Thanks to a timely tip, police in Halifax, Nova Scotia were able to foil a plot in which four individuals had planned to carry out mass murder in a public place on St. Valentine’s Day, in accordance with their beliefs. A police commander did not say what those beliefs were, except that “they were not culturally based.” Officials also said the incident was not related to Islamic terrorism.
In other news, mujahideen for the Islamic State penetrated the perimeter of Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq, where 300 U.S. Marines are training Iraqi troops. Fortunately, Iraqi army forces were able to repel the attack and re-secure the base.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Papa Whiskey, Phyllis Chesler, 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.
Greece: Foreign Investors Worried Over Gov’t Plans
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, FEBRUARY 13 — International concern is growing following the announcement of Greek government’s program in Parliament — as daily Kathimerini online reports -, with worries expressed and interest withdrawn in a number of instances concerning investment and privatization projects. The Chinese premier Li Keqiang has asked the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras to support his country’s plans for investing in Piraeus port, the chief executive of Canadian firm Eldorado Gold, Paul Wright, arrived in Athens on Thursday to speak to the government about the mines it controls in Halkidiki after Environment and Energy Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis pledged to cancel the investment at Skouries, and Italy’s Terna announced its withdrawal from the bidding for the acquisition of power grid operator ADMIE. A week ago the notable absence of foreign oil companies rendered the tender for the concession of blocks for hydrocarbon surveying and utilization in western Greece a Greek-only affair, following the withdrawal of three major multinationals (Total, Shell and Repsol) and the last-minute dropout by Italy’s Enel.
Beijing’s concern about a halt in the privatization process for Piraeus Port Authority was reflected in the phone conversation that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang had with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, which was published on the Chinese government’s website on Thursday. Li assured Tsipras that the Cosco investment in Piraeus “has favored job creation,” adding: “I hope both sides respect their commitments. China wishes to cooperate with Greece to turn this port into a transit junction between China and Europe. We hope that the Greek government supplies the biggest legal guarantees to Chinese enterprises in Greece.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s GDP Flat in Q4 2014, Recession Over
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 13 — Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) was flat in the fourth quarter of 2014 with respect to the previous three months, marking the end of the country’s recession, according to preliminary estimates released by Istat on Friday. Italy’s GDP was 0.3% down in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2013, the statistics agency said. Istat added that Italy’s GDP fell 0.4% in 2014 as a whole compared to 2013, according to preliminary data adjusted for the fact that there were two fewer working days last year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
New Greek Bailout Programme an Option: EU Official
(BRUSSELS) — Greece’s creditors could discuss a new international bailout programme to replace the one that new hard-left Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wants to scrap, a senior EU official said Friday.
Tsipras, who was elected in January, used a European summit on Thursday to press his demands for an end to the current EU-IMF rescue package which enforces austerity-heavy reforms on Greece.
Greek negotiators held technical talks with creditors in Brussels on Friday ahead of a crunch meeting on Monday of eurozone finance ministers, who have previously called on Athens to extend the current bailout.
Greece is facing a possible exit from the euro after its 240-billion-euro ($270-billion) EU-IMF assistance package expires at the end of February, as without further aid it could run out of cash within weeks or months and end up defaulting.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Swedish central bank will start buying 10 billion kronor worth of government bonds, and cut the interest rate to 0.1%, the BBC reported. Meanwhile the German Bundesbank is to buy around €10 billion worth of bonds monthly, as part of the ECB’s quantitative easing programme.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Unemployment is Killing 45,000 People Each Year
The number of suicides related to unemployment remains stubbornly high despite the improving economy, according to a study published this week.
Researchers had previously registered a spike in suicides during the global economic crisis that began in 2008, suggesting that financial stress and hardship had contributed to the rise. But an analysis published on Tuesday in The Lancet Psychiatry by doctors at the University of Zurich in Switzerland estimates that about 5,000 suicides were associated with the crisis, while roughly nine times as many self-inflicted deaths are linked to unemployment each year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alleged Chapel Hill Shooter Had History of Parking Disputes, Tow-Truck Driver Says
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—A local tow-truck driver said that the man accused of killing three Muslim students Tuesday night had a history of reporting neighbors for parking in spaces that weren’t theirs and creating “a lot of drama.”
Christopher Lafreniere said his company had a contract for towing in the Finley Forest neighborhood where the alleged shooter, Craig Stephen Hicks, and two of the three victims lived. Mr. Lafreniere said the company was called “every day, or at least several times a week” for more than a year by Mr. Hicks with requests to tow cars that Mr. Hicks said weren’t parked in the proper spaces. In one incident, Mr. Hicks had a gun, Mr. Lafreniere said.
“This guy towed an obscene amount of cars,” Mr. Lafreniere said. “It got to the point where we stopped answering his calls.”
[…]
Mr. Lafreniere said he was shocked when he saw coverage of Tuesday’s fatal shootings in the quiet neighborhood. “The news is saying, ‘hate crime, hate crime,’ but then I found out it was that guy and I thought, ‘Hmm, it actually might have been a parking issue,’ “ Mr. Lafreniere said. “He was all about towing.”
[An evil-tempered lout who, according to witnesses, “had equal opportunity anger” and “was all about towing.” Not an “Islamophobe” at all — but don’t expect those big federal feet to be stepping all over this case in search of the truth. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: Mainstreaming Jew Hatred in America
US President Barack Obama is mainstreaming anti-Semitism in America.
This week, apropos of seemingly nothing, in an interview with Mathew Yglesias from the Vox.com website, Obama was asked about terrorism. In his answer the president said the terrorism threat is overrated. And that was far from the most disturbing statement he made.
Moving from the general to the specific, Obama referred to the jihadists who committed last month’s massacres in Paris as “a bunch of violent vicious zealots,” who “randomly shot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.”
In other words, Ahmedy Coulibaly, the terrorist at Hyper Cacher, the kosher supermarket he targeted, was just some zealot. The Jews he murdered while they were shopping for Shabbat were just “a bunch of folks in a deli,” presumably shot down while ordering their turkey and cheese sandwiches…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Chapel Hill Suspected Shooter Fan of SPLC, Rachel Maddow
by Joseph Farah
When a white guy in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was charged with putting bullets in the heads of three Muslims, you might expect the multicultural left to be screaming “Islamophobe,” “hate crime” and demanding sensitivity training in schools and in workplaces.
But we haven’t heard that.
Why?
Because Craig Hicks, the suspect charged in the murders, is an atheist, a fan of the Southern Poverty Law Center and likes MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, “The Science Guy” Bill Nye, same-sex marriage groups and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
So he’s immune to the label.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chapel Hill Murderer: “Knowing Several Dozen Muslims… I’d Prefer Them to Most Christians”
By Robert Spencer
This won’t stop the mainstream media/Islamic supremacist/Obama myth-making, but here is yet more evidence that the psychopath who murdered three Muslims in cold blood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina last Tuesday was not motivated by “Islamophobia,” much as the jihad enablers wish that he had been — because hate crimes against Muslims are so very useful to them.
“Everything We Know So Far About The Alleged Chapel Hill Shooter,” by David Mack, Buzzfeed, February 12, 2-15 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
…In a post on Aug. 19, 2010, debating the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” on XDtalk.com, an account that appeared to belong to Hicks posted that he had known “several dozen Muslims” and believed “that they aren’t what most think of them.”
[…]
‘While the terrorists who did the 9/11 attacks were Muslims, they were extremists in that faith which isn’t common.”
[…]
“I don’t see how anyone who calls themselves American can claim that a Mosque shouldn’t be TWO BLOCKS AWAY from what is known as ground zero.”
[If this doesn’t blow the “anti-Muslim hate crime” narrative out of the water, I don’t know what would. But don’t worry, the prog propaganda machine has “Plan B” ready: change the subject to gun control. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Dearborn Woman: I Saw Muslim Man Attacked at Kroger
Dearborn Police said today they are investigating an alleged bias assault by two white men against an Arab-American Muslim man who was shopping Thursday at a Kroger grocery store in the city.
The incident sparked fears among Arab Americans in Dearborn that they are not safe from bias attacks even in a city that has the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the U.S.
Kathy McMillan Bazzi, 60, of Dearborn told the Free Press that two white men at a Kroger near the corner of Michigan and Greenfield avenues attacked the Arab-American man and taunted his daughter, who wears an Islamic headscarf, or hijab. Bazzi said the pair were passing by the man and his family while making insulting comments about ISIS and Muslims.
Bazzi said the men used derogatory words against the Arab-American man.
“I hear ‘ISIS,’ I hear ‘terrorist,’ I hear ‘go back to your country’ and ‘raghead,’“ Bazzi said in an interview Friday with the Free Press.
Then, “all of a sudden, the man is punching this Arabic man, fists started flying.”
Bazzi, a white convert to Islam who wears a hijab and is a lifelong Dearborn resident, said the Arab-American man tried to defend himself with punches and one of his attackers “got all bloodied.”
At one point, the young son of the Arab-American man “tried to jump in,” but Bazzi blocked his path to prevent a further escalation. Meanwhile, the young “daughter was hysterical,” Bazzi said.
During the attack, she said, an employee of Kroger “came and he grabbed the Arabic guy, and let the … guys beat on him. They were throwing punches at the Arabic guy.”
At 5:57 p.m., Bazzi called 911…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
DHS is “Positioning” To Secretly Arrest American Dissidents in Preparation for World War III
Visionaries such as Steve Quayle and Doug Hagmann have been warning us for decades about the creation of a so-called “Red List”. The Red List is a modern-day interpretation of Nixon “Enemies list”. However, what is happening today is much more nefarious. The “Red List” is a “dissident removal list” and it will be conducted with extreme prejudice.
The people who have referred to such lists and those brave enough to expose them, as “fear-mongers”, may soon change their tune. After reading this article, these people are going to have a little harder time sleeping tonight. Why Is Obama Transferring Intelligence Gathering on American Citizens from the NSA to the DHS?
This is the $64 million dollar question. When the NSA gathers information on Dave Hodges, the information may be shared with the Fusion Threat Centers and various domestic law enforcement agencies. However, the NSA’s intelligence is not immediately actionable. For NSA intelligence to be acted upon, a second generation set of agencies have to be involved. This is cumbersome and slow.
Who are the bullets for?
Who has the ability to oversee intelligence gathering and simultaneously act upon the intelligence? It is none other than the Department of Homeland Security. It is also the DHS that has, in the past two years, acquired 2.2 billion rounds of ammunition as well as 2700 armored personnel carriers, not the NSA. It is clear that DHS is the army of the central bankers who have hijacked our government and they are preparing to remove dissidents.
[Comment: A MUST READ article.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
F.B.I. Inquiry Into Muslim Students’ Deaths Praised by Civil Rights Groups
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Muslim and Arab-American groups on Friday welcomed the news that the F.B.I. would look into the killing of three Muslim students in North Carolina, even as outrage and pressure for action grew around the world.
The government of Jordan — the former home for the family of two of the victims — warned Washington that it was closely monitoring the case, while the prime minister of Turkey rebuked President Obama for not speaking out.
[…]
Advocates for Muslims, civil rights groups and the victims’ families said Friday that even if the F.B.I. inquiry was partly about appearances, those appearances matter, sending a needed message that the federal government takes anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias seriously. Family members, saying the police told them all three victims had been shot in the head, say they do not accept statements by the authorities that the fatal confrontation appeared to have begun, at least, as a neighborhood parking dispute.
“Everybody in both families — brothers, sisters, parents — believes wholeheartedly that this is a hate crime, so they feel validated that the F.B.I. is looking into it,” said Linda Sarsour, who has acted as a spokeswoman for the families.
[The New York Times reporters omit Linda Sarsour’s status as a professional Muslim agitator from their own fair city. “All the news that’s print to fit.” — PW]
| [Return to headlines] |
Federal Bill Announced to Eliminate All Vaccine Exemptions for Head Start
Vaccine Liberation Army reports:
Senator Barbara Boxer (D) and Representative Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto), have proposed federal legislation that would for the first time impose Federal, as opposed to State, vaccine mandates to attend an educational program. The legislators’ bill entitled A Head Start on Vaccinations Act would require all children enrolled in Head Start to get all of the vaccinations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) according to the CDC’s timetable. There would be no exemptions for religious or personnel beliefs. READ MORE…AND TAKE ACTION
Indeed, Monterey Herald reports the ladies’ plan to introduce the federal bill next week. Eshoo tried to exercise her comedic abilities when she said, “This bill is a ‘booster shot’ for our nation’s vaccine policies and will mitigate the spread of deadly disease.” Get it?
They swooned “the genius” of American scientists for creating vaccines to eradicate polio, and emphasize that this bill is necessary to make sure over a million “of our children” are protected from deadly disease. But repeating the term “deadly disease” does not wipe out the fact that zero people have died from measles since the early 2000s, that many of the people who got measles from California were vaccinated, and that 108 people that we know of have died after getting measles vaccines. And the tragic results of the polio vaccine are a whole other story. And another.
Medical exemptions would still be allowed, but those are extremely rare and difficult to obtain.
Since writing about California’s proposal to eliminate any schoolchildren vaccine waivers for personal beliefs — it turns out, multiple states have either passed, or are in the process of moving similar bills through. Many of them surround tightening exemptions by requiring the parents to submit to a medical consult (intimidation, warning) before being allowed to opt their children out. Again, this is setting the stage for things to come. Exemptions were always viewed as “loopholes” from the start, with time limits set to “close the loop.”
And while New York has taken steps to expand exemptions, a federal bill can easily undo all of that.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Futurist: Smart Meters Will Know What TV Show You’re Watching
Global security futurist Marc Goodman warns that smart meters may one day be able to detect what television programs people are watching, another example of how the ‘Internet of Things’ threatens to jeopardize privacy.
Goodman, who has previously worked as an advisor to the FBI, the US Secret Service and Interpol, told Singularity Hub’s Jason Dorrier that the widespread implementation of the ‘Internet of Things’ could lead to “catastrophic consequences,” such as cars being remotely hacked and made to crash.
“Twenty years ago nobody worried about their car being hacked,” said Goodman. “Today, a typical car uses over 250 microchips that can be hacked remotely. Somebody can remotely deploy your airbag or slam on the brakes as you’re going down the highway.”
The futurist also warned that the arrival of the ‘smart home’ would lead to a cornucopia of new surveillance opportunities, echoing former CIA director David Petraeus, who hailed the “Internet of things” as a transformational boon for “clandestine tradecraft” in a 2012 Wired Magazine interview.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Go to Prison for Sharing Files? That’s What Hollywood Wants in the Secret TPP Deal
The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) poses massive threats to users in a dizzying number of ways. It will force other TPP signatories to accept the United States’ excessive copyright terms of a minimum of life of the author plus 70 years, while locking the US to the same lengths so it will be harder to shorten them in the future. It contains extremeDRM anti-circumvention provisions that will make it a crime to tinker with, hack, re-sell, preserve, and otherwise control any number of digital files and devices that you own. The TPP will encourage ISPs to monitor and police their users, likely leading to more censorship measures such as the blockage and filtering of content online in the name of copyright enforcement. And in the most recent leak of the TPP’s Intellectual Property chapter, we found an even more alarming provision on trade secrets that could be used to crackdown on journalists and whistleblowers who report on corporate wrongdoing.
Here, we’d like to explore yet another set of rules in TPP that will chill users’ rights. Those are the criminal enforcement provisions, which based upon the latest leak from May 2014 is still a contested and unresolved issue. It’s about whether users could be jailed or hit with debilitating fines over allegations of copyright infringement. Dangerously Low Threshold of Criminality
The US is pushing for a dangerously broad definition of a criminal violation of copyright, where even noncommercial activities could get people convicted of a crime. The leak also shows that Canada has opposed this definition. Canada supports language in which criminal remedies would only apply to cases where someone infringed explicitly for commercial purposes.
This distinction is crucial. Commercial infringement, where an infringer sells unauthorized copies of content for financial gain, is and should be a crime. But that’s not what the US is pushing for—it’s trying to get language passed in TPP that would make a criminal out of anyone who simply shares or otherwise makes available copyrighted works on a “commercial scale.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is the National Guard the “Well Regulated Militia?”
Constitutional scholar Dr. Edwin Vieira answers the question…
[Comment: No. Watch the video to see why.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Make Susan B. Anthony Day a National Holiday
by Phyllis Chesler
On Sunday, February 15, five American states — Wisconsin, Florida, West Virginia, New York and California — will officially celebrate the birthday of an American hero: women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony.
This should be a national holiday.
A second American revolution began in 1840, when Anthony’s colleagues, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were turned away and not allowed to speak against slavery at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London — because they were women. In 1848, Anthony, Mott, Stanton and others held a historic meeting in Seneca Falls, N.Y., and issued a Declaration of Rights and Sentiments that spelled out women’s utter disenfranchisement.
Anthony, Stanton and the American suffragist movement fought for 60 years to get women the right to vote. Anthony kept fighting until she died in 1906. The 19th Amendment was passed in 1919 and ratified in 1920.
When Anthony began the struggle for women’s equality, married women had to hand over their wages to their husbands. Their inherited property and their children belonged to their husbands, as well.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Condemns Murders of Muslim Students
US President Barack Obama has condemned the “brutal and outrageous” murders of three Muslim students in North Carolina.
“No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship,” he said in a statement, offering his condolences.
He added: “As we saw with the overwhelming presence at the funeral of these young Americans, we are all one American family.”
[Quite apart from Barry Hussein’s pre-emptive ruling on the motive in this case, this is balderdash. As then-OIC head Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu declared at Columbia University on Sept. 18, 2008, “The Muslim Ummah means the ‘community of the faithful’. It is a unique bond … an eternal brotherhood lock which transcends all other consideration of allegiance or loyalties or barriers of nationhood …” Doesn’t sound like “one American family” to me. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Officials in Missouri Are Suing Their Own Residents for Voting Against the Police State
Question: When do you know that you live in a tyranny? Answer: When the citizens vote to ban red light cameras and the city reacts by suing them.
St. Peters, O’Fallon, Lake St. Louis, and a councilman from O’Fallon have filed a lawsuit against their OWN CITIZENS.
In November of last year, the citizens of St. Charles County democratically expressed their anger with the use of red light cameras in their town. Seventy-three percent of those who went to the polls approved a measure to ban red light cameras.
However, the fat cat bureaucrats, apparently afraid of losing the money generated from the rights-violating red light cameras, don’t like that vote. They are now taking action to punish the citizens for trying to undermine their perceived authority.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The story of the dead bankers rolls forward.
In December 2014, Zero Hedge rounded up a list of 36 dead bankers who died recently under mysterious or odd circumstances, leaving only “ riddles” and probing questions about their possible connections.
Researcher John Vibes has already rounded up 9 more dead bankers who’ ve died as of January 2015.
Now, a bizarre Hollywood-style train collision with an SUV Mercedes sitting on the tracks leaves three more dead bankers, along with a pharmaceutical researcher and a well-known art curator.
Though it was a terrible accident, the vast majority of the estimated 400-700 passengers were fortunately not injured. Only five passengers died, and all, it seems, were noteworthy figures.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Greatest Danger America Faces
To put it as plainly as I possibly can, it is without a doubt, that the federal government has gone rogue. Many elected officials in both the Senate and the House are along with president Obama, more loyal to the United Nations and Agenda 21 than the United States and the Constitution. Why else would a sitting president and his Department of Justice leader threaten to take action against the governor of Arizona for seeking to protect the citizenry from murderous illegal immigrants?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Two People Contract Mumps After Receiving Mumps Vaccine
Doctors in Washington are scrambling to explain why two MMR vaccine recipients contracted the mumps virus after being vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s foremost health authority, claims the “Mumps vaccine is the best way to prevent mumps,” but two cases in Washington are forcing doctors to ease up on the vaccine protection rhetoric.
CBS affiliate KIRO reports that two people from two separate counties, King and Snohomish, contracted the mumps post-MMR vaccination, blaming the two-person “outbreak” on mumps cases leaking out of the University of Idaho.
The Snohomish County man had received one vaccine, while the King County woman had “received both recommended doses.”
The mumps virus is a particularly nasty, incurable disease that causes headaches, fever and facial swelling.
The cases clearly illustrate how vaccine protection is questionable, yet physicians continue to defend the safety of MMR jabs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Videos Released of Cops Paralyzing Grandfather for Walking
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
This week Infowars reported on the case of an Indian man who was visiting his family in Alabama being confronted and paralyzed at the hands of police merely for walking around the neighborhood.
Click here for the back story.
Now the footage of the incident has been released, along with the audio from the exchange, revealing how an innocent man was set upon and crippled by thug cops all because one busybody resident didn’t like the look of him.
The videos, taken from dashcams, show just how forcefully the cops took Sureshbhai Patel to the ground, leaving him needing spinal surgery, and facing months of therapy.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
3 Arrested in Halifax Valentine’s Day Mass Murder Plot
RCMP have arrested three people allegedly involved in a plot to commit mass murder in Halifax on Valentine’s Day.
A U.S. woman, a Halifax man and a Cole Harbour, N.S., teen are in custody, while a fourth suspect was found dead.
Cops first responded to a weapons-related threat on Thursday morning.
They’d received information that a 19-year-old man from Timberlea, N.S., and a 23-year-old woman from Geneva, Ill., “had access to firearms and it was their intention to go to a public venue in the Halifax region … with a goal of opening fire to kill citizens, and then themselves.”
On Thursday night, police found the 19-year-old suspect dead in a Timberlea home.
At 2 a.m. Friday, police arrested the U.S. woman at the Halifax International Airport, along with a 20-year-old Halifax man. At 11 a.m., they arrested a 17-year-old boy in Cole Harbour, N.S..
It’s not clear what role the latter two suspects played in the plot.
“We believe we have apprehended all known individuals in this matter and eliminated the threat. We are not seeking any further suspects at this time in relation to this investigation,” Nova Scotia RCMP Commanding Officer Brian Brennan said in a statement.
Police would not say where the suspects allegedly planned to open fire, and would not comment on whether the attack was linked to a terrorism organization…
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Cattle Prices Rise After Canada Confirms New Case of Mad Cow Disease
Canada confirmed its first case of mad cow disease since 2011 on Friday but said the discovery, which helped drive cattle prices higher, should not hit a beef export sector worth C$2 billion ($1.6 billion) a year.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said no part of the animal, a beef cow from Alberta, had reached the human food or animal feed systems.
Mad cow is formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a progressive, fatal neurological disease.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Geneva Woman Among 3 Suspected in Foiled Canadian Mass Shooting Plot
TORONTO — A senior police official said Friday police foiled a plot by two suspects who were planning on going to a mall and killing as many people as they could before killing themselves on Valentines Day in Halifax.
The official told The Associated Press the suspects were on a chat stream and were apparently obsessed with killing and death and had many photos of mass killings. Police and other officials said it was not related to Islamic terrorism.
The official said one of the two suspects, a 23-year-old American woman from Geneva, Illinois, was arrested at Halifax’s airport and confessed to the plot. The official said she prewrote a number of pronouncements to be tweeted after her death.
[“Not related to Islamic terrorism,” eh? Could we get a name of one of these people, just to be sure? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Halifax Shooting Plot Foiled, Police Say
Nova Scotia police say they’ve stopped a plot to kill a large number of people in Halifax on Saturday.
Police said they have three suspects involved in the alleged plot in custody, and another was found dead in a home in Timberlea, N.S.
“We want people to know we became aware, we acted quickly and intercepted a threat,” said Nova Scotia RCMP Commanding Officer Brian Brennan.
He said a man and woman planned to go to a public venue in the Halifax region on Feb. 14 “with a goal of opening fire to kill citizens, and then themselves.”
[…]
“I wouldn’t characterize it as a terrorist event. I would classify it as a group of individuals that had some beliefs and were willing to carry out violent acts against citizens.”
(Brennan) didn’t say what the beliefs were, other than that “they were not culturally based.”
[“Not culurally based”? You mean they weren’t Catholics, Mr. Brennan? Or maybe Old Believers? So just who are they, CBC? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
RCMP Unlawfully Seized Guns During Alberta Floods: Report
Conclusions by a police watchdog that Mounties broke the law in seizing several firearms in flood-ravaged High River, Atla., are pointless unless those responsible are charged, one impacted gun owner said Thursday.
The RCMP Citizen Review Complaints Commission found the force was justified in seizing most of the 609 guns they grabbed from homes during the June, 2013, flood, but concluded officers went beyond the law in several cases.
“While RCMP members, acting on their own initiative and with little guidance, may have acted with public safety in mind, they nonetheless failed to comply with legal requirements concerning the seizure of firearms,” states a 122-page report, noting some of the weapons in question had been legally stored.
“One member seized two firearms knowing that they were properly secured. The other member made a larger seizure in which two of the firearms were reported to have trigger locks.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sun News Network Shuts Down, Putting 200 Out of Work After Four-Year Run for ‘Fox News North’
TORONTO — The Sun News Network went off the air at 5 a.m. ET Friday after negotiations to sell the troubled television channel were unsuccessful.
No on-air announcement was made as the screen went dark and was replaced moments later with the Sun TV logo.
The channel’s most outspoken host, Ezra Levant, said he was grateful for the opportunity to be the “freest journalist” while working there.
“I feel sentimental and grateful. It was a great adventure. I felt like the freest journalist in Canada. People have their opinions about Quebecor and Pierre Karl Peladeau, but I have nothing but gratitude for them, for standing by me and providing such a great outlet,” he told Postmedia Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bank of Italy Says Small Coop Banks Must Also Reform
(ANSA) — Rome, February 12 — A senior official at the Bank of Italy said Thursday that even if the country’s smallest credit coop banks are excluded from new reforms, they should still remodel themselves “quickly” and consider integration.
Carmelo Barbagallo, supervisory head, said the smallest mutual coop banks, known as BCC lenders, “need greater cohesion”.
Premier Matteo Renzi last month announced reforms to the ownership structures of the 10 largest ‘popolari’ or cooperative banks which could open them to mergers and takeovers.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark to Suck All Oil Out of the North Sea
Denmark has plans to be fossil-fuel free by 2050 but until then it is going to suck every possible drop of oil out of the North Sea, the climate minister said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Ryanair Threatens to Drop Copenhagen Base
A blockade against Ryanair could cause the low-cost airline to abandon its plans to set up a base in Copenhagen, a company spokesman said on Thursday.
The Danish Confederation of Trade Unions, LO, announced last week that it has filed a case in the Danish Labour Court (Arbejdsretten) to determine whether Ryanair should operate under Irish or Danish rules from the Copenhagen base. LO said that if the so-called ‘recognition proceedings’ determine that Ryanair must follow Danish rules, the decision will clear the way for a blockade that would bar members of unions including 3F, Dansk Metal and HK from doing work for Ryanair.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Anti-Euro Party Eyes First Wins in Western State
(BERLIN) — Germany’s populist anti-euro AfD party hopes to win its first parliamentary seats in a western state Sunday when voters in Hamburg, its leader’s home city, go to the polls.
A success in the city-state would embolden the Alternative for Germany as it seeks to claw away votes from the fringes of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
The party hopes to gain from renewed eurozone concerns about crisis-hit Greece, where a new left-wing government has demanded an end to austerity and a debt renegotiation.
Party leader Bernd Lucke this month said he was grateful to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for having “stood up to show everyone in the EU that things simply can’t continue as they are”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Protests as Ryanair Claims Palermo ‘Dominated by Mafia’
Irish budget airline forced by Catzi to eat its words
(ANSA) — Palermo, February 11 — Irish no-frills airline Ryanair was forced to correct its website Wednesday after it claimed that Sicily’s capital has been dominated by the Cosa Nostra for “many years”.
“Palermo is a forgotten treasure,” said Ryanair in the tourist guide section on its website, “dominated for many years by the Mafia and poverty, the city has reclaimed a place among European cultural cities”.
The description sparked outrage in Sicilian regional tourism alderman Cleo Li Catzi and Fabio Giambrone, president of the Gesap company managing Palermo’s Falcone-Borsellino airport.
Ryanair marketing manager Giuseppe Belladone said “we are removing the content in question, this is content supplied to us by a third party and this detail escaped an internal check”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Oil Fund May Have Peaked: Governor
Norway’s gigantic oil fund may have peaked in size as the oil price slumps, the governor of Norway’s central bank has warned, calling for tighter rules on government spending.
In his annual address, Norges Bank governor Øystein Olsen called on the government to cut the level of oil revenue spent as a share of GDP in order to maintain the fund for future generations.
Norway’s careful management of its oil windfall has allowed the fund to grow to $868bn, well ahead of the sovereign wealth funds managed by world’s biggest oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait.
However, although the fund could still grow in absolute size, perhaps even topping one trillion in 2020 as projected, it could now start to shrink as a share of Norway’s GDP.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Hosts Project to Stop Homemade Bombs
Swedish researchers have been sharing details of a woodland project designed to help European countries outwit future terrorists plotting attacks with homemade bombs.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Tallinn-Helsinki Train Link Possible After 2030
A train link between Finland and continental Europe could become a reality 15 or 20 years from now.
A study recommends moving ahead with negotiations on building a railway tunnel between Helsinki and the Estonian capital Tallinn.
According to a preliminary report out Wednesday, an undersea rail link would shorten the travel time between the two capitals from the current minimum 90 minutes by ship to around half an hour. Tickets would cost around 40 euros, or about the same as it currently costs to get from Helsinki to Riihimäki by train.
The study, commissioned by the two cities, estimates that the undersea route could be completed after 2030 and would cost somewhere between nine and 13 billion euros.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Government Covered Up Muslim Rape Scandal to Avoid Being Called Racist
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Over a thousand mostly white young girls in the northern England town of Rotherham were systematically groomed, trafficked, beaten and sexually abused by rape gangs consisting of mainly Pakistani men.
A new report confirms that the local Labour government council and the police covered up this horror because they were afraid of being characterized as racist and politically incorrect.
The victims were treated as liars by the police and their complaints were buried. The majority of the perpetrators were from minority ethnic communities. The majority of the victims were white British children.
This same council then removed children from the custody of loving foster parents because they were members of a rival political party — UKIP — which opposes uncontrolled immigration and has denounced Labour’s cover-up of the Rotherham rape scandal.
But as the Telegraph’s Dan Hodges points out, the abused children of Rotherham were not the victims of political correctness. They were the victims of racism.
The girls were specifically selected by the Pakistani men because they were white. They were seen as “easy meat”. Their so-called “white privilege” didn’t help them at all — in fact it was an integral reason why they were targeted by the criminals and then abandoned by the authorities.
Criminal rape gangs are being protected by the authorities because of their foreign ethnicity. Meanwhile, we have young girls being beaten and raped, then ignored, labeled liars and left defenseless because they were white.
Where was their white privilege? Instead of being an advantage, their skin color was a key factor which led to authorities covering up the scandal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Schools Stop Serving Pork for Religious Reasons
Schools in north London are no longer serving pupils sausages, chops or bacon after pork was taken off the menu for religious reasons, it has emerged.
Islington Council has stopped supplying pork to local primary schools in case young Jewish or Muslim children eat the meat by accident and contravene their beliefs.
Offering a choice of pork dishes was an “unnecessary cost”, a spokesman said, because staff would have to monitor what every child ate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
The attack happened when Ramsay was walking home from a night out with friends in Gorebridge on October 26 and spotted Mr Gallacher lying on his back in a petrol station forecourt.
The young mechanic helped him to his feet, took him to a shop to get some food and then helped him across the road — but then Ramsay unexpectedly turned on him.
He subjected Angus to a brutal and sustained assault in the street before dragging him to a nearby house where he attacked him again.
Shocked neighbours heard the attack and called police, who found the teenager lying unconscious in the street.
He had 13 skull fractures, three broken fingers, fractured ribs and eardrum damage and needed a titanium plate behind his right eye after the assault.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
US Air Force Sends Tank Busters Back to Germany
US European Command announced that a wing of specialized anti-tank aircraft would be sent to Germany, as tensions mount in eastern Europe over the Ukraine crisis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Weird Video: Islamic Preacher Arrives in UK With Police Escort
This strange video shows an Islamic preacher being escorted by British police through Birmingham airport, while his followers greet his arrival with rhythmic chanting.
Although very few details are available, the chanting was characteristic of Sufi Muslims, whose beliefs are based on Islamic mysticism. The chant is apparently some kind of meditative mantra.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Gentiloni Warns Libya Poses ‘Threat’ To Italy
‘Ready to fight’ if action legal, says foreign minister
(ANSA) — Rome, February 13 — Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned Friday that “Italy is under threat from the situation in Libya, 200 nautical miles away”.
In a television interview, he said it was a grave concern that Islamic State (ISIS) militants may be as closed as Sirte in Libya.
Earlier, the Italian government urged citizens to “temporarily leave” Libya as ISIS appeared to be making headway.
Foreign ministry officials have said security there is deteriorating.
Gentiloni said that if dialogue fails, Italy will fight — so long as any military action is conducted under a legal framework established by the United Nations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: ISIS Flogs Youths for Alcohol Consumption in Derna
On Twitter, pictures of floggings in the “Caliphate”
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 13 — Isis is flogging young people in the streets of its “Caliphate” in Derna, Libya, because they violate the Islamic precept that forbids alcohol consumption.
“In the town of Derna Isis “flogs” youths who drink alcohol” is the Twitter message accompanying the picture of a hooded man beating the back of a boy in a stripey t-shirt with a long cane. Another photo depicts seven younsters who appear to be waiting to be punished by a hooded man holding a lightly-coloured cane.
The pictures have been analysed and deemed reliable by Libyan media. Derna, a historical stronghold of Libyan Islamist extremism, was conquered by jihadists in April. In October it paid allegiance to al Baghdadi’s Islamic State and declared itself part of the “caliphate”. Public floggings (particularly for alcohol consumption) had already been denounced by human rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch, along with beheadings and other types of violence. Last months gruesome pictures of violence against the statue of a horse were released.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: ISIS Advances, Takes Radio and TV Offices in Sirte
Italian foreign ministry urges citizens to leave
(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 14 — The Islamic State (ISIS) is making headway in Libya and the Italian foreign ministry urged its citizens on Friday to “temporarily” leave the country. The foreign ministry underscored that security was steadily deteriorating due to the jihadist militias’ advance. Present for months in the eastern Cyrenaica region, ISIS affiliates recently targeted Tripoli and claimed responsibility for a January 27 suicide attack on the Corinthia hotel in which at least five foreigners were killed.
ISIS-linked Twitter accounts on Thursday announced the killing of 21 Egyptian Copts that had been taken hostage in January in Sirte, posting photos as evidence. The news has not been confirmed by official sources. ISIS has also taken over the state-run television station ‘Libya’ in Sirte, say Libyan sources, who added that the jihadist group had given the Islamist militant group Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) “until Sunday to leave” the city halfway between Benghazi and Tripoli on the Gulf of Sidra.
ISIS has also taken over the radio stations ‘Radio Syrte’ and ‘Mekmedas’ (specialized in Libyan songs), which are now broadcasting jihadist songs and speeches by ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani.
Meanwhile, migrants continue to take off from Libyan coasts. About 700 migrants have been rescued in the waters off Libya by the Italian Coast Guard and merchant vessels ships that have been rerouted to the Rome operating center. The migrants were traveling on 7 dinghies: three were rescued by the Fiorillo ship from the port authorities, another three by the Maltese-flagged Belle merchant ship (currently finishing the transfer of migrants on board the vessel) and one by the Gaz Energy merchant ship. An Eni spokesman has said that there are few of the Italian energy company’s workers still in the country and that they are all limited to offshore operations to guarantee the “regular functioning of productive activities with the highest security standards”. “Eni continues to carefully monitor the situation as it develops,” the company added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
More ISIS Horror: 21 Christians Slaughtered in Libya
The announcement on Twitter, but Egypt does not confirm
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — Twenty-one Egyptian Christians kidnapped by Isis in Libya around New Year’s are feared dead, after Twitter accounts linked to the Libyan branch of the so-called “Islamic State” announced they had been slaughtered. There is no official confirmation yet but Egyptian media believe the news to be reliable and two pictures released by the same Twitter sources show what they describe as “the Islamic State carrying out the execution of Coptic prisoners in the province of Tripoli”. In the first picture five men wearing the notorious orange jumpsuit are kneeling while hooded hangmen armed with knives stand behind them. The caption, written in English, describes them as “the humiliated followers of the Coptic church”. In another picture more men wearing the orange jumpsuit appear in a line with their executioners under a message in English that reads “revenge for the Muslim women persecuted by Coptic crusaders in Egypt”. These pictures along with others were published by Dabiq, Isis’ online magazine in English, together with an announcement of the kidnapping but not of the execution. The abduction, already described by several sources as having taken place around New Year’s, was claimed on January 12 and there remains a faint hope that the news of the execution on Twitter is a fake stretching of the images released. The Egyptian government which set up a special crisis unit to follow the kidnapping did not confirm the death of the Copts.
Intense contacts “have been established with Libyan counterparts to clarify the situation and assess the truthfulness” of the information provided reads a statement by the presidency. In the aftermath of the fall of Muammar Gheddafi, Libya has plunged into chaos with two governments claiming power with two armies and distinct militias. Within this framework the Islamic State managed to create a caliphate in the city of Derna and to extend its realm of action more or less as far as Tripoli and Bengasi. The Christian minority in Libya is increasingly at risk especially in the east of Libya where radical Islamists have grown more powerful and acts of intimidation and violence against Copts have risen. The kidnapped men, originally from the region of Minya in central Egypt, were abducted in the city of Sirte, Egyptian newspaper Al Shourouk reported.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Freed 6 Inmates in Yemen Prison Attack, Officials Say
Al Qaeda militants freed six of their fighters from a southern Yemeni prison during an attack on the facility Friday, just one day after the group took over a military camp in the same province, security officials said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Grandma Exposes CIA Operation — Video
An Arabic grandmother was caught on video confronting members of ISIS for using weapons from the CIA.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq Repels Islamic State Attack on Base Housing US Troops
The Iraqi army backed by coalition fighter planes has repelled an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants on a base in Iraq’s western Anbar province housing US troops, officials say.
About 300 US military personnel are stationed at the Ain al-Asad airbase, where they are training Iraqi troops.
But IS has captured the nearby town of al-Baghdadi, the Pentagon says.
The US is spearheading an air campaign against the militants, who seized large parts of Iraq and Syria last year.
Eight militants were killed in the attack on the base, US and Iraqi officials said.
The US marines at Ain al-Asad are part of a force President Obama sent to Iraq to train and advise Iraqi security forces in their battle to regain territory lost to IS.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Army Repels Attack on Base Hosting U.S. Marines
Iraqi security forces on Friday repelled an attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) insurgents against an air base in Anbar province where U.S. Marines are training Iraqi troops, Iraqi and U.S. military officials said.
Militants from the militant group had attacked the Ain al-Asad base and the nearby town of al-Baghdadi a day earlier, leading to sporadic clashes in the town overnight.
Al-Baghdadi has been besieged for months by ISIS, which captured swathes of northern and western Iraq last year, prompting a campaign of U.S.-led air strikes and the deployment of hundreds of U.S. military advisers to the country.
A U.S. defense official said the Iraqi forces had stopped the attack and re-secured the facility.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Captures ‘Mossad Spy’, a Palestinian From Jerusalem
Father, he left in secret, does not work for intelligence
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, FEB 13 — A Palestinian family from east Jerusalem is living in fear after Dabiq, a magazine linked to the Islamic State, announced the capture of one of its members — 19 year-old Muhammad Sai’d Ismail Musallam — who is said to have confessed to being a Mossad informant. The young man’s father confirmed to the local press that his son secretly left for Turkey a few months ago in order to join Isis forces but he denied any relationship with Israel’s secret service. According to Dabiq, Musallam admitted he had been recruited by Israeli agents and said he was trained in the outskirts of Jerusalem, he also revealed he received a sum equivalent to one thousand euros. Dabiq maintains that what gave him away was his “suspicious” demenour. His father explained that after his military experience with Isis in Syria, Muhammad had expressed the wish to return home and asked his family to fund his journey back. He said he may have been arrested while trying to flee. The Jerusalem Post stated that according to estimates by the Shin Bet (the Israeli internal security service) a few dozen Israeli Arabs have joined ranks with Isis in Syria and Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy, Others Close Embassies as Yemen Plunges Into Chaos
Al-Qaeda attacks Shia rebels; UN warns of possible collapse
(by Lorenzo Trombetta) (ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 13 — Italy, Germany and Saudi Arabia announced Friday the closing of their embassies in Yemen and the repatriation of their staff from the capital, Sanaa.
The UN has said that the country, overwhelmed by a Houthi Shia rebel coup and torn apart by Al-Qaeda fighters, risks disintegration and collapse and may soon slide into a civil war.
Washington, London and Paris had closed their embassies in recent days. UN chief negotiator Jamal Benomar said that Yemen was “at a crossroads. Either it will fall into a civil war and disintegration or it will find a way to get back onto the road to transition”. For months Benomar has been trying to heal a rift that may have become too wide. Houthi rebels — followers of the Shia Zaidi faith — have since September gradually taken power, starting from their northern strongholds. In January they ousted President Abed Rabbo Mansour, who had been backed by the US and Saudi Arabia. For weeks the prime minister and president have been under house arrest.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni Al-Qaeda affiliate, which espouses a radical form of anti-Shia Sunni Islamism, has come back into the spotlight as well and stepped up attacks against Houthi positions and government objectives. The Yemeni faction of Al-Qaeda is seen by the US and its Western allies as one of the main threats to Western interests in the region: Al-Qaeda’s claim of responsibility for the January 9 attacks in Paris came from a local preacher, for example. This is one of the reasons that the US continues its remote ‘war on terror’, killing Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen with drones. A suicide attack on a police position in Bayda, southeastern Yemen, on Friday killed several Houthi fighters. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, but the technique used and the timing hint strongly at Al-Qaeda involvement.
Extremist militants have in recent hours attacked a government army base in the Shabwa region in the south, plundering weapons and taking soldiers hostage. Clashes between Al-Qaeda fighters, their tribal allies and the Houthi have also occurred in Ridda, south-east of the capital. UN chief Ban Ki-Moon has warned that Yemen may “collapse before our eyes”. At the diplomatic level there does not seem to be any concrete solution on the horizon. The UK and Jordan are working on a UN draft resolution, but with uncertain aims.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council has simply condemned the Houthi taking of power and called on the rebels to withdraw.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kayla Mueller and the History of Westerners Giving Their Lives to the Middle East
by Phyllis Chesler
For centuries, Westerners have been lured by the “mysterious” East. Fortune hunters, explorers, adventurers, businessmen, diplomats, journalists, artists, missionaries, and humanitarian aid workers have all fled the confines of the West for lives of drama and danger.
The tragic Kayla Mueller wrote on her blog: “This is really my life’s work, to go where there is suffering. I suppose, like us all, I’m learning how to deal with the suffering of the world inside myself…to deal with my own pain and most importantly to still have the ability to be proactive.”
Lawrence of Arabia and his mentor Gertrude Bell found greater personal freedom for themselves, as well as adventure, in what became Iraq and the Kingdom of Jordan. Life back home was cold, wet, and dreary; they became figures of significance and respect in sunny Middle East.
Flaubert toured the brothels of Egypt. The extraordinary and much-maligned Western “Orientalist” painters (David Roberts, Ernst Koerner, Elizabet Jerichau-Baumann, Jean Discart, Charles Robertson, etc.) have lovingly preserved the 19th century Arab and Muslim world. Many of their paintings now belong to the Mohamed Shafik Gabr Foundation, where they are highly valued.
| — Hat tip: Phyllis Chesler | [Return to headlines] |
Residents of a city besieged by Isis have described living under strict bans on alcohol and cigarettes, with anyone caught smoking publicly flogged, handed huge fines and even reportedly executed.
The group enforces a strict interpretation of Islam in areas in Syria and Iraq under its self-declared ‘caliphate’. Some ultraconservative versions of Sharia denounce the habit as harmful and therefore haram (forbidden).
Raqqa, in Syria, is one of the group’s biggest strongholds.
A leading figure with Isis’s police force was recently found in Deir-al-Zor beheaded and with a cigarette in his mouth, with the sentence “O Sheikh this is munkar (hateful and evil thing)” written on his body.
Abu Mohammed Hussam, one of the founders of the Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) activist group, described the severity of punishments for being caught smoking cigarettes.
“The first time he will be arrested and flogged (40 lashes),” he told The Independent. “If he smokes again, he will be whipped and imprisoned. On the third occasion, he will be taken to a camp in the countryside and fined a large sum of money.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Split Over to Condemn or Profit From St Valentine’s
Criticism from some countries, UAE rakes in money
(by Virginia Di Marco) (ANSAmed) ROME, FEBRUARY 13 — Muslim nations are divided over whether celebrating St Valentine’s Day is a sin or a perfect opportunity to do business. There are some, like Saudi Arabia, that firmly condemn the holiday of ‘unbelievers’ and impose heavy sanctions on those that dare to celebrate it that include jail sentences and lashes. Others, such as the UAE, see it as an opportunity and offer tourism and entertainment specials for the occasion. In the largest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia, there is a sharp divide between what happens in Jakarta and what instead happens in small cities and the surrounding area. While hotels and restaurants in the capital promote the holiday with theme-based ‘couple specials’, in other locations local institutions and the clergy refuse to allow it. The Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), the highest national Islamic institution, has once again this year lashed out at the holiday and its “potential negative effects on young people’s morals”, underscored MUI education chief Anwar Abbas. The same stance has been taken by the Department for the Protection of Children (KPAI), which told local media that “there are St Valentine’s traditions that are not suitable for children, such as the fact that this is seen as the ‘day of love’ in which losing one’s virginity is justified. Some school-age girls have suffered sexual attacks on Saint Valentine’s Day”. In Malaysia, where 60% of the population is Muslim, the department for Islamic Development (JAKIM) has repeatedly said that St Valentine’s Day celebrations are the cause of social problems such as “abortion, abandoned children, mental disturbances linked to alcoholism, fraud and other depravity that can lead to disaster and moral decay among youth”. Last year religious condemnation nevertheless did not stop 138 couples (all part of the local Chinese community) from taking part in a collective wedding ceremony on February 14. The situation changes a great deal further West, in Arab nations. In the West Bank, Palestinians have been celebrating St Valentine’s Day for decades. Though showing off Cupid figures and hearts is still somewhat of a taboo in the most traditional families, many shop windows are decked out for the occasion and flowers, jewels and sweets are the most popular gifts. The Palestine Herald Press reports that some of the best restaurants accept reservations for St Valentine’s Day starting from January, and the only five-star hotel in the West Bank — the Moevenpick — is offering discounts for couples. Those seeking true luxury for the day in the Arab world find it in the UAE, where ever more money is made on St Valentine’s Day. According to Gulf Times, an average couple spends between 230 and 360 euros to celebrate it. For those that would like and can afford to, Abu Dhabi’s Shangri-La Hotel offers a 100,000-euro package that includes oysters, vintage champagne, a helicopter, a presidential suite and a seven-course French dinner.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Evacuates Embassy Staff From Yemen
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has suspended operations at its embassy in Yemen and evacuated its staff due to the deteriorating situation in the capital Sanaa, controlled by a Houthi militia, the foreign ministry said Friday.
“Due to the deteriorating security and political situation in the Yemeni capital, Saudi Arabia has suspended all embassy operations in Sanaa and evacuated all its staff, who have arrived safely in the kingdom,” said a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
The kingdom is the first Arab country to evacuate embassy staff from Sanaa, after several Western governments, including the United States, shut their missions this week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Police Use Water Cannon on Protestors Decrying Religion in Schools
Turkish police used water cannon in the western coastal city of Izmir Friday to disperse scores of protesters boycotting schools over the growing influence of religion in the classroom, local media reported.
Education is the latest flashpoint between the administration of President Tayyip Erdogan, and secularist Turks who accuse him of overseeing creeping ‘Islamization’ in the NATO member state.
Riot police were out in force on Izmir’s streets, with water cannon being used to disperse banner-waving demonstrators who had gathered in the center of the city, according to pictures from Dogan news agency. At least one person was seen being led away by plain clothes security officers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Security Council to Choke Off Islamic State’s Funding
Adopted unanimously, the UN resolution aims at seizing up the flow of millions of dollars into the group’s coffers from oil smuggling and antiques trafficking from Syria and Iraq. In November, the terrorists were making up to 1.6 million dollars a day by selling crude oil. Recently, IS militants attacked al-Baghdadi, but they “nearing the end of their lives”, Iranian general said.
New York (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The United Nations Security Council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at choking off millions of dollars in earnings from oil smuggling, antiquities trafficking and ransom payments to the Islamic State group.
Russia drafted the initial text, which was co-sponsored by more than 35 countries in a show of international resolve to confront the jihadist threat.
The United Nations is increasing sanctions against the jihadist movement that last year overran large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory.
The resolution, which goes after other Islamist groups as well, like the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, urges all 193 countries of the United Nations to take “appropriate steps” to prevent the trade in cultural property from Iraq and Syria
It calls for sanctions against individuals and entities that trade in oil with the Islamic State group and other terrorist groups, thus funding their activities. A report by the UN’s al-Qaida monitoring team released in November had estimated that the jihadists earned US$ 850,000 to US$ 1.65 million per day from oil sales last year.
The UN document reminds governments worldwide that they must “prevent terrorists from benefiting directly or indirectly from ransom payments or political concessions” to secure the release of hostages. This provision was directed at European governments, which have found ways to circumvent the ban on paying ransoms to win the release of captive nationals.
The resolution also puts fresh pressure on Turkey, seen as a transit point for oil deliveries, with trucks often returning to Iraq or Syria with refined products.
However, experts believe it will not be easy to enforce the resolution because of the many go-betweens with jihadists and the large amount of money involved.
Still, “This is the most comprehensive resolution addressing the issue of terrorism,” Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told reporters. His US counterpart, Ambassador Samantha Power, agrees. The resolution, she said, is part of “a comprehensive strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State group.
Meanwhile, IS militants continue to advance upon al-Baghdadi early on Thursday, in the western Anbar province, not far from an Iraqi air base that is home to about 300 US Marines.
Although engaged in fierce clashes with Iraqi government forces, IS militants had not directed any attack on the nearby air base, said a Pentagon spokeswoman, quoting local sources.
Likewise, IS’s latest attack has not fazed one of Iran’s top military leader, who said the jihadists are near the end. “Considering the heavy defeats suffered by Daesh and other terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, we are certain these groups are nearing the end of their lives,” said the General Qassem Soleimani was quoted as saying. Daesh is the acronym of the Islamic State’s Arabic name — ad-dawla al-islÄmiyya.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
EU Warns of More Sanctions if Russia Flouts Ceasefire
EU leaders gave a “cautious” welcome to the Ukraine ceasefire deal on Thursday (12 February) but warned of further sanctions if it isn’t implemented.
“We gave it our cautious approval. But words set down on paper must be accompanied by deeds … If this doesn’t happen we won’t hesitate to take further steps”, Council chief Donald Tusk told press after a summit in Brussels.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
US Endorses Ukraine Ceasefire Plan
US secretary of state John Kerry has said he “welcomes” the Minsk peace deal on Ukraine but urged the Russian side to make “an immediate halt” to fighting near Debaltseve, in east Ukraine. The White House earlier said the “escalation” is “inconsistent with the spirit of the accord”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Government Bans Foreigners From Talking to Tribal People in Chittagong
Civil society groups and social activists slam Home Minister order as “racist and unconstitutional.” According to the new directives, Bangladeshi citizens and foreign nationals can meet members of indigenous communities only in the presence of civilian or military handlers. Since 1997, the area in question has enjoyed special status. However, for human rights group, the decision shows the government’s support for land acquisition by Bengali settlers at the expense of indigenous tribal people.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — A group of eminent citizens has slammed a recent government order banning Bangladeshi or foreign individuals or organisations from meeting and talking unsupervised with indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), calling the directive racist, anti-democratic and unconstitutional. The views were expressed during a roundtable discussion held yesterday by Nagorik Samaj, a civil society platform group.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts is a mountainous region in the Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering India and Myanmar. It covers 10 per cent Bangladesh’s land mass. It is very different from the rest of the country in terms of geography and culture; the Chittagong hills and forests are home to indigenous people — mostly Buddhist and Christian — whose livelihood depends mainly on farming.
Adopted in early January, the Home Ministry directive requires the presence of a representative of the local administration, whether the military or civilian, if any local or foreigner or an organisation wants to meet any indigenous person.
The order authorised by State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal also restricts foreigners’ access to the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and puts check-posts at the entrances to Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban on higher alert.
Sara Hossain, honorary executive director of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Service Trust, said these decisions, taken unilaterally by the government, were unconstitutional and part of a conscious effort at “othering” the indigenous communities.
In 1971, when Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan, the CHT area became part of the newly established state. However, the new authorities treated the region as a backwater without any special recognition.
Since then, the country’s Muslim Bengali majority began marginalising and oppressing indigenous tribes. As a result, local activists created the Parbatya Chhatagram Jana Shanghatti Samiti (United People’s Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts or PCJSS), a political organisation that united all indigenous ethnic groups.
After a long series of clashes between the Bangladeshi military and Shanti Bahini (PCJSS’s military wing), a peace deal was reached in 1997. The agreement granted a special status to the indigenous peoples in the CHT region, and set up a regional council representing all the local tribes. However, the deal never truly ended tensions.
In a statement, Human Rights Forum Bangladesh (HRFB) condemned the Home Ministry for its decision, calling it was a blatant play by the government in favour of land acquisition by Bengali settlers at the expense of indigenous tribal people. Indeed, “This raises serious concerns in the context that land disputes remain at the heart of the CHT conflict, [and] local residents are severely affected by land acquisitions,” the HRFB said.
For its part, the PCJSS described the order as “nothing but an absolute manifestation of racist and communal policy of the government. It is with this policy, the Jumma peoples have been treated as the second-class citizens, which is undoubtedly a matter of great concern. The decision of [the] Home Ministry is also contravening to the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Bangladesh [Article 28(1)] that stipulates, ‘The state shall not discriminate against any citizens on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.’“
For the PCJSS, such restrictions make it extremely difficult to organise meetings between indigenous peoples and, for instance, human rights organisations.
Meanwhile, radical Muslims remain involved in a campaign in the CHT area against conversions to Christianity. They accuse missionaries of proselytising and carrying out forced conversions in order to create a region with a Christian majority to be attached to India.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Gold Smuggling on the Wane as India Eases Curbs
NEW DELHI — In the two years since India took steps to pare gold imports, people used all sorts of tricks as the smuggling business boomed — from simply tucking the metal under a turban to jamming it up the rectum.
That illegal trade, though, is fading now.
Premiums have evaporated for black market bullion valued at about US$8 billion (S$10.8 billion) last year, industry data shows, as the government has begun easing import curbs that in 2013 knocked India from the top spot among gold buyers.
In a country that accounts for a quarter of world demand, legal transactions are recovering, with annual purchases from overseas poised to jump 50 per cent. Gold had become the most-smuggled item in India, where people consider it auspicious and rely entirely on foreign supply.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: Delhi: More Attacks on the Church as Catholic School Targeted
It is the sixth aggression in three months perpetrated against the capital’s Christian community. The new chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, of the anti-corruption party: “This kind of action will not be tolerated.” Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC): “Public order is getting worse in Delhi”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — In the early hours of this morning, a group of unidentified people vandalized a Catholic school in Vasant Vihar, south Delhi. This is the sixth attack on the Christian community in the capital in just three months. In confirming the fact to AsiaNews Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), said: “We are distressed, the hostility toward the tiny Christian community has no end. Indeed, nationalist groups continue to target the faithful, religious institutions and now the school. “
Following the attack the convent that runs the institute closed the facility and sent students home. Upon hearing the news of the attack Arvind Kejriwal, the newly appointed chief minister of Delhi, tweeted: “I strongly condemn the attack on the Holy Child Auxilium School. Such actions will not be tolerated.”
“The public security situation is getting worse” — Sajan George told AsiaNews. “The GCIC hopes the Aam Aadmi Party (AAAP, anti-corruption), now in government is able to contain these elements”.
What is happening in Delhi and other parts of India “is a shameful blot on our secular credentials. India is a secular, democratic republic in which freedom of religion and worship are guaranteed by the Constitution. We are losing our moral authority before the international community”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: ‘Grenade-Toting’ Militants Attack Shiite Mosque in Peshawar
An attack on a Shiite mosque in Peshawar has claimed over a dozen lives, according to Pakistani police. The country’s Taliban has claimed responsibility.
In an email, Pakistan’s Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The group is trying to overthrow the government in Islamabad and install hardline Sunni rule in the South Asian nation.
It is currently in the process of introducing new measures to deal with Islamist militants, in the wake of a deadly massacre at a school in the region in December last year, in which around 150 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fleeing From Vietnam, Montagnard Christians Arrested by Cambodian Police
A family of five people, including two children and an infant, had left their homeland to escape persecution. Handcuffed, they were taken to an unknown location. Human rights activists denounce a “serious violation”. Phnom Penh counter that the charge is “politically motivated” and threatens retaliation.
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Human rights activists in Cambodia denounce the arrest of a Christian Montagnards (pictured) family, who had left the village of origin in Vietnam, and crossed the border to escape persecution by the Communist authorities in Hanoi . The group consists of five people, including two children and an infant. They were detained and arrested by police and military took place last February 1 in the forests of the northeastern province of Ratanakiri, where they had spent more than two weeks in search of shelter. Police handcuffed them and have taken to a secret location. Four other Montagnards were able to escape arrest.
Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (Adhoc) activist Chhay Thi confirms the arrest and adds that, so far, there is no news on the fate of the family, or where they are being held. “Their detention — he adds — is a grave violation of human rights and the 1951 Convention on Refugees”. He adds that 27 other Montagnards remain hidden in the jungle, to escape a possible arrest.
Last week Adhoc denounced the police of Phnom Penh, for arresting and deporting asylum-seekers without even hearing their story. Conversely, the police say that they are not Montagnards fleeing persecution, but simple peasants who are attempting to emigrate “illegally” to the country. The Cambodian Ministry of Interior spokesman, Khieu Sopheak, is also threatening to sue the Adhoc group claiming they are acting with “political aims”.
In 2001 and 2004, at least 2 thousand Montagnards — a Christian minority, native to the mountainous areas of central Vietnam — migrated to Cambodia to escape the violence of Hanoi authorities, who confiscated their land and persecute them because of their Christian faith. Most of them got political asylum, with the United States top of the list for granting visas.
In recent years their exodus has once again become a reality with more and more families trying to cross the border, seeking shelter in neighboring Cambodia. With the help of UN officials, some of them have applied for political asylum, although many are reluctant to contact the authorities in Phnom Penh, for fear of being deported.
In the past few months alone at least 32 the motnagnards have sought shelter in the forests of Cambodia, including three children, and have been forced to fight every day against malaria and lack of food, in order to survive.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Neanderthals Interbred for Longer With East Asian Humans, DNA Reveals
They are largely thought to have roamed the freezing landscapes of Europe during the last ice age, but it seems Neanderthals may have spread far further east and lived alongside modern humans there for longer than was previously thought.
Two new pieces of research have suggested that the ancestors of modern East Asians may have interbred with the now extinct Neanderthals far more than they did in Europe.
Analysis of the traces of Neanderthal DNA found in the genomes of modern humans has shown that people in East Asia carry between 15 to 30 per cent more of their DNA than Europeans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
North Korea Releases Hundreds of Bizarre Propaganda Slogans
North Korea is calling on its people to “build a fairyland for the people by dint of science” and “let the strong wind of fish farming blow across the country” in new propaganda slogans published Thursday.
More than 300 slogans were revealed by North Korean state news agency KCNA ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japan. Both events take place later this year and are key moments for the North Korean government to commemorate.
The slogans range from asking people to obey the ideology of “Kimilsungism” and “Kimjongilism,” after North Korea’s former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, to celebrating the country’s military strength, asking for North Koreans to “fight death-defyingly for our country and nation!” and for wives of military officers to “become dependable assistants to their husbands.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Strikes and Violent Clashes Triple as Chinese Employers Fail to Pay Wages
With the Lunar New Year, hundreds of millions of migrants demand payment for wage arrears and compensation for work accidents. With the complicity of local governments, employers do everything they can not to pay. For the China Labour Bulletin, clashes increased in all provinces and sectors.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — Chinese workers have staged hundreds of strikes, more than three times the number in the same period in 2013, ahead of the Chinese New Year, seeking payment for long-overdue wages in arrears in order to be able to visit their families over the holiday.
Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin said it had recorded 569 incidents during the fourth quarter with workers’ demands for wage arrears, pay increases, and compensation accounting for more than 87 per cent of the incidents.
Some 20 per cent of the sometimes-violent disputes were clustered in the southern province of Guangdong. Outside it, labour disputes jumped in Jiangsu, Shandong, and Henan.
The construction industry was the most affected. Oftentimes, contractors get loans from banks or private investors and then close up shop before paying workers.
However, the construction industry is not the only one plagued by wage disputes. A total of 43 strikes and protests were by teachers, more than four times the number in the fourth quarter of 2013.
In one particular incident, around a thousand workers at the Japanese-invested Citizen Precision (Guangzhou) Co. watch factory forced management last Friday to come to the negotiating table after striking on Thursday over changes to their contracts.
The strike was sparked by Citizen’s attempts to buy employees out of their contracts in the form of redundancy payments instead of arrear payments.
Called in by management, riot police charged the crowd and at least two protesters were hospitalised. Meanwhile, negotiations are ongoing.
Every year, Lunar New Year festivities are characterised by labour-related violent incidents.
Traditionally, the New Year celebrations including paying off debts and bringing gifts home. However, hundreds of millions of migrant workers — the “engine” of Chinese economic growth — clash with employers because the latter try their utmost to delay (or deny) paying wage arrears.
Local governments are also involved as shareholders in the companies affected by industrial action. Local officials call in security forces to suppress demonstrations and prevent workers from appealing to the central government or the courts.
Because of this, the suicide rate among migrants jumps every year around New Year.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Plotted to Stab “Blond People” In Kidneys for “Mighty Allah”
Mohammad Kiad, 25, and Omar Al-Kutobi, 24, were arrested in their shared squalid granny flat at Fairfield, western Sydney, on Tuesday afternoon, where a police raid allegedly uncovered a machete, a hunting knife, an Islamic State flag and a video featuring both the men, with one recorded making threats of carrying out an attack.
“I swear to almighty Allah we will carry out the first operation for the soldiers of the caliphate in Australia. I swear to almighty Allah, blond people, there is no room for blame between you and us. We only are you, stabbing the kidneys and striking the necks.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Millions in Ebola Funds Unaccounted for in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone has failed to properly account for almost a third of the money it earmarked to fight the Ebola epidemic, according to an audit. More than 3,000 people have died from the epidemic in the West African nation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees in Nigeria Tell of Boko Haram Savagery
Violent attacks by Boko Haram have caused many to flee their homes, creating a humanitarian crisis within Nigeria and neighbouring countries.
Refugees say they have witnessed brutal acts of savagery, with men’s throats being slit and women being held as “war booty”.
Chad has become the latest country on the border with Nigeria to be affected by a Boko Haram attack.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa Questions Its Democracy After Parliament Brawl
“State of Chaos”, was how one South African newspaper described the images of police and politicians trading blows at the opening of parliament, a damning assessment of the country’s democracy twenty years after apartheid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Colombian Rebels Force 15,000 People From Their Homes Every Month
Despite ongoing peace talks taking place in Havana, the guerrilla war in Colombia has seen as many as 15,000 people displaced from their homes each month over the past two years, according to a study carried out by a Spanish NGO.
The Institute for Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action (IECAH) found that nearly 348,000 people have been forced to leave their homes because of the armed conflict since talks began in late 2012. That said, the Madrid-based NGO — which was commissioned to conduct the study by the United Nations — also concluded that the numbers of mass displacements and land-mine victims have diminished.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nicaragua Constructs Enormous Canal, Blind to Its Environmental Cost
Work has already begun on a canal three times the length of Panama’s, which will cut through forests, wetlands, native reserves and a lake
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Obama Amnesty Creates Loophole for Illegal Immigrants to Vote in Elections
President Obama’s temporary deportation amnesty will make it easier for illegal immigrants to improperly register and vote in elections, state elections officials testified to Congress on Thursday, saying that the driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers they will be granted create a major voting loophole.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pristina Asks EU to Expel Illegal Kosovo Migrants
Kovoso’s Interior Minister Skender Hyseni on Thursday urged the European Union to expel thousands of Kosovan nationals, who have quit their homeland in search of a better life in EU countries.
Speaking after talks with his Austrian counterpart Johanna Mikl-Leitner in Vienna,, Hyseni said: “We’ve always been told that the vast majority of the illegal migrants have no status rights and will be sent back. I hope that happens quickly.”
The past few weeks has since an influx of impoverished Kosovo Albanians into the EU.
The migrants, who require a visa to enter the passport-free Schengen area, generally first cross into northern Serbia and then pay smugglers hefty amounts to spirit them illegally across the border into EU member Hungary.
In January, Hungary received 13,000 asylum requests, mostly from Kosovan immigrants.
In the same month Austria received 1,029 such requests from Kosovans.
Hyseni said the EU should act to dispel the “illusion” among migrants, nurtured by the smugglers, that they can obtain asylum in EU countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Revealed: Loophole for Illegals to Vote in Elections
President Obama’s temporary deportation amnesty will make it easier for illegal immigrants to improperly register and vote in elections, state elections officials testified to Congress on Thursday, saying that the driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers they will be granted create a major voting loophole.
While stressing that it remains illegal for noncitizens to vote, secretaries of state from Ohio and Kansas said they won’t have the tools to sniff out illegal immigrants who register anyway, ignoring stiff penalties to fill out the registration forms that are easily available at shopping malls, motor vehicle bureaus and in curbside registration drives.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Immigration Law to Deepen Impasse With EU
The Swiss government has outlined legislation aimed at putting in place curbs on EU migration backed in a referendum last February.
As part of a bill published on Wednesday (11 February), quotas will apply to foreign workers based in the Alpine country for more than four months from February 2017, while recruitment priority will be given to Swiss residents.
The bill would require firms to demonstrate that no Swiss workers qualify for a job before obtaining a work permit for a foreign national to fill the post.
In February 2014, a narrow majority of Swiss voters decided to impose immigration quotas for EU citizens from 2017, effectively calling for Switzerland’s free movement agreement with the bloc to be scrapped.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: America is Ready to Accept a Pro-Gay-Marriage Scotus Ruling
In a new interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she believes Americans are set to accept a constitutional decision legalizing gay marriage in the country, saying it would “not take a large adjustment” for people to eventually come around on the issue.
“I think it’s doubtful that it wouldn’t be accepted,” Ginsburg said. “The change in people’s attitudes on that issue has been enormous.”
The justice’s comments are yet another indication the Supreme Court will rule in favor of gay marriage this June, when justices will hear a monumental case deciding if the Constitution provides the right for same-sex marriages.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes Confused Over Gender Neutral Toilets
Gender neutral toilets in a northern Swedish town have left visitors to the local library feeling flushed.
Unisex toilets have been installed at the new library in Umeå. But the signs to the toilets have confused many, even in gender equal Sweden.
A sign hanging between the doors shows a male and a female figure, and arrows pointing in both directions. And in their most pressing time of need, visitors to the library have found they don’t know where to… you know.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Critics: Saudi Arms Deal Does Not Square With Feminist Foreign Policy
The government faces mounting criticism over its refusal to commit to scrapping Sweden’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia — despite having professed a commitment to a feminist foreign policy.
Such a policy doesn’t go hand in hand with dealing with a dictatorship that suppresses women’s rights, critics say.
When Margot Wallström took the post as Minister for Foreign Affairs last fall, she said that the new government would practice a “feminist foreign policy”. And addressing parliament Wednesday in a foreign policy debate, Wallström said that she aimed to “work against the discrimination of women, to improve conditions for women, and to contribute to peace and development”.
But members of the opposition as well as members from both parties within the Social Democrat-Green Party government have spoken out against Sweden’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia, which is described as one of the world’s most austere dictatorships. Critics say that dealing with Saudi Arabia is not in line with a feminist foreign policy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What Intel’s $300 Million Diversity Pledge Really Means
As controversy flares over workforce diversity in tech, Intel’s Rosalind Hudnell is working on an ambitious plan to spark change that could forever alter hiring practices at IT companies.
She realizes, though, that change has to start from within the company, and that it won’t come overnight. Hudnell, Intel’s chief diversity officer, is responsible for implementing the company’s much-publicized $300 million initiative to bring more women and under-represented minorities into its workforce by 2020. The challenges are many.
The effort comes as an intense debate rages over what’s perceived as the technology industry’s sexist culture.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Anonymous Are About to Wage War on Rich and Powerful Covering Up Child Sex Abuse
[WARNING: Disturbing content.]
Masked protesters will march on the homes of “elite” paedophiles and public figures they claim have been involved in the “nightmarish” cover-up of child sex abuse.
In a video released on YouTube, Anonymous says it has exposed a club of people in positions of trust and responsibility that have been murdering and torturing children.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
By Raymond Ibrahim
Whether we admire the Crusaders or not, it is a fact that the world we know today would not exist without their efforts. The ancient faith of Christianity, with its respect for women and antipathy toward slavery, not only survived but flourished. Without the Crusades, it might well have followed Zoroastrianism, another of Islam’s rivals, into extinction.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will those officials in Halifax now be excommunicated for associating the I-word with the t-word?
I bet that the Chapel Hill loon would change his tune very quickly if he lived in a country where the religion of peace holds away.
As for Ground Zero, the presence of a mosque is a national disgrace and a major sign of encroaching dhimmification.
Recent events in South Africa are no surprise given the quality of the leadership that has been elected there.
When officials state that something is “Not related to Islam”, I am always certain that it *is* related to Islam.
Imagine my surprise when I researched the incident and it appears that indeed, this is not related to that great religion.
A broken clock is right twice every day, after all.