Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/30/2014

The second round of local elections in France gave a boost to the Front National. At least two towns elected FN mayors, and there may be a number of others when the final results are tabulated. Paris elected its first female mayor — a socialist.

Meanwhile, early results in Turkish local elections show the AKP, the party of Prime Minister Erdogan, in the lead.

In other news, although Russia is planning to return Ukrainian military gear that it acquired during the annexation of the Crimea, it is going to keep specially trained combat units of Ukrainian dolphins.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, KGS, Steen, 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.

Financial Crisis
» Europe’s Austerity is Choking Italy, Says NCD Leader
» Italy Gross Borrowing Requirement to Drop in 2014, OECD Says
 
USA
» A Military Plot to Take Over America — Fifty Years Later, Can We All Say “Mission Accomplished”?
» Facebook’s New ‘DeepFace’ Program is Creepy as Sounds
» How Reader’s Digest Became a Chinese Stooge
» Lawsuit: Man Arrested, Searched for Marijuana Solely for Having Colorado License Plate
» Mystery Aircraft Over Texas
» ObamaCare is an American Catastrophe
» Preparing for the Great Global Internet Handover
» Private Space Taxis Are a ‘Critical Need’ For US, NASA Chief Says
» Republican Conference Objects to Anti-Islam Label
» The Parable of the Mashed Potato Police
» Victor Davis Hanson: Untruthful and Untrustworthy Government
 
Europe and the EU
» Austria: Muslims Outnumber Catholics in Vienna Schools
» Baroness Warsi Says UKIP is Full of ‘Fruitcakes, Loonies and Racists’
» Belgium: Jewish School in Antwerp Targeted by Anti-Semites
» Black Death Not Spread by Rats According to New Research on 14th Century Skeletons Which Shows Plague Was Airborne
» China’s Xi Begins Landmark Brussels Visit
» Clowns in Britain Fear They Will Soon be Out of Job as Work Dries Up
» EC Refers Italy to Court of Justice Over Rail Passengers
» Finland: Controversial Cleric Urges Muslims to be Active in Society — Video
» France: Socialist Hidalgo Set to Become First Woman Mayor of Paris
» French Vote in Second Round of Local Elections
» Fury as Fanatic Who Trained 7/7 Bomber Sets Up Islamic Primary School in Britain
» GCHQ and NSA Targeted Private German Companies
» Italian Bishops ‘Not Legally Obliged’ To Report Pedophilia
» Italy: Grillo Lashes Out at Obama Over Recent Rome Visit
» Italy: Chaplain Guilty of Sexually Abusing Inmates
» Italy: Public-Sector Managers’ Pay to be Cut Next Week
» Italy: Railway Chief Says He is Waiting for New Offer From Renzi
» Italy: New High-Speed Trains to Enter Service for 2015 Milan Expo
» Italy: Prison Guards Probed for Alleged Abuse
» Italy: Gap Narrows Between Prison Capacity and Population
» Italy: Prosecutors Open Investigation Into Aleotti MPS Bank Stake
» Italy: Senate Speaker Rejects Abolition Suggestion
» Italy: Police Stop Men With Bilions of Fake Bonds
» Men Held Over Vatican Bank ‘Three Trillion Euro Bond Fraud’
» Netherlands: Prime Minister Tells Dutch Moroccan Kids ‘ You Won’t be Deported’
» Netherlands: PVV Publishes EU Election Manifesto — One Page and Seven Points
» ‘Radicals Want to Ruin Spain’s Democracy’
» Riot Police Called in as Violent Clashes Break Out Across France After Far-Right National Front Win Dramatic Gains in Local Elections
» Some 113,000 Italians Own 23 Bn Euros in Foreign Real Estate
» Spain: Barcelona Gets Europe’s First ‘3D Printer Café’
» Spain: Madrid Archaeological Museum to Reopen
» Switzerland: Topless Protest Group Founder Denied Asylum
» Switzerland: World’s Most Costly Watch Unveiled in Basel
» UK: All Cannings ‘Neolithic’ Long Barrow Takes Shape
» UK: Are British Prisons a ‘Terrorist Breeding Ground’?
» UK: Disabled Boy’s Walking Frame is Seized by NHS Ahead of Home Move
» UK: Is Maggie’s Muslim Heir Set to Follow Her Into No 10?
» UK: James Lovelock: Environmentalism Has Become a Religion
» UK: Skeletons of Black Death Victims Dug Up During Excavations for London Crossrail
» UK: Tragic Ben Cowburn ‘Told Nurse That TV Comic Raped Him’
» UK: Top-Security UK Prison Where Terror Fanatics Serve Life Sentences is ‘Al-Qaeda Recruiting Centre’
» UK: Teachers ‘Assaulted and Marginalised in Islamising Plot’
 
North Africa
» Egypt Sets Late May Presidential Election Date
» Libya: Egyptian Killed in Armed Attack in Benghazi — FM
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Benjamin Netanyahu Accuses UN of ‘Hypocrisy’ Over Human Rights Votes
 
Middle East
» Bahrain Jails 16 Shiites for Life
» Bomb Attacks Kill 16 in Iraq
» Early Results Have Turkish PM Erdogan’s Party Leading Local Elections
» Group ‘Executes’ Two Young Saudis in Syria
» Lebanon Vows to Fight Terror After Soldiers Killed
» Obama Visit Allows Rare Glimpse of Saudi Royal Life
» Syria: The Jihadi Town Where ‘Brides’ Are Snatched From Schools
» Syria: Inside an Al Qaeda Prison
» Turkey: Femen Protest Topless Against Erdogan’s Dictatorship
» Two Spanish Journalists Freed in Syria: Report
 
Russia
» Corporate Interests Behind Ukraine Putsch
» Russia’s Military Begins Nuclear War Drill
» Ukraine: Campaign for Donetsk ‘To Join UK’
» Ukraine: Crimea’s Combat Dolphins Find Themselves a New Master
» Ukraine Crisis: British Forces to Join NATO Wargames
» Watch This Reaction: Putin Laughs Right in This Journalist’s Face (Video)
» Western Looting of Ukraine Has Begun
 
South Asia
» Bomb Blast Kills 1, Wounds 15 in Southern Afghan Town
» Concern as Brunei Brings in System of Islamic Law With Punishments That Include the Dismemberment of Limbs and Stoning to Death
» Daughter of MH370 Pilot Raises Alarming New Questions About His State of Mind in Weeks Before Plane’s Disappearance
» Missing Plane Families Demand Malaysia Apology
» More Chinese Relatives Arrive in Malaysia to Demand Information on MH370
» Video Games Linked to Aggressive Behavior in Kids, Says Study
 
Far East
» A New ‘Silk Road’ Linking Germany and China
» Hammer-Wielding Robbers Cause Chaos at Philippine Mall
» North Korea Threatens ‘New Form’ of Nuclear Test, Slams United Nations
» Taiwan Stages Mass Anti-China Trade Pact Rally
» Thousands in Taiwan Protest China Trade Deal
 
Australia — Pacific
» Special Envoy Call as Australians Join Syria Fight
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Ethiopia: Is This the Most Farcical Use of Taxpayers’ Money Ever?
» Nigeria: Not Less Than 22 Killed During Gun Battle at SSS Headquarters
» Nigeria: 20 Boko Haram Suspects Killed in Abuja DSS Attack
 
Latin America
» Brazilian Army Occupy Shantytown Ahead of World Cup
» Maya Skulls Show Signs of Wooden-Club Warfare
» The Secret Disastrous SAS Attempt to Invade Argentina Revealed
 
Immigration
» ‘Freedom! Spain!’ Shout 800 Migrants at Border
» Germany: Berlin: Number of Criminal Arab Immigrants Continuously on the Rise
» Spain: Ten Migrants Clear Melilla Border Fence
» Swiss Immigration Vote Ticks Off Watchmakers
 
Culture Wars
» Franklin Graham: Obama Administration Instilling a Spirit of ‘Anti-Christ’
» Hollywood Noah: Environmentalist Human Hater
» Molech Would be Pleased
» Pointing to Disaster — The Flawed Moral Vision of World Vision [Updated]
» Public Schools Told to Give Free Morning-After Abortifacients to Underage Girls (Without a Prescription) So Their Unwanted Babies Can Die
» Sen. Inhofe: ‘Barack Obama’s Administration is Attempting to Write a New Moral Code’
» World Vision President Richard Stearns: “We Don’t Proselytize.”
 
General
» Daniel Pipes: The Middle East Forum Debates Moderate Islam
» It’s Time to Reclaim Islam From the Fanatics. Here’s How
» Night Falls on Civilization
 

Europe’s Austerity is Choking Italy, Says NCD Leader

(AGI) Agrigento, March 29 — Europe is choking Italy with its austerity, the leader of the New Centre-Right (NCD) party, Angelino Alfano, said on Saturday. “I don’t like this Europe because we cannot have a European Union that focuses on the diameter of watermelons while ignoring development and employment. The EU must change its economic policies, with no more German fear of inflation while their austerity measures are killing us,” Alfano said during a party rally in Sicily.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Gross Borrowing Requirement to Drop in 2014, OECD Says

This year’s GBR to equal 22.7% of GDP vs 25.8% in 2013

(ANSA) — Paris, March 28 — Italy’s gross borrowing requirement (GBR) this year is expected to drop to $542.2 billion, or 22.7% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Friday.

The data was compared to the $607.1 billion GBR of 2013, which was equivalent to 25.8% of GDP. The report on sovereign debt calculates nations’ borrowing requirements on the basis of deficits and amortization, and not on forecasts of state debt sales made by government institutions.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

A Military Plot to Take Over America — Fifty Years Later, Can We All Say “Mission Accomplished”?

I’m suggesting Mr. President, there’s a military plot to take over the Government of these United States, next Sunday…” — Col. Martin ‘Jiggs’ Casey, Seven Days in May (1964)

With a screenplay written by Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, director John Frankenheimer’s 1964 political thriller Seven Days in May is a clear warning to beware of martial law packaged as a well meaning and overriding concern for the nation’s security. Yet, incredibly enough, 50 years later, we find ourselves hostages to a government run more by military doctrine and corporate greed than by the rule of law established in the Constitution. Indeed, proving once again that fact and fiction are not dissimilar, today’s current events — ranging from the government’s steady militarization of law enforcement agencies, and its urban training exercises wherein military troops rappel from Black Hawk helicopters in cities across…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Facebook’s New ‘DeepFace’ Program is Creepy as Sounds

Facebook owns the world’s largest photo library, and it now has the technology to match almost all the faces within it. Yes, even the ones you don’t tag. Facebook announced last week that it has developed a program called “DeepFace,” which researchers say can determine whether two photographed faces are of the same person with 97.25 percent accuracy. According to Facebook, humans put to the same test answer correctly 97.53 percent of the time — only a quarter of a percent better than Facebook’s software. The takeaway: Facebook has essentially caught up to humans when it comes to remembering a face. The program was developed by three in-house Facebook researchers and a professor at Tel Aviv University.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How Reader’s Digest Became a Chinese Stooge

The notion that the formerly mighty American publisher Reader’s Digest would allow the Chinese Communist party to censor its novels would once have appeared so outrageous as to be unimaginable. In the globalised world, what was once unimaginable is becoming commonplace, however. The Australian novelist LA (Louisa) Larkin has learned the hard way that old certainties no longer apply as the globalisation of trade leads to the globalisation of authoritarian power.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Lawsuit: Man Arrested, Searched for Marijuana Solely for Having Colorado License Plate

An Idaho state trooper arrested and fully searched a 70-year-old Washington man’s vehicle solely because he had a Colorado license plate — a state where marijuana is legal — a federal “license plate profiling” lawsuit alleges.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Mystery Aircraft Over Texas

As far as I know, this sort of thing has happened only once since 1956.

That was when British magazines started getting eyewitness accounts and grainy photos of the Lockheed U-2, then operating out of RAF Lakenheath on its first spy flights over the Soviet Union. Classified programs have been exposed in all sorts of ways since then — for example, the A-12 Blackbird was disclosed under a degree of pressure — but until the RQ-170 Sentinel was seen at Kandahar in 2007-09 there has been no such aircraft photographed before it was declassified. (And in the case of the RQ-170, the operational security people were not trying too hard.)

With that in mind, let’s look at the photos taken by Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett of an aircraft seen over Amarillo on March 10.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

ObamaCare is an American Catastrophe

The Republicans in the House of Representatives have voted more than 60 times to repeal or dismantle ObamaCare. The Senate, namely Harry Reid its Majority Leader, has killed all efforts to address what is clearly a national catastrophe. When passed in 2009, not one Republican member of Congress voted for it. When it was passed, then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, famously said they had to pass the 2,700 page act in order to find out what was in it.

In 2010, voters gave power in the House to Republicans, but the Senate remained under Democrat control. The fact that Barack Obama, when campaigning to become President in 2008 and thereafter lied repeatedly to Americans about it has tarnished his reputation and his approval ratings. Since then he has altered the law unilaterally despite the fact that he utterly lacks any constitutional right to do so.

In February the Heritage Foundation’s legal experts put together a list of seven illegal actions by the President that included delaying Obamacare’s employer mandate, giving Congress and their staffs special taxpayer-funded subsidies, preventing layoff notices from going out just days before the 2012 election, as well as non-ObamaCare actions that included gutting the work requirement from welfare reform, stonewalling an application for storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, and making “recess” appointments when the Senate was still legally in session.

The first element of the ObamaCare catastrophe is an utterly lawless President who Congress has done little to restrain and nothing to impeach.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Preparing for the Great Global Internet Handover

Every suggestion I read about how to prepare for the great handover of Internet domain control to some vaporous global organism makes me more convinced this is a really bad idea. For example, the Heritage Foundation offers a brief, well-considered set of precautions, outlined by a group of four distinguished researchers and analysts, that makes my hackles go up, because I don’t see what leverage we have to ensure any of their suggestions are implemented properly.

The Heritage team is clearly aware of that difficulty, because they advise Congress to “specifically instruct NTIA [the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration], at penalty of losing its funding, to renew the ICANN contract” should their list of requirements fail to be met.

Forgive my skepticism that (a) any segment of the Obama Administration would actually be willing, under virtually any set of circumstances, to abruptly pull the plug on a globalization process, and (b) that Congress would actually defund the NTIA if they refused to do so. The further we get into this process, the harder it will be to stop. Congress might be able to throw on the brakes now, but the idea of pulling out when global control is just over the horizon reminds me of the suggestion that we can get amnesty for illegal aliens under way now, but call a halt in a couple of years if border security triggers aren’t met.

In fact, I suspect the ICANN handover would become extremely difficult to halt once the new multi-national oversight body has actually been defined. Right now, the only premonitions we have about this organization are copious promises of what it won’t be. We are assured it won’t be some tumor growing out of the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union, and it won’t be dominated by ugly dictatorships looking to censor their political adversaries. Once the new oversight body has actually be constituted and a charter drawn up, renewing the American government’s contract with ICANN will be interpreted as an insult to everyone involved in the prospective multi-stakeholder replacement.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Private Space Taxis Are a ‘Critical Need’ For US, NASA Chief Says

Developing private spaceships to launch astronauts from U.S. soil in the near future should be a top priority for the nation’s space program, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Thursday (March 27).

NASA officials hope the space agency will start flying astronauts to the International Space Station using privately built spaceships by 2017.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Republican Conference Objects to Anti-Islam Label

There are lots of threats to America and ways to destroy the U.S., and it’s not just one particular kind of enemy who might do it, members of the Tennessee Republican Assembly were told Saturday.

They heard a session on economic warfare. They heard about electromagnetic pulse — damaging bursts of atmospheric energy triggered in space or by atomic bombs. They heard about Russia and China backing nuclear weapons in North Korea and Iran.

The point is, speakers said, there’s no single issue to worry about. And they objected to characterizations of the event as anti-Islam, despite top billing for authors who have written at length about Islam’s threat to America…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Parable of the Mashed Potato Police

I recently had a bad flashback. I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep when I was hit with a vivid memory from my time as a Transportation Security Administration officer at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. It was 2008, and I was conducting a bag check when three of my TSA colleagues got into an argument with a passenger at the checkpoint. Things got pretty heated.

The subject of debate? Whether mashed potatoes were a liquid or a solid.

In the end, of course, the TSA agents had the last word: Since the potatoes took the shape of their container, they were determined to be a liquid — specifically, a gel. That’s the official TSA line. “Liquids, aerosols and gels over 3.4 ounces cannot be brought through security.” The potatoes were forcibly surrendered.

If you’re anything like me, you may have thought, “Well, mashed potatoes are technically gelatinous, so…” — which sends one down the rabbit hole of bureaucratic absurdity that ends with a passenger looking a TSA officer in the eye and saying, “Do you really think my mashed potatoes are a terrorist threat?” And the officer, if he or she is just an all-around tool, saying: “Ma’am, possibly. Rules are rules.”

I’ve had a lot of flashbacks lately — nearly buried memories that have come flooding back ever since Politico Magazine published “Dear America, I Saw You Naked,” my first-person account of working for the TSA and anonymously blogging about my adventures in airport security.

Another one: It’s 2010, and a passenger is trying to bring her live goldfish through security. One of my co-workers informs her that the fish can go through but the water cannot. The woman is on the verge of tears when a supervisor steps in to save the fish’s life.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Victor Davis Hanson: Untruthful and Untrustworthy Government

The massaging of critical data undermines our society.

What distinguishes democracies from tinhorn dictatorships and totalitarian monstrosities are our permanent meritocratic government bureaus that remain nonpartisan and honestly report the truth.

The Benghazi, Associated Press, and National Security Agency scandals are scary, but not as disturbing as growing doubts about the honesty of permanent government itself.

It is no longer crackpot to doubt the once impeccable and nonpartisan IRS. When it assured the public that it was not making decisions about tax-exempt status based on politics, it lied. One of its top commissioners, Lois Lerner, resigned and invoked the Fifth Amendment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: Muslims Outnumber Catholics in Vienna Schools

by Soeren Kern

[…]

Muslim students, according to new statistics, now outnumber Roman Catholic students at middle and secondary schools in Vienna, the capital and largest city of Austria.

The data—which show that Muslim students are also on the verge of overtaking Catholics in Viennese elementary schools—reflect an established trend and provide empirical evidence of a massive demographic and religious shift underway in Austria, traditionally a Roman Catholic country.

The Muslim population in Austria now exceeds 500,000 (or roughly 6% of the total population), up from an estimated 150,000 (or 2%) in 1990. The Muslim population is expected to reach 800,000 (or 9.5%) by 2030, according to recent estimates.

In the current school year, 10,734 Muslim students are enrolled in Viennese middle and secondary schools, compared to 8,632 Roman Catholic students, 4,259 Serbian Orthodox students and 3,219 students with “no religious persuasion,” according to statistics compiled by the Vienna Board of Education (Stadtschulrat für Wien) and published by Radio Vatican website on March 21.

As far as elementary schools are concerned, there are 23,807 Roman Catholic students, followed by 17,913 Muslim students, 11,119 “non-religious” students, 6,083 Serbian Orthodox students and 2,322 Protestants.

The statistics show that the only Viennese schools where Muslims remain a distinct minority are in the gymnasium, advanced secondary schools that place a strong emphasis on academic learning rather than on vocational skills. Students graduating from a gymnasium are more likely than others to be admitted to attend university in Austria.

Austria is also in the process of introducing new taxpayer-funded textbooks for the formal teaching of Islam in all public elementary schools across the country…

           — Hat tip: KGS [Return to headlines]
 

Baroness Warsi Says UKIP is Full of ‘Fruitcakes, Loonies and Racists’

Baroness Warsi has warned David Cameron not to try and ‘out-Ukip’ Nigel Farage while backing his controversial description of their supporters as ‘fruitcakes’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium: Jewish School in Antwerp Targeted by Anti-Semites

A Jewish school in Antwerp, Belgium was targeted by anti-Semites over the weekend. Police have opened an investigation.

Antwerp, Belgium, a center of the world diamond business, has a substantial hareidi community, and has the reputation of being a “quiet” city when it comes to anti-Semitism. But that quiet was broken Sunday, when members of the community found anti-Semitic graffiti scrawled on a building containing a Jewish school…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Black Death Not Spread by Rats According to New Research on 14th Century Skeletons Which Shows Plague Was Airborne

It has long been thought the Black Death, the plague that decimated the population of Britain in the mid-14th century, was spread by fleas carried on rats.

However, 25 skeletons recently unearthed in Clerkenwell, London, believed to be of plague victims, have cast doubt on this age-old theory and provided evidence that they deadly disease may have, in fact, been airborne.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China’s Xi Begins Landmark Brussels Visit

Chinese President Xi Jinping has begun a three-day trip to Brussels. He is the first Chinese leader to visit the headquarters of the European Union.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Clowns in Britain Fear They Will Soon be Out of Job as Work Dries Up

A veteran entertainer has blamed dysfunctional clowns in the media, such as The Simpson’s Krusty, on the decline in their popularity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

EC Refers Italy to Court of Justice Over Rail Passengers

Commuters users often complain of delays, cramped conditions

(ANSA) — Brussels, March 28 — The European Commission (EC) said Friday that it has referred Italy to the European Court of Justice of the EU for failing to fully comply with EU regulations on rail-passenger rights. Italian train users often complain of cramped conditions and delays on commuter routes.

“Italy has not yet established an official and authorised body for the application of the Regulation in its territory, nor has it set up rules to sanction violations of rail passenger rights legislation,” read an EC statement. “Without these two necessary actions, passengers travelling by train in Italy or from Italy to other EU countries will not be able to claim the rights they are entitled to if something goes wrong with their journey”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Finland: Controversial Cleric Urges Muslims to be Active in Society — Video

Speaking to the Finnish media on Saturday, controversial Muslim cleric Bilal Philips denied extremist ties or preaching violence against homosexuals. Philips, who started a two-day visit to Finland on Saturday, urged Finland’s Muslims to actively participate in society and warned young men against going to Syria to take up arms…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

France: Socialist Hidalgo Set to Become First Woman Mayor of Paris

Anne Hidalgo of the France’s ruling Socialist looks set to become Paris’ first woman mayor, exit polls show. The far right National Front party, meanwhile, appears set to make gains in mid-sized towns across France.

Hollande himself is facing record-low approval ratings, roughly two years after defeating the UMP’s Nicolas Sarkozy in presidential elections.

As ballot counting got underway on Sunday, the far-right National Front (FN) said it was on track to win at least two towns and claim 1,200 municipal council seats nationwide. According to exit polls, the anti-immigrant party was on track to secure the mayor’s seats in the southern towns of Beziers and Frejus.

FN leader Marine Le Pen called Sunday’s showing a huge step for the party.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Vote in Second Round of Local Elections

French voters went to the polls Sunday for a second round of local elections that will likely cement gains for the far-right at the expense of the ruling Socialists and lead to a government reshuffle.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fury as Fanatic Who Trained 7/7 Bomber Sets Up Islamic Primary School in Britain

Sajeel Shahid (pictured), 38, called for violence against British troops and ran a training camp in Pakistan where known terrorists learned how to make bombs.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

GCHQ and NSA Targeted Private German Companies

Documents show that Britain’s GCHQ intelligence service infiltrated German Internet firms and America’s NSA obtained a court order to spy on Germany and collected information about the chancellor in a special database. Is it time for the country to open a formal espionage investigation?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Bishops ‘Not Legally Obliged’ To Report Pedophilia

But have ‘moral duty to contribute to common good’, says CEI

(ANSA) — Rome, March 28 — Italian bishops do not have the “legal obligation” to report cases of child-sex abuse by priests to the judicial authorities, according to guidelines released by the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) Friday. The guidelines said, however, that bishops had a “moral duty to contribute to common good”. “Not having the role of a public official, the bishop does not have the legal obligation to report (cases) to the judicial authorities, aside from the moral duty to contribute to the common good,” the guidelines read on child-sex abuse cases.

They added that bishops must take “special care” in selecting candidates for the priesthood.

They also stressed the importance of “rigorous attention to exchanges of information about candidates to the priesthood who move from one seminary to another”. The Church’s image has been tainted by child-sex-abuse scandals in many parts of the world, including Italy, in recent years.

Pope Francis has taken several steps to repair some of the damage, including the nomination of a new anti-abuse commission this month.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Grillo Lashes Out at Obama Over Recent Rome Visit

‘He came to sell shale, F-35 fighter jets’ says M5S leader

(ANSA) — Rome, March 28 — The leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) Beppe Grillo lashed out at US President Barack Obama on Friday for coming to Italy this week to allegedly “sell shale” and the F-35 fighter jet. “He is here to smuggle in his economy and we are all silent,” wrote the prolific blogger. “Obama is in Italy and goes to the pope to take two photos. He comes here because he is concerned about the reduction of military spending on our F-35s”.

Italian spending on the multi-billion-euro F-35 program has been frozen, pending a parliamentary review of military spending. In 2012, Italy announced plans to cut its order with US-based Lockheed Martin to 90 from the 131 jets originally agreed in 2002, saving the country some five billion euros at that time.

The comedian-turned-politician then accused Obama, who was in Rome Thursday after summits in Brussels, of “selling his shale gas that he discovered is a nearly 100-year supply and one of the largest deposits in the world”.

Speaking in Brussels Wednesday, Obama announced he had authorized the export of American natural gas to Europe, lessening the continent’s dependence on Russian energy. In his blog post, Grillo went on to reiterate his overall discontent with Italian parliament and politicians, and called on supporters to turn out in large numbers during European Parliament elections on May 25, when Euroskeptic parties like his are expected to do well. “Parliament shall promote its lies, along with its newspapers and television channels. Rise up. I want you there,” said Grillo.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Chaplain Guilty of Sexually Abusing Inmates

Fondled, harassed, coerced sex with prisoners

(ANSA) — Milan, March 28 — Prison chaplain Don Alberto Barin was sentenced to four years imprisonment by a Milan preliminary hearing judge Friday for sex crimes including harassment, fondling and forced intercourse with eight inmates in a Milan area prison.

On Friday, Judge Luigi Garigulo issued the four-year sentence, significantly less than prosecution’s request for 14 years and 8 months. Garigulo also did not recognize plaintiffs’ request for provisional compensation as immediately enforceable.

Following an in-depth prison investigation organized by Italy’s Deputy Prosecutor Pietro Forno, prison police and a rapid-response team, Barin was arrested and jailed on November 20, 2012, when investigations revealed that Barin used his power and position to obtain sex. Barin’s defense lawyer Mario Zanchetti insisted on clarifying that the sexual acts were between adults and were consensual.

At present, the former chaplain is under house arrest at a convent.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Public-Sector Managers’ Pay to be Cut Next Week

State-controlled entities Enel, Eni and Finmeccanica exempt

(ANSA) — Rome, March 28 — The Italian government said Friday that effective April 1, it will cut the salaries of top public-sector managers — with such major exceptions as State-controlled Enel, Eni and Finmeccanica. Salaries will be held at the same level as the president of the supreme Cassation Court, the Treasury announced.

The limits will also not apply to government saving and loan trust Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), Poste Italiane and State railway Ferrovie dello Stato.

Giovanni Giorgio Tempini, chief executive of CDP takes home 1.035 million euros annually, while Italian railways chief Mauro Moretti gets 873,666 euros a year — levels that have triggered concerns about too wide a gap between the lowest paid and highest paid public servants.

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said last week that he would cap salaries of public-sector managers, but at that time said the measure used would be the 248,000 euros Italian President Giorgio Napolitano earns.

That triggered some controversy, with Moretti warning that pay caps could force senior civil servants into the private sector.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Railway Chief Says He is Waiting for New Offer From Renzi

Moretti has ‘confidence’ in premier’s efforts to boost economy

(See related) (ANSA) — Milan, March 25 — Italian railways executive Mauro Moretti said Tuesday that he is waiting hear what “proposals” on his controversial pay package will come from Premier Matteo Renzi.

“I will see if he can convince me,” to remain with the State-controlled Ferrovie dello Stato following a review of Moretti’s salary of 873,666 euros per year, which has triggered concerns about too wide a gap between the country’s highest and lowest paid employees.

Moretti, who last week warned that he might consider employment elsewhere, said that he would continue to work in Italy.

He also pointed out that his predecessors earned even more than he has, with salaries exceeding one million euros.

Renzi has said that he plans to cap public-sector managers’ salaries below the benchmark of President Giorgio Napolitano’s salary of 248,000 euros, as part of a broader plan to redirect as much as five billion euros in government spending to areas that will stimulate economic growth. Despite the salary debate, Moretti said he had confidence in Renzi’s efforts as he “seeks to vigorously stimulate a country that needs it”.

“We should support him because the challenges…are powerful and we must work together if Italy is to not succumb,” he added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: New High-Speed Trains to Enter Service for 2015 Milan Expo

ETR 1000 to have a commercial speed of 350 km/h

(ANSAmed) — Milan, March 25 — The first of a new fleet of high-speed ‘Freccia Rossa’ (Red Arrow) trains will enter into service in 2015 to coincide with the Milan Expo, Italian railways chief Mauro Moretti said Tuesday.

Made by Bombardier Transportation and AnsaldoBreda under a joint venture, the new ETR 1000 will have a commercial speed of 350 km/h, Moretti said. This compares with the 300 km/h reached by the ERF 500 Freccia Rossa trains currently in service between Salerno in the south and the northern city of Milan. The new trains will gradually enter into service between 2015 and 2017, to a total of 50 trains. The upgraded fleet will “redesign national services and boost the most profitable part of international services,” Moretti said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Prison Guards Probed for Alleged Abuse

‘Racially abused, beat inmates, turned off heating’

(ANSA) — Vicenza, March 25 — Some 15 prison guards were put under investigation for allegedly abusing inmates in the northeastern city of Vicenza. Inmates pressed charges after complaining of alleged beatings and inhumane treatment such as turning off the heating and racial abuse. Italy has recently been under the microscope for its treatment of inmates, which are kept in some of Europe’s most overcrowded cells. Last year the European Court of Human Rights ordered Italy to shape up its prisons by May 27.

Last month the Council of Europe asked the Italian government to draw up a plan with alternative solutions, including preventative measures, and to report back with a time frame for their execution.

It also asked it to outline the measuring system that was to be used to determine if the measures had been successful, or not.

The Council of Europe will re-examine the matter again in June.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Gap Narrows Between Prison Capacity and Population

Justice minister looking to improve overcrowded jails

(ANSA) — Rome, March 25 — Italy’s prison population exceeds legal capacity by around 10,000 people, Justice Minister Andrea Orlando said Tuesday.

In January 2013, when the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ordered Italy to address the “degrading and inhumane conditions” in its prisons, the jail population stood at just over 65,700 compared to around 47,500 available places.

The figure has since fallen to around 60,800 and Orlando said he hoped to see the gap narrow further over the coming months.

The Strasbourg court gave Italy until May 28 to correct the problem of prison overcrowding, a contributing factor in the high incidence of self-injury and suicide amongst the country’s inmates. In December the government of ex-premier Enrico Letta passed a controversial decree aimed at reducing overcrowding by releasing some inmates early.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Prosecutors Open Investigation Into Aleotti MPS Bank Stake

(AGI) Florence, March 28 — Florence prosecutors have opened an investigation into the purchase of 4 percent of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) by the Aleotti family in March 2012, local and national newspapers reported on Friday. Currently the Aleotti family, owners of Menarini pharmaceuticals, holds a reduced 1 percent stake in the Siena-based bank. The prosecutors think that the 178 million euros paid to buy 4 percent of MPS came from funds accumulated by misrepresenting the active ingredients of medicines. The prosecution has also applied for and received a letter of request for Switzerland.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Senate Speaker Rejects Abolition Suggestion

(AGI) Rome, March 30 — The president of the Italian senate, Pietro Grasso, has spoken out against plans proposed by Premier Matteo Renzi to abolish the Senate. “The Senate I imagine is a place where decisions are taken and local interests are integrated into a national vision. It would replace the State-Regions Conference and the senators would be elected in regional elections,” Grasso said in an interview with newspaper Repubblica, saying that the Senate should not be abolished but reformed.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Police Stop Men With Bilions of Fake Bonds

Vatican police on Saturday apprehended an American and a Dutch man who were trying to deposit billions of euros and US dollars in fake bonds in the Vatican bank.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Men Held Over Vatican Bank ‘Three Trillion Euro Bond Fraud’

Italian police have arrested two men who were allegedly trying to deposit trillions of euros in fake bonds in the Vatican bank.

Officials say the pair, an American and a Dutch national, claimed they had an appointment with bank officials to gain entry but were handed over to police.

Fake bonds with a face value of 3tr euros ($4.1tr; £2.5tr) were found in their briefcase, the officials say. The suspects were reportedly hoping to open a line of credit at the bank.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Prime Minister Tells Dutch Moroccan Kids ‘ You Won’t be Deported’

Prime minister Mark Rutte appeared on the youth television news show Jeugdjournaal to assure children of Moroccan descent they will not be deported in the wake of Geert Wilders’ anti-Moroccan chanting last week.

Rutte said he had been concerned by the Wednesday edition of the programme in which a girl called Hind said she was worried about Wilders’ statements. ‘It touched me enormously,’ Rutte said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: PVV Publishes EU Election Manifesto — One Page and Seven Points

The anti-EU PVV has published its manifesto for May’s European elections — a single page of text containing seven points for action.

The manifesto was sent to the Dutch media by email, without a press conference or opportunities for questions. The PVV is the first Dutch party to publish its manifesto for the May 22 vote.

The PVV currently has four MEPs in the European parliament but their leader Laurence Stassens resigned last week after Geert Wilders led supporters in an anti-Moroccan chant after last week’s local elections.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Radicals Want to Ruin Spain’s Democracy’

Spain’s head of police has warned there is a “growth in violence” aimed at “destabilizing the rule of law” in Spain, but many Spaniards think his words are a trumped-up “conspiracy” to justify harsher police powers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Riot Police Called in as Violent Clashes Break Out Across France After Far-Right National Front Win Dramatic Gains in Local Elections

Fights started outside French town halls tonight as they came under the control of the far-right National Front for the first time following dramatic gains in local elections.

Exit polls suggested that the anti-immigration and anti-Europe party had roundly beaten the governing Socialists in a number of key constituencies.

‘Demonstrators are trying to get at the Front representatives and starting fights,’ said a police spokesman in Frejus, the picturesque Mediterranean town which is hugely popular with British tourists.

Frejus and nearby Beziers are now expected to have National Front (FN) mayors sworn in, along with around five other towns, following a nationwide drubbing for President Francois Hollande’s Socialists..

Riot police were also out in force in other parts of the country as anti-fascist demonstrators threatened FN candidates with violence.

It meant further humiliation for Mr Hollande, whose disastrous tax and spend policies have led to economic stagnation, so opening the electoral door to the FN, which is regularly accused of being racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim.

David Rachline, who is expected to become the FN mayor of Frejus, is a former head of the party’s youth movement, and still just 26.

Mr Rachline said: ‘The political establishment has failed the people — it has ruined the town and filled its pockets.

‘You can’t talk about a protest vote any more — the Front’s scores show that people are backing its ideas.’

In a deeply humiliating blow for the Socialist government, finance minister Pierre Moscovici was unseated from the town council in Valentigny in the Doubs department…

           — Hat tip: Steen [Return to headlines]
 

Some 113,000 Italians Own 23 Bn Euros in Foreign Real Estate

Another 130,000 declare 28 bn euros in finances abroad

(ANSA) — Rome, March 26 — At least 113,000 Italians declared real estate abroad worth 23 billion euros, according to 2012 tax returns. Another 130,000 citizens declared financial activity abroad totalling 28 billion euros in the same year.

Also in 2012, Italy’s population reached almost 60 million and GDP was almost 1.5 trillion euros, making it the ninth-largest world economy, according to the International Monetary Fund.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Barcelona Gets Europe’s First ‘3D Printer Café’

The first FabCafe in Spain opened on Thursday, allowing customers to print their own 3D models and watch lasers cut their designs while they sit down with a relaxing cup of café con leche.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Madrid Archaeological Museum to Reopen

Spain’s National Archaeological Museum reopens to the public on Tuesday after a massive six-year overhaul that aims to offer a state-of-the-art space for its collection of ancient artefacts.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Switzerland: Topless Protest Group Founder Denied Asylum

Swiss authorities have rejected a request for asylum by Anna Hutsol, the founder of Ukrainian women’s protest group Femen, whose members are famous for baring their breasts to make political statements.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Switzerland: World’s Most Costly Watch Unveiled in Basel

British jeweller Graff has unveiled what it described as the “most valuable watch ever created” — a timepiece replete with more than 110 carats of diamonds costing $55 million.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: All Cannings ‘Neolithic’ Long Barrow Takes Shape

The first “Neolithic” long barrow to be built in the UK for 5,000 years, is attracting interest from all over the world. The burial chamber at All Cannings near Devizes in Wiltshire will contain niches housing urns of cremated ashes, and is set to be finished later this year.

Developer Tim Daw, who owns the farmland on which it is being built, said he was “absolutely thrilled” with its progress.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Are British Prisons a ‘Terrorist Breeding Ground’?

UK up in arms after survey reveals Islamists radicalizing prisoners from the inside, Al Qaeda literature found in cells.

Concerns were raised Sunday over startling statistics which reveal that the number of Muslim prisoners in British prisons has doubled over the past decade. Figures from UK’s Ministry of Justice show that the number has ballooned to 11,729 (14%) — up from just 5,502 (7.7%) in 2002 — according to the Independent, and accounts for over one-seventh of all British inmates. The rate is expected to continue rising rapidly because of the large numbers of Muslim teenagers in youth jails — as well as aggressive attempts by Islamist prisoners to recruit and convert other convicts…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Disabled Boy’s Walking Frame is Seized by NHS Ahead of Home Move

Four-year-old Oliver McConnell, from Oxfordshire had the walking aid he needs due to his cerebral palsy removed after a health worker found out he was moving away…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Is Maggie’s Muslim Heir Set to Follow Her Into No 10?

Raised by a shopkeeper who instilled the value of hard work… treasury star Sajid Javid may claim the biggest prize

His meteoric rise includes:

  • Playing a key role in drawing up the Budget with his mentor and boss, George Osborne.
  • Riling Ed Miliband by linking his ‘cynical’ refusal to back military action in Syria to Russia’s invasion of Crimea, claiming he was ‘completely unfit to lead Britain’.
  • Calling the euro a ‘bankruptcy machine’ and saying he would not shrink from quitting the EU if it won’t give Britain a better deal.
  • Turning from poacher to gamekeeper to lead a crackdown on rogue bankers.

Ambitious Javid seems certain to win Cabinet promotion in the next reshuffle — with some tipping the Conservatives’ first British-Pakistani MP as a future leader.

But scratch the steely surface and there is a softer side to Bromsgrove MP Javid, 44, as he showed when he wooed wife and childhood sweetheart Laura as teenagers in Bristol…

In pride of place in his office is a portrait of his heroine, Margaret Thatcher. He has been a fan since the precocious age of 11.

‘I instinctively thought, “I really admire this woman”. My dad lived through the winter of discontent and used to vote Labour, but switched to Thatcher, saying, “look how she’s sorting out the country”. I agreed.’

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: James Lovelock: Environmentalism Has Become a Religion

Environmentalism has “become a religion” and does not pay enough attention to facts, according to James Lovelock.

The 94 year-old scientist, famous for his Gaia hypothesis that Earth is a self-regulating, single organism, also said that he had been too certain about the rate of global warming in his past book, that “it’s just as silly to be a (climate) denier as it is to be a believer” and that fracking and nuclear power should power the UK, not renewable sources such as windfarms.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Skeletons of Black Death Victims Dug Up During Excavations for London Crossrail

Skeletons unearthed during excavations for London’s Crossrail project are those of Black Death victims who were buried during the 14th and 15th Century pandemics, DNA analysis has revealed.

The skeletons of 13 men, three women and two children, along with seven other unidentifiable remains, were found under Charterhouse Square in Farringdon during excavation work for the £14.8 billion project.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Tragic Ben Cowburn ‘Told Nurse That TV Comic Raped Him’

The nurse also believes the celebrity, who was not named at the inquest in Truro, Cornwall, plied the 18-year-old with drink and drugs to ensure he gave his ‘consent’ for sex.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Top-Security UK Prison Where Terror Fanatics Serve Life Sentences is ‘Al-Qaeda Recruiting Centre’

At category A Whitemoor jail an astonishing 42 per cent of convicts follow the Islamic faith — a figure in stark contrast to the overall UK population of just 5%

A top-security prison where almost half the inmates are Muslims is a breeding ground for Islamic extremists, experts warned last night. The Sunday People reveals that category A Whitemoor jail, where terror fanatics are serving life sentences for plotting mass murder in the UK, is a recruiting centre for al Qaeda, according to alarmed staff, prison inspectors and politicians.

An astonishing 42 per cent of convicts at the prison near March, Cambs, follow the Islamic faith. The figure is in stark contrast to the overall UK population in which just five per cent are Muslim.

Violent jihadists in Whitemoor are recruiting vulnerable inmates , pressurising them into converting to Islam before joining terrorist groups, the Government has been warned. One prison officers’ union source said: “Whitemoor is now effectively run by Muslims, many of whom are Jihadis.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Teachers ‘Assaulted and Marginalised in Islamising Plot’

Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, alleges ‘Trojan Horse’ plan to import hardline views into schools

Staff at one of the Birmingham schools targeted by Muslim hardliners in the so-called “Trojan Horse” plot were assaulted as part of a campaign against the school management, official documents show.

The disclosure comes as one local Muslim MP said he was certain there was an “extensive operation” to import fundamentalist views into supposedly secular state schools and “split young people away from their parents”…

[JP note: See also http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-26717718 ]

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Sets Late May Presidential Election Date

Egypt’s election commission has said presidential elections will be held May 26 and 27. Former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who orchestrated last year’s ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, is the frontrunner.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Libya: Egyptian Killed in Armed Attack in Benghazi — FM

An Egyptian man was killed in an armed attack on a vegetables store in Libya’s Benghazi early on Saturday, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry has said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Benjamin Netanyahu Accuses UN of ‘Hypocrisy’ Over Human Rights Votes

Israel’s prime minister has branded resolutions criticising his country’s human rights “absurd” in the face of the Syrian civil war and violations elsewhere

Benjamin Netanyahu revived Israel’s historic antipathy to the UN on Sunday by accusing its human rights watchdog of “hypocrisy”, saying it had passed a series of anti-Israel resolutions while “slaughter”, executions and anti-media crackdowns were rife elsewhere in the Middle East.

“Over the weekend the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) condemned Israel five times, this at a time when the slaughter in Syria is continuing, innocent people are being hung in the Middle East and human rights are being eroded,” the Israeli prime minister told a weekly cabinet meeting.

“In many countries the free media are closed down and the UN Human Rights Council decided to condemn Israel. It’s absurd. This procession of hypocrisy goes on and we shall continue to denounce and expose it.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Bahrain Jails 16 Shiites for Life

A Bahraini court on Sunday jailed 16 Shiites for life and two others 10 years for an attack that wounded two policemen in a village near Manama, a judicial source said.

Authorities in the Sunni-ruled, but Shiite majority, kingdom, who have been facing a Shiite-led unrest since 2011, increased last year the penalties for those convicted of violence, introducing the death penalty or life sentences in certain cases.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bomb Attacks Kill 16 in Iraq

A series of attacks in Iraq, including a shooting at a security checkpoint and a suicide car bomb, killed 16 people and destroyed a bridge on Sunday, said officials.

Police officials said the deadliest attack took place when attackers sprayed with bullets a group of troops manning a checkpoint early Sunday, near the city of Mosul, 360 kilometres northwest of Baghdad…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Early Results Have Turkish PM Erdogan’s Party Leading Local Elections

The party of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is leading key local elections, according to initial results. Clashes in rural areas during the vote resulted in at least eight deaths.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Group ‘Executes’ Two Young Saudis in Syria

An unverified video appeared on social media sites on Friday purportedly showing a jihadi group executing two young Saudis in Syria. The clip showed the perpetrators shooting the two young men, aged 21 and 24, with a pistol and machine gun.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Lebanon Vows to Fight Terror After Soldiers Killed

The Lebanese army has vowed to battle ‘terrorism’ after a car bomb blast killed three soldiers in eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria.

“The army knows that it is now more than ever targeted by terrorists who want to prevent the establishment of the authority of the state and its attempts to eliminate discord,” the military said in a statement released late on Saturday…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Visit Allows Rare Glimpse of Saudi Royal Life

It took the arrival of a White House press pool on President Barack Obama’s Saudi visit — and the power of Twitter — to reveal some closely-guarded mysteries of the Saudi royal family to its Saudi subjects.

The top news from the U.S. press pool’s visit inside the palace: King Abdullah, who is in his 90s, now uses supplementary oxygen to breathe. U.S. news agencies allowed in to snap photos for the opening of two hours of talks between the Saudi and American leaders carried photos clearly showing the king breathing with the aid of oxygen tubes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: The Jihadi Town Where ‘Brides’ Are Snatched From Schools

Once liberal bastion Raqqa was over-run by al-Qaeda group before secular rebels launched a fight back

A year ago, the city of Raqqa in northern Syria was sprouting political activist groups and philosophical discussion circles. A “guerrilla gardening” squad promoted environmental awareness by planting vegetables in central reservations.

The liberals who made it a base after the rebels swept in and drove out the regime in March last year are gone, disbanded, accused of supporting democracy and other “kuffar” or infidel beliefs, their members living either underground or in Turkey…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Inside an Al Qaeda Prison

Former prisoner shows The Telegraph around the jihadi-run prison in northern Syria where he was held and tortured

Until very recently this jail in Azaz northern Syria was run by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), an ultra-violent Al-Qaeda off-shoot, as they tried to establish a caliphate in the region spreading from northern Syria to northern Iraq…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Femen Protest Topless Against Erdogan’s Dictatorship

(AGI) Ankara, March 30 — The feminist group Femen stormed a Turkish polling station where Prime Minister Recep Tayyp Erdogan was expected to cast his vote on Sunday. The Femen members expressed their protest against the Turkish premier by going topless during the country’s local elections. “During the day of the so-called elections”, the Femen movement wrote on its Facebook page: “Femen, together with brave Turkish activists, intends to ban Erdogan and his Internet shutdown policies, his state police and his forced Islamisation of a free and secular Turkey”.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Two Spanish Journalists Freed in Syria: Report

Two Spanish journalists taken hostage by an Al-Qaeda-linked group last year have been freed, the Spanish daily El Mundo reported Sunday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Corporate Interests Behind Ukraine Putsch

Behind the U.S.-backed coup that ousted the democratically elected president of Ukraine are the economic interests of giant corporations — from Cargill to Chevron — which see the country as a potential “gold mine” of profits from agricultural and energy exploitation, reports JP Sottile.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Russia’s Military Begins Nuclear War Drill

While much Western attention has been bestowed on Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine, Moscow also began a massive nuclear offensive exercise on Thursday.

According to the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, on Thursday Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces began a massive three-day exercise involving 10,000 soldiers and 1,000 pieces of equipment from more than 30 units. The major purpose of the drill, according to the report — which cites multiple senior Russian military officers — is to ensure Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces have sufficient readiness to conduct offensive operations involving the massive and simultaneous use of nuclear missiles.

Global Security Newswire previously carried a story on the nuclear exercise, also citing theNezavisimaya Gazeta article. GSN described the exercise as “as practice for a large-scale nuclear offensive.” It added: “Exercise participants were set to position and prepare missile-firing units for launch, and to practice various administrative and support functions for the operation

As Russia’s conventional military capabilities have deteriorated following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow has become increasingly reliant on operationalizing its nuclear arsenal. This has been reflected in successive Russian security documents. For example, Russia’s 1997 national security concept stated that Russia would use its nuclear arsenal “in case of a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation,” whether that threat came in the form of nuclear weapons or from a conventionally superior military power.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine: Campaign for Donetsk ‘To Join UK’

By News from Elsewhere… …as found by BBC Monitoring

Some residents in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk have launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign to join the UK, because the city was founded by an industrialist from Wales, it appears.

“Donetsk residents! English brothers! The decisive moment has come!” says the online appeal (which makes no distinction between England and Wales), according to Novosti Donbassa website. The campaign appears to parody Crimea’s recent referendum on joining Russia, which has resonated across eastern Ukraine.

The heavily industrialised city was established in the late 19th Century as a foundry run by John Hughes, a native of Wales. Locals called him John Yuz, so the town was initially named Yuzovka.

“We demand a referendum on returning Yuzovka to its historical fold as part of the UK! Glory to John Hughes and his city! God save the Queen!” the campaign adds.

Ukraine’s fifth-largest city is a hotbed of pro-Moscow sentiment in Ukraine and the home of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych — who has now fled to Russia.

Donetsk has seen violent clashes over Ukraine’s ties with Russia, in which at least one person has died. Kiev claims pro-Moscow rallies in eastern Ukraine involve “provocateurs” from Russia and even members of Russian secret services.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine: Crimea’s Combat Dolphins Find Themselves a New Master

Ukraine’s pod of elite fighting dolphins have “defected” to Russia — and are unlikely to return

While Russia has promised to hand over the Ukrainian military kit it captured during the annexation of Crimea, one unit will probably have to remain behind. The marine mammal training program in Sevastopol’s Cossack Bay has trained dolphins and other sea creatures for navy work since 1965. The dolphins are trained to identify underwater obstacles, locate missing kit, and fight and even kill enemy frogmen…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Crisis: British Forces to Join NATO Wargames

British forces will take part in Nato exercises in the Baltics in order to ‘reassure’ allies in face of Russian aggression

British troops will take part in wargames in the Baltics in order to reassure Ukraine in the face of a potential Russian invasion, the Defence Secretary said today. Philip Hammond said Britain would stand by its Nato allies as he warned Russia may attempt to seize more territory.

He said claims from senior generals that defence cuts had left the Armed Forces “hollowed out” are “nonsense”, and insisted withdrawing armoured regiments from Germany to bases in Britain would make them more effective. Lord Dannatt, the former head of the Armed Forces, last week suggested 3,000 troops should remain in Germany in order to send a “military statement” to the Kremlin…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Watch This Reaction: Putin Laughs Right in This Journalist’s Face (Video)

When an interviewer recently confronted Vladimir Putin about Europe’s American-made missile defense system, the President of the Russian Federation couldn’t help but laugh right in his face.

According to the journalist, NATO’s missile defense system is pointed at and designed to protect Europe from the nuclear threat posed by Iran, not Russia.

Putin’s reaction is a must-see.

Interview: NATO claims the missile shield was not built against you but against Iran.

[Putin begins laughing almost uncontrollably]

Putin: You really make me laugh. God bless you because it’s almost time to finish the day… indeed it’s already time to go to sleep. At least I get home in good humor.

What’s even more humorous is the seriousness of the interviewer’s subsequent reaction to being laughed at.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Western Looting of Ukraine Has Begun

It is now apparent that the “Maiden protests” in Kiev were in actuality a Washington organized coup against the elected democratic government. The purpose of the coup is to put NATO military bases on Ukraine’s border with Russia and to impose an IMF austerity program that serves as cover for Western financial interests to loot the country. The sincere idealistic protesters who took to the streets without being paid were the gullible dupes of the plot to destroy their country.

Politically Ukraine is an untenable aggregation of Ukrainian and Russian territory, because traditional Russian territories were stuck into the borders of the Ukraine Soviet Republic by Lenin and Khrushchev. The Crimea, stuck into Ukraine by Khrushchev, has already departed and rejoined Russia. Unless some autonomy is granted to them, Russian areas in eastern and southern Ukraine might also depart and return to Russia. If the animosity displayed toward the Russian speaking population by the stooge government in Kiev continues, more defections to Russia are likely.

The Washington-imposed coup faces other possible difficulties from what seems to be a growing conflict between the well-organized Right Sector and the Washington-imposed stooges. If armed conflict between these two groups were to occur, Washington might conclude that it needs to send help to its stooges. The appearance of US/NATO troops in Ukraine would create pressure on Putin to occupy the remaining Russian speaking parts of Ukraine.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bomb Blast Kills 1, Wounds 15 in Southern Afghan Town

TRINKOT, Afghanistan, March 30 (Xinhua) — A powerful bomb blast rocked Trinkot city, capital of Afghanistan’s Uruzgan Province, some 370 km south of Kabul on Sunday, killing one person and injuring 15 others, who were all civilians, deputy to provincial police chief Mohammad Aslam Kuchi said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Concern as Brunei Brings in System of Islamic Law With Punishments That Include the Dismemberment of Limbs and Stoning to Death

The Sultan of Brunei, one of the world’s wealthiest rulers and a close ally of Britain, will this week oversee his country’s transition to a system of Islamic law with punishments that include flogging, the dismemberment of limbs and stoning to death.

The 67-year-old absolute monarch declared last year that he wanted to introduce a full sharia system in his oil-rich nation and warned critics who took to social media sites to complain that they could be prosecuted using the new laws.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Daughter of MH370 Pilot Raises Alarming New Questions About His State of Mind in Weeks Before Plane’s Disappearance

‘He wasn’t the father I knew. He was lost and disturbed’

  • Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was about to divorce his wife of 30 years
  • He had refused to attend marriage counselling with Islamic elders
  • He shunned family and spent hours alone on his flight simulator

The pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight was in emotional turmoil over the break-up of his marriage, his family have revealed.

Speaking about the mystery for the first time, the wife and daughter of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah said the 53-year-old pilot had been distracted and withdrawn in the weeks before the aircraft’s disappearance — and refused pleas to attend some marriage counselling sessions.

Three weeks after Flight MH370 went missing with 239 crew and passengers aboard, investigators in Malaysia believe that someone — possibly the captain — deliberately steered the Boeing 777 off course after communications were cut.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Missing Plane Families Demand Malaysia Apology

Chinese relatives of passengers on board flight MH370 have held a protest in Malaysia claiming they are being deceived by authorities.

The group of 32 family members arrived in Kuala Lumpur from Beijing and held a press conference where they unfurled banners and shouted: “We want evidence! We want truth! We want our loved ones!”

Messages on the banners read: “You must return relatives of MH370, no strings attached” and “Hand us the murderer, hand us the truth”.

Aircraft searching for the missing plane have spotted red, white and orange objects floating in the ocean off Australia’s west coast. However, none of the items have been confirmed as coming from flight MH370, and they are unlikely to be ruled in our out until ships are able to locate and recover them.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

More Chinese Relatives Arrive in Malaysia to Demand Information on MH370

Several Chinese families of passengers who were on board missing flight MH370 have gone to Malaysia seeking information on the incident. A search for the plane in a new area has so far been fruitless.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Video Games Linked to Aggressive Behavior in Kids, Says Study

Youths who play video games are more likely to think and act in aggressive ways, suggested a study out Monday of more than 3,000 schoolchildren in Singapore. The research, published in JAMA Pediatrics, a journal of the American Medical Association, was based on more than 3,034 children who were studied over the course of three years. Frequent use of video games was linked to higher rates of aggressive behaviors and thoughts, according to self-reported answers to survey questions by the children. The participants’ average age was 11 at the start of the study, and three-quarters of them were boys. The study also found that answers were similar among boys and girls, and that parental involvement was not likely to change behavior.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A New ‘Silk Road’ Linking Germany and China

One of the world’s longest railways — a “modern-day silk road” — covers some 11,000 kilometres (7,000 miles) en route from the Chinesee megacity of Chongqing to Duisburg, a key commercial hub in western Germany. It’s an industrial marvel lauded by both nations as AFP’s Estelle Peard discovered.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hammer-Wielding Robbers Cause Chaos at Philippine Mall

Manila (AFP) — A band of robbers armed with guns and hammers shot it out with Philippine police inside one of the world’s largest shopping malls Sunday, sending Manila shoppers scrambling for safety, police and witnesses said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North Korea Threatens ‘New Form’ of Nuclear Test, Slams United Nations

North Korea has defended its recent rocket drills and says it might carry out other types of nuclear tests. Its remarks come in response to UN condemnation of Pyongyang’s latest missile launch.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Taiwan Stages Mass Anti-China Trade Pact Rally

More than 100,000 Taiwanese protesters took to the streets in Taipei on Sunday in a bid to pressure embattled President Ma Ying-jeou to retract a controversial trade pact with the mainland.

The protesters, many wearing black shirts and headbands reading “defend democracy, retract service trade pact,” crowded the streets leading to the presidential office, despite fresh concessions offered by Ma to further scrutinise agreements with Beijing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thousands in Taiwan Protest China Trade Deal

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the streets around Taiwan’s Parliament on Sunday to voice their opposition to a trade pact with China, part of a nearly 2-week-old protest that is challenging the president’s policy of moving the democratic island economically closer to China.

Lin Fei-fan, a protest organizer, estimated that 500,000 people had turned out in the biggest demonstration since the movement started. An Associated Press estimate put the number at more than 200,000, and a police estimate at more than 100,000.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Special Envoy Call as Australians Join Syria Fight

The Abbott government is being urged to appoint a new special envoy to closely monitor Middle East turmoil for a new generation of terrorist threats. Syria is a special concern, with up to 150 Australians suspected to have joined record numbers of foreign fighters flocking to the conflict.

But a new report warns that wider tensions in Egypt and sectarian clashes elsewhere in the region have created an “incubator” for terrorism of a kind not seen since before the September 11, 2001 attacks…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Ethiopia: Is This the Most Farcical Use of Taxpayers’ Money Ever?

Ethiopian gets legal aid from UK — to sue us for giving aid to… Ethiopia

An Ethiopian farmer has been given legal aid in the UK to sue Britain — because he claims millions of pounds sent by the UK to his country is supporting a brutal regime that has ruined his life…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Not Less Than 22 Killed During Gun Battle at SSS Headquarters

Abuja — About 22 insurgents were feared killed during a the Sunday morning fierce shootout at the headquarters of the State Security Service, SSS, located less than 30 meters from the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The insurgents were said to have been shot after they escaped from their cells and engaged the operatives in a fierce gun battle…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: 20 Boko Haram Suspects Killed in Abuja DSS Attack

Security Beefed Up Around Presidential Villa, Abuja

No fewer than 20 Boko Haram detainees have been shot dead in a shoutout that ensued this morning at the Department of State Security Service in the Asokoro a district of Abuja.

Vanguard learnt that the shoutout erupted when some of the suspected terrorists attempted to free their members and leave the detention facility, which is by the precincts of the Presidential Villa…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Brazilian Army Occupy Shantytown Ahead of World Cup

(AGI) Rio de Janeiro, March 30 — The Brazilian army has seized control of the vast Mare favela shantytown near Rio de Janeiro airport in a bid to suppress crime in the area before Brazil hosts the 2014 World Cup Football and the 2016 Olympic Games.

Mare, a drug-trafficking stronghold, is considered one of the most dangerous places in the city.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Maya Skulls Show Signs of Wooden-Club Warfare

Head injuries on Maya skulls are consistent with the use of spiked clubs, as depicted in Maya artwork, according to a study led by bioarchaeologist Stan Serafin of Central Queensland University. He examined 116 skulls from different periods of Maya history in 13 different sites from Mexico’s Northwest Yucatan. The team concluded that warfare could have decreased during the classic period, but increased slightly in the Postclassic period, “which is to be expected since hard times tend to breed violence,” Serafin told CQUniNews.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Secret Disastrous SAS Attempt to Invade Argentina Revealed

In the Falklands War, crack troops go on a suicidal mission to storm Galtieri’s Exocet missile base. This is their story — told for the first time

SAS troopers, led by Captain Andrew Lawrence, were ordered to attack a detachment of Argentina’ s Super Etendarde fighter planes in May 1982…

The consul came on the line. Lawrence recalls: ‘I spoke to him and he was horrified as he hadn’t been briefed. He was terrified.

‘I said, ‘‘I’ve got all these guys in the field with no food and I need to do something about them,” but all he could say was, ‘‘My advice is that you give yourselves up’’.’

The lack of understanding or assistance from an official of the British Foreign Office was a deep and unexpected disappointment.

[Commenter: commonsense, folkestone, At the same time spares for the exocets where bieng manufactured in England and delivered to France,As soon as they arrived in France the boxes were relabled and shipped directly to Argentina.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Freedom! Spain!’ Shout 800 Migrants at Border

A mass assault on the border fences of Spain’s north-African enclave of Melilla by 800 would-be immigrants chanting “Spain! Spain!” and “Freedom!” was caught on camera by witnesses including celebrity journalist Jordi Évole.

Repeated assaults on Spain’s border with Morocco by would-be immigrants have hit the headlines regularly in 2014. Last week, Melilla President Juan José Imbroda was quoting as saying “We can’t go on like this,” by Spain’s El Mundo newspaper.

The territories of Ceuta and Melilla sit across the Mediterranean from mainland Spain and are a key entry point for migrants seeking a better life in Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Berlin: Number of Criminal Arab Immigrants Continuously on the Rise

The crash course has ended. Two agents bring Nidal R. (31, name altered) down to the asphalt. He has just destroyed a number of cars with his Porsche Cayenne in the district of Schöneberg in Berlin. The damages make for a total amount of 30.000 euros. The agents pull out one of them from the streets — but there are many following his footsteps. There are 484 young massive offenders in Berlin by now…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Ten Migrants Clear Melilla Border Fence

Around 800 African migrants made a coordinated attempt to jump the border fence separating the Spanish exclave of Melilla from Moroccan territory early Friday morning, the government delegation reported.

Ten of them succeeded in making it over into European soil, while the rest were stopped by Spanish and Moroccan law enforcement officers. Madrid recently increased the Civil Guard and National Police contingents at the border, following several massive runs on the fence.

During this latest attempt, most of the would-be immigrants were pushed back by Moroccan gendarmes. Those who made it to the top of the fence cried out “Spain, freedom, freedom!” and “Bosa, bosa,” which means “victory.”

One day earlier Spanish and Moroccan police had held back around 1,000 migrants who attempted to jump over as well.

So far this year more than 1,600 undocumented sub-Saharans have managed to enter Spain despite the concertina wire and other security measures that are in place. That figure is already higher than for all of 2013, and illustrates the growing migratory pressure on Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s two exclaves in the north of Africa, which are viewed as a gateway to Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swiss Immigration Vote Ticks Off Watchmakers

Switzerland’s recent vote to curtail immigration from the European Union could seriously impact the Alpine country’s booming watch trade, industry insiders have warned.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Franklin Graham: Obama Administration Instilling a Spirit of ‘Anti-Christ’

Some of the people working in the Obama administration and in the White House are trying to “completely secularize our military” and are “hostile to Christians,” to the point that they “are anti-Christ in what they say and in what they do,” said Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of world-renowned preacher Rev. Billy Graham. Franklin Graham made his comments during a Mar. 24 interview with Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, which published an updated report on religious persecution in the U.S. armed forces this month. During the interview on Washington Watch Weekly, Perkins asked Graham, “I would have to believe you’re also tracking, in fact I know you’re tracking because you were a part of it — when you were scheduled to speak at the Pentagon a few years ago they disinvited you — are you concerned about this intense religious hostility that we see manifesting in our nation’s military?”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Hollywood Noah: Environmentalist Human Hater

The film differentiates itself from the biblical account by not being about God’s rejection of man’s general immorality, but instead is a condemnation of mankind’s destruction of the earth. The Genesis race of giant’s called Nephilim aid Noah building his ark. Noah is furious about the earth destroyers, and is glad when they are judged and wiped off the earth…

In other words, the differences between this movie and the Bible’s text are large, humanistic and certain to frustrate biblical literalists. In fact, it’s hard not to see the script as a rejection of the biblical story in general. Instead, it replaces the vision of Yahweh with that of the neo-pagan GAIA, and makes mankind a type of virus despoiling mother earth.

The Noah of the Bible was a much different sort than Aranofsky’s description. He was the only real man of faith left on the earth before the flood, and when given his mission he obeyed God. The Noah story is found in Genesis 6-9. Here is a summary:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Molech Would be Pleased

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

The Bible contains many warnings against an abhorrent practice of the Canaanites, who had previously possessed the land God gave to Israel. One such admonition: “You shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech” (Leviticus 18:21). “Passing through the fire” was an abominable practice in which people sought to appease the heathen god Molech and seek his benefit by sacrificing their own children in fire.

Who would have thought that this ancient heathen deity would so plainly rear his head in the modern Britain?

A Channel 4 Dispatches episode in the United Kingdom — “Exposing Hospital Heartache,” first aired Monday, March 24, 2014, revealing that many British hospitals are not only incinerating the remains of aborted and miscarried babies as “clinical waste” but are also burning some of those bodies as a means of heating their buildings in “waste-to-energy” programs.

The television program was preceded that day by a number of reports in the news providing the grisly and tragic details.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pointing to Disaster — The Flawed Moral Vision of World Vision [Updated]

UPDATE [March 26, 2014] The President of World Vision U.S. announced today that the Board of Directors has reversed its decision and would return to its previous policy that affirms sexual abstinence for all unmarried employees and defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Additional comment will be posted as soon as possible.

Like all revolutions, moral revolutions are marked by events that signal major turning points in social transformation. Yesterday, March 24, 2014, will be remembered as one of those days. The headline in the news story by Christianity Today made the issue easy enough to understand — “World Vision: Why We’re Hiring Gay Christians in Same-Sex Marriages.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Public Schools Told to Give Free Morning-After Abortifacients to Underage Girls (Without a Prescription) So Their Unwanted Babies Can Die

Schools have been told they should provide free morning-after pills and condoms to teenage girls, including those under the age of consent, to cut unwanted pregnancies. New guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said that under-25s should be able to access emergency contraception more readily, including pills and the IUD (intrauterine device, or coil). Under the plans, Nice said suitably qualified nurses, including school nurses, and pharmacists should be given the ability to dispense free emergency contraceptive pills in accordance with patient group directions (PGDs). PGDs allow health workers to supply a medicine directly to a patient without the need for a prescription.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sen. Inhofe: ‘Barack Obama’s Administration is Attempting to Write a New Moral Code’

If you restrict those of faith from applying their conscience to the world around them, then you quench the progress of freedom. It is David Green’s faith practiced in his day-to-day business decisions that led him and his family to build a successful, nationwide company. It is this same conscience that compelled Green to guarantee his employees a day off during the week so that it could be spent in their religious communities and with their families. It was also this same belief that compelled Green to care for the wellbeing of Hobby Lobby’s employees, providing hourly wages far above the national average and providing them health benefits before the federal government mandated it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

World Vision President Richard Stearns: “We Don’t Proselytize.”

In a 2007, Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, was interviewed and gave this response to one of the questions:

Question: Are you trying to end poverty or evangelize Christianity?

Richard Stearns: As a Christian organization, we are motivated by our commitment to Christ to love our neighbors and care for the less fortunate. That’s why we do what we do. We don’t proselytize. We do not force our religious beliefs on anyone, and we don’t discriminate in our delivery of aid in any way. If the people we serve want to know why we are there, we tell them. St. Francis once said: “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” Love put into action is a compelling and attractive worldview. (Online source: Ten [or so] Questions With Richard Stearns)

This response given by Stearns, about World Vision workers not proselytizing (evangelizing) the lost they serve (and also stated on the World Vision website under the “Our Approach” section), further gives evidence that World Vision, while claiming to be Christian organization, is a relief organization almost entirely void of any Christian distinctives.

We recently noted in several articles that World Vision has the appearance of being more of a relief organization than a Christian one, in that on their website, their humanitarian efforts are greatly emphasized, while the gospel is given short shrift. Yes, Jesus and the gospel get brief, albeit vague, cameos, but the overall tenor of the World Vision website is that of a relief organization.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Daniel Pipes: The Middle East Forum Debates Moderate Islam

Raymond Ibrahim’s recent piece for CBN, “Why ‘Moderate Islam’ is an Oxymoron,” has prompted questions because it contradicts my views and yet (because he is a fellow at the Middle East Forum) it appears on MEForum.org and was sent to the MEF mailing list.

In reply, some comments on the content of his article and the propriety of its appearing with Middle East Forum sponsorship:

(1) On content: Ibrahim and I agree that a moderate Islam does not presently exist but disagree whether it might potentially exist. In the words of an article I published last year, “a reformed Islam can emerge” if Muslims:…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

It’s Time to Reclaim Islam From the Fanatics. Here’s How

by Irshad Manji

Can my religion be reconciled with free expression? The answer is yes

I am not a moderate Muslim, I am a reformist. Rooting out corrupt practices can never be an act of mere moderation. Restoring integrity, or wholeness, is always a radical act. It transcends notions of left and right, emphasising the need to think independently. In Islam, independent thought has a strong history, not that you’d know it from the news about bombings, beheadings and bloodshed…

[Reader comment by Gwanji on 28 March 2014.]

Well, 30 years or more ago in the UK, most Muslims did not follow radical Wahabi literalist version of Islam, which has been promoted using Saudi oil money in The West since then. The Muslims I knew were modern — wore Western clothes, didn’t pray 5 times a day (no more obligation for Muslims to do that than for Catholics to attend mass 5 times a day). They did not have bushy beards, go to the mosque every Friday or wear burkas or even headscarves.

(Now we have head-scarfed women reading the news — sticking 2 fingers up at our country and culture courtesy of our own society’s inability to demand integration and loyalty from those we have offered protection, equality and opportunities.)

Then our idiotic Multiculturalist ideology created a monster, especially after turning a blind eye to the death threats and extremism visible in 1989 when Muslims called for the killing and torture of an innocent man for writing a book (Iqbal Sacranie was later leader of The Muslim Council — an unelected politbureau of bigots — and was made a Sir by Tony Blair).

The answer is simple: we should not give one inch to any Islamic demands. We should instead enforce our Western Enlightenment values on Muslims and all those who live in the UK, And if they do not like it, then they can go live in a failed state like Pakistan where they are free to marry their 12 year old cousins and murder gays or anyone who dares to speak the truth about Islam and its history and its so-called prophet (husband of a 6 year old), who was also utterly intolerant of criticism.

Britain should be Britain once again and we should stop appeasing these fascists and tolerating the intolerable. End of.

[Reader comment by crosscop on 28 March 2014.]

More and more people are beginning to realise that allowing Muslim immigration into Europe has been a terrible, terrible blunder — perhaps the greatest blunder in the continent’s entire history. It can only end badly. There is as little chance of Islam being reformed as me finding a unicorn grazing my lawn. The Koran is Islam and Islam is the Koran. To mess with the barbaric teachings that litter the Koran is blasphemy and blasphemers will be murdered. How do you actually go about reforming the instructions to kill, crucify and mutilate people as per Sura 5:33, for instance, Irshad? These are instructions from Allah himself.

I just wish that Islam could be sent back whence it came. Our leaders have invited a monster to live amongst us.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Night Falls on Civilization

Earth Hour stigmatizes human accomplishment: The environmental movement is tenacious, fanatical and deceptive. Its creed is the undoing of all human progress.

Earth Hour stigmatizes human accomplishment as the root of all evils and treats the lack of accomplishment as an accomplishment. For all the pretense of activism, environmentalism celebrates inaction.

Don’t build, don’t create and don’t do — are its mandates. Turn off the lights and feel good about how much you aren’t doing right now.

Humanity is what is wrong with the world. It began with fire, then the wheelbarrow, the lever and the ax, the mason, the carpenter, the scientist, the visionary. It can end with you.

Just turn out the lights.

Environmentalism has degenerated from valuing how much the skies and the oceans, the butterfly and the beaver, the still lake and the blade of grass, enrich our humanity into a conviction that all human activity is destructive because the species of man is the greatest threat to the planet. Each death, each act of undoing and unmaking, each darkness that is brought about by the cessation of humanity becomes a profoundly environmentalist activity.

Kill yourself and save the planet. Put out the lights, tear down the city and let the earth revert to some imaginary primeval paradise free of all pollution; whether it is the carbon breath of men, dogs and cows or the light pollution of their cities.

Embrace the darkness…

The WWF, Earth Hour’s godmother, has learned that shrill attention seeking is a reliable fundraising method. One of the WWF’s more memorable fundraising methods was an ad showing hundreds of planes headed toward the World Trade Center, to highlight just how much more important their work is than fighting terrorism. Franny Armstrong of Age of Stupid, which was promoted by the WWF, ran a 10:10 campaign in the UK, whose ads featured environmentalists murdering dissenters, including a group of schoolchildren. The ads are just ads, but London’s leftist former mayor, Ken Livingstone had said of Age of Stupid, “Every single person in the country should be forcibly sat down on a chair and made to watch this film.”

That is the dark side of environmentalism. The most active non-Muslim domestic terrorist group is environmental. The undercurrent of violence finds easy purchase in environmentalism’s creed that the only real problem with the world is people.

No amount of turning off the lights is enough. Eventually you come around to having to turn off the people.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

One thought on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/30/2014

  1. Re: “Clowns in Britain fear they will soon be out of a job”. Couldn’t they stand for parliament like the others?

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