Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of the borough of Tower Hamlets in East London, was convicted on multiple counts of corruption and vote-rigging in connection with the most recent mayoral election. Mr. Rahman was forced out of office, but he continued to proclaim his innocence, and insisted that the charges against him were the result of racism.
In other news, German President Joachim Gauck has described the mass-murder of Armenians in 1915 as a genocide. There’s no word yet whether the Turkish ambassador to Berlin will be recalled for consultations.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, Insubria, JLH, MC, Mithrandir, Papa Whiskey, 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 Scrambles to Raise Cash, No Imminent EU Deal Expected
Greece is expected to be able to scrape together enough cash to last until June. But details of the reforms Athens is to make in exchange for its rescue loans are not expected this week.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Amazon Reports a $57m Loss in the First Quarter
Technology giant Amazon has reported a loss of $57m (£38m) in the first quarter of 2015 and has also given more detail about the performance of its web services business.
The company said revenue from sales of Amazon web services for the first three months of 2015 was $1.57bn.
Founder Jeff Bezos said in a statement: “Amazon Web Services is a $5 billion business and still growing fast.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Armenian Genocide: Inland Residents Attending Montebello Commemoration
One hundred years ago Friday, Ottaman Turks began what Armenians mark as the beginning of the 20th Century’s first genocide.
On Saturday, about 10 Inland people of Armenian descent will be in Montebello at the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Memorial Monument for a ceremony commemorating the murder of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the waning days of the Turkish-led Ottoman Empire, said the Rev. Stepanos Dingilian, pastor of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Riverside. Dingilian is among those attending.
The commemoration is one of several planned over the next few days in Los Angeles County, home to the nation’s largest Armenian population…
| — Hat tip: JLH | [Return to headlines] |
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Critics of Islam Are Either Put on Hit Lists or Smeared
Activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali responded to her critics by saying “there are two different tactics of silencing individuals like me who want to start the conversation about what in Islam needs to change,” hit lists and smear campaigns on Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.
“There are two different tactics of silencing individuals like me who want to start the conversation about what in Islam needs to change, and one tactic is of course the tactic that Al Qaeda uses, putting people like me on a hit list. And it’s very clear, but then, there’s a different group, Asra Nomani calls them ‘the honor brigade,’ and they engage in smear tactics, in character assassination” she stated.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Court Gives Ex-CIA Boss Petraeus Two Years Probation for Sharing Secrets
Former CIA director David Petraeus has been sentenced to two years probation for sharing military secrets, after a plea deal. The ex-four-star army general’s career was ruined when details of his affair came to light.
A federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina, sentenced Petraeus to two years probation and a $100,000 fine (93,000 euro) for giving classified material to his biographer and former lover Paula Broadwell.
Petraeus’ appearance at the sentencing came some two months after he agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized removal and retention of secret documents.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Homeland Security is Laying Roots in Silicon Valley, And You Might Not Like Its Reasons
The Department of Homeland Security plans to open an office in California’s Silicon Valley to recruit talent from the technology sector and build relationships with the industry.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced the program at a major cyber security conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, saying he hopes more specialists in the field will join the federal government for “a tour of service.”
Johnson’s speech also touched on a topic that has caused privacy advocates to bristle: The Obama administration’s growing opposition to highly advanced encryption methods that prevent both hackers and law-enforcement from accessing private records.
[…]
Nonetheless, Johnson urged technology specialists to join the government, saying they could help strike a balance between the “basic, physical security of the American people and the liberties and freedoms we cherish as Americans.”
[A balance,eh? Well, it is to hope. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
How ISIS is Luring So Many Americans to Join Its Ranks
Washington (CNN) A year after ISIS became a household name in America, using brutality and savvy propaganda to challenge al Qaeda and its affiliates for jihadist adherents, U.S. prosecutions of would-be recruits have exploded.
The flurry of arrests — at least 25 people have been detained since January — is a sign that complicated, manpower-intensive investigations begun when ISIS started seizing swaths of territory a year ago are finally being completed.
But they also highlight the unique challenges that ISIS poses in comparison with al Qaeda, which has attracted fewer U.S.-based recruits.
Like a new rock band storming the music charts, ISIS has benefited from a media environment that amplifies its propaganda, law enforcement officials said. The group quickly reached early recruits through videos that showcased the fear its adherents instilled in nonbelievers.
[…]
The informal recruitment networks and ease of travel have presented a difficult puzzle to intelligence and counterterrorism officials, who are used to tracking networks of facilitators and fundraisers that funnel recruits eastward.
“It’s harder for us to pick up on,” the U.S. counterterrorism official said of the peer-to-peer recruitment, which is well below the radar.
[…]
And while the large number of arrests show that law enforcement officials are succeeding in their disruption efforts, it also means that U.S. authorities don’t see the lure of ISIS receding any time soon.
“We are opening cases quicker than we are closing them,” the U.S. counterterrorism official said.
[That the sanguinary videos of ISIS should attract a pullulating swarm of jihadi larvae reveals the depraved mindset of Muslim youth — a mindset inculcated by the ignoble Qur’an. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Drawing More American and European Women to Its Ranks
When news broke this week that a 20-year-old Alabama woman (identified by her family only as “Hoda”) had left the United States to travel to Syria and join ISIS, many Americans were undoubtedly shocked.
They shouldn’t have been.
Hoda’s departure marked another chapter in what has become the new normal in the age of the Islamic State. Indeed, a startling number of young women and girls are leaving their comfortable lives in the West behind to join the most barbaric Islamic terrorist movement in modern history.
I’ve had my eye on this trend for a while—in Chapter Four (titled “Heartland Horror: The American Recruits”) of my latest book “ISIS Exposed,” I document several cases of Western females flocking to the caliphate—a place where women’s rights and equal pay are not exactly on the agenda. You want to see a real “War on Women?” Spend a few days in ISIS’s de facto capital, Raqqa, and see what happens if a woman wears heels or ventures outside uncovered.
What, then, is the attraction? I explored the motivations behind the Women of ISIS in my book and in a report for CBN News that aired in November 2014. That report is worth revisiting now that “Hoda,” who lived with her family in the quiet suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, has apparently made a new life inside the Islamic State.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Michael Brown’s Family to File Civil Lawsuit, Attorneys Say
(CNN) The family of Michael Brown, the black teen killed last year by a white Ferguson police officer, plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, attorneys for the family said.
The civil suit will be announced Thursday morning in front of the St. Louis County Courthouse.
Attorneys Anthony Gray and Daryl Parks promised the lawsuit in early March after grand jury and Justice Department decisions not to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting.
“They have accepted (Wilson’s) self-defense,” Parks told reporters at the time. “We do not accept his self-defense.”
[Of course they don’t. Blacks are always victims, just as whites are always racists. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
By Pamela Geller
I spoke tonight at Brooklyn College, if you can still call it that. Every seat was filled — 80% by Muslim students. If this is the future, it is murder. The sneers, the jeers, the laughter — my discussion of the most savage acts was met with huge peals of laughter. It wasn’t a talk, it was a vicious circus: lawless and shameful.
Muslim fascist students are now boasting and thumping their chests on Twitter, claiming that they shut down the event. This is, of course, a lie. I gave my entire talk and took questions. They shut down nothing.
And Lord knows I tried to have a genuine discussion with them. I was patient, I was indulgent — but to no avail. If you watch any of it, watch the Q and A. That will show you everything. A couple of fights almost broke out. Muslim students were reading questions off their phones, sent from their puppetmasters, about inane irrelevant things such what did I think of some Muslim basketball player and such.
There were many Muslim girls in the audience. I asked them where they were for Rifqa Bary, and Aqsa Parvez, and Noor Almaleki, and the other victims of honor killing and oppression? Of course, in response there were just more jeers, more catcalls.
This event made it clear: Brooklyn College and our nation’s universities in general are not about learning, or about reasoned discourse, or about a search for truth. They are centers for fascist indoctrination. And the fascists were out in force tonight.
[The American Islamic Sturmabteilung in action. How long before we see a Kristallnacht of our own? — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Armenian Killings Were Genocide — German President
German President Joachim Gauck has described as “genocide” the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, a move likely to cause outrage in Turkey.
He was speaking on the eve of a debate in the German parliament on the issue.
The Armenian Church earlier canonised 1.5 million Armenians it says were killed in massacres and deportations by Ottoman Turks during World War One.
Turkey disputes the term “genocide”, arguing that there were many deaths on both sides during the conflict.
On Friday commemorations will mark the 100th anniversary of the killings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Calls to the Danish Anti-Radicalisation Hotline Growing
More and more Danes, worried about youths being radicalised, are calling VINK, the anti-radicalisation hotline operated by Copenhagen Municipality.
Since 2009, VINK has only received 109 calls. However, 60 of them were made in 2014 alone, and in the first quarter of 2015, the service has already assisted in 28 cases.
Today, a group of experts will meet to discuss how the Danish authorities, the civil society and Muslim organisations can co-operate to prevent radicalism among the youth.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Can France Really Protect All of Its Churches?
French PM Manuel Valls said a 24-year-old IT student’s foiled terror plot was undoubtedly designed to target the country’s Christians as one terrorism expert tells The Local, the already stretched counter-terror forces will have no choice but to boost security at the country’s churches.
France’s counter-terror security plan — known as Vigipirate — is already stretched to the limit. Since the January terror attacks in Paris that saw 17 killed, armed soldiers and police officers have been stationed outside Muslim and Jewish places of worship.
They’ve reported recently that the task has left them exhausted, but it seems that Wednesday’s news about a foiled terror attack on a Christian church may mean an even greater burden for anti-terror police and soldiers.
It was revealed on Wednesday afternoon that a 24-year-old IT student who was arrested on Sunday, named in the French press as Sid Ahmed Ghlam, was allegedly set to embark on a terror attack on the Catholic church of Saint-Cyr Sainte-Julitte in Villejuif, an area just south of Paris.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls reiterated government warnings that the country was facing an “unprecedented terrorist threat” and said on Thursday that 178 Catholic places of worship had already been placed “under specific protection”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Muslims Beat Random Couple With Bottle and Iron Chains in the Face (Graphic Photos)
[A detailed account of the attack in the next story. The female victim looks as though her head had been shoved into a wood chipper. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Muslims Who Whipped Woman in Face With Iron Chains Laugh in Court
By Nicolai Sennels
More descriptions of the attack here. The attackers are “second generation immigrants” (a ‘Danish euphemism for Muslims) — several of them Somalis.
Translated from Ekstra Bladet:
“According to the indictment, the assault began at approximately 00.10 at Vesterbro in Copenhagen on Christmas night, as Mads Schøllhammer received a major blow to the head with a glass bottle that shattered.
“Then he received several blows to the head with a chain lock and wire lock, and the accused gave him “countless” punches and kicks to the head and body. Mads Schøllhammer fell down, but the defendants continued to beat him in the head and body with fists and the chain lock, and they kicked him in the body and head.
“Then the four youths pushed Nanna Skovmand to the ground and beat her “several” times in the head with the chain lock.”
Translated from EB:
“There were both laughing and high fives when a group of young men today sat in the court, accused of a serious assault on Nanna Skovmand and Mads Schøllhammer on Christmas night.
“A few times during the reading of the indictment, the defendants broke out in laughter — partly when the details of the attack were read. …
“According to 23-year-old Nanna Skovmand, the four defendants started the attack by beating her boyfriend as they were walking in Vesterbro at Christmas night.
“As she tried to interrupt the attack, the group went berserk at her and struck with both chains and wire locks. She was also knocked down and kicked.”
[Somalis again. Plenty of them up in Minneapolis, but they’d best not try it there — after a long effort, Minnesota is now a concealed carry state. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
France Hunts for Church Terror Plot Accomplices
French police were desperately hunting on Thursday for possible accomplices to an Algerian whose plan to attack churches was foiled when his arsenal of weapons was uncovered purely by chance. Prosecutors believe at least two individuals were helping the student.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ghlam: The Terror Suspect Who Escaped French Intelligence Radar
Sid Ahmed Ghlam, the terror suspect arrested on Sunday for allegedly planning to attack churches in France, was known to police following two trips to Turkey and at least one visit to war-torn Syria.
Police said they were also aware that he used his Facebook profile to “express his desire to leave for Syria”.
He had been taken into custody and questioned on his return from his second trip to Turkey.
But while he had been under surveillance for 16 months, police found nothing solid enough to warrant further investigation.
The 24-year-old Algerian, living and studying in France since 2011, was arrested purely by chance Sunday after apparently shooting himself in the leg by accident.
He is also suspected of killing 32-year-old fitness instructor Aurelie Chtelain earlier that morning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘I’m a Top ISIS Target’: Berlusconi
Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has claimed he’s a top target of the Islamic militant group, Isis, and for this reason he can only take part in closed-door political campaigns.
So this rules him out of any outdoor rallies on behalf of his Forza Italia party in the run-up to the regional elections at the end of May.
“I’m among the targets of Isis, I’m at the top,” Berlusconi said during a meeting with Forza Italia deputies, Corriere reported, citing party sources.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Priest Among Three Arrested for Alleged Child Abuse
Suspects used social media to solicit minors for paid sex
(ANSA) — Potenza, April 21 — Three people including a parish priest were arrested Tuesday on charges of soliciting minors for paid sex through a social network.
Don Antonio Calderaro from the church of San Giuseppe in Rivello near Potenza in the southern Basilicata region was among the three suspects placed under house arrest in connection with the alleged child abuse.
A further five suspects were ordered to present themselves to the judicial police. The suspects live in various parts of the country, prosecutors in Potenza said. Investigations began in 2013 after the sister of one of the victims reported concerns over appointments made by her younger brother with people met on Internet. Monsignor Francesco Nolè, bishop of the diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro, immediately banned Don Antonio from celebrating Mass and relieved him of all his priestly duties. The bishop said he was “deeply surprised and pained” by the news and that his “first thought asking forgiveness and offering moral and spiritual support goes to the victim and his family”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Cleared Serial Killer Bergwall Sues the State
The man once thought to be Sweden’s worst serial killer, is suing the state, reports Swedish Radio News.
Sture Bergwall says his right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty has been violated by statements by a top judge.
The lawsuit will demand SEK 100,000 in damages, but is mainly to defend the point of principle, says Sture Bergwall — formerly known as Thomas Quick.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
After years of planning, the first steps of tearing down and moving the town of Kiruna started today.
Far above the Arctic Circle, Kiruna is not only the northernmost municipality in Sweden, at nearly 21,000 square kilometers it has also been the biggest city (or municipality) in the world, in terms of area (although in recent years it has been surpassed by some municipalities on Greenland and shires in Australia).
The lifeblood of Kiruna is the LKAB iron mine, and ironically the mine also threatened to be its end. Years ago LKAB announced that to keep the mine in operation they had to dig under the very center of the town itself, with a risk that would undermine all the buildings there.
So the mining company is paying an estimated 12 billion kronor to move the entire town, altogether some 3000 apartments and many other buildings.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Updating and Developing the Muslim Fashion
Mipsterz — or Muslim hipsters — are all the rage as “hijab chic” takes over the fashion runways. Radio Sweden talked to designer Iman Aldebe about how she wants to update the Muslim fashion.
On Wednesday, Stockholm’s Center for Architecture and Design will host an event about the global Muslim Cool movement. Iman Aldebe will be there to present some of her work.
When she first started out as a designer, there was not much “Muslim chic” around.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Viking Age Began in Denmark
New study changes our understanding of how and where the Viking age began.
The story of the Vikings begins in the year 793 AD, after Norwegian Vikings landed in England on the first official Viking raid. To this day, these fierce raids are the most famous of Viking stories.
Now, a new study suggests a more peaceful start to Viking seafaring — and it all began in Denmark.
Three archaeologists from the University of Aarhus (Denmark) and the University of York (UK) have shown that maritime voyages from Norway to Ribe, the oldest commercial centre in Denmark, occurred long before the Viking age officially began.
The study shows that early Vikings travelled to Ribe in South Denmark as early as 725 AD.
The researchers discovered deer antlers in the oldest archaeological deposits of Ribe’s old marketplace and they turned out to be the remains of Norwegian reindeer.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The mayoral election in the east London borough will be rerun after Lutfur Rahman and his supporters were found to have been involved in vote-rigging, seeking spiritual influence through local imams and wrongly branding his Labour rival a racist.
Rahman, who has been banned from seeking office again, was also found to have allocated local grants to buy votes. He was ordered to pay immediate costs of £250,000 from a bill expected to reach £1m.
Rahman, Britain’s first directly elected Muslim mayor, won the ballot after a campaign of “intimidation and corruption”, the petitioners alleged.
The judge said Rahman had sought to play the “race and Islamophobia card” throughout the election and would no doubt do so after this judgment. “He was an evasive witness — Rahman was no doubt behind illegal and corrupt practices,” Mawrey said.
| — Hat tip: Mithrandir | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Can’t Exclude Naval Blockade of Libya
Government majority motion mandates possible naval action
(ANSA) Rome, April 22 — Italy does not exclude imposing a naval blockade on Libya, according to a motion passed by coalition parties of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s government in the upper house of parliament Wednesday.
The motion, originally tabled in a watered-down version by the opposition conservative Forza Italia party, binds the government to urge the UN Security Council to “evaluate the opportunity to issue resolutions that allow the international community to apply measures in accord with what was established by articles 41 and 42 of the United Nations charter”.
Articles 41 and 42 speak explicitly of economic and naval blockades.
A government coalition version of the motion cancelled part of the original text that explicitly forbade a naval blockade, parliamentary sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
IDF confirms at least one rocket was fired at southern Israel, after sirens went off in Sderot.
Reports have come out confirming that two rockets were fired tonight (Thursday) from Bet Hanun in Gaza. The first landed in the area of Sderot and Netivot. The second is believed to have fallen inside of Gaza, but there is no confirmation on that.
There are no reports of injuries
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
Armenian Mass Killings: Iranian Author’s Diary in Animation
Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh witnessed some of the atrocities committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenian minority.
He was among a group of Iranian nationalists working in Ottoman-ruled Baghdad during World War One.
As British forces approached Baghdad, Jamalzadeh, together with two Swedish officers of the Persian gendarmerie force and a few fellow Iranians left the city for Istanbul.
On their travels, Jamalzadeh described what he saw as “brutal and shocking”. Later he wrote a diary about what he saw as “the mass murder and looting of Armenians”.
100 years on from this historic event, Jamalzadeh’s writings are important as he is seen as a relatively objective witness. Most memoirs of those times were written by people involved in the conflict.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan Tells Peace Summit: Turkey’s Ancestors Never Committed Genocide Against Armenians
On the eve of the day marking the centenary of the Ottoman massacres of Armenians, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his nation’s ancestors never committed genocide.
Addressing a meeting billed as a peace summit Thursday, Erdogan also accused European nations of indifference toward refugees and wanting migrants drown at sea.
Britain’s Prince Charles and the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand were among dignitaries attending the event marking the centenary of the Gallipoli Battle in World War I.
Erdogan said: “The Armenian claims on the 1915 events… are all baseless and groundless.”
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks, an event widely viewed as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fleet of Iranian Ships Heading to Yemen Turns Around After Being Tracked by US Warships
A nine-ship Iranian convoy believed to be laden with weapons bound for rebels in Yemen turned around Thursday after being followed by U.S. warships stationed in the area to prevent arms shipments, multiple sources in the Pentagon told Fox News.
The sources said the nine-ship convoy is south of Salalah, Oman, and now headed northeast in the Arabian Sea in the direction of home. The ships, which include seven freighters and two frigates, had sailed southwest along the coast of Yemen heading in the direction of Aden and the entrance to the Red Sea. They appeared to drop anchor in the north Arabian Sea, after the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the USS Normandy and a half-dozen other American ships arrived in the Arabian Sea on Monday, and U.S. officials said that they could intercept the convoy.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt, a 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier known as the “Big Stick” and her escort, the USS Normandy, a guided missile cruiser, have been shadowing the convoy for the past few days, the sources said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq: Chaldean Patriarchate and Caritas Help Muslim Families, Displaced From Tikrit and Anbar
After fleeing the Islamic state, some 2,000 Muslim families receive aid and donations. Such a “fraternal initiative” shows “ in a concrete way the solidarity of Christians,” Mar Sako said. For Muslim leaders, the deed rebuilds “trust between communities.” The ‘Adopt a Christian from Mosul’ campaign by AsiaNews now benefits non-Christians as well.
Baghdad (AsiaNews) — The Chaldean Patriarchate and Caritas in Iraq today delivered aid to at least 2,000 Muslim families that were displaced from Tikrit and Anbar following the latest offensive by the Islamic State group.
Speaking to AsiaNews, His Beatitude Mar Raphael I Louis Sako stressed the importance of this “fraternal initiative”, made possible by those who drove and accompanied the lorries and other vehicles used in the delivery.
“Our people wanted to express in a concrete way the solidarity of Christians towards their Muslim brothers and sisters, by alleviating their suffering,” said the head of the Church of Iraq.
“Christ commanded us to help people in need,” the Chaldean Patriarch said, especially those “who we consider to be our brothers.”
“We have come here today to express our sorrow for what is happening to our country, for the destruction, the killings, the hundreds of thousands of displaced people,” he said.
“We Christians have suffered a lot, especially in Mosul and the plain of Nineveh,” Mar Sako added.
Addressing the families of displaced Muslims that fled Tikrit and Anbar, he stressed that “we have come to tell you that we share your suffering and we love you.”
Equally, he expressed hope for an “end to the tragedies” so that people “might be able to return to their homes and live in complete peace and security.”
The initiative promoted by Christian leaders and community was well received, not only by the families that received aid, but also by Muslim leaders.
Two sheikhs, Mohamed and Mahmoud Ghurery, praised the closeness and solidarity of the Christian minority, calling it a “noble and fraternal initiative.”
Both Muslim leaders said that they have not forgotten the many expressions of esteem and solidarity received in recent years from Christians, because today’s “is not the first time.”
In fact, “The Christian religion is love,” they said, “and has now been embodied in an actual deed”.
For them, “These initiatives build coexistence and boost trust,” they added. “God bless you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Meanwhile, the ‘Adopt a Christian from Mosul’ campaign by AsiaNews continues. Over the past few months, hundreds of thousands of Christian, Yazidi, and Muslim families have received help after they fled their homes in Mosul and the Nineveh Plaint following jihadist attacks (to join the campaign, click here).
Through the initiative, about € 1.2 million (US$ 1.3 million) have been raised. Now the goal is to raise € 3.5 million (US$ 3.7 million) to provide housing to displaced people.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Made ‘People’s Lives Better’: US Hostage Warren Weinstein Gave Life Helping the Pakistani People
Warren Weinstein gave his life helping the people of Pakistan, and spent his last years as a hostage of Al Qaeda, forced to beg for his life in grim videos that showed his alarming deterioration at the hands of his captors.
Weinstein, an American relief worker who was 73 when he was accidentally killed in a U.S. drone strike operation in January, was originally taken hostage by Al Qaeda in August, 2011. He was snatched by terrorist gunmen at his Lahore, Pakistan, home while working as an economic development adviser for USAID, following a stint in the Peace Corps.
“In Pakistan, where he was working before he was abducted, he loved and respected the Pakistani people and their culture,” Obama said. “He learned to speak Urdu and did everything he could to show his utmost and profound respect for the region.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taliban and Islamic State Declare Jihad on Each Other
According to reports from Afghanistan’s Khaama Press and Pakistan’s Mashaal Radio, the Taliban and Islamic State (ISIS) have declared jihad on each other, furthering an already acrimonious relationship between the two groups.
Nabi Jan Mullahkhil, police chief of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, an opium-producing region along the Pakistan border, revealed in an interview that he received documents showing that both groups made the declaration.
This news comes after a brutal terrorist attack on Saturday in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, which killed at least 35 people and wounded over 100 others. The Taliban castigated the incident, with the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stating, “It was an evil act. We strongly condemn it.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thai Bookseller Given Jail Term for Royal Defamation
A Thai man was sentenced Wednesday to two years in jail for selling books that allegedly defamed the monarchy, the latest in a string of convictions under a notorious lese majeste law.
The Court of Appeals overturned a 2014 court decision which had cleared Udomsak Wattanaworachaiwathin of any wrongdoing in a case that stretches back nine years.
The grey-haired 66-year-old was initially arrested in May 2006 for selling two books that allegedly defamed Thailand’s revered but ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej, during a protest in a Bangkok park.
But prosecutors only filed charges against him seven years later, according to iLaw, a local legal group that monitors lese majeste cases.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Drone Strike Accidentally Killed 2 Hostages
Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama announced Thursday that a U.S. counterterrorism operation targeting an al Qaeda compound in January accidentally killed two innocent hostages, including one American.
Multiple U.S. officials told CNN the hostages were killed by a U.S. military drone that targeted the al Qaeda compound.
“As president and as Commdander-in-Chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni,” Obama said Thursday morning, where he apologized on behalf of the U.S. government.
The White House also disclosed Thursday that two Americans, both al Qaeda operatives, were also killed in U.S. counterterrorism operations in the same region.
Al Qaeda leader Ahmed Farouq, who was an American citizen, was also killed in the operation that killed the two innocent hostages.
Adam Gadahn, another American in the senior ranks of al Qaeda, was also killed by U.S. forces in the region, “likely in a separate” counterterrorism operation, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in the statement.
American officials at the time had “no reason to believe either hostage was present” when the operation was launched on a compound in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. U.S. officials also did not know that Farouq or Gadahn were present at the targeted sites and “neither was specifically targeted,” Earnest said.
A senior administration official told CNN that U.S. intelligence had “near certainty” there were no hostages at the target site.
[Bad juju, but collateral damage happens. American POWs were killed in the A-bomb attack on Hiroshima that hastened the end of WWII. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
US Admits Two Hostages Killed in Al-Qaeda Raid
The White House has said that a US counterterrorism operation in January accidentally killed two hostages who were being held by al-Qaeda.
Warren Weinstein, an American, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian, were killed in the raid in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
President Barack Obama described it as a painful loss he profoundly regretted.
Two other Americans thought to be al-Qaeda members were also killed, one of them in the same raid.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Fines Mercedes for Price Fixing
Part of clampdown on anti-monopolistic practices
(ANSA) — Rome, April 23 — China on Thursday fined Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz 350m yuan ($56.5m) for price fixing as part of a broader clampdown on anti-monopolistic practices.
A pricing regulator in Jiangsu said the luxury German carmaker pressured local dealers into setting a minimum sales price on some of its car models.
Some of its local dealers were also fined 7.7m yuan, regulators said.
A Mercedes-Benz spokesman said it “accepts the decision and takes its responsibilities under competition law very seriously”.
“We have taken all appropriate steps to ensure to fully comply with the law,” a spokesperson told the Reuters news agency.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Asylum Festival Tackles ‘Xenophobic Rhetoric’
A new festival on asylum and migration launches in Copenhagen on Thursday as organizers try to combat anti-immigration sentiment in the run-up to Denmark’s parliamentary elections.
A coalition of groups working on asylum and migration issues is hosting a three-day festival to combat what they call “hostile political campaigns targeting minority groups” and Danish politicians’ “race to the bottom on immigration polices”.
The Asylfestival gets underway Thursday at the Trampoline House, a Copenhagen cultural centre where asylum seekers and Danes get together to socialize and learn from one another.
Organizers told The Local that the festival, which will be held in the shadow of Sunday’s mass drowning of migrants in the Mediterranean, will include lectures, workshops, film screenings and other events aimed at finding solutions to a complex problem.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Leaders Face Calls to Take Swift Action on Mediterranean Migrants
European Union leaders gathering for an extraordinary summit are facing calls from all sides to take emergency action to save lives in the Mediterranean, where hundreds of migrants are missing and feared drowned in recent days.
The leaders will examine a plan to respond to the crisis, after more than 10,000 migrants were plucked from seas between Italy and Libya in a week, and are widely expected to approve swift action.
EU President Donald Tusk urged the leaders from the 28 nations “to agree on very practical measures,” including “strengthening search-and-rescue possibilities, by fighting the smugglers and by discouraging their victims from putting their life at risk, while reinforcing solidarity.”
A key part of the action plan is to crack down on the people-smugglers operating off Libya and destroy their boats, to stop people sneaking into Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Leaders Commit Ships, Aid for Action on Migrants
European Union leaders on Thursday started committing new resources to save lives in the Mediterranean at an emergency summit convened after hundreds of migrants drowned in the space of a few days, and were discussing laying the ground for military action against traffickers.
“First and foremost now, we have to save lives and take the right measures to do so,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she arrived.
Officials said the 28 nations were closing in more than doubling the finances for the EU’s border operation that patrols the Mediterranean and could be called on for emergency rescues. It currently stands at 2.9 million euros ($3.1 million) a month.
Leaders were also expected to assign EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to line up the options that would allow EU military to strike against the boats used by traffickers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Leaders to Pledge Rescue for Migrants, But No Fix for Problem
European Union leaders will effectively reverse a cutback in rescue operations the Mediterranean on Thursday to try to prevent record numbers of people drowning as they try to flee war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
But an emergency EU summit in Brussels, called after up to 900 went down on a single boat on Sunday, will do little else beyond laying out options, including attacks on smugglers and holding camps for migrants, on which the 28 states are divided.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Experts Warn Against Military Response in Med
Calls have mounted for a military response to the Mediterranean migrant crisis, but experts say such plans are totally unworkable and mark an attempt to militarize what should be a purely humanitarian problem.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Northern League Chief Calls Govt Hypocritical
‘They called us racists, now they want to sink the boats’
(ANSA) — Rome, April 22 — Anti-immigrant Northern League leader Matteo Salvini said Wednesday that the government is hypocritical in its handling of the migrant emergency.
“They are hypocritical and dangerous, (Premier Matteo) Renzi worst of all,” Salvini told Radio Padania party radio station.
“They insulted us, called us racists and now they say they want to sink migrant ships and set up blockades, which is what we’ve been saying for ages,” he said.
Renzi earlier in the day accused some opposition groups of political “looting” by cynically profiting from last weekend’s migrant boat disaster in which over 800 people are feared dead.
Salvini responded by calling the premier a “grave-digger” on Twitter.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Migrants’ Boat Destruction OK But Not Solution, Bishops Say
Solutions should not be ‘fruit of animosity, bishops conference
(ANSA) Rome, April 22 — Destroying boats used by people smugglers in their Libyan lairs can only be “one step” to solving the mushrooming migrant crisis, Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) secretary-general Monsignor Nunzio Galantino said Wednesday.
“This is a moment in which all routes must be taken, all solutions must be adopted to avoid other tragedies such as the one in the Strait of Sicily,” said the prelate.
“Immigration is a complex problem and therefore it can’t be resolved with a simplification of the sinking of boats that can only be one step”.
“I hope the solutions to be adopted are not the fruit of animosity … or worse still of people who want to garner some votes from this tragedy”.
Galantino added that “the refusal of the regions and boroughs that don’t want to accept more refugees speak for themselves, they mean that on this theme of immigration we continue to treat it as an emergency when it is no longer an emergency”.
“… It is also true that Italy on its own can’t solve this,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Malmström: “EU Nations Lack Will to Help Migrants”
As European heads of state gather in Brussels on Thursday for an emergency summit on migration, Sweden’s EU commissioner Cecilia Malmström says there is a lack of political will to help solve the crisis.
The Brussels summit was prompted by the deaths of more than 900 people in the Mediterranean this week. Amnesty International and other groups have condemned European governments’ “negligence” of the migrant crisis and on Thursday Malmström chimed in, telling Swedish Television:
“The problem is the political will is not strong enough. We tried with the Triton but very few member states want to contribute to it.”Malmström said that most EU countries have pledged to contribute to the Triton border control mission, but that few have offered concrete help in the form of boats and rescue personnel.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Dies ‘Clinging to Bus’ On Italy-Bound Ferry
A young Afghan migrant who tried to smuggle himself onto a car ferry headed for Italy by clinging to the undercarriage of a tourist bus died after being run over by the coach, Greek news agency Ana reported on Wednesday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Killed for Standing Amid ‘Inhuman Violence’
Man’s body thrown into sea
(ANSA) — Catania, April 23 — One young man was killed by people smugglers for standing up without permission on a migrant boat, investigators probing last weekend’s boat disaster in which over 700 people are feared to have died have discovered, according to ANSA sources. The sources said reports of “inhuman violence” have emerged from the investigation. The man’s body is said to have been thrown from the dinghy he was travelling on to reach the fishing boat that sank last weekend.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: When Studying Becomes an Odyssey
Mohammad Aljarawan fled death threats in Syria and endured nine days on a boat without food. In Bergen he is not allowed to continue his studies unless he passes English and Norwegian exams.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Pushes for UN Action Against Illegal Immigration From Libya
The best way to stop migrants from drowning on their way to Europe might be to prevent them from boarding ships in Libya, the Spanish government believes.
The “horrendous spectacle,” as described by Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo, of the recent sinking of a vessel with around 850 people on board has shaken European governments into action.
Now Spain, for whom illegal immigration from North Africa is a matter of concern, has secured support from Italy and is pushing forward a resolution at the United Nations Security Council, where it holds a rotating seat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Offers Help for Mediterranean Crisis
Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has said that he’s prepared to send Swedish Coast Guard surveillance ships and planes to the Mediterranean to help look out for migrant ships, in the wake of the growing humanitarian crisis in the region as refugees seek to enter Europe.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Immigrants Buy False Addresses
Immigrants are paying big sums simply to get registered at an address, because of rules saying benefits are only paid to people with homes.
The Migration Agency only pays out the subsidy called “etableringsersättning” to people who are registered at an address, since reforms a year ago.
People also need an address to be signed up to the employment agency’s job seeking programme.
Swedish Radio News spoke to “June”, who wanted to leave her asylum housing and find her own place. She says a friend told her of a person who she could buy an address off — although she would have to find her own place to stay.
June (not her real name) paid SEK 2,500 a month for an address that was hers only on paper.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UN Official Says Rich World Should Take 1 Mn Syria Refugees
Crepeau says EU inaction allowing smugglers to thrive
(ANSA) — London, April 22 — Francois Crépeau, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, has said that the world’s wealthy countries need to devise a plan to receive one million Syrian refugees over the next five years in order to stop migrant-boat disasters in the Mediterranean. In an interview with British daily The Guardian, Crépeau said the European Union’s failure to act was allowing people traffickers to thrive. He added that the plan could be extended to other nationalities fleeing war, including Eritreans. “We know a great number of Syrians in particular are going to leave these countries and if we don’t provide any official mechanism for them to do so, they will resort to smugglers. The inaction of Europe is actually what creates the market for smugglers,” said Crépeau.
“We could collectively offer to resettle one million Syrians over the next five years. “For a country like the UK, this would probably be around 14,000 Syrians a year for five years. “For Canada, it would mean less than 9,000 a year for five years — a drop in the bucket. For Australia, it would probably be less than 5,000 per year for five years.
“We can manage that”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Astronomers Find Runaway Galaxies
We know of about two dozen runaway stars, and have even found one runaway star cluster escaping its galaxy forever. Now, astronomers have spotted 11 runaway galaxies that have been flung out of their homes to wander the void of intergalactic space.
“These galaxies are facing a lonely future, exiled from the galaxy clusters they used to live in,” said astronomer Igor Chilingarian (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics/Moscow State University). Chilingarian is the lead author of the study, which is appearing in the journal Science.
An object is a runaway if it’s moving faster than escape velocity, which means it will depart its home never to return. In the case of a runaway star, that speed is more than a million miles per hour (500 km/s). A runaway galaxy has to race even faster, traveling at up to 6 million miles per hour (3,000 km/s).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook is Making 3 Big Changes to Its Newsfeed Algorithm, And Publishers Should be Worried
Is Facebookgeddon finally here?
For the past year and a half, a number of publishers and Facebook page owners have benefitted from a surge of traffic sent to them by the social network. Publishers post content to Facebook with links, and thousands — or millions — of Facebook users see it and interact with it.
But publishers have also known that the flood of traffic may not last, and Facebook says it’s making three big changes to its NewsFeed algorithm that could mean these traffic glory days may soon be over soon.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
>> The [Italian upper house] motion . . . binds the government to urge the UN Security Council to “evaluate the opportunity to issue resolutions that allow the international community to apply measures in accord with what was established by articles 41 and 42 of the United Nations charter”. <<
This is simply vicious and draconian. The motion seeks to BIND the government to URGE the U.N. to EVALUATE the OPPORTUNITY to issue RESOLUTIONS to ALLOW the INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY to apply MEASURES in ACCORDANCE WITH the U.N. Charter.
The Italian navy will, as usual, serve cucumber sandwiches to the
arriving parasitesrefugees until Jesus returns to the Earth.>> Taliban and Islamic State Declare Jihad on Each Other <<
NOW we are talking.
>> China Fines Mercedes for Price Fixing <<
Perhaps we could fine the Chinese for fixing the price of the yuan to maintain a competitive advantage over U.S. manufacturers. The out-of-control nationalists, patriots, and xenophobes in our government seem not to have noticed.
I suspect that most policy makers, once they get into office, gain access to information about the strategic and economic situation with regards to China which sufficiently convinces them that the U.S. canNOT, in point of fact, do much other than hope that Beijing’s intentions are benevolent.
There are probably quite a few who do not need to be shown much information to toe the line on China’s “peaceful rise”. But even the bravest elected official is prone to hope for the best against all odds, or they would neither seek nor win office.
>> EU President Donald Tusk urged the leaders from the 28 nations “to agree on very practical measures,” including “strengthening search-and-rescue possibilities, by fighting the smugglers and by discouraging their victims from putting their life at risk, while reinforcing solidarity.” <<
How about strengthening blockade "possibilities" and ecouraging member states to cut off welfare benefits to invaders?
In any "respectable" European forum, however, I would be the one considered simple minded. AntiFa would have to be called out in force.
I want to thank you for leaving your comment in the Sweden Report blog. His condemnation of Sweden Democrats was shameful and/or ignorant. When I posted a comment about our history with SD’s leaders and the things the government had done to them, he deleted it, though I was never less than civil – just said I disagreed with his assessment.
GLad to know you’re watching there. I did have the B put up a link to his website but I didn’t pay any attention to the fact that he ignores me. We’re racist no doubt. And if that is his belief, then his frontal cortex has been tightly bound with p.c. tape. Sad indeed.
My pleasure. I think he has a very interesting blog, as does Swedish Surveyor. One or both republish articles by the inestimably excellent Julia Caesar.
SR seems quite sensible when he replies to comments. I’m surprised he deleted your comment, but then it pertained to the Sweden Democrats who are the hand maidens of Satan in those parts.
I think it was he who wrote something like it is ok to speak publicly about reducing illigration (but not stopping it). I inferred from that and other words that going beyond “reduce” was to travel into dangerous territory indeed. Injun country. “Far right” country.
There’s perhaps some cognitive dissonance where you can talk about insane costs of immigration but you can’t draw conclusions about them. A la Diana West. It’s ok to talk about numbers of immigrants but woe betide she who dares to say the cost is ruinous.
I like his blog, had the Baron put it up. Follow his Twitter feed. But I do believe he’s probably blocked my follow and I doubt he’s let any of my comments stand. But I can’t be bothered checking. Too much good info out there to chase the ones who cry Raaacist. He’s an American and hasn’t bothered to check out the histories of all the post WWII political parties and their early-on membership or their current treatment of their Jewish populations.