Austria has decided to impose stringent border controls at the Spielfeld crossing from Slovenia, where would-be migrants will be thoroughly vetted and searched. It will also set a cap on the number of “refugees” that will be allowed into the country. However, Doctors Without Borders is critical of the EU’s tougher policing and attempts to deter migrants, saying that a better approach would be to expand legal immigration into Europe.
In other news, satellite imagery confirms that St Elijah’s Monastery, the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq, has been turned into rubble by the Islamic State.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Dean, DV, Fjordman, Green Infidel, Insubria, JD, LP, MC, MM, 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.
Dow Plunges, Recovers More Than Half Its Losses as Crude Oil Sinks to 13-Year Low
U.S. crude fell below $27 a barrel amid a global glut in oil supplies that won’t go away. That’s the lowest price since May 2003 and a far cry from the $100 a barrel it fetched in the summer of 2014.
While cheap oil is good for many companies and consumers, investors are worried demand is falling because the global economy is slowing down.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Fears of Global Liquidity Crunch Haunt Davos Elites
The International Monetary Fund is increasingly alarmed by signs that market liquidity is drying up and may trigger an even more violent global sell-off if investors rush for the exits at the same time.
Zhu Min, the IMF’s deputy director, said the stock market rout of the last three weeks is just a foretaste of what may happen as the US Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates this year, pushing up borrowing costs across the planet.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Global Stock Markets Fall Amid Oil Rout
Wall Street shares eased back from earlier losses on a day of turmoil on global markets when the plunging oil price again panicked investors.
The falls in Europe and the US came after Asian stocks closed sharply lower.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Wave of Strikes Against Pension Reform
Two-day strike for ferries, farmers planning roadblocks
(ANSA) — ATHENS — Tension is climbing in Greece against a planned reform of pensions: ferry workers called a two-day strike while farmers are ready to block highways with their tractors.
Greece’s unions, representing both the private and public sectors, are opposing the reforms, stressing that cuts demanded by international creditors, together with further tax hikes, could reduce the annual income of some professional categories, in particular farmers, by as much as 85%.
Hundreds of farmers have taken their tractors to key crossroads, ready to stage roadblocks over the coming days.
In the northern city of Komotini, police fired tear gas against farmers who tried to break past security to meet the agriculture minister.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Deposits Up, Bond Sales Down Says ABI
Bond sales -13% on yearly basis
(ANSA) — Rome, January 19 — Cash deposits grew while bond sales fell at the end of December 2015, the Italian Banking Association (ABI) said in its monthly report Tuesday. Bond sales fell by 13% or 57.5 billion euros on a yearly basis and cash deposits rose by 3.7% or 47.3 billion euros compared to 2014, ABI said. Client deposits grew from 1.513 trillion euros in December 2007 — before the economic crisis began — to some 1.7 trillion euros in December 2015, ABI said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘More Realistic’ Modelling of TPP’s Effects Predicts 450,000 US Jobs Lost, Contraction of Economy
What’s new in this paper is an estimation of the agreement’s effect on jobs:
While projected employment losses are small compared to the labor force, they clearly signal an adverse effect of liberalization not taken into account in full-employment models. In TPP countries, the largest effect will occur in the US, with approximately 450,000 jobs lost by 2025. Japan and Canada follow, with approximately 75,000 and 58,000 jobs lost respectively. The smallest loss — approximately 5,000 jobs — is projected to occur in New Zealand, where the increase in net exports is projected to be the largest. Overall, projected job losses in TPP countries amount to 771,000 jobs.
Also novel is the report’s comments about the global effects of TPP:
when analyzed with a model that recognizes the risks of trade liberalization, the TPP appears to only marginally change competitiveness among participating countries. Most gains are therefore obtained at the expense of non-TPP countries.
Globally, the TPP favors competition on labor costs and remuneration of capital. Depending on the policy choices in non-TPP countries, this may accelerate the global race to the bottom, increasing downward pressure on labor incomes in a quest for ever more elusive trade gains. [Comment: TPP = slavery to banksters that own the coporations.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
PBO Report Says Canada’s Historic Household Debt Highest in G7
A new report from Canada’s budget watchdog warns that the country’s households could soon have the largest debt-to-income ratios in the G7. As the country goes through a wave of economic woes (SEE: Falling loonie, rising food prices, selfie-obsessed PM — a look at Canada’s economic collapse), this won’t bode well for either households or the government.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) warned in a report Tuesday that Canadian households could soon see their debt-to-income loads reach 174 percent sometime this year. Essentially, households in the Great White North are more indebted than any of their G7 peers.
In fact, once Canada reaches that number, it will be the highest national level in a quarter of a century.
[Comment: It will only get worse under Trudeau.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
These 12 Slides From Albert Edwards Predict the Next Global Financial Collapse
On a cold Tuesday afternoon on January 12, about 950 financial professionals gathered in a hotel basement to hear terrifying theories on how the next financial collapse would come about.
It was hosted by Albert Edwards, an economist at Societe Generale who is the voice of market bears, or people who think imbalances in the financial system will lead to a collapse.
In a little over 100 slides, Edwards and speakers Russell Napier and Andrew Lapthorne took apart the global economy and monetary system.
One big theme formed the backbone of the presentations: Global growth is no longer enough to service global debt. Creditors will have to take losses. Translated, this means the banks that lent the most money with the least amount of reserves may go bust.
It’s not just emerging markets that are in trouble. US companies have also loaded up on debt after central banks around the world lowered interest rates to record lows.
How will it play out? In the words of Albert Edwards, “It will turn very ugly indeed.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
American astronomers say they have strong evidence that there is a ninth planet in our Solar System orbiting far beyond even the dwarf world Pluto.
The team, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has no direct observations to confirm its presence just yet.
Rather, the scientists make the claim based on the way other far-flung objects are seen to move.
But if proven, the putative planet would have 10 times the mass of Earth.
The Caltech astronomers have a vague idea where it ought to be on the sky, and their work is sure to fire a campaign to try to track it down.
“There are many telescopes on the Earth that actually have a chance of being able to find it,” said Dr Mike Brown.
“And I’m really hoping that as we announce this, people start a worldwide search to go find this ninth planet.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Evidence Grows for Giant Planet on Fringes of Solar System
Gravitational signature hints at massive object that orbits the Sun every 20,000 years.
A century after observatory founder Percival Lowell speculated that a ‘Planet X’ lurks at the fringes of the Solar System, astronomers say that they have the best evidence yet for such a world. They call it Planet Nine.
Orbital calculations suggest that Planet Nine, if it exists, is about ten times the mass of Earth and swings an elliptical path around the Sun once every 10,000—20,000 years. It would never get closer than about 200 times the Earth—Sun distance, or 200 astronomical units (au). That range would put it far beyond Pluto, in the realm of icy bodies known as the Kuiper belt.
No one has seen Planet Nine, but researchers have inferred its existence from the way several other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) move. And given the history of speculation about distant planets (see ‘Solving for X’), Planet Nine may end up in the dustbin of good ideas gone wrong.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Hollywood’s Despicable Hero Dalton Trumbo
Cliff Kincaid, director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism, interviewed Allan H. Ryskind, author of the book,Hollywood Traitors, and long-time editor of the newspaper Human Events, about the life and beliefs of Dalton Trumbo, a major Hollywood screenwriter and the subject of the film “Trumbo.” Trumbo supported Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and North Korea’s Kim Il-Sung. He condemned Martin Luther King, Jr., for not being a true revolutionary. Yet, he is depicted in the film as just a family-friendly socialist and defender of the First Amendment in the film.
Ryskind’s father, the famous Hollywood screenwriter Morrie Ryskind, worked with Ronald Reagan, John Wayne, Walt Disney and others against communist domination of Hollywood. Reagan considered Human Events as his favorite newspaper when he was president.
In addition to being honored by Hollywood, Trumbo’s star, Bryan Cranston, and director Jay Roach, were given an “exclusive private tour” of the Newseum, the privately-funded museum in Washington, D.C. dedicated to the First Amendment.
Q: Much of Hollywood has given a major send-off to the movie, “Trumbo,” which celebrates the famous Communist screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Bryan Cranston, who plays Trumbo in the movie, has just been nominated “best actor in a leading role” by the Screen Actors Guild. SAG had even pushed for the entire cast to get an Oscar. Many Hollywood organizations, like the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, have wholeheartedly embraced the movie’s message of Dalton as a First Amendment hero and Cranston as a best actor nominee. And this is only part of the story. The Hollywood Reporter, the industry’s well-known trade publication, and the SAG’s influential magazine, Written By, have devoted loads of publicity to the supposed importance of the film and the wonders of Dalton himself. You’ve seen the film, so what do you make of it as an accurate picture of the times?
A: Look, if you didn’t know anything about the effort by serious Communists—and Dalton was a very serious Communist—to capture the movie industry for the purpose of serving our deadly enemy, the Soviet Union, you’d think this was a pleasant movie and that Dalton was an avuncular idealist whose guiding political philosophy was not communism but helping the underdog and preserving the First Amendment. He is portrayed as something of a saintly socialist who not only defied the Hollywood blacklist, but defeated it and struck a major blow for freedom and patriotic progressives. To the extent it is conceded that he had some theoretical beliefs that could be considered Marxist, he is depicted as more Pope Francis than Vladimir Lenin.
Q: In what way does the movie hide or gloss over Trumbo’s Red record?
A: All of his heavy-duty propaganda and activities on behalf of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin and the Communist Party are omitted. So is his vigorous support of Lenin, Adolph Hitler (during the Hitler-Stalin pact) and North Korea’s Kim Il-sung after his aggressive attack against South Korea in 1950. Even his membership in the American CP, which he eventually bragged about, is ignored. Dalton was on Stalin’s side virtually all of his adult life—in important ways—but those unfamiliar with the titanic battle between the Sovieteers and the anti-Communists in Hollywood wouldn’t have a clue as to what that fight in the movie colony was all about and Trumbo’s deep involvement on the Soviet side.
The villains in the movie, incidentally, are not the party members who worked covertly—and relentlessly—to turn Hollywood over to Moscow but the anti-Communist community who fought the Red conspiracy in the film industry—and won, at least for a time. Columnist Hedda Hopper, John Wayne, labor leader Roy Brewer, the House Un-American Activities Committee, the Motion Picture Alliance and other opponents of the Communists come in for a severe beating. And while the picture blasts the blacklist, which banned Communist Party members from the industry, the average viewer would have virtually no idea as to what it meant to be a party member and why the blacklist was imposed.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Judge Rejects Obama’s Executive Privilege Claim Over Fast and Furious Records
The Justice Department’s own public disclosures undercut the president’s privilege claim, Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled.
A federal judge has rejected President Barack Obama’s assertion of executive privilege to deny Congress access to records pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious, a gunrunning probe that allegedly allowed thousands of weapons to flow across the border into Mexico.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department’s public disclosures about its response to the so-called “gun walking” controversy undercut Obama’s executive privilege claim.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Kent State Professor Investigated for Alleged ISIS Ties
The FBI has been investigating a controversial Ohio professor for alleged involvement with Islamic State terrorists.
Students and colleagues of Kent State History academic Julio Pino have been interviewed after concerns that he could be recruiting pupils to join ISIS, an unnamed FBI agent told student paper KentWired.com.
The associate professor told the site that he does not support Islamic State and has never discussed the group in his classes.
Pino, who is teaching two classes this semester, generally focuses on Latin America and is currently working on a study of African Muslim slaves in Brazil during the 19th century.
Julio Pino, a tenured professor at Kent State University in Ohio, is under investigation by the FBI for alleged ties to Islamic State.
He said that he has not been contacted by either the authorities or Kent State about the investigation against him, though an FBI spokeswoman confirmed it to the Daily News.
University spokesman Eric Mansfield said that the institution had been contacted and was fully cooperating with the feds.
A statement from Kent State added, “As this is an ongoing investigation, we will have no further comment. The FBI has assured Kent State that there is no threat to campus.”
Pino has been at Kent State since 1992 and previously made national headlines for shouting “Death to Israel” during a leture by a former Israeli diplomat…
| — Hat tip: DV | [Return to headlines] |
Prosecutors Add Dozens of Charges in Fatal Strip Crash
Prosecutors added dozens of charges Wednesday against Lakeisha Holloway, the woman authorities said intentionally drove onto a crowded Strip sidewalk, killing a woman and injuring more than 30 people.
Holloway now faces a total of 71 counts, including murder with use of a deadly weapon, attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon, battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm and child abuse, neglect or bodily harm. Holloway had previously faced one count of murder, child abuse and leaving the scene of an accident.
In a new complaint filed Wednesday, prosecutors added charges for each of the victims injured and dropped one count of leaving the scene of an accident.
Authorities said a toxicology examination of Holloway, 24, showed she was above the legal limit for marijuana.
Holloway told Las Vegas police that she remembered a body bouncing off her windshield, breaking it. She told police she was not on drugs or alcohol, according to an arrest report. Blood samples were taken from Holloway, and police initially said that though she did not demonstrate signs of being under the influence of alcohol when she was arrested, she may have been on stimulants. The Clark County district attorney’s office did not mention indications of any other drugs in her system.
It is against the law to drive while high on marijuana, even for people authorized to use the drug medicinally…
| — Hat tip: MM | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists May Have Just Found a Ninth Planet and it’s Massive
Scientists believe they may have found a giant planet in our distant solar system, possibly the long-sought after Planet X.
It is believed to have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the Sun on average than does Neptune. As a result, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the Sun.
“This would be a real ninth planet,” CalTech researcher Mike Brown, who along with his colleague Konstantin Batygin, made the discovery which they are calling Planet Nine. “There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It’s a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that’s still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will Trump, Cruz Battle Alienate Their Mutual Supporters?
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are now attacking each other in what has become a two-man race in Iowa — the first test in the long battle for the Republican nomination.
But unlike earlier scraps involving so-called establishment candidates, Trump and Cruz’s jabs are part of a fight for the party’s most conservative wing — and the war of words carries the risk of alienating those same voters.
“Ted’s not a person that’s liked. He’s a nasty guy,” Trump said Wednesday on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” essentially repeating what he’s said for days about the Texas senator.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Woman Leaves Party in Shorts, Freezes to Death
(NEWSER) — When 21-year-old Elizabeth Luebke traveled an hour and a half south from her home in Oshkosh, Wis., to Milwaukee for a concert, she wound up at an after-party wearing a tank top, shorts, and fish-net stockings — and at around 4:30 a.m. left angrily after arguing with a friend, reports Fox6now.com. It was -5.8 degrees Fahrenheit, and the wind chill was a frigid -27.5 degrees.
Security video footage from a nearby business shows her suddenly collapsing in front of a house and eventually stopping moving altogether, reports BuzzFeed. Her body was found by a passerby at 9 a.m., just around the corner from the party.
Luebke, who also went by the name Lana Kane, had frozen to death, but alcohol appears to have been a factor. A friend of Luebke’s says she arrived at the party “really, really drunk,” while her mother says her daughter had a history of binge drinking and had been hospitalized in October with a blood-alcohol level five times the legal driving limit, reports the New York Daily News…
| — Hat tip: LP | [Return to headlines] |
Year in Nonwhite NYC School Cures Liberal
One year of teaching in a nonwhite New York school turned Ed Boland, a raving liberal in that city, into someone who “loathed and despised” the “students” he had set out to help—and convinced him that they are irredeemably at the bottom of the social heap.
The astonishing story of Boland’s exposure to the chaos that has become the US public school system, following the massive growth of America’s Third World population, is the subject of a book he has just published, titled The Battle for Room 314: My Year of Hope and Despair in a New York City High School.
More incredibly, the usually far-left and anti-white New York Post (NY Post) has published a very objective—and even sympathetic—review of Boland’s book, which provides a dramatic insight into the Third World nightmare that has become New York City public schools.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Attacks in France on Muslims, Jews and Churches Soar
Hate crimes against Muslims in France tripled last year, anti-Semitic assaults remained at an already “high level” and attacks on Christian sites rose by a fifth, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says.
Cazeneuve told the Catholic daily La Croix in an interview for Wednesday publication that islamophobic threats or assaults “tripled to some 400 for the year 2015.”
He said more than half occurred in the first quarter of the year after jihadists attacked the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in January, claiming 17 lives.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Presidential Elections Set for April 24
Presidential elections in Austria are scheduled for April 24, if Austrians fail to elect a new president during the first round, the second round will be held on May 22, according to the Austrian Council of Ministers.
VIENNA (Sputnik) — Presidential elections in Austria are scheduled for April 24, the Austrian Council of Ministers said Tuesday.
If Austrians fail to elect a new president during the first round, the second round will be held on May 22, according to a statement from the ministerial council.
Heinz Fischer, the incumbent president of Austria, has been in office since July 2004.
The Austrian People’s Party has put forward the candidature of Andreas Kohl, the Social Democratic Party of Austria has proposed incumbent Minister of Social Affairs, Labour and Consumer Protection Rudolf Hundstorfer, while the Green party has nominated Alexander Van der Bellen for the elections.
Irmgard Griss, former president of the Austrian Supreme Court, will be running as an independent candidate.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bavaria Gets 160 Mln From EIB to Finance a Motorway
money will go to the section connecting Munich to Linz
(ANSA) — BRUSSELS — A 160 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) will help to finance the construction of a 33 km motorway section in Southern Germany. Connecting Pastetten and Heldenstein, the section will be part of the A94 project which, once finished, will improve the traffic flow between the Bavarian capital Munich and the Austrian city of Linz. The 4-lane motorway section will be built on the basis of a public-private partnership between the Free State of Bavaria, represented by the Autobahndirektion Sudbayern, and a consortium of three contractors: BAM, Eiffage and Berger Bau.
The consortium, which will receive EIB financing amounting to roughly 50% of the long-term funding requirement, is responsible not only for designing and building the motorway but also for operating and maintaining it. The maintenance and operation of two adjacent stretches, totalling 44 km, are also part of the 30-year contract. The construction is scheduled to start in the coming months and should be completed in the second half of 2019.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Brussels Bureaucrats Set to Increase Cost of Oven Gloves With New Guidelines
OVEN gloves are set to soar in price after EU chiefs agreed new health and safety regulations for heat-protective equipment.
A vote by MEPs in Strasbourg backed proposals to subject household oven gloves to industrial safety standards. Oven gloves for protection will have to go through rigorous testing to ensure that they can withstand heat of up to 200 degrees centigrade.It is believed the change could force up the price of the products by up to 20 per cent.
The new EU legislation stated: “In order to ensure a high level of protection, the scope of this regulation should include products which are explicitly described and marketed accordingly by their manufacturers for private use to protectagainst heat.”
Decorative or “artisanal” oven gloves “for which the manufacturer does not explicitly claim a protective function” were excluded from the rules.And an attempt to apply the same standards to washing up gloves and umbrellas was voted down.
[What kind of world are we living in? Really?]
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Davos 2016: Swiss Town on Lockdown With Snipers Surveying Area as WEF Convention Begins
A POSH Swiss ski resort is on lockdown this week with snipers surveying the area amid heightened security for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) convention.
Police with automatic weapons have been seen marching along the snowy streets of Davos as the town seeks to bolster its security following the recent spate of extremist attacks by the depraved Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
Swiss police say they have increased security checks in the area since November, mainly due to the attacks in Paris.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Dutch Town Latest to Angrily Protest Against Refugee Centre
Heesch is the latest Dutch town to suffer anti-immigrant protests after police made three arrests on Monday night as a demonstration forced councillors to abandon a public meeting over plans for the town to host 500 refugees over the next 10 years.
The Dutch took over 50,000 people in 2015, but many in this town of 13,000 people want none.
“When they can’t get rid of this mess in The Hague they just dump it in the village here. But we don’t want them either, so they can keep them there, but not in our farmers’ village, not in my backyard. If they’ll rape my daughter, there won’t be 500 cops here to protect her,” said one man.
“I just think 500 is too much. I will be too afraid to go out on the street, here. I just won’t dare it anymore,” said one woman.
The riot came only hours after the far-right’s Geert Wilders called for Islamic male refugees to be kept locked up in asylum centres, saying such a move was needed to protect Dutch women after the New Year’s Eve assaults in Cologne, Germany.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
EC Must Not be Shortsighted Says Gozi
‘Constructive criticism’ from Italy
(ANSA) — Rome, January 19 — Undersecretary for European Affairs Sandro Gozi said Tuesday that the European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker “rightly wants to have a political profile, and that means not having a short-sighted and rigid approach in the application of the rules”. He said that Italy’s criticism of the EC was “always constructive”, aimed at “Europe proceeding more quickly towards a new beginning”. According to Gozi, “Italy is posing issues that concern the need for change consistent with what all the governments have evoked”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EC Not Hostile to Italy Says Moscovici
‘We understand Renzi’s situation’
(ANSA) — Davos, January 20 — EU Economic Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Wednesday the European Commission has no quarrel with Italy. “The Commission can’t be accused of acting against Italy — this is absolutely wrong,” he said, adding he respects Italy, a founding member of the European Union, and Premier Matteo Renzi’s reform drive.
“There is no war (with Italy),” he said. “We must lower the tensions and work together with maximum objectivity,” he said on the sidelines of the January 20-23 World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos.
Renzi “is an ambitious, reform-minded leader. The European Commission has had many opportunities to demonstrate its appreciation of those reforms. We need a positive relationship,” he said. “(Commission President Jean-Claude) Juncker spoke his mind because he felt the Commission was unjustly criticized. But we understand (Renzi’s) situation and we want to discuss it,” Moscovici said.
“What other country benefits from all the flexibility contained in the Stability Pact, including the clause on investments and structural reforms? None,” Moscovici said. Italy is asking for more leeway to offset the cost of migrant rescue and reception, and this “must be taken into consideration”, he added. “No, one cannot say this Commission is hostile to Italy,” he concluded.
Renzi said Tuesday Italy’s regained stature as a major European player meant its critics and partners would simply have to “deal with it”.
And as Italy was set to tap a new envoy to Brussels to help address charges that the EU felt it was lacking a clear interlocutor, a key ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European People’s Party (EPP) caucus leader Manfred Weber, fed the row by saying Renzi was undermining the EU’s credibility.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, with whom Renzi traded barbs over migrants, economic flexibility, banks and State aid Friday, meanwhile denied accusations the EC had been slacking, saying that 11 of its new projects involved Italy.
Amid the flap, the Milan bourse suffered again as banking stocks plunged but the head of bourse regulator CONSOB, Giuseppe Vegas, denied the notion that Italy was coming under specific speculative attack.
As the controversy continued, government sources said Deputy Industry Minister Carlo Calenda will on Wednesday be tapped as Italy’s new ambassador to the European Union, replacing Stefano Sannino. Calenda’s appointment will be formalised at a cabinet meeting Wednesday night, they said. Calenda is the first career politician to be named as envoy to Brussels after a string of career diplomats.
Renzi said on Facebook that Italy has regained its leadership role and that those who do not like it must “deal with it”. The premier made the comments in the wake of heated exchanges Friday between Rome and Juncker, who has blasted Renzi for allegedly offending the EU executive.
“Italy is increasingly open and attractive for international investment,” Renzi said, “with major global companies that have decided to bank on our country, like Cisco, whose chiefs I met this morning. “(This is) the best answer to those who… would prefer to have us be weak and marginal, as often happened in the past, unfortunately. “They should deal with it. Italy is back, (and it’s) more solid and more ambitious”.
Weber, ignoring Renzi’s demand, ramped up the pressure after Juncker’s unsually outspoken attack Friday.
The EPP caucus leader said “Renzi is jeopardizing the credibility of Europe to the benefit of populism”. Weber told the European Parliament “when we see that Italy is not willing to help Turkey unless there is a trade-off, all that hurts Europe, its strength and credibility”. Italy is resisting a three-billion-euro package to help Turkey cope with Syrian migrants over concerns that national governments, and not the EU’s common fund, may foot too much of the bill.
Juncker, for his part, said governments that are critical of the EU executive should take a look at themselves first.
“Without common action, a European policy on migration, Schengen will not survive,” said Juncker, who on Friday blasted Renzi for allegedly offending the EU executive at “every opportunity”.
“Some governments are quick to attack Brussels, but they should look in the mirror, they are Brussels too”, said the EC chief.
Juncker told the European Parliament it was “not true” that the EC “has not been sufficiently active”. He said “the investment plan is already in action, 40 billion euros have already been mobilised”. Juncker stressed that “11 of the projects are in Italy”. He added: “To those who ask me to resign for failing on the migrant crisis, I say I don’t agree and one shouldn’t lose heart but work together, united”.
Amid the fall-out from the Italy-EU row on the Milan bourse, where Monte dei Paschi di Siena hit a new low amid another widespread collapse of banking stock, CONSOB chief Vegas said that the recent strong declines in Italian bank shares were due to general market volatility rather than any concrete new developments.
Banks that have come under the lens of the European Central Bank (ECB) for their bad loans portfolios continued to tumble on Tuesday.
“It does not even make sense to concentrate on these banks, because the situation is general,” Vegas said.
He also ruled out a “specific” bourse attack on Italy.
Meanwhile one of the points of contention between the EU and Italy, State aid to steelmaker ILVA, will be made the target of a probe on Wednesday, EU sources said.
The probe will concern aid for production and not an environmental clean-up, they said.
The undersecretary for European affairs, Sandro Gozi, said the government was having to fight growing disappointment in and indifference to the EU.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU Laments Communications Problems With Italy
‘Govt is interlocutor,’ responds Gentiloni
(ANSA) — Rome, January 18 — Taking their cue from an unusually sharp exchange between Italian Premier Matteo Renzi and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Friday, EU sources told ANSA anonymously Monday that Brussels has been having a communication problem with Rome.
The sources said the EU didn’t really know who their speaking partner was, prompting Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni to respond that “the interlocutor is the Italian government, in the fullness of its powers.” And Germany’s ambassador to Italy said that Berlin, often seen as the leader of the EU, needed Italy, adding that next week’s meeting in Berlin between Renzi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would clear up problems.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the European sources told ANSA there is concern at the highest EU levels over a lack of communication channels with Rome. Communication issues can turn into political problems, the sources said. European Commission President Juncker was and is Premier Renzi’s friend and Italy’s best ally, the sources said. Juncker and Renzi traded barbs Friday over economic flexibility clauses and migrants — and Renzi said Italy had made major structural reforms and was no longer being “remotely controlled” by Brussels. Juncker had lost his patience, the EU sources said. They went on to describe Italy’s representative in Brussels, Stefano Sannino, as the best ambassador in the Belgian capital. What’s missing, however, is continuous dialogue with experts and envoys on specific issues, such as the ones other European governments send in between major summits. This working method helps smooth rough edges long before leaders engage, the sources said.
For example, France sent specialists to “negotiate for weeks” on its behalf over its national budget last fall.
This communication gap has generated misunderstandings over Italy’s four rescued banks, its troubled ILVA steelmaker, and the use of flexibility clauses among other issues, according to the sources.
They went on to list two areas of EU concern over Italy: its protests after losing its only component on Juncker’s cabinet, legal expert Carlo Zadra, earlier this month — Zadra quit and was replaced by a Briton after clashing with Cabinet Chief Martin Selmayr — and its blocking of a three-billion-euro fund for Syrian refugees in Turkey in spite of the fact that the Commission has “put it in writing” that the aid won’t be included in deficit calculations.
In response, Gentiloni said that “we have a continuous dialogue with the institutions, we have a foreign minister, interior, economy, Italy has a government in the fullness of its powers”.
“I have continuous dialogue with the institutions on problems, I think we have a government, a premier, a foreign minister, and interior minister, an economy minister, depending on the issues Italy has a government in the fullness of its powers,” Gentiloni said.
“We have to stick to the issues, go into the merits,” he concluded. Italy “doesn’t take part in pointless arguments”, Gentiloni said earlier, on his way in to a council of EU foreign ministers Monday. “I consider some of the remarks that came from Brussels to be useless,” Gentiloni said.
“The situation in Europe is very delicate right now, both economically and on the migration front, and this delicate situation should be faced without the argumentative tones I heard coming from Brussels recently and which are, I repeat, pointless,” the minister said.
Also in response to the ‘lack of interlocutor’ charge Monday, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said that “the interests of Italy and the EU coincide” and “the channels with the Italian government are there and have always been open, and also the exchanges with the Italian government are there, from what I see”. Mogherini stressed the importance of having common goals on issues like flexibility and immigration, saying “in a year instruments have been introduced that before were not there, thanks to Italy and the Commission”. Meanwhile Undersecretary for EU affairs Sandro Gozi said that “these (EU) statements are unusual, but we think they can be resolved with politics and by addressing the issues that we have put on the table, above all in the interests of that Europe which must change”. He said “we have no personal problems with any of the members of the (European) Commission”. Gozi said “if the anonymous sources wanted to restart dialogue, we welcome that. But Italy has its sticking points and has highlighted them, on what the EU must do to change”. He said “right from the start the Renzi government made explicit what must be done in the EU” and therefore “we will continue to be constructive when we see that the Commission moves towards a new start, and we will continue to be critical in a constructive way when we see that there are delays and inertia”.
Germany’s ambassador to Italy weighed into the flap, saying that “Germany needs Italy and recognises and appreciates its efforts to improve Europe and modernise its own country”. Susanne Marianne Wasum-Rainer told Radio Radicale that “Rome and Berlin have common interests and problems, we are united and we have a great responsibility”. She said “we are in favour of debate, that should not be taken forward in a polemical way, we need exchange”.
Next week’s meeting in Berlin between Renzi and Merkel “is an important meeting between two close European partners, between two heads of government who esteem each other,” Wasum-Rainer went on.
“I am confident that the solutions for the problems that have been posed will be found,” she said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU to Open Probe on ILVA State Aid Wed — Sources
Will concern aid to production, not for clean-up
(ANSA) — Brussels, January 19 — The European Commission will formally announce Wednesday the opening of a probe into State aid to the troubled ILVA steelmaker the Italian government is trying to clean up and revamp, sources aid Tuesday. The probe will cover the issue of the aid not being notified, among other things, the sources said. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has informed EU authorities of the initiative, they said. According to the sources, however, the probe will only concern aid to production and not aid for the environmental clean-up at the highly polluting plant at Taranto.
A government decree funnelled money into ILVA last year to save jobs while cleaning up the works, which have been linked to high cancer rates in the Puglia city.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Funds Initiative Against Hate Speech Online
New Berlin operation will have 200 monitors to analyse and delete posts where necessary
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, speaking in Berlin. She said that mass deletion of problematic posts tackled the symptom but not the cause of online hate speech. Photograph: Kay Nietfeld/EPA
Facebook is financing a new campaign to analyse and tackle a drastic rise in uninhibited hate speech on the social network and the wider internet amid Europe’s growing migration crisis.
With 27 million German users in Berlin, Facebook has agreed to fund 200 network monitors in Berlin to identify, analyse and, if necessary, delete posts to the network of a radical, racist or xenophobic nature.
The new Berlin operation takes over from a small team in Dublin that, critics say, was overwhelmed by daily demands to examine and act on thousands of posts flagged by European Facebook users as problematic.
In addition Facebook has announced a €1 million fund for an “Online Civil Courage Initiative”, to develop new ways to interact with people online and offer “counter speech” to online hate speech…
| — Hat tip: Green Infidel | [Return to headlines] |
Five Probed in Caritas Clothing Drive Fraud Case
Suspects allegedly sold clothes destined for the needy
(ANSA) — Cagliari, January 19 — Three people were court-ordered not to leave the town of Cagliari Tuesday in a waste trafficking and fraud probe at Catholic charity Caritas.
A total of five people are under investigation in the probe into Caritas used clothing drives that were destined for the needy but were actually sold in street markets in Italy and abroad. The three were named as Caritas soup kitchen and logistics director Andrea Nicolotti, Giampiero Cesarini, and wife Rosa Contiello. Investigators say they tampered with evidence after police seized a cargo of clothes in Cagliari port on January 6.
Two more suspects — named as Guido Afflitto from a Sardinian company called Recupero Tessili (Textiles Recovery) and Tonino Marras, a foreman at French recycling and maintenance company Derichebourg — are also under investigation. The latter may soon be eliminated as a suspect, sources said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Police Beg Revellers Not to Dress as Terrorists for Carnival
Police in the Rhineland have warned people not to dress up like a jihadist for upcoming Carnival street parties.
“We can only urgently advise people against dressing in such costumes at the big events,” a spokesperson for Monchengladbach police told the Rheinische Post.
“If someone wants to dress like that at his own party, please go ahead — but please don’t do it in public,” the speaker appealed.
Düsseldorf police also said they would be pleased “if people would do without such clothing.”
At carnival street parties, which are held across much of western and southern Germany, it is customary to dress up.
Fears have been raised this year though about the safety of the event after a New Year’s street party was cancelled in Munich, when police were given a tip-off about a possible bomb threat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: MPS Share Price Incompatible With Fundamentals Says CEO
Bank shares continue suspended
(see related)(ANSA) — Rome, January 20 — Current Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) share prices are incompatible with the firm’s fundamentals, CEO Fabrizio Viola said Wednesday. “The current, wholly anomalous trend has no basis in the bank’s fundamentals, which improved in the third quarter, confirming the (positive) trend of the first nine months of the year,” Viola said.
Earnings are up and costs are down, he added. However MPS shares continued suspended in midmorning trading (-16%).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Juncker Says His Plan Already in Action, 11 Italy Projects
‘Not true’ EC has been inactive
(ANSA) — Strasbourg, January 19 — European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament Tuesday it was “not true” that the EC “has not been sufficiently active”. He said “the investment plan is already in action, 40 billion euros have already been mobilised”. Juncker stressed that 11 of the projects are in Italy. He added: “To those who ask me to resign for failing on the migrant crisis, I say I don’t agree and one shouldn’t lose heart but work together, united”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
London Synagogue Hires French Rabbi as Jews Flee France in Terror
The sheer volume of Jews fleeing France after a wave of anti-Semitic attacks on them that has increased enormously in the last year has prompted one synagogue to appoint a French rabbi to take services.
The Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood, North London, has appointed a French rabbi after the volume of French Jews escaping France and moving to London increased, making London the most popular destination for Jews escaping from France.
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldsmith, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, has called France “the main battleground between hope and fear for the future of Europe, especially for the Jewish community”.
The new part-time French rabbi, Rene Pfertzel, will divide his time between London and Lyon. “People are starting to feel insecure,” he said, adding that about 100 French people had joined the synagogue recently, according the London Evening Standard.
Wave of Anti-Semitism
There has been a wave of anti-Semitic violence in France — most recently with a radicalized teenager attacking a Jewish teacher with a machete in Marseilles, claiming to have done it in the name of Daesh, also known as ISIL.
Marseilles’ Jewish leader, Zvi Ammar, called on Jewish men and boys to stop wearing the kippa (skullcap) “until better days”, saying:
“Unfortunately for us, we are targeted. As soon as we are identified as Jewish we can be assaulted and even risk death.”
In January 2015, following the Charlie Hebdo attack, a third assailant, Amedy Coulibaly entered a kosher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes in east Paris, killing four people and taking several hostages. Police stormed the store, rescuing fifteen hostages and killing Coulibaly. The incident put panic among the French Jewish community who was themselves as a target of Daesh.
The number of anti-Semitic attacks in France have soared in recent years, according to official statistics. increasing by 84 percent between January and May 2015. It has resulted in a record 2,900 jews leaving France for Israel and many hundred crossing the English Channel for London, where some primary schools are now 50 percent Jewish.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Millions of British Households to Get Pro-EU Leaflets
Leaflets outlining the benefits of remaining in the EU will appear in millions of letter boxes in England this week as a possible agreement on the reforms demanded by Britain begins to take shape.
Some 10 million brochures will be sent around England — the part of Britain where opposition to the European Union is at its highest — by Britain Stronger in Europe, the campaign group leading the movement to stay in.
Among the mostly economic arguments made in the leaflets are the jobs created by EU membership, greater consumer choice, lower prices as well as the investment coming from other European countries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Cleric ‘Says Cologne Sex Attacks Were Victims’ Fault Because They Wore Perfume’
A Muslim cleric has allegedly claimed women sexually assaulted during the New-Year Cologne attacks are to blame “because they were half naked” — in a shocking statement.
The shocking claims reportedly made by Sami Abu-Yusuf of the Salafist Cologne mosque also pointed the finger at the innocent victims for “wearing perfume”.
According to Breitbart he allegedly said: “We need to react properly, and not to add fuel to the fire.
“The events of New Year’s Eve were the girls’ own fault, because they were half naked and wearing perfume. It is not surprising the men wanted to attack them.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Poland’s Duda Warns Brexit Could Lead to EU ‘Collapse’
(BRUSSELS) — Polish President Andrzej Duda on Monday urged the European Union to find a compromise to keep Britain in the EU or risk a major crisis and even the bloc’s collapse.
“It is not in Poland’s interest that the UK leaves the EU,” Duda told a press conference flanked by European Council President Donald Tusk after talks in Brussels.
“We need to reach a compromise as the EU in order to ensure the UK’s place in the EU,” Duda said.
“We think it would lead to a big crisis and even collapse if the UK left the EU,” he added.
“We must seek a compromise but a cautious compromise, not to undermine basic freedoms in the EU which are very important to Poles,” he said.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday he was confident the EU and Britain would reach a deal at a summit in February on reforms that London has demanded to stay in the 28-nation club.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Pope Francis Accepts Rome’s Grand Mosque Invitation
Saudi ambassador ‘Muslims and Christians in the same boat’
ROME — Saudi ambassador Rayed Krimly said Wednesday that he had invited Pope Francis to visit the Grand Mosque of Rome.
Krimley is head of the Islamic Cultural Center of Italy — in charge of the management of Rome’s Grand Mosque — and head of the center’s delegation that met with the Pope in the Vatican on Wednesday to officially invite him to visit the mosque. “His Holiness warmly received and accepted the invitation,” according to a statement issued by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. The Pope received the Muslim delegation shortly before 9 AM in the Paul VI hall prior to the general audience. “Regardless of whether we are Muslims, Christians or Jews, we are all in the same boat and we can enjoy peace and prosperity if we remain united,” Ambassador Krimly said.
“United in fostering tolerance, dialogue, mercy and compassion.
United in a rejection of the evils of hatred, extremism and terrorism.” “Christian Arabs, like European Muslims, are an authentic, integrated part of their countries,” he added. The delegation also included the two vice presidents of the center, the Egyptian and Moroccan ambassadors Amr Mostafa Helmy and Hassan Abouyoub, the center’s secretary general Abdellah Redouane and the head of the center’s committee for inter-religious dialogue, Yahya Pallavicini. “Recognizing the moral and spiritual leadership of His Holiness in celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy,” the Saudi embassy noted, “and reiterating Muslims’ widespread commitment to promote the values of dialogue and beneficial cooperation with worshippers of every faith, the delegation extended an official invitation to His Holiness to visit the center at an appropriate date for His Holiness.” The Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that the invitation had been accepted “with gratitude and it will be considered. The Pope will see what to do.” Lombardi urged caution in discussing the dates for the visit, though Vatican sources noted that it might be April 10 (a Sunday). After on Sunday visiting the synagogue of Rome, the third pope ever to enter the Grand Temple, Pope Francis thus will soon be going to the Grand Mosque of the capital, the largest place of Muslim worship in the West. He will be the first pope ever to do so. The Grand Mosque was funded by Saudi’s King Faysal, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques of Mecca and Medina. The project was entrusted to the Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi and it took over 20 years to build it: from 1974 to 1995, when it was inaugurated. It will be a step of enormous significance for Pope Francis in the direction of dialogue and peaceful coexistence between religions, amid radical jihadism that is causing bloodshed across the world. On Tuesday, the Pope will receive Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and the Qatari emir is also expected to visit the Vatican in the near future.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Renzi Says Italy is Back So ‘Deal With it’
Premier comments on Facebook amid tension with EU Commission
(ANSA) — Rome, January 19 — Premier Matteo Renzi said Tuesday that Italy has regained its leadership role and that those who do not like it must “deal with it”. The premier made the comments on Facebook in the wake of heated exchanges between Rome and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who has blasted Renzi for allegedly offending the EU executive.
“Italy is increasingly open and attractive for international investment,” Renzi said, “with major global companies that have decided to bank on our country, like Cisco, whose chiefs I met this morning. (This is) the best answer to those who… would prefer to have us be weak and marginal, as often happened in the past, unfortunately. They should deal with it. Italy is back, (and it’s) more solid and more ambitious”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK Taxpayers Lose Billions in Contributions to Brussels — Report
Brexit rhetoric is ramping up in British newspapers ahead of a European Union leaders’ summit in February.
As the debate ensues ahead of Britain’s In/Out referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU), right-wing leaning London newspaper The Times reveals details of a report to be published by the European Parliament on Thursday, which says:
“British taxpayers are losing US$2 billion (£1.45bn) a year in contributions paid to Brussels which are then used on aid projects that are badly managed or misappropriated.”
The report has found that half of the EU’s US$32 billion (£23bn) development aid budget missed its target. It concludes that “every second euro spent by the EU does not achieve what it pays for.”
Meanwhile, a poster made to look like a newspaper titled “Europe & You” is arriving in letter boxes around London, offering readers reasons why the UK should remain part of the EU, highlighting four risks to Britain if it left Europe.
“We pay a membership fee into the EU but get more back in return for being a member,” states the article printed by campaign group Britain Stronger in Europe.
“UK businesses are free to trade with all EU countries; UK families get lower prices in the shops thanks to cheaper trade and more choice…the UK is safer thanks to the European Arrest Warrant… UK holidaymakers get free emergency healthcare in EU countries — and we’re free to move and live anywhere we want in the EU.
“If we leave the EU, we would lose all these benefits — because we only get them if we remain a member,” the leaflet says.
However, in response to the European Parliament’s report on the money wasted on EU development aid, UKIP spokesman Nathan Gill said:
“Why are we handing over billions each year to the EU which delights in doling out money to regimes like itself, both corrupt and unaccountable.”
UK Prime Minister David Cameron says the referendum will be held in Britain by the end of 2017, but Downing Street sources suggest it could be held earlier — in June or July — if David Cameron successfully reaches a deal at the EU summit in February.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Chaos as All Trains Cancelled From Liverpool Street After ‘Emergency’
A MAJOR London rail station was in chaos this evening after all services were hit by emergency cancellations.
Bewildered commuters at London Liverpool Street were left crammed into the departures hall as dozens of trains were scrapped.
After around an hour and a half, station bosses closed a major access point in a bid to stop overcrowding.
The massive delays were caused after a man was killed by a train not far from the hub station.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
A detective in the Rotherham abuse case was recorded by an alleged victim saying police wouldn’t give evidence in case they got in trouble for not acting sooner, a court heard.
Arshid Hussain is one of five men and two women standing trial over an alleged grooming ring in the South Yorkshire town from 1987 to 2003.
Sheffield Crown Court heard that one of the complainants in the case recorded a policeman involved in the investigation on her mobile phone in 2013 as she spoke about Hussain.
The woman, who is now 30, is said to have told police that she had been found having sex with Hussain aged just 14 on a day she was arrested for stealing.
She asked police to look into whether there were any records from the police who found her, showing she was with the defendant, the Sheffield Star reported.
But, in a transcript provided to the jury, DC Lee Robinson said: ‘If they walked in there and they saw you were having sex on the floor and they know you’re only 14 and they’ve seen this Asian male, if they put that in a statement, they know full well they’re going to get in the s*** because why didn’t they do something about that?’…
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Goldman Sachs Backs Pro-EU Campaign With ‘Six Figure Donation’
Investment bank Goldman Sachs has reportedly given a “six figure” donation to the campaign to keep the UK in the European Union.
The US bank is said to have backed Britain Stronger In Europe, a cross-party group leading the In campaign.
Britain Stronger In Europe said it would not confirm the donation which Sky News said was a “substantial” sum.
It comes as David Cameron prepares to tell business to “make the case” for the staying in a “reformed EU”.
In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Mr Cameron will say the “voice of business” must be heard in the run-up to the referendum on the UK’s membership of EU — which will take place before the end of 2017.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Mobile Phone Surveillance Towers Discovered Across London
United Kingdom — In June 2015, a Sky News investigation uncovered at least 20 rogue telephone masts operating in London. The IMSI catchers — also known as stingrays or cell-site simulators — mimic mobile phone masts and trick phones into logging on and giving access to the owner’s calls and data.
The sophisticated surveillance technology listens to mobile phone conversations without the owner’s permission by leading the handsets to believe they are genuine mobile phone towers. As with all controversial surveillance techniques, they are allegedly used by security agencies to target the communications of criminals. Like other methods of data harvesting, stingrays monitor thousands of phones at a time and sweep information from all devices in the targeted area — yes, that means yours. VICE News went further than Sky, with an in-depth investigation that revealed evidence of stingrays being employed at several locations in the British capital. Areas in the surveillance dragnet included the U.K. parliament, a peaceful anti-austerity protest, and the Ecuadorian embassy — home of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.
Due to the U.K.’s legal policy of refusing to discuss IMSI catchers on national security grounds, the VICE report was unable to determine whether the signals it detected in London belonged to state apparatus. Investigators asked the House of Commons whether phone signal boosters exist at the location and were told by a press officer that there are none. Further Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were rejected on the grounds that disclosure of the information “would be likely to prejudice the prevention and detection of crime.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslim Boy Writes He Lives in ‘Terrorist House’ on Accident and is Quizzed by Police
A Muslim boy has been quizzed by police after mistakenly writing that he lived in a ‘terrorist house’ rather than a ‘terraced house’.
The 10-year-old made the error during an English lesson at a primary school in Accrington, Lancashire, and the following day officers arrived at his home to interview him and examine the family laptop.
Speaking to the BBC, the boy’s family said the incident on December 7 had shocked them and asked for the police and school to apologise.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Called as Anti-Israel Riot Erupts at London University
A violent riot by anti-Israel activists at a leading London university has left Jewish students shocked and concerned about their safety on campus, and ended in at least one Jewish student being physically assaulted.
Police were called to Kings College London University on Tuesday night, after a speech by former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon was attacked with shocking violence by pro-Palestinian groups. Ironically, Ayalon — who was brought to London by the controversial liberal Jewish group Yachad — is an ardent left-wing campaigner and advocate of Israeli concessions to the Palestinians.[…]
“Our freedom, our right to freedom of speech is being violated… ironically, the protection of freedom of speech on one side is violating the freedom of speech on the other.”[…]
“The truth is that most other people are much more moderate,” he said, cautioning supporters of Israel not to resign themselves to the false notion that “the whole world hates us.” Many of those who turned up for the speech for example were neither Jewish nor involved in pro-Israel activism, and were left with a clear impression of “who the real bigots are.”
“It really shows the true colors of these so-called ‘human rights’ activists, and what they’re all about; that they aren’t really interested in any peace with Israel, they’re not critical of Israeli government policy. What they’re essentially opposed to is the existence of the State of Israel in and of itself… so there’s no room for discussion with them.”[…]
[anti-Semitism in the heart of London academia. University becomes “Monoversity” ]
| — Hat tip: MC | [Return to headlines] |
The commuter stabbed to death in a south London park yesterday morning was a 30-year-old university lecturer walking to his second day in a new job.
Daniel Young has been described by police as a ‘young man going about his business’ when he was fatally wounded while passing through Kendor Gardens close to Morden Underground station.
It is understood he had just left the family home of his long-term girlfriend Ellen Ball, 22, and was heading for what was just his second day in his new role as a teaching fellow at Coventry University’s London Campus.
Passers-by tried desperately to save his life, performing CPR as emergency services arrived at the scene.
However, he could not be saved and was pronounced dead a short time later by the crew from the London Air Ambulance…
| — Hat tip: Seneca III | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Taxi Driver Banned From Driving Children After He’s Reported for Hugging His Own Daughters
A TAXI driver was suspended from taking children to school after he was reported for kissing and hugging his own daughters.
Devastated Tony Kemp, 60, was banned from working with children for six days after the mistaken whistleblower leapt into action.
Council officials immediately banned him from working, without interviewing him or collecting evidence.
He was reinstated on Tuesday by North Yorkshire County Council, but he said he had endured a living nightmare since the authority phoned him last Thursday.
They told him he was being suspended from the Pickering Junior School run with immediate effect after an allegation had been made against him.
But the couldn’t give him any more details and he had still not been officially informed or interviewed by Tuesday afternoon.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Journalist Jailed for Defaming Men at Cairo Bath House Acquitted
An Egyptian journalist who was jailed for defaming a group of men after filming them at a bath house, has been acquitted.
Mona Iraqi faced charges of defamation and spreading false news after a “sting” on 26 men she accused of “perversions” for attending what she said was a gay bath house in Cairo has been sent to jail.
The men arrested were accused of “perversions” as journalist Mona Iraqi told police that the bathhouses were used for “group perversions”.
As part of the report, a picture was posted of dozens of men, mainly naked, being rounded up during the raid and put into vans.
The bathhouse owner was accused by prosecutors of facilitating the “practice, facilitate and incite debauchery.”
All 26 men were later acquitted.
It was announced last year that Iraqi — who has refused to apologise despite widespread criticism — had been sentenced to six months in jail.
She was also fined EGP10,000 ($1,277; €1,207) by a Cairo court for defamation and spreading false news.
This week a Cairo court accepted Iraqi’s appeal, and she was acquitted for all of the charges.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Liberal and Conservative Media Unite Against Trump
We have never had total war against a candidate like we’re seeing with Donald Trump. All elements of national media are uniting to stop him.
Look for a fake Trump scandal to break — probably from a conservative news outlet — right before the Iowa caucus.
A few months ago, an alleged Trump quote from a 1998 People magazine interview was circulating on the Internet, claiming Trump said that if he ever ran for president, he’d run as a Republican because Republican voters are “the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up.”
I pay a lot for Nexis, and Trump has never said anything remotely resembling this. Snopes.com investigated, too, and also concluded the quote was a fake. But you can probably still find some idiot tweeting it out right now.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Expects Much From Italy, Ambassador to UN Tells ANSA
‘Must play a fundamental role’
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, JANUARY 19 — The formation of the new unity government in Libya is a significant step but there is a huge amount of work to do, Libyan ambassador to the UN Ibrahim Dabbashi told ANSA on Tuesday. He stressed that “we expect a great deal from Italy, which must play a fundamental role”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Kasserine Uprising Five Years After Revolution
Protests and clashes with police over unemployment
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, JANUARY 20 — Social unrest has flared up again in Tunisia a few days from celebrations for the fifth anniversary of Ben Ali’s ouster. The protest began after a young unemployed man, Ridha Yahyaoui last Saturday died in Kasserine after he climbed on an electricity pylon during a sit-in at which he had threatened to commit suicide. His name had been scrapped from a list of new hires drafted by the regional department for education.
Hundreds of demonstrators over the past few days gathered in front of the governorate’s offices to claim their right to work, with a break on Monday. Then yesterday, when they were banned from staging another sit-in in front of the governorate, they started hurling stones and clashing with security forces, sparking an uprising that widened across the city, forcing the interior ministry to declare a curfew in Kasserine from 6 pm until 5 am.
Two demonstrators tried to kill themselves by jumping from the building’s roof (they were saved by rescuers) while officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Many public buildings and stores were shut down and the army was deployed to protect the governorate’s offices.
A number of citizens joined demonstrations called by the jobless, complaining about the region’s marginalization and demanding more transparency.
Overall yesterday 23 were slightly injured, including four security officials and 246 people were forced to seek treatment after they inhaled tear gas. The region of Kasserine, not far from the border with Algeria, is among the least fortunate among Tunisia and it is where Mount Chambi, a jihadist stronghold, is located. Youth unemployment in the region reaches about 27% while the national unemployment average is 15.3%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Cell Led by Nasrallah Jr. Neutralized
Five Palestinians arrested in West Bank, attacks foiled
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, JANUARY 20 — A terror cell led on the internet by Lebanon’s Hezbollah was neutralized in the West Bank following the arrest of five Palestinians from Tulkarem who were planning several attacks, Israeli security service Shin Bet said Wednesday.
The cell, according to Shin Bet, received orders and funding from Hezbollah’s Unit 133: in particular from Jawad Nasrallah, son of leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The cell was planning suicide attacks and the episode, added Shin bet, confirms that Hezbollah are trying to lead and foster (“so far in vain”) plans of a revolt among the Palestinians in the West Bank.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Sees Italy as Window to EU, Ambassador Tells ANSA
Mozaffari hopeful of ‘good news about the return of ENI’
(ANSA) — Rome, January 19 — Iran sees Italy as the window for its relations with Europe, which is why the first stage of President Hassan Rouhani’s upcoming visit to the continent will be in Rome, Iranian ambassador Jahanbakhsh Mozaffari told ANSA Tuesday. “It’s no coincidence that Italy is the first stage of our president’s trip,” Mozaffari told an ANSA forum on Tuesday.
“It shows the importance of Italy for Iran in relations with Europe. We are confident future relations between our countries will be increasingly radiant. “Relations between Italy and Iran are long-standing and deep. Italy was our top trade partner before the sanctions were imposed.
“The history of relations between the two States is older than the existence of some modern States.
“So Italy is in a privileged position for our policy towards Europe.
“The fact that the first step of President Rouhani’s visit to Europe is in Italy means that we look at relations with Europe through the window of Italy. “This is not a new thing. Italy is one of the few countries who never broke off relations with Iran, even in the difficult moments”.
Mozaffari added that Rouhani, who will be in Rome on January 25 and 26, will be flanked by six ministers and a delegation of business leaders. “This shows our desire to have comprehensive dialogue because we want to advance our relations with Italy in every sphere,” he said. “Therefore, important cooperation documents will be signed and we look to the visit with confidence”. Mozaffari welcomed the end of sanctions after the Vienna deal on Iran’s nuclear programme despite opposition from some quarters in the United States and in the Middle East.
“We have seen in recent months that some radical environments within the US and in Israel (are against the deal) and some of our neighbour countries are trying to destabilise the area, without success,” the Iranian ambassador to Rome said.
“They are not giving up. These efforts continue in the USA and in the region.
“We are following what happens around us, but we will continue on the road we have taken, because we are convinced we won’t go back to where we were before as the world has understood that sanctions and embargoes are not a solution”. The ambassador said he was hopeful Italian energy giant will soon be back in Iran following the end of the sanctions.
“ENI has a privileged position in Iran for us because ENI was the last major European company to leave after the imposition of sanctions,” he said.
“ENI did not leave Iran until it had completed its commitments and our relations with ENI were not interrupted.
“I’m convinced we’ll have good news about ENI’s return to Iran”. Mozaffari said that Iran was the first to perceive the threat posed by ISIS and to start to fight it, adding that Tehran is looking to cooperate with those combatting the extremist Islamist group. “We were the first country in the region to start to fight ISIS, right from the beginning, as soon as the group emerged and showed itself to be extremely aggressive,” he said.
“I think we need a worldwide alliance against terrorism.
We know that terrorism is a global threat and it requires a global response.
“So we ask all friendly countries to form a common front against terror”. Rouhani will visit Pope Francis during the trip.
“I want to stress the importance to us of the Vatican and the pope,” Mozaffari said at the forum.
“Iran and the Vatican have excellent relations and many exchanges of delegations”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq’s Oldest Christian Monastery That Has Stood for 1,400 Years is Destroyed in Seconds
Satellite image reveals how ISIS reduced sacred site to rubble
The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq, which had survived for more than 1,400 years, has been reduced to a field of rubble by ISIS fighters, satellite images confirm.
St. Elijah’s Monastery, south of Mosul, northern Iraq, has been completely wiped out by the Islamist terrorist, joining a list of dozens of historical and religious sites purposely destroyed by the group.
Experts believe ISIS fighters would have used every measure available to destroy the monastery, which had most recently served as a place of worship for U.S. troops, including bulldozers, sledgehammers and possibly explosives…
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq’s Oldest Christian Monastery Destroyed by Islamic State
Satellite images confirm that the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been destroyed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
St Elijah’s stood on a hill near the northern city of Mosul for 1,400 years.
But analysts said the images, obtained by the Associated Press, suggested it had been demolished in late 2014, soon after IS seized the city.
A Catholic priest from Mosul warned that its Christian history was “being barbarically levelled”.
“We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land,” said Father Paul Thabit Habib, who now lives in Kurdish-administered Irbil.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Use Footage of British Legend Oliver Reed to Threaten Italy in Chilling New Message
THE evil Islamic State has released chilling new footage featuring a classic film staring legendary British actor Oliver Reed to threaten Italy with sickening attacks.
In the video, the depraved death cult — also known as Daesh — show clips from the film Lion of the Desert, in which Reed stars alongside American actor Anthony Quinn in 1981.
It was one in a series of videos threatening a number of countries released by the savage jihadis.
The fanatics use the clip to threaten Italy, warning its brutal terror campaign will continue until its notorious flag “flutters over Rome”.
[Hillary needs to stop blaming the Donald, because obviously it’s all Olly Reed’s fault! If these people use him in a video then it’s only logical to blame Olly for the rise of the Islamic State, after all … isn’t it?]
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
ISIS Destroys 1,400-Year-Old Monastery as Sick Campaign Against Christians Intensifies
THE oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been wiped out by Islamic State (ISIS) as it continues its horrifying path of death and destruction.
Satellite images have revealed how the historic St Elijah’s Monastery of Mosul has been reduced to a field of rubble.
In his office in exile in Irbil, Iraq, the Rev Paul Thabit Habib, 39, said of the scene: “I can’t describe my sadness.
“Our Christian history in Mosul is being barbarically levelled. We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land.”
Speculation has surrounded the fate of the site after ISIS, also known as Daesh, swept through Mosul in June 2014 and largely cut communications to the area.
ISIS now controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, has killed thousands of civilians and forced out hundreds of thousands of Christians.
Along the way, the sick jihadis have destroyed buildings and ruined historical and culturally significant structures they consider contrary to their interpretation of Islam.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Group to Build Five Hospitals in Iran
An Italian construction group said on Tuesday it had signed a preliminary agreement with Iran to build five hospitals, just after the lifting of economic sanctions against Tehran in a deal over its nuclear programme.
Pessina Costruzioni will build the first three 1,000-bed hospitals in Tehran.
Two other 500-bed facilities will be provided in Rasht and Nishapur.
Italian industries have high hopes following the lifting of sanctions against Iran on Saturday after the nuclear deal took effect.
In November, deputy economic development minister Carlo Calenda led a large business delegation to Tehran representing 178 companies, 20 business associations and 12 banking groups.
“Italy was Iran’s leading economic and trade partner before the sanctions,” Italian economic development minister Federica Guidi stressed a few months ago, seeking to ensure her country regains that position.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Jews Welcome in Russia, Putin Tells Europe’s Jewish Leaders
Russian president Vladimir Putin has met with European Jewish leaders to discuss their concerns over rising anti-Semitism on the continent.
During the meeting, Putin pointed out that many Jews emigrated from Moscow when it was part of the former Soviet Union. He said now they can come back.
The president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor said the number of Jews fleeing Europe is also on the rise.
“The situation with the Jews in Europe is the worst it has been since the end of the Second World War,” said Kantor. “The Jews are again in fear and a Jewish exodus from Europe is quite real. There are more Jews fleeing France, which is considered very secure, than from civil-war-torn Ukraine.”
“Let them come here,” said Putin. “They emigrated from here under Soviet Union, but now they can come back.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Gunmen Storm University in Pakistan, Killing at Least 20 People
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Gunmen slipped into a college campus under cover of fog Wednesday, killing at least 20 people — some of them shot execution-style — in the latest terrorist attack in Pakistan targeting students in apparent revenge for expanding military crackdowns.
The attack in Charsadda, about 30 miles from Peshawar, was claimed by a Taliban faction. It is likely to unite the country behind stern action against Islamist militants 13 months after a similar rampage at a nearby army-run school killed about 150 students and teachers.
Four suspected attackers also were killed in Wednesday’s bloodshed, officials said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed a “ruthless response,” saying the attack was on all of Pakistan.
“Cowards and their finances will see our national resolve to eliminate terror,” a statement issued by his office said, even as some Pakistani media outlets reported that the death toll could rise from among the dozens wounded.
The attack underscored the resilience of Taliban militiamen despite a widening campaign of airstrikes and other offensives by Pakistan, which has lowered overall violence but has not dismantled militant groups that can easily slip across the Afghan border to relative safe havens.
The Pakistan Taliban also appears increasingly splintered, with some groups favoring so-called soft targets such as schools and others insisting the fight is mainly with Pakistan’s security forces. After Wednesday’s attack — claimed by a hard-line Taliban offshoot — the main Pakistani Taliban faction denounced it as “un-Islamic.”
Security and analysts, however, have repeatedly stressed that the Pakistani Taliban remains capable of pulling off headline-grabbing attacks, especially in the northwestern part of the country. In September, the Pakistani Taliban asserted responsibility for an attack on a Pakistani Air Force base in Peshawar, killing 29 people…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Nirmala Carvalho
All those detained were taking part in a private dinner to mark a Hindu harvest festival. Police took the accused, including a blind married couple, to a police station. They were released the next day on bail. For the archbishop of Bhopal, “Sangh Parivar activists have taken advantage of” the state’s anti-conversion law, “making false and baseless allegations.”
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Police in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh arrested 12 people, including a married couple both of whom are blind, on charges of forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity.
Those arrested had gathered at the house of one Shankar Singh, in the village of Dahar, to celebrate Makar Sankranti, a popular Hindu harvest festival. In fact, none of those taken into custody is Christian.
Reacting to the incident, Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), told AsiaNews, “The GCIC condemns the arrest of 12 people on charges of forced conversions.” For him, “Groups of radical right-wing extremists roam the streets in search of people to arrest based on the infamous anti-conversion Law, which facilitates the intimidation and harassment of the vulnerable Christian minority, even in the privacy of their homes.”
The incident in question occurred on 14 January, on the eve of the harvest festival, when the accused, half of them women, met at Singh’s home. At some point, a group of men surrounded the house, called the police and waited for their arrival.
In violation of human and women’s rights, the latter took the hosts and guests into custody and drove them to a prison, including the blind couple, on the basis of false accusations. The accused were released on bail the following day.
Hindu radicals accused them of violating the state’s infamous anti-conversion law, which was recently amended to make it even more restrictive, in order to punish those who try to convert Hindus to Christianity.
The Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act of 1968 bans conversions obtained by force or money. However, it is primarily used to persecute Christians, by making false allegations of forced conversions, and those who decide to embrace religions other than Hinduism.
“Madhya Pradesh was the first Indian state to approve draconian anti-conversion legislation and then changed it to make it even more restrictive,” Mgr Leo Cornelius, archbishop of Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), told AsiaNews.
“Sangh Parivar* activists have taken advantage of it, making false and baseless allegations. Because of the law, they rule undisturbed in the state and continue to violate constitutional guarantees of religious freedom in secular India.”
* The Sangh Parivar, lit. family union, is a loose family of Hindu-nationalist groups.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India Marines Arbitration ‘To Last Till August 2018’
Court confirms March 30-31 hearing on Girone
(ANSA) — Rome, January 20 — A court in The Hague said Wednesday arbitration between Italy and India over the fate of two Italian marines accused by India of killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012 will take until August, 2018. The court confirmed a March 30-31 hearing on Italy’s December request to get marine Salvatore Girone back from India for the duration of the arbitration regarding him and fellow marine Massimiliano Latorre.
The arbitration court also said Italy must file a written statement of its version of events by September 16 this year and India must do the same by March 31, 2017.
The court also set further deadlines for both sides to respond to one another’s initial statements, of July 28, 2017, for Italy and December 1, 2017, for India.
If the latter has raised objections over jurisdiction or admissibility at the point, Italy will have one last chance to rebut by February 2, 2018.
After that, the arbitration court will have six months to come to a verdict. It reserves itself the right to extend that time, however.
The long-running affair has caused friction between India and Italy, which has asked for international arbitration since India failed to charge either of the servicemen, while detaining them for years.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan University Latest Target of Militant Attacks
The attack on the Bacha Khan University in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, which killed 20 people and was claimed by a breakaway Taliban faction, is the latest in a series of attacks spanning more than a decade.
The attacks, which have killed tens of thousands of civilians and security personnel, have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban and other militants, who are deeply opposed to Islamabad’s decision to partner with the United States against al-Qaida in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The attacks have mainly targeted security forces and the country’s Shiite minority. The deadliest attack was carried out just over a year ago, when Taliban militants stormed an army-run school in Peshawar, not far from the scene of Wednesday’s attack, killing some 150 people, mainly children.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swede’s ‘Confession’ In China Scares EU Chiefs
There are “grave concerns” over China’s detentions of Europeans, an EU spokesperson said, after a Swede appeared live on TV to confess to violating Chinese law.
Peter Dahlin, who worked for the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group, disappeared earlier this month as he prepared to board a flight to Thailand, and appears to have been caught up in a crackdown on human rights lawyers.
In China high-profile criminal suspects are regularly paraded on television apparently confessing to their actions, in what rights lawyers say is a violation of criminal procedure.
It is rare for China to accuse foreigners of national security offences, which can carry heavy penalties, although some have been accused of spying.
The EU was “deeply concerned” about cases such as Dahlin’s, the grouping’s ambassador to China Hans-Dietmar Schweisgut told reporters.
“We do hope it’s not representing the new normal yet, but we do see an extremely worrying trend,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Activist for Human Rights in China “Confesses” on Television After His Arrest
Peter Dahlin was arrested early in the new year. In his “confession” on state television he said he was involved in “instigat[ing] confrontations” and gathering information to produce “distorted” reports. He founded an NGO that helps human rights lawyers and provides legal aid to rural areas. In China, the situation of the rule of law is more and more critical, even for non-Chinese.
Beijing (AsiaNews) — The Swedish human rights activist arrested on 4 January in mainland China has appeared on Chinese state television “confessing” to breaking the law through his group’s activities.
Peter Dahlin disappeared at the start of the new year amid a crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists. State media claim that his organisation received foreign funding to “ instigate confrontations” and gather information to produce “distorted” reports.
The group in question, the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group (China Action), offers direct legal aid to people alleging human rights violations, and assistance to uncertified lawyers to provide legal aid in rural areas
In a statement issued after the “confession”, the organisation called the report “absurd” and said the confession appeared to be forced.
Mr Dahlin’s arrest happened around the same time as a crackdown on several lawyers with the Beijing law firm Fengrui, later charged with subversion.
The Xinhua news agency published a report claiming that the Swede had collaborated with detained lawyer Wang Quanzhang to set up an organisation like his own in Hong Kong. It also accused him of providing funding to activist Xing Qingxian, who reportedly helped the son of detained lawyer Wang Yu to leave the country.
During his “confession,” Mr Dahlin said he supported the lawyers and gave them money. “I violated Chinese law through my activities here; I’ve caused harm to the Chinese government; I’ve hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. I apologise sincerely for this and I’m very sorry that this ever happened,” he said.
Another Swedish citizen received a similar treatment. Gui Minhai, who is connected to a Hong Kong bookshop known for publishing and carrying books critical of the Chinese government, also appeared on state television.
The Swedish Embassy in Beijing and the Swedish consulate in the former British colony are still trying to understand why two Swedish citizens were arrested. Consular officials met Mr Dahlin in custody but “there are still many questions unanswered about his detention”.
Commenting on this flurry of arrests and disappearances, a Chinese trade union source told AsiaNews that “the rule of law is dead” in China.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Revealed: The Birthplace of Human War — Bloody Battlefield Dates Back 10,000 Years
THE DISCOVERY of the remains of 27 people killed in a horrific massacre that took place at least 10,000 years ago is the earliest evidence of warfare, experts have said.
Their killers clubbed and stabbed to death men, women and even children, leaving their bodies strewn along the shore of a lagoon.
Some of the victims — including a woman in the last stages of pregnancy — had their hands bound as their heads, knees and limbs were smashed and torsos pierced.
Experts believe the bloody battle is the earliest evidence of war being waged by prehistoric people thousands of years before large-scale armed conflict to settle disputes was thought to have originated.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
‘Fast and Furious’ Rifle Found in El Chapo Hideout
(FOX NEWS) A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s hideout in Mexico was funneled through the gun-smuggling investigation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News.
A .50-caliber is a massive rifle that can stop a car, or as it was intended, take down a helicopter.
After the raid on Jan. 8 in the city of Los Mochis that killed five of his men and wounded one Mexican marine, officials found a number of weapons inside the house Guzman was staying, including the rifle, officials said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Man Drives for 60 Miles Before Realising He’s Left His Wife at Petrol Station
A forgetful tourist has made headlines after he drove some 60 miles before noticing his wife was no longer in the car.
The driver, known only as Walter, was on holiday in Brazil when he stopped for petrol.
Not realising that his wife had nipped to the bathroom while he was filling the car up, he drove off — back to their home in Argentina.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Three Men Awarded Damages After Club’s Racist Door Policy
Three young men with a migration background who were turned away from a club in Vienna because of their appearance have been awarded €600 each in compensation.
The litigation association ruled that the three men were discriminated against on grounds of race. Five of their friends, who were also turned away after they complained about the bouncer, received €350 in compensation (the first conviction in Austria for indirect discrimination).
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Army to Toughen Migrant Border Checks
Austria’s army will carry out thorough identity and bag checks on every migrant arriving at the main border crossing with Slovenia from Wednesday, as part of new government measures heralding a tougher stance in Europe’s refugee crisis.
Some 500 newly deployed troops will assist police in processing up to 6,000 refugees and migrants on a daily basis at the Spielfeld crossing in the southern state of Styria, police spokesman Fritz Grundnig told AFP on Tuesday.
In case of a spike in numbers, security forces could handle as many as 11,000 people — roughly the average daily number of migrants who crossed into Austria late last year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria to Set Limit on Asylum Numbers
Austrian state governors and leaders of the federal government are meeting in Vienna on Wednesday for a summit on the refugee crisis — with the focus on setting an upper limit on how many asylum applications Austria will process each year.
According to media reports ministers have already agreed on a figure of no more than 120,000 over the next three or four years — equal to around 1.5 percent of Austria’s population of roughly 8.5 million people.
More police will be deployed on Austria’s southern border, to assist the army in carrying out stringent checks on migrants arriving at the main border crossing with Slovenia. Those fleeing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq are supposed to be allowed through, but their identity papers and bags will face greater scrutiny.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austria Has Put a Cap on the Number of Refugees
37,500 this year, a total of 127,500 through 2019
(ANSA-AP) — VIENNA — Austria has put a cap on the number of refugees it wants to accept — 37,500 this year and a total of 127,500 through 2019. The numbers were announced after a meeting Wednesday of federal ministers and provincial governors.
Chancellor Werner Faymann says the figures are a “guideline” while Deputy Chancellor Reinhard Mitterlehner calls it an “upper limit.” The two officials are from the two parties that make up Austria’s coalition government — Faymann heads the Social Democratic Party while Mitterlehner belongs to the centrist People’s Party. Officials said the government will be examining legal options on how it can react if those numbers are exceeded.
Faymann calls the decision an “emergency solution,” but says Austria “cannot accept everyone applying for asylum.” Not included are the 90,000 applications from last year, of which many are still being processed.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The UK will ‘strongly’ protest changes to EU migration rules that mean asylum seekers have to make a claim to stay in the first country they arrive in.
Under the so-called Dublin Convention, refugees have to claim asylum in the country they first enter and they can be returned there under EU rules.
But bureaucrats are set to try and push a change on Britain as David Cameron attempts to complete his renegotiation on Britain’s membership of the EU next month.
The ultimatum from Brussels is expected to include a new push for Britain to take tens of thousands of migrants as part of a quota system in return for the right to deport people who reach the UK to claim asylum after travelling through several other countries.
It could throw the Prime Minister’s renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership into turmoil ahead of the referendum.
Reforms to the Dublin protocols had been due for debate on March and today a No 10 spokesman today insisted no proposal had been put to Britain so far…
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Caught on Tape: 1,000 Dutch Villagers Storm Town Hall in Anti-Migrant Melee
As regular readers are by now acutely aware, Europeans are growing increasingly frustrated with officials’ response to the bloc’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.
To be sure, some countries were skeptical from the very beginning. Take Hungary for example, whose firebrand PM Viktor Orban built a series of migrant-be-gone fences late last summer and defended them with tear gas and water cannons.
Be that as it may, most Europeans were willing to give refugees the benefit of the doubt. That began to change after attacks on Paris killed some 130 people in November and sentiment took a decisive turn for the worst earlier this month when scores of sexual assaults allegedly perpetrated by men of “Arab origin” on New Year’s Eve created a bloc-wide scandal.
Now, right-wing movements like PEGIDA in Germany and the Soldiers of Odin in Finland are gaining popularity as nationalism rises from the ashes of Europe’s checkered past. Meanwhile, sales of gun and pepper spray are soaring and in a testament to just how frightened people are, one German town moved to ban male adult asylum seekers from public swimming pools.
In the latest example of how quickly things are spiraling out of control, far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders inadvertently incited a violent riot in tiny Heesch where town officials attempted to hold a public meeting to discuss plans to take in 500 refugees in the town over the next ten years.
Hours before the meeting was set to take place, Wilders called for all Islamic male asylum seekers to be locked in their asylum centers in order to “protect our women.” Shortly thereafter, a Facebook page “Protest AZC Heesch” garnered some 3,000 likes and before you knew it, 1,000 angry villagers actually stormed the castle — literally.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chios Braves the Storm, As Refugees Keep Landing on Greece’s Shores
Even during the winter, overloaded dinghies have continued to reach Greek islands in droves, halting only when the sea is too rough.
The crossing is brief but perilous, and hundreds have died.
Chios is one of the most-used points of entry for migrants and refugees entering Greece, behind Lesbos, the most commonly used.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Cologne Police Ignored 200 Migrant Sex Attacks and Took Four Hours to Respond to Reports
GERMAN police stood idly by and IGNORED more than 200 migrant sex attacks on the streets of Cologne before finally stepping in to help the terrified victims, an explosive report has revealed today.
A bombshell dossier lifted the lid on the shocking failures of officers to protect women being groped and raped by rampaging refugees during the horrific attacks on New Year’s Eve.
It reveals how police waited more than FOUR HOURS to take action against the migrants perpetrating the horrific sexual assaults — by which time more than 200 attacks including gang rapes had already taken place.
The damning report, compiled by Germany’s Interior Minister Ralf Jäger, will fuel growing anger over authorities’ handling of the Cologne sex attacks amid suspicions politically correct authorities wanted to cover up the crimes to protect Angela Merkel’s open door immigration policy.
Shockingly it reveals how weeping women ran to officers for sanctuary as early as 8.30pm on the night to tell them they had been sexually assaulted by gangs of migrants.
But rather than acting on the reports officers just stood idly by, letting carnage and mass rape unfold before finally stepping in just before 1am to break up the gangs of roaming refugees.
The distressing dossier also lists the final victim count at 821 women, many of whom were groped and sexually attacks, as the full scale of the carnage in Cologne is finally revealed despite systematic attempts to cover it up.
It reveals how the first “rape by a group” took place at just 8.30pm, when police began to receive reports of the horrific scenes unfolding in the historic cathedral city’s central square.
But Mr Jäger scathingly notes that police failed to act until 12.50am — and even then bungling officers failed to apprehend any of the migrant sex attackers.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Danish Nightclub Accused of ‘Pure Racism’
A Danish nightclub has been accused of discrimination over its language requirements for entry by asylum seekers, prompting fears more establishments could follow suit amid a spate of reports of sexual harassment.
The Buddy Holly nightclub in the southern town of Sønderborg has hit the news after requiring customers to speak either Danish, English or German after women in several Danish towns hosting refugees complained of being harassed by asylum seekers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
DHS: 500,000 Aliens Overstayed Visas in 2015
(FREE BEACON) More than half a million aliens overstayed their temporary visas in the United States in 2015, with more than 482,000 of those individuals believed to be still residing illegally in the United States, according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security.
Around 527,127 aliens temporally granted U.S. business and tourist visas were found to have stayed in the United States longer than legally permitted, according to DHS’s 2015 entry and exit overstay report.
Of those who did not leave the United States on time, around 482,781 are believed to still be illegally residing in the United States, according to the report, which was issued by DHS amid debate in Congress over an Obama administration initiative to permit around 170,000 new immigrants from Muslim-majority nations in 2016.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Doctors Without Borders Raps Attempts by EU Countries to Deter Migrants
The aid group Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday attempts by various European Union nations to deter migrants have put thousands of people in danger and created more business for smugglers.
In a report, it said border closures and tougher policing only encourage people seeking sanctuary or jobs to use other routes to get to Europe.
MSF’s head of operations, Brice de le Vingne, said “policies of deterrence, along with their chaotic response to the humanitarian needs of those who flee, actively worsened the conditions of thousands of vulnerable men, women and children.”
The group urged the EU to create more legal ways to come to Europe and allow asylum applications at the land border between Turkey and Greece.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Four million migrants could reach Europe by the end of 2017, the International Monetary Fund has warned.
In new forecasts, the organisation adjusted its estimates to conclude 1.3million people could move to Europe every year between 2015 — 2017.
It added the Middle East refugees should boost European economic growth over the short term, but their longer-term impact would depend on efforts to integrate them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: Refugees Put Hopes in €500 Pot-Luck Smuggling Service
Smuggling yourself from France to Britain can be hugely expensive for refugees, but there is a cheaper “pot-luck” option — the only snag being you might end up in a French military base.
Some who have used the 500-euro ($550) smuggling service at a motorway rest stop near the northern French port of Calais, have found themselves heading in completely the wrong direction, winding up in lorries to Germany or Belgium rather than their dream destination of Britain.
“The guys who run it know the trucks where the driver is not around or sleeping, and they can get you inside,” said Adam Mohammed, a 30-year-old from Ghana.
“But they don’t know the destination. They look for English number plates, but you are still taking a chance.”
One group of three young men and two women came back to Calais saying they had woken up in a French military base.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Frustrated Refugees Sue Berlin Over Asylum Backlog Chaos
More than 200 people are suing the German government in North Rhine-Westphalia for taking too long to process their asylum applications, a survey by a newspaper showed on Wednesday.
Many of the plaintiffs suing the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) in courts in the western state have been waiting more than a year for a decision on their case, the Rheinische Post (RP) reported.
Journalists at the RP contacted all seven administrative courts in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and found that many of the cases alleged “inactivity” by the authority.
The BAMF has been struggling with a backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases since before the massive increase in refugee arrivals in the second half of 2015 — with its poor performance forcing its boss to step down last September.
In summer 2015, the number of un-processed cases at the BAMF already stood at 250,000. That number has since grown to 360,000.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Inside German Refugee Centre Where Women Workers Forced to Wear Loose Clothes to Stop Groping
A FRUSTRATED refugee centre worker has revealed shocking incidents of cheating, death threats and demands for a luxury life from migrants.
In a searing indictment of the behaviour of some refugees, the woman said her idealism has been eroded and virtually destroyed.
At first she said was enthusiastic in her role of helping process tens of thousands of migrants arriving in Germany on a weekly basis.
Now, she says she is disillusioned, disheartened and on the verge of quitting due to demands and sexual harrassment.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
IOM: Rate of Migrant Arrivals in Greece Dwarfs 2015 Pace
Greece has seen 21 times more migrants arrive on its shores so far this month than in all of January 2015, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday.
Since the beginning of 2016, IOM said 31,244 migrants and refugees had arrived in Greece by sea, compared with just 1,472 recorded arrivals on the Greek islands in January last year.
“This is a huge jump,” spokesman Itayi Viriri told reporters in Geneva, warning that it does not bode well for the rest of the year.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Sees Huge Rise in Number of African Migrants
The number of migrants heading to Italy from sub-Saharan Africa surged last year, while Syrians headed for Greece instead, new figures show.
Almost 20,000 fewer migrants arrived in Italy in 2015 compared to the previous year, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).The IOM estimates that 153,842 migrants reached Italy last year compared to 170,100 in 2014.
The drop is mainly due to Syrians fleeing conflict entering Europe via Greece instead of Italy, Flavio Di Giacomo, the spokeperson in Italy for the IOM, said in a statement.
“Although it may seem that Italy in 2015 registered a decrease in arrivals, we must consider that in 2014 Syria was the most represented country of origin of migrants reaching Italian shores, while in 2015 this flow decreased since Syrians predominantly reached Europe through the Greek route,” Di Giacomo said.
But while fewer Syrians came to Italy, the number of Nigerians, Somalis and Sudanese who arrived by sea in 2015 more than doubled compared to 2014.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Aims to Integrate Muslims and Shape ‘Italian Islam’
Italy’s Interior Minister Angelino Alfano on Tuesday established a council for relations with the country’s Muslims, an advisory body the government hopes will help the minority to better integrate.
The council, made up of academics and experts in Islamic culture and religion, will be tasked with coming up with proposals and recommendations on integration issues based on “respect and cooperation”, the ministry said in a statement.
Alfano said he wanted “a community with all those who — while from different countries, cultures, religions and traditions — intend to contribute to the peaceful development and prosperity of our country, in full compliance with our laws and our Christian and humanistic tradition.”
The body will keep the government in the loop on Islamic issues in Italy and help shape “Italian Islam,” the statement added.
Experts put the number of Muslims in Italy at over one million, most of whom are immigrants, plus a small number of converts.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: EU to Scrap ‘First-Country’ Rules in Win for Renzi — Ft
Move would revolutionise EU’s migration policy
(ANSA) — Rome, January 20 — Brussels is to scrap rules that make the first country a refugee enters responsible for any asylum claim, in what would be a victory for Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, the Financial Times said Wednesday.
The move would revolutionise the bloc’s migration policy and shift the burden from its southern flank to its wealthier northern members.
Changing the rules on who is responsible for refugees when they arrive would mark a victory for Renzi, the FT said.
The Italian premier has repeatedly argued that the law is unfair and that other member states should do more to help with the refugee crisis.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Should Decriminalise Immigration Justice Minister Says
Terrorism threats won’t undermine rule of law Orlando pledges
(ANSA) — Rome, January 20 — Threats from terrorism will not lead to Italy abandoning the rule of law, Italian Justice Minister Andrea Orlando said Wednesday in his annual address to parliament. He said Italy should abolish the criminal offense of illegal immigration.
“The principal threat that our country, like other EU countries, must deal with today is that of jihadist terrorism — a threat that puts public security and the penal system under pressure,” Orlando said.
Terrorism is “a challenge that puts the state of law to the test but from which the state of law and therefore jurisdiction must emerge stronger”.
Although new categories of criminal offense have been introduced to help fight terrorism, the government believes “that this battle can only be won by reinforcing cooperation between states and with the European Union, because one must respond to a global threat with tools built at least on a continental dimension”.
Nevertheless Orlando said it is “disappointing” that Brussels hasn’t made significant steps toward setting up an effective European Prosecutor’s office that would be independent with real investigative powers.
“Unfortunately, at least so far, resistance, diffidence, inertia and jealousy have prevailed. There is no independence of the Prosecution with regard to member states, very limited powers of investigation on a restricted number of crimes…” That was why the minister on behalf of Italy “said no to an organ that would only have hindered national judicial authorities’ work. There is a point beyond which the low intensity of solutions is only a hypocritical cover for national selfishness,” he said.
On migration Orlando said Italy should abolish the criminal offense of illegal immigration.
“I am convinced that the crime of illegal immigration has to be abolished as confirmed by the opinions such as those of the national anti-mafia and anti-terrorist prosecutors and of the head of the national council of magistrates (CSM)”.
It has been decided not to delay on that but “to propose a complex measure that would concern those repatriated on the one hand and the time frame for recognition of refugee status on the other,” he added.
“Reform is often hindered by unfounded concerns, or justified ones that are manipulated, or by distorted perceptions,” he said, and “the offense of illegal immigration is one of these cases”.
Orlando said that under the current government controversy over Italy’s judicial system has become part of a “wider debate over the destiny of our democracy” rather than the source of political clashes that was for a long time in the past.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
It’s ‘Morally Acceptable’ To Limit Refugees, Germany Says as Crisis Grows
Pressure built on Wednesday for European Union leaders to overcome their differences and tackle the refugee emergency amid criticism that Europe’s migrant strategy is unraveling fast.
The head of the EU’s executive commission expressed concern on Wednesday that a summit of EU leaders on Feb. 18-19 would be too focused on keeping Britain inside the bloc, and he recommended that government heads give equal focus to the challenges posed by the migrant influx.
“I’m rather worried that we won’t have enough time to tackle the refugee question in sufficient depth,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters.
His call came as countries in northern Europe, the preferred destination of many of the more than 1 million people who arrived last year seeking sanctuary or jobs, began calling for caps on the number of migrants that should be allowed to enter.
European Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs EU summits, warned on Tuesday that the EU’s passport-free travel area could break apart if the migrant strategy is not sorted out within two months.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lonely at the Top: Merkel Lacks Both EU and Domestic Support
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has found herself in an awkward position: she lacks substantial domestic support as well as powerful partners with which to establish workable compromises in the EU; all this leads one to question if Germany will retain its position as the EU’s ‘flagship’ state.
It has been a really hard year for Chancellor Angela Merkel: her approval ratings have plummeted while the number of fellow politicians in the European People’s Party (EPP) she could consider her ideological partners has diminished tremendously.
Simultaneously, Germany’s image as the longstanding flagship of the European Union has been called into question.
“Germany’s sway over Europe is fading, for all its economic might and the honors heaped on Angela Merkel, and the evidence of its declining influence can be seen in the changing fortunes of the European People’s Party (EPP),” managing editor of Politico.eu Florian Eder noted in his recent article.
While the EU’s member states are turning “left” and “right” amid the ongoing refugee crisis, “the center right — and Germany itself — is losing influence,” Eder noted.
To complicate matters further, new alliances are arising within the union, throwing into question Berlin’s leadership.
“The influx of refugees has consolidated the Visegrad Group, bringing together the national-conservatives of Poland, Slovakian leftist Robert Fico, Czech Social Democrat Bohuslav Sobotka and [Hungarian President Viktor] Orban,” Eder points out, adding that the Hungarian President and his allies denounce the policy towards migrants espoused by Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
The journalist points out that Angela Merkel, while “unchallenged as Europe’s unofficial leader”, suffers from a lack of serious high-level counterparts. “François Hollande is unpopular, [Spain’s PM Mariano] Rajoy may have lost his job already and David Cameron has his own agenda when it comes to the EU and migrants,” Eder explains.
Eric Maurice of Euobserver.com also points to the lack of support for Merkel’s refugee policy in Europe, citing German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt.
Commenting on the Chancellor’s initiative to organize the relocation of refugees across the EU, Dobrindt noted: “Who speaks of a coalition of the willing to manage this crisis must also name the reality… On this issue there is a pact of the unwilling against us.”
Meanwhile, Merkel’s popularity in Germany has declined considerably. The Chancellor has long been celebrated as a “top” EU politician, who was named “Person of the Year” by the Times of London in 2014 and by America’s Time magazine in 2015. However, many people turn a blind eye to the fact that domestically, things have been getting more and more difficult, Christoph Strack of Deutsche Welle wrote in a recent op-ed.
“Germany is boiling. Much of the German media is boiling. More than a million refugees in the country and more and more problems, some predictable, some surprising and disturbing,” he notes.
The journalist refers to the fact that the country’s mass media are expressing opinions “with a new dimension of harshness.”
“Is Merkel still the right one?” the popular German daily Bild am Sonntag asks, stating that at the root of the current political crisis that has stained the chancellor’s administration, one finds “lack of respect, loss of authority, internal political struggle, terrorism, criminality and overstrained authorities.”
According to Strack, certain omissions are becoming apparent — “from the cost of the Greek bailout to the continual deferment of an immigration law.”
“This year will not only determine the future of Merkel’s chancellorship — it will also affect the way that chancellorship is viewed as a whole,” the journalist underscores.
The question remains open whether Merkel’s potential political failure will ultimately undermine Germany’s leadership position in the EU and deal a blow to the bloc’s unity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Merkel Hit by Backlash From Own Party Saying Germany is Being Overwhelmed by Refugees
GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing a backlash from her own party as fears heighten about her liberal refugee policy which has seen more than one million migrants arrive in the country.
Forty rebels within the conservative group have sent her a letter demanding an about-face after sliding polls suggested an increasing number of Germans are worried about the country’s ability to handle the influx of refugees.
In a letter, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lawmakers said Merkel must face up to reality.
They said: “In light of the developments in recent months, we can no longer speak of a great challenge — we are on the verge of our country being overwhelmed.”
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Crisis Rumbles on: Up to 4 Million Refugees Could Reach Europe by Next Year
THE migrant crisis gripping Europe is set to spiral even further out of control as it emerges up to four MILLION refugees could reach the continent by the end of 2017.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Mouzalas Slams Turkish Failure to Curb Migrant Flow as EU Calls for Completion of Hotspots
Immigration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas on Tuesday criticized Turkey for failing to take any serious measures to cut the flow of migrants into Europe as Brussels called on Greece to complete construction of five “hot spots” on its territory.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Mouzalas said Ankara’s failure to clamp down on human traffickers put an excess burden on the country’s shoulders.
“Smuggling networks are still in full operation… The deportation of migrants who have traveled from Turkey is also a big problem,” Mouzalas said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly Four Million Migrants Will Come to Europe — IMF
Up to four million migrants could reach Europe by the end of next year, the International Monetary Fund has forecast.
The IMF has forecast for Europe to see 1.3 million migrants a year arrive between 2015-17, a bigger forecast than those issued previously by the EU.
It came as it warned that Europe’s capacity to absorb migrants is in question.
In the short term, the IMF said there would be a “modest” increase in GDP due to the extra state activity to support the migrants and the boost to the labour supply.
But in the long run there is a question over whether the influx will boost Europe’s economy, dependent on how quickly they integrate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
‘No Means No’: Norway Sends Migrants on Anti-Rape Courses
In Norway, migrants are being given courses to prevent violence against women, especially rape, and to teach them how to interpret customs in a country that may seem surprisingly liberal to them.
The courses were introduced several years ago, but have become particularly topical after complaints of mass sexual assault on New Year’s Eve in the German city of Cologne, by a crowd of mostly Arab and North African men.
This particular morning at the Ha reception centre in southwestern Norway, a dozen Syrian and Sudanese asylum seekers fidget in their seats in a small room as their group discussion starts.
The curtains are drawn and a space heater blasts out hot air to heat up the room, but the participants keep their jackets on.
“The idea behind this course is to talk about risk situations that can arise when it comes to rapes and sexual assaults,” the group’s leader Linda Hagen says,kicking off the class in Norwegian, with an interpreter translating to Arabic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
On the Verge of Collapse? ‘Europe Without Borders’ is Losing Its Appeal
Is the collapse of the European Union inevitable? The European refugee crisis combined with a protracted economic slowdown have made the very idea of the EU unpopular; to complicate matters further, the European Union is departing from its founding principles, experts note.
The influx of refugees escaping the havoc created by NATO member-states and their Gulf allies in the Middle East is prompting growing concerns in the EU and drowning Europeans in frustration, Czech-based freelance journalist and analyst Martin Berger notes.
“The Middle Eastern wars will not go away, as well as smugglers that are profiting off people who flee their home countries in hopes of a better life in Europe. While one can safely assume that if the exodus of migrants remains at its current level, the political consequences would be grave for the European Union, especially for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany in general which will witness a gap between itself and its European partners growing deeper still,” Berger writes in his recent article for New Eastern Outlook.
Journalists point out that the general idea of the EU has lost a lot of attractiveness among Europeans due to the current refugee crisis, an increased terror threat and protracted economic slowdown.
“Europe was pummeled by crises from start to finish in 2015, with terrorist attacks, bankruptcy brinkmanship and an unparalleled refugee influx combining to leave continental unity in tatters by year’s end,” Griff Witte of The Washington Post emphasizes.
Berger points out that the EU’s founding principles have been put in jeopardy: on January 4, 2015 Berlin announced that a common visa policy in the Schengen Area has been endangered by new border control measures introduced by Sweden and Denmark.
EU member states are at pains to stem the increasing tide of refugees. However, at the same time they are undermining one of the union’s most important principles — the freedom of movement within the EU — in a bid to ensure security.
“With a growing fear of ISIS [Daesh] and international terrorism more broadly, the Schengen agreement risks being broken in 2016, and as more governments take legal action (as with Slovakia’s fight in the European Court of Justice), a divergence of national perspectives will dominate European policy,” Ian Bremmer, the president and the founder of Eurasia Group and the group’s Chairman Cliff Kupchan write in their Top Risks 2016 prognosis.
“Closed Europe is first and foremost a Europe that closes itself up to the outside world, and whose countries close themselves up to one another,” they warn.
The experts note that a “populist” Eurosceptic trend has emerged in a number of the EU member states, including Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Sweden, while in France the National Front is gaining unprecedented levels of support.
“Even in Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany party will continue to gain in the polls, despite being leaderless,” they write, adding that the widely discussed Brexit could become the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Martin Berger calls attention to the fact that Brussels itself contributed a lot to the current state of affairs, violating such concepts as freedom, human rights and the rule of law, regarded as governing principles of the EU.
“For instance, on September 23, the European Council approved the plan by a majority vote of the European Commission on the resettling of 160,000 refugees, which violates the basic human right of these poor souls, unable to choose a country of future residence,” Berger stresses.
Furthermore, Brussels and Berlin have repeatedly attempted to impose refugee quotas on the EU member states not taking into consideration the nations’ will.
Another assault on human liberties, according to Berger was the agreement signed between the EU and Turkey aimed at halting the flow of asylum seekers to the EU. Ankara has received a considerable financial aid from Brussels, while Jordan and Lebanon, the two states most strongly affected by the “exodus” of refugees from Iraq and Syria, have been left out in the cold.
Berger states that besides the 3 billion euro “bribe,” Brussels resumed the process of Turkey’s accession in the European Union turning a blind eye to Ankara’s recent assault on freedom and human rights as well as oil smuggling and colluding with Islamists in Syria and Iraq.
“Thus, the actions that are being taken by Brussels show the obvious: it’s only concerned with the interests of its military circles, not people. Therefore, the collapse of Europe, is inevitable. When it will happen is only a matter of time, but is clear that it won’t keep us waiting for long,” the Czech-based analyst concluded.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Poland Receives One Mln Ukrainian Migrants — Prime Minister
Poland has accepted over a million Ukrainian migrants, Prime Minister of Poland Beata Szydlo said Tuesday.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The prime minister did not specify the exact period of time during which this number of Ukrainian nationals arrived.
“Poland has already taken in about a million people from Ukraine,” Szydlo said at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, as broadcast by the European commission’s website.
Warsaw saw an influx of hundreds of thousands Ukrainian refugees in 2015 as Ukraine suffered a military conflict.
In May 2015, the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW) thinktank said that there were up to 400,000 migrants from Ukraine in Poland.
More than a million Ukrainians have sought asylum or other forms of permission to remain legally in other countries since the beginning of the military operation in Donbass in April 2014, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Refugees May Bring New Infections Into Denmark
Danish hospitals have been warned by authorities to be on the lookout for diphtheria, an illness that hasn’t been seen in Denmark for nearly 20 years but may have returned with asylum seekers.
The Danish State Serum Institute (SSI) said on Tuesday that diphtheria was found in two Libyan refugees.
“The infection can be very dangerous if one isn’t vaccinated against it. The dangerous type is very rare and we last saw it in Denmark in 1998,” SSI spokesman Kurt Fuursted told Metroxpress.
SSI has warned Danish hospitals about the possible return of diphtheria and Metroxpress reported that asylum seekers have also been found to carry tuberculosis and malaria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Slovenia Threatens to Follow Austria With Border Checks
Slovenia may impose more border controls after Austria issued over the weekend temporary measures to stem the flow of migrants.
Slovenia’s prime minister Miro Cerar said in Ljubljana on Monday (18 January) that an EU-level solution needed to be found on securing external borders, with more help for Western Balkan states.
“If Germany or Austria adopt certain measures for stricter controls then of course we will adopt similar strict measures with our southern border with Croatia”, he said.
Slovenia began erecting a razor-wire fence on the border with its Croat neighbour last November and is now mulling a proposal to send its troops to help manage the inflows.
The prime minister, who insisted upon safeguarding the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone, said he also had a duty to maintain the security and property of Slovenians.
Cerar said “millions, and I stress millions of migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Morocco” are ready to enter the EU once the weather improves in the coming months.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Two Hurt After ‘Knife Fight’ At Asylum Centre
One person was being held on suspicion of attempted manslaughter on Wednesday morning and two were left injured after a row at an arrival centre for asylum seekers in southern Sweden.
Officers said the pair were hurt after being attacked with a “knife-like object” overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday after an argument escalated at the Arena Hotell in the city of Halmstad.
Their injuries were not believed to be serious, according to police quizzed by Swedish media.
Officers arriving at the scene seized a third individual, suspected of trying to kill the other two.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swift Accord on Aid to Turkey, Berlin Tells Rome
‘Necessary to quickly conclude it,’ says Merkel spokesman
(ANSA) — Berlin, January 20 — Germany told Italy Wednesday that a swift accord was needed to free up a three-billion-euro package of aid to Turkey for migrants which Rome is blocking because of the way it is being funded. “We deem it necessary to quickly conclude the accord,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert in Berlin. Italy wants to see more of the aid, aimed at helping Turkey cope with a huge migrant influx from Syria and Iraq, funded by the EU rather than by member States. The issue is one of several which have fuelled a row between Rome and Brussels.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
The Floodgates Opened: Calais Migrants Free to Come to Britain After Landmark Court Ruling
THE floodgates were opened for Calais migrants to come to Britain today after a court ruled that four Syrian refuges should be immediately brought across the channel to escape the “intolerable” conditions of the notorious Jungle camp.
The young men were desperate to be reunited with their family in Britain and faced “living hell” conditions at the infamous makeshift migrant camp, the hearing was told.
The ruling was today declared a “groundbreaking judgement” and could be set to pave the way for other migrants wanting to cross the Channel.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Tusk Gives the EU Two Months to ‘Save Schengen’
“The March European Council will be the last moment to see if our strategy works. If it doesn’t, we will face grave consequences such as the collapse of Schengen”
The EU has “no more than two months” to solve the migrant crisis and save its passport-free Schengen zone.
That was the stark warning European Council President Donald Tusk gave on Tuesday (January 19).
He was speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, ahead of a European Council summit on March 17-18 that will focus on the continent’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two.
“The statistics over the Christmas period are not encouraging, with over 2,000 arrivals to the EU per day, according to Frontex,” said Tusk.
“The March European Council will be the last moment to see if our strategy works. If it doesn’t, we will face grave consequences such as the collapse of Schengen,” he warned…
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
UK: NHS Scientist Wins Asylum Then Rapes Young Girl ‘Patient’
A scientist who worked for the NHS after being granted asylum in Britain faces jail after repeatedly raping and abusing a young girl he pretended he was medically examining.
Cameroon-born Andong Ashu, 45, began abusing his victim when she was just 11, with the assaults becoming more serious until he started raping her.
Ashu, who came to the UK as a refugee in 2002, warned his victim that nobody would believe her if she complained because she was “only a child”.
A court heard he also attempted to bribe her with £10 and £20 payments in a desperate bid to maintain her silence.
But after suffering years of abuse the girl eventually plucked up the courage to go to police and report the scientist.
The married father of three collapsed in the dock at Hull Crown Court as a jury found him guilty of 11 sexual offences following a five-day trial.
The jury took six hours to convict him of four counts of rape and seven sexual assaults on Monday.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Undercover Refugee: Pakistani Terror Expert Reveals Life at EU Asylum Camp
A German journalist and terrorist expert of Pakistani origin went undercover in asylum centers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, only to discover dire conditions and Islamic radicalism bubbling under the surface, he told Fokus.de.
Refugee centers in Europe force asylum seekers to live in poor conditions but they are still better than in Turkey, German journalist Shams Ul-Haq told Fokus.de.
Ul-Haq is an expert on terrorism, who himself arrived in Europe at the age of 15 as an illegal immigrant from Pakistan. He has posed as an asylum seeker in reception centers in Europe, and at camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey in order to report on what life is like there.
Ul-Haq detailed some incidents of maltreatment of refugees in European reception centers. He said that the service in Germany was better than in Switzerland, where he lived in the Kreuzlingen center, which is now closed.
“The standard in both countries is still a lot better than for example in Turkey. Overall the service in Germany is better, in Switzerland there was a lot of boredom. The asylum procedure takes a long time there and in this time the refugees have nothing to do. It’s not good for people be bored, because conflicts and rumors quickly start,” said Ul-Haq.
“Some of the residents there believed, for example, that the process is deliberately protracted and the state is earning money from refugees. Religious fanatics claimed the Swiss would only help them in order to later convert their children to Christianity.”
“In Germany more psychologists and supervisors were employed, who organized entertainment programs, especially for children. In some of the units, the residents can even do traineeships. It is also important that there are enough places of worship, which is very important for Muslims. In Germany that was quite good.”
The reporter said that one of the issues for refugees and migrants at the Swiss center was their treatment by staff, who shouted at and even beat those living there.
“I got talking to one of the few nice officials, who had worked there for more than a year. He confirmed that violence at the home is normal and told of one case when a refugee was beaten so badly the person had to be hospitalized. An Afghan girl told me there was an extra room where the security staff would bring in refugees who don’t behave and beat them.”
“At night we had to sleep in a war bunker and couldn’t eat or drink. There was no shower, you could only wash at the sink. That was really bad.”
Ul-Haq confirmed fears that former members of terrorist groups such as Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) are among those living at reception centers in Europe.
“It is absolutely clear that we have former IS fighters among the refugees,” said the reporter.
“Some of them have turned away from the Islamic State and are seeking protection from the militia, but some are also carrying their Islamic ideology here.”
“I spoke with people, you need two or three days to win their trust but then they reveal their extreme views in conversation.”
“The third night in Switzerland I got a neighbor in my bunker. He talked in his sleep, words like ‘Mujaheddin,’ and ‘Allahu-Akbar.’ I investigated and it turned out that this young man came from Iraq and had fought for an Islamic group. Whether than was IS (Daesh) or some other group I couldn’t tell.”
The Germany-based terrorism expert was asked about the ways in which Germany can recognize dangerous terrorists among those who have arrived in the country, and prevent them from spreading radicalization.
“The refugees need to be monitored much more. There is no other way. The security services need to monitor telephone conversations and work more closely with the intelligence services of other countries.”
“These authorities must be contacted within one or two days in order to establish if the newcomer is a fighter or terrorist and to prevent trained fighters from coming to the camps.”
“And another thing would help — Syrian and Iraqi refugees should be separated immediately on arrival, to avoid conflicts. In addition there should be more social workers in the residences and a total ban on alcohol.”
Ul-Haq also warned about the cultural differences between German society and many of the newcomers, who are used living in a less permissive social system.
“I also think that we in Germany need stricter laws to curb crime,” he said.
“Most of the refugees are not afraid of the lax penalties here. I think that those who do not behave should be deported immediately.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Groping Gang of Migrant Men Terrorise Young Woman Demanding She ‘Make Sex’
THIS is the shocking moment a young woman was surrounded and groped by a group of migrant men… The sickening footage appears to have been filmed in recent months as snow can be seen on the ground.
Although their backgrounds have not been verified, it is thought the men are not from Sweden as they repeat the word “make” instead of “have” when asking the women for sex.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: Afghan Migrant Pledges Vengeance and Murder in Furious Bus Rant at Pensioner
A MIGRANT claiming to be from Afghanistan pledged death and vengeance to the West during an angry and shocking tirade on a bus.
A video has emerged of the unnamed 23-year-old spouting hatred and venom during a journey in Sweden where he blamed his host country for a range of crimes from paedophilia to war.
His rant, captured by a fellow passenger, sees him directing his venom at a seated 73-year-old man.
[The blog ‘Barenakedislam’ picked up this video a few days ago; now it’s made its way into the MSM.]
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
White War Refugees Not Allowed in Germany
The blatant double standard in favoring nonwhite “war refugees” over whites definitively reveals that the real purpose of Merkel’s policy is not to “help asylum seekers,” but to replace Europeans as quickly as possible.
According to the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, of the more than 7,000 Ukrainians who applied for asylum in 2014 and 2015, only 5 percent have been granted that status, and all the rest will be sent back to the Ukraine—even though there has been a full-scale war there since April 2014.
The Frankfurter Rundschau said that many of the refugees come directly from the Donbass region war zone, where their houses and livelihoods have been destroyed—identical to the claims made by the “Syrians” currently pouring into Germany.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: PD Catholics Target Surrogate Parenthood in Amendment
Proposed change to bill on civil unions
(ANSA) — Rome, January 20 — A group of Catholic members of Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) on Wednesday filed an amendment extending the punishment against surrogate parenthood to Italians who engage in this procedure abroad.
The amendment was presented to a bill regulating civil unions, including same-sex ones, which some Catholic members of the centre-right party oppose.
It states that “anyone who, in order to become mother or father, uses the practice of surrogate maternity is punished with a prison term of from three months to two years and with a fine of from 600,000 euros to one million euros”. The amendment adds that Italians who have children overseas are obliged to swear that the birth came about without the used of surrogate maternity. It also states that “whoever organises, aids or publicises surrogate maternity should be punished a prison term of from six to 12 years and with a fine of from 600,000 euros to one million euros”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Women ‘Had Sex With Aliens and Gave Birth to Hybrid Babies’ — And So Might You
The ‘mums’ claim to have given birth to half-alien children who live with their fathers on giant spaceships — and claim other women simply don’t realise it
A group of women are claiming they have children which were fathered by alienswho live with their dads on giant spaceships — and described their sexual encounters with them as the ‘best they’ve ever had’.
The ‘Hybrid Baby Community’ believe aliens have been harvesting their DNA to create children that combine the best of both human and alien characteristics over a period of several years.
According to two women who claim to have mothered children with aliens, the conceptions happen either through artificial insemination or real sexual encounters.
Former marketing executive Bridget Nielson and video game designer Aluna Verse claim that between them, they have had 13 children with aliens.
[Genesis 6:1-8, Matthew 24:37]
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
re_ http://tinyurl.com/bodisseyart
The following video is specially
valluable for BB – it is made by
another (but professional) artist.
https://youtu.be/Rml2TL5N8ds
Again and yet again, I’m so impressed with the depth and breadth of the stories assembled on Gates of Vienna. I’m starting to claw my way out of the depth of two recent injuries and an overwhelming internal illness now 8 days of duration and have the stamina to actually *scan* the headlines and READ some of the stories.
Having been out of (most) action since late December (with the exception of recent comments), I have a very small pulled-back perspective on today’s headlines. This is what my tired brain perceives, and some of it is good.
–The cracks are splitting wide, from the bottom almost to the very top, in the EU. If border control can be reinstituted in the [soon to be former?] Schengen area, WOO HOO.
–re. Heesch, NL: Go Dutch!
–re. “language discrimination” in Denmark: Go Danes! Uff da!
–re. Swedish woman telling off the stupids: Way to go!
–re. Ul Haq: clearly a man of courage and integrity. Europe can use all of those she can get. What caused him to become like this, from his original background? Info, anyone?
It’s not ALL bad; just in the UK, it seems… 🙁
It should be well known by now that ‘Doctors without borders’ is a misnomer, as Jews are not welcome.
That being so, it’s not surprising that DWB favours more immigration of MENA trash into Eurabia.
How “well known”, Peter35? Do you have, say, a list of employees so we can check the names?
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but evidence would be helpful. My better half is a keen supporter, but would feel differently if you were correct.
News accounts re. Doctors w/o Borders may also refer to them as MSF (Medécins sans Frontiéres).
Their work in the Ebola countries was simply amazing, but some of their other choices seem…well…odd.
See video in english – no faking just pure lying.
http://avpixlat.info/2016/01/21/lofven-i-internationell-media-sexuella-massovergrepp-ar-ett-svenskt-fenomen/
That is SE prime minister – former lousy welder..
Everybodies equal worth.
How did this alien babies crap make it into the news feed? That was ridiculous.
Oh, come on. The Baron needs a little levity now and then. 🙂 (Don’t we all?)
Thanks for noticing, Cynthia. That little area is where he likes to have fun.
Actually, that was the whim of Nick, who sent in the link. Nick has a taste for the bizarre, too.
P.S. Notice that it was in the Mirror.
“Police in the Rhineland have warned people not to dress up like a jihadist for upcoming Carnival street parties.”
Do Germans make a habit of stating the obvious? More interesting is to speculate as to just what the German Police would do once spotting said jihadist? Perhaps distribute a booklet on German customs and cuisine and direct them to the nearest refugee centre.