threats – praag.org

Government says no imminent danger to US interests

The South African government is monitoring a number of people linked to a reported threat to US interests, but was satisfied that no one faced any imminent danger, the security minister said.

The US Embassy warned its citizens on Tuesday of a possible attack by militants, a rare security alert in a stable democracy seldom associated with Islamist militancy.

State Security Minister David Mahlobo said the US Embassy had shared information linked to the warning with his officials.

“This is not a new information, the information has been shared over the past few days, the information has been acted upon,” he said.

“In terms of our own threat analysis, we had to do a threat analysis, who is the source and what is happening, and came to the conclusion that there is no immediate danger.”

In Washington, a State Department official said the security message was to inform US citizens that militants may be targeting US interests in South Africa, including US government facilities and businesses.

“There is no additional information as to timing or potential targeting,” the official said.

“US citizens should be vigilant and take appropriate steps to enhance their personal security.”

The embassy and consulates in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town closed for several days in 2009 after what US officials described as a specific threat to diplomatic missions in South Africa.

Source: Reuters

Immigrants, Muslims and pregnant teens seen as threats

Americans, Italians and the French clearly see immigrants, Muslims and pregnant teens as threats.

They vastly overestimate the proportion of the population that are immigrants or Muslims and they have no idea what percentage of teenage girls get pregnant.

Swedes and Germans do best, although even they consistently get things wrong, according to a survey of 14 industrialized countries released on Wednesday.

The analysis by market research organization Ipsos MORI shows how far perceptions stray from reality across a range of issues as people struggle to get a precise handle on aspects of society that are seen as risks or worries.

Levels of immigration — a hot-button topic in many developed countries — are overestimated everywhere but the United States veers further from reality than most, with an average guess that 32 percent of the population are immigrants when the reality is 13 percent.

Italy fares even worse, with an average guess of 30 percent against a real figure of only seven percent.

Italians are also spectacularly bad at estimating the number of old people in the country, believing that 48 percent are over 65 years old. In reality, oldies make up only a fifth of the population.

Teenage pregnancy, an problem in mainly black neighborhoods, is another issue where people everywhere get it badly wrong.

Americans think 24 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 give birth each year, when the real figure is just 3 percent, and even the sensible Swedes are badly out, believing the annual teenage pregnancy rate is 8 percent compared to the actual 0.7 percent.

The current Ebola outbreak was not covered in the survey, which was conducted in August among more than 11,000 people across the 14 countries.

People hugely overestimate the proportion of Muslims living in their country, with the French putting the figure at 31 percent, when the real figure is 8 percent. The British guess at 21 percent (real figure 5 percent) and Americans estimate 15 percent (real figure 1 percent).

Even in countries such as Hungary, Poland, South Korea and Japan, where fewer than one percent of the population is Muslim, people put the figure at four to seven percent.

By contrast, majority-Christian countries tend to underestimate how many people count themselves as Christian.

Fliers threaten violence against blacks in California city

Alleged flier found on the scene threatening violence against blacks, from the pro-black site "Race Lies" — Alleged flier found on the scene threatening violence against blacks, from the pro-black site “Race Lies”

Fliers with racial slurs have been found scattered throughout the city of Lancaster for the past few weeks, reports KABC. Now the search is on for the person who made them. They include hateful and threatening messages aimed at minorities.

A racist flier, too graphic to show, is circulating in Lancaster. It uses a racial slur and makes serious threats. L.A. County sheriff’s detectives say the flier started showing up in various Lancaster neighborhoods about two weeks ago.

“At this point we are investigating it as a hate incident,” said sheriff’s deputy Miguel Ruiz. “Fliers have been posted throughout the city specifically targeting African-Americans with derogatory terms and racial slurs.”

Some of the threats include warning people of color that if they show up around certain addresses in Lancaster they will be shot.

“We’ve investigated those specific locations. One of them specifically is a vacant home, so there is no one there at that residence. So don’t feel incited that those specific addresses are the people involved with these fliers,” said Ruiz.

“In these days, in this city, it’s atrocious and has the city concerned,” said Darren Parker, Antelope Valley Human Relations Commission.

Detectives say the flier could have initially been put out as part of some neighborhood dispute before it spread throughout Lancaster. They hope to close in on a suspect soon.

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris says the city and sheriff’s department will not tolerate racist, hate-filled threats of any kind.

“What people have to understand: The moment you elevate it to a hate crime we put more resources into that than if it’s a murder, and right now we have more deputies working on this than we do some unsolved murders,” said Parris.

White office workers threatened by strikers

Striking black mine workers at the Mponeng mine near Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, have issued death threats to white office workers at the mine. Yesterday they were told not to come to work today, unless they wanted to be killed.

White office staff were told to assemble at the Jacaranda garage in Fochville. An eyewitness and businesswoman in the town lives about 800 meters from the garage and she saw 200 white mine and office workers at the garage this morning.

Helicopters were circling from early this morning, with emergency vehicles coming and going.

Yesterday an unspecified number of people were hurt in the strikes, with several mine workers arrested.

According to the businesswoman, “Things are bad here in Fochville.”