Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/26/2015

A 14-year-old “Austrian” boy has been convicted of plotting to blow up Vienna’s main railway station. According to prosecutors, he was radicalized by Al Qaeda and other kinetic activists online, and downloaded bomb-making plans onto his PlayStation. He was sentenced to two years of confinement, with fourteen months suspended. With time served, he will serve three months in juvenile detention.

In other news, over the past two days 1,200 migrants have been rescued and brought to safety by Greek maritime authorities.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to 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.

Financial Crisis
» Investors Squeeze Trailer Park Renters: “the Economics Are Compelling… There’s a Lot More Poor People Than Rich”
» Is the 505 Trillion Dollar Interest Rate Derivatives Bubble in Imminent Jeopardy?
» Italy: Draghi Says MPS Capital Boost Alone ‘Not Enough’
» Italy: INPS: Revenue Service ‘Hunting for Tax Fraudsters’
» Italy: European Stock Markets Fall on Greece, Possible US Rate Rise
» Peter Schiff is Furious at “Double Seasonally Adjusted” Economic Data
 
USA
» 29 Shot, 9 Dead in Bloody Memorial Day Weekend in Baltimore
» Astronomers Spot Huge Lava Lake at Volcano Loki on Io
» Attackers Use Email Spam to Infect Point-of-Sale Terminals With New Malware
» BB King Poisoned? Blues Legend’s Children Claim Death Was Murder
» BB King’s Death Investigated After Poison Claims
» Did Curiosity Rover Cause Mars’ Mysterious Methane Spike?
» Obama Usurps Local Police With Fake “Ban” On Militarization
» Robberies Skyrocket at Central Park, 19 in One Week
» The Armed Forces and the Militia
» The Elite Have a Great Fear of Death
» The Latest in Terrifying Ways to Die: DARPA’s Airborne ‘Death Ray’
» The NSA’s Technotyranny: One Nation Under Surveillance
» Woman’s Fight Against Genital Mutilation, Honor Killing Gets Big Boost From Google Boss
 
Canada
» North America’s Halal Food Festival Back in Toronto
 
Europe and the EU
» “Skype Refused to Co-Operate in Belgian Judicial Investigation”
» 14-Year-Old Planned to Blow Up Austrian Train Station
» Austria: Teen in ‘PlayStation’ Terrorism Case Gets Two-Year Sentence
» Austria Boy Guilty of Vienna Terror Plot
» Belgium: Pro-Turkish Demonstrators Protest
» Belgium: 500 Remember Jewish Museum Attack Victims
» British Politicians Delete Negative Wikipedia Descriptions Before Election
» Global Ocean Trawl Reveals Plethora of New Lifeforms
» Italy: Alitalia Cost Public 7.4 Bn Euros 1974-2014
» Italy: Renzi Reiterates Call for Single Labor Union
» Italy: Whirlpool Workers Call on Pope for Help
» Lower Austrian Teenage Jihadist Gets Eight Months
» Norway Overtakes Russia in European Gas
» Profits Jump at Vatican Bank Amid Reforms, Reduced Expenses
» Salvini Says Italy Should Stop Paying EU
» Spain: Two Years for Man Who Praised ETA on Facebook
» Sweden Has Fewest New Prisoners in Six Decades
» Sweden: “Riots Are Caused by Police Doing Their Jobs”
» Swedish Families Extorted for Money After Libya Kidnappings
» Switzerland Extradites French Teen Jihadist
» UK: Jobless Mother of Four Blows £20,000 of Child Benefit on Plastic Surgery and is Planning More Because ‘Growing Old Just Isn’t for Me’
» UK: Rotherham Council and Police Want Powers to Ban Anti-Child Rape Protests
 
Balkans
» Italy Backs Serbia’s EU Bid, Mattarella Tells Nikolic
 
North Africa
» Algerian Minister Warns of 46,000 Websites Promoting Daesh
» Egypt: Belly-Dancer Arrested After Raunchy Sex Assault Fantasy Video Goes Viral
» Egypt’s Military Government Has Started Executing People on Overtly Political Charges
» Egypt President to Respond to Emails From Citizens Via New Address During Monthly Speeches
» ISIS Claims Responsibility for Tunis Barracks Attack
» Libyan Cleric Justifies Beheadings and Body Mutilation “To Strike Terror in the Heart” Of the Enemy
» Tunisian Cleric Bechir Begga: Satan and the Jews Are the Enemies of the Muslims
 
Middle East
» 81% of Respondents to Al Jazeera Poll Support the Islamic State
» Bulletin Warns US Analysts Overwhelmed by Pro-ISIS Social Media, Military Posts Threatened
» Erdogan’s Palace Declared Illegal by Turkish Court
» Fighting, Airstrikes Reported Near Ramadi as Iraq Launches Operation to Retake City
» German Twins Die Fighting for ISIS in Iraq
» Iran: Why Trial of Washington Post Reporter Should Raise Red Flags About Proposed Nuclear Deal
» Iraq Starts Operation to Drive Islamic State From Anbar
» Is Jordan Next Target for Islamic State?
» ISIS Burn Woman Alive for Refusing ‘Extreme Sex Act’, Reveals UN Official
» Islamist Fighters Drawn From Half the World’s Countries, Says UN
» Jihadi Burger: ISIS Press Release Heaps Praise on Mosul Restaurant Scene
» New York Times Can No Longer Rule Turkey, Erdogan Says
» The ‘House of Mary’ Welcomes Everybody, Muslims Included
» Tourism: UAE Increasingly ‘Chinese-Friendly’
 
Russia
» Dogs May Have Split From Wolves 10,000 Years Earlier Than Thought
 
South Asia
» Bangladesh Bans Militant Islamist Group Suspected in Blogger Killings
» Forced Migration of Minorities, Mostly Hindu and Sikhs in Pakistan
» India Heatwave Toll Passes 1,000
 
Far East
» Alzheimer’s Origins Tied to Rise of Human Intelligence
» Beekeeper Covered in Stinging Insects Sets Record in China
» Beijing Warns US: ‘We Will Fight Back’ As Battle of Words Escalates Over South China Sea
» China Set to Step up Offshore Military Capabilities
» New Research Suggests That Hackers Can Track Subway Riders Through Their Phones
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» 2 Pastors in Sudan Face Death Over Christian Faith
» South African Rhino Survives Horrific Attack by Poachers
» What Makes the “Lion Whisperer” Roar?
 
Latin America
» Wolf Volcano Erupts on Galapagos Island
 
Immigration
» Appeals Court Refuses to Lift Hold on Obama Immigration Action
» Austria: Refugees Smuggled Through Vienna Airport
» Belgium Condemns EC Migrant Quotas
» British Lorry Drivers Boycott Calais Over Fears ‘Somebody Will be Killed’ By Illegal Immigrants Desperate to Get Into UK
» Dutch Government Earmarks €50m to Help Africans Stay at Home
» EU States Must Help Med Migrants: Mogherini
» Europe Must Do More on Migrants, Says UN Chief
» Greece: Migrant Dinghy Crossing
» Italy: Cantone ‘Astonished’ By Migrant-Fraud Probe
» Italy: EU Will Show Its True Face by June 26 Says Renzi
» More Migrants Reach Greece, Approaching 1,200 in 2 Days
» Sicilian Saves Syrians at Sea With Mobile Phone
» The March of the Migrants: Hundreds of Syrians and Afghans Walk Through Kos as 1,200 Migrants Arrive on Greek Islands in Just Two Days
 
Culture Wars
» Do We Protect Our Children, Or Sexual Deviates?
» Irish Gay Marriage Vote ‘Defeat for Humanity, ‘ Says Parolin
» Italy: Lombardy to Sponsor Milan Pride Week
» Northern Ireland Bakers Guilty of Discrimination Over Gay Marriage Cake
» The Happiness Industry: How Government and Big Business Manipulate Your Moods for Profit
» Tunisian Mufti Criticizes LGBT Association Recognition
» Tunisia Recognizes First LGBT Association
» UK: Atheist Mother Bans Her Children From School Trips to Churches and Mosques
 
General
» Chosen Generation
 

Investors Squeeze Trailer Park Renters: “the Economics Are Compelling… There’s a Lot More Poor People Than Rich”

America is filled with lots of poor people these days, and there’ s plenty of money to be made off them.

With Wall Street already turning once-homeowners into renters in housing neighborhoods, billionaires and entrepreneurs are now investing in trailer parks, where they are making considerable fortunes off of raising the rent on the poorest among us.

The economic concept is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.

Generally speaking, these people moved into trailer parks for the cheap rent, and even with rent prices soaring, these poor people have nowhere else to go.

“The economics are compelling… there’ s a lot more poor people than rich people,” one investor said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Is the 505 Trillion Dollar Interest Rate Derivatives Bubble in Imminent Jeopardy?

All over the planet, large banks are massively overexposed to derivatives contracts. Interest rate derivatives account for the biggest chunk of these derivatives contracts. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the notional value of all interest rate derivatives contracts outstanding around the globe is a staggering 505 trillion dollars. Considering the fact that the U.S. national debt is only 18 trillion dollars, that is an amount of money that is almost incomprehensible. When this derivatives bubblefinally bursts, there won’t be enough money in the entire world to bail everyone out. The key to making sure that all of these interest rate bets do not start going bad is for interest rates to remain stable. That is why what is going on in Greece right now is so important. The Greek government has announced that it will default on a loan payment that it owes to the IMF on June 5th. If that default does indeed happen, Greek bond yields will soar into the stratosphere as panicked investors flee for the exits. But it won’t just be Greece. If Greece defaults despite years of intervention by the EU and the IMF, that will be a clear signal to the financial world that no nation in Europe is truly safe. Bond yields will start spiking in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and all over the rest of the continent. By the end of it, we could be faced with the greatest interest rate derivatives crisis that any of us have ever seen.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Draghi Says MPS Capital Boost Alone ‘Not Enough’

ECB warns institution to solve ‘structural problems’

(ANSA) — Rome, May 25 — Plans by Monte dei Paschi di Siena to boost its capital by three billion euros “is not enough” to solve the bank’s problems, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), said in a letter published by Bloomberg on Monday.

Instead, MPS “should give a definitive solution to its structural problems,” Draghi wrote.

MPS, the world’s oldest operating bank, began a rights issue on Monday to raise the three billion euros.

Italian stock market regulator Consob has said it will be watching closely.

MPS must “provide a permanent solution to its structural problems, namely non-performing exposures, weak capital situation and earnings under-performance,” said Draghi’s letter, sent on May 12, according to Bloomberg.

“The rights issue alone will not be sufficient to address these structural problems,” Draghi added.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: INPS: Revenue Service ‘Hunting for Tax Fraudsters’

Agencies to cross-check their databases

(ANSA) — Rome, May 26 — The Internal Revenue Service and INPS pensions and social security agency are keeping an eye out for undue compensations and tax fraud, tax chief Rossella Orlandi said Tuesday. “Over 1.9 million people used tax credits to make mandatory social security payments into the INPS fund in 2014,” said Orlandi.

“In 2014 we saw a 60% rise in social security claims using tax credits,”added INPS chief Tito Boeri. “This increase is not in line with previous years, leading us to suspect the claims may at least in part constitute an attempt to evade taxes and social security payments”.

The two agencies have sealed a deal to cross-check their databases in order to track down tax evaders and other fiscal offenders as fraudulent compensations are a growing phenomenon, Boeri and Orlandi said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: European Stock Markets Fall on Greece, Possible US Rate Rise

Frankfurt loses 1.4%, Milan gains 0.18%

(ANSA) — Milan, May 26 — European stock markets dipped towards the end of trading Tuesday amid uncertainty over the financial situation in Greece and fears of a rise in interest rates in the United States. Frankfurt lost 1.4%, followed by London (-0.6%), Madrid (-0.3%) and Paris (0.26%).

The Milan stock exchange posted a slight rise of 0.18% over Tuesday’s opening, while Athens rose 1.3% after two difficult sessions. Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said earlier in May that the “time was getting close” for a rise in interest rates.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Peter Schiff is Furious at “Double Seasonally Adjusted” Economic Data

Days before the BEA made it official that it would “double seasonally adjust” GDP data so it is more in fitting with a recovery narrative, Zero Hedge first suggested that this is simply an exercise in giving Janet Yellen a green light for a rate hike later in the year as not even the Fed would dare proceed with tightening at a time when the first half of the year shows a GDP that is on the cusp of, if not outright, negative.

And while career economists, who have been wrong for about 6 years that the “imminent, self-sustaining” US recovery is just around the corner, were ebulient at this latest data fudge even if in reality it means that reported model data is increasingly more divorced from reality, one person who is less than euphoric about what it means is Peter Schiff.

Here is his take…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

29 Shot, 9 Dead in Bloody Memorial Day Weekend in Baltimore

The city of Baltimore saw a bloody Memorial Day weekend, with a total of 29 people being shot, including nine who died, as the city scrambles to deal with its deadliest month since 1999.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Astronomers Spot Huge Lava Lake at Volcano Loki on Io

Scientists analyzing high-resolution images from the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory in Arizona have discovered an enormous lava lake on Io, the fifth of Jupiter’s moons and the third largest.

Io is only slightly bigger than our own Moon, but is the most geologically active body in our Solar System. Hundreds of volcanic areas dot its surface, which is mostly covered with sulfur and sulfur dioxide.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Attackers Use Email Spam to Infect Point-of-Sale Terminals With New Malware

Cybercriminals are targeting employees who browse the Web or check their email from point-of-sale (PoS) computers, a risky but unfortunately common practice.

Researchers from security firm FireEye recently came across a spam campaign that used rogue email messages masquerading as job inquiries.

The emails had fake resumes attached that were actually Word documents with an embedded malicious macro. If allowed to run, the macro installed a program that downloaded additional malware from a remote server.

[Comment: PoS terminals are regular computers running PoS software and here are now more vulnerable than older style custom hardware. (PoS: Point ofSale, not Pice of S&**.)]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

BB King Poisoned? Blues Legend’s Children Claim Death Was Murder

The daughters of the late Blues legend BB King have sensationally claimed that he was poisoned.

The iconic performer, best known for hits, such as Lucille, Sweet Black Angel and Rock Me Baby, passed away at his home in Las Vegas on 14 May. He was aged 89.

E Online reported that in the wake of his death his daughters Patty King and Karen Williams filed affidavits alleging that he was murdered.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

BB King’s Death Investigated After Poison Claims

US authorities are investigating the death of blues legend BB King after two of his daughters claimed he was poisoned. Karen Williams and Patty King said the musician was given “foreign substances to induce his premature death” by his business manager Laverne Toney. Lawyers for King’s estate said the claims are unfounded and disrespectful.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Did Curiosity Rover Cause Mars’ Mysterious Methane Spike?

Curiosity detected a sudden burst of the gas in four measurements over a period of two months.

And yet, a researcher remains skeptical. Kevin Zahnle, a scientist at NASA’s Ames Researcher Center in Moffett Field, California, who was not involved with the discovery, voiced his concerns last month in a seminar hosted by the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Virtual Planetary Lab. “I am convinced that they really are seeing methane,” he said. “But I’m thinking that it has to be coming from the rover.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Usurps Local Police With Fake “Ban” On Militarization

The latest round of police-related demands from the White House was unveiled as a supposed response to militarized police in Ferguson.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Robberies Skyrocket at Central Park, 19 in One Week

Police surveillance up, victims threatened with knife, taser

(ANSA) — New York, May 25 — New York’s Central Park is experiencing a dramatic uptick in robberies compared to the same period last year, with a total of 19 thefts in the past week and most in broad daylight, according to police sources Monday.

Police data show that in the same period last year, 11 robberies were reported, resulting in a 72% increase this year.

Police surveillance in the park has increased following the theft incidents, including two couples who were robbed and threatened with a knife and a taser gun, respectively.

The latest victim was a 16-year-old who was robbed after a man sat down next to him on a park bench on the western side of the 79th Street Transverse.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

The Armed Forces and the Militia

Since I first started to write columns for NewsWithViews in 2005 about the need to revitalize “the Militia of the several States”—a full decade ago—that subject has received scant support, sympathy, or even mention from the run of self-styled conservatives, patriots, constitutionalists, and (most depressing of all) champions of the Second Amendment who have made themselves prominent on the Internet. Instead, if they say anything at all about the matter, they tend to parrot the line put out by a certain notorious “‘poverty’ law center”, that anyone who mentions the word “militia” (except to disparage the concept) is some sort of “extremist” or other crackpot whose goal is “to overthrow the federal government”. Or they take the position that the only “militia” in which Americans can have confidence are “militia” with no connections to “government” at all—and that somehow the Constitution provides for such “militia”. Or they contend that Americans’ right to defend themselves with arms against private criminals and tyrants in public office has nothing to do with any “militia”, but is exclusively an “individual” right with no “collective” purpose or manifestation. Apparently, as far as these people are concerned, that the original Constitution incorporates “the Militia of the several States” as permanent, integral components of the federal system of government—and that the Second Amendment conjoins “ [a] well regulated Militia” with “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” in the very same sentence, and even declares that “[a] well regulated Militia” is “necessary to the security of a free State”—are facts without significance (or facts the significance of which has somehow escaped them).

These are not the only examples of the astoundingly tortuous mental gymnastics in which such people indulge, for what reasons Heaven alone can fathom. For, on the one hand, many of them predict with approval that Americans may soon have, and will want, to depend upon leaders in the Armed Forces who will thrust themselves into positions of political authority in order to save this country in the event of a nationwide crisis. Yet, on the other hand, not a few of these very same prophets repeatedly warn Americans that “the federal government” is plotting to deploy the Armed Forces to impose “martial law” throughout this country, under color of either a real calamity or a “false-flag” deception. Apparently, in these people’s imaginations, at one and the same time the Armed Forces are not just capable of, but also intent upon, both a coup d’état to enforce the Constitution and a coup d’état to eviscerate the Constitution. (Note that in the term “Armed Forces” I include both the regular Army of the United States and the National Guard—because, although people often assume that the National Guard is some sort of “militia”, it actually is not any kind of “militia” at all, but instead consists of the “Troops, or Ships of War” which the States may “keep * * * in time of Peace” “with[ ] the Consent of Congress”, pursuant to Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 of the Constitution.)

[…]

Exactly why, though, should the Armed Forces take it upon themselves—indeed, perhaps go out on a political limb—to promote revitalization of “the Militia of the several States”? For two reasons: principle and practicality.

I. Revitalization of “the Militia of the several States” is a matter of imperative moral, political, and legal principle. Perhaps the most familiar of the mottos people associate with the Armed Forces is “Duty, Honor, Country”. But what is the very first and most important duty all members of the Armed Forces—and especially the higher ranks in the Officer Corps—owe to their country? Why, to do their best to understand, to protect, to defend, and to promote America’s foundational laws: namely, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Elite Have a Great Fear of Death

If there is one thing that the elite of the world fear more than anything else, it is death.

They spend an extraordinary amount of time and energy attempting to shield themselves from potential threats, to separate themselves from the general population and to do whatever they can to extend their lifespans. They travel with multiple bodyguards, they install “safe rooms” in their homes, they buy private islands on the other side of the world and they invest huge amounts of money into life extension technologies and research. They do all of these things in a desperate attempt to battle an enemy that they have never been able to defeat — death. And in this day and age, the elite are becoming more paranoid than ever. They know that as the gap between the wealthy and the poor has exploded that they have become bigger targets than ever. So firms that provide private security, “safe rooms” and high tech “security bunkers” for the elite are doing a booming business these days. Many of the elite live in constant fear and absolutely crave security, and they are willing to pay big bucks to get it.

On Monday, the New York Times ran an article entitled “Still Secret and Secure, Safe Rooms Now Hide in Plain Sight” which discussed how “safe rooms” are becoming much more common among the elite living in New York City…

But it doesn’t stop there. Many among the elite believe that the “transhumanism” movement will eventually allow them to completely merge with technology and essentially become part-human/part-machine cyborgs which will have indefinite lifespans. This may sound quite bizarre to you, but there are lots and lots of scientists that take this stuff extremely seriously. For example, the following is an excerpt from an article that appeared just this week in the Telegraph…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Latest in Terrifying Ways to Die: DARPA’s Airborne ‘Death Ray’

An endless sea of money flowing into the field of military technology creates constant advancements in new and terrifying ways to die, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is on the front lines in that mission. DARPA’s latest defense system, HELLADS, is one step closer to arming aircraft and drones with an exceptionally powerful and destructive, weaponized laser beam.

Set to begin testing at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico this summer, the High-Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System program has been developing an electrically and optically efficient laser for output from a lighter and more compact platform through DARPA contractor, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA ASI). The Gen 3 High Energy Laser System (HEL) measures just 4.26 x 1.31 x 1.64 feet, and uses a compact lithium-ion battery to produce a beam of between 150-300 kW for “deployable tactical platforms.”

To understand how alarming this latest technology actually is, a comparison to current laser weaponry is in order. Already in use on board the USS Ponce, the Navy’s Laser Weapon System produces a beam of light capable of destroying the electronics systems and overheating the engines of drones, small boats, and small aircraft — and can even explode warheads. And those lasers are just 30 kW. Lasers to be used with the HELLADS system are up to ten times more powerful, and even when tested at 50 kW, were able to deliver a consistently high-quality beam for up to 30 seconds at a time, and then only limited in scope by battery life.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The NSA’s Technotyranny: One Nation Under Surveillance

“The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control.”—William Binney, NSA whistleblower

We now have a fourth branch of government.

As I document in my new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, this fourth branch came into being without any electoral mandate or constitutional referendum, and yet it possesses superpowers, above and beyond those of any other government agency save the military. It is all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful. It operates beyond the reach of the president, Congress and the courts, and it marches in lockstep with the corporate elite who really call the shots in Washington, DC.

You might know this branch of government as Surveillance, but I prefer “technotyranny,” a term coined by investigative journalist James Bamford to refer to an age of technological tyranny made possible by government secrets, government lies, government spies and their corporate ties. Beware of what you say, what you read, what you write, where you go, and with whom you communicate, because it will all be recorded, stored and used against you eventually, at a time and place of the government’s choosing. Privacy, as we have known it, is dead.

The police state is about to pass off the baton to the surveillance state.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Woman’s Fight Against Genital Mutilation, Honor Killing Gets Big Boost From Google Boss

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an internationally known women’s rights advocate and a best-selling author, but now she has some Silicon Valley muscle behind her in her battle to end two of radical Islam’s most barbaric practices.

Ali, a Somali-born activist who went on to become a member of the Dutch parliament and now lives in the U.S., won over Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, along with his personal pledge of $100,000, in her fight to put a stop to female genital mutilation and honor killings.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

North America’s Halal Food Festival Back in Toronto

TORONTO — Reflecting the growth of the halal demand in the west, the largest halal food festival in North America is set for May 30 and 31 at the International Centre in the Greater Toronto Area.

“We’re extremely excited to be bringing Halal Food Fest back for a third year,” Salima Jivraj, founder of Halal Food Fest, told OnIslam.net.

“Almost a fifth of last year’s visitors were tourists from all across North America, which reflects the increase in demand for halal products, and shows that the event has really become a destination for people looking to sample and learn about halal food options.”

Over 27,000 visitors attended the Halal Food Fest in 2014 and organizers are expecting a larger turnout this year from across the US and Canada. One-third of last year’s attendees were under 16.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

“Skype Refused to Co-Operate in Belgian Judicial Investigation”

Software company Skype has been ordered to appear in a court in Mechelen. According to press reports the company stands accused of refusing to give detectives access to conversations between Armenian crime suspects. Public prosecutors say that the refusal may be a violation of Belgium’s Telecoms legislation.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

14-Year-Old Planned to Blow Up Austrian Train Station

Unidentified youth was sentenced to two years in detention

(ANSA/AP) — VIENNA — An Austrian court has found a 14-year-old boy guilty of planning to blow up Vienna’s main railway station after being radicalized by Islamic extremists.

The court also found the defendant guilty of planning to join extremist fighters in the Middle East, a punishable offense in Austria.

The unidentified youth was sentenced to two years in juvenile detention, with 14 months of the term suspended. That leaves 10 months to serve, and with seven months already spent in investigative custody, he will only be behind bars for three more.

The proceedings Tuesday were in the city of St. Poelten, west of Vienna. Police say they found plans for such an attack on the boy’s computer and defense lawyer Rudolf Mayer said his client acknowledges his guilt.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: Teen in ‘PlayStation’ Terrorism Case Gets Two-Year Sentence

A 14-year-old Austrian teen was sentenced to two years in jail Tuesday after pleading guilty to terrorism charges.

According to Reuters, the boy downloaded bomb-making plans onto his PlayStation game console and made contact with militants in Syria who support ISIS.

The teen will serve eight months of the sentence in a juvenile detention center, with the remainder of the time being suspended, the report said.

The teen had faced up to five years in jail.

According to Reuters, more than 200 people have left Austria to fight with terror groups in the Middle East.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austria Boy Guilty of Vienna Terror Plot

A 14-year-old boy has been convicted of terrorism offences in Austria, including a potential plot to bomb a railway station in the capital, Vienna.

The court sentenced him to a minimum of eight months in detention with another 16 months of his sentence suspended.

Born in Turkey, he had been in Austria since 2007 and was arrested in October.

Prosecutors said he had contact with supporters of Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda, with the aim of going to fight in Syria.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium: Pro-Turkish Demonstrators Protest

More than 1,000 pro-Turkish demonstrators held a rally in the Brussels municipality of Schaarbeek on Saturday to protest against the recognition of the Armenian genocide by the international community. With the 100th anniversary of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians being remembered this year, the genocide has been in the news again. Turkey has always denied that it predecessor state the Ottoman Empire was responsible for the deaths of between 0.8 and 1.5 million Armenians. Other indigenous groups such as Ottoman Greeks and Assyrians were also targeted by the Ottomans.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium: 500 Remember Jewish Museum Attack Victims

A year to the day since a terrorist gunman carried out an attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels, around 500 people gathered on Sunday for a remembrance ceremony for the four people that died as a result of the attack. Among those at the ceremony were Prime Minister Charles Michel (Francophone liberal), the Justice Minister Koen Geens (Flemish Christian democrat).

On 24 May 2014 the French Islamist terrorist Mehdi Nemmouche shot two visitors to the museum and two members of staff. Three of those shot died at the scene a fourth victim died several days later in hospital.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

British Politicians Delete Negative Wikipedia Descriptions Before Election

Details of MPs’ expenses and opposition to same-sex marriage were deleted from their Wikipedia pages using computers from inside Parliament in the run up to the general election, a report has found.

Dozens of MPs had negative aspects of their online biographies removed or altered prior to the election in a bid to make them more electable, according to the Telegraph.

The changes include several instances of MPs’ expense claim scandals being removed, as well as details of arrests and the use of “chauffeur-driven cars”.

The investigation found these amendments to the MPs’ Wikipedia articles were made on computers that had their IP addresses registered inside the Commons.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Global Ocean Trawl Reveals Plethora of New Lifeforms

A team of researchers who spent three and a half years on a schooner fishing for microscopic creatures in the world’s oceans have reported the initial results of their survey — revealing a rich, diverse array of planktonic life.

Part scientific expedition, part adventure and part public-outreach effort, the project took place aboard the 36-metre Tara, which set sail from Lorient, France, in September 2009. Scientists onboard collected some 35,000 samples at 210 stations over the voyage, in a bid to build up a holistic view of Earth’s upper oceans.

The haul, details of which are analysed in five papers published today in the journal Science1—5, includes a catalogue of more than 40 million microbial genes — most of which were not previously known — as well as some 5,000 genetic types of virus, and an estimated 150,000 kinds of eukaryote (complex cells), many more than the 11,000 types of marine eukaryotic plankton already known.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Alitalia Cost Public 7.4 Bn Euros 1974-2014

Mediobanca study calculates real costs of saving airline

(ANSA) — Rome, May 25 — The chronically teetering and oft rescued Italian flagship airline Alitalia has cost public coffers and the community at large an estimated 7.4 billion euros over the last four decades, merchant bank Mediobanca said Monday.

The estimate calculated by research centre Mediobanca Mbres includes direct public and collective costs from 1974 to 2014.

The burden to the public rose significantly after 2007, when management was taken over by a state-appointed commission save the company from closure. The cost of propping up the airline from 1974 to 2007 amounted to 3.3 billion euros in 2014 values, compared to 4.1 billion euros under a commission management through June 2014.

The study considers payments made to recapitalize the company, guarantees given to cover the debt, and sundry contributions, including European funds and other residual payments.

Recapitalization operations were “particularly intense” from second half of the 1990s onward.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Renzi Reiterates Call for Single Labor Union

Premier questions need for dozens of unions

(ANSA) — Genoa, May 25 — Premier Matteo Renzi on Monday reiterated his call for a single union to replace Italy’s dozens, along the lines of the German model. “We need to think about …a union representation law,” the premier told Liguria’s Primo Canale in an interview. “When you sit in meetings with 17 different unions, you ask yourself is it really necessary to have so many”. The Constitution upholds the freedom to unionize without government interference, and also workers’ right to participate in company management within limits set by law.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Whirlpool Workers Call on Pope for Help

Fighting 2,060 layoffs

(ANSA) — Caserta, May 25 — Whirlpool workers on Monday asked for Pope Francis’ help in their battle to keep their jobs.

“We call on Pope Francis to give us a hand in the battle we’ve fighting for the past month,” said UILM union delegate Antonietta Cerullo. “We’re willing to send a delegation to the (pope’s weekly) Wednesday audience”. The unions have been fighting the home appliance maker’s plan to lay off 2,060 people or 30% of its Italy workforce — a plan Labor Minister Giuliano Poletti has said is “unacceptable” and Industry Minister Federica Guidi called “unspeakable”.

No progress has been made in spite of a month of government-brokered talks between labor and management.

FIM, FIOM and UILM unions have announced an eight-hour strike set for June 12 involving the entire Whirlpool group.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Lower Austrian Teenage Jihadist Gets Eight Months

The court case against a 14-year-old boy accused of plotting a terrorist attack in Austria ended today in the city of St. Pölten, when the youth pleaded guilty and received eight months’ detention.

The Austrian teenager of Turkish origin was arrested in his home in St. Pölten last October after he began enquiring online about buying bomb parts.

According to prosecutors, the jihadist teenager was planning to carry out an attack on Vienna’s Westbahnof train station and had made contact with terrorist networks including the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda online.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Norway Overtakes Russia in European Gas

Norway has overtaken Russia as the leading supplier of gas to western Europe, according to data collected by Reuters from Norway’s state gas network operator Gassco and Russian state company Gazprom.

           — 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 wracked 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 have 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]
 

Salvini Says Italy Should Stop Paying EU

Northern League says migrant crisis shows ‘hoax’ of Europe

(ANSA) — Milan, May 26 — Northern League leader Matteo Salvini suggested Tuesday that Italy should stop sending any money to the “cage” that is the European Union. “I would start to close taps,” he told Radio Padania. “Italy should suspend its payments to the useless cage that is the EU,” he added, claiming the EU is unresponsive to Italian needs. He particularly condemned an EU plan for distribution of migrants, complaining that too many will be left in Italy which he said reveals “the hoax Europe that cares” about public input.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Two Years for Man Who Praised ETA on Facebook

An internet user has been sentenced to two years in prison for celebrating the death of a politician at the hands of Basque terrorist group Eta in a post on Facebook.

Vicente M.I. was sentenced to two years for glorifying terrorism after writing a Facebook post about Miguel Ángel Blanco, a Spanish politician who was murdered by Basque terrorist group Eta in 1997.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Has Fewest New Prisoners in Six Decades

Fewer people were sent to prison in Sweden in 2014 than in any other year since the 1950s, according to new figures from Sweden’s Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården).

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: “Riots Are Caused by Police Doing Their Jobs”

Last night was yet another flare-up in infamous Stockholm ghetto Tensta. A crowd of 50-something masked thugs were hurling rocks and molotov cocktails at police and fire fighters. But noone was killed and police only had to fire warning shots in the air, so no big deal. Ho-hum, in the “new normal” of Sweden.

What makes it noteworthy is how state media Stockholm P4 chooses to frame the situation. Apparently, police has been putting efforts into quelling local gang activity by making some arrests in the past weeks.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Families Extorted for Money After Libya Kidnappings

Some families in Sweden have been extorted for money after their relatives are kidnapped in Libya. People who are fleeing their homes are being kidnapped or sold by human smugglers to criminal organizations who demand that their relatives pay ransoms. Often, these refugees are made to withstand threats, abuse and torture.

Last year, Sharif’s cousin fled from Somalia. He went through Libya, where he was kidnapped by an armed group who demanded 5,000 US dollars from his family in Örebro.”It was he, himself, who rang on the kidnappers’ telephone. He said that there were 24 people who had been kidnapped, and that everyone had paid except for him. ‘Please, can you help me get out of here,’ “ Sharif recounts what his cousin said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Switzerland Extradites French Teen Jihadist

Switzerland has extradited a French teenager who was trying to reach Syria for a second time since March, the federal department of justice said on Friday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Jobless Mother of Four Blows £20,000 of Child Benefit on Plastic Surgery and is Planning More Because ‘Growing Old Just Isn’t for Me’

Andrea Dalzell, 48, from Workington, Cumbria, has saved up to have a boob job, a full face lift, an extensive neck and eyebrow lift, Botox and fillers and even a ‘designer vagina’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Rotherham Council and Police Want Powers to Ban Anti-Child Rape Protests

Officials in the Pakistani child rape gang scandal town of Rotherham are moving to ban protests against their own incompetence. They have appealed to the home secretary for emergency special powers under the Public Order Act 1986.

The council first came to national prominence when its social services worked together with elements of the Greater Manchester Police to spectacularly fail to detect the systematic grooming, rape and prostitution of over 1,400 vulnerable children. The victims were often in the care of the council children’s services and “as young as 12”, and “barely pubescent”. Council commissioners claim the protests against them are becoming prohibitively expensive to police, with one event in September 2014 costing over one million pounds, meaning they should therefore be banned, reports local newspaper The Star.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Backs Serbia’s EU Bid, Mattarella Tells Nikolic

President meets counterpart in Belgrade

(ANSA) — Belgrade, May 25 — Italy supports Serbia’s bid for European Union membership, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said at the end of a meeting with his Serb counterpart Tomislav Nikolic on Monday. “We are convinced supporters of the rapid process of adhesion of Serbia in the EU,” Mattarella said. “It’s in Europe’s interest and in the interest of the balance of the whole Balkans area”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Algerian Minister Warns of 46,000 Websites Promoting Daesh

Algerian Minister of Religious Affairs Mohamed Issa said Monday that there were some 46,000 internet websites promoting a “jihadist ideology”.

“Recent studies have shown that there are over 46,000 takfiri websites that are spreading jihadist ideology, which serves the interests of Daesh,” Issa said at a Monday seminar in Algeria’s Mostaghanem province.

The minister was referring to the militant group that last year seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

“These websites help recruit members, especially European ones, to these takfiri and jihadist groups,” Issa said.

“With terrorism being openly promoted on websites and satellite television channels, extremist religious discourse is becoming increasingly dangerous,” he added.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt: Belly-Dancer Arrested After Raunchy Sex Assault Fantasy Video Goes Viral

A controversial Egyptian belly dancer has been arrested after taking part in a raunchy video that has been viewed more than one million times on YouTube.

Egypt’s prosecution has charged Salma El-Fouly with inciting debauchery and immorality after she appeared in the three-minute video alongside director Wael Elsedeki.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt’s Military Government Has Started Executing People on Overtly Political Charges

Next Tuesday, a lawyer will plead for a Cairo court to suspend the execution of six men, arguing that their death sentences were unconstitutional. The only trouble is, the defendants are already dead.

Since the coup that swept Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi from power, hundreds of his supporters have been handed death sentences in a rash of mass trials. But until this month, only one had been carried out — against a man convicted of throwing another man off a roof.

[Comment: Quite a contrast with how Obama handes MB members.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt President to Respond to Emails From Citizens Via New Address During Monthly Speeches

CAIRO — The Egyptian president’s media office says that an email address will be created to receive letters from citizens so that he can answer them in monthly speeches.

A statement Tuesday said that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is keen to stay in contact with Egyptians and have them contribute to decision-making. It said the email address to reach him would be at media.office8@op.gov.eg.

El-Sissi came to power on a wave of media-driven popularity and in an election in which he faced little opposition and won 96.9 percent of the vote. Prior to that, he led the military’s 2013 overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi following days of mass protests by Egyptians angered by his divisive policies.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Claims Responsibility for Tunis Barracks Attack

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MAY 26 — Ifrikia Media, the official media of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Tunisia, praised the shooting inside the Bouchoucha barracks on Monday in Tunis. Eight soldiers were killed in the attack and 10 others were injured. The perpetrator of the attack, which authorities called an isolated incident by someone suffering from ‘‘mental instability’’, was reportedly an Islamic extremist named Jaami, called a ‘‘lone lion’’.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Libyan Cleric Justifies Beheadings and Body Mutilation “To Strike Terror in the Heart” Of the Enemy

In a May 16 interview with Al-Tanasuh TV, Libyan Cleric Muhammad Bouajila, a member of the Libyan Ulema Association, explained that in principle, beheadings and body mutilation are prohibited, but are allowed under certain circumstances “especially if this serves to strike terror in the heart” of the enemy. Sheik Bouajila further commented that Muslims should fight non-Muslims who refuse to convert to Islam or pay the jizya poll tax. Al-Tanasuh TV is owned by Sadiq Al-Ghariani, Mufti of Libya who is associated with the Libya Dawn forces.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisian Cleric Bechir Begga: Satan and the Jews Are the Enemies of the Muslims

In a May 1 sermon, Tunisian cleric Sheik Bechir Begga said that Satan and the Jews are the enemies of Muslims. He added that Allah was gathering the Jews “in Palestine, or in Tel Aviv,” where they would meet their end. Sheik Begga posted the clip on his YouTube channel.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

81% of Respondents to Al Jazeera Poll Support the Islamic State

An online poll at the website of the Al Jazeera news network shows overwhelming support for the terrorist group ISIS. With more than 40,000 votes, 81% of those that have taken part say they support the latest victories ISIS has had.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bulletin Warns US Analysts Overwhelmed by Pro-ISIS Social Media, Military Posts Threatened

U.S. investigators are becoming overwhelmed trying to keep up with the social media barrage by U.S.-based supporters of the Islamic State — with the latest information suggesting “US military bases, locations, and events could be targeted in the near-term.”

The warning comes in a new, six-page bulletin obtained exclusively by Fox News. It warns law enforcement and specifically military personnel to be vigilant during upcoming national holidays and military events due to the “heightened threat of attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Erdogan’s Palace Declared Illegal by Turkish Court

The Turkish Supreme Court has ruled that the construction of an 1,100-room palace by President Erdogan was illegal. The palace was constructed on protected land.

Tuesday’s decision by Turkey’s Supreme Court revoked the building permit that had been issued to build President President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s palace after the fact because it had been illegally built on protected land.

The palace was inaugurated in October to coincide with Erdogan’s transition from head of government as Prime Minister to head of state as President. The building has had plenty of critics, many of whom focus on the construction costs of just over 500 million euros (well over $600 million) for the 1,100-room palace.

The presidential palace, popularly dubbed Ak Saray (“White Palace”) was built under controversial circumstances, in a wooded area within the Ataturk Forest Farm in Ankara. The construction went ahead despite environmental concerns and court orders, prompting its critics to instead call it Kacak Saray (“Illegal Palace”).

It appears now that they may be right with the moniker, however it remains unclear if the court decision will have any consequences for Erdogan or the completed palace.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fighting, Airstrikes Reported Near Ramadi as Iraq Launches Operation to Retake City

A major military operation in Iraq to retake the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi was under way Tuesday, as fighting and airstrikes were reported west and south of the city. “Shaping” operations ahead of the counteroffensive began Tuesday, in the form of air strikes, artillery and rocket barrages to rush ISIS out of Ramadi, the Pentagon confirmed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

German Twins Die Fighting for ISIS in Iraq

Germans twins from Castrop-Rauxel in North Rhine-Westphalia have died fighting for the Islamist group Isis in Iraq, the militia’s official magazine reported in its latest publication. One of the two brothers died in a suicide bombing in April, the magazine ‘Dabiq’ reports.

It also claims that al-Almani had fought for the German ‘crusader army’ in Afghanistan before joining Isis.

The brothers converted to Islam recently, reports WAZ. It is unclear when they travelled to Syria or whether the German authorities had been keeping tabs on them.

In March, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said that around 650 Germans had already travelled to the war zone in Iraq and Syria with the intention of fighting.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iran: Why Trial of Washington Post Reporter Should Raise Red Flags About Proposed Nuclear Deal

Tuesday a revolutionary court in Tehran began trying Washington Post Iran correspondent Jason Rezaian on charges of espionage. Rezaian, who has already been held for more than ten months, is but one of four American hostages which the Islamic Republic holds.

Former FBI agent Robert Levinson just passed his 3,000th day in Iranian prison.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Iraq Starts Operation to Drive Islamic State From Anbar

Pro-government forces in Iraq have formally launched an operation to drive Islamic State out of Anbar province.

The announcement was made by a spokesman for the Popular Mobilisation (al-Hashid al-Shaabi), a force comprising dozens of Shia militias.

He said the operation would see government troops and militiamen move southwards from Salahuddin province and seek to cut off IS militants in Ramadi.

The provincial capital fell to IS this month after Iraq’s army withdrew.

Since then government forces have been massing for a counter-attack in the western province, and they say they have regained some ground east of Ramadi in the past few days.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Is Jordan Next Target for Islamic State?

As Iraqi government forces launch an operation to drive Islamic State (IS) out of Anbar province neighbours across the region are growing increasingly nervous. There are fears that Jordan could be the jihadists’ next target so it has been redoubling its efforts to confront the extremist threat both on its borders and inside the country. Frank Gardner has been to the Jordan-Iraq border and was granted exclusive access inside a prison to meet a reformed IS convict.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Burn Woman Alive for Refusing ‘Extreme Sex Act’, Reveals UN Official

Zainab Bangura discovered the gruesome extent of crimes against women — particularly from Iraq’s Yazidi community (pictured) — after collecting information from Syria, Iraq and Jordan.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Islamist Fighters Drawn From Half the World’s Countries, Says UN

More than half the countries in the world are currently generating Islamist extremist fighters for groups such as al-Qaida and Islamic State, the UN has said.

A report by the UN security council says there are more than 25,000 “foreign terrorist fighters” currently involved in jihadi conflicts and they are “travelling from more than 100 member states”.

The number of fighters may have increased by more than 70% worldwide in the past nine months or so, the report says, adding that they “pose an “immediate and long-term (terrorist) threat”.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Jihadi Burger: ISIS Press Release Heaps Praise on Mosul Restaurant Scene

A new “photo essay” published Tuesday by Islamic State shows a variety of restaurants in Mosul, the group’s largest Iraqi stronghold.

The press release, distributed by the press office of the jihadis’ makeshift government in Ninawa Province, continues the campaign to make life in territory held by the group appear as normal as possible. A previous entry in the series showcased a former five-star hotel which the group refurbished to meet its standards.

In Mosul, which Islamic State has held for nearly a year, the restaurant scene appears dominated by classic Arab street food. Like in many Arab cities, Mosul’s fast-food restaurants sport flashy displays, bright fluorescent lights, sidewalk seating and immaculate floors.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New York Times Can No Longer Rule Turkey, Erdogan Says

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continued his salvoes against the New York Times over the U.S. daily’s recent editorial criticizing him.

Erdogan joined Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in another grand airport opening on May 26, this time in the predominantly Kurdish-populated southeastern Anatolian province of Hakkari, issuing strong criticisms against the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

“The New York Times said there is pressure in Erdogan’s Turkey. What kind of pressure is that? On what you are basing this? Know your place. Since when did you start to malign us from America?” said Erdogan. “They are used to ruling the other side of the world from 10,000-15,000 kilometers’ distance. But there is no such Turkey. There is no more old Turkey. There is a new Turkey.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The ‘House of Mary’ Welcomes Everybody, Muslims Included

In Ephesus, place of worship where Mary spent her last years

EPHESUS (TURKEY) — “No, we don’t place a message here, because, in Islam, that’s not how we pray, but we do come anyway to pay our respects to Our Lady”, says the Turkish lady covered by a veil parading with a group of Muslim visitors in front of a wall covered with thousands of pieces of paper — including paper-napkins, receipts and even tags belonging to clothing — filled with prayers, supplications and appeals for grace addressed to the Vergin.

We are in Turkey, inside the ‘House of Mary’, the place where, according to Scriptures and the 431 A.D Ecumenic Council, as well as the oral traditions of both Christians and Muslims (Our Lady is often spoken about in the Koran) of the area, Mary is believed to have spent the last years of her life.

It is in the ‘House of Mary’ — the tradition holds — that Our Lady came to lie ‘dormant’, in deep sleep before her Assumption to heaven.

According to these sources, the Virgin arrived here from Jerusalem together with Saint John (who on the death of Saint Paul became the chief of the Ephesus church and to whom Jesus had entrusted his mother).

This place of worship sits a few kilometers from the celebrated archaelogical site of Ephesus and is situated in the woods, at the foot of Mount Solmissus. The house, built on top of ruins dating back to the I and IV century A.D discovered by German archaeologists at the end of the 19th century, is a small brick building, a tiny sanctuary. Many objects donated by popes who came here on a pilgrimage are on display in glass cases as a testament to the spiritual significance of the site: Paul VI ( 26 July, 1967), John Paul II (November 30 1979) and Benedict XVI (November 29, 2006) all left traces in the ‘House of Mary’.

At a short distance from the house and the ‘wall of prayers’ lies a covered modern altar and chairs for pilgrims attending mass. Muslim women, just like the Christians who come in droves, especially on feast days, stop by the wall to read prayers written in all the languages of the world.

Christians withdraw to a quiet spot to look for something, virtually anything, to write on and then stick their prayers on the wall, placing them amid the bricks or tying them them with a string to other messages hanging on a net. And then they pray.

Ephesus, which is an hours’ drive from Izmir and the ‘House of Mary’ lies in a region which witnessed the dawn of Christianity.

The “Seven chuches of Asia’ , among the earliest remnants of the faith brought to this part of the world by Saint Paul — – Pergamon, Izmir, Laodicea, Sardis, Philadelfia, Ephesus (first Christian basilica actually dedicated to Our Lady) and Ierapolis — were built here and remain places of worship and historic significance as well as a unique touristic itinerary both for visitors interested in archaelogy and people wishing to trace the footsteps of the ancient Christian faith. That is the reason why they are protected by the secular Turkish state.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Tourism: UAE Increasingly ‘Chinese-Friendly’

Noodle soup for breakfast and a growing number of Chinese employees are just some of the bonuses offered by hotels in the United Arab Emirates to attract tourists from China.

And the strategy is paying off, if you look at the data. In Dubai, for example, Chinese visitors in 2014 increased 25% on the previous year. In total, a boom worth 345,000 people, according to data provided by the agency for the promotion of tourism in the country — the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, DTCM — which recently opened three new offices in China.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dogs May Have Split From Wolves 10,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

DNA from an ancient Taimyr wolf bone from Siberia has been compared to DNA from modern dogs by Pontus Skoglund of Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute, and Love Dalén of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. They say that the specimen, dated to 35,000 years ago, represents the most recent common ancestor of modern wolves and dogs, and shares a large number of genes with today’s Siberian Huskies and Greenland sled dogs. “Dogs may have been domesticated much earlier than is generally believed,” Dalén said in a press release.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Bangladesh Bans Militant Islamist Group Suspected in Blogger Killings

Country has seen an increase in extreme Islamist ideologies.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Forced Migration of Minorities, Mostly Hindu and Sikhs in Pakistan

Islamic Insurgency and Jehadi Persecution causing Forced Migration of non-Muslim minorities, Mostly Hindu and Sikhs in Pakistan.

A study noting how the non-Muslim Pakistanis are forced to leave their homes, jobs, businesses, and even extended families to save their lives under a clear and present danger

Dr Naazir Mahmood | TNS | May 24, 2015:: Social research is scarce in Pakistan and good qualitative research is even scarcer. The universities that do have departments of sociology or anthropology conduct MPhil- or PhD-level research studies but that hardly see the light of the day. One can find some good studies gathering dust in the library shelves and the academic departments usually do not have the resources to get them published.

The social research studies that are funded by foreign donors normally have a greater chance of enjoying a broader outreach but mostly they suffer from lack of social research expertise among the NGO professionals posing as researchers. Still, once in a while a good piece of research comes up and one such example is Migration of Minorities in Pakistan: A Case Study Approach conducted by AWAZ, a UKaid-funded project…

           — Hat tip: Upananda Brahmachari [Return to headlines]
 

India Heatwave Toll Passes 1,000

The death toll in the heatwave sweeping India has passed 1,000, with temperatures nearing 50C (122F) in some areas. Most deaths have taken place in the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where at least 1,118 people have died since last week. Reports say at least 24 people have died from the heat in West Bengal and Orissa.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Alzheimer’s Origins Tied to Rise of Human Intelligence

Alzheimer’s disease may have evolved alongside human intelligence, researchers report in a paper posted this month on BioRxiv1.

The study finds evidence that 50,000 to 200,000 years ago, natural selection drove changes in six genes involved in brain development. This may have helped to increase the connectivity of neurons, making modern humans smarter as they evolved from their hominin ancestors. But that new intellectual capacity was not without cost: the same genes are implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.

Kun Tang, a population geneticist at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences in China who led the research, speculates that the memory disorder developed as ageing brains struggled with new metabolic demands imposed by increasing intelligence. Humans are the only species known to develop Alzheimer’s; the disease is absent even in closely related primate species such as chimpanzees.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Beekeeper Covered in Stinging Insects Sets Record in China

A beekeeper in China has a set a new Guinness World record after coating his body with more than 109 kg of bees. Fellow beekeepers in Tai’an City in China’s Shandong Province helped pour bees from hundreds of beehives onto Gao Bingguo’s body.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Beijing Warns US: ‘We Will Fight Back’ As Battle of Words Escalates Over South China Sea

China has upped its military posturing, issuing a strategy paper saying Beijing would “surely counterattack if attacked” by an enemy amid concerns from the US and neighbouring countries over its developments in the South China Sea.

The release of the document came shortly after Beijing lodged a complaint against the US for flying a surveillance jet over disputed territory in the South China Sea, where China is building artificial islands.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Set to Step up Offshore Military Capabilities

China has announced a change in military strategy, which will see it boost its naval capacities farther beyond its shores. This comes amid tensions in the South China Sea, where there are competing territorial claims.

The paper was unveiled at a time when Beijing and Washington have been at loggerheads over China’s land-reclamation projects in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The archipelago has long been the subject of a territorial dispute, as not only China, but also the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei claim it as their own.

A spokesman for China’s Defense Ministry rejected US criticism over its activities in the South China Sea, saying these were comparable to the construction of houses or roads on the mainland.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

New Research Suggests That Hackers Can Track Subway Riders Through Their Phones

Determined hackers can track the movements of millions of subway riders around the world even as they go underground by breaking into smartphone motion detectors, new research from Chinese academics reveals. The attack can track subway riders with up to 92 percent accuracy.

The new attack even works underground and doesn’t utilize GPS or cell networks. Instead, the attacker steals data from a phone’s accelerometer. Because each subway in the world has a unique movement fingerprint, the phone’s motion sensor can give away a person’s daily movements with up to 92% accuracy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

2 Pastors in Sudan Face Death Over Christian Faith

Two Christian pastors from South Sudan who traveled north to Sudan and were arrested on charges of spying could face the death penalty when their trial begins next week, according to their attorneys.

Yat Michael Ruot and Peter Yein Reith, both Presbyterian pastors from the breakaway Christian nation of South Sudan, are being held by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services on charges of undermining the constitution and espionage. Their supporters say their arrest and pending trial is just the latest effort by the militant Islamist government in Khartoum to stamp out Christianity.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

South African Rhino Survives Horrific Attack by Poachers

The rhino’s rescuers gave her a name: Hope. Poachers in South Africa had darted the rhino with a tranquilizer and hacked off her horns while she was sedated, leaving the animal with a horrific wound covering much of her face. A couple of days later, staff on a wildlife reserve found the grievously injured rhino — alive.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

What Makes the “Lion Whisperer” Roar?

He’s famous for getting dangerously close to his fearsome charges, but what can Kevin Richardson teach us about ethical conservation—and ourselves?

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Wolf Volcano Erupts on Galapagos Island

A volcanic eruption on the Galapagos Islands has raised fears the ecosystem that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution may be under threat. On Monday, the Wolf volcano on Isabela Island erupted for the first time in 33 years, spewing fire, smoke and lava. Experts say the eruption poses no risk to people living on the island.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Appeals Court Refuses to Lift Hold on Obama Immigration Action

A federal appeals court refused Tuesday to allow the implementation, for now, of President Obama’s executive action that could shield from deportation as many as 5 million illegal immigrants.

The U.S. Justice Department had asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s earlier decision temporarily halting the administration’s plan. Hanen issued the temporary hold in February, after 26 states filed a lawsuit alleging Obama’s action was unconstitutional.

Two out of the three judges on a court panel, though, voted Tuesday to deny the government’s request, as the underlying case is argued.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: Refugees Smuggled Through Vienna Airport

Employees of a private security company at Vienna International Airport have allegedly been smuggling refugees into the United States and Great Britain, according to a spokesman for the Lower Austria state prosecutor based in Korneuburg.

Two employees of a firm hired to carry out additional security checks for Austrian Airlines are already in custody, while a further four suspects remain at large, state prosecutor spokesman Friedrich Köhl confirmed to the Kurier newspaper.

All six are accused of smuggling refugees into the airport and onto aeroplanes in exchange for between €7,000-9,000 .

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Belgium Condemns EC Migrant Quotas

Belgium has attacked the plans of the European Commission (EC) to dispatch Med migrants to countries across the European Union. Belgian Asylum Secretary Theo Francken told lawmakers in Brussels that the EC’s proposals fail to take sufficient account of the efforts individual countries have made in the past.

The matter has come to the fore as a result of the thousands of migrants from Africa and the wider world risking life and limb in rickety boats in order to reach Europe. The EC’s quotas are intended to relieve the pressure on Mediterranean countries where most of the migrants are arriving, but have been criticised by several EU member states.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

British Lorry Drivers Boycott Calais Over Fears ‘Somebody Will be Killed’ By Illegal Immigrants Desperate to Get Into UK

British lorry drivers are boycotting Calais because they fear ‘somebody will be killed’ by illegal immigrants desperate to get into the UK.

Drivers from Maru International haulage company are avoiding the French port, where thousands have set up make-shift homes since last year.

One lorry driver who uses the cross-channel routes said he is ‘frightened for his life’ by migrants, who he saw breaking into the truck in front of him with a crowbar.

There are thought to be around 3,000 migrants sleeping rough in Calais after flocking to the coastal town from north Africa and beyond in the hope of a new life in Britain.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Government Earmarks €50m to Help Africans Stay at Home

The Dutch government is to invest €50m in the economic development of north Africa in order to encourage asylum seekers not to take a boat to Europe, development minister Lilianne Ploumen said on Tuesday. ‘We must do everything we can to prevent young Africans from getting into rickety boats,’ she says in an opinion piece in the Volkskrant. ‘It is better if the courage and ambition they show in undertaking the journey is used to build up their own country.’ Ploumen writes that just tracking down and destroying the boats used by people smugglers to get migrants to Europe is not enough to solve the problem.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

EU States Must Help Med Migrants: Mogherini

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Monday called on European countries to share Italy’s burden in tackling the Mediterranean migration crisis, as agreement on a regional quota system for refugees looks increasingly unlikely.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Europe Must Do More on Migrants, Says UN Chief

Europe must do more to help migrants crossing the Mediterranean, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday ahead of a visit to Brussels, as a planned EU naval operation awaits UN Security Council approval.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece: Migrant Dinghy Crossing

Syrian refugees on an overcrowded dinghy land on the Greek island of Kos after crossing part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, early May 26, 2015. Hundreds of mainly Syrian and Afghan immigrants on Tuesday landed on the Greek island of Kos in the southeastern Aegean Sea.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Cantone ‘Astonished’ By Migrant-Fraud Probe

Calls on ‘united effort’ by civil society

(ANSA) — Naples, May 25 — Raffaele Cantone, the head of Italy’s anti-corruption authority, said Monday that he was “astonished” after Naples prosecutors said at the weekend that they were probing alleged fraud by officials working for NGOs dealing with the migrant emergency.

Cantone called on civil society and the professional world “to not entrench itself behind a corporate mentality”.

“There needs to be a united effort of all parts of civil society, which, too often in the best case scenario, have simply looked on, and in some cases have been complicit in illicit activity,” Cantone said.

“If civil society doesn’t do its part, it’s hard to think that we can do it,” he said.

Cantone’s comments follow the Saturday arrest of Alfonso De Martino, president of the non-profit Un’Ala di Riserva, accused of stealing more than one million euros intended for migrant aid and investing the money in property and phone cards.

De Martino’s partner Rosa Carnevale was placed on house arrest, and two people associated Catholic aid organization Caritas in Teggiano Policastro, including Father Vincenzo Federico, are under investigation for graft. Caritas in Teggiano Policastro, located in the province of Salerno, manages four immigrant reception centers and investigators said it’s “likely” they are tied into the scandal that brought the Saturday arrests.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: EU Will Show Its True Face by June 26 Says Renzi

‘Migrant quotas a stopgap, real issue is Africa development’

(ANSA) — Rome, May 26 — Premier Matteo Renzi told the Ballarò TV talk show Tuesday the EU will show its true face at the June 26 summit on the migrant emergency. “(EU leaders) have to contend with public opinion at home so they’re a little afraid and concerned when the issue is migrant quotas,” Renzi said. “By June 26 we’ll see if and how the EU has the face of solidarity…I’m very optimistic”. Migrant reception quotas are a stopgap remedy not a solution however, he added. “The real strategy is blocking the flow at the source in Africa, investing in Africa,” he said.

Italy will spearhead this effort in the coming months, the premier said.

“We will resume investing in international cooperation, especially Africa,” he said.

The European Commission’s proposed Agenda on Migration to handle the massive wave of refugees arriving from North Africa features a quota system to relocate migrants in response to appeals for more help from Italy, which is bearing the brunt of the burden of the Mediterranean migrant crisis. It also envisages the tripling of funding for the EU Triton patrol and rescue mission in the southern Mediterranean and the creation of a naval force to disrupt people traffickers.

The agenda is set to be approved by the Commission on Wednesday, and is expected to dominate the agenda when EU leaders meet on June 26. Some European countries have been vocal in opposing the EU proposals, particularly quotas for migrant resettlement.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

More Migrants Reach Greece, Approaching 1,200 in 2 Days

Greek authorities in the eastern Aegean Sea have picked up more than 300 people who entered the country illegally in small craft from Turkey, raising the total of arrivals over the past two days to nearly 1,200. After Italy, financially crippled Greece is the main destination for refugees — mostly from war-ravaged Syria — and economic migrants seeking a better life in the European Union. About 30,000 have arrived this year.

The migrant arrivals of the past two days were mostly on the islands of Lesvos, Kos, Chios and Farmakonissi, all close to the Turkish shores.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sicilian Saves Syrians at Sea With Mobile Phone

Nawal Soufi is never without her mobile phone and thousands of Syrian refugees have reason to be grateful for that.

“A call can come at any time. Migrants at sea shout: ‘There are 500 people on board, we have been at sea for 10 days and there is no more water,’“ the young woman tells AFP on the sidelines of the launch of a book about her life: “Nawal, the refugees’ angel.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The March of the Migrants: Hundreds of Syrians and Afghans Walk Through Kos as 1,200 Migrants Arrive on Greek Islands in Just Two Days

Almost 1,200 migrants — some crammed onto overcrowded inflatable dinghies — have been picked up by Greek authorities in the eastern Aegean Sea in the past two days.

The arrivals of men, women and children travelling from Turkey have mostly been on the islands of Kos, Lesvos, Chios and Farmakonissi — all close to Turkish shores.

After Italy, financially crippled Greece is the main destination for refugees, mostly from war-ravaged Syria plus economic migrants seeking a better life in the EU. About 30,000 have already arrived this year.

Dangerous journey: Syrian refugees get off an overcrowded inflatable dinghy they used to travel to Greece

Last year, hundreds of migrants packed themselves in an area that is meant to host only 35 people at Kos Police Department

On the holiday island of Kos, some of the new arrivals — mainly Syrians and Afghans — are staying in a deserted hotel.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Do We Protect Our Children, Or Sexual Deviates?

Practicing under the pen name E. L. James, Erica Leonard wrote the Fifty Shades Trilogy, inspired by the Twilight Fiction Series. It is supposedly a movie about female sexual liberation and pleasure!

Now Planned Parenthood suggests to teenagers as heard in the SexEd videos, reading this trilogy will help to understand variations in sex or sex games promoting sexual violence (beastality, bondage or maybe even autoerotic asphyxiation)…

Do I once again have to remind you the Communist Manifesto clearly states the following in their 45 Goals?

  • 25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
  • 26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, and healthy.”
  • 27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”
  • 40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
  • 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Irish Gay Marriage Vote ‘Defeat for Humanity, ‘ Says Parolin

Vatican Secretary of State ‘saddened’ by referendum

(ANSA) — Vatican City, May 26 — Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said Tuesday that last weekend’s referendum in which Irish people voted to legalise gay marriage was a “defeat for humanity”. “I was deeply saddened by this result,” Cardinal Parolin said. “The Church must take account of this reality, but in the sense that it must strengthen its commitment to evangelization.

“I think that you cannot just talk of a defeat for Christian principles, but of a defeat for humanity. “The family remains at the centre and we have to do everything to defend it and promote it.

“Hitting it would be like taking the foundations away from the building of the future”. Catholic doctrine considers homosexuality a sin and the Church is against moves to equate gay unions with traditional marriages between men and women.

Pope Francis, however, famously said in 2013 “who am I to judge?” gay people of good will who are seeking God.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Lombardy to Sponsor Milan Pride Week

Thanks to ‘surprise’ vote from Northern League official

(ANSA) — Milan, May 25 — The office of the presidency of the Lombardy regional council on Monday voted to sponsor Milan Pride Week, a series of LGBT events to take place June 22-28.

The motion passed three-to-two when the anti-immigrant, anti-euro Northern League joined forces with the center-left Democratic Party (PD) and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), both of which are in the opposition.

One member abstained, and one member from the New Center Right (NCD) party voted against.

Northern League member Fabrizio Cecchetti voted in favor after weeks of staunch center-right opposition to official sponsorship of the LGBT event.

“Cecchetti expressed an entirely personal position as the group had given specific directions to vote against sponsoring Gay Pride,” said Northern League whip in the Lombardy regional council, Massimiliano Romeo.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Northern Ireland Bakers Guilty of Discrimination Over Gay Marriage Cake

A Northern Ireland bakery has been found guilty in a landmark ruling of discrimination for refusing to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage theme. Ashers Baking Company received worldwide support from evangelical and born-again Christians over its refusal to make the cake for a local gay rights activist in the region.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Happiness Industry: How Government and Big Business Manipulate Your Moods for Profit

Since the 1960s, Western economies have been afflicted by an acute problem in which they depend more and more on our psychological and emotional engagement (be it with work, with brands, with our own health and well-being) while finding it increasingly hard to sustain this. Forms of private disengagement, often manifest as depression and psychosomatic illnesses, do not only register in the suffering experienced by the individual; they are increasingly problematic for policy-makers and managers, becoming accounted for economically.

Yet evidence from social epidemiology paints a worrying picture of how unhappiness and depression are concentrated in highly unequal societies, with strongly materialist, competitive values. Workplaces put a growing emphasis on community and psychological commitment, but against longer-term economic trends towards atomization and insecurity. We have an economic model which mitigates against precisely the psychological attributes it depends upon.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisian Mufti Criticizes LGBT Association Recognition

‘Danger to Islamic values’

(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MAY 25 — Tunisian mufti Hamda Sad criticized Monday the official recognition of the first Tunisian association for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, Shams.

A statement from the mufti claims that the association promotes “a dangerous deviation of values and human nature”, and that he thus considers the association a danger to Islamic values and principles of Tunisian society, characterized by its moderation and exclusion of deviant behaviors. The mufti therefore called on the competent authorities to reconsider the authorization of the association that “represents a threat to future generations through the promotion of aberrant and perverse behaviors. The main aim of the associations for the rights of sexual minorities is the abolition of Article 230 of the Tunisian criminal code, which states that “the male (liwat) and female (mousahaqa) homosexual acts are punished with up to three years in prison”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia Recognizes First LGBT Association

Progress in struggle for sexual minority rights

A girl, covering her face with the traditional Arab keffiyeh, takes part in a demonstration for sexual minority rights (archive material)

TUNIS — The Tunisian association for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights ‘Shams’ has become the first one of its kind to be officially recognized by the interior ministry as part of a law on associations. The move marks progress in the sensitive issue of sexual minorities in the country.

The association’s deputy chief Ahmed Ben Amor said that Tunisia’s LGBT community no longer needs to hide and that the population must unite in the struggle against homophobia tendencies and for minority rights. Most of the work in this sector has been done online, given the anonymity of the web. However, the path towards equality between all genders and sexual orientations is still long in Tunisia, given that existing laws are susceptible of several different interpretations and applications due to subjective concepts such as “decency”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Atheist Mother Bans Her Children From School Trips to Churches and Mosques

Claire Baker, 32, of Middleton, Manchester, believes an atheist upbringing is as much a choice as being brought up with a religion — which she does not want for her son and daughter.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Chosen Generation

Are most wars fought because of money? Of course they are. Huge profits are made from the sale of material and the human cost in death and misery is hardly noticed by those who start and run the wars. Sometimes wars are fought because accumulated debt can’t be paid so the debtor goes to war against the lender. Often wars are declared and fought to distract attention from other looming problems such as economic collapse. In general, war is good for business and the Bible testifies the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Is that an indictment of capitalism? No, but it’s an accusation of guilt against MONOPOLY capitalism. Mom and Pop are not monopolists, but global corporations that have no allegiance to their home countries are, and if a few million people have to be sacrificed for the “bottom line” so be it.

Because of our being the CHOSEN GENERATION to go through the coming great tribulation brought about by the love of money, we need to be aware of how the “mainstream news media” is using human gullibility to turn us into mindless robots who will jump when told to do so and to sit down when that signal is given. A classic example of how this works is described in a small book published in 1967 entitled “Report From Iron Mountain (RFIM) on the possibility and desirability of Peace.” It was written by Leonard C. Lewin and published by The Dial Press.

Immediately upon publication the book was jumped on by the captive media and denounced as a hoax. Why? Because the book exposed for all the world to see how schemes are concocted behind closed doors (or in mountain caverns) and then foisted upon an unwary public, at first resisted, then grudgingly accepted and then eagerly defended by those who a short time before were skeptical. It seems the human race in general is deathly afraid of being outside of popular opinion even when common sense has to be thrown out the window in order to believe the latest lie.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 5/26/2015

  1. Having had experience of how juvenile detention centers have no remedial effect on the young person who finds criminality an aspiration, I would venture to suggest that the young ‘Austrian’ jihadi as depicted in this ‘news feed’ will after his incarceration or as I would put it, his further education, will be aiming for bigger targets next time.

  2. On the ‘elite’ have a great fear of death. They forget that they came into this world without anything and they are meant to leave this world without anything. They also forget that they are here in this world to learn and from that learning experience to become better beings, not manipulators of other humans, thus, they are failing in their own reason for being here.

  3. Re migrants in Europe: a week ago, the EU wanted Poland to take in 1000 of them. Today the European comission asked Poland to take in over 2600… at this rate, what will the number be by Christmas?

    And, looks like its spineless government has not learned any lessons from the near-uniform choir of public opinion on the issue, or from the presidential election (won, against all odds, by one of the government’s conservative opponents) – its only response to the EU’s demands is to agree to taking in migrants (merely “disagreeing” on a specified number), and abstaining from voting on the EU parliament resolution.

  4. The Mosul restaurant images are likely fakes taken in the UAE or another wealthy Gulf country. There is absolutely NO way anything that clean or modern looking could exist within ISIS controlled territory.

    81% in the Al-Jazeera poll is no surprise, but that figure will never show up in the western MSM.

    46k extremist websites in Algeria is also no surprise, but the sclerotic government insists they are going to ‘control the religious dialog.’ Good luck with that!

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