South Asian 'slave brides' causing concern in UK

By Rahila Bano BBC Asian Network

Research has found victims believe it is difficult to report abuse

Hundreds of women who came to the UK from South Asia to marry say they have been treated as domestic slaves by their in-laws, the BBC has learned.

More than 500 who applied for residence in 2008-09 after their marriages broke down were deported because they could not prove any abuse had taken place.

Police and charities are concerned the incidents are not reported because of family pressure and fear of reprisals.

The UK Border Agency said measures were in place to try to prevent such abuse.

'Bloodied nose'

The women complaining of being treated as slaves by their families come from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

One woman in her 20s, says she was imprisoned by her mother-in-law for three years at their house in the north of England. She does not want to be named.

She has now started to come to terms with her ordeal, a year after her mother-in-law was prosecuted, but she says she still lives with the fear inside her.

"One day my mother-in-law beat me up really badly," she says.

"There was a lot of blood coming out of my mouth and nose - I couldn't tell anyone, call anyone or go anywhere.

"I used to get up at dawn and clean the whole house, scrub the floors, clean the windows, do the washing, cook. In between I'd have to sew."

She tried to kill herself twice. Eventually she managed to escape after her mother-in-law left her bedroom door unlocked.

"Staying inside all the time, not being allowed to watch TV or go out... I thought I'd rather be dead than live like this."

Marai Larasi says there is a lack of services for women

Research by Imkaan, the national charity for Black and Asian victims of domestic violence, shows how difficult it is for other Asian women to report abuse. It surveyed 124 women who use Asian refuges across the country.

"A woman may not speak English, may not be aware of what's available in terms of services, she may be in a situation where everywhere she goes her abuser or a family member - who may be colluding in the abuse - is actually going with her," says Imkaan director Marai Larasi.

"So her opportunity to disclose the abuse is compromised. There's also a real lack of services for women in this position."

There are concerns that this lack of reporting is leading many abused women from South Asia to eventually be deported when their marriages break down and they apply to stay in the UK.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEAVE TO REMAIN APPLICATIONS 2008/9 Pakistani: 240 Bangladeshi: 100 Indian: 100 Source: Home Office

Home Office rules state that any foreign national whose marriage breaks up within two years because of domestic violence can apply for indefinite leave to remain, but they must have reported the incident at the time to a person in authority - such as a GP or police officer.

Figures released by the Home Office show that more than half the number of South Asian brides who say they have been victims of domestic abuse in the UK have been deported in the last two years because they could not prove abuse had taken place.

Out of 980 applications for leave to remain in the UK in 2008 and 2009, only 440 women were allowed to stay.

In a statement, the UK Border Agency said: "We take our role in providing protection to women very seriously. We already have a number of measures in place to try and provide more directed support such as specific instructions, assessment of the quality of decisions and training for case workers."

After the highly-publicised case of Naseebah Bibi last year, Lancashire Police say they believe the problem is widespread in some communities.

Bibi was jailed for treating her three daughters-in-law as slaves at their home in Blackburn.

"The women are facing pressure, not only from immediate family but also their extended family abroad who may be relying on the people in this country to finance them to help improve their lives," says Lancashire Police's Det Con Dave Souch, who led the Naseebah Bibi Inquiry.

His colleague Sgt John Rigby described it as the "Cinderella syndrome".

He adds: "The problem with slave labour, as it's been tagged, is probably far bigger than what we may expect - we can only go on the cases that are brought to our attention.

Sgt John Rigby says the problem is widespread

"But we know from the partner agencies we work alongside - like the Women's Aid Forums - who can tell you it's widespread."

Another woman, also in her 20s, was forced to flee her in-laws with her child. She was also too scared to reveal her identity.

She explained: "If I made tea, it was for her or someone else. I didn't have permission to drink tea with them because in the 15-20 minutes it would take, housework would not get done.

"She would swear at my family, and accuse me of taking things. If any money or jewellery had been misplaced I would get the blame."

She, too, was not allowed to speak to anyone outside of the family and was not allowed to go out by herself.

"Even a servant is allowed to have a break, but I was used like a machine," she recalls.

"The worst thing about it was that my husband wasn't there for me. I'd have done everything for him without complaining - but he didn't care about me or his baby."

She managed to escape after a year-and-a-half. She was rescued by her midwife, who alerted the authorities.

'Small proportion'

Parveen Javaid, domestic violence co-ordinator at Manchester-based Pakistani Resource Centre, said: "On average we deal with 20 to 30 cases a month where we give advice and support to women who are victims of mothers-in-law.

"The majority of cases I deal with are women who've been kept as slaves - abuse within the house."

To put this into context, just over 37,000 women have come to the UK on spousal visas in the last five years and while domestic violence workers say most of these marriages are genuine and successful, a small proportion of those marriages do fail.

What is clear is that this is still a hidden problem within South Asian communities.

It will remain so, unless women are encouraged to come forward and report it to the authorities.

Source

Pope defends celibacy rule amid sex abuse scandals

Pope Benedict has had to deal with sex abuse scandals in various countries

Pope Benedict XVI has defended celibacy among priests, saying it was a sign of "full devotion" to the Catholic Church.

He was speaking at a theological conference before meeting Germany's top bishop for talks about a new crisis over the sexual abuse of children.

German Bishop Robert Zollitsch apologised again to victims of abuse by German priests.

The Archbishop of Vienna had suggested that the Church should examine celibacy and priests' training.

'Honesty needed'

Europe's Catholic paedophile scandal now affects institutions in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany.

CELIBACY AND PRIESTS In the New Testament the Apostle Peter was a married man; early Church figures were often family men while others were celibate In the 12th Century a general council of the Church absolutely outlawed priests being married Exceptions include Eastern-rite Catholic priests, who can be ordained if they are married The Vatican has also admitted married clergy who converted from the Anglican faith Your views Send us your comments

In Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn wrote in a diocesan magazine that "the issue of priest training, as well as the question of what happened in the so-called sexual revolution" needed to be addressed.

"It also includes the issue of priest celibacy and the issue of personality development. It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of the Church and of society as a whole," he added.

But the Pope said on Friday that celibacy is "the sign of full devotion, the entire commitment to the Lord and to the 'Lord's business', an expression of giving oneself to God and to others".

He defended "the value of sacred celibacy, which in the Latin Church is... required for ordination and is held in great regard by Eastern Churches".

Cardinal Schoenborn later clarified his comments saying it would be wrong to say that celibacy was a prime cause of sexual abuse.

"If celibacy is the problem, then without celibacy there should be no sexual abuse but unfortunately this is not the case. We know about cases inside the family," he said.

"I think the problem is deeper. It has to be seen as a question of personal maturity, how someone relates to his personal development."

Watchdog praise

At the Pope's meeting with Bishop Zollitsch, details of accusations made in some 170 cases of abuse by German priests were discussed.

I felt I was in a dark place, in solitary confinement Norbert Denef A childhood of abuse

Among the German cases are alleged abuses at a boys' choir in the 1950s and 1960s.

The choir was once run by the Pope's brother, but he has said the alleged abuse occurred before he took up his post.

Speaking after the meeting, Bishop Zollitsch reiterated an apology first offered a fortnight ago, and said a watchdog would be appointed.

Bishop Zollitsch also said the pope had praised "the steps taken by the German Bishops Conference, [including] the naming of a bishop as a special counsel".

Norbert Denef said he was abused for five years from the age of 10 by a priest, and then for a further three years by a church organist.

"Until the age of 40, I thought I was the only one who'd suffered this. I felt I was in a dark place, in solitary confinement," he told the BBC.

Mr Denef expects the scale of the scandal to grow.

"For every 10 people you hear saying they were abused, you can be sure there are another ten thousand victims staying silent."

Source

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Should Catholic priests remain celibate?

17:59 UK time, Friday, 12 March 2010

Pope Benedict XVI has defended celibacy among priests, saying it was a sign of "full devotion" to the Catholic Church. Do you agree?

The Pope was speaking at a theological conference before meeting Germany's top bishop for talks about a new crisis over sexual abuse of children.

The Archbishop of Vienna had suggested that the Church should examine celibacy and priests' training. He said, "It requires a great deal of honesty, both on the part of the Church and of society as a whole."

But the Pope said on Friday that celibacy is "the sign of full devotion, the entire commitment to the Lord and to the 'Lord's business', an expression of giving oneself to God and to others".

Is the Pope right to reaffirm celibacy for priests? Would removing the vow of celibacy make priests less devout? Does celibacy show a priest commitment to the Catholic Church? Should Catholic priests be allowed to marry and have families?

Source

On/Off: Can South Koreans survive without the web?

Like most of Seoul, the Kukdong apartments are all wired up to the web

By John Sudworth BBC News, Seoul

South Korea is often called the world's most wired society, boasting the fastest average broadband speeds on the planet. What happens when you ask two families to live without the web for one week?

It was never going to be easy, asking South Koreans to sign up, turn off and plug out.

I was looking for members of this hyper-connected country who were willing to spend seven long days in offline solitude, while the rest of the online world roared on without them.

We targeted one particular Seoul tower block, the Kukdong Riverside Apartments in central Seoul.

It is home to more than 100 high-rise flats providing small but comfortable homes of the kind familiar to millions of ordinary South Koreans.

I trudged the stairwells and knocked on doors. I plastered the building with posters asking for volunteers. And I called a community meeting.

Advertisement

John Sudworth finds it tough to drum up volunteers for the experiment

But for many of the residents, a world without the web simply wasn't conceivable.

Some schoolchildren are now asked to file their homework assignments online, so parents were naturally reluctant to unplug them.

Other people said they ran their own internet businesses, or worked from home, or simply couldn't face life without the habit that web-browsing has become.

A season of reports from 8-19 March 2010 exploring the extraordinary power of the internet, including: Digital giants - top thinkers in the business on the future of the web Mapping the internet - a visual representation of the spread of the web over the last 20 years Global Voices - the BBC links up with an online community of bloggers around the world What is SuperPower? John Sudworth's On/Off diary

They wanted news, views and social networks all to stay within easy reach.

But in the end the effort paid off.

Two families bravely stepped forward to take the plunge, fully aware that our little experiment would cause them considerable inconvenience.

Firstly the Kims: they are a highly wired family with two teenage boys, the youngest of whom, Seung-yeon, is a talented computer programmer who spends up to six hours online every day.

Next, the Yangs: they are a family with younger sons, but who are, nonetheless, just as dependent on the web. Most of the TV channels that the two boys enjoy are piped into the home over the internet.

And their mother, Jung-a, admits to a two-hour-a-day web browsing habit.

So, with the families braced for a week of internet abstinence, all we needed was for someone to help us pull the plug.

That job fell to Mr Song, an engineer from Korea Telecom.

He left carrying the two internet modems, one from each household, tucked under his arm, and the project was under way.

Advertisement

The families brace themselves as a Korea Telecom engineer takes away their modems

For both families there were, of course, a number of instant practical difficulties.

Pushing a trolley around her local supermarket, Jung-a told me that she normally does most of her shopping online.

She's not alone. In 2008, the total size of the South Korean e-commerce market reached more than $600bn.

This is due in no small part to the role of the government, which has invested in digital infrastructure and framed policies to regulate competition and protect consumers.

And the South Korean state itself has turned into a kind of online shop, offering a wide range of services over the internet including tax and benefits payments.

The Kims are also struggling without access to such innovations.

Hye-sook runs an online blog for other school mums.

Now temporarily cut off, she's forced to meet them in the real world.

"It's been so inconvenient," she tells me. "It's normally easy to arrange a meeting - I just post a notice on our internet forum, but this time I've had to telephone everyone individually."

Rejuventated youth

These small difficulties are predictable enough.

But as the week progresses, the families report a psychological reaction, too.

The Yang children began playing more traditional games...

Without access to the online news networks, now the most common way that information about the outside world finds its way into the home, both families talk about an unnerving sense of isolation.

A recent survey showed that 68% of South Koreans get their news from the internet, compared with just 32% who still read newspapers.

But all of our volunteers agree that there is also a positive side to the experience.

Freed from their computers, they find that they're spending more time with each other.

In the Kim household, Seung-yeon is practising the piano more, books are being read and board games have been rediscovered.

Hye-sook is pleased with the effect the experiment is having on her eldest son.

For the first time in a long time, she's finding the whole family dressed and ready for breakfast in the morning.

"Normally Sung-jun would be in bed after playing internet games all night. It's been a long time since I've seen him up this early," she tells me.

And then, with sighs of relief all round, our brief experiment is over.

As promised, Mr Song returns with the modems.

Advertisement

The families are relieved to get back to normal

Of course, seven days without the internet was never really going to be too much of an ordeal.

But it has delivered our families some surprises and, they all admit, shown them just how much they have come to rely on the web.

The Yangs say they will change their behaviour as a result.

"After finishing my morning chores I used to spend between two and three hours online," Jung-a tells me.

"That's time spent alone. But, during the experiment I've even had the time to drink tea with neighbours, so I'm going to regulate time spent online from now on."

But would either of the families consider giving it up for good?

"It would be the same as asking if you could cut off my electricity for a week," Cho Hye-sook laughs.

"Lose the internet for another seven days? It's a real 'No thank you,' I'm afraid. I don't want to go through this again."

Source

Clinton rebukes Israel over East Jerusalem homes

Tensions are high in East Jerusalem after the Israeli announcement

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sharply rebuked Israel over its recent decision to build new settlements in East Jerusalem.

She told Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu by telephone that the move was "deeply negative" for US-Israeli relations.

The BBC's Washington correspondent, Kim Ghattas, says it was a rare and sharp rebuke from Washington.

Israel's announcement overshadowed a visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden aimed at restarting peace talks.

Since then the Palestinians have indicated they will not return to the negotiating table unless the Israeli decision is revoked.

Apology

America's top diplomat delivered her rebuke during a 43-minute telephone conversation with Mr Netanyahu, the US state department said.

US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said Mrs Clinton called "to make clear that the United States considered the announcement to be a deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the bilateral relationship and contrary to the spirit of the vice-president's trip".

Hillary Clinton called on Israel to show commitment to the peace process

"The secretary said she could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States's strong commitment to Israel's security," he added.

"She made clear that the Israeli government needed to demonstrate not just through words but through specific actions that they are committed to this relationship and to the peace process."

The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the US, Russia, the EU and the UN - also condemned the Israeli housing announcement and said it would review the situation at its ministerial meeting scheduled for 19 March in Moscow.

Mr Netanyahu earlier apologised for the timing of the settlement announcement, which was made as Mr Biden was holding a day of talks in Jerusalem.

He said he had summoned Interior Minister Eli Yishai to reprimand him.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders had agreed to hold indirect, "proximity talks" in a bid to restart the peace process, which has been stalled for more than a year.

But after the announcement, the Palestinian Authority said talks would be "very difficult" if the plans for the homes were not rescinded.

Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

The latest announcement by the Jerusalem municipality approves 1,600 new housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.

POINTS OF TENSION IN JERUSALEM

1 Gilo: 850 homes approved for publication and planning objections in Nov 2009

2 Pisgat Zeev: 600 homes approved for publication and planning objections in Jan 2010

3 Sheikh Jarrah: Several Palestinian families evicted in past 18 months to make way for Jewish settlers after court ruled in ownership dispute

4 Ramat Shlomo: 1,600 homes approved for publication and planning objections in Mar 2010

5 Silwan: Demolition orders on 88 Palestinian homes built without difficult-to-get permits - Israel planning controversial renewal project

6. West Bank barrier: Making Palestinian movement between West Bank and Jerusalem harder - Israel says it's for security

Source

Ex-Senate Parliamentarian on Rules of the Senate

Very good informational video on the inefficiencies of the senate, and the advantages of such inefficiencies.

Israel's continued settlement expansion

Israel has been expanding illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land for decade, and it is now emerging just how far-reaching this policy is.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Jerusalem housing committee is planning to build another 50,000 Jewish homes in occupied East Jerusalem to join the hundreds of thousands already there or in progress.

That includes 3,000 housing units in Gilo, 1,500 apartments in Har Homa and another 1,500 in the settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev.

Thousands more have been planned at Givat Hamatos, and the settlement of Ramot, while hundreds more are in the works in Armon Hanetziv, as well as Neveh Yaakov.

Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reports (12 mar 2010).

Cyprus conflict closes leaders' eyes to water shortage

Water has been rapidly disappearing in Cyprus since the 1970s, but conflict between Turkish and Greek communities means fixing the problem is not high on the political agenda. Alex Bell finds that Cypriots are now struggling for control of land that is slowly dying.

Here is a story: an old man from the Troodos hills of central Cyprus rises to his feet at a public meeting about the environment. He says that when he was young, his school teacher asked the class who could swim, and about half the hands went up.

Then the teacher said: "Who has been to the beach?" and this time, only two hands went up.

The moral of the story? I'll come back to that in a moment.

We are in Nicosia, one of Europe's last divided cities, and the focus of a bitter and bloody feud between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

It goes back to 1974, when the island was divided, as Turkish troops invaded - following a collapse of the Cypriot government.

It goes back further, to 1963, when the UN mission began here - never to leave as it tried to keep the sides apart.

It goes back further still, to 1960, when the British left - knowing, surely, that claims of peace on this Mediterranean island, tucked in the armpit between Turkey and Israel, might never come to bloom. It keeps on going back and back…

Water war

I am here to cover a war - but not the one that has seen shabby oil drums erected in higgledy-piggledy piles as barriers dividing the city.

Water stocks have been hit by a series of droughts in recent years

The war I'm interested in is the water war - not an armed conflict, but a struggle nonetheless, between people and a rapidly disappearing resource.

The alarming thing, for those working to ease this new conflict, is that Cypriots don't even seem to realise that hostilities between them and nature have begun.

Charalampos Theopemptou is the Greek Cypriot side's Environment Commissioner, and it was he who told me the story about the old man in the classroom. He explains its meaning: that within living memory Cyprus was wet - there were plenty of rivers and lakes to swim in. Now, they are all gone.

The island has reached what geographers call Peak Water - when demand meets and then outstrips supply.

Peak Oil is already a familiar concept, and commands international attention. However, water, despite being central to life, is having a much harder time getting on to the political radar.

Dying land

Dig into the details of the current war and it seems to have less to do with fighting than it does with land.

The irony is that the Cypriots, all of them, are fighting over land, which is slowly dying

The issue that stalls peace talks is the question of houses and farms that were seized in the 1974 conflict. On both sides, people would like their houses back, or a cheque in compensation.

The gradual effect of increasing wealth, EU membership for the south, and the opening of the borders, has defused tension, and means that the eternal subject of property prices is now at the heart of the issue.

The irony is that the Cypriots, all of them, are fighting over land, which is slowly dying.

The famous trees of Cyprus are rotting on their waterless roots, turning to dry kindling as they stand in the blazing sun.

Ever since the 1970s, rainfall has been scarcer, meaning far less water reaching the reservoirs.

For the past four decades, getting enough water to the farms and the people has been a struggle.

The general dampness of nature is drying up, like a rag that is being wrung ever tighter.

This is why the European Commission believes Cyprus is the canary in the coalmine: what happens on this island is threatened to happen all across the drier parts of the continent.

Experts agree that this crisis can be tackled, but first you have to recognise it's there - and that's part of the problem.

Even the proposed solutions can be problematic.

Desert resort

Nicos Vassillou is a small man in his 70s with decades of experience planning and consulting for the Cypriot government. You might also call him a visionary.

He believes he has a way to solve Cyprus's problems in one fell swoop - a plan for a pipeline from the Turkish mainland to Cyprus, which will not only meet current demand, but also supply extra to irrigate the parched fields.

Tourism is a key industry particularly in the Turkish-controlled north

As we talked in a hotel lobby, he painted me a picture of the island transformed back into a verdant paradise and one where peace might reign.

But the Cypriot government is sceptical - not least because this plan would hand control of the water supply to Ankara, its sworn enemy. And it seems that it still can't quite believe the water will really run out.

It has put its money behind de-salination plants, powered by oil-fired electricity stations, which it hopes will supply the cities with water by 2012.

It has also regularly imposed water rationing - but has turned its back on water conservation and recycling schemes, or even fixing the leaking water pipes.

The irony is that Cyprus is already considered a kind of paradise by many people - its main business is tourism, and selling property to north Europeans looking for a warmer life.

The question is, will anyone want to come and swim here at all if the holiday resorts are no more than manufactured oases within a desert?

While the real, political war steals the headlines for now, the water war is threatening to steal the future of a place once known as the Green Island.

Source

80% of all mortgages were Bank's faults, not the people getting the loans

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2010/03/11/segments/151503

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FINANCIAL CRIMES REPORT TO THE PUBLIC

MAY 2005

The FBI investigates mortgage fraud in two distinct areas: Fraud for Profit and Fraud for Housing. Fraud for Profit is sometimes referred to as "Industry Insider Fraud" and the motive is to revolve equity, falsely inflate the value of the property, or issue loans based on fictitious properties. Based on existing investigations and mortgage fraud reporting, 80 percent of all reported fraud losses involve collaboration or collusion by industry insiders. Fraud for Housing represents illegal actions perpetrated solely by the borrower. The simple motive behind this fraud is to acquire and maintain ownership of a house under false pretenses. This type of fraud is typified by a borrower who makes misrepresentations regarding his income or employment history to qualify for a loan.

The defrauding of mortgage lenders should not be compared to predatory lending practices which primarily affect borrowers. Predatory lending typically effects senior citizens, lower income and challenged credit borrowers. Predatory lending forces borrowers to pay exorbitant loan origination/settlement fees, sub-prime or higher interest rates, and in some cases, unreasonable service fees. These practices often result in the borrower defaulting on his mortgage payment and undergoing foreclosure or forced refinancing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MORTGAGE FRAUD INDICATORS

Inflated Appraisals
• Exclusive use of one appraiser

Increased Commissions/Bonuses - Brokers and Appraisers
• Bonuses paid (outside or at settlement) for fee-based services
• Higher than customary fees

Falsifications on Loan Applications
• Buyers told/explained how to falsify the mortgage application
• Requested to sign blank application

Fake Supporting Loan Documentation
• Requested to sign blank employee or bank forms
• Requested to sign other types of blank forms

Purchase Loans Disguised as Refinance
• Purchase loans that are disguised as refinances
requires less documentation/lender scrutiny

Investors-Short Term Investments with Guaranteed Re-Purchase
• Investors used to flip property prices for fixed percentage
• Multiple "Holding Companies" utilized to increase
property values

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMON MORTGAGE FRAUD SCHEMES

Property Flipping - Property is purchased, falsely appraised at a higher value, and then quickly sold. What makes property illegal is that the appraisal information is fraudulent. The schemes typically involve one or more of the following: fraudulent appraisals, doctored loan documentation, inflating buyer income, etc. Kickbacks to buyers, investors, property/loan brokers, appraisers, title company employees are common in this scheme. A home worth $20,000 may be appraised for $80,000 or higher in this type of scheme.

Silent Second - The buyer of a property borrows the down payment from the seller through the issuance of a non-disclosed second mortgage. The primary lender believes the borrower has invested his own money in the down payment, when in fact, it is borrowed. The second mortgage may not be recorded to further conceal its status from the primary lender.

Nominee Loans/Straw Buyers - The identity of the borrower is concealed through the use of a nominee who allows the borrower to use the nominee's name and credit history to apply for a loan.

Fictitious/Stolen Identity - A fictitious/stolen identity may be used on the loan application. The applicant may be involved in an identity theft scheme: the applicant's name, personal identifying information and credit history are used without the true person's knowledge.

Inflated Appraisals - An appraiser acts in collusion with a borrower and provides a misleading appraisal report to the lender. The report inaccurately states an inflated property value.

Foreclosure Schemes - The perpetrator identifies homeowners who are at risk of defaulting on loans or whose houses are already in foreclosure. Perpetrators mislead the homeowners into believing that they can save their homes in exchange for a transfer of the deed and up-front fees. The perpetrator profits from these schemes by remortgaging the property or pocketing fees paid by the homeowner.

Equity Skimming - An investor may use a straw buyer, false income documents, and false credit reports, to obtain a mortgage loan in the straw buyer's name. Subsequent to closing, the straw buyer signs the property over to the investor in a quit claim deed which relinquishes all rights to the property and provides no guaranty to title. The investor does not make any mortgage payments and rents the property until foreclosure takes place several months later.

Air Loans - This is a non-existent property loan where there is usually no collateral. An example of an air loan would be where a broker invents borrowers and properties, establishes accounts for payments, and maintains custodial accounts for escrows. They may set up an office with a bank of telephones, each one used as the employer, appraiser, credit agency, etc., for verification purposes.

Source

~~~~~~~~~~

Commentary

As Michael Moore said, we all have people in our family that live above their means. But those people have never caused a Financial meltdown.

People don't like loosing their home, and don't like destroying their credit. There is absolutely no history of that in America, this Mortgage meltdown is unique in that sense.

When you take all the factors into consideration you find that, as the FBI says, 80% of bad loans were manipulated and made corrupt from the very start.

Don't blame the borrowers and the victims, blame the LOAN SHARKS.

Scientists solve half-cock chicken mystery

The left, white, side of this bird is male. The right, brown, side is female.

By Huw Williams BBC Scotland reporter

Researchers say they've solved the mystery of why some chickens hatch out half-male and half-female.

About one in every 10,000 chickens is gynandromorphous, to use the technical term.

Half-and-half chickens give a unique insight into how birds develop

In medieval times, they might have been burned at the stake, as witches' familiars.

But now these chickens are shedding important new light on how birds, and perhaps reptiles, develop.

It used to be thought that hormones instructed cells to develop in male or female-specific ways.

That's what happens in mammals, including humans, and it leads to secondary sexual characteristics like facial hair for men or breasts for women.

But scientists at the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh say they have discovered that bird cells don't need to be programmed by hormones.

Instead they are inherently male or female, and remain so even if they end up mixed together in the same chicken.

It means a half-and-half chicken will have totally different plumage, body shape, and muscle structure on the two halves of its body.

It even affects the wattles on the bird's head, and the spurs on its legs. They will be larger on the cockerel half, and smaller on the hen half, of the same bird.

Practical uses

Dr Michael Clinton of the Roslin Institute led the research, which has just been published in the scientific journal Nature.

He said the findings were a surprise.

Dr Clinton explained: "We looked at these birds initially expecting them not to be half-male and half-female. We thought there'd be a mutation on one side of the body.

Dr Michael Clinton of the Roslin Institute led the research

"But we found that they were half-male and half-female and that's what actually showed us that the system was different in birds and mammals."

And researchers tested their theory with delicate and demanding experiments.

"If you put female cells into a male body they'll develop into the normal tissues, but they'll behave as female cells," Dr Clinton said.

The hope is that these findings might have immediate practical uses for the poultry industry.

Dr Clinton said: "If we can understand what the differences between the male and female identities are, then we can imagine making female birds with the same growth characteristics as males. That would increase productivity, and food security."

But if there are vestiges of the same mechanism in mammals, inherited from our reptilian evolutionary ancestors, then the research could help to answer long-standing mysteries of human health.

Like, for example, why women live longer than men, or why men are more at risk of heart attacks.

"But that will require much more investigation," Dr Clinton insisted.

Source

Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' DVD Extra Preview - Worker-Owned Businesses ~~~~ The business of business is business

Alan Grayson Introduces Public Option Act

Profit does ensure me that I'm safe.

Profit means greed. Denying my coverage is the way. My life is the cost.
I want no part in that system.

Let me have my Medicare Buy in.

Congressman Kucinich Slams Obama & Healthcare Bill

I'm with you all the way Kucinich. Vote no if you have to. You're a man of principle and strong foundations. We need more congressman like that.

Get them to give you a strong public option or a medicare buy in. They either do that or get out. It's that simple Obama. That simple.

Michael Moore on 'The Rachel Maddow Show'

The Dems are going to lose big time.

Every day that Passes I'm happier and happier I didn't cave into the pressure of voting for Obama.

I looked at him objectively and saw he was no force for change in his past and he would not be in the future, plus he was against universal healthcare. Those were enough for me not to vote for him.

I voted for a third party, more socialistic and liberal, candidate. One I could be happy about and approve of if he won.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dems, you are done. Republicans are good at with they do, even if it is literally evil in many ways.

There are no more true republicans, we have only shadows of the source.

Nanometre 'fuses' for high-performance batteries

Nanotubes are wire-like molecules billionths of a metre across

Minuscule tubes coated with a chemical fuel can act as a power source with 100 times more electrical power by weight than conventional batteries.

As these nano-scale "fuses" burn, they drive an electrical current along their length at staggering speeds.

The never-before-seen phenomenon could lead to a raft of energy applications.

Researchers reporting in Nature Materials say that unlike normal batteries, the nanotubes never lose their stored energy if left to sit.

The team, led by Michael Strano of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, coated their nanotubes - cylinders just billionths of a metre across - with a chemical fuel known as cyclotrimethylene trinitramine.

"One property that nanotubes have is that they conduct heat very, very well along their length, up to a hundred times faster than in metals," Dr Strano told BBC News.

"We asked what would happen if you perform a chemical reaction near one of these, and the first thing we found is the nanotube will guide the reaction, accelerating it up to 10,000 times."

The team used a laser or an electric spark to set off the reaction in a bundle of coated carbon nanotubes, filming the results using a high-speed camera.

High-speed video of less than a tenth of a second of the reaction

But they also found that, through a mechanism that is still poorly understood, the process creates a useful voltage - a phenomenon they have dubbed "thermopower waves".

Their nanotube bundles carry, gram for gram, up to 100 times as much energy as a standard lithium-ion battery.

Since just a tiny amount of energy is needed to start the reaction before it becomes self-sustaining, Dr Strano says it could be initiated in a small device with the energy in the push of a finger.

And unlike standard batteries, the stored energy would not leak away over time, and requires none of the toxic, non-renewable metals in many batteries.

The current implementation is for a one-time use, but Dr Strano says he believes the approach could be adapted to a system in which the fuel is doused over the nanotubes after the initial fuel supply is burned and converted into electrical energy.

"I'm interested in the fuel cell concept," he said. "The conventional fuel cell has been around since the 1800s but corrosive fuels, catalytic deactivation and complexity have been a hurdle.

"From an engineering standpoint, thermopower waves could be a very simple alternative."

For the team, however, the first task is to understand just what is going on in the nanotubes, whose mechanical and electrical properties continue to surprise researchers in a number of fields.

"What we've discovered is more than just a replacement for batteries," Dr Strano said.

"To our knowledge, it's a new scientific area for research. There are many, many questions about these waves: what their limits are what the applications might be."

Source

~~~~~~~~~

Commentary

This is a revolutionary finding! There hasn't been any large leaps in battery technology for a LONG while, and this was needed to give hope to battery researchers once again.

The main problem with batteries, and one of the main problems with Energy as a whole, was that it couldn't be stored properly.

So lets say i get a ton of energy from the sun, and I'm using pollution free solar energy; what do i do when the sun goes down? Now the answer is clear, we use nanotubes to hold that energy and use it whenever we need it during the night.

As an added bonus, we also remove all those polluting chemicals in conventional batteries.

This is a very historic moment and I think it's one that a lot of people will miss but come to rely on in the future for electronic devices.

As we are now addicted to electricity, our hope for the future is secure with these nanotubes. No more will we live a world where our useful energy is sapped away by weak lithium ion batteries. Nanotubes can hold the power indefinitely and are 100 times more effiecient, when it comes to size.

Our batteries just got lighter, smaller, more efficient, and more powerful. A new world has now opened up to us, and the excuses of the past for renewable energy are the way of old dusty history books.

Israel under pressure over East Jerusalem homes

Israel considers East Jerusalem as its territory

Israel is coming under growing international pressure following its approval of new housing for Israelis in occupied East Jerusalem.

Britain, France, the EU and the Arab League have all added their protests against the decision.

The housing row has overshadowed a visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden which is meant to promote a new round of US-led negotiations.

He has condemned the move, saying it undermined trust in the peace process.

Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to hold indirect "proximity talks" in a bid to restart the process, which has been stalled for 17 months.

But earlier this week it approved 1,600 new homes for ultra-Orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem.

The international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory and building on occupied land is illegal under international law.

Israel regards East Jerusalem - which it annexed in 1967 - as its territory, but Palestinians want it as the capital of their future state.

'Ill-timed'

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband described the Israeli move as "a bad decision at the wrong time".

"It will give strength to those who argue that Israel is not serious about peace," he said.

"Along with our EU partners, I condemn it as certain to undermine the mutual confidence we need."

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said the decision was "completely ill-timed".

Mr Biden met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank

"It is moreover illegal in terms of international law," he said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the Israeli decision constituted "an obstacle to peace" and threatened to make a two-state solution impossible.

"Israel should reverse this decision," she said.

Officials from Arab states are due to discuss the issue on Wednesday with Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa, who harshly condemned the Israeli move.

"The insult has reached a point that not a single Arab could accept," Mr Moussa said.

"Israel does not care about anybody, neither the mediator, nor the Palestinians."

Mr Biden earlier met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

"Yesterday, the decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem undermines that very trust - the trust that we need right now in order to begin as well as produce profitable negotiations," he said.

Israel has insisted the decision had nothing to do with Mr Biden's visit.

Source

Families fight 'racist' Israeli citizenship law

Taiseer and Lana Khatib fear one day she might be denied permission to stay

By Heather Sharp BBC News, Jerusalem

"To leave my children, I would die. I couldn't do it," says Lana Khatib.

Five years ago, Israel's controversial citizenship law marred her first year of marriage and still looms large over everything from supermarket shopping to her fears the family might face the prospect of separation.

Adnan, who is three, and one-year-old Yosra squabble over their toys.

Born and raised in Israel, they are too young to understand that their parents both consider themselves Palestinian, but their father Taiseer is an Israeli citizen while their mother is from the occupied West Bank.

And that means, under the current law, Mrs Khatib cannot apply for citizenship.

Life and death

The law is at the centre of a long legal battle in Israel's Supreme Court, with the latest hearing last week.

For the Israeli government, it's about life and death - the prevention of lethal attacks and the survival of the only majority Jewish state in a post-Holocaust world.

For the law's critics, who include Jewish Israelis as well as Israeli Arabs, it's a struggle to use Israel's self-proclaimed standards of democracy and equal rights to overturn what they see as racist legislation.

I don't think it's a racist law but we have to make sure Israel stays a Jewish democratic country Danny Danon Knesset member for governing Likud party

Israeli Arabs - people of Arab descent who stayed in Israel after its creation in 1948 - make up about 20% of Israel's population.

They have long faced discrimination, and some Jewish Israelis fear them as a potential "fifth column".

The Citizenship and Entry Law was passed in 2003, during the second Palestinian uprising, as waves of suicide bombings targeted Israeli public places.

Many were launched from the West Bank, some with the help of Israeli Arabs.

Initially, the law - emergency legislation that has since been extended yearly - said that no-one with a West Bank or Gaza ID card would be given permission to move to Israel to be with a spouse there.

It was amended in 2005, allowing women over 25 and men over 35 to apply for temporary permits to live in Israel, but still ruling out citizenship for all but a handful of cases.

In 2007, it was expanded to apply to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

In contrast, other non-Jews who marry Jewish Israelis can apply for citizenship through a five-year process, subject to individual security checks.

Since the founding of Israel in the wake of the Holocaust, any Jew has been able to move to Israel and claim citizenship.

'Angry and crying'

Mr and Mrs Khatib met in Jenin in 2001. "She is independent, very social, very clever," he said.

When they married three years later, Mrs Khatib was given permission to enter Israel for a single day. The day after, she went back to Jenin, alone, "angry and crying so much".

Mrs Khatib was allowed to enter Israel for just one day when they married

The following year, they visited each other when they could. Sometimes Mrs Khatib stayed illegally.

"I was always afraid," she says. "It was hell," adds Mr Khatib. "One day you have your wife with you, the next you don't."

Things improved after the amendment. But still Mrs Khatib has no state health insurance.

She is not allowed to work or drive and has to renew her permit every six months.

"It's very insecure. Maybe one day they won't give her the permission and I'll be left alone with two kids," said Mr Khatib.

The law's critics argue that it contradicts Israel's self-declared commitment to equal rights for all its citizens.

Sowsan Zaher, a lawyer for the Israel-Arab rights organisation Adalah - one of several that have petitioned the Supreme Court against the law - says the principle behind it is "very, very dangerous".

"It stereotypes every person just because he belongs to a national and ethnic group and discriminates against him because of that," she says.

The petition against the law was heard by an expanded panel of 11 judges

In the court, the state's representative defended the law on security grounds.

In the past two years, 27 people who had applied for permission to join their spouses in Israel were directly involved in attempted or actual attacks, she said.

ISRAELI ARABS About 1.2m, a fifth of Israel's population, are Israeli Arabs They are citizens of Israel, but face widely documented discrimination Former PM Ehud Olmert said there was "no doubt" Israeli Arabs had faced discrimination for "many years" Israeli Arabs own 3.5% of Israel's land, get 3-5% of government spending and have higher poverty levels than Jewish Israelis* There are 13 Israeli Arabs in the 120-seat Knesset, 10 representing [primarily] Arab parties *Source: Mossawa Center Q&A: Israeli Arabs Israeli Arabs defiant on loyalty laws Israeli Arabs vote in anger

And without the law, the numbers would be much higher, she added.

Another defender of the law, Danny Danon, a member of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, for the governing Likud party, says security trumps other concerns.

"The well-being of Israelis comes before any other rights," he says.

But for him there is another issue at stake too - the demographic make-up of the population of Israel.

"I don't think it's a racist law. But we have to make sure Israel stays a Jewish democratic country."

Ilan Tzion, a lawyer for Fence for Life, one of several right-wing organisations also backing the law, put it more strongly.

If the law is overturned, eventually Israel will become "a Muslim state", he says, "the Jewish people will become a minority in their own country", and thus be "exterminated".

"Israel is not like any other country; it was founded on the idea that it will be place for all the Jews in the world as a refuge place," he says.

Case by case

The Khatib family live in the mixed city of Acre in northern Israel. Mr Khatib teaches both Jewish and Arab students at a local college.

"I recognise the state of Israel, but does the state of Israel recognise me?" asks Mr Khatib.

The family could leave Israel, but are strongly opposed to doing so.

"I'm not waking up every day thinking about how to destroy this state, but they are waking up every day thinking about how to kick me out of my place, of the place of my great, great, great, grandfather - before they came here to this land," he says.

Mr Khatib says he understands Israel's security fears. He wants couples to be screened on a case-by-case basis - but Israel says there have been past attackers who would have passed security checks.

The Supreme Court is likely to rule within the next few months.

Campaign groups estimate at least 15,000 couples are affected by the law. Like Mr and Mrs Khatib, they will be watching and waiting.

Source

Joe Biden attacks Israeli plan for East Jerusalem homes

Nearly 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since 1967

US Vice-President Joe Biden has condemned Israel's approval of 1,600 new homes for ultra-Orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem.

Mr Biden, in Israel as part of US attempts to kick-start the peace process, said it was "the kind of step that undermines the trust we need".

Palestinian leaders also condemned the controversial move.

Israel insisted it was a procedural step with no connection to Mr Biden's visit.

The international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory. Building on occupied land is illegal under international law, but Israel regards East Jerusalem - which it annexed in 1967 - as its territory.

In a strongly worded statement, Mr Biden said: "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem.

Kim Ghattas, BBC News, Washington It's very rare for the White House to actually condemn Israel for anything, but Israel's action must have been perceived as a snub in Washington. Just as Joe Biden was talking about a moment of opportunity for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Israel was taking steps that would infuriate the Palestinians and possibly undermine that moment of opportunity. Mr Biden reminded all parties to refrain from any statements or action that would inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks. On this occasion his message seemed to be directed mostly at the Israelis.

"The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I've had here in Israel."

He said the Israelis and Palestinians needed to build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them, adding: "This announcement underscores the need to get negotiations under way that can resolve all the outstanding issues of the conflict."

Mr Biden said the US recognised that Jerusalem was a deeply important issue for Israelis and Palestinians, and for Jews, Muslims and Christians.

"We believe that through good faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome that realises the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem and safeguards its status for people around the world," he said.

Palestinian leaders have only recently agreed to resume indirect contacts with Israel, at Mr Biden's urging.

Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP news agency: "This is a dangerous decision and will hinder the negotiations.

"We consider the decision to build in East Jerusalem to be a judgment that the American efforts have failed before the negotiations have even begun."

A spokesman for the Israeli interior ministry said: "The Jerusalem District Planning Committee today approved a plan which has been in the works for over three years.

"This is a procedural stage in the framework of a long process that will yet continue for some time. The committee meeting was determined in advance and there is no connection to US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel."

There are still various planning hurdles for the East Jerusalem project to clear, and work is not thought likely to start for at least two years.

Under US pressure, Israel has agreed a 10-month suspension of new building in the West Bank. But the moratorium excludes East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want their capital.

'Moment of opportunity'

Mr Biden is the most senior member of President Barack Obama's administration to visit Jerusalem.

Earlier, at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said there was a "moment of real opportunity" for peace between the Palestinians and Israel.

The Palestinians refuse to hold face-to-face negotiations with the Israelis unless they halt all settlement building in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinians want their future state.

Speaking earlier, Joe Biden said Washington had a total commitment to Israel's security

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to shuttle between the Palestinians in Ramallah and the Israelis in Jerusalem.

Mr Biden also said the US was committed to Israeli security and determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

He added that the best long-term guarantee for Israel's security was a comprehensive peace between Israel and its neighbours.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel would continue to support the US push for stronger sanctions against Iran, and that he was pleased its efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were "beginning to bear fruit".

He said the goal of negotiations was a peace deal that included Palestinian recognition of the "permanence and legitimacy of the Jewish state of Israel".

Correspondents say there is little optimism in the region about what the indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks might achieve.

Periods of direct negotiations over the last two decades have failed to reach agreement.

Mr Netanyahu's right-leaning government has taken a harder line stance on final status issues than that of the previous administration.

He has ruled out dividing Jerusalem, wants the Palestinians to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, and said he intends to maintain a presence along the eastern border of a future Palestinian state.

On Wednesday, Mr Biden will meet Palestinian leaders in the West Bank before travelling to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah.

Source