Eeyore's News and view

Stay away from Bangkok, Britons warned as Thai army opens fire on rioting crowds
The eruption of violence in Bangkok has prompted the UK Foreign Office to warn against travel to the capital.
The warning came amid claims the Thai army was firing hundreds of rounds of live ammunition - some into crowds - in a desperate attempt to contain mass anti-government riots.
The army fired on protesters forcing them to abandon a blockade of a key traffic junction in a first show of strength since an emergency was declared.
The red-shirted protesters had torched a bus and thrown scores of Molotv cocktails at security forces faced off at Din Daeng junction before the army finally retaliated, witnesses said.
Bangkok Medical Centre director Peeraphong Saicheau said 77 people were injured in clashes at the junction, which began just before dawn. Two civilians and two soldiers had gunshot wounds.
The junction is a crucial part of Bangkok's traffic system, although Monday is the start of a three-day holiday for the Thai New Year and many people have already left for the provinces.
Financial markets are shut until Thursday because of the holiday.
Troops moved in with water cannon after protesters loyal to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra poured some kind of fuel on the road, threatening to set it ablaze if soldiers acted.
They eventually pushed the protesters out of the junction, detaining several and stripping them of their trademark red shirts.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday declared a state of emergency, ordering soldiers and armoured vehicles on to the streets.
But red-shirted anti-government protesters went unchecked, with angry mobs roaming parts of the capital, some commandeering public buses to barricade major intersections.
Dozens of men furiously smashed cars thought to be carrying the prime minister as he fled the interior ministry after making the emergency decree.
They used poles, a ladder and even flower pots to smash the cars as nearby police in riot gear stood by doing nothing.
Today, up to 49 people were injured in pre-dawn clashes between soldiers and protesters, according to an emergency centre.
The Foreign Office urged anyone considering a trip to the capital or its surrounding areas to 'urgently review their plans'.
British ambassador to Thailand Quinton Quayle told Sky News: 'As the situation is so volatile we are advising British travellers thinking of coming to Bangkok to urgently review their travel plans.
'British residents and visitors to Bangkok are advised to avoid any areas where demonstrations are taking place and to stay indoors as far as possible.'
The state of emergency is supposed to ban gatherings of more than five people and forbid reporting that is considered threatening to public order.
But following its introduction, ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra called for a revolution.
'Now that they have tanks on the streets, it is time for the people to come out in revolution. And when it is necessary, I will come back to the country,' he said in a telephoned message to followers who surrounded the prime minister's office.
Demonstrators say the prime minister's four-month-old government took power illegitimately.
'It's apparent that we will be surrounded and suppressed by military force. Tear gas and military personnel have been prepared. So we told our people to be ready and be prepared,' said Jakrapop Penkair, a key protest leader.
'If they use force, the people will be our weapon. We are not scared. Abhisit must be ousted immediately.'
Prime Minister Abhisit suffered a political humiliation when the summit he had presented as a sign of the country's return to normality had to be cancelled after red-shirted supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin broke into the venue, sending Asian leaders fleeing by helicopter.
Thaksin's supporters say Abhisit only became premier because of a parliamentary stitch-up engineered by the army. They want new elections, which they would be well placed to win.
They believe the military, judiciary and other unelected officials are undermining democracy by interfering in politics.
The Tourism Council of Thailand predicted the country would lose at least 200 billion baht (5.6 billion US dollars) as foreign tourists avoided the country.
About 812,000 British nationals visited Thailand in 2008, according to the Thai tourism authority.
The country is a magnet for Brits seeking a mix of adventure, culture, beaches and sun.
Advice on the FCO website read: 'In view of the deteriorating security situation anyone considering going to Bangkok should urgently review their plans.
'British residents in, and visitors to, Bangkok are advised to avoid any areas where demonstrations are taking place and to stay indoors as far as possible.'
The FCO estimates that 40,000 British nationals live in Thailand.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1169244/Stay-away-Bangkok-Britons-warned-Thai-army-opens-rioting-crowds.html

Peres makes rare hint at possible strike on Iran
President Shimon Peres had some unusually aggressive words for Iran Sunday, seemingly threatening military action if US President Barack Obama's overtures to the Islamic republic fail to bear fruit.
"Ahmadinejad recruits forces against us, but there are also forces against him," Peres said. "What happened in Egypt created a fierce opposition and we must unify all his opponents - the Sunnis and the Europeans, as well as those afraid of nuclear weapons and terror."
Peres went on to say that he hoped Obama's call for dialogue with Ahmadinejad would be heeded, but warned that if such talks don't soften the Iranian president's approach "we'll strike him."
While refusing to go into detail about the military option to foil Iran's nuclear program, Peres did say that Israel couldn't carry out any strike against the Islamic republic without America.
"We certainly cannot go it alone, without the US, and we definitely can't go against the US. This would be unnecessary," stressed the president.
Peres also referred to the case of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, imprisoned in the US, saying that even if Israel had done more, it wouldn't have secured his release as "until now, all our appeals to America have been answered with an iron wall."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239488114997&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A few articles about bloggers getting arrested or locked up. Most of it is across the water (so far).
18-month sentence sought for SKorean blogger
SEOUL, South Korea – Prosecutors demanded an 18-month sentence Monday for a popular South Korean blogger who is accused of spreading false financial information in a case that has ignited a debate about freedom of speech in cyberspace.
The 30-year-old blogger, a fierce critic of government economic policy, was arrested and indicted in January after he wrote that the government had banned major financial institutions and trade businesses from buying U.S. dollars.
Prosecutors have said the posting was not only inaccurate, but it had affected the foreign exchange market and undermined the nation's credibility.
But opposition parties and critics have claimed the arrest is aimed at silencing criticism of the government and restricts online freedom of speech.
Seoul District Court spokesman Kwon Tae-young said prosecutors demanded 18 months in prison for the blogger, identified as Park Dae-sung, and the court is scheduled to deliver a verdict on April 20.
The charge carries up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won ($38,000).
The blogger, known by his pen name "Minerva" after the Greek goddess of wisdom, had rocketed to fame after some of his predictions, including the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, proved to be correct.
In some 280 postings on bulletin boards on a popular Internet portal last year, he denounced the government's handling of the economy and made largely negative predictions. His writings were sprinkled with jargon that suggested he was an economic expert, and his identity was a hot topic of discussion in South Korea.
Prosecutors said Park is actually an unemployed Seoul resident who studied economics on his own after graduating from a vocational high school and junior college with a major in information and communication.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090413/ap_on_re_as/as_skorea_blogger_2

Blogger becomes casualty of Iran cyber-wars
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The first line of his first blog from Tehran in September 2006 asks: "What is freedom?"
Omidreza Mirsayafi answered his own question. "I don't know," he wrote, "but I know someday I will see its shadow falling on my land."
Two and half years later, from behind the gray walls of Tehran's Evin Prison, he phoned his mother. They talked about his battle with depression behind bars. She asked if he was taking his heart medicine.
A few hours later, on a chilly mid-March evening, the 29-year-old Mirsayafi was dead. He was Iran's first known casualty in the skirmishes between bloggers challenging the Islamic regime and authorities striking back with the tools they know best—imprisonment and intimidation.
This showdown has been building for years in Iran, with bloggers and social network sites becoming the main outlet for everything from hard-edged political dissent to underground videos and music. The role of Iranian bloggers as liberal opinion-shapers could intensify ahead of June 12 elections that will decide whether arch-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad remains for another four years. The outcome also could set the tone for Washington's overtures for dialogue with Tehran, which has so far resisted Western pressure for greater press and Internet freedoms.
"Omidreza is a symbol of many things," said Jillian York, a project coordinator at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, who exchanged e-mails with Mirsayafi in the months before his death. "He is a symbol of the free speech battles within Iran and a symbol that it would get worse."
Dozens of activists are now jailed in Iran, including at least two prominent bloggers. One of them, Hussein Derakhshan, helped ignite the Iranian blog boom in 2001 by posting simple instructions to create sites in Farsi.
What makes Mirsayafi stand out, however, was not his notoriety. It's just the opposite. Mirsayafi had a modest—what could even be called irrelevant—presence in the Iranian blogosphere.
"Omidreza was just an ordinary blogger," said Farhad Moradian, an Iranian Jewish emigre to Israel who writes a blog from Tel Aviv. "This is the big alarm."
A Facebook page in Mirsayafi's memory was formed after his death March 18. It was filled with condolences, rants and shared apprehension.
Said one entry: The "next Mirsayafi could be me."
Mirsayafi was interested in mathematics and physics in high school, and drifted toward journalism after graduating in 1999. He contributed stories on cultural events to several newspapers. For extra money, he moonlighted as a computer technician.
Mirsayafi began his blog—called simply "Rouznegar," or "Diary Writer"—in 2006 as a kind of online salon to concentrate on daily Tehran life, culture and music. "Diary" included interviews with leading Iranian musicians and artists.
But, as is often the case in Iran, he could not avoid politics.
His first post dabbled in general rhetoric about liberty. It was tame stuff compared with the bromides of other bloggers. Over the months, however, Mirsayafi's writing developed more bite. He was shaken particularly by the muzzling of other bloggers.
A post on June 22, 2007 broke the dam. He lashed at authorities by name, including crossing a red line that few dare to even approach: condemning the memory of the late Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Mirsayafi wrote:
"Living in a country whose leader is Khomeini is nauseating.
Living in a country whose president is Ahmadinejad is a big shame."
He went on to skewer other Iranian officials and closed with the line: "Living in a country that calls itself an Islamic Republic is a disgrace."
Mirsayafi knew he entered dangerous territory. But he felt his blog was simply too obscure to draw notice among the hundreds of other Iranian Web writers from inside the country and abroad, say friends and family.
He described what happened next in a letter written earlier this year to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
On April 22, 2008, four officials from Iran's Revolutionary Court came to the small house in eastern Tehran that he shared with his parents. "They searched everywhere and confiscated my computer and personal items," he wrote to Ban. "And I was arrested."
Mirsayafi was accused of insulting Iran's leaders and its Islamic character—charges that can bring years in prison—and was placed in solitary confinement in Evin. His family, meanwhile, reached out to Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, a lawyer who has built a bulldog reputation while defending bloggers and other political activists.
After 40 days, Mirsayafi was released. As a guarantee he wouldn't flee the country, his family offered the deed to property worth about $50,000, said his brother Amir. Mirsayafi's blog site was shut down.
Authorities had been making cyber-raids for years. Their first salvo was attempts to block specific blogs and Web sites. But hackers bypassed the controls by using proxy sites and other Web shortcuts. Then arrests started after the election of Ahmadinejad in 2005.
The media rights group Reporters Without Borders lists 68 bloggers imprisoned around the world, including two in Iran and nearly 50 in China.
The irony is that many Iranian leaders have adapted well to the wired age. Ahmadinejad's office maintains a Web site. So do the Revolutionary Guards, the military enforcers. Political groups send out text messages to supporters' mobile phones. Some Shiite clerics have e-mail addresses.
Mohammed Ali Abtahi, who was a pioneer political blogger as vice president under former President Mohammad Khatami, worries that the assault on Iranian blogs could leave them sanitized of any genuine discourse.
"If the authorities continue with their reprisals, bloggers will start to censor themselves and we'll see only nonpolitical subjects," he said.
But Tehran-based bloggers such as Askan Monfared show no sign of cooling down. He believes the Islamic regime is panicked by its inability to control the Web as it does the mainstream media.
"They cannot distinguish between what's insulting and what is legitimate critique," he said. "There is no civil society until we reach that point."
On Nov. 2, Mirsayafi was brought before the Revolutionary Court. The charges were serious: insulting the country's leaders and making anti-state propaganda. Some expert witnesses said they didn't believe Mirsayafi's blog violated the statutes, according to various reports.
The court disagreed and sentenced him to 30 months in prison. He was allowed at first to remain free while he appealed, but authorities swooped in Feb. 7. His lawyer said there was no warning or explanation.
Mirsayafi was placed in Evin's Cell 7, Hall 5 along with his friend, Abbas Khorsandi, a political activist detained since 2007. Evin is Iran's most notorious lockup and the final stop for those who run afoul of the regime.
In 2003, Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested for taking photographs in front of Evin and died several days later in the prison. An investigative panel concluded Kazemi died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage caused by a "physical attack," but the findings were rejected by Iran's conservative judiciary. And an Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, was sent to Evin in February and was charged this week as a spy.
In Evin, Mirsayafi sometimes talked of suicide, said Shiva Nazar Ahari, secretary of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters in Tehran. He also worried about whether he could get more of the prescription drug Inderal, used to control erratic heart rhythms.
Nazar Ahari said she called Mirsayafi every few days.
"On one of his last conversations with me, he said, `I wish I actually did something real to insult the regime since I ended up in prison anyway,'" she said.
Mirsayafi's sister, Masoumeh, said they both wrote letters to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in early March asking for forgiveness. They never received a reply, she said.
On March 18, Mirsayafi overdosed on tranquilizers supplied by the prison and was only treated in the prison clinic rather than transferred to a hospital, according to reports attributed to an inmate physician, Dr. Hessam Firoozi. Judicial and prison authorities did not reply to repeated requests for comment by The Associated Press.
Firoozi, who is serving a 15-month sentence, called his lawyer. Quickly, word spread from blog to blog, then on to right groups and the international media.
Reporters Without Borders said Mirsayafi's death was a "sad reminder of the fact that the Iranian regime is one of the harshest for journalists and bloggers." Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House, a Washington-based pro-democracy group, said it highlighted the "dangerously inhospitable" climate for bloggers.
Mirsayafi was buried the day after his death. Fellow bloggers joined in a memorial of their own by posting some of his writings. His first blog post was among the most widely cited.
It ended:
"I asked: When will we understand the meaning of freedom?
"I answered: When our wisdom can be delivered from ignorance, selfishness and foolishness."
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97GD1200&show_article=1

Eeyore's News and Views

Glenn Beck makes a very salient point in yesterdays program, he said that Ramos and Compean get the bird as Bush pardons the turkey.
Bush 'pardons' turkeys for last
For the president of the United States, the annual 'pardoning' of the Thanksgiving turkey is dangerous ground. Photos of the event have ranged from the adorable to the goofy to the vaguely horrific, so it's always an event best approached carefully by any White House....
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/11/bush-pardons-tu.html

Researchers: 139 WWII Marines entombed on atoll November 26, 2008 - 3:30am

By MELISSA NELSON Associated Press Writer
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man's quest to find hundreds of U.S. Marines buried anonymously after one of World War II's bloodiest battles could lead to the largest identification of American war dead in history.
Researchers used ground-penetrating radar, tediously reviewed thousands of military documents and interviewed hundreds of others to find 139 graves. There, they say, lie the remains of men who died 65 years ago out in the Pacific Ocean on Tarawa Atoll.
Mark Noah of Marathon, Fla., raised money for the expedition through his nonprofit, History Flight, by selling vintage military aircraft rides at air shows. He hopes the government will investigate further after research is given to the U.S. Defense Department in January _ and he hopes the remains are identified and eventually returned to the men's families.
"There will have to be convincing evidence before we mount an excavation of any spot that could yield remains," said Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon's Prisoner of War and Missing in Action Office.
U.S. government archaeologists would likely excavate a small test site first, he said.
James Clayton Johnson never met his uncle, James Bernard Johnson, who died on Tarawa at age 17. But Johnson, who was named for his father's brother, never forgot that young Marine.
Now 60 and living near Noah in the Florida Keys, Johnson learned of the effort to identify the burial sites of his uncle and 541 other missing U.S. Marines on Tarawa while researching his uncle's military records online.
More than 990 U.S. marines and 680 sailors died and almost 2,300 were wounded in the three-day battle, one of the first major amphibious assaults in the Pacific.
Johnson, himself a veteran who led special forces troops into Cambodia as a 21-year-old Army platoon leader during the Vietnam War, isn't sure having his uncle's body returned to the U.S. would provide any sort of closure.
"There aren't any open wounds for me that need fixing," he said.
But Johnson wants the world to know about the volunteers committed to preserving the names and stories of thousands of American soldiers.
"My problem is that people don't care," he said. "I get pumped up, and I want people to think and look at things like this."
Noah, a 43-year-old commercial pilot and longtime World War II history buff, raised the $90,000 for the Tarawa work by selling rides at air shows and partnering with The American Legion, VFW and other groups.
Noah and Massachusetts historian Ted Darcy of WFI Research Group reviewed eight burial sites they believe contain U.S. remains. They say the claim is backed by burial rosters, casualty cards and combat reports; interviews with construction contractors who found human remains at the sites and locals who have found American artifacts; and other information.
But they'll leave the digging to the U.S. government, so the archaeological integrity of the sites isn't spoiled.
The names of many fallen soldiers were lost as U.S. Navy crews rushed to build desperately needed landing strips on the tiny atoll after the Nov. 20, 1943, invasion. Many of the graves were relocated.
The military didn't focus on identifying the soldiers who died at Tarawa until 1945, when an Army officer was tasked with unraveling the hasty reburials.
"You could sense his frustrations in his reports," said Noah, who reviewed all the burial records.
The brief telegram James Hildebrand's grandmother received on Dec. 26, 1943, said her 20-year-old son died on Tarawa Atoll and included this line: "On account of existing conditions the body if recovered cannot be returned at present. If further details are received you will be informed."
James Hildebrand, now 65 and living in Gilroy, Calif., said his grandmother wrote letters to the Navy for years trying to recover his uncle's body.
He'd like to know whether the remains could be buried in a mass grave in a military cemetery in Hawaii with a group of unidentified U.S. soldiers taken from Tarawa many years ago. And he hopes the Defense Department will try to find his uncle's body on Tarawa.
"If he's still on the island ... there's space in our family plot in Tucson where he could be buried. It would mean a lot to our family," he said.
For 10 years, Merill Redman of Illinois has ultimately been encouraged by reports of efforts to find his brother's body on Tarawa. He's been disappointed each time.
Redman, now 79, was 14 when his older brother joined the Marine Corps and left their small town of Watseka. He's even traveled to Tarawa himself, trying to find his brother and bring him home.
"Each little thread," he said, "it drives me on in this project."
http://wtop.com/?sid=1526360&nid=104

FDIC's list of 'problem' banks swells to 171 NEW YORK – The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday the list of banks it considers to be in trouble shot up nearly 50 percent to 171 during the third quarter — yet another sign of escalating problems among the institutions controlling Americans' deposits.
The 171 banks on the FDIC's "problem list" encompass only about 2 percent of the nearly 8,500 FDIC-insured institutions. Still, the increase from 117 in the second quarter is sharp, and the current tally is the highest since late 1995.
"We've had profound problems in our financial markets that are taking a rising toll on the real economy," said FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair in a statement, adding that Tuesday's report "reflects these challenges."
Banks across the country have been hurt — and in some cases, devastated — by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and subsequent problems across the lending spectrum. As the FDIC report shows, the number of hobbled institutions is rising at a quickening pace, a trend that has already begun to reshape the banking industry.
The FDIC said total assets held by troubled institutions climbed from $78.3 billion to $115.6 billion — a figure that suggests that the nation's top 20 banks aren't on the list, even though they are getting slammed, too, by the growing credit crisis. The FDIC does not reveal the names of the institutions it deems troubled.
Bert Ely, a banking consultant based in Alexandria, Va., pointed out that the assets held by problem banks represent less than 1 percent of those held by all U.S. banks. "We're still talking about a fairly small portion of the industry," he said.
And on average, only about 13 percent of institutions on the FDIC's list end up failing.
Still, banks that don't make the list can end up collapsing anyway — the two biggest bank failures over the past year, Washington Mutual Inc. and IndyMac Bancorp, had not been on the FDIC's list of troubled banks. Wachovia Corp., which nearly failed before it got bought by Wells Fargo & Co. in October, had not been on the list, either.
Nine banks failed in the third quarter, decreasing the FDIC's deposit insurance fund to $34.6 billion from $45.2 billion in the second quarter. This quarter, the pace appears to be picking up — nine banks have already failed since Sept. 30, including Downey Savings and Loan Association, based in Newport Beach, Calif.
"To some extent, a bank failure is a regulatory failure," Ely said. Regulators, if they address bank problems early on, can convince a troubled bank to sell off assets, raise capital or find a buyer, he said. "My hope is they're moving faster on these problems."
The FDIC said Tuesday that commercial banks and savings institutions suffered a 94 percent drop in third-quarter profits to $1.7 billion from $27 billion in the same period last year. Except for the fourth quarter of 2007, it was the lowest quarterly profit since the fourth quarter of 1990.
Those institutions wrote off $27.9 billion in loans as uncollectible during the quarter.
Recently, community banks — defined as those with assets under $1 billion — have started to show similar stresses as their larger counterparts, the FDIC said.
James Chessen, chief economist at the American Bankers Association, said in a statement that the banking industry as whole, however, "remains well-positioned to meet the credit needs of local communities." Since last year, bank lending to businesses has risen by more than 8 percent, while bank lending to individuals has risen by nearly 7 percent, he said.
The U.S. government has been guaranteeing and buying more and more types of debt in an effort to keep the financial system functional. Late Sunday, Citigroup Inc. got a government backstop for $306 billion worth of mortgages and other assets. On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve agreed to buy up to $600 billion in mortgage-backed assets.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_bi_ge/problem_banks

If you have been watching the news alot of the events dealing with the economy have been likened to the events surrounding the depression of Germany under the Wiemar Republic.
Germany facing worst slump since 1949
Euro-zone industrial orders plunged 3.9pc in September and Germany's IFO index of business expectations has fallen to the lowest level since the survey began half a century ago, heightening fears of a severe slump across Europe next year.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy met Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris yesterday to plead for stronger German support for an EU-wide rescue package. The talks come as the European Commission adds the final touches to a €130bn (£110bn) fiscal stimulus plan.
Germany has clung steadfastly to budget orthodoxy but the downturn has now begun to engulf Europe's biggest economy with shocking speed. The Bundesbank is now expecting the worst recession since the terrible year of 1949, according to Deutsche Press Agentur.
Howard Archer, Europe economist at Global Insight, said the blizzard of dire data from the eurozone now points to a severe manufacturing slump. "Output, total orders, exports orders all contracted at record rates in November, which was alarming," he said.
The broad IFO index of German confidence fell to the lowest since 1993 in November, but it was the unprecedented slide in the expectations index that most worried economists.
"This is extremely bad, it's even worse than the dog days of early 1970s," Julian Callow, Europe economist at Barclays Capital. "German exports to the US, UK, Spain, and Italy have all collapsed, and the next shoe yet to drop is Eastern Europe," he said. Latvia has joined the queue waiting for an IMF bail-out, while Russia devalued the rouble again yesterday.
"The Euroepan Central Bank needs to cut rates very aggressively. They're trying to take this steady line, but this is a not the time for that. We think rates will be cut to 1.5pc by February," he said.
The ECB raised rates in a widely-criticized move in July has since cut by just 100 basis points to 3.25pc, largely staying aloof as the Anglo-Saxon central banks take drastic action to stop the downward spiral.
Adding to eurozone woes, the bloc's current account deficit doubled in September to €10.6bn despite the drop in the cost of imported oil. It is further evidence that the euro's surge to extreme levels of over-valuation in recent years has 'hollowed out' Europe's industrial base and inflicted damage that may a long time to unfold.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3511854/Germany-facing-worst-slump-since-1949.html

This something that bears watching if have viewed the blogs from the previous weeks you can see how this is playing out. Not so much different then might happen here in the US.
A near-riot and parliament besieged: Iceland boiling mad at credit crunch
Published Date: 24 November 2008
By Omar Valdimarsson
in REYKJAVIK
THOUSANDS of Icelanders have demonstrated in Reykjavik to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank governor David Oddsson, for failing to stop the country's financial meltdown.
It was the latest in a series of protests in the capital since October's banking collapse crippled the island's economy. At least five people were injured and Hordur Torfason, a well-known singer in Iceland and the main organiser of the protests, said the protests would continue until the government stepped down.As crowds gathered in the drizzle before the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, on Saturday, Mr Torfason said: "They don't have our trust and they are no longer legitimate."The value of the Icelandic krona has been cut in half since January.Four Nordic countries, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have pledged to lend the country a combined $4.6 billion to help revive its deflated economy. The loan would be the first by the IMF to a Western nation since 1976.One young man climbed on to the balcony of the Althing building, where the president appears upon inauguration and on Iceland's national day, and hung a banner reading: "Iceland for Sale: $2,100,000,000" – the amount of the loan the country is getting from the IMF.A separate group of 200-300 people gathered in front of the city's main police station, throwing eggs and demanding the release of a young protester being held there.Police in riot gear used pepper spray to drive back an attempt to free the protester during which several windows at the police station were shattered. The pro-tester was later released after his fine was paid.As daylight began to wane, demonstrators drifted away into the nearby coffee shops. Here, as currency tumbles, the price of a cup of coffee has shot up by about one-third since before the crisis struck.The demonstrators accuse the government – elected last year – of not doing enough to regulate the banking industry and have called for early elections. Iceland's next election is not required until 2011.Opposition parties tabled a no-confidence motion in the government on Friday over its handling of the crisis, but the motion carries little chance of toppling the ruling coalition which has a solid parliamentary majority.Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old office worker, said: "I've just had enough of this whole thing. I don't trust the government, I don't trust the banks, I don't trust the political parties, and I don't trust the IMF. "We had a good country and they ruined it."BACKGROUNDICELAND'S three biggest banks – Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir – collapsed under the weight of billions of dollars of debts accumulated in an aggressive overseas expansion, shattering the country's currency. Iceland's government seized control of all three institutions in early October.This week, the North Atlantic island nation, which has a population of only 320,000, secured a package of more than US$10 billion (about £6.7 billion) in loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and several European countries to help it rebuild its shattered financial system.Despite the intervention, however, Iceland still faces a sharp economic slowdown and surging job losses while at least one-third of Icelanders are also at risk of losing their homes and life savings.Geir Haarde, the Icelandic prime minister, has promised that the government will use the IMF money to bring back a flexible interest rate scheme and rewrite financial laws, particularly legislation relating to insolvency.Iceland was the first country to ask the IMF for help as the turmoil in the credit markets in October hit home.The UK government used anti-terrorism legislation to freeze money deposited by UK savers in Icelandic banks in order to ensure that their money was protected.
http://news.scotsman.com/world/A-nearriot-and--parliament.4722970.jp

Thai Cabinet mulls state of emergency decree

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Thailand's Cabinet, meeting outside the capital to evade anti-government demonstrators, was weighing whether to impose a state of emergency Thursday to try to end airport protests that have left thousands of travelers stranded for two straight days.

Meeting with the prime minister in Chiang Mai, 350 miles north of Bangkok, the Cabinet will consider both an emergency decree or the use of a tough internal security law, government spokesman Nattawut Sai-kua said.

"We have to consider these legal options to solve the crisis," he said before the afternoon meeting.

Meanwhile, the government was drawing up plans to begin flying out thousands of tourists with "urgent needs" from one or two military bases in the next 48 hours. That could include parents with young children and people with medical conditions, said Weerasak Kowsurat, Thailand's tourism minister.

They would be flown on Thai Airways flights to Singapore or Malaysia, where they could catch connecting flights to their destinations. The planes could then return with incoming passengers, Weerasak said.

"It is a contingency plan so we will try to accommodate the airlines and the passengers' needs," said Chaisak Angkasuwan, director general of the country's Aviation Department.

The government also may use buses and trains to transport tourists to other airports in Thailand, Weerasak said.

A Thai Airways flight from Los Angeles landed Thursday at U-Tapao air force base, 140 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Bangkok, the airline said.

Protesters demanding the resignation of the prime minister have occupied Bangkok's international airport since Tuesday night, forcing the cancellation of all flights. On Thursday, they also forced the domestic airport to close in a bid to prevent government ministers from getting to the cabinet meeting.

Some ministers were flown on military planes from a nearby base to Chiang Mai, where Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat has been since returning from an overseas trip Wednesday night.

There was speculation in the Thai media that the prime minister might remove the powerful army chief, Anupong Paochinda, who called Wednesday for the dissolution of Parliament and new elections to resolve the deepening crisis.

But Nattawut said Anupong's removal is not on the Cabinet meeting agenda.

The protests, which gathered pace three months ago, have paralyzed the government, battered the stock market, spooked foreign investors and dealt a serious blow to the tourism industry.

The crisis worsened early Thursday as authorities shut down the Don Muang domestic airport, which had been receiving some diverted flights from Suvarnabhumi, the international airport.

Thousands of foreign tourists have been stranded, including Americans heading home for their Thanksgiving holiday Thursday.

Bart Edes, a 45-year-old American banker, had planned to spend Thanksgiving with his wife at a friend's home in Manila, where he lives.

"They're going to put on a traditional feast — roast turkey, sweet potatoes, all the things you crave when you're outside of the United States," he said.

But Edes said he still had much to be thankful for. "Look at what happened in Mumbai. This is an inconvenience, but it could be worse."

At least 100 people were killed in the Indian city of Mumbai by a series of overnight militant attacks that reportedly targeted Americans and Britons.

The protests are being led by a loose coalition known as the People's Alliance for Democracy. It accuses Somchai of acting as the puppet for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a September 2006 military coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, is in exile, a fugitive from a conviction for violating a conflict of interest law.

On Wednesday, a district court ordered the alliance leaders and their supporters to immediately leave Suvarnabhumi, calling the occupation "an infringement on other individuals who have freedom of movement."

There was no sign of the protesters leaving Thursday — a reflection of their boldness amid the government's unwillingness to use force for fear of causing bloodshed.

The prime minister is not budging. In a televised address to the nation, Somchai said his government was legitimately elected and that it has "a job to protect democracy for the people of Thailand."

The statement amounted to a rejection of Army Gen. Anupong's suggestion to quit, which seemed to put him on a collision course with the military, although the general has said he would not launch a coup.

An emergency decree would give the prime minister authority to use the military to restore order and allow authorities to suspend certain civil liberties.

The security law is separate measure that would enable officials to bar public assembly and "suppress" actions considered harmful to national security.

The People's Alliance for Democracy insists it will continue its airport occupation and other protests until Somchai resigns. It also has rejected the general's proposal for elections, pushing instead for the appointment of a temporary government.

On Thursday, the EU and the British Foreign Office expressed concern at the deteriorating situation.

"We urge all sides to this political dispute to resolve their differences peacefully and legally, respecting Thailand's democratic institutions," Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said.

The European Union said in a statement that "any anti-constitutional attempt to interfere in the democratic process would have a negative impact on EU-Thailand relations."

As the deadlock continued, political violence spread Wednesday to Chiang Mai, where government supporters attacked a radio station aligned with the protesters. Separately, there were unconfirmed reports that one man was killed and several people assaulted in an attack on the city's local airport.

The protest alliance launched its current campaign in late August, storming the grounds of the prime minister's office, which they continue to use as their stronghold. The group has also tried twice to blockade Parliament, in one case setting off a day-long street battle with police that left two people dead and hundreds injured.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-11-27-thailand_N.htm