Austrian Neo-Nazi Sentenced to 9 Years
An Austrian court has convicted a well-known member of the far-right to nine years in prison for propagating Nazi ideology online, in violation of the country's strict anti-Nazi laws.
Gottfried Kuessel, who had been arrested in April 2011, was sentenced late Thursday in Vienna. Two convicted accomplices were given lesser sentences — seven years and four-and-a-half years.
Prosecutors said Kuessel was the leader of the now-banned neo-Nazi group, VAPO .
Kuessel posted his material on the neo-Nazi website alpen-donau.info, which was shut down in March 2011. The servers for the site were based in the United States, so Austrian authorities had to get American cooperation.
Kuessel spent time in prison in the 1990s for disseminating Nazi propaganda. He has denied the Holocaust and denounced the diary of Anne Frank as a fabrication.
Obama, Karzai Meet at White House
U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai meet Friday at the White House to discuss the future role of the U.S. in Afghanistan, their first meeting since Mr. Obama's re-election.
The two leaders will hold a joint afternoon news conference.
Current plans call for the U.S. to withdraw nearly all of its nearly 70,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
But that plan hinges on a number of conditions, including whether Afghan forces will be able to take over security at that time. It is also unclear what will be the role of the Americans who stay behind, if any do remain.
On Thursday, Mr. Karzai met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Earlier, at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Mr. Karzai that the U.S. and Afghanistan have come a long way towards making sure Afghanistan will never again become a safe haven for terrorism.
Panetta said more than 10 years of the U.S.-led war against the Taliban have paved the way for Afghanistan to stand on its own.
Mr. Karzai expressed appreciation for the years of support from the U.S. and Afghanistan's other allies.
But while Mr. Karzai has often criticized U.S. actions in Afghanistan, he also has spoken about his desire for some U.S. presence to remain.
115 Killed in Pakistan Blasts
A leading human rights group says Pakistan's Shi'ite Muslims are living in a state of siege, after a string of bombings across the country killed 115 people and wounded nearly 250, in one of the nation's deadliest days in years.
Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistan director of Human Rights Watch, warned Friday that sectarian violence will likely rise, a day after 82 people were killed in Quetta in suicide bomb blasts in a billiards hall frequented by Shi'ites.
He said more than 400 Shi'ites were killed last year and “if yesterday's attack is any indication, it's just going to get worse.”
The billiards hall attacks came just hours after a deadly bomb blast at the Quetta market.
The outlawed militant Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi contacted local media to claim responsibility.
Shi'ites make up about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million people.
Elsewhere in Pakistan Thursday, at least 21 people were killed and more than 70 wounded in a bombing in the city of Mingora, where a crowd had gathered to hear a speech by a religious leader. Mingora is the largest city in northwestern Pakistan's Swat province.
No one has claimed responsibility for that attack.
Dozens Dead and Missing in China Landslide
Chinese authorities say at least 18 people have been confirmed dead and dozens are missing after a landslide swept through a village in southern China.
Local authorities and state media said rescuers had recovered 18 bodies in the village in Yunnan province, including seven people from one family.
The official Xinhua news agency said dozens more people remain buried.
It is unclear what triggered the landslide, but heavy rains periodically cause such disasters in the region.
UK requests extradition of Misick
The United Kingdom has made a request for the extradition of former Turks and Caicos Premier Michael Misick who is being held in a Brazilian jail following after his December arrest in the South American nation on an international warrant.
Under an agreement with Brazil the British authorities have 60 days from the date of arrest to formally request his extradition the Turks and Caicos Islands’ (TCI) Attorney General’s office said in a statement Wednesday.
"Michael Misick is the subject of an extradition request made lawfully and properly, in accordance with the relevant Treaty in place between the UK and Brazil, as extended to the Turks and Caicos Islands,” the Attorney General said.
“As such, he is currently being held in accordance with the terms of this Treaty, under a provisional warrant of arrest.”
“It is intended that this request be submitted in January 2013,” the statement said. “Following this Mr Misick will have the opportunity to consider whether he wishes to contest his extradition.”
US spent billions on Caribbean immigration enforcement
A new study has found that last year the Obama administration spent more on immigration enforcement affecting the Caribbean and other countries than on all the other major federal law enforcement agencies.
The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, in its 182-report said the US government spent nearly US$18 billion on immigration enforcement.
It pointed out that immigration control has become “the federal government’s highest criminal law enforcement priority,” based on the vast resources devoted to monitoring illegal Caribbean and other immigrants and to detaining and deporting them.
“The ‘enforcement first’ policy that has been advocated by many in Congress and the public as a precondition for considering broader immigration reform has de facto become the nation’s singular immigration policy.
” The report also said the two main immigration enforcement agencies under the US Department of Homeland Security have referred more cases to the courts for prosecution than all of the Justice Department’s law enforcement agencies combined.
These include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The report said total spending on those agencies was US$14 billion, compared to US$18 billion on immigration enforcement.
It was also revealed that deportations have “increased dramatically” as a result of massive increases in spending, with more Caribbean and other immigrants removed in expedited proceedings that do not involve any formal proceeding before an immigration judge.
The budget for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has increased by 87 per cent since 2005, to nearly US$6 billion, and the number of illegal immigrants that ICE detains annually increased to 429,247 in 2011.
Last month, ICE said it deported 410,000 immigrants in 2012, giving President Barack Obama the record for the highest number of deportations.
US seize Gold Bars in Puerto Rico
U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico have confiscated 11 gold bars sent by mail from Curacao, officials said Tuesday. Investigators are now probing whether the seized gold is from a recent heist on the Dutch Caribbean Island.
The gold bars were found in several courier packages at an airport in the Puerto Rican town of Aguadilla, said Jeffrey Quinones, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The bars weighed nearly 77 pounds and have an estimated value of US$1.7 million, said a report in the Miami Herald.
Inspectors noted that the packages that arrived in mid-December were “unusually heavy,” and flagged them for inspection before confiscating the bars as suspected contraband, Quinones said in a statement.
According to a local source, the gold is part of the stolen shipment in Curacao.
The source said that investigators are now learning that some of the gold had been shipped to Puerto Rico earlier.
The success of this shipment led to the shipping by FedEx of the larger shipment that was intercepted in the United States.
Curacao police spokesman Reginald Huggins said authorities there have six suspects in custody in the theft and have recovered some of the gold, though he declined to say how much. He said he was unaware of the seizure in Puerto Rico.
Mother hacks 11 month old baby to death
A mother chopped her 11-month-old son to death yesterday then turned herself over to the police in a bizarre case of infanticide that shocked the country.
Police did not name the mother, who is now in custody pending further investigations. However, they identified the baby as Lindon Madison.
The macabre incident occurred at the woman's home on Fort George Road, near Annotto Bay Primary School at about 6:30 am.
The woman lived with the child's father.
Police report that she arrived at the station about 7:30 am and told them that she had killed her baby. The police accompanied her to the house where the baby was found with multiple chop wounds. His head was almost severed.
The baby, who would have had his first birthday next week, was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Source:Observer
PNP says much achieved in first year
THE People's National Party (PNP)-led Government yesterday released what it described as a Year One Report Card detailing its achievements in the first 12 months of the administration.
In highlighting the five main pillars of the report, the party's general secretary, Peter Bunting, said the document not only linked the administration's work to the promises made in the party's 2011 manifesto and the progressive agenda, but also the efforts of the various ministries and the direction the Government was taking the country.
The PNP general secretary, who was addressing a press conference at the party's Old Hope Road headquarters in Kingston yesterday to present the report, said there will be a subsequent document which would summarise the manifesto's promises as well as other significant transformational initiatives being planned.
"While this First Year Report Card focuses on the status of manifesto's 2011 promises kept and in-train, we know there is much work to be done to complete the five-year plan which will take us to the end of our first term," Bunting said.
The self-evaluation report, Bunting explained, was done with the help of a committee of the party's executive, along with ministers' reports of their performance.
But while not willing to point to any failures of the administration, Bunting said what could have been done better is the ability to move more quickly on everything.
"Speaking for myself as a first-time Cabinet minister it is frustrating the pace at which things can move through the bureaucracy, having said that I think we have achieved a lot," he said, adding that a sound platform has been established in the first year.
The first plank of the report focused on the creation of a social net to ease the burden for the most vulnerable Jamaicans while re-establishing economic stability.
This covers the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), phases one and two; removal of General Consumption Tax on electricity bills; tax and pension reforms, debt management and a right-sized, more cost-efficient Government.
"It is in this section that the majority of matters that would need to be addressed to allow for the successful completion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement are addressed; the same critical matters that we have to get right as a country whether a deal is completed in the short term or not," Bunting said.
The second plank examines the repositioning of the economy to create a clear path to growth and development.
"The second plank is critical and will be one of the main focus areas of our Cabinet retreat," Bunting said.
Pointing to the four industries highlighted in the party's manifesto — ICT, manufacturing, agriculture and tourism — Bunting said the first year was spent laying the foundation with an important element being the government's efforts to establish Jamaica as a major logistics hub in the Americas.
This, he said, will facilitate not only trans-shipment but ICT and manufacturing companies to set up operations here.
The third plank addresses the creation of a framework that facilitates genuine participation for better governance while the fourth looks at the development of social infrastructure to support sustained growth.
Noting that no growth can take place without people, Bunting said for an individual to contribute to the growth of their country they must be educated, feel safe, be healthy and have a sense of identity. As such, Bunting said the administration has begun to make Jamaica a safer place and have started to address the issues of violence against children and a reduction in crime.
The fifth plank is continued physical infrastructural developments to support an environment of growth. This entails the continued construction of Highway 2000, expansion of the ports to take advantage of significant trans-shipment trade opportunities, increased affordable housing opportunities for Jamaicans and improved water supply.
Deputy General Secretary Julian Robinson, who noted that this is the first ever such report card from a governing party or a government in Jamaica's history, said the party intends to make this an annual event.
"This is a new annual tradition for us in keeping with our commitment to participation, accountability and responsibility, what we call PAR in our Progressive Agenda," he said.
Party Chairman Robert Pickersgill, meanwhile, said the party intends to honour the mantra established by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller that the party and Government are consultative, inclusive and will maintain a constant and open dialogue with the people of Jamaica.
"With 12 months of the maximum 60 for the first term of the current administration having passed, and as the prime minister objectively expressed, it has not been a perfect year, yet we believe it prudent and important to engage in this self-assessment and to make the results of that assessment public," he said.
Source: Jamaica Observer
Premier Ewing and Fortis TCI Team meet
Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands, Dr. The Hon. Rufus W. Ewing on Tuesday January 8, 2013, met with the management team of Fortis TCI to make acquaintances and to discuss matters relating to the energy sector and in particular the high cost of electricity.
The Premier, along with Minister of Finance, Hon. Washington Misick and Minister of Government Support Services (GSS) Hon. George Lightbourne, met with the Fortis team headed by President and CEO Mr. Stan Marshall, and Messers Edington Powell and Allan Robinson.
The Premier spoke of the high cost of electricity to consumers and the need for the creation of policies that would result in the sustainable reduction of electricity cost to TCI consumers. Also discussed were the factors that contributed to the high cost of electricity. The meeting also analyzed possible solutions including reducing the cost of fuel importation, and improving energy efficiency in homes. The men discussed options that included consumers generating energy from alternative sources and selling back to the grid as well as the possibility of Fortis' commercial generation of alternative energy for sale to consumers.
Premier Ewing said: “It was very important to have met the President and CEO of Fortis parent company out of Canada, to outline first-hand the challenges faced by the consumers in the TCI and to hear the concerns of Fortis and foster a working relationship that is mutually beneficial that would result in a significant and sustainable reduction in the cost of electricity to our consumers”
In his contribution, Minister Lightbourne noted that some consumers have been forced to use their entire salaries to pay electricity bills. He urged the Fortis leadership to “hear the cries of the people”.
Minister Lightbourne and his team of Permanent Secretary Mr. Wesley Clerveaux and Electricity Commissioner Mr. Malike Cummings agreed to focus on the development of a new energy policy along the lines of the solutions that were discussed.
For their part, Fortis TCI welcomed the ideas and suggestion by the TCI Government officials noting that efforts are being made and that they are willing to work collaboratively with TCIG to address the concerns of all parties.
The meeting was held at the Premier’s Office inside the NJS Francis Building, Grand Turk. Also in attendance was Mr. Ronlee James, the Premier’s Head of Secretariat.