Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/20/2014

A movement has emerged on the Internet calling for the island of Sardinia to be annexed by Switzerland. The idea is that Italy would sell Sardinia to Switzerland, and the island could then become the 27th canton of the Confoederatio Helvetica.

In other news, the confirmed death toll in the South Korean ferry disaster rose past fifty as divers began to remove bodies from the sunken vessel.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, 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
» Bank of Italy Sees Inflation Remaining Low
» Italy: Renzi Denies Health Spending Cuts to Finance Lower Taxes
» Italy Lost One Million Jobs During Economic Crisis
» Italy: No Risk of MPS Nationalisation Says Viola
» ‘Outrageous’ Salary Gap Between Managers, Staff, Says Priest
» Times Are So Tough in Italy That Mafiosi Are Considering Getting Jobs
 
USA
» Arts and Crafts Store Michaels Says 3 Million Credit Cards Exposed in Breach
» Biometric Surveillance Means Antichrist’s Legions Will Always be Watching
» Boston Ramps Up Security Ahead of Marathon
» Bundy Supporter Owns Chris Hayes on MSNBC: ‘We Will Not Allow Governance by Gunpoint, Ever’ [Video]
» Bundy Family Uncovers Suspected BLM Cattle Grave
» Can Nightmares Cause Death? Spirit Possession? Mental Illness?
» Colorado Deaths Stoke Worries About Pot Edibles
» Composing Only 5% of the World Population, Americans Take 50% of All Pharmaceutical Drugs
» Couple’s Love Story Spans Decades
» Did You Know the U.S. Built a Pyramid in the Middle of Nowhere to Track the End of the World
» From ‘Goof’ To Maths Genius Thanks to a Blow to the Head
» Obama Encourages Drug Money Laundering
» Pro-Gun Activists Hijack Bloomberg’s New Anti-Gun Facebook Page
» Push for National ID Continues
» Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, Fearsome Boxer Wrongly Convicted of Murder, Dies at 76
» Security Holes in Power Grid Have Federal Officials Scrambling
» Smart Guns Endanger Children (Video)
» The Obama Press Conference — A Smug, Shameful Liar on Display
» Who is the Boston Bombing Widow?
» Wrongly-Convicted Boxer ‘Hurricane’ Carter Dies
 
Europe and the EU
» 8 Killed in Finland Parachutist Plane Crash
» Finland Air Crash Kills Eight Skydivers
» Italy: Renzi Approval Rating Down 3% to 55%
» Italy Close to Hitting Kyoto Protocol Targets
» Italy: Health-Sector Corruption ‘Costs 23.6 Bn Euros a Year’
» Italy: Lupi Suggests Alitalia-Etihad Deal ‘Annoyance’ For Some
» Italy’s New Fiscal Bonuses a Mistake, Says Union Leader
» Italy: Renzi Unmasked by the Economist, Says Grillo
» Netherlands: Large Wildfire in Dutch National Park
» Netherlands: Amsterdam Should Not Become Like Venice, Says Local Council Chief
» Norway: Suffering Morphs Into Cosiness in Easter Celebrations
» Pro-Paedophile Group to be Banned, Dutch Supreme Court Says
» Scientists Publish Recipe for Making Bird Flu More Contagious
» UK: ‘Trojan Horse’ Schools: The Leaked Inspectors’ Report
» UK: I Had Underage Sex With Police Officers at Guest House Used by ‘VIP Paedophile Ring’
» UK: Islamist Plot in Schools: At Last, Ofsted Knows it Must Act
» UK: Islamic Extremism a ‘Deadly’ Problem for Charities, William Shawcross Says
» UK: Local Teacher Leader Blasts Ofsted Inspectors Investigating Claims of Islamist Plot in Birmingham
» UK: Ministers ‘Covering up Secret Meetings With GM Food Lobby’
» UK: Man in Critical Condition Following ‘Violent Assault’ In West End
» UK: Ofsted Chief to Take Charge of Probe Into Islamic School Plot
» UK: Private School Chief Linked to Islam Trojan Horse Plot Says: Stone All Adulterers to Death
» UK: The BBC’s Groupthink is an Enemy to Free Speech
» UK: We Must Confront the Challenge of Islamism
» Village of the Damned: Mysterious Suicides. Agonising Illness. And Now, 25 Years After UK’s Worst Case of Mass Poisoning, The First Evidence That Dirty Water Has Killed People
» What if Sardinia Became a Swiss Island?
 
North Africa
» Algerian Soldiers Killed in Mountain Ambush (1)
» Algerian Soldiers Killed in Mountain Ambush (2)
» Eleven Soldiers Killed in Algeria Attack
» New Terror Threat Emerges in Egypt
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Obama’s Muslim Brother Wants to Help Build the Third Jewish Temple
 
Middle East
» 2 Killed in Bahrain Blasts
» 23 Killed in Violent Attacks in Iraq
» American Pastor Saeed Abedini Imprisoned in Iran Pens Easter Message
» Austrian Teen Girls Become Pin Ups for Syrian Jihad
» British Extremist in Syria Says ‘This is No Five-Star Jihad’
» Construction Frenzy in Lebanon Alters Beirut’s Skyline, As High Rises Replace Old Heritage
» Drone Kills 30 Al Qaeda Militants in Yemen
» Iraq: 1 Killed, 9 Wounded in Suicide Bomb Attack in Baghdad
» Iraqi Government Closes Abu Ghraib Prison
» Kuwait Papers Closed for Violating ‘Plot’ Blackout
» President Assad Stages Easter Visit to Christian Town in Syria
» Saudi Arabia Trains Chechens to Operate in Syria: Report
» Syria: Assad Visits Recaptured Christian Town at Easter
» Syria: Interpol in Hunt for Austrian Jihadist Teenage Girls
» Turkey: Women Start Fighting Against Mass Transit Abuse
» Yemen’s Government Says Airstrike in Rugged Southern Region Targets Al-Qaida Training Camps
 
Russia
» Deadly Gun Attack in Eastern Ukraine Shakes Fragile Easter Truce
» Five Killed in Eastern Ukraine Clash: Media
» Russia, Ukraine Officials Blame Each Other for Deadly Shootout in Eastern Ukraine
» Source: Ukrainian Synagogue Firebombed
» Three Pro-Russian Militia Die in Ukraine Shooting
» Ukrainian Oligarch Offers Bounty for Capture of Russian ‘Saboteurs’
» Ukraine, Russia Trade Blame for Eastern Shootout
» Who is Using Spies and Lies to Grab Power in Kiev? We Are
» World’s Oldest Pyramid Found in Crimea
 
South Asia
» Afghanistan: Blast Wounds 7 in Kabul, Clash Leaves 3 Taliban Dead, 7 Injured
» Myanmar Says 22 People Killed This Month as Fresh Fighting Flares in Strife-Torn Kachin State
» Robotic Sub Covers Half of Narrowed Search Area With No Sign of Missing Malaysia Plane
» Thai Police Say Suspected Insurgents Kill 3 in Shooting in South, Including 2-Year-Old Girl
 
Far East
» DHS Study Admits North Korea Can Destroy the United States Using a Surprise Emp Attack
» Divers Pull Bodies From Sunken South Korean Ferry as Death Toll Climbs Past 50
» Families of South Korean Ferry Victims Protest as Recovery Operation Goes on
» Fueling a New Order? The New Geopolitical and Security Consequences of Energy
» German Carmakers Eye Beijing Car Show in Anticipation of Record Sales in China
» Japan to Arm Remote Western Island, Risking More China Tension
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Christians in Nigeria to Fast for Kidnapped Girls
» Kenya: Police to Prosecute Maalim for Incitement
» Nigeria: Boko Haram Claims Abuja Attack That Killed 75
» Nigeria: Gunmen Attack Secondary School Staff Quarters, Kill 5-Year-Old
 
Latin America
» Mob in Dominican Republic Lynches Haitian Man Accused of Stabbing 4-Month-Old Daughter
» What Really Happened at the Bay of Pigs
 
Immigration
» Emergency in Sicily as More Immigrants Land
» France: Robert Redeker: For Many on the Left, The (Muslim) Immigrant is the New Proletariat
» From Lampedusa to Berlin, Immigrant Anger at Italy
» Netherlands: Immigrants Bullied Into Leaving the Hague District, Mayor Pledges Action
» Racism in Germany
 
Culture Wars
» Easter and the American Tradition of Revival — It Can Happen Again!
» UK: Labour Prepared to Introduce Judge Quotas to Achieve Balanced Judiciary
 
General
» Hosanna in the Highest!
» How Terrifying Viruses Could Escape Their Labs
» The Shroud of Turin — The Fabric of Our Faith
» Twin Earth May be Better Than Earth for Life
 

Bank of Italy Sees Inflation Remaining Low

Central bank says threat of deflation in eurozone must be fought

(ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — The Bank of Italy said in a report Friday that it expected inflation to remain low over the next two years, ending 2015 at just over 1% after dropping to 0.3% in March. It added that it was “essential” that the risk of “excessive deflation” in the eurozone be combatted.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Renzi Denies Health Spending Cuts to Finance Lower Taxes

Cabinet poised to approve 10 bn euro reduction in income levies

(ANSA) — Rome, April 18 — Premier Matteo Renzi denied Friday that his plan for 10-billion euros in income-tax cuts will be partly funded by reduced health-care spending, just after his health minister promised “a big fight” against any encroachment on her department’s budget.

In a tweet hours before cabinet was expected to approve his tax-cut decree, Renzi denied reports that his cuts aimed at lower-income earners would come out of health budgets. “There are no cuts to the health sector,” Renzi said via his Twitter account, @matteorenzi, ahead of Friday’s cabinet meeting.

“There are no cuts to teacher’s salaries. There are no across-the-board cuts”.

He also denied reports higher-income earners will be slapped with stiffer levies to pay for his plans, part of an ambitious program to boost the weak recovery after Italy emerged from its longest postwar recession last year. Media reports allegedly based on early drafts of Renzi’s program had suggested such unpopular measures, including a cut of about 2.4 billion euros over two years from health budgets, leading Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin to warn that she will fight to protect her department. Renzi has promised that the tax cuts will mean up to 80 euros more in the monthly pay packets of people earning less than 1,500 euros.

The early drafts suggested that the workers who will derive most benefit will be those earning between 18,000 and 24,500 euro gross per year.

They will get an extra 77.5 euros per month from May, which should go up to 79.1 euros in 2015, according to the drafts.

There will also be measures to increase the income of people who do not earn enough to reach the minimal tax threshold, while there be no benefits for people with salaries of over 28,000 euros per annum, reports said.

Lorenzin has said her ministry is willing to contribute to a government savings review by promoting better planning and efficiency, but reiterated Friday that she was against across-the-board cuts.

“I’ll fight right up to the last minute against health cuts,” Lorenzin, a member of the New Centre Right, a junior partner in the coalition government, told a news conference.

“The national health system cannot stand across-the-board cuts…you cannot go and touch people’s primary services”.

Renzi also denied speculation that increases in levies on the wealthy will help finance cuts in income taxes for lower earners. “This money is not coming from increases in taxes for those who earn more,” Renzi told La Stampa. “There are interventions just for this year, such as 1.4 billion euros (in higher taxes on bank’s stakes in) the Bank of Italy. But it (primarily) stems from a spending review that will give six billion (euros) this year,” said Renzi.

The tax cuts will instead be covered from other sources, including a new levy on private-sector banks parking money inside the central bank as well as savings found for this year in a major spending review exercise led by Commissioner Carlo Cottarelli. The cabinet decree is also expected to feature a cap on the salaries of top public-sector managers, judges, professors and military officials pegging them to the earnings of close to a quarter of million euros of President Giorgio Napolitano.

The package may also include defence cuts to help raise funds to cover the new fiscal measures.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Lost One Million Jobs During Economic Crisis

Number of people in employment down 4.2% since 2008

(ANSA) — Rome, April 15 — The Italian economy has lost around one million jobs since the start of the global economic crisis, national statistics agency Istat said Tuesday. The agency told parliament that the number of people in employment fell 984,000, 4.2%, between 2008 and 2013.

Southern Italy was worst-hit with a 9% fall in employment levels in 9% in this period, while northern Italy lost 2.4% of its jobs.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: No Risk of MPS Nationalisation Says Viola

Siena bank will repay State bailout says CEO

(ANSA) — Rome, April 18 — There is no risk of Monte dei Paschi di Siena failing to repay a State bailout and being nationalised, the CEO of the venerable Tuscan bank said Friday.

“I should say rather not, Fabrizio Viola replied to a query on the supposed risk.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

‘Outrageous’ Salary Gap Between Managers, Staff, Says Priest

Calls for social justice during Holy Friday Mass at Vatican

(See related) (ANSA) — Vatican City, April 18 — It is “outrageous” that managers who earn salaries and benefits worth many times more than their employees do not offer to return some of the stipends, Father Raniero Cantalamessa said Friday.

During Holy Friday Mass in the Vatican, Cantalamessa picked up on a theme of social justice often favoured by Pope Francis, and called for a narrower salary gap between high-income earners and average workers.

“It is outrageous that some receive salaries and pensions a hundred times higher than those who work” in the same firm, he said.

Cantalamessa also denounced managers who steal from their own organizations and compared them to Judas, the apostle who betrayed Christ.

“Judas began by stealing some money from the common fund…does this say something about certain directors,” said Cantalamessa.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Times Are So Tough in Italy That Mafiosi Are Considering Getting Jobs

Changing attitudes and a lingering economic crisis are hitting the Mafia where it hurts, say law enforcement authorities in Palermo, where a mob boss has been secretly recorded complaining about the collapse of extortion rackets.

Video cameras have shown jailed Cosa Nostra boss Giovanni Di Giacomo, lamenting that these days his men are only able to get a “miserable”, €5,000 to €7,000 a month from hotels and businesses that he targets. He added that with so many establishments closing down, and so many people refusing to pay and instead calling the police, it “might not be worth the bother”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Arts and Crafts Store Michaels Says 3 Million Credit Cards Exposed in Breach

As the officials investigating the Target data breach are settling in for what they believe will be a long and complex process of catching the hackers behind the heist, another US retailer is admitting that it lost millions of customer payment card details.

Arts and crafts store chain Michaels said that it has confirmed the exposure of as many as 2.6 million customer payment cards from a malware infection which captured and transmitted card details from the company’s point of sale (POS) terminals.

According to the company, the attacks occurred between May 8 of last year and February 27, 2014, and impacted roughly 7 per cent of all cards used in the US at Michaels and affiliated Aaron Brothers stores over that period. The company has received reports of the compromised cards being used for fraudulent activity.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Biometric Surveillance Means Antichrist’s Legions Will Always be Watching

To some, face recognition sounds benign, even convenient. Walk up to the international checkpoint in a German airport, gaze up at a camera, and walk into the country without ever needing to pull out a passport-your image is on file, the camera knows who you are. Wander into a retail store and be greeted with personalized product suggestions — the store’s network has a record of what you bought last time. Facebook already uses face recognition to recommend which friends to tag in your photos. But the technology has a dark side. The U.S. government is in the process of building the world’s largest cache of face recognition data, with the goal of identifying every person in the country. The creation of such a database would mean that anyone could be tracked.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Boston Ramps Up Security Ahead of Marathon

Ricardo Corral, 53, of New York, who planned to race in the hand-cycle division of the wheelchair race on Monday said he was reassured by the heightened security. “We are not nervous,” he said. “We know the police will be here to protect people.”

Corral added that it was especially important to him and his teammates to return this year, to support Boston and each other. “As the signs say, ‘Boston Strong,’“ he said. “That’s why we come back.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bundy Supporter Owns Chris Hayes on MSNBC: ‘We Will Not Allow Governance by Gunpoint, Ever’ [Video]

“Why are you there near the Bundy ranch tonight celebrating?” Hayes asks.

“Questioning why the heck the federal government felt the need to come in armed to collect an unpaid bill. I mean, that was pretty bold and blatant,” Fiore said. “I mean, generally when my — when our federal government comes in armed, we’re expecting a bigger problem… We will not allow governance by gunpoint, ever.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bundy Family Uncovers Suspected BLM Cattle Grave

[WARNING: Disturbing Content]

“I feel that this needs to be put out for the public to see”

A new photo released by the Bundy family Sunday provided more evidence to the claim that the Bureau of Land Management was illegally killing and burying confiscated cattle.

Posted to the official Bundy Ranch Facebook page, the gruesome image shows several dead cattle being removed from a makeshift grave discovered just this weekend.

“Digging up 1 of the HUGE holes where they threw the cows that they had ran to death or shot,” the picture’s description reads. “I feel that this NEEDS to be put out for the public to see.”

The picture backs up reports by several people including Nevada assemblywoman Michele Fiore, who commented on the BLM’s cattle graves last Tuesday.

“Near their compound, right off the highway, they were digging holes,” Fiore said. “They tried to bury some cows on the compound, but I guess they didn’t dig the hole deep enough, so they throw a cow in and they put dirt over him and you have cows’ legs sticking up out of the dirt.”

Although the BLM’s court order only permitted the agency to seize Bundy’s cattle, federal agents have thus far already admitted to shooting and killing two prized bulls, claiming the animals were a “safety hazard.”

Video from the area also revealed holes in water tanks, a smashed tortoise burrow, as well as destroyed fences and water lines.

“They had total control of this land for one week, and look at the destruction they did in one week,” Corey Houston, family friend of Cliven Bundy, told Fox News last week.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Can Nightmares Cause Death? Spirit Possession? Mental Illness?

A lot of the research on nightmares suggests these events test the strength of one’s mind. If the mind is not strong, nightmares can take hold with greater force and the torment can extend beyond one’s dreams.

Dr. Patrick McNamara of the Boston University School of Medicine looks at nightmares in a modern clinical context that also takes into account the history of dream phenomena in many cultures. He connects nightmares with a world of malevolent spirits.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Colorado Deaths Stoke Worries About Pot Edibles

DENVER (AP) — A college student eats more than the recommended dose of a marijuana-laced cookie and jumps to his death from a hotel balcony. A husband with no history of violence is accused of shooting his wife in the head, possibly after eating pot-infused candy.

The two recent deaths have stoked concerns about Colorado’s recreational marijuana industry and the effects of the drug, especially since cookies, candy and other pot edibles can be exponentially more potent than a joint.

“We’re seeing hallucinations, they become sick to their stomachs, they throw up, they become dizzy and very anxious,” said Al Bronstein, medical director of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center.

Twenty-six people have reported poisonings from marijuana edibles this year, when the center started tracking such exposures. Six were children who swallowed innocent-looking edibles, most of which were in plain sight.

Five of those kids were sent to emergency rooms, and two to hospitals for intensive care, Bronstein said. Children were nauseous and sleepy, and doctors worried about their respiratory systems shutting down.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Composing Only 5% of the World Population, Americans Take 50% of All Pharmaceutical Drugs

While Americans comprise only 5 percent of the world population, we consume an incredible 50 percent of Big Pharma’s drugs, as explained in Jeff Hays’ documentary film, Doctored. Make no mistake. These drugs are meant to keep us imprisoned in poor health, not heal us. It’s time to kick the drug habit America. Tell the drug pushers — Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, GlaxoSmith Kline, Abbott, Astra-Zeneca, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Sanofi (along with the FDA and CDC) that you are going cold turkey, and learn what true health really means…

You’ve likely heard the phrase before — just a dozen huge corporations are keeping Americans popping pills while they rake in billions, but have you really thought of what these numbers translate into, in terms of real health?

Annual sales for just one drug, Humira, was $9.3 billion. That puts Abott squarely at the top of the list as one of the most successful drug companies of all time.

One drug. One year. $9.3 billion.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Couple’s Love Story Spans Decades

When Helen Felumlee passed away at the age of 92 Saturday morning, her family knew her husband Kenneth Felumlee, 91, wouldn’t be slow to follow her. The couple couldn’t bear to be apart very long, and Kenneth passed away only 151/2 hours after his wife of 70 years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Did You Know the U.S. Built a Pyramid in the Middle of Nowhere to Track the End of the World

A huge pyramid in the middle of nowhere tracking the end of the world on radar. An abstract geometric shape beneath the sky without a human being in sight. It could be the opening scene of an apocalyptic science fiction film, but it’s the U.S. military building vast and other-worldly architectural structures that the civilian world only rarely sees. The Library of Congress has an extraordinary set of images documenting the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex in Cavalier County, North Dakota, showing it in various states of construction and completion. And the photos are awesome. Taken for the U.S. government by photographer Benjamin Halpern, the particular images seen here show the central pyramid — pyramid, obelisk…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

From ‘Goof’ To Maths Genius Thanks to a Blow to the Head

Jason Padgett is one of the world’s few ‘sudden savants’ — able to draw elaborate geometric fractals following a brain injury which changed his life.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Encourages Drug Money Laundering

The Obama administration has announced that it won’t enforce money-laundering laws against banks doing business with marijuana stores, in a move designed to “facilitate illegal conduct,” says Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA)

The Obama administration calls it “Guidance to Financial Institutions on Marijuana Businesses.”

The Washington Post story about this development carried the innocuous headline, “Obama administration clears banks to accept funds from legal marijuana dealers,” when in fact the marijuana “business” is not “legal” under federal or international law.

“Marijuana trafficking is illegal under federal law, and it’s illegal for banks to deal with marijuana sale proceeds under federal law,” noted Grassley. “Only Congress can change these laws. The administration can’t change the law with a memo.”

He added, “This is just one more area in which the Obama Administration is undermining our system of checks and balances and the rule of law.”

[…]

While most of the major media have been in support of what the Obama administration is doing to facilitate the spread of mind-altering drugs, some publications are sounding the alarm.

Whistleblower, a publication of WND.com, has published a special issue on the epidemic of drug use, legal and illegal, in American society. A piece by Art Moore titled, “Dude: Science contradicts Obama’s pot claims” refers to Obama as the “Choom Gang” president, a reference to his membership in a high school gang of heavy marijuana users, and notes that Obama’s claims about the relative harmlessness of pot are not sustained by the scientific evidence. Another article by Moore identifies Obama supporter George Soros, the hedge-fund billionaire, as the main force behind marijuana legalization.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pro-Gun Activists Hijack Bloomberg’s New Anti-Gun Facebook Page

In a statement to BuzzFeed, the page administrator wrote:

“I took the Bloomberg name because I wanted this page to remain open to debate, unlike his group at Moms Demand Action that block anyone with alternative views. Gun owners are getting a bad rep nation wide from their anti gun propaganda. As to who I am, I am your average citizen that believes the second amendment ‘shall not be infringed.’“

The person chose not to provide their name, but did openly acknowledge their action on the page, as seen here:…

“Bloomberg doesn’t have enough cash to put the Constitution in the shredder.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Push for National ID Continues

Like some sort of zombie from a 1950s B-movie, the REAL ID Act shambles forward, awaiting the day when some national emergency can bring it back to life. In the District of Columbia, the city government has announced that they will begin to issue REAL ID compliant driver’s licenses from May 1, 2014 onwards. The city’s “REAL ID Credential” page sings every note in the pro-national-ID song book. It says that REAL ID is “not a national identification card,” a claim debunked on this blog long ago. It also says that REAL ID will help “inhibit terrorists’ ability to evade detection by using fraudulent identification.” That’s true, as far as it goes. But inconveniencing wrongdoers this way provides a tiny sliver of security compared to the costs in dollars and privacy, not to mention the inconvenience about to be visited on D.C. residents.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, Fearsome Boxer Wrongly Convicted of Murder, Dies at 76

Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, a star prizefighter whose career was cut short by a murder conviction in New Jersey and who became an international cause célèbre while imprisoned for 19 years before the charges against him were dismissed, died on Sunday morning at his home in Toronto, his friend and onetime co-defendant, John Artis, confirmed. He was 76.

The cause of death was prostate cancer, Mr. Artis said. Mr. Carter was being treated in Toronto, where he founded a nonprofit organization, Innocence International, to work to free prisoners it considered wrongly convicted.

[Return to headlines]
 

Security Holes in Power Grid Have Federal Officials Scrambling

In Congress, the vulnerability of the power grid has emerged as among the most pressing domestic security concerns. It is also among the most vexing. Lawmakers have expended considerable energy on the issue, to limited effect. At times, they appear to be working at cross purposes. Some members of Congress want to empower regulators to force specific security upgrades at utilities. Others are attacking whistle-blowers and the media, demanding an investigation into disclosures of how easily the country’s power grid could be shut down. The magnitude of the problem is underscored by concerns raised by insurance giant Lloyds of London, which is known for a willingness to insure pretty much everything. Lloyds’ appraisers have been making a lot of visits lately to power companies seeking protection against the risk of cyberattack. Their takeaway: Security at about half the companies they visit is too weak for Lloyds to offer a policy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Smart Guns Endanger Children (Video)

The U.S. Justice Department is pushing for “smart” firearms. The new mandate would make guns biometric and/or proximity by forcing users to wear an identifiable bracelet.

[Comment: Back door gun registration. Ultimate distant future goal is to disable all firearms with the click of a mouse.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Obama Press Conference — A Smug, Shameful Liar on Display

Did you see the latest Obama presser? If so, I’m sorry, because you watched a man who’s made lying an art, his life’s work and legacy, elevating the heretofore shameful practice of degeneracy to levels that could make a polygraph smoke.

I did watch — every painful minute — but as I’m visiting Oregon (back in the race-car bed beneath Farrah 🙂 ) I saw it coming — TV. The parents own one. They turn it on. It makes noise, lots of noise, spewing tripe from a president who is to lying what Hugh Hefner is to P.J.s — obscenely comfortable.

But no one gets THAT comfortable without help.

So, thank you Media for turning “journalism” into the vocational equivalent of making out in the balcony. Why bother to ask questions? Why not, instead, produce fronds, sing lullabies, and fan the King as Diane and Chuck feed him grapes?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Who is the Boston Bombing Widow?

The wife of the dead Boston Marathon bombing suspect has never been implicated in the attack, but her proximity to it has put her in a prison without bars.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Wrongly-Convicted Boxer ‘Hurricane’ Carter Dies

Former boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter has died at age 76. His promising boxing career was cut short in the 1960s when he was wrongfully convicted of a triple murder and jailed until his exoneration 19 years later.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

8 Killed in Finland Parachutist Plane Crash

Finnish officials say eight people died when a small plane carrying parachutists crashed to the ground and caught fire. Det. Supt. Petri Kangas said three people survived the accident Sunday after they parachuted from the aircraft above Jamijarvi airfield, about 45 miles east of the southwestern town of Pori.

Kangas said investigators didn’t know the cause of the accident but that “apparently some parts fell off the plane before it crashed.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Finland Air Crash Kills Eight Skydivers

Eight skydivers have been killed after their plane crashed near the town of Jamijarvi in Finland. Three people, including the pilot, jumped to safety before the plane crashed and are currently in hospital. Witnesses said the aircraft appeared to run into engine trouble before it came down.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Renzi Approval Rating Down 3% to 55%

Trailed by Berlusconi and Alfano

(ANSA) — Rome, April 18 — An Ixè poll on Friday showed Premier Matteo Renzi’s approval ratings dropped 3% to 55%.

Ratings also dropped for President Giorgio Napolitano (-2%) and 5-Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo (-1%). Three-time premier Silvio Berlusconi scored 18%, overtaken by his former second-in-command and current Interior Minister Angelino Alfano at 19%. The poll of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and up also showed 53% of Italians will use an 80-euro tax refund promised by the government to pay down debts, 29% will put it into their savings account, and 18% will spend it immediately.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Close to Hitting Kyoto Protocol Targets

Just 16.9 million tonnes of CO2 needs to be cut

(ANSA) — Rome, April 16 — Italy is close to achieving its Kyoto Protocol commitments to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, a report by the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) said Wednesday. Under the terms of the treaty to combat climate change, Italy was committed to reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions by 6.5% in the 2008-2012 period compared to the level of 1990.

ISPRA said that in the 2008-2012 period Italy actually reduced its greenhouse emissions by 4.6%.

It said this means Italy is just the equivalent of 16.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide away from meeting the target for this period, adding that the use of credits from Kyoto’s flexible mechanism would make it possible to hit it with a “minimum effort”. ISPRA said Italy’s greenhouse emissions were down 5.4% in 2012 with respect to the previous year and 11.4% lower than in 1990, due to greater use of renewables to generate power and lower energy consumption due to the economic crisis. The international community has not yet agreed on new treaty to replace Kyoto for further cuts in greenhouse emissions needed to fight climate change.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Health-Sector Corruption ‘Costs 23.6 Bn Euros a Year’

Over 41% of cases of corruption in south, says ISPE

(ANSA) — Rome, April 16 — Corruption, inefficiency and waste in Italy’s health sector cost the State 23.6 billion euros a year, a report by the Institute for the Promotion of Ethics in Health (IPSE) said Wednesday.

The report looked at Italy’s health spending of around 114 billion euros in 2013 and estimated that 6.4 billion euros of that went up in smoke because of graft alone.

It said that corruption resulted in big differences between the costs of various health services between different regions, health authorities and hospitals.

It estimated that 41% of the cases of health-sector corruption were in southern Italy, 30% were in the centre, 23% in the north and 6% took place in various parts of the country.

Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin has said her ministry will contribute to the saving review of Premier Matteo Renzi’s government by promoting better planning and efficiency, rather than across-the-board cuts.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Lupi Suggests Alitalia-Etihad Deal ‘Annoyance’ For Some

Renzi says government ‘working on’ smoothing way to investment

(ANSA) — Rome, April 18 — Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi complained Friday that rumours of a breakdown in talks between Italian carrier Alitalia and potential investor Etihad Airways seemed designed to create trouble.

In a news conference, Lupi said the deal between the two could be “an annoyance” for unnamed parties.

“The fact that there is someone who continues to peddle rumours might mean that this agreement between Alitalia and Etihad is an annoyance to some,” he said. Lupi also asked journalists to be “responsible” in covering the story where new controversy erupted over a letter from Etihad on Wednesday which Lupi had said set out new conditions for the deal that would see a 300-million-euro capital injection into struggling Alitalia for a share of about 40%.

Alitalia had responded to the issues raised in the Etihad letter, Lupi said, but no details were available.

Premier Matteo Renzi joined the fray Friday, saying that the government is “working on” smoothing the way to a deal. One day earlier, Lupi gave assurances that a deal in which Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad is set to invest in Italian flag-bearer Alitalia is “in the final stage”.

When asked if the new conditions meant a deal may be stalled, Lupi said, “Yes, but we’re in the final stage. If the responses convince Etihad to proceed, it’s fundamental for each party to do its part”.

“It’s my understanding that Alitalia is responding to all of Etihad’s observations. We have Alitalia’s guarantee that they’ll respond soon. It’s my understanding that the deal is still on and we’re paying close attention to the continuation of the agreements,” added Lupi.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy’s New Fiscal Bonuses a Mistake, Says Union Leader

(AGI) Rome, April 19 — The alterations to personal income tax (IRPEF), which will allow employee bonuses of up to 80 euros a month, are a mistake and will not help recovery, said Unimpresa Italian business union leader Paolo Longobardi. He said what was needed was a structural measure that would give confidence to families and provide a useful tool to enable businesses to offer higher wages at the same cost, albeit indirectly, new jobs included.

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

Italy: Renzi Unmasked by the Economist, Says Grillo

(AGI) Rome, April 20 — The founder of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), Beppe Grillo, launched a new broadside against Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on his Facebook page, citing an article by The Economist magazine titled “Renzi’s ropy start”. Grillo wrote in his polemic: “Renzi unmasked! Everything the media aren’t telling you about the economic measures”, and quoted from the article: “When a politician of populist inclinations takes office, forms a government and unveils his programme, he usually has something to please everyone. So it seemed at first with Italy’s new prime minister, Matteo Renzi.” .

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

Netherlands: Large Wildfire in Dutch National Park

EDE, Netherlands (AP) — A large wildfire has destroyed at least 350 hectares (860 acres) in the Netherlands’ Hoge Veluwe National Park, in one of the largest fires seen in the region for decades, Dutch authorities say…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Netherlands: Amsterdam Should Not Become Like Venice, Says Local Council Chief

A careful balance needs to be struck to make sure the volume and type of tourists in Amsterdam do not become a problem for its residents, according to the chairman of Amsterdam Centrum’s borough council. Boudewijn Oranje says in an interview with Trouw that things are currently fine but ‘the number of visitors continues to grow and we have to keep an eye on the balance.’

Venice, says Oranje, is an example of what Amsterdam should not become. ‘It is a monoculture,’ he said. ‘Everything revolves around tourist and fewer and fewer people live there.’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: Suffering Morphs Into Cosiness in Easter Celebrations

Anyone who wishes to be faithful to old Norwegian Easter traditions should eat salted herring and black pudding on Long Friday.

Norwegian Easter, or “påske” (derived from the Hebrew pasach, or Passover), is a fusion of traditions stretching back throught the millennia. Norwegians have made their medley of Easter traditions out of various religions stretching back to prehistory.

In addition to evolving Lutheran practices, some comes from pre-Christian or heathen times, some from Judaism, and some is from the Christian era prior to the Reformation, when Norwegians were all Roman Catholics.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pro-Paedophile Group to be Banned, Dutch Supreme Court Says

The pro-paedophilia organisation Martijn should be banned, the Dutch supreme court ruled on Friday, marking the end of a legal battle which began in 2011.

The court’s decision is in line with recommendations made by the advocate general in March. He said the organisation should be banned because the protection of children should weigh more heavily than freedom of expression.

The Martijn Foundation campaigns for the legalisation of sexual contact between adults and children and has been the subject of a convoluted legal battle for years.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Scientists Publish Recipe for Making Bird Flu More Contagious

The Dutch virologist accused of engineering a dangerous superflu a few years ago is back with more contentious research. In 2011, Ron Fouchier and his team at Erasmus Medical Center took the H5N1 flu virus and made it more contagious. Now the team has published another study with more details on the exact genetic changes needed to do the trick. The H5N1 bird flu is known to have sickened 650 people worldwide, and of those, 386 died. So far the virus hasn’t been contagious in people. But Fouchier’s work, plus some similar research from another lab, showed for the first time that the virus had the potential to change in a way that would make it a real pandemic threat. Only a few mutations were necessary to make the H5N1 bird flu spread through the air between ferrets, the lab stand-in for people.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘Trojan Horse’ Schools: The Leaked Inspectors’ Report

by Andrew Gilligan

Here are extracts from the inspection report, leaked to the Telegraph, into three schools at the centre of the so-called “Trojan Horse” plot to “Islamise” secular state schools in Birmingham. The schools are Park View, Golden Hillock, and Nansen, all part of the Park View Educational Trust. This inspection was carried out by the Department for Education last month. Separate inspections were carried out by Ofsted, many of which, as we report today, are also damning…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: I Had Underage Sex With Police Officers at Guest House Used by ‘VIP Paedophile Ring’

Astonishing allegations by masseur who worked as a 16-year-old at notorious party venue ‘used by politicians, judges and pop stars’

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

A former child actor has told detectives he was abused by undercover male police officers at a guest house at the centre of an alleged VIP paedophile ring.

Lee Towsey made the astonishing claim to Scotland Yard’s Operation Fernbridge, which is investigating historic child sex abuse.

He says it happened while he worked at the Elm Guest House in South-West London in 1982. At the time, Mr Towsey was 16, then under the age of homosexual consent.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Islamist Plot in Schools: At Last, Ofsted Knows it Must Act

By Andrew Gilligan

Those denying plot to ‘Islamise’ schools are starting to look silly in the face of hard evidence

For Salma Yaqoob, the former leader of the Left-wing Respect party, Rosa Parks, the black American who in 1955 refused to sit at the back of the bus, is almost certainly, and rightly, a heroine. Yet last week, Ms Yaqoob fiercely supported a school which in 2014, according to an official report, makes girls sit at the back of the classroom…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Islamic Extremism a ‘Deadly’ Problem for Charities, William Shawcross Says

Chairman of Charity Commission says it will come down hard on charities found funnelling cash to extremist groups

Islamist extremism is the “most deadly” problem charities face, the chairman of the sector’s watchdog has said. William Shawcross, who took on the role at the Charity Commission in October 2012, said it was “ludicrous” that people with convictions for terrorism or money laundering were not automatically disqualified from setting up charities or becoming trustees…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Local Teacher Leader Blasts Ofsted Inspectors Investigating Claims of Islamist Plot in Birmingham

A teachers’ union has raised serious concerns about the conduct of Ofsted inspectors investigating an alleged Islamist plot to take over schools in Birmingham.

Teachers in the schools being inspected over the “Trojan Horse” plot claims were allegedly told their school would be downgraded because they were “not teaching anti-terrorism”, while inspectors also asked pupils and teaching staff “leading questions” on their attitude towards homosexuality, according to Roger King, the NUT’s executive member for the city…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Ministers ‘Covering up Secret Meetings With GM Food Lobby’

Owen Paterson refused a Freedom of Information request about talks over ‘Frankenfood’

Ministers are trying to cover up secret briefings with GM companies hoping to push ‘Frankenfood’ on to dinner tables.

Owen Paterson has refused a Freedom of Information Act request to supply details about talks with the GM industry trade body.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary has led the charge to encourage a sceptical public to accept genetically modified crops being grown on UK farms and sold in supermarkets.

He has also been lobbying the EU to let Britain grow crops such as GM maize even if they are banned in other countries.

It has emerged that these efforts are being carried out in partnership with the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, which is financed by GM companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer CropScience.

The revelations come weeks after it was revealed that a group of scientists behind an official government study backing GM all had links to the industry.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Man in Critical Condition Following ‘Violent Assault’ In West End

A 24-year-old man is in a critical condition after he was assaulted during a night out in the West End.

Police and ambulance crews were called to Oxendon Street, Westminster, at 4.20am yesterday morning and found a man suffering with head injuries. He was on a night out with family and friends when the two men launched their attack. It is believed he was punched in the head and kicked in the body, before he blacked out.

Detective Sergeant Alistair Morrison, said: “This was a particularly violent assault which occurred on a road off of Haymarket. Despite the hour, the area would have been busy with people who had been out in the West End. I would urge anyone who saw the attack to contact police.”

The two men were black, about 5ft 10ins and of athletic build…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Ofsted Chief to Take Charge of Probe Into Islamic School Plot

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of Ofsted, will take personal control of the alleged “Trojan Horse” plot in Birmingham as the National Union of Teachers say the investigation is biased

The head of Ofsted will take personal charge of the watchdog’s investigation into an alleged Islamic take over of schools in Birmingham after it emerged at least six will be branded as failing. Sir Michael Wilshaw is to visit the city this week to finalise a high-level probe into the plot to “Islamise” secular state schools, it emerged.

He will finalise reports into 18 schools following claims pressure has been placed on head teachers to illegally segregate pupils by gender and marginalise non-Muslims…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Private School Chief Linked to Islam Trojan Horse Plot Says: Stone All Adulterers to Death

A Muslim hardliner who says adulterers should be stoned to death and that gay men and fornicators should be lashed 100 times has set up an Islamic school that has received almost £1million of taxpayers’ money.

Ibrahim Hewitt, one of Britain’s most prominent Islamic firebrands — who also heads a charity branded a ‘terrorist’ organisation by the US — is the founder and chairman of trustees of the Al-Aqsa school in Leicester, which teaches 250 boys and girls aged between three and 11.

He has vilified homosexuals as paedophiles and said a man can take on a second wife if his first fails to satisfy him sexually. Mr Hewitt has published his views in a book on Islam, which he claims has sold more than 50,000 copies in Britain.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The BBC’s Groupthink is an Enemy to Free Speech

But, as ever more people seem to recognise, the most damaging price we pay for the BBC’s near-monopoly of the airwaves is the way it imposes on our national culture its own, only too recognisable view of the world: its own narrow, one-sided, left-of-centre form of groupthink. On pretty well every issue of the day, the BBC has its “party line”, dictating what can and cannot be said, who it invites on and who it excludes: from the EU and global warming to gay marriage; from wind farms to government “cuts”; from Israel to fracking.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: We Must Confront the Challenge of Islamism

Just as troubling as the suggestion of an Islamist conspiracy in Birmingham schools is the refusal of the local non-Islamic establishment to do anything about it

At least six Birmingham schools accused of harbouring a Trojan horse plot run by Muslim fundamentalists will be placed under special measures by Ofsted. The action is understandable. The unsubtle attempts to insert Islamist ideas — representing an extremist, politicised form of Islam — into the curriculum of those schools makes for frightening reading. Equally unsettling was the liberal establishment’s failure to correct it…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Village of the Damned: Mysterious Suicides. Agonising Illness. And Now, 25 Years After UK’s Worst Case of Mass Poisoning, The First Evidence That Dirty Water Has Killed People

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

It is a quarter of a century since massive quantities of aluminium sulphate, a chemical used to keep drinking water clear, were accidentally dumped into the public supply at Camelford’s Lowermoor treatment works.

It was the worst case of mass poisoning in British history. The effects were noticed within 90 minutes and included diarrhoea and vomiting, severe joint aches, and blistering. Hands and lips stuck together. Hair turned green, fingernails blue.

It seems a long time ago. But if, to the outside world, the matter had been safely laid to rest, a small but determined group of locals has long insisted that the effects of the disaster could be both long-term and devastating. Now, their worst fears appear to be justified.

The Mail on Sunday has uncovered not one but two new aluminium-linked deaths: that of Mr Gibbons and also of Peter Winn, a farmer who died in 2012 but whose brain has only recently been analysed.

They join Carole Cross, a woman whose case was highlighted two years ago, and the three deaths have spread anxiety through the towns and villages of the area.

All three came into contact with the poisoned Camelford water and all were found to have high levels of aluminium in the brain, contamination which almost certainly gave rise to protein plaque deposits affecting mental function. The symptoms were not dissimilar to Alzheimer’s.

The revelations raise the spectre of serious ill health and a traumatic death for thousands. They have also provoked disturbing questions about the behaviour of the medical authorities who for decades refused to countenance the likelihood of long-term effects from the Camelford poisoning. No wonder the bereaved relatives are pursuing legal action.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

What if Sardinia Became a Swiss Island?

Could landlocked Switzerland finally get some coastline? There is a movement afoot pushing Swiss annexation of the Italian island of Sardinia.

There is a quietly growing group of people fantasizing about the scenic Italian island of Sardinia being annexed by landlocked Switzerland. Is it a sign from the stars that the new rector of the Swiss University of Ludes, Antonello Martinez, was born in the Sardinian town of Oristano and studied at the island’s biggest university in Cagliari?

For those new to what may seem like a bizarre idea, there is indeed a movement afoot. On the Internet, people are talking about a 27th Swiss Canton — that is, Rome selling Sardinia, and the Mediterranean island then being annexed to Switzerland. It would be a win-win for everyone, really. Italy gets some Francs, and Switzerland finally gets some coastline. Meanwhile, the Sardinians would be emancipated from their turbulent relationship with the Italian government…

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

Algerian Soldiers Killed in Mountain Ambush (1)

In the deadliest attack in years, 11 Algerian soldiers have been killed while returning from a mountain patrol. The attack follows last week’s presidential poll.

Algerian security forces said on Sunday that Islamist insurgents had killed at least 11 soldiers and left up to 14 others wounded when they ambushed a military bus late on Saturday night on a mountainous main road between two villages in the north east of the country…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Algerian Soldiers Killed in Mountain Ambush (2)

In the deadliest attack in years, 11 Algerian soldiers have been killed while returning from a mountain patrol. The attack follows last week’s presidential poll.

Algerian security forces said on Sunday that Islamist insurgents had killed at least 11 soldiers and left up to 14 others wounded when they ambushed a military bus late on Saturday night on a mountainous main road between two villages in the north east of the country.

The soldiers had been searching for militants in the Tizi Ouzou region, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the capital, Algiers, when they were attacked by fighters from al-Qaeda’s north African branch, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) according to a security source quoted by the Reuters news agency.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Eleven Soldiers Killed in Algeria Attack

(AGI) Algiers, April 20 — Eleven Algerian soldiers were killed in an ambush in the turbulent Kabylie region east of Algiers, a security source said on Sunday. The troops were ambushed overnight at Iboudrarene as they were returning from a mission in the area. The attack came after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won a fourth term last week.

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

New Terror Threat Emerges in Egypt

So far this year, a car bomb gutted the Cairo police headquarters, a military helicopter was shot down, a high-level security official was assassinated, and a tourist bus was bombed near Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

The attacks have all been claimed by Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a shadowy militant group based in the Sinai Peninsula that has emerged as one of the biggest terrorist threats to the country in decades.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Champions of Jerusalem, first emerged amid a security vacuum following the 2011 Egyptian revolution. During this time, prison amnesties also led to the release of many militants who had been imprisoned under former autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama’s Muslim Brother Wants to Help Build the Third Jewish Temple

Malik Obama, the US President’s professing Muslim brother, embraced Yisrayl Hawkins’ proposal to build the Third Temple next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, or Dome of the Rock, in a Nov. 16, 2010, address to the First Annual Global Council of Peace in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the House of Yahweh. “I’m at that stage now where I’m trying to do something and make a contribution to mankind,” Malik Obama said, referring to Yisrayl Hawkins’ Third Temple proposal. “I feel a lot better with myself today, and I welcome and embrace the principles and the concept I am hearing today.” In the speech, Malik addressed the apparent contradiction between his Muslim faith and the goal of rebuilding the Third Temple adjacent to the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. “It’s easy for me to get with the program because I’m a Muslim, you know, a practicing Muslim, and all the principles that are within the program [of building the Third Temple] are within my beliefs,” Malik said. “So, it’s easy for me to step right in and be part of the program.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

2 Killed in Bahrain Blasts

MANAMA, April 19 (Xinhua) — Two men have been killed and at least five policemen injured in two blasts with home-made bombs, Bahrain police said on Saturday. A makeshift bomb went off in a car in Maqsha village, killing two people and injuring two others, the Interior Ministry said, adding that two charred bodies were found inside the car…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

23 Killed in Violent Attacks in Iraq

BAGHDAD, April 19 (Xinhua) — A total of 23 people were killed and 40 others wounded in bombings and gunmen attacks across Iraq on Saturday, security sources said.

In Anbar province, at least four people were killed and 15 wounded at dawn when Iraqi army pounded the town of Garma near the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a provincial police source said…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

American Pastor Saeed Abedini Imprisoned in Iran Pens Easter Message

The American pastor imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith has sent an Easter message from his hospital bed to his family of supporters across the globe, reminding them of the importance of faith.

Saeed Abedini, the 33-year-old Idaho resident who has served one year of an eight-year prison term in Iran for practicing his Christian faith, has passed the letter to family members who were permitted to visit him at the Tehran hospital where he has been for more than five weeks, according to his attorneys.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austrian Teen Girls Become Pin Ups for Syrian Jihad

Interpol is searching for two Austrian teenage girls who they believe have been tricked into going to Syria to fight on the side of Islamic rebels.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

British Extremist in Syria Says ‘This is No Five-Star Jihad’

A British extremist in Syria has released a video showing the living conditions of fighters there, denying they are enjoying a “five-star jihad” others have boasted of.

The video, released by Rawat al-Tawheed, a mouthpiece for British fighters that are fighting in support of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) — an Islamist group that has been rejected by Al-Qaeda for being too extreme.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Construction Frenzy in Lebanon Alters Beirut’s Skyline, As High Rises Replace Old Heritage

BEIRUT — One by one, the old traditional houses of Beirut are vanishing as luxury towers sprout up on every corner, altering the city’s skyline almost beyond recognition amid an ongoing construction frenzy seemingly immune to tensions from the civil war raging next door.

Lebanon’s enchanting Ottoman and colonial French-style buildings once represented Beirut’s rich history, withstanding years of civil war and invasions only to be demolished in peace time by wealthy Gulf Arab investors.

In that, Beirut is no different than Dubai, Doha or other major world cities overtaken by a global trend for modern, tall buildings. But in a country that prides itself on its rich history, many complain that Lebanon is losing its charm and character, often said to be the only thing going for it.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Drone Kills 30 Al Qaeda Militants in Yemen

(AGI) Aden, April 20 — At least 30 Al Qaeda militants were killed by a drone attack in southern Yemen, according to a tribal chief. The unmanned aircraft struck during a meeting of Al Qaeda members in the city of Al Mahfad, in the province of Abyan. Several other people were injured.

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

Iraq: 1 Killed, 9 Wounded in Suicide Bomb Attack in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, April 20 (Xinhua) — At least one policeman was killed and nine people were wounded in an attempt by suicide bombers to storm a religious Shiite college in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Sunday, an Interior Ministry source said.

The attack occurred before noon when two suicide bombers wearing explosive vests tried to break into the Shiite college of Imam Kadhim in Ur district in the northeastern part of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Iraqi Government Closes Abu Ghraib Prison

Justice Ministry announces the transfer of 2,400 prisoners to other facilities, raising concerns among lawmakers on the Security and Defence committee of Iraq’s parliament. For them, the move sends the wrong message.

Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The Iraqi government on Tuesday announced the closure of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

In a press release, the Iraqi Minister of Justice said that some 2,400 prisoners held in the facility were transferred to other prisons in central and northern Iraq as a “precautionary measure.”

This comes after terrorist groups increased their presence in the area raising concerns that they might begin operating near the prison.

In response to the government’s action, the Security and Defence Committee of the Iraqi parliament issued a statement saying that the closure of Abu Ghraib prison might send a wrong message — namely a lack of assurance vis-à-vis the security situation, which could in turn create a state of anxiety and panic among Iraqis about what might happen in the coming period

“Abu Ghraib prison is not fit to house prisoners and detainees,” said MP Hakim Al-Zamili, a member of the Security and Defence Committee of Iraq’s parliament. “It is old, and there has been more than one incident of prison break”.

However, for him “The decision to close the prison and transfer the prisoners sends an alarming message. Firstly, to the Iraqi people who will be beset by anxiety and fear about what is happening, particularly with regards to the continued threats from terrorist groups like ISIS and others.

“The second message is to the terrorists who will feel that they are beginning to force the authorities to take action and this could serve to raise their morale.”

Instead, “The right solution would be for there to be a military force capable of retaking the territory [held by ISIS] and not allowing terrorists to expand their influence,” Al- Zamili added.

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

Kuwait Papers Closed for Violating ‘Plot’ Blackout

A Kuwaiti judge has ordered the temporary closure of two newspapers for breaking a news blackout about an alleged coup plot.

The independent newspapers, Al Watan and Alam Al Yawm, published details of a videotape said to show former senior officials planning the overthrow of the Gulf state’s leadership.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

President Assad Stages Easter Visit to Christian Town in Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has visited a historic Christian town recently retaken by his regime forces. During the Easter visit to Maaloula, Assad met with a Christian priest.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Arabia Trains Chechens to Operate in Syria: Report

Syrian Opposition sources and Western analysts agreed that Saudi Arabia has facilitated the recruitment of more than 1,000 Islamist fighters from Russia’s autonomous Chechnya in preparation for being sent to Syria, the American World Tribune newspaper reported.

Analysts said the Chechens significantly bolstered their presence in the Sunni revolt in Syria since Riyadh assumed responsibility for the war against the President Bashar Assad in late 2013…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: Assad Visits Recaptured Christian Town at Easter

(AGI) Damascus, April 20 — Syrian President Bashar Assad on Easter Sunday visited the ancient Christian town of Maaloula, which his troops recently recaptured from rebels. The visit appeared to be an attempt by Mr Assad, who belongs to the Alawite sect but heads an officially secular government, to celebrate Easter as protector of members of all faiths in Syria.

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

Syria: Interpol in Hunt for Austrian Jihadist Teenage Girls

Two Austrian teenage girls that authorities believe were tricked into travelling to Syria to fight for Islamist rebels are currently being searched for by Interpol.

Samra Kesinovic, 16, and Sabina Selimovic, 15, disappeared from their homes in the Austrian capital of Vienna on April 10, the Daily Mail reported.

However, the girls’ parents found a slew of posts of social media networks that suggested that had gone to fight for a “holy war” in Syria.

The girl’s parents — who are originally Bosnian refugees who settled in Austria after the ethnic conflicts of the 1990’s — claim that the messages are not being written by the girls.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey: Women Start Fighting Against Mass Transit Abuse

(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, APRIL 18 — Turkish women have turned on social media to demand an end to the increasing number of men engaging in subtle sexual harassment through “leg room abuse” on mass transit as daily Hurriyet reports. Two hashtags, #yerimisgaletme (don’t occupy my space) and #bacaklarinitopla (mind your legs), have hit the worldwide trending topic list on Twitter, after hundreds of Turkish women initiated an unusual awareness campaign. Men who invade women’s personal space on buses and metro by sitting with their legs wide open are being named and shamed on Turkish social media. Women participating in the campaign have been sharing the barefaced men’s photographs, condemning the act as uncivilized. Some even argue that the act should formally be accepted as sexual harassment and be legally punished. “This campaign is one of the most just and most meaningful actions in the recent past,” said one Twitter user with the handle @ezgilite.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Yemen’s Government Says Airstrike in Rugged Southern Region Targets Al-Qaida Training Camps

SANAA, Yemen — A high-level government security committee in Yemen says an airstrike against training camps operated by suspected al-Qaida militants in a rugged southern mountain region has killed a number of fighters.

The Supreme Security Committee, which includes the defense and interior ministers, as well as the country’s intelligence chief, did not say who carried out the attack Sunday in between Abyan and Shabwa provinces. The U.S. regularly carries out drone strikes in Yemen against its local al-Qaida branch, which Washington considers the most active in the world.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Deadly Gun Attack in Eastern Ukraine Shakes Fragile Easter Truce

At least two people were killed in a gunfight early on Sunday near a Ukrainian city controlled by pro-Russian separatists, testing an already fragile international accord that is supposed to defuse Ukraine’s armed stand-off.

Hours earlier, Ukraine’s Western-backed government in Kiev had declared a truce to coincide with the Easter religious holiday, giving international mediators an opportunity to try to persuade armed pro-Russian groups to disarm.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Five Killed in Eastern Ukraine Clash: Media

MOSCOW, April 20 (Xinhua) — Five people were killed early Sunday during a clash between gunmen and pro-Russia protesters in eastern Ukraine’s town of Slavyansk, the Russian state television reported.

A group of unidentified gunmen attacked a checkpoint controlled by pro-Russia protesters, resulting in the death of three protesters and two gunmen, the state-run Rossiya 24 news station reported…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Russia, Ukraine Officials Blame Each Other for Deadly Shootout in Eastern Ukraine

Ukraine and Russian officials have denied responsibility for a deadly assault on a checkpoint in eastern Ukraine. The mayor of the city where the attack occurred has reportedly called on Moscow for help.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Source: Ukrainian Synagogue Firebombed

The main synagogue in the Ukrainian city of Nikolayev reportedly was firebombed. The synagogue was empty of worshippers when it was firebombed early Saturday morning, according to the Chabad-affiliated Shturem.org website.

Two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the door and window, the report said, citing Yisroel Gotlieb, son of the city’s chief rabbi, Sholom Gotlieb. A passer-by put out the fires with a fire extinguisher, according to the report.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Three Pro-Russian Militia Die in Ukraine Shooting

(AGI) Slaviansk, April 20 — Three pro-Russian separatists were killed on Sunday in a shootout at a roadblock in Slaviansk with suspected supporters of the government in Kiev. One attacker also died as the fragile Easter ceasefire frayed, said local pro-Moscow leader, Vyatcheslav Ponomarev, adding that the killers have not yet been identified. A group of about 20 men travelling in four cars opened fire with automatic weapons at the checkpoint set up by the pro-Russian irregulars, a separatist reported.

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

Ukrainian Oligarch Offers Bounty for Capture of Russian ‘Saboteurs’

A pro-Kiev oligarch offered a $10,000 (£6,000) bounty on Thursday for the capture of any Russian “saboteur” and promised another half-million hryvnia (£27,000) to the national guardsmen who successfully repelled an attack by pro-Russian militia last night, killing three.

Igor Kolomoisky, an energy tycoon who was appointed governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region in eastern Ukraine last month, also offered rewards for handing in weapons belonging to insurgents: $1,000 for each machine gun turned in to the authorities, $1,500 for every heavy machine gun and $2,000 for a grenade launcher.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine, Russia Trade Blame for Eastern Shootout

DONETSK, Ukraine — Within hours of an Easter morning shootout at a checkpoint manned by pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement blaming militant Ukrainian nationalists and Russian state television stations aired pictures of supposed proof of their involvement in the attack that left at least three people dead.

The Ukrainian Security Service, however, said the attack was staged by provocateurs from outside the country.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Who is Using Spies and Lies to Grab Power in Kiev? We Are

What would you think if Russia’s spy chief had been discovered last week, roaming round Ukraine?

The British media would have been raging and howling about sinister Kremlin meddling.

Well, as far as I know, no such visit took place. But something just as astonishing did happen. John Brennan, Director of the CIA, was, in fact, in Kiev last week, and I do not think he was there for the nightlife.

It is, by any measure, a hugely interesting fact that such a person, who seldom ventures out at all, was in Ukraine at a moment of great tension. Yet the information was buried by British news media.

Last week, I asked several colleagues whom I know to be assiduous newspaper readers, interested in the world, savvy and alert, if they knew Mr Brennan had been in Kiev. Not one of them did.

Well, what else don’t we know? Here’s a hint. About three- quarters of what Russia is now doing in Ukraine is a bitter joke at the expense of the ‘West’. What we attack them for doing is what we have also done, in Yugoslavia and Ukraine.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

World’s Oldest Pyramid Found in Crimea

A Ukrainian scientist discovered the oldest pyramid in the world. Most interestingly, it was found in the most beautiful corner of the country, in Crimea. As the ICTV channel reported, the finding was revealed by accident, when during his test alternative methods of finding water Ukrainian scientist Vitalii Goh discovered underground unknown object, which proved to be a giant pyramid of 45 meters in height and a length of about 72 meters. Goh said that the pyramid was built during the time of the dinosaurs.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Afghanistan: Blast Wounds 7 in Kabul, Clash Leaves 3 Taliban Dead, 7 Injured

KABUL, April 20 (Xinhua) — Anti-government militants in their attack against the establishment launched a bomb attack on a bus of government employees in the outskirts of Afghan capital Kabul, injuring at least seven people on Sunday, Kabul police said in a statement released here…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Myanmar Says 22 People Killed This Month as Fresh Fighting Flares in Strife-Torn Kachin State

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar says fighting between government troops and ethnic rebels in the northeastern, strife-torn state of Kachin has left at least 22 people dead this month.

The clashes in Kachin come despite efforts by President Thein Sein’s government to forge a nationwide cease-fire agreement with all armed ethnic groups — a deadline that has repeatedly been pushed back because of ongoing clashes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Robotic Sub Covers Half of Narrowed Search Area With No Sign of Missing Malaysia Plane

PERTH, Australia — A robotic submarine looking for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane continued to dive Sunday after completing about half of its search on the bottom of the Indian Ocean with no luck, prompting an official to express the urgent need to find something that can help solve the mysterious disappearance six weeks ago.

The Bluefin 21 unmanned sub began its eighth trip into the depths off the coast of western Australia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thai Police Say Suspected Insurgents Kill 3 in Shooting in South, Including 2-Year-Old Girl

Police in southern Thailand say suspected insurgents shot dead three people, including a 2-year-old girl, in a drive-by shooting. Police Col. Chartchai Chanasit says two gunmen riding on a motorcycle carried out the attack on Sunday in the Bannang Sata district of Yala province.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since an Islamic insurgency flared in 2004.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

DHS Study Admits North Korea Can Destroy the United States Using a Surprise Emp Attack

A long-suppressed report prepared by the Department of Homeland Security for the Defense Department concludes that North Korea could deliver on its threats to destroy the United States with a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack. The report remains blocked from release to the American public. However, a copy obtained by Peter Vincent Pry from sources within DHS finds North Korea could use its Unha-3 space launch vehicle to deliver a nuclear warhead as a satellite over the South Pole to attack the U.S. from the south. Pry, executive director of the congressional advisory Task Force on National and Homeland Security, pointed out that the U.S. “has no early warning radars or interceptors” to stop a missile from the south.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Divers Pull Bodies From Sunken South Korean Ferry as Death Toll Climbs Past 50

Divers began to pull bodies from a ferry that sank off South Korea’s southern coast earlier this week as the official death toll increased to 59.

A transcript released Sunday shows the ferry was crippled with confusion and indecision well after it began listing dangerously, possibly adding to a death toll could eventually exceed 300.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Families of South Korean Ferry Victims Protest as Recovery Operation Goes on

After more than three days, divers finally gained access to the capsized ferry, Sewol, retrieving 22 bodies on Sunday and bringing the death toll to 54. Strong currents, cold water and low visibility are hampering the operation. There are some 250 passengers still unaccounted for.

Early on Sunday, 200 police officers blocked about 100 relatives of missing passengers as they began a march to the presidential Blue House in Seoul, 260 miles (420 kilometers) to the north to voice their complaints about the rescue and recovery operation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fueling a New Order? The New Geopolitical and Security Consequences of Energy

By Bruce Jones, David Steven and Emily O’Brien

China is in place to surpass the United States in its scale of oil imports, and has already edged out the U.S. in carbon emissions.

These changes have profound geopolitical consequences, including in terms of security relations among the world’s top powers. Two things are clear: that these changes are strengthening America’s hand in the world; and that changes in global energy production and consumption are increasingly exposing the emerging powers to risks. America does not escape from risk, but the emerging powers have more vulnerabilities.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Carmakers Eye Beijing Car Show in Anticipation of Record Sales in China

The world’s leading automakers have gathered in Beijing for its annual car show. German carmakers are expecting record sales this year as China’s consumers look West for quality and affordability.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Japan to Arm Remote Western Island, Risking More China Tension

(Reuters) — Japan is sending 100 soldiers and radar to its westernmost outpost, a tropical island off Taiwan, in a deployment that risks angering China with ties between Asia’s biggest economies already hurt by a dispute over nearby islands they both claim.

Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera will break ground on Saturday for a military lookout station on Yonaguni, which is home to 1,500 people and just 150 km (93 miles) from the disputed Japanese-held islands claimed by China.

The mini-militarization of Yonaguni — now defended by two police officers — is part of a longstanding plan to improve defense and surveillance in Japan’s far-flung frontier.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Christians in Nigeria to Fast for Kidnapped Girls

(AGI) Lagos, April 20 — The Christian Association of Nigeria has announced the Christians will fast on Monday, and pray for the 129 schoolgirls kidnapped 6 days ago by suspected Boko Haram terrorists. The announcement was made on Sunday during a press conference in Maiduguri, in Borno state, where the girls were kidnapped.

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

Kenya: Police to Prosecute Maalim for Incitement

It emerged yesterday that police will charge former deputy Speaker Farah Maalim with incitement as National Assembly Majority Leader Adan Duale defended himself over claims that he incited members of the Somali community over the ongoing security swoop.

Maalim yesterday appeared before officers of the Anti-terrorism police unit in Nairobi where he was questioned over remarks that the Government was sponsoring some of the terror incidents in the country. He declined to record statements with the police…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Boko Haram Claims Abuja Attack That Killed 75

Islamists have claimed responsibility for the explosion that killed at least 75 in Nigeria this week. The group Boko Haram believes the legacy of colonialism has corrupted Africans and only Islamic law can save Nigeria.

In a video released Saturday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau — declared a global terrorist by the United States, which has placed a bounty on his head worth $7 million (5 million euros) — spoke in both Arabic and northern Nigeria’s Hausa language, with a Kalashnikov resting on his left shoulder. He threatened further attacks.

“We are in your city, but you don’t know where we are,” Shekau says in the video…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Gunmen Attack Secondary School Staff Quarters, Kill 5-Year-Old

Police in Bauchi State said suspected gunmen set ablaze some houses in the staff quarters of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yana, killing a five-year old girl on Sunday. The police spokesperson in the state, DSP Haruna Mohammed, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Bauchi that the gunmen also burnt a telecommunication mast in the town…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Mob in Dominican Republic Lynches Haitian Man Accused of Stabbing 4-Month-Old Daughter

Police in the Dominican Republic say a Haitian man has died after being attacked by a mob for allegedly stabbing his 4-month-old daughter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

What Really Happened at the Bay of Pigs

(You always hear and read of a “fiasco,” a “defeat” a “disaster” at the Bay of Pigs, 53 years ago this week. But you rarely hear about the cause. Here it is.)

“They fought like tigers,” writes the CIA officer who helped train the Cubans who splashed ashore at the Bay of Pigs 53 years ago this week. “But their fight was doomed before the first man hit the beach.”

That CIA man, Grayston Lynch, knew something about fighting — and about long odds. He carried scars from Omaha Beach, The Battle of the Bulge and Korea’s Heartbreak Ridge. But in those battles Lynch and his band of brothers counted on the support of their Commander in Chief. At the Bay of Pigs, Grayston Lynch (an American) and his band of brothers (Cubans) learned — first in speechless shock and finally in burning rage — that their most powerful enemies were not Castro’s Soviet-armed soldiers massing in nearby Santa Clara, but the Ivy League’s best and brightest dithering in Washington.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Emergency in Sicily as More Immigrants Land

(AGI) Ragusa, April 20 — A further 170 immigrants, mainly Syrian men and women, have landed at Pozzallo, near Ragusa, in Sicily. Civil Defence and Police units are at the scene.

Another 250 immigrants are expected to land in the area over the next few hours, bringing Sunday’s overall total to roughly 800, creating a real emergency for the local government and emergency services.

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

France: Robert Redeker: For Many on the Left, The (Muslim) Immigrant is the New Proletariat

Robert Redeker is the teacher in France who, after receiving death threats from Muslims, had to leave his post.

He has been trying to explain — to himself, first of all — why there was so little protest, why so many seem determined to ignore the teachings Islam inculcuates, and the observable behavior of Muslims in France and elsewhere in Europe.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

From Lampedusa to Berlin, Immigrant Anger at Italy

“You’re the ones who created this mess I’m in…” Mohammad points his finger at me, and doesn’t even want to tell me his real first name: “Call me Mohammad, we are all the same to you racist Italians anyway.”His age, though, he does tell me: He’s 47, but looks a bit younger thanks to the dreadlocks framing his face and the sweatshirt he’s wearing. Another man who is standing behind him approaches as he hears the word “Italian,” but only to spit a few inches from my right foot. Then he yells a few words at me in Arabic, and leaves. A small group of people has begun to gather around me, and they’re not friendly. A tall guy as skinny as a Giacometti statue sums it up for the others: “I hate Italy. You gave us 500 euros and expelled us with that damn document that doesn’t allow us to work here.”

This is happening in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of the German capital. Years ago, when people spoke of Berlin as the “third largest Turkish city,” and before the gentrification began, this neighborhood was the heart of the city’s foreign community.

One of the main squares of the area, along the channels of the Spree river, is Oranienplatz: It was occupied last year by hundreds of immigrants who built cabins, an outdoor kitchen, common areas with recycled sofas and chairs. Many who gathered here here had arrived after experiencing the inferno that is the sea journey to Lampedusa, like Mohammad, the anonymous Giacometti and Ali did.

I catch a glimpse of a less hostile face, while the others continue to rail on against Italy. He nods his head inviting me to follow him. “I’m Libyan. When you started to bomb Libya, I fled. And now I’m here.” He takes me to his hut made of four tin walls at the bottom of Oranienplatz. Inside there is just enough space for a bed, a table and a small heater. Outside on this late March day, it is still cold, but inside it is steaming hot.

A pro-Gaddafi carpenter

Ali tells me the obvious: since the group from Lampedusa was “received” in Italy and because of the abstruse European rules, other countries can safely wash their hands of the problem. “I am not asking for much: a job, a normal house.”…

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

Netherlands: Immigrants Bullied Into Leaving the Hague District, Mayor Pledges Action

The Hague’s mayor Jozias van Aartsen and a local housing corporation have pledged to take action against a group of white residents in a working class neighbourhood who are bullying immigrants until they leave.

The Duindorp neighbourhood, a pre-war neighbourhood close to Scheveningen harbour, hit the headlines this week after locals appeared on television saying they saw nothing wrong in trying to drive out foreigners.

‘My son has been waiting for a house in Duindorp for four years and then along comes a burqa with a man who has a dromedary and a camel. They get one within a week. Get lost. We don’t want them here,’ one man, Nico den Heijer, said on camera.

Immigrants have complained about having their windows smashed and swasticas painted on the walls of their home, local housing corporation Vestia said.

One family found a pig’s head had been nailed to their door ‘because they had the cheek to come and live here’, the AD reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Racism in Germany

Time to talk about racism

Until such time as there is an open debate about racism, the debate about integration in Germany will not more forward. After all, as Aladin El-Mafaalani explains, integration and racism are two key elements of a discourse on participation that a country of immigration has to address.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Easter and the American Tradition of Revival — It Can Happen Again!

Only Christian Reform has the Power to Save the USA From Itself

The popular image of Easter is a silly cliché, oozing chocolate bunnies and hidden colored eggs. Yet the claims of the Bible, regarding Christ’s death and Resurrection are a tremendous challenge to the secular and religious mind alike. The idea that God Himself chose to divest Glory and come to earth in the form of the Son, is mind-boggling. The claim of Christ’s sinless existence, where He earned the right to die for all men’s sins, is only excelled by the resurrection. Here, Jesus confronts death personally, and actually kills death in his own death, according to such luminous theologians as John Owen, in The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Labour Prepared to Introduce Judge Quotas to Achieve Balanced Judiciary

Shadow justice secretary calls for radical thinking to ensure selection goes beyond ‘male, white and Oxbridge’ world

A Labour government would be prepared to introduce the “nuclear option” of quotas for women and black and minority ethnic judges to avoid a 100-year wait to achieve a balanced judiciary that reflects the population.

Amid fears that reform has slowed to a “snail’s pace”, the shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan has called for radical thinking to ensure judges are selected from beyond the “male, white and Oxbridge” world…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Hosanna in the Highest!

Pray that on Easter Sunday, God will hear our pleas for mercy, and deliver us from those who seek to master us within a Godless society, culture.

In the hustle and bustle of a chaotic world, it is easy to compartmentalize the various aspects of our lives. We have family, work or school and leisure activities during our waking hours, and we can tend to place God in a box, of sorts, so that we can pursue our earthly endeavors.

During this holiest of holy seasons, Catholics, Christians and Jews focuses are piqued by the Passover Seder, Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection. The Passover recalls God’s chosen people’s freedom from slavery in the land of Egypt, and Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection represents mankind’s universal redemption from the slavery to sin. With this demonstration of love by God for His chosen people and mankind in mind, how can one not proclaim ‘Hosanna in the Highest’, urgently praying for God’s saving activity through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?

Holy, Holy, Holy
Lord, God of Hosts,
Heaven and Earth are full of Your glory,
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is He, who comes in the name of the Lord,
Hosanna is a plea, and many of us plea for truth and salvation. Before we depart this Earth for eternal salvation, we would also like to see God’s will enacted here. This cannot happen if we are not vigilant and involved, for Satan is perpetually seeking our individual and collective demise. When we let God out of the box, it is amazing how our lives can change for the better. This doesn’t mean we enjoy a total lack of pain, or concerns, but we become better equipped to deal with our daily challenges. God is truth. Only when we are accepting of and prepared for the truth, can we see the truth.

When a person fully understands what is going on, regarding the theft of our rights and freedoms and the premeditated and controlled destruction of our society, culture, economy and constitutional republic, he/she realizes that we have much more than mere political and economic woes about which to be concerned. We have spiritual woes that lead to our political, societal, cultural, and economic woes.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

How Terrifying Viruses Could Escape Their Labs

The public health danger posed by potentially pandemic-causing viruses escaping from laboratories has become the subject of considerable discussion, spurred by “gain of function” experiments. The ostensible goal of these experiments — in which researchers manipulate already-dangerous pathogens to create or increase communicability among humans — is to develop tools to monitor the natural emergence of pandemic strains. Opponents, however, warn in a variety of recent research papers that the risk of laboratory escape of these high-consequence pathogens far outweighs any potential advance. The danger of a manmade pandemic sparked by a laboratory escape is not hypothetical: One occurred in 1977, and it occurred because of concern that a natural pandemic was imminent.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Shroud of Turin — The Fabric of Our Faith

His face looks incredibly lonesome, as if every one of His friends abandoned him in the moment of his greatest need. And sad — sad for all time. As if the weight of the whole world were upon His shoulders. There is an eternal pensiveness in His death pose. The stabbing thorns that cut so unkindly into His scalp and the blood that flowed from His head are visible, indelible. They are vivid, tangible signs of the once painful wounds that hurt no more. The gash in His side flows with blood now etched in to the cloth, running no more but visible still. A record of one final insult visited upon Him by a soldier’s side arm. His thumbs turn inward tightly, from the pressure of the crude nails against the radial nerves as they pierced the bones of His wrist, causing unimaginable pain. The gaping wound in the feet is visible, caused by the large nail driven into muscle and bone as if driven through a piece of wood. Preserved for all time in the fabric. Scores of blood-filled pockmarks riveted into His back by a sweating Centurion wielding a flagellum touch the fabric and testify to a brutal scourging. Leather thongs tipped with metal beads raked His flesh with incredible velocity. The fabric speaks of the indignity, suffering and humiliation inflicted on the Man, who certainly experienced every type of torture, brutality and humiliation possible, in His final hours of life on earth.

He is not painted or drawn. His face appears to be scorched onto the cloth — the product of a divine, cosmic energy — loosed at the moment of His transformation. When the Man on the cloth was resurrected. Skeptics doubt the fabric, scientists work to disprove it, atheists scoff at it, yet none can fully explain the image. The truth is that no one knows how the Man was created, how He came to be on the fabric…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Twin Earth May be Better Than Earth for Life

Astronomers have recently begun to ponder the possibility of a “superhabitable” planet—one that has all the life-giving features of Earth, but more so. What are the characteristic signatures of such a world? As the astronomers René Heller and John Armstrong describe in a recent paper, these planets will be slightly larger than Earth—up to about two or three times Earth’s radius.

With a radius 11 percent larger than Earth’s and an orbit around an extremely long-lived dwarf star, Kepler 186f may be undersold as a twin of Earth. It could be our first example of a superhabitable world.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

2 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/20/2014

  1. ” Sardinia to be annexed by Switzerland.”
    I am not surprised anymore that something strange like that will happen in Europe. Any other civilization has checked and tried to fight back invaders and invasions, in Europe they embrace invaders and prefer death by invaders. In the west, “war is peace” and invasion is victory and philanthropy.

  2. Re: “Biometric Surveillance means Antichrist’s Legions will always be Watching”.

    Grow up!

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