Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/13/2016

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz says that as soon as Austria has admitted its quota of 37,000 “refugees”, Macedonia must close its borders to any further migrants. Austria will send troops to FYROM to facilitate this process.

In other news, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warns that Europe must be prepared for future mass-scale Islamic terror attacks, which he says are a certainty.

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

Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Dean, Diana West, Insubria, JD, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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

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

Financial Crisis
» 800 Angry Farmers Storm Greek Ministry, Beat Cops With Shepherd’s Sticks
 
USA
» Exclusive — Donald Trump on Ford, Carrier, Shipping Jobs to Mexico: ‘I’m the Only One Who Understands What’s Going On’
» Frank Gaffney: Southern Poverty Law Center is Acting as a Surrogate Group for Islamic Supremacists
» Milo: Twitter ‘Embarking on a War Against Conservative Points of View’
» Neighbors Say Dozens of Shots Fired Where 2 Officers, 1 Suspect Shot in Baton Rouge
» Politico: Trump Freezes Establishment Mega-Donors in Place
» They’re Coming: With Standoff Over, FBI Initiates “Mass Arrests of 2014 Bundy Ranch Protesters”
» Trump’s America
» Twitter’s Restraint of Conservative Speech is Why it is Failing
» Video Shows Exact Moment 1,400 Employees Learn They Are Losing Their Jobs to Mexico
 
Europe and the EU
» Bank of England Sets Out Stall for Islamic Finance in First for Western Central Bank
» EP President Says Italy Has ‘Most Stable’ Government in Mediterranean
» France Warns: Europe Must Prepare for Major Terrorist Attacks
» France’s Green Party in Disarray After Its Leader Joins Hollande’s Government
» Italy: Two New Robots Help Children Recover at Hospital
» Italy: Cabinet Sets Drilling Referendum on April 17
» Italy: Saviotti Hopes for Banco Popolare-BPM Merger 20 Feb
» Italy: Bertolaso Agrees to Stand for Rome Mayor
» Italy: M5S Rome Code is for Respecting Rules, Di Battista Says
» Twelve Rapists, A 13-Year-Old Girl and a Terrifying Truth Britain Still Won’t Face
 
Balkans
» Serbia Never to Join EU Sanctions Against Russia
» WB: Serbia Has IT Success Stories, Must Go Forward
 
Mediterranean Union
» Italy: Universities: Center for Med Islamic Studies in Calabria
 
Middle East
» Italy Allocates 3 Mln Euros for Syria, Foreign Ministry Says
» Why Assad’s Army Has Not Defected
 
Russia
» Cold War Two IS Happening: Russia Signals the End of Uneasy Stalemate With West
 
South Asia
» Bangladesh: Another Robbery of Catholic Nuns: “It is Not an Isolated Incident”
» Black Girl in Bengaluru Stripped by ‘Racist’ India
» Thailand to Supply Russia With Food in Exchange for Military Equipment
 
Sub-Saharan Africa
» Ethiopian Lions Rediscovered in Alatash
 
Immigration
» ‘Boy’ Who Killed Swedish Social Worker is Adult
» Charles Murray Despises Donald Trump — And His Supporters?
» Exclusive — Donald Trump: ‘Enemy Army’ Drug Cartel Ovens Covering up Massacres Prove ‘Large Parts of Mexico’ A ‘Criminal Enterprise’
» Fallen Angela: Rock-Bottom Ratings Reveal Germans Want Merkel Gone
» Kerry: The Flow of Refugees is an Existential Threat to Europe
» Macedonia Should Completely Stop Flow of Migrants Across Border
» Mass Migration Sceptics Are Attracting an Unlikely New Base of Support: Immigrants
» Merkel’s Migrant Policy “Unsustainable,” Says French PM
» Sweden to Educate New Teachers — in Arabic
» Sweden: Revealed: Migrant Murderer ‘Child’ Lied About Being 15-Year-Old, Is Adult Somalian
» UNICEF: Not Always Right to Split up Child Marriages
 
Culture Wars
» Italy: Renzi Say Church Can’t Decide on Civil Unions Vote
 
General
» ‘Adobe Creative Cloud Update Ate My Backup!’
 

800 Angry Farmers Storm Greek Ministry, Beat Cops With Shepherd’s Sticks

On Friday, we got confirmation of what everyone already knew: the Greek economy is still mired in recession. GDP contracted 0.6% in Q4 after shrinking 1.4% in Q3.

We also found out that Greek farmers have most assuredly not calmed down since they parked their tractors in the middle of the street blocking traffic late last month.

Why are the farmers mad, you ask? Well, they’re not particularly enamored with the idea of having their social security contributions tripled and their income tax doubled as part of PM Alexis Tsipras’ push to satisfy creditors in Brussels who, six months after the country’s third bailout program was agreed, aren’t satisfied with the pace of fiscal consolidation.

So what do you do when you’re an angry farmer from Crete hell bent on demonstrating just how frustrated you are with a government which just a little over a year ago, swept to power with promises to roll back austerity? You grab your shepherd’s crook and some tomatoes and you storm the Agriculture Ministry in Athens.

Below, find the dramatic footage of farmers gone wild.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive — Donald Trump on Ford, Carrier, Shipping Jobs to Mexico: ‘I’m the Only One Who Understands What’s Going On’

Donald Trump, the billionaire and national GOP presidential frontrunner who just won the New Hampshire primary and is polling ahead of the field in South Carolina, is seizing a major political opportunity with the news that Ford and Carrier are shipping thousands of U.S. jobs to Mexico.

In a new exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Trump responded to the news that Ford Motor Company is doubling production capacity at a factory in Mexico, instead of expanding in the United States.

He also responded to the news that Carrier, an Indianapolis-based air-conditioning manufacturer, and a division of United Technologies, is shipping 1,400 jobs to Mexico.

Trump noted that his planned border wall with Mexico has “economic reasons” behind it as well as the obvious security reasons. “I’ve been telling everybody this from day one: We’re going to have nothing left,” Trump told Breitbart News.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Frank Gaffney: Southern Poverty Law Center is Acting as a Surrogate Group for Islamic Supremacists

Frank Gaffney, the founder and president of the Center For Security Policy, tells One America News Network that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is attempting to silence him for speaking out about the threat posed by radical Islam.

He appeared on Tipping Point with Liz Wheeler this week, defending his organization against the assault from the left wing SPLC.

Gaffney said that the SPLC used to be a legitimate civil rights organization, but now the group is a militant left wing outfit that targets pro-freedom groups.

“These days … It seems as though the Southern Poverty Law Center is now mostly about trying to suppress freedom of speech by people like us and others they disagree with politically,” he explained.

Gaffney, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan as an Assistant Secretary of Defense, said the SPLC has gotten into the business of defending “totalitarian, repressive, and supremacist” Islamist groups.

The “ultimate hate group” is the one that adheres to Islamic Sharia law, he explained.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Milo: Twitter ‘Embarking on a War Against Conservative Points of View’

Speaking with host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon on Breitbart News Daily, Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos discussed the suppression of conservative voices by Twitter on the social media platform.

“Why are you beating up Twitter, and why are you saying that Twitter trying to suppress conservative voices, and why is Twitter’s stock in a total free fall because Milo’s taking them on?” Bannon asked. “Are you a bigger, badder guy than Jack Dorsey?”

“Yeah, of course I am,” Yiannopoulos replied mischievously. “I’m absolute convinced that Twitter is embarking on a war against conservative points of view, a war against what we might call ‘Generation Trump,’ the dissident, mischievous voices of the new counter-cultural alternative right wing and libertarian youth.”

“Look at who Twitter employs,” he warned in reference to Twitter possibly influencing the 2016 presidential election. “You know, this guy used to work with Hillary, this guy used to work with Obama…”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Neighbors Say Dozens of Shots Fired Where 2 Officers, 1 Suspect Shot in Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE, La. — A Baton Rouge neighborhood was awakened before dawn Saturday (Feb. 13) by a hail of gunfire, with police saying two officers were wounded as they traded shots with a man they had been chasing.

Neighbors say dozens of shots were fired in an exchange that also wounded the suspect.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr. said the officers’ injuries didn’t appear to be life-threatening. The suspect was undergoing surgery at the same area hospital.

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore said a bullet grazed the head of one officer; the other officer was hit in the stomach but protected by his bulletproof vest.

“These guys are fortunate to be alive,” Moore said. “God didn’t want to take them today. It was not their day.”

Gina Chambers said the suspect is 22-year-old Calvin Smith, who has been living at her Baton Rouge home since December. Chambers said Smith’s mother is her godmother.

Chambers said Smith has been grappling with “mental issues” and had attempted suicide before he moved from Shreveport to his native Baton Rouge. Chambers said Smith received mental health treatment last year at a hospital in Shreveport, where he had been living with a sister.

Chambers said Smith has been taking medication for his condition, and she didn’t see any obvious signs of distress before the shooting.

“He seemed like he was fine,” she said…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Politico: Trump Freezes Establishment Mega-Donors in Place

Kenneth P. Vogel writes in Politico:

Some of the biggest Republican donors, who collectively have contributed tens of millions of dollars to shape the presidential race, are tightening their purse strings out of frustration with their inability to boost their favored candidates, or to slow Donald Trump.

Rather than continuing to write huge checks to support the cluster of establishment candidates jockeying to emerge as the leading alternative to Trump, a billionaire real estate showman roundly despised by the GOP elite, these donors have mostly retreated to the sidelines. They’re watching anxiously, hoping that the field sorts itself out, according to interviews with a half dozen major donors or their representatives.

Many of the donors are urging the deep-pocketed groups they’ve already funded to begin spending against Trump, even as some recognize the potential for such spending to backfire, and are increasingly questioning the efficacy of big-money advertising campaigns more generally.

“It’s unbelievable. I mean Jeb Bush spent $42 million in New Hampshire — what did he get for it?” said billionaire GOP mega-donor Stan Hubbard, a Minnesota media mogul. “It’s frustrating.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

They’re Coming: With Standoff Over, FBI Initiates “Mass Arrests of 2014 Bundy Ranch Protesters”

Editor’s Comment: This is outrageous. Apparently, the round up is upon us. If this report is correct, it now appears that the resolution of the occupation at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge is only a prelude, and that a major crackdown is underway to round up patriots. Cliven Bundy was arrested only a few hours ago, and now it appears they are going after everyone else who was involved. Provocateurs have now succeeded in misdirecting the patriot movement, and entrapping many well meaning patriots who did nothing but stand up to federal overreach.

While the list of 86 individuals has not been produced, it is clear enough that few, if any of them, actually committed any crime. Instead, they will be punished retroactively for supporting a situation that dared to challenge federal authority.

From a tactical standpoint, many freedom loving patriots are now being targeted as the result of escalation of a situation that was never going to end well at Malheur, appeared offensive on its face, and has resulted in a huge response by FBI and other federal authorities, the loss of one life, and a now a witch hunt for those who dared to stand up. After that, how far will they go in targeting dissenters? History shows a dark path from here.

EXCLUSIVE: FBI sting to arrest 86 Americans in massive BLM cover-up

by Julie Wilson

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, 74, was arrested late yesterday evening while exiting a plane at Portland International Airport on his way to Burns, Ore., a town located 30 miles south of the federally owned Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the site of a months-long standoff between free-loving land owners and the U.S. government.

Celebrated for standing up to government land-grabs in 2014, Bundy has been charged with conspiracy to interfere with a federal officer, an allegation that reportedly stems back to his standoff with the Bureau of Land Management, which tried stripping he and his family of land-use rights they spent a century earning. The charges are identical to those filed against seven protestors (including his son Ammon Bundy) who occupied the wildlife refuge in protest of government overreach.

NewsTarget has received exclusive information that Bundy’s arrest, which was made using facial recognition technology and TSA goons, may not be isolated, but is in fact the first of many to come in an effort to silence those who obtained incriminating information about the BLM and its unlawful land grabs.

[…]

While taking up occupancy of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, protestors reportedly gained access to sensitive information stored on the computers there, revealing sinister plans by the BLM to confiscate privately owned land before auctioning it off corporate interests, according a source who requested anonymity.

In an effort to suppress this information, the FBI is believed to be conducting a nationwide warrant roundup of protestors and independent journalists involved in the recent protests and standoffs against the federal government. A total of 86 people, including Bundy, are believed to be on the FBI’s roundup list and could subsequently be arrested for their “crimes.”

The war on indie journalists and citizen protesters refusing to fall in line with the government’s increasing tyrannical actions is escalating. Radio show host Pete Santilli, who merely covered the wildlife occupation as a citizen journalist, never spending a single night at the refuge, was also arrested on felony conspiratorial charges.

When asked about his role at the wildlife refuge occupation, Santilli replied: “My role is the same here that it was at the Bundy ranch. To talk about the constitutional implications of what is going on here. The Constitution cannot be negotiated.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Trump’s America

by Charles Murray

If you are dismayed by Trumpism, don’t kid yourself that it will fade away if Donald Trump fails to win the Republican nomination. Trumpism is an expression of the legitimate anger that many Americans feel about the course that the country has taken, and its appearance was predictable. It is the endgame of a process that has been going on for a half-century: America’s divestment of its historic national identity.

What does this ideology—Huntington called it the “American creed”—consist of? Its three core values may be summarized as egalitarianism, liberty and individualism. From these flow other familiar aspects of the national creed that observers have long identified: equality before the law, equality of opportunity, freedom of speech and association, self-reliance, limited government, free-market economics, decentralized and devolved political authority.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Twitter’s Restraint of Conservative Speech is Why it is Failing

In making sure the Council reflected the values of Social Justice Warriors that now dominate Silicon Valley, Twitter appointed 40 “grassroots advocacy organizations” and “experts from 13 regions” to fight micro-aggressions on the web. The list of thought police organizations includes such leftists’ icons as Beyond Blue, Feminist Frequency, and GLAAD. These groups are dedicated to constraining and retaliating against conservative’s free speech.

Twitter also unveiled a new “timeline” that will surface tweets that Twitter and its thought police recommend, rather than the straight-forward chronological timeline. An earlier leak of the new policy by BuzzFeed caused a Twitter revolt under the hastag #RIPTwitter, as many active users fear censorship and more spam.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Video Shows Exact Moment 1,400 Employees Learn They Are Losing Their Jobs to Mexico

Although the decision to inform a workforce of 1,400 employees that they’ll soon be losing their jobs to Mexico is an admirable one from the standpoint of candor, it hardly makes for a good recipe for workplace morale.

A cell phone video taken at Carrier Air Conditioner in Indianapolis shows the exact moment that the plant and union workers were told that the company had decided to shift production south of the border. “The best way to stay competitive and protect the business for longterm is to move production from our facility in Indianapolis to Monterrey, Mexico,” says the company representative at the microphone.

Although the change would not take effect until 2017, the reactions from the gathered restless crowd were telling.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bank of England Sets Out Stall for Islamic Finance in First for Western Central Bank

LONDON (Reuters) — The Bank of England on Friday became the first major Western central bank to set out its stall for sharia-compliant deposit facilities as Britain seeks to pitch London as the preeminent global centre for Islamic finance.

Born in its modern form in the 1970s, Islamic finance — which obeys religious principles such as bans on interest payments — has rapidly expanded over the past decade and there are now more than $2 trillion in Islamic financial assets.

Joining other central banks in the Middle East and Asia, the Bank of England is trying to allow Britain’s five Islamic banks to access an equivalent to its deposit facility, which normally pays interest, something barred under sharia rules.

Britain became the first Western country to issue Islamic bonds in 2014 and the BoE last year became the second Western regulator to join the Islamic Financial Services Board, one of the main standard-setting bodies for Islamic finance.

The BoE will seek views from Islamic banks and others on four potential models, two involving deposit facilities and two involving liquidity insurance.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

EP President Says Italy Has ‘Most Stable’ Government in Mediterranean

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that Italy is the country with the most stable government of the whole Mediterranean area.

ROME (Sputnik) — European Parliament President Martin Schulz said on Friday that Italy was the country with the “most stable” government in the Mediterranean area.

Earlier in the day, Schulz had a bilateral meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

“Italy is one of Europe’s main pillars. And it is the country with the most stable government of the whole Mediterranean area. It deserves respect for all the brave steps that have been taken,” Schulz said at a joint press conference with Renzi.

According to Schulz, Renzi’s position can be always understood quickly, without speculating.

Schulz added that there was agreement on most international issues between him and the Italian leader.

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

France Warns: Europe Must Prepare for Major Terrorist Attacks

European countries must prepare for several major terrorist attacks, carried out by militants, says the warning from Manuel Valls, France’s prime minister.

Manuel Valls says the murderous ideology driving groups such as Islamic State is “at the heart of our societies”.

“We have entered — we all feel it — a new era characterised by the lasting presence of hyper-terrorism,” says Valls at the annual Munich Security Conference.

“We must be fully conscious of the threat, and react with a very great force and great lucidity. There will be attacks. Large-scale attacks. It’s a certainty. This hyper-terrorism is here to stay,” believes the French prime minister.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

France’s Green Party in Disarray After Its Leader Joins Hollande’s Government

France’s Green party has disowned leader Emmanuelle Cosse after she accepted the position of housing minister in Thursday’s cabinet reshuffle.

The nomination of Cosse to a senior cabinet post is controversial within her own party, which refused to join Hollande’s Socialist government in 2012, citing differences of opinion with his hard-talking Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

Two party spokeswomen said in a statement on Friday that the party disapproved of her joining the government, which meant that she was de-facto no longer in position, therefore leaving the Green party in disarray…

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

Italy: Two New Robots Help Children Recover at Hospital

Assist in regaining movement in arm, hand, wrist

(ANSA) — Rome, February 10 — Two new physical-therapy robots to help young patients regain movement in their arms, hands, and wrists were inaugurated Wednesday at Bambin Gesù Children’s Hospital in Santa Marinella, a coastal town about an hour north of Rome.

The robots will be used by at least six patients a day in one-hour sessions to help support and correct arm movements.

The patients have motor function deficits from neurological damage, as a result of congenital diseases like cerebral palsy or non-congenital sources such as head trauma. Motor function deficits affect 200,000 children in Italy and 20,000 in the Lazio region alone.

“It’s a play approach,” said rehabilitation laboratory director Enrico Castelli.

“The child doesn’t realise he’s doing it; in one session they do more than a thousand movements,” he said.

The machines are the first of their kind in the region of Lazio, and were purchased with funding from the non-profit Fondazione Roma.

“Functional recovery comes thanks to two robots of the latest technology,” said Fondazione Roma Chairman Emmanuele F.M.

Emanuele.

“It shows how applied scientific research today represents the principal tool of progress”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Cabinet Sets Drilling Referendum on April 17

Campaigners want to ban practice

(ANSA) — Rome, February 11 — Premier Matteo Renzi’s cabinet has set April 17 as the date for a referendum on offshore drilling for oil and gas in Italy.

Italy’s Constitutional Court gave the green light to the referendum last month, a decision welcomed by regional councils and environmental groups concerned about the effects of offshore drilling on marine ecosystems.

The referendum will cover the duration of authorisations to explore as well as already authorised drilling of fields. It was proposed by regional assemblies who are objecting to drilling platforms because of worries about seismic stability and the environment.

The government has said there will be no new drilling in Italy no matter how the referendum turns out. Premier Matteo Renzi’s government is reportedly mulling a specific modification to its “Unblock Italy” infrastructure projects decree related to the duration of drilling, which will be the focus of the referendum approved by the court.

Earlier this week Irish oil and gas company Petroceltic formally gave up seeking a prospecting permit in the southern Adriatic Sea off Italy’s Tremiti Islands.

The Tremiti are an archipelago located north of Puglia’s Gargano Peninsula, and form part of the Gargano national park.

Market conditions have changed since the company first filed for the permit nine years ago, Petroceltic said in a letter to the industry ministry.

The ministry said the move “is a step back in response to strategic industrial needs, which the ministry acknowledges”.

Petroceltic, whose local subsidiary has been in Italy since 2005, added it remains committed to its other operations in Italy “within full respect of EU and State rules, according to the highest industry standards, with maximum transparency and in cooperation with local communities”.

Petroceltic Italia Srl does oil and gas prospecting in the central Adriatic Sea and in the Po Valley.

Italian environmentalists have long been fighting against drilling in the Adriatic Sea.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Saviotti Hopes for Banco Popolare-BPM Merger 20 Feb

Share price of both lenders soars

(ANSA) — Milan, February 12 — Banco Popolare CEO Pier Francesco Saviotti said Friday that he is hopeful the lender will complete a merger with BPM on the weekend of February 20.

“We are hoping. We are working and we are close,” Saviotti told reporters adding that the operation would not involve a capital increase. “There are some things to sort out. We are working to close. A little more time is needed but I’m confident”. Banco Popolare’s share price soared by 10.6% and BPM’s rose 6.7% after Saviotti’s comments.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Bertolaso Agrees to Stand for Rome Mayor

‘Honoured’ to meet call from Berlusconi, Salvini, Meloni

(ANSA) — Rome, February 12 — Former civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso on Friday agreed to stand for Rome mayor in June elections.

Bertolaso, 65, said he was “honoured” to meet a call from centre right leaders Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia, Matteo Salvini of the Northern League and Giorgia Meloni of Fratelli d’Italia.

He said the “family reasons” that had prompted him to decline previous calls had now been resolved. Bertolaso, who has a degree in medicine, gained credit for his handling of a string of emergencies including the waste crisis in Campania, the region around Naples.

The ‘can-do’ former civil protection chief from 2001 to 2010 was handed controversial and sweeping powers by Berlusconi over major events and has faced probes over bid-rigging and the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake that killed over 300 people.

He was cleared of wrongdoing.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: M5S Rome Code is for Respecting Rules, Di Battista Says

MP confirms clause quantifying image damage at 150,000 euros

(ANSA) — Rome, February 8 — Alessandro Di Battista, an MP with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), on Monday took to his Facebook page in defence of the movement’s published code of rules governing its candidates in the upcoming Rome administrative elections.

“The attack on M5S continues. In a country where they arrest a member of the government’s party each day, the problem is always what M5S is doing,” Di Battista wrote on his Facebook page.

“The drama is a Rome code of behaviour that is needed for respect of the rules and the programme,” he wrote.

“We can respond only by putting forth more effort”.

Di Battista confirmed the existence in the code of a clause that quantifies at 150,000 euros the penalty that will be assessed to M5S candidates found “in violation of the rules contained in the code”. The 150,000-euro penalty, calculated as the cost of damage to M5S’s image, was also discussed in Monday’s edition of Italian daily La Stampa, and “takes effect upon the (candidate’s) notification of a formal complaint by staff coordinated by Beppe Grillo and Gianroberto Casaleggio”.

Grillo’s blog on Monday said that the “main points” of the Rome Code, including the image-damage penalty, “are roughly identical to those already included in previous codes of conduct for the national elections in 2013 and European elections in 2014”.

“We have nothing to hide,” said the blog post.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Twelve Rapists, A 13-Year-Old Girl and a Terrifying Truth Britain Still Won’t Face

The gang of men from Pakistani origin were jailed for a total of 140 years at Crown Court, for 13 months of horrendous abuse of a British white girl in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Serbia Never to Join EU Sanctions Against Russia

Serbian Ambassador to Russia Slavenko Terzic said that Belgrade will never join sanctions against Russia and does not consider sanctions as “solution” to political problems.

MOSCOW(Sputnik) — Serbia will never join the European Union’s sanctions against Russia, Serbian Ambassador to Russia Slavenko Terzic said Friday.

“You know well that we have not joined sanctions against Russia and we will never join,” Terzic told reporters during a press conference at Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

The Serbian diplomat said Belgrade believed that sanctions were not a solution.

“We think that the EU should unite people. We are looking forward to an improvement in EU-Russia relations,” he added.

Russia’s relations with the 28-nation bloc soured in 2014 over the Ukrainian crisis. The European Union acted in concert with the United States to impose a series of economic sanctions on Russia’s energy, banking and defense sectors, citing its alleged involvement in Ukraine’s internal affairs. Moscow has denied the allegations.

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

WB: Serbia Has IT Success Stories, Must Go Forward

(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, 11 FEBRUARY — Serbia has success stories concerning new technologies, but it must take a step forward, introduce technologies in all sectors, and thus step up productivity, Deepak Mishra from the World Bank said on Thursday.

Commenting on the fact that Serbian IT experts made software for the FBI, Mishra described this as a success story, but that one should take into account that the IT sector is small and accounts for just around 4 percent of GDP, and 2 percent of the total number of people in work.

Serbia has many success stories, but the question is whether all citizens benefit from that. Many countries would like to have a Silicon Valley, but that is not the most important thing, Mishra told at the presentation of a World Bank study titled “World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends” at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Universities: Center for Med Islamic Studies in Calabria

Laboratorio Occhiali open to researchers from Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 12 — The University of Calabria based in Arcavacata di Rende, has inaugurated the Occhiali laboratory on the Islamic Mediterranean. The aim is to create a center of studies and research on the whole area of North Africa, the Arab Near East, Turkey and the Balkans and the remaining Med countries with connections to Islam. The name of the lab, created at the department of languages and education sciences, is inspired by a famous Calabria native, Giovan Dionigi Galeni (1519-1587), who throughout his life often embodied the Mediterranean integration spirit.

Born in Le Castella, Calabria, Galeni was imprisoned by the Turks on his native coast and enslaved on Ottoman vessels. This did not prevent him from rising socially and acquiring a high-level position in the Turkish empire, first as a corsair, then as an admiral and pasha in Algiers and bey of Tripoli. His Turkish name, Ulu Ali, turned into ‘Occhiali’, appeared an example to express the dynamism that has always existed in the Mediterranean and the role Calabria can have in the area.

The Laboratorio does not intend to limit research fields but will open to all sectors of research proposed by participants.

Historic perspectives will be encouraged, along with linguistic, political, economic, judicial, sociological, psychological and pedagogical approaches as well as multidisciplinary studies.

The laboratory will select relevant themes of research, organize seminars, set up training and interventions on the ground cooperating with the media, local associations and cultural centres. “The laboratory is intended to open to all Mediterranean researchers who are interested, one of the main objectives will be to set up a network of young researchers and open to cooperation with similar Italian and foreign research centres”, one of its members, Manuelita Scigliano, told ANSAmed.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Allocates 3 Mln Euros for Syria, Foreign Ministry Says

Aid earmarked for civilians fleeing from Aleppo

(ANSAmed) — ROME, FEBRUARY 12 — In the light of the humanitarian truce agreed at Munich, Italy has allocated 3 million euros earmarked for assistance to Syrian civilians, the Italian foreign Ministry said Friday.

“This is emergency assistance aimed at relieving the suffering of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians, mainly women and children, fleeing from the bombardments and violence under way in the north of the country close to Aleppo,” Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said.

Two million euros will go to the World Food Programme (WFP) to ensure distribution of foodstuffs (vegetables, rice, sugar, flour, vegetable oil) to the more than 30,000 refugees the UN estimates are fleeing toward the Turkish frontier in villages of the governorate of Aleppo.

A further 1 million euros will be entrusted to the UN Office for Coordination of humanitarian activities (OCHA) for the purchase and distribution of tents, stoves, fuel and toiletries for personal hygiene.

The Italian contribution, defined by an agreement with the Italian Agency for Cooperation and Development (Aics) is part of an overall commitment announced by donors in London on February 4 envisaging a triennial intervention plan of dlrs 400 million for humanitarian projects and support for the development of Syria and other countries in the region.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Why Assad’s Army Has Not Defected

(National Interest)Four years ago, Turkey’s then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that within in a few weeks he would be praying in Damascus’s Umayyad Mosque, as Assad was about to fall. Similarly, Israel’s most decorated soldier, former Defense Minister Ehud Barak, predicted that Assad and his military would be toppled within weeks. That was at the beginning of 2012, when there were no Iranian soldiers on the ground or Russian planes in the skies.

As another round of Geneva peace talks collapses and the world wonders what’s next for Syria, it is time to begin with the warnings of Henry Kissinger and Zbignew Brzezinski. Kissinger and Brzezinski, the most seasoned and influential U.S. policymakers on the Middle East since World War II, have gone against popular opinion and stated that President Bashar al-Assad has more support than all the opposition groups combined.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Cold War Two IS Happening: Russia Signals the End of Uneasy Stalemate With West

Dmitry Medvedev said a slide in relations between his country and Nato is as bad as the height of the nuclear struggle with the Soviet Union.

Mr Medvedev raised the spectre of nuclear armageddon and referenced the Cuban Missile Crisis in an ominous speech to a world security conference.

He told participants in Munich that moves to beef up Nato forces in Eastern Europe show the West is hostile towards Russia.

Dmitry Medvedev said a slide in relations between his country and Nato is as bad as the height of the nuclear struggle with the Soviet Union.

Mr Medvedev raised the spectre of nuclear armageddon and referenced the Cuban Missile Crisis in an ominous speech to a world security conference.

He told participants in Munich that moves to beef up Nato forces in Eastern Europe show the West is hostile towards Russia.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Bangladesh: Another Robbery of Catholic Nuns: “It is Not an Isolated Incident”

A dozen people have raid clinic run by religious, threatening them and stealing phones, cash and gold chains. Resident Muslims and Catholics, warned by the pastor, captured two thieves. The episode takes place four days after a similar attack in another province. Secretary of Justice and Peace: “These attacks are premeditated and intended to harm our Christian community.”

Dhaka (AsiaNews) — It is the second attack on Catholic nuns in four days. On the night between February 10 and 11 in Tumilia, a village 47 km from the capital Dhaka, about 12 criminals broke into St. Mary’s Catholic Mother Care Center, a hospital clinic run by religious Associate of Mary, Queen of the Apostles (SMRA), a local congregation founded in 1933.

The attack ended without violence and with some stolen items . Two thieves were captured and taken to the police, who have opened an investigation.

On the night between February 6 and 7, a similar incident happened in Chuadanga district, 161 km west of the capital, raising the suspicion that the attacks on Catholic nuns are not just isolated cases.

The Tumilia robbery took place in the buildings housing patients of the Centre, the nuns and nurses. Sister Mary Pronoti, director of the facility, says that at night (local time at 2:30) three men came climbing over the wall. Other accomplices were waiting outside the convent.

After gagging the guards, the three criminals went in search of cash. “They broke down the door of my room — says Sister Mary — and were armed. They threatened me and asked where I held the money. I had no other choice I gave them all the cash we had 700 taka (about 9 Euros) “.

Another nun, Mary Chamaly, noticed that someone had entered the hospital of the convent and immediately called the superior general of the congregation, who resides in Dhaka. The Superior contacted the Tumilia parish priest, Fr. Dominic Rozario, who began to ring the bells of the church, rallying the community. Muslims and Christians flocked to church, where they caught two thieves and the police took them to the station. The other criminals managed to escape.

“They also stole two cell phones — says Sister Mary Book — and several gold chains of hospital nuns.”

The secretary of the parish, Philip Corraya, went to the police station to file a complaint.

Theophil Nokrek, secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace, said the two recent attacks “are not isolated incidents. Some groups are trying to harm our Christian community. They are doing so with premeditated actions. “

“The government should protect us adequately,” he said, adding that a few days ago in the same district a Christian micro credit bank was also robbed.

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

Black Girl in Bengaluru Stripped by ‘Racist’ India

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

Long ago in June 1893, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a young advocate then, was on his way from Durban to Pretoria by train. He had a first class ticket and sat in a first class coach, but was thrown out of the compartment at Pietermaritzburg station after a European had objected to the presence of a non-white. That night as Gandhi stayed shivering in the station’s waiting room, he decided he would fight racial inequality, which he did during his two-decade stay in South Africa.

After returning to India, Gandhi began his battle against all forms of racism in his country as well.

Sadly, it is Gandhi’s India today which is brazenly racist in a variety of ways. There is racism against caste, against religion, against the poor and against color.

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

Thailand to Supply Russia With Food in Exchange for Military Equipment

Thailand is due to supply Russia with agricultural products and food in exchange for military and engineering equipment, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan said Thursday.

BANGKOK (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the Russian-Thai working group on security issues held a meeting in Bangkok. The same day, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev discussed with his Thai counterpart the issues of ensuring regional and international security.

“We plan to purchase in Russia special fire-fighting aircraft and military-technical equipment necessary for the elimination of consequences of natural disasters and other emergencies, and in return we are ready to sell agricultural products and food to Russia of equal sums,” the deputy prime minister said ahead of a meeting with Patrushev.

The prime minister disproved reports that had emerged in Thai media on the purchase of tanks in Russia, saying the issue was not the subject of the negotiations with the delegation headed by Patrushev.

The deputy head of the Thai government also confirmed to journalists his plans to visit Russia on February 23-27.

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

Ethiopian Lions Rediscovered in Alatash

Conservationists announced Monday the “amazing discovery” of a previously unknown lion population in a remote northwestern region of Ethiopia, confirming local reports with camera trap photographs for the first time.

Lions were spotted in the Alatash National Park on Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, lion conservation group Born Free said.

“The confirmation that lions persist in this area is exciting news,” Born Free Foundation said in a statement…

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

‘Boy’ Who Killed Swedish Social Worker is Adult

(RT)A Somali-born refugee charged with the murder of a Swedish social worker is not 15 years old, as previously believed, but is likely over 18, which means he could face trial in an adult court.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Charles Murray Despises Donald Trump — And His Supporters?

by Diana West

The breathtaking rage of this recent tweet by Charles Murray may be submerged in the masses of words of his latest article, “Trump’s America” — but I find both hard to fathom.

In explicating “Trumpism,” Charles Murray argues that our Anglo-Protestant heritage (bad) has “inevitably faded” (good). This ignores, first, the 1965 Immigration Act that, in effect, made war on that heritage, and the nation and culture that had grown from it. He ignores also the dire toll that the unceasing wave of mass immigration ever since has had on cultural cohesion — and now even national existence. His is a purely economic and class related analysis which misses so much of the living, breathing cultural core of Trump’s appeal.

Invoking the centrality of the so-called American creed (as distinguished from the Constitution/Bill of Rights), Murray cites Richard Hofstadter — Richard Hofstadter! — for a somewhat swami-esque statement: “It has been our fate as a nation not to have ideologies but to be one.”

Murray:…

           — Hat tip: Diana West [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive — Donald Trump: ‘Enemy Army’ Drug Cartel Ovens Covering up Massacres Prove ‘Large Parts of Mexico’ A ‘Criminal Enterprise’

Billionaire Donald Trump, the 2016 GOP presidential frontrunner and winner of the New Hampshire GOP primaries, told Breitbart News exclusively on Thursday that it’s time the United States of America starting treating Mexican drug cartels as if they were an “enemy army” on the other side of the border.

“We need to treat the drug cartels as though they are an enemy army,” Trump said when asked how we need to handle the cartels in response an explosive new report from Breitbart Texas managing director Brandon Darby and Breitbart Texas reporter Idelfonso Ortiz.

“An enemy army,” Trump reiterated. “That’s how we ought to treat them.”

Darby’s report with Ortiz walked through how the cartels committed mass murders of hundreds—maybe thousands of people in cities and towns along Mexico’s border with the United States. Then, to cover up the mass executions, the cartels used a network of ovens to burn the bodies—hiding the evidence of their atrocities from their own government, which hasn’t done much to stop them, and the world.

Trump told Breitbart News on Thursday as he prepares to barnstorm South Carolina heading into that state’s GOP presidential primaries on February 20:

Large parts of Mexico is a criminal enterprise. When you look at the drugs that are flowing across the border and the illicit things that are happening at the border, Mexico—large parts of Mexico—are a major illicit business. It’s happening to an extent that people didn’t know until I brought it up. If I didn’t make my speech on June 16, when I talked about the illegal immigration and the crime at the border, we wouldn’t be talking about this today. You wouldn’t be asking me the question. And now the other day Cruz gets up and says ‘we must build a wall’—it’s the first time he’s ever said it. And then Rubio said ‘build a wall.’ Notice, now they all want to build a wall.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Fallen Angela: Rock-Bottom Ratings Reveal Germans Want Merkel Gone

With the refugee crisis showing no sign of abating, German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to lose public support over her inability to resolve the issue, German media reported.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s approval ratings are swiftly plummeting amid the ongoing migration crisis in Europe, which she has failed to contain, according to media reports.

In this regard, the German news network Deutsche Welle said that at least 70 percent of Germans have long been seriously concerned over Merkel’s “welcome culture” with respect to refugees.

Merkel continues to lose support and the trust of the population because of her open-door asylum policy, the German commercial television channel N-TV said, citing recent polls that showed only 46 percent of respondents supporting Merkel, the lowest rating the German Chancellor has had since 2011.

According to a survey conducted by the Erfurt-based Institute for New Social Challenges, about 40 percent of German citizens are demanding Merkel’s resignation because of her migration policy. In contrast, less than 5 percent of respondents believe that the refugee crisis doesn’t constitute a sufficient reason for Merkel to step down, the German news magazine Focus reported.

Deutche Welle, for its part, slammed Merkel for unilaterally opening Germany’s borders to refugees without getting the go-ahead from the country’s parliament and the EU, not to mention the German people.

Some media outlets went even further, by claiming that Merkel actually refused a dialogue with her own people, which led to Merkel finding herself in a moral and political isolation, something that she still denies.

Merkel has claimed the country is able to deal with the growing number of refuges, many of whom believe Germany is the most desirable destination in Europe. In 2015, 1.1 million refugees crossed into Germany, and more have the potential to arrive in 2016.

One of the factors contributing to Merkel’s falling popularity is the recent wave of sexual harassment attacks against women by refugees across Germany.

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

Kerry: The Flow of Refugees is an Existential Threat to Europe

That the flow of refugees is an existential threat to Europe is something many have realised a long time ago, and now Kerry joins the ranks.

The influx of migrants and refugees represents an almost existential threat to Europe, says US Secretary, John Kerry.

– USA understands this is almost an existential threat, said Kerry at the Munich Security Conference, on Saturday.

At the same conference the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, warns that Europe must prepare for major terrorist attacks, and that hype-terrorism is here to stay.

The US Foreign Minister believes the refugees pose a threat to both European politics and society.

Kerry also says USA will contribute to the new NATO operation in the Mediterranean to monitor and identify smugglers.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Macedonia Should Completely Stop Flow of Migrants Across Border

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said that Macedonia will have to completely stop the flow of refugees.

BELGRADE (Sputnik) — Austria will close its borders for refugees, when it accepts the quota of some 37,000 people, and then Macedonia will have to stop the migrants flow, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said Friday.

“Austria, one of the three countries, along with Germany and Sweden, which accept refugees most of all. Our decision will cause consequences for the states of the so-called Balkan route, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia… Macedonia will have to completely stop the flow of refugees,” Kurz was quoted as saying by Macedonian Nova TV broadcaster.

After taking in a quota of 37,000 refugees and closing the borders, Austria will send the police and military forces under the direct command of the Macedonian authorities as well as provide other necessary assistance, the foreign minister added.

Kurz completed his tour to the Balkan countries on the refugees’ route to Europe from the Middle East and North Africa in the Macedonian capital of Skopje. He has already warned the leadership of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, that Austria will no longer be able to accept migrants, as it did in 2015.

The measure follows Austria’s decision to limit this year’s refugee intake to 38,000, compared with 90,000 asylum seekers in 2015.

In mid-January, Vienna temporarily suspended the Schengen agreement and toughened border checks in order to curb the refugee influx and deport refugees, who have not filed an asylum request in Austria.

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

Mass Migration Sceptics Are Attracting an Unlikely New Base of Support: Immigrants

Right wing parties in Germany are attracting a new if not unlikely audience who are becoming more supportive of their anti mass migration policies: immigrants.

German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine has reported that more and more Turks and other migrants are becoming weary if not hostile to the migrant crisis and Angela Merkel’s government’s handling of it. Facebook pages of parties like the anti-establishment Alternative for Germany (AfD) are seeing more posts by the day of people who list hometowns like Ankara and Istanbul as much as those from Munich or Berlin. One man who’s profile picture is himself with a Turkish flag, wrote on the AfD page that recent migrants are, “antisocial parasites who take what they want by force.”

Another man with an Arabic name says that migrants are responsible for the huge influx of reported sexual assaults and violence and tells the AfD they have his support. A doctor named Guerold Salk supports the AfD’s stance on a more vigorous border control saying Germany needs to be protected, “with a fence, with walls, police or the army,” and tells of the danger he predicts from Islamists terrorists in German cities if the flow of migrants remains high and unvetted.

Salk told German media that the reason he left Turkey in the first place was the ever growing Islamisation of what was once regarded as the most secular nation in the Middle East. He said that he had no intention of supporting those ideas and attitudes in Turkey much less in Germany. Having spent half of his life in Turkey and half in Germany he said he knew the differences in the culture and that they were not in any way compatible. The misogynistic attitudes of rural Turkey and Syria wouldn’t be accepted in the cities of those countries, never mind in Germany he said.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Merkel’s Migrant Policy “Unsustainable,” Says French PM

“Europe cannot take in all migrants from Syria, Iraq or Africa”

The foreign policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel towards asylum seekers is “unsustainable in the long term” and Europe is simply not able to take in all the refugees arriving from Syria, Iraq or African countries, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said.

“This [Merkel’s] policy which is justified temporarily, is unsustainable in the long term,” Valls told German media, as cited by AFP.

The French PM said he believes Germany is not the only country that is unable to take all those willing to seek asylum there.

“We have to say this clearly: Europe cannot take in all migrants from Syria, Iraq or Africa. It has to regain control over its borders, over its migration or asylum policies,” said Valls, in an interview which is to be published in full by German Funke media group on Saturday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden to Educate New Teachers — in Arabic

Immigrants who want to study to be a teacher in Sweden now have a new advantage to obtain a teacher certification and to enter the teacher profession — a quick education in which the requirement to master the Swedish language is to be abolished.

– This way those who are fastest may go through the education in a year, says Education Minister, Gustav Fridolin.

No, this is no joke. Already in April, the new quick education will be in place for migrants who want to work as teachers in Sweden. They will take the rapid course in a year, instead of the four and a half years of training which is normal for Swedish students.

Today it is required to master the Swedish language to even be admitted to the education to become a teacher in Sweden. But that is something that Education Minister Gustav Fridolin believes is unnecessary.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden: Revealed: Migrant Murderer ‘Child’ Lied About Being 15-Year-Old, Is Adult Somalian

The world recoiled in horror in January after a young woman who worked in a ‘unaccompanied minor’ refugee centre was murdered by one of her charges, but it has now been revealed the killer shouldn’t have been in the children’s centre at all, as he lied about his age.

Twenty-two year old Alexandra Mezher was rushed to hospital in late January after being repeatedly stabbed. She had been a worker at a migrant centre in Mölndal, Sweden caring for unaccompanied minors aged between 14 and 17 years old and was killed by one of the residents there, Somali-born Youssaf Khaliif Nuur.

There were some doubts of the man’s true identity from very early on in investigations, including over his age which seemed remarkably young for the bearded, six foot man. The prosecutor said in a statement that during proceedings the man’s age claim were being taken at face value until they could be proven otherwise, so he was being charged with murder as a child, which carries a considerably lesser sentence.

Now the Swedish migration agency has decided he is in fact an adult. There were clues, reports the Gotteborg Posten when the man initially applied for asylum, applying at the same time for a work permit, which aren’t issued to under-18’s.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

UNICEF: Not Always Right to Split up Child Marriages

In some cases it may be best for the child to remain in a marriage after they have come to this country, says UNICEF Norway.

– In circumstances where those who are married are not too young, in a totally voluntary and fairly equal relationship and maybe has a child, it may in some cases be in the child’s best interest that we do not strictly follow the law, says UNICEF Norway’s Merete Agerbak-Jensen, according to VG.

At the same time she emphasizes that marrying a child is completely unacceptable.

At least 60 minors who were married with adults, sought asylum in Norway last year.

– Too many child marriages are in fact forced marriages based on exploitation, says Agerbak-Jensen.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Renzi Say Church Can’t Decide on Civil Unions Vote

Premier says Rome making proposals, not waves, for EU

(ANSA) — Rome, February 12 — Premier Matteo Renzi said Friday that it was not up to the Italian Church to decide whether a parliamentary vote on a bill regulating civil unions, including same-sex ones, should be a secret ballot. On Thursday Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of Italian bishops conference CEI, called for a secret vote on the bill, which many Catholics and conservatives oppose. The appeal led to several lawmakers from Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) to accuse the Church of meddling in Italian politics. “It is up to parliament and I say that with respect for Cardinal Bagnasco,” Renzi told Radio Anch’io when asked about the CEI’s call for a secret vote.

“I like the idea that parliamentarians answer to the vote they make and explains it. Then there is the parliamentary regulation, which envisages secret votes, and (Senate Speaker Pietro) Grasso will decide if the necessary conditions exist, not the CEI”. The bill now before the Senate would extend to committed gay couples some of the same rights and protections currently enjoyed by heterosexual married couples. Renzi was echoed by the two parliamentary speakers, Pietro Grasso and Laura Boldrini, who reiterated that it was their prerogative to decide which measures should go to an open or secret ballot.

Bagnasco’s No.2 at the CEI, Secretary-General Nunzio Galantino, would only say: “I’ll say what I said the other day and that is I can’t say anything out of respect for the institutions and parliament”.

In other remarks Friday, the premier acknowledged that he had often been critical of the European union recently, especially over its perceived insistence on the mathematical minutiae of budget parameters rather than on stoking growth and creating jobs — as well as an alleged reluctance to share the burden of the migrant emergency more widely.

But he stressed that Rome was only trying to make proposals, rather than making waves.

Renzi insisted his frequent criticism of the European Union was constructive and not merely aimed at creating controversy. “Our voice in Europe is not that of someone trying to be an annoyance, but of someone who brings proposals,” Renzi told a press conference after meeting European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

Renzi returned to the attack on migrants Friday saying that the European Union must be consistent in supporting the States bearing the brunt of the refugee-migrant crisis. “It has been some time that we have considered the immigration problem to be a European one and that no country can be left along to manage this serious situation,” Renzi said after meeting Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann at his office in Rome. “It is not possible to show solidarity every other day”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

‘Adobe Creative Cloud Update Ate My Backup!’

How about this for bizarre bug of the week: the latest version of Adobe Creative Cloud deletes the first hidden directory in root directories on Macs.

That’s bad news for users of BackBlaze: the backup software stores a .bzvol folder in the top level of every drive it backs up, and uses these folders to store information about the drives. Adobe’s Creative Cloud app wipes away these directories, leaving BackBlaze’s users faced with “your drive is no longer backed up” errors.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

4 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/13/2016

  1. Brief video uploaded Feb 13, 2016 by Afrikan migrant mocking PEGIDA…Muslim jeers PEGIDA and the sh**-democracy in Germany
    Muslim über PEGIDA und die Scheiß-Demokratie in Deutschland
    Video mit Untertiteln zum besseren Verständnis.
    Video with subtitles for better understanding.

    Pegida Pegida …die sind bescheuert hab ich dir gesagt die sind unlogisch alle muslims wissen das Alle muslims, wir lachen wir muslims, wir lachen uber eure scheiss demokratie uber euer verstandnis uber den islam ihr habt null ahnung keine ahnung zero nada Aber wir verzeihen euch pegida alle muslims verzeihen mann
    Video mit Untertiteln zum besseren Verständnis.

    Pegida, pegida ….are stupid, I told you that are illogical know all muslims that all muslims, we we laugh muslims, we laugh about your sh** democracy about your understanding about the islam you have zero idea no idea zero nada But we forgive you pegida muslims forgive all man

  2. As soon as we are sufficiently detached from our history and homeland I imagine a gang of Muslims will just finish the lot of us off. Unless of course we wake up and take off the blinkers and make it the other way round.

  3. Italy: Universities: Center for Med Islamic Studies in Calabria

    Giovan Dionigi Galeni took part in the battle of Lepanto, he commanded the left flank of Ali Pasha’s fleet. Gelani is traitor to the Italian people who fought valiantly in the battle of Lepanto against the Muslim Turks and is a traitor to Christendom and Europe.

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