Two young men were arrested today on terrorism charges in Fairfield, a suburb of Sydney. A knife and a flag were said to be among objects seized from a residence. No Mohammed Coefficient or cultural enrichment index has yet been released by Australian authorities. However, they reassured the public that the incident had nothing to do with Islam. Nothing whatsoever. Honest. Cross our hearts and hope to die.
In other news, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told an audience in Zurich that “Islam is Europe’s indigenous religion.”
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, K, KU, Steen, 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.
Fed Mobilizes Against Rand Paul’s Audit Legislation
The Federal Reserve is mobilizing against Sen. Rand Paul’s increasingly popular effort to audit the central bank.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Record Surplus in 2014, Exports Up 3.7%
215.3 billion current account surplus, 217 billion trade balance
(ANSA) — ROME — In Germany a huge surplus was recorded at the end of 2014. The current account surplus rose to 215.3 billion (from 189.2 billion in 2013). The trade surplus rose to 217 billion euros from 195 billion in 2013; exports increased by 3.7% and imports by 2% compared to 2013. In December alone exports increased by 3.4%, while imports dropped by 0.8%: the trade balance recorded a 19.1 billion surplus (21.8 billion, corrected).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greece Sparks Italy Spat Over ‘Bankruptcy’ Claim
A Greek exit from the euro would see the euro collapse like a house of cards, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis warned in comments that triggered a spat with Italy.
“Greece’s exit from the euro is not something that is part of our plans, simply because we believe it is like building a house of cards. If you take out the Greek card, the others will collapse,” Varoufakis said in an interview with Italian public broadcaster Rai that was aired on Sunday.
Varoufakis also incurred the wrath of his Italian counterpart Pier Carlo Padoan by comparing Italy’s problem with its large public debt to those of Greece.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece ‘May Go Elsewhere for New Deal on Debt’
The Greek defence minister has said Greece could turn to the US, Russia or China if it fails to reach a new debt agreement with the eurozone.
Panos Kammenos, who heads the junior coalition partner Independent Greeks, said Greece had an obligation to go to “plan B” if proposals are rejected.
Greece is preparing to plead its case for a new deal at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Wednesday.
It says the terms of its €240bn (£182bn) bailout are too severe.
Last month’s election of an anti-austerity government led by left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has raised fears that Greece could leave the euro.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Gov’t to Present Five-Point Package in Eurogroup
Gurria (Oecd) expected in Athens today
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 10 — The Greek government will bring a five-point package during Wednesday’s extraordinary Eurogroup meeting, sources at the finance ministry said on Monday. They said the aim was to reach an agreement by the following Eurogroup meeting on February 16 and to give the government the necessary time by the end of August to draft a new contract, which will replace the memorandum. The sources said the Greek proposal envisages: 1) a bridge agreement until the end of August and from September 1st to have a final contract between Greece and its partners; 2) a 30% of “toxic” commitments of the memorandum, such as a dismantling of the labour market, will be replaced by 10 reforms to be recommended by the Greek government in cooperation with the OECD. These reforms will not include a reform of the pension system. 3) Changing targets for primary surpluses, starting this year. The government believes that a target for a budget primary surplus of 3% of GDP in 2015 was not realistic and must be reduced to 1.5% of GDP, given the fact that the primary surplus for 2014 was 1.49% of GDP. 4) begin a negotiation on the country’s public debt through a swap menu; 5) immediately dealing with a humanitarian crisis in the country. The government insists on the immediate disbursement of 1.9 billion euros in profits from Greek bond holdings owned by the European Central Bank, raising a ceiling on the issuance of Treasury bills by 8 billion euros and a flexible ELA. It also demands the exploitation of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund’s 11 billion euros reserves, resolving a problem with non-performing loans and covering the country’s funding needs through the disbursement of an installment of 7.2 billion euros from its creditors. Meanwhile, Oecd general secretary Angel Gurria is expected in Athens today, where he will meet with Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland Would Seek ‘Similar Deal’ if Greece Gets Concessions
Ireland will insist that “any new or better deal applies to Ireland as well as Greece,” farm minister Simon Coveney said Monday. “We have to make sure that the same rules apply to Greece as to everyone else” he said amid Athens’ attempts to secure a better debt deal.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ISTAT Says Southern Growth Half That of North
Italy’s South had GDP per capita of 45.8% of northern economy
(ANSA) — Rome, February 9 — The economy measured per person in southern Italy was only about half that of the per capita measurement in the North, statistical agency Istat said Monday. Per capita GDP was 17,200 euros in the southern half of the country — 45.8% less than per capita GDP in the north, it said. Istat reported that there was “a very large, negative differential” between the traditionally poorer southern half of the country compared with the stronger industrialized North of Italy.
The country as a whole has been struggling to pull out of a recession that essentially dates back to 2008, the last year in which the economy recorded growth.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Poland: Unemployment Drops to 12.1%, Down 1.8% yoy
The number of jobless people rose slightly in December & January
(ANSA) — TRIESTE — In Poland, the unemployment rate has increased compared with December, though it recorded a sharp decline in a year-over-year comparison, according to estimates released today by the Ministry of Labour in Warsaw.
According to Ministry’s latest calculations, the unemployment rate in January was 12.1%, up 0.6% compared with December 2014, but down 1.8% compared with January 2013.
According to the Ministry of Labour, 1.919 million Poles were unemployed in January , 341,000 less than same month in 2014, but 94,000 more than December. The month-on-month increase was, however, lower than the increase recorded in January 2014 compared with December 2013 (160,000 — without additional work).
An increase was also recorded in the number of job offers in employment services, which were 71,000 in January, up 29% compared with the previous month.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Real Greek Negotiations: Situation is “Berserk”, “There is No Plan”, “Greeks Digging Own Graves”
Forget any conciliation: what is going on behind the scenes a day ahead of the Eurogroup meeting is nothing short of disaster.
“The Greeks are digging their own graves,” warns one EU official, according to MNI, with another exclaiming the Greek plan as “hopeless” and added “how can you have a plan when you make no payment obligation till the autumn and then you probably scrap that.” Simply put, speaking on condition of anonymity, an EU official described the situation as “berserk” adding “there is no plan.”
As MNI reports, EU officials are “infuriated” by ‘wildly misleading’ Greek claims…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tsipras Defies Troika: “Greece Will No Longer Take Orders”
Less than twelve hours after receiving notice of the European Central Bank to cut funding to Greek banks, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras answered vehemently in a post that seems directed at Mario Draghi but also to all those that put sticks on wheels: “Greece will no longer accept more orders, especially orders received by email,” he asserted from the Greek Parliament in the first session of the SYRIZA parliamentary group.
The Greek Prime Minister has insisted that he will “put an end once and for all” to the austerity policies of the EU and negotiate a new agreement for Greece.”It is time to move on, not only in Greece but in Europe,” proclaimed the Greek president. In Athens, before the deputies of SYRIZA and after a tour of several European capitals, Tsipras said his government will not back down on its promises and that voters will not be fooled again: “Everyone can be sure that this Government will do what it says.”Tsipras has given a strong speech applauded by all his fellow ‘soldiers’. “Greece is no longer the unfortunate pal that listens to do its homework. Greece has its own voice,” Tsipras defended.The Greek president remains optimistic regarding the negotiations with European partners on debt and the rescue. “In one week we won allies who had not joined during the last five years of crisis,” he added.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Visco Says Lower Risk Now of Greek ‘Contagion’
Central banker says narrow spread proves Italy’s stability
(ANSA) — Istanbul, February 10 — Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco said Tuesday that there is less risk now of “contagion” for Italy from Greece’s debt-market woes than during the global financial crisis in 2011-2012. The proof is in Italy’s relatively narrow spread with Germany, below 130 basis points, said Visco after G-20 meetings where the Greek debt crisis dominated. “The measures taken by Europe have convinced financial markets that the monetary union is not just a fixed exchange rate system but a real union,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
A shocking new study has found that people from the black and Hispanic communities are denied mortgages at more than twice the rate of whites and Asians.
The study by online real estate database Zillow found that white people who apply for a conventional mortgage are denied just over 10 percent of the time and Asians 13.3 percent.
By contrast, blacks who apply for the same loans are denied nearly 28 percent of the time and Hispanics are denied 22 percent of the time.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brand New Information on Grover Norquist’s Decades-Old Palestinian Connection
Grover Norquist is the well-known Republican influencer who has been called the most powerful man in America due to his group Americans for Tax Reform and his anti-tax pledge. In the past few years Norquist has also come under fire from some conservatives for his involvement with another group he co-founded, the Islamic Free Market Institute, also known as the Islamic Institute.
Norquist helped arrange President Bush’s visit to the Islamic Center of Washington less than a week after the 9/11 attack on America.
One of the people at that high-profile event was Khaled Saffuri, the cofounder with Norquist of the Islamic Free Market Institute.
Saffuri, a self-identified Palestinian brought up in stateless exile in Kuwait, came to the United States in 1982. Saffuri got his start in Washington, D.C., in 1987, as Development Director with the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, also known ADC — remember the ADC, because they’ll come up again in a minute.
Khaled Saffuri would go on to co-found the Islamic Institute with Grover Norquist in 1998.
Until now, that’s where the trail on the Grover Norquist connection to Islamic and pro-Palestinian issues seemed to start.
It’s also been widely reported that Republican power broker Grover Norquist married Palestinian Muslim Samah Alrayyes in 2004. Many critics of Norquist’s long and proven history of involvement and advocacy for Islamist causes have mentioned his marriage to Alrayyes as a potential clue to his motivations.
Norquist has responded harshly to the allegations about his connection to groups and people who’ve supported Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Norquist has called his high-profile critics ‘bigots’ and even used this influence to keep them from speaking at the conservative CPAC convention.
Never before Reported: Norquist’s Brother-in-Law Cofounded Islamic Institute
What has not been reported until now are Norquist’s other family ties to pro-Hamas Palestinian activism, including the previously unknown relationship with a man named Majed Tomeh who has been married to Norquist’s sister Loraine for decades and who was a co-founder of Norquist’s Islamic Institute.
Majed Tomeh is a long-time Palestinian activist. In the 1980s, when he attended Harvard Business School, Tomeh was the coordinator of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Boston…you’ll remember that this is same ADC that Khaled Saffuri was the national development director of in the same time period.
Why has Majed Tomeh never been mentioned by Grover Norquist as a co-founder of the Islamic Institute?
That’s a question that becomes much more interesting when you learn that Majed Tomeh is also Grover Norquist’s brother-in-law, who was married to Norquist’s sister years prior to the founding the Islamic Institute in 1998. That means the unrevealed connection between Norquist and Palestinian Anti-Israel activism goes much deeper than anyone had suspected.
I can find no record on the internet of Grover Norquist ever mentioning either his sister Loraine or her husband Majed Tomeh by name. The Tomehs live in the Boston suburbs, very close to Norqust’s hometown of Weston, where Norquists’ parents still live…
| [Return to headlines] |
Charles Manson’s Fiancée Reportedly Wanted to Marry Him for His Corpse
This plot was too crazy even for Charles Manson.
Manson’s engagement to a woman 53 years his junior was part of a wild scheme of hers to profit by putting his body on public display after his death, says the author of an upcoming book.
Manson’s fiancée, 27-year-old Afton Elaine Burton, known as Star, sought to wed the convicted mastermind of the Sharon Tate murder and eight other slayings so that she could gain possession of his corpse, according to journalist Daniel Simone.
Burton and a pal, Craig Hammond, planned to lay out Manson’s remains in a glass crypt, Simone says. The pair figured their bizarre California version of Lenin’s Tomb would draw huge crowds and make big money.
But Manson, 80, does not want to marry Burton and has no interest in spending eternity displayed in a glass coffin, Simone told The Post. “He’s finally realized that he’s been played for a fool,” Simone said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Florida Father Furious at School Lesson: ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of God’
Ron Wagner, a Florida father, said his son’s world history book has gone too far with a lesson that teaches Muhammad is the messenger of God.
One part of the book, for instance, reads: “There is no god, but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God,” he said, quoting from his son’s Lyman High School history book, WFTV reported.
“Students were instructed to recite this prayer as the first Pillar of Islam, off of the board at the teacher’s instruction,” Mr. Wagner said. “For it to be mandatory and part of the curriculum and in the textbooks, didn’t seem right.”
The chapter in the history book is called the “Rise of Islam,” and includes text of the faith’s prayers and scriptures, right from the Koran, WFTV reported.
Mr. Wagner also complained that the first 100 pages of the of the religious-based chapters that deal with Judaism and Christianity are missing — and the school district explains that omission by saying the defect, which impacted 68 books, is due to a manufacturer mistake, WFTV reported.
The school also said that the “Pillars of Islam are benchmarks in the state curriculum” and must be taught, WFTV reported.
| [Return to headlines] |
GMO Labeling Sweeping Nation: Arizona May Soon Enforce Labels
State representatives in Arizona have proposed a measure that would require food manufacturers to label some genetically modified foods. Similar to Minnesota, Rhode Island, Indiana, and other states, at least Arizona lawmakers are listening to the people’s choice to have their food labeled as genetically modified when it contains biotech-altered ingredients.
Heading the effort is representative, Juan Mendez, a Democrat from Tempe, Arizona. He argues:
“My concern is that you are consuming genetically modified organisms and are unaware of it, and it’s almost a shame that you don’t have more information about what you’re putting in your body. This is taking the genes of either other food, animals, bacteria and injecting them into the food you eat.”
The initiative comes in the form of House Bill 2462. Mendez realizes that there will be hot contention from the presentation of the bill — especially from large food corporations. He understands thatthere are strong opinions on both sides of the GMO fence.
Mendez told 3TV last Tuesday afternoon that the goal of the bill is simply to provide consumers with information about what is in their food.
Considering that people who wish to continue eating GMOs could certainly do so if they are labeled, this seems a simple enough solution to the problem — but the real issue is not transparency, since a large majority of Americans have stated they don’t want to eat GMOs. Food makers know this, and are afraid to lose market share.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hacker Reveals How Easy it is to Steal Credit Card Numbers From Thin Air in Seconds
David Bryan, a security specialist at Chicago’s Trustwave, was able to steal credit and debit card details by standing just six inches (15cm) away while a transaction was being made.
[Comment: For your security always use metal wallets and/or RFID sleeves for any cards that have RFID chips. Don’t forget the passports — many now have RFID chips too. See www.spychips.com for more info on privacy and security regarding RFID.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Hubble Successor Will Struggle to Hunt Alien Life
Exoplanet researchers will vie with astrophysicists for access to James Webb Space Telescope, which is not optimized for studying Earth-like worlds.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jindal Unveils Plan to Repeal Common Core
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has unveiled a 42-page proposal to reform American education at the national level, one of the clearest signs yet that he is laying the groundwork to jump into the 2016 presidential primary.
At the heart of his proposal is a total repudiation of Common Core, as well as a general rollback of federal authority, increased school choice options for parents and greater administrative freedom for educators.
Jindal revealed his plan at a breakfast Monday morning hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. The actual proposal takes the form of a policy paper released through America Next, Jindal’s nonprofit think tank. It follows several similar proposals Jindal has made on foreign policy, energy and other major topics. However, the education proposal stands out from the pack, thanks to the governor’s growing status as one of the most savage critics of Common Core.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Minnesota Students Arrested After Holding Sit-in for More Diversity on Campus
A seven hour sit-in at the University of Minnesota resulted in the arrest of 13 people as the group protested a perceived lack of diversity on campus.
A group called Whose Diversity marched from Coffman Student Union to President Eric Kaler’s office in Morrill Hall with a list of eight demands, resulting in the lockdown of the building. After more than seven hours of deliberation with Kaler, Provost Karen Hanson and Vice President for Equity and Diversity Katrice Albert, 13 students and non-students were arrested for refusing to leave the building.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sami Al-Arian: Farewell to a Tenured Terrorist
by John Perazzo
The “Islamophobes” won’t have Sami Al-Arian to kick around any more. The former tenured professor from the University of South Florida has just been deported to Turkey, after more than a decade of fighting valiantly to supposedly clear his name and reputation in the United States.
Throughout his many years in America, Al-Arian showed himself to be a pious man with a deep and abiding religious faith, as evidenced by his proud membership in the Muslim Brotherhood—the font from which sprang a number of other godly organizations, like Hamas and al-Qaeda, which have done so much to educate the world vis-à-vis the theological virtues of suicide belts, collapsing skyscrapers, and mountains of smoldering infidel corpses.
Al-Arian, for his part, carved out a cozy niche as the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an organization that was established by a pack of energetic Gazans who wished to put their own sacred piety on display by detonating powerful explosives amidst crowds of unsuspecting Jews…
| — Hat tip: K | [Return to headlines] |
TSA Demands Internal Passport for Domestic Travel
Precedents exist for requiring citizens to produce special ID for domestic travel; they include Nazi Germany, apartheid South Africa and Russia (both Imperial and Soviet).
Over the Christmas season, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) quietly announced that America was walking down that path. By 2016, all domestic air travel will require either a traditional passport or a federally-compliant ID card called “Real ID.” State driver’s licenses will no longer allow Americans access to domestic flights, as they do now. Real ID will constitute an internal passport. (The drop-date date is commonly reported as January.)
An internal passport refers to an identity document that people must produce to move from place to place within national borders. It allows a government to monitor the movement of its own people and to control that movement by granting or denying ID. In the past, governments have used internal passports to isolate ‘undesirables’, to regulate economic opportunities, to reap personal data, to intimidate and command obedience, and to segregate categories of people (like Jews) for political purposes. It allows a government to bind anyone it chooses to his or her place of birth.
The upcoming Real ID requirement targets only air travel. But that’s how it begins — with airports.
After people became numb to years of ID demands, questioning and searches at airports, those tactics spread to train stations and subways. Then highway check-points were established in areas that lay within 100 miles from an “external boundary,” including coasts. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents now have the authority to stop a traveller if they have “reasonable suspicion” of an immigration violation or other crime. Although the agents do not currently have authority to demand ID from American citizens, they often do so.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Adds German Former Rapper to Terror List
The US State Department said on Monday that it had added Denis Cuspert, a former Berlin rapper who left Germany to join Isis in Syria, to its official terror list.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will Google’s New Robot be Used to Hunt “Non-Cooperative” Humans? — Video
A new robot designed for the US Army by Google fits the criteria of a 2008 Pentagon request for the development of a system which could detect and track “non-cooperative” humans in “pursuit/evasion scenarios”.
Spot is the latest military robot developed by Boston Dynamics, which was bought by Google last year. The robot is far more agile than its larger predecessor, Big Dog, and can run around at high speed both outside and indoors.
Video footage of the new robot shows its ability to recover from being kicked, even on icy surfaces.
The fact that Spot can operate indoors is somewhat ominous given a 2008 Pentagon request for contractors to build, “A software and sensor package to enable a team of robots to search for and detect human presence in an indoor environment.”
The proposal called for the development of robots, “to search for and detect a non-cooperative human subject” during “pursuit/evasion scenarios,” directing that they have the ability to “intelligently and autonomously search”.
The New Scientist’s Paul Marks responded to the story by asking, “How long before we see packs of droids hunting down pesky demonstrators with paralysing weapons? Or could the packs even be lethally armed?”
Steve Wright, an expert on police and military technologies from Leeds Metropolitan University, also warned that such robots would eventually be armed.
“The giveaway here is the phrase ‘a non-cooperative human subject’.”
“What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack of dogs. Once the software is perfected we can reasonably anticipate that they will become autonomous and become armed.”
“We can also expect such systems to be equipped with human detection and tracking devices including sensors which detect human breath and the radio waves associated with a human heart beat. These are technologies already developed.”
Robotics Professor Noel Sharkey has also repeatedly asserted that the robots being developed by Boston Dynamics will eventually be used for crowd control and to hunt down and kill people.
[Comment: check out the video — perhaps the future targets would be domestic “dissidents” — such as those with “Don’t tread on me” bumper stickers.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Racists Swamp First PEGIDA Rally in Sweden
Sweden’s first rally by the German-inspired anti-Islam movement Pegida in Malmö was dwarfed by a counter-demonstration about a hundred times larger, according to police estimates.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: PEGIDA in Linz Meets Fierce Resistance
The first protest in the Austrian city of Linz by Germany’s “anti-Islamization” movement Pegida drew just 150 supporters Sunday and was dwarfed by a counter-demo by some 2,000 people, police said.
A planned Pegida march through the centre of the northern city was abandoned after several hundred counter-demonstrators blocked their way, chanting “Auf Wiedersehen” (“Goodbye”), the Austria Press Agency reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: Terror Threat Remains at Level 3
OCAD, the body that analyses the terrorist threat in Belgium, has decided to keep the threat level at level 3, the second highest threat level. The body is keen to stress that the security services do not possess any tangible information about a specific terrorist threat in Belgium.
The decision to maintain the terrorist threat level at level 3 at least for a further two weeks means that a raft of measures remain in force. Under level 3 the military can be deployed to guard sensitive sites.Security measures are continuously being evaluated and adjustments are being made where necessary.
The threat level was raised to level 3 following the killing by police of two terrorist suspects in Verviers last month. Level 3 means that there is a serious terrorist threat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Business Leader Urges Early EU Referendum
(LONDON) — Three months before a general election which could help decide Britain’s future in Europe, a business leader Tuesday urged a referendum on EU membership next year, regardless of who takes power.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union by the end of 2017 if his Conservatives, currently leading a coalition government, win on May 7.
Ed Miliband’s main opposition Labour party, currently polling virtually neck-and-neck with the Conservatives, is committed to staying in the EU and does not plan to hold a referendum if it takes office.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Archaeologists to Dig up Waterloo
An international team of archaeologists specialised in battlefield excavations is headed for Waterloo in Belgium on the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s famous defeat at the hands of British and Prussian forces.
Tony Pollard, head of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow, told the press agency AFP that the excavations starting in April will allow a better understanding of the confrontation.
“We hope archaeology can provide answers to many of the questions about Waterloo that remain unanswered,” Mr Pollard said on Monday.
“These include the location of graves, which from accounts appear to have been scattered across a wide area,” he added.
Tens of thousands of bodies are believed to have been buried in mass graves at the site after the June 18, 1815 clash which forced Napoleon into exile.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Chocolate Dress for Stunning Miss Belgium
The Heizel exhibition centre was the place to be last weekend as the people of Belgium marvelled at the country’s latest chocolate creations at the Salon du Chocolat, a chocolate fair. One of the more unexpected creations was a dress made of pralines.
30,000 chocolate fans trekked to the Heizel to admire the latest creations by Belgium’s chocolatiers. The creations included chocolates made with sushi as well as chocolate dresses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Muslim Groups Worried About Mosque Protest Escalation –
Dutch Muslim groups worried about mosque protest escalation Society February 9, 2015 Dutch Muslim organisations say they are concerned about an increase in anti-Muslim incidents following Saturday’s ‘occupation’ of a mosque under construction in Leiden.
‘This was organised and could be the beginning of an escalation,’ lobby group Contactorgaan Moslims en Overheid (CMO) told the Volkskrant. ‘We are really worried about what might come next.’ On Saturday morning five men aged between 21 and 35 climbed onto the roof of the mosque and hung up banners reading ‘stop Islam’ and ‘the victory begins in Leiden’…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
France: Charlie Chaplin’s Oscar Stolen in Paris
“Well informed thieves” in Paris have stolen several possessions once owned by Charlie Chaplin, including a set of pens and his honorary Oscar — which has been valued at €1 million.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: DSK ‘Unaware’ Sex Party Women Were Paid
Disgraced ex-IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whose presidential hopes were torpedoed by a sex scandal, takes the stand at a French pimping trial Tuesday in a bid to convince judges he was not at the core of a prostitution ring.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Strauss-Kahn: Only 12 Sex Parties in Three Years
EX-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who denies charges of pimping, has told a court in northern France that he took part in only a few rare sex parties.
He said prosecutors had greatly exaggerated the frequency of his “licentious evenings”. There had only been 12 in three years, he said.
Mr Strauss-Kahn is accused of helping procure sex workers for a prostitution ring based at a hotel in Lille.
He has argued that he did not know the women were prostitutes.
Although using prostitutes is not illegal in France, supplying them or assisting in supplying them is. Prosecutors have been quoted as saying Mr Strauss-Khan, 65, played a pivotal role in facilitating the orgies, describing him as the “party king”.
If found guilty, the one-time potential candidate for the French presidency could face up to 10 years in jail and a €1.5m (£1.13m) fine.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Girls Switched at Birth: Court Awards €2m
The families of two babies mistakenly exchanged at birth 20 years ago by maternity hospital workers in Cannes were awarded nearly €2 million in damages by a French court on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Justice Minister Acknowledges Terrorism’s Power to Mobilize
Between the massacre at Charlie Hebdo and the killings of Jewish shoppers at a kosher grocery store, it would be easy to conclude that today’s crop of radical jihadists are simply madmen willing to commit wanton acts of violence against those they consider infidels. The French government, still reeling from those attacks, has a very different view: The terrorists responsible for the bloodshed know exactly what they’re aiming to do, and they’re quite good at it.
“It is a terrorism that is very innovative, because it shows that it can mobilize people,” French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said in an interview Monday. “This is why the response to this cannot only be surveillance or security.”
Even before the three days of violence in Paris last month that left 17 people dead, France already had ratcheted up its spying powers. Since last April, for example, surveillance on French telephone and Internet networks blocked would-be jihadis from as many as 15 terror networks from heading abroad. Taubira said.
But that didn’t stop the attacks, which were carried out by two men born and radicalized in France.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Neo-Nazis Arrested as PEGIDA Peters Out
The anti-Islam movement Pegida appears weakened by the loss of its former leader Lutz Bachmann, but in some places has lurched sharply to the right.
Only 2,000 people gathered outside the Frauenkirche in Pegida’s former stronghold of Dresden on Monday night, police said — a massive drop compared with the 17,000 who assembled on January 25th.
The wind has gone out of the movement’s sails since the departure of much of its leadership in recent weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Rejects Tsipras’ Reparation Call
Germany has rejected Greece’s call for Berlin to pay more World War II reparations to help offset billions of euros of current Greek debt. Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said the issue was settled by treaty 25 years ago.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Court Says Ruby Prostitute, Worked With Berlusconi
Judges say El Mahroug wanted life of luxury
(ANSA) — Milan, February 9 — Evidence in the high-profile pimping case involving ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi and an underaged escort “unequivocally” showed that Karima El Mahroug, better known as Ruby, prostituted herself to get rich, a Milan court said Monday in releasing its reasons for a decision involving three Berlusconi associates convicted of pimping. In 2013 Emilio Fede, a Berlusconi anchorman, Lele Mora, a former talent scout, and dental assistant-turned-politician Nicole Minetti were given prison sentences for pimping.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Swissleaks 3,276 Checks: Evasion on 741 Mn Euros
1,264 used ‘fiscal shield’ to bring 1.67 mn back
(ANSA) — Rome, February 9 — The 5,439 people flagged to Italian police in the Swissleaks case involving the HSBC bank led to 3,276 inspections which found tax evasion on income of 41,755,879 euro, and 4.5 mn in VAT, tax police sources said Monday. The 3,276 inspections showed that 1,264 Italians used the government’s ‘fiscal shield’ to repatriate 1,669,075,253 euros, tax police said Monday. Among those named in the media were fashion designer Valentino and MotoGP ace Valentino Rossi, who have both reached a settlement, and billionaire entrepreneur and former Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore, whose lawyer says his nine accounts are legal. Others include supermodel Elle ‘the body’ MacPherson, F1 ace Fernando Alonso and King Mohammed VI of Morocco.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mediobanca Six-Month Operating Profit Up 58%
321 million euros
(ANSA) — Milan, February 10 — The six-month operating profit of premier merchant bank Mediobanca rose 58% to 321 million euros, the bank said Tuesday.
Earnings were 15.9% up at 1,014.2 million euros.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Strauss-Kahn Prostitute Says ‘Animal’ Sex
‘Against nature,’ says former sex worker
(ANSA) — Rome, February 10 — A former prostitute told ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s pimping trial Tuesday she had had “animal intercourse, against nature,” with the former French presidential hopeful.
“I wasn’t accustomed to those practices,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Muslims in ‘Burn in Mosques’ Letter Threat
An Islamic centre in northern Italy has received a letter warning Muslims they will “burn in the mosques” if they don’t leave the country.
The anonymous, typed letter was sent from Turin to the Islamic centre in Imperia, Liguria, Il Secolo XIX reported.
“Go back to your pigsty or you’ll all burn in the mosques,” the letter said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Day of Memory Held for Victims of ‘Foibe’ Atrocities
Boldrini says past warns of dangers from intolerance, violence
(ANSA) — Rome, February 10 — Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini urged Italians to remember victims of intolerance and war as the nation marked a Day of Memory for thousands of Italians killed by Yugoslav partisan violence around the end of the Second World War.
“This day is dedicated to remembering, and also as a warning for the present and for the future against any forms of intolerance, war and any attempt to hide the truth,” said Boldrini, to loud applause in the Lower House.
Some 15,000 Italians living in the Istrian peninsula, in today’s Slovenia and Croatia, are believed to have died in the foibe — narrow mountain gorges — used to execute perceived enemies of the communist government of then-president Josef Tito.
Italians who had lived for centuries in the regions of Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia were attacked by Slovene and Croatian partisans, some in reprisal for Italian occupation of Istria during the war and others blamed for Fascist activities.
The killings creating long-lasting tensions in relations between Italy and the present republics of Croatia and Slovenia which have been accused of dragging their feet over compensation for exiles.
Ceremonies were held all over Italy to remember what ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi called “victims of communist tyranny” including a service at Rome’s Altar of the Fatherland where Mayor Ignazio Marino laid a wreath as he spoke of a “horrible tragedy” and denounced “the culture of nationalism that many deaths, violence and pain brought on our continent”.
Relatives of three victims of the foibe received awards presented by Italian President Sergio Mattarella in one of his first official events since his election less than two weeks ago.
The Day of Memory was instituted in Italy in 2005.
Last week, Education Minister Stefania Giannini said schoolchildren will be taught about “the tragic events that obliged hundreds of thousands of Italians…to leave their homes, breaking centuries of history and tradition”.
Some in the former Yugoslavia have a different perspective.
Slovenian President Danilo Turk in 2009 accused Italy of having an “ethical deficit” in its view of Fascism, which once dominated Italian public life.
Turk said then that a formal act of reconciliation was impossible while some Italian politicians still wanted “to put Fascists and the people who fought against them on the same level”.
“We cannot forget the many Fascist crimes during the Italian occupation (of the peninsula) that have gone unpunished,” Turk said at the time.
In contrast, Croatian president Stipe Mesic said at the time that he would be in favour of an act of reconciliation that would “honour innocent victims on all sides”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Prosecutors: Concordia Ship Captain Should Have Saved All
The failure of Costa Concordia’s captain to promptly order an evacuation of the cruise ship was the sole reason 32 people died, prosecutors said in their final arguments in court Tuesday.
A verdict in the 19-month-old trial is expected this week for Francesco Schettino, accused of causing the Jan. 13, 2012 shipwreck near the Italian island of Giglio, manslaughter and abandoning ship before all 4,200 aboard were evacuated.
Prosecutor Alessandro Leopizzi contended there would have been time for everyone to survive had Schettino quickly ordered evacuation after the Concordia smashed into a reef when he steered too close to the tiny island near Tuscany. Instead, it was “each man for himself,” Leopizzi said of the chaotic, delayed evacuation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Labour Plans ‘Blacklist’ To Curb Rising Hate Crime in UK
People convicted of homophobic, transgender or disability hate crime would be put on a “blacklist” to warn future employers of past misdemeanours under new proposals by Labour.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, will on Monday unveil a strategy to tackle the UK’s soaring rise in antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia and abuse of people with disabilities. The package includes making homophobic and disability hate crimes an aggravated criminal offence, ensuring that police treat such offences in the same way as racist hate crimes.
Cooper will outline changes to the criminal records framework whereby such offences will be clearly marked on the criminal records of perpetrators. Currently, records checks do not highlight homophobia, disability or transgender identity as a motivating factor in a conviction, and do not automatically appear in police data used for vetting applicants in sensitive vocations, such as those working with vulnerable people, including the disabled.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mahmoud Abbas to Meet Swedish Government Today
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to meet with representatives from the Swedish government Tuesday, as well as King Carl Gustaf.
This is his first visit to Sweden following the government’s decision to recognise Palestine as a state. Details of the visit are being mostly kept under wraps for security reasons, but Abbas and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven are due to hold a joint press conference this afternoon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: MPs Want Assurances Over Wider Powers for Security Services
MPs wants guarantees from the government that the decision to give the security services wider powers to tap phones and internet traffic will not be abused, website nu.nl reports on Tuesday. Home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk and defence minister Jeanine Hennis are due to present their draft legislation for expanding the security services’ intelligence-gathering powers shortly. Nu.nl questioned various party representatives about their position.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Over 1000 Germans Face HSBC Tax Prosecutions
Tax investigators are working their way through the files of 2,106 people with links to Germany revealed to have had secretive accounts with the Swiss branch of HSBC by leaks on Monday.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Monday that around one-third of the German customers used anonymized numbered accounts, while around 200 used shell companies to do business with the bank.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Assange Watch Policy Under Review
Police in London say they are looking over the policy of keeping police stationed outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, keeping watch on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, news agency AP reports.
Assange is wanted by Swedish police for questioning and possible prosecution for alleged sex crimes in Sweden, but has been staying in the embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition. He claims he fears being sent on to the United States to face trial for his work with WikiLeaks if he were to be sent to Sweden.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swissleaks: Al-Qaeda Financers Among HSBC Clients
Executives knew account holders had been charged with terrorism
(ANSAmed) — PARIS — Several of Al-Qaeda’s major financers, known collectively as the ‘Golden Chain’, have been found to be among those holding bank accounts at the Swiss HSBC, reported Le Monde on Tuesday.
The daily cited documents shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Among the men is a Saudi prince known in the past to have provided protection to Osama Bin Laden and another man from the Saudi royal family whose wife had sent payments to one of the alleged 9/11 attackers. Le Monde reports that other account holders included the former treasurer of an organization accused of money laundering for Al-Qaeda and the owner of a factory bombed by the US on suspicion of producing prohibited chemical weapons for sale on the black market. The list of names from the Golden Chain, the newspaper states, was found in Sarajevo in 2002 in a raid on a foundation that was actually a front for the financing of Islamic terrorism. Some of the names later appeared in the media while US secret services investigated the complex financing network for Al-Qaeda and its ‘sheikh’.
HSBC, however, did not modify in any way its relations with the people included on the list and continued to manage accounts in their names.
According to a 2012 US Senate report, bank executives and its service tasked with monitoring the money paid into the clients’ accounts knew that the individuals had been charged with having links with the terrorist group.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish PM Davutoglu: “Islam is Europe’s Indigenous Religion”
From a speech delivered in Zurich during his recent trip to Davos:
“I again call this out from Zurich: Islam is Europe’s indigenous religion, and it will continue to be its indigenous religion. From Andalusia to the Ottomans, and, half a century ago with the holy march of our people who came here from every corner of Anatolia. The sound of the azan [Islamic call to prayer], brought by these heroes to Europe, the domes of the mosques with which they dotted this continent, will all be protected.
We will continue to fight against all the hands that reach out to harm them [the mosques]. I kiss the foreheads of my brothers who carried the tekbir [i.e. the call “Allahu Akbar”] to Zurich. May Allah bless those who raised you. Blessed be those who came here with just a suitcase, in poverty, but with rich hearts filled with their faith [Islam].
How holy those people were, who came and sowed the seeds here, which will, with Allah’s help, continue to grow into a huge tree of justice in the center of Europe. No one will be able to stop this.”…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Samsung Warns Viewers: Our Smart TVs Could be Snooping on Your Private Conversations
If you settle down to watch television this evening, you might want to think twice about what you say out loud.
Samsung has warned owners of its internet-connected ‘smart TV’ that anything they discuss while sitting near the device may be overheard.
The popular televisions are voice activated, so users can switch channels or ask for suggestions of what to watch simply by giving a verbal command.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Teen Muslim Convert Brustholm Ziamani Told Police He Would ‘Harm David Cameron’
Brustholm Ziamani, 19, was arrested in London in August and found to be carrying a hammer and a knife wrapped in an Islamic flag, with prosecutors alleging he was on his way to a military base.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Police Arrest 21 Soccer Fans Following Deadly Stampede
Egyptian police have arrested 21 soccer fans in the wake of a deadly stampede outside a Cairo stadium and are accusing them of attacking policemen, damaging police cars and terrorizing the public, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
The prosecutor, Mohammed Seif, told reporters that none of the 21 had been formally charged with anything yet.
Authorities say at least 19 people were killed Sunday night, when police fired tear gas into a crowd of fans waiting in a fenced, narrow corridor to try to enter the stadium in eastern Cairo. Many of the dead suffocated or were trampled in the melee. It was the deadliest act of soccer-related violence in Egypt since 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Video: 10 People Beheaded in Egypt
Bodies of “Mossad spies” left on the street
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 10 — The Egyptian arm of ISIS has beheaded 10 people identifying them as “Mossad spies” and leaving their bodies on a street in northern Sinai, Egyptian sources said Tuesday, adding a video clip on the murders has been posted online.
The group — the former “Ansar Bait al-Maqdis” — has been calling itself a “State” or “Province of Sinai” (Wilayat Sinai) since it pledged allegiance to ISIS last November.
A video posted to the group’s website shows the beheading of a number of victims with a knife and then bodies with heads lying beside them on a street in a pool of blood.
The sources said the road connects Rafah, at the border with the Gaza Strio, to Arish.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Russia to Build Nuclear Power Plant to Generate Electricity in Egypt
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement whereby Russia will construct nuclear power plant to generate electricity in Egypt, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Assad Says Syria is Informed on Anti-IS Air Campaign
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad says his government is receiving messages from the US-led coalition battling the jihadist group, Islamic State.
Mr Assad told the BBC that there had been no direct co-operation since air strikes began in Syria in September.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Fighters Stream Into Syria, Iraq at Unprecedented Rate, US Officials Say
Foreign fighters are streaming into Syria and Iraq in unprecedented numbers to join the Islamic State or other extremist groups, including at least 3,400 from Western nations among 20,000 from around the world, U.S. intelligence officials say in an updated estimate of a top terrorism concern.
Intelligence agencies now believe that as many as 150 Americans have tried and some have succeeded in reaching in the Syrian war zone, officials told the House Homeland Security Committee in testimony prepared for delivery on Wednesday. Some of those Americans were arrested en route, some died in the area and a small number are still fighting with extremists.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kayla Mueller wrote her family a heart-wrenching letter nearly a year ago, possibly from the bowels of a Raqqa, Syria, building that U.S. special forces raided on July 4, 2014, only to learn Mueller — and at least three other hostages who were later killed — had been moved days earlier.
“If you could say I have ‘suffered’ at all throughout this whole experience it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through,” wrote Mueller, a 26-year-old aid worker from Arizona who was kidnapped in Syria by ISIS in August 2013.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS: Assad Tells BBC Syria ‘Informed on Strikes’
But not directly by US, messages also from Iraq
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 10 — The Syrian government is receiving messages on raids in the country from the US-led coalition fighting ISIS, although there has been no direct cooperation since air strikes began in September, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
Assad however said third parties, including Iraq, were conveying “information”.
The Syrian president told the BBC that the government receives generic messages, nothing tactic and that, though information is provided, there is no dialogue.
He also ruled out joining the anti-ISIS international coalition, saying Syria could not and would not join the alliance because Syria could never be allied to countries he said backed terrorism, without elaborating.
The Syrian president also denied that his army is using barrel-bombs to strike rebel-held areas, killing thousands of civilians.
“We have bombs, missiles and bullets There is (are) no barrel bombs, we don’t have barrels”, he told the BBC.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Prince Charles Intervenes in the Case of Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi
Welcomed by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to his private compound, the Al Ergah Palace, the prince diplomatically tackled the international outcry over Raif Badawi.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Butcher/Rapper of ISIS: German Jihadist Became Terrorists’ Poster Boy
A German rapper who eluded stardom has achieved twisted infamy with ISIS, appearing on videos gleefully hoisting a severed head and exhorting other radical Muslims to leave the Fatherland and join him on the killing fields of Syria and Iraq.
Deso Dogg, whose real name is Denis Cuspert, traded a middling career on the Berlin music scene to become the face of German-grown terror, first in Al Qaeda, and then in the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate. In recent years, Cuspert, 39, who the U.S. State Department on Monday designated a “global terrorist,” appeared in numerous propaganda videos aimed at recruiting German jihadists. But he was rumored to have been killed until he appeared in an especially grisly video that surfaced in November.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Security Council Looks to Put Funding Squeeze on ISIS
The U.N. Security Council is likely to consider a resolution this week that looks to halt funding for the Islamic State terror group and Al Qaeda-affiliated organizations.
The resolution, first drafted by Russia and distributed to the 15 council member nations last week, demands that countries not purchase oil from Islamic State, also known as ISIS, or ISIL, stop paying ransoms and not allow antiquities stolen by the terrorists to cross borders.
A vote has been scheduled for Thursday, a western U.N. diplomat told Fox News. It was unclear why the measure, which has broad support, could not be voted on sooner.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Western Sentiment ‘At Record Levels’ In Russia
(MOSCOW) — Anti-Western sentiment has reached historic levels in post-Soviet Russia, with a vast majority expressing negative attitudes towards the United States and the European Union, a poll showed on Monday.
Eighty one percent of respondents expressed negative attitudes towards the United States, up from 44 percent in January 2014.
The number of people who called ties between Moscow and Washington hostile has grown tenfold — to 42 percent last month from 4 percent in January 2014.
The poll also showed that traditionally good relations with the European Union have also taken a beating, with the number of people reporting negative attitudes towards the bloc more than doubling to 71 percent.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Outcast Belarus Unlikely Star of Ukraine Talks
(MINSK) — Political pariah turned would-be peacemaker, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko will bask in the limelight this week when European leaders desperate to end the Ukraine war are expected to gather in Minsk.
Lukashenko has been popularly branded in the West as Europe’s last dictator. But with Western criticism now homing increasingly in on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko has won breathing space and a chance to play a constructive role.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Sanctions Have Cost EU 21 Bn Euros
The EU has suffered 21 billion euros in lost exports as a result of sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, Spain’s foreign minister said Monday as he met his counterparts to discuss further measures.
“Sanctions have had a heavy cost for us all, the EU has so far lost 21 billion euros ($23.7 billion). In Spain we have been badly hit in terms of agriculture and tourism,” said Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, giving the first figure of its kind for the EU.
The European Union has become increasingly divided over the tough economic sanctions that it has progressively imposed on Russia since July, with some member states fearing for their trade ties with Moscow.
Exports for the 28-nation bloc to Russia in 2013 amounted to 119 billion euros, according to EU figures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Warns U.S. Arming Ukraine Will be Considered an Act of War
On Monday Obama said the United States is considering sending armaments and lethal aid to the regime in Ukraine…
As Obama vacillates and a bipartisan group in Congress demand the U.S. arm the Kiev regime under the terms of the Budapest Memorandum, the Russians warn military aid to Ukraine will result in “all-out-war.”
Alexei Pushkov, a leading Russian MP and an ally of President Vladimir Putin, told the European Parliament the delivery of arms to Ukraine is the first step in what will become larger participation in the conflict by the United States. He said sending armaments was one of the first steps in U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
“First they sent weapons, then they sent military advisers, then troops to protect military advisers, then troops to fight the Vietnamese.”
He warned the United States against following “an extremely dangerous path” and characterized U.S. Republican Senator John McCain as “trigger-happy.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Crisis: ‘Don’t Arm Kiev’ Russia Warns US
A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has told the European Parliament that “all-out war” could result if the US supplies arms to the Ukrainian government in Kiev.
Alexei Pushkov, a leading Russian MP, was addressing about 100 MEPs in the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
He was speaking after President Barack Obama said he had not ruled out sending arms to Kiev if diplomacy failed.
The option of lethal defensive weapons was being examined, Mr Obama said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ukraine Conflict: Battles Rage Ahead of Minsk Talks
Fighting has surged in eastern Ukraine as government forces and pro-Russian rebels try to make gains ahead of possible peace talks on Wednesday.
Separatist forces have carried out rocket attacks on a key military headquarters and a residential area in Kramatorsk, officials say.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s volunteer Azov battalion has launched an offensive against separatists around Mariupol.
More than 5,400 people have died since the conflict began last April.
The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany hope to meet in the Belarusian capital Minsk on Wednesday to hammer out a peace deal after months of fighting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Crisis ‘Fast Approaching Point of No Return’
With no side willing to back down, the political crisis in Bangladesh is worsening. Analyst Samina Ahmed tells DW there is an increased risk of military intervention as political battle lines become ever more entrenched.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Banned’ Jamaatud Dawa Thrives in Pakistan
It is listed as a terror outfit by the UN and its chief has a $10 million US government bounty against him, but Jamaatud Dawa operates freely across Pakistan, testing Islamabad’s new resolve to tackle militancy.
Pakistan vowed to end its tolerance of so-called “good” militants after a Taliban massacre at a school in Peshawar in December killed 153 people, the worst terror attack in the country’s history.
The government’s list of 60 or so banned organisations features the Pakistani Taliban and secessionist rebels from Balochistan province, but the state has long shied away from action against groups considered useful for fighting abroad in India or Afghanistan.
International powers including the US and India consider Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) to be no more than a front for Lashkar-i-Taiba (LT), the militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: Anti-Corruption Party Wins Big in Delhi
Huge setback for PM Modi
(ANSA) — Rome, February 10 — An anti-corruption party was headed for a big upset victory in the Delhi state elections Tuesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi admitted defeat after results showed Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) heading for a landslide in the 70-member assembly.
Modi, who has thus suffered a massive setback, congratulated the AAP leader and promised him complete support.
Kejriwal’s win marks a remarkable comeback for the anti-graft campaigner, a former tax inspector.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur: Sodomy Charges Upheld Against Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim
Appeal filed by the politician rejected. At first instance judges had imposed a sentence of five years. A political and judicial case spanning 17 years, against the only man able to counter the government hegemony. Activists speak of “political persecution”, the executive spokesman says it was a “fair trial”.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews / Agencies) — A Malaysian court has upheld the conviction for sodomy against the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, denying the motion to appeal the verdict of first instance and casting new doubt on his political career.
The Federal Court rejected the request for review of the previous ruling of March last year, which found him guilty of having engaged in sexual acts with a young aide, Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, sentencing him to five years in prison. Sodomy is illegal in the Asian Muslim majority country, although so far few people have been indicted (and punished) for this offense.
Anwar Ibrahim’s political and judicial history is characterized by an intricate story of accusations and imprisonment, which has lasted for over 17 years; the 67 year old Malaysian leader has always strongly rejected the charges, labeling them as gimmicks by the government to remove him from the political scene. He had been sentenced in March, with a ruling that overturned a previous acquittal. The government had opposed the ruling opening a new trial which resulted in a five year prison term, confirmed today.
Anwar Ibrahim was deputy prime minister until 1998, when he had to leave following allegations of corruption and sodomy, illegal in Malaysia even between consenting adults. Imprisoned in conjunction with the Asian financial crisis of the millennium, he spent six years in prison.
Released in 2004, the opposition leader returned to active politics and the 2008 won elections thanks to his popularity among the electorate, especially among Malaysians of Chinese and Indian origin. He, in fact, despite having a history as an Islamic fundamentalist, has supported the struggle of Catholics on the use of the word “Allah” and promotes a campaign — opposed to the government — which unites the Malay majority with the ethnic and religious minorities.
Analysts and local political experts explain that Anwar leads a coalition of three parties and is the only man able to counter the hegemony of the political leadership in Kuala Lumpur. The Barisan Nasional has been in command since 1957, but in the last elections in May 2013 got the worst result in its history.
The chief judge Arifin Zakat spoke of “overwhelming evidence” against Anwar Ibrahim and confirmed five years in prison. Hundreds of supporters outside the court protested loudly at the reading of the judgment.
Activists and human rights movements, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Prime Minister Najib Razak and the government of perpetrating a “political persecution” in regard to Anwar; a government spokesman responded saying it had been a “fair trial”, at the end of an “objective and balanced” evaluation of the evidence.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim Found Guilty in Sodomy Trial
Malaysia’s top court has upheld sodomy charges against Anwar Ibrahim, upholding a five-year prison term against the opposition leader. Anwar’s supporters claim that the charges against him are politically motivated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia’s Opposition Leader Says He is the Victim of a ‘Political Conspiracy’
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim,67, said he was the victim of a ‘political conspiracy’ as the nation’s highest court sent him to jail for five years after upholding his conviction for sodomy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Asia’s Track Stars in the Great Rail Race
Japanese manufacturers of railway vehicles are increasingly competing with Chinese rivals in the United States as they brace for the opening of a bid later this year for cars to serve a planned high-speed rail link in California.
Last year, as Beijing orchestrated its policy to push railway exports, China CNR, the world’s biggest builder of rolling stock, overtook Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries and other bidders to supply vehicles in a project to renew Boston’s subway system.
Pricing by Chinese players appears to be a major factor troubling Japanese executives. “We may lose a market as a result of dumping-like price offers” from Chinese businesses, said an official at a Japanese manufacturer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hong Kong Policeman Cleared of Assault After Claiming He Was Performing Exorcism on Lover
A police inspector convicted of assaulting his lover had his name cleared yesterday after the top court found his excuse that he had been performing an exorcism was not totally incredible.
Simon Lau Shing-chung, 45, was witnessed slapping the woman on January 4, 2012, according to the written judgment from the Court of Final Appeal. He then repeatedly pushed her up and down on the bed in her flat in Tai Po.
Lau claimed his acts, however, had been lawful as he had consent from the victim — named only as Ms Yau — to use limited violence while attempting to rid her of a ghost.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Korean Woman’s Hair ‘Eaten’ By Robot Vacuum Cleaner as She Slept
The woman was sleeping on the floor of her home when the robotic cleaner ingested her hair leaving her in agony
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Australian Mammals on Brink of ‘Extinction Calamity’
Australia has lost one in ten of its native mammals species over the last 200 years in what conservationists describe as an “extinction calamity”.
No other nation has had such a high rate of loss of land mammals over this time period, according to scientists at Charles Darwin University, Australia.
The decline is mainly due to predation by the feral cat and the red fox, which were introduced from Europe, they say.
Large scale fires to manage land are also having an impact.
As an affluent nation with a small population, Australia’s wildlife should be relatively secure from threats such as habitat loss.
But a new survey of Australia’s native mammals, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests the scale of the problem is more serious than anticipated.
Since 1788, 11% of 273 native mammals living on land have died out, 21% are threatened and 15% are near threatened, the study found. Marine mammals are faring better.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Counterterrorism Police Arrest 2 Men in Sydney Raids, Knife and Flag Reportedly Seized
CANBERRA, Australia — Police say two men are in custody after counterterrorism raids in Sydney.
A police official, who spoke on the police service’s usual condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday the arrests were made in the Sydney suburb of Fairfield on Tuesday. She would give no other details.
She would not comment on media reports that police seized a hunting knife, flag and other items.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Two Arrested at Fairfield on Terrorism Offences
Two men will appear in Fairfield Court this morning in relation to serious terrorism related offences following a major NSW Joint Counter Terrorism (JCTT) operation in Sydney yesterday.
Operation ‘CASTRUM’ is a NSW Police Force led Joint Counter Terrorism Team Sydney Office investigation into the alleged activities of two men at Fairfield.
The men, aged 24 and 25 years old were arrested yesterday at a house in Riverview Road at Fairfield, just after four o’clock yesterday afternoon.
The men have been charged with Acts done in preparation, for ,or planning terrorists acts.
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said it will be alleged that the two were going to undertake an act of terrorism in Australia as revenge for incidents overseas.
“We will be alleging that the two men were well advanced in their preparations.”
“As a result of the police activities yesterday a number of items were seized and will be included as part of our evidence in court, and include a video recording, a flag, a machete and a hunting knife,” Deputy Commissioner Burn said…
| — Hat tip: KU | [Return to headlines] |
Mugabe ‘Suspends 27 Bodyguards’ For Failing to Stop His Podium Fall
The 90-year-old Zimbabwe President was caught on camera taking a tumble after addressing supporters at Harare Airport last week.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria Investigates Report of Rapes, Trafficking in Camps
Nigerian officials Tuesday formed a panel to investigate a report of rapes, child trafficking and other abuses in northeastern camps for people fleeing from Boko Haram.
A report funded by Nigeria’s Calabar-based International Centre for Investigative Reporting alleged some officials who should be protecting displaced people are participating in the abuse.
The National Emergency Management Agency said a “high-level investigative” panel will look into the charges and report back in two weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Venezuelan Authorities Close in on Private Sector
The president of the Association of Clinics and Hospitals in Venezuela recently warned in a television interview about the shortages of medicine and medical equipment across the country.
“There is a 60 to 70 percent shortage of medicines, and half the equipment is unusable because there are no spare parts. Patients with chronic diseases are not following their treatments and run the risk of serious complications,” said Doctor Carlos Rosales last Wednesday.
Two days later, he was detained by the country’s Sebin intelligence service at his home in Valencia. He was released with a warning: don’t use expressions “that could cause alarm among the population.”
“Businessmen will now fill up the lists of political prisoners in Venezuela,” wrote Jorge Roig, president of Fedecámeras, which groups business associations across the country, on his Twitter account.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration in Denmark at an All-Time High
2014 was a record year for immigration in Denmark thanks in large part to Syrians and a rapidly-growing number of Western immigrants.
New figures from Statistics Denmark show that nearly 65,000 foreigners moved to Denmark in 2014, an all-time record for the highest number of immigrants in a single year. The 64,874 foreign nationals who came to Denmark last year represented a 15 percent increase over 2013, which held the previous record.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 29 Boat Migrants Die of Hypothermia
Twenty-nine African migrants intercepted by Italian authorities while trying to reach Europe by boat in rough and icy conditions have died of hypothermia, most after being rescued, sources said on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Die of Cold Off Italian Coast
Twenty-nine African migrants attempting to reach Italy by boat died from hypothermia on Monday, reports AFP. The Italian coastguard rescued 105 people in the boat overnight but seven were already found dead from exposure to cold weather conditions. Another 22 died after the rescue.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Must be Done to Save Migrants, EU
29 froze to death off Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 10 — More must be done to save migrants in the Mediterranean, European Immigration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said Tuesday, a day after 29 migrants were found frozen to death on board a boat off the southern Italian sisland of Lampedusa. “A drama is unfolding. Our fight against traffickers continues in a constant and coordinated way…Every life lost is one too many,” he tweeted. More than 3,000 migrants died crossing the Mediterranean last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
On Monday Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini tweeted “horror off Lampedusa, people don’t die in a shipwreck but from the cold — this is the consequence of the end of #MareNostrum”, referring to Italy’s former sweeping rescue-and-surveillance operation in the Mediterranean.
Former UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Boldrini has repeatedly voiced her concern for the end of operation Mare Nostrum, which she says has created a gap in services to those fleeing their home countries via the Mediterranean. Last November 1, Mare Nostrum was replaced by the smaller Triton operation of the EU’s Frontex border patrol agency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Obama “Hopeful” Immigration Will Drown Conservatism
The spread of vibrant social diversity is constricting the GOP’s ability to champion conservative causes, such as smaller government and independent families, President Barack Obama said in a softball media interview.
“Over the long term, I’m pretty optimistic, and the reason is because this country just becomes more and more of a hodgepodge of folks,” Obama told Vox editor Ezra Klein.
“People are getting more and more comfortable with the diversity of this country, much more sophisticated about both the cultural differences but more importantly, the basic commonality that we have,” he said in his talk, which was recorded Jan 23.
But for Obama, “commonality” is a go-to euphemism for big, intrusive, nation-wide government by progressive experts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Border Stormed by 400 in Melilla
35 migrants manage to break through
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 10 — A group of 35 sub-Saharan migrants were able to cross the border into Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, at dawn on Tuesday after repeated attempts overnight to storm the barrier at the border by an estimated 400 migrants.
According to local security sources, the migrants that were able to enter have reached the local migrant holding center (Ceti) in the autonomous city, while 20 other sub-Saharans have been clinging for hours to the barrier at the border, in the area of Barrio Chino, the border crossing used by Moroccan workers to reach the Spanish enclave, which has been shut down.
Three of the immigrants who reached the holding center are being treated in hospital over injuries reported when they stormed the barrier.
Pressure on the autonomous city has increased over the past few days after the Moroccan government announced that camping sites near Ceuta and Melilla will be dismantled. The camping sites are used by migrants to wait for the best moment to storm the barrier and cross into Spanish territory.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
America’s Colleges Have Become Political Correctness Indoctrination Centers
Most parents assume that when they send their kids to college that they will receive training which will prepare them for a lifetime of employment. Sadly, the truth is that very little time is actually spent imparting practical skills to students at most of America’s colleges. Instead, an extraordinary amount of classroom time is spent telling students what they should think and what they should believe. At this point, most institutions of “higher learning” in this country have been transformed into political correctness indoctrination centers. There is a reason why college towns have a reputation for being extremely liberal. The truth is that they are bastions for “progressive” thought. Each and every day, millions of young adults all across America are literally being systematically brainwashed. In case you are wondering, I know what I am talking about. I spent eight years getting three degrees at public universities. And it doesn’t even really matter what area of the country you attend school. The “education” that students are receiving at schools in very liberal states is virtually the same as the “education” that students are receiving at schools in very conservative states. Our young adults represent the future of this nation, and they are receiving a level of indoctrination that is so comprehensive that it would make Joseph Goebbels proud.
Colleges and universities all across this nation spend an extraordinary amount of time and effort to alter the belief systems of their students. This even extends to teaching them what words are “appropriate” to use and which words are not. For example, just check out what is happening at the University of Michigan…
[Comment: The communist indoctrination is working. Conservatives are very worried having seen polls taken from the next generation on their voting pattern — overwhelmingly leftist.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Told She Can Use Dead Husband’s Sperm
A 50-year-old woman has won a legal battle to use sperm taken from her dead husband for IVF in a landmark ruling by an Italian court.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Top Appeals Court Rejects Gay Marriage
But Cassation Court says same rights as unwed Italian couples
(ANSA) — Rome, February 9 — Italy’s highest appeals court on Monday rejected same-sex marriage, saying there was nothing in the Constitution that requires the government to extend marriage rights to gays.
However, the Cassation Court added that homosexuals have the right to a “protective” law that would ensure same-sex couples have the same rights as unmarried Italian couples. Neither same-sex marriage nor civil unions between same-sex partners are legally recognized in Italy but some cities, including Rome, have a civil union register.
Late last month, Rome city council also passed an amendment saying that same-sex marriages contracted abroad are to be automatically transcribed into the newly created civil union register.
“This is not only an act of civility and respect…it (puts us) in line with the main European countries with whom we share our political and cultural history,” Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino said at the time.
Marino is among a number of Italian mayors who have defied orders from Interior Minister Angelino Alfano to not include same-sex marriages contracted abroad in local marriage registers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sanremo Host Downplays Controversy Surrounding Wurst
Conti says Austrian drag queen coming ‘just to sing’
(ANSA) — Sanremo, February 9 — Controversy has been swirling in recent days regarding the scheduled appearance of bearded Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst at Sanremo, Italy’s annual music festival, but festival host Carlo Conti downplayed the controversy on Monday, saying the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest winner was coming “just as an artist, to sing”.
The decision to host Wurst at Sanremo, which is broadcast on public TV station RAI1, raised the ire of the Catholic TV viewer advocacy group AIART.
The group’s president, Luca Borgomeo, said the decision to host Wurst “shows for the umpteenth time how RAI (…) persists in squandering public money, right at the time the annual public television fee is to be paid, with guests of dubious quality”.
Borgomeo said the drag queen would be paid about 120,000 euros for appearing at the festival.
Conti said this is the first year that the Sanremo winner will automatically be given the opportunity to appear at Eurovision, the annual Europe-wide music competition.
“So it seemed right to host the person who won last year.
If we were in 1974, we would have invited Abba,” Conti said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Silvana Imam Voted “Homo of the Year”
Abba star Anni-Frid Lyngstad Reuss and Eurovision winner Loreen were among the guests as the annual Gaygala was held in Stockholm Monday night.
“Homo of the year” was hip-hop artist Silvana Imam, while the “Hetero of the year” award was given to the chairman of Kiruna Ice Hockey Club, Johan Köhler. The team changed their strip last season to include the rainbow flag, to fight against homophobia in the sporting world, in what they call “ the most laddish sport in the most laddish city in Sweden”. They also won the “Keep up the good work” award.
Other winners in the annual event, organised by the LGBT magazine QX and voted on by its readers, were “Artist of the year”, Alcazar, and “Best moment of the year” went to drag queen Conchita Wurst’s victory at the Eurovision Song Contest, and her “Rise Like A Phoenix” was also voted “Best foreign song of the year”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Illusion of the EU’s Commitment to LGBT Rights
The EU is good at promoting LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi- and trans-sexual) rights beyond its borders, but it should pay more attention to what is happening in its member states.
Same-sex couples are now able to wed in the UK (with the exception of Northern Ireland) and Finland, while the Maltese government unanimously approved a Civil Unions bill which also grants same-sex couples the right to adopt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What They’re Not Telling You About Feminism
Despite its beginnings as a genuine women’s rights movement in the late 19th century, feminism has since been corrupted into a tool of social control steered by the establishment to destroy families and to promote dependence on the state.
The CIA and other powerful interests hijacked the feminist movement in the 1950s to divide women and men, ensuring that individuals have closer ties to the government and not with each other through personal connections such as families.
It also ensures the population is too busy fighting among themselves to notice true oppression imposed by governments, especially when it comes to women who are routinely abused and even executed by officials in the Middle East for victimless crimes such as driving.
Gloria Steinem, a leading icon of the feminist movement, even admitted she received funding from the CIA and the Rockefeller foundation to infiltrate the counter-culture movement of the 1960s to promote this new feminist agenda.
To learn more about the feminist movement, the article 10 Ways True Feminism is Under Attack is a great primer and the following videos also provide a wealth of truth about feminism.
[Comment: Note the last video — New Iraqi Law Legalizes Rape: ‘Feminists’ Too Busy Banning Words to Care.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Heart of Earth’s Inner Core Revealed
Scientists say they have gained new insight into what lies at the very centre of the Earth.
Research from China and the US suggests that the innermost core of our planet has another, distinct region at its centre.
The team believes that the structure of the iron crystals there is different from those found in the outer part of the inner core. Prof Song and his colleagues in China say this data suggests that the Earth’s inner core — a solid region that is about the size of the Moon — is made up of two parts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Too Big to Sail? Container Ship Giants Veer Off Course in Battle of the Mega Vessels
Container shipping lines have gone astray in serving global trade amid their craze for mega vessels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On the Federal Reserve mobilizing against Rand Paul’s Bill to have that money sucking behemoth finally audited – of course the fed has nothing to hide. (sarc)
Europe’s indigenous religion was worship of the Mother Goddess (see the writings of Marija Gimbutas). About as far from Islam as one can get.
“Indigenous” refers to the first people in a region. There were people in Europe many thousands of years ago, during the various glaciations of the Ice Ages, long before Moses and monotheism were conceived of.
What a fool.
What?
Is the GoV “news feed” now competing with The Onion? Or did we just fast forward to April 1 and no one told me?