Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/1/2015

The Hungarian government changed its policy today and closed the main railway station in Budapest to prevent the flood of migrants from traveling onward to Western Europe. Nevertheless, thousands of asylum seekers managed to arrive at the train station in Munich.

In other news, Canada officially entered a recession as of the end of the second quarter of 2015.

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

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Dean, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nick, Seneca III, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Canada Enters a Recession in Middle of Federal Election Campaign
» Canada Officially in Recession in First Half of 2015
» Cash Crunch Brings More Greeks Into the Wild
» Fresh Factory Data Confirms Slowdown in China’s Economy
» Illinois Pays Lottery Winners in Ious After $30k/Month Budget “Guru” Fails to Produce Deal
» IMF Warns Emerging Economies Must be Vigilant on China Slowdown
» In the Month of September 2015 We Officially Enter the Danger Zone
» Italy: Camusso Tells Renzi and Squinzi ‘Come Back Down to Earth’
» Not “Unequivocally Good” — Canada Enters Recession
» Wall Street Falls Sharply on Weak China Data
 
USA
» Armed Black Panthers to Texas Cops: ‘We Will Start Creeping Up on You in the Darkness’
» ‘Brain-Eating Amoeba’ Kills Texas Teen Training for Olympics
» Clinton Told Aide to Send Classified Info to Personal Email Address
» Excellent Quote From Judge Andrew Napolitano on the U.S. Political System
» Manhunt in Fox Lake After Police Officer Shot and Killed
» Newly Released Graphic Video Shows Cops Killing Unarmed Man With His Hands Up From Far Away
» NYPD Undercover Cop Fires at Suspect Armed With Fake Gun, Fatally Shoots Bystander
» Obama to Call for More Icebreakers to Operate in the Arctic
» Outrage in Inner Cities: The Source
» Pluto Snow Forecast Poses Atmospheric Conundrum
» Sheriff Clarke: Black Lives Matter is a “Vulgar, Vile, Vicious, Slimy Movement”
» South Dakota Drops Teaching High Schoolers About American Revolution, Founding Documents
» The Donald Trump Phenomenon: Hidden Meanings
 
Europe and the EU
» Continental Break-Up Set the Stage for Life in Earth’s Mantle
» Dutch Secret Service Breaks Phone Taps Law Again
» Germany’s First Mosque Excavated Near Berlin
» Google Italy Has Paid 12 Mn Euros in Taxes in 13 Years
» Italy: Autopsy Shows Possible Rape in Catania Killing
» Purporting to be Swedish, “Sham Uni” Courses on the Rise
» Sweden: Investigation of Örebro ISIS Recruiter Closed
» Swede Wakes Up With Justin Bieber on Buttock
» UK: The ‘Birmingham Koran’ Fragment That Could Shake Islam After Carbon-Dating Suggests it is Older Than the Prophet Muhammad
» UK: Woman Dragged From Her Car and Raped in John Lewis Car Park
 
Mediterranean Union
» Dutch Fail to Reach Deal With Morocco on Social Benefits
 
North Africa
» Egypt Gas Bonanza Sparks Panic in Israel About Developers Abandoning Israel’s Own Gas Reserves
» Egyptians Will Go to the Poll Starting on 17 October to Elect a New Parliament
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Edison Interested in Israeli Gas Fields
 
Middle East
» Dutch Ground Troops Could be Sent to Syria: CDA Leader
» Five Dutch Jihadis a Month Are Still Heading for Syria, Iraq
» How the US Can Stop ISIS Without Setting Foot in Syria
» Iran Clothing With US, British Flags Sparks Arrests
» Islamic State Video: ISIS Militants in Iraq Burn Four Shiite Fighters Alive
» Russia Deploying Air Force Contingent to Syria
» Russian Air Force Begins to Arrive in Syria and Begins Operating Base Near Damascus
» Russian Military Forces Arrive in Syria, Set Forward Operating Base Near Damascus
» Turkish Police Raid Media Group Critical of Erdogan
 
Russia
» Russia: New Laboratory to Study Mammoth Cloning
» Russia, China ‘Aggressively’ Identifying US Operatives
 
South Asia
» Indian Kumbh Mela Festival Bans Selfies Due to Stampede Fears
» Kiel Scientists: MH370 Search in Wrong Place
» Myanmar President Signs (Anti-Muslim) Law That Bans Polygamy
» Thai Prime Minister Says Main Suspect in Bangkok Bombing Arrested
 
Far East
» China Rocked by Another Massive Chemical Explosion, People’s Daily Reports
 
Australia — Pacific
» Australia: Cop Who Leaked Video of Fellow Officers Beating Innocent Man Now Faces 7 Years in Prison
» Data Retention and the End of Australians’ Digital Privacy
» New Zealand Unveils Shortlist of Four for Its New Flag
» When a Slump Hits a Vast Iron Ore Mine in Australia
 
Immigration
» Austria: 3,650 Migrants Arrive on Trains in One Day
» Austria: 20,000 Protest in Vienna Over Migrant Treatment
» Austria Inspects Trucks for Migrants, Creates 18-Mile Backup
» Bavaria to Open Balkan Refugee Center
» Budapest, Vienna Train Stations Overwhelmed With Refugees
» Calais: Anger Over Plan for New Migrant Camp
» Czech President Calls for Army to Defend Border Against Migrants
» Dark Germany, Bright Germany: Which Side Will Prevail Under Strain of Refugees?
» From Turkey to Sweden: Syrian Migrant’s Perilous Journey
» Germany: Countering the Hate: ‘People Are Getting Involved in Tremendous Ways’
» Greek Ferries Carry 4,000 Migrants to Mainland
» Greek Island Lesbos’ Population Surpassed by Refugee Numbers
» Hungary Shuts Down Rail Traffic for Migrants Heading West, Clears Train Station
» Islamic State Terrorists Caught Crossing Into Europe Posing as Refugees
» League Leader Takes Swipe at Italian Church Over Immigration
» Migrant Found ‘Squeezed’ Behind Car Engine Crossing Into Spain
» Migrants Stranded as Hungary Bars Them From Rail Station
» More Than 350,000 People Crossed Med This Year — IOM
» Rajoy Urges Italy, Greece to Organize Hotspots
» Riot Police Evacuate Hungarian Rail Hub
» Strasbourg Condemns Italy on Migrant Expulsions
» ‘Thousands’ of Refugees Arrive in Munich Station
» Trafficking Surges in Fake Syrian Passports, Frontex Chief Warns
 
Culture Wars
» Pope Allows Priests to Absolve Abortion During Jubilee
» Students Revolt Over Tranny, Formerly Gay Male, Using Girls’ Locker Room
 

Canada Enters a Recession in Middle of Federal Election Campaign

On an annualized basis, the Canadian economy fell by 0.5 percent in the April-to-June period, after shrinking at an 0.8 percent annual pace in the first quarter of 2015.

Canada’s economy has taken a severe beating because of falling oil prices. The oil-rich country has been trying to ride out the storm of $30, $40 and $50 per barrel prices. Other resources, like precious metals, have also been slumping and contributing to the downfall of the Canadian economy. Meanwhile, the public sector has continued to grow under this current government.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Canada Officially in Recession in First Half of 2015

Government data confirmed Tuesday that Canada fell into a recession in the first half of the year marked by the weakest output since the 2008 global financial crisis.

According to Statistics Canada, the economy contracted 0.5 percent in the second quarter after retreating 0.8 percent in the previous three months.

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

Cash Crunch Brings More Greeks Into the Wild

Despite a ban, the lingering financial crisis appears to have increased the popularity of camping in the wild this summer as an alternative to hotels and organized camping facilities.

“There was definitely an increase in wild camping this year,” Victor Migionis, an economics graduate and passionate camper, told Kathimerini English Edition.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Fresh Factory Data Confirms Slowdown in China’s Economy

China’s factory activity contracted at its fastest pace in three years in August, confirming fears that the country’s growth is continuing to slow.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Illinois Pays Lottery Winners in Ious After $30k/Month Budget “Guru” Fails to Produce Deal

Much as Brazil is the poster child for the great EM unwind unfolding across emerging economies from LatAm to AsiaPac, Illinois is in many ways the mascot for America’s state and local government fiscal crisis.

Although well documented before, the state’s financial troubles were thrown into sharp relief in May when, on the heels of a state Supreme Court ruling that struck down a pension reform bid, Moody’s downgraded the city of Chicago to junk.

Since then, there’s been quite a bit written about the state’s pension problem and indeed, Reuters ran a special report earlier this month that outlined the labyrinthine, incestuous character of the state’s various state and local governments.

On Friday, in the latest sign that Illinois’ budget crisis has deepened, Governor Bruce Rauner apparently fired “ superstar” budget guru and Laffer disciple Donna Arduin who had been making some $30,000 a month as an economic consultant.

And while Illinois apparently found the cash to fork over six figures to Arduin for just four months of “ work” , the budget stalemate means hard times for Illinoisans — including, apparently, lottery winners. The Chicago Tribune has more:

After years of struggling financially, Susan Rick thought things were looking up when her boyfriend won $250,000 from the Illinois Lottery last month. She could stop working seven days a week, maybe fix up the house and take a trip to Minnesota to visit her daughter.

But because Illinois lawmakers have not passed a budget, she and her boyfriend, Danny Chasteen, got an IOU from the lottery instead.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

IMF Warns Emerging Economies Must be Vigilant on China Slowdown

The International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde warned Tuesday greater resilience would be needed from the world’s emerging economies to handle China’s slowdown, warning the road ahead could be “somewhat bumpy”.

The IMF chief also cautioned that global growth this year would be “likely weaker” than previously anticipated, less than two months after the IMF cut its global forecast for 2015 to 3.3 percent.

Emerging markets from Indonesia to Brazil have been bruised by the slowdown in the world’s second largest economy.

A slump in Chinese demand for commodities — exports that many emerging economies rely on heavily — has hammered these up-and-coming economies and their currencies, while a recent rout on Chinese stock markets and the shock devaluation of the yuan has only added to their woes…

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

In the Month of September 2015 We Officially Enter the Danger Zone

Is September 2015 going to be one of the most important months in modern American history?

When I issued my first ever “red alert” for the last six months of 2015 back in June, I was particularly concerned with the months of September through December, and not just for economic reasons. All of the intel that I have received is absolutely screaming that big trouble is ahead. So enjoy these last few days of relative peace and quiet. I mean that sincerely. In fact, that is exactly what I have been doing — over the past week I have not posted many articles because I was spending time with family, friends and preparing for the national call to prayer on September 18th and 19th. But now as we enter the chaotic month of September 2015 I have a feeling that there is going to be plenty for me to write about.

At this time last month, I declared that we were entering “the pivotal month of August 2015”, and that is exactly what it turned out to be. August was the worst month overall for stocks in three years, and it was the worst month of August for U.S. financial markets in 17 years.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Camusso Tells Renzi and Squinzi ‘Come Back Down to Earth’

Labour union leader calls statements ‘propaganda’

(ANSA) — Rome, September 1 — Susanna Camusso, secretary-general of Italy’s biggest trade union CGIL, on Tuesday told Premier Matteo Renzi and the head of industrial employers’ organisation Confindustria Giorgio Squinzi to “come back down to Earth” following their statements regarding Italy’s better-than-expected GDP and unemployment figures.

Camusso said “if they would stop with the propaganda, the country could seize the opportunities that seem to be appearing”.

“Today we’re at the height of a premier who boasts of results already reached and surpassed by Monti before and Letta after, and a Confindustria president who asks why growth is so low”.

“They had told a completely different story, the Confindustria president who assured copious investments and mass hirings in exchange for freedom to sack workers, while the premier assured that his reforms would have guaranteed a dynamic and innovative entrepreneurial class capable of hiring and with growth prospects,” Camusso said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Not “Unequivocally Good” — Canada Enters Recession

It appears low oil prices are not awesome for everyone. For the second quarter in a row, Canadian GDP dropped (-0.5%) pushing America’s northern neighbor back into recession. What is ironic is that this was better than the 1% drop that was expected and so CAD is strengthening.

[Comment: Comments to the article make for interesting reading. Such as this comment from actionjacksonbrownie : “According to the chart in the article Kanada has been growing almost non-stop for the past 30 years. I have been in the labour force for that entire time (actaully longer than that) and the only growth I have witnessed is in housing (mostly for newly arriving wealthy immigrants) and the oil patch. All other industry has been in freefall. We have been in recession since at least 1980, and the only “growth” has been in the total accumulated debt at all levels of .gov and society. Debt is not growth — it looks like growth for awhile, as all that borrowed “money” builds cities and infratructure. But once all that non-productive building activity is concluded, those debts are still owed and only grow with compounded interest tacked on over time. Almost none of the debt accumulated over the past 40 years has been productive, and the chickens have been steadily coming home to roost over that same amount of time.

GDP is a lousy method of calculating the health of an economy. Everyone equates all the shiny new buildings and expansive rows of mcmansions as “growth”. It is not — it is debt. It is mountains of liabilities that no seems to think need to be repaid. Well, the banksters think it needs to be repaid, and when the debts are unserviceable, that is when we collectively become slaves to the banksters.

The general population is in for a very rude awakening in the not-too-distant future.”]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Wall Street Falls Sharply on Weak China Data

The opening bell on Wall Street confirmed investors are set for another rollercoaster ride on the world’s equity markets this week, as US stocks tumbled into the red.

Weak factory data from China reignited fears of a sharper slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

Minutes after markets opened on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.4pc to 16,228, while the S&P slipped 1.8pc and the Nasdaq composite was off by 2pc.

Disappointing Chinese Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data sapped investor confidence, with the country’s manufacturing sector contracting at its fastest pace in three years, an official survey showed on Tuesday.

China’s PMI fell to 49.7 in August from 50.0 in July. Anything below 50 is considered a contraction.

           — Hat tip: Seneca III [Return to headlines]
 

Armed Black Panthers to Texas Cops: ‘We Will Start Creeping Up on You in the Darkness’

HOUSTON, Texas — Armed Black Panther members marched in front of the Waller County jail and shouted, “You’re gonna stop doing what you’re doing, or we will start creeping up on you in the darkness.”

The statement was made just two weeks prior to the assassination of a Harris County deputy sheriff.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

‘Brain-Eating Amoeba’ Kills Texas Teen Training for Olympics

A junior athlete from Houston, Texas, has died from a rare brain-eating amoeba infection after swimming in a lake with teammates. He is the fourth person this year killed by the single-cell organism, which thrives in stagnant water during the summer.

Michael Riley Jr, 14, was a star track runner who qualified for the Junior Olympics. On August 13, he and his teammates visited a state park some 70 miles (110 km) north of Houston, and went swimming in a lake after a day of workouts. A week after the trip, Riley registered a slight fever and began complaining about a headache, his family said.

At the Texas Children’s Hospital, doctors recognized the symptoms from a case they dealt with in July. Riley was diagnosed with Naegleriasis, also known as primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). The deadly disease is caused by Naegleria fowleri, an amoeba that lives in warm fresh water and is abundant during the hot summer months in the southern US.

Naegleria infections occur when water contaminated with the amoeba enters the body through the nose, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The amoeba then travels up to the brain, where it starts feeding on nerve tissue, causing bleeding and necrosis. Though extremely rare, the disease is almost universally fatal — out of 133 recorded cases in the US since 1962, only three people have survived, the CDC said.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Clinton Told Aide to Send Classified Info to Personal Email Address

On the same day that the “hacktivist” group WikiLeaks posted tens of thousands of classified State Department communications online, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a top deputy to send now-classified information to her personal email address, newly released emails reveal.

“Here’s my personal email,” Clinton told former Sen. George Mitchell, then Clinton’s special envoy for Middle East peace. “Pls use this for reply.”

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Excellent Quote From Judge Andrew Napolitano on the U.S. Political System

Here is Judge Napolitano’s superb words that should be a constant reminder on the campaign trail:

We have migrated from a two-party system into a one-party system, the big-government party. There’s a democratic wing that likes taxes and wealth transfers and assaults on commercial liberties and there’s a republican wing that likes war and deficits and assaults uncivil liberties. Neither of them is interested in true freedom.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Manhunt in Fox Lake After Police Officer Shot and Killed

CHICAGO (CBS) — A manhunt was underway in far north suburban Fox Lake, after a police officer was shot and killed while chasing three suspects on foot.

Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Cmdr. George Filenko said an officer was shot Tuesday morning near Rollins Road and Route 59.

At a late-morning news conference, Lake County Sheriff’s Det. Chris Covelli said, around 7:50 a.m., the officer radioed he was pursuing three suspects, after looking into their “suspicious activity.” Police lost radio contact with the officer, who was later found with a gunshot wound. Shortly after the news conference, Covelli confirmed that the officer died.

Covelli said police were conducting a ground and air search for three suspects — two white males and a black male. Unconfirmed dispatch reports indicated the suspects might have taken the officer’s gun and pepper spray. Police did not provide a more detailed description of the suspects.

People in the area were being told to stay inside, and to report any suspicious activity to 911.

Grant Community High School in Fox Lake and St. Bede School in neighboring Ingleside were placed on lock down at the request of Fox Lake Police as police search for the suspects…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Newly Released Graphic Video Shows Cops Killing Unarmed Man With His Hands Up From Far Away

San Antonio, TX — The unedited video depicting police officers gunning down an unarmed man holding his hands up in the air was released on Monday after the sheriff’s department identified the names of the deputies and the man that they killed.

Although the police claim that the man had a knife and attacked the deputies, the video clearly shows the man was unarmed and submitting to the officers when they opened fire. Another witness has come forward with a separate video of the shooting from a different angle, but the footage from the second camera has not been released to the public.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NYPD Undercover Cop Fires at Suspect Armed With Fake Gun, Fatally Shoots Bystander

A weapons sting operation went terribly wrong when an undercover NYPD officer, who was threatened with a replica gun by a robber, shot and killed a 61-year-old passerby instead of disabling the ‘gunman.’

The bystander, identified as Felix Kumi, died of two torso wounds on Saturday, police said. The gunman had attempted to rob the undercover officer just as he was about to buy a gun from a suspected illegal arms dealer in a vehicle as part of the Friday operation. The robber was reportedly hit three times as he was running away.

The number of hits, however, was a far cry from the total number of shots fired by the cop from NYPD’s Firearms Investigations Unit. According to witness reports and police statements cited by the New York Daily News, the officer fired at the fleeing robber anywhere between 11 and 21 shots.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Obama to Call for More Icebreakers to Operate in the Arctic

President Obama on Tuesday will propose speeding the acquisition and building of new Coast Guard icebreakers that can operate year-round in the nation’s polar regions, part of an effort to close the gap between the United States and other nations, especially Russia, in a global competition to gain a foothold in the rapidly changing Arctic.

On the second day of a three-day trip to Alaska to highlight the challenge of climate change and call for a worldwide effort to address its root causes, Mr. Obama’s proposals will touch on one of its most profound effects. The retreat of Arctic sea ice has created opportunities for shipping, tourism, mineral exploration and fishing — and with it, a rush of marine traffic that is bringing new difficulties.

“Arctic ecosystems are among the most pristine and understudied in the world, meaning increased commercial activity comes with significant risks to the environment,” the White House said in a fact sheet, issued in advance of an announcement by Mr. Obama in Seward, where he planned to hike to Exit Glacier on Tuesday and tour Kenai Fjords National Park by boat.

[Return to headlines]
 

Outrage in Inner Cities: The Source

A 1993 Cato Institute Essay, “The Myth of America: Underfunded Cities,” by Stephen Moore and Dean Stansel, makes this stunning point:

“Since 1965 the federal government has spent an estimated $2.5 trillion on the War on Poverty and urban aid. (That figure includes all spending on welfare, Medicaid, housing, education, job training, and infrastructure and direct aid to cities.) Economist Walter Williams has calculated that that is enough money to purchase all the assets of the Fortune 500 companies plus all of the farmland in the United States. But it has not spurred urban revival.”

How is that possible?

How do you spend $2.5 trillion and achieve no revival?

Sheer administrative incompetence doesn’t explain it. Not even close. First of all— and any well-intentioned government would investigate this down to the core— you find out where exactly all the money went.

This has never been done.

It’s safe to assume there are people who’ve gotten very rich off this feast. Huge sums never ended up where they were supposed to go. Instead, they were diverted and stolen. On top of that, a relatively minor chunk of the $2.5 trillion was hijacked after it reached local administrators in the inner cities.

But what about the massive federal dollars that did arrive at proper destinations? What happened there? For that, we have to look at how government traditionally operates.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pluto Snow Forecast Poses Atmospheric Conundrum

Discrepancy arises between New Horizons and Earth-based measurements.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft solved many mysteries about Pluto when it flew past the dwarf planet in July. But as mission controllers prepare to steer the probe to its next rendezvous, planetary scientists are working to understand a puzzling result: an atmospheric pressure at Pluto’s surface that is much lower than indicated by measurements obtained from Earth.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sheriff Clarke: Black Lives Matter is a “Vulgar, Vile, Vicious, Slimy Movement”

‘You would have to stick your head in the sand to think this wasn’t fueled by BLM’.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke is not letting up in his fight to expose Black Lives Matter activists as a race baiting movement intent on creating more division and segregation.

In an appearance on CNN Monday night, Clarke called out lefty journalist Marc Lamont Hill, arguing that BLM activists are directly tied to the brutal murder of Harris County, TX deputy Darren Goforth on Friday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

South Dakota Drops Teaching High Schoolers About American Revolution, Founding Documents

North Dakota students may or may not learn about the first 100 years of America’s history. Important topics like the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War and the framing of the U.S. Constitution may simply be ignored by teachers under new history standards approved by the state’s board of education last Monday, the Argus Leader reports.

Current standards do not allow history teachers to delve into topics before the Civil War, so the new standards open up the door but don’t require teachers to cover early American history, as many would have preferred. The recently adopted history standards are set to take effect in 2016-17 school year and whittle the current standards from 117 pages to 44.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The Donald Trump Phenomenon: Hidden Meanings

Trump is unpredictable. He’s the only unpredictable presidential candidate in recent memory. That’s a major plus, because the press can’t do anything with him. They attack him on point A, and he responds with his own attack, or he replies with a non-sequitur, or he just changes the subject because he’s bored with the reporters.

He’s mentioning taboo subjects. Bring back tariffs on US imports. Get rid of inner city gangs.

He says something culturally and politically incorrect, and the press jackals go after him with flashing teeth and claws, fully expecting a take-down, demanding a grovel— and he shrugs— and his approval ratings go up.

Putting the press into the wall— this alone is a feat worth celebrating. Reporters want Trump to be one defined thing they can identify, and then they want to assault that… but he keeps shifting ground and juking and putting on new moves and faces. He drives them crazy.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Continental Break-Up Set the Stage for Life in Earth’s Mantle

The break-up of continents may have allowed life to emerge on Earth. One hint of this has emerged from rocks deep beneath the sea floor off Portugal, which date back 125 million years, to the break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea.

Frieder Klein of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and his team have found fossilised microbes in these rocks, using samples collected in 1990s.

Pangaea’s break-up allowed ocean water and hydrothermal fluids below the sea floor to mix underground in newly created fissures and cavities, creating a suitable chemical environment for life — one that may exist on other planetary bodies in our solar system.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Secret Service Breaks Phone Taps Law Again

The Dutch secret service AIVD continues to break the law by eavesdropping on lawyers without a permit, the Telegraaf reports on Tuesday. The latest case came to light in a briefing to parliament from home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk. In it he detailed a complaint by Rotterdam lawyers Seebregts & Saey who say their telephone conversations and emails with clients had been intercepted by the AIVD.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany’s First Mosque Excavated Near Berlin

Archaeologists have excavated the remains of Germany’s oldest mosque on the outskirts of Berlin, a team from the capital city’s Free University (FU) announced on Monday.

The mosque, built in July 1915 and torn down in 1925 or 1926, was designed to serve as a place of prayer for around 4,000 Muslim prisoners of war captured on both the Eastern and western fronts during the First World War, Dr. Reinhard Bernbeck, who led the excavation, told The Local.

“But the mosque was not there for reasons of good treatment of the soldiers,” Bernbeck continued. “It was meant as a place to indoctrinate them into jihad so that they would return to the front to fight against their former colonial masters.”

Imams were sent specially from Germany’s allies in the Ottoman Empire with the task of converting the prisoners to jihad, the professor said.

But the project appears to have been a failure.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Google Italy Has Paid 12 Mn Euros in Taxes in 13 Years

Italian magazine says it’s a tiny figure compared to revenue

(ANSA) — Milan, September 1 — Italian financial magazine Altreconomia on Tuesday said Google Italy has paid just 12 million euros in taxes over 13 years of doing business in the country, a tiny figure when compared to the company’s “real” revenue, estimated conservatively by communications authority AGCOM at 490 million euros in the last fiscal year.

According to the magazine, Google’s Italian branch paid 12.08 million euros in taxes between 2002 and 2014 and made even lower profits (10.6 million) in the same period.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Autopsy Shows Possible Rape in Catania Killing

Mercedes Ibanez,70, killed along with husband near Sicilian city

(ANSA) — Palagonia, September 1 — Mercedes Ibanez, who was found dead at home with her husband at the weekend, may have been raped before being killed, a judicial source said on Tuesday following preliminary results of an autopsy performed overnight.

The source said the autopsy revealed “just clues, although they are various, that don’t give certainties”.

Final autopsy results will be filed with the prosecutor’s office within 60 days.

Ibanez, 70, and her husband, Vincenzo Solano, 68, were discovered dead in their home in Palagonia near Catania on Sunday.

Police arrested an 18-year-old Ivorian man, Mamadou Kamara, in connection with the killings.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Purporting to be Swedish, “Sham Uni” Courses on the Rise

There has been a rise in cases of “sham university” courses offered through Sweden and especially ones targeted at English and Arabic speakers who want to obtain a degree quickly, reports Swedish Radio News.

The Swedish Council for Higher Education receives 40 cases a year that concern organizations selling fake or worthless degrees. Just 15 years ago there had not been one such case.

Swedish Radio’s reporters contacted one such “sham univserity” whose headquarters are in Solna, a city in the greater Stockholm area. The International Virtual University (IVU), while headquartered in Sweden, has a contact person in Turkey. For USD 2,000 or SEK 17,000, a student can obtain a degree in civil engineering.

“With us all our instruction is given remotely, so it goes more quickly that usual. You can become a civil engineer in a year,” a man who identified himself as the rector of IVU told the reporter.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Investigation of Örebro ISIS Recruiter Closed

A preliminary investigation of a 45-year-old man from Örebro who was suspected of recruiting for terrorist organization ISIS, will be closed.

“We haven’t made the progress necessary for the man to be prosecuted,” said prosecutor Ronnie Jacobson to Swedish Radio’s local station in Örebro.

The man was arrested in early June on suspicion of recruiting people in Örebro to travel to Syria and to fight for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He was released from custody in late June.

The man has denied the allegations. His wife told Swedish Radio’s P4 Örebro that her husband is happy the investigation is closed.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Swede Wakes Up With Justin Bieber on Buttock

A man in central Sweden has more reason than most to regret a drunken night out — after waking up with Justin Bieber’s name on his backside.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The ‘Birmingham Koran’ Fragment That Could Shake Islam After Carbon-Dating Suggests it is Older Than the Prophet Muhammad

Fragments of the world’s oldest Koran, found in Birmingham last month, may predate the Prophet Muhammad and could even rewrite the early history of Islam, according to scholars.

The pages, thought to be between 1,448 and 1,371 years old, were discovered bound within the pages of another Koran from the late seventh century at the library of the University of Birmingham.

Written in ink in an early form of Arabic script on parchment made from animal skin, the pages contain parts of the Suras, or chapters, 18 to 20, which may have been written by someone who actually knew the Prophet Muhammad — founder of the Islamic faith.

But now several historians have said that the parchment might even predate Muhammad.

It is believed that the Birmingham Koran was produced between 568AD and 645AD, while the dates usually given for Muhammad are between 570AD and 632AD.

Historian Tom Holland, told the Times: ‘It destabilises, to put it mildly, the idea that we can know anything with certainty about how the Koran emerged — and that in turn has implications for the history of Muhammad and the Companions.’

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Woman Dragged From Her Car and Raped in John Lewis Car Park

A woman was dragged from her vehicle and raped in the car park of a John Lewis.

Police are hunting her attacker, who was described as an Asian man with a “very distinctive” pockmarked face.

The man opened her car door, which was on the far side of the car park, dragged her out, and raped her in some nearby bushes.

It took place on Friday at 7pm in the car park of the John Lewis in Cheadle, near Stockport, Manchester. The woman is in her 20s.

Police described her attacker as of medium build, around 40 years old, with black hair and thick black ‘monobrow’ eyebrows…

           — Hat tip: Seneca III [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Fail to Reach Deal With Morocco on Social Benefits

Negotiations between the Netherlands and Morocco on treaties covering social benefits have failed, Dutch media report on Tuesday. The Netherlands wants to reduce the reduce to local levels the benefits paid to Moroccan Dutch who have returned to Morocco. A majority of MPs say benefits should reflect local needs, not Dutch standards. Morocco has criticised the decision, saying people who have paid social insurance premiums should be entitled to the same level of payouts as people living in the Netherlands.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egypt Gas Bonanza Sparks Panic in Israel About Developers Abandoning Israel’s Own Gas Reserves

Egypt’s new natural gas bonanza is causing an uproar in Israel, with energy stocks plummeting and recriminations over indecisiveness and infighting that have delayed production from the country’s own gas fields.

The government is currently struggling to get parliament to approve its natural gas business plan, but observers fear Israel may need to reassess everything now that Egypt, which had been cast as both an export destination and a partner, may have found its own independent solution.

Israel’s offshore gas reserves had long been regarded as a future cash cow for the resource-poor country, and gas exporters in Egypt were expected to be the key customers of Israel’s yet untapped Leviathan field.

But plans to develop Leviathan are suddenly up in the air after Italian energy company Eni SpA said Sunday it had found the “largest-ever” gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off Egypt’s shores. The field is located in shallower seas than Leviathan, likely making it easier for companies to extract, in a country with none of the regulatory chaos of Israel.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Egyptians Will Go to the Poll Starting on 17 October to Elect a New Parliament

After three years, voters will pick 568 members of the lower house. Sisi loyalists are favoured to win. The vote is expected to give the president a veneer of legitimacy after jumpstarting the economy and holding back the Islamist onslaught.

Cairo (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Egypt’s electoral commission announced on Sunday that legislative elections, the first since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office, will take place in several phases starting 17 October, thus ending the country’s long process of returning to democracy.

For critics, the process of bringing back democracy has been tainted by widespread repression and a failure to uphold the rule of law. However, the past two years have seen Sisi give new impetus to the economy (the inauguration of the new Suez Canal) and restore security and legality by way of special anti-terrorism laws.

Voting for Egyptians abroad will take place on 17-18 October. A second round of voting in the two-phase election will take place on 22-23 November, followed by runoffs on November 30, December 1 and 2.

Egypt’s House of Representatives is made up of 568 seats, 448 seats elected through the individual candidacy system and 120 through winner-takes-all lists, with quotas for women, Christians and youth. The president may also appoint a number of people to the house, not exceeding 5 percent of its makeup.

Analysts say the polls, with Sisi loyalists heavily favoured to emerge the big winners, will serve to appease Egypt’s backers in the West who see the president as a rampart against jihadist violence despite concerns over repression that has eliminated any meaningful opposition.

The poll had initially been scheduled for early 2014 but was delayed on legal grounds amid charges from rights groups of repressive measures during a crackdown on the Islamist opposition.

The constitutional court dissolved the previous Islamist-dominated parliament, which was elected after the 2011 uprising that forced long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak from power.

After the military coup, a new constitution was adopted in January 2014 and Sisi was elected president in May the same year. A new parliament should be in place by the end of this year.

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

Edison Interested in Israeli Gas Fields

Karish and Tanin; awaiting new gov’t policy

(ANSAmed) — MILAN, SEPTEMBER 1 — Edison is interested in acquiring two natural gas fields in the Israeli offshore: Karish and Tanin, but “not at any price”, Bloomberg was told by Edison’s representative in Tel Aviv, Yarom Ariav. The manager said that, after the important Egyptian offshore field by Eni, it had become more urgent that Israel finalizes its gas policy in order for the country to benefit. Ariav said that the discovery showed that there is a large amount of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean, Israel included, and that the conditions needed to be created to support continued exploration and production. Israel has yet to approve its natural gas policy, which would open the way to exports and call on the owners of the two fields — Noble and Delek — to sell their shares. The vote initially planned for Wednesday was reschduled after the Egyptian discovery, Bloomberg noted. Ariav, previously general director of the Israeli finance ministry, said that EDF’s Edison subsidiary was waiting for the Israeli government to provide incentives for the development of small natural gas fields for local consumption, ensuring for example the presence of buyers, permitting the use of shared facilities and with new taxation and royalties for small producers. Karish and Tanin have a potential of 60 billion cubic meters of gas, according to the estimates provided in July by Noble and Delek. The field discovered in Egypt by Eni is worth 850 billion.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Dutch Ground Troops Could be Sent to Syria: CDA Leader

The refugee problem will not be solved without a solution in Syria and that could mean Dutch soldiers being deployed, CDA party leader Sybrand Buma said on Tuesday in an interview with news website Nu.nl. ‘We must look at the source of this stream of refugees: the chaos in Syria and Iraq, and also the instability in Libya,’ Buma said. He wants safe havens set up in crisis areas where soldiers under the United Nations or European Union flag would provide peace and safety for the refugees. This would mean the Netherlands enlarging its mission in the fight against the so-called islamic state and ‘if that involves sending in soldiers on the ground, we must be prepared to do so’, Buma said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Five Dutch Jihadis a Month Are Still Heading for Syria, Iraq

Around five people a month are still managing leave the Netherlands and join jihadi movements in Syria and Iraq, according to the latest briefing from the Dutch counter-terrorism organisation NCTV. The briefing states that by August 1, some 210 people are known to have made the trip and 35 have returned home. The death toll among Dutch jihadis is currently put at 38. The briefing also states that a number of people who wish to go to Syria and Iraq are being prevented from doing so by the authorities. This group may become frustrated and pose a risk to domestic security, the NCTV says.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

How the US Can Stop ISIS Without Setting Foot in Syria

Increasingly difficult to cover-up or spin, it is becoming apparent even in Western media coverage that the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) is not sustaining its fighting capacity from within Iraq or Syria, but rather through supply lines that lead to and from adjacent nations. These nations include Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and most obviously, NATO-member Turkey.

It was in Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW)’s report, “‘IS’ supply channels through Turkey,” that hundreds of trucks destined for ISIS held territory were videotaped waiting at Oncupinar, Turkey to cross over into Syria with apparently no oversight by the Turkish government. Later, TIME magazine would admit ISIS’ dependence on the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, just across the border from Turkey, for supplies and the significance of its loss to Kurdish fighters in sustaining their fighting capacity both at the border and beyond.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Iran Clothing With US, British Flags Sparks Arrests

Iranian police have arrested merchants for selling clothing that featured the flags of the United States and Britain, two longtime foes of the Islamic republic, local media reported Tuesday.

Garments imprinted with “Satanic symbols” were also seized from stores in Tehran, city police chief General Hossein Sajedinia was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying.

Sajedinia said reports about the activity had been received in the past two weeks, leading to surveillance and detentions…

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

Islamic State Video: ISIS Militants in Iraq Burn Four Shiite Fighters Alive

[WARNING: Disturbing content.]

“Now retribution has come, for today, we will attack them as they attacked us and punish them as they punished us.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Russia Deploying Air Force Contingent to Syria

JERUSALEM—Russia has begun to deploy an air force contingent to Syria in order to undertake air attacks against the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) and other Islamic groups battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, according to the Israeli news site, Ynet.

Citing western diplomatic sources, Ynet reported Tuesday that an advance Russian party has already arrived in Syria and will be followed in the coming weeks by thousands of military personnel, including members of an “aerial protection division.” This presumably is a force to protect the air contingent, which is to include fighter jets and attack helicopters, from ground attack. The Russians will reportedly be making use of an existing Syrian air force base in the Damascus area.

The report was written by the news site’s military correspondent, Alex Fishman, who has a reputation for reliability.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Air Force Begins to Arrive in Syria and Begins Operating Base Near Damascus

A Russian expeditionary force has already arrived in Syria ahead of Russian fighter pilots expected to arrive in Syria this week. According to reports, Russia will continue to deploy Russian Air Force fighter jets to fight against rebel forces within Syria, as well as the threats from the Islamic State to Assad’s regime.

Diplomats have confirmed that several Russian forces have set up in a base close to Damascus and that in the coming weeks, thousands of Russian military personal will arrive in Syria. Reportedly, advisors, logistics, technicians, instructors and an Air Force protection division, as well as pilots will be among the incoming personnel.

The reports comes just after Iran announced it will receive its purchased Russian advanced S-300 missile system, and follows reports that Russia and Syria are in talks for sale of MiG-29 fighter jets and Yak-130 trainer jets.

           — Hat tip: Nick [Return to headlines]
 

Russian Military Forces Arrive in Syria, Set Forward Operating Base Near Damascus

As Ynet reports, not only has Putin not turned his back on Assad, or Syria, but the Russian reinforcements are well on their way. Reinforcements for what? Why to fight the evil Islamic jihadists from ISIS of course, the same artificially created group of bogeyman that the US, Turkey, and Saudis are all all fighting. In fact, this may be the first world war in which everyone is “fighting” an opponent that everyone knows is a proxy for something else.

According to Ynet, Russian fighter pilots are expected to begin arriving in Syria in the coming days, and will fly their Russian air force fighter jets and attack helicopters against ISIS and rebel-aligned targets within the failing state.

And just like the US and Turkish air forces are supposedly in the region to “eradicate the ISIS threat”, there can’t be any possible complaints that Russia has also decided to take its fight to the jihadists — even if it is doing so from the territory of what the real goal of US and Turkish intervention is — Syria. After all, it is a free for all against ISIS, right?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Police Raid Media Group Critical of Erdogan

Turkish police on Tuesday staged a major swoop on the Ankara-based offices of a media group critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and close to his political nemesis, the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.

The raids sparked fresh concern about deteriorating press freedoms on Turkey, which is gearing up for a November legislative election, its second in five months.

The crackdown saw masked police breaking into and searching a number of offices belonging to Koza-Ipek Media, which owns several newspapers and two television channels, the Dogan news agency reported.

Police entered 23 offices as well as Ipek University in Ankara belonging to its parent company Koza Ipek Holding “as part of a terrorist investigation into Fethullah Gulen”, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported…

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

Russia: New Laboratory to Study Mammoth Cloning

Russia has opened a laboratory in Siberia devoted to the study of extinct animal DNA in the hope of creating clones, it’s reported.

The new lab in Yakutsk — often called the world’s coldest city — will “seek out live cells with a view to cloning”, says Semen Grigoryev, director of the Mammoth Museum at the city’s Northeastern Federal University. He tells Ogonek magazine that “the priority is to look into bringing back the mammoth”, adding that the Beijing Institute of Genomics and South Korea’s Sooam Biotech company, which has pioneered dog cloning, will be involved in the study.

Earlier this year, researchers at Harvard University announced they had copied 14 woolly mammoth genes into the genome of an Asian elephant. The scientists at Yakutsk’s new facility hope that their own unrivalled collection of 2,000 or so remnants of prehistoric animals, ranging from primitive dogs and horses to mammoths, will help to identify quality cell tissue from which to extract useful DNA.

The story has provoked considerable excitement in Russian social media.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Russia, China ‘Aggressively’ Identifying US Operatives

China and Russia are aggressively using stolen data to identify members of the U.S. intelligence community, according to a top security official.

They have been looking at a range of data to determine “who is an intelligence officer, who travels where, when, who’s got financial difficulties, who’s got medical issues, (to) put together a common picture,” William Evanina said in comments to the Los Angeles Times on Monday. Evanina is director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.

Evanina also said foreign intelligence services had “absolutely” already used the data against American operatives. However, the nature of that usage is classified. Just one network of U.S. engineers and scientists who provide assistance to undercover operatives has been identified as compromised, he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Indian Kumbh Mela Festival Bans Selfies Due to Stampede Fears

A “no selfie zone” will be implemented at a major Hindu festival in India due to fears they could cause stampedes.

The ban is being imposed at the Kumbh Mela, a pilgrimage that has attracted nearly three million people since July.

Authorities say that selfies will be banned on the days that people ritually bathe in the sacred Godavari river.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Kiel Scientists: MH370 Search in Wrong Place

German scientists have challenged conventional wisdom on the crash site of the MH370, the Malaysia Airlines plane missing since March 2014, suggesting the search is being conducted in the wrong place.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Myanmar President Signs (Anti-Muslim) Law That Bans Polygamy

Thein Sein inks controversial law that bans multiple marriages and common law partnerships. Promoted by rightwing Buddhist extremists, the new legislation follows a series of measures designed to defend “race and religion”. For HRW official, the new legislation is potentially discriminatory, especially for the way it might be implemented.

Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Myanmar’s president on Monday signed into law the last of four controversial bills championed by radical Buddhists but decried by rights groups as aimed at discriminating against the country’s Muslim minority.

President Thein Sein signed the monogamy bill after it was passed by parliament on 21 August. The law punishes people who have more than one spouse or live with an unmarried partner other than the spouse.

The measures are part of four “Race and Religion Protection Laws” championed by the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion, or Ma Ba Tha.

Under previously approved conversion rules, changing one’s religion requires the approval of the authorities.

Myanmar is set to hold historic elections of 8 November, the first poll with the participation of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, which had boycotted the polls in 2011.

However, this has been accompanied by the rise of rightwing Buddhist extremists who have singled out the country’s minority Muslims, especially the Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine in 2012.

The government denies that the new law is aimed at Muslims, estimated to make up about 5 per cent of the population. Although not widespread, polygamy is practiced by some Muslims.

Human rights groups slammed the new laws adopted by parliament and signed by the president because “They set out the potential for discrimination on religious grounds and pose the possibility for serious communal tension,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch. “Now that these laws are on the books, the concern is how they are implemented and enforced.”

According to activist Robert San Aung, the text of the legislation do not provide clear indication of what authority would field complaints and process legal proceedings stemming from alleged violations of the laws.

For the lawyer, the laws “do not meet international standards” on human rights. For this reason, “Burmese monks who love peace and Burmese academics should work together in order to amend this law.”

Reacting to the campaign of religious hatred and intolerance against Muslims (Rohingya), a group of young people launched a campaign over the summer called ‘My friend’, taking to social networks (Facebook and Twitter) to promote tolerance among Myanmar citizens. Their aim is to boost national unity by fighting sectarian hatred and violence between Muslims and Buddhists.

Myanmar’s Catholic Church also spoke out several occasions against the marginalisation and neglect faced by the Muslim minority.

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

Thai Prime Minister Says Main Suspect in Bangkok Bombing Arrested

Thai authorities arrested a man they believe is part of a group responsible for a bombing at a shrine in central Bangkok two weeks ago, the prime minister announced Tuesday. He said the suspect resembles a yellow-shirted man in a surveillance video who police say planted the bomb.

“It would be great if he were (the bomber). Then we will know who they are, where they came from, who’s behind this,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters.

He said the man is a foreigner and was detained in eastern Thailand near the Cambodian border, one of several border crossings where authorities set up checkpoints after the Aug. 17 bombing which killed 20 people, many of them foreign tourists, and injured more than 120.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

China Rocked by Another Massive Chemical Explosion, People’s Daily Reports

This is the second explosion in Shandong, which both follow the huge and deadly explosion in Tianjin.

We’ll await the details which we imagine will suggest that, as was the case in Tianjin, many more tonnes of something terribly toxic were stored than is allowed under China’s regulatory regime which apparently only applies to those who are not somehow connected to the Politburo.

After the last Shandong explosion, The People’s Daily reported that the plant contained adiponitrile, which the CDC says can cause “irritation eyes, skin, respiratory system; headache, dizziness, lassitude (weakness, exhaustion), confusion, convulsions; blurred vision; dyspnea (breathing difficulty); abdominal pain, nausea, [and] vomiting.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Australia: Cop Who Leaked Video of Fellow Officers Beating Innocent Man Now Faces 7 Years in Prison

A Gold Coast police officer who leaked the CCTV video footage showing police brutally beating an innocent man is now facing seven long years behind bars.

Sergeant Rick Flori is being threatened with seven years in prison after the leaked video surveillance footage was released, which clearly showed his fellow officers beating a young chef named Noa Begic.

Begic was handcuffed in the Surfers Paradise Police Station basement during the entire ordeal. There was simply no way the officers could get away with claiming self-defense on this one… at least not once the video was released. That’s why they hoped it never would be.

Officers for the Gold Coast, Australia Police Department had expected Sergeant Flori to be like the rest of them and cover up the police brutality. But instead, Flori took a stand — and now they are trying to lock him up for it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Data Retention and the End of Australians’ Digital Privacy

Australia to retain all metadata at ISP level, give to law enforcement without warrant.

The digital privacy of Australians ends from Tuesday, October 13.

On that day this country’s entire communications industry will be turned into a surveillance and monitoring arm of at least 21 agencies of executive government.

The electronically logged data of mobile, landline voice (including missed and failed) calls and text messages, all emails, download volumes and location information will be mandatorily retained by Australian telcos and ISPs.

Intelligence and law enforcement agencies will have immediate, warrantless and accumulating access to all telephone and internet metadata required by law, with a $2 million penalty for telcos and ISPs that don’t comply.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

New Zealand Unveils Shortlist of Four for Its New Flag

New Zealand has unveiled the shortlist of four options to replace its century-old national flag.

Not one of the designs, from which voters will be asked to choose in a referendum in November, features the Union flag that dominates the top left quadrant of the present ensign.

Three show the silver fern while a fourth bears a koru, a spiral shape based on the unfurling silver fern frond, familiar from the logo on Air New Zealand’s tailplanes.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

When a Slump Hits a Vast Iron Ore Mine in Australia

Australia’s iron ore industry has hit a slump after decades of boom fuelled by rampant demand from China. This is threatening the livelihoods of thousands of miners and entire communities dependent on these vast opencast mines.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: 3,650 Migrants Arrive on Trains in One Day

A total of 3,650 migrants reached Vienna by train Monday, this year’s biggest daily number, Austrian police said, after Hungarian authorities allowed people stuck in makeshift refugee camps to leave Budapest despite many not having EU visas.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austria: 20,000 Protest in Vienna Over Migrant Treatment

Around 20,000 people demonstrated in Vienna on Monday against ill-treatment of migrants after the bodies of 71 refugees were found in an abandoned truck last week, police said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Austria Inspects Trucks for Migrants, Creates 18-Mile Backup

Eds: Updates with jam length, Austria police comment, measur

(ANSA-AP) — BUDAPEST — Austria stepped up truck inspections Monday at its Hungarian border after 71 migrants apparently suffocated in one, creating a massive, 30-kilometer (18 1/2-mile) traffic jam on the main Budapest-Vienna highway.

In addition to the backup at the Hegyeshalom border crossing, traffic was slower than usual at other Hungary-Austria border crossings, the traffic watch firm Utinform reported.

And in Germany, the state government in Bavaria, which has all of Germany’s border crossings with Austria, said Monday it also had launched special traffic checks on highways near the border.

All three countries are part of the EU’s Schengen zone of passport-free travel, where under normal circumstances vehicles are rarely inspected at the border anymore.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Bavaria to Open Balkan Refugee Center

Bavaria is set to open Germany’s first registration center specifically for asylum seekers from Balkan countries. The move is meant to send migrants from “safe” countries back home as soon as possible.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Budapest, Vienna Train Stations Overwhelmed With Refugees

Budapest’s Keleti train station has been closed in an attempt to prevent migrants from fleeing to Austria and Germany. Refugees said they spent hundreds on tickets after police told them they could expect free passage.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Calais: Anger Over Plan for New Migrant Camp

The news that France will build an official camp in Calais to house 1,500 migrants has been met with anger by aid groups while politicians claim it will end up like the infamous Sangatte detention centre that had to be closed in 2002.

The announcement this week by French PM Manuel Valls that a new camp will be built in Calais to house 1,500 migrants was met with a certain degree of anger by opposition politicians as well as bitter disappointment by aid agencies working on the ground.

French authorities have long resisted building any kind of official lodgings for the thousands of migrants and refugees who have been living in squalid conditions in the northern port town of Calais, from where they hope to reach the UK.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Czech President Calls for Army to Defend Border Against Migrants

The Czech Republic should defend its borders, using the army to expel “illegal immigrants” because the European Union isn’t curbing the influx of refugees into the bloc, President Milos Zeman said.

Zeman’s comments echoed those of other politicians calling for the EU to take action to stem the flood of people into the region from Syria and other conflict areas as they travel through Greece and the Balkan states to western Europe.

“Of course I would wish for the EU to strengthen its borders, but I don’t see any real action,” Zeman told reporters in Prague castle on Monday. “Therefore I believe the Czech Republic should take of its borders alone and expel illegal immigrants from the borders, including with the use of the army.”

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Dark Germany, Bright Germany: Which Side Will Prevail Under Strain of Refugees?

Germany is experiencing an unprecedented influx of immigrants who will fundamentally change the country. They represent a burden, but also a chance to create a New Germany, one that is more cosmopolitan and generous. By SPIEGEL Staff

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

From Turkey to Sweden: Syrian Migrant’s Perilous Journey

The BBC’s James Reynolds follows the progress of a young Syrian migrant, as she makes a perilous journey from Turkey to Sweden to claim asylum.

“I don’t want to be Syrian anymore,” says 20-year-old Nour Ammar. “Everything is hard for Syrian people. That’s why I decided I needed to go. I’m supposed to go. I don’t have any choice.”

Nour and her mother, Islam, fled Deri ez-Zor in Syria three years ago. Her father, who stayed behind, was killed shortly afterwards. She and her mother eventually moved to exile in Turkey.

For two years in Istanbul, she enjoyed a comfortable life. Nour found work in a hair transplant salon, and later with Turkish state TV. She learnt Turkish, went horse-riding and dyed her hair blonde for the summer.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Countering the Hate: ‘People Are Getting Involved in Tremendous Ways’

Around 800,000 refugees are expected to arrive in Germany this year, with the number of Syrians growing rapidly. Manfred Schmidt, Germany’s top migration official, discusses how the country is coping with the massive influx.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How many refugees can Germany still take in?

Schmidt: When it comes to the absorption of people who are fleeing persecution and require protection, there can be no upper ceiling.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greek Ferries Carry 4,000 Migrants to Mainland

Two ferries chartered by Greece are carrying more than 4,000 migrants from its overwhelmed eastern Aegean islands to the mainland.

The ferries are to arrive in Piraeus, the main port near Athens, later Tuesday night. The government began the ferry runs from islands such as Lesvos and Kos in mid-August due to a scarcity of tickets on regular ferries at the height of the summer tourist season.

Thousands of migrants have been stuck on the Greek islands, with families sleeping out in the open for days in streets and parks until they can get a ferry ticket to Piraeus.

In addition, Greece’s coast guard says it rescued nearly 1,200 migrants from the sea off the islands in the last 24 hours.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Greek Island Lesbos’ Population Surpassed by Refugee Numbers

The number of unregistered Syrian migrants that have arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos has exceeded the resident population, some 90,000, this year, said Mayor Spyros Galinos, who has suggested official boat or plane routes to save lives.

Before 2015, only around 100 migrants entered the island illegally on average annually. However, this number exceeded 90,000 in the last two months, he said.

“When compared to the population of the island, these illegal entries have created a big problem. However, I believe that big solutions will emerge amid these problems,” the mayor said.

Migrants pay human smugglers around 1,000 euros for a pass, the mayor explained. “But we pay only 15 euros for the same voyage legally,” he said, adding that preventing this illegal trade could hit illegal earnings by smugglers.

“Why cannot (migrants) take a boat or plane and cross to the other side? Let me put a boat route and they can pass via a passenger boat safely. We are doing all we can for them on the island and helping them go wherever they want to,” he said.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Shuts Down Rail Traffic for Migrants Heading West, Clears Train Station

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary stunned migrants and European partners Tuesday by blocking asylum-seekers from its westbound trains, a move that raised new challenges for the EU’s passport-free travel zone and could drive many into the reckless hands of cross-border smugglers.

Hungary’s right-wing nationalist government defended its U-turn — just days after it started permitting migrants on the trains without any coherent immigration controls at all — as necessary to send a get-tough signal. Cabinet ministers told lawmakers that the nation, struggling to cope with more than 150,000 arrivals this year, was determined to seal its borders to unwelcome travelers from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Human rights activists criticized the action as futile and reckless, given that eastern European gangs have mobilized fleets of vehicles for illegally transporting migrants to Austria, Germany and elsewhere — but at steep prices and in often dangerous conditions. They warned that blocking public transportation would increase risks of a repeat of last week’s tragedy when the bodies of 71 people, apparently suffocated, were found in the back of an abandoned truck near Vienna, Austria.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Islamic State Terrorists Caught Crossing Into Europe Posing as Refugees

Five men have been arrested as they attempted to cross the Bulgarian-Macedonian border with decapitation videos and Islamic State propaganda on their phones. The terrorist suspects had been posing as refugees.

Bulgarian authorities near the Gyueshevo border checkpoint detained the five men, aged between 20 and 24, late on Wednesday, Bulgarian broadcaster NOVA TV reported.

The men were stopped by a border guard, who they attempted to bribe with a “wad of dollars.” However, they were searched and Islamic State propaganda, specific Jihadists prayers and decapitation videos were found on their phones.

In a move that suggests how seriously authorities are taking the case, the Bulgarian State Agency for National Security (DANS) has now taken control of the investigation under the supervision of the regional prosecutor’s office in Kyustendil.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

League Leader Takes Swipe at Italian Church Over Immigration

Matteo Salvini ridicules head of Italian Bishops conference

(ANSA) — Rome, September 1 — The head of Italy’s anti-immigrant Northern League took another swipe at the Italian Bishops Conference CEI on Tuesday, ridiculing its leader in an ongoing feud with the Italian Church over immigration policies.

CEI Secretary-General Monsignor Nunzio Galantino has criticised politicians who fuel anti-migrant sentiments, and has complained about the government’s response to the Mediterranean refugee crisis. His comments have prompted harsh replies from Northern League members.

League leader Matteo Salvini continued the clash on Tuesday, telling Radio Anch’io that he did not view Galantino as a bishop, but as a “joke”.

“Luckily, the large part of the Church speaks very little and works a lot. I’m attacking those bishops that would want to run for parliament for the Communist party,” Salvini said.

He also renewed calls for the Cara di Mineo refugee reception centre near Catania to be closed.

“There are countless investigations into that centre, and the local mayors all say it is an enclave of crime,” he said.

Catholic daily Avvenire also waded in on the immigration issue on Tuesday, calling for an end to “racist hysteria” but agreeing that the Cara reception centre in Mineo, Sicily — Europe’s biggest migrant centre — needed to be closed after a string of incidents including a recent double murder allegedly by an Ivorian who escaped from it.

“Keeping 3,000 people in a reception centre long-term is madness,” the paper wrote in an editorial.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Migrant Found ‘Squeezed’ Behind Car Engine Crossing Into Spain

An African migrant tried to smuggle himself into Spain crammed into a tiny space behind a car’s engine.

The asylum seeker, reportedly from the West African nation of Guinea, was found hidden beneath the bonnet of the car as it crossed from Morocco into Ceuta — one of two North African territories governed by the Spanish government.

He was discovered by border police, squeezed behind the engine block and radiator lying in a foetal position.

He was reportedly in a bad state of health as a result of the baking temperatures and petrol fumes.

A second migrant, also from Guinea, was found hidden inside a tiny space behind one of the seats inside the car.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Migrants Stranded as Hungary Bars Them From Rail Station

Hundreds of migrants are stranded outside a major railway station in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, after police sealed off the terminal to stop them travelling through the EU.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs defended the closure, saying Hungary was trying to enforce EU law.

Thousands of people, many fleeing war and persecution, are trying to reach northern Europe to claim asylum.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

More Than 350,000 People Crossed Med This Year — IOM

More than 2,600 dead

(fixes typo in subtitle) (ANSA) — Geneva, September 1 — More than 350,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean in search of a better life this year and some 2,634 people have died on the way to Europe, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Rajoy Urges Italy, Greece to Organize Hotspots

Spanish PM, quotas principle OK but parameters to be considered

(ANSA) — BERLIN — Italy and Greece “must quickly organize registration centers” for immigrants, Spanish Premier Mariano Rajoy has said. Rajoy made the statement in Berlin, where he was visiting with Angela Merkel, stressing that this is a fundamental passage towards the resolution of the refugee crisis in Europe.

“The principle of the distribution of refugees in all 28 European countries is good”, also said the premier, replying to a question on Madrid’s position on mandatory quotas.

The prime minister, however, stressed he wants to know the criteria: “It is necessary to have appropriate knowledge to make informed decisions, we must know the parameters”. For Rajoy, unemployment rates and expenses to defend the borders of different countries make the difference.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Riot Police Evacuate Hungarian Rail Hub

Hungarian police evacuated Budapest’s main international rail station on Tuesday as hundreds of migrants tried to board trains to western Europe, as the continent struggles with its biggest movement of people since World War II.

Tensions were high as hundreds of police, some in riot gear, began moving people out of Keleti station.

Although they offered no resistance, several hundred migrants staged an angry demonstration outside the station, an AFP correspondent said.

“Germany! Germany! We want to leave!” chanted the crowd, with some holding their babies up in the air.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Strasbourg Condemns Italy on Migrant Expulsions

Three Tunisians must get 10,000 euros a head compensation

(ANSA) — Strasbourg, September 1 — The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Italy for violating the rights of three undocumented Tunisian migrants in 2011. The men who were rescued in the sea, taken to a detention centre on Lampedusa and deported on the basis of an accord with Tunisia did not have their personal positions respected and must be compensated with 10,000 euros a head, the court said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

‘Thousands’ of Refugees Arrive in Munich Station

Up to 2,000 refugees arrived in Munich by train on Tuesday morning after Hungarian authorities allowed them to leave Budapest and travel to Germany via Austria.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Trafficking Surges in Fake Syrian Passports, Frontex Chief Warns

The chief of Frontex, the European Union’s border agency, says trafficking in fake Syrian passports has increased, notably in Turkey, creating a windfall for criminal gangs and a boon for migrants trying to get into Europe.

Frontext chief Fabrice Leggeri said Tuesday that Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war have the right to asylum in EU nations, making a Syrian passport very attractive. He told Frances Europe 1 radio the situation is also “extremely lucrative for criminal organizations.”

He said those who purchase a fake Syrian passport are Arabic speaking, making them credible, but usually have a “profile of an economic immigrant” who, under European rules, would not receive asylum.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Pope Allows Priests to Absolve Abortion During Jubilee

Francis explains indulgences allowed for Jubilee Year of Mercy

(ANSA) — Vatican City, September 1 — Pope Francis on Tuesday released a letter to Monsignor Rino Fisichella, the Vatican’s director of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, in which he granted priests the ability to absolve the sin of abortion.

Until now, only a diocese bishop was allowed to absolve the sin of abortion from those involved, including medical workers as well as parents of the unborn child.

“One of the serious problems of our time is certainly the modified relationship with life, a widespread mentality that has caused a loss of personal and social sensitivity towards welcoming a new life,” Pope Francis said.

“God’s forgiveness can’t be denied to anyone who has repented,” he said, calling on priests to “prepare themselves for this big task, knowing how to combine words of genuine welcoming with a reflection that helps one to understand the sin committed”.

The head of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, stressed that the pope’s move did not “attenuate the gravity of the sin” involved in aborting.

Pope Francis also said that during the Jubilee Year, those who confess at churches officiated by members of the Society of St. Pius X — the group founded by the traditionalist Marcel Lefebvre, who was excommunicated 1988 for consecrating four bishops without a papal mandate — would also receive “valid and lawful absolution for their sins”.

“This Jubilee Year of Mercy doesn’t exclude anyone,” Pope Francis said.

Francis called on the faithful to perform a “brief pilgrimage” towards a Holy Door — located at each of the four papal basilicas in Rome, every cathedral, and in churches designated by a diocese bishop — as a “sign of the deep desire of true conversion”.

The Holy Door is the northernmost entrance at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, only opened for Jubilee Years. Pope Francis also directed his attention towards the incarcerated, and said that they will be able to receive an indulgence in prison chapels.

“Every time that (prisoners) pass the door of their cell, thinking of and praying to the Father, may this gesture signify for them walking through the Holy Door,” Pope Francis said.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Students Revolt Over Tranny, Formerly Gay Male, Using Girls’ Locker Room

High school students walked out in protest Monday to keep a transsexual student and former gay male from using the girls’ locker room.

The students and their parents at Hillsboro, Mo., H.S. were outraged after school officials gave “Lila” full access to facilities meant for girls…

School officials, on the other hand, have been very supportive to Lila and are allowing “her” to use the girls’ locker rooms and restrooms out of fear of losing federal funding.

“The Office of Civil Rights has issued an opinion that says, if you do this, you have engaged in gender discrimination,” said Kelli Hopkins of the Missouri School Boards’ Association. “At the same time, there is no case law or statute in Missouri that says this is against the law.”

In other words, the federal government is expanding its control over local schools in direct conflict with the community.

[Comment: Federal funding always comes with strings and threats of withdrawal for non-compliance of diktats.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 9/1/2015

  1. waves are going high

    HANS RUSTAD on snaphanen, by google
    Expressen outers Julia Caesar. It is Annika Hamrud, one of the two journalists who tried to intrude on her in her home, which brings “disclosure”.
    It can be interpreted in two ways: In retaliation for that Julia Caesar took speak out and described methods Hamrud and Orrenius used to force her to come forward. Or, more obvious: The revelation of her identity has always been the goal of their “outreach” journalism.
    Hamrud attempting to shoot them under that they only followed the journalistic practice and wanted to get a comment after she has become one of the most read on alternative media.
    But if that is the case should have been traces of shades in Hamruds article.
    It is not. There is one long attack font, an attempt to deprive Caesar all glory and prepare her as a man who sows distrust of authorities and fellow human beings and is on a mental “roll”. It’s her personality there is something wrong with. She received amalgam poisoning and made a big issue of it. It is the same hysteria in her presentation of the new Sweden, believes Hamrud.
    This is too easy. Hamrud underestimate readers: They can read articles Caesars and compare with what they see around them. They see that it was Sweden that is totally changed, and much of the best have been lost.
    So also in Norway and an increasing number of western European countries. But media defends small project “new society” tooth and nail and do not want to see the negative aspects. They go on the contrary to war against those who try.
    Thus, they assume great responsibility.
    Expressen’s outing of Julia Caesar is a declaration of war.
    It was the former head writer Marika Form Gren who used those words about Dagens Nyheter at the weekend. Their journalist Niklas Orrenius has four times attempted to intrude on Caesar: Twice physical and twice by telephone. He claimed he happened to be in her neighborhood. As snaphanen wrote: Caesar live so remote that there is someone who drop by because they had an errand in the neighborhood.
    Orrenius got influx and also inconveniences.
    Form Gren did not hesitate to characterize DN procedure as a potential threat to Caesars safety.
    DN are well aware that it is risky to be pointed out that scorecard in a society where violence left can drive self policing, without the media’s saying something.
    But most serious is that the DN process is a threat to freedom of speech in Sweden, both those who write professionally, but even more, ordinary citizens the courage to say what they think.
    Therefore went Form Gren advocated that one should start a campaign against the DN, and stop buying it, cancel subscriptions and post Adblock on your PC.
    By oute Caesar has Expressen, DN sister organ, shown that they do not take self-criticism.
    The process appears to be more and more mafiøs: Orrenius and Hamrud came to make her an offer of true Godfather-maner: We will make you an offer you can not refuse.
    Which meant: – We know who you are, we know where you live, we have pictures of you (photographer was with), and we may publish this information when we want. You would do well to do as we say and speak to us.
    As old DN-journalist knew Caesar well that she was extradited to their discretion. After four times, she understood that they were not going to give up. She decided to act first and tell her story.
    Expressen responds by oute her.
    It was probably their intention all along, but Caesars representation weakens the power of disclosure. The purpose is obvious.

  2. Hey migrant jihadis come to EU. Oh no don’t come. Come to EU. No Don’t come. Ye come to EU. We are nice people to you but harsh on each other. Oh no don’t come. We are itching to have more muslims to destroy what’s left of Christianity.

    Hey EU be harsh on one another and kind to muslims. After all we cannot live with each other. But all of us can live peacefully, with abject cowardice with muslims. Isn’t that a miracle? There is something fascinating about muslims. Don’t you agree? Just ask the 10 000 humane not naive Icelanders.

  3. …Regarding the columnist who now – with Expressen’s help and the AFA “leftist” means – everyone knows the name of, I have nothing to add. Since her first chronicles, I have to say that I find them vulgar, propagandistic and simply banal mirror images of the evening press mendacious headline culture, to the benefit of no one and nothing. They have become so popular is understood that the spoken to the very abyss called “popular will”.
    Posted by Thomas Nydahl pm. 13:01 No comments:
    http://nydahlsoccident.blogspot.se/2015/09/folkviljan.html
    ———————-
    – Thomas Nydahl,an once stonhard leftist who, however, has grown softer and became nice in the edge the nearer he has come his imminent death.

Comments are closed.