British intelligence officials are concerned that there is a strong likelihood of a chemical attack by jihadists in the UK. They fear that “British” veterans returning from the jihad in the Middle East will bring with them the expertise to build chlorine bombs, which are the mujahideen’s WMD of choice.
In other news, the Islamic State has issued a death fatwa against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, whom they describe as “Satan”.
None of this has anything to do with Islam.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fausta, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, 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.
“It’s a Coup D’etat, “ David Stockman Warns “Central Banks Are Out of Control”
We’re all about to be taken to the woodshed, warns David Stockman in this excellent interview. The huge wealth disparity is “not because of some flaw in capitalism, or Reagan tax cuts, or even the greed of Wall Street; the problem is central banks that are out of control.” Simply put, they have “syphoned financial resources into pure gambling” and the people that own the stocks and bonds get the huge financial windfall. “The 10% at the top own 85% of the financial assets,” and thus, thanks to the unleashing of almost limitless money-printing, which has created a massive worldwide financial inflation, “the central banks have created and exaggerated the wealth gap.” Stockman concludes, rather ominously, “it’s a coup d’etat, the central banks have taken over — unconstitutional domination of the entire economy.”
“Everywhere, misleading distorted signals are being given to both public and private sector players about financial values… the prices have been falsified by The Fed.
We can’t print our way to prosperity… The Fed is now petrified that Wall Street will have a hissy-fit when they tighten.”
Full interview below:…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
5 Big Banks Pay $5.4 Billion for Rigging Currencies
U.S. regulators hit five global banks with $5.4 billion in penalties Wednesday for trying to rig foreign currency markets in their favor.
Citigroup, Barclays (BCS), JP Morgan Chase (JPM), and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBSPF)were fined more than $2.5 billion by the U.S. after pleading guilty to conspiring to manipulate the price of dollars and euros.
The four banks, plus UBS (UBS) , have also been fined $1.6 billion by the Federal Reserve, and Barclays will pay regulators another $1.3 billion to settle related claims.
The first four banks operated what they described as “The Cartel” from as early as 2007, using online chatrooms and coded language to influence the twice-daily setting of benchmarks in an effort to increase their profits.
The guilty banks “participated in a brazen display of collusion and foreign exchange rate market manipulation,” said U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Economist: Government Preparing to Seize 401(k) Pensions
Economist Martin Armstrong warns that a Supreme Court ruling last week has set the stage for the federal government to begin seizing private pension funds.
According to Armstrong, the outcome of Tibble v. Edison, which found that employers have a duty to protect their workers’ 401(k) plans from mutual funds that perform poorly, will grease the skids for the feds to seize private funds and prosecute companies who manage mutual funds badly.
“Between the court ruling and the Obama administration’s push for stronger fiduciary rules,” the developments send a, “strong message that government can much easier seize the pension fund management industry of course to “protect the consumer,” writes Armstrong, warning that the ruling, “sets the stage to JUSTIFY government seizure of private pension funds to protect pensioners,” when the economy gets “messy”.
“This fits perfectly just in time for the Obama administration’s next assault as they prepare a landmark change of its own by issuing rules requiring that financial advisers put the interest of customers ahead of their own,” writes Armstrong. “This creates a very gray area wide enough to justify public seizure of pension funds under management.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Divide Within Syriza Over Deal With Creditors Deepens
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 25 — The Vice President of Greek Parliament Alexis Mitropoulos has warned that the rumored agreement between Greece and its creditors will not receive the approval of Syriza’s parliamentary group, in a Monday morning interview on ANT1 as reported by To Vima online. Mitropoulos made the estimation following a recent meeting of the governing party’s central committee, where many party officers expressed their reservations regarding the details of the agreement that is being negotiated at the Brussels Group talks. The Minister of Health Panagiotis Kouroumplis argued on the Athina 9.84 radio station that despite the reservations and objections, the agreement would eventually be approved. Kouroumplis stated that he would be willing to accept pension cuts, if the country were to exit the crisis in 1-2 years, but argued that so far, he has not witnessed any meaningful changes to suggest that the austerity policies have contributed towards that goal.
Furthermore, Kouroumplis stressed that it is crucial for the agreement to include a growth package, otherwise the efforts to rescue Greece may not be successful. He concluded that “they must understand in Europe that we ask for growth, but you cannot have growth with mere words, nor can you provide liquidity little by little”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
HSBC Fears World Recession With No Lifeboats Left
The world economy is disturbingly close to stall speed. The United Nations has cut its global growth forecast for this year to 2.8pc, the latest of the multinational bodies to retreat.
We are not yet in the danger zone but this pace is only slightly above the 2.5pc rate that used to be regarded as a recession for the international system as a whole.
It leaves a thin safety buffer against any economic shock — most potently if China abandons its crawling dollar peg and resorts to ‘beggar-thy-neighbour’ policies, transmitting a further deflationary shock across the global economy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Inequalities Grow Among Greek Population, OECD Says
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 22 — Greece has emerged as a champion in inequality among the member-states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), whose most recent report found that across its 34 member-states inequalities in general became more acute last year. As Kathimerini online reports, the OECD stressed that it is fundamental to sustainable development for inequalities to be reduced through the creation of quality jobs, the increased participation of women in labor and the leveling of salaries made by men and women in the same jobs. In Greece’s case in particular, the data are very worrying: The poverty rate soared from 11% in 2007 to 32% in 2013, with 20% of children and young people living below the poverty line. The richest 10% controls 25% of disposable income against the share of 2% that is controlled by the poorest 10%.
Across the OECD’s members, the richest 10% of the population has an income that is 10 times higher than the income of the poorest tenth of the population. The biggest inequalities were recorded in the USA, Israel, Turkey, Mexico and Chile, while the best balance is seen in Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia and Norway. In the period from 2007 to 2011 almost all OECD member-states saw their household income stay unchanged or drop slightly, especially in the countries mostly hurt by the financial crisis.
In Greece, however, the decline came to 8%, against just over 3.5% in Spain, Ireland and Iceland.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Judiciary ‘Expropriated ILVA’ Says Squinzi
Court allocated Riva family money to environmental cleanup
(ANSA) — Milan, May 21 — Confindustria industrialists’ association chief Giorgio Squinzi said Thursday the judiciary “expropriated” bankrupt ILVA steelmaker, which is being run by a government-appointed commissioner.
In January, a court declared ILVA insolvent, with debt totalling nearly three billion euros.
“The judiciary has expropriated a company without consulting its owners or allowing them to intervene in any way,” Squinzi said. A Milan magistrate has released 1.2 billion euros seized from the Riva family, owners of the controversial ILVA plant in the southern city of Taranto.
The amount is to be used by the government-appointed special commissioner for ILVA to underwrite bonds that will then be used to finance environmental clean-up programs.
The company has been mired in controversy over years of pollution by Europe’s largest steel plant.
ILVA has employed some 20,000 people and been blamed for decades of environmental degradation and high levels of cancer in the area.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Court Should Have Considered Pension Cost — Padoan
Govt to give partial rebate in August over illegitimate freeze
(ANSA) — Rome, May 22 — Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Friday that Italy’s Constitutional Court should have considered the cost more carefully before ruling against a 2011 freeze in index-linked rises in some higher State pensions. “The Constitutional Court did not consider the hole (in the budget) created regarding the pensions,” Padoan said.
This week the government announced that 3.7 million pensioners will get one-off payments averaging 500 euros in August in response to the sentence. But people with State pensions of over 3,200 euros a month gross will be excluded from the payouts and legal challenges are likely.
The government’s plan will cost the State around 2.18 billion euros, compared to estimates that it would cost up to 18 billion to give a full rebate to all pensioners.
“I have the utmost respect for the court’s autonomy, but I hope that the interaction between the government and the Attorney General is more fruitful in the future when there are implications for the public finances,” Padoan added. When asked about Padoan’s comments, Renzi stressed that his government was not challenging the Constitutional Court’s authority. “We are working with maximum respect and institutional harmony,” Renzi said at the fringes of an EU summit in Riga.
“We have respected the Constitutional Court’s decision and now it’s a question of working together so that the signs of recovery can grow stronger”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
10 Pictures That Show How America is Becoming a Lot Like Nazi Germany
The history books tell us about how evil and wicked the Nazis were, so why aren’ t we more alarmed that the United States is becoming more like Nazi Germany with each passing day? More than three years ago, I wrote an article entitled “ 25 Signs That America Is Rapidly Becoming More Like Nazi Germany” which got a ton of attention. Unfortunately, nothing has gotten better since I first published that piece. Government control freaks are still watching us, tracking us, recording our phone calls and monitoring our emails. TSA thugs at our airports are still fondling the private parts of our women and children and laughing while they do it. Our police and our military are still training for civil unrest and martial law in America. And even though our politicians are socializing our economy and destroying our constitutional freedoms, the American people keep sending most of them back to Washington time after time. It is an incredibly sad thing to watch the country that you love slowly die right in front of your eyes.
At the heart of Nazism was a desire to control everyone and everything, and that is exactly what we are seeing in America today. Most of our “ leaders” are psychotic control freaks that want to micromanage every aspect of our lives. For example, a bill that was just introduced in Congress would force all children in public schools nationwide to be vaccinated with no exceptions whatsoever. Other new legislation that was just introduced would ban all sales of ammunition over the Internet and require ammo dealers to report all bulk sales to individuals to the government. Our founders intended for this nation to be a place where individual freedom and liberty were maximized, but today we literally have millions of laws, rules and regulations that wrap us so tightly in red tape that we can hardly breathe.
To say that we are becoming just like the Nazis is a very strong statement, but I think that after reviewing the evidence you will agree with me. The following are 10 pictures that show how America is becoming just like Nazi Germany…
#1 It surprises most people to learn that the Nazis were actually radical leftists that had great animosity for free market capitalism. For example, National Socialist theologian Gregor Strasser once made the following statement…
We National Socialists are enemies, deadly enemies, of the present capitalist system with its exploitation of the economically weak … and we are resolved under all circumstances to destroy this system.
With that in mind, I want you to check out the following political cartoon from 1934. The same kinds of things that helped the communists rise to power in Russia and the Nazis rise to power in Germany are happening in the United States today…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Alabama Senate Approves Loaded Guns in Cars Bill
A Senate proposal to allow those without a concealed carry permit to keep a loaded firearm in their vehicle is advancing to the Alabama House.
The measure, which passed in an easy 24-4 vote Thursday, will repeal the current prohibition on keeping a ready firearm for self-defense in personal vehicles in the Dixie State and, according to its author, is a long-time coming.
“All the states that touch the borders of Alabama do not require a pistol permit to carry in their vehicles,” said Sen. Gerald Allen, R, the bill’s sponsor in a statement. “A vehicle is extension of your home and you should have the right to defend yourself in your vehicle without having to buy a pistol permit.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bill Nye, the so called ‘science guy’ has penned a piece for the leftist website Vox in which he actually suggests that the US Constitution says anyone who disagrees with government on scientific matters is unpatriotic.
Nye, who is firmly entrenched in the climate alarmist camp, breaks out the word “denier,” as per usual and attempts to argue that those who question global warming are defying the core principles of the United States…
As many on Twitter pointed out, however, this is another case of an establishment figure twisting the meaning of the Constitution to fit their own agenda.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black TV Executive Calls Obama a ‘White President in Black Face’ [Video]
Media mogul and Entertainment Studios CEO Byron Allen unloaded on President Barack Obama over the weekend for not acting black enough.
“President Obama is, at this point, a white president in black face,” Allen, who is black, told TMZ.
“Black America would have done much better with a white president. You have let us down tremendously,” he continued.
The 53-year-old Allen, who has worked as a producer and talk show host, took Obama to task for publicly calling out the rioters and looters who descended on Baltimore last month after the death of Freddie Gray and for failing to improve conditions in the black community.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
He opened up about the major fear keeping him up at night: namely that Google’s cofounder and CEO Larry Page might well have been building a fleet of artificial intelligence-enhanced robots capable of destroying mankind. “I’m really worried about this,” Musk said. It didn’t make Musk feel any better that he and Page were very close friends and that he felt Page was fundamentally a well-intentioned person and not Dr. Evil. In fact, that was sort of the problem. Page’s nice-guy nature left him assuming that the machines would forever do our bidding. “I’m not as optimistic, Musk said. “He could produce something evil by accident.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Health Concerns of Refined Sugar
Sugar consumption has steadily risen in recent years. The USDA has found that the average American consumes around 150 pounds of sugar per year. Carbonated sodas are a major source of refined sugars in the American diet. Energy drinks are close behind, and even commercial fruit juices are working against us.
Some of these fruit drinks are more additives and sugars (as much as 90%+) than actual fruit and stripped of fiber. Keeping the sugar and throwing away all the good stuff doesn’t make for nutritious juice. Refined sugar is a problem yet sugar-laden beverages are purchased without hesitation by millions of people worldwide.
The World Health Organization recommendation for sugar consumption is no less than 10% of calories, but arguably, this recommendation should be much less. Those that are overweight, pre-diabetic, or suffering from any kind of health issue should limit and/or avoid sugar. Free sugar, meaning sugar that isn’t bound to fiber in fruit, can lead to inflammation, blood sugar instability, and, over a period of time, type 2 diabetes. If there’s no exercise in the equation, then the likelihood for developing these problems goes through the roof. A daily dosing of sugar causes altered internal pH levels resulting in a more acidic body. It is believed that an acidic environment is a breeding ground for disease, whereas an alkaline body promotes good health. To correct any type of imbalance, the body draws on mineral stores. For example, to protect the blood, calcium is drawn from the bones and teeth — enough to weaken bones. This precipitates osteoarthritis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
HPV Vaccine ‘Increases Chance’ Of Developing Other HPV Strains
Governments continue to push vaccine despite documented danger.
Research presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research has shown that women who were vaccinated against HPV had a higher risk of developing non-vaccine strains of the virus.
Approximately 60% of over 600 women between the ages of 20 and 26 who had been given the Gardasil vaccine to protect them against one of four strains of HPV (6, 11, 16, and 18) ended up being more at risk for developing an infection caused by another strain of the HPV virus.
Even more telling, unvaccinated women had lower rates of the non-vaccine, high-risk strains of HPV, which tells you that, just as Natural Society reported, the human papillomavirus isn’t likely to affect you if you aren’t vaccinated, and there are real dangers associated with Merck’s vaccine.
Dr. Diane Harper, who helped develop Gardasil, said to attendees of the Fourth International Public Conference on Vaccination: “Gardasil is largely unnecessary, and it has never been fully tested on females under the age of 15 …[there’s] little need for the vaccine”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Legitimizing Censorship: ‘Islamophobia Studies’ At Berkeley
“Islamophobia studies” is the latest addition to the academic pantheon of politicized, esoteric, and divisive “studies” whose purpose is to censor criticism of differing views by stigmatizing critics as racist or clinically insane. The University of California, Berkeley’s recent Sixth Annual International Islamophobia Conference—organized by the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project (IRDP)—was titled, “The State of the Islamophobia Studies Field.” The fact that this “field” doesn’t yet formally exist in the U.S. may explain why speakers the first day of the conference barely mentioned it. As in years past, the conference featured victimology, academic jargon, and anti-Western rhetoric.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mandated Vaccinations for California Childcare Workers
(NaturalNews) California lawmakers have proposed another bill regarding vaccines, a bill (SB 792) that requires every adult employed by a daycare center, preschool, or home daycare center to be immunized.
In its first form, the SB 792 specified immunizations for influenza, measles, and pertussis (whooping cough). The current version mandates every scheduled shot on the CDC Adult vaccination schedule, with the exception of the HPV vaccine and the flu shot. The HPV vaccine is not required, the flu vaccine is optional.
The 2015 recommended immunization schedule for adults is as follows:
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
NASA’s Hubble Telescope Discovered a Massive ‘Nasty 1’ Star
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered surprising new clues about a hefty, rapidly aging star whose behavior has never been seen before in our Milky Way galaxy.
In fact, the star is so weird that astronomers have nicknamed it “Nasty 1,” a play on its catalog name of NaSt1. The star may represent a brief transitory stage in the evolution of extremely massive stars.
First discovered several decades ago, Nasty 1 was identified as a Wolf-Rayet star, a rapidly evolving star that is much more massive than our sun. The star loses its hydrogen-filled outer layers quickly, exposing its super-hot and extremely bright helium-burning core.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama’s Memorial Day Ice Cream Gloat
With background strains of the inspirational Marines’ Hymn ‘The Halls of Montezuma’ coming from Sirius Radio’s 40s station, which (Bless them!) always plays American military classics on Memorial Day, I spotted Calabrese’s aptly described “the worst Memorial Day photo ever” for the first time early this morning.
It comes at us, “Courtesy of the Democrats (via Twitter), of course,” Calabrese wrote.
Why would the Dems circulate such an over-the-top, downright piggish picture on Memorial Day 2015?
Because Dems have absolutely no regard whatsoever for the sensibilities of others, family members counted among the fallen or not. Because Democrats of the day have no taste. They have no class, they have no couth. Being so consummately wrapped up in their me-first selves, they have nothing to offer anyone else. They’re too caught up in feathering their own nests while millions of their American brothers and sisters struggle their way through a post-Constitutional America.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trade Treaties and the Transformation of America Into China
When they praise Chairman Mao, they are praising him because he successfully created a totalitarian state that could be run efficiently because he implemented total control, which is what they want for the United States and every nation on Earth. It is irrelevant to them that Mao did it through mass slaughter, torture, slave labor, and mass starvation; the only thing that matters is that Mao did it quickly, efficiently, inexpensively, and effectively…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Valdosta State Student Who Stomped US Flag Wants to Kill All White People
Sheppard, who sports a trimmed beard and is often seen wearing traditional African garb, spoke to his weapons case and condemned the criminal justice system as merely the descendant of slavery.
“Yet I did NOTHING of that Magnitude and My Head has Been Marked for Death,” Sheppard wrote.
“This will Cost You all YOUR Lives……What You say I am “guilty” of is Bringing a Weapon on the Valdosta State University campus, Threatening White People and All who Aid their White Supremacist Structure and Stepping on Your dirty rag that you call ‘Old Glory’. Well it is Us the Victims of the Actions enforced under that Symbol that Will Glorify Our Triumph over Your Sick Race.”
Quoting former Nation of Islam leader and New Black Panther Party chairman, Kallid Abdul Muhammad, Sheppard wrote of whites, “we give them 24 hours to get out of town by sundown.”
“I say, if they don’t get out of town, we kill the white men, we kill the white women, we kill the white children, we kill the white babies, we kill the blind whites, we kill the crippled whites, we kill the crazy whites, we kill the faggots, we kill the lesbians, I say god dammit we kill ‘em all,” Sheppard continued.
“If they are white kill ‘em all.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Berlusconi Says Alfano ‘Used Forza Italia Like a Taxi’
Premier sees opportunism among former allies
(ANSA) — Rome, May 22 — Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi said Friday two former members of his Forza Italia (FI) party used it “like a taxi”.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano in 2013 left Berlusconi’s now-defunct People of Freedom (PdL) party to found the small New Center Right (NCD) party, which is now a junior member of the ruling coalition.
Former Berlusconi confidant Raffaele Fitto last Tuesday launched a new movement called Conservatives and Reformists after formalising his split from FI at the weekend.
“Alfano, like other professional politicians, used FI like a taxi,” Berlusconi said, adding that his former proteges and allies took advantage when he was “forced to resign as premier in 2011”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
British ISIS Jihadists Returning From Iraq Could Launch Chlorine Bomb Attack on Britons
Security experts have warned of a “growing threat” of chlorine bomb attacks by British jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria.
Counterterrorism police believe bombs laced with chlorine, available to buy in large quantities in Britain, have become the “chemical weapon of choice” for Isis fighters.
The chemical can be lethal if inhaled and is strictly controlled in Iraq, but in Britain anyone is allowed to buy 90 tonnes of chlorine without a license.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
COBRA: Bilderberg’s Weapon of Choice
The Bilderberg Group will reconvene in 2015 with their corpora-cratic mixer focusing on a unified geopolitical oppression strategy at the opulent Interalpen Hotel, in the Austrian mountains near Telfs.
In a press release, the Austrian police revealed security for the confab will be in operation from June 9th-14th.
A statement from the Minister of the Interior notes that in conjunction with German police, extra special police forces, known as COBRA, will be called in to operate security during the gatherings.
Pulled right out of the “fact is stranger than fiction” category, the elite special forces counterterrorism police protecting the miserly war mongering ravenous den of sociopaths is none other than COBRA.
Cobra was the name of the terrorist organization confronted by American forces in the 1985 Marvel Comic/Hasbro series G.I. Joe.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
French Supermarkets to Give Away Unsold Food
France has taken steps to crackdown on the amount of food wasted by supermarkets when MPs voted to outlaw the destruction of unsold products. Instead they will have to hand any edible food goods over to charities.
In a rare show of unity France’s parliament voted unanimously Thursday to ban food waste in big supermarkets, notably by outlawing the destruction of unsold food products.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece, Spain, Poland Show EU Must Change — Renzi
Winds blow in different directions, but show EU needs reform
(ANSA) — Florence, May 25 — Premier Matteo Renzi said Monday that last weekend’s election outcomes in Spain and Poland and the January victory of Premier Alexis Tsipras’s anti-austerity Syriza party in Greece show that the European Union must reform itself to survive. “The wind from Greece, the wind from Spain, the wind from Poland, do not blow in the same direction, they blow in the opposite direction,” Renzi told Tuscan TV channel Rtv38. “But all these winds say that Europe must change. “I hope Italy will be able to powerfully take the voice of change to Europe in the next few weeks and months,” added the premier, who has lobbied, with some success, for the EU to adopt greater flexibility in the application of its budget rules. The anti-austerity Podemos party made big gains in last weekend’s local elections in Spain and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski lost a presidential run-off to conservative challenger Andrzej Duda.
“The electoral results in Spain and Poland are a nice big hammering for the defenders of a Europe of the banks and the slaves of Brussels,” Northern League leader Matteo Salvini told his party’s Radio Padania station.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italians Leave Cannes Empty-Handed
Venice Film Festival director calls verdict ‘questionable’
(ANSA) — Rome, May 25 — Italy has left the Cannes Film Festival empty-handed, with strong entries from three of the country’s top directors failing to pick up awards as the host nation dominated the closing ceremony. Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, Matteo Garrone’s Tale of Tales and Nanni Moretti’s Mia Madre all missed out, despite making positive impressions on many critics. French director Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan, a story of Sri Lankan refugees in France, won the Palme d’Or.
Holocaust movie Son of Saul took the Grand Prix award, while Vincent Lindon got the Best Actor gong and Rooney Mara and Emmanuelle Bercot shared Best Actress prize.
Accusations flew following the verdict, ranging from calling Italy’s snubbing “an injustice,” and “a slap in the face,” and for some, due to the lack of an Italian juror.
Others pointed the finger at the jury itself and a mistaken approach to cinematic criteria used in judging the films.
This year’s jury was composed of an eclectic group ranging from jury co-presidents American filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, to actors Sienna Miller and Jake Gyllenhaal, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro and the youngest juror, 26-year-old French-Canadian actor-filmmaker Xavier Dolan. Cinematographer and director of September’s 2015 Venice International Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, didn’t mince words in his criticism of the results.
“An unbalanced, questionable verdict, surely due to a compromise,” Barbera told Italy’s La Stampa.
“France collects a bunch (of trophies) in a disappointing year and we send three great artists into competition and bring home nothing,” he said.
When asked whether the absence of an Italian juror made a difference, Barbera said, “I’m afraid yes. A prestigious heavyweight (on the jury) usually manages to pull off something.
Let’s not pretend that this element isn’t needed”.
The Coen brothers shot back against the various accusations and skepticism, defending their choices.
“This isn’t a jury of film critics,” Joel Coen said, speaking to reporters after the awards ceremony. “This is a jury of artists who are looking at the work,” he said.
As to Italy’s empty-handed result, the brothers curtly said, “we didn’t have prizes for everyone”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy to Revisit Anti-ISIS Plan Amid Growing Fears
Italy is growing increasingly concerned about the threat of Isis as the militant group makes rapid advances in Syria and Iraq.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Mayor Rebels Agst Flag-Flying on WWI Anniversary
Bolzano official orders flag to fly at half-mast
(ANSA) — Bolzano, May 22 — Bolzano Mayor Luigi Spagnolli on Friday said he would protest the May 24 display of the Italian flag to mark the centenary of Italy’s entry into the First World War by flying the flag at half-mast.
Spagnolli said “the start of that war, like all wars, represented a defeat for humanity”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 110,000 Tonnes of Used Clothes Collected Annually
Garments end up fuelling illegal trade, associations say
(ANSA) — Rome, May 19 — Some 110,000 tonnes of second-hand clothes are collected in Italy each year in a business worth approximately 200 million euros, non-profit organisations operating in the sector said on Tuesday.
However, the used garments donated by Italians and left at designated collection points increasingly end up fuelling an illegal trade, according to a study by the Italian chapter of Humana People to People and research centre Occhio del Riciclone. “We believe political action is needed to increase the level of transparency across the entire chain,” said Occhio del Riciclone president Raniero Maggini. “The more the chain is controlled by bodies that are not pursuing profit, the greater the amount of used clothes effectively destined for charity programmes,” added Humana People to People Italia president Karina Bolin, referring to municipalities responsible for organising the collection in particular.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: TAR Can Order Consob to Act Says Cassation Court
No more excuses for ‘inertia’ say CGIL, consumers
(ANSA) — Milan, May 19 — A regional administrative court (TAR) can order bourse regulator Consob to act if it fails in its duty to “ensure a correct and transparent functioning of the market,” the high appeals Court of Cassation said Tuesday, answering a petition from two small shareholders of the troubled Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank. The shareholders had complained to Consob about two questionable financial operations which resulted in many investors losing money. Consumer association Federconsumatori and the CGIL union, Italy’s biggest, said there was no longer any excuse for “inertia” on Consob’s part.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Priest in Embezzlement Probe ‘Trusts in the Judiciary’
Prelate suspected of embezzling migrant funds
(ANSA) — Salerno, May 25 — A priest who is being investigated for allegedly embezzling funds destined for migrants told ANSA Monday he trusts in the judiciary.
“I have always been committed to trying to alleviate these people’s suffering,” said Father Vincenzo Federico, who directs a branch of Catholic charity Caritas in the town of Teggiano, in Salerno province.
“I won’t comment on the investigation but I trust in the judiciary,” said the priest, who also heads the Caritas Campania chapter.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Salvini Hails Spanish Vote as ‘Hammering’ For Europe
League leader says Polish president defeat also anti-EU signal
(ANSA) — Milan, May 25 — Northern League leader Matteo Salvini hailed Sunday’s outcome in local elections in Spain, where the anti-austerity Podemos party made big gains, as a “hammering” for Europe. Salvini also said Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski’s defeat to conservative challenger Andrzej Duda was also a blow to the EU. “The electoral results in Spain and Poland are a nice big hammering for the defenders of a Europe of the banks and the slaves of Brussels,” Salvini told his party’s Radio Padania station.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Polish Politics Shaken After Newcomer Wins Presidential Elections
Conservative newcomer Andrzej Duda has won the presidential elections in Poland stunning the political establishment and setting the scene for cliff-hanger general elections later this year.
Duda, the 43-year old candidate from the opposition Law and Justice Party, won the second round of elections on Sunday (24 May) with 52 percent of the vote according to the latest results.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Profits Jump at Vatican Bank Amid Reforms, Reduced Expenses
Net income for 2014 rises more than 20 times at IOR
(ANSA) — Vatican City, May 25 — Profits at the Vatican bank took an enormous leap in 2014 over the previous year, rising to 69.3 million euros compared with just under three million euros in 2013, the institution announced Monday.
“The improvement was mainly due to the performance of the results from trading securities and the decrease in operating costs of an extraordinary nature,” according to the annual report of the Bank, whose official name is the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR).
Net income from trading activity last year was 36.7 million euros compred with the net loss of 16.5 million euro in 2013, said the bank.
The bank, once racked by scandals, has been undergoing drastic reforms as it cleans up its accounts and in 2014, worked to trim operating expenses “of an extraordinary nature”.
Those involved costs in 2013 related to bringing in experts to help the IOR to meet international standards in fighting money-laundering.
The bank has also been reviewing its client base and Monday announced it closed 2,600 inactive accounts between May 2013 and December 31, 2014.
A further 554 accounts were closed because they were not considered to fit with the IOR’s profile of appropriate clients.
As well, another 1,460 accounts had been closed because they reached their natural termination, while 274 more were in the process of being shut down. The IOR has been closing down the accounts of people who are not clergy or Holy See employees to reduce the potential for the bank to be used for financial crime.
The IOR added Monday that it had 15,181 clients at the end of 2014 and ended last year with a net profit of 69.3 million euros, up from 2.9 million in 2013.
Bank President Jean-Baptiste de Franssu said that the IOR has shown “great commitment in dealing with offenses that in past have affected the Institute”.
Soon after he was elected in 2013, Pope Francis created a commission to oversee the troubled financial institution in an effort to make it more ethical and transparent.
IOR has had a chequered history, including probes of behaviour by some past managers.
Italian banks effectively stopped dealing with the IOR in 2010 after the Bank of Italy ordered them to enforce strict anti-money-laundering criteria to continue working with it.
And for about six weeks in early 2013, the Bank of Italy froze all credit-card and ATM transactions inside the Vatican City over its failure to fully implement international anti-money-laundering standards.
The Vatican has made several reforms to introduce greater financial transparency and fight money laundering under Pope Francis.
He nominated a pontifical commission to make proposals on the future of the bank and he has even openly expressed the possibility of abolishing it.
The bank’s problems go back many years. There have been many allegations that the IOR was used to launder money, most notably by ‘God’s Banker’ Roberto Calvi, the former head of Italy’s biggest private bank, whose body was found hanging under Blackfriar’s Bridge in London in 1982, a suspected victim of the Sicilian mafia.
The IOR was also named in kickbacks probes stemming from the 1990 collapse of public-private chemicals colossus Enimont, part of the Clean Hands investigations that swept away Italy’s old political establishment.
In recent years there has been a series of Italian TV reports and a best-selling book claiming to show how individuals used the IOR to squirrel away money, dodging Italian regulations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Rape Worse in Sweden Than India’, Says Gandhi
India’s women’s minister Maneka Gandhi says that Sweden has worse problems with rape than India. Gandhi began her short visit to Sweden by claiming that India is among the countries with the least number of rapes in the world. “We have four rapes per 100,000 women, while Sweden has more than 130,” she said in an interview with Swedish television network, SVT on Sunday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Rising Fears of Chemical Attack by UK Jihadists
Counterterrorism police are focusing on the “growing threat” of a chemical weapons attack by British jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria, The Times has learnt. Bombs laced with chlorine, a substance that is freely available in large quantities in Britain, have become the “chemical weapons of choice” for Islamic State, security experts have warned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain’s Ruling Party Punished in Local and Regional Elections
Spain took a turn towards the new left in Sunday’s regional and local elections, putting an end to the dominating two-party system.
Despite having won the most votes in the elections across Spain on Sunday (24 May), Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s centre-right PP party has lost all of its absolute majorities and will now often depend on coalitions and pacts with other parties.
Compromises and coalitions between parties is new in Spain where more than 30 years of alternating power between the socialists and the conservatives is being challenged by an increasingly fragmented political system including anti-austerity party Podemos and centrist Ciudadanos.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Shifts Left With High Support for Podemos
To govern in Barcelona; with PSOE in Madrid, Valencia
MADRID — Spanish voters opted Sunday to put their trust in the anti-establishment party Podemos, handing it a win in Barcelona and giving it enough support in Madrid, Valencia and Zaragoza that it will likely be in an alliance with the Socialists (PSOE). A plunge in support for Prime Minister Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) was seen, dropping by 11% and 2.6 voters since 2011.
It nonetheless remains the top party in the country with 27%. It marks “the beginning of the end of the two-party system”, Podemos leader Pable Iglesias said last night.
For the first time in the country’s history, the votes received by PP and the PSOE accounted for only half of voters, now competing against the movements Podemos and Ciudadanos and in Valencia the local Compromis, which came in second. In Barcelona, the head of ‘Barcelona en Comu’ created around Podemos, Ada Colau, is almost certain to become the first female mayor in the Catalan capital, in alliance with the Republican left, the Socialists and possibly Ciudadanos.
In Madrid, which has been a PP stronghold for 24 years, former judge Manuela Carmena — who came in one vote behind PP candidate Esperanza Aguirre — is expected to form the new Madrid city government with the Socialists, who Podemos got more votes than. Alliances between the ‘alternative’ parties and the Socialists are expected to govern the other two large cities in the country, Zaragoza and Valencia, another PP stronghold. Despite coming in first, the PP will be handing over six regions to coalitions between the Socialists and Podemos. The PP will instead hang onto the Madrid region with Cristina Cifuentes, if it gets Ciudadanos’s support. Since last night, there have been practically no absolute majorities in a heavily fragmented political scene. PSOE leader Pedro Gomez has announced that he will begin talks on Monday with Podemos and Ciudadanos. The leaders of the two ‘new’ parties, Pablo Iglesias and Albert Rivera, said over the night that they would be challenging Rajoy in the November elections. “We will take on the challenge of winning the general elections against the PP,” Rivera said. “The end of the two-party system in Spain has begun.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands of Giant Jellyfish Are Massing Off Beaches of South-West Britain
Record numbers of the 5ft long monsters — which weigh five stone each — have invaded Dorset’s shores as the seas begin to warm up for summer.
[Comment: A stone is a unit of weight equal to 14 pounds averdupois (or international lbs).]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Expo and Italian Culture Land in Israel
(AGI) Tel Aviv, May 22 — Tarantella, opera singing and the Expo event will represent Italy and its cultural heritage during the celebrations of Italy’s anniversary as a republic. The Italian diplomatic mission in Israel has set up a programme of events by the name “Italy and Israel: EXPOnential Partners” which will kick off on June 2 with a tarantella concert by the group Arakne Mediterranea, to take place in Hatachana, Jaffa’s old railway station. The event will feature an outdoor dance, music and singing performance, according to the best traditions of Salento. On the same day, the Rabin Center will host the Scientific Forum Italy-Israel focusing on health and medicine.
Among the guests there will be Ruth Arnon from the Weitzman Institute and Marta Weinstock Rosin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, both winners of the Israeli Prize for Medicine, as well as Sami Sagol, founder of the ‘Sagol Neuroscience Network’. On June 3, the Italian Embassy will give the traditional reception, with Ambassador Francesco Maria Talo welcoming numerous guests from the cultural and institutional circles. On June 4, to close the celebrations, the Summer Opera Festival will be hosted in Masada, with a premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Tosca’, directed by Daniel Oren. During the reception the diplomatic mission will present and promote the Milan Expo, Italian culture and its products, in a dedicated space called ‘Salotto Italia’.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
America Admittedly Behind ISIS “Surge”
This latest attempt to overwhelm the Syrian people, its government, and its armed forces comes with several shocking revelations. Previously, veteran award-winning journalists foretold the coming conflict in Syria, warning how the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel were openly planning to use Al Qaeda as a proxy force to overthrow Syria first, then Iran and how it would unfold into a cataclysmic sectarian war. There were also signed and dated policy papers advocating the use of terrorism and the provocation of war to directly target Iran after Syria and Hezbollah had been sufficiently weakened.
However, now, there is a US Department of Defense (DoD) document confirming without doubt that the so-called “Syrian opposition” is Al Qaeda, including the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS), and that the opposition’s supporters — the West, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar — specifically sought to establish safe havens in Iraq and eastern Syria, precisely where ISIS is now based.
America is Behind ISIS
Looking at maps recently produced by the Western media and Western policy think tanks, it can be seen clearly that Al Qaeda/ISIS is streaming out of NATO and US ally territory, forming up in these two safe havens, and aimed both at the Syrian government and Iran.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Heavy Fighting in Yemen as Officials Say Peace Talks Delayed
Unconfirmed reports say UN peace talks on Yemen scheduled for later this week have been delayed. But they are much needed, as heavy fighting continues in the country’s month-long civil war.
Senior Yemeni politicians said late on Sunday that a United Nations peace conference aimed at ending a bloody civil war sparked by a Shiite Houthi rebellion has been indefinitely postponed.
The reported postponement comes as heavy fighting continues in various parts of the impoverished country.
Residents of the southern Yemeni cities of Taiz and Dalea reported a heavy exchange of artillery fire between Houthi rebels and local fighters on Monday, while warplanes from a Saudi-led coalition attacked rebel positions in the capital, Sanaa, and elsewhere in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ramadi and Obama’s Phony Air War Against ISIS
“The Cemetery of the Americans.” That’s what graffiti said in the western Iraq city of Ramadi when I first embedded there in 2006. Indeed, my two journalist predecessors in Camp Corregidor were both shot by snipers. Within weeks the first SEAL to die in Iraq would be killed, another mortally wounded. My own Public Affairs officer was killed, and later the first SEAL to win the Medal of Honor in Iraq would die there. It was the hardest-fought battle of the war, but we won.
That was then. This is now.
Now President Obama has handed the city back to terrorists, gift-wrapped. The fall of Ramadi “represented the biggest victory so far this year for the Islamic State,” the New York Times correctly stated.
Ramadi is a city of vast importance, both strategic and symbolic. It’s the city that al Qaeda in Iraq chose as its headquarters and it became the most fiercely contested area in the country. It’s why SEAL Team Three of “American Sniper” fame was stationed there and became the most decorated SEAL unit since Vietnam. Many experts consider the Battle of Ramadi and the “Anbar Awakening,” engineered by Capt. Travis Patriquin, the actual turning point of the war. Patriquin—who a few months after briefing me on his brilliant plan was killed in Ramadi—got the Sunni chieftains to join the Americans and Iraqi security forces to defeat al Qaeda.
Yet, bizarrely, the Obama administration wrote off Ramadi last month, declaring that defense of an oil refinery took precedence—as if we couldn’t do both. (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey claimed, “It has no symbolic meaning.” Now Dempsey says ISIS “gains in Ramadi are a serious setback for its long-suffering inhabitants.”)
Yet even when pressure had eased on the refinery, the administration still refused to defend Ramadi.
Refused? Strong words! But true.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: NGO: 67 Civilians Killed by ISIS in Palmyra in 12 Days
4 minors, Syrian tv reported 400 casualties
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, MAY 25 — Sixty-seven civilians, among which 12 women and 14 minors, including teen-agers and children were killed by Isis in the Palmyra region since the begging of the jihadi onslaught 12 days ago.
Ngo Ondus, the National Observatory for human rights, reported the death-toll over-night, after Syrian tv put the number at 400 civilian casualties, the majority of which women and children, during a broadcast yesterday. The Ngo added that 150 army officers, pro-government militants and alleged regime-informants were executed, mostly by beheading.
Other 600 soldiers, Assad regime militants and civilians, suspected of being “agents of the regime”, have been made prisoners by the Islamic State and their fate is unknown.
The killings reported by Ondus occured in Palmyra and in the surrounding region, in the town of Al Sukhna, 30 km to the east in particular, as it is from here that the jihadist offensive began.
The ong points out that the majority of the civilians killed were accused of hiding members of the regime ISIS has been hunting down since the fall of Palmyra.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey, US to Provide Air Protection to Syrian Rebels
Turkey and the U.S. have agreed in “principle” to provide air protection to Syrian rebels being trained and equipped to fight Islamic State militants, once they enter Syrian territory for battle, Turkey’s foreign minister said.
The two countries agreed in February to train and equip up to 15,000 Syrians under the $500 million U.S. program designed to add a credible ground force to an air bombing campaign against the militant group.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Faces Debate on the Legalization of Polygamy
After the marriage between a Chechen police chief and a minor, who he took as his second wife, an official close to Kadyrov intends to “regularize” the practice, already widespread in the Muslim majority Russian Caucasus. The Kremlin keeps a low profile, while the Church defends Chechnya: “Media attack” launched by opponents of the traditional family.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — In the Russia of “traditional values” and laws “against homosexual propaganda among minors”, a debate about polygamy has been sparked on social media in recent days by the marriage between a senior police chief in Chechnya and an underage girl, who is now his second wife.
The Kremlin has distanced itself from the controversy, while the Orthodox Church has almost justified the practice, widespread in Chechnya and in the Muslim majority Russian Caucasus.
Magomed Daudov — head of administration in Grozny for leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who was among the guests of honor at the controversial marriage — has called for the legalization of polygamy. “If a man can afford to have another wife, why not? It is widespread practice and should be regularized “ Daudov told the news portal Gazeta.ru.
His words followed those of a Russian deputy, who proposed the introduction of criminal responsibility for polygamy, banned in the Federation but not currently liable to prosecution. The parliamentarian Yelena Mizulina, head of the Commission family, women and children in the lower house of Russian parliament, originally told RIA Novosti that it would be ridiculous to criminalize polygamy “ because its cause is not linked to the absence of a law, but rather to the fact that there are not enough men with whom women want to start a family”, only to ensure the Duma, after a few days, that “there are no plans to legalize polygamy, such proposals have not been received. “
“I can only say that polygamy is not permitted in our country” Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, responded stressing that “this case will not take part in the discussion.”
The Moscow Patriarchate, however, believes that the debate sparked by what Kadyrov has called “the wedding of the century” is a media attack launched by opponents of the traditional family. Speaking to the Interfax-Religion news agency, the head of the Synodal Department for Relations between Church and Society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, noted: “ It is curious that the circles now criticizing polygyny or polygamy, which in fact exists in the North Caucasus, often stand for homosexual marriages”. “I am afraid that groups that want to destroy traditional family as a phenomenon stand behind it as well as behind the ongoing informational attack against Chechnya: they understand that people deprived of a tradition and a family are easily managed with the help of political and informational manipulations”
While noting that the Orthodox Church does not accept polygamy, because marriage is considered the union between one man and one woman, Chaplin admitted that “it is hard to deny the fact that the Russian Empire did not pose any obstacle to polygamy among Muslims. “ “There are different traditions in the world — he added — how they can live in one state and in the modern world is a matter that must be addressed with a serious discussion, especially at the level of legislative power.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Odisha: Christian Minister Imprisoned on (False) Accusations of Forced Conversions
Rev Timothy Chaitanya Murmu, from the Pentecostal community in the village of Manohar, has been in jail for four days. He is “guilty” of baptising 16 tribal people. For the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), he was arrested because of a “legal technicality”.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Rev Timothy Chaitanya Murmu, Pentecostal minister in the village of Manohar (Odisha), has been in prison for the past four days on false charges of forced conversion.
Police in Anandpur arrested the clergyman last Wednesday for baptising 16 tribal people. According to the indictment, he allegedly “forced” them to embrace Christianity in exchange for money.
“In September 2014, Rev Murmu celebrated the baptism of 16 tribal residents in the village of Baniajodi,” Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), told AsiaNews.
“The ceremony took place only after obtaining 16 notarised affidavits in which the catechumens said they had embraced Christianity of their own free will.”
However, “the pastor did not present his certificate of baptism, which occurred in 1980,” the GCIC leader noted. “Based on this legal technicality, required by the anti-conversion law, police arrested him.”
A so-called “anti-conversion law” is in place in Odisha, which theoretically bans all conversions achieved by force or monetary exchange.
However, the authorities often used it to persecute Christians, on false allegations of forced conversions.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Malaysia Finds ‘Migrant’ Mass Graves Near Thai Border
Malaysian police have uncovered a series of mass graves on the border with Thailand. They believe the dead are victims of human traffickers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Several people have been arrested in connection with Pakistan’s Shiite killings and the murder of activist Mahmud. These suspects are well-educated urban youth. DW analyzes the “modern jihadist” phenomenon in Pakistan.
On May 21, Qaim Ali Shah, the chief minister of the southern Sindh province, shared the suspects’ details with reporters at a press conference in Karachi.
According to Shah, Tahir Hussain Minhas, who masterminded the Ismaili killings, was a trained terrorist with expertise in bomb-making. Minhas had personally met al Qaeda’s slain leader Osama bin Laden and the current chief, Zawahiri, on number of occasions, he said.
Saad Aziz, who confessed to murdering Mahmud, had a degree in business administration from one of Pakistan’s most prestigious business schools, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA). He has been involved in terrorist activities since 2009, the chief minister said.
Another captured suspect, Mohammad Azfar Ishrat, is an engineer by profession, whereas Haafiz Nasir received a master’s degree in Islamic Studies from Karachi University. Nasir was particularly involved in motivating people for “jihad.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Lahore: Muslims Set Christian Colony Ablaze: New Charges of Blasphemy
A young drug addict with mental health problems is accused of burning newspapers containing sacred verses. Islamic leaders called for his death; faced with the refusal of the police, hundreds attacked the Christian community. Unknown the fate of the accused.
Lahore (AsiaNews) — Churches looted and vandalized; houses looted and then set on fire; residents threatened with death. Late yesterday afternoon an angry mob of Muslims attacked the Christian colony Dhup Sarri Lahore (Punjab province), after rumors spread of a young Christian having committed an act of blasphemy. The fate of the accused, Humayun Masih, is unknown. The police tried to contain the riots, but many police officers were injured. A team of rangers is on site to control the situation.
Rev. Riaz Arif, from the Protestant church of St. Joseph Sanda, said: “Yesterday afternoon some Muslims saw Humayun Masih burn some papers containing sacred verses. The youth is mentally unstable and a drug addict, but a group of people took him and brought him to the police station of Gulshan Ravi to file a complaint. Given his condition, the officers did not take the issue seriously. “
At that point, the pastor continued, “some Muslim religious leaders gathered a crowd and spread the news. The situation became increasingly tense: Muslims blocked the road in protest against Christians demanding Humayun be burned alive. The attack took place between 5-6pm”
The police intervened to stop the riots, using tear gas, but with little success. Even the deputy inspector general of police was injured. The Catholic church in the area was attacked; Bibles and religious books were burned. Some Christians have fled, others are still locked in their homes.
Fr. John Arshad, a priest of the Dhup Sarri Catholic church, explains: “I was doing my regular rounds after Sunday mass, when I received the news of a Christian man assaulted and taken to the police station. Together with Rizwan Paul and Malik Jahangir I went there, but when I arrived I saw Muslims vandalize and destroy everything that was in the church. I also heard gunshots. From what I know Humayun Masih is mentally unstable and in the custody of the police. “
In the hours after the attack news that the Christian had been killed spread. However, the priest adds, “I cannot confirm anything, the situation is still uncertain.”
On 15 March in Lahore two bombers blew themselves up at the entrance of two Christian churches in the Youhanabad colony.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkmenistan Unveils Massive Gold-Leaf Statue of President
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Turkmenistan has unveiled a grandiose gold-leafed statue of the president carrying a dove and riding atop a horse — a move aimed at burnishing the leader’s burgeoning personality cult.
The 21-meter (69-foot) monument presented to the public Monday in the energy-rich but isolated Central Asian nation includes a statue of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov mounted on a towering pile of marble.
Turkmenistan is dotted with gold-leaf statues to Berdymukhamedov’s eccentric predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in 2006, but this is the first such monument to the current leader.
Elevating its leader to virtual demi-god status has for two decades served as a way for the government in Turkmenistan to enshrine its legitimacy.
Officials, however, insist the new statue in the capital, Ashgabat, was built in response to overwhelming public demand.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing and Delhi to Lead Asian ‘Super Bank’
A consensus has emerged from a meeting of the lender’s founding members. To avoid undue European influence, Asian members have accepted that China’s share of the bank’s capitalisation will be between 25 and 30 per cent with India as second largest shareholder. Germany will be represented on the bank’s board of directors.
Singapore (AsiaNews/Agencies) — China will probably take a 25-30 per cent stake in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and India is likely to be the second-largest shareholder.
Overall, Asian countries will own between 72 to 75 per cent of the bank, whilst European and other nations will hold the balance.
Proposed by China in May 2014, the AIIB is expected to become Asia’s main international financial institution to rival the US-dominated World Bank, Manila-based Japan-led Asian Development Bank, and the Europe-led International Monetary Fund. Great Britain and Germany will be among its founding members.
The bank’s initial capitalisation is expected to be US$ 100 billion with China expected to be its dominant member but not exercise total control.
Some 57 countries have signalled their intention of joining the bank as its prospective founding members, including countries at loggerheads with each other, like Israel and Iran.
The United States and Japan have decided to stay away from the China-led institution. Japan plans instead to provide US$ 110 billion for Asian infrastructure projects to counter China’s economic push.
Member nations are still discussing how many directors the board should have. However, Germany expects to have one seat, this according to the nation’s envoy to China, Michael Clauss.
Germany, he stated, “being the most important European economy, will be represented on the board”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Leaking Fukushima Containers Could Lead to Hydrogen Explosions
Containers holding contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant are at risk of hydrogen explosions, with 10 percent of them found to be leaking. As many as 333 containers may be defective, according to TEPCO.
The first leak was discovered by the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), on April 2. The discovery prompted an inspection of other containers at the site.
Twenty-six of the 278 containers examined by May 20 had some sort of leak or were bleeding from their lids. There are a total of 1,307 containers at the plant.
According to TEPCO, the leaks and bleeding were likely caused by hydrogen and other types of gases that resulted from the water’s exposure to high levels of radiation. Those gases appear to have accumulated in sediment at the bottom of the containers, expanding the volume of the liquid.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘War Inevitable’ Unless US Backs Down: China State Paper
A war between the United States and China is “inevitable” unless Washington stops demanding Beijing halt its construction projects in the South China Sea, a Chinese state-owned newspaper warns.
Washington accuses Beijing of undergoing a massive “land reclamation” program in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea, and says China’s territorial claims of the man-made islands could further militarize the region.
“If the United States’ bottom line is that China has to halt its activities, then a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea,” The Global Times, an influential newspaper owned by the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper the People’s Daily, said in an editorial Monday.
“The intensity of the conflict will be higher than what people usually think of as ‘friction’,” it warned.
The paper also asserted that China was determined to finish its construction work in the South China Sea, calling it Beijing’s “most important bottom line.”
Tensions have been rising between Washington and Beijing over China’s activities in the disputed waterway and US surveillance flights over the islands.
“We do not want a military conflict with the United States, but if it were to come, we have to accept it,” said The Global Times, which is among China’s most nationalist newspapers.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Note to All Latin Americans: Being a Populist Socialist Won’t Save You From ISIS
RT reports in Spanish that ISIS is threatening South American heads of state, starting with the presidentas of Chile and Argentina:
El Estado Islámico habría amenazado de muerte a Cristina de Kirchner y Michelle Bachelet (The Islamic State issues death threats to Michelle Bachelet and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner)
“Satán Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Román Di Santo y ahora Bachelet, (…) objetivos directos para dirigir países que chocan con nuestros objetivos”, dice un párrafo. Otro extracto afirma: “La sangre que derramarán los infieles es el éxito del Islam a nivel mundial. Estamos cerca del inicio de una nueva era”, revela ‘La Razón’.
(My translation: “The Satans Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, [Argentina’s Federal Police Chief] Román Di Santo and now Bachelet, (…) are direct targets for heading countries that clash against our goals”, reads a paragraph. Another excerpt asserts: “The blood that will be shed by the infidels is Islam’s success on a world level. We are at the start of a new era,” reports ‘La Razón’. )…
| — Hat tip: Fausta | [Return to headlines] |
Hundreds of Bangladeshis Fly Into Britain for One Day to Claim Housing Benefit
The Italy-based migrants allegedly arrived at London Stansted Airport before going to interviews at the Jobcentre and getting National Insurance numbers for use on bogus pay slips.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Two Arrested in Massive Migrant Cash Scam
Italian police have arrested two people as they attempted to flee the country, allegedly responsible for a vast scam using funds set aside in Campania to manage the refugee crisis.
Further investigations are continuing in order to identify others involved in the scam, the Naples prosecutor said.
The probe comes six months after a wiretap was released in which an accused Rome mobster boasted the profits from migrant centres were higher than the drugs trade.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migration Priority is Saving Lives Says Mogherini
EU foreign affairs chief recipient of ISPI 2015 prize
(ANSA) — Rome, May 25 — EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Federica Mogherini said Monday the priority is to save migrant lives. “The most urgent task we face today is to save those who risk their lives on the Mediterranean — to save those who die,” she said at the Foreign Press Association in Rome, where she was the recipient of the Rome-based Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) 2015 prize for people who uphold Italy’s image abroad. “Everything else is secondary, but at the same time just as essential”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
President Bush’s Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993 was Lamar Alexander, who endorsed the concept of “a brand new American school” that would be open from 6am to 6pm year-round. He said “these schools will serve children from age 3 months to 18. That may be a shocking thought to you, but if you were to do an inventory of every baby in your community, and think about what the needs of those babies were for the next four or five years, you might see that those needs might not be served any other way.”…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Embrace Societal Suicide
I am mortified to be Irish today. Actually, I’m half-Irish, and considering formally taking out British citizenship in protest at the idiocy of my fellow countrymen and women in Ireland, being the first country (as of last Friday the 22nd) to legalize gay marriage by a popular vote.
The amendment to our Constitution is radical — not only does it legalize same sex marriage, the legal implications of the way the amendment was drafted gives constitutional protection to alternative forms of human reproduction and surrogacy.
Our country was identified as a soft touch and targeted.
A$64million fund was pumped into Ireland from the US to back the “Yes Equality” campaign, but the most sinister development is that the national police force An Garda Siochana had their union call for a Yes vote, as did the Law Society of Ireland and all semi-state bodies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Irish Yes to Gay Marriage Splits Italy
Catholic conservatives against, progressives in favour
(ANSA) — Rome, May 25 — The Irish approval of same-sex marriage in Saturday’s historic referendum has split Italian political parties with conservatives fighting against a similar move in Italy and progressives saying the time has come to step into line with most of the rest of Europe.
“Only us, Greece, Cyprus and six ex-Communist countries still deny rights to gays,” said Roberto Speranza, former House whip for the ruling Democratic Party (PD).
“Society is ahead (of us politicians),” he said, “and the PD must ignore conservatives”.
PD leader and Premier Matteo Renzi vowed to move forward on bills that have been languishing in parliament amid a raft of amendments from Catholic conservatives.
Reiterating his opposition, New Centre Right leader Angelino Alfano, the interior minister, said “gay union can never be equated with real marriages”.
Alfano said No, in particular, to adoptions by gay couples and the reversibility of pensions.
However he said his party, a junior government partner, would back property rights being shared by members of civil unions.
Centre right leader Silvio Berlusconi reiterated that he was in favour of gays getting “similar” rights to non-gays but several members of his Forza Italia party said they would back restrictive amendments to the bills.
Reform Minister Maria Elena Boschi, of the PD, said it was “high time” to bring Italy into line with other “forward-looking countries”.
With its referendum, in which almost two thirds of a once highly Catholic electorate voted in favour, Ireland became the first country to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote.
Gay groups hailed the Irish vote and called for politicians to “catch up with the sentiment of civil society”.
Many echoed British ‘national treasure’ Stephen Fry in saying “Oscar Wilde would be proud of his country”.
Most polls show Italians favouring same-sex marriage by a wide margin.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Senior NATO Official: “We’ll Probably be at War This Summer”
A senior NATO official told former NSA intelligence analyst John Schindler that the world would “probably be at war” sometime this summer.
“We’ll probably be at war this summer, if we’re lucky it won’t be nuclear,” the official told Schindler last week.
Said a senior NATO (non-US) GOFO to me today: “We’ll probably be at war this summer. If we’re lucky it won’t be nuclear.” Let that sink in.
Although the tweet was retweeted over 400 times, the comment garnered no mainstream media attention whatsoever, which is odd given that Schindler is a former U.S. Naval War College lecturer and is known to have many high level military contacts.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bio’s ‘concerns’ about people of the Koran is concerning in and of itself. Surely they weren’t expecting anything different? If there is one for sure known quantity its Muslim. Koranic.