Daily Mail: Britain’s violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it is revealed today.
Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa - widely considered one of the world’s most dangerous countries.
The figures comes on the day new Home Secretary Alan Johnson makes his first major speech on crime, promising to be tough on loutish behaviour.
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“Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and other countries have so far resisted giving restitution of heirless property, citing laws stating it belongs to the state. But Jewish delegates said the Holocaust was a unique occurrence beyond normal legal provisions.”
Haaretz: East European nations yesterday stated for the first time that heirless Jewish property should be used to aid needy Holocaust survivors. The statement was the final and joint resolution of the Holocaust Era Assets Conference, which ended yesterday in Prague.
“In some states heirless property could serve as a basis for addressing the material necessities of needy Holocaust survivors,” said the 10-page declaration, signed by 46 countries including Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
Retired diplomat Reuven Merhav, who put together Israel’s delegation, told Haaretz the declaration was “a historic and great achievement for Israel”
The Jerusalem Post: In a sign of growing concern in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government over US President Barack Obama’s Middle East policies, Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled proposed Israeli sanctions on the US in a letter to cabinet ministers on Sunday.
In the 11-page letter, obtained by The Jerusalem Post from a minister on Monday, Peled recommends steps Israel can take to compensate for the shift in American policy, which he believes has become hostile to Israel.
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Haaretz: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a Fourth of July celebration at the home of American ambassador to Israel James Cunningham on Wednesday, and said that the bond between Israel and the U.S. was still strong.
Amid tension with the long-time ally over West Bank settlement construction, the prime minister declared that the sentiments voiced by U.S. President Barack Obama, who said in Cairo last month that his country’s bond with Israel was unbreakable, were true.
The prime minister also warned that the world order could break down if tyrannical regimes were to obtain weapons of mass destruction.
Guardian: Senior prosecutors are calling for the laws on race hate crimes to be strengthened to counter the threat posed by the British National party.
The threshold for securing a conviction is so high that far-right activists are able to evade prosecution for material that many people would consider to be threatening and racist, according to sources at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Prosecutors blame the lack of convictions on the strict legal test, which requires showing an intention to “stir up racial hatred” or a likelihood that racial tension would be stirred up.
The offence, which was created under the Public Order Act, only applies to acts that take place or are witnessed in public so it does not cover leaflets that are pushed through people’s letter boxes. It also offers no protection against the publication of inaccurate or false information.
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DailyMail: At least 85 Islamic sharia courts are operating in Britain, a study claimed yesterday.
The astonishing figure is 17 times higher than previously accepted.
The tribunals, working mainly from mosques, settle financial and family disputes according to religious principles.They lay down judgments which can be given full legal status if approved in national law courts.
However, they operate behind doors that are closed to independent observers and their decisions are likely to be unfair to women and backed by intimidation, a report by independent think-tank Civitas said.
Commentators on the influence of sharia law often count only the five courts in London, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham and Nuneaton that are run by the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, a body whose rulings are enforced through the state courts under the 1996 Arbitration Act.
But the study by academic and Islamic specialist Denis MacEoin estimates there are at least 85 working tribunals.
EJP: Lithuania is to delay payments froms a compensation fund for Jewish property seized by the Nazis during World War II and kept by the state in the Soviet era, a government spokesman said Monday.
“The government has decided that compensation payouts will begin in 2012, because of the economic crisis, and will continue for 10 years,” Ridas Jasulionis told AFP after a cabinet meeting.
Under rules drawn up in March, and yet to be approved by parliament, Lithuania had decided to start payouts in 2011 in an attempt to settle the vexed issue of compensation for property seized from the Jewish community before the Holocaust.
The Lithuanian government has been slashing public spending in the face of a crisis which is expected to see the economy shrink by 18.2 percent this year. Under the compensation plan, the state pledged to pay out 113 million litas (33 million euros, 46 million dollars) — about one third of the value of such property — from a government fund up to 2021.
EUObserver: The Czech social democrat party is discussing the possibility of suspending president Vaclav Klaus’ powers if he does not sign the EU’s Lisbon treaty.
The temporary suspension would require a simple majority of 41 votes in the country’s 81-seat senate and would allow caretaker prime minister Jan Fischer to sign the document instead.
Social democrat senator Alena Gajduskova is leading an “intensive debate” on the subject in her party, the secretary of the senate’s constitutional commission, Jan Kysela, told EUobserver.
Ms Gajduskova’s campaign is also linked to president Klaus’ refusal to sign off on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which was ratified by the Czech parliament in October 2008.
EUObserver: Czech President Vaclav Klaus has pledged to be the last in the EU to sign the Lisbon Treaty, raising fears about the future of the document which has been several painful years in the making.
The Czech parliament has approved the treaty, but the president’s signature is needed to complete the process, a fact that the eurosceptic Mr Vaclav has dangled over the rest of the member states on several occasions.
“I will certainly not rush,” Mr Klaus told Czech Radio, reports DPA. “I will certainly wait until after all those things about which I have talked about, which include a constitutional complaint by our senators … happen.”
“The Irish have not voted again. Poland has not signed the Lisbon Treaty, and Germany has not signed the Lisbon Treaty. So I am not the last Mohican who is fighting against all,” he said.
Haaretz: A sad fate awaits a towering tree believed to have been Adolf Hitler’s gift to the occupied town of Jaslo - planted to the sound of a Nazi band during World War II.
Town authorities now want it cut down and burned to make way for a new roundabout. But some residents have become attached to the 40-foot (12-meter) oak and are lobbying to save it.
“The tree has not hurt anyone and is not guilty of anything,” protest organizer Kazimierz Polak said, adding that his group was appealing to local and regional authorities to preserve the tree.
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“It is growing healthy and tall. Let it grow.”
But Mayor Maria Kurowska said it was a reminder of Jaslo’s connection to Hitler, whose Nazi troops razed the town in late 1944 as the Soviet Army advanced.
Les mer haaretz.com
Ola Wnuczek, a 6-years old Polish girl tries to find her mother. The mother Małgorzata Wnuczek left Poland in 2005 to work in Leicester, the United Kingdom. She has never been seen after 2006.
More information about the missing woman Małgorzata Wnuczek onwww.missingpeople.org.uk
July 3rd, 2009
Daily Mail: Britain’s violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it is revealed today.
Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa - widely considered one of the world’s most dangerous countries.
The figures comes on [...]
July 2nd, 2009
“Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and other countries have so far resisted giving restitution of heirless property, citing laws stating it belongs to the state. But Jewish delegates said the Holocaust was a unique occurrence beyond normal legal provisions.”
Haaretz: East European nations yesterday stated for the first time that heirless Jewish property should be used to aid [...]
July 1st, 2009
The Jerusalem Post: In a sign of growing concern in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government over US President Barack Obama’s Middle East policies, Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled proposed Israeli sanctions on the US in a letter to cabinet ministers on Sunday.
In the 11-page letter, obtained by The Jerusalem Post from a minister on Monday, Peled recommends [...]
June 30th, 2009
Guardian: Senior prosecutors are calling for the laws on race hate crimes to be strengthened to counter the threat posed by the British National party.
The threshold for securing a conviction is so high that far-right activists are able to evade prosecution for material that many people would consider to be threatening and racist, according to [...]
June 29th, 2009
Telegraph: Britain is no longer a Christian nation and the Church of England could die out within a generation, an Anglican bishop has warned.
The Rt Rev Paul Richardson said declining church attendance and the rise in multiculturalism meant that “Christian Britain is dead“.
He criticised his fellow bishops for failing to appreciate the scale of the [...]
June 28th, 2009
EJP: Lithuania is to delay payments froms a compensation fund for Jewish property seized by the Nazis during World War II and kept by the state in the Soviet era, a government spokesman said Monday.
“The government has decided that compensation payouts will begin in 2012, because of the economic crisis, and will continue for 10 [...]
June 27th, 2009
EUObserver: The Czech social democrat party is discussing the possibility of suspending president Vaclav Klaus’ powers if he does not sign the EU’s Lisbon treaty.
The temporary suspension would require a simple majority of 41 votes in the country’s 81-seat senate and would allow caretaker prime minister Jan Fischer to sign the document instead.
Social democrat senator [...]
June 25th, 2009
Haaretz: A sad fate awaits a towering tree believed to have been Adolf Hitler’s gift to the occupied town of Jaslo - planted to the sound of a Nazi band during World War II.
Town authorities now want it cut down and burned to make way for a new roundabout. But some residents have become attached [...]
June 25th, 2009
Ola Wnuczek, a 6-years old Polish girl tries to find her mother. The mother Małgorzata Wnuczek left Poland in 2005 to work in Leicester, the United Kingdom. She has never been seen after 2006.
More information about the missing woman Małgorzata Wnuczek on www.missingpeople.org.uk
Multimedia
Harvest of Despair - Hungerholocaust in Ukraine
The Israel lobby - The influence of AIPAC on US Foreign Policy
“Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania and other countries have so far resisted giving restitution of heirless property, citing laws stating it belongs to the state. 
Guardian: Senior prosecutors are calling for the laws on race hate crimes to be strengthened to counter the threat posed by the British National party.
Telegraph: Britain is no longer a Christian nation and the Church of England could die out within a generation, an Anglican bishop has warned.
EJP: Lithuania is to delay payments froms a compensation fund for Jewish property seized by the Nazis during World War II and kept by the state in the Soviet era, a government spokesman said Monday.
EUObserver: The Czech social democrat party is discussing the possibility of suspending president Vaclav Klaus’ powers if he does not sign the EU’s Lisbon treaty.
