British police arrested four culturally enriched gentlemen in London who were allegedly planning to kill Queen Elizabeth with a knife as part of a jihad attack. Her Majesty is said to have been relieved to learn that the planned assassination had nothing to do with Islam.
In other news, President Obama has authorized the deployment of 1,500 more American hostages troops to Iraq. The soldiers’ mission will be to train Kurdish and Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, RR, Srdja Trifkovic, Vlad Tepes, 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.
35.7% of Greeks at Risk of Poverty, Eurostat Says
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, NOVEMBER 6 — Some 35.7% of Greeks were facing the risk of poverty or social exclusion during 2013, as GreekReporter website writes quoting Eurostat figures unveiled on Tuesday. According to Eurostat data, 23.1% of Greeks remained at the risk of poverty even after the social transfers and another 18.2% were living in households with a very low work intensity, topping European Union’s rankings in both categories.
To be classified as facing the risk of poverty a citizen should earn less than 60% of the average national available income.
Persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion are defined as those falling in one or more of three categories: those at risk of poverty after social transfers, those living in households with very low work intensity or those that are materially deprived. In absolute figures, nearly 3.9 million Greeks (almost one out of three) were classified as at risk of poverty or social exclusion, with a 7.6% increase to 35.7% from 28.1% in 2008. Greece ranked third amongst its European partners for the percentage of the population at risk of poverty and social exclusion, only behind Bulgaria with 48% and Romania with 40%.
In 2013, the percentage of Greeks defined as materially deprived was 20.3%, when the EU average was 9.6%, more than two times up.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Plans Extra €10 Billion Investment to Head Off EU Critics
Germany has given the first hint that it is prepared to increase public investment to steer a return to economic growth after Angela Merkel’s government pledged to invest an extra €10 billion by 2018.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Approves Detroit’s Plan to Exit Bankruptcy
Less than 16 months after Detroit became the largest city in the United States to file for bankruptcy, a federal judge on Friday approved a plan intended to help it escape years of financial ruin and begin the hard work of becoming viable again.
Judge Steven W. Rhodes of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan found that the city’s plan to shed $7 billion in debt and to invest about $1.7 billion into long-neglected services was fair, feasible and in the best interest of Detroit’s creditors. The decision came with remarkable speed and with far less discord than many had foreseen given the size of the city and the complexity and depth of its financial woes.
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Poverty: Bulgaria and Romania Are the Worst
A third at risk of poverty in 5 countries of the ‘New Europe
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — Out of 120 million EU citizens who are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, many are living in the New Europe, according to some data released by Eurostat. “In 2013, more than a third of the population”, according to the EU Statistical Office, “was at risk of poverty “ in five EU member countries: Bulgaria (48%), followed by Romania (40.4%), Greece (35.7%), Latvia (35.1%) and Hungary (33.5%). Not only shadows, but also a light: the Czech Republic, which was the EU member country that recorded the lowest percentage (14.6%) of people at risk of poverty, followed by the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.
Eurostat also reported that between 2008 and 2013 the number of the population at risk of poverty/social exclusion has increased in most EU states, with some exceptions. Among these are Finland, France and Poland, where the rate dropped from 30.5% in 2008 to 25.8% in 2013, Romania (from 44.2% to 40.4%), Austria (from 20.6% to 18.8%), Slovakia (from 20.6% to 19.8%), the Czech Republic (from 15.3% to 14.6%). As for the “severely poor people” (those who are unable to pay bills or heat their home), the worst performances were recorded in Bulgaria (43%), Romania (28.5%), Hungary (26.8%). At the EU level, the percentage was 9.6% in 2013 (9.9% in 2012), recording an increase compared to 2008 (8.5%). In 2013, Eurostat has underlined, 122.6 million of EU citizens (24.5%) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, that is a slight decrease compared with 2012 (24.8%), but an increase compared with 2008 (23.8%).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Added 214,000 Jobs in October; Unemployment Fell to 5.8%
Three days after voters expressed their discontent with the state of the economy, the government on Friday reported further signs of improvement, estimating that employers added 214,000 jobs in October, while the official jobless rate dropped to 5.8 percent.
The increase was behind the average monthly employment gain of 227,000 so far this year.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected an increase of 235,000 jobs last month.
This latest report represents 56 consecutive months of private-sector job growth, which Jason Furman, chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, characterized this week as “the longest streak in U.S. history.”
Yet, as Mr. Furman and other economic experts readily acknowledge, the experience of many Americans does not match the cautious optimism about the job market and the overall economy recently expressed by several analysts.
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The SEAL Team Six member who was named as the man who shot Osama bin Laden dead is facing a whispering campaign from other SEALs claiming that his account of the killing is not truthful.
MailOnline yesterday revealed that Rob O’Neill, a retired 16-year veteran of the elite squad is the man who says he shot bin Laden in the head to kill him.
His identity had been a closely-guarded secret but he is due to reveal his account in an interview with Fox News next week.
Today it became clear that other SEALs are about to accuse him of lying — although there is agreement that he was on the raid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Half of Stars Lurk Outside Galaxies
Rocket experiment captures glow attributed to renegade stars in intergalactic space.
Astronomers have spotted a faint cosmic glow, unseen until now, that may come from stars that float adrift between galaxies. The discovery suggests that as many as half of all stars in the Universe lurk outside galactic boundaries.
“There might be people living out there, out in the middle of cold dark space, that don’t have a Milky Way,” says Harvey Moseley, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The stars were probably tossed there when galaxies collided.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Justices Agree to Hear Challenge to Subsidies in Health Law
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act. As is their custom, the justices gave no reasons.
The move imperils President Obama’s signature legislative achievement two years after it survived an earlier Supreme Court challenge by a single vote.
The case, King v. Burwell, No. 14-114, concerns tax subsidies that are central to the operation of the health care law. According to the challengers, those subsidies are not available in the states that have decided not to run the marketplaces for insurance coverage known as exchanges. Under the law, the federal government has stepped in to run exchanges in those states.
If the challengers are right, millions of people receiving subsidies would become ineligible for them, destabilizing and perhaps dooming the law.
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Loretta Lynch Likely Choice for U.S. Attorney General
(AGI) Washington, Nov 7 — U.S. attorney for Brooklyn Loretta Lynch is expected to be President Barack Obama’s first choice candidate to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General, CNN reported on Friday. The Harvard graduate first served as a U.S. attorney in 1999, appointed by President Bill Clinton. She left the job in 2001 to become a partner at Hogan and Hartson and also served at the board of the New York Fed between 2003 and 2005. She resumed work as a state attorney in 2010 under President Obama. Should Congress endorse her appointment she would be the first African American woman to fill the post.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Obama to Nominate Loretta Lynch as U.S. Attorney General
President Obama will nominate Loretta E. Lynch, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, to succeed Eric H. Holder Jr. as attorney general, people close to the process said Friday.
If confirmed, she would be the first African-American woman to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official. She would also be a rare instance of Mr. Obama’s reaching outside his inner circle to fill a crucial post.
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Catalonia’s Symbolic Independence ‘Consultation’ On Sunday
4.5 million to cast ballots.
(ANSAmed) — MADRID — The Catalan government “will respond at the end of the process” for the independence consultation on Sunday, but “will not implement it” in order not to violate a recent Constitutional Court decree.
The clarification came on Friday from Joan Rigol, the coordinator of the National Pact for the Right to decide, which unites about 3,000 associations, parties and unions supporting independence of the region. “President Artur Mas maintains the responsibility for the process,” Rigol said. “But the voting and counting procedures will be carried out by volunteers.” About 40,000 have signed up to help out in the consultation process. The central government, notes Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sanz de Santamaria, has asked the Catalan regional government to “avoid putting even a single public official or employee in a situation of the slightest uncertainty” concerning “compliance with the law”. Over 4.5 million Catalans over the age of 16 will be able to vote on Sunday in a symbolic consultation on the questions ‘Do you want Catalonia to be a state?’ and ‘If so, would you like it to be independent?’. As was in the case of the initially scheduled referendum, the symbolic consultation has been suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
First Europeans Weathered the Ice Age
Research from the University of Copenhagen maps the oldest entire genome of a European, shedding new light on early migration.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Weather Mayhem Spreads South to Sicily
Historic wall crumbles under heavy rain in Rome
(ANSA) — Rome, November 7 — Much of Italy remained on maximum weather alert on Friday amid a cyclone warning for Sicily and torrential rainfall that forecasters said may take a brief pause on the weekend before resuming next week.
Forecasters said a tropical cyclone was on course to hit the Sicilian coast later Friday and its trajectory “is not precisely foreseeable,” Italy’s civil protection department said. Measures were being taken to cut risks by preventing people leaving their homes and workplaces, it added.
Schools in Rome reopened as the level of alert was lowered from red to orange, but students in other parts of the country, including the city of Frosinone near the capital and Catania in Sicily, had the day off as a precaution with storms forecast to arrive.
Despite the alert reduction in Rome, floods caused one metro station to close on Friday after four were temporarily shut on Thursday, and a pedestrian was hurt when a tree struck her amid torrential rain in the Appian Way area.
The bad weather also contributed to major traffic congestion in Rome, although the feared mayhem from forecast “water bombs” of torrential rain did not materialise.
This triggered debate over whether the authorities’ decision to close Rome’s schools and monuments on Thursday was excessive.
Still, the situation was severe enough that the city’s fire-fighters were called to about 150 emergencies linked to the weather overnight. And part of a famous Risorgimento landmark in Rome crumbled because of torrential rain Friday, city fire services said.
Water infiltration loosened bricks and plaster near the breach at the Porta Pia city gate in the former Vatican-owned walls where Risorgimento troops poured in to free the city in September 1870, completing the unification of Italy.
Some light rain was predicted for Saturday, but Sunday was expected to bring in sunny skies especially through the south as a high pressure system will extend over southern and central regions, according to forecasters.
“It will get better over the weekend where we will have more glimpses of sunshine, but the rain will always be waiting in ambush,” said Francesco Nucera, meteorologist with 3bmeteo.com. “You cannot talk about a real improvement; the lull will be temporary,” added Nucera.
In particular, a new Atlantic disturbance was expected to roll in late Sunday bringing light rain to Piedmont, Lombardy and the west coast of Liguria.
Looking ahead to next week, forecasters see more heavy rains especially in Liguria and northern Tuscany while the rest of the country should see temperatures return to above average with few clouds.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ENI Agrees to ‘Green’ Gela Refinery, Saving 3,000 Jobs
Deal between labor and management, with govt help
(ANSA) — Rome, November 6 — Oil giant ENI reached an agreement with labour unions and Sicilian authorities Thursday on upgrading its oil refinery near the town of Gela to make it environmentally friendly, a spokesman for Industry Minister Federica Guidi said.
“Jobs saved,” spokesman Enrico Romagna Manoja tweeted. “Agreement reached on ENI Gela in presence of Minister Guidi”.
“The refinery goes green”.
UILTEC Sicilia trade union secretary Antonio Ferro said of the deal stipulating no jobs will be lost: “An important step for the defense of employment and the consolidation of this industrial reality”.
Under the deal ENI will invest 2.2 billion euros in the 60-year-old refinery to make it eco-friendly.
In all some 3,000 jobs are at stake in safeguarding the future of the refinery, which recently was hit by strike action and a major fire.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Rapped Over ‘Segregationist’ Roma Housing Policy
EC demands ‘info’ ahead of possible infringement procedure
(ANSA) — Rome, November 4 — Italy could face an infringement procedure by the European Commission (EC) over its “segregationist” housing policy for ethnic Roma, an activist association said Tuesday.
The Roma and Sinti rights association 21 Luglio said the Italian government had been asked to provide “additional information” concerning the living conditions of Italy’s 150,000-180,000-strong population of Roma, Sinti and Travellers who are largely confined to more or less equipped camps on the remote outskirts of major towns and cities, citing a letter from the EC Directorate-General for Justice. The EC is particularly concerned about conditions at the La Barbuta nomad camp in east Rome, the association added.
In the letter the commission said it shared “the concerns expressed by the Council of Europe’s human rights commsissioner over this kind of accommodation for Roma at a site that is extremely remote and inaccessible, and equipped with fencing and surveillance systems.” Such accommodation “seriously restricts the fundamental rights of the interested parties by completely isolating them from the outside world and depriving them of adequate opportunities for employment and education,” the letter continued.
Rome’s La Barbuta camp came to public attention earlier this year following the announcement of plans to build a Leroy Merlin hyperstore in its place. Under the project, the French DIY giant would build a new ‘village’ for 400 of the current 580 inhabitants near the existing site.
The remaining 180 residents would be relocated elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Pickpocket Snapped in Dutch Tourists’ Selfie Nabbed
Tunisian bag-snatcher immortalised in couple’s beach snap
(ANSA) Rimini, November 7- A Tunisian pickpocket who grabbed a Dutch woman tourist’s bag was arrested after being identified in a ‘selfie’ that fortuitously snapped him in flagrante, police sources said Friday.
The saga began when a young Dutch couple went for a romantic stroll on the Marina beach in the Adriatic resort of Rimini, then stretched out on a sunbed and snapped a self-portrait in each others’arms.
The selfie immortalised the thief grabbing the young woman’s bag from the back of the sunbed before he made off.
The couple gave the photo of the Tunisian to Carabinieri paramilitary police who tracked him down and arrested the alleged thief within two days.
Officers recovered the girl’s bag and sent it to her in Holland.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Enel Production Sells 40% of Shares in SE Hydropower to Sel
Sale pending approval by Italian Antitrust Authority
(ANSA) — Rome, November 7 — Enel Production, the wholesale electricity division of Italian electric utility Enel, signed an agreement on Friday to sell its 400 million euros of shares in SE Hydropower and SF Energy to Sel, an electric utility in the northern Italian province of Bolzano.
The sale will cede Enel Production’s 40% share in SE Hydropower, equivalent to 345 million euros, which will result in Sel having 100% of SE Hydropower’s stock shares.
The agreement is pending approval by the Italian Antitrust Authority (AGCM) and the release of funds to Sel by banks financing the transaction.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: M5S Suggests Closer Ties With Democratic Party
(AGI) Milan, Nov 7 — The anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) does not rule out closer collaboration with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), M5S member and Parma mayor Federico Pizzarotti said. After both parties backed the same candidate in constitutional court nominations, Pizzarotti said they could find common ground on other issues as well.
Confirming remarks by Premier Matteo Renzi that a pact on constitutional reform closed by PD and Berlusconi’s Forza Italia in January seemed to be “creaking”, the mayor of Parma said cooperation with M5S was a possibility. “If we agree on certain goals and concrete objectives, why not?”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Community Service for Rapper Who Threatened Wilders in a Video
A Dutch rapper has been given 80 hours community service and a two-month suspended jail sentence for threatening anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders in a video.
A court in The Hague ruled the video, released by Frisian rapper Hozny in March, suggests that Wilders is being kidnapped and executed. This is obvious to anyone watching it, the court said.
‘Freedom of speech is no hiding place for people who want to threaten others with death, whatever the artistic merits,’ the court statement said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Police Want Armed Guards at Parliament
The Norwegian Parliament is a risk for terror attack and police want to have armed guards on its grounds, a report said on Friday.
PST estimates there is a more than 50 percent chance of Norway being struck by terror in the next year. According to a recent evaluation, the threat from a terror attack “has escalated”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Arrest After ‘Bomb’ In Stockholm Mall
Police in Stockholm’s Liljeholmen have arrested a 43-year-old man after a bag of explosives was left at a cafe in a local shopping centre.
Officers in the Swedish capital say that they have detained the man on suspicion of having placed the explosives were found in a shopping mall in Liljeholmen in southern Stockholm on Wednesday night.
He was arrested in the suburb of Hagerston on Friday afternoon.
Nothing exploded and nobody was hurt as as a result of the suspected bomb planting.
According to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, police have not ruled out the possibility that the bomb was part of a terror plot, but say that they do not believe people in the area are presently in any danger.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Four Men Arrested for Allegedly Plotting a Terror Attack to Kill Queen Elizabeth
A SUSPECTED plot to kill the Queen at a Royal British Legion event ahead of Remembrance Day at the Royal Albert Hall has been foiled by police.
British tabloid The Sun reports four Islamic terror suspects are thought to have been planning a knife attack on Her Majesty, 88.
It is thought the alleged assassination plot on the Queen emerged during routine surveillance.
The Queen and British Prime Minister David Cameron were both informed of the police operation and potential threat, the Sun reports.
Heavily-armed counter terrorist police swooped on four addresses across west London and High Wycombe in the Thames Valley overnight and arrested the four men aged 19 to 27 years.
Another four addresses linked to the men were still being searched this morning.
Police were remaining tight-lipped about the plot but confirmed it was a planned Islamist attack on British soil…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Qatar Seeks to Buy Canary Wharf Financial District
Bid rejected, emirs already control much of London
(ANSAmed) — LONDON, NOVEMBER 7 — The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is seeking to acquire Songbird Estates, the owners of London’s Canary Wharf financial district. An initial bid of 2.2 billion pounds sterling for the high-rise district overlooking the Thames made by QIA and a US investor, Brookfield Property Partners, was rejected on Friday. QIA already controls 28.6% of Songbird Estates and is likely to launch another takeover bid. Qatar has several important property holdings in London, including the Harrods department store and the Shard skyscraper, and is looking to buy others, such as the 2012 Olympic Village. Concerns have been voiced that Qatar allegedly has links with Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, and that further ownership of property in the UK capital by the Gulf nation’s investment authority should thus be avoided.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Single Support Framework Reasserts Uniqueness of EU-Morocco Partnership
The Single Support Framework 2014-2017, adopted by the EU in July 2014 is a multi-year programming document that has been negotiated by both parties with the objective to align priorities of EU cooperation with Moroccan strategic priorities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Americans ‘To Avoid Public Transport, Universities’
Embassy issues warning after bombs on train and subway
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, NOVEMBER 7 — The US embassy in Egypt has warned its citizens to avoid universities and public transport, after recent attacks on a Nile Delta train in which six policemen were killed and a bomb that exploded in the Cairo underground. The embassy warned American citizens residing in the city and tourists to “remain vigilant”. Embassy staff have been prohibited from using the underground, trains and public buses. It also warned US citizens to avoid universities, especially the ones in Cairo and Alexandria, since “over the past month, potentially dangerous activities, to include violent protests, terrorist attacks, and increased police and military presence, have been observed at local Cairo universities.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Terror Decentral
In the postmortems of the terrorist car attacks in Jerusalem, it is easy to see the writing on the wall.
Ibrahim al-Akary, the terrorist who on Wednesday ran over crowds of people waiting to cross the street and catch the Jerusalem Light Rail, was the brother of one of the terrorist murderers freed in exchange for IDF hostage Gilad Schalit. He had placed the photograph on his Facebook page of Moataz Hejazi, the terrorist killed by police after shooting Yehuda Glick outside the Begin Heritage Center last Wednesday.
A few days before Abdur Rahman Slodi got into his car and mowed down three-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun and a dozen other pedestrians two weeks ago, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas exhorted the Palestinians to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, by all means possible.
Slodi had served time in prison for terrorist offenses and was active on social media where he expressed murderous hatred for Jews and a desire to kill them.
So yes, the writing was on the wall. But unfortunately, the writing is on all the walls, or Facebook walls. It is not at all clear how Israeli security services could have known to distinguish these men from the thousands of other Palestinians and Jerusalem Arabs who hate Israel, support the murder of Jews and identify with various terrorist organizations…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Jihadi Justifies Massacres by Invoking Muhammad, Who “Slaughtered 700 People”
“Then they [the Jewish Qurayzah tribe] surrendered, and the apostle [Muhammad] confined them in Medina in the quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. Al-Najjar. Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches. Among them was the enemy of Allah Huyayy b. Akhtab and Ka’b b. Asad their chief. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.” — Ibn Ishaq
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Legislative Elections Postponed Again to June 2017
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 5 — The Lebanese Parliament on Wednesday decided to further postpone political elections until June 2017, extending its mandate for an entire four-year legislature after a first postponement in June 2013.
It is the first time since the end of the civil war in 1990 that such a decision is taken, following political and sectarian tensions, in particular over the civil war in Syria.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Army ‘Bans’ Game of Thrones, Prepares for Islam Classes
The Turkish army has banned screenings of the popular TV series “Game of Thrones,” while introducing classes on Islam for the first time, daily Cumhuriyet reported Nov. 7.
The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) reportedly updated its secondary education regulations and added a new article to the chapter titled “the protection of students.” The new article bans the screening of productions like “Game of Thrones” on the grounds of protecting students from “sexual exploitation, pornography, exhibitionism, abuse, harassment and all negative behaviors.”
Four military officers were discharged from the army after they let their students watch “Game of Thrones” at a military school in Istanbul in 2012…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. To Send 1,500 More Troops to Iraq
President Obama has authorized the deployment of an additional 1,500 American troops to Iraq in the coming months, the Defense Department said on Friday, a move that will double the number of those sent to advise and assist Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the battle against the Islamic State.
The Pentagon also said that American military advisers would establish a number of additional training sites across Iraq, in a significant expansion of the American military campaign against the Sunni militant group in Iraq and Syria. Officials in the office of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that a number of American military personnel would deploy specifically to Anbar province.
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UAE Sheikh Khalifa Marks Ten Years as President
Under his rule, fast development and growth
(by Alessandra Antonelli) (ANSAmed) — DUBAI, NOVEMBER 3 — The UAE celebrated ten years of the presidency of Shaikh Khalifa on Monday.
In the words of an official statement released by Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the years stood out for their “fast development and great achievement”, the impact of which “cannot be measured by statistics or international reports. It cannot be counted by the numbers of people enriched by his projects”.
Though he has been out of the public spotlight for some months and absent from recent official photos with the other six emirs — leading to speculation about health problems — over the past decade Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan led the UAE as it gained ever more prominence on the international stage. Sheikh Khalifa took the throne on November 3, 2004, at age 65, after the death of Sheihk Zayed, the founder alongside Dubai Sheikh Rashid of the modern-day UAE. In 2006 he inaugurated Masdar, the first alternative energy facilities of the region that led to the creation of Masdar City shortly thereafter, the first environmentally sustainable and zero-emission city in the world. The commitment to and billion-dollar investment in clean energy sources led to Abu Dhabi’s selection as headquarters for the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in 2009. Work began the same year on Etihad Rail, the first national railway to link up with the larger regional network. the following year Dubai drew international attention after building the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, as well as the Meydan Racecourse.
The Louvre, the Guggenheim Museum, the Sorbonne University and the New York University have all set up branches in the country. The UAE was slowed by the world economic crisis starting in 2008 and by the Arab Spring uprisings that began in 2011. It picked up the pace again in 2013, however, with the Shams1 project for the largest solar power plant in the world, the opening of the Al-Maktoum international airport and with being selected to hold the Expo 2020. Economic diversification and the resulting freeing from oil dependency, political shrewdness and a hardline stance against fundamentalist trends were seen alongside domestic policies focusing on the population’s needs. Laws and investment ensured education, healthcare, qualitative growth and competitiveness of trades and know-how. “This is the true legacy of Sheikh Khalifa. These are the main lessons that other leaders may draw from ten years of his presidency. It is easy to rule through fear, but it takes a rare leader to rule through love,” said Sheikh Mohammed Al-Maktoum of Dubai in a speech published by the WAM news agency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
by Srdja Trifkovic
“On hearing the rockets, mines or projectiles coming in towards the hotel or after hearing explosion lay on the floor in your room away from the windows,” said the welcoming letter on the desk of my room at the Ramada in Donetsk. “It is also necessary to do when hearing shooting by an automatic weapon nearby the hotel.” In the end it was not necessary to do, and my three days (November 1-3) as an independent election observer in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic were somewhat disappointingly devoid of drama. It was nevertheless a memorable experience.
Still feeling a bit queasy after a late dinner at the Metropole last Friday, I left a chilly, drizzly Moscow early in the morning on the first day of November and arrived two hours later in Rostov-on-Don. The city was basking in autumnal sunshine, with the noon temperature in the mid-60s. The airport bus transferring passengers to the terminal was a sight to behold: its apparently Central Asian driver has adorned the front of the vehicle with rich Persian carpets and silk draperies (but no Kuranic verses). The city, a key southern hub — and the take-off point for the Wehrmacht push into the Caucasus and towards Stalingrad in the summer of 1942 — has a million inhabitants and keeps growing. It reflects a disturbing trend all over Russia: the growth of regional metropolitan areas at the expense of an increasingly depopulated countryside.
The drive to the Ukrainian border near Kuybyshevo took two hours. We left the freeway half-way to Taganrog and turned north on an arrow-straight, tree-lined local road. The landscape could be anywhere in the prairie states, except for the war memorials. This area saw some extremely bloody fighting in August 1943, when the Red Army broke the fortified Mius river line. The villages are visibly more prosperous than I remember them from the late 1990’s. After a decade of precipitous decline under Yeltsin, Russian agriculture has posted a gradual recovery in recent years. Small family holdings are now producing in aggregate value considerably more than the large corporate farms that succeeded the old collective system. Increased mechanization reduces demand for manpower, however, thus contributing to the continuing rural flight…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Dozens Killed in Ukraine in Clashes Outside Donetsk
(AGI) Kiev, Nov 7 — At least 22 people, including civilians, were killed as Ukrainian soldiers and pro-Russia separatists traded mortar and rocket rounds outside Donetsk, the local mayor’s office reported on Friday. With much of the shelling targeting city outskirts closest to the airport and three nearby villages, separatists reported a total of 12 overnight rocket volleys. Ukrainian soldiers in Luhansk’s town of Sokolniki reported wounding seven paramilitary while fending off a separatist attack.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Leaders of Notorious ‘GTA Bandits’ Killers Were Training Mercenaries for the Islamic State
MOSCOW, November 6 (RIA Novosti) — Leaders of the murderous ‘GTA Bandits’, which were caught today in the Moscow area, are said to have been recruiting and training mercenaries for the Islamic State (IS) militant group, LifeNews reports.
Among the gang members captured this morning were several suspected trainees set to travel to Syria in the near future to join the IS, law enforcement officials told journalists.
Police investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the murders of motorists carried out by these gang members in the Moscow region may have served as a ‘rite of passage’ for the future fighters.
Early this morning, police carried out raids on a criminal group known as the ‘GTA Bandits’, who were suspected of murdering 14 people this past summer on secluded highways outside Moscow. Ten of them were captured and one was killed in the raids, police said…
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Russian Media Suggests Moscow ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Gang Linked to is, Central Asia
Russian media reports of the arrests of the notoriously bloodthirsty Moscow “Grand Theft Auto” Gang on November 6 have taken a strange turn, with unconfirmed reports and rumors that the criminals might be closely connected to the Islamic State (IS) group via Central Asia.
The rumors reflect the extent to which Russian concerns over the domestic threat posed by IS — whose ubiquitous social media presence and violent ideology could, some in Russia believe, lead to radicalization of the country’s Muslim residents, particularly Moscow’s large migrant worker population — have percolated into the popular consciousness.
The reports concerned the so-called Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Gang had terrorized Moscow for the past couple of years. Named after the popular video game that involves motor-vehicle theft and shooting, the gang is thought to be responsible for the murders of at least 14 people on highways around the city.
The reports of the arrests are sketchy and appear to have originated in LifeNews, a pro-Kremlin media outlet, which said that 14 alleged members of the gang, eight men and six women, were arrested on November 6 in a series of arrests by the “spetznaz” (special forces) Special Rapid Response Unit. Another alleged gang member was killed when he threw a hand grenade at the police.
LifeNews quoted anonymous law-enforcement officials as saying that the gang leaders were also involved in recruiting supporters for IS and training them, in order to send them to Syria as fighters.
“The investigators have not ruled out that the murders [committed by the gang] on Moscow suburb roads could have been a kind of rite of passage for future fighters,” LifeNews speculated…
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Islamic Extremists Attack Protestant School: Students and Teachers Injured
The incident happened in the district of Gazipur. Muslim radical leaders spread rumors that the institution “forces” students to convert to Christianity.
Gazipur (AsiaNews) — At least 45 Islamic extremists attacked a Protestant school of Arambaugh (Gazipur district), Bangladesh. The attack took place yesterday and ten people, including teachers and students, were injured. The group attacked the institution — the Steve Kim Mission School — after “rumors” the structure forced Muslim students to convert to Christianity. Police arrested five people suspected of being involved.
School principal Michael Mandal, said: “A local group vandalized the school and attacked the teachers, after someone had put out the word that we converted students.”
A resident of the area, the Muslim Rafiqual Islam, confirms what was said by the principal: “Some personalities and influential Islamic radicals linked to some schools, spread the news that Steve Kim Mission School practiced ‘forced’ conversions.”
The school welcomes students of all faiths, from the first to the eighth grade. The school provides them with textbooks, school supplies and meals. In Bangladesh, Christian schools and colleges are considered the best. The Catholic Church has about 600 institutions (from primary school to high school), 10 colleges and a university. 90% of students are not Christian.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Accommodation for Asylum Seekers ‘Inadequate’, Court Says
ECHR rules in favour of Afghan family staying in Switzerland
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, November 4 — Italy does not offer sufficient guarantees concerning reception facilities for asylum seekers, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said in a ruling Tuesday.
The judgement was made in the context of a ruling on a case brought by an Afghan couple and their six children against the Swiss authorities for refusing to examine their asylum application and deciding to send them back to Italy. The court ruled that there would be a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting inhuman or degrading treatment if the Swiss authorities were to send the applicants back to Italy under the Dublin Regulation without having first obtained individual guarantees from the Italian authorities that the applicants would be taken charge of in a manner befitting the age of the children. The family should also be kept together, according to the Dublin Regulation, the system designed to determine the EU member state responsible for examining an asylum application. “In view of the current situation of the reception system in Italy, the possibility that a significant number of asylum seekers removed to that country might be left without accommodation or might be accommodated in overcrowded facilities, in insalubrious and violent conditions, was not unfounded,” said a court press release. The applicants, Golajan Tarakhel and his wife Maryam Habibi arrived on the coast of Calabria on July 16, 2011, before travelling on to Austria and then Switzerland where they lodged an application for asylum. However the Swiss authorities decided not to examine the application on the grounds that Italy was the State responsible for examining the application and ordered the applicants’ removal to Italy. The family subsequently lodged an application with the ECHR against the decision.
This is the first time that the Strasborg court has ruled against the return of asylum seekers from another European country to Italy.
There are said to be around 20 similar cases pending before the court.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘I Grew Up Believing Being Gay is Wrong’ Says Lord Browne
Author of The Glass Closet at EU Equality Summit in Rome
(ANSA) — Rome, November 7 — An openly gay British lord and businessman said Friday that discrimination forced him to lead “an artificial life”.
“When things get tough, the majority always turns on the minority,” Edmund John Philip Browne, the Baron of Madingley, told the 2014 EU Equality Summit in the Italian capital.
“This is why I led a secret, artificial life for years”.
Lord Browne, who led BP energy company between 1995-2007, is the first chief executive of a Fortune 500 company to publicly identify as gay.
His book The Glass Closet, which came out this year, calls for an intentionally inclusive corporate culture.
“Every since I was a child, my mother told me to keep my secret or someone would use it against me,” Lord Browne told the summit, organized this year by Italy as duty EU president.
“This is why I grew up thinking being gay is wrong,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Latvian Foreign Minister Rinkevics ‘Proud to be Gay’
(AGI/EFE) Moscow, Nov 7 — Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rinkevics on Friday announced that he is gay in a tweet posted in English. “I proudly announce I am gay… good luck all of you,” the 41-year-old wrote. “Our country has to create a legal status for all kinds of partner relationships,” he added. The announcement was praised by the country’s president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who described Rinkevics as “a brave man and a good foreign minister.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The brilliant strategies employed these past twenty years or so has turned our homelands into dumping grounds for bloody mayhem. With compromised rudderless Obama on the throne it’s not looking good.
What an invasion looks like
From tranquil English village to islamic hell-hole in no time
Libyan soliders brought into military camp were “not informed by Government about British law”, claims one of the recruits, who is not accused.
“One young, slightly-built British soldier serving in the canteen attracted the attention of a group of his Libyan counterparts. They approached their translator with a question: Could they ‘buy him?’
‘They wanted him for sex,’ said the soldier’s wife. ‘They kept asking the translator how much “he” would cost so they could have him and rape him. ”
What is the difference between invading soldiers with arms, and the others? Well, at first, the latter don’t carry automatic weapons…
With “asylum-seekers” loads constantly being brought into small European villages, often outnumbering the locals, you can only imagine what these willages will look like after some time of adjustment and “integration”. Besides, what do they know – and care – about European law?
Why wasn’t Man made gay from the beginning..?
Why are there both females and males everywhere in Nature?
Just a Thought
Even having Mohammadans going about the streets wanting to behead the Queen won’t be enough to make the elite in this country wake up. These people have completely given themselves over to evil.
I agree Nick, but the ramifications had they actually attempted it or -unlikely I know- succeeded are mind blowing. How would (could?) they keep a lid on the resultant “backlash” against our visitors from the 7th Century?
Another few years of this and the playing field really will be level. The top is now making decisions that are way below par even for the Muslim bottom. Too many business deals and cash considerations to be distracted by restless natives is it? This is akin to not being able to organize a piss up in a brewery.