Demonstrations against the Turkish government have spread from Istanbul to Ankara and other cities in Turkey. The unrest began over a plan to close down a park and Istanbul and develop it for other uses. Opponents of the government are angry over what they see as overreach by the Islamist AKP Party and Prime Minister Erdogan.
In other news, artists in Egypt have protested a proposal by Muslim Brotherhood members of parliament to ban ballet.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, EW, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Cut Taxes to Boost Economy, Says Bank of Italy
Country missed decades of technological developments
(ANSA) — Rome, May 31 — Government must act quickly to reduce business and labour taxes to create employment and stimulate the economy, Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said Friday.
Immediate action is essential because high taxes are “holding back employment and business activity,” Visco told the central bank’s annual meeting in Rome. The cuts may take effect over the medium-term, and taxes that affect productivity should be first on the chopping block, he added.
The governor’s speech came at the same time the national statistics agency Istat reported that unemployment in recession-hit Italy reached 12.8% in the first quarter of 2013, the highest since the first quarter of 1977.
One reason for the troubled economy and sluggish productivity is the fact that over the past 25 years, Italy has failed to take part in enormous marketplace changes and must now act fast to catch up, Visco said.
“We were not able to respond to the extraordinary geopolitical shifts in technology and demographics of the last 25 years,” he added.
That is now taking an enormous toll on the Italian economy and government policy reform is essential to catch-up and stimulate an economic recovery.
The Italian government has one advantage, the governor noted. Italy’s exit from the European Commission’s excessive deficit process is the “first fruit” to grow from the former government’s efforts at fiscal consolidation and should not be squandered, Visco said.
“The exit from excessive deficit procedure is the first fruit…It should be considered an investment on which to build”.
Former premier Mario Monti’s government introduced strict budget measures that led to an EC decision this week to close the procedure.
That is expected to free up about eight billion euros for the current government in the 2014 budget.
Meanwhile, interest cuts by the European Central Bank have been effective and the ECB stands ready to cut again if necessary, Visco said.
Cutting rates to increase liquidity in the eurozone, “has proven effective,” he said.
But more may be needed, he added.
“The ECB is examining, in concert with other European institutions, initiatives to promote issues of securities backed by loans to businesses”.
Visco also called for measures to “break the negative spiral” in credit availability in the economy, the result of a drop in the amount of lending by nervous banks to businesses.
At the same time, companies are increasingly afraid to borrow, leading to economic stagnation.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Detroit Citizens Protect Themselves After Police Force Decimated
As crime hobbles Detroit (9845MF)’s attempts to revive itself, the city is bolstering its police department by having unarmed citizens patrol the streets in a program that costs less than annual salaries and benefits for three officers.
Volunteers given radios and matching T-shirts help officers protect neighborhoods where burglaries, thefts and thugs drive away people who can’t rely on a police force that lost a quarter of its strength since 2009. With 25 patrols on the streets, the city hopes to add three each year. Meanwhile, the homicide rate continues rising.
Kevyn Orr, the Detroit emergency manager appointed by the state to supersede the mayor and city council, has called public safety crucial as he reorganizes a city running a $380 million deficit, teetering on a record municipal bankruptcy and struggling to provide services. Orr has said Detroit (AERPDTMI)’s turnaround depends on reversing a population loss of more than 25 percent since 2000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal: New Strikes Against Government
Unions want the troika to re-negotiate austerity measures
(ANSAmed) — LISBON — Portugal’s main union, CGTP, has called a day-long strike in Lisbon on Friday. Subways stopped working last night and services will resume on Saturday morning.
The union is demanding that the government ask the troika — the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund — to re-negotiate measures imposed on Portugal in exchange for 78 billion euros in aid granted in 2011. A previous anti-crisis measure decided by the conservative government of Pedro Passos Coelho was blocked by the Constitutional Court.
Unemployment in Portugal has risen to 18% and the government is planning to cut 10% of state jobs and raise to 65 years the pension limit. These and other measures are criticized by the majority of the population as the public opinion is demanding that the government resign and for new elections. A general strike will be jointly organized in the next few days by CGTP and the second largest union UGT together with associations representing consumers and different categories of workers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Top 1% Own 39% of All Global Wealth: Hoarding Soars as We Hurtle Toward Economic Oblivion
According to a study that was just released by Boston Consulting Group, the wealthiest one percent now own 39 percent of all the wealth in the world. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent only own 1 percent of all the wealth in the world combined. The global financial system has been designed to funnel wealth to the very top, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to expand at a frightening pace. The global elite continue to hoard wealth and heap together enormous mountains of treasure in these troubled days even though the economic suffering around the planet continues to grow. So exactly how have the global elite accumulated so much wealth? Well, one of the primary ways is through the use of debt. As I have written about previously, there is about 190 trillion dollars of debt in the world but global GDP is only about 70 trillion dollars. Our debt-based global financial system systematically transfers wealth from us and our governments into the hands of the global elite. And of course the gigantic banks and corporations that the elite control are constantly gobbling up everything of value that they can find: natural resources, profitable small businesses, real estate, politicians, etc. Money, power, ownership and control are becoming very, very tightly concentrated at the top of the food chain, and that is a very dangerous thing for humanity. When too much money and power gets into too few hands, it almost always results in tyranny.
What will eventually happen when the global elite have ALL the wealth?
Will the rest of us work as serfs in a system that they have iron-fisted control over?
And what if they decide that they don’t really need billions of people working for them? Will they decide to implement population control measures in order to reduce the number of “useless eaters”? It is already happening in China and other highly centralized societies.
When all of the economic rewards of a society go to a very small handful of people, it tends to be very destabilizing. We have seen this again and again throughout history…
So exactly who are the top one percent? I discussed this at length in my previous article entitled “Who Runs The World? Solid Proof That A Core Group Of Wealthy Elitists Is Pulling The Strings”. The global elite are absolutely obsessed with power and control and they have been working to implement their agenda for a very long time. In the end, they hope to unite the entire planet under a monolithic global system that they control. They are actually quite open about this — it is just that most people do not want to believe it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
25 Signs That Military Veterans Are Being Treated Like Absolute Trash Under the Obama Administration
Why does the Obama administration treat our military veterans like human garbage? Every year on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Barack Obama and our other politicians make very nice speeches, but the truth about how they feel about our veterans can be seen in how they are treated every single day. In the United States today, there are well over half a million veterans that have been waiting for at least 125 days to have their benefit claims processed. Many of them will ultimately have their claims sent back or denied just so a government employee somewhere can get a bigger bonus. Meanwhile, conditions at VA facilities all over the country are absolutely abysmal, and many veterans have to wait more than half a year just to get an appointment at one of those facilities.
Once you start looking into how this country really treats military veterans, it becomes easier to understand why 22 military veterans commit suicide in America every single day. Our vets have a higher rate of unemployment, a higher rate of poverty, a higher rate of homelessness, a higher rate of depression and a higher rate of divorce then the general population. It is a crying shame. One of the ways that any society is judged is by how it treats military veterans, and the truth is that America has failed miserably. This has been particularly true since Barack Obama has been in the White House.
The following are 25 signs that military veterans are being treated like absolute trash under the Obama administration…
[…]
8. As I have written about previously, applying for veteran benefits is extremely complicated, and VA employees are actually paid bonuses for denying claims…
9. Large numbers of military veterans that legitimately should be getting benefits are having their claims denied by the federal government. Just check out the following example from a Veterans Today article…
10. Last year, more than 85,000 military veterans were treated for sexual abuse that they suffered while serving in the military. 40 percent of them were men.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
5-Year-Old Interrogated by School Until He Wets His Pants… Because of Cap Gun
Ok, come on. It seems like school officials are going nuts these days. Kids can’t play “Cowboys and Indians,” because that could lead to gun “violence.” (Not to mention that the game is so un-PC.) Kids can’t think of a gun, draw a gun, or even hold their fingers in the shape of a gun. So imagine what happened when a 5-year-old child brought a cap gun to school.
As reported by The Washington Post, “a kindergartner who brought a cowboy-style cap gun onto his Calvert County school bus was suspended for 10 days after showing a friend the orange-tipped toy, which he had tucked inside his backpack on his way to school”
The child was questioned for more than two hours before his mother was called, she said, adding that he uncharacteristically wet his pants during the episode. The boy is 5 — “all bugs and frogs and cowboys,” his mother said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
California Senate Approves Background Checks for Ammunition Purchases
The California Senate this week approved a collection of bills, including one (SB 53) that would require background checks, permits, and fees for the purchase of ammunition.
All ammunition sales would have to be face-to-face, happening only in the presence of a store clerk; and vendors selling the bullets would have to submit sales records to the California Department of Justice. Those vendors also would need a permit to sell ammunition.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Dick Morris: Obama Must Have Been ‘Deeply Involved’ In IRS Targeting
There’s no chance President Barack Obama knew nothing of the IRS targeting conservative groups, says political pundit Dick Morris. Why else would IRS Commissioner Douglas Schulman have visited the White House at least once a week?
“The incredible frequency of the White House visits — essentially weekly — indicate that Obama must have been deeply involved with the inner workings of the audits and harassment of conservative groups,” Morris writes on his website, DickMorris.com.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
DOJ Places a Chill on Criticism of Islam
Yes, but you can still dunk a crucifix in a jar of urine and have that considered “art”:
Judicial Watch:
In its latest effort to protect followers of Islam in the U.S. the Obama Justice Department warns against using social media to spread information considered inflammatory against Muslims, threatening that it could constitute a violation of civil rights.
The move comes a few years after the administration became the first in history to dispatch a U.S. Attorney General to personally reassure Muslims that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is dedicated to protecting them. In the unprecedented event, Attorney General Eric Holder assured a San Francisco-based organization (Muslim Advocates) that urges members not to cooperate in federal terrorism investigations that the “us versus them” environment created by the U.S. government, law enforcement agents and fellow citizens is unacceptable and inconsistent with what America is all about…
Please note: By “spreading information considered inflammatory against Muslims” — even if it’s true — you could violate the civil rights act and be subject to prosecution.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Florida Teen Slammed to Ground for Giving Cops “Dehumanizing Stares”
14-year-old Tremaine McMillian was slammed to the ground and put in a chokehold over the Memorial Day weekend for the crime of giving Miami-Dade cops “dehumanizing stares.” The police also didn’t approve of his body language and reacted violently to his failure to obey commands. The teen’s mother captured the incident on her cell phone.
The teen insists his only crime was ignoring the police and walking away. “I feel that should never have happened,” he told CBS Miami. “I don’t like it. I feel sad. He got in front of me on the ATC and he slammed my hand. Then he started choking me.” McMillian said his dog was injured during the takedown on Haulover Beach in Miami.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Group Sets Meeting to Increase Tolerance of Muslims, Culture
A special meeting has been scheduled for the stated purpose of increasing awareness and understanding that American Muslims are not the terrorists some have made them out to be in social media and other circles.
“Public Disclosure in a Diverse Society” will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 4, at the Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center, 147 Hospitality Blvd.
Special speakers for the event will be Bill Killian, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, and Kenneth Moore, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Knoxville Division.
Sponsor of the event is the American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee — a 15-member board formed two years ago when the General Assembly was considering passing legislation that would restrict those who worship Sharia Law, which is followed by Muslims.
Killian and Moore will provide input on how civil rights can be violated by those who post inflammatory documents targeted at Muslims on social media.
“This is an educational effort with civil rights laws as they play into freedom of religion and exercising freedom of religion,” Killian told The News Monday. “This is also to inform the public what federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are.”
Killian said the presentation will also focus on Muslim culture and how, that although terrorist acts have been committed by some in the faith, they are no different from those in other religions.
He referred to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing in which Timothy McVeigh, an American terrorist, detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Commonly referred to as the Oklahoma City Bombing, the attack killed 168 people and injured more than 800.
It was the deadliest act of terrorism within the United States prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Terry Nichols was also charged and incarcerated as a coconspirator.
Killian also referred to the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting on Aug. 5, 2012, when Wade Michael Page, an American white supremacist, fatally shot six people and wounded four others in a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis. Page committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after he was shot in the stomach by a responding police officer.
“Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were both Christians as was the guy who shot up the Sikh temple,” Killian said. “Sikhs are not Muslim, Many people think they are Muslim, but they split off with the Hindu religion.”
Killian referred to a Facebook posting made by Coffee County Commissioner Barry West that showed a picture of a man pointing a double-barreled shotgun at a camera lens with the caption saying, “How to Wink at a Muslim.”
Killian said he and Moore had discussed the issue.
“If a Muslim had posted ‘How to Wink at a Christian,’ could you imagine what would have happened?” he said. “We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we’re here, they’re going to be protected.”
Killian said Internet postings that violate civil rights are subject to federal jurisdiction.
“That’s what everybody needs to understand,” he said.
Killian said slide show presentations will be made.
Zak Mohyuddin, a Muslim Advisory Council member, said a shortened version of a documentary called “Welcome to Shelbyville” will also be featured.
The documentary, produced by the Public Broadcasting Service, spotlights recent demographic changes in nearby Shelbyville, with a focus on the growing number of immigrants from Latin America and Somalia with many Somalis from the Bantu minority ethnic group which practices Islam.
Mohyuddin said Muslims across the nation consistently issue press releases condemning terrorist acts, but the media usually does not pick up the information. He added that the apparent silence leaves the impression that Muslims do not condemn such acts.
Like Killian, Mohyuddin said word needs to be spread so more people understand the Muslim culture.
“It is in the self-interest of Muslims in the United States to counter violent extremism, because we and our children do not want to be viewed with suspicion,” Mohyuddin said. “The Muslim community is a vital resource in the fight against terrorism.”
Killian said he has made other presentations in the state about Muslim culture and civil rights laws, and the Muslims he’s become acquainted with are outstanding citizens.
“Some of the finest people I’ve met are Muslims,” he said, adding later: “We want to inform everybody about what the law is, but more importantly, we want to provide what the law means to Muslims, Hindus and every other religion in the country.
“It’s why we came here in the first place. In England, they were using Christianity to further their power in government. That’s why the First Amendment is there.”
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits making any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on Dec. 15, 1791, as one of the 10 amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights.
| — Hat tip: EW | [Return to headlines] |
Human Trafficking in America (Video)
Senator Marco Rubio has become a voice against human trafficking, especially that involving children. Senator Rubio states in the below video interview that “awareness is the key”. This column is dedicated to raising awareness of this form of human, including child, abuse in America.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Schedules Series of Muslim Outreach Summits
As part of his Executive Order to increase participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Federal Programs, President Obama has scheduled a series of Muslim Outreach Summits to find out how to make it easier for Muslims to assimilate into American society. Aside from the obvious, there’s one big problem here — there is no mention of the word “Muslims” in the executive order.
Obama’s executive order states: The purpose of this order is to establish a President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and a White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Each will work to improve the quality of life and opportunities for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through increased access to, and participation in, Federal programs in which they may be underserved. In addition, each will work to advance relevant evidence-based research, data collection, and analysis for AAPI populations and subpopulations.
But a request for quote looking for someone to write the annual report for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) states: The report must reflect the work and recommendations of the Commission, as well as the findings and recommendations gleaned from the Muslim Outreach Summits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Sign U.N. Firearms Treaty Rejected by Senate
President Barack Obama will soon sign an international arms trade treaty previously rejected by the United States Senate.
The United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) establishes regulations for international arms sales. Categories of firearms listed in the treaty includes tanks, artillery, and small arms such as handguns. The U.N. General Assembly passed the treaty on April 2nd with a vote of 153-4, with the United States voting in favor. Obama intends to sign the treaty on June 3rd.
On March 23rd, Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) introduced an amendment to prevent the U.S. from entering into the treaty. It passed by a vote of 53 to 46…
Due to the Senate’s response to the treaty, Obama’s signature will be symbolic at best. According to Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the President “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.”
[Comment: Should Obama even be signing it in the first place? The treaty doesn’t have 2/3 vote of Senate.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Privacy of World Citizens Wiped Out by USA
As of yesterday you are a Citizen of the World with no Privacy — no matter in which country you are located.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony invite, sent to a select group of Utah politicians and dignitaries for the massive Utah Data Centre in Bluffdale, Utah, was as mysterious as the facility itself. Canada Free Press (CFP) could find no pictures, no accounts of the event anywhere on the Internet today even though an earlier media release said reporters would be there.
The bigger-than-the-CIA National Security Agency (NSA) had previously stated that the facility would start operations in September, 2013.
Why should this event mean anything to you and yours?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Senator Lamar Alexander: Neo-Con Trotskyite, Part 2
Former Tennessee Governor, and U. S. Secretary of Education, Lamar Alexander, wrote a number of autobiographical books. “Steps Along the Way: A Governor’s Scrapbook,” published in 1986, includes an interesting statement by Alexander. He said, “The book that changed my thinking the most during the last ten years was, ‘A God Within,’ by Rene’ Dubos.” (p.85).
– From Vol. 1, Number 1, Free World Research, Iowa Report, November 1992, comes the following information.
Dubos’ book is subtitled, “A positive approach to man’s future as part of the natural world.” An examination of its contents reveal that Lamar Alexander has been highly influenced by New Age environmentalism. For example, Dubos asserts, “The earth is literally our mother, not only because we depend on her for nurture and shelter, but even more because the human species has been shaped by her in the womb of evolution.” (p 38) He further asserts that, “Our salvation depends upon our ability to create a religion of nature and substitute for magic suited to the needs and knowledge of modern man.” (p. 41). Ahhh yes, he thinks pantheism is the answer!
Dubos, in addition to referring to the earth as a “living organism” on page 43, also goes so far as to say this, “Both polytheism and monotheism are losing the ancient power in the modern world, and for this reason it is commonly assumed that present age is irreligious. But we may instead be moving to a higher level of religion.” (p. 42).
The fact that this book has so affected Lamar Alexander is noteworthy when one considers Dubos’ view of science. “Science is at present evolving from the description of concrete objects and events to the study of relationships as observed in complex systems. We may be about to recapture an experience of harmony, as intimation of the divine, from our scientific knowledge of the process through which the earth became prepared for human life, and the mechanisms through which man relates to the universe as a whole. A truly ecological view of the world has religious overtones (p. 42-43). Dubos further states, “One of the worst demonic forces in technological civilization is the craving for growth, which is enhanced by countless institutional devices ranging from national prestige to real-estate promotion and other forms of commercial advertising.” (p. 313)
What a bunch of new age environmental commie gobbledygook! In other words, freedom and free enterprise is a “demonic force” that is killing the planet! Is it any wonder Alexander is contributing to the goals of UN Agenda 21, and is willing, among other things, to take 22,000 more acres of Tennessee land for Cherokee National Park?!
[…]
“The private sector is charging ahead, helping clear the way for reform. One of the ways privatization can ‘clear the way’ is by avoiding the accountability due elected officials.” Sure, there are no elected officials. Dr. Hamburg, chief negotiator for the Soviet exchange admitted, “privately endowed foundations can operate in areas government may prefer to avoid.” By getting rid of elected officials!
At the 1989, Governors’ Conference, led by former Governor Bill Clinton, Lamar Alexander stated, “ I would go down to the maternity ward of the local hospital, or whatever you call the part of the hospital where the nurses are who are there when the babies are born. Find out how many babies are born out of wedlock, how many babies are born with single parents. Just so you know that! I would think the Brand New American School would be year-round, open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
“A second characteristic might be that these schools will serve children from age 3 months old to age 18. That may be a shocking thought to you; but, if you were to do an inventory of every baby in your community and think about what the needs of those babies were for the next four or five years, you might see that those needs might not be served any other way. They have to be served in some way and maybe around the school. Or, if you study a little more, you might go back and think the school might have to serve the pregnant mother of the baby in terms of prenatal healthcare…”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Terrorists Driven by Low Self-Esteem, Florida High Schoolers Told
It’s low self-esteem and the need for a “sense of belonging” that drives terrorists to join groups that kill in the name of religion, according to an online lesson plan for Florida high school students.
The world history course on “Invisible Warfare” — offered by the Florida Virtual School, the nation’s first statewide Internet-based public high school — begins by asking students “what comes to mind” when considering the concept of fundamentalism and then prompts them to think of the term in a religious context. It later defines terrorism as the act of using fear or violence to accomplish certain political or religious goals.
“Common traits that psychologists have found in terrorists are that they are often risk-takers and many suffer from low self-esteem,” according to the lesson plan, which was obtained by FoxNews.com. “Sometimes joining a terrorist group provides these individuals with a sense of belonging.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Constitutional, Appeals Court Rules
A Wisconsin appeals court on Thursday ruled the state’s controversial voter ID law is constitutional, a victory for supporters who say the measure limits fraud at the ballot box.
The Fourth District Court of Appeals overturned a March 2012 decision by Dane County judge Richard Niess, who ruled in favor of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, which claimed that the law is too burdensome, denying potential voters the right to vote.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Convert Charged With Attempting to Kill French Soldier
A Islamic convert has been charged with “attempted murder linked to a terrorist enterprise” after allegedly stabbing a French soldier in Paris.
The 22-year-old was arrested on Wednesday after the stabbing of a soldier in the busy Paris commercial complex and transport hub of La Defense that came on the heels of the brutal murder of a soldier in London. Alexandre Dhaussy, appeared in court in the French capital and was charged by judges Thierry Fragnoli and Gilbert Thiel, a source close to the case said. He said Dhaussy had repeatedly invoked the name of Allah during his detention.
French media reports on Friday cited his colleagues at a Muslim butcher’s shop on the outskirts of Paris as saying he was a good worker who posed no problems. Dhaussy admitted after his arrest that he had attacked Private First Class Cedric Cordiez. The soldier has since been discharged from hospital…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Bars, Jewellers Declare Under 18,000 Euros
Taxi-drivers, car dealerships also low earners
(ANSA) — Rome, May 31 — The average Italian bar, car dealership, hair-dressing salon, hotel and jewellery shop declared under 18,000 euros in earnings in 2011, the finance ministry said Friday.
Taxi-drivers declared 15,600 euros and beauty parlours on average declared 7,200, the ministry said in a report on the earnings of small businesses and self-employed people.
The average income of a salaried employee, on the other hand, was 20,020 euros in 2011.
The low average incomes declared by small retailers and self-employed people in Italy has frequently been cited in the past as a sign of widespread tax evasion.
Sector associations deny this and complain about the high tax, overheads and bureaucracy that they say make doing business in recession-hit Italy increasingly difficult.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Grappa Exports Rise 15% in 2012
Asia fuels gains with Thailand’s 60% jump and Japan’s 20% rise
(ANSA) — Rome, May 31; Italian grappa exports jumped 15% last year, led by soaring demand in Asia, even as the domestic market for the traditional alcoholic drink slumped, according to figures provided by AssoDistil, the Italian association of industrial distillers on Friday. During its annual meeting, the association said that overall grappa production — made by distilling skins, pulp, seeds and stems left over from wine-making — has risen 18%. That of acquavite d’uva, which is similar to grappa and made by distilling whole must, gained 14%, while that of fruit-based brandies was stable. The biggest export market for the sector remains Germany, which absorbs 62% of total sales of bottled products. France, Austria and the US are other leading markets. Easter European demand has also gained in the past year, with sales in Estonia jumping 10%, Lithuania rose 24%, Slovakia 13% and Albania 64%. Russian demand in the period gained 27%. Asian demand also surged last year, with Thai exports jumping 60%, sales to the Philippines gaining 40% and Japanese ones 20%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Seven-Year Jail Terms Requested for Berlusconi ‘Pimps’
Fede, Mora, Minetti on trial for allegedly providing prostitutes
(By Paul Virgo) (ANSA) — Rome, May 31 — A Milan prosecutor on Friday requested three people who allegedly provided prostitutes for parties at the home of ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi be sent to jail for seven years. The three are retired TV anchorman Emilio Fede, bankrupt ex-talent scout Lele Mora and Nicole Minetti, a former Lombardy regional councillor and Berlusconi’s former dental hygienist.
The prosecutor said the three helped organise “Bacchic orgies” at Berlusconi’s home.
He also said the trio knew that Moroccan nightclub dancer known as Ruby, whom Berlusconi is on trial for allegedly paying to have sex with before she was 18, was under the legal age when she went to Berlusconi’s parties. “Our defendants knew she was a minor,” prosecutor Antonio Sangermano said in his closing arguments.
The prosecutor also requested that Fede, Mora and Minetti be banned from holding positions in schools or any other private or public facilities working specifically with children, as the charges include inducing and aiding underage prostitution. He said they should each be fined 35,000 euros too.
Ruby, whose real name is Karima El Mahroug, was one year below the legal age for prostitution at the time a series of alleged sex parties hosted by Berlusconi took place in 2010. Sex workers can ply their trade legally in Italy from the age of 18. The prosecutor said Minetti did not just pimp, but also carried out “paid sexual acts” at the so-called bunga bunga parties.
Minetti’s lawyer, Pasquale Pantano, said the jail requests were “surprising” and “excessive”, saying that his client had a “marginal role” in the parties and was innocent of the charges against her.
Mora, who was present at Friday’s hearing, said: “I am not the person described by the prosecutor”. Prosecutors in a separate trial, dubbed Ruby1, have requested Berlusconi be sent to jail for six years and banned for life from public office for allegedly paying for sex with Ruby and abusing his office when he phoned police on her behalf when she was held on an unrelated theft charge. Phoning from Paris, he told police she should be released to avoid a diplomatic incident with Egypt because she had told him she was a relative of then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Berlusconi and Ruby have denied having sex and said money he gave her was a gift to help set her up in business after a sorry past including her escape from an allegedly violent Islam-enforcing father to a youth shelter she fled to start her dancing career. Berlusconi claims to be the victim of biased prosecutors who have been conducting what he calls a witch-hunt against him for political motives. In the pimping trial, dubbed Ruby2, prosecutor Sangermano on Friday denied accusations of “spying” on the three-time premier and said the probe had to be opened because prosecutors got impelling reports a crime had been committed. “We received macroscopic reports of a crime, regarding an underage girl going around the streets of Milan with packages of money, who frequented luxury hotels, who lived with a prostitute and went to the home of a rich and powerful man from whom she said she was getting money after fleeing from a youth centre,” the prosecutor told the court. Sangermano said police had wiretaps in which Mora told Ruby to “doll herself up with lingerie” and Minetti was allegedly heard talking about paying a stable of more than 30 young women, including Ruby, the only minor. “Is there anyone who would have hung up and shut their ears, without investigating,” the prosecutor asked. He added that Ruby had shown herself to be “immature and vulnerable” and had changed her account of events several times, “mixing truth and lies” and contradicting herself in a “remarkable attempt to discredit herself”. Testifying last week, Ruby admitted she fed police “baloney” in five questioning sessions, apart from the bit about not having sex with Berlusconi, but said she could not really explain why she did so. According to the prosecutor Friday, after Ruby was taken to Berlusconi’s villa at Arcore outside Milan for the first time, on February 14, 2010, Mora set up “a military apparatus to ‘Save Private Ryan’ and watch over her”. The prosecutor accused the defendants of “grooming” girls to make sure they had the right “social and relationship skills” to be put into “the circuit of the Arcore nights”. Sangermano rebutted suggestions that the picture of wild ‘bunga bunga’ parties was “born from the murky minds of investigators”, saying it was instead “the context of the activity of prostitution”. He said the parties, which Berlusconi has repeatedly described as innocent, cabaret-style entertainments, “were certainly of a prostitution nature”.
The verdict of the Berlusconi sex trial is expected on June 24, while the verdict for Fede, Mora and Minetti is expected on July 12.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Calls for Protest Over Party-Funding ‘Scam Law’
Grillo’s group says bill ‘mocks’ taxpayers
(ANSA) — Rome, May 31 — Beppe Grillo’s 5-Star Movement (M5S) is ready to stage “sensational” nationwide protests over details in the bill launched by the Italian cabinet Friday abolishing funding for political parties, said the group’s MPs.
M5S called the bill that phases out funds for parties a “moral victory” but also a dubbed it a “scam law” for the way individual taxpayer’s money will be split among parties automatically unless the person explicitly declares on their tax return that it should not go to a political party.
As the bill stands, the money would be divided proportionally among all parties.
“The bill is a mockery for citizens who will continue to support the survival of parties,” M5S said.
Early on Friday the government said that the elimination will be “gradual”, over a period of three years.
The first year, funds will be reduced to 60%, the second year 50% and 40% the third year before it is subsequently abolished altogether. Premier Enrico Letta, who last month became premier of an unprecedented left-right coalition after two months of post-election gridlock, vowed to “revolutionize” party funding after only a few days in office.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Nigel Farage has said he is prepared to take legal action to get into televised leaders’ debates after it emerged that David Cameron wants to freeze him out.
Senior Tories say the Prime Minister does not want to share a platform with the UKIP leader.
He reportedly wants to try to stop Mr Farage signing up, by arguing that he cannot take part in a leaders’ debate as he represents a party without any MPs.
Some Conservatives are concerned that handing Mr Farage a platform could give him the kind of boost that Nick Clegg enjoyed from the first debate in 2010, which catapulted the Lib Dems briefly into the lead in the polls.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Northern Ireland: Book of Condolence Opened for Soldier
Belfast City Council has opened a book of condolence in memory of Drummer Lee Rigby.
The soldier died of multiple wounds after being attacked on a street in the Woolwich area of south east London last week.
The 25-year-old was walking to the Royal Artillery Barracks nearby when he was struck by a car and then hacked to death in a suspected terrorist attack…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A message of apology from The Guardian: in recent years this newspaper, along with the entire British left, may have given the impression that we viewed Sweden as a peaceful, egalitarian paradise which should be emulated by politicians around the world. Articles such as ‘These riots would have never happened in Sweden’, ‘Everyone trusts each other in Sweden’ and ‘Swedish socialism is the way to get out of recession’ may have unwittingly given readers the impression that we thought that the Swedish model of high taxation and cradle-to-grave welfare provision had produced the most harmonious and socially cohesive nation in the world…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: After Woolwich: What Will Change?
Theresa May knows what it is necessary to do to fight Islamism — but her hands are tied
Douglas Murray
The decapitation of a British soldier on a street in London is the latest disgusting new low in this country’s experience of Islamist terror. But everything else in the aftermath of the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby is hideously familiar. What the country has gone through since last Wednesday is the same endless turning over of cliche’s about terror which we have now heard for years. But one thing is clear. Nothing will be done. This country simply will not deal with the extremists. Not just because part of our political leadership does not want us to, but because those who do want to do something cannot.
As on each occasion before and since 7/7, the debate in recent days has covered the usual familiar terrain. The Prime Minister and all leading politicians have given grandstanding speeches about how ‘we will never give in to terrorism’. As though there were any imminent likelihood of getting the Queen to step down and then instituting a system of -sharia law. Next, politicians and pundits from all sides of the aisle spout whatever is their pet security grievance.
Some have said that there needs to be better spying on communication data — as though this could have made any meaningful difference in Woolwich. Others insist on banning some group not at all connected with Woolwich. There was even someone who called for the banning of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. This — if you wondered where you have heard it before — is what Tony Blair said he would do after 7/7 and David Cameron absolutely swore that he’d do when he became PM. Today — as on each occasion before — absolutely nothing important will be done.
Yet in the midst of all these endless suggestions is one woman who actually wants to do something, understands the problem and knows how fearsome the opposition actually is. Theresa May knows the security issues this country faces. She sees the briefings. She knows the number of people under observation who plan to carry out attacks. But in every direction she is scuppered. Her incapacitation — in the face of numerous opponents — is a microcosm of the incapacitation of our country. At every turn, those who want not only to keep the people of this country safe, but to defeat this enemy, find people who are working against not just them, but all of us.
First there is the problem of Theresa May’s own colleagues. Shortly after coming into government the coalition announced that it was performing a review into the so-called ‘Prevent’ counter-terrorism strategy of the previous government. At every stage of its gestation, the Prevent review was bitterly fought over. Right up until the last days, Nick Clegg and his colleagues were trying to water down the report’s findings and recommendations.
But there are also Conservatives in the same Cabinet who undermine and work against the government’s own policies. Take Sayeeda Warsi.
Ever since he promoted her for the wrong reasons (and before she had in any way proved herself), the Prime Minister has found himself stuck with the Baroness. Too incapable to have a department of her own, and having spectacularly failed in her role as party chairwoman, Warsi was given a consolation title: ‘minister for faith and communities’. In this meddlesome role she has gone rogue against her own colleagues — with no apparent repercussions. Take just one example.
One of the organisations criticised in the Prevent review was FOSIS (Federation of Student Islamic Societies). This organisation has routinely and repeatedly hosted hate-speakers for years. Yet in March Baroness Warsi herself addressed this group at a FOSIS conference in Westminster. This conference discussed the alleged ‘demonising’ of Muslim students. Despite the fact that numerous former heads of Islamic societies have actually been convicted of terrorism, and despite the fact that week in and week out Islamist hate-preachers speak at campuses all over the country, Baroness Warsi helped pump up the self-pitying and deceitful narrative of an organisation condemned by her own government.
Just before Warsi addressed the group, FOSIS organised a speech by an Islamist who believes that the beheading of those who leave Islam is not only right but also ‘painless’. And shortly after Warsi addressed FOSIS, one of the heads of the organisation was on a platform in London alongside extremists calling for the release of a convicted al-Qa’eda terrorist. This is the kind of help and support Theresa May gets from her own colleagues.
‘You’ve travelled a billion light years to steal our natural resources? Sucker! We used them all up decades ago!’
‘You’ve travelled a billion light years to steal our natural resources? Sucker! We used them all up decades ago!’
If that is the enemy at the table, then just as serious is the enemy underneath: the civil service. It is not only in this area that civil servants are out of control. But here it is as bad as it gets. In the Home Office and across related departments are senior civil servants who think they know far better than the Prime Minister and Home Secretary. They actively work against May.
When the Prime Minister gave his key Munich security conference speech on multiculturalism and counter-terrorism in 2011, he made several classic prime ministerial mistakes. Among them was one Margaret Thatcher could have warned him about. For giving a speech is just giving a speech: it is not the same thing as forcing that speech to shape policy. Shortly after Munich I heard a statement by a senior civil servant — one of the men at the very top of the British government’s security policy. When asked about the Prime Minister’s speech, this civil servant said, ‘The Munich speech is Cameron’s personal view, it is not policy.’
This is the view of much of the civil service. They work against the government’s counter-terrorism agenda, fail to implement it, implement it wrongly, or go after pet peeves of their own as a condition of doing the job they are supposed to do.
And last but not least among the Home Secretary’s tormentors is the ultimate curse: European law. No one who spends any time looking at the effects on Britain’s security policy of the European Convention on Human Rights could come away without the impression that it has tied this country up in a nightmarish bind. As I have pointed out here before, the al-Qa’eda cleric Abu Qatada should never even have been in the UK. He came here illegally on a forged passport and has spent the past 20 years posing a security risk and a legal nightmare. He is wanted for terrorism charges in Jordan. Yet the ECHR says, while continually moving the goal-posts, that we cannot deport him because of his own ‘human rights’. The Home Secretary must have now spent longer on his case than any other. She has flown to Jordan to get yet further assurances and understandings from that government, yet nothing is ever enough to satisfy the ECHR or our courts, which now feel wholly subservient to its whims.
Of course Theresa May could do what her counterparts in France and Italy have done, and simply ignore the ECHR. The Italians don’t even bother to pay the paltry fines the court sends out for this disobedience. But the British — honest even with dishonest laws — keep sticking to these unworkable rules. Legal advisers encourage the Home Secretary to continue playing on ground that has been set up for her, and all of us, to lose.
Those of us who have argued that Theresa May should follow the example of our European counterparts and simply ignore the ECHR until we scrap it completely have been rapped across the knuckles by the legal panjandrums. One — who advises the government — told me that if the Home Secretary had followed my advice she would have been arrested. Good, I told him — go ahead and let us all see that the same police who cannot arrest a radical cleric can arrest a Home Secretary for getting rid of a radical cleric. As the police have reminded us in recent days, by arresting ‘Twitterers’ while allowing Anjem Choudary to walk free, this in an increasingly demented situation.
Since the slaughter in Woolwich, people keep asking the same question. Will it change things? On the basis of the last week I can say: ‘No, not at all.’ Some more members of the public will recognise the serious and malignant threat that Islamic fundamentalism poses. But among our politicians, there will be no change. Not only because across government and across all parties there are people who believe there is no problem — but because there are so many people and powers in place to stop this country doing what it needs to do.
It is not hard. Deport illegals, lock up radicals, tell the sympathisers the game is up, and fight not for a draw but for victory against this enemy. There are those who would like to do this. But they have been magnificently trussed up. The people dancing around them are the same people dancing mockingly around all of us.
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
UK: An Act of National Communion — But What Will Happen at the Next Coronation?
by Charles Moore
As Britain remembers Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, the powers that be must start thinking ahead
The present Queen was crowned 60 years ago tomorrow. Despite the rotten weather, it was a happy day.Towards the end of a boozy street party in Glasgow, a father called to his young daughter, Marie, who was gazing dreamily from her bedroom window, to sing to them. She chose the current hit “In a golden coach/ There’s a heart of gold/ That belongs to you and me”. This was the first public appearance of the future Lulu…
[Reader comment by xenophon on 1 June 2013 at about 9 am.]
Expect a mealy-mouthed PC rewriting of the coronation service, with the empty cliché “all faiths and none” given prominent frequency. Nobody will have their heart in it, what with the hopeless Charles and the unlikeable Camilla, and the only comfort to be had in the whole sorry affair will be nostalgia for better days.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Bravery of Shopkeeper Who Fought Desperately With Man Who Tried to Firebomb His Shop
A thug who tried to kill a shop-owner by fire-bombing his takeaway has been jailed nine years in prison for attempted murder.
Archibald McKay, 46, from Possil, Glasgow, was convicted of attempting to murder 34-year-old Rashid Ali at the Spicy Bite in Saracen Street, Glasgow, on August 27, last year.
The terrifying attack came after he had already previously been jailed for threatening to burn the shop down and had waged a campaign of fear against the businessman.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A BBC interviewee who was arrested after appearing on Newsnight to talk about one of the Woolwich suspects has been charged with three terror offences.
Abu Nusaybah gave an interview to the BBC claiming Michael Adebolajo had been offered a job by MI5.
The 31-year-old was arrested after the recording and has been charged with three counts under the Terrorism Act.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A dying man was left receiving electric shocks to his heart for several hours from a ‘zapper’ implant that doctors didn’t know how to switch off.
Francis Woods, 67, died at home after a short battle with tonsil cancer, but medics failed to turn off his Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) for several hours.
The ‘heart-zapper’ implant delivers life-saving electric shocks if it detects an irregular heart rate — but can cause painful jolts when left active in dying patients.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A coroner has asked the police to investigate the following what he called a doctor’s ‘extraordinary’ delay in treating a seriously ill baby.
Sheffield coroner Chris Dorries halted an inquest this afternoon and said he would be sending the notes to the Crown Prosecution Service to investigate a possible case of gross negligent manslaughter.
The inquest heard that seven-week-old Summer Hawcroft died from a severe brain injury after her artificial breathing tube became dislodged in the neo-natal unit at Barnsley District Hospital.
There was a ‘window’ of about 30 minutes before Dr Vishwanath Kamoji, who was in charge of Summer, reacted and had the endotracheal tube changed.
Experts have told the inquest the tube had been incorrectly fitted by Dr Kamoji and it was probable that the baby was starved of oxygen during this time, leading to the brain injury.
Professor Simon Mitchell, a consultant neo-natologist called to give evidence for Summer’s family, said there were several clinical failings by Dr Kamoji which amounted to a ‘fundamental error’ having been made.
He failed to discover the tube had been dislodged and properly assess the baby, did not secure her airways, ignored the clinical picture and dismissed concerns voiced by fellow nurses and a junior doctor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A drugs gang that flooded a county with drugs has been jailed for a total of 167 years after they were found with huge amounts of cash, heroin and cocaine.
In total, 36 people were involved in the gang which operated in Lancashire. Pictures released by police show £200,000 in piles of cash and bags containing £1.5million of the class A drugs.
Lancashire Constabulary carried out a series of arrests where they found bundles of cash including one haul of £51,240 in a Range Rover.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: In Defence of the English Defence League
by M-CAT
This essay has been prompted by a couple of things — firstly, that 25,000 Muslims in my home town of Birmingham, England, recently demonstrated against freedom of speech in a local park, an event that was traitorously supported by non-Muslim clergy of various denominations and parliamentarians from the three major political parties, and secondly, Mohammed Ansar and other prominent Muslim activists have been petitioning the Home Secretary (so far unsuccessfully) to have the EDL classified as a “hate group” so that its activities may be proscribed in the same way that Al-Muhajiroun (a genuine terrorist-supporting organisation) has been proscribed under the Terrorism Act of 2000…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: London Launches Festival to Make Good Neighborhoods
LONDON, May 31 (Xinhua) — London’s world-famous arts center Southbank Center launched its summer-long festival of neighborhood, which will open Saturday. The festival, which will last for three months until Sept. 8, celebrates neighborhoods and communities, and explores the concept of what makes a good neighborhood and what it means to live side by side. “With this festival, we try to create an appetite that neighborhood is joyful,” said Jude Kelly, artistic director of the Southbank Center…
[JP note: Despair.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Lewisham Muslims Welcome BNP March Restrictions
Racist group had planned to march from Woolwich Barracks to borough’s Islamic centre
LEWISHAM’S ISLAMIC Centre has expressed its relief at the “welcome news” that far-right group, the British National Party, will be barred from marching in the southeast London’s borough’s streets…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Three times as many Muslims are in prison than 15 years ago — sparking fears that jails could become a hotbed of radicalisation.
The number rocketed from 3,700 in 1997 to 11,250 last summer. The rate of increase is EIGHT times faster than that of the overall prison population. It means 13 per cent of lags in our jails are now Muslim, compared to just six per cent in 1997. Tory MP Nick de Bois said: “We must be focused on the risks.” Shoe bomber Richard Reid, 39 — who tried to set off explosives on a transatlantic flight — converted to Islam and was radicalised while in jail.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Newport Shopkeeper Told to Remove ‘Obey Our Laws’ T-Shirt
A NEWPORT shopkeeper has been forced by police to remove a T-shirt from his shop window because they felt it “could be seen to be inciting racial hatred.” Matthew Taylor, 35, the owner of Taylor’s clothes store on Emlyn Walk in the city, printed up and displayed the T-shirt with the slogan: “Obey our laws, respect our beliefs or get out of our country” after Drummer Lee Rigby, 25, was killed in near Woolwich barracks in London last week. But following a complaint from a member of the public, police came to his store and threatened to arrest him unless he removed the Tshirt from sight…
CHAIRMAN of the Welsh affairs select committee, David Davies MP said: “ I think the police are well aware of that (the current heightened tensions between communities) and I can see their point of view. It’s a very sensitive time. But I can see this guy’s point of view and the statement he is making. You should not be in this country if you are not prepared to obey the laws. I think the vast majority of people in this country of all races would agree with that. So I don’t think it is a racist matter at but I can see the police’s point of view.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
An NHS chief has been sacked from his £250,000-a-year job after it was revealed that he is a convicted armed robber.
Craig Alexander was jailed after holding up a busy Tesco Express store at gunpoint in 2001 and threatening staff and customers before fleeing with almost £1,250 in cash and cheques.
On his release he lied about his three-and-a-half-year stint in prison and was hired for the senior post of interim borough director at NHS Brent, where he was in charge of multi-million-pound taxpayer-funded budgets.
By the time he was exposed, the 32-year-old had been handling the health service’s Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention programme in the north-west London borough for 17 months.
His criminal past was revealed only after a member of staff who had complained about Alexander’s rudeness at work looked him up online and discovered reports about the robbery. Questions are now being asked about why NHS bosses failed to carry out simple security checks on Alexander, of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, who was dismissed last week.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Your loose change may do more than burn a hole in your pocket.
There are claims it could also give you sore hands because of the nickel in the new 5p and 10p coins.
Doctors have issued an allergy warning over the coins introduced in January last year after tests revealed they release four times more nickel on to the skin than expected.
Handling them regularly could cause the hands to become cracked and sore and also trigger eczema, a study has shown.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Palace Plot That Almost Stopped Her From Being Queen
On the 60th anniversary of the Coronation, explosive documents reveal how her uncle Edward VIII wanted to regain throne after his abdication
How very different it might all have been. Instead of celebrating the 60th anniversary of her coronation tomorrow, the Queen might be reviewing a very different life.
For a sinister palace conspiracy was secretly hatched to try to stop her becoming sovereign in the years before the death of her father, George VI.
At the heart of this sensational plot was her uncle — the former Edward VIII, who had abdicated in shame in 1936.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ribbon Trial: Girl Tells Court Defendant Threatened to Burn Down Her Home
Only the Bucks Free Press is reporting this trial
A MEMBER of a vicious sex ring threatened to burn down the house of his young victim and “blacken” her family’s name, a court heard yesterday. The trial at Oxford Crown Court began last week into ten men, nine of whom are from High Wycombe, accused of sexually exploiting a young girl for almost five years. This week the Operation Ribbon trial heard the teenage victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, tell a jury she fell pregnant during a lengthy campaign of abuse…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Britain today is unrecognisable from the nation of 60 years ago.
Physically, economically and technologically our country has experienced change on a scale no one could have imagined.
Which makes one of its few constants all the more remarkable. When the Queen was crowned in 1953, memories of World War Two were still fresh. Britain was victorious but flat broke. Food was still rationed. When Her Majesty took “possession of her Kingdom” — as the BBC’s commentator solemnly announced exactly six decades ago tomorrow — it was still a global empire. Since then, through a dozen Prime Ministers, endless cycles of boom and bust and many more wars, this extraordinary woman has been an inspiring figurehead.
Yesterday, aged 87, she defied our modern enemy — the Islamic extremists who will stop at nothing. Not even at hacking a soldier to death in broad daylight on London’s streets and hanging around to take their chances with armed police. At Lee Rigby’s Woolwich barracks, a few hundred yards from the spot where he was run down and then butchered, the Queen paid him her respects. She was “privately acknowledging the events of last week”, her spokeswoman said. The Queen understands the significance of this new level of atrocity even if some of our politicians apparently do not.
Yet again she captures the feelings of her people. Yet again she earns our admiration.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Taxpayer’ money funded a team of lawyers fighting European Court of Human Rights cases on behalf of foreign criminals and illegal immigrants.
The human rights quango the Equality and Human Rights Commission quietly gave nearly £200,000 to a pressure group so it could take controversial human rights cases to the court in Strasbourg.
The group, the AIRE Centre (Advice on Individual Rights in Europe), used the money to fight and win a series of cases and represented among others a Nigerian rapist and two Somali criminals who won the right to stay in Britain.
The cases were picked as part of a policy of ‘strategic litigation’ designed to overturn ministerial decisions and rulings made in British courts, and to extend equality and human rights laws in favour of immigrants and criminals.
One major case it won involved two Somali criminals who won the right to stay in Britain and, crucially, led to a ruling which shackled ministers in their efforts to send home dozens of other Somali criminals living here…
Now an investigation has revealed further funding, by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Over three years, from April 2009 to April 2012, the AIRE Centre received £185,906.
The money was for a project designed to get around a ban on Government legal aid funding for cases at the European Court of Human Rights. The centre used the money to hire staff and recruit lawyers to bring cases before the court.
One major case it won involved two Somali criminals who won the right to stay in Britain and, crucially, led to a ruling which shackled ministers in their efforts to send home dozens of other Somali criminals living here.
The AIRE Centre supported axe killer John Hirst’s fight for votes for prisoners
Another involved a Nigerian rapist whose deportation was blocked by Strasbourg because of his right to a ‘private and family life’ under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The centre also lobbied Parliament for prisoners to be given the vote and supported cases involving prisoner voting rights before the Strasbourg court.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A father has been jailed at a secret court hearing for sending a Facebook message to his grown-up son on his 21st birthday.
Garry Johnson, 46, breached a draconian gagging order which stops him publicly naming his son, Sam, whom he has brought up and who still lives with him.
In a case which is certain to fuel concerns about Britain’s shadowy network of secret courts, a judge sent the former music executive to prison for contempt at a closed-doors family court hearing in Essex at the beginning of last month.
He was not arrested by police or even represented by a lawyer.
The order silencing Mr Johnson — which follows an acrimonious divorce eight years ago — means he cannot mention either of his boys, 21-year-old Sam and Adam, 18, in public, even by congratulating them in a local newspaper announcement when they get engaged, married or have children in the future.
The extraordinary gag is set to last until the end of his life, although his boys are now adults. Last night they condemned their father’s jailing as ‘cruel and ludicrous’…
Mr Johnson received a letter in late April from Chelmsford County Court officials ordering him to go to Basildon Magistrates’ Court building on May 2 for a hearing regarding his children.
He was not warned he might face imprisonment or that the hearing was about his Facebook message, posted on Sam’s birthday a few days earlier on April 23.
On arrival, he was escorted by court security guards to a private room in the building for a half hour hearing under family court rules before His Honour Judge Damien Lochrane.
He was not warned that he might need a lawyer.
At the private hearing, Mr Johnson learned he had breached a gagging order, imposed by the family courts in 2007, by sending the Facebook message.
He informed the judge that he had had four heart attacks and was awaiting a triple by-pass operation. But he was sentenced to 28 days’ jail and sent down to a court cell to await transport to Chelmsford prison.
In the court cell, he had a heart attack caused by the shock. Rushed to a local hospital by ambulance, he was then shackled and handcuffed to a bed while on oxygen and receiving morphine.
A team of prison officers were put on 24-hour shifts beside his bed to make sure he did not escape.
He recovered and was sent to prison two days later, serving two weeks of the sentence before being released. Details of the horrifying case were made public to the Mail by his sons, who are not subject to any gagging order according to their Essex-based lawyer, Alan Foskett.
The jailing provoked a horrified response from MPs last night. John Hemming, the Lib Dem MP who has campaigned against the secret courts, said: ‘This is yet another example of how the secret courts are stopping freedom of speech. I have never heard of a gagging order of this kind going on into adulthood. This is a surreal case.’
[Comment: Totally, totally disgusting!!!!!! They treated this man with contempt, and as though he himself was a terrorist. This HAS got to stop. What kind of country are we living in now where real terrorists are treated with kid gloves and Mr and Mrs Innocent out there are treated as killers!! It seems to me that a lot of GOOD people are being jailed over nothing, and the REAL offenders in society are walking away scot free! A disgrace. I’m sorry to say that after reading this I am ashamed to be British!! — Ashenhurst43 , Cheltenham, 01/6/2013 12:51 ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Decline and Fall of the Liberal Empire
by Damian Thompson
It’s the summer of 2043. A father and his eight-year-old son trudge across the tundra of north London. Despite the watery August sun, the frozen grass crackles under their heavy boots.
“Look!” says the man. “Do you see the ruins on top of that hill?”
Silhouetted against the sky are the remnants of grand houses. The roofs have fallen in, the grey stucco has buckled and crumbled. It’s hard to imagine that these villas and terraces were once a visual feast of pastel pink and yellow.
“You’re looking at the remains of Primrose Hill,” says the father.
“Daddy, what’s a primrose?”
“A lovely creamy yellow flower.” He sighs wistfully. “They all disappeared in the Great Freeze. Like so much else.”
“And who lived on Primrose Hill?”
“They were a tribe called the liberals, but they don’t exist any more.
“Do you remember me telling you about the Mayans, who disappeared almost overnight? It was a bit like that. Things started going really badly for the liberals in about 2013…”
The boy perks up. “Did they do human sacrifices like the Mayans? Did they worship savage gods?”
“No human sacrifices,” chuckles his father. “But, yes, they had some very bizarre religious beliefs. For example, they thought the centre of the earth was in a place called Brussels in Belgium. Like the primroses, it doesn’t exist any more, but it was a mixture of Holland and France and it printed toy money that no one wanted.”…
“Has your history teacher taught you about the BBC? It was a government broadcaster that took everyone else’s money to make programmes specially for the liberals.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: To Defeat Islamic Terror, We Must First Acknowledge What it is
by Melanie Phillips
Ever since the spectre of Islamic terrorism in the West first manifested itself, Britain has had its head stuck firmly in the sand. After both 9/11 and the 7/7 London transport bombings, the Labour government promised to take measures to defend the country against further such attacks. It defined the problem, however, merely as terrorism, failing to understand that the real issue was the extremist ideas which led to such violence. Accordingly, it poured money into Muslim community groups, many of which turned out to be dangerously extreme…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
A convicted rapist attacked a schoolgirl after targeting her when she lost her friends on a night out.
Arshad Arif, 28, raped the 17-year-old as she tried to get home to her family’s £2.5million mansion after becoming stranded outside a nightclub with no money or phone.
The rape was a chilling re-enactment of an attack Arif carried out on a girl of the same age in 2004. He was convicted and jailed for five years in 2006 after admitting the crime.
He had been out of prison for just over two years when he carried out the second rape last November.
He was remanded in custody after being found guilty of raping the teenager twice and is awaiting sentencing.
A jury heard that Arif lured the 17-year-old into a taxi in the early hours of the morning and took her to a park in Slough, which was miles from her home, and raped her twice.
The drunken girl eventually escaped, jumped over a wall at the nearby home of an elderly couple and hammered on the door to raise the alarm.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Unite Against Fascism and Shakeel Begg
by Lucy Lips
There is no good time to team up with Islamist extremists. There are also especially bad times to make such a foolish move. The aftermath of the terrorist murder in Woolwich is one of those times. Yet this is exactly what the self-styled “anti-racists” of Unite Against Fascism (UAF) say they will do tomorrow in Woolwich. One of the scheduled speakers at their rally will be Shakeel Begg, who is closely associated with the Lewisham Islamic Centre. Begg is a hate preacher with a special interest in terrorist suspects and convicts. Have a look at him here at a conference staged by Cageprisoners, the terrorist support group. Begg finds former Guantanamo inmates “inspiring” and worthy of a divine salute…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Vandals Daub Graffiti on Pleasington Cemetery Prayer Hall
Police are investigating after graffiti was painted on to the wall of a Muslim prayer hall at a cemetery in Lancashire.
The writing was discovered in the Pleasington cemetery on Tower Road, Blackburn earlier. Ch Supt Bob Eastwood said the graffiti, which appeared overnight, was “unacceptable”. Blackburn Council has painted over the writing and will not comment on the nature of the graffiti. Ch Supt Bob Eastwood said: “It is unacceptable for anyone to commit crimes like this, especially at places of worship.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woolwich Murder: Drummer Lee Rigby’s Family Urge Calm as Suspect Leaves Hospital
The family of murdered soldier Drummer Lee Rigby warned protesters against carrying out attacks in his name today as the second man accused of his killing was discharged from hospital and arrested.
Suspected Islamist terrorist Michael Adebolajo, 28, was badly injured when he was shot by police at the scene of the brutal attack outside Woolwich Barracks in South-East London last week. However, after nine days of medical treatment he was judged to be well enough to leave hospital this afternoon. He was taken to a police station and arrested on suspicion of the soldier’s murder and the attempted murder of a police officer. Meanwhile, relatives of 25-year-old Drummer Rigby appealed for calm amid fears that demonstrations across the country tomorrow organised by far-right and anti-fascist groups could descend into violent clashes…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Woolwich Attack: The Queen Pays Her Respects to Drummer Lee Rigby on Tour of Barracks
The Queen paid her respects to Drummer Lee Rigby as she toured Woolwich Barracks, the former base of the murdered soldier.
On a long-organised visit, the monarch met soldiers and officers who knew the 25-year-old serviceman, who was hacked to death in the street by suspected Islamist terrorists in front of shocked passers-by last week. However, Buckingham Palace did not change the Queen’s schedule so she could view the mountain of flowers left outside Woolwich Barracks in South-East London in honour of Drummer Rigby. The Queen privately met members of the recruiting team from the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who worked with the murdered soldier at the Tower of London, where he formed part of an Army outreach team recruiting in schools…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Council bosses have abandoned attempts to move Abu Hamza’s wife from her £1million taxpayer-funded house.
Officials admitted yesterday they are ‘powerless’ to throw out Najat Mostafa, the hook-handed cleric’s second wife, from the five-bedroom property in an exclusive west London street.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council, which pays her rent, asked her to downsize last year after discovering that only two of the couple’s seven children were living there with her.
But it said it had changed its mind after recently carrying out an audit and discovering that two more of her children have since moved back into the house, meaning she is no longer classed as ‘under-occupying’.
The local authority declined to reveal the ages of the children or how much rent is payable for what is the only council property in the street in Shepherd’s Bush, an area popular with bankers and City lawyers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Benghazi: Hillary, Maybe it Does Make a Difference!
It seems odd that the Benghazi attack and assassination occurred over 8 months ago and we still have no answers and no arrests. The only facts we seem to have are that 4 Americans are dead. And as a result an American ambassador has been assassinated.
There are several issues that need to be probed. The main issues are what happened on that day. What did we know beforehand. What response was made as a result of the attack. Did Obama and staff and Hillary know that this was an Al-Qaeda attack. If so when. And how long did Hillary and Obama know that this was an attack and not just a demonstration brought about by a trailer to a video that for the most part was non-existent. It existed only in the minds of Obama and Ambassador Rice.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Artists Voice Outrage Over MPs Calls for Banning Ballet
Egypt’s Actors’ Syndicate condemned calls made by Islamist Members of the Parliament (MPs) to ban the art of ballet on Thursday. Egyptian artists issued a statement, decrying controversial remarks made by members of the Shura Council (upper house of parliament) regarding the classic dance genre…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
ICC Calls for Libya to Hand Over Saif Gaddafi for Trial
On charges of crimes against humanity
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MAY 31 — The International Criminal Court of the Hague have asked Libya to hand over Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif, to stand trial for crimes against humanity committed during the revolution against the regime between February 15 and February 28 2011. The court has rejected the Libyan authorities’ claim that they instead have the right to judge Saif, who is currently detained in Zintan.
The ICC said that Libyan government lawyers had not proved their authorities were investigating the same crimes as the ICC’s prosecutors.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libyan Leaks: More Secret Documents Reveal Obama’s Failure in Libya
Barack Obama’s claim to election fame — that Al-Qaeda has been destroyed — needs a reality check, according to a group of anti-Al Qaeda Libyans in exile. “We beg to differ,” they exclaimed. “Obama gift-wrapped Libya, handed it over to Al-Qaeda, and we can prove it.”
The group stated they have come into possession of some highly classified documents that in their view, “will bring the Obama Administration down.” They were not bluffing; they provided the first installments of official classified documents which we provided in some of our previous reporting. “The rest,” they say, “will be provided when Mitt Romney is in office. His election is our only hope for humanity,” they said.
These documents include evidence of highly sophisticated weaponry provided to jihadists which leads them to doubt that any solutions will take place under what they called “The Obama regime”.
We have come into the possession of an array of records obtained from top-level sources inside the Libyan government. They include passports of Al-Qaeda operatives and identifications of terrorists from many nations — Chad, Egypt and Pakistan to name a few — which are now all camped in Libya as they enter by crossing borders guarded and managed officially by what they called “government appointed Al-Qaeda leaders.”
This explains why the drafts of two letters on September 11th expressing worry that the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was under ‘troubling’ surveillance and that the Libyan government failed to fulfill requests for additional security. “It wasn’t failure,” these pro-U.S. agents said, “but the Libyan government’s mafia-like system, subordinate to Al-Qaeda and installed with the blessings of the Obama administration that is responsible for the deaths of Americans in Benghazi,” they said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
American Killed Fighting for Syrian Rebels Had Al-Qaeda Flag
An American woman and two other westerners who were killed while fighting on the side of FSA rebels in Syria were found with an Al-Nusra flag, the Al-Qaeda group that killed U.S. troops in Iraq and has become the primary fighting force in the country.
“TV footage showed a bullet-riddled car and three bodies laid out. It also showed weapons, a computer, a hand-drawn map of a government military facility and a flag belonging to the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front,” reports CNN.
The American woman was later identified as 33-year-old Nicole Lynn Mansfield, from Michigan.
The Al-Nusra connection again underscores the point that while Britain and France plan to arm rebels after an EU ban was lifted, opposition militants fighting in Syria are becoming increasingly extremist, radicalized and dominated by foreign jihadists.
Jabhat al-Nusra is now the leading front line fighting force in Syria and is commanding the other rebel groups as FSA rebels are defect to the terrorist group in droves. Immediately after the State Department declared Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization, 29 different FSA rebel outfits pledged allegiance to the Al-Qaeda group. In April, the leader of Al-Nusra formally pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British ‘Jihadist’ Killed After Car Was Riddled With Bullets by Militia Groups at Syria Checkpoint
A Briton suspected of fighting with jihadists in Syria was killed yesterday after his car was riddled with bullets by government troops.
A passport found in the wreckage of the estate car named the dead man as Ali Al Manasfi, 22, from West London.
He is said to have been among 200 Britons who went to Syria to fight with rebel forces against President Bashar al-Assad.’
An American woman and another unidentified Western man, thought to be Canadian, also died in the shooting in Idlib province, north-west Syria, a major flashpoint in the two-year civil war.
Rifles, clips of ammunition, grenades and the flag of Al-Nusra — an offshoot of Al Qaeda — were reported to have been found in the vehicle, which was attacked by Assad’s forces.
Rebel commander Mona Mahmood said they died after his soldiers exchanged fire with Shabiha forces, a militia loyal to Assad.
The three, who were said to have been photographing Syrian army positions, were killed trying to return to his forces.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes Continue as Protests Spread Across Turkey
ANKARA, June 1 (Xinhua) — Turkish police continued to clash with thousands of demonstrators protesting against government’s plan to demolish a park in Istanbul on Saturday, local media reported. According to Turkish Daily News, police used tear gas and pressurized water against protesters who were trying to reach the main square in Istanbul, while angry demonstrators pelt stones at the police.
Thousands of protesters also marched along the Bosporus bridge connecting the Asian and European shores of Istanbul.
In Ankara, people gathered in front of the Turkish parliament building to protest the demolition of Taksim Gezi Park. They threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the police, who used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Protests were also reported in Eskisehir, Mugla, Konya and Bolu…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Does William Hague Know What He is Doing With Syria?
by Rod Liddle
A week or so after the murder of a British soldier by two psychopathic savages in Woolwich, the Foreign Secretary William Hague is back pleading with our European partners to help the murderers’ brothers fighting the jihad in Syria. I use the term ‘brothers’ a little loosely, sure; it is the term they would use.
The photographs of one such jihadi chopping up and indeed eating a Syrian army soldier has not dissuaded Mr Hague from the view that these people are in the main peace-loving democrats who wish for nothing more than an agreeable secular state with the full panoply of human rights for all. He was not dissuaded of this by the jihadis eating people, or attacking Christians, or proclaiming their allegiance to Al Qaeda. Nor still by the turn taken by all of the other countries who participated in that “Glorious Arab Spring” ((c) BBC 2011)…
[Reader comment by HY on 31 May 2013.]
Far too many people in the FO spend far too much time daydreaming about Lawrence of Arabia.
[Reader comment by Shazza on 31 May 2013.]
Ah Rod, you are so correct. Sometimes in the depth of my despair I come to the conclusion that possibly, the powers that be, truly want a worldwide caliphate. But why?
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: More Than 1,000 Iraqis Killed in May in Iraq’s Violence: UN
BAGHDAD, June 1 (Xinhua) — The monthly death toll among Iraqis from violence in May reached more than 1,000 people killed, raising fears that the country could slide back into sectarian civil war, the United Nations said Saturday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
McCain Spokesman: McCain Didn’t Pose With Syrian Rebel Kidnappers — Unless He Did
A couple of days ago, you may have read this piece about John McCain’s secret trip to spend Memorial Day with Syrian Rebels. While there, he smiled, said cheese, and laughed while Syrian shutterbugs snapped PR photos. Everyone seemed to be having a nice time. After all, McCain just loves to be adored by the press — regardless of which country he’s in.
Unfortunately, Lebanon’s “Daily Star” newspaper is reporting that two of the Senator’s new pals are Mohamed Nour and Abu Ibrahim — a couple of unsavory guys who stand accused of kidnapping 11 Shi’ite pilgrims in May of last year and a Lebanese journalist in October. Two of the kidnapping victims have since been released, and one of them — Anwar Ibrahim — recognized Nour in the McCain photos. The other nine captives are still being held hostage and negotiations are ongoing.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Missiles Fired on Baalbek, Hezbollah Stronghold in Lebanon
(AGI) — Baalbek, June 1 — For the first time, a round of missiles rained down on Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. Fired from the territory bordering the area, the rockets ended up in Baalbek, in the region of Bekaa between Saraain al-Fawqa and Saraain al-Tahta and near the Rayaq airport, a Lebanese security source reported. The source added that “there were no victims.” The area is held predominantly by the armed branch of the Shiite party, which is fighting in Syria alongside the government forces.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A complete — and bloody — realignment of the entire Middle East is occurring
After almost a century of existence, the borders that form the modern Mideast nation states appear to be on the verge of disintegration. Part of the driving force behind this meltdown, as observers are beginning to acknowledge, is of course the intractable sectarian war in Syria. But a far bigger part of the picture is the accelerating destabilization of Iraq.
The breakdown of Iraq, with its far-reaching regional ramifications, is attributable in no small part to President Obama’s abandonment of the U.S.’s mission in the country, a betrayal committed in total defiance of the military establishment’s recommendations, which squandered the hard-won victory handed down by President Bush. As predicted, our precipitous withdrawal has left the once pacified nation riven with sectarian strife, primarily among Sunni and Shia Muslims and the Kurds. As the region descends, the consequences of Obama’s folly are only becoming more obvious: a nation that once stood a chance at being a source of stability in the region is instead rapidly becoming its maelstrom.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Has Become the Theatre for International Jihad
by David Blair
Analysis: the fate of Ali al-Manasfi provides vivid proof that Syria’s revolt is drawing in volunteers from across the world.
Manasfi’s motives for joining the struggle against President Bashar al-Assad are unknown, but Syria has become the number one theatre for international “jihad”. During the 1980s, radical Muslims travelled to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet occupation; later their spotlight fell variously on Chechnya, Kashmir, Iraq and Afghanistan again.
Today, their prime goal is Mr Assad’s downfall. As a secular dictator who leads a regime dominated by the Alawite sect — which radical Sunnis regard as heretical — he ranks high in the catalogue of infamy for any follower of al-Qaeda’s ideology. The fact that this places al-Qaeda on the same side as the West is uncomfortable but not unprecedented: the same was true in Afghanistan during the anti-Soviet struggle…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Ranks High in World Bribery List, Survey
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, MAY 31 — Turkey ranks among the worst 10 countries in which bribery is commonly used to win contracts, according to an Ernst&Young survey conducted with C-level executives in 36 countries, as daily Hurriyet reports. Some 39% of Turkish respondents to the survey think resorting to bribery is necessary to win the tenders in their sector, while 55% believe corruption is “widespread” across all businesses. The gap between the two figures reveals the respondents’ tendency to think bribery is more common in the overall economy than in their own sectors. “Despite companies knowing the corruption risks in the business world, they don’t acknowledge the risks in their own sectors,” Ernst&Young Turkey Audit Services Department Head Dilek Cilingir Kostem said in a statement. “In order to be able to move against corruption, executives should admit the risks to be able to manage them.” Concerning “overall” corruption perception, Turkey ranks lower than 11 European countries in the list. Slovenian bosses have the least faith in the transparency of business in their country, with 96% of them telling Ernst&Young surveyors that bribery and corruption commonly took place there. As usual, northern European countries have the lowest percentages of respondents who think bribery is widespread in their country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Tear Gas Fired at Protesters in Istanbul
Riot police fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators, injuring dozens in a bid to break up a four-day protest against a major construction project in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.
Several of the injured were left lying on the ground unconscious after police used tear gas and pepper spray on them, while two people were admitted to hospital with injuries to the head. In the most severe case, a Turkish national of Moroccan origin had to undergo brain surgery after fractures to her skull, but she was doing well in intensive care, according to governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Istanbul Rocked by Protests and Police Violence
Hundreds injured in Taksim Square, opponents of a building project that destroys Gezi Park. Soldiers defend the protesters against the police. Growing opposition to Erdogan’s ambitious projects, based on economic successes, neo-Ottoman revival, creeping Islamization.
Istanbul (AsiaNews) — There have been nationwide protests and hundreds of people in response to Turkish police violence in clashes with protesters of “Occupy Gezi Park”, who have been staging peaceful opposition to the transformation of Gezi Park into a shopping mall. The park is one of the few green lungs left in the city.
The central and most important square in Istanbul, Taksim Square, is about to about to undergo a frightening transformation, due to building speculation. It was this very square that was literally heavily bombarded with chemicals — tear gas — last night by Turkish police in their attempts to disperse the protesters, who have long opposed the building project.
The protesters object to this type of project and economic model, very popular in a neo-Ottoman and consumer Turkey promoted by the AKP party as a model for the Islamic world.
There is talk of hundreds of wounded. Social networks report that one woman died. According to the same social networks, the orders were clear: suppress the protest at all costs.
Sirin Oder, a Kurdish parliamentarian and member of the pro-Kurdish BDP party, as well as the journalist Ahmet Sik Among were among the wounded.
Turkish police forces — closely tied to the ruling AKP — they tried to track down all protesters, who in a desperate attempt to avoid the violent repression found shelter in a nearby military hospital in the central Gumusuyu cadessi. The military barred police access to the hospital and even distributed gas masks to protesters, to protect people from the tear gas.
The protests of last night spread to the capital of Turkey, Ankara, Bodrum, Konya and Izmir, with under the slogan ‘Taksim Square is everywhere. “
The origin of these protests run deep. Istanbul’s demonstrations are seen as a sign of the resistance of one part of society against the creeping neo-Ottoman Islamic homogenization that Erdogan’s AKP is arrogantly implementing, thanks to its economic success. It is in short, is the protest of a movement that takes on the character of opposition to the overwhelming power of Erdogan and all his attempts at an authoritarian imposition.
This protest is also supported by the opposition CHP party, which so far has been unable to produce a viable political alternative.
Against the brutal repression of Istanbul, there is also a position of the European Union. Stefan Fule, spokesperson of Commissioner for Enlargement, said that Turkey as a nation on probation for EU membership must respect the right of expression and association of its citizens.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
A British man and an American woman are believed to be among three Westerners killed in an ambush by government forces in Syria who claimed they were carrying out the orders of an al Qaeda-linked terrorist cell.
Authorities said the alleged members of the al-Nusra group were taking pictures of military positions in Idlib province, near the Turkish border, when their VW car was sprayed with bullets by Syrian troops.
Yesterday 33-year-old Nicole Lynn Mansfield, from Michigan, was revealed as one of the dead after Syrian state television broadcast images of her passport on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old is from Flint, Michigan and converted to Islam several years ago following marriage to an Arab man.
Nicole Lynn Mansfield reportedly grew up in Flint, Michigan to Baptist parents and her father used to be a production worker for GM.
She attended Mott Community College and worked as a home health care worker for 10 years according to her grandmother.
‘She had a heart of gold, but she was weak minded,’ Mansfield said. ‘I think she could have been brain washed.’
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Forces Kill 72 Taliban Fighters in 24 Hours
KABUL, June 1 (Xinhua) — Afghan police backed by the national army and NATO-led troops have eliminated 72 Taliban insurgents during series of operations across the country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said in a statement released here Saturday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Militant Commander Killed, Gunfight Rages in Indian-Controlled Kashmir
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, June 1 (Xinhua) — A top militant commander of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militant outfit was killed during an ongoing fierce gunfight with contingents of Indian army and police in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Saturday. The gunfight broke out Friday evening at village Vandena- Zainpora of Shopian district, around 48 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Japan Halts Imports of U.S. Wheat After USDA’s Shock Finding of Genetic Pollution From Gmos
(NaturalNews) It has already begun: Japan has just cancelled a large contract to purchase U.S. wheat. “We will refrain from buying western white and feed wheat effective today,” Toru Hisadome, a Japanese farm ministry official in charge of wheat trading, told Reuters.
As many readers well know, I predicted precisely this scenario just yesterday in a Natural News article warning about the consequences of genetic pollution. There, I wrote, “All wheat produced in the United States will now be heavily scrutinized — and possibly even rejected — by other nations that traditionally import U.S. wheat. This obviously has enormous economic implications for U.S. farmers and agriculture.”
Now we’re already seeing the result: the ditching of U.S. wheat by world nations that want nothing to do with GMOs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Garissa Terrorist Blown Up in His Own Explosive
A middle aged terror suspect in Garissa was on Wednesday night ripped to peaces after an IED he was trying to plant went off killing him instantly and severely wounding his accomplices. The 9.30 pm explosion which was had more than five Km away happened along the busy kismayu road, only some 200 meters from the spot where three KDF soldiers were shot dead by suspected Al Shabaab operatives last November…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Plans Kabul Centre for Child Returnees
The Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) is holding talks with Afghani authorities about opening a centre in Kabul for unaccompanied children and young people whose asylum applications have been rejected in Sweden.
According to the Migration Board, children will stay at the centre until they are collected by relatives, Sveriges Radio (SR) reports.
If no relative comes for a child, he or she will be allowed to stay at the centre until reaching adult age.
The centre is primarily intended to host minors who have returned to Afghanistan voluntarily, but there is also a possibility that children who have been deported from Sweden will be sent there in the future.
“When you land in Kabul with the intention of travelling on from there, it is not always possible to leave directly as transportation is limited so we think it would be good if there was some form of reception centre, where you can land before travelling on,” Ulrik Åshuvud, the Migration Board’s process manager for returnees told SR.
The planned reception centre is part of a joint project between Sweden, Norway, Great Britain and Holland. It was initiated after an increase in unaccompanied children seeking asylum in Europe.
Åshuvud stressed that the centre is not meant to be an orphanage. The children are only supposed to stay for a few weeks, though there could be exceptions.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Too Many Negatives Crop Up With Senate Amnesty Bill 744
Over the past ten years, I have tried my best to inform the American people concerning the negatives of endless legal immigration as well as the horrors of nonstop illegal immigration.
Thankfully, when Bush tried to jam an amnesty down our throats in 2007, enough Americans called and wrote their senators to stop the amnesty. But today, the exact same bogus amnesty faces us once again. As noted earlier, our U.S. Senate added another 500,000 legal immigrants to the bill to make it 1.5 million immigrants granted citizenship annually. You must wonder who they represent because it’s sure not American citizens.
First, they won’t enforce the laws on the books, but now they rewrite the laws to make illegality and criminality — legal. It boggles my mind.
Author, publisher and my long time friend, John F. Rohe, a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer from 1972 to 1974 and now serves as vice president for Philanthropy at the Colcom Foundation, in Pittsburgh, spoke to me about what our country faces if Senate Bill 744 passes.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A few days ago, I happened to stumble across a link on another website that led me to this article which proposes that human intelligence (at least in the Western world) is lower than it was in the Victorian Era.
Looking at modern day America, I can find little that would argue with this proposition — after all, ours is the voting public that not only elected, but then re-elected, Barack Obama. That alone ought to be considered as empirical evidence for such a decline. Yet, it strikes me that the declension of modern America is not related to mere intellect or raw g-power alone. There are many factors that have worked — and still are at work — to reduce the American people, and Westerners in general, to a mere shadow of the greatness of our forefathers who forged nations, explored the far reaches of the globe, built the edifice of modern science and technology, and founded and propagated the most advanced and powerful civilization the world has yet seen.
The decline of the West is systematic and endemic. It involves not just raw intellectual capacities, but also deterioration of our moral character, courage, and good sense. In many ways, these are interrelated — the decline of one means the fall of the others.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Weddings Pave the Way for Polygamy, Warns Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey
A former Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday warned David Cameron that his ‘equal marriage’ reforms open the door for multiple weddings and marriages between siblings.
Lord Carey said that same-sex marriage laws amount to a radical and disturbing upheaval which is likely to lead to unintended consequences.
Among them he listed the inclusion of polygamous and multiple relationships into the definition of marriage, and the right for two sisters living together to demand a legal wedding.
The intervention from Lord Carey, one of the most prominent campaigners against same-sex marriage since the Prime Minister first announced his plan in the autumn of 2011, comes as peers prepare to debate the new marriage law.
Ministers are braced for an attempt to wreck the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill next week.
A group of MPs have already written to members of the House of Lords urging them to vote down the Bill, on the grounds that in the supposedly free vote in the Commons they were warned by Downing Street that their careers would be at stake if they failed to back it.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Department Says Use of Husband and Wife is Considered Hate Speech
Given the Department of Justice’s current track record — the IRS Scandal, Fast and Furious, subpoenaing the press, and other law bending activities — it is not surprising that it would reach inside its own organization and blatantly overstep the First Amendment rights of employees.
One of the DOJ’s latest directives tells managers how they need to handle Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) employees.
“Silence will be interpreted as disapproval,” according to the DOJ Pride office. “LGBT Inclusion at Work: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Managers,” was manifested by the DOJ Pride, Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Employees of the U.S. Department of Justice and Their Allies.
According to the “Inclusion” document, the government can limit your freedom of speech, expression and your thoughts.
Here are some pieces:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Guide to Help Companies Attract ‘Pink Money’
Swedish businesses will soon receive guidance in how to become gender neutral and how to tap into the purchasing power of the LGBT community.
The Swedish Federation of Business Owners (Företagarna) estimates that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender consumers have a collective purchasing power of nearly 100 billion kronor ($15 billion).
However, few companies focus on what the Federation describes as “pink money”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Internet Monitoring System to Stalk Social Media Users Who Question Safety of Vaccines
(NaturalNews) If you post articles to your Facebook wall that warn others about the dangers of vaccines, or Tweet links to the latest studies tying vaccines to autism through Twitter, the vaccine pushers of the world could soon know about it in real time. According to new reports, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-backed scientists in both the United States and Great Britain have jointly developed a computerized global monitoring system capable of tracking all social media activity around the world that defies mainstream vaccine dogma, and reporting it directly to authorities.
This brave new exercise in multinational, Big Brother spying is being hailed as a solution to the rapid spread of so-called “rumors” and “lies” about vaccines via the internet, which basically constitute any online free speech that questions the safety or effectiveness of vaccines. According to mainstream authorities, vaccines are completely safe and effective in every way, and anything that defies this unsubstantiated proclamation is now officially considered to be misinformation by the global police state.
According to Heidi Larson from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the U.K., and author of the new tracking system, free speech on the internet has “speeded up the global spread” of what she and others consider to be “unchecked rumors and misinformation about vaccines.” People thinking for themselves, in other words, and discussing legitimate vaccine safety concerns with others online is a threat to the establishment, thus the need for a virtual all-seeing eye, of sorts, to monitor all this chatter and report it directly to health officials.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Manned Mars Missions Will Need Superfast New Propulsion Systems to Beat Radiation Threat
To keep astronauts safe and healthy during long on future missions to Mars, superfast new propulsion technologies will likely be necessary, experts say.
Crewmembers flying to Mars and back using traditional chemical thrusters would be exposed to the high radiation levels of deep space for 12 to 17 months. That’s simply too long to keep astronauts’ radiation doses from fast-moving particles known as galactic cosmic rays within currently acceptable limits, researchers said.
At the same time, they added, improved shielding is needed to help protect deep-space explorers from charged particles blasted out by the sun. (Traditional shielding does little good against cosmic rays.)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New High-Level UN Development Panel Report Retreads Old Left-Wing Ideas
On May 30, 2013,the United Nations High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda released a report entitled “A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development.” Its authors claimed that the report sets out a “universal” and “transformative” agenda to eradicate extreme poverty from the face of the earth by 2030, and deliver on the promise of sustainable development.
The panel was established by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and co-chaired by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron.
The report in actuality is a socialist manifesto dressed up in the garb of nice business-sounding terms such as “investment” and mobilizing “private capital.” Scratch the surface of the report and one sees the emphasis on shop-worn themes such as over-consumption by the “rich,” “equity,” “sustainability,” “solidarity,” the establishment of “social protection floors” funded by a new “global fund for social protection,” establishing “a global knowledge commons,” the targeting of “inequality within and between countries,” and “the right to development and responsibilities shared in accordance with capabilities.”
The authors of the report might as well have gone all the way and quoted directly from Karl Marx: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
I used to work for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. In those days, it was culturally marxist and flew a red flag over it’s Town Hall in King Street W6. Since 2010, it became Conservative, changed its livery from red to blue and now flies the Union flag. Abu Hamza and his brood were housed free of charge in this million pound plus town house whilst receiving a multitude of state benefits, many of which they were not entitled to and few of which were available to British claimants. It shocks me that this family is still fleecing the British public. Maybe we should demonstrate outside this property. The address is:- 9, Aldbourne Road, London W12.