Senate Republicans caved in and conceded to virtually all of the Democrats’ demands, allowing the passage of a 90-day funding bill and ending the shutdown. Their surrender was a foregone conclusion from the moment the impasse began; it’s a mystery why they bothered going through the whole farcical charade.
In other news, a cholera outbreak in Mexico has spread to include 159 victims, and at least one person has died. The government has launched a new public health initiative to curb the disease.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, Jerry Gordon, Papa Whiskey, 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.
Bank of Italy Sees Recovery Before End of Year
‘First favourable signals have emerged,’ says central bank
(ANSA) — Rome, October 16 — The Bank of Italy said Wednesday that it can see the possibility of a “reversal of the trend” for the recession-ravaged Italian economy “by the end of the year”.
The central bank added in a report that “the first favourable signs” of recovery have emerged in recent months.
Italy is currently enduring its longest recession in over two decades.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Fitch Warns it May Cut U.S. Credit Rating From AAA
(Reuters) — Fitch Ratings warned on Tuesday it could cut the sovereign credit rating of the United States from AAA, citing the political brinkmanship over raising the federal debt ceiling.
“Although Fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default,” the firm said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Joblessness Hits Ika’s Coffers Hard
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, OCTOBER 14 — Rising unemployment — hitting 27.6% last July — has had a devastating effect on Greece’s largest social security provider, IKA, which has seen contributions drop by nearly a quarter since 2009, as daily Kathimerini reports. IKA figures show that it is expected to close the year with 10.78 billion euros in contributions, a dramatic drop of 5.08 billion euros from 2009, when it had 460,794 more members than it does today. Of that 10.78 billion, meanwhile, IKA will have paid 9.56 billion euros in pensions by the end of the year. IKA has lost a total of 24% of its contributions since the start of the crisis, with the biggest losses coming from the construction sector (77.65%), which was its mainstay.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Union Calls General Strike for Nov 6, Says Unemployment Has Reached “Nightmare” Levels
ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s largest labor union has called a general strike for Nov. 6, warning that unemployment has reached “nightmare” levels and that working rights are continually eroded by austerity measures.
The GSEE union called the 24-hour protest Wednesday in its latest attempt to halt government cuts imposed as part of Greece’s 240 billion-euro ($325 billion) bailout agreements. The cuts are meant to reduce debt, but have hurt the economy and pushed the jobless rate to nearly 28 percent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hungrier Than Ever: Britain’s Use of Food Banks Triples
The Trussell Trust reveals 350,000 people have received emergency handouts since April, while government poverty tsar, Frank Field, condemns figures as ‘shocking’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Ciudad Real Airport on Sale for 100 Mln Euros
Made during housing bubble, it cost 410
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 16 — Spain’s Ciudad Real airport is on sale for 100 million euros, judicial sources said on Wednesday. The price has been set as part of a liquidation plan outlined by the tribunal of Castilla-La Mancha, the sources said.
Construction on the airport began in 1997. It was one of the most important projects during the housing bubble and was meant to create an alternative to Madrid’s Barajas airport as a regional hub for cargo planes. Fifteen years later, it became a symbol of abandon after its shutdown on April 2012.
The price set at 100 million euros is 75% less than the investment made for its construction estimated at 410 million euros. No bid to buy it has been presented yet though Chinese and Arab groups could be interested, according to local sources.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: There’s Only One Answer to the Cost of Living Crisis: A Bonfire of the Taxes
Britain desperately needs a significant downsizing of the size of the state, and the Government must eliminate subsidies for those who don’t need them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
18-Foot, Serpent-Like Sea Creature Found Off California
A marine science instructor snorkeling off the Southern California coast spotted something out of a fantasy novel: the silvery carcass of an 18-foot-long, serpent-like oarfish.
Jasmine Santana of the Catalina Island Marine Institute needed more than 15 helpers to drag the giant sea creature with eyes the size of half dollars to shore on Sunday.
Staffers at the institute are calling it the discovery of a lifetime.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Fossilized Blood-Engorged Mosquito is Found for the First Time Ever
In the 20 years since the movie Jurassic Park fantasized about how dinosaurs could be cloned from blood found in ancient amber-trapped mosquitoes, fossil collectors have been on the hunt for a similar specimen. Today, it was announced that we finally have such a specimen, a blood-engorged mosquito that’s been preserved in shale rock for around 46 million years in northwestern Montana.
The specimen is trapped in stone, not amber, and (unfortunately for Jurassic Park enthusiasts) it’s not old enough to be filled with dinosaur blood. But it is the first time we’ve found a fossilized mosquito with blood in its belly.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At 11th Hour: G.O.P. Blinks in Standoff
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republican leaders conceded defeat Wednesday in their budget fight with President Obama over the new health care law, agreeing to support a reopening of the government and a lifting of the nation’s borrowing authority in exchange for future budget negotiations.
Speaker John A. Boehner, the leader of conservative House Republicans whose push to strip money for the health law led to the shuttering of much of the government on Oct. 1, said that the House would not block a bipartisan agreement reached in the Senate that yielded virtually no concessions to the Republicans.
“We fought the good fight,” Mr. Boehner said in an interview with the radio station WLW-AM in Cincinnati. “We just didn’t win.”
In a statement issued as the Senate and the House prepared to vote on the proposal, Mr. Boehner said: “The fight will continue. But blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us.”
The decision came about 24 hours before the Treasury was due to exhaust its borrowing authority, putting the nation on the brink of a default. Mr. Boehner had earlier told colleagues privately that he would not allow the nation to default.
The Senate is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday evening, with final passage coming late Wednesday or early Thursday.
Under the agreement, the government would be funded through Jan. 15, and the debt ceiling would be raised until Feb. 7. The Senate will take up a separate motion to instruct House and Senate negotiators to reach accord by Dec. 13 on a long-term blueprint for tax and spending policies over the next decade.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, stressed that under the deal, which he negotiated with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, budget cuts extracted in the 2011 fiscal showdown were not reversed, as some Democrats had wanted, a slim reed that not even he claimed as a significant victory.
The deal, Mr. McConnell said, “is far less than many of us hoped for, quite frankly, but far better than what some had sought.”
“It’s time for Republicans to unite behind other crucial goals,” he added…
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Boehner Urges House GOP to Support Senate Deal
Washington (CNN) — Senate leaders on Wednesday announced a deal to end the partial government shutdown and avoid a possible U.S. default, and House Speaker John Boehner urged fellow Republicans to support it while a key GOP conservative said he wouldn’t try to block it in the Senate.
“We fought the good fight; we just didn’t win,” Boehner told a radio station in his home state of Ohio in reference to GOP efforts to dismantle or defund President Barack Obama’s signature health care reforms and extract deficit reduction concessions around the need to fund the government and raise the federal borrowing limit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cory Booker: Democrat of New Jersey, Wins U.S. Senate Race, A.P. Reports
Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark easily won New Jersey’s special Senate election on Wednesday.
With 55 percent of the precincts reporting, Mr. Booker had 55 percent of the vote with 44 percent going to his Republican opponent, Steve Lonegan, a former mayor of Bogota, N.J., according to The Associated Press.
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Who Rules the Streets of New York?
Who rules the streets? Some are beginning to wonder after a rash of incidents in the city organized by flash mobs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Berlin Says Italy Must Solve Priebke Problem
Germany has ‘no role’ says foreign ministry spokesman
(see related story) (ANSA) — Berlin, October 16 — The German government said Wednesday it was Italy’s responsibility to solve the problem of what should happen to Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke’s body.
“Taking care of the deceased is the responsibility of the State where the person died,” said German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer, adding that Berlin had “no role or responsibility in the affair”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Britons ‘Ate Frogs’ Legs Millennia Before the French’
Frogs’ legs are considered a French delicacy, but new archaeological evidence suggests Britons were the first to discover their culinary qualities — up to 8,000 years ago.
Archaeologists at a site close to Stonehenge in southwest England have discovered the charred leg bone of a toad among other food remains dating back to between 6250 BC and 7596 BC.
This makes the discovery “the earliest evidence of a cooked toad or frog leg found in the world”, said the team from the University of Buckingham in a statement late Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Letta Says Serbia’s Membership is Great Priority
Premier at italo-serbian bilateral summit in Ancona
Italy-Serbia bilateral summit in Ancona
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 15 — Italian Premier Enrico Letta on Tuesday told a press conference that Serbia’s EU membership is a ‘great priority’. Letta was speaking after an Italian-Serbian summit in Ancona, in the central Marche region.
‘We want Serbia to become the 29th EU star’, said Letta, recalling that ‘Italy worked hard for Belgrade’s adhesion process to the European Union’.
Serbian Premier Ivica Dacic remarked that Serbia wants ‘to be the union’s 29th member’ and thanked Italy ‘for the great support’ provided as his country is pursuing this objective.
Letta recalled that Italy ‘worked with great commitment at the European council at the end of June’ and when ‘a few small glitches were halting a positive evolution of the final document on the start of Serbia’s adhesion talks in the EU, Italy worked with the greatest commitment’.
‘We were able to get a green light from the EU council at the end of June but now all the necessary steps must be made by the EU and Serbia’, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Europeans Are Faulted Over Using Funds to Support Like-Minded Voices
BRUSSELS — During heated wrangling late last year over the size of a new long-term budget for the European Union, Notre Europe, a Paris-based policy group, wanted to make its voice heard. So it put one of its researchers on a small radio station in the French city of Nantes to answer questions and promote its vision of a “more effective” — and bigger — budget controlled by Brussels.
The exercise in what appeared to be an energetic public debate had a catch, or two, however. The radio station, it turns out, received more than $100,000 from Brussels last year, according to official European Union records. Notre Europe itself had received more than $650,000 from Brussels last year, nearly half of its total budget.
“The whole thing is surreal make-believe: people who get E.U. funding talk about how wonderful the E.U. is, and then lobby for it to get more money,” said Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a privately financed research group based in London that is offering $135,000 for the best plan for a British exit from the Union.
At a time when Europe is struggling with soaring unemployment and the enduring euro crisis has raised existential concerns about the 28-nation bloc, there is scant debate in Brussels over the critical issue of whether the solution to the Union’s problems lies in “more Europe” — meaning greater political and economic integration — or less.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Far-Right Leaders Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders in Talks to Form Anti-Europe Alliance
French and Dutch populist party chiefs could threaten UKIP’s influence in the EU
Both are blonde. Both are charismatic. Both are anti-immigrant and anti-European. Both have successfully brought their political movement towards — although not yet into — the national mainstream.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front in France, and Geert Wilders of the Freedom Party (PVV) in the Netherlands, will attempt next month to launch the seemingly impossible — a pan-European Eurosceptic movement. With far-right or populist parties across Europe threatening to create upsets in next May’s European elections, Mr Wilders and Ms Le Pen believe that the time is right to form an anti-European alliance. Ms Le Pen will travel to the Netherlands next month to discuss a joint campaign in the European elections with Mr Wilders’ PVV.
Mr Wilders has already been on a European tour this summer to try to persuade like-minded parties in other countries to endorse a common Euro-sceptic and anti-immigrant platform next May, with limited success.
The Northern League in Italy, Vlaams Belang in Belgium and the Democratic Party in Sweden have reacted coolly to the idea. The United Kingdom Independence Party rejected the alliance outright.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage said this year: “Ukip is not right wing but a libertarian party which believes in small government, low taxes, personal freedom and responsibility under a democratic national government, not under Brussels rule. Ukip are not involved in this initiative by Geert Wilders.”
Part of the problem is that the various populist or far-right parties in Europe are nervous of being associated with one another.
“Our party has not joined the alliance,” said Martin Kinnunen, the spokesman for Sweden’s Eurosceptic Democratic Party: “It is hard to say anything at this stage as we don’t know which parties will participate.”
The Swedish Democrats are said to be reluctant, for domestic political reasons, to join any club which includes Ms Le Pen’s National Front or Jörg Haider’s Austrian Freedom Party. No one, not even Mr Wilders, wants anything to do with overtly racist parties such as Jobbik in Hungary or the British National Party (BNP). It is doubtful whether a pan-European platform would bring many extra votes to the anti-European parties who are already predicted to score heavily in Britain, France, the Netherlands, Austria and, perhaps, Germany.
Opinion polls suggest that, with the help of low turnout, Ms Le Pen and Mr Farage could top their respective European campaigns and greatly enlarge their pool of MEPs.
A united European movement against the EU would, however, presage the creation of a strong, National Front-dominated anti-European group in the next European Parliament. This, paradoxically, might cause problems for Ukip and Mr Farage.
The existing Eurosceptic group in Strasbourg, Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD), which is much riven by splits and resignations, is dominated by Ukip. Neither the French National Front nor Mr Wilders’ PVV — who have a handful of members in Strasbourg — belongs to the EFD.
If both Ms Le Pen and Mr Farage do as well as expected in May, they could each have 20 seats or more. To form an official group in Strasbourg — giving advantages of money and speaking time — 25 members are needed from seven countries.
If Mr Wilders and Ms Le Pen form, as expected, a strong new anti-European group in the European Parliament next summer, Ukip would face a dilemma. Should Mr Farage join that new group, or continue with his own? Other nationalist and populist members from other countries would be much courted by the Le Pen-Wilders group, potentially depriving Ukip of the allies it needs.
Ms Le Pen will travel to The Hague at Mr Wilders’ invitation next month. Mr Wilders told Dutch TV on Monday night that “the National Front and the PVV could make the Europhile elite sing a different tune”.
In September, Ms Le Pen told the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad that an alliance with the PVV would be useful electorally. “It is important to show the voters that we are not isolated,” she said. “That there are similar, patriotic movements active in every European country.”
In the past Mr Wilders refused to associate with the National Front because he disapproved of the anti-Semitic remarks of Ms Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Since she replaced her father in January 2011, Ms Le Pen has tried to clean up and “de-demonise” the NF and move it into left-wing territory on social policy and economic protectionism.
In her interview last month, she suggested that Mr Wilders was, in some respects, more right wing than she was. He has attacked Islam and compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. She said that she had “nothing against Islam itself” but opposed a “flood of Muslim immigrants and the intrusion of Islam in society”.
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Golden Wrapper to Protect Milky Way Mapper
That’s no chocolate bonbon. Hidden behind these sheets of gold foil is the Gaia spacecraft, a European space probe designed to make a highly detailed three-dimensional map of the Milky Way.
The telescope has a 1-gigapixel digital camera at its heart, which will help astronomers chart the positions and distances of about a billion stars across our galaxy. The glittering sheets are part of an enormous sunshield, which will protect Gaia’s delicate image sensors from the ravages of sunlight during its five-year mission.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Strips Three Extreme Right MPs of Immunity
Greece stripped three members of parliament from the extreme-right Golden Dawn party of legal immunity on Wednesday, clearing the way for the politicians to face charges of belonging to a criminal organisation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iceman May Have Living Alpine Relatives
Ötzi the Iceman, the 5,300 year-old mummified body discovered in 1991 in the Austrian Alps, may have numerous distant relatives living in the region today.
The stunning discovery was made following the genetic analysis of DNA samples taken from Ötzi and 3,713 male blood donors in Tyrol, the part of Austria where Ötzi was found.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Protesters Clash at Funeral of Nazi Criminal Priebke
Ultra-traditionalist Catholic group hold controversial service
(ANSA) — Rome, October 15 — A far-right extremist gave a Fascist salute Tuesday as protesters shouted “murderer” and demonstrated against the funeral of a Nazi war criminal near Rome.
Supporters of former SS officer Erich Priebke gathered outside St. Pius X church in the town of Albano Laziale, where they faced off against demonstrators who were angry that their community was the site of the controversial service.
It was celebrated by a breakaway ultra-traditionalist Catholic body, the Lefebvrians.
Police separated the two sides and one demonstrator fainted amidst the turmoil as some tried to attack a Lefebvrian priest who struggled to enter the church as the crowd jostled and jeered at him.
The woman who collapsed was assisted by police and given medical treatment.
The Lefebvrian order or Society of Saint Pius X, founded in 1969, is itself no stranger to controversy as it disagrees with the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. A Lefebvrian bishop, Richard Williamson, denied the Holocaust for years and was expelled last year because he would not retract his views. During the melee, others kicked at the hearse and shouted “executioner” as it arrived carrying Priebke’s remains.
Priebke died Friday aged 100 under Rome house arrest for his part in the massacre of 335 men and boys, including 75 Jews, at the Ardeatine caves outside Rome in 1944. The Italian civilians were killed in retaliation for a partisan attack that killed 33 German soldiers.
Also on Tuesday, the leader of Rome’s Jewish community said he is not surprised Lefebvrians have agreed to celebrate the funeral of a Nazi war criminal. “This is nothing new. They are a hostile sect, throwbacks to pre-Vatican Council theology that reduced Jews to the accusation of being Jesus killers” said Riccardo Pacifici, who leads Rome’s Jewish community. The mayor of Albano Laziale said earlier today that Priebke will not be buried in his town, after Rome city and Church authorities refused permission for a funeral in the capital. “It’s an open wound. We certainly will not allow his burial, which is our competence”, said Mayor Nicola Marini. Priebke’s remains will be returned to the Italian capital for cremation, the mayor said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: San Miniato White Truffles a Hit in the Gulf Region
Kuwait among guests at 43rd national market in Tuscan town
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 15 — White truffles have made their way to Gulf tables as the latest Italian luxury food to catch on in the region, and Kuwait will be part of the 43rd San Miniato National White Truffle Market for three weekends in November (9-10, 16-17 and 23-24).
Dozens of initiatives as well as wine and food tasting and cultural events are planned, said the head of the foundation for the promotion of San Miniato, Delio Fiordispina, on Monday evening at the Rome presentation of the culinary festival.
“On November 9,” Fiodispina added, “in the presence of Kuwait’s ambassador to the FAO, Yousef Juhail, an exhibition will be inaugurated among the stands in the historic centre by the name “Kuwait, from sailing to oil”. The initiative is meant as a way to raise awareness about the country while also spreading knowledge about the production of an Italian speciality product with a lengthy history behind it. Traces of truffles have been found dating back to ancient times in many Mediterranean countries “from Cyrenaica, where the species was called ‘terfezia’, to Mesopotamia.” Much sought out by wealthy Romans from the nobility who paid dearly for them, truffles were called “funus agens” (‘death-bringers’), since if eaten in massive quantities they could result in fatal cases of indigestion. They were a highly-prized product also in Italian and European courts throughout the centuries, from Louis XVI to Talleyrand and from Rossini to Verdi — who held them in high esteem — and have taken on a ‘must-have’ status in Gulf countries in the XXI century. “The white truffle of San Miniato is produced in quantities ranging from 80 to 100 quintals per year in the best of seasons, and is harvested in an area that includes 32 municipalities in the Pisa and Florence provinces”, which account for some 20-25% of the national production of high-quality white truffles. The market should also be protected from fraud, however.
“Truffles do not have any traceability and it is difficult to understand where they have come from,” Fiordispina pointed out.
And so even now Libyan truffles, for example, enter Italian territory labelled as ‘terfezia’, sold for 80 cents a kilo, and are later sold off as ‘white truffles’. Counterfeiting is a somewhat of a threat from all Mediterranean countries, however, since the tuber grows in many of them. The event will showcase culinary mixing and mingling, as well. “We have planned a number of special initiatives connected with street food. With the Saharawi, for example, we will try to bring together couscous and San Miniato truffles.” The Tuscan city, Fiordispina noted, “is twinned with the city of Boujdour in the Western Sahara as well as with Bethlehem, with which we will try to create a special dish.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Confusion Continues Over Priebke After Funeral Abandoned
German embassy denies receiving request about war criminal
(ANSA) — Rome, October 16 — Confusion over the fate of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke’s body continued on Wednesday after his funeral in a town near Rome was abandoned Tuesday amid scenes of chaos.
Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said Wednesday that the city was in talks with the German authorities over what to do with Priebke’s body.
But sources at the German embassy denied having received a formal request from officials from the Rome council or the Italian government. The funeral of the unrepentant former SS officer was abandoned in the town of Albano Laziale on Tuesday following clashes between protestors and far-right extremists.
Rome city and church authorities had previously refused to allowed the German’s funeral to take place in the capital and the corpse has been taken to a military airport at Pratica di Mare for public order reasons. Priebke died Friday aged 100 under Rome house arrest for his part in the massacre of 335 men and boys, including 75 Jews, at the Ardeatine caves outside Rome in 1944. The Italian civilians were killed in retaliation for a partisan attack that killed 33 German soldiers.
“The prefect of Rome and the Italian government are in talks with the German embassy in Rome (to seek a solution),” said Marino, adding that the capital could not accept hosting the funeral of an executioner.
Rome Prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro also said contact had been made with the German authorities, adding he was confident the situation would be solved on Wednesday, before the German embassy denied receiving a request. Priebke’s place of birth, the German town of Hennigsdord, located about 20 km northwest of Berlin, announced on Monday that it would not accept the body for burial.
The funeral was meant to be held on Tuesday by a controversial breakaway ultra-traditionalist Catholic body, the Lefebvrians, who are against the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
A far-right extremist gave a Fascist salute as Priebke supporters clashed with protesters shouted “murderer” outside St. Pius X church in Albano Laziale after the town’s mayor had unsuccessfully sought to stop the coffin arriving. Police separated the two sides and one demonstrator fainted amidst the turmoil as some tried to attack a Lefebvrian priest who struggled to enter the church as the crowd jostled and jeered at him. The hurst carrying the coffin was damaged after rocks and firecrackers were thrown at it and protesters hammered it with fists.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Le Pen to Meet Dutch Far-Right Leader
French Front National leader, Marine Le Pen is to visit the Netherlands in November for talks with the Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders ahead of next year’s European elections, Dutch Nieuwsuur news reported Monday. Le Pen aims to establish a pan-European far-right parliamentary grouping after the May 2014 European elections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Geert Wilders Dutch leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) in the Hague Parliament has risen to the top of polls of Dutch voters surpassing the position of the Labor Party . See our July 4, 2013 Iconoclast post here. This is a reflection of his appeal to many Dutch voters given his public opposition to Muslim mass immigration, the EU, and the Eurozone.
The Independent U.K. reported on the possible formation of a Eurosceptic Alliance composed of Marine Le Pen’s National Front Party in France and Wilder’s Freedom Party in Holland. If that is successful it might upend the current leader of Eurosceptics in the European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg, Nigel Farage. Farage heads the UK Independent Party (UKIP). A prominent plank in the party’s platform is leaving the EU. The Independent noted:…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Living Descendents of Ice Man Ötzi Found
Scientists in Innsbruck, Austria have found 19 living descendent of ice man Ötzi in the Austrian Tirol. Forensic scientist Walther Parson who carried out the study using DNA said: “We found 19 men have the same ancestry as Ötzi.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Marine Le Pen: EU Will Collapse Like the Soviet Union
Marine Le Pen aims to set up radical, anti-Europe faction in the European parliament with help of Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP.
The leader of France’s far-Right party has vowed that the European Union would “collapse like the Soviet Union” as she conspired to form what would be the most radical faction yet seen in the European parliament.
Marine Le Pen, buoyed by a weekend by-election triumph in southern France, criticised the EU as a “global anomaly” and pledged to return the bloc to a “cooperation of sovereign states”.
She said Europe’s population had “no control” over their economy or currency, nor over the movement of people in their territory.
“I believe that the EU is like the Soviet Union now: it is not improvable,” she said. “The EU will collapse like the Soviet Union collapsed.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Coalition Deal Gives Finance, Oil Ministries to Populists
(Reuters) — Norway’s Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg unveiled her minority government on Wednesday, giving the key oil and finance portfolios to her smaller coalition ally, the populist Progress Party.
Solberg, Norway’s second female prime minister, appointed women to half of the cabinet posts, in line with an unwritten rule about gender equality, and for the first time, the top two jobs will be held by women.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Surveillance: Orwellian Perhaps, But What Would Madison Say?
By: Lindsey Grudnicki
There have been numerous articles comparing the NSA’s secret surveillance of phone calls and undisclosed direct access to Internet servers to George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel, 1984. These pieces assert that the tactics of the Obama administration and those of “the Party” in Orwell’s fictional state are strikingly similar, and that we should be wary of the United States morphing into the oppressed society that 1984 so powerfully captures.
But does this dramatic comparison offer any real guidance for the American public? Does it point out the real threats to our freedom?
Rather than looking to the fictional future projected by the British writer, why not look back to the Founders, to their wisdom, predictions, and fears about our government? At a time when people fear their “constitutional rights” are being violated, why not look to the words of James Madison, the “Father” of our Constitution?
[This is a few months old, but still quite pertinent. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Sitting Pretty: Austrian Bus Stops Get High-Design Makeover
A tiny Austrian village has put itself on the design map by commissioning international architects to create local bus stops. The sophisticated structures are proving popular with locals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Church of Sweden Replaces One Form of Totalitarianism With Another
by Lars Hedegaard
The Swedish archbishop elect Antje Jackelén’s stance on Islam has caused unease in parts of the press and among some members of the country’s Lutheran clergy.
As her motto the coming top leader of the Church of Sweden has chosen “God is greater” — in Arabic “Allahu akbar” — and when asked to choose between Jesus and Muhammed, she gave no clear answer. This is not the first time influential segments within the Church of Sweden have flirted with totalitarian ideas.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Aftenposten, 16 October 2013
On October 16, Norway’s new Prime Minister, Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg, presented her cabinet. Aftenposten reports that for the first time, the government will include ministers — seven from a total of 17 — from the right-wing populist Progress Party: notably in the key posts of Finance, to be taken up by Siv Jensen, and Justice, which has been attributed to Anders Anundsen.
For the Oslo daily, Solberg has played the stability card, by appointing the members of her party “whom she knows best and in whom she has the most trust” to “the most important posts” —
Erna Solberg does not like to experiment […] and this is demonstrated by her choice. With only one or two exceptions, all of the new ministers from the right will benefit from previous experience as MPs, as policy advisors, or as ministers.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jihad Mass Murder Plotters May Have Met While Waging Jihad in Syria
But they had no trouble getting back into Britain. The British Home Office was not concerned that they might adversely affect community cohesion. The British Home Office shows no sign of concern that Britain-based Muslims waging jihad in Syria might get the idea that it would be good to wage it back home as well. No, the British Home Office has no problem readmitting people like these jihad terror plotters back into the country. They’re far more concerned with keeping out anyone who might oppose them, as the spent and finished U.K. slides toward its inevitable end.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders Invites Marine Le Pen to EU Alliance Talks in the Hague
PVV leader Geert Wilders has invited Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far right party Front National, to a meeting in the Dutch parliamentary complex in November, Le Pen told television show Nieuwsuur on Monday evening.
Wilders wants to discuss his plans to form a coalition with nationalist parties to fight the European elections next year. The two met in April for the first time.
Wilders has already made approaches to the Vlaams Belang, Italy’s Lega Nord and the UK Independence Party, the Volkskrant said earlier this year. UKIP and Sweden’s Democrats have refused to join an alliance with the Front National.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Foreign Minister Says Relations With US Are in ‘Turmoil’ Following Military Aid Cuts
Egypt’s foreign minister said Wednesday that relations between his country and the United States are in “turmoil” following Washington’s decision to suspend delivery of tanks, helicopters and fighter jets to Egypt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jihad vs Listen to What Islam’s Authorities Say
By Raymond Ibrahim
A recent Arabic article appearing in Egypt’s Al Ahram newspaper titled “Is Terrorism Jihad?” written by Islamic law expert Dr. Abdul Fatah Idris offers important lessons—from the fact that jihad does involve subjugating non-Muslims to why the Western mentality is still incapable of acknowledging it.
[…]
In short, jihad is not terrorism simply because Allah says so—even if the two, back in the real world, are identical. In the words of Idris: “Now if the deeds of the jihad—including fighting the infidels and breaking their spine through all possible means—are permissible according to Sharia, then it is impossible to define those acts as terrorism.”
Three final thoughts:
| 1. | Next time you wonder why “moderate” Muslims rarely if ever condemn the terrorism habitually committed in the name of their religion, you’d do well to remember Idris’ article and rationale. | |
| 2. | Regarding the supposedly “controversial” question of what jihad really is, who do you think is more authoritative—a Sharia law instructor at the Islamic world’s most prestigious university, writing in Arabic to fellow Muslims, or, say, a Karen Armstrong writing best-selling fluff pieces about a benign and “misunderstood” Islam to a naïve Western public? | |
| 3. | Why was Idris’ article left unreported? Imagine the international outrage that would spark if a Christian theologian wrote in the New York Times—which is what Al Ahram is equivalent to in Egypt—that “it is an obligation” for Christians to wage “holy war” on non-Christian infidels and “fight or invade his [non-Christian] land” to “make Jesus’ word supreme”? |
[Raymond Ibrahim, the bilingual editor of “The Al-Qaeda Reader,” has done the West a great service by translating this article — which, be it noted, is NOT available in the English version of “Al-Ahram Online.” — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Feast of Sacrifice; Protests Over Lack of Water
Water agency headquarters besieged in Tatouine
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, OCTOBER 16 — Hundreds of people are protesting on Wednesday in front of the headquarters in Tatouine of Sonede, Tunisia’s water management agency, after water supply was cut off across the city on Tuesday during celebrations for the Feast of Sacrifice, preventing them from celebrating one of the most important Islamic festivals.
Sonede managers said the cut off was caused by a problem with water pumps.
Sonede’s director general, Hedi Belhaj, denied any inconvenience though protests over poor water supply came from other Tunisian regions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
With the Country at the Mercy of Islamists and Criminals, Libya Asks the Church to Leave
Sources tell AsiaNews about a country split in two. Chaos and violence prevail in Benghazi and Cyrenaica. Under constant threats, nuns, priests and Catholic staff cannot work. In Tripoli, where men and women religious care for sick migrants, criminal gangs can strike at any time. Eritreans, Somalis, Malians and immigrants from other parts of Africa hide away in convents for fear of being killed.
Tripoli (AsiaNews) — Lack of security, threats to those who help migrants, robberies and violence are making Libya, especially Cyrenaica, a lawless land, where armed Islamist gangs have taken the place of the police. This situation is a threat to the existence of the Catholic Church in the country. Instead of taking appropriate measures, the government is urging churchmen and women to flee.
Because of “The lack of security [. . .] most religious communities that came to work in public health at the request of the Libyan authorities have been asked to leave the country,” said Mgr Vincent Landel, archbishop of Rabat (Morocco) and President of the Episcopal Conference of North Africa.
Nuns, doctors and nurses, mostly from the Philippines, have worked for years in Libyan hospitals, taking care of the sick and the elderly. During the war, clinics and hospitals run by the religious were the only ones operating.
Libya is divided in two now, sources, anonymous for security reasons, told AsiaNews. “In Benghazi, the Church is under constant threats and it is now almost impossible to work. The situation is very risky.”
Earlier this year, several orders had to abandon their convents after 40 years of mission. Now another wave might leave the whole of Cyrenaica without any Catholic presence.
The situation is at a breaking point, sources explained. The only place where one can still work is Tripoli.
“The city is safe for the moment,” they noted. “This allows [health] operators and the Sisters of Charity to help the hundreds of migrants who come to the city every day, waiting to find the money to flee to Europe. Yet, we need to tread very carefully because even in the capital, armed gangs roam the streets and no one can be trusted. Migrants are hiding in convents and private homes to avoid being robbed or killed.” (S.C.)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
“Financial Aid Goes to Palestinian Terrorists”
THE HAGUE, 12/10/13 — Questions will be raised in parliament over whether EU subsidies to the Palestine Authority go to terrorists.
Yossi Dagen, vice-chairman of the West Bank Regional Council said 40 percent of the EU subsidies to the Palestine Authority is spent on salaries of convicted Palestine terrorists. He told a meeting of MPs that these terrorists each received 2,000 euros a month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Outlook on Olive Oil Production Negative in W. Bank
PNA minister, due to environment and Israel’s restrictions
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH, OCTOBER 15 — The outlook on olive oil production in the occupied Palestinian territories is negative, Palestinian Agriculture Minister Walid Assaf told ANSA in an interview. The drop in production risks further hindering the West Bank’s economy and weigh on most Palestinian families who own at least a few olive trees. “The reasons for the drop are in part connected to the environment and the changeability of the natural cycle of crops, and in part connected to the difficulties faced by Palestinian farmers in harvesting olives due to Israeli restrictions and attacks by settlers”, said the minister.
“Over the past few years the drop was close to 50% in areas close to Israeli settlements or the separation barrier”, said Assaf.
“Attacks against Palestinian farmers by extremist settlers take place on a daily basis today, without considering the hundreds of trees that are burned or cut. A number of meetings have taken place with Israeli authorities on this issue and the Israeli army has recently arrested a number of settlers in the areas of Nablus and Salfir”.
In order to confront the destruction of trees and the confiscation of land by Israel for security reasons, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has launched a project to plant over 3.5 million olive trees in the next five years. The minister also stressed the problem of permits issued by the Israeli army to Palestinian farmers during crops. The production of olive oil and olives is a key part of the Palestinian economy. Production in 2012 totalled 30,000 tons of oil and 6,000/7,000 tons of olives sold.
The agriculture ministry estimates that 15,000 tons of olive oil will be produced this year — 8,000 for the domestic market and the rest exported to Gaza, about 3,000 tons, thanks to an accord with Israel, and in Israeli territory, about 5,000 tons.
A recent World Bank report noted that agriculture can be key in the development of the Palestinian economy and stressed that the exploitation of vast areas of land, especially in the Jordan Valley, costs the Palestinian economy some 3.4 billion dollars a year due to Israeli restrictions.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians Wasting €2 Billion in Aid
The Palestinian Authority has wasted nearly €2 billion in European aid through corruption and mismanagement, Britain’s Sunday Times reports. According to a not-yet published report, the European Court of Auditors has found “significant shortcomings” in audits of €1.95 billion spent in the West Bank and Gaza between 2008 and 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Prime Minister Netanyahu: Hajj Amin El-Husseini’s Animating Ideology Was Islam, Not Nazism
by Andrew Bostom
During his October 6, 2013 speech at Bar Ilan University, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin el-Husseini. Mr. Netanyahu characterized el-Husseini as, “the undisputed leader of the Palestinian national movement in the first half of the 20th century.” The Prime Minister highlighted the ex-Muft’s role in fomenting pogroms (dating back, in fact, to the so-called “Nabi Musa” riots of 1920) during the decades between the Balfour Declaration, and the eventual creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
Netanyahu’s address also focused on el-Husseini’s World War II era collaboration with the Nazis, the clear implication being that the Mufti’s murderous, Jew-hating ideology was simply another manifestation of Nazi evil, transplanted to a local “nationalistic struggle” in the Middle East. I have just published an extensive analysis (available as a downloadable pdf of 51 pp., and 120 references, embedded at the end of this blog) entitled, “A Salient Example of Hajj Amin el-Husseini’s Canonical Islamic Jew-Hatred—Introduction, Text, and Commentary” which demonstrates that Netanyahu’s rehashing of such conventional, pseudo-academic “wisdom,” does not withstand any serious, objective scrutiny.
On June 30, 1922, a joint resolution of both Houses of Congress of the United States unanimously endorsed the “Mandate for Palestine,” confirming the irrevocable right of Jews to settle in the area of Palestine—anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The Congressional record contains a statement of support from New York Rep. Walter Chandler which includes an observation, about “Turkish and Arab agitators . . . preaching a kind of holy war [jihad] against . . . the Jews” of Palestine. During this same era within Palestine, a strong Arab Muslim irredentist current—epitomized by Hajj Amin el-Husseini—promulgated the forcible restoration of sharia-mandated dhimmitude for Jews via jihad. Indeed, two years before he orchestrated the murderous anti-Jewish riots of 1920, that is, in 1918, Hajj Amin el-Husseini stated plainly to a Jewish coworker (at the Jerusalem Governorate), I. A. Abbady, “This was and will remain an Arab land . . . the Zionists will be massacred to the last man. . . . Nothing but the sword will decide the future of this country.”
Despite his role in fomenting the1920 pogroms against Palestinian Jews, el-Husseini was pardoned and subsequently appointed mufti of Jerusalem by the British high commissioner, in May 1921, a title he retained, following the Ottoman practice, for the remainder of his life. Throughout his public career, the mufti relied upon traditional Koranic anti-Jewish motifs to arouse the Arab street. For example, during the incitement which led to the 1929 Arab revolt in Palestine, he called for combating and slaughtering “the Jews.” not merely Zionists. In fact, most of the Jewish victims of the 1929 Arab revolt were Jews from the centuries-old dhimmi communities (for example, in Hebron), as opposed to recent settlers identified with the Zionist movement.
The mufti remained unrelenting in his espousal of a virulent, canonical Islamic Jew-hatred as the focal tenet of his ideology, before, during, and in the aftermath of World War II, and the creation of the State of Israel. He was also a committed supporter of global jihad movements, urging a “full struggle” against the Hindus of India (as well as the Jews of Israel) before delegates at the February 1951 World Muslim Congress: “We shall meet next with sword in hand on the soil of either Kashmir or Palestine.” Declassified intelligence documents from 1942, 1947, 1952, and 1954 confirm the mufti’s own Caliphate desires in repeated references from contexts as diverse as Turkey, Egypt, Jerusalem, and Pakistan, and also include discussions of major Islamic conferences dominated by the mufti, which were attended by a broad spectrum of Muslim leaders literally representing the entire Islamic world (including Shia leaders from Iran), that is, in Karachi from February 16—19, 1952, and Jordanian-occupied Jerusalem, December 3—9, 1953. Viewed in their totality these data do not support the current standard assessment of the mufti as merely a Palestinian Arab nationalist, rife with a “transplanted” Jew-hatred.
There is another parallel negationist trend, which is widely prevalent: the claim that el-Husseini’s canonical Islamic Jew-hatred somehow represented a sui generis “Nazification” of Islam, which has “persisted” into our era. Paul Berman articulated an unabashed formulation of this broadly held thesis, proclaiming, that abetted by the Nazis, el-Husseini “monstrously,” and “infernally,” “blurred Islam and Nazism,” achieving…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
The Bothersome, Annoying Truth
by Caroline Glick
A controversy is raging in the Washington, DC, Jewish community involving the local JCC (DCJCC) and its in-house Theater J. While a local tale, it is a distressing encapsulation of Israel’s predicament.
Israel’s rights and justness are grounded in truth. But today truth isn’t worth as much as it used to be. Those who fight for it find themselves routinely maligned as close-minded extremists. Those who trounce it are congratulated for being open-minded and fair.
Last month Theater J announced its Spring 2014 schedule.
The schedule includes a play called The Admission.
Authored by an Israeli named Motti Lerner, the play is a dramatization of what is euphemistically known as the “Tantura Affair.”…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Mideast Clout Growing Amid Turkey Missile Deal
Beijing has been quietly upping its presence in the Middle East; mixing commerce and geopolitics, is at heart of Beijing’s approach, experts say.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hezbollah: We Have Captured an Israeli ‘Spy Eagle’ In Lebanon
Bird allegedly found with receiver implanted on its body and ring around its foot with markings from Tel Aviv University.
Turkish authorities detained a bird this past summer on suspicion it was spying for Israel, but freed it after X-rays showed it was not embedded with surveillance equipment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: EU to be Hard on Erdogan for Gezi Crackdown
Report tomorrow expected to be ‘most critical in years’
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 15 — The Turkish press expects the European Commission report due out Wednesday to be the “hardest on it in years”. The report is in relation to Turkey’s EU membership talks, which have being almost at a standstill since 2005.
Media outlets say that Brussels will criticise Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government over the brutal crackdown on the Gezi Park protests in June — in which six people lost their lives and over 8,000 were injured — as well as press freedom violations. The Commission is not expected to oppose the opening of a new negotiation chapter (the 22nd), reports Zaman, saying that to the contrary the EU wants to open two more chapters on fundamental freedoms and security and justice. The 2012 report strongly criticised the Erdogan government and sparked irritation in Ankara. A leader of the governing AKP party, Burhan Kuzu, “threw it in the rubbish” in a live television broadcast, and Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan labelled the EU “the most hypocritical institution of all time, the most hypocritical in the world”. Too many journalists, union leaders, Kurdish politicians, students and soldiers are being held on charges of “terrorism”, there is ongoing abuse of freedom of expression and the press and intolerance continues to be shown toward religious minorities, Brussels said in 2012. The 2013 is expected to contain a number of positive signals as well, though, that aim to keep relations with Ankara on track. The Turkish press says Brussels will praise the ‘democratization’ measures Erdogan announced in late September (the most well-known of which was the revoking of a ban on the Muslim headscarf in public offices), the starting of a fragile peace process (currently on hold) with the PKK rebels, and the face of moderation shown by President Abdullah Gul, who has found himself ever more in disagreement with Erdogan within the same AKP party. The EU report is being released against a backdrop of polls showing that Turks no longer believe in ‘the European dream’. For half a century the country had been waiting patiently at the gates of ‘Fortress Europe’, but since 2005 only a single negotiations chapter has been concluded. Many Europeans are against any potential entrance into the EU of a Muslim country as large as France and with some 76 million inhabitants.
Turkey’s rigid position on the issue of Cyprus, the northern section of which it has occupied since 1974, doesn’t help matters any, and today 74% of Turks “have lost hope” of belonging to the EU one day. Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis recently said that Ankara “will probably never enter” the EU. On Monday Bagis expressed his disapproval of the date chosen to release the 2013 release, falling as it does midway in the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, Eid Al-Adha — or ‘Bayram’, as it is known in Turkey, where shops and offices are closed for the holiday. Bagis wrote on Twitter that no comments on the report would be made until next Monday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Wild Boars Take to Istanbul’s Water to Flee Cementification
Massive projects make city unlivable, Zaman Online
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, OCTOBER 15 — A family of wild boars was recently seen swimming in the Sea of Marmara across the Bosporus to the Asian side of the city, report Turkish media. According to Zaman Online, about 10 wild boars fled the construction works for a highway and the third bridge across the Bosporus, which are causing large-scale destruction of the forests north of Istanbul. In the megalopolis of at least 15 million inhabitants, huge real estate and infrastructure projects are underway, encouraged by the government under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, mayor of the city in the 1990s.
In addition to the third bridge and connecting artery roads, a third airport is also planned (expected to be the largest in the world), a new satellite city with a million inhabitants and a ‘new Suez Canal’ reaching from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, which Bosporus traffic will be rerouted to.
The large anti-government protests in June were sparked by the cementification of Istanbul and especially Gezi Park in the city’s central Taksim Square, which was to have been destroyed to make room for a shopping center. Zaman’s commentator, Baris Altintas, said that the result would be an ‘unlivable’ city covered in heavy, ugly smog ‘like hell’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US Man Who Fought With Syrian Rebels Wanted to Join Al Qaeda, Say Authorities
An Orange County man who had fought with Syrian rebels against the Assad regime was arrested Friday morning as he tried to leave the U.S. with a fake passport to fight for al Qaeda against U.S. soldiers overseas, said authorities.
Twenty-four-year-old Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen of Garden Grove, also known as Hasan Abu Omar Ghannoum, was stopped at a bus station in Santa Ana, Calif. at 7:30 a.m. by members of the Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force and arrested on suspicion of providing material support to al Qaeda.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Saudi Woman Lashes Out at Religious Police
“Don’t provoke me!” This video filmed by a shopper in a Riyadh store shows a Saudi woman giving an officer from the religious police a piece of her mind. He had apparently asked her to cover up her entire face, even though she was already wearing a traditional niqab, with only her eyes and the top of her nose visible.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Meteorite Pulled From Russian Lake
Divers working at a Russian lake have recovered a half-tonne chunk of the space rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk earlier this year.
The object plunged into Lake Chebarkul in central Russia on 15 February, leaving a 6m-wide hole in the ice. Scientists say that it is the largest fragment of the meteorite yet found.
More than 1,000 people were injured when a 17m, 10,000-tonne space rock burned up over Central Russia, breaking windows and rocking buildings.
“This chunk is most probably one of the top 10 biggest meteorite fragments ever found.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World-Class Universities Leave Russia Behind
Once again, no Russian institutions figured into the top 200 universities worldwide, according to this year’s annual Times Higher Education survey. The only Russian university in the top 400 was Lomonosov Moscow State University in the 226 to 250 range. The reputation of Russia’s universities seems to be on the decline.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia Passes China to Become Top Source of Cyber-Attack Traffic
The unexpected surge in cyber-attacks coming from Indonesia earlier this year wasn’t a fluke. The country has overtaken China to become the No. 1 source of attack traffic in the world, according to a report by Akamai Technologies to be published later today.
Indonesia accounted for 38 percent of hacking-related traffic on servers Akamai monitored in the second quarter, up from 21 percent at the beginning of the year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mexican Cholera Outbreak Spreads, Preventive Campaign Launched
A cholera outbreak in central Mexico has risen to 159 confirmed cases and spread to four states as well as the capital, the country’s health minister said on Monday. One death has been attributed to the outbreak, the ministry said as it launched a nationwide public health campaign aimed at preventing further infections.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU ‘Mentors’ Helping Libya Stop Unwanted Migrants
BRUSSELS — The EU is building up a team of heavily-guarded men to help Libya stop unwanted migrants and to collect intelligence.
The operation, Eubam Libya, currently boils down to 40-or-so EU countries’ experts and EU officials.
Led by a Finnish customs chief, they began to arrive in April and they are living and working at the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli — the same spot where gunmen briefly kidnapped the Libyan PM last week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Valls Under Attack Over Roma Teen Deportation
Kosovar schoolgirl detained while on school trip
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 16 — Following a public outcry, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls has ordered an investigation into the controversial October 9 expulsion of a Kosovo schoolgirl that has put him at odds with his fellow Socialists.
The teenager, a Kosovar of Roma origin identified as 15-year-old Leonarda, was arrested during a school trip in the Doubs region in eastern France, sparking outrage among the students.
Authorities put her on a plane to Kosovo along with her parents and her five siblings on the very same day.
Online Mediapart journal reported the incident, which was denounced by activists from the Education Without Borders Network.
Socialists said they were “shocked” by the treatment the schoolgirl was subjected to.
“We must shed light before commenting. There are diverging accounts of what actually happened”, said President Francois Hollande’s spokesperson Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.
“No one must doubt for a single moment that the rule of law is being applied with intelligence, discernment and humanity”, Valls responded to critics.
Socialist Party Secretary General Harlem Desir has called for Leonarda to be allowed to “come back to school”. Extreme-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon has called for Valls to resign, saying he “is not worthy of the Republic”. Centrist leader Jean-Louis Borloo (Union of Independent Democrats — UDI) was the sole voice in favor of the expulsion.
“It was all legal and the police did their job”, Borloo told BFM TV.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Plans Immigration Push After Fiscal Crisis Ends
(Reuters) — President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that stalled immigration reform would be a top priority once the fiscal crisis has been resolved. “Once that’s done, you know, the day after, I’m going to be pushing to say, call a vote on immigration reform,” he told the Los Angeles affiliate of Spanish-language television network Univision.
Obama, who won re-election with overwhelming Hispanic backing, had hoped to make reforms easing the plight of the 11 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘One in Five Marriages a Sham’
Around 20% of weddings in urban areas are bogus, it is claimed, as figures show the number of reported cases stands at 1,800.
But Mr Rimmer said the number of sham marriages — which were likely an attempt to gain residence in the UK — reported to the authorities was “the tip of the iceberg” and that official figures are a “drop in the ocean” compared with the full scale of the problem.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sicily Declares Emergency Over Migrants
Sicily has declared a state of emergency because of the large numbers of migrants arriving to Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. More drones, warships and helicopters were Tuesday deployed to patrol the coasts. Some 32,000 asylum seekers have landed in Italy and Malta so far this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Syrians Stage Sit-in In Front of Cabinet for Asylum
Asking to be transferred to Spain
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 16 — Some 30 Syrian refugees including a woman in the eight month of pregnancy with a one-year-old daughter, have been staging a sit-in in front of the government of Ceuta — a Spanish enclave in Morocco — to ask for political asylum and to be transferred to the Spanish peninsula. The group was housed at the local migrant holding center while Spanish authorities are examining their application for asylum, a process which could take months.
The refugees, who are members of three families, ask for priority: they left their war-torn country in November 2012 and travelled across 5,000 km in 10 months. ‘We are only asking to be moved to the peninsula because we can’t live like this’, one of them, Kheder, 22, told Spanish daily El Pais.
‘Our situation is desperate and we only want to go back to work, start a new life which stopped when we left Syria’, he added.
Kheder lost a grandfather in the war while his parents and brothers are in Milan where he hopes eventually to join them and work as a builder. The young man left Syria after refusing to join the army again.
‘We are happy to be alive and to have fled the war but Ceuta is for us like a jail we can’t leave’, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
First Gay French-Moroccan Marriage Blocked
Gay marriage not allowed with citizens from 11 countries
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, OCTOBER 16 — The public prosecutor in the town of Chambery has blocked the first gay French-Moroccan marriage, after a local court on October 11 ruled that 55-year-old mechanic Dominique and Mohammed, a young Moroccan student, could go ahead and get married. Their lawyer Didier Besson, who hopes to break new juridical ground by challenging the current law of the land and who is much in demand among gay couples of mixed citizenship, has already filed an appeal in Chambery.
France legalized gay marriage in May, but added that due to bilateral conventions French citizens can’t marry same-sex citizens from 11 countries: Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Kosovo, Laos, Montenegro, Morocco, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia, and Tunisia. Gay rights groups immediately challenged what they said was a discriminatory law, calling on the justice ministry to make a “rapid and political response”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Milky Way’s Tiny Satellite Galaxies May Help Solve Dark Matter Mystery
Hubble observations of the smallest galaxies known help explain why so few of them exist
As galaxies go, these are a bunch of wimps. The so-called ultrafaint dwarfs are like ghost galaxies—tiny wisps against the sky that were first discovered less than a decade ago. Now about a dozen have been found that orbit our Milky Way galaxy, and they’re helping to solve an astronomical riddle.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“World-Class Universities Leave Russia Behind”. Well, I still remember one rating, years ago, that reported how Russia was inferior to Bourkina-Fasso in every way that matters.
The Moscow Times is an English-language daily newspaper published in Moscow, Russia since 1992. It is owned by a Finland-based private company controlled by the International Herald Tribune. More headlines from the same issue:
– Russia’s Poor Rating on the Global Slavery Index
– WEF Gives Russian Human Capital Mediocre Grade
– The Militarization of the Arctic
– Soviet Psychiatry Returns
– The Dirty Truth About Russia’s ‘Dirty’ Money
– Putin’s War on Greenpeace
According to the Moscow Times, Russia is the land of Bad News.
The only person who cared to post a comment under the article calls herself larussophobe.
Then some people will go around telling us that freedom of speech in Russia doesn’t exist.