how to carry out the operation.

"We had a plenty of time to prepare for this, and one of the big costs of these sorts of operations is when you have to cancel rest days at short notice," he said.

"Good preparation and good planning", had helped keep policing costs down, Mr Doherty explained.

Phil Ainsworth, who runs a jewellery shop and is a member of the Blackburn Town Centre Partnership, said trade had been quiet on the day of the demonstrations.

"We did less than 5% of our usual Saturday business, never mind it being Mother's Day, which is one of the biggest days in the retail calendar," he said.

"As a retailer it has massively impacted on our day, but the police did a fantastic job in marshalling the day".
Shops closed

Hundreds of police, along with mounted officers and steel barriers, kept the EDL supporters and those from opposing groups apart, in areas away from the general public.

The EDL demonstrated outside King George's Hall and a counter protest took place at Sudell Cross.

Some roads were closed during the event and a number of smaller traders in the town centre closed for the day.

The force restricted numbers to 3,000 from each side, for the "safety of the community".

BBC News

Soccer Extremist Arrested With Homemade Bomb (Italy)

A man suspected of leading the notorious extremist fans of the Italian soccer club AC Milan was caught with an arsenal of deadly weapons Saturday, hours before the team was set to face its archrival Inter Milan, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Marco Righetto, 35, was caught with a "potentially lethal" homemade bomb, along with four knives, a baseball bat and a can of pepper spray when he was arrested close to the clubs' shared San Siro stadium.

Italian police found the bomb kit and weapons in his car.

Righetto, the presumed leader of the violent Ultra Tiger Commando, was arrested in connection with "possession of explosives and violation of the Arms Act."

His arrest came hours before the eagerly-awaited meeting between the clubs with AC Milan, which leads Serie A, facing reigning champion Inter as both teams chase the Italian league title.

MY Fox.NY

Brighton marchers promise to ban far right groups (UK)

Patriotic demonstrators have vowed to ban far right supporters from their march.

The March for England is planned to march through Brighton on Easter Sunday.

Organisers of the nationalist event have in the past been linked to the far right extremists the English Defence League (EDL), however orgainsers have said EDL supporters will be banned from the event.

Former march organiser and chairman of another far right group the English Nationalist Alliance (ENA) Bill Baker has been told he is also barred from attending.

March for England organiser Matt Silva (COR) said: "We are not a far right group. “We are a family event.

“If any EDL supporters turn up they will be turned away."

Last April more than 100 police officers chaperoned 150 marchers through the streets of Brighton and separated them from a similar number of counter demonstrators form Unite Against Fascism, at a cost of about £100,000.

The event was criticised as a front for the English Defence League, but the event passed peacefully and police said there was no EDL presence.

However a similar March For England last August Bank Holiday ended with EDL supporters making Nazi salutes outside Brighton station.

The Argus

White supremacist David Duke settles copyright lawsuit (USA)

White supremacist David Duke has agreed to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against him by Las Vegas company Righthaven LLC.

Duke and his nonprofit Louisiana-based group, the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO), were sued by Righthaven on Feb. 4 in U.S. District Court in Denver.

Righthaven sues website operators and message-board posters — typically without warning or takedown requests — over alleged infringements involving copyrights it obtains from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post.

Righthaven alleged in the Duke lawsuit that a Denver Post TSA pat-down photo was posted on Duke’s website, whitecivilrights.com, without authorization.

Duke hasn’t responded to requests for comment about the lawsuit and neither he nor EURO ever filed a response in court to the lawsuit.

Righthaven filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit Friday, saying the case had been settled by written agreement. The terms weren’t disclosed.

While Righthaven typically sues for $150,000 and forfeiture of defendants’ website domain names, it’s been known to settle for under five figures and allows settling defendants to keep their websites.

While some Righthaven defendants are fighting back in court, many have found it less expensive to settle than to put up thousands of dollars for legal fees to fight the Las Vegas company on fair use or other grounds.

It wasn’t clear from the lawsuit or court exhibits who posted the photo at issue on Duke’s website. The photo accompanied a column by James Buchanan complaining about the “highly intrusive” enhanced TSA screening and pat-down procedures.

Read the full article at the Las Vegas Sun

FISTICUFFS IN EDL DEMO CHAOS

A violent demo by far right group the English Defence League descended into chaos yesterday when thugs on the march began fighting each other.

Police in Blackburn, Lancs, had used shields and steel barriers to keep apart more than 2,000 EDL marchers from a counter demo of 500 supporters from Unite Against Fascism.

But violence flared when EDL supporters turned on a splinter group calling themselves the North West Infidels. Some marchers wore gas masks to hide their identity.

“They seemed determined to fight someone and because they couldn’t get to the other demonstration they just fought one another,” said one witness.

Seven protesters were arrested.

Dailt Star

BNP's opposition to AV exploited by Yes campaigners

Voters keen to distance themselves from the far right are courted by advocates of voting reform

It's that time of the political season when everyone agrees with Nick. But which one?

A year ago, the phrase was coined by Gordon Brown and David Cameron to align themselves with Nick Clegg during the leaders' television debates. Twelve months on, the Liberal Democrats' leader's plunge in popularity means his image has been appropriated by opponents of his plan to adopt the alternative vote for electing MPs.

Now a new Nick has entered the fray. Mr Griffin, the leader of the British National Party and political hate figure, is to feature in a series of posters for the Yes campaign highlighting the BNP's opposition to AV.

The billboards have aligned Mr Griffin with David Cameron, who last week launched his strongest attack yet on replacing first past the post with AV. He said the system of ranking candidates in order of preference was "crazy" and "undemocratic".

The decision to place Mr Griffin at the centre of the next stage of the Yes campaign came after research suggested the BNP's opposition to AV produced overwhelming support for reform. Katie Ghose, chair of the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign, said: "We have been speaking to voters across the country. The minute they hear that Nick Griffin is campaigning for a No vote they say Yes. Griffin is voting No and encouraging BNP supporters to do the same. He knows his party has no future with AV."

But the image appeared to be at odds with the politician-free campaign launch yesterday in central London. Instead, comedian Eddie Izzard, writer Rowan Davis, gold medal winner Kriss Akabusi, journalist Martin Bell and fashion designer Amisha Ghadiali lined up to explain why AV would stop MPs from becoming complacent. Greg Dyke, former BBC director-general, said: "Once nominated, you've got a job for life, which is why we've got rather average politicians. AV will begin to change that." More than 100 rallies were held across the country.

Writing in The Independent on Sunday, Mr Clegg hails the vote as an example of long-held Lib Dem policies which are "becoming reality". He adds: "Electoral reform had felt like an unattainable goal for decades: now voters are being given their first chance ever to get rid of the broken system that helped produce the expenses scandal."

The referendum takes place on 5 May, with both sides anxious about the level of public awareness. Under AV, voters rank candidates in order of preference. Those performing least well are eliminated in reverse order with their votes distributed to others until one candidate has 50 per cent of the support.

However, Mr Clegg once described AV as a "miserable little compromise" because it is it not a proportional system. According to a YouGov poll of 2,391 people carried out last week, 19 per cent of people want to see a proportional voting system – STV – while only 16 per cent backed AV.

Lord Alton, a former Lib Dem MP backing the No to AV, Yes to PR campaign, said: "Rejecting AV will make bringing in real reform more likely. If the wrong change is made now, it will be years before the debate will be reopened.".

The Independant

Earliest eyewitness account of the Holocaust finally to be published in UK

Story of Catholic who infiltrated Nazi death camp and brought report to Allies could become new film.

The extraordinary memoir of a Polish resistance fighter who gave the first eyewitness report on the Holocaust to the Allies is to be published for the first time in Britain, and is to be made into a film by the producer of The King's Speech.

The Story of a Secret State, by Jan Karski, was published in 1944 in America. Karski, a devout Catholic, risked his life with the Polish underground and was involved in high-level secret missions to the Polish government-in-exile in London. A prisoner of the Russians and Nazis, and brutally tortured by the SS, he escaped from Poland and in 1943 was sent to London with a hidden microfilm revealing conditions under the Nazis and in particular the relentless persecution of Europe's Jews by the Third Reich.

As a member of the resistance and to learn the fate of Polish Jews, Karski was smuggled by Jewish underground leaders into the Warsaw ghetto and infiltrated the Belzec death camp dressed as an Estonian guard. He travelled across occupied Europe to England, and eventually to America. Karski personally reported to the Polish prime minister in London, General Sikorski, Britain's foreign secretary, Anthony Eden, the US president, Franklin Roosevelt, and many other prominent figures. His description of the systematic annihilation of Jews was met with incredulity.

The drama of Karski's story has inspired the producer of The King's Speech, Iain Canning, to immortalise his role in another historic epic. Canning is believed to have just acquired the rights to the memoir from Penguin, who will publish the book next month. Film insiders said that Ralph Fiennes, who was Oscar-nominated for Schindler's List, was a likely contender for Karski.

The Story of a Secret State sold 400,000 copies in three months in the United States while the war still raged. In the postwar period, having been traumatised by memories he described as "my permanent possessions", Karski preferred silence, rather than to relive the horrors. But he revised his book before his death in 2000, expanding it with material he could not reveal during the war.

Given its historical importance, it is astonishing that the harrowing record of brutality and courage was not published in the UK. In the Warsaw ghetto, Karski said he saw "a cemetery" with living bodies. "Everywhere there was hunger, misery, the atrocious stench of decomposing bodies, the pitiful moans of dying children." He witnessed two "rosy-cheeked" Nazi youths laughing before taking pot-shots at inmates: "The shot rang out… Then the terrible cry of a man in agony. The boy who had fired… shouted with joy." Karski, a man used to Nazi brutality against Poles, remained frozen in shock.

In Belzec, a camp east of Warsaw, he found "squalor" and a "mass of sheer death". Horror-struck, he watched a train being loaded "hermetically", filled with naked bodies "to bursting" — a "quivering cargo of flesh". The floor was covered with quicklime to burn the bodies, "the flesh eaten from their bones," death coming slowly, but taking up to four days.

Before his mission to Britain, Karski agonised over what action the Allies could and would take to stop the murders in the ghetto and camps – if they believed him. "I know that many people will not believe me, will not be able to believe me, will think I exaggerate or invent. But I saw it," he said at the time.

The Jews he spoke to – most of whom knew their fate was probably sealed – begged him to convey the desire for vengeance and "merciless" bombing and executions of Germans.

Having hoped to meet Winston Churchill, Karski had to make do with Eden, who presented a report to the war cabinet, but no direct action was taken as a result of Karski's testimony.

Commenting on whether the Allies could have done more once they knew about the death camps, the historian Andrew Roberts said that the issue was "a huge bone of contention… among historians". There were "major problems" with bombing – the risk to inmates "wouldn't look good for Allied propaganda". He also pointed out the huge distances that aircraft had to fly and their inability to pinpoint targets.

He added that Karski reported on killings, but did not know about the gas chambers.

Karski described Gestapo brutality and the "sheer pain of the first rubber truncheon" in terms we can all understand: "Something like… a dentist's drill [when it] strikes a nerve, but infinitely… spread over the entire nervous system."

Roberts added: "Karski, for all his amazing bravery shown in this wonderful book, was not able to provide… details of the gas chambers... It's heart-rending to think so little was done, but then Eden and others argued at the time that they were in fact helping the Jews by trying to defeat the Germans."

The Guardian

Anti-Islam Pastor Responds to Killings in Afghanistan (USA)

Terry Jones, the pastor whose Quran-burning event on Mar. 20 triggered mob violence that resulted in at least 11 deaths in Afghanistan on Friday, offered a fiery response to the bloodletting.

The killings are "a very tragic and criminal action," he said in a statement. "We must hold these countries and people accountable for what they have done as well as for any excuses they may use to promote their terrorist activities."

Fiery rhetoric has been a hallmark of Mr. Jones's leadership of the tiny flock at Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla.

Read the full item at Wall Street Journal

Judge rules for group touting anti-Islam ad on Metro buses (Detroit, USA)

A national group that wants to advertise its anti-Muslim messages on Metro Detroit buses has won the right to display their ads on the sides of local buses.

The ads, which will soon be ready to go on the side of some local public buses, read "Fatwa on your head? Leaving Islam? Refuge from Islam.com. Got questions? Get answers!" The controversial ads from the New York City-based American Freedom Defense Initiative group are aimed at people who want to leave the Islamic faith.

Metro Detroit has one of the highest concentrations of Muslims in the nation.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Denise Hood granted a preliminary injunction against the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority's rejection of the ads, ruling SMART violated the group's First and 14th Amendment rights. Both sides are due back in court April 11.

"This is a huge win, not just for us, but for the First Amendment," Pamela Geller wrote on the American Freedom Defense Initiative's website.

"This is a direct refutation to all those who claim I am a hater or that my lawyers are 'haters' for representing me," added Geller. "I love, not hate."

Local Muslim activist Dawud Walid sees it differently.

"The organization … is simply fomenting Islamophobia," said Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Michigan). "(Geller) is simply engaging in fear mongering."

Victor Begg, also a Muslim advocate, said the case is "is another example of a hate group taking advantage of our First Amendment."

The "Quran states 'there is no compulsion in religion' so those who want to leave Islam can freely do so," Begg, the senior adviser for the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, added.

Geller also runs Stop Islamization of America, a group referred to as an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Law Poverty Center.

SMART spokeswoman Beth Gibbons said the transportation agency had no comment on the judge's order "while we decide how to move forward."

A year ago, SMART carried ads by the United Coalition of Reason as part of its campaign to reach out to atheists.

DET News

Threats Of Violence Emanating From Some Right Wing Groups (South Africa)

According to Holborn right wing groupings, including the Geloftevolk Republican under the leadership of Andre Visagie - the former leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging - and the Lion Brigade, have made threats alternatively against the State, the African National Congress, and black people in general.

She said that they appear to endorse revenge attacks by white South Africans against the perpetrators of farm attacks and the like but that there was no data available on how widely spread these sentiments were among whites.

Holborn said : "It is our sense that these racist sentiments represent at most a fringe view. However, if they are not condemned across the political and civil society spectrum, especially by minority groups themselves, then the view may take hold that these sentiments are more widely held than we believe to be the case.

"The risk also exists that the public expression of such views may incite violence."

It was their view that it was important for the police to take these threats very seriously, that they pursue the people making such threats and bring them before the courts.

Holborn lamented that "this is a precedent that has unfortunately not been set in South Africa".

Visagie, former AWB secretary-general, was arrested on Tuesday, for alleged possession of illegal weapons and ammunition, after the police allegedly recovered several home-made rifles, a 9mm pistol and ammunition at his home. He appeared in court and was released on R10,000 bail.

He left the AWB to lead the Geloftevolk Republicans group.

In accordance with a report by Die Burger on Thursday the Geloftevolk Republicans issued a statement : "There were warnings recently by the leader of the Lion Brigade [Leeubrigade] that a second Blood River was on its way and is being ignored by government.

"Therefore the ANC has to take what is coming their way."

According to Sapa neither group were immediately available for comment.

Holborn said that in many respects the views of the Geloftevolk and the Lion Brigade were the opposite side of the "kill the boer coin."

She said : "It is therefore our view that in not condemning the public singing of that song the ANC and its youth league has allowed a dangerous precedent to take root in South Africa.

"This is the precedent that it is acceptable to threaten violence against different racial or ethnic groups based solely on a persons' membership of such a group."

The song was declared as hate speech by the Equality Court.

News Time

Ex-preacher condemned for links with 'terrible' EDL (UK)

This photograph shows Adrian Ratcliffe being licensed to serve in one of the most caring positions in our community – assistant chaplain at Pembury Hospital.

But groups across the community were this week moving to distance themselves – and condemn – the former preacher-turned-politician, whom the Courier can reveal is an activist with the far-right anti-Islamic English Defence League.

On Facebook Mr Ratcliffe, of Greggswood Road, Tunbridge Wells, had a link to an offensive joke about strapping pork on to oneself and running into a mosque.

The page also contains a picture depicting the Koran in a highly offensive light.

Mr Ratcliffe is the chairman of the Tunbridge Wells branch of the English Democrats party and told the Courier last year that he planned to stand for Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in the elections this May .

Elsewhere on his home page, the 61-year-old grandfather made reference to "sending all Muslims back" and endorsed extremely insulting remarks made by others about the prophet Mohammed.

The former preacher at St Philip's Church in Sherwood also made inflammatory remarks that English girls needed to be on the lookout for gangs of Islamic rapists.

Nasir Jamil, the first Muslim councillor on Southborough Town Council and president of the West Kent Muslim Association, said: "This is absolutely concerning for all Muslims in this area.

"We believe in Christianity as well. The church always teaches people to love one another and they spread love and that people should love their neighbours."

Mr Jamil added he understood Mr Ratcliffe was no longer linked to St Philip's but said the Church of England should review its policy in order to "screen" the views of any people holding positions within its ranks.

"If they are spreading hate instead of love then it is very shocking for the whole community and not just the Muslims," said Mr Jamil. "We are a very thin minority in this area and we live very peacefully and we don't interfere with other people's matters.

"We are very much part of the community. Most of the people who live here are doctors saving people's lives."

He said: "But for the last year and few months there have been some events happening that are really disturbing us and we certainly condemn them. We are very shocked.

"There was a very offensive article in Hildenborough village magazine and that was very shocking for us here and a second event was some graffiti saying "Kill Muslims" on a bridge in Maidstone.

"We have not taken any action apart from letting the police know. We don't want any conflict in this area because it is very peaceful.

"It is very hurtful and they are not helping community coherence. We are trying to integrate.

"I have set up a group Christian and Muslim friendship group and we try to understand each other and we meet together and eat together and talk. It is going very well from a Muslim side and a Christian side. I am trying to bring the communities together and these things are damaging my work."

Meanwhile, the vicar of St Philip's, the Rev Brian Senior said Mr Ratcliffe was a licensed reader, a volunteer lay position, from 2001 until 2007.

He added: "I wish to completely disassociate myself and St Philip's from those of the English Defence League. Mr Ratcliffe expressed none of these views during the time when he was a member of the church."

Paul Bentley, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust's director of strategy and workforce confirmed Mr Ratcliffe had been assistant chaplain.

He added: "We exist to serve every member of our communities.

"The trust abhors racist, sexist or religious discrimination. Any member of staff expressing such views would be subject to stringent disciplinary procedures."

Diocese of Rochester spokesman Louise Whiffin added: "We have nothing further to add to the Rev Brian Senior's comments regarding Adrian Ratcliffe.

"We would, however, wish to give assurances that the Diocese of Rochester values its good interfaith relationships and we welcome opportunities to build on these links.

"The new Bishop of Rochester has begun to meet with leaders of different faith communities to strengthen these relationships."

 This is Kent

Geert Wilders steps up anti-Islam rhetoric

Geert Wilders has stepped up his anti-Islam rhetoric by describing the Prophet Mohammed as an "insane, paedophile, rapist murderer" just two weeks before the opening of his trial on charges of inciting race hatred.

The leader of hard-Right Dutch Freedom Party will be prosecuted in an Amsterdam court on April 13 for previous comparisons of Islam to Nazism.

On Thursday he fuelled the controversy surrounding his anti-Muslim politics and trial by publishing an article citing academics who accuse Islam's founder of crimes ranging from child rape to murder.

"The historical Mohammad was the savage leader of a gang of robbers from Medina. Without scruples they looted, raped and murdered," Mr Wilders claimed in the Dutch magazine HP/De Tijd.

In the article, Mr Wilders, whose Freedom Party MPs control the balance of power in the Dutch parliament, attacked fines levied on an Austrian feminist "for insulting a religion by calling Mohammad a paedophile".

"However, that is the truth," he wrote, citing the Muslim prophet's consummation of a marriage to a wife who claimed she was a child aged nine at the time.

Mr Wilders, who lives under police protection following attempts by Islamist terrorists on his life, hypothesised that Mohammad suffered from a brain tumour causing the "paranoid schizophrenia" that led him to found the Muslim faith.

"Mohammad had an unhinged paranoid personality with an inferiority complex and megalomaniac tendencies. In his forties he starts having visions that lead him to believe he has a cosmic mission, and there is no stopping him," he wrote.

In a ruling on Wednesday, an Amsterdam court ruled that Dutch prosecutors were entitled to indict Mr Wilders, if found guilty, he could face up to a year in jail or a £6,700 fine.

Telegraph

Czech court permits extremist party marches through Krupka

The Workers' Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti - DSSS) will be able to march through the North Bohemian town of Krupka on the first Saturday in April. The Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem issued the decision yesterday.

"The Regional Court lifted the town of Krupka's ban because it was not properly justified," court spokesperson Iva Jeřábková told news server Romea.cz. Town officials justified their ban of the marches, which were announced for every Saturday in April, by saying they would complicate transportation and supplies to grocery stores, which the court said was not a sufficient reason.

The leaders of the Krupka town hall disagree with the verdict. "We believe we were justified in banning the march and that our ban was in accordance with the law. Nevertheless, we have no choice but to respect the court's decision," town hall secretary František Růžička told the daily Právo. Růžička noted that similar marches through the town in the past incurred problems. "We had to take traffic and other measures, such as clearing away trash cans so no one could use them as barricades," the secretary said. "We have no choice but to respect the court's decision and prepare the citizens for possible unrest," Růžička said.

Ilona Novotná, spokesperson for the police in Teplice, told the Czech Press Agency they were aware of the planned DSSS actions. She said police were taking measures to ensure order in Krupka.

The official purpose of the DSSS march is "familiarizing the citizens with the domestic political situation in the the entire Czech Republic (ČR) and the situation worldwide." In reality, however, promoters of the party - the successor to the Workers' Party, which was dissolved by the court -want to once again spark tensions between members of the majority society and the Roma minority. This time party promoters will be using the case of a brutally beaten and raped "white" boy to aid them. The Roma perpetrator of the crime was first sentenced to 10 years in prison, but two weeks ago the High Court reduced that sentence by half.

Romea

12-year-old boy charged with anti-Muslim hate crime in scarf incident (USA)

A 12-year-old boy, who has been accused of trying to rip the head scarf off of a Muslim classmate during recess, was arrested at school Wednesday on hate crime charges.

The boy is a sixth grader at the Dreyfus Intermediate School in Staten Island, N.Y.  Police charged the boy as a juvenile, reports CBS station WCBS.

Police and school officials say the boy has a history of harassing the girl, taunting her and threatening her on at least four separate occasions.

The police report says he asked, "Are you Muslim?," while trying to remove her scarf.

The girl suffered minor injuries. The case will be handled in family court.

The 12-year-old is also facing disciplinary charges at school.

CBS News

UEFA ADMITS HOOLIGAN CONCERNS (Poland)

UEFA has admitted concerns that Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland have hooliganism issues "around every matchday in the league".

UEFA's director of Euro 2012, Martin Kallen, has accepted that Poland - co-hosts for the tournament along with Ukraine - have a "huge image problem". In January, a 24-year-old man died during a clash between over 100 rival fans in Lodz while, after Poland's friendly in Lithuania last week, 60 fans were detained after bottles, flares and benches were thrown at police.

There are also overt neo-Nazi groups. at the tournament, and the Polish government has announced plans to tighten security, including the introduction of electronic ankle tethers to monitor the movements of the 1,800 fans banned from matches. Kallen told the Soccerex conference in Manchester: "On the hooligan side, we are concerned, but I know the Polish government is also concerned. "They know they have a problem - they have a huge image problem. There are always hooligans around every matchday in the league but the government is making the right steps for the future. "What we saw at last Friday's match was not a very good picture to see that happening in a stadium. We and the Polish government are concerned.

They are taking this seriously and will have changes in the next month." Kallen also believes the number of families at the tournament will create a different atmosphere to Polish league games. He added: "For the Euro, different people will be coming to matches - there will be more families. The Euro is a party and in many areas there is more a problem on a daily basis for club matches." Marcin Herra, head of Poland 2012, said there was no possibility of the tournament being moved - "We have no other way," he said - but stressed that there will be severe measures in force to keep the hooligans under control. "The minority cannot spoil the event for the majority," he said. "In Poland, the new legislation allows us to work much more precisely against those hooligans. There will be zero tolerance to make sure that 500 people cannot spoil the event for one million people."

ESPN SoccerNet

2 linked to racist gang arraigned in '09 shooting (USA)

Two men alleged to be part of a white supremacist gang have been arraigned on federal conspiracy and other charges relating to the 2009 shooting of another gang associate.

A Justice Department statement said Joshua Mark Bodine, 31, of Vidor, and John Oliver Manning, 59, of Pasadena, are charged in a federal indictment opened on Thursday with violent crimes in support of racketeering.

The pair was arraigned Thursday in Beaumont on counts that include conspiracy to assault, assault and assorted firearms and drug charges.

The statement said the two are members and associates of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas and are accused of shooting and wounding a fellow gang associate in Nederland. Messages left with their attorneys on Thursday weren't returned.

If convicted, Bodine and Manning could get life in prison.

Chron

Wasted EDL Halifax division hunted by Police for chanting ‘lets all kill a Muslim, ta dah da dah’ on a train to Rochdale demo. (Reposted from the expose Blog, UK)

Admin comment; Re-posted in support of the Expose team. Please visit their blog and support their effort in exposing the EDL and other racists on-line.


Wasted EDL Halifax division hunted by Police for chanting ‘lets all kill a Muslim, ta dah da dah’ on a train to Rochdale demo.

By Darcy Jones

And we know who they are.

As EDL leaders Stephen Lennon and Guramit Singh today began their press ‘hearts and minds’ campaign to ease the fears Blackburn residents hold in the run up to another divisive ‘demo’ this Saturday, their division’s conduct yet AGAIN blows their bullshit out of the window.

In Stephens most recent press release he says “They accuse us of dividing communities. How? By telling the truth?”

I’ll show you how.

 

 http://bit.ly/fMX6BW

The Halifax division aware their shocking conduct has been reported to the police today attempted to remove any evidence, like er, videos uploaded to youtube.

Which video? You mean this one?

Just. Shocking. A carriage full of very drunk, probably high, aggressive EDL supporters singing ‘lets all kill a Muslim’ (1:20) on the way to an English Defence League demonstration. We at expose spend a fair amount of time ripping the shit out of the EDL because in all fairness 80% of the time they are very funny but in this instance, I have two words. Fucking. Animals.

In his press release Stephen asks: “Why do some people still believe that the EDL racist? Because that’s what they really want to believe! They want us to be the bad guys, and for everyone else to believe that too, because perhaps then people won’t realise how clueless groups like Socialist Worker and the UAF really are”….. bullshit. People believe Stephen’s EDL are not only racist but fuelled by religious hatred, violence and possess the social skills of chimpanzees because his own divisions regularly upload the indisputable evidence of such to youtube. Socialist workers party and UAF smear campaign, are you fucking joking Stephen?

So, the police are keen to track down those responsible for what must have been a terrifying train journey for the people Stephens bunch of c**ts claim to defend. God bless FACEBOOK’s tagging function and half wits. A winning combo

 

Hi Andrew Kelly & Scott Taylor.

Guramit Singh states in his wee BBC blurb today in regard to measures to make this Saturday’s demo peaceful “We don’t expect trouble at all. I understand that our organisation attracts some unsavoury characters from the community and some of them left a racist stigma, but we’re getting away from that”. In which case I will presume the entire Halifax division will not be in attendance this Saturday? Yeah right. Another EDL leader so full of shit I don’t know how he gets his trousers done up. We hope EDL leadership will take this evidence so keenly sought straight to transport police but just in case they ‘forget’ we will just go ahead and do that for them.

And while I’m pulling today’s ‘Stephen Lennon’s jackanory’ effort apart I’ll just draw his attention to a mosque the EDL DID attack.

“One example that comes to mind is when Socialist Worker reported that Bolton Mosque had been attacked on the eve of our demonstration in the city. They made it really clear that we were almost definitely to blame. But, of course, the incident had nothing to do with the EDL - and the police were all too happy to make this clear to the local community”.

The socialist worker may have wrongly reported the EDL attacked a Mosque in Bolton, (I wouldn’t take his word for that mind) but I’m accurately reporting your boys have been charged with screwing around with a gas main to blow up a Mosque in Hanley. And that’s FACT. Suck that up you pathological liar.

http://exposingon.tumblr.com/post/4160147694/english-defence-league-activist-charged-with-arson

Lulz, You know when I’m not fucking around with this lot when I refuse to use Stephen’s shite ‘ode to a psycho football hooligan’ pseudonym, no Tommy Tommy for you. You and yer crew are ass holes.
Darcy Jones.

Reposting of this blog would be particularly appreciated to get the true messgae of the EDL out there x
Many thanks to Thelma Fontaine & Rosie Geefe

Guramit’s bullshit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12917467

Stephens bullshit: http://englishdefenceleague.org/content.php?276-A-Luton-Update-from-Tommy-Robinson

http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/local/edl_supporters_racist_tirade_on_halifax_train_1_3236361


Exposing the English Defence League Blog

Alleged Aryan Brotherhood member gets 32 years in rape of teen (USA)

A man who the District Attorney's Office claims is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for raping his girlfriend's teenage daughter.

Rodney Wayne Price, 43, could spend up to the rest of his life on parole as a registered sex offender after he is released from prison.

The sentence, handed down by 3rd Judicial District Court Judge Fernando Macias, was filed Tuesday.

The 15-year-old victim told her mother of the attack, but her mother refused to believe her and insisted the girl was lying so she could break up the couple, said senior trial prosecutor Michelle Pickett.

It wasn't until the girl returned to O-ate High School and confided in the school's resource officer that Las Cruces police were called and a subsequent sexual assault examination found the man's semen inside the girl.

Read more Las Cruces Daily News

Sweden targets religious prejudice

Sweden's government has announced plans to chart the extent of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the country, as it attempts to counteract the spread of intolerance towards minorities.

The government is to task the state-run Living History Forum (Forum för levande historia) with preparing a report on the issue by August 19th. The public agency will compile all relevant data and examine the possible causes of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in Sweden.

Integration minister Erik Ullenhag, from the centre-right Liberal Party (Folkpartiet), told newspaper Dagens Nyheter that upgrading the status of history as a school subject was one possible step that could be taken to arrest the development of religious prejudices in the country.

“Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are particularly serious, since they are forms of ideologized hatred,” Ullenhag told The Local.

The minister said he had noted a tendency in the Swedish debate whereby both Jews and Muslims in Sweden were held collectively accountable for matters over which they had no control.

“Jews in Sweden are held accountable for what the Israeli government does, and the Muslim group has been met with suspicion ever since the 11th of September as potential terrorists,” said Ullenhag.

“What worries me an awful lot is that, in my conversations (with both groups), I’m receiving signals that both Jews and Muslims are testifying to being the subject of harassment because of their religious symbols.”

Ullenhag met with representatives from the Swedish Muslim community in January in an attempt to develop a strategy for combating Islamophobia in the wake of a Stockholm suicide bombing that terrified Christmas shoppers and left the attacker dead.

The suicide bombing risked resulting in suspicions being cast against hundreds of thousands of Swedish Muslims, Ullenhag explained at the time.

The minister also cited a recent study from the Forum for Living History which found that the level of tolerance among Swedish youth for Muslim, Jews, and Roma had decreased in recent years.

The Local Sweden

Nowhere man; a Searchlight report into BNP leader wannabe Eddy Butler.

 Nowhere man

As part of our series looking at the wider British right, Searchlight assesses the prospects for Eddy Butler.

After Eddy Butler failed last summer to surmount the impossibly high hurdles that Nick Griffin placed in the way of anyone hoping to challenge his leadership of the British National Party, the big question among Butler’s supporters was whether to keep on fighting within the BNP or form a new party.

Butler was against a new party. He had been there before and in surprisingly similar circumstances. Shortly after Griffin replaced John Tyndall as BNP leader in 1999, the party’s treasurer and deputy chairman accused Griffin of financial wrongdoing. Griffin responded as he always does, by expelling his accusers. Butler and several others left the BNP in disgust and in December 2000 formed the Freedom Party.

Apart from getting one councillor elected in South Staffordshire in 2003 the Freedom Party made little impact and by 2006 was dead. Butler had already returned to Griffin’s side in 2003 after realising that the BNP, which had won three councillors in Burnley in May 2002, had the better prospects.

Butler’s opposition to forming a new party proved prescient. In October 2010 some of his former supporters, together with others who had fallen foul of Griffin, set up the British Freedom Party. They soon fell out with each other publicly and nastily, its leadership went through a number of changes and although it may field a few candidates in this year’s local elections, it has zero public profile and no attractive personalities.

Butler and many of his supporters believed that the future for the far right remained in the BNP. Whereas many disillusioned members were leaving the party, Butler urged supporters to renew their membership so they could vote in a future leadership election. He went to great trouble to contribute to a “consultation” on changes to the party’s constitution, only to have his effort rejected.

However, if Butler thought he could carry on agitating against Griffin inside the BNP, he must have been very naïve, surprisingly so for someone who has been active on the far right for 30 years and has an honours degree in history and politics. Butler was first suspended from the BNP, then expelled, though he retains his employment on the European Parliament payroll with Andrew Brons MEP, who has maintained a somewhat uncomfortable fence-sitting position between Butler and Griffin.

On 24 December Butler changed his view on whether party members should renew. Reminding his readers of Griffin’s financial mismanagement, which had left the party with debts of over £500,000, Butler declared that members get: “No chance to vote on anything, no chance to decide anything. He [Griffin] will never allow anyone any chance to vote on anything.” Griffin had to be “starved out” said Butler, adding: “This is harsh but it is the only way.”

Since then Butler has continued waging war on Griffin from the comfort of his blog. Many of his articles, and those of a handful of guest writers, contain insightful analysis and plenty of useful information for anti-fascists. But it is unclear quite where Butler hopes to go. Constant calls for Griffin to be removed are not accompanied by any strategy for achieving that aim.

The BNP constitution, which requires a challenger to obtain the support of 20% of all party members of at least two years’ standing, remains in place and it is unclear when changes discussed at last year’s BNP conference might be put to a vote. The first problem a challenger faces is to find out which members to canvass, as the party does not supply a list.

Nevertheless a group of party members grouped under the banner of BNP Reform 2011 has said a leadership challenge will be mounted this summer, although: “To protect the candidate and ensure he/she is not expelled or suspended before the period for leadership nominations we shall not be revealing his/her identity at this time.”

BNP Reform 2011 is independent of Butler, though many of its members supported him last year and Butler has condemned Griffin’s moves against the group. Several prominent party activists have been suspended recently by Griffin’s henchman Adam Walker, the BNP’s national organiser, simply for attending reform meetings.

Read more Searchlight

White supremacist group linked to murder (Harding County, USA)

The Hardin County sheriff says four people arrested on charges of murdering a man, putting his car in a trunk and setting the vehicle on fire, have admitted to their roles in the crime.

According to Sheriff Ed Cain, the suspects take pride in the crime and the fact they belong to a white supremacist group.

The sheriff says Kenny Don Stanley, 29, of Vidor, confessed to pulling the trigger and killing the 25-year-old victim.

He says three other people have admitted to taking part in the crime: Kristopher Guidry, 26, of Humble, Vickie Fitts, 47, of Hull, and Tanner Bourque, 31, of Bridge City.

Investigators aren't releasing the name of the victim because they're trying to positively identify him and notify his relatives.

During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Cain revealed the four suspects are members of the Southern White Soldier gang. It's a spin-off of the Aryan Brotherhood.

Read more at KFDM News

Bill to outlaw neo-nazi activities submitted in Ukraine

The Donetsk Regional Council has sent an appeal demanding the adoption of a law prohibiting nationalist activities to the Ukrainian Parliment.

Itar-Tass reports that the initiator and author of the document, is a deputy of the regional council of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Irina Popova. According to her, in twenty years of independence, Ukrainian nationalism has been transformed into neo-fascism. It acquired a special impetus during the presidency of Victor Yushchenko, when they made heroes of Nazi henchmen and torturers, Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich.

Their followers throughout Ukraine began to carry out neo-nazi marches and other activities.

The Voice of Russia

Nazi soldiers given highly addictive crystal meth to fight longer, harder

Even though Adolf Hitler's Nazi party rules stressed the importance of keeping fit by abstaining from drink and tobacco to keep the Aryan race strong and pure, it has emerged that his soldiers were taking addictive and damaging chemicals to fight longer and harder.

A study on the medicines used by the Third Reich revealed how Nazi doctors and officers issued recruits with pills to help them fight without rest.

The German army's drug of choice, as it overran Poland, Holland, Belgium and France, was Pervitin, pills made from methamphetamine, commonly known today as crystal meth.

Hundreds of thousands soldiers were addicted to the pills by the time the invasion of the Soviet Union was launched in 1941, and records of the Wehrmacht, the German army, show that some 200 million Pervitin pills were doled out to the troops between 1939 and 1945.

Research by the German Doctors' Association also showed the Nazis developed a cocaine-based stimulant for its front-line fighters that was tested on concentration camp inmates.

"It was Hitler's last secret weapon to win a war he had already lost long ago," the Daily Mail quoted criminologist Wolf Kemper, author of a German language book on the Third Reich's use of drugs called Nazis On Speed, as saying.

The drug, codenamed D-IX, was tested at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin, where prisoners loaded with 45lb packs were reported to have marched 70 miles without rest.

The plan was to give all soldiers in the crumbling Reich the wonder drug - but the invasion of Normandy in June 1944, coupled with crippling Allied bombing, scotched the scheme.

"The Blitzkrieg was fuelled by speed. The idea was to turn ordinary soldiers, sailors and airmen into automatons capable of superhuman performance," a pharmacologist said.

Medical authorities say the downside of the plan was that many soldiers became helplessly addicted to drugs and were of no use in any theatre of war.

Otto Ranke, a military doctor and director of the Institute for General and Defence Physiology at Berlin's Academy of Military Medicine, was behind the Pervitin scheme.

DNA

Half of Lancashire disabled people victims of crime (UK)

Half of Lancashire’s disabled population have been victims of crime because of their condition, a shock study has revealed.

A major report has found ‘an incredibly high’ number of people in the county were ‘living in fear’ of disability hate crime.

Campaigners said problems included assaults, criminal damage and verbal abuse.

In one incident a man was pushed from his wheelchair ‘for fun’.

Now a campaign has been launched to support victims because the current system was found to be ‘failing’.

The report, by Lancashire Police and the county council, was compiled after questionnaires were sent to the county’s top 60 disabled people’s organisations.

It found:

    * Two thirds of people were frightened of being targeted
    * 13 per cent had moved house to avoid hate crime
    * Nearly half believed they had been a victim of crime because of their disability in the past six months

The study, released for the first time today, also found 46 per cent of people feared being a victim of crime at least once a month, adding: “This is an incredibly high number of people that are living in fear.”

Many cases were not being reported, it said, because victims felt nothing would be done, were confused by paperwork and feared revenge attacks.

People who gave evidence to the inquiry reported a range of physical and verbal abuse.

One said: “I’ve been told that I’m no good…I’ve been shot at and I’ve been burgled five times.”

There was also a report of youths regularly stealing a man’s walking stick and demanding money before it was returned.

One person said they were abused because their white stick had clipped passers-by, while another kept having their scooter stolen.

Another said: “Police were not helpful, suggested I stay in to prevent it happening.

"This is an infringement on my liberty.”

Their accounts were echoed by Stephen Brookes, of Blackpool, who is coordinator of the national Disability Hate Crime Network.

Mr Brookes, who works with Lancashire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Hate can be verbal abuse, pushing and shoving and general intolerance.

“I'm used to being told to get out of the way.

"I've had a fractured spine, two heart attacks and strokes, so occasionally I don't feel like standing, but the aggression you meet asking people to move from a disabled seat on a bus is quite intense.

“At the worst level you get cases like David Askew, the man who was hounded to death in Manchester.

“The police were notified in his case, but so were social services and housing associations.

"Everybody knew but nobody did anything. If people work together like this, things could get sorted.”

Steve Allen, 57, of Burrell Avenue, Colne, has been campaigning for disabled people’s rights for several years.

He said: “More often than not young kids come banging on our windows and doors, shouting foul language because they know we can’t chase them.

“Something needs to be done and this does need clamping down on, but I believe these things happen because there isn’t enough for young people to do.”

Barry Whittle, 44, a disabled cyclist from Padiham who has suffered from spina bifida since birth, said he had encountered abuse when he was younger but was now more confident.

He said: “When I was a teenager I got the odd word called at me but I expected it.

"I don't look disabled, but for somebody in a wheelchair or who happens to look disabled it can be very hard.

Denise Baker, a wheelchair user and chief executive of the charity Access Lancashire, said she often received verbal abuse when using her wheelchair, often from young men in passing cars.

She said: “We're trying to raise awareness that disabled people don't need to put up with being abused, verbally or physically.

“If it's reported, to the police, to the council, or to organisations like us, something can be done about it.”

Police Superintendent Stuart Noble, chairman of the Safer Lancashire Board's Hate Crime Group, said: "Hate crime is something we just won't tolerate and we want to work together to tackle it.

"We're also looking at the reporting process to ensure it is accessible.

"We now have a better understanding of the issues that disabled people face because of hate crime and we are looking forward to working with our partners on this important project.

"We will also be running a wider hate crime campaign to make people aware of the problem so they have the confidence to report it and know we will take action to help them out."

Lancashire Telegraph

Sikh Community issues Ultimatum to Guramit Singh, denounce EDL by Vaisakhi or face excommunication (UK)

Sikhs opposed to the English Defence League (EDL) have issued an ultimatum to Guramit Singh, spokesperson for the EDL who claims to be of Sikh heritage.

The ultimatum calls for Guramit Singh from Nottingham to publically denounce and distance himself from the EDL by the end of the Vaisakhi festival.

Vaisakhi is a Sikh religious festival that falls on April 13 and it is one of the most significant occasions for the Sikhs, commemorating the establishment of the Khalsa (martial Sikhism) in 1699 by the 10th Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh ji. This year will mark the 312th anniversary of this auspicious occasion and will be celebrated globally with recitals of religious hymns and prayers for world peace.

Should he (Guramit Singh) fail to do so the community will appeal to the highest political authority of the Sikhs, the Akal Takht in the holy city of Amritsar, Punjab, India to formally request excommunication orders for him to be permanently expelling from the Sikh faith for bringing it into disrepute.

The excommunication order, if passed could mean the EDL member being permanently shunned from all aspects of the Sikh community, although that would be an ultimate sanction.

It comes after the release of a joint statement condemning the EDL and its supporters from Sikh backgrounds. The joint statement which is supported by some of the UK’s largest Sikh Organisations and groups include Singh Sabha Gurdwara Southall (London) and Guru Nanak Nishkam Sevak Jatha (Birmingham).

It also follows recordings of Guramit Singh quoting Guru Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs whilst delivering an offensive speech against the Muslim community.

Varinder Singh, an organiser of the ‘Sikhs Against the EDL’ campaign said:

“The Sikh Community has clearly condemned Guramit Singh’s public actions which are being used as a political stunt by the EDL and thereby bringing the Sikh faith into disrepute. His actions do not reflect the Sikh faith or the community and must be stopped to prevent further damage to inter-faith relations.

We believe because of his influence they carry the Sikh flag on their marches, use Sikh emblem and insignia in their propaganda and make on-sided and inflammatory statements about any past divisions between Sikhs and Muslims, including the partition.

We will be raising the concerns of our community leaders and will look to appeal to the Jathedar (Leader) of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, for him to formally issue excommunication orders should Guramit Singh decide not to denounce and distance himself from the EDL immediately.”

Balwinder Singh Rana, originator of the joint statement condemning the EDL said:

”Some of the largest Sikh and Hindu organisation in this country have signed our statement. We also have the full support of most of the Gurdwara’s (Sikh temples) and Mandirs (Hindu temples) in West London as well as East London.

In addition to this six Gurdwara’s in Birmingham, including the largest one, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha, have pledged their support on our initiative.

Together with support from members of the wider community including Claude Moraes MEP, some MPs, a number of councillors and other prominent people as well as University Sikh Student Societies – we can confidently say that the tide is by far in our favour.”

He further added:”Guramit Singh claimed in the BBC program ‘Who’s Afraid of the EDL?’, that Sikhs have been trying to ‘protect the world from Islam for 300-400 years.’

However, anyone with the rudimentary knowledge of the Sikh religion would know that the Sikhs actually never fought against Islam. They only fought against the oppression and intolerance from some of the Mogul rulers.”

“The tenth and last living Guru of the Sikhs, Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji, himself made it very clear in the Akal Ustat:

‘Someone calls himself a Hindu, another a Turk, someone a Shia, another a Sunni. Recognise the whole of humanity as one race.’

‘The temple or the mosque is the same, the Hindu worship or the Muslim prayer are the same; all humans are the same, it is through error they appear different. It is the one God who created all.’

‘The Hindu God and the Muslim God are the same; let no man even by mistake suppose there is a difference.’ ”

The Turban Campaign

No terrorist link to packages in lake (UK)

Police say there is no terrorism link to two suspicious packages found floating in a lake at a beauty spot.

The packages, found at the boating lake, in Cottingham Road, Corby, on Monday, sparked a full-scale investigation involving an RAF bomb disposal unit and the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit.

However, police said yesterday they are no longer treating them as suspicious.

Road blocks were set up and a large area around the lake was cordoned off by police after the discovery of the packages by two young anglers.

At one point police were considering using divers to search the lake.

Read more of this news item at the Evening Telegraph

Wilders' inciting hatred court case will go ahead, judges say (Netherlands)

The court case against anti-Islam campaigner and MP Geert Wilders will go ahead as planned, the three judges hearing the case said on Monday.

Wilders’ legal team had tried to have the case dropped on a number of legal grounds.

But while agreeing the case, based on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination will continue, Wilders should not be charged with comparing Islam to fascism, the judges said.

Dutch News

EDL rally police help for colleagues (UK)

Lancashire authorities are taking advice from awardwinning police in Bolton ahead of this weekend’s planned English Defence League rally in Blackburn.

Up to 4,500 people are expected to turn up to the demonstration on Saturday which would make it even bigger than Bolton’s rally in March last year.

The Victoria Square demonstration was one of the biggest EDL rallies in the country and Bolton police are now seen as experts in dealing with the challenges that such events present.

A team of Bolton police won the Karen Mulligan Award for Diversity in Action at the Greater Manchester Police excellence awards this year for their work ahead of the rally.

Now Lancashire police have been taking advice from Bolton police to ensure that the demonstration passes peacefully.

Representatives from Blackburn with Darwen Council have also been speaking to Bolton Council chiefs.

Sgt Steve Baldam, who played a key role in preparations ahead of Bolton’s protests, said: “The fact that the systems and protocols we were able to produce were such that they can now be taken on by the rest of the North West certainly makes us feel very proud.”

Blackburn police expect about 2,500 EDL protesters and about 2,000 counter protesters from Unite Against Fascism and the Muslim Defence League to show up on Saturday afternoon.

Bolton EDL supporters are planning to travel to Blackburn by train for the demonstration.

Lancashire police Ch Supt Bob Eastwood said: “Our role is to facilitate peaceful protest. If anyone commits a criminal offence they will be dealt with fairly but firmly.

“The police will not tolerate damage to the town or acts of violence and I would urge anyone thinking of coming to Blackburn to attend either demonstration to bear this in mind.”

This Lancashire

German teenager admits throwing banana during Brazil v Scotland match

The mystery of who tossed a banana onto the field during Sunday's friendly meeting between Brazil and Scotland has been solved, with confirmation that the object was thrown by a German tourist with no racist intent.

A racism debate overshadowed Brazil's 2-0 win over the Scots, after the banana appeared on the field shortly after Neymar's second goal of the game. Amid fears the banana had been thrown as a racist act towards the striker, the player also mistakenly believed he had been jeered by Scotland supporters at the Emirates on grounds of his skin colour.

 Read more at  The Guardian

BOSNIA FOOTBALL TO BE SUSPENDED FROM INTERNATIONAL PLAY

Bosnia’s Soccer Federation has failed to end its ethnically selected presidency, and is now expected to be suspended from international competition.

At its meeting on Tuesday, Bosnia's Football Federation, NSBiH, failed to adopt a statute required by international football's governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA, to change its football management structure. FIFA and UEFA had demanded that Bosnian football replace its three-member presidency - made up of a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb - with a single president by March 31 or face exclusion from the bodies. Because the new statute was not adopted by the deadline, Bosnia will be automatically suspended from international competitions, effective April 1, according to a previous FIFA and UEFA decision. The bodies also have the right to introduce a trustee who would set up a new Football Association in the country. In effect, Bosnia could receive an international administrator for football, much like the High Representative in the political sphere. Balkan Insight’s source in UEFA believes that Bosnia’s national team will not be suspended for a long period, despite the Federation's failure to adopt the statute. According to the source, the suspension might last for ten days, until a decision on temporary administration is declared by UEFA on April 10. FIFA and UEFA have not yet responded to Bosnia's decision on Tuesday not to adopt the statue.

Bosnia's soccer federation currently reflects the country’s political and ethnic divisions after the war of the 1990s. The NSBiH is made up of two associations, representing Bosnia’s two entities – the predominantly Serb Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation – which are together headed by the three-member presidency. The Bosnian Serb representatives oppose the one-president concept imposed by FIFA, as they fear this might jeopardize their autonomy. “We believe that preserving the tripartite presidency is a must… the only thing we can accept is that the Presidency rotates [between the three ethnic groups] every 16 months,” the vice-president of the Republika Srpska football association, Stasa Kosarac, told Balkan Insight. Changes to the football federation's structure are also opposed by Croat representatives. Josip Bevanda, secretary general of SC Siroki Brijeg and a member of the Bosnia Soccer Federation’s Executive Board, told Balkan Insight that the FIFA and UEFA rules are unfair. He said most of the delegates had voted against the changes to the federation structure demanded by UEFA. “What kind of democracy is that?" he asked. “Why do they insist on such rules, if we decided differently in a democratic fashion?”

Bogdan Ceko, a celebrated former Bosnian footballer and the Serb member of the NSBiH's presidency, advocates adopting FIFA's demands. He told Balkan Insight before Tuesday's vote that he hopes reason will prevail over what is widely recognised as a political problem. “Last week, I attended the UEFA Congress in Paris, and my friends from UEFA told me that we won't see anything nice if the required statute is not adopted,” Ceko said. “But still,” he added, “I am going to the session as an optimist. If the Olympic Committee three months ago did the same thing, I do not see any reason why it won't be done by NSBiH.” The effects of the NSBiH's suspension will likely be felt throughout Bosnia, where international funding currently makes up between 70 and 80 per cent of the NSBiH budget. In addition, Bosnian clubs often cannot pay their players regularly, so participation in international competitions is of vital importance for footballers. The best example is FC Borac from Banja Luka, which is expected to win the Bosnian club championships this year, and thus play qualifications for Europe’s Champions League. Even participation in the qualifications brings substantial revenue, and to small clubs like Borac it is essential to survival. Bosnia's national football team, however, arguably has the most to lose from a suspension, as it fights for first place in its qualifying group for Euro 2012. If Bosnia faces international exile, a great performance on Saturday against Romania could be the team's last for some time.

Balkans Insight

NEO-NAZI ORGANIZATION BLOOD AND HONOUR LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

A new website has been launched in the Czech Republic endorsing the international neo-Nazi organization Blood and Honour (BH) and the militant terrorist group Combat 18 (C18). The last website run by the Czech promoters of BH, calling themselves Blood and Honour Division Bohemia, was reportedly blocked by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI) three years ago.

The designers of the new website have posted the information that C18 is doing its best to "destabilize the system and unleash race war" in the Czech Republic. C18 is said to have been behind several actions in recent months "and will commit many others again soon." The section entitled "Who we are against and how to fight" includes the following statement: "The communists have their headquarters in the center of Prague off of Wenceslas Square, and what could be easier than driving by and throwing a grenade or an improvised bomb through the gateway?"

Communist Party (KSČM) spokesperson Věra Žežulková says the party will be seeking legal advice regarding the call for violence on the neo-Nazi website. "If the threats are specific, we will turn to the Czech Police," Žežulková told the Czech Press Agency. She said the KSČM unequivocally condemns racism, violence, xenophobia and similar phenomena and that the party is not surprised by the "hate of these extreme-right groups."

Jan Šubert, spokesperson for the Security Information Services (Bezpečnostní informační služby - BIS) did not want to comment on the activities or the website of the BH and C18 promoters. He told the Czech Press Agency that the civilian counter-intelligence services have no information that the neo-Nazis would, in recent months, have been behind some sort of organized, sophisticated, subversive action or that something of the sort might occur in the near future. "Of course, violent action by an individual can never be ruled out," Šubert said, adding that the neo-Nazi scene in the Czech Republic is currently fractured into small groups which operate in isolation without central leadership.

"Naturally, we know about the website. We monitor those pages just like all the other things that turn up on the internet and are somehow related to the extremist scene in this country," Pavel Hanták, spokesperson for the Organized Crime Detection Unit (Útvar pro odhalování organizovaného zločinu - ÚOOZ) told the Czech Press Agency. However, he did not want to comment on the website. "We of course do not publicize our operational activities," he said.

In one of the texts on the site, the authors praise the arson attack on a home occupied by Roma people in Vítkov, which the courts found to be a case of the attempted murder of eight people. At the same time, the authors distance themselves from groups such as the Autonomous Nationalists, National Resistance and the Workers' Social Justice Party, labeling them all "half left-wing".

A website devoted to the BH and C18 is nothing new for the Czech Republic. Czech daily Hospodářské noviny (HN) reported in May 2008 that the FBI had blocked the most recent one. "Our American colleagues acted at the instigation of British police officers who followed the website and labeled it terrorist," the daily quoted Karel Kuchařík, then head of the computer crimes division at the Police Presidium, as saying. HN reported that the Czech Police had tried on their own to have the website banned but had not succeeded.

The Blood and Honour organization was founded in the 1980s in Britain by Ian Stuart Donaldson, the singer with the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver. It takes its name from the battle cry of the Hitler Youth. The organization endorses the legacy of the Third Reich and its main activity is organizing concerts and rallies and publishing and distributing music, magazines and clothing patches. BH divisions have been set up in many other countries.

The number 18 in Combat 18 stands for the initials of Adolf Hitler. The militant group openly calls for attacks on immigrants, Jewish people and Roma people. Political scientist Miroslav Mareš wrote in his handbook for the Czech Police on this issue that C18 was founded at the start of the 1990s in Britain and that divisions and sections of the organization have gradually been founded in other countries as well. Mareš says members of C18 have carried out a number of violent terrorist actions.

Romea.CZ

Racist incidents in Scotland fall by 4% in a year (UK)

The number of racist incidents recorded by police in Scotland fell by 4% over a one-year period, official figures show.

The chief statistician's report said 4,952 racist incidents were recorded in 2009-10, compared to 5,143 in 2008-09.

However, two police forces - Strathclyde and Lothian and Borders - recorded an increase.

Between 2004-10, reported racist incidents in Scotland increased by 10%, but the figures have been falling since 2006-07.

In 2009-10, about 48% of victims for whom ethnicity was recorded were of Asian origin and about 96% of perpetrators were white.

The most frequently recorded racist crime in 2009-10 was racially aggravated conduct, accounting for 65% of cases.

BBC News

Duluth Human Rights Supporters Push Against Anti-Immigration Bill (USA)

Human rights supporters expect the Duluth City Council to make its opposition official against a proposed state immigration law tonight.

Opponents of the bill believe, if passed, the legislation will encourage racial profiling across the Northland.
The Duluth Immigration Rights Coalition (DIRC) says they feel the state proposal mirrors the controversial legislation Arizona passed about one year ago.

Read more at Fox 21 Online

Hitler and the Muslamic Ray Guns

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Anti-terrorism unit to probe discovery (UK)

Counter-terrorism intelligence officers and bomb disposal experts were called to a beauty spot after two suspect packages were found floating in a lake.

The discovery was made yesterday at Corby boating lake, in Cottingham Road, an area popular with families, walkers and anglers.

Police said although the contents of the two packages could potentially make up an explosive device, neither were viable.

The drama started at 8am when anglers fished an object from the lake, sparking an evacuation of the area. One package, wrapped in a black bin liner, contained a glass jar packed with nails, a lighter, gas canisters, batteries and a strong-smelling liquid. The other held similar contents.

Police were called and the area, including the boating lake cafe, was immediately evacuted.

Roadblocks were set up at the junction of Willow Brook Road and Cottingham Road and outside the nearby Willowbrook Health Centre. Officers cordoned off a large area around the lake and stopped people using the footpath which leads through the woods to the town centre.

Police, paramedics and firefighters were also on the scene as cafe staff waited to find out if they could collect their vehicles, parked behind the police cordon.

People turning up at the police roadblock, hoping to keep appointments at Willowbrook Health Centre, were turned back and told to get to the complex from the Westcott Way end of Cottingham Road.

Passers-by gathered during the morning to watch events unfold and at the end of the lake furthest away from where the packages were discovered men continued to fish and people sat on benches as emergency services carried out their investigation.

Carl McCardine was working in the cafe when the packages were found. He said: “There were about 20 customers in at the time, some of them were members of a walking group. We were told to evacuate the cafe and get out of the area. Everyone was very calm.”

At about 1.30pm Cottingham Road was re-opened and cafe staff were allowed to remove their vehicles from the car park.

Evening Telegraph

Far right groups may be fuelling increase in city race attacks (UK)

FAR right groups are thought to be one of the causes behind a rise in race hate attacks in Portsmouth, The News can reveal.

New figures show that 455 incidents were reported to the city’s Racial Awareness Service over a nine-month period – a 25 per cent year-on-year rise.

Police also say hate crime – which includes those targeted because of their race or religion – went up by 16 per cent in the city to 317 last year.

Fareham, Gosport, Havant and Waterlooville also saw a nine per cent rise in hate crime.

It comes as an investigation by The News on pages 12 and 13 today reveals how one man has been the victim of seven race attacks in less than two months since opening his store in Ludlow Road, Paulsgrove.

Nanda Vayanaperumal has been subjected to racist abuse, had paint thrown at his store, his car tyres slashed and windows smashed at the Danny Mart.

Sharon Furtado, who manages Portsmouth City Council’s Racial Awareness Service, said: ‘The rise (in race attacks) could be due to a whole host of reasons.

‘Last year we had the elections and the British National Party and far right groups had more of a platform to express their views.

‘Some times people listen to them and it touches a chord with them.

‘It could also be down to the recession and there being a feeling that immigrants are coming in and taking jobs. We don’t know what the trigger is that makes someone decide to act.’

Last November, up to 100 people were involved in a demonstration at the Jami Mosque in Victoria Road North, Southsea.

The protest was sparked after a small group of Muslim extremists – not from Portsmouth – burned poppies in London during the two-minute silence on Armistice Day.

The English Defence League was blamed for organising the protests, which resulted in several arrests and charges.

Criminals face more serious penalties if the crime is found to be racially aggravated. A person convicted of actual bodily harm faces up to five years in prison, but if it is racially aggravated the offender can be jailed for up to seven years.

Chief Inspector Karen Scipio said: ‘Crimes aggravated by racial hatred are not only upsetting for the victims they’re also damaging to our wider communities.

‘We will continue to work hard to engage with the public and encourage victims of hate crime and people who witness it taking place, to come forward and report all incidents to us.’

Portsmouth News

Nordic far-right seeps into political mainstream

April elections in Finland could see the rise of yet another Northern European anti-immigrant, nationalist rightwing party that flatly rejects the far-right label while using populist rhetoric.

The True Finns is the latest such party to show signs of gaining mainstream traction.

Opinion polls suggest its showing in the April 17 parliamentary election could leap from its 4.1 percent score in the 2007 election right up to 20 percent.

The True Finns, Sweden Democrats (SD), the Danish People's Party (DPP) and Norway's Progress Party (FrP) are all already represented in their respective national parliaments.

There, they emphasise the importance and of "lifestyle politics such as abortion, gay marriages, gender education, immigration," says Swedish political scientist Anders Hellstroem.

"They are authoritarian, pro-family, want law and order, and are opposed to immigration. In that sense, they are all far-right," he tells AFP.

At the same time, however, since they are all represented in parliament, "all are established. They are part of the mainstream," he says.

The far-right label, which signals extremism, is therefore not completely accurate.

In Finland, for instance, the True Finns are far from having a monopoly on anti-immigration rhetoric, says writer and political analyst Jussi Foerbom: better-established parties having long "used pretty merciless and harsh language in the discussion of immigration."

The party has however by far been the most successful in transforming the issue into popular support.

All the Nordic populist parties tend to oppose high taxation levels, while still backing the social welfare models associated with their countries.

They are also trying to gain respectability.

Sweden's SD, which with its neo-Nazi roots has the most dubious past of the Nordic parties, has for instance purged the most extreme elements from its midst.

A True Finns city councillor was convicted for blog comments linking Islam to paedophilia and saying Somalis were predisposed to mugging people and living on the dole.

But Raimo Vistbacka, a party founding member, told AFP his behavior could be attributed to the fact that "every party has these young radicals."

"They mellow out as they get more experience," he said.

When Sweden's SD entered parliament for the first time last September after elections that handed Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's centre-right coalition minority rule, all the other parties pledged to isolate it.

The party has nevertheless been able to play kingmaker in a line of important parliamentary votes, handing the win to the government or the left-leaning opposition as it sees fit.

And the True Finns party, which has been represented in parliament since 1996, could very likely become the first of the Nordic populist parties to actually make it into government.

Denmark's DPP has also secured widespread mainstream acceptance.

In its role as key ally to the centre-right coalition in power since 2001, it has helped shape government policies and push Danish immigration policies to become among the most restrictive in Europe.

The party's head Pia Kjaersgaard has said she sees the party as "rather close to French Gaullism".

The DPP has been an ally to the minority government for 10 years and is Denmark's third largest party.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen has said it represents "a fringe of the electorate we can't ignore."

It has "made a lot of efforts not to be affiliated with the SD (in Sweden)," Swedish political scientist Hellstroem says, stressing however that "SD is no further right than DPP."

The DPP is now considered a possible coalition partner after general elections in Denmark later this year.

In Norway too, where the FrP has long been the second-largest party, there are signs it could for the first time be allowed into a government coalition after the next vote in 2013.

Such high acceptance level might seem far away for the SD, as its roots are much more extreme.

Norwegian political scientist Frank Aarebrot at the University of Bergen argues however that the Swedish party does not really differ much from the other populist parties in the region.

"But they are at different stages in their development," he says, pointing out that "FrP, when it was as young as (the) SD, was at least as isolated."

ABC News

Why aren't there more black football managers? (UK)

Is institutional racism in the boardroom the reason so few black players make it into management?

Glance at the average football pitch and you might conclude racism in Britain's favourite sport is dead. Team-sheets from the Premier League down have players of all ethnicities, and organising bodies host myriad anti-racism events. The discrimination bound-up with the game in decades past appears to be over. Until you look at the people shouting to the players.

In 2007, about a quarter of all players were black, but only two out of 92 league clubs had black managers. Today, there are still only two black managers in all four leagues: Paul Ince, manager of Notts County, and Chris Powell, of Charlton Athletic. Football management is still overwhelmingly white. Now academics at Staffordshire University, who have undertaken major research into the subject, report a strong call among black and minority ethnic (BME) football fans for the introduction of positive discrimination.

The research, by Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire, and his colleague Dr Jamie Cleland, senior lecturer in sociology, involved 1,000 football fans, professional players, referees, coaches and managers revealing their views on the dearth of black managers. More than 56% of those polled said there is racism at the top of football's hierarchy; among BME respondents, that figure was 73%. Most radically of all, over half of BME fans called for a policy similar to the Rooney rule in the US, which stipulates that all shortlists for management and coaching jobs in the National Football League must include at least one minority candidate. The Staffordshire academics report that a third of the polled football fans encouraged this type of reform.

"We didn't expect support for reform," admits Cashmore. "We thought that, as British culture tends to oppose any type of compulsion, the fans would resist a policy. But, in the event, they showed a clear recognition that the paucity of black managers has become an embarrassing anomaly that needs radical attention." The comments made by the surveyed football fans included: "Until you force something like the Rooney rule, the situation will not change"; "The US is now seeing the success of diversifying upper management"; "There are numerous white managers who have failed, but their name always crops up on a short list and they get given jobs. When you are black you get one chance and if you mess up, that's it."

The academics believe that while black former players like Ruud Gullit and Patrick Vieira helped combat racism in football by showing off their skills, football management escaped that development. "From the early 1980s, black players earned their place on teams on merit, and resentment subsided. But management is different. Skill isn't so self-evident – a manager needs an opportunity and a period of time to prove his worth," says Cashmore. "In the 1980s, football's upper echelons were tut-tutting about the unruly fans who still harboured racist views. Now the tide has reversed: over half of the fans are complaining that football's rulers are racist."

The academics report that fans believe "institutional racism" – where people do not consciously discriminate against minorities, but fail to challenge old assumptions and stereotypes, meaning a pattern of operations continues – is relevant in football management. One survey respondent said: "People appoint people like themselves. White chairmen appoint white, male managers. The cycle is not easily broken." Dismissing the idea that black managers will come through as the higher numbers of black players mature, another said: "Football boards have very few ethnic minorities on them – that's more likely to be the issue than the players or backroom staff. It's an old boys' club that is unlikely to bring in people from outside their peer group."

Cashmore agrees. "Succession in football management seems haunted by images of celebrated managers of the past and present – and they're all white," he says. Britain's first black football manager is believed to be Tony Collins, who managed Rochdale for seven years from 1960 – although most people assume it was Gullit, who managed Chelsea in 1996. Gullit, Cashmore adds, "retains the distinction of being the first football manager to have dreadlocks".

One insider response to the Staffordshire University research came from a black former league manager who no longer works in the UK. He said: "I had to keep reminding myself how much of a niche industry football management is – there are only 92 jobs. When a manger loses his job, within hours someone already on the management merry-go-round is installed as favourite without considering the merits of an outsider. That's the appeal of the Rooney rule – it opens up the field."

Evidence of continued racism came from the survey respondents' additional comments. One fan said: "The lack of black managers in football reflects the football view that while black men can play, they are not competent to manage."

"The research indicates that fans sense that there's an issue in British football," says Cashmore. "The majority is in no doubt that there is racism in the boardroom – that in itself demands attention." But he is gloomy about the prospect of change. "We sent the results of the our Topfan gay footballers project (on homophobia in football ) to the Football Association, Premier League, Football League and Professional Footballers' Association, but none expressed interest in acting on our results," he says. "So we don't hold out much hope that they will respond positively to the latest findings."

• Ellis Cashmore will discuss his research on BBC Radio5 Live's Total Blackout on Wednesday, 30 March at 8pm

The Guardian