The New York stock market continued last week’s nosedive in reaction to the Chinese market crash. The Dow and the NASDAQ lost more than 3% of their value, and the S&P more than 4%. European stocks were hit even harder.
In other news, Ayoub El Khazzani, the young culture-enricher whose attack on a French train was thwarted by Americans, says that he was not planning to use his AK-47 to commit a terrorist act, but to rob the train’s passengers.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Diana West, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Jerry Gordon, LP, MC, Srdja Trifkovic, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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Analyst: “We Are Now in a Full on Market Crash”
Financial analyst Clive P. Maund asserts that we are now witnessing a “full on market crash” and that the Dow could see drops of up to a thousand points on a daily basis.
The Dow Jones lost 6% last week, tumbling more than 1,000 points, the worst fall since 2008, but according to technical analyst Maund, that is only the beginning. With fringe investors only just realizing the delusion of establishment financial media claims that the collapse was just a temporary “correction,” the rush to the exit will now become a stampede.
“When a market tips into a crash on a Friday, what typically happens is that the thousands or even millions of investors who believed the mainstream media and didn’t see it coming spend the weekend “stewing” over their investments — and many of them decide to bail out come Monday,” writes Maund.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
As Puerto Rican Economic Crisis Deepens, Supporters of Statehood See Opportunity
Like many others worried about the U.S. territory’s future, those rallying Thursday night in the coastal town of Manatí believe that statehood can help pull it out of a nearly a decade of economic stagnation. “Puerto Rico has to become a state,” insisted 63-year-old celebrant Norma Candelario.
With unemployment at 12 percent, and the public debt reaching $72 billion, advocates for making the Caribbean island the 51st state say the economic woes are strengthening their arguments. As a state, Puerto Rico’s municipalities and public utilities would no longer be prohibited from restructuring their debts through bankruptcy. It would also receive more of certain kinds of federal funding that other states get.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
An unprecedented collapse in Chinese shares sent tremors through financial markets on Monday, triggering the ugliest day of global trading since the depths of the financial crisis eight years ago.
Billions were wiped off indices across the world in a day of frenetic selling which saw the Shanghai composite suffer an 8.5pc decline, its worst one-day performance since 2007.
The mass panic, dubbed “Black Monday” by China’s official state news agency, was driven by investors’ dashed hopes that Beijing would inject a fresh round of stimulus into its economy at the weekend.
China’s benchmark index has now lost all of its yearly gains after a relentless ascent that saw its valuation rise to record levels earlier this year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Central Banks Have Become a Corrupting Force
Are we observing the money-creating powers of central banks being used to drive up prices in the stock market for the benefit of the mega-rich?
These questions came to mind when we learned that the central bank of Switzerland, the Swiss National Bank, purchased 3,300,000 shares of Apple stock in the first quarter of this year, adding 500,000 shares in the second quarter. Smart money would have been selling, not buying.
It turns out that the Swiss central bank, in addition to its Apple stock, holds very large equity positions, ranging from $250,000,000 to $637,000,000, in numerous US corporations — Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Google, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, AT&T, Pfizer, Chevron, Merck, Facebook, Pepsico, Coca Cola, Disney, Valeant, IBM, Gilead, Amazon. Among this list of the Swiss central bank’s holdings are stocks which are responsible for more than 100% of the year-to-date rise in the S&P 500 prior to the latest sell-off.
What is going on here?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Stocks Sink Most Since 2007 as State Intervention Fails
China’s stocks plunged the most since 2007 as government support measures failed to allay investor concern that a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy is deepening.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Stock Slide Continues, Hits Europe
Chinese shares plummeted more than 8% within an hour of trade on Monday, signaling that a global equity sell-off continues. European stocks were set to drop sharply too at the opening bell on Monday. European shares already suffered their largest one-day fall in nearly four years on Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Stock Market Crash: Worst Day’s Trading in Europe Since 2011 — Live Updates
Hundreds of billions wiped off world’s financial markets today, as Chinese rout sends shares tumbling in Europe, Asia and the US
This is the worst day’s trading for many of European stock markets since 2011.
And the pan-Europan Stoxx 600 had its worse day since the end of 2008, according to Marketwatch.
Summers, the former US Treasury secretary, has suggested that the Federal Reserve could be forced to ease monetary policy, rather than hiking interest rates in the next few months.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China has been accused of censoring reports about the financial chaos in the country, stopping its citizens from looking for reports about what’s going on.
China’s “Black Monday” has sent share prices around the world into freefall, and has led to renewed worries about a slowdown in growth in the country. But its citizens don’t seem to be able to find out why.
Baidu, the country’s biggest search engine, is censoring results related to the chaos, according to George Chen, managing editor of the international edition of the South China Morning Post. When searching for the Chinese characters that translate to stock disaster, the results say that “Due to related rules & policy, some search results won’t be shown”.
Chinese news sites are mostly hiding the stories on their front pages — though they are covering the huge collapse.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis Documents Syriza’s Political Treachery
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is continuing his effort to distance himself from the austerity memorandum Syriza Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has agreed to impose. In doing so, he is succeeding only in confirming the bankruptcy of the entire Syriza project, which has been embraced by pseudo-left groups internationally.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FTSE 100 and European Markets Rattled by Losses in China
Stock markets in London, Paris and Frankfurt have fallen sharply as fears of a Chinese economic slowdown continue to haunt investors.
London’s FTSE 100 index was down by 4% in early afternoon trade, with major markets in France and Germany down by 4.6% and 4.4% respectively.
Shares in Asia were hit overnight, with the Shanghai Composite in China closing down 8.5%, its worst close since 2007.
Global investors worry about growth in the world’s second largest economy.
China’s central bank devalued the country’s currency, the yuan, two weeks ago, raising fresh concerns that a slowdown in the country’s economy was worse than originally feared.
Currencies and commodities are also falling sharply, because those markets rely heavily on strong demand from China.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Global Sell-Off Turns to Chaos in Rocky Day for Financial Markets
A worldwide selling frenzy and stuttering rebound capped a chaotic day for global markets, as worries over China’s crumbling economy led to a late investor rally but still couldn’t stem last week’s meltdown.
The Dow Jones industrial average opened down more than 1,000 points, its largest single-day slump in history, before staggering back by the 4 p.m. closing bell to a 588-point loss, its lowest point in 18 months. The biggest previous drop for the Dow, an index of 30 large companies, was 777 points in September 2008.
The Standard & Poor’s 500, a broader look at the market, and the Nasdaq Composite, a tech-heavy index, posted similarly dismal starts before swinging wildly then sinking again to losses of close to 4 percent.
The global whiplash underscored investors’ shaken confidence in China’s slowing economy and central bank. The world’s second-largest economy is now reeling over what China’s state media is calling “Black Monday,” during which its markets just recorded their biggest one-day nosedive in eight years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan Bourse Share Prices Tumble 7%
Ftse Mib plunges in line with Paris and Madrid stocks
(ANSA) — Milan, Aug. 24 — The Milan stock exchange Ftse Mib index of share prices tumbled by 7% Monday in the wake of the heavy losses on Wall Street in response to mushrooming Asian markets panic. The plunge on the Milan bourse took place as trading was suspended in more than half of major companies on the stock exchange including Fca, Intesa, Eni, Unicredit, Generali and Mps. Among those still being traded in Milan were Yoox, which was down 9% and Tenaris down 8% though prices of Pirelli, Ansaldo and Wdf were stable.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Stocks End a Wild Day Down About 4%, As Market Turmoil Spreads From China
Stock prices around the world bounced around wildly on Monday as investors debated if and when governments are likely to step in to calm the turmoil that has recently spiraled out from China.
The Dow Jones industrial average plunged over 1,000 points immediately after the opening bell on Monday morning before recovering much of those losses and then dropping again nearly 600 points at the close.
That followed a stock market rout in China — immediately named “Black Monday” by local commentators — in which the main Shanghai stock index fell 8.5 percent.
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Concerns Mount Over Whale Deaths in Gulf of Alaska
KODIAK, Alaska — Researchers are scrambling to determine what’s behind the death of 30 whales in the Gulf of Alaska as unusually warm ocean temperatures continue to wreak havoc on the region.
Since May 2015, 14 fin whales, 11 humpback whales, one gray whale and four unidentified specimens have been found dead along shorelines in the Gulf of Alaska, nearly half of them in the Kodiak Archipelago. Other dead whales have been reported off the coast of British Columbia, including four humpbacks and one sperm whale.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Louisiana State Trooper Dies of Gunshot Wound
(CNN)Louisiana State Trooper Steven Vincent, who was shot by a driver he had stopped to help in Lake Charles, has died of his injuries, Col. Michael Edmonson, the police force’s superintendent, said in a statement Monday.
“As an organization, we are heartbroken over this senseless and tragic death,” the statement said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his surviving wife, Katherine, and his son Ethan as well as his entire extended family,” including two brothers who are also in law enforcement.
According to police, the suspect allegedly told Vincent, “You’re going to die soon,” before opening fire Sunday. Edmonson said the gunshot “messed up (Vincent’s) neurological output,” leaving the trooper in critical condition Sunday.
The 43-year-old veteran trooper had stopped to help Kevin Daigle, 54, whose pickup was stuck in a ditch, according to Edmonson.
Vincent realized the suspect’s vehicle matched the description of a truck whose driver had reportedly been driving recklessly. He started talking to Daigle, who appeared to be impaired and was alone in the truck, Edmonson said.
Daigle opened the truck’s door and came out with the shotgun, authorities said.
“You could hear him breathing, telling him, ‘You’re lucky. You’re lucky. You’re going to die soon.’ That’s the words that came out of his mouth,” said Edmonson, who said he listened to a recording of the interaction.
The suspect tried to flee the scene, but other motorists wrestled a shotgun from him and detained him with the trooper’s handcuffs, Edmonson said…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
As a denizen of the West, witnessing wildfires is not an unusual occurrence. However, decades of public lands mismanagement by the forest service and other government agencies under the purview of the Department of Agriculture have led to the burgeoning fire hazard; a hazard that could have been deterred with responsible supervision of our forests and grasslands. But 40 years of teaching “ecology” have so undermined common sense that America’s woods, range and farmlands are under attack with every stray spark, stab of dry lightning or vicious act of arson.
The real crime is that most government employees, USFS and Fish and Wildlife workers who are now authorized to strap on firearms to “protect” their charge, have no clue as to what they are safeguarding other than a paycheck and retirement plan. Farmers, ranchers, loggers and fishermen have a true respect for their industry and what it takes to ensure the survival of the resource that provides their livelihood. Government managers have no stake in the resource they oversee.
Yet when a fire explodes in a dry canyon and knowledgeable locals arrive to build firebreaks, they are denied access to public lands by public servants waiting on USFS fire crews to arrive. Why? To avoid government liability for possible injury, of course. Bureaucracies would rather dole out a pittance to damaged parties after the fact than institute preventive measures, such as allowing the public (whose lands these were meant to be) contracts to log marketable deadwood or permits to cut firewood. Hence the uselessness of under-responsive, ill-informed FEMA.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Serious Blow’: Terror Victims’ Attorneys Say Court-Ordered Bond From Palestinian Groups Too Low
A New York federal court ruled Monday that 11 American families who won a huge judgment earlier this year against Palestinian leadership in connection with terror attacks are entitled for now to only a fraction of that award — in a decision the families’ attorneys called a setback.
U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels ruled in the case of families who won a potentially billion-dollar judgment earlier this year against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which a federal jury blamed for a string of deadly terror attacks from 2001 to 2004.
Daniels ordered the PA and PLO to pay a $10 million bond now, and $1 million a month, until the appeals process is over.
But families had wanted $30 million a month while the case is pending. The families in February had won $218.5 million; and due to a 1992 law that requires damages in such cases to be tripled, as well as interest on the award, the amount would be pushed to $1.1 billion. The judgement would equal nearly a third of the Palestinian Authority’s annual operating budget, and the Palestinians are appealing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
White Supremacist Convicted in Plot to Kill Obama With ‘Death Ray’ Device
A New York white supremacist was convicted by a federal jury on Friday of plotting to use a remote-controlled radiation device he called “Hiroshima on a light switch” to harm Muslims and President Barack Obama.
After less than three hours of deliberation in US district court in Albany, New York, the jury unanimously found Glendon Scott Crawford guilty of all three charges against him.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ashley Madison Hit With $578 Million Suit
Ashley Madison faces a handful of lawsuits, following a massive data breach.
A couple of Canadian companies have filed suit against the firms that run the adultery website Ashley Madison, alleging a massive privacy-rights infraction occurred when hackers released personal information on clients and as such, the outfit should cough up $578 million in damages and fines.
Charney Lawyers and Sutts, Strosberg LLP, two firms operating out of Canada, filed the suit on behalf of a group of Canadians who say their personal information was wrongfully breached. The suit, which still has to be certified by the court before it can go forward, specifically names Avid Dating Life and Avid Life Media, the two companies that run the adultery website, Ashley Madison, as defendants, Time reported.
“Numerous former users of AshleyMadison.com have approached the law firms to inquire about their privacy rights under Canadian law,” the law firms said in a statement. “They are outraged that AshleyMadison.com failed to protect its users’ information. In many cases, the users paid an additional fee for the website to remove all of their user data, only to discover that the information was left intact and exposed.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Toronto police on Monday reportedly received news of two suicides related to the hacking of cheating website Ashley Madison.
Police revealed the news at a press conference in Toronto, the BBC reports, but did not give additional information on the deaths.
Last month, the website suffered what local law enforcement officials are calling one of the largest data breaches in the world. The site, which boasts around 39 million members, is marketed to people looking for extramarital relationships. Its slogan is: “Life is short. Have an affair.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
3 Americans Recount How They Subdued Paris Train Gunman
The three Americans hailed as heroes for tackling a man carrying an AK-47 on a Paris-bound train and stopping the gunman from killing those onboard spoke publicly of the encounter for the first time Sunday at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
U.S. Airman Spencer Stone, 23, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, 22, from Roseburg, Ore., and their friend, Anthony Sadler, 23, recounted how they overpowered the gunman, a suspected Islamic militant, as the train sped through Belgium Friday.
“He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end,” said Stone. “So were we.”
Stone said he awakened from a deep sleep before springing into action and subduing the attacker.
One of his friends “just hit me on the shoulder and said ‘Let’s go,’“ before moving in to tackle the gunman.
He said he turned around and saw a man holding an assault rifle and that it “looked like it was jammed and it wasn’t working.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
American Train Attack Heroes Awarded France’s Highest Honor
The three Americans who helped thwart a massacre on board a high-speed European train were awarded the Legion d’honneur (Legion of Honor), France’s highest decoration, by the country’s president Monday.
U.S. Airman Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, and their longtime friend Anthony Sadler were honored for tackling and subduing a suspected Islamist militant carrying an AK-47 on the Paris-bound train Friday. British businessman Chris Norman, who helped Stone, Skarlatos, and Sadler subdue the would-be gunman, also received the medal.
French President Francois Hollande praised the actions of the three men, saying “You behaved as soldiers but also as responsible men.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Britain Imposes Curbs on Vintage Aircraft After Air Show Crash, As Death Toll Expected to Increase
Britain’s aviation regulator on Monday issued immediate restrictions on flying displays by vintage aircraft after a jet performing at an air show crashed and killed at least 11 people over the weekend, while one ranking officer said as many as 20 people could be dead.
Authorities reviewed safety procedures after a Hawker Hunter jet slammed onto a highway Saturday after it failed to pull out of a loop maneuver during the Shoreham Airshow, plowing through cars on the road and exploding in a huge fireball.
Two amateur soccer players on their way to a match were among those known to have died in the southeastern England crash. Police fear the death toll would rise as officials continued clearing the crash site.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fish Farming Becomes Bigger Business Than the Open Sea
For the first time, the world is eating more fish from farms than from the open sea, spurring billions of dollars of takeovers as one of the largest food companies seeks to capitalize on rising demand.
The latest buyer to enter the fray is Cargill Inc., the world’s biggest grain trader and a meat supplier, which said Monday it agreed to acquire Norwegian salmon-feed business EWOS Holding AS for $1.5 billion.
Fish consumption is growing at a faster pace than beef, pork and poultry, driven by an expanding, increasingly prosperous global population that recognizes the health benefits of eating seafood. Demand is forecast by the United Nations to outstrip supply in coming years. Wild fish aren’t going to fill the gap, and that leaves farming in lakes and coastal waters — also known as aquaculture — to make up the shortfall.
“We can expect that large companies active in commodities, animal proteins and life sciences will be considering this industry and how they can play a role in the growth of what some call the Blue Revolution, the growth of marine farming of food and feed,” Gorjan Nikolik, a Rabobank International seafood-industry analyst, said by phone from Utrecht, the Netherlands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Train Shooting: Hollande Awards Legion D’honneur
Three Americans and a Briton who foiled a suspected terror attack on a train have received France’s top honour from President Francois Hollande.
Mr Hollande presented Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler and Briton Chris Norman with the Legion d’honneur at the Elysee Palace.
Two other unnamed passengers will receive the honour at a later date.
The passengers overpowered a suspected radical Islamist on a high-speed train bound for Paris on Friday.
French authorities are questioning the suspect, 25-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El-Khazzani.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France to Help Czechs Build Nuclear Plants
French foreign minister Laurent Fabius confirmed on Sunday on a visit to Prague that state-controlled utility Electricite de France will be part of a public tender to build new nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic, reports AP. Prague wants to build more reactors at the Temelin and Dukovany nuclear plants.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
French Train Gunman ‘Dumbfounded’ By Terrorist Tag
A gunman who attacked passengers on a high-speed train in France two days ago is “dumbfounded” at having been taken for an Islamist militant and says he only intended to rob people on board because he was hungry, his lawyer said on Sunday.
As details emerged of the gunman’s early adult life in Spain, lawyer Sophie David said her client — now in detention near Paris — also looked ill and malnourished.
French and Spanish sources close to the case have identified him as a 26-year-old Moroccan named Ayoub el Khazzani who was known to European authorities as a suspected Islamist militant.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
While his father says he is ‘a good boy’ who’d never kill anyone
Thwarted train gunman Ayoub El Khazzani has laughed at accusations he was trying to carry out a terrorist attack on the Amsterdam to Paris express, his lawyer has claimed.
Morocco-born El Khazzani, 26, says he does not see why his actions on the Thalys train on Friday have caused such an outcry and insisted that he was only interested in ‘robbing the passengers’.
His lawyer, Sophie David, said the gunman appeared ‘very, very thin and very haggard’ when she met with him at a police station in Arras, northern France.
Meanwhile, the suspect’s father defended him as a ‘good boy’ today, and insisted that he would never want to kill anyone.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Bavaria Fights Activist Assault on Cow Bells
Animal rights activists have demanded that one of the signature sounds of the Bavarian Alps — the gentle ringing of distant cow bells — be brought to an end, claiming it is cruel to the animals.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Neo-Nazi Party Golden Dawn Fuming Over Mandate Snub
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, AUGUST 24 — Golden Dawn on Monday slammed a decision by the Greek President to hand the third exploratory mandate to a newly-formed Syriza splinter group, describing the gesture as a bid to undermine the power of Greece’s neo-Nazi party. “The third exploratory mandate should be handed to Golden Dawn, not to non-existing parties that have not received a single vote from the Greek people,” MP Ilias Kasidiaris, who is also the party’s press spokesman, told journalists Monday as reported by Kathimerini online. President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Monday invited former Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, leader of the newly-established Popular Unity (Laiki Anotita, 25 MPs) party, to form a new administration within three days, part of the constitutional procedure set in motion by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s resignation last week. According to the nation’s Constitution, each of the three biggest parties is, in turn, given three days to form a government. Before the emergence of Popular Unity, the third largest grouping in parliament was Golden Dawn, which holds 17 of Parliament’s 300 seats. Kasidiaris said the move amounted to a “constitutional deviation.” “They are refusing us the exploratory mandate thinking they can in that way curb the power of Golden Dawn. However, at the elections, the people will give an answer to those who are destroying Greece,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Rebel MPs Get Three Days to Form Government
The group of 25 rebel Syriza MPs, lead by former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, will Monday be given a formal chance to form a new Greek government under the constitutional procedure triggered by PM Alexis Tsipras’s resignation. It is unlikely however the new party, Popular Unity, will find enough support.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How France Train Shooting Suspect Went From Drug Dealer to Jihadist
The Spanish police’s file on Ayoub El Khazzani contains two very different photographs. In the first, taken after he was arrested in Madrid in 2009, his hair is short and he is clean shaven. In the second, from 2012 when the authorities stopped him at the border crossing between Morocco and Ceuta, Spain’s North African exclave, he is wearing a long beard. In the time between the two photographs were taken, El Khazzani underwent a radicalization process that ended with him being overpowered by two US servicemen aboard a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris after opening fire on passengers.
When he was stopped by police at the Ceuta border in 2012, they suspected he was bringing drugs from Morocco
The Spanish story of El Khazzani, aged 26, begins with his father Mohamed, who was born in Tétouan, Morocco, in 1950. He had arrived in Spain in the 1990s and worked for a time as an agricultural laborer in Málaga province. As soon as he could, he brought the family together, including his wife, son and three daughters, in Madrid, specifically in Mejorada del Campo, a small town on the outskirts of the capital, where he obtained his residency permit in 2005.
The family later moved to the center of Madrid and El Khazzani’s trouble with the law started soon after. In 2009 he was twice arrested for selling hashish on the street. When he was stopped by police in 2012 at the El Tarajal border crossing in Ceuta, they suspected he was bringing drugs in from Morocco and he was detained.
Since then he has been under surveillance by police, who have repeatedly linked him to radical Islamic groups also under watch.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Sex Criminals Convicted in the EU Are Free to Come to Britain
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Only Cyprus, Ireland, Malta, Austria and France keep a database of those who have been convicted of sex crimes. Slovakian Eduard Peticky moved to the UK just days after being released from jail.
Campaigners are now calling for an EU-wide scheme which allows details of sex offenders to be shared across borders. Kate McCann, the mother of missing Madeleine, is among those fighting for change. Portugal and Spain are already setting up similar schemes.
Labour Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Daily Mirror: ‘European countries need to work together to protect the public.’
The calls come following the case of Slovakian sex offender Eduard Peticky, 48, who moved to the UK just days after being released from prison for gang rape.
He was jailed earlier this month for a series of heinous sex crimes against young children in Rotherham.
Jailing him for life, Judge Peter Kelson QC said improvements were needed in providing courts with the previous convictions of EU nationals who are involved in criminal proceedings in the UK.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Casamonica Carriage ‘Same as Totò’s’
Mob boss used same vehicle as legendary comic
(ANSA) — Rome, August 21 — The horse-drawn carriage used to carry Rome Mob boss Vittorio Casamonica’s coffin in a controversially grand funeral Thursday was the same as that used for legendary comic Totò in 1967, the owner of the funeral agency said Friday.
“We rent out horse-drawn carriages for funerals almost every day. Yesterday’s was the same one used for Totò’s funeral,” said Ciro Cesarano, owner of the company near Naples.
“We get about 300 requests a year from all over Italy,” Cesarano said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Casamonica Was ‘King of Rome for Us’ Says Nephew
Not a Mob boss, ‘bought and sold cars’
(ANSA) — Rome, August 21 — The nephew of late Rome mob boss Vittorio Casamonica said Friday that “in our parlance, our culture he (was) a king, our king of Rome,” explaining posters at his funeral Thursday. “They say he was a boss. My uncle was very well-known because he bought and sold cars,” said Luciano Casamonica, whose clan are popularly known as ‘the gypsies’. The lavish, Godfather-style funeral has spurred calls for Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano to resign.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: ‘Fight Gangmasters Like the Mafia, ‘ Martina Says
Farm minister calls for effort to break code of silence
(ANSA) — Rome, August 20 — Italy needs to fight farm gangmasters who exploit agricultural workers by using the same tough techniques deployed by the state against Cosa Nostra, Farm Minister Maurizio Martina said Thursday.
“We need, like against organised crime, a quantum jump to break through the wall of rubber, the code of silence and the fear,” Martina told la Repubblica newspaper.
The minister made his remarks after a farm gangmaster in Puglia this week was placed under investigation on suspicion of murdering a woman labourer.
Paola Clemente, 49, died on July 13 and was buried but prosecutors on Tuesday ordered her body to be exhumed and an autopsy to take place on August 21. The man, who drove the workers to the fields to pick grapes, was named as Ciro Grassi, from Taranto. He is suspected of murder and failure to provide assistance.
“Fighting off-the-books work and exploitation in the fields must be a duty for everyone,” Martina said, “for the institutions who must intensify controls on the ground, as we are doing already, but also for the associations and firms who must demand maximum rigour from their associates, punishing anyone breaking the rules.” “And anyone who knows of unacceptable conditions must denounce them”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Hails Halt to India Jurisdiction
Deplores lack of measures for Girone, Latorre
(ANSA) — Rome, August 24 — Italy on Monday hailed a decision by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to halt Indian jurisdiction over the marines case, while deploring its move to abstain from issuing measures allowing Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre to come home pending its ultimate resolution.
The move “partially safeguards Italian rights,” said Italian government representative Francesco Azzarello.
“We are however disappointed the court declined to issue measures on the situation of Girone and Latorre”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Norway Would Welcome More Finnish Workers, If Only They Spoke Swedish Better
Norwegian business leaders and academics interviewed by Yle’s Swedish-language news service say they are disappointed in the overall level of Swedish language skills among its job applicants from Finland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Women and Men Still Study Completely Different Universtity Subjects
In the past decade few changes have occurred in the uneven gender distribution of Norwegian college and university students.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: SNP Political Control Over Universities ‘Could Cost Millions’
Scotland’s universities have warned that that tens of millions of pounds of their funding are being put at risk by SNP plans giving ministers unprecedented political control over how they are run.
Umbrella group Universities Scotland said the Higher Education Governance Bill creates such close links with the state that it endangers institutions’ charitable status and could mean they are officially classified as part of the public sector.
Some of their “most important sources of finance” could be cut off as a result, they warned, giving them no choice but to scale back their activities and operations.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Suspect Arrested in Hagamannen Attack
Police arrest one suspect on Monday for aggravated assault in connection with the attack on the convicted serial-rapist known as “Hagamannen”.
Swedish Radio’s local channel in Norrbotten reports that a 30-year-old man was taken in for questioning in the afternoon and later arrested.
Witnesses saw three people attacking Hagamannen with a golf club on Saturday, and in a press statement police say they have identified one of them.
The tabloid Aftonbladet previously identified the victim as ‘Hagamannen’, who was released at the end of July, after serving nine years in prison for several brutal rapes and attempted murder in Umeå between 1998 and 2005. Police has however not confirmed his identity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: School Tells Muslim Pupil to Take Off Veil in Class
A high school in the canton of Bern has forbidden a pupil from wearing the hijab in class, Swiss media reported on Monday.
The 14-year-old Muslim girl was sent home from her school in Thun last week after being told that wearing the headscarf contravened a school rule forbidding pupils from covering their heads, reported Le Matin.
Speaking to the paper, the school’s director said they were having “constructive discussions” with the girl’s parents and that “a solution would emerge”.
But a compromise could be difficult to find since there is no legal basis for prohibiting the hijab in class.
In 2011 the Bern cantonal government refused a proposal by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (UDC) calling for regulation of school uniform, saying instead that schools should have the right to decide for themselves what is appropriate.
However a 2009 paper on religious and cultural traditions and symbols issued by Bern’s office of state education spells out student rights regarding clothing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The First Danish Kings Were Pirates
Medieval pirates and buccaneers founded Denmark. A new project investigates who the pirates really were and how they affected the formation of the Danish kingdom in its infancy.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The German Student Who Has Made Trains Her Home
Leonie Müller gave up her apartment a few months ago and now spends many hours each week traveling by train. Her unconventional lifestyle has made the news not only in Germany but also abroad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Three Americans and a Brit Receive France’s Highest Honor for Taking Down Jihadi on Train
If three American buddies from California and Oregon hadn’t moved to a First Class Carriage to get better wi-fi on the Thalys train Friday, August 22nd there might have been Jihad slaughter on board on the run from Brussels to Paris. Today, British businessman, Chris Norman USAF Airman Spencer Stone, Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and Sacramento University Senior Anthony Sadler received France’s highest honor from French President Hollande at the Elysee Palace in Paris. They became members of the Order of the Legion of Honor established by Napoleon Bonaparte in May 1802. The train that originated in Amsterdam was to be the finale to their European tour before Stone, an Air Force paramedic trained in Jiu Jitsu was to return to his unit based at Lajes Field in the Azores, Sadler to his Senior year at college and Skarlatos home to Roseburg, Oregon after a tour in Afghanistan. Stone had awoken from a long sleep aboard the Thalys train to hear shattered glass and the fateful click of a magazine in an AK-47, his buddy Skarlatos purportedly said “Go Get him”. CNN reported their actions that spared the slaughter on the Paris bound train. Today, the Three Americans and Brit stood in the courtyard at the Elysee Palace and were pinned by a grateful French President Hollande for their courage and bravery with France’s highest honor. The dream that the three buddies spoke of during their interview at the American Embassy yesterday ended with them and Chris Norman receiving France’s highest honor, the legion of honor…
| — Hat tip: Jerry Gordon | [Return to headlines] |
Train Attack Suspect Was on Radar of Intelligence Services Across Europe
A clearer picture is emerging of 25-year-old Moroccan national Ayob El Khazzani who was being questioned by French counter-terrorism officers Sunday. The suspected jihadist gunman who opened fire on a high-speed train travelling to Paris had been flagged by intelligence services in at least four European countries for ties to radical Islamist movements.
Khazzani boarded the Amsterdam-Paris express in Brussels on Friday with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter, investigators say. He was overpowered by passengers on the train.
A Spanish counter-terrorism source told news agency AFP that Khazzani had lived in Spain for seven years until 2014.
During his time in Spain, he came to the attention of authorities for making hardline speeches defending jihad, and was once detained for drug trafficking, according to the source.
Spanish intelligence services say he went to France, from where he travelled to Syria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Train Heroes Highlight a Security Concern: How to Stop the ‘Lone Wolf’ Attacks
The gunman had an arsenal that he claims to have stumbled upon in a park near the train station. Like three other men accused of drawing up failed plans for attacks in France recently, the suspect denied any links to terrorism, telling his lawyer he was homeless and only wanted to rob a train “to eat.”
Instead, the assault rifle jammed, and he was tackled and bound with a necktie by three Americans and a Briton who were celebrated Monday with France’s highest honor. Now, with many lives potentially saved on the high-speed train by quick-thinking and courageous passengers, the limits of a continent’s worth of security were thrown into relief by a lone attacker during a less-sophisticated act of violence.
“I don’t think we can rely entirely on the police, the law enforcement services. They will do their best. We can put in place the best intelligence networks, but somebody is probably going to get through at some stage. And my vision of this is that as citizens, we need to be prepared to think about how to act,” Chris Norman, the British businessman who helped bind the suspect, told The Associated Press.
“We need to have it in our minds, because if I had never thought it before, then I probably would’ve just been sitting in a corner cowering,” Norman said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Migrant Who Walked the Channel Tunnel Goes to Court
Abdul Rahman Haroun pleaded not guilty to obstruction charges for walking through the tunnel between France and Britain. He was caught as he approached the English side by foot.
A Sudanese migrant appeared in an English court on Monday, charged with obstruction, after breaking into the Channel Tunnel that links France and the UK and walking to Britain.
Abdul Rahman Haroun is the first person to almost complete the 50-kilometer (31-mile) journey on foot, before being caught close to the British exit.
According to British police, he scaled security fences on August 4 — avoiding detection by hundreds of CCTV cameras and search teams with sniffer dogs — and gained access to the tunnel.
The 40-year-old then walked in darkness for 12 hours under the English Channel, while trains sped past him at up to 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Viewpoint: New Anti-Terror Approach Needed After France Train Attack
The failed attack against the Amsterdam-Paris Thalys train on Friday is a clear reminder for all of us: jihadist terrorism is the biggest security threat Europe has faced for decades. But it is also a sign that something is wrong with counter-terrorism, argues former French intelligence agent Claude Moniquet.
One of the main characteristics of attacks since the Mohamed Merah case in March 2012 is that the perpetrators were all “well known” to the intelligence services. And in France, some were the subject of a special file kept when a person is considered to be a threat to the security of the state.
Obviously, the fact that people known to be potentially dangerous were able to commit terrorist attacks is worrying.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will We Ever See a United States of Europe?
Former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer once described the alternative to a ‘United States of Europe’ as a loss of sovereignty. But not all member states feel the same way about establishing closer European ties.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo Applies to Join UNESCO, Serbia Says it’s Not a State
Belgrade, membership would violate UN rules
(ANSA-AP) — UNITED NATIONS — Kosovo said Friday it has applied for membership in the United Nations’ scientific and cultural organization, a move immediately opposed by Serbia which argues that it’s not qualified because it isn’t a state.
Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci countered at a Security Council meeting that Kosovo is eligible to become a member of the U.N. Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization before it becomes a U.N. member state — if UNESCO’s executive board recommends it and two-thirds of its members approve.
Kosovo came under U.N. and NATO administration after a 1999 NATO-led air war halted a crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists, but its final status was left in question. Its predominantly ethnic Albanian leadership declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and has been recognized by 111 countries.
Serbia rejects its secession, and its close ally Russia has blocked Kosovo from becoming a U.N. member.
Thaci said UNESCO will decide on its application in November.
Kosovo is already a member of two U.N. agencies, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, he said, adding that many countries, including Austria and Vietnam, became UNESCO members long before they joined the United Nations.
Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic insisted that Kosovo is still a U.N.-administered territory and said its membership in UNESCO would violate U.N. rules.
Dacic also warned that the desecration of Serbian monasteries in Kosovo is continuing, calling this one way “of intimidating the remaining Orthodox population in the province.” “Since June 1999, 236 churches, monasteries and other sites owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as cultural-historical monuments, have been targets of attacks,” Dacic told the council.
Thaci responded that UNESCO World Heritage sites in Kosovo “are safe, or safer than they have been in the last 1000 years, adding that “our police force protects 95 percent of the sites of the Serbian Orthodox Church.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Apply Now: Southmed CV Launches Call for Proposals to Strengthen Role of Culture
The SouthMed CV project, funded by the EU in the framework of the regional programme Med Culture, has launched its first call for proposals, seeking applications for projects aiming to strengthen the role of culture, and to enhance the capacities of cultural operators in the southern Mediterranean.
The call contains two lots:
- Projects contributing to strengthen the role of culture at local, national and regional level, in cooperation with other stakeholders in the public sphere.
- Projects aiming to enhance institutional and managerial capacities of cultural operators and artistic organisations, and promote their role in public space at local, national and regional levels.
The countries covered by the call are Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Jazz Residency: Musicians From Jordan Invited to Apply
Jordanian jazz musicians, aged between 22 and 35, are invited to apply for the European Union Jazz Residency Project in Sibiu, Romania, funded by the EU, implemented in co-operation with the Jordan cluster of European Union National Institutes of Culture, and managed by the Amman Jazz festival.
The residency will take place from 9-24 October.
Two musicians from Jordan will be selected. The deadline for applications is 25 August.
Successful applicants will have the opportunity to work together with European musicians and present a joint performance at the Sibiu Jazz Festival www.sibiujazz.eu
Selection will be based on the musician’s skills, and professional experience. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Funded Project Looking for Creative Designers in Egypt
The EU-funded project for the ‘Development of Clusters in Cultural and Creative Industries in the Southern Mediterranean’ is looking for product designers in Egypt working with wood, metal, textiles, leather, glass, or clay, as part of its ‘Designers Cluster’ in Egypt.
The aim is to develop an integrated design hub to support the development of new creative designs oriented to match market needs and trends, to be achieved through:
- Trainings,
- Exhibitions,
- Capacity building activities,
- Market access opportunities,
- Matching with companies & NGOs in need for design services.
Freelance designers producing and selling their products or owning a business are invited to apply by 6 September.
The objective of the Development of Clusters in Cultural and Creative Industries in the Southern Mediterranean project (implemented in the framework of the Private sector Development in the Southern Mediterranean Programme) is to foster entrepreneurial co-operation in the cultural and creative industry notably through the promotion of promising pilot initiatives demonstrating contribution to inclusive growth. The project then aims at demonstrating the potential for the national and regional development of cultural and creative industries in the Southern Mediterranean, thus opening the possibility through adequate replication and larger scale support from financial institutions to promote new employment opportunities and inclusive growth in the region. (EU Neighbourhood Info Centre)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Green Entrepreneurs From Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan: Apply Now for Switchmed Training Programme
Are you a green entrepreneur from Palestine Lebanon or Jordan? Do you have a green business idea in mind but you don´t know where to start? Would you like to learn how to develop a green business model that creates environmental and social value? If so, you have an opportunity to join the ¨SwitchMed Green Entrepreneurs Training Programme¨ that will take place in Lebanon and Jordan from November onwards and in Palestine from December.
The deadline for applications is 30 September for Lebanon and Jordan and 15 October for Palestine.
The Training Programme aims to assist eco entrepreneurs in launching new business in a very practical way, helping participants to:
- gain knowledge to turn ideas into a green business model
- turn environmental challenges into business opportunities
- gain technical expertise in ecodesign
- design a business model that is economically-sound and creates environmental and social value
- develop a green business plan
The SWITCH-MED sustainable consumption and production programme aims to promote a switch of the Mediterranean economies towards sustainable consumption and production patterns and green economy, including low emission development, through demonstration and dissemination of methods that improve resource and energy efficiency. It also seeks to minimise the environmental impacts associated to the life cycle of products and services, and, as opportune, to promote renewable energy. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jordanian Artists Invited to Apply for Art Residency in Amsterdam
Jordanian artists, aged between 22 and 35 are invited to apply for the European Union Art Residency Project in Amsterdam, funded by the EU and implemented in co-operation with the Jordan cluster of European Union National Institutes of Culture.
The residency is hosted by M4gastatelier in Amsterdam,an independent non-profit art space in the center of Amsterdam, and will take place from 9-24 October.
Two artists from Jordan will be selected. The deadline for applications is 25 August. All disciplines are welcome.
The successful artists will have the opportunity to network, learn, conduct artistic research, and produce work during their residency.
Selection will be based on the artist’s creative spirit, skills, and professionalism. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Understanding the Challenge of Youth Unemployment in Arab Mediterranean Countries
In order to help meet the challenge of youth unemployment in the Arab world, the Europen Training Foundation (ETF) has carried out analyses of active labour market programmes (ALMPs) in eight countries — Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia.
Young people in the region are strongly disadvantaged in labour markets — under-represented in the labour force, facing high unemployment and work in lower quality jobs — with new government initiatives heavily based on ALMPs.
The ETF has produced country reports, detailing the policies and interventions in each of the countries surveyed. In addition, a cross-country report provides an overview across all eight countries.
The two key constraints on employment are insufficient labour demand, i.e. lack of job creation, and skills mismatch as a result of failures in the education system, i.e. employability.
The European Training Foundation is an agency of the European Union established to contribute to the development of the education and training systems of the EU partner countries. With an annual budget of €18 million, its mission is to help transition and developing countries to harness the potential of their human capital through the reform of education, training and labour market systems in the context of the EU’s external relations policy. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Union for the Mediterranean Promotes €5 Billion Urban Investment in 27 Projects
The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is providing technical assistance to the Urban Projects Finance Initiative (UPFI), aiming to identify and select sustainable urban development projects that offer solutions to the major urban development challenges the region is facing as a result of the demographic shifts from rural to urban areas.
The Technical Assistance Programme has been launched with the support of €5 million in EU funding.
The UPFI has identified up to 27 projects in nine countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, globally accounting for a €5 billion investment.
Three projects have already been labelled by the UfM:
- Imbaba Urban Upgrading Project (€100 million) aiming to strengthen the integration of one of the most populated and unplanned urban areas of Egypt.
- Sfax Taparura Project (€403.2 million): the project foresees the rehabilitation of beaches and the development of 420 hectares of land to extend the metropolitan area of Sfax in Tunisia.
- Bouregreg Valley Development Project (€394 million): this project in Morocco will develop new professional and residential neighbourhoods, public amenities and spaces.
UPFI is one of the pillars of the Euro-Mediterranean Sustainable Urban Development Strategy, as stated in the declaration of the First Ministerial Conference of the UfM on Sustainable Urban Development in 2011. (EU Neighbourhood Info)
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Calls for Meat Boycott Over Price Rises
Egyptians have started a social media campaign calling on people to stop buying meat in protest against rising prices, it’s reported.
They are hoping that a boycott will force traders to lower their prices, after beef reached 100 Egyptian pounds ($13; £8) per kilo in parts of the country, the al-Masry al-Youm website reports. On its Sunday front page, the paper described the campaign as “spreading widely”, noting that posters supporting the boycott have appeared across the eastern Suez region, and local campaigns have also been seen in other parts of the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Roadside Bomb Kills 3, Wounds 27 in Egypt’s Nile Delta
A roadside bomb in Egypt’s Nile Delta killed three policemen and wounded 27 others on Monday, deputy health minister Alaa el-Deen Othman said.
The blast targeted a bus carrying conscripts in the Nile Delta province of Beheira early in the morning, police Brig. Gen. Khaled al-Hameed said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
Meanwhile in the restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, another roadside bomb targeted an armored military vehicle in el-Arish city, wounding five security personnel, security and medical officials said. The troops were hit while patrolling the ring road south of el-Arish.
A day earlier, officials said attackers blew up a tank in the northern part of Sinai, killing one soldier and wounding two others.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
After Second Duma Fire, MK Demands Investigation
MK Oren Hazan (Likud) on Monday called for a thorough investigation following the fire last night, which burned a house in the Arab village of Duma belonging to the brother of a resident whose house was the target of lethal arson attack last month.
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces who investigated the home in Samaria, which belonged to a member of the Dawabshe family, said it was caused by an electrical malfunction. However, unconfirmed reports indicate an ongoing internal dispute in the town may have played a role.
“There is information on a conflict of hamulot (Arab clans — ed.), the Shabak (Israel Security Agency) with Palestinian security sources must investigate the motive of the previous arson and provide answers quickly,” wrote Hazan on his Twitter account.
Hazan’s comments come amid speculation that last month’s lethal arson, in which a father and his infant son were murdered and which was quickly blamed on “Jewish terrorists,” may in fact have been the outcome of a local dispute, suspicions strengthened by several odd details regarding the case.[…]
[red faces if true….. naaah these guys are too thick skinned]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Destroy Ancient Temple in Palmyra, Syria Using Dynamite
ISIS militants have reportedly used dynamite to destroy the Baalshamin temple, which had stood at the site for nearly 2,000 years on the archaeological site of Palmyra, Syria.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Islamic State’ Blows Up Baal Shamin Temple in Syria’s Palmyra
‘Islamic State’ (IS) militants have blown up the temple of Baal Shamin in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The head of antiquities at the Roman-era site was beheaded by Islamists just a week ago.
Conflicting reports over when the temple was actually destroyed are yet to be confirmed. Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdul Karmin reported that the temple was blown up on Sunday, whilst the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was destroyed a month ago.
Both sources agreed, however, that the Islamist extremists used large amounts of explosives to demolish it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Museum Volunteers Don Black Armbands to Honor Al-Asaad
Veteran Palmyra archeologist beheaded by Islamic terrorists
(ANSA) — Rome, August 24 — Volunteers from an NGO dedicated to keeping retired people active and working at museums and cultural associations throughout the country donned black armbands Monday to honour Khaled al-Asaad, the veteran Palmyra archeologist beheaded by Islamic State (ISIS) militants last week. “The barbaric killing of al-Asaad is a tragedy for his country — Syria — but also a terrorist act carried out against world culture,” said Association for Active Ageing (AUSER) president Enzo Costa.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: One Demonstrator Dead in Beirut, Closure of Naameh Landfill Divides Government
The “You Stink” group which is organizing protests postpones event scheduled for today. Some see hand of Iran pressing weak link of the Arab world, Lebanon, to oppose Saudi Arabia and Turkey’s attempt to counter Tehran’s regional influence, after nuclear deal.
Beirut (AsiaNews) — The toll from yesterday’s protests organized in the Lebanese capital Beirut by the group “You Stink” (You smell) is of one dead and 20 injured. Thousands had taken to the streets in the protest that led to a clash with police in the heart of the capital (pictured). This morning the group announced that today’s planned event was postponed and that they will explain the reasons for the move in a press conference scheduled in the afternoon.
The “You Stink” campaign was born following the government’s decision to close the Naameh landfill, a decision which resulted in large quantities of garbage piling up in the city. Backed by large sections of the public, the group is calling on the government to reopen the landfill. What remains unclear is whether this is supported by those who live near the site, who describe an unbearable daily life and report health problems caused by gaseous emissions from the landfilll.
The government has so far failed to make a decision on waste management due to internal conflicts. Moreover, as reported today in the As Safir newspaper, the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri has urged the Prime Minister Tammam Salam to find a way to reopen the Naameh landfill.
Some sections even believe that Iran is exploiting the issue of the Naameh landfill, in an attempt to press the weak link of the Arab world, in reaction to attempts by Saudi Arabia and Turkey to reduce its regional influence, following the gains Tehran has made since signing the nuclear deal.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Religious Eugenics: Saudi Arabia’s Frightening New Movement in the Middle East
Blanketed by its wealth and protected by political alliances, Saudi Arabia has covertly run and promoted a new movement in the Middle East: religious eugenics, under the false pretense of opposing the rise of Iran. From Syria to Bahrain and Yemen the evidence is overwhelming.
Earlier this August, the Red Cross added its voice to those of other humanitarian and rights groups in its condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, lifting the lid on Riyadh’s little house of horrors in southern Arabia.
In no uncertain terms Peter Maurer, the head of the international Red Cross told reporters he had seldom witnessed such degree of devastation. He said: “Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years … The images I have from Sanaa and Aden remind of what I have seen in Syria.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Why the US Government is on Track to ‘Normalizing’ ISIS
By Alex VanNess
How long will it take the United States to recognize the Islamic State as a legitimate actor?
That may sound ridiculous. After all, ISIS is a barbaric and sociopathic band of terrorists who proudly highlight their brutality over the Internet. Unfortunately, recent history suggests this doesn’t disqualify them, as horrific as it sounds, from eventual recognition.
Since before 9/11, the Taliban laid claim to numerous terror attacks on civilian populations throughout Afghanistan. They harbored Osama bin Laden, and since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, they’ve been directly responsible for the deaths of more than 2,000 American troops.
Yet in January, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest cryptically explained that the Taliban was not a terrorist group but instead falls under a “different classification.”
Earnest’s verbal gymnastics were deployed in the service of explaining away the president’s decision to trade five members of the Taliban for the release of American soldier-captive Bowe Bergdahl.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen Officials Say Saudi-Led Airstrikes Intensify Near Rebels’ Northern Strongholds
SANAA, Yemen — The Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen doubled its near-daily airstrikes Monday in the central province of Marib and the adjacent border area of Jawf, in order to allow allies on the ground to push north toward insurgent strongholds, authorities said. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Marib’s pro-government forces also received major reinforcements, including hundreds of Saudi-trained troops, ambulances and armored personnel carriers manned by Saudi and Emirati soldiers, pro-government officials said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
As Price Per Barrel Drops So Do Russia’s Hopes of Signing a Second Gas Deal With China
On September 2 Putin begins visit to Beijing, but analysts predict expected contract will not be signed. Moscow’s turn to the East burdened by the Chinese financial market crisis, the collapse of oil prices and the devaluation of the ruble. Over the past seven months even Chinese direct investment in the Federation fell by 20%.
Moscow (AsiaNews) — While President Vladimir Putin is preparing his upcoming visit to Beijing (2-3 September), the collapse of the ruble pulled down by falling oil prices, the crisis in the Asian markets and the slowdown of the Chinese economy pose the most severe test to date to Moscow’s new policy of “turning to the East”, imposed by growing tensions with the West over its annexation of the Crimea and the Ukrainian conflict.
In the first seven months of 2015, China’s direct investment in Russia dropped by 20% compared to last year, on the back of the rapid devaluation of the Russian currency. “Direct investments in the real economy are decreasing while the volume of portfolio investments is increasing. We cannot say that investment activity is decreasing, but the investors are taking the economic difficulties into account and choosing new ways to invest in the Russian economy,” TASS quoted head of the Europe and Central Asia Department of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce Lin Zhi as saying. In late December 2014, the total Chinese direct investment in Russia was 4 billion dollars, notes TASS.
The Kremlin accelerated cooperation with the People’s Republic last year, when the conflict with the EU and USA intensified. According to Lin, the flow of direct investment is blocked by the sharp devaluation of the ruble, which in recent days reached a six month record low on the dollar and euro.
The further drop in oil prices (24 August WTI light crude futures and Brent futures fell to the lowest in six and a half years, respectively, $ 39 and $ 44.24 per barrel) is jeopardizing the energy contracts between Moscow and Beijing. While Gazprom, on August 18, said that negotiations on the second agreement in less than 18 months for the supply of natural gas to China “are showing a positive trend”, the Beijing government has downplayed hopes that an agreement in this sense could be signed during Putin’s two days in China.
According to Ling Ji, head of Eurasian Affairs at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, China and Russia do not aim to finalize the agreement during the visit since the 50% drop in oil prices over the past year is complicating negotiations . While a second agreement would make China the biggest Gazprom customer, the country is facing an excess in industrial production and financial market volatility. “It is not a favorable sign another gas deal” for China, Keun-wook Paik, a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in London he told Bloomberg.
Last year Moscow and Beijing had reached the first big agreement of 400 billion dollars for the supply of gas from fields in eastern Siberia after almost ten years of negotiations, a historic event in the relations between the world’s largest energy exporter and the largest energy importer. In November last year, the Federation and the People’s Republic signed a framework agreement for a second thirty-year supply contract, which would involve the construction of a pipeline from western Siberia. This would provide a further 30 trillion cubic meters of gas per year, to be added to 38 billion cubic meters of the first contract, and that would make China Gazprom’s biggest customer.
But since the first agreement was signed, Brent fell below $ 46 a barrel from $ 102.6. “Agreements with the Russians now are risky, because of the sanctions, the devaluation of the ruble and the constant changes in the tax system,” said Aleksandr Gabuev, an analyst at the Carnegie Center in Moscow. He believes that maintaining good political relations with Russia is important for China, but President Xi Jinping will not sacrifice the economy to politics. (N.A.)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
ENI’s Descalzi Meets Gazprom’s Alexey Miller in Moscow
(AGI) Rome, Aug 20 — Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller met with Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi in Moscow on Thursday to discuss a number of topics, including the global energy scenario and the gas market in Europe in particular. The two companies then confirmed their intention to continue their active collaboration in the Italian and European gas markets, especially with regard to their existing contracts.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Chhattisgarh: Serious Shortcomings in the Investigation Into the Rape of a Catholic Nun
The National Human Rights Commission slams police for compromising its investigation. The victim was not protected and received no legal or psychological support. Police also made hasty and irresponsible statements to the police.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has found several flaws in the investigation into the case involving a 47-year-old nun who was drugged and raped overnight on 19-20 Jun at the Christ Sahaya Kendra (Christ Help Centre) in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
In telling her story, the nun, a member of the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI), showed courage. However, the NHRC found that the State government failed to conduct a proper investigation at the scene of crime, failing to collect the physical evidence that might point to the culprits.
According to the NHRC, the inspector general of police also made hasty, irresponsible and totally unwarranted statements to the media. Not only did he doubt the victim’s words about the rape, but showed insensitivity towards her rights.
In order to protect the victim and uphold the laws of the State, the Commission directed the Superintendent of Police in Raipur, as well as the Director General of Police and the Chief Secretary of the Government of Chhatisgarh to take action on the specific points as recommended and submit a report on the action taken within six weeks.
NHRC members found that whilst police conducted a preliminary investigation and filed a First Information Report (FIR), they failed to get the victim’s statement recorded before a judicial magistrate, as required by Section 164 [5(a)] of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Furthermore, local police, in absence of a protocol or a procedure, did not take any measures to secure the scene of the crime, nor did it take blood, urine or other body fluid samples to find out the nature and composition of the pills allegedly forced into the mouth of the victim or any biological traces left by her assailants. Likewise, errors were made when the victim’s clothes were taken.
Police also failed to provide the victim with any kind of psychological or legal support, which is required under Section 357A of the CrPC, Supreme Court Guidelines.
Finally, the NHRC directed the Director General of Police to start training officers to handle media and the press to avoid releasing incomplete statements or making declarations that are disrespectful of the victims.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Squeezed Between Two Armies in Divided Kashmir
On a forested hill on the Pakistani side of the disputed region of Kashmir there’s a small village in Nakyal Sector.
The view from the remote village of the surrounding lush green mountains is scenic. But it can be deceptive.
The village happens to be located just a few hundred metres from the heavily militarised Line of Control, the de facto boundary dividing Kashmir between Pakistan and India.
The mountains are dotted with army check posts.
Random violence by trigger-happy troops is a constant threat here.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Thailand: Bangkok Bomber Whereabouts Remain a Mystery One Week On
Police said the trail had gone cold in the hunt for the bomber a week after 20 people were killed in Thailand’s worst ever bomb attack. Investigators are unsure if the chief suspect is still in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: To Mask Economic Problems, Beijing Showcases Military Might
In September, plans for a grand military parade for the 70th anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II. Government intends to put its latest generation armaments on dislay. A show of force, in the context of increasing international tensions
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Next month, at the grand military parade for the 70th anniversary of the victory over Japan in World War II, China will unveil hundreds of new weapons available to its army, navy and air force.
The Beijing authorities are promoting the event, with its chief propagandists today busy escorting foreign journalists on a tour of a military base on the outskirts of the capital; 12 thousand soldiers and 500 new military weapons are being mobilized for the occasion.
Official sources in Beijing have not yet clarified which foreign Heads of State and Government and military representatives will attend. China reports that 10 nations from Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Oceania will send a contingent, but has so far has only confirmed the participation of Russia and Kazakhstan.
The parade of September 3 in Tiananmen Square — the last was held in 2009, for the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic — will involve 27 armed units of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), along with 10 formations of helicopters and aircraft. Official sources say that 84% of the weapons have never been shown in public before.
Analysts and experts report that the military parade — that the intent celebrates the sacrifice of past generations and the commitment to peace — is an opportunity to show the growing capacity of the army, at a time of growing international tensions.
Among others come to the fore, the crisis in East China seas (with Japan) and South (with the Philippines and Vietnam). Both, consequently, involve the United States which has considerable business, commercial and military interests in the Asia-Pacific.
The test of China’s military strength comes at a difficult time economically for Beijing, the Chinese stock market which marked up heavy losses in recent weeks which have dragged down all the economies of the continent. Experts warn that this turn of events masks a structural shift of the domestic economy.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Radar Strongly Resembles Israeli Product
TAIPEI and ISLAMABAD — A Chinese avionics marketing and manufacturing firm has put Israeli-US relations under a microscope after marketing an advanced fire control radar identical to Elta’s ELM-2052 active electronically scanned array (AESA).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Explosions at US Military Base in Kanagawa, Japan (Video)
The fire department of the city of Sagamihara said the blasts rang out shortly before 1:00am local time, national broadcaster NHK reported.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Japan’s High Rate of Youth Suicide Due to Society’s Excessive Focus on Economic Performance
A government study found that 18,048 underage Japanese committed suicide between 1972 and 2013. Trouble at home, academic failure, concerns about career choices, mental illness and depression emerge as the major contributing factors. The curriculum is centred on scientific disciplines. In Japan, the Christian concept of the person tends to be trumped by that of community. Fr Cazzaniga, a PIME missionary in Japan, gives his thoughts on the matter.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) — Since Japan “gave up under Article 9 of the constitution the right to have Armed Forces for offensive purposes, at least for now, the government has heavily focused on the developing the country’s economy and its human resources. Indeed, economic growth has been premised on training a highly skilled workforce.”
“Getting a top-notch education remains the priority for students. However, this has come at a price, namely a high level of suicide among young people who fail to meet society’s expectations,” said Fr Pino Cazzaniga, a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in Japan, who spoke to AsiaNews about the alarmingly high number of suicides among young people in the country.
“Considering that students in primary and high schools also get extracurricular tutoring in the afternoon after regular school hours in order to be admitted to the best schools, it is easy to understand how economics drive education policy rather than concern for students’ souls,” he explained.
His views are backed by a recent survey released by the Cabinet Office’s survey, which recorded 18.048 cases of suicide, between 1971 and 2013, involving minors below the age of 18 from, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The study shows that most suicides occur around the end of Japanese spring and summer holidays, with a peak of 131 suicides on 1 September.
If the total number of deaths were spread evenly throughout every day of the year, there should have only been 49 deaths.
The date with the second-highest number of suicides is 11 April with 99, followed by 8 April, 2 September and 31 August 31 with 95, 94 and 92 suicides respectively.
Government surveys found that a major reason for suicides among elementary and junior high school students is trouble at home, among children who might be scolded or who have friction with their parents.
Among high school students, academic failure, concerns about career choices, mental illness and depression emerge as the major contributing factors, the surveys said.
Based on his own experience in the country, Fr Cazzaniga knows this all too well. Japan has one of the highest levels of literacy, and about 80 per cent of students get a post-secondary education. However, “educational programs stress science over humanities since education is driven by the needs of the economy. Kids are trained in order to boost the country’s development,” he said.
For the PIME missionary, the country’s cultural and religious traditions, based on Shinto and Buddhism, influence the way society looks at people.
“Japan’s cultural tradition is very different from that of Europe where, thanks to Christianity, the individual is respected as a person, where youth problems are discussed in the family so that they can address them together.”
“Here there is no concept of the soul. Ancestor worship is important and so is belonging to a group as a community. Since education is economically driven, young people’s spiritual education gets lost in the shuffle.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Seoul to Halt Border Broadcasts After Pyongyang Expresses Regret Over Mine Blast
South Korea has agreed to halt propaganda broadcasts at noon Tuesday after North Korea expressed regret over a recent land mine blast that maimed two South Korean troops, the countries announced after three days of intense talks aimed at pulling the rivals back from the brink of war.
During the talks at the border village of Panmunjom, North Korea also agreed to lift a “quasi-state of war” that it had declared last week, chief South Korean negotiator and presidential security adviser Kim Kwan-jin told a televised briefing.
Kim said the two Koreas have also agreed to resume reunions of families separated by war in September. He said the countries will hold talks to improve their ties soon in either Seoul or Pyongyang.
The North’s Korean Central News Agency also released the same details.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
British Tourist Lost in Australia Saves Himself With Beach S.O.S.
Barefoot, hungry and alone, a 63-year-old British tourist saved himself by scrawling a desperate message in the sand. Geoff Keys was rescued after two days in the Australian outback when a search helicopter spotted his “HELP” message on the beach in late July, Sky News reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Children With Cancer Go Without Chemo for Weeks in Venezuela Due to Medicine Shortage
While in Caracas last week, Monterrey participated in a protest outside the children’s hospital because 20 medicines needed for cancer treatment haven’t been available there for 15 days, affecting most of the 120 patients undergoing treatment in that facility, according to local media.
“My daughter’s medication was available, but I joined them because the lack of chemotherapy could be fatal for some patients,” Monterrey explained.
“Cancer doesn’t wait,” screamed the protesters, some of them accompanied by children in wheelchairs.
According to Ceballos, there are two principal causes for the shortage of medicines: the government-imposed currency controls, which limit the amount of U.S. dollars that are made available to drug laboratories, and strict price controls that were put in place in 2003.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Alien Invasion of Europe: Now a Deluge
by Srdja Trifkovic
The Italian navy rescued 3,000 “migrants” aboard more than a dozen boats in the Mediterranean on Saturday. Like hundreds of thousands of others before them, they were taken to Europe for de facto permanent settlement. At the same time, any semblance of border control along the southeastern land route has collapsed. Thousands of migrants stormed across Macedonia’s border also on Saturday, overwhelming security forces who threw stun grenades and used batons in a futile bid to stem their flow. So much for Macedonia declaring a state of emergency on August 20 and announcing that it was sealing its borders.
In July over 50,000 persons from the Middle East and Afghanistan are estimated to have reached Greece’s extended coastline by boat from Turkey. The Turks have done nothing to impede their initial entry from Syria and Iraq, followed by a long transit across Anatolia and departure by sea. The Greeks have been chartering ships to take them from the inundated Aegean islands to Salonika, and facilitated their transit further north.
“Tell Brussels we are coming, no matter what,” 32-year-old Saeed from Syria said. This is not an idle boast. For weeks illegal aliens had been pouring across the border into Macedonia at a rate of some 2,000 per day en route to Serbia, where up to 8,000 reached the southern border town of Preševo this past weekend. Their next target is Hungary, and from there the promised land of Europe’s welfare havens further west…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Brawl Breaks Out at Asylum Seekers’ Centre in Eastern Finland
Officials on Monday reported a disturbance at the Joutseno Reception Centre for asylum seekers in eastern Finland. They say that on Friday some 20-30 people who had received deportation orders tried to assault another asylum seeker.
This individual was being transferred to another centre in a car when the group attached the vehicle.
Reception Centre Director Jari Kähkönen describes the situation as “threatening”. Several police patrols were called to the scene to restore calm.
Kähkönen says the attackers were failed asylum seekers who are to be deported in late September. There are about 100 people at the facility who have received deportation orders.
The director told Yle on Monday that the atmosphere at the centre remains restless. An extra security guard has been hired, as the 300-bed facility is packed to capacity — as most of the others around the country. This year Finland has received the largest influx of asylum seekers since the all-time peak year of 1993.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Clashes at Germany’s Heidenau Asylum Centre Alarm Government
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly condemned violence at an asylum seekers’ shelter that injured dozens of police officers.
Security was increased at the newly-opened centre in Heidenau near Dresden at the weekend after two nights of protests.
Left-wing activists staging counter-demonstrations have clashed with the right-wing protesters.
Germany says it expects up to 800,000 to seek asylum by the end of 2015.
Mrs Merkel’s spokesman said it was “abhorrent how right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis attempt to spread their idiotic message of hatred around an asylum shelter”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Open Borders Agreement Under Scrutiny Following French Terror Attack
The future of the Schengen zone, a borderless area stretching across much of mainland Europe, is in doubt following the gun attack on a train in France last Friday. Politicians from across northern Europe questioned whether the arrangement can be allowed to continue considering the increased terrorist threat brought about by large scale migration from the Middle East and North Africa.
On Friday, a Moroccan gunman armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, a pistol and a knife opened fire on passengers on a train en-route from Amsterdam to Paris. The gunman, who had been granted European residency by Spain but had been drifting around Europe, embarked in Brussels, Belgium without having to go through any security checks or show his passport.
The attack has prompted Charles Michel, Belgium’s prime minister, to call for urgent talks with France, Germany and the Netherlands on increasing security on cross-border trains, according to the Financial Times.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Dresden Militants Riot Against Asylum Seekers
German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere has condemned violent protests over the weekend against a refugee shelter in the eastern German town Heidenau near Dresden. Up to 1,000 protesters clashed with police while trying to stop buses carrying 250 asylum seekers to their temporary destination. Thirty police officers were hurt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: One Dead, Six Missing After Refugee Boat Capsizes Off Lesvos
A man’s body has been recovered off Lesvos by the Greek coast guard during a search and rescue operation that was launched after a boat carrying refugees to the island capsized.
Authorities said that eight people were rescued but that a total of 15 were on board the vessel. The search for the remaining six refugees continued on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, a passenger ferry carrying refugees from Aegean islands to Piraeus was expected to dock at the port on Monday morning.
Some 2,500 refugees, mostly from Syria, are expected to disembark from the Eleftherios Venizelos at Piraeus. The ship has been conducting the route from the eastern Aegean to Piraeus over the past few days to help ease overcrowding on several islands.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Illegal Migrant: I Paid Thousands for Fake UK Passport
A young Syrian man has been describing how he fled the war-torn city of Aleppo, paying a people smuggler thousands of pounds for a fake UK passport and a flight to London. He told the BBC’s Anna Holligan he felt bad about entering Britain illegally and is in the process of applying for asylum. He gave this interview on the condition he can stay anonymous.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Influx Grows as Germany, France Eye Unified Response
Thousands of migrants and refugees continued to reach the shores of Greece’s eastern Aegean islands on their way to Western Europe, as France and Germany called for a unified response to the mounting crisis.
According to police estimates, between 8,500 and 9,000 refugees on the island of Lesvos were Monday awaiting transfer to the Greek mainland. A ferry charted by the Greek government — the Eleftherios Venizelos — was expected to pick up another 2,500 Syrians from the island at 2.30 this morning and bring them to Athens.
“The foreigners that leave the island every day are replaced by the same number of people arriving from the Turkish coast,” Lesvos Mayor Spyros Galinos told Kathimerini.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Coast Guard Saves 466 Migrants Aboard Dinghy, Raft
An Italian Coast Guard ship rescued 466 migrants from a dinghy and a boat in waters off the shores of strife-torn Libya Monday, Coast Guard officials said. The dinghy and the boat were located at points 25 and 50 nautical miles from the north African country. The rescue operations were coordinated by the Coast Guard operational headquarters in Rome and the ministry of infrastructure and transport, official sources said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Brides-for-Hire Racket Probed for Terror Links
Destitute Italians recruited in squats, soup kitchens
(ANSA) — Rome, August 21 — Rome anti-terror police sources told ANSA Friday they are probing a bride-for-hire racket involving destitute Italians and foreign nationals for possible terrorist links. An ANSA investigative report sparked the probe into what police say is a clandestine network recruiting prospective spouses in squats and soup kitchens in Rome, offering them three to four thousand euros to travel to Cairo to marry a would-be immigrant. The weddings take place in Egypt with Coptic Christian or Catholic rites, after which the foreign national can apply for residency in Italy.
“We have organized a dozen such trips,” explained A., a 40-year-old Italian who recruits Italian spouses and deals with marriage registration red tape.
“The marriage requests arrive through the Italian embassy in Cairo,” he added.
The Italian spouse is given his or her fee and is free to go home within a couple of weeks of the nuptials, he said.
While the entire transaction runs around 9,000 euros, two requests for Italian marriage partners offering twice the usual rate came in after the July 11 car bombing of the Italian consulate in Cairo, raising anti-terror police suspicions.
Meanwhile in Rome, a 33-year-old unemployed Italian mother told ANSA in an interview Friday she is about to embark on her second marriage-for-hire to a foreigner. The woman, known only as S., lives with her two-year-old daughter in a 30-square-meter room in a Rome squat, and is preparing to fly to Cairo to wed a stranger in exchange for 9,000 euros. “I need the money,” said the bride-for-hire. “They’ve promised me lots, but to tell you the truth I would do it for much less,” she said, holding her toddler in her arms. “I don’t work, but I’m not a criminal,” she added. She went on to explain that her first wedding for hire was to a Brazilian transsexual in Rome, so he could get his residency permit.
Her broker, she said, is an Italian national who wed an Eritrean woman in Iran. “When I get back I’m going to buy a couple of things for my daughter,” she said. “A wedding is one thing, love is quite another. For me neither matters, nor does it matter to the immigrants. I just want to get by.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Irish Ship Brings 225 Refugees to Messina
Rescued in Strait of Sicily
(ANSA) — Messina, August 24 — An Irish ship on Monday morning brought 225 asylum seekers to port in the Sicilian city of Messina.
They were rescued from unseaworthy vessels in the Strait of Sicily between northern Africa and Italy, and were received at the port by public health staffers, police, and volunteers.
The newcomers will be lodged in the city’s migrant reception centers after health checks and initial identification, sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Greece Must Act Now on Migrants Says Merkel
‘Set up registration centres by year’s end’
(ANSA) — Berlin, August 24 — Italy and Greece must act as soon as possible to open migrant registration centres, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday. “We have established with the heads of government that there should be registration centres in the countries particularly hit by the first arrivals, like Greece and Italy,” she said after a summit with French President Francois Hollande. “This must happen quickly, by the end of the year, we cannot accept delays,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Macedonia Police Beat EU-Bound Migrants
Macedonian police beat back EU-bound migrants on the Greek border on Friday, using batons and shields and causing injuries, when people tried to storm a fence, the BBC reports. Amnesty International said the police treated them like “rioters rather than refugees who have fled conflict”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Finally Condemns Anti-Refugee Violence
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned “vile” violent demonstrations against refugees at the weekend, her spokesman said Monday, amid criticism she has failed to forcefully address anti-migrant sentiment.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis: Hungary Station ‘Feels Like a Refugee Camp’
It has been described as Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the Second World War as more evidence emerges of how EU countries are struggling to cope with the influx of migrants.
In eastern Germany, migrants housed in one centre had be protected by police after right wing militants staged violent protests outside.
In Italy, an estimated 4,000 migrants have been rescued from the Mediterranean and brought ashore over the weekend.
And Hungary has seen more than a 120,000 migrants travel through its capital Budapest so far this year — triple the numbers seen last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Trudge Through Balkans in ‘Dramatic’ Challenge to Europe
Long lines of migrants, many of them refugees from Syria, snaked through southern Serbia by foot on Monday before jumping on trains and buses north to Hungary and the last leg of an increasingly desperate journey to western Europe.
State authorities and aid agencies threw up tents and scrambled to supply food and water to thousands surging through the western Balkans, their numbers swelling since Greece began ferrying migrants from overwhelmed islands to the mainland.
Visiting the border between Greece and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said the situation in the Balkans was “dramatic”.
“We urgently need coordinated action across Europe,” he told ORF radio.
In Serbia, Red Cross official Ahmet Halimi said 8,000 migrants had registered in the southern town of Presevo over the past 24 hours.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Halt Channel Tunnel Trains for Second Day Running
Train services through the Channel Tunnel were on Monday halted once again by migrants, who broke through the barriers in Calais to walk along the tracks.
Eurotunnel and Eurostar services were both suspended for an hour while the migrants were removed from the train lines. On Sunday the services had been disrupted for three and a half hours, after migrants were spotted clinging to a freight train in Calais.
And the delays came as a Sudanese migrant appeared in court in Kent charged with trespass, having walked through the tunnel and arrived in Britain on August 4.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More Migrants Heading for EU as Crisis Deepens
At least 2,000 more migrants flooded overnight into Serbia in a desperate journey to try and go on to Hungary, the door into the European Union, a UN official said Monday.
At least 7,000 people — mostly refugees from the brutal war in Syria — have been registered so far in the last days in overwhelmed Serbia as Europe’s worst refugee crisis in half a century rapidly worsens.
All of them entered Serbia from Macedonia, where police on Saturday re-opened the border with Greece after spending three days trying to hold back the streams of migrants, when hundreds braved barbed wire fences and stun grenades to force their way through.
“The latest developments in Macedonia have led to a congestion and we now have tens of thousands of refugees who have entered Serbia from Macedonia,” Davor Rako, a local official for the UN refugee agency told AFP in the southern Serbian town of Presevo.
He said about 2,000 more migrants had registered at the border village of Miratovac, where Serbian authorities and the UNHCR have set up a reception centre with eight huge tents.
Buses were being laid on to nearby Presevo where police hand out officials documents and help migrants find their way towards their next destination, the border with Hungary.
Nearly 340,000 migrants have arrived in the EU in the first seven months of this year, according to the bloc’s Frontex border agency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
New One-Day Peak for Italy Migrant Rescues
Italy’s coastguard picked up another 300 migrants from stricken boats in the Mediterranean on Sunday, a day after overseeing the rescue of 4,400 people in one 24-hour period with help from British, Irish and Norwegian ships.
Saturday’s total was the highest recorded for a single day in recent years as calm conditions encouraged people smugglers to leave Libya with boats stuffed with as many paying passengers on board as possible
The latest arrivals will lift to more than 108,000 the number of asylum seekers and other migrants to have arrived in Italy this year.
More than 150,000 have landed in Greece, most of them with the aim of travelling on to northern Europe via the Balkans.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
No Need for New EU Summit on Immigration, Says Juncker
European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker dismissed calls for a new EU summit on immigration, saying member states should stop dragging their heels and implement existing agreements on the matter.
Juncker’s comments in an opinion piece published in France’s Le Figaro and Germany’s Die Welt on Monday come ahead of a meeting of Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande in Berlin to discuss immigration.
Juncker repeated his criticism of European governments failing to take migrants from Italy and Greece where tens of thousands arrived by boat have over the last months to escape poverty and war in their home countries.
“We don’t need a new summit. Member states have to adopt the European measures and apply them to their territory,” he wrote.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
More and more young Ukrainians are leaving for Poland to flee the war and avoid military service. For Ukrainians, Poland offers hopes of a refuge, work and safety.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees Have Little Fear of Hungary’s Fence
The Hungarian army has been building a fence on the Serbian border to keep out refugees and migrants. But it is not an insurmountable hurdle for them, DW’s Nemanja Rujevic reports from Subotica.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
by Diana West
Their frustration is palpable. All those sparkling, witty gambits by conservative pundits to denigrate Trump supporters — as, for example, when National Review’s Kevin Williamson wrote in a column that Trump supporters are “engaged in the political version of masturbation: sterile, fruitless self-indulgence” — has earned little more than approbation from their own kind — as when Commentary’s Noah Rothman, for example, responded with equally sparkling wit: “Man. This piece. @KevinNR grabs Trump supporters by the … well, you know.”
Do they ever. But no matter how many conservative websites take the dirty thang forward — “Donald Trump Is Porn for Nativists” The Federalist recently declared — Trump’s support continues to rise.
And that’s what’s so frustrating for these gentleman-pundits. Unable to reckon with Trump — namely, with his unique ability to bring the crisis of the immigration invasion to national attention, giving last-ditch hope to many that he is a man who will actually do something about it — their strangely, sexually framed hostility has proved to be (borrowing from their thesaurus) impotent.
Could this be how the elite’s New Man, from metrosexual to Girly Man, reacts on confronting the unreconstructed, un-focus-grouped leadership style of Donald Trump? This notion began to cross my mind even before I read a piece by Kent G. Bailey, professor emeritus of clinical psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, who writes at WND.com that Trump takes “primal maleness to levels unseen for at least half a century. The everyday people of America long for strong warrior male leadership of the kind that has sustained the human race from the dawn of time.”
Dawn of time, huh? Maybe that takes us closer to the explanation behind the quite amazing fact, according to the New York Times, that in poll after poll, Trump leads the GOP candidates among women.
But brave new territory beckons punditry’s best and brightest. The anti-Trump Left calls it “racism,” and has staked out the the South to tar Trump supporters. The anti-Trump Right is talking “nativism,” “white identity politics,” and is taking on Europe.
Federalist editor Ben Domenech has broken ground with a piece called: “Are Republicans for Freedom or White Identity Politics?” In his either-or question, of course, notice there is no room for nationhood. Nationhood is a concept that Marxism, boring from within our own institions for the past century, has eradicated from the American mainstream, from Left to Right.
The Federalist story subhead reads:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: More Money to Malmö for Refugee Care
The government is promising more money to the Swedish Migration Agency in Malmö to help it cope with the increasing number of refugee children who arrive in the city.
Migration Minister Morgan Johansson made the announcement while visiting the southern municipality on Monday.
Recently, there have been some 40 unaccompanied children arriving in Malmö every day. Officials say the town is the first stop for almost half of all children refugees who come to Sweden.
To help cope with the arrivals, Johansson said the Migration Agency will receive additional resources.
“How much money remains to be seen. We will decide in context when presenting the budget,” Johansson said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Suspected Arson at Migrant Camp Site in Stockholm
Several camper vans were set on fire Monday morning in Fagersjö in southern Stockholm.
Three camper vans were totally destroyed, but no-one was injured. Police are now investigating this as arson. It is the most recent in a string of attacks on impromptu campsites where migrants live, the news agency TT reports.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Ikea Murders: Sweden in Crisis
by Ingrid Carlqvist
The mosque fire received huge attention, while the rape epidemic is basically ignored. When a Swedish woman and her son are brutally knifed to death in the most Swedish of all places — an IKEA store — the Prime Minister has nothing to say.
The normal democratic order, where citizens can contact politicians or the media to make their voices heard, has all but evaporated in Sweden. Newspaper websites have removed the reader comment fields, and the politicians hide behind a wall of officials who brand callers expressing concern “racist,” and hang up. Sweden is governed by a power that has shut down the democratic process.
Questions flooded the social media: Who are these people that are let into Sweden? How many of them are not innocent victims of war, but in fact war criminals and other criminals, hiding among the refugees?
The most relevant question is: Why has one government after another chosen to spend Swedish taxpayers’ money to support and shelter citizens of other countries, while some of them try to kill us?
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘Boobs Are Natural’: Topless Rights Protesters Counter Critics in New York
Dozens of bare-chested women taking part in the GoTopless Pride Parade have taken to the streets of midtown Manhattan to counter critics complaining about topless tip-seekers in Times Square.
Appearing bare-breasted has been legal in New York since 1992. But Mayor Bill de Blasio and police Commissioner Bill Bratton say the body-painted women in the square who pose for photos with tourists are a nuisance.
The mayor even suggested doing away with the pedestrian plaza at the “Crossroads of the World” — to control both the topless women trolling for tips and the costumed cartoon characters, some of whom were arrested last year for accosting non-tipping pedestrians.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said the scene harkens to the pornographic “bad old Times Square” of the past.
Sunday’s parade was among dozens of such events in about 60 cities celebrating the worldwide GoTopless Day.
New York GoTopless spokeswoman Rachel Jessee said the goal is for gender equality when it comes to baring one’s chest.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cruz to Lead 50-State Attack on Planned Parenthood
(WASHINGTON POST) — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has assiduously courted evangelicals throughout his presidential run, will take a lead role in the launch this week of an ambitious 50-state campaign to end taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood — a move that is likely to give the GOP candidate a major primary-season boost in the fierce battle for social-conservative and evangelical voters.
More than 100,000 pastors received e-mail invitations over the weekend to participate in conference calls with Cruz on Tuesday in which they will learn details of the plan to mobilize churchgoers in every congressional district beginning Aug. 30. The requests were sent on the heels of the Texas Republican’s “ Rally for Religious Liberty,” which drew 2,500 people to a Des Moines ballroom Friday.
“ The recent exposure of Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices .?.?. has brought about a pressing need to end taxpayer support of this institution,” Cruz said in the e-mail call to action distributed by the American Renewal Project, an organization of conservative pastors.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Feminists Cost Dr. Dre Millions in Lost Album Sales
Dr. Dre’s album sales tanked 85% after he apologized to feminists for his behavior 25 years ago, which was already settled in court.
Dr. Dre hasn’t gotten into similar legal trouble since then.
He’s proven why we cannot bow down to feminists and Dre should’ve followed Donald Trump’s example.
Every time Trump trashes feminism and political correctness, his popularity surges. Americans are fed up of being called sexist because they don’t support cultural marxism. Trump is popular, feminism is not.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Lies of Illegal Immigration and Infanticide
By Doug Hagmann
From abortion to illegal immigration is but a short step, although at first glance, they are seemingly unrelated. In reality, the two issues are intertwined.
It is imperative that we understand the end-game objectives of those pushing both agendas, for they are the same conspirators who are shredding the United States Constitution and destroying our country from within. They are using many of the same tactics and pushing many of the same lies that are left unchecked by politicians and political pundits on both sides of the political spectrum.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Ayoub El Khazzani is telling porkies (pun intended). If he wanted to rob people on the train because he did not have money to buy food, then how did he buy a ticket for the Thalys? They cost minimum 29 euro. Your luggage is not controlled when boarding the Thalys but your ticket is, and it is in any case controlled when you are in the train. He attacked in the last part of the traject so he had been controlled. If he did not have a ticket it would have been noticed. On top of this I think he was seated in a first class carriage. On top of this many Thalys travellers are international so they rather carry credit cards with them and not a lot of cash.
The prosecutor has now given more details (see website of the French newspaper Le Figaro). Ayoub El Khazzani bought a first class ticket for 149 euros which he paid cash. This is already weird. When you buy your ticket some time in advance it is less expensive and most people pay these tickets with a credit card.
Ayoub El Khazzani’s story that he was hungry and wanted to rob people on the Thalys for food is clearly a lie. You can buy a lot of food for 149 euro…
The real problem is that these obvious problems with his story are not reported in the same article where the terrorist’s fake story is reported. Journalists don’t seem to investigate even the simplest of available things like this.
I guess the biggest story in this ‘news feed’ would have to be the sell out of the Greek people by their elected Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, a supposedly charismatic male who has shown that political charisma should never be taken for authenticity or personal integrity.
Apparently 30 whales have died since May, 2015, in the gulf of Alaska- really! What a shame that paid for research could have not been better spent – like fighting Planned Parenthood!
On the ‘white supremacist’ – did he get that designation simply because of his color? – convicted for plotting to kill Obama with a ‘death ray’ device. I mean, Hello! But what moron was defending him?
On Canadian police appealing to the hackers of Ashley Madison to assist in the investigation of a possible suicide of one the clients – who are they kidding?
A BIG WELL DONE to all those heroes who averted a terrible massacre at the hands of that Muslim Jihadist who is now rubbing salt into the wounds of those he would have gladly killed by denying everything – even his Jihadist father, if the parental guidance and authority of ‘Father’ should be used to describe the siring of such offspring – is now saying what a lovely boy he is!!!!!!!
And still, after 15 years of relentless Islamic Jihadist attacks against the West, there remain those who would diffuse the obvious by calling each individual Jihadist a ‘lone wolf’ attack while the majority population now realize that there is only one wolf that all jihadist’s belong to!
Re. “A New York white supremacist was convicted…”
In this case, the adjective “white” doesn’t necessarily indicate the color of the convicted man’s skin, except that the phrase “white supremacist” makes it almost inevitable that he *is* white.
You may be unfamiliar with the phrase “white supremacist” (or you may just be trying to elicit someone’s response). People who believe in white supremacy believe that white people (“the white race,” in their jargon, sometimes also called “Aryans”) are the supreme, best example of humanity. *And* that all other ethnicities–Hispanic, Chinese, African–anyone who isn’t white–are inferior to the white race.
This ideology forms the basis of some quite brutal gangs, both in U.S. prisons and on U.S. roads (motorcycle gangs). The shootout in May 2015 in Waco, Texas, was a run-in between/among white-supremacist motorcycle gangs (9 killed, 18 wounded, 170 arrested). See http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/18/us/texas-biker-gang-brawl-shooting/index.html for more info. My search phrase was “motorcycle shoot-out Texas,” if you’d like to find other info on it.
So the ideology of white supremacy isn’t just a weird historical glitch (of course, Hitler believed in it; his Aryan Super-race was just a variant); it’s a factor in some gruesome violence in this country.
Note: The 2001 horror when a young woman in her 20s/early 30s was killed by two Presa Canarios in San Francisco was, at bottom, due to the culprits’ involvement with the white supremacist prison gang Aryan Brotherhood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Diane_Whipple).
Thanks for that response Cynthia, but the point of the comment was the fact that the person now convicted by a jury – and in less than three hours – for an imagined felony simply because he expressed his desire to kill the President with a weapon found only in comic books, should have been treated with ridicule rather than taken to a court of law.