Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/7/2014

Christians in Turkey are concerned over persistent rumors that Hagia Sophia — which was an Orthodox basilica until the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople turned it into a mosque in 1453 — will become a mosque once again. Political scuttlebutt in Istanbul has it that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will turn Hagia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque in order to revive his flagging political fortunes.

In other news, the fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has requested asylum in the European Union.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, JP, 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
» Chicago’s Credit Rating Takes a Beating, Moody’s Downgrades to Just Above Junk
» Italy: Consumer Spending Continues to Drop in January
» The Looting of Ukraine Has Begun
» U.S. Economy Adds 175,000 Jobs, And Unemployment Rate Ticks Up to 6.7%
 
USA
» A Cop-Killer Advocate Goes Down in Flames in the Senate
» A Run on Ammunition Has Begun: “Russia Has Reportedly Halted All Exports to the US of Russian Made Ammunition”
» A Vast Hidden Surveillance Network Runs Across America, Powered by the Repo Industry
» Alleged Bitcoin Founder Did Classified Work for U.S. Military
» Bold, New Ideas From Republicans, Part 2
» DOJ Sues Philadelphia School District Over Muslim Beards
» EPA Attacks Prospect of World’s Largest Copper Mine
» Female Muslim Leader in Ohio Aims to Reduce Barriers to Faithful
» Mom Who Drove Kids Into Ocean Another Victim of Anti-Depressants?
» Obama Bans Critics of Ukraine Coup From Entering U.S.
» Office Supplies Giant Staples Closing 12% of North American Stores
» Regime Change Blueprint: The NED at Work
» Seven Deadly Assaults That Americans Will and Must Stop
» Thomas Sowell: Freedom is Not Free
 
Canada
» Canadian Police Investigating After Bitcoin Bank Flexcoin Folds
» Government Daycare Suspends 2-Year-Old for Cheese Sandwich
 
Europe and the EU
» Austrian Far-Right Set for Strong Showing in EU Vote
» Edward Snowden Wants Asylum in EU
» Hard Left and Right Set for Gains in Sweden’s EU Vote
» Italy: Scandal-Hit MPS on Another Bourse Roller-Coaster
» Italy: Soccer: Not Selling Milan Says Berlusconi
» Italy: Novartis and Roche Probed Over Alleged Cartel
» Juncker Beats Rival in Centre-Right Race for EU Presidency
» Prejudice’s Latest Victim: Islam
» UK: ‘Really Hard to Eat a Sandwich With Knife and Fork’ Officers Tell Complaining General
» UK: Number 10 Silent on Whether David Cameron Helped His Nanny Get British Citizenship
» UK: Taxi Driver Banned Because of ‘Concerns About Contact With Schoolgirls’
» UK: Tory MP Robert Halfon Claims UKIP Members Back ‘Nazi’ Policies
» UK: Vince Cable: UKIP Supporters Could Push Scotland Out of the UK
» Why Britain Needs Breitbart UK
 
North Africa
» Hamas Rallies Against Egypt Ban on Movement Activities
» In Egypt, Coptic Christian Group Energizes Young People to Fight for Civil Rights
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Caroline Glick: Surviving Obama
» David Cameron May Have to Cancel Israel Visit Over Strikes
 
Middle East
» All Contact Lost With Ma’aloula Nuns. Syria Will Sink Further Into War for Another 10 Years
» Erdogan Threatens to Ban YouTube and Facebook
» Hagia Sophia Might Become Mosque, Christians Alarmed
» Kingdom Designates Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Group
» Russian-Speaking Jihadists Execute Syrians in Aleppo
» Saudi Arabia Declares Muslim Brotherhood a ‘Terrorist Organisation’
» Saudi Arabia: Rillington Firm Ellis Secures Major Deal Supplying Cable Cleats to Holy Mosque in Mecca
» Saudi Lists ‘Terror’ Groups, Orders Islamist Fighters Home
» Syrian Army Advances Amid New Wave of Explosions
 
Russia
» BBC Now Admits: Armed Nazis Led “Revolution” In Kiev, Ukraine
» Obama and Putin Are Trapped in a Macho Game of “Chicken” And the Whole World Could Pay the Price
» Pentagon Studies Putin Body Language for Hint of Intent
» Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad Hails Russia’s Takeover of Crimea
 
South Asia
» Bitcoin CEO Found Dead in Singapore, Suicide Suspected
» Couple to Die for Starving Indonesian Maid
» Kuala Lumpur: Couple Sentenced to Death for Having Starved Indonesian Domestic Worker
» Muslim Malaysia Bans “Ultraman” So Kids Don’t Confuse Him With Allah
 
Far East
» Beijing Threatens Hong Kong, Saying Democracy Will Only Bring Disaster
» China Warns Influential Commentators to Stick to Party Line on Kunming Attack
» China: Grief at Kunming Attack Site on Day of Mourning
» Hepatitis B Vaccine Kills Eight Babies in China; Drug Manufacturer Says ‘Coincidence’
» Massive Dinosaur Soft Tissue Discovery in China — Includes Skin and Feathers!
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Death Toll Rises in South Sudan Army Barracks Clashes
» South Africa: Parents Close Down High School at Okiep Near Springbok
» Uganda: ‘Fifty Women Stripped Over Pornography Law’
 
Immigration
» American Lessons on Benefit Tourism
» ObamaCare for Illegals
» Spain to Raise Security Around Morocco Territories Over Immigration Fears
» Spain Spends Millions to Keep Immigrants Out
» UK: Mass Immigration Leaves Towns and Cities ‘Unrecognizable’
 
Culture Wars
» Brits Propose Gay Role-Play for School Sex-Ed
» Jan Brewer Betrays American Ideal of Religious Freedom
» National Takeover of School Curriculum
» The Left’s Message to Teens: More Sex, No Guilt, No Consequences
 
General
» Project ‘Red Dragon’: Mars Sample-Return Mission Could Launch in 2022 With SpaceX Capsule
 

Chicago’s Credit Rating Takes a Beating, Moody’s Downgrades to Just Above Junk

Moody’s Investor Services has downgraded Chicago’s credit rating to the third-lowest level above “non-investment grade” based on pension liabilities, meaning the third-largest US municipality has the second-lowest credit score among major cities.

The agency announced Tuesday it was dropping Chicago’s rating on around $8 billion in debt by one level — from A3 to Baa1. The move follows a three-step downgrade for the city in July.

Among major US cities, only Detroit has a worse Moody’s rating than Chicago.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Consumer Spending Continues to Drop in January

Retailers group says communications only area to report growth

(ANSA) — Rome, March 6 — Consumer spending fell in January by 1.6% compared with the same period last year, retailers association Confcommercio said Thursday.

The decline is “showing clearly all of the difficulties in the Italian economy after two years of recession,” the group said.

Italy has begun to slowly come out of its worst recession since the Second World War, but GDP growth this year is forecast to average only about 0.6%.

Confcommercio said that January’s consumer spending was also 0.3% lower than that recorded in December.

The only increases in spending were reported in communications-related devices and services while spending fell by 2.3% in hotels and restaurants meals and 2.2% for home-related goods.

Spending on clothing and footwear slid by 2.1%.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The Looting of Ukraine Has Begun

According to a report in Kommersant-Ukraine, the finance ministry of Washington’s stooges in Kiev who are pretending to be a government has prepared an economic austerity plan that will cut Ukrainian pensions from $160 to $80 so that Western bankers who lent money to Ukraine can be repaid at the expense of Ukraine’s poor. http://www.kommersant.ua/doc/2424454 It is Greece all over again.

Before anything approaching stability and legitimacy has been obtained for the puppet government put in power by the Washington orchestrated coup against the legitimate, elected Ukraine government, the Western looters are already at work. Naive protesters who believed the propaganda that EU membership offered a better life are due to lose half of their pension by April. But this is only the beginning.

The corrupt Western media describes loans as “aid.” However, the 11 billion euros that the EU is offering Kiev is not aid. It is a loan. Moreover, it comes with many strings, including Kiev’s acceptance of an IMF austerity plan.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Economy Adds 175,000 Jobs, And Unemployment Rate Ticks Up to 6.7%

The American economy added 175,000 jobs last month, a pace that was better than economists had expected and well above the anemic job gains recorded in December and January.

Still, the latest figures for hiring were down from last year’s average of roughly 190,000 but fell a bit short of what policy makers had been hoping to see at this stage of the recovery.

The February report by the Labor Department had been eagerly awaited and was viewed as a wild card, with economists struggling to estimate the impact of wintry weather in many parts of the country as well as seasonal adjustments by government statisticians.

[Return to headlines]
 

A Cop-Killer Advocate Goes Down in Flames in the Senate

A victory against Obama’s radicalization of the Department of Justice

In a major defeat for the Obama administration, the Senate voted 52 to 47 to block the confirmation of Debo Adegbile, President Obama’s nominee to head the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department.

Every Republican Senator opposed the effort, and they were joined by eight Democrats, including Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Chris Coons of Delaware, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and John Walsh of Montana. Nevada’s Harry Reid joined his seven colleagues, but only to preserve his ability to reconsider the nomination late if necessary. Though the vote was close, the blocking of Adegbile’s nomination strikes a significant blow to the Obama administration’s attempt to further radicalize the already out-of-control Department of Justice.

Under Adegbile’s leadership and supervision, the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund (LDF) undertook an unconscionable effort to politicize the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A Run on Ammunition Has Begun: “Russia Has Reportedly Halted All Exports to the US of Russian Made Ammunition”

In recent months ammunition has slowly begun appearing on store shelves at major retailers in the United States. But after nearly two years of shortages that had ammunition manufacturers running their factories 24 hours a day, 7 days a week because of consumer demand and massive government purchases, it appears that another supply pipeline may have been cut.

If you don’t already have it then prepare to go without or pay double the price or more in coming days and weeks:

The largest wholesale gun & ammo distributors in the US have informed us in private conversation today that a massive scramble is on for all 7.62 as Russia has reportedly halted all exports to the US of Russian made ammunition.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

A Vast Hidden Surveillance Network Runs Across America, Powered by the Repo Industry

Few notice the “spotter car” from Manny Sousa’s repo company as it scours Massachusetts parking lots, looking for vehicles whose owners have defaulted on their loans. Sousa’s unmarked car is part of a technological revolution that goes well beyond the repossession business, transforming any industry that wants to check on the whereabouts of ordinary people.

An automated reader attached to the spotter car takes a picture of every license plate it passes and sends it to a company in Texas that already has more than 1.8 billion plate scans from vehicles across the country.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Alleged Bitcoin Founder Did Classified Work for U.S. Military

Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged Bitcoin founder who was outed yesterday by Newsweek, did classified work for the U.S. military and major corporations, a fact that will sit uncomfortably with many Bitcoin proponents should it be confirmed that Nakamoto is indeed the father of the cryptocurrency.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bold, New Ideas From Republicans, Part 2

First, think: Just how did the Left manage to co-opt our nation’s institutions and the media, corrupt the culture, the school sand the criminal justice system?

They did it through second- and third-parties. They underwrote their agenda using every available means. More important than the grooming of candidates (think Bill Clinton and Barack Obama), was the deculturization our society on every level — a tactic perfected by Josef Stalin, who placed his own indelible mark on the process initiated by his Marxist predecessors.

Conservatives shoot themselves in the foot by imagining they are too good to underwrite an agenda, even when they are, in fact, losing the country. Contrary to popular belief, we did not win the Cold War. We lost it. It was, in effect, “death by a thousand cuts,” as the saying goes, otherwise known as “slow dicing” — which is to say, institutionalizing small, ultimately negative, changes incrementally, some not perceived particularly objectionable at the time.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

DOJ Sues Philadelphia School District Over Muslim Beards

“No employee should be forced to violate his religious beliefs in order to earn a living,” Spencer Lewis Jr., the director of the EEOC’s Philadelphia District Office, said in a statement. “Modifying a dress or grooming code is a reasonable accommodation that enables employees to keep working without posing an undue hardship on the employer.”

           — Hat tip: Egghead [Return to headlines]
 

EPA Attacks Prospect of World’s Largest Copper Mine

I could write every day about some new obscene Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) effort to thwart energy the nation needs, forcing the shutdown more coal-fired plants and the mines that supply them. Goodbye thousands of jobs, goodbye electrical energy.

The White House has delayed the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to transmit oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Do you wonder, still, why there are millions of Americans out of work or who have stopped looking because every effort to build the nation’s economy is attacked by some element of the Obama Administration.

We can now add another attack on natural resources because the EPA has announced its intention to restrict, if not prohibit, the development of Pebble Mine in Alaska. The mine could be one of the world’s largest sources of copper.

Beyond the economic benefits the mine would create, it would not only produce copper, but strategic metals like molybdenum and rhenium. Daniel McGroarty, the president of the American Resources Policy Network, noted in a July Wall Street Journal opinion that these two metals “are essential to countless American manufacturing, high-tech, and national security applications.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Female Muslim Leader in Ohio Aims to Reduce Barriers to Faithful

CINCINNATI (AP) — Among the tasks ahead for the new leader of a large and growing Islamic Center in southwestern Ohio is increasing understanding of Muslims. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Shakila Ahmad becomes the first woman to hold the role of president in the 18-year history of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Mom Who Drove Kids Into Ocean Another Victim of Anti-Depressants?

Numerous previous cases of mothers on SSRI drugs killing their own children

Reports that the pregnant woman who drove her three children into the ocean appeared to be in a daze before the bizarre incident suggest that 32-year-old Ebony Wilkerson may have been another victim of anti-depressant drugs.

Family members told the media that Wilkerson was acting strange two hours before the incident, during which she tried to kill her three children by driving her van into the sea at Daytona Beach.

“She’s talking about Jesus, that there’s demons in the house,” said her sister.

Stacy Robinson, one of the heroes involved in the rescue of the children, said Wilkerson appeared to be in a daze. “When I was speaking to her her eyes were wild,” she said.

“She had this look on her face, I can’t describe it. It was just an awful blank look, like spaced out look,” said Tim Tesseneer, another rescuer.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Bans Critics of Ukraine Coup From Entering U.S.

Under the sweeping language of President Barack Obama’s executive order issued today, critics of the US-backed coup in Ukraine could find themselves being banned from entering the United States.

The executive order suspends “entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of such persons” who fulfil the following criteria;

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Office Supplies Giant Staples Closing 12% of North American Stores

Staples, the largest U.S. office supplies retailer, will close up to 225 stores in North America by the end of next year because of slumping sales caused by shoppers turning to mass-market stores or going online.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Regime Change Blueprint: The NED at Work

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a Washington D.C-based quasi-governmental organization funded by the U.S. which boasts that it is “supporting freedom around the world.”

Alan Weinstein, one of the founders of the NED, explained in 1991:

A lot of what we [NED] do was done 25 years ago covertly by the CIA

Most of the NED, and its affiliated organizations, deals with influencing political processes abroad. The means employed range from influencing civil society, media, fostering business groups, lending support to preferred politicians/political parties, election monitoring, and fostering human rights groups…

The NED was the chief pillar of a plan by then President Clinton to get rid of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. The plan, developed by the CIA, was intricate and comprehensive. Basically, it was to work through the NED’s two subordinate wings, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) as well as the Center for International Private Enterprise, an offshoot of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The IRI would focus on dissident students while the NDI would work closely with different opposition parties. The State department and the U.S. Agency for International Development would play the leading role in channeling funds through commercial contracts and nonprofit groups. Under the authority AID, other money would be funneled to opposition groups and the mayor of opposition cities.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Seven Deadly Assaults That Americans Will and Must Stop

Remember the over all goals of Obama and the progressives. They are vividly clear and moving fast. Thank God that slumbering and distracted Americans are also finally starting to move, get thoroughly ticked off and getting out of their seats. It is about time. I was beginning to think America was the walking dead. Now listen up.

Obama plans big government to control all aspects of our lives, faith, health and economy. There is no need to go to any other restaurant than the Obama Bistro. Obama will give you the menu and you will order what is listed by him unless of course you want to fast for a very long time.

What is on the menu at Obama Bistro

1)   Healthcare with Obamacare
2)   Crushing of Judeo Christian values
3)   Attacking gun and 2nd amendment rights
4)   Controlling speech and media freedom
5)   Stealing American wealth through high and hidden taxation, regulation and executive orders,
6)   Indoctrinating, manipulating and controlling America’s children through Common Core
7)   Crushing Family, state and Federal Sovereignty.

 

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Thomas Sowell: Freedom is Not Free

There may be something to the claim that all people want to be free. But it is a demonstrable fact that freedom has been under attack, usually successfully, for thousands of years…

It doesn’t matter what rights you have under the Constitution of the United States, if the government can punish you for exercising those rights. And it doesn’t matter what limits the Constitution puts on government officials’ power, if they can exceed those limits without any adverse consequences.

In other words, the Constitution cannot protect you, if you don’t protect the Constitution with your votes against anyone who violates it. Those government officials who want more power are not going to stop unless they get stopped.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian Police Investigating After Bitcoin Bank Flexcoin Folds

Canadian police have launched an investigation after online bitcoin bank Flexcoin, which closed its virtual doors this week, said that it had lost about $600,000 worth of the digital currency in a hacker attack.

The Edmonton, Alberta-based company reported the theft of 896 bitcoins on its website on Monday and said it “does not have the resources (or) assets … to come back from this loss.” It blamed the attack on hackers who had targeted its online wallet.

Bitcoins stored in Flexcoin’s cold storage facility, which is basically an offline bank, were not affected by the hack and will be returned to customers, the company said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Government Daycare Suspends 2-Year-Old for Cheese Sandwich

A 2-year-old in Ottawa, Canada was suspended for three days Wednesday after accidentally bringing a cheese sandwich to her daycare.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austrian Far-Right Set for Strong Showing in EU Vote

Low interest in the European election as well as a feeling that traditional parties are not representing the views of ordinary voters could see Austria’s far-right, anti-EU Freedom Party (FPOe) scoop around 30 percent of the vote in the May EU elections.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Edward Snowden Wants Asylum in EU

Former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden wants asylum in Europe.

In a series of responses delivered to the European Parliament ahead of next week’s debate on mass surveillance, Snowden told euro-deputies he wants protection in the EU. “As for asylum, I do seek EU asylum, but I have yet to receive a positive response to requests I sent to various EU member states,” he said in a 12-page statement on Friday (7 March).

Snowden, who is wanted by the Americans for theft of government property and unauthorised communication of national defense information, has taken refuge somewhere in Russia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hard Left and Right Set for Gains in Sweden’s EU Vote

The political temperature is feverish in Sweden. Fresh opinion polls arrive every two weeks and are commented upon at length. Every new incident involving a politician is scrutinised in light of the upcoming elections. And adding to the excitement is that it looks very much like an open race.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Scandal-Hit MPS on Another Bourse Roller-Coaster

Over 15% of share capital swaps hands in up-and-down trading

(ANSA) — Milan, March 6 — Some 15.5% of the share capital of troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) changed hands in another roller-coaster ride of unusually high volumes on the Milan bourse Thursday.

The stock posted an 11.7% rise before plummeting to a 4.5% loss and ending the day on 1.77% up, a day after a 20% gain with 11.86% of shares traded.

Analysts suggested interest in MPS stock was heightened by reports the foundation that owns about one third of its shares has sold a stake to a foreign investment fund, Bloomberg reported.

Trading was frozen at one point for the second day running due to volatility in the stock, which closed at 0.21 euro cents.

On Wednesday bourse watchdog CONSOB opened a probe into the stock’s movements.

Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena wants to sell some shares to raise funds and is said to be in advanced talks with foreign investors.

On Wednesday finance police expanded their investigation into what is now believed to be a 90-million-euro fraud at MPS, including new searches in several cities including Siena, Rome, and Milan. The latest searches are part of a broader probe targeting alleged members of the so-called “5% gang” — a name given to ex-bank managers suspected of taking 5% payoffs on banking operations under a previous management.

Investigators believe the fraud occurred between January and October 2013.

Prosecutors say they hope to eventually bring charges of aggravated criminal conspiracy aimed at defrauding the Sienese bank. The case involves funds transferred to offshore accounts, trusts and companies, and investigators are reaching out as far as San Marino, Switzerland, Great Britain and Singapore as they search for suspicious international transactions.

The Siena prosecutor’s office has placed 11 former MPS managers and financial brokers under investigation in the case, including Gianluca Baldassarri, former chief of finance for MPS.

They are also probing Baldassarri’s former deputy, Alessandro Toccafondi, the former head of the MPS London office Matteo Pontone, and former MPS manager Antonio Pantalena.

Italy’s third-largest bank was thrown into crisis in January 2013 when it emerged that a shady series of derivative and structured-finance deals produced losses of 720 million euros.

Meanwhile, the investigating judge of the court of Siena announced Wednesday the file has been closed into the suicide of David Rossi, the bank’s communication manager who threw himself from a window in March 2013.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Soccer: Not Selling Milan Says Berlusconi

‘No, no, no’ says three-time premier

(ANSA) — Rome, March 6 — Silvio Berlusconi reassured AC Milan fans Thursday over a Bloomberg report he was set to sell the seven-time European champions.

“No, no, no,” the three-time premier and media magnate told reporters.

Earlier Thursday his family holding company Fininvest denied the Bloomberg report, which said Berlusconi was weighing a sale and had commissioned a company, Lazard Ltd, to contact potential buyers.

“Despite the numerous denials, there are new reports of an eventual sale of Milan,” a Fininvest statement said referring also to past reports of a sale that came to nothing.

“Fininvest reiterates once again that this is a totally groundless hypothesis”. Milan have won five of their seven European champions titles and eight of their 18 Serie A titles since Berlusconi bought the club in 1986.

The team are currently ninth in Serie A, 34 points behind leaders Juventus, having seen Massimiliano Allegri replace as coach by Clarence Seedorf, but they are also Italy’s only survivors in the Champions League.

They face Atletico Madrid in the return of their last-16 tie next week after losing the home leg 1-0.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Novartis and Roche Probed Over Alleged Cartel

Companies face trial in Italy for ‘market manipulation, fraud’

(ANSA) — Rome, March 6 — Swiss pharmaceutical companies Roche and Novartis are being probed for alleged market manipulation and fraud against Italy’s national health service in connection with suspected collusion to hamper use of a cheap eye drug in favour of a more expensive one, Rome prosecutors said Thursday.

The investigation comes after Italy’s Antitrust authority said Wednesday it had fined the companies a record 180 million euros for the alleged cartel promoting Novartis’s Lucentis over Roche’s Avastin. The Antitrust authority said the companies’ actions had cost the Italian national health service over 45 million euros in 2012 alone and that future costs could potentially reach 600 million euros a year.

Novartis and Roche both said the accusations are groundless and would appeal to the administrative courts.

Meanwhile, Lazio Governor Nicola Zingaretti of the center-left Democratic Party (PD) said should the charges be confirmed the region would file a civil action in the case and called on the new national government of party colleague Matteo Renzi to do everything possible to ensure pharmaceutical companies operate within the law. Italian consumer association Codacons said it would ask the country’s audit court to verify whether the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa), the authority responsible for drug regulation in Italy, had acted negligently in the affair.

In addition, it would file a class-action suit against the agency and the two pharmaceuticals companies implicated in the alleged collusion.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Juncker Beats Rival in Centre-Right Race for EU Presidency

The European People’s Party (EPP) nominated Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday (7 March) as its candidate to lead the EU election campaign and become the next president of the European Commission.

Juncker, former prime minister of Luxembourg, will lead the EPP’s pan-European elections campaign following a vote by party affiliates at the party’s congress in Dublin.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Prejudice’s Latest Victim: Islam

by Andrew Harrod

“It is therefore discriminatory to equate Islam with Islamist terrorism and undifferentiated to attribute violence from Islamist fundamentalists and terrorists to Islam,” the Swiss Press Council (SPC) assessed in a November 13, 2013, opinion. The SPC thereby condemned an admittedly shoddy March 29, 2013, Basler Zeitung (BZ) article with a value judgment having troubling implications for free speech concerning Islam.

Entitled in German “Every Five Minutes a Christian is Murdered,” the article made the increasingly recognized argument that Christianity is the most persecuted religion worldwide. Similarly increasingly recognized is the article’s identification of “Islamic extremism” as Christianity’s greatest current threat. For sources, the article referenced, among others, Christian aid organizations like Open Doors.

“Not an extremist, but doctrine” in some 200 Koran verses and 1,800 hadith call for the conversion or death of nonbelievers, the article stated. Christians and Jews as “dhimmi” under Islam are only “second-class citizens” with limited religious freedom. The article concluded that…

[Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Really Hard to Eat a Sandwich With Knife and Fork’ Officers Tell Complaining General

Junior officers respond to complaints of Army commander about slide in standards and etiquette, saying they don’t agree they should sit apart from wives because they ‘quite like them’

When an Army commander called for junior officers to stop eating with their fingers in the mess, not sit next to their wives and stand when senior officers walked in, it was billed as a lighthearted attempt to improve etiquette. But his subordinates have failed to see the funny side of his three-page-edict of how they should behave in the officers’ mess…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Number 10 Silent on Whether David Cameron Helped His Nanny Get British Citizenship

Number 10 has refused to answer repeated questions about whether David Cameron helped his Nepalese nanny become a British citizen.

Number 10 has refused to answer repeated questions about whether David Cameron helped his Nepalese nanny become a British citizen. Downing Street disclosed on Thursday night that the Camerons’ nanny Gita Lima, who has worked for the family for a number of years is now a British citizen. However the Prime Minister’s deputy official spokesman refused to answer detailed questions about the process which led to Miss Lima becoming a British national…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Taxi Driver Banned Because of ‘Concerns About Contact With Schoolgirls’

A PRIVATE hire taxi driver has lost his licence after concerns were raised about his contact with schoolgirls. The driver, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had his licence removed by Bolton Council’s licensing and environmental regulation committee.

He was banned after the councillors heard from police how complaints by passengers had been made and a parent raised concern about the driver’s conduct while he was off duty. The committee heard how the driver arranged to pick up two 13-year-old girls just before midnight on a Friday evening — despite not being on duty…

This case follows that of private hire driver Riazuddin Malji’s unsuccessful challenge to overturn a decision made by Bolton Council to have his licence revoked last year. Malji was found to not be a fit and proper person to be a private hire driver after he allegedly asked a 13-year-old passenger’s mobile phone number and asked if she liked smoking drugs. Bolton magistrates upheld the decision of the council at the appeal hearing.

[JP note: For the report on the Riazuddin Malji case see:

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/10772703.Taxi_driver_who__tricked_13_year_old_girl_into_giving_him_her_phone_number__loses_licence_appeal/

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Tory MP Robert Halfon Claims UKIP Members Back ‘Nazi’ Policies

Ukip members are either not to be taken seriously or support a brand of politics “literally akin to the Nazis”, a Tory MP has claimed. Robert Halfon said there is a “sinister element” element to the right-wing party led by Nigel Farage — but said it had done the Conservatives a favour by “cleansing” if of people with extreme views…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Vince Cable: UKIP Supporters Could Push Scotland Out of the UK

Business Secretary Vince Cable will tell the Liberal Democrat spring conference that Ukip and Conservative Eurosceptics are “putting at risk the union of the UK” with their “British nationalism”

Ukip voters and Conservative Eurosceptics are making it more likely that the people of Scotland will vote to leave the UK, Vince Cable will say. The Business Secretary will use a speech at the Liberal Democrat spring conference to attack people engaging in “British nationalism and Euro-separatism”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Why Britain Needs Breitbart UK

It is still early days. But the UK finally has an online conservative news site where it is possible to “tell it like it is” with unadorned conservative ‘knobs on’. With Kassam and Delingpole, Breitbart London is in the hands of a new generation and not those of the CINO old-school figures who had lost their conservative way.

Which brings me to a point raised by my colleague James Delingpole in his Andrew Breitbart’s War Comes to Britain. In it James posited this:

“In the Spectator recently, my old friend Toby Young described a dilemma which all those of us of right-wing persuasion must face up to in the end: should you soften your position in order to find some common ground with people whose stupid political ideology you loathe and despise? Or should you stay true to your principles and risk being marginalised as, at best, unreasonable and, at worst, as a fruitcake, a crank, a dangerous extremist?”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Hamas Rallies Against Egypt Ban on Movement Activities

GAZA, March 7 (Xinhua) — Hundreds of Hamas supporters and leaders demonstrated in Gaza on Friday against a decision by an Egyptian court to ban the Islamist movement’s activities and confiscate its headquarters in Cairo.

Waving Hamas green flags and holding huge Egyptian flags, the angry crowds gathered outside a once diplomatic representative office of Egypt in Gaza, which was closed after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

In Egypt, Coptic Christian Group Energizes Young People to Fight for Civil Rights

CAIRO, Egypt (RNS) A group of Christian youth activists that came together in the tumultuous aftermath of the Egyptian revolution is looking to the future and hoping to build on the gains wrought in Tahrir Square by mobilizing young people to better advocate for themselves.

“One of the main things is that people started to speak,” said Mina Elkess, a 28-year-old ophthalmologist and one of the group’s leaders.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Caroline Glick: Surviving Obama

Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg minced few words in discussing the interview that US President Barack Obama gave him on the eve of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s latest visit to Washington.

Speaking with journalist Charlie Rose, Goldberg equated Obama’s threat to stop supporting Israel in international forums to the talk of a mafia don. Obama told Goldberg that if Israel doesn’t cut a deal with the Palestinians soon, “our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited.” He added, “And that has consequences.”

That statement, Goldberg noted, was a “veiled threat” and “almost up there with, ‘Nice little Jewish state you’ve got there. Hate to see something happen to it.’“

Goldberg saw the interview as Obama’s way of showing that he is beginning to abandon the pretense of supporting Israel, now that he no longer faces reelection. In Goldberg’s words, “It’s not that the gloves are coming off. It’s more that the mask of diplomatic language is coming off a little bit.”

Goldberg added that due to the fact that Obama “doesn’t have to run again for anything,” he doesn’t need to pretend feelings for Israel that he doesn’t have, by among other things, going to the AIPAC annual policy conference.

And indeed, Obama has achieved a comfort level with implementing anti-Israel policies. His threat to step aside and let Israel-haters have their way in places like the United Nations or in certain quarters of Europe is of a piece with several steps the he is already reportedly undertaking to harm Israel in various ways…

           — Hat tip: Caroline Glick [Return to headlines]
 

David Cameron May Have to Cancel Israel Visit Over Strikes

British PM and Pope may be forced to call off scheduled visits as Israeli diplomats strike

High-profile figures, including the Pope and Prime Minister David Cameron, may have to call off official visits to Israel due a strike led by the unlikeliest of culprits — Israel’s own diplomats…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

All Contact Lost With Ma’aloula Nuns. Syria Will Sink Further Into War for Another 10 Years

The kidnappers belong to Al Nusra Front, linked to Al Qaeda. In addition to the release of political prisoners they are demanding food for the rebels and that the Syrian army clear out from all Christian sites. No news on fate of abducted Orthodox bishops, or Fr. Dell’Oglio. All humanitarian corridors blocked.

Beirut ( AsiaNews) — A group of negotiators who tried to free the 13 Ma’aloula nuns, kidnapped last year, have lost contact with the kidnappers who have probably transferred the nuns to a new hiding place. Meanwhile, the situation in Syria is becoming increasingly hard for the population, devastated by hunger. Some experts estimate that the war between the Assad regime and the rebels will last at least another 10 years.

The 13 nuns were kidnapped last December along with three girls who were their guests and moved from the Ma’aloula monastery to Yabrud , a town under the control of the rebels in the north- east of Damascus, near the border with Lebanon . The kidnappers released two videos of their captives. In exchange for their release, they initially demanded freedom for all women prisoners in Syria , then for all political prisoners. Recently they stepped up their demands to include food for the city under rebel rule and the army to clear out from all Christian religious sites ..

According to some sources, the rebels belong to a group affiliated to Al Nusra Front, an offshoot of Al Qaeda, whose leader is Abu Malek al- Kuwaiti .

AsiaNews sources in Damascus confirm that there ha been no news of the sisters, nor of the two Orthodox bishops abducted last April, nor Italian Jesuit priest Fr. Paolo dall’Oglio .

The situation in the country has steadily worsened after the failure of peace talks in Geneva.

The fighting and the bombing on the two fronts, combined with the destruction of three years of war and the huge number of displaced people — an estimated 9 million Syrians — have led to chronic food and water shortages. Because of the violent clashes humanitarian organizations are unable to bring help. While in Geneva Damascus and the rebels had agreed to open humanitarian corridors, trucks of food and medicine are blocked or looted.

According to the analyst Daveed Gartenstein -Ross, the war in Syria — which enters its fourth year on March 15 — could last “10 years or more”.

The situation is further complicated by Russia and Iran’s strong support for Assad on the one hand an opposition — backed by the West and Saudi Arabia — frayed and torn between the “secularists” of the Free Syrian Army and radical Islamists who are fighting each other for supremacy.

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

Erdogan Threatens to Ban YouTube and Facebook

Turkey’s Prime Minister hinted in a TV interview on Thursday that his government could ban social media networks YouTube and Facebook after a number of online leaks added momentum to a growing corruption scandal. “We will not let these companies capture the nation,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hagia Sophia Might Become Mosque, Christians Alarmed

If anything it should be a Christian church, says Bartholomew I

(ANSAmed) — ANKARA — The Christian world is alarmed over the possibility ventilated in local media that Turkish Islamic Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan could convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia basilica, a symbol of Orthodox Christianity that is currently a museum, into a mosque in the coming months.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I reiterated his firm opposition to such a plan, Radikal newspaper and other media reported.

“We will oppose this, as will all Christians be they Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant”, he said at meeting with scholars on the eve of the Sinaxis, a summit of Orthodox churches kicking off Istanbul on Thursday. “The Hagia Sophia basilica was built as a testament to Christian faith and if it is to be returned to a cult, it cannot be to any other than the Christian one”, AsiaNews cited the patriarch as saying.

His government beset by a corruption scandal involving key figures in his Islamic regime, Erdogan might pin his hopes of recovering public approval on turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque on the anniversary of the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, which falls in May, according to Radikal.

The great Byzantine basilica became a mosque with the Ottoman conquest, and in 1934 was turned into a museum drawing millions of visitors a year by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern secular Turkish Republic in 1923. Islamic groups in recent weeks have gone on the offensive to have Hagia Sophia turned back into a mosque, garnering authoritative names from the Turkish nomenklatura to champion their cause in what is a key electoral year for an embattled Erdogan, with administrative, presidential and legislative elections ahead.

While Erdogan in the past called for everyone to “leave Hagia Sophia alone”, the political climate has now changed.

Turkey’s two remaining Hagia Sophia (Greek for Holy Wisdom) basilicas and museums, in the cities of Trabzon Nicaea, have in recent months been converted into mosques. The Greek government recently added its voice against the growing pressure to convert Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia as well.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Kingdom Designates Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Group

The Kingdom has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, official Saudi television reported citing a statement by the Interior Ministry. The kingdom has also designated Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, whose fighters are battling Syrian President Bashar Assad, as terrorist organizations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russian-Speaking Jihadists Execute Syrians in Aleppo

A video of jihadists executing a group of Syrians in the city of Aleppo has emerged. The execution is carried out by Russian-speaking fighters, and one of those to be killed was said to be mentally ill.

The graphic video was published today on the Facebook page of a group known as the Syrian Center for Documentation. The group claimed that civilians, including children, were among those killed. Although the date and exact location of the execution has not been disclosed, the Syrian Center for Documentation indicated that it took place in Aleppo.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Arabia Declares Muslim Brotherhood a ‘Terrorist Organisation’

The Muslim Brotherhood together with several militant groups have been designated a “terrorist organization” by Saudi Arabia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Arabia: Rillington Firm Ellis Secures Major Deal Supplying Cable Cleats to Holy Mosque in Mecca

A CABLE cleat maker has secured one of its largest orders after helping expand a mosque welcoming millions of worshippers. Ellis, in Rillington, near Scarborough, has sent cleats to the Shamiya Haram, which is part of the holy mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Workers are quadrupling the mosque’s size to cater for more than two million worshippers…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Lists ‘Terror’ Groups, Orders Islamist Fighters Home

AFP — Saudi Arabia listed the Muslim Brotherhood and two Syrian jihadist groups as terrorist organisations Friday, and ordered citizens fighting abroad to return home within 15 days or face imprisonment. The move represents a major escalation against the Brotherhood of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and indicates rising concern in Riyadh over the potential risks to domestic security of Saudi extremists fighting in Syria…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Syrian Army Advances Amid New Wave of Explosions

DAMASCUS, March 6 (Xinhua) — Syrian troops continued on Thursday their progress against rebels around a key contested town north of the capital Damascus as well as in central Syria, amid a fresh wave of explosions that have killed at least 17 people, Syria’s media reported.

The Syrian troops on Thursday fully recaptured Rima Orchards on the outskirts of Yabroud, 80 km north of Damascus, as part of the army’s wide-scale operation to secure the surroundings of Yabroud before storming the town, which reportedly houses 10,000 armed rebels…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

BBC Now Admits: Armed Nazis Led “Revolution” In Kiev, Ukraine

Like the West’s support of sectarian terrorists across the Middle East, including Al Qaeda, it has found the most despicable elements in Ukrainian society to lead “revolution” for the sociopolitical reordering of Eastern Europe. As the dust settles and the West’s proxy regime finds itself safely entrenched in Kiev, Ukraine — the Western media can now finally recuperate some of its lost legitimacy after months of denying the obvious — that armed Neo-Nazis led the so-called “Euromaidan” uprising.

A BBC Newsnight short titled, “Neo-Nazi threat in new Ukraine,” reveals xenophobic Jew-hating nationalists, armed and leading the mobs in Kiev, directly contradicting months of Western media narratives portraying the rabble as aspiring for “freedom,” “democracy,” and “closer ties with the West,” with the most absurd example being the “I am Ukrainian” propaganda reel.

Far from a “pro-democracy” uprising, the “Euromaidan” was yet another case of Western engineered regime change leveraging the good intentions of the ill-informed to mask the covert backing of ugly armed extremists, just as it had done all across the similarly engineered “Arab Spring” in 2011.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama and Putin Are Trapped in a Macho Game of “Chicken” And the Whole World Could Pay the Price

The U.S. government and the Russian government have both been forced into positions where neither one of them can afford to back down. If Barack Obama backs down, he will be greatly criticized for being “weak” and for having been beaten by Vladimir Putin once again. If Putin backs down, he will be greatly criticized for being “weak” and for abandoning the Russians that live in Crimea. In essence, Obama and Putin find themselves trapped in a macho game of “chicken” and critics on both sides stand ready to pounce on the one who backs down. But this is not just an innocent game of “chicken” from a fifties movie. This is the real deal, and if nobody backs down the entire world will pay the price.

Leaving aside who is to blame for a moment, it is really frightening to think that we may be approaching the tensest moment in U.S.-Russian relations since the Cuban missile crisis.

There has been much talk about Obama’s “red lines”, but the truth is that Crimea (and in particular the naval base at Sevastopol) is a “red line” for Russia.

There is nothing that Obama could ever do that could force the Russians out of Sevastopol. They will never, ever willingly give up that naval base.

So what in the world does Obama expect to accomplish by imposing sanctions on Russia? By treaty, Russia is allowed to have 25,000 troops in Crimea and Russia has not sent troops into the rest of Ukraine.

Economic sanctions are not going to cause Putin to back down. Instead, they will just cause the Russians to retaliate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pentagon Studies Putin Body Language for Hint of Intent

A Pentagon research team is studying the body movements of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders in order to better predict their actions and guide U.S. policy, Pentagon documents and interviews show.

The “Body Leads” project backed by the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), the think tank reporting to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, uses the principles of movement pattern analysis to predict how leaders will act.

U.S. policymakers are seeking any advantage they can find as they try to anticipate Putin, who in the past week has ordered Russian troops into neighboring Ukraine and laid claim to the Crimea Peninsula. The ensuing crisis has led to U.S. and European sanctions against Russia, spurred weapons and aircraft shipments to Eastern European nations and revived tensions last seen during the height of the Cold War.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad Hails Russia’s Takeover of Crimea

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that Russia’s military takeover of Crimea was indicative of President Vladimir Putin’s “wise policy” and his efforts to restore “security and stability” in Ukraine after an “attempted coup.”

In a letter addressed to the Russian president, Assad said that Putin’s military incursion in eastern Ukraine stopped “terrorist extremists” from taking power in Kiev, the Associated Press reported.

Assad’s comments mark the first time that he has spoken on the crisis, and were carried by the Syrian state news agency late on Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bitcoin CEO Found Dead in Singapore, Suicide Suspected

A young American woman who ran the First Meta bitcoin exchange was found dead in her Singapore apartment last week. Police are investigating the “unnatural death”.

Autumn Radtke was found on the morning of February 26 after Police received an emergency call from an apartment building. She was pronounced dead at the scene. A preliminary police investigation has ruled out foul play, but neighbors told police they suspected Radtke jumped from an apartment.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Couple to Die for Starving Indonesian Maid

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian couple was sentenced to hang for starving their Indonesian maid to death, a defense lawyer said, one of a string of shocking cases spotlighting abuse of domestic helpers in the region.

Isti Komariyah weighed just 26 kilograms (57 pounds) on her death in Kuala Lumpur in June 2011 from what a court ruled was deliberate starvation, according to Malaysian media reports on the ruling.

Concerns have grown over the vulnerability of millions of Indonesian, Philippine, Cambodian and other domestic workers around Asia and the Middle East, as horrific cases of torture and sometimes killings have been reported.

A Cambodian maid was starved to death in 2012 by her Malaysian employers, earning them 24 years in jail. Cambodia had stopped sending maids a year earlier over previous abuses.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kuala Lumpur: Couple Sentenced to Death for Having Starved Indonesian Domestic Worker

The Malaysian couple will be hanged. Because of being denied food the girl weighed only 26 pounds at the time of her death. The government’s controls encourage illegal immigration. At least 2 million Indonesians working in Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The High Court in Malaysia has sentenced a Malaysian husband and wife to death by hanging, for having starved their Indonesian maid to death.

The judge ruled that Fong Kong Meng (58 years old) and his wife Teoh Ching Yen (56 years), denied food to Isti Komariyah, 28, during her three years of service in their home.

When the girl was dying in 2011, she was taken to the hospital weighing only 26 pounds. When she started working for the Meng family she weighed 46 pounds.

The case is just one of many of abuses against the two million Indonesians working in Malaysia as domestic servants, on plantations, in construction and industry. Often their employers are accused of making them work long hours, abusing them by torture, beatings and sexual violence.

The Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur estimates that there are at least 400 thousand women working as domestics in the country, over half illegally. The Indonesian workers and laborers make up almost half of all foreigners working in Malaysia.

In 2011, the governments of Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta signed an agreement for better treatment of Indonesian migrants. The agreement provides for a guaranteed day off per week and a minimum wage of 700 ringgit (210 U.S. dollars). Several human rights organizations, however, complain that it is difficult to check every situation. Indeed, government controls on migrants have slowed down the hiring of new workers a lot, encouraging illegal immigration.

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

Muslim Malaysia Bans “Ultraman” So Kids Don’t Confuse Him With Allah

By Daniel Greenfield

I really picture Allah more as the blue robot lobster in this picture, than Ultraman, but Malaysian kids are apparently more likely to think that the Muslim deity is a man in a really uncomfortable jogging suit than a giant blue monster…

— Ultraman’s superpowers include Ultra Punch (Urutora Panchi): This is a basic punch, but since Ultraman possesses super-humanoid physical strength, it “has the power of 50 Indian elephants.”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Beijing Threatens Hong Kong, Saying Democracy Will Only Bring Disaster

For the chairman of China’s National People’s Congress, “some people were waving the banner of universal suffrage to undermine stability in Hong Kong.” Journalists and human rights activists slam Beijing’s interference in the city’s affairs.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) — The people of Hong Kong could face “disastrous” consequences if it adopts full democracy based on foreign models. Instead, Hong Kong must carry out democratic reform based on its own laws, warned Zhang Dejiang, chairman of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), amid intense political debate on elections for the chief executive of the former British colony in 2017

At present, Hong Kong’s government is governed by the Basic Law, which was adopted before the former’s British crown colony returned to mainland China in 1997, and which will remain in force until 2047.

Under the law, elections to the Legislative Council require a complicated series of steps that ensure a large number of seats for functional constituencies, which are close to the mainland.

By contrast, civil society groups, the Catholic Church and other religious denominations have long been calling for the adoption of universal suffrage.

Never granted under British rule, universal suffrage has been blocked since 1997 by China, which does not want to lose political control.

The ‘Occupy Central’ movement (pictured) has emerged to protest against this situation. It aims at putting pressure on the Hong Kong government through peaceful protests to implement full democracy in the territory.

According to Hong Kong NPC delegate Rita Fan, chairman Zhang considers the “Occupy Central” movement as the mainland’s greatest enemy.

Zhang “said some people were waving the banner of universal suffrage to undermine stability in Hong Kong.” For him, “This won’t help the cause of universal suffrage,”

Indeed, Beijing’s meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs seems to be steadily increasing.

Although the city is governed by the rule of law, economic and political pressure from mainland China has risen since the great rally of 1 July 2003, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against a proposed anti-subversion bill inspired by Communist policies.

Hong Kong authorities later withdrew the draft proposal, but since then journalists and human rights activists have complained that Beijing has been tightening its control over the city.

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

China Warns Influential Commentators to Stick to Party Line on Kunming Attack

Chinese police threaten journalists for asking frank questions about a terror attack in Kunming and round up 45 people for “spreading internet rumours”

Chinese police have named and threatened some of the country’s most influential journalists and commentators for questioning the party line on a terror attack in Kunming.

In recent months, the Chinese authorities have stepped beyond censorship to directly threaten people with large followings on the internet with grim repercussions, including jail time, if they do not stay on message. The strategy has had a chilling effect on public discourse, stopping most celebrities from speaking freely…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

China: Grief at Kunming Attack Site on Day of Mourning

KUNMING, March 7 (Xinhua) — Crowds gathered on Friday morning to mourn the deceased at the site of last Saturday’s deadly terror attack at Kunming railway station in southwest China’s Yunnan Province.Mourners placed wreaths and lit candles at the foot of a bronze bull at the center of the station square. The mourners took turns kneeling or whispering messages to their dead loved ones.

One Kunming citizen carried a large wreath to the square by foot, a journey that took over one hour. The wreath he bought was so large that no taxi could take him. “I wish the deceased rest in peace, the injured get better soon and all the terrorists are brought to justice,” he said.

Chinese people traditionally mourn loved ones on the seventh day after death.

The stabbing spree at the city’s railway station has claimed at least 29 lives and injured 143 others. The families of the victims, as well as the greater public, have repeatedly condemned the terrorist act while demanding tougher strikes against terrorism.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Hepatitis B Vaccine Kills Eight Babies in China; Drug Manufacturer Says ‘Coincidence’

(NaturalNews) Babies are dying all over China after receiving the hepatitis B vaccine, and health authorities are claiming that it is all just one big coincidence. As reported by The New York Times (NYT) and relayed by VacTruth.com, at least eight newborn babies in China have died within 48 hours after receiving the controversial vaccine, which China’s largest drug company continues to insist is perfectly safe despite its obvious dangers.

The real cause of these “unexpected” deaths, claim the talking heads, must be some underlying health condition that just so happened to manifest itself at the exact same time that the babies were jabbed for a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that they have no way of contracting anyway. Never mind that almost all of the babies who died were perfectly healthy before getting the shot — just get your children vaccinated and be quiet!

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Massive Dinosaur Soft Tissue Discovery in China — Includes Skin and Feathers!

A fossil bed in China that is being called “Jurassic Park” has yielded perhaps the greatest dinosaur soft tissue discovery of all time. According to media reports, “nearly-complete skeletons” have been discovered that even include skin and feathers. But of course if these dinosaurs are really “160 million years old”, that should be absolutely impossible. Needless to say, this shocking discovery is once again going to have paleontologists scrambling to find a way to prop up the popular myths that they have been promoting. What they have been telling us simply does not fit the facts. The truth is that this latest find is even more evidence that dinosaurs are far, far younger than we have traditionally been taught.

Once upon a time, scientists believed that it would be impossible to find anything other than the hardened fossilized remains of extinct dinosaurs. And if those dinosaurs really were millions of years old, those scientists would have been 100% correct. But instead, we are now starting to find dinosaur soft tissue all over the place. The following is an excerpt from a recent Daily Mail article about this new discovery in China…

[…]

When Schweitzer originally made her discovery public, she was viciously attacked by other evolutionists who insisted that finding dinosaur soft tissue that was millions of years old was absolutely impossible.

And those evolutionists were right.

If the dinosaurs were really that old it would be impossible.

But now sample after sample and test after test have proven without a shadow of a doubt that we really are digging up dinosaur soft tissue.

Schweitzer and other paleontologists that are desperate to prop up their existing theories are now suggesting that “iron in the blood” could have preserved the soft tissue that we are finding for all of these millions of years.

If you believe that laughable theory, I have a bridge to sell you.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Death Toll Rises in South Sudan Army Barracks Clashes

South Sudanese army officials on Thursday raised the death toll from fighting at a military barracks in Juba from five to 24, as calm returned to the capital city after a tense night. “The number is no longer five,” army spokesman Brigadier General Malaak Ayuen Ajook said after touring the Giada barracks near the University of Juba where clashes broke out Wednesday over a pay dispute.

Fighting broke out at the same barracks in mid-December, triggering months of conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced around 900,000 people around the young country…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

South Africa: Parents Close Down High School at Okiep Near Springbok

Parents have temporarily closed down the Okiep High school at Okiep near Springbok in Namaqualand. The parents accuse the education department of not taking their problems seriously…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Uganda: ‘Fifty Women Stripped Over Pornography Law’

Women rights groups say that at least 50 women have been publicly undressed since the assent last month to the Anti-Pornography Act…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

American Lessons on Benefit Tourism

by Frederick Forsyth

PERSONALLY I found the smoochathon last week between David Cameron and Angela Merkel pretty heavy going

Rather like an eager puppy trying to persuade a great big rottweiler to make space in the fireside basket. Lots of friendly licking but no hint that the bigger beast was going to tolerate any change to the shape of the basket.

Except in one area. The German Chancellor agreed that she and her people had had enough of immigrants wafting in and heading straight for the generous tap of the social security system, enriched by the taxes of hardworking Germans and Merkel voters.

Now it happens that here also, whenever the polls are taken on what really gets up people’s noses, whether Tory, Labour or Lib Dem voters, it is the same issue at number one. Right across the board.

So… might there be a solution?…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

ObamaCare for Illegals

It’s “accidental” (of course), but how many will slip in?

In Oregon this week, officials confessed that nearly 4,000 illegal immigrants had been “accidentally” steered from the state’s low-income Medicaid program and instead were enrolled in Obamacare in violation of the law. Oopsie. The Oregonian newspaper’s Nick Budnick reported that the health bureaucrats “discovered the problem several weeks ago and are correcting it.” Get in line. The beleaguered Cover Oregon health insurance exchange has been riddled with ongoing problems, errors, and glitches since last October that have yet to be fixed.

Take note: This wasn’t a one-time computer meltdown. Because Oregon’s health insurance exchange website has been offline and its software architects under investigation for possible fraud, the Oregon Obamacare drones have been processing each and every application manually. That means nearly 4,000 illegal-alien applications with “inaccurate” data somehow passed through government hands and somehow ended up getting routed through as new enrollees with Obamacare-approved full-service health care.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Spain to Raise Security Around Morocco Territories Over Immigration Fears

Borders around Ceuta and Melilla to be strengthened as EU says it is ‘concerned’ over country’s response to immigrants

Spain is to spend more than €2.3m (£1.89m) fortifying the borders that divide its territories of Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco, in an attempt to deter the thousands of migrants who arrive at the borders of its two exclaves in north Africa, the country’s interior minister has announced.

Reinforcements to be added in the coming weeks include lining the six-metre-high fences that surround both cities with a type of mesh meant to “impede anyone from climbing”, Jorge Fernández Díaz told reporters.

In Ceuta, an additional 20 Guardia Civil agents will be deployed and a helicopter will now help with the “dissuasion and detection” of migrants. In Melilla, the government will set up three watch towers equipped with heat-sensitive cameras.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Spain Spends Millions to Keep Immigrants Out

Spain is to spend €2.3m to keep immigrants from entering Spain from Morocco via its exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish interior minister, Jorge Fernandez Díaz, said Thursday. Ceuta and Melilla is a problem not only for Spain, but for all of Europe, he pointed out to media.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Mass Immigration Leaves Towns and Cities ‘Unrecognizable’

Net immigration to the United Kingdom surged to 212,000 in the year ending September 2013, a significant increase from 154,000 in the previous year, according to the latest official statistics.

The new immigration data cast considerable doubt on a pledge by Prime Minister David Cameron to get net migration — the difference between the number of people entering Britain and those leaving — down to the “tens of thousands” before the general election in May 2015…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Brits Propose Gay Role-Play for School Sex-Ed

UK school teachers should include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual role-plays in their teaching of sexual health.

UK school teachers should include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual role-plays in their teaching of sexual health, according to new sex education guidance. Not only should teachers have to give lessons on sexuality but it should include role-playing.

According to the Christian Institute the guidance was drawn up by the Sex Education Forum and the PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) Association alongside Brook — a sexual health charity. Implementation is not mandatory but the format is provided if schools decide to engage in the subject.

These groups want to make Sex and Relationship education (SRE) mandatory in schools with no parental opt out for those age 15+. The guidance states that teachers should “never assume that all intimate relationships are between opposite sexes”. The alarming ‘guidance’ continues with “All sexual health information should be inclusive and should include LGBT people in case studies, scenarios and role-plays. Boys and girls can explore topics from a different gender’s point of view, and a variety of activities — including practical tasks, discussions, group activities and competitions — can provide something for everyone.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Jan Brewer Betrays American Ideal of Religious Freedom

From the moment Arizona’s Senate Bill 1062, a statute to maintain the free exercise of religion, was passed by the state legislature, there could be no question that Governor Jan Brewer would ultimately veto it. Sure, she waited until almost the last minute to actually do so, but only to give the appearance that she was actually weighing the pros and cons of the measure. And even during that brief, purely symbolic delay the contrived hysteria and ugly antics of the counterculture reached a fevered pitch.

Far worse however was the manner in which the “mainstream” political establishment, including former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as well as Arizona Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain, joined with liberals in condemning the measure. In so doing, they gave credence to the notion that any effort to protect the nation’s traditional values constituted an unseemly attack on the “gay” populace.

Despite the wholly phony notion advanced by the counterculture of an ostensible desire to peaceably “live and let live,” it is waging an all out war on the basic concepts of “right and wrong” as defined by the time-honored Judeo Christian ethic of traditional America. The fundamentally irreconcilable nature of the two worldviews means that the imposition of the “gay agenda” requires the forcible elimination of any other ideology. As has unfortunately been the case in recent years, the increasingly morally bankrupt condition of state governments, in collusion with the federal monster inside the Beltway, has enabled them to accept this despicable premise and abet those who want to obliterate all virtue from the nation’s character.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

National Takeover of School Curriculum

Americans are rising up by the tens of thousands to stop Common Core, which is the current attempt to compel all U.S. children to be taught the same material and not be taught other things parents might think important.

Ever since Congress began pouring federal tax dollars into public schools, parents have been solicitous to have Congress write into law a prohibition against the federal government writing curriculum or lesson plans, or imposing a uniform national curriculum. Parents want those decisions made at the local level by local school boards which are, or should be, subject to the watchful eyes of local citizens and parents.

Parents are supported in this view by the U.S. Constitution which gives the federal government no power over education. Here is some of the repetitive language included in federal school appropriation laws…

The Common Core promoters, whose goal is a national curriculum for all U.S. children despite laws prohibiting the government from requiring it, used the clever device of copyrighting the standards by a non-government organization, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). That enables Common Core advocates to force uniform national standards while claiming that the laws prohibiting federal control of curriculum are not violated.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Left’s Message to Teens: More Sex, No Guilt, No Consequences

Now that our society has officially lowered us all to the level of rutting rabbits, the Coalition for Positive Sexuality (positive.org) is specifically targeting and encouraging promiscuous sex, abortion, and homosexuality to young teenagers. “The Younger the Better” should be their slogan.

Funded by the homosexual lobby (and perhaps finally putting the myth that there is no homosexual agenda to rest) CPS is aggressively pushing its agenda of more sex/no guilt/no consequences to young and impressionable children at public schools nationwide. The greatest concession to personal responsibility and self-restraint that they attempt is to urge you to try and not catch a STD.

It is a good example of the alliance between the homosexual and Feminista movements. Anything to undermine traditional morals and values and the traditional family structure that they jointly regard as their greatest enemy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Project ‘Red Dragon’: Mars Sample-Return Mission Could Launch in 2022 With SpaceX Capsule

Scientists have blueprinted a low-cost Mars sample-return mission that would use a souped-up Dragon capsule from the private spaceflight company SpaceX and the firm’s planned Falcon Heavy rocket to get to the Red Planet by the early 2020s.

Most scientists regard a sample-return trip as a “Holy Grail” mission — the best way to look for signs of past or present life on the Red Planet.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/7/2014

  1. Snowden can’t be accepted as refugee by the EU because he is not a Muslim. Period. If he were even USA would not prosecute him.

  2. Neither Putin nor Obama has yet placed any restrictions on the sale of Russian ammo to the US civilian shooters market. Someone is trying to gin up another ammo buying panic.

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