You are very welcome.
Engine Fire forces Jet landing soon after take off
An American Airlines MD-80 jet had to be landed back soon after it took
off
from the St. Louis’ airport when one of its two engines caught fire.
Reportedly, the problem was in the aircraft’s left engine. After
landing
safely, the plane was quickly evacuated on the runway itself.
Fire crews at the Lambert Airport snuffed out the fire with
flame-retardant
foam.
No injuries were reported among the 137 passengers, two pilots and
three
flight attendants who were aboard the plane.
Flight 1400 took off at 2:12 p.m. EDT and was headed for Chicago’s
O’Hare
International Airport. It had to be brought back on the ground within
30
minutes, said Mary Frances Fagan, a spokeswoman for American Airlines.
“It had a left-hand engine fire that occurred after take-off. The
aircraft
returned to Lambert International safely. No one was hurt, and the
passengers were evacuated on stairs,” Fagan said.
Passengers and the crew were safely taken into the terminal.
American Airlines said that its maintenance will examine the aircraft
and
try to find out the cause of the fire.
A jet engine specialist along with one other investigator will be sent
by
the National Transportation Safety Board, agency spokesman Peter
Knudson
said.
http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20070930/engine_fire_forces_jet_landing_soon_after_take_off-id-1010407.html
[Why would the truck be in the path of the plane?]
Jet wing hits Logan fuel truck
BOSTON — An airplane arriving at Logan’s Terminal A hit a fuel truck
around
noon Sunday.
The aircraft was a Delta Airlines Canadair Regional Jet.
It was coming into the gate when the left wing tip hit the outside
mirror of
the truck
No one was hurt. The 48 passengers and three crew members were taken
off the
aircraft.
There was no major damage to the plane and very minor damage to the
fuel
truck, according to a Massport spokesperson.
http://www3.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO63404/
Israir, Alitalia passenger planes nearly crash at B-G airport
A serious airplane accident was averted at the last minute on Sunday at
Ben
Gurion International Airport when an Israir aircraft was preparing to
land
at the same time an Alitalia passenger plane was about to take off from
the
same runway.
The Alitalia aircraft had apparently entered the airport’s only
operational
runway accidentally, without being instructed to do so.
El Al pilots who were waiting for takeoff behind the Italian plane
noticed
the mistake and immediately reported the imminent crash to the control
tower. The control tower in turn hurried to warn the Israir pilot not
to
land in order to avoid a crash.
The Israel Airports Authority launched an investigation into the
incident,
which it termed a serious safety failure.
In August, a report on the investigation of another near collision at
Ben
Gurion Airport, which occurred on February 8, revealed serious safety
violations and antiquated equipment at the airport as the result of
neglected infrastructure.
According to report, although a great deal of money was invested in the
construction of a new terminal, no funds went towards improving the
runways
and control tower, and only one of the airport’s three runways is
equipped
for automated landing.
In addition, the physical conditions at the airport make it difficult
for
the control tower to rectify the flight paths of planes flying too
close to
each other.
The report recommended installing equipment for automated landing in
all the
runways and building a new control tower or renovating the old one, as
well
as reconsidering its location.
Copy-Cat Bali In Male - International Terrorism Monitor-—Paper No. 285
Paper no. 2396
01-Oct-2007
By B. Raman
http://saag.org/%5Cpapers24%5Cpaper2396.html
Twelve foreign tourists—— eight Chinese, two Japanese and two
British-—
were injured in an explosion on September 29, 2007, in a park near the
main
mosque in the Maldives capital of Male. It is not yet known whether the
Chinese were from mainland China or elsewhere. Nor is it known whether
the
explosion specifically targeted the foreign tourists or whether the
tourists
just happened to be near the scene when the explosion took place. The
local
police, however, seem to suspect that the blast was meant to target
foreign
tourists and affect the flow of tourists to the country. So far, no one
has
claimed responsibility for the blast.
2. The Friends of Maldives (FOM), a non-Governmental organisation,
which
has been supporting the pro-democracy movement in the Islands, has
strongly
refuted insinuations allegedly made by President Abdul Gayoom and a
Government spokesman that the FOM, which, according to them, has been
carrying on a Boycott of Tourism to the Maldives campaign, might have
been
behind the blast. In a statement, Mr. David Hardingham, the founder of
the
FOM, has stated as follows: “The FOM has never requested tourists NOT
to
visit the Maldives .The FOM campaign asks tourists to choose a resort
not
closely associated with the repressive Regime of President Maumoon
Abdul
Gayoom.
FOM understands that the bombing has potentially significant
ramifications
for the Maldives tourism industry and in solidarity with the people of
the
Maldives, the FOM has decided on a temporary suspension of the FOM
Selected
Resorts Boycott Campaign. This will be reviewed at the end of October
2007.
The FOM maintains the importance of the installation of a liberal and
democratic Maldives where tourism and free enterprise can flourish and
prosper. The current dictatorship and their refusal to allow a real
democracy and respect for human rights will continue to create an
environment where criminal activity and extremism will flourish. The
international community must be more active in this regard.”
3. According to the local media, the improvised explosive device (IED)
used
in the blast consisted of a gas cylinder, a washing machine motor and a
mobile telephone. It is not yet clear whether the mobile telephone was
used
as a remote control device or as a timer. Automobile fuel, gas
cylinders and
mobile telephones were also used by the jihadi terrorists-—one of them
an
Indian Muslim from Bangalore-— who attempted to stage terrorist
strikes in
London and Glasgow in the last week of June, 2007. The Maldivian Police
claim to have detained two persons for questioning. They are also
reportedly
examining the pictures in the Closed Circuit TV cameras installed in
the
park.
4. Since 9/11, there have been reports of the spread of fundamentalist
ideas
to the Maldives from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. In 2002, a 28-year-old
Maldivian national named Ibrahim Fauzee was arrested in Karachi,
Pakistan,
and taken to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba by the US’
Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on suspicion of his having links with Al
Qaeda. As his interrogation did not confirm this suspicion, the FBI
sent him
to the Maldives. He lives in Male and is subject to regular police
surveillance.
5. In the spring of 2006, the Maldivian authorities announced the
arrest in
Sri Lanka of three Maldivians-two women and a man-who were allegedly on
their way to a jihadi training camp in Pakistan, but they were not
prosecuted for want of satisfactory evidence. Fatimah Nisreen, a
policeman’s
daughter, was accused of helping them to go to Pakistan, but she
refuted
this allegation.
6. Ahmed Shah, a Maldivian national, was reported to have attended a
training camp of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) at Muridke, near Lahore. He
was
deported to the Maldives by the Pakistani authorities. In April last
year,
seven young Maldivians were arrested by the Maldives Police on a charge
of
encouraging other Maldivians to wage jihad abroad, but they were not
prosecuted for want of evidence.
7. Himendhoo, one of the outlying islands, has been described as a
centre
for Wahabism. A Hindu school teacher working in the island was
allegedly
beaten up badly by Wahabi elements last year.
8. For over a year now, the local Wahabis of the island have been
refusing
to obey Ibrahim Abrahman, the Government-appointed chief cleric in the
island. They have declined to pray in the Government-maintained mosque.
They
constructed their own mosque, which was demolished by the Government.
They
built another. Cassettes containing the video and audio messages of
Osama
bin Laden and his No.2. Ayman al-Zawahiri freely circulate in the
island and
nearby islands. Some students from the island, who were studying in the
Lal
Masjid of Islamabad, were reported to have recently returned home after
the
Lal Masjid was raided by the Pakistani commandos between July 10 and
13,
2007. They have also been spreading stories of what is projected as the
glorious martyrdom of the girl students of the Lal Masjid’s madrasa for
girls.
9. Saudi money has funded the construction of a high school in Male,
called
the Islamic Studies Institute, where the students are taught, inter
alia,
the Arabic language. This is becoming another centre for the spread of
Wahabism.
10. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has also been using the
Maldives as a transit point for its arms smuggling activities for many
years. There were reports of the Maldivian authorities co-operating
with the
Sri Lankan Navy in some of its recent operations to disrupt arms
smuggling
by the LTTE. Thus, the LTTE has reasons for anger against the Maldivian
authorities.
http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2007/09/analysis_the_fi.php
- The Fires in Iran
Saturday, 29 September, 2007 @ 11:46 PM
By: Mshari Al-Zaydi
Beirut / Tehran - There is no exaggeration in saying that the waters of
the
Arabian Gulf are set to reach a boiling point again.
nasrallah & ahmedinijad.jpgSigns of a war between Iran and the US are
looming on the horizon. Iran’s Supreme Guide is adopting a threatening
rhetoric, while America has announced that it is setting up a military
group
called Checkmate, which is part of the United States Air Force.
[Checkmate
is a highly confidential strategic planning group whose task includes
providing innovative strategies for warfighting and assessing future
needs
for air, space and cyberwarfare ].
Only a miracle or magic can prevent this war from happening, such as
Iran
declaring absolutely and unequivocally that it has renounced its
revolutionary policies and nuclear ambitions under [Mahmoud]
Ahmadinejad and
[Ali] Khamenei’s regime. The other alternative is if the US and the
West
were to completely surrender to Iran, which would make it the leader of
the
entire Gulf region.
Both options, realistically speaking, will not happen, which is why
only a
supernatural force can prevent this war from happening.
Iran’s crisis is a grave one. It is one that involves history, a
specific
role, and culture and nationalism î º but this is another issue
altogether.
What is happening today is more modern than that; it is the crisis born
of a
fundamentalist regime that has reached a deadlock. Thus, the only
option
left is confrontation, here and there and between this party and that.
The war of statements has begun: media missiles have been launched and
the
battle of nerves has erupted. We find the Supreme Guide saying last
Saturday, as reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), that
the
enemy’s reiteration of threats aims to intimidate and spread alarm and
fear,
furthermore adding that, & “Contrary to the enemys expectations, we are
increasing our level of preparation.”
Hossein Shariatmadari, media advisor to Khamenei and the
editor-in-chief of
the conservative Kayhan newspaper, which is closely associated with the
Supreme Guide (who personally appoints the publication’s
editor-in-chief),
was asked by an American journalist for the New York Times if Bahrain
was
simply a part of Iran. The question was broached since it was
Shariatmadari
who had introduced that idea in an article previously published by
Kayhan
mid-July of last year.
Shariatmadari laughed in response to the question and referring to the
entire Gulf region, he said that it wasn’t only Bahrain but that,”
these
states are not even 200 years old,” and that, “they were small states
where
the sheikhs live a life of leisure.” Within the context of the media
war, he
accused most Gulf States of “compliance with the Zionist entity,
cooperating
with it whilst turning a blind eye towards the crime it has committed”
(al
Qabas newspaper, Kuwait, 18 July 2007).
First Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, Mohammad Reza Bahonar,
told
the Lebanese As-Safir newspaper that threatening his country will lead
to
“;setting the whole region on fire.”Meanwhile, former commander of the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Yahya Rahim Safawi, pointed
out
that Irans missiles were long ranging.
During this time, Ahmadinejad is traveling all over the world; he went
to
New York to beautify the face of the fundamentalist regime and to add a
cosmetic touch. The Iranian government spokesman [Gholam-Hossein Elham]
had
stated that Ahmadinejad intended to visit the Ground Zero site in New
York.
But let us not forget that the”gracious” Ahmadinejad had supervised
over a
military parade in Iran before traveling to the US in which Iranian
forces
flexed their muscles and announced that they possessed new missiles
with a
near 2000-kilometer range. The parade was drowned amidst the cheers and
war
cries of the audience present.
Iran is provocative; and with every passing day as the crisis deepens,
the
tension escalates amongst Tehran’s rulers, its Supreme Guide and his
associates amidst the conservative mullahs and the “hawk” president of
their
government Ahmadinejad.
Aside from the Iranian propaganda with all its psychological
dimensions,
Iran is capable of doing some things. It has repeatedly upheld that it
will
set the region on fire if it was deprived of its right to possess a
nuclear
weapon, which it publicly claims is for peaceful purposes!
In a previous interview with Hossein Shariatmadari, conducted by
journalist
Manal Lutfi for Asharq Al-Awsat (26 March 2007), he said that in the
event
of a strike against Iran that they, “were militarily ready and prepared
for
anything. I believe that if anything were to happen that the Americans
and
Israelis would regret it. Hezbollah is but a sample of what could
happen; we
can compare it with what we can do.”
This is an explicit statement that the fundamentalist Iran has been
using
the Lebanese party Hezbollah to serve its defense policy outside of
Iran by
virtue of its ideological “cloning” and its tight arms and financial
ties î
º secretly via Syria, of course!
But subordination to Tehran’s mullah system is not denied even among
Hezbollah’s leadership. Suffice it to mention two examples; on one
occasion,
in March 1997, the official spokesman for Hezbollah, Ibrahim al Amin
said,
“we are not part of Iran: We are Iran in Lebanon, and Lebanon in Iran,”
as
published in “al Nahar” newspaper.
Another example is when Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan
Nasrallah,
previously said in al Muqawama (Resistance) magazine, which is the
mouthpiece of the party’s military wing, that, the religious authority
there
(Iran) constitutes the religious and legitimate cloak for our
resistance and
struggle.”(al Muqawama magazine, edition 27, p. 15-16)
If indeed as Shariatmadari says that the Lebanese Hezbollah with all
its
soldiers and arms and its “absolute” ideological loyalty to the Supreme
Guide is only a “sample” of Iran s capabilities î º then what about
other
models?!
We must not, then, underestimate the gravity of the situation.
But some may say “why go to war in the first place?” Aren’t the
Americans,
along with Britain and France the aggressors? Didn’t the French Foreign
Minister, [Bernard] Kouchner warn that the world must prepare itself
for a
war against Iran (19 September 2007).
The truth is that the regime in Iran is a “quandary” Whatever honeyed
words
[Ali] Larijani and [Manouchehr] Mottaki use to gloss it over î º it is
a
fundamentalist revolutionary expansionist regime that is based on the
ancient concept of “imperialism”;. To understand the extent of the
regime’s
detrimental nature, it is enough to remember what it has done to
Lebanon and
Iraq.
For Iraq, Wilayat al Faqih [Guardianship of the Jurists] expressed joy
at
the fall of Saddam’s regime at the hands of Bush “the fool”, in the
words of
Shariatmadari. This paved the way for unleashing “exceptional
capabilities”,vaccording to Shariatmadari, against the fundamentalist
Iraqi
Shia opposition.
“Presently, those who were exiled in Iran for decades are the people in
power in Iraq today. This is an important factor, and a third advantage
in
our interest” , said the editor-in-chief of “Kayhan”; in the Asharq
Al-Awsat
interview previously mentioned.
Iran is dangerous, very dangerous, and this is without nuclear power î
º
what will the case be if it did have nuclear power?!
However, away from the glossy words and courtesies, it is in the best
interest of the Gulf States, and even Egypt and Jordan, that the
revolutionary Iran does not gain power to that extent, especially since
the
region is witnessing upheaval and chaos caused by the fundamentalist
forces
which threaten “all” Arab states without exception. This includes the
states
that flirt with them and grant them a satellite television channel! It
knows
well that if Iran decided to set the Gulf on fire that it will be the
first
country to be set aflame in the east.
If wishful thinking could come true then we would wish that no war
would
happen. “Enough problems in the region” like Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak said. We would also have hoped that Iran adopt a more moderate
attitude and that it abandon the policy of sabotage and the agitation
of
radical extremist forces î º but hoping is one thing and reality
another.
If the guesses and expectations among the knowledgeable circles are
accurate, then the winds of war presently carry clouds of fire. It
might
rupture and wreak havoc about a year from now, perhaps at the end of
next
summer at the latest. If this war were to take place, with all the
ugliness
entailed, it will serve to loosen the fist whose grip cripples Iraq and
Lebanon. It is hoped that Lebanon and Iraq may be freed of all grips
that
seek to regress them, whether Shia or Sunni.
No one wishes for a war; it is reprehensible and harrowing. But history
is
full of wars, and despite the tragedies in their aftermath, they were
responsible for guiding the course of history î º whether we like it or
not.
We cannot envisage the world if World War II had not taken place and
the
Nazis had not been vanquished, or if the war that expelled Saddam
Hussein’s
forces from Kuwait had not occurred, or if Napoleon’s war against the
Mamluks had not happened, and the ensuing repercussions of this French
intervention on all Mohamed Ali’s accomplishments in all fields. What
would
the world have been like if the Thirty Years War between Catholics and
Protestants in Germany did not take place? It ended with the Peace of
Westphalia [Treaty of Münster and the Treaty of Osnabrück] in 1648,
which
was the paradigm that helped shape modern political thought in terms of
the
contemporary concept of the state.
War is sometimes bloody; however with the spilled blood an infection is
purged, which if left unattended would slowly kill the rest of the
body.
picture: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad( L) and Hezbollah leader
Hassan Nasrallah
sources: aawsat.com
Interfax: Putin agrees to head United Russia election ticket
Putin agrees to head United Russia election ticket
MOSCOW. Oct 1 (Interfax) - President Vladimir Putin “thankfully”
accepted a proposal by the pro-Kremlin United Russia on Monday that he
head its ticket for December’s State Duma elections.
United Russia “can and must become an effective instrument for
achieving
social stability and for making the future parliament and the entire
state system effective, be an initiator of development and provide
support for executive bodies of government in implementing all their
plans,” Putin told a United Russia congress in Moscow.
“It is, of course, possible and necessary to speak about this.
Therefore, I thankfully accept your proposal that I should head the
United Russia ticket,” he said.
With other words, the little dictator is going to be prime minister
under a puppet president. One can only hope on behalf of the people of
Moscow and the North Caucasus that this manoeuvre won’t need another
bloody provocation to succeed. N.S.[person who posted this to the group]
To visit group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/
http://visalawcanada.blogspot.com/
Monday, October 1, 2007
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WARNED ABOUT SCAM
This article appeared on the weekend in the St. Petersburg Times , FL, and it should serve as a warning to all those who are being duped by unscrupulous immigration consultants who promise”asylum” in Canada for illegals currently in the US :
Canada offers illegal immigrants no easy asylum
Illegal immigrants hear that they will be welcomed. Instead, they may be deported.
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff WriterPublished September 30, 2007
NAPLES — After years of waiting, Daniel Gaspar was finally hearing what he thought impossible.
The Guatemalan man could get asylum. Not here in the United States, but in Canada.
Sitting in a crowded Bonita Springs church, Gaspar listened as a man explained how he had helped Haitians make the move, and how he also could help Hispanics, like Gaspar.
Frustrated by dead ends with his case and fearful of stepped-up immigration raids, Gaspar packed his bags.
“I’ve been here so many years, if they offer me hope, I’m willing to sell everything here to start new,” he told friends.
Gaspar, 30, is one of hundreds of illegal immigrants, mostly Mexicans from southwest Florida, who have streamed into Canada the past several weeks. Many, like Gaspar, were sent by Jacques Sinjuste, general director of the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center Inc. of Naples.
The allure is great: Sinjuste promises they’ll find legal work, free from worry about immigration raids. They’ll also get help with rent and living expenses until they’re on their feet.
Mexican immigrants who made the trip in the past month have called back to friends and family with good news. It’s all true, they say. Canadians put them up at the Ramada Inn, helped them find a place to live, even brought them breakfast.
What they don’t know is their good fortune is temporary — maybe a year or so. Canadian officials say some immigrants do get living assistance and a work permit, but only because their refugee applications are pending. Some get deported immediately.
Chances of a permanent stay are slim, they said.
Gaspar, who lived in the United States for 16 years after fleeing war-torn Guatemala, abandoned his lawn care business, bought a $287 plane ticket to Vermont and paid the Haitian man $400 for his paperwork.
Within a week of crossing into Canada in a taxi, Gaspar was deported to Guatemala.
Canadian officials told him they were puzzled by his paperwork, he said.
“They are not sure what is the law,” Gaspar said of the Haitian center from his family’s home in Guatemala. “They should tell people the truth. I know they are making a lot of money.”
Long-term impact
The recent influx has sparked concern in Canada, where officials worry that U.S. immigration woes could start spilling across the border.
If the rumor spreads unfettered, Canada could be overwhelmed, said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees.
“What the people in Canada are worried about is the long-term impact,” she said.
Even 1 percent of 12-million illegal immigrants estimated to be in the United States would make a huge impact, she said.
Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been trying to warn immigrants.
“Don’t believe it and don’t pay hundreds of dollars,” Benitez tells the listeners of the coalition’s low-wattage radio station.
He says immigrants walk into the coalition’s office off Main Street looking for paperwork to apply for Canadian refugee status and citizenship.
Every few years a new scam turns up, he said. Immigrants are particularly vulnerable now, he added, because of the failed immigration reform bill and stepped up enforcement.
In August, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office trained 20 deputies to enforce immigration law.
But Benitez is one of the few voices competing against a wave of misinformation.
Now it’s not just the Haitian center offering help to get to Canada. Others around Florida promise the same.
Down Main Street in Immokalee, tucked into a law office for workers’ compensation, Gloria Hernandez works as a paralegal.
She praised the program in the local Spanish-language weekly Gaceta Tropical. She saw it with her own eyes, she said in the mid September edition.
Hernandez, who heads the newly formed Immigrants United for a Free Immokalee, decided to make the trip because many workers were asking questions about paperwork filled out by the Haitian center.
She didn’t know what to tell them.
So she followed two trucks and a van full of immigrants headed to Canada with paperwork and a map provided by the Haitian center. She watched them cross the border, she said.
Hernandez said she talked to a Canadian border crossing guard who told her that Canada was admitting the immigrants as refugees. So she came back and started holding community meetings in Immokalee to spread the word.
Lawyers and other community activists around west-central Florida have been calling her for more information about the program, she said.
When told by a St. Petersburg Times reporter what Canadian officials had to say, she was alarmed.
“I need to know so I can tell workers that,” she said. “I don’t want to get them deported.”
To worker Miguel Orea, Canada was still the promised land.
If immigrants get deported after a year of living and working legally in Canada, that’s still better than what they find in Florida, he said.
“There’s no work here,” Orea, 22, said recently, standing outside Radio Road Plaza in Naples.
He and three other men, all in soiled shirts, work in construction, where jobs have all but dried up, they said.
Orea said his friends paid the Haitian center $400 each for paperwork for themselves and their three children. They left last month.
Overwhelmed Ontario
Complaints have led the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to launch an investigation into Sinjuste and the Haitian center.
Sinjuste, a Haitian immigrant who founded the nonprofit in 2000, did not return calls.
However, earlier this month he told the New York Times he did not encourage immigrants to seek asylum in Canada. He merely helped them fill out forms, describing the $400 they paid as a “donation.”
Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees said she has been tracking complaints regarding the Haitian center for more than a year.
“They had on their Web site that we had an ‘economic refugee program,’” she said. The center took that down after complaints, she added.
Eddie Francis, mayor of Windsor, Ontario, said Sinjuste flew up to meet with him Friday.
The two men spoke about how the influx of 300-plus immigrants has overwhelmed the city of 220,000.
Men were put up in Salvation Army shelters. Families were placed in hotels until the city could make other arrangements.
They receive help until their case is heard. Because of a backlog, that can take more than a year, Francis said.
“You need to communicate with people that their possibilities of settling here are low,” Francis said he told Sinjuste. “He said he doesn’t want to hurt anyone or cause problems and that he’s going to go down there and tell people it’s not a good situation.”
Francis has asked Canada’s federal authorities for financial assistance, as well as help to speed up the refugee hearings.
Windsor and its province have spent more than $300,000 on lodging and other assistance, “a significant drain,” he said.
“That’s why the federal government needs to play a role,” he said. “If they choose not to act immediately, there is going to be the wrong message to send out and there’s going to be more of this taking place in more cities across the country.”
Saundra Amrhein can be reached at amrhein@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2441.
FAST FACTS: Canadian immigration policy
Immigrants trying to obtain refugee status in Canada must show a “well-founded fear of being persecuted” for reasons connected to their race, nationality, religion, political opinion or certain social group membership. Immigrants from certain countries also can be protected from return to their home country if they can show risk of torture, death or cruel punishment.
In 2006, 28 percent of Mexican immigrants who applied for Canadian refugee status received it, compared to 53 percent of Haitians who applied and 47 percent for all groups.
For the first half of 2007, the number for Mexican refugee applicants admitted was just 13 percent.
Immigrants from eight countries, including Haiti, are not sent back to their countries if they are denied because of the turmoil there. Mexico is not on that list.
The current lag time between the date a refugee application is accepted until a decision is made by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada is 14.2 months.
Source: Stephane Malepart, spokesman for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
Posted by Sergio R. Karas at 4:19 AM
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1905000/posts
Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle - Myanmar (Burma)
Daily Mail UK ^ | 2007-1001 | MARCUS OSCARSSON
Posted on 10/01/2007 11:40:02 AM PDT by davidlachnicht
Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma’s ruling junta has revealed.
The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: “Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.”
Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand. (more)
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1905101/posts
West Palm Beach water system cleansing underway, but boil water order continues
South Florida Sun-Sentinel ^ | September 30, 2007 | Marc Freeman and Rhonda J. Miller
Posted on 10/01/2007 4:29:26 PM PDT by CounterCounterCulture
West Palm Beach water system cleansing underway, but boil water order continues
WEST PALM BEACH - Chlorine began flowing this morning to cleanse West Palm Beach’s contaminated water supply, and authorities are still searching for the source of the contamination that prompted a boil water order likely to last through Wednesday.
Affected water customers can help too: At 8 p.m. tonight, people should use plenty of water on long showers, car washes, and clothes washing.
“To flush the system in your house, basically,” said West Palm Beach spokesman Chase Scott.
The boil water alert Friday was for its 125,000 utilities customers who live in the city of West Palm Beach, as well as in the town of Palm Beach and the town of South Palm Beach on the barrier island. But residents across Palm Beach County who weren’t sure of the target area jammed city phone lines.
Water samples from the town of Palm Beach came back negative for contamination, but the boil water order remains in effect, Scott said today.
An elusive source of human or animal waste is to blame, said Assistant City Administrator Ken Rearden. Water from 13 sites tested positive for fecal coliform, total coliform and E. coli bacteria, which could be coming from sewage or bird droppings, Steve Schmidt, laboratory manager for West Palm Beach Public Utilities, said at a news conference Saturday at the water plant on Banyan Boulevard.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1905133/posts
Iran Irreversible?
IBD ^ | October 1, 2007
Posted on 10/01/2007 5:25:04 PM PDT by Kaslin
Nuclear Terrorism: A statement by Tehran’s top nuclear official suggests the terrorist state’s uranium enrichment program is past the point of no return. Could even a full shutdown reverse Iran’s ability to devise a bomb?
The Iraqi-born Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and one of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representatives to the council, stated that the United Nations’ demand that uranium enrichment be halted is futile.
“From a technical point of view, we have reached a stage that no one can take away what we’ve achieved,” Larijani told London’s Financial Times on Sunday. “I’m surprised to hear suspension is still being talked about.”
The same day Larijani delivered his ominous statement, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, in some of his most candid language ever, told delegates of Britain’s Conservative Party that a military strike and regime change should now be under consideration.
“I don’t think the use of military force is an attractive option,” Bolton said, “but I would tell you I don’t know what the alternative is.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...