Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/30/2015

Two women were executed by the Islamic State in Syria after being accused of sorcery. In a departure from the usual practice, they were beheaded — the first female beheadings by ISIS. Their husbands were also executed.

In other news, Governor Chris Christie became the 2,336th Republican politician to declare his candidacy for president of the United States in the 2016 elections.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, TR, 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
» 16 Facts About the Tremendous Financial Devastation That We Are Seeing All Over the World
» German Unemployment Hits Historic Low
» Greece Threatens Top Court Action to Block Grexit
» Greece Debt Crisis: Athens Seeks New Last-Minute Deal
» Now Greeks Are Rushing to Buy Bitcoins
» Reverting to Drachma May Send Greek Currency at Least 40% Lower
» What Can Greece Learn From Argentina’s Default Experience?
 
USA
» Chelsea Clinton’s $1,083-Per-Minute University Appearance
» Chris Christie’s Town Hall Bluntness to be Tested
» Christie Announces 2016 White House Bid, Vows ‘I Mean What I Say’
» Could This Become the First Mars Airplane?
» Former Senator Slams Washington as Corrupt “Sewer”, Calls for Outraged Young Americans to Revolt
» Obama Removes TPP’s Anti-Slavery Clause, Then Attacks Confederate Flag as “Symbol of Slavery”
» Obama Signs Bill Giving Himself Fast-Track Powers for Trade Deals
» Scholar Speaks on Obama’s Red Mentor
» Statue of White Supremacist, Former SC Governor Vandalized
» Swede Wins $18m in Wall Street Harassment Case
» The Emergence of Orwellian Newspeak and the Death of Free Speech
 
Europe and the EU
» Austria: Graz Killer Wanted Wife ‘To be a Slave’
» Calais Chaos: Travellers Curse ‘Striking French’
» Channel Tunnel Blocked Again by French Strikers
» Denmark Preps Germany for Border Controls
» Finland: Search for Soviet War Dead to Continue
» Finland: Reports of Rape Nearly Doubled in Last Decade
» French Terrorist Attack Had ‘Islamic State’ Hallmark, Says Prosecutor
» French Beheading ‘Was Modus Operandi of ISIS’
» Italy: Paolo Ligresti Gives Self Up After 2 Yrs
» Norwegians ‘Have it Too Good to Go Abroad’
» Report Warns of Islamist ‘Time Bomb’ In French Prisons
» Romania Parliament Approves New Spy Chief Dealing a Blow to Embattled Prime Minister
» Saab Signs Deal Worth Billions for Swedish Subs
» Skeleton of WWI Soldier Found in Italian Alps
» Swedish Woman Battles Killer Slug Invasion
» Switzerland: Geneva Beer the World’s Most Expensive: Survey
» UK: North Manchester General Hospital Plans to Turn Chapel Into Prayer Room for Muslims
» Underground Data Centre to Take Root in Tampere
» US Herring Video is ‘An Insult to Sweden’
 
North Africa
» Islamic State in Egypt: A ‘Fiery Summer’ Awaits ‘Worshippers of the Cross’
» There Was a Second Gunman, Say Tunisian Security Services — As Police Hunt Two Suspected Accomplices in Beach Massacre
» Tunisia Gunman Trained in Libya at Same Time as Bardo Museum Attackers
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Hidden Cameras, Invisibility Cloaks: Spy Expo Offers Rare Glimpse of Israeli Espionage
 
Middle East
» Global Support for ISIS Includes Up to 42m Muslims, Group Claims
» ‘IS’ Poses New Terror Dimension, Warns German Agency
» ISIS Beheads Two Women in Syria for ‘Witchcraft and Sorcery’
» Missing Swedish Teen Calls Mum From Syria
» Report: ‘Islamic State’ Beheads Two Women Accused of ‘Sorcery’
» Saudis Hotels Want Women Chefs
» Swedish Teenage Girl Has Fled to Syria
» Syria: In First Ever: Islamic State Beheads Two Women Accused of “Witchcraft”
» Syrian Pistachio Production Down 50%: Ministry
» Top UN Official in Jordan Calls for Jobs Program for Syrian Refugees at Time of Dwindling Aid
» US Resumes Aid to Bahrain Military
» Why is it So Difficult to Stop ‘Islamic State’ Propaganda on Social Media?
» Yemen Conflict: ‘More Than 1,000’ Prisoners Escape
 
Caucasus
» Islamic State May Threaten Russia’s Caucasus
 
South Asia
» Indonesia Transport Plane Crash: More Than 100 Feared Dead
 
Far East
» Two Killed in Self-Immolation on High-Speed Japanese Train
 
Australia — Pacific
» Forget 3D Printed Houses — This Brick-Laying Robot Can Build an Entire House in 2 Days
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Ansar Dine Claims Mali Attacks, Threatens I. Coast and Mauritania
» South Sudan Conflict: Army ‘Raped and Torched Girls’
 
Immigration
» Dismantling America’s National Identity Via Endless Immigration
» Goldman-Sachs Boss, Bilderberg Member Peter Sutherland: Europe Needs More Refugees From Africa, Syria
» Italy: Op to Recover 700 Migrant Bodies Starts
» ‘Ndrangheta ‘Inside Australian Politics’ — Media
» Supreme Court Does it Again Today: States Can’t Force Voters to Prove Citizenship
 
Culture Wars
» Award-Winning Comedian: Politically Correct Left Has Killed Comedy
» Children Who Hold Homophobic Views More Likely to Become Extremists, Warns Nicky Morgan
» Education Department’s Support for Gay Marriage Sparks Outrage
» From Gay Marriage to Confederate Flag, How the Media Are Turning Intolerant
» Gay Marriage Infringes on Religion by One Route
» Helsinki Bishop: Church Joining Pride Symbolically Important
» Is Pope Francis the False Prophet?
» Nature’s Law, Gay Marriage and Androgyny
 
General
» Report: Global Toilet Access is Better, But a Third of World’s People Still Lack Facilities
 

16 Facts About the Tremendous Financial Devastation That We Are Seeing All Over the World

Stock prices are crashing in China, in Europe and in the United States. Greece is on the verge of a historic default, and now Puerto Rico and Ukraine are both threatening to default on their debts if they do not receive concessions from their creditors. Not since the financial crisis of 2008 has so much financial chaos been unleashed all at once. Could it be possible that the great financial crisis of 2015 has begun? The following are 16 facts about the tremendous financial devastation that is happening all over the world right now…

1. On Monday, the Dow fell by 350 points. That was the biggest one day decline that we have seen in two years.

2. In Europe, stocks got absolutely smashed. Germany’s DAX index dropped 3.6 percent, and France’s CAC 40 was down 3.7 percent.

3. After Greece, Italy is considered to be the most financially troubled nation in the eurozone, and on Monday Italian stocks were down more than 5 percent.

4. Greek stocks were down an astounding 18 percent on Monday.

5. As the week began, we witnessed the largest one day increase in European bond spreads that we have seen in seven years.

6. Chinese stocks have already met the official definition of being in a “bear market” — the Shanghai Composite is already down more than 20 percent from the high earlier this year.

7. Overall, this Chinese stock market crash is the worst that we have witnessed in 19 years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

German Unemployment Hits Historic Low

German unemployment remained at historically low levels in June as the recovery in Europe’s biggest economy remained on track, data showed on Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece Threatens Top Court Action to Block Grexit

Greece has threatened to seek a court injunction against the EU institutions, both to block the country’s expulsion from the euro and to halt asphyxiation of the banking system.

“The Greek government will make use of all our legal rights,” said the finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis.

“We are taking advice and will certainly consider an injunction at the European Court of Justice. The EU treaties make no provision for euro exit and we refuse to accept it. Our membership is not negotiable,” he told the Telegraph.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greece Debt Crisis: Athens Seeks New Last-Minute Deal

The Greek government has requested a new bailout deal from the eurozone, just hours before it must repay €1.6bn (£1.1bn) to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Greece is asking for a new two-year €29.1bn aid deal from a bailout mechanism for eurozone countries.

Amid fears of a Greek default on its huge public debt of €323bn — and a possible exit from the euro — long queues of people are continuing to snake from many cash machines in Greece, where withdrawals are capped at just €60 a day.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Now Greeks Are Rushing to Buy Bitcoins

The e-money exchanges report a 10-fold surge of business

(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, JUNE 30 — Ten times as many Greeks are registering to trade bitcoins on the German marketplace Bitcoin.de than usual, as CNN reports quoting CEO Oliver Flaskaemper as saying. Bitcoin trades from Greece have shot up 79% from their ten-week average on Bitstamp, the world’s third-largest exchange, as reported by Neos Kosmos website. Even trading platforms in China are getting interest.

LakeBTC, headquartered in Shanghai, is seeing a 40% increase in visitors using computers in Greece. Over the weekend, the Polish exchange Bitcurex got flooded with emails from Greeks. Among their questions: “Is Bitcoin a legal currency in EU?”; “Can I use Bitcurex as a bank account?”; “Do you have a Bitcoin ATM network in Greece?”

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Reverting to Drachma May Send Greek Currency at Least 40% Lower

Greece’s citizens would see a 40 percent drop in their purchasing power should the nation replace the euro with its erstwhile currency, according to analysts.

“Initially there would be a massive selloff, something in the region of 30 to 40 percent depreciation against the dollar,” said Neil Jones, head of hedge-fund sales at Mizuho Bank Ltd. in London. “We will get fresh all-time lows” for the drachma, he said.

The risk of Greece leaving — or being forced out of — the 19-nation euro is growing after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum on the terms demanded in return for financial aid. While Jones, together with analysts from ING Groep NV and Credit Agricole SA said that’s not their base-case scenario, they’ve started to consider where the drachma would trade if Greece did exit the European Monetary Union.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

What Can Greece Learn From Argentina’s Default Experience?

A Greek exit from the eurozone could have far more negative consequences than many analysts realise, warns Domingo Cavallo, Argentina’s Minister of the Economy at the time of that country’s default in 2001.

Having been at the heart of government in Buenos Aires during the slow, inexorable slide to financial collapse, Mr Cavallo is attuned to the magnitude of the perils now facing the Greeks.

“Defaulting not only on the foreign debts but also on the domestic debts and all foreign contracts at the beginning of 2002 was really a tragedy for Argentina,” he told the BBC’s Newshour Extra programme.

For many Argentines, the period following the default was ruinous: unemployment nearly doubled to more than 20%. Inflation, which had been vanquished in the 1990s, came back into the economy with a vengeance.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chelsea Clinton’s $1,083-Per-Minute University Appearance

The article notes the negotiated schedule included Chelsea speaking for 10 minutes, participate in a 20-minute, moderated question-and-answer session and spend a half-hour posing for pictures with VIPs offstage. A $65,000 fee divided by 60 minutes of time at the event comes out to $1,083.33 per minute. The university paid the fee to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. The school made $38,500 in ticket sales for the event.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Chris Christie’s Town Hall Bluntness to be Tested

In announcing his presidential bid Tuesday, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey laid out the type of campaign that should sound familiar to anyone who has attended of his trademark town halls: blunt, direct and saying exactly what’s on his mind, those offended be damned. The question is whether it will prove effective outside of New Jersey.

“I am not running for president of the United States to be elected surrogate prom king,” Mr. Christie said in his speech at his former high school, where he wasn’t prom king but he was class president.

Mr. Christie’s campaign is hoping that direct style will be what endears him to voters and sets him apart in a political world he views as too timid and too afraid to offend.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Christie Announces 2016 White House Bid, Vows ‘I Mean What I Say’

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie returned to his alma mater on Tuesday to formally announce his 2016 presidential bid, embracing his blunt-talking persona as he strives to stand out from the jam-packed field. “I mean what I say and I say what I mean, and that’s what America needs right now,” Christie said from a podium at Livingston High School, where he stood with his wife and children.

Christie, a former U.S. attorney who is serving his second term as governor of the Garden State, is the 14th Republican to enter the 2016 race.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Could This Become the First Mars Airplane?

When an aircraft makes its first flight on Mars in the 2020s, a NASA Armstrong innovation may have made it possible.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Former Senator Slams Washington as Corrupt “Sewer”, Calls for Outraged Young Americans to Revolt

A former senator from Colorado, Gary Hart, has written an extremely powerful and accurate critique of the unfathomably corrupt and crony state of the U.S. government in 2015. It covers several very important angles, including how appalled and disgusted our founders would be at the current state of affairs. How a once great republic has devolved into a thieving oligarchy in which the pursuit of money at power at the expense of the public good has been elevated into something that’s not just tolerated, but actually celebrated and encouraged amongst an ethics deprived status quo.

Don’t take it from me though, here are several of my favorite excerpts:

By that standard, can anyone seriously doubt that our republic, our government, is corrupt? There have been Teapot Domes and financial scandals of one kind or another throughout our nation’s history. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.

What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class.

Worst of all, the army of lobbyists that started relatively small in the mid-twentieth century has now grown to big battalions of law firms and lobbying firms of the right, left, and an amalgam of both. And that gargantuan, if not reptilian, industry now takes on board former members of the House and the Senate and their personal and committee staffs. And they are all getting fabulously rich.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Removes TPP’s Anti-Slavery Clause, Then Attacks Confederate Flag as “Symbol of Slavery”

Right before he publicly attacked the Confederate flag as a “symbol of slavery,” President Obama quietly removed an “anti-slavery” provision from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement.

“The provision, which bars countries that engage in slavery from being part of major trade deals with the U.S., was written by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.),” The Huffington Post reported in May. “At the insistence of the White House, Menendez agreed to modify his language to say that as long as a country is taking ‘concrete’ steps toward reducing human trafficking and forced labor, it can be part of a trade deal.”

“Under the original language, the country that would be excluded from the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership pact is Malaysia.”

Malaysia is a major hub for human trafficking in Southeast Asia, with enslaved men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, according to the State Dept.

“Why, in the year 2015, is the White House teaming up with Republican leaders essentially to defend the practice of slavery?” The Huffington Post added.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama Signs Bill Giving Himself Fast-Track Powers for Trade Deals

President Barack Obama signed a bill giving him ‘fast-track’ powers to conduct and conclude trade legislation. The bill was approved by Congress last week after months of contentious debate and several difficult votes.

In addition to the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), as the fast-track bill is officially called, the president signed the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) act, extending aid to US workers who might lose their jobs as a consequence of free-trade deals.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Scholar Speaks on Obama’s Red Mentor

Current policies and programs of the CPUSA include support for Obamacare, rights for homosexuals, and Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change.

The black scholar who previously revealed Obama’s personal relationship with Communist Party operative Frank Marshall Davis is now speaking in detail on the record. Professor Gerald Horne says that while the relationship is noteworthy and should have been uncovered by the press, there is no evidence that Davis turned Obama “into some sort of Manchurian candidate.”

However, Professor Paul Kengor’s book about Davis, The Communist, argues that Davis had a significant influence on the formation of Obama’s Marxist views and policies as President.

Horne, who holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, is a contributor to Communist Party USA publications such as Political Affairs magazine. He spoke at a March 23, 2007, event at New York University’s Tamiment Library to celebrate the donation of Communist Party materials to the library.

It was at that event that Horne, speaking before an audience that included Communist Party leaders, discussed then-Senator Barack Obama’s relationship with a Communist Party figure in Hawaii, Davis, who died in 1987.

The revelation that a U.S. senator preparing to run for president was linked to a high-level official of the Communist Party, a party which had been funded by Moscow and used to infiltrate the U.S. government, seemed like big news. Yet, despite coverage of Horne’s remarks by blogger Trevor Loudon and Accuracy in Media before Obama won his first presidential term in 2008, the major U.S. media ignored the relationship and the matter of whether Davis had influenced Obama’s politics, and even had recruited him to the Marxist cause. It was apparent that the media did not want to publicize anything that might inhibit the election of the first black president in the U.S.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Statue of White Supremacist, Former SC Governor Vandalized

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Authorities are investigating the vandalism of a statue of a segregationist South Carolina governor as the state grapples with heightened tension over Confederate symbols in the wake of a massacre at a black church.

Red paint dripped Tuesday from the statute of “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman on the Statehouse grounds in Columbia. Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli says an officer saw what appeared to be a red paintball on the statue during morning rounds. Workers were cleaning the statue Tuesday afternoon.

Tillman, a noted white supremacist, spent three decades — from 1890 to 1918 — as governor and as a U.S. senator.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swede Wins $18m in Wall Street Harassment Case

A New York court has ordered a Wall Street mogul to pay $18 million (nearly 150 million kronor) to a Swedish woman who sued her boss for sexual harassment.

The court heard that Benjamin Wey, 43, head of a powerful firm in New York’s finance district, used his position of power to coerce Hanna Bouveng, 25, into a series of sexual encounters.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

The Emergence of Orwellian Newspeak and the Death of Free Speech

“If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it…. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change.” — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

How do you change the way people think? You start by changing the words they use.

In totalitarian regimes—a.k.a. police states—where conformity and compliance are enforced at the end of a loaded gun, the government dictates what words can and cannot be used. In countries where the police state hides behind a benevolent mask and disguises itself as tolerance, the citizens censor themselves, policing their words and thoughts to conform to the dictates of the mass mind.

Even when the motives behind this rigidly calibrated reorientation of societal language appear well-intentioned—discouraging racism, condemning violence, denouncing discrimination and hatred—inevitably, the end result is the same: intolerance, indoctrination and infantilism.

It’s political correctness disguised as tolerance, civility and love, but what it really amounts to is the chilling of free speech and the demonizing of viewpoints that run counter to the cultural elite.

As a society, we’ve become fearfully polite, careful to avoid offense, and largely unwilling to be labeled intolerant, hateful, closed-minded or any of the other toxic labels that carry a badge of shame today. The result is a nation where no one says what they really think anymore, at least if it runs counter to the prevailing views. Intolerance is the new scarlet letter of our day, a badge to be worn in shame and humiliation, deserving of society’s fear, loathing and utter banishment from society.

For those “haters” who dare to voice a different opinion, retribution is swift: they will be shamed, shouted down, silenced, censored, fired, cast out and generally relegated to the dust heap of ignorant, mean-spirited bullies who are guilty of various “word crimes.”

We have entered a new age where, as commentator Mark Steyn notes, “we have to tiptoe around on ever thinner eggshells” and “the forces of ‘tolerance’ are intolerant of anything less than full-blown celebratory approval.”

In such a climate of intolerance, there can be no freedom speech, expression or thought.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: Graz Killer Wanted Wife ‘To be a Slave’

The 26-year-old wife of the man who killed three people after deliberately ploughing his car into a pedestrian shopping street in Graz has given a frank interview to Austrian television — telling how she was beaten and abused by her husband.

Bosnian Elena R., who has two sons with Alen R., told the ORF that when she moved to Austria four years ago to get married he took away her passport and treated her like a slave.

“He beat and kicked me every day, even during my pregnancy,” she said. She told reporter Christoph Feurstein that she was also abused by his parents, who the couple lived with.

She got to know her husband online, and said that he came across as “a good and loving person”. But things changed as soon as they were married. She said that she tried to run away but that she didn’t have any money, a phone or a passport. She was only allowed outside in the company of her husband or his parents.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Calais Chaos: Travellers Curse ‘Striking French’

Striking French sailors forced the Eurostar and Eurotunnel to suspend services on Tuesday, prompting many furious travellers to vent their anger at the French and in particular their tendency to cause absolute havoc when on strike.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Channel Tunnel Blocked Again by French Strikers

Striking French sailors and port workers stepped up industrial action on Tuesday when they blocked the Channel Tunnel after earlier blockading the port of Calais. Eurostar and Eurotunnel have been forced to suspend all services for the rest of the day.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Denmark Preps Germany for Border Controls

As his first official mission abroad, Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen went to Germany to explain Denmark’s plans to step up controls at the countries’ shared border.

Denmark’s new foreign minister, Kristian Jensen, was in Berlin on Tuesday to tell his German colleagues that border controls are coming.

Jensen told news agency Ritzau that he met with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to explain Denmark’s plans for increased controls at the border.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Finland: Search for Soviet War Dead to Continue

The remains of several Soviet soldiers, believed to have fallen in battle against Finnish forces in 1944, have been found in Ilomantsi in the North Karelia region and a search for more will resume next year.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Finland: Reports of Rape Nearly Doubled in Last Decade

According to data from Statistics Finland, there were 713 incidents of suspected rape last year, nearly twice what the figure was ten years ago. It was also found that people who commit rape do not belong to any particular demographic group and that victims usually know their attacker.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Terrorist Attack Had ‘Islamic State’ Hallmark, Says Prosecutor

A French prosecutor has confirmed that the decapitation at a Lyon factory had links to the “Islamic State” (“IS”) terrorist group. The main suspect, Yassine Salhim, is been investigated on terrorism charges.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

French Beheading ‘Was Modus Operandi of ISIS’

French prosecutors confirmed on Tuesday that Yassin Salhi, who beheaded his boss before attempted to blow up a gas factory was motivated by terrorism and had links to Isis.

A French prosecutor confirmed Tuesday that the man who beheaded his boss and tried to blow up a gas factory in Lyon had a “terrorist motive” and links to the Isis group in Syria.

Yassin Salhi’s barbaric attack “corresponded exactly to the orders given by Daesh” (the term used in France for Isis), said Paris chief prosecutor Francois Molins, pointing specifically to the decapitation of his boss Hervé Cornara, 54.

Molins said his attempt to blow up the Air Products gas factory by crashing his car into cylinders “resembled a martyr operation” but that the decapitation of his manager was also motivated by personal hatred.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Paolo Ligresti Gives Self Up After 2 Yrs

In Fonsai probe

(ANSA) — Milan, June 29 — The son of veteran financier Salvatore Ligresti, Paolo, gave himself up to Italian police on the Swiss border at Chiasso Monday after some two years’ evading Italian justice in Switzerland. He is wanted for suspected share-rigging and false accounting in a probe into the Fonsai insurance group. The warrant was issued in July 2013. Paolo Ligresti agreed to hand himself over after a judge granted house arrest in the case.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Norwegians ‘Have it Too Good to Go Abroad’

Norwegians are so comfortably off at home that it is almost impossible to get them to take positions abroad, the head of Google in Norway has complained.

“We are constantly looking for Norwegian graduates who want to work in Dublin — or London, the US and Australia for that matter. But it is almost impossible,” Jan Grønbech told Norway’s Dagens Næringsliv newspaper.

“Norwegians are the only people we struggle to get to move to offices abroad. It’s pretty special.”

According to Grønbech, Norwegians exhibit a “total lack of adventurousness and ambition”.

“We quite simply have it so incredibly good at home,” he explained. “They are not keen on going overseas and it’s a perpetual challenge.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report Warns of Islamist ‘Time Bomb’ In French Prisons

A French government policy of grouping together and isolating radical Islamist inmates in prisons is “potentially dangerous” and risks creating a “time bomb”, the country’s independent prisons authority has warned.

In a report published Tuesday, Adeline Hazan, France’s controller general for prisons, said the policy could lead to those with less extreme views becoming influenced by some of the more radical prisoners they are confined with.

“The grouping facilitates proselytism. There is a risk of exacerbation and a snowball effect,” she said in the report. “We risk creating time bombs.”…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Romania Parliament Approves New Spy Chief Dealing a Blow to Embattled Prime Minister

BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s Parliament has approved a new spy chief opposed by the prime minister, dealing a blow to the leader who faces increasing pressure to resign amid a corruption investigation. The vote was a major test for Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who is recovering from knee surgery in Turkey.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saab Signs Deal Worth Billions for Swedish Subs

A deal between Swedish defence giant Saab and Sweden’s military for two submarines worth 8.6 billion kronor ($1.04 billion) is set to boost jobs in the Nordic country, chief executive Håkan Buskhe said on Tuesday.

“We are of course very pleased,” Saab chief executive Håkan Buskhe told reporters at a press conference in Visby, where he is attending Sweden’s politics festival Almedalen Week.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Skeleton of WWI Soldier Found in Italian Alps

A century since battles raged across northern Italy’s Alpine front during the First World War, remains believed to belong to a young soldier have been found.

Italy entered the First World War on the side of the allies in 1915, in an attempt to win the territories of Trentino, South Tyrol and Northern Dalmatia.

Along the front, some 58 Italian divisions fought against troops from the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, alongside a small number of troops from the Czechoslovakia, America, France and Britain.

The treacherous terrain and extreme cold in winters made it a uniquely harrowing theater of conflict. In total, over 13 million men fought along their front, where they braved winter temperatures of up to -30 degrees.

One million men, like the unnamed soldier, never made it home.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Woman Battles Killer Slug Invasion

A Swedish woman armed with nothing but her wits and a bucket has told how she fought off an army of almost 2,000 Spanish slugs.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Switzerland: Geneva Beer the World’s Most Expensive: Survey

Just as Switzerland steels for a heatwave this week comes news that beer, a favourite beverage for slaking thirsts in hot times, is the most expensive in the world in the country’s second biggest city.

With an average price of $6.32 for a 33cl bottle, Geneva has the most costly beer on the planet, according to research from travel website GoEuro.

Thanks in part to the strength of the Swiss franc, brew is more expensive in the city of Calvin than second-ranked Hong Kong ($6.16), third-ranked Tel Aviv ($5.79), fourth-ranked Oslo ($5.31) and fifth-ranked New York ($5.20).

Beer is less pricey in Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city, where it averages $4.60 a bottle, the 11th most expensive in the world, according to the GoEuro Beer Index for 2015.

Those with parched throats will appreciate the cheapest cold ones in Krakow, Poland and Kiev, Ukraine, where they sell for an average of $1.66 a bottle.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: North Manchester General Hospital Plans to Turn Chapel Into Prayer Room for Muslims

For years it has served as a place for reflection for the Roman Catholic relatives and friends of sick patients.

So a plan to turn the hospital chapel into a Muslim prayer room has outraged worshippers.

Bosses at North Manchester General say the switch is under consideration because they have to offer facilities for Muslims praying for loved ones.

But Catholic priests say their faithful will now have no space of their own.

“St Raphael’s chapel contains the blessed sacrament and mass is celebrated weekly,’ said Father Ray Matus, of St Chads, Cheetham Hill.

“It is well used and highly valued by patients, staff and visitors at the hospital. Worship spaces are going to be provided for Muslims, Jews and Protestant Christians, and even a quiet room for people of no faith at all.

“Yet it is proposed that Catholics should have no space of their own.’

Father Ged Murphy, of St Patrick’s and St Malachy’s, has started an online petition and the number of signatures has reached 5,000 in a matter of a few days.

He said: “The chapel has been there for about 15 years. It is welcoming and people get great comfort there. Different faiths use it.

“It is used during the week for mass. We are not against the Muslim community having a prayer room, but don’t see the sense in taking away a chapel that is serving one community to serve another.’…

           — Hat tip: TR [Return to headlines]
 

Underground Data Centre to Take Root in Tampere

The Finnish-Israeli company Aiber Networks has selected an abandoned underground airplane production facility in Härmälä, Tampere as the site for a new data centre. The company will rent space for customers needing a secure location for their server farms and virtual servers.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Herring Video is ‘An Insult to Sweden’

A fermented herring expert has expressed outrage at a BuzzFeed video in which Americans turn up their noses at the Swedish delicacy. Their comments, he says, are an “insult to the Swedish people and Swedish culture”.

In the YouTube clip, titled ‘Americans try surströmming for the first time’, employees of the website BuzzFeed are filmed tasting the Swedish delicacy of fermented herring.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State in Egypt: A ‘Fiery Summer’ Awaits ‘Worshippers of the Cross’

By Raymond Ibrahim

After the foiled suicide attack on the ancient temples of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt—a tourist designation—the Islamic State has promised a “fiery summer” for the Christian Copts and Sisi government.

The jihadi group vowed to unleash a number of suicide bombers—or “martyrs”—to target both groups.

Abu Zayid al-Sudani, a leading member of the group, tweeted the following on his account: “The bombing of Luxor, a burning summer awaits the tyrant of Egypt (President Sisi) and his soldiers, and the worshippers of the cross. This is just the beginning.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

There Was a Second Gunman, Say Tunisian Security Services — As Police Hunt Two Suspected Accomplices in Beach Massacre

A second gunman from the massacre may be on the run, it emerged last night.

Police and eyewitnesses are increasingly convinced that Seifeddine Rezgui had an armed accomplice during Friday’s rampage.

Last night a Tunisian security source said: ‘I can’t say too much but I can say there were two terrorists. There were two gunmen.’

Police issued an alert for two suspected accomplices last night, Mohamed Bin Adbdallah and Rafikhe Taiari.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Tunisia Gunman Trained in Libya at Same Time as Bardo Museum Attackers

Security official says Seifeddine Rezgui was trained in Sabratha, north-west Libya, as Tunisia police hunt for accomplices

Tunisian authorities have said the gunman who killed 38 tourists in Sousse on Friday was trained at the same Libyan jihadist camp as the two suicide gunmen who attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis in March.

The Libyan link was disclosed by senior security official Rafik Chelli who told Associated Press that Seifeddine Rezgui, who carried out Friday’s beach hotel attack, trained at an Islamic State base near the western town of Sabratha in January.

“Investigations show Saif Rezgui was in contact with terrorists in Libya and that he is likely to have trained in a Libyan camp,” he said.

Also training at the base at the same time were the two gunmen who killed 22 people in an attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis three months ago, said Chelli.

The claim highlights the growing link between terrorists in both countries, with a growing stream of Tunisians smuggling themselves into Libya to join the ranks of Islamic State.

Meanwhile, security forces are on alert across Tunisia after police released the names and photographs of two alleged Rezgui accomplices who are suspected of aiding his attack. They are both on the run and are presumed to be armed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hidden Cameras, Invisibility Cloaks: Spy Expo Offers Rare Glimpse of Israeli Espionage

TEL AVIV, Israel — An exhibition of Israeli surveillance technology has offered a rare peek into the secretive world of Israeli espionage and special forces operations.

Some two dozen Israeli companies exhibited their products used by Israeli and international militaries, police units and intelligence organizations.

Among the products displayed Tuesday were cameras concealed in cups of hot coffee, mini-drones that can peek into buildings and invisibility cloaks that conceal a soldier from heat-sensing cameras.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Global Support for ISIS Includes Up to 42m Muslims, Group Claims

Global support for ISIS may be much bigger than previously known, according to a new report that found as many as 42 million Muslims around the world have positive feelings about the black-clad army of barbarians that established a so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq last year.

The report from the New York-based research institute Clarion Project crunched numbers from four recent polls surveying Arab public opinion toward ISIS. Clarion found the terror group’s supporters are 8.5 million strong, but more than 42 million of the world’s estimated 1.5 billion Muslims feel at least somewhat positively about the terror group.

“It means sympathy,” Ryan Mauro, Clarion’s national security analyst, told FoxNews.com. “There are those who are wholly supportive of the Islamic State, and those who are somewhat supportive.”

Mauro’s analysis provides a breakdown of the startling number of ISIS supporters in Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Jordan, Libya, Lebanon and Palestinian territories.

“ISIS is only a fraction of what it could potentially become,” Mauro said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

‘IS’ Poses New Terror Dimension, Warns German Agency

Europe is facing a “new dimension” of terror stemming from the “Islamic State”‘ footholds in Syria and Iraq, according to Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. Its also pointed to far-right wing violence in Germany.

The German agency in its latest report summarizing trends in 2014 warned on Tuesday that “IS” with its self-imposed “Caliphate” was trying to establish a “logistic center” larger than its fore-runner al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The federal service headquartered in Cologne said if that happened, terrorists would be capable of coordinating complex attacks.

IS’ recruitment of individuals willing to travel to Syria and Iraq was cause for alarm among security services, the agency said.

Its president Hans-Georg Maassen said the presence of 7,500 salafist sympathizers within Germany amounted to a “large sounding board” for recruitment.

Germany’s political mainstream and society, and not only its security services, had the joint task of de-masking the IS and showing the extent of its brutal reality, he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

ISIS Beheads Two Women in Syria for ‘Witchcraft and Sorcery’

The Islamic State has reportedly beheaded two women in Syria, which is said to be the first time Isis executed women in the gruesome manner.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group reporting abuse in Syria, has said that Isis beheaded two women after accusing them of ‘sorcery’, AFP reported.

The women were beheaded along with their husbands in Deir al-Zor province over the last two days. The Islamic State accused the women of performing ‘witchcraft and sorcery’.

“ISIS executed two women by beheading them in Deir al-Zor province, and this is the first time the Observatory has documented women being killed by the group in this manner,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the monitoring group told AFP.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Missing Swedish Teen Calls Mum From Syria

A 15-year-old girl from southern Sweden who has been missing since last month, has phoned her family to say she’s in Homs in Syria, Swedish media are reporting.

The teenager, who has been put on an international watchlist, is said to have called home a few days ago, telling her mother that she had made it to Syria after travelling through Turkey with her boyfriend.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Report: ‘Islamic State’ Beheads Two Women Accused of ‘Sorcery’

Jihadi militants belonging to the “Islamic State” (“IS”) have carried out the first beheadings of female civilians in Syria. The two women were executed over accusations of “sorcery.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Saudis Hotels Want Women Chefs

But the Ministry of Labour says it is only possible if women are not obliged to constantly meet men and therefore have separate working areas, with different entrances and toilets.

Riyadh (AsiaNews) — Saudi women can work as a chef in hotels, provided their work space is separate from those of men, with different entrances and toilets. With the start of the tourist season, in fact, hotels have asked the Ministry of Labour to allow them to employ Saudi women as chefs.

Al-Riyadh reports the comments of the Ministry Labour chief for the Eastern Province, Omair Al-Zahrani, who stated that the ministry always encourages and supports women’s employment in various sectors, provided that their work does not conflict with Islamic teachings and the female nature.

“The ministry — he said — has constricting regulations on women working in hotels because there has been a record of hotels violating the ministry’s regulations on women employment.” In this regard, he mentioned hotels “who have employed women as receptionists, forcing them to interact with men”.

He said women may work in places where they are not obliged to constantly deal with men, they have their own entrances and exits to the workplace and they have their own rest rooms and facilities.

“The ministry’s regulations do not prohibit women working as chefs at a hotel as long as her work environment is clear of men and she has the freedom to use the rest rooms available for her.”

The newspaper interviewed a woman, Samar Mohammad, who runs a homemade food business but would like to join the job market and work at a hotel. She said: “I have applied to many hotels and places. There is a stigma against Saudi women working as chefs in hotels”. “They always believe more in the foreign chef who has exotic taste and years of experience. Hotels do not want to put in the time and effort to train us when I have the right to be employed as a citizen”. “If we were able to work in hotels, especially international ones — she added — the national cooking industry will leap in quality and experience. “Saudi society will have better food quality in any other services such as school cafeterias “ .

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Teenage Girl Has Fled to Syria

A 15-year-old girl who has been missing since May 31st has phoned home to tell her mother she is now in Homs in Syria, tabloid Aftonbladet reports.

The girl is from a small town in southern Sweden and has previously disappeared temporarily on a couple of occasions, together with her older boyfriend.

According to the girl’s mother, the teen was in tears on the phone and said that she and her boyfriend had travelled to Syria through Turkey, and are now in the city of Homs. She said her boyfriend wants to join the al-Nusra group, which is associated with al-Qaeda.

The couple plan to travel on to a different city soon, where the boyfriend will start military training and the girl will live with other women, the mother said.

“I can’t describe how terrible this is,” the mother told Aftonbladet. “I just wish I could go there myself and get her.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Syria: In First Ever: Islamic State Beheads Two Women Accused of “Witchcraft”

Previously three female Kurdish fighters, captured in battle, had been beheaded. Women killed with their husbands, in a public execution on charges of “sorcery and witchcraft.” The jihadist militiamen have also crucified eight people, including two minors, for breaking Ramadan.

Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Islamic state militias in Syria have beheaded two women accused of “witchcraft”. The London based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights report the news based on information from a network of sources on the ground. F

It is the first time that this brutal method of execution, which has often been used by jihadists, has involved two civilian women.

Observatory Director Rami Abdel Rahman, reports that “the Islamic state executed by beheading two women in the province of Deir Ezzor”, in the eastern part of the country. “This is the first time that the Observatory — added the activist — documents the killing of women in this way by members of the” jihadist group.

Local sources said that the executions were carried out between 28 and 29 June and concerned two couples. In both cases, the two women were executed together with their husbands, all indicted on charges of “sorcery and witchcraft.”

Earlier, militants beheaded three women who were Kurdish fighters captured in battle and stoned to death other civilian women on charges of adultery. However, this is the public decapitation of civilian women.

Many activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, have denounced that the Islamic State militia have crucified least eight men accused for failing to meet the expected fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. The jihadists have also hung a sign around their neck that says victims consumed food “without any religious justification.” Among these eight, there were two minors.

More than 3.2 million people have fled Syria with other 7.6 million internally displaced since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. At least 230,000 people have died in the fighting, many of them civilians, especially in 2014. In this context of war and terror, the members of the Islamic State have distinguished themselves for their brutality and violence. The IS jihadists have executed more than 3 thousand people in the year since the birth of the “Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, of which 1800 were civilians and at least 74 children.

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Syrian Pistachio Production Down 50%: Ministry

Syria, once one of the world’s top exporters of pistachios, said on Tuesday that production of the nuts has plunged 50 percent over the past year.

The agriculture ministry said the slump was both the result of the ongoing conflict and frosty conditions last winter.

“Pistachio production was only 35,000 tons in 2014, while before the crisis Syria produced between 65,000 and 75,000 tons a year,” ministry official Hassan Ibrahim said…

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

Top UN Official in Jordan Calls for Jobs Program for Syrian Refugees at Time of Dwindling Aid

AMMAN, Jordan — The head of the U.N. refugee agency in Jordan has called for jobs programs for Syrian refugees to deal with the fallout from the protracted Syria crisis and dwindling funding for aid programs.

Andrew Harper spoke Tuesday, as the aid agency CARE International released findings showing that refugees in Jordan are slipping deeper into poverty amid cuts in international food and cash assistance.

Harper says that “we can no longer work as we did in the past,” and that one solution is to put refugees to work.

Jordan has been reluctant to formalize refugee labor, fearing a rise in unemployment.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

US Resumes Aid to Bahrain Military

The United States will lift holds on security assistance to the Bahrain Defense Force and National Guard. The holds were put in place after Bahrain cracked down on demonstrations there in 2011.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Why is it So Difficult to Stop ‘Islamic State’ Propaganda on Social Media?

‘Islamic State’ is using social media as a means to openly encourage people to organize terror attacks and recruit followers. DW takes a look at why it is so difficult to stop them spreading their ideals.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Yemen Conflict: ‘More Than 1,000’ Prisoners Escape

About 1,200 prisoners, including al-Qaeda suspects, have escaped from a prison in central Yemen, officials say.

There were clashes at the prison in the central town of Taiz ahead of the break-out.

Yemen is in the grip of its most severe crisis in years, as competing forces fight for control.

The country was thrown into turmoil after Houthi rebels forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee to Aden and then to Saudi Arabia.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State May Threaten Russia’s Caucasus

The head of Russia’s Security Council has identified Islamic State (IS) as the greatest threat to world peace and security, and it seems the danger could be getting closer to home.

The militant Islamist group has proclaimed the establishment of a wilayaat, or province, in Russia’s mainly-Muslim North Caucasus, suggesting it may be gaining the upper hand in a battle for control over radical forces there.

Rooted in the Chechen separatist movement of the 1990s, Caucasus Emirate has committed numerous terror attacks against civilians, including the Moscow metro bombing of 2010 that killed dozens. But its insurgency has recently focused on Russia’s security forces.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Indonesia Transport Plane Crash: More Than 100 Feared Dead

More than 100 people are feared dead after a military transport plane crashed in a residential area of the Indonesian city of Medan.

The Hercules C-130 plane hit two houses and a hotel before bursting into flames, creating a huge fireball.

Air Force head Agus Supriatna visited the crash site and told reporters he believed there were no survivors among the 113 people on board.

At least 66 bodies have been recovered so far.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Two Killed in Self-Immolation on High-Speed Japanese Train

Two people have been killed and many others injured after a passenger set himself alight on one of Japan’s superfast “bullet” trains. The motive for the man’s action was not immediately clear.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Forget 3D Printed Houses — This Brick-Laying Robot Can Build an Entire House in 2 Days

Stone masons beware: An Australian engineer has developed a bricklaying robot that can lay 1,000 bricks an hour, work 24/7, and complete the shell of a brick home in just two days.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Ansar Dine Claims Mali Attacks, Threatens I. Coast and Mauritania

BAMAKO (AFP) — Jihadist group Ansar Dine on Tuesday claimed responsibility for two weekend attacks in Mali near the borders with Mauritania and Ivory Coast, and threatened to strike both countries.

“We are claiming the attack at Nara and the one at Fakola — Islamic lands — to punish the enemies of Islam,” Ismael Khalil, a radical preacher and member of Ansar Dine, said by telephone. He added that the militants would “multiply the attacks in Ivory Coast, Mali and Mauritania, countries that work with the enemies of Islam.”

           — Hat tip: C. Cantoni [Return to headlines]
 

South Sudan Conflict: Army ‘Raped and Torched Girls’

South Sudan’s army and allied militias “abducted, torched and gang-raped girls” during fighting against rebel forces, a UN report says.

Investigators found that at least 172 women and girls were abducted and subjected to sexual violence, it added.

One woman was “dragged out of her hut and gang-raped in front of her three-year old child”, the report said.

The government denies its army has committed atrocities but says it will study the report.

The UN Mission in South Sudan (Unmiss) said abuses during the 18-month civil war had reached a new scale of intensity and horror in recent fighting in the oil-producing Unity State.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dismantling America’s National Identity Via Endless Immigration

Last week, a national poll on Fox News showed that 51 percent of Muslim Americans want Sharia Law instituted as the law of the land. Muslim American Louis Farrakhan said, “We need to put down the American flag as well as the Confederate flag because it too has been around our necks for more than 200 years.”

Chokwe Lumumba, former mayor of Jackson, Mississippi called for the five southern states to become the “New Republic of Afrika” here in America. He died last year before seeing his dream come true.

The New York Times reported, “Mr. Lumumba hardly moderated his views in recent years. In an interview last year he continued to defend the Republic of New Afrika. The day after his election, he raised hackles by questioning Columbus’s historical importance. And at his inauguration, he could not resist raising his fist in the black power salute and shouting an old slogan: “Free the Land!”“

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Goldman-Sachs Boss, Bilderberg Member Peter Sutherland: Europe Needs More Refugees From Africa, Syria

Following a meeting with Pope Francis, the boss of Goldman-Sachs International and Bilderberg attendee Peter Sutherland said European countries have not taken their ‘fair share’ of refugees from African countries and Syria.

Sutherland told RTÉ radio 240,000 immigrants flooding into Europe each year is not an economic burden on countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom.

On the contrary, he said, a quarter million or more immigrants a year represents an economic and social benefit for Europe, Britain and Ireland…

A report by University College London, however, found that migrants in fact represent a huge economic drain on host countries.

According to the study, non-European migrants living in Britain have drained public finances by almost £120 billion since 1995.

The situation is similar in Germany, by far Europe’s most prosperous and productive nation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Op to Recover 700 Migrant Bodies Starts

PM Renzi vowed to remind Europe of emergency

(ANSA) — Rome, June 29 — The Italian Navy on Monday began an operation to recover the bodies of some 700 migrants who drowned in a boat that sank off the coast of Libya on April 18 in the worst-ever single migrant disaster. Premier Matteo Renzi has vowed to bring up the bodies and bury them to remind Europe of the Mediterranean migrant emergency. Italy is seeking more aid in migrant rescue efforts as well as more burden sharing on quotas of asylum seekers, moving past the Dublin Regulation that requires would-be refugees to sign on in arrival countries.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

‘Ndrangheta ‘Inside Australian Politics’ — Media

‘Used donations to parties to cover up activities’

(ANSA) — Rome, June 29 — The Australian branch of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta mafia has significantly undermined Australia’s politics, according to a joint investigative report conducted by the country’s media, which claim that the criminal group used political donations as a means to legitimizing its activities.

A report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Fairfax Media found that the ‘Ndrangheta — known to be active in operating drug trafficking and extortion rings as well as some legitimate businesses — used donations to leading political parties to cover up their illegal activities in the country. Australia is currently dealing with a major drug-trafficking problem, which the Tony Abbott government has blamed on transnational groups.

‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s richest mafia, controls the European cocaine trade and is considered one of the world’s most powerful criminal groups. It is estimated to have made almost $60 billion in revenues in 2014, through illegal activities such as drug trafficking, and also legal and illegitimate business ventures, including fruit sales and garbage disposal services. Their earnings are thought to have made up almost 3 percent of Italy’s GDP in 2014.

The investigation found several links between known and suspected criminals, and senior Australian politicians. The report said that a man with “deep mafia associations” met with former prime minister John Howard and other members of his conservative Liberal Party of Australia at a fundraiser in the early 2000s. However, the report did not suggest that Howard knew of the connection.

The report also alleged that the son of another mafia boss reportedly worked at the Australian embassy in Rome. Prior to his placement, Italian authorities shared sensitive information about the alleged criminal leader through the embassy, at a time when former Liberal minister Amanda Vanstone was ambassador to Italy, according to the report. There was no suggestion that Vanstone knew of the criminal links either, or that the placement resulted in a security breach.

Vanstone is also being investigated for granting a visa — while she served as immigration minister in Howard’s administration — to alleged crime boss Francesco Madafferi, who was later convicted of drug trafficking and implicated in a murder plot.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Supreme Court Does it Again Today: States Can’t Force Voters to Prove Citizenship

“This is an important win for the National Voter Registration Act and an important step forward in making sure that all that are eligible are registered to vote,” President of the League of Women Voters of the U.S. Elisabeth MacNamara said in a statement.”

BULL.

Voter fraud is controlling elections and has been since I ran for Congress. I’ve written a million words about it and so have many others.

The Motor Voter Registration Law which we fought to the end is an open door for illegal aliens to vote.

Swear under penalty of perjury? That’s a damn joke when it comes to illegals.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Award-Winning Comedian: Politically Correct Left Has Killed Comedy

Bafta award-winning comedian Stephen Merchant argues that the authoritarian left has killed comedy, with satirists afraid to crack controversial jokes for fear of offending politically correct sensibilities.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Merchant, co-writer and co-director of the wildly popular British sitcom The Office, complained that perpetually offended Twitter outrage mobs have made public figures petrified to speak candidly.

‘This idea that we have to police ourselves, that we might say the wrong thing and upset someone or something. It’s not fun. It’s just not fun,’ said Merchant, noting that the BBC would probably have never broadcast The Office if it was made today.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Children Who Hold Homophobic Views More Likely to Become Extremists, Warns Nicky Morgan

The Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, has said that children who hold homophobic views should be considered at greater risk of becoming radicalised.

Speaking as schools in England and Wales were issued with a guide on how to spot pupils in danger of radicalisation, Ms Morgan said attacking core British values or being extremely intolerant of homosexuality were examples of behaviour that could raise the alarm.

Ms Morgan, who twice voted against gay marriage in 2013 before being made minister for Equalities the following year, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Radicalisation or the risk of children being drawn into non-violent extremism is a very real threat in this country.”

She said it was ‘a safeguarding’ issue comparable to protecting children at risk from gangs or sexual abuse.

Asked to come up with an example of behaviour that might be a cause for concern, she said: “Sadly, Isis are extremely intolerant of homosexuality.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Education Department’s Support for Gay Marriage Sparks Outrage

The US Department of Education weathered sharp criticism over the weekend for its decision to add a rainbow to its Facebook profile picture.

By noon Friday, the federal education department’s social media team had swapped out their original blue background for the fanatically pro-gay rainbow image, mirroring the Obama administration’s loud support for the recent supreme court decision on gay marriage.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

From Gay Marriage to Confederate Flag, How the Media Are Turning Intolerant

By Howard Kurtz

In a time of rapid social upheaval, too many Americans find themselves marginalized by the media.

What they believed yesterday is no longer acceptable today. The world that they knew is crumbling. And for many of these folks, the mainstream media are on the other side.

And this is a problem, one that strikes at the core of the news business and its claim to fairness.

If you are an American who is opposed to gay marriage or respects the Confederate flag, you barely see yourself reflected in the coverage. The message is that you are clueless, out of touch, a lost cause. And in some quarters it’s worse: that you are a bigot, a homophobe and a racist.

This even applies to the laudatory coverage of Bruce Jenner becoming Caitlyn Jenner, or Pope Francis’ call to arms against climate change. The world is spinning out of control, as some see it, and the media are redefining the rules.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Gay Marriage Infringes on Religion by One Route

Does the government have a compelling interest in coercing pastors and religious leaders to preside over a ceremony that is anathema to their espoused belief? Even using the condescending words that Justice Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion regarding religious belief,

“Many who deem same-sex marriage to be wrong reach that conclusion on honorable religious or philosophical premises, and neither they nor their beliefs are disparaged here. But when that sincere, personal opposition becomes enacted law and public policy, the necessary consequence is to put the imprimatur of the State itself on an exclusion that soon demeans or stigmatizes those whose own liberty is then denied[;]”

the ruling does not empower the government to override the consistent application within that religious organization. For, by his own argument, it “soon demeans or stigmatizes those whose own liberty is then denied.” It cannot work only one way where it supports a minority and despises the majority. Although, it wouldn’t be off-base to suggest that the only rationale for adding this sentiment to the opinion was to appease religious faiths truly intolerant of homosexuality such as Islam.

Where the situation gets sticky is this… the consequences of a church having subjected itself to the requirements of government by voluntarily signing up for non-profit status. It is unfortunate that over two decades of addressing the problematic application to government to receive non-profit status that churches already held, church leaders have denied what that action inadvertently occasioned: their placement under government oversight as a corporate or civil entity. This was covered in the article “Freedom of religion and the government “qualified” church.”

As much as Christian leadership will not want to hear this, the conclusion is that a church might only be legally cowed to submit to activist LGBT pressure if the individual church is organized under section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Helsinki Bishop: Church Joining Pride Symbolically Important

Bishop Irja Askola says that the Lutheran church’s mettle is being tested in the ongoing discussion surrounding the gender-neutral marriage law and LGBT rights.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Is Pope Francis the False Prophet?

New pope pushes gun control and world government.

Pope Francis would like to see a new global political authority to coerce the ‘rich’ nations of the West to force citizens to adopt radical lifestyle and energy consumption changes in response to unverified and widely debunked climate change alarmism.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Nature’s Law, Gay Marriage and Androgyny

What’s happening in the classrooms? The LGBTQ lifestyle will become embedded in the classroom and classroom sex education if it is not already there.

“In the northern Italian city of Trieste, parents are in uproar over a taxpayer-funded elementary school program that includes dressing little boys as girls and girls as boys to overcome so-called “gender stereotypes.” Schools are calling the exercise “the game of respect,” which purportedly adopts many guidelines from the European standards on sex education, attributed to the World Health Organization.

The so-called “game of respect” consists in a box containing several cards, presenting the figures of different working roles: male and female housewives and husbands, male and female plumbers and firefighters, with the figures represented in exactly the same way to show that males and females are completely interchangeable.” (Emphasis, Ed.)

“(St. Leonard, MD) — Parents in the town of St. Leonard, MD were aghast after learning what the staff at Heritage Middle School required children to do for a passing grade. The outrage stems from an event held this past Monday, a day which the school had dubbed “LGBTQ Appreciation Day” instructing children to experience the homosexual lifestyle for a single school day or receive a failing grade.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Report: Global Toilet Access is Better, But a Third of World’s People Still Lack Facilities

NEW DELHI — Toilets are taken for granted in the industrialized West, but still are a luxury for a third of the world’s people who have no access to them, according to a report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF released Tuesday.

Those who make do without toilets continue to pollute water sources and jeopardize public health and safety for millions worldwide. That contributes to malnutrition and childhood stunting, impairing 161 million children both physically and mentally every year.

“Until everyone has access to adequate sanitation facilities, the quality of water supplies will be undermined and too many people will continue to die from waterborne and water-related diseases,” WHO’s public health department director, Dr. Maria Neira, said in a statement.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

One thought on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 6/30/2015

  1. The Emergence of Orwellian Newspeak and the Death of Free Speech

    You should click on this and read the whole thing. It is quite chilling.

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