About 1,200 asylum seekers were rescued and brought to Sicily today, further straining the Italian immigrant reception system, which was already nearing the breaking point. Meanwhile, between six and seven hundred would-be migrants stormed the fence at the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa. About 140 made it through to Spanish territory.
In other news, Volkert van der Graaf, the murderer of Dutch politician Pym Fortuyn, was released from prison today after serving twelve years of his sentence.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Egghead, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, JP, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
HSBC Demands to Know How Customers Spend Their Money
An HSBC customer who wrote to economist Martin Armstrong related how the bank, which itself was culpable of acting as a conduit for “drug kingpins and rogue nations” in 2012, is now interrogating its account holders on how they earn and spend their money.
The story is yet another illustration of how major banks are beginning to function more and more as spies for the state, quizzing their customers on their income and spending habits while demanding paperwork and explanations for them to take out their own cash.
In January it emerged that HSBC was restricting large cash withdrawals for UK customers from £5000 upwards, forcing them to provide documentation of what they plan to spend the money on, a form of capital control that more and more banks are beginning to adopt…
The recent spate of unusual banker suicides and mysterious deaths has also prompted concerns that the financial system isn’t as healthy as it is being portrayed by the mass media.
When journalists Pam Martens and Russ Martens attempted to uncover whether the deaths, which seem to be concentrated amongst JPMorgan Chase employees, were a statistical anomaly, they were told by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) that the information was being withheld because it pertained to “trade secrets”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
IMF Demands Ukraine Risk World War 3 in Return for Bailout Money
Globalists desperate to loan shark another country into debt slavery
The IMF has told Kiev that if it doesn’t defend eastern areas of Ukraine against pro-Russian forces, or in other words risk going to war with Russia and starting World War 3, that a planned $17 billion dollar bailout package will have to be “redesigned”.
IMF head Christine Lagarde said that the global body would “check regularly” to see if Ukraine was keeping up with its commitments on which the loan deal is dependent. One of those commitments includes a vow to use military forces to repel Russian influence in the east of the country.
The IMF has told Kiev that the money spigot could be cut off if Kiev “loses control over (the) East of the country”.
“Which, roughly translated, appears to mean go to war with pro-Russian forces (and thus Russia itself if Putin sees his apparent countrymen in trouble) or you don’t get your money!,” notes Zero Hedge.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Florentine Rocker Draws Fire From Centre-Left PD
‘80 euro’ comment and apology attacked by MPs
(ANSA) — Rome, May 2 — Florentine rock singer Piero Pelù on Friday drew fire from a number of MPs belonging to the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) after dismissing as “alms” a government measure to provide low earners 80 euros more per month.
“Offensive words from Pelù. For him, those who earn 1100 euros per month are beggars. The 80 euros per month are not alms for anyone who is not a millionaire and can’t get to the end of the month,” said PD MP Alessia Rotta, who was one of roughly a half dozen prominent PD politicians to join the outcry.
“We would have expected an apology from the Florentine rocker, we would have expected apologies to the many workers for whom this measure represents a breath of oxygen”.
“Instead Pelù, not satisfied at having offended millions of Italians, continues his harangue. He should instead come down from the stage and drop into the real life of people”.
Pelù sparked ire by saying, “We don’t want 80 euros in alms. We want work” at a traditional May 1 concert in Rome.
Pelù was making reference to Italian Premier Matteo Renzi’s signature 80-euro-a-month bonus for 10 million low earners, which was part of a tax-cut measure approved earlier this month.
Renzi is the head of the PD.
Pelù wrote on Facebook on Friday that he did not mean to offend low earners who will benefit from the measure, but rather to criticize the government for not doing more and for failing to address causes of their hardship.
The rock god and Renzi have a history of run-ins over concerts in Florence, where the premier was mayor until taking over as PD leader three months ago.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Thousands Protest Against Unemployment
Scuffles broke out between police and hundreds of protesters in Turin at one of several rallies against unemployment and austerity in Italy for May Day.
Although Italy’s monthly unemployment rate went down slightly to 12.7 percent in March, from 13 percent in February, it was 0.7 of a percentage point higher than in March 2013, according to official data released Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Portugal Expected to Exit Bailout Without Further Loans
Portugal in the coming days is expected to announce its exit from the EU-IMF bailout without further loans to cushion the transition, with the government reaffirming Wednesday (30 April) its commitment to reduce the budget deficit.
After three years of austerity measures linked to the €78 billion rescue, the government said it expects to have room to start reversing public sector salary cuts from 2015, while still sticking to the deficit reduction targets.
But the salary increase would be subject to the country’s economy getting back on track, finance minister Maria Luis Albuquerque said.
“Portugal still spends more than it generates. We have to follow the path, all the Portuguese know all too well the costs of budget indiscipline,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Payrolls Gained 288,000; Jobless Rate 6.3%
The American economy gained steam in April, adding 288,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent, the lowest rate since 2008.
After a sharp slowdown in December and January, and a modest improvement since then, economists had been forecasting a healthy gain for April as consumer and business activity rose in tandem with temperatures in many parts of the country.
The consensus among economists polled by Bloomberg before the Labor Department’s announcement Friday morning called for an increase of 218,000 in nonfarm payrolls, with the unemployment rate falling by 0.1 percent to 6.6 percent.
| [Return to headlines] |
“Black-Ops” Helicopters Buzz Kentucky Residents
“Black-ops” helicopters with their lights turned off buzzed Kentucky and Cincinnati residents last night as part of an unannounced military drill, with one eyewitness telling Infowars the maneuvers resembled something out of a “war zone”.
Under the headline, Yes, Those were ‘Black Ops’ helicopters over Florence, 700WLW News reports, “Several callers to the 700 WLW news room overnight said that there were “black ops” helicopters flying over the Florence area. Our news partners at Fox 19 said they received calls as well. Callers said that they spotted at least two choppers, and they were running without lights.”
The news station confirmed with Boone County dispatch center there were indeed “black ops” helicopters flying over northern Kentucky and the Greater Cincinnati area and that they were part of an exercise out of Fort Campbell which was using Lunken Airport as a base.
“The Army said it had coordinated the exercise with appropriate leaders,” states the report, although there was no indication that citizens were told in advance of the drill. The purpose of the exercises was also withheld. The Army also claimed that, “the safety of the personnel and the public was maintained,” despite the fact that the choppers’ lights were turned off.
An Infowars reader and a Florence resident emailed to inform us that he was suddenly awoken at midnight by the exercises.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Amazon Now Urged to Blacklist ‘Haters’
‘Far left group uses its hate listings to demonize conservatives’
For many years, the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled groups with values it doesn’t tolerate as “hate groups,” but now the organization is taking its attacks a step further, demanding Amazon and PayPal blacklist bloggers and websites that don’t fall in line with its leftist agenda.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Beached New Jersey Whale Vandalized With Graffiti
A dead Minke whale that washed ashore in New Jersey suffered some further indignity: someone tagged it with graffiti. The whale, which was roughly 12 to 15 feet long, was discovered Thursday morning below Atlantic City’s Central Pier.
Police tell The Press of Atlantic City the purple markings are not gang-related and appear to be Greek letters.
The letters appeared to be Tau Epsilon Phi, a fraternity that has chapters at several area schools, followed by what looked like “94.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Big Banks Started Laundering Massive Sums of Drug Money in the 1980s … and Are Still Doing it Today
It has become mainstream news that at least some of the big banks are laundering staggering sums of drug money.
See this, this, this, this, this, this and and this.
But you may not know the scope or history of the problem.
Official statistics show that huge sums of drug money are laundered every year:
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) conducted a study to determine the magnitude of illicit funds generated by drug trafficking and organised crimes and to investigate to what extent these funds are laundered. The report estimates that in 2009, criminal proceeds amounted to 3.6% of global GDP, with 2.7% (or USD 1.6 trillion) being laundered.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Boehner Announces Special Committee on Benghazi, Kerry Subpoenaed
House Republicans moved on two fronts Friday to dig for answers on Benghazi, with Speaker John Boehner announcing a special committee to investigate and a key panel subpoenaing Secretary of State John Kerry to testify.
In a significant shift, Boehner announced that the House will vote on establishing a select committee to investigate, on the heels of newly released emails that raised additional questions about the White House’s response.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
CAIR and Lawfare: An Interview With Brooke Goldstein
by Jerry Gordon
The month of April witnessed the Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) attacking free speech in films and in academia.. CAIR, a self-styled Muslim civil rights group, grew out of a support network for Hamas, a terrorist group designated by our State Department. It was one of several Muslim Brotherhood linked groups listed as unindicted co-conspirators in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation trial in Dallas,Texas. CAIR and the other groups were found to have funneled tens of millions in funds to Hamas. As the month began a CAIR spokesperson attacked the Clarion Project film, the Honor Diaries, which portrays a group of both Muslim and non-Muslim women addressing the problems of misogyny in Muslim majority countries with honor-shame cultures. These cultures follow Islamic doctrine devaluing the rights of women, condoning child and forced marriages, female genital mutilation and violence against women including honor killings. CAIR singled out the film’s executive producer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, former Somali Dutch politician, now an American citizen and acclaimed author of best sellers Infidel and Nomad. Ms. Ali is a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a member of The Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. As a girl she was subjected to female genital mutilation and as young woman, escaped from an arranged marriage. Ali, an apostate from Islam, was called an Islamophobe by CAIR. A term which an official of the Runnymede Trust in the UK admitted has no legal definition at a 2013 Warsaw Conference of the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe.
Brooke Goldstein, director of Manhattan-based Lawfare Project, used the bully pulpit of The Fox News program, The Kelly Files with host Megyn Kelly, to confront a CAIR spokesperson during the broadcast on the Honor Diaries controversy. She accused CAIR of engaging in stealth anti-Semitism against the leadership of the film’s sponsor, the Clarion Project because they were “Jewish.” Moreover, CAIR national spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper had demanded a retraction from Fox News program host Kelly of her comments about CAIR’s intimidation during the episode. Kelly refused. CAIR’s attack on the Honor Dairies led to cancellation of showings at three midwestern universities. CAIR didn’t stop with that episode. It next turned to a campaign that ultimately forced the President of Brandeis University to withdraw a commencement honorary doctorate and address by Ms. Ali. Pressure for President Lawrence’s withdrawal of Ali’s honor was exerted by the Muslim Student Association and by what many critics deemed a veritable lynch mob of 86 signatories of a letter by the members of the Near Eastern and Judaic Students faculty at Brandeis. CAIR’s Hooper attacked Ms. Ali’s anti-Islam views trumpeting Brandeis’ capitulation on a Kelley File exchange. Fox News host Megyn Kelly gave Ms. Ali an opportunity to respond to both Brandeis and Hooper on the same segment. Watch here…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Canola is the New Margarine — Throw it All Out
(NaturalNews) Remember when margarine was the substitute for butter? Hey, I can’t believe it’s not butter! Wow. Margarine is a molecule away from being plastic, and we wonder why so many old folks in America have Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The plastic fat is clogging their brain veins. No oxygen to the brain means expensive 24/7 nursing care, lots of pharmaceutical medications and hundreds of thousands of dollars for sick care. Do you see where this is leading?
America loves their canola! Who would really eat it if they knew that it was made with hexane vapor — a gasoline constituent? Even organic canola that’s “expeller-pressed” comes from something we’re not even supposed to eat in the first place — rapeseed. Canola is not a plant, or at least not until some mad scientists got a hold of rapeseed and altered it. Yes, I know, this is harsh for most people to address. Their canola oil food bar will be dead to them. Forget all those salads — the potato salad, the chicken salad, the tuna salad and the egg salad. Forget the macaroni salad and the pasta salad, all creamy with chunks of other (GMO) food stuff. (http://www.naturalnews.com)
Canola is like sodium benzoate, as it chokes your cells, ruins your immunity and requires extra “processing” by your body just to filter out the toxic synthetic oil that comes from rapeseed, which Mother Nature never intended as food — that’s why it stinks. You know, when manufacturing and processing companies and corporations make canola, they ALL have to put it through a DEODORIZING PROCESS to remove the stink. Look it up! (http://www.naturalnews.com)
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege
There is a phrase that floats around college campuses, Princeton being no exception, that threatens to strike down opinions without regard for their merits, but rather solely on the basis of the person that voiced them. “Check your privilege,” the saying goes, and I have been reprimanded by it several times this year. The phrase, handed down by my moral superiors, descends recklessly, like an Obama-sanctioned drone, and aims laser-like at my pinkish-peach complexion, my maleness, and the nerve I displayed in offering an opinion rooted in a personal Weltanschauung. “Check your privilege,” they tell me in a command that teeters between an imposition to actually explore how I got where I am, and a reminder that I ought to feel personally apologetic because white males seem to pull most of the strings in the world.
I do not accuse those who “check” me and my perspective of overt racism, although the phrase, which assumes that simply because I belong to a certain ethnic group I should be judged collectively with it, toes that line. But I do condemn them for diminishing everything I have personally accomplished, all the hard work I have done in my life, and for ascribing all the fruit I reap not to the seeds I sow but to some invisible patron saint of white maleness who places it out for me before I even arrive. Furthermore, I condemn them for casting the equal protection clause, indeed the very idea of a meritocracy, as a myth, and for declaring that we are all governed by invisible forces (some would call them “stigmas” or “societal norms”), that our nation runs on racist and sexist conspiracies. Forget “you didn’t build that;” check your privilege and realize that nothing you have accomplished is real.
But they can’t be telling me that everything I’ve done with my life can be credited to the racist patriarchy holding my hand throughout my years of education and eventually guiding me into Princeton. Even that is too extreme. So to find out what they are saying, I decided to take their advice. I actually went and checked the origins of my privileged existence, to empathize with those whose underdog stories I can’t possibly comprehend. I have unearthed some examples of the privilege with which my family was blessed, and now I think I better understand those who assure me that skin color allowed my family and I to flourish today.
Perhaps it’s the privilege my grandfather and his brother had to flee their home as teenagers when the Nazis invaded Poland, leaving their mother and five younger siblings behind, running and running until they reached a Displaced Persons camp in Siberia, where they would do years of hard labor in the bitter cold until World War II ended. Maybe it was the privilege my grandfather had of taking on the local Rabbi’s work in that DP camp, telling him that the spiritual leader shouldn’t do hard work, but should save his energy to pass Jewish tradition along to those who might survive. Perhaps it was the privilege my great-grandmother and those five great-aunts and uncles I never knew had of being shot into an open grave outside their hometown. Maybe that’s my privilege.
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
CIA Whistleblower Faces the Ire of an Angry Justice Department Over Benghazi Questions
Longtime former CIA field operative turned whistleblower Robert “Tosh” Plumlee is currently in the crosshairs of a very angry Holder Justice Department for publicly posting 11 “questions” about Benghazi and the illegal weapons running operations being conducted by criminal elements within the U.S. government. Mr. Plumlee is no ordinary CIA whistleblower, however.
Because of his extensive history and knowledge of the criminal infiltration into the U.S. government, their methods and operations, Mr. Plumlee has become one of the most dangerous men to the criminal cabal operating at the highest levels of the U.S. government. The Holder Justice Department and the criminal “gatekeepers” within the CIA and other government agencies desperately want him silenced — and they absolutely intend to do just that.
Against the advice of many people, from his own attorney to those who care about his welfare in the face of direct and subtle threats, and under the reported threat of subpoena by U.S. Attorney General Holder himself, Mr. Plumlee laid it all out in stunning detail on the Wednesday, April 30, 2014 edition of The Hagmann & Hagmann Report. Based on information from his deep cover sources, the questions Mr. Plumlee formulated about Benghazi leave no doubt that criminal elements that exist within the highest levels of the U.S. government were engaged in a massive weapons smuggling operation based out of Benghazi and other locations in Libya.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Davidson County Judge Appointed to Mosque Cemetery Case
Senior Judge Paul Summers of Davidson County has been appointed to hear a case over a county-approved cemetery at the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, according to court documents.
After all other judges in Rutherford County recused themselves from the matter, the Administrative Office of the Courts appointed Summers to adjudicate the matter between a group of residents and the Rutherford County Board of Zoning Appeals, the order shows…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Experts: Markey Proposal May Threaten Free Speech
U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey wants the government to study and recommend ways to stop the Internet, TV and radio from “encouraging hate crimes,” but First Amendment advocates say the bill is a menace to free speech.
“This proposed legislation is worse than merely silly. It is dangerous,” said civil liberties lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate, arguing even hate speech is protected absent a crime. “It is not up to Sen. Markey, nor to the federal government, to define for a free people what speech is, and is not, acceptable.”
Markey’s bill would direct a government agency to identify hate speech and create recommendations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Ruling: Texas Prisons Violating Rights of Muslims
The Texas prison system is violating the rights of Muslim inmates with rules that make it all but impossible for them to freely practice their religion, a federal judge has ruled.
In the ruling made public Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, said there are not enough Muslims in Texas, especially in rural areas, to meet the prison system’s criteria for Muslim inmates to hold services and conduct related activities…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Internal Emails: State Dept. Immediately Attributed Benghazi Attacks to Terrorist Group
A newly-released government email indicates that within hours of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya; the State Department had already concluded with certainty that the Islamic militia terrorist group Ansar al Sharia was to blam
The private, internal communication directly contradicts the message that President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice and White House press secretary Jay Carney repeated publicly over the course of the next several weeks. They often maintained that an anti-Islamic YouTube video inspired a spontaneous demonstration that escalated into violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Department Harasses, Punishes, And Tries to Destroy Legal Businesses Through Banks
So now we can go after “disfavored, but legal” businesses by making banks refuse to do business with them.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Justice Dept. Launches Covert Sanctions Against Gun Owners
Media denial is part of disinformation campaign
The U.S. Department of Justice is currently attacking the Second Amendment by fiat while constantly denying its abuses despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Yesterday we revealed that the Justice Dept. is causing banks to fear doing business with legal gun dealers due to Operation Choke Point, a joint program between the DOJ, FDIC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau targeting “high-risk activities,” of which firearm sales is also listed.
“Federal law enforcers are targeting merchant categories like payday lenders, ammunition and tobacco sales, and telemarketers — but not merely by pursuing those merchants directly,” Jason Oxman, the CEO of the Electronic Transactions Association, wrote on the subject. “Rather, Operation Choke Point is flooding payments companies that provide processing service to those industries with subpoenas, civil investigative demands, and other burdensome and costly legal demands.”…
“Unfortunately, the strategy is legally dubious,” he wrote. “[The] Justice [Dept.] is pressuring banks to shut down accounts without pressing charges against a merchant or even establishing that the merchant broke the law.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Arrested in FBI Sting Found Dead in Federal Custody
A Washington state man charged with plotting to blow up several buildings was found dead in federal custody Thursday, only days after being arrested during an elaborate FBI sting.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Meets Obama in Washington Amid Violence in Ukraine
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has met with US President Barack Obama. The two leaders are seeking to repair ties after the NSA scandal and forge a common front in the Ukraine crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Detonate Over 9-11 Museum Video
By Shavana Abruzzo
Muslims need to quit their self-pity and get on board with the May 21 opening of the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum — a sad day for New York — instead of splitting their spleens over a seven-minute video exhibit calling the terrorists “Islamists” and using the word “jihad.”
The shoe fits. The 19 Muslims who hijacked four planes, flew two of them into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and steered another to the White House before heroic passengers crashed that doomed jet in a Pennsylvanian field, were holy-warring hypocrites who killed nearly 3,000 people, and plotted their mayhem in bars and strip clubs, allegedly leaving behind the Koran in one jiggle joint…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
New York’s Met Faces ‘Social Rejection of Opera’
A union dispute is brewing at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where artists are facing wage cuts. Met manager Peter Gelb tells DW a shift in cultural attitudes is at the root of the opera house’s financial troubles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Smart-Gun Technology Faces Uphill Battle
Gun-control advocates like the idea, and for a time one firearm seller was behind it. But gun enthusiasts are determined to squash the effort, and now the future for the smart gun is in doubt.
Armatix, the main company developing a smart-gun for sale in the U.S., says its .22-caliber iP1 handgun works only after its owner enters a five-digit code into a special watch that comes with the weapon. The watch then sends a wireless signal to a computer chip in the gun, allowing it to fire.
[Comment: Stupid idea. What if the battery dies? Does the gun default to disable mode? All this smart gun garbage has one end goal only — for the state to be able to disable all civilian firearms with the stroke of a keyboard key. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Heavy Hand of the IRS Seizes Innocent Americans’ Assets
The civil forfeiture law — if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law — is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
The Strangest Interview Yet With the Outgoing Head of the NSA
On network television, broadcasters tend to be very deferential when interviewing U.S. officials. This is especially true if they’re wearing military dress.
In contrast, comedians who appear on fake news programs affect an adversarial, intentionally disrespectful persona for laughs. And sometimes, as in John Oliver’s interview with outgoing NSA head Keith Alexander, the result is a U.S. official getting called on his slipperiness in a way that would never happen on more “serious” programs.
Here’s the video:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two Killed, 100 Injured in Gas Explosion in U.S. Jail
WASHINGTON, May 1 (Xinhua) — Two inmates were killed and more than 100 others were injured in a suspected gas explosion at a jail in the U.S. state of Florida late Wednesday, local authorities confirmed Thursday.
The blast, at about 11 p.m. at the Escambia County Jail, also caused the jail building to partially collapse and local authorities have blocked off roads leading to the jail, according to Escambia County’s official website…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Arrest of Adams is ‘An Act Against Democracy’
The European Left’s candidate for the European Commission presidency, Alexis Tsipras, Friday called for the immediate release of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams who is been held for questioning in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. Tsipras called the arrest a “politically inflammatory act against democracy”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Orphans Infected With Malaria
Orphans under the care of the Austrian state in the 1950s and 1960s were infected with malaria as part of a set of experiments looking for a cure against syphilis, an expert commission has revealed.
The children in care were some of the 230 people who the commission believe were experimented on by being injected with the parasite that causes malaria in the period between 1951 and 1969.
The revelations have come about after an Austrian expert commission of historians investigated a state-run orphanage operating in that period.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Police Fear Jihad Girls Held by Radicals in Turkey
Advocates of Jihad have been accused of manipulating the social media accounts of two teenage girls from Austria to make it seem as if they were fighting in the holy war in Syria.
School friends of Samra Kesinovic, 16, and her friend Sabina Selimovic, 15, confirmed that they had become radicalised after attending a local mosque and learning last summer about the duty of every Muslim to take part in the holy war.
They confirmed that the two girls had run into difficulties at school, talking to fellow pupils about Jihad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Mosques Raided in Graz
Mosques were raided by police in Graz this week in a bid by Austrian prosecutors to try crack down on groups alleged to be supporting rebels fighters in Syria.
Police stormed the prayer houses and confiscated documents and electronic files although did not arrest anyone during the raid, which prosecutors say is part of a larger terrorism investigation into the extreme Salafist Muslim groups in the city.
Authorities say that up to 100 people living in Austria have left the country to fight ‘the Holy War’ in Syria after the conflict escalated there over the past few years.
A prominent case in the past few weeks has been that of two teenage girls from Vienna who authorities and their families think were “groomed” into running away to fight in Syria. An Interpol-led search is currently under-way to locate and return the girls to Austria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Boom’ After Liberalisation of Italian Sperm-Donor Market
Thousands of couples seek donated sperm after court ruling
(ANSA) Rome, April 30 — Business is booming for Italian clinics offering sperm donations for infertile couples after an Italian court declared unconstitutional legislation previously forbidding artificial insemination.
As many as 3500 couples have contacted clinics to ask about obtaining donor sperm over the last 22 days since the landmark ruling April 9 by the Consultative Court overturned the legal ban, the head of the Italian fertility clinics’ association, Cecos Italia, Elisabetta Coccia, told ANSA.
However she added that the Government needs to issue clear guidelines on procedures to be followed by clinics. “We are seeing a ‘boom’ in requests for artificial insemination. But it is necessary that the health ministry give clear indications through guidelines. Up to now we have not had any reply regarding our request”.
“We can’t start until the ministry gives indications to clarify the picture,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Republic: Muslims in Prague Hold Friday Prayer in Public Protesting Police Raid
More than 500 Muslims in the Czech capital, Prague, performed Friday prayer in an open space near the Czech Interior Ministry to protest last week’s police raid at the premises of the Islamic Foundation in Prague.
The chairman of Prague-based Center for Muslim Communities, Muneeb Hassan Alrawi, told RFE/RL before the Friday prayer protest on May 2 that the goal of the event was to show that the last week’s raid by police was “too harsh and inadequate.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Churches Criticize Police for Raids Against Muslims During Friday Prayers
Czech churches are backing local Muslims who have been complaining about police raids in Islamic centers during prayers.
The two raids took place April 25 in Prague as police arrested a 55-year-old Czech and charged him with racism for publishing an Islamic book that police alleged spreads racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and violence against “inferior races.”
An Indonesian diplomat was among the 20 detained, prompting its embassy to complain.
Joel Ruml, deputy head of the Ecumenical Council of Churches, an umbrella organization of Christian churches, said Friday that the raids “seriously violated” the rights of believers and police should apologize for them. Catholic priest Tomas Halik called the raids “a sin” on a local website.
Hundreds of Muslims were praying Friday near the Interior Ministry building in Prague to protest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark Leads the Charge in Renewable Energy
Denmark is a leader when it comes to fighting climate change. By 2050, the country plans to meet 100 percent of its energy needs with renewables, creating more jobs, increasing exports and reducing its energy dependence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Politician’s Killer Freed After 12 Years
AMSTERDAM (AP) — The animal rights activist who assassinated Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was freed Friday, after serving just under 12 years in prison — years during which many of Fortuyn’s ideas, particularly his disdain of “multiculturalism” and his dislike of Muslim immigration, have become mainstream in the Netherlands…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Free Killer of Anti-Islam Politician Pim Fortuyn
The Dutch authorities have released the man who murdered the flamboyant anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002, now that he has served two-thirds of his jail sentence.
Volkert van der Graaf, an animal rights activist, got 18 years after shooting Fortuyn in the head in Hilversum.
No information has been released about Van der Graaf’s whereabouts now. He has to wear an electronic ankle tag and must report weekly to police.
He has expressed remorse for the murder, and prosecutors do not think he will be a repeat offender.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
First Chinks in the Iron Curtain
German unification and the fall of the Iron Curtain began in Hungary. In May 1989, six months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Hungarian government demolished the security barricades at its Austrian border.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Far-Right and Left March in Rival May Day Rallies
Thousands took to the streets of France in traditional May Day protests on Thursday with rival rallies held by the National Front, whose leader MArine Le Pen lambasted the European Union and the country’s trade unions, who demanded an end to austerity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Frankfurt Issues First Bond Backed by Chinese Currency
China’s currency was once so immovable nobody saw much sense in owning it. But the more Beijing loosens its grip, the more investors want to get their hands on it. The rags-to riches currency now comes to Frankfurt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Berlin’s New Airport is Already Too Small
The man in charge of Berlin’s disastrous attempt to build a new airport has admitted it was not big enough to begin with.
Chief executive of Berlin Brandenburg airport Hartmut Mehdorn warned of cramped conditions in the busiest area of the terminal building of the airport which is more than four years behind schedule.
“The latest calculations show that Airport Berlin Brandenburg will open for over 30 million passengers. At this point in time it is already too small,” Mehdorn said in the airport’s most recent progress report.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Fumes Over McCain’s Merkel Attack
German lawmakers fumed on Friday over “vicious” criticism by senior US senators of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s stance on Ukraine ahead of talks she will hold with US President Barack Obama.
John McCain, a former Republican candidate for the White House, on Thursday accused Merkel of standing in the way of firmer measures against Russia over its actions in Ukraine due to Berlin’s lucrative business ties with Moscow.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Interview Geert Wilders on Russia TV
Today,Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands, had a long interview on Russian television. Some of the topics covered were the PVV proposals for an exit of the Netherlands from the European Union and the eurozone, and the PVV plans to form a coalition in the European Parliament with patriot parties from other countries after the elections. Geert Wilders also talked about the situation in Ukraine.
Russia TV reaches 664 million people in over 100 countries. It is the second most watched foreign news channel in the United States.
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Iraqis Line Up to Vote in Austria
Thousands of Iraqis living in Austria voted at polling stations in Vienna this week as they took part in their home country’s first election since US troops withdrew in 2011.
In Iraq, officials and military officers closely guarded polling stations from suicide attacks or violence, although dozens of attacks have already left 14 people dead.
The country is not the only overseas place where migrated Iraqi’s can cast their vote. “Iraqi citizens abroad can vote from 20 countries around the world. There are polling centres for example in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Iran, Turkey, Sweden and Germany,” said Aram Saleh Osman, the Head of the local Electoral Commission who was overseeing the voting process in Austria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Forest Guards Smash Supermarket Potato Fraud Racket
Gang sold falsely labelled foreign vegetables as Bologna spuds
(ANSA) — Bologna, April 30 — At least six people and two companies have been placed under investigation on charges of falsely labelling foreign potatoes as certified, authentic Bologna spuds, judicial sources said Wednesday.
In all, as many as 40 people were denounced by the Forest Guard for suspected involvement in the huge scam, under which potatoes from outside Italy and outside Bologna were certified and sold at premium prices.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: House Approves Downgrading Marijuana to ‘Soft Drug’
Small-time dealers could no longer face jail time
(ANSA) — Rome, April 30 — The Lower House on Wednesday approved a government decree that reclassifies marijuana as a soft rather than a hard drug.
The decree passed with 280 in favor, 146 opposed, and two abstentions, and now passes to the Senate.
Voting in favor was the ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD) of Premier Matteo Renzi.
But Renzi’s coalition partners in the New Center Right (NCD) have vowed to push for amendments in the Senate. Led by Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, the NCD believes that harsh penalties should still be applied to synthetic marijuana, which it deems more harmful. “We need to send a strong message to the country, which is that doing drugs is not normal, and we need to defeat the culture that says it is, which is causing huge damage to both young people and adults,” said Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin of the NCD. The new law also effectively removes jail time as a sentence for small-time dealers, offering community service and other options in its place.
Penalties for personal use are also expected to be eliminated under the provision.
The measure follows a supreme Court of Cassation decision in February that threw out as “illegitimate” a 2005 law that equated the possession of soft drugs to heavy drugs, and was blamed as a contributing factor to severe overcrowding in Italian prisons.
Detractors of that law, which was sponsored at the time by then-right-wing MP Gianfranco Fini and centrist MP Carlo Giovanardi, argued it violated a 1993 popular referendum in which a majority of Italians voted to decriminalize drug possession for personal consumption.
The so-called Fini-Giovanardi law, which had been passed by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government, had been challenged several times, namely for violating the European Union legal principle that the punishment must be proportional to the crime.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Not Issuing Enough License Plates to Go Around
‘Market at risk as buyers can’t drive their new cars’
(ANSA) — Rome, April 29 — In Italy, car registrations are at risk because the State isn’t issuing enough new license plates, Unasca driving school association said Tuesday.
“This could seriously damage the automobile market, with authorities unable to register new cars and consumers unable to drive them,” said Unasca President Ottorino Pignoloni.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Michelangelo’s David ‘Has Weak Ankles and Could Collapse’
It is one of the world’s most famous statues, representing the Renaissance ideal of the male physique, but Michelangelo’s David is in danger of collapsing because of its weak ankles, new tests have revealed.
Italian scientists have found tiny fractures in the statue’s ankles which means it is at risk of toppling over.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fury After Naples Called a ‘Mafia Stronghold’
An article published by the UK’s Guardian newspaper has sparked outrage in Italy after it made a reference to the southern Italian city of Naples’ mafia history.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Karaoke Cab Driver Strikes a Chord in Rome
A Rome taxi driver has come up with a novel way of melting away the stresses of the capital’s traffic, while striking a chord with passengers as they tour the Eternal City: karaoke.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Is Orange the New Black for D&G? Designers Lose Prison Term Appeal
(CNN) — Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana lost the appeal of their jail sentence for tax convictions in Italy, their lawyer said Wednesday.
The men were sentenced to 18 months in prison by a lower court after being found guilty of failing to pay 40 million euros in taxes owed to the Italian government last year. They must also pay a 500,000 euro fine.
2010: Dolce & Gabbana’s fashion empire
The case will now be appealed to Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation, attorney Armando Simbari told CNN.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Mafia is Behind Stolen Anti-Cancer Drugs’
A highly organized crime ring is behind the distribution of stolen and fake anti-cancer drugs throughout Europe, an Italian official told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Le Pen Urges French to Vote Against EU’s “Gravediggers”
(Reuters) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen launched a scathing attack on the European Union on Thursday, urging voters later this month to punish Brussels “gravediggers” she held responsible for pushing France into decline…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Long-Term Residents Built Stonehenge
The parish of Amesbury has been continuously inhabited in every millennia since 8820 B.C., making it the oldest settlement in Britain, according to carbon dates obtained from the bones of aurochs unearthed at the Mesolithic Blick Mead site. Located just one and a half miles from Stonehenge, “the site blows the lid off the Neolithic revolution in a number of ways. It provides evidence for people staying put, clearing land, building and presumably worshipping monuments,” David Jacques of the University of Buckingham told The Express. The first monuments at Stonehenge consisted of enormous pine posts that were put in place between 8820 and 6590 B.C.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Male Circumcision Row in Secular Norway
A Norwegian proposal to offer male circumcision in public hospitals has encountered fierce opposition from medics and children’s organizations, even though the procedure affects less than one percent of boys in Norway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Killer of Pim Fortuyn Released From Jail Today, With Tailor-Made Security
Volkert van der Graaf, jailed for 18 years in 2003 for the murder of populist politician Pim Fortuyn, was released from prison on Friday afternoon, the public prosecution department said. Van der Graaf has served two-thirds of his sentence without incident and was therefore entitled to early release.
The justice ministry is keeping tight-lipped about where Van der Graaf was taken. Experts have already warned he could be the subject of a manhunt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: PVV Under Fire for Front National Links in First European Debate
The anti-immigration PVV came under attack in Thursday night’s European election television debate for its links with France’s far-right Front National.
The party’s founder and current MEP Jean Le Pen has several convictions for racism and has described the Holocaust as an ‘historical detail’. The PVV is hoping to form an alliance in the European parliament with the Front National and other far-right parties after the vote.
Marcel de Graaff, who is leading the PVV’s European campaign, defended the relationship. ‘The alliance we are looking for is based on political arguments,’ he said. ‘The Front National is led by Marine Le Pen. She has distanced herself from the words of her father.’
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Court Asked to Rule on Legality of Polling Station ‘Selfies’
A Dutch citizens’ rights organisation has gone to court to find out if it is legal in the Netherlands to take a self portrait photograph in a voting booth, Nos television says on Thursday. The craze for taking ‘stemfies’ (vote selfies) took hold at the local elections last month and was actively encouraged by several politicians.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New Super-Heavy Element 117 Confirmed by Scientists
Atoms of a new super-heavy element — the as-yet-unnamed element 117 — have reportedly been created by scientists in Germany, moving it closer to being officially recognized as part of the standard periodic table.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No Shortage of Gas in Europe, ‘At Least Until End of May’
EU energy commissioner meets with ministers from Ukraine, Russia
(see related) (ANSA) — Brussels, May 2 — European Commissioner for Energy Guenther Oettinger on Friday said there will be no shortages of gas in the EU at least until the end of May as a result of tensions with Russia over the crisis in Ukraine. Oettinger was speaking after a meeting in Warsaw with energy ministers from Russia and Ukraine. Europe depends on Russia for most of its gas needs.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Snub Sends ‘Chilling Signal’: Dalai Lama Rep
The Dalai Lama’s chief representative in Europe has attacked Norway’s government for “sending a chilling signal to Tibetans in Tibet” by refusing to meet the country’s spiritual leader during his visit to Norway this week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Renewable Energy — A Way Out for Greece?
Greece’s renewable energy sector has enormous potential, but legal and administrative obstacles have tripped up investors. While some small enterprises have prospered, major investment is still lacking.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sinn Fein Demands Northern Ireland Police Release Leader Gerry Adams
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The senior Sinn Fein politician in Northern Ireland’s unity government demanded the immediate release of his party leader, Gerry Adams, Friday, saying police are seeking to extend his interrogation over the IRA’s 1972 killing of a Belfast mother of 10.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness condemned the police’s continued questioning of Adams. The 48-hour detention period was set to expire Friday night but McGuinness said he expected police to receive a judge’s permission to extend it.
McGuinness accused “a cabal” of officers within the Police Service of Northern Ireland of pursuing “a negative and destructive agenda to both the peace process and to Sinn Fein.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Soccer: Bayern to Sue Italian Fans Over Anti-Gay Banner
German club fined 10,000 euros, ordered to partly close stadium
(ANSA) — Bolzano, April 29 — Bayern Munich are planning to sue four Italian supporters from Alto Adige (South Tyrol) for damages after they unfurled a homophobic banner during a Champions League match against Arsenal in March, it emerged Tuesday.
European football governing body UEFA immediately fined the club 10,000 euros for the “discriminatory behaviour” over the banner and ordered it to partially close its stadium for its quarter-final match against Manchester United on April 9.
Now Rai Suedtirol says the club has tasked its lawyers with suing for compensation to a total of 100,000 euros.
Alto Adige is a largely German-speaking Italian autonomous region on the Austrian border, many of whose inhabitants prefer to call it South Tyrol.
European champions Bayern are seeking to overturn a 0-1 deficit in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid at the Allianz Arena Tuesday night.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Region to Tax Owners of Empty Homes
Spain’s Catalonia region is looking at taxing the owners of properties that have stood empty for more than two years in a bid to increase stocks of social housing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish City to Fine Shirtless Tourists €600
The capital of the Spanish holiday island of Majorca is likely to pass a new bylaw which will see tourists slapped with a €600 ($800) fine for walking around shirtless when they’ve left the beach.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Neo-Nazis Spark First Church Alarm Since WWII
The churches in Jönköping rang their bells in warning for two hours on May Day as neo-Nazis took to the streets. The alarm marked the first of its kind for the central Sweden town since World War II broke out.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Fermented Herring Cans Explode in Hut Fire
Firefighters set to tackle exploding propane bottles realized that they were actually facing cans of fermented herring reacting to a blaze at a fishing hut in northern Sweden. The 1,000 tins of surströmming contained one of the most putrid-smelling delicacies in the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tutankhamun’s ‘New’ Tomb: Made in Spain
An amazing new replica tomb of the famous final resting place of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun which opened to the public on Thursday was painstakingly assembled in Madrid by a Spanish foundation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: BNP to Demonstrate Against Non-Existent Mosque Application
Members of the British National Party are planning to demonstrate at the site of a former church which pre-application plans suggested could house a new mosque. Dacorum Borough Council has confirmed no formal applications for the Muslim house of worship on the former Nash Mills Methodist Church site off Barnacres Road have been submitted.
But the BNP’s secretary for the eastern region Chris Livingstone has announced the protest will be taking place on Saturday, May 10. A spokesman for the council said no applications are even expected to be submitted at this time…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Head Teachers Raise ‘Serious Concerns’ Over Islamic School Take-Over
Head teachers’ leaders voice concerns for the first time over an alleged Islamic plot to infiltrate schools in Birmingham as Ofsted confirm that its own investigation has spread to three more state primaries
Head teachers today raised “serious concerns” for the first time over an alleged plot to spread Islamic principles in the state education system as it emerged that an official investigation has spread to more schools.
The National Association of Head Teachers said it had found “concerted efforts” to infiltrate a series of its members’ schools in Birmingham.
In a statement, the union said attempts had been made to “alter their character in line with the Islamic faith”, including sidelining parts of the curriculum and attempting to influence the appointment of Muslim staff.
Russell Hobby, the general secretary, also warned that the action was unlikely to be “limited to Birmingham” and may have spread to other areas, adding: “I think it is connected into the large cities around the country.”…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Six primary and secondary state schools in Birmingham have made ‘concerted efforts’ to run them in line with strict Islamic principles, senior headteachers have warned. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) claimed this influence has ‘deprived’ some students of their right to a proper education…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Jeremy Clarkson: BBC Upbraids Presenter Over ‘Racist’ Clip
The BBC says it has left Jeremy Clarkson “in no doubt about how seriously” it takes allegations he used racist language while filming Top Gear.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Longest-Separated Twins Find Each Other
Imagine delving into your family history and discovering you have a twin. That’s what happened to Ann Hunt, a 78-year-old, who had no idea she had a sibling at all until last year. Now she and twin Elizabeth Hamel have met for the first time since they were babies — setting a new world record.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mosque Plans for Wolverhampton Gala Casino Granted Green Light
A mosque will be created to transform a former casino building after the plans were given the go ahead.
Gala Casino in Whitmore Street, Wolverhampton, closed in 2011. But it will now become a Islamic place of worship and a community centre after the project was given the go ahead by Wolverhampton City Council.
The property is opposite the Broad Street car park and will be called Wolverhampton City Islamic Centre and Alrahma Mosque. As part of the transformation of the site prayers will be held five times every day, Arabic and Islamic studies will be taught and food will be provided for fasters during Ramadan…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Petition Calls for Birthday of Bradford Honour Violence Victim to be Used for Annual Memorial
Campaigners pushing for a national memorial day for victims of so-called honour killings have suggested the birthday of Bradford-born victim Shafilea Ahmed as the annual date. They are calling on people to sign an online petition to lobby David Cameron to make July 14 the special day.
Karma Nirvana — a charity supporting victims of honour crimes, supported by magazine Cosmopolitan — has started the campaign, which also aims to help women break the silence surrounding forced marriages.
Shafilea died in 2003 after suffering years of honour-based violence, including an attempted forced marriage. The 17-year-old’s parents drugged her and flew her to Pakistan and later suffocated her to death in front of her siblings.
In 2012 her parents were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Van Rompuy: Unelected EU Will Control Europe and Flank Russia
EU apparatchiks and U.S. may start war despite widespread opposition
The unelected president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, says the globalist union will eventually control every country on Russia’s western border.
Von Rompuy’s dream, according to a Breitbart story citing the Flemish daily De Standaard, is to have all of the former Soviet states in the Balkans and “the whole of European territory outside Russia” linked to the European Union.
Reflecting the true character of an appointed high level globalist apparatchik, Van Rompuy said that even if there is little public support for such an effort, “we do it anyway.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican Says UN Shouldn’t Put Paedophilia on Torture Agenda
‘Would be overdoing it’
(ANSA) — Vatican City, May 2 — The United Nations would be “manipulative and overdoing it” if it tries to insert sexual abuse of minors in the agenda for discussion at the 52nd session of the UN Committee on the Convention against Torture, Holy See chief spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Friday.
The Vatican, which will present a report at the Committee meeting opening Monday, hopes that the session in Geneva can “carry out a serene and objective dialogue, relevant to the text of the Conventions and their purposes,” Lombardi said in a statement released by the Vatican press office.
The Vatican, which has an observer seat at the UN in New York, has strongly rejected a UN report that is highly critical of the Roman Catholic Church’s failure to prevent abuse of minors by priests and religious.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo Officials in Fraud Scandal
Ten officials in Kosovo’s privatisation agency are under investigation for embezzling millions of euros in the sale of a former state-owned factory, reports AFP. The Privatisation Agency of Kosovo was set up a decade ago to oversee the sale of state-owned assets and public properties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey to Restore Oldest Mosque in Albanian Capital
The last remaining mosque from the Ottoman Empire in Tirana, Ethem Bey’s Mosque in the capital Tirana, will be restored by Turkey’s aid agency — Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency, reports Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent.
The mosque’s reconstruction was announced by Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah Isler on behalf of Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) during his formal visit to Albania last week…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Two Policemen Killed in Cairo Bomb Attack
One dead, several wounded in Sinai suicide attacks
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — Two policemen died and an officer was wounded Friday in a bomb explosion in front of the Masr El-Gedida court in the Heliopolis suburb of eastern Cairo, security sources and local media reported.
The bomb squad is on site, searching for possible further unexploded devices.
An Egyptian soldier died and six were wounded in a suicide attack against a military checkpoint in the city of Tur in the southern Sinai peninsula, Egyptian State TV cited security sources as saying Friday.
In a simultaneous attack in the same area, five Egyptian workers were wounded when a bomb exploded on a tourist bus on the road connecting Tur to the Sharm el Sheikh sea resort.
Security sources are hunting for the perpetrators.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Minister — Mosques Not to be Used in Electoral Campaigns
Cairo — Egypt’s Minister of Endowments said that has given strict orders to all mosque Imams to avoid using mosques as a means of campaigning for any presidential candidate. The new regulations state that mosques are to avoid politics as well as all that is related to the electoral process, Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa told Aswat Masriya on Thursday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Attack Security Headquarters in Benghazi Killing at Least 8 Troops
Suspected Islamic militants attacked the security headquarters in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi early on Friday, killing eight soldiers and policemen and wounding 24, a security official said.
A local hospital official said some of the slain troops were badly butchered and their bodies burned before the attackers fled the scene.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian-Made Pasta Increasingly Popular in Gulf, North Africa
Zara (top exporter) vies to double sales by 2018
(ANSAmed) — ROME, APRIL 28 — Consumers in Gulf and North African countries are increasingly fond of pasta, according to the latest data published by the association of producers of sweets and pasta within Italy’s Confindustria business union, Aidepi.
The association noted that in 2013 consumption of Italian-made pasta across the entire Mediterranean area registered a 5.8% growth, from 434,087 tons imported in 2012 to 459,273 tons bought by Mediterranean countries in 2013. The growth was worth 2.3 million euros on 2012.
The most interesting data, the association found, concerned countries which have not been major importers in the past but promise to be good clients in the future. Libya in 2013 imported over 17,000 tons of Italian pasta from the 5,850 imported the previous year — a 201.5% growth.
Tunisia also registered a significant growth, from 159 tons in 2012 to 3,456 last year, up 2073.6%.
Also on the rise were imports in Algeria (+49.8%), Egypt (+14.6%), Jordan (+24.6%), Israel (+6%) and the Palestinian territories (+158.3%). Imports declined only in Morocco (-21.2%).
Furio Bragagnolo, president of Pasta Zara, Italy’s top pasta exporter (in 106 countries) and second-largest pasta producer after Barilla, told ANSAmed that “this product is eaten by those with and without money alike because it has a reasonable prince and is similar to couscous and rice and therefore can be appreciated by all”.
Zara has an annual production of 250,000 tons, 92% of which is exported, and an annual turnover of 240 million euros.
The so-called Arab springs were a setback for pasta exports, though business is now improving, he said.
“In the first six months of 2011, sales to Egypt sharply dropped. Thankfully, thinks are improving”.
Sales to Libya are also on the rise, a market which Pastificio Zara — four generations of pasta makers — is eyeing closely.
“If it were to become stable politically, it would give great rewards”, said Bragagnolo.
Moving more towards the East, Gulf countries are also good markets, with the United Arab Emirates buying 43.6% more pasta from 2012 to 2013, followed by Qatar (+25.7%) and Kuwait (+10%).
The only country to import less was Saudi Arabia (-13.9%).
Here, two factors were key: the increasing number of foreigners — expats, tourists and workers — living in the region and the growing popularity of Italian food linked among high-end connoisseurs.
“There are high-level consumers in the Gulf and Middle East who are able to appreciate high-end products and the difference between pasta extruded through bronze and Teflon”, said Bragagnolo. This is why, he concluded, in the “Middle East, North Africa and Gulf countries we want to double sales by 2018”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco Top Tourist Destination in North Africa
(ANSAmed) — RABAT, APRIL 30 — Morocco has become the most popular tourist destination in North Africa, according to an online survey conducted by the London-based Tourism Review. Its political and socio-economic stability seem to be the aspects that lead potential visitors to choose it over other over countries in the region.
Tourism Review reports that the 2014 summer season is expected to be catastrophic for Egypt, mediocre for Tunisia and good for Morocco.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al-Aksa Mosque Imam Says Arab Legions to Liberate Haifa, Safed, Jaffa, Beit Shean
Al-Aksa Mosque Imam Raed Al-Daan said at an Islamic conference in Milan, Italy that the Arab armies would liberate Haifa, Safed, Jaffa, Lod, and Beit Shean.
“We will return to the sea of Jaffa, to the sands of Haifa, to the palm trees of Beit Shean, and to the hills of Lod and Ramle. We in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque await the legions of the conquerors. We await the armies from Tunisia, from Jordan, from Egypt, from Iraq, from the Maghreb, and from the Hijaz,” said Daan according to a report by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute).
The speech was aired on Al-Jazeera TV on April 27…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Three Wounded After Israeli Army Enters Nablus
Israeli soldiers search homes in various West Bank locations
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MAY 2 — One Israeli soldier and two Palestinians were wounded last night in incidents that broke out in the Casbah, or ancient citadel, of the autonomous West Bank city of Nablus, local sources reported Friday.
At least 30 Israeli military jeeps entered Nablus as soldiers searched several houses and seized arms and ammunition, a military spokesman said in Tel Aviv.
Palestinian National Authority security forces did not intervene.
Young local activists tried to oppose the Israeli military, using homemade hand grenades. Two people were arrested.
Also last night, incidents occurred in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus as well as other West Bank locations, where the Israeli army conducted searches.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
18 Killed in Syria Car Bombings
DAMASCUS, May 2 (Xinhua) — A total of 18 people, including 11 children, were killed and over 50 others wounded on Friday when two explosive-packed vehicles exploded in the country’s central province of Hama, according to the official SANA news agency…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
750 People Killed in Iraq’s Violence in April: UN
BAGHDAD, May 1 (Xinhua) — A total of 750 Iraqis were killed and another 1,541 injured in violent attacks in April, most of whom civilians, according to a statement released on Thursday by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI)…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Ankara-Istanbul High-Speed Rail Up and Running From Mid-May
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, MAY 2 — Turkish transport minister Lutfi Elvan has announced that a high-speed rail link between the capital and Istanbul will be operative starting in mid-May, say local media. The 530-kilometer rail link will halve the time between the countries’ two largest cities to three hours and 15 minutes, reports Zaman Online. The inauguration of the line has been postponed twice.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Wept for Crucified Christians’ Says Pope
News of Syria atrocity moved Francis to tears
(ANSA) — Vatican City, May 2 — Pope Francis said Friday he had wept at the news that some Christians had been crucified in Syria.
“In some countries there are people who kill in the name of God or you go to jail just because you’re carrying a Bible or a cross,” the pope said at a Mass in the Vatican.
http://www..ansa.it/english/news/2014/05/02/i-wept-for-crucified-christians-says-pope_397044d3-0e21-45a5-87ee-350316e26810.html
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New Syrian Refugee Camp Opens in East Jordan
Khalid al Shami looked rugged and distraught as he entered his new home at al Azraq refugee camp in Jordan’s eastern desert. He is among the first Syrian refugees who arrived at the newly opened camp, al Azraq, tipped to be the world’s largest for Syrian refugees.
Jordan has announced that the total number of Syrian refugees mounted to 600,000, but the government says the number is much higher, with many asylum seekers outside books of the UN agency for refugees, UNHCR.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norwegian Islamist Killed in Syria Hailed as Martyr
A Norwegian man killed fighting alongside rebels in Syria has been hailed as a martyr by one of the country’s leading Islamist groups, raising fears his death will encourage others to join the country’s civil war.
Egzon Avdyli, a 25-year-old from Oslo, was on Wednesday reported to have been killed in Syria, where he had reportedly been fighting as part of Isil, an Islamist group classed a terrorist organisation by the US government.
Ubaydullah Hussain, the former leader of the Prophet’s Ummah, a Norwegian Islamist Group, celebrated Avdyli as a martyr on Facebook on Thursday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Erdogan: One of the World’s Most Determined Internet Censors
ISTANBUL—Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rode around Google headquarters last spring in the company’s self-driving car, tried on Google Glass eyewear and vowed to keep digitizing the economy in the country he has ruled since 2003.
Since then, the 60-year-old Mr. Erdogan has turned his democratically elected government into one of the world’s most determined Internet censors.
His political party passed laws letting him shut down websites without a court order and collect Web browsing data on individuals. He put a veteran spy in charge of Turkey’s telecommunications regulator.
He also has blocked dozens of websites. Twitter was banned for two weeks in late March and early April, and Google’s YouTube video-sharing service has been dark since March 27.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Ranks Lowest in Europe’s Press Freedom Index
Europe maintains the overall highest press freedoms worldwide despite rollbacks in Greece, Montenegro, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Media in Turkey was previously rated as “partly free”. The NGO has now ranked it as “not free”.
Recent crackdowns and restrictive provisions in Turkey’s criminal code along with its Anti-Terrorism Act means more and more journalists are being jailed.
As of December last year, 40 were behind bars, making Turkey the world’s leading jailer of journalists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
West’s Biggest Threat: Battle-Hardened Homegrown Terrorists
London (CNN) — Friday marks the anniversary of the assassination of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by U.S. forces. Three years on, the core organization of al Qaeda has been significantly depleted. However, the danger from so-called “home-grown” terrorism may yet be on the rise, fuelled by foreign nationals returning from key international theatres of war such as Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Why is the Media Silent About the Crucifixion of Christians by Radical Jihadists?
[WARNING: ** Disturbing Content **]
Could you imagine the uproar in the mainstream media that we would see if a member of a politically favored class of people was crucified for who or what they are? There would be front page headlines for weeks.
But because members of a politically favored class (Muslims) are doing it to members of a non-politically favored class (Christians), it is not newsworthy at all according to the media. In many instances, Christians are being crucified by jihadists that are actually being assisted and funded by the governments of the United States and Saudi Arabia. Yes, our tax dollars are being used to help arm and supply radical jihadists that are beheading and crucifying Christians. And yet none of the big media organizations considers this to be news.
How sick and twisted do you have to be to crucify a little child for being a Christian? Of course you never heard about this from the mainstream media, but that is exactly what happened in Syria recently:
“Sister Raghida, former head of a Christian school in Damascus explained the horrific event. “Islam or death” was the choice given to many Christians in Syria on Tuesday during the height of the conflict in Syria. She said many Syrian Christians have been affected by the atrocities taking place in the Christian population of the Middle Eastern country, an area once known for the harmonious coexistence of Muslims and Christians.
“According to Sister Raghida, the Muslims came to the two youths and said, “So you want to die as a teacher in whom you trust? Please choose: either to renounce (faith) or you will be crucified!”
“The boys both refused to renounce faith in Jesus Christ and were martyred because of it. One of them was crucified in front of his father, who was then killed. The nun went on to tell the radio station that the Jihadists entered the city of Maaloula and started killing men, women, and children. According to her report, they killed and played football with the heads of those murdered. Sister Raghida also said the killers took pregnant women and pulled out the babies from their wombs and hung them from a tree by their umbilical cords.
This kind of brutality is absolutely unprecedented!…
As I mentioned above, the jihadists that are doing this have the support of Saudi Arabia and the United States. The Obama administration and the Saudia are desperate to overthrow the Syrian government, and Obama seems to have no problem allying us with some of the most despicable jihadists on the entire planet in order to make that happen.
The brutality against Christians by U.S.-backed fighters has been going on for month after month with very little notice by the outside world. Just check out what has been going on in one little village in the middle of the war zone…
[Comment: Recommended reading.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Does Have Dutch Fighters, Says Yemeni President
The president of Yemen says there are Dutch nationals active for al-Quaida in his country, but did not say how many. President Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi was speaking at a police academy in the capital Sanaa, Nos television reports.
He said that 70% of al-Quaida members in Yemen are foreign fighters. ‘They come from Brazil, the Netherlands, Australia, France and other countries.’
Last week, foreign affairs minister Ronald Plasterk told parliament in a written brief that Dutch youngsters are taking part in jihad in Yemen, Syria, Egypt and Somalia.
Last autumn, Nos sources confirmed that a Dutch-Moroccan from Amsterdam died in a fight between Sunnis and Shiites in Yemen.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
It’s Not Russia That’s Pushed Ukraine to the Brink of War
The threat of war in Ukraine is growing. As the unelected government in Kiev declares itself unable to control the rebellion in the country’s east, John Kerry brands Russia a rogue state. The US and the European Union step up sanctions against the Kremlin, accusing it of destabilising Ukraine. The White House is reported to be set on a new cold war policy with the aim of turning Russia into a “pariah state”.
That might be more explicable if what is going on in eastern Ukraine now were not the mirror image of what took place in Kiev a couple of months ago. Then, it was armed protesters in Maidan Square seizing government buildings and demanding a change of government and constitution. US and European leaders championed the “masked militants” and denounced the elected government for its crackdown, just as they now back the unelected government’s use of force against rebels occupying police stations and town halls in cities such as Slavyansk and Donetsk.
“America is with you,” Senator John McCain told demonstrators then, standing shoulder to shoulder with the leader of the far-right Svoboda party as the US ambassador haggled with the state department over who would make up the new Ukrainian government.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kiev Responsible for “Punitive Action”, Says Kremlin
(AGI) Moscow, May 2 — The people of Ukraine will hold the Kiev government responsible for launching a “punitive” operation in the south-east, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The air force was being used against the people, he said on Russian state TV. The EU and the U.S. had to give their views on this, he said, and the Ukrainian government must reconsider its action.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘Many Dead’ In Ukraine Offensive in Sloviansk — Turchynov
Many pro-Russia rebels have been killed, injured and arrested in the Ukrainian government offensive in the eastern city of Sloviansk, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has said.
But, in a statement, he said the operation in the rebel-held city was not going as quickly as hoped. Rebels earlier shot down two Ukrainian army helicopters, killing a pilot and a serviceman. Russia has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Asks Putin to Free EU Hostages in Ukraine
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has personally asked Russian leader Vladimir Putin to help free EU military officers held by pro-Russia rebels in Ukraine. She made the appeal in a phone call with Putin on Thursday (1 May).
US and EU companies with business interests in Russia are urging politicians to hold back. In Germany, corporate giants Basf, Siemens, Volkswagen, Adidas, and Deutsche Bank are leading the anti-sanctions lobby.
German-Russian trade accounts for €76 billion a year. There are 6,200 German firms active in Russia and Berlin has said stage three sanctions could lead to the loss of 300,000 German jobs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
One Man Killed in Clashes in Ukraine’s Odessa
About 1,500 young men wearing masks and Right Sector armlets armed with chains, clubs and shields tried to stage a march along Odessa’s central streets
KIEV, May 02. /ITAR-TASS/. One man was killed in clashes between supporters of Ukraine’s federalization and Euromaidan activists in the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odessa, the press service of the Odessa police department said on Friday…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Russia May Cut Ukraine Gas in June if Debts Not Paid
(AGI) — Brussels, May 2 — Gazprom will reduce gas supplies to Ukraine next month if Kiev does not start to pay off its debts close to 3.5 billion euros. The decision was announced in Warsaw by Russia’s Minister for Energy Alexander Novak at the end of a trilateral meeting with EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger and Ukranian Minister Yuti Prodan. Novak also expressed concern that over the summer Ukraine will be unable to guarantee the creation of gas reserves sufficient for winter supplies to the European Union.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Threatens Gas Supplies to Ukraine Unless Bills Are Paid
The gloves have come off at an energy summit in Warsaw. The EU says it wants members to pay only a single price for Russian gas, and Russia is demanding Ukraine begin paying its debt for gas this month.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Separatists Down 2 Choppers as Fighting Escalates in Eastern Ukraine
Fierce fighting between Ukrainian security forces and pro-Russian separatists Friday in a key eastern Ukraine city left “many dead” and at least two helicopters shot down as the nation moved closer to the brink of civil war.
Interim Ukraine President Oleksandr Turchynov said “many” pro-Russia rebels have been killed, injured and arrested in Slavyansk, though it was not clear if the Kiev-backed forces had regained control of the city. Russia reacted angrily to the offensive by Ukrainian security forces, calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin warned it “effectively destroyed the last hope for the implementation of the Geneva agreements.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine: NATO Ships Arrive in Lithuanian Port for Defense
Pro-Russian separatists say Kiev forces not allowing evacuation
(ANSA) — Rome, May 2 — Five NATO ships arrived in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda “to reinforce regional defense”, said Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas on Friday.
Olekas said NATO aimed to reassure allies against fears created by escalating crisis in the Ukraine.
Pro-Russian separatists on Friday complained Ukrainian military forces that surrounded the city of Sloviansk would not allow the evacuation of women and children despite lack of food and potable water.
The EU urged that Geneva Accords be applied to keep the Ukrainian conflict from deteriorating, a European Commission spokesperson said Friday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine: Separatists and Loyalists Clash in Odessa
(AGI) Odessa, May 2 — Pro-Russian separatists clashed with Ukrainian loyalists in the port town of Odessa on the Black Sea. Hundreds of militants armed with clubs attacked a national unity rally of around 1500 people. Police intervened to break up the two sides. Numerous people were injured.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Escalation Could Lead to a Mess Nobody Wanted
With Russia uninterested in a negotiated deal and the West unable to sway events on the ground, the situation in eastern Ukraine could inadvertently spiral out of control, an Oxford University Russia expert tells DW.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis: Dozens Killed in Odessa Fire Amid Clashes
At least 31 people have been killed in a fire in an official building amid violence in Odessa in south-west Ukraine, the interior ministry says. The deaths came as pro-Russian protesters clashed with Ukrainian government supporters in the city.
The fire broke out in Odessa’s Trade Unions House, the regional office of Ukraine’s interior ministry said. It did not give details of how the blaze started.
The exact sequence of events is still unclear, but reports suggest the separatists had barricaded themselves inside the building and both sides were throwing petrol bombs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Reinstates Conscription as Crisis Deepens
Ukraine’s acting President Olexander Turchynov has reinstated military conscription to deal with deteriorating security in the east of the country.
The move, announced in a decree, came as pro-Russia militants seized the regional prosecutor’s office in the eastern city of Donetsk.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukrainian Troops Begin Special Operation in Slavyansk
The Ukrainian army has begun a special operation against pro-autonomy activists in the eastern town of Slavyansk. The city is now blockaded by the Ukrainian military, with 20 helicopters reportedly deployed to crack down on self-defense forces.
Follow live updates on the special operation in Slavyansk
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis: Sloviansk Rebels Down Army Helicopters
Pro-Russian rebels have shot down two of Ukraine’s army helicopters during an “anti-terror” operation in the eastern city of Sloviansk, Kiev says.
Ukraine’s military said a pilot and serviceman were killed and nine rebel checkpoints seized.
However, separatists at three Sloviansk checkpoints told the BBC they were still in control there.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US, EU Space Missions Depend on Russian Tech
If Russia were to boycott space missions due to the Ukraine crisis, the results would be dramatic for the United States and Europe. Without Russian technology, Western countries’ missions couldn’t get off the ground.
Six people are currently on board the International Space Station (ISS): three Russians, one astronaut from Japan and two Americans. They each headed up by way of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Currently, there is no other way to reach the ISS.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Visa and MasterCard Fear New Russian Credit Card
Russian president Putin is preparing to issue a Russian credit card in response to EU and US sanctions over the Crimea crisis, reports Spiegel. Visa and MasterCard, the two big US credit card companies, have warned their earnings in Russia may be hit.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Still a Threat to South Asia
Three years after bin Laden’s death, al Qaeda has a smaller presence in South Asia, and has shifted focus to the Middle East. But experts say the terrorist outfit still works with other Islamist groups in the region.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 2,000 Missing Uncertain After Landslide Hits Remote Province in Afghanistan
A landslide in northeastern Afghanistan has buried a village, leaving some 2,000 people missing. Local authorities have faced difficulties recovering bodies due to a lack of equipment in the remote province.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Blast in Eastern Afghan Town Wounds Over Dozen Civilians
MEHTERLAM, Afghanistan, May 2 (Xinhua) — Over a dozen civilians sustained injures when a blast rocked Laghman’s provincial capital Mehterlam city Friday morning, spokesman of provincial government Zarhadi Zawak said.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Brunei: ‘Stone the Gays’ Law to be Phased in From Tomorrow
The Sultan of Brunei has confirmed that a law calling for homosexuals to be stoned to death will be phased in from tomorrow. The law was announced earlier this month, and replaces the maximum ten-year prison sentence for homosexuality with death by stoning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brunei Adopts Shariah Law, Others in Region Consider it
The sultanate of Brunei this week becomes the first East Asian country to introduce Islamic criminal law, the latest example of a deepening religious conservatism that has also taken root in parts of neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia.
Brunei, a tiny former British protectorate of about 400,000 nestled between two Malaysian states on Borneo island, relies on oil and gas exports for its prosperity, with annual per capita income of nearly US$50,000 (RM163,000). It is the first country in east Asia to adopt the criminal component of sharia at a national level.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Eleven Muslims Killed in Sectarian Attacks in India’s Assam
(Reuters) — Suspected tribal rebels have shot dead 11 Muslims in attacks in tea-growing state of Assam, where tension has run high during a drawn-out general election, officials said on Friday.
Police said they suspected militants from the Bodo tribe were behind the attack in a region where tension between ethnic Bodo people and Muslim settlers spilled over two years ago into clashes in which dozens were killed and 400,000 fled their homes…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Missing Flight MH370: Search ‘Could Take a Year’
The official leading the hunt for the missing Malaysian airliner MH370 says a full search of the suspected crash area could take up to a year. Speaking in Malaysia, Angus Houston said he was confident an “effective search” would find the plane. Officials from Australia, China and Malaysia will meet in Canberra next week to discuss the ongoing search.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘No Indians No PRCs’: Singapore’s Rental Discrimination Problem
When Sunil first moved to Singapore, he had trouble finding an apartment. “I called up several landlords who had listed rooms for rent,” Sunil, a Sri Lankan who spent eight years living in the UK, said.
“Things would start out OK, maybe because of my (Western) accent — but the moment they heard my name, they’d blank out. Many said ‘sorry, we don’t rent to these people’, or ‘sorry, no room for Indians’.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Life Under the Obama Doctrine
For most commentators, President Barack Obama’s biggest achievement in his four-nation tour of Asia was the enhanced defense treaty he signed with Philippine President Benigno Aquino. The pact permits US forces to operate on Philippine military bases and sets the conditions for joint training of US and Philippine forces, among other things.
There are two problems with the treaty, however.
And they reflect the basic problem with US foreign policy generally, five-and-a-half years into the Obama presidency.
First, there is the reason that the treaty became necessary…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Journalist Disappears Ahead of June 4
The disappearance of a renowned Chinese journalist ahead of the 25th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Massacre is no coincidence and should be taken as a warning, according to Chinese media experts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Firms Help Power China’s Military Rise
(BEIJING) — As China boosts its military spending, rattling neighbours over territorial disputes at sea, an AFP investigation shows that European countries have approved billions in transfers of weapons and military-ready technology to the Asian giant.
China’s air force relies on French-designed helicopters, while submarines and frigates involved in Beijing’s physical assertion of its claim to vast swathes of the South China Sea are powered by German and French engines — part of a separate trade in “dual use” technology to Beijing’s armed forces.
“European exports are very important for the Chinese military,” said Andrei Chang, editor of the Hong Kong-based Kanwa Asian Defense Review. “Without European technology, the Chinese navy would not be able to move.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Desypher Dispels Stereotypes With Exquisite Islamic Museum of Australia
by Tafline Laylin
Blogging makes a writer vulnerable to hyperbole — anything to capture a corner of the internet. But it’s not hyperbole to say that Desypher’s architectural expression vis-à-vis the Islamic Museum of Australia is unparalleled in any contemporary Islamic architecture I’ve come across.…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Fury at Schoolgirls’ Abduction Mounts in Nigeria
Hundreds of protestors gathered on Thursday in the northern Nigerian town where scores of schoolgirls are missing after gunmen kidnapped them two weeks ago. The movement has been spreading to large cities and on social networks.
Hundreds of parents in Nigeria, many dressed in red, held a day of desperate protest on Thursday in the town where the kidnapping of scores of schoolgirls by Islamists has left families lurching from fury to despair.
The mothers and fathers — some wailing, some chanting angrily — marched towards the scene of the kidnapping, carrying placards reading “Find Our Daughters”, before holding a prayer ceremony at the school gates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Infighting Threatens Future of Zimbabwe’s Main Opposition Party
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party MDC is facing a crisis. Its attempt to break long-time President Mugabe’s grip on power failed when it was defeated in the last election. Now infighting has effectively split the party.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Nyanya Explosion — Police Confirms 19 Dead
The Nigerian Police has now confirmed the death of 19 persons from the bomb explosion in Nyanya, Abuja, on Thursday evening. The bomb exploded at about 8:30 p.m. in Nyanya, few metres from the motor park were a similar explosion on April 14 killed at least 75 people.
The police, on its twitter handle, @PoliceNG, also said 66 injured victims of Thursday’s explosion were taken to hospitals with six of those treated and discharged…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria Girls’ Abduction: Parents Asked for Photographs
Police in Nigeria have appealed to parents of more than 200 abducted schoolgirls to come forward with photographs of their daughters. The girls were taken from their school in Borno state by suspected Islamist militants more than two weeks ago.
Borno state’s police chief told the BBC that the authorities needed to confirm exactly who was missing as the school records had been burned in the attack. He said it was now thought that 223 girls were still missing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Colombia: a Dutch Guerillera: The Foreign Face of FARC’s Civil War
Tanja Nijmeijer of Holland spent more than 10 years fighting with the rebel group FARC in the jungles of Colombia. More recently, she has been part of the guerillas’ peace negotiating team in Cuba. What drives her
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jaime Suchlicki: Cuba’s Support for Terrorism and the Venezuela-Iran Nexus
Iran, Cuba and Venezuela have developed a close and cooperative relationship against the U.S. and in support of terrorist groups and states. The three regimes increasingly coordinate their policies and resources in a three way partnership aimed at counteracting and circumventing U.S. policies in the Middle East and Latin America. Within this relationship, Cuba plays a strategic role in terms of geography (proximity to the U.S.), intelligence gathering (both electronic eavesdropping and human espionage) and logistics.
In addition to its proven technical prowess to interfere and intercept U.S. telecommunications, Cuba has deployed around the world a highly effective human intelligence network. The type of espionage carried out by Ana Belén Montes, the senior U.S. defense intelligence analyst who spied for Cuba during some 16 years until her arrest in 2001, has enabled the Castro regime to amass a wealth of intelligence on U.S. vulnerabilities as well as a keen understanding of the inner-workings of the U.S. security system. Such information and analysis was provided to Saddam Hussein prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq and is being provided to a strategic ally like Iran. While one may argue that factors such as Iran’s limited military capabilities and sheer distance diminish any conventional concerns, one should expect that Tehran, in case of a U.S.-Iran conflict would launch an asymmetrical offensive against the U.S. and its European allies through surrogate terrorist states and paramilitary organizations. In such a scenario, Cuban intelligence would be invaluable to Iran and its proxies and Cuban territory could be used by terrorist groups to launch operations against the U.S…
| [Return to headlines] |
Rogue Mexican Army Troops Crossing the Line
Has a unit of Mexican Army soldiers who patrol right on the Arizona border gone rogue?
This small group has attacked U.S. citizens, and even challenged U.S. federal agents within the U.S. A News 4 Tucson investigation into the dangerous world of rogue soldiers in mexico’s military.
In January, soldiers from this lonely outpost of the Mexican Army drew their guns on U.S. Border Patrol agents just 50 yards into the United States. Then in March, they opened fire on Javier Jose Rodriguez, a young Tucson man visiting family in Sásabe when he was driving around the town early on a Saturday morning after drinking beers with friends. Rodriguez was shot in the arm and in the side, he spent three weeks at University of Arizona Medical Center.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Wave continues as Mare Nostrum swings into higher gear
(ANSA) — Palermo, May 2 — Almost 1,200 asylum seekers landed in Sicily Friday, bringing to almost 2,000 the latest in a wave of new arrivals swollen by good weather and a sweeping new rescue operation launched after 400 migrants drowned in tow disasters last year.
An Italian Navy ship, part of the major Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue ops, reached the port of Augusta where the 1,170 migrants will disembark and be processed.
The migrants, from various North African countries, were picked up Thursday close to the stepping-stone island of Lampedusa.
Mare Nostrum is credited with saving almost all lives of the recent migrants who brave the perilous crossing towards a better life in Europe.
But Italy says it will be overwhelmed by almost one million desperate people massing on the North African shores, and has made the umpteenth appeal to the EU for help in coping with the emergency.
Separately Thursday, more than 300 North African asylum seekers were rescued south of Sicily and taken to the port of Messina.
Earlier Friday the Navy rescued 358 migrants in the Sicilian Channel between Italy and Africa.
The migrants, who are bidding for refugee status, included 43 women, one of them pregnant, and 24 children.
The asylum seekers said they came from Mali, Ghana, Belize, Niger, Sudan, Syria and the Palestinian Territories.
Earlier this week Italy said “at least 800,000” migrants are about to leave the North African coast for Europe, while the reception system in Italy — the first landing point for the vast majority of these — is already on the brink of collapse from tens of thousands of earlier arrivals.
“We no longer have a place to take them, and locals are overwhelmed by the constant arrival of foreigners,” Giovanni Pinto, head of the Immigration and Border Police agency, told a joint meeting of the foreign and defence committees in the Italian Senate.
As many as 25,000 migrants have landed on Italian shores to date this year, almost a ten-fold increase over the 2,500 reported during the same period in 2013 and nearing 2011’s record levels of 62,000 migrants, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said earlier this month.
That has stretched already-strained resources in Italy, which only emerged from its deepest recession since the Second World War late last year, to the breaking point, particularly as it comes after record-breaking levels of migration in 2013.
Italy is appealing for international help in the face of the waves of newcomers fleeing their homelands in numbers that tend to increase in spring and summer months as sea conditions improve.
“Europe should know that Italy is a welcoming country, but we cannot accommodate everyone,” Alfano said.
He added that 200 human traffickers believed to be responsible for smuggling thousands across the sea to Italy in dangerous conditions have been arrested.
One day earlier, Premier Matteo Renzi vowed to request more assistance from the European Union and the United Nations on tackling undocumented immigration during a special meeting of his cabinet to consider emergency migrant issues.
Part of the problem, said Pinto, is that many migrants who land in Italy are fleeing failed governments in Libya, civil war in Syria, and hostilities in other parts of the Middle East and North Africa.
That means the Italian government has no corresponding authorities to turn to for help in returning the migrants.
“We aren’t dealing with a government that can establish treaties,” said Pinto, refering to the case of Libya in particular.
“We have no interlocutors…There’s no prime minister…there are no ministers,” he said.
He also praised the efforts of the Mare Nostrum program, which was set up to prevent deaths at sea following two migrant ship disasters in October 2013 in which 400 people died in sight of Lampedusa.
“Surely the operation Mare Nostrum has given excellent results,” said Pinto.
In contrast, some opposition politicians complain that Mare Nostrum only encourages migrants to risk their lives and cross the Mediterranean, often in rickety, overcrowded boats.
There are also concerns that it encourages human smuggling as well.
Northern League Secretary Matteo Salvini said last week that Italy must suspend these operations because they are too expensive — about 300,000 euros daily, he said — and represent an “invasion” of Italian shores.
Salvini, whose party has taken strong stances against immigration, called last month on allies across Europe to join the League in fighting “mass immigration” in the lead-up to May’s European Parliament elections.
In response to the rising levels of dangerous migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that Italy must have more financial help.
The UNHCR has said that the Mediterranean is one of the busiest seas in the world, and urged European Union members to work together on solutions to the migrant situation, which is expected to worsen.
Migrant arrivals to Italy dropped off to the tiniest trickle under a push-back to Libya policy, similar to Australia’s efforts to stem boat people, which was introduced by a previous Silvio Berlusconi-led government and criticised by progressives and human rights groups. The controversial policy was scrapped with the advent of centre-left-led governments although some analysts have said similar programmes should be restarted to stop the people traffickers who are growing fat on the plight of desperate migrants who save for years in slave labour and sex work to pay their passage to what they hope will be a better future.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
1,200 Asylum Seekers Land in Sicily
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO — Almost 1,200 asylum seekers landed in Sicily Friday, bringing to almost 2,000 the latest in a wave of new arrivals swollen by good weather and a sweeping new rescue operation launched after 400 migrants drowned in tow disasters last year.
An Italian Navy ship, part of the major Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue ops, reached the port of Augusta where the 1,170 migrants will disembark and be processed. The migrants, from various North African countries, were picked up Thursday close to the stepping-stone island of Lampedusa.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
African Migrants Storm Spanish Border Fence
African migrants on Thursday stormed the fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla. According to Morocco’s MAP news agency 669 people were arrested and 20 taken to hospital in Nador with injuries from the barbed wire fence. Spain said 140 of the migrants managed to enter Spanish territory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Every Ninth Dane Has Immigrant Background
The percentage of immigrants and their descendants in Denmark continues to rise, according to the latest population figures from Danmarks Statistik.
At the beginning of 2014, 11.1 percent — one in nine — of the Danish population were immigrants or descendants of immigrants — a figure that is expected to rise to 17.6 percent by 2050.
“It is particularly the descendants’ share that is rising quickly,” Danmarks Statistik wrote. “Their share will more than double by 2050 from 2.7 percent now to 6.1 percent. Concerning the number of persons, it will be the descendants of non-western immigrants who will increase the most.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
GOP Leadership Plotting to Pass Amnesty in August, May Put Az, Tx in Play for Dems
Rep. Peter King (R-NY) wrote to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who has said he was “hellbent” on passing amnesty and mocked conservative opponents who opposed it, to let him know that he would support amnesty legislation because it would help the party.
“It would be in our country’s national interest as well as the interest of our party if this could be achieved and I want to assure you of my support as this effort goes forward,” King wrote to Boehner.
But studies and polls suggest that amnesty legislation, in addition to lowering the wages of American workers, would go against the political interest of Republicans, contrary to the claims made by amnesty proponents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Ship Delivers 1,200 Migrants to Sicily as Officials Sound Alarm Over Jump in Arrivals
An Italian ship brought nearly 1,200 migrants to the Sicilian port of Augusta as Italian officials sounded the alarm over the rising tide of migrants trying to enter Europe.
Navy Commander Aldo Dolfino told Sky TG24 on Friday that migrants had been evacuated from eight life rafts and one boat, which alone carried some 500 migrants.
Italy’s top security official told Parliament last week that 20,500 migrants had arrived so far this year, a huge increase over the 2,500 in the same period of 2013. Most boats come from Libya carrying migrants from Africa.
On Thursday, 700 African migrants stormed the fence at Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla, and 140 got in.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Migrant Centres Strain as Fresh Waves Approach
1,200 arrivals as Italy braces for most of 800,000 more
(ANSA) — Rome, May 2 — Italy’s migrant centres braced to go even further over capacity as fresh waves of immigrants approached from North Africa Friday.
“The system is under extreme strain and could collapse entirely if the EU doesn’t help us share the load more fairly,” said Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.
Almost 1,200 asylum seekers landed in Sicily Friday, bringing to almost 2,000 the latest in a wave of new arrivals swollen by good weather and a sweeping new rescue operation launched after 400 migrants drowned in two disasters last year.
An Italian Navy ship, part of the major Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue op, reached the port of Augusta where the 1,170 migrants will disembark and be processed.
The migrants, from various North African countries, were picked up Thursday close to the stepping-stone island of Lampedusa.
Mare Nostrum is credited with saving almost all lives of the recent migrants who brave the perilous crossing towards a better life in Europe.
But Italy says it will be overwhelmed by almost one million desperate people massing on the North African shores, and has made the umpteenth appeal to the EU for help in coping with the emergency.
Separately Friday, more than 300 North African asylum seekers were rescued south of Sicily and taken to the port of Messina.
And even earlier on Friday the Navy rescued 358 migrants in the Sicilian Channel between Italy and Africa.
The migrants, who are bidding for refugee status, included 43 women, one of them pregnant, and 24 children.
The asylum seekers said they came from Mali, Ghana, Niger, Sudan, Syria and the Palestinian Territories.
The Navy ship was rerouted from Ragusa to Palermo after it became clear that migrant centres at Pozzallo near Ragusa were overflowing.
“There’s simply no capacity left there, and it looks like getting worse,” the interior ministry said.
In better news, an Egyptian people trafficker was arrested in Ragusa after ferrying hundreds of migrants close to Sicily.
The 34-year-old is said to have demanded thousands of euros in ‘bills of passage’ from his human freight, and is suspected of abusing them physically and sexually during the trip.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Europe Needs a Human Approach to Immigration’
Alessandro Penso, from Rome, was on the path to a career in clinical psychology when a scholarship gave him the chance to pick up a camera and change direction. As the World Press Photo exhibition opens in Rome, featuring one of Penso’s award-winning images, he speaks to The Local about his work shooting social issues in Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Company Fires Employee for Tweeting That ‘Bigot’ Sterling Had Right to Private Opinion
According to a tweet from their official Twitter account, Turtle Rock Studios, the company behind the hit video game Left 4 Dead and the upcoming Evolve, does not believe in the basic principle of freedom of speech.
The tweet came as justification for the move by the company to fire their Community Manager, Josh Olin, over his tweet from Wednesday pointing out that disgraced racist Donald Sterling does in fact have the right to free speech.
Here’s an unpopular opinion: Donald Sterling has the right as an American to be an old bigot in the security of his own home. He’s a victim.
— Josh Olin (@JD_2020) April 30, 2014
While Olin’s “unpopular” opinion is actually a basic undergirding principle of both natural and constitutional law in the United States of America, that did not stop Turtle Rock Studio from quickly axing him and declaring that they do not “support those views.”…
For his part, the newly unemployed Olin responded by pointing out that defending freedom of speech is not the same thing as endorsing that speech — a concept that not long ago would have gone without saying in this country.
[Comment: Consumers have power too. If you don’t like the way the company handled this, then don’t give them your money.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Landmark Ruling Bars Lesbians From Adopting
In a landmark decision a lesbian couple were barred from adopting a child, who was conceived through artificial insemination outside France. One gay-rights group slammed the decision saying “Children of LGBT families are the new bastards of the Republic”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lefties Target Christian “Homophobes” In NBA
Now that the NBA has handed the progressive left a victory and made it a crime for team owners to hold politically incorrect opinions on race, the next phase of the purge can begin — excluding and exiling Christians for opposing gay marriage.
Earlier this week, Toure’ Murry, a player for the New York Knicks, told MSNBC the NBA now needs to target owners opposed to gay marriage. “Some of them are not the most savory folks. Some of them are bank rolling anti-gay marriage initiatives,” he said. Murry also said owners who support fracking should be ostracized…
Mr. Crawford and his lib pals are obviously upset that Doug DeVos was not punished for his Christian beliefs. He may yet suffer such a fate and, like Donald Sterling, be “fined” for crimes against the liberal orthodoxy and his money used to fund pro-homosexual marriage groups.
Sterling, after all, was fined and the money siphoned off to the PC agenda.
[Comment: Consumers have power too. If you don’t like the way the NBA is conducting itself then don’t give them your money or your time.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
MLK Niece Tells Students of Modern Day Black Genocide
It’s the genocide few talk about, but taking a cue from her uncle, Dr. Alveda King is bravely speaking out about it, spreading her message far and wide.
Her warning: black people are murdering themselves.
The shocking statistics surrounding the rate of abortion among African Americans was one of the highlights of a speech King gave earlier this week at the University of Missouri.
Urging everyone to take action to protect life, King frequently reiterated some of those stark figures: more than 16,000,000 African-American children have been aborted since Roe v. Wade. Making matters worse, she pointed out, these abortions have occurred within a minority group that makes up just 13 percent of the American population.
[Comment: Google “Margaret Sanger”, “eugenics”, “Planned parenthood”. ]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
It is my studied opinion that both the 501c3 tax-exempt status and State non-profit corporation status have, in effect, castrated America’s pastors and churches to the point that most churches are spiritually impotent. Instead of preaching the liberating Gospel of Christ, they are preaching an enslaving message of bondage to the state via their preoccupation with the misinterpretation of Romans 13. A spiritual awakening will never take place in this country until pastors and churches cast off the shackles placed upon them by the IRS and State incorporation…
I opposed the bailouts for Wall Street. I regard the Federal Reserve as a corrupt cabal of international banksters, whose actions are nothing short of criminal. I wholeheartedly support the abolition of the Federal Reserve and a return to sound money.
I believe the United Nations is a sinister organization from which the United States should withdraw. I believe the federal government taxes too much, spends too much, lies too much, and snoops too much into the personal lives of the American people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Antibiotic-Resistant Germs: A Bacterial Time Bomb
A large percentage of the world’s population carries antibiotic-resistant germs, says a new WHO report. Doctors around the world are already seeing the effects first-hand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Did Neanderthals Boil Their Food?
John Speth of the University of Michigan thinks that Neanderthals probably boiled their food. Speth, who recently presented his ideas at a meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, speculates that Neanderthals boiled their food in skin bags or in trays crafted from twisted birch bark, citing as evidence animal bones at Neanderthal sites that are free of gnawing marks, suggesting that the fat had been removed by cooking, and grains found in the teeth of a Neanderthal from Iraq that show signs of having been cooked. “You can boil in just about anything as long as you take it off the flame pretty quickly,” he told National Geographic Daily News.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Heartbleed Security Threat Continues Despite Efforts to Patch Websites
In the truly grand scheme of things, the Heartbleed security flaw currently only affects a very small portion of the Internet. According to researchers, the flaw affects roughly 500,000 websites, and many have already been patched.
However, it has also come to light that the patch to the “secure socket” program, which encrypts data online and thus protects user information on secure sites, was only made after two years of vulnerability on some of the most heavily trafficked sites online.
These include Facebook, Google, YouTube, Yahoo and Wikipedia. As a result, an untold number of regular Internet users might have had at least some of their key personal information compromised when using those websites.
Some Internet users are already taking action, but it might not be enough say security experts; and now, one in five IT security professionals have said that their enterprises have been the target of advanced persistent threat (APT), and that 62 percent of organizations have not increased security training in 2014 to combat this threat. This was according to the ISACA 2014 APT Survey.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spacetime May be a Slippery Fluid
Spacetime is a somewhat slippery concept — Einstein described the universe in four dimensions, combining the well-known three dimensions of space with time. Physicists now suggest that spacetime may itself be a fluid, a very slippery type known as a superfluid.
These new findings could help scientists in their quest for a theory of everything that explains how the cosmos works in its entirety.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
World’s ‘Most-Connected’ Man Finds Better Life Through Data
Chris Dancy claims to be the world’s most-connected person, with 300-700 data-collection devices monitoring his daily movements. The 45-year old says his lifestyle helps him stay fit, achieve his goals and be kinder.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Re: “Checking my Privilege”. Good to be reminded (not that it should be necessary) that Jews are likely the oldest victims of prejudice and bigotry.
I certainly hope that the Germans don’t name their new element 117 either Adolphium or Allahium although element 117 will certainly be as radioactive as either. Speaking of Adolph, has anyone noticed that Obama isn’t faring any better on the Eastern Front than Adolph did?