In Tensta, a culturally enriched suburb of Stockholm, a mob of “youths” attacked a police patrol with rocks and Molotov cocktails. Police were forced to fire warning shots into the crowd. The rioters, said to be mainly Somalis and Kurds, were apparently upset that police had started cracking down on crime in their neighborhood.
In other news, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shi’ite mosque in Saudi Arabia, and promised more attacks targeting Shi’ites.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Upananda Brahmachari, 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.
Draghi Hails Reform Progress, Cites Italy, Spain
ECB president says moves have altered inflation, unemployment
(ANSA) — Rome, May 22 — European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Friday hailed the progress made in the eurozone on structural economic reforms, citing Italy and Spain as examples. “Several countries have made significant progress with structural reforms during the crisis and we can already see how this has altered the relationship between inflation and unemployment,” Draghi said in Sintra, Portugal. “There is evidence that inflation has become increasingly responsive to cyclical conditions in countries that have reformed their product and labour markets, such as Spain and Italy”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
It is Mathematically Impossible to Pay Off All of Our Debt
Did you know that if you took every single penny away from everyone in the United States that it still would not be enough to pay off the national debt? Today, the debt of the federal government exceeds $145,000 per household, and it is getting worse with each passing year. Many believe that if we paid it off a little bit at a time that we could eventually pay it all off, but as you will see below that isn’ t going to work either. It has been projected that “ mandatory” federal spending on programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare plus interest on the national debt will exceed total federal revenue by the year 2025. That is before a single dollar is spent on the U.S. military, homeland security, paying federal workers or building any roads and bridges. So no, we aren’ t going to be “ paying down” our debt any time in the foreseeable future. And of course it isn’ t just our 18 trillion dollar national debt that we need to be concerned about. Overall, Americans are a total of 58 trillion dollars in debt. 35 years ago, that number was sitting at just 4.3 trillion dollars. There is no way in the world that all of that debt can ever be repaid. The only thing that we can hope for now is for this debt bubble to last for as long as possible before it finally explodes.
It shocks many people to learn that our debt is far larger than the total amount of money in existence. So let’ s take a few moments and go through some of the numbers.
When most people think of “ money” , they think of coins, paper money…
[Comment: From the banksters point of view, the creation of their Federal Reserve has been a great success.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why the US Consumer is About to be Crushed: The ObamaCare Inflationary Deluge Arrives
What’s far worse for the troubled US consumer, this is just the beginning. Because after finally digesting the true cost of Obamacare, any recent insurance prime hikes will seem like a walk in the park compared to what is coming.
According to the WSJ, key insurers in some states are proposing hefty rate boosts for plans sold under the federal health law.
Case in point:
In New Mexico, market leader Health Care Service Corp. is asking for an average jump of 51.6% in premiums for 2016. In Tennessee, the biggest insurer BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, has requested an average 36.3% increase. In Maryland, market leader CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield wants to raise rates 30.4% across its products. In Oregon, the largest insurer Moda Health seeks an average boost of around 25%.
All of them cite high medical costs incurred by people newly enrolled under the Affordable Care Act.
The irony is that while the Obama administration “can ask insurers seeking increases of 10% or more to explain themselves, but cannot force them to cut rates. Rates will become final by the fall.”
Why the explosion in costs? Simple: take on look at the IBB or any other biotech index, all of which have exploded in recent years as a result of one key thing: pushing prices of medicines ever higher. Now, finally, these soaring prices which have likewise resulted in soaring stock prices, are about to be funded by everyone else.
[Comment: Watch for more retail closures since consumers will have less disposable income.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Biden to the Navy: ‘Our Forces Will Have to be Ready’ For Climate Change
“We’ll rely on you, the United States Navy, to lead in solving these emerging problems.”
[Comment: Naturally, that’s the purpose of the Navy. /sarcasm]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cleveland Policeman Brelo Cleared Over Unarmed Black Deaths
A US policeman who climbed on to a car bonnet and fired repeatedly through the windscreen at unarmed black occupants has been cleared of all charges.
Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams died in 2012 in a barrage of bullets fired by 13 officers in a car chase.
Michael Brelo, 31, the only officer to be charged, was cleared of voluntary manslaughter at the court in Cleveland.
The US has seen a series of police race-related killings, some of which have led to serious civil unrest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
De Blasio’s “Contract for Communism”
Red Bill de Blasio just unveiled a 13-point national “Progressive Agenda” that is being touted as the liberal “Contract with America.” It more closely resembles a “ Contract for Communism.”
And a majority of Democrats wholeheartedly approve this as the basis for the “ Progressive Agenda” — the bedrock for their primary economic policies and the running platform for their anointed 2016 presidential candidate. The mask is coming off… they are going full bore Marxist/Communist and are proud of it. Members of Congress are praising de Blasio for uniting Progressives…
Aaron Klein at WND has documented that most of the 13 points in de Blasio’s “Progressive Agenda” can also be found in the manifestos and literature of the Communist Party USA and the Socialist Party USA:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Google a Step Closer to Developing Machines With Human-Like Intelligence
Algorithms developed by Google designed to encode thoughts, could lead to computers with ‘common sense’ within a decade, says leading AI scientist Computers will have developed “common sense” within a decade and we could be counting them among our friends not long afterwards, one of the world’s leading AI scientists has predicted.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How to Push Gun Control: Lie to Americans
As the Texas Senate considers attaching campus carry language to House Bill 910, the gun-control organization Everytown for Gun Safety, along with its subsidiary Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, continues to warn Texans about the dangers of forcing guns into college parties, football stadiums, and fraternity houses—three locations not affected by the proposed campus carry amendment.
One month after Students for Concealed Carry (SCC) launched a website (WhyCampusCarry.com) and TV commercial (youtu.be/XtpJuhAjMoI) dedicated to rebutting Everytown’s false claims, Everytown and Moms Demand Action have ratcheted up their efforts to mislead the public about where and how campus carry legislation would change Texas gun laws. Not only does Everytown continue to air its misleading TV ad; they continue to spread these debunked claims via social media.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
How the Media Got Into Bed With the Clintons
This Tapper controversy should put an end to the pretense that George Stephanopoulos of ABC News is the only member of the journalism business who was compromised through his involvement in the Clinton Foundation. A list of media members of the Clinton Global Initiative in 2011 included Stephanopoulos and many others:
- Christiane Amanpour, Chief International Correspondent, CNN
- Thomas Friedman, Columnist, The New York Times
- Lionel Barber, U.S. Managing Director, The Financial Times
- Nicholas Kristof, Columnist, The New York Times
- Maria Bartiromo, Anchor, CNBC (now with Fox Business Network)
- Matt Lauer, Host, The Today Show, NBC
- Matthew Bishop, New York Bureau Chief and American Business Editor, The Economist
- Tom Brokaw, Special Correspondent and Moderator of Meet the Press, NBC News
- Greta Van Susteren, Anchor and Host, Fox News Channel
- Anderson Cooper, Anchor, CNN
- Judy Woodruff, Senior Correspondent, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS
- Katie Couric, Anchor, CBS News (now with Yahoo)
- Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International
The pro-Clinton group Media Matters has been having a field day with the news that Fox News personalities were on the list. The group points out that Van Susteren and Bartiromo have both lavished praise on the Clinton Global Initiative for its good work.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Is the U.S. Food Supply Cursed?
Why are so many catastrophes hitting U.S. food production? This week, we have learned that more than 7 million turkeys and chickens have already been killed as the result of a devastating bird flu outbreak here in the United States. This particular strain of the bird flu has already spread to the states of Minnesota, Iowa, California, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin, and scientists are mystified as to why it is moving so rapidly. But what we do know is that this flu has the potential to kill an entire flock of chickens or turkeys in just 48 hours. This pandemic is quickly becoming a major national crisis all by itself, but when you combine this with all of the other disasters hitting our food supply, a very troubling picture emerges. Could it be possible that the U.S. food supply is cursed?
Before we talk about the bird flu some more, let’ s first review some of the other ways that our food supply is under assault.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NSA Planned to Infect Samsung, Google App Stores With Spyware
If you’re in the business of writing spyware or malware, smartphones are a tempting target. For many people, their phone or tablet is now the primary compute device they use to surf the web, access content, and explore new software. Google has had problems keeping the Google Play store free from malware and spyware, but new information suggests that both Google and Samsung almost faced a much more potent opponent — the NSA itself.
A report from The Intercept highlights how the NSA explored options for hacking the App Store and Google Play over several workshops held in Australia and Canada between November 2011 and February 2012. The projects used the Internet-monitoring Xkeyscore system to identify smartphone traffic, then trace that traffic back to app stores. This led to a project dubbed Irritant Horn, the point of which was to develop the ability to distribute “implants” that could be installed when the smartphones in question attempted to connect to Google or Samsung app stores.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ObamaFail: Affordable Insurance Rates Set to Skyrocket 50%… Again
Remember when the American people were told that insurance would be free for the poor and affordable for the middle class? You know, back when we had to wait for the Affordable Care Act to be passed before we found out what was in it?
Within weeks of the program finally launching Americans saw an immediate jump in their monthly health insurance premiums — up to a quadrupling for some families.
As it turns out, insurance providers aren’ t done yet. Apparently, quadrupling your rates just wasn’ t enough to cover the health care costs for the millions of people who are paying absolutely nothing into the system but continue to receive the benefit of expensive prescription drugs and costly increases in medical procedures.
As a result, by the end of this year you will see your monthly premiums skyrocket, in some cases as high as 50%:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Opposition Mounts to EPA Plan to Cut Power Plant Emissions
Some of President Barack Obama’s biggest electoral supporters are turning against him and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over fears that Obama’s plan to cut power plant emissions by 30 percent by 2030 will mean increased economic hardship for the poor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
TPP Gives Obama Power to Destroy America
In this exclusive emergency address, Alex breaks down the hidden reasons behind the sinister Trans Pacific Trade Partnership.
The TPP is global domination by a fascist cartel bent on enslaving the world. Now the Senate has given fast-track authority to Obama to implement this secret plan and set fire to our Constitution, rules of law and ultimately our liberty and way of life.
Kentucky Senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul was among a host of lawmakers who staunchly opposed the secrecy surrounding the Trans Pacific Partnership bill, saying he disagrees with the proposed legislation “being held under lock and key.”
“I’m hesitant to give blanket authority on stuff we haven’t seen,” Senator Paul said earlier this month.
[Comment: Headline is pretty accurate. Turd-PP needs to be flushed down the drain ASAP.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unprecedented Mass Die Offs as Pacific Ocean “Turning Into a Desert” Off California Coast
The ocean is dying, by all accounts — and if so, the food supply along with it. The causes are numerous, and overlapping. And massive numbers of wild animal populations are dying as a result of it.
Natural causes in the environment are partly to blame; so too are the corporations of man; the effects of Fukushima, unleashing untold levels of radiation into the ocean and onto Pacific shores; the cumulative effect of modern chemicals and agricultural waste tainting the water and disrupting reproduction.
A startling new report says in no uncertain terms that the Pacific Ocean off the California coast is turning into a desert. Once full of life, it is now becoming barren, and marine mammals, seabirds and fish are starving as a result. According to Ocean Health:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Man Holds Alleged Carjacker at Gunpoint Until Cops Arrive
An outrageous cell phone video captured in Georgia features an armed man turning the tables on a carjacker, holding him at gunpoint until police arrive.
Hashim Fannin, a resident of an Atlanta suburb, walked out of a Family Dollar store yesterday to find an unfamiliar person inside his vehicle.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) A new piece of legislation signed into law in March in the remote state of Wyoming essentially criminalizes the act of taking scenic photographs if authorities believe you are trespassing. Some critics of the law say it is really intended to stop people from collecting visual evidence of large polluters and then passing the images on as “evidence” to watchdog groups.
According to language in the Data Trespass measure, the law appears to be aimed at enhancing current legal restrictions against generalized trespass for the express purpose of prohibiting anyone from the unauthorized collection of “resource data.”
That, reports MintPress News, could include an act as simple as taking a picture virtually anywhere in the state. The law’s broad language could have wider implications as well, and it might even be aimed at preventing whistleblowers from outing other criminal activity, such as violations of the Clean Water Act.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bank of England Admits to Researching ‘Brexit’ Risks
The Bank of England revealed it is researching the economic risks of Britain leaving the European Union, just as Prime Minister David Cameron began negotiations with EU leaders ahead of a referendum on membership.
The central bank study, which could have a major impact on the debate over Britain’s future within the bloc, was due to remain confidential but details were accidentally emailed to an editor at The Guardian newspaper.
Cameron used an EU summit in Latvia to kick-start negotiations on changing Britain’s terms of membership. He hopes to have a package of reforms to put to voters in an in-out referendum he has promised to hold by 2017.
“Today, information related to planned confidential bank work on the potential implications of a renegotiation and national referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union made its way into the public domain,” the bank said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Eurovision Song Contest: Sweden’s Mans Zelmerlow Wins
Swedish singer Mans Zelmerlow has triumphed at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, beating Russia’s Polina Gagarina. Zelmerlow won with his upbeat pop track Heroes, which was accompanied by innovative animated visuals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Tour Eiffel Shut in Protest Against Pick-Pocketers
Workers denounce attacks and threats and demand guarantees
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, MAY 22 — The Eiffel Tour was closed to the public this morning because its workers staged a protest invoking long-term measures against pick-pocketers active around the world-famous Parisian monument.
The “majority” of workers ensuring access to the tower have decided to exercise their right to “pull back” (a right guaranteed by French labour law which provides that workers may not go their workplace if doing so entails “a serious and imminent threat to life and health”) by reason of an upsurge of pick-pocketer presence on the Tour Eiffel which has already caused several threats and attacks”.
The monument’s workers demand “formal guarantees by its management that efficient long-term measures will be put in place to solve a problem affecting many tourists every day”. The company managing the tower made no comments regarding the initiative and issued a statement confirming that the monument “could not open at 9.30 a.m” for lack of personnel, also expressing its “regret that visitors already on the premises should be penalised”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Hatred Video Game Where Victims Are Stamped to Death Approved for Sale in Britain
The game features a genocidal maniac who kills everyone in his path and allows players to murder innocent people with a host of weapons including guns, knives and a flame-thrower.
[Comment: Not just “pushing the envelope”. All part of social re-engineering of society. Those who play such games don’t realize they are the ones being played. After all, why run around killing humans in the game? Why not have the player killing monsters?]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISTAT Says ‘Brain Drain’ Has Doubled in Italy
Best minds, most educated fleeing to other countries
(ANSA) — Rome, May 20 — The ‘brain drain’ from Italy of some its best-trained and highly skilled workers is growing, national statistical agency Istat said Wednesday. It reported that 3,000 PhD holders graduating between 2008 and 2010, or almost 13%, live outside the country, That number is almost double the 7% of PhD grads from between 2004 and 2006, the agency said.
Physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists are among the professionals most likely to leave, said Istat.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Reforestation Notably Increasing
‘Highest rate in 500 years’ say Italy’s UN rep
(ANSA) — New York, May 14 — Italy’s reforesting has increased, adding up to “its highest rate of forests in the last 500 years”, including a record number of trees per person and an notable increase in land recovery, the Italian representative to the United Nations said on Thursday during a debate on forests at the UN Economic and Social Council ECOSOC.
“In Italy, a record of 200 trees for every citizen has been obtained, forests are growing at a rate of 0.6% yearly, over the last four decades 3.5 million hectares dedicated to nature have been recovered and the threat of flooding has been greatly reduced”, the Italian representative said.
The representative emphasized the multiple benefits of healthy forests for communities worldwide and as a key participation in the hydrological cycle.
Additionally, the representative addressed the benefits of urban forests, saying that “they avoid drain clogging with the ability to retain water, facilitate waste management, mitigate heat waves, and generally improve the quality of life for city inhabitants”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Priest Nabbed in Roma Underage Prostitution Probe
Found with ‘big quantity of kiddy porn’ in Termini case
(ANSA) — Rome, May 21 — A parish priest was one of those arrested in a probe into an underage Roma prostitution ring at Rome’s Termini Station Thursday. The cleric, 68, was found with a large quantity of kiddy porn, police said. Earlier seven arrests were reported in the probe into a ring that allegedly employed Romani minors aged 14-17 for sex work in Termini bathrooms and other locations around the central station.
Well-known professional people were said to be among the clients, aged 35 to 80, who paid 20-50 euros per sex act.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi to Found But Not Lead New Movement
‘History teaches no great leader underwent primaries’
(ANSA) — Rome, May 21 — Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday he will found but not lead a new movement. “(It) will embrace Italian moderates and won’t be led by me but by one of my heirs,” he told Channel 21. “Who is this heir? There are two or three people who could replace me as leader of the movement, but there certainly won’t be any primaries”. “Great leaders like (Christian Democratic party founder Alcide) De Gasperi, (Socialist leader Bettino) Craxi and Berlusconi never went through primaries,” Berlusconi added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Man Smashes TV With Bat After Partner Views Porn Star
Rocco Siffredi watching sparks violent reaction
(ANSA) — Pavia, May 22 — A man smashed his TV with a baseball bat after finding his girlfriend watching porn star Rocco Siffredi on Italy’s version of Celebrity Survivor a couple of months ago, police said Friday.
The 31-year-old Egyptian has been cited for domestic abuse, they said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis pushes carbon taxes and more!
[Comment: A disciple of Liberation theology aka Marism for Catholics.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Martin Odegaard, 16, Becomes Real Madrid’s Youngest Player
(CNN) It was a meaningful moment — Real Madrid’s current superstar left the pitch, being replaced by a 16-year-old boy seen as the future king of the “Galacticos.”
Whether Martin Odegaard can ever match Cristiano Ronaldo’s incredible record remains to be seen, but for now he can bask in the glory of being the youngest player to represent the world’s wealthiest football club.
The Norwegian has had to wait since joining the Spanish giant in late January for a reported fee of between $3-4 million, but finally got his chance when he come on as a substitute in Real’s final match this season against Getafe — five months and six days after his 16th birthday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Police: Tensta Unrest Reaction by Criminals
The Stockholm Police say Friday nights troubles in the suburb of Tensta was caused by criminals reacting to police activities in the area in the past week. Residents in the area tell Swedish Radio’s P4 Stockholm that around 20 cars have been confiscated there recently.
The police told Swedish Radio News that they had found a large number of Molotov cocktails in a garage, and the incident seems to have been planned, and not spontaneous.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Molotov Cocktails and Rocks Thrown at Police
Police fired warning shots when a patrol in the northwestern Stockholm of Tensta was attacked Friday night. Around 50 people took part in what the police are calling a riot.
“Our personnel fired warning shots when they were attacked with rocks,” Jens Mårtensson of the Stockholm Police tells the TT news agency. Besides stones, those involved also threw Molotov cocktails.
Representatives from several organizations, including those for Somali and Kurdish immigrants, were on the streets afterwards, trying to calm things down.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Abu Hussain Who Beat Sannah Javed to Death Jailed for Seven Years
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
An abusive boyfriend who beat his partner to death the day after she took him back and promised to ‘always forgive’ him has been jailed for seven years.
Sannah Javed, 26, bled to death after Hussain Abu inflicted 51 separate injuries on her, including a broken eye socket and cracked ribs.
Ms Javed had previously obtained a restraining order against Abu after he beat her up on another occasion, but she later took him back, the Old Bailey was told.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
WWI: Bohemia Remembers ‘Brothers’ From Trentino
Deported from Italian valley,they received warm hospitality
(ANSA) — PRAGUE — Pushed out of their homes and their valley, forced by soldiers to gather a few belongings in a suitcase and deported to far countries. This happened a hundred years ago, a few hours after the Kingdom of Italy declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a few hours before the beginning of the conflict, on May 24, 1915. Thousands of inhabitants of the Valle di Ledro (Trentino), at that time under the Emperor Franz Joseph II, were pushed out of their countries, mainly because Vienna did not trust its Italian subjects. The Habsburg government had planned to relocate them in the Czech Republic, recruiting, however, the young males and sending them to fight on the eastern front, in Galicja.
The memory of the exodus entered the language of the inhabitants of the Valley, for example in the sentence ‘Fare la Boemia’, meaning a ‘biblical experience’. Anyway, many of those who were deported to Bohemia found a place of warmth and hospitality, building strong ties survived until today. In 2008, on the 20th anniversary of the end of World War I, the towns of Molina, Pieve, Bezzecca, Concei, Tiarno di Sotto and Tiarno di Sopra (Italy), and Bustehrad, Novy Knin, Mesto Pribram, Milin, Obec Ptice, Chynava, Doksy, signed an “everlasting” twinning. A pact which is based on brotherhood and cooperation in all fields, and fruitful to strengthen friendships and create new relationships. Now, on the centenary of Italy’s entry into the war, three days will be dedicated in the Czech Republic to the memory of those events. Friday, May 22, at 5 pm, in the headquarters of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague a photo exhibition entitled “My Bohemia” will be inaugurated, followed by a concert of the Boehmische Judicarien and of the Quintet of Prague Castle Guard and Police Orchestra. Saturday, May 23, ceremonies will be held at the cemeteries in the villages of Doksy, Panoi Ujezd, Bustehrad, Chynava, where those who never returned home are buried. Sunday, May 24, Holy Mass and ceremony at Svata Hora Shrine, in memory of Trentino’s dead in Bohemia during the exodus. The exiles hosted in those villages were 3,335, while another 624 were brought to Austria; 405 of them died in exile, but there were 107 births. The soldiers who never returned home were 103: they were Italians wearing the Austrian uniform.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Italian Army Donates Bridge Next to Decani Monastery
Agreement to facilitate KFOR military activities
(ANSA) — PEC / PEJA — An agreement for the construction of a Bailey bridge next to the monastery “Visoki Decani” was signed this morning at Camp Village Italy, by the Mayor of Decan / Decani, Rasim Selmanaj, and the abbot Father Sava Janic.
The agreement, wanted by KFOR Commander Major General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, will resolve operational problems, allowing KFOR military forces protecting the monastery to safely cross the river bordering with the building, reducing the time of action of the troops, as a press release issued by KFOR reported. The Orthodox Monastery of Decan/Decani is the only place in Kosovo where KFOR is still primarily responsible for security, which is guaranteed by means of the Multinational Battle Group West, multinational Italian-led unit based on Alpini’s Regiment 5th, commanded by Colonel Carlo Cavalli.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Clinton Email Shows Ambassador Stevens Was Worried About Libyan Security
Newly released emails from Hillary Clinton’s personal server reveal that a full eighteen months before his murder in the 2012 Benghazi attack, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was so concerned about poor security in Libya that he was considering leaving the country.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Conspiracy Theorists’ Are Causing Militants to Abandon ISIS
A report in the official propaganda magazine of ISIS this month bemoans the fact that the terror group is losing members because of so called ‘conspiracy theories’ that Western intelligence manipulates and controls extremists for its own agenda.
The International Business Times reports that the magazine, Dabiq, condemns conspiracy theorists, referring to their ideas and beliefs as “sinful”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Jihadi Bride Justifies Yazidi Girl Abuse Saying ‘Forced Sex Isn’t Rape’
In the latest edition of Islamic State’s propaganda magazine, a jihadi bride justifies the kidnapping and rape of slave girls captured in war and says Yazidi women are lying about the abuse they suffered.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
by Daniel Pipes
The May 3 assault on a Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, prompted much discussion about the assailants’ connections to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh. Did ISIS run them as agents? Are they part of a new network of terror in the West?
Clearly, the Garland jihadis had some connections to ISIS. The leader, Elton Simpson, used Twitter to trade calls for violence with Muhammed Abdullahi Hassan (also known as Mujahid Miski), 25, an ISIS recruiter who grew up in Minneapolis. On April 23, Hassan tweeted: “The brothers from the Charlie Hebdo attack did their part. It’s time for brothers in the US to do their part,” attaching a Breitbart.com story about the Muhammad cartoon contest. This appears to be what brought the Garland event to Simpson’s attention; Simpson retweeted this call to action and responded: “When will they ever learn. They are planning on selecting the best picture drawn of [Muhammad] in Texas.” Hassan then further goaded Simpson: “One individual is able to put a whole nation onto its knees.”
After the Garland attack, ISIS took credit for it, calling the gunmen, Simpson, 30, and Nadir Hamid Soofi, 34, “two soldiers from the soldiers of the caliphate” whose deaths would win them “the highest rank of paradise.” Its Bayan Radio exploited the attack to warn Americans that “what is coming will be worse and more bitter,” with “soldiers of the Islamic State” doing “terrible things.”
But, so far as is known, neither Simpson nor Soofi took money from ISIS, received arms or training from it, discussed their plans with it, or sought its permission to proceed. Nor did either of them visit Syria or Iraq.
This fits a pattern: ISIS does not plan and direct attacks but takes advantage of its high profile to incite Muslims to turn against their non-Muslim neighbors, as happened already in Oklahoma City. It offers spiritual guidance, target selection, and inspiration; it is not in the business of logistics, command, and control. When it claims credit, it claims so for inspiration, not organization.
Therefore, one can probably dismiss as braggadocio ISIS’ boast to have trained 71 soldiers in 15 of the U.S. states who are “ready at our word to attack any target we have desired,” much less the 23 of them have volunteered for “missions like” the Garland attack. But U.S. law enforcement does follows thousands of individuals like Simpson and Soofi who communicate with ISIS and could at any time erupt into to violence. The years-long surveillance of Simpson, after all, proved useless. The “lone wolf” concept has become irrelevant at a time of global jihad, when every pious Muslim is potentially a “soldier of the caliphate.”
Unlike Al-Qaeda (whose model we are more familiar with), which communicates intensely with its agents and directs their moves in detail, ISIS is not primarily in the business of organizing elaborate plots to strike Western infidels. Rather, it aims to control territory in the Middle East (such as in Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq). It calls Western Muslims to move to Syria; attacks in the West are only a fallback, primarily promoted by smuggling its members across the Mediterranean to Europe.
Nonetheless, the ISIS model is the more dangerous. Its attacks may be amateurish and less deadly than Al-Qaeda’s but they potentially can occur far more often. Its assaults are easier to foil but harder to anticipate. The ISIS approach is the more effective if one counts not corpses but political impact — for example, dissuasion from ridiculing Muhammad.
In other words, inspirational links are more worrisome than organizational ones. All ISIS needs do is publish a target’s name in its magazine or tweet encouragement on social media and a potential army is notified; it need not develop secure communications, train cadres, move money across borders, choose and scope out targets, order strikes, and give tactical directions.
A BBC analysis misses the point when it holds that if ISIS can “prove that it planned and directed [the Garland attack] — rather than just staking a claim after the event — then that would be a significant development.” Not so; ISIS is all the more formidable for not planning and directing but simply talking and writing.
Indeed, just as the Iranian regime presents the greatest danger to the Middle East, ISIS presents the next, more evolved, and most threatening form of Islamist violence in the West. Will these mortal enemies be recognized in time?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS’ Child Soldiers: What Will Happen to ‘Cubs of the Caliphate’?
The Sunni extremists of ISIS appear to be brainwashing an entire generation to create an army of impressionable young soldiers.
They lure or kidnap children and then train them to fight.
They force some children to give blood to injured fighters or to spy for them, and make others whip prisoners, human rights groups say.
Their plight raises questions that defy simple answers:
What future awaits these children if ISIS is ever to be defeated? Can anything be done to help them recover from the scars of war, or will Iraq and Syria face the prospect of a lost generation, paralyzed by the memories and atrocities of their youth?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Group Radio Claims Saudi Mosque Suicide Attack; Promise More ‘Black Days’ For Shiites
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia, warning that more “black days” loom ahead in a direct challenge to the rulers of the Sunni kingdom.
Friday’s attack was the kingdom’s deadliest militant assault since a 2004 Al Qaeda attack on foreign worker compounds, which sparked a massive Saudi security force crackdown.
However, this Islamic State attack in the village of al-Qudeeh in the eastern Qatif region targeted Shiites, whom ultraconservatives in Saudi Arabia regularly denounce as heretics.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
John Cantlie Claims ‘Infinitely’ Greater Threat of Nuclear Attack on US
The chances of Islamic State jihadists smuggling a nuclear weapon to attack the United States have risen “infinitely”, John Cantlie, the British journalist the group is holding hostage, claims in a new article.
Mr Cantlie’s article appears in the new edition of Dabiq, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s English-language online magazine.
Mr Cantlie, whose fellow journalist hostages have all either been released or beheaded, has appeared in the group’s propaganda videos and written previous pieces.
In his latest work, presumed to be written under pressure but in his hall-mark style combining hyperbole, metaphor and sarcasm, he says that President Obama’s policies for containing Isil have demonstrably failed and increased the risk to America.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Starts Building Largest Hotel in the World
City-sized and near holy mosque in Mecca, to open in 2017
The largest hotel in the world will be near the Holy Mosque in Mecca
(ANSAmed) — ROME — Construction has started on Abraj Kudai, a hotel reminiscent of a city and the largest in the world. The project includes 10,000 rooms, 70 restaurants, helicopter landing pads, suites and entire presidential floors, a gigantic shopping center, a large conference center, parking lots and bus stops spread out across about a dozen towers with an immense cupola overhead. The design is influenced by traditional fortresses in the Saudi desert, stylized and reinterpreted in a contemporary manner. Ten of the towers will offer four-star accommodation, while two will be set aside for more luxurious, costly lodgings. The hotel will cover an area of 1.4 million square meters in the Manafia area (Mecca province), only 2.2 kilometers from the holy mosque Masjid Al-Haram, to which Muslim pilgrims from around the world flock every year. The architecture firm behind the massive works — which will cost around 3.5 billion dollars — is the international, Beirut-headquartered Dar Al-Handasah, while the interior design was entrusted to the London studio Areen Hospitality. Abraj Kudai is expected to open in 2017.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Arrests 43 in New Sweep Against Erdogan Foes
Turkey on Friday arrested 43 people in the central city of Konya in new raids against suspected supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s arch foe, the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, reports said.
Those arrested included former police and education officials as well as the former rector of Konya’s Mevlana University, Bahattin Adam, the state Anatolia news agency reported.
Arrest warrants had earlier been issued for over 50 people, reports said.
The detentions, which come just two weeks ahead of legislative elections on June 7, are just the latest against supporters of Gulen who are accused of trying to form a “parallel state” in a bid to oust Erdogan from power…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Iranian Analyst, Hadi Without Any Legitimacy
Riyadh and Ankara still supporting Nusra, Isis
(by Luciana Borsatti) (ANSAmed) — TEHRAN — Former Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi had lost any legitimacy even before the Saudis started bombing his country with his consent. And Iran’s support “to the new government formed by Ansarallah (Houthi rebels) popular committees and the army, who enjoy popular support, is mainly political” because these forces “don’t need any weapons”, according to Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst and dean of the department of international studies at the University of Tehran. Iran, added Marandi in an interview with ANSA, also favors an accord between all sides in Yemen. The same accord “that was on the brink of being demanded when the Saudis started bombing” in March 26, “as referred to the Wall Street Journal by the UN envoy for Yemen Jamal Benomar who then stepped down”.
The accord would have implied for all sides to share power, although Hadi would have been excluded, he added, even if he was the elected president. “Indeed he was elected but as the only candidate and for a transitional mandate of only two years, at the end of which he did not leave”, the analyst noted. “When the popular committee and Ansarallah went to Sanaa (occupying it for weeks) there was no fighting because nobody supported Hadi, who then stepped down so he has no reason to be president.
Without mentioning the fact that, when he allows his country to be bombed, he loses any legitimacy”.
Now, even after months of fighting, the anti-Hadi front has “no scarcity of weapons — stressed the analyst — because Yemen was for years one of the most armed countries in the world and the army and Ansarallah operate together”. The Saudis are instead “very weak”, in spite of weapons provided by the US, because they don’t know how to use them and “their pilots only hit civilian structures but no strategic targets”.
Iran believes that the Saudi attack against Yemen was also decided to strengthen the new Defense Minister Mohammad bin Salman, the young son of new King Salman, but is however doomed to failure, he said. The US for their part “side with Riyadh because they rely on its oil and because the Saudis buy millions of dollars in weapons from them”.
American interests, as those of Europe, “Depend a lot on Saudi Arabia and this explains why they allow the Saudis to support Wahhabi groups like al Qaida in Yemen and Syria and other extremist groups in Iraq. Meanwhile Erdogan’s Turkey supports Isis”. And the analyst believes that this is “to make the government in Syria fall and weaken the one in Iraq”.
Al Nusra in Syria and Isis, also said the analyst, are separate entities but have “the same roots in Al Qaida, they fight but at times cooperate” — as occurred in the recent battle in the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk near Damascus. Al Nusra, he stated, “is supported by the Saudis, by Qatar and by Turkey, which also supports Isis. America knows this, without doing anything”. Meanwhile Israel, continued the analyst, when Hezbollah and the Syrian army were about to carry out the most significant attacks against al Nusra, killed the Iranian military commanders”. The Americans after all are doing very little against Isis, he said, “if they were really worried they would stop Erdogan”. And Europe “should be concerned also over the export of the Wahhabi ideology shared by all these dangerous groups, from Boko Haram in Nigeria to Libya and Isis, which reaches its mosques funded by Riyadh and Doha”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow Issues Travel Warning Over U.S. ‘Hunt’ For Russians
Russia’s foreign ministry has warned its citizens traveling abroad of the risks posed by U.S. law enforcement bodies and special services, which it said were hunting for Russians around the world.
In a statement on Friday it also accused Washington of kidnapping Russians, citing cases such as that of Vladimir Drinkman, who was extradited to the United States from the Netherlands earlier this year.
“By believing that it is allowed to do all it wants, Washington goes as far as kidnapping our citizens,” the foreign ministry said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
HENB | Dhaka | May 23, 2015:: More than two and half months elapsed while police failed to rescue the Minority Hindu School girl — Ms. Shilpi Rani Das (15 yr 9 m) and the kidnapper — a Muslim School Teacher — Dost Mohammad Khan was not suspended from school at Barhatta Pilot Girls High School of Netrokona District nor arrested by the Islamic Police of Bangladesh so far . It is alleged that the victim was kidnapped from the way to her home from school on 4th March,2015. Victims’s father — Shri Nikhil Chandra Das lodged First information Report at Barhatta Police station case No.02 dated 07.03.2015 under section 7/30(1) of Women and Children Repression Act,2003 against the kidnapper School Teacher, but police neglected to rescue the girl nor the Officer-in-Charge of the respective police station took any initiative to arrest the kidnapper (married person with two children). The local rights group, political activists and Women rights group submitted a Memorandum to Upazila Nirbahi Officer on 18th March,15, but the local administration failed to take necessary steps for recovery of the victim girl.
The perpetrator Dost Mohammad Khan is a debauchee and dishonest person. Perpetrator managed to prepare a documents of conversion from Hinduism to Islam by Abdul Malik Shamim — Notary Public showing the age and culpably suppressing the date of birth of victim girl on 2nd April,2015…
| — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari | [Return to headlines] |
New Issue of ISIS Magazine: We Can Buy a Nuclear Weapon From Pakistan
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) claims it has access to nuclear weapons through the nation of Pakistan, according to an article by longtime ISIS captive John Cantlie in the latest issue of their official magazine, Dabiq.
In “The Perfect Storm,” allegedly penned by the British Cantlie, the group asserts that they possess billions, enough to buy a nuclear bomb “‘from weapons dealers with links to corrupt officials’ in Pakistan.” If they cannot buy the weapon, Cantlie writes, the group would be satisfied with buying a “few thousand tons of ammonium nitrate explosive.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Osama Bin Laden’s Unusual HR Style Revealed in Al-Qaeda Employee Questionnaire
Staplers, ordering the correct paper stock, and a printer that seems to do nothing other than run out of toner.
And it is no different whether you’re an office drone in the West or if you’re operating an Islamist group at a global level. Everybody’s still got to sort the paperwork as recently declassified documents by the CIA have shown.
And to be a potential suicide bomber or general member of Osama bin Laden’s organisation, you had to answer a questionnaire about your skill set and suitability for the role in question.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
“Strongly Dissatisfied” China Warns US “Accident” is “Highly Likely” In South China Sea
Things are escalating rapidly in the South China Sea where Beijing has figured out an innovative solution to the notion of “disputed waters.”
As regular readers are by now acutely aware, China appears to have adopted the maritime boundary equivalent of the old “possession is nine tenths of the law” axiom because Chinese dredgers have been busy for some time now creating islands out of reefs in the Spratly archipelago. Once the islands are complete, China promptly colonizes them. Next comes the construction of cement plants, ports, and 10,000 ft airstrips.
Not surprisingly, Washington isn’t fond of China’s “sandcastles” and everyone from President Obama to the Pentagon is now shouting from the rooftops about territorial sovereignty and Chinese “bullying.”
The US took it up a notch this week when it flew a spy plane over Fiery Cross Reef, presumably just to see what would happen. A CNN camera crew went along for the ride. What Washingtondiscovered is that when it comes to protecting its new islands, bashful China is not. “This is the Chinese Navy… YOU GO! “ was the message that came over the radio.
The rhetoric and sabre rattling haven’t let up a bit since then and in fact, there’s been a steady stream of quotables from both sides over the past 48 hours. Here’s the latest.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China: Beijing Plans the First Landing on the “Dark Side” of the Moon
The Chang’e 4 spacecraft would reach the earth’s satellite by 2020, then land a rover to the surface to analyse it. China’s interest in space is growing, with the moon’s raw materials wetting its appetite.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — China is planning a space mission to the “dark side” of the Moon by 2020. If successful, it would be first country to do so. The planned mission would see the Chang’e 4 spacecraft orbit the moon before landing a rover on its surface.
“We probably will choose a site on which it is more difficult to land and more technically challenging,” said Wu Weiren, the chief engineer for China’s Lunar Exploration Programme.
“Our next move will probably see some spacecraft land on the far side of the moon,” he told state-run broadcaster CCTV.
China successfully landed a spacecraft — the Chang’e 3 — on the moon in December 2013, becoming only the third nation after the United States and Russia to land on its surface.
Whilst the side of the moon not visible from earth has been observed by various probes, a landing has never been attempted. The Chinese government remains tight-lipped about the mission. When contacted by CNN, Wu declined to comment further.
Some security experts fear China’s ambitious lunar exploration programme could mean Chinese control of the moon’s resources. These include water and Helium 3 — a clean-burning fuel that could potentially offer an alternative to nuclear power.
Other nations are trying to match China’s accomplishments in space in what some observers are calling an Asian space race. Last month, Japan’s space agency announced that it would land an unmanned rover on the surface of the moon by 2018.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Dushanbe and Beijing Sign Extradition Deal With Uighurs in Mind
Beijing has signed a series of agreements with the countries of Central Asia to repatriate Uighur Muslims. In Chinese prisons, convicts are sentenced to severe penalties, including death. Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have repatriated prisoners who had sought asylum on humanitarian grounds.
Dushanbe (AsiaNews) — Tajikistan’s parliament has unanimously approved a Tajik-Chinese agreement on the mutual extradition of suspected and convicted felons.
Presenting the bilateral agreement to lawmakers before the debate, Tajik Prosecutor-General Yusuf Rahmonov (pictured) urged passage in order to safeguard the rights of Tajik nationals in China and give them a chance to serve their terms in Tajik penitentiaries. However, the deal seems more useful to Beijing, which has been cracking down on the Uighur community for a long time.
China currently detains 16 Tajik nationals, including seven women. Four of those inmates, including one woman, are on death row and five more are serving life terms.
In Tajikistan, three Chinese nationals are currently serving prison terms, one for rape and two for endangering public health and drug trafficking.
Both Tajikistan and China are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Russia.
International human rights organisations have long been keeping such extradition agreements under scrutiny.
Ethnic Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim and live in Xinjiang province, have been particularly at risk in Chinese prisons. Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language, traditionally consider themselves much closer to the peoples of Central Asia.
Uighur nationalists dream of creating their own state, East Turkestan. However, under Chinese rule, all Uighurs have suffered discrimination and repression, accused by Chinese authorities of terrorism.
According to experts, China has signed extradition agreements with neighbours to get Uighurs exiles and inflict harsher punishment. Once in China, they are given long periods of imprisonment or even the death penalty.
For example, Kyrgyz officials said that they returned three Uighurs to China following a local court’s ruling based on a bilateral agreement.
Kazakhstan too has repatriated several ethnic Uighurs who had demanded asylum in the Central Asian nation, earning criticism from domestic and international human rights organisations.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Moscow Patriarchate: China Authorises the Ordination of Chinese Orthodox Priests on Its Territory
Metropolitan Hilarion, the Moscow Patriarchate’s ‘foreign minister’, made the announcement after a visit to China where he met the leaders of the State Administration for Religious Affairs. The first priest should serve in Harbin. Two more ordinations are expected. With a new Cold War as the background, the Moscow-Beijing strategic alliance also has a Church connection with the People’s Republic recognising the latter’s ‘political’ role in Russia.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — In order to compensate for its isolation from the West over the Ukrainian crisis, Moscow has revived its strategic alliance with Beijing, a step that includes the Church. Indeed, for the first time in 60 years, the People’s Republic of China has authorised the ordination of Chinese Orthodox priests.
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, made the announcement after an official visit to China (14-17 May), the TASS news agency reported. In Beijing, the Russian Orthodox Church official took part in the fourth session of the Sino-Russian working group for contacts and cooperation in religious matters.
Hilarion’s visit came a few days after President Xi Jinping travelled to Moscow (8 to 9 May) for the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazis, which was deserted en masse by Western leaders.
After the meetings with Vladimir Putin, Xi held talks with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who praised Beijing for the value China places on the “role of culture, traditions and the moral factor in shaping the lives of people and individuals.”
“We had very constructive talks with the State Administration for Religious Affairs,” Bishop Hilarion said. “We agreed on the ordination to the priesthood of an ethnic Chinese who studied for several years in Russia. We hope that he will serve in Harbin at the Church of the Intercession,” which is currently undergoing restauration. “Until now it had no priest. Now, God willing, it will have a priest”.
On 14 May in Beijing, Hilarion met Wang Zuoan director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs (pictured). “We agreed that two other seminarians will study in Russia, with a view to their possible ordination,” he explained. In fact, “I hope that Orthodoxy will grow in China with the help of God,” added the Patriarchate’s ‘foreign minister’.
In Beijing, Hilarion also took part in a panel discussion with representatives of ‘traditional religions’ of Russia and China and visited the oldest mosque in the city. He then travelled to Labdarin, in Inner Mongolia, which has one of the largest Orthodox communities in China, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Church of St Innokenty of Irkutsk, consecrated in 2009 by Michael Wang, the oldest priest of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church.
In Labdarin, the representative of the Moscow Patriarchate also met with local political authorities and those in charge of religious affairs.
Orthodoxy in China
The Russian Orthodox Church arrived in China in the 17th century. The first communities were made up of Russian immigrants, mainly in the north of the country. Even today, most of China’s 13,000 Orthodox Christians are of Russian origin, concentrated mostly in Harbin’s Parish of the Intercession (Heilongjiang); in Labdarin (Inner Mongolia) as well as Kulj and Urumqi (Xinjiang).
The Chinese Orthodox Church acquired its autonomy in 1950, Kirill’s secretary Deacon Alexander Volkov said; however, the Cultural Revolution left the country without bishops and priests. Even today, the faithful have no priest, gathering occasionally on Sundays to pray.
There are, however, 13 Chinese students at Orthodox Sretenskaya Theological Academy in Moscow and the Academy of St Petersburg. Russian priests celebrate the liturgical services at Christmas and Easter in Russia’s embassy and consulates in China.
At the end of 2014, Kung Ming Cheung became the first ordained Chinese priest in Russia. He was sent to Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Hong Kong.
Cooperation between the Patriarchate and Beijing
The Patriarchate and the People’s Republic have been cooperating for some years with Moscow involved in pushing Russian Orthodoxy on Chinese territory against its the traditional rival represented by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which, from Hong Kong has tried to have relations with Orthodox Christians in the mainland and other communities in the Far East.
“Religious cooperation” was officially sealed in 2013 when President Xi welcomed Kirill for the first time at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
In fact, China has come to recognise the Patriarchate’s ‘political’ role in Russia. China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs had directly invited the Russian Orthodox primate, with Moscow de facto recognising the latter as the main Chinese interlocutor in religious matters.
This should come as no surprise since the Russian Church has a long history of making compromises with authoritarian regime. Unlike the Holy See, it has shown no qualms about dealing with political authorities even when the life of its own community of faithful is at stake.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Trans-Pacific Partnership that President Barack Obama is negotiating with 11 other nations seeks to eliminate both tariff and nontariff trade barriers with these countries, according to the Congressional Research Service. One of those countries is Vietnam, which the State Department says maintains a Communist regime.
In 2014, the U.S. ran a $24,858,700,000 trade deficit with Vietnam, according to U.S. government trade data published by the Census Bureau. U.S. producers sold $5,724,900,000 in goods to purchasers in Vietnam. At the same time, producers in Vietnam sold $30,583,600,000 in goods to purchasers in the United States.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
In a circular letter, Mgr Villegas, president of the Bishops’ Conference, refers to the country’s traditional hospitality, praising the government’s decision to welcome 3,000 boat people. “God gives us this chance once more to bind the wounds of body and spirit,” he said.
Manila (AsiaNews/CBCP) — “While it may be true that there is no legal obligation on the part of the Republic of the Philippines or that of any other country to grant asylum to every refugee or displaced person, there is a moral obligation to protect them from the harm they flee from,” said Mgr Socrates B. Villegas, archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan.
In a circular to the country’s Catholics, the prelate, who is also president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), explained that “There is a legal obligation not to forcibly repatriate them. And by all precepts of morality and decency, there is an obligation not to leave them to the mercilessness of the elements on the high seas.”
In what seems to be a trip down memory lane, the head of the Filipino Church mentioned the boat people of the 1970s and 1980s now that the nation prepares to take in yet another batch of foreign refugees. “Once, our land was resplendent not only because of tourist spots and destinations, but because we welcomed refugees with the hospitality that has made us famous the world over,” Villegas said.
“Our country then served as some kind of a way-station, because our Vietnamese guests soon found their way to other parts of the globe. One of them, in fact, rose through the ranks of ecclesiastical academe to become dean of theology at one of Rome’s Pontifical Universities,” he added.
This “was a glorious chapter in our history, and we thank God that many of our priests and religious received the privilege of serving them”. Sadly though, a new generation of boat people (about 3,000 Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladesh refugees) are seeking asylum on Filipino shores.
“Doubtlessly, many lost their lives in the attempt to find some haven. They navigate into our waters tired, famished, desperate — many of them carrying the dead bodies of their children in their arms,” the prelate wrote in the letter. “God gives us this chance once more to bind the wounds of body and spirit, warm the hearts and embrace in solidarity our brothers and sisters who come to us from troubled lands”.
According to the archbishop, the attitude of the countries of Southeast Asia that refused asylum to refugees is deplorable. “In many instances,” he bemoaned, “coast guard and naval patrol vessels tow these boats, brimming over with their load of our hungry, sick and desperate brothers and sisters back to the high seas, there to face the elements, and often, sadly, to perish!
Conversely, the cardinal praised the attitude of the Filipino government, which has indicated its the willingness to host the refugees. While admitting the country’s economic resources may not allow it to welcome every migrant as permanent resident, Villegas stressed there is always room for the weary and downtrodden to rest on Filipino shores before they continue on their journey.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Korean ‘Nut Rage’ Woman Freed
Heather Cho forced steward off after ‘not being served right’
(ANSA) — Rome, May 22 — Former Korean Air exec Heather Cho, whose father runs her country’s flag carrier, was freed on appeal Friday after being jailed for one year in February for obstructing aviation safety during a row over nuts.
Judges said Cho should now serve a suspended sentence.
Cho forced a plane to return to the gate in New York last December and offload a steward because she did not like the way she had been served nuts.
Cho apologised and quit the national airline.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kenyan Catholics Celebrate Beatification of Italian Nun
Tens of thousands of Catholics gathered in the Kenyan town of Nyeri on Saturday for the beatification ceremony of an Italian nun, a key step towards sainthood.
Irene Stefani was an Italian member of the Consolata Missionary Sisters who helped the wounded in Kenya and Tanzania during World War I before shed died of the plague in 1930.
A trained nurse, she was much loved by the people of the Nyeri district, who called her “Nyaatha”, or “Mother of All Mercy” in the Kikuyu language.
The streets of Nyeri were packed for the Roman Catholic beatification ceremony in the town, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of the capital Nairobi…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
43 Dead in Hours-Long Firefight on Mexican Ranch
At least 43 people died Friday in what authorities described as a fierce, three-hour gunbattle between federal forces and suspected drug gang gunmen on a ranch in western Mexico, the deadliest such confrontation in recent memory.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China, Peru and Brazil Mull Amazon Railway
A Chinese scheme to build an east-west railway across South America, cutting across parts of the Amazon rain forest, has moved a step closer after Peru agreed to study the proposal.
The scheme would link Peru’s Pacific coast with Brazil’s Atlantic shores.
The decision came after talks between the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, and Peruvian President Ollanta Humala.
If completed, the railway would stretch 5,300km (3,300 miles) but campaigners fear the impact on indigenous people.
Brazil, China and Peru will now begin feasibility studies into the railway.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes Erupt as Brazil Police Retake Huge Squatter Site
At least 10 people have been arrested in the northeastern Brazilian city of Recife as police cleared a 40 hectare (100 acre) plot recently settled by hundreds of families, local media reported Thursday.
Police complied with a repossession order to take back the private property, where homeless families set up camp earlier this month.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration Shutdown Now: Oil Created a 100 Year Window That’s Closing
If you read the first 12 parts of this series, you may be depressed, feel great despair and even hopelessness. The harsh facts that I expose in this series equate to a very hard pill to swallow.
But that’s what’s coming: 100,000,000 (million) legal immigrants will be injected into our country within 30 years. It’s not “if”, but it is a fact that they “will land on our shores” if you and several million other Americans remain silent. This series arms you with the facts from my research and, more importantly, what I witnessed in my world travels.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Saving Migrant Lives ‘Top Priority, ‘ UN Chief Says
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed the importance of saving the lives of migrants stranded at sea. But he also urged Southeast Asian nations to tackle the reasons causing people to flee their homes.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have seen more than 3,600 migrants land ashore since May 10, but thousands more are thought to be still in danger at sea, with the UN warning that time is running out.
About half of the migrants come from Bangladesh, while many of the others are minority Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, who are fleeing widespread ethnic violence, discrimination and persecution in their home state of Rakhine.
Last week, Malaysia and Indonesia said they would accommodate the migrants for up to one year. The United States has said it would settle some of them permanently.
The humanitarian crisis has been exacerbated by a Thai crackdown on human trafficking in early May, with captains abandoning boats packed with migrants for fear of arrest.
The approach of the monsoon season has also raised concerns for the safety of migrants still stuck at sea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Up to 36,000 Asylum Seekers From Italy With EU Quota
(ANSA) — Brussels, May 22 — As many 36,000 asylum seekers, depending on “changeable” figures, could leave Italy under proposed quotas being developed by the European Commission, a source told ANSA Friday. “Roughly 60%” of asylum seekers now in Italy — ranging from 40,000 to 60,000 people — would be sent elsewhere in Europe under the EC plan, the source said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Brazil’s Marxist Schools Harbinger for West?
Parents in Marxist-driven countries such as Brazil are delivering their kids to the wolves every time they send their kids to school.
What can you say about a country that tried to provide textbooks and DVDs depicting gay relationships to six and seven years olds? The initiative was blocked by a Christian Congressmen, after the materials were about to be shipped. The “Ministry of Education” provides manifestos against the patriarchy, capitalism and the white western culture. Instead of studying the classics, white kids are required to learn about religious beliefs and dances from African and indian tribes. They’re taught they’re responsible for slavery that happened 150 years ago.
Paulo Freire,[pictured], is the mind directing in the country. He is a Communist who stole the literacy teaching method from Frank Charles Laubach, an American missionary and linguistic genius, and adapted the lessons for the teaching of Marxism to the poor. Every teacher in Brazil must study his books and most adopt his radical views that education should not be a means of transmitting knowledge and creating critical minds but instead should indoctrinate people.…
As result, the mass of students graduate from high school without any real qualifications, intellectual or in the form of employable skills…
In this way, the Marxists are assured that main positions in journalism, education (pedagogy), history and sociology (the social pundits) and philosophy are filled by faithful militants. These areas are important because they provide the analysis of the current situation and point to solutions in the future. Of course, the solution will always be more Marxism and involvement in the agenda of the new world order. The whole scheme works efficiently because it is self-perpetuating…
We have to remember that students are vulnerable to peer pressure, fear of being ostracized and ridiculed by the teacher and also of failing. They don’t have the emotional maturity and strength to challenge this indoctrination.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
(NaturalNews) Proving once again that “scientists” can make up any loony, whacko conclusion they want and get it published in a prestigious science journal, a celebrated study on gay marriage views that was published in Science has now been exposed as a complete fabrication.
One of the study’s authors, it turns out, just made the whole thing up…
In other words, the study claimed that “gay enlightenment” was contagious, and that once people had their own views changed to be more positive about gays and lesbians, they would then function as “human convincers” and run around their local communities, convincing others to change their opinions on gay marriage, too.
Remarkably, even though the entire study was fabricated with fake data, the abstract claims, “These large, persistent, and contagious effects were confirmed by a follow-up experiment.” Apparently, the faked data were confirmed by faking them a second time. That’s the kind of science that appears in the journal Science. And just as we’ve seen in the “science” realms of vaccines and GMOs, the best way to confirm their original faked studies is to fake them a second time!
Almost everybody in the liberal media reported this research as being true for the simple reason that they WANTED it to be true. Vox even described the findings as “kind of miraculous.”…
The entire point of the scientific fraud was to try to paint people who oppose gay marriage as uneducated and totally out of touch with society. As the study promised, these people were merely “one conversation away from enlightenment” … i.e. realizing that gay marriage was awesome and that all gay people were also awesome.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Huge Republic of Ireland Vote for Gay Marriage
The Republic of Ireland has voted overwhelmingly to legalise same-sex marriage in a historic referendum.
More than 62% voted in favour of amending the country’s constitution to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.
It is the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage through a popular vote.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said it was a “small country with a big message for equality” around the world.
The referendum was held 22 years after homosexual acts were decriminalised in the Republic of Ireland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ireland Backs Legalizing Gay Marriage by a Landslide
DUBLIN — Irish voters backed legalizing gay marriage by a landslide, according to electoral figures announced Saturday — a stunning result that illustrates the rapid social change taking place in this traditionally Catholic nation.
Figures from Friday’s referendum announced at Dublin Castle showed that 62.1 percent of Irish voters said “yes.” Outside, watching the results announcement live in the castle’s cobblestoned courtyard, thousands of gay rights activists cheered, hugged and cried.
The unexpectedly strong percentage of approval surprised both sides.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is the new Mad Max movie full of feminism? Infowars investigates.
[Comment: Max Maxine with a layer of car crashes to hide this from males who have lost their critical thinking skills.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Sin That Cries Out to Heaven for Vengeance
I want to comment on a despicable evil that was done against my good friend Brian Camenker of MassResistance in recent years. If you want to take the time to get the full picture you can go to Brian’s website, and enter the word “Flanders” in the search bar.
Adam Flanders became known to me over ten years ago. He was a teen living in Belfast. He posted an image of my wife’s face online. He had photoshopped her face to appear as a grisly Satan with horns. His goal was to attack her efforts to distribute the Christian music she created. The attack was very evil.
He was also highly critical of the Christian Civic League of Maine at about the same time.
[But what was most curious about Flanders was a public letter he wrote revealing homosexual sex with kids under age 14.]
Brian’s organization was one of many to show an interest in this letter in 2007, and to push it out to the public using their websites and publications. But five years after writing the letter Flanders changed his mind. Brian writes, “Late last year Flanders changed his mind and now wants the controversial letter removed from pro-family sites that have posted it. Flanders (and other homosexual activists) apparently realized that the letter — in the hands of pro-family groups — represents an important revelation about the “gay clubs” everywhere. So Flanders contacted every pro-family group that had it posted and threatened them with legal action unless they removed it. And they all caved in and removed it — except MassResistance.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A great man once said, “That which we tolerate today we will embrace tomorrow”. G. K. Chesterton once said, “Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” I would add that tolerance and compromise is the creed of a coward. There seems to be very little most will not endure (tolerate and compromise with) to preserve their paycheck or keep “peace” in their lives. To tolerate evil is to compromise with evil and it makes you a partaker of that evil. Death, hell and damnation soon follow!
No deadlier a delusion or sin has ever infected a society than that of tolerance. Which always leads to compromise. An individual with sincere convictions can not and will not tolerate evil and will not compromise simply to maintain a temporal lifestyle or peace. Tolerance/compromise has destroyed many a society and nation. America is not an exception!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Foundations Plan to Pay News Media to Cover Radical UN Agenda
The United Nations Foundation created by billionaire Ted Turner, along with a branch of media giant Thomson Reuters, is starting to train a squadron of journalists and subsidize media content in 33 countries—including the U.S. and Britain — in a planned $6 million effort to popularize the bulky and sweeping U.N.-sponsored Sustainable Development Goals, prior to a global U.N. summit this September. where U.N. organizers hope they will be endorsed by world leaders.
The unprecedented media push is formally intended to start on May 25 but is already underway. It is intended to help breathe some new life into a sprawling U.N. effort — supported by, among others, the Obama administration — to create a global social and environmental agenda for the next 15 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Personal Details of 500 Million Android Users at Risk
Up to 500 million Andriod users who use or have used Android software could be at risk from having personal information shared after tests revealed it’s impossible to clear data from many devices.
A report by Cambridge University showed that private text messages, images, videos and email details can be recovered, even after a total wipe — or factory reset — has been done.
It means that people who have given away, sold or lost phones are now at risk from having their personal details and any private or sensitive information in messages or emails seen by whoever now has their old phone.
Many phone users store financial information and do their banking through some of the most popular apps on tablets and phones such as Halifax and Nat West.
Researchers also recovered Google authentication tokens, allowing to access services which are synced across a number of devices, including Gmail, YouTube, and any images or videos stored using Google cloud services.
Tests on a number of second-hand devices bought on eBay with various versions of Android software found that even if the user has the phone fully encrypted, information could still be accessed after a factory reset.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
On the Irish voters endorsing with nearly a two thirds majority for homosexual pseudo marriage. Well they did vote to join the EU didn’t they, and not once, but twice! And in IMHO that denotes much about what is wrong with Ireland today.
I imagine Ireland like England has some hard decisions to make. Ps this new law must hurt Muslim feelings. Now the little jehadis will be learning about two or several mummies and daddies from a completely new angle. Jesus Christ (pbuh) Ali, ye just can’t win.