Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/24/2014

A security guard at a Christian mission hospital in Kabul shot and killed three American doctors today, and wounded at least one other person. Witnesses say the attack was unprovoked. No motive has yet been adduced for the slayings, but it is possible that the killer was mentally disturbed, under financial stress, or acting out his revenge for an unhappy childhood.

In other news, members of the Islamic terror group Boko Haram threatened to kill the 230 Nigerian schoolgirls they abducted if searchers don’t stop looking for them.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JLH, JP, RR, 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
» Draghi Says ECB Ready to Act on Deflation, Inflation Risks
» Einhorn Shorting Tech as ‘Cool Kid’ Stocks Show Bubble
» Sweden: Ulvskog: Unemployment Pushes Europeans to the Far Right
 
USA
» 9/11 Museum Film Slammed for Offending Muslims
» Bloomberg and His Criminal Minions
» Call of Duty Rival’s Home Stormed by SWAT Team
» Campaign Flier Blames Mayor for Mosque
» Denying the Truth of Islamic Terrorism in the National 9/11 Memorial Museum Film
» Elsevier Journal Boycott Announced; Sign the Petition to End Seralini GMO Study Censorship
» F.D.A. Will Propose New Regulations for E-Cigarettes
» Federal Supremacy vs States’ Rights
» Fourth Graders Caught Selling Pot in Colorado School
» Freedom Under Assault: “I Don’t Care if Cliven Bundy is a Racist”
» Georgia Governor Signs Unprecedented “Guns Everywhere” Bill
» GM Profits Tumble After Massive Recall Costs
» ‘Hate Crime Reporting Act’ a “Dangerous” Threat to Free Speech
» Heavy Metals Scientifically Linked to Causing Diabetes
» Lengthening Shadows
» Sen. Reid Responds to Bundy Racism Claims, Forgets His Own Racist Remarks
» The Cowboys vs. Lyin’ Harry and the BLMdians
» This Girl Wants to be the World’s First Gypsy Supermodel
» Time for Western States to Evict Feds
» Vermont Senate Approves GMO Labeling Law by Huge Majority
» Why Are Hard-Working Asians Increasingly Voting for Democrats?
 
Europe and the EU
» Anti-Euro Talk Spreads in Italy
» Bees Buzz Down Britain’s Highway for Insects
» Complex Rules Make EU Vulnerable to Corruption, Says Report
» Cornish People Granted Minority Status Within UK
» Denmark: Queen and Government Team Up for China Visit
» EU Elections: German Eurosceptics Snub ‘Ridiculous’ UKIP
» Feature: Norway’s Dalai Lama Dilemma
» France: Ségolène Royal Orders Staff in Ministry to Stand in Her Presence
» France: Alstom Denies Takeover Bid From General Electric
» German Consumers ‘Have a Responsibility’
» Germany: F1 Boss Ecclestone Goes on Trial for Bribery in Munich
» Italy: Fascist Museum Mooted in Mussolini Birthplace
» Italy: Alitalia: Renzi Waits for Offer, But Etihad Seeks Answers
» Italy Opens ‘New Phase’ In India Marines Saga
» Italy: John Paul II Crucifix Crushes Young Man to Death
» Juncker Promises Fair Deal for Britain
» Latvia: Former KGB House in Riga Open to Public for First Time
» Netherlands: PVV MEP Quit Because of Planned EU Alliance With ‘Dodgy Types’
» NGO Slams EU Over Ethical, Transparency Standards
» Norway and China Hold Secret Oslo Talks: NRK
» Norway: Oslo Mulled Scrapping Trafalgar Christmas Tree
» Norway Still Most Popular Among Emigrating Icelanders
» Romanian Dictator’s Castle to be Sold
» Scottish Choice of Monetary System Crucial, Says Ratings Agency
» Spain: Mass Tourism is Ruining Barcelona and Turning it Into a ‘Theme Park’, Claims Controversial New Documentary
» Spain: Taking Back Córdoba Mezquita From Church Makes No Sense, Argues Minister
» Sweden: Local Church Tried to Stop Norrköping Murders
» Sweden: Two Questioned Over Fatal Family Feud
» Swedish Coastal Guard Helped Rescue 1,100 Refugees
» The Moroccans That Infuriate the Dutch
» UK: Break Church and State Link, Says Clegg
» UK: Cornish to be Given ‘National Minority’ Status
» UK: How Muslims Won the Second World War
» UK: Latest ‘Community Crackdown’ on Dangerous Driving Held at Makkah Mosque
» UK: Lib Dems Granted ‘National Minority Status’ To Save Them From Extinction
» UK: Syria-Related Arrests Soar as Police Urge Mothers and Wives to Stop Would-be Jihadists
» UK: The Persecution of Tony Blair
» UK: Violent Crime Heading for Record Rise
» UKIP Posterboy Suspended After Claiming ‘Miliband Not British’
» US to Send 600 Troops to Baltics, Poland Amid Ukraine Tensions
» Who is in More Trouble, Wilders or the Netherlands?
» World Wide Will
 
North Africa
» 7 Extremists Killed, 20 Injured in Egypt’s Sinai Raids
» Islamist Militia and Tunisian Army Clash in Tunisia
» Libya: Jihadi Terror Leaders’ Safest Haven
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Hamas-PLO: New Palestinian Gov’t to Follow Abbas Line
» Israel Suspends Peace Talks After Palestinian Reconciliation Deal the
» Israel Halts Peace Talks as Hamas and Fatah Strike Unity Deal
 
Middle East
» 10 People From Bristol and South West Have Gone to Syria During Conflict
» 18 Killed in Fresh Iraq Violence
» Almost 3,000 Political Prisoners in Bahrain, Says BCHR
» Armenia Dismisses Turkey ‘Condolences’ Over Genocide
» Ban Ki-Moon Urges Aid Access in Syria, Says Neither Side Cooperating
» CIA is Quietly Ramping Up Aid to Syrian Rebels
» Gulf Nations Make Peace After Rift Over Qatar’s MB Support
» Gunmen Raid Checkpoint in Yemen, 2 Policemen Killed
» Jordan Opens Second Refugee Camp for Syrians
» Kuwait: Couple Arrested for Killing Maid
» Saudi Arabia: Death Toll Hits 81 With 17 More MERS Cases Reported
» Syria: UN 3.5 Million People Under Siege or Without Aid
» The Blair Doctrine
» The Jihad Genocide of the Armenians
» Tony Blair Gets it. If Only the Current Batch of World Leaders Did Too
» Turkish PM Offers ‘Condolences’ To Armenia Over WWI Killings
» Up to 700 Britons Feared Fighting in Syria
 
Russia
» Black Clouds Over Ukraine
» Five Pro-Russian Separatists Killed in Sloviansk, Kiev Says
» NY Times Publishes Fabricated Evidence of Russian Troops in Eastern Ukraine
» OSCE: Ukraine is ‘Very Unstable’
» Putin Warns of Consequences if Kiev Uses Army Against People
» Putin Calls Internet ‘CIA Project’ That Must be Controlled
» Russian Parliament Votes to Outlaw Rehabilitation of Nazism
» Russia’s Gazprom Presses Ukraine for Extra USD 11 Billion
» Russia Announces New Exercises on Ukraine Border
» Separatist Leader in Donetsk Says “This is Civil War”
» Soviet Yearnings: Hopes Rise in Transnistria of a Russian Annexation
» Ukraine Fighting Continues
 
South Asia
» Bangladesh: Dhaka: Rise in Abductions as a Catholic Businessman Kidnapped
» Bangladesh: Thousands Mourn Collapse Victims of Rana Plaza Garment Factory One Year on
» Blast Kills 1 Child, Wounds 8 in S. Afghanistan
» Buddha Tattoo Woman Flies From Sri Lanka ‘With Apology’
» Pakistan: Punjab: Clan Gang Rapes Seven Year Old Christian and Kidnaps Father to Stop Him Reporting Them
» Pakistani Fighter Jets Kill 37 Militants
» Three Americans Shot Dead by Afghan Guard at Christian Missionary Hospital
» Three American Doctors Killed in Attack at Afghan Hospital
 
Far East
» China: Two Held, Imam Removed in Raids on Xinjiang Mosque
» China Enacts Biggest Pollution Curbs in 25 Years
» Driven by a Vow, US Vet Returns to Vietnam to Help
» Obama Says Senkakus Fall Under US-Japan Defence Treaty
» Obama Lauds US-Japan Ties in Meeting With Prime Minister Abe
» Pick Me, Pick Me! Kim Jong-un the Ladies’ Man Besieged by Female Soldiers in Tears as He Visits Their Military Unit Near the South Korean Border
» Quantum Communications Leap Out of the Lab
» Ship Seizure Deepens China’s Rift With Japan
 
Australia — Pacific
» ANZAC Day 2014 in the Illawarra: Live Blog
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Deadly Illegal Mining Booms Below South African City of Gold
» Fighting Malaria From Childhood in Burkina Faso
» Mali Fighters Say They Killed French Hostage
» Nigeria: Boko Haram Threatens to Kill Abducted Schoolgirls if Search is Not Stopped
» Two to be Charged With Murder After Kenyan FGM Victim Dies
 
Latin America
» Brazil Struggles With Growing Security Problem Ahead of World Cup Kickoff
» How Mexican Mothers Identify Sons Lost on the Trek to the US
 
Immigration
» Amnesty: Migrant Domestic Workers Face Widespread Abuse in Qatar
» Finland: Wanted: Immigrants and Teens to Join Guides and Scouts
» Forza Italia to Probe Aims of Govt Migrant Mission
» Italian Right Calls for End to Migrant Rescue Programme
» Oskar Freysinger on SF1: “if What the EU is Doing is Normal, Then I’d Rather be a Nutcase”
» Thousands of Expats Leave Spain
 
Culture Wars
» Aborted Babies Incinerated in Oregon to Provide Electricity
» Archbishop: Britain Not a ‘Christian Country’ — If Judging by Numbers in the Pews
 
General
» Food Photographer of the Year 2014
» Mystery Solved! Super-Bright Supernova Was Magnified by Cosmic Lens
» Reprieve for Men: Y Chromosome is Not Vanishing
» Space Radiation Remains Major Hazard for Humans Going to Mars
» The Micro: The First Truly Consumer 3D Printer
 

Draghi Says ECB Ready to Act on Deflation, Inflation Risks

Broad-based asset purchase program if inflation outlook worsens

(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — The European Central Bank will act if needed on deflation or inflation risks to safeguard price stability, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Thursday.

Draghi said the ECB could undertake a broad-based asset purchase program if the eurozone inflation outlook deteriorated.

A worsening of the medium-term inflation outlook would lead to a more broad-based asset purchase program, the ECB president said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Einhorn Shorting Tech as ‘Cool Kid’ Stocks Show Bubble

Greenlight Capital Inc., the $10.3 billion hedge-fund firm run by David Einhorn, said it was betting against a group of technology stocks as evidence grows of a bubble.

“There is a clear consensus that we are witnessing our second tech bubble in 15 years,” the New York-based firm said in a quarterly letter to clients today.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Ulvskog: Unemployment Pushes Europeans to the Far Right

The Social Democrats’ top priorities in the EU are job creation, sustainability and social justice, with top candidate Marita Ulvskog warning that far-right parties are tapping into dissatisfaction among the growing number of unemployed.

Ulvskog, a journalist-turned-politician, is one of six Swedish Social Democrats currently holding seats in the European Parliament

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

9/11 Museum Film Slammed for Offending Muslims

Religious leaders are slamming a documentary to be shown at the nation’s premier 9/11 museum because it might make people believe Islam was responsible for the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Already the lone imam on an interfaith advisory group to the National September 11 Memorial Museum has quit in protest at the seven-minute documentary.

“Unsophisticated visitors who do not understand the difference between al-Qaida and Muslims may come away with a prejudiced view of Islam, leading to antagonism and even confrontation toward Muslim believers near the site,” Sheikh Mostafa Elazabawy, the imam of Masjid Manhattan, wrote in a letter to the museum director.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bloomberg and His Criminal Minions

Bloomberg stated that he plans to use the money to merge his Mayors Against Illegal Guns (criminals will always have guns) and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America into a new group called “Every Town for Gun Safety.”

So let’s go to the not-too-distant past and do a little history lesson on the mayors Bloomberg means to be part of this merger before taking one more step.

We learned in the past about the criminal acts of anti-gun mayors Bloomberg is talking about. These anti-gun mayors are criminals themselves, guilty as charged, within their own ranks. They are guilty of crimes such as tax evasion, extortion, accepting bribes, child pornography, trademark counterfeiting and perjury. Also, one mayor (who apparently thought he was above the law) was convicted of assaulting a police officer. And these are the mayors that were caught.

The crimes these anti-gun mayors are convicted of suggest they are public enemies rather than public servants; and it is people of this criminal sort that expect the public to trust them.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Call of Duty Rival’s Home Stormed by SWAT Team

An army of police, helicopters and emergency vehicles turn up at the teen’s house after a prank by a disgruntled rival.

A 70-strong Swat team swooped on a US teenager’s family home after a gamer he had just beaten online at Call Of Duty made a prank call to police. Helicopters, emergency vehicles and an army of police officers raced to the Long Island home of Rafael Castillo, 17, after receiving reports of a bloody rampage.

The prank caller told police he was Rafael, adding: “I just killed my mother and I might shoot more people.”

Long Beach Police Commissioner Michael Tangney said it was an example of a “Swatting” craze.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Campaign Flier Blames Mayor for Mosque

MURFREESBORO — The county mayoral campaign of Jimmy Evans sent out a flier blaming incumbent Mayor Ernest Burgess for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro disputes. The front page of the advertisement displays the name “Ernest Burgess,” shows Arabic writing, images of mosque structures with a sun in the background and then adds “See translation inside …”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Denying the Truth of Islamic Terrorism in the National 9/11 Memorial Museum Film

Anyone who witnessed the events of 9/11, what we described as the “Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century”, that took the lives of 3000 innocent people, knows the truth about what motivated the 19 Al Qaeda perpetrators from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It was radical Islam or Islamist terrorism spawned by the Muslim Brotherhood rejectionist doctrine of Egyptian Sayyid Qtub grounded in doctrinal Islam. Over the 13 years since those horrific events on 9/11 occurred, that took down the iconic twin towers in lower Manhattan, there have been continuing efforts by Muslim and fringe groups to suggest otherwise. Even to the point of engaging in blood libel, accusing Israel of perpetrating the attack. Bizarre Truthers even suggested that the CIA might have been involved. Those untruths are reflective of a disturbing aspect of Islamic Doctrine, taqiyyah — religiously sanctioned dissimilitude and kitman, omission of facts. That is reflected in obfuscation and outright denial of Jihad, calling it the inner struggle, instead of warfare against non-believers in furtherance of conquest of Dar al Harb, the realm of war.

Benighted Muslim and non-Muslim interfaith groups have made these articles of dialog.. They propound the view that it was Al Qaeda terrorism and not Islam that former President Bush declared on 9/12 in a tableau at the Washington Islamic Center was a religion of peace. Hardly the case with more than 23,000 attacks since 9/11 against non-Muslims and nominal Muslims across the Umma, the global community of believers. One only has to bring up the images of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram-rejecting the West- slaughtering thousands in the areas of Nigeria that divide the Islamic north from the Animist Christian South. Or the burning of Churches in Egypt and extrajudicial violence perpetrated by Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists against Coptic women. Or the beheading of Catholic priests in Syria by Al Qaeda affiliates, the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Then there are the attacks on Christians in Pakistan. In both Canada and America we have witnessed the honor killings of Muslim wives and daughters by professing Muslim fathers and husbands.

Which brings us to the matter of the controversy over the 7 minute film, “The Rise of Al Qaeda” produced by the National September 11 Memorial Museum. The film endeavors to tell the truth about the motivation of the 19 Jihadists who perpetrated the deaths of thousands of innocents in Lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon in Northern Virginia and in Southwestern Pennsylvania. A fateful late summer day in 2001 that is forever riveted in the minds of all who witnessed the horror up close and from afar.

The New York Times in a report in today’s edition noted the controversy over the film’s imagery:…

           — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon [Return to headlines]
 

Elsevier Journal Boycott Announced; Sign the Petition to End Seralini GMO Study Censorship

(NaturalNews) The publisher of the scientific journal that retracted Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini’s study on tumor-ridden rats fed Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) corn is the subject of a new academic boycott. Hundreds of members of the scientific community in support of honesty and transparency are calling on researchers everywhere to stop purchasing, publishing in and supporting the Elsevier group, which owns the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT), until the Seralini study is reinstated and a formal apology issued.

In case you missed it, Wallace Hayes, FCT’s Editor-in-Chief, recently made the decision to pull Seralini’s study after the establishment made its disapproval of the paper’s findings publicly known. Though the science behind Seralini’s study was sound — Hayes admitted that its “inconclusive” nature was the reason for its retraction — industry pressures led to its widespread maligning by the mainstream media, and ultimately to its unsubstantiated removal and censorship from the scientific literature.

This major injustice has prompted a groundswell of outrage among scientists who support free speech and honest scientific inquiry, who are now calling for a boycott of the publisher. A recent open letter issued in response to the retraction calls on both Hayes and Elsevier to reverse the retraction and issue an apology to Seralini and his team, as well as to the general public who has suffered much confusion as a result of this politically motivated attempt at scientific censorship.

“Your decision to retract the paper is in clear violation of the international ethical norms as laid down by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), of which FCT is a member,” reads the letter. “According to COPE, the only grounds for retraction are (1) clear evidence that the findings are unreliable due to misconduct or honest error, (2) plagiarism or redundant publication, or (3) unethical research.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

F.D.A. Will Propose New Regulations for E-Cigarettes

The Food and Drug Administration will propose sweeping new rules on Thursday that for the first time would extend its regulatory authority from cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, popular nicotine delivery devices that have grown into a multibillion-dollar business with virtually no federal oversight or protections for American consumers.

The regulatory blueprint, with broad implications for public health, the tobacco industry and the nation’s 42 million smokers, would also cover pipe tobacco and cigars, tobacco products that have long slid under the regulatory radar and whose use has risen sharply in recent years.

The new regulations would ban the sale of e-cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco to Americans under 18, and would require that people buying them show photo identification to prove their age, measures already mandated in a number of states.

[Return to headlines]
 

Federal Supremacy vs States’ Rights

To put a fine point on the matter, the Constitution of the United States assigns all “law-making” authority to Congress alone, the legislative branch. This means that policies set by either the Executive branch or the Judicial branch cannot possibly be “laws,” according to the Constitution.

Further, only when Congress enacts laws which are “in pursuance thereof” — within the purview of, or under the authority granted via the Constitution, and not in conflict with the Bill of Rights, can those laws enjoy Supremacy.

Policies set by the Executive or Judicial branch are not laws at all. Therefore, they cannot enjoy supremacy in a Constitutional Representative Republic. Amendment X of the U.S. Constitution states unequivocally that — “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Constitutional Laws do indeed enjoy Federal Supremacy. However, what about unconstitutional acts of the Federal government? Do unconstitutional intrusions into states or individual rights also enjoy Federal Supremacy?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Fourth Graders Caught Selling Pot in Colorado School

School officials in northern Colorado are asking parents to take care with their newly legal recreational marijuana, after fourth graders were caught dealing the drug on an elementary school campus. The marijuana appears to have been legally purchased by adults — grandparents in two families — and no charges were expected to be filed, Gates said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Freedom Under Assault: “I Don’t Care if Cliven Bundy is a Racist”

Kira Davis, vblogging for IJReview, makes the point that it does not matter if Cliven Bundy is a racist. The larger issue is what the federal government is doing in Nevada. Bundy’s comments — now disingenuously used by the liberal media as ammunition to attack supporters of states’ rights — do not undermine the case, which is larger than Mr. Bundy and transcends any remarks he made.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Georgia Governor Signs Unprecedented “Guns Everywhere” Bill

Carry at Schools, Churches & Government Buildings

The State of Georgia has just signed an unprecedented new law that removes all handgun carrying and possession permissions to allow lawful residents the ability to carry their concealed firearms just about everywhere including schools, churches, government buildings, nightclubs and bars. The National Rifle Association hails it as the “most comprehensive pro-gun reform legislation introduced in recent state history.”

Critics have appropriately dubbed it the “Guns Everywhere Bill,” with former Rep. Gabrille Giffords (D-AZ) calling it the “most extreme gun bill in America.”

But proponents of the legislation say it’s exactly what residents need to protect themselves from criminals.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

GM Profits Tumble After Massive Recall Costs

The world’s second-largest carmaker, General Motors of the US, has reported a drastic plunge in first-quarter earnings. The company said the sobering result was mainly due to high recall costs and restructuring.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘Hate Crime Reporting Act’ a “Dangerous” Threat to Free Speech

Critics of the newly proposed ‘Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014” have slammed the bill as a “dangerous” threat to free speech, warning that the legislation would hand an obscure federal agency “chilling” powers to restrict the First Amendment…

According to Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), chief sponsor of the House version, the bill will target “hateful activity on the Internet that occurs outside of the zone of First Amendment protection”. Apparently Jeffries is unaware of the fact that the First Amendment exists to protect unpopular speech and that free speech cannot be defined by arbitrary ‘zones’ decided on by politicians.

A Boston Herald editorial warns that the bill will encourage the federal agency to, “begin scouring the Internet, TV and radio for speech it finds threatening,” labeling the initiative a “frankly chilling proposition”…

Writer Pamela Geller goes even further, asserting that if passed the legislation “will finish the United States” and introduce de-facto “Islamic blasphemy laws” that will make criticizing Islam a hate crime.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Heavy Metals Scientifically Linked to Causing Diabetes

(NaturalNews) Fifty years ago, it was virtually unheard of. But today, diabetes mellitus, a serious metabolic disorder, afflicts more than 150 million people globally, with a bulk of this number hailing from North America. And researchers out of Asia, having published their findings back in 2009, exposed toxic heavy metals as a major, and perhaps even primary, contributor to this growing disease epidemic.

Reflective of sobering statistics released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing that diabetes prevalence increased nearly 50 percent between the years of 1991 and 2000, the study looked at the effects of heavy metals in vitro (in a test tube), in vivo (in living organisms) and in human subjects. The metals zinc, arsenic, cadmium, mercury and nickel were all evaluated.

Recognizing the latter four metals as known neurotoxins, the researchers compared what is already known about diabetes and how it forms and progresses inside the body to heavy metal exposure and how the body responds to it. Based on this analysis, they determined that arsenic, cadmium, mercury and nickel all contribute to the condition known as diabetes, as does a lack of zinc, a nutrient that helps prevent heavy metal damage.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Lengthening Shadows

by Mark Steyn

How bad are things for free speech in America right now? This week the Supreme Court turned its attention to an Ohio law under which people can be fined or jailed if the “election commission” pronounces them guilty of “lying” in a political ad. Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, as Justice Scalia rightly called it, is alive and well and living in Columbus and some 15 other state capitals.

Steve Huntley writes about the Ohio case in The Chicago Sun-Times and connects it to a broader “hostility to free speech that ought to be worrying to Americans of all persuasions”. In fact, certain persuasions are not in the least bit worried about it.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sen. Reid Responds to Bundy Racism Claims, Forgets His Own Racist Remarks

Reid has apparently put up a mental block on racist remarks he himself has made in the past. In the 2010 book “Game Change,” Reid was quoted as calling President Obama a “light-skinned” African American who had “no negro dialect.”

Here’s the passage Sen. Reid would prefer we forget:

“He (Reid) was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a ‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,’ as he later put it privately.”

Later, Reid told The Atlantic he regretted “using such a poor choice of words,” stating, “I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African-Americans for my improper comments.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Cowboys vs. Lyin’ Harry and the BLMdians

“I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, and I won’t be laid a hand on. I don’t do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.” — John Wayne, from ‘The Shootist’

“Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you’re not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win. That’s just the way it is.” — Clint Eastwood, from ‘The Outlaw Jose Wales’

Sure, the federal government has the firepower to blow a bunch of cowboys to Hell and back, but if they did, they risk some serious bad press and the very real possibility of an all out revolution. As we said in our last article on the subject, “Millions of Americans Are Just Itching To Lock and Load”, but maybe government doesn’t know it. If the lead starts flyin’ and men start dyin’, it won’t all be cowboys crumpled in the dust, there will be a bunch of BLMdians layin’ on the battlefield as well. That tragically, would be a treasonous act where government pits Americans against Americans.

Lyin’ Harry comes out and calls these brave Americans, men, women and children, lawbreakers and domestic terrorists. The fact is, lyin’ Harry is a dangerous, corrupt, pontificating old fool. The little pip squeak is drunk on his own power. He could care less about the law. And his son is an apple that dropped straight down from the tree. Wasn’t it lyin’ Harry that illegally gave $17,000 to his daughter from his campaign funds? Isn’t his son using his dad’s influence to cut deals with the Chinese and God knows what else? So why isn’t Harry locked up behind bars, or expelled or recalled from the Senate?

Yes Cliven Bundy is in violation of the law. That is clear. But the government’s way of settling the issue with Bundy was what a dictator does. A dictator sends in an overwhelming force of fully armed storm troopers … or is it the American government’s version of the Nazi’s SS? Unfortunately, the American federal government has morphed into enforcement of law by military intimidation, in other words, enforcement by the threat of death. It is a potentially dangerous trend that is playing out all over America and if allowed to continue, will send America straight into the jaws of civil war or revolution.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

This Girl Wants to be the World’s First Gypsy Supermodel

Stamper, who is known to family simply as “Trouble,” is shattering Gypsy social norms by pursuing her dream of catwalk fame. Last summer, she hopped on her first plane ride to the Big Apple to try to get signed by an agency.

While there are no official statistics, the show estimates there are more than a million Gypsies living in the United States, with roughly 250,000 to 300,000 Romanichels, who are thought to be of English origin.

Romanichel women customarily marry young, rarely finish high school and stay home to keep their trailers spotless, while the men travel to earn money, primarily by doing paving jobs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Time for Western States to Evict Feds

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, “It’s time for Western states to take control of federal lands within their borders, lawmakers and county commissioners from Western states said at Utah’s Capitol on Friday.

“More than 50 political leaders from nine states convened for the first time to talk about their joint goal: wresting control of oil-,timber-and mineral-rich lands away from the feds.

“‘It’s simply time,’ said Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, who organized the Legislative Summit on the Transfer for Public Lands along with Montana state Sen. Jennifer Fielder. ‘The urgency is now.’

“Utah House Speaker Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, was flanked by a dozen participants, including her counterparts from Idaho and Montana, during a press conference after the daylong closed-door summit. U.S. Sen. Mike Lee addressed the group over lunch, Ivory said. New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington also were represented.

“The summit was in the works before this month’s tense standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management over cattle grazing, Lockhart said.

“‘What’s happened in Nevada is really just a symptom of a much larger problem,’ Lockhart said.”

See the report here.

Now we are getting somewhere!

The western states have been used as both playground and sugar stick for big-government politicians since before most of the western states became states. Compare the percentage of State land owned by the federal government in the western states to that of the eastern states.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Vermont Senate Approves GMO Labeling Law by Huge Majority

(NaturalNews) The Vermont Senate has given decisive approval to a measure that would require the labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, meaning the state could become the first one in the country to enact such a law.

“We are saying people have a right to know what’s in their food,” said Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell, a Democrat. The vote was 26-2 in favor of GMO labeling.

Campbell and other supporters said they believe that they have written a measure that is legally defensible, the Burlington Free Press reported. Nevertheless, the bill would create a fund to help pay the state’s legal bills, since many lawmakers are assuming that food manufacturers will sue.

According to the paper:

The bill would require food sold in Vermont stores that contain genetically modified ingredients to be labeled starting July 2016. The legislation is up for another vote in the Senate Wednesday before it goes back to the House, which passed a slightly different version last year. Gov. Peter Shumlin has indicated he’s likely to sign the bill.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Why Are Hard-Working Asians Increasingly Voting for Democrats?

By Brenda Walker

Unlike Mexicans, Asians really do have conservative values of hard work, delayed gratification, scholarship and appreciation of capitalism. Over half of Asians have a bachelor’s degree or higher, while the national rate is 30 percent for a BA.

Asians are the highest-income, best-educated tribe in America as a result of their industriousness. Why are so many Democrats? One example: 71 percent of Asians voted for Obama in 2012.

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Anti-Euro Talk Spreads in Italy

Rome — In the 1990s, qualifying against the odds for eurozone membership was a matter of pride for most Italians. Now leaving the euro — once a political taboo — is routinely discussed by the media, as the campaign for next month’s European Parliament elections gets into full swing.

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Bees Buzz Down Britain’s Highway for Insects

The UK’s bee population is in rapid decline, and the consequences could be disastrous. Plans for a series of bee highways filled with grassland and wild flowers could be just what’s needed to reverse that trend.

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Complex Rules Make EU Vulnerable to Corruption, Says Report

BRUSSELS — Complacency and complex rules makes the EU’s own institutions vulnerable to corruption and conflicts of interest, a report by a leading transparency NGO has found.

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Cornish People Granted Minority Status Within UK

Cornish people will be granted minority status under European rules for the protection of national minorities. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander made the announcement on a visit to the county.

Dick Cole, leader of Mebyon Kernow, which campaigns for Cornish devolution, said: “This is a fantastic development. This is a proud day for Cornwall.”

The Cornish will gain the same status as other Celtic communities the Scots, Welsh and Irish.

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Denmark: Queen and Government Team Up for China Visit

Over the next five days, Queen Margrethe will visit China for the first time since 1979 in a bid to continue strengthening ties between Denmark and China.

Accompanied by the four ministers, the queen will meet with the president of China, Xi Jinping, while she will be joined by the foreign minister, Martin Lidegaard, during her meeting with the prime minister, Li Keqiang, and the chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, Zhang Dejiang.

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EU Elections: German Eurosceptics Snub ‘Ridiculous’ UKIP

Germany’s Eurosceptics will not work with Nigel Farage in the European Parliament because of Ukip’s anti-immigration policies, one of the leaders of Alternative fuer Deutschland has said.

“I’ll tell you what we’re not going to do. We’re not going to go with Ukip because they want to dissolve the EU, which is not our programme, and their immigration policy looks ridiculous,” he told the Local.de website.

The announcement is a blow for Mr Farage and means Ukip will come under growing pressure to join with Marine Le Pen’s growing far-Right alliance in the EU assembly, if as polls suggest she has enough MEPs and allies to form a parliamentary bloc.

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Feature: Norway’s Dalai Lama Dilemma

A planned visit by the Dalai Lama has Oslo torn between its will to warm up frozen ties with China and warnings from the public not to compromise its stance on human rights, writes AFP’s Pierre-Henry Deshayes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

France: Ségolène Royal Orders Staff in Ministry to Stand in Her Presence

France’s new ecology and energy minister causes furore by banning low-cut tops and ordering staff to stand in her presence

Ségolène Royal, François Hollande’s ex-partner, has been ridiculed for behaving like a monarch after claims emerged that she had banned staff from revealing cleavages and ordered them to stand in her presence. The report came days after another which alleged she had taken against “la bise” — the French greeting kiss — instead offering ministerial staff the “Royal” hand…

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France: Alstom Denies Takeover Bid From General Electric

French train maker Alstom has denied it has received an official offer for its shares from US engineering group General Electric. The denial, however, doesn’t silence takeover rumors reported earlier.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Consumers ‘Have a Responsibility’

To mark the first anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza, a factory building in Dhaka, on April 24 last year, two women from Bangladesh were in Germany to appeal for compensation for the victims.

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Germany: F1 Boss Ecclestone Goes on Trial for Bribery in Munich

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has gone on trial in Munich facing charges of bribery. The high-profile case threatens the Briton’s longtime dominance in one of the world’s most-profitable sports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Fascist Museum Mooted in Mussolini Birthplace

Centre-left Predappio mayor behind project for Casa del Fascio

(ANSA) — Predappio, April 23 — The centre-left mayor of Predappio in Emilia Romagna, Giorgio Frassineti, has announced plans to create a museum dedicated to Fascism in the town famous for being Benito Mussolini’s place of birth and burial. The museum is to be located in the iconic Casa del Fascio on Via Matteotti, build in the mid-1930s to accommodate pilgrims to Predappio and currently in a state of abandon and disrepair. The project has two aims, Frassinetti told ANSA.

“First, to restore the Casa del Fascio, a building covering 2,400 square metres that has been abandoned for years,” he explained.

“And then to make a contribution to knowledge of a fundamental piece of our history,” continued Frassineti of the Democratic Party (PD), who is running for re-election on May 25.

“Predappio would become a place for reflection, thereby removing it from the hands of those who use it improperly,” he concluded. Predappio is currently visited by several thousand tourists and pilgrims each year.

Some are sympathisers of the former Fascist dictator while many are simply trying to come to terms with what the 21 years of Fascism in Italy were all about.

A cultural and historical itinerary for visitors put together by the local authorities includes Casa Mussolini, the house where Mussolini was born, and several buildings — including the Casa del Fascio — constructed under a major urban renewal programme between 1925 and 1942 with the aim of glorifying his place of birth.

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Italy: Alitalia: Renzi Waits for Offer, But Etihad Seeks Answers

CEO meets unions. Lupi denies 3000 layoffs

(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 24 — The Italian government is awaiting an offer from Etihad Airways, but the United Arab Emirates airline has asked to see facts achieved before submitting the tender: a solution to the debt issue, additional savings on labour costs, and indemnity on past disputes. Thus screws are likely to tighten on current negotiations between Alitalia and the Arab airline as the time factor becomes increasingly crucial.

For this reason Alitalia Chief Executive Gabriele Del Torchio yesterday met with union general secretaries. Along with the banks, the unions are counterparties with whom Alitalia must now negotiate to resolve the two main problems (labour costs and debt) that are key to reaching a deal.

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi via Twitter also addressed the matter, indicating the position of the government.

“We are waiting the Etihad offer and then we will act accordingly,” Renzi tweeted.

“First let’s see if this marriage is to be done,” said Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi, explaining that the government is “carefully” following negotiations, but letting “the two companies work”.

“We hope an agreement is found,” Lupi added.

Lupi defined the agreement as “strategic” and provided reassurances on the unlikelihood of more redundancies.

“I have never heard talk of 3000 cuts”, Lupi said, denying rumours of a request for layoffs ranging from a minimum of 1000 to a maximum of 3000 units. Negotiations at the moment appear frozen, however. Del Torchio reportedly told unions that the situation with Etihad is neither compromised nor interrupted, but that the Abu Dhabi company’s position of would be extremely firm. Before submitting an offer, Etihad wants to see concrete facts: the resumption of union negotiations on the cost of labour (savings fell short 48 million euros after 80 million obtained in a mid-February agreement to 1,900 redundancies); a solution to the debt obstacle (Etihad is asking for the renegotiation of 400 million euros of debt, but banks are not going along, especially Intesa SanPaolo, which has put itself in the way); and a decree for the liberalization of Linate airport slots in Milan. But also hindering negotiations would be Alitalia’s disputes with Air One and WindJet, on which Etihad would like guarantees.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Opens ‘New Phase’ In India Marines Saga

De Mistura replaced as Rome bids for arbitration

(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — Italy on Thursday opened a new phase in the saga of its two marines being held in India for allegedly killing two fishermen two years ago, replacing its special envoy on the case and sending its ambassador back to New Delhi to help steer the case towards arbitration. Defence Minister Federica Mogherini told the Senate Rome has sent a note to New Delhi as it opens an “international procedure” that, unless the Indians cooperate, would inevitably lead to arbitration by an international body such as the UN.

Rome has decided to send its ambassador to India back to New Delhi to mark the “fresh stage” in its efforts to have Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone returned, Mogherini added. Daniele Mancini will oversee the “new phase” of internationalising the case, she said.

Special envoy Staffan de Mistura has done his job and new figures are needed now that Rome is taking the case to the international level, Mogherini told the Senate. “I want to thank de Mistura for the dedication and indefatigable commitment with which he has followed the affair,” she said. “We need new figures, we are mapping out a panel of experts under the leadership of a coordinator to pursue the new phase”. The prospect of international arbitration appeared inexorable, the minister told the Upper House.

“We are off the bilateral level, to raise the dispute to an international level: we are still willing to talk to the Indians” but “we have no other option than resorting to international arbitration,” she said.

Rome does not consider the India proceedings, which have yet to lead to trial, “valid”, she said.

“We do not accept a (future) Indian trial whose validity we do not recognise,” Mogherini said.

Latorre and Girone are still awaiting trial over the deaths of Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki, whom they allegedly mistook for pirates.

Italy is currently appealing to India’s top court against NIA anti-terrorism prosectors taking the case.

Rome has also requested the pair be allowed to return home and the whole case be dropped.

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Italy: John Paul II Crucifix Crushes Young Man to Death

Accident comes days before pope’s elevation to sainthood

(ANSA) — Brescia, April 24 — A young man in northern Italy was crushed to death Thursday by a falling crucifix that was built to honor pope John Paul II’s 1998 visit to Brescia. The 21-year-old’s death comes just three days before John Paul will be canonized in Rome.

The accident occurred in the town of Cevo, outside Brescia, where the 30-meter-high sculpture stood outdoors near the Alps.

Its unusual, curved shape meant that the figure of Christ was facing straight down, parallel with the ground below.

Witnesses said the victim, part of a visiting group of young Catholics, was killed instantly, whereas another person was taken to hospital for minor injuries. The artist behind the cross was the late set designer Enrico Job, the husband of celebrated Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmueller.

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Juncker Promises Fair Deal for Britain

“I will work for a fair deal with Britain,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the centre-right’s European Commission president candidate has said, Reuters reports. “Britain has to accept that we want to strengthen the eurozone by adding new powers, I wouldn’t say to Brussels, but to the euro area,” he added.

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Latvia: Former KGB House in Riga Open to Public for First Time

Living History: on May 1, 2014, as part of the Riga 2014 European Capital of Culture programme, the former “KGB House” will open to the public for the first time.

The former building of the Committee for State Security of the Soviet Union in Riga is known by numerous names — the Corner House, the KGB house — but regardless of what name is attributed to it every inhabitant of Latvia knows what this building is, and everyone has a story associated with it — family members or friends who were imprisoned, interrogated, or even shot inside the building, others who worked there, others still who were deported following orders signed in this building.

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Netherlands: PVV MEP Quit Because of Planned EU Alliance With ‘Dodgy Types’

A European MP for the anti-immigration PVV said he pulled out of this year’s election because he did not want to work with ‘wrong people’ such as the French Front National and Austrian FPÖ.

Lucas Hartong said in an interview with the Volkskrant he had always distanced himself from extremists but that would be difficult to do because of PVV leader Geert Wilders’ hopes of forming a European grouping within the parliament.

‘The FPÖ remains a party which was set up by old members of the SS,’ he told the Volkskrant. ‘One of the people in the Swedish Democrats has made Hitler salutes. He has been expelled from the party but still.’

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NGO Slams EU Over Ethical, Transparency Standards

(BRUSSELS) — Complex decision-making procedures and opaque bureaucratic negotiations have undermined the European Union’s transparency rules and left the 28-state bloc vulnerable to corruption, a leading NGO has found.

A Transparency International (TI) report, released in Brussels on Thursday, also found EU institutions did not have policies in place to protect whistle-blowers nor to manage conflict of interest concerns in staff appointments.

The director of TI’s Brussels office, Carl Dolan, said that while EU institutions had “done a lot to put their house in order,” that work had been undermined by “complex rules, complacency and a lack of follow-up”.

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Norway and China Hold Secret Oslo Talks: NRK

China has begun secret negotiations with Norway over ending the diplomatic freeze triggered by the award of the Nobel Peace Price to a leading Chinese dissident four years ago, NRK has reported.

According to the state television network, China has laid out a list of some fourteen points which Norway must fulfil before normal relations are resumed.

The most controversial of these is reportedly to give an assurance that the Norwegian Nobel Committee will never again award the Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway: Oslo Mulled Scrapping Trafalgar Christmas Tree

Oslo bureaucrats this year proposed ending a nearly 60-year-old tradition of sending a Christmas tree to Trafalgar Square in London before their suggestion was rejected outright by the city’s mayor Fabian Stang.

The tree, first given in 1947 in gratitude to the people of London for Britain’s support for occupied Norway in World War II, has come to symbolize the start of Christmas for many Londoners.

But in a policy discussion document on the three Christmas trees the city sends annually to London, Rotterdam and Reykjavik, Oslo’s city secretariat included scrapping the tree as one of three options presented to politicians.

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Norway Still Most Popular Among Emigrating Icelanders

Once again, Norway remains the favorite destination for emigrating Icelanders. The country was the destination of 240 Icelanders during the quarter. Of the 700 Icelanders who emigrated in the quarter, 490 moved to Denmark, Norway or Sweden.

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Romanian Dictator’s Castle to be Sold

(AGI) Bucharest, April 22 — The private residence of the late Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife Elena, is for sale. Known as the Castle of Spring, it is one of the most luxurious and famous in Romania and was built between the year Ceausescu came to power in 1964 and 1965, under direction of Elena, by the well-known Romanian architect, Cezar Lazarescu.

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Scottish Choice of Monetary System Crucial, Says Ratings Agency

A report from ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has put the strength of Scottish banks into question, should Scotland vote to end its union with England in September. The absence of an effective deposit guarantee scheme could see a flight of Scotland’s banks across the border, it said.

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Spain: Mass Tourism is Ruining Barcelona and Turning it Into a ‘Theme Park’, Claims Controversial New Documentary

Out-of-control tourism and over-commercialisation are ruining the city of Barcelona and turning it into a ‘theme park’, according to a new documentary.

Residents, tour guides and local tourism experts have spoken out against uncontrolled tourism, claiming it is destroying their city and community, in the controversial new documentary Bye Bye Barcelona.

Promoting the idea of taxing tourists more, limiting the number of people who can visit and avoiding cheap packages for the mass market, the documentary claims the city can no longer cope with such huge numbers of visitors each year.

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Spain: Taking Back Córdoba Mezquita From Church Makes No Sense, Argues Minister

Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón has rejected the possibility of taking ownership of Córdoba’s famous Mezquita away from the Catholic Church, which added it to its list of properties in 2006, using a law allowing it to appropriate any temple of worship that is without a registered owner.

The Córdoba Mezquita, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site and a magnet for millions of tourists, is a case study in the real estate ambitions of the Church. After appropriating the property in 2006, it proceeded to insist on the Catholic nature of the monument despite its original — and architectural — status as a mosque, triggering citizen movements to reclaim the Mezquita for the public domain.

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Sweden: Local Church Tried to Stop Norrköping Murders

The Syrian-Orthodox Church in Ektorp had tried to quell tensions between two rival families just hours before bad blood spilled into a massive brawl and two brothers lost their lives.

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Sweden: Two Questioned Over Fatal Family Feud

Police have questioned two people suspected of being involved in a violent brawl involving up to 30 people in Norrköping, central Sweden.

Two brothers aged between 35 and 40 were killed and six others were brought to hospital after the fight and shoot-out on Monday night.

The Monday night violence came after a fight broke out during a Sunday service at a Syrian-Orthodox church in Norrköping.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Coastal Guard Helped Rescue 1,100 Refugees

The Swedish coastal guard helped rescue 1,100 refugees in the Mediterranean Sea in April, with one of its aircraft currently included in the EU-run Operation Hermes.

The Swedish plane, which is now based in Sicily, has discovered several overcrowded boats carrying refugees from countries Syria, Eritrea, Mali and Libya.

“It’s the same kind of boat every time. They are typically Libyan fishing boats…It seems like an endless stream,” commander Leif Snäckerström told Swedish Radio News.

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The Moroccans That Infuriate the Dutch

by Timon Dias

“If Lady Justice is truly blind, she will prosecute all of us or none of us. I hope none of us.” — Geert Wilders, MP and Leader of the Party for Freedom, the Netherlands.

A more recent development is the pending Dutch Moroccan takeover of the drugs and human trafficking businesses.

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UK: Break Church and State Link, Says Clegg

Deputy Prime Minister calls for disestablishment of Church of England, saying two should no longer be “bound up” together

The Church and State should be separated , Nick Clegg has said. The Deputy Prime Minister said he would like to see the disestablishment of the Church of England, a move that would see the Queen removed as the head of the Church. The two should not be “bound-up” together, a move that would be “better” for Anglicans…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Cornish to be Given ‘National Minority’ Status

Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, announces the Cornish will be given same status as people from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Jokes about Cornish pasties, tin mines and cream teas could soon be on the wrong side of the law. Although residents of Cornwall have never faced the same levels of cruel humour as their Celtic counterparts in Wales, Ireland and Scotland, they have been awarded official minority status by the Government…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: How Muslims Won the Second World War

Recently, I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of the stunning film, Enemy of the Reich, about young Muslim woman Noor Inayat Khan and her contribution to the Second World War.

It’s a fantastic story and one which left quite a few of the audience in tears; I’ll admit my own eyes welled too. What really hit home with me, however, were the words of the director before the movie. He pointed out that in almost all World War II movies, you hardly ever see a brown face, let alone a Muslim one.

That’s despite Winston Churchill himself admitting the Britain could not have won the war without the Indian army…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Latest ‘Community Crackdown’ on Dangerous Driving Held at Makkah Mosque

A COMMUNITY crackdown on dangerous drivers has been held at Makkah Mosque. The event to stamp out dangerous driving in Bolton was the third of a series of awareness days to be held in the town. Police, firefighters, Bolton Council, and Bolton Council of Mosques joined forces to educate people about the consequences of driving irresponsibly…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Lib Dems Granted ‘National Minority Status’ To Save Them From Extinction

By Tim Stanley

They once had thousands of members and could boast that they were “breaking the mould of British politics”, but with numbers in fast decline the Government has been forced to act to save the Liberal Democrats by giving them “national minority status”. Nick Clegg, who made the announcement from a phone box in Cornwall on Thursday morning, said, “This might be the only way to save us from extinction. Will you accept reverse charges?”…

[Reader comment by Nathan hardy on 24 April 2014.]

The Lib-Dems are a towering monument to the cult of 60’s baby-boomer permanent state of moral and pop-intellectual adolescence that has inflicted Western civilization and all of its public institutions. This is why so many trendy, radical-chic fashion statement brand image celebrities vote for them.

Love me — love me — I’m a liberal.

They live in a middle/upper class bohemian bourgeoisie state of blissful utopian ignorance and denial of the looming demographic dystopian nightmare that they aided and abetted in inviting into our midst.

They have no idea that Liberalism contains within itself the seeds to its own destruction. If they feel like a dispossessed minority now, just wait, because they ain’t seen nothing yet. They expect to enjoy all the benefits of Western civilization, but without the historic majority populations that made it possible in the first place.

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Syria-Related Arrests Soar as Police Urge Mothers and Wives to Stop Would-be Jihadists

Scotland Yard’s arrest rate has increased six-fold as it appeals to women to stop loved ones heading to Syria

The number of Britons arrested after returning from Syria has increased up to six-fold as police urge mothers and wives of would-be jihadists to report on their loved ones. Some 40 people were detained in just the first three months of this year for Syria-related activities compared with just 25 for the whole of 2013…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The Persecution of Tony Blair

Hating the warmongering former prime minister has become a dismal national sport

ONE of the most hated men in Britain gave a speech on April 23rd that was fated to remind Britons why they so hate him. Listening to Tony Blair talk on “Engaging the Middle East”, at a plush City venue, your columnist could almost sense the gathering invective…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Violent Crime Heading for Record Rise

After years of ‘fiddled’ crime figures, new data shows violent crime increased last year and could be set for a huge surge

Violent crime could be on the brink of a record rise in England and Wales after two police forces which adopted “open” and “ethical” crime recording policies showed a 25 per jump in violence last year…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

UKIP Posterboy Suspended After Claiming ‘Miliband Not British’

Andre Lampitt, star of Ukip party broadcast, described Islam as evil and said Ed Miliband is “not British”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US to Send 600 Troops to Baltics, Poland Amid Ukraine Tensions

The US Tuesday (22 April) announced it is sending hundreds of troops for military exercises to four countries in Eastern Europe to assure them of its commitment to the region’s defence amid ongoing tension in Ukraine.

The 600 US troops will be deployed to Poland and the three Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania — and will conduct live ammunition exercises with forces from the four host states.

The US Pentagon said the move was in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. “If there’s a message to Moscow, it is the exact same message, that we take our obligations very, very seriously on the continent of Europe,” said Pentagon press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby on Tuesday, according to US media reports.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Who is in More Trouble, Wilders or the Netherlands?

by Timon Dias

Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders again made international headlines. Nazi comparisons are rampant, self-proclaimed victims are lining up to sue and now more than ever there is a chance that Wilders actually might be convicted of hate speech.

In an interview on the Dutch Public News Service [NOS] on March 12, Wilders said (10:10): “[People] will now be voting for a safer, a more social, and… in any case a city with fewer costs, and, if at all possible, with fewer Moroccans.”

Wilders has the numbers to support his concern. Statistics show that 65% of all Moroccan youths have been arrested by police, and that one third of that group have been arrested more than five times.

Wilders emphasizes the inordinate costs associated with the disproportionately high number of Dutch Moroccans registered as social welfare beneficiaries and who are implicated in welfare fraud.

Based on those numbers, Wilders seems to imply that if there were not such a large number of Moroccans, Dutch crime rates and social welfare costs would significantly drop.

Wilder proposes that Dutch Moroccans who are habitual criminal offenders should be deprived of their Dutch passports and sent back to Morocco, an act that is possible as all Moroccans and their descendants are, by Moroccan law, prohibited from relinquishing their Moroccan passports.

Dutch Moroccan criminals are known to be highly indifferent to sentences in Dutch prisons, which are known for their comfort. In a majority, Dutch prisons are populated by Dutch Moroccans…

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World Wide Will

Few authors have had their works produced on stage and turned into films as often as William Shakespeare. Since the 18th century, his birth date has been April 23, but nobody knows for sure when exactly he was born.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

7 Extremists Killed, 20 Injured in Egypt’s Sinai Raids

RAFAH, Egypt, April 24 (Xinhua) — At least seven extremist Jihadists were killed and 20 others were injured in overnight air raids on their hideouts Wednesday in Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid cities in North Sinai province, an Egyptian security source told Xinhua…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Islamist Militia and Tunisian Army Clash in Tunisia

(AGI) Tunis, Apr 24 — A soldier was wounded during a violent clash between the Tunisian army and Salafi militia, according to Tunisian Defence Ministry spokesman Taoufik Rahmouni. The fighting took place in the industrial area of the town of Kasserine, on the Chaambi mountains, near the border with Algeria. For several days now, al Qaeda’s strongholds in Kasserine have been shelled by heavy artillery.

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

Libya: Jihadi Terror Leaders’ Safest Haven

by Anna Mahjar-Barducci

Libya is the new jihadist front on the Mediterranean — and just a few hours away from the centers of Europe.

Several security sources have confirmed that Belmokhtar is still alive and has moved, along with his troops, from Mali to a new base in the Libyan desert.

The leading jihadist commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar — also known as Khalid Abu Al-Abbas, and by his nickname “Al-A’war” (“the one-eyed”) — is hiding in Libya. From there, according to security sources quoted in media reports, he is planning to mastermind terrorist attacks against Westerners and their interests across Africa’s Sahel region.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hamas-PLO: New Palestinian Gov’t to Follow Abbas Line

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV — A senior figure of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Jibril Rajoub, sent a conciliatory message to Israel in the aftermath of the landmark Hamas-Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) agreement. The future national consensus government of Palestine will be based on the formula of two-states for two peoples, in keeping with Mahmoud Abbas’ line. Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu today will examine implications for the peace agreement process with the government’s security cabinet.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Israel Suspends Peace Talks After Palestinian Reconciliation Deal the

Israel government decided on Thursday to suspend American-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians because of the reconciliation agreement the Palestinians announced on Wednesday between two rival factions, one of which refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

The Israelis said no talks would be held at least until the new unity government announced by the Palestinians taked shape, and that it would not it any circumstances negotiate with a government that was backed by Hamas, the militant Islamic faction it considers a terrorist group.

The move came after a six-hour meeting of top Israeli ministers.

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Israel Halts Peace Talks as Hamas and Fatah Strike Unity Deal

Death knell sounded on talks as Israel pulls out in protest at Palestinian unity government announcement

Israel has formally suspended Middle East peace talks in retaliation for a unity pact between the Palestinian leadership and the Islamist Hamas movement, dealing a severe blow to US-brokered efforts to end the decades-old conflict…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

10 People From Bristol and South West Have Gone to Syria During Conflict

ABOUT 10 people from Bristol and the surrounding region have travelled to Syria during the civil conflict which is tearing the country apart, police have revealed. Of those, it is not known how many have gone to fight and how many are taking part in the humanitarian relief effort…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

18 Killed in Fresh Iraq Violence

BAGHDAD, April 23 (Xinhua) — Eighteen people were killed and 15 others wounded in separate incidents across Iraq on Wednesday, police sources said.

In Anbar province, Iraqi soldiers shot dead four would-be suicide bombers, linked to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), who were wearing explosive vests while preparing to storm an army base in downtown Ramadi, the provincial capital, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Almost 3,000 Political Prisoners in Bahrain, Says BCHR

Protestor injured by police dies after 2 months in coma

(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 22 — At least 2,853 people are under detention in Bahrain for political reasons, reported the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) in its last newsletter.

The small Gulf emirate has a Shia-majority population but is governed by a dynasty from the Sunni minority. Saudi military helped the country to put down protests during the 2011 uprisings in the Arab world. The BCHR also said that a protestor injured by police during demonstrations in February had died after two months in a coma.

Abdul Aziz Moussa Al-Abbar, 27, was reportedly struck to the head by a tear gas canister and pellets shot by police firing on the protestors. The protest was held after the funeral of a media worker in the Saar village. Last week about fifty people including at least seven minors were arrested and five detainees were released, said the BCHR, and last month the award-winning photojournalist Ahmed Humaidan was sentenced to ten years in jail in a trial lacking in due process, after the defendant had undergone torture during his detention. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights is chaired by the well-known activist Nabeel Rajab, who is serving three years in jail, and Maryam Al-Khawaja, daughter of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who has been sentenced to life in jail and is known for his lengthy hunger strike during the Formula 1 races held in Bahrain in 2012.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Armenia Dismisses Turkey ‘Condolences’ Over Genocide

Yerevan (AFP) — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian on Thursday brushed off Ankara’s first ever offer of condolences for the World War I mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, accusing Turkey of showing “utter denial” in failing to recognise the massacres as genocide.

In an unprecedented move described by the United States as a historic gesture, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday offered condolences over the massacres, calling them “our shared pain”.

But in a statement marking the 99th anniversary of the start of the killings and mass deportations, Sarkisian made no acknowledgement of Erdogan’s move and instead accused Turkey of continuing to ignore the facts.

“The Armenian genocide… is alive as far as the successor of the Ottoman Turkey continues its policy of utter denial,” he said.

“The denial of a crime constitutes the direct continuation of that very crime,” he added. “Only recognition and condemnation can prevent the repetition of such crimes in the future.”…

           — Hat tip: JLH [Return to headlines]
 

Ban Ki-Moon Urges Aid Access in Syria, Says Neither Side Cooperating

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told the Security Council that a resolution demanding humanitarian aid access in Syria is being honored by neither the government nor rebel fighters.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

CIA is Quietly Ramping Up Aid to Syrian Rebels

The U.S. is providing more arms and training to the moderate rebels in Syria, under a growing secret program run by the CIA in Jordan. Sources tell NPR that secret program could be supplemented by a more public effort in the coming months involving American military trainers.

The change in strategy comes as the White House sees Syrian leader Bashar Assad growing in strength, and continuing to strike rebel stronghold.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gulf Nations Make Peace After Rift Over Qatar’s MB Support

(ANSAmed) — DUBAI — The crisis between Gulf nations sparked by Qatar’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood has subsided, the oil-rich emirate announced after an agreement between it and other Gulf nations last week.

The new accord is basically a reworking of the November agreement in which Qatar pledged not to interfere with the domestic policies of neighboring nations, the violation of which led to a crisis in March. The interference consisted in Qatar’s backing of the Muslim Brotherhood, who use its territory and media to launch attacks on Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, where the organization is illegal (classified as a terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia) and activists supporting it are regularly arrested and sentenced to prison terms. Individual incidents as well as Doha-based satellite channel Al Jazeera’s tone and content angered the three GCC members.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gunmen Raid Checkpoint in Yemen, 2 Policemen Killed

ADEN, Yemen, April 24 (Xinhua) — Two policemen were killed early Thursday when suspected al-Qaida gunmen raided a security outpost in Yemen’s southeastern province of Hadramout, a military official told Xinhua…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Jordan Opens Second Refugee Camp for Syrians

(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, APRIL 23 — Jordan on Wednesday opened its second main camp for Syrian refugees in the eastern desert town of al Azraq with a capacity of up to 130,000 asylum seekers.

The camp of Mehkheizen al Gharbia is constructed with donation of $10 million from Kuwait and western countries. Jordanian officials said the refugees centre will start receiving refugees directly after al Zaatari camp has been filled.

The UN says Jordan has at least 530,000 Syrian refugees who arrived during the past three years, amid concern that continued violence would drive more refugees to the kingdom.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kuwait: Couple Arrested for Killing Maid

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: A citizen and his wife were arrested yesterday for allegedly killing their Asian maid, whose body was found in Siddiq in South Surra on Monday.

The man confessed providing a false statement the day the couple disposed off the body of the maid, claiming she had absconded. The man said he and his wife severely beat and injured the victim, leading to her death.

They then dumped her body in an open area in Siddiq.

Detectives who found the body intensified their efforts until they arrested the suspected killer and his wife. Separately, the body of an expat was found in Abdaly yesterday. Investigations are ongoing to identify the victim and cause of death.

[Supremacism in action. Murders of slaves (“maids”) are annnounced in the press almost monthly; death or severe injuries of slaves trying to escape and falling from upper floors is reported weekly (imagine why a housemaid would try to escape a house or appartment block through the 4th floor window). Mistreatment is so common it doesn’t impress anyone. — RR]

           — Hat tip: RR [Return to headlines]
 

Saudi Arabia: Death Toll Hits 81 With 17 More MERS Cases Reported

The number of people infected with the virus now stands at 261. Saudi King fires Health minister, who had said that MERS-related deaths had dropped by 60 per cent, that more than 20,000 people had been examined over the last few weeks, and that his ministry had done a good job.

Jeddah (AsiaNews/Agencies) — An outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) appears to be spreading quickly. In Saudi Arabia, 17 new cases have been confirmed, bringing the total number of infections in that country to 261, 81 of whom have died. In Greece and Jordan, the authorities have also reported MERS cases.

On Monday, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz fired Health Minister Abdullah Al Rabeeah amid growing concerns about the kingdom’s handling of the MERS virus.

Acting Health Minister Adel Fakieh on Tuesday toured one of the main hospitals in Jeddah.

The spread of the virus among medical staff in Jeddah triggered the temporary closure of a hospital emergency room in the city earlier this month.

The now fired minister had visited the facility last week in a bid to reassure the public but on Wednesday at least four doctors at the King Fahd Hospital reportedly resigned after refusing to treat MERS patients.

At a press conference, al Rabeeah had said that no case had been recorded at any schools and that the number of medical staff infected was down.

He had also noted that rate of deaths had dropped from 60 per cent to 32 per cent, with more than 20,000 people undergoing examination over the past few weeks.

Twenty-two experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and specialised centres in Europe, US and Asia are expected to arrive in Saudi Arabia this week and hold a meeting with experts from the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Health minister announced on Monday.

Scientists are still struggling to understand MERS and develop vaccines to treat it.

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

Syria: UN 3.5 Million People Under Siege or Without Aid

40 doctors remain for 2.5 million residents in Aleppo

(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, APRIL 24 — Three and a half million people in Syria live in areas under siege or impossible for humanitarian assistance to reach, the United Nations (UN) said today. The UN called on ‘‘all the parties’’ to permit humanitarian access and put an end to ‘‘indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilians.’’ In its appeal, the UN drew a catastrophic picture of the country where 9.3 million people are affected by conflict, 60% of health centers are destroyed, and a third of water treatment facilities are out of service.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Blair Doctrine

By Daniel Greenfield

Tony Blair’s latest speech on Islam is significant as much for what it doesn’t mention as for what it does. Not long ago, a speech of this sort would have been rich with contrasts between dictatorship and democracy. Democracy, the audience would have been told solemnly, equals freedom and modernity.

Instead Blair mentions the word ‘democracy’ only three times…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

The Jihad Genocide of the Armenians

By Andrew G. Bostom

Dadrian has always been unafraid to identify the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad as a critical etiologic factor in the Armenian genocide. Indeed, the most revealing interlude of that April 2nd evening, for me, was his blunt recapitulation of a massacre as depicted in Reverend K. Balakian’s eyewitness narrative Hai Koghota (The Armenian Golgotha)—the major literary work affecting Dadrian’s decision to study the genocide.

In a 2003 essay collection, Dadrian recounted the harrowing details of this particular slaughter, its Islamic religious motifs unexpurgated. Six thousand four hundred Armenian children, young girls, and women from Yozgad, were decamped by their Turkish captors at a promontory some distance from the city.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tony Blair Gets it. If Only the Current Batch of World Leaders Did Too

By James Delingpole

To those many of us in Britain who loathe Tony Blair and the disastrous legacy of his horribly misconceived “Third Way”, it always comes as a bit of a shock to hear our cringe-inducing ex-Prime Minister stand up on the international stage and say something truly worthwhile…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish PM Offers ‘Condolences’ To Armenia Over WWI Killings

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday (23 April) offered condolences to the grandchildren of Armenians killed by Ottoman leaders one hundred years ago during World War 1.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Up to 700 Britons Feared Fighting in Syria

Police warn they cannot stop would-be jihadists from leaving the country but will arrest any returning fighters

Up to 700 Britons could now be fighting in Syria and police are powerless to stop would-be jihadists heading there, the UK’s counter-terrorism chief has admitted. But Helen Ball, the police senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, warned anyone who takes part in any form of fighting, even for the Free Syrian Army, will face arrest on their return…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Black Clouds Over Ukraine

Writing for DW, Elliott Morss predicts three possible economic scenarios for Ukraine as the turmoil there continues. None of them, he says, are particularly appealing.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Five Pro-Russian Separatists Killed in Sloviansk, Kiev Says

Army moves to retake separatist stronghold

(ANSA) — Kiev, April 24 — At least five pro-Russian insurgents were reported killed on Thursday as Ukrainian troops moved to regain control of the separatist stronghold of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian interior ministry says.

The casualties were reported as Kiev’s army cleared three pro-Russian barricades near the city.

Separatists are occupying strategic buildings in at least a dozen towns in eastern Ukraine.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

NY Times Publishes Fabricated Evidence of Russian Troops in Eastern Ukraine

Photos purporting to show Russian Special Forces operating in Eastern Ukraine were in fact an amateur fabrication on behalf of the post-coup Kiev government yet the New York Times blithely regurgitated them as part of the mass marketing campaign for World War III.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

OSCE: Ukraine is ‘Very Unstable’

Klaus Zillikens, the head of the OSCE mission in eastern Ukraine, explains that though life appears to go on as normal in the Donetsk region, tensions there are running high — particularly in the city of Slovyansk.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Putin Warns of Consequences if Kiev Uses Army Against People

Ukraine’s actions ‘very serious crime’

(ANSA) — Moscow, April 24 — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned of “consequences” if Kiev used the army against civilians, Russia’s news agency Itar-Tass reports.

Responding to reports that the Ukrainian army had moved to retake the separatist stronghold of Slovianks in eastern Ukraine, Putin said that “if Kiev’s regime has really begun using the army against civilians in the country, then this is without a doubt a very serious crime against its population”.

“The operation against the Ukrainian people will have consequences for those taking these decisions in Kiev”, Putin concluded.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Putin Calls Internet ‘CIA Project’ That Must be Controlled

Russian President Vladimir Putin charged Thursday that the Internet is a project developed and ran by the CIA, and that Russia will continue to fight to squelch dissent online.

The Kremlin has been eager to place more restrictions on the Internet, where many opposition activists have been able to promote their ideologies and organize protests.

Mr. Putin said Thursday at a media forum in St. Petersburg that the Internet originally was a “CIA project” and “is still developing as such,” according to AP.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Parliament Votes to Outlaw Rehabilitation of Nazism

Punishable with up to five years behind bars

(ANSA) — Moscow, April 23 — Russia’s Lower House on Wednesday approved a bill punishing the justification or rehabilitation of Nazism with up to five years in prison or fines of up to 10,000 euros.

The bill had been on the agenda for five years.

The vote reportedly sped up after Russia last month annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula last month, allegedly to protect Russian-speaking inhabitants there from extreme right-wing groups.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Russia’s Gazprom Presses Ukraine for Extra USD 11 Billion

(AGI) Moscow, April 24 — Russia’s Gazprom has slapped Ukraine energy firm Naftogaz with an additional 11.4 billion dollar gas bill, for failure to meet a “take or pay” clause for gas supplies, Gazprom’s export manager, Aleksandr Medvedev, announced on Thursday. Naftogaz should have imported 41.6 billion cubic metres of gas under the 2013 contract terms, but only shipped in 12.9 bcm. A source in the Russian energy company confirmed that the bill was presented to Naftogaz on Wednesday.

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

Russia Announces New Exercises on Ukraine Border

Russia’s defense minister has announced new exercises in regions bordering on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier said Kyiv’s military operations in the east would “have consequences.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Separatist Leader in Donetsk Says “This is Civil War”

(AGI) Moscow, April 24 — Leaders of the self-proclaimed “People’s Republic of Doetsk” have called for general mobilisation in the region reacting to military operations launched by the Ukrainian army on Slavyansk, describing the situation as “a civil war.” Joint military operations were carried out in Slavynsk and local separatist leaders told the Interfax news agency that this means only one thing, “civil war.” .

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

Soviet Yearnings: Hopes Rise in Transnistria of a Russian Annexation

Transnistria is the only place in Europe that still uses the hammer and sickle on its flag. Now that Russia has annexed Crimea and is eyeing eastern Ukraine, many in the breakaway Moldovan republic hope that they are next on Moscow’s agenda.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ukraine Fighting Continues

Kiev ‘pawn in US-EU hands’ says Moscow

(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — Fighting continued between government forces and pro-Russian secessionists in eastern Ukraine Thursday with two rebels reported killed as Moscow said Kiev was a pawn in the hands of the US and EU and raised its demands for Ukraine to pay gas debts.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Bangladesh: Dhaka: Rise in Abductions as a Catholic Businessman Kidnapped

The victim is Hemonto Costa, younger sibling of Brother Proshanto Costa, high school principal in Mymensingh. His cell phone is turned off and there is no news of his whereabouts. Between 2013 and 2014 a total of 332 people were kidnapped in Bangladesh. Only half returned home alive.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) — In Bangladesh cases of kidnapping for ransom are on the rise: the latest involves a Catholic businessman, who was abducted while on his way to his office in Savar on the morning of April 21. The victim is Hemonto Costa, 47, a member of St Joseph’s Church (parish of Dharenda, Archdiocese of Dhaka). He is the younger sibling of Brother Proshanto Costa, head of the Biroidakuni High School in the Diocese of Mymensingh.

Hemonto sells supplies for air conditioners and refrigerators in the business area of the capital. He was on the phone with his wife just before being kidnapped. Family members have filed a missing persons report, but still do not know anything. “We’re looking for him and praying for him — brother Costa tells AsiaNews — but his phone is switched off. He knew many creditors because of his job, but we can not imagine who it was”.

Hemonto Costa’s case is not an isolated one. Disappearances or abductions are on the rise. Last week a group of unknown assailants kidnapped the husband of Syeda Rizwana Hasan , executive director of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) . The man was driving his car from Dhaka to Narayanganj, when he was taken. After two days he was released.

However, not all kidnaps have a happy ending; some of the victims are killed. Ilias Ali, leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) disappeared from Dhaka and has not been seen since. His family believes he may have been killed.

According to human rights groups, from January 2013 to March 2014 a total of 332 people were kidnapped in Bangladesh. In general, the kidnappers ask for a ransom of between 40 thousand and 10 million taka (between 373 and 93,300 Euros). Only 50% of the hostages are freed alive. In the case of Hemonto Costa, no ransom has so far been demanded.

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

Bangladesh: Thousands Mourn Collapse Victims of Rana Plaza Garment Factory One Year on

Thousands of people have gathered at the site of the Rana Plaza factory complex outside the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. The demonstrations come one year after the building collapsed, killing more than one thousand people.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Blast Kills 1 Child, Wounds 8 in S. Afghanistan

QALAT, Afghanistan, April 24 (Xinhua) — A powerful blast rocked Zabul’s provincial capital Qalat in south Afghanistan on Thursday afternoon, killing a child and wounding eight others including a soldier and seven non-combatants, provincial police chief Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Liwanai said. “The explosive device was planted on a motorbike and went off next to a military vehicle, killed a child, wounding an Afghan soldier and seven passersby,”Liwanai told Xinhua…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Buddha Tattoo Woman Flies From Sri Lanka ‘With Apology’

A British tourist arrested in Sri Lanka because she had a Buddha tattoo on her arm said she has been offered a holiday in the country “as an apology”.

Naomi Coleman will arrive in London later, following a deportation order, as a court refused her permission to continue travelling to The Maldives.

Police said she was arrested for “hurting others’ religious feelings” when she arrived at the airport in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Monday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pakistan: Punjab: Clan Gang Rapes Seven Year Old Christian and Kidnaps Father to Stop Him Reporting Them

Sara was raped by four men in a Muslim village in Sialkot . The little girl is hospitalized in a “critical condition”. The rapists kidnapped her father, Iqbal Masih, forcing the family to not press charges. Activists and human rights organizations demand justice.

Islamabad (AsiaNews ) — A “clan” of four Muslim men raped a Christian girl of only seven years old, named Sara yesterday in the village of Mally ki, Daska, Sialkot district (Punjab) . The child is now in Sialkot hospital, in the intensive care unit in a “critical” condition according to doctors. Meanwhile, the police, instead of arresting the culprits, helped the local clan to kidnap the girl’s father; Iqbal Masih was taken and hidden in a secret place to “force the family not to report the story, to reach an agreement with the criminals and to avoid a dispute of a religious background”.

The Christian community has attempted every possible means to negotiate with police, with no success. The police seem reluctant to punish the rapists and free Masih, in the hands of the torturers who abused daughter.

Activists and human rights organizations demand justice and ensure their support for the family. Following repeated appeals and pressures, the judiciary has opened an investigation and ordered the arrest of two people involved in the rape; however so far there is no news of her father’s fate.

According to recent research, the cases of sexual abuse and violence — especially against young Christian girls — are on the rise in the province of Punjab, under the complicit silence of the police and the judicial authorities. Father John Arshad, a priest involved in the protection of minority rights, condemns the sexual assault on a girl of only seven years and the kidnapping of the parent, “to put pressure on the family not to report the crime”. The “silence” of civil society, he adds, heightens the drama of the story even more.

With a population of more than 180 million people (97 per cent Muslim), Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world, the second largest Muslim nation after Indonesia. About 80 per cent of Muslims are Sunni, whilst Shias are 20 per cent. Hindus are 1.85 per cent, followed by Christians (1.6 per cent) and Sikhs (0.04 per cent). Violence against ethnic and religious minorities is commonplace across the country, with Shia Muslims and Christians as the main target, with things getting worse. Dozens episodes , including targeted attacks against entire communities — such as in Gojra in 2009 or Joseph Colony Lahore last year — or abuses against individuals (Asia Bibi , Rimsha Masih or the young Robert Fanish Masih, who also died in his cell), are often perpetrated under the pretext of the blasphemy laws .

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

Pakistani Fighter Jets Kill 37 Militants

ISLAMABAD, April 24 (Xinhua) — Pakistani fighter jets on Thursday pounded hideouts of the militants in the Khyber tribal region and killed 37 of them, military sources said. The sources said that 18 other militants were injured in the strikes at the mountainous Tirah valley close to the Afghan border…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Three Americans Shot Dead by Afghan Guard at Christian Missionary Hospital

Afghan police guard killed a US paediatrician and his two guests as they opened fire on international hospital

Three Americans were shot dead by an Afghan police guard at a Christian missionary hospital in Kabul. Two others, including a member of its foreign medical staff, were wounded. The killings are the latest in a series of attacks on foreign “soft targets” in recent months as Taliban insurgents have struggled to engage international forces as they gradually withdraw.

Analysts said they believe the attacks are part of a Taliban campaign which is increasingly targeting non-Muslim “unbelievers”…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Three American Doctors Killed in Attack at Afghan Hospital

An Afghan security guard has opened fire at a hospital run by a US charity in Kabul, killing three American doctors, according to officials. It is the latest in a series of attacks targeting foreigners in Afghanistan.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China: Two Held, Imam Removed in Raids on Xinjiang Mosque

Chinese authorities in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang have dismissed the imam of a local mosque, and are investigating two Muslim Uyghurs who worked there for listening to “illegal religious” audio materials, an exile Uyghur group said on Wednesday.

The move came as police and religious affairs bureau officials raided the mosque in Toksun county near eastern Xinjiang’s Turpan city last week, confiscating audio CDs banned by the ruling Chinese Communist Party…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

China Enacts Biggest Pollution Curbs in 25 Years

China’s legislature passed the biggest changes to its environmental protection laws in 25 years, punishing polluters more severely as the government works to limit smog and tainted soil associated with three decades of economic growth.

Government reports and recent comments from top officials about pollution have revealed the extent of the damage to China’s soil, water and air.

Almost 60 percent of the groundwater at 4,778 sites monitored across China has been found to be of poor or extremely poor quality, with excessive amount of pollutants, the Ministry of Land and Resources said April 22. A nine-year government survey found unacceptable levels of mercury, arsenic and other pollutants in 16 percent of 6.3 million square meters of land that were tested, the ministry said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Driven by a Vow, US Vet Returns to Vietnam to Help

Sent to Vietnam to fight a war he knew little about, a US marine saw the destruction caused by Agent Orange and vowed to return one day to help the Vietnamese people. Now he’s back.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Says Senkakus Fall Under US-Japan Defence Treaty

(AGI) Tokyo, April 24 — On the first stop of his week-long visit to visit to Asia, President Barack Obama reiterated in Tokyo on Thursday that the security alliance between the United States and Japan includes “all territories administered by Japan, including the Senkaku Islands.” The President said that the U.S. would not involve itself in the sovereignty dispute between the two countries, but that the archipelago claimed by China has been administered, throughout history, by Japan. “We oppose any unilateral attempts to undermine Japan’s administration of these islands”, Obama added.

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

Obama Lauds US-Japan Ties in Meeting With Prime Minister Abe

US President Barack Obama has met with Prime Minister Abe on his state visit to Japan, following a formal reception at the Imperial Palace. Tricky talks on a trade accord top the agenda, but both sides have reservations.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pick Me, Pick Me! Kim Jong-un the Ladies’ Man Besieged by Female Soldiers in Tears as He Visits Their Military Unit Near the South Korean Border

Kim Jong-un has yet again proved that he is a hit with the ladies as he is swarmed by a group of female soldiers, all in tears at the prospect of meeting the North Korean leader.

The dictator impressed the ladies as he visited their artillery unit in the province of Kangwon, located on the border to South Korea.

The release of the images unsubtly coincides with the impending visit to South Korea by U.S. President Barack Obama, who lands in Seoul tomorrow.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Quantum Communications Leap Out of the Lab

China begins work on super-secure network as ‘real-world’ trial successfully sends quantum keys and data.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ship Seizure Deepens China’s Rift With Japan

Decision by court in Shanghai to impound a Japanese ship in a 78-year-old legal case has serious implications for dozens of other compensation cases aimed at Japanese companies and the government.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ANZAC Day 2014 in the Illawarra: Live Blog

Today we commemorate the men and women who gave their tomorrow for our today. Stay with us for the latest Anzac Day news in the Illawarra and across the nation.

Lest we forget…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Deadly Illegal Mining Booms Below South African City of Gold

Smoke rises from a derelict mine shaft 25 miles east of Johannesburg, where illegal miners cook, work and sleep below ground for weeks at a time.

They have broken through a slab of concrete covering the entrance to the shaft, one of 6,000 abandoned mines, many around Johannesburg, known as “eGoli,” or “City of Gold” in Zulu. At least 40 unlawful prospectors have died in South Africa this year as mines collapse, workers succumb to poisonous gases and gangs wage turf wars underground.

“Any mistake and you feel you’re going to be killed,” said Joseph Sithole, 23, an undocumented Mozambican migrant, as he stood among corrugated-iron shacks and rubbish-strewn paths near the mine.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fighting Malaria From Childhood in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso in western Africa suffers a heavy burden from malaria. But the country is doing its best to combat the disease — and efforts are focusing on schoolchildren.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mali Fighters Say They Killed French Hostage

The MUJAO Islamist group in Mali has said that it has killed a French hostage captured in November 2012, “because France is our enemy.” The French government said it could not confirm the claim, but would investigate.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Nigeria: Boko Haram Threatens to Kill Abducted Schoolgirls if Search is Not Stopped

NOBEL Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, yesterday, called on the Federal Government to ensure the release of 230 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, who were abducted by members of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Professor Soyinka made the call on a day a coalition of women’s rights in Borno expressed their readiness to mobilise thousands of women to embark on a voluntary search and rescue mission into the notorious Sambisa forest, to ensure the release of the abducted students.

Senate President, David Mark, on his part described the abduction of the girls as sacrilegious.

Meanwhile, members of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, have threatened to kill the abducted students, should the search to recover them continue…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Two to be Charged With Murder After Kenyan FGM Victim Dies

Two guardians and a circumciser will be charged with murder in a landmark case in Kenya after a Maasai girl bled to death following Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Rehema Lesale, 13, died on April 14 after undergoing FGM in a remote part of Kajiado County, south of the capital, Nairobi. Her body was found lying in a pool of blood at her homestead and her grave had already been dug.

“We are in court today. The guardians are going to be charged with murder,” Christine Nanjala, head of Kenya’s one-month-old anti-FGM prosecution unit, told Thomson Reuters Foundation on the phone from Kajiado on Wednesday…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Brazil Struggles With Growing Security Problem Ahead of World Cup Kickoff

Despite attempts over the past five years to “pacify” Brazil’s explosive shantytowns, the ongoing violence and social unrest in Rio de Janeiro has reached an explosive point that many government officials now fear will cast a dark shadow over the upcoming Fifa World Cup.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How Mexican Mothers Identify Sons Lost on the Trek to the US

Every year, thousands of Mexicans make the perilous journey across the deserts of northern Mexico and Arizona, hoping for a better life in the US. Not all of them make it, leaving some families with a search for answers — and eventually, bodies.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Amnesty: Migrant Domestic Workers Face Widespread Abuse in Qatar

Migrant domestic workers in Qatar are powerless in the face of widespread abuse, according to Amnesty International. The human rights group has called on the country to extend labor protections to household servants.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Finland: Wanted: Immigrants and Teens to Join Guides and Scouts

Finland is seeing a surge in popularity for girl guides and boy scouts, but the organisation wants more immigrants and teens to join. The youth movement lamented the tendency for guides and scouts to leave the organisation as young adults.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Forza Italia to Probe Aims of Govt Migrant Mission

Mare Nostrum surveillance and rescue program causes controversy

(ANSA) — Rome, April 23 — Centre-right opposition party Forza Italia (FI) upped pressure on the government over its immigration policy Wednesday by announcing investigations into its naval surveillance and rescue programme.

“Forza Italia has requested and obtained a fact-finding investigation into Mare Nostrum to shed light on its aims,” said FI Senator Maurizio Gasparri of the programme launched after some 400 people died in two migrant-boat disasters near Lampedusa in October 2013. “The Italian government has employed its Navy, which has become a de facto taxi service for undocumented immigrants,” he continued, also calling for new intervention in North Africa to prevent migrants — many of whom currently travel through Libya or Tunisia — from even leaving its shores.

Senators of the New Centre Right (NCD), a minority partner in Premier Matteo Renzi’s left-right government, instead called on the Italian authorities to explore the possibility of taking rescued migrants to ports in Croatia, Slovenia, France or Spain instead of Italy. This, said Carlo Giovanardi and Luigi Compagna, makes sense as many of the migrants who land in Italy are heading for countries in northern Europe. The requests came as Italian navy vessel Aliseo rescued 169 migrants, including 16 women and 64 children, from waters off the southern island of Sicily under the Mare Nostrum programme.

The Italian coastguard also said 191 migrants rescued Tuesday some 20 nautical miles east of Malta had arrived in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo. On Tuesday authorities said a total of 1,149 migrants had been rescued by Italian Navy vessels since Sunday from the seas south of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa under the surveillance and rescue mission.

The rescues came as Northern League secretary Matteo Salvini said that Italy must suspend rescue operations because they are too expensive and represent an “invasion” of Italian shores.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italian Right Calls for End to Migrant Rescue Programme

Italian right-wing politicians have called for the country’s programme to rescue North African refugees from the Mediterranean sea to be scrapped after figures suggested that 1,100 immigrants had been rescued in the past two days.

Following the Arab Spring in 2011, which sparked a series of revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, hundreds of thousands of refugees and economic migrants have attempted to cross the Mediterranean sea into Europe.

The issue is likely to become a focal point in Italy’s European election campaign over the coming weeks after Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigration Northern League party, called for the operation to be scrapped, saying “Italian citizens end up financing the people smugglers and an invasion of our coasts.”

Meanwhile, Maurizio Gasparri, a former minister in Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, described the programme as an “expensive and maniacal operation” which “must be immediately stopped,” in a statement on Tuesday (22 April).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Oskar Freysinger on SF1: “if What the EU is Doing is Normal, Then I’d Rather be a Nutcase”

On Friday Evening, a debate over the referendum of the mass-immigration initiative took place on Swiss television station SF1. In it, SVP (Swiss People’s Party) Oskar Freysinger met in the broadcast “Arena” with assistant SPD (Socialist Party of Germany) chief Ralf Stegner who had commented (PI reported) on the result of the SVP initiative with “The Swiss, they’re nuts!” Freysinger countered Stegner in the program with: “If what the EU is doing is normal, then I’d rather be a nut case.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Thousands of Expats Leave Spain

New figures from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) show total 313,446 EU residents left the country in 2013. Almost one in three leaving Spain (87.880) were Britons, while the second largest group (74.745) were Romanians. The only nationality to increase their presence in Spain were the Chinese.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Aborted Babies Incinerated in Oregon to Provide Electricity

[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]

The British Columbia Health Ministry has admitted that the remains of babies destroyed by abortion in B.C. facilities are ending up in a waste-to-power facility in the United States, providing electricity for residents of Oregon.

The province’s Health Ministry said in an email to the B.C. Catholic that “biomedical waste” shipped to the U.S. to be incinerated includes “human tissue, such as surgically removed cancerous tissue, amputated limbs, and fetal tissue.”

“The ministry understands that some is transferred to Oregon. There it is incinerated in a waste-to-energy plant,” the email stated.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Archbishop: Britain Not a ‘Christian Country’ — If Judging by Numbers in the Pews

Justin Welby says despite falling church attendance British society is ‘earthed’ in Christianity and that debate shows that Britons still ‘care’ about faith

Britain is “certainly not” a Christian country if measured by the number of people actively attending church, the Archbishop of Canterbury has insisted. But in his first remarks amid a national debate about the status of faith in the UK, the Most Rev Justin Welby, said it was a “historical fact” that British society and culture was “shaped by and founded on” Christianity…

           — Hat tip: JP [Return to headlines]
 

Food Photographer of the Year 2014

Colourful close-ups and creative cooking — whet your appetite by taking a look at some of the winning entries in the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year competition — with chair of the judges’ panel, food writer Jay Rayner.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Mystery Solved! Super-Bright Supernova Was Magnified by Cosmic Lens

An incredibly bright supernova spotted in 2010 has been the subject of a stellar mystery until now.

A new study shows that the superluminous supernova, called PS1-10afx, was not a new kind of super-radiant stellar explosion, as some scientists thought. Rather, it was the light from a well-studied type of star explosion that just happened to be magnified 30 times by a well-placed cosmic lens.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Reprieve for Men: Y Chromosome is Not Vanishing

The sex chromosome has been shrinking throughout mammalian evolution, but many of its remaining genes play crucial roles beyond sex determination.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Space Radiation Remains Major Hazard for Humans Going to Mars

During a conference this week in Washington D.C., enthusiasts are attempting to rouse support for a manned mission to Mars sometime in the next two decades. NASA is there, as are many key players in the spaceflight community. But there continue to be major obstacles to manned Mars missions.

A new study highlights one of the big problems with extended space travel: galactic cosmic ray radiation. According to the report, astronauts on the International Space Station would receive doses that exceed their lifetime limits after just 18 months for women and two years for men. A Mars mission crew would be spending at least this long in the harsh radiation of deep space.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Micro: The First Truly Consumer 3D Printer

The first truly consumer 3D printer should be incredibly intuitive, easy to own, and seamless by design.

…And That’s Why We Made The Micro

It is the most affordable 3D printer that can be used right out of the box. Perfect for beginners and experts alike, just plug in the printer, download or create models, hit print, and watch your custom creations form right before your eyes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

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