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21. mars 2006
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Israeli police has stopped a likely terrorist attack:
Police said they found 5kg of explosives in a van that they had stopped on the main motorway from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
Ten Palestinians in the vehicle were arrested following a 15-minute high-speed chase.
Undoubtedly the extremists are burning for revenge after the Jericho prison attack last week, and would also want to put their mark on the upcoming Israeli election. It is, however, difficult to be a Palestinian terrorist after the security wall.
9:22:54 PM 
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In the Mohammad cartoon controversy, Denmark took a strong position, Norway a half-assed one and Sweden's government collaborated in shutting down a political party's website carrying cartoons that were offensive to some Muslims.
The result is that the Danish government is strengthened, in Norway the government is not threatened but the right has massively increased its popular support, and in Sweden the government risks losing the election in six months. Today Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds was forced to resign over her role in pressuring a Swedish ISP to pull the plug.
The resignation of Freivalds follows a controversy about her involvement in closing down the Web site in February. The site had been contacted by a top Foreign Ministry official who said it should be closed for security reasons, the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper reported today. Freivalds, who first denied knowing about the official's actions, later admitted he had acted after consulting with her, the newspaper said.
Government interference with the press and what is published on web pages is not only illegal in Sweden, it is a violation of the constitution.
Freivalds' position was difficult enough after massive criticism of her handling of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, which killed more than a thousand Swedes vacationing in the Far East. Most notably, she had gone to the theater at the time when thousands of Swedes were struggling for their lives, and hundreds of thousands more were desperate for news about their relatives and friends.
Her predecessor, Anna Lindh, was murdered in a shopping center while many Swedes were passively watching.
Freivalds is the first minister of Sweden forced to resign twice. In 2000, she had to leave the post as minister of justice after a property scandal.
PS: More background on Laila Freivalds on The Local.
9:10:24 PM
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Homeland security:
Budget constraints are forcing some FBI agents to operate without e-mail accounts, according to the agency's top official in New York.
"As ridiculous as this might sound, we have real money issues right now, and the government is reluctant to give all agents and analysts dot-gov accounts," Mark Mershon said when asked about the gap at a New York Daily News editorial board meeting.
"We just don't have the money, and that is an endless stream of complaints that come from the field," he said.
Wow. How much can it cost to make an email account?
6:54:04 PM
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The United Nations has made a poster including a LEGO brick in what is interpreted as a not-so-subtle dig at Denmark over the Mohammad cartoons incident.
Danish toy maker Lego today said it felt wrongly accused of being racist by a UN anti-discrimination poster showing what looked like one of the company’s famous building blocks.
The poster reads “Racism takes many shapes” and shows the picture of a jigsaw puzzle next to a red brick.
It was launched by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
“We feel that the message of this poster can be interpreted as if we are a racist company,” Lego spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen said in Copenhagen.
“I don’t know if that’s what’s intended, but it’s definitely one way of interpreting it.”
The UN denies it had any such intentions. I doubt it had anything to do with the LEGO Company, but it is hard to believe this is anything but a dig at Denmark, using its most famous international symbol.
Many Danish politicians also protested against the poster.
PS: More appropriate use of LEGO to support free speech.
Update: Michelle Malkin has more coverage, including a link to the UN itself, where Doudou Diène, "Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" (that's a mouthful!) opines:
Referring to the recent controversial depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspaper cartoons and the violent reactions, he said the cartoons illustrated the increasing emergence of the racist and xenophobic currents in everyday life.
Among Muslims, maybe.
Mr Diène has received his mandate from precisely the UN Commission on Human Rights.
6:24:40 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2006; 13:22:35.
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