Archive for month: August, 2014

The UK government is considering a temporary ban on the return of British-born ISIL militants wrecking havoc on Iraq and Syria, a government source says.

The source told the state-run BBC that British Prime Minister David Cameron is to set out a range of measures to counter the threat posed by the terrorist group.

The government reportedly plans to introduce new legislation to make it harder for Britons to travel to Syria and Iraq, including measures making it easier to take people’s passports away.

“We are also looking at stopping British citizens from re-entering the country if they are suspected of terrorist activity abroad,” the source said, adding that the government could previously prevent the return of foreign nationals, dual nationals or naturalized citizens.

The source confirmed that “details of the package are being finalized” and will be presented to the House of Commons on Monday.

Some Liberal Democrats, however, said a provisional ban on British citizens re-entering the country may be “illegal.” They said they would only agree to policies that were made on the basis of evidence with the liberty of Britons being considered.

At least 500 British nationals have travelled from the UK to fight in Syria and Iraq, though British ministers say they do not know the exact number.

On the advice of security experts last week, the threat level in Britain was raised from substantial to “severe”, meaning a terrorist attack is considered “highly likely” due to recent developments in Iraq and Syria

Observers have said the rise of ISIL Takfiri threat can be directly attributed to the policies of Western countries, including the UK, in the Middle East region. 

MOS/AB

The protracted and uneven recovery from the Great Recession has led most Americans to conclude that the US economy has undergone a permanent change for the worse, according to a new national study at Rutgers.

Seven in 10 now say the recession’s impact is permanent, up from half in 2009 when the recession officially ended, according to the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development.

Among key findings in “Unhappy, Worried and Pessimistic: Americans in the Aftermath of the Great Recession,” the center’s latest Work Trends report, are: Despite sustained job growth and lower levels of employment, most Americans do not think the economy has improved in the last year or that it will in the next.

Just one in six Americans believe that job opportunities for the next generation will be better than for theirs; five years ago, four in 10 held that view. Roughly four in five Americans have little or no confidence that the federal government will make progress on the nation’s most important problems over the next year.

Much of the pessimism is rooted in direct experience, according to Heldrich Center Director and Professor Carl Van Horn, co-author of the report. “Fully one-quarter of the public says there has been a major decline in their quality of life owing to the recession, and 42 percent say they have less in salary and savings than when the recession began,” Van Horn said. 

“Despite five years of recovery, sustained job growth and reductions in the number of unemployed workers, Americans are not convinced the economy is improving.”

He added that only one in three thinks the US economy has gotten better in the last year, one-quarter thinks it will improve next year and just one in six believe that job opportunities will be better for the next generation of American workers, down from four in 10 five years ago.

The Heldrich Center conducted its survey between July 24 and Aug. 3 with a nationally representative sample of 1,153 Americans.

The Work Trends analysis summarizes the effects of the Great Recession by classifying Americans into one of five categories based on how much impact the recession had on their quality of life and whether the change was temporary or permanent.

It reveals that 16 percent of the public, or 38 million people, were “devastated” because they experienced a “major, permanent” change in the quality of their life and19 percent, or 46 million, were “downsized” due to “permanent but minor” changes in standards of living.

10 percent, or 24 million were “set back,” experiencing “major, but temporary” changes in their quality of life, 22 percent, or 53 million, were “troubled” by the recession and endured only a “minor and temporary” change. Only one in three of the nation’s 240 million adults reported that they were completely “unscathed” by the recession.

Professor Cliff Zukin, co-director of the Work Trends surveys with Van Horn, said, “Looking at the aftermath of the recession, it is clear that the American landscape has been significantly rearranged. With the passage of time, the public has become convinced that they are at a new normal of a lower, poorer quality of life. The human cost is truly staggering.” 

Characteristics of the American worker
The public paints an extremely negative picture of the American worker as unhappy, underpaid, highly stressed, and insecure about their jobs. Asked to describe the typical American worker, using a list of a dozen words or phrases, just 14 percent checked off happy at work and only 18 percent believe they are well paid. Two-thirds say that American workers are “not secure in their jobs” and “highly stressed.” Just one in five says the average American worker is well educated or innovative; just one in three checked off ambitious or highly skilled. And perhaps the most surprising, just one in three checked off that the average American worker is “better than workers in other countries.”

Financial and long-term effects
One of the reasons the public does not see the economy as having gotten better is that many remain under tremendous financial stress. Six in 10 Americans describe their financial condition negatively as only fair (40 percent) or poor (19 percent). One-third report being in good shape; just 7 percent describe themselves as being in excellent financial health. 

Many report significant losses in the Great Recession. Just 30 percent say they have more in salary and savings than they did before the recession started, less than a third have the same, leaving 42 percent who report having less today than five years ago.

Americans view the recession as causing fundamental and lasting changes in a number of areas of economic and social life. Three in five believe the ability of young people to afford college will not return to prerecession levels, which is significant given the role that education has historically played as a key to upward mobility. Other fundamental areas where a large segment of the public sees permanent changes are: job security (53 percent), the elderly having to find part-time work after retiring (51 percent) and workers having to take jobs below their skill level (44 percent).

Pessimistic about the future
Americans are also pessimistic about the future. Only a quarter think economic conditions in the United States will get better in the next year, and just 40 percent believe their family’s finances will get better over the next year. Consequently, most do not see themselves getting back to where they were any time soon.

“Despite nearly five years of job growth and declining unemployment levels, Americans remain skeptical that the economy has improved and doubt that it will improve any time soon,” said Van Horn. “The slow, uneven, and painful recovery left Americans deeply pessimistic about the economy, their personal finances, and prospects for the next generation.”

The report found the public sharply critical of Washington policymakers. More disapprove than approve of the job President Obama is doing by a margin of 46 percent to 54 percent. Even fewer approve of the job Congress is doing — 14 percent. A plurality of 43 percent say they trust neither the president nor Congress to handle the economy. Finally, should Republicans win control of Congress in November; only 26 percent say this will help lower the unemployment rate. Thirty percent say this would make unemployment worse while 44 percent say it would make no difference. esciencenews.com

AHT/DDB

Takfiri ISIL militants have abducted several dozen female Izadi Kurds in Iraq and sold them to fellow militants in Syria, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says.

The Britain-based group said on Saturday that at least 27 Izadi women had been sold for around USD 1,000 each to ISIL terrorists.

The group noted that it was aware that some 300 Izadi women had been kidnapped and taken to Syria by the ISIL, but it had so far documented the sale of 27.

In recent weeks around 300 Izadi women and girls “who were abducted in Iraq have been distributed as spoils of war” to ISIL militants, the SOHR said in a statement, adding that it documented “at least 27 cases of those being sold … in the northeast of Aleppo province, and parts of Raqa and Hassakeh provinces.”

The group also claimed some Syrian Arabs and Kurds had tried to buy some of the women in an attempt to release them, but they were only being sold to ISIL Takfiris.

It is not clear what had happened to the rest of the 300 women, the SOHR said.

Earlier in August, UN religious right monitor Heiner Bielefeldt warned of reports of women being executed and abducted by the ISIL terror group.

“We have reports of women being executed and unverified reports that strongly suggest that hundreds of women and children have been kidnapped — many of the teenagers have been sexually assaulted, and women have been assigned or sold to” ISIL militants, he said.

The ISIL terrorists currently control parts of Syria and Iraq’s northern and western regions, where they have been committing heinous crimes, including the mass execution of civilians and Iraqi security forces.

MR/AB/SL

A small plane had taken off from the city of Waukesha in Wisconsin, Wisconsin violates District of Columbia’s airspace and then crashes into the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday.

Two Air Force F-16 jets were scrambled to intercept the plane. The jets escorted the plane until it ran out of fuel and eventually crashed off the Virginia coast.  The jet pilots said that the pilot of the plane had lost consciousness while flying. Coast Guard Petty Officer Nate Littlejohn says crews are searching for the plane. 

According to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration the plane crashed Saturday at 3:17 p.m. about 50 miles southeast of Wallops Island, Virginia. Littlejohn says the Coast Guard in Portsmouth was notified about 2:40 p.m. that the plane had failed to land in Manassas, Virginia, and continued into restricted air space in Washington, D.C.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson says the plane was heading to Manassas. Littlejohn says no one else was aboard the plane. A Coast Guard helicopter that had conducted a search found no sign of the plane in the ocean.

The pilot hasn’t been identified. The plane, a Cirrus SR22T, was reportedly headed for Manassas, Virginia.