In defiance of French law, international NGOs are building makeshift towns for migrants on the Channel coast near Dunkirk. Among the participating organizations is Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF).
In other news, despite the latest agreement on migrants between the EU and Turkey, “refugees” continue to cross the Aegean in traffickers’ boats and land on the Greek islands. Hundreds of new migrants have arrived in the last few days, and, after registration, will theoretically be sent back to Turkey.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to AF, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Mark H, Srdja Trifkovic, 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.
Is ‘Helicopter Money’ Moving on to ECB’s Radar?
It’s a concept that conjures up images of European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi donning his flying suit, starting his helicopter and flying out over the eurozone to throw money to the crowds below.
In the question-and-answer session of his traditional post-meeting press conference last week, Draghi was asked whether “helicopter money” was part of the ECB’s toolbox in its long — and so far largely ineffectual — fight against the spectre of deflation in the euro area.
But the Italian central banker replied that the ECB had not “really thought or talked about helicopter money” at this stage…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Ontario Jobs Picture in February: Not Good Under the Hood
looking at the total jobs in the three public sectors, we see that the public sector represents 25% of the jobs in the province.
With the media and the politicos largely silent on the February Labour Market Survey jobs report, we were anxious to get a look at the data. First we did a literature search. Reuters reported a Canada-wide loss of 2,300 jobs in total with a loss of 51,800 full-time jobs (offset by an unreported rise in part-time jobs), and a rise in the unemployment rate to 7.3%. The Financial Post and the Globe and Mail both reported similar numbers. Are these numbers accurate and what do they mean? Let’s take a look.
Ontario gained 6,900 jobs but saw a large 60 K move from full-time to part-time jobs in February.
[Comment: Communists in public sector unions ensure communist governments like the Liberals continue to get re-elected in Ontario. It is a stranglehold. Whetever jobs are being created are only in the housing/condo bubble. This construction bubble is built on debt and eventually the chickens will come homw to roost.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Black Trump Supporter Stomps Anti-Trump Protester in KKK Hood at Tucson Rally
A black Trump supporter in Tucson STOMPED an anti-Trump protester at the Donald Trump rally this afternoon.
Protester wearing KKK-style hood kicked and punched at Trump rally | WATCH: https://t.co/dxFVqiOTRj pic.twitter.com/tOrW2nw06q
– The Hill (@thehill) March 19, 2016
At least one of the anti-Trump supporters was wearing a KKK hood when they were escorted from the rally. That’s when an African-American Trump supporter STOMPED On one of the protesters.
The African-American Trump supporter was arrested by police and led away.
VIOLENCE at another Donald Trump rally, this time in Tucson, AZ. Man hits and kicks protester: pic.twitter.com/7FWuSeE0Jt
– Frank Thorp V (@frankthorpNBC) March 19, 2016
The anti-Trump goons were wearing KKK hoods.
Agitators inside Trump rally yelling, wearing KKK hats, throwing American flag on the ground. #Tucson #Trump
– Pat (@grammy620) March 19, 2016
Agitators at #TrumpRally in Tucson wearing KKK hats but call Trump racist. This stupid never ends.
– MeLyn (@BluMyst) March 19, 2016
The protestor was wearing a hood while saluting, presumably referring to KKK/Hitler, before he was punched & kicked https://t.co/BfioarhaBR
– Noah Gray CNN (@NoahGrayCNN) March 19, 2016
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chicago Trump Rally: What Really Happened and How the Left Exposed Their True Form
This is a report on the Donald Trump rally from Markos, who was reporting live for Danger & Play Media. Follow Markos on Twitter here.
I’m sure most of you have heard the news, and seen the videos on the news. You may have a lot of questions, and want to see if what the media reported was accurate or not.
Well, I’ve got good news for you. I was there, and I will tell you exactly what I saw, and how it all went down.
Let’s first go over the details…
When we first got in line, we were behind some high school kids (one was wearing a jacket with the school’s name on it) who were getting lectured by some 50 something year old feminist looking woman.
She was arguing with them as to why they should support Bernie Sanders. When one of the kids said that he didn’t want socialism, she threw out the tired and overused “Bernie isn’t a socialist; he’s a democratic socialist.” She didn’t explain the difference but said it matter of fact to the kids.
[…]
As we get right by the doors, we get confirmation from Trump supporters that the rally has indeed been cancelled. We talk to a few, and see a few get interviewed.
But we notice that there is no security keeping people out from going inside the Pavilion. We decide to go in and have a look at what was going on.
What we saw inside there was total chaos.
There were still thousands of people inside the Pavilion.
When we got in and looked down into the stage/arena area, we saw hundreds of anti-Trump protesters running around wild on the floor.
They were chanting slogans and yelling at the Trump supporters, and were being chased by police…
Many of these anti-Trump protesters were harassing the Trump people leaving the venue.
One of the favorites was to say: Racists Go Home! Racists Go Home! You Racists, Get The Out Of Here!
They were yelling this at Trump supporters, but more importantly White Trump supporters. It was clear that they were equating being a Trump supporter and being White as their definition of a racist.
The crowd was almost exclusively college aged kids.
There was one scene that kept repeating itself.
One lone Trump supporter, with simply a Trump hat or a Trump 2016 sign, would be surrounded by 5-15+ anti-Trump protesters…
The police were protecting the cars from being attacked, but they did not stop the protesters from yelling and screaming at the cars leaving the garage.
At this point, it seemed most of these protesters were Mexican and Hispanic. There were at least 2 giant Mexican flags in the crowd of protesters being held up.
There were Antifa, with their face masks, roaming around at this point. They also appeared to be Mexican.
[…]
Most Of These Anti-Trump Protesters Were Bernie Sanders Supporters
The Media, new sites, and political pundits have tried to dismiss or deny this.
Bernie Sanders signs were everywhere the protesters were.
Whether they carried Bernie 2016 signs, had Sanders pins/t-shirts, or wrote Bernie Sanders on their home-made posters, his name was everywhere…
While the protesters clearly targeted any and all Trump supporters, they seemed to have a special affinity for non-White Trump supporters.
The protesters saw these non-White Trump supporters as ‘traitors’; and would get extremely angry seeing them. We even saw 2 groups of Mexicans; Trump supporters holding up the Mexican flag, being verbally harassed by anti-Trump Mexican protesters arguing back and forth in Spanish.
Also, many black Trump supporters were verbally harassed and confronted by many of the protesters.
[Comment: Watch the videos.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
College Will Stop Arresting Students for Passing Out Constitution
An Illinois college has reversed its position and will allow students to pass out copies of the U.S Constitution on campus.
It’s a good move, since the Alliance Defending Freedom threatened to sue them if they didn’t.
Under the old policies, students were threatened with arrest if they passed out the founding documents on the campus of the College of DuPage.
The exchange between a police officer and student Joseph Enders, captured on video, shows the officer telling Enders that, under campus policies, he needs a permit to offer the Constitution to passing students. The revised policies respect the constitutional freedoms of students by allowing them to pass out literature in outdoor areas of campus without prior permission, as the old policies required.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Donald Trump Welcomed at AIPAC 2016, But Many Journalists and Activists Denied Access
Donald Trump will be giving an address at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference in the nation’s capital on Monday, a move that has set off promises of protests and boycotts targeting the real estate mogul. But while AIPAC has rolled out the red carpet for the GOP frontrunner, it has moved to block activists from attending the conference and shut down planned protests. Immediately following the decision to host Trump, a group of expected AIPAC attendees started a Facebook group called “Come Together Against Hate” to plan protests against his speech. On March 14, a number of the planned attendees involved in organizing the protests received an email from an AIPAC staffer warning them about the ramifications of engaging in a protest against Trump. Among other consequences, the staffer said they’d be barred from the organization’s future events…
AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Whitman told the Times of Israel, “There is only one policy concerning disruptive behavior at Policy Conference — which has been our policy for the past four years — and it applies to all delegates whether students or non-students. That policy has been indicated on delegate badges this year and in past years, ‘AIPAC reserves the right to deny access to participants who behave in a manner AIPAC deems disruptive.’“
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Jack Dorsey: You’re a Liar. Censorship is Rampant on Twitter
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, whom I wouldn’t even right-swipe on Grindr (ironically one of the few social platforms left without Orwellian speech suppression), recently made a visit to The Today Show where he firmly proclaimed that his site doesn’t censor its users. Dorsey made his extraordinary statement following Matt Lauer’s claim that his Twitter followers named censorship as one of the most important issues facing the social media platform.
Jack is the CEO of two companies, and bad at running both, but Twitter has really been the worst of his two failures. Imagine taking a company from the “free speech wing of the free speech party” to shadowbanning, politically motivated de-verifications and banning “problematic” accounts (usually conservative or libertarian).
Since Dorsey returned to the company that he considers his “first born son,” the site has transformed from the public’s megaphone into the public’s muzzle. He’s calmly drowning free speech in the bathtub while adding unwanted features like algorithmic timelines and sponsored tweets.
Dorsey, who once was fired from his role as Twitter’s chief executive for an obsession with hot yoga and shirt-making, noted that Twitter only censors speech that “promotes violence.” Of course, this fails to explain my own unverification, Twitter’s rampant shadow-banning, and the suspension of Adam Baldwin over innocuous tweets that were interpreted as insults by easily-offended snowflakes. It seems Dorsey weaves fibs and half-truths as enthusiastically as he weaves straight-cut hemp outerwear.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Who is the protester?
According to a profile by the Arizona Daily Star, his name is Bryan Sanders who describes himself as an indepedent “I’m not a republican, I’m not a democrat”, and in a video interview after he left the rally he said the crowd was like an angry mob. What he ignored to note is that it was him and his fellow protesters who were doing everything all they could to rile up this “angry mob” and provoke them, ostensibly in hope of being attacked — which is precisely what happened. In other words, this group of Trump protesters which seem to follow him from state to state may be nothing more than a group of provocateurs, who do their best to get beaten up in order to stem up anti-Trump sentiment, something Sanders implicitly admits.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Trump Protesters Block Highway to Phoenix Rally
Trump protesters block highway near Fountain Hills, Arizona
True to their promises, Trump protesters did their best to disrupt rallies for the billionaire GOP candidate.
As Trump made his third visit to Arizona, activists blocked highway access Saturday morning in Fountain Hills in advance of his appearance, backing up traffic for miles with drivers honking in fury. The protesters parked their cars in the middle of the road, unfurling banners reading “Dump Trump” and “Must Stop Trump,” and chanting “Trump is hate.”
The vocal group beat drums and chanted as police struggled to clear the roadway.
“What do we want? Dead Trump!” the rioters screamed at one point…
Reaction to the road shutdown was negative, with some calling it not an act of protest, but an act of terrorism. One witness said there were more rioters than protesters.
Trump’s visit had the support of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.
Trump supporters were out in full force, including Tim Tashio. “I want him to undo all the things the previous administration has forced upon us,” Tashio said.
Another supporter, Frank Tortorici, called Trump a leader. “Something we sorely need in this country now. He says what he needs to say.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
White Shaming Out of Control in Oregon
It’s clear an ideological madness is gripping our campuses now. It isn’t just that one looney professor spouting ridiculous things (honest, some version of “that guy” has always been on campus)…whole campuses are now acting completely insane, supported by an administration that lacks the competence to say “enough is enough.”
So, rather than focus on the lone madness of a professor saying “while males are a cancer and must die” and urging (white) students to kill themselves, I want to talk about an entire campus turning into an asylum.
It’s easy enough to see this madness on California campuses, but I almost feel like I’m picking on them because I so often highlight California lunacy. So, today we’re looking at Portland Community College. Yes, it’s a community college, and I’m hard on those too, but having seen so many wildly incompetent, unprofessional and outright sleazy community college faculty and administrators, I feel the need to illuminate once again how these places are festering piles of corruption that often lack even the capacity to put up the slightest veneer of legitimacy.
So, what’s going on at Portland Community College? Here goes:
Portland Community College to devote an entire month to ‘whiteness’-shaming
Yes, a whole month of insanity. The title of the article actually comes close to describing the reality-a real highlight for mainstream media (thus, a flag that I’m not linking to a mainstream media site).
The college itself naturally presents things the way mainstream media does, i.e., deceptively:
Portland Community College has designated April “Whiteness History Month” (WHM),
Hey, a Whiteness History Month sounds like it’d be a refreshing change from the endless reminders of how white people used to have slaves (though I never owned slaves, and most every other culture had slaves in any event). I mean, “Black History Month” is all about contributions of a certain race…I totally don’t see any problem with that.
So, yes, bring it on, let’s have a month celebrating what is, supposedly, my race and culture. Alas, the name of the event is most misleading as to the true purpose:
“…an “educational project” exploring how the “construct of whiteness” creates racial inequality…”
Sigh, the old “inequality” canard.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Anti-Semitism on Campus — In Oshawa!
The recently released “Report on Antisemitic Activity in 2015 at US Colleges and Universities With the Largest Jewish Undergraduate Populations” is the “first empirical study of its kind,” showing that “the primary agents of anti-Semitic activity are anti-Zionist students and faculty boycotters.” And “The strongest predictor of anti-Jewish hostility on campus” is the local presence of a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Algemeiner, March 14, 2016
And we have proof of this in our universities in Canada-including the smaller ones like Oshawa based University of Ontario Institute of Technology’s (UOIT). Their student association banned Hasbara Fellowships from promoting’ “Israel Peace Week” during “Social Justice Week” at the university. According to Denise Martins, executive assistant of UOIT’s faculty association,-the student association passed a motion endorsing the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in January, and because Hasbara Fellowships “seems closely tied to the State of Israel… it would be against the motion to provide any type of resources to your organization.”
Being tied to Israel is now a “crime” in Canada?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Civil War’ In UK Govt as Anti-EU Minister Who Quit Speaks Out
A top British eurosceptic minister who quit over welfare cuts launched a damaging attack on Prime Minister David Cameron Sunday, exposing tensions within his government ahead of June’s referendum on EU membership.
In his first interview since resigning Friday, Iain Duncan Smith accused Cameron of trying to reduce Britain’s budget deficit through benefit cuts which were unfairly hurting poorer voters while protecting older, richer ones.
Duncan Smith, who last month became one of the most prominent Conservatives to say he would campaign against Cameron for Britain to leave the EU on June 23, denied his shock resignation was about Europe…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Do We Need ‘Religious Approaches’ to Human Rights?
Keith Porteous Wood offers a critical review of a new book that claims Human Rights owe their existence to religion — when the greatest modern threat to Human Rights comes from organised religion.
A book on ‘Religious approaches to Human Rights’ has just been published, written by the former theological adviser to the Church of England’s Bench of Bishops. Why bishops should need such an adviser is itself a curiosity — aren’t they supposed to be “advising” the rest of us?
Anyway, attending the book’s launch at the Houses of Parliament it struck me that everyone else there seemed keen on the book’s underlying assumption that “religion is needed to provide a robust philosophical foundation for human rights, and is a vital component of the human flourishing that human rights aim to achieve”. At least my presence there served to relieve the tedium of everyone agreeing with each other.
Ideally, of course, the religious and the non-religious alike should coalesce to promote Human Rights, but this book unconvincingly contends that religion is a precondition for human rights. Not only is this incorrect and self-serving but it is the opposite of the truth.
The book is a concerted effort to escalate the decades-long campaign to make Human Rights subject to religion, which I am convinced would fatally weaken if not destroy them…
| — Hat tip: Mark H | [Return to headlines] |
Growing Pains for Spain’s Podemos as Rifts Emerge
Podemos has risen at meteoric speed to become Spain’s third political force in just two years, but rifts and tensions are starting to bruise the far-left party’s image of watertight unity.
Led by the charismatic Pablo Iglesias, the party has been shaken by resignations and increasingly vocal regional discontent, just as it engages in delicate political manoeuvrings following inconclusive elections in December.
Analysts and party members say the crisis is likely to be just a bump in the road for an organisation born in January 2014 out of anger over austerity, but they argue it could still weaken Podemos if left unaddressed.
“The Spanish electorate has tended to punish internal divisions in political parties, which are often perceived as struggles for power rather than for ideological positions,” says Lluis Orriols, politics professor at Madrid’s Carlos III University…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Euro-Russian ExoMars Starts Search for Life on Mars
Craft launched in Kazakhstan, strong Italian presence
(ANSA) — Rome, March 14 — The European-Russian ExoMars mission to find traces of life on Mars began on Monday with a rocket launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Italy has a strong presences in the mission via the contributions of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and companies Finmeccanica and Thales Alenia Space Italia.
“ExoMars is the Europe that we like,” Premier Matteo Renzi, who has been highly critical of the direction of the EU, said via his Twitter account (@matteorenzi). “It’s the Italy we are proud of @ASI_spazio @finmeccanicaIT”. The rocket is carrying the unmanned ExoMars probe which has started a seven-month journey through space that should see it reach Mars in October. It is made up an orbiter, which will analyse gases around Mars, such as methane, a chemical that is linked to life on Earth, and a small lander that will put a rover on the surface in 2018.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Outrage Over Fans Urinating on Rome Beggar
Sparta Prague supporters suspected, hooligans strike again
(ANSA) — Rome, March 18 — A video that is doing the rounds on the Internet showing soccer fans — presumably followers of Czech side Sparta Prague — urinating on a Rome beggar sparked outrage in Italy on Friday.
The video of the incident on the beautiful Ponte Sant’Angelo bridge by one of Rome’s most famous monuments, Castel Sant’Angelo, appeared to have been shot before Sparta beat Lazio 3-0 on Thursday to qualify for the Europa League quarterfinals 4-1 on aggregate.
It comes after several incidents in the past of visiting fans committing vile acts and causing mayhem in the Italian capital.
One of most famous occurred last year, when big crowds of fans of Dutch side Feyenoord fans got drunk in central Rome and inflicted damage on the historic Barcaccia fountain near the Spanish Steps.
“I’d like it if those so-called fans of Sparta Prague who urinated on a beggar and had the courage to immortalise themselves on Youtube never again set foot in an Italian stadium, starting with the (Stadio) Olimpico (in Rome),” said Roberto Giachetti, the candidate to be Rome mayor in June’s local elections for Premier Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD).
“I hope that they are identified as soon as possible.
Soccer cannot be an excuse to come to Rome and commit abominable acts”. Virginia Raggi, the mayor candidate for the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, said the incident was a breach of human rights and said that, if she won, the M5S would take action to ensure “the doors of the city are closed to these beast fans”.
The Czech embassy in Rome condemned the incident but stressed it had yet to be proved that Sparta Prague fans were the culprits.
“At the moment we don’t know if it was a Sparta Prague supporter”, the embassy said, since it said the images circulating on the Internet were not clear.
“We await the report from the Italian police,” the embassy told ANSA.
A press office spokesman said “unfortunately these are very unpleasant things which may happen and we are very sorry.
He said “99% of our fans are very serious people, they came to Rome without wanting revenge…There was no reason to be provocative”.
The embassy said that certain fans behaved the same way the world over.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Investigation Uncovers ‘A Lot of Weapons, ‘ Belgium Official Says
The arrest of terror suspect Salah Abdeslam resulted in authorities finding a large number of weapons, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said Sunday.
“He was ready to restart something in Brussels,” said Reynders, speaking at the German Marshall Fund’s Brussels Forum.
The investigation also showed more people were involved in the November 13 Paris attacks than first thought, he said.
“After the terror attacks in Paris, I said to one TV channel in the U.S. that we were searching for around 10 people with heavy weapons. We have far more than that since November, and not only in Belgium but also in France,” he said. “ … For the moment we have found more than 30 people involved in the terrorist attacks in Paris, but we are sure there are others.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Marks and Spencer Launches Burkha Swimsuit for Muslim Women
Marks & Spencer now stocks the full-length swimwear, designed to protect the modesty of Muslim women. The £49.50 suit covers the whole body except the face, hands and feet.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Painful Farewell: Spiegel Correspondent Forced to Leave Turkey
Hasnain Kazim, SPIEGEL’s correspondent in Turkey, was forced to leave the country after his press credentials were not renewed.
For three years, Hasnain Kazim reported for DER SPIEGEL from Istanbul. Now, he has been forced out of the country. His impressions from a place where press freedoms are on the decline and authoritarianism is on the rise.
On our last day in Turkey, my family and I are not in the mood to go, but we have to leave the country. After several torturous months of uncertainty and concern, we have no other option. We fear for our safety.
The bags are packed. The furniture, books, clothing, everything is gone. My son has been taken out of kindergarten; it was a painful farewell for him too. Before we drive to the airport, I write down a list of telephone numbers for my wife: colleagues, diplomats, friends in Istanbul. These are in case I am detained at the airport and my family has to continue their journey without me.
Since the beginning of the year, the Turkish government has declined to grant me accreditation as a foreign correspondent, thereby denying me the ability to work. As a German journalist living in Turkey, I need a residency permit — and this permit is linked to my press accreditation.
Accreditations are normally approved at the turn of the year, but this year all German journalists have had to wait unusually long. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolu repeatedly assured Chancellor Merkel at the beginning of the year that all German correspondents would receive their papers. The German side relayed this message to us on multiple occasions.
I never received any notification at all. Officially, my request hasn’t been declined, it is being “examined.” But neither the Turkish nor the German authorities believed that my accreditation would still be granted.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bahrain Urged to Stop Deporting Citizens Stripped of Nationality
Human Rights Watch called on Bahrain on Sunday to stop deporting citizens after stripping them of their nationality, two days before a hearing that could lead to the expulsion of another nine.
Since February 21, the Sunni-ruled but Shiite-majority kingdom has deported five people after revoking their citizenship and leaving them stateless, the New York-based watchdog said.
Another nine risk the same fate if an appeals court on Tuesday upholds a 2012 ruling to rescind their nationality for allegedly causing “damage to security of the state”.
“These unlawful deportations are ripping families apart and causing untold suffering,” HRW’s deputy Middle East director, Joe Stork, said…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Christian ‘Genocide’: Blame the Islamic State, But Also the US
US Secretary of State John Kerry called for an international probe into the Islamist group that has massacred Yazidis, Christians, and Shias in Syria and Iraq. US foreign policy however contributed to the rise of the Islamic State (IS) group by marginalising pro-Saddam Hussein Sunnis in Iraq, by “containing” it without fighting IS, and by selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, which ended up in IS’s hands in Syria. Iraq is now the second country in the world in terms of anti-Christian persecution.
Rome (AsiaNews) — US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the Islamic state (IS) group has committed genocide against Yazidis, Christians and Shias in Syria and Iraq. In view of this, he called for an independent international investigation and criminal charges for those thought to be responsible for the atrocities.
In the summer of 2014, IS fighters coming from Syria seized Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, forcing Christians to choose between fleeing, converting to Islam, or pay an exorbitant protection tax (jizya). More than 100,000 Christians, terrified by the massacres committed by radical Islamic militias, fled to Kurdistan.
In August 2014, it was the turn of the Yazidis on Mount Sinjar, near the border with Turkey. Deemed “pagan” and “devil worshipers”, their fate was death. Hundreds of men and young people were slain. Women and girls, even the very young, were either killed or used as sex slaves, or sold as slaves in the markets.
In his statement, Kerry also mentioned the killing of Christians in Libya, as well as the murder of thousands of Shias in Syria and Iraq (considered heretics by radical Sunnis). This comes a few days after a vote in Congress designated IS’s crimes as “genocide”.
This is only the second time that a US administration has declared a genocide during a conflict. The previous was in 2004 for the Darfur.
This could lead to action by the UN Security Council and bolster international resolve against IS.
However, Kerry has omitted to say that the United States has contributed to IS’s genocide, if not directly, at least indirectly.
It is no secret that IS emerged after the US under General Petraeus purged pro-Saddam Hussein Sunni elements out of Iraqi society, forcing them to flee into Syria, from where they made their way back to Iraq in 2014.
By excluding scores of officials (generals, but also judges, soldiers, bureaucrats, etc.) from the old regime, the United States created an environment favourable to IS’s rise. Now Saddam Hussein’s generals are back, well prepared, in command of genocidal troops.
Nor is it a secret that US ally Saudi Arabia with Qatar and Kuwait have given economic and military support to groups opposed to Bashar al Assad, who were overwhelmed by IS and forced to give up their most advanced technological weapons, bought from the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, etc.
Nor is it a secret that the United States, despite leading an international coalition that fought (and is fighting) IS, has preferred to “contain” IS in Syria, whilst fighting it in Iraq. Only after Russia intervened did the US-led coalition take some decisive action.
Open Doors, a Protestant NGO, lists the 50 worst persecutors of Christians. North Korea tops the list, Iraq is 2nd, Afghanistan is 4th, Syria is 5th, and Libya is 10th. Except for the first, all of them are countries where the United States intervened militarily with international coalitions.
In 2004, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was ranked 32nd; a decade ago, Syria was ranked 47th; Libya was 22nd; and Afghanistan was 11th.
According to the latest data, more than 7,000 Christians were killed for their faith in 2015 — almost twice as many as in 2014.
Thus, if IS is to be held accountable for genocide, the same should apply to its “collaborators”, more concerned about their own strategic or economic interests than the fate of the peoples with whom they come into contact.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Moqtada Sadr, Iraq’s ‘Enfant Terrible’, Back in the Spotlight
A string of mass protests culminating in an ongoing sit-in at the gates of Baghdad’s Green Zone have thrust the mercurial Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr back on to centre stage.
The scion of an influential clerical family from the holy city of Najaf, he first made a name for himself at the age of 30 as a vociferous anti-American cleric who raised a rebellion.
His influence ebbed after the 2011 US pullout but he retained strong support among the lower classes and is now casting himself as the champion of the fight against graft.
“This is your time to root out corruption and the corrupt,” he said earlier this month in a call to his supporters to march on the fortified Green Zone and set up protest camps…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Responding to Kerry, Patriarch Laham Says War is Taking Place in Syria, Not Genocide
Gregory III criticises the US Secretary’s claim because it is “no good” for Syria’s ethnic and religious groups. For the bishop, it is necessary not to link religion and war; otherwise, matter will be worse. What is needed is more work on peace and coexistence. Syrian bishops call on the faithful to pray for the success of the Geneva talks.
Damascus (AsiaNews) — US Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks about the Islamic State’s “genocide” against Christians, Yazidis and Shia Muslims “are not helpful to the ethnic and religious groups present in Syria,” said Melkite Patriarch Gregory III Laham.
Speaking to AsiaNews, the prelate does not mince his words about America’s top diplomat. “The words come late, and bring bitterness and ill will between the various groups. This is no good.”
Responding to appeals by Christian and other activist groups and organisations, in the United States and elsewhere, the US Secretary of State used the word ‘genocide’ for the first time to describe the violence carried out by Daesh (Arabic acronym for the Islamic State] in Iraq and Syria. In his view, the latter is “genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology and by actions”.
Gregory III, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, has always been critical of the intervention by the Western (and regional) powers, first in Iraq and then in the Syria, which have exacerbated the conflict.
“We must avoid labelling religion as a cause of war,” he said. “Military interventions as well as economic and political interests are the cause of wars, whilst religions are exploited as a tool and a pretext.”
For the Melkite patriarch, Kerry’s stance “will not favour Christians”; on the contrary, it helps making matters worse, generating “animosity between groups, Sunnis vs Shias, Christians vs Muslims”.
Russia’s intervention has shown the ineffectiveness of US action. Perhaps for this reason, Washington is trying to regain some credibility and ground with these words in Christian eyes. However, for Gregory III, “it is a wrong approach because now is a time to work for peace and coexistence, not generate even more divisions.”
The problem is that “the great powers like the United States have lost their credibility.” At present, “there is more mistrust among peoples”.
For this reason, Syrians bishops have called on the faithful to “pray for the ongoing talks in Geneva” that they may “yield results and be harbingers of peace.”
For the patriarch, “emigration is the biggest danger”. He warns though not “to overstate the numbers and statistics. We do not know how many are abroad, how many are internal migrants, how many leave and then come back.”
Lastly, “As a Syrian Church, we have many projects and are grateful to those who are helping us to revive life in the country and give a future to its people. As the pope put it, we should never let the flame of hope go out.”
Conflict in Syria began in March 2011 with a popular protest against President Bashar al-Assad, eventually morphing into a regional and international conflict involving extremist and jihadi groups.
The war has claimed so far the lives of 270,000 people, generating one of the most serious humanitarian crises in history, with 4.6 million Syrians forced outside the country in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Hundreds of thousands more have tried to reach Europe, with countless lives lost in the attempt to cross the Mediterranean.
Altogether, some 11 million people have bene displaced.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India’s Christians Ask Government for Protection During Holy Week
There has been an escalation of violence by Hindu radicals in recent weeks. Churches damaged, pastors beaten and arrested, faithful manhandled. President of Global Council of Indian Christians: “It seems that praying in India has become a crime. Christians are not treated like other citizens”.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — Given the recent attacks on Christian communities, it is urgent to ensure the safety of the faithful during the Holy Week celebrations: This is the cry for help that is being addressed to the National Commission for Human Rights (NHRC) by Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC).
There is no sign of a stop to the religious violence in the country, with Hindu radicals who have carried out a wave of new attacks in recent days. On February 6th, about 15 men attacked the Pentecostal church of the village of Kachna in the state of Chhattisgarh state, disrupting the function, beating the 65 worshipers, including women, and destroying sacred objects.
Only a week later, on March 12, another violent incident took place in the southeastern state Tamil Nadu. Hindu groups violated the property of the Church of South India (CSI, Anglican) in Kalapatti, damaging the interior of the church and its door, destroying the altar and the sacred vestments. The place of worship has been located there since 1948 and was recently renovated and expanded with the permission of the court of Madras. Police arrested five people and opened an investigation.
The day before the attack, on March 11, a Pentecostal pastor was arrested with his wife in the southern state of Karnakata, after being beaten by a group of extremists of the Hindu right, perhaps belonging to the Bajrang Dal, a militant youth wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, Hindu ultranationalists). The pastor, K Keshava, was traveling to go and pray for a non-believer: On arriving at his destination he was ambushed and beaten.
According to Sajan George, this continuing violence “are clear violations of constitutional guarantees. These groups of right-wing Hindu beat innocent citizens, belonging to the Christian minority. In the assault of Karnata, even a woman was arrested for no reason. Is it therefore a crime pray in India? Or are Christians not citizens like all others? These are violations of our human rights”.
The Constitution, continued the GCIC president, “guarantees freedom of worship, but last month we have seen too many episodes of religious violence. A few days ago, India denied a visa to a member of the US Commission for Religious Freedom who wanted to discuss the ‘deterioration’ of conditions in the country”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: From Muslim to Christian: I Discovered the Love of Jesus, To Him I Give Everything
A young Indian woman, Sonam Shaikh, chose to convert to Christianity after attending Christmas Mass. Remember that moment, she said “Everything fascinated me”. After that initial “thunderbolt” that filled her heart with joy, she took on the path of Initiation, which she describes in her journey toward baptism.
Mumbai (AsiaNews) — Born to a Muslim father and a Hindu mother who had to convert to Islam to marry him, Sonam Shaikh never imagined that listening to Gospel at the midnight Mass would be “the first step towards embracing Christianity”.
The young Indian woman was born in Kolkata on 20 May 1989. She spent her childhood in Nepal, where her father had moved for work, and returned to India in 1996. She graduated in Commerce and holds a postgraduate diploma in Hospitality and Aviation.
The turning point in her life came in 2011 when a co-worker invited her to attend Mass on Christmas Eve. Until then, she had never been in a church, but at that point, she felt something inside her, and “I immediately began to Love this powerful God”.
What follows is Sonam’s story. She is currently completing the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).
During my professional career, I met a young Catholic man, who invited me to Christmas Midnight Mass in 2011. Being a Muslim, during twenty-two years of my life, I had never ever visited a Catholic Church before, nor had I ever been to Mass and I knew nothing about Christianity.
I readily accepted his invitation to the Christmas Midnight Mass as a social and cultural event. Everything fascinated me. Just being present at the Mass was a wonderful and magical experience. The long entrance processions with the vestments of the priests, the altar servers, filled me with awe.
I was not prepared for this grandeur. As the Mass progressed, the priest came up and began to read (from what I later came to know was the Gospel) the narrative of the Birth of Christ. This was like a thunderbolt, listening to the Virgin conceiving by the Holy Spirit, the Angels singing, the God being born.
This was beyond imagination. This God was so powerful, that everything moved at His Word. The power of God stirred within me an intense desire to know Him, and I immediately began to Love this powerful God. It was an experience etched in my memory, the first step towards embracing Christianity. Thus, my desire to follow this faith began and that is how I came here, to the RCIA* programme.
The RCIA programme was very useful and positive experience. Although I thought they would only teach us prayers and reading the Bible (the word of God), it wasn’t only that.
I believed that my love for Christ and journey with him is a private experience. However, through the RCIA programme, I realised that this experience also needs to be shared with others.
My reverence for the Lord has grown deeper and stronger. Reading the word of God and having a conversation with him have become a very important part in my life.
The commitment, endurance and support of entire RCIA team also matured my love for the faith. These people selflessly serve to give us the good news.
Here are a few of the experiences I had during my journey in RCIA programme:
The first Retreat of my Life
Where I came to know how much Jesus loved us and still love us. He was humiliated, he suffered, and he shed every drop of blood to redeem the whole world. I learnt to be more forgiving, more compassionate, and to be able to share my experiences.
I am closer to God and to my family, friends, neighbours and everyone else. My faith grew stronger in God and God’s path for me and for others. So many graces, so much to be thankful for. I see and hear differently because of my readings and pondering of the Scriptures and life with God within me.
Thank you RCIA team for making this retreat such a meaningful experience.
Rite of acceptance
This is the first ritual performed in the Church followed by Mass. We were gradually introduced to various aspects of Catholic beliefs and practices. I came to realise and to admit what God has meant to me and that the relationship with him had deepen and strengthen me.
When I was standing in front of the altar for the first time, it felt like the most awesome pleasure that a human is capable of experiencing. I was filled with joy as we were introduced to the Parish, received blessings from the Father and all of them praying for us.
Rite of Election
The Rite of Election is the stage before receiving the Sacraments of initiation (Baptism, holy Eucharist and Confirmation).
The Rite of Election closes the period of the Catechumenate. This rite coincides with the first Sunday of Lent in the presence of Bishop. He inscribed our names in the Book of the Elect.
Receiving the blessing from Bishop was one of the proudest moments of my life.
Now we Catechumen are proud to be called Elect or illuminandi (those who will be enlightened). It is now the beginning of the period of purification and enlightenment as an Elect. I was looking forward for the three scrutinies that will be held on the third, fourth and fifth Sunday of Lent.
As I draw closer to the celebration of Easter (eager to be baptised and receive the blood and body of Christ), I pray for myself and everybody to be faithful and loyal to our Lord.
The most heart touching moment and experience during this journey was the washing of the feet.
The whole act suggest that we should be proud of who we are and what we have. But we should always be humble and meek. We should give up our ego, pride and selfishness.
I was speechless by the end and my eyes were filled with tears because this was the most humble feeling I had ever experienced.
Even, we candidates were blessed to wash our animators’ feet and this was a sense of satisfaction and changed our vision towards others.
This resembles the Love and Care for others.
“I pray that after our Baptism, May we remain loyal and committed to Christ, our Lord”.
All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give.
(Nirmala Carvalho contributed to this article)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nepal: Taken From School and Given in Marriage: The Plight of Child Brides
Although against the law, the practice of child brides for dowries is still widespread in the country. Educated girls cost greater sums of money because they must marry a higher-ranking man. To spend less, thousands of poor families withdraw their daughters from the schools. Activist: “It ‘a chronic problem.”
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) — Taken from school and given in marriage while still children to cost less in terms of a dowry. That’s what happens every year to hundreds of thousands of Nepalese girls, where higher education is denied for economic reasons.
The more educated a woman becomes, the more her future partner will have to be of high rank, and therefore the more expensive the marriage. Poor families choose to withdraw daughters from school to spend as little as possible in terms of the dowry. About 28% of girls are affected by this, and the highest rate is found in the southern Terai region, where the dowry is prohibited by law but widespread among Hindus and Muslims.
The dowry is the gift that is given to the groom by the father of her daughter. In some communities it is seen as a sign of good will, in others it is considered mandatory.
Nepal operate various NGOs, local and foreign, engaged in the eradication of marriages between minors, such as the “Child Marriage and Dowry Elimination National Campaign Nepal”. However, until now these organizations have not been successful. Raj Kumar Mahato, campaign coordinator in madhese communities of Rajbiraj district, says: “We are doing our best to discourage the practice of forced dowries, but it is difficult to eliminate because the more education you have, the more your dowry should be. The community here is so poor that children are forced to borrow money to go to high schools, and they often use the dowry given by the father of their future wife “.
Once married, says Mahato, girls cannot continue their studies: “83% of young girls are given in marriage before age 18. 28% before they reach 15”. The local director of educational institutes confirms that “about 50% of the girls stop going to school after marriage. The problem is chronic. “
Rajendra Sriwastav the father of two daughters: “I am a poor man — he says — and I can guarantee two meals a day with my daily wages. How can I afford my daughters dowry if I send them to school? I kept them up to fifth grade but then I have withdrawn them, so give them in marriage to less educated men and spend less. “
Activist CK Singh, says that Nepal is in tenth place in the world ranking of countries where most marriages occur between minors. The problem, he says, cannot be solved in Nepal without involving the northern provinces of India (such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand), since mixed marriages between Indians and Nepalese often occur.
Ananda, Minister of Nepalese Culture, says: “We cannot tackle everything at once. The law clearly says that the practice of dowry is not allowed, but no one is brought before the court of justice and the people continue to fall into the temptation of materialism. Religious leaders should discourage this practice among believers”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Meets With China’s Propaganda Chief
BEIJING (AP) — Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a rare meeting with China’s propaganda chief, at a time when Chinese authorities are tightening control over their cyberspace.
Liu Yunshan told Zuckerberg in their meeting Saturday that he hopes Facebook can share its experience with Chinese companies to help “Internet development better benefit the people of all countries,” China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. Zuckerberg was in Beijing to attend an economic forum.
China has called for the creation of a global Internet “governance system” and cooperation between countries to regulate Internet use, stepping up efforts to promote controls that activists complain stifle free expression.
Facebook and other Western social media, including Twitter, are banned in China. Zuckerberg has long been courting China’s leaders in a so far futile attempt to access the country with the world’s largest number of Internet users — 668 million as of last year.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Lula Suggests ‘Intimidating’ His Prosecutors as Anger at His Immunity Spreads
Brazil’s former president has been sworn in as President Dilma Rousseff’s chief of staff, as wiretaps are released scandalising the country
A corruption scandal swamping Brazil’s government has taken a dramatic twist after the former president, appointed this week to the cabinet to shield him from prosecution, was recorded making threats against his prosecutors.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, universally known as Lula, had his telephone tapped as part of an investigation into corruption at the state oil company, Petrobras. His hand-picked successor to the presidency, Dilma Rousseff, was head of Petrobras while Mr da Silva was president.
She denies any wrongdoing. But after Mr da Silva, her political mentor, was arrested in connection with the scandal, she made him her chief of staff — effectively shielding him from prosecution. A judge tried and failed to block his swearing in, which was greeted with shouts of “Shame!” from the opposition.
Mr da Silva’s image was further battered by the release of conversations in which he suggests intimidating the prosecutors.
“I think they have to be afraid,” Mr da Silva told a politician from his own Workers’ Party (PT).
ADVERTISING”He needs to go to sleep knowing that the following day he’ll have 10 legislators irritating him at his house, irritating him at his office, facing a case at the Supreme Federal Tribunal.”
“Why can’t we intimidate them?”
Ms Rousseff is heard telling Mr da Silva that the “appointment papers” are available “in case they are needed” — leading to Edward Snowden, the American who leaked a trove of classified information, to laugh at Ms Rousseff’s failure to use encrypted communications.
Ms Rousseff accused the judge behind the publication of the conversations, Sergio Moro, of attempting to bring down her government.
“This is how coups get underway,” she said at Mr da Silva’s swearing-in ceremony in Brasília
Mr Moro replied that Ms Rousseff was only recorded because she called him. And he defended their release, saying the public had a right to know who was running their country, and likening it to the Watergate recordings.
In another conversation, Mr da Silva is heard joking with his brother, saying that if opposition supporters turn up near his house they will “get beaten up so badly they won’t know what’s hit them.”
He promises to put the federal police and prosecutors “back in their place” and laughs at how Rio de Janeiro’s mayor Eduardo Paes complains about Ms Rousseff’s bad temper — comments for which the mayor apologised at a press conference on Thursday.
Further protests are expected in the coming days.
And commentators have seized on the fact that Mr da Silva, in one taped conversation, appeared to sum up the whole mess.
Shortly after being detained for questioning this month, he told Ms Rousseff: “The president of the lower house is screwed, the president of the senate is screwed, I don’t know how many congressman are under threat, and everyone is in the belief that a miracle will save them.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
200,000 Invader Crimes in Germany
Nonwhite invaders have committed more than 200,000 crimes in Germany in 2015 alone, a new confidential police report leaked to the media has revealed.
The report, published in Spiegel magazine, also said that the crime and security situation will only get worse as times goes on.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2015: 1,005 Attacks on Invader Centers
Patriots have carried out more than one thousand attacks of all sorts on invader centers in Germany during 2015, final figures from the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Office, BKA) have revealed.
According to BKA chief Holger Münch, the rate of attacks went up fivefold over 2014, where there were only 199 such incidents.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Turkey Deal Fails to Stem Migrant Flight to Greece
Reuters witnesses saw three boats arrive within an hour in darkness in the early hours of Sunday. Two men were pulled out unconscious from one of the boats amid the screams of fellow passengers and were later pronounced dead.
Twelve boats had arrived on the shoreline near the airport by 6 a.m. (0400 GMT), a police official said.
Under the European Union deal with Turkey, all migrants and refugees, including Syrians, who cross to Greece illegally by sea from Sunday will be sent back to Turkey once they are registered and their asylum claims have been processed.
In return, the EU will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and reward it with more money, early visa-free travel and progress in its EU membership negotiations.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
EU-Turkey Deal ‘Respects Rights’ Says Renzi
Refers to human rights, press freedom, EU values
(ANSA) — Brussels, March 18 — Premier Matteo Renzi said after an EU-Turkey summit that a bilateral deal on migrants signed Friday respects “the requisites we gave ourselves… now we need to ensure it works as best as it can”.
“It respects the parameters we — and not only we — had set: there is an explicit reference to human rights, freedom of the press, and the founding values of Europe”.
“If we manage to save even just one child thanks to this accord, we will have done our duty,” the Italian premier said.
Renzi also said the deal signed today “refers explicitly to Libya and Africa”. “To those who ask us to help them in their home countries, we say the road is one of international cooperation. Now the point is to translate words into actions,” said the premier, adding he is satisfied with the accord’s “comprehensive approach”.
The return to Turkey of refugees who have illegally entered Greece will start April 4 under a new EU-Turkey migrant deal, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the summit .
“All forms of collective expulsion will be banned and international standards and the principle of non-refoulement will be respected,” a final joint declaration by the EU and Turkey said. These are “temporary and extraordinary measures”, the document said. Non-refoulement is a principle of international law which forbids the rendering of a victim of persecution to his or her persecutor.
The deal also says the opening of a new negotiation chapter for Turkey’s EU accession must take place “during the Dutch duty presidency”, i.e. by June 30. The European Commission will “present a proposal in April” for the opening of negotiation chapter 33. “Preparatory work for the opening of new chapters will continue at an accelerated pace, without prejudice to the Member States,” the accord says.
A joint EU-Turkey statement on migrants said Friday that “the first list of concrete projects for refugees (health, education, infrastructure and living costs) will be identified by the EU and Turkey within a week” and once the first three billion euros have been fully used “the EU will mobilise additional funding for another three billion euros by the end of 2018”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Migrant Gangs Leave Severed Head on Amsterdam Street
In Amsterdam a severed head was found laying in the open street. It is just the latest gruesome murder in what is being called the “MOCRO War” involving North African migrants from Morocco.
Amsterdam resident Stan Koeman made the discovery. He first thought it may just be a bag laying on the ground but he soon realized what lay in front of his deli was much worse: “But then, I saw: sh*t it looks like a head,” he told Dutch media according to Welt.de.
The remains of the body belonging to the victim were found a day earlier, partially burned, in a different section of the city. The victim was a 23 year-old man, Nabil Amzieb.
Police say the positioning of his head was done on purpose. His eyes were pointed toward a local shisha smoking lounge called “Fayrouz” which, according to local police, is a known meeting place for North African gangs who have been in a bitter and bloody turf war since 2012.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
NGOs Are Now Ignoring National Laws, Building Migrant Towns
Row upon on row of neat little ‘chalets’, built by a local mayor and a charity against the will of the French government. The new camp in Dunkirk, Northern France is certainly more ordered than the Calais ‘Jungle’, but it will probably serve precisely the same purpose.
The burgeoning migrant village in the Grande-Synthe suburb near the coastal city of Dunkirk opened two weeks ago, and is the joint effort of Mayor Damien Careme and the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
Previously Deported Illegal Aliens From Guatemala Charged in Rape, Beating of Massachusetts Couple
A shocking case of rape in Framingham, Massachusetts last Sunday by four accused illegal aliens from Guatemala has received no national media attention even though two of the illegals were previously deported and sneaked back into the U.S.
The woman was allegedly kidnapped while walking with her boyfriend. He reportedly followed and rescued her after fighting off her attackers.
The Framingham Wicked Local and Boston Herald are the only outlets to report on the vicious crime.
Framingham Wicked Local:
“Four Framingham men are accused of grabbing a woman off the street on Sunday and carrying her to an apartment, where they sexually assaulted her as her boyfriend tried to save her, a prosecutor said in Framingham District Court Monday.
“Framingham Police arrested brothers Elmer Diaz, 19, Ariel Diaz, 24, and Adan Diaz, 32, and their friend Marlon Josue Jarquin-Felipe, 27, after the 10:55 p.m. assault at 141 Hollis St., prosecutor Susan Harris said during the men’s arraignment.
Details of the attack at the report at the Framingham Wicked Local.
The Boston Herald reported when it came to light that the accused are in the U.S. illegally.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Turkish government has started to halt the flood of invaders sailing to the Greek islands in terms of its “deal” with the European Union-proving that they could have done it all along and merely used the nonwhite invasion to blackmail Europe.
On Friday, March 18, Turkish police intercepted 3,000 invaders attempting to cross on land and sea in a major operation involving coast guard and helicopters, as the “deal” was being struck in Brussels.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Washington Post — Germany Learns How to Send Back Migrants: Pay Them
The rapid rate of arrivals in the once-welcoming nation has forced a backlog of 770,000 asylum requests. About half of them, authorities say, will be rejected. That means figuring out how to get the asylum seekers who cannot stay to leave. With deportations on such a scale seen as problematic at best, the country has come up with a solution: Pay — some say bribe — them.
| — Hat tip: AF | [Return to headlines] |
‘Won’t Believe in Migrant Relocation Till I See It’ — Renzi
At least there’s more awareness of scale of problem says premier
(ANSA) — Brussels, March 18 — Premier Matteo Renzi said after an EU-Turkey migration summit Friday that “I hope relocations will take place — but…I won’t believe it until I see it”. “In any case I see more awareness of the fact that we face a large-scale problem,” he added. The EU and Turkey have agreed to send people who enter Greece illegally back to Turkey, with different European sources saying that process will begin March 20, or alternately April 4.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Shuts Down Page Opposing Gender-Neutral Bathrooms
(DailyWire) Last month, Facebook censored a woman for criticizing gender-neutral locker rooms on her page, “Keep Locker Rooms Safe.” Now, the social media site has decided to shut her page down completely.
Autumn Bennett, the administrator of the page advocating for safety and privacy in locker rooms through sex-assigned bathrooms, told The Daily Wire the threats she has been receiving since the incident have gotten increasingly more aggressive. Trans activists have formed their own fake “Keep Locker Rooms Safe” Facebook pages in opposition to her group, mocking the group’s cause and harassing administrators.
One activist even posted a call to action for activists to investigate Bennett’s personal information, such as where she works.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Police Break Up Gay Marriage Ceremony in Central Java
Residents in the village of Teges Wetan call in the police after seeing something “untoward”: two men, one dressed in female clothing, getting ready to marry. In October of last year, a similar ceremony was held without government recognition.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) — Indonesian police raided a marriage ceremony last Saturday (12 March) involving two men, Andi Budi Sutrisno and Didik Suseno, in Teges Wetan, a small village in Wonosobo Regency (Central Java).
Same-sex unions are banned in Indonesia. In this case, village residents informed the authorities after noticing something untoward happening.
Upon arrival, police found the two men dressed up for a wedding. Andi ‘Andini’ Budi Sutrisno was wearing women’s clothes. “We were called by villagers to stop the ceremony, as it shocked them,” local Police chief Surakhman said.
This is not the first time that an illegal same-sex marriage is celebrated in Indonesia. On 10 October 2015, two men held a public ceremony to celebrate their union in Boyolali (Central Java), disguising it as a ‘thank you’ ceremony for their long friendship. Their marriage was not formally registered.
In Indonesia, a marriage (between a man and a woman) can only be performed by a religious authority, and then registered at the Civil Records Office.
In the past few months, homosexuality has become a controversial issue in the Asian nation after a LGBT rights group, the Support Group and Resources Centre (SGRC), applied to open an office at the University of Indonesia, a request turned down by the Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Muhammad Nasir.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
St. Patrick’s Day Postmodernized
by Srdja Trifkovic
Until about three decades ago the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day was not just another tackily “festive” occasion marked by shamrock face paintings and Guinness-soaked pub crawls. It had the markings of a Christian feast and it reflected a sense of collective awareness among the Irish that they had a lot to be proud of. Nowadays whatever happens on March 17 celebrates neither St. Patrick nor the culture and identity of Ireland and her people.
The official website of St. Patrick’s Festival (March 17-20)—a joint project of the Government of Ireland (specifically its “Department of Arts and Heritage”) and Dublin City Council—says that its objective is “to provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations.” In this age of diversity and inclusiveness it is unsurprising that “the opportunity and motivation” is now practically open to everyone.
Let me confess that I strongly wished I was Irish on at least one occasion. On a miserably drizzly morning in November 2006 I arrived at Dublin airport after an unpleasant overnight flight from Chicago. Irish passport holders and their EU fellow-hypercitizens went through fast-track immigration processing, while we Americans (many of unmistakably Irish origin) had to inch our way forward in the “Other Passports” lane. Does that particular moment qualify me for joining “in the imaginative and expressive celebrations”? Are there, by implication, unimaginative and less-than-expressive celebrations which are not open to all?…
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
If NGO’s are building these camps in “defiance” of French Law why isn’t the French Govt. stopping them. Our gullible (stupid) UK Govt has spent millions on defending Calais from the illegal hoards besieging the unfortunate port and town only to see them disperse, unchallenged, elsewhere to await and maximise their chances of ILLEGALLY entering the UK. I believe there are now some “charming” shanty towns being started up in Paris Metro stations by Calais Camp “ex pats” too. GET A GRIP FRANCE!
Among the participating organizations is Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF).
And Medical Bills Without Limit:
In defiance of French law, international NGOs are building makeshift towns for migrants on the Channel coast near Dunkirk. Among the participating organizations is Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF).
By the same token the EU is building unlawful settlements on public lands in the Jerusalem area for nomads who would otherwise live in tents along with their flocks, thus Palestinianzing them in the war on the ground the EU is waging against Israel. Its nice to see how the boomerang swings back. Turkey which has been backing HAMAS terror organization is now hit with tremendous terror. France which has backed Muslim Arab claims to the Land of Israel is now beset by vicious Islamic State terror. The EU which condones Muslim demands for the so-called Right of Return is innundated with Muslims demanding to return to Europe from which they were evicted by the Reconquista. Etc.. Meanwhile the Jewish State, by refusing Muslim demands is getting stronger and Europe is Eurabia, or Turkarabia is falling appart. Ask Boris Johnson
Y Brandstetter MD, Israel
You can’t fix stupid. If the Muslims did not know it before they know it now.
Certainly, I’m not surprised ‘Doctors without Jews’, er, Borders, is involved in France.
Their name tends to give them automatic moral high ground, but in fact they tend to be just a wee bit anti-Semitic!
There are days when I wonder why I read all this. The news is dreadful, depressing and sometimes scary.
It’s kind of like scratching a mosquito bite, even though you know you shouldn’t.
I used to just pray for our country but now it’s the whole stinking world. When will they pull their heads out, grow a pair, and start fixing things? I am referring to the world’s so-called leaders, although I guess the populations could contribute as well. But the power is with the leaders, although the people who live in countries that can vote, could also make a difference.
Vote? I think some of these European countries are passed that stage to get results that secure their families and their way of life.
I look at it more like checking how much the cancer is spreading. Ignore it at your peril and there may be nothing effective you can do.
The Western Euro zone has completely lost its scruples. The Muslims who never had any are no doubt planning on creating some serious wreckage. Shut down Bruxelles. Unite as allies