Canada’s terror risk lowest among major Western countries: study

By Ian MacLeod
OTTAWA — Canada has the lowest risk of terrorism among major western economies, says a new global security report.
The 2011 Terrorism Risk Index, by the respected British risk analysis company Maplecroft, ranks Canada 86th out of 197 countries.
The United Kingdom placed 38th, the highest among major western nations, which Maplecroft attributes to deteriorating security conditions in Northern Ireland, with 25 reported terrorist attacks last year, none fatal.
Greece had the worst showing of any western nation, placing 27th with a “high risk” classification.
No major western economies, however, fell within the “high” or “extreme risk” risk bracket — the U.S. (ranked 61), Germany (62), France (45) and U.K. all remain in the “medium risk” category. China, meanwhile, ranked 39th.
The standings are based on the frequency and intensity of terrorist incidents between April 1, 2010 and March 31 this year and the history of terrorism in the country.
In Canada, the May 18, 2010, firebombing of an Ottawa Royal Bank branch elevated the ranking, as did a June 2010 arson and vandalism attack that damaged several businesses and vehicles in the lead-up to Toronto’s G20 summit.
Still, Maplecroft says Canada’s risk of terrorism remains “low,” dropping from 64th place in a previous index.
But the company cautions its ratings, “cannot say much about potential high-impact attacks in the future.”
Norway, for example, is ranked a “low risk” 112th, but that analysis predated the July 22 Oslo and Utoya Island attacks by right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik.
Maplecroft rates the fledgling state of South Sudan in the top five countries most at risk from terrorist attacks after Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The “extreme risk” category also includes: Yemen (6), Palestinian Occupied Territories (7), DR Congo (8) Central African Republic (9), Colombia (10), Algeria (11), Thailand (12), Philippines (13), Russia (14), Sudan (15), Iran (16), Burundi (17), India (18), Nigeria (19) and Israel (20).
Maplecroft data also reveal terrorist attacks on the increase globally, up 15 per cent with 11,954 incidents over the period. However, there was a decrease in deaths, to 13,492 from 14,478.
While at low risk, Canada does have a modern history of terrorism, beginning in the early 1960s with the Sons of Freedom, which emerged from the otherwise pacifist Doukhobor sect in British Columbia. Over about four years, the group blew up railway tracks, hydro towers and other industrial and government targets in the province.
They were followed by the FLQ and the 1970 October Crisis; Direct Action, the tiny B.C. gang of self-styled anarchists best known for the 1982 bombing of the Litton Industries plant in Toronto; the 1982 assassination of Turkish military attache Col. Atilla Altikat, shot to death in his car in Ottawa; the 1985 attack on the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa by an Armenian-Canadian terror cell; and the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182 that claimed 329 lives.
Maplecroft defines terrorism as, “calculated and purposeful use of violence employed to influence the attitudes and behaviour of people and governments.”
Its country assessments are based on data from the U.S. National Counter-terrorism Center’s Worldwide Incidents Tracking System.
Postmedia News
Source: National Post

Polygamist leader found guilty of child sex assaults

SAN ANGELO, Texas • U.S. polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who heads a breakaway Mormon sect, was found guilty Thursday of child sexual assault for his “spiritual marriages” to two underage girls.
A Texas jury convicted the 55-year-old Jeffs of child sexual assault and aggravated child sexual assault over his relationships with the girls, ages 12 and 14, at his sect’s Texas ranch. He faces up to 119 years in prison.
Jeffs is considered the spiritual leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and has argued in outbursts that the Texas court was trampling on his religious rights by trying the case.
The polygamist sect, which experts estimate has 10,000 followers in North America, has been condemned by the mainstream Mormon Church and is accused of promoting marriages between older men and girls.
“This is taking down the head of the snake,” former sect member Flora Jessop said of the verdict, handed down after about three hours of deliberations.
Throughout his trial Jeffs repeatedly said that his religion was being attacked, a notion rejected by Texas Attorney-General Greg Abbott, whose office prosecuted the case.
“What was on trial here wasn’t anybody’s faith, wasn’t a church, wasn’t a concept,” Mr. Abbott told reporters after the verdict outside the county courthouse in San Angelo.
“There was only one thing on trial here, and that was Warren Jeffs and his actions to sexually assault two young girls. Our job is to prosecute crimes like that, and not to engage in religious persecution.”
Mr. Abbott said he expected the punishment phase of Jeffs’ trial to take several days.
Assistant Texas Attorney-General Eric Nichols took seven days to put together a case against the self-proclaimed “prophet and elect of God” of his FLDS sect, which says plural marriage is the pathway to heaven.
Among the evidence used to convict Jeffs was a picture of him passionately kissing the younger girl, and DNA evidence that he fathered a child with the 14-year-old.
Prosecutors also presented a scratchy audio recording of what they said was Jeffs raping the younger girl.
Jeffs, in what was to have been his closing argument, simply stood silently in the courtroom for more than 20 minutes before quietly saying: “I am at peace.” He then sat down.
Ms. Jessop, a former sect member who ran away from a forced marriage to a much older cousin, said the church would go on despite Jeffs’ conviction but she hoped some followers would get out.
“Maybe they will think now about the types of crimes that he [Jeffs] has committed,” she said.
Jeffs had represented himself after firing his attorneys. He called as a witness one of the followers of his religion and questioned him for over four hours about the Book of Mormon and FLDS beliefs concerning plural marriage.
State District Judge Barbara Walther ultimately halted Jeffs’ presentation, saying it was irrelevant to the charges.
Jeffs is also awaiting trial on a charge of bigamy, which is a felony in Texas. That case is expected in October.
THOMSON REUTERS
Source: National Post

European crisis adds fuel to fire

An attempt by Europe’s central bank to contain the rapidly deteriorating sovereign debt crisis backfired spectacularly Thursday, helping trigger a plunge on global stock markets and compounding threats to the world economy.
With banks in the eurozone ever more reluctant to lend to one another, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet announced an injection of liquidity with a resumption of its program to purchase sovereign bonds. But the apparent exclusion of Italian and Spanish debt from that intervention stunned stock and bond markets in Europe.
“This is quite a dangerous phase,” said Jamie Dannhauser, senior economist at Lombard Street Research in London. “Market disruption yesterday and today looks as severe in Italian and Spanish bond markets as anything since Lehman Brothers.”
With the eurozone inching closer to an all-out currency crisis, and with bond yields in its third- and fourth-biggest economies at 14-year highs, investors are clearly concerned that European officials will be unable to backstop Italy and Spain from being claimed by the debt crisis.
“It’s not as deep a crisis yet as would be required to move the ECB in that direction. It would have to be convinced that the euro was about to come apart at the seams,” said Stephen Lewis, chief economist at London’s Monument Securities, a turn for the worse he predicts is as little as a week away.
That reality is dawning on markets, Mr. Lewis said. Stocks in London, Paris and Frankfurt lost more than 3% Thursday, while Madrid fell 4%, and Milan by more than 5%.
Eurozone leadership has failed to grasp the urgency warranted by the escalating tensions, Mr. Lewis said. “They’re all at the beach. They had their summit and all took off for their holidays.”
At that July 21 summit in Brussels, in addition to a second bailout package for Greece, eurozone leaders enhanced the €440-billion rescue fund, or the EFSF, with the ability to buy bonds on the secondary market and extend short-term lines of credit to troubled sovereigns.
But those new powers will not come into effect for a number of months, leaving the central bank as the lender of last resort for the time being.
At a crossroads of the debt saga, that “leaves the EU’s safety net woefully inadequate against the growing market contagion,” Lena Komileva, global head of G10 strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, said in a research note. She called for an extraordinary international intervention to stem the risk of a “self-fulfilling investor panic” of the kind witnessed after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. “The global market stresses are now at levels that warrant such action,” she said.
The focus of those stresses shifted abruptly in recent weeks from Greece to Spain and Italy, which also wrestle with massive sovereign debt burdens.
Yields on 10-year bonds recently rose well past the critical 6% threshold in both countries, while capital flows between banks began to dry up as financial institutions park more and more money in low-interest deposits with the ECB.
“This is a further breakdown of the interbank system in the eurozone, whereby strong banks simply hoard the liquidity they’re receiving,” Mr. Dannhauser said.
Banks in Italy and Spain are now finding it difficult to borrow, feeding worries the sector could fall into a cycle of credit contraction.
But to have the capacity to buy up large chunks of Spanish and Italian debt if required, the EFSF would need to increase by four or five times, Mr. Dannhauser said.
That kind of decisive action, however, seems unlikely, given the deep divisions among the eurozone’s member states, including German opposition to any additional bond-purchasing, he explained.
“The problem is that because at each stage of this crisis, they have done the minimum amount possible,” he said. “One hopes this week is going to drive them further towards a sustainable solution.”
Source: National Post

Canadian health system more efficient than the one in the U.S.: study

By Bradley Bouzane

The Canadian health-care system may be plagued by countless stories of lengthy wait times and crowded emergency rooms, but a new study shows the amount of time and money spent on administrative duties is a fraction of that required by the U.S. system.
The study from the University of Toronto and New York’s Cornell University says U.S. doctors pay an average of nearly $83,000 each for administrative costs associated with insurance documents. In Canada, for doctors based in Ontario that cost is significantly less at just over $22,200.
In addition, nurses, medical assistants and other hospital staff dedicate nearly 21 hours per week to filing insurance papers and other duties required to push insurance claims through. For the same duties in Ontario, just 2.5 hours are spent each week.
The findings of the study, published in the August edition of the journal Health Affairs, show that the “single payer” health-insurance system in Canada is largely responsible for the difference between countries.
It said the need for many U.S. patients to carry coverage from multiple insurance providers leads to the more demanding time commitments to file the appropriate documents.
Dr. Dante Morra, the study’s lead author, said the time savings felt in Canada go back to help the people who need it most.
“When we look at health care in Canada … there’s a lot of areas for improvement, but at the end of the day, sometimes we have to sit back and realize there is good access to care for Canadians,” said Morra, a Toronto doctor.
“There are a lot of benefits to the way we have structured our system and one of those benefits is this almost non-existent cost associated with dealing with payment. That time is directly invested into caring for patients.”
The study, which surveyed physicians on how much time was spent by themselves and other staff on filing insurance documents, said that if U.S. doctors were able to reel in the administrative costs to a level on par with those polled in Ontario, it would result in an annual savings of more than $27 billion for the American health-care system.
Morra said the high financial and time costs can often deter U.S. doctors from working in some medical environments. He noted, however, that the current political climate in the U.S. will likely not allow for a significant overhaul to allow for a streamlining of paperwork to allow doctors more time doing what they do best.
“As physicians, we know how to submit the claims … it’s simple … but it’s something we in Canada don’t have to worry about,” he said.
“A lot of people (in the U.S.) actually choose not to do primary care and office-based work because the hassle factor is so high it’s unbearable, and they feel they’re spending very little time with their patients.
“This is a benefit of the way we’ve organized health care in Canada and it’s one of the reasons why health care is cheaper here and we get better results because we don’t have to deal with these multiple health plans.”
Postmedia News
Source: National Post

Famine in Somalia: The numbers behind world’s ‘most severe’ crisis

Source: National Post