The Standard & Poor rating agency has downgraded French debt to AA, delivering a blow against President François Hollande. Mr. Hollande’s approval rating has hit a record low, while anti-tax demonstrators blame the Socialist government for the current mess.
In other news, the so-called “P5+1” talks with Iran broke off without reaching any agreement on a deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, 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.
74% Want to Audit the Federal Reserve
Americans still overwhelmingly favor a public audit of the Federal Reserve, perhaps in part because a sizable number think the Fed chairman has too much power over the economy.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 74% of American Adults favor auditing the Federal Reserve and making the results available to the public. Just 10% oppose such an audit, but 16% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Credit Rating at ‘AA’ After New S&P Downgrade
Standard & Poor’s agency downgraded France’s credit rating by one notch to “AA” with a stable outlook on Friday, dealing a fresh blow to French President François Hollande’s Socialist-led government as it struggles to turn the economy around.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Seeks $864 Million From BofA After Fraud Verdict
(Reuters) — The U.S. government urged that Bank of America Corp pay $863.6 million in damages after a federal jury found it liable for fraud over defective mortgages sold by its Countrywide unit.
The government said the penalties were necessary to punish the bank and Mairone “and to send a clear and unambiguous message that mortgage fraud for profit will not be tolerated.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Americans Deserve Real Obama Apology Tour
While the President is obviously comfortable issuing questionable apologies in foreign countries, he has been reluctant to express contrition to the American people, who actually are the only ones deserving of an apology.
The President should have apologized for the lies about “shovel ready” stimulus jobs, the gun running Fast and Furious operation, the Solyndra scandal, and the Benghazi terror attack cover-up. Not surprisingly, this arrogant President never expressed remorse for these mistakes, always blaming others. However, in the case of ObamaCare, it is impossible for President Obama to hide.
There are at least 29 different occasions, in speeches and interviews, in which President Obama made false promises about his cherished healthcare program, ObamaCare.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Gun Politician Wants 6 Bodyguards When He Leaves Office
Outgoing Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly wants to take half a dozen detectives to protect him and his family after he leaves the NYPD, DNAinfo New York has learned.
Citing the fact that he will remain a “high profile target” after he leaves office, Kelly informed insiders at Police Headquarters that he will request the contingent of detectives — each will remain on the city payroll making about $120,000 a year — to shepherd him around town and protect him and his family during their travels, sources told “On the Inside.”
Meanwhile, over at City Hall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided to take virtually his entire contingent of officers with him — about 17.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Armed Family Frees Abducted Woman From Violent Kidnapper
After police efforts were fruitless, the family of a kidnapped woman demonstrated why the Second Amendment is important when they took matters into their own hands last Friday. They confronted the abductor at his hideout and killed him, rescuing the victim.
A tipoff to her whereabouts sparked the search for 29-year-old Bethany Arcenaux in an abandoned house in Duson, Louisiana yesterday morning. She was suspected to have been abducted earlier in the week by 29-year-old Scott Thomas, the father of her 2-year-old son.
“We found her. We went and got her in that house. We kicked doors down. It was like a movie unfolding,” Bethany’s brother Ryan Arceneaux described to reporters. He was one of a group of about six family members that ascended on the house. “If we would have waited, she would have been dead.”
Family members described hearing screaming when they entered the home. Inside they found Bethany, “bloodied and repeatedly stabbed,” reports The Advertiser. Initial reports say Thomas was “harming her” when the family confronted him and exchanged fire, killing him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Critics Denounce Roboroach Device, Which Uses a Smartphone App the Control Cockroaches
The developers of a new electronic device that fits onto cockroaches, allowing their movements to be controlled by a mobile phone app, have been criticised for animal cruelty. Critics said that it could encourage people to think of animals as “mere machines or tools” but Michigan-based Backyard Brains have defended RoboRoach.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-CIA Chief: ‘Snowden is a Traitor’
Former head of central intelligence James Woolsey tells DW the US would never sign a binding no-spy pact. He also doesn’t recall, but can’t exclude, that phones of Chancellor Kohl were monitored during his tenure.
I’ll be blunt. I think Snowden is a traitor. I think he has gotten and will get a number of people killed by the disclosure that he is making either through the Russians, through the Chinese, through his journalistic companions or through any hearings by the German government in Russia. I think it’s a big intelligence loss and trying to make it worse by disclosing more and more I would say is a very unfriendly act.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Grand Theft Obama: The Biggest Heist in U.S. History
Our nation is being stolen before our very eyes. The American people are being robbed of their livelihoods, their security and their freedom. President Obama makes grand sweeping gestures and delivers soaring rhetoric about helping the poor and achieving fairness. But he merely draws our attention away from the hand that is reaching deep into our pockets. Such is the nature of his extremist legislative agenda. Call it Grand Theft Obama, but it is no video game; this is for real.
And it is not merely monetary theft, as is apparent from Obamacare. America is being fundamentally transformed, as Obama promised. This is one promise that he clearly intends to keep, no matter how many people lose their health insurance policies, their jobs, or their productive futures.
Even the liberal media have been forced to acknowledge President Obama’s lies regarding the Affordable Care Act, especially the whopper about being able to keep your own health insurance policy.
Consider what we have learned so far as the lies are being exposed:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
We’ve become a nation governed by dictators in our state capitals and in DC. My mind rolls back to a quote from a movie: “The Patriot.” Mel Gibon’s character wasn’t ready to go to war with the King of England and he defended his stance to those leading and debating revolution: Why should I trade ONE tyrant 3,000 miles away for 3,000 tyrants ONE mile away? An elected legislature can trample a man’s rights as easily as a king can!” Our elected officials have lost their way. Many no longer believe in the hearts of our Founding Fathers; many believe the US Constitution is old and outdated. Our elected officials are shoving “National Healthcare” down the throats of the American people yet exempt themselves as well as other government bureaucrats from this “tax” — “law” — “bill” that is so wonderful for our nation! When elected officials do not believe they should abide by the same rules, regulations and laws of the people, they are all tyrants, just as stated in “The Patriot.” Elected legislators have and continue to trample on our rights. So again, what is the problem and how can America repair her faults?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kelleigh Nelson: The Humane Society of the United States and UN Agenda 21
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and UN Agenda 21 are working together to destroy not only America’s agricultural industries, but also the ownership of our pets.
How do you destroy agriculture, including the pet industry, in America?
Answer: Regulate them out of business:
- Raise the cost of growing our food and breeding animals.
- Which reduces the total production and availability of food and animals.
- Thereby, weakening the economic structure of agribusiness and the pet industry.
And, while this sounds like fiction, it is very real and happening throughout America courtesy of the United Nations action plan called, Agenda 21. [Link], [Link]
Below is a map from The Calvary Group showing the connections between UN Agenda 21, HSUS, and the purposeful destruction of the agricultural and pet industries in the United States…
One of the biggest scams in US history is conning people into believing their donated funds are being used/invested as intended and advertised. The marketing campaign by the HSUS is no different. Less than 1% of the $130 million yearly budget from donations, which good people send to HSUS in order to save abandoned animals, goes to local pet shelters to save these animals. Instead the HSUS has socked away more than $17 million dollars in its own pension fund. CEO, Wayne Pacelle, and HSUS are now spending these monies for their defense in court over a racketeering lawsuit. [Link], [Link] Well paid lawyers, lobbyists, and the HSUS pension fund are all supported by donations intended for shelter animals which never reach the animals.
Former UN Secretary General Maurice Strong called on the United Nations to “cause the collapse of America.” Maurice Strong is a board member of the HSUS and founder of “Agenda 21.“ You can buy the forty chapter book sold by the UN, laying out the proposed policies for their agenda for the 21st century, which is designed to achieve Maurice Strong’s goal to “cause the collapse of America.”…
There is an outright effort by both HSUS and the UN to make all of the animal cruelty laws felonies. Remember, the UN Agenda 21 supporters within our government know the majority of rural Americans are gun owners. Ranchers and farmers need to own firearms to protect their animals and property. They make up a large percentage of America’s animal owners used for agricultural purposes. If the animal right extremists of the HSUS can successfully make all animal cruelty laws felonies, then rural people convicted of animal cruelty by protecting their domesticated and ranch animals from wolves, bears, mountain lions, or by raising stock for market, etc., they will then become felons. Felons cannot own firearms. The Federal Government would then be allowed to deprive rural Americans of their constitutional rights to own, possess, and harvest their livestock, as well as depriving them of their right to keep and bear arms.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Las Vegas Installs “Intellistreets” Light Fixtures Capable of Recording Conversations
The Las Vegas Public Works Department has begun testing a newly installed street light system around City Hall with wide-ranging capabilities including audio and video recording.
According to the Michigan based “Illuminating Concepts,” the system’s main benefits include “energy management, security and entertainment.” The Las Vegas setup includes such features as emergency notification flashers, playable music and a sound announcement system, all controlled from an Ipad.
“Actually, there’s a server that’s housed by the company that’s providing this product and we’re communicating with just a wireless, wi-fi connection,” Neil Rohleder of the Public Works Department told My News 3.
The company’s lights, which also offer a “Homeland Security” feature, received major backlash in 2011 following reports of the system’s federally-funded roll out across the country. The feature allows for emergency government announcements which will likely include such slogans as “See Something, Say Something” as well as other irrationally fear-based messages already seen in Wal Mart’s DHS-run “telescreens.”
Local privacy advocate Daphne Lee has begun speaking out against the system, pointing to the ever-increasing surveillance dragnet cast over everyday innocent Americans.
“This technology, you know is taking us to a place where, you know, you’ll essentially be monitored from the moment you leave your home till the moment you get home,” said Lee.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Lice Reveal Clues to Human Evolution
Clues to human evolution generally come from fossils left by ancestors and the molecular trail encoded in the human genome as it is tweaked over generations. However, some researchers are looking to another source: the bloodsucking louse.
Lice have been closely associated with humans for millennia; in spite of human attempts to get rid of the parasites, their persistence has made them a potential reservoir of information for those who want to know more about human evolution and history, said David Reed, associate curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Threatens GOP With Executive Orders on ‘Drawer Full’ Of Ideas
President Obama on Friday night continued throwing his entire second-term agenda against the wall to see what sticks, challenging Republicans to join him and support more federal spending, pass immigration reform and tackle other challenges. But should the GOP stand in the way, the president indicated he’s willing to use executive orders to accomplish his aims.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obamacare’s Biggest Failure So Far: Just 18% of Uninsured Have Expressed an Interest in Enrolling
When one steps back from all the frustration, all the confusion, all the failures both in the rollout and the mass behavioral experimentation, and the fact that the math just doesn’t work, the primary stated purpose behind Obamacare was simple: to provide uniform, affordable (the A in ACA) healthcare for all Americans. But especially to those who are currently uninsured. At least such was the utopian, egalitarian vision behind its conception. Which is also why, stripping away the political posturing, the html coding errors, the funding issues, the biggest failing of Obamacare would be if it opened, and none of America’s uninsured came. Sadly, this last nail in Obamacare’s coffin, has just been confirmed with a just released Gallup poll which found that a tiny 18% of uninsured Americans — the primary target population for the exchanges — have so far attempted to even visit an exchange website.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Admitted 8 to 9 Million Would Lose Coverage in Video From 2010
President Barack Obama admitted in 2010 that 8 or 9 million Americans would lose their existing health insurance plans under Obamacare.
“The 8 to 9 million people that you refer to that might have to change their coverage — keep in mind out of the 300 million Americans that we’re talking about — would be folks who the CBO, Congressional Budget Office, estimates would find the deal in the exchange better,” Obama said to Rep. Eric Cantor at a February 25, 2010 White House summit on health insurance regulation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Paul Krugman: Death Panels Will be Necessary
The Keynesian economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said back in February that in order for the collectivist welfare state to run smoothly higher taxes and death panels will be mandatory.
Krugman made his comment at a time when the existence of death panels were steadfastly denied by Democrats and before Obamacare was brought to its knees by the pathological ineffectiveness of the state.
Sarah Palin and others were duly roasted for even suggesting that a communist-style system — where some individuals are sacrificed for the greater good of the collective — would comprise the essence of Obamacare.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Reid: ‘Get Over it. It’s the Law. It’s the Legacy of Barack Obama and Always Will Be’
Does Reid’s world extend at all beyond the the political dynamics of Washington D.C.? Having typed out the question and looked at it on the screen, I realize it’s absurd on its face, because of course it doesn’t. Reid doesn’t care about you, your insurance, your health care or the opportunity to save the life of a single child. He has agendas to pursue and political power to consolidate, and unless you can be helpful to him in any of that, screw you.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Steve Goreham — the Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism — Hour 1 Audio
Steve Goreham is Executive Director of the Climate Science Coalition of America, an independent, non-political association of scientists, engineers, and concerned citizens dedicated to informing the American people about the realities of climate science. Steve is author of the new book: The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania, now with over 100,000 copies in print. He is also a speaker on the environment and energy, and a former engineer and business executive. We’ll discuss The Mad Mad Mad World of Climatism as Steve breaks down the greenhouse effect. Then, we discuss the notion of man-made global warming. Steve tells us the reality of what percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere is actually man-made. He also explains how the world jumped to conclusions of man-made global warming. We talk about the media, politics and money involved in propagating this lie. Later, we hear about what lifestyle changes we are asked to make by climatists to “save the planet,” as various groups are using man-made global warming as a means to an end.
In the member’s hour, we’ll discuss UN goals surrounding man-made global warming such as global governance, population control, equalizing wealth and limiting production and consumption. We’ll discuss how cap and trade, government regulations, tarrifs and govn’t subsidies are part of a system great for fraud and controlling what industry succeeds. Later, we compare the benefits and costs of traditional energy vs. renewable energy sources. We also address the issues of pollution and scarcity of natural resources. Steve comments on what he asserts are misbeliefs about fracking.
[Comment: First hour of the radio program is free.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Last Word on the Cuccinelli Race
Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe edged out Republican Ken Cuccinelli by two points. Liberals have portrayed the outcome as heralding the death of the Tea Party, while conservatives have, among other things, blamed the GOP establishment for failing to provide the financial backing that could have put Cuccinelli over the top. But the truth?
The Virginia race bodes well for the Tea Party in 2014.
One problem with most of the analysis involves a common human failing: people want simple, one-dimensional explanations and don’t truly wrap their minds around the fact that an outcome can reflect multiple factors. So we hear that Cuccinelli’s loss was due to establishment GOP neglect or even hostility, or media bias or poor Republican tactics or vote fraud or Fluke-foolish young women or Robert Sarvis the libertarian vote siphoner.
Replace every “or” with an “and” and you have close to a complete explanation.
Having said this, I’d like to focus on Sarvis and his seven-percent vote share. As you probably know by now, it has been revealed that an Obama bundler was helping to finance the Sarvis campaign in order to split the conservative vote.
And it likely worked.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF) “Senate Update” quotes one of Kentucky’s two largest newspapers, the Lexington Herald-Leader, which recently reported that “U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republican Leader in the Senate, has decided to declare “war” on the conservatives who disagree with him.”
Is it any wonder that Obama has lately had a smile constantly on his face despite all the negative press and disappointing news from his ObamaCare sources? Sen. McConnell (no connection with this author) has made liberal Democrats joyous at the feud between conservatives in the party and RINO-liberal sympathizers, during the recent and all upcoming election cycles nationwide.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
At Toronto Fundraiser, Justin Trudeau Seemingly Admires China’s ‘Basic Dictatorship’
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau is facing criticism for confiding an apparent admiration for China’s dictatorial tendencies during a “ladies-night” themed fundraiser held in Toronto on Thursday.
During the event, which itself was widely criticized for sexist and patronizing undertones, an audience member asked Mr. Trudeau which nation’s “administration he most admired.”
The party leader responded: “There is a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say we need to go green, we need to start, you know, investing in solar. There is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about: having a dictatorship where you can do whatever you wanted, that I find quite interesting.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Tax Revolt Spreads in France
French riot police fired tear gas at hundreds of anti-tax demonstrators in northwest France on Saturday after protesters pelted them and tried to drive a tractor through a barricade, an AFP photographer said.
One demonstrator was arrested in Jugon-les-Lacs, a commune in the Cotes-d’Armor region where some 700 people had gathered earlier in the day.
A security camera was torched and some protesters pelted police, who responded with tear gas.
Demonstrators chanted slogans against France’s Socialist government, which earlier this month suspended the application of the so-called ecotax.
“People struggle to pay their bills at the end of the month, and now we’re going to ecotax them,” said one protester, pretending to strangle himself.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
British MP’s, Lords Demand That British Government Apologize for Balfour Declaration
This appalling display of “Palestinian” victimhood propaganda by Islamic supremacist and Leftist politicians ignores the manifest fact that there never was a state of “Palestine” at any time in history, or a “Palestinian” people until the 1960s, until a certain segment of Levantine Arabs were so designated for political purposes, to create a people even tinier than the people of the State of Israel, so as to offset the public sympathy for the underdog Israel surrounded by giant and hostile Arab Muslim states.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cemetery for Unborn Babies Proposed by Northern Italian Town
Mayor in Cassola calls for return to Christian values
(ANSA) — Vicenza, November 7 — A community near Vicenza in northeastern Italy is planning to establish a cemetery for stillborn babies.
The cemetery space near Cassola is designed for fetuses under 28 weeks and offers a “registration of unborn babies”. The idea came from mayor Silvia Pasinato who wanted to see “a return…of those ethical and moral values that are part of our culture and our tradition of Christian life”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
E.U. Watchdog Assails Irregularities in Spending
By Andrew Higgins
BRUSSELS — In a further blow to the image of the European Union, the 28-nation bloc’s audit agency reported Tuesday that irregularities in spending rose sharply last year with more than 6 billion euros disbursed in violation of the rules.
The European Court of Auditors, an independent E.U. agency that checks whether budget money has been spent and accounted for properly, said that the so-called “error rate” in spending rose last year to 4.8 percent from 3.9 percent, the third successive annual increase.
The latest increase signaled a 23 percent jump in improper spending at a time of sharp budget cuts in individual countries and rising public doubts across the continent about the benefits of European integration.
“Our report sends an important message,” said Vítor Caldeira, the audit agency’s president. “The European Union financial management is still not good enough and could be improved.”
The Court of Auditors signed off on the accuracy of the European Union’s accounts for spending last year of €138.6 billion, or $186 billion, but said it “does not give assurance that these payments were legal and regular.”
Pawel Swidlicki, a researcher at Open Europe, a British policy research group critical of what it views as wasteful spending by the European Union, described the audit as “a depressing annual tradition” in which the spending watchdog signs off on the previous year’s budget accounts but points out a host of possible legal and other problems.
| [Return to headlines] |
European Satellite is Falling From Space, But Where Will it Hit?
A European gravity-mapping satellite is expected to fall out of space in a few days, though no one knows exactly where its surviving fragments will land. The fate of European Space Agency’s falling GOCE satellite was sealed in October, when the spacecraft ran out of the fuel needed to keep it aloft in a very low orbit above Earth.
Now that the satellite’s mission is over, its handlers at the European Space Agency (ESA) are closely tracking its ever-descending orbit to determine where it might fall.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Paris Restaurants Usher Ugly Customers to Back Tables
Two upscale restaurants in Paris reserve their best tables for attractive customers and assign people who are considered ugly to corner tables where they will be less visible, a French daily has revealed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Peace Pledge Union, which distributes controversial white poppies, was given the grant — but the lottery fund refused to assist a £92,200 scheme to help children seed millions of poppies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Twilight for Golden Dawn?
The neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn won its first seats in parliament in Greece’s 2012 elections. From xenophobic speeches to attacks on immigrants, spurred on by the financial crisis, its militants would go to any lengths to impose their ideology. But on September 17th, the murder of the far-left rapper Pavlos Fissas by a Golden Dawn sympathiser caused unanimous indignation.
Party leaders were charged with belonging to a criminal organisation and state funding for the party was removed. But will this stop Golden Dawn? Our reporter went to Athens to investigate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hunt for Serial Killer After Skeletal Remains of 4 People Found Off French Coast
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The bones were found in the shallow waters off the Cotes d’Azur. DNA tests showed that a humerus belonged to Stéphane Hirson, (pictured) who disappeared in 1993 aged 17.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In Athens, Boldrini Launches Cooperation for a New Europe
House speaker proposes EU-Med parliamentary conference in Rome
(by Furio Morroni) (ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 8 — In Greece on a two-day mission, Italian Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini last night proposed holding a conference of European and southern Mediterranean MPs in Rome next spring.
Greece and Italy have “a common interest in relaunching a new idea of Europe, one based on growth, creating jobs for youth, welfare, and rights”, Boldrini told reporters at a news briefing.
She spoke after meeting with Greek Premier Antonis Samaras, Hellenic Parliament Speaker Evangelos Meimarakis, and the nation’s president, Karolos Papoulias.
During her trip Boldrini will also meet with immigrants’ and children’s rights NGOs ahead of Greece and Italy’s duty EU presidencies in 2014.
“Italy and Greece have many points in common: both countries have wide-coalition governments, both face a difficult economic crisis and both are border nations”, Boldrini said. “On the eve of both our EU presidencies, I thought it important to understand the points of convergence on which we can boost parliamentary cooperation”.
Parliaments “are elected by citizens and have the duty to reinforce a European vision that can be other and more than fiscal rigor, austerity and balanced budgets”, Boldrini went on. “They also have a duty to put forward a Europe that places the social aspect at the top of the agenda”.
Now is the time to combat growing public disenchantment with the EU, which is “perceived as an evil stepmother, capable only of inflicting punitive measures”.
This has led to “dangerous waves of populism” that are making inroads in many European countries “via parties and elements that blow on the fires of intolerance, proposing untenable nationalistic and autarchic measures”, Boldrini warned.
Accompanied by Italian Ambassador Claudio Glaentzer, the House speaker also visited the Doctors of the World headquarters in Athens, where NGO workers updated her on the critical situation of health care in a country now its fifth year of recession.
Boldrini’s mission continues with meetings with Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Evanghelos Venizelos, with the leader of the main opposition party, the radical leftist Syriza coalition, and with Syriza deputy chief Yannis Dragasakis, who is also the deputy speaker of Parliament.
Before returning to Rome, Boldrini is due to visit Children’s Smile, You Smile and Children’s House NGOs.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Ed Minister Tells Profs to Retire After 70
‘Those who don’t offend their university, the young’
(ANSA) — Rome, November 8 — Italian Education Minister Maria Chiara Carrozza on Friday urged local university professors to retire after 70, making way for younger teachers. “At 70 university professors should retire, and would want to do it if they were generous and honest, and go ahead with offering free seminars, mentoring students or donating their personal libraries to universities,” Carrozza said in an interview with Radio 24, which is slated to air Saturday.
The minister went on to say that those who insist on remaining in a professorship role past 70 “offend their university and offend the young”.
“At a time of sacrifice for all, there is even more reason for those who are over 70 to make a sacrifice, given that they have received so much from this world”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Union Hands Out ‘Hitler Animal Prize’
An Italian trade union’s ‘Hitler Prize’ for the “person who has distinguished themselves in their work with animals” is a disturbing sign of “creeping Nazism” in the country, Italy’s only female rabbi has told The Local.
The Hitler Prize will be awarded on November 24th “for the personality who has particularly distinguished themselves in their work with animals over the past year”, according to a statement on the Feder Fauna website.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Museum of Musical Instruments Torched by Arsonists
Reggio Calabria space housed 800 objects from around globe
(ANSA) — Reggio Calabria, November 4 — Arsonists burned down the Museum of Musical Instruments in the southern city of Reggio Calabria, police said Monday. Investigators say fire was set to several instruments in particular before spreading to the rest of the building. Founded 17 years ago, the museum had amassed 800 objects from around the world. Police were looking for suspects.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: NGO StopVeilsShoutLiberty to Fight Violence Against Women
Inter-ethnic team to beat racism and religious fundamentalism
(ANSAmed) — ROME — A new inter-ethnic and inter-confessional non-profit organization has been created with the aim of fighting racism, violence in general and against women in particular, stalking in Italy and abroad.
‘StopVeilsShoutLiberty’ is, its young promoters said, aimed at ‘filling voids by overcoming discrimination — reading, talking, acting in a concrete manner so new laws are approved’.
The new NGO’s team includes two Italians and two young women born to immigrant parents to show, they said, ‘that before preaching, the team is acting well and setting a good example’.
Members are Ebla Ahmed, an English-Italian-Yemeni attorney, who will be president and previously worked for Yallah Italia and Frontiere News and wrote e-book ‘L’amore ai tempi di Bin Laden’, love in the times of Bin Laden; Diana Said, an Italian-Egyptian law student; Alessio Sacco, who will act as secretary and is a young entrepreneur from northern Italy; Anita Madaluni, a journalist and international PR who will be the organization’s vice-president.
SVSL is opposed to ‘criminal acts made in the name of religion as a gratuitous and vile excuse’.
‘People are not fundamentalists because they are Muslim, just as they are not members of the Mafia because they are Italian or dirty because they are black’, said Ebla Ahmed.
The NGO’s official presentation will take place in Milan, at the headquarters of the regional government, on November 21 at 11 am.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pisa University to ‘Rebuild’ Avicenna’s Metaphysics
Fundamental text in Arab culture republished for first time
(By Elisa Cecchi) (ANSAmed) — Pisa, November 1 — For the first time, a fundamental text by one of the most important philosophers in history, ‘Metaphysics’ by Avicenna, will be republished by top Italian university Scuola Normale di Pisa and become accessible to scholars and the public at large.
One of the greatest thinkers in the history of Islamic philosophy, Avicenna wrote some 450 works of which 240 on philosophy and medicine have survived.
Avicenna — the Latinized name for Ibn Sina — was of Persian extraction but wrote in Arabic. The European Research Council has funded with over 1.1 million euros a project supervised by Amos Bertolacci, a professor of Islamic philosophy.
Bertolacci will work with a team of 10 researchers in the next five years to try and fill the gap in the bibliography of the most famous philosopher in Islamic culture who lived at the turn of the first millennium.
Up until today, no complete and trustworthy edition has been published of Aviecenna’s Ilahiyyat, his most important work on metaphysics and a turning point in the history of philosophy until modern age.
The project means to replace existing versions so far published, considered partly incomplete or flawed, with a trustworthy edition with an English translation, comment and lexicons.
As a text representing a crossroads for the Greek, Arab, Latin and Jewish culture, as well as Islam, Christianity and Judaism and different intellectual approaches — philosophy, theology and sciences — Avicenna’s work is key to understanding the complex nature of Medieval thought and to providing a contemporary positive example for inter-cultural and multi-faith dialogue in a number of disciplines.
Born close to Bukhara, in today’s Uzbekistan, Avicenna was a leading thinker of eastern Islam — a philosopher, political advisor and doctor whose Book of Healing was a standard medical text in the Middle Ages.
His complex body of work inspired by Greek culture and Islamic faith has contributed to his longstanding charisma and leading influence in the Arab and Western world across the centuries.
His ‘Metaphysics’, translated into Latin in the 12th century, was, along with Aristotle’s work, the most influential reference point for Scholastic theologians which contributed to momentous choices in Western philosophy.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Mafias Make Over 10 Bn Euros a Year’
Camorra turns over more than ‘Ndrangheta
(ANSA) — Palermo, November 8 — Italy’s mafias have an annual turnover of 10.6 billion euros or 0.7% of Italian GDP, Milan University expert Ernesto Savona told a conference in Palermo Friday.
The Neapolitan Camorra accounted for 35% of this and the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta 32%, Savona said.
This contrasted with other recent surveys saying ‘Ndrangheta is the richest because of its control of the European cocaine trade.
Drug trafficking and extortion were the main sources of mafia revenue, Savona said.
The four mafias — the other two are Cosa Nostra in Sicily and Puglia’s Sacra Corona Unita — invested their money in several main sectors: the wholesale and retail trade (29.4%); construction (28.8%); hotels and restaurants (10;5%); real estate, leasing and IT (9%); and farming, hunting and fishing (6.5%).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 325 Mn Euros in Assets Seized From Olive-Oil Producer
Vincenzo Oliveri on trial for fraud
(ANSA) — Reggio Calabria, November 7 — Police in Reggio Calabria seized a whopping 325 million euros in assets Thursday from an olive-oil producer. Vincenzo Oliveri, 59, was arrested in 2010 with his brother for fraud and is currently on trial. The seized assets include 18 businesses, 52 accounts, and 39 properties, ranging from hotels to restaurants spanning the length of the country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Extreme Right-Wing on the Rise
Italy’s right-wing extremism is deeply ingrained within civil society. Supporters are not only found in neo-Nazi groups but also in conservative clusters of the population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Klaus Bernpaintner — A Swedish Lesson in Conformity & Control — Hour 1 Audio
Klaus Bernpaintner is a Senior Fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Sweden, an entrepreneur and a former financial analyst. He earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, USA, and an MSc from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. He joins us to discuss modern problems created by government. He shares how true economics is the strongest proof against government. We’ll focus on Swedish politics, economics and collectivist “solutions” as the Nordic model is being praised and promoted to the United States. Klaus dismantles the common misbelief that Swedish citizens get “free stuff.” Since Sweden has the most centralized government in the world with the 2nd highest tax rate burden in the world, we investigate into the supposed claim that Sweden is the “happiest country in the world” and look into the results of socialist ideology.
We also discuss fake privatization of businesses and how government regulation creates corruption, yet the people wrongfully blame free market capitalism. In the second hour, we discuss what creates the narrow bandwidth of perspective in a society like Sweden. We discuss how centralized government operates to shape and control behavior of the masses. Klaus explains how “family policy” is being used to control the choices families make. In a collectivist society, the inhabitants cannot see the value of taking charge of one’s own destiny. Klaus returns to economic fascism to expose how government creates disastrous effects. He explains why entrepreneurs are leaving Sweden. Later, we critique not only Sweden’s healthcare system but Obamacare. We can predict just how this will end. Although global politics seems to be closing in around us and although we may be in for a bumpy ride, Klaus leaves a positive message about the long term.
[Comment: First hour of the radio program is free.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Multicultural Sweden Explodes in Violence
by Ingrid Carlqvist
In 1975 the Swedish parliament unanimously decided to turn homogenous Sweden into a multicultural society. Thirty-eight years on the dramatic consequences have become apparent. Whereas the population has grown by 16.2 percent, violent crime has gone up by 320 percent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tjeerd Andringa is an associate professor of Sensory Cognition at the ALICE Institute at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He recently wrote a fascinating paper that provides an in-depth analysis of bureaucracy as a psychological phenomenon. The paper also lists key-features and indicators of encroaching government administration that creates virtual iron cages with papers, rules, forms and protocols. Andringa details the driving forces of bureaucracy from the perspective of cognitive science. He explains that the authoritarian’s fear of a complex world is existential, so the technocrat in charge of government or other organizations is quite ruthless in the efforts to simplify the working environment(the real world), in order to try to understand it better. He says that fear is at the root of the problem.
In the second hour, we discuss further how bureaucracy applies to both conspiracies and geopolitics. We discuss how behavior drives decisions that can be categorized either as authoritarian or libertarian. A clear distinction is made between authoritarians, who favor more bureaucracy vs. libertarians, who favor no bureaucracy at all. Later, Tjeerd says that bureaucracies always arise under authoritarian control. Authoritarians crave a clear chain of command. He explains that the system becomes dysfunctional when you have intelligence without understanding.
[Comment: First hour of the radio program is free.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Scuola Normale University Expands With Foreign Goals
Pisa college merges with Florence SUM for post-graduate courses
(ANSA) — Pisa, November 4 — Italy’s top public university Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa has merged with another academic institution, Florence’s SUM (Italian institute of human sciences) with post-graduate courses in human sciences, to offer a wider range of degrees to students from around the world.
Founded in 1810 by Napoleonic decree as twin institution of Paris’ Ecole Normale Superieure, the prestigious Scuola Normale Superiore based in the Tuscan town has a selected number of Italian students and a growing population of foreign scholars studying at its faculty of sciences, which offers courses in physics, mathematics, biology and chemistry, and faculty of arts with courses in literature, linguistics, history, philosophy, history of art and archaeology.
The new academic centre will be based in two historic palaces — Pisa’s Palazzo della Carovana and Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi.
“This is an exciting and very high-profile project to up the ante of post-graduate courses in strategic sectors like economy, law and other areas”, said Fabio Beltram, director of the Normale university.
“We are investing in interdisciplinarity to launch new professional profiles”, said Beltram.
“Our horizon is international: we mean to compete with the most prestigious universities from around the world” while attracting scholars to Florence “with our traditional strengths”, noted the university director, citing the university’s extremely competitive selection based on merit, a high-profile international academic staff, its limited number of students and free attendance.
University attendance and campus accommodation are free and each course has a limited number of students — graduate courses have no more than 25 to 30 students.
The Normale was the first university in Italy to introduce post-graduate courses in 1927.
Other Italian universities only officially introduced PhD courses in the 1980s.
The university’s alumni include poet Giosue’ Carducci, Enrico Fermi, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938, another physics Nobel laureate, Carlo Rubbia, and ex-presidents of the republic Giovanni Gronchi and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, to cite a few.
Now the Pisa-based school is investing in the new merger, which was announced at the end of October.
The 2013 Academic ranking of world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, commonly known as the Shanghai Ranking, “confirmed the Scuola Normale as first in Europe and among the top five universities in the world in terms of per capita performance taking into account the institution’s dimension”, said Beltram.
The objective “is to obtain the same results with the ‘new’ Scuola Normale”, he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Moves to Give Bullfighting Special Cultural Status
Spanish MPs have voted to consider giving bullfighting special cultural status — a move that could overturn regional bans on the age-old tradition. In a 180-40 vote, the parliament backed a petition signed by 590,000 people.
If the idea becomes law, it may roll back the ban in Spain’s regions of Catalonia and the Canary Islands. It may also provide tax breaks for promoters of bullfighting (corrida). Opponents describe the tradition of killing animals as barbaric.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Trevor Loudon’s the Enemies Within — Review by Noisyroom
In my naive first opinion, communists belong in the past, with dinosaurs, witchcraft and horse manure in the streets. While I was aware of continuing existence of communists in the West (even some with hardcore Stalinist views), their numbers, their seeming impotence and lack of influence allowed my hitherto dismissive outlook on that bunch.
Not anymore. I wouldn’t offer any spoilers, but I have to say that Trevor’s book is a real shocker for anyone who, like I, was ignoring the threat that continues to dig under the foundations of our societies. The book isn’t an easy read, don’t expect to enjoy it (unless you are a communist yourself, of course), but it is a treasure of documented, meticulously researched evidence on the worms in the woodwork. The book will not leave you apathetic. I, as one who is familiar with the results of the plague called “communism”, certainly can’t remain indifferent.
To give you an example of what happens when our guard is lowered, here is one Mr Andy Newman (I have chosen a British example on purpose, to avoid spoilers, there are enough similar cases in US to fill a nice jail). Do you want to watch people like Andy Newman rise to key positions in your country? I have bad news for you: such people may already be there…
In short — go and get this book. Read it, but read it good.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK Spy Chiefs Defend Mass-Snooping on Europeans
The head of UK spy agency GCHQ, Iain Lobban, has said leaks on mass-surveillance have made it harder to catch terrorists. “We’ve seen terrorist groups in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere in south Asia, discussing the revelations in specific terms,” he told a hearing at the British parliament in London on Thursday (7 November).
He said the past five months of global media coverage on leaks by former US spy contractor Edward Snowden have made his job “far, far harder for years to come.”
Lobban, along with the heads of the UK’s internal and foreign intelligence services, MI5 and MI6, was queried for 90 minutes by the parliament’s intelligence oversight committee.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Councillor Could Face a Year in Prison for ‘Buying Pensioners’ Votes With Tea and Cake’
Labour’s Sue Shinnick took tea and cake to a sheltered housing complex before winning her seat in Stifford Clays — and is now accused of breaking electoral law.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
A convicted murderer who tortured a man to death in a row over a bag of chips has been sentenced to life in a woman’s prison after arranging to have a sex change on the NHS.
Paris Green — who was born Peter Laing — was one of three men who brutally attacked Robert Shankland — then munched on ham sandwiches as their victim lay dying.
But Green will now serve her life sentence in Cornton Vale prison for women after Glasgow’s High Court was told she is to receive what was described as ‘gender realignment surgery’ in England.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Officials at HM Revenue & Customs will feed the data into a supercomputer to try to decide whether to investigate homeowners believed to be paying too little.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Van Rompuy Warns Against Rising Nationalism in EU
EU President Herman van Rompuy has defended the bloc’s policy of freedom of movement and warned against growing nationalism on the continent. He also urged member nations to do more for asylum seekers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia to Hold Same-Sex Marriage Ban Referendum
(AGI) Zagreb, Nov 8 — Croatia’s parliament on Friday agreed to a December 1st date concerning the referendum which could result in a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages. A constitutional ban was first discussed after the current centre-left government aired proposals to allow same-sex couples to register as lifetime partners. Croatia’s population is 90 percent Catholic. The schedule was agreed to by an overwhelming parliament majority.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Lawyers Charge Obama With Crimes Against Humanity; Accessory to Muslim Brotherhood Violence
Don’t expect this to make many headlines.
Egyptian lawyers charged Barack Obama with crimes against humanity. The lawyers accused Obama as an accessory of Muslim Brotherhood violence.
Raymond Ibrahim at CBN reported, via Atlas Shrugs:
According to Egyptian newspaper El Watan, a group of Egyptian lawyers has submitted a complaint charging U.S. president Barrack Hussein Obama with crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.
The complaint charges Obama of being an accessory to the Muslim Brotherhood, which incited widespread violence in Egypt both before and after the June 30 revolution.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya ‘Out of Control’, Says Italian FM
But solution must be political, not military
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Italy’s foreign minister, Emma Bonino, said Thursday that Libya was “utterly out of control”, as shown by the recent incidents at ENI gas facilities in the country, which may be shut down as a result.
However, a “political solution” is required and not a military one, she said in speaking to Repubblica TV.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Two Dead in Militia Guerrilla Warfare Last Night
Gunfights and grenade launches, the capital in chaos
(ANSAmed) — ROME/TRIPOLI — Groups of rival militias last night engaged in intense gunfights in the center of the Libyan capital, plunging it into chaos.
At least two persons were killed and dozens were wounded, including a woman, medical sources said. Anti-aircraft rockets and grenades were launched as people abandoned their cars in the middle of downtown streets and fled on foot, eyewitnesses told ANSAmed.
People soon realized that what they initially thought were fireworks were live bullets whizzing by in full-blown “urban guerrilla warfare”, eyewitnesses said.
Gunfire went on past midnight near a district housing the foreign ministry, State TV headquarters, and the Radisson Hotel, which is frequented by foreigners and where French diplomats are currently staying.
Formed during the spring 2011 uprising that toppled the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, the militias are made up of former rebels. Hailed as heroes in 2011, they were subsequently paid by the central government to act as semi-official security forces.
The government, which has since lost control of them, yesterday announced it is suspending militia wages as of January 2014.
Last night’s attack could be a response to the government measure, or it could have been revenge for the death a combatant in a gunfight earlier this week.
A heavily armed group of militias, perhaps from the city of Misrata, entered the capital and attacked the eastern Suq al-Juma district, security sources said.
Militias shouting “God is great” in Arabic sped near the foreign ministry in a Toyota equipped with anti-aircraft weapons, Reuters news agency reported.
Rival militias engaged in protracted gunfights in the same area on the night between Monday and Tuesday, leaving at least one person dead and wounding several more.
Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino told Repubblica TV early on Friday that Libya “is absolutely out of control”. Italian energy giant ENI “is threatening to shut down its (oil) wells, but sending the army in seems like a difficult proposition: a political solution is needed”, Bonino stated.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Sisi Fever’ Makes Its Mark on Random Egyptian Products
Egyptians have longed for a hero to boost national pride, but since the arrival of General Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, some Egyptians seem to have gotten carried away, allowing “Sisi fever” to sweep them off their feet. In addition to Sisi-shirts and posters, Egyptians can now find Sisi-themed chocolate, jewelery, sandwiches and even cooking oil.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Night-Time Taxi Drivers Risk Life for a Few Dinars
Since start of year 600 attacks, nobody found guilty
(by Diego Minuti) (ANSAmed) — TUNIS — Khaled, a 50-year-old taxi driver in Tunis who has spent half his life driving a taxi, says every time he starts a night shift he knows ‘I am putting my life in fate’s hands’.
‘I was attacked three times, hit once and robbed another.
And I know it won’t stop here. A colleague was attacked ten times and continues to work at night because he has to feed his children’.
Though he does not like to work at night, Khaled knows what to expect when he drives his new Korean taxi after selling an old Peugeot.
Taxi drivers are repeatedly attacked at night in Tunis with 600 cases reported since the beginning of the year, one of which was fatal, says Khaled. Nobody has been brought to justice over the cases.
‘It’s all for a few dinars, eight-ten at the most’, the average price of a taxi fare, about five euros, he said. Taxi strivers in Tunis are few and they prefer to wait for clients in the city’s squares or roads, so they are constantly out. The traditional ‘essalemou alaikom’, a hand gesture, is enough to catch one. But everything changes at night, when the welcome usually given at daytime becomes a grunt and the taxi drivers divides his attention between the road and the passenger.
Sometimes a passenger refuses to pay, or is drunk and constantly changes destination. Some pull out a knife or gun and rob the driver.
‘Everything changed after the revolution’, said Khaled, who regrets the dictatorship of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. ‘Back then there was an officer in every road and square, even in highways.
There were road blocks at crossroads, even with soldiers, along the roads from downtown Tunis to the suburbs. Where have all the policemen gone?’ Nobody has been arrested so far, Tunis’ taxi drivers say, while they are risking their lives for a few dinars because they cannot afford to do otherwise.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Arafat: PNA Commission Says Israel is the Sole Suspect
‘PLO chairman did not die of natural causes’
(ANSAmed) — RAMALLAH- A Palestinian National Authority commission of inquiry into the death of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat said on Friday that Israel is probably responsible.
“We believe Israel is the sole suspect in the death of Arafat”, Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfiq al-Tirawi and commission member told reporters at a news briefing.
“What is certain is that the historic leader of the PLO did not die of natural causes. He did not die of an illness, or even of old age”, added commission member Abdullah al-Bashir. Arafat fell into a coma and died on November 11, 2004, at the age of 75 in disputed circumstances after effectively being confined within his Ramallah compound for over two years by the Israeli army. His body was exhumed in November 2012 as French and Swiss experts were joined by a Russian forensic team to determine whether he was poisoned.
The Russian concluded that “there was not enough evidence to support the theory that he was exposed to polonium-210”, while the Swiss “moderately support the theory of radioactive poisoning”, al-Bashir explained.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Launched “Beautiful Palestine” In the West Bank
Youth initiative to promote historic and touristic sites
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS — The European Union and Journalists without Borders (JWB) have launched the youth initiative “Beautiful Palestine” in partnership with young Palestinian journalists and photographers in an effort to discover and promote different historic and touristic sites in the West Bank. In the course of November and December, Palestinian youth will carry out voluntary activities across locations in the Nablus, Bethlehem, Salfit, Tulkarem and Jericho governorates and report on their experiences in an effort to promote domestic tourism. Already at the beginning of November around 100 young Palestinian media students and young journalists visited the Old City of Nablus and joined youth from the local community to repair Qaryoun Square at the heart of the Old City. The group then had a guided tour through Old Nablus, where they visited the Al Badr soap factory — established 800 years ago — and visited one of the landmarks of the old city, the Turkish bath “hammam al-Shefa”. “This initiative is unique as it combines youth voluntary work, media, and promotion of domestic tourism” said EU Representative John Gatt-Rutter. “We are looking forward to visiting the different locations and seeing how young people will document their experiences and find ways to encourage others to visit” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Healthcare: New Italian Mission Leaves for Gaza
Paediatric heart surgeons leave on Nov. 21 to treat kids
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 7 — A new Italian mission including heart surgeons aimed at helping children living in the Territories and the Gaza Strip will leave on November 21 to work at the European Hospital in Gaza.
The mission was announced during a meeting at the Lower House attended by Pierpaolo Vargiu, president of the House’s social affairs commission, Fucsia Nissoli, an MP elected abroad, Francesco Di Marco of Gift of Life Italy-New York, Gian Luigi Gigli, MP and neurologist, and Giancarlo Crupi, heart surgeon at the Giovanni XXIII in Bergamo.
Several international cooperation projects in the past few years have solved healthcare problems in the Territories. ‘This is proven by the results of a project which started in East Jerusalem in 1999 with a team from Italy, the US, New Zeland, Britain, France and Belgium’, organizers said.
Between 2003 and 2012, they recalled, thanks to the paediatric heart surgery programme at the Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, 1,200 children had surgery and the project became totally independent in January this year.
‘These are not singular missions conducted sporadically but projects developed on a multi-annual basis’, said Giancarlo Crupi.
‘The paediatric heart surgery programme at the European Hospital in Gaza last May led to four missions and ours will leave on November 21. The objective is to carry out two missions on an annual basis to guarantee, with missions conducted by other partners, a coverage as constant as possible of local needs’.
Costs are the problem in such a specialised medical sector considering the funds necessary to optimize local resources, provide material and carry out 10 surgeries a week.
In such contexts, said Nissoli, ‘we find that Italian work ethic which honours us and represents the beautiful side of our country in foreign policy. I think the value of cooperation is irreplaceable to solve problems which single states cannot confront and to draw populations and cultures closer with reciprocal respect’.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Infatuation With Berlin
For many young Israelis, Berlin beckons with its free-spirited lifestyle and hot nightlife. While the Holocaust will never be forgotten, the present generation is packing their bags and moving on.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinian Attacker Shot Dead at Israeli Checkpoint
Second fatality in 24 hours; Israeli woman driver fire-bombed
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 8 — Israeli security forces last night shot dead a Palestinian man who tried to attack a soldier with a knife, Israeli police said Friday.
The incident occurred at a checkpoint near Jerusalem, an Israeli police spokesperson said.
Also last night, Israeli security forces in the West Bank killed a Palestinian man who shot a flare at Israelis waiting at a bus stop.
Early on Friday, an Israeli woman and her two small children escaped with slight burns after Palestinians threw a Molotov cocktail at her car as she drove near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Tekoa. The car was destroyed by fire. Local settlers have said they will stage protests.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Reshuffles Operations in Syria
Al Qaeda’s main branch in Syria, the ISIL, will be disbanded but the Nusra Front will continue to operate in the country under the terrorist network’s command, al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a message broadcast Friday by Al Jazeera.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Diaries of Al-Qaida’s Third in Command: US Government Release Notes of Man Who Planned 9/11 Attacks
The US government have released private diaries of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner thought to be third in command in terrorist organisation al-Qaida. Translated journals, belonging to Abu Zubaydah, were made public under a Freedom of Information request by Al Jazeera and give a startling insight into the inner workings of the operation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Did Iran’s Charm Offensive End in Geneva?
The greatly anticipated interim nuclear freeze deal between the P5+1 and Iran collapsed early Sunday (C.E.T.). Thanks to the recognition by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius that Iran’s delegation was engaged in a gigantic “con game” seeking to hold on to enrichment during an alleged six month nuclear freeze. The key to Fabius’ valued stand was the matter of the Arak heavy water reactor with the capability of producing plutonium. Credit French Foreign Minister Fabius for seeing through the charade of Iran’s charm offensive and pulling the plug temporarily on an interim six month nuclear freeze deal. The FDD estimates clearly indicated the extent of extraordinary sanctions relief that Iran would have obtained while not giving up enrichment…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
French Foreign Minister Says Iran Nuclear Talks Failed to Reach Deal
After several days of optimistic reports that negotiations with Iran were on track to produce the first agreement in a decade to freeze its nuclear program, the talks ended early Sunday without an agreement, the French foreign minister said.
The talks hit a snag on Saturday with a French objection that the proposed deal did not do enough to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Even as American diplomats made a final push for an agreement late Saturday, the marathon talks laid bare the challenge of drafting a deal that would satisfy both the Iranians and a group of major powers with their own interests and agendas.
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Israel Says Nuclear Deal With Iran ‘Historical Mistake’
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Saturday that a landmark deal on Iran’s nuclear programme under discussion with world powers is a “historical mistake”.
“An agreement now, in the current conditions, is a historical mistake that will allow the bellicose regime in Tehran to pursue its dangerous nuclear programme and its ambition to spread terror and to undermine regimes in the Middle East and the entire world,” Yaalon said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Solar Energy Project in Beirut
Solar panels to heat water in Armenian quarter
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 6 — A system to heat water using solar energy began operating Wednesday in the Bourj Hammoud center for socio-economic assistance as part of an Italian-funded project. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Lebanese Minister for the Environment Nazim el Khouri and Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Morabito. The Italian Cooperation-funded project will heat 600 litres of water per day. “This initiative,” Morabito said, “shows the economic advantages of introducing renewable energy systems, both by creating jobs and by amortizing investment.” The initiative at the assistance center is one of the pilot projects to improve the energy efficiency of 66 buildings used by the public in Lebanon for which Italy has allocated one million euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Middle East a Key Focus of US-Russian Talks
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov stressed the importance of Iran and Syria for peace in the Middle East and for the mutual security of the Euro-Atlantic region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No Agreement With Iran…for Now
Talks in Geneva between Iran and six world powers have ended with no agreement, but the sides will meet again later this month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘No Deal’ At Iran Nuclear Talks
Talks between world powers and Iran have failed to reach an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear programme, according to the French foreign minister.
Diplomatic sources said France had wanted tougher terms for Iran.
The Geneva talks involve Iran and the P5+1: the US, Russia, Britain, France and China as permanent UN Security Council members, plus Germany.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar “Reacting” To Criticism, Says Blatter
Qatar will amend its widely criticized labor practices, according to world soccer chief Sepp Blatter after talks with Qatari officials. Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup was “not reversible,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Fearing Polio Epidemic, WHO Vaccinates 20 Mln Kids
To stop risk of contagion in Middle East
(ANSAmed) — ROME — After suspected cases of polio were detected in Syria, the World Health Organization has decided to vaccinate 20 million children in the area against a feared outbreak of the viral disease, which cripples and kills, across the Middle East, a high official announced after a meeting of the agency’s regional committee for the eastern Mediterranean.
The original plan was to vaccinate two and a half million children in Syria and another six in neighbouring countries but after the Syrian cases were confirmed the number will be doubled with 50 million doses necessary, parts of which will be taken from other programmes. WHO’s Bruce Aylward told the New York Times that a massive effort was needed against the risk of an outbreak with hundreds of cases.
At the moment the only countries where polio is endemic are Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan although the virus has reappeared in other African countries and Israel.
The cases in Syria alarmed Europe with the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) warning European countries to increase their vaccination coverage in order to avoid the risk to ‘import’ cases.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: ‘Govt Forces Re-Take Key Parts of Aleppo Air Base’
London, 8 Nov. (AKI) — Syria’s armed forces have re-taken strategic areas of an air base in the northern city of Aleppo captured by rebels in February, activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday.
In the operation, militants from the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah fought rebels alongside the Syrian army in fierce clashes around the Brigade 80 base, the UK-based monitoring group said.
Rebels groups involved in the clashes included fighters from the Al-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Observatory said.
Local media said the rebels lost at least 15 fighters amid intense clashes.
Syrian troops were reported to be shelling rebel positions at nearby Aleppo airport as the clashes raged inside the base.
On Thursday, Syrian troops said they had routed rebel forces from a key cluster of towns in the southern countryside of Damascus.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syrians on Both Sides of the War Increasingly See Assad as Likely to Stay
A growing number of Syrians on both sides of their country’s conflict, along with regional analysts and would-be mediators, are demanding new strategies to end the civil war, based on what they see as an inescapable new reality: President Bashar al-Assad is staying in office, at least for now.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Erdogan is Quietly Wooing America’s Enemies
But recent dramatic shifts in policy may also be part of Erdogan’s search for a new political role, steering Turkey away from its century-long secularism and turning it towards a new model in which Islam trumps democracy and Turkey moves from being not simply one more member of the NATO alliance but a major world power in its own right with ties around the globe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spacewalking Cosmonauts ‘Run’ Historic Olympic Torch Relay in Space
Olympic history unfolded outside the International Space Station Saturday morning (Nov. 9) as two Russian cosmonauts carried an unlit Olympic torch on a symbolic spacewalk relay for the 2014 Games.
Emerging from the orbital outpost at 9:34 a.m. EST (1434 GMT) through a hatch on the Pirs docking module, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy with Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmos began the planned six-hour excursion by posing with the torch for an unprecedented photo opp.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India Accuses Goldman Sachs of ‘Messing’ In Domestic Politics
India’s government has accused global investment bank Goldman Sachs of interfering in the country’s domestic politics after it raised market ratings citing “optimism over political change”.
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said Goldman’s latest report where it suggested the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could topple his ruling Congress party in 2014 polls “made Goldman’s credibility and motives highly suspect”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indians and Europeans Share ‘Light-Skin’ Mutation
Indians share a gene with Europeans that plays a significant role in coding for lighter skin, new research suggests.
The study, published today (Nov. 7) in the journal PLOS Genetics, also revealed that the gene, which is responsible for 27 percent of skin color variation in Indians, was positively selected for in North, but not South Indian populations. When something is “selected for,” that means it provides some advantage and so gets passed down to offspring, becoming more prevalent in a population over time.
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To Celebrate Diwali, Nepal and India “Lose” A Month of Electricity
As Hinduism’s main celebration, the ‘festival of lights’ is a magnificent event but costs too much. Neither India nor Nepal are self-sufficient in energy. India imports from Bhutan whilst Nepal imports it from India. On the fifth day, love brothers and sisters is celebrated.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — In India and Nepal, the five-day Diwali festival consumes every year as much as electricity as an whole month. Still, the ‘festival of lights’ is the most important and lavish celebration on the Hindu calendar. And today, the fifth and final day of the festival, people celebrated Bhai Tika, a time when brothers and sisters meet and exchange gifts.
Diwali celebrations are known for their magnificence and the use made €‹€‹of hundreds of thousands of lights. Both India and Nepal however are not yet self-sufficient in energy and celebrations are a financial burden on people. In fact, although India is building nuclear plants to power its industries, it is forced to import electricity from Bhutan. In turn, Nepal imports electricity from India for its everyday needs.
According to tradition, Diwali marks Prince Rama’s return to Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh), after he defeated the demon Ravana and rescued his wife Sita. Together, the two went into the city greeted by thousands of burning lamps.
For Hindus, Rama is the seventh appearance (avatar) of the all-pervading god Vishnu, and Sita is the incarnation of his wife Lakshmi. The prince’s adventures are told in the Ramayana, one of the most important Hindu epics.
Traditionally, the Bhai Tika commemorates the day when Yama, lord of death, visited his sister Yami (the sacred Yamuna River).
Yami welcomed Yama with an Aarti and they celebrated together. Before leaving Yama, left a gift to his sister.
The Aarti is a ritual during which a camphor flame is lit and the emanating light is offered to the deity.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Saudi Moslem Abuses Guest Laborer
In Islam’s mother country, 9 million guest laborers are being used like slaves. The unfortunate people are being totally surrendered to their employers through the so-called “Kafala” system: They must give up their passport and put up with the impulses and gruesomeness of their Moslem lords. Quite often it ends up being brutal physical abuses, and among women the most deviant forms of rape. Islam legitimizes the keeping of slaves after all, with the meanest of corporal punishments for the infidels.
In this case, an individual from India, Nepal or the Philippines having no rights was whipped by his Saudi Moslem lord because he allegedly spoke with one of his wives.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
A Free Trade Agreement “Opens” The Doors of Singapore to Taiwan
Taipei ( AsiaNews / Agencies) — The government of Taiwan has signed a free trade agreement with Singapore , paving the way for liberalization of an economic relationship that is worth about $ 30 billion a year. The agreement also marks a turning point from the diplomatic point of view , since it is the first time that the island — considered a “ renegade province “ by mainland China that needs to be reabsorbed by the motherland — has signed an agreement with an Asian government. According to some analysts it is a sign of the “continuous thaw” in relations between Taipei and Beijing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Opens Stock Market to US Investors
Other than an elite few, not many foreigners are permitted to buy stock in a Chinese company on a Chinese stock market. But that will change soon. The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that China has approved a new plan to allow U.S. investors to indirectly access its stock markets. The move is being seen as an important step forward in opening China’s markets to the international community.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China Plots Economic Course at Four-Day Meeting
The Communist Party in China has started a four-day meeting in the capital, Beijing. While the agenda remains secret, observers suspect major economic reforms could be discussed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Uighur Leader: ‘Highly Suspicious of Beijing’s Terror Claim’
After a fatal car crash at Tiananmen Square, Uighurs fear more restrictions by authorities in China. Exiled leader Rebiya Kadeer says Beijing is using the incident as an excuse to further oppress the ethnic minority.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens Injured, Arrested in Rampage by ‘Illegals’ In Riyadh
Security forces were called in to maintain peace and order in Riyadh’s southern district of Manfouha on Saturday night after a group of men went on a rampage in anger at the Kingdom’s ongoing campaign against illegal foreign workers. Armed with knives, the rioters gathered in the district’s narrow streets early evening Saturday, threatening policemen, motorists, and pedestrians, reports posted on social networks said.
Witnesses said most of the foreign workers involved in the clashes appeared to be Africans, notably Ethiopians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Turks Favor Dual Citizenship
German law only grants dual citizenship in exceptional circumstances. It’s often a problem for German Turks, many of whom feel marginalized as they don’t want to give up their Turkish passports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ingrid Carlqvist — State Controlled Press in Sweden & Mass Immigration — Hour 1 Audio
Swedish author and independent journalist Ingrid Carlqvist joins us from Copenhagen, Denmark to continue our ongoing discussion about Sweden’s troubled past and future. Ingrid started the website Dispatch International with Danish historian Lars Hedegaard in an effort to help balance the debate on many of the politically incorrect topics that Swedish state funded media refuses to touch. We’ll discuss where the country has been and where it is going as rapid changes are underway in certain areas. Sweden is locked into a ridged political system of the past. We’ll discuss the media environment in the country that has been internationally praised for its tolerance and fairness. Later, we talk about the issue of mass immigration into Sweden, the future of religion and lack of belief.
In the second hour, we discuss the increase of sex crimes and rape in Sweden. On the flipside, state feminism is destroying the country from within and ridiculous rape charges against people like Julian Assange are on the rise. Ingrid comments on these glaring contradictions and how they have arisen. Later, we’ll speak more about the political climate in Sweden, the lack of choice, normalcy bias and the concept that Sweden has been a political laboratory that today is exporting its concept of soft totalitarian state to the rest of the world.
[Comment: First hour of the radio program is free.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Letta Says Italy Saved 1,800 Migrants But Needs More Help
Policy of increased marine patrols working effectively
(See previous) (ANSA) — Dublin, November 7 — An Italy policy of stepped-up maritime patrols has saved as many as 1,800 migrants fleeing to its southern shores, but more help is needed, Premier Enrico Letta said Thursday.
“Italy is doing its part but it is not enough,” Letta said after a meeting in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny.
He noted that Italy has saved 1,800 people since the operation Mare Nostrum, which is Latin for “our sea”, began.
Mare Nostrum is a major Italian air and naval package involving frigates, helicopters and drones aimed at averting more migrant boat disasters in the southern Mediterranean.
Letta has been pushing hard for the European Union to do more to help Italy, which is on the front lines of waves of migrants fleeing North Africa and Middle East by boat for a new life in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Police in Italy Arrest Somalia National Accused of Organizing Deadly Migrant Voyage
Italian police have arrested a Somali man suspected of organizing a migrant boat that capsized and killed hundreds of people off the island of Lampedusa last month. An alleged accomplice has also been detained.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Croatia to Hold Referendum Against Same-Sex Unions
Voting on 1/12 in country’s first ever
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, NOVEMBER 8 — The Croatian parliament voted Friday overwhelmingly to hold a referendum on December 1 on same-sex marriages. The proposal had been put forward by conservative groups and Catholic associations against a potential introduction into the country of marriages between members of the same sex, report Zagreb media. Some 104 votes were cast in favour of the referendum out of 151 MPs, while only 13 were against it and five abstained. The referendum aims to insert into the Croatian constitution the definition of marriage as a “union between a man and a woman”.
In September the government confirmed the validity of the almost 700,000 signatures collected in May by an initiative linked to the Catholic Church called “In the Name of the Family”. In Croatia (an EU member state since July) the law on the referendum calls for the signatures of 10% of eligible voters in the space of two weeks. The issue of a referendum on gay marriage has sparked lively social debate in Croatia over the past few months, in a country in which over 90% of the 4.2 million inhabitants are Catholic. LGBT rights activists have called the initiative discriminatory, while the centre-left government has repeatedly said it is against the proposal excluding outright the possibility of same-sex unions. Supporters of the referendum instead say that they wanted “to prevent the repetition in Croatia of what happened in France”, where gay marriages were recently legalised. The voting in December will be the first referendum ever held in Croatia.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
E-Mail From BarackObama.com: Anyone Opposing Late-Term Abortions is Sexist
Organizing For Action refers to proposed late-term abortion ban as latest in “anti-women strategy”.
A pro-Obama “grassroots” organization sent out a mass e-mail from info@barackobama.com today, which practically accuses anyone who supports a ban on late-term abortions as being sexist.
Organizing For Action, a non-profit created out of Obama’s 2012 campaign operation and described as “grassroots” even though it is based in Washington, D.C., wrote the e-mail in response to a citizen-initiated ordinance in Albuquerque, N.M. to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
“Voters will cast ballots on November 19th on an initiative that would ban abortions after 20 weeks with virtually zero exceptions,” the e-mail from info@barackobama.com read. “This is a serious attack on women — and it’s a deliberate attempt by extreme interest groups to test their latest anti-women strategy.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘The Persecution of Christians is Increasing’
Worldwide approximately 100 million Christians are being persecuted because of their faith, according to estimates from the German aid organization Open Doors. An improvement to the situation is not in sight.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US and Israel Lose UNESCO Voting Rights Over Withheld Payments
The United States and Israel have lost their voting rights in UNESCO after they suspended funding to the organization. Both countries suspended contributions to the UN cultural body after Palestine was made a member.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Golden Dawn report quotes from a 1983 neo-Nazi document as if it is still used within the movement.